kanwar foreword asha kanwar vol. 1, no. 1 ‘learning for development’ is the overarching theme of the commonwealth of learning’s work. the recent education for all, global monitoring report 2013 also emphasizes the centrality of teaching and learning for development. increasingly, development agencies are beginning to recognize that all learning must contribute to development outcomes. similarly, universities, educational and research institutions, civil society organizations and the private sector have, in their own ways, gained the knowledge and experience of linking learning to development. there is a need to share this vast body of knowledge and experience with the wider community of policy-makers and practitioners. the journal of learning for development (jl4d) will provide the platform for the publication of research with a focus on innovation in learning and its contribution to development. the focus is on applied research in development contexts that has direct relevance to practice. this includes interventions that change social and/or economic relations, especially in terms of improving equity, addressing poverty and unemployment. development is a complex phenomenon. amartya sen points out that “the process of economic development has to be concerned with what people can or cannot do, e.g., whether they can live long, escape avoidable morbidity, be well-nourished…. it has to do, in marx’s words with, replacing the domination of circumstances and chances over individuals by the domination of individuals over chances and circumstances’ (1983: 754). development includes not just economic growth but also improvement in human welfare, quality of life and social well-being. development becomes sustainable when it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. the ‘learning for development’ approach focuses on the role of education and learning and how it adds value to the development process. prof. amartya sen proposes the capability approach, which helps us to see that learning and acquiring skills are not an end in themselves but steps that help individuals and societies achieve development outcomes. this approach encourages us to think beyond outputs, such as acquiring a degree, to outcomes—how this degree will lead to a better quality of life. it also shifts the focus from developing capacity to capability and to the question, now that we have the capacity, what will we do with it? we develop skills or what prof. sen calls ‘functionings’—how can these enable us to overcome the constraints of our daily existence and make a change for the better? what are the capabilities that educational institutions must impart? walker investigated the capabilities that girls in school in south africa thought important and came up with three: personal autonomy and independence of thought; ability to enter the world of work and an identity and a voice that would get respect and recognition. this is what we mean by learning for development.  we believe that giving people the opportunity to learn increases their freedoms ‘to be and to do’ and helps accelerate progress towards achieving the international development goals and the commonwealth values of peace, equality, democracy and good governance. this journal will showcase the practical dimension of how learning for development works and will provide opportunities for the publication of academic research, as well as case studies and commentary on issues and ideas on the relationship between learning and development. the journal will try to engage a broad audience of researchers, scholars and practitioners and will support and encourage contributors starting their careers, as well as to publish the work of established and senior scholars from the commonwealth and beyond. professor alan tait of the open university, uk is the editor-in-chief, and dr. mark bullen, education specialist for elearning at col, is associate editor. both have a long experience of editing journals and are well-known names in the field. eminent academics and practitioners from africa, the caribbean, the pacific and asia have agreed to serve as regional editors and will help identify potential contributions and provide overall guidance.  in addition, an editorial board with 19 outstanding members will help to set the editorial direction of the journal. in short, jl4d, an open access journal, freely available online, is a collaborative venture meant to stimulate dialogue and discussion about learning for development, an area of interest for all us. i look forward to your active participation and support. references sen, a. (1983, december). development: which way now? the economic journal, 93, 745-762. walker, m. (2006). towards a capability-based theory of social justice for education policy-making. journal of education policy, 21:12, 163-185. asha kanwar is the president and ceo of the commonwealth of learning. e-mail: akanwar@col.org gaskell editorial: sustainable development and inclusive quality education anne gaskell vol. 3, no. 3 this issue of jl4d has a particular focus on the sustainable development of inclusive quality education for all. we are also very pleased to launch a new series in jl4d in which members of col’s board of governors and others discuss the role of learning for development in their own context. in our first commentary, stamenka uvalić-trumbić and sir john daniel discuss the past, present and potential future of unesco’s contribution towards education for all (efa). the authors trace the failure to achieve targets in the 1990s, tensions between major international agencies such as unesco and the world bank, faster progress in the 2000s, and the stronger push from 2010 to align the full agenda of efa within the sustainable development goals 2015 (sdgs) before their finalisation.  goal 4 of the sdgs aims to achieve inclusive and quality education for all as “one of the most powerful and proven vehicles for sustainable development”.1 the sdgs and world bank initiatives provide the context to our second commentary by murgatroyd and sahlberg on two “solitudes” of educational policy. these are illustrated by the tensions between competing and conflicting views on the purpose and practice of primary and secondary education. the authors compare the global educational reform movement (germ), with its emphasis on neoliberal market principles to deliver key competencies and skills, against policies based on equity, which aim to develop the citizen as a lifelong learner. in both cases, the implications for developing countries are discussed and four recommendations for ways forward are proposed. our first invited article launches our new series.  we are delighted that dr emma kruse vàai from the national university of samoa, representing the pacific on col’s board of governors, has provided our first contribution. dr kruse vàai explores the introduction of open and distance learning and the use of open educational resources (oer) in samoa through the development of a course on english for primary teachers.  this experience illustrates a number of important points, such as the challenges related to connectivity, the value of oer for reducing costs, and the possibilities of collaborative development of course content to avoid concerns about external dominance. however, long term planning and policies are needed to ensure sustainable development goals. quality is recognised as a work in progress in samoa and is also of key importance within the sdgs. our second invited article provides a valuable perspective on how massive open online courses (moocs) challenge traditional models and measures of quality in higher education. hood and littlejohn define the dimensions of a mooc (all of which are debatable) and indicate ways in which their practice is disruptive to three general quality variables and measures in relation to presage, process and product. in the latter case, for example, completion rates, usually a key performance indicator for quality, are not relevant. the authors argue that moocs provide a shift from traditional quality indicators to learner self-reports. policies supporting equity have a strong focus on inclusion, accessibility and the support needs of learners. this provides the background to our research paper reviewing the indira gandhi national open university’s (ignou) progress towards inclusive education in india. chaudhury, khare, gupta & garg provide a detailed analysis of data relating to the participation of marginalised communities in ignou’s programmes, and some evidence of retention and completion rates. among those considered are lower castes, women, differently-abled people and prisoners (jail inmates).  while there are policies and strategies in place to encourage the enrolment of underrepresented groups, these have had not yet been entirely successful. however, there are some major positive changes, for example the greater participation of rural women in higher education. our two book reviews complement the discussion of the importance of inclusive and quality education through emphasizing the need for an informed research agenda for online and distance education (eds. zawacki-richter & anderson), and the possibilities created by flexible pedagogy and practice (eds. burge, gibson & gilson). access to inclusive quality education for all remains a key target for development and we hope that the articles included in this issue will support your thinking towards meeting the sdgs by 2030. anne gaskell chief editor, jl4d __________ 1 http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/sustainable-development-goals/goal-4-quality-education.html gaskell editorial: distance education leaders across the world: contributions to learning for development anne gaskell vol. 4, no. 1 it is a very great pleasure to introduce a new series to jl4d that focuses on the main leaders in distance education and online learning (odel) across the world. articles will cover six areas: africa, asia, europe, north america, the pacific, and south america and the caribbean. this issue includes the first two contributions to the series, from europe and the pacific. the first distance education teaching is often ascribed to pitman who disseminated methods of learning shorthand by post in the 1840s. more extensive distance education teaching was developed during the 19th and mid-20th centuries, notably by, for example, the university of london (1858) the university of south africa (1946) and the open university uk (1971) (tait, 2008). since these early beginnings, open and distance learning has made major contributions to the initial and continuing education of learners across the world and will make a critical contribution to meeting sustainable development goals (sdgs) in the future. however, the success of open and distance learning and practitioners’ continuing engagement with the affordances of new technologies – from printed materials to podcasts, from cyclostyled notes to social media would not have been achieved without significant international leadership, both past and present. this series aims to celebrate these leaders in our field. the authors of these articles are themselves distinguished distance educators and draw on their own experience in policy and practice in the odel field to identify the significant leaders in their area. our first article focuses on distance education leaders from europe and is provided by professor alan tait, former, and now emeritus, editor of this journal. alan is also emeritus professor of distance education and development at the open university uk (ou uk) where he spent most of his working life as senior counsellor, dean of the faculty of education and language studies, and pro-vice chancellor (academic). he has also had a major impact on european developments in odel, being one of the founding team that set up the european distance and e-learning network (eden) in 1991, and as president of eden from 2007-2010. his international experience and consultancies are, and continue to be, extensive. in the past, these included the co-founding of the cambridge international conference on open and distance learning with roger mills, which ran from 1983 – 2013. alan’s publications include seminal and more recent articles on learner support (for example, tait, 2000), very early recognition and analysis of the importance of the convergence of distance and conventional education (1999) and more recently the application of amartya sen’s capability approach to development and its relevance to odel (for example, tait, 2014). alan is therefore particularly well placed to discuss distance education leaders in europe. our second article in this series covers the pacific region and is authored by dr carina bossu from the tasmanian institute of learning and teaching at the university of tasmania; carina is also fellow of the australasian society for computers in learning in tertiary education (ascilite). carina’s original work concerned the policy and staff development practices in place to support distance educators and she is now a leading proponent of the potential of open educational resources (oers) and open educational practices (oep) to support learning and teaching in higher and distance education. she is particularly interested in the ways in which oer and oep can promote social inclusion (bossu, bull & brown, 2012) and increase equity (willems & bossu, 2012). she has also contributed to discussions about the, perhaps surprising, lack of uptake of oer and oep in australia and how this might be resolved through a new feasibility protocol (bossu, bull & brown, 2015).  carina has worked in collaborations with institutions in new zealand and fiji and so has extensive experience of the pacific area. our two invited articles emphasise the importance of online and digital technologies for the future, both by empowering individuals through self-directed online learning and by contributing to the professional development of the teachers who are so critically needed in many parts of the world. bonk & lee discuss learning preferences, motivations, and perceptions of life change through the findings from a survey completed by 159 participants studying a massive open online course (mooc).  it is clear from the results that informal online study by self-directed learners can be very empowering, increase learning motivation and make a major contribution towards personal development. digital technologies have a significant role in moon & villet’s important article on the crisis in availability of qualified teachers in sub-saharan africa. this has a major impact on the learning of children: after three years of primary public schooling 70% could not read a sentence and 20% could not recognise numbers. the authors argue that further professional development of teachers is essential through a school-based, digitally supported network model of provision.  they propose three phases for the adoption of digital learning, which would entail shifts in government policy and practice. the crucial role of teachers is also highlighted in our research article by miglani and awadhiya in the context of mobile learning (m-learning) in five commonwealth asian countries. m-learning can increase access and educational opportunities (valk, rashid & elder, 2010) but, as miglani and awadhiya argue, the adoption of m-learning will only be successful if teachers are able and willing to use the medium effectively in their teaching.  their study therefore examines the perceptions of 102 teachers towards m-learning and concludes generally that teachers have positive views on the potential for m-learning for both academic and administrative matters, although it is unlikely to replace other media entirely. changes are essential to meet the 2015 sustainable development goals (sdgs). our commentary from gokool-ramdoo & rumjaun argues that previous attempts to meet development goals have not been entirely successful because of the lack of integration between different isolated “dots”, such as global and local contexts; present and future challenges; critical and systemic thinking. they propose a new framework to connect these isolated dots and scaffold education for sdgs in the future. this is through a sustainable development-compliant national qualifications credit framework (sd-nqcf) informed by a systems approach. the implications for the instructional design of moocs are discussed in our invited article by bonk and lee, with the acknowledgement that their sample was predominantly north american. instructional design in some less well-resourced countries, with low or variable internet connectivity, remains focussed on print-based materials, as illustrated by our case study by simui, mundende, mwewa, kakana & namangala from the university of zambia. they review the “user-friendliness” of four modules in their bachelor of teacher education programme and discuss the 10 important basic requirements for instructional design. these include font size, interactive engagement and the inclusion of real-life situations. this issue of jl4d illustrates some key themes from very different perspectives. teacher education features prominently:  this includes the critical importance of quality teacher education to meet sdgs (moon & villet); involves teachers’ ability and willingness to use technologies such as mobile learning (miglani and awadhiya); and will also depend on how easy it is for teachers to learn from any technology available, whether print-based or not (simui et al). new technologies are also crucial: they can make a major contribution to the professional development of teachers (moon & villet) and increase access in commonwealth asian countries (miglani & awadyiha). informal online learning can also empower learners and increase their motivation to study (bonk & lee). all articles contribute to the agenda for education for sustainable development, and in particular how it can effectively be implemented; and this is the special focus of our commentary by gokool-ramdoo and ramjaun. however, as several authors note, it is crucial to have the right leadership, strategies and pedagogies in place to ensure that learning for development takes place. our articles on leaders in distance education across the world provide some examples of this leadership and we look forward to future articles in the series. anne gaskell chief editor, jl4d references bossu, c., bull. d., & brown, m. (2012). opening up down under: the role of open educational resources in promoting social inclusion in australia. distance education, 33(2) 151-164. bossu, c., bull. d., & brown, m. (2015). enabling open education: a feasibility protocol for australian higher education. in c.j. bonk, m.m. lee, t.c. reeves & t.h. reynolds, moocs and open education around the world. london: routledge. tait, a. (2000). planning student support for open and distance learning. open learning: the journal of open, distance and e-learning, 15(3), 287-299. tait, a. (2008). what are open universities for? open learning: the journal of open, distance and e-learning, 23(2) 85-93. tait, a. (2014). editorial. learning for development: an introduction. journal of learning for development, 1(1). http://jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/article/view/39/20 tait, a., & mills, r. (ed). (1999). the convergence of distance and conventional education: patterns of flexibility for the individual learner. london: routledge. valk, j.h., rashid, a.t., & elder, l. (2010). using mobile phones to improve educational outcomes; an analysis of evidence from asia. the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 11(1), 117-140. http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/794 willems, j., & bossu, c. (2012). equity considerations for open educational resources in the glocalization of education. distance education, 33(2), 185-200. issn: 2311-1550 2022, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. i-iv this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. editorial some more research on technology-enabled learning santosh panda indira gandhi national open university, new delhi this is the first issue of this year, and we have included twelve items dealing with various aspects of technology-enabled teaching, learning, training — one invited paper, four research papers, three case studies, two reports from the field, and two book reviews. for every issue of the journal, we have now an established practice of inviting an international expert in the field to contribute an invited paper on the broader theme of ‘learning for development’. in the invited section of this issue, aras bozkurt analyses, through systematic review and biometric analysis — data mining and analytics (especially, text mining and social network analysis — t-sne analysis) of the publications indexed in scopus, the mapping of the impact of covid-19 and the subsequent transition to the new normal. three broad themes were identified and analysed — i) resilience, adaptability and sustainability in higher education, ii) psychological status and social wellbeing, and iii) the increasing use of online and hybrid modes of teaching-learning. the author underlines that, in the current pandemic context and its aftermath, the pedagogy needs to go beyond the teachinglearning activities to include trauma-informed pedagogies of care and empathy. though there has been a significant shift toward online/blended/hybrid/hyflex modes of learning, there is a need to consider the instructional/learning design aspects (going beyond the ‘techno-centric educational strategies’) and learn from the ongoing practices and failures for us to be better prepared for the future. in the first paper in the ‘research articles’ section, kassim and rampersad analyse the impact ranking for access in higher education with specific reference to the university of west indies, viewed from the perspectives of participation and equity. the authors used a mixed-methods research to analyse the data for campus-based and distance education for the past twenty years, matched against the ranking matrix of the times higher education (the) ranking of universities. the authors argue for higher education institutions to consider to locate their institutional scope and system of interest and scale up their management of access and strategic use of data, and also align with the international ranking of universities and the un sustainable development goals. in a related work on retention in higher education, pant, lohani and pande report the findings of a research analysis on retention in moocs (in various universities in a state in india) by using a structural equation modelling approach. the learner variables identified by the authors could be useful to all those engaged in the design and offering of moocs — learner satisfaction, provision of credit transfer, contemporary relevance of courses, and localisation of content. in the next research study, weibe, crisostomo, feliciano and anderson report the effectiveness of offline digital technology, i.e., mobile learning labs (offline servers combined with digital libraries) for the education of children in the indigenous communities in guatemala. by using an instructional core model and mixed methods research, the authors reported https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ ii that besides the previously identified factors of improvement in standardised instruction, differentiated instruction, opportunities for practice, and learner engagement, four additional factors need to be considered for technology-enabled learning in remote communities — access to highquality educational resources, teacher capacity-building, student technical skills and digital literacy, and sharing cultural knowledge. the authors suggest for future research to consider gender differences in context-specific learning outcomes in longitudinal studies. in the final paper in this section, olha fast and colleagues report their findings of a study on problems faced by 445 doctoral students during covid-19 in ukraine in 2020, and found that the science and physical education students faced more problems in comparison to those from the social sciences and humanities due to lack of a learner-friendly system of distance/online education, skills and competencies dealing with the new modes of learning, teacher competency in resource development and use, and prevalence of violation of academic integrity by students. we have included three papers in the ‘case study’ section. cooshna-naik reports the findings of a research study on the use of word clouds (written tweets — reflective sharing of experiences) to support focused group discussion and the use of digital multimodal texts, which was found to be effective in ice-breaking and as an effective data visualisation tool in qualitative research data collection. in the next case, hamaluba reports in a country-wide study at the botswana open university on the ict skills of open schooling business students who were revealed to possess average e-learning skills and use of business-related software, though their familiarity with many types of computer-related software and tasks was very much appreciable. constraints and therefore recommendations include: enhancing the ict/e-teaching skills of teachers and instructors, development of understanding about and use of pedagogy of tel, participatory teaching, and integration of ict to course design and teaching-learning. in an interesting paper from stou, thailand, kamolrat intaratat reports the findings of a study on embedding communication and digital media to odl to empower farmers of all levels and types to be smart farmers. using data mapping (content analysis of four case studies) and interviews (focused group discussion) in this case-based study, the author reports that ict integration with farming should take into consideration local/ contextual needs and problems, involvement of all stakeholders, and consideration of pedagogic and administrative aspects. we present two interesting ‘reports from the field’. sugata mitra and ritu dangwal compared the learning outcomes/scores of college students in india who took normal examination without internet access (traditional examination) versus those who took examination with internet access, as against their standardised school examination scores. the authors reported that the specially designed test scores of those who had internet access increased significantly over their school examination scores than that of those who had taken traditional examinations (though the authors noted that the ranking of students change over a period of time irrespective of access to the internet in examinations). the authors suggest that there should be access to and use of the internet by students during examinations so as to assess diversified abilities beyond memorisation and recall/reproduction. in the next case, gomes and thomas present the effectiveness of virtual resources and graphic design platforms, etc., and virtual community mentoring in enhancing psychological development and wellbeing of middle school underachievers during the covid-19 pandemic in india. the digital models can act as virtual iii community tools through community stories/memes in developing community culture, imparting life-skills education, and internalising self-development skills among teenagers. the two book reviews in the final section should contribute to our understanding on curriculum and new models of lifelong learning (reviewed by dr don alcott jr) as well as social justice in teacher education and development in africa (reviewed by dr carol hordatt gentles). we hope the various papers relating to tel should be of interest and be useful to our readers. at the end, i take this opportunity to sincerely thank dr tony mays, the editor, dr mairette newman, the book review editor, and alan doree, the copy editor for their commendable work and unstinting support to not only bringing out journal issues containing quality papers but also expanding the wider indexing and dissemination of the journal and its papers, including its coverage by scopus. i also thank all our valued peer-reviewers (listed below) who have helped in enhancing the quality of the review process through their critical reviews and constructive suggestions. acknowledgements: we sincerely acknowledge the following scholars for their support to jl4d in peerreviewing the papers submitted to the journal published in 2021. • dr md. shafiqul alam • prof mohamed ally • prakesh v. arumugam • anne a aseey • mr ashish kumar awadhiya • hyejin bak • dr jyoti bawane • prof sutapa bose • dr aras bozkurt • dr jane cullen • dr d. v. m. de silva • dr irwin devries • dr emily dick-forde • yunus doğan • cahit erdem • prof karen ferreira-meyers • devive grace funcion • monika gautam • prof ranjith kingston gladstone • jenny glennie • mrs. ivy veronica gordon • mint husen • kamolrat intaratat • ariel san jose • ngepathimo kadhila • prof shironica priyanthi karunanayaka • mr gurumurthy kasinathan • ayse kizildag • jack koumi • monika lintang laksmi • charis limbo • prof mpine makoe • monica mawoyo • hamisi mfaume • luis miranda • prof. sugata mitra • dr godfrey magoti mnubi • prof goolam mohamedbhai • dr joel s. mtebe • sammy muteti mutisya • dr revati namjoshi • r. nandhakumar • fareed mohamed nawastheen • sin fai eric ng • dr maria niari • joseph njiku • john taiwo okewole • dr okoye • mr. ismail fatai olawale • dr don olcott, jr • john-jude chukwuka omeife • dr margaret funke omidire • prof. carolyne omulando • dr. offia tugwell owo • dr iona tuugalei chan mow • dr s. k. pulist iv • poonam punia • marianne raley • mr prabhas ranjan • prog m. k. salooja • dr mohammad issack santally • mmabaledi seeletso • jonathon sequeira • mr manoj shakya • anshuman sharma • dr ramesh c. sharma • francis simui • dr matt smith • mamta srivastava • almighty c. tabuena • tshepo teele • mrs grace apondi titi • cathy mae toquero • prof freda wolfenden • afam uzork santosh panda chief editor, jl4d cite this paper as: panda, s. (2022). editorial — some more research on technology-enabled learning. journal of learning for development, 9(1), i-iv. winkelmans book review flexible pedagogy, flexible practice (notes from the trenches of distance education) elizabeth burge, chère campbell gibson, and terry gilson (eds.) athabasca university press, athabasca, 2011, pp. 348, isbn 978-1-926836-20-1 tim winkelmans vol. 3, no. 3 in the introduction, burge states the overarching question underlying the book’s purpose: “flexible learning is a canonical concept, much discussed and valued as an inherently “good” goal, but just how challenging is it on the rough terrain of practice? (p. 5)”.   she provides multiple reasons for this volume.  first, she notes that in recent years, flexibility in distance learning practice has not been a significant research focus, creating a niche for contemporary analysis.  she identifies the second reason as the quick evolution of digital technologies that bring both new possibilities and new assumptions for flexible learning delivery.  the third reason is to understand how government policies and economic pressures shape institutional teaching and learning decisions. this publication is a collection of articles invited from open, distance, and flexible learning practitioners around the world.  for this publication, concepts of flexibility are applied to post-secondary education.  contexts include dedicated distance learning institutions as well as distance learning programs within brick-and-mortar environments.  the book is ideal for practitioners and decision-makers interested in learning about how their peers have defined and implemented flexible programs, or have navigated institutional and political assumptions and assertions about flexibility that create tensions.  contributors offer rich theoretical backgrounds, but the book is primarily concerned with their lived experiences and personal reflections. in addition to introductory and concluding chapters, 23 submissions are organized into five sections:  clarifying the concept, identifying driving and restraining forces, surviving the swamps of everyday practice, admitting compromises, and voicing contrarian opinions.  with nine articles, surviving the swamps has the most contributions, befitting the volume’s focus on experience in the trenches.  this review will touch on a chapter or two from each section, and the conclusion. the three articles in the clarifying the concept section tease out multiple dimensions of flexibility from service design, technology, and student perspectives.  for example, willems’ article on student perceptions, discusses logistical flexibility and pedagogical flexibility.  service design choices such as 24/7 access, online document distribution, and library access are examples of logistical flexibility, whereas in-course media choices (multimedia, social media) and adaptations for learning styles are examples of pedagogical flexibility.  willems concludes that what is flexible for some learners may not be for others.  in their article on design choices, chen, liang and wang further observe that increasing flexibility in one area may reduce flexibility in another.  for example, video conferencing designs provide flexibility in space, but reduce flexibility in time, and perhaps other technologies. in the identifying driving and restraining forces section, four articles describe legislative, social, and cultural drivers that impact specific institutional and program responses to flexibility.  daweti and mitchell, for example, recount the desire to use distance education as a force for social transformation in post-apartheid south africa, backed by legislation and policies.  notwithstanding government direction, the programme faced significant bureaucratic ambivalence and academic resistance to design choices that supported flexibility.  further, although delivery technologies promoted better outcomes, most south african students did not have access to learning technologies at home in 2009.  latchem and jung point out that, in asia, there is high variability with western culture with regard to readiness for certain forms of flexibility.  for example, there is often greater comfort with transmission models of learning, students often need to see an image of the instructor, and it is common to remove interactive features.  of the nine articles in surviving the swamps of everyday practice, the first seven provide case studies covering situations such as continuing when governments pull funding, managing myriad stakeholder relationships, implementing open educational resources, and navigating the politics of power in academic libraries.  the final two articles provide reflections on the stories and their associated driving and restraining forces.  in the first article, hardy (before the fall: breaking rules and changing minds) recounts his experiences in creating a centralized telecampus distance learning service for the multi-campus university of texas system.  hardy states: i felt from the start that because this was a good thing to do, everything would just fall into place and all our campuses would sing my praises for heading up this initiative.  this was the first of many errors in thinking.  (p. 112) to create the telecampus, hardy learned several lessons: a) a change agent needs access to people in power; b) he needed to prove he could provide assistance and value; c) do not worry about who gets credit; d) when you are not a faculty member, you are not a peer, and need to find champions in faculties; e) stay nice; and f) know which rules to break, which to bend, and which to leave alone.  the article includes a postscript – the university of texas decided, in 2010, to close the telecampus and make each campus responsible for its own distance learning programmes. in the final (ninth) article of surviving the swamps of everyday practice, gibson and gibson divide driving and restraining forces into three categories: socio-cultural and economic, institutional, and individual.  for each category, they provide examples of driving and restraining forces, and provide mitigation strategies.  to manage institutional forces, for example, recommendations include having an understandable vision, sharing evaluation results widely, using learner and employer voices, and being prepared to defend everything.  the three articles in the admitting compromises section shift from individual swamp stories to higher order considerations of the interplay between historical, political, social, economic, technological, and ethical considerations and the solutions (even if off the mark) that emerge.  evans and smith, in the fog of flexibility: the riskiness of flexible post-secondary education in australia, provide a historical perspective on how political changes  have at times led to the rise and decline of equity and access values as key drivers for distance learning.  rumble’s article, flexing costs and reflecting on methods, delves into the institutional cost drivers associated with flexible learning, and is particularly helpful in explaining why program budgeting and resourcing for distance programmes is quite unlike other tertiary education costing models.  for example, more technical support staff may be needed, and operational costs for teachers may shift to capital investments in learning materials that might be used for several years without changes. the final section, voicing contrarian opinions, presents four perspectives on “where the rhetoric of hope and hype meets the reality of expectations and expediencies”. (p. 273)  for example, alan woodley, in “plenty of saps”, proposes that flexible learning institutions may be a disservice to students, “essentially, one is dealing with organizations that are self-interested and profit-seeking, and the tool of their trade is part-time study” (p. 301), because most students drop out.  adrian kirkwood takes on the limitations of various technologies, in transformational technologies:  exploring myths and realities, such as the complexity of scheduling synchronous classes when students are in multiple time zones, and the need to implement forms of pacing when online group work is required. in the concluding chapter, the editors credibly assemble and reflect upon major themes.  among their observations: the world is rife with opportunities “for the informed development of flexible access policies, of learning and assessment designs, and of teaching methods” (p. 327), in spite of political, economic, or practical constraints. the diversity among learner groups is huge, and policies that work for one cultural or social context will not necessarily work for others.  for example, for some cultures, strongly didactic approaches are more effective than providing learning choices. contributors to the volume demonstrated “skill with narratives that illuminate the stressors that often accompany institutional rhetoric and new policy directives” (p. 328). “flexibility” is a complex and disputed term that requires practitioners to analyze it within context and define its limits in practice.  citing chère and terry gibson from an earlier chapter, the editors note: the biggest challenge is to define ‘flexibility’ in the context of your own institution and specific set of circumstances and then to use that definition to frame policies, procedures, and costing models that can be widely communicated….arriving at the situational definition of ‘flexibility’ should be a collaborative process, one that involves students, faculty, administrators, and funding agencies. (p. 331) a potential critique of the book is that time and technology have moved on.  the book was published in 2011; therefore the articles reflect trends and technology references (particularly web 2.0) that dominated educational discourse leading up to 2010.  while noticeable, these references should be considered minor distractions.  as yoni ryan explains her thoughts on e‑learning, “personally, i do not separate the “e” from learning anymore.  the technologies are changing so fast that it is not even useful to make predictions about how we can use web 2.0.” (p. 138).   since publication, the predilection has not diminished for governments and institutions to impose top down solutions, to cut budgets, or to over-simplify what ‘flexibility’ means in context.  similarly, for practitioners, the focus remains on designs and purposes for flexibility, with students at the centre.  the text reinforces that the complex needs of various learner groups continually require analysis and updated responses as personal, social, economic, and technological contexts change.  the book is of interest to open and distance learning practitioners with responsibility for programme direction and management, because it articulates  multiple contexts and possibilities for  ‘flexibility’ that should be considered in designing, evaluating, and even re-inventing flexible learning programmes.  practitioners will appreciate the ‘swamp’ contributions as illustrations of potential policy pitfalls and mitigation strategies – gibson & gibson’s article, mapping the driving and restraining forces on flexibility in higher education, does this particularly well.  practitioners may also find relief in knowing that others have been down similar (and sometimes lengthy) paths.  for scholars of tertiary education administration, the entire volume provides launch points for enquiry in the open and distance learning sub-field. the book is also useful for distance educators in primary and secondary education contexts.  all the chapters reflect tertiary education experiences, but the principle observations about understanding situational and learner contexts to define flexible learning solutions still apply.  aspects of earning and retaining tenure in post-secondary institutions, as barriers to flexibility, will not apply in primary and secondary schools, but similar perceptions and assumptions about the quality and delivery of distance education will appear as other forms of resistance, or as policy and practice directions. in summary, the publication achieves the editors’ purposes.  it delineates the state of flexible learning in higher education, circa 2010, within the context of available and emergent digital technologies.  the contributions provide a mosaic of government and institutional policy directions and economic pressures that profoundly shaped specific teaching and learning decisions.  the sections are logically sequenced and lead to a thoughtful and comprehensive concluding chapter.  the case studies are highly readable and at times visceral, while the conceptual chapters anchor the experiences in principles and research-based practices. reviewed by: tim winkelmans works for the ministry of education, british columbia. email: tim.winkelmans@gov.bc.ca daniel sustainable development begins with education stamenka uvalić-trumbić and sir john daniel vol. 3, no. 3 abstract this article builds on the report of a meeting of the memory and future club of the association of former unesco staff members held in february 2016 to discuss the impact of unesco's work on education for all. it also derives from the authors' personal perspectives on the important contribution that the efa campaign has made and could make to the overall goal of making education a vehicle for the sustainable development of our world. we celebrate its successes and explore its challenges. introduction in february 2016 the memory and future club of the association of former unesco staff members organised a session with the title sustainable development begins with education as part of its ongoing series of discussion forums on the impact of unesco's work. one of the authors (uvalić-trumbić) helped to organise this event with neda ferrier and the other (daniel) was one of the three speakers. the main focus of the meeting was unesco's contribution to the campaign to achieve education for all (efa) and, in keeping with the club's name, memory and future, it brought together three speakers who, between them, could give a perspective on the past, an account of current activities and a taste of the future. sir john daniel took up the story from the inception of the efa campaign at the jomtien conference in 1990 and reported on its progress until his departure from unesco in 2004. sabine detzel, a member of unesco's former efa coordinating team, then gave an overview of the progress that efa made from mid-2000 to 2015. finally jean-yves le saux, deputy director of unesco's bureau for strategic planning, took up the challenging task of shedding light on the future of education agenda 2030, which is the target date for the sustainable development goals that were agreed upon at the un in september 2015. goal 4, ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong opportunities for all, focuses on education, based on the targets set by the education 2030 incheon declaration and framework for action, adopted in may 2015. although it builds on the report of the meeting (khawajkie, 2016) this article also derives from the authors' personal perspectives on the important contribution that the efa campaign has made and could make to the overall goal of making education a vehicle for the sustainable development of our world. we celebrate its successes and explore its challenges. conceptualising moocs the early years the commitment to 'full and equal opportunities for education for all' goes back to unesco's constitution. the discussion took as its starting point, however, the conference on education for all that convened in jomtien, thailand in 1990. the jomtien conference was convened because in 1985 some 105 million children aged between six and eleven, the majority of them girls, were not in school. forecasts suggested that this number could double to 200 million by 2000. the purpose of the jomtien conference was to stimulate a new and broader vision of basic education. it led to the adoption, by 155 governments, 33 intergovernmental bodies and 125 ngos, of a set of six targets to be reached by 2000 (unesco, 1990). these targets were not achieved. indeed, in absolute terms the world went backwards during the 1990s. in 1990 100 million children were not in school and by 2000 this had grown to 125 million. there were various reasons for this failure. the 1990s were a turbulent decade and several factors moved the goalposts out of reach (daniel, 2010, p. 10). accordingly, a new conference on education for all was convened in dakar in 2000. it also set six goals, this time with the target of 2015. abhimanyu singh from india, who subsequently played a key role in supporting unesco's follow-up to dakar, was the rapporteur (unesco, 2000).  the world bank's background documents for the dakar conference reveal that it expected to be designated as the lead body for the implementation of the dakar framework for action. in the event, however, thanks to some fast footwork by unesco's incoming director-general, koïchiro matsuura, unesco was asked to take on this role. there was, however, an important consolation prize for the world bank, which was given the coordinating role for pursuing the millennium development goals (mdgs) that were approved at the un millennium summit later that same year (united nations, 2000). prior to the dakar conference relationships between the major international agencies such as unesco, undp, unicef and the world bank were pretty poisonous, full of petty rivalries and backbiting. but it was clear that they would all have to work together on the efa agenda and they embarked on the task with goodwill, thanks in part to new senior appointments in each organisation. this was especially true of unesco and the world bank. the mdgs included shorter versions of two of the six dakar goals, achieving universal primary education and eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education. naturally the world bank focused its efforts and funds on those two goals. at first unesco regretted that the other four dakar goals had been essentially set to one side, but those involved in the campaign quickly realised that if the agencies were to improve on the world's performance after jomtien they needed to be pragmatic and concentrate on the essentials. one manifestation of this tighter focus was the fast-track initiative (later known as the global partnership for education), launched at the development committee of the world bank in 2002 with the aim of providing concentrated support to complete the task of achieving the quantifiable efa goals in countries where conditions were judged to be propitious (world bank, 2016). this led to some very productive and convivial meetings. education minister jeffries from guyana once remarking that to use the word 'fast' in connection with anything involving the world bank was an oxymoron! but the alliance between the world bank and unesco worked well. the bank had the money but the developing countries regarded unesco as 'their' agency, which gave credibility to their joint decisions. it was also enormously helpful that unesco was given the funds, mainly by dfid, the uk's international development agency, to publish the annual global monitoring reports on efa (unesco, 2015a). there's a saying that 'if you can't measure it, you can't manage it'. having this intellectually powerful group hold a mirror up to the joint efforts added to the sense of purpose that developed over the decade. unesco can be proud that the efa campaign made much faster progress in the 2000s than it had in the 1990s. but there was still a large unfinished agenda. for example, the 2009 global monitoring report commented: “progress towards the efa goals is being undermined by the failure of governments to tackle persistent inequalities based on income, location, gender, ethnicity, language, disability and other markers of disadvantage”. a fuller account of the progress of the efa campaign up to about 2009 can be found in mega-schools, technology and teachers: achieving education for all (daniel, 2010, pp. 1-24). current challenges sabine detzel recalled that the efa campaign hit a rough patch towards the end of the decade of the 2000s. unesco's leadership of the process weakened and efa mid-term reviews showed that progress had stagnated. the other players asked unesco to “enhance the effectiveness of the efa coordination architecture” and the year 2010 became a turning point. in february 2010 the declaration of the 9th high level group meeting on efa called for stronger efa coordination, a more effective structure and better results (unesco, 2010). this led to significant reform in 2011, aimed primarily at re-establishing links to the national level in parallel with regional consultations. this brought all efa partners around one table, revamped the advocacy and communication strategies and challenged the tight focus on the mdgs by promoting efa as a holistic and universal agenda for education. this reform helped to bridge the artificial divide between member states and donors that had widened over previous years. it also laid the groundwork for the national efa 2015 reviews and the consultation process for post-2015, which some called the “last big push” for efa (unesco, 2015b). this re-emphasised the full efa agenda and its universality, partly because by this time equity and quality were salient issues for all states, not just developing countries. determined not to lay down again the parallel tracks between the mdgs and efa that had vitiated some of the previous work, the partners tasked unesco to ensure that there was a single agenda. this set the context for the incheon conference, held in may 2015 after the customary regional consultations (unesco, 2015c). its major challenge was to align the education agenda with the 2030 sustainable development goals (sdgs) before the articulation of the sdgs themselves. the earlier thematic consultations had revealed that primary education was no longer the key issue for all countries skills and economic growth were emerging as vital concerns. at incheon unesco was able to achieve agreement that there should be just one overarching education goal, which the un gradually took up in new york as sdg goal 4 (united nations, 2015b). this gave unesco a common objective to which all parts of its education sector could contribute actively. the future looking towards that future jean-yves le saux put the sdgs in the broader perspective of agenda 2030, adopted by the un in new york in september 2015, with its 17 objectives (goals) and 169 targets (united nations, 2015). reflecting the gradual evolution of the processes of international concentration on efa since the dakar conference, the implementation of these goals will rely more on intergovernmental processes than on international agencies. he admitted that statistical indicators to measure performance against the goals had still to be developed and that, even more fundamentally, there was no global initiative for financing the work required to achieve the goals. against this, however, the holistic nature of the sdgs and the greater emphasis on intergovernmental cooperation provides some grounds for hope. hindsight shows that the campaigns for efa and the mdgs were becoming too compartmentalised. indeed, after the dakar conference some governments set up special units for achieving efa outside their education ministries! this holistic approach of the sdgs may be helpful for governmental planning as well as for coordinating work within unesco. in the latter case the sdgs include agendas for all unesco's sectors, with targets relating to oceans, freshwater, biodiversity, culture in urban settings and media, as well as education. unesco is articulating this programme in its 38c/7 planning document for 2016-2017 and will take on a coordinating role in several areas while seeking funds to implement the work. the proof of the pudding will, of course, be in the eating. the measure of the success of the sdgs will be whether the goal education 2030: 'towards equitable quality education and lifelong education for all' is substantially achieved by 2030 and how far the overall development agenda has progressed by that date. conclusion we make three comments in conclusion. first, the convergence within the campaign for education for all is an encouraging development. the un declared a decade for education for sustainable development from 2005-2014. when unesco came to a decision about what was meant by 'education for sustainable development' it quickly concluded that it goes well beyond education for environmental awareness to embrace all aspects of learning for development with the proviso that such development must be sustainable. second, probably the strongest direct link between education and sustainable development is the secondary education of girls. women with secondary education have, on average, 1.5 fewer children than those with only primary schooling. even a one-child difference per woman represents 3 billion more or fewer people on the planet by the middle of the century. limiting population growth is the most promising way of limiting climate change (cohen, 2008). finally, the efa campaign has always tried to rise above any purely utilitarian understanding of the importance of education. we cannot express this better than nelson mandela, who once said: 'there can be no contentment for any of us when there are children, millions of children, who do not receive an education that provides them with dignity and honour and allows them to lead their lives to the full'. references cohen, j. (2008). make secondary education universal. nature, 456, pp. 752-3. daniel, j. (2010). mega-schools, technology and teachers: achieving education for all. new york and london: routledge. global goals. (2015). the global goals for sustainable development: goal 4 education. retrieved from http://www.globalgoals.org/global-goals/quality-education khawajkie, e. (2016). afus panel discussion on 'sustainable development begins with education'. lien/link no. 127. afus, unesco, paris. pp. 35-36. unesco. (1990). world declaration on education for all. retrieved from http://www.unesco.org/education/pdf/jomtie_e.pdf unesco. (2000). the dakar framework for action: education for all meeting our collective commitments. retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001211/121147e.pdf unesco. (2010). report of the ninth meeting of the high-level group on education for all. addis ababa. retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0019/001901/190131e.pdf unesco. (2015a). education for all 2000-2015: achievements and challenges. retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002322/232205e.pdf   unesco. (2015b). national efa 2015 reviews. retrieved from http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/leading-the-international-agenda/education-for-all/resources/national-efa-2015-reviews/. accessed 2016-08-04 unesco. (2015c). world education forum 2015 from education for all to education 2030. retrieved from http://en.unesco.org/world-education-forum-2015/ united nations. (2000). the millennium development goals. retrieved from http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/ united nations. (2014). decade of education for sustainable development. retrieved from http://en.unesco.org/themes/education-sustainable-development/what-is-esd/un-decade-of-esd world bank. (2016). the global partnership for education. retrieved from http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/education/brief/the-global-partnership-for-education-and-the-world-bank-group-the-facts authors stamenka uvalić-trumbić is formerly chief of section, higher education, unesco, paris. email: suvalictrumbic@gmail.com sir john daniel is formerly president and ceo of commonwealth of learning, and former assistant director-general for education, unesco, paris. email: odlsirjohn@gmail.com microsoft word gaskelleditorial.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 99-103 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. 99 editorial celebrating the 8th pan-commonwealth forum and distance education leaders anne gaskell it is a great pleasure to introduce this special issue of jl4d, which continues our features on leaders in distance education around the world but also has as its main focus a celebration of the 8th pancommonwealth forum on open learning (pcf8), held in kuala lumpur, malaysia, in november 2016. organised by the commonwealth of learning (col) in partnership with open university malaysia (oum), pcf8 attracted 475 participants from 59 countries to discuss “open, online and flexible learning: the key to sustainable development” through focussing on four sub-themes: quality and equity; access and inclusion; efficiency and effectiveness; and technology and education. this selection of the papers presented, now revised and updated, provides an illustration of the breadth and depth of discussion at the forum. our first articles, however, continue our series on world leaders in distance education, this time covering the african continent and north america, and are authored again by distance educators who are distinguished in their own right. (the first articles in the series, on europe and the pacific can be found at http://jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/issue/view/11). professor paul prinsloo, writing on leaders in the african continent, is research professor in open and distance learning (odl) in the college of economic and management sciences, in the university of south africa (unisa). his academic background is worth an article in itself and illustrates the breadth and depth of his studies: he has achieved a bachelor of arts; doctoral examinations in theology; honours in art history; a dlitt et phil in religious studies followed by postgraduate diplomas in open and distance learning and online learning. a colleague comments that he is “now one of the most well-known and respected experts in odl, odel and learning analytics, residing in south africa but reaching out globally via his most readable blogs, his twitter account and above all his facebook page” (ryan, 2017). paul has been a pioneer in examining the implications of the use of learning analytics and some of his most recent research has focussed on the ethical issues surrounding its use (slade & prinsloo, 2013). recently these include student vulnerability, agency and learning analytics: an exploration (prinsloo & slade, 2016) in which the authors examine the impact and scope of the asymmetrical power relationship between students and institutions in the context of learning analytics, and suggests ways in which to increase students’ agency. paul has also stressed the importance of supporting student success, rather than just increasing enrolments (for example subotzky & prinsloo, 2011). paul’s primary commitments are to open access, and to the ethical implications of our increasing ability to monitor student activity. in addition, his longstanding and breadth of experience at unisa 100 and his collaborative and supportive engagement with fellow academics (evident in his article), make him the ideal guide to our series on odel leaders in the african continent. professor mohamed ally, writing on north american distance education leaders is also highly distinguished in the field of odel. he is currently professor in the centre for distance education and researcher in the technology enhanced knowledge research institute (tekri) at athabasca university, canada. mohamed is particularly noted for his engagement with the potential of new technologies to enhance both learning and training; for example he was one of the founding directors of both the international association of mobile learning (iamlearn) and the international association for blended learning (iabl) for whom he is past vice-president. mohamed has also contributed extensively to areas, which are perhaps sometimes less commonly discussed in the context of odel, such as libraries (needham & ally, 2008); and training and development − he was, for example, president of the international federation of training and development organizations (iftdo). however mohamed has probably made his most significant contributions to the development of odel through his seminal works on the use of mobile devices for learning and teaching, particularly in developing countries, and through his work on the use of open educational resources (oer) (for example ally & samaka, 2013). the potential of mobile technologies for in-depth learning and teaching has been challenged (screens too small, infrastructure unreliable) but mohamed’s many publications on the subject have illuminated our understanding of what can be achieved, both now and in the future (ally & prieto-blázquez, 2014). as early as 2009, mohamed edited a book on the ways in which mobile learning would transform the delivery of education and training (ally, 2009) – a book that won the charles a wedemeyer award for its significant contribution to distance education. but he has always emphasised that the importance of technologies is that they provide the potential to access learning: mobile technologies are important because they can both narrow the learning divide (ally & samaka, 2013,) and increase access (ally & tsinakos, 2014). this is so particularly in developing countries, where mobile technologies have bypassed desktop and notebook computers. mohamed’s core interests in mobile learning for development and training, his canadian base and his extensive international commitments in the field make him an excellent interpreter of the north american contributions to our series on distance education leaders in odel. the main focus of the rest of this issue is a celebration of the 8th pan-commonwealth forum. some of the papers presented at pcf8 (all of which are available on the col websitei) were shortlisted for possible revision and publication as journal articles. i am very grateful to those authors who have been available and willing to take up the challenge of revising their conference papers for this issue. this has involved a considerable amount of extra work, as authors have included extra data, extended discussions, and revisited and revised their conclusions. the resulting eight papers in this issue (which have all been reviewed again before publication) provide a very small sample of the wealth and breadth of the discussions at pcf8. there were many other excellent papers presented at pcf8 and we hope their authors will consider revisiting their papers and resubmitting them to us. we are also very pleased to include an additional research paper from raphael & mtebe, whose subject matter aligns very well with the key interests of this issue. as one would expect from such international participation in pcf8 on sustainable development, the papers cover all the main themes of the forum and relate to many commonwealth and other 101 countries: australia, bangladesh, ghana, india, malaysia, pakistan, peru, sri lanka and tanzania. in addition, authors come from most of these countries as well as canada, america, and the uk. this provides a truly international perspective on open and distance learning for development. some of the key interests for sustainable development are well illustrated in this issue: the importance of teacher education, the creative use of new technologies especially where online access is limited, and the need for appropriate support and mediation, whether for teachers or learners. the need for contextualised and localised support to transform pedagogic practice and make it more interactive is emphasised by wolfenden, cross & henry from the open university uk in their study of the use of a mooc (massive open online course) for supporting the professional development of teachers across seven states in india. a mooc on teacher education, developed by the collaborative tess-india (teacher education through school-based support) was successful in attracting over 40,000 registrations and gained more than a 50% completion rate — which is extremely unusual for moocs generally. some of the key elements that supported this success were contextualisation; for example, after the first iteration, the mooc was presented in hindi as well as english. professional development for teachers is also the focus of our second research paper, from sri lanka, by karunanayaka, naidu, rajendra and ratnayake. the authors argue that most reflective practice for teachers is left to chance and should instead be carefully designed within relevant structures and support. they illustrate the use of scenario based learning (sbl) within resources based on oer so that these can foster the growth of open educational practices (oep). these results were achieved through the use of an online professional development course provided by cemca (commonwealth educational media centre for asia). one of our case studies is also particularly concerned with teacher development. stutchbury & woodward examine the potential of video to support the professional judgement and development of teachers as well as aiding reflection on their performance. their wide ranging case studies (india, bangladesh, ghana, peru) illustrate the ways in which different types of videos can encourage change and development. the context of learning for students, rather than teachers, is also emphasised in these papers: mnubi from tanzania reports on how democratically elected gender-sensitive student councils in schools played an important role in increasing young people’s (and especially girls’) self-confidence and selfesteem. this also led to lower attrition rates and a strengthening of school governance. students felt able to report if their teacher did not turn up for scheduled classes or if they turned up drunk! students’ experience is also of prime importance in the study from jha, ghatak & mahendiran at the national institute of open schooling in india (nios). this is a rare tracer study of students who had successfully completed their studies at nios and demonstrates not only the profile of students who enrolled (not as many seriously marginalised groups as had been hoped), but also how nios has enabled many former students to continue into further education or employment. it also illustrates the gender disparities in relation to those who were employed (fewer women than men) and those were involved in further education. the creative use of new technologies for learning for development was a key theme for pcf8 and this issue of jl4d illustrates some of these innovations. colleagues from oum for example, 102 demonstrate how assessment managed through their new qbank examination system can make oum more efficient and effective in malaysia, as well as ensure the quality of their examination processes (yusof, lim, png, abd khatab, & dharam singh). in another context, ally, balaji, abdelbaki & cheng emphasise the importance of mobile learning in pakistan, where internet access is limited; the use of “aptus” – a local server designed by colii – can transform learners’ access, interest and performance in learning. ostashewski, howell & dron provide an interesting research study of the “moocification” of a particular course in australia, which is offered as part of a conventional fee paying degree and also as a free mooc. perhaps of particular interest is that those paying conventional fees to access the mooc as part of their course, did not seem to mind that other non-feepaying students were accessing the same material for free. our additional research paper, by raphael & mtebe from tanzania, relates to all the above concerns – especially teacher development and the use of new technologies. there has, for example, been very little uptake of educational technologies in the classroom in tanzania despite their inclusion in preservice training programmes. the study examines teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs and the factors that are hindering usage, which include lack of support and perceived ease of use. these papers, while providing only a small sample of discussions at pcf8, illustrate some of the core themes of the forum. it is also particularly rewarding to see how the papers relate so closely to the un sustainable development goal 4: “ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning”iii. enrolment in primary education may have reached 91% but 57 million children remain out of schooliv and targets for secondary and further education are much lower. critical to meeting these goals is the availability of well-qualified teachers. four of our papers are particularly engaged with the training and development of teachers in these contexts (wolfenden et al; karunanayaka et al; raphael & mtebe; stuchbury & woodward). students’ experience, especially greater gender equality, are also essential, as evidenced by mnubi and jha et al. the creative use of new technologies will be essential in finding solutions (ostashewski et al, yusof et al, ally et al). in addition, our feature on leaders in distance education illustrates the role these leaders have played in furthering our understanding, capabilities and capacity to address the issues raised. pan-commonwealth forumsv (pcfs) take place every three years and their location rotates around commonwealth countries. this issue of jl4d celebrates the success of pcf8, organised in collaboration with open university malaysia, and the rich debates that were stimulated. we are very pleased to celebrate pcf8’s success in this issue. anne gaskell chief editor, jl4d references ally, m. (ed.). (2009). mobile learning: transforming the delivery of education and training. edmonton athabasca university press. retrieved from http://www.aupress.ca/index.php/books/120155 ally, m., &, samaka, m. (2013). open education resources and mobile technology to narrow the learning divide. international review of research in open and distributed learning, 14(2) 14-27. 103 ally, m., & tsinakos, a. (eds). (2014). increasing access through mobile learning. vancouver: commonwealth of learning. retrieved from http://dspace.col.org/handle/11599/558 ally, m., & prieto-blázquez, j. (2014). what is the future of mobile learning in education? international journal of educational technology in higher education, 11(1), 142-151. needham, g., & ally, m. (eds.). (2008). m-libraries: libraries on the move to provide virtual access. london: facet publishing. prinsloo, p., & slade, s., (2016). student vulnerability, agency and learning analytics: an exploration. journal of learning analytics, 3(1) 159-182. retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.18608/jla.2016.31.10 ryan, p. (2017). personal communication. slade, s., & prinsloo, p. (2013). learning analytics: ethical issues and dilemmas. american behavioral scientist, 57(10), 1509-1528. subotzky g., & prinsloo, p. (2011). turning the tide: a socio-critical model and framework for improving student success in open distance learning at the university of south africa. distance education, 32(2), 177-193. notes i http://oasis.col.org/handle/11599/2433 ii https://www.col.org/resources/aptus iii http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/education/ iv http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/wpcontent/uploads/2017/02/english_why_it_matters_goal_4_qualityeducation.pdf v https://www.col.org/about/col-pan-commonwealth-forum microsoft word mitra.docx issn: 2311-1550 2022, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 129-136 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. effects of internet access during examinations sugata mitra and ritu dangwal niit university, rajasthan, india abstract: the scores obtained by students in examinations where internet access was allowed during the examination were compared with the scores obtained in traditional examinations where no assistance was allowed. these scores were then compared with those obtained in a standardised school examination on the same topic or subject, taken by the same students a year before. we observed that scores dropped by over 70% within a year of taking a traditional examination but could be significantly improved if internet access is allowed in the later examination. we further observed that scores in examinations where internet access was allowed were consistently higher than where internet access was not allowed. finally, we report an analysis by rank and observe that student rankings change both over time and whether internet access was allowed or not. this leads us to suggest that use of the internet during examinations measures abilities that are different and more meaningful to our times than those that are measured by traditional examinations based on memorisation and unassisted recall. keywords: assessment, examination, cheating, internet access, memory. introduction use of the internet is not allowed during traditional examinations (te) in most educational institutions in the world. also not allowed during te are books or notes in any form, talking or looking at the work of other examinees. all such methods that may be of assistance to an examinee during a te are generally classified as “cheating” (colnerud & rosander, 2009) and are forbidden. these restrictions are put on an examinee because the purpose of an educational examination is to measure the knowledge an examinee has in the subject in which he or she is being examined. the words “knowledge” and “knowing” are circularly defined in most dictionaries. for example, in the merriam webster dictionary, “knowledge” is defined as “the fact or condition of knowing something….” , while “knowing” is defined as “having or reflecting knowledge….”. similar circular definitions are present in the cambridge and other dictionaries. since these words are hard to define, it would be more precise to assume that a traditional examination measures an examinee’s ability to memorise, recall without assistance, and apply recalled memories to answer questions (which is considered good, see, for example, persky & fuller, 2021). this would explain why all assistive methods are forbidden during traditional examinations. outside of educational examinations, extensive use of the internet and all other assistive methods including asking others and looking at what others are doing, are not only allowed but actively encouraged in the hope that a correct answer or solution will be found to a question or problem (apuke & iyendo, 2018). the ability to answer a question or solve a problem quickly and accurately using any available resource is considered a desirable skill. this is opposite to what educational examinations (te) attempt to measure. these diametrically opposite points of view are possibly a 130 result of the origins of the te from a time when it was important to prepare students to solve problems without any assistance whatsoever. a time when books, libraries, teachers, and even helpful friends, could not be made instantly available at the time of need. the existence of the internet and tiny devices that can access the internet at high speeds have changed the need for many skills that were vital in the 20th and prior centuries (van laar et al., 2020). the changes have been too rapid for most educational systems to adapt. in order to make changes in how or what educational examinations should measure, we first need to know the effects that assistive technology would have on te, if they were allowed. in this paper we report the results of an experiment to measure the effects of allowing internet access during traditional examinations. for the sake of brevity, we will name examinations where internet access is allowed as internet assisted examination (iae). research questions if internet access is allowed during an examination: 1. would the scores obtained by examinees be different than if internet access was not allowed? 2. would the difference in scores, with and without internet access, be the same for each examinee? 3. would the examinees learn while using the internet during examinations? experimental design we have used the standard experimental research model where single variables are manipulated while others act as controls. 1. round 1: take a group of students who have taken an end-of-school examination, such as the gcse (uk), about a year previously and are now enrolled in a university. divide this group into two random groups of approximately equal numbers. name the groups alpha and beta. 2. choose a question paper, qp1, that is equivalent to an examination already taken by the students in their end-of-school examination. 3. administer qp1 to the alpha group allowing the stipulated time to answer, i.e., the time normally allocated for that examination. they must work alone and not use any assistance of any sort. 4. administer qp1 to the beta group allowing the stipulated time to answer. they are allowed to use the internet for answering the examination, using any device (iae). no supervision is required for this group. 5. grade the answer sheets according to the scoring norms. this is the end of round 1. at the end of this round, the same examination will have been answered by the two groups, one using te, the other using iae. 6. round 2: choose another question paper, qp2, equivalent to qp1, and repeat the steps above, this time group alpha can use the internet, while group beta must answer alone and without assistance. 7. grade the answer sheets according to the scoring norms. this is the end of round 2. at the end of this round, an examination equivalent to that in round 1 will have been answered by the 131 two groups in reverse order, i.e., the group that used te would use iae and vice versa. this ensures that the scores in rounds 1 and 2 act as controls to each other. 8. round 3: group alpha answers qp2 without the internet, group beta answers qp2 with the internet. 9. grade the answer sheets according to the scoring norms. this is the end of round 3. 10. round 4: group alpha answers qp1 with the internet, group beta answers qp1 without the internet. 11. grade the answer sheets according to the scoring norms. this is the end of round 4. rounds 3 and 4 provide further control information, as both groups would have taken both examinations in the te and iae modes. 12. each round must be separated from the previous round by at least one week and preferably longer in order to reduce the effect of involuntary retention of information. method and scores obtained 1. forty-eight students in the first year of their undergraduate studies in computer science at a university in western india volunteered for the study. all students had taken the icse (indian certificate of secondary education) prior to their admission to the university. they were divided into two random groups, alpha and beta, of 24 students each. profiles of the groups are shown in table 1. table 1: profiles of alpha and beta sample groups group alpha beta men 13 15 women 9 7 average age 17.7 years 17.8 years standard deviation 0.6 years 0.6 years 2. two examination question papers were created for geography and history. the papers were created using question papers from past icse examinations. this was straightforward because each question in the icse question papers has a score associated with it and a norm for scoring the question. since each icse question paper is allocated a fixed time for answering, it is possible to estimate the time that should be allocated to any question by proportionately dividing the allocated time for the examination by the score in a particular question. such selected questions from various years can then be assembled into an equivalent question paper. we chose geography and history because these subjects showed little variability in their curricula over the years. we will name these equivalent examinations g, for geography and h for history. 3. we then followed the steps as directed by the design section above. at the end of the four rounds, each group had answered g and h in the te and iae modes over a period of 77 days on days 0, 28, 66 and 77. the intervals were necessitated by the students’ normal schedule of studies at the university and were not under our control. the sequence of examinations and the scores obtained are shown in table 2. 132 table 2: examination schedules and average percentage scores for geography and history examinations with standard deviations in brackets exam g day 0 day 28 day 66 day 77 iaete te iae te iae te iae te iae alpha 14.06 (4.92) 71.75 (13.14) 57.7 beta 83.90 (7.35) 35.55 (13.18) 58.2 exam h alpha 73.27 (14.45) 22.76 (11.78) 50.5 beta 7.10 (5.51 73.35 (16.25) 66.2 4. finally, we collected the actual scores received by the participants in the school examination on geography and history (it was a combined question paper) about one year before the commencement of this study. the average scores showed no statistically significant difference ( p(t < = t) two-tail = 0.58) between the two groups. the scores are shown in table 3. based on this, we assumed that the two groups were equivalent for our purpose. table 3: scores obtained by the participants in their school final examination in the geographyhistory paper group average score sd alpha 89.10 7.68 beta 90.59 8.75 both combined 89.76 8.10 analysis and discussion while we carried out a number of analyses on the data obtained, for the purpose of this paper, we decided to describe only those that showed clear results requiring little statistical interpretation: 1. we observed that students of computer science showed little recollection of what they had learned in geography and history in their schools. the scores they obtained in these subjects during their school-leaving examinations dropped by more than 70% when an equivalent examination was administered after a year. however, when internet access was allowed in the same examination, the scores were only about 20% lower than what they had scored a year ago. figure 1 shows the mean scores for equivalent te and iae examinations administered after one year, along with the scores they had obtained in the actual te at the end of their schooling. the thee mean scores were found to be significantly different from each other. 133 figure 1: mean scores with standard deviations in the actual school-leaving examination compared to scores in equivalent te and iae after one year 2. iae scores were found to be consistently higher than te scores. there were no exceptions to this in our data. figure 2 shows the te and iae scores (combined for the geography and history examinations) for all the participants. figure 3 shows the scores separated for the two subjects. figure 2: average of the scores in geography and history for all the participants 0.00 20.00 40.00 60.00 80.00 100.00 120.00 te actual te equivalent after 1 year iae equivalent after 1 year a ve ra ge p er ce nt s co re s te =traditional examination iae = internet assisted examination examination performance over time with and without internet 0.00 10.00 20.00 30.00 40.00 50.00 60.00 70.00 80.00 90.00 100.00 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 average of history and geography scores for iae and te iae score te score 134 figure 3: mean scores in geography and history with and without internet access 3. we observed that there was a difference in scores depending on whether a te was administered before or after an iae for the same subject, namely, geography and history. te scores in examinations administered after the same examination was administered using iae a few weeks earlier were found to be significantly higher than te scores in examinations administered before the iae. the experience and knowledge gained during iae seems to be acting as “preparation” for the te. this is shown in figure 4. figure 4: te scores when administered before and after iae on the other hand, when iae are administered after te, we did not notice any significant difference. this is shown in figure 5. 0.00 10.00 20.00 30.00 40.00 50.00 60.00 70.00 80.00 90.00 iae te iae te % s co re geography and history exams iae and te scores in two exams 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 alpha beta te scores before iae after iae 135 figure 5: iae scores when administered before and after te curiously, when the iae was administered after the te, we observed a small drop in the iae scores. it is possible that the earlier memorised knowledge from te prevented effective use of the internet during iae, however, this is speculative and needs more experimentation to establish. 4. we observed that relative ranking of students was poorly correlated. the ranks obtained by students in iae show a correlation coefficient of 0.53 with the ranks they obtained in the actual school leaving examination. such low correlation is to be expected since the score obtained by an examinee in iae is determined by the ability to use the internet accurately and quickly, in addition to memorised knowledge, if any. hence, students who scored highly in a te could be overtaken by students who used the internet well in an iae, and this will change student rankings. we noticed also that the rankings for equivalent te administered after a year of the actual te in school are not correlated (0.37). this could be explained by how much each student has forgotten. a high-scoring student who has forgotten more of the material than a lower scoring student may fall behind, but we have not tested for this. summary the sample size in this study was not large and the findings cannot, therefore, be generalised. a study with a larger sample is suggested. however, we do get a fascinating glimpse into the effects of internet access on examinations. the ability to compute (search), comprehend and communicate may lie at the heart of educational assessment for the generation growing up in the 21st century. conflict of interest: the authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. author contributions: the first author provided the design and analysis for this study. the second author developed the methods, conducted the experiments and collected the data. funding: this study was not funded by any research grant. acknowledgement: the authors are grateful to the participants who found the study of great interest, volunteered their time and cooperated at every stage of the experiments. 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 alpha beta iae scores before te after te 136 references apuke, o. d., & iyendo, t. o. (2018). university students' usage of the internet resources for research and learning: forms of access and perceptions of utility. heliyon, 4(12), e01052. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2018.e01052 colnerud, g., & rosander, m. (2009). academic dishonesty, ethical norms and learning. assessment and evaluation in higher education, 34(5), 505-517. persky, a. m., & fuller, k. a. (2021, july). students’ collective memory to recall an examination. american journal of pharmaceutical education, 8638. doi:https://doi.org/10.5688/ajpe8638 van laar, e., van deursen, a. j. a. m., van dijk, j. a. g. m. & de haan, j. (2020). determinants of 21st-century skills and 21st-century digital skills for workers: a systematic literature review. sage open, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244019900176 authors: sugata mitra retired in 2019 as professor of educational technology at newcastle university in england, after 13 years there, including a year in 2012 as visiting professor at mit medialab in cambridge, massachusetts, usa. he is professor emeritus at niit university, rajasthan, india. his work on children’s education include the ‘hole in the wall’ experiment where children access the internet in unsupervised groups, the idea of self organised learning environments (soles) in schools, the role of experienced educators over the internet in a ‘granny cloud’ and the school in the cloud where children take charge of their learning – anywhere. email: sugata.mitra@niituniversity.in dr ritu dangwal is an assistant professor at niit university in india. she has a phd in organisational psychology and an active research record spanning over 20 years. her interests include children's education, self organised learning, open and distance education, psychology and assessment. email: ritu.dangwal@niituniversity.in cite this paper as: mitra, s., & dangwal, r. (2022). effects of internet access during examinations. journal of learning for development, 9(1), 129-136. microsoft word singh.docx issn: 2311-1550 2022, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 363-369 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. process improvement approach to transform online business education in the post-covid world sonia singh toss global management abstract: in early 2020, the world health organization declared covid-19 a global emergency. this pandemic has affected higher education, especially the world of business education and professional programmes, beyond imagination. this study/project examines an innovative teaching and learning approach, lean methodology, and its application to business education. although lean thinking originated in the automobile industry several years ago, research on its application and sustainability at academic institutions, especially in the teaching and learning process, has been extremely limited. recent research demonstrates that this approach has been successfully implemented in healthcare and health sciences education. this project takes a step forward and identifies how a similar approach can be applied to business education in post-pandemic education. the project concludes with practical tips that higher education institutions can use as planning for post-pandemic begins. keywords: lean management, online education, covid-19, post-pandemic, business education. introduction in early 2020, the world health organization declared covid-19 a global emergency. universities and colleges across the world quickly transitioned to online or hybrid media/classes to avert, or, rather, curtail the unprecedented crisis. several safety measures were implemented including handwashing, social distancing, and temporary closure of in-person operations. in a rather unplanned and sudden move, academic institutions were required to adapt to a “new normal” and quickly create structural support systems to avoid disruption of education (armstrong-mensah et al., 2020). while transition from face-to-face to a new form of instruction could be simpler for a few disciplines, one must note that it is harder for professional disciplines such as business and healthcare/health sciences, as they require a mandatory experiential component to their education. for example, students in these disciplines need to complete internships, field experiences, practicum and capstone projects that need on-campus attendance at the educational institute and business/office setting organisation they are working closely with. instructors who teach courses in these disciplines were not ready for the unforeseen, unclear, and rapid transition to a new model of course delivery. unavailability of best practices or evidence surrounding transition to online modality also made this sudden shift extremely challenging. in recent years, there has been a shift in traditional face-to-face education and instructors were encouraged to include online teaching in their classes. this is true for disciplines such as business and healthcare education. while online education has its benefits, it is usually not the preferred method of teaching and learning from instructors’ and students’ standpoint (vivolo, 2016; grodotzki et al., 2021). creating engaging online learning experience for students requires learning new skills, and a huge 364 time investment and effort from the instructors (asgari et al., 2020; grodotzki et al., 2021). this could be extremely difficult for majors/programmes where in-person meetings are required to complete lab experiences and/or required experiential learning components as part of the curriculum. from the student’s viewpoint, one may find it hard to learn complex concepts in a virtual or remote environment. there is also a popular belief that virtual learning does not lead to a deeper level of learning (holzweiss et al., 2014; grodotzki et al., 2021). covid crisis and plight of business education multiple countries across asia have witnessed a deadly surge in active covid-19 cases more than once in the past two years with more than two billion people sick around the globe, an increase in cases, coupled with sharply rising mortality, has left the majority of hospitals overwhelmed. the speed and scale with which this virus has spread has led to the closure of many organisations, including educational institutions and other businesses (unicef, n.d.). as universities shut down for a prolonged period of time, educational institutions started adopting/using popular e-learning tools such as online learning management systems, zoom, microsoft teams, or other online platforms. however, design and execution of content via an online medium of instruction has been the major concern. furthermore, it must also be noted that online or virtual learning has not been utilised on a larger scale in the indian education system (muthuprasad et al., 2021). business students and students in other professional programmes need sound technical knowledge to function effectively once they graduate from their respective programmes. the pedagogy for education in these fields has not changed and faculty is still practicing traditional teaching methods (soundarya, 2020). in professional programmes such as business education practical knowledge and skills are needed so students can prepare to function in a real world setting (kaur et al., 2021). business education requires in-person interaction and a case study approach while working with students in face-to-face settings. due to covid there has been a push to move to online or hybrid classes. students need in-depth understanding of qualitative and quantitative data analysis skills, solid knowledge of external and internal environment and personality development sessions to prepare for internship and job placement. research suggests that the pandemic forced students and faculty to stay at home and to include e-learning tools to teach and communicate with students. while these tools have an advantage, it also leaves students anxious and less involved with important concepts, especially when an instructor utilises a completely online medium of instruction. this ongoing health crisis has created fear and anxiety in the minds of faculty and students. students were not only anxious but also missed a real in-person learning environment (mahajan, 2020). one must note that online education can provide a feasible option for a few months but it also raises the concern of compromising the quality of interaction with students. there is a struggle to create a meaningful learning environment for students. having students in one physical space allows instructors to engage students in games, activities, project work and cases that deal with real world business problems. sudden, unplanned, and unstructured approaches, especially one adopted by instructors during the covid crisis may leave students clueless and unprepared for real world settings (mahajan, 2020). there is evidence that the pandemic will likely stay (however active cases may decline) and instructors will have to learn and work with online tools to promote a holistic development of students. we have to ensure that students get similar, if not better, and well organised classes even if they are taking classes using an online or hybrid medium of instruction. lean 365 methodology, as demonstrated by recent evidence in online healthcare education, helps in creating maximum value for students by reducing waste and wait times. it aims to essentially change how faculty thinks, which, ultimately, leads to a change of behavior and culture over time. based on the toyota model, where the initial focus was to make car manufacturing more efficient, this approach has made its way to the healthcare industry. recent evidence in the field of health science education demonstrates that this approach can be utilised in academic programmes across similar disciplines as well. usage of the lean model in online classes could enhance students’ engagement/performance and allow instructors to create a streamlined process where information flows to students without interruption (singh, 2019; singh, 2021). lean model in business education lean methodology can be utilised to improve design and delivery of courses in business education. emiliani (2004) indicated enhanced student satisfaction, less confusing course assignments and lectures, a standardised system of course format/delivery, and better students’ outcome once lean principles were integrated in the classroom setting. further there was greater consistency in the overall teaching and learning process, minimal or no waste and greater value as perceived by students. in addition to teaching and learning practices in business education, lean thinking can be effectively applied to remove “superfluous and non-value added activities” in a business curriculum. for example, utilisation of a value stream map to create curriculum that focuses on employability of students can result in a better skill set for graduating business students (zighan & qasem, 2020). while several researchers/academics have applied lean methods in traditional business education and face-to-face programmes, it is important to note that there is minimal or no evidence on application of lean methods in online business education. a recent study completed by singh (2021) presented a lean model that was implemented and tested in online health sciences/healthcare education. this model focused on educational process improvement by adopting a student centered approach and elimination of non-value added steps/activities that are not meaningful to customers including students, employers, and accreditation bodies. in light of the on-going pandemic, curriculum was revised using a variety of technologies and instructional design principles. there were three major distinctions between traditional online classes and the “lean” online classes as presented in the study. in the lean class, first, practitioners/experts in the field influence the material students read and study. second, regular efforts are made to reach out to employers and alumni to update course content. third, in teaching based on “lean” methodology, it is effective to highlight and introduce “lean” in this area to help students learn to separate “human work” from “machine work.” “lean” methodology looks at the customer’s perspective to offer efficacy and standardisation. instructors can reserve time for material that requires in-depth understanding and/or idea conceptualisation while using machines where possible for activities like quiz grading. from an administrative standpoint, students learn this method through the programme and, as a result, it prepares them to be more effective health care administrators where “lean” also holds relevant application (singh, 2021). description of the lean model the lean model comprises concepts such as student-centered approach, jidoka, just-in-time production of services, staff involvement, standardisation and stability (singh, 2021). this can be 366 visualised using the image of a house (fig. 1). the walls consist of jidoka and just-in-time. usage of lean concepts in teaching and learning approaches can enhance students’ engagement/performance and allow instructors to create a streamlined process where information flows to students without interruption (singh, 2021). figure 1: the foundation of the house is stability and standardisation. (singh, j. et al., 2021. leaning online education during covid-19 pandemic – attitudes and perceptions of non-traditional adult learners. quality assurance in education, 29(4), pp. 408-421.) https://doi.org/10.1108/qae-12-2020-0147. (used with permission.) institutions of higher education and online education programmes that integrate lean principles can reduce waste and activities that are not needed while improving the quality of education. by incorporating different methods (qualitative and/or quantitative) to collect students’ feedback, and establishing and using a continuous feedback loop/mechanism, an evidence-based method used in other industries such as lean can be carefully integrated into online education. once the lean approach has been adopted, efforts are needed to utilise the data/feedback collected through a continuous-learning loop such as this would enable online educators to constantly update and improve their teaching approach, focus on students’ needs and ultimately reduce unwanted activities from classes. lean model in online business education this author believes that lean principles such as value, value streams, flow, pull and perfection must be utilised to build business education programmes and classes in professional programmes. as noted by singh et al. (2021), a visual curriculum map of online classes, the involvement of alumni and business leaders in designing actual curriculum, and the removal of non-value added 367 assignments/redundant material can help in designing classes. methods outlined below could help educators: • short syllabus with key policies and requirements should be made available to students. • consistent course design and format should be used in online classes to build a standard process of online class delivery and reduce variation. • decision about class meetings and engagement opportunities should be made in collaboration with students. • methods, such as videos, to explain assignments, real-world case study assignments and simulation-based exercises should be used to enhance engagement. instructors should stop and control mistakes and separate human and machine work to ensure that they are not overworked while teaching students. online chat sessions and short videos must be utilised to provide feedback. instructors should use machine graded quizzes and preserve time for detailed feedback for case studies and assignments that need an in-depth understanding of content (singh, 2021). in the spirit of continuous improvement, instructors should meet regularly and consistently arrange meetings with instructional designers to change and/or adapt their teaching methods. surveys from both students and alumni must be gathered and appropriate changes must be made based on the feedback received (singh, 2021). lean in post-pandemic education as more and more individuals across the world receive vaccines and we move towards a world that may be free from the virus or at least have the current crisis under control, instructors in business programmes and other professional programmes can utilise the lean approach to improve learning experiences and student satisfaction in online classes. the student centered approach, as demonstrated in the research, helps in creating better course navigation and adds to the clarity of assignments. just in time (jit) reduces wait times and helps students in progressing at their own pace. a standardised approach to course design requires that once the course and its assignments are presented they are not changed unless absolutely necessary. use of these methods will allow instructors to plan for post-pandemic education. another key finding of this recent study that could help in designing relevant course material for the post-covid world is the use of feedback from alumni and business leaders. this could help in connecting with the field and using assignments that are of critical importance for practice professions (singh, 2021). as an instructor of business courses, the author of this project/article believes that this approach brings a kaizen (continuous improvement) attitude to education and helps in the identification of items that do not add value to the class. conclusion this manuscript/project demonstrated that the lean model/approach can be successfully applied to business education. as the world continues to venture into unknown and uncertain times and eventually finds a way out of this public health crisis, faculty need to be open to the adoption of innovative teaching and learning methods in online classes. it has been demonstrated that the use of 368 lean methods improves faculty response time, time, helps in acquiring communication and support from instructors, and provides flexibility and real-world connection between workplace and assignments. this project could help instructors and administrators working in business programmes in a post-covid world. references armstrong-mensah, e., ramsey-white, k., yankey, b., & self-brown, s. (2020, september 25). covid-19 and distance learning: effects on georgia state university school of public health students. front. public health, 8(576227). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2020.576227 asgari, s., trajkovic, j., rahmani, m., zhang,w., lo, r.c., & sciortino, a. (2020). an observational study of engineering online education during the covid-19 pandemic. cornell university. http://arxiv.org/abs/2010.01427 emiliani, m.l. (2004). improving business school courses by applying lean principles and practices. quality assurance in education, 12(4). https://doi.org/10.1108/09684880410561596 grodotzki, j., upadhya, s., & tekkaya, a.e. (2021). engineering education amid a global pandemic. advances in industrial and manufacturing engineering, 3(10). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aime.2021.100058 holzweiss, p.c., joyner, s.a., fuller, m.b., henderson, s., & young, r. (2014). online graduate students' perceptions of best learning experiences. distance education, 35(3). http://doi.org/10.1080/01587919.2015.955262 kaur, r., garg, a., kaur, p. (2021). case study: student's response towards online learning in engineering education during covid-19 pandemic. journal of engineering education transformations, 34(3). http://doi.org/10.16920/jeet/2021/v34i3/153917 mahajan, y.d. (2020). business education in india during covid-19 times: challenges and solutions. paideuma journal of research, 3(9). http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3710316 muthuprasad, t., aiswarya, s., aditya, k.s., & jha, g.k. (2021). students’ perception and preference for online education in india during covid -19 pandemic, social sciences & humanities open, 3(1). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssaho.2020.100101 singh, j., matthees, b., & odentunde, a. (2021). leaning online education during covid-19 pandemic – attitudes and perceptions of non-traditional adult learners. quality assurance in education, 29(4). https://doi.org/10.1108/qae-12-2020-0147 singh, j. (2019). the lean prescription for non-traditional adult learners. quality assurance in education, 27(3). https://doi.org/10.1108/qae-09-2018-0100 soundarya, n. (2020). a study on covid-19’s effect on teaching learning process in engineering education in the post pandemic indian education market. international journal of advanced science and technology, 29(08), 2395-2414. http://sersc.org/journals/index.php/ijast/article/view/23409 vivolo, j. (2016). understanding and combating resistance to online learning. science progress, 99(4). http://doi.org/ 10.3184/003685016x14773090197742 unicef (n.d.). racing to respond to the covid-19 crisis in south asia. https://www.unicef.org/rosa/racingrespond-covid-19-crisis-south-asia zighan, s., & el-qasem, a. (2021). lean thinking and higher education management: revaluing the business school programme management. international journal of productivity and performance management, 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm-05-2019-0215 369 author: sonia singh is the director of toss global managment (india) and also attached with many universities as adjunct faculty and as a trainer with many corporates in india, middle east, and africa. in the past 18 years, she has played a key role in academic and training institutions in the middle east, india, and africa. she specializes in program creation, teaching, training and curriculum design for various private and public organizations. email: sonia23singh@gmail.com cite this paper as: singh, s. (2022). process improvement approach to transform online business education in the post-covid world. journal of learning for development, 9(2), 363-369. mercier exploring the potential of online courses to develop capacity for sustainable development jean-roger mercier vol. 1, no. 2 abstract a small team of independent entrepreneurs developed two massive open online courses (moocs) on sustainable development that attracted over 400 participants. this article describes the original intentions and formats of the moocs as well as their actual performance. with little publicity, the courses revealed strong buy-in by the participants and resulted in both a high percentage of completion and degree of satisfaction. based on this experience, we believe that moocs have the potential to provide the impetus needed in initial and vocational training to respond to the challenges of capacity development, highlighted in the post-2015 development agenda and in reflections on africa like the “madavo report” (2005) on capacity building in africa. introduction a small team of independent entrepreneurs developed, , two massive open online courses (moocs) on sustainable development, without support from public funding agencies. the first, a six-week course entitled mooc “effets durables” (ed), provided a broad introduction to sustainable development for 275 participants mainly from french-speaking africa during fall 2013. the second course, entitled mooc gprose (gestion préventive des risques opérationnels sociaux et environnementaux – preventive management of operational environmental and social risks), was more specialized –focusing on environmental and social assessment in the international context. it benefited from a pro bono collaboration with the ngo “rse-et-ped”1 and attracted 162 participants. mooc gprose generated interest in the community of practitioners in international development in several countries around the world with a large majority of african participants of both genders. both moocs were delivered in french. michel denis, an e-learning specialist based in southern france, came up with the idea of applying moocs to sustainable development, designed the first mooc from scratch and is, more generally, the technical and instructional designer on e-learning in the informal net learning team  (nlt). some moocs mobilize audiences in the thousands.  at the international level, 2013 was the “year of the mooc” with hundreds of such courses being offered, in all forms and shapes of education and training, basic as well as “on the job”. methods what follows is a description of the preparation, delivery, and post-delivery analysis of the two moocs. it is a self-evaluation of about 10 months of work by michel denis and his partners. mooc “effets durables” (ed) on sustainable development was announced on several social networks in august-september 2013. using only social networking, 275 interested persons registered to study one or more of 12 separate sustainable development themes over a set period of six weeks (mid-september to the end of october). twelve volunteers assisted michel denis and nadine de cordt, the original designers, each acting as the facilitator for one of the themes. the pedagogy of mooc ed was very interactive. the organizers probed each participant’s interests before the official opening of the mooc and, for participants registering during the mmoc, as soon as they registered. participants were asked what their “burning questions” were, a gimmick to incite them to disclose their training objectives. the organizers compiled these responses and integrated the objectives in the selection and design of the resources (which include documents, videos, and internet links) supplied by them, online, within the mooc virtual space. towards the middle of the course, participants were invited to prepare mini-projects on their theme of choice, using one of the many tools at their disposal in the mooc ed space. mini-projects were defined by michel denis as case studies, proposed by each thematic facilitator, that would be developed collectively and interactively by the participants who agreed. the outcome was a document that, in quality and length, would represent the synthesis of the lessons learned during the course. for instance, participants produced a short, but documented charter on sustainable tourism. a group working on the topic “towards more inclusive development” launched its mini-project and went some way into producing a guidance document on how and why to identify and involve key stakeholders in the promotion of positive energy territories. an overall final quiz served as validation of mooc ed. mooc gprose (gestion préventive des risques opérationnels sociaux et environnementaux – or preventive management of operational social and environmental risks) targeted professionals and students interested in the process of environmental and social assessment of international development projects. the marketing followed closely mooc ed’s model. in advance of the event, two worldwide mooc catalogues published the details on mooc gprose. two volunteers provided the content of the course. a total of 162 participants – more than 100 residing in africa – registered and the course, originally designed to last three weeks, ended up lasting six weeksin response to the explicit request by several participants who needed more time to access, download and read the resources as well as to prepare for responding to the quiz. thirty participants obtained the certificate of participation that required the study of the full six modules and the completion of all quizzes. the statistics supporting this article were generated by the moodle platform which underpinned the two moocs. these data are available and verifiable. results in broad terms, a mooc is a set of educational activities, openly accessible on the internet and usually, but not always, free of cost for the user, and endowed with a "massive" architecture in terms of being able to accommodate a large number of participants. moocs ed and gprose employed connectivist principles by creating a community of “learners” and “teachers” operating in a networked environment.  connectivism, according to carmen tschofen and jenny mackness (2012) is “based on the principle that all learning starts with a connection (siemens, 2004). these connections occur on neural, conceptual, and social levels (siemens, 2008), and in connectivism, learning is thought to be “the ability to construct and traverse connections” (downes, 2007)”. the objectives of mooc ed were to provide basic knowledge about sustainable development to a variety of francophone users. the mooc attracted 275 participants. as recorded on the web site, the six-week mooc generated about 40,000 learning object activations. a learning object is defined as “any digital resource that can be reused to support learning” (see http://docs.moodle.org/27/en/learning_objects). one activation is simply one action on a learning object (mainly either accessing it, downloading it, or modifying it). based on the total number of registered participants, the geographical breakdown was as follows (rounded figures):  africa 50%  france 45%  others (quebec, haiti, etc.) 5% this first ever mooc on sustainable development explored 12 domains: renewable energy more inclusive forms of development agenda 21 circular economy governance education water communication and sustainable development alternatives to growth food sustainable development in 3d demography data can be broken down by week and show the number of activities (one activity is, for instance, a participant downloading a resource or accessing the chat designed for the mooc), the total number of logins, and the number of unique users having connected during the period). activities varied from 8,911 (week 1) to 3,225 (week 6), the number of unique users remaining in the 82-138 range during the first five weeks and having a low of 80 in the last week. the objectives of mooc gprose were to enable participants to: understand the stakes associated with the development of corporate social responsibility (csr), with a special focus on developing countries  identify situations where the utilization of environmental and social assessments (esa) provides an opportunity to enhance the sustainability of development projects, plans, programs and/or policies (pppp)  understand the systemic aspects of organizations that manage operational risks using esa. the main target groups were investors, development practitioners, researchers, scholars, and students, as well as government and/or finance officers. the actual group of 162 persons who registered for mooc gprose was a cross-section of those target audiences. the six modules of mooc-gprose were (case studies in brackets): corporate social responsibility (csr) (simulating a presentation on csr adoption at the annual shareholder general assembly of a private company willing to invest overseas) introduction to esa and their relationship to environmental impact assessment (eia) (chad-cameroon oil project’s complaint at the word bank’s inspection panel) project selection and screening (composite irrigation rehabilitation project in saïva) environmental and social management plans (esmps) (mid-term review of the implementation of ziga dam –  in burkina faso – environmental and social management plan) organizational implications of gprose with a focus on accountability mechanisms (network of international accountability mechanisms) perspectives on esa and gprose with a focus on post-2015 (perspectives on post-2015 by the high-level group). it was originally estimated that the time needed offline to read and digest the information provided by the organizers and enable participants to respond to each quiz would be between two and three hours per module. mooc gprose generated more than 22,000 actions/activities. the cascade of registration/comprehensive achievement of the course is as follows: 137 “learners” actually participated partially or totally of the 137, 30, (i.e., 22%) accomplished all the activities and claimed their final certificates 47 participants attempted the final quiz and the average rating was 87/100. based on the total number of registered participants, the geographical breakdown was as follows (rounded figures):  africa 61%  france 31%  other europe 4% other outside europe 4% the key statistics of mooc gprose, following the definitions above for mooc ed, showed that activities varied from 7,171 (week 1) to 732 (week 5), the number of unique users remaining in the 73-115 bracket during the first five weeks and having a low of 56 in the last week. the average time that each participant spent online for the whole mooc period was 4 hours the most active participants spent nearly 30 hours online during the 6 weeks the amount of time spent by the participants outside the connection is unknown, but obviously adds to the time spent learning, since the additional tasks included reading the lectures, and preparing for the case studies, quizzes and various other offline activities. discussion thanks to the quiz and a self-assessment system, it is now possible to evaluate, not just the acquired knowledge, but also the participants’ degree of satisfaction with the courses. the general feedback from participantsof both moocs was that learning was effective. key success factors put forward by responders-participants were the variety of proposed activities, their attractiveness, and the much-appreciated commitment of the organizers and moderators. a burkinabé participant wrote “this topic [sustainable development] is dear to my heart since, as project manager, it will help guide my decisions”. a malagasy participant said, “it was very enriching from the point of view of environmental culture. i learned a lot”. the two moocs recorded completion rates of about 20%, a much higher percentage than the average mooc (less than 7% according to http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/mooc-completion-rates-below-7/2003710.article). this high rate, combined with the positive feedback, may show that the balance between moocs’ flexible and interactive approach and the complexity of the subject, was appropriate for the audience. the internet, indeed, may make capacity enhancement close to being financially competitive with “in room” learning. germany.info, for instance, mentions an average vocational training cost of 15,300 € (20,065 us$) per trainee per year, which translates into about 10-20 €/student-hour (13.5-27.0 us$). the author’s own estimate is that, under commercial conditions and during the coming years, the corresponding cost could be around 25 €/student-hour with much lower values when audiences exceed 1,000 participants. it is not unreasonable then, to hope that, far from being a “cheap” learning tool, moocs can be a powerful capacity developer in a network environment owing to a more personal approach, increased/improved learners’ commitment, and instant access to global expertise. several features of the two moocs worked particularly well. for instance, learners had access, with a simple password, to a moodle platform where they had the option of toggling between written text (usually pdf files), internet links, and videos. home recorded videos produced with consumer-grade equipment and used as lectures or as graphic illustrations of points developed in the written resources were watched, even on slow connections and participants understood their messages, as demonstrated by the high proportion of appropriate responses in the quiz. this is consistent with results reported by previous moocs, but the fact that effective videos could be produced at minimal cost is worth highlighting. perhaps the most significant achievement is the synergy that was developed “just in time” between the nlt and the rse-et-ped teams. having never worked together before and having reached a loose, verbal agreement a few days before the launch of mooc gprose, the teams seamlessly validated and posted the required resources on schedule and answered/reacted to participants’ questions within hours or, at worst, a couple of days. the questions raised by the participants were transmitted to the instructors via the forum function in the moodle platform or during the bi-weekly chats. the challenge that was successfully taken up by the organizers to start with french language courses may pay off in the longer term. imbalance between french and english language resources in esa is huge and growing. for instance, of the 80 or so cases of inspection panel complaints that were usable as case studies, only a few (4%) have some french language reference documents. now that the basic structure of mooc gprose has been validated, feeding the content into an english language mooc on the same topic with the same architecture will be easy. many moocs use webinars (short for web-based seminars) as ways of communicating between participants and organizers/teachers. mooc gprose organizers would have wanted to use that technology, but that option was unavailable to some organizers, because of their location in a rural area with poor internet connections. the electronic chat available on mooc gprose was a second-best choice and was used on a weekly basis but failed to gather more than a few participants. the likely explanations for that low level of use of the electronic chat may lay in (i) the exposure that it gives the participant (who may fear not living up to the challenge or, alternatively, may fear criticism for language mistakes or failures) and (ii) the constraints imposed by the one-hour set format. webinars, with more revolving doors and less interactivity, resemble the more conventional dissymmetric teaching relationship and be less intimidating. third-party certification will add to the credibility of the moocs in terms of an ability to check that the knowledge and skills have indeed been acquired above and beyond a rather anonymous quiz. third party certification (tpc) would entail an independent, respected institution making direct contact with all or a significant sample of participants, quizzing them independently from the organizers, assessing the responses and providing a seal of virtue and authenticity to the certificate delivered by the mooc’s organizers.  this was not made possible for financial reasons for mooc ed and gprose, but should be mainstreamed in the future, resources permitting. conclusion and recommendations moocs provide the international community with another option to help solve a critical development problem: enhancing capacity for sustainable development in a massive and rapid manner. in a 2005 world bank report, callisto madavo makes the case for capacity development in africa. he estimates that lack of capacity remains a binding constraint on development and poverty reduction. he encourages africans, both on the continent and abroad, to take the lead in capacity development and aid management. at a time when many of the sub-saharan african nations are experiencing excellent economic growth, madavo’s message should be heard loud and clear. in a more recent and separate effort (2013), the high level panel, working from the perspective of post-2015 international consensus, recommends five main directions, all synergetic with the mooc approach: leave no one behind put sustainable development at the core transform economies for jobs and inclusive growth build peace and effective, open and accountable institutions for all forge a new global partnership the questions are “who will spearhead this huge effort?” and, at a more pedestrian, but equally critical, level, “who will pay for it and will the financial resources be on par with the challenge?” indeed, the present business model dominating the exploding online training domain are universities using their existing resources, free faculty time, and cheap student labour to offer a wide variety of free-to-the-user moocs.  but universities have their achilles heels: lack of adaptation to users’ needs, lack of rapid response, limitations in transdisciplinarity, and low incentive for true innovation. as demonstrated by the successful moocs discussed in this paper, there is clearly a need for moocs on topics geared to the needs of specific audiences and developed, by small private entrepreneurs. the design and development of a first mooc is a costly undertaking and can be guesstimated at about 60,000 € (80,000 us$) in fees alone. repeats of existing moocs with limited design changes would probably be in the 20,000-25,000 € range. this might translate into a total cost of 25 €/participant-hour. at the end of the day, it is the invisible hand of the market that will pick the winners and leave the losers to wonder what they missed. footnote http://www.rse-et-ped.info, specialized in knowledge management on corporate social responsibility in developing countries references downes, s. (2007). what connectivism is. retrieved from http://halfanhour.blogspot.com/2007/02/what-connectivism-is.html tschofen c., & mackness j. (2012) connectivism and dimensions of individual experience. international review of research in open and distance learning, athabasca university, canada. retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/1143/2086 siemens, g. (2004). connectivism: a learning theory for the digital age. retrieved from http://www.elearnspace.org/articles/connectivism.htm siemens, g. (2008). what is the unique idea in connectivism?  retrieved from http://www.connectivism.ca/?p=116 united nations. (2013). a new global partnership: eradicate poverty and transform economies through sustainable development. the report of the high-level panel of eminent persons on the post-2015 development agenda, new york world bank. (2005). building effective states, forging engaged societies, report of the world bank task force on capacity development in africa, washington dc. selected internet resources on moocs http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ad/what_is_a_mooc.ogg http://moocguide.wikispaces.com/2.+benefits+and+challenges+of+a+mooc jean-roger mercier, a french national, originally trained as a mathematician then opted for a career in international development in the early 1970s. in charge of environmental assessment at the world bank (1994-2006), he is the author of a half dozen technical books on natural resource management. e-mail: mercierjeanroger@gmail.com microsoft word yosuf.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 211-220 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. building an efficient and effective test management system in an odl institution safiah md yusof 1, tick meng lim1, leo png2, zainuriyah abd khatab1 and harvinder kaur dharam singh 1 1 open university malaysia 2 impact media pte ltd singapore abstract: open university malaysia (oum) is progressively moving towards implementing assessment on demand and online assessment. this move is deemed necessary for oum to continue to be the leading provider of flexible learning. oum serves a very large number of students each semester and these students are vastly distributed throughout the country. as the number of learners keeps growing, the task of managing and administering examinations every semester has become increasingly laborious, time consuming and costly. in trying to deal with this situation and improve the assessment processes, oum has embarked on the development and employment of a test management system. this test management system is named oum qbank. the initial objectives of qbank development were aimed at enabling the systematic classification and storage of test items, as well as the auto-generation of test papers based on the required criteria. however, it was later agreed that the qbank should be a more comprehensive test management system that manages not just all assessment items but also includes the features to facilitate quality control and flexibility of use. these include the functionality to perform item analyses and also online examination. this paper identifies the key elements and the important theoretical basis in ensuring the design and development of an effective and efficient system. keywords: odl, assessment, mcq, question bank, item bank, test management system introduction one key feature of odl institutions is the provision of flexible learning. the flexibility to learn in terms of time and locality is probably one main reason that makes odl institutions a preferred choice of learning for working people and adult learners. there has been a rapid increase in the learner population in many such institutions. with the growth of the number of learners, the task of administering formal assessments such as developing items, maintaining item quality and conducting tests and examinations becomes tedious and laborious. in fact, the administrative processes of assessment and evaluation can become a nightmare for odl institutions (okonkwo, 2010). the same issue is faced by open university malaysia (oum), which started operation with only a few hundred learners but, in a period of just over a decade, the accumulated learners’ population has surpassed 150,000. as learner population keeps increasing, the administration of examinations for each semester has become increasingly laborious, time consuming and costly. every semester the assessment department of oum faces the challenge of managing and conducting examinations for more than 212 25,000 students at 37 oum learning centres throughout the country. in every semester, new sets of examination papers are set. the process involves identifying and engaging qualified subject matter experts to prepare examination questions and marking schemes. this creates a challenge for oum in making sure there is consistency in the quality of the examination papers prepared. the task of reviewing and moderating these examination questions and marking schemes is time consuming as well. printing and delivery of examinations to the various examination centres and collecting and sending back the answer scripts to the examination department also becomes quite costly and challenging. additional measures have to be taken to ensure security of the delivery of the examination papers as well as the answer scripts, to avoid any form of leakage. scheduling and administering the examinations must be done carefully and efficiently as well. the challenge of managing assessment and administering examinations to the masses is clearly not unique to oum. anadolu university, for example, serves about a million of students throughout the region, and the university made the move to create a test bank to house all the exam items created for the courses offered. students can prepare for their examinations by completing practice tests online (multu, erorta, & yilmaz, 2004). exam booklets and optically readable answer sheets are printed and distributed with additional security measures to all the centers where the examinations are administered (latchem, ozkul, aydin, & mutlu, 2006). there is clearly a need to leverage technology to minimize the issues and challenges related to assessment management and administration. oum requires a test management system that not only helps minimize the manual processes involved in administering assessments, but also ensures the quality of the examination papers generated. in addition, the test management system includes functionalities for online examination that will support flexible entry and exit. this paper provides a detailed description of the design and development process of the oum test management system, also named as oum qbank system. why a test management system? a test management system is not a new concept. it has long been advocated as a possible tool for managing effective and efficient tests and examinations (choppin, 1976). nevertheless, the traditional item banking systems are more of a basic test items storage system. according to estes (1985) these systems support the mass storage and easy selection and retrieval of items used as examination questions. there was little emphasis on automating the generation of tests and also on the test quality control process. with the advancement of technology related to item banking development, it is now possible for learning institutions to develop more comprehensive test management systems that have much additional functionality, besides basic systematic storage and retrieval. besides automation of processes, the important functionalities should include the capability of the system to ensure the quality and consistency of test papers generated. oum qbank oum qbank was designed with the main objective of reducing the laborious manual process of examination or test items preparation and administration and to ensure the quality of examination papers prepared. to achieve the objective, the design of an effective and efficient test management system should have the following unique features: 213 i) systematic storage structure there are three kinds of assessment items to be stored in an oum qbank. these items are: essay-type test items, multiple choice question (mcq items) and items in the form of assignment tasks. for the essay-type items and mcq items, the storage is structured to categorize items based on the subject, topic and cognitive levels of difficulty. figure 1 illustrates the structure of qbank item storage. the storage consists of 30 storage cells with each cell specified by topic and cognitive level, where t1c1 [4/5] indicates topic 1 cognitive level low [4 items have been approved out of 5]. figure 1: qbank item storage ii) item entry interface oum qbank is designed to provide a user-friendly interface for easy entry of items. figure 2 shows a screen shot of the item-entry interface. the interface design allows the user to type items directly so as to be saved into the system. alternatively the user may prepare the items in microsoft word and use the normal copy-paste method to deposit items into the system. 214 figure 2: item-entry interface iii) table of specification a table of specification serves as a guide in the preparation of examination questions. it helps to ensure distribution of topics and level of difficulty of an examination paper. therefore, the use of a table of specification is an important step in the preparation of an examination paper. the table of specification is known as the item distribution table (idt) and is in the form of a table that displays the distribution of the examination questions for a given subject according to topics to be tested and the cognitive level of the questions. the table of specification is prepared based on the content of the learning module. this ensures that the test items are representative of the content being covered in the module. having a good distribution of questions that are representative of the whole module also helps ensure content validity (jandaghi & shaterian, 2008). another important dimension to be considered when building the table of specification is the distribution of items according to the different levels of cognition. the levels are based on bloom’s taxonomy, which states six levels of cognition: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation, respectively. these six levels are clustered into three cognitive levels: low (c1), medium (c2), and high (c3). oum qbank is designed to allow the generation of tables of specification based on user-set criteria. figure 3 shows the item selection or filtering criteria, which includes: i) exam paper generation process – the user can select auto (for automatic generation of an examination paper) or manual (for manual settings for the exam paper generation). ii) exclude past semester – the user can select the option that allows the system to exclude question items from one or several past semesters. iii) include past semester – the user can select settings that allow question items from the predetermined semesters and the percentage of items from these semesters that are to be allowed into the current examination paper. 215 iv) total number of items in paper – the user can set how many items of questions should be in the examination paper. v) item complexity – the system will automatically compute and distribute the number of items according to low, medium and high cognitive levels. however, the user is able to make modifications within the range of total number of items. vi) maximum items per topic – the user can decide to limit the number of times the items from the same topic are being selected randomly for each of the three cognitive levels. vii) paper topic settings – the system will demonstrate an overview of the table of specification as shown in figure 3a. it provides the view of the number of items per topic at each of the three cognitive levels. the user is able to view each of the generated items and decide whether to maintain the question or to re-select another item from the same topic. figure 3: specification criteria for examination paper generation figure 3a: table of specification of the examination paper 216 iv) test paper generation to minimize laborious manual tasks, qbank has formatted all the examination templates into the system. once a test-specification table is generated, the system will be able to generate the test paper according to the required print-ready format. v) item analyses after an examination, the examination results can be imported into the qbank system to enable item analyses. the difficulty index and discrimination index for each and every item can be generated. the discrimination index describes the extent to which a particular test item is able to differentiate the higher scoring students from the lower scoring students. the item difficulty index shows the total group answering the item correctly. this information serves as a reference for the user on the quality of items that have been developed and to make decisions about how each item is functioning. this then helps the faculty to identify poor items that need to be reviewed, enhanced or to be discarded. figure 4 provides a visual representation of the oum qbank system framework with relation to the complete process of item preparation, test generation, examination, item analyses and item review. stage1: question preparation and review course subject matter experts (smes) are assigned to develop question items. the question items are reviewed by item moderators before the items are stored according to the topics and cognitive levels. stage 2: examination paper generation the user can specify the output of the examination paper based on the table of specification criteria selection. the question items are randomly selected from each cell based on the selected set of criteria. the examination paper can then be generated based on the pre-determined format that was set for each course. stage 3: administration of examination the system allows online tests as well as generation of physical examination papers. however, physical examination papers can be in both ‘open ended questions’ and ‘multiple-choice question’ format. the online test is only in multiple-choice question format. stage 4: analysis of quality of items data from students’ responses are accessible through the online marks entry system currently used at oum for multiple-choice questions. the data is further analysed using the difficulty index and discriminating index. based on the analysis, items are further enhanced or discarded from the item bank. 217 figure 4: framework for oum’s test management system figure 5 shows the login screen and figure 6 shows the dashboard for qbank users, respectively. the functions that show will vary based on the different roles of the users logged into the qbank (super administrator, item entry operator, item entry reviewer, chief reviewer, faculty administrator, and the faculty dean). functions for each role are clearly defined and each role will have a different level of security and access. figure 5: oum qbank login screen 218 figure 6: oum qbank dashboard online examination implementation the online examination system is a unique sub-feature of qbank system, which needs to be highlighted. the features and framework described earlier are meant for ‘offline’ delivery of an examination paper. this means that test papers generated from the system can be printed as hardcopy examination papers to be administered at various learning centers. the online component of the examination papers generation system is an extension of the qbank main system. it allows for the test paper generated to be displayed online for the purpose of conducting the test in the online environment. to facilitate an exam paper created for ‘online exam’ delivery purposes, the qbank system needs to include another ‘online subsystem’ for students to login to take their examination at pre-scheduled dates and times. figure 7 shows screenshots of the online testing system. figure 7: oum online testing system the online subsystem is designed to integrate with oum’s campus student management system to perform the following two important functions: i) authenticate student access and confirm if there is a pre-scheduled examination. once student id is authenticated and the system confirms that there is an examination scheduled then the designated exam paper will be made available to the student. ii) send student’s exam results to the campus student management system once the student has completed the examination 219 since the examination is taken online, both examination results and item analyses can be processed in real-time. security considerations security concern is one of the major considerations throughout the design of the system infrastructure and architecture, to ensure that data in the system is protected from unauthorized access, resulting in theft, loss, misuse or modification, as well as from attackers, hackers and crackers. various methods of user authentication were explored, including biometrics and facial recognition technologies. for cost effectiveness and efficiency, the familiar 2-factor authentication, the same as used by banks, is implemented for all users at all levels accessing the system, to protect their account with their password and personal mobile phone. two-factor authentication can drastically reduce the probabilities of online identity theft, phishing expeditions, and other online fraud and, thus, provide security to the entire system. figure 8 shows the dialog screen for entering the authentication code, which is sent to the user’s mobile phone. figure 8 enter authentication code screen limitations first, although the qbank is capable of generating examination papers on demand to meet flexible examination times and locations, the system needs to have sufficient items deposited into the database. this is to avoid a high probability of repeated items. second, despite the commendable security measures taken to authenticate the registered candidate, it is still a challenge to prove the rightful candidate is actually answering the questions if the examination is taken from locations not monitored by oum, for example in the candidate’s home. third but not least, the quality of items that are deposited into the item database is very much dependent on the subject matter expert producing quality items. the input into the qbank will determine the output, in the form of the examination paper. the programmed item analysis indices are limited to multiple-choice-question format only. as such, the quality of open-ended questions is unlikely to be improvised and enhanced. 220 conclusion there is no doubt that the qbank system facilitates the assessment processes. the system stores items, provides table of specification for selecting items from the database, generates examination papers, analyses multiple-choice questions items and is able to deliver examination paper for online testing. it was possible to develop these functionalities due to a well designed system that includes system requirement analysis, user-interface design, functionality design and user-acceptance testing. though there were limitations the oum qbank system has been successfully implemented. it is hoped that with the implementation of the qbank system, assessment can be conducted not only in a more efficient and effective manner, but also in a more flexible way, paving the way towards the flexible entry and exit of learners. references choppin, b. (1976, june). developments in item banking. paper presented at the first european contact workshop, windsor, uk. estes, g. d. (ed.). (1985). examples of item banks to support local test development: two case studies with reactions. washington, dc: national institute of education. jandaghi, g., & shaterian, f. ( 2008). validity, reliability and difficulty indices for instructor-built exam questions. journal of applied quantitative methods, 3(2), 151-155. retrieved from http:// files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej803060.pdf latchem, c., özkul, a.e., aydin, c.h., & mutlu, m.e. (2006). the open education system, anadolu university, turkey: e-transformation in a mega-university. open learning: the journal of open, distance and e-learning, 21, 221-235. mutlu, m. e., erorta, ö. ö., & yılmaz, ü. (2004, october). efficiency of e-learning in open education. in first international conference on “innovations in learning for the future: e-learning”, 26-27, october 2004, istanbul. okonkwo, c. a. (2010). sustainable assessment and evaluation strategies for open and distance learning. turkish online journal of distance education tojde, 11(4), 121-129. authors dr. safiah md yusof is an associate professor and currently the deputy director for the institute for teaching and learning advancement (itla) at open university malaysia. she is also head of the online learning support unit at itla, oum. email: safiah_mdyusof@oum.edu.my tick meng lim is a professor and currently the director for the institute for teaching and learning advancement (itla) at oum. email: limtm@oum.edu.my leo png is currently the ceo of impac media pte ltd based in singapore. email: leo@impacmedia.sg dr. zainuriyah abd khatab is currently a lecturer at oum and head of assessment support unit for the institute for teaching and learning advancement at oum. email: zainuriyah@oum.edu.my dr. harvinder kaur dharam singh is currently a lecturer at oum and the head of face-to-face support unit for the institute for teaching and learning advancement at oum. email: harvinder@oum.edu.my tait european figures in distance and e-learning alan tait vol. 4, no. 1 in my contribution on european figures who have really made a difference in distance and e-learning i want firstly to observe that europe has produced, or at least been the happy host of many of the major figures in our field. a question to be returned to is whether there is a unifying theme to theory and practice in europe, so a particular european perspective on distance and e-learning, or rather a set of theorists and innovators who happen to have been based in europe. firstly we should begin with a group i can term the ‘classics’, or the theoretical pioneers who have underpinned work in this field on a global not just european basis over many decades. borje holmberg made his contribution primarily in the field 1960-1980.  he is a swede, and worked there in the correspondence education period, before taking a chair at the newly founded fernuniversität, in hagen, germany, where he was based until his retirement. he was the inventor of the term ‘didactic conversation’, by which he intended to identify the conversational mode necessary for the successful learning–teaching relationship in correspondence teaching. he also introduced the importance of ‘empathy’, that is need for the correspondence tutor at a distance from her or his student to put him/herself in their position, to imagine what it might feel like to receive suggestions for development in student work.  in other words, holmberg identified the emotional dimension of learning and teaching, which had always been submerged or even denied.  holmberg spanned the correspondence education and distance education transition, or the move in european terms from private correspondence schools such as hermods in sweden, to the cohort of new open and single-mode distance teaching universities, of which the fernuniversität is an early one. while his work is no longer regularly cited, the culture and practice of correspondence teaching were significantly influenced by his work, and this has fed forward in many unacknowledged ways into the digital age to the practise of online teaching, computer conferencing and online discussion. his work can be placed in a larger context which might include the emotional intensity of nineteenth century letter writing as a practice, and the development of humanistic psychology in the 1960’s which saw the learner in human development terms not simply as a ‘pupil’ to be instructed.  michael moore was the creator of the term ‘transactional distance’ in the early 1970s.  while he spent the second half of his career in the usa, he was born and educated in the uk, and spent a decade at the open university.  moore has been active until the very recent past in europe, giving keynotes at conferences of the european distance and e learning network (eden) amongst others, and his work has been cited for over 40 years. it is remarkable in a number of ways, including the fact that it remained current in the transition from the pre-digital era.  moore observes that in distance education there is a distance emotional and psychological as well as geographical – between the learner and learning materials that does not exist when the teacher is active in the same room. this distance can negatively impact on the transaction, which is the relationship between the teaching and the learning that results.  many distance education systems have adopted mechanisms that seek to diminish that transactional distance, for example through tutoring, guidance, and other learner support. moore’s theory is one of the few or indeed may be unique in distance education in that it can be used to test hypotheses, so can be used to frame experiments in tutoring or other learner support activities to assess what change there is in the outcomes of student learning, often judged by student completion.   otto peters is our second figure from germany, and represents that rare combination of the scholar and institutional leader.  peters in a long career is best known for his very substantial scholarly publications in this field, most notably for his commentary on the industrialised nature of distance teaching systems, known as the ‘industrial model’. in this analysis peters was the originator of the discussion of the disassembling of teaching into component parts that can be differently reassembled.  that source of innovation in teaching has been subsequently much used, especially in the recent period in discussion of technology-enhanced education and the affordances of the digital revolution. but peters was also perspicacious in his analysis that scale demanded uniform, reliable and hence industrialised processes, which now might de described as logistics. this applied not only to learning materials, which were seen in this frame of analysis as the mass produced successor to the ‘craft’ teaching of the individual lecturer in a classroom, but also to tutoring and learner support where quality assurance was needed to ensure that standards were defined and met in a large scale operation at a distance and out of sight of institutional managers. peters made clear he did not advocate this industrialised model but observed it as coming into existence with the large scale distance teaching institutions of the 1970’s in particular.  peters was a practitioner too as founding rector of the fernuniversität, hagen, germany, on its establishment in 1974. while there were in existence correspondence teaching institutions in both the then federal republic of germany and the german democratic republic, and indeed a research institute in the field in tübingen, peters led the creation of the innovative and large scale (by european, not asian, standards) institution that is the fernuniversität today.  peters remains active over a very long professional life, and engaged with the digital revolution, and is thus perhaps unique in being one of the very few senior figures in the field who has worked in all three historical phases in the field correspondence, distance and the digitally enabled. these three giants in the field thus establish europe as a crucible for theory builders for distance and e-learning. but they have been succeeded by other notable figures, who emerge from the recent and current period, and who are all professionally active. fig 1: professors börje holmberg, michael moore and otto peters (left to right), at the eden conference, barcelona, 2006. photo with permission from eden. i would begin here by sketching the achievements of the very notable john daniel, born in the uk, educated in oxford and paris, vice chancellor of the open university for more than a decade from 1990, and subsequently assistant director general for education at unesco, paris for nearly a decade after that, before his move to back to canada to head the commonwealth of learning. daniel, like peters before him, has therefore combined outstanding scholarly contributions to the field alongside institutional leadership. his most famous conceptual work has perhaps been the iron triangle of education, or the eponymous ‘daniel triangle’, as it became known. fig 2: the iron triangle. (daniel, 2011, slide 21). daniel argued consistently over many years, especially in the context of global development and the need to expand educational opportunity that these three parameters of access, quality and cost were in active relationship and indeed tension. in other words the more you focused on one the more stress you placed on the others, and this could be represented graphically by triangles not of equal sides, as here, but with sides of differing lengths. the daniel triangle has provided planners and managers with a framework to consider how they can govern priorities and resources, and has been of significant practical as well as academic interest. secondly daniel is the foremost observer of the ‘mega’ institution, both in higher education and later at secondary school level.  daniel both observes and advocates for the creation of very large institutions, using technologies for learning, to manage the scale of need on a global scale for secondary and post-secondary education.   the two books dedicated to the subject made major impact on appearance, in particular the earlier book on the mega universities where his highlighting of the scale of national open universities in india and china, with student numbers in several millions, was a revelation to many. the examination of innovative technologies for learning runs through more than 40 years of daniel’s publications, and is too extensive to elaborate here.  important to mention also however is daniel’s commitment to understanding and developing pedagogy, and the paper he co-wrote on ‘interaction and independence: getting the mixture right’ was important in its day, back in 1979, in its stress on the role of the intermediary tutor for learner support. manuel castells may usefully be sketched in here, not so much as a scholar of distance and e-learning in particular, although he has held a chair at the universitat aberta de catalunya in barcelona, spain for many years, but as a leading and widely cited sociologist of technology and communication at world-level. his legitimate place of note in this context derives from the fact that through his theory-building of the networked society he has revealed the ways that e-learning as one dimension of digital communication has played a significant role in restructuring society. a notable but lesser known scholar christine von prümmer, of the fernuniversität, germany, was early and perhaps the first to focus on gender issues for women students in distance education.  her book on the subject in 2005 followed a long period of publication of articles and research reports, and represented the most authoritative account on how distance education served, and sometimes did not serve women, and how their social contexts and resultant needs for support were not researched and met. often swimming against a tide of ignorance or worse, von prümmer asserted the agenda for women students with courage and resilience from an institutional position that did not provide the security of senior status. greville rumble of the open university founded the scholarly examination of the costs and economics of distance education, setting out in his widely cited book of 1997 frameworks for understanding how the financial models for distance education differed from campus based education. he set out in particular the ways in which capital and recurrent costs differed, and later went on to examine how online learning demanded a rethinking of the costing structures of distance education.  gilly salmon also for much of her career at the open university gained enormous attention in her focus on how learning and teaching interaction could be managed online.  her work in the first 10 years of the digital revolution on computer conferencing drew on the tradition initiated by holmberg for conversations that supported learning. her very practical approach gave name to the now ubiquitous ‘e-tivity’, an online and interactive activity intended to support active learning. the most recent developments in open, distance and e-learning have also seen scholarly leadership from europe.  firstly martin weller has established himself as a leader in the field of open education, both in institutional leadership  with his early pioneering work with the open university uk’s oer social learn, and in his scholarship in the oer field. he has also paid particular attention to digital scholarship, identifying the ways in which the digital world has been changed and enabled by affordances such as blogs, of which his own ‘the ed techie’ is a notable example. weller has gained respect by walking the walk in his publishing activities, ensuring that his books appear online and free at the point of use.  fred mulder, former rector of the open universiteit of the netherlands has also demonstrated leadership at a global level  through his tireless advocacy as well as scholarship on the potential of oer to further develop the revolution in learning that open education has offered. mobile learning too has seen some notable scholars,  from the ou uk agnes kukulska-hulme and mike sharples, and from the university of wolverhampton, john traxler, who have all been in the forefront of study of the ways in which the advent of online with portable devices such as  smart phones and tablets have changed the ways in which learning can be organised and practised  lastly, there should be space too for ros morpeth, director for two separate terms of the national extension college (nec), in the uk. the nec was founded by michael young, who was the first to coin the term ‘open university’ in the 1960’s, and whose name is important to weave into any account of distance education in europe. the nec. offers a range of qualifications in the school and post-school sectors for learners who would otherwise be excluded from opportunity, in particular due to geographical or health reasons.  the nec met significant financial challenges in the early 2000’s, and after a take-over by another organisation the whole new institution was declared bankrupt and nec’s valuable property was sold off to meet the debt its new partner had, unbeknown to the nec, brought to the marriage.  faced with the immediate prospect of nec closing and failing the thousands of learners studying with it, as well as the end of educational opportunity for similar learners in the future, in 2011 morpeth came out of retirement and through her single-minded and courageous leadership rescued the college and continues to lead it back out of the financial quagmire in which it had been dumped.  in 2014 morpeth was recognised by the times educational supplement newspaper as further education leader of the year, citing her ‘tenacity and inspirational leadership’. to return to the question i began with, can we discern in this broad picture of leading figures in distance and e-learning in europe some common themes that allow us to talk about 'european distance and e-learning'?  or do we rather have an extraordinary range of leaders and innovators who happen to be european because of cultural and educational strengths in the european continent, but who have little overall in common?  there are at least two potential unifying factors. firstly european distance education was characterised in the period 1970-1990 by its adoption in seven countries of an open university or single mode teaching university as the primary driver of massified higher education opportunity for adult part-time learners. it is noteworthy that a significant majority of the individuals whom i have identified in my portraits of european leaders and innovators spent some or all of their careers in these larger universities. while european education remains significantly divided by cultural traditions, and can be divided not only by the languages of europe but also into napoleonic, humboldtian and anglo-saxon groupings in educational traditions, the open universities of europe have, at least until 1990 or so, provided the most significant focus that is recognisably european. over the last 25 years however there has been so much development driven by the digital revolution in so many different kinds of post-secondary institution that variety within europe rather than european commonality is the predominant characteristic. this difference can be observed in the two main professional associations in europe, namely the european association of distance teaching universities (eadtu), which derives from the earlier phase of open university domination of the field, and the european distance and e-learning network (eden) which on a larger scale represents the wider and more heterogeneous range of actors.  the second potential unifying dynamic in europe is of course the european commission, the executive as well as to some considerable extent the political driver of a european framework for the 27 member countries (the uk still being a member at the time of writing). the european union formally does not govern education policy in the member states, but this boundary has been breached for many years as the ec has a major and legitimate role in supporting education and  training for economic  and social development. it has also driven the development of common higher education qualifications across all eu member states in order to support easier movement of labour across the eu, a remarkable achievement that has stimulated major unifying conversations about the nature and purpose of higher education, including e-learning and open education, across the union. overall and in conclusion i would suggest that the answer to my question as to whether the characteristics of leaders and innovators in this field allows us to speak of european distance and e-learning, is at least partially in the affirmative. the open universities of europe have allowed many of the leaders here identified to flourish and develop their ideas, at least in part in reference to each other, and programmes and projects funded by the european commission have over many years allowed cross-national european teams in this field to work and learn together.  at the same time i should add that professionals in this field in the european continent despite these high levels of cross-national work continue to a considerable extent also to work within separate intellectual traditions as well as language groups, as a panoramic of the journals in french, spanish and english would for example reveal.  i am aware that my account here will reflect my own limited awareness and may not do justice to figures unknown to me in some countries.  if that is so, i can only apologise. but overall this field reveals, as do many others, as much diversity in character in europe as it does commonality, and this i suggest remains the intriguing, engaging and challenging nature of the european identity over and above its many countries, languages and histories.  bibliography castells, m. (1996). the rise of the networked society: the information age. oxford: blackwell. daniel, j. (1998). the mega universities and knowledge media. london: routledge. daniel, j. (2011). 20 years of distance education in the garden of eden. good news and bad news. https://www.slideshare.net/eden_online/20-years-of-distance-education-in-the-garden-of-eden-good-news-and-bad-news daniel, j. kanwar, a., & uvalic-trumbic, s. (2010). breaking higher education’s iron triangle, change: the magazine of higher learning, 41(2), 30-35. distances et médiation des savoirs, centre national d’education à distance, france: http://dms.revues.org holmberg, b. (1983). guided didactic conversation. in d. stewart, d. keegan, & b. holmberg (eds.), distance education: international perspective. london: croom helm. mac keogh, k. (2005). encouraging distance education? an analysis of eu policy on distance education, 1957-2004. unpublished phd thesis, maynooth university, ireland. moore, m. (1993). theory of transactional distance. in d. keegan (ed.), theoretical principles of distance education. new york: routledge. open learning, journal of open and distance learning, open university: http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/copl20/current peters, o. (1973). die didaktische struktur des fernunterrichts. untersuchungen zu einer industrialisierten form des lehrens und lernens. (the pedagogical structure of distance education. analyses of an industrialized form of teaching and learning). weinheim: beltz. revista de educación a distancia, murcia, spain: http://www.um.es/ead/red/red.html rumble, g. (1997). the costs and economics of open and distance learning. london: kogan page. salmon, g. (2004). e-moderating, the key to learning and teaching online. london: routledge. tait, a. (1996). open and distance learning policy in the european union 1985-1995. education policy, 9(3), 221-238 von prümmer, c. (2005). women and distance education. london: routledge. weller, m. (2011). the digital scholar: how technology is transforming scholarly practice. basingstoke: bloomsbury academic. weller, m. (2014). the battle for openness: how openness won and how it doesn’t feel like victory. london: ubiquity press. author: alan tait is emeritus professor of distance education and development at the open university, uk. from 2013-2015 alan was director of international development and teacher education, and before that was pro-vice chancellor (academic) at the open university uk 2007-2012, and from 2004-2007 dean of the faculty of education and language studies. he was editor of the european journal of distance and e learning (eurodl) 2005-2013, was from 1989-1998 editor of open learning, was president of the european distance and e-learning network (eden) from 2007-2010, and co-director of the cambridge international conference on open and distance learning 1988-2013. in 2012 alan was awarded an honorary doctorate by moscow state university for economics, statistics and informatics, and appointed visiting senior online consultant at the open university of china in 2013. alan is founding emeritus editor in chief of the journal of learning for development (www.jl4d.org), produced from the commonwealth of learning; distinguished visiting professor open university of hong kong; visiting fellow of the centre for distance education at the university of london; visiting professor at aalborg university, denmark 2012-2016; and transformation advisor for the commonwealth of learning at botswana open university 2011-2016. email: alan.tait@open.ac.uk disclaimer: the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the journal of learning for development, its editors, editorial team, and its publisher – commonwealth of learning.  microsoft word olcott.docx issn: 2311-1550 2022, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 156-162 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. why open teaching matters! harnessing the power of leadership, culture and service don olcott, jr. university of south africa (unisa) abstract: ‘institutionalising open education-open teaching in the university culture is about leadership envisioning and leading sustainable change.’ this article seeks to provoke a dialogue and we welcome your feedback in our social media spaces. keywords: open teaching, leadership, culture; science. introduction indeed, if aliens invaded planet earth and we handed them a summary document of definitional doublespeak about open education, they would likely return to their spaceships and conclude there must be more advanced civilisations to explore in the galaxy. of course, if they decided to spend their summer holidays here with us, they might provide some valuable insights from which to reframe our future strategies and assumptions about open education. after all, having aliens looking through a new lens and from different vantage points is a good thing — right? the danger zone here, of course, is even aliens may see what those closest to the playing field may completely miss. we are all in the open choir singing the same song and we truly believe we are in harmony and headed to the open promised land. and we believe everyone else we touch with our song joins the choir — they do not. perhaps we are all too close for a clear vision of reality. these metaphoric by-lines are another way of saying that the advances, affordances, and progress of all things open just may not have met earlier expectations. we had successes but we have had an equal number of failures no matter how hard they are to accept. this commentary will be resisted by some, inspiring for others, and leave many wondering where we go next. some might even contemplate getting on the next spaceship with the aliens and taking their chances on exploring strange new worlds and galaxies. but this is the beauty, virtue and grace of working in academe that we can challenge, agree, divert, combine, abdicate, retract, renew, withdraw and more . . . and still meet work and celebrate being colleagues. we challenge to disagree and we agree to challenge. life in the open fast lane is where all ideas and innovations are welcome with the caveat that not all will be adopted. welcome to the open jungle, albeit, sometimes having to navigate the absurdity of today’s ‘cancel culture’ that challenges everything and everyone for the sake of argument rather than the sake of clarity and illumination. your assumptions about open education are going to be challenged today so put on your space helmet and get ready to rock n’ roll. 157 what are we doing out here in the ‘open’? where do we start? the field of open education needs one singular focus for all things open. this focus is learning. whether we are talking about oer, oep, open research, open science, open government, the open university, the open championship (golf) and the rest of the list they all lead to the same destination. moreover, digital technologies and their use as teaching tools (emphasis on the word tools) are designed to enhance and improve learning. this focus on learning does not diminish the role of the teacher, content, and interactive social contexts that emanate from the community of inquiry theory, for example. however, no matter how we define the teaching roles — lead academic, tutor, learning designer, assessment specialist, and peer mentor our one commonality is better learning through better designed teaching. leadership, culture and service the 2020 unesco oer recommendation (2020a; 2020b) was released recently drawing significant focus to open education, particularly oer and oep. despite the media and vocal rhetoric amongst educators, the fact is the recommendation is not unlike the unesco oer 2012 paris declaration and the 2017 unesco oer declaration from slovenia. the focus is on five key areas: 1) capacity building; 2) policy formulation; 3) equity and inclusivity; 4) sustainable business models; and 5) international collaboration. the truth is not much has really changed in terms of priorities and we have immense work ahead of us particularly in expanding awareness and increasing adoption. although some progress has been made globally since 2012, it’s not as much as we might like to believe. hoosen and butcher (2019) have pointed out that oer and oep awareness and development since 2012 has been characterised by more rhetoric than action. many national governments have failed to focus on oer and the digital divide has created slow adoption due to significant socioeconomic inequities in developing countries. funding has mostly come at the institutional levels and sustainability was uneven, which, in turn, has made policy development somewhat arbitrary and uneven as well (hoosen & butcher, 2019; santos et al., 2017). ministries (see santos et al., 2017) made some progress in the policy arena, however, like so many policy initiatives that emanate at the national level, may not make it to the teachers, leaders and students in the schools. policy creation and educational implementation are not always mutually supportive. the most notable example of this was the recent educational response to the covid-19 pandemic by schools and universities across the globe (bozkurt et al., 2020; olcott jr., 2020a). in the main, most institutions were not prepared to respond. teachers lacked online training, school leadership was lacking and the most severe revelation of all was that many homes do not have the technologies available to effectively engage in home-based online learning. and yes, the dramatic revelation is that we failed to recognise we have a digital divide not just in developing countries but in developed countries as well. in short, our assumptions are often flawed and our celebrations premature. if one scans the literature on open education, one will find articles that indirectly address leadership, culture and service for open education. the truth is there is not much that details these nor virtually none that combines these together. there is a broad-based assumption that everyone just accepts oer/oep and we all depart the station on the adoption train. if it were only that easy. it was 158 suggested earlier that the one commonality for open education is learning. i am now going to take this a step further and suggest as we move forward, we must consider leadership, culture and service as essential considerations in our planning, our dialogue, our definitions, our oer-oep creation and our implementation. remember our choir singing in harmony, well now we have to start singing in the same language for it to make sense to the masses. oer and oep, in and of themselves, are not enough for faculty adoption and institutional assimilation. it takes a coherent strategy of visionary leadership that can manage the organisational culture and recognise that advocacy roles are service roles created to support those who create oer/oep. leadership culture service figure 1: university open education and teaching figure 1 is a renewed framework of core elements to promote all things open. leadership that reframes open education within a benefits continuum for the faculties, the institution and the students is a good first start. leaders must frame open education within their vision for the future. in other words, how will a vision for open education position the institution three to five years from now? the systematic adoption and assimilation of open education and open teaching within the culture of the university is entirely about leading change (kotter, 2012). this fundamental attribute, the capacity to envision and lead change, is perhaps the single most important leadership attribute of successful leaders in the 21st century (olcott jr., 2020b). indeed, if you can’t lead change, you can’t lead your organisation. secondly, the academic culture is often like walking through a minefield blindfolded and advocates of open anything must immerse themselves in this culture and ensure they understand the core values that drive academic behaviour (ehlers, 2013; schein, 1985). you want faculty to give their content away for free. if you wrote a hit song for a rock band and were told that the royalties would bring you 250,000 euros over two years would you give it away for free? a book with similar rewards? advocates think because oer are not best-sellers with big paydays, they are not important to the creator; and that is the first mistake most have made over the past two decades. the things we create matter — to all of us. 159 university faculty don’t care how many oer conferences you go to; they don’t care if you have written five articles nominated for the pulitzer prize on the affordances of oer and oep; and they certainly don’t care how many keynotes or consultancies on open education you have done. faculty members care about themselves and in fact the secret to all advocacy with faculty is not you — it is their peers. faculty members listen to their peers; they emulate their peers; and they adhere to the values of their culture so they can be promoted and tenured. if you are an advocate for open education and open anything you need to look in the mirror and reframe your view of yourself. you are in the service business. and hence the most important construct you can use is called empathy. do you truly know what it means to be a faculty member? do you know what is rewarded in a particular school’s culture? they are not all the same from school to school. all of these lead to the most important element in all advocacy and adoption — trust. if you have not earned this — because it won’t be given to you for free — faculty will not listen to your rhetoric. and, if you break this bond it will spread like wildfire across the institution and the faculties (ehlers, 2013; schein, 1985). a final word for you advocates who are frustrated by the resistance you may find amongst your faculties. for centuries we have trained faculty members for one thing and one thing only — to push back the frontiers of knowledge through research, teaching, more research and publication. moreover, we have established reward systems around these roles to recognise faculty through promotion and tenure. the artistic and scientific materials faculty members create are their lifeblood. what do you do at your institution — in terms of leadership, culture, service, trust and empathy? do you bring these to your faculties? the ball is in your court. as stated earlier, you have to understand the culture in which you are promoting advocacy. we fatally and mistakenly believed that simply suggesting more access, moocs, open content, oer, and the like are good things. giving away knowledge for free would transform the developing world. in the main we chose to believe these are all in the best interests of everyone except the actual people who produce their content and are being asked to shower it among the masses. we need clear and well-articulated benefits continuums about open education to help faculties better understand the pros and cons of giving their content away instead of saying it’s the right thing to do, just put a creative commons license on it, and your life will be much better. as you read the rest of this commentary, i challenge you to think leadership, culture, service as you analyse your open educational landscapes and nurture trust and empathy in all your endeavours. why is this important? because our focus on the content side of open education side-stepped the necessary foundational core elements we needed to attend to for institutions, their leaders, and most importantly their faculties and students. we severely over-estimated the number of global tickets we could sell to board the open content adoption train. the path to open teaching the field of open and distance education has crossed many conceptual and pedagogical boundaries to define openness, open educational resources (oer), open educational practices (oep), open access, open pedagogy, open research and open assessment (butcher, 2011). and, although there is a tendency to associate all these concepts with open and distance education, we must remember these concepts apply equally to traditional f2f models and pedagogies (nascimbeni et al., 2020). 160 the macro view of these open concepts has expanded access to content and resources and made these more accessible and usable across education. in the us, there has been massive adoption of oer to reduce textbook costs for students and in developing countries where content and textbook costs can be cost-prohibitive, oer and open content have been the catalysts for promoting access to higher education in particular (olcott jr., 2012c). despite this progress, there is a need to bring our conceptual framework for open education back to exactly what we do with all these resources. what we do with these resources is teach. we use them to enhance teaching and improve learning by promoting high quality interaction, engagement, retention and reduce transactional distance. garcia-holgado et al. (2020) offered a general definition of open teaching as a “combination of practices aiming at increasing access and quality of learning where theories about learning, technology, and social justice enter into conversation with each other and inform the development of education practices” (p. 1). the next step is to refine and define this concept operationally. open teaching is an instructional framework that draws upon open practices, resources and pedagogical strategies designed to promote access, enhance teaching quality and improve more effective learning in educational environments (olcott, 2020b, p. v). characteristics of open teaching include: • use of open educational resources (oer) as the primary content of courses/programmes. • use of open educational practices (oep) standardised by the institution and or profession. • student, student to teacher, and student to student opportunities for creating and revising open content. this process is typically called open pedagogy. • new and/or revised content created in the course are assigned oer status with the appropriate open licensing. • open assessment options for students in collaboration with teachers to contribute/identify some elements of their assessments. • engagement of external stakeholders and community to improve the teaching process and to make students’ assessment more relevant. avenues for future research indeed, the components of this expanded definition above provide the directions to areas of new research that will support open education in general. how do we make oer more attractive and incentivised for faculty members? what is the optimum road map from open content to proven oep at the institutional level? again, we are talking about benefits continuums to all stakeholders — are these clear? how to we expand open pedagogy, particularly engaging students in the design process for oer and input communication channels for oep? summary we still have extensive work to do in promoting the adoption and assimilation of open education in all its guises across the globe. the one commonality in everything open is learning — enhancing and 161 improving learning. all paths and all resources lead to learning. moreover, institutions must consider visionary leadership, managing culture, and ensuring quality services to faculties and students engaged in the open environment. the definition offered in this commentary was formulated collaboratively by the author and work begun by garcia-holgado et al. (2020). it is not perfect; it is a work in progress as is all of education and everything open. conversely, this definition gives the readers and practitioners a starting point to reframe the open landscape. if you empower this definition by infusing leadership, culture, and service driven by trust and empathy, you are well on your way to building the right foundations of open education and teaching at your institution. in the final analysis, as difficult as it is to admit, we got it wrong. our collective leadership did not create the stable foundation necessary to take open content and related concepts exponentially forward within our institutions. culture matters, context matters and yes — faculty matter. the illusions of our choir convinced us we were successful but that is simply wishful, mythical thinking. we have all heard the mantra before that any decision amongst leaders is better than no decision. this is a myth and only applies if the decision is the right one. we made the wrong one and refocusing now on open teaching is an opportunity to realign our open efforts on learning; and to embrace the criticality of leadership, culture and service infused with trust and empathy to progress open education by 2030 beyond our wildest expectations. references bozkurt, a., jung, i., xiao, j., vladimirschi, v., schuwer, r., egorov, g., lambert, s. r., al-freih, m., pete, j., olcott, jr.., d. rodes, v., aranciaga, i., bali, m., alvarez, jr.., a. v., roberts, j., pazurek, a., raffaghelli, j. e., panagiotou, n., de coëtlogon, p., shahadu, s., brown, m., asino, t. i. tumwesige, j., ramírez reyes, t., barrios ipenza, e., ossiannilsson, e., bond, m., belhamel, k., irvine, v., sharma, r. c., adam, t., janssen, b., sklyarova, t., olcott, n. ambrosino, a., lazou, c., mocquet, b., mano, m., & paskevicius, m. (2020). a global outlook to the interruption of education due to covid-19 pandemic: navigating in a time of uncertainty and crisis. asian journal of distance education, 15(1), 1-126. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3878572 butcher , n. (author); kanwar, a. (ed.); uvali ć-trumbić, s. (ed.). (2011). a basic guide to open educational resources (oer). vancouver, canada: commonwealth of learning/paris, france: unesco. www.col.org ehlers, u.d. (2013). open learning cultures. a guide to quality, evaluation, and assessment for future learning. springer-verlag berlin heidelberg. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-38174-4 garcia-hoilgado et al. (2020). handbook of successful open teaching practices — promoting open education through gamification opengame. ref: 2019-1-es01-ka203-065815 http://opengame-project.eu/wpcontent/uploads/2020/07/opengame-io1-handbookofsuccesfulopenpractices.pdf hoosen, s., & butcher, n., oer africa. (2019). understanding the impact of oer: achievement and challenges. unesco: iiite. edited by svetlana knyazeva, unesco iiite. https://iite.unesco.org/publications/understanding-the-impact-of-oer-achievements-and-challenges/ inamorato dos santos, a., nascimbeni, f., bacsich, p., atenas, j., aceto, s. burgos, d., & punie, y. (2017). policy approaches to open education – case studies from 28 eu member states (openedu policies). eur 28776 en, publications office of the european union. doi:10.2760/283135, jr.c107713 kotter, j. (2012). leading change. harvard business review press. 162 olcott jr., d. (2012). mobilizing open educational resources in the uae and gcc states: a primer for universities. uae journal of educational technology and elearning, 3(6-13). olcott jr., d. (2020a). the leadership imperative: back to the future after the corona-19 pandemic. international council for open and distance education (icde). https://www.icde.org/icde-blog/2020/4/17/the-leadershipimperative-back-to-the-future-after-the-corona-19-pandemic olcott, jr., d. (2020b). in search of leadership: practical perspectives on leading distance education organisations. asian journal of distance education, 15(2), 48-57. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4293194 olcott jr., d. (2020c). towards an operational definition of open teaching. journal of e-learning and knowledge society, 16(4),v-vi. https://doi.org/10.20368/1971-8829/1135348 schein, e. h. (1985). organizational culture and leadership. jossey-bass. unesco. (2020a). recommendation on open educational resources (oer). ref: cl/4319. http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-url_id=49556&url_do=do_topic&url_section=201.html unesco. (2020b). launch of the unesco dynamic coalition for open education resources (oer). https://en.unesco.org/news/launch-unesco-dynamic-coalition-open-education-resources-oer author: professor don olcott, jr., frsa, is an honorary professor of leadership and odl at the university of south africa (unisa) and instructor with oldenburg university in germany. dr. olcott’s leadership, work and scholarship have been recognised on five continents. email: don.olcott@gmail.com cite this paper as: olcott, jr., d. (2022). why open teaching matters! harnessing the power of leadership, culture and service. journal of learning for development, 9(2), 156-162. mwawasi technology leadership and ict use: strategies for capacity building for ict integration felix mndenyi mwawasi vol. 1, no. 2 abstract technology leadership is a fairly new concept in school leadership focus. it has become a concern for study in recent times, in tandem with the pedagogical change of integrating ict in teaching and learning especially in the developed nations. however, few such studies have been done in africa. a number of studies in the developed countries have advanced descriptive approaches on how educators should go about the using of ict in education. teachers, therefore, need to have prerequisite skills to integrate ict in teaching and learning and school leaders have a role in enabling the effective use of icts. this study aimed at investigating how school leaders help build capacities of teachers to be able to effectively integrate ict in their teaching and learning, at school level, in a public secondary school in kenya. using a qualitative case study approach, five school leaders involved in the capacity building, were purposively sampled for interviews, four teachers were engaged in a focus group discussion and two teachers were observed engaged in classroom practice. further data was obtained by analysing official school documents. the data analysed indicate the school leaders facilitated increased access to ict facilities to the teachers and supported them, alongside training, to enable them explore various ways of integrating ict in teaching and learning. introduction  school leaders are expected to spearhead all the school improvement changes including those that are technological in nature. they, therefore, execute this duty in their capacities as technological leaders. according to januszewski and molenda (2008), cited in brown (2009), technological leadership is defined as the study and ethical practice of facilitating learning and improving performance by creating, using, and managing appropriate technological processes and resources. in their technological capacities, school leaders provide finances and technological infrastructure, social and moral support to all the school stakeholders to realise the full potential of icts in education (harris, 2001). anderson and dexter (2005), on their part, contend that technology leadership is a stronger predictor of technology outcomes as compared to expenditure and infrastructure. this means, therefore, that technological leadership is considered very essential to information communication technology (ict) integration due to the various roles school leaders are expected to perform. this study provided insights into school leadership practice as a key factor that influences effective ict use. background and literature review the term ‘capacity’ refers to the skills, knowledge, relationships, values and attitudes among many other attributes such as health and awareness (matachi, 2006) “that enable countries, organisations, groups and individuals to carry out functions and achieve their development objectives over time” (ibid, p.4). thus, capacity building (cb) is the establishment of conditions that will allow individuals to engage in the process of learning and adapting to change. in education technology leadership, such conditions include providing infrastructure, maintenance of ict equipment and training of personnel for the integration of icts in teaching and learning. overall, leadership support for the use of icts in teaching and learning is driven by two schools of thought: one claims that ‘if you teach teachers how to use a computer and give them unlimited access to that computer, they will then figure out for themselves how to apply their knowledge of ict to their teaching practice’ (schoolnetafrica, 2004). the other school of thought argues that ‘it is necessary to teach teachers how to apply ict to their teaching practice and that to simply teach teachers basic ict literacy without applying it to pedagogy is a waste of time and resources’ (ibid). according to carlson (2002), teachers are the key to whether technology is used appropriately and effectively or not. while it is agreeable with carlson (2002), in part, it is worth noting that both the teachers and the school leaders have key roles in successful ict integration. school leaders play a pivotal role in influencing the teachers to take up the challenge of learning to use the technologies to improve their teaching and learning undertakings, and appropriate use of ict can catalyze the paradigmatic shift from teacher-centred pedagogy to a more effective learner-centred pedagogy. therefore, cb of teachers as well as administrators and managers can play a major role in enabling this shift. in a study carried out in asia-pacific countries, farrell and wachholz (2003), cited in ng, miao and lee (2009), identified three different approaches that policy makers stipulated for ict use in education. ng, miao and lee (2009) summarize these approaches as: (i) teaching ict as a subject in its own right, usually beginning at the upper secondary level, to develop a labour force with ict skills; (ii) integrating icts across the curriculum to improve teaching and learning; and (iii) using icts to foster learning anywhere and anytime as part of the development of a knowledge society in which all citizens are ict savvy. (p. 68). they further note that each of these approaches calls for different infrastructural, personnel and management requirements. the second approach, key to this study, aims at enriching the quality of instruction, while the latter approach addresses the challenges of time and place of learning; which can be mitigated easily by use of the computer and the internet. the computer and the internet have enabled ubiquitous learning which enables learners to adapt their learning to individual convenience, believed to be beneficial to the learner. teachers, therefore, need the pre-requisite ict skills to be able to provide ict mediated instruction to the benefit of the learner. conceptual framework this study was guided by the ict-enhanced teacher development (ictetd) model of capacity building (fig. 1) as advanced by engida (2011). as contained in the foreword of the unesco-iicba (2011) publication, ‘the ictetd model is grounded in the belief that teaching has its own unique knowledge base, which, in the 21st century, is the technological pedagogical content knowledge (tpck)’, (p. 5). the ictetd model is described as one which recognises that, in order for teachers to innovatively and effectively use icts in their teaching and learning they need an understanding in greater depth of the content of the subject matter they teach, the pedagogy related to that subject they teach and how that interacts with these concepts within the context of their schools and learning environment (unesco-bangkok, 2012). fig. 1. ictetd model. (source: engida (2011) the ictetd model integrates the four stages of ict integration (fig. 2) hereby conceptualised as a three dimensional pyramid, embedded in a cone, both tapering to the apex from the base where the emerging stage is located, (that is for the pyramid), and the circular base of the cone represents the context. the apex of the cb pyramid includes the transforming stage and is marked at the tip by the highest competence, characterised by technological pedagogical content knowledge (tpck), which marks the highest level of cb.  research approach and design in order to get insights into the role school leaders played in the process of building the capacity of their teachers for ict use in their teaching, it was necessary to carry out the study and observe this phenomenon in a natural setting. it was thus possible to record and analyse the views and experiences of school leaders and teachers. this study, therefore, adopted a qualitative approach and a case study design. the interview technique was used to collect primary data for the study. participants and context of the study purposive sampling was used to obtain a school that uses icts in teaching and learning since not all schools are equipped with digital ict infrastructure. purposive sampling also allowed for the appropriate selection of research participants such as the school leaders and teachers, whose qualities and experiences provided an understanding of how school leaders were engaged in the cb process for teachers’ ict integration, as espoused in their school. the school principal, four middle managers and four teachers participated in the study. the school chosen for study, mazuri school (pseudonym), is a public secondary school that two years previously received ict equipment and a training grant from the local constituency development fund (cdf) for e-learning. the school has a computer laboratory and an e-learning room where the teachers conduct their teaching and learning using icts. data collection multiple methods of data collection were employed in this study namely; semi-structured face-to-face interviews, two direct, overt and non-participant observations, a focus group discussion and document analysis. this allowed for triangulation of data obtained and improved the credibility and validity of the study findings (plano clark & creswell, 2008). a total of eight face-to-face interviews were conducted, a focus group discussion was held with four teachers (to gather insights into their views and their first hand personal evaluation of the school leaders’ initiatives of building their capacities to effectively use icts in teaching and learning) and evidence was sought about the holding of cb events and activities  in the form of reports, letters of invitation, training schedules, school development plans and other written documents. data analysis all interviews conducted were immediately transcribed into text and, together with the other text data obtained (such as the expanded shorthand notes and comments made during observation), uploaded to nvivo-9 qualitative data analysis software for coding. this was done by initially organizing the text data into categories, named ‘free nodes’, which allowed for ease of review according to identified patterns. then the ‘free nodes’ were re-grouped into ‘sets’ that were code-named to get sub-themes. these sets were re-viewed and further refined by merging closely related sets in term of data categories, which helped to eliminate overlaps in codes. finally, themes were built out of these sub-themes that provided a deeper understanding and made meaning of the data collected for later discussion on findings. findings strategies used by school leaders to build capacities teachers for ict use. conducting ict awareness: analysis of collected data from face-to-face semi-structured interviews and school official documents showed that, at the onset of procurement of ict infrastructure, mazuri school initiated and conducted ict awareness programmes for teachers who were not computer literate and needed basic ict skills to be able to use the ict equipment available in the school. table 1. ict awareness. interviewee leadership position response nuru principal we didn’t have a trained teacher (initially) but now (that we have one) we have started it again, so basically what we have been doing is mostly the awareness. mpendwa teacher initially we had awareness programmes at some time...where teachers were afforded that opportunity to come and hone their (ict) skills... according to nuru (pseudonym), there was need to sensitize teachers about the importance of ict in the contemporary practice and introduce them to basic computing skills as well as to how to use various ict equipment. by so doing, the school leaders seemed to influence the teachers’ appreciation of icts in education. further, views from mazuri school leaders and teachers showed that the school leaders attached value to technology development of the teaching staff, which is an aspect of cb, as a prerequisite for ict use in teaching and learning. this echoes chang, chin and hsu's (2008) views that ‘staff technology development and training is an essential aspect of principals’ technology leadership’ (p.240). flanagan and jacobsen (2003) also contend that technological literacy in today’s society symbolizes active participation in the global economy and success in the new information age. therefore, by giving the teachers opportunities to learn computing skills at school level, the school leaders were not only influencing and empowering them to accept and implement the pedagogical changes but also providing a means of bridging the digital divide within the school context thereby helping, in part, the capacity building of the school organisation. provision of ict infrastructure: the school leadership was committed to supporting teachers by providing ict facilities equitably; such as desktop and laptop computers, projectors, smart-boards and sound systems among many other digital media, deemed necessary for the integration of ict in teaching and learning. according to nuru, her school planning and management team was committed to purchasing ict equipment annually. this is because they considered ict infrastructure provision a vital strategy to build the teachers' capacity to use icts in their teaching and learning. anderson and dexter (2000) identify technology infrastructure and instructional practice using technology as two key areas school leaders need to exercise in six key decision types. among these six decision types, are ‘adequate technology budgeting’ and ‘equipment renewal plan’ (ibid). it was observed that mazuri school leaders plan for and provide ict infrastructure to enable ict integration in teaching and learning. additionally, decision-making on ict infrastructure procurement at mazuri was participatory in both ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ approaches (anderson & dexter, 2000). this element of distributed leadership practice facilitates openness of boundaries of leadership (bennett, wise, woods, & harvey, 2003) that included the teachers in choosing what ict infrastructure they require for teaching and learning, thus promoting participatory decision making for the attainment of a common school ict vision. equally important, this leadership practice and decision making approach helps teachers appreciate and own the cb initiatives, which is good motivation to the teachers for uptake of it skills, while at the same time offers improved opportunities for the teachers to have hands-on learning of 21st century skills, deemed essential for using ict in teaching and learning. sponsoring training through workshops and seminars: mazuri school leadership sponsored teachers to attend cb seminars and workshops outside the school as indicated in table 2. table 2. sponsoring training through workshops and seminars. interviewee leadership position response nuru principal first we took our teachers to mombasa for three to four days training and then when we had our facilities installed... (later)... we got an expert, a trainer, to come and train the teachers on how to use the icts. zuhura school coordinator ...they (school leaders) engage teachers in capacity building so that at least once in a while we have refresher courses for teachers, so that they can be trained on ict. so, when they come back to school they can be useful to those left in school. while employing the cascade model of training (xaba, 2006), the school leadership required those teachers who attended such training to share the new knowledge and skills acquired with the rest of the department members. at the time of this study, about half the total number of teachers in the school had undertaken some ict training courses, according to the school principal, who stated; “as at now we have around fifteen teachers that are computer literate  out of twenty-nine...” (interview on 7th may, 2012). the school leadership, hence, actively built the teachers’ capacities to use ict in their teaching and learning by investing in their ict competencies. however, it was not possible to establish whether or not sponsoring the teachers to attend ict seminars and workshops translated directly to improved pedagogic competencies by use of ict, even though it was an ict awareness initiative. freedom to access ict facilities:  teachers at mazuri enjoyed freedom to explore how to use the icts available in their school and experiment with how to best use them in their teaching and learning. this is because the school leaders deliberately allowed them freedom to access the ict facilities whenever they had time in between their professional duties. this was evident from the comments of three of the four teachers who participated in the focus group discussion:  table 3. response to the question: how best have the school leaders helped you gain the various competencies to integrate icts in teaching and learning? (fgd 23rd may, 2012). interviewee leadership position response mpendwa principal by giving me that freedom to do anything possible...and efficiently make use of ict in teaching. zuhura teacher i think the freedom. a bit of it is very important ... i still feel that we need to do something more. khadija teacher the school leadership has allowed us to be free in using the ict and actually the leadership has put it, it is like ‘it is up to you to do it!’ so go to the highest level... this revelation echoes sentiments by bennett, wise, woods and harvey, (2003), while citing gronn’s (2002) use of activity theory to explain the aspect of freedom as a concept of distributed leadership, that is, degrees of freedom opens opportunities to ‘social actors’, which ‘enables change as small shifts from the present to one of a number of possibilities’ (p.16). by allowing teachers to explore ways of applying their basic ict skills in teaching and learning, the school leadership empowered the teachers to move from the emerging stage of ict integration towards the applying stage (engida, 2011).  further, ng, miao and lee (2009) support the approach that teachers need hands-on activities ‘involving the application of skills learnt (through formal training) in the classroom over an extended period of time’ (p.72), where the teachers are allowed access to technology resources, support from technology managers and support from fellow teachers and school leaders (ibid). evidence from classroom observations made suggest the teachers have gained various competencies to integrate icts in teaching and learning: one teacher had recorded a class role-playing session in literature, using a smart phone, and used the digital video recording to project it to the rest of the class where the learners critiqued the short play in terms of strengths and weaknesses of the performance. this approach to cb by school leaders at mazuri embraces the latter school of thought according to schoolnetafrica (2004). it is evident that from the teachers’ responses, this strategy seems to be effective in helping to build teachers’ capacities, especially in schools generally at the emerging stage of the cb like mazuri school. it seems, by allowing the teachers access to the ict facilities, the school leadership had empowered the teachers to develop their technological content knowledge without the school leaders’ direct involvement, and this discussions and conclusions from this study, it is evident school leaders have put a lot of emphasis on technology leadership. by instituting strategies aimed at promoting ict uptake for their improvement in pedagogy, the school leaders, in turn, built the school capacity for ict use in teaching and learning, which is an institutional development undertaking. professional development for school leaders is therefore essential to help them gain knowledge on the latest information regarding ict and technology use, since it is noted that rapid innovation in technology poses a challenge of constant new knowledge and skills, which the leaders need. further, school leaders need to strive to bring all teachers on board for whole school improvement. for a school like mazuri, which is generally at the emerging stage of the ict integration continuum, it is essential that the school leadership develops an awareness of their unique school context to be able to effectively help build capacities of their teaching staff for ict integration.    there is a need to shift the focus of ict use in education from acquisition of basic skills (as is mostly the case in kenya) to pedagogical competence using readily available digital technology, such as handheld devices, cd and dvd digital media, as well as use of social sites to facilitate teaching and learning that transcends time and space. exploratory approaches to find different ways of using technology that is safe and reliable is encouraged and successful findings should be shared with fellow teachers and learners. this study recommends that school leaders encourage co-teaching using icts and peer coaching among teachers to share knowledge gained and also support one another to the benefit of the learner. lastly, the power of hand held ict equipment cannot continue being ignored in teaching and learning by policy makers (as is the case of some african countries that have banned the use of mobile phones in schools). it is essential to note that teachers and learners can engage actively with internet content via hand held devices, thus promoting ubiquitous learning using the cheaper and more readily available internet connectivity through  telephony providers. references anderson, r., & dexter, s. (2005). school technology leadership: an empirical investigation of prevalence and effect. educational administration quarterly, 41(1), 49–82. doi:10.1177/0013161x04269517 anderson, r., & dexter, s. (2000). school technology leadership: incidence and impact ( no. 6). i.t. in education. uc irvin: center for research on information and organisations. retrieved from http://www.crito.uci.edu/tlc/html/findings.html bennett, n., wise, c., woods, p. a., & harvey, j. a. (2003). distributed leadership: a review of literature (pp. 1–57). national college for school leadership. retrieved from http://oro.open.ac.uk/8534/1/bennett-distributed-leadership-full.pdf brown, b. (2009). technology leadership: definition of educational technology. technology leadership. blog. retrieved april 2, 2012, from http://bbrowntechnology.blogspot.com/2009/07/definition-of-educational-technology.html carlson, s. (2002). the missing link in educational technology : trained teachers. techknowlogia, 4(4), 7-11. retrieved from http://www.techknowlogia.org/tkl_active_pages2/tableofcontents/main.asp?issue chang, i. h., chin, j. m., & hsu, c. m. (2008). teachers’ perceptions of the dimensions and implementation of technology leadership of principals in taiwanese elementary schools. educational technology & society, 11(4), 229-245. engida, t. (2011). ict-enhanced teacher development model. unesco-iicba. united nations economic commission for africa, addis ababa, ethiopia. flanagan, l., & jacobsen, m. (2003). technology leadership for the twenty-first century principal. journal of educational administration, 41(2), 124–142. doi:10.1108/09578230310464648 harris, a. (2001). building the capacity for school improvement. school leadership & management, 21(3), 261–270. doi:10.1080/13632430120074419 matachi, a. (2006). capacity building framework. unesco-iicba. united nations economic commission for africa, addis ababa, ethiopia. retrieved from http://www.eng.unesco-iicba.org/sites/default/files/capacity%20building%20framework.pdf ng, w. k., miao, f., & lee, m. (2009). capacity-building for ict integration in education (review). digital review of asia pacific 2009-2010. retrieved from http://www.eepsea.org/mimap/ev-140839-201-1-do_topic.html plano clark, v., & creswell, j. (2008). student study guide to accompany creswell’s educational research: planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research (3rd ed.). upper saddle river n.j.: pearson education. schoolnet africa. (2004). towards a strategy on developing african teacher capabilities in the use of information and communication technology ( ict ). october (pp. 1-71). retrieved july 7, 2012, from http://www.col.org/publication documents/pub_ 04towards_strategy_africa.pdf unesco. (2011). unesco ict competency framework for teachers (version 2.0). framework (version 2.). paris, france: united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization. retrieved may 5, 2012, from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002134/213475e.pdf unesco bangkok. (2012). unesco office in bangkok: ict-enhanced teacher development model. retrieved july 2, 2012, from http://www.unescobkk.org/education/ict/online-resources/databases/ict-in-education-database/item/article/ict-enhanced-teacher-development-model/ xaba, m. (2006). the difficulties of school development planning. south african journal of education, 26(1), 15-26. felix mndenyi mwawasi works at the aga khan university, institute for educational development eastern africa. e-mail: felixmwawasi@gmail.com microsoft word ally.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 119-126 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. leaders in open and distance education in north america mohamed ally athabasca university, canada introduction the north american leaders in open and distance contributed to leadership, theory and research in open and distance education. early distance education in north america can be traced back to charles wedemeyer who was a professor of education at the university of wisconsin-madison. he used technology available at the time to improve access to education for those who were not able to participate in the traditional education system. in the 1960s he predicted that individuals would be able to access education from anywhere and any time using technology. as we all know this is a reality today. the vast geographical areas of north america, especially canada with many remote locations, motivated north americans to make the rapid shift to open and distance education (ode). this new paradigm required excellent and bold leadership to move ode into the future. the early leadership was started by sir john daniel who brought his international leadership experience to benefit open and distance education in north america. at the same time, michael moore developed and introduced many theoretical ideas that shaped ode in north america. researchers and implementers such as rory mcgreal, marti cleveland-innes, terry anderson, badrul khan, and heather kanuka implemented many innovative research and development projects to move open and distance education into the 21st century. the contributions made by the north american leaders in open and distance education are helping to achieve goal 4 of the sustainable development goals (sdgs). this goal is to provide inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. the most effective method to help achieve this goal is to implement open and distance education to educate everyone regardless of location, ethnic status, economic background, gender, and age. sir john daniel sir john daniel is a 45-year veteran of open and distance learning. his full-time education was at christ's hospital, oxford university (ba, ma in metallurgy) and the université de paris (dès-sc in nuclear metallurgy). on joining the ecole polytechnique of the université de montréal as assistant professor of metallurgical engineering in 1969 he began part-time study for an ma in educational technology at sir george williams university. he carried out the three-month internship required by the programme at the uk open university then (1972) in its second year of operation. this was a revelation. he felt that he had seen the future of higher education and wanted to be part of it. a year after returning to canada he joined the télé-université of the université du québec as head of educational technology and became director of studies a year later. in 1978 he moved to athabasca university as vice-president for learning services and guided that institution in crystallising its 120 curriculum and methods. in 1980 he was appointed vice-rector, academic at concordia university and in 1984 president of laurentian university, a dual-mode institution in northern ontario offering both on-campus and distance programmes. in 1982 he was elected president of the international council for distance education at its conference in vancouver. in 1990 he was named vice-chancellor of the uk open university, where he served until 2001. student numbers grew from 100,000 to 200,000 during his tenure and the ukou was rated fifth among english universities for the quality of its teaching. from the ukou he moved to unesco as assistant director-general for education where, in addition to oversight of unesco's education work at all levels, he was responsible for coordinating the global campaign for education for all. in 2004 he was appointed president of the commonwealth of learning, where he served until his retirement from full-time appointments in 2012. of sir john's 370+ publications, the large majority address issues of odl, educational technology and higher education management. in a life and career that has taken him to 122 countries he has interacted with many governments on these questions. he considers himself a 'scholar-practitioner' rather than a researcher although his best-selling book mega-universities and knowledge media: technology strategies for higher education was developed from his master's thesis at sir george williams/concordia. his book mega-schools, technology and teachers: achieving education for all addresses the challenges of mass distance education at the secondary school level. during his early career he was known particularly for his paper independence and interaction: getting the mixture right. later his name was closely associated with the iron triangle of access, cost and quality that he used to explain why only distance education could deliver access and quality at scale. sir john was knighted ‘for services to higher education’ in 1994 and appointed officer of the order of canada in 2013 'for his advancement of open learning and distance education in canada and around the world'. his 32 honorary doctorates are from universities in 17 countries. michael grahame moore distance education as a field of academic study, research and scholarship in the united states can be traced to a presentation by michael grahame moore at the 1972 conference in warrenton, virginia, of what is today known as the international council for open and distance education (icde). until that time, teaching was defined in the educational literature as a process occurring exclusively in a classroom, and although distance education was widely practiced in the form of correspondence study and by broadcasting, and even the early use of telecommunications and computer technology, such teaching and learning had no place in educational theory or scholarly and research literature. in the 1972 presentation, moore challenged the exclusivity of the classroom and defined a new field of study that he called “distance education”, with an outline of what he described as the “macro-factors” of the field. since that presentation, moore’s career has been devoted to the further development of distance education as a field of academic study and research. while teaching the first course in this subject at university of wisconsin-madison in the mid 70s he initiated the idea of holding a national conference there, a conference that continues to the present time. joining the faculty at the pennsylvania state 121 university in 1986 he established the american center for study of distance education, experimenting with new forms of teaching online through the 1980s and 90s, established a national research symposium and one of the first online forums (distance education online symposium). in 1986 he founded the first american research journal (the american journal of distance education) and continues as its editor to the present time (2017). based on an early adult education career of seven years in east africa, moore has maintained a special interest in the use of distance education in economic and social development. this has involved periods of full time employment at the world bank and as consultant for other international development agencies, including the imf, unesco, undp, unhcr, and several national governments. these include ten years’ work in brazil to develop teacher education, and similar work in the republic of south africa, beginning with a review of national educational policy at the time of the first democratic election there. in europe, notable projects included introducing teleconferencing methods in finland at the universities of helsinki and turku, in russia at the national training institute, and in sweden training for major corporations and the armed forces of sweden, norway, and denmark. moore served as vice-president of the international council for distance education from 1988-92. recognitions include appointment as senior fellow of the european distance education and elearning network, induction into the united states distance learning association's hall of fame and also the adult education hall of fame; award of an honorary doctorate by the university of guadalajara; appointment as consulting professor at shanghai open university, china; visiting research fellow at the university of cambridge (uk), visiting professor, universidad del salvador, buenos aires, argentina; visiting professor at the (uk) open university. tony bates tony bates made (and continues to make) significant contributions to open and distance learning in north america. he served as consultant to many national and international organizations advising them on e-learning and distance education. his consultant role includes unesco, the world bank, u.s. state higher education commissions and universities, the u.k. open university, the council of ontario universities, and many canadian colleges and universities, advising on their online learning strategies. he has worked as a consultant in over 40 countries. he has been a research associate with contact north since 2007. from 1990 to 1995, he was executive director, research, strategic planning, and information technology at the open learning agency of british columbia. prior to that, he was professor of educational media research at the british open university, where he worked for 20 years as one of the founding members of staff. tony was director of distance education and technology in the continuing studies division of the university of british columbia, vancouver, canada from 1995 to 2003 and also research team leader of maple, the centre for research into managing and planning learning environments in education at ubc. while at ubc, he was instrumental in setting up, initially in partnership with tec de monterrey in mexico, ubc’s fully online master in educational technology, which has been running successfully since 2002. 122 in addition to delivering speeches, tony’s expertise was disseminated through his publications. he is the author of twelve books, including his latest, a free, open online textbook for faculty and instructors, called teaching in a digital age. it has been or is being translated into seven languages. other books include managing technology in higher education: strategies for transforming teaching and learning, co-authored with albert sangrà of the open university of catalonia, and published by jossey-bass/john wiley in 2011, technology, e-learning and distance education, published in 2005 by routledge, managing technological change: strategies for college and universities leaders, (with gary poole) effective teaching with technology in higher education, both published by jossey-bass, and national strategies for e-learning published by unesco. martha cleveland-innes dr. martha cleveland-innes is professor and chair in the center for distance education at athabasca university in alberta, canada. she studied the sociology of education at the university of calgary where she developed her strong views on the importance of high quality education in the development of healthy societies with a well-developed citizenry. her commitment to open and distance learning is rooted in this perspective; education must be accessible, affordable, and of high quality for everyone, anywhere. evidence-based practice supported by sound theory is a main driver in martha’s scholarly work. she is a principal researcher on the community of inquiry framework for online and blended learning, a framework designed to maximize deep learning and provide students with a learning experience that is developmental and sustainable. she is co-author of a book on the topic with drs. n. vaughan and d.r. garrison: teaching in blended learning environments: creating and sustaining communities of inquiry. martha held a major research grant from the canadian social sciences and humanities research council, which supported rigorous empirical tests on the value of this framework. in her fifteen years as an academic at athabasca university, martha has been involved in numerous research projects on open and distance learning and has taught, supervised, and supported hundreds of graduate students working in the same area of education. she co-edited a book published by routledge in 2010 entitled an introduction to distance education: understanding teaching and learning in a new era. this book is now being revised and will be published in 2017 as a 2nd edition. martha is the chair of athabasca university’s advisory group on moocs. she is the project lead on the development and delivery of au’s mooc learning to learn online, currently in its third implementation. she is also the co-lead of a mooc designed and delivered in partnership between au and the commonwealth of learning: technology-enabled learning. both moocs are designed using the community of inquiry framework for online learning and are the subject of extensive research. this research has been presented and published in north america and europe. martha has received awards for her work on the student experience in online environments and has received many research grants to study open and distance learning. in 2011 she received the craig cunningham memorial award for teaching excellence and in 2009 she received the president’s award for research and scholarly excellence from athabasca university. in 2012 martha was invited to be a guest professor at the royal institute of technology in stockholm, sweden. her work there is part of a major campus redesign toward blended learning and 123 her appointment is on-going. there she participated in the development of a theoretical model called relationships of inquiry for open and distance learning and is now the co-lead of a campus-wide project to integrate evidenced-based practice into the running of the institution, called practitionerresearch in engineering education. this year (2017), martha was invited to portland, oregon to present a workshop on collaborative online learning at the oregon health and science university. she will offer a webinar in scandinavia on flexible learning in march and will return to beijing in september as an invited international scholar by beijing normal university to do research on the community of inquiry with teachers at the open university of china. rory mcgreal rory mcgreal is a the holder of the unesco/commonwealth of learning chair in open educational resources at athabasca university canada's open university. he is also a professor in the centre for distance education. his other responsibilities include being the co-editor of the international review of research in open and distributed learning (irrodl), which is canada's first open access scholarly journal. he is also director of the technology enhanced knowledge research institute (tekri) and the co-chair of the alberta provincial steering committee on oer. prof. mcgreal is also the creator of the oer knowledge cloud, a repository of more than 1300 scholarly articles and reports on oer and mooc themes. rory is the recipient of several awards including the us-based wedemeyer award as a leading distance education practitioner. others include a senior fellowship from the european distance education network (eden); a leadership in education award from the canadian network for innovation in education (cnie); and a lifetime achievement award, from the open education consortium. previously, he was the executive director of teleeducation new brunswick, a province-wide bilingual (french/english) distributed distance learning network. before that, he was responsible for the expansion of contact north/contact nord (a distance education network in the remote region of northern ontario – serving remote aboriginal reserves and small mining towns). rory was the founder of the world’s first e-learning website for teleeducation nb and one of the world's first metadata learning object repositories. his expertise includes evaluations of elearning initiatives, elearning administration, and costeffectiveness strategies. in addition, he is an expert in the application of oer. as an applied researcher, his investigations have been responsible for the implementation of a mobile device accessible digital reading room. as a chairholder in oer, he is also active in promoting open educational resources and is a board member of the open education foundation. he has considerable experience as an evaluator of educational software and of implementation of technologically enhanced knowledge initiatives, including studies and reports for canarie, health canada, the commonwealth of learning and other organizations. heather kanuka heather kanuka’s area of research revolves around academic development, focusing on teaching, learning and technology within the higher education sector. heather’s first faculty position was as 124 assistant professor in the faculty of education at the university of calgary, canada. heather was appointed as associate director for the learning commons. this position supported leadership and encouragement for quality, innovative inquiry-learning approaches for curriculum innovation and research, while also providing support for the integration of technology into the learning process, inclusive of blended, online and distance learning. in 2004 heather was awarded a sshrc-funded canada research chair in online learning at athabasca university at the rank of associate professor. athabasca university is a canadian university specializing in online distance education and one of four comprehensive academic and research universities in alberta. in 2007 heather accepted an appointment at the university of alberta in the faculty of education. in this position, heather was hired as the academic director of the centre for teaching and learning and was responsible for providing strategic leadership for teaching, learning and technology, inclusive of blended, online and distance delivery. currently, heather is full professor in the faculty of education, department of educational policy studies at the university of alberta. heather continues to conduct research in the areas of blended and online distance teaching and learning. heather’s past research focused primarily on how to effectively teach using net-based technology. her first co-authored book learning technologies in distance education for adult learners (1999), focused directly on teaching development in off-campus classrooms. based on early research findings, heather’s research transitioned into facilitating higher levels of learning in blended and online distance learning environments. based on her recent research findings, heather’s research has moved into exploring philosophical orientations of teaching and technology. at present, heather continues to study the philosophical orientations of teaching and technology in higher education, working toward a conceptual framework for how, and why, academics approach their teaching with technology. terry anderson terry anderson is a professor emeritus and former canada research chair in the centre for distance education and the technology enhanced knowledge research centre at athabasca university – canada’s open university. terry has published widely in the area of distance education and educational technology and has co-authored or edited nine books and numerous papers. he is also editor emeritus and served as editor for 10 years for the international review of research in open and distributed learning, which is the mostly widely read and cited english language, peer-reviewed journal in this field. much of terry’s research work revolves around studying interaction amongst and between students, teachers and content. his pioneering work with randy garrison on the community of inquiry model (1999) investigating social, teaching and cognitive presence has been widely read and serves as theoretical basis for much distance education delivery and research. his development of an interaction equivalency theory (2003) is used to support moving education provision to scale. his work with olaf zawacki-richter produced the edited collection online distance education research: towards a research agenda (2014) that provides expert summary and commentary on the most important distance education research issues. most recently he has been working and collaborating with colleague jon dron on applications of social media to support both formal and informal learning summarized in teaching crowds: learning and social media (2014). he and jon dron have developed a ‘boutique” social network. 125 terry’s books and research articles have, since 2004, been published under open access licenses so as to maximize their availability to all distance education practitioners, students and researchers. terry was active in provincial, national, and international distance education associations and is a regular keynote presenter at professional and academic conferences. badrul khan dr. badrul h. khan, is an author, educator, and consultant in the field of e-learning and educational technology. he received a b.a. in chemistry and a ph.d. in instructional systems technology from indiana university, bloomington, usa. early in his professional career, he was a professor and founding director of the master of education in educational technology at the university of texas at brownsville. a few years later, dr. khan founded the educational technology leadership graduate cohort program at george washington university, dr. khan has authored twelve books and over 100 manuscripts in topics related to the fields of elearning, open and distance education. he was credited with coining the phrase “web-based instruction” and popularized the concept through his 1997 best-selling book, web-based instruction, which paved the way for the emerging field of e-learning. his book, managing e-learning strategies has been translated into 17 languages. often described as the founder of modern e-learning, dr. khan has been honored with numerous awards and worldwide acclaim throughout his career. in recognition of his contributions to the field of e-learning, the egyptian e-learning university council awarded him the title of distinguished professor of e-learning. in 2015, professor khan was inducted into the united states distance learning association (usdla) hall of fame. khan’s e-learning framework (http://badrulkhan.com/framework), which was initially developed in 1997 to address issues pertaining to the successful implementation of e-learning in education and training, has evolved to encompass the design and delivery of effective, efficient and engaging learning across multiple learning environments and contexts. the framework has been adopted by academics and researchers from around the world and applied to multiple modes of instructional delivery, including distance learning, mobile-learning, blended learning, computer-based training, moocs, learning analytics and technology supported traditional instruction. almost 20 years old, khan’s framework remains a valuable tool for evaluating an organization’s educational technology readiness and opportunities for growth. it helps stakeholders think through every phase of a new initiative to ensure that desired learning outcomes are achieved. dr. khan has served as a consultant/advisor to e-learning and instructional design related projects for several us federal government agencies, the world bank, undp, nato, commonwealth of learning, asian development bank, ministry of education in several countries, and academic institutions and corporations in the usa and abroad. he contributed to the development of united states national educational technology plan and virtual educational policies organized by the white house ostp and the naval postgraduate school. a sought-after keynote speaker on e-learning and blended-learning, dr. khan has delivered numerous keynote addresses at various distance learning conferences in the usa and abroad. he is the host of khan’s digital world, a monthly tv show that addresses critical technological issues in eeducation, egovernment, ecommerce, ehealth, eargiculture, and eentertainment that have implications in all aspects of everyday life. 126 conclusion in conclusion, innovation in open and distance education is progressing at a fast pace. charles wedemeyer was the pioneer of distance education in north america. others such as sir john daniel and michael moore have set the groundwork for open and distance education and innovators and researchers have expanded on the implementation of open and distance education for the betterment of society. the development and use of open education resources is being championed by rory mcgreal, which is making education affordable for all. tony bates has made a significant contribution to leadership and implementation in open and distance education. the research on massive open online courses (moocs) led by marti cleveland-innes is allowing education to be reached by the masses globally. badrul khan’s framework for developing e-learning and online learning has influenced the way learning materials are developed and has improved the quality of the learning materials. terry anderson and heather kanuka have conducted research that have impacted the implementation of open and distance education in a positive way. the variety of expertise and contributions by the north american open and distance education leaders have propagated the successful implementation of open and distance education in north america and the world. author dr. mohamed ally is a professor in distance education, centre for distance education, and a researcher in the technology enhanced knowledge research institute (tekri) at athabasca university, canada. email: mohameda@athabascau.ca microsoft word wolfenden_galley.docx issn: 2311-1550 2020, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 108-115 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. 108 exploring open digital badges in teacher education: a case study from india freda wolfenden, lina adinolfi and simon cross open university, milton keynes, uk abstract: this case study concerns findings from a workshop with senior teacher educators from three indian states as part of the tess-india teacher professional development initiative. the workshop explored how open digital badges might be used to support, capture and validate changes in teachers’ classroom practice. workshop participants drew on the tess-india oer to design short online in-service teacher professional development courses to support movement towards the more participatory approach advocated in education policy. as part of this course design process, participants were encouraged to propose digital badges to recognise changes in teachers’ pedagogic practice. analysis of the workshop discussions and outputs indicated enthusiasm for digital badges, while also revealing that the process of defining digital badges may be helpful in prompting disruption of deeply embedded cultural scripts about ways of being and knowing that shape teacher educators’ practice and helping them to recognise what the work of quality teaching entails. keywords: digital badges, teacher professional development, tess-india, pedagogic practice. introduction improving the quality of classroom teaching and learning is a strategic focus across many lowto middle-income countries, including india. large numbers of teachers across the country need pedagogical support to move towards the child-centred practices advocated in national policy (goi, 2012; ncert, 2005; ncte, 2009). we contend that such pedagogic change in school classrooms requires relational change in professional learning for teachers (murphy & wolfenden, 2013). how teachers come to understand participatory pedagogy through their professional development experiences will be shaped by how it is understood, appropriated and modelled by the teacher educators who design and facilitate these experiences. hence, support for pedagogic change will be dependent on teacher educators’ conceptions of teacher learning, knowledge and assessment. dissonance between policy and enacted pedagogy pervades india’s education system. numerous government reports note that this is exacerbated by the continuing low importance given to “teaching practice” in teacher education programmes (gol, 2012; mhrd, 2013) and that large numbers of teacher educators have limited understanding of the policies, their underlying theoretical assumptions, and the implications of these for practice. established in 2013, the tess-india initiative (www.tess-india.edu.in) brought together uk and indian researchers and practitioners to collaboratively create a large set of open educational resources (oer) for teacher education (wolfenden, 2015). these oers bring the participatory pedagogy of indian national curriculum documents (ncert, 2005; ncte, 2009) into the classroom through structured activities to be undertaken by teachers with their pupils. the tess-india approach 109 considers teachers’ practice to be deeply influenced by the contexts in which they work, the resources they are able to draw on and the institutional demands they attempt to meet. thus, the original suite of oer was localised (translated and adapted) by state educators (wolfenden & adinolfi, 2019), creating multiple versions in different indian languages appropriate for use in ways which meet teachers’ practice-based starting points and local education priorities (wolfenden, adinolfi, cross, lee, paranjpe & safford, 2017). this case study focuses on a workshop in which senior state teacher educators, familiar with the tessindia approach, designed short in-service teacher online courses — or learning pathways — utilising the appropriate state version of the tess-india oer. such activity had occurred previously within the tess-india initiative but this workshop was unique in its focus on how teacher learning using oer might be evidenced, assessed and recognised through the use of open digital badges. few teacher inservice programmes in lowto middle-income countries attend to this dimension. rather, teacher engagement in in-service programmes is usually acknowledged merely through certificates of participation or completion. in introducing the concept of digital badges to teacher educators involved in the tess-india initiative, our intention was to explore how such artefacts might help to address the linked challenges of teacher motivation and personalisation in teacher education. however, as we describe here, the exercise provided these teacher educators with a valuable opportunity to engage in a consideration of their conceptualisations of knowledge, knowing and teacher learning — all critical to transformation of teacher education. digital badges open digital badges are symbolic representations of skills, accomplishments, status, activities or identities that are commonly awarded by an issuer and embedded with a link to evidence that supports the learner’s claim to the badge. the mechanics of awarding a digital badge consist of three stages. first, articulation of the success criteria which the badge represents, and creation of an accompanying graphical badge symbol. the badge is most commonly developed by an educator or instructional designer, though some implementations have sought greater involvement of learners. a badge structure — a conception or mapping of how each badge relates to another and the associated award criteria, and a categorisation of badges (e.g., activity-based, grade-based or hierarchical — there is currently no standard) — may also be made (facey-shaw, specht, van rosmalen, boerner & bartley-bryan, 2018). the badge and criteria are typically set up on an online issuing platform that is compatible with open standards. issuing of the digital badge involves the learner submitting evidence that demonstrates they meet the award criteria to the online platform. subsequently, an assessor (e.g., a teacher educator or expert) verifies this evidence and approves the award (in cases of computer marked assessments, such as a quiz, this approval may be automatic). the third stage involves the ongoing management and use of the digital badge. learners can store badges in digital backpacks, export the images (with an embedding link to evidence attached), and share these on social networks and in their cvs. since their advent, digital badges have been proposed as a vehicle for lifelong learning (macarthur foundation, 2013; finkelstein, knight & manning, 2013) and there are numerous examples of how badges have been used in different disciplines and fields to enhance learner motivation and promote goal setting (aberdour, 2016; gibson, ostashewski, flintoff, grant & knight, 2015; botha, salerno, 110 niemand, ouma & makitla, 2014). in the us, a number of states are using digital badges as microcredentials in school-based professional learning to make visible improvements in teachers’ classroom practice (demonte, 2017). each micro-credential is linked to a discrete set of educational practices. teachers demonstrate mastery of the associated competencies for each set through submission of samples of pupil work, videos of their classroom teaching, and other artefacts, working at their own pace on a personalised learning pathway. their submissions are vetted, scored and either approved (awarded a digital badge) or returned with a request to revisit their practice and “dig deeper” (demonte, 2017). studies indicate that these micro-credentials give focus and coherence to professional learning (acree, 2016). teachers like the approach and the way it enables them to choose what to focus on in their learning trajectory (digital promise, 2016). however, there is little evidence of open digital badge research from the global south for learners in general or teacher professional development, in particular (liyanagunawardena, scalzavara & williams, 2017), and it remains unclear whether findings clearly linked to particular geographic contexts are applicable to educational systems in low to middle-income contexts. in a rare study from outside the global north, the technology for rural education programme in south africa developed a highly linear learning path composed of 18 badges aimed at building proficiency in teachers’ use of technology. feedback on the badges was overwhelmingly positive (botha et al, 2014). method this case study draws on data from a three-day workshop held in india in january 2019. the event was attended by 14 delegates from three indian states who had, in some capacity, been involved in the tess-india teacher development programme (wolfenden et al, 2017). participants were senior educationalists and included state directors of teacher education. the workshop was led by researchers from the uk and india. during the workshop, participants were introduced to the concept of open digital badges, their creation and use, before reviewing examples of open digital badges and then designing an outline of a “badged” course for teachers, drawing on the tess-india oer. participants were free to decide which area of practice to focus on and which competencies would be badged, as well as the parameters of their course, such as its length and study time requirements each week. all physical outputs produced during the workshop were collected, including presentation slides, proposed course plans, and photographs of post-it and flip-board activities. audio recordings were made of key discussions and plenary sessions. the study adheres to british educational research association (bera) guidelines for ethical investigative conduct in generating, storing and using the associated data. results we start by interrogating the oer course designs generated during the workshop. the exercise of mapping learning outcomes against learning activities, means of assessment and types of badge is commonplace in learning design but was new to these teacher educator participants. they found it easier to propose how to assess, and “badge”, some outcomes but struggled with others. 111 group 1: pair work with pupils group 1 chose to focus on improving the use of pair work in the classroom. they identified three learning outcomes for teachers: i) to gain an understanding of pair work as a classroom strategy; ii) to develop skills in organising pair work in different curriculum areas; and iii) to achieve involvement of all pupils in pair work. a key feature of this course was learner choice. teachers would be offered a large number of activities to select from, each with an assessment and digital badge. figure 1 shows an excerpt of their course mapping, including the type of digital badge proposed for each activity. learning outcome example activity linked to achievement of outcome assessment method badge category understand concept of pair work as a classroom approach read theoretical background and understand concept questionnaire or assignment knowledge badge develop skills in using pair work in different contexts demonstrate classroom use in four curriculum areas video of classroom practice practice badge produce reflective case study about the challenges of using pair work audio recording of reflections reflective badge written notes of reflections reflective badge discussion with colleagues unspecified unspecified figure 1. outline excerpt of proposed course structure for group 1. of interest here is the way in which this group’s design has disaggregated the complex skills required to successfully use pair work with pupils into theoretical study, classroom use, reflection and discussion with peers, each associated with a different type of digital badge: knowledge, practice, and reflection. the badges are linked to a range of assessment methods, including direct observation of teachers’ classroom practice. the group proposed that teachers would be motivated to study this course through the award of digital and non-digital (conventional) badges and the sharing of their practice in online spaces and during teacher meetings or seminars. group 2: using local resources in the classroom group 2 focused on teachers’ use of resources found in the local environment. four learning outcomes were identified: i) to explore and integrate local resources, ii) to forge connections between the curriculum and pupils’ lives, iii) to make the classroom an interesting and attractive place to learn, and iv) to integrate and adapt local resources for the classroom. this group choose to use three different types of badges: use of local resources in teaching practice, achievement of specific course tasks, and knowledge of relevant resources related to their own teaching (figure 2). these were all 112 described by the group as “formative badges”. the assessment approach for each badge was not specified but this may have been a result of insufficient time to agree on these during the workshop. learning outcome example activity linked to achievement of outcome assessment method badge category explore and make use of resources identify what local resources are available unspecified demonstration of practice knowledge badge use appropriate resources in teaching practice badge connect curriculum with pupils’ lives make use of the outside environment not specified practice badge invite a local expert into the classroom task badge adapt and adopt local resources adapt a local resource not specified practice badge make classroom interesting and attractive culmination of activities outlined above not specified task badge figure 2. outline excerpt of proposed course structure from group 2. group 2 spoke of teachers using the badges as evidence for becoming local teacher advisers (cluster resource coordinators and block officials), reflecting their concern that such badged courses should align with existing structures and other teacher education interventions. group 3: multilingualism in the classroom group 3 focused on the challenges faced by teachers working in multilingual classrooms. their course was designed to encourage teachers to value the languages spoken by their pupils and draw on their linguistic resources in learning activities. their design differed from those of the other two groups in that they drew a clearer distinction between broader conventional summative assessment tasks (writing a short reflection on their experience, using audio-visual material with pupils, and classroom practice in a multilingual setting (video), leading to badges “of learning” (external symbols), on the one hand, and formative badges “for learning” to recognise completion of smaller practice-based tasks, on the other. the latter were intended to provide motivation for teachers as they progressed towards the summative tasks. this distinction between badges “of learning” and badges “for learning” was important in recognising different starting points and individual learning pathways for teachers. narratives of teacher motivation and reward understanding what motivates teachers to select and engage with particular types of professional learning is essential to deciding if, when, and how digital badges might be used. carey and stefaniak (2018) quote one open-badge expert as noting that a critical question is “how will what i’m designing mesh into the world that this person is going to move into?” (p. 1224). analysis of workshop discussions identified four related themes important to teachers: (i) external recognition of personal 113 achievement, (ii) encountering inspiring practice, (iii) sharing their own practice, and (iv) alignment with policy and governing structures. with respect to the first theme, certification at the state or national level was most commonly mentioned but awards and badges were also suggested as means to motivate. one participant observed that having “… just a little appreciation would be good” and another mentioned monetary benefit or promotion as an incentive. teachers were also described as being motivated by witnessing the inspiring practice of peers first-hand or by reading or viewing case studies featuring local teachers. motivation derived from social engagement was frequently mentioned and included having the opportunity to showcase their own success within the teaching community in physical spaces or online communities. such exchanges and support could “create a fellowship of engaged teachers”. unsurprisingly, alignment with policy and government structures was also considered to be an important motivational driver for teachers, perhaps reflecting the significance of formal qualifications in academic and professional life in india. this was seen to be necessary at all levels: “state and country support is essential but i think at the ground level [as well]”. state government endorsement — and financial support — were seen as necessary to “percolate deeper into the [local] system”, whilst support from headteachers, state administration, state education directors and education officers was also mentioned. discussion our interrogation of workshop outputs including participants’ nascent conceptions of digital badges structures suggests that this exercise was useful in prompting teacher educators to pay attention to their understanding of teacher learning and practice in several ways. first, all groups emphasised teachers’ own classroom as a site of professional learning and included activities for teachers to undertake with their own pupils. this may have been encouraged by the activities and case studies within the tess-india oer, which model pedagogy in school classrooms. there were multiple mentions of support sessions outside the school but the focus on learning through classroom practice is nevertheless an important shift away from traditional cascade-type training and off-site workshops commonly seen in india. second, within the learning designs, there was movement towards involving teachers in taking responsibility for their learning pathways, reflecting a recognition that teachers’ practice is not homogeneous and that they have differentiated learning needs requiring distinct forms of support. again, this represents a significant closing of the gap between the rhetoric of policy and enacted pedagogy in most current teacher education. third, and somewhat in tension with the first finding, we observed that discourse across the groups tended to isolate knowledge of learning strategies or concepts — seen as a form of disciplinary knowledge to be assessed by a “knowledge” badge — from pedagogic practice. national educational policy documents identify this theory-practice dualism as problematic for teacher education in india, reflecting as it does the valuing of abstract knowledge and a belief in its transferability across situations. whilst we were encouraged by the equivalence given to these ‘knowledge’ and ‘practice’ badges in the designs, we argue that further shifts in these understandings are needed if teacher educators, and teachers, are to be able to enact pedagogy congruent with policies which view knowledge as developed through a constructive process. however, through the examples of 114 ‘reflective’ badges, we can see teacher educators valuing reflection, as informed by theoretical (conceptual) tools and evidence derived from the analysis of practice. this has not historically been integral to the indian teaching profession. lastly, assessing movement in teachers’ classroom practice was recognised to require a greater range of authentic assessment methods than is currently being employed, such as video or audio recordings of classroom practice as evidence for teacher learning. how this evidence might be assessed at scale — whether through peer rating, random sampling by teacher educators or assessment by a trusted local educator (e.g., the headteacher) — was not resolved in the workshop. mechanisms for sharing online video and audio recordings of classrooms could also raise ethical considerations with respect to children’s rights and safeguarding, thereby, limiting how others can view and verify the evidence submitted for a badge and any subsequent sharing of the evidence, for example, on social media. conclusion and recommendations there was much enthusiasm for using digital badges in teacher learning in this initial exploration with potential issuers and viewers, and a perception that they could have high value to teachers through their alignment with combinations of motivational factors. hence, we suggest that the concept of digital badges is worthy of further investigation with teachers themselves to understand whether, and how, earning them might influence changes in their classroom practice. future research could also include how such courses could be integrated into existing and future teacher education strategies and linked to teachers’ career structures. improvements in pupil learning, central to education policy in india, are commonly held to be dependent on teacher quality, where this is seen as what teachers know (i.e., the subject matter) and can do. as we indicated earlier in this article, the latter is acknowledged to be currently only weakly considered in teacher education in india. our analysis indicates that the process of designing a badged course can be useful in prompting teacher educators to consider how teachers might move deeper into new forms of pedagogic practice and to start to articulate the kinds of changes to classroom practice that are associated with becoming a more competent professional. although this case study was situated within the context of educational policy and practice of india, the challenges of teacher educator practice and teacher education discussed have wider application. we therefore recommend further investigation of this design process with teacher educators in other contexts. acknowledgements with thanks to leah jeffcott for her contribution to the project and to all those participating in the workshop. references aberdour, m. (2016). transforming workplace learning culture with digital badges. in d. ifenthaler, n. bellinmularski, & d. k. mah (eds.), foundation of digital badges and micro-credentials (pp. 203-220). boston, ma, springer. acree, l. (2016). seven lessons learned from implementing micro-credentials. retrieved from https://www.fi.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/microcredentials.pdf botha, a., salerno, c., niemand, m., ouma, s., & makitla, i. (2014). disconnected electronic badges in resource constrained environments: a use case from the rural nciba district in the eastern cape. proceedings of the 2nd international conference on advances in computing, communication and information technology 2014, 202-207. carey, k., & stefaniak, l. (2018). an exploration of the utility of digital badging in higher education settings. educational technology research and development, 66(5), 1211–1229. 115 demonte, j. (2017). micro-credentials for teachers: what three early adopter states have learned so far. washington, dc: american institutes for research. digital promise. (2016). micro-credentials: driving teacher learning & leadership. retrieved from https://digitalpromise.org/wpcontent/uploads/2016/06/microcredentials_driving_teacher_learning_leadership.pdf facey-shaw, l., specht, m., van rosmalen, p., boerner, d., & bartley-bryan, j. (2018). education functions and design of badge systems: a conceptual literature review. ieee transactions on learning technologies, 11(4), 536-544. finkelstein, j., knight, e., & manning, s. (2013). the potential and value of using digital badges for adult learners. washington, dc: american institutes for research. gibson, d., ostashewski, n., flintoff, k., grant, s., & knight, e. (2015). digital badges in education. education and information technologies, 20(2), 403-410. government of india. (goi) (2012). vision of teacher education in india: quality and regulatory perspective. report of the high powered commission on teacher education constituted by the honorable supreme court of india, vol 1. new delhi: government of india. liyanagunawardena, t. r., scalzavara, s., & williams, s. a. (2017). open badges: a systematic review of peerreviewed published literature (2011-2015). european journal of open, distance and e-learning, 20(2), 1-16. macarthur foundation. (2013, june 13). better futures for 2 million americans through open badges. (press release). ministry of human resources and development (mhrd). (2013). joint review mission for teacher education: odisha. new delhi: ministry of human and resource development, government of india. murphy, p., & wolfenden, f. (2013). developing a pedagogy of mutuality in a capability approach — teachers' experiences of using the open educational resources (oer) of the teacher education in sub-saharan africa (tessa) programme. international journal of education development, 33, 263-271. ncert. (2005). national curriculum framework 2005. new delhi: national council for educational research and training. national curriculum framework for teacher education (ncte). (2009). towards preparing professional and humane teacher. new delhi: national council for teacher education. wolfenden, f. (2015) tess-india oer: collaborative practices to improve teacher education. indian journal of teacher education, 1(3), 13-29. wolfenden, f., & adinolfi, l. (2019). an exploration of agency in the localisation of open educational resources for teacher development journal of learning, media and technology, 4(3), 327-344. wolfenden, f., adinolfi, l., cross, s., lee, c., paranjpe, s., & safford, k. (2017). moving towards more participatory practice with open educational resources: tess-india academic review. the open university: milton keynes, uk. retrieved from http://oro.open.ac.uk/49631/ authors: freda wolfenden is professor of education and international development at the open university, uk. freda’s expertise is in teacher education, pedagogy and technology enabled professional learning. she deploys this to shape the design and delivery of sustainable system change in teacher education in multiple contexts. email: freda.wolfenden@open.ac.uk dr lina adinolfi is a lecturer in the school of languages and applied linguistics at the open university, uk. her professional and research specialisms embrace language education and language in education, with a focus on teacher development and the role of language-supportive pedagogies, such as translanguaging, in multilingual low-resource contexts. email: lina.adinolfi@open.ac.uk dr simon cross is a senior lecturer in educational technology at the open university, uk. he has established research interests in a range of technology-enhanced practice including the place and spaces of mobile learning, learning and quality enhancement analytics, teaching with virtualised reality, and assessment and learning design. email: simon.j.cross@open.ac.uk cite this paper as: wolfenden, f., adinolfi, l., & cross, s. (2020). exploring open digital badges in teacher education: a case study from india. journal of learning for development, 7(1), 108-115. microsoft word chanmow.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 338-347 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. an evaluation of the usefulness and ease of use of the aptus within the samoan education context ioana chan mow, edna temese, mose n. mose, tara patu, elisapeta mauai, ioana sinclair, fiafaitupe lafaele, joseph namulauulu, misioka tanielu, agnes wong soon, and vensall chan national university of samoa, samoa abstract: this paper describes the findings of the first trial of the aptus device within the national university of samoa. the aptus is a device that enables wireless access to valuable educational resources in the absence of electricity and the internet. the goals of this research were to explore the acceptance of using the aptus to access e-resources within the context of education in samoa, with user acceptance measured by evaluating the ease of use and usefulness of the aptus. the findings of the trial indicated very positive perceptions of students and teachers at the university in terms of ease of use and usefulness of the aptus within educational settings. from the results of phase 1, a strong recommendation is made to adopt the aptus as a technology for providing access to quality educational resources within the national university of samoa. the study also recommends the need for training of teachers on the use of the aptus and its applications, such as moodle. keywords: aptus, owncloud, oer. introduction information communication technologies (icts) are seen as potentially powerful enabling tools for expanding access to education and improving the quality of education (kanwar, aguti & balasubramanian, 2014). innovations in ict have revolutionised and enhanced the learning and teaching process, opening up new learning spaces, opportunities and better access to educational resources. integration of ict into schools, colleges, universities and other educational institutions has provided novel ways to access resources, implement information gathering and analysis as well as providing the means to improve the administrative and management capacity of educational institutions. in samoa, the integration of computer and communications technology into the school system is still in its initial stages and is implemented through a variety of projects, such as schoolnet, the one laptop per child (olpc) and the csl e-rate project (vaa, 2015). however, one of the key issues hindering the full realization of the potential benefits of ict is the issue of access and affordability. access to quality teaching and learning resources through the use of technology is limited. the samoa schoolnet project is an adb funded project aimed at introducing computers into schools, piloted in 2007 and expanded in 2013. while the schoolnet project has been touted a success and provided access to computers and resources in 42 secondary schools, actual access to quality resources is still 339 quite limited, even within schoolnet schools where technology resources are woefully underutilized. schoolnet schools have substantial teaching resources in electronic form but can be accessed only within the schoolnet labs. access to resources using technology is even more limited in primary schools with very few schools having access to computer technology. of particular challenge is access to the internet, which potentially provides a wealth of quality resources to facilitate and improve the teaching and learning process (chan mow, 2010; prif, 2015; vaa, 2015). at the national university of samoa, there is an extensive network with about 300 pcs in seven computer laboratories and about 20 pcs in the university library. however access to these computer laboratories is limited, with priority given to computer classes. this leaves students with only access to the 20 pcs in the library, as there are no pcs in the classrooms. hence, the issue of access to quality electronic teaching and learning resources is quite critical. the problem of access has been exacerbated by increasing student numbers. at nus, from 2003 to 2011 student enrolments doubled from 1,423 to 2,823. since then student numbers remained over 2,500 and rose to 3,357 in 2015 (education sector plan 2013-2018; nus annual report 2015-2016). one innovative solution for such challenges is a recent innovation launched by the commonwealth of learning in 2014 (www.col.org/aptus). the aptus, also referred to as “classroom without walls”, is a device set that allows access to digital or electronic resources in the absence of electricity or the internet (ghosh, 2013). developed through the commonwealth of learning (col) the aptus enables “reaching the unreached” through the use of appropriate and affordable technologies. the col’s aptus device consists of two components: a mini-pc that acts as a server with the capability of storing large quantities of e-resources, in combination with a wireless router, which allows multiple learners to access the e-resources stored on the server. learners can access the e-resources using laptops, tablets or mobile phones. with the explosive growth of mobile phone usage in recent times (see tables 1 and 2) and the ready availability of low-cost tablets, access to quality e-resources through the use of the aptus provides a low-cost solution to accessing the benefits of ict. the aptus, in combination with the increasing availability of open educational resources (oers), makes access to valuable educational resources achievable. as such, the aptus device is suitable for remote and underserved areas in underdeveloped and developing countries, and transforms the learning and teaching experience using low-cost innovative technology. the current study trialed the use of the aptus and explored the feasibility of using the aptus within the context of nus and schools in samoa to provide and improve access to e-resources. the initiative was a collaborative effort by nus, commonwealth of learning (col) and the ministry of education sports and culture (mesc) to provide innovative low-cost solutions to chronic teacher shortages, limited access to computers, particularly in non-schoolnet schools, as well as provisioning of offline access to e-resources. col contributed 15 sets of the aptus and mesc provided transport and access to schools for the trial. the study was implemented in two phases. the first phase trialed the aptus within the national university of samoa. in phase 2, the aptus was trialed in selected primary and secondary schools within the urban area. at the end of each phase, the use of the aptus was evaluated, using user perceptions on the ease of use and usefulness of the aptus device in the provisioning of access to electronic resources. this paper is based on phase 1 of the trial conducted at the national university of samoa. 340 the research questions for this study were: 1) how acceptable is the aptus device as a technology for providing access to e-resources? 2) what are user perceptions on the usefulness and ease of use of the aptus device within the context of education in samoa? hence, as mentioned earlier, the goals of this research were to explore the acceptance of using the aptus to access e-resources within the context of education in samoa, with user acceptance measured by evaluating the ease of use and usefulness of the aptus based on user perceptions. about aptus the aptus device can store and distribute hundreds of textbooks for multiple grades, hold and stream hundreds of videos from thekhan academy, host moodle 2.5, a learning management system, as well as wordpress and/or drupal, a content management system. to supplement all this, local content can be generated and added quite easily. extant literature indicates that within educational settings the aptus can be used in various ways. the aptus can be used to access learning resources, software applications, and content from the internet even when connectivity does not exist. it can be used as a mobile library that downloads and stores learning materials to be accessed offline. the aptus router can be charged easily and also can be used as a solar charger for other devices. the aptus device has already been trialed in other countries. from april to june 2014, col’s aptus system was made available for performance testing to volunteers at 20 sites in 15 countries. testers assessed such aspects as the start-up time, radius of connectivity, number and type of devices (laptops or smartphones /tablets), and maximum operation under one battery charge. testers were also asked to assess the usefulness of owncloud, an advanced “cloud services” software application residing on the aptus, which facilitates the local exchange of files… results received from 10 locations in nine countries have shown that aptus is a robust device, able to withstand long transit times. it starts up easily (less than two minutes to boot up), is able to connect to many devices (maximum of 20 in one location in nigeria) and can last for close to three hours. the owncloud application was widely appreciated. almost every tester said that content upload to aptus at a local level is possible but should be made easier for users with limited knowledge of website management. (commonwealth of learning, 2014) theoretical framework this research is grounded within the theoretical framework of the technology acceptance model (tam) designed by davis (1989) on the factors that influence users’ adoption of technology in general. according to the technology acceptance model, users’ acceptance of a given technology is affected by their perceptions on the usefulness and ease-of-use of that technology. perceived usefulness was defined by davis (1989) as “the degree to which a person believes that using a particular technology would enhance his or her job performance” (davis, 1989) and perceived ease-of-use of a system was also defined by davis (1989) as “the degree to which a person believes that using a particular system would be free of effort” (davis, 1989). within the context of this research, users — both teachers and students — will use the aptus if they perceive it to be useful and easy to use, and the effectiveness of the aptus will be evaluated by 341 measuring user perceptions of the ease of use and usefulness of the aptus device. according to the technology acceptance model, the more positive the responses to the above factors of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use, then the more positive the attitudes of teachers and students will be to the use of ict and the more likely they will be to use ict in their teaching and learning. methodology the research is quantitative and exploratory in nature and utilized the technology acceptance model to conduct a multi-setting, case study approach. purposive sampling was used to select the participants for this trial. due to the number of users being limited to less than 20, classes selected were small classes, such as streams of foundation computer studies (hcs081). the selected sample consisted of 223 students in the 16 to 18-year age range in 12 tutorial classes of hcs081, an introductory computer studies class at nus. hcs081 is a semester long introductory computer studies course at the university foundation level (equivalent of a pre-college year) in which students learn basic introduction to windows and microsoft applications, as well as introductory level java programming. students in the hcs081 class are from the various disciplines, such as arts, commerce, education and the sciences. procedures an aptus device was setup for each of the selected trial settings. students were asked to bring in their own devices, such as smart phones, tablets and laptops. those without devices were provided with tablets. distribution was to ensure that each student/teacher had access to either a tablet or mobile phone. the aptus device was installed for use within each of the hcs081 tutorial classes. before the trial, training was conducted to familarise tutors with the use of the aptus. training involved the following activities. for teachers activities included: i) setting up of the aptus device ii) recharging the router, and iii) moodle activities, such as the setting up of classes, enrolling students, uploading course notes and creating assessments. for teachers and students, activities trialed were: i) how to navigate the aptus home page, ii) downloading notes from the aptus using owncloud a file sharing application, iii) uploading documents to the aptus using owncloud and using the moodle virtual classroom to access course notes, upload student assignments and conduct online quizzes. during training, teachers also discussed with the research team what activities were planned for the four weeks of the trial based on the four activities mentioned above. these activities formed their teaching plan for the four weeks of the trial. upon completion of training, staff and students trialed the aptus for four weeks using activities introduced during their training. upon completion of the trial, staff and students completed a survey evaluating user perceptions on ease of use and usefulness of the aptus device. the questionnaire, which had both english and samoan versions, was administered by the research team with the assistance of the teachers in the selected settings. the questionnaire consisted of mostly likert-type questions. in the likert-type questions responses were typically: i) strongly disagree ii) disagree iii) neutral iv) agree and v) strongly agree. the survey questionnaire consisted of the following sections: • section a: demographics • section b: 11 likert-type items and 5 yes/no items on perceived ease of use 342 • section c: 11 likert-type items on perceived usefulness • section d: two open-ended questions on problems using the aptus and suggestions for improvement. these items have been adapted from various questionnaires of studies based on the technology acceptance model (cassim & obono, 2011; teo, su luan, & sing, 2008). analysis the survey evaluated the effectiveness of the aptus within an educational context based on two variables: i) the ease of use and ii) usefulness. the overall reliability of the instrument using alpha cronbach index yielded 0.94 in addition to scores on individual items two aggregate scores were generated to measure positive attitudes for ease of use and usefulness. ease of use aggregate score was calculated by summing responses for each of the questions on ease of use — questions b1 to b9. this means that ease of use aggregate could take values between nine and 45. the nine items were entered into a factor analysis using a principal components procedure, which indicated that a single factor resolution was possible. that is, all nine items loaded strongly upon one factor. spss reliability analysis was then used to check on scale properties, when all nine items were summed to one scale. the internal reliability coefficient alpha was found to be 0.87, with all items contributing strongly. ease of use aggregate was created with a mean of 35.2, sd of 6.3, kurtosis of 0.6 and skewness of -0.79. similarly a usefulness aggregate score was calculated by summing responses for each of the questions on usefulness with the aggregate score taking values between 11 and 55.the eleven items were entered into a factor analysis using a principal components procedure, which indicated that a single factor resolution was possible. that is, all eleven items loaded strongly upon one factor. spss reliability analysis was then used to check on scale properties, when all eleven items were summed to one scale. the internal reliability coefficient alpha was found to be 0.93, with all items contributing strongly. usefulness aggregate was created with a mean of 45.6, sd of 7.1, kurtosis of 2.8 and skewness of -1.1. results ease of use possible range of values for responses on individual items was from one to five with a natural midpoint of three representing neutrality. actual results indicated very positive and all above average responses ranging from 3.4 to 4.3 (table 1). the possible range for the ease of use aggregate was from nine to 45, with 27 as the natural midpoint, representing neutrality. however, the actual mean was 35.4 (sd of 6.2), which indicated, on the overall, a high level of positive attitudes towards ease of use. the scores for ease of use ranged from 15 to 45, with 88 % of the scores lying above the natural midpoint of 27. in short, students indicated very high-level, positive perceptions in terms of ease of use. usefulness as for ease of use, possible range of values for responses on individual items was from one to five with a natural midpoint of three, representing neutrality. actual results on usefulness indicated very positive and all above average responses ranging from 3.8 to 4.3 (table 2). 343 the possible range for the usefulness aggregate was from 11 to 55, with 33 as the natural midpoint, representing neutrality. however, the actual mean was 45.6 (sd of 7.1), which indicated, on the overall, a high level of positive attitudes towards ease of use. the scores for usefulnesss aggregate ranged from 13 to 55, with 95% of the scores lying above the natural midpoint of 33. in short, students indicated very high-level positive perceptions, in terms of usefulness of the aptus. table 1: individual item responses for ease of use item strongly disagree disagree neutral agree strongly agree n mean std. deviation i was able to access content on the aptus server up to a distance of 20 metres of the aptus 6 27 61 75 48 217 3.6 1.1 connecting my device to the aptus was easy to do 6 8 34 73 99 220 4.1 0.9 downloading of resources from the aptus server to my device was relatively easy 8 16 25 65 105 219 4.1 1.1 multiple users could view videos simultaneously 11 29 89 50 40 219 3.4 1.1 home page was simple and self-explanatory: navigation was simple and easy to use 3 13 43 98 63 220 3.9 0.9 my interaction with the aptus is clear and understandable 2 7 34 89 86 219 4.1 0.9 i find it easy to get the aptus to do what i want it to do 3 11 48 73 81 216 4.0 0.9 interacting with the aptus does not require much mental effort 3 17 49 89 61 219 3.9 .9 i find the aptus easy to use 2 4 29 68 116 219 4.3 .8 feedback from tutors responses from the 4 tutors who taught the 12 tutorial classes indicated that their perceptions of ease of use and usefulness were even more positive than students with all responses in the agree or strongly agree category. tutors found aptus easy to install, did not overheat easy to upload and download notes. tutors were also very enthusiastic with the use of moodle for managing their classrooms in particular communicating with students, conducting activities such as online quizzes. tutors also reported students commenting that they were accessing better quality resources on the aptus than in the university library. the only concern tutors had was with the complexity of technical details of managing moodle such as student registration. within the context of the current study, this pointed to the need for in-depth training for teachers on moodle before the trial for primary and secondary schools. further, with the long-term view of mainstreaming of the aptus and moodle 344 within the school system, this points to the need for dedicated training for staff and students on the use of moodle. table 2: individual item responses for usefulness item strongly disagree disagree neutral agree strongly agree n mean std. deviation the resources downloaded from the aptus server were useful for my teaching/learning 4 2 33 88 88 215 4.2 0.9 the online virtual classroom moodle was useful in facilitating my teaching and learning 4 5 34 97 74 214 4.1 0.9 using the moodle classroom on the aptus allows me to interact with other members of my class 5 11 58 83 57 214 3.8 0.9 the content management system of the aptus device (wordpress or drupal) was useful for downloading content. 3 7 66 84 55 215 3.8 0.9 using the aptus makes teaching and learning more interesting 2 4 20 97 92 215 4.3 0.8 using the aptus has enabled me to learn new things 2 4 35 80 94 215 4.2 0.8 using the aptus will improve my work 2 4 29 79 98 212 4.3 0.8 using the aptus provides me with access to quality teaching/learning resources 1 3 24 98 89 215 4.3 .8 using the aptus will enhance my effectiveness 2 4 43 93 73 215 4.1 .8 using the aptus will improve my productivity 2 7 31 86 89 215 4.2 .9 i find the aptus a useful tool in my work 3 3 30 72 106 214 4.3 .9 345 gender and age effects one way analysis of variance (anova) procedures of individual items and aggregate variables on ease of use and usefulness showed no significant differences (p= .05)in responses based on gender. there were also no significant differences based on age, as this was a fairly homogenous sample with students in the 16 to 18-year age range. summary and discussion the results of the survey indicated very positive perceptions of staff and students to the usefulness and ease of use of the aptus. interviews with tutors indicated “great enthusiasm of students to learn using the aptus, with tutors seriously asking for the opportunity to purchase their own personal aptus to be used in everyday teaching.” such indications point to the viability of the aptus as a technology to be introduced into the teaching and learning environment to improve access to quality educational resources. as with the assertion made by dennis pack of kiribati in ghosh (2013), the aptus could very well be the main technology used in our schools. another advantage of using the aptus, according to interviews of tutors was the provision of the moodle virtual classroom, a learner management system for managing classroom content. with the use of moodle tutors were able to manage their class notes, exercises, and interactive testing for drill and practice on course content. this provision of moodle for managing classroom content has been a priority at nus for some time now, as staff had been requesting its availability for managing their classrooms virtually, making course notes available and hosting online discussions. the problem, as pointed out earlier, is the lack of access to the nus computer network and labs by most students in order to take advantage of moodle on the university network. hence, the availability of moodle on the aptus platform provides much needed access to moodle without having to access the nus network or having to access the computer laboratories. from the results of phase 1, a strong recommendation is made to adopt the aptus as a technology for providing access to quality educational resources within the national university of samoa. the aptus can be used by lecturers within classrooms so students can access course notes and other quality teaching resources made available on the aptus, without the need to be inside a computer lab or to have the internet or electricity. this would transform the learning environment in addition to providing much needed access to resources. additionally, the trials have also opened up possibility of other potential uses of the aptus within the university. one such use is for staff meetings, where meeting documents can be loaded on the aptus and participants can access the documents from the aptus, thereby reducing paper float. another innovative use is for the administration of university wide evaluation surveys. several aptus devices could be loaded with the survey and then mounted in various locations around campus facilitating ease of access for students. the research team aims to trial these two applications of the aptus within the next academic year. in samoa, the growth of usage of mobile technology has been explosive. since 2005, there has been a seven-fold increase in the number of mobile subscribers, from 22,000 in 2006 to 167,400 by 2010 (commonwealth of australia, 2008), and the price of phone calls has dropped by more than half (va’a et al., 2012). hence, in countries like samoa with tremendous growth in usage of mobile phones, 346 accessing e-resources through mobile phone by students is potentially a monumental breakthrough in achieving access to technology and the wealth of electronic resources. to conclude, the following recommendations are made as a result of the findings of the current study: • the aptus should be used in classrooms at nus to provide access to quality teaching and learning resources without the need to access the computer lab or the internet. • teachers should be trained in the use of the aptus and its applications, such as moodle. references commonwealth of australia. (2008). pacific economic survey. retrieved from http://pacificpolicy.org/wpcontent/uploads/2013/07/pacific_economic_survey08.pdf cassim, k. m., & obono, s.d.e. (2011). on the factors affecting the adoption of ict for the teaching of world problems. proceedings of the world congress on engineering and computer science wcecs, october 19-21, 2011, san francisco, usa. chan mow, i.t. (2010). technology enabled education in samoa: issues, challenges, strategies and recommendations. in s. mukerji & p. tripathi (eds.), cases on interactive technology environments and transnational collaboration: concerns and perspectives, (pp. 193-210). new york: igi global. commonwealth of learning. (2014). aptus testers find it "relevant" and "robust", connections/edtech news, 19(2), 16. retrieved from http://oasis.col.org/handle/11599/779 education sector advisory committee. (2013). education sector plan (july 2013 – june 2018). malifa: government of samoa. https://www.mof.gov.ws/portals/195/eppd/education%20sector%20plan/education%20sector%20plan%20 2013_2018.pdf davis, f. d. (1989). perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance of information technology. mis quarterly, 13(3), 319-339. ghosh, m. (2013). mooc m4d: an overview and learners viewpoint on autumn 2013 course. international journal of interactive mobile technologies, 8(1), 46-50. kanwar, a., aguti, j., & balasubramanian, k. (2014). how ict can support teacher training. retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11599/757 pacific region infrastructure facility (prif). (2015). economic and social impact of ict in the pacific. retrieved from https://theprif.org/index.php/resources/document-library/121-prif-ict-study-report-2015 national university of samoa. (2015). national university of samoa annual report: 2015-2016. national university of samoa. teo, t., su luan, w., & sing, c. c. (2008). a cross-cultural examination of the intention to use technology between singaporean and malaysian pre-service teachers: an application of the technology acceptance model (tam). educational technology & society, 11(4), 265-280. vaa, r. (2015). a baseline study on technology-enabled learning in the commonwealth pacific island countries: report. burnaby, british columbia: commonwealth of learning. va’a, f., unasa, t. v., fonoti, f. l., chan mow, i., & amosa, d. (2012). aspects of economic development. in meleisea, m., meleisea, p.s., & meleisea, e. (eds.), samoa’s journey 1962-2102: aspects of history. wellington: victoria university press. 347 authors: dr ioana tuugalei vaai-chan mow is the professor of computing and computer education at the national university of samoa (nus). she is the col focal point for samoa, the team leader for the national university of samoa aptus research team, and played a key role in the pacenetplus, coltel and faculty of science open and distance learning project. email: i.chanmow@nus.edu.ws dr edna temese-ualesi is a senior lecturer and cisco instructor, in the computing department at nus. she is a member of the nus aptus research team, the nus coltel research group as well as the faculty of science open and distance learning project team. email: e.temese@nus.edu.ws mose n. mose is a lecturer and cisco instructor, in the computing department at nus. he is a member of the nus aptus research team, the nus coltel research group, the vex robotics team, as well as the faculty of science open and distance learning project team. mose is also the founder of the largest online shopping portal in samoa makeki online. email: m.mose@nus.edu.ws tara patu-fritz is a lecturer and cisco instructor, in the computing department at nus. she is a member of the nus aptus research team, the nus coltel research group, as well as the faculty of science open and distance learning project team. email: tpatu@nus.edu.ws elisapeta mauai is a senior lecturer in the computing department at nus. she is the coordinator of the nus cisco academy, a member of the nus aptus research team, the nus coltel research group, as well as the faculty of science open and distance learning project team. email: e.mauai@nus.edu.ws ioana sinclair is a lecturer and cisco instructor, in the computing department at nus. she is a member of the nus aptus research team, the nus coltel research group, as well as the faculty of science open and distance learning project team. email: i.sinclair@nus.edu.ws joseph namulauulu is a lecturer and cisco instructor, in the computing department at nus. he is a member of the nus aptus research team, the nus coltel research group, the vex robotics team, as well as the faculty of science open and distance learning project team. email: j.namulauulu@nus.edu.ws fiafaitupe lafaele is a lecturer and cisco instructor, in the computing department at nus. she is a member of the nus aptus research team, the nus coltel research group, as well as the faculty of science open and distance learning project team. email: f.lafaele@nus.edu.ws misioka tanielu is a lecturer and cisco instructor, in the computing department at nus. he is a member of the nus aptus research team, the nus coltel research group, the vex robotics team, as well as the faculty of science open and distance learning project team. email: m.tanielu@nus.edu.ws agnes wong soon is a lecturer and cisco instructor, in the computing department at nus. she is a member of the nus aptus research team and the nus coltel research group. email: a.wongsoon@nus.edu.ws vensall chan is a lecturer and cisco instructor, in the computing department at nus. he is a member of the nus aptus research team, the nus coltel research group, the vex robotics team, as well as the faculty of science open and distance learning project team. email: v.chan@nus.edu.ws microsoft word luwoye.docx issn: 2311-1550 2021, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 557-567 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. influence of the demo kit on remediating senior school students’ misconceptions in mitosis and meiosis in ilorin, nigeria akindeyi luwoye1, ganiyu bello1 and gabriel ademakinwa adeoye2 1department of science education, university of ilorin, ilorin, nigeria 2kwara state college of education, oro, nigeria abstract: this study investigated the influence of the demo kit on remediating misconceptions held by senior school students in mitosis and meiosis. the quasi-experimental design of the pre-test, post-test, non-equivalent control group was adopted for the study. a multistage sampling technique was used to select 60 male and female biology students from two senior secondary schools in ilorin metropolis. the instruments used for data collection was the mitosis and meiosis conception package (mmcp). frequencies and chi-square were used to answer the research questions and test the null hypothesis, respectively. the findings revealed that biology students held misconceptions on mitosis and meiosis before and after instructions. however, there was a significant difference in the number of misconceptions held by students taught using the demo kit and those taught with the conventional method. it was recommended that biology teachers adopt the use of the demo kit for remediating students’ preand post-instructional misconceptions on mitosis and meiosis. keywords: remediate, misconceptions, mitosis, meiosis, the demo kit. introduction the subject of biology has remained an important impetus for the survival of life on earth. this is because it is a natural science subject that deals with the study of life and the relationship between living organisms and their physical environment. umar (2011) observed that knowledge of biology is fundamental for predicting and interpreting how the theories of nature can be applied for the continued existence of life on earth. there is also no gainsay that the knowledge of biology has been fully grafted and applied in the production of food, shelter and clothing, which constitute the three basic necessities of life. despite the importance of biology to the study of living organisms, the performance of senior school students in external examinations conducted by the west african examinations council (waec) and national examinations council (neco) is not impressive (adeoye & abimbola, 2016; bichi, ibrahim, & ibrahim, 2019). researchers like ibe (2015) and adegboye, bello and abimbola (2017) attributed students’ unimpressive performance in biology to teachers’ insensitivity to the nature of biology especially when planning instructional activities. in contrast, abubakar and jimin (2018) contended that the misconceptions of basic biology concepts was one of the main factors affecting students’ performance in biology. misconceptions, according to olorundare (2014) are words misunderstood or misinterpreted by students, which can impede meaningful understanding of science, thereby standing as a barrier to 558 study. misconceptions may arise from communication issues in the classroom, peer-group interactions and use of ambiguous words and expressions in textbooks (dikmenli & cardak, 2004). researchers such as dikmenli (2010) and elangovan (2018) specifically identified mitosis and meiosis as hard-to-teach and hard-to-learn biology concepts for senior schoolteachers and students, respectively, due to the misconception and alternative conceptions of related concepts. mitosis and meiosis are important life processes that form the basis for many biology concepts such as genetics, reproduction, growth, development, and molecular biology (adeoye, 2021). taylor, green, and stout (2004) defined the cell as the smallest, simplest, basic, fundamental, structural and functional unit of living organisms capable of independent existence from which organisms are built. cell division involves cell multiplication through the process of mitosis and meiosis. mitosis leads to the production of two daughter cells which have the same number and types of chromosomes as the parent cell (yanagida, 2015). mitosis usually takes place during growth, cell replacement, regeneration of lost parts and asexual reproduction. meiosis on the other hand is a form of nuclear division in which a haploid (n) number of cells are produced. meiosis takes place in reproductive cells. it is a reduction division in which a single diploid cell gives rise to four haploid cells (ramalingam, 2013). the strategies and instructional materials adopted by teachers are important in determining students’ learning outcomes. this is partly because the lack of instructional materials during instruction makes learning difficult (abimbola, 2015; adeoye & abimbola, 2016). hubbard (2003) identified the absence of the actual material meant for teaching and learning as the first barrier to learners’ study. other barriers to study as identified by hubbard and included are too steep a learning curve, skipping a grade and misunderstood terminology. according to applied scholastics international (2018), the incidence of the lack of content materials could be removed through the use of the demo kit, modelling clay, and sketching. the focus of the present study is on the first barrier to learners’ study, which acknowledged the use of the demo kit to remedy the lack of content materials during instruction (abe, bello, & hamzat, 2019; adeoye, 2021; adeoye & abimbola, 2016). the demo kit is a collection of odds-and-ends materials such as beads, threads, bottle tops, cut pieces of paper, thumb tacks, used recharged cards, pen tops and erasers (adeoye, 2021; awoyemi, 2018; onanuga, saka, adebanjo, & olanrewaju, 2019). these items are carefully selected and used during the physical representation of principles, ideas, or data (clearbird study manual, 2004). demonstrations based on the principle of applied scholastic international (2018) involves the use of the demo-kit materials to describe the mechanics of given concepts, actions, situation or processes. demonstrations are usually done on a table and objects selected from the demo-kit items are moved in relation to one another during the conceptualisation of concepts, processes and actions (touretzky, 2003). research such as that of awoyemi (2018) and adeoye (2021) revealed the effectiveness of the demo kit at enhancing senior school students’ performance in mathematics and biology, respectively. furthermore, onanuga, saka, adebanjo, and olanrewaju (2019) discovered that the demo kit enhanced senior school students’ performance in computer studies. ahmed (2018) conducted research on the influence of study technology strategies on senior school students’ achievement in ecology and discovered that students exposed to the use of the demo kit had better achievement. in the same vein, jiyah (2016) found out that the combined use of hands-on with minds-on instructional strategies enhanced senior school students’ achievement in understanding cell division. 559 in addition, findings from the existing literature indicated that the use of audio-visual and improvised instructional materials facilitated learners’ understanding and achievement in different subject areas. for instance, neboh (2009) observed that learning activity packages positively influenced students’ achievement and learning retention in biology. olasehinde (2018) also discovered that video media instructional strategy enhanced secondary school students’ achievement in understanding celldivision concepts. multimedia has been identified as an effective tool for facilitating students’ achievement in biology (sakiyo, musa, & waziri, 2018). improvised teaching materials have been reported to enhance senior secondary school students’ achievement in biology (ayanda, olayinka, & adeoye, 2020). the aforementioned studies indicated that concerted efforts had been made by different science educators in the use of instructional aids for teaching and learning. much of the literature available and reviewed by the researchers indicated that most of the existing studies on the demo kit focused on the influence of instructional aids on students’ achievement in different subject areas and not the remediation of misconceptions. the need to remediate students’ misconception in mitosis and meiosis becomes important because several research findings, such as those of dikmenli (2010) and elangovan (2018), had earlier indicated that students held misconceptions on cell division. thus, the present study investigated the influence of the demo kit on remediating senior school students’ misconceptions in mitosis and meiosis in ilorin, kwara state, nigeria. literature review learning, irrespective of the form, is aimed at attaining a set of pre-set learning objectives thereby ensuring a permanent change in learners’ behaviour. however, the brain (mind), heart (social skill) and hands (manipulative skill) all play significant roles in the attainment of any learning objectives (roeser, n.d.). evidence abounds in the literature that the place of the hands in the manipulation of objects and construction of knowledge by learners cannot be overemphasised. for instance, study technology experts such as adeoye, (2021), awoyemi, (2018) and adeoye and abimbola, (2016) posited that the use of the demo kit could assist learners in perfecting understanding through the manipulation of ‘odd and end’ materials. the utilisation of the demo kit in the present study targets students’ misconceptions on cell division and corresponds with cognitive constructivist theory of learning. the constructivism theory of learning was put forward by cognitive psychologists who had constructive epistemological perspectives (piaget, 1968). knowledge, according to cognitive constructivists is actively constructed by learners rather than passively absorbed (piaget, 1968). the use of the demo kit for learning corroborates the constructivist theory in that it focuses on how learners interact with information and construct meanings from it using manipulation while the teacher acts as a facilitator of learning (adeoye & abimbola, 2016). it is worth observing that demonstration could be in person or, more indirectly, online or by video. according to hubbard (1972) the demo kit is potent in providing solutions to the barrier created by lack of content materials thereby remediating misconceptions. misconceptions are wrong ideas, or beliefs that are not based on correct information nor understood by people (hornby, 2015). olorundare (2014) posited that misconceptions impede meaningful understanding of science thereby 560 standing as a barrier to study. thus, the identification of misconceptions constitutes an important and prominent stage in remediating students’ poor performance in any subject area. atilboz (2004) studied the level of understanding and misconceptions of students of mitosis and meiosis and discovered that they experience difficulties in understanding cell related concepts such as deoxyribonucleic acid, chromosome, chromatid, homologous chromosomes, haploid and diploid cells. ogundare et al (2020) investigated the effects of a concept-mapping instructional strategy in remediating senior school students’ misconceptions in ecology and found out that biology students held many misconceptions about ecology but the use of concept-mapping remediated most of the misconceptions. maizuwo (2011) investigated the effectiveness of demonstration teaching strategy on students’ misconceptions of concepts in organic chemistry and concluded that student’s misconceptions obstruct meaningful learning and should be firstly remediated using appropriate innovative strategies. purpose of the study the main purpose of the study was to investigate the influence of the demo kits on remediating misconceptions held by senior-school students about mitosis and meiosis. specifically, the study: 1. identified the misconceptions about mitosis and meiosis held by biology students; 2. determined the influence of the demo kit on remediating misconceptions held by biology students about mitosis and meiosis. research questions in this study, the following questions were generated: 1. what are the misconceptions about mitosis and meiosis held by biology students? 2. what is the influence of the demo kit on remediating misconceptions held by biology students about mitosis and meiosis? research hypothesis the null hypothesis below was formulated and tested in this study. h01: there is no significant difference in the number of misconceptions held by students taught mitosis and meiosis using the demo kit and those taught using the conventional method. methods research methodology the research design adopted for this study was the quasi-experimental design of pre-test, post-test, non-equivalent and non-randomised control-group design using the 2 x 2 factorial design. sample the population for the study comprised all senior-school students offering biology in ilorin, kwara state, nigeria. the target population for this study was all senior secondary school two (sss ii) students offering biology in ilorin metropolis. purposive sampling technique was used to select two co-educational senior secondary schools in ilorin metropolis, which were classified as experimental 561 and control groups. the experimental and control groups composed of classes of 35 and 25 students, respectively. tools/techniques the instrument used for collection of data was mitosis and meiosis conception package (mmcp), which was designed by the researchers. this instrument was appropriately validated and a reliability index of 0.71 was obtained using scott’s pi statistics. procedure of data collection and analysis a letter of introduction was handed over to the administrators of the schools selected for the study to seek the permission and assistance of the biology teachers and students. consent forms containing information about the research were given to the teachers and students to indicate their willingness to participate in the study. all ethical issues were addressed in the consent forms. after determining the participation status of the schools selected for the study, the demo kit instructional package was used to train the research assistant from the experimental school on study technology principles and how to remediate misconceptions, with a focus on mitosis and meiosis. in the second week, mmcp was administered as a pre-test to determine students’ misconceptions about cell division prior to their exposure to treatments. in the third week, the experimental group was exposed to the use of the demo kit’s instructional package, targeting misconceptions already identified from the pre-test of the mmcp. participants in the control group were exposed to a placebo using the conventional method. the mmcp was administered as post-test during the fourth week. the data obtained from the pre-test and post-test of mmcp was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistical tools. research questions were answered using frequencies and percentages while the null hypothesis was tested using chi-square statistics at 0.05 level of significance. results research question 1: what are the misconceptions about mitosis and meiosis held by biology students? table 1 indicated that participants in the experimental group held misconceptions on items 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10 and 11 while they held correct conceptions of items 1, 2, 5 and 9. the pre-instruction misconceptions held by participants in the control group were found in items 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 and 11 while participants in the control group held correct conceptions of items 2, 3 and 9, respectively. 562 table 1: pre-instruction misconceptions about mitosis and meiosis in experimental and control groups s/ n alternative conceptions about mitosis and meiosis experimental group control group misconceptions (n) correct conceptions (n) misconceptions (n) correct conceptions (n) 1 the process of mitosis and meiosis aid respiration in living organism 12 23 14 11 2 mitosis is the division of cell into four daughter cells while meiosis is the division of cell into two daughter cells 8 27 6 19 3 mitosis is an important process for sexual reproduction 24 11 9 16 4 meiosis occurs during growth of plants 19 16 21 4 5 meiosis is a cell division which follows the duplication of only one chromosome 14 21 17 8 6 chromosome is a pair of genetic materials which is responsible for the formation of zygote 22 13 15 10 7 in early metaphase, the nucleoli disappear 31 4 19 6 8 in early anaphase, the daughter cell and the chromosomes have half of the parent cell 24 11 21 4 9 telophase is divided into early telophase and late telophase 8 27 3 22 10 in metaphase i, the chromosomes move near the chromatids 25 10 18 7 11 crossing over occurs when the nucleus has not yet divided and new offspring has not yet been formed 26 9 20 5 total 7 4 8 3 research question 2: what is the influence of the demo kit on remediating misconceptions held by biology students about mitosis and meiosis? the post-instruction results of misconceptions on mitosis and meiosis held by students in table 2 revealed that students exposed to the use of the demo kit (experimental group) held two misconceptions (items 6 and 11) and nine correct conceptions (items 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9 and 10) while those taught with the conventional method (control group) held six misconceptions (items 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 and 11) and five correct conceptions (items 1, 2, 3, 4 and 9) about mitosis and meiosis after instructions. 563 table 2: post-instruction misconceptions about mitosis and meiosis in experimental and control groups s/n alternative conceptions of mitosis and meiosis experimental group control group misconceptions (n) correct conceptions (n) misconceptions (n) correct conceptions (n) 1 the process of mitosis and meiosis aid respiration in living organism 7 18 9 16 2 mitosis is the division of cell into four daughter cells while meiosis is the division of cell into two daughter cells 5 30 4 21 3 mitosis is an important process for sexual reproduction 13 22 11 14 4 meiosis occurs during growth of plants 8 27 6 19 5 meiosis is a cell division which follows the duplication of only one chromosome 11 24 15 10 6 chromosome is a pair of genetic materials which is responsible for the formation of zygote 19 16 17 8 7 in early metaphase, the nucleoli disappear 15 20 16 9 8 in early anaphase, the daughter cell and the chromosomes have half of the parent cell 13 22 13 12 9 telophase is divided into early telophase and late telophase 4 31 5 20 10 in metaphase i, the chromosomes move near the chromatids 12 23 14 11 11 crossing over occurs when the nucleus has not yet divided and new offspring has not yet been formed 21 14 15 10 total 2 9 6 5 table 3 indicated that students’ held misconceptions about mitosis and meiosis before and after instructions. however, the use of the demo kit remediated five misconceptions (71.43%) out of the seven held by students in the experimental group before instruction, while the conventional method of teaching remediated two misconceptions (28.57%) out of the eight that were identified before instructions. this implies that the demo kit remediated most of the misconceptions held by students about mitosis and meiosis. table 3: contingency table of misconceptions in the pre-test and post-test of experimental and control groups groups misconceptions no. of remediated misconceptions % of remediated misconceptions pre-instruction post-instruction experimental 7 2 5 71.43% control 8 6 2 28.57% total 15 8 7 100% research hypothesis h01: there is no significant difference in the number of misconceptions held by students taught mitosis and meiosis using the demo kit and those taught using the conventional method. table 4 shows that the calculated chi-square (χ2) value 80.44 was greater than table chi-square value (χ2) of 77.93 computed at 0.05 level of significance (χ2 (59) = χ2cal 80.99 < χ2tab 77.93). this implies that there is a significant difference in the number of misconceptions held by students taught mitosis and 564 meiosis using the demo kit and those taught using the conventional method. therefore, the null hypothesis formulated was rejected. table 4: chi-square statistics showing the differences in the number of misconceptions held by students taught mitosis and meiosis using the demo kit and those taught using the conventional method group students’ misconceptions about mitosis and meiosis total df cal. 2 tab. 2 remark observed expected experimental 28 7 35 59 80.44 77.93 h01 rejected control total 16 44 9 16 25 60 *insignificance at p < 0.05 discussion the finding of this study revealed that a significant difference existed in the number of misconceptions held by senior school students taught mitosis and meiosis using the demo kit and those taught using the conventional method of teaching, in favour of students exposed to the demo kit. at first, the number of misconceptions about mitosis and meiosis held by students in the experimental and control groups were almost similar, that is eight and seven, respectively. however, the number of misconceptions remediated after the exposure of students in the experimental group to the demo kit were significantly different from those of the control group. this finding may be ascribed to the unique features of the demo kit, such as stimulation of learners’ imaginative thinking and selection of different sizable materials which can be moved relative to one another to show the mechanics of a given processes. this probably facilitated the meaningful learning of the content and consequently improved students’ achievement. in addition, the experimental group had the opportunity to use the demo kit as many times as they wanted, because each student was encouraged to collect their own the demo kit contents and this might have aided the continued learning of the content by students after the normal classroom lessons. it was vividly clear that the demo kit facilitated the teaching and learning of mitosis and meiosis due to the number of misconceptions remediated after instruction. the pedagogical implication of this finding is that the demo kit is perfect for learning about microscopic and cellular related topics in the nigerian senior secondary school biology curriculum. the results of this study corroborate that of adeoye (2021) where the researcher observed that the use of study technology tools such as modelling clay and the demo kit enhanced senior school students’ performance in cell division than the convectional method of teaching. furthermore, the findings of the present study tallies with that of onanuga et al(2018) who discovered in their separate studies that students exposed to the demo kit had a better achievement than those exposed to the conventional method. the findings of this study have substantiated the submissions of dikmenli (2010), jiyah (2016) and elangovan (2018) that students’ misconceptions about mitosis and meiosis were remediated with the adoption of appropriate hands-on with minds-on instructional tools and strategies. 565 conclusion the study concludes that students held misconceptions about cell division before and after instructions. however, the use of the demo kit helped to remediate students’ misconceptions about cell division. thus, the demo kit can be adopted for the remediation of students’ misconceptions about cell division to improve their achievement and understanding of biology concepts. by implication, instructors and the entire academic community involved in the implementation of the curriculum ought to adopt the use of the demo kit to assist learners in the remediation of their misconceptions. this also includes use of the demo kit in open and distance learning provision. recommendations the following recommendations were advanced based on the findings of the study: 1. biology teachers should be sensitive to students’ pre-instructional and post-instructional misconceptions and endeavour to identify them. 2. the demo kit should be use by teachers to remediate students’ misconceptions about cell division and other related biology topics. suggestions for further studies future researchers could carry out related studies with a focus on other forms of manipulatives. in addition, the current study could be replicated but at a different geographical location and involving larger sample sizes to investigate the consistencies of findings for the conduct of meta-analysis studies. it would also be valuable to research the use of the demo kit to support learning in remote, distance and online learning given that the kit can be constructed by individual learners and its use demonstrated by video. references abe, t. r., bello, g., & hamzat, a. (2019). patterns of classroom interactions and students’ reactions toward study barriers in biology lessons. lonaka journal of learning and teaching, 10(1), 82-93. abimbola, i. o. (2015). learning how to learn for perfect understanding. bamitex printing and publishing. abubakar, a. d., & jimin, n. (2018). identification and remediation of students’ misconceptions in biology and mathematics using conceptual change approach. international journal of education development, 22(2), 1-9. adegboye, m. c., bello, g., & abimbola, i. o. (2017). conceptions of the nature of biology held by senior secondary school biology teachers in ilorin, kwara state, nigeria. malaysian online journal of educational sciences, 5(3), 1-12. adeoye, g. a. (2021). effects of modelling clay and demonstration kit on senior school students’ performance in cell division in omu-aran, nigeria. [unpublished ph.d. thesis, university of ilorin, ilorin, nigeria]. adeoye, g. a., & abimbola, i. o. (2016). effects of senior school students’ use of the demo kit on their achievement in biology in omu-aran, nigeria. electronic journal of science education, 20(8), 14-21. applied scholastics international. (2018). breakthrough in learning. http://www.appliedscholastics.org/studytech/a-breakthrough-in-learning atilboz, n. g. (2004). 9th grade students’ understanding levels and misconceptions about mitosis and meiosis. journal of gazi education faculty, 24(3), 147-157. 566 awoyemi, s. a. (2018). effects of use of the demo kit on senior secondary school students’ performance in mathematics in igbara odo, nigeria. [unpublished master’s dissertation, university of ilorin, ilorin, nigeria]. ayanda, m. o, olayinka, f. o., & adeoye, g. a. (2020). effects of improvised teaching materials on senior secondary school students’ achievement in biology in oro, kwara state, nigeria. journal of research and development in education, 9(1), 51-62. bichi, a. a., ibrahim, f. b., & ibrahim, r. h. (2019). assessment of students’ performances in biology: implication for measurements and evaluation of learning. journal of education and learning, 13(3), 301-308. clearbird study manual. (2004). demonstrations – an overview. http://www.freezoneearth.org/clearbird/study2004/framesearch.html dikmenli, m. (2010). misconceptions of cell division held by student teachers in biology: a drawing analysis. scientific research and essay, 5(2), 235-247. dikmenli, m., & cardak, o. (2004). a study on misconceptions in the 9th grade high school biology textbooks. eurasian journal of educational research, 17(2), 130-141. elangovan, t. (2018). cartoonic and non-cartoonic simulations in reducing biology students’ misconceptions in cell division. international journal of academic research in business and social sciences, 8(4), 962-975. doi:10.6007/ijarbss/v8-i4/4237 hornby, a. s. (2015). oxford advanced learner’s dictionary of current english (9th ed.). oxford university press. hubbard, l. r. (2003). the technology of study. bridge publications. hubbard, l. r. (1972). scientology: a new slant on life. https://ronsorg.ch/wp-content/uploads/new-slant-onlife.pdf ibe, h. n. (2015). effects of learning styles on the performances of senior secondary school biology students. african research review, 9(1), 214-227. jiyah, u. (2016). effects of hands-on with minds-on instructional strategy on senior school students’ achievement in cell division in lafiagi, nigeria. [unpublished master’s dissertation, university of ilorin, ilorin, nigeria]. maizuwo, a. i. (2011). effects of demonstration teaching strategy in remedying misconceptions in organic chemistry among students of colleges of education in kano state. [master’s dissertation, ahmadu bello university, kaduna state, nigeria]. neboh, o. i. (2009). effect of learning activity package (lap) on students’ achievement and retention in senior secondary school biology. [unpublished ph.d. thesis, university of nigeria, nsukka]. ogundare, a. a., bello, g., adeoye, g. a., & abimbola, i. o. (2020). effects of concept-mapping instructional strategy in remediating senior school students’ misconceptions in ecology in oyo, nigeria. nigerian online journal of educational sciences and technology, 2(1), 1-9. http://nojest.unilag.edu.ng/article /view/995/901 olasehinde, k. j. (2018). effect of video media instructional strategy on secondary school students’ achievement in cell-division concept in biology. international journal of education development, 22(3), 1-9. olorundare, a. s. (2014). theory into practice: beyond surface curriculum in science education. the one hundred and forty-seventh (147th) inaugural lecture. unilorin press. onanuga, p. a., saka, a. o., adebanjo, a. a., & olanrewaju, y. a. (2019). use of the demo kits as strategy for enhancing senior secondary school students’ academic achievement in computer studies in ogun state, nigeria. journal of education in black sea region, 5(1), 126-135. doi:10.31578/jebs.v5i1.195 piaget, j. (1968). six psychological studies. (a. tenzer, trans.). vintage books. 567 ramalingam, s. t. (2013). modern biology for senior secondary schools (6th ed.). africana first publishers plc. roeser, r. w. (n.d.). educating the head, the heart and the hand in the 21st century: notes from india and the united states. https://mgiep.unesco.org/article /educating-the-head-the-heart-and-the-hand-in-the-21st-centurynotes-from-india-and-the-united-states sakiyo, j., musa, a. a., & waziri, k. (2018). multimedia instructional strategy and secondary school students’ academic achievement in biology. journal of scientific and engineering research, 5(2), 73-80. taylor, d. j., green, n. p. o., & stout, g. w. (2004). biological science. cambridge university press. touretzky, d. s. (2003). the hidden message in l. ron hubbard's study tech. http://www.studytech.org/study_tech_ print.htm umar, a. a. (2011). effect of biology practical activities on students’ process skill acquisition in minna, niger state, nigeria. journal of science, technology and mathematics education, 7(2), 118-126. yanagida, m. (2015). the role of model organisms in the history of mitosis research. cold spring harbor laboratory press. http://www.cshlpress.com/pdf /sample/2015/mitosis/mitosisch1.pdf authors: akindeyi luwoye is a senior educational consultant at great emeritus global educational services, ilorin, kwara state, nigeria. his area of specialization is students’ performance and misconceptions in science, especially biology. email: drluwoye@hotmail.com dr. ganiyu bello is a reader in the department of science education, university of ilorin, ilorin, nigeria. his field of specialization is biology education while his research interests are in the areas of constructivism with special focus on biology teaching, learning, teachers’ and students’ conceptions, misconceptions and alternative conceptions in biology; textbook research and the integration of modern digital information and communication technology (ict) into biology education. he is a member of the science association of nigeria (san), science teachers association of nigeria (stan), teachers registration council of nigeria (trcn) and fellow of the institute of corporate administration of nigeria (fcai). email: bello.g@unilorin.edu.ng dr. gabriel ademakinwa adeoye holds a ph.d. in science education (biology) from the university of ilorin, ilorin, nigeria. he is the lecturer in charge of the department of biology, kwara state college of education, oro, nigeria. his research interests includes innovations in biology teaching and learning, and strategies aimed at helping learners overcome barriers to study. he has published articles in reputable national and international journals. email: adeoyeademakinwa@gmail.com cite this paper as: luwoye, a., & bello, g., & adeoye, g. a. (2021). influence of the demo kit on remediating senior school students’ misconceptions in mitosis and meiosis in ilorin, nigeria. journal of learning for development, 8(3), 557-567. microsoft word akinjic.docx issn: 2311-1550 2023, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 210-221 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. learning behind the bars: implications for ‘learning-for-development’ gulden akin ankara university, turkey abstract: this study aimed to determine the learning patterns and experiences of incarcerated adults within correctional settings and how their prison learning transforms their lives after they are released. in this qualitative research, semi-structured interviews were conducted to obtain the opinions of eight formerly incarcerated people who experienced educational practices during their serving time in prison. the snowball sampling technique was used to reach the target group of the study. thematic analysis method was used during the data analysis process. the results of the paper, which are limited to the opinions of the participants in the study, showed that the change in the educational level of the prison population had led to a transformation in group dynamics among inmates in turkey. although former inmates experienced a permanent transformation in their lives after attending literacy courses, they could not carry on their religious practices after being released due to the struggle to make a living. inmates who were not interested in educational programmes within prison managed their own learning processes as self-directed learners. moreover, although inmates are certified through vocational training programmes, they have challenges in finding jobs when they re-enter society. educational disruptions due to covid-19 demonstrate that it is urgent to transform the prison education system into a technologically enriched learning environment in turkey. keywords: prison education; literacy courses; religious education; group dynamics; vocational training; covid-19 introduction according to the latest world prison population list, published in november 2018, turkey ranks eighth in the world in terms of the number of incarcerated people (walmsley, 2018). although, due to inconsistencies in its data, turkey was not included in the survey of 2019, the council of europe annual penal statistics revealed that the population increase rate in turkish prisons among the 47 european council countries ranks first with 161.7% (aebi & chopin, 2016). for a better understanding of the current target population, table 1 illustrates and compares the number of inmates in turkey between 2009 and 2019. 211 table 1: educational level of prisoners in a decade in turkey (20092019). source: turkstat, 2020. educational status number of prisoners in 2009 number of prisoners in 2019 % increase illiterate 2,040 2,027 -%1.3 literate 2,375 10,514 %342.5 primary school 31,715 41,843 %31.9 secondary 17,733 140,077 %689.9 school high school 12,675 63,940 %404.4 higher school 2,992 20,653 %590.2 unknown 240 2,551 %962.9 total 69,770 281,605 %303.6 literature review pedagogic assumptions after the coup attempt on 15 july 2016, the number of incarcerated adults who are alleged to have been involved in the coup and/or who are politically dissident continue to increase. although the current official number of prisoners is not shared, before about forty thousand prisoners were released in march 2020 due to covid-19, there were officially 281,605 prisoners in turkish correctional institutions including 11,000 female inmates (turkstat, 2020). turkey has 355 correctional institutions, of which 16 are for female inmates (general directorate of prisons and detention houses [from now on gdp&dh], 2019). as for the training and educational activities in these correctional settings, prison education programmes in turkey are categorised as follows (education service division of gdp&dh, 2020): • literacy courses • distance learning tests (at secondary, high school and university levels) • application of national tests inside prison (such as the national university entrance test, higher education test, etc.) • religious education (in cooperation with the presidency of religious affairs) • vocational and technical training • social, cultural and sports activities. although a reasonable number of studies have been conducted on each of the activities above, mainly religious education (altıntaş, 2019; çınar, 2016; kızmaz, 2005), cultural activities (koç, 2016; koçak & altun, 2010; üney & erim, 2019) and literacy education in prisons (balaban & özen, 2015; köçer & aydemir, 2016), there is a lack of international research that critically reflects prison education in turkey from the perspective of adult learning, which is shaped by the views of former prisoners. therefore, the main motivation of the present paper was to try to bridge this gap. to accomplish the purpose of this study, eight former inmates were interviewed, and they shared their learning experience in prison. the results of the study build on the existing literature, providing additional insights and knowledge on adult learning and prison education. in order to provide some context, a brief historical overview of prison education in turkey has been added. 212 a literature review of prison education in turkey: from past to present (1923-2021) since turkey inherited many state institutions from the ottoman empire, correctional education activities date back to centuries ago. during the ottoman period, the judges (kadi) who enforced the rules of islamic law reached a verdict of correction through labouring, which was a kind of educational activity, based on two approaches: a) to ensure that offenders could pay their own expenses and debts and contribute to their families’ livelihood, and b) to ensure that offenders had an opportunity to get used to their new environment and forget their personal issues (öztürk, 2014). however, these practices in the ottoman empire altered as the country was influenced by changes in punishment practices in europe. as foucault stated (1975/2015), the process of consolidation of power, which started with violence and torture inflicted on the body, evolved into a continuous body control through discipline and surveillance. under the influence of new punishment practices in europe, the first criminal code in the ottoman empire was applied across the country in 1858. rehabilitating prisoners under constant surveillance and correcting them by forcing them to work was fixed by law. in 1911, the 'prison improvement project' was launched and engaging inmates in activities such as art and music as well as educational ones was initiated (gönen, 2005). after the foundation of the republic of turkey in 1923, a great number of reform movements started in both public institutions and social life. therefore, based on the belgian penal execution law of 1902, a regulation was prepared in 1941 (gdp&dh, chronology of prisons in turkey, 2019). teachers were appointed to the prisons with two basic responsibilities: a) providing literacy courses, and b) ensuring the spiritual development of prisoners. the same law also required the building of new ateliers in prisons and to employ workshop managers with two basic duties: a) teaching crafts to prisoners, and b) ensuring an efficient workforce of prisoners. apart from literacy education to the prisoners, conferences were planned to ensure their spiritual development and to strengthen their patriotism so that they would not commit a crime again (the official gazette, 1941). as the spiritual development of prisoners was not considered enough, preachers were employed in penal institutions after 1974. prison education in turkey took its current form in 2007. from then on, correctional practices have been carried out within the annual curriculum and divided into two semesters. as the most common ones, literacy courses are carried out through protocols with the ministry of national education (mone). books and education programmes are provided by mone and when the number of teachers in prisons is insufficient (as of june 2021, the number of teachers working in prisons was 663), it is supported by mone. the 1st level literacy course lasts 90 hours in total, whereas the 2nd level finishes after 180 hours. from 2018 to 2020, 10,818 prisoners have benefited from these basic literacy courses (kamacı, 2021). those who have a basic education certificate can continue open secondary school, while those who have graduated from secondary school can continue open high school. there are no courses for distance education inside the prisons and only tests are carried out within the correctional setting. the number of prisoners enrolled open high schools in 2021 totalled 24,106 (kamacı, 2021). anadolu university, which conducts distance education in turkey, is responsible for the open university activities in prisons as well and 6,567 inmates benefited from this opportunity in 2016. as with open secondary school and high school, the ou holds only the tests inside prison and student inmates study for the exams by themselves (gdp&dh, annual activity report, 2017). 213 religious education activities are carried out in prisons using the protocols between the presidency of religious affairs and the ministry of justice. it is divided into two branches: religious culture and moral knowledge — a 74-unit modular course programme — and quran teaching in the arabic alphabet (çınar, 2016). in this regard, in 2020, the number of chaplains appointed in prisons was 2,951 (directorate of religious affairs, 2021). there are 297 workshops within the prisons across the country (the grand national assembly parliamentary human rights commission, 2018). these workshops operate widely in 172 different varieties of sectors, such as furniture, leather, cotton goods (e.g., towels, bathrobes), food, beverage, and vegetable/fruit production. according to the workshops activity report of gdp&dh (2019) 27,387 prisoners were working, with a revenue of 2.5 billion turkish liras (around 290 million usd). depending on their experience, prisoners are paid in total between 14 tl (around 1.3 million usd) to 17.5 tl per day. recreational activities in prisons are defined as sports activities, seminars and conferences. these activities are under the responsibility of the prison teacher and the deputy prison director (gdp&dh, education circular, 2007). recreational activities are also practiced in libraries. all correctional institutions in turkey have libraries, with around one million books in total (the grand national assembly human rights commission, 2019). however, no professional librarians work in turkish prisons (gdp&dh, number of staff, 2020). research objectives this study aimed to determine the learning patterns and experiences of incarcerated adults within the correctional settings and how their prison learning transforms their lives after they are released. with this in mind, detailed research was conducted on each activity (literacy courses, distance learning tests, religious education, vocational trainings, and social, cultural and sports activities) based on the educational practices maintained in prisons in turkey. methods research methodology a qualitative research design was used in the present study to determine learning patterns and experiences of incarcerated adults within correctional settings and how their prison learning transforms their lives after they are released. population and sample a sample framework was created to identify the participants who would comprise the study group among the former inmates accessed through snowball sampling. in this regard, the following criteria were considered in selecting the participants of the study: 1. participants should be representative of those who participated in different training or educational activities during their imprisonment. (those who did not participate in structured training/educational activities but claimed to have made new learning were also considered to have the criteria to be a participant). 2. the participants should be representative of different education levels. 3. the participants should be willing to share candidly about their learning processes during their stay in prison and their experiences after being released. 4. participants should be released from prison at least two months before their participation in the study. 214 in accordance with the sampling criteria determined through purposeful sampling, firstly, acquaintances of former prisoners in the close circle of the researcher were contacted. then, other incarcerated people were contacted through potential participants reached through the snowball method. in total, 19 former prisoners were reached. the final number was eight, in line with the former prisoners' willingness to participate and the above criteria determined before the research. the determination of the working group residing in various parts of turkey took place between the beginning of march 2020 and the end of april 2020. table 2 illustrates some of the demographic characteristics of the sample group of the study. table 2: demographic features of interviewed former prisoners. former prisoners educational status age period of conviction fp1 high school 38 5 years 3 months fp2 higher education 43 4 years 1 month fp3 literate 60 12 years fp4 secondary school 53 4 years fp5 primary school 50 9 years 6 months fp6 higher education 30 2 years 4 months fp7 high school 35 8 years fp8 primary school 48 15 years 7 months tools used an interview guide was created before data collection was made using semi-structured interviews. the interviews started with broad open-ended questions then went into more detail as the interviews progressed. the interviews were completed with the final comments of the interviewees. the first participant was interviewed in person since he lived in the same city as the interviewer. since the other seven interviewees lived in different cities and intercity transportation was limited due to covid-19, the interviews were conducted via zoom. the first meeting lasted nearly three hours without any interruption. when the data started to repeat and the data collection saturation was reached, the interviews were terminated. each zoom interview also lasted for a total of three hours and occurred at short intervals. eventually, the interviews concluded with a one-hour group meeting with all the former prisoners to make their final comments. therefore, a total of 25 hours of interviews were conducted for this paper between may 2020 and july 2020. data collection and data analysis at the first stage of the research, document analysis technique was implemented through collecting data from official reports, statistics, minutes, books, and articles that were about prison education from past to present in turkey. moreover, eight semi-structured interviews were conducted as another data collection technique. after all the semi-structured interviews were completed, a focus group interview was organised with all the participants in the research. as for the data analysis process of the study, thematic analysis method was used. since the coding framework was developed both from reading the related literature and by transcribing the interview, a deductive-inductive combination approach was applied to thematic analysis. at first, the recorded interviews were listened to and transcribed to construct an initial coding chart. each interview was addressed as a research unit and classified according to the type of 215 education/training the interviewees attended in their correctional setting. before the irrelevant or disconnected themes for each type of education/training were deleted, the potential themes and grouping of the codes under those themes were identified. after re-reading and revising the themes, the results of the interviews were presented and discussed. limitation of the study the data obtained in the research are limited to the opinions of the participants. since the former prisoners were reached with the snowball technique and they knew each other from their former accommodations, the sample of the study is limited to only male prisoners. ethical clearance participants agreed to participate in the study on condition that they remain anonymous. findings: educational practices first time ever learners: literacy courses lifelong education (learning) has been officially on our agenda for more than a century, since the british adult education committee report of the ministry of reconstruction in 1919 (as cited in field, 2001). therefore, it is now a well-known fact that every individual is a lifelong learner from the moment they are born until they die. it is by no means possible to claim that adults who did not enroll in any schools have not learnt anything, since adults participate in hundreds of hours of informal learning (merriam et al., 2007). one of the former prisoners who was illiterate before his incarceration claimed that they graduated from the school of life and they know everything but literacy. therefore, the first time ever learner in the title is the socalled saying of prisoners who feel like a student for the first time in their lives after they attended the literacy courses in correctional institutions. fp3: at first, i felt like a schoolboy. you know, i attended a parents' meeting at my daughter's school once and sat on a school-chair but it was something completely different. at times when i found the lessons hard to learn, dictation words in particular, i wished i hadn't told the authorities that i was illiterate but now i’m happy to be literate. the only good thing being in prison was that i went in as illiterate, i came out literate! interviewer: do you think the trainings you received in prison helped to improve yourself? fp3: absolutely, i can shop without asking the department staff in the market about the expiry date, i can read the sign of coach route and where to go, etc. i can even read information about the coronavirus on the internet. i'm not very fast, but i get the job done! i do not need anybody. i am truly free. prisoners commonly have a lower level of education than the general population (batchelder & pippert, 2002; cai et al., 2019; ewert & wildhagen, 2011). however, there are also findings that the educational levels of the general population and the prison population are akin to each other (hetland et al., 2007). compared to the general population in turkey, the decreasing number of illiterate prisoners is the only group that is similar to the educational level of the general population (turkstat, 2020). there are few studies on whether prisoners are satisfied with the educational practices provided in turkish prisons (balaban & özen, 2015; şen, 2016). the results of the present study show that the prisoners are relatively satisfied with the processes. however, it seems that since inmates did not experience any other educational settings in their former lives, their first formal-setting learning experience may have been pleasing. interviewer: are you satisfied with the process of literacy courses? 216 fp3: i had never been a student in a classroom environment before, so i don’t know what to say. however, i respected my teacher a lot, because he was teaching me. you know, there is a saying here: 'i will be a slave for forty years to anyone who teaches me a letter.' well, both the teacher and the courses were ok with me. tests behind the bars: open schools and universities there are a lot of programmes within the prisons that offer higher education, college education or post-secondary correctional education for incarcerated people. unfortunately, there are no educational alternatives inside the turkish correctional institutions except for literacy and religious courses and the only activity implemented inside the prisons is the tests in distance education. fp7 (distance higher school student): we were studying for the higher education courses by ourselves and then we sat for the exams, you fail or pass. however lately, we have had a lot of university-graduate inmates and they helped really a lot. i passed english and maths courses with their help. fp4: i can say that they were guides not only about the lessons, but also in terms of manners. the change in the educational demographic structure of the prison population seems to have caused the transformation of group dynamics within the prisons. a self-developed tutoring system has been established among prisoners. those who are “more educated” became a kind of learning coach for those who are less educated. thus, rather than creating a hierarchical structure or leadership process, they took on a facilitating role. religious education it seems that the former prisoners attended to the religious courses in order to meet their temporary needs since they stated that they learnt how to motivate themselves to struggle with conditions of prison settings through the religious courses. however, the changing dynamics of life after being released show that what they learned in religious courses was not permanent. fp5: being close to god always relieves me ‘cause i’m his servant. i benefited greatly from the lessons of the preachers who visited us twice a week. i can say that it helped a lot in coping with the prison environment. interviewer: do you think the trainings you received in prison helped you to develop patience? fp5: yes, in the past prophets also suffered, were thrown into dungeons, etc. those parables made me feel that i was not alone and that i had to be patient like them. fp1: when i was inside, i was attending religious practices both to spend time and to feel better. after being released from prison, i have been struggling with the troubles of daily life. the life outside is different. self-directed learners in the prisons: libraries and recreation activities studies show that as the education level of adults increases, their probability of being involved in lifelong learning processes increases (fuwa, 2001; kim et al., 2004; rabusicova & rabusic, 2006). in other words, the previous education level of adults has an impact on their subsequent learning experiences. as for the present study, the university graduate prisoners seem to be more capable of managing and directing their own learning as lifelong learners compared to other prisoners. university graduate former prisoners stated that they managed and directed their own learning when they could not find courses according to their interests and needs in the education list offered by the prison administration. fp2: after the adaptation period, i decided to focus on the things i was planning to do while i was 217 out, but that i was constantly delaying. vocational courses did not interest me because i had a job to do when i would be released. i started by reading the books that interested me in the library. although the books in the library seemed to be numerous, they were not rich in content. i asked my family to bring books when they would visit me, and now, compared to the days before my incarceration, i can say that i know more about many subjects. interviewer: how did these learnings make a change in your life after you were released? fp2: in this process, i became more aware of issues such as how i learn and how fast i can learn. i am more confident about my learning. during the interviews, the former prisoners pointed out the need for education enriched with a technological environment. however, technological updating of prison education is not among the priorities of the authorities due to the general economic situation in the country. fp6: i was trying to improve my english thinking that it can be useful for me when i get out of prison. i was released after the covid-19 pandemic. before the coronavirus, we used to have conferences once a month. unfortunately, they were ended and we did not have any online conferences or online learning opportunities. happy inside but not outside: vocational trainings former prisoners, who got busy with learning a new profession, felt themselves productive. however, they unanimously expressed their struggles in finding a job after their release. it is difficult for any citizen, even one without a criminal record, to find a job, especially after covid19. therefore, they stated that they were disappointed that they could not perform their new skills outside of prison in ordinary life. in fact, from time to time, they even longed for their prison days when they were so frustrated. fp7: i'm a general high school graduate and didn't get any vocational trainings before my incarceration. i attended upholstery training and i started working inside. however, after release, i am not lucky enough to find a job until now. fp1: i sometimes miss inside when i think about the money issues. we were no different from each other and we were making little money but we were working. there is no job outside. everyone is unemployed because of the pandemic. it is even more difficult for me to find a job as a former prisoner. i feel like a burden to my parents. discussion and implications there seems to be a positive change in former prisoners who received literacy courses in prison. the interviewees, who attended literacy courses in prison, stated that their roles as citizens and urbanites changed. they were able to follow current news and act more comfortably in their daily lives without being dependent on anyone. more importantly, literacy and numeracy learning liberated them in a way. therefore, literacy courses in prisons helped to increase the number of conscientious and active citizens in turkey. as stated by stromquist (2006), this may increase social participation in the long run. moreover, they seem to have improved their selfesteem compared to their lives before serving in prison. this is a positive indicator for their personal development. the prison education programs, which are carried out in cooperation with colleges and universities, have both personal and social benefits in terms of reducing crime-prone inmates and recidivism (baranger et al., 2018; castro & gould, 2019). those who were students of open education received educational assistance from other prisoners with a better education level, and both parties were happy with the process. therefore, the prisoners continued their learning activities in informal settings apart from the literacy course-hours. moreover, although they did 218 not take a high school or university course within prison, preparing for the exams and striving to obtain a high school or university diploma had a positive impact on the personal development of former prisoners. dammer (2002) states that the practice of religious activities in correctional institutions and their influence is as old as the prisons themselves. whether religious education can have positive impact on recidivism or coping with prison conditions has been discussed by a lot of researchers (iiechukwu & ugwuozor, 2017; johnson et al., 1997). similar studies were conducted by researchers at the national level in turkey as well (kızmaz, 2005; tecim, 2009). to reach a scientific conclusion based on the findings, this subject matter seems to need more data and research. the participants in the present study stated that they tried to fill the emotional gaps they experienced due to prison conditions with religious education, but when they were released, they had no such need. thus, they concluded that their state of mind changed after they re-entered society and the effects of the religious courses were temporary and not permanent. as the education level of the interviewees increased, their willingness to manage their own learning also increased. according to the results of the research, the more educated the former prisoners were, the more self-directed learners they turned into. the university graduate former prisoners had the opportunity to explore their learning styles and this process enabled them to be more confident about their own learning. in turkey, after prisoners re-enter society they have difficulties becoming employed compared to citizens without criminal records (engin, 2012; koçak & altun, 2010; saruç, 2018; savaş & eryalçın, 2020). for instance, the findings of the most recent study conducted in turkey by savaş and eryalçın (2020) illustrate that the two main reasons for post-prison unemployment are the high unemployment rates in the general population and employers’ negative attitudes and bias against former prisoners. therefore, even though they attend vocational training and get their daily wages inside the prisons, it is not easy for them to become employed after being released. the former prisoners who did not have any profession before their incarceration said that they were glad to be of service after they attended the vocational training programmes and got a profession. however, after being released, it remains difficult for them to find a job. in her study, cross (1981) underlines three important barriers for adult learners: institutional, situational, and dispositional. for the present study, the institutional barrier mostly stands out due to reasons such as the lack of interest of the prisoners in the educational content offered by their institution, and the educational disruptions, after covid-19, due to lack of the necessary technological infrastructure. according to the results of the research, it was revealed that the education leaders who coordinate the vocational education activities in prisons should make decisions by considering the needs of the business world while planning their educational processes. in this way, former prisoners who are at a disadvantaged stage for employment can become more in demand according to the needs of the market. moreover, vocational trainers/educators in correctional institutions should be highly aware of changing market needs and carry out intensive, practical training in prison accordingly, so that prisoners can more easily adapt to their new jobs outside of prison settings. conclusion the literacy courses seemed to help former prisoners develop themselves as active and confident citizens and, therefore, had positive effect on their lives. on the other hand, the effect 219 of religious education in correctional settings was not permanent. open distance high school or university education contributed to the academic development of former prisoners. university graduate prisoners developed their own learning by discovering how to be self-directed learners. finally, the prisoners, who occupied themselves with the vocational courses while learning a new profession were happy to get a profession. however, they expressed their disappointment because they had difficulty in finding a job in that profession after being released from prison. the interruptions in educational activities carried out under traditional conditions in turkish prisons show that technology-enhanced educational opportunities should be prioritised in correctional institutions. therefore, different alternatives such as e-learning, blended learning, digital learning, or technology enhanced learning should be considered for those who are incarcerated. acknowledgement: i am grateful to the former prisoners who participated in the research and shared their learning experiences. disclosure statement: this study has no conflict of interest. references aebi, f.m., & chopin, j. (2016). persons serving non-custodial sanctions and measures in 2015. council of europe annual penal statistics space ii. altıntaş, m.a. (2019). a qualitative research on spiritual guidance and religious services in prisons (kayseri case). diyanet i̇lmi dergisi, 55, 81-119. https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article file/679678 balaban, ö., & özen, s. (2015). perception of imprisoned and convicts in penal institutions on training activities: t type closed prison case. çalışma i̇lişkileri dergisi, 6(1), 37-52. https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/308067 baranger, j., rousseau, d., mastrorilli, m.e., & matesanz, j. (2018). doing time wisely: the social and personal benefits of higher education in prison. the prison journal, 98(4), 490-513. https://doi.org/10.1177/0032885518776380 batchelder, j.s., & pippert, j.m. (2002). hard time or idle time: factors affecting inmate choices between participation in prison work and education programs. the prison journal, 82(2), 269-280. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/003288550208200206 cai, j., ruhil, a.v., & gut, d.m. (2019). prison-based education: programs, participation and proficiency in literacy/numeracy. program for the international assessment of adult competencies gateway. castro, e.l., & gould, m.r. (2019). higher education in prison. critical education, 10(13), 1-15. https://ices.library.ubc.ca/index.php/criticaled/article/view/186525 cross, k.p. (1981). adults as learners. increasing participation and facilitating learning. josey-bass. çınar, f. (2016). religious education in prisons. hitit university journal of divinity faculty, 15(29), 131 149. https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/235239 dammer, h.r. (2002). the reasons for religious involvement in the correctional environment. journal of offender rehabilitation, 35(3-4), 35-58. https://doi.org/10.1300/j076v35n03_03 directorate of religious affairs, strategy development directorate. (2021). statistics. number of personnel according to statistical regional units classification and staff (mufti's office). https://stratejigelistirme.diyanet.gov.tr/sayfa/57/istatistikler engin, e.m. (2012). working in penal institutions and employment of former prisoners in the context of anti-crime measures. çalışma i̇lişkileri dergisi, 3(2), 24-35. https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/308022 220 ewert, s., & wildhagen, t. (2011). educational characteristics of prisoners: data from the acs. presentation at the population association of america. field, j. (2001). lifelong education. international journal of lifelong education, 20(1-2), 3-15. https://doi.org/10.1080/09638280010008291 foucault, m. (2015). surveillance and punishment. (m.a. kılıçbay, trans.). i̇mge kitabevi. (original work published in 1975). fuwa, k. (2001). lifelong education in japan, a highly school-centred society: educational opportunities and practical educational activities for adults. international journal of lifelong education, 20(12), 127-136. https://doi.org/10.1080/02601370010008327 general directorate of prisons and detention houses (gdp&dh) the ministry of justice. (2020). number of staff. http://www.cte.adalet.gov.tr/home/sayfadetay/ personel-durumu gdp&dh. (2020). education service division. http://www.cte.adalet.gov.tr/home/ sayfadetay/egitimservisi-faaliyetleri gdp&dh. (2019). general information. http://www.cte.adalet.gov.tr/home/ sayfadetay/cik-genel-bilgi gdp&dh. (2019). chronology of prisons in turkey (1850-2005). http://www.cte.adalet.gov.tr/home/sayfadetay/turkiye-ceza-infaz-kurumlari-kronolojisi-18502005 gdp&dh. the department for foreign affairs. (2017). the year of 2016 unit annual activity report. report no. 2017/1. https://cte.adalet.gov.tr/resimler/ dokuman/20820191410332016_faliyet_raporu.pdf gdp&dh. (2007). education circular. genelge no: 46/1.http://www.cte.adalet.gov.tr/resimler/dokuman/198201911532446_1.pdf gdp&dh. (2019). workshops activity report, 2018. http://www.iydb.adalet.gov.tr/resimler/bilgibankasi/2822019181508faaliyet_raporu_2018.pdf gönen, y.s. (2005). an attempt to improve prisons in the ottoman empire, the year of 1917. in e.g. naskali & h.o. altun (eds.), hapishane kitabı (pp. 173-183). bookstore publications, turkey. hetland, h., eikeland, o.j., manger, t., diseth, å., & asbjørnsen, a. (2007). educational background in a prison population. journal of correctional education, 145-156. https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/23282733.pdf johnson, b.r., larson, d.b., & pitts, t.c. (1997). religious programs, institutional adjustment, and recidivism among former inmates in prison fellowship programs. justice quarterly, 14(1), 145 166. https://doi.org/10.1080/07418829700093251 kamacı, a.i̇. (2021). anadolu agency. https://www.aa.com.tr/tr/turkiye/son-uc-yilda-cezaevlerindeki-10 bin-818-tutuklu-ve-hukumlu-okuma-yazma-ogrendi-20-kisi-hafiz-oldu/2197769 kızmaz, z. (2005). religion and criminality: a theoretical approach in terms of crime theories. fırat university journal of social sciences, 15(1), 189-215. https://search.trdizin.gov.tr/yayin/detay/40060/ kim, k., hagedorn, m., williamson, j., & chapman, c. (2004). participation in adult education and lifelong learning: 2000-01. national center for education statistics. koç, t. (2016). being a worker prisoner in turkey. açık toplum vakfı. koçak, o., & altun, s. (2010). contribution of vocational training activities in the penal institution to the employment of former prisoners. çalışma i̇lişkileri dergisi, 1(1), 95-117. https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/307997 köçer, m., & aydemir, v. (2016). implementation of the alphabet reform in prisons. international journal of social sciences, 53, 29-36. http://dx.doi.org/10.9761/jasss6890 merriam, s.b., caffarella, r.s., & baumgartner, l.m. (2007). learning in adulthood: a comprehensive guide. john wiley& sons, inc. 221 öztürk, s. (2014). 19th century transformation in the ottoman criminal system: transition from dungeon to prison. [unpublished master’s dissertation. adnan menderes university.] http://adudspace.adu.edu.tr:8080/xmlui/bitstream/handle/11607/ 424/10027691.pdf?sequence=1 rabusicova, m., & rabusic, l. (2006). adult education in the czech republic — who participates and why. sociologický časopis/czech sociological review, 42(6), 1195-1218. https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/41132358.pdf saruç, s. (2018). crime adventure of woman. women convicts: pre-prison, prison process and postevacuation. nisan kitabevi, 122. savaş, g., & eryalçın, t. (2020). applied research on the employment of ex-convicts and probationer. journal of society & social work, 31(2), 336-367. https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/1072702 stromquist, n. (2006). the political benefits of adult literacy. background paper for efa global monitoring report, 2005. şen, ş. (2016). evaluation of educational activities given in penal institutions in terms of lifelong learning: example of zonguldak province. [unpublished master’s dissertation. bartın university.] https://acikerisim.bartin.edu.tr/handle/11772/215 tecim, e. (2009). perception of religion and religious life in the prison. selcuk university journal of faculty of letters, 22, 61-86. https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/151996 the grand national assembly of turkey, human rights commission, human rights investigation commission journal. (2018). second meeting. period 27, legislative year 2, november 14, 2018. https://www.tbmm.gov.tr/develop/owa/komisyon_tutanaklari.goruntule?ptutanakid=2216 the grand national assembly of turkey, human rights commission, human rights investigation commission journal. (2019). second meeting. period 27, legislative year 3, november 14, 2019. https://www.tbmm.gov.tr/develop/owa/komisyon_tutanaklari.goruntule?ptutanakid=2338 turkstat. (2020). prison statistics. https://data.tuik.gov.tr/bulten/index?p=ceza-infaz-kurumu istatistikleri-2019-33625 the official gazette [resmi gazete]. (1941). 16 ağustos 1941 tarihli 4888 sayılı, 16328 no’lu kararname. ceza ve tevkif evleri nizamnamesi. https://www.resmigazete.gov.tr/arsiv/4888.pdf üney, r., & erim, b.r. (2019). the effects of regular physical exercise on violent behavior, coping with stress and self-confidence in male prisoners of a closed prison. anatolian journal of psychiatry, 20(6), 619-626. https://doi.org/10.5455/apd.29009 walmsley, r. (2018). world prison population list, 12th edition. wpb, institute for criminal policy. https://www.prisonstudies.org/sites/default/files/resources/ downloads/wppl_12.pdf author: gulden akin is an associate professor doctor at ankara university faculty of educational sciences, lifelong learning and adult education department, turkey. her fields of study are the education of vulnerable groups among adults, biographical learning and gender issues. email: akingulden@gmail.com cite this paper as: akin, g. (2023). learning behind the bars: implications for ‘learning-for-development’. journal of learning for development, 10(2), 210-221. microsoft word salas-rueda.docx issn: 2311-1550 2022, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 509-527 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. students' perception about the use of an educational web application during the covid-19 pandemic ricardo-adán salas-rueda, selene-marisol martínez-ramírez, jesús ramírez-ortega, and clara alvarado-zamorano instituto de ciencias aplicadas y tecnología, universidad nacional autónoma de méxico abstract: sars-cov-2 virus has caused universities to update their courses in the distance modality. the general aim of this mixed research was to build and analyse the use of a web application for the educational process about the t-test considering data science. in particular, the professor of the teaching of mathematics ii course needed to update the school activities because of the new educational demands caused by the covid-19 pandemic. to facilitate the educational process of math, this teacher decided to build a web application that presents the formulas and calculation of the mean, standard deviation and statistical error to understand the use of the t-test. this technological tool allows the personalisation of learning through the simulation of data. the participants were 42 students from a mexican university. the results of machine learning indicated that the contents of the web application positively influenced the assimilation of knowledge, satisfaction during the learning process, development of mathematical skills and learning in the distance modality. the decision tree technique allows the construction of four (4) predictive models about the use of the web application for the educational process about the t-test. finally, educators have the opportunity to improve the teaching-learning conditions during the sarscov-2 virus through the design and construction of web applications. keywords: ict, data science, learning, higher education, web application. introduction universities currently seek to improve their educational quality through the incorporation of information and communication technologies (icts) in school activities (guillén-gámez, mayorgafernández, & ramos, 2021; huang & zhu, 2021; ocampo-alvarado & ullauri-ugarte, 2021). in fact, teachers are modifying the planning and organisation of courses through technological tools in order to face the new challenges caused by the sars-cov-2 virus (alawajee, 2021; amka & dalle, 2022; demir & gologlu-demir, 2021). technological advances such as the learning management system (lms), videoconferencing systems and web applications allow the organisation of new virtual educational spaces where students actively participate inside and outside the classroom (gormaz-lobos et al., 2022). therefore, educators use these digital tools to facilitate the communication, consultation of the school content, review of multimedia resources and interaction with the participants of the educational process (pham et al., 2022; prevalla et al., 2022). technological tools on the internet such as web applications play a fundamental role during the organisation and realisation of new activities because they promote the active role of the students 510 before, during and after classes (cabero-almenara et al., 2021; fan et al., 2021; grunis et al., 2021). even distance courses are increasing to meet the educational demands of the students in the 21st century (arsarkij & laohajaratsang, 2021; chambi-mescco, 2021; maheshwari, 2021). educators can improve the learning process from anywhere and encourage the participation of the students at any time by building educational web applications (halvoník & psenak, 2021; huang & zhu, 2021; rodriguez-lora & herrera-caballero, 2021). likewise, web tools allow the autonomy of the students during the educational process (demir, kaleli-yilmaz, & sert-celik, 2021; fan et al., 2021; tawafak, alfarsi, & jabbar, 2021). due to the covid-19 pandemic, universities have modified the activities of their courses with the support of icts to improve the teaching-learning conditions in the distance modality. in particular, the educator of the teaching of mathematics ii course needed to update school activities because of the new educational demands caused by the sars-cov-2 virus. to facilitate the educational process for math, this teacher decided to build a web application that presents the formulas and calculation of the mean, standard deviation and statistical error in order to understand the use of the t-test. this technological tool allows the personalisation of learning through the simulation of data. research questions the general aim of this mixed research was to build and analyse the use of the web application for the educational process about the t-test using the techniques of data science. the research questions are: • how do the contents of the web application influence the assimilation of knowledge, satisfaction during the learning process, development of mathematical skills and learning in the distance modality, considering the machine learning technique? • what are the predictive models about the use of the web application considering the decision tree technique? • what is the perception of the students about the use of the web application during the covid19 pandemic? hypotheses the research hypotheses in this study were the following: • hypothesis 1 (h1): the contents of the web application positively influence the assimilation of knowledge. • hypothesis 2 (h2): the contents of the web application positively influence satisfaction during the learning process. • hypothesis 3 (h3): the contents of the web application positively influence the development of mathematical skills. • hypothesis 4 (h4): the contents of the web application positively influence the learning in the distance modality. 511 literature review online learning during the pandemic during the covid-19 pandemic, educators faced the challenge of searching for and using new technological tools to carry out the teaching-learning process in the distance modality (choiriyah et al., 2022; rasool et al., 2022; zulherman et al., 2021). for example, the learning management systems (lms) facilitated the distribution of tasks, review of the multimedia resources, participation in discussion forums and realisation of online exams at any time (pham et al., 2022; zulherman et al., 2021). in fact, google classroom, canvas and moodle have a fundamental role because these technological tools facilitate the interaction between the teacher and students (pham et al., 2022; zulherman et al., 2021). on the other hand, videoconferencing systems facilitated the communication between the participants of the educational process, presentation of the course topics and resolution of doubts from any location (ismail et al., 2022; prevalla et al., 2022). in particular, educators used zoom to explain the school content at any time during the covid-19 pandemic (ismail et al., 2022; prevalla et al., 2022). likewise, technological tools facilitate the personalisation of learning in the distance modality (gormaz-lobos et al., 2022). for example, geogebra allows updating the activities of mathematics courses because this web application facilitates the creation of graphs and the identification of coordinates for linear, quadratic, exponential and logarithmic functions (salas-rueda & salas-rueda, 2019). the benefits of web applications in the educational field are the consultation with information, interaction with school content and active participation of the students from any location (choiriyah et al., 2022; zygouris et al., 2017). likewise, rajabalee et al. (2018) explain the level of students' online participation considering use of discussion forums, online quizzes, blogs, youtube videos, educational websites and the application of elearning for knowledge acquisition, critical thinking skills, understanding and practical competencies. in conclusion, the incorporation of technological advances such as lms, videoconferencing systems and web applications improved the teaching-learning conditions, promoted the active role of the students and facilitated the performance of school activities during the covid-19 pandemic (choiriyah et al., 2022; rasool et al., 2022). construction and use of technological tools the design and construction of technological tools play a fundamental role in facing the challenges caused by the covid-19 pandemic (georgieva-tsaneva & serbezova, 2021; liu & lu, 2021). in fact, the creation and use of technological applications improved the teaching-learning process about the english language (huang & zhu, 2021), computing (halvoník & psenak, 2021), mathematics (fan et al., 2021) and medicine (georgieva-tsaneva & serbezova, 2021). technological advances open the possibility of creating new virtual spaces for teaching and learning (arsarkij & laohajaratsang, 2021; huang & zhu, 2021; liu & lu, 2021). in bulgaria, the construction of web games allowed updating school activities in the courses on medicine (georgieva-tsaneva & serbezova, 2021). the use of these technological tools also facilitated the assimilation of knowledge about nursing and developed the skills of the students (georgieva-tsaneva & serbezova, 2021). 512 in the english course, huang and zhu (2021) built a technological tool that allowed the consultation with multimedia resources such as audios, videos and digital presentations from any location. likewise, halvoník and psenak (2021) built a technological application to facilitate the assimilation of knowledge about computing through a virtual assistant. in the field of mathematics, fan et al. (2021) built a web system to facilitate the selection of the courses through bayes' theorem and the profile of the students. similarly, liu and lu (2021) proposed the construction of web applications to increase the academic performance and motivation of the students, promote the active participation from anywhere and facilitate distance learning. finally, educational institutions can update course activities, encourage the active role, facilitate the assimilation of knowledge and develop the students' skills through the construction of technological applications (fan et al., 2021; georgieva-tsaneva & serbezova, 2021; halvoník & psenak, 2021). even fan et al. (2021) mention that web tools are the future of education. use of data science currently, data science allows organising and identifying hidden information to establish the relationships between phenomena (mi et al., 2022; zheng & na, 2021). in fact, this is used by researchers in various fields such as medicine, engineering and education to facilitate decision making (mi et al., 2022). for example, the techniques of data science such as linear regression, decision trees and neural networks allow identifying the patterns to classify and evaluate the information (zheng & na, 2021). in the educational field, the machine learning technique allowed evaluation of the use of technological tools before, during and after face-to-face sessions through linear regression (salas-rueda, 2021). likewise, the decision tree technique facilitated the identification of the predictive conditions between the independent and dependent variables related to the incorporation of icts in the teaching-learning process (salas-rueda, 2021). on the other hand, parahoo et al. (2016) built a predictive model about the satisfaction of the students in online higher education considering the marketing construct of university reputation, physical facilities, faculty empathy and interactions. according to zheng and na (2021), the machine learning technique (linear regression) allowed for identification of the influence of students' emotions on their academic performance during the english language course. in the same way, mi et al. (2022) used the neural networks, decision trees and regression to find out what are the factors that affect the academic performance of the students in the distance modality. finally, the techniques of data science allow finding patterns, identifying hidden information and evaluating the relationship between phenomena in order to facilitate decision making (mi et al., 2022; nuankaew et al., 2019). methods the particular aims of this mixed research were: (1) analyse the perception of the students about the use of the web application for the assimilation of knowledge, satisfaction during the learning process, development of mathematical skills and learning in the distance modality through the machine 513 learning technique, (2) build the predictive models about the web application considering the profile of the students through the decision tree technique, and (3) analyse the perception of the students about the use of the web application during the covid-19 pandemic. sample the participants were 42 students (20 men and 22 women) in mathematics and computer science. the average age was 22.85 years. these participants studied in the faculty of sciences at the national autonomous university of mexico during the 2021 school year. the type of sampling was nonprobabilistic. tools used the educator of the teaching of mathematics ii course used the php programming language to build the web application about the t-test (see figure 1). this technological tool is available at: http://sistemasusables.com/2022/aplicacion/inicio.html figure 1: web application about the t-test the addie model facilitated the planning and organisation of the educational web application about the t-test (see table 1). 514 table 1: the addie model no. stage aspects description 1 analysis problem due to the covid-19 pandemic, universities have modified the activities of the courses with the support of icts to improve the teaching-learning conditions in the distance modality educational context in particular, the educator of the teaching of mathematics ii course needed to update the school activities because the new educational demands caused by the sars-cov-2 virus learning objectives understand the calculation and use of the t-test understand the establishment of hypotheses understand and use the formulas about the mean, standard deviation and statistical error 2 design strategy construction of the educational web application about the t-test 3 development web application step 1: establish the hypotheses step 2: show the calculation of the mean step 3: show the calculation of the standard deviation step 4: show the calculation of the statistical error step 5: show the calculation of the t-test 4 implementation distribution internet 5 evaluation data collection data collection through a questionnaire figure 2 shows the model used to analyse the students' perceptions about the web application. figure 2: model used in this research various authors (e.g., arsarkij & laohajaratsang, 2021; huang & zhu, 2021; liu & lu, 2021) explain that technological advances such as web applications allow organising new school activities and improving teaching-learning conditions in the distance modality. the decision tree technique allows identifying the following predictive models about the educational web application: • predictive model 1 (pm1) about the contents of the web application and assimilation of knowledge. • predictive model 2 (pm2) about the contents of the web application and satisfaction during the learning process. contents of the web application assimilation of knowledge satisfaction during the learning process development of mathematical skills learning in the distance modality 515 • predictive model 3 (pm3) about the contents of the web application and development of mathematical skills. • predictive model 4 (pm4) about the contents of the web application and learning in the distance modality. instrument table 2 shows the questionnaire used for data collection during the 2021 school year. table 2: questionnaire no. variable dimension question answer n % 1 profile of the students sex 1. what is your sex? man 20 47.62% woman 22 52.38% age 2. what is your age? 21 years 7 16.67% 22 years 14 33.33% 23 years 7 16.67% 24 years 6 14.29% 25 years 8 19.05% 2 web application about the ttest contents 3. the contents of the web application facilitate the creation of new educational virtual spaces very much (1) 17 40.48% much (2) 17 40.48% little (3) 6 14.29% very little (4) 2 4.76% assimilation of knowledge 4. the web application facilitates the assimilation of knowledge very much (1) 16 38.10% much (2) 18 42.86% little (3) 4 9.52% very little (4) 4 9.52% satisfaction during the learning process 5. the web application increases the satisfaction during the learning process very much (1) 16 38.10% much (2) 18 42.86% little (3) 4 9.52% very little (4) 4 9.52% development of mathematical skills 6. the web application facilitates the development of mathematical skills very much (1) 17 40.48% much (2) 16 38.10% little (3) 7 16.67% very little (4) 2 4.76% distance modality 7. the web application facilitates the learning in the distance modality very much (1) 20 47.62% much (2) 13 30.95% little (3) 6 14.29% very little (4) 3 7.14% 3 students' perception use 8. what are the benefits about the use of the web application in the educational field? open 516 table 3 shows the validation of the questionnaire by means of load factor, cronbach's alpha and composite reliability. table 3: validation of the questionnaire variable dimension load factor cronbach's alpha average variance extracted composite reliability web application about the ttest contents 0.885 0.965 0.705 0.978 assimilation of knowledge 0.950 satisfaction during the learning process 0.956 development of mathematical skills 0.963 distance modality 0.928 the rapidminer tool allows evaluating the research hypotheses by means of the machine learning technique (linear regression) and building the predictive models by means of the decision tree technique. in the machine learning technique, 60%, 70% and 80% of the sample (training section) allow the calculation of linear regressions and 40%, 30% and 20% of the sample (evaluation section) allow identification of the accuracy of these linear regressions through the squared error (see figure 3). also, the independent variable is the contents of the web application about the t-test. on the other hand, the dependent variables are the assimilation of knowledge, satisfaction during the learning process, development of mathematical skills and learning in the distance modality. figure 3: use of rapidminer for the machine learning technique the student's profile (sex and age) allowed the construction of the predictive models in the use of the educational web application about the t-test. the target variables were the assimilation of knowledge, satisfaction during the learning process, and the development of mathematical skills and learning in the distance modality through the decision tree technique (see figure 4). 517 figure 4: use of rapidminer for the decision tree technique on the other hand, the word cloud application allows identifying the words with the highest frequency. findings the contents of the web application facilitate very much (n = 17, 40.48%), much (n = 17, 40.48%), little (n = 6, 14.29%) and very little (n = 2, 4.76%) the creation of new educational virtual spaces (see table 2). likewise, the results of machine learning indicate that the contents of the web application positively influence the assimilation of knowledge, satisfaction during the learning process, and development of mathematical skills and learning in the distance modality (see table 4). table 4: results of machine learning hypothesis training linear regression conclusion value of t value of p squared error h1: web application → assimilation of knowledge 60% y = 0.923x + 0.307 accepted: 0.923 6.809 0.000 0.210 70% y = 0.943x + 0.243 accepted: 0.943 8.077 0.000 0.255 80% y = 0.949x + 0.147 accepted: 0.949 8.363 0.000 0.362 h2: web application → satisfaction during the learning process 60% y = 0.943x + 0.243 accepted: 0.943 8.077 0.000 0.399 70% y = 0.886x + 0.325 accepted: 0.886 8.074 0.000 0.384 80% y = 0.856x + 0.365 accepted: 0.856 7.778 0.000 0.295 h3: web application → development of mathematical skills 60% y = 0.873x + 0.362 accepted: 0.873 9.452 0.000 0.274 70% y = 0.898x + 0.292 accepted: 0.898 11.192 0.000 0.335 80% y = 0.886x + 0.325 accepted: 0.886 11.878 0.000 0.462 h4: web application → learning in the distance modality 60% y = 0.778x + 0.505 accepted: 0.778 4.882 0.000 0.328 70% y = 0.814x + 0.414 accepted: 0.814 5.923 0.000 0.394 80% y = 0.804x + 0.414 accepted: 0.804 6.371 0.000 0.399 table 5 shows the pearson's correlations about the use of the educational web application. 518 table 5: pearson correlations contents assimilation of knowledge satisfaction development of mathematical skills distance modality contents 1 assimilation of knowledge 0.808 1 satisfaction 0.777 0.944 1 development of mathematical skills 0.853 0.854 0.884 1 distance modality 0.717 0.839 0.867 0.916 1 assimilation of knowledge the web application facilitates very much (n = 16, 38.10%), much (n = 18, 42.86%), little (n = 4, 9.52%) and very little (n = 4, 9.52%) the assimilation of knowledge (see table 4). the results of machine learning with 60% (0.923, t-value = 6.809, p-value = 0.000), 70% (0.943, t-value = 8.077, p-value = 0.000) and 80% (0.949, t value = 8.363, p value = 0.000) of training indicate that h1 is accepted (see table 4.) consequently, the contents of the web application positively influence the assimilation of knowledge. figure 5 shows eight conditions of the pm1 with an accuracy of 88.10%. for example, if the student considers that the contents of the web application very much facilitate the creation of new educational virtual spaces and has an age > 22.5 years then the web application very much facilitates the assimilation of knowledge. figure 5: pm1 about the use of the web application the age of the students determines six conditions of the pm1. for example, if the student considers that the contents of the web application very much facilitate the creation of new educational virtual spaces and has an age ≤ 21.5 years then the web application very much facilitates the assimilation of knowledge. 519 satisfaction during the learning process the web application increases very much (n = 16, 38.10%), much (n = 18, 42.86%), little (n = 4, 9.52%) and very little (n = 4, 9.52%) the satisfaction during the learning process (see table 2). the results of machine learning with 60% (0.943, t-value = 8.077, p-value = 0.000), 70% (0.886, t-value = 8.074, p-value = 0.000) and 80% (0.856, t-value = 7.778, p value = 0.000) of training indicate that h2 is accepted (see table 4). consequently, the contents of the web application positively influence satisfaction during the learning process. figure 6: pm2 about the use of the web application figure 6 shows six conditions of the pm2 with an accuracy of 80.95%. for example, if the student considers that the contents of the web application very much facilitate the creation of new educational virtual spaces then the web application very much increases the satisfaction during the learning process. the age of the students determines three conditions of the pm2. for example, if the student considers that the contents of the web application facilitate little the creation of new educational virtual spaces and has an age > 23.5 years then the web application increases satisfaction little during the learning process. development of mathematical skills the web application facilitates very much (n = 17, 40.48%), much (n = 16, 38.10%), little (n = 7, 16.67%) and very little (n = 2, 4.76%) the development of mathematical skills (see table 2). the results of machine learning with 60% (0.873, t-value = 9.452, p-value = 0.000), 70% (0.898, t-value = 11.192, pvalue = 0.000) and 80% (0.886, t-value = 11.878, p-value = 0.000) of training indicates that h3 is accepted (see table 4). therefore, the contents of the web application positively influence the development of mathematical skills. figure 7 shows seven conditions of the pm3 with an accuracy of 85.71%. for example, if the student considers that the contents of the web application very much facilitate the creation of new educational virtual spaces then the web application very much increases the satisfaction during the learning process. 520 figure 7: pm3 about the use of the web application the sex of the students determines five conditions of the pm3. for example, if the student considers that the contents of the web application facilitate little the creation of new educational virtual spaces and is a woman then the web application increases little the satisfaction during the learning process. likewise, the age of the students determines two conditions of the pm3. for example, if the student considers that the contents of the web application facilitate much the creation of new educational virtual spaces, has an age > 22.5 years and is a man then the web application increases much the satisfaction during the learning process. learning in the distance modality the web application facilitates very much (n = 20, 47.62%), much (n = 13, 30.95%), little (n = 6, 14.29%) and very little (n = 3, 7.14%) the learning in the distance modality (see table 2). the results of machine learning with 60% (0.778, t-value = 4.882, p-value = 0.000), 70% (0.814, t-value = 5.923, p-value = 0.000) and 80% (0.804, t-value = 6.371, p-value = 0.000) of training indicate that h4 is accepted (see table 4). therefore, the contents of the web application positively influence the learning in the distance modality. figure 8 shows seven conditions of the pm4 with an accuracy of 80.95%. for example, if a student considers that the contents of the web application very much facilitate the creation of new educational virtual spaces then the web application very much facilitates the learning in the distance modality. 521 figure 8: pm4 about the use of the web application the sex of the students establishes two conditions of the pm4. for example, if the student considers that the contents of the web application facilitate little the creation of new educational virtual spaces and is a woman then the web application facilitates little the learning in the distance modality. the age of the students establishes three conditions of the pm4. for example, if the student considers that the contents of the web application facilitate much the creation of new educational virtual spaces and has an age > 24 years then the web application facilitates much the learning in the distance modality. students' perception according to the students, one of the benefits about the use of the educational web application is the flexibility of time and space to carry out the school activities during the teaching-learning process. • “it allows me to work when i need” (student 1, 25 years old, man). • “learn at your own pace” (student 17, 25 years old, woman). likewise, the educational web application about the t-test allowed the personalisation of learning from anywhere. • “different ways of acquiring the knowledge” (student 3, 21 years old, man). • “the freedom to manage the time individually and to have more tools at hand when we are studying” (student 6, 24 years old, man). the educational web application about the t-test facilitated the learning process because the simulator presents the detailed procedure and formulas for the mean, standard deviation and statistical error. • “see the steps of a procedure very clearly and interactively” (student 7, 22 years old, man). • “it helps me to better understand the mathematical concepts” (student 9, 21 years old, man). 522 the incorporation of the web application about the t-test in the school activities increased the motivation of the students during the educational process. also, this technological tool is interactive. • “interactive” (student 5, 23 years old, woman). • “it facilitates the learning process and motivates me to learn” (student 12, 22 years old, woman). in addition, figure 9 shows the word cloud about the use of the educational web application. the most common words are: knowledge, better, time, learning, procedure, tools and learn. figure 9: word cloud about the use of the educational web application discussion today, universities improve the realisation of the teaching-learning process through the incorporation of technology (arsarkij & laohajaratsang, 2021; liu & lu, 2021). in particular, 40.48% of students consider that the contents of the web application very much facilitate the creation of new educational virtual spaces. in fact, this technological tool facilitates the active role from anywhere through the simulator. likewise, the contents of the web application facilitate much (n = 17, 40.48%) the creation of new educational virtual spaces. therefore, most of the students had a favorable opinion about this aspect. similar to dubé et al. (2020), the use of technological tools favors the teaching-learning process about mathematics. in particular, 42.86% of the students think that the web application facilitates much the assimilation of knowledge. in fact, this technological tool allowed the personalisation of learning from 523 anywhere. likewise, the web application facilitates very much (n = 16, 38.10%) the assimilation of knowledge. therefore, most of the participants had a favorable opinion about this aspect. in the field of mathematics, the incorporation of icts improves the learning process inside and outside the classroom (acikgul & aslaner, 2020; akugizibwe & ahn, 2020; dubé et al., 2020). the results of machine learning on h1 are higher than 0.920, therefore, the contents of the web application positively influence the assimilation of knowledge. data science identifies eight conditions of the pm1 with an accuracy greater than 88.00%. in this predictive model, the age of the students determines how the contents of the web application influence the assimilation of knowledge. also, the decision tree technique establishes two conditions where the web application very much facilitates the assimilation of knowledge. in the educational field, icts allow the organisation of creative activities that meet the educational needs of the students during the covid-19 pandemic (alawajee, 2021; amka & dalle, 2022; halvoník & psenak, 2021). in particular, 42.86% of students consider that the web application increases much the satisfaction during the learning process. according to the students, one of the benefits about this technological tool is the flexibility of time and space to carry out the school activities during the teaching-learning process. likewise, the web application increases very much (n = 16, 38.10%) the satisfaction during the learning process. consequently, the majority of the participants had a favorable opinion about this aspect. various authors (e.g., georgieva-tsaneva & serbezova, 2021; huang & zhu, 2021; maheshwari, 2021) mention that technological tools play a fundamental role in innovating school activities and creating new educational virtual spaces. the results of machine learning on h2 are higher than 0.850, therefore, the contents of the web application positively influence the satisfaction during the learning process. data science identifies six conditions of the pm2 with an accuracy greater than 80.95%. in this predictive model, the age of the students determines how the contents of the web application influence satisfaction. the decision tree technique establishes two conditions where the web application increases much the satisfaction during the learning process. in the educational context, educators organise and carry out school activities considering icts in order to develop the skills and facilitate the assimilation of knowledge at any time (acikgul & aslaner, 2020; akugizibwe & ahn, 2020; georgieva-tsaneva & serbezova, 2021). in particular, 40.48% of the students consider that the web application very much facilitates the development of mathematical skills. also, this technological tool facilitated the learning process because the simulator presents the detailed procedure and formulas for the mean, standard deviation and statistical error. likewise, the web application facilitates much (n = 16, 38.10%) the development of mathematical skills. consequently, the majority of the participants had a favorable opinion about this aspect. similar to tawafak, alfarsi and jabbar (2021), the use of technological tools in the educational field allows students to develop their skills from anywhere. the results of machine learning on the h3 are higher than 0.870, therefore, the contents of the web application positively influence the development of mathematical skills. data science identifies seven conditions of the pm3 with an accuracy greater than 85.70%. in this predictive model, the age and sex of the students determine how the contents of the web application 524 influence the development of mathematical skills. the decision tree technique establishes two conditions where the web application very much facilitates the development of mathematical skills. during the covid-19 pandemic, the use of icts is essential because these technological tools allow the realisation of the school activities from anywhere (alawajee, 2021; amka & dalle, 2022; halvoník & psenak, 2021). according to 47.62% of the students, the web application facilitates very much the learning in the distance modality. the incorporation of this technological tool in the school activities increased the motivation of the students during the educational process. also, the web application facilitates much (n = 13, 30.95%) the learning in the distance modality. therefore, the majority of the participants had a favorable opinion. educators modify their educational practices with the support of icts to meet the educational needs of the students (grunis et al., 2021; guillén-gámez, mayorga-fernández, & ramos, 2021; liu & lu, 2021). the results of machine learning on the h4 are higher than 0.778, therefore, the contents of the web application positively influence the learning in the distance modality. data science identifies seven conditions of the pm4 with an accuracy greater than 80.90%. in this predictive model, the age and sex of the students determine how the contents of the web application influence the learning in the distance modality. the decision tree technique establishes two conditions where the web application facilitates very much the learning in the distance modality. implications the implications of this study are the construction and use of web applications to facilitate the teaching-learning process from anywhere and the creation of new school activities through the incorporation of technological tools. also, this research recommends the design and construction of educational web applications because students can learn the topics of the courses from anywhere and at any time. conclusion today, technological tools play a fundamental role in facing the challenges caused by the covid-19 pandemic. the results of machine learning indicate that the contents of the web application positively influence the assimilation of knowledge, satisfaction during the learning process, development of mathematical skills and learning in the distance modality. the limitations of this research are the size of the sample and participants. therefore, future research can analyse the web application about the t-test in high schools and universities considering the aspects of the active role of the students before, during and after the virtual classes. finally, the covid-19 pandemic is encouraging educators to use technological tools to improve the teaching-learning conditions and facilitate the organisation of new school activities in the distance modality. acknowledgment: this work was supported by unam-dgapa-papime (pe400222): “diseño, construcción y uso de la aplicación web para el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje sobre la prueba t durante la pandemia covid19 considerando el aula invertida”. 525 references acikgul, k. & aslaner, r. (2020). effects of geogebra supported micro teaching applications and technological pedagogical content knowledge (tpack) game practices on the tpack levels of prospective teachers. education and information technologies, 25, 2023-2047. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-019-10044-y akugizibwe, e., & ahn, j. y. (2020). perspectives for effective integration of e-learning tools in university mathematics instruction for developing countries. education and information technologies, 25, 889-903. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-019-09995-z alawajee, o. (2021). influence of covid-19 on students’ sign language learning in a teacher-preparation program in saudi arabia: moving to e-learning. contemporary educational technology, 13(3), ep308. https://doi.org/10.30935/cedtech/10886 amka, a., & dalle, j. (2022). the satisfaction of the special need’ students with e-learning experience during covid-19 pandemic: a case of educational institutions in indonesia. contemporary educational technology, 14(1), ep334. https://doi.org/10.30935/cedtech/11371 arsarkij, j., & laohajaratsang, t. (2021). a design of personal learning network on social networking tools with gamification for professional experience. international journal of emerging technologies in learning, 16(18), 5368. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijet.v16i18.25159 cabero-almenara, j., vázquez-cano, e., villota-oyarvide, w., & lópez-meneses, e. (2021). innovation in the university classroom through augmented reality. analysis from the perspective of the spanish and latin american students. revista electrónica educare, 25(3), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.15359/ree.25-3.1 chambi-mescco, e. (2021). attitudes of students from a public university about the application of the flipped learning. revista electrónica educare, 25(3), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.15359/ree.25-3.5 choiriyah, mayuni, i., & dhieni, n. (2022). the effectiveness of multimedia learning for distance education toward early childhood critical thinking during the covid-19 pandemic. european journal of educational research, 11(3), 1553-1568. https://doi.org/10.12973/eu-jer.11.3.1555 demir, b., kaleli-yilmaz, g., & sert-celik, h. (2021). teachers’ attitudes and opinions on mathematics lessons conducted with distance education due to covid-19 pandemic. turkish online journal of distance education, 22(4), 147-163. https://doi.org/10.17718/tojde.1002812 demir, e. & gologlu-demir, c. (2021). investigation of parents’ opinions about distance education during the covid-19 pandemic. turkish online journal of distance education, 22(2), 42-57. https://doi.org/10.17718/tojde.906485 dubé, a. k., kacmaz, g., wen, r., alam, s. s., & xu, c. (2020). identifying quality educational apps: lessons from ‘top’ mathematics apps in the apple app store. education and information technologies, 25, 5389-5404. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-020-10234-z fan, y., zhang, j., zu, d., & zhang, h. (2021). an automatic optimal course recommendation method for online math education platforms based on bayesian model. international journal of emerging technologies in learning, 16(13), 95-107. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijet.v16i13.24039 georgieva-tsaneva, g. n., & serbezova, i. (2021). using serious games and video materials in clinical training in nursing and midwifery education. international journal of emerging technologies in learning, 16(16), 231-241. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijet.v16i16.23455 gormaz-lobos, d., galarce-miranda, c., kersten, s., & hortsch, h. (2022). perceptions of teaching staff about the online learning in engineering during sars cov pandemic. international journal of engineering pedagogy, 12(3), 25-37. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijep.v12i3.27043 526 grunis, m. l., golovanova, i. i., kirilova, g. i., levina, e. y., & sizova, z. m. (2021). transformation of pedagogical communicative competence during creation digital online courses. contemporary educational technology, 13(1), ep289. https://doi.org/10.30935/cedtech/9313 guillén-gámez, f. d., mayorga-fernández, m. j., & ramos, m. (2021). examining the use self-perceived by university teachers about ict resources: measurement and comparative analysis in a one-way anova design. contemporary educational technology, 13(1), ep282. https://doi.org/10.30935/cedtech/8707 halvoník, d., & psenak, p. (2021). design of an educational virtual assistant software. international journal of emerging technologies in learning, 16(11), 308-321. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijet.v16i11.19847 huang, y., & zhu, j. (2021). a personalized english learning material recommendation system based on knowledge graph. international journal of emerging technologies in learning, 16(11), 160-173. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijet.v16i11.23317 ismail, h., khelifi, a., & harous, s. (2022). a cognitive style based framework for usability evaluation of online lecturing platforms — a case study on zoom and teams. international journal of engineering pedagogy, 12(1), 104-122. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijep.v12i1.25295 liu, f. j., & lu, c. m. (2021). design and implementation of a collaborative educational gamification authoring system. international journal of emerging technologies in learning, 16(17), 277-289. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijet.v16i17.24087 maheshwari, g. (2021). factors affecting students’ intentions to undertake online learning: an empirical study in vietnam. education and information technologies, 26, 6629-6649. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-021-10465-8 mi, h., gao, z., zhang, q., & zheng, y. (2022). research on constructing online learning performance prediction model combining feature selection and neural network. international journal of emerging technologies in learning, 17(7), 94-111. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijet.v17i07.25587 nuankaew, w. s., nuankaew, p., teeraputon, d., phanniphong, k., & bussaman, s. (2019). perception and attitude toward self-regulated learning of thailand’s students in educational data mining perspective. international journal of emerging technologies in learning, 14(9), 34-49. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijet.v14i09.10048 ocampo-alvarado, j., & ullauri-ugarte, m. (2021). factors for the acceptance and use of a learning management system in students of an ecuadorian university. revista electrónica educare, 25(3), 1-21. https://doi.org/10.15359/ree.25-3.10 parahoo, s. k., santally, m. i., rajabalee, y., & harvey, h. l. (2016). designing a predictive model of student satisfaction in online learning. journal of marketing for higher education, 26(1), 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1080/08841241.2015.1083511 pham, p., lien, d. t. h., kien, h. c., chi, n. h., tinh, p. t., do, t., nguyen, l. c., & nguyen, t. (2022). learning management system in developing countries: a bibliometric analysis between 2005 and 2020. european journal of educational research, 11(3), 1363-1377. https://doi.org/10.12973/eu-jer.11.3.1363 prevalla, b., shaidullina, a. r., ishmuradova, i. i., larionova, a. a., kosarenko, n. n., & andryushchenko, i. s. (2022). determining university students’ availability on zoom. international journal of engineering pedagogy, 12(2), 35-47. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijep.v12i2.29283 rajabalee, y. b., rennie, f., & santally, m. i. (2018). the relationship between quality of student contribution in learning activities and their overall performances in an online course. european journal of open, distance and elearning, 21(1), 16-31. rasool, u., aslam, m. z., qian, j., & barzani, s. h. h. (2022). the effects of online supervisory feedback on student-supervisor communications during the covid-19. european journal of educational research, 11(3), 15691579. https://doi.org/10.12973/eu-jer.11.3.1569 527 rodriguez-lora, v., & herrera-caballero, j. (2021). organizational learning in higher education institutions. case study of a research group. revista electrónica educare, 25(3), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.15359/ree.25-3.3 salas-rueda, r. a., & salas-rueda, r. d. (2019). use of data science and machine learning to analyze geogebra application in the educational process. digital education review, 36,117-151. https://doi.org/10.1344/der.2019.36.117-151 salas-rueda, r. a. (2021). students’ perceptions of the use of the flipped classroom during the educational process of linear functions. cultura y educación, 33(3), 431-454. https://doi.org/10.1080/11356405.2021.1949109 tawafak, r. m., alfarsi, g., & jabbar, j. (2021). innovative smart phone learning system for graphical systems within covid-19 pandemic. contemporary educational technology, 13(3), ep306. https://doi.org/10.30935/cedtech/10879 zheng, z., & na, k. s. (2021). a data-driven emotion model for english learners based on machine learning. international journal of emerging technologies in learning, 16(8), 34-46. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijet.v16i08.22127 zulherman, a., zain, f. m., napitupulu, d., sailin, s. n., & roza, l. (2021). analyzing indonesian students’ google classroom acceptance during covid-19 outbreak: applying an extended unified theory of acceptance and use of technology model. european journal of educational research, 10(4), 1697-1710. https://doi.org/10.12973/eu-jer.10.4.1697 zygouris, n. c., vlachos, f., dadaliaris, a. n., oikonomou, p., stamoulis, g. i., vavougios, d., nerantzaki, e., & striftou, a. (2017). a neuropsychological approach of developmental dyscalculia and a screening test via a web application. international journal of engineering pedagogy, 7(4), 51-65. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijep.v7i4.7434 authors: ricardo-adán salas-rueda is a full time researcher in the instituto de ciencias aplicadas y tecnología, universidad nacional autónoma de méxico. email: ricardo.salas@icat.unam.mx selene-marisol martínez-ramírez is an academic technician in the instituto de ciencias aplicadas y tecnología, universidad nacional autónoma de méxico. email: selene.martinez@icat.unam.mx jesús ramírez-ortega is an academic technician in the instituto de ciencias aplicadas y tecnología, universidad nacional autónoma de méxico. email: jesus.ramirez@icat.unam.mx clara alvarado-zamorano is an academic technician in the instituto de ciencias aplicadas y tecnología, universidad nacional autónoma de méxico. email: clara.alvarado@icat.unam.mx cite this paper as: salas-rueda, r-a., martínez-ramírez, s-m., ramírez-ortega, j., & alvarado-zamorano, c. (2022). students' perception about the use of an educational web application during the covid-19 pandemic. journal of learning for development, 9(3), 509-527. gaskell introduction: policies and practice editorial anne gaskell vol. 3, no. 2 it is a very great pleasure to provide a foreword to the july issue of journal of learning for development (jl4d) and to introduce myself as the new chief editor. having worked for the open university uk for over 30 years in a very wide range of roles, i have a long association with the achievements and issues surrounding open, distance and e-learning.  i am also delighted to be working with our associate editor, dr sanjaya mishra, from col. this issue has a particular focus on policy: authors explore the relationship between policy and research (traxler); the importance of having appropriate policies in place (awadhiya & miglani; nkuyubwatsi; bose) and new models for economic development, which could inform policies for the future (weller).  studies on mobile learning also have a major place (traxler, awadhiya & miglani) and are the subject of our book review. however, our first paper in this issue is a valedictory editorial from professor alan tait, former chief editor of the journal. in this he reflects on the first two years of jl4d – the subjects covered, the countries represented – and also on what we have discovered about learning for development. professor tait remains as editor emeritus of jl4d and retains his interest in the journal’s future. two invited articles provide much to consider in the context of learning for development. professor john traxler provides an extensive and penetrating discussion of the relationships between policy-makers and research communities in the context of mobile learning in developing countries.  his guidelines are also highly relevant to any researcher or policy maker on any subject. professor martin weller proposes a new digital economic model for education and other development: the open flip. this is essentially a model that reallocates resources “away from the purchase of copyrighted resources to the production of openly licensed ones”.  this could be liberating for many educational, medical and other developments. government money could (for example) be invested in the production of drugs, which are then freely licensed, rather than being spent on purchasing medicine from pharmaceutical companies. our research papers come from india and rwanda. awadhiya and miglani discuss the challenges that are faced by teachers in india in their use of mobile learning. the lack of support for instructional design and the lack of relevant policies were considered the most serious challenges; perhaps surprisingly “intrusion on personal time due to 24/7 access” was not considered to be particularly important. also discussing policies, nkuyubwatsi reviews the potential for rwanda to open up education for all and is not optimistic at the moment. one of rwanda’s policy statements, for example, seems to have been copy-and-pasted from scotland and is not relevant at all to rwanda. he provides recommendations to enable a real opening up of education in rwanda. finally, our case study by bose investigates assessment at ignou. a large number of policies relate to assessment but have conflicting goals: some are designed to support learning; some aim to cope with the huge numbers of enrolments.  bose argues for a more integrated approach to policy making. our book review is also about mobile learning and its potential to transform the delivery of education and training. appropriate and informed policies are essential to learning for development and our authors have provided arguments and examples to support this. i hope you will be able to use some of this information to leverage development in your own contexts. anne gaskell chief editor, jl4d microsoft word salmon.docx issn: 2311-1550 2020, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 127-141 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. a “watershed” for educational transformation: deployment of carpe diem learning design methods in a south african context gilly salmon, antoinette van der merwe and arnold schoonwinkel education alchemists, ltd., united kingdom abstract: this action research project describes the application of a large-scale collaborative learning design method to a major educational transformation programme at a south african university. our findings determined that carpe diem learning design was an appropriate methodology for contributing to and creating key moments and movements (“watersheds”) in educational transformation in the south african context and beyond. we demonstrated that the impact of an original one-week collaborative intervention, covering all faculties and 10 major degree programmes, was sustained over the following three years. it created acceptance and strong interest across the campus in transforming learning and proved a fitting catalyst for programme renewal initiatives. it placed the university and the service to its students in a much stronger position in unexpected circumstances. we offer suggestions for those who would like to try a collaborative design approach for transformation. keywords: programme renewal, carpe diem methodology, learning design, creative collaborative groups, threshold concepts, authentic assessment, catalysts, watershed moments, sustainability, “future-proofing”, south africa. institutional context in 2017, the vice-rector (learning and teaching) at stellenbosch university (su) emphasised in his annual environmental plan (the plan) that programme renewal actions needed to be rooted in the south african socio-economic context and that the university’s academic programmes should produce graduates equipped to impact nationally and globally. the plan laid out actions across four key focus areas and aimed to inspire the university's faculties to contribute to and efficiently sustain the su's targets. the plan emphasised modern pedagogies and was aligned to the su vision, requiring innovation, future focus, integration and inclusiveness. the agenda for transformation encompassed addressing students’ discontent and enabling their voices to be heard as well as extending and deepening the curriculum. the plan stressed the importance of design and redesign of academic programmes to address these issues and opportunities. the strategic intent therefore included renewal of academic programmes with emphasis on employability and cost-effectiveness. a key aspect of the plan noted that although su deployed blended learning in various forms, the increased use of information and communication technologies needed to be more beneficial to students, strategically employed and integrated into the whole of learning provision. this intent was underpinned by improved technology platforms and connectivity as well as the further development of digital literacy. 128 choice of “carpe diem” for learning design su sought methodologies that provided evidence of achieving change and transformation in curriculum planning and in the student experience and an increase in the deployment of appropriate technologies. the methods also needed to maintain the integrity of the south african and su's contexts and preserve ultimate accountability to the “knowledge owners”: the university’s programme and module and leaders. the reluctance of some university lecturers to embrace change in their pedagogy over time is well documented (laurillard 2012; sharpe, benfield & roberts, 2006). academics tend to frame issues relating to learning, teaching and assessment in terms of their own discipline – their own “tribe and territory” (becher & trowler 2001). this strong disciplinary focus, arising from epistemological and social sources, can inhibit acceptance of change. academics work within the dominant discourse about teaching in their discipline and may be antipathetic to staff development, advice, theory and research that are not discipline based (siry, 2018). some may be keen to try out new technologies but may be “unsympathetic to centrally determined initiatives and unable to gain support for their own ideas” (hannan, 2005, p. 981). collaborative learning design has been undertaken at scale at various institutions and the approach has proven to be suitable for all disciplines and levels of learning (salmon, 2013). specifically, carpe diem methodology ensures that the academic lead is constantly respected as the knowledge owner; hence, wider acceptability and, indeed, motivation can be observed, contributing to acceptable transformation and renewal efforts. this ultimately opens doors for the university to achieve a wider reshaping for the future (posselt et al, 2019). su explored the carpe diem learning design methodology. the framework of carpe diem is based on a “resource” definition of change (salaman & asch, 2003), focusing on development of capability through collaborative effort and identification of the institution’s core capabilities and existing strengths (what it is good at, what makes it special and what it can do well and differently). the carpe diem process is a co-operative, team-based learning design process created through research and prototyping from the year 2000 and is embedded in well-respected pedagogical research (salmon, 2011, 2013). su subsequently engaged with professor gilly salmon, the originator of the method, to explore the potential benefits of carpe diem, its flexibility and its appropriateness for the south african context and su's plans. learning design as a transformation vehicle the objective behind the carpe diem methodology is that every moment during the workshop is spent on designing something that can be put into immediate use with learners; hence, the term “carpe diem” (latin for “seize the day”) is deployed. there are two types of carpe diem methodology: one for planning overall programmes, for example full degrees, and another for the practical development of modules. the carpe diem learning design process originated as an intensive approach to curriculum and pedagogical design aimed at promoting innovation and creativity and at addressing student needs and drivers (salmon, 2013; usher, macneill & creanor, 2018) using cross-professional teams. the module carpe diem process draws on agile collaborative project development, creative and visual 129 techniques, and storyboarding (lewrick et al, 2018; roam, 2016) workshops have been developed and rehearsed since the first research in the year 2000, and a massive amount of scaling, diversity of application, crowdsourced feedback and evaluation has occurred since then (armellini, salmon & hawkridge, 2009; salmon, 2013; salmon & wright, 2014; vlachopoulos, 2018). in 2017, the carpe diem process for degree programmes was at the prototype stage and being trialled as a one-day intensive workshop. the programme carpe diem process drew on systems thinking (checkland, 1999; berg & pooley, 2013, ghangurde, 2011), authentic assessment (villarroel et al, 2017) and threshold concepts (land et al, 2016; burch et al, 2015; currie, 2017; timmermans & meyer, 2019). the methodology was designed to be fast, agile and action based, including rapid prototyping (dilan & aydin, 2019). both programme and module workshops finish the day with the collaborative establishment of welldeveloped and agreed action implementation plans. the optimal process is for a broader team to undertake the programme workshop and then smaller teams draw on the programme storyboards and threshold concepts for specific module development. carpe diem had been scaled up at the university of western australia (uwa) over three years, resulting in highly collaborative change and an upturn in student satisfaction and experience ratings (oakley, 2016; salmon, 2013). uwa, and many other universities, found the carpe diem approach appropriate because of its emphasis on innovation, creativity and addressing students' experiences (salmon et al, 2019). the approach aligned well with the su vision of being innovative and future focused. graduate attributes and outcomes were also key priorities for the university (strategy for teaching and learning, 2013). student needs and contextualised academic programme redesign were also important elements within the wider south african context during the 2015-2016 #feesmustfall student protests, together with an intensification of the call for the transformation and decolonisation of the curriculum (costandius, nell, malgas, alexander, setati & mckay, 2018; le grange, 2016). setting up carpe diem learning design at stellenbosch university as part of the holistic programme renewal project, all 10 faculties at su were asked to nominate one candidate programme for programme renewal. after extensive discussions with the vice-deans (teaching and learning), dr van der merwe initiated discussions with professor salmon to engage her as facilitator of a “catalyst” workshop from 17 to 21 may 2017. pre-workshop discussions included information about the south african and su contexts and the identified 10 programmes from across the university. the workshop programme was set up in a pleasant, large off-campus location but with easy access from the university. a large “ballroom” was set up “cabaret” style. each faculty group was named a “pod” and had its own label, tables, flip charts, wall space, extensive creative resources, and fruit, drinks and snacks. day 1 (monday) included briefings for the facilitator and development staff and development sessions for the support, technological and leadership staff. day 2 (tuesday) was the “programme day”, and days 3 and 4 (wednesday and thursday) were devoted to modules. day 5 (friday) was retained for 130 feedback, further discussions with the senior university team, research, evaluation and action planning. just over 100 staff attended one or more sessions during the week. attendance and retention were very high with each of the ten faculties retaining a critical mass of lecturers engaged throughout the process. at the end of day 2 (the programme carpe diem event), each pod had unique outputs. these included “rich pictures” depicting their future graduates, new student-centred aspirational missions, curriculum and mode-of-learning storyboards that included timings and course credits, threshold concepts and authentic assessment commentaries, detailed task-based action plans and “footprints to the future” (messages and reminders to the module design teams). most notable during the process was the exceptional support, feedback and interest that each pod offered to its colleagues from other disciplines, which ultimately resulted in enabling the key su drivers to become more fully embedded across the institution. perhaps the most encouraging outcome of all was the visible development of collaboration and engagement across programmes and faculties. day 3 and day 4 were the module days, which resulted in the design of 15 modules. the module pod participants created new “design briefs” for themselves that aligned with su’s learning and teaching principles, the mission of the specific programme and new aspirations for student achievement and engagement. the driver for the module storyboarding process became the number of total student study hours for each module. the output included detailed storyboards for the modules under re/design, including full calendars with agreed placement of face-to-face teaching (lectures, seminars and visits), electronic resources and interactions, frequent and effective feedback, and the allocation of formative and summative assessments. all module teams deployed the five-stage model for scaffolding (salmon, 2011) and online interactive activities called e-tivities (salmon, 2013). participants in the module pods visibly enjoyed the development and prototyping of e-tivities, having the opportunity to trial each other’s prototyped ideas and give immediate constructive feedback. in the first survey following the carpe diem week, all participants bar one noted that e-tivities were of value to them. research and evaluation action research was embedded in the research design through week-long activities and follow-ups. action research was chosen to accommodate the ongoing changes and interventions with the values, drivers, knowledge, energy and commitments of the stakeholders in the su programme renewal process. through this methodology, the senior university strategic team planned to extend the collaborative learning community and promote the sustainability of the project. the team also wished to enable further cycles of research, analysis and the shaping of future actions (greenwood, 2018). the action research provided a platform for all participants in the carpe diem process to contribute, to be valued and involved over time. the action research included consideration of the workshop delivery, based on the needs and drivers contained in the plan, the design of the week-long intervention, later implementation and then the recruitment of participants for feedback over time. the initial intensive study continued over a period 131 of one year (which was the most viable and realistic timescale), providing for an agile, scalable and flexible project within a discipline and ethical inquiry into outcomes (mullarkey & hevner, 2018). as is indicated in our findings, a longer period is desirable to test for the embedding of transformation and the impact on student learning. however, one year proved enough to see the seeds of change. as we write, we can place the ongoing actions in context over a total of three years. the action research was guided by a small research team and embedded into the broader project evaluation of the overall programme renewal project. action research techniques were mixed mode, including constant feedback through surveys and discussion with participants, and participant observation by the transformation leaders and facilitators. raw data, observations and results were triangulated for rigour, understanding, interpretation and confidence (flick, 2018). findings first survey feedback from the carpe diem workshop week was collected in june 2017, one month after the weeklong session, using a survey. among the 54 attendees who responded, 47 had attended day 2, 3 and 4 — the programme day — and the two-day module event. most of the participants believed that the workshop was meaningful in terms of the su module renewal process, and 10 participants indicated that it was “indispensable”. similarly, most participants believed that the workshop was meaningful for the programme renewal process, with 16 participants indicating that the workshop was “indispensable”. participants highlighted the following positive and beneficial aspects of the workshop: • the carpe diem method of rapid planning of programme renewal was beneficial to them. • the visual mapping techniques enabled them to review and renew their programmes while having “the end in mind” and “working backward from outcomes to pedagogical design”. • the sessions provided them with a structured and guided way to reflect on their programme renewal design whilst considering the future of their programmes. • participants realised the value of the facilitator role; the facilitator’s guidance and skills were positive aspects of the workshop. • participants realised that educational renewal was not an isolated activity but involved all programmes across the institution. additionally, participants highly appreciated working in teams with other programme members in a moderated creative space and during a focused time. the group work helped to establish synergy and enabled participants to exchange creative and original ideas. they reported that the whole process had a sense of joint endeavour and purpose, which, alongside the collegial input, created excitement around the programme design, typically previously viewed as an isolated “administrative” process. participants mentioned that carpe diem was a beneficial framework; by seeing the “bigger picture”, they felt that it was useful to create a “roadmap” with milestones and that these aided both module and programme renewal. 132 the workshop also provided an opportunity for participants to communicate with staff from other faculties in the university, learn about their work and practice, and exchange views. participants from the faculty academic staff and professional support staff emphasised that the opportunity to collaborate with colleagues from around the university and to spend time learning from them was one of the most beneficial outcomes of the workshop. participants were also asked about the potential use of carpe diem frameworks and pedagogies for future module renewal. they believed that an understanding of threshold concepts (burch et al, 2015), deployed extensively during the workshop, could act as a motivator for lecturers to influence those colleagues who had not attended workshops regarding their module renewal: ... we could clearly see that we needed to repack our modules accordingly. a number of participants believed that the carpe diem method was easy to use and flexible and that, with some adjustments, it could provide a framework to which each module within a department could be aligned, resulting in simultaneous and collaborative renewal. they also noted that the “end in mind” approach would enable lecturers to collaborate on the renewal process and create more coherent and integrated modules. participants concurred that carpe diem would be an easy process to repeat. they also thought that having such workshops regularly could be beneficial, especially at the faculty level. some participants noted fewer positive aspects of the workshop, for instance, that when working with large numbers of people, it was not easy to maintain the same pace amongst all the groups (pods). some participants mentioned that they did not like the hands-on activities. several respondents felt that shorter sessions would be more practical. some individuals felt that the method was not suitable for all faculties. six months after the event one of the researchers conducted an interview with dr van der merwe six months after the carpe diem intervention week. to summarise, su had noted differing responses across the 10 faculty groupings and within the module groups, too. this interview was themed; the most notable issues identified were the following: obtaining commitment from lecturers who did not attend the workshop as demonstrated by the one-month-later survey, most participants left the carpe diem intervention week with considerable enthusiasm for taking forward plans for change in their programmes and modules. however, they needed to convince and engage others in their faculties to determine ways forward to sustainable and scalable fresh thinking and implementation. mixed success was reported in this area at the six-months point in this continuing process of change. there was no doubt that participants were able to communicate better with others and with each other, resulting in “softer landings” than they might have had, but for the researchers, the question remains as to the ways in which broader engagement and wider dissemination could have been achieved more smoothly and quickly. 133 we noted, perhaps unsurprisingly, that where the carpe diem participants had proposed the most radical changes, there was more resistance to wider dissemination of their proposals. where there were smaller incremental changes, these were more easily communicated and realised. collaborating within faculties across most faculties, however, enabling collaboration and shared agreements for action during the carpe diem workshop resulted in much more cohesive teamwork across their faculty groups, which had important implications for overall transformation. enhancing and sustaining the outcomes our conclusions from the findings are to find ways of engaging those who did not attend and experience the workshop. this is likely to necessitate some “disruption” of their thinking before acceptance of the proposed changes. it will also be necessary to ensure that the right people who have the skills, influence and authority to drive change attend in future. su sought to find a scalable approach and implemented and developed the vice-deans forum for teaching and learning around the programme renewal initiatives. the forum meets once a term, and the vice-deans discuss progress with programme renewal initiatives within their respective faculties. funding for programme renewal has been secured as part of a national grant that allows for buy-out time for lecturers to engage with programme renewal activities by means of workshops to plan and research to determine the impact of programme renewal activities. many of the faculties have also adopted and adapted the carpe diem approach for their specific contexts. the module carpe diem process was also scaled up locally, hence gradually sharing the overall approach and benefits with some evidence of a move towards a “tipping point” in transformation. survey outcomes after 12 months a survey was sent to the 76 participants who had attended the carpe diem workshop, either partially or completely, in may 2017. feedback was received from 25 participants. feedback was received from all the faculties, except from arts and social sciences. seventy-two percent of the feedback was received from teaching staff (professors and lecturers) and 24% from professional academic support staff. as can be seen from figure 1 below, the majority of the respondents (76%) indicated that they continued with the formal programme redesign process in their respective faculties and groups, in accordance with the action plans drawn up during the carpe diem workshop. about half of the respondents indicated that that they also further reviewed the programme threshold concepts and added new learning resources and types of assessment as indicated in their action plans. 134 figure 1: elements implemented from the action plans created in the carpe diem workshop (respondents could select more than one) – n = 25. the reasons given for why they had not implemented certain aspects of the action plan items included time constraints and that some of the programmes were still in the planning and development phase. respondents also noted that other elements of the action plans would be implemented at a later stage. it is clear from figure 2 that the faculties are relatively satisfied with the assistance received, with only 20% indicating that they needed more academic staff support than already available. figure 2: the assistance needed to support the academic programme transformation agenda. 76% 52% 44% 36% 32% 32% 28% 24% 20% 12% 12% continued formal redesign process for programme(s)… reviewing the programme threshold concepts adding of new learning resources or materials new types of assessment new technologies working across disciplines, department or faculties securing funding for evaluation flipped classroom approach authentic learning experiences e-tivities other action plan implementations: 7% 17% 15% 11% 20% 15% 11% 3% more carpe diem workshops follow up discussions with learning and teaching enhancement division follow up discussions with faculty management other types of workshops academic staff support technical staff support administrative staff support other staff support where is assistance needed? 135 it is clear from figure 3 that one year after the workshop, most of the respondents strongly agreed or agreed with the following two statements: • the workshop had an impact on the programme renewal process in my faculty (84%). • i found the sharing among the faculties at the workshop very beneficial (76%). the workshop, therefore, did have the intended catalyst impact in terms of the programme renewal process and continued to promote beneficial sharing among colleagues from all faculties. interestingly, the feedback after a year also confirmed the feedback after six months in terms of the acceptance by other programme members who had not attended the workshop. about half of the respondents (48%) indicated that those who had not attended the workshop were now nevertheless receptive to the new ideas generated at the workshop. figure 3: statements regarding the workshop – n = 25. when asked whether the respondents had used the skills acquired during the workshop, 68% responded “yes”. eighty percent of respondents indicated that the workshop had changed their view on modules and programme design in that it had clarified and given structure as to how to go about starting the redesign process. a suggestion made during the open feedback section of the survey was that more faculty members should be involved in similar types of workshop to increase skill levels and to facilitate crossdiscipline collaboration. interpretations su's aspirations were high for the carpe diem intervention. it hoped that the methodology would systemically promote not only improved learning design, and through that process improve student experience, but also the wide range of achievements designated by the university’s plans and 84% 52% 48% 76% 12% 32% 36% 12% 4% 16% 12% 12% 0% 0% 4% 0% the workshop had impact on the programme renewal process in my faculty. i am more likely to take part in similar events and workshops as a result of the workshop. the other programme members who did not attend the workshop were receptive to the new ideas generated at the workshop. i found the sharing between the faculties at the workshop very beneficial. to what extent do you agree with the following statements? strongly agree/agree neutral disagree/strongly disagree not applicable 136 ambitions for holistic programme renewal. in short, the aim was to provide a “watershed” moment that would enable and promote an ongoing commitment to action. first, we sought to determine to what extent carpe diem learning design was an appropriate methodology for transformation in the south african context and beyond. all the feedback on the intervention week and the actions since suggests that the methodology is almost universal in its overall acceptability to participants, both in the context and across disciplines and levels. since the workshop taught design approaches, it left the purposes and decisions open to the individual academic leaders’ and teams’ deployment of their own specialist knowledge and principles, including sensitive areas. we were struck by how many participants regarded the experience as indispensable. many staff thought that the workshop valued their contribution to the ongoing educational transformation process at su by providing effective practical support. it promoted teamwork and collaboration across the diversity of staff, including differing disciplines, backgrounds and roles. there was no evidence that any aspect disturbed the participants in terms of the sensitivity and specialness of the south african context. there was a challenge early around with the recruitment of an overseas facilitator. whilst she was a specialist in the method, it was considered she may not be sufficiently sensitive to the specific su and/or south african contexts. to address this challenge, the workshop organisers had detailed discussions with professor salmon (the facilitator), extended over a period before the workshop, and professor salmon had access to institutional documents providing the context at su university. the respondents agreed after the event that the facilitator had proved sufficiently sensitive and had enabled the participants to take responsibility and accountability for their own decisions within their special contextualised understanding and knowledge. second, we explored to what extent that over time, the intentions of su’s transformation agenda had been moved constructively in appropriate directions. to note, the keywords were “innovative”, “future focussed”, “integrated” and “inclusive”. both the qualitative and quantitative research suggested that there was no doubt that the acceptability of carpe diem, the tangible excitement generated and the strong interest, in many cases proved a fitting catalyst for programme renewal initiatives. the su plan noted the need for design and redesign and the intervention has provided exactly that. the ongoing and sustainable nature of collaborative learning purposes and schemes gradually tackled what might be interpreted as constructive “culture change” in terms of teaching and learning approaches and especially of peer working and integration across faculties within the institution. at least, given the strong commitment of the senior team and resources in terms of trained learning designers, carpe diem rapidly scaled, thereby had a direct impact on students’ learning experiences, faster than might have occurred through conventional staff development means. very recent assessment of both the curricula, the contents and modes of learning of the modules suggest that students are now receiving better preparation for the workplace and for the global context than before the carpe diem intervention week. the popularity of the e-tivities (online activities, salmon, 2013) in the workshop with the staff suggests that these contributed to their growing understanding and capacity to easily and rapidly deliver more active learning for their students. further, there is evidence of a greater sense of the importance of the 137 deployment of learning technologies. this has led to increased blended learning in all its forms sometimes in in innovative ways, providing engagement and flexibility for students through different combinations of on-and off-campus programme delivery. the programme carpe diem started with collaborative visualisation of graduates of the future and the key concepts that they would need, and the resulting 'rich pictures' presented as big pieces of shared visualisations, and these continued to provide inspiration throughout the rest of the workshop and, for some, for the following years. the short intervention resulted in much-increased transformation efforts by those who had attended. many of the artefacts such as the 'rich pictures', storyboards and 'footprints' were available for participants to take back to their colleagues. however, to improve workshop attendees’ ability to take fast action, especially when they need to persuade or encourage colleagues back at their faculty or school to work on the changes envisioned, we discovered that more effort needed to be put into briefings and explanations to non-attendees, who are critical to the ongoing process. our overall conclusions, reviewed at regular intervals and now more than three years after the original intervention event, are that the carpe diem week provided a beneficial turning point for the university-wide programme renewal initiative — what we called the “watershed” moment. the outcomes and impact went beyond the learning design initiatives and promoted cross-disciplinary working. hence, some community building around educational transformation occurred, which is very difficult to achieve without a strong focus and vehicle for engagement. the central drivers in the su plan provided appropriate and motivational joint goals, and a collegial atmosphere appropriate to the university environment. these proved to be well supported by the carpe diem framework. this continues to provide an adaptable and acceptable way forward for staff. in short, the intervention promoted ongoing joint endeavour and beneficial purpose. recommendations based on the su action research experience, we offer some recommendations for other higher education institutions who want to initiate a similar transformation which include the following: • clearly communicate and demonstrate the strategic intent and senior leadership support for the initiative and include representatives from all faculties in the first big event to promote whole institution collaboration and engagement; i.e., ensure demonstration of commitment to the process and encouragement by senior leadership, and active engagement if possible. • brief participants before the workshops so they can prepare, without overburdening them, and share the value of and outcomes intended for the workshops. • start at the academic programme level and then proceed to the module level of carpe diem workshops, to allow academics to first visualise the ideal future programme graduate before working on the module detail and create a “cascade” of design thinking and agile delivery. • include diverse faculties and schools in one big event if possible, to promote whole-institution collaboration and impact. • ensure that evidence based researched pedagogical frameworks are deployed, demonstrating easy and quick ways of prototyping. 138 • ensure, during the workshops, that there is ample opportunity and some time for sharing and discussions amongst colleagues of the same school, department or faculty, but also across the faculties. • ensure that each faculty leaves the workshops with viable plans containing follow-up actions and activities for which they take ownership and responsibility. • include, as soon as possible, a workshop within the faculties for participants who did not attend the full carpe diem intervention event to introduce them to the frameworks used and to obtain their engagement in the action plans generated at the workshops. • formulate a plan to ensure regular follow-up, continuous engagement, support and funding to sustain the momentum and impact of the workshops. • consider some action research to enable and value their plans at the point they are delivered to students. • provide sustained support and funding for the delivery and implementation of the programme renewal initiatives without detracting from the capability of programme and module leaders to continue to own and take responsibility for the changes. summary and conclusions the 2020s bring even more challenges in terms of creating and “future proofing” relevance for students and transformation for staff and institutions. it is our view that enabling future visioning with creative and collaborative design approaches offer the optimum way forward to meet students’ requirements and our best hope for accelerating transformation of higher education by creating the necessary “watershed” moments for all involved by seizing the day (lewrick et al, 2018; salmon, 2019). clearly, to enable sustainability, effort needs to continue to be put into implementation and support over a long period of time — longer than our initial action research has continued. in addition to ensuring engagement from academics and overall “raising the bar” for their potential for pedagogical understanding and design work on their teaching, the next stage should be to explore the impact on student learning for their contexts. findings can then be fed back into the carpe diem methods. as the unexpected covid 19 crisis arrived in 2020, the programme renewal initiatives and the ability of stellenbosch's students to study with quality online programmes became of even greater benefit. stellenbosch university was prepared (schoonwinkel, van de merwe & de klerk, 2020). statement on ethics all data used in this study were de-identified to ensure the confidentiality and privacy of participants. to access the de-identified data used in this study, please email the corresponding author and provide a statement regarding the purposes of your request. ethical approval was obtained from stellenbosch university, project no. tl 2018 – 7525. the authors and researchers thank the many members of staff from stellenbosch university who took part in the carpe diem intervention week for their exceptional commitment to working with learning design, their sustained work and generous insightful feedback. and dr tya asgari from the university of liverpool for her esteemed assistance with the evaluation. 139 resources there are extensive openly available video resources and handbooks about carpe diem learning design methodologies to be found at www.gillysalmon.com/carpe-diem. references armellini, a., salmon, g., & hawkridge, d. (2009). the carpe diem journey: designing for learning transformation. in t. mayes, d. morrison, h. mellar, p. bullen & m. oliver. (eds.), transforming higher education through technology-enhanced learning, (pp. 135-148). york, uk: higher education academy. retrieved from https://pure.northampton.ac.uk/en/publications/the-carpe-diem-journey-designing-for-learningtransformation becher, t., & trowler, p. (2001). academic tribes and territories (2nd ed.). srhe and open university press. berg, t., & pooley, r. (2013) rich pictures: collaborative communication through icons. systemic practice & action research, 26. retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11213-012-9238-8 burch, g. f., burch, j. j., bradley, t.p., & heller, n. a. (2015). identifying and overcoming threshold concepts and conceptions: introducing a conception-focused curriculum to course design. journal of management education, 39(4). 476-96. checkland, p. (1999). systems thinking: rethinking management information systems. oxford university press oxford, 45-56. costandius, e., blackie, m., nell, i., malgas, r., alexander, n., setati, e., & mckay, m. (2018). #feesmustfall and decolonising the curriculum: university students’ and lecturers’ reactions. south african journal of higher education, 32(2), 5-85. retrieved from doi:10.20853/32-2-2435. currie, g. (2017). conscious connections: phenomenology and decoding the disciplines. new directions for teaching & learning, 150, 37-48. dilan, e., & aydin, m. n. (2019). adoption of design thinking in industry 4.0 project management in agile approaches for successfully managing and executing projects in the fourth industrial igi global revolution. doi: 10.4018/978-15225-78659.ch00. retrieved from http://www.igi-global.com/chapter/adoption-of-design-thinking-inindustry-40-project-management/223379 flick, u. (2018). an introduction to qualitative research (6th ed.). london: sage publications limited. ghangurde, s. (2011). business diagrams: rich pictures guidelines for business diagrams. retrieved from http://bizdiag.blogspot.com/2011/08/rich-pictures-guidelines-for-business.html greenwood, d. j. (2018). action research. in qualitative methodologies in organization studies, (pp. 75–98). new york: springer. hannan, a. (2005). innovating in higher education: contexts for change in learning technology. british journal of educational technology, 36(6), 975–85. land, r., meyer, j.h.f, & flanagan, m.t (2016). (eds.), threshold concepts in practice. rotterdam: sense publishers. laurillard, d. (2012). teaching as a design science: building pedagogical patterns for learning and technology. abingdon, england: routledge. le grange, l. (2016). decolonising the university curriculum. south african journal of higher education, 30(2): 1– 12. retrieved from doi:10.20853/30-2-709. lewrick, m., link, p., & leifer, l. (2018). the design thinking play book: mindful digital transformation of team, products, services and ecosystems. hoboken, nj: wiley publishers. 140 mullarkey, m. t, & hevner, a.r. (2018). an elaborated action design research process model. european journal of information systems, 1-15. oakley, g. (2016). from diffusion to explosion: accelerating blended learning at the university of western australia. in c. p. lim, & l. wang (eds.), blended learning for quality higher education: selected case studies on implementation from asia-pacific, (pp. 67-102). unesco. posselt, t., abdelkafi, n., fischer, l., & tangour, c. (2019). opportunities and challenges of higher education institutions in europe: an analysis from a business model perspective. wiley online, 73(1): 100-115. retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1111/hequ.12192. roam, d. (2016). draw to win. new york: portfolio, penguin. salaman, g., & asch, d. (2003). strategy and capability: sustaining organizational change. hoboken, nj: blackwell publishing ltd. salmon, g. (2011). e-moderating: the key to teaching and learning online (3rd ed.). london and new york: routledge. salmon, g. (2013). e-tivities: the key to teaching and learning online (2nd ed.). london and new york: routledge. salmon, g. (2019). may the fourth be with you: creating education 4.0. journal for learning & development, 6(2). salmon, a. armellini, a. alexander, s., & korosec, m. (2019). progressing carpe diem from example to practice. presented to oeb (19). berlin, december. retrieved from https://www.gillysalmon.com/uploads/5/0/1/3/50133443/carpe_diem_for_transformation_paper_final_nov_2 019_.pdf schoonwinkel, a., van de merwe, a., & de klerk, m. (2020, april 23). navigating uncertainty in the move to online learning. university world news. retrieved from https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20200421085256435 sharpe, r., benfield, g., & roberts, g. (2006, october). the undergraduate experience of blended e-learning: a review of uk literature and practice executive summary. what is blended learning? 1-103. siry, c. (2018). troubling science education and imagining possibilities for transformation: an afterword. in cultural, social, and political perspectives in science education, (pp. 197–206). new york: springer. stellenbosch university. (2013). strategy for teaching and learning. timmermans, j.a., & meyer, j.h.f. (2019). a framework for working with university teachers to create and embed ‘integrated threshold concept knowledge’ (itck) in their practice. international journal for academic development, 24:4, 354-368. retrieved from doi: 10.1080/1360144x.2017.1388241 usher, j., macneill, j., & creanor, l. (2018). evolutions of carpe diem for learning design. compass: journal of learning and teaching, 11(1). villarroel, v., bloxham, s., bruna, d., bruna, c., & herrera-seda, c. (2017). authentic assessment: creating a blueprint for course design. assessment and evaluation in higher education, 2938, 1-15. retrieved from doi:10.1080/02602938.2017.1412396. vlachopoulos, p. (2018). curriculum digital transformation through learning design: the design, develop, implement methodology. in k. ntalianis, a. andreatos, & c. sgouropoulou (eds.), proceedings of the 17th european conference on elearning, (pp. 585-591). reading, uk: academic conferences & publishing international. 141 authors: gilly salmon is an adjunct professor at swinburne university of technology in melbourne, australia, visiting professor at edge hill university, uk and ceo and principal consultant of education alchemists, based in london. email: gillysalmon@education-alchemists.com antoinette van der merwe is senior director: learning and teaching enhancement at stellenbosch university and holds a phd in science and technology studies from su. she has been involved in professional academic support for the past 23 years at su. her main research interests include the scholarship of educational leadership and the effective use of learning technologies in higher education. email: advdm@sun.ac.za arnold schoonwinkel obtained a master’s degree in engineering from stellenbosch university, a phd in engineering from stanford university and an mba from the university of cape town. he worked in industry and at stellenbosch university as professor in satellite engineering, dean of the engineering and as vice-rector (learning and teaching). email: schoonwi@sun.ac.za cite this paper as: salmon, g., & van der merwe, a., & schoonwinkel, a. (2020). a “watershed” for educational transformation: deployment of carpe diem learning design methods in a south african context. journal of learning for development, 7(2), 127-141. microsoft word hamaluba.docx issn: 2311-1550 2022, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 104-116 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. an assessment of computer and ict skills at botswana open university: implications of ict in business subjects tommie hamaluba botswana open university abstract: this paper presents a study that focused on assessing computer and ict skills of business subjects’ learners at botswana open university (bou). the study explored the levels of computer skills; existence of ict skills and perception of business subject learners on the adoption and use of ict skills for teaching and learning. a sample size of 223 participants from bou’s five regions was studied and data was collected quantitatively using survey questionnaires. descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data. the results showed that most of the respondents had average ability to navigate on the e-learning school platforms (e-library, portals, websites, etc.) and average awareness of the business learning software and applications; they were familiar with most ms package elements, ms word, excel, powerpoint and publisher. they were familiar with the use of emails, social sites and blogs as well as internet searching and browsing. results also showed that the respondents understood the basic functions of computer hardware. the study also revealed that respondents needed improvement in the use of ict tools for learning their business subjects, and that the improvement of the use of ict tools would enhance their understanding of the subject matter. respondents cited poor internet connectivity and unreliable power supply, as well as slow internet connectivity, as some of the reasons for their poor ict skills in teaching and learning icts. keywords: information technology, business development, ict skills, innovation, bou. introduction business education is education for and about business or training in business skills (esene, 2012). okoli (2010) thought of it as that aspect of the total educational programme that provides the knowledge, skills, understanding and attitudes needed to perform effectively in the business world as a producer and/or consumer of goods and services that business offers (bilyaminu, 2011). business education is an important part of general education which emphasises skill acquisition for office use. it plays a pivotal role in nation development. for optimum educational teaching and learning of business education courses, there must be adequate provision of information and communication technology (ict) tools (okoro, 2013). information and communication technology (ict) is an indispensable tool of the twenty first century digital age. business education therefore must be understood as a programme of instruction that consists of two parts, namely, office education — a programme of vocation for office careers, and general business education, which provides the recipients with competencies and skills needed in managing personal business affairs and using the services of the business world (ezenwafor, 2012). an individual who receives training in business education can easily develop potential for entrepreneurship pursuits especially in this era of economic melt-down and unemployment (ibeneme & ikegwuani, 2010). 105 business education, which is offered at the universities and colleges of education, is concerned mainly with the development of relevant and saleable skills and knowledge that would enable an individual to function effectively in the world of work (onojetah, 2012). business education programmes should not only be for learners but are also required to train skilled business educators in higher and secondary institutions as well as to be quick-witted for economic growth (oluwalola, 2021). anderson and glen (2003) discoursed that ict in the modern dispensation improves technological advantages in accessing, gathering, manipulating and presenting information. james okoro, in september of 2013, submitted that information and communication technology is a system that is used in the processing, storage and transfer of information which can be audio, visual or in the form of numbers, letters and pictures. igberaharha (2009) had thought of ict to involve the use of networks, expert systems, and artificial intelligence and these have over the years come to be known as electronic commerce or electronic business. radio-assisted instruction (rai), television-assisted instruction (tai), computer-assisted instruction (cai), internet-assisted instruction (iai) are some of the dimensions of ict-assisted instruction (unesco, 2014). oluwalola (2020) put it in a more succinct manner, that ict is the form of education enhancing learners with relevant digital skills, which enables such individuals to contribute profitability to societal development. ict have over the years enhanced learning in the twenty first century as it has expanded learning to go beyond the classroom walls. the specialty of business studies has not been spared the ict impact both in developed and developing countries, where learners and teachers are enjoying and learning the application of ict in schools. akpan (2014) pointed out that in the contemporary developed and developing countries, ict has enhanced both teachers’ and students’ performances in tremendous measure. in the western world, the american vocational association (ava, 1980) related the connection of ict with business education programmes to be a broad and comprehensive discipline that encompasses knowledge, skills, vocation and aptitude needed by all citizens in order to effectively manage their personal businesses and also function in the economic system. ibeneme and ikegwuani (2010) enhanced this thought to also include development potential for entrepreneurship pursuits, especially in this era of economic melt-down and unemployment. information and communication technology (ict) has become an important source of innovation and improvement of efficiency for many sectors across the globe, particularly the education sector, where the application of ict has become a critical part of the learning process for university students both outside and inside the classroom setting. the application of ict in teaching and learning has raised considerable concern among individual global governments and other education governing institutions who have made it emphatically clear in their various educational policy documents. unesco (2019) submitted that, “the rapid breakthroughs in new information and communication technologies then was going to change the way knowledge would be developed, acquired and delivered and also offer opportunities to innovate on course content and teaching methods and to widen access to higher learning”. youssef & dahmani, (2008) comment that ict has a great influence on teaching and learning in higher education. it provides opportunity for personalised, flexible and asynchronous learning and shifts the learning from teacher centered to student centered and, hence, is a catalyst for reforms about classroom, educational institute, community and system. unesco (2019) 106 submitted that ict enhances the learning of students, helps students to learn new skill sets, promotes social mobility, helps citizens to compete in a worldwide economy, and thus has a multiplier effect across the education system. ict integration implies extending the use of computers beyond specialist courses and individual projects to the everyday practice of mainstream schooling (ruthven, hennessy, & brindley, 2004). it was reported in fathi vajargah and saadattlab (2014) that computers have been in use for administrative purposes in most schools worldwide for the past several decades but were inducted into the classroom during the 1990s. most african countries in the 2000s were still struggling with operating at full capacity in universities and other learning institutions where ict utilisation was concerned. in a study done by okoli (2010), such constraints as inadequate textbooks and other teaching materials and the impediments in the power sector were contributing to the poor utilisation of ict and consequently their utilisation in business studies. onojetah (2012) also submitted that inadequate infrastructure, inadequate funding, acute manpower shortage, lack of access to utilise ict resources at will and non-availability of computer laboratories were also contributing to the list of ict utilisation constraints. despite these challenges business education must be seen as the acquisition and development of attitudes, skills and competencies for the efficiency of economic systems (azih & igboke, 2017). onasanya (2010) observed that most teachers in europe employed high ict skills at various levels of teaching for effectiveness and proper comprehension by students. lecturer’s efficiency in nigeria shows that there is a missing link between the utilisation of ict resources and the competency of the lecturers (abdulraham, 2018). batane (2013) and mojalane and diraditsile (2019) note that botswana does not have sufficient quantities of teachers who are trained in using technology for teaching and learning, which has resulted in the lack of student-centric classrooms. it therefore implies that the students are highly likely to have poor ict skills. findings from a study done by nwaiwu (2009) in nigeria indicated that, “that business education students perform poorly in ict courses and most business education graduates are not competent in ict skills.” botswana learners are fairly poor at most ict skills (diraditsile & samakabadi, 2018). himat (2020) points out that ict helps young people become sophisticated problem solvers and that if technology were harnessed well in the classroom, whether physical or virtual, teaching instructions would be more motivating and constructive. this unsatisfactory manner of practice in the delivery of business programmes in line with technological innovations has created a thirst to address the challenges with a realisation that attainment of the national technology objectives and good performance of the graduates in the business world could only be achieved with proper ict investment and commitment. brown (2002) argued that, “computers enhance teaching and learning via: presentations, more opportunities to practice and analyze, and more access to source material via internet. computers and internet connectivity has been found to enhance communication and interaction between colleagues within faculties, between classmates, and between faculties and students”. 107 problem statement there is a widespread belief that ict can and will empower teachers and learners, transforming teaching and learning processes from being highly teacher-dominated to student-centered (see, nasreen, 2013; paul, 2017). it is also believed that this transformation will result in increased learning gains for students, creating opportunities that allow learners to develop their creativity, problemsolving abilities, information reasoning, communication, and other higher-order thinking skills (hamilton-ekeke & mbachu, 2015). it is such views that informed the botswana education & training sector strategic plan (etssp 20152020), which puts out initiatives to help in the adoption and integration of ict in the education system and other documents such as vision 2036, which accommodates integration of ict in the education system and that is through the goal of producing globally competitive human capital, relevant in the era of ict and beyond. various policy documents have also supported this vision. many other documents speak to the same goal, documents such as the ndp 11, nhrds 2009 and maitlamo 2012, amongst the many policies aimed at addressing usage of ict in education. it is also worth noting that there is a paucity of research and published literature on the assumption of the levels of computer and ict skills possessed by open school learners of business subjects nwaiwu (2009) that reveals that business education students perform poorly in ict courses and most business education graduates are not competent in ict skills. mogwe and balotlegi (2020) in their investigation of the “barriers of information communication technology (ict) adoption in botswanas’ primary education” found that most learners lacked ict skills. therefore, this study sought to fill this gap to find out how these learners navigate learning in both open and distance learning modes, given the assumption that they are fully equipped with some ict skills in abundance. research objectives the main aim of the study was to investigate what computer and ict skills the business subjects’ learners possess for teaching and learning at bou’s open school. the variables investigated in this study were computer and ict skills, respectively, and the utilisation of these skills among business subjects’ learners in open school. the following three research questions were posited for this study: (i) what are the levels of computer skills among business subject learners at bou’s open school? (ii) what percentage of these learners possess 21st-century ict skills necessary for teaching and learning? (iii) how do they perceive the value of ict skills for teaching and learning? an attempt is made in this paper to answer the above questions. literature review bilyaminu (2011) views business education as an aspect of a total education programme that provides the knowledge, skills, attitudes and understanding needed to perform in the business world as a producer or consumer of goods and services. according to adamu (2014) business education programmes provide students with knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values required for graduates’ gainful employment or self-reliance. jimoh and umoru (2020) viewed business education as a conglomerate of courses concerned with the acquisition, development and inculcation of the proper values for the survival of individuals and society. business education must be viewed as an integral part of vocational and technical courses highly recognised as a means of empowering youth for their 108 sustainable livelihood and social-economic development. it is a programme with the capacity of delivering the knowledge, skill and philosophy that influence the development of attitudes and behaviors likely to impact on the actualisation of educational goals. ict skills go beyond the mere use of computers; according to akintunde (2004) ict skills entail making valuable use of online resources and basically being literate in ict or information as needed. ict skill includes the ability to totally comprehend and acquire a whole lot of capacities, which include recognising, spotting and evaluating information as well as making effective use of it (nikitakis-2007). in a study by händel et al. (2020) which investigated students’ digital devices utilisation and their own assessment of e-learning competency, the study concluded that males are more likely to utilise digital devices than females. it also indicated that students think they do not have the necessary level of ict skills. in another similar research study by aristovnik et al. (2020) that covered 30,383 students from different countries, most students appeared to lack computer skills as indicated by their inability to track their progress and their continued struggle to fully accomplish the ict associated tasks. in research done in the usa by liang et al. (2006) which investigated how confident 145 teachers were in using their ict competencies, it was discovered that most of them evaluated their competency level as minimal, even though participants considered themselves to be computer literate. on the other hand, the participants showed that they had a positive attitude towards computers but that they lack confidence in their own ict skills, a study by kipsoi et al. (2012) does indicate that most countries in the sub-saharan africa have yet to embrace ict in schools. most schools view ict as one of the technical subjects and not as a tool which can be integrated into teaching and learning activities. if utilised appropriately ict tools such as computers can help learners enhance their analytical and creative skills and at the same time enable them to collaborate with their peers. oluwalola (2020) noted that most institutions are suffering from inadequate infrastructure facilities coupled with incompetent lecturers for teaching those ict related courses. this may result in inadequate utilisation of new technology facilities by business education teachers, which could result in producing graduates with only theoretical knowledge and less experience in practical courses that require the application of ict skills. siddiquah and salim (2017) carried out a study where they noted that the majority of the students have access to computers and internet facilities and did possess some skills such as knowledge of microsoft word, microsoft powerpoint, searching and browsing on the internet, social networking, email, uploading files, and video games. haywood (2003) mentioned some core ict skills, which include knowledge of spreadsheets, word processors, databases and presentations. consequently, siddiquah and salim, 2017 noted that the students engage themselves in doing other computer related activities instead of focusing on their academics. odede & enakerakpo, (2014) noted that undergraduate students possess adequate ict skills and can efficiently make use of the internet. conversely, amidst these various skills possessed by the students, it is obvious that they lack other skills such as proper use of e-library, discussion forums and blogging. 109 botswana, like most other countries in the world, invests heavily in the provision of secondary education. the mobe report of 2018 highlights that there were 208 junior secondary schools and 32 senior secondary schools, each of which were equipped with a computer laboratory, mainly to teach all students a subject titled computer awareness (mojalane & diraditsile, 2019). furthemore, in a study that was done by totolo (2014), it was revealed that the use of information technology in schools has influenced some changes in digital scholarship, which is a modern technology applied in teaching, learning and research activities. totolo (2014) however, found that the challenge in adopting technology in education was associated with factors such as computer anxiety, digital literacy and a lack of ease in using computers. the above information on the education system is very important to consider on the grounds that bou’s open school gets most of its learners from conventional government schools at junior or senior secondary pathways, who are not able to proceed to the next levels of their studies either at form three and/or form five, as well as those who might have dropped from school due to various personal reasons. considering the foregoing, it is important to note that botswana open university has five regional campuses and offers both tertiary education and secondary school equivalency. the 2017 enrolment of business subjects’ leaners across the five regions stood at 1,310 for jc (commerce and accounting & commerce and office procedures) while bgcse stood at 891 (commerce); 229 (accounting) and 17 (business studies), all totaling 1,137 (bou, 2017). batane (2013) and mojalane and diraditsile (2019) note that botswana does not have sufficient quantities of teachers who are trained in using technology for teaching and learning, which has resulted in the lack of student-centric classrooms. moreover, christensen (2014) and tabulawa (2013) argue that, for a revolution to take place in education, changes must occur that will disrupt the status quo. this means that disruptive innovation such as the use of ict in teaching and learning will change the way that botswana learns. therefore, the argument that runs down the gamut of this paper is that the status quo in botswana’s classrooms lacks constructivism teaching; a teaching method that embraces technology updates, where a teacher positions himself/herself as being a facilitator and not a fountain of knowledge, as hailed by the traditional teaching that this nation and other developing countries in the world are used to. furthermore, the high degree of ignorance among the general public regarding teaching with emerging technology and understanding the discipline of teachers who teach with technology has seemingly grown in botswana. nenty (2009) observes that quality teaching in botswana has been lost. moreover, the poor quality of textbooks, teaching methods not matching 21st-century learners and teachers’ experiences, as well as the lack of teachers’ motivation and parental involvement in the teaching/learning process, has contributed to the poor teaching botswana has faced over the past several years. noticeably, what results in poor quality teaching in most schools is the lack of technological applications in classrooms as a means of democratising education (batane, 2013). batane (2013) concurs with nenty (2009) on the absence of technology-led innovations in most of botswana’s educational institutions, which would enhance teaching and translate it into the expectations of the 21st-century classroom. the ministry of education has not encouraged its partners to look at emerging technological innovations as one of the possible teaching modes in botswana (totolo, 2014). despite government policies encouraging the growth of ict uptake in the nation’s educational systems, there remains a gap leading to the failure of harnessing emerging technologies in 110 schools, which lies in the fear that these learning institutions have for it to be in the hands of students. according to hulela et al. (2014), maintaining school policies that keep technology out of schools is worrisome. in a study by alpheus and balotlegi (2020), with a sample from 60 schools in botswana, they found that the learners were not proficient in the use of computers and that most of them lack basic skills of using ict related technologies which has become a thorny issue affecting adoption and usage of ict skills in primary schools in botswana. leteane et al. (2015) in their study about ict adoption in primary schools in botswana produced similar findings that most learners and teachers had poor ict skills to operate applications such as microsoft word, powerpoint and/or excel. many individuals (68%) showed they have limited personal experience with ict. in a similar study, mogwe, keolopile and seelo, (2018) indicated that many teachers in both primary and secondary schools in botswana lack the basic ict skills or are not competent enough in ict skills. this skill deprivation is caused among other factors by lack of proper infrastructure, such as functional ict labs and availability of trained personnel to assist in ict skills. methods research methodology descriptive survey design was used in this study. the research was seeking to assess the computer and ict skills at the botswana open university and see how these implicate ict in business studies. this design enabled the researcher to generalise the findings to the larger group. population and sample the population of the study was the open school bou learners of business subjects from gaborone, palapye, francistown, kang and maun bou regions, with a specific sample size of 223 participants who were studied. the sample was selected using regional centre registers for students who were studying the business subjects and available for pilot study. we recruited 60 students from each region to total 300 for the pilot. bulk messages were sent using the botswana open university (sms) system to notify the students to turn up for the questionnaire uptake, and by using the registers that were being used by the regions themselves, the researcher was able to administer the survey to the 223 students who appeared. research tools and techniques a questionnaire was used to collect data for the study. the instrument of data collection was subjected to content validity. before taking the instrument to the regions, in order to get validity of the tool, it was checked by two experts in the research office and also trail testing of the tool was done on 50 students of gaborone government school, called ikageng junior school, which is one of the schools presenting business subjects. data collection and analysis the survey questionnaire was self-administered by the researcher using the drop and pick method during the learners’ tutorial sessions. given the nature of the study, which mainly involved descriptive statistics, the data collected was analysed using spss version 23. the respondents were asked to choose from the following description ranges: 1 = very good; 2 = good; 3 = acceptable, 4 = poor and 5 = very poor. 111 results demographic details table 1: summary of the demographic information of the respondents variable categories frequency valid % gender male 126 56.5 female 97 43.5 age group below 16 years 21 9.5 17 to 20 years 172 77.5 21 to 25 years 15 6.8 above 26 years 15 6.7 level of study jc 181 81.2 bgcse 42 18.8 region gaborone 81 41.1 maun 47 21.1 kang 51 22.9 other 44 19.7 source: research data the results of the study revealed that a majority (56.5%) of the respondents were males as compared to their female counterparts, represented by 43.5%. a significant majority (77.5%) of the respondents were within the age group of 17 to 20 years. the results further revealed that 81.2% of the respondents were currently in jc level. lastly, the results revealed that 41.1% of the respondents indicated that their center is located in gaborone. level of computer skills table 2: level of computer skills on business subject learners item statement mean standard deviation n ability to navigation on e-learning platforms in my school (e-library, portals, website) 2.36 0.986 220 business education software and application (excel, spreadsheet, powerpoint) awareness 2.32 1.020 220 overall scale 2.51 0.939 220 source: research data table 2 presents the responses to the questions relating to the level of computer skills of the learners. thus, the respondents were requested to respond to two questions thereof. the results revealed that the respondents rated their ability to navigate on e-learning platforms in their school (e-library, portals, website) with a mean figure of 2.36, as shown by 220 of the respondents and their business education software and application awareness, a mean figure of 2.32 as shown by 220 of the respondents, which can be categorised as “good” (item scores between 1.51 and 2.50), with a standard deviation of 0.986 and 1.020, respectively. the overall mean value for the level of computer skills on the business subject learners’ scale was found to be 2.51, with a standard deviation of 0.939, which is classified in the “not sure” category. 112 the perceptions of ict skills of the students table 3: students’ perceptions on ict skills statements mean standard deviation n i understand the basic functions of the computer hardware. 3.51 1,004 210 i use ict tools to learn my business subject(s) 2.82 1,148 213 i enjoy learning by reading from the computer screen 3.42 1,265 212 poor internet connectivity, power computer conditions as well as slow internet as some of the reasons for poor ict skills in teaching and learning ict. 3.05 1,346 211 i have an online friend i have never met physically. 3.13 1,390 210 i am comfortable in browsing the internet (www) to collect learning materials in my business subject. 3.49 1,246 213 i am able to use a phone app to search business subject materials for my study. 3.46 1,247 211 i think that it is important for me to improve my use of ict tools for learning my business subject 4.06 0,963 214 i think that using ict tools and resources can enhance my learning of business subjects 3.81 1,029 209 i want botswana open university to start teaching us online and stop printing study booklets 3.68 1,350 213 overall scale 3.86 0.696 214 source: research data the results presented in table 3 reveal that responses that were in the “agree” category (item scores between 3.50 and 4.49 to the statements) were four and those that were categorised as “not sure” (item scores between 2.51 and 3.49) were a total of six. the, “i think that it is important for me to improve my use of ict tools for learning my business subject” response had the highest mean of 4.06 from 214 responses, in the “agree” category, followed by “i think that using ict tools and resources can enhance my learning of business subjects” response, with a mean of 3.81, “i want botswana open university to start teaching us online and stop printing study booklets” had a mean of 3.68 and, “i understand the basic functions of the computer hardware” had the lowest mean of 3.51 from 210 responses. “i am able to use a phone app to search business subject materials for my study” had a mean of 3.46, i am comfortable in browsing the internet (www) to collect learning materials in my business subject” had a mean of 3.49, while “poor internet connectivity, power computer conditions as well as slow internet as some of the reasons for poor ict skills in teaching and learning icts” had the lowest mean of 3.05 as a measure of reactions to their ict skills. the overall mean value for the ict skills scale was found to be 3.86, with a standard deviation of 0.696, which is classified in the “agree” category. discussion the results from table 1 in the results section reveal that a majority (56.5%) of the respondents were males as compared to their female counterparts, represented by 43.5%. a significant majority (77.5%) of the respondents were within the age group of 17 to 20 years. this was a representative age group and the availability of more males than females may be indicative of the fact that males are more 113 comfortable with the use of ict in business subjects as much as it may indicate an interest in business subjects in males more than females. this assertion is in agreement with the findings of a study by händel et al. (2020), which investigated students’ digital devices utilisation and their own assessment of their e-learning competency. the study concluded that males are more likely to utilise digital devices than females. table 2 revealed that the respondents rated their ability to navigate on e-learning platforms in their school (e-library, portals, website) with a mean figure of 2.36 as shown by 220 of the respondents and their business education software and application awareness, and a mean figure of 2.32 as shown by 220 of the respondents, which gives an overall mean value for the level of computer skills on business subject learners’ scale of 2.51, with a standard deviation of 0.939, which is classified in the “not sure” category. this, on average, scores the skills to be not very good. similar findings from a study done by nwaiwu (2009) in nigeria showed that “business education students perform poorly in ict courses and most business education graduates are not competent in ict skills.” which was also a similar finding from a study done by diraditsile and samakabadi, (2018) which found that botswana learners are fairly poor at most ict skills. the study also set out to investigate the perceptions of ict skills the learners possessed and in table 3 in the results section it was revealed that the “i think that it is important for me to improve my use of ict tools for learning my business subject” response had the highest mean of 4.06 from 214 responses, in the “agree” category, followed by the “i think that using ict tools and resources can enhance my learning of business subjects” response with a mean of 3.81. the “i want botswana open university to start teaching us online and stop printing study booklets” response had a mean of 3.68 and “i understand the basic functions of the computer hardware” had the lowest mean of 3.51 from 210 responses. “i am able to use a phone app to search business subject materials for my study” had a mean of 3.46, and “i am comfortable in browsing the internet (www) to collect learning materials in my business subject” had a mean of 3.49, while “poor internet connectivity, power computer conditions as well as slow internet as some of the reasons for poor ict skills in teaching and learning ict” had the lowest mean of 3.05 as a measure of reactions to their ict skills. the overall mean value for the ict skills scale was found to be 3.86, with a standard deviation of 0.696, which is classified in the “agree” category. this is indicative that the learners are utilising ict, however, the majority wish to improve their skill, an assertion similar to that submitted from a study done by mojalane and diraditsile, (2019) where it was submitted that each of the schools who participated in their study were equipped with a computer laboratory, mainly to teach all students a subject titled computer awareness but the poor ict skill levels of the learners could be attributed to the “i want botswana open university to start teaching us online and stop printing study booklets” response, which had a mean of 3.68 and could be indicative of the fact that the teachers have poor ict skills which could translate into poor ict levels of the learners. a study by mojalane and diraditsile (2019) noted that botswana does not have sufficient quantities of teachers who are trained in using technology for teaching and learning, which has resulted in the lack of student-centric classrooms. abdulraham, (2018) also submitted that lecturers’ inefficiency in nigeria shows that there is a missing link between the utilisation of ict resources and the competency of the lecturers. these studies support the findings of this study as 114 regards the poor ict skills of the teachers. christensen (2014) and tabulawa (2013) argue that, for a revolution to take place in education, changes must occur that will disrupt the status quo. table 3 also emphasises that fact that the learners understand the basic functions of the computer hardware and were comfortable in browsing the internet, indicative of their access to computers, results similar to those from a study by siddiquah and salim (2017) where they noted that the majority of the students have access to computers and internet facilities and did possess some skills such as knowledge of microsoft word, microsoft powerpoint, searching and browsing on the internet, social networking, e-mail, uploading file, and video games. the study also reveals that poor internet connectivity and electric power conditions, as well as slow internet as some of the reasons for poor ict skills in teaching and learning ict, a position similar to that of oluwalola, (2020) who noted that most institutions are suffering from inadequate infrastructure facilities, coupled with incompetent lecturers for teaching those ict related courses. this may result in inadequate utilisation of new technology facilities by business education teachers, which could result in producing graduates with only theoretical knowledge and less experience in practical courses that required the application of ict skills. totolo (2014), submitted that information technology in schools has influenced some changes in digital scholarship and is increasingly becoming a modern technology applied in teaching, learning and research activities. he, however, noted that the challenge in adopting technology in education was associated with factors such as computer anxiety, digital literacy and a lack of ease in using the computers. conclusion and recommendations ict in business subjects can usher in fundamental structural changes that could be integral to achieving significant improvements in teaching and learning business subjects. ict at bou is not yet fully implemented despite the massive efforts being put up by the government. this study established that most learners already have access to computers and the internet as well as a few unperfected ict skills, an indications of a movement in the right direction. it must be understood that infusing ict learning programmes in business subjects not only supports learning 24 hours a day, seven days a week but builds 21st-century skills; increases student engagement and motivation; and accelerates learning, too. this study also established — and is in agreement with other scholars — that most teachers were not very confident to deliver business lessons using various ict platforms; this is in addition to the fact that there were fewer trained teachers/lecturers who were fully confident to utilise ict in their teaching. this study therefore recommends training to teachers, tutors and lecturers on the pedagogy integration of computer and ict tools and how to use them creatively, incorporating them into a participatory teaching approach in open schooling and bou’s management should urgently ensure that ict facilities/infrastructure are available for learners’ use. furthermore, open schooling should integrate ict into learning programmes to help learners improve necessary skills that empower them for the jobs of tomorrow. this helps them to prepare for a good future, which is largely dependent on ict and computers. moreover, bou’s management should have ict training centres in all five regional campuses for open schooling, or involve ict in 115 open schooling curricula, to enable learners to use the opportunity to maximise their computer literacy in such a way that they can accept and use icts in their everyday studies. this paper also recommends that bou should start differentiating between the occasional use of technology for supporting traditional methods of teaching and learning, which amounts to technocentrism, and integrating ict for improving the standards of teaching and learning. open schooling tutors need to be prepared for communicating and teaching through various media, and subject specialists in open schooling need to translate the traditional teaching learning resources into online pedagogy. in this era of teaching and learning, learners need software for different media, online teaching and learning, distributed learning, the use of web 2.0 technologies, open resources (oers), learner management systems and conferencing through various modes and as a way of matching the expectations from the learners. conflict of interest: the author declares that he has no conflicts of interest. acknowledgment: i would like to extend my deepest gratitude to the students who took part in this research. the study would not have been feasible without their participation. references akpan, c.p. (2014). ict competence and lecturers job efficiency in universities in cross river state, nigeria. international journal of humanities and social science, 1(10), 259-266. azih n., & igboke, a. (2017). the place of computer based technology in the curriculum of colleges of education in nigeria. international journal of research in social sciences, 15(1), 20-25. aristovnik, a., keržic, d., ravšelj, d., tomaževic, n., & umek, l. (2020) impacts of the covid-19 pandemic on life of higher education students: a global perspective. sustainability 2020, 12, 8438. abdulraham, o. (2018). information and communication technology utilization, quality assurance practices and academic staff effectiveness in south-west nigerian polytechnics. [postgraduate thesis, university of ilorin, nigeria]. batane, t. (2013). internet access and use among young people in botswana. international journal of information and education technology, 3(1), 117-119. christensen, c. m. (2014). the ongoing process of building a theory of disruption. journal of product innovation management, 23(1), 39-55. diraditsile, k., & samakabadi, g. (2018). the effect of social media on student engagement and collaboration: the use of facebook at the university of botswana. lonaka journal of learning and teaching, 9(1), 70-83. hamilton-ekeke, j., & mbachu, c. e. (2015). the place of information, communication and technology (ict) in teaching and learning in nigerian tertiary institutions. american journal of educational research, 3(3), 340-347. himat, a. n. (2020). the effects of facebook on students’ social life: a case study at mirwais khan nika zabul institute of higher education, zabul. american international journal of social science research, 5(3), 7-16. hulela, k., rammolai, m., & mpatane, w. (2014). assessment of computer technology availability, accessibility and usage by agricultural education student teachers in secondary schools in botswana. educational research and reviews, 9(17), 610-617. jimoh, f., & umoru, a. (2020, october). strategies for integrating verbatim reporting into business education curriculum. nigerian journal of business education, 7(2), 54-66. mogwe, a.w., balotlegi, p.a. (2020). barriers of information of botswana. botswana daimon systems pty ltd. mojalane, a., & diraditsile, k. (2019). botswana’s education system: a relative analysis with south korean education system. journal of education, society and behavioural science, 32(2), 1-8. 116 nasreen, a. m. (2013). ict skills proficiency of library professionals: a case study of universities in karachi, pakistan. chinese librarianship: an international electronic journal, 36(1), 72-84. nenty, h. j (2009). interpretation of the results of data analysis for review of education sector analysis. paper presented at a wgesa, unesco sponsored capacity building workshop on the review of education sector studies in lesotho at national university of lesotho, roma october 11. okoro j. (2013). strategies for enhancing the teaching of ict in business education programs as perceived by business education lecturers in universities in south nigeria. international education studies, 6(10), 1913-9039. canadian centre of science and education. oluwalola, f. k. (2020, june). ict skills acquired by office technology and management students for selfsustenance and national development in tertiary institutions in kwara state. al-hikmah journal of education, 7(1), 183-194. paul, a. (2017). impact of facebook on urban youth: a study on kolkata metropolitan. international journal of research in social sciences, 7(7), 453-463. tabulawa, r. (2013). teaching and learning in context: why pedagogical reforms fail in sub-saharan africa. codesria. totolo, a. (2014). national information and communication technology policy and digital era school librarianship in botswana. international information & library review, 46(1), 84-92. unesco (2019). portal of education plans and policies. https://planipolis.iiep.unesco.org/en/search/site?f%5b0%5d=im_field_countries%3a1038 author: dr tommie hamaluba holds a phd (business administration) and mba (business administration) from northwest university in south africa, bba, and dip. education, from nkrumah teachers college, cdep, pgcqae from bou and is a final-year student with namcol towards a post graduate diploma in open school operations and management (pdosom). he joined botswana open university as subject specialist, business: open schooling in september in 2013, after a successful teaching career since 1993. tommie has been involved with the integration of icts into teaching and learning since 1999, serving as high school teacher in botswana. he has been instrumental in developing business subjects in botswana and recently launched a fullfledged commonwealth of learning-sponsored moodle portal for junior secondary school level of students taking business subjects and, on the same portal, is developing accounting for senior secondary students in botswana as oer. any teacher interested in subscribing students can contact dr. hamaluba at the following email address. email: thamaluba@staff.bou.ac.bw cite this paper as: hamaluba, t. (2022). an assessment of computer and ict skills at botswana open university: implications of ict in business subjects. journal of learning for development, 9(1), 104-116. microsoft word de silva.docx issn: 2311-1550 2020, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 204-217 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. developing self-regulated learning skills in university students studying in the open and distance learning environment using the kwl method d. v. m. de silva open university of sri lanka abstract: open and distance learning (odl) is considered an important strategy for increasing educational access. however, students learning in odl environments face many challenges. studies have indicated that students with self-regulated learning (srl) skills are more likely to succeed in odl environments. studies have demonstrated that through instructional strategies, tutors can teach and help improve srl skills. this development of srl skills may lead to reduced drop-out rates. to examine the suitability of srl skills development strategies, the researcher of this study utilised a kwl (what i know, what i want to know, what i learned) method in the odl environment in sri lanka to help develop srl skills in university students. this study adopted an action research approach, and twenty-four (24) bachelor of education students and three (03) educators at the open university of sri lanka were the participants. zimmerman & moylan's (2009) self-regulated cycle of learning model was used for the intervention. a motivated strategies for learning questionnaire (mslq,1991) was administered to measure students' srl skills. observations, reflections, and focus group discussions were used to collect qualitative data. the study's findings indicated that the kwl method contributed to the improvement of selfregulated learning skills among student participants. keywords: self-regulated learning skills, open and distance learning environment, kwl method. introduction background open and distance learning (odl) is considered an important strategy for increasing educational access, improving the quality of education, advocating for peer-to-peer collaboration, and providing learners with a greater sense of responsibility for learning (calvert, 2006). according to unesco (2002), the term open and distance learning reflects both the fact that all or most of the teaching is conducted by someone removed in time and space from the learner, and it includes higher dimensions of openness and flexibility, whether in terms of access, curriculum or other elements of the structure. however, university students studying in odl environments can be identified as a special group because they are dispersed and physically separated from the institution, and they do not have the same support systems as institution-based learners. das (2010) pointed out that inefficient management of time, lack of sustained motivation, not having any encouragement from their home or workplaces and lack of modelling are some other constraints that they face. the absence of an immediate teacher, isolation from peer groups and irregular contacts at the study centre sometimes 205 become major hindrances in their learning. however, the number of students who learn in odl environments in the world has grown exponentially over the past few years. nevertheless, despite such growth, odl institutions continue to face low student graduation rates because some of the enrolled students do not complete their qualifications within regulated specifications and some drop out of the system (khumalo, 2018). to overcome this situation, university students in odl environments have to be “independent learners” and should be responsible for their studies. this is where the importance of selfregulated learning (srl) becomes an essential factor. if students study in odl environments and possess selfregulated learning competencies they can behave as independent learners, which is an essential feature for open and distance learning (corno, 2001). further, srl is not a fixed trait but, rather, a skill that can be developed and honed through experience and practice applying self-regulated learning strategies (zimmerman, 2015). therefore, to help these students to be self-regulated learners, educators in odl environments should encourage self-regulated learning among their students by using suitable strategies and tools. considering these reasons, the researcher of this study used the kwl method in the odl environment in sri lanka to develop self-regulated learning (srl) skills in university students. aim and objectives the main aim of the study was to examine the suitability of self-regulated skills development strategies that can be adopted in the odl environment in sri lanka to develop srl skills in university students. the objectives of the study were, 1. to identify self-regulated learning skills of b.ed students studying in the open and distance learning environment. 2. to plan and implement an intervention to use the kwl method to develop self-regulated learning skills in b.ed students studying in the open and distance learning environment. 3. to assess the impact of the intervention on the development of students' self-regulated learning skills. review of the literature the process of systematically organising one's thoughts, feelings, and actions to attain one's goals is now commonly referred to as self-regulation (usher & schunk, 2018). self-regulation from a social cognitive perspective looks at the triadic interaction between the person (e.g., beliefs about success), his or her behavior, and the environment (zimmerman, 2000). according to this perspective, selfregulation is a combination of self-observation, self-judgment, and self-reaction. the same idea is reflected by pintrich (2000) who defined self-regulated learning as an active, constructive process, whereby learners set goals for their learning and then attempt to monitor, regulate, and control their cognition, motivation, and behaviour, guided and constrained by their goals and the contextual features of the environment. efklides (2011) stated that the key components of self-regulated learning are cognition, metacognition, motivation, affect, and volition. all these definitions revealed that self 206 regulated learning (srl) is a complex process, containing cognitive, motivational, and contextual elements. although the research studies on the application of srl in the context of distance education are limited, radovan (2011) discovered possible relationships between self-regulated learning dimensions and students' success in a distance-learning programme through a research study which was conducted by using a survey design with 319 students. findings of the above study emphasised that students who study in distance-learning courses need self-regulated learning strategies to be successful learners. zhao, chen & panda (2013), agreed with the idea, and they also emphasised that fostering self-regulated learning ability should be a key element at all levels of distance education courses. however, ambreen et al (2016) pointed out that most teachers believe that teaching selfregulated learning strategies in the distance education context is not an easy job. nevertheless, pajares (2002) revealed that by using the social cognitive theory as a framework, teachers could work to improve their students' emotional states and to correct their faulty self-beliefs and habits of thinking (personal factors), to improve their academic skills and self-regulatory practices (behaviour), and to alter the school and classroom structures that may work to undermine student success (environmental factors). therefore, within the present study, the researcher used the social cognitive theory as a framework to implement a kwl method in the odl environment in sri lanka to develop selfregulated learning (srl) skills among university students. the kwl method was initially developed by ogle (1986) as an instructional learning strategy that focuses on the involvement of the students and the teacher to take an active role in reading and learning. according to riswanto et al (2014), it is a theory-based, multiple strategy framework that develops students' engagement and comprehension of texts. bryan (1998) stated that it is an active learning strategy. draper (2002) pointed out that the kwl method supports student-centred learning. according to hassard (2011), the kwl strategy prepares students to make predictions about what they will be reading. riswanto et al (2014) pointed out that this framework develops students' interest in new vocabulary by enabling them to brainstorm ideas and form inferences by setting learning goals and activating appropriate background knowledge. it also enables students to set goals by determining what they want to learn and to design their own questions to monitor understanding (woolley, 2012). when using this strategy during the teaching-learning process students must fill out a table named the kwl table. this table contains three columns indicating three pre-designed questions as follows. • what do i know? (“k” column) • what do i want to know? (“w” column) • what did i learn? (“l” column) according to ogle (1987), the first question of the kwl table (“k” column), is an excellent way to activate the prior knowledge of readers and it raises students’ awareness of the target text. thus, students begin to make connections between their prior knowledge and newly acquired information (ogle, 1987). in a similar vein, winne (2001) also revealed that the first question of the kwl table (“k” column) aims at activating the prior knowledge of students and finding out their understanding of the topic to be learned. the second question (“w” column) helps to encourage students to inquire into the topic and to formulate their own targets about what they wish to learn during the lesson. the third 207 question (“l” column) directs the students to reflect and summarise what they have learned at the end of the lesson. winne (2001) further pointed out that initiating the use of the kwl table early in the lesson allows teachers to understand the students' prior concepts of the subject and encourages students to initiate their own inquiry of the subject throughout the lesson. most of the existing literature revealed that this method is mostly used to improve students' reading comprehension. hamdan (2014) carried out a study by adopting an experimental research design to examine the effectiveness of the kwl-plus strategy on the performance of grade-ten jordanian male students in reading comprehension. the word "plus" indicates the writing skill by mapping the information and summarising the text. the sample of the study was selected from a public school (experimental group) and a private school (control group). the experimental group was taught reading with the kwl-plus strategy, and the control group was taught by other conventional methods. findings of the research revealed that the kwl-plus strategy was effective in improving the reading comprehension performance and recommended that the strategy should be integrated into the english curriculum of the jordanian schools. riswanto and lismayanti (2014) also carried out research to see whether the use of the kwl strategy was effective in improving the students' reading comprehension achievement in learning english as a foreign language. non-equivalent groups and pre-test/post-test design was used in this study, and the sample was 40 eighth-grade students of smpn 4 palembang in the academic year of 2011/2012. the experimental group was taught by using the kwl strategy, while the control group was not taught using the kwl strategy. the findings of this research also emphasised that the kwl strategy was effective in improving the students' reading comprehension achievement. rusmiati (2017) conducted action research to improve students' reading comprehension by implementing the kwl strategy with 31 students in the eleventh-grade of sma mujahidin pontianak. findings revealed that by using the kwl strategy, teachers could improve the active participation of students, make the students more excited about learning, and improve students' reading comprehension. further, rusmiati (2017) suggested that, in implementing kwl, the teacher should explain the roles of kwl clearly and make it simple, and the teacher should manage the time when applying the kwl strategy in the class. however, there are very few studies done to investigate other possible uses of the kwl strategy. one such research was conducted by mardiana (2016, to investigate the influence of kwl on students' reading comprehension achievement and five aspects of character; (1) motivating oneself, (2) selfawareness, (3) managing emotion, (4) empathy, and (5) social skills. seventy-four grade-seven students were included in the sample. the experimental group was given the treatment using the kwl strategy. both groups were tested before and after the treatment. the results showed a considerable improvement in the students of the experimental group in their reading comprehension achievement and in the five characters which were tested during the research. these five characters are essential in self-regulation also. another significant study was carried out by zouhor et al (2016), which was aimed at examining the effects of the kwl strategy on primary-school students’ metacognition (knowledge of cognitive processes, regulation of cognitive processes of students) and physics achievement. a pre-test/post-test control group design was used in this study. one hundred and one (101) sixth-grade students (47 208 males and 54 females) were the sample. the findings of the study revealed that there was a significant improvement in the physics achievement and metacognition of the group of students who had been taught using the kwl strategy. further, zouhor et al (2016) suggested that there should be adequate resources and professional development for teachers to implement this strategy successfully. all this literature revealed that educators could use this kwl strategy to scaffold and foster student's cognition, metacognition and motivation, which are vital components of self-regulation. therefore, the present study used the kwl method in the odl environment in sri lanka to develop self-regulated learning (srl) skills in university students. zimmerman & moylan's (2009) self-regulated learning model, which reflects bandura's (1986) social cognitive theory, was used for the implementation of the kwl strategy. it comprises three phases, namely, forethought, performance phase and self-reflection. the forethought phase is the initial phase in which students set the stage for learning. students implement learning strategies and cognitively compare their performance with their goals to determine progress during the performance phase. students mentally review their performances and determine whether changes in behaviours or strategies are needed or to seek help from others during the self-reflection phase. methods research design this study adopted an action research approach. action research is a practical way of looking at one's practice to check whether it is as the researcher feels it should be. if the researcher feels that the practice is satisfactory, the researcher will be able to explain how and why he/she believes this is the case and produce evidence to support the researcher's claims (mcniff & whitehead, 2000). dick (2000) summarised the features of action research as a cyclic, participative, reflective, flexible and responsive approach. the features of this study are also compatible with these features. further, the flexible nature of the action research gives the power to the researcher to interpret and integrate the selfregulated learning strategies and tools in the way that the researcher feels is best. because of all these reasons, the action research approach was the most suitable design for this study, and this approach ensured its compatibility with the study's social cognitive perspective. population and sample the population consisted of university students in an odl environment in sri lanka. twenty-four (24) bachelor of education students and three (3) educators at the open university of sri lanka were the participants (a convenience sample). the participants were selected from the open university because, currently, it is the leading and pioneer institution delivering programmes from the distance mode in sri lanka. the intervention process the intervention process was conducted according to the four stages of the action research cycle, namely, plan, act, observe, and reflect. plan: at the initial stage of planning the population and the sample of the study was decided. after consulting the existing literature, a self-report instrument which was designed and published by pintrich, smith, garcia and mckeachie, in 1991, namely, the motivated strategies for learning questionnaire (mslq), was selected to assess student participants' self-regulated learning skills. it 209 was translated into the sinhala language because all the student participants of the study use the sinhala language as their mother tongue. after that, different models that exist in the literature were consulted to select a suitable model for the intervention. based on the findings, zimmerman & moylan’s (2009) self-regulated cycle of learning model was selected for use as the framework during the intervention to integrate kwl strategy into the teaching-learning process, because it reflects bandura's (1986) social cognitive theory, where this research study also fits in. it views selfregulated learning as an open-ended process. this model consists of three phases, namely, the forethought phase, performance phase and the self-reflection phase. the way to implement the kwl method within these three phases was to collaboratively plan with three (3) educators who were the participants of this study. act: the mslq (1991) was administered to student participants before the intervention to gain an understanding of the existing level of self-regulated learning skills of these participants. the kwl method was implemented within the day schools of three compulsory courses of the bachelor of education degree programme (educational psychology, comparative education and inclusive education) because of the researcher and the three educators being involved in the teaching-learning process of these three courses. implementation of the intervention was done across the three phases of the zimmerman & moylan (2009) self-regulated cycle of learning model for a six-month period. according to the existing literature, srl behaviours are context-specific. therefore, a detailed procedure was followed during the implementation of the kwl method with specific activities involving forethought, performance and self-reflection.. observe: the researcher observed the whole process of implementation and how the students practised the introduced strategy with its tools, their interactions, their constraints relating to the process, individual student work and the learning environment as a whole. reflect: by analysing all the data gathered through different sources and instruments, the researcher reflected on the process continuously. it helped to assess the impact of the intervention. instruments and data collection motivated strategies for the learning questionnaire (mslq) the motivated strategies for learning questionnaire (mslq, 1991) was used to assess student participants' self-regulated learning skills. it is both a motivational and strategy-oriented self-report instrument, which has been applied and validated at different educational levels, both in university and non-university contexts. before it was used for student participants, the researcher translated it into the sinhala language by following the guidelines stated by the world health organization (who, 2014), which included four steps, forward translation, expert panel back-translation, pretesting and cognitive interviewing and the final version. further, the internal consistency reliability of the translated mslq was tested through a cronbach alpha test and for all subscales of the mslq, cronbach alpha coefficient was .7 or above .7. this meant that the internal consistency reliability of these subscales is in an acceptable condition (kline, 2000; george & mallery, 2003). the final version of the translated mslq was administered for student participants before and after each intervention carried out through the inclusive education, comparative education and educational psychology courses. this step aimed to measure self-regulated learning skills of student participants to obtain an 210 overall idea about the effectiveness and suitability of the strategies and tools that were used to develop selfregulated learning skills during the intervention. observation the researcher acted as a participant observer and did unstructured observation with the objective of trying to collect in-depth information to understand the self-regulatory practices of student participants, different types of interactions, components of the learning environment, motives, challenges and other in-depth information about the intervention. according to chadwick; bahr & albrecht (1984), for the social scientist, observation is essential, and it provides accurate descriptions of situations. reflections the process of reflection helps to bring the unconscious into consciousness and, thus, open for inspection (orange, 2016). further, it provides insight about experiences, opinions, thoughts, and the feelings of participants in research. therefore, the researcher collected in-depth information about the intervention by using reflections. after introducing and practising the kwl strategy, the researcher reflected on each action that was taken by the researcher and about the whole process of the intervention. further, student participants were also oriented to do a self-reflection about the process and the impact of it. focus group discussions after implementing the kwl method, the three educators and the researcher had a focus group discussion to review the suitability of the strategy used to develop self-regulated learning skills in student participants. another aim of the focus group discussion was to identify the challenges faced by three educators during the implementation of the kwl strategy. data collected through different methods were triangulated to strengthen the validity of the evaluation of data and findings of the study and to provide a comprehensive understanding about the way to use the kwl method to develop self-regulated learning skills in student participants. data analysis qualitative data were analysed by using content analysis. during the content analysis process, the researcher first coded and then grouped the data gathered from different methods and instruments (observation, reflections, focus group discussions) into some main categories. these categories were formed to achieve the objectives of the study. the researcher formed five main categories namely: impact of strategies used (category 1), the impact of tools used (category 2), challenges (category 3), methods to overcome them (category 4) and overall impact of the intervention (category 5). to ensure confidentiality, all the participants were coded with a number. quantitative data gathered from the self-report instrument (mslq) were analysed by using the statistical package for the social sciences (spss for windows, version 16.0) to gain an understanding about the levels of self-regulated learning skills of student participants as a whole (as a class). 211 findings and discussion self-regulated learning skills of b.ed students studying in the open and distance learning environment there was a noteworthy improvement in the selfregulated learning skills of the student participants after implementing the kwl method within the day schools of the inclusive education, educational psychology and comparative education courses (see table 1). table 1: self-regulated learning skills of b.ed students before and after interventions selfregulated skills average class mean value (before and after the intervention) inclusive education comparative education educational psychology before after before after before after intrinsic goals orientation 4.93 5.95 5.15 6.36 5.29 5.26 extrinsic goal orientation 5.54 6.25 5.5 6.33 5.51 5.77 task value 5.54 6.24 5.45 6.31 6.08 5.98 control of learning beliefs 5.57 6.31 5.53 6.45 6.04 6.04 self-efficacy 5.44 6.18 5.41 6.29 5.02 5.69 test anxiety 4.42 3.14 4.29 3.06 3.9 4.56 rehearsal 4.74 5.91 4.98 6.13 4.81 5.04 elaboration 5.08 5.88 5.22 6.06 5.41 5.4 organisation 4.82 5.75 5.07 6.32 5.01 5.19 critical thinking 4.91 5.78 5.11 5.99 5.27 5.04 metacognitive self-regulation 4.89 5.67 5.02 6.03 5.2 5.39 manage and regulate the time and study environment 4.82 5.71 4.99 6.32 4.59 5.05 effort regulation 4.63 5.83 4.97 6.14 5.08 4.8 peer learning 4.3 5.42 4.55 6.36 4.31 4.43 help seeking 4.91 5.84 5.08 6.45 5.18 5.23 the results in table 1 reflect that the kwl method and tools that were used during the intervention were effective and suitable to be used in developing the self-regulated learning skills of students studying in the open and distance learning environment. findings based on the researcher’s observations about the forethought phase to fill the '”k” column of the kwl table, student participants brainstormed their prior knowledge about the given topic. winne (2001) also revealed that by answering the first question in the kwl table (what do i know (k)?) at least two types of knowledge and experiences stored in their long-term 212 memory would be more or less activated: (a) some prior domain knowledge of the task; and (b) strategies used with similar tasks in the past. according to szabo (2006), the “k” column allows the individual to build up self-motivation regarding the topic. the “w” column directed student participants to think about what they want to know about the topic of the lesson that is going to be learned in the day school. it directed the student participants to set learning goals for themselves individually for the lesson based on their understanding of the topic. sha et al (2012) stated that the second kwl question helps students to externalise their learning goals based on the products of cognitive operations that are done within the period in which they answered the first kwl question. findings based on the researcher’s observation about the performance phase collaborative learning occurred among student participants. (the group work was not well structured, and the educator did not assign different tasks particular to each group member. therefore, positive interdependence and individual accountability were not observed at a sufficient level, such as in cooperative learning. therefore, it was more suitable to state that the student participants engaged in collaborative learning in this learning activity. further, student participants engaged in active reading. they scanned information, highlighted the important points and underlined the keywords (organisational strategies), summarising the main ideas and made short notes in the margin and discussed some important points with others while reading the learning material and the module (elaborative strategies). according to garcia (1995), these cognitive strategies such as organisational strategies (selecting the main idea from the text, outlining the text or material to be learned, specific techniques for selecting and organising the ideas in the material) and the elaboration (summarising the material to be learned, generative note-taking, explaining the ideas in the material to be learned to someone else, and question-asking and answering) are useful for integrating and connecting new information with previous knowledge. in the performance phase, face-to-face interactions between group members and group processing occurred. interactions with peers in preparing a presentation as a group (social interactions) and assigning different members to find the information by reading the module and given reading materials individually helped to motivate the student participants and to maintain their attention throughout the learning task with more effort (effort regulation). palmer (2007) also stated that when students have positive social interactions with their peers or teacher, they will become more engaged in learning. pintrich (2002) pointed out that effort regulation transforms motivation to engagement. further, student participants were directed to practise time management skills by allocating a particular period in which to complete the given task. sometimes student participants used helpseeking skills to clarify the content of the module and the given reading material. at the end of the performance phase, peers provided their feedback on the findings of other groups. to provide feedback, peers had to think critically about the facts presented by other groups. positive feedback that was given by the educator and their peers helped to improve student participants' selfefficacy. schunk (1994) revealed that positive feedback had a more substantial positive effect on students' self-efficacy. 213 findings based on the researcher’s observations about the self-reflection phase student participants reflected and summarised what they had learnt at the end of the lesson. this activity directed the student participants to self-evaluate how well they had learnt and to make selfjudgments about whether they had reached their learning goals. according to susan (2006), the “l” column in the kwl table helps students to self-monitor their learning, to self-evaluate what they understood and it provides an opportunity to expand on their ideas and to formulate new ones. riswanto and lismayanti (2014) pointed out that it pushed the students to conduct further reading when they left some questions unanswered. butler & winne (1995) revealed that it functions as internal feedback about the amount and rate of progress towards goals. they further state that this internal feedback is regarded as an inherent mechanism for all self-regulated activities. at the end of the day school, all student participants reflected on the kwl method as follows. findings based on student participants’ reflections about the kwl method • the “kwl” method directed student participants to set their goals, improve their curiosity towards the learning and motivated them to engage in selflearning. the following reflections revealed this. "i am willing to find new information that is not given in the leaflet about the topic, and this activity directed me to selflearning". (student participant no.1) "this activity motivated me to find out the facts that i unknown to me about the topic that was discussed today". (student participant no. 5) "after this activity, i thought that i should find more information about today's topic". (student participant no. 7) • this learning activity helped each student participant to engage in classroom discussions, and kwl gives the students some space to explore the information and build up their knowledge. according to the following reflections, the kwl method helped student participants to collect the new information and to store them in their memory. "i learnt many facts about methods that are used to assess special needs students, and from the presentations of other groups, i was able to cover the facts that i missed". (student participant no. 4) "during this activity, i got a proper understanding of the lesson, and because of discussions with other members, i was able to remember many facts". (student participant no. 19) • reflections revealed that the kwl method provided an opportunity for students to selfevaluate their knowledge and to make self-judgments through reflections. "when i started to fill the kwl table at the beginning of the lesson, i understood that my knowledge about the methods that can be used to assess the special needs students was very little. however, when i filled the 'l' column at the end of the lesson, i was happy because i felt that i had got a better knowledge than previously". (student participant no. 12) 214 findings of the focus group discussion with educators findings revealed that the suitability of the kwl method to use in developing self-regulated learning skills, challenges faced by educators and their suggestions to overcome them. educator no. 2: "students can complete this table individually, as a group or as the entire class. if the student number is large in a class, it is better to have a group approach or fill the table as the entire class. if the group approach is used, each group should present their facts to other students, and if the entire class fills the table, the teacher should display it to the whole class. if each student fills the table individually, the teacher can use it to identify the prior knowledge of each student and can use it as a tool to assess each student. when reviewing the existing literature jones (2012) also states that students can fill the kwl table individually or in a group setting. riswanto and lismayanti (2014) state that a group of students learning with the kwl method had better results than the group learning in a traditional way". educator no. 1 and educator no. 3 also agreed that the kwl method is a beneficial method that can be used in the teaching-learning process to direct students to be active and responsible learners. challenges faced by the educators and measures to overcome time management and providing further information asked for by some student participants during the limited time period were challenges for educators. by allocating and maintaining a particular time for each activity of the lesson and by providing relevant links (to web sites, open educational resources, electronic books, journal articles, blogs, etc.) and a list of references of books to student participants for further reading, the educators were able to face these challenges. after analysing all the above data collected through the researcher's observation, reflections of student participants and the focus group discussion, the following findings were obtained about the impact of the kwl method. impact of the kwl method • the kwl table directed the student participants to form their own learning goals, motivated them to engage in the learning activity to reach their goals and to monitor their progress metacognitively. • this table guided student participants to activate their prior knowledge and the memory of the strategies used in a similar learning situation and built up their interest and curiosity about the lesson to be learned. further, it helped to build new knowledge upon the existing knowledge. • the kwl table helped student participants to construct their knowledge by guiding them to be active and responsible learners. • the kwl table helped the educator also to identify the level of student participants' existing knowledge and what they expected to learn during the lesson. therefore, it was beneficial to plan their lessons successfully. • work with a kwl table pushed them towards further learning, which is very important for students studying in the open and distance learning environment. 215 • individual activities given in the intervention helped students to develop their organisation skills and elaboration skills. • group activity used during the intervention facilitated interactions between student participants helped to motivate them. giving opportunities to provide feedback about presentations done by peers helped to develop their critical thinking skills and positive feedback they obtained helped them to develop their self-efficacy. recommendation based on the findings of the research, the impact of the intervention was positive. therefore, the kwl strategy is recommended for educators as a self-regulated skills development strategy that can be adopted in the open and distance learning environment in sri lanka. references ambreen, m., haqdad, a., & saleem, w.a. (2016). fostering self-regulated learning through distance education: a case study of m.phil secondary teacher education programme of allama iqbal open university. turkish online journal of distance education. tojde, 17(3), 1302-6488. retrieved from tojde.anadolu.edu.tr/yonetim/icerik/makaleler/1178published.pdf bandura, a. (1986). social foundations of thought and action: a social cognitive theory. new jersey: prentice-hall. bryan, j. (1998). k-w-l: questioning the known. the reading teacher, 51(7), 618–620. butler, d., & winne, p. (1995). feedback and self-regulated learning: a theoretical synthesis. research of educational review, 65, 245-281. retrieved from http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3102/00346543065003245 calvert, j. (2006). achieving development goals-foundation: open and distance learning, lessons and issues. retrieved from http://pcf4.dec.uwi.edu/overview.php chadwick; bahr & albrecht. (1984). social science research methods. the university of michigan, prentice-hall. corno, l. (2001). volitional aspects of self-regulated learning. in b. zimmerman & d. schunk (eds.), selfregulated learning and academic achievement: theoretical perspectives (2nd ed.). (pp. 191-225). mahwah, nj: erlbaum. das, k. (2010, november). learner support service in open and distance learning: issues and evidence from the state of assam. paper presented at sixth pan commonwealth forum on open learning, indira gandhi national open university. dick, b. (2000). a beginner's guide to action research, retrieved from http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/gcm/ar/arp/phd.html draper, j. d. (2002). school mathematics reform, constructivism, and a literacy: a case for literacy instruction in the reform-oriented math classroom. journal of adolescent & adult literacy, 45, 520–529. efklides, a. (2011). interactions of metacognition with motivation and affects in self-regulated learning: the masrl model. educational psychologists, 46(1), 6-25. retrieved from doi: 10.1080/00461520.2011.538645. garcia, t. (1995). the role of motivational strategies in self-regulated learning. in r. j. menges & m. d. svinicki (eds.), understanding self-regulated learning: new directions for teaching. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass publishers. george, d., & mallery, p. (2003). spss for windows step by step: a simple guide and reference 11.0 update, (4th ed.). boston: allyn &bacon. retrieved from www.scirp.org/.../reference/referencespapers.aspx?referenceid=1592722 216 hamdan, m. h. (2014). kwl-plus effectiveness on improving reading comprehension of tenth grade of jordanian male students. theory and practice in language studies, 4(11), 2278-2288. retrieved from doi: 10.4304/tpls.4.11.2278-2288 hassard, j. (2011). science as inquiry (2nd ed.). culver, united states of america: good year books. jones, r. (2012). strategies for reading comprehension: k-w-l. retrieved from http://www.readingquest.org/start/kwl.htm khumalo, s. s. (2018, march 22). improving student success rate in open distance learning settings through the principle of constructive alignment. trends in e-learning, mahmut sinecen, intechopen. retrieved from doi: 10.5772/intechopen.75637. available from https://www.intechopen.com/books/trends-in-elearning/improving-student-success-rate-in-open-distance-learning-settings-through-the-principle-ofconstruct kline, p. (2000). the handbook of psychological testing (2nd ed.), p. 13. london: routledge. mardiana, m. (2016). using kwl strategy to enhance reading comprehension achievement and characters of the seventh-grade students of smpn 1 babat supat, musi banvasin. journal of english literacy education, 3(2), 135-147. retrieved from doi: https://doi.org/10.36706/jele.v3i2.3617 mcniff, j., & whitehead, j. (2000). action research: principles and practice (2nd ed.). new fetter lane, london, routledge. ogle, d. m. (1986). kwl: a teaching model that develops active reading of expository text. the reading teacher, 40, 564-570. ogle, d. m. (1987). k-w-l-plus: a teaching model that develops active reading of expository text. reading teacher, 39, 564-570. orange, a. (2016). encouraging reflexive practices in doctoral students through research journals. the qualitative report, 21(12), 2176-2190. retrieved from http://nsuworks.nova.edu/tqr/vol21/iss 12/2 pajares, f. (2002). overview of social cognitive theory and of self-efficacy. retrieved from http://www.emory.edu/education/mfp/eff.html palmer, d. (2007). what is the best way to motivate students in science? teaching science-the journal of the australian science teachers association, 53(1), 38-42. retrieved from chemistrynetwork.pixelonline.org/files/smo_reports_nat/ie_presentation.pdf pintrich, p. r. (2000). the role of goal orientation in self-regulated learning. in m. boekaerts, p. r. pintrich, & m. zeidner (eds.), handbook of self-regulation (pp. 222-504). new york: academic press. pintrich, p., smith, d., garcia, t., & mckeachie, w. (1991) a manual for the use of the motivated strategies for learning questionnaire (mslq). ann arbor, mi: university of michigan, national center for research to improve postsecondary teaching and learning (ncriptal). radovan, m. (2011). the relation between distance students’ motivation, their use of learning strategies, and academic success. tojet: the turkish online journal of educational technology, 10(1). retrieved from www.tojet.net/articles/v10i1/10122.pdf riswanto, r., & lismayanti, d. (2014). the effect of using kwl (know, want, learned) strategy on efl students’ reading comprehension achievement. international journal of humanities and social science, 4(7), 225233. retrieved from doi: 10. 4304/tpls.4.11.2278-2288 rusmiati, r. (2017). using kwl strategy to improve students’ reading comprehensions. retrieved from https://scholar.googleusercontent.com/scholar?q=cache:blurqnd3v6ej:scholar.google.com/&hl=en&as_sdt= 0,5 schunk, d. h. (1994). self-efficacy and academic motivation, educational psychologist, 26, 207-231 retrieved from https://www.uky.edu/~eushe2/pajares/schunkpajares2001.pdf 217 sha, l., looi, c. k., chen, w., seow, p., & wong, l. h. (2012). recognizing and measuring self-regulated learning in a mobile learning environment. computers in human behavior, 28(2), 718-728. susan, s. (2006). kwhhl: a student-driven evolution of the kwl. american secondary education, 34(3), 57-67. retrieved from eric database. (ej746329) szabo, s. (2006). kwhhl: a student –driven evolution of the kwl. american secondary education, 34(3), 57-67. retrieved from eric database. (ej746329) unesco. (2002). open and distance learning, trends, policy and strategy consideration. retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001284/128463e.pdf usher, e. l., & schunk, d. h. (2018). social cognitive theoretical perspective of self-regulation. in d. h. schunk & j. a. greene (eds.), educational psychology handbook series. handbook of self-regulation of learning and performance (p. 19–35). routledge/taylor & francis group. winne, p. h. (2001). self-regulated learning viewed from models of information processing. in b. j. zimmerman & d. h. schunk (eds.), self-regulated learning and academic achievement (2nd ed.). (pp. 153-189). new york: longman. woolley, g. (2012). a multiple strategy framework supporting vocabulary development for students with reading comprehension deficits. australian journal of special education, 34(2), pp. 119-132. retrieved from doi: 10. 1375/ajse.34.2.119 world health organization. (2014). process of translation and adaptation of instrument. retrieved from https://www.who.int/substance_abuse/research_tools/translation/en/ zhao, h., chen, l., & panda, s. (2013). self-regulated learning ability of chinese distance learners. british journal of educational technology, 45(5), 941-958. zimmerman, b. j. (2000). a social cognitive view of self-regulated learning. journal of educational 81,329-339. retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/e1ff/53e710437e009f06bc264b093a2ba9523879.pdf zimmerman, b. j. (2015). self-regulated learning: theories, measures and outcomes. international encyclopedia of the social & behavioral sciences: elsevier. retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/b9780080970868260601 zimmerman, b. j., & moylan, a. r. (2009). self-regulation: where metacognition and motivation interact. in d.j. hacker, j. dunlosky, & a. c. graesser (eds.), handbook of metacognition in education (pp. 299-315). new york: routledge. zouhor, z., bogdanovic, i., & segedinac, m. (2016). strategy on primary school students’ metacognition and physics achievement. journal of subject didactic, 1(1). 39-49. retrieved from doi: 10.5281/zenodo.55473 author: dr. (mrs.) d. v. m. de silva is a senior lecturer, attached to the secondary and tertiary education department, the faculty of education of the open university of sri lanka. email: dvsil@ou.ac.lk cite this paper as: de silva, d. v. m. (2020). developing self-regulated learning skills in university students studying in the open and distance learning environment using the kwl method. journal of learning for development, 7(2), 204-217. microsoft word nkuyubwatsi.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 322-337 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. willingness to engage in open educational practices among academics in rwandan public higher education and responsive actions bernard nkuyubwatsi school of education, language and interpretation, euclid university, rwanda abstract: academics’ engagement in open educational practices (oeps) is critical for opening up higher education. it is in this perspective that the willingness to engage in such practices among academics in rwandan public higher education was investigated with an agenda to trigger responsive actions. via convenience/availability and volunteer sampling, 170 academics were invited to participate in the study and 85 of them completed and returned an email self-completion questionnaire. the results revealed that the majority of participants were willing to contribute to open educational resources (oer) by publishing their work under an open licence. participants were also willing to engage in diverse oeps including 1) finding oer and evaluating their quality, 2) participating in and evaluating open courses, 3) aggregating oer, 4) adapting oer and open courses, and 5) assessing accomplishment from open learning based on oer and open courses for credit. national and institutional policies were found to be the potentially most important enablers of academics’ engagement in those practices. in the light of the findings, the researcher argues that the inclusion of more learners in the higher education system would make academics more impactful than simply the citation of their work, a stance that was reflected in subsequent responsive actions. this study may benefit institutions and policy makers who are interested in opening up higher education, especially the university of rwanda that is expected to contribute significantly to the transformation of the country into a middle-income, knowledge-based society. keywords: open educational practices, open educational resources, open courses, opening up higher education, responsiveness, transformative research. introduction one of the most successful practices in oer production has been publishing journal articles and books under an open licence. through this practice, full texts of academic articles and books have become increasingly available to users free of charge. in many cases, these users are granted permissions to download, adapt, and redistribute the work at no cost other than the one related to internet access. to understand the continuity of this practice, it is worth shifting attention to the other side of the coin. commercial publishers came up with pathways for 1) publishing journal articles and books under an open licence, or 2) releasing earlier versions of journal articles and books under an open licence. in the first pathway, referred to as the gold route (weller, 2014), an article or a book is published under an open licence, but the author is required to pay some fee. arguably, requiring authors to pay a fee for publishing their work under an open licence discourages their contribution to oer, and leads to 323 exclusion of those who work in under-resourced settings and institutions that have no funds to cover the publication fee. in the second pathway, referred to as the green route (weller, 2014), authors are allowed to upload an earlier version of the article or book on their own websites or institutional repositories under an open licence but after a certain delay. this delay used to be for six months but there has recently been a tendency to extend it to many years, a practice that slows down the increase of openly licensed content. weller (2014) distinguishes another pathway to publish journal articles and books under an open licence that does not charge any fee to the author: the platinum route. this route is open to both the users and the author of the content. the author only contributes the content for free and the publication fee is paid by other contributors/collaborators. institutions benefit most from this pathway in that they can access and use the open content from the day of publication without any cost, neither on their part nor on the part of any member of their respective communities (nkuyubwatsi, 2016a; nkuyubwatsi, ndayishiniye, ntirenganya, & umwungerimwiza, 2015). from the perspectives of proprietary, vanity and predatory publishers, the platinum route may be not practicable and beneficial. from the perspectives of educational institutions, authors and publishers who are honestly willing to contribute to the open access and the open education agendas, the platinum route is a practicable and sustainable response to an unsustainable increase of fees required to subscribe to proprietary journal articles and the practice of selling the articles in bundles that forces institutions to buy articles they do not need along with the ones they need. the use of the large amount of existing openly licensed content has not been satisfactory (lane, 2010; ehlers, 2011; conole, 2013). the adoption of oer may have been inhibited by many barriers including: 1) limited access to technologies (wolfenden, 2012; wolfenden, buckler, & keraro, 2012), 2) limited literacies (oecd, 2007; rennie & mason, 2010), 3) the lack of motivation linked to poor salary (badarch, knyazeva, & lane, 2012), 4) the lack of incentives or rewards for oer production, use and sharing (mcandrew, farrow, law, & elliott-cirigottis, 2012), and 5) the lack of formal recognition of oer production, sharing and adaptation as academic practices (oecd, 2007). in an effort to move from oer production to oer use to support learning and teaching practices, open educational practices (oeps) emerged around 2007. according to geser (2007), the concept of oeps was backed by advocacy from open elearning content observatory services (alcos). the international council for open and distance education (n.d.) defines open educational practices as: … practices which support the production, use and reuse of high quality open educational resources (oer) through institutional policies, which promote innovative pedagogical models, and respect and empower learners as co-producers on their lifelong learning path. according to ehlers (2011), focusing on oeps would address the whole oer governance community: policy makers, organisational and institutional managers or administrators, professionals and learners. similarly, bijsterveld & dopper (2012) argue that the success of the transition from oer to oeps depends on policy makers, management, instructors and learners. to attract academics to oep-related actions, the two factor theory also known as the hygiene-motivation theory (turabik & baskan, 2015) is worth considering. according to this theory, employees are disinterested and less productive when policies, working conditions, salaries, employee benefits, 324 manager-subordinate relationships, promotion and occupational security are not satisfactory, which constitutes the hygiene factor. in the opposite direction, employees are responsible, aim to achieve institutional targets, are independent decision makers, seek advancement opportunities and personal development, and feel appreciated when they are highly satisfied, which constitutes the motivation factor. it is in this perspective that the current study was conducted as part of phd research that investigated opening up higher education with a focus on the potential contribution of different stakeholders: learners, academics and policy makers/institutional leaders. the current paper reports only data on academics and responsive actions. methods the research covered in the current paper was part of a broader phd study that was conducted within the transformative paradigm. transformative research falls within the critical research framework in that its purpose is political and practical: it is motivated by a social concern that the researcher wants her/his work to contribute to addressing. transformative researchers are convinced that social justice can be restored by a political action that will be triggered by the contribution of their research (kincheloe & mclaren, 2005). although transformative researchers collect quantitative and/or qualitative data that help them answer the research question or confirm a predefined hypothesis, their ultimate objective is to trigger positive changes or responsive actions to improve the prevailing situation. since transformative research is motivated by an issue of social concern and is driven by an agenda to contribute to addressing the issue, neutrality is not of interest to transformative researchers. from a transformative perspective, neutrality may lead to indifference/inaction that may constitute ethical blindness, according to whiteman (2012). this is especially the case if the researcher’s contribution would improve the wellbeing of disadvantaged people but s/he deliberately avoids contributing for the sake of neutrality. according to dennis (2009), research methods and standards within the transformative paradigm tend to be rejected. this rejection may justify the scarcity of publications related to transformative studies. rejection of transformative research may result from the researcher’s priority on catalyzing actions that address the issue of social concern over predefined methodologies, theories and prescribed guidelines. however, transformative research reports must be backed by responsive actions and positive changes that testify to the social impact of the study. the study from which the current paper emerged had two major components: the research component and the parallel development component. in the research component, the researcher conducted research on different enablers for opening up public higher education in rwanda, including current and potential practices of academics in rwandan public higher education. in the parallel development component, the researcher engaged in different initiatives with an ultimate agenda to influence policies and practices that could contribute to opening up higher education in rwanda. research on academics’ willingness to adopt/develop practices that may contribute to opening up public higher education in rwanda was conducted at the university of rwanda: the only public higher education institution in rwanda which, hence, constitutes the entire public higher education sector in the country. this research was conducted in the light of the research question to what extent are academics at the university of rwanda willing to contribute to oer and open courses, and adopt open 325 educational practices? prior to conducting the study, the researcher sought ethical approvals from the university of leicester and the university of rwanda. in addition, the researcher sought permissions to conduct research in each college of the university of rwanda as he was advised by the university’s directorate of research, technology transfer and consultancy. data were collected using an email self-completion questionnaire. prior to the use of the selfcompletion questionnaire, the researcher sent it to experts for critical feedback. the experts confirmed that the data that could be gathered using the questionnaire could help answer the research question. having the research questionnaire checked by experts added face validity (bryman, 2012) to the research. the researcher also piloted the questionnaire in an effort to ensure reliability. participants were recruited via “convenience sampling” (denscombe, 2010; cohen, manion, & morrison, 2011) also known as “availability sampling” (david & sutton, 2011). to recruit participants, the researcher visited different campuses, met academics in their offices or staff rooms, talked to them about the study and invited them to participate. the researcher asked academics that voluntarily accepted to participate in the study to provide their email addresses so that an email questionnaire could subsequently be send to them. for those academics, being part of the sample depended on their presence when the researcher visited their respective campuses and their willingness to participate in the study. the researcher could not, however, meet some academics face-to-face for many reasons, including their travels abroad to study or attend professional development events. the researcher invited those who were in his digital social networks electronically by sending them a facebook or skype message. only academics who had volunteered to participate were included in the sample. volunteer sampling helped the researcher to include in the study participants who were interested and willing to participate. however, these willing participants’ views may have been different from those of other academics who did not volunteer to participate (seale, 2012). in total, 175 academics volunteered to participate in the study and provided their email addresses. however, emails sent to five of these addresses consistently bounced back. that is, the questionnaire was successfully emailed to 170 academics who constitute the sample in the study. subsequently, the researcher sent to volunteers three weekly friendly reminders to complete and return the questionnaire. results questionnaires were returned from 88 of the 170 academics who had received the email questionnaire: 85 of them completed the questionnaires and three of them returned the questionnaires without answers to questions that would help answer the guiding research question. the three questionnaires were invalidated. this gave a 50% return rate (85 out of 170 recipients of the email questionnaires returned them with valid answers). the majority of participants (58, or 68.2%) reported that they were aware of the concept of opening up higher education while 21 (24.7%) were unaware of this concept. as illustrated in figure 1, 32 of those who were aware of opening up higher education had learned it from colleagues, 26 from academic literature, 22 from social media and 15 from academic conferences they had attended. other sources of information on opening up higher education included the partnership between the university of rwanda’s college of medicine and health sciences and tulane university (highlighted by two participants), workshops (two participants) and the researcher (two participants). 326 figure 1: sources of information on opening up higher education among academics at the university of rwanda academics’ opinions on opening up higher education as illustrated in figure 2, 68 participants (80% of all participants who returned valid data) supported the idea of making a list of competencies needed for the awarding of different qualifications publicly available. these include 52 participants (61.1%) who strongly agreed with the related statement in the questionnaire and 16 participants (18.8%) who agreed with it. although a few academics commented on the statement, their comments were diversified. while some participants who supported the idea highlighted that this practice would help students focus on competence development and enable the profitability of education to the public, one participant expressed concern about learners’ laziness that could be triggered by the practice. 327 figure 2: academics’ opinions on opening up higher education with regard to awarding the same qualifications to formal students and non-formal learners based on competencies they demonstrated via the same or similar assessment administered to both categories of learners, 44 academics (51.7%) supported the idea. these include 24 participants (28.2%) who strongly agreed with the related statement and 20 (23.5%) who agreed with the statement. comments on this statement were also diversified. two participants highlighted the need for effective assessment that would evaluate those competences. two other participants emphasised the need to award qualifications based on competencies developed and evidenced rather than based on the learning mode. one of these two participants expressed his support as follows: “it is obvious and a matter of justice. the qualification should sanction the mastery of competencies not the mode of education delivery”. however, not all comments were positive about the idea. one academic stated that non-formal learners are interested in qualifications rather than competence development. another one stated that although competencies would be the same for both formal students and non-formal learners, recognition of formal education is a mandate. most participants saw national and institutional policies and strategies as the most important enablers for opening up higher education. sixty-one participants (71.6%) agreed with the statement, “opening content and assessment of open learning accomplishment can help open up higher education if they are supported by institutional policy and strategy”. twenty-three of these participants (27%) strongly agreed with the statement while 38 (44.7%) agreed with it. when attention shifts to a national policy and strategy, 62 participants (72.9%) reported that this policy and strategy would enable opening up higher education. these include 42 participants (49.4%) who strongly agreed with the statement and 20 participants (23.5%) who agreed with it. 328 participants’ opinions on the appropriate learning mode for competence development were also diversified. forty-five participants (52.9%) expressed disagreement with the statement “without attending higher education face-to-face, learners cannot develop competencies required for academic credit and qualification”. these include 27 participants (31.7%) who strongly disagreed with the statement and 18 participants (21.1%) who disagreed with it. comments provided on the statement highlighted that courses that require experiment and practical work would necessitate face-to-face sessions. some other academics stressed the role of the learners and one of them emphasised this role in these words: “it can depend on the learner if he/she is lazy or hard worker”. opinions tended to be more distributed when the statement applies to participants’ respective departments and the nature of courses in those departments. nineteen participants (22.35%) strongly disagreed with the statement “due to the nature of the field of study and courses, learners in my department can develop competencies needed for qualification via only the face-to-face mode”, while 14 others (16.47%) disagreed with it. a similar number of participants (14 or 16.47%) strongly agreed with the statement, while 12 participants (14.11%) agreed with it. comments on this statement reiterated that modules that have experimental, clinical or practical components would need face-to-face sessions. participants in the survey responded to the statement: “there is no way the concept of opening up higher education in rwanda can be applied without undermining quality”. thirty participants (35.29%) strongly disagreed with the statement, nine (10.58%) disagreed with it, 12 (14.11%) agreed with it and 10 (11.76%) strongly agreed with it. eighteen participants (21.17%) were neutral. comments that expressed concerns on quality degradation if an agenda to open up higher education is undertaken were provided. these concerns were mainly triggered by inadequate infrastructure, the lack of academics’ preparedness and the lack of access to technologies by learners. on the optimistic side, one comment highlighted that different stakeholders can work on opening up higher education without undermining quality. academics’ opinions on opening up higher education with a particular focus on technological infrastructure was captured in the statement, “i think opening up higher education cannot be successfully implemented in rwanda because there are no technologies to make it happen”. thirty-three participants (38.82%) strongly disagreed with the statement and 17 participants (20%) disagreed with it. eighteen participants (21.17%) were neutral on the statement, five participants (5.88%) agreed with it and eight participants (9.41%) strongly agreed with it. comments on this statement tended to agree that the basic technologies to open up higher education are available in rwanda. the comments also agreed on the need to upgrade the existing technological infrastructure progressively. the most important barrier was rather the lack of enabling policies. other barriers that were highlighted included the lack of political will, the lack of related competencies among academics, the lack of awareness and the lack of involvement of all stakeholders. only two of 14 comments on this statement highlighted that technological infrastructure is not enough to successfully open up higher education in rwanda, but one of the two participants who made such comments saw a valid solution in the statement, “i think opening up higher education can be successfully implemented in rwanda if the ministry of education, the university of rwanda, academics and learners are all involved and develop ownership”. academics’ responses on this statement will be detailed in the following subsection. 329 academics’ willingness to contribute to oer and open courses, and adopt oeps as indicated in figure 3, most of participants have not published content under an open licence, but were willing to do so. fifty-seven participants (67%) strongly disagreed with the statement that claimed that they would not publish under an open licence because they would lose some benefits and five others (5.88%) disagreed with it. fifty-two participants (61.1%) expressed their willingness to publish under an open licence if the institution accepts this practice. similarly, 61 participants (71.7%) were willing to publish under an open licence if this practice does not incur more cost and their open publications lead to academic promotion. although academics who thought they would lose some benefits by publishing under an open licence were not numerous, it is worth noting the concerns they raised. one of them highlighted that s/he prefers to publish in high impact journals that are often not open. figure 3: academics’ willingness to contribute to oer academics also expressed willingness to engage in different oeps and conditions under which they would engage in those practices were investigated. the specific oeps and conditions under which academics would engage in those practices are summarised in figure 4. the oeps include 1) finding oer and evaluating their quality, 2) participating in and evaluating an open course, 3) aggregating oer, 4) adapting oer and open courses, and 5) assessing accomplishment from open learning based on oer and open courses for credit. 330 figure 4: conditions for academics to engage in oeps the overwhelming majority of participants would engage in these practices if one or more of these four conditions is met: 1) they are paid for it, 2) their practices lead to academic promotion, 3) these practices are supported by a national or an institutional policy, and 4) they have extra time. academics who said they would never engage in these practices varied between 2.3% who would never find oer and evaluate their quality and 7% who would never assess open learning accomplishment for credit. when it comes to participation in open courses and evaluation of their quality, only 4.7% of participants reported that they would never engage in this practice. as for oer aggregation as well as oer and open course content adaptation, 3.5% reported that they would never participate in these practices. overall, policy was found to be the most enabling condition for academics to engage in different oeps. exception was on assessment of accomplishment from open learning based on oer and open courses for credit on which payment would be the most important catalyst of academics’ engagement. on this specific oep, policy was the second most important condition. for all the four remaining oeps, promotion and payment were either the second or the third most important condition for academics’ engagement after policy. figure 4 also indicates academics’ willingness to contribute to open courses and conditions under which they would make this contribution. similarly, policy was found to be the most important enabler of academics’ potential contribution to open courses. the second and third most important enablers were found to be payment and promotion respectively. only 5.8% of participants would never design an oer-based course. when it comes to tutoring an open course for credit, only 8.2% of participants reported that they would never engage in this practice. as for assisting a tutor of an open course offered for credit, only 3.5% said they would never engage in this practice. 331 it is also worth noting academics’ responses to the statement, “i think opening up higher education can be successfully implemented in rwanda if the ministry of education, the university of rwanda, academics and learners are all involved and develop ownership”. fifty-two participants (61.1%) strongly agreed with the statement and 17 others (20%) agreed with it. eight participants (9.4%) expressed neutrality on the statement and only three participants (3.5%) disagreed with it. eleven participants commented on the statement and six of them tended to agree on the importance of engaging all stakeholders for successfully opening up higher education. one participant stated that, “once these stakeholders join their hands, it can happen…”. another participant highlighted that, “if the mentioned parts [sic] take things serious, it can be successfully implemented”. a third participant went further to stress that the best model would be to involve all stakeholders in related policy design. however, some comments expressed skepticism about the possibility of involving all stakeholders in making opening up higher education run successfully. “the main problem is that decision makers would hardly be committed to this cause”, so stated another participant. two participants also emphasised giving enough attention to challenges (including financial constraints and resistance to change, mentioned by one of them). finally, participants were given an open opportunity to express their ideas or concerns. many of the responses to this opportunity reiterated the critical role of policy as well as concerns about technological access and quality in open education. others were optimistic about the potential of open courses for increasing access to higher education. one participant asked to organise a workshop at the university level as soon as possible, so that academics could learn more about open learning and opening up education, while another expressed the desire to be trained in the use of social media to support learning: “i wish i could be educated on how to use the social media programs to support the learning process of my students”. there was also a pessimistic comment: you ask questions as if you are not rwandan: with this working motivational environment (little salary, poor equipment and infrastructure, etc) how can you use such social media oriented in academics [sic]? have you ever seen any lecturer getting a laptop from the institution as it happens to other civil servants in public administration? discussion although 71.7% of participants expressed willingness to publish under open licences if the cost barrier is removed and this practice leads to academic promotion, it is worth noting the reason advanced against this practice: “high impact journals are often not open access”. the citation-based impact factor has recently been adopted in deciding academics’ promotions. that is why many of them have been influenced to overestimate the value of the number of citations of their work over the real impact of the work in changing learners and societies. while citation is important, it is interesting to see that, for some academics at the university of rwanda, the citation-based impact has tended to be more important than making higher education more accessible and affordable. in 2014/2015, this university was unable to accommodate thousands of learners from low income families who had been admitted on a merit basis but could not secure student loans due to the shortage of funds (nkuyubwatsi, 2016a, nkuyubwatsi, ndayishiniye, ntirenganya, & umwungerimwiza,, 2015). arguably, the inclusion of these thousands of learners 332 enabled by the institutional and individual adoption of oeps would be much more impactful than thousands of citations. an academic, institution and policy maker who care about socioeconomic inclusion of citizens in their respective countries (and beyond) would support an open licence for academic work to avoid the high cost and the high price of higher education (see jansen, 2015) and adopt other oeps. the citation-based impact factor attracted serious criticism due to the malicious manipulations it triggered: 1) coercing authors to cite articles in the same journal in return for acceptance of their manuscripts (matthews, 2015), 2) an explicit bias toward experiential sciences over social sciences (calver & beattie, 2015), 3) putting the reputation of the author over the quality of the manuscript (ramaker & wijkhuijs, 2015; wijkhuijs, 2015), 4) editorial self-citation and development of citation networks (hall & page, 2015), 5) commercialisation of co-authorship (hvistendahl, 2013), and 6) paying for affiliation with highly cited authors (haustein & larivière, 2015). policy was found to be the most important condition for academics to contribute to oer and open courses, and engage in other oeps, followed by payment and promotion. these findings concur with studies that found policy (butcher, 2011; wyk, 2012; conole, 2013), incentives (oecd, 2007; mcandrew, farrow, law, & elliott-cirigottis, 2012), and salary (badrach, kanyazeva, & lane, 2012) to be among the most important enablers of oer and oep adoption. in the current study, the potential influence of the national policy was found to be slightly higher than the influence of the institutional policy (72.9% versus 71.6% of participants) and this has a meaning in the rwandan context: national policies inform institutional policies. although 80% of participants supported the idea of making a list of competencies needed for awarding different qualifications publicly available, a concern that such a practice would trigger laziness among learners was expressed. benson, anderson, & ooms (2011) found a similar concern in their study on academics’ perceptions, attitudes and practices towards blended learning in a british university: some academics were concerned about the potential laziness of students if teachers provide resources rather than letting students find the resources themselves. therefore, the concern of learners’ laziness that may be triggered by open sharing of learning resources is not a particularity of rwandan academics. some academics also raised a concern that opening up higher education would affect the quality of education, because they thought that the infrastructure that exists in rwanda is inadequate. this concern was also voiced in other settings (atkins, brown, & hammond, 2007; bateman, lane, & moon, 2012.). in some under-resourced settings, however, oer adoption was backed by an agenda to overcome infrastructural challenges (omollo, rahman, & yebuah, 2012). the other concern raised by participants was the lack of academics’ preparedness, which relates to limited competencies (oecd, 2007; rennie & mason, 2010; badrach, kanyazeva, & lane, 2012). equally, the lack of access to technologies by learners that was also highlighted in lane (2009), bates (2012), and liyanagunawardena, williams, & adams (2013) was raised among the concerns. responsive actions subsequent to the study, there have been responsive actions: 1) the national open, distance and elearning (odel) policy was developed following an open twitter discussion on opening up higher education the researcher held with the minister of education and the latter’ s invitation of the 333 researcher to contribute a policy brief (see figure 5). both the discussion on opening up higher education in rwanda and the subsequent contribution of the policy brief were part of the parallel development component highlighted in the methods section. the national odel policy was followed by 2) the university of rwanda’s institutional odel policy on which the researcher was invited to review and provide constructive feedback. in the light of the university of rwanda’s odel policy, the researcher led experts who developed 3) a methodology for odel capacity building for the university of rwanda staff and 4) an odel strategic plan for the university of rwanda. these four responsive actions evidence the significance and impact of the study and its transformative design. figure 5: the minister of education’s invitation to provide a policy brief both the methodology for odel capacity building and the odel strategic plan were developed by odel footprints, a consulting company created by the researcher to support initiatives that may contribute to opening up higher education. the methodology and the strategic plan are responsive to the voice of the university of rwanda’s academics reflected in the previous sections and to the data collected from other stakeholders. odel footprints recommended that open educational practices (oeps) that contribute to odel expansion: a) are supported in the odel strategic plan and the methodology for odel capacity building, b) lead to academic promotion, c) are part of academic workload, and d) the staff involved share 60% of income from related open educational services (nkuyubwatsi, 2016b and 2016c), which may counter the dissatisfaction expressed in one of the comments (the hygiene factor, according to turabik & baskan, 2015). limitation and suggestions for future studies academics may possibly have provided answers that they felt are desirable, which could constitute a limitation. after the implementation of the odel strategic plan and the methodology for odel capacity building, studies on academics’ adoption of open educational practices (oep) may be conducted. the studies may investigate how academics’ oeps contributed to expansion of open education/learning opportunities to a wider number of rwandan learners in need and how these oeps improved learning. similarly, acceptance of different odel technologies may be investigated in the light of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (utaut) or the technology acceptance model (tam) (taiwo & downe, 2013). in the study from which the current paper emerged, these two theories were less relevant, and, therefore, they are beyond the scope of the study. 334 conclusion academics expressed willingness to publish their work under open licences, design oer-based courses, tutor open courses for credit and assist tutors of open courses for credit. equally, academics expressed willingness to find oer and evaluate their quality, participate in open courses and evaluate their quality, aggregate oer, adapt oer and open courses, and assess accomplishment from open learning for credit. institutional and national policies were found to be the potentially most important enablers for these practices to occur. the study was followed by responsive actions reflected in the development of: 1) the national odel policy, 2) the university of rwanda’s institutional odel policy, 3) a methodology for odel capacity building for the university of rwanda staff and 4) an odel strategic plan for the university of rwanda. oeps that will be triggered by these responsive actions may enable academics in rwandan public higher education to develop, deliver and expand odel within the framework of transformation of rwanda into a middle-income, knowledge-based society. references atkins, d.e., brown, j.s., & hammond, a.s. (2007). a review of the open educational resources movement: achievement, challenges and new opportunities. retrieved january 23, 2017, from http://www.issuelab.org/resource/a_review_of_the_open_educational_resources_oer_movement_achievem ents_challenges_and_new_opportunities badarch, d., knyazeva, s., & lane, a. (2012). introducing the opportunities and challenges of oer: the case of the commonwealth of independent states and the baltic states. in j. glennie, k. harley, n. butcher, & t.v. wyk, (eds.), open educational resources and changes in higher education: reflection from practice. vancouver: commonwealth of learning. bateman, p., lane, a., & moon, b. (2012). out of africa: a typology for analysing open educational resources initiatives. journal of interactive media in education. retrieved january 22, 2017, from http://wwwjime.open.ac.uk/articles/10.5334/2012-11/ bates, t. (2012, august 5). what’s right and what’s wrong about coursera-style moocs. retrieved january 22, 2017, from http://www.tonybates.ca/2012/08/05/whats-right-and-whats-wrong-about-coursera-style-moocs/ benson, v., anderson, d., & ooms, a. (2011). educators’ perceptions, attitudes and practices: blended learning in business and management education. research in learning technology, 19(2), 143-154. retrieved january 22, 2017, from http://www.researchinlearningtechnology.net/index.php/rlt/article/view/10353/11979 bijsterveld, c., & dopper, s. (2012). integrating open educational resources into the curriculum. in r. jacobi, & v.d.n. woert (eds.), trend report: open educational resources 2012 (pp. 17-24). retrieved january 13, 2017, from https://www.surfspace.nl/media/bijlagen/artikel-697-ee18ac0f1441bb158e6122818f5f589e.pdf bryman, a. (2012). social research methods (4th ed.). oxford: oxford university press. butcher, n. (2011). a basic guide to open educational resources (oer). retrieved january 22, 2017, from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002158/215804e.pdf calver, m., & beattie, a. (2015, may 31). our observation with metrics is corrupting science. the conversation. retrieved january 22, 2017, from http://theconversation.com/our-obsession-with-metrics-is-corruptingscience-39378 cohen, l., manion, l., & morrison, k. (2011). research methods in education (7th ed.). oxford: routledge. conole, g. (2013). designing for learning in an open world. new york: springer. david, m., & sutton, d.c. (2011). social research: an introduction (2nd ed.). london: sage. 335 dennis, b. (2009). theory of the margins: liberating research in education. in r. winkle-wagner, a.c., hunter, & h.d. ortloff (eds.), bridging the gap between theory and practice in educational research: methods at the margins. new york: palgrave macmillan, pp. 63-75. denscombe, m. (2010). the good research guide for small-scale social research projects (4th ed.). maidenhead: mcgraw-hill. ehlers, u. (2011). from open educational resources to open educational practices. elearning papers (21). retrieved january 24, 2017, from http://www.oerup.eu/fileadmin/_oerup/dokumente/media25161__2_.pdf geser, g. (2007). open educational practices and resources: olcos roadmap 2012. retrieved january 23, 2017, from http://www.olcos.org/cms/upload/docs/olcos_roadmap.pdf hall, c.m., & page, s.j. (2015). following the impact factor: utilitarianism or academic compliance?. tourism management, 51. retrieved january 23, 2017, from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/s0261517715001089 haustein, s., & larivière, v. (2015). the use of bibliometrics for assessing research: possibilities, limitations and adverse effects. in m.i. welpe, j. wollersheim, s. ringelhan, & m. osterloh (eds.), incentives and performance: governance of research organizations. new york: springer. hvistendahl, m. (2013). china’s publication bazaar, science 342 (6162), 1035-1039. retrieved january 23, 2017, from https://www.sciencemag.org/content/342/6162/1035.full international council for open and distance education. (n.d.). definition of open educational practices. retrieved november 26, 2015, from http://www.icde.org/en/resources/open_educational_practices/definition_of_open_educational_practices/ jansen, j. (2015, october 15). ufs responds to concerns around high costs of higher education. retrieved january 23, 2017, from http://www.ufs.ac.za/template/news-archive-item?news=6526 kincheloe, l.j., & mclaren, p. (2005). rethinking critical theory and qualitative research. in k.n. denzin, & s.y. lincoln (eds.), the sage handbook of qualitative research (3rd ed.). london: sage publishing inc. lane, a. (2009). the impact of openness on bridging educational digital divides. international review of research in open and distance learning, 10. retrieved january 22, 2017, from http://oro.open.ac.uk/24791/1/irrodl_2009.pdf lane, a. (2010). global trends in the development and use of open educational resources to reform educational practices. retrieved january 23, 2017, from http://iite.unesco.org/pics/publications/en/files/3214676.pdf liyanagunawardena, t., williams, s., & adams, a. (2013). the impact and reach of moocs: a developing countries’ perspective. elearning papers (33). retrieved january 22, 2017, from http://centaur.reading.ac.uk/32452/ matthews, d. (2015, november 5). lost credibility. inside higher ed. retrieved november 23, 2017, from https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/11/05/editorial-says-journal-impact-factors-have-lostcredibility?utm_content=buffer0162a&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=ihebuf fer mcandrew, p., farrow, r., law, p., & elliott-cirigottis, g. (2012). learning the lesson of openness. journal of interactive media in education. retrieved january 24, 2017, from http://wwwjime.open.ac.uk/articles/10.5334/2012-10/ nkuyubwatsi, b. (2016a). a critical look at the policy environment for opening up public higher education in rwanda. the journal of learning for development, 3(2), 47-61. retrieved october 10, 2017, from http://www.jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/article/view/141 nkuyubwatsi, b. (2016b). the outcome of constructive alignment between open educational services and learners' needs, employability and capabilities development: heutagogy and transformative migration 336 among underprivileged learners in rwanda. cogent education, 3(1). doi:10.1080/2331186x.2016.1198522. retrieved october 10, 2017, from http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/2331186x.2016.1198522 nkuyubwatsi, b. (2016c). positioning extension massive open online courses (xmoocs) within the open access and the lifelong learning agendas in a developing setting. the journal of learning for development, 3(1), 14-36. retrieved april 17, 2016, from http://jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d nkuyubwatsi, b., ndayishimiye, v., ntirenganya, b.j., & umwungerimwiza, d.y. (2015). towards innovation in digital and open scholarship for non-rivalrous lifelong learning and supporting open learning: the case of the open scholars network. elearning papers (44), 53-59. retrieved april 17, 2016, from http://openeducationeuropa.eu/en/paper/teacher-s-role-educationalinnovation oecd. (2007). giving knowledge for free: the emergence of open educational resources. retrieved january 24, 2017, from http://www.oecd.org/edu/ceri/38654317.pdf omollo, k.l., rahman, a., & yebuah, c.a. (2012). producing oer from scratch: the case of health sciences at the university of ghana and the kwame nkrumah university of science and technology. in j. glennie, k. harley, n. butcher, & t.v. wyk (eds.), open educational resources and changes in higher education: reflection from practice. vancouver: commonwealth of learning. pp. 57-73. ramaker, r., & wijkhuijs, j. (2015, january 29). the fight for open access. univers. retrieved january 26, 2017, from https://universonline.nl/2015/01/29/the-fight-for-open-access rennie, f., & mason, r. (2010). designing higher education courses using open educational resources. in m.s. khine, & i.m. saleh (eds.), new science of learning: cognition, computers and collaboration in education. new york: springer. pp. 273-282. seale, c. (2012). sampling. in seale, c. (ed.), researching society and culture (3rd ed.). london: sage, pp. 134-152. taiwo, a.a., & downe, g.l. (2013). the theory of user acceptance and use of technology (utaut): a metaanalytic review of empirical findings. journal of theoretical and applied information technology, 49(1). retrieved october 3, 2017, from http://www.jatit.org/volumes/vol49no1/7vol49no1.pdf turabik, t., & baskan, a.g. (2015). the importance of motivation theories in terms of education systems. 5th world conference on learning, teaching and educational leadership, wclta 2014. retrieved october 2, 2017 from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/s1877042815022661 weller, m. (2014). the battle for open: how openness won and why it doesn’t feel like victory, london: ubiquity press. retrieved january 24, 2017, from http://www.ubiquitypress.com/site/books/detail/11/battle-for-open/ whiteman, n. (2012). undoing ethics: rethinking practice in online research. new york: springer. wijkhuijs, j. (2015, july 2). dutch universities start their elsevier boycott plan. univers. retrieved january 24, 2017, from https://universonline.nl/2015/07/02/dutch-universities-start-their-elsevier-boycott-plan wolfenden, f. (2012). oer production and adaptation through networking across sub-saharan africa: learning from tessa. in j. glennie, k. harley, n. butcher, & t.v. wyk (eds.), open educational resources and changes in higher education: reflection from practice. vancouver: commonwealth of learning. pp. 91-105. wolfenden, f., buckler, a., & keraro, f. (2012). oer adaptation and reuse across cultural contexts in sub saharan africa: lessons from tessa (teacher education in sub saharan africa). journal of interactive media in education. retrieved january 23, 2017, from http://www-jime.open.ac.uk/articles/10.5334/2012-03/ wyk, t.v. (2012). taking oer beyond the oer community: policy issues and priority. in j. glennie, k. harley, n. butcher, & t.v. wyk (eds.), open educational resources and changes in higher education: reflection from practice. vancouver: commonwealth of learning. pp. 13-25. 337 author: bernard nkuyubwatsi is a research professor of odel and learning innovation at euclid university and the founder of odel footprints. he holds a phd in education/elearning and learning technologies from the university of leicester and an ma in online and distance education from the uk open university. his research interests include odel, moocs, oer, and transformative research. email: nkuyubwatsi1[@]gmail.com mohamedbhai promoting developmental research: a challenge for african universities goolam mohamedbhai vol. 1, no. 2 research and development there are two well-known and often-quoted facts about sub-saharan africa. one is that, in spite of significant progress made in recent years, africa remains the least developed region in the world and is unlikely to achieve all the millennium development goals by 2015. the other is that africa fares very poorly in terms of research and innovation; it produces only about 1% of the world’s research publications and 0.1% of global patents, and the bulk of these emanate from just two countries – south africa and nigeria. there is a clear link between these two phenomena, and while there is general acknowledgement that the research output from africa must be dramatically increased in order to overcome the development challenges, achieving that objective appears to be elusive. promoting research that leads to innovation, which then directly impacts on development remains a challenge for africa. constraints there are several reasons for this. first, there is the fact that because of the dramatic increase in student enrolment in african universities, where the bulk of the research is undertaken, teaching has become the prominent activity at the expense of research and community engagement, the other two important missions of a university. not only are academic staff overloaded with teaching responsibilities but the teaching is invariably conducted through lectures delivered in a magisterial mode in crowded lecture halls. this hardly encourages learning and inquiry among the students, a key factor for promoting research and innovation. there are also very few research-strong staff – those who have a phd – who can initiate and supervise research. also, a lack of funds and poor research facilities, especially in the science and technology fields, are major constraints. but perhaps the greatest impediment lies in the way research is looked upon in african universities. it is considered to be an activity that must result in a master’s thesis, phd dissertation, and/or a paper that can be published in an internationally-refereed journal. that immediately circumscribes the orientation of the research work. since most universities follow european standards for postgraduate theses, and international journals use referees who equally apply strict publication standards, academic staff who depend on their phd degree or their publications for promotion or personal development tend to avoid developmental research. also, developmental research usually entails a multi-disciplinary approach, requiring collaboration among researchers from different disciplines. african academics tend to regard research as a personal enterprise, and shy away from research where their contribution is only partially acknowledged. and as research in african universities is to a large extent funded by external donors, the orientation of the research is often determined by the funder, not the african researcher. however, external funders of research in africa are now increasingly encouraging the promotion of developmental research.  developmental research there is no reason for developmental research to be regarded as inferior or of poor quality. the same rigour as in any another research work should be applied: identifying a problem, surveying existing solutions to similar problems, designing and applying the most appropriate solution and disseminating the results. in addition, for developmental research to be meaningful, the identified solution must be applied in the field and an assessment of the outcome made. and the results, in addition to being published in an appropriate journal, should be made accessible to the direct beneficiaries and/or policy makers. the real development challenges in africa lie in the rural areas. these can be in agriculture, maternal and child health, water and sanitation, infrastructure development, etc. to a large extent, the needs of the community should determine the developmental areas to be researched at the university. an important aspect of developmental research, therefore, is that it has to be conducted in close consultation with and involving the community. this is perhaps its greatest asset as it brings the university closer to the community and facilitates interaction, which then promotes learning both in the community and the university, which in turn stimulates development. a factor often ignored by african universities is the huge potential that their students represent in promoting developmental research. through short attachments, either during their vacation period or as part of their relevant course, students can assist communities in areas of health and nutrition, basic education, agricultural practices, environmental protection, etc. and, at the same time, learn about the valuable indigenous practices of the communities involved. their findings can then be incorporated into the teaching curricula or become areas for research. through their experiential learning in the community, the students thus provide opportunities for continuous and meaningful dialogue between the university and the community, and they become important agents for promoting learning and innovation in the community and the university. the end result is a symbiosis, a fusion of the three key missions of the university: teaching and learning, research and innovation, and community engagement.    there are several good examples of developmental research carried out by african universities. two such examples are briefly outlined below. both of them were presented as case studies of a project on governance of research and innovation in west and central africa undertaken by the association of african universities with support from the international development research centre (idrc) of canada.       university of development studies, ghana: the adapted hoe project during a needs assessment of the farmers in communities served by the university of development studies in ghana, it was found that the short-handled hoe used by farmers for weeding was uncomfortable to use, resulting in back pains, blistered hands and dusty eyes and nostrils. the university then embarked on a series of adaptation, innovation and trial testing of a modified hoe, with the farmers closely involved throughout the process. the end result was a long-handled hoe, with the addition of a rake on the upper side of the hoe. the calabash foundation, a non-governmental organisation, was involved and the project was funded by tno, the netherlands organisation for applied scientific research. an additional positive outcome of the project was the involvement of community blacksmiths and carpenters in helping to craft the modified hoe. this was a simple research project but all the important steps of any research project were followed and it led to an innovation, in addition to making a difference in the quality of life of the farmers.  it brought the university closer to the farming community and both learned from each other: the farmers gained technical knowledge from the university and the latter learned about indigenous farming practices from the farmers. university of ouagadougou, burkina faso: shea nut processing in several countries in west africa, the nut of the shea fruit is processed into shea butter, mainly by women, and then used as cooking oil and for producing cosmetic products. shea is an important export product for burkina faso but, since the 1980s and 1990s, its production had been falling, mainly because of the poor quality of the product. therefore, the government initiated a national project in 1994 to revamp the shea processing sector, and the laboratory of biochemistry and applied chemistry (labioca) of the university of ouagadougou played a key role in the venture. it first examined the shea butter to understand its biochemical composition and then, eventually, identified the importance of harvesting and processing the nut differently in order to improve the butter. the women, mainly through their associations, were then trained in the new techniques of harvesting and processing the nuts. in parallel, phycos, a private company that uses shea butter for producing cosmetic products, was involved and was able to improve the quality of its products and make them more competitive with imported products. the university also learned about the degradation of the fruit as a result of aging trees, and it developed a new programme for the protection and genetic enhancement of plants. the project created a new dynamism among the community of women, improved the revenue of phycos, which then provided some funds to labioca, and also resulted in master’s and phd theses, dissertations and research publications. last, but not least, the project made a significant impact on the national economy. conclusion the two examples above illustrate the huge potential for developmental research and the enormous benefits that accrue to communities, universities and the country. several of the new public universities being set up in africa are in rural areas and such research is particularly relevant to them. to promote developmental research, however, african universities may need to re-examine the way they assess and reward research, and ensure that their rules and regulations in no way discourage academics from embarking on developmental research or disadvantage them. they equally need to establish closer links with the community, review their approach to teaching and learning and provide experiential learning opportunities to their students through short attachments. this, however, does not mean that research in african universities should all be of a developmental nature.  where universities can embark on important fundamental research and where they can participate in international research projects (for example, in connection with food security, communicable diseases or climate change), they should do so, since africa must not stand isolated in the international arena of research. 24 july 2014 microsoft word kadhila.docx issn: 2311-1550 2021, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 516-531 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. barriers to the quality of emergency online pedagogies in higher education during the covid-19 pandemic: a case study from the university of namibia ngepathimo kadhila and john nyambe university of namibia abstract: using the tipec framework, this study undertook a critical literature analysis, and student survey to explore challenges experienced by higher education institutions during emergency online pedagogies because of disruptions from the covid-19 outbreak. the study revealed that most higher education institutions are still grappling with getting technicalities in place such as reliable network connectivity, it capacity, clear navigation to learning content, timetabling, and session scheduling, and reliable hardware and software required to access online learning platforms to keep teaching and learning afloat. however, little attention is placed on the provision of quality online learning. therefore, there is a need to move towards enabling epistemological access through the use of online tools in a pedagogically sound and inclusive manner to enable students to develop critical thinking skills. the current quality assurance practices also need to transform to effectively respond to the learning needs of the new normal. students also need to be equipped with skills that will empower them to effectively use the online system. keywords: barriers, emergency online pedagogies, covid-19 pandemic, higher education institutions, quality assurance, university of namibia. introduction worldwide, the higher education landscape has been undergoing unprecedented changes since the beginning of 2020 due to the disruptions caused by the outbreak of the coronavirus (covid-19) pandemic. countries throughout the world have been forced to take drastic measures such as the declaration of a state of emergency to halt the spread of the disease. however, some of the measures adopted by countries have been antithetical to learning and teaching, especially since teaching and learning is a social activity. these measures have included total lockdowns in either parts of a country or an entire country to curtail movement and to force people to stay at home, as well as maintaining social distancing and isolation. given the lockdown and social distancing measures taken, higher education institutions around the world had no choice but to close their doors in line with the lockdown measures intended to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. as a result, covid-19 has created a broad-based crisis for higher education on a global scale (altbach & de wit, 2020). despite their very strong sense of place and/or a strong physical presence in the form of a campus to which students go to learn, higher education institutions were in fact abandoned by both students and academics. this phenomenon caught many institutions of higher learning, including in africa, off-guard because of the speed with which everything happened. against this backdrop, higher education institutions world-wide have been forced to abruptly abandon traditional face-to-face pedagogies and to move to 100% online 517 pedagogies (altbach & de wit, 2020). against this backdrop, using the university of namibia as a case study, this paper aims at exploring barriers to quality of emergency online pedagogies in higher education during the covid-19 pandemic. background prior to the pandemic, although online pedagogies had been widely adopted across the entire education spectrum throughout the world, institutions were, nevertheless, facing a complex combination of barriers that was limiting the long-term success of online learning solutions (ali, uppal & gulliver, 2018). according to mohamedbhai (2020), in the face of the global pandemic, african countries have had no choice but to resort to the use of information and communications technology (ict) solutions to deliver their programmes online and at a distance to the students enrolled at their institutions. however, the process has highlighted the digital divide on the african continent between those countries with a better ict infrastructure than others; between higher education institutions in the same country, with some being far better equipped and experienced than others; and between students at the same institution, namely, the wealthy students who live in urban areas and the poor students in rural areas who are barely able to afford internet access, when and if it is available (mohamedbhai, 2020). furthermore, between 2020 and 2021, most higher education institutions in the world have reported a drop in new and ongoing student enrolment, linked to the covid-19 pandemic’s impact on families’ economic circumstances and on students’ mental health (kakuchi, 2021). alongside financial difficulties, lack of access to online learning platforms and lack of support offered for students were the biggest reasons cited by students for dropping out. just like other parts of the world, higher education institutions in namibia also took drastic decisions to put in place measures to ensure that learning continued to take place by moving all their courses online. while there was already online infrastructure in place at these institutions as they had been implementing online pedagogies on a smaller scale, it was, nevertheless, reasonable to assume that the mass migration of face-to-face students to online pedagogies could constrain the capacity of the existing infrastructure and other resources available, thus, posing a threat to the quality of learning and teaching. hence, a study was conducted through a survey administered to students at the university of namibia with the purpose to determine the range of barriers impacting on the success and quality of online pedagogies during the covid-19 outbreak. the study sought to answer the following questions: 1. how are higher education institutions utilising technology to support learning during the covid-19 pandemic? 2. how are higher education institutions ensuring quality of online learning during the covid19 pandemic? 3. how are students experiencing online learning environments during the covid-19 pandemic? 4. how can the quality of online leaning be enhanced during and after the covid-19 pandemic? 518 literature review the use of electronic systems and applications to facilitate learning and teaching in higher education has gained momentum over the past few decades. with the “e-storm” (kim & bonk, 2006) associated with the unprecedented revolution in ict, online pedagogies have increasingly come to be used in conjunction with traditional, face-to-face pedagogies in higher education with online pedagogies often being referred to as a rival of traditional face-to-face pedagogies. also termed e-learning or remote learning, online pedagogies manifest in the global higher education landscape in the following three main modes (abaidoo, 2015; kim & bonk, 2006), namely, i) the computer-assisted mode, where the use of computers through programmed learning supplements traditional methods when needed; ii) the blended learning mode, where face-to-face classroom teaching and learning takes place in conjunction with online teaching; and, iii) the completely online mode, which involves the exclusive use of a network to facilitate learning and teaching and which is completely devoid of the traditional, face-to-face method. conceptualising online pedagogies online pedagogy has generally been conceptualised as teaching and learning that involves the use of information and communication technologies to enable access to learning; learning that is enabled electronically; learning that is empowered using multimedia technologies and/or any learning that is internet enabled or web based (abaidoo, 2015; thomas, 2014). online pedagogies relate to the use of electronic systems and applications within learning processes whereby learning content is delivered remotely via an electronic solution, for example, the internet, satellite tv, radio, cd-rom, among others (ali et al, 2018). to provide scaffolding for the further understanding of the concept, bates (2015) offers a distinction between technology and media although there is a very thin line between the two. technology encompasses tools that support learning and teaching, for example, computers, software programmes, learning management systems and communication networks (bates, 2015). it is also important to note that, the communicative learning environment are affordances in terms of the time and space dimensions. in such a case, abaidoo (2015) distinguishes between synchronous and asynchronous dimensions. synchronous online pedagogy refers to the type of online pedagogies and teaching whereby the lecturer and students are communicating in real time, as if they were in the same physical space, thus offering the advantage of instantaneous feedback. thus, synchronous online pedagogies provide live or transient learning opportunities which are more face-to-face, for example, lectures, seminars, and one-on-one tutorials (andersson & grönlund, 2009). on the other hand, asynchronous online pedagogy refers to online teaching and learning whereby the lecturer and student are not communicating in real time through platforms such as discussion forums, emails, social media, and pre-recorded lessons (abaidoo, 2015; bates, 2015). theories underpinning online pedagogies it is important in the context of this study to note that the choice or design of an online learning environment is never a neutral one but is, instead, fundamentally influenced by our views and beliefs about reality (ontology), knowledge and ways of knowing (epistemology). kim and bonk (2006) argue that an online learning environment, underpinned by a constructivist orientation, will be designed in a manner that is highly supportive of the constructivist tenets of learning such as interaction, peer to peer collaboration, project-based learning, critical and creative thinking and active student participation and involvement in knowledge construction. an online pedagogies system that is 519 underpinned by the constructivist philosophy of learning will, therefore, include features that promote independent and self-directed learning, critical reflection, hands on performances, interactive laboratories, data analysis and scientific simulations (blackburn, villa-marcos, & williams, 2019; kim & bonk, 2006; thomas, 2014). accordingly, given its underlying ontological and epistemological orientations, the online learning environment may either tend towards a broadcast orientation, which is a one-way transmission orientation, or it may tend towards a communicative orientation, which is a two-way or multiple communication orientation. however, it is not unusual to find both orientations co-existing, depending on the purpose or objective of the learning and teaching in question. bates (2015) observes that, in a broadcast environment, learning tends to be transmission oriented, with one central figure (usually the teacher) communicating to several students. the communicative environment, on the other hand, fosters interaction and collaborative learning, with lecturer to students and student-tostudent interaction. while, in the broadcast environment, the teacher or lecturer constitutes the locus of power, in the communicative system power is decentralised with students being able to actively participate in learning and being able to contribute to, or change, the message, that is being transmitted. however, as indicated earlier, the two environments may be used in a manner where they augment one another, depending on the specific purpose being pursued. bates (2015) argues for the placement of the two designs on a continuum instead of viewing them in dichotomous terms. broadcast media or one-way communication media include, among others, television, radio, institutional websites, and print media, where the end users or recipients have no power to change the message being transmitted. on the other hand, communicative media, where all users can communicate and interact with each other include, among others, the telephone, videoconferencing, email, online discussion forums, blogs, wikis, most social media, and the internet (thomas, 2014). advantages and disadvantages of online pedagogies often, online learning has been criticised for not being able to engage students amply, although myriads of research have proved that it is an actionand student-oriented model which, when applied effectively, has the potential to achieve optimal education and learning outcomes. the literature highlights several advantages and disadvantages of online pedagogies. the advantages include, among others, flexibility in terms of time and space, ease of access to huge volumes of information, collaborative opportunities, individualised learning, self-pacing of learning and promotion of independence among the students (kakuchi, 2021). in addition, the benefits of online learning, if exploited effectively, can help to mitigate the effects of deferment and conventionalism in these institutions, and promote the critical thinking skills development of students as would be expected in conventional residential practices (larbi-apau, 2021). the disadvantages, on the other hand, include, among others, the limited personal interactions, negative impact on the students’ communicative skills and the likelihood of piracy, plagiarism, cheating and copying and pasting (kakuchi, 2021). in addition, the socialisation of the student may be negatively impacted upon, leading to isolation and a lack of social connectedness in learning and teaching. the sole use of online pedagogies may also pose a challenge in the scientific fields where hands-on and practical experiences may be required, for example, in the engineering and medical fields while simulations may also not adequately address the need for practical experience. in the 520 context of the developing nations, with their resource constraints, online pedagogies may pose a challenge to some of the national goals of education such as access, equity, and quality while some students may be denied access to education due to the challenges of accessing it online (mohamedbhai, 2020). use of online pedagogies during the covid-19 pandemic a critical literature analysis pointed out that covid-19 has created havoc and contributed to a social panic that has led to a temporary closure of most campuses across the world. it has become impossible to meet face-to-face for on-campus course delivery and in-person interactions and to use the universities’ physical setting for intellectual and academic pursuits (amemado, 2020). according to amemado (2020), unesco statistics, as of march 23, 2020, showed that about 1.7 billion students and learners around the world were unable to attend either school or university. this figure accounts for 90% of the world’s student population. online learning has become the new normal in many places of learning, with the key purpose of averting the effects of the covid-19 pandemic (larbi-apau, 2021). online pedagogy has been seen as a tool for mitigating the unprecedented disruption caused by the covid-19 outbreak. given the outbreak, higher education institutions were left with no option but to resort to the use of digital platforms to deliver their programmes online and at a distance to the students enrolled at such institutions (mohamedbhai, 2020). online pedagogies facilitate the potential for remote interaction between students and lecturers (ali et al, 2018). however, it has been argued that online pedagogies differ from conventional classroom pedagogies (kirwan & roumell, n.d.). it is self-evident that there are numerous challenges associated with online pedagogies and that it is imperative that institutions, which have had to abruptly implement online pedagogies in response to covid-19, understand all these challenges and address them to ensure the quality of the online student learning experience. this is particularly important considering that the consequences of the covid-19 outbreak are serious and the fact that it may permanently affect pedagogy going forward with online pedagogies becoming an essential component of higher education. in the wake of this situation, a consequence of the covid-19 outbreak, most higher education institutions in the world, including in namibia, have been compelled to abruptly replace face-to-face learning with online pedagogies as it was not possible for lecturers and students alike to physically attend classes. as part of the preparation for such online pedagogies, lecturers at the university of namibia were given approximately one week to prepare their lessons and learning materials, and to upload them online. some institutions also managed to bargain with internet service providers to supply internet devices, including data, to staff and students at an affordable price. however, the literature analysis established that both staff and students had, nevertheless, experienced challenges during the rollout of online pedagogies (amemado, 2020; mohamedbhai, 2020; tamrat & teferra, 2020). on the student side particularly, alongside financial difficulties due to the economic downturn linked to the coronavirus, lack of access to online learning platform and lack of support offered for students were the major reasons cited by students for dropping out (kakuchi, 2021). 521 methods conceptual framework this study adopted the tipec framework [technology (t), individual (i), pedagogy (p), and enabling conditions (ec)], which highlights the key concepts hindering online pedagogies. using this as a conceptual framework, the study undertook an in-depth analysis of barriers facing higher education institutions when implementing online pedagogies using namibia as a case study. this framework was developed by researchers from the university of reading who reviewed online learning research from 1990 to 2016 to identify barriers to implementing online pedagogies. the authors identified barriers and grouped these into a proposed tipec framework of technological, individual, pedagogical, and enabling categories (ali, uppal & gulliver, 2018). figure 1 represents tipec’s conceptual framework, highlighting online learning implementation barriers which are grouped into four main categories, namely, technology, individual, pedagogical, and enabling conditions. figure 1: a conceptual framework highlighting online learning implementation barriers source: ali et al (2018, p. 165) 522 the conceptual framework presented above identifies 30 implementation barriers hindering the effectiveness of online pedagogies, potentially impacting adversely on the quality of the teaching and learning in higher education institutions. these barriers are grouped into four main categories, namely, challenges pertaining to individual characteristics (both students and lecturers); technological challenges (access, cost); course challenges (different support functions, the course itself with its pedagogy and activities); and contextual challenges (the institutional management and organisation as well as the surrounding society with its values and regulations). methodology using the tipec framework, this paper is based on a case study of a student survey which was administered to students at the university of namibia (unam) studying online during emergency online remote learning, across all programmes, years and modes of study, between march and april 2020 during the first wave of the covid-19 pandemic. the university of namibia is a public higher education institutions with twelve (12) standalone campuses across the country. the ict situation in namibia is such that the network connectivity is concentrated largely in major towns within a radius of 10k. most of the network towers across the country are 2g and 3g, with the main towns and cities covered by 4g. most of the rural areas are still not covered by network connectivity. the purpose was to explore how the university has responded to the pandemic and challenges experienced by students in terms of online pedagogies; and to establish the types of devices students were using, their connectivity status and their geographical location. tools used the survey tool was sent out to students through the online student portal as well as through mobile texting messages. the online survey questionnaire asked questions around the kind of internet connectivity and types of devices students had at home; student experiences with online remote learning; and the learning needs that students had. this questionnaire was widely disseminated to students via various media such as mobile text messages, emails and the student portal. sample of a student population of approximately 30,000, a total of 11,920 students (about 40%) responded to the survey. the response rate was overwhelming as this was a very sizeable response. as lindemann (2019) points out, the average survey response rate is 33%. it is interesting to note that, of the students who participated in the survey, 22% were able to respond through the online portal while the majority (78%) responded through text messaging using their mobile phones. data collection and analysis data from the student survey were sorted using a microsoft excel sheet. the information gathered from this process necessitated the use of quantitative data analysis procedures. hence, descriptive statistics which included frequencies and percentages were used. findings the findings from this study revealed that the covid-19 pandemic has resulted in temporary physical closures of the university of namibia since the 2020 academic year. this state of affairs has left decision makers within the institution with unprecedented challenges such as to opt to safely reopen the university, or to move to remote online learning while making sure that disadvantaged students are not left behind. the university was left with no option but to choose to continue with its 523 pedagogical activities through its existing structures dedicated to online teaching. by and large, the pandemic has transformed the way teaching took place, accelerating transformation that was already taking place in the form of online learning and teaching. however, technological, pedagogical and individual barriers identified by ali et al (2018) were reported as presenting potential inequalities in access and participation in higher education at the university of namibia. technological barriers although the university already had an existing online learning platform (i.e., moodle) for its blended learning and online programmes, this infrastructure had limited capacity as they were not designed for large-scale online learning. furthermore, the university provided some sort of support to the teaching and learning process in the form of distribution of 4g modems and data to teaching staff and students at a low cost which was negotiated with a local mobile telecommunication provider as an intervention in response to the effect of covid-19. however, these were found not to be working effectively, particularly in areas with weak or no network reception. therefore, technology access challenges for both teaching staff and students remained a challenge. of the students who responded through text messaging, 33% indicated they had availability of internet connectivity and access to information technology (it) devices. it may, therefore, be assumed that these students were able to participate in online pedagogies. however, 67% indicated no connectivity. it appeared that most of the students who participated via text messaging were those students who were residing in the rural areas during the lockdown period. figure 2 depicts the proportion of rural-based students who had connectivity as compared to the proportion with no connectivity. figure 2: connectivity status – data gathered through text messaging it may, therefore, be concluded, in line with ali et al’s (2018) categories of barriers to the effective implementation of online pedagogies, that technological challenges, especially those in relation to connectivity, constituted a challenge for many students. although some of the students indicated that they owned smartphones (see figure 3) and, while the institution in question had distributed 4g devices to all the students, nevertheless, most students still indicated that they either did not have internet connectivity at all, had weak/low speed or unreliable connectivity, and/or gadgets which meant that they were unable to access online pedagogies. accordingly, despite the countrywide deployment of 4g modems to students, connectivity remained a challenge for many students, 524 especially in the remote rural areas where there is no network coverage to support internet connectivity, or where students may not have the devices required for internet connectivity. figure 3 shows devices owned by the students in namibia as per the data sourced through text messaging. figure 3: devices owned by the students – data sourced through text messaging as indicated in figure 3, most of the students (42%) who participated in the survey through mobile text messages indicated that they owned smartphones, 7% of the students (approximately 700) owned laptops while 5% (569 students) indicated that they owned more than one of the devices which could be used for online pedagogies. however, what is of concern in the data is the fact that 22% of the students (2,365) indicated that they did not own any of the devices that were referred to in the survey. it appeared that most of the students lacked equipment such as computers, laptops, tablets, smartphones necessary to participate in the emergency remote online learning process as the majority of them come from families that are not well-off financially. furthermore, it turned out that most students simply owned a cheap version of mobile phones that can be used to make calls and send text messages only. therefore, the 4g modems and data received from the institution were of no use in the absence of compatible it devices. however, even those who owned smartphones indicated that they were experiencing connectivity challenges. it was, therefore, evident that online pedagogies were not without problems. nevertheless, this study did take note of the fact that the institution in question had devised a creative and innovative “credit recovery strategy” to address the issue of students who may have been unable to utilise various online pedagogies for learning purposes during the lockdown period due to connectivity challenges. furthermore, it is incumbent on higher education institutions to invest in it infrastructure more than ever before to enable them to effectively support technology enhanced learning on a large scale as a longer-term solution, particularly because it is uncertain as to whether this situation will last for a short period only or whether it will have a lasting impact. there are many ways in which providers may ensure that any disadvantage to students is limited, including the development of 'no detriment' policies. according to the quality assurance agency for higher education, uk (qaa, 2020), a 'no detriment' policy seeks to mitigate against the impact of a set of circumstances by ensuring that the individuals affected are not unfairly disadvantaged by a requirement to change assessment rules or regulations. in practice, for many higher education providers, 'no detriment' means students are 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 laptop smart phone tablet none of the above more than 1 numbers 700 4459 72 2365 569 700 4459 72 2365 569 devices numbers 525 guaranteed that their final grade will be no lower than their average academic performance prior to the pandemic (qaa, 2020). pedagogical barriers mohamedbhai (2020) states that the process of migrating to the use of information and communications technology (ict) to deliver programmes online at a distance from the students enrolled has exposed the digital divide within the african continent. this development has also exposed inequities in the system that must be addressed to ensure the provision of equitable access to quality online higher education. amemado (2020) states that almost all higher education institutions around the world attempted to implement online education, albeit at different paces, ranging from the off-line, drop-and-go model to highly intensive, well-structured, and fully online programmes. in the case of the university of namibia, teaching staff were given two weeks to adapt their teaching material developed for face-to-face teaching to online formats. this implies that most of the teaching staff were not ready for the switch to emergency remote online teaching pedagogies. therefore, the university faced problems with its capacity to effectively and efficiently deliver online pedagogies in terms of technological tools and knowhow. furthermore, although the institution provided some sort of support to the teaching and learning process in the form of training and technical support for the teaching staff and students, this was not adequate as it was underrepresented just to keep learning afloat. as a result, student assessment and academic integrity in the context of online learning remained an area of greatest concern. experience has shown that, for online pedagogies to be at all successful, the teaching materials must be prepared by professional instructional designers, lecturers must be pedagogically trained for developing and delivering online programmes, and students must be exposed to the dynamics of online learning. according to mohamedbhai (2020), unprepared online pedagogy has a negative impact on the quality of the programmes offered. according to mohamedbhai (2020), it is a delusion to believe that online pedagogies may be effective by merely posting a lecturer’s notes online or making a video recording of a lecture. however, this was what was generally happening at the time of this study. mohamedbhai (2020) points out that the worst affected programmes will be science and technology as students will be unable to access laboratories for their practicals. however, governments regard science and technology programmes as playing a key role in africa’s development. thus, higher education institutions are faced with a dilemma in finding alternative approaches to using laboratories and in how to mitigate the consequences of poor-quality programmes because of unplanned online delivery. accordingly, with the increasing demand for online pedagogies due to the covid-19 outbreak, it is incumbent on higher education institutions to find scientifically grounded guidelines, measures, and instruments to monitor all important quality aspects, to improve the quality of the learning and teaching in the online setting and to support sustainable online education programmes. quality assurance in online pedagogies has been identified as a critical component of the success of online pedagogies. accordingly, the success factors in relation to online pedagogies depend on the ability of higher education institutions to position quality at the core of all their online educational activities in the interests of the needs of their students (blieck et al, 2017). blieck et al (2017) stress that, if the quality of education after the implementation of online pedagogies is not equivalent to, or better 526 than, the quality before implementation, then all efforts have been in vain. nevertheless, students at african universities have experienced challenges such as connectivity issues, the lack of infrastructure and the cost of data (amemado, 2020). this is in line with mohamedbhai (2020) who points out, it is a fallacy to believe that online pedagogies may be effective by merely posting a lecturer’s notes online or making a video recording of the lecture. however, it appeared that this was, in fact, the case at the time of this study. at the university of namibia, the teaching staff faced the challenge of unprecedented adaption of their curricula and methods to online teaching; effectively supporting students in online learning; adapting assessment strategies that ensure safeguarding of quality standards and academic integrity in the context of online learning; and adapting reliable quality assurance strategies for online delivery. as a result, there was an overwhelming perception (92%) that students’ workload increased during emergency online teaching and lack of real-time interaction with teaching staff, posing the risk of disengagement and drop-out of students who face difficulties in the online environment. it appears that the university of namibia faces the challenge of developing new policies that can balance between dealing with the pandemic while providing a stimulating academic experience, including better online teaching that can bring students together (kakuchi, 2021). it is, therefore, suggested that higher education institutions put in place quality assurance measures that respond effectively to the prevailing online pedagogies demands. in addition, together with the need to ensure that students are not disadvantaged, it is essential that the bodies awarding qualifications are also confident — and are able to demonstrate — that graduates in 2020 have not been disadvantaged compared to their peers from previous years; and, that they will not be disadvantaged in future years by being known as the 'covid-19 generation', whose degree classifications are not deemed to be reliable (qaa, 2020). furthermore, most higher education institutions seem to have spent most of their resources trying to get the basics right in terms of putting technological logistics in place such as reliable network connectivity, it capacity, clear navigation to learning content, timetabling, and session scheduling, and reliable hardware and software required to access online learning platforms (university world news, 2021). however, little attention was placed on ensuring the quality of emergency online pedagogies. accordingly, it should be noted that physical access to online learning platforms does not automatically translate to access to knowledge, although this is the stage where most african higher education institutions spend most of their energy (mohamedbhai, 2020). therefore, higher education institutions need to move towards enabling epistemological access, or access to knowledge through online learning platforms. this could be achieved through initiatives such as making online learning sessions more interactive; training and supporting lecturers to use online tools in a pedagogically sound and inclusive manner; and thinking about the pace of delivery. in line with the arguments above, there is a need for continuous intellectual debates and discussion within higher education institutions on reconceptualising online and blended pedagogies, including assessment methods, through activities such as presentations and workshops. for example, teaching students to develop critical thinking skills will require augmented knowledge, not only in the subject matter but also knowledge in the dynamics of online learning including context, influential theories, and application of germane instructional strategies, among others. using multimedia resources such as audios, animations, videos, infographics, images, simulations, and texts provides the opportunity to make meaning of an otherwise passive learning environment. group collaboration, inquiry-based 527 learning, presentations, seminars, reflective assignments, and student-led discussions can promote active online learning and internalisation of critical thinking skill development through a plethora of digital communication and collaboration tools and resources (larbi-apau, 2021). it is clear from the findings of the student survey, that the covid-19 pandemic has posed several challenges to the university of namibia. however, there is always opportunity in every crisis and this pandemic has also provided opportunities for all higher education institutions to speedily improve and maximise their ict operations. therefore, despite the many challenges facing the university of namibia in the implementation of online remote pedagogies, the covid-19 pandemic has presented the university with the opportunity to rethink and reconceptualise the nature and methods of teaching and learning in a higher education institution of the future where online learning becomes the new normal. therefore, the university needs to rethink how the pandemic will affect it in the longer term post-pandemic in terms of technological capacities; staff pedagogical training and support; and student recruitment and retention, achievement of learning outcomes and graduate employability. in addition, all indications are pointing to the fact that, even if the coronavirus pandemic were to come to an end soon, the higher education landscape will never again be the same. higher education institutions all over the world have recognised the importance of online pedagogies with the crisis presenting them with a range of opportunities for fast-forwarding their digital transition. accordingly, this study suggests that it is essential that higher education institutions in africa, including namibia, adapt to the new realities. together with investment in it capacity, higher education institutions must transform their existing quality assurance practices to ensure that they are able to respond to the new challenges posed by the rolling out of full-scale online pedagogies. as was the case with the students, given the sudden arrival of the pandemic, there were no specific professional development arrangements made for academics prior to the mass migration to online pedagogies. although professional development had been offered prior to the pandemic, not all academics had been sufficiently committed to the development activities offered, as it appeared that they had not required such skills at the time, when face-to-face teaching opportunities were available to them. it is possible that many lecturers were struggling to migrate so suddenly to online teaching. this challenge was highlighted in the context of online assessment. the provision of professional development started after the migration to online teaching was underway. it is possible that the various affordances that online pedagogies offer could not be fully exploited. for example, the various possibilities that online pedagogies offer under constructivist learning and teaching such as peer-topeer collaboration, interactive learning, creative and critical thinking, among others, may not have been fully explored, given the technological challenges being experienced by both students and academics. individual barriers the literature review has revealed that, despite opportunities for all higher education institutions to speedily improve and maximise their ict operations, the covid-19 pandemic is posing several challenges to many higher education institutions, particularly in africa. there are technological and quality related challenges experienced during emergency online pedagogies because of disruptions from the covid-19 outbreak (andersson & grönlund, 2009). it may be concluded that the provision of online pedagogies in higher education institutions all over the world, particularly in africa, was faced by technological challenges which were compounded by, among others, bandwidth and 528 connectivity problems, lack of technical support to students, problems associated with technology infrastructure, technological difficulties, and a lack of technological experience. the fact that conflicting priorities may have impacted on online pedagogies must also not be ruled out. for example, the students’ time may have been divided between online pedagogies, self-isolation if they were sick from the virus, and tending to sick family members who may have contracted the virus (tamrat & teferra, 2020). from the university of namibia student perspective, the survey results revealed that a significant proportion of students encountered serious challenges in their learning. at least 67% of students indicated that their academic performance changed for the worse since face-to-face classes were ended abruptly, and more than half of the students surveyed reported having a larger workload since the transition to online teaching. internet connectivity remains a challenge for most students, particularly those who migrated to rural areas. the level of digital literacy was also reported (55%) to be one of the challenges. furthermore, more students have reported experiencing psychological and emotional problems due to anxiety and frustration from learning online during the covid-19 pandemic, lack of support, and/or losing a close relative to the pandemic. it is important to note that, because of the abrupt way they had had to vacate campus at the onset of the covid-19 pandemic, the students had received no preparation from the institution in question to empower them with the skills required to use the online system. in addition to challenges of access to equipment and to a reliable internet connection, obstacles related to studying conditions such as access to a quiet place to study, access to course study materials, and confidence in using online platforms) were also reported (75%). furthermore, some students experienced challenges related to funding and difficulties in meeting their studies’ financial obligations and living costs as their guardians suffered loss of employment/income to the impact of the pandemic on the economy. these findings echo tamrat and teferra (2020) who state that students in higher education institutions in africa face a challenge in accessing digital platforms. amid the covid-19 pandemic, higher education institutions across africa have been urged to move their teaching and learning online to counter the disruption to learners caused by the nationwide lockdowns of institutions (perris & mohee, 2020). this is in line with tipec 4 categories of barriers to the effective implementation of online pedagogies, namely, challenges related to the individuals’ characteristics (both students and lecturers); technological challenges (access and cost); course challenges (different support functions, the course itself with its pedagogy and activities); and contextual challenges (the institutional management and organisation as well as the surrounding society with its values and regulations) (ali et al, 2018). this study established that similar challenges were experienced by students and lecturers alike during the mass migration to online pedagogies. issues relating to inequality in relation to access to technology across the student body, given the diverse socio-economic backgrounds, predominantly emerged from the student survey. these findings are in line with bassett (2020) who points out that students, particularly those at african higher education institutions, are protesting about the equity disparity that is exacerbated by a lack of access to online learning technology for students who are without either access to or the resources to afford the technology being left behind. in addition, students with learning challenges are also being left behind, like those students with disabilities. students who rely on the institutions where they are studying for housing, food, and healthcare are finding themselves uprooted and uncertain about their 529 options, while students who work on campus or receive scholarships as their main source of income are faced with a crisis of earnings. institutions away from the urban centres, often without robust infrastructure, are also being left behind, as are institutions whose mission it is to teach those who are the most likely to fall out of the education pipeline (bassett, 2020). conclusion the covid-19 pandemic has threatened higher education and resulted in traditional face-to-face pedagogies in higher education institutions across the world coming to an abrupt halt and an unprecedented shift to online pedagogies. however, just like other higher education institutions, particularly in africa, the university of namibia has experienced several online learning implementation barriers similar to those identified in the tipec conceptual framework as already mentioned in the foregoing discussions. nevertheless, although higher education institutions including the university of namibia have experienced several challenges during the mass migration to online pedagogies, this crisis has also provided an opportunity for african governments and higher education institutions to rethink and prioritise investing in robust ict and internet services more than ever before to improve and maximise ict operations and build the capacity required to fully deliver entire programmes online. so it seems that online pedagogies are the way of the future, particularly as all indications are pointing to the fact that, even if the coronavirus pandemic were to come to an end soon, the higher education landscape will never be the same again. remote learning is set to expand in the longer term beyond the covid-19 outbreak with virtual events becoming more common than was the case before. this requires that higher education institutions adapt to the new realities with the concomitant quality assurance implications. furthermore, it appeared that, during mass migration to emergency online pedagogies, the university of namibia did not have adequate technological and technical capacity for online learning, which is why they simply transmitted lecture notes and videos of lectures, etc., and this is where quality is most at risk. therefore, the university of namibia, and any other higher education institution which is down the road of advancement towards technology enhanced learning needs to re-imagine and reorient its quality assurance measures to ensure that it is suited to the new normal of the digitalised higher education space. higher education institutions need to develop new procedures, guidelines and protocols on online pedagogies and assessment, including academic integrity to ensure that the academic standards of the qualifications awarded remain intact, while also recognising the challenging circumstances of the students concerned. open universities, including in africa, have done this and traditional face-to-face higher education institutions could learn from them. furthermore, the teaching staff must be pedagogically reskilled to ensure that they have the capacity to develop and deliver online programmes in a pedagogically sound manner. students must also be equally equipped with skills that will empower them to effectively use the online learning platforms. references abaidoo, n. (2015). the role of e-learning, advantages, and disadvantages of its adoption in higher education. international journal of instructional technology and distance learning, 12(1), 29-42. http://itdl.org/journal/jan_15/jan15.pdf#page=33 ali, s. m., uppal, a., & gulliver, s. r. (2018). a conceptual framework highlighting e-learning implementation barriers. information technology and people, 31(1), 156-180. 530 altbach, p. g., & de wit, h. (2020). postpandemic outlook for higher education is bleakest for the poorest. international higher education. the boston college center for international higher education. amemado, d. (2020). covid-19: an unexpected and unusual driver to online education. international higher education. the boston college center for international higher education. andersson, a., & grönlund, å. (2009). a conceptual framework for e-learning in developing countries: a critical review of research challenges. electronic journal of information systems in developing countries, 38(8), 1-16. bassett, r. m. (2020). sustaining the values of tertiary education during the covid-19 crisis. the boston college center for international higher education. bates, a. w. (2015). teaching in a digital age: guidelines for designing teaching and learning. tony bates associates ltd. https://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/ blackburn, r. a., villa-marcos, b., & williams, d. p. (2019). preparing students for practical sessions using laboratory simulation software. journal of chemical education, 96, 153-158. blieck, y., ooghe, i., zhu, c., depryck, k., struyven, k., pynoo, b., & van laer, h. (2017). validation of a conceptual quality framework for online and blended learning with success factors and indicators in adult education: a qualitative study. the turkish online journal of educational technology, 16(3), 162-183. kakuchi, s. (2021). student dropout rate on the rise due to pandemic impact. world university news. https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=2021031006383627 kim, k. j., & bonk, c. j. (2006). the future of online teaching and learning in higher education. educause quarterly, 29(4), 22-30. http://faculty.weber.edu/eamsel/research%20groups/online%20learning/bonk%20(2006).pdf kirwan, j. r., & roumell, e. a. (n.d.). building a conceptual framework for online educator dispositions. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej1051036.pdf larbi-apau, j. a. (2021). e-learning could develop students’ critical thinking skills. university world news: africa edition. https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20210525120017579 lindemann, n. (2019). what’s the average survey response rate? 2019 benchmark. https://surveyanyplace.com/blog/average-survey-response-rate/ mohamedbhai, g. (2020). covid-19: what consequences for higher education? university world news: africa edition. https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20200407064850279 perris, k., & mohee, r. (2020). quality assurance is key to sustainable blended learning. university world news. https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20200618085512381 quality assurance agency for higher education (qaa). (2020). 'no detriment' policies: an overview. www.qaa.ac.uk/covid-19 tamrat, w., & teferra, d. (2020). covid-19 threat to higher education: africa’s challenges, responses, and apprehensions. https://www.internationalhighereducation.net/apiv1/article/!/action/getpdfofarticle/articleid/2921/productid/29/filename/article-id-2921.pdf thomas, p. y. (2014). the potential for elearning in botswana. university of botswana: gaborone. university world news. (2021). most students pleased with their digital learning – survey. https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20210310140820973 authors: ngepathimo kadhila is a director of quality assurance at the university of namibia. he holds a phd in higher education with a focus on quality assurance from the university of the free state, south africa; a master’s in 531 education and bachelor’s in education from the university of namibia; as well as a postgraduate diploma in higher education from rhodes university in south africa. his research interests include academic development, curriculum development in higher education, teaching and learning in higher education including assessment, and quality assurance. email: nkadhila@unam.na john nyambe is the associate dean of the school of education at the university of namibia. dr nyambe’s research interest are in the areas of higher education, covering learning and teaching, curriculum development, assessment and quality assurance. dr nyambe also does research in teacher education and educational reform. he has held various leadership positions in higher education. email: jnyambe@unam.na cite this paper as: kadhila, n., & nyambe, j. (2021). barriers to the quality of emergency online pedagogies in higher education during the covid-19 pandemic: a case study from the university of namibia. journal of learning for development, 8(3), 516-531. microsoft word modise.docx issn: 2311-1550 2021, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 283-297 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. postgraduate students’ perception of the use of e-portfolios as a teaching tool to support learning in an open and distance education institution mphoentle puleng modise university of south africa abstract: e-portfolios have been used for decades in education, however, it is still a new trend in some developing countries as they continue to adopt e-learning practices. the study investigated postgraduate students’ experiences and perceptions of using an e-portfolio as a teaching tool to support their learning in an open and distance e-learning (odel) university in south africa. a sample of 74 students registered for online modules were selected and an online questionnaire was administered via lime survey. the results show that more than half of the respondents (71%) used the e-portfolio for the first time. the study also revealed the contrasting views of the support received from the lecturer and institution for the eportfolio platform, especially with technical issues. this study suggests that distance education institutions that use e-portfolios need to strategically choose user-friendly technology tools and design appropriate student support strategies for delivering online modules. higher education institutions that are planning to implement e-portfolios may find the results of this paper useful, however, further investigation of the learners’ needs, and the available tools may assist with creative and appropriate designs of support strategies for their contexts. keywords: student support, e-portfolio, mahara, e-learning, open distance learning (odl), community of inquiry (coi), covid-19. introduction technological educational tools, such as e-portfolios, increasingly affect how educators teach and support students in online environments. the growing interest in more flexible and adaptive learning and teaching modes due to the technological advances and higher education policy regulations in south africa (department of higher education and training, 2014) have seen higher education institutions (heis) adopting e-learning and/or blended learning modes of education delivery (dhet, 2013; van wyk, 2018) in africa (makhana & ogange, 2019). pedagogical and technological innovations are constantly changing and continuously redefining higher education (garrison, 2011). however, other factors such as the emergence of the covid-19 pandemic, which broke out late in 2019 (chan et al, 2020) also affect the way heis operate. for example, the covid-19 pandemic accelerated off-campus teaching and learning with much dependence on technology. therefore, he and de institutions need to continuously take cognisance of the current and future trends and appropriately prepare themselves for any disruption, especially heis in developing countries. lecturers play an important role by facilitating learning through online teaching and learning environments. anderson, rourke, garrison and archer (2001, p. 5) explain that, “personally meaningful and educationally worthwhile learning outcomes” are a result of intentional and creative 284 “design, facilitation, and direction of cognitive and social processes” in online teaching and learning environments. they call this the teaching presence in their community of inquiry (coi) framework. to achieve this, lecturers must learn new ways of using technology pedagogically to deliver education effectively and successfully. however, students are equally expected to successfully use the learning tools and platforms that the educational institutions put in place. for example, the introduction of elearning tools and platforms, such as e-portfolios, increasingly requires a creative approach to deliver teaching and support to students online. whether education is offered face-to-face or online, the meaningful learning and educational experience is still important, thus, technology must be effectively used to achieve the learning goals. it is, therefore, important that institutions continuously find ways to improve the teaching profession. it is equally important that the tools chosen by institutions for teaching and learning are fit for purpose to achieve the set goals. van wyk (2018, p. 35) explains that an e-portfolio can be an important tool to empower student teachers to become self-directed learners. he also argues that e-portfolios can also be used to support student teachers to effectively document their development at personal, professional and intellectual levels. the notion that e-portfolios can be creatively integrated in a blended learning design or e-learning to build and assess relevant competencies, and authentic learning is strongly supported in the literature (zawacki-richter, baecker & hanft, 2011; abd-wahab, che-ani, johar, ismail & abd-razak, 2016; mapundu & musara, 2019). the objective of this research study was to report on how postgraduate students, who registered for the module offered fully online, perceive the use of the e-portfolio as a teaching tool to support their learning. context of the study the university of south africa (unisa) officially adopted the e-learning mode of delivery in 2013 (letseka, letseka & pitsoe, 2018; mbatha, 2013); and has, therefore, introduced e-portfolios in some modules since. the introduction of e-learning and unisa’s transition from odl to odel (ngubanemokiwa & letseka, 2015; ngubane-mokiwa, 2017) brought new teaching approaches such as eportfolios. teaching with e-portfolios can present many benefits to higher education institutions (heis) in developing countries to continue delivering education effectively, even in conditions where learners are not able to visit campuses, such as during the covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown. the instructional techniques and multimedia in adult education (intmaeu) module is part of the postgraduate diploma in tertiary education in the college of education (cedu) at unisa and is delivered completely online through an e-portfolio. one of the purposes of the diploma in tertiary education (dte) is to prepare education and training practitioners to teach effectively in an adult education situation with a focus on teaching methods and media. the intmaeu e-portfolio is treated as a process (formative) and a product of learning (ghany & alzouebi, 2019) and is submitted for summative examination at the end of the academic year. intmaeu is a year-long module which is offered fully online on the mahara e-portfolio platform through the university’s learning management system (lms). students are required to integrate multimedia, such as text, audio, images, animations, videos and interactive content, to build an eportfolio on mahara from which they can interact with the instructor and other learners. the module has eight activities, mostly graded, which include online discussions, written assignments, a podcast, 285 a reflective journal and other artefacts. the module has one recommended textbook but also uses open educational resources (oers) as supplementary learning materials. learners are cautioned not to include personal information in their e-portfolios (barrot, 2021). among the challenges faced by students and lecturers with this module is difficulty in accessing and working on the university’s lms, specifically on the mahara e-portfolio platform. out of the 130 students who registered for the intmaeu module for the 2018 academic year, 56 students (43%) cancelled their registration for this module and a few students were repeating the module. the research was undertaken to understand the different perceptions and various needs of students learning through e-portfolios so that lecturers can design creative and appropriate teaching and support strategies for students so as to reduce the number of students dropping out of similar modules. these teaching and support strategies should also be designed to enhance the online learning experiences of students in developing countries. the main question that drove this study was: “how do postgraduate students in open and distance education institutions perceive the use of e-portfolios as a teaching tool to support their learning?” literature review the educational benefits of e-portfolios have been well-documented in research (van wyk, 2018; arnold-garza, 2014). however, zawacki-richter (2004) warns that online learning requires more competencies, for example, media literacy, and skills for learners. it also demands even more from those who facilitate the learning experiences online. this can create a mutually rewarding teaching and learning journey for the learner, lecturer and the institution. it is, therefore, imperative that institutions vigorously embed strategic support services in designing online modules or courses. this includes the appropriate choice of technological tools used to deliver the education online to ensure that teaching and learning is effective and achieves the module and programme objectives. there are many definitions of e-portfolios in the literature, however, this study adopted yang, tai and lim’s (2016) definition. yang, tai and lim (2016, p. 1276) define an e-portfolio as a “form of authentic assessment with formative functions that include showcasing and sharing learning artifacts, documenting reflective learning processes, connecting learning across various stages, and enabling frequent feedback for improvements." this definition includes important aspects of an e-portfolio, such as assessment, feedback, interaction, reflection, learning process, and the showcasing or sharing of students’ artefacts. students must be provided with appropriate support during each stage and for each element of the e-portfolio with relevant and timely constructive feedback, allowing learners to reflect on it and make the necessary improvements. reflective writing is not an easy task. shum, sándor, goldsmith, wang, bass and mcwilliams (2016) argue that it is a novel genre for many students, however, it requires practice and an honest approach to one’s learning progress. reflection is a key component of e-portfolios (smith & jack, 2005) since it allows students to think deeply about their learning. koh, wong, and lee (2014) argue that reflection should be task-oriented, which will allow students to gain a deep sense of self-awareness. according to medina, castleberry and persky (2017), reflection helps to build students’ metacognitive skills, which they believe are “essential in critical thinking, self-regulated, and lifelong learning” (p. 1). medina et al (2017) also argue that metacognitive skills are developed through intentional questioning and reflection, which is characteristic of e-portfolios. 286 brandes and boskic (2008) argue that the knowledge to use technological tools helps students to build richer e-portfolios and present complex illustrations of learning. teaching is a complicated job with technology constantly changing the way in which we do things; and time is a resource that lecturers and students do not have much of. time should be spent on engaging and interacting with other elements, such as content, teachers and other learners (moore, 1993), and not on figuring out how the technology works. the user-friendliness and accessibility of the chosen tools do not have to force lecturers and students to spend time on figuring out the tools instead of interacting with them and with the content for a more meaningful learning experience. interaction has long been identified as a key to distance education (moore, 1989; mayanja, tibaingana & birevu, 2019; makoe & shandu, 2019); and it is a key determinant for student learning and success (baloyi 2012). according to nsamba and makoe (2017), difficulties in interactions may cause some students to feel threatened and isolated; reduce their motivation levels and lead to students dropping out of the education system. it has also widely been accepted that learning is a social activity (garrison, 2011; johnson & cooke, 2016; chugh & ruhi, 2018; joksimović, gašević, kovanović, riecke, & hatala, 2015; lim & richardson, 2016), therefore, technology should be a vehicle used to enhance social interactions among students and other elements found in online educational spaces. certain digital skills and competencies are required when using e-portfolios to teach and learn, which will give instructors and learners confidence to use the chosen digital tools and/or platforms. however, when intimidated or frustrated by user-unfriendly tools, the learning activity may be adversely affected. an online educational activity, such as e-portfolio platforms, requires that all participating role-players are equally present for teaching and learning. makhaya and ogange (2019) found that institutional support improves lecturer proficiency in elearning technology and pedagogy. it is important that lecturers in higher education have all the necessary sets of knowledge and skills to adequately train student teachers in using the relevant educational technology tools. modise (2016) argues that lecturers cannot transfer skills they themselves do not possess to their students. however, when lecturers are not adequately supported by their institutions, they are not able to fully support their learners, and this will negatively affect students’ learning experiences. theoretical framework shea and bidjerano (2010) proposed the ‘revised’ community of inquiry (coi), originally designed by garrison, anderson, and archer (2000) to guide teaching and learning in the digital age. the original coi framework was based on three interdependent elements — teaching presence, cognitive presence and social presence. teaching presence is described as “the design, facilitation, and direction of cognitive and social processes to support learning” (garrison et al, 2000). the ability of a facilitator to be purposefully present in an online education transaction. social presence is “the ability of participants to identify with the community, and develop inter-personal relationship” (garrison, 2009). lowenthal and lowenthal (2010) explain social presence theory as “the ability of people to present themselves as ‘real people’ through a communication medium.” cognitive presence is the ability of learners to construct and confirm meaning through sustained reflection and discourse (garrison, anderson, & archer, 2001). 287 shea and bidjerano (2010, p. 1721) added a new presence framework, the learner presence, which represents elements, such as “self-efficacy as well as other cognitive, behavioural, and motivational constructs supportive of online learner self-regulation”. learner presence has different elements that are contextually dependent, such as forethought and planning, monitoring and strategy (shea, hayes, smith, vickers, bidjerano, pickett, et al, 2012; pool, reitsma, & van den berg, 2017). after exploring the evolution of the coi model, anderson (2017, p. 5) agreed with shea and bidjerano’s (2010) addition of learner presence to the model, arguing that “effectiveness of teaching is equally dependent on the learners”. using an e-portfolio to learn implies that some level of digital skills is required and necessary to help a learner to meaningfully interact with the content, instructors and other learners and with the technology to achieve the set learning objectives. garrison (2011, p. 15) explains that an educational community of inquiry involves, “a group of individuals who collaboratively and purposefully engage in critical discourse and reflection to construct personal meaning and confirm mutual understanding”. while it is important for the lecturer’s presence to be visible in an online learning environment, such as an e-portfolio platform, it is also imperative that learners are also present. the learners’ presence is marked by active participation, planning, strategically choosing and using digital tools to construct meaning and learning; collaborating with others and monitoring their own progress through reflective practice. it is for this reason that the tools chosen for delivering online education or any other education scenario, should enhance the opportunity for students to effectively interact with the content and the lecturer and, most importantly, with one another (moore, 1989, p. 2); and that learning takes place. the next section explains the methods and procedures employed for the empirical research. methods the case study research design was chosen for this study. data was collected through an online questionnaire with closed and open-ended questions. thus, a mixed-method approach was employed. sample the study involved all the students, specifically those registered for the online postgraduate module, intmaeu at unisa’s college of education. only students that were enrolled for the year 2018 constituted the population for the study. there were 74 active students to whom the research instrument was administered, and 51 of them responded. research instruments an online survey questionnaire was used to understand how the postgraduate students experienced and perceived the support received while using e-portfolios in an open and distance e-learning environment. the questionnaire was administered on lime survey with a mix of likert-scale and open-ended questions to collect data. van wyk (2018) used a similar questionnaire design to study the use of an e-portfolio in teaching the teaching methodology of economics module in the same context. some questionnaire items were adapted from the e-portfolio hub’s (2016) survey tool for a study by the dublin institute of technology to study the use of e-portfolios in teaching and learning. 288 procedures ethical clearance was granted by the university’s ethics committee to conduct the research study. the participants were informed about the facts of this study and about the handling of their privacy, confidentiality and anonymity. data was downloaded from the lime survey website. the quantitative data was analysed, using descriptive statistics through the statistical package for the social sciences (spss). frequency tables, used to present data and themes arising from the open-ended questions, are discussed. thematic analysis was used for an in-depth analysis of data from the open-ended items in the survey. vaismoradi, turunen and bondas (2013) describe thematic analysis as an independent qualitative descriptive approach, and it is defined by braun and clarke (2006, p. 79) as “a method for identifying, analysing and reporting patterns (themes) within data”. vaismoradi, et al (2013) argue that qualitative approaches seek to understand a specific phenomenon from the perspective of those experiencing it. findings seventy-four active students were invited and 51 students (69%) completed the online survey. there was a 50% split of gender (females and males) and 26% of the students who participated in the study were repeating the module. fifty-five of the 130 students registered for the module in 2018 dropped out for various reasons unknown to the researcher and 13 out of 51 students who responded to the online questionnaire were repeating the module. according to the data collected, the average age of student teachers was between 25 and 45 years (78%) (table 1). table 1: age of respondents age group frequency (n = 51) percent (%) 18 – 24 1 2.0% 25 – 35 19 37.3% 36 – 45 19 37.3% 46 – 55 6 11.8% 56+ 1 2.0% missing 5 9.8% the data showed that most students were not first-time tertiary learners, although 78% indicated they were using e-portfolios for learning for the first time. there is a fast-growing interest in e-learning and blended education in south africa and an urgent need for teachers to acquire relevant e-learning skills. the results, illustrated in table 2, indicated that more than half of the participants (75%) reported to have gained more confidence in using technology (online tools and platforms) to develop their e-portfolios. 289 table 2: participants’ responses on how they gained confidence in using technology through developing their e-portfolios responses frequency (n = 51) percent (%) strongly agree 27 52.9% agree 11 21.6% neither agree nor disagree 3 5.9% disagree 1 2.0% strongly disagree 1 2.0% missing 8 15.7% another 75% of the participants indicated that building an e-portfolio helped them to take full ownership of their learning. collaborative work and creativity in using e-portfolios for teaching and learning were rated as valuable education benefits by most respondents (91%). the results also revealed that internet-based tutorials (e.g., youtube, oer), guides and handouts from the lecturer on the university’s lms were perceived to be helpful in supporting learning in the module (table 3). it is however a cause for concern that 49% of the students indicated that they received no support from the university’s information and communication technology (ict) department or from those designated to help with technical-related issues and/or with working on mahara. table 3: students’ perceptions of support received from an e-portfolio # item which guidance or support resources were useful when creating your eportfolio? strongly agree agree neither agree nor disagree disagree strongly disagree 1. help from classmates on myunisa discussion forums. 41.9 27.9 23.3 4.7 2.3 2. internet-based tutorials (e.g., youtube, oer). 34.9 41.9 16.3 7.0 0.0 3. guides and hand-outs from the lecturer on myunisa. 39.5 34.9 16.3 2.3 7.0 4. i received support with my e-portfolio when i experienced challenges. 37.2 34.9 16.3 7.0 4.7 5. help from family and friends. 20.9 34.9 14.0 18.6 11.6 6. help from my lecturer/e-tutor/teaching assistant. 46.5 32.6 7.0 9.3 4.7 7. i received clear guidance on what to include in my e-portfolio. 44.2 34.9 9.3 7.0 4.7 8. i was provided with guidance on how to use the mahara e-portfolio. 48.8 27.9 14.0 7.0 2.3 9. it support from the university. 11.6 14.0 25.6 23.3 25.6 290 the students’ responses to the open-ended questions were categorised into three themes of support: support from the lecturer, support from the institution and support from other students. these are discussed below. theme 1: support from the lecturer the results showed an overall positive experience and perception towards using e-portfolios as teaching and learning tools among the postgraduate students in this module at unisa: i really enjoyed this module and want to thank the lecturer for the support and her dedication. unfortunately, there is not many of her calibre. it [e-portfolio] is convenient mode of learning. it is really a great tool for e-learning. when teaching with e-portfolios, learners do not only have to learn the content, but also learn how to use the chosen technology tools and platforms. therefore, the learners must receive appropriate support and help when needed, as it can be very confusing. as one student put it: e-portfolio is something that you need to look at every day in order to have a good understanding, and you need have someone to lead all the way till the end, because sometimes it’s very confusing. reflection seemed to be one of the major challenges for students. most students treated their reflection exercise as a separate activity, and only attended to it at the end of the module. one student pointed out that she/he learnt later that a reflective journal is something to be done throughout the learning process, not only at the end of the year or semester: reflective journal was supposed to be done as i progressed. doing it at the last moments was challenging. students should do self-reflection upon receiving feedback on each assignment. some students raised concerns about the amount of work expected of them and felt that they were spending more time on the e-portfolio module than on the other modules they were enrolled for. as indicated, more than half of the respondents (71%) were using the e-portfolio for the first time. however, some students indicated that they enjoyed building understanding and critical reflection and learning through the e-portfolio and that the support from lecturers was instrumental in their positive learning experience: i really enjoyed using eportfolio for this module and helped me to grow in technology learning and collaboration with others. support from the lecturer was amazing and helped students to take collaboration more seriously. i enjoyed playing with the eportfolio to make it more live and colourful. the module was challenging at first. it became softer as we progressed. the lecturer provided invaluable assistance. in order for the e-portfolio to be easy students should built it from the onset. theme 2: support from the institution almost half of the students (49%) indicated that they did not receive support from the university’s ict team with their e-portfolios according to the data presented in table 3 above. a student indicated that the design and chosen platform of the e-portfolio was a disadvantage to those who were not familiar with computers or e-portfolios, specifically concerned about the submission of assignments and/or artefacts on mahara. 291 the developer of this e-portfolio must also think about those students who are not familiar with computer/e-portfolio and i feel that we are disadvantaged. alternatively, there should be an alternative way of submitting e-portfolio should a student fail to submit using mahara e-portfolio platform. it became evident that the design and presentation of an e-portfolio was an important factor in facilitating learning. the study also found that once the students at unisa submitted their e-portfolios on the mahara platform, they no longer have access to it. this was not well-received by some students: the application of my e-portfolio beyond the course is not clear. that is because once one is done with the module, it disappears from the portal. that also defeats the purpose of showing my eportfolio to prospective employers. another student reported challenges in submitting her e-portfolio and both the lecturer and the institution failed to assist her. this made the student feel limited in her ability to use the technology, which affected his/her grades: towards the end of this module, i ran into a problem where i was unable to login to my eportfolio, i made my lecturer aware and she tried to assist but also failed. i also contacted the universities ict however never received any feedback nor found any help from them, the lecturer had to mark an incomplete portfolio and she had to make alternative ways to mark my work where i had to write the remainder on my portfolio using a word document however i felt it limited my abilities and i could have received and done better. till today i try and login to my eportfolio and still unable to access it. this study found that much of the students' time was spent on trying to figure out the mahara eportfolio platform and the university’s lms instead of interacting with the content or with one another and/or the lecturer. some students suggested that the university should organise an orientation of the e-portfolio module at the beginning of the year or semester: i think that it would be easy for students if the university can conduct the orientation classes before the first assignment due date to show the students what is expected of them and how to use the e-portfolio. this orientation can be used to gather information about the students’ needs, their level of computer and/or digital literacy and other relevant information that can be used to design the support strategies that will enforce a smooth transition into the e-portfolio teaching and learning approach. theme 3: support from other students about 70% of the students indicated that some of the useful guidance and support resources they received were from their classmates, either from the university’s lms discussion forums or social networks such as whatsapp, as indicated in table 3. when faced with many tasks, especially groupbased tasks and projects, most students indicated that they formed whatsapp groups, interacted on this platform and only logged onto the lms and mahara to submit their work or participate in graded discussions: it was so difficult to work on mahara, and myunisa is down when you need it most, so me and a few students decided to create a whatsapp group to help each other 292 whenever i encountered problems uploading my assignments on mahara e-portfolio, i just whatsapp a fellow student to help me how to do it, sometimes the lecturer takes long to respond to our emails and we have to submit an assignment on the due date the difficulty in accessing the university lms and mahara forced some students to conduct their interaction outside the university’s lms and mahara e-portfolio platform by setting up discussions on other social media platforms that are easier to access and work with any time of the day. discussion effective teaching and learning through e-portfolios is founded on effective sound student support practices. appropriate support can mitigate some of the challenges faced by students learning with eportfolios in higher education. for example, e-portfolios were found to have the potential to foster self-directed learning (sdl) (lukitasari, hasan & sukri, 2020, van wyk, 2018), however, sdl may be inhibited by lack of relevant digital skills for learning through e-portfolios but designing or choosing user-friendly e-portfolios that are embedded in constant feedback can help students to build sdl. it is, however, a concern that almost half of the students in this study indicated that they received no support from the university’s ict department or those tasked to help students. institutions need to understand their students’ needs to fully support them. some students feel comfortable and confident working and learning with other students, and therefore the design of e-portfolios needs to cater to student-to-student interaction and peer support that enhances students’ learning experiences. e-portfolios also depend on the notion of learning by doing which, according to moye, dugger jr. and starkweather (2014), also support problem-solving principles and collaborative activities. workload, task design and assignments should be aligned with the type of delivery mode without undermining the quality of education. most distance education learners are already inundated with other responsibilities (lucena, díaz, reche & rodríguez, 2019). studies show that students in higher education use mobile phones and social media for collaborative learning (makhaya & ogange, 2019); therefore, e-portfolio platforms and tools chosen and implemented by institutions should be compatible with the digital gadgets available to students. macy, macy and shaw (2018) argue that lecturers are able to use various tools to create content but, unfortunately, some of these emerging tools can make the content inaccessible. an e-portfolio needs to be simple and accessible (de swardt, jenkins, von pressentin & mash, 2019). the goal of technology use in distance education is to facilitate meaningful learning and interactions among all relevant role-players and components of education — learners, contents and instructors. mediated technology should close the gap in distance education (oliver, 2012; andrade & bunker, 2011); however, when technology is the problem, the gap becomes wider and many students feel more alienated. this can adversely affect the learning achievement of students. this study found that much of the students' time was spent on trying to figure out the mahara e-portfolio platform and the university’s lms, instead of interacting with the content or with one another and/or the lecturer. technology should make teaching and learning more manageable without creating unnecessary hassles for learners and educators. although there are challenges, e-portfolios have many benefits that the learners, lecturers and institutions can leverage, especially now in the digital era, and especially now during the covid-19 pandemic, which forced many institutions to continue offering education 293 in online spaces (deslandes & coutinho, 2020). abd-wahab et al (2016) believes that the e-portfolio is the latest technology that can be used to enhance the students’ technology skills. the study also found that most students often spend less time and make little effort in writing their reflective journals. when done properly, with the appropriate support from the instructor, reflective writing has proven to improve students’ learning (chau & cheng, 2010) to identify their strengths and weaknesses and critical-thinking skills (de jager, 2019). chau and cheng (2010) suggest that templates with guidelines and rubrics can be designed to help students select evidence and reflect on how evidence is connected to the identified goals and objectives (shum et al, 2016). appropriate support is of utmost importance to encourage students to reflect on their learning. one of the best things about web-based e-portfolios is their flexibility and infinitely revisable factor, qualifying them as a lifelong learning tool. however, if a university denies access to the e-portfolio after examination, this does not foster lifelong learning, as the student can no longer update and learn from this e-portfolio. anderson (2017) explains that the coi model, as a learning model, recognises the importance of motivation and self-efficacy and further asserts that teaching and learning are equally dependent on each other. shea and bidjerano (2010) argue that higher-order learning is best supported in a community of learners who engage in building understanding and critical reflection. e-portfolios can be designed around collaborative principles that allow for social learning and reflective interaction with content and other students. through various design and support strategies, eportfolios can pull together all the three presences, affording students enriching learning experiences. although the study also revealed that students were mostly satisfied with the support from the lecturer, however, without the relevant training and development in the use of online teaching tools and proper support from the institution, the lecturers’ support might not be sufficient for all registered students. conclusion and recommendations portfolios are not new in the world of education, however, they have become a new phenomenon as educational institutions adopt new technology innovations, such as e-learning approaches. higher education institutions in developing countries can clearly benefit from employing e-portfolios in teaching and learning where they are faced with many challenges that directly affect education. however, irrespective of the technology chosen by an institution to deliver education, it is important to design accompanying support strategies that will ensure that the students successfully achieve the intended academic standards. in order to achieve this, lecturers also need the relevant support and training from their institutions (modise, 2020). it is also important to note that incorporating oer into e-portfolios in he and de in developing countries can benefit learners where financial resources are lacking. when universities embark on e-learning innovation and offer modules online, it is advisable to revise all relevant policies that guide the practice as soon as possible. a one-off orientation event that explains to students what the module is about and what is expected of them can reduce confusion at the earliest stage of the learners’ learning journey. this is important, especially in distance education where the students interact with the content and must make sense of it by themselves, away from the instructors. 294 the goal of this study was to investigate how students perceive the support they received in a postgraduate online module that used e-portfolios for teaching and learning. the study revealed that the choice of technology tools and platforms interfered with the learning experiences of students. the study also revealed that the lecturers and students spent more time figuring out the platforms and tools instead of interacting with the content, with lecturers and with one another, which, according to van den berg (2020), provides a pedagogical foundation for effective teaching and learning in an odl environment. with the variety of free e-portfolios available online, universities should be able to encourage learners to take ownership of their digital literacy by allowing them to choose from a variety of e-portfolio platforms and not restricting them to use specific platforms, such as the mahara e-portfolio platform. the lecturers must also be involved in the choice and evaluation of e-portfolio platforms and tools that are implemented by universities and receive relevant training to use those platforms to teach and support students. a dedicated support centre for lecturers and students may prove beneficial in spaces where e-portfolio platforms and tools are used for teaching and learning, especially in modules with a large number of students. the participants in this study confirmed a preference for and enjoyment in using the e-portfolio for learning; however, there is great concern about student support services and strategies and the design and choice of e-portfolio platforms. the revised coi framework was used in this paper to explain how student support and technology choice can affect various presences required in online learning environments. each presence requires some digital skills and support from the institution to be successful. the theory highlighted the dynamics involved in student learning with new technologies in odl and how learners and lecturers need specific skills and support to manage educational activities at the end of the interface. although, limited to the study of one module in an odl context, the study brings good lessons that can be of great value to higher education institutions in developing countries embarking on e-learning technologies and adopting e-portfolios. references abd-wahab, s. r. h., che-ani, a. i., johar, s., ismail, k., & abd-razak, m. z. (2016). eportfolio: a descriptive survey for contents and challenges. international journal of emerging technologies in learning, 11(1). anderson, t. (2017). how communities of inquiry drive teaching and learning in the digital age. north contact: 1-16. anderson, t., rourke, l., garrison, d. r., & archer, w. (2001). assessing teaching presence in a computer conference context. journal of asynchronous learning networks, 5(2). andrade, m. s., & bunker, e. l. (2011). the role of srl and teles in distance education: narrowing the gap. in fostering self-regulated learning through ict (pp. 105-121). igi global. baloyi, g. p. (2012). learner support in open and distance learning context: a case study of abet programmes at the university of south africa (unpublished octoral dissertation.) university of south africa. barrot, j. s. (2021). effects of facebook-based e-portfolio on esl learners’ writing performance. language, culture and curriculum, 34(1), 95-111. brandes, g. m., & boskic, n. (2008). eportfolios: from description to analysis. the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 9(2). 295 braun, v., & clarke, v. (2006). using thematic analysis in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), 77101. chau, j., & cheng, g. (2010). towards understanding the potential of e-portfolios for independent learning: a qualitative study. australasian journal of educational technology, 26(7). chugh, r., & ruhi, u. (2018). social media in higher education: a literature review of facebook. education and information technologies, 23(2), 605-616. deslandes, s., & coutinho, t. (2020). social research in digital environments in covid-19 times: theoretical and methodological notes. cadernos de saúde pública, 36, e00223120. department of higher education and training. (2014). white paper for post-school education and training: building an expanded, effective and integrated post-school system. government of south africa. de swardt, m., jenkins, l. s., von pressentin, k. b., & mash, r. (2019). implementing and evaluating an eportfolio for postgraduate family medicine training in the western cape, south africa. bmc medical education, 19(1), 1-13. garrison, d. r. (2011). e-learning in the 21st century: a framework for research and practice. taylor & francis. garrison, d. r., anderson, t., & archer, w. (2003). a theory of critical inquiry in online distance education. handbook of distance education, 1, 113-127. garrison, d. r., anderson, t., & archer, w. (2000). critical inquiry in a text-based environment: computer conferencing in higher education. the internet and higher education, 2(2-3), 87-105. ghany, s. a., & alzouebi, k. (2019). exploring teacher perceptions of using e-portfolios in public schools in the united arab emirates. international journal of education and literacy studies, 7(4), 180-191. lowenthal, d. a., & lowenthal, p. r. (2010, april). a mixed methods examination of instructor social presence in accelerated online courses. paper presented at the annual meeting of the american educational research association, denver, co. lucena, f. j. h., díaz, i. a., reche, m. p. c., & rodríguez, j. m. r. (2019). a tour of open universities through literature. the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 20(4), 116-131. joksimović, s., gašević, d., kovanović, v., riecke, b. e., & hatala, m. (2015). social presence in online discussions as a process predictor of academic performance. journal of computer assisted learning, 31(6), 638654. koh, y. h., wong, m. l., & lee, j. j. m. (2014). medical students’ reflective writing about a task-based learning experience on public health communication. medical teacher, 36(2), 121-129. letseka, m., letseka, m. m., & pitsoe, v. (2018). the challenges of e-learning in south africa. trends in elearning, 121-138. lim, j., & richardson, j. c. (2016). exploring the effects of students' social networking experience on social presence and perceptions of using snss for educational purposes. the internet and higher education, 29, 3139. lukitasari, m., hasan, r., & sukri, a. (2020). the effect of e-portfolio on biological concepts understanding and responses of students with different academic achievement levels. international journal of instruction, 13(1), 685-694. macy, m., macy, r., & shaw, m. e. (2018). bringing the ivory tower into students' homes: promoting accessibility in online courses. ubiquitous learning: an international journal, 11(1). 296 makhaya, b. k., & ogange, b. o. (2019). the effects of institutional support factors on lecturer adoption of elearning at a conventional university. journal of learning for development, 6(1), 64-75. makoe, m., & shandu, t. p. (2019). using mobile-based social media to facilitate interaction and build communities through the lens of ubuntu in distance education. journal of learning for development, 6(2), 130142. mapundu, m., & musara, m. (2019). e-portfolios as a tool to enhance student learning experience and entrepreneurial skills. south african journal of higher education, 33(6), 191-214. mayanja, j., tibaingana, a., & birevu, p. m. (2019). promoting student support in open and distance learning using information and communication technologies. age, 139, 43. mbatha, b. (2013). beyond distance and time constrictions: web 2.0 approaches in open distance learning, the case of the university of south africa (unisa). mediterranean journal of social sciences, 4(14), 543-543. medina, m. s., castleberry, a. n., & persky, a. m. (2017). strategies for improving learner metacognition in health professional education. american journal of pharmaceutical education, 81(4). modise, m. p. (2020). continuous professional development and student support in an open and distance elearning institution: a case study. international journal of african higher education, 7(1). modise, m. p. (2016). towards an effective and empathetic student support system in an open and distance education and e-learning environment: a case study from a developing country context. (unpublished doctoral dissertation). university of south africa. moore, m.g. (1993). theory of transactional distance. theoretical principles of distance education 1: 22-38. moore, m.g. (1989). three types of interaction. the american journal of distance education, 3(2), 1-6. ngubane-mokiwa, s. a. (2017). implications of the university of south africa's (unisa) shift to open distance elearning on teacher education. australian journal of teacher education, 42(9), 7. ngubane-mokiwa, s. a., & letseka, m. (2015). shift from open distance learning to open distance elearning. open distance learning (odl) in south africa, 129. nsamba, a., & makoe, m. (2017). evaluating quality of students’ support services in open distance learning. turkish online journal of distance education, 18(4), 91-103. oliver, e. (2012). closing gaps in open distance learning for theology students. acta theologica, 32(2). pool, j., reitsma, g., & van den berg, d. (2017). revised community of inquiry: examining learning presence in a blended mode of delivery. online learning, 21(3). shea, p., & bidjerano, t. (2010). learning presence: towards a theory of self-efficacy, self-regulation, and the development of a communities of inquiry in online and blended learning environments. computers & education, 55(4), 1721-1731. shum, s. b., sándor, á., goldsmith, r., wang, x., bass, r., & mcwilliams, m. (2016, april). reflecting on reflective writing analytics: assessment challenges and iterative evaluation of a prototype tool. in proceedings of the sixth international conference on learning analytics & knowledge (pp. 213-222). association for computing machinery. smith, a., & jack, k. (2005). reflective practice: a meaningful task for students. nursing standard (through 2013), 19(26), 33. vaismoradi, m., turunen, h., & bondas, t. (2013). content analysis and thematic analysis: implications for conducting a qualitative descriptive study. nursing & health sciences, 15(3), 398-405. 297 van wyk, m. m. (2018). e-portfolio as an empowering tool in the teaching methodology of economics at an open distance e-learning university. ubiquitous learning: an international journal, 11(3), 35-50. yang, m., tai, m., & lim, c. p. (2016). the role of e-portfolios in supporting productive learning. british journal of educational technology, 47(6), 1276-1286. zawacki-richter, o. (2004). the growing importance of support for learners and faculty in online distance education. learner support in open, distance and online learning environments, 205-217. author: mphoentle puleng modise is a lecturer in the department of curriculum and instructional studies, college of education at the university of south africa. her research areas include student support in open and distance learning (odl) and elearning, academic professional development, e-portfolios, and she has an interest in oer and moocs. email: modismp@unisa.ac.za cite this paper as: modise, m. p. (2021). postgraduate students’ perception of the use of e-portfolios as a teaching tool to support learning in an open and distance education institution. journal of learning for development, 8(2), 283-297. microsoft word kaya.docx issn: 2311-1550 2020, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 367-383 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. 367 a meta-analysis of the effect of parental involvement on students’ academic achievement cahit erdem1 and metin kaya2 1afyon kocatepe university, turkey 2bayburt university, turkey abstract: this study aims to examine the effect of parental involvement on students’ academic achievement at pre-school, elementary and secondary levels by using the meta-analysis method with respect to home-based and school-based parental involvement strategies. data consisted of 55 independent research studies in english published between 2010 and 2019, and accessed through eric, academic search complete, science direct, wiley online library, and psycnet databases. findings revealed that the effect of parental involvement on academic achievement was positive but small. parental expectations had the biggest effect on academic achievement and parental control had a negative and small effect. the mean effect of parental involvement on students’ academic achievement does not differ significantly according to moderator variables of education level, measurement type or measurement area but differs by developmental level of the country. the results are discussed using available related meta-analysis studies in the literature. keywords: parental involvement, academic achievement, developing countries, education level, meta-analysis. introduction there is a strong belief in society that parental involvement has a strong positive effect on students’ academic performance. student learning not only takes place in schools but also the contexts of families and communities play a great role (ma, shen, krenn, hu & yuan, 2016). therefore, parental involvement is seen as quite significant in students’ learning and academic achievement. the relationship between parental involvement and academic achievement has long been an area of research across the world (boonk, gijselaers, ritzen & brand-gruwel, 2018; epstein, 1991; roy and giraldo-garcía, 2018). empirical research studies and meta-analysis studies have put forth a strong relationship between parental involvement and academic achievement, mostly indicating a positive role. despite the research support and common view among people regarding the positive effect of parental involvement on academic achievement, there is confusion on the definition of parental involvement, as well as its activities, types and outcomes (shute, hansen, underwood & razzouk, 2011). although most people consider parental involvement a remedy for school education, there are some inconsistencies in the findings regarding the effect of parental involvement on academic achievement (fan & chen, 2001). the literature contains studies that indicated a positive relationship (dotterer & wehrspann, 2016; durand, 2011; gordon & cui, 2012; gubbins & otero, 2016; manolitsis, georgiou & 368 tziraki, 2013; phillipson & phillipson, 2012); a negative relationship (dumont et al, 2012; gonida & cortina, 2014; xu et al, 2010; stright & yeo, 2013) or lack of a relationship (altschul, 2011; hayes, 2012; johnson & hull, 2014; phillipson & phillipson, 2012). there is not a consensus on the definition of parental involvement and there are also different types and dimensions of parental involvement. the difference in defining parental involvement may have contributed to the inconsistent results in the literature. due to inconsistencies in the findings regarding the relationship between academic achievement and parental involvement, a need for metaanalysis studies has risen (fan & chen, 2001). though there are some meta-analysis studies in the literature (fan & chen, 2001; jeynes, 2005; hill & tyson, 2009; ma, shen, krenn, hu & yuan, 2016), there is a need for more such studies, including more recent studies. the literature on parental involvement is complex and contradictory (shute et al, 2011). this is in part because parental involvement includes multiple behaviours (roy & giraldo-garcía, 2018). grolnick and slowiaczek (1994, p. 238) define parental involvement as “the dedication of the resources by the parent to the child”. larocque, kleiman and darling (2011) describe it as investment in the education of children. it is also defined as parents’ engagement in activities which foster learning and performance of their children (fantuzzo et al, 2000 as cited in ma et al, 2016). in the same vein, the current study considers parental involvement as parents’ efforts to contribute to their children’s academic and social/emotional development. rather than the definition of the concept, what matters is what behaviours are considered as parental involvement. parental involvement is defined in relation to a number of different parental behaviours including parental aspirations for their children’s academic performance, parents’ communication with children, parents’ participation in activities in school, parents’ communication with teachers, parental rules and so on (fan & chen, 2001). epstein (2010) lists types of involvement as parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision-making, and collaborating with the community. shute et al (2011) list home-related parental involvement types as parenting style, discussing school activities, checking homework, aspirations and expectations, reading at home, supervision and home rules, while school-related aspects include contacting school personnel, attending parent teacher organisations and volunteering at school. on the other hand, academic achievement can be defined as “learned proficiency in basic skills and content knowledge” (mccoy, twymen, ketterlin-geller & tindal, 2005, p. 8). actually, academic achievement in a course or lesson is not only related with those experiences in that course or lesson. it is cumulative of the present and prior school, family and community experiences (rivkin, hanushek & kain, 2005). however, as it is impossible to measure such a cumulative effect, it is the measurement of a single lesson or general assessment such as general point averages (gpa) which are used. therefore, while some studies use a measure of a single achievement test, some use the grade of a lesson and some use gpa. no matter which unit is measured, academic achievement is eventually one of the main aims of the educational experiences. in the current study, academic achievement measures were grouped as standard and non-standard tests. the relationship between parental involvement and academic achievement varies according to the parental involvement type the study focuses on. while some parental involvement types have shown positive association with academic achievement, some other types have proven negative or null 369 association (boonk et al, 2018). in their review of the studies on the relationship between parental involvement and academic achievement, boonk et al (2018, p. 25) concluded that parental involvement is related to academic achievement, yet this relationship is not as strong as traditionally believed. to put forth the effect of parental involvement on academic achievement, more metaanalysis studies focusing on different types of parental involvement are needed. this study focuses on this effect with respect to home-based and school-based parental involvement types including control, learning assistance, communication, support, activity, academic socialisation and expectation. while home-based involvement is related to the activities carried out at home to enhance children’s learning, such as helping with homework, school-based involvement has to do with activities performed by the parents at schools, such as attending school events or parent-teacher conferences (boonk et al, 2018). as these activities are quite different from each other, they are differentiated in the analysis in the current study. parental expectations, also called parental aspirations, are parents’ expectations regarding their children’s performance at school. this has been researched in the literature and it generally shows a positive association with academic achievement (shute et al, 2011). parental support includes encouraging children through actions such as providing them with an appropriate environment, praising them or manifesting that they care for them (boonk et al, 2018). learning assistance refers to parents’ helping their children with their academic responsibilities such as time spent on homework completion, assisting with the difficult academic contents or tutoring. communication refers to the exchange of ideas between parents and children with respect to issues on school, plans or activities. control has a negative association with academic achievement. parental control includes controlling the child too much or exerting pressure on them. activity includes parentchild activities at home, such as reading with the children, storytelling, parent weekly home activities, which mostly address children at pre-school or early elementary education levels. academic socialisation has to do with the messages transmitted to students by their parents about academic issues and the role of school in their future, such as the significance of making an effort in school or shame for not fulfilling expected duties (cross, marchand, medina, villafuerte & rivas-drake, 2019; hill & tyson, 2009). in addition to the effect of parental involvement types on students’ academic achievement, moderator variables of location, participant type, publication date, education level, academic area, and measure of academic achievement are also examined in the current study. it has been put forth in the literature that parental involvement variables interact with location (boonk et al, 2018). regarding participant types, some studies include only students while some others include parents as well. the source of information is expected to influence the results. publication date is included to see whether the level of effect varies with regard to the years. education level is also a significant moderator. the literature suggests that the size of the effect of parental involvement differs with respect to education levels (jeynes, 2007; kim & hill, 2015). parental participation at lower levels, such as pre-school or elementary levels, can be expected to be much more than at higher levels such as secondary level. besides, the dimensions of the parental involvement may also change by the level. the academic area may also affect the results as some studies measure general academic achievement, while some studies measure academic achievement in single areas such as mathematics or language. measure of academic achievement refers to whether measurement is general point average or a standard measurement scale, which may also mediate the results. 370 this study aimed to examine the effect of parental involvement on students’ academic achievement. to this end, the following research questions were investigated. 1. does parental involvement have an effect on academic achievement of school children? 2. does the effect of parental involvement on academic achievement differ by moderating variables? methods the meta-analysis method was employed in the study. meta-analysis is defined as combining the statistical findings of independent research studies and carrying out a statistical analysis of the obtained results (borenstein, hedges, higgins & rothstein, 2009; dįnçer, 2018; lipsey & wilson, 2001). data collection the data of the current study were accessed through eric, academic search complete, science direct, wiley online library and psycnet databases. the data consist of articles published in english. keywords of parental/family involvement, family engagement/participation, performance/achievement/success/outcomes were used in the searching process. the related keywords in the article titles were searched. the data embody the span of 2010 to 2019. the last date of search is 10 november 2019. searches in the databases resulted in 236, 134, 136, 68 and 22 results, respectively. the titles and abstracts of the resulting articles were examined and 82 of them were selected as they met the selection criteria of this study. of this data pool, the studies that did not include needed statistical data (k = 20), that included intervention (k = 3), that had immigrant participants (k = 2) and that had students with need for special education (k = 2) were eliminated. all in all, the data set of the study includes 55 independent research studies. the data flow diagram is presented in figure 1. 371 key words search results n = 596 studies selected by their titles and abstracts n = 86 studies excluded by titles and abstracts n = 506 title and abstract are adequate for selection n = 71 abstract is inadequate, full text read is needed n = 11 full text inaccessible n = 4 studies selected for data pool n = 82 studies not including adequate statistical data n = 20 studies including intervention n = 3 studies with immigrant participants n = 2 studies with special education participants n = 2 data set n = 55 figure 1: the data flow diagram inclusion criteria of the study 1. the research results should be based on parental involvement and measurement of academic achievement. studies focusing on academic achievement and socio-economic status are excluded. 2. the study should include the necessary statistical data to calculate effect size (r or r2 and n). studies involving simple linear regression analysis and correlation analysis are included but 372 studies involving multiple regression, hierarchical regression and logistic regression are excluded. 3. the study should have been published between 2010-2019. 4. the language of the study should be english. 5. the participants of the study should have attended at an education level from early childhood education to secondary education. coding a coding form in excel format was created to include codes that would represent the general characteristics of the independent studies. the form consists of categories of identification tag, measured parental involvement type, measured academic achievement area, measure of academic achievement, education level, country of the sample, participants’ legal status and publication date. parental involvement type: if parental involvement was measured generally through a scale, it was coded as parental involvement index. if parental involvement types were reported independently, the parental involvement types were coded separately such as parental support or parental control. academic achievement area: if the learning output of mathematics, science, language and others was coevaluated in the study, it was coded as general academic achievement. if the outputs of mathematics, language or other areas were reported independently, they were coded separately such as mathematics or language. if the results included outputs regarding reading or writing, they were coded as language. measure of academic achievement: academic achievement measurement types were coded. if the study used standard tests, they were coded as standard test. if general point average or lesson average are used, then they were coded as non-standard tests. participant type: the participant groups including both students and parents were coded as studentparent, only student participants were coded as student and teacher participants were coded as teacher. publication date: the year in which the article was published was taken as reference. location: the area of the sample was considered. the countries of the studies were coded as either developed or developing countries, which was carried out in reference with the human development report prepared by the united nations development programme (2019). education level: education level was coded with reference to the international standard classification of education (unesco, 2011). ten studies selected from the data set were coded by the two researchers and the codes were compared. then the studies in the data set were coded in the coding form by the first and second researchers independently. agreement between the two coders was calculated through the miles and huberman (1994) reliability coefficient. agreement between the coders was calculated as 93%. the codes with low agreement were finalised after negotiation between the coders. the general characteristics of the studies in the data set are presented in table 1. 373 table 1: characteristics of the data set year f % measure f % 2010-2014 18 32,73 standard test 13 23,64 2015-2019 37 67,27 gpa 42 76,36 total 55 100,00 total 55 100,00 level location pre-school 4 7,27 developed 38 69,10 elementary 33 60,00 developing 17 30,90 secondary 12 21,82 total 55 100,00 mixed 6 10,91 total 55 100,00 academic output participant type language 18 32,73 student 26 47,27 mathematics 11 23,00 mixed 29 47,27 mixed 26 47,27 total 55 100,00 total 55 100,00 data analysis and results in meta-analysis studies, there are three options in selecting the unit of analysis. the first is the study as analysis unit; the second is each effect size that the studies produce; the third is replacement of the first two options as analysis units based on the constructs or categories of the study (lipsey & wilson, 2001; şirin, 2005). in most of the studies in the data set (k = 43), the relationship between parental involvement and academic achievement is reported in correlation coefficient format. therefore, the effect sizes were preferred as units of analysis in the current study. due to variation of the characteristics of the basic studies in meta-analysis data sets (borenstein et al, 2009: 83-86; karadağ, bektaş, çoğaltay & yalçın, 2015), statistical analyses were performed under a random effects model. the effect sizes were calculated by using the comprehensive meta-analysis software 2.2 package. pearson correlation coefficient (r = es) was calculated as the effect size of each independent study. in the interpretation of the effect sizes, value ranges offered by cohen (1992) and rosenthal (1996) were used (oh-young, gordon, xing & filler, 2018). table 2 provides es = r interpretation value ranges. table 2: interpretation of effect size effect size measure small medium large very large r 0,1 0,3 0,5 0,7 source: (oh-young et al 2018) 374 in the supervision of publication bias in the current study, funnel plot distribution regarding the effect sizes was examined first. to test the publication bias statistically, egger’s regression intercept method was used. in this study, moderator analysis was carried out to check the difference in the mean effect sizes. according to the codes in this study, measured parental involvement type, academic achievement area, education level, location and publication year were used as moderators. heterogeneity in meta-analytical statistical processes results from sampling error and characteristics of the independent studies (borenstein et al, 2009). to decide whether the data set is heterogenous or not, i̇2 statistical technique was used (üstün & eryılmaz, 2014). the value ranges of 25%-50% were interpreted as low, 50%-75% as medium and 75%-100% as high, as suggested by higgins, thompson, deeks and altman (2003). with respect to moderator analysis of the data set, whether effect size distribution according to categorical moderators differed statistically or not was checked through q between groups test (üstün & eryılmaz, 2014). meta-regression technique was used for continuous moderators (borenstein et al, 2009). characteristics of the studies in the dataset the dataset of the current study consists of 55 research studies. data sets are represented with 62 different samples. the number of the total participants is 106,221. the number of the smallest sample is 74 while the number for the biggest sample is 26,543. the total effect size produced by the data set is k = 256. the effect sizes in the dataset range between es = -,39 and es = ,57. the funnel plot regarding the effect sizes in the dataset is provided in figure 2. figure 2: the funnel plot regarding the effect sizes produced by the dataset to check whether the mean effect size produced by the dataset is affected by the publication bias or not, publication bias analyses were carried out. the funnel plot regarding the distribution of the effect sizes was examined first. to test the publication bias statistically, egger’s regression intercept method was used. the funnel plot is presented in figure 2 and it was observed that the effect sizes evidenced an approximate symmetric distribution. in the egger’s regression intercept test was performed and the intercept was calculated as 0,35 (t = 0,42; p = .33), and publication bias was not found. -2,0 -1,5 -1,0 -0,5 0,0 0,5 1,0 1,5 2,0 0,00 0,05 0,10 0,15 0,20 s ta nd ar d e rr or fisher's z funnel plot of standard error by fisher's z 375 results it was identified that the mean effect size of parental involvement on students’ academic achievement was calculated as es = r = .09 (ll = .07, up = .11; k = 256). considering the lower and upper bounds of the mean effect size, it is suggested that the effect of parental involvement on academic achievement was positive and small. the total variance of the dataset is q = 20982,57. the effect sizes distribution is at high level and heterogeneous (i2 = 98,78). the moderator analysis regarding the dataset is presented in table 3. table 3: moderator analysis of the dataset group k es ll ul q(t) q(b.g.) df p outcomes total involvement index 34 0,24 0,2 0,28 453,01* school based index 41 0,09 0,05 0,12 2776,14* home based index 19 0,07 0,02 0,12 644,67* support (total) 28 0,1 0,06 0,14 366,78* control 41 -0,1 -0,14 -0,1 2037,16* learning assistance 31 0,09 0,06 0,13 704,93* communication 22 0,09 0,04 0,13 366,12* activity 17 0,09 0,04 0,14 303,36* expectation 12 0,29 0,24 0,35 1717,04* academic socialization 11 0,12 0,06 0,18 216,17* 252,83 9 0,01 academic area general 77 0,11 0,07 0,14 3671,05* language 98 0,08 0,05 0,1 8088,90* mathematics 65 0,08 0,04 0,12 3693,15* science 10 0,12 0,03 0,2 4868,81* social sciences 6 0,11 -0,01 0,22 187,80* 2,41 4 0,66 education level pre-school 23 0,08 0,02 0,14 429,57* elementary 141 0,08 0,06 0,1 4559,68* secondary 56 0,11 0,07 0,14 14680,33* mixed 36 0,09 0,05 0,14 967,03* 1,43 3 0,7 location developed 174 0,07 0,05 0,09 6,25 developing 82 0,13 0,09 0,16 7,74 8,22 1 0,01 participant type mixed 148 0,07 0,05 0,1 16017,20* student 108 0,11 0,08 0,14 4956,98* 4,48 1 0,03 measure type standard 70 0,07 0,04 0,11 14794,038* non-standard 186 0,09 0,07 0,12 5996,66* 1,14 1 0,29 * p < 0,05 parental involvement types the mean effect size differs significantly according to families’ parental involvement types (q(9,256) = 252,83; p = 0,01). families’ control behaviours which are based on home-based involvement have a negative and weak effect on students’ academic achievement (es = r = -0,10; ll = -0,14; up = -0,07). namely, students who live in a family that controls their children at a high level have a low level of academic achievement. 376 other home-based behaviours including learning assistance, communication, support, activity, ensuring academic socialisation have a positive and weak effect on students’ academic achievement. in addition, families’ expectation has a higher level of effect on students’ academic achievement than the behaviours listed above (es = r = 0,29; ll = 0,24; up = 0,35). furthermore, school-based parental involvement has a positive and weak effect on students’ academic achievement (es = r = 0,09; ll = 0,05; up = 0,12). location it is identified in the study that the effect of parental involvement differs significantly in terms of countries’ development levels. the effect of parental involvement in developing countries (es = r = 0,13 ll = 0,09 up = 0,16) produces a bigger effect size compared to developed countries (es = r = 0,07 ll = 0,05 up = 0,09). participant type the mean effect of parental involvement on students’ academic achievement differs significantly according to the participant type (q (1,256) = 4,48; p = 0,03). the studies in which the participants were students produced higher levels of effect sizes than the studies in which the participants were mixed. publication date meta-regression method was used to test if the effect sizes differed according to the years of publication, and it was found that the effect sizes differed significantly by years of publication (q = 8,7; df = 1; p = .03). the regression chart regarding the distribution of the effect sizes by years is provided in appendix 1. the effect size of parental involvement on academic achievement decreases as the years increase. education level the mean effect of parental involvement on students’ academic achievement does not differ significantly according to moderator variable of education level. academic area, measure of academic achievement the mean effect of parental involvement on students’ academic achievement does not differ significantly according to moderator variables of academic area and measure of academic achievement. discussion and conclusion this study aimed to examine the effect of parental involvement on students’ academic achievement through examining this effect with respect to home-based and school-based parental involvement types including control, learning assistance, communication, support, activity, academic socialisation and expectation as well as testing the effects of other moderator variables of geographical region, participant type, publication date, education level, academic area and measures of academic achievement. the results are discussed with available related meta-analysis studies in the literature. consisting of 55 research studies, the dataset represents 62 different samples the total of which is 106,221. the total effect size produced by the data set is k = 256. the effect sizes in the dataset range between es = -.39 and es = .57. the publication bias was checked, and the values did not represent 377 bias. it was identified that the mean effect size of parental involvement on students’ academic achievement was calculated as es = r = .09 (ll = .07 up = .11; k = 256). considering the lower and upper bounds of the mean effect size, the overall effect of parental involvement on academic achievement was positive and at a low/weak level. fan and chen (2001) identified an overall effect size of r = .25, which they regarded as medium. jeynes (2005) also reports a higher effect level of parental involvement on urban secondary school students’ academic achievement. ma et al (2015) suggest a strong positive relationship between parental involvement and learning outcomes at preschool and early elementary education levels. senechal and young (2008) also concluded that parental involvement was a positive predictor of acquisition of literacy. jeynes (2017) reveals that parental involvement has a significant effect of .52 on latino students’ outcomes. kim and hill (2015) report a closer effect size to our study from pre-school to 12th grade (.14 for father and .15 for mothers). hill and tyson (2009) found an effect size of .18 for middle school students. the findings in the current study and the findings of the other related meta-analysis studies (fan & chen, 2001; hill & tyson, 2009; jeynes, 2005; jeynes, 2017; kim & hill, 2015; ma et al, 2015; senechal & young, 2008) and also a meta-synthesis study on this relationship (wilder, 2014) consistently indicate the positive relationship between parental involvement and academic achievement. this result supports the significance attached to parental involvement in the literature with respect to children’s academic achievement. as suggested by henderson and berla (1994), parents’ involvement increases students’ achievement, and that is why parents should try to provide an environment at home encouraging learning, communicate reasonable but high expectations regarding their children’s future and get involved in students’ education at home, school and community. in addition, parental involvement should be promoted by educational policies and practices (ma et al, 2015). however, the results of this meta-analysis study, which includes studies from several geographical regions at preschool, elementary and secondary levels, reveal a smaller effect size when compared to other metaanalysis studies. another finding in this study suggests that the effect sizes tend to decrease in the more recent publications. this is a finding worth dwelling on. the effect of parental involvement on students’ academic achievement may be diminishing due to some factors such as changing family structures, enhancement in technologies, new educational settings and expectations. more recent analyses are needed to discuss this finding. regarding the effect of parental involvement types, it is revealed in the current study that schoolbased parental involvement has a positive and weak effect on students’ academic achievement. school-based involvement has a greater effect on academic achievement than home-based involvement in this study. this is in line with the findings reported by kim and hill (2015). similarly, ma et al (2015) suggest that studies emphasising school-based involvement produced a significantly stronger relationship than studies that did not. of the home-based parental involvement behaviours, only parental control has a negative and weak effect on students’ academic achievement. all other analysed behaviours including learning assistance, communication, support, activity, expectation and academic socialisation have a positive and weak effect on students’ academic achievement. fan and chen (2001) argue that the parental involvement dimension has a moderating effect on students’ academic achievement. they report that the weakest parental involvement dimension was parents’ supervision of children at home (but still positive) while parents’ expectations had the highest effect on students’ academic achievement. jeynes (2005), jeynes (2007) and castro et al, (2015) also report 378 that parental expectation has the largest effect size. similarly, in the current study, parents’ expectations have the highest effect on students’ academic achievement (almost medium). in a metasynthesis study, it was revealed that when defined as parental expectations, the effect size of parental involvement is strongest. as children tend to have attitudes and beliefs towards their education similar to their parents (wilder, 2014), parental expectations have great effect on their academic achievement. in their edited book, karadağ and his colleagues carried out several meta-analysis studies regarding the effects of variables on student achievement. they unearthed the single variable that had high impact on student achievement which was socio-economic status (karadağ, 2017). it can be expected that, parents with higher socio-economic status may communicate higher expectations to their children, which in turn may affect student achievement. on the other hand, parents’ control behaviours have a negative effect in the current study. as suggested by fan and chen (2001) and wilder (2014), high levels of parents’ supervision behaviours (control in the present study) may be due to students’ academic failure in the first place. parents of students who have academic problems at school may be enacting more intense control behaviour. that is why a negative relationship between this dimension and academic achievement is plausible. academic socialisation has the highest effect on academic achievement following parental expectations in the current study. similarly, in the meta-analysis by kim and hill (2015), it was found that it had the strongest relationship with academic achievement. communication has a small effect on academic achievement in this study. jeynes (2005) reports that it had a higher effect size but it was still below .30. it was found to be insignificant in another meta-analysis (jeynes, 2007). in another study, communication had also a higher effect (jeynes, 2017). learning assistance has a small effect on academic achievement. patall, cooper and robinson’s (2008) meta-analysis study focused on the relationship between academic achievement and parental involvement at home through assisting children with homework, which is learning assistance in the current study. they found a small correlation between the two variables. these results may stem from the fact, as also suggested by patall et al (2008) and mcneal & ralph (2012), that poorly achieving students may require more parental involvement. otherwise, the effect size can be expected to be higher. in the meta-synthesis study by wilder (2014), it was found that a positive relationship between homework assistance and student academic achievement was not present. there are also negative correlations. wilder (2014) attributes this to factors such as the facts that most parents are not trained to teach their children and they do not know teaching methods. it is identified in this study that the effect of parental involvement on students’ academic achievement differs significantly according to the location of the studies. parental involvement has more effect on academic achievement in developing countries as opposed to developed countries. to discuss this result, more studies are needed with respect to comparison of developed and developing countries regarding the effect of parental involvement on academic achievement. the mean effect of parental involvement on students’ academic achievement does not differ significantly according to moderator variable of education level. this finding is noteworthy because parental involvement at pre-school level may be higher than at elementary and secondary education levels. besides, parental involvement may be a stronger predictor of academic achievement at lower levels than higher levels because children in lower levels are more affected by parental values, parents of young children care more about their lives, students at higher levels are more aware of their own 379 strengths and weaknesses, parents are more adept in subjects at earlier grades and adolescents become independent of their parents (gutman & midgley, 2000; eisenberg & wolchik, 1992; stenvenson & baker, 1987 as cited in jeynes, 2005; patall, cooper & robinson, 2008). despite these notions and a body of research (jeynes, 2005; jeynes, 2007; kim & hill, 2015; patall, cooper & robinson, 2008), this study puts forth that academic achievement does not differ by education levels. this finding is also supported by the meta-synthesis study on the relationship between academic achievement and parental involvement (wilder, 2014). this may stem from two reasons. the first is that at pre-school level and the beginning of the elementary level, measurement of academic achievement is harder than at upper levels of education. the second is that, the families enacting parental involvement behaviours at pre-school level, and even at the onset of elementary level, mostly focus on their children’s security, familiarisation to school and socio-emotional development rather than their academic achievement. the mean effect of parental involvement on students’ academic achievement does not differ significantly according to moderator variables of academic area and measure of academic achievement. erion (2006) also had similar results. fan and chen (2001) identified that students’ academic achievement differs by area of academic achievement. in the same study, measure of academic achievement had no effect on students’ academic achievement; however, they report that general academic achievement measure such as gpa had relatively higher correlation while specific measures had relatively weaker correlation. jeynes (2005) suggested that effect sizes for grades and other measures were significant but it was not significant for standardised tests. ma et al (2015) identified that measurement type was not a predictor of the relationship between academic achievement and learning outcomes. erion (2006) had a similar result. in a meta-analysis on latino students’ outcomes, it was revealed that effects were bigger for non-standardised academic measures than standardised academic measures (jeynes, 2017). the findings in the present study contribute to the literature on the relationship between academic achievement and parental involvement in that it indicated the weakest overall effect of parental involvement on students’ academic achievement among the meta-analysis studies. the study has limitations, as well. the studies included in this meta-analysis are correlational. therefore, it may involve method bias. as this study focused on synthesising the findings of quantitative research studies, synthesis studies of qualitative research studies focusing on parental involvement and academic achievement can be carried out. besides, the studies in this meta-analysis study are in english. therefore, it can be suggested that it involves language bias. future studies may include research studies published in other languages. in addition, this study involves only published research studies. future studies may include unpublished research studies (master’s or doctoral theses) and conference proceedings. on the other hand, this study focuses solely on parental involvement and students’ academic achievement. future studies may examine parental involvement and students’ social skills and affective characteristics. references borenstein, m., hedges, l. v., higgins, j. p. t., & rothstein, h. r. (2009). introduction to metaanalysis. john wiley & sons, ltd. 380 castro, m., exposito-casas, e., lopez-martin, e., lizasoain, l., navarro-asencio, e. & gaviria, j. l. (2015). parental involvement on student academic achievement: a meta-analysis. educational research review, 14, 33-46. cross, f. l., marchand, a. d., medina, m., villafuerte, a. & rivas-drake, d. (2019). academic socialization, parental educational expectations, and academic self-efficacy among latino adolescents. psychology in the schools, 56(4), 483-496. https://doi.org/10.1002/pits.22239 dįnçer, s. (2018). eğitim bilimleri araştırmalarında içerik analizi: meta-analiz, meta-sentez, betimsel içerik analizi. bartin üniversitesi egitim fakültesi dergisi, 7(1), 176-190. dotterer, a. m., & wehrspann, e. (2016). parent involvement and academic outcomes among urban adolescents: examining the role of school engagement. educational psychology, 36(4), 812–830. durand, t. m. (2011). latino parental involvement in kindergarten: findings from the early childhood longitudinal study. hispanic journal of behavioral sciences, 33, 469–489. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0739986311423077 epstein, j. l. (1991). paths to partnership: what can we learn from federal, state, district, school initiatives. phi delta kappan, 72, 344–349. erion, j.r. (2006). parent tutoring: a meta-analysis. education and treatment of children, 29(1), 79–106. fan, x., & chen, m. (2001). parental involvement and students' academic achievement: a metaanalysis. educational psychology review, 13, 1–22. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/a:1009048817385 gordon, m. s., & cui, m. (2012). the effects of school-specific parenting processes on academic achievement in adolescence and young adulthood. family relations, 61, 728–741. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3729.2012.00733.x grolnick, w. s., & slowiaczek, m. l. (1994). parents' involvement in children's schooling: a multidimensional conceptualization and motivational model. child development, 65, 237– 252. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.ep9406130692 gubbins, v., & otero, g. (2016). effect of the parental involvement style perceived by elementary school students at home on language and mathematics performance in chilean schools. educational studies, 42, 121–136. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03055698.2016.1148586 gutman, l. m., & midgley, c. (2000). the role of protective factors in supporting academic achievement of poor african american students during the middle school transition. journal of youth and adolescence, 29(2), 223–249. hayes, d. (2012). parental involvement and achievement in african american adolescents. journal of comparative family studies, 43, 567–582. henderson, a. t., & berla, n. (1994). a new generation of evidence: the family is critical to student achievement. national committee for citizens in education. higgins, j. p. t., thompson, s. g., deeks, j. j., & altman, d. g. (2003). measuring inconsistency in meta-analyses. british medical journal, 327(7414), 557-560. hill, n. e., & tyson, d. f. (2009). parental involvement in middle school: a meta-analytic assessment of the strategies that promote achievement. developmental psychology, 45, 740– 763. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0015362 jeynes, w. h. (2017). a meta-analysis: the relationship between parental involvement and latino student outcomes. education and urban society, 49(1), 4-28. doi: 10.1177/0013124516630596 381 jeynes, w. h. (2007). the relationship between parental involvement and urban secondary school student achievement: a meta-analysis. urban education, 42(1), 82–110. jeynes, w. h. (2005). a meta-analysis of the relation of parental involvement to urban elementary school student academic achievement. urban education, 40, 237–269. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0042085905274540 karadağ, e. (ed.). (2017). the factors effecting student achievement: meta-analysis of empirical studies. springer international publishing. karadağ, e., bektaş, f., çoğaltay, n., & yalçın, m. (2015). the effect of educational leadership on students’ achievement: a meta-analysis study. asia pacific education review, 16(1), 79–93. karadağ, e., i̇sçi, s., oztekin, s., & anar, s. (2016). the relationship between school climate and students’ academic achievement: a meta-analysis study. inonu university journal of the faculty of education, 17(2), 107-122. http://dx.doi.org/10.17679/iuefd.1729444 kim, s.w., & hill, n.e. (2015). including fathers in the picture: a meta-analysis of parental involvement and students’ academic achievement. journal of educational psychology, 107(4), 919-934. lipsey, m., & wilson, d. (2001). practical meta-analysis. sage. ma, x., shen, j., krenn, h.y., hu, s., & yuan, j. (2015). a meta-analysis of the relationship between learning outcomes and parental involvement during early childhood education and early elementary education. educational psychology review, 28, 771-801. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10648-015-9351-1 manolitsis, g., georgiou, g. k., & tziraki, n. (2013). examining the effects of home literacy and numeracy environment on early reading and math acquisition. early childhood research quarterly, 28, 692–703. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2013.05.004 mccoy, j. d., twymen, t., ketterlin-geller, l. r. & tindal, g. (2005). academic achievement. in s.w. lee encyclopedia of school psychology. sage publications. mcneal jr., r. b. (2012). checking in or checking out? investigating the parent involvement reactive hypothesis. the journal of educational research 105(2), 79–89. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220671.2010.519410 miles, m. b., & huberman, a. m. (1994). qualitative data analysis: an expanded sourcebook (2nd ed.). sage. oh-young, c., gordon, h. r., xing, x., & filler, j. (2018). meta-analytic procedures for career and technical education post-secondary researchers and practitioners. journal of research in technical careers, 2(1), 32-41. patall, e. a., cooper, h., & robinson, j.c. (2008). parent involvement in homework: a research synthesis. review of educational research, 78(4), 1039–1101. phillipson, s., & phillipson, s. n. (2012). children's cognitive ability and their academic achievement: the mediation effects of parental expectations. asia pacific education review, 13, 495–508. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12564-011-9198-1. rivkin, s. g, hanushek, e. a. & kain, j. f. (2005). teachers, schools, and academic achievement. econometrica, 73(2), 417-458. roy, m. & giraldo-garcía, r. (2018). the role of parental involvement and social/emotional skills in academic achievement: global perspectives. school community journal, 28(2), 29-46. senechal, m. & young, l. (2008). the effect of family literacy interventions on children’s acquisition of reading from kindergarten to grade 3: a meta-analytical review. review of 382 educational research 78(4), 880–907. sirin, s. r. (2005). socioeconomic status and academic achievement: a meta-analytic review of research. review of educational research, 75(3), 417-453 stright, a. d., & yeo, k. l. (2013). maternal parenting styles, school involvement, and children's school achievement and conduct in singapore. journal of educational psychology, 106, 301– 314. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0033821 unesco (2011). international standard classification of education. http://uis.unesco.org/sites/default/files/documents/international-standard-classification-ofeducation-isced-2011-en.pdf united nations development programme (2019). human development report 2019 https://www.tr.undp.org/content/turkey/tr/home/library/human_development/hdr2019.ht ml üstün, u., & eryilmaz, a. (2014). a research methodology to conduct effective research syntheses: meta-analysis. education and science, 39(174), 1-32. wilder, s. (2014). effects of parental involvement on academic achievement: a meta-synthesis. educational review, 66(3), 377-397. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2013.780009 appendix 1: the regression chart regarding the distribution of the effect sizes by years authors: cahit erdem received his ba in english language teaching department at bogazici university, turkey (2009) and his ph.d in curriculum and instruction department at anadolu university, turkey (2018). he currently works as an assistant professor at faculty of education, afyon kocatepe university, turkey. his academic interests include media literacy, curriculum, instruction, teacher education, educational technology, classroom management, and internationalization of higher education. email: cerdem@aku.edu.tr metin kaya earned his ma degree at yeditepe university, turkey in 2010 and his ph.d. degree at eskişehir osmangazi university, turkey, in 2016. he is currently working in the educational sciences department at bayburt university, turkey. his academic interests and working areas include teacher training, school enhancement and development, and classroom management. email: metinkaya439@gmail.com regression of year on fisher's z year fi sh er 's z 2009,10 2010,18 2011,26 2012,34 2013,42 2014,50 2015,58 2016,66 2017,74 2018,82 2019,90 0,80 0,66 0,52 0,38 0,24 0,10 -0,04 -0,18 -0,32 -0,46 -0,60 383 cite this paper as: erdem, c., & kaya, m. (2020). a meta-analysis of the effect of parental involvement on students’ academic achievement. journal of learning for development, 7(3), 367-383. microsoft word ranjan.docx issn: 2311-1550 2020, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 349-366 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. is blended learning better than online learning for b.ed students? prabhas ranjan patna women’s college, patna, india abstract: blended learning is a newly emerging area of research and practice in educational institutions. it is defined as a useful and reasonable combination of online and face-to-face learning and is acclaimed as a successful mode of teaching. the recent growth of online education, which is without classroom interaction, in a developing country like india therefore presents a reason to verify the relative effectiveness of these teaching modes. this study was an experimental study spread over two years, to compare the effectiveness of the blended learning mode and the online learning modes (including their specific teaching-learning strategies) for a b.ed curriculum. a randomly selected sample of students with a comparable level of intelligence quotient (iq) was subjected to both controlled (face-to-face) and experimental treatments (online and blended learning). the participants were the students of a predominantly face-to-face mode of a b.ed course. the researcher found that the average achievement scores of the blended learning mode were higher than the online learning mode. it appears that the interaction of the instructor and the learners was a critical factor for the better performance of blended learning. this research also suggests that blended learning resulted in better learning attainment and motivation. blended learning has potential to support learner-centric teaching-learning endeavours. it is an important finding for the emerging trend towards online learning in india. it is also relevant in the context of the conditions created by the covid-19 pandemic, which has put constraints on the face-to-face mode of teaching. keywords: blended learning, online learning, face-to-face learning, experimental study, moodle. introduction before the “information age”, which the merriam-webster dictionary defines as “a time in which information has become a commodity that is quickly and widely disseminated and easily available, especially through the use of technology”i, the world of education was marked by two main modes of delivery of education: face-to-face (or regular mode) and distance mode. they were the two opposite ends of a continuum of modes of education. the continuum is visualised in figure 1. these two modes differ in features like the degree of resource intensiveness, size of learner groups and commitment of the learners in the context of time and place. in the present time, the continuum is populated by different modes of learning. computer labs or laptop instruction, web-enhanced learning, blended learning, and fully online instruction have emerged as alternatives to face-to-face learning. in earlier systems, the focus was at the two ends of the spectrum (regular mode and distance mode), and there was almost a dissection. whereas, in the present era, the focus has shifted towards the centre with various emerging options. the terms, hybrid learning, conversed learning, and conflex learning are styled names of the practices of blending face-to-face and online learning. with 350 emerging technologies and innovations in digital learning, the complexity of their structure is expected to grow further, and even more new nomenclature may pop up. figure 1: spectrum of modes of learning (suggested by the researcher) in the beginning, the design of online teaching-learning had only two influences: there were designs replicated from classroom teaching, and there were designs adapted from print or multimedia distance education courses. in the course of time, several new designs emerged which were capable of exploiting the different potentials of online learning but the primary forms also survived. some of them involve classroom-type online learning like massachusetts institute of technology massive open online courses (mit moocs), platforms like coursera, the addie model, online collaborative learning (ocl), community of inquiry (coi), competency-based learning (cbl), and communities of practice (cop). these models present the complexity of conditions for creating a universal definition of online learning. for example, qura.com (http://www.qura.com/) is an example of a connectivist mooc or cmooc. online learning is defined as the "use of the internet technologies to deliver a broad array of solutions that enhance knowledge and performance." (rogenberg, 2001, p. 28) online learning can be described as a type of resource-based learning in which the learners access learning content through learning materials rather than via teaching. "the term 'resource-based' is often used as an ‘opposite’ to ‘taught’ (race, 2008, p. 19). in this case, the resource can be accessed through the internet. "the learning that happens in resource-based learning usually opens up some freedom of time and pace, if not always that of place." (race, 2008, p. 19) in such a type of resource-based learning, the learners themselves have to be more responsible for their learning than in traditional teaching-learning situations (race, 2008, p. 18). blended learning is defined as a mixed-mode of learning in which both face-to-face and online learning are used. according to the sloan consortium (sloan-c), a leading professional organisation dedicated to promoting and supporting online education, "a blended course is one in which 30 per cent to 70 per cent of the instruction is delivered via technology”. sloan-c further defines this type of 351 course as one "that blends online and face-to-face delivery. a substantial proportion of the content is delivered online, typically uses online discussions, and typically has some face-to-face meetings" (sloan consortium's definition), (dziuban et al, 2011). thus, online learning and blended learning can be identified separately with reference to the use and non-use of face-to-face learning. there are many changes in the demand side of an education system, influencing the quality of learning attainment. there has been much rhetoric on changing focus from exam-centric education to learner-centric education. the expanding needs of universalisation also demand inclusion of diversified learners. in this research study, online learning is described as electronically mediated learning, facilitated and supported by the use of computers, networking and multimedia. in this perception of digital learning, use of networking (internet or intranet) is crucial. the blended course is one in which a substantial part of the instruction was delivered via online modules but also with face-to-face activities. the online part of the blended learning is designed to be complemented by the teacher, who initiates, motivates and consolidates the learning of students through discussions in the classroom. face-to-face learning is perceived as a lecture-discussion method with chalkboard and textbooks as teaching aids. e-learning, specifically online learning, is a recently emerging trend in india. indians are among the largest groups of registrants in massive open online courses (moocs). in an indigenous development, a national programme on technology enhanced learning (nptel) has been jointly initiated by the indian institute of technologies (iit) and the indian institute of sciences (iisc). they offer online courses for free and certification at a nominal cost in various topics. iit also developed mooc software, mookit, for others to launch new courses with the motto that “creating online courses should be as simple as taking them''. a mooc on moocs course has also been started to train teachers and other interested people to teach them the functioning and pedagogical facets of moocs. courses relating to the sciences, engineering, humanities and social sciences have been developed. in addition, “agmoocs” have been developed especially for the students of agriculture. iims and the commonwealth educational media centre for asia are also involved in developing courses in india. iit bombay in “talk to a teacher programme'' under the national mission on education through information and communication technology, community initiatives like teach for india, study webs of active–learning for young aspiring minds (swayam), and swayam prabha are other examples. they also offer curriculum-based courses for life-long learners from india and abroad. all the instances above aim to teach a large mass of students mostly without substantial supervision of a teacher. it is assumed that by putting learning material and labs on the internet and making them available free of cost, the learner will start using them effectively. however, this perception is counterintuitive, given the learning habit of “mugging up” for success in examination acquired by a large number of learners during their school education in the country. various observers have remarked that indian online learners prefer attainment of qualifications over development of deep learning. there was a period of change in the teaching-learning of b.ed courses recently. the b.ed curriculum was converted from a one-year b.ed. to a long-awaited two-year b.ed course in 2015 with a compulsory semester-equivalent school internship based on a schematic structure designed by the national council for teacher education (ncte), the regulating body of teacher education in india. 352 besides introduction of a four-year integrated b.ed course for secondary school teachers, a four-year integrated beled for elementary school teachers, a three-year integrated b.ed-m.ed course for teacher educators, and making more areas of study (gender studies, inclusive education, ict, and yog shiksha) compulsory for all kinds and levels of teacher education were also introduced. the two-year b.ed curriculum had several new contents in comparison to the old one-year curriculum, including compulsory school internship. the new curriculum was an apt opportunity to introduce new teaching mode and methods, but it was not easy to come by. patna has over a century-old legacy of a teacher training programme, as one of the first training colleges of india was established in patna. over that period, a set of perceptions evolved among the teachers and the students about the transaction of b.ed and other education programmes. these perceptions define the academic practices and culture of the b.ed colleges and departments. some of the common perceptions are as follows: • b.ed degree is a short duration "training programme". this is a colloquial reference to the insignificance of practice-in-school teaching for many students and even teachers. • in this course, the teacher educators must teach methodology but supporting students’ mastery of subject content is not their responsibility. • the training of students is mostly for teaching through the lecture method. other teaching strategies are taught theoretically as part of the pedagogy paper. the rationale is that there is a lot of new content in the b.ed curriculum for students coming from diverse streams. the learners are unexposed but this content must be taught in a short period. mostly, the lecture method is used in the transaction of the course. other teaching strategies are rarely used. • to summarise, a hurried theoretical discourse is followed by another set of hurried practical activities in a short duration of time. these perceptions developed during the one-year b.ed programme were seemingly unchallenged by the teacher educators in the new two-year programme. while many teachers speculate about the rationality of a two-year b.ed course, in a study on professionalism of teacher educators in the state, 59% were of the view that one year is insufficient duration for a quality b.ed course (madhumita & ranjan, 2014). this study was conceived in light of these set perceptions. it assumed that the introduction of a new curriculum and a novel mode of teaching could change some old and long-standing perceptions and habits of students, as well as of teachers, that would result in better learning achievement. theoretical background the theory inherent in this study is the use of media for teaching-learning. mcluhan (1964) argued that "the medium is the message" (p. 23) and "media are extensions of mind, body and being (p. 121)". as a critique of media, mcluhan suggested being cautious about such extensions. he perceived them as not necessarily benevolent and suggested that we should be careful when using them. thinking in the line of mcluhan, online learning is an extension of a teacher's mind (when it serves as a portal on new learning) and eye (when it records students’ activity). the effectiveness of these extensions is debated in the media debate. the media debate, also known as the clark-kozma debate, is related to the uniqueness of medium or media as a factor of enhancement in learning. since the beginning of the 353 media debate in 1983, the new media (computer, internet) has proved its significance, and the debate seems to be settled in favour of it. this study aimed to follow kozmza's line of thinking (1994) while keeping the perspective in mind that a poorly managed online or blended course might confirm the views expressed by clark (1994). significance of the study the study addressed some of the problems relating to the field outlined below: • the regular mode of education has several unanswered issues relating to students' learning attainment. • modes of education are expanding but there is a dearth of study about their effectiveness. • there is a lack of study about the comparative effectiveness of online learning and blended learning in the indian context, especially in a poor state like bihar. • the emerging trend of online learning in india is uncritical about its effectiveness and unsure about its integration with regular teaching-learning practices. objective and hypotheses the objective of the study was: 01 to compare the effectiveness of two different instructional modes, online learning and blended learning, in the context of the b.ed curriculum. to address the objective, three hypotheses were created: h01 there is no significant difference between the achievement scores of b.ed students while studying in blended mode and face-to-face mode. h02 there is no significant difference between the achievement scores of b.ed students while studying in online mode and face-to-face mode. h03 there is no significant difference between the achievement scores of b.ed students while studying in online mode and blended learning mode. review of the literature reviewing the experimental studies relating to online learning, we found continuity with the trends of distance research. there had been a long history of distance education, and several meta-analyses have been conducted about the comparative effectiveness of distance and face-to-face modes of study. the meta-analytical studies of research literature on distance education by bernard et al (2004), cavanaugh (2001), and moore (1994) had not found any significant difference between distance education and face-to-face education. however, a close study of bernard et al (2004) reveals that behind this general conclusion, the variation in results was very high. the effect sizes of the studies used for meta-analysis varied from −1.31 to +1.41. this was a trend that continued through the studies on online and blended learning. the experimental research on online learning and face-to-face learning has shown that the learning achievements for students in purely online and those who studied in purely face-to-face were statistically equivalent. means et al (2010, p. xv), in a meta-analytical study, found that in purely 354 online and purely face-to-face conditions, the average effect size was +0.05, (min −0.796 to max +0.790) p = .46, as depicted in table 1. table 1: effectiveness of online learning as compared to face-to-face learning (source: means et al (2010) researchers effect size (g) t-test (z-value) participants beeckman et al (2008) +0.294 3.03 426 participants bello et al (2005) +0.278 1.05 56 participants benjamin and ward (2008) +0.046 0.14 unknown beyea et al (2008) +0.790 1.756 17–20 participants caldwell (2006) +0.132 0.43 60 students davis et al (arch) -0.379 1.39 unknown hairston (2007) +0.028 0.18 168 participants jang et al (2005) -0.530 -2.69 105 students lowry (2007) -0.281 -0.84 53 students mentzer et al (2007) -0.796 -2.35 36 participants nguyen et al (2008) +0.292 0.93 39 participants ocker and yaverbaum (1999) -0.030 -0.14 43 participants padalino and peres (2007) 0.115 0.41 49 participants peterson and bond (2004) -0.100 -0.47 4 sections schmeeckle (2003) -0.106 -0.53 101 students schoenfeld-tacher et al (2001) +0.800 1.74 unknown sexton et al (2002) -0.422 -1.10 26 students turner et al (2006) +0.242 0.66 30 students vandeweerd et al (2007) +0.144 0.70 92 students wallace and clariana (2000) +0.109 0.53 4 sections zhang (2000) +0.381 1.12 51 students zhang et al (2006) +0.498 2.04 69 students bernard and lundgren-cayrol (2001) studied online learning in the context of the presence of an instructor as a moderator in online discussions. this study, conducted in a teacher education course on educational technology, was about the impact of moderation by an instructor. students were randomly assigned to different groups with high intervention and low intervention. the study did not find a main effect for the moderator. the group for low moderator performed significantly better than the other group. de wever et al (2008) also found that the group with student moderators, rather than the instructor moderator, was significantly better. however, in a study by zhang (2004), the 355 effectiveness of instructor moderation of online asynchronous collaboration was significantly higher. in this study, a group of students had a private space for discussion, whereas, the instructor moderated the other group's discussion. the review of literature on blended learning concentrated on the replacement model of blended learning. in this model, some of the face-to-face lectures are substituted by the online material and classes are reduced. means et al (2010, p. xv) reported that the combination of purely face-to-face and online elements was more effective than face-to-face instruction alone. the mean effect size was +0.35, p < .001 (table 2). at the same time, they cautioned that a larger effect size might be due to curriculum materials and differences in aspects of the instructional approach, besides the mode of instruction. in the meta-analysis conducted by the us department of education (means et al, 2010, p. 38), ten studies of blended and online learning were compared. these studies were levelled as "blended" or "purely online" based on their inclusion or exclusion of face-to-face learning but the content and quality of instruction across the two modes were also different. table 2: effectiveness of blended learning as compared to face-to-face learning (source: means et al (2010) researchers effect size (g) t-test (z-value) participants aberson et al (2003) +0.580 1.44 2 sections al-jarf (2004) +0.740 3.82 113 students caldwell (2006) +0.251 -0.99 60 students davis et al (1999) -0.335 -0.99 2 courses/classrooms day et al (1998) +1.113 3.85 2 sections debord et al (2004) +0.110 0.69 112 students el-deghaidy and nouby (2008) +1.049 2.58 26 students frederickson et al (2005) +0.138 0.40 2 sections midmer et al (2006) +0.332 1.56 88 students schilling et al (2006) +0.926 5.05 unknown spires and jackson (2001) +0.571 1.60 31 students urban (2006) +0.264 1.37 110 students zacharia (2007) +0.570 2.64 88 students the study referred to keefe (2003), who compared a blended class, and an online class who watched narrated powerpoint slides shown online or using cd-roms. the blended class had a classroom lecture in addition to the online class. both groups could also use e-mail, online chat rooms, and threaded discussion forums. keefe found that the scores of the purely online group were around eight per cent lower than the blended group. poirier and feldman (2004) used two groups for his study which were exposed to predominantly faceto-face mode, but the face-to-face group was required to participate in at least three online discussions 356 during the course, whereas, the purely online group had to participate in two online discussions with the instructor each week. poirier and feldman found a significant effect in favour of the purely online course format for examination grades but there was no effect on student's performance in writing assignments. campbell et al (2008) studied a blended course in which students received online instruction and attended face-to-face discussions along with a purely online course where the students assessed instruction as well as participated in discussions online. tutors were present in both formats of discussions. students had the freedom to choose the blended or online format. in this case, the scores of the online discussion group were significantly higher than the blended group. means et al (2010, pp. 38-39) observed that the relative effectiveness of the blended and purely online learning was dependent on the instructional element, as in these studies the instructional content was not controlled across the two modes. davis et al (1999) in their own study, attempted to equate the instructional content across three modes of delivery: blended, face-to-face and online. the students were randomly assigned to the three sections. there was no significant difference in post-test scores of the students (means et al, 2010, p. 39). means et al (2010, p. 39) also reviewed six other studies (beile & boote, 2002; ruchti & odell, 2002; gaddis et al, 2000; caldwell, 2006; scoville & buskirk, 2007; mcnamara et al, 2008) where the purely online groups were contrasted with the blended group but there was no significant difference. these studies also did not attempt to equate the learning content across the modes. methods research methodology with the background of studies discussed above the present study was designed as an experimental study. table 3: variables of the study independent variable mode of teaching-learning along with their respective strategies: • blended learning: teaching-learning delivered through a combination of face-toface and online delivery mode • online learning: teaching-learning delivered through online delivery mode only • face-to-face learning: classroom teaching only dependent variable learning outcome as measured by assessment tools confounding variables intelligence quotient, age, ict awareness one of the critical steps to design an experiment is to control the independent variable (iv) and extraneous variables. the challenges for experimental control in the present research were: • the students of b.ed were from diverse age group (from 20 to 39). 357 • the students were of different educational streams like arts, science, commerce and even professional disciplines like an mba, computer science, etc. they have different levels of selfefficacy and exposure to different institutional cultures of teaching-learning. • the students had studied a paper on ict in their previous year curriculum, yet they had various degrees of expertise in using ict tools. • given the vast difference in marks between the highest and lowest scores of students in the entrance test examination, they can be suspected of having a wide variety of iqs. though a clear correlation had not been established between the iq and the learning achievement of the students, yet they are confounding when the results of the experiment are dependent on the understanding and ability to apply new learning. besides, many other concerns need to be addressed. for example, novelty effect, the perception of students towards the new experience were different; instrumentation, changes that may occur over time in the measurement of a dependent variable due to variation in mechanical or human observer factors; and experimenter features, such as the researcher's expectancy or bias about the performance of the learning modes. the present study, the comparison of online learning and blended learning was made by comparing the achievement scores of students studying in these modes with their achievement scores in face-toface learning. the design adopted for the study was a hybrid design known as ‘switching replication design’ or ‘matched group design’. in this design, the randomised groups are subjected to similar treatment subsequently. in other words, the control group becomes the experimental group and viceversa. the switching-replications design is one of the strongest experimental designs (trochin et al, 2016, p. 250). in this design, the randomised groups are subjected to similar treatment subsequently. in other words, the control group becomes the experimental group and vice-versa. by the end of the study, all participants would have received the treatment. this design is “most feasible in organizational contexts where programs are repeated at regular intervals” (trochin et al, 2016, p. 50) like schools. “in randomized experiments, especially when the groups are aware of each other, there is the potential for social threats to internal validity; compensatory rivalry, compensatory equalization, and resentful demoralization are all likely to be present in educational contexts where programs are given to some students and not to others” (trochin et al, 2016, p. 51). this design address these threats as everyone eventually receives the same treatment. it also allocates the groups to different types of treatment through random assignment. the study was designed as a post-test, with two experimental random groups, and a control group design as illustrated in table 4 and an elaborate setting of samples is described in table 5. 358 table 4: experimental design group selection process treatment observation experimental 1 r x1 o experimental 2 r x2 o control r x0 o r: random selection and random assignment to groups; x1 & x2: treatments; x0: control; o: observation (notations adopted from gould (2001)). table 5: distribution of sample for the experiment subjects subject-1 (s1) subject-1 (s1) topics topic 1 topic 2 sections section a section b section a section b groups ga gb gc gd ga gb gc gd lesson 1-3 x1 (bl) x2 (ol) x0 (cl) x0 (cl) x0 (cl) x0 (cl) x1 (bl) x2 (ol) evaluation test-1 (o) test-2 (o) subjects subject-2 (s2) subject-2 (s2) topics topic 1 topic 2 sections section a section b section a section b groups ga gb gc gd ga gb gc gd lesson 1-3 x2 (ol) x1 (bl) x0 (cl) x0 (cl) x0 (cl) x0 (cl) x2 (ol) x1 (bl) evaluation test-3 (o) test-4 (o) x1, x2 = experiment; x0 = control; o = observation; ga, gb, gc and gd = groups of students; bl = blended learning; ol = online learning; cl = classroom learning tools of study intelligence test: the multidimensional aptitude battery (mab-ii), developed by douglas n. jackson and adapted for the indian condition by narender k. chadhdha, was used for this study. this instrument is suitable for the assessment of intellectual abilities of both adults and adolescents aged 16 and older. it consists of two parts, namely, verbal and performance. the instrument provided norms for nine age groups ranging from 16 to 74. in this study, three of the norms for the age groups 20-24, 25-34, 35-44 were used. the technical manual of mab-ii reports internal consistency reliability for different age groups from 0.94 to 0.97 for the verbal scale, 0.95 to 0.98 for the performance scale, and 0.96 to 0.98 for the full scale. we also calculated the internal consistency of the intelligence scores of our sample. we used cronbach alpha test (see table 6). it is one of several estimates of the internal consistency of a test. it is the mean of all possible split-half reliability (corrected for test length). the results were as follows: 359 table 6: reliability scores (alpha scores) of mab ii verbal (standard alpha score): 0.81 performance (standard alpha score): 0.68 inf com ari sim voc ds pc spa pa oa 0.79 0.73 0.83 0.73 0.75 0.68 0.55 0.62 0.65 0.61 the verbal scores were used for creating groups as their reliability scores were high. computer attitude scale (cas): the other tool used for checking attitude towards using computers was the computer attitude scale (cas). a self-reporting questionnaire reporting details on the use and skills in digital technologies was developed, and a computer attitude scale was adapted from the computer attitude scale (cas) that was initially developed by jones and clarke (1994). we also incorporated the modifications suggested by smalley et al (2001) in the tool. the tool had three parts consisting of affective, cognitive and behavioural attitudes. we used only the affective part questions as the computer attitude scale (cas) had 15 items with alpha score 0.84. achievement test: as mentioned in table 8, four achievements tests were created. they were developed in different phases. in the first phase, the investigators set the objectives of teachinglearning. they analysed the content and divided them into different learning levels. they identified the vital information and ideas and used them for designing the teaching-learning modules. in the second phase, they developed lesson plans for teaching-learning. based on the objectives, they developed achievement tests for unit end examination. the following steps were taken for the validity and reliability of the tool: • the selected list of items, along with the learning objectives, were reviewed by three experts. • the experts also reviewed the relevant points as probable answers to the questions, and an answer schedule (guideline) along with the key to objective questions were created. • a language expert reviewed a translation of the tool. for testing the reliability, we conducted the cronbach alpha test. the scores were reasonably high. the item was reliable. the result of the alpha test was as follows (see table 7): table 7: alpha scores of the four achievement tests items total alpha scores test 1 0.76 test 2 0.79 test 3 0.77 test 4 0.76 preparation for the experiment a website based on the learning management system (lms) moodle was created (http://www.glocaledu.org/elearning [see internet archive https://web.archive.org/web/20190131060436/http://glocaledu.org:80/elearning/]) and used to develop 360 content relating to the study. moodle is used for blended learning, distance education, flipped classroom and other e-learning projects in schools, universities, workplaces and other sectors. the sample for the study was selected based on the intelligent quotient of the students. at the same time, there was a minimum score criterion relating to an ict competency tool and learning and study strategies inventory (lassi). the participants were matched based on their intelligence quotient (iq). as depicted in figure 3, all the participants of eight groups distributed over two years were of a similar level of iq (figure 3). the range of attitude scale of students is depicted in table 8. table 8: cas scores of students a1 a2 b1 b2 c1 c2 d1 d2 35-42 32-34 33-38 36-41 34-39 32-37 36-38 34-39 *highest score could be 60. the experiment was conducted at the department of education, patna women's college, patna in the months july to september 2017 in the first phase and again during the same months in the year 2018. figure 2: iq of the participants across two years development of modules and lesson plan a moodle-based website was developed for the study. the modules were designed considering the community of inquiry model of online learning. this model considers three components as essential for a successful online or blended education — social presence, cognitive presence and teacher presence — and was developed by garrison et al (2008). the face-to-face lessons were planned considering the herbertian model of lesson planning and bloom's taxonomy. statistical analysis the analysis was conducted using rstudio, which is a free and open-source integrated development environment (ide) for software r, version 3.4.4 (2018-03-15), named as ‘someone to lean on’. r is a programming language for statistical computing and graphics. z-score, t-test, factor analysis, 361 cronbach alpha and effect size calculation were used for different purposes of the research. effect size (hedge’s g was calculated). the formula used was: where m is the mean; sd*pooled = standard deviation of combined data; and n = number of samples. ethical issues some ethical practices need to be observed in experimental studies. to address this need, primary evaluations of the students, i.e., iq scores, were not shared with other students or other faculty members. all students were informed that it would be used for research purposes only. precautionary measures were taken to avoid any adverse effect on the curriculum transaction. no student was deprived of information for the benefit of the research. after the topic evaluation test, the online modules were made available to all the students. no student was denied the opportunity to benefit from the new technology and the experience of the innovative mode of learning. results for testing the hypothesis h01, a paired t-test was used. the marks scores were converted into z-scores and combined for analysis. the standardised achievement scores of students in blended mode (m = 0.93, sd = 0.85) were higher than their achievement in face-to-face mode (m= -0.58, sd = 0.71), t(72) = 16.69, p-value = 0. the effect size (hedges' g ) was 1.93. for testing the hypothesis h02, a paired t-test was used. the standardised achievement scores of students in online learning mode (m = 0.115, sd = 0.82) were higher than their achievement in face-toface mode (m = -0.58, sd = 0.71), t(72) = 11.66, p-value = 0. the effect size was 0.91. for testing the hypothesis h03, a paired t-test was used. the standardised achievement scores of students in blended mode (m = 0.93, sd = 0.85) were higher than their achievement in online learning mode (m = 0.115, sd = 0.82), t(72) = 8.50, p-value = 0. the effect size was 0.98. table 9: summary of results mean (z scores) sd (z scores) df t value p-value effect size (hedge’s g) blended mode 0.93 0.85 72 16.69 0 1.93 face-to-face mode -0.58 0.71 online mode 0.115 0.82 72 11.66 0 0.91 face-to-face mode -0.58 0.71 blended mode 0.93 0.85 72 8.5 0 0.98 online mode 0.115 0.82 as compared to table 1, depicting the list of studies on online learning where the most considerable effects were observed by schoenfeld-tacher et al (2001) who found an effect size of 0.8, beyea et al 362 (2008) who found an effect size of 0.790, and zhang et al (2006) who found an effect size of 0.498, the effect size found in the present study is significant. many others found a positive effect size varying between +0.028 and +0.381. if we look at the upper limit of the confidence interval of these studies, they vary from 0.209 to 1.756. their studies also showed a possibility for a higher score. however, the main reason for a lower score in the context is attributed to the ineffective learning habits of students learning in face-to-face mode. the findings in the context of blended learning were also similar. as depicted in table 2, day et al (1998) found an effect size of +1.113. el-deghaidy and nouby (2008) found an effect size of +1.049; schilling et al (2006) found an effect size of +0.926 against face-to-face learning. al-jarf (2004) found an effect size of +0.740; aberson et al (2003) found an effect size of +0,580. others varied between +0.110 and +0.571. the finding of the present study suggested an effect size of around two sigma scores. the upper limit of the results mentioned in table 2 varied between 0.468 and 1.845 on the positive side. hence, the findings of the present study were not inconsistent with the literature. thus, there was a considerable difference of almost one sigma (one sd) of effect size when compared to the online learning mode. discussion in the context of the b.ed curriculum, the following considerations are critical for understanding the importance of the findings: • as a general observation, many of the learners had under-developed learning skills. they considered collecting new information for preparing for the final examination as the only necessity. in other words, they were looking for a degree rather than for learning. while learning in the face-to-face mode during the present study, they were aware of the test at the end. though they took notes and consulted the list of reading materials, they did not use them for effective self-study. they used them only for review during the days just before the examination. often, they tried to do that without understanding the content. this represents the flaw of learning in the traditional mode of the b.ed programme. • the online modules on moodle that were used for online and blended learning were designed in such a way that students had to answer several questions before moving from one section to the other. that made the online learners revise their understanding. this is crucial for a better understanding of an intensive course like the b.ed. • the students in blended learning got an additional chance to discuss the topic in the classroom. for the online learners, the parallel was the online forum on moodle. however, the forum was not as active as the classroom discussion. the blended mode students were able to grasp the essence of the topic in considerably more depth. • though it is considered a responsibility of the teacher to motivate, the long-term experience of the students in the teacher-centric mode has made them examination-oriented learners. that is the limitation of teacher-centric education. we consider it an effective strategy when supported by an enthusiastic teacher and a group of highly motivated learners. whereas, in the online and blended mode, the students are motivated systematically and sometimes forced to involve themselves in a deeper understanding of the content. 363 in this study, as discussed before, the different types of learning modes included relevant teachinglearning strategies. any attempt to separate the modes from the relevant strategies did not produce a conclusive result. in other words, the mode means not only the media by which the content was being delivered but also the strategy for using them. this is consistent with clark's line of argument (1994) in the media debate. this study followed kozma's line of argument when it emphasised the way modes were used along with the teaching-learning strategies using various types of media. conclusion by the second decade of the 21st century, the use of information and communication technology (ict) for education is many decades old. introduction of new technologies for education consequently influences the technology of education. in other words, the technology that helps to impart education influences how it should be imparted. this raises new questions and creates new problems. nevertheless, it is also important to see how the long-standing questions and challenges of education are being addressed. low learning attainment by students in formal education (in a classroom setting) is one such long-standing problem. especially in a populous country like india, formal education is highly challenged due to lack of facilities, qualified teachers and quality education. even in the best conditions, formal education imparted in the traditional way is not efficient to cater to the needs of diverse learners. the present study suggests that blended learning, if executed correctly, can address the need in the context of the b.ed curriculum. the study suggested a considerable effect size of difference among face-to-face learning, blended learning, and online learning while transacting the b.ed curriculum. both online and blended learning were unambiguously more effective than the traditional face-to-face mode. thus, theoretically speaking, the learning achievement in learner-centric education is higher than in teacher-centric mode, and the combination of online media and traditional media is superior to any of them alone. kozmza's line of argument (1994) that use of media, if combined effectively, positively affects learning can be considered consistent with the results. it is a promising result in the context of low learning achievement in the face-to-face mode of education. limitations and suggestions as mentioned earlier, the content used for the study was limited to a small part of a paper. another limitation was that the study did not sample the actual online learners studying in distance mode. they were the learners in face-to-face mode who were given instructions online. this limited the applicability of the study to the regular mode students only. at the same time, it is very relevant for the conditions created by the covid-19 pandemic in which the academic institutions are facing limitations in organising face-to-face meetings and are forced to look for innovative modes of education. a third limitation was that the students did not fully support the execution of the online forum discussion. furthermore, a fourth limitation was that face-to-face learners had limited learning strategies, and they did not use the full potential of teacher-centric education. it is suggested that the study should be replicated with a larger group and a full academic programme should be considered for the experiment. the online learners may be selected from the distance mode learners. the teaching modules should be designed considering the principles of community of inquiry (coi) rather the online video mode. the present moocs are almost a limited replica of teacher-centric education. 364 acknowledgement: this work is a part of a ph.d work a study of effectiveness of e-learning and blended learning among b.ed students under the supervision of dr lalit kumar, associate professor, faculty of education, patna university, patna. i thank my supervisor for his encouragement to excel. i thank the management of patna women's college; head and dean, dr upasana singh; and all the faculty members who supported the research project. i also thank the b.ed students of sessions 2015-17 and 2016-18 for their enthusiastic support and participation. references aberson, c. l., berger, d. e., healy, m. r., & romero, v. l. (2003). evaluation of an interactive tutorial for teaching hypothesis testing concepts. teaching of psychology, 30(1), 75-78. al-jarf, r. s. (2004). the effects of web-based learning on struggling elf college writers. foreign language annals, 37(1), 49-57. beile, p. m., & boote, d. n. (2002). library instruction and graduate professional development: exploring the effect of learning environments on self-efficacy and learning outcomes. alberta journal of educational research, 48(4), 364-67. bernard, r. m., & lundgren-cayrol, k. (2001). computer conferencing: an environment for collaborative project-based learning in distance education. educational research and evaluation, 7(2-3), 241-61. bernard, r. m., abrami, p. c., lou, y., borokhovski, e., wade, a., wozney, l., wallet, p., fiset, m., & huang, b. (2004). how does distance education compare with classroom instruction? a meta-analysis of the empirical literature. review of educational research, 74(3), 379-439. beyea, j. a., wong, e., bromwich, m., weston, w. w., & fung, k. (2008). evaluation of a particle repositioning manoeuvre web-based teaching module. the laryngoscope, 118(1), 175-180. caldwell, e. r. (2006). a comparative study of three instructional modalities in a computer programming course: traditional instruction, web-based instruction, and online instruction (ph.d thesis, the university of north carolina at greensboro). campbell, m., gibson, w., hall, a., richards, d., & callery, p. (2008). online vs face-to-face discussion in a webbased research methods course for postgraduate nursing students: a quasi-experimental study. international journal of nursing studies, 45(5), 750-59. cavanaugh, c. (2001). the effectiveness of interactive distance education technologies in k–12 learning: a metaanalysis. international journal of educational telecommunications, 8(3), 72-78. clark, r. e. (1994). media will never influence learning. educational technology research and development, 42(2), 21-29. davis, j. d., odell, m., abbitt, j., & amos, d. (1999). developing online courses: a comparison of web-based instruction with traditional instruction. paper presented at the society for information technology & teacher education international conference, chesapeake, va. http://www.editlib.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=reader.viewabstract&paper_id=7520 day, t. m., raven, m. r., & newman, m. e. (1998). the effects of world wide web instruction and traditional instruction and learning styles on achievement and changes in student attitudes in a technical writing in agricommunication course. journal of agricultural education, 39(4), 67-75. de wever, b., winckel, m. v., & valcke, m. (2008). discussing patient management online: the impact of roles on knowledge construction for students interning at the paediatric ward. advances in health sciences education, 13(1), 25-42. 365 dziuban, c., hartman, j., cavanagh, t., & moskal, p. (2011). blended courses as drivers of institutional transformation. in a. kitchenham, (ed.), blended learning across disciplines: models for implementation. information science reference. el-deghaidy, h., & nouby, a. (2008). effectiveness of a blended e-learning co-operative approach in an egyptian teacher education programme. computers & education, 51(3), 988-1006. gaddis, b., napierkowski, h., guzman, n., & muth, r. (2000). a comparison of collaborative learning and audience awareness in two computer-mediated writing environments. 1st annual conference esrc teaching and learning research programme (tlrp), paper presented at the national convention of the association for educational communications and technology, denver, co. (eric document reproduction service no. ed455771). garrison, d. r., & vaughan, n. d. (2008). blended learning in higher education: framework, principles, and guidelines. the jossey-bass higher and adult education series. jossey-bass. gould, j. e. (2001). concise handbook of experimental methods for the behavioral and biological sciences (1st ed.). crc press. keefe, t. j. (2003). using technology to enhance a course: the importance of interaction. educause quarterly, 1, 24-34. kozma, r. b. (1994). the influence of media on learning: the debate continues. school library media research, 22(4), 179-211. madhumita, & ranjan, p. (2014). prospect and challenge for pre-service teacher education curriculum reforms in bihar with reference to national curriculum framework for teacher education (ncfte). ugc minor research project report, patna. mcluhan, m. (1964). understanding media: the extensions of man. mcgraw-hill. mcnamara, j. m., swalm, r. l., stearne, d. j., & covassin, t. m. (2008). online weight training. journal of strength and conditioning research, 22(4), 1164-68. means, b., toyama, y., murphy, r., bakia, m., & jones, k. (2010). evaluation of evidence-based practices in online learning: a meta-analysis and review of online learning studies. us department of education, office of planning, evaluation, and policy development. http://www2.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/tech/evidence-basedpractices/finalreport.pdf moore, m. (1994). administrative barriers to adoption of distance education. the american journal of distance education, 8(3), 1-4. poirier, c. r., & feldman, r. s. (2004). teaching in cyberspace: online versus traditional instruction using a waiting-list experimental design. teaching of psychology, 31(1), 59-62. race, p. (2008). 500 tips for open and online learning. 500 tips... taylor & francis. ruchti, w. p., & odell, m. r. (2002). comparison and evaluation of online and classroom instruction in elementary science teaching methods courses. paper presented at the 1st northwest nova cyber-conference, newberg, or. http://nova.georgefox.edu/nwcc/arpapers/uidaho.pdf schilling, k., wiecha, j., polineni, d., & khalil, s. (2006). an interactive web-based curriculum on evidencebased medicine: design and effectiveness. family medicine, 38(2), 126-32. schoenfeld-tacher, r., mcconnell, s., & graham, m. (2001). do no harm: a comparison of the effects of online vs traditional delivery media on a science course. journal of science education and technology, 10(3). scoville, s. a., & buskirk, t. d. (2007). traditional and virtual microscopy compared experimentally in a classroom setting. clinical anatomy, 20(5), 565-70. spires, h. a., mason, c., crissman, c., & jackson, a. (2001). exploring the academic self within an electronic mail environment. research and teaching in developmental education, 17(2), 5-14. 366 trochim, w. m., donnelly, j. p., & arora, k. (2016). research methods: the essential knowledge base (2nd ed.). cengage learning. zhang, d. (2000). interactive multimedia-based e-learning: a study of effectiveness. american journal of distance education, 19(3). zhang, d., zhou, l., briggs, r. o., & nunamaker, j. f. (2006). instructional video in e-learning: assessing the impact of interactive video on learning effectiveness. information and management, 43(1). zhang, k. (2004). effects of peer-controlled or externally structured and moderated online collaboration on group problemsolving processes and related individual attitudes in wellstructured and ill-structured small group problem-solving in a hybrid course (ph.d thesis, pennsylvania state university, state college). author: prabhas ranjan is an assistant professor at the department of education, patna women's college, patna, india. his research interests are ict for education, teaching methods and educational psychology. he has worked on two ugc minor research projects on engendering digital divide: a mixed-method study across disciplines and prospects and challenges for pre-service teacher education curriculum reforms in bihar with respect to national curriculum framework for teacher education (ncfte-2009). email: nirbhayaprabhas@gmail.com cite this paper as: ranjan, p. (2020). is blended learning better than online learning for b.ed students? journal of learning for development, 7(3), 349-366. note i. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/information%20age microsoft word bozkurt.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 348-365 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. social networking sites as communication, interaction, and learning environments: perceptions and preferences of distance education students aras bozkurt, abdulkadir karadeniz, serpil kocdar anadolu university, turkey abstract: the advent of web 2.0 technologies transformed online networks into interactive spaces in which user-generated content has become the core material. with the possibilities that emerged from web 2.0, social networking sites became very popular. the capability of social networking sites promises opportunities for communication and interaction, especially for distance education students who are separated from their teachers, learning resources and other students in terms of time and/or space. within this perspective, the aim of the study is to investigate distance education students’ perceptions and preferences regarding use of social networking sites for communication and interaction purposes. in this context, the study employed a quantitative cross-sectional methodology. research findings were derived from a sample of 2065 distance education students and the data were gathered through an online questionnaire. the research findings indicate that social networking sites (snss) can be used to support social learning processes. keywords: social networking sites (snss), distance education students, distance education, social communication, social learning. introduction distance education is a pragmatist field, which uses a diverse array of media to deliver educational content to students who are separated from their teachers and other students. social networking technologies, offering appealing communication tools for daily life and e-learning environments, allowing students to form digital identities and express themselves digitally. moreover, they allow students to be socially interactive and build a learning community in online spaces. in this sense, this research intends to explore how social networking sites (snss) are used and perceived by distance education students. literature review according to global digital snapshot data, the total population of the world by 2016 was 7.395b. of this total, 3.419b are internet users and 2.307b were active social media users (we are social singapore, 2016). as a popular sns, facebook is globally adopted and has a lot of advantages for higher education (chugh & ruhi, 2017). it is the most popular sns among students (junco, 2015) and faculty members (faculty focus, 2011). for instance, in the us, around 90% of students use facebook for online social networking (dahlstrom, grunwald, de boor, & vockley, 2011). 349 the emergence, growth and use of snss are rising not only among the general population but also among higher education students (boyd and ellison, 2007). andrews, tynan and backstrom (2012) claim that some distance education students are actively and deliberately using popular, noninstitutional social media tools to augment and improve their learning experiences. for instance, özmen and atıcı (2014) found that distance education students have positive attitudes towards the use of social networking sites, which positively affected the quality of communication between instructors and students. callaghan and fribbance (2016) examined facebook at open university of uk and found that facebook can be used to build a community for distance education students. additionally, a great many instructors and institutions of higher education have started to combine distance education delivery with snss (brady, holcomb, & smith, 2010; ractham, & firpo, 2011; roblyer, mcdaniel, webb, herman, & witty, 2010; tess, 2013). distance education is generally offered to students through learning management systems (lmss) in which instruction is delivered in a structured manner (deschryver, mishra, koehleer, & francis, 2009; lee, & mcloughlin, 2010; west, waddoups, & graham, 2006); however, some research findings indicate that these platforms fail to fulfill the social experience which is a significant ingredient of learning (brady et al, 2010; lee & mcloughlin, 2010; mazman & usluel, 2010; schroeder, minocha, & schneider, 2010; whitworth, & benson, 2010). accordingly, as a social software, snss exist beyond traditional lmss and potentially open up the learning environment to a public space. by using snss and similar web 2.0 tools in the teaching and learning processes, academic content, discussions and other interactions no longer live in the safe, structured and controlled world of academia, and they become accessible in online social environments (rodriguez, 2011). recent literature indicates that, as a very intensive and collaborative environment in nature, facebook can be used as an alternative to an lms (maleko, nandi, hamilton, d'souza, & harland, 2013; wang et al., 2011) with some major advantages over traditional lmss in promoting collaborative and active learning (meishar-tal, kurtz, & pieterse, 2012). snss also support formation of virtual communities of practice and enable students to connect, communicate, interact and collaborate on online networks (mccann, 2009). additionally, snss provide students with the social communication tools that allow for freedom, flexibility, fluidity and digital identity in learning processes (brady et al., 2010; lee, & mcloughlin, 2010; webb, 2009). the ability to create a digital identity in snss is important because digital identity formation makes learners visible to other learners and increases a sense of social presence; in other words, it makes networked learning experiences more human, which is essential to increasing interaction in social learning (bozkurt, & tu, 2016). besides, students can share and communicate with each other in their personal learning environments, which facilitate the building of personal understanding and interest toward learning (li, ganeshan, & xu, 2012). snss, as communication and interaction platforms in educational settings, may further support students in building social connections by exploiting the immediacy and intimacy features of snss (wheeler, yeomans, & wheeler, 2008; dron, & anderson, 2009; greenhow, 2011). a systematic review by manca and ranieri, (2016a) demonstrated that facebook is used for discussion and peer learning/assessment, content development, content delivery, sharing resources, and support self-organised learning. another systematic review also highlighted that facebook has an advantage in terms of increased teacher-student and student-student interaction, improved 350 performance, and provides the convenience of learning and higher engagement (chugh, & ruhi, 2017). the literature on sns and education reports many other advantages of using facebook in higher education. snss can be used for informal learning (pimmer, linxen, & gröhbiel, 2012) and peer support (garcia, elbeltagi, dungay, & hardaker, 2015). as an educational tool that enhances teaching and learning (bicen, & uzunboylu, 2013; o'neil, & wels, 2016), snss can be used as an additional social space in educational processes such as moocs (liu, mckelroy, kang, harron, & liu, 2016), and serves as a third space between social life and schoolwork (aaen, & dalsgaard, 2016). in addition to these advantages, it is reported that sns has an impact on learning outcomes of university students (khan, kend, & robertson, 2016) and academic performances (lambić, 2016). research objectives the sns trend is a relatively new and widely accepted phenomenom. while many studies have reported the positive outcomes of using snss in higher education (manca, & ranieri, 2016b; rodríguez-hoyos, haya salmon, & fernandez-díaz, 2015) their use for academic and learning purposes is still rather limited and they are mainly used for administrative purposes rather than for pedagogical ones (rap, & blonder, 2017). therefore, there is a need to study the acceptance and use of sns in education in general (bosch, 2009) and distance education in particular. in this regard, this study intends to contribute to the related literature by providing the perspectives of distance education learners. literature shows that facebook is the most popular sns used in higher education (dahlstrom, grunwald, de boor, & vockley, 2011; junco, 2015) and mobile technologies that promise ubiquitous learning (gaskell, & mills, 2010) are the preferred mode of access. however, existing literature generally focuses on using these hard and soft technologies in face-to-face education. this study was designed to gather evidence of the current adaptation of snss by distance education students and explore the potential of snss for delivering teaching and learning in distance education. on these grounds, the purpose of the study is to identify distance education students’ sns usage preferences for communication and interaction purposes. the study addressed the following research questions: • how do distance education students access snss? • how long have distance education students been using snss? • what is the approximate frequency of using snss? • what are the most popular snss used for distance education? • why do distance education students use snss? • why don’t distance education students use snss? • how do snss affect distance education students’ communication patterns? • what is the degree of distance education students’ interaction on snss? • how do communication patterns and degree of interaction correlate? methodology this section of the study presents research design, sampling, data collecting, analysis, strengths and limitations of the study. 351 research design for the purposes of the study, a quantitative cross-sectional survey research design was used. in a cross-sectional study, researchers conduct a survey and collect data at one point in time from a sample or from an entire population of individuals in order to identify their attitudes, beliefs, opinions, behaviors, practices or characteristics (creswell, 2012). sampling the participants in this research were 2065 students who attend distance education programmes at a public distance education university in turkey. the margin of error for the sampling is 2.15% with a confidence level of 95%. research context the research was conducted at anadolu university, which is a dual-mode, public university located in eskişehir, turkey. founded in 1958, it started to deliver distance education in 1982. by 2017, there were 30,565 students in traditional face-to-face programmes and 2,724,650 students in distance education programmes (anadolu university, n.d). with massive number of students, it is called a “mega university” (daniel, 1998). by 2017, in terms of student enrollment, anadolu university is the largest university in europe and the second largest in the world (times higher education, 2017; worldatlas, 2017). the university benefits from many educational technologies to deliver distance education programmes. the core learning materials are printed and digital books and a learning management system is used as a learning environment. in addition, facebook is used as an additional learner support system in which there are more than 200k subscribers. though it is not part of the official curriculum, there are some experimental uses of facebook and other online snss to deliver distance education as a part of the academic and student support services. data collection procedure and analysis the data were collected through an online questionnaire, which was delivered through the student portal. online questionnaire items were derived from the need to explore distance learners’ perception on snss and their potential for pedagogic purposes in distance education. participation was voluntary and a consent form was attached to the first page of the questionnaire. questionnaire items were provided to those who agree to take part in this research. the first item of the questionnaire was a filtering question. in the filtering questionnaire item, participants were asked whether they use snss or not. participants who reported that they used snss and those who reported that they didn’t use snss were directed to different questionnaire items to collect detailed information regarding their preferences. at the end of the questionnaire, demographic data was collected. the data gathered were analysed by using descriptive and correlational statistical analysis. following that, the findings of the study were discussed by comparing the results obtained with the results in the existing literature on facebook and education. 352 strengths and limitations being socially present is not limited to only offline worlds; it is also possible in online worlds. snss are one of the most important aspects of our lives, and they shape many dimensions of students. better understanding of this phenomenon would assist future educational strategies, and distance education institutions for higher education should identify how snss are perceived, used and interpreted by distance education students. in this sense, this study attempts to give a response to this need by exploring the current state of snss usage by distance education students. for this purpose, the research provides data from one of the leading universities that provides distance education opportunities to students with a significant number of responses, which strengthens the findings of this research to generalise to a wider population. in addition to the above-mentioned strengths, the study has some limitations as well. though the sample size is considered robust enough to produce valid inferences from the research findings, distance education students’ preferences and perceptions may change in different cultural contexts. findings and discussions who are the participants? this section of the study presents participants’ demographic information and the data of distance education students who used snss and those who did not. as shown in table 1, 59.2% of the respondents are male and 40.8% are female. nearly a quarter of the students are in the 23-26-year age range. in terms of occupational status, 65.1% of the students are employed, while 34.9% are unemployed. 87.9% of the students stated that they used snss while 12.1% of them said that they did not. table 1: demographics of distance education students. participants who used snss (n = 1815) participants who didn’t use snss (n = 250) total (n = 2065) 87,9% 12,1% 100% category f % category f % category f % gender male female 1069 746 58,9 41,1 male female 154 96 61,6 38,4 male female 1223 842 59,2 40,8 age 18-22 23-26 27-30 31-34 35-38 39-42 43+ 317 466 306 206 220 120 180 17.5 25.7 16.9 11.3 12.1 6.6 9.9 18-22 23-26 27-30 31-34 35-38 39-42 43+ 38 53 45 28 25 27 34 15.2 21.2 18.0 11.2 10.0 10.8 13.6 18-22 23-26 27-30 31-34 35-38 39-42 43+ 355 519 351 234 245 147 214 17.2 25.1 17 11.3 11.9 7.1 10.4 occupation working not working 1184 631 62.5 34.8 working not working 161 89 64.4 35.6 working not working 1345 720 65.1 34.9 353 how do distance education students access snss? as can be seen from table 2, distance education students use smartphones, laptops, desktops, and tablet pcs, respectively, to access snss. a great majority of the students (n = 1456) prefer smartphones, from usually to always, to access snss, which can be interpreted as internet-connected, always-online devices are the basic means to access snss. table 2: devices used to access snss. never rarely usually often always f % f % f % f % f % smartphone laptop desktop tablet pc 98 301 599 796 5.4 16.6 33.0 43.9 161 444 419 571 8.9 24.5 23.1 31.5 330 339 287 146 18.2 18.7 15.8 8.0 455 347 241 157 25.1 19.1 13.3 8.7 771 384 269 145 42.5 21.2 14.8 8.0 in terms of accessibility means, the results of this study demonstrate that distance education students usually prefer using mobile devices to connect to snss. this finding confirms duggan and brenner (2013) who reported that individuals are connecting to snss mostly through their mobile phones. duggan (2015) further reported that 85% of adults are internet users and 67% are smartphone users. this finding sparks some ideas regarding the future of distance education. the advent of the internet and innovative technological tools created first e-learning, then m-learning and, finally, u-learning. each learning approach has its own characteristics and u-learning emphasises that learning can exist or be everywhere at the same time; in other words, it is an omnipresent process. therefore, it is clear that higher education institutions should revise their strategies for extensive mobile phone and sns usage. what is the approximate frequency of using social networking sites? the findings regarding the approximate frequency of using snss are salient in table 3: 27.9% of the students connect to snss every hour, 58.7% of them a few times a day and 8.1% once a day. table 3: frequency of connecting to snss. frequency percentage every hour a few times a day once a day twice a week once a week once a month 507 1066 147 68 17 10 27.9 58.7 8.1 3.7 0.9 0.6 distance education students are present on snss on a daily basis, and a great majority of them are experienced learners. these findings indicate that snss are an integral part of students’ routine lives and students are present in online and offline worlds. similarly, li, lai and zhang (2015) reported the frequency of logging in on a daily basis is 94.8%. bozkurt, karadeniz and okur (2015), who investigated post-graduate students’ preferences regarding snss, reported that the frequency of logging in on a daily basis is 96%. intimacy (argyle, & dean, 1965) and immediacy (wiener, & 354 mehrabian, 1968) are two important dimensions of social presence (short, williams, & christie, 1976). in their research, bozkurt et al (2015) found that post-graduate students sustain their connectivity and are usually online, which indicates that snss support immediacy, an important dimension of social presence. the research findings confirm the results of bozkurt et al (2015) and indicate that similar to post-graduate students, distance education students use snss for immediacy and snss are capable of influencing individuals’ perceptions of social presence (cheikh-ammar, & barki, 2016). the findings also indicate that there is an excessive use of sns (86.6%) among distance education students. in line with these numbers, hormes, kearns and timko (2014) reported that, as a behavioral addiction, nearly 10% of students are addicted to snss. while this data proves the potential of snss in education and demonstrates that they have really penetrated into many aspects of individuals’ lives, stemming from a series of factors (kuss, & griffiths, 2017) they can be also linked to a variety of impairments in psychosocial functioning, which requires great attention (hormes, 2016). how long have distance education students been using social networking sites? according to table 4, 14.9% of the respondents have been using snss for 3-4 years and 77.8% of users have been using for more than 5 years which means that 92.7% of the students have at least 3 years experience with snss. table 4: time span of snss usage. time span frequency percentage less than 6 months 6 months – 1 year 1 2 years 3 4 years more than 5 years 29 29 75 270 1412 1.6 1.6 4.1 14.9 77.8 this finding confirms results from both li et al (2015) and bozkurt et al (2015), who reported that many individuals are experienced sns users and have integrated snss into their daily life. the length of sns usage indicates some other important issues. first of all, distance education students are experienced sns users. it can be further argued that their choices regarding the use of social and academic issues of snss are meaningful rather than incidental. finally, it seems that snss are an important part of students’ daily social lives, and it is clear that the lines between the physical and virtual social worlds are blurring, which exposes the potential of snss for academic purposes. what are the most popular social networking sites? the participants were asked to report which of the snss they frequently use (table 5). the students generally prefer facebook, youtube and instagram. facebook is the most popular sns among students. it is also clear that distance education students use multiple platforms for social networking. not surprisingly, several researchers reported similar results. for instance, duggan (2015) reported that 72% of adult internet users and 62% of the entire adult population in the us are using facebook as their primary sns. 355 table 5: the most popular snss among the distance education students. never rarely usually often always f % f % f % f % f % facebook youtube instagram twitter google plus swarm lınkedin tumblr vine pinterest 168 119 600 706 976 1295 1371 1587 1521 1566 9.3 6.6 33.1 38.9 53.8 71.3 75.5 87.4 83.8 86.3 250 235 332 570 474 225 265 133 202 130 13.8 12.9 18.3 31.4 26.1 12.4 14.6 7.3 11.1 7.2 455 493 285 200 186 109 86 50 46 48 25.1 27.2 15.7 11.0 10.2 6.0 4.7 2.8 2.5 2.6 405 443 255 161 92 78 48 21 16 33 22.3 24.4 14.0 8.9 5.1 4.3 2.6 1.2 0.9 1.8 537 525 343 178 87 108 45 24 30 38 29.6 28.9 18.9 9.8 4.8 6.0 2.5 1.3 1.7 2.1 what is the value of snss in terms of learning? table 6 shows distance education students’ perspective of learning from snss. a considerable number of distance education students think that snss have a great potential as learning environments. when responses for “agree” and “completely agree” were collapsed into one response group, it was seen that snss increase students' interest in the courses when learning content is shared (49.5%), increase interaction (47.1%), have a positive effect on learning (46.2%), are an important tool for learning (44.2%), make learning engaging (43.6%), are convenient learning support environments (43.3%), are straightforward platforms for collaboration (42.5%), improve students’ success (40.1%), increase students’ motivation (36.3%), are an extension of real-life networking environments (34.4%), are convenient for students to express themselves freely (32.9%) and make students feel like they are a part of a learning community (24.4%). the questionnaire item to examine value of snss in terms of learning revealed some interesting results. a considerable number of the students (40.4%) believe that snss can be beneficial for learning purposes. however, there is a significant number of students who are undecided on the use of snss (20.9%) and who have a negative attitude (33.7%) toward the use of snss. similarly, other researches show a positive relationship between sns use and student satisfaction and a sense of community and learning in higher education (al-mukhaini, al-qayoudhi, & al-badi, 2014; duncan, & barczyk, 2013; kenney, kumar, & hart, 2013; wang, lin, yu, & wu, 2013). snss facilitate interaction and social relationships in a learning environment (alloway, horton, alloway, & dawson, 2013; pempek, yermolayeva, & calvert, 2009). findings of the study conducted by veletsianos and navarrete (2012) indicate that students supported one another in their learning and noted that they perceived their learning experience was enhanced by their interactions. gregory, gregory and eddy (2014) found that students who actively participated in the facebook group were more engaged in the course, more satisfied with the course, and performed better in the course than students who did not actively engage in the facebook group. 356 table 6: perceived value of sns for learning. c om pl et el y di sa gr ee d is ag re e n ei th er ag re e or di sa gr ee a gr ee c om pl et el y ag re e f % f % f % f % f % snss increase students' interest for the courses when learning content is shared 225 12.4 264 14.5 427 23.5 379 20.9 520 28.7 snss increase interaction 192 10.6 296 16.3 472 26.0 430 23.7 425 23.4 snss have positive effect on learning 189 10.4 326 18.0 462 25.5 417 23.0 421 23.2 snss are an important tool for learning 212 11.7 318 17.5 482 26.6 374 20.6 429 23.6 snss make learning engaging 228 12.6 288 15.9 507 27.9 378 20.8 414 22.8 snss are convenient learning support environments 218 12.0 330 18.2 482 26.6 387 21.3 398 21.9 snss are straightforward platforms for collaboration 213 11.7 293 16.1 537 29.6 421 23.2 351 19.3 snss improve students’ success 298 16.4 346 19.1 443 24.4 336 18.5 392 21.6 snss increase students’ motivation 310 17.1 370 20.4 477 26.3 329 18.1 329 18.1 snss are an extension of real life networking environments 301 16.6 385 21.2 505 27.8 303 16.7 321 17.7 snss are convenient for students to express themselves freely 359 19.8 379 20.9 479 26.4 270 14.9 328 18.1 snss make students feel a part of learning community 620 34.2 379 20.9 374 20.6 216 11.9 226 12.5 why do distance education students use snss? distance education students reported a number of reasons on a 5-point likert scale to demonstrate why they use snss (table 7). distance education students’ responses for “usually”, “often” and “always” were collapsed into one response group and the results were ranked accordingly. research findings demonstrated that distance education students use snss primarily to find information and get opinions (82%) and then to keep in touch with friends or family (69.4%). the students further stated that they use snss to spend time (53.4%), share media (48.5%), share experiences (43.7%), make professional contacts (42.4%), express themselves (24.1%), play online games (20.1%) and make new friends (13.7%). 357 research findings demonstrate that distance education students use snss primarily to find information and get opinions and then to keep in touch with friends or family. the distance education students in the study further stated that they use snss to share media, share experiences, make professional contacts, express themselves, play online games and make new friends. these findings are in parallel with the existing literature. for instance, cheung, chiu and lee (2011) claim that the primary reason most people use facebook is to have instant communication and connection with their friends. manasijević, živković, arsić and milošević (2016) reported that students use facebook for interaction, collaboration, and communication purposes in their learning processes. similarly, in a study conducted by iordache and lamanauskas (2013), the most important functions of snss for romanian students were communication, learning and exchanging information, exchanging photos and videos, friend search and messaging. jieun and richardson (2016) found that students used snss frequently and actively for various reasons in their daily life, and they showed positive perceptions of using snss for educational purposes. table 7: distance education students’ reasons to use snss never rarely usually often always f % f % f % f % f % to find information and get opinions 80 4.4 247 13.6 540 29.8 486 26.8 462 25.5 to keep in touch with friends or family 138 7.6 418 23.0 548 30.2 335 18.5 376 20.7 to spend time 245 13.5 601 33.1 479 26.4 240 13.2 250 13.8 to share videos/ photos/ music 269 14.8 666 36.7 439 24.2 227 12.5 214 11.8 to share experiences 420 23.1 601 33.1 416 22.9 183 10.1 195 10.7 to make professional and business contacts 499 27.5 547 30.1 325 17.9 221 12.2 223 12.3 to express themselves on online environments 766 42.2 611 33.7 250 13.8 104 5.7 84 4.6 to play online games 883 48.7 567 31.2 180 9.9 97 5.3 88 4.8 to make new friends 908 50.0 659 36.3 145 8.0 45 2.5 58 3.2 why don’t distance education students use social network sites? 12.1% of the respondents reported that they don’t use snss (n = 250) (table 8). these participants stated that they don’t use snss because of the following reasons: they are not interested in joining social networking (42%), they joined once, but they didn’t enjoy it (32.8%), privacy issues (32.4%), cultural issues (12%) and other reasons (8.4%). some “other reasons” reported by distance learners are: lack of time, inaccessibility to the internet and misinformation on snss. 358 table 8: reasons for not using snss reasons* frequency percentage (n = 250) percentage (n = 1815) i am not interested in joining social networking i joined once, but i didn’t enjoy it privacy issues it’s against my culture other reasons 105 82 81 30 21 42.0 32.8 32.4 12.0 8.4 5.7 4.5 4.5 1.6 1.1 *research participants were allowed to select more than one reason do distance education students think of snss for learning purposes? those who don’t use snss were asked whether they might use snss for learning purposes such as discussing in course groups or pages, accessing learning content, etc. (table 9). of all the respondents, 30.4% said that they would use snss in the future, 41.6% said that they did not think they would use snss in any case, while 28% of the respondents stated that they were not sure whether they would use snss for learning purposes in the future. table 9: future considerations to use snss for learning purposes consideration frequency percentage (n = 250) percentage (n = 1815) yes no not sure 76 104 70 30.4 41.6 28.0 3.7 5.0 3.4 do distance education students think of snss for communication purposes? in an effort to understand future possibilities to use snss, distance education students were asked whether they might use snss for communication purposes or not (table 10). accordingly, 30.4% of the distance education students stated that they plan to use snss for communication purposes, while 41.6% of the respondents do not plan to use snss even for communication purposes. a total of 22.4% of the respondents reported that they were not sure whether to use snss or not. table 10: future considerations to use snss for communication purposes consideration frequency percentage (n = 250) percentage (n = 1815) yes no not sure 66 128 56 26.4 54.2 22.4 3.2 6.2 2.7 how do snss affect distance education students’ communication patterns? in order to understand how distance education students perceive snss in terms of communication, a questionnaire item was directed to respondents (table 11). while 38.8% of distance education students reported that snss don’t have an effect on face-to-face (f2f) communication, 41.9% of the 359 students reported that snss somewhat have an effect on f2f communication and 19.3% of these students think that snss replace most of the f2f communication. table 11: how do snss affect distance education students’ communication? degree of effect frequency percentage do not have an effect on face-to-face communication somewhat have an effect on face-to-face communication replace most of the face-to-face communication 704 760 351 38.8 41.9 19.3 the total of respondents who think snss somewhat have an effect on (41.9%) or replaces most of the face-to-face communication (19.3%) is 61.2%. accordingly, this finding indicates that snss also support intimacy (argyle, & dean, 1965), which is another dimension of social presence, because 61.2% think that snss provide similar experiences to f2f communication. following descriptive analysis, whether there is a relationship between gender and communication patterns and gender and degree of interaction, pearson’s chi-square test (fisher, 1922; pearson, 1900) was used. accordingly, there was a significant association between gender and communication patterns χ2 (2 n = 1815) = 12.28, p = .002; gender and degree of interaction χ2 (4 n = 1815) = 9.76, p = .045. this seems to represent the fact that gender and communication patterns and gender and degree of interaction have a relationship. what is distance education students’ degree of interaction on snss? to discover behavior and interaction patterns of distance education students on snss, respondents were asked to report how they behave on snss (table 12). thirty-one percent of the students stated that they simply lurk on snss; 8.2% of the students only like/favor the shares; 15.4% of the students like, share and favor posts, while 25.9% further comment on these posts. additionally, 19.5% of distance education students create new posts, join the discussions, like, share and add to favorites. table 12: behavior and interaction patterns of post-graduate students degree of interaction frequency percentage i usually don’t do anything but look at the posts i only like/favorite the shares i like, share and add the posts to my favorites i comment on, like and share the posts i create new posts, join the discussions, like, share and add to my favorites 562 149 280 470 354 31.0 8.2 15.4 25.9 19.5 pearson’s chi-square test (fisher, 1922; pearson, 1900) was used to analyse the age groups of the participants (table 1). accordingly, there was no significant association between age and communication patterns χ2 (12 n = 1815) = 13.12, p = .361; however, there was a significant association age and degree of interaction χ2 (24 n = 1815) = 77.61, p = .000. this seems to represent the fact that, in terms of the age groups of the participants, age and communication patterns do not have a relationship, but age and degree of interaction have a relationship. 360 how do communication patterns and degree of interaction correlate? to better understand distance education students’ communication patterns and degree of interaction, correspondence analysis was performed to identify and visualize the relationship between the variables of these two categories. as can be seen in a scatter graph (figure 1), it is revealed that “it does not have an effect on face-to-face communication” (a1) and “i usually don’t do anything but look at the posts” (b1); “somewhat have an effect on face-to-face communication” (a2), “i only like/favorite the shares” (b2), “i like, share and add the posts to my favorites” (b3) and “i comment on, like and share the posts” (b4); and “it replaces most of the face-to-face communication” (a3) and “i create new posts, join the discussions, like, share and add to my favorites (b5)” are associated with each other. in terms of communication and interaction issues, distance education students think that an sns “replaces most of the face-to-face communication” or “somewhat have an effect on face-to-face communication” (both constitute 61.2%) and “does not have an effect on face-to-face communication” (38.8%). in terms of interactivity, research findings reveal that around 20% of the students are active producers, while 80% of the students are consumers decreasingly on the producer-consumer continuum. the pareto principle (aka the 80–20 rule) suggests that roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. in other words, the many consume what the relatively few create (juran, 1975). according to research findings, while 19.5% of students create the contents, the remaining 80.5% consume what has been created. the findings have similar tendencies to previous research. for instance, according to rainie, brenner and purcell (2012), 56% of internet users do at least one of the creating or curating activities, while 32% of internet users do both creating and curating. the interaction pattern identified in this research is important in terms of understanding the potential of snss because it can be explained by power law (adamic, & huberman, 2000), which can be seen in scale-free networks. the interaction pattern in scale-free networks are quite similar to networks that exist in the physical world. figure 1: scatter plot for communication patterns and degree of interaction. 361 conclusion and future directions this paper explored the use of snss for communication, interaction and learning by the distance education students at anadolu university, turkey, which is a dual-mode mega university that facilitates both face-to-face (n = 30,565 students), and distance education (n = 2,724,650 students). a great majority of the students (87.9%) stated that they use snss. mobile devices are the distinctly preferred devices to access snss and be present online. distance education students usually connect to snss on a daily basis and most of them are always online. in regard to length of the usage patterns, it was seen that distance education students are experienced users, and snss are part of their lives. in terms of learning, most distance education students find snss promising, while some have negative thoughts and are undecided on using them in learning processes. the main reasons to use snss are for social communication and interaction as well as being present online. only small amounts of distance education students do not use snss. the majority of those that do not use snss also stated that they could use snss for learning purposes but not for communication purposes. distance education students think snss have an effect on their communication patterns, and their online degree of interaction is similar to offline patterns as explained in the pareto principle. additionally, there is a correlation between type of communication and degree of interaction. in addition, it was found that gender is significant in terms of communication patterns and degree of interaction. however, it was found that age is significant in terms of degree of interaction, but not for communication patterns. based on the above research findings and discussions, the following future implications can be taken into consideration by anadolu university and other higher education institutions. currently, anadolu university benefits from snss for administrative purposes and student support services. by using snss, it facilitates a constant communication channel with students, promotes institutional announcements, gains feedbacks from students, runs university marketing campaigns, and most importantly gains insights about how students feel by analysing students’ reactions. moreover, students use snss for informal communication among themselves, receiving announcements, and keeping in communication with their institute. even though snss were effectively used for administrative purposes and student support services, there is a need for some experimental research in using snss for educational purposes. as explained in the literature review section, snss are used as a social learning management system with fewer student numbers. however, it is still unclear how to use snss with a massive number of students to facilitate education. in this regard, future studies can focus on the instructional use of snss with a massive number of students, and these studies can focus on developing institutional policies and strategic planning about the use of snss as an educational tool in distance education. acknowledgement this study was supported by anadolu university scientific research projects commission under the grant no: 1605e517. references aaen, j., & dalsgaard, c. (2016). student facebook groups as a third space: between social life and schoolwork. learning, media and technology, 41(1), 160-186. 362 adamic, l. a., & huberman, b. a. (2000). power-law distribution of the world wide web. science, 287(5461), 2115-2115. alloway, t. p., horton, j., alloway, r. g., & dawson, c. (2013). social networking sites and cognitive abilities: do they make you smarter?. computers & education, 63, 10-16. al-mukhaini, e. m., al-qayoudhi, w. s., & al-badi, a. h. (2014). adoption of social networking in education: a study of the use of social networks by higher education students in oman. journal of international education research, 10(2), 143. anadolu university. (n.d). anadolu at a glance. retrieved from https://www.anadolu.edu.tr/en/aboutanadolu/institutional/anadolu-at-a-glance andrews, t., tynan, b., & backstrom, k. (2012). distance learners' use of non-institutional social media to augment and enhance their learning experience. in ascilite 2012: future challenges, sustainable futures, 25-28 nov 2012, wellington, new zealand. argyle, m., & dean, j. (1965). eye contact and distance affiliation. sociometry, 28(3), 289-304. bicen, h., & uzunboylu, h. (2013). the use of social networking sites in education: a case study of facebook. j. ucs, 19(5), 658-671. bosch, t. e. (2009). using online social networking for teaching and learning: facebook use at the university of cape town. communication: south african journal for communication theory and research, 35(2), 185-200. boyd, d. m., & ellison, n. b. (2007). social network sites: definition, history, and scholarship. journal of computer-mediated communication, 13(1), 210-230. bozkurt, a. & tu, c-h. (2016). digital identity formation: socially being real and present on digital networks. educational media international, 53(3), 153-167. bozkurt, a., karadeniz, a., & okur, m., r. (2015). online social networks as communication and learning environments: post-graduate students' attitudes and preferences. in, proceedings of 7th international conference on education and new learning technologies conference (edulearn15), 6th-8th july 2015 (pp. 46864694), barcelona, spain. brady, k. p., holcomb, l. b., & smith, b. v. (2010). the use of alternative social networking sites in higher educational settings: a case study of the e-learning benefits of ning in education. journal of interactive online learning, 9(2), 151-170. callaghan, g., & fribbance, i. (2016). the use of facebook to build a community for distance learning students: a case study from the open university. open learning: the journal of open, distance and e-learning, 31(3), 260272. cheikh-ammar, m., & barki, h. (2016). the influence of social presence, social exchange and feedback features on sns continuous use: the facebook context. journal of organizational and end user computing (joeuc), 28(2), 33-52. cheung, c. m., chiu, p. y., & lee, m. k. (2011). online social networks: why do students use facebook?. computers in human behavior, 27(4), 1337-1343. chugh, r., & ruhi, u. (2017). social media in higher education: a literature review of facebook. education and information technologies, 1-12. creswell, j. w. (2012). educational research: planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative approaches to research. upper saddle river, nj: merrill/pearson education. dahlstrom, e., grunwald, p., de boor, t., & vockley, m. (2011). ecar national study of students and information technology in higher education, 2011. educuase center for applied research. retrieved from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ers1103/ers1103w.pdf daniel, j. s. (1998). mega-universities and knowledge media: technology strategies for higher education. psychology press. 363 deschryver, m., mishra, p., koehleer, m., & francis, a. (2009). moodle vs. facebook: does using facebook for discussions in an online course enhance perceived social presence and student interaction? in, proceedings of society for information technology & teacher education international conference (pp. 329–336). chesapeake, va: aace. dron, j., & anderson, t. (2009a). how the crowd can teach. in s. hatzipanagos & s. warburton (eds.), handbook of research on social software and developing community ontologies (pp. 1–17). hershey, pa: igi global information science. duggan, m. (2015). mobile messaging and social media 2015. retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/08/19/mobile-messaging-and-social-media-2015/ duggan, m., & brenner, j. (2013). the demographics of social media users – 2012. washington, dc: pew internet & american life project. retrieved from http://socialmarketing.blogs.com/r_craiig_lefebvres_social/2013/02/demographics-of-social-network-siteusers-2013.html#sthash.ax4nrhmh.dpuf duncan, d. g., & barczyk, c. c. (2013). facebook in the university classroom: do students perceive that it enhances community of practice and sense of community. international journal of business and social science, 4(3), 1-14. faculty focus. (2011). social media usage trends among higher education faculty. retrieved from https://www.facultyfocus.com/free-reports/social-media-usage-trends-among-higher-education-faculty/ fisher, r. a. (1922). on the interpretation of chi square from contingency tables, and the calculation of p. journal of the royal statistical society, 85, 87–94. garcia, e., elbeltagi, i. m., dungay, k., & hardaker, g. (2015). student use of facebook for informal learning and peer support. the international journal of information and learning technology, 32(5), 286-299. gaskell, a., & r. mills. (2010). can we really learn from mobile handheld devices? paper presented at the pancommonwealth forum on open and distance learning, cochin, india. greenhow, c. (2011). online social networking and learning. international journal of cyber behavior, psychology and learning, 1(1), 36–50. gregory, p. gregory, k. eddy, e. (2014). the instructional network: using facebook to enhance undergraduate mathematics instruction. journal of computers in mathematics and science teaching, 33(1), 5-26. hormes, j. m. (2016). under the influence of facebook? excess use of social networking sites and drinking motives, consequences, and attitudes in college students. journal of behavioral addictions, 5(1), 122-129. hormes, j. m., kearns, b., & timko, c. a. (2014). craving facebook? behavioral addiction to online social networking and its association with emotion regulation deficits. addiction, 109, 2079–2088. iordache, d.d., lamanauskas, v. (2013). exploring the usage of social networking websites: perceptions and opinions of romanian university students. informatica economică, 17(4), 18-25. junco, r. (2015). student class standing, facebook use, and academic performance. journal of applied developmental psychology, 36, 18-29. juran, j. m. (1975). the non-pareto principle; mea culpa. quality progress, 8(5), 8-9. kenney, j., kumar, s., & hart, m. (2013). more than a social network: facebook as a catalyst for an online educational community of practice. international journal of social media and interactive learning environments, 1(4), 355-369. khan, t., kend, m., & robertson, s. (2016). use of social media by university accounting students and its impact on learning outcomes. accounting education, 25(6), 534-567. kuss, d. j., & griffiths, m. d. (2017). social networking sites and addiction: ten lessons learned. international journal of environmental research and public health, 14(3), 311. lambić, d. (2016). correlation between facebook use for educational purposes and academic performance of students. computers in human behavior, 61, 313-320. 364 lee, m. j. w., & mcloughlin, c. (2010). beyond distance and time constraints: applying social networking tools and web 2.0 approaches to distance learning. in g. veletsianos (ed.), emerging technologies in distance education (pp. 61–87). edmonton, ab: athabasca university press. li, j., lai, j., & zhang, g. (2015, july). investigating the reasons of hiding personal relationships in sns. in proceedings of the 2nd european conference on social media 2015: ecsm 2015 (p. 278). academic conferences limited. li, x., ganeshan, k., & xu, g. (2012, october). the role of social networking sites in e-learning. in frontiers in education conference (fie), 2012 (pp. 1-6). ieee. liu, m., mckelroy, e., kang, j., harron, j., & liu, s. (2016). examining the use of facebook and twitter as an additional social space in a mooc. american journal of distance education, 30(1), 14-26. maleko, m., nandi, d., hamilton, m., d'souza, d., & harland, j. (2013, march). facebook versus blackboard for supporting the learning of programming in a fully online course: the changing face of computing education. in learning and teaching in computing and engineering (latice), 2013 (pp. 83-89). ieee. manasijević, d., živković, d., arsić, s., & milošević, i. (2016). exploring students’ purposes of usage and educational usage of facebook. computers in human behavior, 60, 441-450. manca, s., & ranieri, m. (2016b). facebook and the others. potentials and obstacles of social media for teaching in higher education. computers & education, 95, 216-230. manca, s., & ranieri, m. (2016a). is facebook still a suitable technology-enhanced learning environment? an updated critical review of the literature from 2012 to 2015. journal of computer assisted learning, 32(6), 503528. mazman, s. g., & usluel, y. k. (2010). modeling educational usage of facebook. computers & education, 55(2), 444-453. mccann, k. h. (2009). virtual communities for educators: an overview of supports and best practices. proceedings from technology, colleges, and community conference (pp. 137-142). honolulu, hi: university of hawai’i at manoa. meishar-tal, h., kurtz, g., & pieterse, e. (2012). facebook groups as lms: a case study. the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 13(4), 33-48. o'neil, s. m., & h. wels. (2016). facebook: a tool to enhance teaching and learning for postgraduate research students. journal for new generation sciences, 14(3), 91-110. pearson, k. (1900). on the criterion that a given system of deviations from the probable in the case of a correlated system of variables is such that it can be reasonably supposed to have arisen from random sampling. philosophical magazine, 50(5), 157–175. pempek, t. a., yermolayeva, y. a., & calvert, s. l. (2009). college students' social networking experiences on facebook. journal of applied developmental psychology, 30(3), 227-238. pimmer, c., linxen, s., & gröhbiel, u. (2012). facebook as a learning tool? a case study on the appropriation of social network sites from mobile phones in developing countries. british journal of educational technology, 43(5), 726-738. ractham, p., & firpo, d. (2011, january). using social networking technology to enhance learning in higher education: a case study using facebook. in system sciences (hicss), 2011, 44th hawaii international conference (pp. 1-10). ieee. rainie, r., brenner, j. & purcell, k. (2012). photos and videos as social currency online. retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/2012/09/13/photos-and-videos-as-social-currency-online/ rap, s., & blonder, r. (2017). thou shall not try to speak in the facebook language: students' perspectives regarding using facebook for chemistry learning. computers & education, 114, 69-78. 365 roblyer, m. d., mcdaniel, m., webb, m., herman, j., & witty, j. v. (2010). findings on facebook in higher education: a comparison of college faculty and student uses and perceptions of social networking sites. the internet and higher education, 13(3), 134-140. rodríguez-hoyos, c., haya salmón, i., & fernández díaz, e. m. (2015). research on sns and education: the state of the art and its challenges. australasian journal of educational technology, 31(1), 100-111. rodriguez, j. e. (2011). social media use in higher education: key areas to consider for educators. journal of online learning and teaching, 7(4), 539-550. schroeder, a., minocha, s., & schneider, c. (2010). the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of using social software in higher and further education teaching and learning. journal of computer assisted learning, 26(3), 159–174. short, j., williams, e., & christie, b. (1976). the social psychology of telecommunications. london: john wiley & sons. tess, p. a. (2013). the role of social media in higher education classes (real and virtual)–a literature review. computers in human behavior, 29(5), a60-a68. times higher education. (2017). the world university rankings. retrieved from https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/anadolu-university veletsianos, g., & navarrete, c.c. (2012). online social networks as formal learning environments: learner experiences and activities. international review of research in open and distributed learning, 13(1), 144-166. wang, j., lin, c.f. c., yu, w.c.w., & wu, e. (2013). meaningful engagement in facebook learning environments: merging social and academic lives. turkish online journal of distance education, 14(1), 302-322. wang, q., woo, h. l., quek, c. l., yang, y., & liu, m. (2011). using the facebook group as learning management system: an exploratory study. british journal of educational technology, 43(3), 428-438. we are social singapore. (2016). digital in 2016. retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/wearesocialsg/digitalin-2016 webb, e. (2009). engaging students with engaging tools. educause quarterly, 32(4), 1–7. west, r., waddoups, g., & graham, c. (2006). understanding the experiences of instructors as they adopt a course management system. educational technology research and development, 55(1), 1–26. wheeler, s., yeomans, p., & wheeler, d. (2008). the good, the bad and the wiki: evaluating student-generated content for collaborative learning. british journal of educational technology, 39(6), 987–995. whitworth, a., & benson, a. (2010). learning, design, and emergence: two cases of moodle in distance education. in g. veletsianos (ed.), emerging technologies in distance education (pp. 195–213). edmonton, ab: athabasca university press. wiener, m., & mehrabian, a. (1968). language within language: immediacy, a channel in verbal communication. new york: appleton-century-crofts. worldatlas. (2017). universities with the largest enrollments in the world. retrieved from http://www.worldatlas.com/articles/universities-with-the-largest-enrollments-in-the-world.html authors: aras bozkurt is a faculty member at anadolu university, open education faculty, eskisehir, turkey. email: arasbozkurt@gmail.com abdulkadir karadeniz is a faculty member at anadolu university, open education faculty, eskisehir, turkey. email: abdulkadir.karadeniz@gmail.com serpil kocdar is a faculty member at anadolu university, open education faculty, eskisehir, turkey. email: serpilkocdar@gmail.com seelig the role distance learning has to play in offender education caroline seelig and leanne rate vol. 1, no. 1 abstract this article looks into the uses of digital and online tools in distance learning to improve literacy and numeracy of offenders in new zealand prisons.  looking at the benefits and restrictions of digital education within the prison environment, this article discusses the solutions that open polytechnic, in partnership with the the new zealand government, has put in place to give prisoners further opportunity for rehabilitation, and ultimately prepare them for re-entry into society, the workforce or further study. introduction  as the pace of the modern world continues to speed up, education, both secondary and post-secondary, has a major role to play in up-skilling citizens to remain work ready for the changing skills needed in the increasingly digital work place. with an economy still reeling from the global financial recession, young people emerging from universities with diploma and degrees in hand are also discovering how tough it is to find work that bears a resemblance to what they have studied for the last 3 – 5 years. the situation for working adults who have years of experience behind them, and is able to dip in and out of post-secondary education to gain qualifications through distance learning is a little better as employers seek employees with both credentials and real world experience.  this has always been the great advantage of open and distance learning – mainly adult learners able to fit their studies around everything else going on their lives so that they can continue to earn a living while they work towards their next career step. distance learning has also been able to use blended approaches to reach out to adults who have slipped out of the school system, and thus lack basic numeracy and literacy skills, to help them gain a ‘second chance’ at learning to increase their employability.  the open polytechnic's blended model the open polytechnic of new zealand has for several years used a blended approach of appropriately designed distance learning materials and face-to-face mentors or coaches, to enable sectors of the community most in need to gain basic literacy, numeracy and communication skills so that they are able to take their first, or next, step up the employment ladder. there is a whole section of adult society, however, that has traditionally been unable to access any kind of post-secondary education that will help them change their lives and the lives of their families – those who have been sentenced to a custodial sentence in a prison or community care facility. like many countries around the world, the statistics for incarceration in new zealand continue to grow over time. in 2002 6,048 people were serving a sentence in prison or remanded in custody, in 2012 this grew to 8,618 (statistics new zealand, 2013). in 2011, 199 people per 100,000 of the population were incarcerated in new zealand. the highest proportion of these offenders were in the prime of their working lives with 62% aged between 20 – 39 years (te ara, 2013a).  while new zealand prison population rates are, for example, well behind those of the united states of america (716 per 100,000); cuba (510 per 100,000), thailand (388, per 100,000) or south africa (289 per 100,000) (international centre for prison studies, 2013) we all face the issue of millions of adults around the world being locked away for many hours a day without access to any kind of mental stimulation to keep their minds active, with the consequence that they have little chance of gaining skills that will help them re-enter the workforce once they have completed their custodial sentence.  this creates a cycle of reoffending as people return to the life they knew prior to incarceration. international research has shown that a large percentage of crime is as a result of prisoners reoffending upon their release (hawley, murphy & souto-otero, 2013) as an example, research carried out in new zealand with a small sample of prisoners showed that 90% of these prisoners lacked basic literacy and numeracy skills (department of corrections, 2013a).  new zealand has recently conducted more research in this area with a larger number of prisoners, but this has yet to be released. a significant number of offenders are also parents, and upon their release, without basic numeracy and literacy skills, are unable to provide educational stimulation for their own children, or help them if they have learning difficulties.  this contributes to a continuing cycle of educational under achievement and thus reduced employment opportunities. in the majority of countries around the world, there is an over representation of indigenous or ethnic minorities in our prison systems.  within the new zealand prison environment in 2011 50% of prisoners were māori, 34% european, and 12% were pasifika (department of corrections, 2013b). in comparison around 15% of the new zealand population identify as māori, 67% as european, and 8% as pasifika (te ara, 2013a; te ara, 2013b; te ara, 2013c). the pattern repeats in other western countries, with african americans making up 37% of the prison population in the united states of america, and hispanics 20%, despite the fact that they are only 13% and 14% of the general population respectively (richards et al 2008). in australia, aboriginal and torres strait islanders made up 27% of the prison population in 2012, but represent only 2.5% of the general population (australian bureau of statistics, 2013). few would disagree that offenders should face consequences. but we have enough evidence now to know that simply isolating offenders and controlling privileges is not enough to turn their behaviours around.  we need new initiatives that give offenders the skills to learn a better way of participating in society, and which grow their sense of self-esteem and employability.  a downstream effect of such initiatives is that offenders learn coping skills that help reduce the instances where they may cause harm once they have served their sentence. in 1995 the united nations and unesco released a paper ‘basic education in prisons’ that reiterated its 1990 resolution that all prisoners were entitled to education, and that while prisoners have contributed to their own marginalisation through their own actions, they still have a basic human right to education.  however, access to education programmes can be patchy, and requires a large institutional effort on behalf of prisons and education providers to make such projects a success.  a recent report on prison education and training in europe shows that prisoner participation in such programmes is below 25% due to a range of issues including prisoner reluctance or unsuitability, and institutional barriers (hawley et al, 2013). several studies have now shown that being able to access education and achieve nationally recognised qualifications that help offenders find work after serving a custodial sentence can reduce instances of reoffending. for example, a study cited by richards, faggian, roffers, henricksen & krueger (2008) discusses the research undertaken by the correctional education association in the united states of america of 3100 prison inmates over a three-year period.  it states: the study divided the group into those who participated in a correctional education programme while incarcerated and those who did not take advantage of it.  their findings show a 29 per cent overall reduction in the recidivism rate for the group participating in correctional education in comparison to those not participating. (p 129). the department of corrections in new zealand has acknowledged the research into the factors that help reduce recidivism, and actively supports education and employment programmes within our prisons (department of corrections, 2013c). as part of an effort to reduce recidivism, and based on international research, the new zealand government has introduced a range of initiatives to reduce re-offending and reduce the total crime rate. under its better public services goals, the new zealand government aims to reduce reoffending by 25% by june 2017, of which education programmes and qualification achievement at levels 1-4 on the new zealand national qualifications framework will play a major role (state services commission, 2013). to reach its target, the government has committed to more than doubling the number of prisoners who receive access to numeracy and literacy education each year and who are supported to achieve and complete self-directed secondary and tertiary qualifications (department of corrections, 2013c).  one of the challenges for prisoners who want to participate in an education programme is the environment in which they live.  during their incarceration they usually have no access to internet services which makes online learning and research difficult.  they may also be locked in cells for significant proportions of time, and unable to access regular face-to-face tutoring.  at any stage of their incarceration they could be moved from one prison to another in a different location, or be released to a community based facility – which makes participation in any structured face-to-face based teaching programme difficult. of all the modalities of education, distance learning is more accessible to offenders serving a custodial sentence.  distance learning is learner centric, it allows the student to choose the time that suits them best to study, and, when delivered in its pure form with all learning materials delivered to the student (either paper based or online), is pedagogically sound as a way of lone students gaining the knowledge they need to successfully complete assessments to a similar standard as could be completed by students accessing face-to-face education. however, given the literacy and numeracy challenges that many prisoners must overcome, it is more advisable to ensure a blended approach is used, where students can delve into the learning materials in their own time, backed up by access to a mentor or coach at pivotal points along the learning journey. the reassurance a mentor or coach can give students facing confidence issues or a learning block at key stages in their learning, can deliver a huge self-esteem boost that helps them continue their educational journey. this mode of blended delivery is the model that the open polytechnic is currently using in our partnership with the new zealand department of corrections to deliver foundation level education leading to nationally recognised qualifications  (at levels 1-2 on the new zealand qualifications framework) to up to 1,000 prisoners throughout the country. as part of its comprehensive programme to give prisoners the best chances for rehabilitation, and ultimately prepare them for re-entry into society, the workforce or further study, the department of corrections identified five qualifications offered by the open polytechnic that prisons can access to further develop their  literacy, numeracy, communication work and life skills. these qualifications include: open polytechnic certificate in career and self development national certificate in employment skills open polytechnic certificate in work and life skills national certificate of educational achievement (ncea) levels 1 and 2 the open polytechnic has structured these programmes so that they pathway to higher level qualifications, enabling them to celebrate achievement along the way.  anecdotal feedback we have had from educators working with prisoners was that often they had low esteem, had never achieved success in education during their lives, and that early success was a huge boost that encouraged them to continue in their studies. courses early on in the programme are designed for adult learners who have low and limited literacy and numeracy levels. the programme applies the research on effective literacy and numeracy development for adults by developing confidence and competence in reading, writing, listening and numeracy strategies, in the context of their everyday life (family, community, and employment). learners study this suite of programmes to gain literacy and numeracy levels to enable them to staircase into followup courses. further courses in the qualification facilitate learners to identify positive ways forward in their lives. learners explore aspects of their personal, social and educational development with a focus on literacy, effective communication, financial goal-setting, and training and employment pathways. learners also explore personal and community health and wellness, establish realistic plans to enhance employment opportunities and set future goals. followup courses within the programme are designed to get prisoners work-ready, develop their employment prospects, inspire and staircase them into further study, and prepare them for the workforce. due to the high proportion of māori offenders in new zealand prisons, the open polytechnic has contextualised the course materials so that they reflect culturally appropriate images and messages for offenders so that they are better able to identify with what they are learning. the course materials are instructionally designed for self-managed learning.  they enable the learner to work through comprehensive guides, journals and workbooks independently in their own time and place. the language used within the course materials is aligned with the new zealand government’s literacy and numeracy progression standards. the reflective journals supplied with the courseware are used for learners to assess, monitor and evaluate their personal, social and academic learning experiences.  the course materials are also specifically designed to allow for varying learning styles. they are printed in full colour and contain photos and illustrations to help maintain the learner’s interest as they progress through the course. as i mentioned earlier, the open polytechnic uses a blended delivery approach for our partnership with the department of corrections.  a coach is integral to the successful delivery of the courses we offer to offenders, as it is important for learners to get guidance and support when learning new skills. the programme is highly motivational with a focus on supporting and inspiring learners. to achieve this, the programme has a strong support component which includes face-to–face coaching, with at least two student/coach interactions per course. the programme enables learners to study independently, meet regularly with small groups of other learners and provides support from programme coaches. we have been pleased with the achievement levels we are seeing from offenders enrolled in the programme. but we are also aware that they are not able to access support from coaches whenever they reach a learning block, and that print based learning materials can provide challenges for those that struggle with basic literacy issues.  on top of this, learners in prisons, particularly māori and pasifika learners, may not ask questions or draw attention to themselves in classrooms or groups. reasons for this include cultural factors and previous lack of educational success. on top of building literacy and numeracy skills, offenders must also face the additional challenge of mastering the increasingly digital world we live in.  digital and online tools change rapidly, and employers now expect employees to have basic digital literacy skills.  these can be impossible for an offender to master if they have no access to the internet, computers or mobile devices over several years during their incarceration. what’s more, educational technology has been shown to support the development of literacy and numeracy, and skills development (davis et al, 2010). multimedia, audio, images and video can help overcome learning difficulties. mobile devices give learners control and independence, and they support the practise of skills. so how can we help offenders improve their educational outcomes and learn digital skills while also complying with rules about limiting offenders’ access to the outside world through the internet?   farley et al, (2012) describe their challenge in selecting a technological device to support private learning that could work within the constraints of correctional centres. they selected an e-book reader that could hold a large number of files, could not connect to the internet, could not connect remotely to another device (other than via a cable which only education officers would be able to access), has batteries that cannot be removed without damaging the device, and has a long battery life, that ‘can be measured in weeks or months’. with this pilot project in mind, and the advances that are now being seen in delivering tablet based technology, the open polytechnic is conducting its own pilot trial of delivering learning resources to offenders on tablets.  if successful, the tablet will supplement the work done with the physical coach, and will enable offenders to gain additional guidance in between visits from their coach. the tablet version of our courseware in the pilot uses a similar framework to the workbooks in the programme, but adds a ‘getting started’ section to introduce learners to tablet use as well as to the programme itself. the coach takes this role in the current blended delivery model.  during the development of our tablet project open polytechnic staff have engaged with key stakeholders involved in offender education, and feedback provided about the opportunities of the project, which included the potential of tablets to: decrease the need to have a coach supporting the learner (this will increase independent learning) support independent learning for low-literacy learners by using video and audio reuse content developed by others, such as apps to develop literacy and numeracy enable learners to practise skills using interactive and responsive activities and games utilise diagnostic and adaptive features to enhance learning efficiency potentially increase engagement through games, multimedia and responsive interactivity provide an almost limitless number of practise activities because of the ability to store large amounts of data at low cost support portability of materials build technology literacy low reproduction costs. however, stakeholder feedback also recognised that print materials still offer benefits, such as: familiarity safer distribution within the prison environment supporting the development of different skills such as  handwriting overcoming the constraints of a small technological device such as being able to enlarge images and diagrams being able to keep a record of activities, as learners may not be able to keep the tablet. of course, delivering a project such as this in a prison environment has specific and unique challenges which limits the choice of tablets we can use. the learning device must not be capable of being utilised for illegal purposes, nor used to contravene prison regulations. voice recording devices and cameras might compromise the security of prison staff, so they need to be disabled, which then eliminates potentially helpful learning options. new systems in the prison will need to be developed so staff can be sure how such devices are being used. the majority of prison systems around the world do not allow internet access, although the norwegian prison system does allow offenders access to educational websites (but all other websites are blocked) (hansen & breivik, 2010). new zealand is one of the prison systems that does not currently allow offenders’ access to the internet, which means the type of content that can be developed for the tablet is more limited. for example, when looking for games to use, the criteria were: fully self-contained, able to be stored, will work on the specific device, cannot be accessed online. while these challenges seem significant, we see the value in investing in our tablet project.  if we can prove it complies with the restrictions of a prison environment, the implications of improving prisoner engagement in education could help to further develop literacy, numeracy and digital literacy. often governments focus on meeting the demands of the many in the delivery of cost effective education services.  but this one-size-fits-all education model can fail the most vulnerable in our society, with sometimes tragic consequences.  the high relative number of indigenous and ethnic minorities in our prison systems highlight the need to develop better education systems that can assist those that have failed, or been failed, in their first attempt at higher education. open and distance learning organisations across the commonwealth have a major role to play in engaging with prisoner services. such institutions are able to ensure offenders’ education is not abandoned as they pass through the various stages of offender management such as remand, custodial, community and probation sentences.  the world is moving towards a digital future, and to give offenders the best chance of rehabilitation and employment opportunities, they need to be familiar with technology that modern society is now taking for granted. this presents a challenge for distance learning providers, who must develop digitally enhanced courseware on devices that cannot use the internet, but which replicate an interactive experience. while the challenge may seem huge, the benefits to society of providing access to education for offenders which helps reduces recidivism rates are many.  it is in this often difficult environment that we can show that distance learning remains one of the most powerful forces for change when there are challenges in the setting in which learning can occur. references australian bureau of statistics.  prisoner snapshot http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/products/5087123b0cce48c1ca257b3c000dc7ce?opendocument [accessed 4 september 2013] australian bureau of statistics.  aboriginal and torres strait islander population http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/lookup/by%20subject/1301.0~2012~main%20features~aboriginal%20and%20torres%20strait%20islander%20population~50 [accessed 4 september 2013] davis, n., fletcher, j., brooker, b., everatt, j., gillon, g., mackey, j., & morrow, d. (2010). e-learning for adult literacy, language and numeracy: a review of the literature. http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/tertiary_education/76971/2.-full-literature-review [accessed 4 september 2013] department of corrections (a). our story. http://www.corrections.govt.nz/about_us/who_we_are/our_story.html [accessed 4 september 2013] department of corrections (b). prison facts and statistics – june 2013.  http://www.corrections.govt.nz/resources/facts_and_statistics/quarterly_prison_statistics/ps-dec-2013.html [accessed 16 september] department of corrections (c). education and training. http://www.corrections.govt.nz/working_with_offenders/prison_sentences/employment_and_support_programmes/education_and_training.html[accessed 2 september, 2013] farley, h., murphy, a., & bedford, t. 2012. bridging the digital divide: bringing e-literacy skills to incarcerated students. in m. brown, m. hartnett & t. stewart (eds.), future challenges, sustainable futures. proceedings ascilite 2012. hansen, b. & breivik, p. (2010). internet for prisoners in norway. inside time. january.  http://www.insidetime.org/articleview.asp?a=643 [accessed 13 september, 2013] hawley, j., murphy, i., & souto-otero, m. (2013). prison education and training in europe: current state of play and challenges. retrieved from: http://ec.europa.eu/education/adult/doc/survey/survey_en.pdf [accessed 4 september 2013] international centre for prison studies.  entire world – prison population rates per 100,000 of the national population. http://www.prisonstudies.org/info/worldbrief/wpb_stats.php?area=all&category=wb_poprate [accessed 2 september 2013] richards, s., faggian, d., roffers, j., hendricksen, r. & krueger, j. (2008). convict criminology: voices from prison. race/ethnicity: multidisciplinary global contexts, volume 1, autumn, pp. 121-136. statistics new zealand.  new zealand’s prison population http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/snapshots-of-nz/yearbook/society/crime/corrections.aspx [accessed 2 september 2013] state services commission.  better public services: reducing crime. http://www.ssc.govt.nz/bps-reducing-crime#result8 [accessed 2 september, 2013] te ara: the encyclopaedia of new zealand (a).  maori: people and culture today http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/maori/page-1 [accessed 11 september 2013] te ara: the encyclopaedia of new zealand (b).  the people of new zealand. http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/society/page-1 [accessed 11 september 2013] te ara: the encyclopaedia of new zealand (c).   pacific islands and new zealand. http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/pacific-islands-and-new-zealand [accessed 11 september 2013] united nations & unesco. 1995. basic education in prisons http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0011/001116/111660eo.pdf [accessed 4 september 2013] dr. caroline seelig is chief executive of the open polytechnic of new zealand.  an honorary advisor to the commonwealth of learning and a woolf fisher scholar, dr seelig has over 20 years’ experience as a senior manager in the new zealand technical and vocational education sector. e-mail: odlsirjohn@gmail.com ms leanne rate is communications manager for the open polytechnic, and has been involved in distance learning since 2005. microsoft word hassler.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 58-78 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. sustaining and scaling up pedagogic innovation in sub-saharan africa: grounded insights for teacher professional development bjoern hassler, sara hennessy, and riikka hofmann university of cambridge abstract: developing sustainable and scalable educational initiatives is a key challenge in low-income countries where donor-funded short-term projects are limited by both contextual factors and programme design. in this commentary we examine some of the issues related to in-service teacher development in the context of sub-saharan africa, grounded predominantly in our work of over five years of iteratively developing, refining and evaluating an intensive school-based professional learning programme for primary school teachers. ‘oer4schools’ integrates interactive pedagogy, open educational resources (oer) and the use of mobile devices (where available). our focus here is on identifying what the main factors are perceived to be in sustaining and scaling up such a programme, from the perspectives of participating teachers, workshop facilitators and the research team. synthesising our previous research and drawing on recent work in the field, we identify the key characteristics of effective and sustainable professional learning in lowresourced contexts. such characteristics include effective peer facilitation, school-based active learning, explicit programme structure, appropriate scheduling and resourcing, and mitigating resource constraints through the use of oer. our conclusions offer insights concerning the importance and impact of wider influences on participation and engagement of stakeholders and lead to recommendations for future programme design and implementation. keywords: teacher professional development; sustainable development goal 4; subsaharan africa; open educational resources; peer facilitation; school-based active learning introduction in order to increase the life chances of disadvantaged children, including in sub-saharan africa, the post-2015 development agenda is focussing on raising the quality of teaching and learning in schools (unesco, 2014; sustainable development goal 41), and, in particular, on supporting teacher learning. there is an increasing consensus that african teacher education needs to focus on more effective and culturally appropriate pedagogical practices, both in the classroom, and in teacher professional development (tpd) initiatives. however, prevailing tpd models tend to focus on one-off ‘top-down’ teacher development ‘interventions’ that are now recognised as being ineffective (moon et al., 2013; bett, 2016; wedell, 2009), and new approaches are being trialled (piper & zuilkowski, 2015). in this article, we conceptualise essential features of an alternative approach: school-based teacher professional development (sbtpd). such models with distributed leadership, ongoing classroom trialling, and sufficient scaffolding sustained over time are favourable regarding 59 cost, scalability, and effectiveness (orr et al., 2013; westbrook et al., 2013, p. 60-64). they include whole-school in-service approaches (with clustering) and reflective communities of practice; tpd must recognise the “everyday realities of the classroom, and the motivations and capacity of the teachers to deliver [...] reforms” (hardman, ackers, abrishamian, & o’sullivan, 2011, p. 670). however, cascade models of ‘knowledge transmission’ (‘lectures’ and rote learning for teachers) remain dominant. it has been recognised for over a decade now that such ‘training’ often lacks relevance for the audience. simplistic cascade models with little classroom followup are particularly problematic (orr et al., 2013; bett, 2016), especially where purporting to focus on student-centred, active learning, critical thinking and problem solving (leu, 2004, p. 2). the elements of “modelling [interactive teaching and learning], process and structured practice in which teachers play an active role” (ibid.) — the central tenets of effective tpd — may be lacking. in a tpd programme in kenya (1999–2005; hardman et al., 2011), for instance, key resource teachers (krts) were trained to lead tpd within their subject area in their schools. while significant changes were observed, those centred on the krts themselves (62% of krts used some form of peer interaction in their lesson, compared to 17% of non-krts; ibid.), indicated the traditional challenge with cascade models: the concentration of expertise at the top of the cascade (hayes, 2000). cascade models remain popular partly because their evaluation can be simple, relying on monitoring of inputs or self-reported outcomes, over short timescales. however, such monitoring is problematic due to gaps between self-reporting and actual classroom practice. for example, hardman et al. (2008) suggested that code-switching and chorus responses were under-reported, while group work was over-reported. such discrepancies have important implications for approaches to tpd relying on a rote-learning-for-teachers approach as a mechanism for pedagogical change: if pedagogy is discussed abstractly, but not practically explored and reflected within communities of practice, change is likely to be superficial even if positive outcomes are self-reported. where new technologies are introduced, the problem is exacerbated, since teacher induction is often very brief (one day) and technologically rather than pedagogically focused, with little attention paid to classroom practice (hennessy et al., 2010). focus of our analysis this commentary seeks to synthesise emerging messages from prior empirical work in the field. despite our own and others’ insights offering evidence of change, systematic tpd research in ssa is in its infancy. the statement below regarding tpd research in a high-income country is even more relevant in low-/middle-income countries (lmics). developers and policymakers urgently need more rigorous evidence that describes how professional development design elements impact the likelihood of program success. this is particularly important as most professional development is home-grown; it arises from district or local developers' needs and interests, has a relatively short shelf-life, and proceeds with little or no formal evaluation. (hill, beisiegel, & jacob, 2013, p. 476; our emphasis) 60 rather than case-by-case, hard-to-compare evidence, we need systematic insights into why change occurs and what made this possible. this article conceptualises an evidence-based sbtpd approach that allows pedagogic innovation to be embedded, maintained and scaled in ssa. it contributes to answering the question: what tpd programme design principles and characteristics are conducive to effective, sustainable and scalable tpd programme implementation and execution? we challenge overly prescriptive models and the orthodox practice of centralised (extrinsically motivated) teacher development (including some forms of online learning) with limited provision for school-based processes and without demonstrable sustained impact on pupil learning gains, and simplistic cascade and coaching models, intended to work without extensive scaffolding. while current tpd research in ssa does not meet the rigorous standards advocated by hill et al. (2013), the existing evidence does suggest that the approach to sbtpd conceptualised here may be a viable alternative, with the potential to address quality (and social justice) through a cost-effective, sustainable and scalable model. our article outlines the supportive factors underpinning tpd implementation in ssa, grounded in the literature and our own experiences with the oer4schools programme as an instrumental case. we reflect on the challenges experienced, design and cultural appropriateness of our programme, and its perceived success in terms of reflexivity, buy-in and local ownership as well as teacher development and changes in practice. we outline the key facilitating and constraining characteristics, including teacher motivation, attitudes of leadership and external expectations embedded in wider societal structures. an instrumental case: oer4schools the oer4schools programme seeks to offer an effective, sustained and holistic tpd model that is scalable. our research over five years demonstrated that the oer4schools sbtpd approach led to a range of new practices emerging. at the teacher level, changes included raised expectations of pupils, adapting to their knowledge levels, use of more practical and collaborative work, and integrated technology use. challenges included motivating teachers through head teacher support, opportunities for career progression through meaningful certification, plus avoiding superficial application of interactive teaching approaches. students built deeper subject understanding and engaged in genuine problem solving. our research offers evidence that peer-facilitated sbtpd can be effective, scalable and sustainable when it focuses on active teacher learning and classroom implementation, creates opportunities for collaboration with colleagues, and draws on digital technology where available in classrooms – as a motivator for professional learning and pedagogic change (hennessy, hassler, & hofmann, 2015b). such a model can help to build teacher capacity and increase participation and achievement of all pupils (hennessy, hassler, & hofmann, 2015a). 61 alongside the research, drawing on its emerging outcomes, researchers and participants iteratively developed and trialled oer4schools2, an sbtpd programme suitable for lowresourced schools and teaching practice in colleges, freely available as an open educational resource (oer; creative commons licensed; accessible, downloadable: hassler & mays, 2015). weekly teacher group meetings (tgm) explore interactive teaching principles, group work, questioning and dialogue, assessment for learning, and enquiry-based learning. materials include texts, practical activities, unique video exemplars of interactive practices in zambian and south african classrooms3 (with or without technology) and built-in facilitator notes. the observed changes were sustained over three years in one main research school, chalimbana basic school, a government school with 40 teachers and around 1000 students (grades 1–12), serving a mixed ses, rural community. following a one-year trial of the full programme in 2012, the entirely independent and spontaneous discussion and decision during a full staff meeting to extend the oer4schools programme to the whole school in 2013, in the belief that it would raise pupil attainment, provided evidence of its genuine endorsement by the teachers. importantly, little external support was available to the school during that subsequent period. the original facilitators were joined by two self-selected teachers, who, supported by the concrete tgm materials, worked with all colleagues. unlike typical cascading, the timescale here is a year: facilitators and the smaller group of teachers practised together for a year, before all teachers became involved, working in two parallel groups. the new joiners likewise changed their perceptions and reported changes in practice. many of the original teachers continued to develop as well. elsewhere, we discuss the inevitable obstacles (hassler, hennessy, & hofmann, forthcoming) and provide empirical evidence including an extensive data appendix; selected quotes captured at the end of the two-year unsupported programme extension (june/july 2014) and from follow-up interviews a year later (november 2015) supplement our account here. characteristics of effective and sustainable programme development and implementation how can tpd programmes be of high quality (educationally effective), as well as costeffective, whilst allowing for sustainability and scaling? an obvious consideration, perhaps, is that scaling and sustaining are more likely to occur if this is an explicit focus from the outset rather than leaving scaling and sustaining to a later programme phase. however, less obviously, we may ask: what are the characteristics of effective tpd that enable sustainability and scaling? characteristic 1: tpd must promote pupils’ learning (classroom level) ultimately, effective classroom pedagogy (improving learning outcomes, responding to local needs) is a necessary condition for sustaining and scaling tpd. what pedagogical practices are most effective in supporting pupil learning in lmics? the strongest evidence comes from a number of in-depth and rigorous reviews. westbrook et al. (2013) found that three specific strategies (feedback, sustained attention and inclusion; safe environments; drawing on 62 backgrounds) impact on pupil learning outcomes, and certain practices are characteristic of effective teachers (whole-class dialogue, group work; questioning; pedagogical content knowledge; code switching; lesson sequences). they concluded: “brought together as a package in an intervention or carefully constructed curriculum, supported by relevant professional development, they might make a considerable impact on student learning” (westbrook et al., 2013, p. 2). although developed earlier, oer4schools is aligned with those findings, constituting such a ‘package’; it offers effective support for teachers in developing such characteristics (hennessy et al., 2015b). characteristic 2: tpd must effectively promote teacher learning much of the evidence in lmics is small-scale, and the discourse around rigorous and systematic teacher development research is more extensive in developed countries (hill et al., 2013; king, 2014). however, the above tpd features resonate with: (a) the limited evidence from tpd research in lmics (lange, 2014; moon, 2007; nag, chiat, torgerson, & snowling, 2014, p. 29; orr et al., 2013, pp. 75-76; westbrook et al., 2013, pp. 60-61); (b) the wider tpd literature in developed countries (e.g., timperley, wilson, barrar, & fung, 2007; borko et al. 2010, table 2; education endowment foundation, 2014); and (c) research on children’s learning. hattie’s (2009) meta-analysis of over 800 meta-analyses of factors influencing attainment shows an overall large effect size (0.62) for professional development. given the existing evidence, it seems unlikely that somehow an entirely different set of features would apply to tpd in ssa; these features constitute at the very least a sensible first approach that should be adopted in the absence of reliable evidence to the contrary. credible theories of change describing the mechanisms by which tpd leads to deep pedagogical change in the classroom are evident in contemporary models of professional learning (schweisfurth, 2015). these include construing teachers as reflective professionals, alignment with local context, teacher-led discussion and joint reflection, promoting communities of practice, foregrounding and creating school-based opportunities for active experiential peer learning and classroom trials, with appropriate scaffolding, such as professional development materials. above all, collegial dialogue is pivotal in these models, with talk construed as the central vehicle for sharing, critiquing and developing ideas, values, and practices (“talk about teaching”; feiman-nemser, 2001, pp. 1042-43). the oer4schools programme overall, and the materials provided (c.f. characteristic 7), confirmed the influence of such features. teachers’ reported experiences highlighted the importance of classroom trialling and described this as 'seeing' that these pedagogic ideas matter, as opposed to having been taught them in college but not having previously 'seen' their relevance. indeed, one facilitator argued that merely getting teachers to trial and observe is enough to make them 'see' the importance of these methods. this resonates with the idea of making student learning visible to teachers (hattie, 2009). interactive pedagogy is not only the message, but also the medium (schweisfurth, 2011, p. 430). programmes need to incorporate (and focus on) elements essential for effectiveness (such as reflection and activity planning). rather than trying to ‘plug gaps’ in teacher knowledge, 63 programmes ideally empower teachers to become reflective practitioners, able to identify gaps in their own knowledge and skill, and to acquire these as needed (hardman et al., 2011). characteristic 3: effective tpd is predominantly school-based and ongoing what are the conditions enabling effective tpd as outlined above? teacher understanding of concepts is often superficial or theoretical, and only uncovered through extensive probing. teachers may already be familiar with concepts, such as group work, from college but may not have fully understood them. concepts need to be revisited, clarified and explored in some depth. to foster deep change, teacher learning has to be co-located with pupil learning, and effort needs to be focused at school level. ultimately, insights obtained through ‘seeing’ can only support teachers in building a deep understanding of pedagogy if there is sufficient time. expectations regarding the ease of implementation and speed of change are often unrealistic (schweisfurth, 2011), at both teacher and facilitator levels. case studies of flexible and dynamic tpd to improve quality of teaching in six low-income countries by leu, hays, leczel, & o’grady (2005, p. 6) concluded that decentralised school and cluster-based teacher professional development programmes, especially those involving three or more schools, are more effective than centralised cascade workshops characterised by passive learning. with the former, teachers facilitate their own programmes, adapting innovation to their contexts, while supported by human or material resources to consult regarding queries, and by feedback from willing collaborators (colleagues in school or from education offices, teacher colleges, or teacher resource centres: ibid.; schwille & dembélé, 2007, p. 106). however, given the significant logistical issues of working at the cluster level only, balancing cluster-based activities with more frequent within-school sessions (sbtpd) is likely to be optimal. this is supported by lange (2014), where a combined programme in cameroon influenced teachers’ attitudes and classroom practice, with significantly increased use of active learning methods, compared to control classes. however, appreciation of in-service education and attending to learners’ individual development were higher on the part of the multipliers4 than the teachers. this may be explained by the one-year training multipliers received, or the focus on the various pedagogical modules encompassed in the training, indicating that the multiplier training could have been shorter, strengthening school-based components instead (ibid.). another form of hybrid model combining internal and external support is ‘work-based learning’ (walsh & power, 2011), co-locating and interlinking teacher learning and classroom trialling (mukeredzi, 2016). characteristic 4: mitigating time constraints and adequate programme scheduling school-based approaches of the kind outlined are not without challenges. research consistently indicates that time is a key constraining factor. demand can be minimised by doing as much as possible collaboratively in tgms, with little additional work being expected between sessions aside from classroom trials and occasional readings. 64 programme schedules can be varied. for instance, oer4schools started as a one-year programme (weekly tgms) but was adjusted by our main research school to a two-year programme (fortnightly) to suit teachers. a hybrid model with a more intensive initial period (say, a set of five sessions during a workshop period, with opportunities for classroom practice) followed by weekly school-based sessions is also possible. however, sessions need to be interspersed with classroom trials between sessions. moreover, high staff turnover means that frequently new teachers’ needs have to be accommodated in the programme. during oer4schools, recent arrivals described their difficulties in understanding and implementing the basic pedagogic ideas and uses of technology through tgm participation. one teacher, mutango, would have preferred his colleagues "to demonstrate to us what they do in their classes”, but reported that “at times we've asked that person to come and show us how to go about it, but this is a busy school and they are also having their own things to do.” as a mitigation strategy, facilitators suggested in interviews that new teachers should form a separate group, ensuring adequate attention but, potentially, also placing more demands on facilitators’ time. ideally, a programme like oer4schools takes place within a wider school culture of sbtpd and, within working hours, as part of the school routine. it is in turn supported by a wider culture of promoting effective schooling in the community (ngalawa, simmt, & glanfield, 2015). setting programmes in the context of a unified wider framework (e.g., sprint stipulates a programme of regular tgms in zambia; mubanga, 2012) mitigates time constraints that may otherwise arise from competition with other national or local initiatives. at scale, programmes could be run for all in-service teachers (followed by an ongoing programme of action research and lesson study); newly qualified teachers could undertake the programme as a post-college programme or, for pre-service teachers, during practice teaching, also offering an opportunity to link sbtpd with pre-service education (c.f. hardman et al., 2011). characteristic 5: professional development for (and retention of) facilitators effective peer facilitators are pivotal to sbtpd, with success depending on the choice of facilitators, and the prior experience needed to facilitate credibility among colleagues (see hassler et al., forthcoming, for details). later on a broader base of teachers may become experienced enough to step up, and parts of the facilitation can be handed over but at least, initially, facilitators will need to allocate sufficient time for up-skilling and preparation, as well as providing significant support, in order to develop “capacity for sustaining change in systems” (penuel, fishman, haugan cheng, & sabelli, 2011, p. 332). we argue that it is unrealistic to expect to simply find suitable facilitators as required, yet it is possible to prepare facilitators adequately over time. in the oer4schools model, potential facilitators started out by implementing interactive strategies in the classroom, and after two years stepped up to initiate and facilitate a whole school process. for programme initiation, we propose that two interested teachers — future facilitators — jointly explore the resource; classroom trials over several months ensures their active learning and, guided by their own 65 experience of translating the programme into practice, later facilitates colleagues’ learning. we suggest that ultimately learning intentions can only be maintained and scaled up if they are grounded in the facilitators’ active experience of ‘teacher-centred’ methods for sbtpd (including the modelling of interactive pedagogies), as well as a deep understanding of classroom challenges. facilitators (coaches, ‘master trainers’, circuit supervisors) first need to have the opportunity to learn how to effectively conduct such active workshops themselves (“message and medium need to be consistent”, schweisfurth, 2011, p. 430). oer4schools offers explicit and extensive scaffolding through ‘facilitator notes’ available in the facilitator’s version of the materials, supporting teachers experienced with interactive teaching in becoming facilitators. seed workshops focusing on running the programme at their schools and online support for facilitators are also effective. seasoned facilitators can subsequently support new ones. the oer4schools facilitators valued both the additional notes and support from more experienced facilitators. expecting facilitators to conduct workshops without their own extensive prior learning and without scaffolding is simply unrealistic. for example, studies in cambodia and china reviewed by westbrook et al. (2013) showed that new mentors remained textbook-driven and proved unable to support improvement of practice by mentees. in order to ensure fidelity, teachers who become mentors or model teachers require release time: first for their own professional development, then to induct and assist their colleagues in school and provide inclass support. however, given sufficient time, our detailed evidence for impact on teacher practice and thinking confirms that peer facilitation is successful and remote support becomes redundant over time. moreover facilitators’ own professional development was a notably positive outcome, with new skills and status acquired, which, in turn, contributed to sustaining the programme. the lead facilitator described the process as follows: the road [was] bumpy here, smooth there. … i've learned a lot, as in leading, and being helped and sharing ideas with fellow teachers, that's really been amazing. ... working with agness [co-facilitator] especially, it's always awesome, it's always good, she makes my job easy. … when she was helping me [in the workshop], i'd pretend as if i'm also a participant. (abel) the role of facilitators in fostering teacher motivation and attendance raises a wider issue, since leadership in many schools in sub-saharan africa is hierarchical rather than distributed (harber & mncube, 2012). workshop leaders of professional learning may have little or no leverage over teachers’ participation (hennessy et al., 2015b). a related consideration is the role of headteachers with regard to attendance and possibly facilitation, which may intimidate classroom teachers. for example, in kenya, headteachers teach (part-time), so would normally participate in the programme, and may be in a (pedagogical) leadership position already. characteristic 6: teacher and facilitator motivation and progression extensive programmes need to be locally owned to reach scale, and principals and teachers need to take responsibility for their professional development. ideally, sbtpd becomes part of 66 the school culture, institutionalised through regular tgms. on the policy side, this implies urgent action to motivate teachers (working in challenging settings) to engage. meaningful tpd certification should be available. teacher career progression and salary structure need to reflect achievement in tpd. simply mandating attendance is not a strong motivator. building collegiality and increased professionalisation developed through the programme provides motivation, reducing recourse to financial incentives. this resonates with a major finding of the edqual projects that “where teachers and headteachers have been empowered to identify and act on issues of quality through forms of professional development they have been motivated to do so” (tikly, 2011, pp. 12-13). likewise, facilitators should receive recognition and certification for their role. lange (2014) noted that nearly half of all trained multipliers8 left the programme schools in her study owing to limited chances for career development. this highlights the need for incentives to keep highly trained facilitators within the system of the intervention, and suggests that making teacher career progression dependent on participation in — and facilitation of — sbtpd is a useful strategy. in some countries, this may require raising the status of primary school teachers, which may be lower than for secondary teachers. the lead facilitator of our programme, abel, has conducted a few workshops at other schools and for a zambian nongovernmental organisation but without official recognition of such endeavours, their reach and sustainability will be limited. often progression is through degree programmes that are not relevant to practice. instead, teachers and facilitators could acquire degrees (or degree credits) through school-based activities, e.g., a ‘certificate in tpd facilitation’, ultimately a requirement for becoming a headteacher. characteristic 7: fidelity through ‘whole programme scaffolding’ maintaining fidelity is another challenge in many kinds of tpd. even within sbtpd, a degree of cascading (for example, in facilitator preparation) is inevitable to reach scale, and the real test of programmes lies in the ability to be delivered by new facilitators (hill, beisiegel, & jacob, 2013). to manage dilution, and enable fidelity in the delivery by others, there should be a clear structure for what teachers will do during professional development workshops (hardman et al., 2011) as well as in the classroom: the structure and content of workshops at all levels (including the school level) needs to be explicit. the degree of prescription is a crucial element. clearly teachers (as professionals) need the freedom to explore and make their own decisions, while maintaining effectiveness. simply providing a repository with digital resources is not productive without sufficient guidance (including scaffolding and templates for logical instruction sequences; hewlett foundation, 2014). however, while there is some evidence that providing lesson plans can be effective (nag et al., 2014), teachers also need the authority to tailor their own teaching to learner needs (‘structured pedagogy’ in the classroom, including carefully planned sequences of lessons with clear lesson objectives, formative assessment and a range of appropriate pedagogical approaches; tikly, 2011; timperley et al., 2007). 67 we propose scaffolding children’s, teachers’ and facilitators’ actual experiences. this means not just offering materials, but holistic ‘whole programme scaffolding’ (see figure 1). such scaffolding includes sbtpd materials for facilitator/teacher use in tgms, alongside linked classroom resources. self-contained materials, with explicit programme structure, need to provide enough scaffolding to enable groups of teachers to implement the programme autonomously without dependence on ephemeral induction events. in other words, rather than thinking about what a national coach does (and supporting this through materials, such as slides for workshops), programmes should be designed by thinking about what the teacher does (both in sbtpd and in the classroom). teacher materials are supplemented with facilitator notes. this in turn is augmented with materials for national and regional coaches on how to run professional development for facilitators. if the focus of the programme is on what the teacher does (during sbtpd and in the classroom), then the focus for workshops should be an induction to sbtpd, i.e., modelling sbtpd as well as classroom trialling. in our conception, sbtpd induction workshops have the purpose of preparing facilitators and equipping them with reflective facilitation skills; rather than attempting to prepare ‘key teachers’ from whom other teachers learn by diffusion (not supported by evidence). moving away from workshops following an overfull curriculum, seeking to transmit knowledge about interactive teaching (taught by rote), makes it possible for workshops to focus on ‘process’ and explicitly model quality educational practices, communicating the nature of sbtpd, and how to initiate sbtpd at the school. misunderstandings arise frequently — both regarding classroom teaching (hennessy et al., 2015a) and school-based tpd (hennessy et al., 2015b). it is thus imperative to make practice at workshops as explicit as possible and focus on “what can be observed in the act of teaching (i.e., task, activity, classroom interaction, assessment) as key indicators of quality” (hardman, 2015, p. 3). oer4schools offers balance: structured plans and specific materials for each two-hour tgm alongside scope for flexibility and adaptation to teachers’ own purposes, settings and issues arising, including pointers to additional resources. this semi-structured nature at the school level, particularly the explicit provision of workshop plans, is a key factor in supporting fidelity: maintaining the original teacher learning intentions of the programme, as productive, mutual adaptations, with “a commitment to iterative, collaborative design” (penuel et al., 2011, p. 332). 68 figure 1: whole programme scaffolding characteristic 8: mitigating resource constraints through open access and oer explicit attention to cultural adaptation during programme design and implementation (including materials development) is necessary: sustainability and scalability depend on how closely approaches fit with existing practices, curricula and policies, and whether they offer appealing ways to address issues perceived by teachers and other education system stakeholders. it is therefore valuable to conduct small-scale studies to examine such factors, prior to large-scale trials. however, this does not mean that materials have to be developed from scratch for each context, which is labour intensive and may result in low quality if resources are limited. teachers’ tolerance of minor cultural variation is quite high in our experience. we suggest that autonomous authoring of effective and culturally appropriate learning materials (by teachers or ‘experts’) is neither feasible, nor necessary. it appears sensible to focus on re-use and trials of existing materials. to this end, collaborative adaptation of oer works well, and constitutes an empowering, scalable and sustainable practice. our definition of ‘open’ draws on the three oer freedoms (hassler & mays, 2015): programme adaptation and sharing is possible because of shared ownership (legal barriers are removed, no rights clearance needed); the programme can be evaluated and used both online/mobile, offline and on paper (open access; multiple access paths); collaborative content creation and 69 adaptation is possible,5 supporting participatory approaches, essential for developing a culture of inquiry. oer support: • sustainability through offering resilience against change: resources can be adapted; resources created in time-limited donor-funded projects are available perpetually. • scalability: the cost of resource reproduction is low/free; production of new resources becomes more cost-effective since they build on existing resources. • increased ownership: all participants are permitted (and encouraged) to make changes. • equity: resources developed for a project in one country become available elsewhere (for adaptation). from a research perspective, openly available programme materials further contextualise research publications; with such materials (in relation to publications) constituting ‘open data’. while it is accepted, sometimes mandated, that research outputs are available as ‘open access’ publications, this is not the same for programme resources. in our case, openness also helps the organic and decentralised adoption of oer4schools in new contexts. in early 2014, a teacher from kenya adapted the programme for her country; activities were undertaken in rwanda and sierra leone. in 2015 the oer4schools methodology was adapted for the t-tel programme in ghana, and in 2016-17 some of the materials were used in an independent programme in zambia. in 2017-18 the programme is being adapted for secondary school use in zimbabwe. importantly, we are not advocating verbatim replication, but rather building on existing programmes as a starting point. while cultural adaptation is essential, it has to be recognised that content development never starts in vacuo, but in the context of existing resources and research evidence. moreover, in the above cases, the initial adaptations — deemed by local educators to make the programme sufficiently appropriate — were what we might call ‘surface adaptations’, which included changing: • place names and object names (e.g., ‘traffic lights’ vs. ‘robots’); • images (of particular locations, such as for ‘a trip to victoria falls’ vs. ‘a trip to the maasai mara’; images of classroom situations were not deemed to need adaptation); • references to certain policies that differ between countries (e.g., pace grouping); • digital technology-based activities (because different technologies are used). the resulting version was judged to be sufficient for initial trials, informing subsequent deep adaptation where needed. we conjecture that such adaptations for new countries (e.g., in kenya; for first use of the programme) are similar to further tailoring in other zambian contexts. the process of initial surface adaptation followed by trials resonates with 70 participants’ voices in the unesco access2oer discussion (hassler, 2009), expressing a preference for early access to raw materials and making their own judgements, rather than decisions about suitability/availability of materials being made by an external agent. adaptable tpd resources may well be useful across different national contexts, despite different (colonial) histories and inherited education systems. to date, the enormous investments in education have not produced a body of open (creative commons licensed) tpd materials, readily available for reuse. as far as we are aware, oer4schools is the only open and structured teacher professional learning programme for ssa.6 indeed there was a curious absence of ‘open’ in the discussion of sdg4 (world education forum; unesco, 2015; however, see lane, 2017). it is clear that oer supports sustainability and scalability, with important implications for equity. tpd programmes and funders should take those advantages seriously, and embrace open approaches to development (smith, 2013). indeed, from our perspective it is hard to see how ‘open’ could not be an ingredient in scalable tpd models. funders need to give clear guidelines to implementers regarding both release of materials as oer and building on existing oer. characteristic 9: appropriate use of digital technology in programme implementation the potential for using technology for supporting tpd in lmics is recognised (e.g., power, 2014; twining et al., 2013; for an evidence map, see muyoya, brugha & hollow, 2016). hardman et al. (2011) assert that supporting sbtpd through distance learning materials and school clusters has significant potential for closing the gap between theory and practice, and raising the quality of teaching and learning in ssa primary schools. infrastructure constraints in practice, there are often significant infrastructure obstacles in scaling digital technology, and we may ask: is the intended usage of technology such that it can scale with existing facilities and infrastructure (available to the intended users), or are there unacknowledged assumptions that impede scaling? unfounded assumptions are often made about levels of technology and internet access in planning for new initiatives, and even where internet-enabled phones are widely available, the cost of access can be prohibitive for many. programmes cannot depend on expected infrastructure; experience shows that this leads to unexpected delays. making a tpd programme available online is often equated with ‘global reach’. however, do online programmes reach the teachers entrusted with the care of the most disadvantaged and marginalised children?7 they generally do not, and it is unlikely that they will do so any time soon. creative solutions appropriately exploit technology available to teachers. for example, in supplementing paper-based distance learning with text messaging (unesco, 2014, pp. 27-28), the available technology is used within the scope of its affordances (communication), while 71 static resources are delivered on paper. we caution that the all-in-one online delivery of (often closed) resources through moocs is counterproductive; offline delivery of static oer, combined with peer interaction through a mooc or another social platform seems technologically more appropriate and scalable. other constraints posing significant challenges to potential e-learners in low-income countries include language, computer literacy and cultural sensitivity: “in reality [online learning] may well be serving only the 'privileged' in developing countries who already have 'access' to digital technologies and international language learning" (liyanagunawardena, williams, & adams, 2013, p. 5). technology use must be effective (for teachers and children) the choice of technology use, supporting pedagogy in a constructive way and leading to learning gains, is not a given: for instance, the introduction of computer laboratories in brazilian schools had a negative impact on student performance, but teachers’ use of the internet as a pedagogical resource supported innovative classroom teaching and learning, resulting in improved test scores (unesco, 2014, p. 35). technology use in oer4schools did not include distance e-learning (online, self-study), but promoted (offline) face-to-face peer learning and collaborative exploration of interactive teaching (e.g., supporting tpd through video stimuli; mathematics learning through spreadsheet use). technology use should extend rather than replace previous characteristics, and should not be equated with internet use. the latter (and other digital communication, including moocs) can enhance face-to-face peer learning but should be tailored to the needs of the intended audience; it should serve the poor and marginalised without exacerbating digital divides further. indeed, certain models of individualised teacher (online) e-learning in ssa may not be educationally effective nor equitable. equity and value for money technology procurement needs to offer the highest value for money. individual e-learning is particularly intensive as it requires one device per pupil. often technology-based programmes assume that 1:1 is educationally most effective. however there is no research evidence supporting this (hassler, major, hennessy, 2015). programmes take time to be rolled out (and may never reach everybody); 1:1 thus exacerbates inequity (adam, 2015). an even more effective approach is technology use to support the tpd programme only, requiring one device, or a few devices, per school rather than, potentially, hundreds. overall, a cautious approach is recommended to avoid educators and policymakers being swayed by the rhetoric surrounding new technology (hassler et al., 2016; usaid, 2014). recommendations the problem facing governments and funders is how to upscale ‘what works’ in terms of higher student attainment more evenly at a national scale while recognising that the constraints of large classes and scarce resources are likely to remain the common experience for teachers and their students for some years yet, particularly with increasing numbers of students progressing to secondary school. (westbrook et al. 2013, p. 64) 72 drawing on our own and the wider research evidence, this commentary has considered the tpd choices that are available to tackle the problems outlined in the above quote. as stated in the introduction, we do not claim that these have emerged from comprehensive rigorous research, as no such tpd research in ssa is available. however, our recommendations are grounded in theory and evidence from diverse contexts, and we believe that they offer a better chance of success than other approaches. while our own research on oer4schools is smallscale owing to its intensive concentration on in-depth promotion and study of change, the programme is arguably at present the only open tpd initiative for lmics that is underpinned by a reasonable body of published research literature. moreover, our research outcomes resonate with — and further substantiate — those of previous studies, recent comprehensive literature reviews in ssa and tpd research elsewhere. in order to meet the need for large-scale, systemic and ongoing development opportunities for teachers, we recommend that programmes explicitly focus on scaling and sustaining, while maintaining effectiveness — as opposed to leaving scaling and sustaining to a later programme phase. we have argued in this commentary that such a focus requires a specific pedagogical design. based on our review of the literature and our own research, we conclude that the most educationally effective, sustainable and scalable models are likely to possess the following characteristics. they 1. ultimately promote student learning; 2. promote teacher learning: o comprise whole school professional development with a focus on active teacher learning and modelling interactive pedagogy; o foreground concrete and detailed (planning for) classroom-based activities; o support participants in learning from observation and collaboration with peers; o allow for ‘seeing’ and experiencing (e.g., through video clips and live classroom practice), with an overall focus on increasing understanding of pedagogical practice, underpinned by theory; 3. support peer-facilitated, school-based professional development; 4. are long-term and scheduled as regular teacher group meetings, operating within a structured tpd timetable; 5. explicitly support tpd leaders in organisation and facilitation through induction and ongoing professional development; 6. appropriately motivate teachers (working in challenging settings) to engage, including attention to teacher career progression and salary structure; 73 7. are based on a coherent and comprehensive ‘multi-level’ set of resources, tailored to the national and/or local contexts, with activity-based workshop outlines, plus built-in support for facilitators (‘whole programme scaffolding’); 8. employ open educational resources, increasing sustainability, scalability and equity; 9. use technology equitably for essential communication and in support of face-to-face (offline) peer learning. we note that this list is (partially) aligned with the school improvement tradition (hopkins, stringfield, harris, stoll, & mackay, 2014) as well as specific national insights (ethiopia: mitchell, 2015) and leadership for learning (frost, 2014). conclusion if the sustainable development goals are to be met by 2030, especially under the conditions of constrained financing, then scalable, sustainable, effective models for teacher programme development and implementation are needed. this commentary has argued for the appropriateness of an effective, contemporary approach to tpd. we suggest that the evidence is secure enough to suggest a viable blueprint for educators and funders engaged in teacher education in lmics, against which planned initiatives can be evaluated. there may be reasons for deviation, but these should be carefully argued and backed up by existing research evidence. in particular, this means that programmes intended for rollout need to be designed to be scalable from the outset. in analogy with findings suggesting the inequity of private schooling, including resource differences between schools (alcott & rose, 2016), and in light of oer research in the usa, it appears to be an urgent matter of equity that the resources underpinning publicly funded educational programmes are open (oer) and made available in a timely fashion. while there is a growing focus on systematic approaches to evaluating tpd in developed countries, more research is urgently needed in ssa — in particular regarding system-wide implementation in challenging conditions. for new large-scale programmes, this means that rigorous evaluation is essential (external, mixed methods, including experimental and quasiexperimental research designs), to add to the knowledge base. we hope that our work will stimulate such research and debate on open models of tpd. acknowledgements the authors would like to thank all the teachers participating in our studies, and arathi sriprakash, frank hardman, rafael mitchell and anonymous peer reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this article. this article benefited from the african education research database developed by the research for equitable access and learning (real) centre at the university of cambridge in partnership with essa (education sub-saharan africa).8 the oer4schools research was funded in 2008-13 by the commonwealth education trust. 74 notes 1. sdg 4: “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”, https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/?menu=1300. 2. the full resource is available at www.oer4schools.org. 3. the south african videos were developed in collaboration with aimssec, https://aimssec.aims.ac.za/. 4. multipliers are teachers who receive training and are asked to return to their home school to pass on the content they have obtained to the other staff members (lange, 2010). 5. oer4schools uses mediawiki for content co-creation. 6. there are two programmes that almost fit this category: the first author developed an open and structured tutor professional development programme in ghana (see http://oer.t-tel.org), building on oer4schools. the other programme is open, but intended for india: tess-india (http://www.tess-india.edu.in/). in tess-india the overall workshop structure is less apparent in some of the materials, but guidance for facilitating teacher meetings and workshops is available. 7. https://en.unesco.org/world-education-forum-2015/incheon-declaration. 8. https://www.educ.cam.ac.uk/centres/real/researchthemes/highereducation/mappingeducati on/ references (this list of references is also available via zotero here: http://bjohas.de/go/refshhh3b). adam, t. (2015). visions for the sustainable implementation of the one laptop per child project (master of philosophy). university of cambridge. alcott, b., & rose, p. (2016). does private schooling narrow wealth inequalities in learning outcomes? evidence from east africa. oxford review of education, 42(5), 495–510. https://doi.org/10.1080/03054985.2016.1215611 bett, h. k. (2016). the cascade model of teachers’ continuing professional development in kenya: a time for change? cogent education, 3(1), 1139439. https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186x.2016.1139439 borko, h., jacobs, j., & koellner, k. (2010). contemporary approaches to teacher professional development. in international encyclopedia of education (pp. 548–556). elsevier. retrieved from http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/b9780080448947006540 feiman-nemser, s. (2001). from preparation to practice: designing a continuum to strengthen and sustain teaching. the teachers college record, 103(6), 1013–1055. retrieved from http://www.tcrecord.org/defaultfiles/sendfiletopublic.asp?ft=pdf&filepath=c:%5cwebsites%5 cwww_tcrecord_org_documents%5c38_10824.pdf&fid=38_10824&aid=2&rid=10824&pf=content. asp?contentid=10824 frost, d. (ed.). (2014). transforming education through teacher leadership. leadership for learning: the cambridge network. harber, c., & mncube, v. (2012). education, democracy and development: does education contribute to democratisation in developing countries? symposium books ltd. hardman, f. (2015). making pedagogical practices visible in discussions of educational quality. retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002324/232449e.pdf 75 hardman, f., abd-kadir, j., & smith, f. (2008). pedagogical renewal: improving the quality of classroom interaction in nigerian primary schools. international journal of educational development, 28(1), 55–69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2007.02.008 hardman, f., ackers, j., abrishamian, n., & o’sullivan, m. (2011). developing a systemic approach to teacher education in sub-saharan africa: emerging lessons from kenya, tanzania and uganda. compare: a journal of comparative and international education, 41(5), 669–683. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2011.581014 hassler, b. (2009). access to open educational resources: report of a unesco oer community discussion. paris: unesco-iiep. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2011.581014 hassler, b., hennessy, s., & cross, a. (2014). school-based professional development in a developing context: lessons learnt from a case study in zambia. professional development in education, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/19415257.2014.938355 hassler, b., hennessy, s., & hofmann, r. (forthcoming). oer4schools: outcomes of a sustained professional development intervention in sub-saharan africa. hassler, b., major, l., & hennessy, s. (2015). tablet use in schools: a critical review of the evidence for learning outcomes. journal of computer assisted learning, 32(2). https://doi.org/10.1111/jcal.12123 hassler, b., major, l., warwick, p., watson, s., hennessy, s., & nichol, b. (2016). perspectives on technology, resources and learning productive classroom practices, effective teacher professional development. faculty of education, university of cambridge. retrieved from http://bjohas.de/publications/perspectives hassler, b., & mays, t. (2015). open content. in p. hwa ang & r. mansell (eds.), international encyclopedia of digital communication and society. wiley-blackwell. retrieved from http://bjohas.de/publications/hassler_mays_opencontent hattie, j. (2009). visible learning: a synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. routledge. hayes, d. (2000). cascade training and teachers’ professional development. elt journal, 54(2), 135–145. retrieved from http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/content/54/2/135.short hennessy, s., hassler, b., & hofmann, r. (2015a). pedagogic change by zambian primary school teachers participating in the oer4schools professional development programme for one year. research papers in education. https://doi.org/10.1080/02671522.2015.1073343 hennessy, s., hassler, b., & hofmann, r. (2015b). challenges and opportunities for teacher professional development in interactive use of technology in african schools. technology pedagogy and education: special issue “capacity building for 21st century learning in africa: a focus on ict integration in education.” https://doi.org/10.1080/1475939x.2015.1092466 hennessy, s., onguko, b., ang’ondi, e. k., harrison, d., namalefe, s., naseem, a., & wamakote, l. (2010). developing use of ict to enhance teaching and learning in east african schools: a review of the literature (no. 1) (p. 121). cambridge, uk and dar es salaam, tz: faculty of education, university of cambridge and aga khan university institute for educational development eastern africa. retrieved from http://www.educ.cam.ac.uk/centres/archive/cce/publications/cce_report1_litrevjune0210.pdf hewlett foundation. (2014). learning to improve learning: lessons from early primary interventions and evaluations in india and sub-saharan africa. retrieved from http://www.hewlett.org/sites/default/files/2014-0214_learning%20to%20improve%20learning%20synthesis%20for%20publishing_edited_0.pdf hill, h. c., beisiegel, m., & jacob, r. (2013). professional development research consensus, crossroads, and challenges. educational researcher, 42(9), 476–487. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189x13512674 76 hopkins, d., stringfield, s., harris, a., stoll, l., & mackay, t. (2014). school and system improvement: a narrative state-of-the-art review. school effectiveness and school improvement, 25(2), 257–281. king, f. (2014). evaluating the impact of teacher professional development: an evidence-based framework. professional development in education, 40(1), 89–111. https://doi.org/10.1080/19415257.2013.823099 lane, a. (2017). open education and the sustainable development goals: making change happen. journal of learning for development jl4d, 4(3). retrieved from http://jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/article/view/266 lange, s. (2014). learner orientation through professional development of teachers? empirical results from cascade training in anglophone cameroon. compare: a journal of comparative and international education, 44(4), 587–612. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2013.841027 leu, e. (2004). the patterns and purposes of school-based and cluster teacher professional development programs. issues brief, 1. retrieved from http://www.equip123.net/docs/working-p2.pdf leu, e., hays, f., leczel, d. k., & o’grady, b. (2005). quality teaching: building a flexible and dynamic approach. gec working paper series. number 2. (gec working paper series). washington, dc: academy for educational development (aed). retrieved from http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ed537472 liyanagunawardena, t., williams, s., & adams, a. (2013). the impact and reach of moocs: a developing countries’ perspective. elearning papers, 33(33). retrieved from http://centaur.reading.ac.uk/32452/1/in-depth_33_1.pdf mitchell, r. (2015). the implications of school improvement and school effectiveness research for primary school principals in ethiopia. educational review, 67(3), 328–342. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2014.927829 moon, b. (2007). school-based teacher development in sub-saharan africa: building a new research agenda. the curriculum journal, 18(3), 355–371. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585170701590007 moon, b., dladla, n., bird, l. s., a. nordstrum, l. hanbing, y. mccormick, b. banks, f. dheram, p. ibn junaid, m. wolfenden, f. buckler, a. gafar, a. tao, s., kirk, j., azlam, m., kingdon, g., … umar, a. (2013). teacher education and the challenge of development: a global analysis. (b. moon, ed.). new york: routledge. mubanga, r. (2012). school program of in-service training for the term (sprint) programme in zambia -a case of collaboration towards self-reliant education development. in collaboration toward greater autonomy in educational development. tokyo, japan. retrieved from http://home.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/cice/wp-content/uploads/forum/jef9/ruth-mubanga-e.pdf mukeredzi, t. g. (2016). teacher professional development outside the lecture room: voices of professionally unqualified practicing teachers in rural zimbabwe secondary schools. global education review, 3(4). retrieved from http://ger.mercy.edu/index.php/ger/article/view/271 muyoya, c., brugha, m., & hollow, d. (2016). education technology map: guidance document. united kingdom: jigsaw consult. nag, s., chiat, s., torgerson, c., & snowling, m. j. (2014). literacy, foundation learning and assessment in developing countries. retrieved from https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/305150/litera cy-foundation-learning-assessment.pdf ngalawa, a. a., simmt, e., & glanfield, f. (2015). exploring the emergence of community support for school and encouragement of innovation for improving rural school performance: lessons learned 77 at kitamburo in tanzania. global education review, 2(4). retrieved from http://ger.mercy.edu/index.php/ger/article/view/176 orr, d., westbrook, j., pryor, j., durrani, n., sebba, j., adu-yeboah, c., et al (2013). what are the impacts and cost-effectiveness of strategies to improve performance of untrained and under-trained teachers in the classroom in developing countries?: systematic review. london: eppi-centre, social science research unit, institute of education, university of london. retrieved from http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/43901/1/undertrained_teachers_2013_orr.pdf penuel, w. r., fishman, b. j., haugan cheng, b., & sabelli, n. (2011). organizing research and development at the intersection of learning, implementation, and design. educational researcher, 40(7), 331–337. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189x11421826 piper, b., & zuilkowski, s. s. (2015). teacher coaching in kenya: examining instructional support in public and nonformal schools. teaching and teacher education, 47, 173–183. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2015.01.001 power, t. (2014). educational technology topic guide. retrieved from http://www.heartresources.org/topic/educational-technology/ schweisfurth, m. (2011). learner-centred education in developing country contexts: from solution to problem? international journal of educational development, 31(5), 425–432. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2011.03.005 schweisfurth, m. (2015). learner-centred pedagogy: towards a post-2015 agenda for teaching and learning. international journal of educational development, 40, 259–266. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2014.10.011 schwille, j., & dembélé, m. (2007). global perspectives on teacher learning: improving policy and practice (fundamentals of educational planning series). paris: international institute for educational planning. smith, m. l. (2013). open development: networked innovations in international development. cambridge, mass.: mit press. tikly, l. (2011). towards a framework for researching the quality of education in low‐income countries. comparative education, 47(1), 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/03050068.2011.541671 timperley, h., wilson, a., barrar, h., & fung, i. (2007). teacher professional learning and development: best evidence synthesis iteration. wellington: ministry of education www.minedu.govt.nz/goto/bestevidencesynthesis. retrieved from http://www.minedu.govt.nz/goto/bestevidencesynthesis twining, p., raffaghelli, j., albion, p., & knezek, d. (2013). moving education into the digital age: the contribution of teachers’ professional development. journal of computer assisted learning, 29(5), 426– 437. unesco. (2014). teaching and learning: achieving quality for all. (p. rose, ed.). unesco publishing. retrieved from http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/leading-the-internationalagenda/efareport/reports/2013/ unesco. (2015). world education forum 2015, final report. retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0024/002437/243724e.pdf usaid. (2014). mobiles for reading: a landscape research review. retrieved from http://literacy.org/sites/literacy.org/files/publications/wagner_mobiles4reading_usaid_june_14.p df 78 walsh, c., & power, t. (2011). going digital on low-cost mobile phones in bangladesh. in proceedings of the annual international conference on education & e-learning (eel), 7-8 november 2011, singapore (pp. 151–156). retrieved from http://www.eiabd.com/eia_oldsite/file_zone/publications/conf_papers/walsh,power-2011going_digital_on_low-cost_mobile_phones_in_bangladesh.pdf wedell, m. (2009). planning for educational change: putting people and their contexts first. bloomsbury publishing. westbrook, j., durrani, n., brown, r., orr, d., pryor, j., boddy, j., & salvi, f. (2013). pedagogy, curriculum, teaching practices and teacher education in developing countries: final report. (no. 2110). retrieved from https://eppi.ioe.ac.uk/cms/default.aspx?tabid=3433 authors: dr. björn hassler is an associate member at the centre for research in equitable access and learning at the university of cambridge faculty of education. his focus is on the sustainable and scalable scaling of impactful programmes, including teacher education programmes that raise education outcomes (sdg4). email: bjohas+jl4d@gmail.com dr sara hennessy is a reader in teacher development and pedagogical innovation at the university of cambridge faculty of education. some of her research focuses on improving the quality of learning and teaching in sub-saharan african schools through teacher professional development supporting interactive pedagogy and educational technology use. email: sch30@cam.ac.uk dr riikka hofmann is a university lecturer at the university of cambridge faculty of education. her research focuses on professional change in schools and healthcare settings, and the mechanisms for, and barriers to, effecting change on interactive pedagogic practice through professional development in the u.k. and the global south. email: rjph2@cam.ac.uk microsoft word balkar.docx issn: 2311-1550 2022, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 209-228 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. rethinking the relationship between the growth of the secondary education system and employment: evidence from turkey betül balkar çukurova university, turkey abstract: the contribution of the secondary education system to employment is among the priority areas of educational policy since it has employment-related aims for students who do not/cannot continue on to higher education. in turkey, the secondary education system has increasingly grown with students and schools included in the system. consequently, secondary school graduates have increasingly demanded access to employment opportunities. therefore, this paper investigates the relations between the growth based on the number of students and schools in the secondary education system and the employment of secondary school graduates in turkey. longand short-run relationships between the growth in the secondary education system and employed secondary school graduates were investigated by employing autoregressive distributed lag (ardl) bounds testing approach. although analysis pointed out a cointegration between the growth in the secondary education and employment, long-run coefficients of variables were found to be insignificant. keywords: secondary education system, employment, growth of education system, compulsory secondary education policy. introduction there is no doubt that providing the outcome required for contributing to social development and economic growth is among the primary objectives of education systems. according to the organisation for economic co-operation and development (oecd, 2022), an average 14.3% of young men aged 20-24 and 17.4% of young women were not in employment, education or training in 2020. labour market inclusion of young people especially in undeveloped and developing countries is therefore one of the most important goals of the economic growth process (torun & tumen, 2019). thus, the objective of raising qualified labour is increasingly shaping the schooling policies of countries (spohr, 2003). economic growth has become an indispensable part of educational reforms. hence, it should be examined with respect to external economic efficiency to see whether education policies meet economic growth requirements and whether they are able to raise the alumni in accordance with the new economic structures (cheong cheng et al., 2002). education policies for education levels directly related to employment need to be evaluated depending on the economic profile of a country. the economic return of schooling at the secondary education level is greater especially in underdeveloped countries compared with developed countries (spohr, 2003). therefore, it is important to increase the participation rates in secondary education that will contribute to economic growth and to make it functional for meeting the requirements of the labour force market especially in developing countries such as turkey. expanding secondary education results in quantitative growth through the increase of 210 the number of students accessing and succeeding in schooling. for this reason, establishing the link between secondary education and employment becomes more complex, especially for developing countries. discussions on the functionality of secondary education relating to employment lead to the questioning of policies on obligatory secondary education in turkey, as in many countries (calp & calp, 2015; kasa & ersöz, 2016; orhan-karsak, 2017; popov, 2019; raimondi & vergolini, 2019). also, there are too many high school graduates seeking entry to too few university places in turkey (council of higher education, 2019). although growth based on the number of students and schools has occurred in the secondary education system, a similar increase in the employment of secondary school graduates is not observed in turkey. therefore, this situation gives rise to questioning the link between growth in the secondary education system and employment. education expenditures related to the growth of secondary education also require a strong connection between employment and the aforementioned growth in terms of efficiency in education. allocated budget to operate secondary schools was approximately 23% of the ministry of national education (mone) budget for the 2020 fiscal year (mone, 2019). considering the role of compulsory secondary education policy in the increased student and school numbers as well as education expenditures, the functionality of this policy needs to be questioned in the context of employment. literature review according to human capital theory, education increases the productivity and efficiency of individuals thus making them ready for employment by improving their occupational skills. in this regard, education is considered a positive signal for employers who follow the labour market (brekke, 2014). young people who continue their education consider education a tool enabling them to reach better employment opportunities rather than increased productivity and assess the market signal role played by education more strongly than the role it plays in productivity (killeen et al., 1999). especially, young people who need or desire to be employed at a young age consider secondary education an effective tool in terms of employment. the positive impacts of secondary education on employment have been effective in the implementation of compulsory secondary education policies in various countries. compulsory secondary education reduces secondary school dropout rates (cabus & de witte, 2011) and the increase in student enrollment has long-term positive impacts on human capital (xiao et al., 2017). however, all children still do not complete the compulsory secondary education despite the increase in the rates of compulsory secondary education completion (liu & rozelle, 2020). children with unemployed parents display low academic performance and experience problems in continuing their education (guio et al., 2018). as a result, students who drop out of high school education struggle to find permanent and productive employment (rumberger & lamb, 2003). it is also stated that there is no increasing relation between the employment of high school students and the rates of completing high school (warren & cataldi, 2006). for this reason, in order to benefit from the positive effect of secondary education on employment, it is necessary to ensure that the time spent in secondary education is suitable for the employment of socio-economically disadvantaged high school students who do not attend a university. 211 young people with less education start their professional careers at earlier ages thus acquiring more experience in the labour market as well as having more time to find an occupationally safe profession (united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization [unesco] & understanding children’s work [ucw], 2013). therefore, secondary education is expected to fulfill the mission of preventing socio-economic inequalities (winding et al., 2013). however, students from low socioeconomic backgrounds are over-sensitive to the conditions of the labour market (guio et al., 2018). income and price shocks lead to increase in unemployment at the high school level (berument et al., 2006). in addition to unemployment, financial difficulties also lead young individuals to work at low quality jobs (awad, 2020). the fact that socio-economically disadvantaged high school graduates cannot gain experience in the constantly changing labour market at an early age reduces their employment opportunities. therefore, the longer duration of secondary education especially limits the employment of socio-economically disadvantaged graduates. in addition to continuous unemployment of high school graduates, they are also faced with cases of periodical unemployment (ganderton et al., 2002) which can be associated with late employment. late employment of secondary school graduates has an adverse impact on their productivity thus leading to long-term inefficiency (rosenbaum et al., 1990). this is also disadvantageous for the economic growth of countries. on the other hand, employment of high school students during their high school education reflects positively on their employment in the long run. employment during high school education increases lifelong earnings through its positive impact on employment after high school (light, 1999). job experiences of students at early ages contribute to their skill development while supporting the formation of social networks for future job opportunities in addition to making a positive impact on their work engagement (painter, 2010). hence, long-term compulsory education may have negative impacts on future employment opportunities especially for young individuals who will not attend higher education. it is an important policy in terms of secondary education completion that minimum employment age is made compatible with the duration of compulsory education (heymann et al., 2013). the relationship between secondary education and employment is also evaluated within the scope of cost-benefit analysis in education systems. cost-benefit analyses in education systems examine the link between the cost of education and the earnings of the educated workforce (woodhall, 2004). therefore, the increase in unemployment rates of graduates with a lack of experience due to the long duration of high school decreases the benefits of secondary education and increases its cost. while cost-benefit analysis does not show the number of students to be included in secondary education, it helps to decide on investments to be made in education. therefore, it can be misleading to calculate the rates of return to education based on a single variable (woodhall, 2004). rates of return for education vary depending on the changing nature of employment (lewin, 2001). the longer duration of the secondary education also increases the number of students and schools in the system and thus causes an increase in numerous cost areas. for this reason, the increasing number of students and schools and also employment rates should be taken into account in the cost-benefit analyses for the secondary education system. despite the role of secondary education in economic growth, supply-side analyses show that the financial cost of operating secondary schools is an obstacle for developing countries (binder, 2006). 212 the relationship between secondary education and employment today, higher education fails to provide employment guarantee due to the continuous increase in the number of higher education graduates along with the development of conditions that may damage occupational safety (dimaki et al., 2005). rapid development of higher education has led to what is called “over education.” higher education graduates have become over-qualified for jobs suited for secondary school graduates. hence, higher education graduates are now facing greater difficulties in finding employment opportunities in line with their qualifications (cheong cheng et al., 2002). in this regard, the correlation between higher education and employment has come under question within the scope of various studies (bhorat et al., 2016; salas-velasco, 2007). at this point, ensuring the employability of secondary education graduates has become the centre of attention for both economy and education policies. it is known that higher education has greater private return compared with secondary education, however it is also indicated that the returns of both education levels have reached stability over time (al-samarrai & reilly, 2008). it is expected that secondary education programmes conform to the necessity of supply-side investment for welfare and that secondary education will raise young people with the required skills (abbott & mctaggart, 2010). secondary education plays a significant role with its contributions to ensure qualified employment especially for developing countries (sheehan & shi, 2019). similarly, there is causality in turkey moving from young unemployment to secondary education schooling rate (sayın, 2011). the fact that the secondary education system has an impact on the individual productivity skills (ilieva-trichkova & boyadjieva, 2018) plays an indicative role in the qualified employment of secondary school graduates. as an example, those who drop out of university education have low-skilled jobs compared with high school graduates and they are more adversely affected in terms of labour market outcomes (ghignoni et al., 2019). high school dropouts who have completed their education afterwards are less productive than those who have never dropped out of high school (rumberger & lamb, 2003). compulsory secondary education and employment changes in the structure of work that took place with the industrial revolution played a role in the emergence of compulsory education in an organisational context (mcgrath & fischetti, 2019). therefore, the economic growth goal plays a seminal role in the advancement of compulsory education. compulsory education can make a positive impact on both employment and earnings and is reflected positively on labour market outcomes (oreopoulos, 2006). as is the case in turkey, the aim of upper secondary education is preparation for higher education or the acquisition of the skills required for employment (eurydice, 2019). high-school graduation rates may be affected positively when a high school diploma creates an expectation for entry into the labour market (cabus & de witte, 2011). also, there are high school students who need to work during their compulsory education due to socio-economic reasons. however, employment throughout high school education reduces academic achievement (marsh & kleitman, 2005; quirk et al., 2001) and long-term employment reduces commitment to school (weller et al., 2003) while increasing school dropouts (vickers et al., 2003; warren & lee, 2003). the impact of the employment of high school students on dropping out of school also depends on the socio-economic status of the students (mcneal, 2011). in turkey, student absenteeism rates in the secondary education system also continue to be a major 213 problem (balkıs et al., 2016). absence from school followed by dropping out of school poses a significant obstacle in educating qualified labour and ensuring secondary school graduate employment. therefore, the socio-economic attributes of families as an indication of the economic growth level of countries play an important role on completing secondary education (winding et al., 2013) and the employment of secondary school graduates (vicente, 2016). for this reason, it can be predicted that compulsory secondary education will not yield similar results in every country as to employment. according to human capital theory, investments in education have an economic return and successful economies make relatively more investments in education. these investments are expressed by schooling rates and schooling duration. increasing schooling duration is the result of successful economies rather than their cause (killeen et al., 1999). hence, it may not always be right to expect economic growth based on employment by increasing schooling duration as a result of compulsory education. in fact, the economic growth level may decrease if the costs involved in compulsory education increase (lu, 2018). therefore, cost-effectiveness comparisons should be made between primary, secondary and higher education in accordance with internal efficiency when designing education systems and the interfaces between different education levels should be subject to economic assessments (cheong cheng et al., 2002). research objectives the present study investigated relations between the growth based on the number of students and schools in turkey at the secondary education level and the employment of secondary school graduates. the aim was to examine the balance between secondary education and employment in turkey and to assess the long-term functionality of secondary education with regard to employment. hence, answers were sought for the following question, “is there a correlation between the growth based on the number of schools and students in the secondary education system in turkey and secondary school graduate employment?” sub-questions of the study were as follows: (1) is there a cointegration between the number of students and schools in the secondary education system of turkey and the number of secondary school graduates employed? (2) are there longand short-run relations between the number of students and schools in the secondary education system of turkey and the number of secondary school graduates employed? methods data set the data set on the secondary education system consists of the number of high school students and high schools in the secondary education system in turkey over the period 1988-2019. the time series of annual student and school numbers were generated by utilising 1923-2009 statistical indicators of turkish statistical institute (turkstat, 2010) and 2019-2020 national education statistics of the mone (2020). the data set on employment consists of the number of employed high school graduates in turkey over the period of 1988-2019. the annual time series, including the number of employed high school graduates, was generated by combining the 1988-2013 labour force statistics and 2014 and after labour force statistics of turkstat (n.d.-a, n.d.-b). 214 the investigated relationship between the variables was restricted to the period 1988-2019 since the earliest year of data on employment accessible was 1988 and the last data year of employment was 2019. all the data related to the variables used in this study were transformed into their natural logarithmic form. descriptive statistics of the variables are given in table 1. table 1. descriptive statistics of employment, student and school variables employment student school mean 15.09045 14.94841 8.862728 median 15.18500 14.92457 8.796165 maximum 15.60527 15.58195 9.476237 minimum 14.27167 14.21572 8.252967 standard deviation 0.398865 0.452960 0.359417 skewness -0.723505 0.062525 0.039842 kurtosis 2.414301 1.611173 1.794926 jarque-bera 3.249174 2.592637 1.944736 probability 0.196993 0.273537 0.378186 data analysis longand short-run relationships between the number of students and high schools in the secondary education system and the number of employed high school graduates were investigated by employing the autoregressive distributed lag (ardl) bounds testing approach. the stationary levels of the variables were primarily tested by applying augmented dickey fuller (adf) and kwiatkowski philips-schmidt-shin (kpss) unit root tests to determine whether the time series, including variables, were suitable to conduct the ardl test. the existence of cointegration between the number of students and schools and the number of employed high school graduates was tested using the bounds test and f statistics were compared with critical bound values (pesaran et al., 2001). following the determination of the cointegration, long-run dynamics between the variables were examined by estimating long-run coefficients of the ardl model. the error correction model (ecm) based on the ardl approach was constructed to estimate short-run coefficients and, therefore, the short-run dynamics of the variables were investigated. the breusch-godfrey serial correlation lm test, ramsey reset test, jarque-bera test, and breuschpagan-godfrey test were applied to check whether the ardl model meets the assumptions of serial correlation, functional form specification, normality, and heteroskedasticity within the scope of diagnostic tests. finally, cumulative sum (cusum) and cumulative sum of squares (cusumsq) graphs were examined to test the stability of the ardl model. findings findings on stationarity of the variables and cointegration between the studentand school-based growth in secondary education system and employment to satisfy the requirement for the ardl approach, unit root tests were employed to verify that variables were integrated of order at most one. adf and kpss unit root test results of the number of students and schools in the secondary education system and employed high school graduates 215 variables are reported in table 2. unit root test results were calculated for the models included an intercept and both an intercept and a trend in the level of the series and the model included an intercept in the first difference of the series. table 2. unit root test results of the variables augmented dickey fuller (adf) level first difference intercept intercept & trend intercept employment -2.771565 (0) -1.252931 (0) -4.876134* (0) student -1.034717 (0) -1.743615 (0) -5.179520* (0) school -0.464047 (0) -3.832869* (0) -6.711248* (0) kwiatkowski philips-schmidt-shin (kpss) level first difference intercept intercept & trend intercept employment 0.715025 (4) 0.180406 (4) 0.448972* (3) student 0.735665 (4) 0.094081* (3) 0.145496* (4) school 0.754056 (4) 0.053912* (3) 0.334322* (19) note: *denotes a significance level of .05. values in parentheses indicate lag length for the test of adf and bandwidth for the test of kpss. optimal lag length for unit root tests was determined based on schwarz information criterion (sic). the variable of employment for high school graduates is stationary in the first difference at the .05 significance level according to both adf and kpss tests. while the variable of student becomes stationary in the first difference according to the test of adf, it is stationary in level according to the test of kpss at the .05 significance level. the variable of school is stationary in level at the .05 significance level according to both adf and kpss tests. unit root tests indicate that there is no variable stationary in second difference consequently. considering the unit root test results as a whole, it is concluded that the relationships between the number of students and schools in the secondary education system and employed high school graduates can be tested by applying the ardl approach. ardl (2, 1, 0) with unrestricted constant and no trend was selected as the most appropriate ardl model using the akaike information criterion (aic) in order to examine the relationships between variables. to examine the potential long-run equilibrium relationship between the number of students and schools in secondary education system and employed high school graduates, the ardl bounds testing approach to cointegration was applied. results of the bounds test are reported in table 3. table 3. results of ardl bounds test k f-statistic lower bound i(0) upper bound i(1) 2 7.074476 3.79 4.85 note: critical values are at the .05 level of significance. asymptotic critical values are obtained from pesaran et al. (2001, p. 300, table ci(iii)) 216 as can be seen in table 3, since the calculated f-statistic is higher than the lower and upper bound values (f = 7.074476 > 4.85), there is a cointegration between the number of students and schools in the secondary education system and employed high school graduates, pointing out a significant and longrun equilibrium relationship. in other words, there is a long-run equilibrium between the studentand school-based growth in the secondary education system and employment of high school graduates. therefore, longand short-run relationships between the variables included in the ardl model can be examined depending on the cointegration. findings on long-run relationship long-run coefficients of the ardl (2, 1, 0) model were estimated on account of the presence of cointegration between the number of students and schools in secondary education and employed high school graduates. long-run coefficient estimations are presented in table 4. table 4. ardl model long-run coefficients variable coefficient std. error t-statistic p-value lnstudent 0.640163 0.629189 1.017441 0.3191 lnschool -0.490726 0.964249 -0.508920 0.6155 note: ln denotes that variables are transformed into their natural logarithm by taking natural logs. long-run coefficients of student and school variables were insignificant, as can be seen in table 4. although coefficients were found to be insignificant, the effects of the variables on the employment can be evaluated. while the number of students had a positive effect on the employment of high school graduates, the number of schools had a negative effect in the long run. specifically, a 1% increase in the number of students in the secondary education system raised employment of high school graduates by 0.64%. however, a 1% increase in the number of schools led to a 0.49% decrease in employment. findings on short-run relationship ecm was constructed based on the approach of ardl to ascertain short-run relationship between the number of students and schools in secondary education system and employed high school graduates. short-run coefficients of ecm are reported in table 5. table 5. ardl error correction model results variable coefficient std. error t-statistic p-value c 1.118912* 0.223837 4.998774 0.0000 ∆lnemployment(-1) -0.171888 0.150605 -1.141314 0.2650 ∆lnstudent -0.162095 0.108030 -1.500455 0.1465 ect(-1) -0.107168* 0.022350 -4.795002 0.0001 note: ∆ indicates that the difference of the variable is taken. c: constant, ect: error correction term estimated error correction coefficient, ect(-1) is -0.107 and significant. it shows that short-run deviations in the employment converge to the long-run equilibrium over time. the disequilibrium occurring in the employment due to a shock adjusts back to the long-run equilibrium at a rate of 11% 217 per annum. in other words, a deviation from the long-run equilibrium path of employment in a year is corrected by about 11% in the next year. however, the ecm coefficient is fairly small, therefore, it can be concluded that the speed of adjustment in deviations is slow. while constant term is significant, coefficients of other variables are insignificant in the ecm. findings on diagnostic tests to investigate the robustness of the estimated ardl model of the study and the validity of the findings based on the ardl model, the diagnostic tests on the serial correlation, heteroskedasticity, normality, and misspecification were employed and table 6 reports the results of these diagnostic tests. table 6. diagnostic test results diagnostic tests test-statistic p-value jarque-berra normality 0.240709 0.886606 ramsey reset 3.573269 0.0714 breusch-godfrey serial correlation lm 1.183322 0.3250 breusch-pagan-godfrey heteroskedasticity 0.319156 0.8965 the jarque-berra normality test shows that the residuals of the estimated ardl model of the study are normally distributed. according to the ramsey’s reset test, there is no misspecification with respect to functional form of the ardl model. while the breusch-godfrey serial correlation lm test confirms the absence of serial correlation, the breusch-pagan-godfrey heteroskedasticity test shows that the model is free from heteroskedasticity. to assess the stability of the estimated ardl model, the cusum and cusumsq tests were conducted. cusum and cusumsq test results are shown in figures 1 and 2, respectively. figure 1: cusum of recursive residuals figure 2: cusumsq of recursive residuals as can be seen in figures 1 and 2, cusum and cusumsq of the recursive residuals stay within lines that symbolise the critical bounds at the .05 level of significance. therefore, both tests indicate that the estimated model is stable and predictable over the sample period. 218 discussion limited resources have forced every country to make increased productivity one of their primary targets, thus, leading them to take into consideration economic concerns when developing education policies. in this context, meeting the shortand long-term economic demands of different education levels has been one of the important subjects considered within the scope of policies (cheong cheng et al., 2002). secondary education is considered an opportunity for undeveloped and developed countries to increase the employability of young individuals since there are no differences between the earnings of secondary and higher education graduates (tsamadias et al., 2001). thus, making secondary education compulsory has become an education policy that has received increased importance over time. at this point, it should be considered that the impacts of education on employment may differ among countries (habibov et al., 2019). the present study provides evidence that there is a long-run equilibrium relationship between the number of students and schools in the secondary education system and the number of employed secondary education graduates in turkey. the equilibrium between growth in secondary education and employment in turkey may be considered as an indication that policies related to growth in secondary education assure stability of employment. in line with the findings of the present study, warren and cataldi (2006) determined that the relationship between employment of high school students and rates of high school completion is stable. on the other hand, brudevold-newman (2021) found that increased access to education as a result of the expansion in secondary education increases schooling and more qualified employment. similarly, kusakabe’s (2012) study detected a limited correlation between the expansion in secondary education and employment. therefore, the relevant literature points out that completing secondary education has important impacts on income and employment (heymann et al., 2013) and reduces informal employment and likelihood of unemployment (sheehan & shi, 2019). employment probability is lower for students who drop out of school at the secondary education level compared with those who complete their secondary education (brekke, 2014). in the meantime, the productivity of employers is also shaped with the rates of completing secondary education (sheehan & shi, 2019). even though a long-term positive impact on employment was observed in the study for the number of students and a long-term negative impact was observed for the number of schools, these effects were not found to be statistically significant. these findings show that growth in secondary education should be examined from a holistic perspective. however, school dropouts and early age employment opportunities for high school students may have been effective in the emergence of this situation. studies that take into account school dropout and the socio-economic characteristics of students have also revealed similar results. kusakabe (2012) found that expansion in secondary education did not significantly increase employment opportunities for poor students. zhang (2015) determined that high-school enrollment rates decrease due to increased employment opportunities for high-school students. in zhongchang and yongqiu’s (2007) research, no significant relationship was found between high-school education and unemployment rates. employment status was taken into consideration for individuals aged 15 and above within the scope of the present study. while the age factor may have strong positive impacts for employment in various countries, there are various other countries in which employment options decrease with age (habibov et al., 2019). hence, evaluating a wide age range may be related with the results indicating that increasing the number of secondary 219 education students has a positive impact on employment. it is a striking outcome of the present study that increasing the number of schools has a negative impact on employment. the lack of studies on the direct effect of the number of schools on employment makes it difficult to interpret this finding. however, it is necessary to consider the link between the lack of such a contribution by the number of schools and the ineffective investments as a result of the unsatisfactory cost-benefit analyses. in this regard, berument et al. (2006) determined that financial policies in turkey do not have an impact on total unemployment rates and unemployment related to education level. the duration of compulsory education including secondary education is effective on employment (spohr, 2003). however, compulsory education cannot display this expected impact in low-income countries with a high level of informal employment and indirect education costs (diaz-serrano, 2020). the holistic picture revealed by the findings of the study could not point to an inference regarding the absolute benefit of long-term compulsory secondary education. in line with the findings of the study, hall (2016) found that there was no evidence that staying longer in secondary education reduces the risk of unemployment. similarly, lu (2018) determined that extended duration of compulsory education had no impact on economic growth in the case the total cost of education is met by the state and the unit costs for compulsory education and higher education are the same. thus, it is an important requirement for underdeveloped and developing countries that their secondary education systems are structured for contributing to employment. the families of the student group with increased participation in compulsory secondary education are naturally less educated and in lower status job positions (raimondi & vergolini, 2019). however, the cost of education is a precursor for the impact of socio-economic attributes on schooling duration (rouse & barrow, 2006). therefore, raising the school leaving age does not lead to similar results for all students concerning permanent employment. while the literature indicates an increase in the duration of compulsory education is relevant, opinions differ regarding the effect of an increase in the school leaving age (woodin et al., 2013). the increase in the minimum age for leaving school does not always lead to an increase in welfare. as an example, negative long-term results for the individual may occur when long-term schooling leads to adverse impacts, especially on educational acquisitions and labour market outputs (avendano et al., 2020). although the link between secondary education and employment is discussed from a quantitative perspective in this study, it should be mentioned that the type of high school and the quality of secondary education also shape employment opportunities. the growth of the secondary education system only in terms of the number of its components cannot increase the employment of secondary education graduates. in addition to secondary education diplomas, the quality of the education system is effective in finding a job for secondary school graduates (vicente, 2016). failure of schools to transfer necessary knowledge and skills to students (rosenbaum et al., 1990) and the lack of employability skills in curriculum (guy et al., 2009; sermsuk et al., 2014) can create obstacles to the employment of secondary school graduates. therefore, there is a need for education policies that enable secondary school students to have the skills necessary for employment. the understanding of education adopted in schools can have a positive or negative effect on the quality of employment opportunities (choi et al., 2019; tabbron & yang, 1997). therefore, policies for secondary school students to acquire employability skills should focus on improving the structure and functioning of education in line with the requirements of the labour market and the age. in other 220 words, high schools should be structured to prepare students for employment. while students are relatively more prepared for employment in technical education, there are deficiencies in preparing students for employment in other school types (guy et al., 2009). as a result, vocational and technical high school students have more employment opportunities than students in other high school types. for this reason, structuring the secondary education system in a way that allows student mobility across vocational and technical high schools and other types of high schools can be considered as an effective policy. to structure the secondary education system in a way that facilitates employment, especially the teaching processes should be carried out with an understanding in line with the requirements of the age. the use of in-class and out-of-class teaching together in teaching processes can be an effective alternative in improving the employability skills of secondary school students. in addition to traditional classroom teaching, the design of teaching processes based on distance education, online education and blended learning will contribute to the education of students by equipping them with the skills required by the age. today, blended instructional models based on establishing a balance between the use of technology and traditional teaching are recommended for workforce development, so that skill-building instruction can be integrated into technology-based education (gan et al., 2014). therefore, the structure of the secondary education system is expected to allow mobility across different types of education as well as across different types of high schools. the successful integration of online and traditional teaching programmes is considered as an effective way to respond to the changing needs of the labour market (seibold, 2007). gauthier (2020) stated that today, employers consider experience and competence more important than having a diploma and that the time spent sitting in the classroom is not considered equal to education. therefore, he emphasised that education should be offered in a variety of formats. as a result, the requirements of the labour market determine the competences gained by students (allais, 2012), and competency-based recruitment practices are increasingly preferred (gauthier, 2020). the increasing importance given to the employment based on the competencies of students in the labour market necessitates the spread of the competency-based education. in competency-based education, which is also expressed as performance-based learning, an outcome-based approach was adopted and students demonstrated the skills they had gained (gervais, 2016). it is considered more beneficial for students to earn employability skill micro-credentials that certify the core or technic competencies they have acquired as a result of completing a programme or course (gauthier, 2020). since today’s employees are expected to have the potential to work in different jobs and to be flexible in acquiring skills, students need to be trained to have 21st century skills (van laar et al., 2020). 21st century skills are considered within the scope of the skills required in working life (väisänen & hirsto, 2020). it is possible for students to gain 21st century skills by experiencing a teaching process suitable for the acquisition of these skills. with the development of technology, different delivery methods have emerged that can provide students with this type of teaching experience. emphasising the use of technology to facilitate student learning, technology-enabled learning can help students prepare for employment opportunities in different sectors (kirkwood & price, 2016). in the flipped classroom approach, which enables the effective use of technology in learning processes, students’ learning experiences are enriched by enabling the practice of business skills both inside and outside the classroom (wang et al., 2019). flipped teaching techniques can facilitate the transition of students to 221 work life and can help students receive education that responds to the needs of the market (james et al., 2014). to strengthen the link between secondary education and employment, due attention should be given to policies focused on the dissemination of alternative teaching approaches that support the development of students’ employability skills along with policies focused on growth in the secondary education system. conclusions the present study concludes that the growth based on the numbers of students and schools in the secondary education system of turkey contributes to stability of the employment of secondary education graduates in the long run. even though there is a long-term equilibrium relationship between growth based on the numbers of students and schools in the secondary education system and employment, neither the school nor the student variable is associated with employment. since secondary education is a system, variables related to this system explain employment together. on the other hand, this situation shows that the links among the number of students, the number of schools and employment could not be directly established. this result points to the practical and policy implications that education authorities should consider for compulsory secondary education, secondary education curriculum and education financing. shorter compulsory secondary education duration can be considered as a possible solution in this regard. the fact that students miss out on early employment opportunities as a result of the long time they spend in secondary education and cannot attend university increases the numbers of individuals in society who are neither in education nor in employment. therefore, shortening the period of compulsory secondary education may help reduce the increasing number of students waiting to attend university and help solve the growing unemployment problems of university graduates in turkey. the long duration of compulsory secondary education increases the number of secondary schools and the students in the system and, therefore, increases the cost of education that the state has to cover. for this reason, education authorities should evaluate the functionality of the compulsory secondary education period in terms of both employment and efficiency in education. as another suggestion, strengthening the link between high schools and the labour market could be considered if the duration of compulsory secondary education remains the same. education authorities should expand cooperation and partnership agreements between high schools and the business world. it should also be ensured that vocational courses are included not only in vocational and technical high schools but also in other types of high schools, within certain limits. in other types of high schools, vocational courses could be delivered through blended instructional models so that students acquire basic knowledge and skills that could increase their chances of taking part in the labour market. even though the aim of the study was not to examine the compulsory secondary education policy of turkey in practice, the contribution of compulsory secondary education to employment could be examined starting from the year 2012. however, it would not be proper to accept a short-term data set for analysis. since employment was considered in terms of the quantitative characteristics of the secondary education system in the study, the relationship between primary indicators of growth in secondary education and employment was examined. however, different factors such as per capita income, characteristics of the labour market and demographic factors may have an impact on the employment of high-school graduates. therefore, future studies could examine the relationship 222 between employment and the secondary education system from perspectives based on different factors. vocational and technical high schools in the secondary education system make the highest contribution to secondary education graduate employment. hence, failure to make a sufficient increase in the number of vocational and technical high schools or a greater increase in other high school types may negatively reflect on employment. therefore, making comparison between different high school types regarding employment opportunities may provide a different perspective. considering the advantages of vocational and technical high schools in terms of employment, it is recommended to develop an education policy that allows student mobility across vocational and technical high schools and other types of high schools. however, teaching processes in all high school types should serve to build employability skills in order to structure a secondary education system that increases access to employment opportunities. the increase in the number of higher education graduates experiencing unemployment more clearly demonstrates the need for a secondary education system in which high school students acquire 21st century skills and thus develop employability skills. the conditions of today’s labour market require the secondary education system to have a dynamic and flexible structure that is sensitive to both individual and market needs. allowing mobility across traditional education programmes and distance education programmes in secondary education may provide a dynamic structure to secondary education. the dissemination of the competence-based education approach, which emphasises the formation of skills, may also contribute to the creation of a flexible secondary education system that is sensitive to market needs. the creation of programmes in which students gradually earn micro-credentials for specific employment skills in the secondary education system may increase access to employment opportunities. however, for the effective use of the competency-based education and the micro-credentialing in line with the needs of today’s labour market, instructional approaches that facilitate skill use and technology-enabled learning in secondary education should be adopted. in the context of such instructional approaches, blended instruction and flipped classrooms may enable secondary education to serve the formation of employability skills by making students active in learning processes, facilitating learning through the use of technology, and enabling students to practise the skills they have learned. references abbott, j., & mctaggart, h. (2010). overschooled but undereducated: how the crisis in education is jeopardizing our adolescents. continuum international publishing group. allais, s. (2012). will skills save us? rethinking the relationships between vocational education, skills development policies, and social policy in south africa. international journal of educational development, 32(5), 632-642. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2012.01.001 al-samarrai, s., & reilly, b. (2008). education, employment and earnings of secondary school and university leavers in tanzania: evidence from a tracer study. journal of development studies, 44(2), 258-288. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220380701789950 avendano, m., de coulon, a., & nafilyan, v. (2020). does longer compulsory schooling affect mental health? evidence from a british reform. journal of public economics, 183, 104137. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2020.104137 223 awad, a. (2020). from school to employment; the dilemma of youth in sub–saharan africa. international journal of adolescence and youth, 25(1), 945-964. https://doi.org/10.1080/02673843.2020.1778492 balkıs, m., arslan, g., & duru, e. (2016). the school absenteeism among high school students: contributing factors. educational sciences: theory & practice, 16(6), 1819-1831. http://dx.doi.org/10.12738/estp.2016.6.0125 berument, h., dogan, n., & tansel, a. (2006). economic performance and unemployment: evidence from an emerging economy. international journal of manpower, 27(7), 604-623. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01437720610708248 bhorat, h., cassim, a., & tseng, d. (2016). higher education, employment and economic growth: exploring the interactions. development southern africa, 33(3), 312-327. https://doi.org/10.1080/0376835x.2016.1161501 binder, m. (2006). the cost of providing universal secondary education in developing countries. in j. e. cohen, d. e. bloom & m. b. malin (eds.), educating all children: a global agenda (pp. 455-494). american academy of arts and sciences. brekke, i. (2014). long-term labour market consequences of dropping out of upper secondary school: minority disadvantages? acta sociologica, 57(1), 25-39. https://doi.org/10.1177/0001699313495056 brudevold-newman, a. (2021). expanding access to secondary education: evidence from a fee reduction and capacity expansion policy in kenya. economics of education review, 83, 102127. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2021.102127 cabus, s.j., & de witte, k. (2011). does school time matter?—on the impact of compulsory education age on school dropout. economics of education review, 30(6), 1384-1398. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2011.07.003 calp, ş., & calp, m. (2015). branş ve sınıf öğretmenlerinin bakış açısıyla 4+4+4 eğitim sistemi [4 + 4 + 4 education system with perspective of branch and primary teachers]. turkish studies—international periodical for the languages, literature and history of turkish or turkic, 10(11), 383-406. https://doi.org/10.7827/turkishstudies.8316 cheong cheng, y., hung ng, k., & mo ching mok, m. (2002). economic considerations in education policy making: a simplified framework. international journal of educational management, 16(1), 18-39. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513540210415514 choi, s.j., jeong, j.c., & kim, s.n. (2019). impact of vocational education and training on adult skills and employment: an applied multilevel analysis. international journal of educational development, 66, 129-138. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2018.09.007 council of higher education (2019). statistics of transition to higher education: the year of 2019 hie. https://istatistik.yok.gov.tr/images/ykgi/2019/2019_yks_basvuran_yerlesen.pdf diaz-serrano, l. (2020). the duration of compulsory education and the transition to secondary education: panel data evidence from low-income countries. international journal of educational development, 75, 102189. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2020.102189 dimaki, k., kaminioti, o., kostaki, a., psarakis, s., & tsourti, z. (2005). educational and occupational preferences of high school students in greece. education + training, 47(6), 432-446. https://doi.org/10.1108/00400910510617051 eurydice (2019). the structure of the european education systems 2019/20: schematic diagrams. eurydice facts and figures. publications office of the european union. https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail//publication/d7885072-f3ac-11e9-8c1f-01aa75ed71a1/language-en/format-pdf/source-107292535 224 gan, k.n., schneider, g. epstein, z., & silverman, a. (2014). technology-based learning (tbl) in workforce development and education: a review of the research literature [report prepared for the u.s. department of labor]. abt associates inc. https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/oasp/evaluation/pdf/eta_tblinwdandedliteraturereview_repo rt_aug2020.pdf ganderton, p.t., santos, r., & seitz, p. (2002). employment patterns of hispanic high school graduates without college experience. the social science journal, 39(2), 301-307. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0362-3319(02)00171-4 gauthier, t. (2020). the value of microcredentials: the employer's perspective. competency-based education, 5(2), article e01209. https://doi.org/10.1002/cbe2.1209 gervais, j. (2016). the operational definition of competencybased education. competency-based education, 1(2), 98-106. https://doi.org/10.1002/cbe2.1011 ghignoni, e., croce, g., & d’ambrosio, a. (2019). university dropouts vs high school graduates in the school-towork transition: who is doing better? international journal of manpower, 40(3), 449-472. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijm-02-2018-0051 guio, j., choi, á., & escardíbul, j-o. (2018). labor markets, academic performance and school dropout risk: evidence for spain. international journal of manpower, 39(2), 301-318. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/ijm-08-20160158 guy, b.a., sitlington, p.l., larsen, m.d., & frank, a.r. (2009). what are high schools offering as preparation for employment? career development for exceptional individuals, 32(1), 30-41. https://doi.org/10.1177/0885728808318625 habibov, n., auchynnikova, a., & luo, r. (2019). the effect of different types of education on the likelihood of employment in 29 post-communist countries of eastern europe and the former soviet union. higher education, skills and work-based learning, 9(4), 723-738. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/heswbl-09-2018-0092 hall, c. (2016). does more general education reduce the risk of future unemployment? evidence from an expansion of vocational upper secondary education. economics of education review, 52, 251-271. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2016.03.005 heymann, j., raub, a., & cassola, a. (2013). does prohibiting child labor increase secondary school enrolment? insights from a new global dataset. international journal of educational research, 60, 38-45. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2013.01.003 ilieva-trichkova, p., & boyadjieva, p. (2018). educational systems matter: differences across european countries in how young people with secondary education experience job insecurity. journal of education and work, 31(7-8), 595-610. https://doi.org/10.1080/13639080.2018.1559281 james, a.j., chin, c.k.h., & williams, b.r. (2014). using the flipped classroom to improve student engagement and to prepare graduates to meet maritime industry requirements: a focus on maritime education. wmu journal of maritime affairs, 13(2), 331–343. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13437-014-0070-0 kasa, b., & ersöz, y. (2016). pros and cons: compulsory 12 year education reform in turkey. south african journal of education, 36(2), article 1197, 1-10. https://doi.org/10.15700/saje.v36n2a1197 killeen, j., turton, r., diamond, w., dosnon, o., & wach, m. (1999). education and the labour market: subjective aspects of human capital investment. journal of education policy, 14(2), 99-116. https://doi.org/10.1080/026809399286396 225 kirkwood, a., & price, l. (2016). technology-enabled learning implementation handbook. commonwealth of learning. http://oasis.col.org/bitstream/handle/11599/2363/2016_telihandbook.pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y kusakabe, t. (2012). impact of education expansion on employment in bangladesh: comparing two cases of villages in remote and suburban rural settings. journal of international cooperation in education, 15(2), 53-68. https://cice.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/wp-content/uploads/publications/15-2/15-2-04.pdf lewin, k.m. (2001). statement of the problem. in k. lewin & f. caillods (eds.), financing secondary education in developing countries: strategies for sustainable growth (pp. 5-20). international institute for educational planning/unesco. light, a. (1999). high school employment, high school curriculum, and postschool wages. economics of education review, 18(3), 291-309. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0272-7757(99)00007-2 liu, x., & rozelle, s. (2020). why aren’t rural children completing compulsory education? a survey-based study in china, 2003 to 2011. china agricultural economic review, 12(2), 241-255. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/caer-112019-0206 lu, c-h. (2018). social status, compulsory education, and growth. economic modelling, 68, 425-434. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.econmod.2017.08.013 marsh, h.w., & kleitman, s. (2005). consequences of employment during high school: character building, subversion of academic goals, or a threshold? american educational research journal, 42(2), 331-369. https://doi.org/10.3102/00028312042002331 mcgrath, j., & fischetti, j. (2019). what if compulsory schooling was a 21st century invention? in t. d. jules & f. d. salajan (eds.), the educational intelligent economy: big data, artificial intelligence, machine learning and the internet of things in education (international perspectives on education and society, vol. 38) (pp. 87-105). emerald publishing limited. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/s1479-367920190000038006 mcneal, r.b., jr. (2011). labor market effects on dropping out of high school: variation by gender, race, and employment status. youth & society, 43(1), 305-332. https://doi.org/10.1177/0044118x10363776 ministry of national education. (2019). 2020 yılı bütçe sunuşu [the presentation of 2020 budget]. http://sgb.meb.gov.tr/meb_iys_dosyalar/2019_12/18094404_2020_butce_sunuyu_17.12.2019.pdf ministry of national education. (2020). national education statistics: formal education 2019/'20. http://sgb.meb.gov.tr/meb_iys_dosyalar/2020_09/04144812_meb_istatistikleri_orgun_egitim_2019_2020.pdf oreopoulos, p. (2006). estimating average and local average treatment effects of education when compulsory schooling laws really matter. american economic review, 96(1), 152-175. http://dx.doi.org/10.1257/000282806776157641 organisation for economic co-operation and development. (2022). youth and the labour market: youth not in employment, education or training (neet) [data set]. oecd. https://doi.org/10.1787/72d1033a-en orhan-karsak, h.g. (2017). reflections of the changing education system according to the views of school managers: turkey sample. universal journal of educational research, 5(8), 1308-1322. https://doi.org/10.13189/ujer.2017.050804 painter, m. a., ii. (2010). get a job and keep it! high school employment and adult wealth accumulation. research in social stratification and mobility, 28(2), 233-249. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rssm.2010.01.006 pesaran, m.h., shin, y., & smith, r.j. (2001). bounds testing approaches to the analysis of level relationships. journal of applied econometrics, 16(3), 289-326. https://doi.org/10.1002/jae.616 226 popov, n. (2019). a review of the main trends in the reforms of school structures in europe. in a.w. wiseman (ed.), annual review of comparative and international education 2018 (international perspectives on education and society, vol. 37) (pp. 243-254). emerald publishing limited. https://doi.org/10.1108/s1479-367920190000037018 quirk, k.j., keith, t.z., & quirk, j.t. (2001). employment during high school and student achievement: longitudinal analysis of national data. the journal of educational research, 95(1), 4-10. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220670109598778 raimondi, e., & vergolini, l. (2019). everyone in school: the effects of compulsory schooling age on drop-out and completion rates. european journal of education, 54(3), 471-490. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejed.12356 rosenbaum, j.e., kariya, t., settersten, r., & maier, t. (1990). market and network theories of the transition from high school to work: their application to industrialized societies. annual review of sociology, 16, 263-299. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.so.16.080190.001403 rouse, c.e., & barrow, l. (2006). u.s. elementary and secondary schools: equalizing opportunity or replicating the status quo? future of children, 16(2), 99-123. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/foc.2006.0018 rumberger, r.w., & lamb, s.p. (2003). the early employment and further education experiences of high school dropouts: a comparative study of the united states and australia. economics of education review, 22(4), 353366. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0272-7757(02)00038-9 salas-velasco, m. (2007). the transition from higher education to employment in europe: the analysis of the time to obtain the first job. higher education, 54(3), 333-360. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-006-9000-1 sayın, f. (2011). türkiye’de 1988-2010 döneminde eğitim ve büyümenin genç işsizliğine etkisinin analizi [analysis of the impact of the education and the growth in turkey from 1988 to 2010 on youth unemployment]. dokuz eylül üniversitesi sosyal bilimler enstitüsü dergisi [dokuz eylül university the journal of graduate school of social sciences], 13(4), 33-53. seibold, k.n. (2007). employers’ perceptions of online education [doctoral dissertation, oklahoma state university]. shareok. https://hdl.handle.net/11244/7564 sermsuk, s., triwichitkhun, d., & wongwanich, s. (2014). employment conditions and essential employability skills required by employers for secondary school graduate. procedia — social and behavioral sciences, 116, 1848-1854. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.01.482 sheehan, p., & shi, h. (2019). employment and productivity benefits of enhanced educational outcomes: a preliminary modelling approach. journal of adolescent health, 65(1), 44-51. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2019.03.025 spohr, c.a. (2003). formal schooling and workforce participation in a rapidly developing economy: evidence from ‘‘compulsory’’ junior high school in taiwan. journal of development economics, 70(2), 291-327. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0304-3878(02)00099-8 tabbron, g., & yang, j. (1997). the interaction between technical and vocational education and training (tvet) and economic development in advanced countries. international journal of educational development, 17(3), 323334. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0738-0593(96)00072-7 torun, h., & tumen, s. (2019). do vocational high school graduates have better employment outcomes than general high school graduates? international journal of manpower, 40(8), 1364-1388. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijm-11-2017-0314 tsamadias, c., chilas, j., & botsaris, c.a. (2001). determinants of earnings in the public and private sector in greek labour market: the case of tertiary technological and secondary education graduates. journal of statistics and management systems, 4(3), 255-274. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09720510.2001.10701042 227 turkish statistical institute. (2010). statistical indicators 1923-2009. turkish statistical institute, printing division. turkish statistical institute. (n.d.-a). labour force statistics (1988-2013) [data set]. https://tuikweb.tuik.gov.tr/pretablo.do?alt_id=1007 turkish statistical institute. (n.d.-b). labour force statistics (2014 and after) [data set]. https://tuikweb.tuik.gov.tr/pretablo.do?alt_id=1007 united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization & understanding children’s work. (2013). educational attainment and employment outcomes: evidence from 11 developing countries. background paper prepared for the education for all global monitoring report 2013/4, teaching and learning: achieving quality for all. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000226333?posinset=8&queryid=ea8b9154-736e4830-90f1-cd4e1b93be2e väisänen, s., & hirsto, l. (2020). how can flipped classroom approach support the development of university students’ working life skills?—university teachers’ viewpoint. education sciences, 10(12), 366. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci10120366 van laar, e., van deursen, a.j.a.m., van dijk, j.a.g.m., & de haan, j. (2020). determinants of 21st-century skills and 21st-century digital skills for workers: a systematic literature review. sage open, 10(1), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244019900176 vicente, m.e. (2016). education policies and organizational structures in argentinian secondary schools. international journal of educational management, 30(6), 913-928. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/ijem-04-2015-0040 vickers, m., lamb, s., & hinkley, j. (2003). student workers in high school and beyond: the effects of part-time employment on participation in education, training and work. research report, australian council for educational research. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ed475343.pdf wang, j., wang, d., & xing, m. (2019). flipped classroom for practical skills to enhance employability: a case study of business chinese. international journal of computer-assisted language learning and teaching, 9(1), 1931. http://doi.org/10.4018/ijcallt.2019010102 warren, j.r., & cataldi, e.f. (2006). a historical perspective on high school students’ paid employment and its association with high school dropout. sociological forum, 21(1), 113-143. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11206-0069005-7 warren, j.r., & lee, j.c. (2003). the impact of adolescent employment on high school dropout: differences by individual and labor-market characteristics. social science research, 32(1), 98-128. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0049-089x(02)00021-2 weller, n.f., kelder, s.h., cooper, s.p., basen-engquist, k., & tortolero, s.r. (2003). school-year employment among high school students: effects on academic, social, and physical functioning. adolescence, 38(151), 441458. winding, t.n., nohr, e.a., labriola, m., biering, k., & andersen, j.h. (2013). personal predictors of educational attainment after compulsory school: influence of measures of vulnerability, health, and school performance. scandinavian journal of public health, 41(1), 92-101. https://doi.org/10.1177/1403494812467713 woodhall, m. (2004). cost-benefit analysis in educational planning (4th ed.). unesco: international institute for educational planning. woodin, t., mcculloch, g., & cowan, s. (2013). secondary education and the raising of the school-leaving age: coming of age? palgrave macmillan. 228 xiao, y., li, l., & zhao, l. (2017). education on the cheap: the long-run effects of a free compulsory education reform in rural china. journal of comparative economics, 45(3), 544-562. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jce.2017.07.003 zhang, c. (2015). export expansion, employment growth and the individual investment in education. economic research journal [in chinese], 12, 115-127. https://ssrn.com/abstract=3049417 zhongchang, c., & yongqiu, w. (2007). the relationship between education and employment: a theoretical analysis and empirical test. frontiers of economics in china, 2(2), 187-211. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11459-0070010-4 author: dr betül balkar is an associate professor of educational administration at çukurova university, turkey. her research interests include national and globalizing educational policies, leadership, organizational behaviour in education, school development and professional development. email: bbalkar@cu.edu.tr cite this paper as: balkar, b. (2022). rethinking the relationship between the growth of the secondary education system and employment: evidence from turkey. journal of learning for development, 9(2), 209-228. situma open and distance learning and information and communication technologies implications for formal and non-formal education: a kenyan case david barasa situma vol. 2, no. 1 abstract the female population in kenya was reported at 50.05% in 2011, according to a world bank report published in 2012. despite this slightly higher percentage over males, women in kenya are not well represented in education and training compared to their male counterparts (kenya national bureau of statistics, 2012). the need to empower girls and women through education is vital in order to comply with the bill of rights (constitution of kenya, 2010). the use of information and communication technologies (ict) and open and distance learning (odl) are two of the initiatives that seek to achieve gender parity in education in kenya. this paper seeks to do the following with regard to girls’ and women’s education in kenya: a) establish the implications of ict and odl; b) examine the current policies that support the use of icts; c) assess the objectives and strategies to facilitate the widespread use of icts; d) assess the implementation of policy objectives and strategies in support of icts and odl ; e) identify priority areas for implementation of odl initiatives for women and girls’ education in  kenya; f) state lessons drawn from the ict and odl initiatives; and g) propose strategies for addressing the challenges for implementation of odl and ict. the literature provides very informative findings in support of ict and odl for female education. a number of policies and initiatives are operating in kenya to ensure ict and odl are maximized for both genders. however, these policies and initiatives have not fully achieved the objectives for which ict and odl ought to be implemented. the needs of girls and women should be factored into a curriculum development strategy concerning ict and odl. introduction policy makers, planners, administrators and researchers hold highly polarized views on the impact of information and communications technologies (icts) and their role in promoting objectives such as poverty alleviation, universal education, reduction in mortality and health hazards, sustainable development and in bridging the digital as well as socio-economic divides in the world. while rapid technological changes are fast creating what is now known as an `information society,'  on the one hand, on the other, there are an estimated 18% of adults, or 771 million, globally, who are still illiterate. of these, the majority is female, and nearly all are from the poorest sections of society. in kenya, the population ratio of women to men is higher, though, this contrasts with literacy levels between men and women. women seemingly are the majority in the informal sector as compared to men (kenya national bureau of statistics, 2012). in politics, men occupying political seats have higher numbers, hence, they are the major decision makers in parliamentary matters (kenya elections 2013). there have been efforts to bridge the social, political and economic gaps between the genders. one of the methods to minimize these gaps is by education through the use of information and communication technologies and open and distance learning. it is with this background in mind, that the present paper was conceived to ascertain what, if any, has been the current role of icts in promoting girls’ and women's education, particularly women's literacy, and what challenges face the the further implementation of ict and odl. recognizing that women's illiteracy would further exacerbate the already serious problem of the `digital divide,' it was felt that a review of the literature would help in assessing what new perspectives had emerged during the past few years. it was also felt that field visits to on-going projects in various settings would help in identifying and validating some core principles of good practice in the use of icts in literacy programs for women in third world countries, with a special focus on kenya. thereafter, the paper analyses the current status of ict and open and distance learning as it advances girls’ and women’s education in kenya. the paper also considers initiatives the government of kenya has put in place, how ict and odl is being implemented in kenya, and questions some of the challenges such initiatives are facing. it also suggests solutions for these challenges. justification ict and odl are considered means through which equity, access and quality of education could be attained. gender disparities in terms of economic, social and political opportunities could be dealt with by using ict and odl. the unesco institute for statistics (uis) — the official data source that monitors education and literacy targets associated with education for all (efa) and the millennium development goals — annually surveys youth and adult literacy and educational attainment. adult literacy rates concern the population aged 15 years and older, while youth literacy rates cover the population between the ages of 15 to 24 years. the data are disseminated through the uis data centre and featured in publications like the annual global education digest. the table below provides a summary of the main literacy statistics. as part of the efa goals, the international community has pledged to improve adult literacy levels by 50% between 2000 and 2015. while the number of illiterate persons has fallen over the past decade, 775 million adults – 64% of whom are women – still lack basic reading and writing skills. in 2010, the global adult literacy rate was 84.1%, compared to 89.6% for youth. adult literacy rate, total 84.1% adult literacy rate, male 88.6% adult literacy rate, female 79.7% adult illiterate population, total 775.4 million adult illiterate population, female share 64.1% youth literacy rate, total 89.6% youth literacy rate, male 92.2% youth literacy rate, female 87.1% youth illiterate population, total 122.2 million youth illiterate population, female share 60.7% source: unesco institute for statistics, september 2012. the region of south and west asia is home to more than one-half of the global illiterate population (52%).  in addition, 22% of all illiterate adults live in sub-saharan africa, 13% in east asia and the pacific, 6.5% in the arab states and 4.7% in latin america and the caribbean. it is estimated that less than 2% of the global illiterate population live in the remaining regions combined. the arab states and south and west asia have made the greatest progress in improving adult and youth literacy over the past two decades.  between 1990 and 2010, the adult literacy rate in the arab states rose from 55% to 75% and the youth literacy rate from 74% to 89%. over the same period, the adult literacy rate in south and west asia increased from 47% to 63% and the youth literacy rate from 60% to 81%. to a lesser extent, progress was also observed in all of the other regions. by 2015 – the target year for education for all and the millennium development goals – two thirds of adults and three-quarters of youth in sub-saharan africa are expected to be able to read and write. central asia, central and eastern europe, east asia and the pacific, and latin america and the caribbean are expected to be at or near universal youth literacy. in the arab states and south and west asia, approximately nine out of ten young adults between the ages of 15 and 24 years are projected to be literate. adult literacy rates are estimated to continue to rise in the coming years but are expected to remain below the youth literacy rate in nearly all regions. the global adult literacy rate is estimated to reach 86% by 2015 and the youth literacy rate 92%. in order to address the enormity of the problem, the united nations launched the united nations literacy decade (2003-2012) in 2003. its aim is to bring literacy to all. the overall target for the literacy decade is the unesco education for all (efa) goal of increasing literacy rates by 50% by 2015. the literacy initiative for empowerment (life) is a global strategic framework and key operational mechanism for achieving the goals and purposes of the united nations (un) literacy decade. because of the established relationship between illiteracy and poverty, the achievement of the literacy decade goals is central to the realization of the millennium development goals. the international action plan for implementing the literacy decade states that “literacy for all is at the heart of basic education for all and that creating literate environments and societies is essential for achieving goals of eradicating poverty, reducing child mortality, curbing population growth, achieving gender equity and ensuring sustainable development, peace and democracy” (unesco, 2002). with the rapid expansion of icts, educational applications of technology could be made available to school-based programmes but there is a strong possibility that, due to scarce resources, the poorest and most marginalized groups would be excluded. there is thus a danger that with the growing importance of icts in knowledge-based societies, those groups with little or no literacy will fall even further behind those who are literate. the literacy gap that already exists will therefore grow even wider and, undoubtedly,  exacerbate the problem of the digital divide. if the united nations literacy decade goals are to be achieved, efforts would have to focus on reaching those at the very bottom extreme of the literacy divide, and there needs to be consideration of how ict can contribute to achieving those goals. on the basis of national studies that highlight best practices in the use of icts for literacy programs, as well as other experiences around the world (particularly in school education) it is claimed that icts have potential to enhance learning and broaden access to literacy education and empower learners — especially women. status of education gender disparities the primary to secondary school transition rate (ptr) in kenya is low at 55% (ministry of education (moe) of kenya, 2010). the government of kenya’s (gok) budgetary allocation for the sector is insufficient and this restricts the provision of resources, such as textbooks and also affects ptrs and retention rates. completion rates stood at 76.8% (79.2% for boys and 74.4% for girls) in 2010, and these had already declined from the 83.2% of the previous year (88.3% and 78.2% for boys and girls respectively). (ministry of education (moe) of kenya, 2012) the transition rate from primary to secondary education increased marginally from 59.6% (56.5% for male and 63.2% for female) in 2007, to 64.1% (61.3% for male and 67.3% for female) in 2008, further increasing to 66.9% (64.1% for male and 69.1% for female) in 2009 and to 72% in 2010.   2008 2009 2010 2011   boys girls boys girls boys girls boys girls enrolment in primary ‘000’ 4,362.5 4,201.3 4,509.4 4,322. 4,751.9 4,629.3 4,977.7 4,880.2 enrolment in secondary ‘000’ 720.5 615.4 787.9 684.7 885.5 767.8 948.7 819.0 enrolment in universities ‘000’ 73.5 49.3 110.3 67.4 107.7 69.9 17.7 80.6 enrolment in other institutions ‘000’ 56.5 53.1 55.1 52.2 56.4 54.7 68.5 65.3 student enrolment by type of institution and gender (kenya national bureau of statistics 2012). universities include both public and private universities; other institutions include teachers training colleges, polytechnics and technical institutes. current policies that support the use of icts in formal education in kenya the state of application of icts and odl to promote gender equity socially, economically and politically has gained momentum. various initiatives have been put in place to ensure the objective of gender equity is attained. the policy initiatives that have been put in place include the kenya ict policy, 2006; kenya vision, 2030; sessional papers no 1., 2005; and the millennium development goals. kenya ict policy 2006 to ensure the deployment of icts for education, the ict policy, 2006 aims to promote distance education and virtual institutions in higher education and training. equity in education will be achieved through an integrated e-learning curriculum, development of digital content, establishment of infrastructure and development and sharing of e-learning resources. this will facilitate public-private partnerships to mobilize resources in order to support e-learning. kenya vision, 2030 girls’ and women’s interests have been recognized through the economic, social and political pillars of kenya vision, 2030, which recognizes icts as an enabler for these pillars for kenya.  icts will play a critical role, ensuring that there is access to equity in quality education. the government of kenya, therefore, will seek to establish a computer supply programme that provides students with modern it skills. sessional paper no 1.,2005 in sessional paper no. 1 of 2005, the ministry of education’s (kenya) policy clearly articulates intentions to integrate information and communication technology (ict) into education. this is intended to ensure that education and training service provision and delivery utilizes modern ict tools. it should be noted that there are two dimensions to ict in education—teachers and learners learn about ict and teachers and learners learn with ict. learning about ict allows learners to contribute to the development of information and communication technology solutions. learner’s become producers of ict solutions.  on the other hand, learning with ict is aimed at enabling learners to acquire knowledge and skills that enable them to use ict effectively. learners use ict as a tool for empowerment. these two approaches have been assimilated into education in kenya. the ministry‘s policy is to integrate ict into education and training in order to prepare the learners and education managers of today for the 21st century’s educational environment and the knowledge economy. millennium development goals the millennium development declaration encourages member countries to promote gender equity and the empowerment of women as effective ways to combat poverty, hunger and disease, and also to stimulate development that is truly sustainable. the national development framework lists two key pillars as, investment in the agricultural sector and heavy reliance on the private sector within a liberalized market. those sectors dominated by women and the poor are at the periphery of the economy and have meagre investment resources. gross gender inequalities persist due to prevailing discriminatory practices, which lead to inequality in opportunities, wages and employment, ownership of property, and access to education and training. overall, women continue to have less access to social services and productive resources than men. women remain vastly underrepresented in parliament and local authorities and account for only 8.3% of the seats in the national assembly. in the recent past, the government has appointed some women to key positions but the number is still below expectations. there are also large wage gaps and only a small proportion cannot be explained by gender differences in education, work experience or job characteristics. strategies/initiatives to facilitate widespread use of icts and how they affect girls' and women's education in kenya a recent study in kenya also indicate that women are highly optimistic, embracing ict as a practical mechanism for achieving entry into the labour market (amadi 2007). however, they perceive significant structural barriers, such as public policies that fail to facilitate the development of the ict sector, gender discrimination by employers, and lack of training to provide them with sufficient technical skills to enable them to effectively perform in the workplace. these findings are largely confirmed by similar studies conducted in other countries (aauw 2000). creating an empowering environment for women to venture into ict careers as professionals therefore requires that families deconstruct gender stereotypes and roles in society. a similar process is required in important sectors like education and labour, as well as in the workplace and society in general, and is a strategy for shifting people’s thinking, and reducing gender discrimination in the ict sector, thereby making it more attractive to women who contemplate entering the sector as professionals (abagi et al 2008).  to ensure girls and women attain universal access to education, the following initiatives have been put in place: project africa project africa’s adult literacy program is for rural women and looks in particular at the intercultural communication between women in kenya and sweden at the women’s academy with the aim to empower rural women and girls with literacy skills in the use of both traditional and new media, through education, information, and enterprise development. the project is directed towards rural women in kenya with connections to other parts of africa. hallberg and wafula  (2010), in their presentation on empowering women in kenya with literacy skills through web 2.0, acknowledge that education is creating a closer sense of interconnectedness amongst women than used to occur in traditional classrooms. presentations at the conference on ict (development and poverty reduction) concluded that ict can be a reminder of the distance and separation from the rest of the world. women farmers have benefited from communications with other parts of the world about business. bridge development bridge was set up in 1992 as a specialized gender and development research and information service within the institute of development studies (ids), uk. bridge supports gender mainstreaming efforts of policy-makers and practitioners by bridging gaps between theory, policy and practice with accessible and diverse gender information. debates around the relationship between gender and technology provide a starting point for a discussion on gender and icts. kenya education network (kenet) to promote equity and access to education through ict, the kenya educational network (kenet), a national research and education network, was formed to promote the use of ict in teaching, learning, and research in higher education institutions in kenya. kenet aims to interconnect all the universities, tertiary and research institutions in kenya by setting up a cost effective and sustainable private network with high-speed access to the internet. kenet also facilitates electronic communication among students and faculties in member institutions, and shares learning and teaching resources through collaboration in research and the development of educational content. high-end network equipment for kenet. kenet has become the first african national research and education network (nren) to implement eduroam by setting up the service in ten universities within the kenet community. this means that students can now use their university credentials to access wireless internet services across these universities. pasha centers (digital villages) women are significant actors in the socio-economic development of any nation (dlodlo, 2009). to this end, ways of enhancing female access to ict in rural areas include: women sharing ict experiences, facilitating ict access for women, creating an enabling environment for ict in education, and increasing ict career opportunities for women (dlodlo, 2009). diodlo also stresses the importance of general collaboration in pursuing common ict objectives. in 2010, the government rolled out an initiative that will diffuse ict know-how through rural and marginalized areas to address regional disparities. entrepreneurs, who run digital villages, are awarded loans in a competitive process, which they repay over a period of time. pasha centres, as the hubs are called, provide a host of services to the public via computers connected to the internet, or by using and marketing other ict-enabled applications. digital villages are e-centers that provide a suite of services to the public via computers connected to the internet, digital cameras, printers, fax machines and other types of communication infrastructure. these services include, but are not limited to, e-mail, internet access, agency banking, e-banking (e.g., money transfer services such as posta pay), e-government (e.g., police abstract forms, tax returns, and driving license applications), e-business (e.g., franchised postal and courier services), e-learning, e-health, e-markets (e.g., agricultural commodity pricing and exchange), and e-monitoring, (e.g., real-time local level monitoring of development funds and projects). an example of a pasha centre in kenya. wezesha initiative the objective of this initiative is to provide a financial incentive towards purchasing a laptop for registered university students. the laptop initiative is funded by the world bank and implemented by the kenya ict board under the kenya transparency and communications infrastructure project (tcip), as part of a plan to implement the computers for communities initiative. this laptop initiative is known as 'wezesha', a swahili word that means 'to enable'. many girls and women have benefited from this initiative and advanced their careers. the figure below shows some of the beneficiaries of the initiative in an awareness programme. awareness programme in the wezesha initiative. kenya institute of curriculum development the kenya institute of curriculum development is a government statutory body mandated to develop curriculum and curriculum support materials. some of the latest initiatives by the institute to increase access to learning through open and distance learning include the development of digital content, use of digital educational channels (radio and tv), and the introduction of the elimika platform to orient primary school teachers. in order to increase access to education at all levels of education except university, the kenya institute of education broadcasts educational content through channel 8, where content is developed and packaged for broadcasts. a number of schools in remote areas have gained access to this kind of education and girls who perhaps may not have had an opportunity to access education have benefitted from it. through e-learning content packaged in cds and dvds, adult and continuing education has been enhanced so that female learners have an opportunity to get quality education. the figure below shows an example of the initiatives undertaken by kenya institute of education to improve access to education. this is a project for one class studying at moi primary school in nairobi using laptops initiative of the kenya institute of education. other initiatives other initiatives include computer for schools, which provides computers and training. computers for schools kenya is a partnership of communities, private sector corporations, civil society organizations, international charities and development partners working together for the long-term good of the nation. computer for schools kenya has sourced over 100,000 personal computers that have been deployed in over 7,000 public primary and secondary schools, technical training institutes, teacher training colleges, medical training centres as well as several universities. this deployment of computers has assisted many young girls and women to access both formal and non-formal education. the kenya ict trust fund has provided ict equipment for schools. the trust draws its membership from the government, corporations and regulatory bodies. by tradition, the incumbent permanent secretary of the hosting organization chairs the kenya ict trust fund. the corporations take vice chair leadership at the trust. the kenya ict trust fund is core in the formulation and implementation of national ict strategy for education and training, upon which investment programs in ict in education in kenya, is benchmarked. the fund’s main mission is to provide information and communication technology (ict) resources to facilitate judicious adoption of 21st century education in kenya and to move towards the attainment of quality education for all (efa) and  the millennium development goals. initiatives of kenya ict trust fund. challenges while there have various initiatives that seek to advance the use of information technology among girls and women, several obstacles have derailed the full implementation of ict and odl to promote teaching and learning. lack of clear policy and strategy, uncoordinated players, insufficient integration of ict in education and limited digital content are to blame for poor adoption of ict and odl in education. other challenges include: no ict curriculum that exists at the school level as a teaching and learning tool. an ict curriculum has been introduced at the teacher training level, but with inadequate investment in ict in teacher training colleges. no government policy on odl despite the mention of open and distance learning in the sessional paper no. 1 of 2005. this is in spite of the fact that global trends in odl have shown marked adoption of innovative technologies in offering education. limited use of odl approaches in primary and secondary schools in kenya, especially in areas where physical, socio-economic and time factors hinder the delivery and access of education, especially among pastoral communities. some parts of the country are not covered by mainstream electronic media, thereby raising issues of equity and cost in the provision of education through odl. lack of awareness among education recipients and providers about odl and its viability in delivering quality education. limited amount of skilled manpower in odl approaches amongst the providers. inadequate infrastructure and related support for odl in educational institutions. recommendations to continue to enhance and empower women in their decision-making, ict integration in education remains critical where women are carrying out their day-to-day functions. to ensure maximum integration of ict in education, the following recommendations are offered: provide connectivity to facilitate communication amongst all agencies in the education ministry (headquarters, agencies, provinces, county education offices and schools). establish and operationalise a national centre for ict in education (ictec) where modern ict tools can be tested, demonstrated and recommended for use in teaching and learning in kenya‘s education and training institutions. enhance public-private sector partnerships in resource mobilization for ict integration in education. integrate monitoring and evaluation in all programme activities for proper utilization of ict in education investments. continue to develop ict in education and training through the ministry. this should be geared towards increasing efficiency and effectiveness in teaching and learning and the e-management of the national education system — the proposed ten-year master plan. provide adequate funding for progressive digitization of curriculum content. fast-track the process of establishing a national public open university with satellite centers in all counties, as recommended by the public universities inspection board 2006 report. prepare a regulatory and legal framework for all other institutions that envisage establishing open universities or similar institutions in kenya as recommended by the kamunge report (2) of 2008. introduce distance and open learning approaches including home learning at all levels of education in kenya. collaborate and strengthen the network of public libraries through the kenya national library service to support odl, adult and continuing education (ace) in order to promote the culture of reading. use odl as a vehicle for promoting the culture of lifelong learning by establishing continuing education programmes in areas of kenya, where such programmes have not been initiated, especially the arid and semi arid lands (asal) areas. undertake concrete governmental measures, including sustainable funds mobilization and allocation for the launching of educational broadcasting services with outreach to all areas of the country. collaborate with the kenya national library service to strengthen the network of public library services across the country to support odl, ace and to promote a reading culture. use odl as an alternative mode of delivering a wide range of courses in all public/private universities, middle level colleges, primary schools and secondary schools. conclusion unless kenya adopts far more people-oriented education and development policies and strategies, it will likely fail to motivate and attract the majority of women to access and appropriate ict for their own development and that of their communities. governments, policy makers, civil society and the private sector and other stakeholders in our country need to be on board and be empowered to take gender into consideration when developing legal and/or policy frameworks regarding icts. therefore, women's equity needs to be integrated as a cornerstone of any ict strategy. references hallberg, d., & wafula, l. (2010). empowering rural women in kenya with literacy skills using web 2.0: experiences of language and communication barriers in learning. proceedings of the 3rd international conference on ict for africa, march 25-27, yaounde, cameroon. baton rouge, la: international center for it and development. ybarra, m.l., & bull s. s. (2007). current trends in internet and cell phone-based hiv prevention and intervention programs. behavioral aspects of hiv management. current hiv/aids reports, 4(4), 201-207. public universities inspection board. (2006). report. government of the republic of kenya. abagi, o., sifuna, n., &  omamo, s. (2006). career women into ict in kenya: progression, challenges and opportunities. research report of the grace project.  funded by the international development research centre (idrc). http://www.grace-network.net aauw educational foundation commission. (2000). educating girls in the new computer age. aauw educational foundation commission on technology, gender, and teacher education. republic of kenya. (2005). sessional paper no. 1: on education and training. author. government of the republic of kenya. (2007). kenya vision 2030: blueprint. author. http://www.vision2030.go.ke/index.php/vision unesco. (2012). education for all global monitoring report. author. kenya national bureau of statistics. (2013). elections 2013. government of the republic of kenya. kenya national bureau of statistics. (2012). national enrolment. government of the republic of kenya. david barasa situma is the director of open, distance and e-learning in the department of academic affairs at the africa international university, kenya. e-mail: barazasituma@yahoo.com microsoft word mnubi.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 161-168 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. improving the quality of basic education through the use of gender-sensitive student councils: experience of six selected districts in tanzania godfrey magoti mnubi institute of adult education, tanzania abstract: this paper analyses whether the gender-sensitive and democratically elected student councils helped in strengthening school leadership and providing a platform for increased awareness and advocacy for male and female students to address their needs and rights in primary and secondary schools in tanzania. the data was collected through qualitative methodology using in-depth interviews with purposively selected 29 school heads, 35 mentor teachers, 24 champions and 54 student leaders. other data were obtained from focus-group discussions with 590 student leaders. the findings show that the student council plays a major role in strengthening school leadership and increasing the ability of students, particularly girls, to voice their needs and concerns. some students’ needs and concerns were sexual harassment, the right to quality education and health services and the elimination of corporal punishment. the use of student councils helps to improve the delivery of quality education in schools. keywords: quality education, gender-sensitive student council, school leadership and governance. introduction in a bid to improve the quality of education and health services in primary and secondary schools and provide girls and boys with leadership skills to address their needs and concerns, the government of tanzania in collaboration with other stakeholders has taken various initiatives. one of these was the introduction and strengthening of student councils as a statutory requirement to empower students, in particular to increase girls’ and boys’ confidence to advocate for and demand their rights to education and health. the use of students’ councils in schools provides a platform for students, particularly girls, to advocate in other areas of their lives (parker & leithwood 2000; veugelers & kat, 2003). an example of the student empowerment model through the use of the student council was “my right my voice” that was championed by oxfam-international and served more than 80 primary and secondary schools in tanzania, involving children and youths aged 7 to 18 (oxfam, 2014). this age group represents nearly half of the nation’s population of 49 million (united republic of tanzania, 2013; world bank, 2015). the aim of establishing students’ councils was to support the social and academic achievement of girls and boys in schools that is brought about primarily through such councils (known locally as barazas) (hannam, 2001; emily, 2014). in addition, via student councils (barazas), girls and boys 162 develop leadership skills, facilitating their participation in shaping educational policies, practices and beliefs while simultaneously ensuring school management accountability in delivering quality education. self-advocacy and accountability were enhanced via the advent of student councils, which are designed to influence policies and practices that affect the quality of educational services in tanzania. the barazas represent an excellent example of operationalizing democratic, socially responsible and citizenship skills—and not in the abstract—but in real life with deep and direct meaning for the individual students as stipulated in the national strategy for civic education (united republic of tanzania, 2011). given the importance of gender-sensitive and democratically elected student councils as opposed to the traditional approach of school leaders and heads of schools appointing student leaders who are predominately male, this approach provided a platform for girls to participate equally with boys in leadership and other social settings. this study sought to explore the integral roles that gendersensitive and democratically elected student councils play in improving the quality of education, while engaging duty bearers in issues affecting their social and academic lives, in the six selected districts of shinyanga municipality, shinyanga rural, kahama, kishapu, chamwino and ngorongoro in mainland tanzania. approach the study utilised the qualitative approach by triangulating the sources of the data that were collected. the use of triangulation ensured the validity of the findings as well as shaping conclusions while providing a clearer picture of the subject under investigation. the study used purposive and random sampling methods to select 628 female and 614 male participants. the study benefited from reviewing the mid-year and quarterly journals regarding the design and implementation of student councils in tanzanian schools. the researcher conducted in-depth, open– ended, individual interviews with 26 male and three female school heads, 26 female and nine male mentor teachers, 22 female and two male champions and 33 female and 21 male student leaders that were purposively selected. other data were obtained from the use of focus group discussions with a non-random sample of 292 female and 289 male student leaders. this is illustrated in table 1 below. data analysis the study was conducted in a safe and ethical qualitative research environment, in that emphasis was placed on the participants’ informed consent. qualitative data from purposely and randomly selected members were analysed thematically to clarify and triangulate the meaning from their experience. first, the interview data were transcribed, read through and informal notes were made regarding the themes that emerged. the researcher then honed the categories of the themes. finally, the researcher analysed divergent findings, through deliberating on opposing ideas and agreeing on the meaning of the findings. inductive analysis was used to get the meaning from the participants and provide descriptive details on the research undertaken. the findings in the following sections are reported in aggregate form. 163 table 1: approaches and respondents reached findings the study mainly focused on school management and students who understood the process of organising and operating gender-sensitive and democratically elected student councils. school officials and students in the selected schools conducted nearly all student elections democratically, meaning that students running for the position of prefects take forms and apply for the desired post, the students vote for the one they like and the winners are announced as leaders. it was noted that all leadership positions included both female and male candidates. the female head of the secondary school in shinyanga municipality also noted that the need to facilitate more democratic, gendersensitive student councils is recognised by her school. it helps to prepare active and responsible future citizens. evidence was also drawn from a female student leader who said, “we chose female and male champions based on their familiarity with masaai society and their closeness to students”. she added that “students now feel free to discuss and ask the champions anything about their needs and concerns.” a male student leader reported, “most of the positive student progress was generated in the student council as a formal platform for students to discuss their concerns and challenges with the school management and community in general.” the students reported that they enjoy the student councils and are happy with their leaders that they democratically elect. in addition, a male student leader said, “since they were democratically elected by their fellows, it is easy to lead them with less resistance from female and male students.” in general, the implementation of student councils and their constituent activities in schools has successfully empowered girls and boys. both adult and youthful informants (approximately 90%) agreed that the democratically elected gender-sensitive student council positively contributed to students’ positive outcomes, such as students’ enhanced awareness of their rights and needs. for example, a female student leader from shinyanga rural district noted, “i was constantly restricted by 164 my parents (father) from going to school, as i had to perform some household chores, but after the students’ council made me aware of the importance of school, i was able to explain my concern to my parents about the need to attend school and get an education, which resulted in reduced domestic work and more support for my education.” therefore, any gains made can be attributed to increased leadership skills through which young female and male students have learnt to creatively identify their needs and to advocate accordingly. the following sections present the experiences and perceptions of the respondents that participated in the study. increased female and male students’ leadership skills during the interviews, all heads of schools and student leaders acknowledged that the use of democratically elected student councils was a very good approach to supporting leadership development in their schools. there was a general consensus in line with other authors that gendersensitive school councils increased the self-confidence and self-esteem of students, particularly female students (parker & leithwood, 2000). the female head of the secondary school in shinyanga rural district reported: student leaders in the school council are democratically elected by their fellows with equal representation of both female and male candidates. at first i thought this gender approach would take more than 3 years for female students to be trained and empowered to believe in their leadership ability, but it happened in less than a year when i witnessed the first female head prefect. improved school management and increased teachers’ accountabilities as explained by all heads of schools, students were responsible for electing their own representatives. the male head of a school in chamwino district made the following observation: “at first i did not know how this student council election would work and i was skeptical” after the election, he added, “i noticed something powerful that students are listening more readily to the leaders they democratically elected, hence giving more time for the teachers and management team to focus on improving student teaching and learning.” furthermore, the male head of the secondary school in ngorongoro district reported, “the use of the student council has perfectly matched our school needs. it is now very easy to manage and lead the school when you have first-hand knowledge of students’ felt needs so that we can address their concerns.” in addition, the male head of a school in kishapu stated, “we continue to have an acute shortage of qualified teachers, and so the use of a democratically elected student council in this school has managed to model positive student behavior and action, which means that we can now focus on teaching and helping students succeed.” the male head of a school reported, “my teachers are now more responsible and accountable in their teaching.” he added, “students constantly support me by reporting when teachers are dodging their classes.” in general, the heads of schools and champions noted that teachers are now more responsible and accountable in their teaching. another female student leader noted, “the gender sensitive and democratically elected student council has improved the relationship between teachers and students as a result of the on-going dialogues and discussion on students’ needs.” some heads of school attribute the school 165 management’s increased accountability and responsibility to the student’s council. evidence of this was seen in that all heads of schools acknowledged the usefulness of the democratically elected student councils and the important role they play in promoting student accountability, discipline and abiding by school rules, hence enabling the school management to focus on other matters including academic excellence. for example, the male head of a school noted that “student leaders are chosen by their fellows, and so they are more likely to listen to them, hence promoting obedience and reducing unnecessary resistance.” in addition, the male head of a primary school in kahama district reported, “students can now assist my management team in leading by ensuring that teachers are acting responsibly and fully attend the teaching sessions as planned.” examples of this include the courageous step taken by students in some schools to report on their teachers who arrived in class drunk and those who dodged their teaching sessions. we found increased student participation in school governance and in their ability to advocate for needed change. increased students’ attendances and reduction in girls’ pregnancies heads of schools and champions further noted that school attendance at the various schools had improved greatly as a result of the gender-sensitive and democratically elected student councils. for example, the female head of a primary school in ngorongoro district indicated that in 2014 her school experienced a decline in school absences by 5% compared with 2013. in addition, the informants reported that fewer girls dropped out of school, including cases of pregnant girls, more of who would probably have dropped out in the past. for example, the male secondary school head in shinyanga rural district reported that, “…there has been a decline by 5% including zero reported cases of girls who get pregnant, when the school witnessed 3 cases and 1 case of girls’ pregnancies in 2012 and 2013, respectively.” although guidelines from the ministry of education, vocational training (moevt) currently known as the ministry of education, science and technology (moest) on enabling and allowing pregnant schoolgirls to continue with their studies were developed and approved by the ministry in 2011, most of the pregnant girls were denied their right to continue and complete their education cycle, contrary to the government circular that allows them to continue with school after the birth of the baby (united republic of tanzania, 2010). important factors discovered that impacted students’ attendance included severe corporal punishment, household chores, lack of school fees and harassment (particularly of female students). these aspects of home and school life, in particular the use of corporal punishment in schools hindered boys’ and girls’ academic performance, rendering them more likely to drop out or fail academically (newell, 2011). in one case, a local government official (ward executive office) in ngorongoro district attended to the particular difficulties experienced by girls and young women. specifically, in some remote rural settings, girls are more likely to drop out of school and/or suffer the depredation represented by gender-based violence, forced early marriage and pregnancy. it seemed that both adult and student informants saw a reduction in these problems. another influence of the gender sensitive and democratically elected student councils can be seen in the district of kishapu where the district council has instructed all primary schools to adopt a gender-sensitive and democratically elected student council. it is worth noting that gender-sensitive and democratically elected councils have been adopted in all the surveyed schools, and they have been able to conduct democratic and gender-sensitive elections. 166 generally, all the respondents were able to say that there had been a discernable improvement in terms of establishing a gender-sensitive and democratically elected student council, the improved performance of female and male students, more females in leadership positions and improved school attendance. meanwhile, there has been a reduction in early forced marriage and girls’ pregnancies and an increased ability of students, particularly girls, to speak out about their rights and concerns. the school visits found evidence of these facts. specific gendered outcomes were cited by heads of schools, teacher mentors and student leaders, concerning how students, particularly female students, became effective leaders to ensure the following outcomes were achieved in their schools: • girls’ increased awareness of and ability to resist the sexual advances and harassment of men as this affects their retention and achievement in school. • the construction of friendly infrastructure, including toilets and special rooms for girls to accommodate their needs, particularly during menstruation. • the retention of girls promoted through the construction of more female hostels and dormitories. increased advocacy skills among students increasingly, participating students employed appropriate political and social strategies for seeking redress for the perceived violation of their rights, often through invoking the mechanism of reenergized student councils. one female student leader argued, “we decided to report to the head master a female parent who abused her daughter, who is a student in this school. the student was tied up and severely beaten. we knew this is a violation of her right to be protected, and so the school management was able to rescue the girl from abuse.” conclusion gender-sensitive and democratically elected student councils in schools have contributed greatly to raising awareness and developing the leadership skills of female and male students. it has also enabled both female and male students to participate in improving and shaping the education process, while taking ownership for enhancing and promoting good governance and accountability in delivering education services. students’ participation in democratic education and in the process of delivering educational services is the key to good school governance and management (veugelers & kat, 2003). through the gender-sensitive and democratically elected student council, female and male students have been able to voice their concerns and needs, and be civically engaged, while taking an active role in the school and community, with a particular focus on expanded roles for female students in this regard. similar to other countries where gender-sensitive and democratically elected student councils are being enforced and implemented (oxfam, 2014), their use provides ownership and sustainable positive outcomes pertaining to the need of young girls and boys to be heard and provided with quality education and health services in schools. a social studies curricula expert (jacoby, 2014) recommends that civic and social responsibility preparation be constructed around knowledge and, perhaps more importantly, skills. the barazas represent an excellent example of operationalizing 167 democratic skills—and not in the abstract—but in real life, with direct meaning for the individual students, as stipulated in the national strategy for civic education in tanzania. there is much agreement amongst the stakeholders that the gender-sensitive and democratically elected student council has resulted in a high level of gender equality. there is also evidence that there has been a shift in gender stereotyping in relation to the beliefs and practices of the leadership in the implementing primary and secondary schools. female students have proved they are capable of initiating changes that have positively affected their social and academic lives, including an outstanding increase in female students’ roles in school leadership affairs, academic excellence and females’ ability to discuss and manage their own affairs. this is contrary to the traditional practice and beliefs that previously prevented girls from full participation, acquiring school leadership positions, and standing up for their academic and social rights (unesco, 2015). the evidence from school field visits also revealed untapped opportunities for a large number of female teachers (55%), particularly in primary schools, who can continue to act as female role models to inspire and motivate girls to set their ambitions higher, study harder and develop their leadership and life skills. these changes have implications for sustainability, as female and male students now expect to move their schools forward (in terms of, for example, gender equity), which is also a priority the government of tanzania is committed to achieving. this is akin to priming a water pump — once the water flows, there is no way to stop it. references emily, n. (2014). students’ participation in school governance at the secondary school level: a kenyan principals’ perception. retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/1078 hannam, d. (2001). a pilot study to evaluate the impact of the student participation aspects of citizenship order on standard education in secondary school. working paper. retrieved from http://alternativeschool.com/pdfs/the%20hannam%20report.pdf jacoby, b. (2014). service-learning essentials: questions, answers, and lesson learned. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. newell, p. (2011). global initiative to end corporal punishment: briefing for the committee on economic, social and cultural rights. pre-sessional working group, 5-9 december, 2011. oxfam. (2014). mid-term review of the my right, my voice programme. retrieved from http://saatlas.org/uploads/files/midterm_review_report.pdf parker, k., & leithwood, k. (2000). school councils' influence on school and classroom practice. peabody journal of education, 75(4), 37-65. unesco. (2015). provision of alternative learning opportunities for adolescent girls forced out of schools due to teenage pregnancies. dar es salaam: unesco. united republic of tanzania. (2010). guidelines on how to enable pregnant schoolgirls to continue with their studies. dar es salaam: ministry of education and vocational training. united republic of tanzania. (2011). national strategy for civic education in tanzania. retrieved from http://docplayer.net/22252637-united-republic-of-tanzania-national-strategy-for-civic-education.html united republic of tanzania. (2013). 2012 population and housing census. retrieved from http://www.tanzania.go.tz/census veugelers, w., & kat, e. de (2003). moral and democratic education in public elementary schools. retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ed479166.pdf 168 world bank. (2015). tanzania population. retrieved from http://data.worldbank.org/country/tanzania author godfrey magoti mnubi is currently a lecturer at the institute of adult education. he earned his doctoral degree in educational foundations and research from the university of north dakota, usa, his masters’ degree in global justice and social responsibility from saint cloud state university, usa and his bachelor’s degree in business administration (marketing) from mzumbe university, tanzania. previously he held a position as the national programme officer for education sector at the united nations educational scientific and cultural organization (unesco)-dar es salaam. email: gmnubi@gmail.com. microsoft word mhlanga.docx issn: 2311-1550 2022, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 370-375 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. book review radical solutions for education in africa: open education and self-directed learning in the continent eds. d. burgos and j. olivier springer, 2021, pp. 306, isbn-13: 978-9811640988 the discourse of educational philosophy has gradually shifted over years from pedagogy to andragogy to heutagogy. in pedagogy, what is learnt, and how, is both determined and directed by the teacher; in andragogy, it is determined by the teacher and directed by the learner; in heutagogy, both determination and direction shift to the learner (blashke,kenyon & hase, 2014)i. radical solutions for education in africa: open education and self-directed learning in the continent, edited by daniel burgos and jako oliver explores the concept of self-directed learning (sdl) within the context of open education. it foregrounds open education as the preferred approach to addressing educational challenges in africa, using technology and open education resources (oer). it also explores possibilities of enhancing sdl from different angles, such as through online learning environments, the use of open education resources (oer), and professional and vocational education. published in 2021 by springer, the theme of the book centers around key tenets of sdl, which are in line with the heutagogical approach to education. the argument of the publication is that sdl tenets empower the learner and bring about the transformative character of education, if wellcontextualised. at the core of sdl is that learning is learner centered where the learner takes responsibility for the learning, directs and paces the learning, and in the process acquires life-long learning skills. these learnercentered aspects are portrayed as the key ingredients of sdl. summary of the book the book consists of 14 chapters that were written by experts from higher education institutions in various african countries, spain, and the united arab emirates. to this extent, it would be safe to conclude that an objective view of the role of sdl in education, particularly in africa is presented. although there are a few chapters where authors do not bring out the sdl theme explicitly, generally, the theme runs through most of the book chapters. the book starts by contextualising open education and self-directed learning in the african context. it highlights access issues relating to online learning in africa and the nature of educational resources in this context. it alludes to the challenges that are faced in the continent in terms of access to technology, especially the internet. it also cites issues relating to the general shortage of textbooks and class sizes, which have a negative impact on learning. the limitations of access to technology, electricity, learning 371 materials and sound teaching pose challenges to epistemic access in africa and, therefore, warrant attention by governments and international development agencies. an important message that comes through the book is that sdl is an essential twenty-first-century skill and is relevant for learners at the schooling as well as at post-schooling levels. the book also reveals that at these levels of education, positive teaching approaches, like collaborative learning, and project and problem-based learning go a long way in supporting sdl. the book indicates that research on sdl within the african context is on the increase and most of it is carried out in the teacher education field, using lecturers as research subjects. this research is, however, concentrated in a few countries on the continent, like south africa, ethiopia, ghana, nigeria and namibia. in their analysis of educational access in africa, the authors project ict as a key enabler for both access and quality of education, including development of sdl skills. like in other parts of the world, the book alludes to the obvious educational benefits that are associated with the availability of technology in africa. education will draw on the affordances of technology to enrich teaching and learning processes through enhancing access, virtual communication with peers and teachers and, in the process, learners pick relevant technological skills needed in knowledge-driven economies. in addition to drawing on the affordances of technologies, the book portrays oer quite positively. given the paucity of teaching and learning resources, as highlighted above, the book depicts oer as an important aspect of educational access in africa. addressing the shortcomings relating to the availability of reliable internet connectivity and electricity supply should be at the fore of african governments’ agendas if access to sound quality education is to be achieved. a relatively new concept the book gives is the select, organise, associate, and regulate (soar) pedagogical approach. the argument advanced is that soar is an efficient instructional method that fosters students’ self-regulated learning, and hence empowers students to be lifelong learners. this is particularly true when mobile learning is used to support the soar pedagogical approach. based on studies that were conducted in sudan, the book argues that integration of mobile learning soar (msoar) promotes sdl amongst learners. however, it recommends that more research in other contexts needs to be conducted to confirm this finding. effective pedagogical approaches such as msoar are well placed as suitable methods for fostering students’ srl skills. the book also explores how online learning and support foster the development of sdl. mentoring and coaching online are considered as two related but separate concepts. however, the author does not proceed to give the distinction between the two terms, at least as used in the book. an interesting message given in the book relating to online learning is that there are inherent power differences between mentees and potential mentors, which have potential to act as a barrier to establishing a positive relationship that promotes the development sdl. in addition, unclear expectations, shortage of mentors as well as absence of a culture of mentorship were also identified as possible challenges in effective online learning that promotes sdl skills. the book explores the all-important theme of openness of education as a way of enhancing access to education, promoting sdl and contributing to sustainable livelihoods. the development of sdl in adult, professional and vocational education in africa is also explored within this context. in this regard, the book makes an argument that supports entrenching sdl through open learning. it emphasises the openness of education as a key enabler for achieving sustainable development goals 372 (sdgs), and therefore seeks to unearth both enabling and constraining factors for open education, open teaching and open learning. the argument of the book is that “...openness gives students a chance to learn in a self-directed manner, … the adoption of open schooling can assist african educational institutions to contain infrastructural challenges that are threatening course content delivery”, (p. 112). within the same vein of openness, the book makes a case for using open science (os) principles to address barriers to conducting high quality, rigorous and impactful scientific research by ensuring that the data, methods and opportunities for collaboration are open to all. the main principles of os are summarised in the book as open data, open analysis, open materials, and open access. an important strand of the argument presented in the book is that lack of openness is one of the major limitations of educational access and quality in africa. another important theme that is dealt with in the book is traditional african education and how it relates to sdl. the book makes the point that sdl is inherent in traditional african forms of education. sdl, by its nature involves working collaboratively for the good of society and for the individual recipient of education, which is arguably typical of traditional african education. the book avers that the advent of western education trivialised, if not killed these forms of education. the argument in the book portrays the western education system adopted in africa as being weak, fragile and less resilient, as was demonstrated during the covid-19 period. the point is that an education system that is underpinned by sdl is more resilient to pandemics and other natural and social crises than systems where learning is driven by parties other than learners. the key question one would ask is what teachers in africa generally think about sdl and how they seek to promote it in their work. based on the limited research that was conducted amongst educators from selected african states, the book concludes that: • oer use was shown to be limited, and open education practices were not widely adopted; • educators prioritised the development of students’ independence and responsibility over competencies that support the development of sdl. while educators support the goals of sdl, they do not actively develop students’ competencies to achieve this; and • there is great focus on teacher-driven and designed assessments that do not typically include students’ voices or choices. assessment designs do not widely adopt open education practices towards democratising education and assessment. the research findings reported above show that there is limited understanding of sdl as a concept amongst educators in africa and that approaches to enhancing it amongst learners are flawed. the book concludes by highlighting examples of instances where oer and open education practices are being implemented. the idea is to demonstrate the value of open practices in promoting educational access and sdl skills. the first such case is the moroccan oep initiative that was aimed at creating a virtual laboratory that holds virtual experiments in physics courses taught in the first year of a bachelor’s degree. the resources in the repository are oer that can be used by learners outside the conventional laboratory and even away from the campus environment. the second case is a study that was conducted to find out the levels of sdl skills of upper secondary school students in mauritius. self-discipline, self-motivation, self-management and collaboration were used as the main constructs for collecting data from students. the book draws on findings of the study and gives useful 373 hints on measures that should be taken to improve sdl amongst young learners. such measures include encouraging learners to set learning goals, plan their learning schedules, devote more time to their studies, and manage how to avoid distractions. the third and last case is a study on how university academics were trained and supported to integrate oer in their online courses. like the mauritius case highlighted above, this study reveals some of the ways in which adoption of oer can be entrenched amongst educators. in all the three instances reported in the last three chapters of the book, it is clear that there is need to deliberately adopt specific strategies that are targeted at educators to motivate the adoption of open practices and sdl in africa. merits and limitations the organisation of the book is logical and useful. the book is nearly 300 pages long and is made up of 14 chapters. it is very unlikely that each reader will go through all the 14 chapters in order to understand the concept of sdl, its value in empowering learners and how it can be promoted. readers are likely to dip in and out, selecting only a few chapters that may be of interest to them. the contents page at the beginning of the publication, which also shows the names of the authors, may be useful for purposes of choosing chapters to read. also, the abstracts that are given at the beginning of each chapter will give readers an idea of whether what they want to read is in line with their needs, without going through the whole chapter. furthermore, the first chapters of the book articulate the concept of sdl, which is expanded as the book unfolds to relate it to the african context and to how it can be promoted in higher education, professional and vocational education, at the schooling level and through adopting open education practices. through this approach, a cogent argument that is in support of open education practices, including oer, is sustained. however, because sdl is explored from various angles of analysis throughout the book, a concluding chapter which pulls together the main strands in the book and suggests a way forward would have been a useful addition. a sound analysis of the value of providing different forms of educational access in the african context, using technology and open education practices is given. access is a topical aspect of education in africa, so is the mainstreaming of technology. the book portrays oer quite positively, as an important aspect of educational access in africa. this is good. it also rightly highlights the importance of oer format and the need to train teachers to adapt and create oer. another strength of the book is that it draws on a wide range of authors with experience in research to enrich the argument on sdl as a preferred pedagogical approach in contexts like africa, where access and quality are still issues in education. this rich variety of perspectives makes the publication appealing to academics, educationists, policy makers and researchers in different parts of the world. a publication of this nature should be premised on sound research in order to make the argument objective and convincing enough. all the chapters in the book outline the methodology that the authors used to collect the information that informed chapter arguments. thus, a scientific approach was adopted in putting together the book chapters. the book deals with current debates in education, particularly within the african context. use of technology, use of open education principles, including oer, are debates that awaken the interests of researchers and education practitioners alike, as we seek the best ways of universalising education at 374 an affordable cost. the use of oer has not been without challenges even in developed contexts where these resources have been extensively used for years. the call to contextualise such innovations through research-informed policy is probably the greatest contribution this book makes to the african reader. one of the book’s weaknesses relates to the title — radical solutions for education in africa: open education and self-directed learning in the continent. this title suggests a publication that really deals with “radical solutions” to the challenges of educational provision in africa. it is hard to imagine that use of technology and open education resources would actually provide the implied radical solutions to the education dilemmas of africa. whilst these innovations have potential to improve education, in themselves they are far from providing solutions to education systems in the continent. the book argues that in sub-saharan africa the educational benefits of ict provision are expressed as generalities and that there is widespread lack of a clear vision of the educational benefits of using ict. however, this is a generalisation as there are sectors of african societies that know the benefits of technology in education and have been using it even long before the covid pandemic. in countries like south africa and mauritius for instance, there are many schools and universities that have used ict for quite some time, and have great appreciation of the value of using such technology in education. extensive research has also been carried out at some of these institutions (e.g., university of cape town) on how to improve learning gains through technology. in fact, there is a trend in subsaharan africa where the digital divide is quite apparent within countries, between the more affluent sectors of the society and the less privileged ones. in the former sectors, there is prevalent use of ict at home and at school whilst in the latter there is very little or no exposure to such technology. in the book under review, it is worthwhile highlighting such nuances, which point at worrying inequalities that have profound implications on educational development in africa. the book projects oer as an important strategy for providing resources to african learners where there is general scarcity of teaching and learning resources. whilst this argument is correct, it should also point out the downside of oer. these resources can only be as good as their users — how well they are integrated in the learning by designers and how well users are able to distinguish between good and bad quality oer. caution has to be given that if they are not appropriately used, oer will not yield desired improvements in education. it is also important to make the point that whilst they are desirable, oer are not a panacea for solving educational problems in africa, neither are open education practices. conclusion it is my view that the book makes a sound argument about developments that need to happen to leverage education and what needs to preoccupy the minds of educationists, policy makers and researchers in africa. in this regard, i hasten to mention that the book only scratches the surface regarding approaches and tools that work to transform education in this context. this review strongly recommends that research that is more targeted at specific aspects dealt with in the book should be conducted in order to establish their efficacy in bringing about educational transformation in the different contexts in africa. such research should inform practice in education and, as much as possible, should also involve educational practitioners. 375 reviewed by: ephraim mhlanga, a programme specialist, quality assurance at the south african institute for distance education. email: ephraimm@saide.org.za cite this paper as: mhlanga, e. (2021). book review: radical solutions for education in africa: open education and self-directed learning in the continent. eds. d. burgos & j. olivier. journal of learning for development, 9(2), 370-375. i blashke, l.m., kenyon, c. & hase, s. (2014). experiences in self-determined learning. amazon. microsoft word viseu.docx issn: 2311-1550 2022, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 267-278 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. rethinking digital technology versus paper and pencil in 3d geometry floriano viseu1, helena rocha2 and josé manuel monteiro3 1cied, instituto de educação, universidade do minho, portugal 2cics.nova, faculdade de ciências e tecnologia, universidade nova de lisboa, portugal 3escola secundária carlos amarante, portugal abstract: recognising the relevance of learning geometry, and in particular 3d geometry, this study aims to discuss the contributions that digital technology and paper and pencil approaches can bring to students’ learning. we seek, therefore, to identify the differences between the two approaches, and specifically: what factors are relevant in one and the other approach? what does one approach facilitate over the other? a quantitative and a qualitative and interpretive methodology was adopted, and based on a didactic intervention, the students' resolutions of the proposed tasks were analysed. the results obtained show that the experience and prior knowledge of the students with each of the solids involved seems to be decisive in the approach with paper and pencil. however, technology emerges as an enhancing resource when prior knowledge is more fragile. the study also shows differences between the representations supported by the two resources, suggesting the mobilisation of different knowledge by the students in relation to each of the resources. keywords: 3d geometry, digital technology, paper and pencil, learning, secondary education. introduction geometry is one of the great mathematical themes and traditionally integrates school programmes in most countries around the world (arcavi, 2003). despite the difficulties associated with its teaching and learning (gagatsis & geitona, 2021; sutiarso et al., 2018), geometry has a significant historical presence and is often associated with the development of mathematics itself. this is a very rich area of knowledge, not only for its great variety and diversity, but also for the practical applications it has, for example, in computer-aided design (cad) and geometric modeling (including design, modification and the manufacture of cars and airplanes, in the construction of buildings, etc.), robotics, medicine (in the area of medical imaging, which led to substantial new results in fields such as geometric tomography), computer animation, visual presentations and virtual reality. it is also an area that has shown considerable development (hansen et al., 1998). several contemporary developments in mathematics are predominantly geometric, such as work on dynamical systems (a discipline closely intertwined with the main areas of mathematics), mathematical visualisation (the art of transforming the symbolic into geometry) and geometric algebra (a representational and computational system for geometry that is entirely distinct from algebraic geometry) (jones, 2000). and septia et al. (2018) emphasise the role of school in the promotion of geometry learning. deciding on the goals for school geometric training involves considering both the nature of geometry and the variety of its applications. the report promoted by the royal society/joint mathematical council (2001, p. xii) 268 points to the following objectives for the teaching of geometry: “a) to develop spatial awareness, geometrical intuition and the ability to visualise; b) to provide a breadth of geometrical experiences in 2and 3-dimensions; c) to develop knowledge and understanding of and the ability to use geometrical properties and theorems; d) to encourage the development and use of conjecture, deductive reasoning and proof; e) to develop skills of applying geometry through problem solving and modelling in real world contexts; f) to develop useful information and communication technology (ict) skills in specifically geometrical contexts; g) to engender a positive attitude to mathematics; and h) to develop an awareness of the historical and cultural heritage of geometry in society, and of the contemporary applications of geometry”. traditionally, the teaching of geometry is based on paper and pencil, often supported by some resources (such as the ruler or the compass), but nowadays technology offers other alternatives, as is the case of dynamic geometry environments (dge). their potential is such that some authors, such as kokol-voljc (2007), consider them to be the most suitable resource for teaching geometry. duval (1998) even states that the use of dge is superior to paper and pencil methods, as it allows for a dissociation between the figure and the method used in its elaboration, which promotes a focus on its properties. however, osório, pino-fan and gonzález (2017) alert us to the need to think carefully about dge integration as this is not trivial. several authors (e.g., kokol-voljc, 2007; koyuncu et al., 2015) consider that despite the advantages offered by dge, they should not completely replace the paper and pencil approaches, as both approaches bring important contributions to learning and conceptual understanding. some studies, such as those conducted by koyuncu et al. (2015) and, more recently, by komatsu and jones (2020), seek to consider the contributions of approaches using dge and paper and pencil. however, as highlighted by maschietto and soury-lavergne (2013) and komatsu and jones (2020), this is an area where further investigation is needed. and this need is particularly evident at the level of secondary education, since the few existing studies, such as those by maschietto and soury-lavergne (2013), voltolini (2018) and faggiano, montone and mariotti (2018), focus on students from lower levels (primary education). regarding 3d geometry, existing research considers that there is a distinction between types of reasoning in spatial ability and 3d geometric thinking (pittalis & christou, 2010). spatial ability is seen as the capacity that individuals have to perform tasks including not only knowledge but also skills, such as the representation of 3d objects by 2d figures, the identification of solids and their elements, the calculation of the surface and volume of solids, or the comparation of the properties of 3d shapes (nctm, 2007). geometrical thinking in 3d is closely related to the domain of geometry, while the structure of spatial capabilities is closely related to cognitive development. according to pittalis and christou (2010), it is necessary to develop spatial capabilities to achieve the fullness of geometric thinking in 3d. lohman (1998) considers the existence of three main factors of spatial capacity: spatial visualisation, spatial orientation, and spatial relationships. spatial visualisation requires a student to imagine the folding and unfolding of a piece of paper that, when folded, has been perforated one or more times. spatial orientation is the ability that students reveal in changing orientations to which a spatial configuration can be subjected. spatial relationships are defined as the ability to mentally rotate a spatial object quickly and correctly. for pittalis and christou (2010), there are four types of reasoning involved in 3d geometry thinking: (i) representation of 3d objects; (ii) spatial structuring; (iii) measurement; and (iv) conceptualisation of 269 mathematical properties. representation of 3d objects is a usual task in geometry, namely when drawing a 3d object, when using an orthogonal view to construct a 3d object, or even when moving from one representation to another. spatial structuring includes the ability to perform various tasks, such as to identify the component parts of a structure, combine them and establish interrelationships between them. measurement is related to the ability to perform various measurement tasks, such as estimating the surface area or the volume of 3d objects. the conceptualisation of mathematical properties is the ability to recognise the properties of 3d objects, such as the ability to identify solids in the real world or from 2d representations, to perceive structural elements and properties of 3d objects, to compare their structural elements (the number of vertices, faces and edges) and to compare different objects, recognising their properties and identifying relations. there are three underlying fundamental cognitive processes that mediate the four types of reasoning described: identification of geometric properties in 3d objects; exploitation of the knowledge of the manipulation properties of 3d objects; and editing the conventions used in representing 3d objects. these cognitive processes differentiate between 3d geometry thinking and spatial abilities. the direct effects of spatial abilities on types of reasoning in 3d geometry suggest that teaching 3d geometry should integrate activities that develop spatial skills. in this study we seek to discuss the contributions that digital technology and paper and pencil approaches can bring to 3d geometry learning. we seek to identify the differences between the two approaches, specifically: (1) what factors become relevant in one and in the other approach? (2) what does one approach facilitate over the other? methods this study was based in an experience of teaching analytical geometry in space, during eight lessons, challenging students to explore 18 tasks. the students started by solving the tasks using paper and pencil and later using geogebra. the class where the teaching experience took place was composed of 27 students (12 girls and 15 boys, age 15-16). seven of the students assumed some difficulties in mathematics and 11 students referred to mathematics as their favorite subject (based on a school questionnaire). this was the first contact of the students with geogebra. the students had previously studied topics of geometry in the plane (2d) and were starting to address some of these topics in a 3d context, generalising and amplifying their previous learning. however, they had some experience at basic school with very general characteristics of the cube as a solid. given the nature of the goal outlined, this study presents characteristics of a quantitative and a qualitative approach in analysing the 'actions' that students performed, in pairs, in their learning activities (bogdan & biklen, 1994). the quantitative approach focused essentially on the characteristics of the students’ answers in what concerns their level of correctness. the qualitative approach focused also on the students’ answers but intended to analyse the reasons beyond those. for this purpose, data were collected through: (i) written records produced by the students while solving the tasks; and (ii) registrations of geogebra use, which were sent via email by the students. data analysis was based on the students’ responses to the tasks. these responses were classified according to the mathematical rigor in correct answers (c), partially correct answers (pc), incorrect answers (i), and no answer (na). the data were then organised on frequency tables. using a qualitative approach, the students’ answers were then analysed based on the fundamental cognitive processes that mediate three of the 270 four types of reasoning described by pittalis and christou (2010) and already presented: identification of geometric properties in 3d objects; exploitation of the knowledge of the manipulation properties of 3d objects; and editing the conventions used in representing 3d objects (measurement—the fourth type of reasoning—is not addressed by the set of tasks used here and is not considered in this work). on this analysis the two approaches (with paper and pencil and with digital technology) where compared. to illustrate the activities carried out in the teaching experience, this article focuses on the study of the 'relative position of lines and planes' through the analysis of two of the tasks proposed. result and discussion in the study of the topic 'relative position of lines and planes', students began by solving the following task: task 1: while studying geometry in space, rui realised that it is possible to define several planes in a cube, such as: (1) a plane containing two strictly parallel facial diagonals of the cube; (2) a plane perpendicular to the previous plane that contains two facial diagonals; (3) a plane strictly parallel to one of the cube faces, containing another cube face. draw the plans identified by rui. initially, the students solved the task with paper and pencil, having as reference the different ways to define a plane and the elements of a cube, and later performed the task using geogebra. table 1 summarises the analysis of students’ resolutions. table 1: frequency of student responses to items in task 1 (n = 27) criteria paper and pencil geogebra c pc i na c pc i na representation of a cube 26 – 1 – 23 – 2 2 plan containing two strictly parallel facial diagonals 25 2 – – 11 – 4 12 plane perpendicular to the plane containing two strictly parallel facial diagonals, which contains two facial diagonals 13 11 2 1 11 – 2 14 plane strictly parallel to one of the cube faces, containing another cube face 13 5 – 9 21 – – 6 almost all the students made the representation of the cube either with paper and pencil and with geogebra, meaning the cube is established in its geometrical thinking by the shape and the elements that make it up, which translates into the ability to represent in 2d an image of the 3d object. most students revealed the ability to visualise and analyse the characteristics of this solid. still, not all answers were correct. a25 student's answer reveals a lack of critical analysis of the representation made (figure 1). after sketching the cube, the student did not analyse its elements to realise that he drew it with different faces (regarding the shape and dimensions of the edges), which indicates that he did not attend to the geometric properties when building the cube. although the request was for a 271 sketch, visually this representation may not be seen as a representation of a cube, but as that of a parallelepiped. figure 1: incorrect representation of a cube by a25 student as for the representation of planes in the cube with paper and pencil, regarding the drawing of the plane that contains two strictly parallel facial diagonals, only two students (7%) did not do it correctly. a25 student drew a plane that clearly contains a facial diagonal but does not guarantee that it contains one that is strictly parallel to it, which is why the resolution was considered only partially correct (figure 1). it is not clear that the plan he drew contains diagonals in parallel faces. this refers to the difficulty in mentally 'manipulating' the construction made to guarantee the condition presented. in the representation of the plane perpendicular to the plane that contains two strictly parallel facial diagonals and that contains two facial diagonals, most students did not answer correctly (52%). a significant number of students presented an answer that was considered partially correct (41%) for not making evident the two diagonals or the plan that contains them, as illustrated in the following sketch, prepared by a2 student (figure 2). the absence of such elements in the construction is due to the perspective considered, which does not allow us to see if the student visualised the expected perpendicular plane. this did not happen in the representation by a20 student (figure 3). figure 2: a2 student partially correct representation of the plane perpendicular to the plane containing two facial diagonals strictly parallel to the cube and that contains two facial diagonals figure 3: representation of the plane perpendicular to the plane containing two facial diagonals strictly parallel to the cube and that contains two facial diagonals, by a20 student this is a situation in which the representation chosen for the cube, and the impossibility of rotating the figure when using paper and pencil, prevents us from representing the plane as a parallelogram, as defined in the 2d representation agreed for a plane. by the representation, it is not possible to guarantee that the student has mentally visualised the plan in question, but it is also not possible to 272 guarantee that he did not. this is an interesting situation due to the difference with a situation using technology. in this last case, it would be possible to rotate the figure and visualise the plan. as for the two representations considered incorrect, regarding the item under analysis, they present at least one plane that does not contain one of the facial diagonals, as shown in figure 4 prepared by a3 student. finally, the representation of the plane strictly parallel to one of the faces of the cube that contains another face was correctly performed by almost half of the students (48%) and was the one with the highest number of non-responses (33%). the remaining students (19%) performed such representation in a way that was considered partially correct, as exemplified by the resolution of a8 student, presented in figure 5. the student shows that he is aware of the property related to the definition of a plane by two parallel lines, but he does not follow the convention, and he does not represent the plane strictly parallel to one of the faces of the cube that contains another face in the form of a parallelogram. figure 4: incorrect answer of the plane perpendicular to the plane containing two facial diagonals strictly parallel to the cube and that contains two facial diagonals figure 5: partially correct answer of the plane strictly parallel to one of the cube faces that contains another face after completing the task with paper and pencil, the students solved the task in pairs using geogebra. analysing the proposed task item by item, only one pair of students (7%) did not represent the cube and only the p11 pair (7%) presented an incorrect answer (figure 6). in this construction, the edges of the solid do not have the same dimension (2×2×1.5), which reveals the student's lack of critical capacity in identifying the shape represented: a parallelepiped that is not a cube. this is a situation like the one with paper and pencil, where a small number of students did not take into account in their representation one of the cube's properties. as for the representation of a plane that contains two strictly parallel facial diagonals, six pairs of students (44%) did not answer the question, and two pairs (15%) presented a representation considered incorrect, because the plane represented did not contain the two parallel facial diagonals (figure 7). such representation suggests the students represented a plane considering the diagonal of one of the cube faces and a straight line parallel to that diagonal. they guaranteed one of the properties that allowed them to represent a plan, but without responding to the requirements of the question. regarding the representation of a plane perpendicular to the plane that contains two strictly parallel facial diagonals that contain two facial diagonals, most students (52%) did not respond. the p7 pair of students (7%) made an incorrect representation when drawing the plane perpendicular to an edge of 273 the cube without guaranteeing that it contained two facial diagonals (figure 8). from the position of the construction, it is clear that the students had difficulty in mentally 'manipulate' the cube such a manipulation would have allowed them to confront what they drew with what was asked. figure 6: representation, by p11 pair, of a cube using geogebra figure 7: incorrect representation by p5 pair of a plane containing two strictly parallel facial diagonals figure 8: incorrect representation of the plane perpendicular to the plane that contains two strictly parallel facial diagonals and that contains two facial diagonals, by p7 pair finally, regarding the representation of a plane strictly parallel to one of the cube faces that contains another cube face, most students (78%) did it correctly while three pairs of students (22%) did not make any sketch. in summary, the results achieved in the items 'representing a plane containing two strictly parallel facial diagonals of the cube' and 'representing a plane perpendicular to the plane containing two strictly parallel facial diagonals, which contains two facial diagonals' were better with paper and pencil (93% and 48%, respectively) than with geogebra (41%). a situation justified by the success of the first approach (with paper and pencil) and which led the students to consider the second approach, with geogebra unnecessary. the results in the item 'representing a plane strictly parallel to one of the cube faces that contains another cube face' are better with geogebra (70%) than with paper and pencil (48%). this fact indicates differences between the two approaches, suggesting a greater accessibility of the construction in geogebra than with paper and pencil. globally, in paper and pencil approach, the position in which the cube was drawn interfered with the ease or difficulty of representing what was asked. this no longer happens in geogebra. in the case of the third question, this is the most difficult to represent with paper and pencil and, therefore, the results are better in geogebra. after completing the task that focused on the 'relative position of lines and planes' in a cube, a prism was explored (task 2). task 2 draw, in your notebook and in geogebra, the following figure. represent a plane perpendicular to the def plane. 274 an analysis of the students’ answers suggests better results in the approach based in geogebra than in the one using paper and pencil (table 2). table 2: frequency of student responses to items in task 2 (n = 27). criteria paper and pencil geogebra c pc i na c pc i na represent a triangular prism 19 1 – 7 25 – – 2 represent a plane perpendicular to the def plane 11 3 1 12 25 – – 2 regarding the representation of a triangular prism with paper and pencil, most students (70%) managed to do it correctly, while a5 student (4%) presented a sketch considered partially correct. the remaining students (26%) did not present any drawing. in the sketch considered partially correct, the student represented the edges of the upper base in a broken line (figure 9). it is, therefore, a case that does not respect the established conventions for the representation in 2d of 3d figures. concerning the representation of a plane perpendicular to the def plane, a significant number of students answered correctly (41%) and an equally significant number did not present any sketch (44%). among the remaining students, three performed a sketch considered partially correct (11%), such as the one made by a11 student (figure 10), and a1 student (4%) presented a sketch considered incorrect. the sketches where the students did not clearly draw the requested plane were considered partially correct, as shown in figure 10. in this case the student drew two parallel lines perpendicular to the def plane, but he did not use a parallelogram to represent the plane. in the representation of a plane perpendicular to the def plane considered incorrect, a1 student did not label the vertices and drew a single straight line to represent the plane (figure 11). figure 9: partially correct representation, by a5 student, of a triangular prism figure 10: partially correct representation of the plane perpendicular to the def plane, by a11 student figure 11: incorrect representation of a plane perpendicular to the def plane, by a1 student in the answers considered correct, the students adequately represented the prism and the plane perpendicular to the def plane, as exemplified by the following sketch made by a6 student (figure 12). regarding the resolution of task 2 using geogebra, only one pair of students (7%) did not present any sketch for each situation, with the remaining pairs (93%) making a correct representation, as illustrated by the following construction made by p10 pair of students (figure 13). 275 figure 12: correct representation of a plane perpendicular to the def plane, by a6 student figure 13: representation of task 2 using geogebra, by p10 pair of students in the constructions that the students carried out, the naming of the vertices did not follow the order shown in the task due to successive attempts to represent the prism. in both items, students revealed a better performance with geogebra than with paper and pencil: in the item ‘represent a triangular prism’ 93% of students did it with geogebra while 70% did it with paper and pencil; in the item 'representing a plane perpendicular to the def plane', 93% of the students did it with geogebra, as opposed to 41% who did it with paper and pencil. conclusion almost all students revealed the ability to represent a 3d object, the cube and the prism, using perspective as a technique, based on their orthogonal view, either with paper and pencil or with geogebra. the results achieved when representing a cube were better with paper and pencil than with geogebra but the results inverted when representing a triangular prism. the greater familiarity with the cube than with the prism (a solid that the students have been working with since the beginning of their geometry schooling), has translated into a greater number of students being able to adequately represent it with paper and pencil. when familiarity with the solid is not as strong, geogebra seems to allow for a higher level of success when compared to the paper and pencil approach. in other words, technology seems to facilitate spatial structuring, in the sense presented by pittalis and christou (2010), and the consequent representation of the solid in certain phases of the teaching-learning process. the dynamic characteristics of the software geogebra seems to be very important here, offering the students’ the opportunity to experiment and explore, which led to a better result at the end. as for the representation of the plane that contains two facial diagonals, it is more easily done in the cube when it is built with paper and pencil because this is a geometric solid that starts to be analysed very early (as mentioned above), due to the great predominance of it in daily life. this allows for an identification and a deepening of knowledge about its properties and what remains constant in its construction. this prior learning now facilitates working with this solid and its representation. the properties of a prism can vary depending on the figure that constitutes its base, so its construction with paper and pencil was made with more difficulty by the students. in the case of the representation of a triangular prism and of a plane, the flexibility of geogebra favors the representation, which explains the greater efficiency of its representation with this resource. 276 these results are aligned with the results of previous studies, suggesting within the scope of the representation of 3d objects and their spatial structuring, perceptual abstraction emerges in the identification of basic properties of solids and the internalisation that translates into the respective representations based on such properties, which leads to visualisation in all its senses (battista, 2007). conceptualisation results from the recognition of the 3d shape of objects and their properties (pittalis & christou, 2010). however, the present study provides evidence about the role played by the resources used, suggesting the potential of digital technologies in the cases where the familiarity with the geometric solid is still under development. in task 1, representing a plane parallel to a face that contains another face of the cube implies keeping in mind the concept of parallelism, the concept of plane, the cube properties and relating these concepts to the faces of the solid and also mastering the representation technique for 3d objects. in task 2, representing a plane perpendicular to a base implies recognising the properties of the triangular prism and those of the plane perpendicular to the def base, and relating these concepts. this was easier to achieve when using the geogebra, allowing visualisation to acquired greater expression than when performed with paper and pencil. according to the theory of abstraction, interiorisation predominates in this type of geometric reasoning (conceptualisation), since abstraction decouples the object from its original concept, allowing it to be operated on, imagined, and projected onto another object or in another new situation (battista, 2007). generally, it appears that students are more familiar with the cube than with the prism. this familiarity stems from previous experiences, where paper and pencil was dominant. thus, the representation of the cube was easier with paper and pencil than with geogebra, where students did not have the same level of familiarity. however, when the students did not have the same level of familiarity with the solid, geogebra seems to have offered a more favorable medium. the combination of these results leads to the conclusion, as battista (2007) points out, that the joint exploration of geogebra and paper and pencil favors the development of students' spatial capacity in learning geometric topics. in this study, we seek to draw attention to the approaches to geometry in space using paper and pencil and using technology and seek to identify differences between these two approaches based on our experience with a group of 10th grade students. what factors are relevant in both approaches? the students' experience and prior knowledge with each of the solids seems to be determinant in the paper and pencil approach. it is this knowledge that allows the focus on the essential properties of the solid and it is equally this knowledge that allows the drawing of the 3d objects using a 2d representation. in cases where this prior knowledge is more fragile, as in the case of the prism, technology, and, specifically, geogebra, emerges as an enhancer, by allowing a representation with different characteristics. what does one approach facilitate over the other? the representations with paper and pencil and with technology are very different, mobilising different knowledge. the main difference is who does the representation. with technology, it is necessary to identify what one wants to represent, but the representation itself is made by the technology based on the indications given by the student. with paper and pencil, it is necessary to effectively perform the representation, which for some students is not easy. in some cases, the difficulty can be further aggravated by the initial representation of the solid which, due to its position, may not allow an adequate representation (for example, by not allowing the drawing of a parallelogram to represent the desired plane). 277 the fact that the students worked in pairs had the positive impact of allowing discussion among them but it can also limit the experience of one of the elements of the pair with technology, generating some impact on the dynamics of the pair with possible interference in the results of the study. in these circumstances, it seems relevant to consider deepening the conclusions obtained in this study in future research, paying attention to the contribution of each of the elements of the pair (namely regarding the use of technology) and trying to analyse the existence of possible differences between students, according to a more or less intensive use of technology. acknowledgments: this work was partially funded by cied – centro de investigação em educação, instituto de educação, universidade do minho, projects uidb/01661/2020 and uidp/01661/2020, through national funds of fct/mctes-pt; and by national funds through fct – foundation for science and technology, i.p., within the scope of the project ptdc/ced-edg/32422/2017. references arcavi, a. (2003). the role of visual representations in the learning of mathematics. educational studies in mathematics, 52, 215-241. battista, m. t. (2007). the development of geometric and spatial thinking. in f. k. lester (ed.), second handbook of research on mathematics teaching and learning (pp. 843-907). information age publishing. duval, r. (1998). geometry from a cognitive point of view. in c. mammana & v. villani (eds.), perspectives on the teaching of geometry for the 21st century (pp. 37-52). kluwer. faggiano, e., montone, a., & mariotti, m. (2018). synergy between manipulative and digital artefacts: a teaching experiment on axial symmetry at primary school. international journal of mathematical education in science and technology, 49(8), 1165-1180. gagatsis, a., & geitona, z. (2021). a multidimensional approach to students’ creativity in geometry: spatial ability, geometrical figure apprehension and multiple solutions in geometrical problems. mediterranean journal for research in mathematics education, 18, 5-16. hansen, v. l., malkevitch, j., & douady, a. (1998). geometry: past and future. in c. mammana & v. villani (eds.), perspectives on the teaching of geometry for the 21st century (vol. 5, pp. 9-28). springer. jones, k. (2000). teacher knowledge and professional development in geometry. university of southampton. kokol-voljc, v. (2007). use of mathematical software in pre-service teacher training: the case of geogebra. in d. küchemann (ed.), proceedings of the british society for research into learning mathematics, 27(3), 55-60. komatsu, k., & jones, k. (2020). interplay between paper-and-pencil activity and dynamic-geometryenvironment use during generalization and proving. digital experiences in mathematics education, 6, 123-143. koyuncu, i., akyuz, d., & cakiroglu, e. (2015). investigating plane geometry problem-solving strategies of prospective mathematics teachers in technology and paper-and-pencil environments. international journal of science and mathematics education, 13(4), 837-862. lohman, d. (1988). spatial abilities as traits, processes and knowledge. in r. j. sternberg (ed.), advances in the psychology of human intelligence (vol. 4, pp. 181-248). lea. maschietto, m., & soury-lavergne, s. (2017). the duo “pascaline and e-pascaline”: an example of using material and digital artefacts at primary school. in e. faggiano, f. ferrara, & a. montone (eds.), innovation and technology enhancing mathematics education: perspectives in the digital era (pp. 137-160). springer. 278 osório, v. l., pino-fan, l. r., & gonzález, n. (2017). esquemas argumentativos de estudiantes de secundaria en ambientes de geometría dinámica [secondary students' argumentative schemes in dynamic geometry environments]. avances de investigación en educación matemática, 12, 39-57. pittalis, m., & christou, c. (2010). types of reasoning in 3d geometry thinking and their relation with spatial ability. educational studies in mathematics, 75, 191-212. royal society/joint mathematical council (2001). teaching and learning geometry pre-19. royal society/joint mathematical council. septia, t., prahmana, r.c.i., pebrianto, & wahyu, r. (2018). improving students spatial reasoning with course lab. journal on mathematics education, 9(2), 327-336. sutiarso, s., coesamin, m., & nurhanurawati (2018). the effect of various media scaffolding on increasing understanding of students’ geometry concepts. journal on mathematics education, 9(1), 95-102. voltolini, a. (2018). duo of digital and material artefacts dedicated to the learning of geometry at primary school. in l. ball, p. drijvers, s. ladel, h. siller, m. tabach, & c. vale (eds.), uses of technology in primary and secondary mathematics education: tools, topics and trends (pp. 83-99). springer. authors: floriano viseu is an assistant professor at instituto de educação – universidade do minho (portugal) and a member of the research center cied, being coordinator of the master's degree in mathematics education. he holds a master‘s and a phd degree in education, specializing in didactics of mathematics. his research interests are centered in mathematics teachers’ knowledge, education of pre-service teachers, and the technology in teaching and learning activities. email: fviseu@ie.uminho.pt helena rocha is an assistant professor at faculdade de ciências e tecnologia – universidade nova de lisboa (portugal) and a member of the research center cics.nova, being coordinator of the master's degree in mathematics education. she holds a master’s and a phd degree in education, specializing in didactics of mathematics, and her research interests are centered in mathematics teachers’ knowledge to integrate technology and their professional development. email: hcr@fct.unl.pt josé manuel monteiro is a mathematics school teacher at escola secundária carlos amarante (portugal). he has a master’s in civil engineering and another in mathematics education. as a school teacher, he is interested in promoting his students’ learning and assumes technology as a possible way of doing that. email: jmacedomonteiro@gmail.com cite this paper as: viseu, f., rocha, h., & monteiro, j. m. (2022). rethinking digital technology versus paper and pencil in 3d geometry. journal of learning for development, 9(2), 267-278. hood mooc quality: the need for new measures nina hood and allison littlejohn vol. 3, no. 3 abstract moocs are re-operationalising traditional concepts in education. while they draw on elements of existing educational and learning models, they represent a new approach to instruction and learning. the challenges moocs present to traditional education models have important implications for approaching and assessing quality. this paper foregrounds some of the tensions surrounding notions of quality, as well as the need for new ways of thinking about and approaching quality in moocs. conceptualising moocs massive, open, online, courses (moocs) are online courses that facilitate open access to learning at scale. however, the interpretation and employment of the mooc dimensions is not consistent, resulting in considerable variation in purpose, design, learning opportunities and access among different mooc providers and individual moocs. the combinations of technology, pedagogical frameworks and instructional designs vary considerably between individual moocs. some moocs reproduce offline models of teaching and learning, focusing on the organisation and presentation of course material while drawing on the internet to open up these opportunities to a wider audience (margaryan, bianco, & littlejohn, 2015). others combine the opportunities presented by digital technologies with new pedagogical approaches and the flexibility of oer to design new learning experiences (gilliani & eynon, 2015). the four dimensions of a mooc – massive, open, online and course have been interpreted and implemented broadly: massive refers to the scale of the course and alludes to the large number of learners who participate in some moocs. designing moocs involves considering how to disseminate content effectively and support meaningful interactions between learners (downes, 2013) as well as how to devise new forms of education that enable high quality teaching and learning opportunities to occur at scale. successful large-scale online education is expensive to produce and deliver (ferguson & sharples, 2014, 98).  also learning ‘though mass public media’ is limited in its effectiveness for several reasons. first, learning usually requires a high degree of agency and self-regulation by the learner (ferguson & sharples, 2014, 98; milligan, littlejohn & margaryan, 2013).  second, learners are able to ‘drop in’ or ‘drop out’ of a mooc, largely due to the open nature of courses where registration is open for the duration of the course. high dropout rates should be anticipated, since not all learners intend to complete the course or gain a certificate, bringing into question ‘drop out’ measures (littlejohn & milligan, 2015; jordan, 2015). third, moocs potentially attract diverse types of learners, which leads to complex design requirements, though the early moocs have tended to attract learners who have already participated in university education (zhenghao et al., 2015). the large-scale access to learning moocs enable has implications not only for attracting and supporting large numbers of learners but also for designing the learning systems and developing the necessary pedagogy to support all of these different types of learners. open has multiple meanings in relation to moocs. it may refer to access; anyone, no matter his or her background, prior experience or current context may enrol in a mooc. open can also refer to cost; that is, a mooc is available free of charge. a third meaning of open relates to the open nature of knowledge acquisition in a mooc, including the employment of open educational resources (oer) or open courseware (ocw) which is available under a creative commons licence. open also relates to knowledge production and the opportunity for the remixing and reuse of the resources developed during a mooc by the instructors and by the learners themselves to create new knowledge (milligan, littlejohn & margaryan, 2013). thus the philosophy of openness moocs were founded on is being challenged. the business models of platform providers, as well as the organisations that offer moocs, are experimenting with different pricing models. these include paying for certification, to sit a proctored exam, to receive course credit, or to work towards a degree (see for example http://tinyurl.com/zhmuuo6). the current open access model, which allows anyone to enrol in a mooc, also is being challenged by the growing recognition that not everyone is adequately prepared with the necessary autonomy, dispositions and skills, to engage fully in a mooc. the informal, largely self-directed nature of learning in moocs and the lack of support or interpersonal connections during a course, means that despite being open to anyone, learning opportunities are in reality restricted to those with the necessary knowledge, skills and dispositions to engage independently. online aspects of moocs increasingly are being blurred, as moocs are used in blended learning contexts to supplement in-person school and university classes (bates, 2014; bruff, fisher, mcewen, & smith, 2014; caulfield, collier, halawa, 2013; firmin et al., 2014; holotescu, grosseck, cretu, & naaji, 2014). in a review of the evidence surrounding the integration of moocs into offline learning contexts, israel (2015) determines that while the blended approach leads to comparable achievement outcomes to traditional classroom settings, their use tended to be associated with lower levels of learner satisfaction. downes (2013) suggests that for an online course to qualify as a mooc no required element of the course should have to take place in a specific physical location. however, this requirement does not preclude additional offline interactions taking place. it is important to recognise that no online course is bounded to the online context. learning is distributed across and informed by the multiple contexts of a learner’s life. how and why a learner engages with a mooc is determined by both their current situation as well as their personal ontogeny. the learning context of a mooc also is situated within and across the institutional contexts of the specific course creator and the platform provider. recognising and addressing the multiple, and at times competing contexts in which each mooc is situated is critical to discussions of quality. course conceptualisation varies across different moocs (figure 1). according to downes (2013) three criteria must be met for a mooc to be regarded as a ‘course’: (1) it is bounded by a start and end date; (2) it is cohered by a common theme or discourse; and (3) it is a progression of ordered events. while moocs typically are bounded, this may be manifest in different ways. moocs initially started as structured courses, designed to parallel in-person, formal learning, such as university classes, with start and end dates. however, an increasing number of moocs are not constrained by specific start or end dates (shah, 2015), facilitating a self-paced learning model. the length of courses also varies, with some constructed as a series of shorter modules, which may be taken independently or added together to form a longer learning experience. patterns of learner engagement vary substantially in moocs. conole (2013) suggests that participation can range from completely informal, with learners having the autonomy and flexibility to determine and chart their own learning journey, to engagement in a formal course, which operates in a similar manner to offline formal education. reich (2013) has questioned whether a mooc is a textbook (a transmitter of static content) or a course because of the conflicts that exist around confined timing and structured versus self-directed learning, the tension between skills-based or content-based objectives, and whether certification is included (or indeed achieved by learners). siemens (2012) argues that the primary tension in mooc conceptualisation is between the transmission model and the construction model of knowledge and learning. rather than being viewed as a course, moocs could be conceptualised as a means by which learners construct and ultimately define their own learning (ibid).  thus, the term ‘mooc’ is being applied to such a wide range of learning opportunities that it provides limited insight into the educational experience being offered. the specific nature and composition of individual moocs are profoundly shaped and ultimately the product of its designers and instructors, the platform and platform provider, and the participants, who each bring their own frames of reference and contextual frameworks. therefore, any discussion or attempt to quantify or qualify notions of quality in moocs requires the exploration of the complexities and diversity in designs, pedagogies, purposes, teacher experiences and roles, and participant motivations, expectations and behaviours present in moocs (ross, sinclair, knox, & macleod, 2014; mackness, mak, & williams, 2010; milligan, margaryan, & littlejohn). quality indicators: presage, process and product variables quality measures must take into consideration the diversity among moocs as well as the various, and often competing, frames of reference of different stakeholders – learners, instructors, organisations and governments. dimensions of quality in education have been structured and organised using a model developed by biggs (1993), the ‘3p model’ (gibbs, 2010). the model conceptualises education as a complex set of interacting ecosystems. to understand how a particular ecosystem (i.e., a mooc) operates or its impact, the course is broken down into its constituent parts to examine how these parts relate to each other and how they combine to form a whole. it further is necessary to understand each mooc ecosystem in relation to other ecologies. biggs (1993) provides a useful model to examine the variables that can be measured to assess the quality of learning (see figure 1). figure 1: bigg’s 3p model biggs divides each learning ecosystem into three types of variables – presage, process and product variables. presage variables are the resources and factors that go into the teaching and learning process, including the learners, instructors, institution, and in the case of moocs the platform and platform provider. process variables refer to the processes and actions associated with the presage variables, including instructional design, pedagogical approaches, and learning resources and materials. product variables are the outputs or outcomes of the educational processes. presage variables: provider and instructor; learner; platform conventional measures of presage variables include student to staff ratios both across an institution as a whole as well as within individual courses, the quality of teaching staff (often measured by job role or teaching qualification), the allocation of teaching funding, and the prior qualifications of students entering an institution or the acceptance rate. moocs disrupt these traditional measures. they are non-selective, with open admission, and are frequently designed to have a single instructor teaching thousands of learners. this has resulted in calls for quality measures that recognise the diversity of learners and the openness of a course (butcher, hoosen, uvalić-trumbić, daniel, 2013; inacol, 2011; qm, 2013; rosewell & jansen, 2014). these measures have important implications for process and product variables.   the mooc platform plays an important role in determining the access, reach and nature of the course on offer. it further influences the instructional design, the technology that is available, and possible cost structures. platforms are experimenting with new course structures, such as incorporating greater intentionality into course design by creating moocs with more practical outcomes for learners (shah, 2015). platform providers, such as coursera, edx and futurelearn, are also experimenting with different cost structures, including offering pay-for credentialing and course credit opportunities and some providers have developed their own credentials. the mooc provider can be anyone. the united states government, the world bank, the american museum of natural history, the museum of modern art (new york), google and  at&t are some of the many organisations that have run moocs. though to date most moocs have been created by instructional designers in universities –  first by a group of researchers in canada (downes, 2008; downes, 2009), then by prominent institutions worldwide. this has led some commentators to suggest that moocs are merely an exercise in brand promotion (conole, 2013). others imply that moocs promote and reinforce distinctions between well-known, research universities and large corporations who are the producers of moocs (and controllers of knowledge), and less-affluent universities, which do not necessarily have the financial resources to produce moocs, and consequently are the consumers of moocs (rhoads, berdan, & toven-lindsey, 2013). tensions and power imbalances between mooc creators, the courses they develop, and the learning they support on the one hand, and learners on the other, is highlighted by many universities not offering credit for the moocs that they offer (adamopoulos, 2013). the use of high quality content resources and activities (amo; 2013; conole, 2013; margaryan et al., 2015) and the opportunities for quality knowledge creation throughout the course of the mooc (guardia, maina, & sangra, 2013) are hallmarks of effective instructional design. sound technology use is also important to the design and delivery of high quality learning experiences and opportunities (amo, 2013; conole, 2013; guardia, maina, & sangra, 2013; istrate & kesten, 2015). however, dillenbourg and colleagues (2014) warn of the tension between ‘edutainment’ and supporting deep learning, and the danger of providing ‘overpolished’ and entertaining materials without first considering the pedagogical approaches within which they are used. research suggests the need for quality measures that evaluate both content and resource design and learner engagement with content and resources. there already exist a number of quality criteria that are used by universities for both accreditation and to maintain internal standards that could be extended, potentially in a modified form, to moocs (dillenbourg et al., 2014). examples of these frameworks that have been expanded to address moocs include the qm quality matters guide, inaqol, and openuped. these could be used in conjunction with new technology-enabled measures of learner engagement. one such example is the precise effectiveness strategy, which purports to calculate the effectiveness of learners’ interactions with educational resources and activities (munoz-merino, ruiperez-valiente, alario-hoyos, perez-sanagustin, & delgado kloos, 2015). data suggest that the mooc instructor has a significant impact on learner retention in moocs (adamopoulos, 2013). further research suggests that instructors’ participation in discussion forum activity and actively supporting learners during the running of a mooc positively influences learning outcomes (coetzee, lim, fox, hartman, & hearst, 2011; deslauriers, 2011). ross et al. (2014) argue for the importance of acknowledging the complexity of teacher positions and experiences in moocs and how these influence learner engagement. although there were around 35 million mooc learner registrations in 2015 (shah, 2015), data suggest that moocs currently are not attracting as diverse a body of learners as hoped, with most learners having a degree level qualification (christensen et al, 2013; ho et al., 2014). however, there is considerable variety in learners’ motivations for enrolling in a mooc. common factors include: interest in the topic, access to free learning opportunities, the desire to refresh knowledge, opportunity to draw on world-class university knowledge, and to gain accreditation (davies et al., 2014; winthrup et al., 2015). christensen et al. (2013) found that nearly half of mooc students reported their reason for enrolling as “curiosity, just for fun”, while 43.9% cited the opportunity to “gain skills to do my job better.” motivation determines how a person engages with a learning opportuniy both cognitively and behaviorally, and therefore, is a mediating factor in relation to other quality measures. low mooc completion rates have been viewed as problematic. however passive engagement can be considered a valid learning approach, and is not always indicative of a lack of learning (department for business, innovation and skills, 2013). the majority of learners in moocs are not adhering to traditional expectations or learning behaviours. consequently, they do not necessarily measure success as engaging with all of the content or completing the activities and achieving a certification of completion (littlejohn, hood, milligan, & mustain, 2016). successful learning in moocs increasingly is learner driven and determined. as a result, traditional quality measures related to outcome variables (such as completion rates or grades) may be of limited relevance to moocs (littlejohn & milligan, 2015). confidence, prior experience and motivation have been found to mediate engagement (milligan, littlejohn, & margaryan, 2013). it further has been suggested that learners’ geographical location affects accessibility to moocs as well as interest in topics (liyanagunawardena, adams, & williams, 2013), with demographic information able to be used as an intermediary characteristic to explain behaviour in a mooc (skrypnyk, hennis, & vries, 2014). further research has identified a relationship between learners’ behaviour and engagement, and their current contexts, including occupation, (hood, littlejohn, & milligan, 2015; wang & baker, 2015; de waard et al., 2011), as well as a relationship between learners’ learning objectives and their learning outcomes (kop, fournier, & mak, 2011). learners’ prior education experience also has been found to influence their retention in a mooc (emanuel, 2013; koller et al., 2013; rayyan, seaton, belcher, pritchard, & chuang, 2013) and their readiness to learn (bond, 2015; davis, dickens, leon, del mar sanchez ver, & white, 2014; kop et al. 2011), with more experienced learners typically finding it easier to navigate the unstructured nature of learning in a mooc (lin, lin, & hung, 2015). when discussing and assessing quality in moocs it is necessary to situate the mooc, the learning opportunities it provides and individual learners within the multiple ecosystems in which they interact. one of the disrupting forces in a mooc is that it provokes a move in thinking about quality from the perspective of the instructor, institution and platform provider to the learner. therefore, establishing reliable measures of confidence, experience and motivation, which extend beyond self-report, could provide a more accurate view of quality than conventional learner metrics. process variables – pedagogy and instructional design the flexibility of participation and the self-directed nature of engagement, which enables learners to self select the learning opportunities and pathways they follow when participating in a mooc (de boer et al., 2014) necessitates the re-operationalisation of many process variables. questions emerge regarding the balance between structure (intended to provide direction) and self-regulation, between broadcast or dialogue models of delivery, whether moocs should offer edutainment or deep learning opportunities, and whether and how to promote homophily or diversity in learners’ engagement and participation. mooc instructional design and the use of different tools and resources influence engagement and support learning in moocs (margaryan et al, 2015). outcomes measures of retention and completion are often used as proxies for learning when assessing process variables. however, these are not necessarily accurate measures of learning in moocs, where participation is often self-directed, with learners following individual, asynchronous pathways for which there is no correct or prescribed route (de boer et al., 2014).   the diversity of learners’ goals and motivations for taking a mooc must be addressed within its instructional design, allowing for learner autonomy (mackness, waite, roberts, & lovegrove, 2013) and flexible learning patterns. however, this flexibility must be situated within an overarching, coherent design, which incorporates adequate support structures. daradoumis and colleagues (2013) and margaryan et al (2015) found that while moocs allow for individual learning journeys, there is a problematic lack of designed customisation and personalisation in moocs, which responds to learner characteristics. designing a mooc based on participatory design and activity-based learning facilitates learning that is relevant to learners (hew, 2014; istrate & kestens, 2015; mor & warburton, 2015). there are strong links between the diversity of learners (presage variable) moocs can attract and the need to incorporate differentiated pathways and learner-centred designs. learner-centred design takes into consideration the diversity of the learner population and the need to provide learning activities that cater to and support different learning styles and needs (alario-hoyos, perez-sanagustin, cormier, & delgado-kloos, 2014; guardia, maina, & sangra, 2013; hew, 2014; margaryan et al., 2015). the design should offer opportunities for personalised learning (istrate & kestens, 2015) as well as and drawing on learners’ individual contexts and previous experience  (scagnoli, 2012). it also is important to support and scaffold learning, by making sure support structures are integrated into the mooc design (skrypnyk, de vies, & hennis, 2015). learning supports can be developed through the incorporation of accessible materials and instructors who actively contribute to and support learners (hew, 2014), as well as through opportunities for peer assistance (amo, 2013; guardia et al., 2013). however, the ration of instructors to learners in moocs raises concern (dolan, 2014; kop, fournier, & mak, 2011). learning and data analytics increasingly are being used to guide the learner and instructor, with tutors receiving predictive analytics about each of their students and using this data to target their support (rientes et al., 2016) or learners being ‘nudged’ to focus attention (martinez, 2014).   interaction and collaboration encompass both instructor-learner interactions and learner-to-learner collaborations. a relationship has been identified between learners’ participation in discussion forums and completion (gillani & eynon, 2014; kizilcic et al., 2013; sinha et al., 2014), though the reasons for this are uncertain. analysis of discussion forum posts indicates a wide variation in the content and topics (gillani et al., 2014). however, a correlation has been detected between the intensity of activity and course milestones (ibid). higher performing students engage more frequently in mooc discussion forums; however, their interactions are not restricted to other high-performing students. discussion forums also provide an important information source for instructors about their students and how they are engaging with the content (rosé, goldman, zoltners sherer, & resnick, 2015).      opportunities for strategic use of feedback (from both peers and instructors) are important elements of effective instructional design (alario-hoyos, 2014; amo, 2013; conole, 2013; margaryan et al., 2015). receiving targeted, relevant informative feedback in a timely manner is important for supporting students’ learning (hattie, 2009). however, in their analysis of 76 moocs margaryan and colleagues (2015) found there were few opportunities for high quality instructor feedback. there is evidence of the predictive power of data and learning analytics to offer insight into learning (tempelaar, rientes, & giesbers, 2015). new techniques are being developed, including technology for analysing discussions for learning (howley, mayfield, & rosé, 2013), the formation of discussion groups (yang, wen, kumar, xing, & rosé), and indicators of motivation, cognitive engagement and attitudes towards the course (wen, yang, & rosé, 2014a, 2014b). developing measures capable of capturing interactions quantitatively as well as qualitatively, will facilitate a richer understanding of how interactions and collaboration support student learning and engagement, as well as how they contribute to the fulfilment of individual learners’ goals.  research has investigated how formative and summative feedback can be generated (whitelock, gilbert, & wills, 2013), how moocs could operate as foundational learning experiences before traditional degree courses (wartell, 2012) and how and whether university credit might be offered by more moocs (bellum 2013; bruff, fisher, mcewan, & smith, 2013). learning analytics could be used to better personalise and tailor moocs to learners (daradoumis, bassi, xhafa, & caballe, 2013; kanwar, 2013; lackner, ebner & khalil, 2015; sinha et al., 2014; tabba & medouri, 2013). developing quality indicators that can be used in conjunction with learning analytics could provide powerful measures of pedagogically effective technology use in moocs. product variables – learners and learning in conventional education the most commonly used indicators of learning quality are progression and completion rates and employment statistics (gibbs, 2010). however, the use of these indicators as mooc quality measures is highly problematic, since completion is not always the goal of individual learners (littlejohn et al., 2016) and therefore not an appropriate measure of the quality of learning on its own. particular learner behaviours – engagement in discussion forums (gillani et al., 2014), completion of weekly quizzes (admiraal et al., 2015), and routine engagement over the course of a mooc (loya, gopal, shukla, jermann, & tormey, 2015; sinha et al., 2014) correlate positively with completion levels. as such they can be interpreted as facilitators of the learning process. however, completion is not synonymous with satisfaction, the achievement of goals, or learners’ perceptions of successful learning (koller, ng, do, & chen, 2013; littlejohn et al., 2016; wang & baker, 2015). further evidence indicate that learners who ‘lurk’, engage passively, or do not complete the full course have as high overall experiences of a mooc as those learners who completed it (kilicec et al., 2013; milligan, et al, 2013). there is a need to measure other product variables that reflect the diverse and contextualised patterns of participation and the range of outcomes in moocs. these should include the individual motivations and goals of learners, both as they are conceptualised at the start of a course as well as how they develop over time. this will enable the development of differentiated product variables as well as enabling the tracking of individual learner’ engagement with mooc resources, assessment – both formative and summative – and feedback, interaction with others, and patterns of communication. this profile of individual learners should also include background information on learners, including demographic data, prior learning experiences, and behavioural data. using learning analytic techniques to analyse combinations of demographic details, academic and social integration, and social and behavioural factors, together with within course behaviour can predict different types of performance (agudo-peregrina et al., 2014; credé & niehorster, 2012; marks, sibley, & arbaugh, 2005; macfadyen & dawson, 2010; tempelaar et al., 2015). other useful product variables include post-mooc outcomes, such as career progression (zheng et al., 2015), network outcomes and future study. indicators of mooc quality dimensions of mooc quality depend largely on two variables: the mooc’s purpose and the perspective of the particular actor. the diversity of learners in a mooc, the range of purposes for which moocs are designed, and the various motivations individual learners have for engaging with a mooc means that it is not possible to identify a universal approach for measuring quality. furthermore, the difficulties in operationalising many of the dimensions of quality – either quantitatively or qualitatively – makes assessments of quality challenging. daniel (2012) suggests that moocs could be evaluated by learners and educators, with the aim of producing league tables that rank courses (there are several examples of this already happening). he suggests that poorly performing courses would either disappear due to lack of demand, or would undertake efforts to improve quality. uvalić-trumbić (2013) suggests assessing moocs against the question ‘what is it offering to the student?’. however, given the diversity among mooc participants, the answer to this question would differ for each student. another route forward is to equate quality with participation measures (dillenbourg et al., 2013). the primary focus would be on assessments of the learning outcomes of individual participants, thereby placing the learner at the centre of measures of quality. this is in keeping with the growing focus in the research on developing multiple measures of learner behaviour, motivations and engagement, through the employment of various learning and data analytic techniques. dillenbourg and colleagues (2013) suggest that multiple assessments of individual learners participation measures could also inform the evaluation of cohorts of learners, instructional design decisions and the learning outcomes that result from them, and instructors, whose quality is dependent on outcomes of the course. this focus on the learner and the relationship between product and process variables seems to be central to the quality of moocs. if the learning outcomes – as measured through a range of variables and indicators – are perceived to represent a high quality learning experience, then by implication the process variables – the various dimensions of pedagogy and instructional design – are appropriate in this context. however, if the learners’ experiences and resulting learning outcomes are not positive, then the process variables may be deemed as less suitable to that particular context, even if conforming to a pre-developed list of guidelines. the aim, therefore, is to ensure that the gap between initial expectations and the final perceptions of the delivered learning experience is as small as possible. that is, the process variables lead to the desired product variables and outcome measures.    rather than coming a single conclusion about quality in moocs, this paper has attempted to explore some of the tensions and challenges associated with quality and to identify a range of variables that can be used to measure quality in moocs. it is clear that conventional measures and indicators of quality are not always appropriate for moocs. similarly, given the diversity among mooc offerings, it is unlikely that there is one clear route forward for assessing quality. biggs’ 3p model provides a framework for identifying variables and measures associated with quality and for exploring the relationships between them. the aim here was to explain the possible uses of each variable, and where possible, to identify potential measures and instruments that can be used to measure them. quality is not objective. it is a measure for a specific purpose. in education, purpose is not a neutral or constant construct. the meaning and purpose ascribed to education shifts depending on the context and the actor, with governments, institutions, instructors, and learners approaching education from different viewpoints and consequently viewing quality through different lenses.  since moocs shift agency towards the learner, there is a need to foreground learner perspectives, using various measures of learner perceptions, behaviours and actions, and experiences as the foundation for assessing quality. acknowledgements the authors extend their thanks to the commonwealth of learning and dr sanjaya mishra for supporting the project on “developing quality guidelines and a framework for quality assurance and accreditation of massive open online courses”.  full reports of the project are published as two separate publications by col, which can be accessed at http://oasis.col.org references adamopoulos, a. (2013). what makes a great mooc? an interdisciplinary analysis of student retention in online courses. thirty fourth international conference on information systems, milan 2013. admiraal, w., huisman, b., & pilli, o. (2015). assessment in massive open online courses. journal of e-learning, 13(4), 207-216. agudo-peregrina, á., iglesias-pradas, s., condegonzález, m., & hernández-garcía, á. (2014). can we predict success from log data in vles? classification of interactions for learning analytics and their relation with performance in vle-supported f2f and online learning. computers in human behavior, 31, 542–550. alario-hoyos, c., perez-sanagustin, m., cormier, d., & delgado-kloos, c. (2014). proposal for a conceptual framework for educators to describe and design moocs. journal of universal computer science, 20(1), 6-23. amo, d. (2013). moocs: experimental approaches for quality in pedagogical and design fundamentals. teem '13, november 14 15 2013, salamanca, spain.  arbaugh, j. b. (2014). system, scholar, or students? which most influences online mba course effectiveness? journal of computer assisted learning, 30(4). bellum, j. (2013). the adult learner and moocs. educause review. available from: http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/adult-learner-and-moocs biggs, j. (1993). from theory to practice: a cognitive systems approach. higher education research & development, 12(1), 73-85, bond, p. (2015) information literacy in moocs. current issues in emerging elearning, 2(1), article 6. bruff, d. o., fisher, d. h., mcewen, k. e., & smith, b. e. (2013). wrapping a mooc: student perceptions of an experiment in blended learning. journal of online learning and teaching, 9(2), 187-199. butcher, n., hoosen, s., uvalić-trumbić, s., & daniel, j. (2013). guide to quality in post-traditional online higher education. available from: http://www.eadtu.eu/home/policy-areas/quality-assurance/publications/227-guide-to-quality-in-post-traditional-online-higher-education. caulfield, m., collier, a., & halawa, s. (2013, october 7). rethinking online community in moocs used for blended learning. educause review. retrieved from http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/rethinking-online-community-moocs-usedblended-learning chandrasekaran, m., ragupathi, k., kan, m., & tan, b. (2015). towards feasible instructor intervention in mooc discussion forums. thirty sixth international conference on information systems, fort worth 2015. christensen, g., steinmetz, a., alcorn, b., bennett, a., woods, d., & emanuel, e. j. (2013). the mooc phenomenon: who takes massive open online courses and why? available from: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2350964 conole, g. (2008). new schemas for mapping pedagogies and technologies. available from: http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue56/conole conole, g. (2013). moocs as disruptive technologies: strategies for enhancing the learner experience and quality of moocs. red revista de educación a distancia, 39. retrieved from http://www.um.es/ead/red/39/conole.pdf daniel, j. (2012). making sense of moocs: musings in a maze of myth, paradox and possibility. journal of interactive media in education, 2012(3). doi: http://doi.org/10.5334/2012-18. daradoumis, t., bassi, r., xhafa, f., & caballe, s. (2013). a review on massive e­learning (mooc) design, delivery and assessment. in proceedings 2013 8th international conference on p2p, parallel, grid, cloud and internet computing, 3pgcic 2013 (pp. 208-213).doi: http://doi.org/tpk davis, h., dickens, k., leon, m., del mar sanchez ver, m., & white, s. (2014). moocs for universities and learners: an analysis of motivating factors. in 6th international conference on computer supported education, 0103 apr 2014. de boer, j., ho, a., stump, g., & b. (2014) changing “course”: reconceptualizing educational variables for massive open online courses. educational researcher, 1-11. doi: 10.3102/0013189x14523038. department for business, innovation & skills. (2013). the maturing of the mooc. london: department for business, innovation and skills. deslauriers, l., schelew, e., & wieman, c. (2011). improved learning in a large-enrolment physics class. science, 332(6031), 862-864. de waard, i., abajian, s., gallagher, m, hogue, r., keskin, n., koutropoulos, a., & rodriguez, o. (2011). using mlearning and moocs to understand chaos, emergence, and complexity in education. international review of research in open and distance learning, 12(7), pp. 94-115. dillenbourg, p., fox, a., kirchner, c., mitchell, j., & wirsing, m. (2013). massive open online courses: current state and perspectives. manifesto from dagstuhl perspectives workshop. doi: 10.4230/dagman.4.1.1. dolan, v. (2014). massive online obsessive compulsion: what are they saying out there about the latest phenomenon in higher education? international review of research in open and distributed learning, 15(2). downes, s. (2008). places to go: connectivism & connective knowledge. innovate: journal of online education, 5(1). retrieved from http://www.innovateonline.info/pdf/vol5_issue1/places_to_go-__connectivism_&_connective_knowledge.pdf downes, s. (2009, february 24). connectivist dynamics in communities [web log post]. retrieved from http://halfanhour.blogspot.co.uk/2009/02/connectivist-dynamics-in-communities.html downes, s. (2013). the quality of massive open online courses. available from: http://mooc.efquel.org/files/2013/05/week2-the-quality-of-massive-open-online-courses-stephendownes.pdf. emanuel, e. (2013). online education: moocs taken by educated few. nature, 503. doi:10.1038/503342a. firmin, r., schiorring, e., whitmer, j., willett, t., collins, e. d., & sujitparapitaya, s. (2014). case study: using moocs for conventional college coursework. distance education, 35(2), 178-201. doi: 10.1080/01587919.2014.917707 gibbs, g. (2010). dimensions of quality. york: the higher education academy. gillani, n., & eynon, r. (2014). communication patterns in massively open online courses. internet and higher education, 23, 18-26. gillani, n., yasserie, t., eynon, r., & hjorth, i. (2014). structural limitations of learning in a crowd: communication vulnerability and information diffusion in moocs. scientific insights, 4: 6447.  guardia, l., maina, m., & sangra, a. (2013). mooc design principles. a pedagogical approach from the learner’s perspective. elearning papers, 33, 1-5. hattie, j. (2009). visible learning: a synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. london and new york: routledge. hew, k. (2014). promoting engagement in online courses: what strategies can we learn from three highly rated moocs? british journal of educational technology, 47(2), 320-342. doi:10.1111/bjet.12235. ho, a. d., reich, j., nesterko, s. o., seaton, d. t., mullaney, t., waldo, j., & chuang, i. (2014). harvardx and mitx: the first year of open online courses (harvardx and mitx working paper no. 1). doi:10.2139/ssrn.2381263 holotescu, c., grosseck, g., cretu, v., & naaji, a. (2014). integrating moocs in blended courses. proceedings of the international scientific conference of elearning and software for education, bucharest, 243-250. doi: 10.12753/2066-026x-14-034 hood, n., littlejohn, a., & milligan, c. (2015). context counts: how learners' contexts influence learning in a mooc. computers & education, 91, 83-91. howley, i., mayfield, e., & rosé, c. p. (2013). linguistic analysis methods for studying small groups. in cindy hmelo-silver, angela o’donnell, carol chan, & clark chin (eds.), international handbook of collaborative learning. taylor and francis, inc. israel, m. (2015). effectiveness of integrating moocs in traditional classrooms for undergraduate students. international review of research in open and distributed learning, 16(5), 102-118. istrate, o., & a. kestens (2015). developing and monitoring a mooc: the ifrc experience. the 11th international scientific conference elearning and software for education, bucharest, april 23-24, 2015. doi 10.12753/2066-026x-15-179. jordan, k. (2015). massive open online course completion rates revisited: assessment, length and attrition. international review of research in open and distributed learning, 16(3), 341-358. kanwar, a. (2013, october 16). quality vs quantity: can technology help? opening keynote, 25th icde world conference, tianjin, china. koller, d., ng, a., do, c., & chen, z. (2013). retention and intention in massive open online courses: in depth. educause review online. available from:  http://er.educause.edu/articles/2013/6/retention-and-intention-in-massive-open-online-courses-in-depth. kop, r., fournier, h., & mak, j. (2011). a pedagogy of abundance or a pedagogy to support human beings? participant support on massive open online courses. international review of research in open and distributed learning, 12, 74-93. lin, y-l., lin, h-w., & hung, t-t. (2015). value hierarchy for massive open online courses. computers in human behaviour, 53, 408-418. liyanagunawardena, t., adams, a., & williams, s. (2013). moocs: a systematic study of the published literature 2008-2012. international review of research in open and distributed learning, 14(3), 202-227. littlejohn, a., hood, n., milligan, c., & mustain, p. (2016). learning in moocs: motivations and self-regulated learning in moocs. internet and higher education, 29, 40-48. littlejohn, a., & milligan, c. (2015). designing moocs for professional learners: tools and patterns to encourage self-regulated learning. elearning papers, special issue on design patterns for open online teaching and learning, 42. available from: http://www.openeducationeuropa.eu/en/node/170924 mackness, j., mak, s. f. j., & williams, r. (2010). the ideals and reality of participating in a mooc. in l. dirckinck-holmfeld, v. hodgson, c. jones, m. de laat, d. mcconnell, & t. ryberg. (eds.), proceedings of the seventh international conference on networked learning (pp. 266-275). lancaster, uk: university of lancaster. mackness, j., waite, m., roberts, g., & lovegrove, e. (2013). learning in a small, task–oriented, connectivist mooc: pedagogical issues and implications for higher education. international review of research in open and distributed learning, 14(4), 140-159. margaryan, a., bianco, m., & littlejohn, a. (2015). instructional quality of massive open online courses (moocs). computers & education, 80, 77-83. marks, r. b., sibley, s. d., & arbaugh, j. b. (2005). a structural equation model of predictors for effective online learning. journal of management education, 29(4), 531-563. martinez, i. (2014). the effects of nudges on students’ effort and performance: lessons from a mooc. working paper, edpolicyworks. retrieved from: http://curry.virginia.edu/uploads/resourcelibrary/19_martinez_lessons_from_a_mooc.pdf. milligan, c., littljohn, a., & margaryan, a. (2013). patterns of engagement in connectivist moocs. merlot, 9(2), 149-159. munoz-merino, p., ruiperez-valiente, j., alario-hoyos, c., perez-sanagustin, m., & delgado kloos, c. (2015). precise effectiveness strategy for analyzing the effectiveness of students with educational resources and activities in moocs. computers in human behaviour, 47, 108-118. quality matters. (2013). quality matters continuing and professional education rubric standards. available from: https://www.qmprogram.org rayyan, s., seaton, d., belcher, j., pritchard, d., & chuang, i. (2013). participation and performance in 8.02x electricity and magnetism: the first physics mooc from mitx.  arxiv preprint arxiv:1310.3173. available from: http://arxiv.org/abs/1310.3173. reich, j. (2013). mooc completion and retention in the context of student intent. educause review. available from: http://er.educause.edu/articles/2014/12/mooc-completion-and-retention-in-the-context-of-student-intent. rientes, b., boroowa, a., cross, s., kubiak, c., mayles, k., & murphy, s. (2016). analytics4action evaluation framework: a review of evidence-based learning analytics interventions at the open university uk. journal of interactive media in education. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/jime.394 rhoads, r.a., berdan, j. & toven-lindsey, b. (2013). the open courseware movement in higher education: unmasking power and raising questions about the movement’s democratic potential. educational theory, 63(1), pp. 87-110. rosé, c., goldman, p., zoltners sherer, j., & resnick, l. (2015). supportive technologies for group discussion in moocs. current issues in emerging elearning, 2(1), article 5. rosewell, j., & jansen, d. (2014). the openuped quality label: benchmarks for moocs. innoqual: the international journal for innovation and quality in learning, 2(3), 88-100. ross, j., sinclair, c., knox, j., & macleod, h. (2014). teacher experiences and academic identity: the missing components of mooc pedagogy. journal of online learning and teaching, 10(1), 57. shah, d. (2015, december 28). moocs in 2015: breaking down the numbers. edsurge. available from: https://www.edsurge.com/news/2015-12-28-moocs-in-2015-breaking-down-the-numbers. siemens, g. (2012). moocs are really a platform. elearnspace. available at: http://www.elearnspace.org/blog/2012/07/25/moocs-are-really-a-platform/. sinha, t., li, n., jermann, p., & dillenbourg, p. (2014). capturing “attrition intensifying” structural traits from didactic interaction sequences of mooc learners.  proceedings of the 2014 empirical methods in natural language processing workshop on modeling large scale social interaction in massively open online courses. skrypnyk, o., de vries, p., & hennis, t. (2015). reconsidering retention in moocs: the relevance of formal assessment and pedagogy. emoocs conference 2015, third european moocs stakeholders summit, mons, belgium. tabba y., & medouri, a. (2013). lasym: a learning analytics system for moocs.  international journal of advanced computer science and applications, 4(5), 113-119. tempelaar, dirk t., rienties, b., & giesbers, b. (2015). in search for the most informative data for feedback generation: learning analytics in a data-rich context. computers in human behavior, 47, 157-167. uvalić-trumbić, s. (2013). moocs – mistaking brand for quality? university world news. retreived from: http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20130206180425691 wang y., & baker, r. (2015). content or platform: why do students complete moocs?. merlot, 11(1), 17-30. warburton, s., & mor, y. (2015). configuring narratives, patterns and scenarios in the design of technology enhanced learning. in m. maina et al. (eds.), the art & science of learning design, 93-104. wartell, m. (2012). a new paradigm for remediation: moocs in secondary schools. educause review. retrieved from: http://er.educause.edu/articles/2012/11/a-new-paradigm-for-remediation-moocs-in-secondary-schools. wen, m., yang, d., & rosé, c. p. (2014a). sentiment analysis in mooc discussion forums: what does it tell us? proceedings of educational data mining. available from: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~mwen/papers/edm2014-camera-ready.pdf wen, m., yang, d., & rosé, d. (2014b). linguistic reflections of student engagement in massive open online courses. in proceedings of the international conference on weblogs and social media. available from: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~mwen/papers/icwsm2014-camera-ready.pdf. whitelock, d., gilbert, l., & wills, g. (2013). feedback generators: providing feedback in moocs. in caa 2013 international conference. university of southampton. retrieved from: http://caaconference.com yang, d., wen, m., kumar, a., xing, e., & rosé, c. (2014). towards an integration of text and graph clustering methods as a lens for studying social interaction in moocs. international review of research in open and distributed learning, 15(5). zhenghao, c., alcorn, b., christensen, g., eriksson, n., koller, d., & emanuel, e. (2015, september). who’s benefiting from moocs, and why? harvard business review. authors dr. nina hood is a research fellow at the faculty of education at the university of auckland. her research is focused on the role that digital technologies can play in supporting and enhancing education, and in particular facilitating professional learning opportunities and knowledge mobilisation. email: n.hood@auckland.ac.nz dr. allison littlejohn is professor of learning technology and academic director for digital innovation at the open university, uk. she has held professorships at three uk universities and academic or related positions in the uk and us. professor littlejohn’s research has been published in over 200 academic articles, including four books. she has been principal investigator or senior scientist on around 50 research projects funded by the european commission (ec), the uk economic and social research council (esrc), the bill & melinda gates foundation, the higher education funding council for england (hefce), the scottish funding council (sfc), the uk joint information systems committees (jisc), the uk higher education academy (hea), the energy institute (ei), shell international & british petroleum (bp).  her industry-academic research is with multinational companies, most notably royal dutch shell, for whom she was senior researcher 2008-2010. email: allison.littlejohn@open.ac.uk microsoft word zhu_galley.docx issn: 2311-1550 2020, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 31-45 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. technology tools and instructional strategies for designing and delivering moocs to facilitate self-monitoring of learners meina zhu1 and curtis j. bonk2 1wayne state university, michigan, usa 2indiana university, indiana, usa abstract: this mixed-methods study examines the design and delivery of moocs to facilitate student self-monitoring for self-directed learning (sdl). the data collection methods included an online survey (n = 198), semi-structured interviews of mooc instructors (n = 22), and document analysis of moocs (n = 22). this study found that mooc instructors viewed self-monitoring skills vital for sdl. mooc instructors reported that they facilitated students’ self-monitoring with both internal and external feedback. students’ internal feedback is related to cognitive and metacognitive processes. among the methods used to facilitate cognitive processes were quizzes, tutorials, learning strategies, learning aids, and progress bars. to foster metacognition, mooc instructors provided reflection questions and attempted to create learning communities. in addition, mooc instructors, teaching assistants, and peers provided external feedback for students’ self-monitoring. among the other strategies, synchronous communication technologies, asynchronous communication technologies, and feedback were used with diverse purposes in supporting students’ self-monitoring. keywords: massive open online courses (moocs), self-monitoring, self-directed learning, instructional design, mooc instructors. introduction self-directed learning (sdl) is considered highly important for learners in massive open online courses or moocs (bonk, lee, reeves, & reynolds, 2015; kop & fournier, 2011; terras & ramsay, 2015). such views on learning make sense given the wealth of content and learning resources that can be made available in a mooc (bonk et al, 2015; zhang, bonk, reeves, & reynolds, 2020). without some ability to self-direct one’s learning, many opportunities to enhance one’s job outlook or career advancement become increasingly limited as, increasingly, learning resources are primarily found online (bonk, 2009). in addition, advances in open educational resources (oer) means that more resources are freely available. nevertheless, wise decisions on accessing and using such resources requires extensive self-regulation, planning, self-monitoring, and self-assessment (zhu & bonk, 2019a). however, sdl does not mean that instructors should leave learners to themselves. on the contrary, it is conceivable that they require even more forms of guidance and support to make wise and efficient decisions. in fact, researchers from the field of nursing have stated that instruction and guidance on sdl at the beginning of higher education courses is necessary as learners feel anxious about sdl (hewitt-taylor, 2001; lunyk-child, crooks, ellis, ofosu, & rideout, 2001; prociuk, 1990). 32 consequently, instructor facilitation strategies are vital to help learners develop the appropriate sdl skills (kell & deursen, 2002; lunyk-child et al, 2001). based on garrison’s (1997) framework designed at the university of calgary, sdl includes three dimensions: (1) motivation, (2) self-management, and (3) self-monitoring. self-monitoring refers to monitoring the learning strategies, processes, and the ability to think about thinking. it is related to cognitive and metacognitive processes. for example, learners can evaluate their learning and conduct self-reflection. studies by chang (2007) and coleman and webber (2002) argued that self-monitoring can improve learning performance. in effect, as still other studies show, teaching self-monitoring skills will benefit learners (e.g., delclos & harrington, 1991; maag et al, 1992; malone & mastropieri, 1991; schunk, 1982) and result in improved educational outcomes. however, previous studies indicate that research on the instructional design as well as the actual delivery of moocs from the perspective of mooc instructors is lacking (margaryan, bianco & littlejohn, 2015; ross, sinclair, knox, bayne & macleod, 2014; watson et al, 2016; zhu, sari & lee, 2018). while there is mooc research from the learner perspective, what is especially lacking is research on facilitating student self-monitoring from an instructor perspective. in response to these research gaps, this study investigated the design and delivery of moocs to facilitate learners’ self-monitoring skills from instructors’ perspectives. importantly, different technologies used to facilitate such self-monitoring are also addressed. the purpose of this study, therefore, is to better understand how mooc instructors facilitated self-monitoring skills while designing and delivering moocs. the following two research questions were the primary mechanisms that guided this study. 1. how do mooc instructors design and deliver their moocs to facilitate learners’ selfmonitoring skills? 2. how are various technologies employed to support mooc learners’ self-monitoring skills? theoretical perspectives self-directed learning (sdl) and self-monitoring as mentioned, garrison’s (1997) three-dimensional model of sdl was used as the main theoretical framework of this study. the framework includes: (1) self-management (i.e., task control); (2) selfmonitoring (i.e., cognitive responsibility); and (3) motivation (i.e., entering motivation and task motivation). self-monitoring, as a prerequisite of sdl, is the focus of this particular study. selfmonitoring involves both cognitive and metacognitive processes. given that internal self-monitoring alone is not sufficient to promote cognitive improvement, external feedback from instructors is predicted to support learners’ self-monitoring (garrison, 1997); that was also expected to be the case in this mooc study. chang (2007) stated that self-monitoring refers to learners’ skills to track and evaluate their progress towards their learning goals. by tracking and evaluating their own learning behavior, learners could have a better understanding of the learning material (coleman & webber 2002; zimmerman et al, 1995). previous research has indicated that self-monitoring can improve learners’ classroom behavior and academic performance (coleman & webber, 2002; lan, 1996). furthermore, self-monitoring not 33 only improves learning but also increases students’ self-efficacy of learning (zimmerman, 1995) and gets them self-motivated. given that many prior empirical studies have indicated that teaching self-monitoring skills will be beneficial for learners (e.g., delclos & harrington, 1991; maag et al, 1992; malone & mastropieri, 1991; schunk, 1982), there is a need today to continue this vein of research by exploring when, if, and how self-monitoring occurs as well as how it can be enhanced in new and emerging open and online forms of distance learning such as moocs. early researchers, zimmerman and paulsen (1995), proposed four steps to improve students’ selfmonitoring skills. these phases are: (1) basis of self-monitoring, (e.g., collecting data about the academic activity); (2) structured self-monitoring (e.g., using a structured monitoring protocol provided by the instructor); (3) independent self-monitoring (e.g., adapting the course-related selfmonitoring protocol for personal needs); and (4) self-regulated self-monitoring (e.g., developing selfmonitoring protocols by learners themselves). sdl and self-monitoring in moocs many researchers have argued that sdl is a key component in effective adult education (brockett & hiemstra, 1991; candy, 1991; garrison, 1997; merriam, 2001). given that most mooc learners are adults (shah, 2017), sdl is considered an important element in the learning environment of moocs (bonk et al, 2015; kop & fournier, 2011; terras & ramsay, 2015). as a result, researchers are becoming increasingly interested in sdl in moocs (bonk et al, 2015). these researchers are often focused on the general perceptions of sdl from students’ perspectives (bonk et al, 2015; loizzo, ertmer, watson & watson, 2017) as well as the relations between elements of sdl in moocs (beaven et al, 2014; kop & fournier, 2011; terras & ramsay, 2015). despite the substantial increase in universities offering moocs (bonk et al, 2015; shah, 2019), especially in the global south (zhang et al, 2020), most mooc empirical studies focus on the students’ motivation and completion rates (zhu et al, 2018). consequently, research on the design of moocs to facilitate self-monitoring from the instructor’s perspective is rare. in addressing this gap, this study investigates instructor perceptions and practices of designing and delivering moocs to facilitate self-monitoring. research methods a sequential mixed methods design (creswell & plano-clark, 2017; fraenkel & wallen, 2009) was used in this study. first, quantitative data collection and analysis was conducted. that was followed by qualitative data collection and analysis (creswell & plano-clark, 2017). the three main data sources in this study included: (1) an online survey with 198 valid responses; (2) semi-structured interviews with 22 voluntary instructors; and (3) course reviews of the moocs designed by the 22 interviewees. different data sources serve the purpose of data triangulation (patton, 2002). data collection online survey the authors developed a survey by adapting and modifying an instrument developed by fisher and king (2010) and williamson (2007), which was based on the theoretical framework of garrison (1997). first, the authors conducted semi-structured interviews with four mooc instructors concerning the 34 design and delivery of moocs for self-monitoring, self-management, and motivation; in effect, the interviews were designed to directly target the key aspects of sdl. these interviews led to a pilot survey with 48 mooc instructors to design the survey instrument (zhu & bonk, 2019b). the final survey consisted of 29 questions, including 20 five-point, likert-scale questions with seven items related to self-monitoring strategies (e.g., learners’ goal setting, self-evaluation, responsibility of learning, learning beliefs, and so on), three closed-ended questions (e.g., their perceptions of sdl, including self-monitoring in moocs), and six questions asking about different demographic-related items. a cronbach alpha was conducted in spss to check the reliability of the survey. the result of this statistical analysis for self-monitoring was 0.76, which was quite acceptable. mooc instructor interviews the interview protocol had 12 questions related to mooc design and sdl as well as two questions concerning mooc instructor backgrounds and experiences in designing moocs. the interviewees were selected based on four criteria. first, they had to volunteer to be interviewed by providing their contact email at the end of the survey. second, the volunteers had to indicate in the survey that they considered students’ sdl skills in their mooc design and delivery phases. third, their mean scores for the five-point, likert-scale questions had to be higher than 2.5. fourth, the researchers attempted to select potential mooc instructor interviewees who represented a diverse array of countries and mooc subject areas or topics addressed. also considered was previous experience with online or blended learning, prior mooc teaching experience, mooc format (i.e., instructor-led with teaching support, instructor-led without teaching support, self-paced, etc.), and mooc providers or platforms. in effect, the sampling was highly strategic in nature so as to obtain a diverse pool of mooc instructors which could yield quite varied sdl experiences. employing the above criteria, 22 mooc instructors were selected for the interviews. based on the work of guest, bunce, and johnson (2006), in such non-probabilistic sampling interviews, saturation tends to occur within the first twelve interviews. stated another way, the twenty-two interviews employed here went well beyond the data saturation point. the mooc instructor interviewees’ institutions were from the following countries: the us (n = 9), the uk (n = 6), australia (n = 3), france (n = 1), belgium (n = 1), the netherlands (n = 1), and israel (n = 1). while definitely not a comprehensive assembly of countries, such sampling procedures allowed the researchers to begin to learn how sdl in moocs might be viewed and implemented in different regions of the world. the interviewees also represented a diverse array of expertise and previous online experience. as an example, emma from the us taught a mooc in the area of literacy and language science using coursera. at the time of the interview, she had just taught this one mooc and it was self-paced. similarly, mason, from australia, had only one mooc teaching experience, but, unlike emma, he had teaching assistant support. his mooc, which also employed coursera, was in education. fernando, from belgium, on the other hand, taught research methods three times via moocs using the blackboard platform. importantly, just like mason, he also had teaching assistant support during his mooc offering. in contrast, both andrew and emily in the uk used the futurelearn platform to deliver multiple moocs with teaching assistance. andrew had delivered three previous moocs in the field of art, whereas emily had completed two moocs in the field of medicine and health. those 35 are just five examples of the 22 volunteer interviewees who each had highly interesting mooc experiences and personal stories. to standardise the process and increase the interview efficiency, the first author shared the interview protocol with interviewees to better prepare them before their interview. in addition, the first author conducted a review of each interviewee’s mooc to support the interview conversation. interviews were conducted and recorded through zoom, a synchronous meeting tool. each interview lasted around 30 to 60 minutes. the total interview time was 828 minutes. the interview data started to reach a saturation point after about the first 15 interviews but several more were conducted to gather data from more countries and teaching backgrounds. the interviews, in fact, ended after obtaining 22 participants, given that limited new information was being added at this point in the interview process (creswell & plano-clark, 2017; merriam, 1988, 2009). to increase the trustworthiness of the study, member checking was conducted with interviewees to check the accuracy of the transcripts. ten out of 22 interviewees provided detailed revision (e.g., misspelling, corrections), while the rest of the interviewees reported that the transcript that they were sent was accurate. in addition, two interviewees shared their research papers on mooc-related teaching with the researcher as supplementary materials. a research log was created to track and reflect on the interview and research process. moreover, a $20 amazon gift card was offered to all the interviewees in appreciation of their interview and member-checking time. document analysis the actual moocs designed or taught by the interviewees were analyzed by the first author. she reviewed the course in terms of learning resources, activities, and assessments provided in moocs, both before as well as after the instructor interview. this document analysis phase that was employed helped to triangulate the data and, thereby, increase the trustworthiness or validity of the study. data analysis for quantitative data from the survey, the data was analyzed using descriptive statistics such as mean, frequency, and percentage in spss and excel. these quantitative results are reported in the next section. regarding the qualitative data, a classical content analysis was conducted in nvivo 12. following member checking, the researchers utilised classical content analyses to abductively analyze the data (leech & onwuegbuzie, 2007). the unit of analysis in this study was the meaning unit. to perform an abductive content analysis, the first author had a general self-monitoring concept and research questions in mind. accordingly, she read through the entire dataset, chunked the data into smaller meaningful parts, labeled each chunk with a code, and compared each new chunk of data with previous descriptions. after data coding, the lead researcher categorised the codes by similarity into themes. results survey participant disciplines and online experience the number of the survey participants in this study was 198. the participants in this study had diverse disciplinary backgrounds including social science, medicine and health, language and literacy, 36 business and management, etc. among these 198 participants, 102 (51.5%) did not have any online or blended course design and teaching experience prior to designing their initial mooc. in terms of mooc design and teaching experience, 118 participants (59.6%) had designed or taught only one mooc. what seems apparent from these findings is that most study participants did not have extensive mooc or online learning design and teaching experiences. research question #1: how do mooc instructors design and deliver their moocs to facilitate students’ self-monitoring skills? survey results survey participants of this study (n = 198) ranked on a scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) whether the design and delivery of their mooc helps the students to develop self-monitoring skills on various elements. for instance, a majority of participants reported that the design and delivery of their moocs helped students to be in control of their learning (m = 4.15; sd = 0.55), followed by “helps the student be responsible for his/her learning” (m = 4.06; sd = 0.79), “helps the student be able to find out information related to learning content for him/herself” (m = 4.02; sd = 0.70), “helps the student evaluate his/her own performance” (m = 3.94; sd = 0.78), “helps the student be able to focus on a problem” (m = 3.87; sd = 0.74), “helps the student have high beliefs in his/her abilities of learning” (m = 3.73; sd = 0.74). however, the statement “helps the student set his/her own learning goals” was rated the lowest (m = 3.68; sd = 0.91) among seven items. interview results mooc instructors reported that they facilitated students’ self-monitoring in a variety of ways from helping students with internal self-feedback to providing external feedback. internal feedback included students’ cognitive and metacognitive processes. cognitive processing was related to selfobservation, self-judgment, and self-reaction. metacognitive processing is related to self-reflection and thinking critically. external feedback included that obtained from mooc instructors and their teaching assistants as well as from peers enrolled in the mooc. facilitate student internal feedback. mooc instructors fostered the cognitive learning processes of participants related to self-monitoring in myriad ways. for instance, they accomplished this through quizzes for self-assessment, tutorials on technology use, navigational aids for the course, supplemental resources, and instructional modeling. in this study, among 22 interviewees, 13 mentioned that they used quizzes or tests for student self-assessment. lucas, a social science instructor stated: “i do think frequent quizzes and somewhat lengthy quizzes are really helpful ... it makes the whole thing hang together as a unit. so, i gave little quizzes at the end of my videos.” besides facilitating cognitive processes, mooc instructors also facilitated students’ metacognitive processes while designing and delivering moocs. in terms of metacognition, the interviewees reported that they encouraged students to reflect and think critically through reflection questions. among 22 interviewees, five had self-reflection questions embedded in the mooc. a science 37 instructor from the us, samuel, utilised weekly questions to foster self-monitoring and reflection in his mooc. as he stated: we do ask, kind of, a summary discussion question at the end of the week. i'll ask: “what did you learn? how do you feel about that? how would this apply to a real world application?” so, we asked those kind[s] of reflection questions. provide external feedback to help students’ self-monitoring. in addition to internal feedback, mooc instructors also mentioned that they provided external feedback to help student selfmonitoring. the external feedback was primarily from mooc instructors, teaching assistants (tas), and student peers. six out of 22 interviewees mentioned that they or their tas provided feedback to students to assist in monitoring their learning. in addition, joseph from the uk provided feedback through panels or lectures. as joseph explained: we have [a] discussion moderator, who was also in that space talking to students. so, we try to engage students on some of those points, and question some of the things that they're saying. maybe get them to reflect. interestingly, 12 out of 22 mooc instructors had tas in their moocs; in such courses, the tas often helped provide feedback to students. for instance, the business instructor, ethan, asked his ta to provide feedback to students on a discussion board. as ethan explained: we do have a tutor, who monitors the discussion boards and looks if any inquiries, or anything else comes in. but, i think her [ta] time is restricted to half a day a week. her work has a lot of monitoring. and [she] follows up with all sorts of things. thirteen out of 22 interviewees adopted peer-assessment to help students’ self-monitoring. they viewed self-monitoring as a social process which involves interaction with others. peer-assessment was considered beneficial for the learners being assessed as well as those conducting the assessment (barak & rafaeli, 2004; dochy, segers & sluijsmans, 1999). in peer assessment, students not only obtain feedback from others, but also help self-reflection through providing feedback to peers. for example, emma, encouraged learners to provide feedback to their peers. as she observed: we also put in peer evaluation because the interaction between students would motivate them. we give a very, very basic syllabus because we don't know what the educational background and the levels of the students. we gave them five different key points to enable them to evaluate other students on assignment. mooc review results through our review of the moocs of the 22 instructors who were interviewed, it was apparent that the design and delivery of moocs facilitated students’ self-monitoring through their internal cognitive and metacognitive processes as well as various external supports. for example, quizzes, providing introductions, aids to help with course navigation, progress bars, and optional resources were used to help foster cognitive processes. in addition, to foster engagement as well as the metacognitive processes, these mooc instructors encouraged learners to participate in discussion forums and attempted to build a sense of a learning community. 38 facilitate student self-monitoring. as mentioned before, practice quizzes with immediate feedback were provided for students’ self-assessment. whereas, some of the quizzes were independent tasks, others were embedded in mooc videos (see figure 1). once a quiz was finished, students could obtain immediate automatic feedback and brief comments. figure 1: example of the quizzes embedded in videos used in moocs. to help students monitor their learning process, a progress bar was often employed in the moocs we analyzed. additionally, optional reading materials or additional learning resources were used to help students make decisions on their own based on their learning situations (see figure 2). with these resources, students could monitor their own learning progress and choose learning materials that fit their particular needs and preferred processes. figure 2: example of the supplementary resources used in moocs. in addition, as is often found in smaller online and blended learning situations, discussion forums were commonly incorporated into the 22 moocs that we evaluated, at least, in part, for instances of students’ metacognitive processing. it was in these discussion forums and related resources that the 39 mooc instructors encouraged learners to self-reflect, share ideas, and build learning communities (see figure 3). figure 3: example from discussion forum used for building a learning community. provide external feedback for students’ self-monitoring. in conjunction with interview results, the mooc review results demonstrated that mooc instructors and tas facilitated the discussion forums by addressing students’ confusion and encouraging peer-assessment (see figure 4). such external feedback might help students with their self-monitoring in learning. figure 4: example of tool for peer-assessment in moocs. research question #2: how are various technologies employed to support learners’ selfmonitoring skills? technologies play a vital role in moocs. mooc instructors reported that a variety of technologies were used to facilitate students’ self-monitoring such as synchronous communication technologies, asynchronous communication technologies, and feedback tools. follow-up research might manipulate different features or components with the intention of nurturing specific self-monitoring skills and behaviors. 40 synchronous communication technologies synchronous communication technologies such as google hangouts and youtube live were used to host meetings with students. instructors employing such tools reported that synchronous technologies can foster social interaction between instructors and students, which can further foster students’ selfmonitoring. ashley, for example, used youtube live to stream her lectures online and answer participant questions. similarly, fernando from belgium stated that: “we have tried to create some kind of interaction. like what i was saying, through google hangout[s], we let them communicate with each other, but also ask questions to this specific professor.” asynchronous communication technologies besides synchronous technologies, asynchronous communication technologies such as discussion forums, blogs, padlet, slackbot, and various social media were utilised to connect mooc students for interactive discussions as well as to build learning communities. a social interaction environment might elevate student self-monitoring and foster their motivation. discussion forums for asynchronous conferencing were commonly provided within the mooc platform. logan from the us stated that: “we also have a blog. we're posting things on to the blog, and helping them, helping keep it fresh.” lucas from the us described how his students used discussion forums, “there was a lot of activity on the discussion boards. some of the people were clearly not only following very closely, but also doing outside reading and bringing a wealth of knowledge to this [discussion].” feedback tools aligned with the findings mentioned above, feedback is critical for student sdl. technologies for formative and summative assessment were used to help students’ self-monitoring. as an example, andrew from the uk employed learning analytics to monitor students’ learning and continue to improve his mooc. andrew noted that this additional data from learning analytics was helpful in restructuring his mooc for a better pace of activities and resulting learner performance. recap of self-monitoring tools and techniques employed in sum, to support learners’ self-monitoring, the following strategies could be used in practice: (1) helping students set their own learning goals, (2) building a learning community, (3) offering immediate feedback, (4) embedding quizzes for self-assessment, (5) providing progress indicators, (6) including reflection questions, and (7) making available optional learning materials. limitations of the study there were at least three key limitations of this research that future mooc researchers and interpreters of this study should be aware of. first, mooc instructor information was collected primarily from several key mooc providers such as coursera, futurelearn, and edx. however, moocs that were not offered in english, like xuetangx, were typically not included. hence, there is an english language bias. in addition, while the survey response rate was acceptable for an opt-in survey (cho & larose, 1999), it was just 10%; this study would have had more powerful findings if the response rate had been double or triple what we encountered. nevertheless, the response rate was much higher (18%) when only those opening the email invitation were considered. naturally, higher response rates would have provided more robust data from which to draw conclusions about self 41 monitoring and other sdl skills and competencies. finally, this study only examined mooc instructors’ strategies used to facilitate student self-monitoring; we did not confirm whether the strategies reported by the mooc instructor participants in this study were actually effective for their learners. as noted below, we are currently addressing this final limitation in a follow-up study. discussion and significance of this study this study examined the design and delivery of moocs to facilitate students’ self-monitoring skills. despite the limited mooc design and teaching experiences of the mooc instructor participants, their previous traditional classroom teaching experience as well as their blended or online teaching experience played a role in informing their mooc design to facilitate student self-monitoring. the results of this study indicated that mooc instructors facilitated students’ self-monitoring through both internal feedback and external feedback. the internal feedback was related to their cognitive and metacognitive processing, which included monitoring their learning strategies and thinking about their thinking (garrison, 1997). these instructors relied on many techniques to foster sdl. for instance, to facilitate learners’ cognitive learning processes, strategies, such as quizzes for self-assessment, progress indicators, tutorials on technology use, learning tips, navigational aids for the course, instructional modeling and various other resources and supports, were reported by mooc instructors. important to this study, selfassessment and progress indicators encouraged learners to review and monitor their learning process. such results corresponded with the findings reported a few years ago by kulkarni et al (2013). given these consistencies in the findings, now is the time to take the next step and create mooc instructor and instructional designer training programs and instructional design templates based on these results. clearly, there are many ways to operationalise the results revealed here. regarding how to facilitate metacognitive processing in this relatively new form of educational delivery, mooc instructors encouraged students to think critically by providing reflection questions and assistance in building a learning community. this finding is in line with the research implications noted by parker et al (1995), who discovered that encouraging reflection can improve learners’ sdl skills. similarly, scholars such as schraw (1998) have argued that reflection is crucial in building student metacognitive knowledge and self-monitoring skills. likewise, boud, keogh and walker (2013) emphasised the importance of using reflection to transfer the learning experience to novel settings and situations. external feedback motivates students as well as helps them with their self-monitoring. the participants in this study reported that the feedback from mooc instructors and tas can help mooc learners identify key issues. furthermore, research indicates that peer-assessment can benefit both feedback providers and feedback receivers (barak & rafaeli, 2004; dochy et al, 1999). future mooc research initiatives in this area might explore how different forms of feedback can have facilitative effects on learner sdl skills and competencies both in moocs and in other types of formal and informal educational delivery. the second primary focus of this study related to the use of technology to facilitate self-monitoring. as indicated earlier, mooc instructors leveraged a variety of technologies to facilitate selfmonitoring. these technologies included: (1) synchronous communication technologies, (2) asynchronous communication technologies, and (3) feedback tools. additional research might attempt 42 to identify what aspects of these technologies are the most beneficial for sdl when enrolled in moocs. each of these diverse technologies served different purposes. first, the results indicated that these technologies support creating a learning community. mooc instructors stated that synchronous technologies such as google hangouts and youtube live, as well as asynchronous communication technologies, such as discussion forums, blogs, and social media, served as communication technologies that could support students’ social learning. these results were in line with the findings of blaschke (2012) and junco, heiberger, and loken (2010) who found that using social media supported student sdl. in addition, the findings supported candy’s (1991) idea that sdl is realised in collaboration and interaction. suffice it to say, the surveys, interviews, and content analyses shed light into key aspects of learner sdl skills and processes when enrolling in moocs. conclusions and future directions the findings of this study provide many useful insights for instructors and instructional designers into mooc design and delivery to facilitate student self-monitoring for sdl. in addition, various technology tools and features that supported self-monitoring were identified. as such, software designers and programmers, as well as others involved in mooc platform development and associated funding, might also benefit from this research. the findings of this study also offer implications for educators designing programs to enhance mooc retention and completion rates, albeit, indirectly. this study was just the first step in the process of developing the tools and techniques for enhancing learner sdl. as moocs proliferate and become more widely accepted around the world (bonk et al, 2015), especially in the developing world where many millions of people are first getting access to higher education (zhang et al, 2020), many more studies in this area are now desperately needed. as part of such efforts, we plan to expand the current research study with additional mooc instructor participants. at present, we are in the midst of another in-depth study examining students’ perceptions of effective self-monitoring strategies to, we hope, verify as well as expand upon the strategies mentioned by the instructors participating in this study. importantly, the study results thus far confirm as well as extend the findings detailed here. from what we have witnessed during the past decade, there is little chance of moocs abating in the near future. in fact, moocs have expanded to more than 100 million learners enrolling in over 11,000 moocs in 2018 alone (shah, 2019). the time is ripe, therefore, for investigating whether cognitive and metacognitive processes needed in moocs can be enhanced and whether such skill enhancements might transfer to other learning-related settings and situations. in effect, the goal is for self-monitoring skills to transfer to other formal as well as informal learning environments and situations; especially as additional forms of open and distance learning emerge and evolve. clearly, much concerted effort needs to be undertaken; albeit at the governmental, institutional, programmatic, or individual researcher level. for instance, mooc researchers might want to explore different forms of instructional scaffolds and supports for sdl, whereas, educators might want to design and evaluate innovative training programs for sdl in this age of massively open online teaching and learning. designers of mooc platforms as well as mooc vendors might evaluate mooc retention and completion rates resulting from the introduction of new technology tools and 43 features for self-monitoring, self-management, and motivation. government and non-profit agencies might provide seed money for such efforts as well as guidance on research gaps and possible sdl research methods to address those areas through reports, conferences and forums, and assorted highprofile initiatives. given that the second half of humanity is now obtaining access to internet-based forms of learning (the economist, 2019), the understanding and advancement of sdl skills may become one of the most important challenges and opportunities of those living in the twenty-first century. whatever the direction, the future is sure to be exciting! references barak, m., & rafaeli, s. (2004). on-line question-posing and peer-assessment as means for web-based knowledge sharing in learning. international journal of human-computer studies, 61(1), 84-103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2003.12.005 beaven, t., codreanu, t., & creuzé, a. (2014). motivation in a language mooc: issues for course designers. retrieved from https://www.degruyter.com/downloadpdf/books/9783110422504/9783110422504.4/9783110422504.4.pdf blaschke, l. m. (2012). heutagogy and lifelong learning: a review of heutagogical practice and self-determined learning. the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 13(1), 56-71. doi: 10.19173/irrodl.v13i1.1076 bonk, c. j. (2009). the world is open: how web technology is revolutionizing education. san francisco, ca: josseybass. bonk, c. j., lee, m. m., reeves, t. c., & reynolds, t. h. (eds.). (2015). moocs and open education around the world. new york: routledge. boud, d., keogh, r., & walker, d. (2013). reflection: turning experience into learning. new york, ny: routledge. brockett, r. g., & hiemstra, r. (1991). self-direction in adult learning: perspectives on theory, research, and practice (vol. 20). london: routledge. candy, p. c. (1991). self-direction for lifelong learning. a comprehensive guide to theory and practice. jossey-bass, san francisco, ca. chang, m. m. (2007). enhancing web-based language learning through self-monitoring. journal of computer assisted learning, 23(3), 187-196. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2729.2006.00203.x cho, h., & larose, r. (1999). privacy issues in internet surveys. social science computer review, 17(4), 421-434. https://doi.org/10.1177/089443939901700402 coleman m. c., & webber j. (2002). emotional and behavioral disorders. boston, ma: pearson education company. creswell, j. w., & plano-clark, v. l. (2017). designing and conducting mixed methods research (3rd ed.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. delclos, v. r., & harrington, c. (1991). effects of strategy monitoring and proactive instruction on children's problem-solving performance. journal of educational psychology, 83(1), 35. retrieved from https://psycnet.apa.org/buy/1991-19728-001 dochy, f. j. r. c., segers, m., & sluijsmans, d. (1999). the use of self-, peer and co-assessment in higher education: a review. studies in higher education, 24(3), 331-350. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079912331379935 the economist. (2019, june 8). the second half of humanity is joining the internet: they will change it, and it will change them. the economist. retrieved from https://www.economist.com/leaders/2019/06/08/thesecond-half-of-humanity-is-joining-the-internet fisher, m. j., & king, j. (2010). the self-directed learning readiness scale for nursing education revisited: a confirmatory factor analysis. nurse education today, 30(1), 44-48. doi:10.1016/j.nedt.2009.05.020 fraenkel, j. r., & wallen, n. e. (2009). the nature of qualitative research. how to design and evaluate research in education (7th ed). boston: mcgraw-hill, 420. garrison, d. r. (1997). self-directed learning: toward a comprehensive model. adult education quarterly, 48(1), 18-33. retrieved from http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/074171369704800103 guest, g., bunce, a., & johnson, l. (2006). how many interviews are enough? an experiment with data saturation and variability. field methods, 18(1), 59-82. doi: 10.1177/1525822x05279903 44 hewitt-taylor, j. (2001). self-directed learning: views of teachers and students. journal of advanced nursing, 36(4), 496-504. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2648.2001.02001.x junco, r., heiberger, g., & loken, e. (2011). the effect of twitter on college student engagement and grades. journal of computer assisted learning, 27(2), 119-132. doi: 10.1111/j.13652729.2010.00387.x kell, c., & deursen, r. v. (2002). student learning preferences reflect curricular change. medical teacher, 24(1), 32-40. doi: 10.1080/00034980120103450 kop, r., & fournier, h. (2011). new dimensions to self-directed learning in an open networked learning environment. international journal for self-directed learning, 7(2), 1-19. retrieved from https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/dfdeaf_b1740fab6ad144a980da1703639aeeb4.pdf kulkarni, c., wei, k. p., le, h., chia, d., papadopoulos, k., cheng, j., & klemmer, s. r. (2013). peer and selfassessment in massive online classes. acm transactions on computer-human interaction, 20(6), 33. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2505057 lan, w. y. (1996). the effects of self-monitoring on students' course performance, use of learning strategies, attitude, self-judgment ability, and knowledge representation. the journal of experimental education, 64(2), 101-115. retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/20152478 leech, n. l., & onwuegbuzie, a. j. (2007). an array of qualitative data analysis tools: a call for data analysis triangulation. school psychology quarterly, 22(4), 557. doi: 10.1037/1045-3830.22.4.557 loizzo, j., ertmer, p. a., watson, w. r., & watson, s. l. (2017). adult mooc learners as self-directed: perceptions of motivation, success, and completion. online learning, 21(2). doi: 10.24059/olj.v21i2.889 lunyk-child, o. i., crooks, d., ellis, p. j., ofosu, c., & rideout, e. (2001). self-directed learning: faculty and student perceptions. journal of nursing education, 40(3), 116-123. doi: 10.3928/0148-4834-20010301-06 maag, j. w., rutherford jr., r. b., & digangi, s. a. (1992). effects of self-monitoring and contingent reinforcement on on-task behavior and academic productivity of learning disabled students: a social validation study. psychology in the schools, 29(2), 157-172. https://doi.org/10.1002/15206807(199204)29:2<157::aid-pits2310290211>3.0.co;2-f malone, l. d., & mastropieri, m. a. (1991). reading comprehension instruction: summarization and selfmonitoring training for students with learning disabilities. exceptional children, 58(3), 270-279. https://doi.org/10.1177/001440299105800309 margaryan, a., bianco, m., & littlejohn, a. (2015). instructional quality of massive open online courses (moocs). computers & education, 80, 77-83. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2014.08.005 merriam, s. b. (1988). case study research in education: a qualitative approach. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. merriam, s. b. (2001). andragogy and self-directed learning: pillars of adult learning theory. new directions for adult and continuing education, 2001(89), 3-14. doi: 10.1002/ace.3 merriam, s. b. (2009). qualitative research: a guide to design and implementation. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. parker, d. l., webb, j., & d'souza, b. (1995). the value of critical incident analysis as an educational tool and its relationship to experiential learning. nurse education today, 15(2), 111-116. doi: 10.1016/s02606917(95)80029-8 patton, m. q. (2002). two decades of developments in qualitative inquiry: a personal, experiential perspective. qualitative social work, 1(3), 261-283. https://doi.org/10.1177/1473325002001003636 prociuk, j. l. (1990). self-directed learning and nursing orientation programs: are they compatible? the journal of continuing education in nursing, 21(6), 252-256. doi:10.3928/0022-0124-19901101-07 ross, j., sinclair, c., knox, j., & macleod, h. (2014). teacher experiences and academic identity: the missing components of mooc pedagogy. merlot journal of online learning and teaching, 10(1), 57. retrieved from http://jolt.merlot.org/vol10no1/ross_0314.pdf schraw, g. (1998). promoting general metacognitive awareness. instructional science, 26(1-2), 113-125. retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/a:1003044231033 schunk, d. h. (1982). progress self-monitoring: effects on children’s self-efficacy and achievement. the journal of experimental education, 51(2), 89-93. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220973.1982.11011845 shah, d. (2017). moocs find their audience: professional learners and universities. class central. retrieved from https://www.classcentral.com/report/moocs-find-audience-professional-learners-universities/ shah, d. (2019). year of mooc-based degrees: a review of mooc stats and trends in 2018. class central. retrieved from https://www.class-central.com/report/moocs-stats-and-trends-2018/ 45 terras, m. m., & ramsay, j. (2015). massive open online courses (moocs): insights and challenges from a psychological perspective. british journal of educational technology, 46(3), 472-487. doi: 10.1111/bjet.12274 watson, s. l., loizzo, j., watson, w. r., mueller, c., lim, j., & ertmer, p. a. (2016). instructional design, facilitation, and perceived learning outcomes: an exploratory case study of a human trafficking mooc for attitudinal change. educational technology research and development, 64(6), 1273-1300. doi:10.1007/s11423-016-9457-2 williamson, s. n., (2007). development of a self-rating scale of self-directed learning. nurse researcher, 14(2), 66– 83. retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/openview/c7980aea8ee20b570c57e9102cf5b9ea/1?pqorigsite=gscholar&cbl=33100 zhang, k., bonk, c. j., reeves, t. c., & reynolds, t. h. (2020). moocs and open education in the global south: successes and challenges. in k. zhang, c. j. bonk, c. reeves, & t. h. reynolds, t. h. (eds.), moocs and open education in the global south: challenges, successes, and opportunities. ny: routledge. zhu, m., & bonk, c. j. (2019a). designing moocs to facilitate participant self-monitoring for self-directed learning. online learning, 23(4), 106-134. doi:10.24059/olj.v23i4.2037. zhu, m., & bonk, c. j. (2019b). designing moocs to facilitate participant self-directed learning: an analysis of instructor perspectives and practices. international journal of self-directed learning, 16(2), 39-60. retrieved from: http://publicationshare.com/pdfs/designing-moocs-for-sdl.pdf zhu, m., sari, a., & lee, m. m. (2018). a systematic review of research methods and topics of the empirical mooc literature (2014–2016). the internet and higher education, 37, 31-39. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2018.01.002 zimmerman b. j. (1995). self-efficacy and educational development. in a. bandura (ed.), self-efficacy in changing societies (pp. 202-231). cambridge university press, new york. zimmerman, b. j., & paulsen, a. s. (1995). self-monitoring during collegiate studying: an invaluable tool for academic self-regulation. new directions for teaching and learning, 1995(63), 13–27. https://doi.org/10.1002/tl.37219956305 authors: meina zhu is an assistant professor in the learning design and technology program in the college of education at wayne state university. her research interests include online education, moocs, self-directed learning, stem education, and active learning. email: meinazhu@wayne.edu curtis. j. bonk is a professor of instructional systems technology at indiana university and author/editor of a dozen books in the field of educational technology and e-learning. he is a passionate and energetic speaker, writer, educational psychologist, instructional technologist, and entrepreneur as well as a former cpa/corporate controller (homepage: http://curtbonk.com/). email: cjbonk@indiana.edu cite this paper as: zhu, m., & bonk, c.j. (2020). technology tools and instructional strategies for designing and delivering moocs to facilitate self-monitoring of learners. journal of learning for development, 7(1), 31-45. microsoft word gerda.docx issn: 2311-1550 2022, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 163-175 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. using wikis as a teaching tool for novice teachers – pedagogical implications gerda sula and anila sulstarova university of tirana, albania abstract: the present study reports on research conducted on novice teachers’ use of wikis with their high school students. these teachers had been previously exposed to wikis as a collaborative learning tool during their teaching preparation programme. the aim was to explore whether their experience with wiki usage helped them in their teaching. participants included fifteen novice teachers in their first year of teaching foreign languages in albania, who held their teaching partly online during the school year 20202021, due to the covid-19 pandemic. data collected through in-depth interviews include their own reflections. these reflections indicate that the use of a wiki at the university level helped them feel at ease in using wikis in their online teaching. the study proved the use of wikis to be a feasible means of online collaboration, which facilitated constructing new knowledge for their students. as a result, wikis provide a collaborative medium of technology integration into their teaching. keywords: secondary education system, employment, growth of education system, compulsory secondary education policy. wikis as a pedagogical tool this article explores the use of wikis as an online collaborative tool for high school students in a middle-income country with low technological penetration in education, such as albania (psacharopoulos, 2017). we will explore whether the exposure of teachers in integrating wikis into the higher education curriculum carries potential pedagogical implications for their future teaching. as defined in the literature (meishar-tal & tal-elhasid, 2008), wiki is an online communication and collaboration tool that can be used to increase student engagement in learning through collaboration with peers in a supportive learning environment. the main difference between wikis and learning management systems is their highly social, participatory, and collaborative aspect. they are easy to implement and can be modified and updated continuously and therefore constitute an excellent ground on which to build interesting and innovative didactic activities. precisely because of their flexible structure, which can be divided into various categories, they can also offer feedback that can be constantly consulted by students and teachers and can create the space for a digital linguistic portfolio which can be progressively updated. moreover, thanks to the ease of implementation and the innovative role that wikis attribute to the teacher and learners, they can become a valid teaching tool to apply cooperative and collaborative learning, and to create inclusive situations that allow the development of skills of each member within a group without generating emotional tension or raising the affective filter (meishar-tal & tal-elhasid, 2008; boulaajoul & aknin, 2019). 164 introduction to wikis a wiki is a site that allows the users to collaboratively publish hypertext content: it consists of a set of webpages, on which it is always possible to add information or make changes, thanks to the use of collaborative software, or groupware, which allows the integration of the work done by several users in different sessions in a single version. whenever an editor makes a change, it becomes the latest current version of the wiki and is the one that users can read when connecting to it. the structure of a wiki provides, in fact, two different interfaces: the reading one and the writing one. the reading interface is the one that appears by default, that is, the one that configures the wiki exactly like a normal website. to edit the page, the authors or the editors need to click on edit or modify, thus accessing the writing interface, which also contains the toolbar used to edit the text and to format it (boulaajoul & aknin, 2019). the changes or the creation of new pages are open and free, but they are recorded in a chronology that allows, if necessary, to bring a relevant part back to the previous version with a simple click of the mouse. the wiki administrator is the one who can decide the access rules by allowing writing and/or reading access to everyone or limiting them to some users (butcher & taylor, 2008). the wiki, therefore, becomes a collaboration and cooperation tool that allows the creation of discussion pages, notification of changes that have occurred, recording the history of changes and the various versions of the same page, thanks to certain functions present in almost all wiki software. group work is thus stimulated and made even more effective, because all users are considered to be on the same level. furthermore, the wiki community is based on the open source philosophy, that is, everyone can participate, and anyone can share, modify, and reuse the wiki pages, as the technical and bureaucratic limitations are very low. in fact, within this type of site, the concept of self-regulation applies (judd, 2018). by extending the possibility of participating in it to everyone, the risk of vandalism, spamming or hackers is reduced, because any change made to a page can be immediately canceled, and because the same editors, its users, control the work of others. thus, participation in a wiki develops a strong sense of community, sharing and humility: each editor is free to add and modify what s/he wants, aware that any text s/he enters can be controlled and modified by others. so, if on the one hand, by drawing up pages, each editor must accept that his/her work might be corrected, on the other hand s/he has to learn how to respect the work of others, since only contributions by everyone makes it possible to achieve the intended goal (kim & kim, 2020). however, to avoid emergencies, some wikis have a database that can be set to read-only mode, i.e., there are rules that only certain users, for example, who registered before a certain date, can continue to write and contribute to the expansion of the site (judd et al., 2010; bada, 2015). finally, the wiki is a predominantly textual tool: in fact, although it is possible to insert images, audio and video files within a page, the general tendency on the web is to privilege content over form, seeking, on the one hand, to achieve greater communication speed through the text format and a higher number of links and, on the other hand, allowing less for graphics and visual effects (sulisworo, 2012). wikis have two different ways of writing or of use: the first is the document mode, in which editors collaborate to create documents and leave the changes they make anonymous; over time, other authors add other changes, and the document gradually becomes the fruit of everyone's shared 165 knowledge. the second is the thread mode, where those who contribute carry on a discussion, made up of signed messages, on the wiki itself in which each message that is added leaves the previous one unchanged and the result is what can be inferred from the reading of all (pounds & bostock, 2019). wikis are a completely hypertextual medium, with a non-linear navigation structure: usually within the content of a page there are a considerable number of links to other pages, to the point that in sizeable sites there is a navigation system hierarchical, which, however, is not always necessary to use (ebersbach et al., 2008). new pages are created simply by inserting an appropriate link that relates a page to a topic related to the one treated: if the page is empty, the link is usually highlighted with another color and clicking on it opens an editing window where you can edit and enter text. however, the links can also be external and refer to different sites where you can read more about the subject matter (wheeler et al., 2008). wikis were born thanks to ward cunningham, an american programmer, who, in 1995, was the first to create one: the term "wiki-wiki" in hawaiian means "quickly" and refers to a bus service that can be used at the honolulu airport. cunningham preferred this term to "quick-web" to indicate a website (or in any case a collection of hypertext documents) that can be modified, updated, and edited freely by its users at any time, quickly and easily (leuf & cunningham, 2001). in fact, the term wiki, since its inception, indicates a collaborative software used to build a website in which it is possible to exchange, share and optimise knowledge and information relating to a specific topic. educational uses of wikis: some examples the wiki allows the use of education and learning methodologies such as collaborative and cooperative learning (dhindsa, makarimi-kasim & roger anderson, 2011): in fact, a true collaborative technology is one that allows participants to transform a shared experience lacking clear opportunities for intervention into an experience which can be managed by the communities to which the participants themselves belong; a collaborative technology is a tool that stimulates the exchange of knowledge (gray et al., 2010). if collaborative learning has always been considered an excellent method with which to support the didactic use of computers, especially in distance learning (courses with chat, forums, etc. ...) (bada, 2015), cooperative learning can find an excellent explanation in wikis used in class, in presentia, as a sheet on which students can write down the results of their research as feedback to which they can return to review or study, as a site that can always be updated, even by subsequent classes, and called upon to deepen certain topics. moreover, cooperative learning, probably born between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, is not only a didactic methodology but, mainly, it is a vast movement of theoretical and experimental reflection promoted and conducted in many centers scattered in various countries. the specific characteristics of cooperative learning can, in general, be identified in positive interdependence, face-to-face interaction, direct teaching and the use of interpersonal skills, acting in small heterogeneous groups, reviewing the work performed and individual and group evaluation (parker & chao, 2007). the use of the wiki allows for fruitful cooperation between students, the division into groups, the assignment of well-defined roles to achieve the intended goal (altanopoulou et al., 2015), the expression of written production, oral production, problem solving skills, controversy and discussion (boulaajoul & aknin, 2019). 166 the wiki is, therefore, a very valuable tool in the context of collaboration and cooperation, it serves to make a lot of material available to a wide range of users and is increasingly becoming a welcome tool within teaching. it is widely used in universities in the more developed countries (butcher & taylor, 2008; lu et al., 2010), and in general there are many ways to use a wiki: (a) as a site that collects bibliographies and guidelines for the study of various subjects. brown university, for example, has created a wiki called caw course advisor wiki in which it is possible to review the courses of the university itself and in which students can read interesting reports related to the courses and compare different points of view (butcher & taylor, 2008). similar uses of the wiki are also gradually spreading all over the world (lu, et al., 2010). the basic idea of the project, which is currently being set up, is to make a space available to everyone in which it is possible to find texts, educational activities, exercises and contribute to the expansion of the material quickly and continuously. another initiative worth mentioning is the one that was born from wikipedia group and which created wikiversity, a community that aims to collect pages on all kinds of topics written by students of any age, school and level and country. the project, in fact, is already available in various languages (english, spanish, french, german, greek, ...). the albanian version is still very poor, and it appears more focused on the university world (singh, 2013). (b) as a tool for distance learning. a wiki, in fact, can be updated at different times and places by all the members of a virtual group or class (biasutti, & el-deghaidy, 2015). an interesting example comes from deakin university where the wiki was used with a group of students in e-learning as an icebreaker (augar et al., 2004): its purpose was to lower the affective filter during the first day of class and to create contacts and establish relationships within the groupclass to achieve good cohesion. (c) as a virtual space in which students can write, collaborating on small essays. from this point of view, a good example is the experience carried out at the university of tirana to allow students to collaborate in the editing or developing of articles in wikipedia, related to the topic of the course, learning theories (sula et al., 2021). methods the aim of this study was to explore at depth the reflections of novice teachers in albania, who, for their first year of teaching had to teach partly online. these teachers had been exposed to wiki usage as a pedagogical tool during their teacher preparation master’s programme. for this study, the qualitative methodology was employed. thematic analysis was used to analyse qualitative data from the interview transcripts, to identify common themes – topics, ideas, and patterns of meaning that came up repeatedly. population and sample there were 120 students who had participated in wiki-supported learning during the school year 2018-2019 (sula, et al., 2021). during the school year 2021-2020, they were completing their inception year, as specified by albanian law, and they were involved in teaching. since the university of tirana does not have an alumni tracing methodology in place, the snowballing technique was employed to reach out to them (moghaddam, 2006). thus, 78 respondents previously involved in the sula et al. (2021) study were contacted, which were then weeded out based on the questions: (1) are you 167 currently teaching? (43 of them were excluded), (2) have you used wikis in your teaching (19 of them were excluded), (3) are you willing to participate in an in-depth interview regarding how you used wikis in your teaching? (1 was excluded). the remaining 15 were invited in a one-on-one, face-to-face, in-depth interview using zoom. the interviews were 20 to 48 minutes long, until a saturation of knowledge was reached (fossey et al., 2002). tools and instruments data was collected through in-depth individual interviews. a semi-structured interview within a predetermined thematic framework was used to guide the process with the participants that agreed to participate in the study. the guide was used to offer the same theoretical framework, while allowing the investigation of different facets of the study goal. the questions were focused on their experience as novice teachers having to teach online and whether they drew from their experience as students in using wikis in their teaching. challenges and benefits, the relationships of their students vis-à-vis the technology, examples, and their own reflections regarding this teaching experience were the thematic structure of the guide. ethical issues the ethical principles applied in this research followed apa style. at the beginning of the interview, the informants were assured of the anonymity of their interview, they were offered access to the transcribed interview and they were offered a chance to consult this paper prior to publishing. a number was assigned to them at the beginning of each interview. the interviewees are quoted ai (anonymous informant) followed by the number of the informant, and the number of the sentence from the transcription is quoted. the interviews were conducted in albanian, and the translation is that of the author. results the teachers interviewed were novice teachers in their first year of teaching and it happened that this year the teaching was being held online due to the covid-19 pandemic. certainly not a simple task for any teacher, let alone a novice teacher. teaching foreign languages online was not something that they had been prepared for during their formative years as teachers. but they had had an exposure in using wikis as a co-constructing learning experience, which inspired them to use the same approach with their students. challenging students encourages learning when asked what was the most daunting challenge that they were experiencing during their first year of teaching, the majority responded that it was very difficult to find ways to encourage the motivation of students on the other side of the screen and maintain their interest in their learning: i was raking my brain to figure out what to do for my students to be excited about their learning. they had been so used to be incentivized for their learning through grades and absences taking that, when the moment came that the responsibility could be hidden, most of them tried to play hooky and hide behind the screen. it was exhausting! (ai#5 192-195) 168 at this point, they remembered using wikis during their learning as students and how much they enjoyed being part of the process, even though it was not easy, simple, or straightforward: [recalling their experience with the wiki as students] our whole group was very enthusiastic while working in the wiki, even though it was not easy, so i thought that my students would want to be involved in a similar task as well. (ai#15, 78) they thought that their own students could benefit from such an experience as well. the reflection of one novice teacher is very interesting regarding the flipped roles of the students and teacher while embarking on a wiki learning experience. it is the intention of the author to further explore such new dimensions of these roles in the near future: it was thrilling and exciting for my students to be them in the driver’s seat so to say! this changed the nature of the online experience for them. (ai#4, 734-737) once starting to use wikis for learning they experienced difficulties: at first everything was going smoothly. and then the students tried to upload a picture. it was so difficult for them to understand that the copyrights of the pictures were not theirs. epic fail!” (ai#7 329-330) my students were reporting major breakdown crisis when they were trying to add a picture, which made the whole page disappear! they reported that the idea of hurling the cellphone from their windows had crossed their mind several times (laughs). (ai#8 456-458) students’ relationship with the technology interviews brought to light three types of students: those who are not familiar with the technology, those who get distracted by the technology, and those who are too confident and might proceed too fast, making them lose track of what the instructions were. even though my students are children of instagram and tiktok generation, their level of using the technology for educational purposes is not to be taken for granted. actually, i think that sometimes, being part of this generation can cause them to be too confident, thus not following directions accurately, causing them to get lost in their work. (ai#1 768-769) for these groups of students, the interviewees learned some important lessons on how to best support them in the future. one of them is to set clear expectations: when i came across a student who was not too confident with the technology, i paired them with another one who was computer savvy, but easily distracted. i asked that the less confident student to be in the driver’s seat when uploading the work. this made sure that the student not so proficient with the technology to become surer of himself, while helping the distracted student focus on the task, as they are helping their peer. (ai#5 1089-1092) i understood that it was helpful to develop a simple list of instructions for the students to follow. this would help the less computer savvy student, as well as the student that rushed along, as they could find out that they had lost track and could go back to what they were doing by tracking down the instructions. (ai#15 1232-1233) 169 examples of topics when asked what were some of the 'topics' on which the wiki pages were developed and which they enjoyed most, the interviewees’ answers were varied. here are some examples: a controversial issue, such as “students’ uniform is mandatory in high school”. the students were assigned in the proposition side or the opposition side. they had to find references in the law, in bylaws and in regulatory documents, as well as in research papers related to psychological, social, and economic arguments. the students received rubrics of evaluation, to guide their work. once finished, both wikis were shared with the rest of the class for an open discussion. it was amazing! (ai#12 3129-3209) my students were very involved in finding and presenting important albanian women. we came up with this topic during a discussion of what is a leading figure. they noticed something interesting, that there was very little written and researched regarding important albanian women. so, the groups of students first had to identify two women and argue why they consider them to be of value. we discussed their choices. each group was assigned one figure to further explore. they took this task truly at heart. one student later told me that she wanted to continue her education in gender studies, because she was appalled how little this issue is explored in albania, and she wants to contribute to further the gender studies. i found this to be so inspiring! (ai#1 4871-4999) i was feeling very sorry that they were cropped up all day at home, so i came up with the theme: “my (non)visit to…” they had to choose where they wanted to go, how would they get there, how long would they stay, how much would it cost and what would they do once there. they went really wild! some chose exotic places, such as new zealand or patagonia and others european art cities and capitals. it was a good exercise because they were not feeling confined due to their economic status. they really took the task at heart and spent a long time in completing it. one other aspect was that they were pretty much equally involved in the task, which is not something to be taken for granted. (ai#10 4132-4262) example of a wiki task as presented by a teacher i started a wiki page with the title of a story. i indicated the genre for each group. i started the first sentence in each wiki but left it unfinished. i then assigned groups of students to continue the story, following their own ideas and using their own style in english. the students had clear rubrics for individual tasks and group tasks. for example, they knew what the minimum number of sentences for each wiki was. i specified this depending on the language level of each group of students. the students were encouraged to write directly into the wiki page. i explained that this could save them time and effort, because if they wrote in a piece of paper first and then type it into the wiki, it could happen that the story might have moved on by the entry of another student in the meantime. thus, their contribution might confuse the storyline. i was very clear in setting a deadline when the story was supposed to be finished, and the wiki closed. i encouraged the students to first focus on the story and then to work on correcting possible language mistakes. when students failed to notice errors, i then invited other students to look at each other’s wikis. once other students made changes and corrections, the initial group that was the author of the story was invited to reflect on their errors. (ai#9 2054-2067) 170 lessons learned teachers understood that starting small was an important element to ensure success for the project, while maintaining control of the wiki progress by monitoring it, by including detailed instructions: take baby steps. everyone will benefit from gradually increasing wiki use in the classroom. learn from my mistakes! (laughs) (ai#2 1602-1603) asking for help was an important lesson that the novice teachers learned pretty early in the process. they felt lucky to have and to know each other, so that they could use each other as sounding boards each time they stumbled: i was surprised at much my students knew about wiki. (ai#9, 1867) reading other wikis produced as pedagogical tools was an important element for them to better understand the process but also for the students, so they could better understand what was expected of them: at the beginning of the process, we explored other classroom wikis as a class, but i explored them as an individual as well. this helped me to clarify my ideas, but also to better understand how to break down the tasks into manageable activities for the students, how to develop assessment rubrics which could be also used as self-assessment for the students, and to serve as inspiration for the wiki activities of my students. (ai#3, 1789-1801) the novice teachers quickly learned the power of the wiki as a communication tool. they could communicate vertically (teacher to student or group of students, teacher to parents) and horizontally (student to student, parent to parent), so that they could keep each other informed and accountable: i could use the wiki pages to keep students and parents informed and also to post assignments and other class related content. it was very easy to edit the wiki page. (ai#12 2301-2302) collaboration was one of the key words that kept coming up during all the interviews. group work clearly explaining what was expected of each member of the group at each moment of the project so that the students could be encouraged to work together and at the same time to be accountable for their individual work, was an important lesson learned for the novice teachers. this was of course more complicated due to the fact that the students were working completely remotely but they also found that this was one of the most important takeaways of the wiki: i did lots and lots of group work. one of the most important things, even though very difficult was to create assignments that required my students to work together, continuously communicating as part of team. (ai#14 1991-1992) one of the important lessons learned was to structure from early on clear rules and expectations. they remembered how they felt during their experience with the wiki as students and they tried to support the students with clear and detailed instructions, rubrics for the evaluation of their work in the individual entries and group work. being that wikis by their nature are an authentic activity, it was important that the assignment designated to the students be authentic: it was very helpful to let students know from early on what was expected of them and how their work would be evaluated. for this it was necessary to design rubrics for evaluating each step of the process. (ai#13, 1876-1877). 171 the students needed close monitoring and constant feedback on their roles and activities. this required lots of time from the teachers, which they had not anticipated at the beginning of the process. teachers undertaking wiki activities in their classroom should be aware and carefully craft the extra time for this activity: i had to monitor students’ activities very closely, as it was very easy for them to drift apart and lose track of what they were supposed to be doing. this demanded so much of my time, which i did not consider at the beginning of the process. (ai#1 2345-2346) student collaboration is one of the important assets of the wiki activities. the teachers were impressed that the student collaboration could be extended beyond just working on their entry as a group, but also while commenting on other groups’ work. this encouraged meaningful interaction among students, even though these interactions were happening online: it was refreshing to notice that students took it very seriously when asked to review and comment on each other’s entries. the assessment rubrics were very helpful in this process. (ai#14 2238-2239) reflection for future use even though this learning exercise was difficult for the novice teachers, most importantly they learned a lot in the process as well, not only on how to edit a wiki, but also how to use it in the classroom: i think that it would be helpful to use a wiki at the beginning of a school year, for them to introduce themselves to their peers in the foreign language. parents could be involved as well, if they want to participate or understand their child’s level of mastery of the foreign language. (ai#10 1432-1433) next year, i think that i will use the wiki to track progression and understanding of the implementation of a long term class progress. this way i can successfully combine students’ enthusiasm for technology in the learning process. (ai#6 1783-1784) the novice teachers understood that it is important to put the students in the driver’s seat and be in charge of the project, as this flipping of roles ultimately helps students master content in a fun and interesting way: by giving students more control over their work’s outcome, they felt encouraged them to be themselves the producers, rather than just the consumers, of information. (ai#11 1564) wrap up some of the main themes identified are as follows: experiential learning: the teachers had been exposed to educational technologies in their formative period but because this subject had a theoretical approach, they didn’t consider that they had developed practical skills that they could transfer in their teaching. they felt that they gained much more exposure through being involved in developing wikis for the learning theories subject, which they could then present to their own students. they reported that the students went through similar stages when implementing the wiki as they did as students: early hesitancy, high level of stress and high level of satisfaction at the end. 172 feeling of accomplishment: being the youngest teachers in the school, they faced high levels of prejudice from their colleagues. implementing wikis in their teaching gave them status through achievement, as students talked about it with the other teachers. some of them had also mentored other teachers to implement wikis in their teaching. supporting students’ learning through collaborative approach: being that students had never been exposed to online learning before, it was important for them to find ways to involve students in a meaningful way, while maintaining a high level of academic teaching. they considered that wikis presented this opportunity, so that they were able to catch up on their teaching and use the face-to-face time more productively. discussion wikis offers a unique opportunity to support students’ optimised learning in countries such as albania, a middle-income, post-communist, transition country, with low technology penetration and low public spending on education at only 2.9% of gdp compared to 4.5%, the eu average (psacharopoulos, 2017). our research confirms what other authors (kim, & kim, 2020; sula, et al. 2021) state about wikis as a very valuable tool in the context of collaboration and cooperation, where it serves to make a lot of material available to a wide range of users and is increasingly becoming a welcome tool within teaching. in our findings, collaboration was strongly emphasised. group work and clear explanations of what is expected of each member of the group at each moment of the project, so that the students could be encouraged to work together and at the same time to be accountable for their individual work was an important lesson learned for the novice teachers, as researchers highlighted (liu, et al. 2018; hazari, et al. 2009). group work was thus stimulated and made more effective. furthermore, the wiki community is based on the open source philosophy, that is, everyone can participate, and anyone can share, modify, and reuse the wiki pages, as the technical and bureaucratic limitations are very low (judd, 2018). this is confirmed by our study, as teachers were impressed that the student collaboration could be extended beyond just working on their entry as a group but also while commenting on other groups’ work, which encouraged meaningful interaction among students, even though these interactions were happening online. pedagogical value and the pedagogical approaches of using wiki technology as an important element for teachers to better understand the process but also for the students, so they could better understand what was expected of them as proposed by hazari et al (2009), was confirmed by this research. teachers understood that starting small was an important element, to ensure success for the project, while maintaining control of the wiki progress by monitoring it and by including detailed instructions. they could communicate vertically (teacher to student or group of students, teacher to parents) and horizontally (student to student, parent to parent), so that they could keep each other informed and accountable (bada, 2015). the learning process was facilitated by an excellent explanation in a wiki used in class, in presentia, as a sheet on which students can write down the results of their research, as feedback to which they can return to review or study, as a site that can always be updated even by subsequent classes and called upon to deepen certain topics. one of the important lessons learned was to structure from early on clear rules and expectations. the use of the wiki allows for fruitful cooperation between students, the division into groups, the assignment of 173 well-defined roles to achieve the intended goal (altanopoulou, et al., 2015), and the expression of written production, oral production, problem solving skills, controversy and discussion (boulaajoul & aknin, 2019). they remembered how they felt during their experience with the wiki as a student and they tried to support their students with clear and detailed instructions, rubrics for the evaluation of their work in the individual entries and group work. being that wiki by its nature is an authentic activity, it was important that the assignment designated to the students be authentic. the positive impact of the proposed storytelling pedagogy resides in allowing students to stretch their creativity while demonstrating their language productivity, with the leverage of a holistic assessment scheme (lu, et al., 2010). the novice teachers understood that it is important to put the students in the driver’s seat and be in charge of the project, as this flipping of roles ultimately helps students master content in a fun and interesting way. conclusions exposing students during their teaching formation to wiki-related activities seems to offer them security in their teaching, it allows for meaningful interactions between students, between students and teachers and between students and the learning material. such an approach seems to give novice teachers a higher sense of accomplishment and professionalism, very much needed for the novice teachers’ self-image and self-esteem. references altanopoulou, p., tselios, n., katsanos, c., georgoutsou, m., & panagiotaki, m. (2015, october). wiki-mediated activities in higher education: evidence-based analysis of learning effectiveness across three studies. journal of educational technology & society, 18(4), 511-522. augar, n., raitman, r., & zhou, w. (2004, january). teaching and learning online with wikis. in beyond the comfort zone: proceedings of the 21st ascilite conference, perth, 5-8 december (pp. 95-104). ascilite. bada, s. (2015). constructivism learning theory: a paradigm for teaching and learning. iosr journal of research & method in education (iosr-jrme) (v. 5/6/1), 66-70. biasutti, m., & el-deghaidy, h. (2015). interdisciplinary project-based learning: an online wiki experience in teacher education. technology, pedagogy and education, 24(3), 339-355. boulaajoul, m., & aknin, n. (2019). the role of the clusters analysis techniques to determine the quality of the content wiki. international journal of emerging technologies in learning (ijet), 14(01), 150-158. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijet.v14i01.9074 butcher, h., & taylor, j. (2008). using a wiki to enhance knowing participation in change in the teachinglearning process. visions: the journal of rogerian nursing science, 15(1), 30-44. dhindsa, h., makarimi-kasim, & roger anderson, o. (2011). constructivist-visual mind map teaching approach and the quality of students’ cognitive structures. journal of science education and technology, 20, 186-200. ebersbach, a., glaser, m., heigl, r., & warta, a. (2008). wiki: web collaboration. springer science & business media. fossey, e., harvey, c., mcdermott, f., & davidson, l. (2002). understanding and evaluating qualitative research. australian & new zealand journal of psychiatry, 36(6), 717-732. gray, k., thompson, c., sheard, j., clerehan, r., & hamilton, m. (2010). students as web 2.0 authors: implications for assessment design and conduct. australasian journal of educational technology, 26(1). 174 hazari, s., north, a., & moreland, d. (2009). investigating pedagogical value of wiki technology. journal of information systems education, 20(2), 187-198. https://aisel.aisnet.org/jise/vol20/iss2/8 judd, t. (2018). the rise and fall (?) of the digital natives. australasian journal of educational technology, 34(5). https://doi.org/10.14742/ajet.3821 judd, t., kennedy, g., & cropper, s. (2010). using wikis for collaborative learning: assessing collaboration through contribution. australasian journal of educational technology, 26(3). https://doi.org/10.14742/ajet.1079 kim, m., & kim, s. (2020). dynamic learner engagement in a wiki-enhanced writing course. journal of computing in higher education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12528-019-09248-5 leuf, b., & cunningham, w. (2001). the wiki way: quick collaboration on the web. addison-wesley longman publishing co., inc. liu, k.p., tai, s.j.d. & liu, c.c. (2018). enhancing language learning through creation: the effect of digital storytelling on student learning motivation and performance in a school english course. education tech research dev 66, 913-935. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-018-9592-z lu, j., lai, m., & law, n. (2010). knowledge building in society 2.0: challenges and opportunities. in s. i. khine & & i. m. saleh (eds.), new science of learning (pp. 553-567). springer. meishar-tal, h., & tal-elhasid, e. (2008). measuring collaboration in educational wikis – a methodological discussion. international journal of emerging technologies in learning (ijet), 3, special issue 3: icl2008, 46-49. http://dx.doi.org/10.3991/ijet.v3s3.750 moghaddam, a. (2006). coding issues in grounded theory. issues in educational research, 16, 52-66. parker, k., & chao, i. (2007). wiki as a teaching tool. interdisciplinary journal of knowledge and learning objects, 3. http://ijklo.org/volume3/ijklov3p057-072parker284.pdf pounds, a., & bostock, j. (2019). open educational resources (oer) in higher education courses in aquaculture and fisheries: opportunities, barriers, and future perspectives. aquaculture international, 27, 695-710. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10499-019-00355-9 psacharopoulos, g. (2017). albania: the cost of underinvestment in education and ways to reduce it. unicef. https://www.unicef.org/albania/media/451/file/the%20cost%20of%20underinvestment%20in%20education %20and%20ways%20to%20reduce%20it.pdf singh, s. (2013). use of wikiversity and role play to increase student engagement during student-led physiology seminars. advances in physiology education, 37(1), 106-107. sula, g., haxhihyseni, s., & noti, k. (2021). wikis as a tool for co-constructed learning in higher education – an exploratory study in an albanian higher education. international journal of emerging technologies in learning (ijet), 16(24), 191-204. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijet.v16i24.26541 sulisworo, d. (2012). designing the online collaborative learning using the wikispaces. international journal of engineering and technology, 7(1), 58-61. https://online-journals.org/index.php/i-jet/article/view/1863 vol 7, no 1 (2012) wheeler, s., yeomans, p., & wheeler, d. (2008). the good, the bad and the wiki: evaluating student-generated content for collaborative learning. british journal of educational technology, 39(6), 987-995. authors: gerda sula is a lecturer and researcher in sciences of education at the faculty of social sciences, university of tirana. she has been working in improving quality of education through individualised, engaging learning starting in early childhood and onwards. her main field of interest is in professional learning of teachers. for 175 several years she led initiatives on redefining teaching and learning making use of technology. email: gerda.sula@unitir.edu.al anila sulstarova has been a lecturer in the department of pedagogy and psychology, faculty of social sciences, university of tirana since 2005. dr. sulstarova has mostly worked with children and adults who suffer from anxiety, learning disabilities; school phobias in children and adolescents; attachment psychopathologies and personality disorders. email: anilasulstarova@gmail.com cite this paper as: sula, g., & sulstarova, a. (2022). using wikis as a teaching tool for novice teachers – pedagogical implications. journal of learning for development, 9(2), 163-175. microsoft word pandaeditorial.docx issn: 2311-1550 2021, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 1-9 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. editorial technology-enabled learning: oer, moocs, and other tel designs santosh panda in a recent work, published by the commonwealth of learning (col) (panda & mishra, 2020), we critically reflected upon the future of technology-enabled learning (tel) and how to mainstream tel into teaching-learning and training at all levels of education. based on critical works of researchers and scholars, the critical reflection was structured within the lens of policy, pedagogy, and practice. it was argued that digital technologies facilitating educational and learning designs need to address the foundational concerns of collaborative, participatory, connected and creative learning. in times to come, the next phase of research needs to concentrate on design for learning, or, for that matter, educational design. design frameworks are still emerging, and the one analysed by oliver (2007) on a rule-based, incident-based, strategy-based, and role-based framework could be of significant help to teachers, trainers and learning designers. the addie model has been well established in contexts of learning and training design—analyse, design, develop, implement, and evaluate—so also the 7cs learning design framework (conole, 2013, 2014), and the first principles of instruction (merrill, 2013). other significant critical works which have been guiding us in consideration of education and learning design include those on distributed cognition (hutchins, 1995; clark, 1997), phenomenology (heidegger, 1962; dourish, 2001), actor-network theory (latour, 1992), connectivism (siemens, 2004), and culturally inclusive online learning wiscom (gunawardena, 2020), among others. vis-à-vis promotion of open education and open learning as legitimate and democratic processes geared toward quality education for all, ‘learning designs’ play a significant role in operationalizing tel and open educational practices (oep). various models in the context of open learning and oep are emerging on its formulation and operationalization. stracke et al (2019) analysed the opened quality framework in which ‘realisation’ comprises ‘learning design’ at the meso-level and which further contributes to organizational development, thereby impacting the quality of student learning. in the past decades, scholars have significantly contributed to the development of innovative learning designs, which are authoritative, critical, and also progressive. various contextual and reflective works are emerging in contemporary times—for instance, european approaches to learning design (wasson & kirschner, 2020), active learning in contexts of open educational practices (oep) designed on models of constructivist and networked pedagogy (paskevicius & invine, 2019), to cite a few. the central point in any learning design is understanding and designing ‘activities’ that learners carry out individually or collectively in the learning process. developments in educational/information communication technologies have greatly shaped the way intra-individual and inter-individual (collective/group) activities are organised and carried out. largely influenced by cultural-historical development of mind and mental functions (vygotsky, 1978) and explanation of the evolution of 2 mind, vis-à-vis life through research on ‘activities’, the ‘activity theory’ (leontiev, 1978) provides for scientific grounding to design activities in learning design. in the past decades, this has further been enriched by post-cognitivist theories of distributed cognition, phenomenology and hermeneutics, and actor-network theory (kaptelinin & nardi, 2006), specifically, the last one guiding technology-enabled activity-based learning. in the context of mass education and open education, massive open online courses (moocs) have now been firmly established as a new form of online learning, though mainstreaming moocs awaits considerable policy and institutional interventions in many nation states. irrespective of varieties of forms that moocs have taken, including cmoocs and xmoocs, their general quality has not been comparable to established online and blended learning globally. in a recent authoritative and comprehensive evaluation of randomly selected 76 xmoocs and cmoocs (margaryan, bianco & littlejohn, 2015), based on the ‘first principles of instruction’ (merrill, 2013), it was found that though most moocs scored higher on packaging and/or organization and presentation of course materials, their instructional/learning design was generally low. the authors remarked “many learners are drawn to moocs by the ‘brand’ of the universities and academics, expecting rigour and quality traditionally associated with these institutions. yet what learners find in moocs may be a mirage of quality education” (2015, p. 82). however, the valuable contribution of moocs is that, on the one hand, if available free of cost, they can be counted as (and to be supporting) oer, and on the other hand can act as enablers of open education (strake et al, 2019). articles in this issue the various articles in this issue relate to or address many of the learning design issues described above. as recommended by our reviewer scholars, we have included in this issue 14 papers which relate to the broader theme of ‘technology-enabled learning (tel) and cover a wide range, starting from teleconferencing to moocs and oer. these are organized under three sections – invited papers, research papers, and case studies. the section on invited papers includes contributions of scholars of repute by invitation, and those who have consistently contributed to the field through research and scholarship. the first paper by alison buckler and colleagues from the open university uk and from the kyambogo university in uganda covers a very interesting theme of perceived professional role and identity of teacher educators, and if at all oer could help change their professional role for quality teacher education. thirty-nine teacher educators from eight teacher education colleges in uganda, africa participated in storytelling their perception, understanding and professional role vis-à-vis identity. though the educators were found to be a coherent group committed professionally to teaching, their professional development (or continued professional learning) was not commensurate to that commitment. as part of the tessa intervention globally and especially in the african continent, the tessa-mooc did not have much impact on ugandan teacher educators (as much they did in other regions) due largely to lack of autonomy, existence of hierarchical structure, inadequate institutional support, and absence of a culture of sharing. given that there is sustained professional resilience and commitment, the experiences as evidenced through teacher-educator stories shared by researchers shall be immensely handy to both planners/administrators and teacher educators in other (middle-income and low-income) countries to further reflect on professional learning of teacher educators and the role oer and moocs can play in supporting blended learning, combining self-learning, collaborative learning, and expert mentoring. 3 our second invited paper, contributed jointly by expert officials from the commonwealth of learning (col) – dr. tony mays, dr. betty ogange and dr. kirk perris – and professor som naidu, former provice chancellor at the university of the south pacific and an international expert on learning design, should be of specific significance in the present context of covid-19 pandemic and also post-covid 19. the authors report a success story of a massive effort toward mass training of about 12,000 teachers from the two countries of fiji, and trinidad and tobago moving toward online teaching at the difficult time of global pandemic. a short online course ‘oer for online learning: an introduction’ (oer4ol) was urgently mounted by two collaborative organizations – the commonwealth of learning (col) and the pacific centre for flexible and open learning for development (pacfold) – in response to ministry-level requests from the two countries. this is also an excellent example of largely oer-based quality online training/capacity building, developed through the indian platform of mookit (an open source lms). data collected through a variety of sources (including surveys, teacher guided reflections, observation of created artifacts, and forum postings) indicated appropriate achievement of the stipulated objectives, and the quality of capacity enhancement (initial learning of the nuances of using online resources/oer, learner support, and management of assessment and student feedback). though it is difficult to provide continued one-onone support to each learner in the case of moocs, the quality contribution in this mooc was the individualized mentoring support. to further enhance the quality of online teaching-learning through moocs, both the participant feedback and researchers’ reflection suggest building a robust mentoring support system to enhance sustained professional intervention and the quality of student learning. the seven research papers in the next section deal with diverse themes, ranging from problem solving strategies, augmented reality and authentic learning to teleconferencing and software development. professor olabisi kuboni reports the effectiveness of the instructional strategies meant for developing problem solving skills in primary school mathematics students at this crisis of the pandemic in the trinidad and tobago. the curriculum-based resources were to be offered on the national online platform slms (school learning management system), and also made available through the national television channel and on facebook. the author followed an inductive-deductive approach to research comprising initial analysis as well as in-depth analysis to examine the video tutorials (i.e., tutor presentation, whiteboard information, and demonstration with the help of teaching aids). this is a fine example of making materials available through a variety of strategies ranging from television broadcast, through video conferencing to online learning such that both teachers and students can use the resources depending on the availability of appropriate technology. the author herself was involved in the design and deployment of the multiple-media resources, and therefore based on her experiences, she suggests that a sustained (rather than reactive) policy is needed by national governments in dealing with and/or mainstreaming tel. dr stella hadjistassou reports the effectiveness of real-world classroom-augmented reality (ar) alongside student tasks for intercultural telecollaboration/ virtual exchange involving first-year college students in cyprus and the uk. the author used a design-based research to design, develop and implement ar within classroom practices so as to reduce disruptive classroom behaviour through critical thinking and reflection vis-à-vis game-like experiences. students were required to 4 post their reflections on the online platform redesign. the experiential learning derived from the teaching practices through an augmented reality-wrought environment could be effectively deployed to deal with effective intercultural education at the college level. in the next paper, ellen kalinga reports the effectiveness of ooad-lead (object oriented analysis and design) and uml-supported (united modelling language) modelling approach in teaching-learning of software development and software engineering at the post-secondary level. the author recommends identification of basic processes and also activities for each basic process to be crucial in adopting a modelling approach to teaching engineering subjects. maria niari, in the next paper, reports the perceived value of collaborative learning in teleconferencing at the hellenic open university through a purposive-sampling based qualitative study using tutor interviews. while all the tutors converged on the positive contribution of collaborative learning in teleconferencing used for distance teaching-learning, they perceived the variables of inadequate platform, lack of faculty training, and inadequate resources as problematic in such teaching-learning contexts. there had also been the constraint of lack of student motivation. this story is no different from the contexts as obtains in many open universities and distance teaching institutions across the globe. she brings in the examples of brainstorming, q-a, group work and case studies as methods, which can enrich teleconferencing-based collaborative learning, and also institutional policy on ‘integrated’ (rather than supplementary) media use and faculty training therein. from a low technology-intensive context in uganda, afram uzorka reports the communication needs of faculty and administrators in relation to their technology use in one university, by using a purposive sample of 100 subjects and qualitative interviews. the results indicated significant use of especially ‘email’ to communicate with students, beyond teaching, on matters relating to research information, job market information, and student feedback. also, email had been constantly used to communicate within the organization on administrative matters, and for personal professional development through access to information on best practices. the habit of continuous technology use could be harnessed further to make an intervention in technology-enabled teaching-learning in the institution and in other educational levels in the country. ‘learning for development’ begins at home and stands on the pillar of empowering the community in literacy, numeracy and communication. a case from tanzania has been reported through a research study by joshua edward, through a purposive sampling of 879 elderly persons and 23 key informants (including policy makers, district health managers and social welfare officers, health workers, among others) and a questionnaire based on various indicators of health services (awareness, acceptability, adequacy). the objective was to find out if at all illiteracy was related to unpleasant experiences encountered by the elderly. while there was a mismatch between their health needs and choice of health facility, illiteracy was found to be the major impediment to their effective engagement in reaping the health benefits provided by the government. the author recommends continuous and appropriate training for health officials and workers, as also increasing the level of literacy of the community, especially the elderly. the last paper in this research section is by naciye aynas and mecit aslan who conducted a quasiexperimental study on sixth-graders in schools in turkey to find out if use of ‘authentic learning practices’ (alp) had any influence on enhancing the problem-solving skills and attitude to science 5 courses. the pre-post design findings suggest that there was a positive impact of the independent variable of alp on skills scores and attitude scores in favour of the experimental group who were exposed to authentic learning practices. the authors’ recommendations should be useful to many science teachers across the globe struggling to enhance children’s interest and engagement in science subjects — making teaching-learning as also assessment more ‘authentic’, and organizing teachers’ professional development therein. the ‘case study’ section in this issue contains five research and reflection-based cases relating to multimedia, oer, tvet, free-day secondary education, and moocs—all reported from africa. samwel gasuku in the first case study reports on the girls inspire project in tanzania wherein adult education experts developed and implemented multimedia resource-based education and training for out-of-school girls and adult women to further empower them to take up roles and challenges more effectively. in the process, the author reports to have discovered lack of skills (and therefore the need for capacity building) in the adult education functionaries in especially multimedia resource-based learning. this case should also be useful to all those adult education functionaries struggling in many middle-income and low-income countries. an interesting case on capacity building in oer in kenya has been reported by ann kinyua, by conducting a survey of 45 schools and the school teachers therein. given that there are problems of low infrastructure facility, lack of awareness, low competency in locating and using oer, and even the problem of electricity and connectivity, it is not surprising that only 3% of respondents could actually use oer in teaching-learning. there is a clear-cut government policy on oer in kenya; and seizing this status, and also keeping in view that about 10% of students have access to internet and online learning platforms, the author recommends for developing a practical plan of action for institutionalizing oer in teaching-learning in the country, and also capacity-building of teachers, students and administrators in effective use of oer in teaching-learning. strengthening of national and institutional infrastructure is not the least of all. caroline musyimi reports a case on vet in kenya through a survey of 172 students on the modernization of teaching-learning equipment for vocational education and training in schools. besides the modernized instruments, practical learning significantly contributed to increasing student grades, their confidence, and essential skills (especially employability skills). there had also been enhancement in skills on critical analysis, logical thinking, interpersonal skills, and ability of undertaking teamwork. the author recommends continuing the developmental activities in this direction and focusing more on establishing institutional relationships with other tvet organisations, industries and employers. the next case study, by jorry olang’o and colleagues from kenya, reports if the government’s free day secondary education (fdse) policy could improve the school quality and academic performance of students. based on a survey of 375 secondary school students, the author reports that increase in enrolment had reduced student and school performance; and also that the infrastructure and student finance facilities have not improved in the past decade. the authors suggest: enhancing the quality of teaching and reduction of class size (40:1) at the instance of increasing student enrolment due to reasonable affordability of school fees, increasing student annual capitation, improvement in physical infrastructure and facilities, and replicating the study in urban schools so as to have a comprehensive picture to act upon. 6 we started the first article in this issue on moocs and end up with our last article in this issue on moocs by erkkie haipinge and ngepathimo kadhila from namibia. this case study provides an extensive analysis on the concept and status of various types of moocs, and a plan of action for contexualising the development and use of moocs in various higher education institutions in the country. the authors recommend doing away with the westernized model of moocs, making them less-technology intensive, developing the digital literacy skills of teachers and students, addressing the issues of access and equity, and developing a collaborative model and specific operational framework for effective design and use of moocs in africa. there is also a suggestion relating to content curation by repurposing and using oer moocs and using low-cost ubiquitous devices for mobile learning through moocs. the other recommendation of conducting practice-based research on open education in general and contexualisation of moocs in particular should be taken up by teacher-researchers all across the globe, especially in the global south. in conclusion i am reminded of professor tony bates’ works (especially bates, 2016) including his blog which should be guiding us on designing and implementing tel in diverse contexts. i met tony in 1988 at the uk open university when i was doing a course of instruction on educational television at the bbc-oupc and had been fascinated by the significant but practical work on mediated learning that he was engaged with. his work should be handy to the middleand low-income countries which work in diverse technology contexts, with uses ranging from audio-visual aids to the semantic web. the various papers included in this issue represent that diversity of contexts, researches, and tel integration (including diversity in learning designs). one should though be cautious that technology should not be construed as instrumentalism and guiding pedagogy. to quote lovat (2019) who has analysed and cautioned how technology is misunderstood and misused: “in a word, instrumentalist pedagogy survives as a tool of political agendas and populist media, whereas values pedagogy rests on the firmest evidence from philosophical and neuroscientific research about how the mind works, the brain functions and how efficacious learning is therefore best effected” (p. 11). addressing the foundational aspects of ‘education’ vis-à-vis ‘learning for development’ subsumes discourses on learning and technology-enabled learning. in this context, it is important to be cautioned in the use of technology in education as argued by selwyn (2016): “the ways in which digital technology is used in education is not inevitable but is an ongoing process of debate. it is therefore important to see digital technology use in education as a matter of values, preferences and politics” (p. 107). critical works and reflective research could guide us further. on a note for future research, selwyn et al (2020) caution us to be critical about theorizing and investigating the linkage between technology, socioeconomic inequality, and educational provision. i take this opportunity to thank dr tony mays and dr sanjaya mishra, editors, and dr david porter (senior advisor and book review editor) and alan doree for their constant support and excellent editorial work for assembling again a gigantic issue of jl4d. there is also enhanced indexing and citing status of jl4d, and we are receiving more research papers and case studies (including reports from the field) each quarter. while this is providing increasing opportunities to the researchers and authors to have their work published and to have greater visibility and citation internationally, it also tests our ability to deal with diverse themes under the banner ‘learning for development’. we shall be glad to receive more research-based papers and reflective and critical cases/ field experiences/ work 7 in progress on themes covered by this journal. we do hope that all the papers included in this issue shall arouse interest and motivate scholars and researchers for further reflection and undertake practice-based research. santosh panda chief editor, jl4d references bates, t. (2016). teaching in a digital age. https://opentextbc.ca/ clark, a. (1997). being there. the mit press. conole, g. (2014). the 7cs of learning design — a new approach to rethinking design practice. in b. s. jones, l.m. ryberg & c. sinclair (eds.), proceedings of the 9th international conference on networked learning. conole, g. (2013). designing for learning in an open world. springer. dourish, p. (2001). where the action is: the foundations of embodied interaction. the mit press. gunawardena, c. n. (2020). culturally inclusive online learning for capacity development projects in international contexts. journal of learning for development, 7(1), 5-30. https://jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/article/view/403 heidegger, m. (trans. 1962, original 1927). being and time. harper & row. hutchins, e. (1995). cognition in the wild. the mit press. kaptelinin, v., & nardi, b. a. (2006). acting with technology: activity theory and interaction design. mit press. latour, b. (1992). one turn after the social turn. in e. mcmullin (ed.), the social dimensions of science. notre dame press. leontiev, a. (1978). activity, consciousness, and personality. prentice-hall. lovat, t. (2019). values as the pedagogy: countering instrumentalism. intechopen. margaryan, a., bianco, m. & littlejohn, a. (2015). instructional quality of massive open online courses (moocs). computers & education, 80, 77-83. merrill, m.d. (2013). first principles of instruction: identifying and designing effective, efficient and engaging instruction. john wiley & sons. oliver, r. (2007). enhancing higher education, theory and scholarship. proceedings of the 30th herdsa conference, july 8-11, adelaide, australia. panda, s., & mishra, s. (2020). towards mainstreaming technology-enabled learning. in s. mishra & s. panda (eds.), technology-enabled learning: policy, pedagogy and practice (pp. 225-244). the commonwealth of learning. paskevicius, m., & irvine, v. (2019). open education and learning design: open pedagogy in praxis. journal of interactive media in education, 10(1), 1-10. selwyn, n. (2016). digital inclusion: can we transform education through technology? xth conferencia international encuentros, october 26-28, barcelona. selwyn, n., hillman, t., eynon, r., ferreira, g., knox, j. macgilchrist, f. & sancho-gil, j. m. (2020). what next for ed-tech? critical hopes and concerns for the 2020s. learning, media and technology, 45(1), 1-6. siemens, g. (2004). connectivism: a learning theory for the digital age. http://www.itdl.org/journal/jan_05/article01.htm 8 stracke, c. m., downes, s., conole, g., burgos, d. & nascimbeni, f. (2019). are moocs open educational resources? a literature review on history, definitions and typologies of oer and moocs. open praxis, 11(4), 1-11. vygotsky, l. (1978). mind in society: the development of higher psychological processes. cambridge, ma: harvard university press. wasson, b., & kirschner, p.a. (2020). learning design: european approaches. techtrends, 64, 815-827. acknowledgement to peer reviewers of 2020: we take this opportunity to acknowledge and thank the colleagues who assisted with reviews for the three issues of the journal published in 2020: • dr seher ahmad • dr md. shafiqul alam • nihad alem • prof mohamed ally • anne a. aseey • mr ashish kumar awadhiya • jyoti bawane • aras bozkurt • dr nilantha de silva • dr irwin devries • stephen downes • cahit erdem • dr michael sean gallagher • dr mythili gowthaman • stella hadjistassou • dr bjoern hassler • anita l thomas james • dr brian keith jennings • ngephatimo kadhila • mr gurumurthy kasinathan • jack koumi • dr olabisi kuboni • dr hugo martires • monica mawoyo • hi hamisi mfaume • dr anshu miglani • dr godfrey magoti mnubi • dr ioana tuugalei chan mow • mpho-entle naicker • terry neal • dr mairette newman • maria niari • prof bernard nkuyubwatsi 9 • prof charity akuadi okonkwo • mr ismail fatai olawale • don olcott, jr. • dr olojede • dr nathaniel ostashewski • dr david porter • dr s. k. pulist • professor alan rogers • dr james sunney quaicoe • dr ramesh c. sharma • gaurav singh • prof v. sivalogathasan • dr hilaria soundari • deepanwita srivastava • mamta srivastava • manjulika srivastava • dr dianne thurab-nkhosi • mr tugwell • philip uys • freda wolfenden cite this paper as: panda, s. (2021). editorial—technology-enabled learning: oer, moocs, and other tel designs. journal of learning for development, 8(1), 19. sushita education for sustainable development: connecting the dots for sustainability sushita gokool-ramdoo and anwar bhai rumjaun vol. 4, no. 1 abstract critical pedagogy, practitioner experience and a regulatory perspective are employed to scrutinize the notion of education for sustainable development (esd) as it occurs in the literature. they promote understanding of the challenges impeding the completion of unfinished esd businesses. in response to practitioner-expressed needs, this paper innovatively proposes a sustainable development-compliant national qualifications and credit framework (sd-nqcf)  as the instrument to finally connect isolated esd ‘dots’ and scaffold their sustainability. informed by a systems approach, this framework encourages repositioning educational activities within the un agenda 21 to ensure the suffusion of sd principles. esd becomes the backbone of nqcfs, while critical pedagogy provides the adequate instrument to foster 21st century sustainability competencies that are embedded into curricula as learning outcomes. the sd-compliant framework resolves tensions between formal, non-formal and informal education. it provides connecting bridges and pathways to sustainably suffusing socio-economic fabrics with sd principles that will shift paradigms. introduction upon appraising the tremendous amount of energy and resources that went into related initiatives during the decade of education for sustainable development (2004-2014), practitioners worry about their ongoing unsustainability.  education for sustainable development (esd) practitioners are those whose practices are intentionally geared towards the realization of the unesco agenda for sustainable development. as the agenda for the post-2015 sustainable development goals (sgds) was being fashioned, they forcefully expressed their wish for an instrument to enhance the sustainability of these initiatives, (unesco, 2014a, b, d & e). the following extract from the 2014 declaration on education for sustainable development (esd) reveals practitioner recognition of: … the potential of esd to empower learners to transform themselves and the society they live in by developing knowledge, skills, attitudes, competences and values required for addressing global citizenship and local contextual challenges of the present and the future, such as critical and systemic thinking, analytical problem-solving, creativity, working collaboratively … making decisions in the face of uncertainty, and understanding of the interconnectedness of global challenges and responsibilities emanating from such awareness. (unesco, 2014a, section 8). simultaneously, the extract also reveals the absence of an instrument that can effectively connect the notions that have been emboldened for “education systems [to] fully embrace sustainable development” (unesco, 2016). each of the above emboldened notions can be construed of as an isolated ‘dot’ that fails to connect to another, each being a pointer for action that can become a discipline unto itself. this isolation probably accounts for the sapping of efforts aimed at “integrating economic, social and environmental aspects and recognizing their interlinkages, so as to achieve sustainable development in all its dimensions” (un 2012, p. 2). this monolithic approach has led to fragmented efforts (gokool-ramdoo, rumjaun & bholah, 2012) resulting in ‘uneven’ mainstreaming and debilitating the sustainability of esd initiatives (un 2012, p. 5). after the coming in force of the post-2015 sdgs, the focus is now firmly on sdg 4 which intends to: ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. for the above goal to be effectively implemented, the nagoya declaration (unesco, 2014a) recognizes that a paradigm shift from decade-old practices and special competencies are required. the recent global monitoring report (unesco 2016) provides several policy recommendations but no concrete instrument whereby education can embed sustainable development in socio-economic and cultural systems. in response to practitioner-expressed needs for that instrument to help complete the many ‘unfinished [esd] businesses’ (unesco, 2013b, p. 1; unesco, 2013c, p. 3) and to realize the promise of goal 4, this paper proposes an innovative framework, where the above esd dots will effectively connect to scaffold the sustainable implementation of the post-2015 sdgs (sarabhai, 2014).  combining the authors’ practitioner experiences, critical pedagogy and a regulatory perspective, it formulates an innovative and solution-oriented framework for practice, which is distilled into a series of protocols. methodology practitioner research, critical pedagogy and a regulatory perspective provide the lens to examine the reasons for the failure of “educational systems to fully embrace sustainable development” (unesco, 2016). coming from regulatory and teacher-educator backgrounds respectively, the authors view practitioner experience as the privileged approach to inquire and reflect upon their own practice in an intentional manner with the aim of devising strategies to recalibrate the said practices in a meaningful way. critical pedagogy helps in questioning the process of knowledge construction and situating the place of the human being in the relationship between education and development. the regulatory perspective flags the reasons for the failure of educational systems to embed esd principles despite innumerable initiatives in lifelong and lifewide settings. this combination helps connect the esd ‘dots’ and complete the ‘unfinished businesses’. practitioner research practitioner research or reflexive praxis involves the questioning of one’s practice. it requires problematizing of practice, asking questions, shaking, validating and theorizing assumptions.  research and meetings with fellow practitioners, as well as practical assignments carried out in the area of esd for unesco, have provided insights into desirable directions, challenges and potential solutions. critical pedagogy wherever education is associated with work towards issues of justice, equity, and participation, critical pedagogy is, unequivocally, the appropriate approach to understand underlying tensions. as opposed to ‘pedagogy’ which is simply conceived of as the study of teaching and learning, critical pedagogy critically analyses ways of teaching, learning content and “how one learns (breunig, 2016, p.1). it invites reflections on the negotiations that occur during the learning-teaching transaction, how relationships between teacher and learner are transformed, how knowledge is produced as well as how the institutional structures of school and society support and validate this transaction. in this paper, it is also employed to understand the role of education in proselytizing widespread acceptance of present patterns of development and to highlight how these are incompatible with sustainable development. consistent with the spirit of reflexive praxis, critical pedagogy is adopted in response to practitioners’ felt and expressed need for a different approach to teaching and learning that can be transformative and promote sustainability. the regulatory perspective the purpose of the regulatory perspective is to establish the degree of fit between pedagogies and development patterns to verify how education is contributing to contextually-defined goals, (kopnina, 2014).  when it comes to esd, it provides information on how educational programs are constructed, with what content, the teaching and learning methods adopted, the degree to which the principles of esd are allowed to permeate the current educational scenario, along with corresponding competencies (2008) and strategies to measure their progress. to make quality assurance interventions sustainable at all levels, sectors and disciplines and through all learning pathways, gokool-ramdoo (2009; 2011) and sherry (2003) have argued that these need to be part of national policy and regulatory frameworks.  this perspective helps pose the right questions that then enable the identification of deficits and the required type of remedial interventions.  through the above combined methodological lenses, the notions of esd will now be critically scrutinized from as far back as they can be traced, to uncover the elements essential for fashioning the scaffolding framework. literature review the literature reviewed includes ancient texts, scholarly articles, conference and workshop proceedings as well as global conventions and declarations on the education and sustainable development. it critiques the linear relationship between education and development. the shifting notion of development development is a contested notion (tait, 2014). it implies activities that unfold to fulfill human needs. in simple societies, these needs remain basic, being mostly related to food, water, clothing and shelter requirements. as societies grow complex, the scope of these needs widen infinitely and signposts for achieving them become culturally and contextually determined as development goals. these goals are constructed around four interconnected domains: ecology/nature, economics, politics and culture. these four domains are organized according to systems and processes. activities within these systems and processes draw necessarily from an existing pool of finite resources. experts agree that the injudicious use of these scarce resources has compromised the sustainability of development (lockley & jarrath, 2013) disabling individuals from equitably participating in and benefitting from, the development effort. sustainable development (sd) taking the above four inter-connected domains into consideration, the brundtland commission (1987), defines sd as that which “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’ within a social and economic infrastructure that determines a society’s capacity to maintain itself in a rapidly changing global context  (cappon, 2009). interestingly, sd, which is therefore concerned with the endurance of these systems and processes is not a new concern. already, ancient worldviews as described in some selected ancient texts, ranging from judaism (job 12:7-9); christianity, (genesis 1:20-22, kjv) through islam (55:1-12); to buddhism (anguttara nikaya iii. 368); hinduism (atharva veda 12.1), and confucianism (mencius 1.a.3), cautioned against depleting the resources that existed in human environments. in most religious texts and in the collective memory, the environment or nature is given godly or motherly attributes and center stage in anthropogenic activities like fishing, hunting and farming. this echoes the rio outcome document which recognizes that “planet earth and its ecosystems are our home and … “mother earth” is a common expression in a number of countries and regions [which] recognize the rights of nature in the context of the promotion of sustainable development […, and] to achieve a just balance among the economic, social and environment needs of present and future generations, it is necessary to promote harmony with nature” (un, 2012, p. 8).  harmony with nature is a recurrent notion in all documents reviewed. education is given center stage in the endeavor to maintain this harmony. problematizing education the relationship between education and development is often seen as linear and unproblematized. the unesco ahmedabad declaration, 2007 for instance, illustrates how in a sd context, education is expected to promote lifestyles where each aspect mutually and positively reinforces the other. it takes an all-inclusive perspective, focusing on indigenous education, peace and cultural diversity as transformative elements.  however, it is common knowledge that most forms of education depart from the above transformative vision. today, education is a contested notion that is responsible for socialising people into unquestioningly accepting the prevailing patterns of development and to serve the needs of a few. hailed as an essential promoter of human welfare, its enduring discourse is rather focused on promoting employability: churning out workers or their glamorised version, professionals, to sustain society’s inherent consumerism. this discourse is disguised by the logic of rationality prompting people to believe that they are collectively working towards “ending poverty and oppression so that gradually human beings would enjoy a quality of life hitherto unimagined” (cunningham 1993, p. 5). in turn this rationality is responsible for creating false needs and has been accused of being “morally bankrupt”, paying little heed to aspects like “nuclear power plants, … toxic wastes” (cunningham, 1993, p. 6), depletion of fossil fuels, domination by multinationals, institutionalised corruption, conflict, [gender-based] violence, and human distress. critical thinkers like freire (1972), foucault (1991), cunningham (1993), schied (1995), orwell (1997) and giroux (2010) agree that education has been vastly responsible for the submissive nature of individuals in contemporary societies with its focus on improving economic efficiency and labour productivity. institutionalised education has been criticised as an ideological state apparatus (althusser, 1971) using language, schools and media, to reproduce the values of the dominant and create the conditions to escalate human needs for consumer goods, (giroux, 1985, p. xi). they argue that a new pedagogy is required to nurture critical thinking and enable people to fully comprehend how their real needs conflict with the artificial needs hyped by the ideological state apparatuses and how, as individuals, they are complicit in making development less sustainable. a paradigm shift is therefore necessary. esd: un agenda 21 esd focuses on providing opportunities for each individual to acquire the contextually and culturally relevant knowledge, skills, attitudes and values necessary to shape a sustainable future. esd as an area of focus can be traced back to 1972 when the un conference on the human environment highlighted education as a means to address problems of human environment. a special approach was clearly required to devise educational strategies to heighten individual awareness of problems caused by anthropogenic activities as well as stimulate a sense of responsibility to help individuals modify their behaviours accordingly. in 1977, the tbilisi declaration (unesco, 1977) expatiated on the desirability of systemic thinking and an integrated, interdisciplinary approach to education that takes into consideration the ethical, social, cultural and economic dimensions to strengthen “a closer link between educational processes and real life”.  this thinking was crystalized in the un agenda 21 (1992), which, as the main matrix, synthesizes a roadmap for all sustainable development efforts globally. it details the social and economic dimensions of development and proposes solutions for the conservation and management of resources, the strengthening of major groups and proposes the means for their implementation. esd is pivotal for this implementation. hinting at a required paradigm change, agenda 21 anticipates that the appropriate development rationale is “indispensable to changing people's attitudes …. for effective public participation in decision-making” (chapter 36, 36.3).  by highlighting the interconnectedness of all aspects of human life including events in the socio-economic, cultural and political spheres and nature, it makes provision for contextually relevant development that includes all known types of knowledge. it also provides the basis on which the unesco decade for esd (desd) was launched. with the desd launch, educational activities were organized into 11 thematic foci entailing a spate of “adjectival educations” that “touch upon sd or sd components” (unesco, 2009, p. 28). subsequently the bonn declaration (2009) emphasised focus on three key themes from the desd list that became penetration points for several education programs: climate change, biodiversity and disaster risk reduction.  this division possibly accounts for the start of the fracture among esd initiatives with priorities being incessantly reshuffled. with events like climate change, time has shown that development agendas depart widely from agenda 21. moreover, documents have demonstrated that despite much recorded, albeit uneven, progress in terms of global awareness, the availability of a platform for international collaboration, influence in policy and pedagogy alteration (unesco, 2014b), improved coordination of stakeholders and a number of esd projects, the globally agreed paradigm shift failed to happen (unesco, 2009; unesco, 2014c). the inadequacy of educational systems during the aichi-nagoya conference on esd, participants agreed anew that the current education systems were inadequate and would not sustain the sd goals. they unanimously expressed the need for an alternative pedagogy (unesco, 2014d & e). they agreed that critical pedagogy promotes the deeper and much required analysis of surface situations (hooks, 1994), thereby, preventing education from being “a device for [ideological], economic and cultural reproduction” (freire, 1985, p. xi). aptly, critical pedagogy encourages a counter-hegemonic struggle that starts with the realisation that humanity cannot be interpreted by rationality. human beings are not machines (cunningham, 1993) or resources (schied, 1995). critical pedagogy supports teaching “as the practice of freedom…in a manner that respects and cares for the souls of…students”, (hooks, 1994, p. 13), by providing the instruments for people to unlearn and learn new connections “between their individual experiences and the social contexts in which they are embedded”, (friere, 1985, p. 46). additionally, it helps “students develop consciousness of freedom, recognize authoritarian tendencies … connect knowledge to power and have the ability to take constructive action” (giroux, 2010) and responsibility for that action. critical pedagogy necessarily contributes to a special type of action: reflexive praxis (schön, 1983; bronfman, 2005; wellington, 2006; daweti, 2005; schwandt, 1997; tait & gaskell, 2005). critical pedagogy is a necessary ingredient to sustain the paradigm shift. critical pedagogy for a paradigm shift the paradigm shift is characterised by the creation of a new educational order and corresponding sustainability competencies, by the democratization of power relationships, challenged social reality and its constructs (glasser, 2014).  at the nagoya conference, sarabhai (unesco, 2014d) reiterated india’s 1992 perspective that the challenge of development was to find alternatives to the current paradigm. this has been an ongoing effort for all involved. for instance, recording various shortcomings and non-responsiveness in africa’s formal systems of education and training which have “proven largely unable to produce the necessary skills, in quantity or quality, to raise africa’s development to the level enjoyed by other regions of the world”, the association for the development of education in africa (adea, 2012), invited stakeholders to reflect on the development of a strategic framework to promote critical skills acquisition and endorse reflexive praxis. the adea agreed that change in africa requires an “ideological, political and epistemological break with the past [and] a major reorganization that entails a paradigm shift and radical reforms” (adea, 2013, p. 16). to transition from a lethargic state to one of awareness requires a recognition that human beings do not operate in neutral spheres of influence, but rather in political spheres of influence that also imply power relationships. these spheres determine how an individual evolves in the various economic, social and cultural arrangements in which s/he finds him/herself. in turn, power relationships determine how this individual sees him/herself within the different socio-economic and cultural constructs. in most instances, negative power relationships have led to peace deficits that have impeded progress in literacy, incapacitating people from acceding to [the right kind of] information and knowledge necessary to negotiate themselves out of “deadly spirals” of conflict situations, unesco (2011, p. 128). violent conflicts have reinforced inequalities, grievances and desperation, with individuals lacking the competence and confidence to snap out of violence. being ill-equipped, these individuals succumb to the supreme effect of negative power relationships by unthinkingly accepting the existing order of things as natural, believing that there can be no alternative (rowland, 1997; alcott, 1997).  a paradigm change is more than ever required to jumpstart critical thinking and transformative action to reverse negative power relationships. the new paradigm can be nuanced into first and second order changes where the first order change fosters the acknowledged desire to move away from known unsustainable patterns of living, while the second order change involves “creating the conditions to improve the quality of life for all” (glasser, 2014).  in support of this argument, in a comparative study involving asian countries, yamaguchi & chan (2014) confirmed the need for a new approach to development and education that focuses on three principles: (1) creativity (creation of new values), (2) self-reliance (enhancement of life with diverse abilities) and (3) collaboration (social participation). these are the essential components of critical pedagogy. critical pedagogy is therefore naturally pivotal in nurturing sustainability competencies that can empower individuals to break away from hegemonic thought and make people realise interconnections between aspects of sd like agriculture, energy, habitat, economy, education, and democracy. critical pedagogy has all the potential to make educational systems fully embrace aspects of sd. consistently, it highlights the transversal nature of education as “linked to virtually all areas in agenda 21, and even more closely to the ones on meeting basic needs, capacity-building, data and information, science, and the role of major groups” (un agenda 21, 1993).  it is an apt instrument to provide insights into gaps between desirable conditions and prevailing situations. such insights reveal the following reasons as having accounted for the failure of the shift in the existing paradigm (unesco, 2014e). sustainability competencies and quality assurance experts agree that special sustainability competencies are required for individuals to critically reflect on their ontologies and epistemologies and as well take action as appropriate. sustainability competencies also known as 21st century competencies, carry aspects like systems thinking, wise decision-taking, the ability to anticipate future events, an strategic and inter-personal competencies, among others (glasser, 2014). besides yamagochi & chan (2014) have extended their initial list to include media and ict skills. these were added to the eri-net framework of transversal competencies, calling upon individuals to also critically evaluate information and media content, and engage in the ethical use of ict. however, the authors are of the view that many countries have not yet contextually defined or aligned their sustainability competencies with the above list. therefore, educational systems are not all imparting the competencies that can usher in the paradigm change and revise development patterns. esd leadership and coordination: capacity deficiencies it is now confirmed that despite the “impressive quantity and quality of knowledge already developed, shared, and applied to policy innovation and implementation”, the full integration of esd remains elusive (unosd, 2013, para 3 & 4).  for any change to occur, champions and leaders are required. bokova (unesco, 2014c, p. 3) argues that “leadership is essential for moving from policy commitments and demonstration projects to full implementation across the curriculum, teaching and operations, whether in formal systems or in non-formal learning and public awareness raising” but with regard to esd, she notes that this is “work in progress”. capacity deficit, both at policy and implementation levels, is clearly one of the major culprits. usually for administrative convenience, international organisations like unesco and governments vest the coordinating role in senior cadres from ministries, especially permanent secretaries. these cadres are reported by fieldworkers to be serious bottlenecks in their fieldwork since many do not have the adequate profile to help implement esd (gokool-ramdoo, rumjaun & bholah, 2012; unesco, 2013a). with their notorious inter-ministerial mobility, they are anything but permanent and cannot be seen as its devout champions.  further, in many countries, different ministries or organizations cater for the different themes within the sd framework. lack of esd capacity and a centralised strategy, prevents cadres from engaging into efficient inter-ministerial cooperation, coordination and synergies (unesco, 2013a, p. 3; unesco, 2013b & c). for example, esd-related themes like environment and agriculture may be handled by different ministries that may have widely different foci. ministry cadres reportedly often fail to connect these two issues within meta-frameworks, like the agenda 21, thereby slowing harmonization of efforts. teachers are important actors that can effectively integrate sustainability competencies.  presently, they reportedly face challenges in making useful connections between theory and context-relevant practice, thus disabling application of esd principles to new contexts (taylor, 2014; pace, 2010). despite efforts for its mainstreaming, teachers resist by complaining of overload and believing that esd is an externally imposed constraint (gokool-ramdoo, 2012). moreover, in many countries, the disproportionate focus on formal education skews focus from the non-formal and informal pathways which potentially could have a more positive impact on esd agendas (gokool-ramdoo, rumjaun & bholah, 2012). dissonances in the literature reviewed the literature has highlighted the following tensions in the effort to mainstream and sustain esd: (i) an ongoing age-old disconnect with nature; (ii) development and education agendas widely departing from agenda 21, (iii) the inadequacy of the current educational system to anchor sd, (iv) the ongoing need for an alternative pedagogy to foster a required paradigm shift and to nurture sustainability competencies and (v) the inadequacy of esd leadership and coordination. the literature carries solutions for each of these tensions. responses to each of the above tensions will now be employed as pillars to construct a framework that can connect the isolated esd ‘dots’ and scaffold its sustainable implementation thereby completing “unfinished esd businesses” (unesco, 2013b, p. 1; unesco, 2013c, p. 3). towards a scaffolding framework: unfolding the protocols for practice in response to each of the above identified tensions, elements that will act as counterpoints have been culled from the literature. these will be the pillars of the framework where the esd dots will connect and that will scaffold the sustainability of esd programs, which now unfold as a series of protocols. protocol 1: the systems approach to reconnect with nature the first protocol involves the adoption of the systems approach to reconnect with nature. this will promote the recognition that human beings operate in systemic arrangements characterised by the economy, society, culture and environment. it also stands to harmonize the notions of development and education and generate sd-appropriate learning content that belongs to each and every sphere. the use of the systems approach is reiterated in the aichi-nagoya declaration on esd (unesco, 2014a) inviting governments to pay “special attention … to system-wide … holistic approaches and multi-stakeholder cooperation and partnerships” in a spirit of participative democracy and amidst consultations. to promote harmony with nature and to reinforce the notion of system-wide focus, the systems approach highlights visibility regarding how the different spheres of influence and corresponding anthropogenic activities, interact to affect an individual’s market opportunities and life chances amidst the power relationships that compose the entirety of a socio-economic system, as schematized in figure 1. the critical perspective underscores the political nature of these spheres that may be characterized by power struggles (freire, 1985).  thus, each power relationship can be questioned and re-adjusted to ensure that the individual is at the center of development efforts. figure 1: systems approach to heighten understanding of interconnectedness of contextualized spheres of influence with the human being at the centre (gokool-ramdoo, rumjaun & bholah, 2012). learning content that emanates from the systems approach will foster transversal competencies that enable individuals confidently to navigate each of the spheres. at a global level, synchronization and coordination of education systems (hoosen, butcher & njenga, 2009) are required to strategically develop and strengthen the capacity of educational institutions to respond simultaneously to educational, employability and sd needs of populations. this justifies the repositioning of development and education rationales within agenda 21. protocol 2: repositioning education and development rationales within un agenda 21 harmonious co-habitation of the above spheres is the crux of agenda 21. it requires repositioning development rationales within the un agenda 21 so that education and development goals are aligned with qualifications systems consisting of “all aspects of a country's activity that result in the recognition of learning” (tuck, 2007, p. 4).  this effort will ensure that all learning content carry sd-related competencies that “are indispensable to changing people's attitudes … for effective public participation in decision-making.” (agenda 21, chapter 36, 36.3).  it will also ensure that the sd learning content will articulate with a qualifications framework and employability concerns across a continuum of the education system, involving lifelong and lifewide learning opportunities. it naturally follows that the resulting curriculum should belong to esd, which would then be the backbone of all curriculum development, across educational sectors, levels and pathways. protocol 3: adopting esd as a backbone of educational systems    the third protocol involves making esd “the backbone of all educational systems, inclusively holding together all its sectors, sub-sectors, approaches, and stakeholders together …” (gokool-ramdoo, rumjaun & bholah, 2012, p. 12). this move will attract the necessary resources, support capacity development for a range of stakeholders, as well as the mainstreaming of esd through curriculum development. mainstreaming involves the widespread acceptance that all learning content or curricula, and objects should transversally carry sd principles as seen in the following extract from un agenda 21: environment and development education … (which may include spiritual) …should be integrated in all disciplines, and should employ formal and non-formal methods and effective means of communication. (un agenda 21, 36.3) sd principles will resonate in all learning content that will be developed and systemically linked to the above different spheres (figure 1). stakeholders can better diagnose deficiencies and recalibrate practice to ensure that by 2030 “people everywhere have the relevant information and awareness for sustainable development and lifestyles in harmony with nature” (un 2015, goal 12.8), through icts, formal, non-formal and informal educational channels. when all educational channels carry esd learning content, the transformative vision of education can best be realised. protocol 4: transformative critical pedagogy to sustain the paradigm shift the fourth protocol is concerned with the adoption of critical pedagogy as the main teaching and learning approach that can boost transformative change  (freire, 1972; 1985) and sustain the paradigm shift (unesco, 2014d & e).   the need for transformative pedagogy to “make a powerful contribution to the renovation of the educational process” has long been recognized (tbilisi declaration, unesco, 1980, p. 12).  pace (2010) insists that teaching and learning approaches for esd require rethinking and simply re-labelling traditional practices will not bring about fundamental changes necessary for transformative change to occur, for retaining students’ interest (lotz-sisitka, 2010) and for the required paradigm shift to happen (gokool-ramdoo, rumjaun & bholah,  2012).  when development is repositioned within agenda 21, with the human being at the center of development efforts, critical pedagogy is useful to rethink the indices for development. these should go beyond gross national product or per capita income to include psychological well-being. thus, what yamagochi & chan (2014) state can be seen in japan as zest for living, or in australia, china and malaysia as a sense of belongingness, and in india, as competencies to deal with stress, is crystallized in bhutan as the gross national happiness (gnh) index for development. anchored in spiritual buddhist values that are nonetheless transversal, the gnh is flanked by four pillars: sd, cultural values, natural environment and good governance.  these are nuanced into eight contributors to happiness—physical, mental and spiritual health; time-balance; social and community vitality; cultural vitality; education; living standards; good governance; and ecological vitality. while this approach is not widespread, its increasing desirability appears to be attracting attention.  for instance in singapore, it is proposed that in addition to financial reserves, social reserves should also be computed during assessments of a country’s development. as with the principles of global citizenship education, social reserves “are the goodwill that makes us look out for one another during difficult times, … the resilience to help us overcome challenges and constraints, and … the tenacity to progress both as individuals and as a nation” (tan, 2013). the competencies that promote human welfare should thus be clearly described in educational systems and their acquisition measured through quality assurance, assessments, awards, and skills/prior learning recognition arrangements. critical pedagogy can supplant the mainstream pedagogy, since it promises the holistic development of sustainability competencies like autonomy, responsibility and the critical thinking required to modify our frames of reference, and heighten informed decision-taking. the corresponding sustainability competencies should not only lead to a change in mind-set, but the ability to act on ourselves, that is reflexive praxis. protocol 5: attuning sustainability competencies so far, the framework under construction is one that invites a systemic reconnection with nature, operates within the unified development framework of agenda 21, adopts esd as the backbone for educational systems and employs critical pedagogy. competencies are generally contextually and culturally determined. sustainability or 21st century competencies follow suit (glasser, 2014).  these competencies articulate the different “abilities, attitudes, knowledge, understanding, skills and mind-sets that are functionally linked to support both problem-posing and solving as well as evoke purposeful behaviour toward particular end goals, in relation to the sustainability challenges and opportunities that are before humanity”(glasser, 2014).   sustainability competencies are required to promote “democracy, good governance and the rule of law… for …sustained and inclusive economic growth, social development, environmental protection and the eradication of poverty and hunger” (un 2012rio+20).  already adjectival educations are suffused with such competencies as their learning outcomes. peace education is, for instance, concerned with “the process of acquiring the values, the knowledge and developing the attitudes, skills, and behaviours to live in harmony with oneself, … others, and …the natural environment (bajaj & chiu, 2009, p. 441). in the light of growing insurgence and conflicts in the middle east and africa especially and the impending doom of terrorist attacks in the rest of the world, it is becoming a necessity to inculcate social reserves as those favored by singapore. debates held in different contexts like an african workshop on esd in 2012 (adea, 2012), a survey in the usa as well as one in the asian-pacific region demonstrate the different types of competencies that are seen as appropriate.  given the consistency emanating from the different thinking above, in table 1, gokool-ramdoo (2011) and gokool-ramdoo, rumjaun & bholah (2012) clustered the different competencies under more pedagogically-appropriate labels: the cognitive, affective and metacognitive (deschênes & maltais, 2006). cognitive (c) pertains to the processing of information through instructional strategies to increase or broaden knowledge; affective (a) relates to strategies that engage the feelings of the student with a view to enhancing the meaningfulness of the learning experience; and metacognitive (m) refers to the student’s ability to organize and take responsibility for the learning experience in current situations, anticipate future situations and to exercise reflexive praxis. interestingly, table 2 takes the discussions of table 1 a step further. it shows how different competencies can be woven into the educational systems of selected countries as through the use of national qualifications frameworks (nqfs). they are integrated as learning outcomes in educational programmes. it follows that with the possibility of embedding sustainability competencies in educational systems through the use of nqfs, the latter is a fitting instrument to connect the related ‘dots’, maintain the sustainability of esd and complete the unfinished [esd] businesses (unesco, 2013b, p. 1; unesco, 2013c, p. 3). it is a more comprehensive version, a sustainable development-compliant national qualifications & credit framework [nqcf] that will be used to that effect. the nqcf is an outcome-based instrument for the development and classification of qualifications according to a set of criteria for specified levels of learning achieved, linked to any given country’s centrally agreed development goals (dzelalija & balkovic, 2014; tuck, 2007, p.v). the use of the nqcf is driven by the global interest in this mechanism (ilo, 2004; allais, 2010) and practitioner experience in the educational regulatory world. given its ability to carry competencies and because of the information it sends out to the public, the nqcf can easily carry sustainability core competencies across the different educational sectors, levels and learning pathways in terms of corresponding credits on a contextually-responsive.  it is therefore the appropriate instrument that can connect the dots and promote the sustainability of esd initiatives. table 1. agreed-upon 21st century competencies (aichi-nagoya world conference on esd 2014) american perspective1   asia-pacific perspective2 african perspectivec * * competencies for learners3   competencies for teachers3 * systems thinking m specialised (subject-specific skills) c critical thinking c organizing and facilitating effective learning and situations c anticipatory m foundation a scientific expertise c managing learning progression and assessment m normative m transversal m cognitive skills c ability to monitor individual student progress m strategic m ict c+m social skills a+m participatory approach a+m interpersonal a     life skills m collaborative work m affinity for life a     decision making m participate in the management of the educational institution (formal & informal) m state of the planet knowledge c     ability to implement human rights c+m application of new technologies c wise decision-making m     respect for differences a ability to define student-appropriate success criteria m modeling sustainable behaviour m         ability to contextualize learning including through extracurricular activities m transformative social change m     change management m espouse ethical practice m             taking responsibility for individual training m note. the above have been identified as the 21st century competencies as agreed after discussions held during a dedicated workshop at the aichi-nagoya world conference on education for sustainable development. glasser, h. (2014). presentation on american perspective of 21st century competencies eri-net study on asia-pacific study on 21st century competencies (unesco, 2013) african perspective as discussed with stakeholders of the association for development of education in africa (adapted from adea, 2012) *pedagogically appropriate labels for clustering 21st century competencies (gokool-ramdoo, 2011; gokool-ramdoo et al, 2012) table 2: sample of competencies integrated in nqfs as learning outcomes and perceived pedagogically appropriate labelling nqf united arab emirates scottish nqf australia nqf information skills knowledge and understanding cognitive and creative skills involving the use of intuitive logical and critical thinking communication skills practice: applied knowledge and understanding technical skills involving dexterity and the use of methods, materials, tools and instruments organizing skills generic: cognitive skills communications skills involving written, oral, literacy and  numeracy skills working with others autonomy, accountability and working with others interpersonal and generic skills numeracy skills communication, ict and  numeracy skills   technology literacy     societal skills     protocol 6:  the nqcf as an esd instrument the sixth protocol involves the use of the nqcf as that space where the above-identified isolated dots can connect with most efficiency and effectiveness. through quality assurance exercises, the regulatory perspective continuously monitors the degree of fit between education and sd.  table 3 explicates the potential uses of an nqcf. table 3:  what a national qualifications and credit framework can do # aspects 1 carry culturally and contextually-determined sustainability competencies 2 contribute significantly to the agenda for sustainable development: un agenda 21, post – 2015 sdgs and african union agenda 2063 3 promote understanding and visibility concerning possibilities for individual progress through life chances and market opportunities 4 promote understanding on how to accede to higher and different levels of education and training over a lifetime as well as plan for children’s educational progress 5 address social equity 6 foster competitiveness of educational systems and structures 7 contribute to capacity development 8 promote the comparability and transferability of qualifications and skills 9 enhance employer confidence in staff recruitment and training 10 facilitate educational and labour market mobility 11 facilitate curriculum design and development with the aid of credit descriptors as they exist within nqcfs 12 respond to the requirements for sustainable development by enabling the recognition of [formal, non-formal and informal] learning in lifelong and lifewide settings and providing possibilities for “people of all ages and circumstances to access appropriate education and training over their lifetime to fulfil their personal, social and economic potential” (scottish qualifications framework). 13 inspire confidence among local, regional and international stakeholders note: adapted from gokool-ramdoo (2015) discussion: connecting the esd dots across an nqcf in this section we demonstrate how after the foregoing protocols are adopted, the nqcf can be an innovative framework where the ‘isolated’ dots that constitute the various aspects of esd can be connected to complete the ‘unfinished businesses’. an nqcf carries “all activities that result in the recognition of learning, such as the means of developing and operationalizing policy on qualifications, along with institutional arrangements, quality assurance processes, assessment and awarding processes” (tuck, 2007, p. v) within given socio-economic arrangements. it promotes transparency, governance and management of the qualifications framework as well as quality assurance by keeping the general public informed about the opportunities that given educational systems can offer (tuck, 2007).  to effectively contribute to sd, the nqcf should be responsive to a given country’s occupational structure. it informs the public about areas where skills and competencies would be required. the nqcf articulates competencies acquired across progressive levels of responsibility spanning across different levels and pathways of learning. at each level there is a description of corresponding qualifications, credits attributed, competencies achievable known as level descriptors and learning outcomes. the associated credit system carries cross-cutting competencies clustered into notional learning hours and credit loads, acquired at progressive levels of difficulty. importantly, the nqcf informs whether learning in formal, non-formal and informal pathways is equally recognized and transferable and whether alternative pedagogies like literacies, are acceptable. literacies are a strategy that connects experiences and understanding to provide directions for informed action. thus the health literate or environmental literate citizen has the competencies to navigate in given situations and make informed or wise decisions about related solutions. as shown in figure 2 below, there should be a free flow from one pathway to another and across all levels of learning. figure 2: the innovative sd-compliant nqcf (adapted from gokool-ramdoo, 2015). the sd-compliant nqcf (figure 2) should be contextually and culturally appropriate. it (i) is inspired from the systems approach (ii) carries the learning activities positioned within the un agenda 21 (iii) rests on esd is its backbone, (iv) inherently adopts critical pedagogy, (v) fosters  sustainability competencies as learning outcomes acquired progressively across levels of learning (1-10 ) and sectors ( including general education [pre-primary-tertiary], vocational, professional, agriculture, maritime, etc.), (vi) enables articulations and pathways between lifelong and lifewide learning opportunities, including arrangements for recognition of prior learning in formal, non-formal and informal settings without losing transparency at the national level (vii) is inclusive of all adjectival educations and pedagogies including literacies (viii) is culturally and contextually adaptable, (ix) supports employability as well as personal and national development and (x) measures progress in sd.  with tensions being resolved between formal, non-formal and informal education, any individual should be able to move across and along the sd-nqcf. by adopting the sd-nqcf, stakeholders can aim at making esd a part of every breath taken. references adea. (2010). promoting critical knowledge, skills and qualifications for sustainable development in africa: how to design and implement an effective response by education and training systems? technical workshop in preparation for the 2011 triennale. 6-9 september, 2010. gammarth tunis: adea. adea. (2011a).  promoting critical knowledge, skills and qualifications for sustainable developmentin africa: how to design and implement an effective response through education andtraining systems? concept note for the analytical work on the theme of the 2012 adea triennale. tunis: adea. adea. (2011b).  report on the inter-country quality node on peace education round-table oneducation, peace building and developmenta policy forum. july 26-28, 2011. kinshasa. democratic republic of congo. tunis: adea. adea. (2012a). adea esd workshop report. adea triennale 2012 follow-up. flic-en-flac: mauritius. tunis: adea. adea. (2013). strategic policy framework for the implementation of the 2012 triennale recommendations. ouagadougou, burkina faso. tunis: adea. allais, s. (2010). the implementation and impact of national qualifications frameworks: report of a study in 16 countries. geneva: ilo. althusser, l. (1971). ideology and ideological state apparatuses. lenin and philosophy and other essays. 121-176. bajaj, m., & chiu, b. (2009). education for sustainable development as peace education. peace & change, 34(4), 441-455. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-0130.2009.00593.x. bokova, i. (2014). foreword. in unesco, (2014c). shaping the future we want. un decade of education for sustainable development (2005-2014). final report. desd monitoring and evaluation. [report]. retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002301/230171e.pdf breunig, m. (2011). problematizing critical pedagogy. international journal of criticalpedagogy, 3(3), 2-23. issn: 2157-1074. breunig, m. (2016).  critical and social justice pedagogies in practice. in m. breunig & m.a. peters (eds.), encyclopaedia of educational philosophy and theory. doi: 10.1007/978-981-532-7-234-1-2-16. bronfman, s. v. (2005). a heideggerian perspective on reflective practice and its consequences for learning design. in a. tait, & a. gaskell, (eds.), reflective practice in open and distance learning: how do we improve? collected conference papers. the 11th cambridge international conference on open and distance learning. cambridge: the open university press. buddhism. anguttara nikaya. iii. 368. cappon, p. (2009). education, training and sustainability conditions for success in a changing world. presentation at the residence of canada's ambassador to france on the occasion of the book launch for education, training and sustainability conditions for success in a changing world. christianity. genesis 1:20-22 confucianism. mencius 1.a.3 cunningham, p. (1993). let’s get real: a critical look at the practice of adult education. journal of adult education, 22(1), 3-15. daweti, m. (2005). standpoint, frames and lenses. in a. tait, & a. gaskell, (eds.), reflective practice in open and distance learning: how do we improve? collected conference papers.the 11th cambridge international conference on open and distance learning. cambridge: the open university press. 26-35. deschênes, a. j., & maltais, m. (2006). formation à distance et accessibilité. sainte foy, pq: teleuniversité. dzelalija, m. & balkovic, m. (2014). theoretical base for multidimensional classification of learning outcomes in reforming qualifications frameworks. in interdisciplinary description of complex systems, 12(2),151-160. doi: 10.7906/indecs.12.2.4. freire p. (1970). pedagogy of the oppressed. london: penguin. freire, p. (1985). the politics of education. culture, power and liberation. usa: bergin & garvey publishers. freire, p., & macedo, d. (1987). literacy: reading the word and the world. uk: routledge. foucault, m. (1991). discipline and punishment: the birth of a prison. london: penguin. giroux, h.a. (1985).  in freire, p., the politics of education. culture, power and liberation. introduction. usa: bergin & garvey publishers. giroux, h.a. (2010, october 17). lessons from paulo freire. chronicle of higher education. [blog].  retrieved from http://www.henryagiroux.com/online_articles.htm glasser, h. (2014). learning for sustainability core competencies. workshop cluster iv-teaching, assessing & promoting 21st century competencies. 2014, november 12. unesco world conference on esd [powerpoint slides]. aichi-nagoya, japan. gokool-ramdoo, s. (2015, march 10-12). harmonization of higher education in africa or why we need to hang in there together…policy brief. association for the development of education in africa. tunis: adea. retrieved from http://www.adeanet.org/en/system/files/policy_brief_harmonization_en.pdf gokool-ramdoo, s, rumjaun, a., & bholah, r. (2012, february 12-17). systemic approach toenvironmental literacy-towards a sustainable africa. triennale sub-theme 1: common core skills for lifelong learning and sustainable development in africa. [report]. retrieved from http://www.adeanet.org/triennale/triennalestudies/subtheme1/1_4_06_gokool-ramdoo_en.pdf gokool-ramdoo, s. (2011). bridging transactional distances in distance education: implications forstudent persistence, quality assurance and national policy development in mauritius. [thesis, university of south australia].  retrieved from http://arrow.unisa.edu.au:8081/1959.8/118495 gokool-ramdoo, s. (2005). how does one learn to become a reflective practitioner? in a. tait, & a.gaskell, (eds.). reflective practice in open and distance learning: how do we improve? collected conference papers. the 11th cambridge international conference on openand distance learning. cambridge: the open university press. 60-67. hannum, w.h., irvin, m.j., lei, p.w., & farmer, t.w. (2008). effectiveness of using learner-centered principles on student retention in distance education courses in rural schools. distance education, 29(3), 211-229. hinduism. atharva veda 12.1. hooks, b. (1993). teaching to transgress. education as the practice of freedom. routledge: new york. hoosen, s., butcher, n., & njenga, k.b. (2009).  harmonization of higher education programmes: a strategy for the african union. african integration review. 3(1). judaism. the book of job. job 12:7-9. kopnina, n. (2014). revisiting the ‘trans-human’ gestalt: discussing ‘nature’ and ‘development’ with students of sustainable business. in journal of education for sustainable development. sage publications, 8(1) 43-63. doi: 10.1177/0973408214529989 lockley, j., & jarrath, m. (2013). the nature of sustainability as viewed by european students’ research. journal of education for sustainable development. sage publications, 7(1) 113–124. doi: 10.1177/0973408213495611 lotz-sisitka, h. (2010). education for sustainable development and retention: unravelling a research agenda. international review of education, 56(2), 207-220. http://65.54.113.26/journal/13538/international-review-of-education  doi:10.1080/13504622.2013 nqa uea. (2012, february 20). qualifications framework, national qualifications authority handbook united arab emirates. [handbook].  retrieved from https://www.nqa.gov.ae/en/pages/404.aspx?requesturl=https://www.nqa.gov.ae/en/qfemirates/qualificationsframework/pages/default.asp oecd. (2010). thematic review on recognition of non-formal and informal learning country background report flanders (belgium). [brochure]. retrieved from https://www.vlaanderen.be/nl/publicaties/detail/recognition-of-non-formal-and-informal-learning-oecd-thematic-review-flanders-belgium-country-note-and-country-background-report pace, p. (2010). education for sustainable development: current fad or renewed commitment to action? journal of baltic science education, 9(4), 315-323. issn 1648–3898. qur’an. 55:1-12 islam. rumjaun, a. (2012). environmental literacy program-the mauritius institute of education (mie). in adea (2012a). adea esd workshop report. adea triennale 2012 follow-up. flic-en-flac: mauritius. sarabhai, v. k. (2014). esd and sustainable development goals. journal of education forsustainable development, 8(1). 1-2. doi: 10.1177/0973408214538584 schied, f. (1995). how did humans become resources anyway? hrd and the politics of learning in the workplace. proceedings of the 36th annual adult education researchconference (pp. 287-292). edmonton: university of alberta. schön, d. (1983). the reflective practitioner: how professionals think in action. new york: basic books. schwandt, t. (1997). qualitative inquiry: a dictionary of terms. thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. sherry, a. c. (2003). quality and its measurement in distance education implementation. in m. g. moore, & w.g. anderson, (eds.), handbook of distance education. 435-460. new jersey: lawrence erlbaum associates, inc. tan, t. (2013, november 6). build up “social reserves”.  in the straits times. [newspaper]. retrieved from https://www.reach.gov.sg/yoursay/discussionforum/tabid/101/default.aspx?ssformaction=%5b%5bssblogthread_view%5d%5d&tid=%5b%5b14099%5d%5d&mode=3 tait, a. (2014). (ed.), learning for development. [editorial]. journal of learning for development, 1(1). retrieved from http://jl4d.com/index.php/ejl4d/article/view/39/20 tait, a. & gaskell, a. (eds.). (2005). reflective practice in open and distance learning: how do we improve? collected conference papers. the 11th cambridge international conference on open and distance learning. cambridge: the open university press. taylor, j. (2014). shaping the gap: ideas for the unesco post-2014 esd agenda. journal of education for sustainable development, 8. 133-141. doi:10.1177/0973408214548369. un. (2015, september 25). united nations. sustainable development goals. retrieved from http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-consumption-production/ un. (2012, june 20-22). united nations. the future we want. [outcome document]. retrieved from https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/733futurewewant.pdf un. (1992, june 3-4).  united nations. agenda 21. [action plan]. retrieved from https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/agenda21.pdf unesco. (2016). united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization global education monitoring report. education for people and planet: creating sustainable futures for all. [report]. retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0024/002457/245752e.pdf unesco. (2014a). united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization aichi nagoya declaration on education for sustainable development. [declaration]. retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002310/231074e.pdf unesco. (2014b). united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization unesco roadmap for implementing the global action program on education for sustainable development. [report]. retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002305/230514e.pdf unesco. (2014c). united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization. shaping the future we want. un decade of education for sustainable development (2005-2014). [report]. retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002303/230302e.pdf unesco. (2014d, november 12-14) united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization. unesco world conference on esd reports on workshops in cluster iv: setting the agenda for esd beyond. [report]. retrieved from http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/multimedia/hq/ed/pdf/esd2014/wcesd_ws_report_cluster_iv_final.pdf unesco. (2014e, november 12-14). united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization. unesco world conference on esd: reports on workshops in cluster ii: reorienting education to build a better future for all. [report]. retrieved from http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/multimedia/hq/ed/pdf/esd2014/wcesd_ws_report_cluster_ii_final.pdf unesco. (2013a, march 4-5). united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization, africa regional consultation to support planning for an esd programme framework to follow on the un decade of esd in 2014. abidjan, ivory coast. [outcome document]. retrieved from http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/multimedia/hq/ed/pdf/esdpost2014_regional_consultation_report_africa.pdf unesco. (2013b, july 31). united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization. proposal for a global action programme on education for sustainable development as follow-up to the united nations decade for sustainable development (desd) after 2014. executive board 192nd session. [action plan]. retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0022/002223/222324e.pdf unesco. (2013c, november 4) united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization proposal for a global action programme on education forsustainabledevelopment as follow-up to the united nations decade for sustainable development (desd) after 2014. general conference. [agenda item]. retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0022/002223/222324e.pd unesco. (2011).  united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization. the hidden crisis: armed conflict and education. education for all. global monitoring report. [report]. retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0019/001907/190743e.pdf unesco. (2009). united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization review of contexts and structures for education for sustainable development. learning for a sustainable world 2009. [report]. retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0018/001849/184944e.pdf unesco. (2007, november 28). united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization. ahmedabad declaration: a call to action. education for life through education. [declaration]. retrieved from http://www.unevoc.unesco.org/fileadmin/user_upload/docs/ahmedabaddeclaration.pdf unesco. (1977, october 14 – 26). united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization.tbilisi declaration. 1977. final report. unesco intergovernmental conference on environmental education organised by unesco in cooperation with unep tbilisi (ussr).  retrieved from http://www.gdrc.org/uem/ee/tbilisi.html unosd. (2013, march 8). united nations office for sustainable development. bridging knowledge and capacity gaps for sustainability transition: a framework for action. retrieved from http://www.unosd.org/index.php?menu=244 wellington, j. (2006). educational research-contemporary issues and practical approaches. continuum: usa. yamaguchi, s. y., & chang  g-c. (2014). integrating transversal skills in educational policies: comparative analysis of 10 countries in asia. reporting on eri-net study, tokyo institute of technology & satoko yano education policy and reform unit, unesco. bangkok. workshop cluster iv. side workshop presentation on 12 november 14. teaching, assessing and promoting 21st century competencies. [powerpoint slides]. world conference on esd. aichi-nagoya, japan.   authors: sushita gokool-ramdoo is currently distance education manager at transinvest construction ltd. a fulbrighter and commonwealth scholar, she served the open university of mauritius and the tertiary education commission, mauritius. she is a recipient of the 2013 woman leader award for distance education in africa. email: sxg288@yahoo.com anwar b. rumjaun is an associate professor in the science education department at the mauritius institute of education. he is currently the head of the school of science and maths and is also the programme coordinator for a b.ed run jointly with the university of mauritius. his research interests are in esd and science/biology education. email: a.rumjaun@mieonline.org microsoft word pandaeditorial.docx issn: 2311-1550 2021, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 221-227 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. editorial researching technology-enabled teaching, learning, and training santosh panda discourses on tel research in a recent publication, mishra and panda (2020) reasserted ‘policy-capacity-technology’ as a theory of change model in effective implementation of technology-enabled learning (tel), and at the same time underlined “to engage in capacity building in institutions and focus on our collective understanding of ‘learning’ in a ‘networked’ society, making use of resource-based learning within and beyond the commonwealth in the broader sense as well as in the contexts of socio-cultural and educational ecologies” (p. 237). in this change model, research on tel assumes considerable significance. the current focus on provisions and mechanisms notwithstanding, we need to go beyond to address if at all and how technology facilitates teachers’ teaching and learners’ learning (kirkwood & price, 2013). in an earlier paper, mishra (2019) presented an excellent analysis of the implementation of tel in (indian) universities through a three-phase framework: preparation, development, and maturation. though evaluation and benchmarking were included in the phase-3 of implementation of tel, there is a need for the specific inclusion of the discourse on ‘research’ (and r&d) in the context of technology and education, as also technology-enabled learning. as an extension, following a designbased research perspective, scanlon et al (2019) underlined that research in tel requires interdisciplinary collaboration across disciplines, and, that use of technology in-context as also how teachers and students as co-explorers are using technology to create their learning practices assume considerable significance. arguing a case for research-based research in tel, price et al (2015) noted that though research on learning has advanced at a fast pace, there is less serious engagement with modelling the inter-related factors associated with learning, teaching, and technology; and that there is a need for the researchers of tel to get into appreciating the existing research studies on teaching and learning in varied contexts, and ‘narrow the gap between research and practice’. in the recent past, multiple voices have been expressed on the relationship between education, technology and human life. one side of the critical voice records tel as a reductive discourse serving other demands rather than that of pedagogical need (bayne, 2014), that tel must not be considered outside the everyday world and life (selwyn, 2014), that tel as disruptive innovation creates more markets than learning opportunities and transformation (goodchild & speed, 2019), and that there is always a downside to use of technology by students resulting in negative engagements (selwyn, 2016). the other side of the voice considers how tel can be understood and implemented to create more self-directed and collaborative learning in-context; and most research on tel has pursued this strand. another critical issue in tel has been provision for learner voices on learning and learning environment in the learning space (temple, 2008) by addressing physical and technological affordances and challenges, and by encouraging collaborative group work, self-directed learning, and collaborative learning (verdonck et al, 2019). 222 besides the critical discourses, it is also to be seen how technology is understood and used in our dayto-day living in our socio-cultural contexts, and how this can be harnessed in the context of teaching and learning (unless one can argue otherwise that ‘technology’ and ‘life’ can run parallel to each other!). in a recent work, selwyn et al (2020) critically analysed six hot takes for educational technology vis-à-vis tel, suggesting that technology needs to address the broader socio-cultural contexts including the neo-liberal ideology and inequality in society. the authors underlined: “it is time to better theorise the links between developments in technology and inequality in education, while also striving to actively design technologies that facilitate more equitable futures for all” (p. 2). they also distinguished between ‘classrooms on platforms’ and ‘platforms in classrooms’ (the former unfortunately being emphasized more by many), and that educational data so essential for deep learning, machine learning, learning analytics and the like, need to be safeguarded against the hegemony of monopolists through data brokers of educational platforms. further, machines must not dictate what is meaningful learning, and how human beings should learn. while underlining the importance of engagement with technology with thirteen conditions of success, henderson et al (2015) noted: “…to better establish tel principles and practices in the collective consciousness of students and staff, not just the ‘usual suspects’, ‘early adopters’ and the ‘already converted’” (p. 140). policy makers, researchers and practitioners need to critically analyse successful enabling factors for tel through research, and the practitioners need to be facilitated for successful implementation of tel. in a recent study on students (henderson, selwyn & aston, 2017), the factors with higher percentages for student acceptance of tel practices included: organization and management of logistics, flexibility of place and location, time-saving, replay and review, and information research. this and other research should guide us how to proceed with technology design for education. in this context, we should not forget that the provisions, perceptions, and practices for tel vary considerably across the globe. the contexts of the developing and low-income countries do not obviously match with those of the developed; and there is always a need to discover tel conditions, facilitative mechanisms, and contributions to education and learning through more research studies. the present issue of jl4d contains peer-reviewed reflective and research-based papers, case studies, and reports from the field which could additionally inform our policy and practice on ‘technology-enabled learning for development’. papers in the current journal issue the invited paper by mark brown and colleagues on micro-credentialing should be of interest to educational leaders and teachers across the globe. with web 4.0, we are moving toward more short courseor module-based learning within a blended learning context, where learners have the freedom to choose such courses or modules either as part of a full certification or as stand-alone or even for self-learning/training. the invited authors present an analysis of global developments in microcredentials, and based on european case studies, discuss how micro-credentials, which are generally confined to national borders, could cut across national boundaries (maybe through forms of various moocs, etc.) so that partnerships and networked learning across borders can be augmented. our research papers section opens with a critical review paper by virginia clinton-lisell on open pedagogy (op). there have been, in recent times, a few reflective reviews on open pedagogy and open 223 educational practices. this review has a distinct focus on open pedagogy research from the viewpoint of faculty and student perceptions, beyond the usual understanding in the use of open educational resources and open licensing. this is the lead paper in the research section, and the review analysis on op should be a recent contribution to the limited reviews available in this area (also included in the analysis by the author herself). the research paper by sutapa bose presents the findings of a learning design research in the context of a distance learning secondary teacher education programme at the indira gandhi national open university, india. the learning design went beyond the normal teaching-learning based on selflearning materials (print and electronic) and study centre-based academic counseling (generally considered as behaviourist) to include student-teachers’ active engagement through debates, critical discussions, and problem solving (generally considered a constructivist approach) within a framework of ‘study-discussion-collaboration-presentation’. it is the active engagement in tasks, alongside the self-learning resources, which promoted critical reflection. one significant implication that we all need to grapple with is how to transfer this engaged kind of learning to the actual school education contexts when the student-teachers take over the role of full-time teachers in schools. also, as suggested by the researcher, the impact of the new learning design on the performance of studentteachers needs to be studied in the future. student perception of e-portfolio in open and distance learning is the next research paper presented by mphoentle modise from the university of south africa, pretoria. e-portfolio formed part of a postgraduate diploma in tertiary education as a formative ‘learning’ tool as also as a summative ‘assessment’ tool. the results showed that above seventy percent of the students actually used the eportfolio, and they showed positive attitude toward it, and also reported various facilitative mechanisms, though there was lack of support from family and friends and it support from the university. the author appropriately suggests considered institutional policy and faculty professional development for full integration of e-portfolio into online learning. the next article by ruchika kuba presents the research findings on the perceived effectiveness of technology-enabled delivery of distance learning geriatric medicine for training medical doctors at the indira gandhi national open university, india through a distance learning postgraduate programme, especially at the time of covid-19 and compulsory remote teaching/ learning from home. while the majority of the students could use the specially designed web support, most of them preferred hard copies of learning materials, communication through social networking sites, a web portal for accessing the resources, and recorded resources of web conferencing. the researcher recommends a blended delivery model comprising web-based resources and other support, social network-based interaction, and live demonstration of practical skills at designated medical colleges and also districtlevel hospitals (i.e., skill development centres). this model could be further examined for offering continuing medical education during and especially in the post-covid era. owo and udoka, in the next paper, report the findings of a research study on perception of lecturers and students of two universities in nigeria toward using e-learning in instructional delivery, obtained through a questionnaire comprising 25 items (12 for ict facilities in universities, and 13 for ict skills of faculty and students). the results of the study (which are similar in many institutions around the 224 globe) showed that while universities did not have adequate digital facilities for e-teaching, the faculty and students also lacked core digital skills for e-learning. these concerns need to be adequately addressed for effective implementation of technology-enabled learning (which further confirms the policy-capacity-technology change model advocated by col—see mishra & panda, 2020). pullenayegem, de silva and jayatilleke applied activity theory to interaction of students in the online component of a writing skills course, from the diploma in english language and literature, offered by the open university of sri lanka. online log reports and semi-structured interviews were used to collect data on contradictions in interaction. the results showed that no single participant could confirm to all the four rules due especially to lack of peer group participation, that some rules were reported as restrictive, and that conformity was also restricted due to delay in obtaining comments on their submissions from the peers. contradictions were also observed among the activity triangles. since online learning is a collaborative exercise of self, peer and mentor collaboration, any constraint from one partner shall affect the other partners as also the quality of interaction and learning. based on a global evaluation of regional centres of col in 2019 and subsequent collection of data on activities and growth of partnerships, perris and mcgreal present an analysis of the outcomes on the growth of partnerships in odl in the commonwealth. the results show achievement of stipulated targets and also positive impact of the regional activities of col. the three regional centres expressed satisfaction in respect of alignment of regional activities with col’s strategic plan, and also continued and consistent support of col in achieving regional objectives. capacity building, advocacy, networking, and regional expansion have been suggested to further intensify the activities in the future. the final paper in the research section by tanyanyiwa and madobi deals with a qualitative study on the challenges faced by students and tutors at the zimbabwe open university in offering geography and environmental studies through open and distance e-learning (odel). the findings suggest significant constraints relating to inability to access online learning resources, absenteeism of local part-time tutors, difficulty in integrating field studies and practicums with e-learning, extended assignment turn-around time, sporadic internet access, inadequate computer literacy by the faculty, among others. the researchers suggest for the open university to have proper institutional planning and management, adequate ict infrastructure and internet connectivity, and consistent advocacy for establishing parity of esteem. we present four papers in the case study section, dealing largely with technology-enabled higher education, agricultural extension, work-based learning, and farmer empowerment. in the first case study, mtebe, fulgence and gallagher report on the experience of tel at the university of dar es salaam in tanzania during covid-19. the university adopted a blended mode of teaching with due preparedness relating to ict infrastructure, instructor training, and the information management system, and the authors suggest to continue the blended mode during post-covid as the most effective mode to offer higher education programmes. in the second case study, de silva and wijeratne report a mobile application app, bimmal govi, in blending with other ict applications, facilitated mushroom farmers in sri lanka to scale-up production, improved the skill to produce mushrooms, enhanced environmental sustainability by designing environment-friendly experiments, 225 and by refurbishing the packaging for marketing. the technology-enabled lifelong learning for farmers (l3f) programme has helped farmers become promising future entrepreneurs. an interesting case study on digital freelancing work-based learning (wbl) during covid-19 has been presented by namjoshi, deshpande and ranade from the prestigious maharashtra knowledge corporation ltd (mkcl) in india. in the absence of any contiguous contact due to the pandemic, mkcl (which is credited to be one of the leaders in technology-enabled learning globally) designed for successful digital-based virtual workplaces and livelihoods for students of diverse backgrounds. the implications have been further discussed by the authors for successful wbl in the future. in the last case study, kalibwani and colleagues present the intervention of the lifelong learning for farmers (l3f) programme in empowering the small holder farmers in uganda, the results of which show positive impact of the programme on empowerment, crop, and household income, especially of women farmers. two papers are included in the section on reports from the field. in the first one, cathy toquero discusses the successful experiences and challenges in offering emergency online teaching by one university in the philippines at the time of the pandemic. in the second one, sin ng and chin ng report a successful intervention programme ‘innovation for love and care’ in the steam (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) education in a secondary school in hong kong at this time of covid-19. these two reports should contribute to the ongoing research and experiencesharing on tel during the pandemic. we are fortunate to have two book reviews in this issue, reviewed by two distinguished scholars — one on ‘virtual reality in curriculum and pedagogy’ by terry neal, and the other on ‘introduction to distance education’ by david porter. these reviews shall also inform us further in areas relating to technology and distance education. conclusion we need to engage with research in technology-enabled learning more critically, and go beyond the contemporary focus on provisions, mechanisms, and impacts. methodologically, tel research requires a balance between the scientific rigour of the positivist methodology and also the contexualised and experiential interpretivist methodology, and that design-based research, in consideration of the two research paradigms, could contribute to theory building in technologyenabled learning (mcdowell & mcdowell, 2020). researchers need to critically engage with application of theories in tel research, and also align tel theoretically with other academic fields of enquiry (bligh, 2020). arguing the case for a strong theoretical grounding for tel research, sclater and lally (2016) underlined the use of language, history, scope and power to engage with the researchers and practitioners of the critical tel community. 226 we hope, the above discussion as well as the fifteen papers and cases of this july, 2021 issue of jl4d shall induce researchers for further critical reflection and more of public-facing (selwyn, 2012), considered, grounded, and quality research on technology-enabled teaching, learning, and training. references bayne, s. (2014). what is the matter with ‘technology enhanced learning’? learning, media and technology, 40(1), 5-20. bligh, b. (2020). theory disputes and the development of the field of technology enhanced learning research field. studies in technology enhanced learning, 1(1), 115-169. goodchild, t., & speed, e. (2019). technology enhanced learning as transformative innovation: a note on the enduring myth of tel. teaching in higher education, 24(8), 948-963. henderson, m., selwyn, n. & aston, r. (2017). what works and why? student perceptions of ‘useful’ digital technology in university teaching and learning. studies in higher education, 42(8), 1567-1579. henderson, m. et al. (2015). conditions for successful technology enabled learning. in t. reiners, et al. (eds.), globally connected, digitally enabled. proceedings ascilite 2015, perth. kirkwood, a., & price, l. (2013). missing: evidence of a scholarly approach to teaching and learning with technology in higher education. teaching in higher education, 18(3), 327-337. mcdowell, j. a., & mcdowell, j. b. (2020). a tale of two studies: tel research and the theory-practice nexus. studies in technology enhanced learning, 1(1), 171-190. mishra, s. (2019). implementing technology-enabled learning in indian universities. university news, 57(34), 711. mishra, s., & panda, s. (eds.), technology-enabled learning: policy, pedagogy and practice. the commonwealth of learning. price, l. et al. (2015). mind the gap: the chasm between research and practice in teaching and learning with technology. in j. m. case & j. huisman (eds.), researching higher education. routledge. scanlon, e. et al. (2019). interdisciplinary working methods: reflections based on technology-enhanced learning (tel). frontiers in education, 4, 134. sclater, m., & lally, v. (2016). critical tel: the importance of theory and theorization. in s. cranmer, n. b. dohn, m. de laat, t. ryberg & j. a. sime (eds.), proceedings of the 10th international conference on networked learning, 56-64. selwyn, n. (2016). digital downsides: exploring university students’ negative engagements with digital technology. teaching in higher education, 21(8), 1006-1021. selwyn, n. (2014). distrusting educational technology: critical questions for changing times. (1st ed.) routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315886350 selwyn, n. (2012). ten suggestions for improving academic research in education and technology. learning, media and technology, 37(3), 213-219. selwyn, n. et al. (2020). what’s next for ed-tech? critical hopes and concerns for the 2020s. learning, media and technology, 45(1), 1-6. temple, p. (2008). learning spaces in higher education: an under-researched topic. london review of education, 6, 229-241. 227 verdonck, m. et al. (2019). student experiences of learning in a technology-enabled learning space. innovations in education and teaching international, 56(3), 270-281. santosh panda chief editor, jl4d cite this paper as: panda, s. (2021). editorial—researching technology-enabled teaching, learning, and training. journal of learning for development, 8(2), 221-227. moon can new modes of digital learning help resolve the teacher crisis in sub-saharan africa? bob moon and charmaine villet vol. 4, no. 1 abstract sub-saharan africa, more than any other part of the world, is experiencing a crisis in finding sufficiently qualified teachers to meet the needs of expanding school systems. the professional development support provided to serving teachers is also inadequate in most countries. the most recent data on learner outcomes has revealed a worrying picture of significant under-achievement across the region. this paper argues that the teacher education and training structures of the last century will never be able to meet urgent contemporary needs. given population growth, especially among the young, large-scale expansion of the teaching force and the associated teacher education systems will be the norm through to the middle years of the century and beyond. in this context the paper argues for a significant policy shift to expand quality teacher education and professional support at scale through a more school-based and digitally supported network model of provision. examples of current digital programmes within the region are considered as well as the new technologies that are emerging with relevance to teacher education. the paper suggests a three-phase process through which national governments might move in making the necessary changes in policy and practice. analyzing the challenge the unesco global education monitoring report for 2016 ‘education for people and planet: creating sustainable futures for all’ makes salutary reading for those of us with a commitment to improving schooling in the world’s low and middle income countries. jeffrey sachs, special adviser to the un secretary general on the 2015-2030 sustainable development goals (sdgs) writes that ‘the report should set off alarm bells around the world and lead to a historic scale up of actions’ if the educational improvement sought is to be realized. the report provides extensive detail of the problems now faced by education systems across the developing world, particularly in sub-saharan africa. central to the analysis is the persistently poor achievement of learners. in essence the core problem is that success in getting children in to school (the ‘out of school ‘ children have been cut by half since 2000) has not been matched by even modest levels of learning success. we will explore this in a little more detail but first we want to set out the framework of our argument, one advanced in a report for the commonwealth of learning (col) that can be found at http://oasis.col.org/handle/11599/2443   we want to suggest that the quality of teachers is the key issue in seeking to improve the achievements of the growing number of children in our school systems. in one sense this is a rather obvious proposition but it is one that has not always been at the centre of policy development. the millennium development goals failed to mention teachers. the sdgs do explicitly prioritize teachers in suggesting that international co-operation will be needed to address the challenge of teacher recruitment, retention, education and training. simply stated, many countries cannot find sufficient teachers for expanding school systems. equally, many countries do not have sufficient teacher training places even if the recruits could be found. additionally, we know, although data on this is not easy to collect, that a large proportion of those completing teacher-training programmes choose not to enter teaching. the consequence is the contracting of large numbers of unqualified adults to take on the teacher role. these teachers receive limited, if any, professional support. in addition we know that qualified teachers in schools also need support and development. but professional development structures are few and far between, especially in the rural communities in which so many children are educated. this situation presents an enormous challenge for teacher policy and practice. many teacher divisions in ministries of education are overrun by the scale and nature of the crisis. teacher education and training presents one of the most intractable problems. it is now clear that the systems for teacher preparation and support developed in the twentieth century are inadequate to meet the needs of the twenty first. campus based training cannot respond to the scale of teacher need. the curriculum within such institutions is also often outdated and lacking a focus on effective classroom practice. in-service training systems, mostly based on the idea of taking teachers out of school on courses, can nowhere meet the scale required and, in any case, have been proven ineffective in changing and improving teacher practice. in this context we argue that policy makers need to acknowledge that most teacher development will have to take place at the school level and that systems and structures need re-engineering to take account of this. let us quickly add that we do not argue for the dismantling of campus based teacher education but rather we see it evolving to play a role in newly formed networks of school and teacher development. and we will go on to argue that the logistics of this approach will only work if access and interaction is facilitated through digital technologies and new modes of at scale open learning. most countries in sub-saharan africa, we suggest, need to radically review policy options in order to: expand initial teacher training through the provision of scaled-up outreach and digitally supported programmes develop similar strategies to ensure that unqualified and under qualified teachers in schools receive support to achieve  appropriate qualification levels give strong policy priority to developing new structures of scaled-up, digitally supported, local and  school based professional development  programmes  (with a strong focus on more effectively teaching the core learning skills of literacy and numeracy) in the past different styles of open and distance learning were often used to fill the gaps in teacher education and training that face-to-face institutions could not meet. the nature and scale of need today, however, requires these approaches to be at the centre, not the periphery, of provision. and with the growing strength of digital technologies this can be achieved in ways previously not thought of. these new approaches are already well advanced in much of higher education. on-line teaching, not always thought of as open and distance learning, can be found in many high status universities across the world. teacher education and training can draw on this wide experience and there are many interesting initiatives in sub saharan africa that provide a direction for policy reform. some of these we draw on below. the teacher and learning crisis in many sub-saharan african countries unesco’s institute of statistics has estimated (unesco, 2015b) that globally the world will need to recruit 25.8 million extra teachers (equivalent to the population of ghana) by 2030 to meet efa targets: 3.2 million would be new posts and 22.6 million would be replacements for teachers retiring or leaving the profession. the 59 million children out of school in 2015 would require the recruitment of 2.7 million teachers, if pupil-teacher ratios did not exceed 40:1. according to the institute’s forecasts, 33 countries will not have enough teachers to achieve universal primary education (upe) in 2030. sub-saharan africa faces the biggest challenge of any major world region. for every 100 children beginning school in 2015 there will be 142 in 2030, and 2.2 million extra teaching posts will be needed to deal with the growth. at a conservative estimate, 3.9 million teachers will be required to replace those leaving the profession. at present it is clear that the traditional structures for training teachers cannot keep pace with this expansion. in a third of countries less than 75% of teachers have the national standard qualification to become a teacher. in a majority of countries the percentage of unqualified or under-qualified teachers is growing. the unesco institute report lists 32 countries globally where less than 75% of teachers have appropriate qualifications. nineteen of these come from the sub-saharan africa region, and, of the 18 countries with pupil-teacher ratios exceeding 40:1, all but one are in the same region. many countries have put in place policies to increase the supply of teachers but in most the rate of growth only just catches up with population needs by the latter part of the 2015-2030 period.  zambia, for example, has been increasing teacher recruitment by an average of 4% a year. yet to achieve upe the expansion would need to grow at 10%. at present recruitment levels the country will not have enough teachers in school until 2029. in other countries the problems are more challenging. the united republic of tanzania will continue to face a shortage of teachers even after 2030 if current trends continue. to achieve upe by 2030 the country would have to recruit 4% more teachers each year compared to the current average growth rate of 3%. finding and educating sufficient teachers is an enormous challenge. large-scale recruitment and training systems are going to be needed for most of this century. equally of concern is the contemporary evidence about teacher knowledge and learner achievement in the region.  the institute for international economic studies (iies) (www.iies.su.se ) working with the world bank has been attempting to measure primary teacher effort, knowledge and skills in seven african countries making up 40% of the population of sub-saharan africa. the initiative has been using service delivery indicators that can be applied across different countries and contexts. a range of data is emerging. after three years primary public schooling many students lack the most basic elements of literacy and numeracy. half of all the children assessed could not read the simplest of words. 70% could not read a basic sentence. a fifth of children could not recognise numbers, half of all children could not put numbers in order and three out of four could not do single digit subtraction. teacher absenteeism is also identified in this research as a major issue.  many children are barely receiving half of the teaching time they are entitled to.  (bold et al 2016) successive efa global monitoring reports, beginning with the 2005 report that specifically addressed issues of quality, provide further evidence on the problems of teacher knowledge and learner achievement. only ghana and south africa of the sub-saharan countries are currently prepared to participate in the international assessments of education outcomes. given the need to scale up provision and the imperative to make it more effective we argue that digitally supported school-based structures present the only feasible long-term policy option. the contemporary take up of digital learning there is a considerable history of applying open and distance learning (odl) methods to teacher education in sub-saharan africa (moon 2000). since the 1960s many countries have experimented with such programmes, mostly directed towards upgrading primary teacher qualifications. specialist odl institutions such as unisa, in south africa, the open university of tanzania and the national teachers institute of nigeria have demonstrated a long-term commitment to teacher education.  long established universities (e.g., the university of pretoria and the university of namibia) are also developing new off-campus teacher education courses. the design of such initiatives is usually built around four elements: providing the resources through which students study. building in-school and other support opportunities so crucial in a practice-focused course. developing appropriate assessment arrangements. creating robust quality assurance systems to monitor programme development. there are a variety of texts that look in detail at the options for course development in relation to these four elements (moon, leach and stevens, 2005). most of these, however, were developed at a time when access to digital technologies was extremely limited. this is now changing: core resources can be provided on already loaded tablets or on-line. resources can be interactive and creatively designed. support can be continuous and encourage peer interaction. providers can keep much closer contact with schools. data on student self-assessment and student progress can be more easily collected and used. quality assurance systems, including student evaluations, can be collected and used more cost effectively and more quickly. alongside the digital adaption of existing courses we can also identify a range of interesting ways that digital technologies are enriching and reforming teacher education.  here are just a few examples. mindset learn delivers curriculum-aligned elearning content and materials over television and the internet, for use by students, teachers, and parents in the classroom and at home. it aims to increase learning outcomes by providing up-to-date, accessible, and interactive learning experiences and has been developed in accordance with south africa’s curriculum assessment policy. all mindset learn content is free to view at learn.mindset.co.za and www.youtube.com/mindsetlearn. coza cares foundation has created a new library, nolwazi, a digital repository of resources aligned with the south african primary school and high school curriculum including subject research and lesson planning. a significant proportion of nolwazi’s content has been sourced from practicing teachers open learning tank (olt) is a platform that supports and builds knowledge around the use and reuse of resources and open source elearning technologies to democratize access to quality academic resources in sub-saharan africa. olt’s goal is to maximize the power of technology to improve teaching and learning and increase access to education for all. siyavula, a new resource bank premised on the idea that each individual should have access to pedagogic support relevant to their personal learning needs. siyavula is a collaborative project seeded by the shuttleworth foundation, through which educators can create, share, and adapt freely accessible and openly licensed resources that are aligned to the school mathematics and science curricula. unlike the vast majority of material, which is under a traditional, restrictive copyright licence, siyavula material can be adapted to ensure cultural relevance or refreshed without incurring costs. cybersmart africa has developed a digital learning platform that can deliver learning resources in sub-saharan africa areas that have no electricity. this works through an all-in-one mobile device that contains a solar panel, solar rechargeable batteries, a projector with interactive whiteboard capabilities, speakers powerful enough for classroom use, 3d capability, cooling fans and a dust filtration system. developed with support from us aid the technology which is provided with resources and teacher training has already shown signs of successful impact in classrooms in senegal (www.www,cybersmartafrica.org). these are important initiatives. our main argument, however, is that we now need to think about the ways in which these innovations can be assimilated into the mainstream of policy and practice. we want to suggest that coming to grips with scale is a crucial issue. for many years to come rapid, large-scale expansion of teacher education systems will be necessary.  digital technologies offer the opportunities to expand at scale whilst ensuring equitable access and engagement of teachers wherever they are located. oers and moocs two of the most interesting developments that have arisen from the development of digital technologies are the open educational resource (oer) movement and the advent of massive open online courses, commonly known as moocs. the impact of oers is growing in higher education globally. the impetus came from a project at the massachusetts institute of technology (mit) to make all course resources freely available through an open courseware project (www.ocw.mit.edu). this began in 2002 and now covers more than 2,000 mit courses in sub-saharan africa there are two substantive oer initiatives that have been taken up by teacher education institutions. the first is the teacher education in sub-saharan africa (tessa) programme. tessa is a consortium of universities and organizations representing more than ten countries on the continent that also draws on the technological expertise of the uk open university. the consortium, in the early years of the century, identified the need for high quality classroom-focused resources to promote more active pedagogic approaches in the primary school sector. the consortium has subsequently developed a wide range of modular and unit-based resources addressing the key areas of the primary curriculum. all the study units involve classroom-based activities that are then monitored and assessed through a range of strategies. the tessa model is, so far, unique in presenting the resources in multi-lingual versions: arabic, english, french and kiswahili (see www. tessafrica.net). all these resources are freely available for use by anyone and that includes the permission to freely adapt the resources in ways necessary to the local contexts. an independent evaluation of tessa, carried out by african experts said the following about the programme: interaction with, and use of, tessa oer has had a significant impact on the identity and practices of teacher educators and a profound impact on those of teacher-learners. it has fused theory and practice; shifted perceptions from teacher as “know it all” to “teacher as facilitator of learning”; and greatly enhanced the relevance of pupils’ learning experiences. the materials have been used in creative ways to meet the real needs of teachers and learners. tessa is a highly successful project, achieving its aims at scale. this has immense implications and promise for all teacher education in ssa. (hartley & barasa, 2012) a second example of oers for teacher education is the oer africa site that is coordinated by saide (www.oerafrica.org) a number of projects have associated oers that are freely available. these include the following: the university of fort hare’s b prim ed was a high-quality programme for in-service eastern cape teachers that ran from 1998 to 2006. oer africa then digitised their excellent materials and made them available online for everyone to enjoy. the acemaths project aiming to pilot a collaborative process for the selection, adaptation and use of oer materials for teacher education programmes in south africa. the saide teacher education series covering a range of topics central to the teacher education process. the african virtual university, based in nairobi (www.avu.org) has also been developing a range of teacher education resources, involving, like tessa, a consortium of countries and institutions. asha kanwar, the president of col sees oers as having the potential to help transform education by involving all kinds of stakeholders in participating, collaborating, creating and sharing knowledge, by encouraging consumers to become the producers of knowledge and by enabling harnessing the wealth of tacit knowledge across the globe to address the great development challenges of the age (kanwar, 2011).  in a very short time oers appear to have captured the imagination of educators, including teacher-educators, across the world. systemic integration into the work of higher education and other organizations appears to be on the immediate horizon. the second digital initiative that is relevant to teacher educators is the massive open online courses or mooc developments. these are usually short courses using online resources and communication to meet as wide an audience as possible. stanford university in the usa was early into moocs – in 2011 it offered a course on artificial intelligence that reached 160,000 teachers. a number of consortia, among them future learn (www.futurelearn.com), have been established to exploit the potential of mooc. france has created an open classrooms site (www.openclassrooms.com) to make moocs (mostly in french but, increasingly, other languages) accessible to all. the open classrooms slogan is ‘des professeurs brilliant et des eleves geniaux’ (bright teachers, great students). moocs have created considerable controversy. detractors question quality and completion rates. supporters point to accessibility and the sheer richness of resources available. moocs now come in many formats, from those with a fairly traditional teaching model to new forms of digital capabilities (nanfito, 2013). debate about moocs will be on-going as higher and professional education begins to integrate digital modes of working into mainstream practice. there are, as yet, few examples across higher education or professional education in sub-saharan africa (escher et al, 2014). the african virtual university is exploring the possibilities of mooc developments. some us private organizations have also begun to explore possibilities.  coursera is one of the largest and best known mooc providers (the two others with this sort of reach are udacity and edx) coursera, with support from the world bank, is planning a new pilot initiative in tanzania to offer moocs as part of a broader initiative to help equip students with employment-relevant it skills. the mooc phenomenon is attracting considerable private investment. one report has estimated that the global market is estimated to grow from us$ 1.83 million in 2015 to us$ 8.5 billion by 2020, at an estimated compound growth rate of 36% (research and markets, 2016). adoption of device-based computing, rapid increases in connectivity and the emergence of online and collaborative learning (including the personalization of technology) are seen as some of the prominent factors driving the adoption of mooc platform and services. there do appear to be important opportunities for teacher educators in the evolution of oers and moocs. teacher education, including post pre-service, operates at large scale in most education systems. a technology designed for working at scale offers the potential to reach out to teachers in ways previously not possible. in addition, a large number of online digital teacher professional development sites are emerging, sometimes involving university staff. there is some evidence that teachers are using social media, such as facebook, for the informal exchange of ideas. there are international examples of this moving into quite elaborate structures. ‘teach meet’ in the uk is a range of informal and online meetings of teachers outside any formal governmental or regional authority jurisdiction. teachmeet events usually have input from well-known educationalists, many of whom work in universities. edcamps in the usa (marcinek, 2014) represents a similar development as do the tessa clubs at ola college in ghana. there are a range of innovations close to widespread adoption that could be of great significance for teacher education. oers now have a significant foothold in teacher education provision. moocs will appear soon, as they already have done in india. key questions for policy-makers and providers follow from this. what elements in teacher education are appropriate for large-scale online provision?  how are these courses mediated at the local (institutional) and school level?  does an infrastructure for course development need creating? what knowledge and skill development is necessary to put such systems into place?  do governments or regional authorities lead in the incorporation of digital technologies into large-scale teacher education provision? or do governments/regional authorities facilitate (through financing and regulatory flexibility) organizations such as universities, ngos and private companies stepping up to this task? whether the term mooc is used or not there is the need for very large-scale programmes for teachers across most of sub-saharan africa and the experience and debates around moocs can contribute to this process. the future of digital applications in teacher education in identifying trends in digital learning that could be incorporated into the design of teacher education programmes we draw on the very useful work of the new media consortium horizon report on higher education produced as part of the educause programme in 2015 (johnson, adams becker, estrada, & freeman, 2015). the report lists a number of technologies that could have a significant impact on education generally. six of these technologies appear to be particularly relevant to teacher education; bring your own device (byod), flipped classrooms, makerspaces, wearable technologies, adaptive learning technologies, and the internet of things. byodand flipped classroom are now at the near-adoption phase. byod refers to the practice of people bringing their own laptops, tablet, or smart phone and connecting to the different institutional networks they use. one of the obstacles to taking up online and digital technologies has been the cost and upkeep of equipment. this is now disappearing as devices such as tablets and increasingly sophisticated mobile telephones become a part of everyone’s everyday toolkit. this is true in sub-saharan africa given the astonishing growth in mobile telephony. teacher education planning and policy will be in a position to exploit these new modes of accessibility. the flipped classroomis an application that is in the adoption phase. the aim is to shift ownership of learning from the teacher to the student. the flipped classroom uses technologies (including byod) to make ideas about blended and inquiry-based learning easier to implement.  essentially students study content through videos, simulations and other online multi-media resources prior to engaging in virtual or face-to-face workshops where the focus is much more on interaction with other students, debate and discussion rather than ‘listening to’ a tutor. makerspaces and wearable technologies have an adoption timeline of two to three years from 2016. in makerspaces, the worlds of design and engineering begin to have significant influence over the educational environment. proponents of makerspaces for education highlight the benefits of engaging learners in creative, higher-order problem solving through hands-on design, construction, and iteration. new technologies such as 3d printers and 3d modeling web-based applications become part of the tool set for those working in the makerspaces. in a sense, makerspaces are a more open-ended flipped classroom. it would be possible, for example, to think about a makerspace in which science teachers, teacher educators and leading scientists collaborated to develop to develop teacher knowledge and skills. in the twoto three-year adoption frame the possibility of incorporating wearable technology into our teaching and learning strategies can also be identified. the far too infrequent and clumsy tradition of lesson observations could be conceived in quite different terms as this technology becomes more common. these technologies could lead to a stronger and deeper discourse around practice.  ethical issues will need addressing but we are close to the point when low cost universal observation of student teachers and teachers could become commonplace. a longer, fourto five-year time scale is envisaged for widespread adoption of adaptive learning technologies and the internet of things. adaptive learning technologies refer to software and online platforms that adjust to individual students needs as they learn. adaptive learning is a sophisticated data-driven, and in some cases non-linear, approach to instruction and remediation. it adjusts to a learner’s interactions and demonstrated performance level, and subsequently anticipates what types of content and resources learners need at a specific moment in time to make progress (see http://educationgrowthadvisors.com/gatesfoundation). there are two levels to adaptive learning technologies – the first platform reacts to individual user data and adapts instructional media accordingly, while the second leverages aggregate data across a large sample of learners for insights into the design and adaptation of curricula. these sophisticated technologies might have important implications for how to understand and judge quality and performance in the classroom. these technologies open up some fascinating prospects for research-focused university-school programs. if, for example, teachers had more detailed profiles of individual or group learning, the question remains how could this be pedagogically deployed. finally, there is the internet of things, a network of connected objects that link the physical world with the world of information through the web. learners carrying such devices can benefit from a host of inter-disciplinary information. one example is learners exploring an urban or rural landscape who could call on architectural, political, or biological lenses in order to understand what they see. the teacher in the classroom should be able to use the same technology in drawing ready-for-purpose resources for individual or collective use. describing such future scenarios can quickly look dated, not the least because the six overlapping technologies we have identified at this moment in time will be disrupted by interaction with each other and through the arrival of even newer applications. the point, however, is the rather simple one that the technologies now exist to fuse the worlds of university, teacher educator, teachers and schools in ways hitherto impossible. exploiting this to give greater value to the teacher educator task seems essential.  most significantly the sort of curriculum development that would be associated with the exploitation of these new forms of technology are equally applicable in campus-based or school-based, distant provision. the evidence thus far suggests that students working through a blended online and face-to-face model are stimulated by the quality of the resources being used as well as the personal and collective autonomies that this engenders. take-up of these forms of technology go beyond the realm of teacher education. (see willcox et al 2016) innovative uses of digital learning are now widespread and, as noted already, are significantly impacting higher education and professional training in the public and private sectors. in an important sense taking the opportunities offered by blending in digital learning to teacher education is not a futuristic ambition. many of the technologies are already there. but it does need systematic governmental and institutional planning to ensure that structures are in place, key staff well trained and resources available. at national, regional and institutional levels such planning will now need to go beyond the promulgation of new technology policy statements (of which there are many) to more detailed and creative mapping out of new modes of provision. this will almost certainly require more collaboration between the different levels of government and the different types of teacher education provider than has hitherto been the case. phasing in digital reforms to teacher education below we suggest three phases of adoption of digital learning in teacher education that are likely to occur. these are generic phases that will certainly vary from one context to another. they could function, however, as markers for policy development at national, regional or institutional levels within any education system: phase 1: teacher education systems as they are today with some digital development. phase 2: full exploitation of existing technologies when access becomes nearly universal. phase 3: incorporation of a future range of digital affordances relevant to teacher education. it is important to note that each of these levels envisages some form of hub and network structure through which these new models would function. such hubs in one sense already exist. a university, a regional education authority and some private companies are playing such a role in terms of surrounding schools and teachers. in this context, however, a hub becomes a much more explicit part of any digital network. the hub might manage different forums supporting the exchange of ideas, it might act as the repository of pre-selected oers or showcase the way local teachers have produced new resources or re-interpreted existing oers. there will be more than one model of how a hub would function or facilitate but it would be essential to allowing the network to become established and evolve (anamuah-mensah, banks, moon, & wolfenden, 2013). phase 1: 2016-20 for campus-based pre-service courses it is now possible to envisage that in most contexts students will have access to online resources and digital communications. the planned integration of good quality oers (such as tessa or oer africa) could enrich teaching, particularly that focused on practical classroom understanding. such resources could also be used for structured practicum activities. the use of online forums to promote the exchange of ideas can be encouraged. some institutions will incorporate online reporting of student projects and research into course provision. there may also be opportunities for providing tutor to mentor/supervising teacher communication through email or other forms of digital communications (facebook for example). phase 2: 2018-2022 for campus-based provision, the main gains from phase 1 will be online access to students and teachers in schools; the opportunity will now exist for rethinking practice supervision.  although some personal visits will continue, digital observations and digital collaboration with school mentors will be possible. for school-based programmes, universal access offers significant advantages in terms of potential scale of take up and quality of provision; teachers following upgrading courses will have full access to a range of oers that providers (or providing ‘hubs’) will organize. there is a range of topics in teacher education that might be taught through international mooc-style provision (examples might include the mathematics or science subject content knowledge required by primary teachers). the teachers following these upgrading courses could have access to the forums and resources created for students in the campus-based model; with universal access it is possible to envisage the building of a shared virtual resource centre serving campus and school-based programmes phase 3: 2020 onwards phase 3 builds on the systems and structures of phase 2 but integrates new applications into the educating and training processes. in this scenario all students and teachers will have their own devices and broadband access. wearable technology will permit practice observation to take place at any time. there will inevitably be concerns about ‘spy in the cab’ type of privacy intrusions. new protocols will need to be developed with appropriate consultation. the use of flipped classrooms will become commonplace. in teacher education programmes it might be possible to imagine a virtual group of campus-based pre-service students and some serving teachers in upgrading or cpd programmes.  tutors working across the programme might have identified a task, issue or problem (examples could include the achievements of girls in lower secondary mathematics or the parental role in learning to read at the primary phase). students and teachers study a range of online resources prior to becoming involved in discussions that lead to some investigatory activities at the school level. building a research agenda around new modes of teacher education the development of digital technologies in teacher education, particularly the potential to scale up and improve the quality of education and training, provides fascinating opportunities for the researcher and evaluator: how does teacher education sit within the national and local systems of education? what are the determinants that impact teacher education? how do they relate to each other? what structure of determinants seems most likely to prove effective? how is it possible to ascertain and monitor effectively the flow of need for pre-service and upgrading programmes? what balance of provision would give a guarantee of education and training for all teachers? what is the scale of need for effective cpd programmes; how could this realistically be provided and who should do so? is there a need for a stronger role for public and private universities in the professional development of teachers and how might universities provide for this? what are the varying profiles of teachers needing to go through upgrading programmes? what is their prior experience? how can teacher educators make their pedagogic practice more effective in providing digitally enhanced programmes. what are the future education and training needs for teacher educators? can we monitor the progress of students and teachers to having universal broadband access? what are the barriers and how can these be overcome? what governance structures, at all levels, effectively encourage the move to universal access? what governance structures at all levels promote equitable access to education and training for teachers? what are the most effective combination of elements in blended programmes of pre-service, upgrading and cpd? how are digital technologies effectively integrated into such programmes? how are oers best created for teacher education programmes? what are the means by which oers might be versioned for local context? what contribution can the private sector make? how effective are moocs within teacher education programmes? within blended programs of teacher education what are the most effective combinations of school-based, online and personal tutor visit support? what are the implications for costs and administration of alternative scenario support? is it possible to develop research and development instruments that robustly trace the impact of cpd on learner rather than teacher outcomes? how can programmes successfully help promote the professional values in teachers that would indicate a purposeful and effective education system? this set of questions is illustrative of the sort of profile that could be given to research and evaluation around new modes of teacher education. there has been work in this area but it dates quickly and research projects rarely show any progression in creating new knowledge and understanding. there is perhaps a need for legitimate organizations to take a lead in mapping out the field and overseeing research progress. the newly established african deans of education forum (adef) might have a role, as would international organizations such as the world bank, col and the international aid agencies. the unesco task force on teachers could give a stronger focus to this. the sustainable development goals  (particularly sdg 4 c) seek to encourage international cooperation around teacher supply and education. the reform of policy and practice in all forms of teacher education must surely be a priority? embracing digital technologies and drawing on the experience in higher education generally ought, we feel, to be central to this process. references anamuah-mensah, j., banks, f., moon, b., & wolfenden, f. (2013). new modes of teacher pre-service training and professional development. in bob moon (ed.), teacher education and the challenge of development: a global analysis. london: routledge. bold, t. (2016). what do teachers know and do? a report card on primary teachers in sub-saharan africa: paper presented at the 2016 rise conference. escher, g., noukakis, d., & aebischer, p. (2014). boosting higher education in africa through shared massive online courses (moocs). international development policy, 5(1). retrieved from https://poldev.revues.org/1790 hartley, k., & barasa, f. (2012). tessa: teacher education in sub-saharan africa formative evaluation report. retrieved from http://www.tessafrica.net/sites/www.tessafrica.net/files/tessa_formative_evaluation_report_october_2012.pd johnson, l., adams becker, s., estrada, v., & freeman, a. (2015). nmc horizon report: 2015 higher education edition. austin, tx: the new media consortium. retrieved from http://cdn.nmc.org/media/2015-nmc-horizon-report-he-en.pdf kanwar, a. (2011). can oer transform education? a developing world perspective. retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11599/631 moon, b. (2000). the open learning environment: a new paradigm for internal developments in teacher education. in bob moon, mariam ben peretz, & sally brown (eds.), the routledge international companion to education. london: routledge. moon, b., leach, j., & stevens, m. (2007). designing open and distance learning for teacher education in sub-saharan africa: a toolkit for educators and planners. african region human development working paper series no 104. washington dc: the world bank. nanfito, m. (2013). moocs: opportunities, impacts and challenges. createspace independent publishing platform. unesco (2015a). efa global monitoring report. education for all 2000-2015: achievements and challenge. paris: unesco. unesco (2015b). sustainable development goal for education cannot advance without more teachers. uis fact sheet no 33. retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002347/234710e.pdf willcox, k., sarma, s., & lippel, p. (2016). online education: a catalyst for higher education reform. retrieved from https://oepi.mit.edu/files/2016/09/mit-online-education-policy-initiative-april-2016.pdf authors bob moon is emeritus professor of education at the open university (uk).  prior to moving into higher education professor moon was a secondary school teacher and head teacher. he has written extensively on teacher education and international education. his latest book do universities have a role in the education and training of teachers? an international analysis of policy and practice was published in 2016 by cambridge university press. professor moon was the founding director of the teacher education in sub-saharan africa (tessa) programme. he has advised many national governments and international organisations (including col, the eu, unesco, unicef, unrwa and the world bank). in 2009 he was appointed a fellow of the academy of social sciences in recognition of his research into teacher education and development. he is currently the education specialist on dfid’s research advisory group. email: bob.moon@open.ac.uk dr. charmaine villet is the dean in the faculty of education at the university of namibia. she is the recipient of the university of namibia’s sabbatical award for the best academic in 2011. she has led prominent studies in educational reform, and has overseen the transformation of teacher education, continuous professional development for teachers and national capacity development projects for preand lower primary teachers in namibia. charmaine villet and a team of teacher educators are currently working on a custom-fit upskilling programme for unand under-qualified junior primary teachers in namibia. a unique feature of this programme is the efficient use of digital technologies and new modes of programme delivery to meet the demand for quality teachers. in her role as co-chair of the international teachers taskforce, she wishes to bring renewed energy and focus to the plight of teachers and the improvement of schooling in lowand middle-income countries. email: cvillet@unam.na   microsoft word mathew.docx issn: 2311-1550 2022, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 340-350 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. impact of covid-19-related distress on anxiety and depression of college students jain mathew, preksha yadav, sridevi nair, roseline gomes and sheeba bhaskar christ (deemed to be university), bangalore, india abstract: the current study explores the impact of covid-19 related distress factors on the mental wellbeing of college students. for the purpose of the study, mental well-being is measured through the depression symptoms and general anxiety levels of the students. the study used judgemental sampling to identify the respondents of the study. the final sample consisted of 147 respondents and the data was analysed on spss. the results suggested that while covid-19 distress factors were not significant in predicting the level of depression symptoms experienced by the students, the general anxiety levels were significantly impacted by the distress factors. the findings are particularly useful for the teachers and institutions working to connect and teach through online platforms. keywords: covid-19, depression, anxiety, mental well-being, india. introduction on the last day of 2019, the world health organization (who) was informed about patients displaying symptoms of pneumonia, without a clear reason, in wuhan city, china. the corona viruses (cov) are a big family of viruses that may lead to anything from normal cold symptoms to lifethreatening complications. this new strain of the cov family had never been seen in humans. this new virus was given the name covid-19 (who, 2020). on march 11, 2020, the world health organization (who) announced covid-19 as a worldwide medical crisis and a pandemic. the covid-19 pandemic has impacted people from all countries, continents, religions, and socioeconomic classes (shanafelt et al., 2020). to prevent the virus from spreading, most of the world's population has been asked to limit mobility and remain under lockdown (kaplan et al., 2020). the use of face masks and frequent washing of hands have been recommended as precautions against the spread of the virus (cheng et al., 2020). india is not different from the rest of the world when it came to declaring a nationwide lockdown. as a result of the changes put in place to fight the spread of the virus, psychological distress has been escalating (chetterje, 2020). the covid-19 pandemic's negative consequences are becoming disturbingly visible across the world. there is an alarming increase in the number of fatalities and layoffs, which in turn have also led to a psychological health emergency (sherman, et al., 2020). although research on the anxiety and stress caused by covid-19 or "coronaphobia" is still in its early stages, empirical evidence suggests that it plays a significant impact on the psychological well-being of individuals (asmundson & taylor, 2020). during a pandemic, people are expected to be anxious, stressed, and depressed because of their worry about the unknown (rehman et al., 2020). stress is defined as a sensation of mental and physical strain 341 that develops when our equilibrium is threatened (selye, 1956). fear of the unknown characterises anxiety, which is the brain's normal reaction to stress (holland, 2018). depression is defined as a feeling of discontent with everyday routine. researchers have urged for prompt intervention into psychological health in the covid-19 pandemic, keeping in mind the worries about psychological suffering expressed throughout the world. additionally, the world health organization (who, 2020) has published public-interest guidelines to handle any potential mental health problems (rehman et al., 2020). as witnessed in earlier global crises, during covid-19, too, people have reported experiencing considerable psychological discomfort (anxiety, stress, and depression) (wang, 2020). researchers have previously discovered that acute viral diseases, such as sars, can produce anxiety, sadness, stress, and depressive disorders in both survivors and non-infected individuals (wu, 2005). with the present study, the researchers attempt to have a better understanding of the impact of covid-19 on college students' mental health. to do so, the researchers have examined the impact of covid-19 related distress on anxiety and depression symptoms of college students. literature review a pandemic makes people frightened of contracting the disease, which leads to stress, depression, and anxiety (hall et al., 2008). social isolation has been widespread, as a result of government restrictions to slow down the spread of the virus (brooks et al., 2020). teenagers, who depend on their peer networks for psychological support and social growth, may find these limitations even more challenging (ellis & zarbatany, 2017). considering the strong linkages between stress and the development of emotional difficulties in adolescents, it is necessary to examine the impact of lockdown and social isolation on adolescents' mental health (rapee, 2019). the covid-19's psychological influence on teens has not been studied longitudinally, and whatever is known is based on retrospective descriptions of reported psychological changes in teenagers, who were exposed to the virus (hawke et al., 2020). to understand the significance of studying the impact of the covid-19 outbreak on teens’ psychological health, it is necessary to understand that adolescence is a time of rapid growth and change. this phase of life is generally characterised, by theorists, as a time of rapid change (casey, 2010). the physical and chemical changes in the brain that occur in early adolescence have a significant impact on emotional responses to real or potential stress (bailen, 2019). even self-regulation mechanisms are not fully established until late adolescence or early adulthood (somerville et al., 2010). at this stage in life, peer approval and disapproval significantly direct their behaviour, build their self-concept, and decide their self-value (connell & wellborn, 1991). it has been demonstrated that unfavourable peer interactions through this developmental phase can result in a poor self-image and a drastic increase in symptoms of depression and anxiety (la greca & harrison, 2005). a few researchers have examined the effect of the pandemic on child psychological health and development. there was no significant rise in depression, anxiety, or stress in a study of 1,740 chinese adults conducted after the outbreak (wang et al., 2020). six hundred and twenty-two canadian teenagers and young adults were surveyed about their mental health three months before the pandemic and three weeks after it occurred, and they found significant differences when results were compared (hawke, 2020). over the course of the study, participants reported decreased levels of 342 mental health, notably, low mood, and anxiety. as a result of actions taken to prevent the spread of disease, students' psychological health and mental wellness may be impacted by a decline in social interactions, concerns about their own health and the health of friends and family members, confusion about the future and academic progress, and concerns about finances and employment (elmer, 2020). theoretically, the predisposition model proposes that the environment or contextual factors are critical in predicting the mental wellbeing of an individual. the predisposition model (ormel et al., 2001) suggests that personality interacts with the environment and that environmental triggers can result in a greater tendency to display depressive symptoms and anxiety. research suggests that early temperament can predict the baseline risk for depression, anxiety and stress; and that environmental triggers would either increase or decrease the risk. thus, positive experiences are likely to decrease depression tendencies and negative experiences are likely to increase mental health issues (ormel et al., 2001). the probability of having an episode of depression or experiencing high levels of anxiety is also expected to peak during adolescence (klein, kotov & bufferd, 2011). based on the literature reviewed, the current study attempts to understand the major distress factors for college students and their impact on depression symptoms and general anxiety levels of the individual. methods the current study attempts to understand the role of covid related distress factors in predicting the mental health of college students. the methodology of the study has been outlined in this section. participants the participants for the current study were college students belonging to the age group of 18-20. many tier 1 and tier 2 colleges in the city of bangalore, india were approached for the study — these colleges were conducting regular online classes during the lockdown. permission was sought from the principal/head/dean of the college, and the teacher in charge of the class or the class teacher was approached and the questionnaire was administered online through the teacher, during her online class. given that the topic was sensitive in nature, students were given a choice to participate. it was not made mandatory. the consent to participate in the study was taken at the beginning of the survey, and responses were received from 147 students and analysed. data collection data was collected through a structured questionnaire that was made available through the platform of google forms. the form was shared during the class hours. this ensured that the responses were genuine. the first section of the questionnaire collected demographic details, the next section was regarding the covid related distress factors, followed by the section on depression symptoms and general anxiety. the data was then cleaned using excel and analysed using ibm spss. instruments the study had three variables: covid related distress factors, depression symptoms and general anxiety. covid related distress factors scale was adapted from the study by magson et al. (2021). the modified version of the scale consisted of 17 items. since the respondents were not currently employed, the statement regarding the loss of a job was considered irrelevant. the respondents were asked to indicate the level of distress caused by the factors described in the statements. for example, participants were asked to indicate how distressed they felt about “family or friends catching 343 covid”, “dying from covid”, “not being able to meet their friends and relatives”, etc. the instrument used a five-point likert scale. the short mood and feelings questionnaire-child version by angold et al. (1995), was used to measure depression symptoms. the questionnaire consisted of 13 items and the respondents were asked to indicate their response on a three-point scale: 1 indicating not true to 3 indicating always true. some examples of the statements include, “i felt miserable or unhappy”, “i was restless” or “i didn’t enjoy anything at all”. the general anxiety level was measured by the general anxiety section of the spence children’s anxiety scale (spence 1998). the instrument comprises six statements to be marked on a four-point scale, ranging from 1 (never) to 4 (always). the respondents were asked to indicate how often they experienced feelings like “i worry about things” or “i feel afraid”. a summary of the reliability analysis of the scales has been presented below in table 1. table 1: reliability of scales scale cronbach’s alpha no. of items general anxiety scale 0.805 6 depression symptoms 0.885 13 covid related distress factors 0.881 17 ethical considerations given the sensitive nature of the study, the sample was restricted to college students above the age of 18. additionally, respondents were asked to complete the survey during their class hours, in the presence of a teacher. this provided them with the opportunity to clarify any doubts regarding the meaning of the sentences and allowed the teacher to monitor any emotional reactions. participation was not mandatory, and students were allowed to opt out of the study. only after informed consent was recorded was the questionnaire made available. results the first step in the analysis involved the analysis of the variables. table 2 presents the descriptive statistics of the variables. the mean values of the variables were found to be above the median scores for the respective scale. the mean score for general anxiety (ga) was found to be 2.64, for depressions symptoms (ds) it was found to be 1.88 and for covid related distress factors the value was found to be 2.74. the skewness and kurtosis values were found to be within the acceptable range of +3 to -3, suggesting that the data could be considered normally distributed (kline, 2005). 344 table 2: descriptive statistics of the variables n mean std. deviation skewness kurtosis min max ga 147 2.64 .652 .100 -.912 1 4 ds 147 1.88 .431 .098 -.553 1 3 cd 147 2.74 .750 .156 -.824 1 5 valid n (listwise) 147 the researchers had asked the respondents to indicate their family’s annual income category. this was done to evaluate if the level of distress was dependent on the family income levels. to analyse the same, one-way anova was employed. the results of the analysis of variance have been presented in table 3. table 3: analysis of variance of covid related distress with annual income sum of squares df mean square f sig. between groups 2.587 3 .862 1.529 .210 within groups 77.821 138 .564 total 80.408 141 the results of the analysis of variance suggest that the level of distress is not dependent on the income of the family (p > 0.05). the researchers then proceeded to analyse the relationship between the variables. the correlation matrix is presented in table 4. table 4: correlation matrix ga ds cd ga pearson correlation 1 sig. (2-tailed) ds pearson correlation .447** 1 sig. (2-tailed) .000 cd pearson correlation .373** .269** 1 sig. (2-tailed) .000 .001 the correlation between the variables was found to be significant (p < 0.05). the variable of covid related distress factors was found to be more strongly related to the general anxiety levels (r = 0.37). 345 the relation between covid related distress and depression symptoms was found to be 0.27. having established correlation, the researchers proceeded to analyse the impact through regression analysis. table 5: summary of regression analysis model r r square adjusted r square f sig. ds .389 .151 .040 1.353 .171 ga .504 .254 .156 2.587 .001 coefficients b std. error standardised b t sig. ga cd10 .211 .066 .392 3.207 .002 covid related distress factors were found to be significant in predicting the general anxiety levels among college students (p < 0.05). analysis of the coefficients suggests that cd10 was significant in predicting anxiety levels. thus, college students were particularly anxious about their education and the model predicted, approximately, 25% variance in the anxiety levels of college students. discussion the covid-19 lockdown is causing anxiety and depression in a significant portion of the population, which may be described by people's intolerance for ambiguity, regardless of their age. such insecurity is likely to result in a higher level of psychological illness (freeston et al., 2020). according to several studies conducted on individuals with severe acute respiratory syndrome (sars) and health personnel in hospitals, detained individuals were worried both about their confinement and the possibility of spreading this sickness to their families (maunder, 2014). even if individuals under this research have not contracted covid-19, they have been exposed to it in some form or another. to keep the disease from spreading, they had to adhere to strict infectioncontrol procedures, including confinement inside their city, shifting from offline classes to online classes and staying at home. these restrictions may have created detrimental psychological consequences. the findings of the current study suggest that the variable of covid related distress factors were significantly and positively related to the general anxiety levels and depression symptoms. these findings are in line with those of wheaton (2012). in his study, he found that there is a strong correlation between a high inclination to worry or stress about issues in a normal scenario and personal psychological well-being during a pandemic. government directives forced students to stay at home and students' everyday life has changed drastically. an additional change for students was that they now attended online classes and physical interaction with teachers and friends was minimal. 346 as a result of such seclusion, the conventions of daily life have been altered and staying at home has been shown to exacerbate anxiety and depression (brooks et al., 2020). it is also apparent that a lack of awareness regarding therapy and the absence of a vaccine could lead to a greater prevalence of anxiety and depression during a pandemic (taylor & asmundson, 2004). in this research researchers also found that covid related distress factors have a strong impact on general anxiety levels among college students and there is a lot of anxiety among college students regarding their education. the regression model can predict a 25% variance in the general anxiety levels of college students. in other words, concern regarding their education was causing a 25% increase in anxiety levels of the college students. in a similar study conducted in the neighboring nation of bangladesh, students from universities reported a high level of anxiety and depression (islam et al., 2020; jamilah et al., 2020). it is also found that the level of distress is not dependent on the income of the family. this contradicts most of the epidemiological studies conducted around the world, where the poorest individuals were found to be the most vulnerable to mental health problems. the mental disorders were much higher in the low-income population (caron, 2010). the findings highlight the anxiety regarding education that students are facing, since the shift to online classes. a similar study by adnan and anwar (2020), found that in pakistan, students had highlighted that lack of physical interaction with teachers, response time and the lack of classroom socialisation were critical issues that students were facing. while online education has the advantage that it can be accessed from anywhere and allowed for learning to be continued even during the pandemic, researchers and professionals have identified that the interaction between the student, facilitator and material, as well as the emotional and social support that the student received in offline education, are missing in the online context (mukhtar et al., 2020). this has led to a rise in mental health issues among students with reports suggesting that 58% of college students in india reported an increase in the levels of stress, loneliness, anxiety, hopelessness and a decrease in happiness after the shift to online classes (singh, 2021). prior research has also found that covid related distress leads to depression symptoms. ahmed et al. (2020), found that the covid-19 epidemic had a comparable effect on college students in terms of anxiety, stress, and depression. their findings also suggest that students with greater levels of anxiety and depression symptoms were equivalent to individuals who are employed full-time, business owners and unemployed people. reports also suggest that over 53% college students have indicated that they have experienced mild to extreme depression since the shift to online education (singh, 2021). in the study on students from bangladeshi universities also it was reported that the pandemic has a significant impact on depression symptoms (khan et al., 2020). other studies show that students' psychological misery is exacerbated by the epidemic and that it may be due to more fundamental characteristics, including concerns, feelings of vulnerability, as well as their overall ability to deal with such emotions. however, in the current study, there is no statistical evidence to conclude that the covid related factors are causing an increase in the depression symptoms of college students. limitations the primary limitation of the current study is that it relies on self-reported data. this raises doubts about reporting bias. to conclusively establish the causal relationship, the self-reported data would have to be supported with independent measures. another possible solution would be to extend the 347 study into a longitudinal study and collect data at different time points. this would also add to the validity of the study and help in improving our understanding of the negative impact that the measures taken to counter the pandemic may have on the mental health of adolescents. conclusion as students adjust to the new ways of learning and social distancing norms, researchers argue that there is an urgent need to understand the effects of the measures put in place to control covid-19, on the mental wellbeing of the students. while some researchers have attempted to evaluate the immediate impact, others believe that the true ramifications will only be clear in the years to come. history suggests that global emergencies like a pandemic are likely to increase insecurities in the individual and give rise to anxiety and depression. in the current study, the researchers attempted to validate the same in the context of college students. in addition, the study also attempts to identify the significant distress factor that could predict anxiety levels and depression symptoms among college students. the findings suggest that the worries regarding their education could predict a 25% variance in the anxiety levels. thus, as the concerns regarding their education grow, anxiety levels are also likely to rise. although the findings suggest that the covid related distress factors were significantly and positively related to depression symptoms, there is no statistical evidence to suggest a causal relationship. references adnan, m., & anwar, k. (2020). online learning amid the covid-19 pandemic: students' perspectives. online submission, 2(1), 45-51. ahmed, m. z., ahmed, o., aibao, z., hanbin, s., siyu, l., & ahmad, a. (2020). epidemic of covid-19 in china and associated psychological problems. asian journal of psychiatry, 51, 102092. https://doi.org/10. 1016/j.ajp.2020.102092 angold, a., prendergast, m., cox, a., harrington, r., simonoff, e., & rutter, m. (1995). the child and adolescent psychiatric assessment (capa). psychological medicine, 25(4), 739-753. asmundson, g. j. g., & taylor, s. (2020). coronaphobia: fear and the 2019-ncov outbreak. journal of anxiety disorders, 70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2020.102196 bailen, n. h., green, l. m., & thompson, r. j. (2019). understanding emotion in adolescents: a review of emotional frequency, intensity, instability, and clarity. emotion review, 11(1), 63-73. brooks, s. k., webster, r. k., smith, l. e., woodland, l., wessely, s., greenberg, n., & rubin, g. j. (2020). the psychological impact of quarantine and how to reduce it: rapid review of the evidence. the lancet, 395(10227), 912–920. https://doi.org/10. 1016/s0140-6736(20)30460-8 caron, j., & liu, a. (2010). a descriptive study of the prevalence of psychological distress and mental disorders in the canadian population: comparison between low-income and non-low-income populations. chronic diseases and injuries in canada, 30(3). casey, b. j., jones, r. m., levita, l., libby, v., pattwell, s. s., ruberry, e. j., & somerville, l. h. (2010). the storm and stress of adolescence: insights from human imaging and mouse genetics. developmental psychobiology, 52(3), 225-235. https://doi. org/10.1002/dev.20447. cheng, v., wong, s., chuang, v., so, s., chen, j., sridhar, s., et al. (2020). the role of community-wide wearing of face mask for control of coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) epidemic due to sars-cov-2. journal of infection. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jinf.2020.04.024. 348 chetterje, p. (2020). gaps in india’s preparedness for covid-19 control. the lancet infectious diseases, 20(5), 544. https://doi. org/10.1016/s1473-3099(20)30300-5. connell, j. p., & wellborn, j. g. (1991). competence, autonomy, and relatedness: a motivational analysis of selfsystem processes. in self processes and development. (pp. 43-77). lawrence erlbaum associates, inc. ellis, w. e., & zarbatany, l. (2017). understanding processes of peer clique influence in late childhood and early adolescence. child development perspectives, 11(4), 227-232. elmer, t., mepham, k., & stadtfeld, c. (2020). students under lockdown: comparisons of students’ social networks and mental health before and during the covid-19 crisis in switzerland. plos one, 15(7), e0236337. freeston, m. h., tiplady, a., mawn, l., bottesi, g., thwaites, s., 2020. towards a model of uncertainty distress in the context of coronavirus (covid-19). preprints. hall, r. c. w., hall, r. c. w., & chapman, m. j. (2008). the 1995 kikwit ebola outbreak: lessons hospitals and physicians can apply to future viral epidemics. general hospital psychiatry, 30(5), 446-452. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2008.05.003 hawke, l. d., barbic, s. p., voineskos, a., szatmari, p., cleverley, k., hayes, e., … cheung, a. (2020). impacts of covid-19 on youth mental health, substance use, and well-being: a rapid survey of clinical and community samples. the canadian journal of psychiatry, 65(10), 701-709. https://doi.org/10.1177/ 0706743720940562 holland, k. (2018, may 24). anxiety: causes, symptoms, treatment, and more. https://www.healthline.com/healt h/anxiety islam, m. s., ferdous, m. z., & potenza, m. n. (2020). panic and generalized anxiety during the covid-19 pandemic among bangladeshi people: an online pilot survey early in the outbreak. journal of affective disorders, 276, 30-37. jamilah, a., haque, m. i., muhammad, f., harun, m. g. d. h., chowdhury, a. b. m. a., akramuzzaman, m., arafat, s. m. y., & kabir, r. (2020). depression and associated factors among international students in a private university of bangladesh. global psychiatry, 0. https://doi.org/10.2478/gp-2020-0021 kaplan, j., frias, l., & mcfall-johnsen, m. (2020, april 13). a third of the global population is on coronavirus lockdown — here’s our constantly updated list of countries and restrictions. https://www.businessinsider.com/countrieson-lockdowncoronavirus-italy-2020-3?ir=t khan, k. s., mamun, m. a., griffiths, m. d., & ullah, i. (2020). the mental health impact of the covid-19 pandemic across different cohorts. international journal of mental health and addiction. https://doi.org/10. 1007/s11469-020-00367-0 klein, d. n., kotov, r., & bufferd, s. j. (2011). personality and depression: explanatory models and review of the evidence. annual review of clinical psychology, 7, 269-295. la greca, a. m., & harrison, h. m. (2005). adolescent peer relations, friendships, and romantic relationships: do they predict social anxiety and depression? journal of clinical child & adolescent psychology, 34(1), 49-61. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15374424jccp3401_5 magson, n. r., freeman, j. y., rapee, r. m., richardson, c. e., oar, e. l., & fardouly, j. (2021). risk and protective factors for prospective changes in adolescent mental health during the covid-19 pandemic. journal of youth and adolescence, 50(1), 44-57. mukhtar, k., javed, k., arooj, m., & sethi, a. (2020). advantages, limitations and recommendations for online learning during covid-19 pandemic era. pakistan journal of medical sciences, 36 (covid19-s4), s27. 349 ormel, j., oldehinkel, a. j., & brilman, e. i. (2001). the interplay and etiological continuity of neuroticism, difficulties, and life events in the etiology of major and subsyndromal, first and recurrent depressive episodes in later life. american journal of psychiatry, 158(6), 885-891. rapee, r. m., oar, e. l., johnco, c. j., forbes, m. k., fardouly, j., magson, n. r., & richardson, c. e. (2019). adolescent development and risk for the onset of social-emotional disorders: a review and conceptual model. behaviour research and therapy, 123, 103501. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2019.103501 rehman, u., shahnawaz, m. g., khan, n. h., kharshiing, k. d., khursheed, m., gupta, k., ... & uniyal, r. (2021). depression, anxiety and stress among indians in times of covid-19 lockdown. community mental health journal, 57(1), 42-48 selye, h. (1956). the stress of life. mcgraw-hill. shanafelt, t., ripp, j., & trockel, m. (2020). understanding and addressing sources of anxiety among health care professionals during the covid-19 pandemic. jama, 323, 2133-2134. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama. 2020.5893 sherman, a. c., williams, m. l., amick, b. c., hudson, t. j., & messias, e. l. (2020). mental health outcomes associated with the covid-19 pandemic: prevalence and risk factors in a southern us state. psychiatry research, 293, 113476. singh, r. (2021). impact of lockdown on mental health of students. https://www.indiatoday.in/educationtoday/featurephilia/story/impact-of-lockdown-on-mental-health-of-students-1840790-2021-08-14 somerville, l. h., jones, r. m., & casey, b. (2010). a time of change: behavioral and neural correlates of adolescent sensitivity to appetitive and aversive environmental cues. brain and cognition, 72(1), 124-133. spence, s. h. (1998). a measure of anxiety symptoms among children. behaviour research and therapy, 36(5), 545566. taylor, s., & asmundson, g. j. g. (2004). treating health anxiety: a cognitive-behavioral approach. guildford. wang, c., pan, r., wan, x., tan, y., xu, l., ho, c., et al. (2020). immediate psychological responses and associated factors during the initial stage of the 2019 coronavirus disease (covid-19) epidemic among the general population in china. international journal of environmental research and public health, 17(5), 1729. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17051729 wheaton, m. g.; deacon, b. j.; mcgrath, p. b.; berman, n. c.; abramowitz, j. s. (2012). dimensions of anxiety sensitivity in the anxiety disorders: evaluation of the asi-3. journal anxiety disorders, 26(3), 401-408. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/221806725_dimensions_of_anxiety_sensitivity_in_the_anxiety_di sorders_evaluation_of_the_asi-3 who. (2021). coronavirus disease (covid-19) pandemic. https://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/healthemergencies/coronavirus-covid-19/novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov wu, k. k., chan, s. k., & ma, t. m. (2005). posttraumatic stress, anxiety, and depression in survivors of severe acute respiratory syndrome (sars). journal of traumatic stress: official publication of the international society for traumatic stress studies, 18(1), 39-42. authors: dr jain matthew is a professor and dean of the school of business and management at christ (deemed to be university), bengaluru, india. he has published over 30 articles in peer-reviewed journals and guided a number of research scholars. his areas of interest include behavioral finance, consumer behaviour and organisational behaviour. email: jainmathew@christuniversity.in 350 preksha yadav is an assistant professor at cmrit and research scholar at the school of business and management at christ (deemed to be university). she is pursuing her doctoral studies and her study explores the area of sustainability. her areas of interest include organisation behaviour, mental health and well-being. email: preksha.yadav@res.christuniversity.in sridevi nair is an assistant professor and a research scholar at the school of business and management at christ (deemed to be university). she is pursuing her doctoral studies and her study explores the impact of gamification. her areas of interest include organisation behaviour, learning and development, mental health and well-being. email: sridevi.nair@res.christuniversity.in roseline gomes is an assistant professor at jyoti nivas college and research scholar at the school of business and management at christ (deemed to be university). she is pursuing her doctoral studies and her study explores the area of learning difficulties. her areas of interest include learning, mental health and well-being. email: sridevi.nair@res.christuniversity.in email: roselin.gomes@res.christuniversity.in sheeba bhaskar is the principal of westfort institute, thrissur, and a research scholar at the school of business and management at christ (deemed to be university). she is pursuing her doctoral studies and her study explores the area of hospital management. her areas of interest include marketing, mental health and wellbeing. email: sheeba.bhaskar@res.christuniversity.in cite this paper as: mathew, j., yadav, p., nair, s., gomes, r. & bhaskar, s. (2022). impact of covid-19-related distress on anxiety and depression of college students. journal of learning for development, 9(2), 340-350. microsoft word jhafncheck.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 169-183 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. understanding the profile, motivations and current status of academic graduates through open and distance schooling in india jyotsna jha, neha ghatak, shreekanth mahendiran centre for budget and policy studies, india abstract: in india, open and distance learning for secondary and higher secondary level is mainly provided by the national institute of open schooling (nios). secondary education in india pertains to class 9 and 10 catering to the age group of 15 to 16. similarly, higher secondary education refers to class 11 and 12 catering to the age group of 17 to 18. based on research supported by the commonwealth of learning (col) this paper discusses the results from a telephone survey of close to 1000 learners who were enrolled with nios and completed secondary and higher secondary education during 2008-2012 in selected states. it emerged that nearly 81 per cent of respondents were gainfully employed and nios helped them look for better jobs, widen their job search, and gain more stable (permanent) and secure (government) jobs. nios has successfully enabled a good proportion of learners to continue with their higher education. flexibility offered by open schooling is the main motivation to join nios; individuals facing various constraints in accessing regular secondary education have opted for this option. it appears that two different kinds of learners join nios at these two levels; the secondary level seems to have a bigger representation from lower socio-economic strata. the role of open schooling in reducing the gender gap at secondary level of schooling remains mixed. keywords: education, gender, open and distance learning, distance education, india, nios, career trajectory, tracer, labour market, higher education, inequality. introduction while open universities in a number of countries are now well-established and understood, open schools at secondary level are still trying to create a niche. open and distance schooling (used interchangeably with open and distance learning, or, in short, odl) is characterised by both openness and distance. distance education is any educational process in which all or most of the teaching is conducted by someone removed in space and/or time from the learner. as a result most of the learning is facilitated through mediums like electronic communication or print. the 'open' nature of education is formally institutionalised through policies that allow for flexibility in terms of open admissions, and freedom of selection of what, when and where to learn (unesco 2002). although it depends on the organisations that deliver distance education to decide upon the extent of their openness, traditionally they have shown a strong inclination towards supporting the freedom of individual learners to exercise choice over one or more of the main processes of their learning. the openness of distance education is also seen in relatively flexible organisational structures, delivery and communication patterns, and the use of various technologies in support of learning. 170 india is one of the leading countries that have a well-developed and vast structure to provide education at secondary and senior secondary levels through odl. although, in terms of proportion, odl covers only about two percent of the total enrolment at these levels, the reach is high in terms of absolute numbers with nearly one million learners enrolled at present. therefore, it becomes important to understand the role played by the odl in enabling learning, higher education or labour market mobility for learners. this paper attempts to answer these questions through an analysis of the results of a survey where close to 1000 learners who completed secondary or/and senior secondary education during 2008-2012 through odl in selected indian states were interviewed.i these states were delhi, rajasthan and andhra pradesh (ap).ii the paper aims to understand: (i) the profile of those whoopted for odl at the secondary and higher secondary levels (ii) their motivations for this option, (iii) their present occupation, and (iv) the role of secondary schooling through odl in enabling further education and labour market mobility. this paper is important for the fact that tracer studies are not commonly available for odl systems, especially for school education. there is no published study available using a sizable sample in india. it is also important because odl is often viewed as an option for providing access to those not reached and the most marginalised sections of society, along with those learners who find it difficult to access regular schools. the analysis also takes this into consideration while examining the results. in general, the evidence in terms of tracing the status of the open and distance school learners all round the world has been scanty. the centre for educational research and development at cambridge conducted a tracer study in namibia in 2007, where learners who undertook the senior secondary course and graduated from the namibian college of open learning (namcol) between the years 1999-2001, were contacted in order to understand the current occupational status of namcol learners, contribution of namcol in terms of finding employment, ease of entry into tertiary education and the learners’ perception of value added that the certificate had in terms of seeking employment opportunities. a similar study was conducted in zimbabwe in 2015, to understand the career trajectories of learners from the zimbabwe open university (zou) who undertook a course on media studies started in 1999, which explored the current occupational status of the learners and collected feedback of the learners about the course to make it more market/employment oriented. no such studies exist in india except for those that are very small in coverage and have traced less than fifty graduates. therefore, this study is an attempt to fill that gap, especially in view of the fact that the country has the largest system and reaches the largest number of students at these levels using odl. secondary education through odl in india: a background there are two types of structures, both started and funded by union and state governments and therefore largely publicly funded, that provide secondary and senior secondary level education through odl. these are: the national institute of open schooling (nios), formerly known as national open school (nos), and state open schools (sos), which respective state governments have started. the nios was setup in 1989 as an autonomous body by the ministry of human resource development (mhrd), government of india ‘to provide open and distance learning to school dropouts and students from disadvantaged sections of society’.iii the nios operates in most states of india through regional offices and study centres and it has also facilitated a number of states to set up state open schools (sos) to reach out to the larger target population. however, the nios remains the 171 most important institution both in terms of its reach and leadership; most soss seek guidance and support from the nios in the areas of courseware, delivery and examinations. nios primarily offers two kinds of courses: academic (secondary and senior secondary) and vocational. nearly 95 per cent of allstudents at this stage belong to academic streams. the survey on which this paper is based covered students who had passed out from nios. the sos models vary from state to state, unlike nios, where the same model exists throughout india and therefore it is possible to draw a comparable sample from across states. methods, approach and limitations the main method used was a telephone survey conducted in 2015. the nios raw student data for the period 2008-12 formed the database from which a list was prepared for those who had completed the course in the sample states. this formed the dataset from which respondents were randomly identified and interviewed. a mail survey was tried and abandoned because of the poor response rate. the anonymity of the interviewer in a telephone survey makes it difficult to establish a strong interviewer-interviewee relationship, which also meant that the questionnaires had to be as brief as possible (not more than 10-15 minutes). the overall response rate for the telephone survey was nearly 17 per cent; a total of 5648 calls were made out of which 954 resulted in interviews. the success rate was higher for males (19%) as compared to that for females (13%). the team was trained on telephone etiquette, which consists of three phases of a telephone interview: (a) first impression; (b) impression during the conversation; and (c) last impression (figure 1). the survey team included female investigators and also those who knew local languages. the flow chart details the process of the interview (figure 2). figure 1: three phases of a telephone interview the survey was complemented by a document review, mainly with regard to the university prospectus, to gauge if any form of structural discrimination exists against nios certified learners at the entry stage in the higher education institutions. we also attempted consulting a few individuals and institutions to gain further insight into placement of nios graduates but, given that the learners do not keep any connection with their institutions, these did not add much to our existing information. first impression during the interview • taking notes / messages last impression 172 figure 2: flow chart of survey process a major constraint faced during the survey was that a large proportion of the telephone numbers recorded and available to the study team did not belong to the students themselves; they either belonged to the middlemen people who had acted as agents to help these students gain admittance in the nios or to the ‘coaching centres’ – or to institutions that train or coach young boys and girls to take part in entrance examinations for engineering and medical courses. the presence of middlemen or agents has also been found to be common for nios admissions and examinations, primarily to negotiate the technology, as almost the entire admission and other processes are mediated through new technology-based procedures in the nios (minni et.al 2016). the same phone number was repeated for multiple learners; at times even for hundreds, and that made it clear that it did not belong to the student. profile of respondents: disparities exist girls, an important identified target group for the odl, are also underrepresented in nios. but the enrolment, which itself is skewed in favour of males in the nios was further skewed because of the lower response rate of women: female respondents constituted 28 per cent of total respondents, as against 32 percent of the total nios certified learners for 2008-13 period, which was the dataset from first call check with the respon dent if they prefer teleph one or mail survey . if they prefer telephone survey if they prefer mail survey collect the details of respondent’s address and phone number. inform him/her that the mail survey would reach in 4 days’ time. check with the respondent if he/she would prefer to take the survey now. if not, reschedule the call for another time of the respondent’s convenience. if they prefer to take up (or) continu e the survey later. check with the respondent if he/she would prefer to take the survey now. if not, reschedule the call for another time of the respondent’s convenience. check with the respondent if he/she would prefer to take the survey now. if not, check whether the respondent is willing to take up the mail survey. if they prefer mail survey if they prefer to take up (or) continu e the survey later. if they prefer mail survey continuation of the first call rescheduled second call rescheduled third call 173 which the sample was selected. the reason for poorer response rates for females primarily emanates from their powerlessness within households. many female learners whose telephone numbers featured in the list that we used to access them did not have direct access to telephones, and the male family members who received the calls did not always allow them to talk. this clearly reaffirms the general trend that despite wide reach, women do not necessarily have direct access to technology, such as mobile phones, something that allows them freedom to communicate.iv this was especially true for those women who were married. we faced difficulty in accessing married women learners for another reason as well. a number of female respondents who were married had later changed their phones, and their parental family members were not willing to share the new telephone numbers. all these point towards the constraints faced in accessing women learners, and, at the same time, also point towards their secondary position and powerlessness within their households, and perhaps also to their education not necessarily equipping them to negotiate these situations. socially disadvantaged groups such as scheduled castes (sc), scheduled tribes (st) and muslims have poorer secondary schooling participation rates as compared to other social groups, and therefore they are important target groups for nios. since rural areas generally fare much worse than urban locations for secondary schooling participation, this is another important target for nios. except for representation of the scs, which somewhat matched their representation in population, nios does not seem to be very successful in reaching any of the target groups, such as sts and muslims, as they were all underrepresented as compared to their population percentages. the same is true for the rural population as well. on the other hand, upper caste hindus (uch), generally referred to as the ‘general’ is over-represented. this means that nios has an overrepresentation of urban upper-caste hindus, who, otherwise, also have better educational attainments than other social or religious groups. the sample had a greater representation of obcs and sts as respondents in comparison to their representation in the dataset of those who had completed their certification during the same period, i.e., the dataset from which the sample was selected. the majority of the respondents were hindu, followed by muslims and christians. there was no variation visible in the caste and religion profile in the sex segregated numbers. in terms of age, more than 90 per cent of the learners belonged to the age group of 19-30 years, amongst which the majority fell in the age group of 24-30 years. this was true for both male and female respondents and was strictly similar to the pattern that existed for the total number of nios certified learners in the three states. the social profile of respondents differed slightly from the profile of the original dataset of nios learners: 72 per cent men in the sample as against 68 per cent in the nios dataset; only 55 per cent uch in the sample as against more than 76 per cent in the nios dataset, which, in turn, means that the disadvantaged groups (sc, sts and muslims) are overrepresented in the sample. the results, therefore, need to be interpreted with caution in terms of generalising those for all nios certified learners. also, it appears that those nios learners who enrol directly rather than through agents / institutions are overrepresented in the sample. we also collected data on ownership of accommodation, ownership of vehicles and parental education to get an understanding of the economic profile. what emerged was that the majority of the respondents came from an upwardly mobile, aspiring lower middle class. this may not be true for all respondents but seems to be true for the majority. there was not much difference in the economic profile of respondents coming from 174 various social and religious groups, or between males and females, except that fathers of female respondents had slightly better educational attainments as compared to those of male respondents. this implies that though varying in terms of their caste and religious profile, the learners seem to be similar in terms of the economic profile of their households. it is also important to understand the reasons for the lower representation of upper caste hindus in the sample. the nios learners can broadly be divided into three categories. one is the group who directly enrols, as intended by the nios design and structure. two is the group who enrol through their schools and other institutions, such as non-governmental organisations working on children’s education. three is that group who enrols using agents; the use of agents is also common because of the lack of access to online skills and facilities. the second group can be further sub-divided into three kinds of institutions: schools and other ngos that encourage their students to opt for nios as an examination board that is more flexible and therefore more creative; schools that encourage nios as an examination board option to those students who are perceived as not scoring very high in the regular boards, i.e., as an ‘easy’ board for certification; and finally coaching institutions where students enrol for the intensive training to take competitive entrance examinations for medicine and engineering courses, and need secondary and higher secondary certification to be eligible for those entrance examinations.v the distribution of students across these categories is not known and it is not even possible to know if such records are maintained. a little over 8 per cent of the total respondents reported attending regular schools while being enrolled in nios. the percentage seems to be a little higher for females but, given the small number, this difference may not be significant. however, as stated earlier, the respondents did not really belong to the lowest socio-economic strata, reaffirming that, in general, the middle class has accessed nios more commonly than the others. present occupational status of nios graduates taking secondary and senior secondary together, nearly 81 per cent of nios certified respondents reported being gainfully employed at the time of the survey: they were either continuing with their further education or self-employed or were in paid employment. about one third reported to be students, slightly above one third were in employment and the remaining 12 per cent were selfemployed. this situation changes when one considers the secondary and senior secondary pass-outs separately. a little more than 52 per cent of secondary graduates were employed/ self-employed as against 43 per cent of senior secondary graduates. similarly, nearly 38 percent of senior secondary graduates were students as against about 28 per cent of secondary graduates (table 1). a higher percentage of senior secondary graduates are still students and vice versa, i.e., a higher percentage of secondary graduates are in employment (figure 3). what this reveals is that the pools from where nios learners are coming for secondary and senior secondary courses are different; students who complete their secondary from nios are not necessarily the ones who are enrolling for their senior secondary courses again in nios. the majority of senior secondary learners are enrolling in nios after completing their secondary certification from other examination boards and not from nios. 175 table 1: present occupational status of the respondents* (2015) present status those who completed secondary certification from nios those who completed senior secondary certification from nios total student 96 (27.51) 227 (37.52) 323 (33.86) employed 140 (40.11) 192 (31.74) 332 (34.80) self-employed 43 (12.32) 71 (11.74) 114 (11.95) unemployed 66 (18.91) 115 (19.01) 181 (18.97) total 345 (100.00) 605 (100.00) 950 (100.00) *who completed secondary and senior secondary between 2008-2012 notes: percentages are given in brackets. source: primary survey data collected by cbps, 2015 figure 3: percentage distribution of the present occupational status of the respondents (secondary and senior secondary graduates from nios this observation is further validated by a deeper analysis of data. out of 96 respondents who were amongst secondary pass-outs reported to be students, only 15 (15.6%) were pursuing their senior secondary/vocational course from nios, and only 80 out of 605 (13.2%) of respondents who had completed their senior secondary certificate from nios had also completed their secondary certification from nios. since there are two different kinds of learners who enrol in secondary and senior secondary in nios, this also means that at least for the majority of students, the motivation for joining nios at two different levels—secondary and senior secondary—could be very different from each other. there is a possibility that the learners who enrol at the senior secondary level do so with the primary motivation to attend coaching classes and get a senior secondary certificate, which is a pre-requisite to qualify for engineering and medical exams. this conjecture is corroborated by the fact that the proportion of those who had attended private schools before enrolling in the nios was much higher for those who got their senior secondary certificates from nios (42%) as compared to those who completed their secondary certificates from nios (28%). 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 those who completed secondary certification from nios those who completed senior secondary certification from nios 176 table 2: gender-based distribution of current occupational status of respondents* current occupation completed secondary certification from nios completed senior secondary certification from nios total male female total male female total male female total student 69 27 96 162 65 227 231 92 323 employed 116 23 139 166 26 192 282 49 331 selfemployed 37 6 43 63 8 71 100 14 114 unemployed 28 38 66 50 65 115 78 103 181 total 250 94 344 441 164 605 691 258 949 *who completed secondary and senior secondary between 2008-2012 source: primary survey data collected by cbps, 2015 a sharp gender disparity exists in the present occupational status among nios graduates: while only about 11 per cent of male respondents were unemployed, nearly 40 per cent of female respondents reported being unemployed, this being true for both secondary and senior secondary pass-outs. in other words, a much higher percentage of male respondents were either employed or self-employed as compared to female respondents, this being true for both secondary and senior secondary respondents. however, it is interesting to note that when it came to continuing further education, women were at par with men, the proportion of students being a little higher for female as compared to male respondents in both the categories of secondary and senior secondary graduates. this again could be indicative of a mixed impact: women from middle class households may not be allowed to enter the labour market but be allowed to continue their higher education, especially because of higher demand for ‘educated brides’, or simply because continuing education is perceived as relatively less threatening in patriarchal societies. the literature on education, gender and social policy emanating from developing countries clearly indicates that labour market segregations and discriminations are common, and they rarely encourage greater levels of female education subrahmanian, (2002), chanana, (1996) latha (2015). andrea (2010) clearly points out how education for women is not necessarily sought to fulfil the demand of the labour market but that of the marriage market, where educated wives and mothers are preferred in comparison to uneducated ones, especially by upwardly mobile, educated men. the fact that the proportion of married was higher among unemployed women in this survey also lends weight to this inference. nevertheless, what is undisputable is that nios certification has helped both men and women access tertiary education. motivations for choosing odl an analysis of main motivations for choosing the nios for secondary or senior secondary level education shows that though the nios was not really successful in reaching the major socially and educationally disadvantaged groups, such as tribal or muslim populations, it was definitely acting as an option to a large number of men and women, who were facing constraints of one kind or another in accessing the mainstream formal secondary and senior secondary schooling system. the respondents were asked a simple question regarding their reasons for joining nios, to which both male and female respondents answered similarly with some exceptions. a much higher 177 proportion of female respondents mentioned their own poor health as the reason for not being able to attend regular schools, and therefore used nios for that opportunity (table 3). this probably highlights the need for much greater public attention to the issue of poor health in adolescent girls and women. an equally important point that needs attention is that nearly one fifth to one fourth of respondents opted for nios, as they could not manage the stress of regular schooling and, therefore, the flexibility that nios offered was the main reason for their choice. while it is comforting to know that the flexibility offered by nios is perceived as useful, it is distressing to know that a large number of students find regular schooling stressful. table 3: reasons for joining nios* (percentage distribution) reasons for joining secondary senior secondary male female male female could not manage regular school 31.47 24.51 35.58 32.22 flexibility 28.69 30.39 38.65 33.33 household related constraints 11.55 4.9 4.09 4.44 gap in education 6.77 13.74 2.04 5.56 respondent's health problem 4.78 11.76 2.86 10 explore better opportunities in existing employment 4.38 1.96 1.64 0.56 explore new employment opportunities 1.99 0.98 2.04 0 lack of access/availability of schools/colleges 1.99 0.98 2.25 5 facilitate in own business / self-employment 1.20 0 1.23 0 time constraint due to work 0.40 0.98 5.33 1.67 others include not interested in studies/peer influence/no reason 6.77 9.8 4.29 7.22 total 100 (n=251) 100 (n=102) 100 (n=489) 100 (n=180) *multiple answers question and therefore the totals are more than the number of respondents source: primary survey data collected by cbps, 2015 the flexibility of the odl system, as operating in the nios, also helped those who wanted to upgrade and compensate for the lost time in their education, this being especially true for female respondents. nios also helped both men and women to overcome constraints posed by their family circumstances: ill health of relatives and financial constraints. a small proportion reported a lack of easy access to educational institutions as an important reason. this establishes the fact that despite limitations, nios is helping students overcome access constraints to school, either posed by the supply side, in terms of the regular school not being conveniently located, or by the demand side, in terms of socio-cultural practices. exploring better employment opportunities does not figure as an important reason in general. however, a much greater percentage of male respondents who completed their secondary from nios cite this reason as compared to female respondents. this indicates that these are working men who are seeking some mobility by attaining the secondary education certificate, which is also an eligibility criterion for a number of employment opportunities. 178 what emerges is that nios has been successful in providing opportunity to those: (i) who were likely to have discontinued their schooling because of economic, social and personal reasons, and (ii) who were likely to experience or experienced failure in the mainstream regular system because of its rigidity. this means that nios has been able to fulfil its objective of being a viable alternative at the secondary level for vulnerable groups but this vulnerability doesn’t necessarily emanate from poverty, remoteness or from known social group related disadvantages. in this context, it is important to note that though the ‘flexibility’ is a desirable characteristic, and in the case of odl in general, this seems to be the main motivation for learners to choose this option, there is also a need to further examine the gender-impact of such flexibility being offered. men respondents looked at flexibility as being helpful because it enabled them to combine their studies with work; for women respondents, it was the ease of studying from home, as they could combine studies with their care responsibilities. this fact, which resonates with a small internal study by nios where they traced cases of 29 past learners (niios, 2011) and had reported similar findings, can be interpreted as both facilitating gender parity and widening the gender gap at the same time; while the fact that these women, who would have no opportunity to study if there were no odl options available, is a welcome step, the fact that it reinforces their care role and confinement in the home space makes this intervention questionable for its gender-equality-enabling impact jagsi et al (2011) bezbaruah (2012). it is obvious that gender impact is much more layered and complex, and calls for much deeper analyses. enabling learners for tertiary education this study attempted to explore the linkages with tertiary education using two means. the first was through the analysis of the present highest educational qualifications of the past nios certified learners, as this helped in understanding whether they had continued their further education or not. seventy one per cent of female respondents and 80 per cent of male respondents who were currently students were pursuing undergraduate courses from various universities. this obviously meant that the nios education at the secondary or senior secondary stage had helped them access higher education. however, the choice of subject was gendered: more men opted more for science and engineering courses, more women opted for the humanities. the second means was to see if nios learners face any discrimination in entry to higher education institutions. the nios prospectus reports that its certification is recognised by all state and two central secondary school examination boards, and it also lists a large number of universities including most of the ‘prestigious’ central and state universities and institutions as recognising the nios certification. although most engineering entrance examinations had been open to nios graduates, it was not true for medicine. but as a result of nios efforts, the medical council of india decided to make nios certified learners eligible for admission to mbbs course in 2012. we examined the prospectus and admission rules of 126 universities located in delhi, andhra pradesh, rajasthan and karnatakavi to assess if any institutional discrimination exists against those who get their school certificates using odl mode. the eligibility criteria in these universities did not create any disadvantage for nios certified learners. twenty five percent of these 126 universities had clearly mentioned acceptance of nios certificates. none mentioned non-recognition of the nios certificate. no upper age limit for admission existed, which could have acted against nios graduates as they include a good number of learners who re-start after a delay. 179 learners’ perception of the value add in addition to asking what the main motivation for joining nios was, we also tried to gauge learners’ perspective regarding how nios education added value to their efforts, or enabled them to pursue whatever they wanted: higher education, job mobility or employment or self-employment. we asked all respondents if education through nios added value to their pursuit or not, and those who said yes were also asked to explain how it did so. table 4: did nios education add value by present occupation (percentage distribution)? did nios education add value? completed secondary in nios completed senior secondary in nios total (completed either secondary or senior secondary in nios male female male female male female total currently students yes 83.33 86.96 86.62 72.00 85.71 75.51 82.54 no 16.67 13.04 13.38 28.00 14.29 24.49 17.46 currently employed yes 63.41 40.00 67.14 66.67 65.77 57.14 64.80 no 36.59 60.00 32.86 33.33 34.23 42.86 35.20 currently self employed yes 3.45 4.00 4.15 1.67 3.86 2.73 3.70 no 65.52 60.00 58.54 83.33 61.43 72.73 62.96 currently unemployed yes 90.91 88.46 92.31 86.67 91.80 87.32 89.39 no 9.09 11.54 7.69 13.33 8.20 12.68 10.61 note: non-responses are not reported here, therefore summation of values reported in yes and no rows for each current activity may not equal to 100 percent. source: primary survey data collected by cbps, 2015 the proportion of those who saw value in nios education was the highest for those who were pursuing higher education (table 4). more than 80 per cent of the respondents who were currently students mentioned that nios had facilitated their further education by helping them to get the desired certificates in the desired courses. about 40 per cent of respondents in the student category answering yes to the question regarding value add said that the course and certification helped them widen their choices, either in terms of institutions or courses that they could choose from. an additional 40 per cent mentioned that the subjects and other criteria offered in nios helped in meeting the criteria for admission in their current courses and therefore, it was useful. this shows that nios course structures and certification has successfully enabled learners who wanted to pursue higher education to do so. this was true for both male and female learners. however, it is important to note that about 17 per cent of those who are currently students also reported that nios education did not lead to any value add in their path to higher education. the proportion of those answering ‘no’ was higher for women, and especially for women who had 180 completed their senior secondary certificate through nios. the limited scope of this study does not provide any insight into why this is so but this fact indeed deserves further enquiry. when asked whether nios added value in their endeavour to find employment or move up the ladder, more than one third of those currently employed replied in the negative. this distribution remains almost the same for both male and female, and for both secondary and senior secondary graduates. about two third of those currently employed who found it useful cited: widening their search for jobs, enabling their search for more stable (‘permanent’) and secure (‘government’) jobs, and also in upward mobility by making it possible for to apply for ‘jobs with higher salary’. this is significant as it comes from the respondents who are mainly engaged in low-paying, low-status jobs and had there been no such flexible opportunity available, the majority of these people would not have been able to attain the mobility that they have using nios (table 5). table 5: major jobs pursued by respondents who are currently employed sex currently employed* male administrative (includes clerks, desk job in private offices, office assistants in private firms, etc.) government sector sales housekeeping / helper female anganwadi worker administrative (includes clerks, desk job in private offices, office assistants in private firms, etc.) source: primary survey data collected by cbps, 2015 moving ahead, what is noteworthy is that those in self-employment had a different and disappointing perception about nios education. more than 60 percent of respondents in the self-employed category said that nios education did not add any value. assuming that the certification is less important for those who are self-employed, this can be interpreted as a comment on the education or skill component being not useful / relevant. those self-employed who found it useful did so, on account of the certificate helping them access loans more easily. this assumes significance as nearly 90 percent of those who were unemployed found it useful. it appears that female respondents, even if unemployed, found it useful as the certification would have added to their status and perhaps mattered in the marriage market, this being untrue for the self-employed, who were perhaps more interested in upgrading their skills. conclusions an important conclusion that emerges from this analysis is that nios has not remained an option only for the more marginalised and drop outs. it has evolved as an option for a variety of users. although the reach to those who are known as educationally marginalised has not been as high as intended or expected — a good proportion of users were disadvantaged in some manner or the other – largely on account of socio-cultural and individual household related factors. therefore, although nios needs to make a greater effort to reach the known educationally disadvantaged groups, such as sc, st, obc or muslims, and in rural areas, it has achieved success in enabling young people to continue their education and upgrade their schooling levels, especially those facing economic, social 181 and personal hardships and those who were experiencing failure in the mainstream regular system because of its rigidity. the nios’ success in reaching those who face constraints in accessing regular schools, through the use of flexible norms and requirements, shows that it is a more creative and accessible option for many. this very fact makes it even more important for nios to try to reach out to socially disadvantaged groups in rural areas as they are known to be facing these constraints. this implies that nios needs to reconsider its strategy of reaching individuals through the online route despite limited digital reach in remote india, where the ease of using it for various purposes is limited. the fact that nios is highly internet dependent, with all the information available online, demands a fair amount of internet literacy to be present, which seems to act as a major barrier for expanding reach in rural areas. it emerged that nearly 81 per cent of nios certified respondents were gainfully employed: either as a student, self-employed or in paid employment – this is indeed a measure of success. however, what is interesting is that two different kinds of learners join nios at two levels of secondary and senior secondary; the secondary stage seems to have a bigger representation of lower socio-economic strata. this implies that while at the secondary level nios is reaching a greater proportion of the intended target, those who are drop outs or have faced some constraints at the senior secondary level, and it is used more by those who desire an easy or non-demanding option. nios alone cannot control the demand and such trends are more a result of macro-economic factors that operate at a much wider level. however, nios can make efforts to widen its reach to those who are really facing constraints due to remoteness and other reasons, while letting others also use it as they are doing so currently. nios education does not seem to have changed any gender norm, though it did help a good number of girls and women in continuing with their schooling. nios widened access to schooling opportunities for both men and women but it also did not contribute to any push towards physical or psychosocial mobility away from domesticity. however, finally it can still be perceived as positive if odl has helped those who were confined to domesticity anyway. in general, the nios seems to have played a successful role in both facilitating labour market mobility and entry to higher education. it especially seemed to have helped those who enter the job market early and then cannot move up because of lack of certification, i.e., lower level administrative /support jobs. in general, there does not seem to be any institutional barrier in entry to higher education for nios certified learners. however, since nios is currently operative as an exam centric system, a matter of concern is that nios seems to be perceived as an ‘easy’ route for certification rather than a creative and stress-free option of schooling . although this is not unique to nios, as school degrees are also used to as a screening instrument for higher education or labour market opportunities. certificates or to certify specially in this case, comes with the promise that the learner possesses certain kind of knowledge that renders him/her capable of taking the next step into higher education or entering the labour market. but, when the testing process (examination) is plagued with unscrupulous practices and a general lack of accountability of the system towards the learner and vice versa, the certificate gets reduced to a mere document and an end result of a process where learning did not actually take place minni et al, (2016). although there is no harm in developing a flexible system for certification plays a major role in labour market processes, it is rather a need given the fact that mainstream systems are rigid and unresponsive to the needs of several kinds including those who face socio-economic and locational barriers, and those who do not face such barriers but 182 prefer a less stressful system. nevertheless, the process of certification has to be rigorous and reliable, otherwise it can merely act as a fulfilment of screening requirements and not reflect the level of learning. the nios needs to take note of this fact and think of introducing measures so that even if it remains a means of certification, it does not become solely an easy route of certification. in other words, nios needs to introduce measures to retain its ability in imparting education and learning to its students, and not as an instrument to get the desired certificates. towards that end, it would also be helpful if certain systems are created to strengthen the data systems with nios and make that data accessible in the public domain. this includes data on students as well as on institutions. nios could also write to universities for data on admission of students entering using nios certificates. this would create a very useful database that can help in tracing the students. nios could also write to some of the major associations that employ people with secondary / senior secondary certificates for their data on the employment of those with nios certificates. working towards the formation of an alumni network would also go a long way in future tracer studies. references andrea, n. s. (centro di ricercasuisistemiinformativi, luiss guido carli, rome, italy). (2010). the impact of gender culture on women's carer trajectories: an australian case study. retrieved from http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/02610151111124941 bezbaruah, s. (2015). banking on equality, women, work and employment in the banking sector in india. retrieved from https://books.google.co.in/books/about/banking_on_equality.html?id=jmyqbwaaqbaj=en. bukodi, e., dex, s., & joshi, h. (2012). changing career trajectories of men and women across time. retrieved from, http://www.elgaronline.com/view/9781849806268.00009.xml fentiman, a. (2007). tracer study of former namcol learners. cambridge: irfol. international centre for research on women, canada. how technology can advance women economically. retrieved from http://www.icrw.org/files/publications/bridging-the-gender-divide-how-technology-can-advancewomen-economically.pdf latha, j., & sindhuja, m. (2015). a study on the career trajectories of women employees in information technology (it) industry with special reference to chennai city. retrieved from http://www.iosrjournals.org/iosrjmce/papers/icrtem/me/volume4/iosrme09.pdf?id=762 jagsi, r., decastro, r., griffith, k.a., rangarajan, s., churchill, c., stewart, a., & ubel, p.a. (2011). similarities and difference in career trajectories of male and female career development award recipients. retrieved from http://journals.lww.com/academicmedicine/fulltext/2011/11000/similarities_and_difference_in_the_career. 37.aspx kirrin, g., kim, b., janna, m., payal, p., & aslihan k. (2010). bridging the gender divide – how technology can advance women economically. international centre for research on women, canada. retrieved from http://www.icrw.org/files/publications/bridging-the-gender-divide-how-technology-can-advancewomen-economically.pdf minni, p., pancharatnam, p., rajgopal, s., & jha, j. (2016). how open is open school in inda? a learners’ perspective. pan-commonwealth forum 8: kuala lumpur. retrieved from http://oasis.col.org/handle/11599/2563 muchena, e., muonwa, w., & makwanya p. (2015, may). zimbabwe open university (zou) graduates and the job market: a case study on the employability of zou media graduates. (harare regional centre). iosr journal of humanities and social science (iosr-jhss), 20(5), 70-75. 183 planning commission, government of india. twelfth five year plan (2012-2017) social sectors. vol iii. (2013). new delhi: sage publications. unesco. (2002). open and distance learning: trends policies and strategy considerations. paris: unesco. authors dr. jyotsna jha heads centre for budget and policy studies (cbps), located in bangalore, india. trained as an economist, she has more than two decades of experience of working on education, gender and other development related issues. she has worked as an adviser to social transformation programmes division at commonwealth secretariat in london. email: jyotsna@cbps.in neha ghatak is a senior research associate at the centre for budget and policy studies (cbps). with nearly 6 years of experience at the centre, she has been engaged with research studies on gender and education. she has a master’s degree in sociology from delhi school of economics, delhi university. email: neha@cbps.in shreekanth mahendiran is a research advisory at the centre for budget and policy studies (cbps). he primarily focuses on education, gender and decentralization using quantitative methods. before joining cbps, he worked in centre for public policy, indian institute of management, bangalore. shreekanth has a masters in economics from madras school of economics, anna university. email: shreekanth@cbps.in notes i the survey was conducted in 2015; there was not much time gap between completion of their course and survey. ii these states represent the diverse parts of the country; ap is located in the south and rajasthan in the west. delhi, the national capital is located in the north and has the highest number of nios learners compared to all other states in india. iii www.nios.ac.in iv a perusal of the secondary education management information system (semis) data for the years 2010-2011, 2011-12 and 2012-13 shows that the representation of scs and sts in secondary education is consistently low. only 16.73 per cent scs (sc are 19.5 per cent of the total population of india – census 2011) and 7.72 sts (sts form 8.7 per cent of the total population of india – census 2011) were enrolled in secondary education in the year 2012-13. v this information is based on an ongoing study being conducted by the same organisation open and distance learning as a cost effective option for secondary level schooling in india: potential and pre-requisites. vi karnataka was added as the research organisation is located in karnataka and we thought it would add to the understanding if we include more states. microsoft word sichombe.docx issn: 2311-1550 2022, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 545-562 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. tracer study of 2017-2019 namcol tvet graduates beatrice sichombe national institute for educational development, namibia abstract: this article focuses on the outcome of a tracer study of former namcol tvet trainees who completed their training in 2017, 2018 and 2019 in the following trades: automotive mechanics, welding and metal fabrication, office administration and plumbing and pipe-fitting in terms of their employment profile, and opinions on the quality and effect of training they received in light of their employment experiences. the study adopted a mixed methods design, and it is based on prosser’s theorems on vocational education. the study revealed that former trainees were well equipped with relevant knowledge and skills needed by the job market. however, the majority were unemployed, and among the employed, others were employed outside their specialisation. furthermore, the study revealed some challenges that former trainees encountered while studying with namcol, among others, inadequate equipment, lack of job attachment opportunities, financial constraints, and the delay of equipment and material supply. the study further made recommendations that could improve tvet quality and delivery at namcol. keywords: tracer study, employability, tvet, employer satisfaction, tvet programmes, skill mismatch. introduction the growing trend of unemployment in africa has prompted a shift from academic career streams to job creating career streams. technical and vocational education training (tvet), due to its ability and contribution regarding job creation, has become an important strategy in both developing and developed countries. it is an initiative that responds to demands of namibia’s labour market and is a driving force for sustainable development. unesco (2001) defines tvet as the education and training aimed at the acquisition of practical skills, attitudes, understanding and knowledge needed for employment in a particular occupation (holander & mar, 2009). nilsson (2014) considers tvet as a tool for combating unemployment. as stipulated in namibia’s fifth national development plan (ndp5), a nation’s blueprint for national development between 2017-2022, skills improvement stands as one of its game-changing strategies through the transformation, upgrading and expansion of tvet institutions. ndp5, among others, aims at creating a pool of skilled workers that respond to namibia’s industrial needs (namibia, 2017). the ministry of higher education, technology and innovation (mheti) comprises five directorates, and the directorate of technical vocational education and training (tvet) is one of them. the tvet directorate’s mandate, among others, is to formulate and review tvet policies and regulations; develop and review tvet curriculum, standards and qualifications and ensure adherence to the set standards and ensure that quality examination and assessment are conducted as per tvet standards and regulations (mheti). two autonomous bodies, the national training authority (nta) and the 546 national qualification authority (nqa) play an important role in the development of the vet system in namibia (namibia, 2005, vet policy). the nta, a statutory body, was established by an act of parliament through the vocational education and training act no. 1 of 2008. its powers among others include ensuring that vocational education and training programmes and services meet the current and emerging needs of industry, business and the broader community, and endeavour to increase employment and self-employment opportunities. the vocational education and training act of 2008 also allows nta to issue awards and certificates and negotiate articulation arrangements between vocational education and training programmes and other education and training programmes. to promote vet, nta may provide financial and technical assistance to employers, vocational education and training providers, and fund vet programmes and projects. the nta may enter into agreements with any person or body for the provision of goods or services or the performance of functions that the nta considers necessary. namcol is among the tvet service providers. technical and vocational education at namcol namcol is a semi-autonomous education institution created by an act of parliament (act 1 of 1997) and falls under the jurisdiction of the ministry of education arts and culture. namcol offers programmes for adults and out-of-school youth to further their education and training. namcol plays an integral role in the development of the country’s human resources and continues to help the nation achieve the national development goals of vision 2030. namcol offers its programmes in three categories, namely: secondary, tertiary and vocational. as part of its strategy to address training needs in the market, namcol, in 2013, introduced a number of tvet programmes developed by nta, which are as follow: automotive mechanics (level 1-3), welding and metal fabrication (level 1-3), plumbing and pipefitting and (level 1-3), and office administration (level 1-3). the ultimate aim of these programmes is to alleviate the high unemployment rate in the country. as employment in the formal sector shrinks, the acquisition of business management and entrepreneurial skills for self-employment becomes crucial. the development of entrepreneurial skills for selfemployment is part of these programmes. the objectives of these programmes are to equip trainees with knowledge and skills to become competent artisans; produce competitive artisans for the job market; produce entrepreneurial artisans and; assist entrepreneurs with skills upgrading. the target groups for these programmes are existing namcol trainees, unemployed youth and adults, and artisans seeking to upgrade their skills. this article reports the findings of a tracer study, also referred to as graduate survey, alumni research or follow-up study (schomburg, 2003). tracer studies are identified by schomburg (2003) as one form of empirical study providing important information when an educational institution requires responses on the quality and relevance of its programmes, or possible deficits in a given programme for future planning. a graduate tracer study is considered instrumental in evaluating the output, outcome and impact of vet interventions; their relevance, and effectiveness. it serves as a tracking tool of vet graduated trainees (macci, jenny & wilhelm, 2009). recognising the crucial role tracer studies play, namcol 547 has in the past conducted different tracer studies (fertiman, 2007; murangi & kulobone, 2016; saide, 2010). these tracer studies focused on namcol secondary school learners and tertiary programmes graduates. no tracer study so far has been conducted on tvet graduates since namcol’s introduction of tvet into its programmes in 2013. similarly, at the national level, apart from a tracer study conducted by nta (nta, 2018) there is a dearth of literature in namibia. this study, therefore, is aimed at making a contribution to the namibian literature. this tvet tracer study is pivotal to namcol as it is the first of its kind to provide feedback on the employability status of its former tvet graduates. furthermore, it responds to nta’s call for registered, credible tvet providers to conduct graduate tracer studies (may, 2022). nta ensures that vocational education and training programmes and services are responsive the emerging needs of industry, and increase employment and self-employment opportunities. through this tracer study, namcol seeks to find out what has happened to former namcol tvet trainees who completed their training in 2017, 2018 and 2019 in the following trades: automotive mechanics, welding & metal fabrication, office administration and plumbing and pipe-fitting. the tracer study aimed to explore tvet graduates’ employability and solicit their opinions on the quality and effect of training they received in light of their work experiences. the study objectives were to: • explore the relevance and effectiveness of namcol tvet programmes in relation to employability; • establish challenges relating to programme delivery, and explore possible solutions; • establish the employment status of tvet graduates; • establish employers’ opinions with regard to namcol tvet graduates’ abilities and capabilities; • identify possible skills mismatch between training received and skills and knowledge employers require. literature review tvet refers to “aspects of the educational process involving, in addition to general education, the study of technologies and related sciences, and the acquisition of practical skills, attitudes, understanding and knowledge relating to occupants in various sectors of economic and social life" (unesco, 2006, p. 7). in addition to technical knowledge and aptitude, an increasing emphasis is on soft skills — communication, negotiation and teamwork (hashim, 2015); social skills, communication, creative, innovative, problem solving, and critical thinking (nugraha, kencanasari, komari & kasda, 2020) and innovation skills, critical thinking skills, creativity skills, problem-solving skills, communication skills, and collaboration skills (oviawe, 2020). vocational education challenges tvet continues to steadily gain popularity worldwide (marope, et.al., 2015); it is highly considered in the strategic and operational priorities of nations as well as multilateral organisations such as the international labour organization (ilo, 2005) and unesco (paryono, 2017). tvet is well promoted by unesco as an integral part of education (rawashdeh, 2020) and an indispensable component of developing trainees’ competences in their areas of specialisation (nta, 2021). regardless of its role 548 and contributions towards nations’ economies, tvet providers and trainees continue to face challenges. the first study, the tvet graduate survey, the first of its kind in namibia (nta, 2018) revealed the majority of tvet graduates remain unemployed, while smaller fractions are either contractually, or occasionally employed. challenges included unemployment, and a mismatch between training skills and knowledge obtained and industry requirements. tvet graduate employers called for an enhanced industry collaboration and curriculum transformation and renewal to ensure training relevance. further recommendations included, tvet institutions to adapt market-driven tvet as a method of developing high-skilled workers who can adapt to labour market demands. lastly, the nta (2018) study recommended an exploration through research to establish saturated tvet trades in the labour market to avoid prioritising and producing graduates in saturated market areas. the second study by wilson (2016) revealed some such challenges: a shortage of job attachment places, financial problems, inadequate training, and inadequate training equipment as well as recommendations to arrest such challenges. to arrest the challenge of the shortage of job attachment places, wilson (2016) recommended that tvet institutions and providers develop partnerships with industries. developing and enhancing partnerships with prospective tvet employers and industries was further corroborated by rawashdeh (2019) who underscored the need for tvet providers to form effective partnerships with industries. the third study on ghana by dasmani (2011) focused on the challenges of practical skills acquisition. the study revealed various factors that hinder the successful acquisition of practical skills by the trainees, inter alia, inadequate supply of instructional materials, large class sizes, inadequate training facilities, and weak linkages with local industries for hands-on-experience for both instructors and trainees. to arrest these challenges, dasmani (2011) recommended that stakeholders should complement the government’s effort in the provision of training resources; trainees should be encouraged to purchase their own basic tools; the establishment of effective industrial attachment schemes should provide trainees with the needed practical knowledge and skills, improvement in instructional quality through instructor training initiatives, and the establishment of a tool-acquisition scheme to assist trainees purchase and own basic tools. a summary matrix of tvet challenges and mitigation strategies the outcome of the reviewed literature on tvet challenges and mitigating strategies culminates in the summary matrix below: table 1: tvet challenges and mitigation strategies summary matrix challenges mitigation strategies unemployment • enhanced industry collaboration • curriculum transformation and renewal in order to ensure training relevance. • tvet institutions to adapt market-driven tvet • exploration through research to establish saturated tvet trades in the labour market • tvet institutions and providers to develop partnerships with industries. • the establishment of effective industrial attachment schemes that will provide trainees with the needed practical knowledge and skills, 549 skills mismatch • enhanced industry collaboration • curriculum transformation and renewal in order to ensure training relevance. • tvet institutions to adapt market-driven tvet • tvet institutions and providers to develop partnerships with industries. • the establishment of effective industrial attachment schemes that will provide trainees with the needed practical knowledge and skills, • improvement in instructional quality through instructor training initiatives, shortage of job attachment places/ weak linkages with local industries for hands-onexperience for both instructors and trainees. • enhanced industry collaboration • tvet institutions to adapt market-driven tvet • tvet institutions and providers to develop partnerships with industries. • the establishment of effective industrial attachment schemes that will provide trainees with the needed practical knowledge and skills, inadequate training, • enhanced industry collaboration • curriculum transformation and renewal in order to ensure training relevance. • tvet institutions to adapt market-driven tvet • the establishment of effective industrial attachment schemes that will provide trainees with the needed practical knowledge and skills, • improvement in instructional quality through instructor training initiatives, inadequate training equipment/ inadequate supply of instructional materials, • stakeholders should complement the government’s effort in the provision of training resources • trainees to be encouraged to purchase their own basic tools; • the establishment of a tool-acquisition scheme to assist trainees purchase and own basic tools. practical skills acquisition • enhanced industry collaboration • curriculum transformation and renewal in order to ensure training relevance. • tvet institutions to adapt market-driven tvet • tvet institutions and providers to develop partnerships with industries. • the establishment of effective industrial attachment schemes that will provide trainees with the needed practical knowledge and skills, • the establishment of a tool-acquisition scheme to assist trainees purchase and own basic tools. theoretical approach the study is underpinned by prosser's sixteen theorems on vocational education (prosser & quaigley 1949). the focus is on one the sixteen theorems, “vocational education, will be efficient if the environment in which students are trained is a replica of the environment in which they will work” (prosser & ougley, 1950, p. 3). despite the time that has elapsed, prosser’s theorems remain valid especially to this study because the theoretical principles provide solutions to tvet challenges identified in the literature, a mismatch between training skills and knowledge obtained and industry requirements (nta, 2018), inadequate training (wilson, 2016), and practical skills acquisition (dasmani, 2011; holande & mac, 2009) amongst others. vocational education should be market driven (nta, 2018); an emphasis in prosser’s theorems. the theoretical principles of his theorems underscore the notion of skills transfer, and the replication of the environment of work (camp & hillison, 1984), i.e., to ensure that training environments are identical to that of the workplace. training environments identical to workplace environments reduce skills mismatch as trainees perform actual jobs and not 550 pseudo jobs (prosser, moore, 2003). trainees would be equipped and ready for work with little adjustment once in the workplace (prosser & quaigley, 1949). prosser’s theorems provide a lens for understanding how vocational education should operate as well as overcoming the skills mismatch problem commonly encountered in vocational education. methods the tracer study adopted a mixed method design (creswell & clark, 2017) of using a combination of qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis approaches and techniques. through the adopted research design, the study provides answers to the central question: what happened to former namcol tvet trainees who completed their training in 2017, 2018 and 2019 — specifically graduates’ employment profile and employers’ opinions on their job abilities and capabilities. data were collected through an on-line questionnaire (mcmillan & schumacher, 2010). the population consisted of former namcol tvet trainees who completed their training in 2017, 2018 and 2019 in the following trades: automotive mechanics, welding & metal fabrication, office administration and plumbing and pipe-fitting. employers who employed these graduates also formed part of the study. data collection and analysis procedures a whatsapp group was created and all graduates who completed their training from 2017-2019 and who had smartphones were added to the group. questionnaires, for both former trainees and former trainees’ employers, were created using microsoft (ms) forms, a web application that creates surveys, among others. the questionnaires for graduates and employers were comprised of both closed and open-ended questions. open-ended questions, mostly ‘why’ ’and ‘how’ questions, sought clarity on some issues. a questionnaire link was shared with the group. those without smartphones were contacted telephonically by a data entry clerk who completed the questionnaire on their behalf. the questionnaires were developed around the key variables of investigation, namely, employment status of tvet graduates, relevance and effectiveness of learning at namcol, challenges encountered by trainees while studying at namcol and employer satisfaction with regard to vocational training graduates’ skills and performance levels, including skills mismatch. the questionnaire remained active online for two months (september to october). a total of forty -nine (49) respondents completed the questionnaire. to identify employers, former trainees were also asked for details of their employers. this did not yield much data as some were either self-employed, or unemployed. similarly, the same data collection procedures were followed. thematic content analysis (neuendorf, 2018) was employed to analyse qualitative data; and microsoft (ms) forms assisted with the analysis of quantitative data. ms forms automatically analyses data and organises it visually into graphs and charts, making data interpretation easier. findings graduates’ employment status one central aspect of this tracer study was to establish former tvet trainees’ employment status. the outcome was displeasing as the majority (65%), at the time of data collection, were not employed. reasons why they were still not employed included, among others, lack of job opportunities, and 551 others attributed this lack to the covid-19 pandemic; others were still studying, and some were still searching for employment opportunities. a few of them worked as contract workers and their contracts had elapsed. in the absence of jobs, the majority of former tvet trainees earned a living by doing part time jobs at people’s homes and garages, others engaged in various entrepreneurial activities, some claimed they had salaries but they were reluctant to disclose sources; meanwhile others were desperate. the remaining 45% was employed, though it took a long time for them to find employment. more than two thirds (69%) took between one and two years to find employment; 23% took between six months to one year to find employment; and a handful (8%) was employed in less than six months. difficulties encountered in looking for employment varied. the majority (38.2%) cited ‘limited employment opportunities’ in their area of specialisation. this was followed by ‘lack of experience’ (31.6%). the least (2.6%) was ‘employers not interested in my area of specialisation’. the remaining 5.3% of the respondents cited other reasons such as favouritism: “since i don't have connections with employer… because nowadays jobs are given through connections”. some cited skill mismatch: “employer tested me on something i didn't learn at namcol”. others cited financial constraints to fund job related selection processes. graduates’ views about namcol tvet why former trainees studied at namcol when asked of why they ended up studying at namcol, the majority (90%) of the respondents indicated that namcol was their only preferred institution. they considered namcol tvet as best for furthering their studies. others found namcol appropriate for continuing with level 3 after attaining level 2 with other service providers. to some, the awarding of financial assistance, and the close proximity between their residences and the college were pulling factors. fee affordability was another reason that attracted students to solely apply for namcol tvet. generally, namcol was highly appreciated by many, and as they had hope of better careers and futures. here is an account to that effect: namcol has been one of the biggest institutions for opening leaning to which everyone would get a chance to upgrade their studies/grades, thus i applied with a believe-for a better career course. because its cheap and affordable to me as a vulnerable person…i am very happy now because i completed my studies without any obstacles during my studies time. most graduates from namcol have better futures as well as grade 10 and grade 12 repeaters did it through namcol. the remaining 10% applied elsewhere at first and only applied at namcol after they were rejected. reasons why they were rejected included not meeting entry requirements, unavailability of space on the course, while others did not know why their applications were rejected. study provisions at namcol when asked to rate the study provisions at namcol, theory classes were rated the highest (98%); followed by consultations with instructors (95.8%), and in third place, unit standards (81.6%). the 552 study provision rated the lowest was availability of training materials in the library with 63.3%. overall, it is worth noting that the majority of the participants were satisfied with study provisions. challenging aspects while studying with namcol an open-ended question was posed to respondents about the challenges they encountered while studying at namcol. the responses were coded and analysed, and common patterns emerged and these were quantified. the majority (64%) of the trainees indicated that they encountered challenges while studying with namcol. the majority (22%) of those facing challenges encountered financial problems; whereas 20% were discontent about inadequate equipment, tools and materials. this was followed by 10% who experienced some delays with the supply of equipment, tools and materials. finding institutions for internship was cited by some 4%, and the rest of the challenges were not that common among former trainees. the remaining 36% of the respondents indicated that they did not face any challenges. relevance and adequacy of training former trainees were asked to rate the relevance and adequacy of the tvet training they received visà-vis their ability to perform the job they were trained for. the majority (90.4%) of the respondents felt that the training was very relevant and adequate. however, a handful (4.1%) of the respondents felt otherwise. they were of the opinion that the training they underwent was irrelevant, mainly, due to lack of employment opportunities in their area of specialisation. here is an account to that effect: because i am not working as a welder; i am doing something different from what i studied. because i could not find a job in my area of specialisation which is automotive mechanics. participants were asked to agree or disagree with the statements on the adequacy of namcol vocational training. the outcome is presented in table 2 below. furthermore, respondents were asked to rate themselves on some aspects of the training they received. the majority (89.9%) of the participants confidently felt that they could easily be trained to improve their level of skills. this was followed by 81.7% who agreed they were confident that the skills they acquired at namcol vocational training was adequate to establish their own company/business, and 61.3% felt that the training they had adequately prepared them for work — implying that they were equipped with skills and knowledge required for work. the remaining indicators scored less than 50% popularity, with the lowest being one that gauged employer satisfaction, with only 38.8%. however, it is worth noting that, 40.8% who indicated ‘not sure’ could be the unemployed since they could not predict. the former trainees’ satisfaction was again demonstrated by the responses on whether they would recommend the training they underwent to other people. an overwhelming ‘yes’ response of 98% was received. only 2% of the respondents said ‘no’ because one of them felt that it was worthless as there were no job opportunities in some trades. here is an account of a welding and metal fabrication former trainee: because it waists [sic] someone’s time and the industry is full of unemployed students of that trade. 553 namcol tvet components needing improvement as regards namcol tvet components needing improvement, generally the outcome shows that the majority of the components needed improvement. table 2 below shows a reasonable number of respondents who suggested 100% improvement of some components. table 2: components of namcol tvet needing improvement the extent of improvement required 100% 75% 50% 25% 0% knowledge (theory) 36.7 26.5 4.1 30.6 2 training in practical skills 36.7 30.6 8.2 24.5 0 industrial attachments 24.5 20.4 28.6 16.3 10.2 course content 20.4 44.9 18.4 16.3 instructional manuals 28.6 36.7 10.2 20.4 4.1 textbooks 38.8 16.3 12.2 20.4 12.2 workshop equipment 24.5 34.7 50 18.4 teaching and delivery methods 37.7 30.6 10.2 26.5 instructor's theoretical knowledge 40.8 20.4 4.1 32.7 2 instructor's practical skills 38.8 26.5 4.1 26.5 4.1 increase duration of training 20.4 20.4 34.7 22.4 2 the following components topped the list: instructor’s theoretical knowledge, instructor’s practical skills, textbooks, training in practical skills, knowledge (theory), and teaching and delivery methods. despite the fact that the extent of improvement required varied per component, generally, the majority of the components identified in the table were deemed by the participants as needing to change. only a very small percentage of participants was satisfied with some components — the highest being textbooks, where 12.2% indicated 0% improvement was required. some components needing improvement were further reiterated in responses to an open-ended question posed to former tvet trainees to further gauge their opinion on tvet services and areas of training needing improvement. organising job attachments for trainees appeared common to most participants. due to the challenge of finding institutions for job attachment, former trainees felt that the college should find such platforms for them. expanding levels as well appeared common to most of them. participants felt that the college should increase levels from level 3 to 4 across all trades. they indicated that they aimed at continuing level 4 with nmacol, however, its absence forces them to apply at other institutions to continue with their trades. providing trainees with resources also appeared common. ict gadgets cited included laptops and computers. other needs included sufficient workshop equipment, and materials. they felt that needed equipment and materials did not sufficiently respond to their needs, i.e., they were not enough for all trainees. 554 timely supply of equipment, tools and materials was another area that former trainees felt needed improvement. former trainees were in dismay that during their training, some equipment, tools and materials reached the college very late and this was an inconvenience to them and in some ways affected assessment outcomes. expansion of workshop facilities, former trainees felt, also needed attention. the participants felt that the workshops should be expanded to accommodate more trainees. this, they felt, would increase the intake across trades. enhancing the time for practical sessions came out strongly. former trainees were discontent that during their training, focus was more on theory than practice. they argued that tvet should expose trainees more to skills than theory or aim to strike a balance. the quality of instructors in terms of knowledge and skills was also attested to by some participants. they called upon namcol to always ensure that they appoint well qualified and professional instructors with appropriate and relevant knowledge and skills. hiring former trainees for (small) tvet related jobs was also suggested by some participants. they argued that such opportunities would help former unemployed trainees get a little income. lastly, building a hostel was another suggestion. participants bemoaned how they struggled financially to find affordable accommodation as well as money for transport to and from the college. providing accommodation to trainees, they felt, would alleviate all financial struggles most trainees encounter. similarly, some issues were again reiterated when asked for recommendations, and these are presented in table 3 below: table 3: respondents’ recommendations suggestion representative voice extract to extensively market namcol tvet “namcol must learn a way to expose us at companies and at government institutions that require our skills, companies really want employees but they find it difficult to take us since they don’t know us... some questions are asking specific to people who are currently employed but i just answered them because they are compulsory to be answered even though i’m unemployed” “i suggest that tvet must start going around industrial area to introduce its vocational since most of the companies does not know that namcol do offer vocational courses, and that’s the reason we are not getting job, company are considering nimt students first because they have introduced their vocational at the beginning” to put more emphasis on practice than theory “trainees doing level 2 should spend more time on practical than the theory”. to find job attachments for students “namcol should find job attachments for the trainees”. to increase the number of instructors “namcol should employ more instructors, especially that there is morning and afternoon classes. instructors are sometimes exhausted” namcol to consider former trainees for vacancies at namcol “to look for old students when there is post in namcol” namcol should introduce level 4 “level 4 or certificate in vocational instructor is needed at namcol, just to be on an advanced step towards other vocational training centres at large”. “i want to come back to namcol if there is level 4” 555 namcol should make job recommendations/referrals “namcol should always recommend job opportunities to trainees, if there is any” workshop (space) should be expanded to increase enrolment “namcol should extend the workshop, to accommodate more trainees” equipment, tools and materials should be supplied on time “time management and all training tools and equipment on time” former trainees’ appreciations of namcol it emerged vividly that some former trainees held namcol in high regard and considered it the best college. they appreciated namcol in a number of ways and this is evident in the extracts below: namcol should keep up the good work and i am thankful for the knowledge i received from namcol. namcol should aim high because it’s the best college. i want to thank namcol for giving me an opportunity to study and i strongly want to come back if there is level 4. namcol should keep up the good work. the next section presents employers’ views with regard to namcol tvet graduates. employers’ views about namcol tvet graduates employers’ profile former tvet trainees were offered employment in various industries, such as motor mechanics/car repair, construction, agriculture and production, among others. the employers’ positions that participated in this study varied: some were founders and owners of businesses, others were managers, office administrators, operators, centre managers and foremen/women. level of training for employment table 3 above displays responses on the level of training at which former trainees were employed. more than half (55.6%) of the employers indicated that they employed them at level 3. this was followed by 33.3% who considered other levels, and the lowest were those that employed level 2 graduates. none of the employers employed level 1 former trainees. level of competence of namcol tvet ttrainees employers were asked to rate the level of competence of namcol former tvet trainees in performing their assigned tasks; 87.5 % of employers rated them very good and 12.5% rated them ‘good’ at assigned tasks. none of the employers rated them as fair or poor. coupled with this was a question on former trainees’ ability to work independently. all the employers (100%) agreed that former trainees needed no supervision and guidance; they worked independently. furthermore, all employers were of the view that former trainees met the demands of the job market. 556 adequacy of former tvet trainees this question gauged employers’ satisfaction with regards to the conduct and attitude of former trainees towards some variables as shown in table 3 above. in response, all employers were satisfied with former trainees in terms of teamwork, interpersonal communication, job commitment, job knowledge, innovation and creativity, as well as their willingness to do the job; with ‘willingness to do the job’ receiving the highest number of employers who strongly agreed with the statement. none of the employers disagreed with the statements. induction of newly appointed employees when asked whether they (employers) inducted their newly appointed former trainees, all employers (100%) indicated that they always inducted them (former trainees). skills mismatch between the job demands and the skills of trainees the outcome of the question that gauged employers’ views on skills match deviates from the established pattern so far. generally, employers were satisfied with the skills, knowledge and conduct of former trainees. hence, it is logical to deduce that the skills mismatch referred to by the majority (75) could be those of former trainees employed outside their area of specialisation. when asked about the type of skills and/or knowledge former trainees needed, the majority of the employers did not think that the former trainees lacked some skills and/or knowledge. only a few of them cited, among others, ict related skills. similarly, on areas needing improvement, the majority indicated that there were no areas needing improvement. however, others recommended for more job attachments to gain more experience and to some, the driving skill seemed important. vocational training courses needed as displayed in table 3 above, a significant number (36.4%) of the employers suggested electrical courses, followed by 27.3%, diesel mechanics, and carpentry, 18.2%. first and counselling courses each received 9.1% support. discussion of findings namcol tvet programmes target existing namcol trainees, unemployed youth and adults, and artisans seeking to upgrade their skills. the fact that the majority of the 2017-2019 cohorts chose to apply to namcol only, is testimony to namcol’s fulfilment of its mandate. namcol is perceived as an institution that brings back hope to people who might have lost it, as acknowledged by one participant ,“namcol has been one of the biggest institutions for opening leaning to which everyone would get a chance to upgrade their studies/grades, thus i applied with a believe-for a better career”. they generally see a bright future with namcol. affordable fees seem to also play a role in attracting people to study with namcol. the rating of almost all study provisions at namcol, including other provisions, as ‘good’ to ‘very good’ is inspiring. however, although 63.3% is not bad in comparison, to other study provisions, the availability of training materials in the library seems to need attention. the inadequacy and untimely supply of training equipment and materials was identified as one of the major challenges former trainees encountered while studying with namcol. this, as dasmani’s (2011) study revealed, affects practical skills acquisition as instructors, without training materials, end up focussing on theory only. 557 focusing more on theory than practice for technical and skill-based programmes was pointed out by former trainees as one area needing improvement. lack of practical skills is likely to lead to ineffective and inefficient training (dasmani, 2011) as, without hands-on experience and adequate preparation for the job market, trainees encounter workplace/on the job-related challenges (damani, 2011). prosser’s principle of making training environments a replica of the environment in which they will work (prosser & ougley, 1950), and making vocational education skills practice-based, should overcome this dilemma. job attachment is part of the tvet curricula and also a requirement by nta for trainees to be attached to an employer for a specified period of time to gain practical experience (nta, 2021). despite its indispensable role, not every trainee gets a job attachment opportunity. this was revealed as one of the most common challenges former trainees encountered, and is well supported by the literature (wilson, 2016; zulu & mutereko, 2020). similarly, a current review, conducted by dondofema, mwenje, and musemwa (2020) revealed some benefits of industrial attachment. authors whose work was reviewed viewed job attachment as: a ‘useful linkage’ to the industry of work; exposure to the real world of work; an opportunity that helps put theory into practice and enable acquisition of technical skills; inculcates in trainees a positive attitude towards work, relevant work experience and necessary skills; builds confidence in trainees, and provides prospects to link with professionals in the field; and provides an opportunity for trainees to market themselves. nta (2021) puts more emphasis on job attachment as it is viewed as increasing job prospects for future employment (nta, 2021). hence, the need for all trainees to get job attachment opportunities and augment their job knowledge and skills. amidst all these benefits, this need justifies why former trainees and employers in this study urge namcol and other providers to find ways to enhance their exit strategies for assisting trainees find placements for internship; since venturing to do that by themselves, they claimed, has not been a success. conversely, if tvet institutions adopt a market driven approach and ensure that training workshops and rooms replicate that of the workplace, and not pseudo works (prosser & ougley, 1950), graduates could be confident for the workplace in the absence of job attachment opportunities. as the study revealed, the majority of former trainees in this study were not employed. among the reasons cited why they were still not employed is lack of job opportunities. the basic principle of vocational education is understood as an opportunity for self-employment and job creation. if the perception of producing for the job market/training for work dominates vocational education trainees, this basic principle is overshadowed. this problem is further demonstrated,in this study by a very small number (18%) of the employed who were self-employed, and the limited number (2) of former trainees who created their own companies/employers. the duration (one to two years) it took for the majority (69%) to find employment also bears testimony to this. grierson (1997) makes a substantive contribution to this dichotomy. he reasons that vocational training should focus on enterprise -based training that would impart self-employment skills to trainees. he further exacerbates this by arguing that trainees further need resources and opportunities. as regarding the relevance of the training vis-à-vis the ability to perform the job, the majority of former trainees who were employed rated the training they received as adequate to very relevant. only a handful found the training irrelevant. however, qualifying reasons advanced had nothing to 558 do with the quality of the training but were mainly due to due to the lack of employment opportunities — a situation that forced some of them to take up jobs outside their specialisation, as one stated, “because i am not working [as] a welder; i am doing something different from what i studied”. one can extrapolate that the former trainee’s response would have been positive if he/she was working as a welder. furthermore, the relevance of the training received can be justified through the majority of the former trainees who almost unanimously (98%) attested that they would recommend the namcol tvet training to other people. similarly, the reasons advanced by a handful (2%) who did not think they could recommend the training to someone else was because they were outside the scope of their training. some felt because they haven’t found jobs that it was a worthless endeavour — implying that they found it not worth doing if one gets no employment after graduation. in tandem with the relevance of the training, former trainees felt adequately trained. support of adequacy was evident across all indicators provided, among others, “i can establish my own company /business; my training adequately prepared me for work; i find myself to be very effective in my current job; and my employer is satisfied with my level of knowledge and skills”. these statements are a direct testimony; for instance, if one can establish one’s own business, it testifies to the level of skills and knowledge acquired. this is corroborated by chabongwa’s (2018) study that revealed, among other challenges, a lack of skills to operate one’s own business as a hindrance to some graduates in this study. chabongwa (2018) further revealed lack of capital as another obstacle, and recommended governments come up with funding strategies to allow graduates to apply their skills. similarly, if employers are satisfied, as discussed below, it, as well, affirms to the adequacy of the training received. pertaining to employer satisfaction, it became clear from the responses that employers were satisfied with the level of competence of former tvet trainees, and that they worked independently, and overall, they found former trainees meeting the demands of the job market. they applauded former trainees for their general conduct at work — including teamwork, interpersonal communication, job commitment, and knowledge, innovation and creativity, as well as their willingness to do the job. teamwork, hashim (2015) asserts, is one of the important soft skills for getting a job. this, he posits, can be gauged through the levels of interpersonal relations and communication, which former trainees seemed to possess. on this basis, as hashim (2015) postulates, tvet providers should emphasise these soft skills during training for better job opportunities. hence, tvet providers should produce graduates with soft skills, such as: attitude, behaviour, communication, critical thinking and problemsolving, teamwork, learning and information management, entrepreneurship, ethics, morality, professionalism and leadership (hashim 2015). another important dimension of the findings worth discussing is the notion of induction. all employers in the study indicated that they inducted their newly appointed former trainees. employers should be commended for this as research has shown that induction has a number of benefits including, reduction of employee turnover, integration of new employees into the culture of the company, augmentation of operational efficiency (baddapuri, 2016), better understanding of employee’s role, quickly settling into the new role, feeling accepted and respected, and having a better understanding of company processes, policies and procedures (employeesure guide, n.d). furthermore, arguing this point in pursuant of prosser’s theorem one finds reasonable grounds to 559 argue that graduates who were trained in replicated job settings needed ‘little adjustment’ (prosser & quaigley 1949). among components of namcol tvet training needing ‘total’ improvement and revamp, instructors’ knowledge and theory, as well as instructors’ practical skills appeared common to many. the importance of well qualified teachers is well documented (becker & spöttl, 2017). becker and spöttl (2017) noted that tvet instructors are recognised and instrumental to the success of tvet programmes, and the acquisition of competencies and skills by trainees is mainly dependent upon instructors. hence, if the quality of instructors is poor, this crucial role is compromised. one way to overcome this challenge, ayonmike, okwelle and okeke (2015) assert, is to re-train instructors as well as strengthening tvet quality assurance best practices. conclusion the study has revealed that the majority of former trainees were content with the training they received in terms of relevance and adequacy. similarly, the majority of the employers that participated in this study corroborated with former trainees’ views. they considered them competent and adequately trained — they generally felt that former trainees did not lack any knowledge and/or skills needed by the job market. the majority of former trainees are unemployed, and those employed are mainly in private companies; and a significant number are employed outside their area of specialisation — leading to skills mismatch. namcol former trainees encountered some challenges while studying with namcol such as financial problems, untimely supply of equipment and materials, finding institutions for job attachment, among others. there were some namcol tvet components needing improvement, namely, theoretical knowledge, training in practical skills, textbooks, teaching and delivery methods, instructors’ theoretical knowledge and practical skills. although relatively lower as compared to the above components, some participants felt that industrial (job) attachments, instructional manuals and workshop equipment needed to improve. the absence of level 4 has forced some former trainees to continue their studies with other institutions, inside and outside the country, a situation, some described, would not have happened if namcol had level 4 and upwards. hence, the call to namcol to expand all trades beyond level 3. recommendations in view of the findings and conclusions, the following recommendations are advanced: • improve the following components of namcol tvet training: knowledge (theory), training in practical skills, textbooks, teaching and delivery methods, instructors’ knowledge and theory, as well as practical skills; • the college should organise job attachments for trainees — former trainees felt that the college should find such platforms for them; • expand levels appeared common to most of them. participants felt that the college should expand levels beyond level 3 across all trades; • provide trainees with resources such as ict gadgets (laptops and computers), sufficient workshop equipment, and materials; 560 • timely supply of equipment, tools and materials was another area that former trainees felt needed improvement; • expand workshop facilities. the participants felt that the workshops needed to be expanded to accommodate more trainees; • enhance the time for practical sessions came out strongly. former trainees were discontent that during their training, focus was more on theory than practice; • the quality of instructors in terms of knowledge and skills was also attested to by some participants. they called upon namcol to always ensure that they appoint well qualified and professional instructors with appropriate and relevant knowledge and skills; • hire former trainees for (small) tvet related jobs was also suggested by some participants; • build a hostel — participants bemoaned how they struggled financially to find affordable accommodation as well as money for transport to and from the college; • market exktensively namcol tvet in order to market the graduates; • focus tvet curricula and put more emphasis on practice than theory; make tvet market driven; • increase the number of instructors at the college. • consider former trainees for small tvet related jobs at namcol • make job recommendations/referrals through namcol. acknowledgement: the completion of this study wouldn’t have been successful had it not been for the assistance of the following: my colleagues for their endless support and cooperation; the ict technician for setting up a whatsapp group that was very instrumental in the data collection for this study; the former namcol tvet trainees (2017-2019) and all tvet 2017-2019 employers who participated in this study for availing the time to complete the questionnaire or for cooperating with the data capturing clerk. my last special thanks go to the data capturing clerk for her dedication and commitment to the task and for her professional conduct throughout the data collection phase. references ayonmike, c. s., okwelle, p. c., & okeke, b. c. (2015). towards quality technical vocational education and training (tvett) programmes in nigeria: challenges and improvement strategies. journal of education and learning, 4(1), 25-34. baddapuri, d. (2016). induction traininghow does it benefit the company and the hire? https://blog.commlabindia.com/training-solutions/induction-training-benefits becker, m., & spöttl, g, (2017). regional, t. v. e. t. teacher standard for asean. essential competences for tvet teachers in asean. camp, w. g., & hillison, j. h. (1984). prosser's sixteen theorems: time for reconsideration. journal of vocational and technical education, 1(1), 13-21. chabongwa, n. (2018). the extent of entrepreneurship skills development through tvet programs in botswana. grin verlag. creswell, j. w., & clark, v. l. p. (2017). designing and conducting mixed methods research. sage publications. 561 dasmani, a. (2011). challenges facing technical institute graduates in practical skills acquisition in the upper east region of ghana. international journal of work-integrated learning, 12(2), 67. dondofema, j., mwenje, j., & musemwa, l. (2020). the industrial attachment programme--history, benefits, challenges and its adoption in zimbabwe: a review. asian journal of education and training, 6(3), 412-420. employeesure guide. (2022). workplace confidence: induction. https://employsure.com.au/guides/hiring-andonboarding/induction/ grierson, j. p. (1997). where there is no job-vocational training for self-employment in developing countries (skat, 1997, 81). hashim, m. h. m. (2015). the practice of employability teamwork skills. international journal of vocational education and training research, 1(2), 16. hollander, a., & mar n.y. (2009) towards achieving tvet for all: the role of the unesco-unevoc international centre for technical and vocational education and training. in r. maclean & d. wilson (eds.), international handbook of education for the changing world of work. springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-40205281-1_3 ilo. (2005). vocational training and skills development in the poverty reduction strategy papers — a preliminary review. skills and employability department, ilo. macci, m., jenny, b., & wilhelm, k. (2009). measuring education’s path to prosperity: tracer studies for vocational education and training programme — a practical tool kit. helvetas. marope, p. t. m., chakroun, b., & holmes, k. p. (2015). unleashing the potential: transforming technical and vocational education and training. unesco. moore, g. (2003). the sixteen theorems of sae. agricultural education magazine, 75(6), 20-21. mouzakitis, g. s. (2010). the role of vocational education and training curricula in economic development. procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 2(2), 3914-3920. murangi, h. v., & kulobone, a. (2016). tracer study for the namibian college of open learning’s secondary education learners. commonwealth of learning, canada. namibia. (2005). namibia education training authority policy. namibia. (2008). government gazette, no. 4042. namibia. (2017). namibia’s 5th national development plan. namibia. (2021). ministry of higher education, technology and innovation. http://www.mheti.gov.na/directorate_tvet.php national training authority. (2020). tvet national graduate survey 2015-2017. national training authority. (2021). job attachment. https://www.nta.com.na/job-attachment/ nugraha, h. d., kencanasari, r. v., komari, r. n., & kasda, k. (2020). employability skills in technical vocational education and training (tvet). invotec, 16(1), 1-10. neuendorf, k. a. (2018). content analysis and thematic analysis. in advanced research methods for applied psychology (pp. 211-223). routledge. oviawe, m. j. i. (2020). enhancing development of soft skills among technical vocational education and training students towards achieving the sustainable development goals. socialsci journal, 6. paryono. (2017, september). the importance of tvet and its contribution to sustainable development. in aip conference proceedings (vol. 1887, no. 1, p. 020076). aip publishing. prosser, c. a., & allen, c. r. (1925). vocational education in a democracy. century company. 562 prosser, c.a., & quaigley, t.h. (1949). prosser’s sixteen theorems on vocational education and basis for vocational philosophy. www.morgancc.edu/docs/glossary/content/prosser.pdf rawashdeh, h. (2019). enhancing institutionalized partnerships between tvet institutions and the world of work in jordan. unesco. schomburg, h. (2003). handbook for graduate tracer studies. university of kassel, germany: centre for research on higher education and work. unesco (2001). revised recommendation concerning technical and vocational education. paris: unesco press, 1 – 17. unesco (2006). participation in formal technical and vocational education and training programs worldwide. unevoc. zulu, w. v., & mutereko, s. (2020). exploring the causes of student attrition in south african tvet colleges: a case of one kwazulu-natal technical and vocational education and training college. interchange, 51(4), 385407. author: beatrice sichombe. email: bsichombe@gmail.com cite this paper as: sichombe, b. (2022). tracer study of 2017-2019 namcol tvet graduates. journal of learning for development, 9(3), 545-562. microsoft word stutchbury.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 229-240 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. mediated authentic video: a flexible tool supporting a developmental approach to teacher education kris stutchbury and clare woodward open university, uk abstract: you tube now has more searches than google, indicating that video is a motivating and, potentially, powerful learning tool. this paper investigates how we can embrace video to support improvements in teacher education. it will draw on innovative approaches to teacher education, developed by the open university uk, in order to explore in more depth the potential of video. it will use case studies from three continents, and draw on research from different sources, in order to highlight the successes and the challenges. looking across the examples presented, the paper will describe models of teacher learning and video use, and demonstrate that video can add value to teacher development activities provided that appropriate support and mediation, consistent with the pedagogy that is being promoted, is in place. sustainable development goal 4 emphasizes the importance of improving the quality of the experiences that children have in school. this requires new models for teacher education, and has become an urgent issue. video could be a significant part of the solution. keywords: teacher learning, professional development, video, educational technology, developmental introduction the efa global monitoring report unesco (2015) highlights the continuing shortage of trained teachers across the developing world despite the focus on universal primary education. in an attempt to meet the demand, teacher quality has sometimes been compromised with many unqualified or under-qualified teachers being employed (education international, 2007); teacher education is therefore under scrutiny, with concerns about both the quantity and quality of teachers available. national policy frameworks (e.g., india (2005), kenya (2012), zambia (2013)) emphasise classroom pedagogy as a way of improving the quality of education and highlight the importance of learners being actively involved in lessons. ‘learner-centred education’ (lce) is a popular policy aspiration, yet remains a contested term (schweisfurth, 2013) and needs to be examined from different cultural perspectives (o’sullivan, m., 2004; vavrus, 2009). teacher education courses (both pre-service and inservice) are often not fit for purpose: they are too long, they don’t model participatory pedagogy and are highly theoretical (o’sullivan, 2010), and they fail to address important questions about the ‘how’ of lce in a particular cultural context. new models of teacher education are required, which operate at scale, are consistent with policy aspirations and reflect current social trends, such as available and affordable mobile technologies. the current emphasis on quality in sdg 4 means that developing new 230 models of teacher education and understanding the potential of mobile technologies to support teacher learning and professional development, has become an urgent issue. the open university (ou) has a strong record in developing appropriate, professional learning programmes for teachers and teacher educators. these programmes use accessible and affordable mobile technologies to deliver high quality, culturally appropriate, resources, which show teachers and teacher educators how to implement learner centred approaches to teaching and learning. in collaboration with teachers and teacher educators all over the world the ou has developed written, audio and video material to support teacher learning. the internet is used to deliver high quality open educational resources (oer) and learning opportunities; content is supplied on sd cards, on memory sticks and on cds as well as in print form if required. networked computer labs, tablet computers, mobile phones and online learning platforms all provide access to resources. the resources are designed to support teacher learning and a significant component of this work is the use of video. this paper presents four case studies from india, bangladesh, peru, and africa, specifically looking at the use of video and the balance between technology and support in delivering change in teaching practice. the case studies illustrate the successes and opportunities presented by video as a learning tool, alongside some of the challenges and difficulties. they explore mobile phones as a delivery mechanism, the production of authentic video, the importance of mediation, the use of professionally produced films and the use of ‘home-made’ video by teachers in their own classrooms. we will start by highlighting what is known about teacher learning in order to demonstrate the particular benefits that video can bring. teacher learning learning to be a teacher is a complex and often haphazard process (leach, moon 2008). it involves learning to make many rapid decisions in a short period of time (mcintyre 2002). there are many frameworks for analysing teacher learning and developing teacher education programmes (e.g., putnam, borko 2000, malderez et al. 2007, mutton, burn & hagger 2008) but a model that we have found to be particularly helpful comes from shulman and shulman (2007). they suggest that teacher learning involves: • building a vision of the sort of teacher that it is possible to become; • being willing and motivated to learn, which means that teachers’ learning experiences need to be relevant and authentic; • being able – possessing the knowledge, and understanding required to be an effective teacher, including subject knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge and (increasingly) technological, pedagogical content knowledge; • being able – possessing the practical skills required, recognizing that practice is complex and develops over time. at the core of their model is reflection and collaboration. teacher learning is complex, but is perhaps best conceptualised as being situated in practice (putnam & borko, 2000). this means that teachers need to experience, test and analyse practice in order to move into a deeper understanding of what it means to be an effective teacher. 231 the implications for teacher education programmes are that they should provide the opportunity for teachers to develop in all of qualities listed above; they should include significant practical elements and opportunities for collaboration and reflection. teachers should have the chance to experience the sort of pedagogy being promoted in policy documents and recently developed curricula. it is widely accepted that pre-service teacher training courses in many developing countries are too theoretical and do not involve enough time in school (efa gmr team 2013, seia 2007). they are not what dyer terms ‘ecologically valid’ (dyer et al. 2004) which means that courses do not reflect the culture and conditions of the contexts in which teachers work (polly, hannafin 2011, manteau 2012). teacher education programmes fail to model participatory pedagogy with the result that schools remain dominated by teachers talking at large numbers of passive students. teacher educators often have a deficit model of teachers (dyer et al. 2004) blaming them for failing to implement the sort of learner-centred practices embedded in many national policy frameworks, rather than examining their own practice. murphy and wolfenden (2013) suggest that institutional structures and ways of working still position teachers as ‘passive enactors of pedagogic strategies’ resulting in a misalignment between policy and practice. teacher educators are often not familiar with the reality of schools (o’sullivan, 2010), yet very little professional development specifically targets this professional group. teacher educators need support in understanding the practicalities of classroom teaching so that they can effectively support teachers in developing the vision, knowledge, skills and understanding required for the 21st century classroom. video resources are very helpful in this respect; our case studies will show that they can support both teacher and teacher educator professional development. the poor quality of initial teacher education has created a demand for continuous professional development. a number of models of teacher development have become universally accepted, as described by woodward and solly (2017): occasional workshop training with expert teachers such training can be difficult to arrange, particularly in countries where travelling is difficult and sometimes unsafe. while potentially imparting information and perhaps demonstrating some effective methodologies during the workshop, sustained practice and improvement within the classroom cannot be guaranteed. it may also be difficult to find an adequate number of trainers with the capabilities needed. despite these difficulties, the removal of teachers to a central location to attend lectures remains a common form of professional development. cascade training in this model an ‘expert’ trains the trainers, who train the teachers. several layers of trainers might be involved. it is very difficult to know how much relationship the final training bears to the top layer of training. ‘the cascade is more often reduced to a trickle by the time it reaches the classroom teacher, on whom the success of the curricular change depends’ hayes (2000:135). intensive overseas immersion this is expensive; individuals are flown to a host country, accommodated and trained and the knowledge gained tends to remain with the individual practitioner and is not necessarily shared with colleagues on their return. 232 the core disadvantages of these prevailing models of teacher development can be overcome if training is centred in in teachers’ own schools or teacher educators’ own institutions, and is linked to the curriculum and current practices (moon, 2010). such training is potentially more sustainable and promotes collaborative learning amongst teachers and teacher educators. support in the form of peersupport, mentoring and coaching is important and can contribute to capacity building by strengthening existing systems. this is the model that is at the heart of the ou’s international teacher development projects. video is an important component of that model. use of video in teacher education over recent years digital video use has become more prevalent in teacher education as an important resource for enabling teachers to examine what is happening in a classroom (sherin 2004; sherin & van es 2009; rich & calandra 2010; gaudin & chalies, 2015). its use has been shown to lead to heightened motivation, optimised cognition and improved classroom practices, thus enhancing teacher learning (gaudin & chalies, 2015). development in the use of video has moved it from being simply a means of exposing teachers to practices that can be copied, to a tool in the development of teachers’ professional judgment. gaudin & chalies describe this as a shift from ‘normative’ modalities (with a focus on what to do in the classroom) to ‘developmentalist’ ones (the building of knowledge about how to interpret and reflect on classroom teaching). the implication therefore is that video, by promoting discussion and reflection about teaching and learning, has the potential to support the professional development of both teachers and teacher educators. broadly speaking, two main types of classroom video have been developed for teacher professional development. type 1 features other teachers – practitioners who are generally unknown to the learner. usually the product of professional filming and editing, and involving some form of thematic organisation and viewer guidance, these are generally intended to be distributed to a large number of end-users. type 2 videos (or participatory video) are made by the teachers themselves and serve primarily as prompts for personal reflection and trainer or peer feedback, require intensive face to face mediation and are not intended for wider viewing. in the early days, type 1 video was not designed for any specific country or region but was used as an exemplar of the type of classroom practice that ideally would be adopted across a range of environments and was generally filmed using non-local teachers and classrooms. however, by adapting the concept and filming authentic video in local conditions the video becomes a tailored learning tool. we have also used type 2 video in projects with teacher educators and with schoolbased-mentors. the case studies that follow will argue that all effective video for teacher development is in fact premised on a developmental approach and will draw on evidence we have of the potential of video to support the professional development of teachers and teacher educators, alongside the challenges that we have encountered. case studies case study 1 describes the challenge of producing authentic video; case study 2 describes how locally produced video has been effectively distributed and mediated in bangladesh; case study 3 highlights some of the challenges in using video with teacher educators and case study 4 provides two examples of using type 2 video material. 233 case study 1: the production of authentic video in india in teacher education through school-based support in india (tess-india), video clips were produced as part of an extensive bank of oer to support teachers in developing more participatory approaches. producing authentic material across a range of subjects and levels proved to be challenging, as the skills and approaches that we were trying to capture, were not in widely in use. selected schools were given examples of tess-india classroom resources and teachers were filmed using them. the results were disappointing and it was clear that teachers needed more preparation. a new plan was conceived. fourteen teachers (elementary and secondary) and nine teacher educators (mainly from district institutes for education and training diets) were chosen by state officials in uttar pradesh and madhya pradesh and invited to a workshop. all the teachers and teacher educators had at least five years of experience of teaching in schools, and most had considerably more. all the teacher educators were involved in developing teachers’ subject knowledge but involvement in other activities such as giving feedback on teaching, supporting planning and demonstrating teaching skills varied considerably. during the workshop they were introduced to the tess-india oer (www.tess-india.edu.in) and ten key resources, which explain the approaches to teaching and learning that the project is promoting. each teacher was assigned a teacher educator to work with them in school. the teacher educators were given a tablet computer pre-loaded with the tess-india oer, capable of taking video and photographs, and trained how to use it. each pair worked together intensively for two weeks, focussing on selected ‘key resources’ – aspects of practice that the teacher wanted to improve. the teacher educators visited every day to observe lessons (using the tablet to record parts of the lesson), which the pair discussed afterwards, and to support planning for the next day. at the end of two or three weeks, a professional film crew visited the schools and collected footage. the footage was edited to produce 55 short clips, illustrating the ten key resources in a range of subjects and settings, and the academic team added a commentary. all the classroom dialogue is in hindi, with commentaries in english, hindi and four other indian languages. the result is a powerful resource; teachers and teacher educators across subjects and phases have access to examples of practice in authentic settings (https://www.youtube.com/channel/ucl9j8y4mgfyiqlvh-pvkgha). the clips illustrate the possibilities for teachers and the commentary encourages them to reflect on how they could adapt the ideas introduced to their own practice. a few weeks after the footage was complete, members of the academic team visited utter pradesh and had the opportunity to interview the teacher educators about the experience. all provided very positive accounts and were able to give examples of the impact on their practice. at the end of the day, one of the teachers who had been involved arrived at the diet where the interviews had been taking place. he had come because he was very keen to share his experience. he told us about his teaching career and how he was considered to be an ‘expert’ teacher. after the workshop and during the training period, he came realise that he actually had a great deal to learn. ‘i thought i was the best teacher in the world and i realised that i was the worst’. he is very proud of the changes that he has made to his practice, as a result of working closely with the teacher educator and the key resources. 234 the films produced are not intended to show ‘perfect’ lessons. rather they show real teachers in their own settings, making an effort (with some success) to adopt participatory approaches to learning. this experience highlighted the effort required to obtain authentic video and demonstrated the potential of the process to support professional development. case study 2: using professionally made video in bangladesh – eia in the english in action (eia) project in bangladesh, the open university used a professional local film crew to film teachers in their own classes teaching with the national english course-book “english for today” (eft). however, as miller and zhou (2007) point out, observation of classroom practice does not necessarily lead to learning. some kind of reflective and supportive input is essential to mediate the classroom video. through mediating this authentic classroom practice with a video narrator and face-to-face supportive workshops, both of which provide pedagogic context, deconstruction and encourage reflection, eia has produced what power (2014) refers to as a ‘peersupported, mobile enhanced school based’ approach to teacher professional development. access to the internet cannot be relied on across rural bangladesh so the project has developed video and audio resources delivered offline on sd cards that teachers can insert into their own mobile phones. the delivery of mediated video through teachers’ own mobile phones offers an intimacy and immediacy of impact together with a degree of flexibility that much conventional training-room based, trainer-led and time-bound input often cannot match (woodward, griffiths & solly, 2014). these videos of classroom practice take teachers into other bangladeshi teachers’ classrooms to see examples of good practice in a recognizable and relevant environment (helping them to build a ‘vision’ of good teaching). the teachers in the videos are by no means the ‘best’ teachers in bangladesh; rather they demonstrate elements of good practice that the viewer feels able to also try out. the focus on a particular subject (english language teaching) means that it is possible for teachers to view video of teaching techniques and approaches that they can then adapt to their own classroom needs. on the outskirts of rajshahi in the northwest of bangladesh is an upazilla (education district) with 20 primary schools and ten secondary schools involved in the project. m is an english teacher at one of the high schools. he has been teaching for 13 years, seven of them at this school, and has been involved in other teacher professional development initiatives, funded by the asia development bank, and uk-aid. in both these initiatives, m went on block training courses as the sole teacher from his school and was away from the classroom for extended periods of time. on returning to his school he reported that he had found it difficult to apply the techniques he had learned to his own classroom. he said that they demonstrated techniques, but it was ‘only face to face and it didn’t stay with us’. in the english in action project the focus is on his classroom. over a 16-month period together with another english teacher in his school, he has worked through a set of materials delivered on an sd card in his basic nokia phone, together with some print support. as well as discussing issues that have arisen with his peer teacher, he has also attended regular meetings with other eia teachers in his local area or upazilla. he stated several times that working in this way has been a ‘radical transformation’. a is a young, relatively inexperienced teacher who during her first teaching appointment was paired with another more experienced eia teacher. a was very specific in how useful it was for her to be 235 working with a more experienced teacher. the programme encouraged them to meet once a week to discuss and reflect upon what they have been doing in their teaching, and they were provided with a teacher journal in which to reflect and report back on their classroom practice. eia also works with the head teachers and encourages them to develop a learning community within their school, carving out some time for teachers to sit and reflect together. both teachers felt that eia had brought positive changes to their classroom teaching; the students were very aware of these changes and are now much more engaged in learning. a number of the teachers in the project say that their teaching is now far more activity-based and participatory. m described how in the past the students rarely talked or even raised their hands: ‘before i used to lecture the students and they were afraid of me; now they love the classes and speak actively.’ the aim of the eia videos is to provide a toolkit of techniques that teachers can view and adapt to fit their own students’ ages, abilities and lessons. the classroom videos are mediated by a video narrator who guides the viewing teachers’ attention to key elements of the video and encourages them to reflect on what they have seen and think about how they can use similar techniques in their own classes. however, teachers do not always focus on the intended elements of the captured film (woodward, griffiths & solly, 2014). even with the video narrator’s mediation, teachers can get distracted by minor details such as classroom layout, pronunciation, and the teacher’s clothing, and miss the core point of a video clip. case study 3 demonstrates this further, highlighting the importance of ‘selective attention’ (noticing) before teachers can use video effectively to develop their professional knowledge (gaudin & chiles, 2015). case study 3: introducing the tess-india videos to head teachers and cluster co-ordinators during a one-day workshop in india, a group of head teachers and cluster co-ordinators were introduced to the tess-india oer, including the videos. one of the tess-india oer for school leaders, focused on how to bring about improvements in teaching and learning in a school and the aim of the workshop was to encourage head teachers to take responsibility for the quality of teaching in their school, and to provide them with tools to support them in this endeavour. during the workshop, they were shown one of the tess-india videos. after their initial response, the idea was to show it again, asking them to focus on particular aspects and finally to discuss how they could use the resource with teachers. the video chosen was one that has been used in many workshops because it was felt to be authentic and shows effective teaching and learning. a single teacher has 90 children in a multi-grade class. he organises a range of activities that involve children working in groups and includes some peerteaching. he makes good use of the textbook and a range of local resources. the head teachers were not hindi speakers so they were shown the version of the video in which the commentary was in their own language. the response to the video was surprising. in the first instance the head teachers and cluster coordinators were highly critical of the teacher. classroom management was deemed to be defective, the seating arrangements were criticised and they commented on the lack of a lesson plan. when asked what the teacher could have done to improve, they listed things that were beyond his control (such as the amount of space available) or, in terms of teacher learning, things that are of less importance (for example, what he was wearing). 236 on reflection we realised how difficult it is to see past the conditions in the classroom if they do not match the context exactly. the responses of the children, the level of their engagement and enjoyment was an important feature of the clip, and a discussion about what the teacher was doing to elicit those sorts of responses could have been very helpful. the head teachers however, were focused on the teacher and the physical conditions. no lesson plan was evident in the film, but the evidence from the activities and resources was that it was a very well-planned lesson. this experience highlights an important component of teacher expertise, namely the ability to identify and interpret classroom events and to make decisions based on those events. the group had no experience of interpreting the classroom in terms of childrens’ learning; such discussions are not part of the prevailing culture and have to be introduced carefully. this highlights the importance of mediation and professional development for trainers, particularly when the audience are expecting the video to be very close to the context in which they work. through working with teachers and teacher educators, the team have now developed a repertoire of ways of working with video. this includes watching from different perspectives (e.g., focus on the learners, focus on the teacher, focus on the resources): stopping the video to pose questions and highlight a particular aspect of practice, identifying questions they would want to ask of the teacher in the film and then discussing how the teacher might answer them, and discussing alternative courses of action. all of this helps the teachers and teacher educators to build a vision for effective teaching, alongside knowledge of practical steps about how that vision might be achieved. case study 4: teacher’s making their own video in peru and ghana type 2 video (i.e., video made by individual teachers for their own professional development) is currently being trialled in peru as an offshoot of the foreign & commonwealth office’s prosperity fund project being carried out by the ou; and used in ghana as part of a research project based on oer from the teacher education in sub-saharan africa (tessa) project. in peru, a small group of in-service teachers in secondary schools are involved in a pilot where they use their own mobile phones together with a small external microphone to film their classes and use the footage for detailed reflection with their peers and mentors, supporting them in improving their classroom practice. this work has only recently commenced but initial responses are encouraging. teachers are surprised, sometimes pleased, and occasionally alarmed at the practices that the video reveals. “i didn’t realise i spent so much time speaking” said one experienced teacher. “being able to view the video with my partner teacher has enabled me to reflect on my practice and pinpoint elements that i’m happy with and other areas that i need to work on”. a teacher highlighted how crucial the mentor/mentee relationship is in supporting this kind of reflective practice. “i think if i felt threatened by my mentor i would not be so happy in sharing my successes and challenges”. the impact of video on developing professional relationships has become evident in a project in ghana in which the focus is teaching practice supervisors (tps), rather than the student teachers. in this project (wolfenden et al., 2015), tps have been provided with a tablet, pre-loaded with tessa oer including the ‘teaching practice supervisors toolkit’. during routine visits to students, tps have been using the tablet to capture evidence from the classroom – video, audio and photographs – which provides a focus for the post-lesson discussion. findings so far indicate that there is a greater focus on practice during these discussions, with more formative feedback and a shift away from normally 237 dominant summative judgements. a more democratic and productive relationship has developed between the tutor and the student, benefiting both parties, and tps are learning how to support students in interpreting classroom events. hence, from these examples, it is clear that type 2 video has the potential to support student teachers, providing the opportunity to analyze and improve their teaching practice, (rich & calandra 2010; rook & mcdonald 2012). it also provides professional development opportunities for mentors and teacher educators, and therefore has the potential to make teaching practice a more productive learning experience. it does however require intensive personal support and allocated time for reflection. conclusion the situated nature of teacher learning (putnam & borko, 2000) and the model suggested by shulman and shulman (2007), suggest that teacher learning should be grounded in practice. it is not simply a matter of teaching general principles and then how to apply these in the classroom; the situated perspective recognises that general principles are ‘actually intertwined collections of more specific patterns that hold across a variety of situations’ (putnam & borko, 2007, p. 12). such patterns can be surfaced through discussion and reflection, centred on shared experiences. we have learnt that, while type 1 video (professionally produced for large-scale distribution) can offer exemplars of classroom practices for teachers, the essential pairing of video with both online and face-to-face mediation is essential if the core benefits of reflective practice are to be realised; watching videos from the perspective of learning as well as teaching can provide a powerful shared experience. the response of the indian head teachers and cluster co-ordinators suggests, perhaps, that a better shared understanding of learner-centred education and what it looks like in this context is required so that they are able to interpret classrooms from a learning perspective. we have also learnt that, using type 2 video material requires high levels of trust between mentor and mentee, and peer teachers, and the real benefit comes from the discussion and analysis rather than from simply watching the videos. we have shown that if this trust is present, the learning can extend to all parties. without meaningful mediation, there is a danger that teachers will not be able to unpick the patterns in the practices they are observing and will simply adopt the ‘form’ of learner-centred pedagogy (the pedagogy being promoted in national policy documents) without understanding the ‘substance’ (brodie, lelliott & davis 2002) — the underlying principles without which the strategies cannot be effectively implemented. mediation does not have to be labour intensive and expensive. in the various approaches to the use of video that we have demonstrated in the case studies, there is a wide range of mediation strategies that can be intrinsic to the digital resources: video narrator setting pre-watching questions; overlaid commentary pointing out key elements; reflective activities including listening to practicing teachers talking about teaching and being encouraged to try similar activities adapted to the teachers’ own specific classrooms; meta-tagging of video to subjects and themes. the face-to-face mediations, which are described in the case studies, are also achievable at scale as they are very much premised on school and local education offices. they can include peer support in schools, larger cluster meetings of teachers in local centres, and involvement of head teachers and education officers. the sort of mediation advocated has the potential to strengthen the role of the head teachers as well as 238 systems and processes that are already in place across the globe. through discussion of authentic video, not only will teachers and the people they are working with learn to interpret classroom activity; they will develop a shared understanding of lce in their context and begin to own the policy at a school and classroom level. without extensive mediation, we would suggest that video is simply an entertainment – teachers may copy certain elements that they see but are unlikely to have any deep understanding of how the techniques viewed can impact on their own teaching. we would therefore argue that mediation ensures that the use of video can be developmental and that normative video is in fact a false distinction. references brodie, k., lelliott, a., & davis, h. (2002). forms and substance in learner-centred teaching: teachers’ take-up from an in-service programme in south africa. teaching and teacher education, 18, 541-559. dyer, c., choksi, a., awasty, v., iyer, u., moyade, r., nigam, n., purohit, n., shah, s., & sheth, s. (2004). knowledge for teacher development in india: the importance of ‘local knowledge’ for in-service education. international journal of educational development, 24, 39-52. education international annual report. (2007). retrieved from http://pages.eiie.org/quadrennialreport/2007/en/home.html efa gmr team. (2013). 11th efa global monitoring report. teaching and learning: achieving quality for all. unesco: paris. efa gmr team. (2015). education for all 2000-2015: achievements and challenges. unesco: paris. gaudin, c., & chalies, s. (2015). video viewing in teacher education and professional development: a literature review. educational research review, 16, 41-67. hayes, d. (2000). cascade training and teachers’ professional development. elt journal: english language teachers journal, 54(2), 135-145. india national curriculum framework. (2005). retrieved from http://www.ncert.nic.in/rightside/links/pdf/framework/english/nf2005.pdf kenya policy framework. (2012). government of kenya. retrieved from http://planipolis.iiep.unesco.org/upload/kenya/kenya_policy_framework_for_education_and_training_sess ional_paper_july_5,_2012.pdf leach, j., & moon, b. (2008). the power of pedagogy. london: sage. malderez, a., hobson, a., tracey, l., & kerr, k. (2007). becoming a student teacher: core features of the experience. european journal of teacher education, 30(3), 225-248. manteau, o. (2012). education for sustainable development in africa: the search for pedagogical logic. international journal of educational development, 32, 376-383. mcintyre, d. (2002). has classroom teaching served its day?" in monn, b., shelton-mayes, a., & hutchinson, s. (eds.), teaching, learning and the curriculum in secondary schools (pp. 124-141). london: routledgefalmer. miller, k., & zhou, x. (2007). learning from classroom video: what makes it compelling and what makes it hard. in. goldman, r., pea, r., barron, b., & derry, s. (eds.), video research in the learning sciences (pp. 321–334). mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates. moon, b. (2010). creating new forms of teacher education: oer and the tessa programme. in danaher, p., umar, a. (eds.), teacher education through open and distance learning (pp. 121–142). vancouver: commonwealth of learning. 239 murphy, p., & wolfenden, f. (2013). developing a pedagogy of mutuality in a capability approach: teachers’ experiences of using the open educational resources (oer) of the teacher education in sub-saharan africa (tessa) programme. international journal of educational development, 33, 263-271. mutton, t., burn, k., & hagger, h. (2008). making sense of learning to teach: learners in context. research papers in education, 25(1), 73-91. o’sullivan, m. (2004). the reconceptualisation of learner-centred approaches: a namibian case study. international journal of educational development, 24, 585-602. doi:10.1016/s0738-0593(03)00018-x o’sullivan, m. (2010). educating the teacher educator—a ugandan case study. international journal of educational development, 33, 377-387. polly, d., & hannafin, m. (2011). examining how learner-centred professional development influences teachers' espoused and enacted practices. journal of educational research, 104, 120-130. putnam, t., & borko, h. (2000). what do new views of knowledge and thinking have to say about research on teacher learning? education researcher, 29(1), 4-15. rich p.j., & calandra, b. (2010). video, video everywhere: issues and evidence of video analysis in teacher education. educational technology, 50(1), 3. rook, m.m., & mcdonald, s.p. (2012). digital records of practice: a literature review of video analysis in teacher practice. in p. resta (ed.), proceedings of society for information technology & teacher education international conference 201, (pp. 1441-1446). chesapeake, va: association for the advancement of computing in education (aace). schweisfurth, m. (2013). learner-centred education in international perspective: whose pedagogy for whose development? london: routledge. seia. (2007). at the crossroads: choices for secondary education in sub-saharan africa. seia synthesis report. retrieved from http://siteresources.worldbank.org/intafrregtopseia/resources/executive_summary.pdf jan 28th 2011 sherin, m. g., & han, s. (2004). teacher learning in the context of a video club. teaching and teacher education, 20, 163-183. sherin, m. g., & van es, e. a. (2005). using video to support teachers’ ability to notice classroom interactions. journal of technology and teacher education, 13(3), 475-491. shulman, l., & shulman, j. (2007). how and what teachers learn: a shifting perspective. journal of curriculum studies, 36(2), 257-271. solly, m., & woodward, c. (in press, 2017). using mediated authentic video as a potential innovative solution for training at scale: a view from bangladesh. in kuchah, k., & shamin, f. (eds.), international perspectives in teaching english in difficult circumstances. international perspectives in english language teaching. palgrave: uk. vavrus, f. (2009). the cultural politics of constructivist pedagogy: teacher education reforms in the republic of tanzania. international journal of educational development, 29, 303–311. wolfenden, f., henry, f., murphy, p., & yaya, d. (2015). tablet pcs transforming relationships in in teacher education to to support pedagogic change. presentation at distance education for teachers in africa (deta) mauritius, 20th – 24th july. retrieved from http://www.deta.up.ac.za/archive2015/presentations/wolfenden,%20murphy%20&%20yaya.pdf woodward, c. griffiths, m., & solly, m. (2014). a new approach to cpd through the use of mediated video, peer support and low cost mobile phones. in david hayes (ed.), innovations in the continuing professional development (cpd) of english language teachers (pp.227-245). london: british council publications. zambia national curriculum framework. (2013). retrieved from http://www.ibe.unesco.org/curricula/zambia/za_alfw_2013_eng.pdf 240 authors kris stutchbury is a senior lecturer in teacher education and academic director of the tessa (teacher education in sub saharan africa programme) at the open university. prior to working at the ou, he worked for 20 years as a science teacher. for a number of years, he ran the open university's online teacher training program. email: kris.stutchbury@open.ac.uk clare woodward is a lecturer in international teacher education, who specialises in english language teaching and the use of video; worked on eia for many years and was academic director of the ou peru project. email: clare.woodward@open.ac.uk miglani mobile learning: readiness and perceptions of teachers of open universities of commonwealth asia anshu miglani and ashish kumar awadhiya vol. 4, no. 1 abstract integration of ‘mobile learning’ (m-learning) in open and distance learning (odl) systems can play a crucial role in reducing the ‘digital divide’ and strengthening ‘democratization of education’ by providing quality educational opportunities and access to information quickly at affordable cost in commonwealth asian countries. successful implementation of m-learning will be determined by readiness and positive perception of teachers towards it. this study examined the m-learning readiness and perception of the teachers of eighteen open universities spread across five commonwealth asian countries (bangladesh, india, malaysia, pakistan and sri lanka). the analysis of responses obtained from 102 teachers indicates that they have the device and skill readiness to impart m-learning. the study also revealed the presence of positive perceptions for m-learning among them. they affirmed that m-learning has the potential to engage the learner to a greater extent. it enhances the collaboration and didactic conversation, thereby reducing the feeling of isolation for learners in an odl system. however, teachers were still not sure, if m-learning can replace e-learning through conventional devices. teachers were also aware of the possible applications of m-learning in odl, pedagogies for which needs to be further explored. introduction the introduction of mobiles has given rise to a new era in the field of educational technology and is opening up innovative ways of learning and collaboration for the teaching – learning community, known as m-learning. m-learning is defined as dissemination of learning resources and services to learners through any hand held portable device connected to wireless and mobile phone networks, independent of time and place (hashemi, azizinezhad, najafi, & nesari, 2011). it has the potential to provide educational opportunities and access to information quickly at an affordable cost. integration of mobile technology in teaching and learning processes has been proven to enhance the performance of the learners and teachers. with these features, mobile technology can be more relevant in odl systems, where the thrust is to provide access to quality education to the learners in a cost effective way irrespective of their location (fozdar & kumar, 2007).   the role of odl systems is very significant in commonwealth asian countries, where the problems of access, equity and democratization of education are still a challenge. commonwealth asia, comprising bangladesh, brunei darussalam, india, malaysia, pakistan and sri lanka are the fertile grounds, where mobile technology in odl can be implemented. this is due to the increasing rate of mobile penetration in these countries. moreover, implementation of mobile technology does not require elaborate physical infrastructure, thus making it a financially viable choice in developing countries (valk, rashid, & elder, 2010). this was also supported by motlik (2008) who articulated that dependence on e-learning in odl may not be the best tool for developing nations in asia. he further stated that m-learning is a promising tool which can enable these countries to be global leaders in this field. implementation of m-learning in an odl system can be successfully achieved through the coordinated efforts of its stakeholders, mainly learners, institutions and teachers. while many researchers have focused on learners’ perspectives, very few studies exist focusing on teachers’ perspectives. hussin et al., 2012 and ismail, bokhare, azizan, & azman, 2013 also emphasized that the success of m-learning will be determined by the awareness of suitable and effective pedagogical approaches, rather than merely possessing mobile phones. hence it is important to understand the readiness and perceptions of the teachers, as they are the key players to effectively implement m-learning and engage their learners by using relevant pedagogy. therefore, there is a need for open universities to identify the readiness for and perception of m-learning among their teachers. this will help them to plan and implement m-learning strategies in the teaching-learning process. looi, seow, zhang, so, chen, & wong, 2010 has also emphasized that there is a need for research in the areas of pedagogy and professional development of educators to implement m-learning in a seamless manner.  through this study our effort has been to assess and evaluate readiness and perception towards m-learning of the teachers of open universities of commonwealth asian countries. literature review m-learning has significantly penetrated asian countries and holds tremendous potential in the future. ford and leinonen (2009) used a mobile audio-wikipedia that supported increased access to information in a region “where the access to information, both paper-based and electronic, is limited”. analysis of m-learning projects in asian countries —the philippines, mongolia, bangladesh thailand, and india — has made it evident that usage of mobile phones has improved educational outcomes and facilitated increased access (valk et al., 2010). despite its huge potential, m-learning is still in its evolving generation and is yet to be fully established (ally and prieto-blázquez, 2014; sharples, 2013; prieto et al., 2013). readiness can be defined as the availability of capabilities and resources to perform a particular task that needs specialized skills and infrastructure. it is very important to assess the readiness towards m-learning in order to enable institutions to strategize the implementation of m-learning. our literature review suggests that studies exist on e-learning readiness, covering various aspects such as psychological, sociological, environmental, financial, technological, etc. (chapnick, 2000). parasuraman (2000) proposed the “technology readiness index” (tri) which identifies the advanced users of any new technology-based services.  yun and murad (2006) studied psychological and technical skill readiness for e-learning. early studies on m-learning readiness have identified some parameters affecting readiness for m-learning such as educational level (nwagwu, 2001), gender (trifonova et al., 2006) and age (maccallum and jeffrey, 2009).  further studies have identified other factors that impact m-learning implementation such as technological feasibility, students’ needs and pedagogical benefits (cheung et al., 2011; alzaza and yaakub, 2011). the results of readiness based on m-learning studies (alzaza and yaakub, 2011; attewell, 2005; fozdar and kumar, 2007; maniar, 2008) on learners of higher education indicated that: learners perceived mobiles as an effective way to communicate, collaborate and learn; learners were enthusiastic and looked forward to the integration of m-learning in their learning process; learners had the requisite knowledge, necessary skills and awareness to utilize their mobile devices for m-learning, and mobile phones were found to be economical as compared to personal computers. similar to the learners it is also important for the teachers to have the readiness for m-learning to impart knowledge pedagogically. according to alzaza (2012) and mahamad, ibrahim, & taib (2010), the m-learning readiness of teachers was influenced by their level of technical knowledge, awareness and motivation. ismail et al. (2013) found a low level of m-learning readiness among teachers; whereas a study conducted on trainee teachers by mahat, ayub, & luan (2012) indicated their high level of readiness. perception studies on learners towards m-learning demonstrated that mobile phones help to increase the access to the information regardless of location (valk et al., 2010, gikas & grant, 2013). moreover m-learning motivated the learners and supplemented learning environment by making learning effective and interesting (jacob & isaac, 2008; nordin, embi, yasin, rahman, & yunus, 2010). m-learning provided opportunities for reinforcement of the course material. it also provided a platform where learners could collaborate and communicate informally (looi et al., 2010). it also enhanced the flexibility in an odl system if used with a blended approach (hussin et al., 2012). despite citing the potentials of m-learning and the positive perception towards the technology, the limitations of m-learning were also evident, and included fear of the technology, small mobile device keyboards making typing difficult and potential device distractions. moreover, gaps were also found in the perception of m-learning among learners and teachers. according to learners, some teachers were unwilling to effectively incorporate technology in their course and did not assist their students in interacting with the course content. these ‘anti-technology instructors’ did not want students to use mobile computing devices during class (gikas & grant, 2013). on the other hand, according to mahat et al. (2012) teachers perceived that m-learning can save time and be a viable alternative to traditional teaching and e-learning. method and sample the purpose of this study was to identify the readiness and perceptions of the teachers of the open universities of commonwealth asian countries towards m-learning. a survey method was adopted in order to collect the data required for the study. the questionnaire was developed based on the literature review. it was reviewed for content validity by experts in the domain of education technology, odl, e-learning, m-learning and psychology. after incorporating the comments and suggestions from the reviewers the questionnaire was tested for its reliability through the test-retest method. the final questionnaire consisted of four sections covering 35 items to measure readiness and perceptions of teachers at open universities. readiness towards m-learning was examined by asking respondents about the availability of mobile devices and the activities they perform through them. perception towards m-learning and its possible applications was measured through a five-point likert scale, ranging from ‘strongly disagree’ (1) to ‘strongly agree’ (5). items pertaining to perception were measured for their internal consistency through cronbach’s alpha, which shows how closely related a set of items is as a group. it is considered to be a measure of scale reliability.  the internal consistency of items pertaining to perception was measured through cronbach’s alpha. it was found to be 0.94 and 0.92 for perception towards m-learning and its possible applications, respectively.                                                         online survey was conducted to collect the necessary data. the survey link was sent to 600 teachers from eighteen open universities of bangladesh, india, malaysia, pakistan and sri lanka through e-mail. table 1 presents a list of open universities by country. the sampling method was purposive sampling under a non-probability sampling method. out of 600 surveys administered, a total of 126 responses (a response rate of 21%) were received, out of which 102 were used for analysis. table 1: list of  open universities by  country (in alphabetical order) # country university web address   bangladesh bangladesh open university (bou) www.bou.edu.bd/   india dr. b.r.ambedkar open university (braou) www.braou.ac.in/   dr. babasaheb ambedkar open university (baou) www.baou.edu.in/   indira gandhi national open university (ignou) www.ignou.ac.in/   karnataka state open university (ksou) http://karnatakastateopenuniversity.in/   krishana kanta handiqui state open university (kkhsou) www.kkhsou.in/   m.p. bhoj (open) university (mpbou) www.bhojvirtualuniversity.com/   nalanda open university (nou) http://www.nou.ac.in/   netaji subhas open university (nsou) www.wbnsou.ac.in/   pt. sunderlal sharma (open) university (pssou) http://pssou.ac.in/   tamil nadu open university (tnou) www.tnou.ac.in/   u. p. rajarshi tandon open university (uprtou) www.uprtou.ac.in/   uttarakhand open university (uou) uou.ac.in/   vardhman mahaveer open university (vmou) www.vmou.ac.in/   yashwantrao chavan maharashtra open university (ycmou) www.ycmou.ac.in/   malaysia open university malaysia  (oum) www.oum.edu.my/   pakistan  allama iqbal open university (aiou) www.aiou.edu.pk/   sri lanka the open university of sri lanka (ousl) www.ou.ac.lk/ results and discussion demographic profile table 2 summarizes the demographic profiles of 102 respondents. table 2: demographic profile of respondents     frequency percentage gender male 49 48 female 51 50 transgender 0 0 not answered 2 2 age group < 30 years 6 6 31-40 years 42 41 41-50 years 35 34 51-60 years 19 19 61 and above 0 0 experience < 5 years 11 11 5-10 years 28 27 11-15 years 21 21 16-20 years 18 18 21-25 years 8 8 26-30 years 12 12 > 30 years 4 4 subject domain* education 22 22 science 19 19 social sciences 16 16 distance education 15 15 humanities 12 12 commerce and management 9 9 computers and information science 8 8 engineering and technology 6 6 health science 5 5 agriculture 5 5 gender/ interdisciplinary studies 2 2 any other (please specify) 12 12 *respondents may select more than one option, so percentages may add up to more than 100%. the table indicates that out of 102 respondents, 48% (n = 49) were male, while 50% (n = 51) were female. the ratio of male to female respondents was found to be equal. the average age of the respondents was found to be 41.9 years, and 75% of the respondents (n = 42+35) were from education (22%) followed by the sciences (19%), social sciences (16%), distance education (15%) and humanities (12%). readiness readiness to engage in m-learning was categorized into (a) device readiness and (b) skill readiness. device readiness was assessed based on the availability of a mobile phone with internet capability and an optimal screen size. table 3: device readiness   responses yes no do you have a mobile phone? 100% (n = 102) 0% (n = 0) do you have a mobile phone with internet capability? 86% (n = 88) 14% (n = 14) is the screen size of your mobile phone greater than 3 inches? 83% (n = 85) 17% (n = 17) as indicated in table 3, all the respondents (100%) had mobile phones. out of a total of 102 respondents, 88 respondents (86%) had mobile phones with internet capability. moreover, 83% of the respondents had mobile phones with a screen size of more than 3 inches, which meets the criteria of optimum screen size. these devices were varied: smartphones, tablets, phablets, ipads, etc. small display screen devices  (less than 3 inches) are not preferred for m-learning due to limited display capabilities and input limitations (maniar, 2008), therefore, it can be inferred that majority of the teachers of open universities had device readiness to engage in teaching and learning through their mobile phones. skill readiness was assessed based on the activities performed through mobile phones. table 4 shows the list of activities and percentage of respondents performing them through their mobile phones. as per table 4, apart from mobile phone conventional usage (making phone calls and sending sms messages), respondents used their mobile phones for internet searches (71%), checking and sending e-mails (67%), sending and receiving instant messages (56%), downloading mobile apps (54%), social networking (53%) and sharing images/ audios/ videos (53%). this shows that these were the most common activities performed by the respondents. higher usage patterns of these activities may be due to their utility and ease of use (davis et al., 1989). another reason for this may be the availability of these features in most smart phones in the form of mobile apps. we may consider these activities as ‘basic skills’ required to execute some activities during m-learning, such as searching content, sending information, downloading-uploading and sharing information to a learning group. table 4: usage pattern of mobile phones # activities performed through mobile phones responses* % average% level 1 making phone calls 102 98 98   2 sending text messages (sms) 99 97   3 internet search 72 71 59 basic skills for m-learning 4 checking and sending e-mails 68 67 5 sending and receiving instant messages (ims) like whatsapp etc. 57 56 6 downloading mobile applications (apps) 55 54 7 social networking (facebook, etc.) 54 53 8 sharing image/ audio/ video 54 53 9 using online calendar/keeping appointments) 38 37% 21.5 advanced skills for m-learning 10 downloading and reading e-books 36 35% 11 watching online videos (youtube, etc.) 30 29% 12 using e-commerce services (banking, bill payments, ticket booking, online shopping, etc.) 30 29% 13 making video calls (skype, etc.) 28 27% 14 using as storage device (google drive, dropbox, etc.) 27 26% 15 downloading audio podcast (mp3) 18 18% 16 using editing tools (quick office, kingsoft office, etc.) 16 16% 17 blogging (blogs) 14 14% 18 downloading offline games 12 12% 19 undergoing/launching online programmes (moodle, wiziq, etc.) 8 8% 20 playing online interactive games 7 7% * respondents may select more than one option, so percentages may add up to more than 100%. the table further indicates that fewer respondents performed advanced activities, such as using online calendars/keeping appointments (38%), downloading and reading e-books (36%), watching online videos (30%), using e-commerce services (30%), and making video calls (28%). on the other hand, only 8% of the respondents were engaged in m-learning through lmss like moodle, wiziq, etc. this shows that formalized m-learning is still in the nascent phase. there can be many reasons that contribute to the slow growth of m-learning and these can be further explored through research. lower usage patterns of these activities may be due to the requirement for high processing speed, memory, storage capacity, bigger screen size, risk of transactional error, etc. (wang, wu, & wang, 2009). as these activities require users to acquire some technological skills, we may consider these activities as ‘advanced skills’ required to execute some advanced activities during m-learning, such as organizing events, uploading and sharing multimedia e-content, managing data, making transactions, participating in online discussions, web conferencing and didactic interactions, reviewing assignments, providing online feedback, handling, hosting and managing online learning, engaging in game based learning, etc. the average percentage of respondents with basic and advanced skills for m-learning was found to be 59% and 21.5%, respectively, which shows that respondents are acquainted with mobile technology. we can say that respondents have skill readiness to adapt m-learning and engage in it. hence, they will find themselves familiar and comfortable with the activities required for m-learning (hussin et al., 2012). perception perception was measured on a likert scale, ranging from ‘strongly disagree’ to ‘strongly agree’.  mean scores (m) greater than three (m > 3) reflect positive perception, scores below three (m < 3) represent negative perception and scores equaling three (m = 3) represent neutral perception. the result of perception study concerning the advantages of m-learning is presented in table 5. a majority of respondents perceived that m-learning: (#1) provides learning opportunities irrespective of place, pace and time (m = 4.12); (#2) improves communication between learners and teachers (m = 4.05) and (#3) provides rich learning resources at one’s finger tips (m = 4.01). the positive perception on the above items indicates that characteristics of m-learning (place, pace and time independence) are similar to that of odl systems; therefore, m-leaning can become an integral part of an odl system. m-learning can enhance the communication and didactic conversation between tutor and learner, therefore reducing the feeling of isolation, which is one of the barriers in an odl system for learners. respondents also perceived that m-learning can open up the treasure trove of resources at one’s finger tips whenever required. a majority of respondents also positively recognized that m-learning (#4) provides access to ict-based educational opportunities for everyone (m = 3.97). as the odl system has been envisaged to provide access to equal educational opportunities to all sections of society. including those previously unreached, hence, m-learning in odl can play a crucial role in reducing the ‘digital divide’ and strengthening the ‘democratization of education’ (brown et al., 2011; srinuan et al., 2012). respondents also agreed that m-learning (#5) supports a collaborative learning environment (m = 3.75). it indicates more frequent two-way communication between learner groups and teachers, therefore encouraging collaborative and informal learning (looi et al., 2010; gikas and grant, 2013). respondents felt that m-learning may also be beneficial to learners as (#6) it can save their time and effort (m = 3.72) and (#7) engage them to a greater extent (m = 3.64) and, therefore (#8) will be well accepted by learners (m = 3.6). this means that teachers believe that learners are more tech-savvy and adaptable to changing technology. this statement was also endorsed by (awadhiya et al., 2014). table 5: perception regarding mobile learning n = 10, mean = 3.7, cronbach’s alpha = 0.94 # according to you, “mobile learning” sd d n a sa m 1 provides learning opportunities irrespective of place, pace and time 2.9 (3) 5.9 (6) 8.8 (9) 41.2 (42) 41.2 (42) 4.1 2 improves communication between learners and teachers 2.9 (3) 2.0 (2) 17.6 (18) 42.2 (43) 35.3 (36) 4.0 3 provides rich learning resources at finger tips 2.9 (3) 3.9 (4) 17.6 (18) 40.2 (41) 35.3 (36) 4.0 4 provides access to ict based educational opportunities to everyone 3.9 (4) 7.8 (8) 9.8 (10) 44.1 (45) 34.3 (35) 3.9 5 supports collaborative learning environment 2.9 (3) 2.9 (3) 21.6 (22) 46.1 (47) 26.5 (27) 3.7 6 saves efforts and time of learners 2.9 (3) 9.8 (10) 20.6 (21) 42.2 (43) 24.5 (25) 3.7 7 engages learners to a greater extent 4.9 (5) 3.9 (4) 28.4 (29) 40.2 (41) 22.5 (23) 3.6 8 will be accepted by learners 2.9 (3) 7.8 (8) 34.3 (35) 32.4 (33) 22.5 (23) 3.6 9 saves efforts and time of teachers 4.9 (5) 13.7 (14) 24.5 (25) 30.4 (31) 26.5 (27) 3.6 10 can replace e-learning through conventional devices like computers/ laptops 11.8 (12) 22.5 (23) 25.5 (26) 25.5 (26) 14.7 (15) 3.0 sd: strongly disagree; d: disagree; n: neutral; a: agree; sa: strongly agree; m: mean; st.dv: standard deviation respondents perceived that m-learning will also (#9) save the time and efforts of teachers (m = 3.6). however, we feel that due to the seamless connectivity of mobile phones, m-learning may also interfere with the private space of teachers, therefore, adequate policy is required to address this issue. interestingly, respondents were neutral (m = 3.09) about the statement (#10) m-learning can replace e-learning through conventional devices like computers/ laptops. this may be due to limited display capabilities and the input interface in mobile devices. however, some studies shows that m-learning, can complement the learning process, by providing additional learning resources and cannot replace conventional methods (e-learning and classroom based training) (kukulska-humes et al., 2010; hamat et al., 2012). contrary to this, a study conducted by mahat et al., 2012 concluded that m-learning could replace traditional teaching as well as e-learning through a learning management system (lms). this contradiction also opens up avenues for future research on substitution of e-learning with m-learning. overall, data indicated that respondents have positive perception (average of mean of all perception statements = 3.72) towards various benefits of m-learning. perception was also studied in terms of the possible applications of mobile devices in odl. the respondents were asked to give their opinion on six items which mainly dealt with (a) academic and (b) administrative aspects of the odl system. it reflects teachers’ awareness of the potential applications of mobile devices in various areas of odl. its results are presented in table 6. table 6: perception regarding possible areas of application of mobile learning in odl n = 6, mean = 4.0, cronbach’s alpha = 0.92 # according to you, mobile devices may be used in odl to sd d n a sa m 1. share any course related pictures, audios, videos, links with learners 2.0 (2) 2.9 (3) 13.7 (14) 50.0 (51) 31.4 (32) 4.1 2. access syllabus and assignments by learners 2.0 (2) 5.9 (6) 11.8 (12) 52.0 (53) 28.4 (29) 4.0 3. access course material, notes etc. by learners 4.9 (5) 5.9 (6) 16.7 (17) 49.0 (50) 23.5 (24) 3.8 4. perform activities like quizzes by learners 2.9 (3) 3.9 (4) 22.5 (23) 49.0 (50) 21.6 (22) 3.8 5. participate in discussions forums 2.9 (3) 4.9 (5) 19.6 (20) 49.0 (50) 23.5 (24) 3.9 6. provide student support services to learners like administrative information 2.0 (2) 2.9 (3) 5.9 (6) 46.1 (47) 43.1 (44) 4.3 *figures in brackets ( ) indicate number of respondents sd: strongly disagree; d: disagree; n: neutral; a: agree; sa: strongly agree; m: mean according to the table, most respondents agree that mobile devices can be used for various academic activities like (#1) sharing course related pictures, audios, videos and links with learners (m = 4.1); (#2) accessing syllabus and assignments by learners (m = 4.0);  (#3) accessing course material, notes, etc. by learners (m = 3.8); (#4) performing activities like quizzes by learners (m = 3.8) and (#5) participating in discussions forums (m = 3.9). mobile devices come with built-in features like digital displays, speakers, cameras with significant memory and processing speed which allows sound, text, pictures, and video files to be used, downloaded and uploaded. these features make the creation and delivery of multimedia content feasible using mobile devices. m-learning is also a practical choice since the users do not need much technological expertise to carry out m-learning. however all learning cannot be imparted through m-learning. despite fulfilling the technological requirements, m-learning can only be used as a tool to supplement existing teaching and learning models or for communicating small chunks of information quickly to the learners (kukulska-hulme, 2010). therefore, there is a need to re-purpose e-learning course content into m-learning content (m-content). this gives scope for the emergence of newer pedagogies suitable for m-learning (kukulska-hulme, 2010). since the learners will be engaged in m-learning in a variety of different settings, with a variety of devices with varying screen sizes; m-learning pedagogies need to be more dynamic and, therefore, will be more complex in nature. therefore, it is also important to look into navigation and interactivity including social interactivity aspects as well as the subject matter. it may be inferred that m-learning will be more suitable for accessing the syllabus and assignments, which are compact and modular. learners may also share any course related pictures, audios, and videos, provided they are not large in size.  learners will also participate in interactive activities like quizzes or participating in social interactions like discussions forums. course material, notes and so on may also be assessed by learners but to a limited extent, since it is not possible to deliver all the content via mobile device. even if detailed content is provided, it cannot be assimilated conveniently using small screen sizes and thus may not work well with m-learning. further, respondents also agreed that mobile devices can also be used for (#6) providing student support services to learners (m = 4.3) like admission, enrollment, registration information; administrative assistance, status of delivery of study materials, tutoring and counseling dates, results, etc. it is also evident from m values that use of mobiles for administrative activities (m = 4.3) is much more strongly agreed to by the respondents, as compared to other academic activities (where m varies from 3.8 to 4.1). fozdar and kumar (2007) have also described implications of mobile as a media in various operational activities of odl like pre-admission information, the admission process, etc. overall, the data indicates that respondents are aware of the use of mobile devices and various possibilities and application areas in which mobiles can be used in odl. however, pedagogical strategies need to be further identified for m-learning. so far, studies in asian contexts indicate that, though m-learning is successful in increasing access to educational opportunities, little evidence exists which indicate that  it promotes new learning (valk et al., 2010). conclusion the introduction of m-learning can revolutionize an odl system in commonwealth asian countries by providing quality education opportunities in a cost-effective way. m-learning will break the barrier between teachers and learners by providing 'just in time' learning that will provide ready access to knowledge. the underlining driving force for successful implementation of m-learning is the teachers. this study indicated that teachers of open universities have a readiness for m-learning in terms of the availability of mobile device and internet connectivity. also, a significant number of teachers have acquired the ‘basic skills’ needed for m-learning, however, the percentage of teachers ready with ‘advanced skills’ is less. as the technology is rapidly evolving, it is important to bring those with ‘basic skills’ technologically at par with those teachers who possess ‘advanced skills’. this is only possible through systematic workshops, training and re-training. it is recommended that teachers with ‘advanced skills’ should be trained to become master trainers in order to impart higher skills to their colleagues. apart from technological skills, it is also important to deliver the content in a pedagogically relevant format. it is important to customize the framework and instructional design for m-learning. our study also demonstrates that the teachers are aware of the possible features and benefits of m-learning and its possible applications in odl. teachers at open universities have positive perceptions towards m-learning. however, respondents were neutral about the replacement of e-learning with m-learning. many contradictions still exist in this area that need to be addressed in future research on the substitution of e-learning with m-learning and possible scenarios. we also conclude that m-learning has significant potential for use in odl systems both for academic as well as administrative purposes, provided it meets the criteria of short and ‘to the point information’. however, this study neither covers how m-learning is being used for pedagogical means in the current scenario, nor does it identify pedagogical strategies which can be used to implement them. it could be a possible research topic for further studies. learners, institutions and teachers are the key pillars to implementation of m-learning in odl systems. while many studies have previously established learners’ readiness and positive perception towards m-learning, this study reflects upon the readiness and positive perceptions of teachers, who are the critical link in the broad framework of the delivery of knowledge. despite the readiness of both learners and teachers, m-learning is still in a nascent phase in the educational domain, despite its huge potential in commonwealth asian countries. a study conducted by awadhiya and miglani, (2016) suggests that there exist several challenges for teachers of open universities, which need to be addressed before m-learning can be successfully implemented. these challenges were mainly institutional driven, i.e.,  (a) lack of support for instructional design for m-learning; (b) lack of institutional policy for m-learning and (c) lack of infrastructure/technological support. hence, it is time for open universities to look into modalities for providing m-learning, given the scenario that learners and teachers are both ready. for this, a top-down planning strategy should be adopted by these institutions in order to bring about significant, successful change at the institutional level. future studies may focus on establishing a conceptual framework for the implementation of m-learning to help institutional policymakers make better decisions about prioritizing their goals and objectives that align with the institution’s vision and mission. acknowledgement we extend our sincere thank to dr. r.c. sharma, prof. madhu parhar, prof. p. k. biswas, prof. anu aneja and dr. s.k. pulist for their input during the research. references ally, m., & prieto-blázquez, j. (2014). what is the future of mobile learning in education? rusc. universities and knowledge society journal, 11(1), 142-151. alzaza, n. s., & yaakub, a. r. (2011). ‘students’ awareness and requirements of mobile learning services in the higher education environment’, american journal of economics and business administration, 3(1), 95-100. alzaza, n.s. (2012). ‘opportunities for utilizing mobile learning services in the palestinian higher education’, retrieved from this url. attewell, j. (2005). ‘mobile technologies and learning: a technology update and m-learning project summary’. retrieved from this url. awadhiya, a. k., miglani, a., & gowthaman, k. (2014). ict usage by distance learners in india. turkish online journal of distance education, 15(3), 242-253. awadhiya, a. k., & miglani, a. (2016). mobile learning: challenges for teachers of indian open universities. journal of learning for development-jl4d, 3(2), 35-46. brown, k., campbell, s. w., & ling, r. (2011). ‘mobile phones bridging the digital divide for teens in the us?’, future internet, 3(2), 144-158. chapnick, s. (2000). ‘are you ready for e-learning? learning circuits: astd’s online magazine all about e-learning’,retrieved from http://www.learningcircuits.org/2000/nov2000/chapnick.htm cheung, s. k., yuen, k. s., & tsang, e. y. (2011). ‘a study on the readiness of mobile learning in open education’, in international symposium on it in medicine and education (itme), ieee,vol. 1, 133-136. davis, f. d., bagozzi, r. p. & warshaw, p. r. (1989). ‘user acceptance of computer technology: a comparison of two theoretical models’, management science, 35(8), 982-1003. ford, m., & leinonen , t. (2009). mobiled – mobile tools and services platform for formal and informal learning. in m. ally (ed.) mobile learning: transforming the delivery of education and training (pp. 195-214). edmonton, ab: athabasca university press. fozdar, b. i., & kumar, l. s. (2007). ‘mobile learning and student retention’, international review of research in open and distance learning, 8(2), 1-18. gikas, j., & grant, m. m. (2013). ‘mobile computing devices in higher education: student perspectives on learning with cellphones, smartphones & social media’, the internet and higher education, 19, 18-26. hamat, a., embi, m. a., & hassan, h. a. (2012). mobile learning readiness among ukm lecturers. procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 59, 406-410. hashemi, m., azizinezhad, m., najafi, v., & nesari, a. j. (2011). ‘what is mobile learning? challenges and capabilities’, procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 30, 2477-2481. hussin, s., manap, m. r., amir, z., & krish, p. (2012). ‘mobile learning readiness among malaysian students at higher learning institutes’, asian social science, 8(12), 276. ismail, i., bokhare, s. f., azizan, s. n., & azman, n. (2013). ‘teaching via mobile phone: a case study on malaysian teachers' technology acceptance and readiness’, journal of educators online, 10(1), n1. retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej1004895.pdf jacob, s. m., & issac, b. (2008). ‘the mobile devices and its mobile learning usage analysis’, international journal of interactive mobile technology, 2(1), 10-18. kukulska-hulme, agnes (2010). mobile learning as a catalyst for change. open learning: the journal of open and distance learning, 25(3), 181–185. looi, c. k., seow, p., zhang, b., so, h. j., chen, w., & wong, l. h. (2010). ‘leveraging mobile technology for sustainable seamless learning: a research agenda’, british journal of educational technology, 41(2), 154-169. maccallum, k., & jeffrey, l. (2009). ‘identifying discriminating variables that determine mobile learning adoption by educators: an initial study. same places, different spaces’, proceedings ascilite auckland 2009, 602-608. mahamad, s., ibrahim, m.n., & taib, s.m. (2010). ‘m-learning: a new paradigm of learning mathematics in malaysia’, international journal of computer science & information technology, 2(4), 76-86. mahat, j., ayub, a. f. m., & luan, s. (2012). ‘an assessment of students’ mobile self-efficacy, readiness and personal innovativeness towards mobile learning in higher education in malaysia’, procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 64, 284-290. maniar, n., bennett, e., hand, s., & allan, g. (2008). ‘the effect of mobile phone screen size on video based learning’, journal of software, 3(4), 51-61. motlik, s. (2008). ‘mobile learning in developing nations’, the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 9(2). retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/viewarticle/564/1039 nordin, m. n., embi, m. a., yasin, r. m., rahman, s., & yunus, m. m. (2010). ‘the mobile learning readiness of the post-graduate students’,in eabr & etlc conference and proceedings. nwagwu, w. (2001). ‘factors influencing the adoption of mobile telephony by students at the university of ibadan, nigeria’,retrieved from http://acrulet.net/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/72nwagwuodetumibi.205102350.pdf parasuraman, a. (2000). ‘technology readiness index (tri): a multiple-item scale to measure readiness to embrace new technologies’, journal of service research, 2(4), 307–320. prieto, j. c. s., migueláñez, s. o., & garcía-peñalvo, f. j. (2013). understanding mobile learning: devices, pedagogical implications and research lines. teoría de la educación; educación y cultura en la sociedad de la información, 15(1), 20. sharples, m. (2013). mobile learning: research, practice and challenges. distance education in china, 3(5), 5-11. srinuan, c., srinuan, p., & bohlin, e. (2012). ‘an analysis of mobile internet access in thailand: implications for bridging the digital divide’, telematics and informatics, 29(3), 254-262. trifonova, a., georgieva, e., & ronchetti, m. (2006). ‘determining students’ readiness for mobile learning’. in proceedings of the 5th wseas international conference on e-activities (elearning, e-communities, e-commerce, e-management, e-marketing, e-governance, tele-working) (e-activities’06), venice, italy. valk, j. h., rashid, a. t., & elder, l. (2010). ‘using mobile phones to improve educational outcomes: an analysis of evidence from asia’, the international review of research in open and distributed learning,11(1), 117-140. wang, y. s., wu, m. c., & wang, h. y. (2009). ‘investigating the determinants and age and gender differences in the acceptance of mobile learning’, british journal of educational technology, 40(1), 92-118. yun, g., & murad, m. (2006). ‘factors influencing psychology and skills of the secondary school teachers’ e-learning readiness: a case study in malacca, malaysia’, fourth international conference on multimedia and information and communication technologies in education (m-icte 2006). retrieved from http://www.formatex.org/micte2006/pdf/2135-140.pdf authors: anshu miglani, indira gandhi national open university (ignou) maidangarhi, new delhi-68. email: anshu.miglani@ignou.ac.in ashish kumar awadhiya, indira gandhi national open university (ignou) maidangarhi, new delhi-68. email: akawadhiya@ignou.ac.in microsoft word edwards_galley.docx issn: 2311-1550 2020, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 46-60 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. can e-authentication raise the confidence of both students and teachers in qualifications granted through the e-assessment process? denise whitelock, chris edwards and alexandra okada the open university, uk abstract: the eu-funded tesla project — adaptive trust-based e-assessment system for learning (http://tesla-project.eu) — has developed a suite of instruments for e-authentication. these include face recognition, voice recognition, keystroke dynamics, forensic analysis and plagiarism detection, which were designed for integration within a university's virtual learning environment. these tools were trialed across the seven partner institutions: 4,058 participating students, including 330 students with special educational needs and disabilities (send); and 54 teaching staff. this paper describes the findings of this large-scale study where over 50% of the students gave a positive response to the use of these tools. in addition, over 70% agreed that these tools were “to ensure that my examination results are trusted” and “to prove that my essay is my own original work”. teaching staff also reported positive experiences with tesla: the figure reaching 100% in one institution. we show there is evidence that a suite of e-authentication tools such as tesla can potentially be acceptable to students and staff and be used to increase trust in online assessment. also, that while not yet perfected for send students it can still enrich their experience of assessment. we find that care is needed when introducing such technologies to ensure building the layers of trust required for their successful adoption. keywords: assessment, cheating, plagiarism, e-authentication. introduction many traditional face-to-face universities are beginning to provide online learning options for some of their teaching. this has meant that there are academic integrity issues that need to be addressed when embarking upon online assessment. these issues are primarily focused around student identity but also include plagiarism. they have, of course, existed for as long as assessment, as there are evolutionary drivers to these behaviours (wade & breden, 1980). these confounding issues of identity and cheating, through attempting to pass someone else's work as one's own, can be described as problems associated with the authentication of individual students. solutions to authentication issues of this nature include implementing high levels of security to ensure the correct person sits an assessment and does not cheat during that event. conventionally, this is achieved through identity checking by invigilators and the assessment is duly proctored to ensure no cheating takes place. the high levels of resources required for this type of formal assessment means it is only suitable for infrequent, high-stakes assessment. it is, therefore, important to persuade students not to attempt to cheat through the promotion of good academic practice and in this way promoting academic integrity. 47 mccabe, trevino and butterfield (2001) provide a list of 10 principles of academic integrity for faculty. they are quoted here for convenience: 1. affirm the importance of academic integrity 2. foster a love of learning 3. treat students as an end in themselves 4. foster an environment of trust in the classroom 5. encourage student responsibility for academic integrity 6. clarify expectations for students 7. develop fair and relevant forms of assessment 8. reduce opportunities to engage in academic dishonesty 9. challenge academic dishonesty when it occurs 10. help define and support campus-wide academic integrity standards. interestingly, their list from the student perspective includes the provision of deterrents with “harsh penalties” given in the examples. in most institutions the penalties will likely be determined at the institutional, rather than the faculty level. while this list was written as a reflection of the previous decade and before the boom in online learning, each of the items resonates in today’s higher education environment. a more recent study written firmly in the contemporary technological context does not attempt to modify this list of principles. van veen and sattler (2018) do, however, aim to deepen our understanding of the role of deterrence while suggesting other factors also fit within the local context. the european commission funded the innovation alliance (http://www.innovationalliance.eu), which promotes academic integrity as having five interconnected key values. these are: faith (or trust), fairness, respect, honesty, sense of responsibility which also chime with mccabe et al’s 10 principles. the rapid increase in both online tuition and the opportunities for online assessment require little significant rethinking of the majority of the 10 principles above, other than extending what we consider to be the classroom and the campus: in principles 4 and 10. trust, as mentioned in principle 4, requires the rethinking of the notion of a classroom radically changed from a real space containing a real time interaction between teachers and students, to a virtual space where asynchronous interactions are taking place without geographical coincidence, mediated through the internet. also, student expectations, as described in principle 6, will not have remained unchanged. furthermore, online assessment provides a range of opportunities to engage in dishonesty (principle 8). dishonesty in the context of e-assessments is commonly known as cheating, which is defined by bartley (2005, p. 27) as “all deceptive or unauthorised actions”. however, through principle 7, there are new opportunities to develop ‘fair and relevant’ assessments. in the following section two different approaches to online assessment which address these challenges and opportunities is considered. 48 high stakes, low stakes, assessments there are now well-developed online proctoring solutions that enable institutions to manage full examinations with their students dispersed geographically and engaging in e-assessments. for some universities this could be the primary form of assessment used. for example, western governors university (wgu) in utah, usa, states that, “thanks to webcam technology and online proctoring services, wgu enables you to take tests from the comfort, privacy, and convenience of your home or office ...” using remotely proctored assessments (wgu, 2020). this is seen as an alternative mode for a traditional examination model of assessment and expectations are set accordingly. the notion of the exam hall is extended to include every space in which a student is being examined. the opportunities to cheat are reduced through a combination of recordings. these may include the use of multiple cameras, microphones and screen recorders. the ratio of students to proctors is set to satisfy an institution’s appetite for risk and will be a factor contributing to the overall trust in the system. a different approach is required for lower stake e-assessments which are more frequent but can still contribute to a student’s overall mark and grade. both kinds of assessment are supported by the trust-based authentication and authorship e-authentication analysis, tesla (an adaptive trust-based e-assessment system for learning) suite of tools. this paper reports on the findings from the largescale testing of this suite of e-authentication tools, which was developed as part of the european horizon’s 2020 project. it created a system to support authentication and authorship checking for eassessments. the tesla authentication system the european commission funded a three-year project that was successfully completed at the end of may 2019. it brought together eighteen different partner organisations, including seven universities to trial the tools, teaching in seven different languages. the goal was to develop and pilot an online suite of tools that would become a commercially viable solution for institutions to improve trust in online assessment through the e-authentication of students’ work. the project developed several e-authentication instruments, each of which could be implemented in a learning management system (e.g., moodle) as part of higher education’s online provision. in other words, the tesla system is modular, allowing individual higher education institutions to implement their choice of tesla instruments according to their local needs. the tesla instruments can be categorised as either biometric or text analysis type tools: biometric tools ● facial recognition (fr): for e-authentication by comparing images and videos of students’ face and facial expressions with the system’s stored profiles. this also includes face presentation attack detection (fpad), which accepts only a real person in front of the camera and not an image. ● voice recognition (vr): for e-authentication by comparing student voices with the system’s stored profiles. this also includes voice presentation attack detection (vpad), which accepts only a real person talking and not an audio file. 49 ● keystroke dynamics (kd): for e-authentication by comparing the rhythm and speed of typing when a student uses a keyboard with the system’s stored profiles. textual analysis tools ● plagiarism detection (pl): for detecting similarities between a given set of textual documents created by students. ● forensic analysis (fa): for comparing personal writing style to the system’s stored profiles (which are updated over time with the submission of new documents). software development and pilot studies the software development went through several iterations, which were evaluated in three piloting phases (pilot 1, pilot 2, pilot 3) undertaken in each of the seven universities (including face-to-face, blended and online learning environments). studying the implementation of tesla in universities across six countries, each with its own complex context, also enabled the project to help those universities address the changes in personal data legislation (gdpr) which came into effect after pilot 1 (in may 2016). through this iterative process, in addition to changes that were implemented in both the software and the testing protocols, there were several pedagogical developments, including a typology of supported assessments. in summary, the pilots were designed to: 1. test the e-authentication tools in practice (including their reliability and validity); 2. examine privacy concerns and ethical issues raised by students, teaching staff and course coordinators; and 3. develop appropriate ways of integrating the tools into e-assessment practices. the pilots also provided snapshots into the potential uses of the tesla software. pilot universities also investigated how tesla could enhance users’ trust in an online e-authentication system by monitoring student identities when undertaking e-assessments. however, it is important to note that in the earlier pilots (pilots 1 and 2), the software was by design still in development. accordingly, in those earlier pilots, the range of assessments was restricted and there was only access to a limited amount of data. nonetheless, in pilots 3a and 3b, student numbers increased, and more data became available. while a technical team continued development of the suite, three pilot studies of increasing scope informed this development and tested the tools in a range of situations, from assessment sessions in class at campus-based universities to tesla enabled assessments in real distance learning courses at online institutions. this paper describes the methods used to evaluate the pilot studies and discusses the findings. the seven universities that trialed the tesla suite were: distance learning institutions: the open university of catalunya (uoc); open university, netherlands (ounl); open university, united kingdom (ouuk) blended learning institutions: anadolu university (au), university of jyväskylä (jyu) face-to-face universities: sofia university (su); technical university, sofia (tus). 50 the overarching research questions for the three studies were: 1. what were the users’ experiences of the tesla system? 2. what were the issues surrounding assessment activities, trust and cheating? method the three pilot studies consecutively ran during each year of the project. pilot 1, year 1, aims: test the pilot communication protocol, and test the technical implementation protocol. target number of student participants was 600. data was collected through interviews with participants and used to improve the two protocols. pilot 2, year 2, aim: test the tesla instruments in an isolated manner in assessment activities. the target number of student participants was 3,500. partners developed four questionnaires. one pair for student participants and the other for staff participants. each participant completed one questionnaire before they engaged with tesla and the second after they had engaged. these provided preand post-responses and included some free text responses. the data provided feedback for the technical team, the pilot university teams, and for improving the questionnaires for pilot 3. pilot 3, year 3, aim: test the full integration of the tesla system and its scalability. target number of student participants: phase 1 – 7,000, phase 2 – 10,000. the first two pilots were in effect intermediate development steps for the final pilot 3. results the numbers involved in the pilot studies were as set out in table 1 and met more than the set target. this table includes the numbers of participants with special educational needs and disabilities (send). table 1: the number of student participants, teachers and courses for each of the three pilots, including the number of send students pilot students send students teachers courses 1 637 24 22 24 2 4,931 287 43 125 3 17,373 550 392 310 figure 1 shows the spread of participants across each subject area for each pilot study. while in pilot 3, most participants were studying engineering and architecture, good numbers of participants were drawn from each of the other subject areas. 51 figure 1: the spread of student participants across subjects, by pilot. for pilots 2 and 3. the spread of participants, for pilot 3, across the seven languages of the project is shown in figure 2. this illustrates a fair representation for each language across the whole sample. figure 2: the spread of student participants across the seven languages in pilot 3. the gender distribution is revealed in figure 3, where it shows the percentage of female students by institution for each of the two phases of pilot 3. while there are variations from institution to institution, there is an overall balance between female and male students. 52 figure 3: the percentage of female participants for pilots 3a and 3b by institution. assessment details a range of assessments were included in pilot 3. there was a spread of formative and summative assessment, with the majority serving both purposes of development and grading. most of the assessment was individual, unsupervised, and involved the creation of text artifacts. the audio tools were used for language testing and the video tool assisted with collaborative assessment. table 2: summary details for assessment in pilot 3 53 users’ experience of the tesla system student perspectives the student views on their experience of the tesla system were based upon the experiences of 11,102 unique students who used the tesla system responses from the 2,222 who completed preand postintervention questionnaires. participants of the pilot studies described a positive acceptance of tesla instruments and believed that they would increase students’ awareness of cheating and plagiarism and the trustworthiness of eassessment but would not eliminate the possibility of fraud. the overall students’ experience with the tesla instruments was positive for more than 50% of the students from all partner universities, with more than 70% considering the key advantages of e-assessment with e-authentication to be: “to ensure that my examination results are trusted” and “to prove that my essay is my own original work”. most of the students who were interviewed reported no issues with the tesla instruments and managed to complete the assessment activities without the help of a teacher. for example: “students were able to finish the tasks quite independently. there were no major technical problems.” “none of the students highlighted any technical issue and that the only difficulty mentioned was to enable the camera on a laptop.” “five (out of nine) of the students at sofia university said they did not encounter any problems when using the instruments from tesla system and they succeeded in completing the enrolment and follow-up on their own.” three main factors contributed to the ease of use of the tesla system: 1. the “very clear and detailed” instructions of the teachers in a face-to-face context (su); 2. using tesla for a second time after the teacher “described to them how to use the system in the previous semester” (au); and 3. the use of tutorials and guidelines which were felt to be easy to follow (uoc). pilot leaders reported that most of the students interviewed faced no issues with the tesla instruments and managed to complete the assessment activities without the help of a teacher. for example: “students were able to finish the tasks quite independently. there were no major technical problems.” “none of the students highlighted any technical issue and that the only difficulty mentioned was to enable the camera on a laptop.” however, 5% to 19% of students faced technical problems in all institutions such as “difficulties to understand in which order the tasks should have been completed”, which was made more difficult by the students’ lack of experience in using moodle (jyu). “browser problems. chrome and explorer not working”. another example is that some students had difficulty understanding what behaviour was considered acceptable during system activation. for some, the length of enrolment text (250 words) that the students had to type for the keystroke dynamics instrument was a problem: “it was hard to make up 250 words,” “250 words to write was pretty much. if you only do it once, it’s ok.” some students found that the completion of the project surveys was a significant additional burden on top of using the tesla system. consequently, in some institutions many students were willing to use the tesla system but were unwilling to complete the surveys. 54 student sensitivities some students raised issues about surveillance and tensions due to a fear of the power differential (between universities/students) and the opacity (it was unclear how the system made its decisions). this varied according to the student's digital literacy (computer science students were more comfortable in using the system). some students expressed difficulties in trusting the reliability of the biometric instruments. for example, some students feared a malfunctioning of the biometric tools, while others were afraid that in the long run the system would no longer recognise them. understanding what is meant by cheating some students had difficulty understanding what behaviour was considered acceptable during system activation. this was due to a lack of clarity as to the definition of cheating in force. in pilot 3, 40% of students on average were not sure about the nuances of cheating and plagiarism. qualitative data suggested that the students needed to increase their understanding about: • the consequences of plagiarism; • how to use sources appropriately; • reasons for not cheating; • collaborative work with individual assessment, and plagiarism; and • information sharing with appropriate usage. send students by applying a range of flexible strategies, considering the specifics of the institutional contexts and institutional regulations or legal restrictions, all partner institutions managed to involve send students in the pilots and were able to study their experiences with tesla. most participating send students were identified in the pre-pilot questionnaire, in which students were asked to voluntarily self-identify any disabilities. other methods used included personal invitations of known send students, establishing a send-specific course, and using institutional services that already work with send students. the most effective strategy was approaching the students individually and motivating them, firstly, to take part in tesla testing and, secondly, to share their experience with their teacher. the most reliable and informative way to identify specific issues send students faced in using the tesla instruments tended to be individual sessions monitored by a teacher, in which the student tested each individual instrument, discussed with the teacher the specific problems and gave specific recommendations for improvement of the accessibility and usability for this particular instrument. reasons for not participating given by send students included: lack of time, being busy with the exams, having health problems, the consent form, technical problems (such as not having the required webcam and microphone or having access difficulties), and not seeing any advantage in using tesla as their university already offered several benefits for send students (such as online final exams instead of on-site exams). 55 nonetheless, all send students who did participate appreciated the availability of the tesla system, which they saw as: • allowing for equal opportunities for all students; • reducing the pressures on students with severe physical disabilities to drop out from the university; • saving time and money for travel; • improving productivity; • increasing flexibility; and • increasing the reliability in comparison with face-to-face examinations. however, although most of the send students appreciated the opportunities that tesla provided for conducting exams from home on certain occasions, they did not see online assessment as an alternative to face-to-face assessment because this would limit opportunities to socialise with other students. in fact, many of the usability and accessibility issues raised by send students related to the vle in which tesla was integrated rather than to the tesla system itself. the technical team argued that tesla could not be expected to address issues which arise from the vle rather than from tesla. the students’ experiences and opinions of the accessibility and usability of the tesla system and its various instruments varied a great deal according to the type and degree of their disability. the data suggests that, due to the heterogeneity of send students and the specificity of different disability groups, it is not possible for a system such as tesla to satisfy equally the needs of such a diverse group of learners in terms of accessibility and usability. the two groups of send students that were most vulnerable in this respect were the vision impaired students and the deaf students. teaching staff perspectives the other main users of the system were the teachers and, in the implementation of the tesla system, partners applied a student-centred pedagogical approach (see esg et al, 2015; bañeres et al, 2016) for the e-assessment activities. the assessments were designed to allow the students to reveal their skills and their understanding of the different knowledge domains to the best of their abilities. the students also received some guidance to support their trust in the tesla system and its instruments, including some ways to address technological problems that they might encounter. the implementation of the tesla system in university processes raised questions from a pedagogical point of view. teaching staff identified a range of obstacles that would make it more difficult to apply tesla in their courses: • some teaching staff said that, to be able to use fully the tesla system, they needed to redesign their assessment activities; • others said that tesla would have to be used relatively frequently, throughout the semester, to ensure its effectiveness; 56 • some tesla instruments were not relevant to particular university subjects. for example, antiplagiarism and forensic analysis were considered inappropriate in computer science because students are sometimes allowed to copy and paste some programming code lines if it is judiciously done. some instruments were harder to implement for particular assessment activities, despite the presumed agnostic approach of the tesla instruments. for example, keystroke dynamics and forensic analysis were useful in assessments where students were required to write long texts (e.g., reports, essays, and open questions). however, in assessments that mostly require short text responses (e.g., mathematics and computer sciences), they were not so appropriate. voice and face recognition were sometimes found difficult to implement, depending on the existing assessment practices (e.g., whether microphones and webcams were already used, and whether they were already available for each student). overall, the teachers were generally enthusiastic about the modularity of the tesla system (the possibility to enable/disable the instruments as they wish, to take student needs and student feedback into account in different ways). issues surrounding assessment activities, trust and cheating assessment activities the analysis of how the tesla instruments were integrated into pilot courses provides a typology of approaches according to the design of the assessment activity and the needs of the institution to authenticate students and/or provide a check on the authorship of their written products. the course and assessment scenarios described are based on actual successful practice by the pilot institutions. other approaches can readily be imagined, and will no doubt develop as tesla is used in the future, but these scenarios provide a solid starting point, illustrating approaches that have been demonstrated to be practicable and to make effective use of the tesla instruments. the approaches were: 1. low stakes and formative assessments; 2. coursework constituting less than a half of the overall mark supplemented by face-to-face supervised examinations; 3. final written assessments that carry the whole of the course mark; and 4. integration into the majority or all of a series of assessment activities that carry the whole of the course mark (continuous assessment). the instruments mostly used by teaching staff were those that students found least intrusive (forensic analysis and anti-plagiarism). however, this was not the case for pilots 3a and 3b taken together, where face recognition was the most used instrument. in fact, teaching staff used each of the available approaches to assessment design, which involved using the tesla instruments in all types of assessment: diagnostic, formative, summative, at home, at university, supervised and unsupervised, individual and collaborative, and with various response types (selection, performance and creation) and format (mouse click, text, sound, image and programming code) (okada et al, 2018). 57 trust and cheating most teaching staff from all institutions gave positive responses to questions about trust. for example, “it will increase the trust among universities and employers” and “it will help participants trust the outcomes of e-assessment”. in particular, teachers said that the anti-plagiarism and forensic analysis tools were shown to increase trust and academic integrity. meanwhile, some teaching staff believed that authentication via the tesla system could be used as a tool to motivate students and make them more proactive (i.e., it can go beyond fighting cheating). the system was generally not perceived simply as a tool that automatically assesses situations in a binary way (e.g., cheating/no cheating) but rather as a continuous monitoring tool that gives indications and generally promotes good practices and trust. discussion the results from the tesla project included a final large-scale study that demonstrates the system can operate at scale and be successfully embedded within a university’s virtual learning environment (vle). it should be noted that the nature of the pilots meant that participants were essentially selfselecting. this is because there was no requirement to participate, and, therefore, only those that wanted to signed the consent form and took part in tests. a further self-selection step took place at the post-questionnaire where, as there was no compulsion to complete it, some chose not to. therefore, the findings cannot be considered completely representative of the student body as a whole. despite this caveat, there was broad representation in terms of language, subject, gender and special need or disability. the tesla system proved to be an acceptable intrusion for the majority of those who did take part. the send study showed that while generally welcomed, the tesla suite of tools could not fully support all students with special needs and disabilities. students were clear that they were more accepting of some of the tools than others. the antiplagiarism and forensic analysis tools were most acceptable while the facial and voice recognition tools were less accepted. this was likely, in part, to do with the effort required to set them up with their initial ‘enrolment’ data. another factor is the much more personal nature of the data the tools collected and the fact this was usually not directly related to the work being undertaken. teaching staff were broadly satisfied with tesla, with many agreeing that “it will increase the trust among universities and employers” and “it will help participants trust the outcomes of e-assessment”. most teaching staff thought that tesla was easy-to-use and user-friendly (they particularly liked the fact that the system is modular, allowing some tools to be switched off as necessary). some teaching staff acknowledged that some tesla tools were harder to use and to accommodate than others, some thought that it was sometimes cumbersome and impractical, and some thought that tesla sometimes required assessment activities to be redesigned. teaching staff also acknowledged that there were some problems, some of which were technical, some of which were in the interface (ease of navigation) and requirements (e.g., the number of characters that had to be typed), some of which were cultural. however, teaching staff saw all these issues as being resolvable with the help of a colleague or technician, or with better instructions and tutorials, or with assistive tools. teaching staff commented that a technical faq, data security and privacy awareness, guidelines for use and interpreting results, e-authentication and authorship verification policies were all necessary. some 58 teaching staff would have liked more detailed guidance on how they should interpret the tesla tool outcomes. teaching staff thought that it was not possible for tesla to satisfy equally the accessibility and usability needs of send learners, who are, by definition, highly heterogenous. however, they believed that the interface should be designed to be usable with assistive technologies such as screen readers. conclusion with respect to the research question about the users’ experience of the tesla system, students and teachers were broadly positive about their experience using the tesla instruments. in particular, students were willing to share various types of personal data, while both students and teachers believed that the tesla system would increase trust in the e-assessments. teachers did find some instruments harder to implement, however, they were generally enthusiastic about the modularity of the tesla system. with respect to the research question “does the tesla system meet stakeholders’ expectations?”, and based on extensive conversations with institutional stakeholders about tesla and the level of interest they have shown, it is clear that tesla exceeds their expectations. there does remain a question mark about deployment costs and data privacy that are common to any similar technology. that said, institutional stakeholders recognise the importance of bringing more trust to existing fully online programs and also of bringing more flexibility to traditional face-to-face delivery. flexibility and adaptability to individual needs and regulation are probably the most relevant components of the solution for institutional stakeholders to date. tesla is opening a brand-new segment in the educational technology space. while there are individual technologies that tackle some of the challenges that tesla addresses, no one has invested effort in creating a holistic, interoperable trust framework. this means that, unlike other commercial players, tesla can leverage different and new biometric technologies as they are developed. also, tesla can adapt to different regulation, it/cloud and privacy preferences. reflecting on the principles for academic integrity (mccabe, trevino & butterfield, 2001), online proctoring has a particular niche for infrequent, high stakes assessment where it can operate as a deterrent and allow conventional examinations to be undertaken with an extended examination hall to encompass every student under examination. the tesla suite of e-authentication tools, with its ability to become seamlessly embedded within an institution’s vle, can deter cheating and build trust in online assessment, from within the existing ‘classroom’. tesla can also offer an opportunity; in that it can facilitate new forms of online assessment and allow more relevant forms of assessment to be created. it can therefore be envisaged, that courses will be designed around the tesla technology with the greater variety of relevant assessment that it enables. with clear information, policy and guidance these developments could establish the ‘layers of trust’ (edwards et al, 2018) that would make eauthentication generally acceptable. this will lead to greater trust in the results of online assessment. finally, we have not forgotten that these technologies (like so many others) are not yet sufficiently mature that they can fully support all send students. therefore, alternatives should continue to be developed to ensure all students have a rich and rewarding learning and assessment experience. 59 acknowledgement: we are grateful to the european commission for funding this project, the tesla pilot leaders, and consortium team. this work is supported by the h2020-ict-2015/h2020-ict-2015, number 688520. the full list of partners is: agencia per a lat qualitat del sistema universitari de catalunya (aqu), anadolu universitesi (au), european association for quality assurance in higher education (enqu), european quality assurance network for informatics education (eqanie), idiap, imperial college london, inaoe, institut minestelecom (imt), lplus gmbh, open universotiet (ounl), protos, sofia university (su), technical university of sofia (tus), universitat oberta de catalunya (uoc), universite de namur (unamur), university of jyvaskyla (jyu), watchful. references bañeres, d., rodríguez, m elena, guerrero-roldán, & a.-e., baró, x. (2016). towards an adaptive e-assessment system based on trustworthiness. in s. caballé & r. clarisó, (eds.) formative assessment, learning data analytics and gamification. boston: academic press, pp. 25–47. retrieved from doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12803637-2.00002-6. bartley, j. m. (2005). assessment is as assessment does: a conceptual framework for understanding online assessment and measurement. in s. howell, & m. hricko (eds.), online assessment and measurement: foundations and challenges (pp. 1-45). hershey, pa: igi global. retrieved from doi:10.4018/978-1-59140-7201.ch001 edwards, c., whitelock, d., okada, a., & holmes, w. (2018). trust in online authentication tools for online assessment in both formal and informal contexts. in l. gómez chova, a. lópez martínez, & i. candel torres (eds.), iceri2018 proceedings (pp. 3754–3762). seville: iated academy. esg: european students’ union (esu) (belgium), european university association (eua) (belgium), european association of institutions in higher education (eurashe) (belgium) and european association for quality assurance in higher education (enqa) (belgium) (2015). standards and guidelines for quality assurance in the european higher education area (esg), bruxelles, belgium, european students’ union (online). retrieved from http://www.esu-online.org innovation alliance. (2019). academic integrity. retrieved from http://www.innovationalliance.eu/de/1-0 understanding-academia/1-2-understanding-academics/1-2-2-academic-integrity/ mccabe, d. l., trevino, l. k., & butterfield, k. d. (2001). cheating in academic institutions: a decade of research. ethics & behavior, 11(3), 219–232. retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327019eb1103_2 okada, a., whitelock, d., holmes, w., & edwards, c. (2018). student acceptance of online assessment with eauthentication in the uk. british journal of educational technology, bjet, (early access). van veen, f., & sattler, s. (2018). modeling updating of perceived detection risk: the role of personal experience, peers, deterrence policies, and impulsivity. deviant behavior. https://doi.org/10.1080/01639625.2018.1559409 wade, m. j., & breden, f. (1980). the evolution of cheating and selfish behavior. behavioral ecology and sociobiology, 7(3), pp. 167–172. retrieved from https://www-jstororg.libezproxy.open.ac.uk/stable/4599323?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents wgu (2020). assessments allow students to prove their competency. university web site. retrieved from https://www.wgu.edu/admissions/student-experience/assessments.html 60 authors: denise whitelock is the interim director of the institute of educational technology at the open university, uk. she is a professor of technology enhanced assessment and learning and has over thirty years’ experience in ai for designing, researching and evaluating online and computer-based learning in higher education. for a complete publication list see: http://oro.open.ac.uk/view/person/dmw8.html email: denise.whitelock@open.ac.uk chris edwards is a lecturer in the open university's institute of educational technology. in addition to this research into student authentication, he chairs the masters module openness and innovation in elearning and also supports quality enhancement activities focussing on using new data methods and structures to better understand student study choices. for a complete publication list see: http://oro.open.ac.uk/view/person/che2.html email: chris.edwards@open.ac.uk alexandra okada is an educational researcher of the faculty of wellbeing, education & language studies at the open university, uk and a senior fellow of the higher education academy. her expertise lies at intersections between technology enhanced learning and responsible research and innovation. for a complete publication list see: http://oro.open.ac.uk/view/person/alpo3.html email: ale.okada@open.ac.uk cite this paper as: whitelock, d., edwards, c., & okada, a. (2020). can e-authentication raise the confidence of both students and teachers in qualifications granted through the e-assessment process? journal of learning for development, 7(1), 46-60. microsoft word otamas.docx issn: 2311-1550 2022, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 455-474 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. covid-19 pandemic: development of digital technologies that provide connection, collaboration and lifelong learning inna h. otamas1, viktoriia o. anishchenko2, liudmyla a. ovsiankina3, inna a. afanasyeva4 and andrii bieliatynskyi5 1university of educational management, ukraine 2academy of the state penitentiary service, ukraine 3borys grinchenko kyiv university, ukraine 4bogomolets national medical university, ukraine 5north minzu university, china abstract: the topicality of the problem under research in this study concerns the changes in educational systems (from elementary to higher education) in ukraine and throughout the world caused by covid19. this article aims to reveal the essence of initiatives of international organisations in educational institutions in ukraine and around the world during the covid-19 period, and to examine the perception of teachers and students of the process of online learning and learning during the covid-19 pandemic. the study’s aim also involves highlighting and analysing the quality of education to ensure continuous updating of its content based on the latest technological advances, including innovative methods in the educational process, during covid-19. the main sets of methods were as follows: 1) analysis, synthesis, comparison, and generalisation while studying the scientific literature, as well as legislative and regulatory documents; and 2) historical and pedagogical analysis to determine the features of open education development. the data obtained show the following: the regional affiliation and profiles of educational institutions; the experience of the teaching staff in using distance learning technologies in the education process; assessment of the prospects for distance learning implementation in the ukrainian educational system; and readiness to master distance learning technologies. the significance of the article is to provide a holistic view of online teaching and learning activities under lockdown, to eliminate academic disorders and ensure the resumption of educational activities. keywords: educational system in the conditions of covid-19, innovative technologies in the educational process, digital communication, distance education, online learning platforms. introduction the relevance of the research problem is due to changes in the educational system (from primary to the highest level) caused by covid-19, not in ukraine only but all around the world. the development and influence of digital technologies on society throughout the past decades were highlighted in different types of documents. however, the development of digital technologies that provide connection, collaboration, and lifelong learning during covid-19 has not yet been fully considered. 456 the world is becoming more interconnected, various risks are growing, and the covid-19 pandemic does not stop at national borders. it has affected people, regardless of nationality, level of education, gender or wealth. the pandemic had a particularly significant impact on the most vulnerable segments of the population, in particular, socially disadvantaged families and students. privileged students, as well as those willing to study, who are supported by their parents, could receive alternative education during the pandemic when educational institutions were closed. the crisis has exposed many challenges in education systems, from access to broadband and computers required for online learning to the mismatch between resources and needs (schleicher, 2020). young people face the inability to obtain education and employment, as well as high unemployment due to the covid-19 pandemic. however, investing in youth can provide a reliable way to recover from covid-19. job creation programmes and training for young people should respond to the consequences and systemic challenges faced by young people (borysenko et al., 2020). the covid-19 pandemic has contributed to some injustice in our global economic and social systems. this has made it clear that the crisis has affected not only some of the most vulnerable and undervalued professions in our society but also those we have relied on the most. in addition to the covid-19 pandemic, we face one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century: the mismatch between the qualifications of recent domestic graduates and the level of qualifications for the world economy. verification of competencies and capacities will be important, as we see the constant rapid development of all sectors of the world economy. according to the latest report of the world economic forum (2020) “tasks of tomorrow”, the demand for digital and human factors will grow. it is important to provide youth and society with lifelong learning, especially during challenges such as the pandemic. for its part, the international partnership of distance and online learning for covid-19 (unesco institute for information technologies in education, 2020) noted that the unprecedented events caused by covid-19 have led to the closure of educational institutions around the world. unesco estimated that more than 90% of the world's student population could not attend classes and had to stay at home. students studying in countries that do not have access to appropriate devices and internet connections are particularly vulnerable (anishchenko et al., 2010; yaroshenko et al., 2018). the rapid spread of 'digital' technologies makes digital skills (competencies) key among other skills. thus, “digitalisation” and cross-platform performance are now the main trends in the general labour market. thus, the ability to work with “digital” technologies is gradually becoming permanent and necessary for most specialisations, namely, end-to-end or cross-platform. digital competencies are unique since they allow citizens to acquire competencies in many other areas more effectively (for example, learning languages, subjects, professions, etc.) (al-samarrai et al., 2020; kozlovskyi et al., 2019). therefore, this article aims to reveal the essence of initiatives of international organisations to support educational institutions in ukraine and around the world during the covid-19 period, and to examine the perception of teachers and students of the process of online learning and learning during the covid-19 pandemic. a questionnaire was adapted for the purpose of ensuring statistical accuracy and relevance of the obtained data from google forms. the link was shared only with pedagogical workers and academics who had passed the advanced training programme “university of 457 educational management” (cipe) remotely at the central institute of postgraduate education of the state institution of higher education. this brought an opportunity to provide the required number of respondents and answers to obtain the results of the survey. the obtained data showed regional affiliation and profiles of educational institutions; experience of teaching staff of educational institutions in the use of distance learning technologies in the educational process; assessment of prospects for the introduction of distance learning in the ukrainian education system; and readiness to improve the process of mastering distance learning technologies. methodological framework even half a century ago, computers were highly rated as a tool for improving the effectiveness of teaching and learning processes. supporters of the ‘computerisation of education’ were confident that the implementation of digital technologies would facilitate teachers' work, improve the quality of mass education, and reduce the required costs. plato, a computer-based education system known in the 1970s, provided schoolchildren and teaching staff with remote access to high-quality curricula in mathematics, physics, chemistry and other subjects (dear, 2017; ivashchenko et al., 2018). despite heavy investments, this system and other developments did not spread widely or influence the education system. over the past half a century, digital technologies have changed dramatically. nowadays, every smartphone owner has access to computing resources that scientists of the last century could not even dream of. technologies have moved beyond laboratories and turned into daily tools available to mainstream schools, and their potential for improving the educational process has grown significantly. technology progress has aroused new expectations among computer learning enthusiasts again and again, thus: “... let’s imagine what kind of automated tutor can be created using modern technology. firstly, imagine that this digital tutor can accumulate data on you over a long period of time. like a good teacher, it knows what you already understand and what you are ready to learn. it also knows what explanation methods are the most appropriate for you. it knows your learning style: whether you prefer pictures or texts, clear examples or abstractions. imagine that this tutor has access to a database containing all the knowledge accumulated in the world. here, the knowledge is organized in compliance with notions and ways of absorbing them. the database contains specific knowledge about how these notions relate, who believes them and why, and what they are useful for. it can be called the knowledge web to distinguish it from the world wide web, a database of linked documents” (hillis, 2004; levchenko et al., 2021). different classifications predetermine points of view on the development of information technologies using computers. common to all approaches is the recognition that the advent of the personal computer has marked a new stage in the development of information technology. in methodological literature devoted to the issues of computerisation of education, there are often such synonymous expressions as “new information technologies in education,” “modern information learning technologies,” “computer learning technologies,” “computer teaching technologies,” “electronic communication learning systems, tools, and technologies,” etc. this indicates that the terminology in this field of research and its concepts have not been established yet. information technology for learning is a set of methods and technical means for collecting, organising, storing, processing, transmitting, and presenting information that develops people’s knowledge and 458 management skills in technical and social processes. mashbitz (1986) and talyzina (1985) consider information technology for learning as a set of various training programmes, including the simplest ones that provide knowledge control and training systems based on artificial intelligence. based on its content, sholokhovych (1998) proposes to define information technology for learning as a branch of didactics that studies teaching and learning processes, systematically and consciously organising and comprising the means of computerisation of education. during 2020, articles and reports of the international association of universities (2020b) were published with a global survey to inform the public about the impact of covid-19 on educational institutions (ei). joint documents of the international association of universities (2020a) set out the essence of their research on the impact of covid-19 on educational institutions. the brochures, published under the responsibility of the secretary-general of the organization for economic cooperation and development (oecd), a. schleicher, on the global spread of covid-19 and its impact on higher education, highlight indicators from “education at a glance” (organisation for economic co-operation and development, 2020a), and their analysis allows us to understand the reaction of countries and the potential impact of the pandemic on education. distance learning is a measure that helps to transfer the traditional teaching process in the classroom to online. the latest technological developments and expanded access to mobile applications open up new opportunities but they need to be adapted to specific conditions. therefore, the commonwealth of learning (col) issued “recommendations on distance education during covid-19”, which contain practical advice on the use of methods, tools for distance learning and related technologies. the publication was issued as a supporting measure by col for the covid-19 crisis, to help those interested in making effective use of distance learning (commonwealth of learning, 2020a). schleicher (in oecd, 2020c) made a significant contribution to the study of the use of open education technologies, noting that distance learning offers a certain integrity in learning when it comes to both academic training and vocational education (ve). compared to general programmes, however, ve programmes suffer more severely from distancing and business closures. however, this sector plays an important role in ensuring coordination between education and work, and the successful transition of students to the labour market. many professions that form the backbone of economic and social life during a pandemic depend on access to professional qualifications. therefore, action is needed to ensure these learning flows do not become the first victims of education. the organisation for economic cooperation and development (2020c) argues for measures to support and prolong greater use of online and virtual platforms in ve institutions to ensure continuity of learning. the authors used the following methods and approaches in the article: 1) analysis and synthesis, which allowed studying the theoretical aspects of digital technologies in the educational system; 2) comparison and generalisation, which provided an overview of the scientific literature, and legislative and regulatory documents, which could be used as the theoretical basis for further empirical research; 3) historical and pedagogical analysis was used to determine the features of open education development; and 459 4) one of the research methods was the adaptation of the questionnaire to ensure the statistical accuracy and relevance of the data obtained from the google forms web service with limited access (only by link). also, for the study of this topic, the researchers used graphical indicators: both charts and tables. this made it possible to clearly show the current state of the technological base for training. thus, the table "the list of educational programs, platforms and resources (unesco)" in general shows what programmes and platforms are used today in most cases, and "popular platforms for teachers and research and educational workers" shows what platforms are the most popular for certain areas. results findings from the literature review like many other industries, the education sector has been severely affected by the covid-19 pandemic. fortunately, there are many free (or inexpensive) easy-to-use digital means of communication that provide ample opportunities to address distance learning. teachers, students and families are still struggling with the immediate task of conducting online classes and distance learning in their homes. international organisations pay considerable attention to distance learning and the use of modern innovative technologies in education, work and life. today distance learning is one of the important components in the socio-economic protection of the population. unesco offers a comprehensive list of distance learning solutions, including educational programmes, platforms and resources designed to help parents, teachers, schools and school administrators facilitate student learning and provide social assistance and interaction during school closures. most curatorial decisions are free and many cater to different language groups. although these decisions do not have explicit unesco approval, they tend to have broad coverage, a strong user base and evidence of impact. they are classified according to distance learning needs but most of them offer functionality for different categories (table 1) (distance learning solutions, 2020). 460 table 1: the list of educational programmes, platforms and resources (unesco) no. the list of educational programmes, platforms and resources (unesco) 1 resources to provide psychosocial support interagency standing committee guidelines who mental health and psychosocial guidance during the covid-19 outbreak unicef guidance on how parents and caregivers can talk children about covid19 unicef guidance on how teachers should talk to children about covid-19 2 digital learning management systems century tech class dojo edmodo edraak ekstep google classroom moodle nafham paper airplanes schoology seesaw skooler 3 systems built for use on basic mobile phones cell-ed eneza education funzi kaios ubongo ustad mobile systems with strong offline functionality kolibri rumie ustad mobile 4 massive open online course (mooc) platforms alison canvas coursera european schoolnet academy edx icourse future learn icourses ted-ed earth school udemy xuetang x 5 self-directed learning content abra british council byju’s code it code.org code week discovery education quizlet duolingo youtube edraak facebook get digital siyavula feed the monster history of africa khan academy sdg academy library kitkit school labxchange madrasa mindspark mosoteach music crab onecourse profuturo smart history polyup the commonwealth of learning (col) is the only intergovernmental organisation in the world that has been exclusively involved in the introduction and development of distance education since 1987. this organisation was created to promote the development and exchange of knowledge, resources and technologies of open learning and distance education. in their research they have noted the benefits of distance education. thus, it increases access to education, improves quality, reduces costs, and can expand access to education for a large number of students. commonwealth universities alone serve more than 4.4 million students, while the national institute of open schooling (india) reports a total enrollment of 2.71 million. because of its flexibility, it is beneficial to students who have family or social responsibilities. distance education provides an opportunity for people with disabilities to learn. mixed approaches are introduced in technical and vocational education for training. research shows that there is no ‘significant difference’ between distance and traditional learning in the classroom in terms of learning outcomes, if everything is designed well. moreover, distance learning is based on student-centered education, promoting lifelong skills such as self-directed learning, discipline and critical thinking. recent research from australia suggests that blended learning, combining face-to-face and distance learning, may be as effective as classroom learning for many students (commonwealth of learning, 2020a). 461 during a pandemic, open and distance learning (odl) can support learning in both the non-formal and formal education sectors. the following is a curatorial list of resources for politicians, school administrators, colleges, teachers, parents, and students posted on the col website to help students whose educational institutions were closed. in figure 1 educational resources are specified in percent: a. school level; b. tvet institute / college / university; c. col resources (commonwealth of learning, 2020b). figure 1: learning resources (col) in figure 2 col resources specifically for online learning are specified: a. brief notes and guides for politicians; b. basic tutorials on online learning, blended learning, open textbooks; c. oer and mooc; d. quality assurance; e. technologies and tools; links and resources from other organisations (commonwealth of learning, 2020b). figure 2: col resources on online learning 462 the organisation for economic cooperation and development (oecd) is an international organisation working to create better policies for a better life. most contingency plans include: training during a pandemic (e.g., fra, ita); training of teachers and school principals for distance work (e.g., chn, gbr), and creation of online classes (e.g., chn). like many other industries, the education sector has been severely affected by the covid-19 pandemic. during a pandemic, there are free (or inexpensive) easy-to-use digital communications tools that provide a wide range of distance learning solutions. at present, teachers, students and families are still struggling with the immediate task of conducting online classes and distance learning in the company of their relatives. unesco offers a comprehensive list of distance learning solutions, including educational programmes, platforms and resources, to help parents, teachers, schools and school administrators facilitate student learning and provide social assistance and interaction during school closures (itu news, 2020). to address digital learning on the unesco website, there is a list of national learning platforms and tools (2021). for example, in algeria, the national bureau of distance education and training office (national d'éducation et de forma à distance) in the ministry of education, provides online learning platforms on various subjects for all academic levels. for example, the spanish educlan is an internet channel supported by the ministry of education that provides educational resources for use when classes are suspended. the lebanese ministry of education provides an application in arabic, english and french, which can be used by up to six family members. in france, ma classe à la maison (my lesson at home) is designed so that students can continue their education at home and keep in touch with their teachers. the joint website of the swiss eduport state secretariat for education, research and innovation and the swiss conference of cantonal ministers of education contains information, links and resources to support distance learning. ministries of education are expanding measures to ensure lifelong learning. for all countries, avoiding disruptions to children's learning as much as possible is a priority, and they are introducing or expanding existing distance learning methods based on different combinations of technologies. for example, costa rica uses social media to communicate daily reading plans to students and parents and encourages students to develop campaigns to curb the spread of the pandemic. the italian education minister, lucia azzolina, said: “we use social networking tools to maintain the relationship between teachers and students and keep them motivated.” the estonian ministry of education and research shared all its digital education tools to support other countries' education systems during the covid-19 crisis. the united arab emirates announced a two-week distance learning initiative on march 22, 2020 that included all of its students (fig. 3) (national learning platforms and tools, 2021; krupskyi et al., 2019). 463 figure 3: national learning platforms and tools in almost all countries, teachers and school administrators are encouraged to use applications to support communication with students and parents, as well as to conduct real-time lessons or record mass open online courses (mooc). learning content is also broadcast on television and other media. for example, the spanish ministry of education and fp and rtve launched “aprendemos en casa (we study at home)” on march 23, 2020 to teach 6-16-year-olds to suspend traditional classes. programmes include five hours per day of study. “only 60% of students have the internet, so we had to combine distance education with open television to reach everyone,” said mexican education minister esteban moktesuma barragan, adding that his country is also exploring strategies to reach children with special needs. education and technology join forces. china is an example of a pandemic response merging the ministry of education and the ministry of technology to ensure the continuing education of chinese students when classes were interrupted by a coronavirus outbreak. “china's education system's response to the covid-19 emergency is extraordinary in terms of the depth of availability of distance learning facilities and the scale needed to meet the needs,” said marielza oliveira, director of unesco's beijing office. in 2019, the uk department of education published a strategy to help education providers and the technology industry. the comprehensive publication includes sections on the development of digital capabilities and skills, promoting digital security (itu news, 2020). to address digital learning in eastern europe and central asia, the unesco website lists national learning platforms and tools (summarised in fig. 4). 464 figure 4: indicators of eastern europe and central asia on national learning platforms and tools minister of education, dan tehan, said that reforms in education in australia stimulate students and universities to meet the needs of industry and the requirements for qualification for the new economy, which will appear in response to the pandemic (australian government, 2020). during covid-19, china was the first to suffer from pandemic closures but fortunately it was already quite advanced in providing a large proportion of its students with access to opportunities for online training. a complexity of some existing resources, however, is the fact that their mass use is not always possible at the same time. some private sector platforms have also already provided their resources and services and free access to some schools to enhance countries' response capabilities (e.g., chn, jpn) (organisation for economic co-operation and development, 2020b). ledoux and seniahbeto (iiep-unesco, 2020) also noted, that the crisis will provide lessons which can be used as opportunities. this could turn the provision of educational services in many countries more towards distance learning. countries which go this route will be better prepared for the future. for example, international education represents a significant economic benefit to canada, as foreign students contributed 21.6 billion dollars in gdp in canada and supported almost 170,000 job opportunities in 2018. by using distance education, students can begin their classes while outside of canada, and complete 50% of the programme by using distance learning before they go to canada to complete their studies (immigration, refugees and citizenship canada, 2020). the ministry of education and science of ukraine (2020b) and postgraduate education institutions paid considerable attention to the possibilities of distance learning in the period of covid-19. at the same time, the number of pedagogical and scientific-pedagogical workers is increasing and they are motivated to acquire theoretical and practical skills in mastering cloud services. in ukraine, at the initiative of the ngo consortium of postgraduate pedagogical education, the ukrainian open university of postgraduate education (2021) was established, and the leading role in this was played by uem university of educational management. in order to technically provide distance learning in the system of advanced training for the ukrainian open university of postgraduate education, an 465 authentic web platform learning management system adult learning — lms adl was developed, taking into account the peculiarities of adult learning. in order to regulate the educational process in quarantine, a number of bylaws were also issued by the ministry of education and science of ukraine. thus, the order no 406 “about organizational measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus covid-19” (ministry of education and science of ukraine, 2020a) provided guidance to heads of institutions and pre-school, general secondary, extracurricular, professional (vocational) professional pre-higher, higher and postgraduate education for the period of quarantine: “to ensure the implementation of educational programs of education institutions, in particular by organizing the educational process using distance learning, which does not involve visiting educational institutions by its applicants, and in exceptional cases by consolidating the educational process.” motivation for change, care for children and their education during the quarantine in the spring of 2020 in ukraine inspired scientists and practitioners to develop and implement platforms for teachers and scientific educational staff. their details, specifications and course topics are described in table 2 (itu news, 2020; kyrychenko et al., 2020). table 2: popular platforms for teachers and research and educational workers platform specifications course topics higher school of educational management online platform of the mcfr digital publishing house for advanced training of specialists of educational institutions https://school.pedrada.com.ua training is held in groups and begins on the 1st of each month. the training program is designed for two calendar months • documents for the head of preschool institution: state supervision and control • personnel documents 2020 for the head of educational institution • smart cards in integrated learning and professional development • smart cards in preschool institution • crisis management and communications in the institution ‘prometheus’ ukrainian public project of mass open online courses https://prometheus.org.ua designed courses last several weeks • science of teaching: what should every teacher know? • deep learning through transformational pedagogy • implementation of innovations in schools • media literacy for educators edera online education studio https://www.ed-era.com/ provides online courses, textbooks and special projects • online course for primary school teachers • online course for teachers and school leaders on distance learning • pro power point • #blend_it: mastering blended learning and others 466 vum platform – interesting facts not only for teachers, but also for schoolchildren and students. https://vumonline.ua • school for all: safe school environment • how to conduct edcamp for your community. lesson educational project webinars, conferences, competitions for educators https://naurok.com.ua/courses • stem office/laboratory in primary school as a prequel to subject rooms: biology, chemistry and physics • media literacy and critical thinking: from theory to practice • project-based teaching methods • pedagogy of trust. platform ‘be able’ by ivan ivanov, author and developer of the platform, the founder of the center for new education., certified microsoft expert teacher, organiser of online competitions for educators. https://umity.in.ua courses in innovative pedagogy and ict • teach by storytelling • orientation in the methodology of training • develop interactive learning materials • use video and audio in teaching. according to a survey of leaders in 2020, 96.9% of general secondary education institutions (gsei) during the quarantine period, students were taught using distance learning technologies. the majority of leaders (75.9%) noted that the entire teaching staff was involved. however, in almost 20.1% of schools, distance learning was provided only by teachers who are provided with computer equipment and internet access. at the same time, 3.12% of the surveyed igme leaders stated that their school did not switch to remote work mode for the following reasons: students and teachers do not have computer equipment and internet access (30 igme, 0.76% of surveyed principals); most teachers do not have the skills to work remotely (45 igme, 1.14%); does not allow the speed of internet communication (32 igme, 0.81%) (state education quality service of ukraine, 2020). in response to the potential challenges of the second wave of coronavirus, the ministry of education and science of ukraine (2020c) developed recommendations for the organisation of blended learning in institutions of higher and professional higher education. universities and colleges received advice on how to deploy blended learning, what regulations and technology were needed, and how to train staff and plan the learning process. the document contains detailed recommendations for teachers on the creation or adaptation of training courses, planning learning outcomes and effective evaluation of student performance. the recommendations are supplemented by checklists, examples of blended learning models, course planning matrices and other supporting materials that institution leaders and teachers can use in preparation for the new school year. findings from the survey the organisation of blended learning is impossible without the use of an e-learning platform that contains a learning management system (lms). therefore, to improve distance learning programmes, an electronic survey was conducted using the google forms web service with limited access to the form. the e-study on the conditions of distance education during life involved the 467 teaching and academic staff who underwent distance learning from the following regions: kyiv, khmelnytsky, kharkiv, volyn, cherkasy, odessa, zakarpattia and mykolaiv. the survey was conducted by an associate professor of vocational and higher education at the central institute of postgraduate education of the state institution of higher education 'university of educational management' (uoupe, 2021). respondents were asked the following questions within the questionnaire in google forms, “evaluation of the efficiency of the distance learning during the advanced training”: 1. how much time per day do you need for individual training? 2. do teaching staff, academic staff who live in the city have the opportunity to study remotely? 3. what social networks are practical for the advanced training of adults: google site, facebook, instagram, telegram, tik tok, padlet, skype? 4. do teaching staff, academic staff who live in the village or region have the opportunity to study remotely? in figure 5 the personal data of pedagogical and scientific-pedagogical workers who took part in interrogation about time possibility for individual training are specified. the survey was conducted in the fall of 2020 during the covid-19 period: 2% — for life, 2% — 1-2 hours, 2% want to study with a teacher, 11.8% — depending on the circumstances, 25.5% — 20 minutes, 47.1% — 45 minutes (otamas & brin, 2020) figure 5: monitoring of students of the central institute of postgraduate education about time opportunities for individual learning figure 6 is a representation of monitoring social networks for advanced training of adults during covid-19 in 2020: 58.8% – google site, 62.7% – facebook, 21.6% – instagram, 25.5% – telegram, 3.9% – tik tok, 5.9% – padlet, 49% – skype, 2% – moodle. 468 figure 6: practical networks for advanced training of adults: google site, facebook, instagram, telegram, tik tok, padlet, skype figure 7 indicates the personal data of teaching and academic staff who took part in the survey during covid-19 in 2020 about the possibility of remote studying given the city, region or village they live: yes — 66.7%, no — 33.3%. figure 7: monitoring the possibility of teaching and academic staff who live in the city, village, or region to study remotely analysing the content of the results, especially in terms of the practical difficulties that arise during distance learning for teachers and research and teaching staff, there is a need to solve the problems of educators, which will take into account all the cognitive needs of educators, as well as their time opportunities. it is significant that a third of the teaching staff answered that they do not always have the opportunity to study remotely. so, for these teachers, closure of campuses due to a pandemic or any other reason, means closure of teaching and learning. that is, lifelong learning ceases to be such. discussion this document aimed to examine the perception of teachers and students of the process of online learning and learning during the covid-19 pandemic. although a theoretical view underlies the 469 study, the study provides different perspectives on the practical challenges faced by online learning today. the mixed-use study examined various international organisations that offer a comprehensive list of distance learning solutions, including educational programmes, platforms, and resources designed to help parents, teachers, schools, and school administrators facilitate student learning and provide social assistance and interaction when educational institutions are closed. a study by mishra et al. (2020) highlights the need to make efforts to provide students with free access to online educational resources so that they can make the most of their time during the covid period. now, for the first time, many teachers in the classroom are trying to understand the intricacies of distance learning and are looking for free online resources for schools that support the perception of our university teachers who also advocated for free access to online learning resources. the transition to online learning through covid-19 has been a very difficult task for higher education institutions. this is confirmed in a study by aguilera-hermida (2020). the study presents factors, which impact the use and acceptance of students' online learning at the time of the order to stay at home due to covid-19. one of the strongest categories of qualitative data showed that after the transition to teaching on the internet many students reported that their learning on the internet was an unpleasant experience, and they expressed their negative attitude to this. not only did they find online learning more difficult, but the lack of support resources (access to a training centre, library, interaction with professors, etc.) was an important issue during the transition to online learning. petrenko et al. (2020) said that the system of management of educational content (lms or lcms) in vet institutions is complex in terms of both software and hardware but it can provide the kind of indirect interaction between remote participants which students missed at the start of the pandemic. also, it can become a sustainable training process by using automation of some of its components and it is now part of the vet informational and educational the environment of their institution. the most common systems management content used in teaching in the ukrainian sphere of education include moodle, efront, openedx, etc. (petrenko et al., 2020). conclusion when society is in the recovery phase of covid-19, it will be a period of critical reflection on the role of education systems and especially vocational education. the global health crisis and the ensuing blockade have led to increased respect for those workers who are currently working tirelessly to save the economy. education plays an important role in developing the competencies and skills needed for tomorrow's society. real change often takes place in deep crises, and this moment preserves the possibility that we will not return to the way things were. although this crisis has had profoundly devastating consequences, including for education, the pandemic is also a call to renew commitment to sustainable development. providing all young people with the opportunity to succeed in education and develop knowledge, skills, attitudes and values that will enable them to contribute to society is at the heart of the global agenda and the promise of education in our future society. the results presented above, depicted in tables and charts, provide a picture of the state of development of digital technologies in the field of lifelong learning. they allow us to determine which platforms and methods are used for training, how much time students can devote to learning and, in theory, to determine the prospects for such methods and approaches. 470 although it is a well-established assumption that no pedagogical approach can replace formal education through direct face-to-face interaction with teachers, after the covid-19 crisis, online education has seen the beginning of a pedagogical transition from the traditional method to the modern approach of teaching-learning from class to scale, from personal to virtual and from seminar to webinar. previously, e-learning, distance education and distance learning courses were considered by many people as part of non-formal education but today these seem likely to gradually replace the formal education system if the current circumstances persist. internet-based communication could change the direction of the entire education system around the world after covid-19. some key international organisations already recognise the promising and appropriate systemic implementation of distance technology in specific subjects and contexts. at the same time, some common problems in the use of distance vocational training related to diverse technical and material situations, were identified as follows: access to high-quality functional use of electronic platforms; design of distance courses; low level of it literacy of students and teachers which complicated the introduction of distance learning technologies; and integration of theoretical and practical training in the conditions of distance learning. a survey of academic staff indicated specific problems with distance learning since opportunities and access to certain resources are not always available. an indicator of 33.3% of respondents who do not always have the opportunity to access various sources for distance learning has acquired a critical value. thus, the field of education requires implementing new approaches and assistance from the state in promoting the development of such a factor as distance learning for everyone. on the other hand, the survey showed that adults use many social media platforms and networks for advanced training (from google site to viber and others). it testifies that adults find various ways to improve their professional skills. in the future, it may lead not only to reflection on the experience gained during the covid-19 pandemic, but also the acquirement of the basic knowledge needed to transform the entire educational system in accordance with the latest technologies and digitalisation. the results of research and analysis of survey data outline some ways to scientifically solve existing problems, and can be summarised in prepared guidelines for improving the implementation of distance learning in vocational education and training in particular. undoubtedly, the implementation of theoretical and methodological developments in the development of distance education, training, and technology requires the consolidation of the efforts of the scientific community with all stakeholders involved in the process of distance education system development. recommendations successful implementation of an action plan will require work in close partnership and cooperation with the european parliament and the member states, with the active participation of the committee of the regions and local authorities. for member states, closer cooperation will help to overcome fragmented policies that could undermine effective digital education policies. there is also a need to strengthen and coordinate work between sectors and policy areas. the commission should therefore support cooperation and networking at the eu level between national structures on digital education. this will help facilitate the exchange of best practices across peer learning and support a more consistent and structured approach to digital education policy. 471 the commission could also organise field events, in the form of stakeholder forums, to increase participation — and a sense of ownership — of a wide range of stakeholders. such events will gather member states, eu institutions and stakeholders in education (including teachers and parent organisations, local authorities, civil society groups and companies — including companies committed to the agenda of the digital education) to share best practices and discuss emerging issues and opportunities. digital education can be an important tool for the eu at the international level by exchanging and scaling up best practices and building communities of practice through eu-supported cooperation and projects. a well-functioning education system underpins the european way of life and is essential for the prosperity and stability of the eu, the member states and our partner country. digital education initiatives have the potential to strengthen relations between partner countries and the eu, as well as to strengthen relations in various non-eu regions. an open and highly efficient digital education ecosystem in the eu can help attract and nurture excellence around the world as global competition for talent and innovation accelerates. this can help increase the innovation performance of the eu and its member states. strengthening international cooperation on digital education must be an integral part of the eu as a global partner in education. this will be reflected in the eu's international cooperation programmes at the global, regional and bilateral levels, including the international dimension of erasmus +. in particular, the eu, in line with team europe's approach, will contribute to the global development of cooperation while addressing its strategic objectives in priority regions, especially the western balkans, africa and the eastern partnership and the southern mediterranean, based on the digital4development hub. acknowledgments: the article was prepared in the framework of the study “transformation of professional development of pedagogical and academic workers in the conditions of an open university of postgraduate education” rk 0120u104637. references aguilera-hermida, a. (2020). college students’ use and acceptance of emergency online learning due to covid19. international journal of educational research open, 1. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/s266637402030011x al-samarrai, s., gangwar, m., & gala, p. (2020). the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on education financing. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/33739/the-impact-of-the-covid-19pandemic-on-education-financing.pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y anishchenko, v.o., margasova, v.g., & tkalenko, n.v. (2010). peculiarities of company's strategic development aiming at its cost increase. actual problems of economics, 2, 67–75. australian government. (2020). higher education relief package. https://ministers.dese.gov.au/tehan/highereducation-relief-package borysenko, i.v., bykonia, o.p., rembach, o.o., shumna, l.p., oliinyk, o.i., & anishchenko, v.o. (2020). experience of ict implementation in primary curriculum in ukraine and the united kingdom of great britain and northern ireland. information technologies and learning tools, 75(1), 42-55. commonwealth of learning. (2020a). guidelines on distance education during covid-19. col. commonwealth of learning. (2020b). keeping the doors of learning open covid-19. col. 472 dear, b. (2017). the friendly orange glow: the untold story of the plato system and the dawn of cyberculture. pantheon. distance learning solutions. (2020). more on unesco's covid-19 education response. https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse/solutions hillis, w.d. (2004). aristotle (the knowledge web). https://www.edge.org/conversation/w_daniel_hillisaristotle-the-knowledge-web iiep-unesco. (2020). what price will education pay for covid-19. http://www.iiep.unesco.org/en/what-price-willeducation-pay-covid-19-13366 immigration, refugees and citizenship canada. (2020). flexibility in post-graduation work permit rules to help international students and canadian post-secondary institutions. https://www.canada.ca/en/immigrationrefugees-citizenship/news/notices/pgwpp-rules-covid19.html international association of universities. (2020a). join paper: iau and esn covid-19 impact on higher education: institutional and students’ perspectives. https://www.iau-aiu.net/img/pdf/joint_paper_iau_and_esn__institutional_and_students_perspectives_of_covid-19_impact_on_higher_education.pdf international association of universities. (2020b). regional/national perspectives on the impact of covid-19 on higher education. https://www.iau-aiu.net/img/pdf/iau_covid19_regional_perspectives_on_the_impact_of_covid-19_on_he_july_2020_.pdf itu news. (2020). covid-19: how digital learning solutions are taking shape. https://news.itu.int/covid-19-howdigital-learning-solutions-are-taking-shape/ ivashchenko, a., polishchuk, y., & britchenko, i. (2018). implementation of ico european best practices by smes. economic annals-xxi, 169(1-2), 67-71. https://doi.org/10.21003/ea.v169-13 kozlovskyi, s., butyrskyi, a., poliakov, b., bobkova, a., lavrov, r., & ivanyuta, n. (2019). management and comprehensive assessment of the probability of bankruptcy of ukrainian enterprises based on the methods of fuzzy sets theory. problems and perspectives in management, 17(3), 370-381. https://doi.org/10.21511/ppm.17(3).2019.30 krupskyi, o. p., dzhusov, o., meshko, n., britchenko, i., & prytykin, a. (2019). key sources when formulating competitive advantages for hotel chains. tourism, 67(1), 34-46. kyrychenko, m., otamas, i., & bryn, l. (2020). digital literacy in the open education of ukraine and the eu during covid-19. in: the ukrainian yearbook of european integration studies (pp. 155-170). aprei. levchenko, i., dmytriieva, o., shevchenko, i., britchenko, i., kruhlov, v., avanesova, n., kudriavtseva, o., & solodovnik, o. (2021). development of a method for selected financing of scientific and educational institutions through targeted capital investment in the development of innovative technologies. easterneuropean journal of enterprise technologies, 3, 55-62. https://doi.org/10.15587/1729-4061.2021.235930 mashbitz, i.e. (1986). computerization of learning: problems and prospects. znanie. ministry of education and science of ukraine. (2020a). order no 406 about organizational measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus covid-19. https://mon.gov.ua/ua/npa/pro-organizacijni-zahodi-dlya-zapobigannyaposhirennyu-koronavirusu-s-ovid-19 ministry of education and science of ukraine. (2020b). progress of the mes team to strengthen the education and science system of ukraine: digitalization and online services. https://mon.gov.ua/ua/news/postup-komandi-monna-zmicnennya-sistemi-osviti-i-nauki-ukrayini-didzhitalizaciya-ta-onlajn-poslugi ministry of education and science of ukraine. (2020c). recommendations for the organization of blended learning in institutions of higher and professional higher education. https://mon.gov.ua/ua/osvita/visha-osvita/rekomendacijshodo-vprovadzhennya-zmishanogo-navchannya-u-zakladah-fahovoyi-peredvishoyi-ta-vishoyi-osviti 473 mishra, l., gupta, t., & shree, a. (2020). online teaching-learning in higher education during lockdown period of covid-19 pandemic. international journal of educational research open, 1. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/s2666374020300121 national learning platforms and tools. (2021). more on unesco's covid-19 education response. https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse/nationalresponses organisation for economic co-operation and development. (2020a). education at a glance 2020: oecd indicators. oecd publishing. organisation for economic co-operation and development. (2020b). education responses to covid-19: embracing digital learning and online collaboration. https://www.oecd.org/coronavirus/policy-responses/educationresponses-to-covid-19-embracing-digital-learning-and-online-collaboration-d75eb0e8/ organisation for economic co-operation and development. (2020c). vet in a time of crisis: building foundations for resilient vocational education and training systems. https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/view/?ref=132_132718fdwmrqsgmy&title=vet-in-a-time-ofcrisis-building-foundations-for-resilient-vocational-education-andtraining-systems otamas, i., & brin l. (2020). development of open education (2000-2020): a retrospective review of ukrainian, european and international experience. in scientific-practical conf. with international participation professional development of specialists in the context of digitalization of society (ukraine, 2020) (pp. 74-80). zhytomyr: zhsu named after i. franko. petrenko, l., kravets, s., bazeliuk, o., maiboroda, l., & muzyka, i. (2020). analysis of the current state of distance learning in the vocational education and training institution. e3s web of conferences, 166. https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202016610010. schleicher, a. (2020). the impact of covid-19 on education insights from education at a glance 2020. http://www.oecd.org/education/the-impact-of-covid-19-on-education-insights-education-at-a-glance2020.pdf sholokhovych, v.f. (1998). information technologies of training. informatics and education, 2, 5-13. state education quality service of ukraine. (2020). analytical information on the organization of distance learning in general secondary education in quarantine. http:// www.sqe.gov.ua/index.php/uk-ua/hovyny/1217-rezultatyopytuvannia-shchodo-dystantsiinohonavchannia-v-zakladakh-zahalnoi-serednoi-osvity talyzina, n.f. (1985). psycho-pedagogical bases of automation of educational process. in psychological and pedagogical problems of computer learning (pp. 15-26). moscow: apn msu. ukrainian open university of postgraduate education. (2021). learning management system “adult learning”. http://uvu.org.ua/ unesco institute for information technologies in education. (2020). international partnership of distance and online learning for covid-19. https://iite.unesco.org/news/international-partnership-of-distance-and-onlinelearning-for-covid-19/ world economic forum. (2020). covid-19: why investing in youth will future-proof the economy. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/07/covid-19-why-investing-in-youth-will-future-proof-the-economy yaroshenko, o. m., vapnyarchuk, n. m., lozovoi, s. v., yakovleva, g. o., & yakovlyev, o. a. (2018). generalcompulsory medical insurance: world experience. journal of advanced research in law and economics, 9(5), 1829-1838. authors: inna h. otamas. email: otamas8057@edu-knu.com 474 viktoriia o. anishchenko. email: viktoriia.anishchenko@sci-academy.cc liudmyla a. ovsiankina. email: liudmyla.ovsiankina@edu.cn.ua inna a. afanasyeva. email: inna.afanasyeva@edu-knu.com andrii bieliatynskyi. andr-bieliatynskyi@neu.com.de cite this paper as: otamas, i. h., anishchenko, v. o., ovsiankina, l. a., afanasyeva, i. a., & bieliatynskyi, a. (2022). covid-19 pandemic: development of digital technologies that provide connection, collaboration and lifelong learning. journal of learning for development, 9(3), 455-474. microsoft word ozdemir.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 307-321 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. turkish teachers’ awareness and perceptions of open educational resources ozgur ozdemir and curtis j. bonk school of education, indiana university, bloomington, usa abstract: the purpose of this study is to explore k-12 teachers’ awareness of open educational resources (oer) as well as their perceptions of its potential opportunities and challenges for teaching practices. data were gathered from 99 online survey respondents and six interviewees in this study. findings showed that teachers are aware of oer to a certain degree; however, a misunderstanding exists between digital educational content on the internet and openly licensed content compatible with the oer definition. lack of knowledge regarding licensing mechanisms of oer is a major issue among teachers. whereas, teacher perceptions that the use of oer leads to the improvement in student performance is highly beneficial, the time required to search, select, edit, and apply oer was discovered as the greatest challenge to oer utilization. results of this study can inform potential oer movement contributors, such as teacher professional development specialists, developers of oer repositories, and academics interested in oer. keywords: open educational resources, oer, k-12 educators, oer awareness, oer challenges. introduction as unesco (2010) suggested, “universal access to high quality education is key to the building of peace, sustainable social and economic development, and intercultural dialogue.” to help learners in utilizing high quality educational content and materials, open educational resources (oer) offer free accessibility to important content as well as opportunities for reusability and sharing (willems & bossu, 2012). due, in part, to projects from organizations like unesco and the massachusetts institute of technology (mit), the development and use of oer has accelerated and is part of many educational conversations around the world (bonk, 2009). as such, it has influenced the turkish educational system as well. the turkish ministry of national education (meb) initiated the educational information network (eba) project in 2012. the main purpose of this project is to support technology integration in k-12 settings through e-content that would be developed by meb units, educational institutions, teachers, and students. in addition to the eba project, hylén, damme, mulder, and d’antoni (2012), indicated that turkey was among the five oecd member countries (i.e., hungary, the netherlands, switzerland, turkey, and the united states) that promote the oer movement through both special 308 projects and government initiatives. although oer use has been encouraged, there is a lack of research focusing on oer perceptions of k-12 teachers in turkey. oer has become a core component of open education in higher educational settings (mulder, 2015). not surprisingly, previous studies on the oer movement have mainly focused on higher education (kimmons, 2014; zancanaro, todesco & ramos, 2015) and have illuminated many of the potential barriers, opportunities, and enablers of the oer movement in higher education institutions and organizations from faculty perspectives (kursun, cagiltay, & can, 2014). thus, it is vital to begin to understand the current status of primary and secondary teachers’ awareness of oer. research in this area can raise attention to the relationship between oer and k-12 settings. several oer related studies have been conducted in specific regions of the world (cobo, 2013; zancanaro et al, 2015). according to bibliometric analysis on oer conducted by zancanaro et al. (2015), north american and european countries have been the centre of oer research. along these same lines, cobo (2013) highlighted that researchers mostly targeted english-speaking establishments to investigate the oer movement. thus, it is crucial to conduct oer studies in different countries and different continents. clearly, a pressing need exists in regards to investigating oer in nonenglish speaking countries, such as turkey. to some degree, the implementation of oer projects depends on identifying potential challenges and opportunities of oer use in teaching practice (bissell & boyle, 2007; richter et al., 2014). in k-12 classrooms, teachers are facilitators of the teaching process and potential users of oer. enhanced understanding of teachers’ oer awareness and perceptions of oer will be decisive in bringing to light these challenges and opportunities. such understanding will inform teacher professional development specialists, developers of oer repositories, academics interested in oer, and eba project administrators who have the potential to contribute to the improvement of the oer movement. due to the reasons explained above, this study was conducted in k-12 settings in a non-english speaking country—turkey—which bridges eastern europe and western asia. the purpose of this study is to investigate k-12 teachers’ awareness of oer and perceptions of its potential challenges and opportunities. literature review in this study, a globally accepted definition of oer created by unesco and commonwealth of learning (col) in 2012 was adopted: open educational resources are teaching, learning and research materials in any medium, digital or otherwise, that resides in the public domain or has been released under an open license that permits no cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions. the concept ‘open’ is ambiguous and has been the focus of discussions meant to build a common understanding of its meaning in the oer movement. indeed, ‘open’ is a multifaceted term referring to diverse ideas and does not solely imply monetary issues but also relates to ownership and usage rights (johnson, becker, estrada & freeman, 2014). hilton, wiley, stein, and johnson (2010) inferred 309 from the discussions revolving around the meaning of the concept ‘open’ that “openness is not like a light switch that is either ‘on’ or ‘off.’ rather, it is like a dimmer switch, with varying degrees of openness” (p. 38). in regards to the openness and ownership issues of oer, wiley (2015) suggested the 5rs (retain, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute) model to clarify some of the rights that can be incorporated with oer development and use. in resolving intellectual property rights and providing flexibility to oer developers and users, creative commons (cc) license attributions became a key aspect of the oer movement (creative commons, 2015; reed, 2012). whereas, some of the previous studies showed that awareness of the oer movement among educators is low (pawlowski & hoel, 2012; rolfe, 2012), a recent study conducted by acros, farrow, perryman, pitt, and weller (2014) reported that such awareness has been growing. rolfe (2012) found that just nine out of 50 (i.e., 18%) of the academic staff who worked in a uk university had even heard of the term oer. during the same year, reed (2012) found that only 32% of the 59 participants from the two different uk universities in his study were aware of the open content movement. in another study, allen and seaman (2014) surveyed faculty members working in us universities and found that, out of 2,144 respondents, approximately 33% (n = 707) were aware of oer. although oer studies have taken place primarily in higher education contexts, it is still possible to find oer research related to k-12 school settings. in germany, richter and ehler (2011) implemented focus group interviews with 16 teachers who teach primary, junior high, and high school and secondary courses and found that, in general, teachers recognize the concept of oer. boston consulting group (2013) analysis of survey data from 377 k-12 educators revealed that slightly more than 50% of oer users are somewhat aware of oer in the united states. in terms of the near future, most hope to become better informed of ways to integrate such free and open resources into their teaching activities and assignments in the next three years; such findings were especially true for faculty members from health-related disciplines and the natural sciences and relatively lower for computer and information science faculty members. decreasing the cost of education for students has become possible through oer use in classrooms. bliss, robinson, hilton, and wiley (2013) found that the cost college students pay for textbooks in a semester decreases by nearly 80% after adopting open textbooks. additionally, the availability of openly available content enables educators and their learners to benefit from a wide range of topics and subjects offered by oer, thereby lending greater flexibility to both content selection as well as the resulting learning environment and potential instructional strategies that can be embedded within it (geser, 2007). fourteen states and 40 districts in the u.s., including utah, offer policies regarding the oer movement (u.s. department of education, 2016). the open high school of utah (ohsu), an online public charter school where teachers rely solely on oer utilization in their teaching practices, provides a substantive contribution to the oer movement in the state. in one study (tonks, weston, wiley, & barbour, 2013), ohsu teachers stated that they are able to save time in lectures through repurposing course content and material and customizing lesson plans based on students’ learning needs. another benefit was that ohsu administrators are no longer obligated to pay huge amounts of money to the content providers by using oer (tonks et 310 al., 2013). repurposing existing oer can also enable educators to avoid the unnecessary duplication of course design and delivery (butcher & hoosen, 2012; willem & busso, 2012). while there are myriad benefits from oer adoption, a range of factors has decelerated the oer movement. a prominent challenge is that of assuring the accuracy of information diffused through oer and its overall quality (mishra & kanwar, 2015; wiley & gurrell, 2009). a shortage of incentives stands out as a different impediment threatening the oer movement’s growth and sustainability (sclater, 2011). additionally, time to develop new materials as well as the time required to later maintain and update existing resources are discouraging factors for oer contributors (sclater, 2009). another deterrent that slows down oer expansion among college and university faculty members and across institutions is the lack of awareness regarding licensing mechanisms for open content (bissell, 2009; wiley & gurrel, 2009). similarly, kimmons (2014) concluded that copyright is also a problematic issue among k-12 teachers, which causes misinterpretation and misconception regarding licensing mechanisms in oer. methods this study utilized a questionnaire and follow-up semi-structured interviews with identified respondents from the survey (creswell, 2012). it was conducted to explore k-12 teachers’ awareness of oer and perceptions of its potential. the following three research questions guided this study: 1. to what extent are teachers aware of open educational resources? 2. what do teachers perceive as the benefits of open educational resources for teaching purposes? 3. what do teachers perceive as the deterrents of open educational resources for teaching purposes? participants and settings an email listserv of a non-governmental teacher association (ta) located in istanbul, turkey was used to recruit study participants. each k-12 teacher in turkey could freely register to this email listserv, with the goal of being better informed regarding educational developments and activities occurring in the country. the ultimate aim of this ta was to support professional, personal, and social development of k-12 teachers by organizing professional development activities, seminars, and national and international conferences for its members. it is important to note that the open education movement has never been part of the events of this ta; hence, oer use has not been explicitly highlighted or demonstrated. in addition, social and cultural programmes to strengthen the network between teachers were arranged by the ta. both professional and social activities organized by this particular ta usually required a participation fee. a list-based sampling frame (fricker, 2008) was adopted to recruit online survey participants. in total, 99 valid responses were gathered. while 92 respondents worked in public schools, seven of them worked in private schools. school setting, gender, and age-range distributions of the respondents are recapped in table 1. as is evident, most of the 99 participants were male (n = 61). 311 they were also relatively young with most under age 45 (n = 72). these participants also were fairly well distributed across grade levels. the survey respondents were asked if they were interested in participating in an interview lasting about 30 minutes. fortunately, 31 of the total 99 respondents stated they were willing to become an interviewee. the researchers attempted to reach out to them using the contact information that they had provided through the survey; however, a majority of them were either inaccessible or had changed their mind and did not want to be interviewed. eventually, the researchers were able to conduct interviews with six of the survey participants. table 2 provides some key demographic and other data regarding the interview participants. table 1: survey participants gender f % male 61 61.6 female 38 38.4 total 99 100.0 school settings high school 35 35.4 middle school 35 35.4 elementary school 22 22.7 pre-school 7 7.1 total 99 100.0 age range less than 25 2 2.0 25 – 34 34 34.3 34 44 36 36.4 45 – 54 23 23.2 55+ 4 4.0 total 99 100.0 312 table 2: interview participants pseudonyms gender age experience (in years) school type school setting subject gonca f 32 10 ps ms math selin f 27 5 ps ms information technology fatih m 34 12 ps ms turkish language hakan m 33 10 ps ms religious studies sinem f 45 28 ps es multiple subjects cenk m 26 2 prs es multiple subjects note: f: female. m: male. ps: public school. prs: private school ms: middle school es: elementary school instruments/data sources a pre-existing survey was modified for this study. originally, the survey was developed by allen and seaman (2014) for their exploration of oer awareness and experiences of faculty members working in us universities. for the purpose of the current study, the survey was translated into the turkish language and modified by two native turkish-speaking researchers. the resulting survey data was collected during the spring of 2015. in order to improve the validity of the survey, one of the researchers implemented think-aloud cognitive interview sessions (dillman, smyth, & christian, 2014) of up to 10 minutes long with three volunteers. as a result of those sessions, the researchers were able to observe volunteers while they were taking the survey and identify issues, such as wording, question order, visual design, and navigation. this process helped to fix problems before starting the actual data collection process. additionally, pilot testing conducted with three volunteers and two subject matter experts (smes) provided feedback about the survey content and its design. the responses to the survey were enhanced by face-to-face follow-up semi-structured interviews with six teachers during the summer of 2015. interview data was helpful for the researchers to clarify the interpretation of the survey results (creswell, 2012). interview sessions were audio-recorded and were later transcribed. investigator triangulation and member checking techniques were applied to establish the trustworthiness of the interview data (russ-eft & preskill, 2009). the length of the interviews varied between 10 and 30 minutes. data analysis before conducting an analysis of the survey data, an examination was performed on the data to determine if any problems regarding invalid responses, outliers, and other problems occurred. this particular analysis resulted in the removal of three invalid responses. to further evaluate and understand the survey data, descriptive statistical analyses in spss were calculated including the means, standard deviations, and frequencies of the responses. 313 for the analysis of interview data, a thematic analysis approach (carspecken, 1996) was utilized. as part of this process, the data from the six interviews were coded and potential themes were sorted and identified. results the following section is organized based on the findings related to each research question. for each research question, descriptive statistical analyses of the survey data were reported as a major data source. additionally, the findings from the interview data were embedded in an attempt to gain a deeper understanding of turkish k-12 teachers’ awareness of oer as well as their perceptions of the benefits and challenges of oer. research question 1: to what extent are teachers aware of open educational resources? eight five-point (1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = undecided, 4 = agree, 5 = strongly agree) likert-scale items, displayed in table 3, were included in the survey to measure the oer awareness level of teachers. in the spss software, computation of means of those eight items created a new variable called awareness. cronbach's alpha for the eight awareness items was .91. mean and standard deviation values for the awareness variable were computed (m = 3.66, sd = 0.83). findings regarding the awareness variable suggested that teachers are aware of oer to a certain extent. the highest reported item related to oer for k-12 teachers was regarding the significance of oer sharing (m = 3.89, sd = 1.05). mean scores and standard deviations for the items of awareness variable are displayed in table 3 in ascending order by means. it is important to note that the sharing and reusability aspects of oer were rated the highest of these eight questions related to awareness, while the bottom rated two items related to the free cost or utilization of oer. table 3: awareness of teachers in regards to different aspects of oer (from low to high) items (likert scale: 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree) mean sd oer is available for free of charge 3.20 1.24 oer is provided with a license that allows free utilization 3.42 1.11 oer has the ability to remix with existing educational resources 3.63 .99 oer has the ability to repurpose 3.73 1.07 oer can be redistributed after it is modified 3.76 .99 continual development of educational resources is important to oer 3.78 .95 oer is reusable 3.79 0.99 sharing is important to oer 3.89 1.05 interview findings in relation to teachers’ oer awareness revealed a lack of knowledge related to the definition of oer. in contrast to the survey results, none of the interviewees mentioned licensing mechanism of oer materials. for instance, one participant, selin, stated: “… any material on the internet that is freely accessible is an oer as long as it provides useful information for learners.” similar expression was given by another participant, 314 hakan: “to me, any kinds of educational resources on the internet which are open to access for anybody at a minimum or no cost is an oer as long as it includes reliable information.” a licensing mechanism is one of the major components of oer and it is also considered in this study. teachers expressed their knowledge of licenses listed on the survey with possible answers (i.e., 1 = never heard, 2 = heard but don’t know anything about it, 3 = have little information about it but don’t know exemplary cases of use, 4 = have little information about it and can give some exemplary cases of use, 5 = have detailed information about it and can give a lot of exemplary cases of use). it was found that teachers are highly unaware of the cc license mechanism itself. table 4 displays teachers’ awareness of specific license mechanisms in ascending order by mean scores. table 4: how aware are you of each of the following licensing mechanisms? items (likert scale: 1 = never heard to 5 = have detail information about it and can give a lot of exemplary cases of use) mean sd creative commons (cc) 1.63 1.09 public domain 3.71 1.46 copyright (all rights reserved) 3.77 1.36 interview findings showed parallel results with the survey findings related to cc licensing. none of the interviewees had knowledge of cc. more importantly, interviewees thought that licensed educational materials always required a fee to be used and they cannot be published freely. one participant, selin, explained her idea about license mechanisms as follows: licensing allows people to use a material who paid licensing fee, so the material will not be open to use for others. when i hear the term licensing, the first thing pops in my mind is the material license fee. research question 2: what do teachers perceive as the benefits of open educational resources for teaching purposes? seven five-point likert-scale items (1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = undecided, 4 = agree, 5 = strongly agree) were included in the survey to measure teachers’ perceptions of the potential benefits of oer. survey results (m = 4.01, sd = 0.86) revealed that the use of oer is believed to lead to improvement in student performance. this perceived benefit is followed by the use of oer as potentially leading to improvement in student satisfaction (m = 3.92, m = 0.77). mean scores and standard deviations for the items related to benefits are presented in table 6 in ascending order by means. in the interviews, teachers mostly underlined the easy-access feature of oer. it was found that the no-charge aspect and distribution of materials via the internet has a huge influence on obtaining the desired materials. for instance, one participant, cenk, asserted that, “being able to access oer from anywhere at any time is a major feature i believe.” another participant, gonca, indicated that, “easy access and free of charge are the positive sides of oer. also, allowing others to update and 315 repurpose the material can help its users to adapt and localize the material based on students’ needs.” table 5: perceived benefits items (likert scale: 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree) mean sd use of oer is an effective method for improving retention for at-risk students 3.56 .91 oer adoption at an institutional level leads to financial benefitsfor schools 3.58 .98 oer promotes more equitable access to education, serving a broader base of learners than traditional resources 3.64 1.01 oer adoption at an institutional level leads to financial benefits for students 3.68 .91 the open aspect of oer creates different adoption patterns than other online resources 3.68 .82 use of oer leads to improvement in student satisfaction 3.92 .77 use of oer leads to improvement in student performance 4.01 .86 in regards to the improvement in student performance, participants believed that oer use can be effective in meeting students’ learning needs. selin noted that “oer can better support contemporary learning styles and strategies.” another participant, hakan, has used khan academy videos for six years in his classes. he reported, “khan academy contains educational videos that are of high quality in terms of the video content. additionally, students are not suggested with absurd videos as opposed to youtube.” research question 3: what do teachers perceive as the deterrents of open educational resources for teaching purposes? in order to specify the challenges and obstacles in adopting oer, teachers were given 14 potential deterrents in the survey and asked to select the three most critical factors discouraging oer use in their courses. a distinctive pattern was identified based on frequency ranges between deterrents, which resulted in three distinctive groupings: (1) a high group with high frequencies, (2) a middle group with moderate frequencies, and (3) a low group with low frequencies. in the high group, the frequency range was between 41 and 48. two deterrents, namely, that it takes too much time to search, select, edit, and apply oer and the lack of knowledge on which materials are considered oer, were in the high group. while time concern was chosen 48 times (16.2%), uncertainty about which materials were oer was selected 41 times (13.8%) by the 99 survey respondents. in the middle group, there were four deterrents: (1) lack of support from my school; (2) not enough resources for my subject; (3) not knowing if i have permission to use or change the resource; and (4) not current or up-to-date. these four items had a frequency range between 29 (9.8%) and 25 (8.4%). finally, the last eight items with low frequencies constituted the low deterrents group. frequencies for the deterrents are presented in table 6 in ascending order by frequencies. 316 in the interviews, the time required for creating new educational materials or revising pre-existing ones was found to be among the major challenges of the oer movement. for instance, one participant, gonca, offered her opinion on required time by noting that “required time for creating a new material discourages me to produce materials.” table 6: perceived deterrents f % too difficult to use 6 2.0 not effective at improving student performance 11 3.7 too difficult to integrate into technology i use 12 4.0 not high quality 13 4.4 too hard to edit or modify 14 4.7 not relevant to my local context 15 5.1 not current, up-to-date 16 5.4 not used by other colleagues i know 16 5.4 not knowing if i have permission to use or change 25 8.4 not enough resources for my subject 25 8.4 lack of support from my school 26 8.8 too hard to find what i need 29 9.8 not clear about which materials are considered oer 41 13.8 takes too much time to search, select, edit and apply 48 16.2 total 297 100.0 discussion when survey and interview results of the current study were interpreted together, a misunderstanding of teachers between e-content available on the internet and oer was determined. one major difference between the two is a licensing mechanism that is highly unknown to the study participants. promoting the turkish cc website accessible at http://creativecommons.org.tr can help eliminate unawareness of oer licensing among teachers. insufficient professional development opportunities regarding the oer movement might impede teachers from developing the needed literacies and skills needed to contribute to the movement (rheingold, 2010; veletsianos & kimmons, 2012). in this study, helping to lead to improvement in student performance and improving student satisfaction were identified as the two major perceived benefits of oer for teaching practices. simply put, there was widespread acceptance that oer is effective at improving student performance. however, misunderstandings of teachers related to what qualifies as oer might have played a role in such highly positive perceptions. in other words, educational material might be considered oer even if it is not because of teachers’ confusion. 317 more problematic is that the required time for searching, selecting, editing, and applying oer was perceived as the greatest challenge in oer utilization. for example, after subjecting oer to a quality assurance process, the commonwealth of learning (col) gathered various quality assurance items under different categories as a means to facilitate finding and selecting proper oer that allowed oer users to save time (mishra & kanwar, 2015). however, there is no universally accepted or established strategy or framework to subject an oer to a quality test (emerson, 2013). finally, the current study found that teachers did not perceive quality of the oer as among the leading challenges. it is possible that the resources might be modified and translated into versions of high quality oer (e.g., mit opencourseware materials). on the other hand, it is commonly stated in the literature that quality assurance of oer is not an easy process. mishra and kanwar (2015) indicated that since openness can allow any user to modify the content, a big question mark emerges in regards to the question of, “who is responsible for the repurposed content?” (p. 121). furthermore, wiley and gurrel (2009) claimed that many people generally tend to believe that “free educational resources must necessarily be of poor quality” (p. 19). today, enormous effort is spent on ensuring high quality for the oer through developing guidelines and establishing quality assurance institutions (kawachi, 2014; mishra & kanwar, 2015); however, as stated earlier, there are no globally recognized standards for developing high-quality oer (emerson, 2013). limitations there were several limitations within this study. for instance, self-selection bias might be observed in recruiting the participants of this study due to the use of the email list from the ta. another limitation related to the small number of interviewees. conducting interviews with more than six participants might have been more helpful for researchers to build a deeper understanding of teachers’ perspectives regarding the oer movement. third, this study relied on instruments originally employed in the united states (allen & seaman, 2014). there may have been several important oer issues specific to educational environments in turkey that did not arise due to reliance on such measures. finally, the survey and interview responses are self-reported and may not match actual use and effectiveness of oer. the study results, therefore, are reliant on the accuracy of the perceptions of those surveyed and interviewed. conclusions and future directions the results of this particular study could inform educational authorities in different countries-especially the turkish ministry of education (meb)--of the prevailing perceptions of teachers related to oer. with such awareness, various units within the meb can take the findings of this study into account while forming oer policies and procedures. if effectively designed, such policies could increase oer awareness and knowledge among educational communities. composing oer policy could also guide oer advocates to address critical oer development and use processes. with the various results of this study, professional development specialists and potential oer repository developers, such as instructional designers, could be provided with valuable information in regards to the current knowledge of teachers related to open education and oer, in particular. the oer movement is not a common element of today’s professional development activities around the 318 world (veletsianos & kimmons, 2012). therefore, professional development specialists might use results of this study to contribute to the expansion of the oer movement and address the misunderstandings of teachers regarding oer. oer supporters could take a role in organizing summits, conferences, or professional meetings that might focus on overcoming the various challenges brought about by oer. such events could also serve to improve oer awareness in educational communities. naturally, discovering strategies for promoting the oer movement could result in producing useful oer materials and integrating them into classrooms for effective learning. in addition, academics within or beyond turkey who conduct oer research might become better informed about possible research needs and better supported in their efforts to explore such gaps. future research might attempt to extend these findings to other countries or regions of the world. as part of such expansion, oer researchers might also explore how oer practices of teachers in the developing parts of the world could better inform and engage those in the developed world. instructional resources and activities designed in the developing world might be translated and localized for others. in an age of declining school funding and increased needs for education, teacher awareness, understanding, and adoption of oer is vital. perhaps training programmes and modules could be designed, at least in part, based on the findings of the present study. when effectively deployed and integrated, oer has the potential to place a heavy footprint in real-world settings across educational sectors, ages, and grade levels. this particular study of turkish teachers and classrooms is just the first step. no matter what country you are from, we encourage you to join the movement as well as help push it ahead. references allen, e., & seaman, j. (2014, october). opening up the curriculum: open educational resources in u.s. higher education, 2014. babson survey research group. retrieved from http://www.onlinelearningsurvey.com/reports/openingthecurriculum2014.pdf bissell, a., & boyle, j. (2007). towards a global learning commons: cclearn. educational technology, 47(6). bissell, a. (2009). permission granted: open licensing for educational resources. openlearning: the journal of open and distance learning, 24(1), 97-106. retrieved from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02680510802627886 bliss, t. j., robinson, t. j., hilton, j., & wiley, d. a. (2013). an oer coup: college teacher and student perceptions of open educational resources. journal of interactive media and education, 12(1), 1-25. retrieved from http://jime.open.ac.uk/articles/10.5334/2013-04/ boston consulting group. (2013, june). the open education resources ecosystem: an evaluation of the oer movement’s current state and its progress toward mainstream adoption. retrieved from http://www.hewlett.org/wpcontent/uploads/2016/08/the%20open%20educational%20resources%20ecosystem.pdf bonk, c. j. (2009). the world is open: how web technology is revolutionizing education. san francisco, ca: josseybass. butcher, n., & hoosen, s. (2012). exploring the business case of open educational resources. vancouver, canada: commonwealth of learning. carspecken, p. f. (1996). critical ethnography in educational research: a theoretical and practical guide. new york, ny: routledge. 319 cobo, c. (2013). exploration of open educational resources in non-english speakingcommunities. the international review of research in open and distributedlearning, 14(2), 106-128. retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/1493/2482 creative commons. (2015). about the licenses. west medford, ma: creative commons. retrieved july 13, 2015, from http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ creswell, j. w. (2012). educational research: planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research (4th ed.). upper saddle river, nj: merrill prentice hall. de los arcos, b., farrow, r., perryman, l.-a., pitt, r., & weller, m. (2014). oer evidence report 2013-2014. oer research hub. retrieved from http://oerresearchhub.org/about-2/reports/ dillman, d. a., smyth, j. d., & christian, l. m. (2014). internet, phone, mail, and mixed mode surveys: the tailored design method (4th ed.). hoboken, nj: john wiley & sons. emerson, m. k. (2013). open educational resources: a delphi study of instructional design quality (doctoral dissertation). retrieved from proquest llc. (3589239). fricker, r. d. (2008). sampling methods for web and e-mail surveys. in n. fielding, r. m. lee, & g. blank (eds.), the sage handbook of online research methods (pp. 195-216). los angeles: sage. geser, g. (ed.). (2007). open educational practices and resources, olcos roadmap 2012. salzburg, austria: salzburg research edumedia research group. retrieved february 24, 2015 from http://www.olcos.org/cms/upload/docs/olcos_roadmap.pdf hilton, j., wiley, d., stein, j., & johnson, a. (2010). the four r‘s of openness and alm analysis: frameworks for open educational resources. open learning: the journal of open and distance learning, 25(1), 37-44. retrieved from http://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1821&context=facpub hylén, j., van damme, d., mulder, f., & d'antoni, s. (2012). open educational resources: analysis of responses to the oecd country questionnaire. oecd education working papers, 76. johnson, l., a., becker, s., estrada, v., & freeman, a. (2014). nmc horizon report: 2014 k-12 edition. austin, texas: the new media consortium. kawachi, p. (2014). the tips quality assurance framework for creating open educational resources: validation. paper presented at the 2nd regional symposium on open educational resources: beyond advocacy, research and policy, 24-27 june 2014, penang, malaysia. kimmons, r. m. (2014). developing open education literacies with practicing k-12 teachers. the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 15(6). retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/1964/3133 kursun, e., cagiltay, k., & can, g. (2014). an investigation of faculty perspectives on barriers, incentives, and benefits of the oer movement in turkey. the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 15(6). retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/download/1914/3174 mishra, s., & kanwar, a., s. (2015). quality of assurance open educational resources. what is the difference? in bonk, c. j., lee, m. m., reeves, t. c., & reynolds, t. h. (eds.), moocs and open education around the world (pp. 119-129). new york, ny: routledge. mulder, f. (2015). foreword 2: open(ing up) education for all… boosted by moocs? in bonk, c. j., lee, m. m., reeves, t. c., & reynolds, t. h. (eds.), moocs and open education around the world (pp. xviii-xxvii). new york, ny: routledge. pawlowski, j. m., & hoel, t. (2012). towards a global policy for open educational resources: the paris oer declaration and its implications, white paper, version 0.2. jyväskylä, finland. reed, p. (2012). awareness, attitudes and participation of teaching staff towards the open content movement in one university. research in learning technology, 20, 1-14. retrieved from http://journals.coaction.net/index.php/rlt/article/view/18520 320 richter, t., kretschmer, t., stracke, c. m., bruce, a., hoel, t., megalou, e., mazar, i., & sotirou, s. (2014). open educational resources in the context of school education: barriers and possible solutions. european scientific journal, 10(19), 1-19. retrieved from http://dschool.edu.gr/p61cti/wpcontent/uploads/2015/07/oersinschooleducation-richter-et-al-esj-2014.pdf richter, t., & ehler, u.d. (2011, march). barrier and motivators for using oer in schools. elearning papers, 23, 17. retrieved from https://oerknowledgecloud.org/sites/oerknowledgecloud.org/files/media25178.pdf rheingold, h. (2010). attention, and other 21st century social media literacies. educause review, 45(5), 1424. retrieved from http://er.educause.edu/articles/2010/10/attention-and-other-21stcentury-social-medialiteracies rolfe, v. (2012). open educational resources: staff attitudes and awareness. research in learning technology, 20(1), 1-13. russ-eft, d., & preskill, h. (2009). evaluation in organizations: a systematic approach to enhancing learning, performance, and change (2nd ed.). new york, ny: basic books. sclater, n. (2009). the organizational impact of open educational resources. in ehlers, u. d. &schneckenberg, d. (eds.), changing cultures in higher education: moving ahead to future learning, (pp. 1-14). berlin: springer. sclater, n. (2011). open educational resources: motivations, logistics and sustainability. in ferrer, n.f. & alfonso, j. m., (eds.), content management for e-learning, (pp. 179-193). new york, ny: springer. tonks, d., weston, s., wiley, d., & barbour, m. k. (2013). “opening” a new kind of school: the story of the open high school of utah. the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 14(1), 255271. retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/1345/2419 unesco. (2010). open educational resources. paris, france. retrieved from http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/access-to-knowledge/open-educationalresources/ unesco, & col. (2012). paris open educational resources declaration. retrieved from http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/multimedia/hq/ci/ci/pdf/events/paris%20oer%20declaration _01.pdf u.s. department of education. (2016). u.s. department of education recognizes 14 states and 40 districts committing to #goopen with educational resource. retrieved from https://www.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/us-department-education-recognizes-13-states-and-40-districts-committing-goopen-educationalresources veletsianos, g., & kimmons, r. (2012). assumptions and challenges of open scholarship. the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 13(4), 166-189. retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/1313/2304 wiley, d., & gurrell, s. (2009). a decade of development. open learning: the journal of open and distance learning, 24(1), 11-21. retrieved fromhttp://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02680510802627746#.vfigaz3bzgc wiley, d. (2015). the mooc misstep and the open education infrastructure. in bonk, c., j., lee, m. m., reeves, t. c., & reynolds, t. h. (eds.), moocs and open education around the world (pp. 3-11). new york, ny: routledge. willems, j., & bossu, c. (2012). equity considerations for open educational resources in the glocalization of education. distance education, 33(2), 185-199. zancanaro, a., todesco, j. l., & ramos, f. (2015). a bibliometric mapping of open educational resources. the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 16(1), 1-21. retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/196 321 authors: ozgur ozdemir is a ph.d. candidate in the department of instructional systems technology in the school of education at indiana university bloomington. he holds a bachelor’s degree as well as a master’s degree in instructional design and technology. his research interests include open education, open educational resources, open textbooks, teacher technology integration and professional development, and emerging learning technologies. email: oozdemir@indiana.edu dr. curtis j. bonk is professor at indiana university teaching psychology and technology courses. drawing on his background as a corporate controller, cpa, educational psychologist, and instructional technologist, bonk offers unique insights into the intersection of business, education, psychology, and technology in his popular blog, travelinedman. in addition to many national and statewide innovative distance teaching awards, in 2014, he received the mildred b. and charles a. wedemeyer award for outstanding practitioner in distance education. in november 2017, he was fortunate to be awarded the online learning journal outstanding research achievement award in online education from the online learning consortium in orlando, florida. he has authored several widely used technology books, including the world is open, empowering online learning, the handbook of blended learning, electronic collaborators, adding some tec-variety which is free as an ebook (http://tec-variety.com/), and, most recently, moocs and open education around the world (http://www.moocsbook.com/). email: cjbonk@indiana.edu microsoft word karunanayaka.docx issn: 2311-1550 2020, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 61-77 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. fostering digital education among teachers and learners in sri lankan schools shironica priyanthi karunanayaka and w. m. s. weerakoon the open university of sri lanka abstract: the commonwealth digital education leadership training in action (c-delta) programme provides a framework for fostering digital education for lifelong learning by developing digital education leaders. the faculty of education at the open university of sri lanka implemented an action research project to promote the adoption of c-delta among teachers and students of secondary schools in sri lanka, and evaluate its impact on the teaching-learning process. a group of 41 teachers participated in the intervention and implemented c-delta in their schools. a variety of data were collected throughout the process via questionnaires, concept maps, focus group interviews, implementation reports, and log records in the c-delta platform. findings revealed that despite challenges, such as inadequate ict facilities, time constraints and limitation in english language competencies, the adoption of c-delta has supported improving digital literacy, enacting changes in thinking and digital behaviour among teachers and students, and enhancing teachers’ digital education leadership skills. keywords: c-delta, digital education, digital education leadership, digital learning. introduction digital technologies are increasingly changing our daily life practices. digital skills are inevitable for individuals in the present age of digitalization in order to accommodate rapidly developing digital demands. thus, fostering digital education has become an essential need in the current era. the commonwealth digital education leadership training in action (c-delta) programme of the commonwealth of learning (col) provides a framework for fostering digital education and developing skilled citizens for lifelong learning (see https://cdelta.col.org/). it provides an avenue to develop digital competencies of individuals through an online learning platform which provides access to seven modules related to digital education. the curriculum and learning modules of cdelta were developed by the university of cape town (uct), south africa, in partnership with col, in 2016 (see http://oasis.col.org/handle/11599/2442). through the c-delta programme, individual learners can develop their digital skills by engaging in self-study using these online resources and be certified online. in 2018, the faculty of education of the open university of sri lanka (ousl), with the support from col, implemented a research project to promote the adoption of the c-delta programme by teachers and students of the secondary school level in sri lanka. the key intention of the project was to promote digital education environments and develop capacity among school teachers on the implementation of c-delta in the teaching-learning process. this paper reports on the study conducted to explore how, and in which ways, the adoption of c-delta had an impact on the teaching-learning process in the secondary school level in sri lanka. 62 review of the literature in the globald knowledge society of the 21st century, the development of digital literacy is inevitable. it will promote individuals’ ability to search for, retrieve and manage information efficiently, and to work collaboratively. digital competence is the confident, critical and responsible use of, and engagement with, digital technologies for learning, work, and for participation in society (european commission, 2019), which allows rapid access to, and effective use of, information. self-directed learning of students is enhanced by digital technologies, due to their flexibility in managing time, space and pace of learning (baporikar, 2018). digital competence will also improve lifelong learning opportunities for all (unesco, 2014). today's children, who are “digital-age learners” (collier, burkholder & branum, 2013), readily engage with numerous innovative digital devices with ease. their enhanced knowledge and skills in the use of digital technologies should be positively applied for academic purposes, which requires changes in conventional educational thinking and practices. in this context, contemporary teachers have a significant role to play as ‘change-enablers’, using digital tools productively in education (srivastava & dey, 2018), and enhancing digital literacy among learners. digital literacy involves capabilities needed by individuals for living, learning and working in a digital society (jisc, 2015). individual capabilities in different dimensions of digital literacy may vary within the same digital practice (mcgill et al, 2017). further, digital literacy is an ongoing and dynamic process which may change depending on the situation (martin, 2008). hence, developing appropriate “digital literacy practices” (beetham, mcgill & littlejohn, 2009) among learners becomes essential. a pyramid model of digital literacy development (sharpe & beetham, 2010) illustrates how a learner’s awareness of, and access to, digital technologies (i have) leads to skill development (i can), which in turn leads to application of skills or practices (i do), resulting in the formation of an individual’s “digital identity” (i am). it indicates how a learner’s experiences and practices contribute to the formation of his/her digital identity, and how the learner’s identity informs his/her digital practices. this suggests some key aspects to consider when planning digital education programmes. digitalization of education involves the use of digital technology, to improve processes and products, which depends on various aspects such as organizational support, technological infrastructure and pedagogical approaches (bates, 2015; selwyn, 2016). with the integration of digital technology, notable changes are taking place in classroom teaching and learning, where teachers’ roles need to significantly transform (srivastava & dey, 2018). teachers require development of specific competencies to be able to support active knowledge construction of students in digital learning environments (kaur, 2016). despite increased technology integration in the classroom teachinglearning process, it is often questionable whether the learners are being equipped with the expected 21st century learning skills, due to the sustained traditional teaching-learning practices in the educational institutions (phillips, 2015). the availability of novel technology in the digital era demands improving the performances of all stakeholders in education (srivastava & dey, 2018) who could become digital leaders. a digital leader is a person who is willing to take leadership in using the technology in order to enhance organizational output (briggs, 2017; rouse, 2007). digital education leaders will demonstrate effective use of digital technology for teaching, and advocate, influence and build the capacity of others. with 63 the growing significance of digital education needs, leadership development in digital education has also become an urgent need (lynch, 2018, mcleod, 2015; mishra et al, 2016; sheninger, 2014). digital leadership is a skill within a person who understands the digital tools, practices and ability in using digital knowledge by bridging the gaps within an organization and leading the organization in achieving its goals (fisk, 2002; gorton, 2018). digital leadership is also establishing direction, influencing others, and initiating sustainable change through the access of information, and establishing relationships, requiring a dynamic combination of mindset, behaviours, and skills to change a school culture (sheninger, 2014). such digital leadership qualities need to be developed in a systematic manner. leadership in schools is perceived as a collaborative team effort where teachers become leaders in the classroom (bennet, 2008). digital education leadership is an important characteristic to be developed in teachers to guide and help their students become more informed and critical digital citizens in the future. various models and frameworks that have been presented in relation to e-learning and leadership in e-learning, educational technology, and digital education provide some useful insights. for instance, the people-process-product or the p3 model (khan, 2015) emphass that in e-learning, people are involved in the process of creating e-learning materials, or products and making them available to its target audience. jameson (2013) presented a leadership framework comprising purpose, people, structures and social systems, targeting development of e-leadership in higher education. the “digital practitioner framework” (bennett, 2014) provides a comprehensive perspective on how digital education leadership competencies can be developed in terms of access, skills, practices and attributes. introducing seven pillars of digital leadership, sheninger (2014) stresses that digital leadership is not just about tools, but involves a strategic mindset to bring about “change”. to facilitate such “change”, teachers need to be professionally developed in line with the objectives of digital education (srivastava & dey, 2018). recognizing the need to develop leadership in this area, several policy level decisions have been made within the sri lankan context (ministry of education, sri lanka, 2011). while various e-learning initiatives have taken place in sri lanka in recent history, there is a need to bridge the internal digital and social gap that exists (mozelius, hewagamage & hanson, 2011). also, to reduce the complexity of e-learning as perceived by actual and potential users of e-learning facilities in sri lanka, development of more user-friendly techniques and e-learning environments, where potential benefits are clearly visible, are needed (yatigammana, johar & gunawardena, 2013). intending to increase educational opportunities throughout the country, use of e-learning, online course delivery, and innovative educational technologies have been expanded in the higher education institutions in sri lanka (dona & warusavithana, 2014). numerous initiatives have been launched to expand the facilities needed to enhance digital learning within the sri lankan school system. as a result, many schools are equipped with computer laboratories, internet and wi-fi facilities, software packages and e-learning resources. the subject information technology has been introduced to schools to enhance digital literacy among learners (ministry of education, sri lanka, 2011). further, the importance and need of training teachers in digital education has been identified (ministry of education, sri lanka, 2012). the c-delta project implemented by the ousl focused on developing capacity among secondary school teachers to become digital education leaders in their own school communities. 64 conceptual framework a holistic approach to digital education leadership is conceptualised in the c-delta programme. it presents the argument that digital education leadership is grounded in the practice that it seeks to foster — i.e., digital literacy practice — and the processes involved in teaching that practice – i.e., digital education (brown et al, 2016) (see figure 1). figure 1: a holistic view of digital education leadership. (source: brown et al, 2016, p. 10, http://oasis.col.org/handle/11599/2442 (cc by-sa) according to this holistic view, digital literacy as a social practice is the core, which is the outcome, or the destination, of digital education and digital education leadership. it is also the purpose of digital education. digital education is the pedagogic intervention that will drive the fostering of digital literacy among individuals. digital education leadership is about providing direction to achieve the learning goal of digital literacy, in terms of digital education through enhancing access, building capacity in peers, making informed decisions and cultivating innovation (brown et al, 2016). within the c-delta programme, digital education is described as a process of teaching and learning involved in fostering the capabilities that are needed for an individual to live, learn and work in an evolving digitally-mediated society. this view emphass enhancing capacity building in context-based digital literacy practices, specifying a need for digital education leaders who can take leadership in fostering digital literacies relevant to their contexts. such leaders can foster digital literacies through several means, such as creating awareness of and enhancing access to available resources, developing capacity in individuals, curricula and organisations, making informed decisions, and cultivating innovation. thus, they will be change agents in their own contexts (brown et al, 2016). the planning and implementation of the current study was grounded in the above conceptual framework of the c-delta programme. 65 methodology research design this study adopted an action research approach. action research is a form of self-reflective inquiry undertaken by participants in social situations to improve their practices, which is a systematic and an iterative process comprising four stages: planning, acting, observing and reflecting (carr & kemmis, 1986; masters, 1995). this approach takes a collaborative approach, where educators work together with participants to improve their practices by empowering relationships and developing reflection about teaching (bryant, 1995). such collaborative action research will lead to improvement of educational practices by change, through a dynamic intervention process. the research team engaged in a systematic process of activities comprising the design and implementation of an intervention programme for participant teachers to promote the adoption of the c-delta programme in their schools and evaluate its impact on the teaching-learning process. in turn, the participant teachers themselves engaged in small-scale action research investigations in their schools, on the implementation of the c-delta project and its effects. teachers who employ action research in such an investigative approach will be motivated to self-assess and reflect on their actions to enhance their teaching. in the context of this project, the action research approach provided an appropriate and a convenient methodological framework, to change and improve educational practices in real-life situations of practitioners. aim and objectives the main aim of the study was, to promote the adoption of c-delta by teachers and students of secondary schools in sri lanka and evaluate its impact. the following specific objectives were formulated in line with this aim: 1. to review the existing level of digital education practices among the participant school teachers. 2. to design an intervention programme to promote the adoption and implementation of the c-delta programme in secondary schools. 3. to implement the intervention programme comprising capacity development of teachers and facilitating the adoption of c-delta in their schools. 4. to evaluate the impact of the implementation of c-delta on the teaching-learning process. participants participants of the study were purposively selected from among the school teachers who were students of the postgraduate diploma in education programme of the faculty of education, ousl, considering the following factors: ● representing all nine provinces of the country ● representing different mediums of teaching (sinhala/tamil) ● representing male/female participants ● teaching either ict, mathematics or science at secondary school level ● having basic ict skills and teaching in a school with an ict laboratory. 66 the selected participants comprised 41 graduate teachers, from 39 schools. table 1 indicates the participant teacher details. table 1: details of the participant teachers province no. of teachers medium of teaching gender sinhala tamil male female central 03 02 01 01 02 eastern 04 00 04 04 00 northern 03 00 03 02 01 north central 02 02 00 02 00 north western 04 04 00 01 03 sabaragamuwa 02 02 00 00 02 southern 02 02 00 01 01 uva 04 01 03 03 01 western 17 14 03 03 14 total 41 27 14 17 24 percentage 100% 65.9 34.1 41.5 58.5 the intervention process the intervention process was conducted in several steps according to the four stages of the action research cycle – plan, act, observe and reflect (see table 2). table 2: key activities conducted during the intervention process stage activities data collection strategies plan 1. reviewing the existing levels of digital education practices among the participant school teachers pre-intervention questionnaire 2. design of an intervention including different strategies and tools to promote the adoption of c-delta programme in the secondary schools. act 3. implementation of the intervention through a capacity development process of the participant teachers concept mapping questionnaire survey self-reflections observe 4. monitor and facilitate the implementation of interventions in the schools (online monitoring, school observation visits) logs in the c-delta platform checklists focus group interviews teachers’ interim reports reflect 5. ascertaining impacts of the intervention through participant teachers’ reflections (evaluation workshops, writing workshops) teachers’ final reports reflective narratives 6. open sharing of teacher experiences and reflections as a basis to promote further interventions website of sharing teacher reflections on their experiences as “stories” 67 planning the intervention a preliminary questionnaire was administered among the school teachers prior to the intervention. this survey revealed the participant teachers’ demographics and their existing levels of ict practice. accordingly, it was observed that the teachers possessed adequate ict skills, 40% stating “excellent” and 60% stating “average”, and that all of them were integrating ict in their teaching-learning process. further, 80% of the teachers claimed having an “average” level, and only 20% having an “excellent” level of english language proficiency. the teachers’ stated main expectations in participating in the c-delta project were to improve their ict skills and leadership skills, to develop digital education skills among their peer teachers and students, and to share new knowledge in their schools. several challenges anticipated were time constraints, lack of enthusiasm by the other teachers, limited ict and english language skills of the students, and inadequacies in the computer and internet facilities in their schools. this preliminary analysis indicated that the participants were still well-prepared to proceed with c-delta implementation, despite the expected challenges. based on the findings of the preliminary survey, an intervention was designed including different strategies to further develop capacity of the participant teachers and to introduce, promote and facilitate the adoption of c-delta in their schools (see table 2). the intervention commenced with an initial three-day “training of trainers” (tot) workshop held in july 2018. this included registration of teachers in the c-delta platform, followed by a series of hands-on sessions with activities including interactive discussions, presentations, concept mapping and learning object creation. these activities helped the participant teachers to understand the key concepts underpinning the c-delta curriculum, to share ideas through collaborative activities, to understand their leadership role as c-delta coordinators/managers and to prepare individual implementation plans to conduct c-delta in their own schools. implementing and monitoring the intervention the planned activities were implemented in the schools from august 2018 to february 2019. initially, the participating/coordinating teachers mainly became familiar with the c-delta platform themselves by studying the modules and completing the activities. next, they implemented their action plans as mini-interventions in their respective schools, comprising the following activities: • conducting an orientation session for the secondary level students and teachers in order to make them aware of the c-delta platform. • encouraging students and teachers to register and take up the c-delta modules online over a period of six months. • providing support and guidance as required to those who took up the modules of c-delta. • designing and developing learning activities to improve digital literacy among students. • monitoring, gathering data, evaluating and reflecting upon their implementation process. while these activities were ongoing in schools, the research team engaged in constant monitoring of teachers’ and students’ online engagement in the c-delta platform via logs, and communicating with the coordinating teachers to motivate and provide feedback to overcome various challenges faced by them. during the intervention process, observation visits were conducted in nine selected 68 schools, which allowed the research team to monitor and identify good practices and to further support promoting c-delta among the school community. reflecting on and evaluating the impacts of the intervention the impacts of the intervention were identified through the variety of data collected during the process. mainly, the coordinating teachers’ self-reflections, interim reports and final reports, as well as the focus group discussions and observations during the school visits, revealed the impacts. however, out of the 41 coordinating teachers, only 21 teachers participated in the final evaluation workshops and submitted their final reports. analysis, findings and discussion a comprehensive approach was employed to collect the data throughout the process using multiple data gathering strategies, comprising questionnaire surveys, concept mapping, semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, observations, log records in the c-delta platform, teachers’ reflections, interim reports and final evaluation reports. quantitative methods, such as descriptive statistics, and qualitative methods, such as content analysis, were used to analyse the data. perceptions and perspectives on digital education the participant teachers’ overall reaction to the initial tot workshop was very positive. they indicated it was quite helpful in developing their digital education leadership skills in different aspects and developing their confidence to promote c-delta in schools (see table 3). table 3: teachers’ responses on the training of trainers workshop rating scale excellent good poor overall reaction to the workshop 45% 55% to what extent the workshop was helpful in developing competencies: to a large extent somewhat poor 1. understanding digital education leadership 75% 25% 2. using the c-delta platform 65% 35% 3. role as facilitating adoption of c-delta in your institution 55% 35% 10% 4. building confidence in leadership roles to promote c-delta 70% 30% development of digital education leadership skills: excellent very good good 1. understanding digital identity 55% 40% 5% 2. developing personal learning network 35% 50% 15% 3. ability to explain digital education leadership to others 25% 65% 10% 4. using the c-delta platform 15% 65% 20% 5. strategies to promote digital education and c-delta 15% 65% 20% extremely very much somewhat confidence to promote c-delta in school/institution 25% 60% 15% 69 teachers’ satisfaction with the tot workshop is further revealed by the following quotes: it brought out my potentials as a leader and took me to dimensions of digital identity and safety which i had never thought before. it helps to build a healthy digital identity and digital footprint through the c-delta platform. however, they faced some challenges with engagement in the c-delta platform, due to english language limitations. there were many terms that we couldn't understand. change the platform to support the language barriers and cultural differences. teachers’ overall responses revealed their development of capacity and confidence to move forward with the c-delta programme in their schools, as digital education leaders. concept mapping strategy was used as a graphical tool to support organizing and representing the developed knowledge (novak & caňas, 2008) and perspectives of teachers and students during the intervention. at the tot workshop, initially, 41 individual concept maps were developed by the coordinating teachers. structural analysis of these concept maps revealed that most of these were presented either in a “spider” format — centrally located main theme surrounded by the sub-themes; or in a “flow chart” format — information logically presented in an orderly way with a clear flow of ideas. the content analysis of the concept maps indicated an organised presentation of their initial understandings around the key concepts such as c-delta and digital education, and sub-concepts such as “digital identity”, “digital footprints” and “digital literacy”. based on their individual concept maps, later, teachers created group concept maps/posters depicting their collective understanding of these concepts (see figure 2). figure 2: group concept maps/posters created by teachers. interestingly, during school implementation of the interventions, students also have created concept maps/posters visualizing their understandings on these novel concepts (see figure 3). 70 figure 3: concept maps/posters created by students. it was also revealed that such terms were novel to both teachers and students, and that they were very interested in learning more about these concepts. usage of the c-delta platform by teachers and students according to log records in the c-delta platform, the number of registered teachers and students in the c-delta platform showed a gradual increase during the intervention (see table 4). table 4: teachers and students registered in the c-delta platform month no. of teachers (including coordinating teachers) no. of students july 2018 41 01 august 2018 54 11 september 2018 59 16 october 2018 111 74 november 2018 155 196 january 2019 163 202 however, the actual usage rates of the c-delta platform by both teachers and students in terms of completing pre-tests and post-tests was not found to be quite satisfactory (see figures 4 and 5). 71 figure 4: completion of preand post-tests by teachers. figure 5: completion of preand post-tests by students. similarly, completion of the modules in c-delta was observed to be slow by both teachers and students (see table 5). table 5: completion of modules by teachers and students module no. teachers students count % count % module 1 58 31.87 58 31.87 module 2 37 20.33 30 16.48 module 3 31 17.03 25 13.74 module 4 47 25.82 module 5 26 14.29 module 6 20 10.99 module 7 19 10.44 72 this slow progress was mainly due to various challenges faced by the teachers, as revealed by the focus group discussions and teacher reflections during midand post-intervention. challenges, supports and suggestions the coordinating teachers had faced several challenges during the implementation process in schools as follows: • difficulty of selecting students and teachers for the project. • poor involvement of students and teachers in the planned activities. • limited english language proficiency of teachers and students. • limited ict competency among students and teachers • inadequacy of computer and internet facilities in the schools. • slow internet connectivity. • difficulty in scheduling and conducting orientation sessions, due to various school activities. • limited time to engage with the project due to heavy workload in schools, and personal issues. nevertheless, several supportive factors enabled them to manage these challenges to some extent: • support extended by the principal to introduce and implement this project in the school. • interest and motivation of students and teachers in involvement in project activities. • curiosity about involvement in online activities. • google translator and online dictionaries helped to solve english language difficulties. • certificate issued by commonwealth of learning (col) helped to motivate and engage in activities. the pre/post testing in the c-delta platform and certification was found to be a motivation to proceed: i did not want to give up until i get the certificate for both pre-test and post-test, i was so happy when i got the certificates. (student) this is incredible, i feel like i have completed the final level of a computer game. (student) i feel very happy to have completed 6 modules out of 7 of the c-delta program. i scored a total of 62 on the post test at my first attempt and got the intermediate certificate. (teacher) participants also made some suggestions to support them further such as, including a glossary, search bar, a help page, as well as the inclusion of pictures, videos and voice recordings to the content. further, they proposed allocating more time for pre/post-testing with provision of instant feedback. teacher reflections teachers reflected upon their experience at different stages of the intervention by answering three simple questions; “what?” “so what?” and “now what?” (rolfe et al, 2001). table 4 indicates teacher reflections received at the end of the tot workshop. 73 table 4: teacher reflections after the tot workshop question description supportive teacher quotes what? describe the situation: achievements, consequences, responses, feelings, and problems the experience of c-delta programme is good… at the beginning, it was very difficult to understand some concepts about digital education … so what? discuss what has been learnt: learning about self, relationships, models, attitudes, cultures, actions, thoughts, understanding, and improvements i have learnt many things … digital education, digital learning, digital footprint and now i know how to create a good foot print through the cyber space… i used google translator/madura dictionary to identify the meaning of some difficult words … now what? identify what needs to be done in order to improve future outcomes, and develop learning i understood the importance of sharing this knowledge with my staff members and my students … i must teach my students to how to use internet safely and…the uses we can get through the internet … as revealed by the above data, initially, a very positive response and high motivation was observed among the coordinating teachers about implementing the c-delta initiative. during mid-intervention and post-intervention, teachers continuously reflected on their experiences, which revealed their successes, challenges, supports, achievements, and future plans (see table 6). table 6: successes, challenges, supports, achievements, good practices and future plans categories codes successes • awareness on digital identity and digital footprint • improving digital learning skills • improving digital educational leadership skills challenges • the allocation of time for c-delta activities • language barrier • lack of computer facilities in the schools • slow internet connectivity • poor motivation of teachers supports • good support of principal/head master/sectional heads • support of students and other teachers • support of parents of students achievements • enhancing knowledge of ict both students and teachers • experiencing online learning and online testing • improving skills of concept mapping • receiving computer and internet facilities to ict labs future plans • introduce the c-delta programme to all advanced level students • increase student and teacher participation in the programme • include the c-delta programme to the school year plan • propose curriculum specialists to include the c-delta programme into school ict curriculum 74 the participant teachers’ reflections compiled as “stories”, were published online as “digital education leaders in action”, and released with a cc by-sa license, to openly share these experiences as a basis to promote further interventions (see https://cdeltaousl.wordpress.com/). impacts based on the findings, the key impacts of the c-delta programme on the teaching-learning process were revealed as follows: • both teachers and students have enhanced their digital literacy skills, and, thus, became more confident and efficient in using digital content and tools to support the teaching-learning process. • exposure to novel concepts such as ‘digital identity’, ‘digital footprint’ and ‘digital education’ have been very useful for teachers and students, in changing their thinking and practices to be more aware of digital safety and maintaining a positive digital identity when engaging with digital environments. • creation of concepts maps and posters to visual their perspectives on digital concepts have stimulated critical thinking and creative thinking among teachers and students. • encouraging students to use digital tools and to create digital artefacts, such as powerpoint presentations and videos, has increased their motivation to use ict in the teaching-learning process. • doing pre/post-tests online has been a novel experience for students and enabled them to face the newly introduced online examinations for general information technology (git), more confidently. • after the c-delta experience teachers tend to apply more student-centred methods in the teachinglearning process, such as exploration and discovery; use of digital tools, advanced search engines and open educational resources (oer). • teachers could convince school authorities to expedite purchasing new computers and getting internet connectivity, to support c-delta activities. • c-delta programme has instilled an increased interest and motivation among teachers and students about the future digital classrooms, and becoming digital citizens. overall, the patterns of the findings indicate consistency with the conceptual framework of c-delta (see fig. 1). the main aim of the intervention process was, to provide direction to the participant teachers towards adopting digital education by enhancing access to digital learning, developing capacity and cultivating innovation. this has enabled development of their digital education leadership skills, as seen by the pedagogic interventions they have implemented in their own schools, initiating changes in mindsets and behaviours to enhance digital education (gorton, 2018; sheninger, 2014). the digital education practices of these teachers have resulted in fostering digital literacy among students and peer teachers in their schools. as such, it was evident by this study, that via digital education leadership development and the resulting digital education practices, the learning goal of digital literacy as a social practice (brown et al, 2016) could be achieved. 75 concluding remarks adoption of the c-delta programme has been a novel experience embraced by the participant teachers who were very motivated to implement it in their schools. however, the implementation of c-delta has been hindered in some schools, due to various practical issues faced by the teachers, such as time constraints, limitation in english language competencies, and inadequate ict facilities. despite such challenges, many teachers willingly implemented the c-delta programme in their schools with commitment, managing the constraints as much as possible. the findings clearly portray how the adoption of c-delta has impacted the teaching-learning process by developing and enhancing digital learning skills among teachers and students, and changing their thinking and practices. it was evident that the intervention has supported the participant teachers to become effective professionals who can cater to the digital education environments in their institutions. overall, the implementation of the c-delta programme has helped enhance participant teachers’ digital education leadership skills, and provided them with an avenue to promote digital education in their schools through innovative thinking and application of novel teaching-learning strategies to create digital learning environments. acknowledgements the project work that is reported in this paper has been supported by the commonwealth of learning (col). the contributions made by all members of the project implementation team at the open university of sri lanka (ousl) are kindly acknowledged. references baporikar, n. (2018). educational leadership for quality teacher education in digital era. in n. p. ololube (ed.), handbook of research on educational planning and policy analysis (pp. 241255). port harcourt: pearl publishers. bates, t. (2015). teaching in a digital age (open textbook). retrieved from http://opentextbc.ca/teaching in digital age/ beetham, h., mcgill, l., & littlejohn, a. (2009) thriving in the 21st century: learning literacies for a digital age. retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267259433_thriving_in_the_21st_century_learning_literacies_for_ the_digital_age_llida_project_thriving_in_the_21st_century_learning_literacies_for_the_digital_age_l lida_project bennet, n. (2008). distributed leadership and it. in j. voogt & g. knezek (eds.), international handbook of information technology in primary and secondary education (vol. 2, pp. 597-613): springer. bennett, l. (2014). learning from the early adopters: developing the digital practitioner. research in learning technology, 22. retrieved from http://researchinlearningtechnology.net/index.php/rlt/article/view/21453 briggs, j. (2017). what is a digital leader? retrieved from https://www.ionology.com/what-is-a-digital-leader/ brown, c., czerniewicz, l., huang, c., & mayisela, t. (2016). curriculum for digital education leadership: a concept paper. retrieved from http://oasis.col.org/handle/11599/2442 bryant, p. (1995). collaborative action research on the cutting edge. retrieved from https://opus.uleth.ca/bitstream/handle/10133/849/bryant_paul.pdf carr, w., & kemmis, s. (1986). becoming critical: education, knowledge and action research. london: falmer. collier, d., burkholder, k., & branum, t. (2013). digital learning: meeting the challenges and embracing the opportunities for teachers. retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ed544368.pdf dona, k.l., & warusavitarana, p. a. (2014). paradigm shift: revolutionizing sri lankan higher education with elearning. retrieved from http://www.pdn.ac.lk/ipurse/2014/proceeding_book/ed/97.pdf 76 european commission/eacea/eurydice. (2019). digital education at school in europe. luxembourg: publications office of the european union. retrieved from https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/national policies/eurydice/sites/eurydice/files/en_digital_education_n.pdf fisk, p. (2002). the making of a digital leader. business strategy review, 13(1). 43-50. retrieved from http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/content/bpl_images/journal_samples/busr09556419~13~1~198/201.pdf gorton, c. (2018). 6 characteristics of digital leadership. weblog. retrieved from https://digileaders.com/6characteristics-digital-leadership/ jameson, j. (2013). e-leadership in higher education: the fifth “age” of educational technology research. british journal of educational technology, 44(6), 889–915. jisc. (2015). developing students' digital literacy. retrieved from https://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/developingstudents-digital-literacy kaur, m. p. (2016). teachers education in india: inclusion of ict in teachers’ education. international education and research journal, 2(2). retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/36820290/role_of_digital_technology_in_teaching-learning_process khan, b. h. (2015). introduction to e-learning. in b.h. khan & m. ally (eds.). (2015). international handbook of elearning. volume 1: theoretical perspectives and research. abingdon uk: routledge. pp. 1-40 lynch, m. (2018). how educators can become digital leaders. retrieved from https://www.thetechedvocate.org/how-educators-can-become-digital-leaders/ martin, a. (2008). digital literacy and the “digital society”. in c. lankshear & m. knobel (eds.), digital literacies: concepts, policies and practices (pp. 151–176). new york, ny: peter lang. masters, j. (1995) the history of action research. in i. hughes (ed.), action research electronic reader. the university of sydney. http://www.behs.cchs.usyd.edu.au/arow/reader/rmasters.htm retrieved from www.iopp.ru/pub/21sept06_m2.doc mcgill, l., meadon, l., moore, d., gunness, s., rampersad, r., brown, c., & pancham, k. (2017). commonwealth digital education leadership training in action (c-delta). retrieved from http://oasis.col.org/handle/11599/2926 mcleod, s. (2015). the challenges of digital leadership. independent school, 74(2), n.p. retrieved from http://www.nais.org/magazines-newsletters/ismagazine/pages/the-challenges-of-digitalleadership.aspx ministry of education, sri lanka. (2011). new vision for education. retrieved from http://www.moe.gov.lk/english/images/publications/new_vision2010/new_vision2010.pdf ministry of education, sri lanka. (2012). new vision for education and milestones of progress. retrieved from http://www.moe.gov.lk/english/images/publications/new_visionfor_edu_milestones/report_e.pdf mishra, p., henriksen, d., boltz, l. o., & richardson, c. (2016). e-leadership and teacher development using ict. in r. huang, kinshuk, & j. k. price (eds.), ict in education in global context: comparative reports of innovations in k-12 education. berlin, germany: springer. pp. 249–266. mozelius, p., hewagamage,k. p., & hanssoon, h. (2011). towards e-learning for all in sri lanka – progress and problems in some selected sri lankan 21st century initiatives. retrieved from https://www.divaportal.org/smash/get/diva2:450266/fulltext01.pdf novak, j. d., & cañas, a. j. (2008). the theory underlying concept maps and how to construct and use them. ocala, fl: florida institute for human and machine cognition. retrieved from http://cmap.ihmc.us/publications/researchpapers/theoryunderlyingconceptmaps.pdf phillips, m. (2015). ict is failing in schools – here’s why. retrieved from http://theconversation.com/ict-is-failingin-schools-heres-why-50890 rolfe, g., freshwater, d., & jasper, m. (2001). critical reflection in nursing and the helping professions: a user’s guide. basingstoke: palgrave macmillan. rouse, m. (2007). digital leadership. retrieved from https://searchcio.techtarget.com/definition/digitalleadership selwyn, n. (2016). education and technology: key issues and debates. london: bloomsbury. sharpe, r., & beetham, h. (2010). understanding students' uses of technology for learning: towards creative appropriation. in r. sharpe, h. beetham, & s. de freitas (eds.), rethinking learning for a digital age: how learners are shaping their own experiences. london: routledge. pp. 85-99. 77 sheninger, e. (2014). pillars of digital leadership. international centre for leadership in education. retrieved from http://leadered.com/pdf/leadinginthedigitalage_11.14.pdf srivastava, k., & dey, s. (2018). role of digital technology in teaching-learning process. iosr journal of humanities and social science (iosr-jhss), 23(1). 74-79. retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323550837_role_of_digital_technology_in_teachinglearning_process unesco. (2014). education strategy. (2014-2021). retrieved from https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000231288 yatigammana, m. r. k. n., johar, m. d., & gunawardena, c. (2013). impact of innovations attributes on elearning acceptance among sri lankan postgraduate students. retrieved from http://repository.kln.ac.lk/bitstream/handle/123456789/8679/1.pdf?sequence=3&isallowed=y authors: shironica priyanthi karunanayaka, professor in educational technology, faculty of education, the open university of sri lanka. email: spkar@ou.ac.lk w.m.s. weerakoon, senior lecturer, department of secondary & tertiary education, faculty of education, the open university of sri lanka. email: wmwee@ou.ac.lk cite this paper as: karunanayaka, s. p., & weerakon, w. m. s. (2020). fostering digital education among teachers and learners in sri lankan schools. journal of learning for development, 7(1), 61-77. microsoft word paskevicius.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 22-39 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. student perceptions of the creation and reuse of digital educational resources in a community development-oriented organisation michael paskevicius1 and cheryl hodgkinson-williams2 1vancouver island university, canada 2university of cape town, south africa abstract: this case study explores students’ perceptions of the creation and reuse of digital teaching and learning resources in their work as tutors as part of a volunteer community development organisation at a large south african university. through a series of semi-structured interviews, student-tutors reflect on their use and reuse of digital educational resources, and identify the challenges they experience in curating, adapting, and reusing educational resources for use in their teaching activities. the data is analysed qualitatively within the framework of an activity system (engeström, 1987) to surface the primary systemic tensions that student-tutors face in the reuse of resources found online as well as open educational resources (oer). this study found that student-tutors sourced and used educational materials from the internet, largely irrespective of their licensing conditions, while also creating and remixing a substantial number of educational materials to make them suitable for use in their context. we conclude that greater awareness of the availability of oer and explicit open licencing for works sourced and created within community development organisations could enhance sharing, collaboration, and help sustain high impact resources. keywords: reuse of learning objects; digital copyright, digital curation; open educational resources, community development organisations, activity theory; student engagement with open education. introduction the internet and digital technologies have enabled the creation of digital educational resources, which can be copied and shared at little cost. while some of these resources come with clear license terms which enable them to be used, adapted, and re-shared by others, others do not offer explicit terms of use. while freely available online, many resources without clear terms of use remain invaluable tools for volunteer and non-profit organisations. resources that are made available under open licenses, are ‘open education resources’ (oer) which enable legal adaptation, reuse, and sharing (hassler & mays, 2015). the extent to which both online and open educational materials are being used outside of educational institutions is not well understood (harley et al., 2006; petrides, nguyen, kargliani, & jimes, 2008). a study undertaken within south africa suggests that while awareness of resources such as oer is increasing, issues remain for individuals navigating intellectual property rules, accessing support infrastructure, and finding time to adapt resources for a specific context (hart, chetty, & archer, 23 2015). within developing contexts where resources may need to be printed for use in teaching and learning activities, reuse and adaption are sometimes further hampered by file format, file size, and the design of the resources, which may make them difficult or costly to download, adapt, and print (mtebe & raisamo, 2014). researchers have surfaced a number of challenges for educators in reusing digital educational materials including: issues around the context of materials (amiel, 2013; bennett, dawson, bearman, molloy, & boud, 2016; calverley & shephard, 2003; hatakka, 2009); the material’s alignment with teaching practice (conole, mcandrew, & dimitriadis, 2011; hennessy, hassler, & hofmann, 2016); the time required to adapt materials (elliott & sweeney, 2008; petrides, jimes, middleton-detzner, & howell, 2010); and copyright concerns (calverley & shephard, 2003; collis & strijker, 2004). factors increasing the reuse of such materials is still under researched (harley et al., 2006; petrides et al., 2008). for student volunteers working in community development organisations, the landscape is even more challenging. volunteers come with a great deal of enthusiasm for community outreach, yet may lack experience selecting educational resources. additionally, students have limited explicit training on how to use the internet as a resource for sourcing materials available for use under alternative copyright systems. while students now have access to a wide array of educational resources for use in their learning, personal, and professional lives, as well as for volunteer activities, their understanding of the restrictions and allowances for using digital media in this complex ecology are limited (czerniewicz, 2016). student engagement in community development the role of universities, as producers and disseminators of knowledge, is critical to the growth and well-being of south african society (badat, 2009). while recently many universities are under increasing commercial pressure, there is a strong argument for the retention of principles of the ‘public good’, especially in an age of knowledge enhanced by ict (duderstadt, 1997). one way of contributing to this is through the university’s engagement with the community, in which studentrun outreach programmes play a key role. this research project focuses on student-tutors’ perceptions of the creation and reuse of teaching and learning resources and materials in their work with a voluntary community development-oriented student organisation. the organisation offers university students an opportunity to engage in responsible citizenship through volunteer work in either education or healthcare, with the goal of improving the quality of life for individuals in under-resourced communities. student volunteers offer their time as tutors, mentors, and educators to unemployed youth as well as to secondary and primary level students. this study focuses on the work of curriculum stakeholders in the organisations’ education program, with the goal of understanding how they use, adapt, and reuse educational materials that are curated within the organisation, generated by student-tutors, or sourced from the internet and print publications. although the current availability of oer offers a potential source of educational resources from which this community can draw, this study demonstrates that the use and contribution to oer by social outreach groups is not common. furthermore, research around how oer might contribute to social outreach activities has received little attention from researchers. the principles of open education and community engagement are quite similar; both promote access to education and wider 24 community engagement. one might envisage that one of the objectives of the oer movement would be to provide resources that groups such as community development-oriented organisations could use to enhance their programs by providing greater access to high quality educational resources. however, there is currently a dearth of research on how such groups are benefiting from the oer movement. this study contributes an analysis of the challenges and obstacles for community development organisations in accessing and locating resources for use in their programs while offering recommendations for policy, leadership, and a call to increase awareness of oer. the challenge of reusing educational materials despite the wealth of educational content available online, educators still face challenges in reusing these materials (amiel, 2013; browne, holding, howell, & rodway-dyer, 2010). in the next section we review the key themes in the adoption and reuse literature to identify perceived issues that might arise for volunteer student-tutors. contextualization in hatakka’s (2009) study of the use of oer in developing countries, contextualization challenges emerged as one of the greatest barriers to material reuse. there are various challenges including the scope of content, examples, language and links to curriculum, as well as the suitability of resources within a pedagogical context. the challenge of contextualisation arises as an issue due to the variation in how educators interpret the quality of materials for different contexts, including the scope, level and relevance of content, the suitability of language, and the appropriateness of pedagogical strategies of resources created in developed countries (hatakka, 2009). resources designed in one context may include references specific to that culture which are embedded within the resource. albright (2005) notes that “oer are cultural as much as educational, in that they give users an insight into culture-specific methods and approaches to teaching and learning” (2005, p. 12). while oer enable educators to explore alternative teaching practices and resources, exposing them to new approaches to teaching, these resources are inevitably products of a particular cultural context and may be challenging to reuse in vastly different contexts (conole et al., 2011). responding to this challenge, conole et al. (2011) argue that the creators of oer should make clear their implicit designs which are embedded within the materials. this can be done by making the learning designs that are supported by the resource more explicit in the description of the resource. in supporting the use of oer, they suggest that being more explicit about learning design can “move from making content available, to helping people understand how to make good use of that content” (conole et al., 2011, p. 19). this shifts the focus from the sharing of educational content to the sharing of learning designs and approaches to pedagogic practice. intellectual property and licensing previous research suggests that ambiguity around copyright on many digital resources found online can make it difficult for educators to know if they are able to legally reuse materials or not (calverley & shephard, 2003; harley et al., 2006). online materials most often do not come with explicitly clear terms for reuse (amiel & soares, 2016). in many jurisdictions, in the absence of a declaration of the resource being in the public domain or being shared under an open copyright license, full copyright is automatically granted to the creator of a resource. when resources are shared online without explicit 25 copyright, it can be complicated for others to reuse them. additionally, due to the “anarchic” nature of the internet, materials are easily copied, mixed or shared, making it difficult to determine the original source or accuracy of materials (calverley & shephard, 2003). it has been noted that some educators have difficulty interpreting copyright permissions and simply ignore them outright due to pressure and convenience (harley et al., 2006). curation digital resources are often first stored on users’ hard drives or cloud storage where they are authored. these are undiscoverable to others unless explicitly shared by the resource owner. to effectively organise and share digital educational materials, contributors require a repository or portal that will enable these materials to be stored and indexed, thereby facilitating access and discovery by other educators in the community. repositories have the advantage of making use of metadata such as taxonomies and folksonomies to describe the resources they host, however, these are not always applied consistently (amiel & soares, 2016). the necessity of metadata is underscored in hodgins’ apt comparison: “being without metadata is akin to trying to find a house when someone’s taken away all the street signs, or prepar[ing] a meal from cans that have no labels” (2000, p. 28). metadata increases the discoverability of resources be describing what they are, how they can be used, and for what purpose. centralized storage may exist within a password-protected learning management system (lms) or an institutional repository. institutional repositories are increasingly open-access, allowing contributions from those within the institution, which can be accessed by all. similarly, global repositories invite depositing of resources from a global audience to form a large collection. while repositories have the advantage of storing all resources in one place, they may not be optimized to present the diverse types of media that may be deposited. another approach to curation is the referatory model, in which digital resources are stored where most appropriate on the internet and described and linked to from a central database (hodgkinsonwilliams et al., 2013). an example would be hosting a video on youtube rather than uploading into a repository, thereby taking advantage of the streaming, commenting, and analytics functionality built into the youtube service. a referatory can be used to host the descriptions of learning designs and pedagogical approaches which use a variety of web resources, which are then linked to, wherever they most suitably reside on the internet. remixing platforms allow for uploading and collaborative editing in one location. examples may include google docs, wikipedia, and github, which allow collective contributions and edits to a resource centrally hosted on the internet. users of remixing platforms require a consistent internet connection, user accounts, and several digital literacies in order to contribute. figure 1 provides a visual of the curation landscape, which displays the relatonship between institutional and global repositories that curate content versus metadata. 26 figure 1: curation landscape for digital educational resources. adapted from “365 days of openness: the emergence of oer at the university of cape town,” (p. 39) by hodgkinson-williams, c., paskevicius, m., cox, g., shaikh, s., czerniewicz, l., & lee-pan, s., 201. perhaps most important is that any repository of educational resources is openly accessible from the internet, as many inevitably begin their search with a generic query using an internet search engine. exposing the metadata from either a remixing platform, referatory, or repository can increase discoverability and help educators searching for content to find their way to resources. provenance often cited as a barrier to materials reuse the “not invented here” phenomenon; which is the reluctance of educators to use teaching materials that have been created by others. bryant (1998) argues that this is often a matter of the necessary time required to assess and modify resources rather than a negative attitude to using other’s work per se. hatakka (2009) reports that educators have a sense of pride and ownership associated with creating teaching materials and feel it is their responsibility to design content from scratch. educators have generally acknowledged that they are all ‘borrowing’ from content and ideas around them, irrespective of their provenance, even if in a non-attributable way (browne et al., 2010). 27 time and effort educators may have difficulty allocating time to deliberately select additional materials outside of the core curriculum or regularly used textbook. locating and assessing educational materials created within different contexts can be a lengthy process depending on the institutional resources and educators’ awareness of where they may source relevant material, and whether materials are already aligned to the curriculum or not. browne et al. (2010) note that some educators do not necessarily see sourcing and reusing materials as a time-saving practice but, rather, as adding to their workload. theoretical perspective activity theory (at) has been adopted as a lens to understand how groups of individuals act within specific social settings. wetterling and collis (2003) used at as a heuristic tool with which to examine their social practice and identify how the contextual factors which enable the creation of a mediating artefact in one context differ from the contextual factors of someone trying to reuse that mediating artefact in a new context. similarly, this study attempts to understand the reuse of educational materials in new contexts and uses at as a heuristic tool to examine the perceived issues around the reuse of educational materials. an activity system is an analytical tool with which one can examine collective or individual human activity as that which exists within a specific social setting (parks, 2000). the activity system can be used as a lens to describe “object oriented, collective, and culturally mediated human activity” (engeström & miettinen, 1999, p. 19). the theory can be useful to help explain and understand the activity of a collective in a particular context, such as the workplace or classroom (engeström, 1987). within the organisation, educational materials are collectively collated to support the work of student-tutors. whilst operating within a system of activity, individuals are subject to explicit and implicit rules and conceptions of the division of labour among members of the community. rules and the division of labour guide the ways in which participants operate and delineate power and status (murphy & rodriguez-manzanares, 2008). the shared object of this group is school learners’ acquisition of knowledge and more broadly improving access to quality education. research questions this research study investigates the perceptions of student-tutors as they locate, access, remix, and reuse educational materials for community education projects. the specific question addressed is: what perceptions do student-tutors have about the reuse of digital educational materials? research sub-questions are organised through an at lens: • what are the implicit rules around reusing digital educational materials? • what role does the community play in facilitating reuse? • how do roles and responsibilities enable or inhibit reuse? • how does technology enable or inhibit reuse? see figure 2 for a representation of the research questions posed in this study plotted on engeström’s at triangle. 28 figure 2: research questions through the lens of at – adapted from engeström (1987). research design this research adopted a case study methodology (stake, 1994) with students volunteering in the organisation at the beginning of the 2011 academic year. the students, technology landscape, and social conditions in south africa can be thought of as a “bounded system” (stake, 1994, p. 236). using the case study as a bounded system allows for the unfolding of the “complex dynamic and unfolding interactions of events, human relations, and other factors in a unique instance” (cohen, manion, & morrison, 2007, p. 181). the study focused on primary qualitative data obtained from six student-tutors through a series of semi-structured interviews. participants were selected using a snowball sampling methodology in combination with a stratified sampling strategy (cohen et al., 2007). the interviews were conducted with student-tutors fulfilling various roles within the organisation. a person with a leadership role in the curriculum committee was identified and served as the entry point for identifying further curriculum stakeholders. while the head of the curriculum committee suggested other student-tutors for interview, a conscious effort was made to ensure that people with different roles and levels of responsibility in the curriculum design process were interviewed. all students interviewed were involved in the curriculum development process in some way, either as a project leader, curriculum 29 coordinator, or curriculum committee member (table 1). curriculum committee members are primarily responsible for vetting, sharing, and curating content; curriculum coordinators source resources for each project; and project leaders are responsible for supporting the teachers in each program. interviewees all had at least two years of experience with the organisation and came from various disciplines of study. table 1: interviewee profiles faculty of study academic year years volunteering curriculum development role commerce 4th 3 project leader humanities 4th 4 project leader commerce 3rd 3 curriculum coordinator humanities 2nd 2 curriculum coordinator humanities (postgraduate) 2nd 5 curriculum committee engineering 3rd 2.5 curriculum committee data collection and analysis a semi-structured interview schedule was designed to prompt discussion during interviews with student-tutors to seek their perceptions on materials reuse according to the main issues identified through the above literature review. engeström’s (1987) at was used as an analytical framework to categorise the emerging themes in the study. the frequencies of responses, corresponding to the key nodes in the activity system, were calculated to provide a sense of the most critical issues facing student-tutors’ adoption of oer. findings the research themes were grouped according to the activity system elements of: tools use; division of labour; community; and rules. a summary of the codes applied over all the interviews within the broader activity system can be found in figure 2. this diagram shows the number of occurrences for each code category distributed by role. at a macro level, the coded data most frequently related to rules and, secondly, to the use of tools. issues around the community and the division of labour appeared less frequently but almost equally. the interview transcripts contained 85 coded passages referencing implicit and explicit rules; 75 referenced how tools impacted reuse; 52 related to how student-tutors divided labour among themselves; and 47 referenced the role of the community. 30 figure 3: frequency of themes emerging from the interviews. it was interesting to note the dominant discourses, which varied according to the participants’ organisational role. curriculum committee members’ discourse centred around how tools can be used to construct and curate the curriculum. by contrast, the curriculum project leaders referred more frequently to issues of labour, indicating that they might be more concerned with how activities are completed in relation to roles and responsibilities. the curriculum coordinators mostly cited the rules governing their activity, including how and when resources get shared and reused. despite operating within a shared activity system, the different priorities of the student-tutors seemed to centre on distinct operational factors. this is to be expected in an organisation with a shared motive, yet with different roles and responsibilities within the activity system. a summary of the broad coding schema, and the themes which emerged within each broad code, is presented in figure 3. for each of the research sub-questions we discuss the thematic issues that have arisen in the order of prevalence. figure 4: coding schema of emergent themes 31 understanding the ‘rules’ of reuse interviewees noted vast differences in the quality of schooling in the various areas. specifically noted were the differences in the level of the learners’ understanding of concepts expected at their age level. many of the student-tutors noted that when reusing materials, they had to consider the specific geographical area for which it was intended and for which group of learners. one student-tutor remarked that even when dealing with learners at the same age they “sometimes […] might include more difficult content and difficult problems in the [area a] curriculum”. this is due to the disparity in the level of educational achievement of learners experienced by volunteers operating in various communities. it was further highlighted by one student-tutor that: “even teaching the same grades, like our grade 3 curriculum, won’t work for theirs”. learners of the same age within different areas required educational materials designed to suit their specific abilities and needs, as the following extract accentuates: even though we have the exact same age group of kids who come from like similar circumstantial backgrounds and stuff like that, we face completely different issues in terms of what we try to teach our kids and what our lesson outcomes would be. frequently mentioned in the interviews was the desire for greater availability of south african educational materials. it was noted that international educational materials found online “were not relevant for our children at all”. another student-tutor noted that when trying to work with materials from international sources: “… you can see that it’s not you [ …] it’s just far away”. finding education materials from south african creators was a priority for most “because the stories are aimed at our children and the background our kids are from”. student-tutors reported that some of the resources found online were easily customisable for their learners, while others required more substantive adaptions. one respondent explains that modifications “could be small things like, you know, change [sic] the units, but also different methods of teaching, different methods of doing long division”. interestingly, when using online materials one respondent noted she was much less concerned about copyright of online materials than the copyright of physical printed resources. the interviewee remarked: i guess it’s sort of a bit of a difference, like if it’s an actual form you feel like copyright is more important than something that is sort of available to you anyway on the internet but not necessarily like, to reproduce. it’s a bit more vague, maybe not taken so seriously. at the time of the study the curriculum committee was investigating ways to help student-tutors increase access to information around copyright issues. however, the pressures of time and priorities prevailed as one respondent noted: “… usually it’s a scramble to get the really basics done, and concerns about copyright and referencing is not really our biggest worry”. when asked about alternative copyright licensing models such as creative commons, only two of the six student-tutors were aware of open licenses. one of the respondents who was aware of creative commons seemed to have a nuanced understanding of creative commons, as illustrated by this remark: 32 my experience with creative commons is viewing it from an academic point of view and from a business point of view, for profit. so not in terms of education. but i would definitely say that, it like makes a huge amount of sense for developing curriculum and putting no copyright on it. another respondent, who was aware of open licensing, noted that there was a need for a greater understanding of alternative copyright licenses and that the curriculum committee was trying to address this need: i think on [the curriculum database], there is like a thing when you upload a resource you have to say whether it’s copyright. i think we, or i usually put, i am not sure. like there is an “i am not sure” option (laughs). i don’t know whether this is allowed or not, but that is the option i pick. when uploading resources into their shared database (the institutional learning management system) one respondent noted that there was an option to specify the licensing of the document being added. the respondent noted that this could be useful as it provided a space to indicate the legal terms of use, however the options for licencing were not sufficiently articulated by the tool, which made it challenging to use for those not already aware of licensing options. tools used in creating and sharing educational materials locating and assessing quality and relevant materials online takes a great deal of time and effort. student-tutors lamented that even after finding suitable resources there was always a chance of finding something even better, given more time and effort, as is illustrated in this extract: if you haven't found the perfect thing it might mean the perfect thing is out there somewhere! so you keep searching and like it just takes so much time, to search for the perfect lesson which might come sometime but never does. the student-tutors reported that they had not found an all-encompassing website from which to source materials, so many explorations began with a generic search engine. since this activity would bring up a wealth of results, respondents admitted that it was often difficult to identify good resources. when examining search results one respondent acknowledged that “there are too many things and you don’t know where to go”. another student-tutor added “part of the problem is you need to look at so many things to find one or two ideas you could use in your project”. assessing and curating the best resources with contextual metadata is clearly an important skill for these volunteers. one respondent added: “… the problem [is] being over-resourced. like having too much information, and the big thing that i would really like, you were saying curatorship […] to narrow down the best”. although software and web services that assist with curation of teaching materials have emerged, no single comprehensive solution to the challenge of finding and organising teaching materials is yet available. some respondents suggested that a database for storing materials would ease the logistical issues around volunteer turnover and the curation of curriculum. historically many of these handover processes were not carried out in a systemised manner, as one respondent noted: usually that [curriculum] gets individually given in soft copy to the different people, what we have done this year is put it on [the lms]. so everybody has access to it on [the 33 lms]. what we hope was that, people from different projects, because often they do the same things but in different areas, would use each other’s information and take the best of all of the different curriculum. the lms was being used to store digital educational materials where everyone had access. an added benefit was that students were using the lms as part of their academic programs, so it was a familiar environment. as new volunteers joined they could simply be added to the site and view and access all the existing content. the excerpt above illustrates the respondents’ aspirations that the transparency and openness of this method could lead to improved quality in the curriculum. division of labour in curriculum development as the curriculum is collaboratively created among curriculum coordinators, curriculum committee members and tutors, an understanding of who is responsible for what and how that work gets shared must be articulated. in a voluntary organisation, this a challenge as all the student participants are contributing their time while maintaining busy academic schedules and volunteer turnover is a regular occurrence. many of the resources being shared did not contain explicit mention of copyright permissions. student-tutors noted that this ambiguity created confusion around reusing other people’s materials discovered on the shared curriculum database: i wasn't actually sure, like some of the stuff that was being posted online that other projects had made, i wasn't actually sure if it was ok to take it now, or if you should ask the person for permission. like, i didn't really know what the agreement was now. reusing materials among projects within the organisation seemed to be of greater concern than reusing materials found online. the student-tutors seemed to equate copyright infringement with plagiarism as this respondent went on to explain: “i didn’t just want to take this work and present it as my own”; as well as acting covertly: “i didn't want to go behind someone [sic] back”. it is interesting to note a higher degree of uncertainty expressed around using resources created by someone in the organisation then those sourced directly from the internet. understanding curation of materials by the community to ensure and promote continuity of the curriculum, it was noted that the teaching and learning materials must be readily available to volunteers in an editable electronic form so that they may be refined and improved over the years. respondents noted that, historically, materials were not well curated and that in some instances, curriculum materials had to be recreated from scratch on an annual basis. as one curriculum coordinator noted: i don’t know for how long this project has been running, but i basically had to construct a completely new curriculum. because i only had last year’s curriculum available to me, which […] wasn't done very well. just because the person wasn't very committed, or there were issues around that. […] so i didn't have very many resources from previous curriculum to build on. but i don't understand where like the whole previous years’ has gone. interviewees generally agreed that systems should be in place to preserve and curate good materials while removing poor materials. one of the problems volunteers currently face is having access to 34 materials that have not been evaluated and/or are of poor quality. they suggest that: “… if a lesson plan doesn’t work, take it off the database. make it unavailable so no one will make the mistake of using it again”. although resources deemed unfit for one context may be very useful in another. this again points to the importance of curation and documenting contextual issues as p part of the metadata, which describes the resource so that “institutional memory” is not lost. discussion the goal of this study was to explore the perceptions of university student-tutors regarding the reuse of digital educational materials for community engagement projects. overall, the explicit rules, norms, and conventions of the community seemed to most hinder the reuse of educational materials. these impacted the ways materials were sourced, created, curated, and shared. technical challenges were also significant, and hindered sharing in many ways. the discussion is guided by the at concept of contradictions, which represent structural tensions between the elements of the activity system (engeström, 2001). contradictions are used to identify innovation and changing practices that emerge as the context and participant activity change over time (barab, barnett, yamagata-lynch, squire, & keating, 2002). framing these contradictions within the activity system provides a lens to document and discuss the issues impacting this organisation. the primary contradictions in this study are distilled in figure 5. figure 5: contradictions in the activity system. 35 the appropriateness of using other people’s work seemed to be a great concern, as students were uncertain whether they could reuse materials created by their peers. this could be related to the students’ conception and fear of plagiarism, which is an important component of academic discourse. students expressed uncertainty about whether materials created by others were even available for reuse, or whether permission was needed from the original author. this resulted in materials being recreated from scratch by incoming volunteers. conversely, participants in this study noted that they were generally happy to have their works used by others. since a great deal of time and effort goes into the curriculum development process, materials ideally should be curated to promote reuse, revision, remix, and redistribution as often as possible, all of which are core principles of oer (wiley, 2014). by simply making the terms of reuse explicit, volunteers can help reduce the uncertainty for new volunteers engaging with internal resources. this process of reuse towards improvement may lead to increasingly high-quality curriculum materials refined by the experiences of volunteers already working in the community. the students expressed a desire for firmer rules around how materials are uploaded and stored in the curriculum database with specific consideration for metadata and explicit licensing that encourages reuse. when using the internet for finding educational materials, interviewees seemed to have some misconceptions about resources “freely available” online and the actual legal terms under which the online resources had been released. interviewees noted a limited understanding of copyright and fair use policies, consistent with the findings of other studies regarding students’ awareness of copyright (czerniewicz, 2016; kapitzke, dezuanni, & iyer, 2011; muriel-torrado & fernández-molina, 2015). while participants were generally aware that they needed to obey rules around copyright, they were often under significant pressure to find resources in a short space of time. student-tutors generally did not have a clear understanding of how copyright applied to materials sourced online for use within the classroom. broadly, as students are not being formally educated on how to appropriately use the internet as a resource, they have a limited understanding of how to legally source resources online for use. this has implications for the development of their digital literacies, and results in them being unaware of how they can take advantage of open-access, open-source, and open education resources in their work, especially for community outreach activities. so the anarchic nature of using online materials reported in the studies by calverley and shephard (2003) and harley et al. (2006) still seem to be comparable in this context. an understanding of the learners and their context is essential to providing a relevant and responsive curriculum. adapting materials from local and international sources was noted as a common strategy to meet the contextual needs of the learners. local materials were prioritised and when necessary international materials would be adapted and localised for the local context. in some cases, the student-tutors would have to reverse-engineer digital materials for use. for example, this may involve copying text out of a non-editable pdf for adaptation in a document. taking the time to adapt and localize resources, changing elements such as the measure of units or names of places, was more commonplace than trying to use materials that were unsuitable for the context. the studenttutors took the time to make these changes, knowing that they would benefit the students by making them more appropriate for their contexts, consistent with the findings of hatakka, (2009). saving and describing these localized changes for future access is crucial to the sustained quality of the program. 36 furthermore, more carefully curating the resources that have been revised for the local context can save future students from repeating this work in years to come. participants in this study struggled with the use of the institutional lms as a repository. the lms operated much like a file system rather than what was needed, a database which supported metadata, versioning, and comments around resources. while the lms offered a reliable place to store and curate materials, volunteers frequently mentioned its shortcoming as a collaborative authoring tool. the facilities and technical aspects of the lms limited participation in collaborative curriculum development. the lms did not allow the addition of descriptive metadata, which could help volunteers searching for content. as well, the search tool was not sophisticated for querying and discovering resources. furthermore, interviewees noted the need for the storage of editable formats such as microsoft word or open document format (odf) to ensure that volunteers seeking content can both edit a resource or simply print it out for use. there is a great opportunity to connect and collaborate with others who espouse similar goals for their own outreach activities. community development organisations are largely working towards a shared object and could be more explicitly sharing the resources (mediating artefacts), processes (rules), and labour (division of labour). in the context of this study, participants were not pursuing these opportunities and could benefit from more explicitly seeking partnerships in an open way. while sophisticated projects building educational materials for the south african context such as the siyavula project, openuct, and thutong are rapidly developing, only three of the six interviewees mentioned these as sources for developing their own curriculum. increasing awareness in the pool of educational content created in south africa would be a useful strategy for community development organisations. there may, additionally, be ways in which similar organisations could collaborate and use the technical infrastructure of one another to better curate their own resources. conclusion this case study has documented how student-tutors are working to improve educational access in disadvantaged communities through educational outreach activities. simultaneously, advances in technology and the increased commitment by educational institutions to widen access to educational materials are creating an enabling landscape in which to operate. in many cases, community development organisations represent the last mile for bringing educational materials into impoverished communities. there is great potential for student outreach programmes to benefit from the materials being shared by the oer community. as well, community development organisations should ideally engage as contributors themselves to the growing body of oer. for student volunteers working in community development organisations, this could be a valuable way to introduce them to alternative ways of engaging with digital content, which could apply in their personal and professional lives. the parameters that constrain this activity system are both formally and informally defined by the rules, norms, and conventions of the community. one way to reduce some of the tensions around reusing others’ materials, the challenge of curation, and increased collaboration is to apply open copyright licenses such as creative commons to all their curated curriculum materials. adopting open licenses could also help spread the culture of open education, to which community development organisations are closely aligned. there is further potential for partnership between 37 community development organisations and the oer and open knowledge communities. proponents of oer should connect with organisations that actively use and rely upon freely available content, developing awareness of content repositories, licensing models, and communities. furthermore, efforts should be made to offer ways for volunteers to contribute their adaptations and customisations back to the broader oer community, furthering the development of the education commons and contributing oer perspectives from the global south. references albright, p. (2005). open educational resources open content for higher education (international institute for educational planning). united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization. retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001285/128515e.pdf amiel, t. (2013). identifying barriers to the remix of translated open educational resources. the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 14(1), 126–144. amiel, t., & soares, t. c. (2016). identifying tensions in the use of open licenses in oer repositories. the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 17(3). https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v17i3.2426 badat, s. (2009). the role of higher education in society: valuing higher education. presented at the hers south african academy 2009, cape town, south africa. barab, s. a., barnett, m., yamagata-lynch, l., squire, k., & keating, t. (2002). using activity theory to understand the systemic tensions characterizing a technology-rich introductory astronomy course. mind, culture, and activity, 9(2), 76–107. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327884mca0902_02 bennett, s., dawson, p., bearman, m., molloy, e., & boud, d. (2016). how technology shapes assessment design: findings from a study of university teachers. british journal of educational technology. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12439 browne, t., holding, r., howell, a., & rodway-dyer, s. (2010). the challenges of oer to academic practice. journal of interactive media in education, 2010(1), 3. https://doi.org/10.5334/2010-3 bryant, s. (1998). overcoming the ‘not invented here’ syndrome-experience with sourcing education multimedia developed elsewhere. in proceedings of ascilite (vol. 98). calverley, g., & shephard, k. (2003). assisting the uptake of on-line resources: why good learning resources are not enough. computers & education, 41(3), 205–224. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0360-1315(03)00028-9 cohen, l., manion, l., & morrison, k. (2007). research methods in education (6th ed.). london; new york: routledge. collis, b., & strijker, a. (2004). technology and human issues in reusing learning objects. journal of interactive media in education, 2004(1). https://doi.org/10.5334/2004-4-collis conole, g., mcandrew, p., & dimitriadis, y. (2011). the role of cscl pedagogical patterns as mediating artefacts for repurposing open educational resources. in f. pozzi & d. persico (eds.), techniques for fostering collaboration in online learning communities: theoretical and practical perspectives (pp. 206–223). retrieved from https://www.igi-global.com/chapter/role-cscl-pedagogical-patterns-mediating/46914 czerniewicz, l. (2016). student practices in copyright culture: accessing learning resources. learning, media and technology, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2016.1160928 38 duderstadt, j. j. (1997). the future of the university in an age of knowledge. journal of asynchronous learning networks, 1, 78–88. elliott, k., & sweeney, k. (2008). quantifying the reuse of learning objects. australasian journal of educational technology, 24(2). https://doi.org/10.14742/ajet.1216 engeström, y. (1987). learning by expanding (doctoral dissertation). orienta-konsultit, helsinki. retrieved from http://lchc.ucsd.edu/mca/paper/engestrom/learning-by-expanding.pdf engeström, y. (2001). expansive learning at work: toward an activity theoretical reconceptualization. journal of education and work, 14(1), 133–156. https://doi.org/10.1080/13639080020028747 engeström, y., & miettinen, r. (1999). introduction. in y. engestrom, r. miettinen, & r.-l. punamaki (eds.), perspectives on activity theory (pp. 1–16). cambridge: cambridge university press. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511812774.002 harley, d., henke, j., lawrence, s., miller, i., perciali, i., & nasatir, d. (2006). use and users of digital resources: a focus on undergraduate education in the humanities and social sciences. university of california, berkeley: center for studies in higher education (cshe). hart, k. l. de, chetty, y. b., & archer, e. (2015). uptake of oer by staff in distance education in south africa. the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 16(2). retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/2047 hassler, b., & mays, t. (2015). open content. in the international encyclopedia of digital communication and society. john wiley & sons, inc. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118767771.wbiedcs154 hatakka, m. (2009). build it and they will come?–inhibiting factors for reuse of open content in developing countries. the electronic journal of information systems in developing countries, 37, 1–16. hennessy, s., hassler, b., & hofmann, r. (2016). pedagogic change by zambian primary school teachers participating in the oer4schools professional development programme for one year. research papers in education, 31(4), 399–427. https://doi.org/10.1080/02671522.2015.1073343 hodgins, w. (2000). into the future (commission on technology & adult learning). american society for training & development (astd) and national governors’ association (nga). hodgkinson-williams, c., paskevicius, m., cox, g., shaikh, s., czerniewicz, l., & lee-pan, s. (2013). 365 days of openness: the emergence of oer at the university of cape town. in r. mcgreal, w. kinuthia, & marshall (eds.), open educational resources: innovation, research and practice (pp. 33–46). vancouver, bc: commonwealth of learning and athabasca university. retrieved from https://oerknowledgecloud.org/sites/oerknowledgecloud.org/files/pub_ps_oer-irp_web.pdf kapitzke, c., dezuanni, m., & iyer, r. (2011). copyrights and creative commons licensing: pedagogical innovation in a higher education media literacy classroom. e-learning and digital media, 8(3), 271–282. https://doi.org/10.2304/elea.2011.8.3.271 mtebe, j. s., & raisamo, r. (2014). investigating perceived barriers to the use of open educational resources in higher education in tanzania. the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 15(2). retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/1803 muriel-torrado, e., & fernández-molina, j.-c. (2015). creation and use of intellectual works in the academic environment: students’ knowledge about copyright and copyleft. the journal of academic librarianship, 41(4), 441–448. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2015.05.001 39 murphy, e., & rodriguez-manzanares, m. a. (2008). using activity theory and its principle of contradictions to guide research in educational technology. australasian journal of educational technology, 24(4). https://doi.org/10.14742/ajet.1203 parks, s. (2000). same task, different activities: issues of investment identity, and use of strategy. tesl canada journal, 17(2), 21. https://doi.org/10.18806/tesl.v17i2.890 petrides, l., jimes, c., middleton-detzner, c., & howell, h. (2010). oer as a model for enhanced teaching and learning. in open ed 2010 proceedings. barcelona, spain. retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10609/4995 petrides, l., nguyen, l., kargliani, a., & jimes, c. (2008). open educational resources: inquiring into author reuse behaviors. in p. dillenbourg & m. specht (eds.), times of convergence: technologies across learning contexts (pp. 344–353). springer berlin heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-87605-2_39 stake, r. e. (1994). case studies. in n. k. denzin & y. s. lincoln (eds.), the sage handbook of qualitative research (pp. 236–247). thousand oaks: sage. wetterling, j., & collis, b. (2003). sharing and re-use across a transnational network. in a. littlejohn (ed.), reusing online resources: a sustainable approach to e-learning (pp. 75–80). london; sterling, va: kogan page. wiley, d. (2014, march 5). the access compromise and the 5th r. retrieved 2 november 2016, from http://opencontent.org/blog/archives/3221 authors: michael paskevicius is an educational developer in the centre for innovation and excellence in learning at vancouver island university and a ph.d. candidate with the university of victoria. email: michael.paskevicius@gmail.com cheryl hodgkinson-williams is an associate professor in the centre for innovation in learning and teaching at the university of cape town. email: cheryl.hodgkinson-williams@uct.ac.za microsoft word mukama.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 40-56 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. from policies to implementation of open distance learning in rwanda: a genealogical and governmentality analysis evode mukama university of rwanda abstract: the purpose of this paper is to analyse the interplay between policy formulation and implementation in terms of the historical practices of open distance learning (odl) in rwanda. this paper draws on the foucauldian genealogical and governmentality analysis. the paper examines government aspirations as depicted in policy statements starting from 2001, a year aligning with the beginning of the government of rwanda’s vision 2020. this vision aims at transforming the country from an agrarian to a knowledge-based and technology-led society. this study analysed discourses emerging from policy statements on odl and scrutinised how government aspirations were translated into concrete actions. moreover, the study examined the rationality governing odl practice and explored governing techniques adopted in relation to odl discourses. the findings reveal that, though policies extol odl potential to increase access, relevance and inclusion in education, and though they highlight the need to improve quality in higher education through affordable, scalable and sustainable technologies, implementing institutions tend to adopt contentious approaches to cope with a dual mode. the study makes some concrete suggestions to close the gap between odl policy formulation and implementation. keywords: genealogy, governmentality, higher education, open distance learning, policy analysis, rwanda introduction the government of rwanda recognises that open distance learning (odl) should be used in higher education in order to offer a second chance to those who have been unable to benefit from conventional higher education. odl is also considered as a means to increase access to education for students from under-served remote areas (ministry of education, 2008). in fact, the number of students wishing to pursue their studies in higher education rose sharply over the last 20 years: student enrolment shifted from 4,100 in 1994 to 90,803 in 2016 (ministry of education, 2016c). according to statistics from the higher education council (ministry of education, 2015b), the majority of students in higher learning institutions (hlis) enrolled in day programmes were estimated to be 62% in 2014. during the same year, evening and weekend programmes represented 36%, while students in e-learning programmes were approximately 2%. this tremendous increase in student enrolments in higher education was mainly due to a successful implementation of a fee-free nine-year basic education in place since 2003. the demand for higher education was expected to rise even higher with the implementation of 12-year basic education that was introduced in 2012. different government policies and strategic plans have recommended odl as one of the strategies that can address this growing demand for higher education. this study investigates how policies and strategic plans have been translated into concrete actions by odl-implementing agencies, and by challenges, 41 gaps and perspectives. in other words, this study analyses the interplay between policy formulation and implementation in terms of the historical practices of odl in rwanda. theoretical framework experience has shown that countries in the world adopt different strategies in order to increase access to higher education through odl. some countries create dedicated odl institutions to offer programmes of study at a distance. such institutions depend on economies of scale to become financially self-sustaining. the outstanding examples of such institutions are open universities and some of them stand out as mega universities and have more than 100,000 students. some countries set up virtual universities, which vary from being strictly universities that offer programmes online to just departments offering a programme online. the african virtual university falls under this category. some other countries prefer a dual mode with a combination of delivery methods such as online, face-to-face and distance learning. some universities put in place departments dedicated to odl with their own academic staff to deliver progammes. however, some other universities establish a small unit with the main responsibility to coordinate odl activities at the university level. such a unit does not have its own staff to run courses through odl, but it relies on other departments’ staff already offering courses in a traditional, face-to-face mode. university of rwanda (ur) adopted this last option. thus, this section will reflect a theoretical odl institutional configuration of such a unit within a university. mintzberg (1978; 1992; 1994) suggests considering universities as professional organisations. accordingly, such organisations comprise five parts (figure 1). at the base is the operating core, within which experts or professionals, including lecturers and researchers, perform the basic work of the organisation, namely teaching, research and community outreach activities. mintzberg (1978) explains that the operating core is the key and the biggest part of a professional organisation. he asserts that the prime coordination mechanism in professional organisations is based on the standardisation of skills, whereas, emphasis is on the training of specialists, horizontal job specialisation, and vertical and horizontal decentralisation. figure 1: the five parts of a professional organisation, adapted from mintzberg (1978). 42 at the very top of a university hierarchy, vice-chancellors and their deputies form what mintzberg (1992) calls the strategic apex. the duties of these top managers lie in ensuring that the organisation achieves its mission in an effective way. they address both the needs of the environment inside and outside the university. other administrative managers who link and coordinate information from the strategic apex to the operating core make up the middle line. then, the support staff at a university is also a considerably important part. support staff is composed of a great number of units all specialised to provide support to the functioning of the operating core indirectly. these include, for example, a library, a bookshop, computer and printing facilities, student restaurants, a financial department, estate units, and a cafeteria. to the left of the middle line stands the technostructure. in dual-mode institutions offering programmes in distance education and face-to-face formats, this part of a university is composed of analysts and experts, who design, plan, formalise and standardise the work of lecturers and researchers. figure 1 illustrates the flow of information between an odl unit and other related departments, and shows how odl analysts and experts are empowered by the top managers to whom they report. mintzberg (1978) argues that analysts and experts of the technostructure benefit from a selective decentralisation in order to be able to exercise their expertise and influence across all academic departments of the operating core by designing, planning and/or changing their work and by training academic staff who does the main work of the organisation. in other words, the technostructure and the operating core play different roles in a professional organisation. horizontal job specialisation within the operating core does not allow units located at the same horizontal level to coordinate the work of each other (mintzberg, 1994). lunenburg (2012, p. 5) explains why: “university professors [and] teachers perform in classroom settings in relative isolation from colleagues and superiors, while remaining in close contact with their students.” this statement can explain partly why hosting technostructure units within the operating core makes the former conflicting and ineffective vis-à-vis other parallel units of the latter. method research design drawing from the foucauldian tool box, two concepts are central to the design of this study: genealogy and governmentality. the former emanates from a latin term genea, which means birth. from the foucauldian perspective, genealogy reflects the history, understood as non-linear trajectories, of interruptions and irregularities (foucault, 1977). in other words, the focus is on determining situations that shape the history of the present. andersson and fejes (2005, p. 599) put it as follows: “genealogy is an analysis of ideas in the present time. these are traced back in time and the circumstances in which they emerged are analysed.” in this line of reasoning, this paper used genealogy to examine policy statements concerning odl in rwanda. odl discourses emerging from these statements, namely accessibility, relevance, quality, scale, sustainability, affordability, technology, and inclusion were identified. the second concept from the foucauldian tool box that guided this analytical process is governmentality. it entails a “decentralised way of governing through institutions and the subjects” (andersson & fejes, 2005, p. 600). in other words, governmentality implies a process of exploring aspirations/rationalities on how governing is to be conducted. in this paper, what to govern are odl 43 systems. the point is to understand how implementing institutions lead odl systems or how they behave in relation to policy statements as a set of norms expressed by policymakers. the analytical process articulates, therefore, what and how to govern, depending on “a range of multiple tactics” in play (foucault, 2003, p. 237). according to dean (1999), the rationalities of governing involve different techniques/tactics that form people’s conduct and this is conveyed through their thoughts, aspirations, beliefs and behaviours vis-à-vis their regimes of practice and institutions. in this paper, discourses were used as starting analytical points and at the same time, they were explored while trying to answer the following questions: • what are the discourses emerging from policy statements on odl? • how were these discourses constructed in odl practice? • what rationality of governing is the odl practice based on? • what governing techniques are adopted in relation to these discourses? procedures the empirical material was composed of 13 policy and strategic plan documents formulated from 2001, a year corresponding to the launch of the government of rwanda’s vision 2020. these documents were categorised in three main groups. the first group comprised five documents on different national socio-economic areas including education (table 1, no 1-5). the second group contained five documents on education sector strategic plans, policies and procedures reflecting odl (table 1, no 6-10). finally, the third group consisted of three experts’ reports, one on higher education financing and the two others on a project to set up odl institution in rwanda (table 1, no 10-13). the following steps guided the analytical process of empirical material: the process started with an extensive reading of policy documents, strategic implementation plans and reports in order to scrutinise systematically policy aspirations concerning odl. fejes (2005) compares genealogy to a family tree whereby someone tries to determine its branches from a retrospective perspective. similarly, i tried to understand the past through the present context taking into consideration that, in the foucauldian perspective, the reality is embedded in the text analysed. i have analysed political thoughts underpinning government expectations vis-à-vis odl on the one hand, and the techniques used by odl implementing institutions in their efforts to translate these aspirations into concrete actions on the other hand. putting this differently, the first step in using the foucauldian tool box consisted in identifying the odl discourses conveyed through policy documents, then studying how these discourses shape the current practice, and, finally, examining different ways odl was governed in the present context. by using genealogy and governmentality, i tried to trace changes in the political thoughts and the circumstances of odl practices over a five-year period, i.e., from 2012 to 2016. 44 findings odl discourses emerging from policy statements looking closely into how odl discourses are related to in different policies and reports analysed (table 1), two categories of discourses are identified. the first category is composed of accessibility, quality, relevance and technology. this category implies that odl is considered as a technology that can contribute to the expansion of access and provision of relevant and quality education. the second category relates to the four remaining odl discourses, namely affordability, scale, sustainability and inclusion. this category conveys a more technocratic aspect of odl in practice. table 1: odl discourses across policy documents and reports # policy documents and reports accessibility quality relevance affordability scale sustainability technology inclusion 1 vision 2020 x x x x 2 edprs ii x x 3 nici iii x x x 4 smart rwanda master plan x x x 5 7ygp x x 6 essp x x x 7 ict in education policy x x x x 8 ict in education master plan x x x x 9 national odel policy x x x x x x 10 code of practice for odel provision x x 11 task force on higher education financing x x x x 12 task force report on open university x x x x x x x x 13 working group report on odl x x x x x x x x total 12 10 4 4 2 4 13 4 table 1 illustrates clearly that the discourse of technology is present in the 13 policy documents and reports analysed. accessibility and quality are mentioned in 12 and 10 documents respectively. relevance, affordability, sustainability and inclusion are cited in four documents while scale is present in two technical documents, namely an inception report from the taskforce on the rwandan open university and a working group report on an operational approach and costs for the college of odl in rwanda. all the eight odl discourses are referred to in these two last reports. all discourses except scale are cited in the national odl policy (ministry of education, 2016b). 45 the following first two sections will explore how the odl discourses were shaped in different policy documents and how they were constructed in practice. this reflection is conducted in conjunction with an analysis of different techniques used to govern odl in practice. the third section will focus on an odl institutional framework as one of the key techniques used to implement government aspirations. finally, the findings will be discussed. odl – an enabling technology to increase access, quality and relevance the 13 documents analysed consider odl as a technology that will enable speeding up capacity development of rwandan citizens to make them skilled human capital who, in their turn, can accelerate the socio-economic development of the country. for example, in 2001, rwanda launched its vision 2020, a policy that was intended to change the country from an agrarian to a knowledge-based and ict-led, middle-income society by 2020. the policy highlights that distance learning will play a central role in increasing access to quality education tailored to the needs of the country: “to promote efficiency and continuous upgrading of skills, appropriate programs will be launched in the national institutions aimed at on-the-job training, in-service training and distant learning” (ministry of finance and economic planning, 2000, p. 13). the economic development and poverty reduction strategy 2 (edprs 2) does not explicitly refer to odl but it states that the country will “leverage icts in education in order to accelerate skills development” (ministry of finance and economic planning, 2013, p. 71). as a strategy to achieve vision 2020, rwanda set up four five-year, rolling national information and communication infrastructure (nici) plans starting from 2001. nici iii (nici–2015 plan, 2011–2016) and smart rwanda master plan (2016–2020) place emphasis on service delivery (government of rwanda, 2001; 2005; 2010; 2015). the education sector organised skills development through six main projects including odl. the purpose of odl in nici iii (nici – 2015 plan) was to provide access to lifelong learning opportunities and to increase quality education for all: “this project aims to leverage icts in order to provide second-chance educational opportunities to all citizens through open, distance and e-learning (odel) programmes that further improve the quality of education in rwanda” (government of rwanda, 2010, p. 33). smart rwanda master plan (2016 – 2020) extended the same project for the next five years (government of rwanda, 2015). one of the targets of the ict in education master plan was to double the number of students in higher education through odl between 2015 and 2018 (ministry of education, 2015a). the same document stated that the government would put in place accessible and assistive technologies to ensure students with disabilities would have access to quality education. the period of the 7-year government programme (7ygp) coincided with the second term of the president paul kagame, 2010–2017 (repubulika y’u rwanda, 2014). during this period, the government planned to reform the delivery mode in the education system in terms of odl: 30% of subjects in secondary schools and 50% of programmes in higher education were to be delivered through odl between 2010 and 2017. similarly, the education sector strategic plan (essp) considered odl as an innovative strategy that could contribute to meeting increased demand in access and quality in higher education (higher education council, nd; education, 2013). 46 the documents mentioned above demonstrate that the government of rwanda is aware of the benefits of odl in terms of increasing access, quality and relevance to education. however, some policy statements on odl sound too ambitious. for example, while the ict in education master plan envisions doubling higher education student enrolments in only four years, it does not indicate the modalities or the conditions to be put in place in order to translate this aspiration into a reality. this can be interpreted as if policy statements were sometimes formulated without taking into consideration the context of the country. different institutions made some efforts to attend to the government aspirations vis-à-vis odl. for example, one of the first odl initiatives in rwanda was called the distance training programme, translated in kinyarwanda as iyakure (literally meaning “offered from distance”). the distance training programme was introduced in 2001 through the former kigali institute of education (kie), currently the college of education. at the beginning, the programme aimed at upgrading in-service secondary school teachers in pedagogical skills (quality and relevance) and also at alleviating the shortage of teachers (access). when public higher learning institutions merged in 2013, kigali institute of education and rukara college of education merged and formed the college of education under the university of rwanda. thus, the school of odl was created within the university of rwandacollege of education to coordinate odl initiatives within the institution. to date, the school of odl offers six diplomas in education programmes through the distance training programme, namely mathematics-physics-education, biology-chemistry-education, french-english-education, kinyarwanda-english-education, history-geography-education, and entrepreneurship. since the creation of the university of rwanda in 2013, the number of in-service teachers enrolled in the programme has oscillated over different years, as illustrated in figure 2 taken from mukama (2016). figure 2: in-service teacher enrolments in the distance training programme, 2012 – 2016. figure 2 shows sharp variations in accessibility across different years: the highest enrolment took place in 2012 with 2,263 in-service teachers who registered in the programme. the year 2013 coincides with the launch of the university of rwanda as one public university; it seems that there was no 2,263 0 2,209 313 1,274 0 500 1,000 1,500 2,000 2,500 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 47 intake during this year. figure 2 shows also that in-service teacher enrolments increased again in 2014, up to 2,209, and sharply dropped to 313 in 2015 before it rose again to 1,274 in 2016. the reasons for such sudden changes in student enrolments were not clearly elucidated in the reports analysed. ndayambaje (2016) conducted a study on the relationship between learner support and internal efficiency in the distance training programme. he analysed student statistics from 2009 to 2015. he noted some worrying repetition and dropout rates in the distance training programme especially in science stream combinations. for example, ndayambaje (2016, p. 187) revealed that in the combination of mathematics-physics-education, the repetition rate was around 59% in 2010; 24% in 2012; 61% in 2014 and 43% in 2015. the dropout rate in the same diploma programme oscillated over different years and reached approximately 25% in 2015. according to ndayambaje (2016), the combinations of french-english-education and history-geography-education recorded the lowest repetition rate of approximately 17% in 2015 while, in the same year, the lowest dropout rate was 8% in the combination of kinyarwanda-english-education. drawing from the variation of student enrolments, the repetition and dropout rates in the distance training programme, it can be inferred that this programme does not seem to be a reliable technology in terms of access, quality and relevance to education. in their study on the distance training programme, ndayambaje, bimenyimana, & ndahayo (2013) revealed the weaknesses of the programme with the following points: failure to use innovative technologies, limited resources such as library access and textbooks, poor record and learner support systems, inadequate number of staff and facilities, and high student dropout and failure rates. the distance training programme experienced other operational challenges as discussed in the next sections. the second initiative introduced in the attempt to implement the government’s odl aspirations was a pan-african e-network project known as tele-education. this project was formally launched in 2009 with the purpose to build capacity of the people of africa through tele-education and telemedicine using facilities and expertise from indian universities and hospitals. in rwanda, teleeducation was hosted at the former kigali institute of education, and later, in 2013, it was handed over to the university of rwanda. the leading and coordinating country of the pan-african enetwork project was the government of india. for example, students in rwanda could register in a limited number of certificate, diploma, or master’s course programmes offered from indian universities, namely indira gandhi national open university (bachelor of tourism studies), amity university (post graduate diploma in information technology, post graduate diploma in french language, diploma in business management, and diploma in information technology), university of madras (master of science in information technology, bachelor of business administration), and birla institute of science and technology (certificate of database and information systems, certificate of electronics and instrumentation). figure 3, taken from the baseline study on the status of odl in rwanda (mukama, 2016), shows that the highest student enrolments registered in tele-education from 2012 to 2016 was 293 students. the lowest enrolment was recorded in 2012 and 2015, with 159 students for each year. 48 figure 3: student enrolment in the department of tele-education, 2012 – 2016. given the government of rwanda’s aspiration to deliver at least 50% of programmes through odl by 2017 in higher education and to double higher education student enrolments by 2018, figure 2 and 3 demonstrate that a lot needs to be done to increase access, improve quality and relevance to education. the baseline study on the status of odl in rwanda (mukama, 2016) indicates some constraints of tele-education in the country, including low-bandwidth internet connectivity and limited capacity of the learning space in terms of seats, rooms, and ict infrastructure. due to a small local internet bandwidth, the system was not able to accommodate teaching and learning materials for many students at the same time. the third initiative that was introduced in order to increase access, quality and relevance to education was a blended learning programme for nurses. in 2012, the ministry of health initiated a blended learning programme for upgrading associate nurses working in the national health system (a2 nurses) to registered nurses with a university diploma (a1 level). the programme started in five schools of nursing and midwifery (kabgayi, rwamagana, nyagatare, byumba and kibungo) that were then reporting to the ministry of health. the formation of the university of rwanda as a single public university in 2013 coincided with the transfer of these five schools from the ministry of health to the ministry of education. these schools then became part of the college of medicine and health sciences at the university of rwanda. the five schools followed a blended learning mode: 60% of programmes were offered through a moodle-based learning management system; 40% were dedicated to face-to-face sessions. students had to meet at the above-mentioned schools for seminars and supervised practice. the baseline study on the status of odl in rwanda (mukama, 2016) reports that student enrolment in the blended learning programme at the schools of nursing and midwifery increased gradually from 168 in 2012 to 490 in 2014. the figures then decreased to 319 in 2015 and to 96 in 2016. the fourth initiative introduced in rwanda as a strategy to increase access to quality and relevant higher education and training was the african virtual university (avu). phase 1 of the avu (2005– 2010) set up two learning odl centres, one in the former national university of rwanda, the other in 159 186 272 159 293 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 49 the former kigali institute of science and technology. although four ict-integrated bachelors of education in mathematics and science degrees, and 73 modules of mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, ict basic skills, and ict integration in education and professional courses were created in phase 1, the baseline study on the status of odl in rwanda (mukama, 2016) could not find out the statistics for students in avu programmes. in the avu multinational phase 2 project, the odl centre of the university of rwanda–college of science and technology was renovated and rehabilitated. a diploma/bachelor’s degree in applied computer science was validated by this college. at the time of writing this paper, i was not able to identify the outcome of this programme. odl – catalysing affordability, scale, sustainability, and inclusion the more policies and related documents are narrowed to odl practice, the more odl discourses are disclosed. in addition to the four discourses mentioned in the previous section, sustainability is also cited in other documents: the ict in education policy highlights the need to build capacity and competency in the production of appropriate content, and the training of instructors in odl (ministry of education, 2016a). the nici iii had planned to train 100 odl instructors and the target was to produce an annual output of at least 10,000 graduates through odl between 2011 and 2015 (government of rwanda, 2010). however, this document did not determine any mechanisms that could serve to achieve such an output. hence, not only was this annual output not produced, but also it was difficult to identify and follow-up institutional related responsibility, accountability, and ownership. the task force on higher education financing established in january 2012 by the ministry of education recommended the creation of an open university of rwanda (ministry of education, 2012). this proposal was formulated as one of the mechanisms that could contribute to addressing high demand, equity and quality in higher education while responding to government financial constraints. as far as odl is concerned, the ict in education master plan acknowledges that ict will help rwanda to build an odl system that will allow increasing access to higher education at a cost that is within the means of students and parents (ministry of education, 2015a). in this connection, the distance training programme was initiated in the aftermath of the genocide against the tutsi that was perpetrated in 1994. until 2006, this programme was funded by the uk department for international development (dfid). afterwards, it became one of the regular programmes offered by the kigali institute of education. this programme was then sponsored by the government of rwanda through the ministry of education. it was free of charge but distance learners were requested to pay a registration fee of rwf 35,000 and to buy learning materials equivalent to rwf 120,000 per year. the baseline study on the status of odl in rwanda reveals that the four odl modes of delivery embraced by the university of rwanda were inherited and initially funded from outside (mukama, 2016): the distance training programme initiated and funded through dfid; tele-education funded through a pan-african e-network project; blended learning for nurses initiated and funded through the ministry of health; and the avu, a pan-african intergovernmental organisation funded by different sponsors including the african development bank. this configuration raises some questions. once the initial funding was phased out, the university kept running the same systems in the same way, while the context had changed. for example, these four modes of delivery continued to be managed as standalone initiatives and the university did not make out of them one unified and 50 integrated odl system. so far, the distance training programme has continued to focus exclusively on upgrading the educational level of under-qualified, in-service, secondary school teachers, and has not yet been scaled up to other potential students from other streams of study. this programme continued as a print-based, distance learning model, while new technologies have emerged. thus, the distance training programme seems to be very expensive and suffers, therefore, from the high costs of textbook production, printing, and updating old texts. tele-education continued to be a project that depended on the expertise of indian universities in terms of capacity building, ict infrastructure, programme delivery, technology competencies and awarding power. the blended learning programme in the schools of nursing was not under the supervision of the school of odl, though, the latter was supposed to coordinate all odl initiatives within the university of rwanda. it seems that there is more compliance with odl systems inherited from outside than ownership and proactive action to create an affordable, scalable, sustainable, inclusive and responsive odl system. the configuration of odl modes at the university of rwanda raises another problem, lack of flexibility. for example, across all the four odl modes of delivery mentioned above, distance learners were required to register per year and per programme, rather than per module. all learners had to undertake the same six modules each semester without any possibility to choose elective modules. any cohort of distance learners had to start and finish the programme at the same time. lack of flexibility may explain partly the high repetition and dropout rates in the distance training programme as referred to above. in march 2012, the ministry of education set up a task force to assess the feasibility of creating a college of odl within ur. in 2013, a working group on odl was established and produced an odl operational framework and a related business plan. the reports of these two committees indicate that odl would be implemented gradually from a pilot project to a larger-scale one in order to ensure the lasting impact of the programme. these reports proposed odl transformative solutions that would allow cost-effective and affordable programmes. these are the only two documents that advocate for scale (mukama, et al., 2012; 2013). though the ict in education master plan indicated that the government would avail itself of assistive technologies to support learners with disabilities, there was no indication that these technologies have been used in odl so far. institutional framework as a technique to govern odl the ict in education policy approved by the cabinet on 27 february 2016 highlights that an “open distance education university will be up and running” in the second phase of the implementation of this policy, i.e., from 2016 – 2017 (ministry of education, 2016a, p. 9). at the time of writing this paper this target has remained just an aspiration. however, such a statement raises a question: what is the relationship between odl policy aspirations and the implementing authority? in fact, the baseline study on odl in rwanda identifies three main levels of intervention in odl in rwanda, ranging from policy development to regulation and implementation (mukama, 2016). 1. the ministry of education has jurisdiction in primary, secondary, professional, technical education, and higher education. it has oversight responsibility for policy development, and monitoring and evaluation. it also has the power to delegate responsibility, and to review the roles and responsibilities of supporting institutions or organisations that have a stake in odl initiatives in rwanda. 51 2. the rwanda education board (reb) has the department of ict in education and odl, responsible for the overall implementation and supervision of ict in education and odl activities, including provision of infrastructure and technical support, capacity development, teacher training relating to ict in education and odl. reb jurisdiction is limited to 12-year basic education (pre-primary, primary and secondary education). in the reb structure, the department of ict in education and odl is located at the same horizontal level as the other five departments of the institution, namely, education quality and standard; examination and accreditation; higher education student loans; curriculum and pedagogical materials; and teacher development and management. 3. the university of rwanda created the school of odl under the college of education. this school has an oversight responsibility for odl provision at the university of rwanda. it has the mandate to provide an administrative and academic expertise to colleges, schools and departments offering academic programmes through odl or just through a dual mode. at the time of writing this paper, the university of rwanda was composed of six colleges: the college of agriculture, animal sciences and veterinary medicine; the college of arts and social sciences; the college of business and economics; college of medicine and health sciences; the college of science and technology; and the college of education. within the college of education, the school of odl was located at the same horizontal level as the three other ones, namely, the school of education; the school of lower secondary education; and the school of inclusive and special needs education. as referred to earlier, the mandate of the school of odl was to design, plan, formalise and standardise the work of academic staff and researchers from all colleges, schools and departments across the university. conversely, the mandate of other schools, such as the school of lower secondary education, was to attend to the key mission of the institution, that is, teaching, research and community service. taking into consideration their mandates, the school of odl falls under technostructure, while the school of lower secondary education and other similar schools and centres are units under the operating core. drawing from the configuration of a professional organisation as proposed by mintzberg (1994), the dynamics of an odl institutional framework are determined by its mandate. accordingly, if the mandate is mainly based on planning, formalising or standardising the work of other departments in terms of odl, then this institution could be more effective if it was managed as a technostructure. this implies that an odl unit, according to the institutional framework adopted in rwanda, needs to be endowed with a selective decentralisation, i.e., delegation of decision-making power to operate across all colleges, schools and departments. in practice, this selective decentralisation of odl units has been impossible since the latter are located in the operating core either at the same horizontal level (e.g., rwanda education board’s departments) or just under the level of other units (e.g., the school of odl vis-à-vis the university of rwanda’s colleges) for which they have the mandate to plan and formalise odl initiatives. in other words, setting up a strong coordination mechanism of odl initiatives in rwanda seems to be one of the priorities to attend to in order to meet the government aspirations in this area. mukamusoni (2006) and mukama, et al. (2013) point out another organisation-related concern about clash of priorities between odl and face-to-face programmes. the school of odl does not have its 52 own academic staff working within the school to develop programmes and learning material and to teach them. the school relies on other academic staff from other schools and departments to deliver distance training programme courses in relation to their expertise. however, these courses are mostly extra and represent unpaid workload for academic staff. the odl working environment is consequently set in such a way that academic staff give priority to conventional programmes to the detriment of the distance training programme. discussion the purpose of this paper was to analyse the interplay between policy formulation and implementation in terms of the historical practices of odl in rwanda. to this end, discourses emerging from policy statements on odl were analysed and the way they shaped the implementation was explored. finally, the rationality governing odl practice and governing techniques adopted in relation to odl discourses were examined. from the policy documents, odl in rwanda is considered as one of the technologies that can contribute to the development of skilled human capital able to boost the socio-economic development of the country. some best practices were learnt from this study: the policy documents analysed were, not only elaborated to inform the development of odl practice and create a common understanding between stakeholders, but also they were consistent in considering odl as an innovative strategy that can help address high demand in education while improving quality and relevance to education. moreover, the government of rwanda was aware of the potential of odl to reduce the cost of education, and offer scalable, sustainable, and inclusive programmes. the question is how odl policies and strategic plans have been implemented. a number of initiatives have been introduced. the department of ict in education and odl and the school of odl have been created to coordinate odl initiatives within their respective zone of intervention. however, some gaps between the formulation of policies and their implementation were identified and can be summarised in the following points: • some policy aspirations for odl seem to be too ambitious and the policy documents analysed do not indicate conditions that need to be established in order to translate these aspirations into concrete actions. this mismatch between some government expectations and the reality on the ground can be interpreted as if policy statements were sometimes formulated without taking into consideration the context of the country. additionally, the lack of specification of enabling mechanisms in policy formulation did not help identify and follow-up on institutional related responsibility, accountability, and ownership in terms of odl implementation. • some odl initiatives, especially at the university of rwanda, have been inherited from outsiders and were implemented as a blueprint. this situation may have led this institution to adopt more compliance with odl systems inherited from outside than cultivating ownership and a proactive action to create one unified and integrated odl system that is affordable, scalable, sustainable, inclusive, flexible and responsive. • the current institutional framework does not seem to match the governance of odl as expressed in different policy documents. it seems that setting up a strong coordination 53 mechanism of odl initiatives in rwanda would be one of the priorities to attend to in order to meet the government aspirations in this area. to put these highlights in context, one for the targets, for example, of the ict in education master plan was to double student enrolments in higher education through odl in four years only, i.e., between 2015 and 2018 (ministry of education, 2015a). the 7-year government programme had projected that 50% of higher education programmes were to be delivered through odl between 2010 and 2017 (repubulika y’u rwanda, 2014). the ict in education policy planned to establish an “open distance education university” in the second phase of the implementation of this policy, i.e., from 2016 – 2017 (ministry of education, 2016a, p. 9). such policy statements sound innovative but they would require a high level of readiness, and creative and unconventional governing techniques would have to be achieved within the timeline determined. this study highlights the need to establish dynamic interaction between policymakers and odl implementing institutions in formulating realistic odl policies and implantation strategic plans, taking into account the context, institutional readiness, enabling mechanisms, responsibilities, accountability and ownership. the findings of this study have demonstrated that the university of rwanda, as the single public university and as one of the key odl implementing institutions in rwanda, tried to cope with four modes of odl delivery inherited from outside: the distance training programme initiated and funded through dfid; tele-education as a pan-african e-network project; a blended learning system for nurses, a project that was started by the ministry of health; and the avu programme funded through this pan-african intergovernmental organisation. as mentioned earlier, this configuration was marked by compliance with odl systems inherited from other institutions and by the lack of flexibility. to close the gap, this study suggests a shift towards a proactive action consisting in creating an affordable, scalable, sustainable, inclusive, responsive and flexible odl system. thus, mastering the technology could be one of the key components an institution needs to meet in order to implement odl successfully. bush and middlewood explain the conditions of success in a technology-rich environment: “even in an era increasingly dominated by technology, what differentiates effective and ineffective organisations are the quality and commitment of the people who work there” (bush & middlewood, 1997, p. viii). this proposed integrated system would, therefore, require appropriate expertise to make it work effectively. the system may take into consideration flexibility in terms of entry – to accommodate catch-up programmes that can allow students below the degree level to qualify for entry requirements; flexibility in terms of timing and rate of progress – to deal with fluctuating finances, and fluctuating demands on time; flexibility in study patterns – to allow students to fit their studies within their normal lives with the least possible disruption; flexibility in progression through study areas – to allow students to choose elective modules and take advantage of new knowledge and skills as they emerge and become important in the labour market; and flexibility in exit awards and re-entry possibilities – to allow students to gain an advantage from their partial studies and return to take them further or complete them whenever appropriate. finally, according to the theoretical framework developed in this paper and based on their mandates, both the department of ict in education and odl at reb and the school of odl at the university of rwanda are technostructure units located within institutional operating core. in a professional organisation such as the university of rwanda, it would be very difficult for the school of odl, 54 which is located under the college of education, to coordinate odl initiatives located at a higher level (other colleges) or at the same horizontal level (other schools or centres). it is more likely that without a strong odl institution, most initiatives will remain sporadic despite a number of interventions. odl requires different regulatory frameworks, management and administrative processes. for example, odl students may register by module throughout the year, rather than annually as in conventional programmes. furthermore, odl requires different student support systems and the students work to a different timetable. this is why this study highlights the need to set up an appropriate odl institutional framework and a strong coordination mechanism for odl initiatives, in order to match odl governing techniques and implementing strategies with the government’s aspirations. conclusion based on policy aspirations for odl in rwanda, three points can be stated as a conclusion to this paper: firstly, odl is regarded as an innovative solution and a technology to expand access to lifelong learning while improving quality of education. secondly, explored at a more technical level, odl seems to be interpreted as a system that requires affordable, scalable, sustainable and inclusive solutions. finally, odl is understood as a mode of distance learning delivery, which involves an appropriate institutional framework. odl is not just a technology or a mode of delivery. it needs some expertise and determination to translate policy aspirations into concrete actions. implementing accessibility, quality, relevance, affordability, scale, sustainability, technology and inclusion in terms of odl entails some professionalism to deal with, notably, odl change management, course design and development, learner support, online interaction, open education, learning assessment in odl, and assistive technologies to support students with disabilities, and other learning technologies and innovations. capacity building needs, therefore, to identify roles and responsibilities, and the know-how expected of management, academic and technical staff, and students. the findings of this study can be used by policymakers and odl implementing institutions in their effort to formulate realistic policies and strategic implementation plans. in other words, this study can help reconcile policy formulation and concrete actions. references andersson, p., & fejes, a. (2005). recognition of prior learning as a technique for fabricating the adult learner: a genealogical analysis on swedish adult education policy. journal of education policy, 20(5), 595-613. bush, t., & middlewood, d. (1997). preface. in t. bush, & d. middlewood, managing people in education (pp. viiixii). london: paul chapman publishing. dean, m. (1999). governmentality: power and rule in modern society. london: sage. fejes, a. (2005). new wine in old skins: changing patterns in the governing of the adult learner in sweden. international journal of lifelong education, 24(1), 71-86. foucault, m. (1977). nietzsche, genealogy, history. in f. f. bouchard, michel foucault: language, counter-memory, practice: selected essays and interviews (pp. 139 – 164). oxford: basil blackwell. foucault, m. (2003). governmentality. in p. rabinow, & n. rose, the essential foucault: selections from the essential works of foucault 1954 – 1984 (pp. 229 – 245). new york: the new press. 55 government of rwanda. (2001). an integrated ict-led socio-economic development policy and plan for rwanda 2001–2005. kigali: eca-cea. government of rwanda. (2005). an integrated ict-led socio-economic development plan for rwanda 2006–2010. kigali. government of rwanda. (2010). national ict strategy and plan, nici–2015. kigali. government of rwanda. (2015). government of rwandasmart rwanda 2020 master plan: towards a knowledgebased society. kigali. higher education council. (nd). code of practice for distance learning provision. kigali. lunenburg, c. f. (2012). organisational structure: mintzberg’s framework. international journal of scholarly, academic, intellectual diversity, 14(1), 1-8. ministry of education. (2008). higher education policy. kigali: higher education council. ministry of education. (2012). position paper on securing a sustainable future for higher education: higher learning institutions funding and student financing. kigali: ministry of education. ministry of education. (2013). education sector strategic plan 2013/14–2017/18. kigali: ministry of education. ministry of education. (2015a). ict in education master plan 2015–2019. kigali: ministry of education. ministry of education. (2015b). statistical yearbook for tertiary education. academic year 2014–2015. kigali: ministry of education. ministry of education. (2016a). ict in education policy. approved by the cabinet in april 2016. kigali: ministry of education. ministry of education. (2016b). rwanda national open, distance and e-learning policy. draft document. kigali: ministry of education. ministry of education. (2016c). 2016 education statistical yearbook. kigali: ministry of education. ministry of finance and economic planning. (2000). rwanda vision 2020. kigali: minecofin. retrieved march 03, 2016, from http://www.gesci.org/assets/files/rwanda_vision_2020.pdf. ministry of finance and economic planning. (2013). economic development and poverty reduction strategy ii 2013 – 2018. kigali: minecofin. mintzberg, h. (1978). the structuring of organisations. new jersey: printice hall. mintzberg, h. (1992). structure in fives: designing effective organisations. new jersey: printice hall. mintzberg, h. (1994). the rise and fall of strategic planning. new jersey: free press. mukama, e. (2016). baseline study on the status of open distance learning in rwanda. burnaby: commonwealth of learning: retrieved february 19, 2018 http://oasis.col.org/bitstream/handle/11599/2489/2016_mukama_baseline-study-odelrwanda.pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y mukama, e., sapsford, r., bahati, b., hughes, m., karamaga, l., lavin, b., et al. (2012). inception report from the taskforce on the rwandan open university. kigali: ministry of education. mukama, e., sapsford, r., bahati, b., hughes, m., karamaga, l., lavin, b., et al. (2013). college of open and distance learning in rwanda: proposed operational approach and costs. kigali: ministry of education. mukamusoni, d. (2006). distance learning program of teachers at kigali institute of education: an expository study, 7(2). retrieved 18.03.2016 from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irro. the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 7(2), retrieved march 18, 2016 http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/301/654. 56 ndayambaje, i. (2016). influence of learner support on internal efficiency of distance training programme for in-service secondary school teachers, rwanda. a dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the degree of doctor of philosophy. nairobi: kenyatta university, school of education, department of educational management, policy and curriculum studies. ndayambaje, i., bimenyimana, t., & ndahayo, v. (2013). a study on the practices and challenges of distance training programme (dtp) under kigali institute of education (kie). rwanda journal of education, 1(2), 69– 76. repubulika y’u rwanda. (2014). gahunda ya guverinoma muri manda ya 2 (2010-2017) ya nyakubahwa paul kagame, perezida wa repubulika y’u rwanda. kigali: prime minister’s office. author: evode mukama, associate professor, college of education, university of rwanda. email: e.mukama@ur.ac.rw (or emukama01@gmail.com) microsoft word aluko.docx issn: 2311-1550 2022, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 420-435 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. enhancing the digital literacy experience of teachers to bolster learning in the 21st century folake ruth aluko and mary ooko university of pretoria abstract: the interconnected constructs of education in the 21st century cannot be divorced from teacher training. this article reports on the digital literacy experience of teachers amidst the worldwide recommendations of using distance learning and open educational applications to address education during the covid-19 pandemic lockdown. altogether, 840 participants were purposively selected from urban, semi-urban, and rural areas in south africa; 217 completed an online qualitative survey, while 23 took part in three virtual focus-group discussions. van dijk’s resources and appropriation theory guided the study. data analysis involved descriptive statistics and thematic analysis. the findings revealed the gaps between what is expected of teachers and their own realities, besides teachers’ eagerness to be involved in digital literacy. recommendations include the need to continually align the teacher education curriculum with the country’s skills need and to provide teachers with the required support. associated directions for further research are suggested. keywords: early years education, 21st-century skills, digital literacy, teacher education curriculum, resources and appropriation theory. introduction the emergence of advanced “information and communication technologies (icts)”, a term also used interchangeably with “technical devices” in this article, has accentuated the difference between the skills needed by learners in the 21st century in terms of professional life, citizenship and selfactualisation from those that were needed in the 20th century (tican & deniz, 2018). in a brooking report, madden and kanos (2020), indicate that few africans are acquiring the competencies they need for 21st-century occupations. therefore, in many countries, government and educational institutions are providing support to modernise the technical equipment of schools and to develop learning materials for teachers at diverse levels of progress (marci-boehncke & vogel, 2018). african schools have their own challenges, and the current covid-19 pandemic has further exposed these. as of march 30, 2020, over 87% of the world’s student population — 1.5 billion children and youth — have been affected by school closures in more than 180 countries (united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization [unesco], 2020). according to the unesco report, recovery will be more difficult for most african countries due to serious economic and technological challenges — an assertion also confirmed by similar studies on the continent (krönke & olan’g, 2020; madden & kanos, 2020; united nations, 2019). due to the seriousness of the covid-19 pandemic in south africa, various lockdowns were imposed on the country with devastating effect on education. the periods saw an introduction of rotational attendance, irregular school closures and days off for specific grades with a loss of a full academic year (unicef, 2021). the report in addition 421 asserts that about 750,000 children, especially those living in informal and rural settings, due to poverty, are out of school. as a result of the pandemic, recommendations worldwide were to use the distance learning mode and open educational applications to address teaching and learning during this period. although these recommendations have highlighted the enormous inequality challenges facing south africa’s education system, they could be the catalyst for action to address them (mcdonald, 2020). digital divides are complex and constantly evolving, and they refer to differences in access to icts (for instance, personal computers and mobile phones) and purposeful use of them (as determined by outcomes) by individuals, or by social or political units (skaletsky et al., 2017). factors that have an impact on who has access to technology, what kind of technology people have access to, and who can use technology include age, educational level, income level and behaviour (umugiraneza et al., 2018). others are policy guidelines, school support, and investment in ict in the schools (mustapha et al., 2020). skaletsky et al. (2017) argue that difficulties with ict access have an impact on the society involved and cause them to suffer unequal benefits and unequal participation, thus leading to social injustice. in the 21st century, icts are invariably linked to education; therefore, teachers are expected to be familiar with the various pedagogical approaches to appropriately use them in promoting the development of their learners’ 21st-century skills (valtonen et al., 2017). however, this is not possible if teachers have been neither adequately prepared nor assisted to take up this role. there is a gap between the curriculum of teacher education, societal needs and the world of work, which is a problem that is not exclusive to south africa (zeichner, 2014). the implication of this is that higher education institutions will continue to churn out graduates whose skills are not relevant to the needs of the society, with no return on investment for the government and the public in general. studies in africa have revealed that the majority of teachers lack essential technological knowledge and need extensive professional development to apply technology in teaching (aluko, 2019). this is also very true in the south african context, where this study was conducted (torres & giddie, 2020). to access appropriate icts and improve digital competence, there is the need for digital literacy, which is widely understood as an inter-related set of skills that are vital for success in the digital age (list, 2019). teachers’ lack of ict knowledge and skills is a key barrier to effective teaching, as teachers need to be conversant with digital media cultures that are vital for learners. they must also be able to use technology pedagogically in ways that are appropriate to the subject(s) being taught (amhag et al., 2019; torres & giddie, 2020). the current study examines to what extent educators were able to cope with teaching and learning during the covid-19 pandemic. the main research question that guided our study was, given the worldwide recommendation of using the distance learning mode and open educational applications to address teaching and learning during the covid-19 pandemic lockdown, how were teachers in our context able to continue with teaching? the emphasis was on the digital literacy experience of teachers enrolled as distance education students in three geographical areas (rural, semi-urban and urban). the resources and appropriation theory adopted for the study assisted the researchers to probe factors beyond physical access that affected educators’ use of technology for teaching (van dijk, 2005, 2017). 422 theoretical background the authors adopted van dijk’s resources and appropriation theory (van dijk, 2005, 2017). the term digital divide, which originated in the mid-1990s (casado-muñoz et al., 2015), has been widely investigated from the lens of individualism, which is only descriptive in nature (wellman & berkowitz, 1988). unfortunately, according to van dijk (2013), this kind of view only “measures the properties and attitudes of individual respondents’ without necessarily giving reasons for the results. therefore, the theorist situated his work in the ‘relational or network’ notion of inequality, which pays attention to the ‘positions of individuals and the relationships between them” (29). according to van dijk (2017), definite inequalities in society produce an “unequal distribution of resources that causes unequal access to digital technologies”(3), and this “brings about unequal participation in society”. based on these core arguments, van dijk identified four successive phases of access that are briefly described below: 1. motivation: to appropriate a technology, one should first be motivated to use it. 2. physical and material access: when sufficient motivation is developed, one should be able to acquire physical access (e.g., to a computer, internet) and material resources (e.g., battery — an example of computer components). however, these will not automatically lead to its use. 3. (mastering of) digital skills: the acquirer needs to develop the needed skills to make appropriate use of the technology. 4. usage: this can be measured by the frequency of usage (van dijk, 2013), however, to transform instruction, this would depend on the purpose for which it is used. the phases are recurrent because they are repeated wholly or partly with new technology or innovation (tusiime et al., 2019). two of the criticisms levelled against the theory are that it might be less applicable in a society that has greater equality in socioeconomic status and resources, and that the full amount of information to operationalise the model is difficult to obtain for large samples (pick & sarkar, 2016). however, both criticisms are not applicable to this study because our context is largely divided regarding access to ict and its usage, and our sample is not large. in addition, we found van dijk’s resources and appropriation theory relevant to our study because it goes beyond the individual notion of inequality to focus on the relational notion of inequality. the latter has assisted us to further examine factors that are beyond individuals regarding access to technology and its usage, especially in relation to the focus of our study — teachers’ inability to meet up to society’s expectation during the pandemic lockdowns. methods research design we adopted the explanatory sequential mixed-methods research design involving the use of a survey and focus-group discussion in order to involve more students and to strengthen the findings (creswell, 2014). in addition to our gaining a deeper understanding of teachers’ digital literacy experience, our choice of design was necessitated by the strenuous technological conditions under 423 which our distance education students were studying, worsened by the pandemic. we had envisaged the latter would have impact on the rate of response to the online survey. population and sample the strategy of non-probability, convenience and purposive sampling was used (etikan et al., 2016). the sampling was convenient and purposeful because the participants were easily accessible to the researchers and were relevant to the study. distance education programmes at the unit of study are for the upgrading of teachers’ qualifications. a full programme is divided into blocks (1-4) made up of a six-month cycle. therefore, the population consisted of 2,970 educators (the total number of enrolled students), while the sample was 840 block 1 students enrolled for the bachelor of education (bed) honours (hons) teacher education and professional development (tepd) distance education programme at a university in south africa. block 1 students refer to newly enrolled students, who we expected to be more familiar with technology usage for teaching and learning than students from the earlier blocks. context the participants were from three geographical areas tagged rural, semi-urban and urban. rural refers to schools in the countryside; semi urban implies schools in somewhat, but not wholly, urban areas, and urban refers to schools in the city (urban dictionary 2020). according to atkinson (2014), the categorisation of the south african society is complex, especially due to its historical past. this has also impacted current educational landscapes regarding who has access to educational resources and technological gadgets (torres & giddie, 2020). therefore, our categorisation was based on physical features (such as access to ict infrastructure and electricity), especially with reference to our study and for analysis purposes. of the 840 sampled block 1 students, 217 (25.83%) participated in the survey. these were comprised of rural (n = 128, 58.99%); urban (n = 45, 20.74%); and semi-urban (n = 44, 20.28%). twenty-three participants took part in the focus group discussion (rural: n = 7; semi-urban: n = 9; urban: n = 7). instruments the survey contained 10 questions made up of closed and open-ended questions (text-entry) that had been developed in qualtrics. these were divided into two sections: biographical information (two question items) and digital experience (eight question items). the latter covered questions on technical devices and access; usage frequency; integration of technology into lessons; benefits (to both teaching and learners); preparation for usage (relevant module at university and in-service training — inset); areas where teachers need support; and recommendation or non-recommendation of the use of technical devices to others for teaching and learning. the guide for the focus-group discussion was developed based on the data we gathered from the survey. our aim was to generate more in-depth knowledge on the sections than we had obtained from the survey. the development of both instruments was informed by the adopted theory and relevant literature. 424 procedure survey each of the 840 sampled block 1 students received a short message service (sms) to prepare them for the data collection. the content is provided in table 1. table 1: sms content sent to sampled participants dear student, distance education research helps us to serve you better. thank you for completing this survey. up. the sms was followed by the survey, to which 217 students responded. focus-group discussion in preparation for the focus-group discussion, the researchers first sent an sms to the 217 respondents. the purpose was to: alert them to the planned focus-group discussion; request their voluntary participation; and to request their geographical area, a contact number and their student registration number. a total of 70 students responded but we purposively invited the first 11 students who submitted all the requested information per geographical area. the virtual discussions were zerorated for the participants and they took place at different time slots on different days. data analysis qualtrics analysed the closed question items (five) in the survey using descriptive statistics. we exported the open-ended data and read all the responses of the participants to each of the open-ended questions in order to group the data. we re-read them and categorised the responses into themes. the analysis of the discussion data involved the transcription of the focus-group discussion recordings, coupled with familiarising ourselves with the data by reading it over several times. this led to the development of codes, from which we generated themes, and we subsequently reviewed and named the themes (creswell, 2014). table 2 depicts the themes and sub-themes generated from the data. the theory adopted for the study assisted us in interpreting the data. 425 table 2: themes and sub-themes that emerged from the data analysis. theme sub-theme technical devices and access access to technical devices and source kinds of technical devices and usage frequency integration of technical devices and benefits technical support reason for non-access or limited access preparation for ict usage preparation during teacher training coping with no training digital experience virtual teaching during lockdown and support virtual teaching during lockdown technical support during lockdown teachers’ willingness to use technical devices willingness areas in which teachers need assistance support advice to stakeholders teachers and management teacher training institutions government ethical issues the unit that manages distance education obtained ethical clearance from the faculty to conduct research with enrolled students as participants. the information is included in the application form and in the students’ administration booklet. the discussions were recorded with the participants’ permission. they were reminded of their right to anonymity and the voluntary withdrawal nature of the discussion. results findings from both sets of data are presented in a corroborative way that supports the findings from both instruments. theme 1: technical devices and access access to technical devices and source the feedback on teachers’ access to technical devices shows that most of the participants were struggling. while few in the urban areas were privileged to be working in private schools, others who did not fall into this category lamented the inadequate devices that were available for teachers and learners. most bemoaned the slow process of change, partly due to rigidity on staff’s part and lack of funds. in most cases, participants from both the rural and semi-urban areas used their own technical devices, such as laptops and mobile phones. most participants indicated their schools were wi-fi connected; however, some — from both rural and urban areas — did not have access to the internet. 426 kinds of technical devices used and usage frequency findings from the survey showed our participants had access to more than one technical device — mostly mobile phones and computers (n = 89, 22.31%). some reported having internet connectivity (n = 49, 12.28%), a projector (n = 40, 10.03%), an interactive whiteboard (n = 30, 7.52%), or an ipad (n = 2, 0.50%). other technologies mentioned by participants included a blackboard, a laptop, a whiteboard and television. only 80 (20.05%) participants indicated they had access to electricity that was needed to power almost all these devices. when the power went off, schools (apart from some private schools) had no other back-up, except to revert to the ‘chalk-and-talk’ method of teaching or the use of a whiteboard. the feedback that was received showed that most of the participants were struggling. about a third (n = 44, 30.56%) indicated that they ‘always’ used technology for teaching; 21 (14.58%) ‘often’; 54 (37.50%) ‘sometimes’; 9 (6.25%) ‘seldom’, and 16 (11.11%) ‘never’ used technology. in summary, this implies that although some participants did not use technical devices for teaching, the majority used such devices regularly. integration of technology and benefits some participants indicated they made extra copies of notes to save time so that there would be enough time for teaching and learning; they used projectors and downloaded videos from youtube for most of their lessons. only a few in the urban areas made videos, sent voice notes to students, and created electronic assignments. this group found the use of technology beneficial because it increased their teaching efficiency, exposed them to different teaching methods, and improved communication between them and their learners. learners also benefited greatly because they could get immediate feedback, collaborate with their peers and work at their own pace. technology was indeed found to cater for diverse learning styles. those participants who did not use technical devices in their teaching lamented learners’ lack of access to resources and their lack of data. technical support participants from the three areas (urban, semi-urban and rural) had some form of technical support, although many complained that it was inadequate. examples of such support are an ict department at school, an ict circuit cluster formed in a rural area, service providers and assistance from a publishing house. reasons for non-access or limited access reasons for non-access or limited access to technical devices cited by participants from both rural and semi-rural areas included limited network coverage, lack of budget and sponsorship, school managers’ resistance, and technophobia. commenting on the side-effects of these challenges, a participant bemoaned, we are not preparing learners for the fourth industrial revolution. they don’t know how to use (technology) in a way that will help them educationally or prepare them for university. this is like they are competing with learners that are at different level with them. i think it’s a barrier for them … (focus group discussion rural 1 — fgdr1). this quote brings to the fore the inequalities in society. 427 table 3 reflects further some examples of participants’ responses to theme 1. examples of participants’ responses to theme 1 table 3: participants’ responses illustrating theme 1 number sub-theme data source response 1.1 access to technical devices and source discussion (urban) “i have a laptop, there is a projector and the learners have their desktop computers.” discussion (semiurban) “i think at my school, we have less than 20 tablets (to) more than 1,900 learners.” 1.3 integration of technology and benefits survey (urban) “it gives me more information on my teaching and makes teaching complex life processes easier.” survey (semi-urban) “i would like to use google forms, kahoot, etc … but the learners have trouble accessing data or the correct devices.” 1.4 technical support discussion (urban) “… we do not have any ict support, so we have to go out of our way to help (one another).” 1.5 reasons for nonaccess/limited access discussion (semiurban) “… no budget; previous laptops were stolen; no sponsors.” theme 2: preparation for ict usage teachers’ preparation the use of technology during preparation period as a student-teacher over half of the respondents (n = 73, 53.28%) indicated they did not receive any ict training, although one participant indicated this might be due to the period when a teacher studied. those who did receive training cited a few ict modules they completed at university, for example, technologyintegrated learning, basic computer literacy, ict for educators, and how to use smart boards and smart apps. coping with no prior training the majority of the 133 respondents (n = 99, 74.44%) indicated that they had not received any inservice training related to ict usage. two of those who had, cited a publishing house and a training arranged by the department (which has been discontinued), while the rest were self-taught. while private schools in many instances were reported to train newly employed staff, some of the participants unfortunately complained about the quality of the training. nonetheless, none of the participants indicated that they had received training on how to use technology to teach in their learning areas. digital experience many of the participants felt their digital experience was average, with only one participant indicating he was comfortable. he did, nevertheless, lament the burden of being almost the only one among many. some of the participants indicated that many teachers can neither use technical devices for their own gain nor for teaching; while one suggested that some teachers cannot even “type a simple document” (fgds3 — semi-urban 3). 428 table 4 reflects participants’ responses illustrating theme 2. table 4: participants’ responses illustrating theme 2 number sub-theme data source response 2.1 teachers’ preparation for the use of technology during training period discussion (rural) “i did classes at varsity and we used to submit many assignments online.” discussion (urban) “unfortunately, on my side … i did not receive any training.” 2.2 coping with no prior training discussion (semi-rural) “… many teachers don’t have laptops; you are only told of training in the morning and you may not have your laptop on you. only the facilitators have the technology … they give us manual.” 2.3 digital experience discussion (semi-urban) “people are not able to submit something because they don’t have access to a laptop. it’s very difficult to print because there is only one computer at the office.” theme 3: virtual teaching virtual teaching during lockdown according to most participants, no virtual teaching took place during the lockdown. although prior to this period, few were using whatsapp to communicate with learners’ parents (especially those from private schools), they and those who tried the app for the first time were all unsuccessful in respect of online teaching. the reasons included very few learners participating, lack of parents’ interest, lack of money for data and smart phones, lack of network coverage, and because most parents were uneducated. only two participants from private schools in the urban area indicated that they had used zoom, google meet and google classroom to teach. technical support during lockdown almost none of the participants received technical support during the lockdown, except for one. in that particular case, the principal was experienced and was on all the school’s whatsapp groups. table 5 illustrates examples of participants’ responses to theme 3. table 5: participants’ responses illustrating theme 3 number sub-theme data source response 3.1 virtual teaching during lockdown discussion (semi-rural) “in my own school, nothing has been happening – it is the old way of teaching and learning.” 3.2 technical support during lockdown discussion (urban) “we need ict support because i am the only one with ict knowledge and it becomes a burden to assist everyone, including learners.” theme 4: teachers’ willingness to use technical devices during the focus-group discussions, all the participants from the three geographical areas indicated their willingness to use technical devices, and in the survey the majority of the 131 respondents (n = 127, 96.95%) also answered in the affirmative. the various reasons they cited for this can be summed up as ‘the value the devices bring to teaching and learning’. they approved of the non-interruption of 429 classes and felt that teachers cannot afford to be left behind in the 21st century, despite the difficulties it presents to them. two participants indicated that there was not much resistance from teachers regarding the use of technical devices but cited “overcrowded classes and lack of resources” (fgdr1), as well as “teachers’ older age” (fgdr3) as reasons why the minority (n = 4, 3.05%) might be unwilling to embrace technology. areas in which teachers need assistance participants indicated they would need support in the following areas: how to use a computer; technology to improve pedagogical skills in different subjects; available technologies/apps for teaching; being able to conduct online tests for leaners; collaboration; and platforms where they would be able to do online teaching with learners having access to internet. other areas of desired support included how to conduct research, since not all information in technology may be relevant; reading online books, and online security. advice to stakeholders by participants advice to teachers some participants recommend that teachers embrace technology and familiarise themselves so as not to become frustrated. technology use has great value and it is relevant to the learners. nonetheless, school management also needs to support teachers because management sometimes does not budget for technology. advice to teacher training institutions a participant captured this recommendation well in the following comment: “embed technologies into the training on the subjects, teachers will be teaching at schools” (fgdr1). advice to the government teachers need support from government to enable them to familiarise themselves with technical devices, especially in view of the requirements of the fourth industrial revolution (4ir). the government should furthermore pair with institutions by offering yearly programmes to train newly appointed teachers in technology use. they should also provide training to those who have been in service for a longer time and do not know how to use computer technology, to make sure everyone is on par. regarding connectivity, the government should enter into an agreement with providers (for instance, mobile telephone network [mtn]) to make sure schools are connected to the internet, because data is expensive. the department should also consider having a zero-rated website. schools need infrastructure, especially during a crisis like the current covid-19 pandemic, and therefore also adequate security to protect technical devices, because they are often stolen. 430 table 6 reflects examples of participants’ responses to theme 6. table 6: participants’ responses illustrating theme 6 number sub-theme data source response 6.1 teachers discussion (urban) “it is advisable teachers attend courses.” 6.2 teacher training institutions discussion (rural) “… teachers need subject-specific technology training.” 6.3 government discussion (semi-urban) “government should provide us with devices like in the private schools … find sponsors to donate laptops and tablet for learners.” discussion according to van dijk (2013), the roots of motivational access are mostly mental and psychological in nature — rather than social or cultural. in our study, all the participants indicated their interest in using technical devices for teaching. this is despite the diverse challenges faced, especially by those from rural and semi-urban areas. their eagerness and motivation could be related to the practical value and benefits of computer usage and internet access as identified by the participants. nonetheless, there appeared to be some pockets of resistance among teachers, as indicated by the participants who are described as “have nots” and “want nots” by van dijk (2013, 35). motivation underlies a person’s behaviour and there is empirical evidence that this is linked to performance (lai, 2011). our findings have shown that the reasons for non-motivation of teachers are not insurmountable; seemingly, teachers can be motivated to use technical devices, provided that the right conditions are created. studies such as the one done by van dijk (2013) show that there is sparse research on people’s motivation to have access to technology. our study confirms other research findings, namely, that lack of access or limited access to physical and material resources is a huge challenge to the use of technical devices by teachers (tusiime et al., 2019). apart from a small number of participants from private schools, most participants in our study indicated that their schools lack the necessary technical devices and associated technical support. our findings are in consonance with those of soomro et al. (2020), who found in a recent study that public institutions often have poorer physical access to ict devices and services, and that schools that are behind are slower to adopt digital technologies for teaching and learning. access to computers and the internet is important, because those without access not only lag behind but are also in danger of being excluded, which is considered the “legitimate final effect of unequal access” (van dijk, 2013, 46). our study also found that most of the participants use their personal laptops and smartphones for teaching. although this lack of physical access is related to “a distribution of resources” as indicated by van dijk (2005, 2013, 38), our findings are not connected to ‘income inequalities’. rather, the lack has more to do with non-provision by the government and other stakeholders. casado-muñoz et al. (2015) posit that the inaccessibility of icts has resulted in significant inequities in respect of who can access, use and benefit from them. 431 although research shows that educational background and age are the most significant factors that indicate technological skills, our findings are more consistent with those of tusiime et al. (2019), which show a mismatch between formal education and digital skills access — in stark dissonance with van dijk’s assertion. due to other prevalent factors as discussed earlier, the level of education of the teachers in our study could not necessarily be equated to the required experience in using technical devices. participants in our study were ‘hungry’ for training, confirming similar studies from our context (ogegbo & aina, 2020; torres & giddie, 2020). although an average number of participants in our study had received training in ict during their study years, such training was very formal and did not prepare them for using technology to develop their pedagogical skills. this corresponds with what tusiime et al. (2019) found, namely that teachers’ ict training gained through formal approaches is generally broad and not specific to the teaching areas of teachers. teachers, therefore, need adequate training on the effective integration of technology into their classroom teaching — two major areas that still need further research (becking & grady, 2019). although, as found in our study, teachers could learn through self-teaching and from peers, van dijk (2005,) stresses the need to find a balance between these approaches. scholars such as tusiime et al. (2019) argue that the best way to develop teachers’ digital competence is by assisting them to understand the relationships between technology, pedagogy and content, and to apply such knowledge in a productive way. based on our findings, we concur and emphasise that training is needed in subject-specific areas. our findings also highlight the need for collaboration among teachers in areas where technical devices are sparse (andema et al., 2013). participants in our study, especially from semi-urban and rural areas, cited clusters being formed by teachers to boost the use of technical devices for teaching and learning. usage is the by-product of the whole process of appropriation (van dijk, 2013) because “effective and satisfactory use of digital media cannot occur without sufficient motivation, access and skills” (van dijk & van deursen, 2014, 44). all the participants in our study were interested in using technical devices but the truth is that teachers cannot develop the necessary skills if they do not regularly use them (benali et al., 2018). if teachers are well motivated to use technical devices, and if they have both physical and material access that could aid the development of their digital skills, then usage will follow naturally (ooko, 2016; van dijk & van deursen, 2014; valtonen et al., 2017). conclusions our subjective interpretation of the collected data — as the researchers involved — could be regarded as a limitation to the study. another limitation was the missed voices of other stakeholders (such as ict firms or providers and policy makers). this study was conducted in the middle of pandemic lockdowns, which made us focus more on teachers that we could immediately sample. as part of its ongoing research plans, the unit of study is busy with research involving other stakeholders on the same phenomenon. recommendations include the following: • policy makers should develop a set of standards for teacher educators’ competencies that can be aspired to, if not already in place. this is because our findings buttress the fact that struggling trainers cannot adequately assist trainees. 432 • there is the need for government to re-visit the quality of the training they provide to teachers in order to make them more relevant. • the government and teacher training institutions need to close the gap between curriculum and societal needs, especially in relation to embedding technology in subject-specific areas. • tertiary institutions should provide in-service training for teacher educators and they need to strike a balance between their three core services: teaching, research and community service. • teachers need to develop their own 21st-century skills before they can prepare their learners. • teachers need to know not only the theory about pedagogical skills and tools that are available; they also need the technical expertise, especially in their subject-specific areas. • tertiary institutions, in collaboration with government, should provide more in-service training opportunities, and such training should be more effective. • teachers and learners not only need more technical devices; they also need on-the-ground technical support at schools. • policy support programmes should be implemented to assist government in fulfilling its promises. in conclusion, our research supports van dijk’s theory that studies on the digital divide need to move beyond the individualistic, descriptive level to an interpersonal notion of inequality that pays attention to the positions of individuals in society and the relationships that exist between them. this is because our findings helped us to juxtapose the challenges involving teachers’ physical access to the technical devices needed for teaching with the reasons behind these challenges. therefore, much research is needed on the relational notion of inequality. in addition, studies with larger sample sizes across different institutions could make findings more generalisable. in addition, because van dijk’s theory (that was adopted for this study) is an emerging one, a larger number of in-depth studies into each of his four forms of access will be needed, especially in developing contexts. our data collection process (especially the discussions) was a highly emotional process for us, and it is well summarised in this response from one of the participants: the government is talking about the 4ir but teachers need workshops about how to teach different subjects using different technologies. we are still in the traditional way of writing on the board and submitting; students go to varsity and they need to submit assignments online. i suffered the same fate and i paid dearly for it. disclosure statement: no potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors. references aluko, f. r. (2019). multilingualism as a resource for teaching and learning: maximizing prevalent affordances to overcome persistent challenges. in f. m. omidire (ed.), multilingualism in challenging education settings: supporting learning and development (pp. 36-47). cengage. amhag, l., hellström, l., & stigmar, m. (2019). teacher educators’ use of digital tools and needs for digital competence in higher education. journal of digital learning in teacher education, 35(4), 203-220. https://doi.org./10.1080/21532974.2019.1646169 433 andema, s., kendrick, m., & norton, b. (2013). digital literacy in ugandan teacher education: insights from a case study. reading & writing, 4(1), article 27. https://doi.org/10.4102/rw.v4i1.27 atkinson, d., 2014. rural-urban linkages: south africa case study. working paper series no. 125. working group: development with territorial cohesion. territorial cohesion for development program. rimisp, santiago, chile. https://www.rimisp.org/wpcontent/files_mf/1422297966r_ulinkages_southafrica_countrycasestudy_final_edited.pdf becking, s. k., & grady, m. (2019). implications of the digital divide for technology integration in schools: a white paper. contemporary issues in educational leadership, 1, article 5. https://doi.org/10.32873/unl.dc.ciel.1011 benali, m., kaddouri, m., & azzimani, t. (2018). digital competence of moroccan teachers of english. international journal of education and development using information and communication technology, 14(2), 99120. https://www.learntechlib.org/p/184691/ borthwick, a. c., & hansen, r. (2017). digital literacy in teacher education: are teacher educators competent? journal of digital learning in teacher education, 33(2), 46-48. https://doi.org/10.1080/21532974.2017.1291249 casado-muñoz, r., lezcano, f., & rodríguez-conde, m.-j. (2015). envejecimiento activo y acceso a las tecnologías: un studio empírico evolutivo [active ageing and access to technology: an evolving empirical study]. comunicar, 23(45), 37-46. https://doi.org./10.3916/c45-2015-04 creswell, j. w. (2014). research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (4th ed.). sage. etikan, i., musa, s. a., & alkassim, r. s. (2016). comparison of convenience sampling and purposive sampling. american journal of theoretical and applied statistics, 5(1), 1-4. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajtas.20160501.11 krönke, m., & olan’g, l. (2020). democratic dividend: the road to quality education in africa. afrobarometer, policy paper no. 63. https://policycommons.net/artifacts/1450624/democratic-dividend/2082423/ krumsvik, r. j. (2014). teacher educators’ digital competence. scandinavian journal of educational research, 58(3), 269-280. https://doi.org/10.1080/00313831.2012.726273 lai, e. r. (2011). motivation: a literature review research report. http://www.pearsonassessments.com/research list, a. (2019). defining digital literacy development: an examination of preservice teachers’ beliefs. computers & education, 138, 146-158 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2019.03.009 madden, p. & kanos, d. (2020). figures of the week: digital skills and the future of work in africa. brookings, wednesday, july 22, 2020. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/africa-in-focus/2020/07/22/figures-of-the-weekdigital-skills-and-the-future-of-work-in-africa/ marci-boehncke, g., & vogel, t. (2018). digital literacy and inclusion: the impact of theory and practice in teachers’ education. in l. gómez chova, a. lópez martínez, & i. candel torres (eds.), inted 2018 conference proceedings (pp. 6872-6879). iated academy. https://doi.org/10.21125/inted.2018.1618 mcdonald, z. (2020, may 21). covid-19 exposes the underbelly of south africa’s education system. the conversation. https://theconversation.com mustapha, a., mohammed, a., egigogo, a. r., kutiriko, a. a. , & dokoro, a. h. (2020). factors affecting the utilization and adoption of technology in education. in (ed.), the role of technology in education. intechopen. https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.85712 ogegbo, a.a., & aina, a. (2020). early childhood development teachers’ perceptions on the use of technology in teaching young children. south african journal of childhood education, 10(1), a880. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajce.v10i1.880 pick, j., & sarkar, a. (2016). theories of the digital divide: critical comparison. in t. x. bui & r. h. sprague, jr. proceedings of the 49th annual hawaii international conference on system sciences (hicss) (pp. 3888-3897). https://doi.org/10.1109/hicss.2016.484 434 skaletsky, m, pick, j. b., sarkar, a., & yates, d. j. (2017). digital divides: past, present, and future. in r. d. galliers & m. k. stein (eds.), the routledge companion to management information systems (pp. 416-443). routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315619361-31 soomro, k. a., kale, u., curtis, r., akcaoglu, m., & bernstein, m. (2020). digital divide among higher education faculty. international journal of educational technology in higher education, 17, article 21. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-020-0019 tican, c., & deniz, s. (2018). pre-service teachers’ opinions about the use of 21st century learner and 21st century teacher skills. european journal of educational research, 8(1), 181-197. https://doi.org/10.12973/eu-jer.8.1.181 torres, k. m., & giddie, l. (2020) educator perceptions and use of technology in south african schools. peabody journal of education, 95(2), 117-126. https://doi.org/10.1080/0161956x.2020.1745611. tusiime, w. e., johannesen, m., & gudmundsdottir, g. (2019). developing teachers’ digital competence: approaches for art and design teacher educators in uganda. international journal of education and development using information and communication technology, 15(1), 133-149. https://www.learntechlib.org/p/209738/ umugiraneza, o., bansilal, s., & north, d. (2018). exploring teachers’ use of technology in teaching and learning mathematics in kwazulu-natal schools. pythagoras, 39(1), article 342. https://doi.org/10.4102/pythagoras.v39i1.342 unicef. (2021). learners in south africa up to one school year behind where they should be. https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/learners-south-africa-one-school-year-behind-where-they-shouldbe#:~:text=rotational%20attendance%2c%20sporadic%20school%20closures,over%20the%20past%2016%2d months. united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization. (2020). education: from school closure to recovery. https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse valtonen, t., sointu, e. t., kukkonen, j., häkkinen, p., järvelä, s., ahonen, a., näykki, p., pöysä-tarhonen, j., & mäkitalo-siegl, k. (2017). insights into finnish first-year pre-service teachers’ perceptions of their 21st century skills. education and information technologies, 22(5), 2055-2069. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-0169529-2 van dijk, j. a. g. m. (2005). the deepening divide: inequality in the information society. sage. van dijk, j. a. g. m. (2013). a theory of the digital divide. in m. ragnedda & g. w. muschert (eds.), the digital divide: the internet and social inequality in international perspective (pp. 29-51). routledge. van dijk, j. a. g. m. (2017). digital divide: impact of access. in p. rössler, c. a. hoffner, & l. zoonen (eds.), the international encyclopaedia of media effects (pp. 1–11). https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118783764.wbieme0043 van dijk, j. a. g. m., & van deursen, a. j. a. m. (2014). digital skills: unlocking the information society. palgrave macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137437037_3 wellman, b., & berkowitz, s. d. (eds.). (1988). social structures: a network approach. cambridge university press. zeichner, k. (2014). the struggle for the soul of teaching and teacher education in the usa. journal of education for teaching, 40(5), 551-568. https://doi.org/10.1080/02607476.2014.956544 authors: dr f. r. aluko is the researcher within the unit for distance education at the university of pretoria. she manages the quality of the institution’s open distance learning programs. ruth facilitates training and workshops, and is involved in the evaluation of odl programs. ruth is a co-editor of the books assuring institutional quality in open distance learning (odl) in the developing contexts and exploring dual and mixed mode provision of distance education. she currently serves on the editorial board of africa education review, 435 and she is the second-term president of the national association of distance education in southern africa (nadeosa). her research focus areas include quality management of odl programmes, mobile learning, access, social justice, program evaluation, student support, and teacher professional development. ruth is a national research foundation (nrf) rated researcher, a peer review system that assesses the standing of south african researchers. email: ruth.aluko@up.ac.za dr m. ooko holds a doctoral degree in didactics of e learning and distance education from the university of south africa, and a master of science in educational leadership and administration, from the university of nicosia, cyprus. she holds a bachelor of arts degree in speech and hearing education from the state university of new york and has experience spanning thirty years in the teaching/teacher training field, and elearning implementation. dr. ooko was the founding chair of the education department and the founding director of the institute of open and distance learning at africa nazarene university. she was the director of kabarak university online and served at the united states international university as the director of usiu africa online. dr. ooko is the manager of the unit for distance education at the faculty of education, university of pretoria. email: mary.ooko@up.ac.za cite this paper as: aluko, f. r., & ooko, m. (2022). enhancing the digital literacy experience of teachers to bolster learning in the 21st century. journal of learning for development, 9(3), 420-435. microsoft word tabuena.docx issn: 2311-1550 2022, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 475-491 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. online learning as an alternative learning modality in ecuador’s education institutions amidst crises and outbreaks: a swot analysis ángel geovanny rochina chisag1 and almighty cortezo tabuena2 1buenos aires institute of technology, argentina 2philippine normal university, manila, philippines abstract: the primary objective of this paper is to analyse the weaknesses, threats, strengths, and opportunities (swot matrix analysis) of online teaching and learning in educational institutions (primary, secondary, and higher education) in ecuador during the covid-19 pandemic. a qualitative study of the descriptive documentary type was conducted, where the information obtained from virtual education in times of crisis and outbreaks was collected and analysed. it was found that educational centers at different levels of schooling still continued to use traditional teaching methods and processes subject to old procedures as a basis for their incursion into virtuality, although other establishments began to handle combined modalities such as blended and hybrid online (e-learning) modes of learning. in conclusion, the deadly coronavirus disease (sars-cov-2) abruptly halted much human activity worldwide. this forced hesitant educational systems that still used traditional face-to-face teaching methods in classrooms to move and change to online learning in many regions, regardless of the socioeconomic level and demographics of the students. aside from determining how to deal with the problems and challenges of virtual education during epidemics and natural disasters, it is clear that the number of technology-driven educational start-ups has increased significantly. keywords: covid-19 pandemic, educational technology, e-learning, teaching method, virtual education. introduction the sars-cov-2 outbreak is one of the reasons why the global economy was temporarily stagnant, affecting all sectors of manufacturing, industry, tourism, education and others. with the outbreak of the pandemic, companies, organisations, and academic establishments, both public and private, in most countries on different continents around the world were forced to close permanently and/or temporarily. schools, colleges, and universities in urban and rural areas were affected by the lack of classroom teaching and learning activities that were maintained within the classrooms, so there was a fear of losing the school year or semester in which they were studying, and it remains a question mark for the future. the impact of the coronavirus on education affected more than 87% of the world's student population; 1,520 million students and 60.2 million teachers were no longer in the classroom (united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization [unesco], 2020). during epidemics, masks, hand washing, and social distancing between people were transcendental, but this limited learning opportunities. despite the covid-19 health crisis, government officials and training centers advised educational institutions to continue academic activities (rezapour-nasrabad, 2020). to protect teachers, students, communities, and society, a scenario plan had to be developed 476 and implemented (rieley, 2018). this long-term stability necessitated environmental adaptability. because of the rise in coronavirus disease, online training was regarded as a panacea (dhawan, 2020). it can be scheduled to accommodate the students' schedules. it is accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week, from any location. traditional education requires more investment to reach the most remote and rural areas, whereas online education does not. by combining technology and classroom instruction, blended learning can help students improve their knowledge and skills. currently, the world is globalised, and online education would greatly help students to have greater access. many don’t and have to leave education due to the long distances that they walk for hours to reach their educational center. without virtual learning, in times of a pandemic, all students would be delayed by at least one school year. it is recommended to continue implementing online teaching from the first levels, such as primary and secondary, and prepare the entire educational community for future crises such as pandemics, war, hurricanes, earthquakes, and other disasters. e-learning and online learning technological advancements have facilitated the emergence of e-learning, or web-based training, which has numerous advantages over traditional, face-to-face sessions and certain critical variables (cabero, 2006). the online (e-learning) modality has the advantage of facilitating students' distance education through the use of virtual platforms with freedom of time, place, pace, and any medium or device connected to cyberspace (cojocariu et al., 2014; mcbrien et al., 2009). online learning can be defined in a variety of ways. it can be defined as learning experiences in synchronous or asynchronous environments using a variety of computing devices (e.g., cell phones, laptops) with an internet connection. students can be anywhere (independent) in these spaces to learn and engage with instructors and other students (singh & thurman, 2019). the synchronous environment's structure enables learners to participate in live remote lectures, real-time collaboration among classroom participants, instant feedback, and increased social engagement; in contrast, live remote lectures and immediate feedback are not possible in the asynchronous mode (scheiderer, 2021). e-learning makes use of specific virtual platforms that include basic and essential features for interactivity, flexibility, scalability, and standardisation. it also offers functionalities such as integration, gamification, automated assessment, multi-channeling, cloud content, tracking and reporting, and the virtual classroom (barquero, 2020), as well as a graphic interface design that is adaptable for laptop, tablet, and mobile devices. this educational software also includes tools for audio and video recording. the need to migrate to the online modality the severe global pandemic caused inhabitants to enter a stage of quarantine never seen before, turning towns, regions, or metropolises into non-mobile cities (global voices, 2020), and its effects could also be felt in schools, colleges, and universities. due to this, online learning is gaining strength and is considered a remedy, necessity, or unique solution to the crisis that made academic centers migrate from offline to online mode in a short period. many institutions that were resistant to change were forced to make the transition and accept the new technologies for education (oyedotun, 2020). disasters like this one show the other side of online teaching, which appears to be those big technology companies making money by making people learn online. 477 understanding the urgency of the current situation, educational institutions must seek the most appropriate alternatives and innovative solutions to help resolve the critical circumstances (liguori & winkler, 2020). because there are a large number of students from all parts or regions of the world in the online modality, and they interact at any time, these corresponding alternatives will function at the same time using technological tools that completely digitise the processes (alvarez, jr., 2020). from one moment to another, normal classrooms disappeared and became digital classrooms. teachers also changed their pedagogical approaches to cope with the chaos and adapt to the new scenario. at this stage, the quality of education was crucial. with migration, there was a huge challenge to maintain the recruitment of students, sustain the labor market, and move local economies (watermeyer et al., 2021). not everyone has the same conditions and capabilities to transform curricula into virtual resources overnight. and there is still concern about how schools will be able to accommodate e-learning due to the abrupt mass transfer of students due to the coronavirus (carey, 2020). their reputation for preserving the quality of education is at stake. associated problems and possible solutions many educational technologies are available online, some of which are free and others which are not. they are not immune to human error, natural disasters, or system or software errors such as viruses. they are also susceptible to computer flaws and threats that endanger institutional or commercial data (ambit bst, 2020). students do not manage their time well, despite the fact that online teaching is flexible in terms of time and place. students will not be able to fully develop unless they apply what they have learned in theory. in some courses, students are not permitted to practice. technical issues, a lack of community support, time constraints, and difficulty understanding course objectives all impede online training (song et al., 2004). another study discovered that students were unprepared for e-learning because of family, work, and social responsibilities. students also had difficulty adjusting to new technologies (parkes et al., 2015). the responses of the teachers revealed a lack of training in learning management systems. with e-learning, there is always a solution. to avoid technical difficulties in virtual classrooms, lessons can be pre-recorded on video, content checked, and other reliable alternatives prepared. teachers must set time limits, schedule activities, and provide individual attention to students in order to create dynamic, engaging, and interesting courses for them. audio, video tutorials, video calls, and social media group forums can help when text communication is difficult. students can practice and perfect their skills with the best online programs, while teachers can create web-based courses that encourage active and critical reflection, constructive feedback, inquiry-based learning, and early learning effectiveness (keeton, 2004), and support each student's challenges and adaptations (partlow & gibbs, 2003). it is also critical to create courses that assist disabled students in succeeding online (thompson & copeland, 2020). objectives the primary objective of this study was to examine the emergence of educational technology start-ups (edtech start-ups) for online learning by conducting a swot analysis of e-learning during natural disasters and crises such as the covid-19 pandemic. additionally, this study intended to provide some valuable feedback and directions regarding how to improve the web-based or online (elearning) teaching-learning mode during challenging and difficult economic times. 478 methods research design the study employed a descriptive-documentary technique combined with a qualitative research method to gain an understanding of the social condition through the use of theoretical bodies acknowledged by the scientific community (bravo et al., 2022; torres, 2010). the purpose of this paper was to investigate the reality of online learning during times of crisis and pandemics, such as the case of the coronavirus in ecuador. it also intended to identify the problems associated with virtual education and to offer possible solutions, suggestions, and recommendations based on previous research on the subject to be successful in the confinement teaching mode. procedure data were gathered using a descriptive-documentary technique and a swot analysis to investigate the reality of online learning during times of crisis and pandemics in order to identify the problems associated with virtual education and offer possible interventions as shown in table 1. according to grewal et al. (2018), to address topics relevant to review papers, research should have been conducted over the past two years, focusing on increasing the prevalence of review papers. thus, articles were selected from 2019 up to 2021 to be reliable and valid. only one (1) secondary source dated from 2018 was used as a supplementary material. table 1: reliability and validity of secondary sources used in the swot analysis swot analysis part author/s and year title type of secondary source remarks strengths forero et al., 2019 organisation of a course in virtual classrooms: strengths and weaknesses for learning. research article reliable and valid agbele and oyelade, 2020 impact of covid-19 on the nigerian educational system: strengths and challenges of online/virtual education. research article reliable and valid atienza and tabuena, 2021 the impact of covid-19 pandemic on managerial accounting and its adjustments in financial markets. research article reliable and valid weaknesses favale et al., 2020 campus traffic and e-learning during covid-19 pandemic. research article reliable and valid aretio, 2021 covid-19 and digital distance education: pre-confinement, confinement and post-confinement. research article reliable and valid constante, 2020 ecuador: online education from home is impossible and unfair. website reliable and valid opportunities adedoyin and soykan, 2020 covid-19 pandemic and online learning: the challenges and opportunities. research article reliable and valid jordan et al., 2021 education during the covid-19: crisis opportunities and constraints of using edtech in low-income countries. research article reliable and valid 479 threats vivancosaraguro, 2020 tele-education in times of covid-19: inequality gaps. research article reliable and valid hillier, 2018 bridging the digital divide with off-line e-learning. research article supplementary material affouneh et al., 2020 designing quality e-learning environments for emergency remote teaching in coronavirus crisis. research article reliable and valid hamid et al., 2020 online learning and its problems in the covid-19 emergency period. research article reliable and valid data analysis the swot analysis (huerta, 2020) helped to understand the various opportunities, threats, strengths, and weaknesses linked with education at different stages of schooling during this important scenario. on the other hand, the research tool utilised analysed the data acquired from multiple sources for the study (tabuena, hilario, & buenaflor, 2021), using content analysis and a descriptive research approach that took qualitative factors into account (tabuena & hilario, 2021; tabuena, morales & perez, 2021). the research was based on secondary sources, including websites and research articles as shown in table 1. the purpose of the swot analysis was to help researchers and facilitators in terms of the resources to be employed in online learning, particularly in light of the covid-19 pandemic. the swot analysis will assist in building on highlighted strengths, mitigating weaknesses, seizing accessible opportunities, and countering threats regarding online learning as an alternative mode of instruction in ecuadorian educational institutions during times of crisis and outbreaks. findings emerging institutions focused on educational technology over the years, one can observe how teaching methods have evolved from when teachers started using a blackboard to write in the classroom centuries ago, through the inventions of the abacus for mathematics, typewriters, the first printing presses, film clips, the appearance of computers, and the internet, which have served as working tools that help the teacher educate students. in the emergence of computers and the internet, which have served as working tools that help teachers educate students, in the 1970s, for the first time, online education was implemented at the university of illinois and finally led to the management of educational technology (edtech) and digital transformations in education in the 21st century. in ecuador, various institutions in primary, secondary, and higher education have adopted the use of technological tools since 1999 with e-learning programs (elearning), in 2009 with social networks, in 2012 with moocs (massive online courses — and free), and in 2018 with va/ar (virtual and augmented reality) to bring the teaching and learning process online for students, which have been lifesavers during the covid-19 health emergency (delgado, 2019). in 2016, ecuador became a leader in the edtech industry in latin america, where ecuadorian startups in edtech entered the education sector with virtual or digital learning initiatives; the most prominent start-ups were idukay, with 250,000 users, cuestionarix, alau, newton virtual, educadots, and ypdecuador (miramontes, 2019), which are taking advantage of the opportunity amid the crisis 480 by promoting their use through free online digital educational content for teachers and students at all levels of schooling. thus, they will continue to emerge and compete with large edtech start-ups that are leaders in the latin america sector, such as colegium, digital house, babysparks, crehana, bedu, platzi, and others (guijosa, 2018), as well as worldwide competitors, like aba english, coursera, byju's, sense, odilo, xseed, and others (chaves, 2020). in the wake of the pandemic, latin america became the fourth largest edtech market (americaeconomia, 2021) and start-ups in the sector are experiencing unprecedented growth, generating revenues of more than $250 billion for these companies at an annual growth rate of approximately 14% (edutechnia, 2021). in addition, the sector is promoting educational technology focused on blockchain, artificial intelligence (ai), and virtual and augmented reality, which will be of great help in the future for students across the country. according to unesco (2020), in its new international report on the future of education, covid-19 has resulted in some ideas for public action, such as: make free and open-source technologies available to teachers and students and provide support for open educational resources and freely available digital tools. education also cannot depend on digital platforms controlled by private start-ups. as well, the implementation and use of educational technology — even though in each region it is still a huge challenge for all students to have an internet connection, especially in rural areas of ecuador — there is a new challenge after the coronavirus and a responsibility to reflect and match the vulnerabilities that exist. the challenge is for educators to perfect the skills for the correct handling of edtech with students, and to avoid distractions and increase their commitment to using them for an effective learning environment (de souza et al., 2021). however, we must keep in mind that educational technology cannot replace the teacher, but it does serve to provide feedback and improve teaching. in times of crisis suffered by ecuador and the world due to the epidemic, edtech proved to be of great help to the educational community (donahoe et al., 2019) in democratising access to education. these platforms contain a variety of educational content tailored to the needs of customers for continuing education, and users can log in with a smartphone, laptop, or tablet from anywhere and at any time; only an internet connection is required. swot matrix analysis of e-learning in times of crisis and outbreaks in ecuador, natural disasters, such as earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, volcanic eruptions, and tsunamis (bordón, 2008; sánchez et al., 2017) have paralysed the usual activities of the inhabitants of the region (barriga lópez, 2015). in addition to hindering the educational processes of educational institutions at different levels of schooling, the suspension of classes, or in some extreme cases, the permanent closure of schools and colleges and the imparting of knowledge from the teacher to the student has become a difficult task. natural phenomena can have serious consequences, such as disease, human mortality, and damage to infrastructure, in addition to causing panic and stress to people due to family separation and interruption of daily life (comissão econômica para a américa latina [cepal], 2017) and depriving them of their fundamental right to access to education. according to reports from the united nations children's fund [unicef] (2018), more than 104 million children and young people do not attend school and one in three do not go to school in countries affected by war or natural disasters. in education, the biggest problems that keep people from getting the help they need are things like crises 481 and conflicts inside or outside of the country and these affect teachers and students the most. the latter have psychological problems (like fear, anxiety, insomnia, and depression) that can even lead to suicide, which means that people will need help from health professionals in the future (arias & garcia, 2019). on the other hand, global warming, caused by environmental pollution, indiscriminate logging of forests, and irrational exploitation of natural resources such as minerals, causes increased temperatures and leads to climate change, which, increasingly, causes material damage and loss of life. table 2 shows the natural disasters that have occurred in ecuador and caused enormous obstacles in the educational field. during such crises, a large number of educational institutions had buildings destroyed and thousands of students were affected (montero, 2018). table 2: chronology of natural disasters in ecuador year natural disaster 1773 tungurahua volcano eruption 1797 riobamba earthquake 1868 ibarra earthquake 1877-1878 eruption of cotopaxi volcano 1906 esmeraldas earthquake and tsunami 1916-1925 tungurahua volcano eruption 1949 pelileo earthquake 1968 drought loja 1982-1983 the child phenomenon 1987 reventador earthquake 1993 la josefina dam 1996 pujilí earthquake 1997-1998 the child phenomenon 1998 bahía de caráquez earthquake 1999 tungurahua volcano 2002 reventador eruption 2008 floods coastal region 2016 manabí earthquake faced with catastrophes and crises, educational institutions must look for new ways to continue with the teaching-learning process of students in order not to lose the school period. as an alternative to the use of edtech (cueva gaibor, 2020), conventional models and strategies, such as preparatory materials, learning tools, and other equipment, have helped to establish new models and strategies like hybrid and flexible learning modality for virtual learning, and to break the paradigms of the traditional methodologies established in the classroom. some decades ago, this was not possible, and over the years, the techniques of the e-learning world have improved to provide benefits and competitive advantages in the training of citizens of the 21st century with educational quality. with the emergence of the pandemic in the world, e-learning has been consolidated as a new educational modality in the different training centers (pinzón, 2020), such as schools, colleges, and universities. however, many of these centres had to improvise because they were early adopters of digital technologies (abreu, 2020), and had the task of promoting innovation and transformation towards 482 online education, with training processes through virtual classrooms with a-synchronous access to students from anywhere and at any time. for this purpose, the educational community, mainly teachers, has opted to use platforms such as cloud meeting, adobe connect, google hangouts, webex, and others (ojuawo, 2020; oloyede et al., 2021). due to the circumstances of the pandemic, zoom meeting and microsoft teams were more commonly used for remote classes. these technological tools help to keep members interconnected (face-to-face) and enable interaction with all members at the same time through video conferences. thus, the following is the analysis and interpretation of the swot matrix (fig. 1) of the weaknesses, threats, strengths, and opportunities of network-based training during such difficult situations affecting the educational environment. figure 1: swot matrix on online learning amidst crises and outbreaks weaknesses online teaching and learning have certain difficulties in maintaining communication between teacher and student because direct and physical contact between people is lost. the technical problems of connectivity, technological equipment, and internet access for users can hinder e-learning processes (favale et al., 2020). despite the advantages offered by virtual education due to the flexibility of time 483 and geographical location, these aspects are also fragile. in addition, the involuntary performance of students in the management of their time can cause inconveniences. their skills and their level of confidence are different and vary with each learner (we are not all the same). many people do not like to be educated virtually from behind a screen. therefore, they decide not to continue or end up rejecting this modality of study, at the same time feeling uncomfortable and experiencing increasing confusion and frustration. the inappropriate relationship between the design of the technology and the appropriate psychology component required for the learning process can unbalance, obstruct, and create an imbalance in education. online pedagogy has faced a huge challenge in pre-confinement, confinement, and post-confinement with certain weaknesses that are not always considered and included (aretio, 2021), with difficulties arising in educational centers that have continued even with the technological innovation strategy. educating students from home is impossible due to the lack of smartphones and internet access (constante, 2020), as well as other training needs of educators in the use of technological tools and inaccuracy in the self-regulation of content planning tasks. this has made it difficult to encourage, attract, and involve student-teachers in the distance modality with new pedagogical methodologies without losing the quality of content in the e-learning programs. threats most of the educational community do not have basic computer skills, and both teachers and students cannot make proper use of digital devices focused on education. in many cases, they cannot even acquire technological equipment and have never really practiced online learning. this marks a difference between inequality and technological inequity. especially for those residing in rural areas (vivanco-saraguro, 2020) where, due to their geographic location, it is difficult to install and access the internet or a wi-fi connection. the authorities of educational centers at all levels of schooling must face many challenges to ensure equal access (digital equity) to information, communication, and technology (ict) with all the necessary resources, and reduce the digital divide (hillier, 2018). it appears simple but it is not; it requires financial resources to acquire and provide technological infrastructure, as well as continuing to maintain the equipment and devices that become obsolete over time. the government of ecuador, in its educational policies for schools, colleges, and universities, proposes certain e-learning programs for primary and secondary education but the process of control and quality standards that these resources have passed is unknown. we must not only consider the negative aspects (threats), but also take action and make the best of the situation in order to improve the quality of virtual resources. by creating an effective e-learning environment (affouneh et al., 2020), these learning resources have improved remote teaching during crises. this led to the circumstances during the current pandemic, in which more digital tools that teachers and students can choose from are available. many academic institutions have taken initiatives to help guide teachers and students to access and manage e-learning tools and, thus, cover the contents of the curriculum through the use of icts, which are presented in different formats such as texts, audios, and videos that serve as supports to complement virtual learning, although such implementation has not been fully effective (hamid et al., 2020) during the pandemic period. 484 strengths the strengths of the e-learning model are training methods and processes, which are learner-centered, flexible in terms of time and place; facilitate sequential learning, collaborative participation, and selfeducation in the time available and through the use of modular structure (forero et al., 2019). in addition, the teacher and/or tutor can customise and structure the curriculum according to the needs of the learners, as well as providing immediate feedback on the platform. these e-learning strengths are advantageous in times of crisis and pandemics. today, there are many technological tools available through web 2.0 that can be used to teach effectively and efficiently. teachers in virtual classrooms can organise courses using a combination of texts, audio, and videos to strengthen learning content, while at the same time, they can work collaboratively and interact with all members of a group’s questions and answers, making live classes more interesting. online education is fruitful in difficult times, such as natural disasters, man-made catastrophes, and in times of global pandemics (agbele & oyelade, 2020; atienza & tabuena, 2021). these cause educational centers to close and hamper their mobility but with the virtual modality, access to education is not deprived and can be received at home or the workplace. through the use of ict tools, people can work from home or engage in tele-work, tele-education, and tele-medicine, among others, without the need to move from one place to another for a face-to-face or physical meeting. this has led companies, institutions, and/or organisations to adapt to the trend of new technologies to maintain uninterrupted communication. opportunities overall, the online method and process have presented many opportunities for academic institutions in rural and urban areas during the outbreak of the worldwide pandemic, leading many educational establishments to migrate to the new pedagogical model of virtual training, with educational platforms responding to the need and to cope with the pandemic (adedoyin & soykan, 2020). continuing this response is more sustainable because it is not constrained by age, gender, religion, or location. teachers can use and implement digital tools focused on the academy to teach their students and design flexible programs for better understanding. the crisis has put people to the test to decide on the need for educational technologies for e-learning. at the same time, edtech companies have seen an opportunity for transformation, innovation, and educational digital development to prevent education being interrupted or stopped. in this critical situation, teachers and students must take on challenges to improve problem-solving skills, cooperate among global peers, and develop their capacity for logical, critical, and analytical thinking, for which, users of any age must have access to technological devices and digital content at a convenient time, therefore, taking advantage of the flexibility of time and space for self-learning. because of the growing market demand for online training that emerged during the pandemic, educational technology companies have the opportunity to innovate and transform educational systems in latin america, especially in low-income countries (jordan et al., 2021). these edtech tools must be suitable for all aspects associated with education and must not ignore the process that begins the moment the student enrolls in first year and then goes through the various stages of teaching, practice, and evaluation until the end of their career, and, finally, to the delivery of certificates or degrees. 485 discussion in previous studies carried out by kousky (2016), it was revealed that natural disasters are one of the causes that interrupt the education of children, youth, and adults as the forces of nature destroy schools, colleges, and universities. that such situations have resulted in moving entire families to take refuge in difficult times shows the academic impact caused by catastrophes (pietro, 2018). for instance, the effect of the l'aquila earthquake reduced the likelihood of students graduating on time, in addition to causing mental trauma in the students, which then increased the dropout rate (chen et al., 2021). these negative effects and threats also cause innovation and technological development to stop and can also interrupt all teaching and learning modalities (offline, online, blended) for students at different levels of schooling. they cause additional difficulties when disasters occur in cities or populated regions where companies, industries, and educational centers are located. some indications and recommendations (seville, 2014) reported on the experiences of people who lived through the christchurch earthquake that caused damage to buildings and deaths show that institutions or organisations must develop contingency plans to face challenges such as natural disasters and pandemics. at the same time, tull et al. (2017) indicated that natural disasters are events that motivate and stimulate educational organisations to adopt new innovative communication and elearning practices, thereby, fostering student resilience. other research on the passage of hurricane harvey in houston, texas in 2017, which caused serious destruction and physical damage to the media and its technological equipment, showed that more than a thousand students in that area suffered from the impact (holzweiss et al., 2020). for this reason, the authorities approved a strategic plan to delay virtual courses for weeks, and to avoid such a situation, they advise having an emergency plan for the virtual modality. the sar-cov-2 outbreak could be dealt with and the consequences mitigated by scenario planning with several options; for example, in case plan a fails have a plan b ready (rieley, 2018). therefore, organising and planning (in time); and other innovative solutions that are proposed (liguori & winkler, 2020) can also help to resolve critical circumstances in educational institutions. sometimes crisis and disaster management plans are neither safe nor sufficient, but it is still necessary to implement and include an emergency plan in the educational community, both virtual and on-site. undoubtedly, epidemics and natural disasters are inevitable but the use of edtech is both a strength and an opportunity. as cataloged by de carvalho et al. (2001), the adoption of tele-education or elearning through technological means and using the internet in educational institutions are some of the alternatives and essential requirements for the acquisition of knowledge in the 21st century (meyer & wilson, 2011). education-specific technologies or tools can likely help to cope with disasters and provide online services smoothly during and after crises requires a robust information technology (it) infrastructure (ayebi-arthur, 2017). in the case of new zealand university, after it was severely affected by seismic activity, the use of technology and the deployment of a learning management system with digital resources and audio and video recordings of lectures for students helped them to overcome the obstacles quickly and continue with the teaching process. therefore, it remains of utmost importance in such difficult circumstances to ensure the availability of the following: (a) ict (information and communication technologies) infrastructure, (b) digital learning tools and resources, (c) teaching methods, (d) services for teachers and students, and (e) cooperation between 486 governments, companies, and educational institutions to offer online, face-to-face, or blended learning and to not interrupt classes and student learning (huang et al., 2020). we are now required to engage in online teaching and learning processes. something noteworthy about educational technologies is that they have numerous features and benefits as a brand (cabero, 2006; singh & thurman, 2019). this includes flexible web-based training that adapts to the learner's pace, various materials (audio, visual, audiovisual), synchronous or asynchronous communication, and digital content. along the same lines, martin (2020) pointed out five important things to consider in embracing a learning system with social media/networking platforms, which helps provide better communication between students and instructors: mental health, relationships, instruction, content and motivation; and valuing students' motivation (peng & hwang, 2021). dhawan (2020) referred to an interesting educational program with the use of edtech, which has been promoted by the indian government, with three essential objectives: quality, equity, and access for students across the nation. for example, electronic applications such as cloud meeting, adobe connect, google hangouts, webex, zoom meeting, microsoft teams, and others, present superb particularities for live remote classes, conferences, seminars, chats, and meetings that make people interconnected (face-to-face) and enable interaction among members at the same time. many schools, colleges, and businesses were closed or had curfews during the time when these platforms were being used. they helped the employees of these businesses and schools do their jobs or work from home because of these closures and curfews. on the other hand, we cannot ignore and/or forget the students who are unable to access technological tools. it is difficult for them to acquire a computer device, cancel a data plan, or access the internet due to low income or lack of economic resources in their homes or geographic locations, and they are the ones who lose out on virtual training, thus increasing the gap of technological inequality among students, so the support of the government and ngos is crucial. lack of such support can reduce opportunities to education. in addition, teachers were used to traditional teaching methodologies in the classroom but were not familiar with the virtual teaching environment, so they had no choice but to adapt to new methods of online training, despite their doubts and resistance to change (richardson & north, 2020). finally, to strengthen teaching strategies and facilitate new training processes, classes should be made practical and interesting with games, debates, brainstorming, and so forth. such activities could help reduce the levels of panic, stress, anxiety, and fear experienced by students. it is also important for the technical and pedagogical competence of teachers, quality management programs, and continuous quality improvement for success in online learning, in addition to preparing people to face any kind of crisis and conflict so we do not waste time assimilating new forms of education but, rather take the opportunity to create more academic content. conclusion and recommendation the sar-cov-2 (covid-19) epidemic has affected all types of activities, hindering the daily lives of citizens, interrupting the schooling of students, causing material/physical damage to buildings and loss of human life, thus delaying and postponing the planned tasks of companies, organisations, and educational institutions. the worldwide epidemic of the coronavirus has impacted the economies of all regions and cities, as well as universal education. the rapid spread of sar-cov-2 in humans did 487 not give governments and training centers time to develop an emergency plan to cope with the situation. furthermore, the late redesign of the educational model for students may have hindered learning. virtual education in times of crisis and pandemics is an alternative with strengths and opportunities for students who have access to technological tools and the internet, so that the teaching process is not interrupted, while, at the same time it presents a threat to educational communities with low financial resources and to areas remote from the urban core, which have limited edtech resources. such a scenario has made the inequality gap widen. at the same time, it has forced teachers to adapt to new pedagogical methodologies and be more familiar with platforms, applications, and virtual courses focused on the academic field. the use and management of computer equipment in schools, colleges, and universities has increased in terms of the commitment, responsibility, and cooperation of teachers. academic staff, students, parents, and local or national authorities should be trained on the use, management, and importance of icts in the 21st century but they must bear in mind that, without technological infrastructure, it is not possible to access online education. as a result, a relationship with the diversity of ict infrastructure is required, and ict must be available on a daily basis. references abreu, j. l. (2020). tiempos de coronavirus: la educación en línea como respuesta a la crisis. revista daena (international journal of good conscience), 15(1), 1-15. adedoyin, o. b., & soykan, e. (2020). covid-19 pandemic and online learning: the challenges and opportunities. interactive learning environments, 1-13. affouneh, s., salha, s., & khlaif, z. n. (2020). designing quality e-learning environments for emergency remote teaching in coronavirus crisis. interdisciplinary journal of virtual learning in medical sciences, 11(2), 135-137. agbele, a. t., & oyelade, e. a. (2020). impact of covid-19 on the nigerian educational system: strengths and challenges of online/virtual education. asian journal of education and social studies, 13(1), 26-35. alvarez jr, a. (2020). the phenomenon of learning at a distance through emergency remote teaching amidst the pandemic crisis. asian journal of distance education, 15(1), 127-143. ambit bst (2020, november 10). types of computer vulnerabilities and threats. barcelona. https://www.ambitbst.com/blog/tipos-de-vulnerabilidades-y-amenazas-inform%c3%a1ticas americaeconomia (2021, september 16). trends and challenges for the implementation of e-learning models in latin america. américaeconomía. https://mba.americaeconomia.com/articulos/notas/tendencias-y-desafiospara-la-implementacion-de-modelos-e-learning-en-america-latina aretio, l. g. (2021). covid-19 and digital distance education: pre-confinement, confinement and postconfinement. ried-revista iberoamericana de educacion a distancia, 24(1), 9-32. arias, p. r., & garcía, f. e. (2019). crecimiento postraumático en sobrevivientes de los terremotos en ecuador y chile. ajayu órgano de difusión científica del departamento de psicología ucbsp, 17(2), 317-331. atienza, m. a., & tabuena, a. c. (2021). the impact of covid-19 pandemic on managerial accounting and its adjustments in financial markets. international journal of business, technology and organizational behavior, 1(4), 287-296. ayebi-arthur, k. (2017). e-learning, resilience and change in higher education: helping a university cope after a natural disaster. e-learning and digital media, 14(5), 259-274. 488 barquero, j. (2019, june 28). 6 características imprescindibles de una plataforma e-learning | cae. cae computer aided e-learning. tm voluxion, verxact, dexway by cae computer aided usa corp. & computer aided elearning, sa. https://www.cae.net/es/6-caracteristicas-imprescindibles-de-una-plataforma-e-learning/ barriga lópez, f. (2015). history of natural disasters in ecuador. quito: national academy of history of ecuador. https://www.ipgh.gob.ec/portal/index.php/biblioteca-menu/novedades-bibliograficas/389-historia-de-losdesastres-naturales-en-el-ecuador bordón, o. e. (2008). natural disasters and society. electronic medical journal, 30(4), 518-525. bravo, c. d. s., dimalanta, f. d. r., jusay, k. a. p., vitug, m. y., & tabuena, a. c. (2022). inclination state on the philippine culture and arts using the appraisal theory: factors of progress and deterioration. participatory educational research, 9(1), 388-403. https://doi.org/10.17275/per.22.21.9.1 cabero, j. (2006). pedagogical bases of e-learning. rusc. universities and knowledge society journal, 3(1). carey, k. (2020, march 13). everybody ready for the big migration to online college? actually, no. the new york times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/13/upshot/coronavirus-online-college-classes-unprepared.html chaves, a. (2020, august 18). edtech: qué es y 10 grandes ejemplos de disrupción educativa. marketing 4 ecommerce — tu revista de marketing online para e-commerce. https://marketing4ecommerce.net/el-momento-deledtech-que-es-y-grandes-ejemplos/ chen, y. e., li, c., chang, c. p., & zheng, m. (2021). identifying the influence of natural disasters on technological innovation. economic analysis and policy, 70, 22-36. cojocariu, v. m., lazar, i., nedeff, v., & lazar, g. (2014). swot analysis of e-learning educational services from the perspective of their beneficiaries. procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 116, 1999-2003. comissão econômica para a américa latina (2017, april 18). social protection of children in the face of disasters. https://www.cepal.org/es/enfoques/proteccion-social-la-infancia-frente-desastres constante, s. (2020, june 16). ecuador: la educación online desde casa es imposible e injusta. el país. https://elpais.com/elpais/2020/06/12/planeta_futuro/1591955314_376413.html cueva gaibor, d. a. (2020). educational technology in times of crisis. conrado journal, 16(74), 341-348. de carvalho, j. m., simoes, l., & penido, a. (2001). education and technology: conflicts and possibilities. comunicar, 22, 63-70. de souza, r., parveen, r., chupradit, s., velasco, l. g., arcinas, m., tabuena, a. c., ... & ventayen, r. j. m. (2021). language teachers’ pedagogical orientations in integrating technology in the online classroom: its effect on students motivation and engagement. turkish journal of computer and mathematics education, 12(10), 5001-5014. https://turcomat.org/index.php/turkbilmat/article/view/5268 delgado, p. (2019, november 12). ¿qué es edtech? observatorio | instituto para el futuro de la educación. https://observatorio.tec.mx/edu-news/que-es-edtech-video dhawan, s. (2020). online learning: a panacea in the time of covid-19 crisis. journal of educational technology systems, 49(1), 5-22. donahoe, b., rickard, d., holden, h., blackwell, k., & caukin, n. (2019). using edtech to enhance learning. international journal of the whole child, 4(2), 57-63. edutechnia (2021, august). edtech a market with a future for latin america. https://edutechnia.com/es/blogarticulo/130/edtech-un-mercado-con-futuro-para-amrica-latina favale, t., soro, f., trevisan, m., drago, i., & mellia, m. (2020). campus traffic and e-learning during covid-19 pandemic. computer networks, 176, 107290. forero, j. c. g., marín, a. á., & estupiñan, j. c. m. (2019). organización de un curso en aulas virtuales: fortalezas y debilidades para el aprendizaje. archivos venezolanos de farmacología y terapéutica, 38(4), 473-478. 489 global voices (2020, april 15). ciudades fantasma en un mundo de covid-19. global voices en español. https://es.globalvoices.org/2020/04/15/ciudades-fantasma-en-un-mundo-de-covid-19/ grewal, d., puccinelli, n. m., & monroe, k. b. (2018). meta-analysis: error cancels and truth accrues. journal of the academy of marketing science, 46(1). guijosa, c. (2018, november 21). las ocho ‘edtech startups’ latinoamericanas más prometedoras del 2018. observatorio | instituto para el futuro de la educación. https://observatorio.tec.mx/edu-news/las-ochoedtech-startups-latinoamericanas-mas-prometedoras-del-2018 hamid, r., sentryo, i., & hasan, s. (2020). online learning and its problems in the covid-19 emergency period. journal prima edukasia, 8(1), 86-95. hillier, m. (2018). bridging the digital divide with off-line e-learning. distance education, 39(1), 110-121. holzweiss, p. c., walker, d. w., chisum, r., & sosebee, t. (2020). crisis planning for online students: lessons learned from a major disruption. online learning, 24(2), 22-37. huang, r. h., liu, d. j., tlili, a., yang, j. f., & wang, h. h. (2020). handbook on facilitating flexible learning during educational disruption: the chinese experience in maintaining undisrupted learning in covid-19 outbreak. beijing: smart learning institute of beijing normal university, 46. huerta, d. s. (2020). swot analysis. bubok. jordan, k., david, r., phillips, t., & pellini, a. (2021). education during the covid-19: crisis opportunities and constraints of using edtech in low-income countries. revista de educación a distancia (red), 21(65). keeton, m. t. (2004). best online instructional practices: report of phase i of an ongoing study. journal of asynchronous learning networks, 8(2), 75-100. kousky, c. (2016). impacts of natural disasters on children. the future of children, 26(1), 73-92. liguori, e., & winkler, c. (2020). from offline to online: challenges and opportunities for entrepreneurship education following the covid-19 pandemic. entrepreneurship education and pedagogy, 3(4), 346-351. martin, a. (2020, march 16). how to optimise online learning in the age of coronavirus. unsw newsroom. https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/social-affairs/how-optimise-online-learning-age-coronavirus mcbrien, j. l., cheng, r., & jones, p. (2009). virtual spaces: employing a synchronous online classroom to facilitate student engagement in online learning. international review of research in open and distributed learning, 10(3). meyer, k. a., & wilson, j. l. (2011). the role of online learning in the emergency plans of flagship institutions. online journal of distance learning administration, 14(1). miramontes, c. (2020, july 12). 5 startups ecuatorianas de tecnología que están mejorando la educación. contxto. https://contxto.com/es/general-es/5-startups-ecuatorianas-de-tecnologia-mejorando-la-educacion/ montero, l. g. (2018). history of serious natural disasters in ecuador. secretaria de gestion de riesgos. https://capacitacion.gestionderiesgos.gob.ec/courses/57/files/6398 oloyede, a. a., faruk, n., & raji, w. o. (2021). covid-19 lockdown and remote attendance teaching in developing countries: a review of some online pedagogical resources. african journal of science, technology, innovation and development, 1-19. oyedotun, t. d. (2020). sudden change of pedagogy in education driven by covid-19: perspectives and evaluation from a developing country. research in globalization, 2, 100029. parkes, m., stein, s., & reading, c. (2015). student preparedness for university e-learning environments. the internet and higher education, 25, 1-10. partlow, k. m., & gibbs, w. j. (2003). indicators of constructivist principles in internet-based courses. journal of computing in higher education, 14(2), 68-97. 490 peng, m. h., & hwang, h. g. (2021). an empirical study to explore the adoption of e-learning social media platform in taiwan: an integrated conceptual adoption framework based on technology acceptance model and technology threat avoidance theory. sustainability, 13(17), 9946. pietro, g. d. (2018). the academic impact of natural disasters: evidence from l’aquila earthquake. education economics, 26(1), 62-77. pinzón, l. r. p. (2020). orígenes y transformaciones del aprendizaje en línea (e-learning). innovaciones educativas mediadas por paradigmas tecnológicos. revista historia de la educación colombiana, 24(24), 105132. rezapour-nasrabad, r. a. f. a. t. (2020). effects of covid-19 on higher education: challenges and responses. pakistan journal of medical and health sciences, 14(3), 1366-1370. richardson, r., & north, m. (2020). transition and migration to online learning environment. international management review, 16(2), 5-105. rieley, j. b. (2018). scenario planning in higher education: a follow-up to the process. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325857787_scenario_planning_in_higher_education_a_followup_to_the_process sánchez, r. m. s., grijalva, m. v. g., lópez, á. h. v., & muñoz, j. c. v. (2017). desastres naturales–terremotos y seguros en ecuador. ojeando la agenda, (48), 2. scheiderer, j. (2021, march 24). what’s the difference between asynchronous and synchronous learning? ohio state online. https://online.osu.edu/resources/learn/whats-difference-between-asynchronous-andsynchronous-learning seville, e., hawker, c., & lyttle, j. (2012). resilience tested: a year and a half of 10,000 aftershocks. university of canterbury. https://ir.canterbury.ac.nz/handle/10092/9820 singh, v., & thurman, a. (2019). how many ways can we define online learning? a systematic literature review of definitions of online learning (1988-2018). american journal of distance education, 33(4), 289-306. song, l., singleton, e. s., hill, j. r., & koh, m. h. (2004). improving online learning: student perceptions of useful and challenging characteristics. the internet and higher education, 7(1), 59-70. tabuena, a. c., & hilario, y. m. c. (2021). research data analysis methods in addressing the k-12 learning competency on data analysis procedures among senior high school research courses. international journal of recent research and applied studies, 8(3), 1-7. tabuena, a. c., hilario, y. m. c., & buenaflor, m. p. (2021). overview and exemplar components of the research methodology on the research writing process for senior high school students. international journal of trends in scientific research and development, 5(3), 117-126. tabuena, a. c., morales, g. s., & perez, m. l. a. c. (2021). music assessment techniques for evaluating the students’ musical learning and performance in the philippine k-12 basic education curriculum. harmonia: journal of arts research and education, 21(2), 192-203. thompson, k. m. & copeland, c. (2020). inclusive considerations for optimal online learning in times of disasters and crises. information and learning sciences, 121(7/8), 481-486. torres, a. c. (2010). research methodology, administration, economics, humanities and social sciences (tercera, ed.). pearson educacion. tull, s., dabner, n., & ayebi-arthur, k. (2017). social media and e-learning in response to seismic events: resilient practices. journal of open, flexible and distance learning, 21(1), 63-76. united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization (2020, june 22). education in a post-covid world: nine ideas for public action. unesco. https://en.unesco.org/news/education-post-covid-world-nineideas-public-action 491 united nations children's fund (2018). more than 104 million children and young people — 1 out of every 3 — do not attend school in countries affected by war or natural disasters. https://www.unicef.org/es/comunicadosprensa/m%c3%a1s-de-104-millones-de-ni%c3%b1os-y-de-j%c3%b3venes-1-de-cada-3-no-van-la-escuelaen-los vivanco-saraguro, á. (2020). teleducación en tiempos de covid-19: brechas de desigualdad. cienciamérica, 9(2), 166-175. watermeyer, r., crick, t., knight, c., & goodall, j. (2021). covid-19 and digital disruption in uk universities: afflictions and affordances of emergency online migration. higher education, 81(3), 623-641. authors: ángel geovanny rochina chisag, mce, is a full-time doctoral candidate in computer engineering at the buenos aires institute of technology, argentina. he is a computer systems engineer from the state university of bolívar — ueb, ecuador, and has a master's degree in computer engineering from the open university of catalonia — uoc, spain. he is also a full-time independent researcher and his topics of interest are studies in rural education, the use of ict, software engineering, testing, program repair, and software models. email: anrochina@itba.edu.ar almighty cortezo tabuena, nee lpt, pmec, lsswbc, casf, isa, ph.d. (h.c.), is currently affiliated with the philippine normal university, manila, philippines. he is also an associate member of the national research council of the philippines (nrcp), chief executive officer and founding president of the academic course tutorial online education inc., and the founding editor-in-chief of the international journal of academic and practical research, with an issn (online): 2980-4124. he was conferred an honorary degree, doctor of philosophy in education, honoris causa, from theophany university, haiti. his research work focuses on action and classroom-based research, assessment and evaluation, culture and the arts, material development, educational research, and music. email: tabuena.ac@pnu.edu.ph cite this paper as: rochina chisag, á. g., & tabuena, a. c. (2022). online learning as an alternative learning modality in ecuador’s education institutions amidst crises and outbreaks: a swot analysis. journal of learning for development, 9(3), 475-491. devries book review online distance education: towards a research agenda o. zawacki-richter and t. anderson (eds.) athabasca university press, athabasca, 2014, xii, 507 pp., isbn 9781927356630 irwin devries vol. 3, no. 3 as seen by otto peters in his foreword to this substantial volume, the early days of correspondence-based distance education garnered little attention from researchers. as distance education became more widely adopted and researched, a prevalent theme involved comparisons of distance education with traditional face-to-face methods, mostly in attempts to prove the equivalence of the two. while such studies were fraught with methodological challenges, they arose in response to the perceived need for this new kid on the block to prove its legitimacy to an often skeptical academic constituency. distance education evolved from print-based correspondence to incorporate mass media such as television and radio, followed by such developments as computer-mediated instruction and interactive video. distance education courses became increasingly media rich. telephoneand video-conferencing created new channels of communication that enabled interactions at a distance among distance tutors and learners. researchers’ attention increasingly turned to the use of technology in distance education. distance educators turned to online delivery as a primary mode of teaching at a distance. online collaboration tools and emerging theories of social constructivist and connected learning introduced new areas of practice and research. all these developments have culminated in today’s state of affairs, described by peters as complex and multifarious. the editors of this volume saw the need for a systematic approach to organize this incredibly complex and diverse field of research into categories. to address this need, they used the results of zawacki’s earlier delphi study into research themes in online distance education, along with other large-scale literature reviews and studies of research patterns in online distance education. these categories, which form the framework for this collection, are divided into macro-, mesoand micro-levels. these levels comprise, respectively, distance education systems and theories; management, organization and technology; and teaching and learning in distance education. these categories are intended to help wrestle the diverse field of online distance learning into an organized set of problems and to identify research patterns, clusters and gaps. it will probably not surprise anyone in the field to learn that the editors found that a large majority of research in online distance education focuses on the micro-level, while the other two levels remain under-researched. the category titles macro, meso, micro aren’t fully self-explanatory, and examples are helpful in seeing how they play out.  fortunately the editors addressed this problem by structuring sub-topics within these three categories to form the chapters of this book. within the macro-level, sub-topics range across access, equity and ethics; globalization and cross-cultural aspects; distance teaching systems and institutions; theories and models for distance education; and research methods and knowledge transfer. even within each of these individual topics, the research opportunities that become evident are immense. for example, tait and o’rourke identify the need for research programmes related to multiple dimensions of distance education and social justice, particularly in the face of “increasing pressures to operate in a competitive business model rather than a public service model.” this type of research of course will also involve many disciplines outside education itself. examples of other discussions at the macro-level include global open educational practices in the face of western hegemonies and essentialist understandings of other cultures; the importance of socio-technical analyses to expose system dynamics and counter technological determinism; and the need for varied research methods including mixed methods and design-based approaches. the meso-level category includes management and organization; costs and funding; educational technology; innovation and change management; and areas related to faculty and students. in her chapter on educational technology, conole notes shifts among researchers beyond the traditional publication route toward open research practices, in the direction of the open web. rumble encourages renewed attention to the costs and funding of distance education. growth in blended learning also opens up new areas for research, among others. against this background, the bulk of current research, as noted earlier, is focused on such micro-level areas as online learning communities, instructional design for online learning, student characteristics and learner retention. the prolific amount of research in these and similar areas should be familiar to those working in the online distance field and, academic journals are well populated with articles of this nature. perhaps those of us who work in this field need to ask ourselves why this imbalance exists? the answer isn’t apparent, but it’s a question worth thinking about. in many parts of the world, macro-level research is critical to help build and improve online distance education systems for economic and social development. many other examples are given as to where new research is imperative. it is impossible in this short review to represent the breadth and depth of the chapters in this volume. suffice it to say at this point that there is a cornucopia of recommendations for research agendas or projects throughout the chapters. journal editors as well as faculty, who research and teach in online distance education, may find that this book increases their awareness of the research gaps. further, combining topics or questions from the different areas has the potential to inspire entirely new lines of research. this volume is an eye-opener, and it should be on the desk or device of every distance education researcher and student, particularly since the online pdf version is free for download. i think it’s safe to say that it will serve the field of online distance education studies well for many years to come. reviewed by: irwin devries, interim associate vice president, open learning, thomson rivers university, canada. email: idevries@tru.ca gordon the jeffrey town model for community development ivy veronica gordon vol. 1, no. 2 abstract the jeffrey town model for community development has been effectively applied to the rural community of jeffrey town in jamaica with information and computer technology (ict) as a key element. the farmer's association is the vehicle that has driven the change. included is a brief outline of the community plus highlights of the tangible and intangible components of the model. special attention is paid to the investment in the human capital to help build capacity of all locals without exploitation so that real empowerment could begin. jeffrey town is a success story validating the modern development assistance programmes whereby communities are empowered, allowed to select their own imperatives and, in this case, redressing some of those difficulties with superb results. introduction jeffery town is located in the northeastern portion of jamaica, formerly called victoria town and subsequently named after the jeffrey's family that owned the salisbury property from as far back as 1838. it is fifteen miles in any direction from each of the rural towns, and forty-five miles from the capital kingston. it is at an elevation of seventeen hundred feet and considered deeply rural because of the social infrastructure in place and the quality of the access roads to the village. jeffrey town has nine different churches, and a school building made of containers joined together because the previous building was destroyed by fire in september 1996. in the census of 2011 the population was recorded as 2982, forty seven percent female, distributed between eight hundred and seventy seven households. it further states that unemployment is at 33% of those at working age; and of those working 42.2% engage in agriculture on family owned lands. if you look past the tropical beauty of the location and relatively low crime rate one has to ask, what would this community be like without its renowned self reliance and its drive for development? since 1991 when the farmers association formed as a cooperative jeffrey town has been seeking ways to redress the lack of investment in line with its mission statement to "… harness all available assistance for community development using agriculture as the platform; to sustainably develop its human and physical resources, for the creation of opportunities to include all the residents of jeffrey town, especially the youth and women to achieve social and economic stability.” the association had to lobby first for water in 1993, for rural electrification in 1998 and garbage collection took years of agitation before service commenced in 2003. the group members embarked on their own research, started the tradition of self assessment, firstly of the community and then internally, to see how best to redress the major challenges: firstly mechanization, irrigation and the environment for the farmers' income generating activities and, secondly, a way to engage and provide opportunities for the youth. the group the history of the association can be traced back through its minute books plus data at the companies office of jamaica. the association is a group of paying members who live in and around jeffrey town, since 2005; wordsworth gordon has been inspirational at the helm. the group recognized that it needed help to meet its goals and was fortunate enough to be supported by the united nations development programme life and the canada international development agency in 2002/3, the first to strengthen and extend the executive to eight and to teach us how to operate in a transparent and sustainable way, and the second to draft a business plan and register as a development company limited by guarantee. thus empowered the members set out to create a model community looking at all the facets of village life. approach applications to funding agencies were made for three areas  (the idea was to do what we could until we could do what we wanted and although the tasks were categorized fate caused us to deal with them simultaneously ):a life project to install portable irrigation on five farms, two small grants to purchase and convert a container and use it as an office, the conceptualization of the breadfruit festival and a project application for 'community without borders' with ict for development jamaica. the projects were linked, not in the form of counter funding but as parts of the puzzle that when complete would become the jeffrey town model.  the cost of the container was prohibitive so we aimed to construct from block and steel on a parcel of donated land, since a secure location was needed for the ict project specifically selected to encourage the younger people to come and join the group. the significant investment in the human capital started here, however, the recorded data begins in 2007 and is shown as persondays, the number of people engaged in a training activity multiplied by the number of days, broken down into four focal areas as seen in table 1 below. table 1 does not reflect the services of the ict specialist peace corps volunteer who assisted all who used the multimedia centre on a oneto-one basis from its opening in february 2007, to his departure in august 2008 .on close inspection you will note a significant amount of ict training in 2009/10 this is a result of the on line literacy classes offered in conjunction with heart, the national training agency where the twenty three learners were exposed to basic computer skills and were certified on completion at the grade nine literacy and numeracy levels. table 1. the number of person days devoted to training activities. year ict radio institutional strengthening environmental disaster      totals 2007-08 255 72 80 180 587 2008-09 110 80 20 48 258 2009-10 600 110 20 30 760 2010-11 126 25 8 159 2011-12 30 175 205 2012-13 20 18 60 98 965 408 193 501 2067 in previous years the focus was on youth involvement through ict. in this community youth unemployment is above the 33 percent average (as defined by the national census), with this group showing a real reluctance to go into agriculture. as many as twenty five young people per year were exposed to the use of software applications, digital photography, video, creating music and audio production editing. of this original youth cadre nine still give voluntary service to the multimedia centre and radio station, eight have gone on to further education, and seven more to full-time employment, with two in mainstream media. prior to the radio our farming and environmental training were empirical; a facilitator would be found, usually from the agriculture support services, and field days would be organized or demonstration plots set up. one expects it is the same elsewhere, however, in jeffrey town we took this one step further.  each of the soil retention techniques was written into the activities of the funded projects which enabled the farmers to collectively apply the measures on a series of farms. this was then reinforced with power point presentations at the monthly meetings and this served two purposes: it allowed us to hone our ict skills and introduced a new method of training to our community. the location and way of life forces one to acknowledge climate change and the environmental training and activities were tailored with that in mind, using the holistic approach. land instability is the greatest threat because of the clay-based soil and the frequency of landslide during or after excessive rain. the aim was, and still is, to redress this risk. construction is a skill that was already present in jeffrey town but onthe-job training in gabion wall building in late 2008 has reaped real dividends, culminating in a 150-cubic-yard intervention in the valley. as our community members mastered a skill we moved on, calling back for the "experts" as required. training advanced to mitigation measures and with it the activities of tree planting, checking dams, harvesting water from roofs and from natural sources, contouring, and, of course, developing a hybrid alternative energy system for sustainability of the environment and relief from the costs associated with running a radio, multimedia centre and a bank of freezers. last but not least is the radio component of the training; our main learning facilitator has been the commonwealth of learning (col) and through them, the caribbean institute of media and communication (carimac) plus ict for development jamaica. training courses commenced in 2007 with basic principles, guidelines towards preparation plus voice and speech work for the core group a little after the license arrived but before the broadcast equipment. the col interventions, one in 2008 and two in 2009, in jeffrey town and st. vincent were geared towards purpose, sustainability and content, helping us to understand the true value and power of radio as a platform, allowing the team to carefully consider the pressing issues and ask which areas reflect the widest pool of local knowledge. the environment and agriculture were natural choices, hence the integration of radio programming towards our mitigation intentions with the bold aim of beginning to broadcast our first climate change series in december 2009 so that we could have a climate change discussion in jeffrey town while the whole world was watching the copenhagen conference. ours was the inaugural group in the caribbean to pilot a new method of programme making, nominally called the participatory approach, where members of the wider community along with the relevant professionals, were invited to get involved in the programme making process along with our youth members, thereby creating series that reflected  the true voice of the people. the content answered the questions of the target audience and reflected the main points the “experts” insist are relevant; aired at the times the target group felt was most appropriate. the first climate change series was an information packed, ten-part radio production on global warming related directly to our communities but which also spoke to the wider issues of hurricanes, floods, droughts, conservation, pollution and more. each of the shows consists of the following elements: the narrator, a fact file, the voice of the people, the discourse or interview, and a drama written as an independent feature with a set of characters in an imaginary town named jet, after the radio station. each episode elaborates on the show theme. this item is the most popular radio feature within the community and is now a well-loved independent production. targeted music and advertisements from the voices for climate change completes the features. since then we have been able to address some critical needs by presenting education material regarding hiv/aids, child abuse, and incest, by running a vigorous anti-human trafficking campaign, and by creating a caribbean examination council (cxc) integrated science syllabus support series for our high school students.  additionally we have run special broadcasts to the farming group for feedback and, of course, special interest groups to gather comments on relevance and content. we have run listener participation quizzes related to the maternal health series and included an interactive segment where the community is able to “ask nurse”. we are now using text messaging on a computer and a cell phone as an additional interactive tool and data collection system. in 2014 we will upgrade to live call-in shows. using this formula and a largely similar style we have created an annual environmental education and awareness series to highlight and explain the actions being taken by the group in our ongoing climate change mitigation work. of note here is that financial support for the process and the radio broadcasts as a whole is being considered at an institutional level as an element of each project that can be quantified, justified and delivered. the members of the production team have advanced to online distance learning, still supported by col, and the annual series now due will be a product of this process, showing the fulfillment of a dream, ordinary community people sufficiently empowered firstly by contact teaching in an informal setting, graduating to distance learning; passing on their skills to their peers and producing meaningful content related to their local realities. in general we have been able to achieve all of this because of determination and good facilitation ; people have helped and many have done more than their financial compensations required. however, there were challenges in finding persons with the necessary skill and who were willing to come so far to share. integrity is critical on both sides of the development equation, just as vision and passion drive the process. when the burning ambition for broadband internet was articulated and supported initially in 2008, our community couldn’t know how this type of access would advance our independence and self reliance. it was exorbitantly expensive due to our location and lack of basic infrastructure but has since been supported with free to access “wi fi”. once a person has a wireless enabled device, they can access the internet outside of our facility twenty-four hours a day. this is something that can be observed on the road side, at bus shelters, in the local bar even at the grave yard. the thirst for internet access has been ignited community wide and to an extent is being fulfilled. conclusion jeffrey town has benefited from the work of a group of people within leading the process to a common goal of making their community a place where all can feel comfortable. in this society 58.4% of the residents own the land they live on, much of it passed down through the generations, which makes moving an unacceptable or very unlikely option. who wouldn't want to live in structurally secure environs with tree lined streets , sufficient lighting for safety, water, recreational facilities and, above all, business opportunities or employment? the jeffrey town model developed through the farmer's association has produced all of these things: six gabion walls, ten check dams, terracing with pineapples twenty-seven acres planted with fruit trees plus five acres of pride of barbados on two miles of roadside. solar street lights in four locations and alternative energy at the jtfa building. a revolving cadre of youth being initiated to radio production and multimedia. water harvesting. a brand new type 1 clinic and basic school. a community radio station broadcasting programmes relevant to the rural lifestyle. an internet hot spot with free access. group chicken raising and value added products. these are the tangibles; they can be touched, quantified and photographed. how do you quantify the intangibles , such as the pride of a community, the collective and individual empowerment that has arisen through more than two thousand days of targeted training, replication at community meetings using powerpoints, the drip feeding from the community radio that reinforces best practises? it’s not possible. since 2006 the drive for development has been at full pace, with ict leading the way with an internet cafe, literacy classes, a summer school in 2013, multimedia classes and radio programming, underlining all of the physical activities and supporting social issues as well as the school curriculum.  this is a model that requires consideration based on the evidence presented, a group of people taking a penetrative look at their situation and then through hard work, critical support and good fortune, a marginalized community has risen and changed its situation. it is our contention that development must be a process, that initiative should be present in a location, and that capacity can be built as it has been at jeffrey town; all else can be replicated to fit the community at hand. ivy veronica gordon teaches food and nutrition and heads the home economics department at guy's hill high school. her community development work began in 1995 when she joined the jeffrey town farmers association. she also edits the jeffrey town bulletin, published quarterly on their web site, and authored the jeffrey town story. e-mail: jeffreytownfarmers@gmail.com microsoft word lane.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 275-286 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. open education and the sustainable development goals: making change happen andy lane the open university, milton keynes, united kingdom abstract: education for all has been a concept at the heart of international development since 1990 and has found its latest instantiation within the sustainable development goals (sdgs) as sdg 4, ‘ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all’. open education, in the form of resources and practices are both seen as contributors to sdg4 as evidenced by the recent 2nd world open educational resources congress. the ambition for open education to contribute to the sdgs is clear from this and other gatherings but the means to make it happen are not as clear, and many have claimed that little has happened since the sdgs were launched in 2015. to help address this apparent gap, this paper: (1) sets out the scale and scope of the sdgs; (2) reviews the potential contribution of open educational resources and practices to support the sdgs, and (3) uses a framing of power and systems thinking to review the way open education activities might be fostered within tertiary education in all local, national and regional contexts in order to support the sdgs, and not just sdg 4. it will also tentatively propose a theory of change that brings together power relationships, systems thinking and open education as key components and provide a case study of how this might work in practice through a newly funded project proposal. it is hoped that this theory of change and proposal will be a starting point for wider debate and discussion on how to make change happen in this important arena. keywords: open education, sustainable development goals, systems thinking, power, theory of change. introduction education for all has been a concept at the heart of international development since 1990, firstly within the millennium development goals and more recently within the sustainable development goals (sdgs), most notably as sdg 4, ‘ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all’ (uvalić-trumbić & daniel, 2016). the role of education in underpinning sustainable development in all countries, not just those egregiously categorised as ‘developing countries’, is widely accepted and a 2013 report from the organisation for economic cooperation and development (oecd) was clear about the perceived benefits of wider and deeper educational attainment: educational attainment is frequently used as a measure of human capital and the level of an individual’s skills, in other words, a measure of the skills available in the population and the labour force. the level of educational attainment is the percentage of a population that has reached a certain level of education. higher levels of educational attainment are strongly associated with higher employment rates and are perceived as a gateway to better labour opportunities and earnings premiums. individuals have strong 276 incentives to pursue more education, and governments have incentives to build on the skills of the population through education, particularly as national economies continue to shift from mass production to knowledge economies. (oecd, 2013) more recently the oecd has noted: making sdg 4 a reality will transform lives around the globe. education is so central to the achievement of a sustainable, prosperous and equitable planet that failure to achieve this particular sdg puts at risk the achievement of the 17 sdgs as a whole. (oecd, 2017 p. 27) this latest oecd report has a whole chapter devoted to the sdgs, assessing where the oecd and partner countries are in relation to the targets. there is widely reported variation in performance even amongst these more ‘developed’ countries. for example between 10 and 70% of 25-34 year olds (oecd average 42%) have tertiary level qualifications, which means that performances are likely to be lower than these figures if ‘less-developed’ countries are assessed in a similar way. while education, and higher education, are seen as critical to the sdgs there are those who see distance education as playing a central role (e.g., uvalić-trumbić & daniel, 2016), those who see open educational resources as important (mackinnon, pasfield-neofitou, manns, & grant, 2016), others who forefront education for sustainable development (e.g., gokool-ramdoo & rumjaun, 2016) and others who mention two or more of these, such as the international council for distance education who quoted from the incheon declaration to state that: a well-established, properly-regulated tertiary education system supported by technology, open educational resources (oers) and distance education modalities can increase access, equity, quality and relevance, and narrow the gap between what is taught at tertiary education institutions and what economies and societies demand. the provision of tertiary education should be progressively free, in line with existing international agreements. (unesco, 2015). these different perspectives are inevitable for a topic and a challenge of such scale and complexity, and raises questions about whether the ambition of the sdgs and the many authors i have quoted can be fulfilled in practice. while many authors (e.g., mackinnon et al, 2016) do set out key questions for open education and other authors (e.g., wright, dhanarajan, & reju, 2009) have set out the key challenges for distance education and e-learning and we have major multi-lateral international declarations such as the ljubljana oer action plan 2017 from the recent second world oer congressi describing ‘concrete action in five strategic areas to support the mainstreaming of oer around the sdg4 goal of quality, lifelong learning’, there is often little or no effective theory of change espoused through which actions can be coordinated and evaluated. in this paper i offer such a theory of change based on notions of power and systems thinking. the scale and scope of the sdgs there are 16 sector-based sustainable development goals in total with 179 targetsii and they apply to all countries in the world. there are 10 separate targets within goal 4 on education but in this paper i will concentrate on two of them – numbers three and seven: • by 2030, ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality technical, vocational and tertiary education, including university 277 • by 2030, ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including, among others, through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development this latter target, that relates directly to education for sustainable development, is also known as education for sustainability, which in itself sets up another never ending debate on what is meant by sustainable development or by sustainability in general (gokool-ramdoo & rumjaun, 2016) and in relation to higher education (wals & jickling, 2002; blackmore, ison, & reynolds, 2014; mackinnon et al, 2016). as well as the 16 sector-based sdg goals there is a 17th that deals with how these 16 should be tackled through partnerships. one part of this goal mentions the integration issues that influence their implementation: • policy and institutional coherence o enhance global macroeconomic stability, including through policy coordination and policy coherence o enhance policy coherence for sustainable development o respect each country’s policy space and leadership to establish and implement policies for poverty eradication and sustainable development • multi-stakeholder partnerships o enhance the global partnership for sustainable development, complemented by multistakeholder partnerships that mobilize and share knowledge, expertise, technology and financial resources, to support the achievement of the sustainable development goals in all countries, in particular developing countries o encourage and promote effective public, public-private and civil society partnerships, building on the experience and resourcing strategies of partnerships yet, again, the ambition is clear but the means to make it happen are not as noted by this commentator: twelve months in, and there's been some good progress on the sustainable development goals (sdgs) from governments, ngos and businesses alike: looking at what's material, making commitments, testing what's possible and confirming shared roles in delivering these ambitions. but there is a missing piece in all this activity, and it’s the glue that holds it all together – systems thinking (draper, 2016). so what does systems thinking provide to help manage change and meet the sdgs? power and systems thinking as agents of change complexity and uncertainty can be features of any human activity system but this is more so when considering many larger scale situations operating across the world (ison, 2017), as is the case with the sdgs. the number of facts and factors involved, the number of people with different perspectives 278 and disciplinary expertise, all grow larger and seemingly more intractable. to be able to represent a complex messy situation by showing most of the components and how they are thought to fit and work together is, therefore, very helpful when designing and implementing systemic changes that draw upon and integrate the thinking and activities from many disciplines (reynolds, blackmore, ison, shah, & wedlock, 2017). there are three generic elements underpinning systems thinking in practice: • understanding inter-relationships (‘thinking’ about the bigger picture including power relationships and coherence of interventions) • engaging with multiple perspectives (the ‘practice’ of joined-up thinking through considering multi-stakeholder partnerships at all levels) • reflecting on boundary judgements (the praxis of thinking in practice and understanding what is relevant to the system of interest and what is not relevant at a particular point in time). and one powerful way of representing systems of interest is through diagrams, which i will return to later when discussing my case study. it is not only academics who are promoting this approach. green (2016), an experienced development worker, has also claimed that a power and systems approach to making change happen is critical because it: “cover[s] our ways of working—how we think and feel, as well as how we behave as activists.” indeed, systems thinking is increasingly being used by people and organisations in all sectors of the economy. it is an approach being taken up by many organisations in the uk such as pwciii, nestaiv, forum for the futurev, advice ukvi and oxfamvii among others. further afield, in the us, there is the waters foundationviii, the institute for systemic leadershipix, and the donella meadows institutex. systems thinking is used in uk policy making at both a local and national government level and has influenced the work of the ellen macarthur foundation on the circular economyxi with its many multi-national business partners. systems thinking has been defined as an approach to problem solving, by viewing problems as parts of an overall system, rather than reacting to specific parts, outcomes or events. systems thinking is not one thing but a set of habits or practices within a framework that is based on the belief that the component parts of a system can best be understood in the context of relationships with each other and with other systems. it also has different traditions, which revolve around whether people think of systems as ontological realties they exist out thereor as epistemological devices – ways of representing the world we experience. systems thinking is not an alternative to the scientific approach, it is complementary to it. systems thinking respects complexity, it doesn't pretend it's not there. systems thinking makes complexity manageable by taking a broader perspective. it recognises and accommodates the histories and traditions of other disciplines (chapman, 2002; ison, 2017). the next section attempts to apply these tenets of systems thinking to a potential theory of change, adapting an existing approach. 279 towards a theory of change for open education and sustainable development positive social change requires power, and hence attention on the part of activists to politics and the institutions within which power and accountability is exercised (stensaker & harvey, 2011). a theory of change should contemplate both the context and the theory of action (how we intend to change the system). a theory of change should be a compass not a map, a dynamic process rather than a static document, and allow for assumptions to be regularly challenged and updated, encouraging a greater focus on learning. it requires both looking back to understand the histories and traditions which have shaped the system as is and understanding that change needs to be responsive to unforeseen events and the views of others and that messiness and uncertainty are to be expected and not feared. it also needs to reflect the different levels of change needed, ranging from the level of the individual to the level of the ‘system of interest’, and to take account of formal and informal traditions and activities. figure 1 is a 2 x 2 matrix that uses these two axes (individual-systemic and formal-informal) to indicate different domains of change that need to be addressed together. it was developed for work on women’s rights and as noted by green (2016): the authors of the framework find that activists typically neglect the left hand side – the informal world. by reminding us to look at a change in terms of all four quadrants, the framework stresses the need for work to happen at all levels (individual, community, formal politics, etc.) and it helps activists map who else is working on a given issue and identify gaps in the collective effort. (p. 241) he goes on to say that: whatever the issue we are thinking about and seeking to change, everyone involved will be linked by a subtle and pervasive force field of power. a good power analysis should identify the players (both individuals and organizations) how they relate to each other, who or what they are influenced by [..] and the different kinds of power in play [..]. (p. 243) 280 figure 1: a potential theory of change model (adapted from rao, sadler, kelleher, & miller, 2016, as described in green, 2016) figure 1 is a general model for a theory of change. i have attempted to use this to move towards a theory of change through the implementation of open education (figure 2). this figure uses statements in each quadrant that are more explicitly about open education (which i take to encompass both the traditional open, distance and e-learning practised originally by ‘open’ universities, as well as the more recent open educational resources movement based on open licensing) and which i believe to be key areas requiring change from my involvement in open education projects and activities over 35 years and from my wider reading of the literaturexii. to be successful in effecting change we need to consider interventions in all four quadrants of figure 2 such as: • how do we embed an understanding of the implications of open licensing within teachers used to dealing with copyrighted material and in students used to readily consuming ‘free’ content on line and within academic practices that frown on ‘plagiarism’? • who provides training and equipment for people to engage in open educational practices when it may involve multiple media and ever changing technologies? • what are higher education institutions (heis), both individually and collectively, doing to acknowledge and promote the benefits of open education to their staff, students and the wider public? 281 • which are the most important sector-based institutions dealing with tertiary education that need to change local, national, regional or international policies and strategies to encompass open education? having taken my argument this far you might now be saying, that is a fine idea in principle but will it work in practice? i cannot positively answer yes to that yet but i will next describe the scope of a new international development project as a case study on how systems thinking and power have been accommodated in the overarching conception and planning of the project. figure 2: towards a theory of change through open education case study: the transformation through innovation in distance education (tide) project the transformation through innovation in distance education (tide) project is, at the time of writing, a recently approved project under a uk aid funded programme called strategic partnerships for higher education innovation and reform (spheir)xiii, for which the open university in the united kingdom is the lead partner, involves several universities from both the uk and myanmar. while we have not formally started what i can share here is the aims and main expected outcomes from this four-year project, as well as a systems diagram that explains the interrelationships between the different strands of work and how these equate to interventions in all four quadrants of my theory of change through open education shown in figure 2. tide aims to improve the quality of higher education in myanmar at a critical time in the country’s development. after years of low investment in the higher education system, there is now an increasing demand for skilled graduates to meet new employment needs, particularly in relation to the environmental management of myanmar’s natural resources to ensure sustainability over years of rapid development. 282 tide brings together universities in the uk and myanmar to improve the quality of (open) educational resources and (open and) distance learning to result in more employable graduates. the partnership aims to strengthen the quality of the distance education system at institutional levels and in the design and delivery of learning using open educational resources and practices, focusing on environment related disciplines and making use of the rapidly emerging digital infrastructure. these activities are planned to benefit more than 500,000 students across myanmar who currently access higher education through distance learning (60 per cent of all higher education students in myanmar study through the two distance education universities). the partnership wants to create links to the government of myanmar and the ministry of education to connect tide to new higher education reforms. in particular tide plans to develop: • a competency framework and curriculum for education for environment and sustainable development (efesd), and related oers produced in collaboration with employers and the private sector • teaching approaches, media production skills, and digital and library support capacity for higher education courses, delivered through distance education • academic knowledge in environment related subject areas • plans for the institutional framework for open and distance education. in addition, the partnership aims to build both strategy and leadership for the future of higher education in myanmar, acting as a catalyst for further improvement in the sector by providing a practical example of how quality and relevance can be improved. the systems diagram shown in figure 3 was part of the original bid proposal and outlines, in graphical form, a set of system-wide interventions and activities that aim to work with and extend existing structures and practices within myanmar, and that cover all four quadrants of the theory of change matrix. the choice of education for environment and sustainable development as the subject focus, academic practice through developing new oers for both undergraduate and postgraduate courses as the people and practice focus, and leadership development as the people and policy focus, means that these activities fall more into the informal and individual and systemic quadrants (although the latter more at an institutional level than a sector level). these form the people elements of the diagram. the work on setting up locally relevant competency and skills frameworks that address academic practice, environmental professional practice and work-related curriculum for efesd requirements for myanmar (the programme elements of the diagram), not only specifically links and, as far as practicable, aligns these frameworks (lane, 2017), but also adds to the two informal quadrants as well as move into the two formal quadrants, in particular that for individuals. also note that through the use of oers co-developed with myanmar academics and by linking the curriculum skills framework to the sdgs themselves through this topic of efesd, (at least some of) these educational materials will be of relevance to all students, whatever degree they are studying (not just environmental degrees), and to the wider citizenry who can self-study them for personal and/or professional development. 283 further, this model of curriculum reform will provide a systemic approach that higher education leaders can adapt to improve the relevance and quality of higher education more widely by applying it to other subjects and so catalyse greater higher education reform. finally, the project also hopes to support ongoing changes to higher education policies and to the digital infrastructure within myanmar, some of which will align with regional developments in higher education within the aseanxiv region and others may link to wider international standards to do with professional recognition. figure 3: influence diagram of factors affecting the system for transforming teaching, learning and assessment of environmental science within higher education the project is both ambitious and yet conservative. it uses tried and trusted interventions and activities that can be found in higher education in many countries. its ambition lies in trying to introduce a wide set of mutually supporting interventions and activities that aim to change how people behave. it is also starting at a time when there are significant political challenges in myanmar that may change the power dynamics that are currently supportive of this type of sector wide reform. so the project can also be considered as a learning system (ison, 2017) whereby we research and evaluate what works and what does not work and why, with the aim that this particular reform will be sustained but also that the broad theory of change through open education in figure 2 and the more detailed theory of change we are finalising for the project itself can be fully tested and hopefully validated. 284 concluding remarks this brief descriptive account has only begun to touch upon the conceptual underpinnings of my proposed theory of change through open education and also the scope and scale of the case study project. figure 3, and the inter-related interventions and activities it encapsulates, is also just one representation of a system of interest aimed at making change happen in myanmar’s higher education sector. this representation will probably change during the project and hopefully after the project itself ends and the changes are sustained from within myanmar. others may have, and want to use, different representations, but hopefully they also will also try to cover the systemic and integrative elements of relationships, perspectives and boundaries needed to ensure the constructive alignment of multiple interventions (lane, 2017). however we should heed the cautionary note of russell and ison (2017) describing their experiences with agricultural research and extension in australia: if innovation as well as social and personal change could be achieved by “effective” communication and the ready availability of knowledge, the world operating under the current mind-set would be a great place to live. there would be ready at hand the vehicle, the wherewithal, to deliver on sound planning and intervention for the achievement of positive change. the desire for change and the belief in getting the communication “right,” in order to achieve the nominated change, is pervasive in our society. (p. 486) they go on to suggest that it is better to think of promoting a relational dynamic where actors are constantly explaining what they are trying to achieve to other actors and through those conversations are able to reach dynamic agreement on the similarities and differences and purposes of what they do and why they do it. figure 3 is an attempt to show this dynamic visually in an influence diagram, where constructive alignment, where possible and desirable, is achieved through the conversations between the actors and in light of developments in real-world situations that may throw up new challenges that all involved have to adapt to. it is a device around which all involved in the tide project will be able to have conversations and understand the implication of interventions in one part of the system on practices within other parts of the system. however, this highlights another issue of how willing, how able and in what spaces the actors will undertake those conversations if some of those conversations appear to challenge their own positions of power and traditions of practice. making change happen at scale is not easy or simple but with many advocating systems thinking as a solution that belief needs testing. tide will hopefully do that. references blackmore, c., ison, r., & reynolds, m. (2014). thinking differently about sustainability: experiences from the uk open university. in w. l. filho, u. m. azeiteiro, f. alves & s. caeiro (eds.), integrating sustainability thinking in science and engineering curricula. (pp. 613-630). cham: springer. chapman, j. (2002). system failure: why governments must learn to think differently. retrieved from http://www.demos.co.uk/files/systemfailure.pdf draper, s. (2016). systems thinking, unlocking the sustainable development goals. retrieved from http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/opinion/2472665/systems-thinking-unlocking-the-sustainabledevelopment-goals 285 gookol-ramdoo, s., & rumjaun, a. b. (2016). education for sustainable development: connecting the dots for sustainability. journal of learning for development, 4(1), 72-89. green, d. (2016). how change happens. london: oxford university press. icde. (2016). open educational resources. retrieved from http://www.icde.org/open-education-resources ison, r. (2017). systems practice: how to act. in situations of uncertainty and complexity in a climate-change world. (2nd ed.). london: springer-verlag. lane, a. (2017). the systemic implications of constructive alignment of higher education level learning outcomes and employer or professional body based competency frameworks. in proceedings of the online, open and flexible higher education conference: higher education for the future; accelerating and strengthening innovation, 25-27 october 2017, milton keynes uk. mackinnon, t., pasfield-neofitou, s., manns, h., & grant, s. (2016). a meta-analysis of open educational communities of practice and sustainability in higher educational policy. apprentissage des langues et systèmes d’information et de communication, 19(1). retrieved from https://alsic.revues.org/2908 oecd. (2013). education at a glance 2013: oecd indicators. paris: oecd publishing. retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/edu/skills-beyond-school/ oecd. (2017). education at a glance: oecd indicators. retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/eag-2017-en rao, a., sadler, j., kelleher, d., & miller, c. (2016). gender at work: theory and practice for 21st century organisations. abingdon: routledge. reynolds, m., blackmore, c., ison, r., shah, r., & wedlock, e. (2017). the role of systems thinking in the practice of implementing sustainable development goals. in walter leal filho (ed.), handbook of sustainability science and research. london: springer. stensaker, b., & harvey, l. (2011). accountability in higher education: global perspectives on trust and power. new york: routledge. unesco. (2015). education 2030: incheon declaration and framework for action. retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0024/002456/245656e.pdf uvalić-trumbić, s., & daniel, j. (2016). sustainable development begins with education. journal of learning for development, 3(3), 3-8 wals, a. e. j., & jickling, b. (2002). sustainability in higher education. international journal of sustainability in higher education, 3(1), 221-232 wright, c. r., dhanarajan, g., & reju, s. a. (2009). recurring issues encountered by distance educators in developing and emerging nations. international review of research in open and distance learning, 10(1), 1-25. author: andy lane is professor environmental systems at the faculty of science, technology, engineering & mathematics, school of engineering & innovation, the open university, milton keynes, united kingdom. email: andy.lane@open.ac.uk 286 i see http://www.oercongress.org/woerc-actionplan/ ii see http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/ iii http://www.pwc.co.uk/services/sustainability-climate-change/systems-thinking-thinking-differently-together.html iv http://www.nesta.org.uk/ v https://www.forumforthefuture.org/project/how-can-systems-thinking-enable-thebigshift/overview vi http://www.adviceuk.org.uk/systems-thinking/ vii http://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/publications/systems-thinking-an-introduction-for-oxfam-programme-staff579896 viii http://watersfoundation.org/systems-thinking/what/ ix http://www.systemicleadershipinstitute.org/systemic-leadership/theories/basic-principles-of-systems-thinkingas-applied-to-management-and-leadership-2/ x http://donellameadows.org/systems-thinking-resources/ xi https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/ xii my own ‘intellectual’ journey in this area can be seen through my wider set of publications listed (and many readily available to download) at http://oro.open.ac.uk/view/person/abl2.html xiii https://www.spheir.org.uk/ xiv http://asean.org/ microsoft word malechwanzi.docx issn: 2311-1550 2021, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 192-203 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. effects of free day secondary education policy on academic performance of rural public day secondary schools in kilifi county, kenya jorry olang’o, joseph malechwanzi, susan murage and lorna amuka puwani university, kenya abstract: the purpose of the study was to investigate the influence of free day secondary education (fdse) policy on academic performance of rural public day secondary schools (rpdss) in kilifi county, kenya. the study adopted descriptive survey research design and a sample of 375 subjects was considered sufficient. structured questionnaires and interview schedules were used to collect data from principals, teachers, and education directors. data on performance and enrolment were collected through document analysis. reliability of the instruments was ascertained through test and retest method that yielded a correlation coefficient of 0.83, an indication of reliable instruments. the study found out that there was a decrease in school mean score between 2003-2007 and 2013-2017. there was a strong positive correlation (r = 0.93) between enrollment and poor performance. further, learning resources and student finances were inadequate. the study recommends a reduction in class size, timely disbursement and increased students’ capitation. keywords: educational policies, enrolment, school resources, school performance. introduction the government of kenya officially launched the free secondary education (fse) program at the beginning of 2008 to address the plight of children from poor households who upon completion of free primary education could not get access to secondary school, mostly because of school fees. through the fse policy, the government subsidizes ksh. (kenyan shillings) 10,625 per child per year in government secondary schools. a study on the impact of fse on access to secondary education found that the fse policy had led to considerable fee reduction in public day schools (ohba, 2009). under fse parents are only responsible for payment of caution money (for new entrants), and development fees which are suggested to be a maximum of ksh. 2,500 and lunch fees; as opposed to the previous amount of a maximum of ksh. 11,000 per year as per the national guidelines for school fees. in african studies that use the household production, function approach usually differentiates between rural and urban households. rural household are often portrayed as disadvantaged in terms of having lower income and lower levels of education and, therefore, being associated with disadvantaged schooling decisions and outcomes compared with urban areas (mcmahon & oketch, 2013). public subsidization and expansion of secondary education in kenya, as in other developing countries, are taking place against a background of inadequate financial and physical resources. a survey conducted in kenya by the united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization, shows that average ratio in 162 sampled schools was 58:1 against the requirement of 40:1 (musyoka, 193 2018). such class sizes in public secondary school make it difficult for teachers to teach lessons effectively as compared to their counterparts in private schools who handle a smaller number of students. prior to implementation of free day secondary education (fdse), kilifi county rural public day secondary schools form 4 mean enrolment was 234 while mean academic performance was 3.83. after the implementation of fdse, rural public day secondary schools form 4 mean enrolment increased to 284 while mean academic performance was 3.4 as obtained from a scan of document analysis in national standardized test scores. this marked an increase in mean enrolment and a reduction in mean performance. it is against this background that the study attempted to assess the influence of fdse policy on the academic performance of rural public day secondary schools in kilifi county. statement of the problem the fdse (free day secondary education) policy was intended to make secondary education more affordable and to improve the academic achievement of learners. these were to be achieved through reduced user fees and provision of textbooks and other learning materials. this reduction in user fees was quite significant in rural public day secondary schools and led to increased enrolment (wanjala & hussein, 2017). however, increased enrolment because of fdse should be met with an increase in teaching and learning resources from government and stakeholders. this ensures effective curriculum implementation and good school academic performance. consequently, the fdse policy reduced user fees by allocating ksh. 22,244 as the annual capitation per student. the capitation is released in three installments at the ratio of 3:2:1 corresponding to term dates. reduced user fees led to increased enrolment in rural public day secondary school (rpdss), but there was no corresponding increase in teaching learning resources. consequently, increased enrolment without sufficient teaching learning resources has negatively affected the academic performance in national standardized tests. this descriptive study therefore seeks to investigate the effects of increased enrolment due to fdse policy on rpdss academic performance using the case of kilifi county in kenya, an example of an environment that experiences scarcity of resource. research questions in this regard, the following research questions guided the research: 1. what is the trend in enrolment and academic performance between 2003-2007 and 2013-2017 in rural public day secondary schools? 2. what is the effect of enrolment on academic performance in rural public day secondary schools? 3. what is the relationship between the levels of teaching learning resources and academic performance in rural public secondary schools? what is the association between students’ finance allocation and academic performance in rural public day secondary schools? significance of the study the study is a wake-up call to educators to take appropriate measures that ensure resources allocated to public day secondary schools in general and rpdss in particular do not only achieve the intended objective of improving access and retention to secondary education, but that they also yield the 194 maximum benefits possible to the students in terms of improved academic performance. the study could also be important to policy makers who may come up with policies to address areas/issues in schools and/or in the entire education system that may be a cause of poor school performance. the study may also add to the body of knowledge of secondary education management, besides filling gaps in research that could prompt other researchers to do similar studies in other regions or levels of education. theoretical framework the proposed study adopted the classical liberal theory of equal opportunity, which holds that an individual's socio-economic status (ses) is a product of the environment they live in thus nature and nurture have a bearing on an individual’s destiny. equal opportunity is a stipulation that all people should be treated similarly, unhampered by artificial barriers or prejudices except when a particular distinction can be explicitly justified. rural areas are sometimes neglected by the central government in terms of equal opportunities leading to exclusion in terms of social and economic development and this impacts negatively on education. socio-economic factors such as family income level, parents' level of education, adequacy of learning and teaching materials or resources and occupation, all influence the quality and availability of education as well as the ability of education to improve life circumstances. low social economic status and its correlates, such as lower education, poverty, and unemployment, ultimately affect a society as a whole. inequalities in wealth distribution and quality of life are increasing in the rural areas. therefore, social policies are needed in areas, such as housing, health, education and training, income support for those who cannot earn childcare, aged care, disability care, public transport, etc. these require taxation of those who can afford to pay. under classical liberalism, there is a continuing polarization of wealth. wealth is accumulated from labor and capital. therefore, as you begin to accumulate money you can make more money from that as well as earnings from your own labor. children of the wealthy not only have the advantages of better health, education, location and connections but also, finally, inherit their parents’ wealth. allowing too wide a difference in wealth and opportunity has, throughout world history, led to conflict and, finally, revolution. social and political instability is thus another danger of excessive economic liberalism (perry, hondeghem & wise, 2010). the theory was however relevant to the study as fdse is aimed at giving children from poor households an opportunity to participate in secondary education. thus, by eliminating fees the government has removed some economic barriers. fdsep has created a situation where the poor can access secondary education and be able to transit to higher levels of education or to the world of work. literature review i) student enrolment and academic performance a study by ohba (2009) on the impact of fdse on access to secondary education found that the fdse policy had led to considerable fee reduction in public day schools. under fdse, parents are only responsible for payment of caution money (for new entrants), and development fees which are suggested to be a maximum of ksh. 2,500 and lunch fees; as opposed to the previous amount of a maximum of ksh. 11,000 per year as per the national guidelines for school fees. ndambuki (2016) on administrative factors influencing the implementation of free secondary school education in public 195 secondary schools in makindu county, kenya. the study found out that there are high enrolment rates into secondary schools, which was not consistent with completion rates due to a number of challenges that included physical facilities, instructional materials, and school funds, among others (ndambuki, 2016). it was recommended that the study be extended to other counties. these studies did not assess the influence of enrolment on learners’ academic performance in rpdss in kilifi county, which this study sought to establish. ii) teaching-learning resources and academic performance availability of teaching learning resources enhances the effectiveness of schools for good academic performance in students (wanyama, 2013; mcilrath & lyons, 2012; taylor, 2009). studies on effective teaching learning technologies in botswana found that lack of relevant teaching materials caused dismal students’ academic performance (laurillard, 2013). further, atieno (2014) recommended that states should allocate more funds for improving the status and condition of physical facilities and employment of more teachers for the fdse to be effective. in kenya, there is a direct relationship between the students’ performance and availability of school physical facilities (wanjala & malechwanzi, 2016). this is in line with mwangi and nyagah (2011) who argued that good academic performance is contributed to by the availability of school buildings and other appropriate plans thus resulting in effective teaching and learning activities. poor state of school facilities greatly influences the academic performance of students. finally, as we discuss teaching learning resources, teachers’ effectiveness should not be sidelined. schools should constantly recruit, retain and retrain teachers to promote effectiveness (mulkeen, chapman, dejaeghere & leu, 2007). iii) student finance allocation and academic performance financial management determines the way the school is managed and whether or not the school will meet its objectives. the head teacher is responsible for the budgeting, accounting and auditing functions of financial management. with the introduction of free secondary education, schools get some funding from the government while parents are required to meet various other costs such as school development projects and boarding fees (james, simiyu, & riechi, 2016). wanjala and hussein (2017) studied the impact of subsidized fees on students’ access to quality education in public secondary schools of wajir county. they established that even after the introduction of subsidized fees, the enrollment rates remained low because finances to support free tuition secondary education were inadequate and delayed before disbursement. consequently, the implementation of a subsidized fees program by the government has not greatly influenced access to quality education in public secondary schools in wajir county. these studies did not assess how students’ adequacy of finances influences academic performance that the present study sought to establish. conceptual framework conceptual framework was developed to provide clear links of dependent and independent variables as they relate to each other in this study as shown in figure 1. the independent variables of learners’ enrolment, teaching learning resources and students’ finance allocation, are factors that influence academic performance (dependent variable) as noted in the reviewed literature. 196 figure 1: conceptual framework showing effect of fdse policy on academic performance methods this study employed descriptive survey research design, as it was best suited for the study since it allowed the researcher to generate both numerical and descriptive data that was used in measuring the relationship between variables as well as determining their influence on kcse mean performance. a sample of one county education officer, six principals and 68 teachers were drawn using stratified random sampling method from a population of 375 members (mugenda & mugenda, 2009). questionnaires for teachers, interview schedules for principals and county education officers and document records were the main research instruments that were used to collect data. the instruments’ validity was ascertained by pilot study and expert opinion. internal consistency was assured by correlation coefficient that yielded a value of 0.86, far above the least value of 0.70 (orodho, waweru, ndichu, & nthinguri, 2013). qualitative data were organized using relevant themes while quantitative data collected was analyzed then presented using mean, percentages and range by means of the excel computer program. further, pearson’s product moment correlation coefficient (ppmcc) was used to calculate the correlation between enrollment and school national standardized test results. research ethics were in line with the pwani university ethics and review committee. results and discussion demographic details the turnout rate was 83.8% with a slight gender disparity (male = 54% and female = 46%. the majority of respondents had a bachelor’s degree (84%) while diploma and master’s holders were 13% and 3% respectively. most respondents were under experienced (1-5 year experience were 48% while those with more than 20 years’ experience were 6%). research question 1: what was the trend in enrolment and academic performance between 20032007 and 20132017 in rural public day secondary schools? the results indicate the period 2003-2007 had an average mean score of 3.7 and the period 2013-2017 had an average mean score of 3.4. this shows a decline in performance between the two periods representing an 8.1% decline in academic performance as shown in table 1. this reduction in performance could be attributed to scarcity of necessary resources amid increased enrolment. macharia (2013) supports the study findings by singling out effective school management and teacher 197 motivation as primary determinants of overall academic performance; these factors have direct correlation with resource availability. ngaiwa (2015) who carried out a study on factors influencing academic performance in sabatia sub-county, kenya, identified lack of resources and poor commitment by teachers in performing their role in class. these findings reinforce the research findings not only on the availability of resources but efficient utilization of the scarce available resources as factors influencing mean performance in rural public day secondary schools in kilifi county. to the contrary, fdse policy has contributed to improvement in performance of day schools through provision of textbooks, other learning materials and improved attendance rates as absenteeism due to non-payment of fees had reduced (macharia, 2013). table 1: standardized test mean scores in sampled rural public day secondary school phase 1 phase 2 year mean year mean 2003 3.17 2013 3.83 2004 3.83 2014 3.83 2005 3.83 2015 3.17 2006 3.83 2016 3.17 2007 3.83 2017 3.17 average score 3.7 average score 3.4 sources: kenya national examination council results 2003-07 and 2013-17 figure 2 shows enrolment in all the six sampled schools for the periods 2003-2007 and 2013-2017 increased by 6.8% in rural public day secondary schools in kilifi county as a result of fdse policy. the results suggest that average propensity to enroll for education when opportunities arise as provided by fdse policy increases. ohba (2009) found out that abolishing secondary schools’ fees by the ugandan government shifted access patterns from limited elites to the majority of children in the country. what’s more, removal of user fees was effective in improving equitable access to education— specifically the ability to reach the poor, girls, orphans and other disadvantaged groups (figueredo & anzalone, 2003). 198 figure 2: enrolment rates between 2003-2007 and 2013-2017 in sampled schools research question 2: what is the effect of enrolment on academic performance between 20032007 and 20132017 in rural public day secondary schools? the pearson product-moment correlation coefficient (ppmcc) was used to measure the linear correlation between enrolment (x) and schools mean standardized test score (y). results show a strong positive correlation (r = 0.93) between x (enrolment) and y (mean test score). this implies that high enrollment leads to poor academic performance. the responses from the principals on influence of high enrolment on academic performance indicate that 72.2% agree with ppmcc analysis indicating that high enrolment in rural public day secondary schools in kilifi county leads to poor academic performance while 27.8 disagreed. on the other hand, 84.2% of teachers confirmed that high enrolment had a negative influence on academic performance while 15.8% disagreed. although a study done in university of kwazulu-natal concluded that an increase in enrolment of already large classes does not influence student academic achievement (ramchander & naude, 2018); gatheru (2008) concurs with the present study that rising enrolments in secondary schools strains teachers leading to a decline in academic performance. research question 3: what is the relationship between the levels of teaching learning resources on academic performance in rural public day secondary schools? responses from principals and teachers were sought on the availability of resources such as textbooks, library books, teaching aids, computer access points, laboratory apparatus, office space, classrooms, laboratories, toilets, desks, playing fields, and transport facilities. the results show that the majority of the sampled principals (an average of 67.7%) agreed that teaching learning resources were inadequate in their respective schools. the study sought to establish from teachers if rural public day secondary schools had adequate teaching learning resources. teacher noted similar results where, on average, 63.2% indicated that teaching/learning resources were unavailable in rural public day secondary schools in kilifi county. consequently, the shortfall of teaching learning resources experienced in these sample schools has strained existing resources making management of fdse policy ineffective and inefficient, causing poor academic performance in these rural public day secondary schools. 199 onyango (2001) supports this view by opining that with the introduction of free secondary education, schools over-enrolled, the resources available were constrained causing negative school academic performances. school facilities such as administrative office, staff rooms, classrooms, laboratories, workshops, equipment, stores, libraries, hostels, staff houses and school grounds must be adequate and efficiently utilized for a school to advance the learning opportunities offered to the pupils. although the present study recommends an increase in school facilities, it should be realized that increased public spending might not necessarily produce increases in education attainment and learning achievement. there must be proper reforms that aim at a more efficient use of available resources and that find sources of additional funding. well-structured public-private partnerships (ppps) can help diversify the sources of financing and provision (verspoor, 2008); and how these funds are utilized influences student academic performance (okongo, ngao, rop, & wesonga, 2015; bakari, likoko, & ndinyo, 2014). while numerous authors support the current notion that school facilities have a negative relation on academic performance, lyons (2001) disagrees with the study findings by opining that school facilities alone are not enough to improve learners’ performance. lyons’ (2001) clue is reinforced by a study conducted in botswana that showed, despite all efforts by the government of botswana to provide adequate teaching and learning resources, the students’ academic performance has continued to decline (molokomphale & mhlauli, 2014). good teachers and learner cooperation is most vital in complimenting school facilities for learners’ academic success (malechwanzi & lei, 2018). availability of teaching and learning resources enhances the effectiveness of schools for good academic performance. specifically, instructional materials used in the teaching and learning process facilitates the learning of abstract concepts and ideas, discourages rote learning and helps to stimulate and motivate learners, thereby, improving learners’ performance (atieno, 2014). studies done in kenya based on different geographical and cultural setting have also shown that the fdse policy resulted in increased enrolment, which overstretched the available teaching and learning resources, leading to poor academic performance (kipeen & kikoe, 2015; atieno, 2014). research question 4: what is the association between students’ finance allocation and academic performance in rural public day secondary schools? to answer this question, it was necessary to look at students’ capitation per year as contained in the fdse policy tabulated in table 2. the data on fdse capitation indicate that the average total cost (unit cost) per student per year was kshs 39,157. the government portion (a subsidy) of kshs 22,244 released in the ratio of 3:2:1, corresponding to school terms. the parents’ portion of the total amount of ksh. 16,952, also paid in the ratio of 3:2:1, corresponding with term dates. the views of school principals and the county director of education were sorted on the adequacy of students’ finance allocation in the fdse policy, since this has an influence on students’ academic performance. the school principals were asked to indicate whether the students were allocated adequate finance according to their needs. the county director of education was asked whether government funding for rural public day secondary schools in kilifi county was adequate. all principals and the county director of education (100%) reported that the students’ finance allocation was insufficient to meet all the direct costs required by the schools. this has affected availability of teaching learning resources 200 and other core aspects of teaching and learning, hence, having a negative effect on rural public day secondary schools’ academic performance. table 2: composition of capitation grant in rural public day secondary schools, kilifi vote head per student state subsidy (ksh.) parent fee (ksh.) total (ksh.) teaching learning materials/exam 4,792 0 4,792 repair, maintain and improvement 2,886 0 2,886 local travel and transport 1,833 0 1,833 administrative costs 1,572 0 1,572 electricity, water and conservancy 2,151 0 2,151 activity fees 1,256 0 1,256 personnel emolument (pe) 5,755 1,918 7,673 medical and insurance 1,999 0 1,999 equipment and stores 0 13,034 13,034 top-up 0 1,961 1,961 total capitation 22,244 16,952 39,157 source: ministry of education (2012). kenya’s government guidelines on fdse program in the application production theory where input to output model is analyzed, school infrastructure (input) is key to quality output-score (hulse & livingstone, 2010). the inputs include students (enrolment), direct costs (student’s capitation), and teaching learning resources, while the output is the mean academic performance. the quality, quantity and timely application of these resources in the production process produce positive results and the reverse is true, ceteris paribus. the study found out that the capitation grant does not cover all the direct costs associated with school attendance. while several recurrent costs are included, the capitation grant first excludes development expenditure (better known as capital expenditure). second, the capitation grant essentially covers direct costs for attending day school but it does not cover add-on costs, such as co-curricular activities. therefore, it is more appropriate to define the capitation grant as a form of public subsidy to education including fdse rather than the school fee abolition program. although a study done in nigeria by ebenuwa-okoh (2010) disclosed no significant difference in academic performance based on age, gender and financial status, ngaywa (2015) supports the study findings by opining that the government should fully fund secondary education to reduce the problem of school levies, lack of textbooks and to leave parents to fend for other basic needs, such as food, to improve students’ test scores. this study, therefore, concludes that full government support informed of adequate students’ financing as captured is essential for rural public day secondary schools to implement their curriculum fully and to achieve excellent academic performance. conclusion and recommendations based on the findings of the study it was concluded that the implementation of the fdse policy had a negative influence on rural public day secondary schools’ academic performance (see table 1 and 201 figure 2). this was attributed to affordability of fees, which created high demand for spaces in rural public day secondary schools in an environment with insufficient teaching learning facilities. the study findings also revealed that student capitation was inadequate, teaching learning resources, too, were inadequate in rural public secondary schools in kilifi county. the insufficiency of required resources had a negative influence on learners’ academic performance. based on the present results the following recommendations were put forth. first, the study established a declining academic performance in rural public day secondary schools due to over-enrolments, insufficient teaching learning resources, and insufficient student funds. the study therefore recommends strict guidelines on a recommended class size of 40:1 be enforced by the county director of education to minimize overcrowding and improve teacher–student interaction. second, policy makers and school management must ensure firm control measures on available resources for fdse policy to yield maximum benefits to individuals and to the nation. third, increase the current students’ annual capitation of ksh. 22,244, due to ever-rising inflation rates in kenya. fourth, the study recommends prompt disbursement of funds in full immediately as schools open in the first term to minimize shortages, especially during school openings. lastly, the study recommends creation of vote, headed by the ministry of education, on physical facilities development for rural public day secondary schools. further research directions this study targeted rural public day secondary schools in a rural setting. a similar study may be carried out in urban pubic day secondary schools to establish if similar patterns of the effects fdse policy has on rural public day secondary schools before and after the introduction of fdse exist. a similar study may be carried out in rural public day schools in other counties to establish if similar patterns of academic performance before and after introduction of fdse exist. a study should be conducted on the strategies being employed by school administrators in coping with the challenges faced in management of free day secondary education policy in rural public day secondary schools. acknowledgement: the research was entirely funded by the authors from their own personal resources, however, we appreciate all respondents and pwani university for making the research a success. conflict of interest: the authors have not declared any conflict of interest. references atieno, j. (2014). influence of teaching and learning resources on students’ performance in kenya certificate of secondary education in free day secondary education in embakasi district, kenya (unpublished thesis). university of nairobi. bakari, j., likoko, s., & ndinyo, f. (2014). effects of physical facilities on performance in kenya certificate of secondary examination in public schools in bungoma south, kenya. international journal of science and research (ijsr), 3(8), 345-348. ebenuwa-okoh, e. (2010). influence of age, financial status, and gender on academic performance among undergraduates. journal of psychology, 1(2), 99-103. figueredo, v., & anzalone, s. (2003). alternative models for secondary education in developing countries: rationale and realities. improving educational quality (ieq) project. american institute of research. 202 gatheru, k. (2008). challenges facing headteachers in the implementation of free primary education: a case of narok district. kenya (unpublished med project report). kenyatta university. hulse, d., & livingstone, j. (2010). incentive effects of bonus depreciation. journal of accounting and public policy, 29(6), 578-603. kipeen, m., & sikoe, p. (2015). challenges facing the implementation of free day secondary education in public secondary school in narok north sub county kenya (med published thesis). university of nairobi. laurillard, d. (2013). rethinking university teaching: a conversational framework for the effective use of learning technologies. routledge. lyons, j. (2001). do school facilities really impact a child's education? issuetrak. a cefpi brief on educational facility issues. macharia, p. (2013). factors influencing performance of students in kcse and management strategies for improving kcse performance in public secondary schools in nakuru district, kenya. university of nairobi. malechwanzi, j., & lei, h. (2018). the relation between college resources and learning outcomes: considering the mediating effects of student engagement. croatian journal of education, 20(3), 903-937. mcilrath, l., & lyons, a. (2012). higher education and civic engagement: comparative perspectives. springer. mcmahon , w., & oketch, m. (2013). education's effects on individual life chances and on development: an overview. british journal of educational studies, 61(1), 79-107. molokomphale, l., & mhlauli, m. (2014). an investigation on students’ academic performance for junior secondary schools in botswana. european journal of educational research, 3(3), 111-127. mugenda, o., & mugenda, a. (2009). research methods: quantitative and qualitative approaches. acts. mulkeen, a., chapman, d., dejaeghere, j., & leu, e. (2007). recruiting, retaining, and retraining secondary school teachers and principals in sub-saharan africa. world bank. musyoka, j. (2018). school based factors influencing students’ performance in kenya certificate of secondary examination in public secondary schools in kathiani sub-county (doctoral dissertation). south eastern kenya university. mwangi, n., & nyagah, g. (2013). determinants of academic performance in kenya certificate of secondary education in public secondary schools in kiambu county, kenya. journal of education and practice, 4(12). ndambuki, b. (2016). administrative factors influencing the implementation of free secondary school education in public secondary schools in makindu sub–county, makueni county, kenya (doctoral dissertation). kenyatta university. ngaywa, i. (2015). factors influencing kenya certificate of secondary education examination performance in public mixed day secondary schools in sabatia sub-county, kenya. mount kenya university. ohba, a. (2009). does free secondary education enable the poor to gain access?: a study from rural kenya. consortium for research on educational access, transitions and equity. okongo, r., ngao, g., rop, n., & wesonga, j. (2015). effect of availability of teaching and learning resources on the implementation of inclusive education in pre-school centers in nyamira north sub-county, nyamira county, kenya. journal of education and practice, 6(35). onyango, g. (2001). competencies needed by secondary school headteachers and implications on pre-service education (unpublished phd thesis). kenyatta university. orodho, j., waweru, p., ndichu, m., & nthinguri, r. (2013). basic education in kenya: focus on strategies applied to cope with school-based challenges inhibiting effective implementation of curriculum. international journal of education and research, 1(11), 1-20. perry, j. l., hondeghem, a., & wise, l. r. (2010). revisiting the motivational bases of public service: twenty years of research and an agenda for the future. public administration review, 70(5), 681-690. 203 ramchander, m., & naude, m. (2018). the relationship between increasing enrolment and student academic achievement in higher education. africa education review, 15(4), 135-151. taylor, a. (2009). linking architecture and education: sustainable design for learning environments. unm press. verspoor, a. (2008). at the crossroads: choices for secondary education in sub-saharan africa. world bank. wanjala, g., & hussein, a. (2017). impact of subsidised fees on students’ access to quality education in public secondary schools in wajir county, kenya. university of nairobi. wanjala, g., & malechwanzi, j. (2016). improving the quality of technical education through international standardization: the case of coast institute of technology, kenya. in fast forwarding higher education institutions for global challenges. springer, 185-203. wanyama, m. (2013). school based factors influencing students’ performance at kenya certificate of secondary education in narok – north district, kenya (unpublished ma thesis). university of nairobi. authors: jorry olang’o holds a master's degree in educational economics from pwani university, kenya. he is currently a full-time lecturer at pwani university and his research focuses on economics of education. email: j.olango@pu.ac.ke joseph malechwanzi holds a phd in educational economics and management from huazhong university of science and technology, china, and received a master’s in educational planning from the university of nairobi, kenya. he is currently a full-time lecturer at pwani university kenya and his research focuses on student engagement and development, educational policies, leadership, finance. he has authored seven journal articles, three books, two book chapters and has reviewed numerous manuscripts in peer refereed journals. email: j.muthiani@pu.ac.ke. susan murange holds a phd and a master's in educational administration from the university of nairobi, kenya. she is currently a full-time lecturer at pwani university kenya and her research focuses on educational administration. email: s.mwaka@pu.ac.ke lorna amuka holds a phd in educational planning from maseno university, kenya and her research interest is educational planning. email: l.amuka@pu.ac.ke cite this paper as: olang’o, j., malechwanzi, j., murange, s. & amuka, l. (2020). effects of free day secondary education policy on academic performance of rural public day secondary schools in kilifi county, kenya. journal of learning for development, 7(3), 192-203. vaal learning for development from within and beyond the reef: early implementations of open distance learning and use of open educational resources (oer) for the teaching of english in a small island state emma kruse vaái vol. 3, no. 3 abstract the following article examines the beginnings of open distance learning and use of oer by the national university of samoa faculty of education to address an identified national need for more teachers and to improve their quality.  it highlights related challenges in the training of teachers and how different and new modes of learning are not always immediately acceptable and effective for the learners. it also discusses different perceptions related to odl and oer and the need for policy developments at national and institutional levels for an integrated approach that can lead to sustainability. introduction the shortage of teachers in samoa as well as the need to improve teacher quality propelled efforts by the national university of samoa (nus) to deliver courses via open and distance learning (odl) mode. one of the initial courses prepared by two lecturers of the faculty of education for odl mode was english for primary teachers. it was first offered on campus for a first cohort, who provided feedback to the lecturers on a regular basis throughout the 12-week semester on how they regarded the course in terms of (1) understanding more about english language and literature as primary teachers, and (2) the applicability of the course content in the classroom. in the development stages of the course it became clear that a wealth of open educational resources (oer) was available online. whilst some resources were downloaded and integrated into the printed course content for on-campus, face to face delivery, it was also apparent that teachers could benefit more if they knew how to use their computers and phones to access such resources online and use them on a regular basis for their own professional development and classroom practice. nevertheless, connectivity problems in samoa continue to affect ict-generated educational developments. the course was divided into five units which covered: phonetics and phonemic awareness dictionary skills english grammar creative writing children’s literature. english is a second language to local samoans and, therefore, a basic linguistic background to the sounds of english and how they are produced was deemed essential. an introduction to the international phonetic alphabet (ipa) necessitated an early engagement with an english dictionary which had been used mainly for meanings and spelling. with ipa awareness, the significance of the phonetic representations of words and phonemic distinctions became highlighted and more meaningful. although most, if not all, teacher trainees had learnt english in school, the clarifications of grammatical rules were still very much needed for themselves and for the purposes of teaching. this unit dovetailed into creative writing for teachers with a focus on writing creative and grammatically correct texts for children, which would, in turn, encourage children to speak and write in an imaginative and grammatically correct way. the last unit for the course required extensive reading of children’s literature, which included stories, poetry, songs, nursery rhymes and other language compositions that would be effective resources for children learning how to speak, write and communicate in english. the wide range of reading materials was made available from week one with the requirement of keeping a journal to record reading texts and subsequent reflections. the underlying motive for making available these primary level reading materials was to familiarise and engage teacher trainees with resources they would later use in the classroom. providing an understanding and appreciation of such ‘texts’ was intended to encourage and secure them also as committed readers. an investigation into english literacy skills at primary schools in samoa (toneschuster, ah hoy-wright, vaafusuaga, kolone-collins, pausisi, & lauina, 2015) concluded that teachers’ lack of knowledge and skills to teach reading, together with limited resources, impacted negatively on children’s literacy levels.  many teachers were not conscientious readers and did not engage with reading resources, therefore, they did not impart a love of reading nor did they create appealing activities to motivate students to learn and excel in reading. therefore, to inundate the teachers with primary level reading material from the beginning to the end of the course was also motivated by knowledge of a south pacific book flood project conducted in fiji (elley & manghubai, 1983:55), where school children were provided consistently with numerous high-interest story books in the english language over a set period of time. after the first year the results clearly showed great improvement in word recognition and reading comprehension and, into the second year, further advancements in oral and written skills in english and other subjects were demonstrated. although the faculty of education course catered to adults, the objective was the same; to ensure that reading and engaging with the books and material of the course would also have a positive effect on students who were also teacher trainees. familiarity with and enjoyment of the reading material motivated the creation of further learning activities and imparted positive feelings and attitudes associated with reading and learning english in the classroom. moreover, some also stated that they had not had this kind of extensive reading coverage in their primary school experience,  or that many more books and stories had emerged over the years which they were not aware of so this was an opportunity to remedy `a few gaps’. constant exposure to and engagement with high-interest material relevant for the classroom also reinforced not only reading competence but also writing, speaking, correct sentence structures, and the accumulation of vocabulary in english. as also indicated by elley and mangubhai (1983), many instances of and approaches to learning english as a second language were “planned, restricted, gradual and largely artificial.” it was also noted that many teachers in primary schools in fiji and the south pacific have an imperfect mastery of the english language and, therefore, frequently provide poor models of english for their pupils.  nus teacher trainees therefore realised that much of the mundane, traditional, rote learning of english grammar, which many of them had experienced in primary school, could instead be absorbed and internalised more enjoyably by samoan children in their classrooms through reading appropriate local and overseas books in english, together with relevant interactive activities including songs, plays, poems, nursery rhymes tongue twisters and the like. moreover there was also opportunity to overlap the content, themes and vocabulary of reading materials with other subjects in the curriculum, such as math, social studies and science. for example, universal favourites, such as eric carle’s “the very hungry caterpillar”, covered aspects of nutrition, growth, time and change, in the process of learning how to read. various local legends, folk stories, fairy tales, books for young people, and modern short stories, often found in school journals and other compilations, provided insights into different cultural concepts and universal values  from current locations, other time periods  and faraway places. of the first cohort for this course delivered on campus, 73 out of 87 students successfully completed. feedback confirmed enjoyment of the course in general and the usefulness of materials for classroom teaching contributed to ease of learning a desire to access and acquire more reading material was highlighted and, because hard copies were not readily available, further lists of relevant websites with oer were provided. however, connectivity problems and hardware costs continue to be a challenge in samoa and this was also evident in course delivery to the second cohort through odl.   open and distance learning training and experience from the virtual university of the small states of the commonwealth (vussc) capacity building workshops proved useful in developing the odl materials for the same course.  mindful of  local connectivity problems; materials for the course  were loaded by the lecturers onto flash drives together with pre-recorded videos of introduction and key lectures. a course book was also printed as backup but without all the resources and content in the flash drive – particularly the downloaded oer. the wealth of available and relevant oer was most appreciated in the compilation of course materials and confirmed the aspect of reduced cost through digital access. most of the online children’s books, stories and relevant reading, together with teaching and learning materials, could be downloaded.  audio-visual broadcasts of storytelling, songs as well as english sounds articulation exercises and other aspects of grammar were also readily available. with copyright permission, e-copies of children’s stories and other material written by local authors were also included on the flash drive. because this cohort was located on another island away from the university; communication was facilitated by e-mail, phone and facebook pages, depending on individual student’s capabilities and access to various communication devices. periodic on-island visits were also facilitated by the lecturers for face-to-face consultations, repeat lectures and activities as requested. various problems were identified and discussed during these face-to-face sessions. whilst the course material needed was all on the flash drives some students had no computers, and some had no access to the talanoa  and other computer centres  of their respective villages to communicate online to  lecturers. some had no phones for texting, calling or using other communication applications for instant messaging. some schools had computer labs and connectivity which assisted immensely whilst other schools did not. others found the new mode of learning difficult as they could not always ‘get away’ from everyday commitments for independent study. moreover, they felt a sense of isolation by not having regular on-site classes together with the rest of the class. the amount of reading required was also acknowledged as a challenge. reading skills were posed as a barrier for completion and success. this situation is common, as also noted by bertram (2006) whose case study into teachers’ reading competencies in south africa revealed that, whilst the odl mode opened up access for full-time teachers living far away from the university, ‘their weak reading competences and inability to manage independent learning demands’ did not pave the way for  success. others also lamented that there ought to be more local samoan material in english which they could connect with more readily english and imported learning materials concerns have been expressed in relation to the dominance of western material online, including, for example, easy and inexpensive access to moocs, which altbach (2014) warns could inhibit the emergence of local academic culture, content and courses specially tailored for national audiences.  oer initiatives have also been criticised for promoting one-directional flows of knowledge and resources mainly from the rich north to the poor south  (glennie, harley, butcher, & van wyk, 2012 in perryman, hemmings-buckler, & seal, 2014). the case of samoa may hold similarities with other post-colonial small states and academic institutions.  although samoa was under colonial rule for 62 years before regaining independence in 1962, the strength of its social structures and the protean nature of its social dynamism enabled the society to adapt to a wide variety of foreign influences and impacts with resilience and flexibility (kruse vaai, 2011).  after regaining independence in 1962 a strong social and political  will to strengthen traditional social structures, language and culture aimed at further reaffirmation of national identity. alongside this was also an acute awareness of vulnerability in a world environment ,which could only be addressed adequately with a strong education system. to have access into and be part of the world environment, retention of english as an international language and a compulsory second language to be formally taught from primary through to secondary school is necessary.  every milestone examination requires a pass in english and certainly this is also an entry requirement into tertiary levels of study, whether local or overseas. as a small, developing, island state, samoa needs english to take part in the wider fora of international deliberations which can affect samoa. the establishment of the national university in 1984 was part of samoa’s continued development on a national and international basis.  the courses and programmes developed and offered are primarily for a national audience but the content aims to fulfil the vision that it be recognised regionally, internationally and internationally as a vibrant and innovative centre of excellence in  samoan studies, research, quality teaching and training across all disciplines. as a national institution it also addresses national human resource capacity building and training needs. the language of instruction and course content material is in english, except for some samoan and other foreign language courses. relevant local input as well as imported academic content appropriate to the aims and learning outcomes of the course and the overall aims of the university and national development plans are carefully scrutinised by the academic processes of the university. there is also a desire to be on a par as much as possible with other countries and institutions, because of student/ graduate mobility and, again, english competencies play a major part as an international language of access to knowledge and other opportunities. more important, however, is the issue of agency whereby local qualified academics and practitioners are in their own right developing course content for a particular audience, time, place and context. how they adopt, adapt, and appropriate oer reflects their own academic integrity and discernment.  in addition operating in a respectful and transparent partnership between one knowledge provider and another aligns them with professional standards and expectations. this has also been the foundation and experience of vussc, whereby the collaborative development of course content using the local expertise of small states’ professionals and practitioners, together with online access to oer, has resulted in multi-directional flows of knowledge. this multiplier effect where the collaborative creation of resource materials are in turn further adapted and contextualised in the respective countries within which they are used, is evidence of a growing confidence in small states to acquire skills and knowledge for such developments and to also participate in and take ownership of their own efforts and directions in learning for development. this validates the vussc capacity building of the small states of the commonwealth to become active contributors to the knowledge economy and leaders in educational reform. conclusion the experience of developing and compiling this english course for primary teachers for both on-campus and odl students highlighted some important realisations. firstly, it confirmed the possibilities of access through odl although, admittedly, there continue to be challenges, particularly in relation to connectivity and actual orientation and preparedness of teachers to undertake this alternative mode of learning compared to traditional face-to-face.  secondly, for the lecturers involved; the actual development of the course using local materials and expertise, as well as online oer, proved that use of oer minimised the cost of learning materials and delivery for both teachers and learners. with the development of col’s aptus or the classroom without walls technological innovation, greater access by teachers and students to oer offline would also improve access even more. however, more support is required for learners in reading and working through the content of this course. and possibly others, with english language learning materials. thirdly, the quality of learning materials for the course would always be a work in progress involving continued  improvements, the academic processes of the university for verification, as well as continued professional relationships  of sharing and exchanging knowledge  with other experts, academics and practitioners beyond the reef. concern about academic domination by externally developed open course materials and oer can be addressed by small states continuing to author, or co-research and co-author, learning resources which will, in due course, become oer for use by many others. the experience of this course development and delivery further highlighted some key issues for the development of the university as well as the country. there is a need for an ict in education policy to support both on-campus and distance education for nus. effective developments cannot be sustained by immediate, improvised responses to needs. long-term planning and development is needed for a sustainable odl mode, together with the use and creation of oer as the norm rather than the exception. integrated and supportive policy environments at a national and institutional level, which take into account financial, resource and operational requirements, ensure that all actors and beneficiaries are well informed and supportive of each other to enable the learning opportunities and benefits. the experience from other countries and institutions will be helpful for samoa as a small island nation and, as well, its national university. references altbach, p.g. (2014). moocs as neo-colonialism:  who controls knowledge? international higher education, 75, 5-7. bertram, c. (2006). exploring teachers’ reading competences: a south african case study. open learning: the journal of open, distance and e-learning, 21,5-18. elley, w.b., & manghubai, f. (1983). the effect of reading on second language learning. reading research quarterly, 19/1, 53-67. glennie, j., harley, k., butcher, n., & van wyk, t. (2012).  open educational resources and change in higher education: reflections from practice. vancouver: commonwealth of learning. kruse vaai, e. (2011). producing the text of culture: the appropriation of english in contemporary samoa. le papaigalagala: national university of samoa. perryman, l-a., hemmings-buckler, a., & seal, t. (2014). learning from tess-india’s approach to oer localisation across multiple indian states. journal of interactive media in education. retrieved from http://jime.open.ac.uk/articles/10.5334/jime.af/ tone-schuster,l., ah hoy-wright, i.,vaafusuaga, m., kolone-collins, s., pausisi, a.s., & lauina, k. (2015). a glimpse into the teaching and development of english literacy skills at primary schools in samoa. unpublished paper presentation at south pacific association for commonwealth literature and language studies (spaclals), national university of samoa, apia. author dr. emma kruse vaái is professor of english & applied linguistics at the faculty of education, national university of samoa. email: e.krusevaai@nus.edu.ws microsoft word hadjistassou.docx issn: 2311-1550 2021, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 58-73 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. (re)designing augmented reality applications to facilitate intercultural telecollaboration stella hadjistassou, maria-iosifina avgousti and petros louca kios research and innovation center of excellence, cyprus abstract: this paper draws on design-based research to develop a real-world classroom augmented reality (ar) scenario, which was accompanied by tasks used to mediate intercultural telecollaboration. it investigates the role of these tasks and ar scenario in enacting affordances to enrich students’ learning experiences, to establish a connection between classroom management techniques, their local context and future teaching practices and to promote insightful reflections on such practices. the trajectories upon which these tasks were designed were practice-oriented, where students were invited to explore three options in dealing with classroom misbehavior and reserved students. using their mobile devices, students could view in ar a classroom setting, a student’s disruptive behavior and three possible approaches in dealing with such behavior. upon exploring the three options in handling classroom misbehavior, students across the two participating academic institutions in europe could post their comments on a newly created platform, redesign. keywords: augmented reality (ar), intercultural telecollaboration, learning management system (lms), language learning. introduction in the pursuit of novel paths to leverage the constellation of constantly evolving technologies to expand the trajectories of learning, collaboration and intercultural understanding among students across academic institutions, intercultural exchanges were initiated by a pool of its, a researcher, an educational technologist a teacher trainer and applied linguists in multiple academic learning contexts in cyprus and the uk (belz & thorne, 2006; thorne, 2003; o’dowd, 2016; avgousti, 2018). in informal contexts, the avalanche of games, collaborative platforms, applications and tools have expanded exponentially the affordances and contradictions in intercultural exchanges, language learning, collaboration, cultural understanding and communication. this rich and diverse implementation of virtual exchanges across geographic locations, disciplines, modes of communication, and tools and applications, intercultural communication has also generated multiple definitions, which turned intercultural communication into a polysemous term. as o’dowd (2018) succinctly notes, the integration and diverse uses of virtual exchange in different fields of education and contexts have generated “different monikers and terminology depending on the educational context and the pedagogical focus of its practitioners” (p. 2). in this paper, virtual exchange which is also commonly referred to as intercultural telecollaboration is defined as a collaborative and interactive endeavor during which interlocutors in different geographic locations engage in exchanges mediated by different tools and applications in their pursuit of joint goals and knowledge (sadler & dooly, 2016; o’dowd, 2018). 59 launching successful intercultural telecollaboration calls for the contemplation of a constellation of decisive factors and meticulous cross-institutional planning, organization, implementation and constant evaluation and adaptation of the material and activities. intercultural telecollaboration does not involve impromptu actions but rather entails long commitment and dedication in order to achieve the required goals and outcomes. as sadler and dooly (2016) postulate, “knowing how to create optimal language learning conditions for ‘distributive knowledge’ can be a real challenge for teachers, especially creating conditions for multiple experiences of sharing and participating for their students in embedded, meaningful activities with others, both locally (for example, their classmates) and globally (for example, online peers)” (pp. 401-402). some of the interrelated variables that instructors need to contemplate when engaging in intercultural telecollaboration include institutional curricula, policies and requirements, technological infrastructure and support, academic calendars, students’ schedules, tools employed to mediate intercultural telecollaboration, the nature and duration of activities, students’ linguistic proficiency in the target language and level of motivation, instructors’ area of expertise, investment and goals. tool deployment and their everyday use are determining factors in enacting both affordances and contradictions during language learning and collaboration. as thorne (2003) postulates, these tools or artifacts are molded and defined by the users. in second and foreign language learning, a wide multiplicity of tools have been deployed including emails, instant messenger, various learning management systems, blogs, virtual worlds, skype, and games (thorne, 2003; belz, 2003; o’dowd & ritter, 2006; basharina, 2008; hadjistassou, 2016; hadjistassou & molka-danielsen, 2016; sadler & dooly, 2016). at the same time, a wide repertoire of activities and tasks were implemented during these intercultural exchanges. more recently, some studies have focused on the integration of structured activities and the design, development and deployment of novel ar technologies in second and foreign language contexts. augmented reality enacts affordances where real-world content interacts with virtual context. in their definition, ibáñez and delgado-kloos (2018) note that “augmented reality (ar) is a 3d technology which merges the physical and the digital worlds in real time” (p. 110). dunleavy, dede and mitchell (2009) postulate that ar has the capacity “to create immersive hybrid environments that combine digital and physical objects, thereby facilitating the development of processing skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, and communication through interdependent collaborative exercises” (p. 20). in their systematic literature review on the studies implementing augmented reality in educational contexts, bacca, baldiris, fabregat, graf and kinhuk (2014) note that 40.6 percent of the studies focused on the implementation of ar in science and only 21 percent of the studies in this area were in the “arts and humanities,” such as language learning. however, augmented reality needs to be explored further in order to develop a better understanding of their role and added value in second/language learning contexts. as dunleavy, dede and mitchell (2009) indicate, “we are only beginning to understand effective instructional designs for this emerging technology” (p. 20). currently, in second and foreign language, there is a limited repertoire of armediated applications designed to promote second and foreign language learning. most importantly, this line of work should be expanded within the trajectories of intercultural telecollaboration where there is limited work on the role of augmented reality and structured goal-oriented tasks in 60 mediating such artifacts to promote second language learning and collaboration that is grounded on experiential learning (see barab, tuzun, & thomas, 2005) and design-based research. to achieve this goal, augmented reality application should be designed, developed and deployed based on the students’ specific learning needs and challenges that emerge from actual everyday professional practices. research questions drawing on this need to explore the role of augmented reality applications during intercultural exchanges, this paper describes a novel initiative undertaken to design and integrate ar scenarios to facilitate long-distance exchanges among students in the uk and cyprus during the academic year of 2018 and 2019. the focus is placed on the “disruptive student application” and students’ reflections on the redesign platform. the study addresses the following research questions: (1) how can design-based research be adopted to design and develop an ar application that draw on real-life classroom practices to promote reflections on disruptive classroom behavior during intercultural exchanges? (2) how can this ar application be used to enact affordances for reflective comments among students across academic institutions on disruptive classroom behavior? theoretical underpinnings and research in intercultural collaboration delving into the complex ecology of intercultural telecollaboration warrants the need to examine the underlying mechanisms which contribute to the enactment of affordances as learners explore and deploy tools and applications to innovate; navigate through and participate in the complex terrain of communication that emerges in virtual contexts; build new meaning, discourses and knowledge; interact with other online users and technology; and construct new skills. van lier (2006) defines an affordance as “a relationship between an organism (a learner, in our case) and the environment, that signals opportunity for or inhibition of action. the environment includes all physical, social and symbolic affordances that provide grounds for activity” (pp. 4-5). in ecology, the nature of tasks used to mediate such exchanges, their authenticity, the type and design of tools and applications, their availability, accessibility and appropriateness, and students’ learning needs, as well as the pedagogy driving the use of these technologies, needs to be examined. ecology invites the investigation of the context in which the activity actually emerges, as well as the processes, actions and cultural artifacts that help build this knowledge. in this ecosystem, classrooms, formal institutional environments and teacher-led instruction are not the sole providers of knowledge. virtual environments mediated by different tools and applications can also afford constructive affordances for learning, interaction and skill building. as a result, their design should be embedded in real-world practices, as they emerge in actual contexts. intercultural exchanges are facilitated and realised by these different tools and, at the same time, they extend the trajectories of context and action beyond the institutionally and geographically contingent boundaries. however, intercultural exchanges are neither linear nor devoid of the cultural and historical contexts in which they unfold. thorne (2003) indicates that intercultural collaborations are contingent upon “the cultures-of-use of internet communication tools, their perceived existence and on-going construction as distinctive cultural artifacts, differs interculturally just as communicative genre, pragmatics, and institutional context would be expected to differ interculturally” (p. 38). 61 within these theoretical trajectories, then the design and deployment of such tools is culturally embedded and often driven by real-world practices that also have an impact on the learning processes (see barab & squire, 2004). for instance, “design-based research involves introducing innovations into the booming, buzzing confusion of real-world practice (as opposed to constrained laboratory contexts)” (brown, 1992, p. 92) and at same time investigating the impact of this design work on learning (see also barab & squire, 2004). apart from these culturally contingent tools and applications, tasks can form culturally mediated artifacts that can facilitate or impede intercultural telecollaboration. in this case, institutionallyembedded intercultural telecollaboration, well-structured and implemented tasks offer an added value in immersing students in intercultural telecollaboration and contributing to their engagement in the pursuit of joint goals. their alignment with the curricula, instructional material, course goals and objectives also play a core role in the design of these activities. the design and implementation of specific tasks during intercultural telecollaboration varies from well-structured tasks to hands-on approaches and flexibility in the type of tools used to mediate the communications, instructors’ roles, goals, and materials. building on their twelve-year study of fruitful engagement in intercultural collaboration, sadler and dooly (2016) provide a total of eight principles guiding their practice: (a) effective student preparation on activities, expectations and enhancement of cultural understanding; (b) emphasis on the value of engagement in intercultural collaboration; (c) advance introduction to proper online etiquette; (d) allocation and design of ice-breaker activities; (e) advance scheduling of group work based on students’ schedules; (f) gradual integration of simple to more complex tasks; (g) self-monitoring of their own progress; and (h) evaluation of one’s work and fellow students’ evaluation. type of activities designed and integrated to mediate intercultural telecollaboration as chapelle (2007) succinctly notes, language teachers strive to become acquainted with and use specific software and the development of learning tasks that can be mediated by new technologies. however, chapelle (2007) warns that “judgements about what learners might do as they work on particular call activities, which are sometimes captured in the names of those activities (e.g., drill, quiz, communication task), do not necessarily denote that students will actually do with activities” (p. 35). in a similar vein, cultural-historical activity theory distinguishes between tasks and activities (lantolf & throne, 2006). building on these theoretical trajectories, sykes and reihardt (2013) advocate that “all human activity is mediated by artifacts, whether language, experience, or tools such as tasks. each individual brings varying motives, which are usually socially constructed, to a particular activity… if learners’ interpretations of a task do not align with those of the instructor and curriculum, the outcome may be counterproductive for future experiences” (p. 17). carefully designed authentic tasks can enact affordances to engage language learners in culturally and linguistically rich learning experiences and promote agency. in intercultural telecollaboration, there is a rich tapestry of tools and tasks integrated during collaborations among participants in geographically distant locations. for instance, thorne (2003) delves into the use of “chat” sessions in preparation for engagement in intercultural exchanges with lyceé students in france on socially and culturally impassionate issues, racism and stereotypes 62 emerging through movies. chen and yang (2014) describe the use of weblogs, iearn forums, emails and skype among students from taiwan and dubai and taiwan and the united states who collaboratively composed, posted and offered feedback on folk tales in the project forum, exchanged folk stories with peers in pakistan, and exchanged emails on topics of their choice with students in the united states. ryshina-pankova (2018) discusses the integration of blogs and websites during intercultural exchanges among american and german students where participants were exposed to journalistic articles and movies on socially and culturally salient topics, such as “soccer patriotism and national identity” (p. 224), and engaged in chat discussions, which guided in contextualizing these heated topics, and questions on the reading assignments, personal experiences and attitude towards these issues. hadjistassou and molka-danielsen (20016) discuss the enactment of a murder mystery in the chatterdale village in opensim while students in austria and germany solve a murder mystery. the tasks include written reports, collaborative work and interaction with virtual characters and distant partners. virtual learning environments imposed a greater challenge on educators since the nature of the environment often diverted students’ attention, so tasks needed to be structured and explicit, with clear guidelines, and often required the use of alternative tools such as skype, email and facebook. the cross and interdisciplinary integrations of intercultural exchange, diverse nature and institutional, discipline, teaching and research fragmentation, generated a rich and heterogeneous repertoire of tasks, which were afforded by the multiplicity and increasingly more sophisticated and demanding tools. despite the promising and diverse outcomes, in second and foreign language learning contexts, limited attention has been given to augmented reality (ar) and its integration in intercultural telecollaboration. the benefits and implementation of augmented reality applications in education augmented reality leverages increasingly more complex and advanced hardware and software to merge real-world content and virtual data, which helps enact interactive, immersive and engaging visual experiences for users. as carmigniani, furht, anisetti, ceravolo, diamani and ivkovic (2011) postulate, “ar enhances the user’s perception of and interaction with the real world” (p. 342). apart from stem subjects, where ar has been deployed more recently, some attention has been placed on language learning (see bacca, et al, 2014 for a systematic review of research in the field). godwin-jones (2016) succinctly notes that “through its ability to use add-on digital assets to explore and expand scenes and locales from the real world, there is an obvious connection between ar and current theories of second language acquisition which emphasize localized, contextual learning and meaningful connections to the real world” (p. 9). dunleavy, dede and mitchell (2009) postulate that ar has the capacity “to create immersive hybrid environments that combine digital and physical objects, thereby facilitating the development of processing skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, and communication through interdependent collaborative exercises” (p. 20). in second and foreign language contexts, ar can offer a path to expand the boundaries of traditional teaching by transcending the boundaries of engagement, interaction and participating and adding virtual objects to the learners’ physical environment. kessler (2018) indicates that ar will continue to facilitate “contextualized, motivating, and collaborative learning experiences in which learners use – and enjoy using – the language while simultaneously developing sociopragmatic and intercultural competence” (p. 212). 63 multiple studies have indicated that ar activities can contribute to enhancing performance and developing a positive approach toward ar activities, experiencing learning through game-like activities, visualizing and exploring abstract and complex constructs, developing an in-depth understanding of instructional material and enhancing student motivation (see barreira, bessa, pereira, adão, peres & magalhães, 2012; ibáñez & delgado-kloos, 2018; kessler, 2018). in second/foreign language teaching, students enhanced their spanish pragmatics through game-driven activities while solving a murder in albuquerque, new mexico (holden & sykes, 2011). using aris, holden and sykes (2011) developed a mystery where students were invited to “solve the prohibitionera murder of dionisio silve in order to clear their family’s name and absolve the family of any guilt”(p. 6). students were offered opportunities to practise the target language, spanish, while interacting with fictional characters that could help them solve the mystery. cervi-wilson and brick (2018) report on the integration of imparapp to engage low intermediate level learners of italian in an imaginary mystery where they are invited during a pilot play-test to travel back in time to experience coventry during the roman empire. ho, hsieh, sun and chen (2017) implemented augmented reality in a ubiquitous learning instruction system (ul-iar) for android smartphones, where integrated learning strategies, along with quizzes, were used to examine their role on users’ learning performance and “whether cognitive styles and learning strategies affect learning performance when using ul-iar” (p. 184). ho et al (2017) conclude that ul-iar facilitates learning of the target language, english, in actual real-life settings which enhances learners’ level of understanding of vocabulary and learning experiences. further, as ho et al (2017) demonstrate, accommodating language learners’ cognitive styles, can result in different performance in implementing ul-iar. liu and tsai (2013) developed ar-mediated material that generated visual descriptions, such as descriptions of buildings, when the five participants pointed at specific directions through the use of their cell phones. their goal was to examine the role of ar-mediated mobile applications in guiding english as a foreign-language learners in composing english essays. liu and tsai (2013) concluded that “participants were engaged in the learning scenario, constructed linguistic and content knowledge, and produced meaningful essays” (p. e4). these studies have generated some insightful and promising findings in the role of augmented reality in expanding the ecology of second and foreign language contexts and enacting opportunities for more enlivened and immersive learning experiences where the actual environment and virtual context intertwine to motivate and cognitively engage learners in this learning process. however, there is still a gap in ar-driven activities that are designed using design-based research, are embedded in real-world teaching practices and guide in dealing with emerging challenges in second/foreign language teaching. in this study, particular attention was placed on the design of the ar-mediated applications that could enact affordances for intercultural telecollaboration, engagement, and were in alignment with students’ learning needs and their academic curricula. at the same time, the conviction was that the applications should be enacted on real-world participation in teaching practices which could also be perceived as experiential learning (see barab, tuzun, & thomas, 2005). that is, the application drew on everyday practices that emerge in dealing with common teaching challenges encountered by the vast majority of teachers once they start teaching and students’ reflection on this challenge. the aim was to integrate into the curricula joint lectures, tasks, 64 intercultural exchanges and enrich students’ learning with ar-driven activities that could enact affordances for experiential, real-world learning. methods research design first design-based research was adopted in the design and development of an ar application that was galvanised by real-life practices, as they unfold in actual teaching contexts. the aim was to examine the impact of these newly developed ar applications in promoting practices that inform and reinforce the teaching practice in meaningful and productive ways (see barab, tuzun & thomas, 2005; brown, 1992; collins, 1992). the underlying mechanisms driving the design of the ar application were the development of game-like experiences where the elements of play, exploration, challenge and tensions emerging in actual teaching contexts could be implemented to design a real-world classroom environment with its everyday contradictions and teaching practices. ar is the culturally-driven artifact that mediates these classroom-based practices and enacts affordances for critical thinking and reflection on what the most appropriate path of action should be in order to overcome such practical challenges. second, to develop a better understanding on how the newly developed ar application, accompanied by task-driven activities, enacted affordances for contemplating and reflecting on effective techniques in dealing with disruptive behavior, students’ reflections on the redesign platform were examined. data collection the data on the redesign platform included students’ written responses and reflections in addressing effectively disruptive student behavior. reflection offers a path to “make new sense of the situations of uncertainty or uniqueness” (schon, 1983, p. 61). reflection can emerge during the actual teaching practice or as a practice promoted during college education or participation in higher education contexts. in this paper, emphasis is placed on the latter in order to examine behavioral management, which has formed the subject of many studies (see yost & mosca, 2003; yoon-joo & shin, 2009). however, in this study reflection on behavioral management is mediated by augmented reality and a learning management system during intercultural exchanges. data collection procedures the written data were collected and analyzed using qualitative measures of analysis. more precisely, students’ written responses on the redesign platform were analyzed to understand the role of goaloriented activities, which were accompanied by the ar-driven applications, in enacting affordances during intercultural telecollaboration, to engage in productive, thought-provoking discussions and reflections on techniques in dealing with disruptive student behavior. participants during the spring semester of 2019, nine first-year college students pursuing a teaching degree at a public academic institution in cyprus and six of their peers enrolled in a professional development course in teaching chinese as a second language (tcsl) in an academic institution in a county in east riding of yorkshire participated in this study. there were seven female and two male students in the academic institution in cyprus and six chinese female students in the uk academic institution. students were mainly exposed to traditional teaching methods but were eager to experiment with 65 novel tools and examine the prospect of their implementation in second and foreign language learning. none of the students had previously engaged with ar technologies in other courses. all students had smartphones and/or other portable devices. students had an opportunity to experiment with smartphones and use qr codes to access course material, presentations and other related information for this course. before launching these intercultural exchanges, an interdisciplinary pool of scholars across europe comprised of an educational technologist, three information technologists, an adept teacher trainer, four university-level faculty and a research fellow joined forces to design a learning management platform, the redesign platform, and a series of ar-mediated activities that would form an integral part of their curricula and promote constructive strategies in dealing with disruptive student behavior. the design of the disruptive student ar-driven application drawing on principles of design-based research, this ar application built on real-world teaching practice in dealing with an emerging challenge that most educators encounter in their teaching practice. the aim was to design an ar application that would inform practice and engage future teaching practitioners in the complexities and contradictions of the actual teaching practice in meaningful and constructive ways. the ar application provided an engaging context to stipulate conditions for participation, cognitive engagement and critical thinking on effective strategies for classroom management. it could also be argued that it offered a path to students to envision themselves as professionals who need to make critical classroom management decisions. it also promoted a better understanding of the available options and their implications in dealing with disruptive behavior. in this case, three options were designed to invite participants in dealing with students’ use of cell phones during class instruction. first, a classroom was created in ar simulating a traditional classroom environment in ar which featured the following objects: • five characters (a female teacher and four male students) • a blackboard • a whiteboard featuring the project’s logo, redesign • four student desks and a teacher desk • four blue backpacks • a ziploc bag • a cell phone • fourteen interactive buttons • six-user interface featuring information on the screen such as guidelines on how to start navigating through this ar application 66 figure 1: third ar-mediated scenario of the disruptive student application to enact more interactive and engaging ar-mediated environments that would become a vehicle for considering different options in classroom management techniques, the ar scenario was enriched with three different options and dialogue between a disruptive student and a teacher. it featured a female teacher delivering her lesson in class, and suddenly a student’s cell phone rings and he picks it up. students were invited to identify the best possible way in dealing with cell-phone use in the classroom. in fig. 1, the third option in dealing with disruptive student behavior is demonstrated. first approach: t: welcome to this exciting learning module. s: [the phone rings in class and the student picks it up] t: interesting conversation isn’t it? no, you are alright. do carry on. you probably won’t pass this module. second approach: s: [the phone rings in class and the student picks it up] hey, what’s up? t: hmm…[the teacher turns around and ignores the student] third approach: s: [the phone rings in class and the student picks it up] t: would you hang up the phone and place it away? s: [the student hangs up the phone and apologizes (text)] t: [grabs the phone and places it in a ziploc bag on her desk]. 67 the implementation of the ar scenarios multiple tasks and activities formed part of these intercultural exchanges; however, due to space limitations particular emphasis is placed on the ar activities. in the spring of 2019, all planned activities were successfully realised, so students in both academic institutions collectively explored the potential of ar during intercultural exchanges. this application placed emphasis on culturally appropriate classroom behavior, culturally responsive pedagogy and student engagement (see table 1.). that is, the focus was placed on experiential, real-world teaching challenges. the tasks were placed on a newly developed learning management system, redesign, that was designed to feature multiple tools of social networking sites, such as facebook and could be implemented across the participating academic institutions. as demonstrated in fig. 2, some of its tools accessible to the participating instructors included posts, attachments, lectures, assignments, groups, and students. figure 2: the newly designed redesign platform under assignments, a set of collaborative tasks and activities were included. for example, the task listed in table 1 below was included which was then posted and shared on the students’ wall. in return, students could post and share their prompts on their wall. all participating instructors and students could view and respond to these postings. specific guidelines, links and a handout, with the target image, were provided to all students in class and about fifteen minutes were allocated to guide students in exploring the different features of this ar application. 68 table 1: tasks implemented during the spring semester of 2019 ar application: task disruptive student application multiple strategies have been developed for dealing with disruptive students in a classroom context. in this ar app, three different scenarios are portrayed in dealing with disruptive students. based on your cultural background, how appropriate or acceptable is to be disruptive in class? what is appropriate behavior in a classroom context? on the other hand, how do you deal with students that don’t speak at all in class? what kind of activities would you implement to encourage student engagement? within a few seconds after introducing this ar application, a handful of students eagerly deployed their mobile devices to project the interactive ar application on the target image, zooming in on the teacher, four students, the classroom environment and artifacts projected in this ar classroom context. even though the ar application featured specific written guidelines on how to start and navigate through the three different approaches in dealing with a disruptive student, some students struggled with identifying pressing interactive virtual buttons in order to proceed with the following two scenarios. however, some of their peers freely interacted with the interactive buttons, swiftly discovering and exploring the three approaches projected by the ar application. data analysis and results in total, for this particular ar task, there were 15 written responses ranging from 23 lines to just one response reaching only two lines. in the case of chinese as a second language teachers, four participants noted that they perceived classroom misbehavior as conduct or actions that inhibited the flow of classroom instruction. any behavior that did not interfere with the flow of classroom instruction or procedure was acceptable. as sun notes, “as long as it is not a serious impact on the class order, does not affect the normal progress of the lecture or other people to learn, other disruptive behavior i can accept [it].” yun even perceived that some disruptive behavior could enact a more live classroom environment and time should be allocated for discussions and questions (lines 1-2). heterogenous groups and questions to boost confidence are some of the steps that yun proposes. interestingly, yun also acknowledges that she teaches chinese as a second language courses and discusses some of the strategies that she implements to encourage students to speak in class, i.e., through a performance step. however, yun is deterred by multiple disruptive students when organizing and delivering activities. (1) yun: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 some naughty students can liven up the classroom atmosphere. give students time to discuss freely. at that time, they are free to discuss and ask questions. but they can’t discuss problems not relevant to the course and can’t walk around. i will ask questions that match their level and help them build confidence step by step. group shy students with talkative students. using the power of the peers. i can use some lovely draw lots software. suitable for the students' personal character. in my ci course, my student is not good at chinese speaking. so i often set a performance step to encourage my student to speak. if there are a lot of naughty students, i will not organize a lot of activities to move…. 69 there is a sharp contrast with what chinese students perceive as behavior that can potentially enact affordances for lightening up the classroom atmosphere and promoting free discussions and what greek-cypriot students perceive as distracting behavior. six out of the nine greek-cypriot students made explicit references to their cultural context and students’ misconduct in class. unlike chinese contexts, in a typical greek-cypriot classroom context, as emmelia succinctly describes, teachers experience instances of stress, lack of concentration, defiance and disrespect (excerpt 2, lines 1-4). teachers waste invaluable classroom time to implement effective classroom management techniques (lines 4-6). unlike their chinese counterparts, greek-cypriot students appear to value silence during individual and collaborative tasks and adherence to classroom rules and procedures. they also identify the lack or limited student preparation as a hindering mechanism during in-class activities. (2) emmelia: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 sometimes there is a disruption in the classroom. students are anxious and do not concentrate on the lesson. this situation is often presented in schools in cyprus, as there are in many cases students who overlook their teachers and are behaving badly towards them. this behavior influences the consistency of the lesson as the teacher wastes time from teaching to calm this kind of students. on the contrary, a proper classroom behavior is for students to work silently in their team and individual tasks. furthermore, students obey their teacher and respect him or her. students do not chat with other students and there are rules in the classroom that they should follow or at least try to. kirk explicitly acknowledges the use of cell phones in class and notes that disruptive behavior is so entrenched in the greek-cypriot culture and students are accustomed to teachers’ intervention strategies or simply decide to ignore classroom misconduct, so he concludes that it is culturally acceptable to misbehave in class (lines 1-9). as kirk agues, college-level instructors simply avoid implementing any classroom management strategies to stop classroom misconduct. (3) kirk: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 for example, they talk to their classmates , or they talk on the phone while the professor is doing the lesson. i think that although in primary and high school , teachers are more severe and make observations [criticism] to children when they have an inappropriate behavior , often tend to ignore some inappropriate behavior. also , if you go to a university…you will understand that although professors want to have students with appropriate behavior, when they have students with bad behavior i observed that they keep up with this data [disruptive behavior] without trying to change the situations. those are the reasons that make me believe that in my culture it is acceptable to have an inappropriate behavior finally. 70 unlike some of the greek-cypriot students’ culturally embedded practices emerging from everyday experiences and classroom misconduct, both chinese and greek-cypriot students appear to identify similar strategies in engaging reserved students. building self-confidence, a relaxed and secure classroom environment and engaging students either through questions, teamwork, or through the use of different tools are some common strategies that students across academic institutions discuss. for instance, in (3), ruomei notes that she would raise questions, implement ice-breaker activities, promote competitive activities and offer incentives to galvanize students’ interest (lines 5-7). (4) ruomei: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 if i meet a student who does not like to talk, i will give him some simple questions and try to let him answer them, so as to increase his selfconfidence. what kind of activities would you implement to encourage student engagement? i think the first ice-breaking game is necessary to let people know each other better and ease the embarrassing atmosphere. at the same time, i also think that holding small competitions and setting certain incentives can also stimulate students' interest in participation, such as reviewing the content of this lesson by using games at the end of each lesson discussion of results this ar-mediated scenario constituted an effort to design an environment that could inform the teaching practice and engage future practitioners in meaningful and constructive ways. at the same time, it placed students in the teacher’s shoes inviting them to reflect on the culturally-driven tensions emerging from disruptive student behavior. therefore, the design of ar activities invited the use of this institutional context to address a significant classroom management problem: disruptive student behavior. in essence, it could be argued that it offered a path for experiential learning by bridging the gap between institutional knowledge and the actual teaching practice. at the same time, it enacted affordances for transnational exchanges, effective analysis and reflections on effective classroom management practices, frequent and often culturally anticipated and tolerated disruptive behavior from elementary school to college, constructive approaches and techniques in dealing with disruptive students and steps in creating a classroom environment to engage shy students. as kolb (1984) and barab et al (2005) advocate, action and reflection are integral elements of meaningful and constructive learning. in the case of greek-cypriot students, students have not engaged in any teaching practicum but are consciously aware and experience in college disruptive student behavior and their professors’ approaches in real-life situations. consequently, this ar application is culturally relevant, and they acknowledge that, whether involving cell phone use, or engagement in discussions on irrelevant topics, loud exchanges, disruptive talk or other forms of disruptive behavior, these are everyday practices that are culturally ingrained and many professors in college consciously choose to ignore them. greek-cypriot students can directly relate to the three scenarios, anticipate such disruptive behavior and reflect on what they perceive the best possible course of action would be in overcoming classroom misconduct. the educational culture in cyprus faces similar challenges in classroom misbehavior like academic institutions in the united states (see ding, li, li, & kulm, 2008) with 71 invaluable classroom time lost to implement classroom management techniques. this is probably one of the underlying reasons that greek-cypriot students’ responses are passionate and pay emphasis to the local context. in china, on the other hand, teachers are reportedly confronted with a different set of challenges in disruptive behavior including daydreaming, passiveness and inattentiveness. chinese students are more reserved in raising questions since they believe that unintelligent questions waste invaluable classroom time (ding et al, 2008). as result, chinese students in this study appear to value some “naughty” student behavior, raising relevant questions about cooperation in class and passive misbehavior. however, they highlight the importance of the relevance of all questions to the instructional material. in contrast, the greek cypriot students seem to value silence. both the chinese and greek cypriot students propose a similar set of strategies for engaging students who do not speak in class, such as planning engaging activities, forming heterogeneous groups and other fun activities. in this case, shyness and avoidance in raising unintelligent questions in class are salient for chinese students. this is in direct contrast to cyprus, where students raise questions or solicit clarifications in class. pedagogical implications and conclusion drawing on design-based research principles, the design of ar application for intercultural telecollaboration has important pedagogical implications. first, educators can contemplate the cultural and pedagogical relevance of enacting such scenarios and their role in enriching students’ learning experiences. at the same time, they can guide in the development of theory from practice and “inform practice and practitioners in meaningful ways” (roth, 1998, p. xvii). as indicated in this study, ar can offer a new path to augment students’ experiences through virtual objects, personas, sound-enhanced content and the enactment of real-life environments inspired by real-life classroom contexts. students who have not participated in practicum experiences and have no teaching experience can envision themselves as teachers by experimenting with these ar-mediated scenarios and understanding that they have different options in dealing with both disruptive behavior and taciturn students. at the same time, students who have participated in teaching practicum experiences can view the different options in dealing effectively with disruptive behavior. second, ar scenarios can promote culturally-embedded reflections and insightful thinking into effective classroom management practices to eliminate disruptive behavior and engage reserved students. drawing on everyday culturally-oriented practices, students can explore such scenarios to reflect on what they perceive as appropriate or inappropriate classroom behavior and their course of action in dealing with such behavior. at the same time, the scenarios can capture culturally valued practices in dealing with disruptive behavior. in the case of the chinese students, it appears that they value student engagement, agency and initiation of questions as long as they are related to the instructional material. this behavior can enhance students’ overall and productive participation and potential development. for the greek-cypriot students, on the other hand, silence and respect appear to be valued more. in the case of silent students, techniques to foster engagement and participation appear to be valued by both the greek-cypriot and chinese students. 72 references bacca, j., baldiris, s. fabregat, r., graf, s., & kinhuk (2014). augmented reality trends in education: a systematic review of research and applications. educational technology and society, 17(4), 133-149. barab, s. a., & squire, k. (2004). design-based research: putting a stake in the ground. journal of learning sciences, 13(1), 1-14. barab, s. a., tuzun, h., & thomas, m. (2005). making learning fun: quest atlantis, a game without guns. educational technology research and development, 5(1), 86-108. brown, a. l. (1992). design experiments: theoretical and methodological challenges in creating complex interventions in classroom settings. the journal of the learning sciences, 2(2), 141-178. carmigniani, j., furht, b., anisetti, m., ceravolo, p., diamani, e., & ivkovic, m. (2011). augmented reality technologies, systems and applications. multimedia tools and applications, 51, 341-377. cervi-wilson, t., & brick, b. (2018). imparapp: italian language learning with mit’s taleblazer mobile app. in f. rosell-aguilar, t. beaven & m. fuertes gutiérrez (eds.), innovative language teaching and learning at university: integrating information learning into formal language education. chapelle, c. (2007). challenges in evaluation of innovation: observations from technology and research. innovation in language learning and teaching, 1(1), 30-45. chen, s. c., & yang, j. j. (2014). fostering foreign language learning through technology-enhanced intercultural projects. language learning & technology, 18(1), 57-75. collins, a. (1992). toward a design science of education. in e. scanlon & t. o’shea (eds.), proceedings of the nato advanced research workshop on new directions in advanced educational technology (pp. 15–22). springer. ding, m., li, y., li, x., & kulm, g. (2008). chinese teachers’ perception of students’ classroom misbehavior. educational psychology, 28(3), 305-324. dunleavy, m., dede, c., & mitchell, r. (2009). affordances and limitations of immersive participatory augmented reality simulations for teaching and learning. journal of science education & technology, 18, 7-22. godwin-jones, r. (2016). emerging technologies: augmented reality and language learning: from annotated vocabulary to place-based mobile games. language learning & technology, 20(3), 9-19. hadjistassou, s., & molka-danielsen, j. (2016). an experienced austrian educator’s view on the 3d skills implemented to design and integrate an alien mystery in opensim. international journal of computer-assisted language learning and teaching, 6(4), 56-74. ho, s., hsieh, s., sun, p., & chen, c. (2017). to activate english learning: listen and speak in real life context with an ar featured u-learning system. educational technology and science, 20(2), 176-187. holden, c., & sykes, j. (2011). leveraging mobile games for place-based language learning. international journal of game-based learning, 1(2), 1-18. ibáñez, m. b., & delgado-kloos, c. (2018). augmented reality in stem learning: a systemic review. computers & education, 123, 109-123. kessler, g. (2018). technology and the future of language teaching. foreign language annals, 51, 205-218. lantolf, j. p., & thorne, s. l. (2006). sociocultural theory and the genesis of second language development. oxford university press. 73 liu, p. e., & tsai, m. (2013). using augmented-reality-based mobile learning material in efl english composition: an exploratory case study. british journal of educational technology, 44(1), e1–e4. o’dowd, r. (2018). from telecollaboration to virtual exchange: state-of-the-art and the role of unicollaboration in moving forward. journal of virtual exchange, 1, 1-23. ryshina-pankova, m. (2018). discourse moves and intercultural communicative competence in telecollaborative chats. language learning & technology, 22(1), 218-239. sadler, r., & dooly, m. (2016). twelve years of telecollaboration: what we have learnt. elt journal, 70(2), 401413. schon, d. a. (1983). the reflective practitioner: how professionals think in action. basic books. sykes, j. e., & reinhardt, j. (2013). language at play: digital games in second and foreign language teaching and learning. pearson. thorne, s. l. (2003). artifacts and cultures-of-use in intercultural communication. language learning & technology, 7(2), 38-67. yoon-joo, l., & shin, m. (2009). rethinking reflective practices in teacher education through looking at in-service teachers’ experiences. asia-pacific journal of research in early childhood education, 3(2), 3-21. yost, d. s., & mosca, f. j. (2003). the e.n.a.c.t. model: enhancing teacher candidates’ ability to manage student behavior. teacher education and special education, 26(4), 349-355. authors: dr stella hadjistassou is a research fellow at the kios research and innovation center of excellence. previously, she served as acting director of the language center at ucy for two years, where she was also a visiting lecturer. she also holds a ph.d. in rhetoric/composition and linguistics (with a focus on call) from arizona state university, as well as an mtesol degree and a bachelor’s degree in english literature. she specializes in computer-enhanced language learning, applied linguistics, social virtualities, augmented reality, ecological perspectives in language teaching and learning in multimodal learning environments, and cultural-historical activity theory (chat). stella has taught multiple conventional, hybrid, and online courses in the united states and in cyprus in second language teaching and technology, teaching methodology, research methods, sociolinguistics, and english as a second language. she has also published in the areas of computer-enhanced language learning. she has coordinated, led and collaborated in various nationally and european funded projects related to social virtualities, augmented reality, cmc, and chat. further, she participates in several studies on the use of web 2.0 tools and applications, ar apps, and i-pad applications for teacher training and learning. email: stella1@asu.edu maria-iosifina avgousti works at the kios research and innovation center of excellence, university of cyprus. email: mariaiosifina@yahoo.co.uk petros louca works at the kios research and innovation center of excellence, university of cyprus. email: louca.petros@ucy.ac.cy cite this paper as: hadjistassou, s., avgousti, m-i., & louca, p. (2020). (re)designing augmented reality applications to facilitate intercultural telecollaboration. journal of learning for development, 8(1), 58-73. microsoft word ostashewski.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 184-195 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. moocifying courses: delivery of a mooc to enhance university course activities nathaniel ostashewski1, jennifer howell2 and jon dron1 1 athabasca university, canada 2 curtin university, australia abstract: since 2012 moocs have been heralded as a new way of learning outside of formal university programs of study and there has been much speculation regarding their impact. while moocs have provided millions of global learners with access to courses, they failed to deliver the types of learning experiences and completion requirements that were hoped for. one potential iteration of moocs might be to blend them with existing courses offered in universities supporting links and connections between study and the outside world. this moocification of full-fee courses may provide another next step in the delivery of real and authentic learning. using an empirical case study design, this project explored the moocification of an undergraduate preservice education course at an australian university. the study presents evidence that blending moocs with classroom-based or online learning does provide higher education learners with personalized active learning opportunities. further research on scaffolded support enabling learners to capitalize on additional aspects of networked learning in moocs is needed. keywords: moocs, elearning. introduction online learning is not evolving organically. instead, online learning is being driven by multi-national, billion-dollar technology companies who stand to make immense profit should there be a global move from traditional methods of teaching and learning to online learning. (davies, 2012, p. 3) davies (2012) suggests that traditional purveyors of higher education, such as universities, may soon face new competition for their share of the student market. already, the emergence of moocs has seen a rise in the number of companies stepping into the post-formal schooling space (butin, 2012; nicoara, 2013). companies such as udacity, edx and coursera offer mooc-type study alternatives, and, globally, more companies are entering the online learning provider marketplace. mooc-type is the best fit description of these offerings, as they are already having to adapt into something quite different from moocs that initially emerged in 2009. in response higher education has not been quiet or complacent as many universities have launched courses into this mooc space. harvard and mit were two of the first institutions heavily involved in moocs (butin, 2012), but today many universities have explored what moocs could provide. other institutions, such as stanford, have focussed on providing open education resources (oers) via online platforms such as apple’s itunes. with increasing global demand for high education opportunities, increasing adoption of oers, and the cost of building campuses, moocs and mooc-type learning will become a permanent 185 part of the higher education landscape. the research presented in this article describes an adaptation of moocs that can provide value to the research being done in this evolving area of online learning. it is not only the fear of losing market share that should alarm higher education, it is the type of learning that students are enthusiastically taking up and expecting to participate in, which is very different from the offerings that they experience within formal programs of study (davies, 2012; nicoara, 2013). whilst their digital fluency is a much-debated aspect, it is clear that they expect their learning experiences to be different from the traditional approaches favoured by higher education in the past. the response from higher education to the expansion of alternative providers and to moocs has been twofold. higher education has either joined the mooc explosion and built or participated in this space. alternatively, they have chosen to adopt a wait-and-see approach. a third alternative, which is presented in this paper, is to moocify the existing courses they offer, resulting in new kinds of support for their students. it is clear that the online learning space is changing and we have entered an era where flexible delivery is paramount (bartlett, 2013). should higher education providers be concerned – and more importantly should they enter this space? there are many imperatives: the fear of losing market share, the expectations of students, provision of new kinds of student support, the desire to control discipline areas or specialties, to maintain their expertise in particular fields and, perhaps most importantly, to avoid being left behind. as a field, higher education has been an early adopter of online learning technologies and as global society impacts on student cohorts, more enrolments will be online and face-to-face cohorts will continue to shrink. another aspect of moocs is that there are considerable benefits they bring to the open education movement globally. george siemens (2015) states that when considering future scenarios for moocs, the global demand for higher education access, coupled with the digitization of education, are what they allow. this is evident in other research that points out opportunities for moocs to provide access to higher education. some of the crucial opportunities which moocs can potentially fill for the open education movement include: • addressing the need for more universities, (chao-chen chen, 2013; tang & char-chellman, 2016) • supporting literacy in developing asian countries, (chao-chen chen, 2013) • supporting lifelong learning and development of a more informed world view, (tang & charchellman, 2016) • lowering the cost of access to higher education (tang & char-chellman, 2016) • opening up and significantly increasing access to higher education (woldegiyorgis, & carvalho, 2015). many of these open access opportunities will require new ways of providing credentialing of mooc offerings. one example of this already beginning to happen is the oeru project (schreurs, van den beemt, prinsen, de laat, witthaus, & conole, 2014). according to the oeru website “oeru connects learners around the world with defined pathways to education, created by recognised educators and assessed by renowned global institutions. the learning is free and credentialing is very affordable” (https://oeru.org). the open education dimension of moocs seen through an international education 186 lens suggests that credentialing, and perhaps innovative offerings of moocs co-delivered with existing higher education courses, may provide some solutions for global open education. in an attempt to maintain domestic enrolments, some higher education providers have adopted blended face-to-face and online approaches to delivering content. these allow students more flexibility in their mode of study, freeing up time required to be spent on campus and making use of digital technologies to deliver their content via mobile platforms. the question that relates to moocs and these new approaches stems comes from the original moocs delivered in 2008 (rodrigues, 2013), and that is “how can modern moocs and formal university courses be combined?” our attempt to explore this question is evident in the goals of the study: 1. to describe how a mooc could be embedded within a course to enhance learning outcomes. 2. to understand student perceptions of 'moocified' courses 3. to determine if moocs can enhance learning experiences for both online and face-to-face students. moocs and higher education the use of moocs within formal programs in higher education is problematical due to their nature; they are open access programs of learning that have no fee-structure attached to them nor any formalized assessment that can be used to demonstrate the attainment of learning outcomes or to generate grades. many institutions have grappled with these aspects, as the delivery platforms themselves are robust alternatives to lmss and have the additional advantage of enabling connections between the content and the students, as well as with the broader outside field. their potential to make authentic connections, to provide contexts beyond higher education, are very appealing, and it is this specific aspect that has often been identified as in high demand by student evaluation surveys. a further attractive characteristic of moocs are their self-directed any time, anywhere nature; participants can work their way through the materials and content in their own time, without the need for step-by-step instruction or support. the participant is encouraged by the structure and the non-mandatory approach to be proactive in the learning process (nicoara, 2013). this is very powerful and has been shown to support a positive relationship in motivation and engagement (hartnett, george, & dron, 2011). a further incentive is the ability of moocs to provide personalized learning experiences with collaboration and networking. the act of engaging, using and participating in a mooc is very personal, it is not reliant upon cooperation or the behaviour of others, however, the design of a mooc can enable participants to connect and collaborate with others. the asynchronous nature of the experience allows for this to occur, whilst opportunities for synchronous activity, which does not represent all of the activity that occurs in this space, allows for those who wish to make real-time connections to do so, while not being a requirement or essential act for participation. it has moved away from scheduled, compulsory attendance or participation that is typical of undergraduate lmsbased online learning. this flexible participation might be the difference that has been shown to result in higher levels of engagement and success in online learning (means, toyama, murphy, bakia, & jones, 2009). regardless, the issue of academic recognition for fully online program deliveries such as moocs persists in being a significant hurdle (jimenez-romero, johnson & de castro, 2012; 187 ladyshewsky & soontiens, 2013; nicoara, 2013;) and one that at this point prevents the accreditation of activities conducted in these types of spaces. while some mooc providers are testing innovative exam proctoring, blended programming, and student identify verification, moocs are not currently accepted as full credits for university degrees. what the future holds in terms of this credentialing of moocs will be interesting for online education researchers regardless of the final outcome. the changing nature of the higher education landscape policy documents from australia, the uk, europe and the usa are practically unanimous that as the key feature and facilitator of developments in the ‘new knowledge economy’ education must be ‘constantly’ reformed to meet the demands of the ‘rapidly changing global economy’ (bartlett, 2013, p. 3) as articulated by bartlett (2013) there is a growing sense that the knowledge-based society in which we are currently situated is influencing not only the content that higher education delivers but also the mode within which it is delivered. new developments in digital technologies need to be included and incorporated, not only due to learner expectations but also to ensure they are equipped with the broadest range of digital experiences and skills. the use of a learning management system (lms) may no longer be enough, practitioners in higher education need to incorporate not only disciplinespecific technologies, but broader, more popular modes of delivering content. the term moocs was first used by stephen downes and george siemens in 2008, and it was heralded as a transformative technology that would change how learning was delivered. this is possible, yet we are situated in an era described as the “third platform” of technology evolution, one that has seen the rise of cloud computing, social networking and mobile connectivity. the digital age has resulted in the most dramatic amount of change in learning (bartlett, 2013) due to the changes in technology-based tools or devices, the internet, the modes of delivery and the volume of information accessible outside of formal programs of learning. how education has been traditionally delivered and consumed has changed, and this is can understood by reviewing the four “v’s” described by butin (2012): figure 1: the four v’s of the internet (based on butin, 2012) volume variety velocity variability 188 these four aspects can be used as a framework to view the delivery of content in the higher education context. higher education is competing with a huge amount of information on the internet (volume), as it is no longer the only source of advanced or higher levels of learning. more institutions are offering their programs online, hence competition has increased (variability). institutions are now competing with a larger volume of other providers. this leads to the variety present on the internet, and the modes of learning within the online space have also changed. online programs delivered by lmss are still commonplace but alternative offerings via purpose-built websites that are more flexible, collaborative and engaging are entering this space. finally, learning is no longer limited to attending a physical class, hence the accessibility of learning is the fact that it is available at anytime and anyplace. this flexibility is irresistible and increasingly being demanded by the current cohort of students. the variability in modes of delivery, level of engagement, and level of skills required has made online offerings much more appealing to a discriminating student. clearly the learning space has changed. martin davies (2012) explored this changing landscape and identified eight potential benefits: • online learning has democratised higher education. if you have access to an internet connection, then you have access to education. • it has allowed demand to equal supply. no longer do you run the risk of failing to secure a place in a program even if you satisfy the entry requirements. • try before you buy. potential students can now try a subject or discipline area before committing to a program. • pause, repeat, rewind. online delivery enables mastery learning. content can be repeated as many times as the learners requires in order to achieve mastery. • personalized learning. personal connections with instructors is enabled as the learner is digitally connected to them, which enables faster, more personalized responses. • learn where you want, when you want. • learning analytics. digital platforms enable vast amounts of data about how people use and engage with data content, which allows us to understand online learning behaviours in more detail. • decoupling. typically higher education programs are associated with formal accreditation processes, by separating learning from accreditation it becomes ‘decoupled’. other providers can step into the space. • it’s cheap (or free). rather than enroll in expensive full-time study, online courses are cheaper or often free. the cmooc design the goal and underlying design of the mooc and platform that forms the basis of this study was to implement a connectivist-style or cmooc pedagogy. the reason for this was that the university students enrolled in the parallel course already had access to the university lms and a cmooc space would allow for much more personal choice and selection. the title of the cmooc in this study was “participating in the digital age” or the pda mooc. the primary goal was to engage students in online activities that supported learning on a series of topics relevant to their credentialed course content. exposure to students that are “external to the credentialed course”, supporting peer to peer 189 interactions between online and campus based students, and exposure to group curation and sharing activities were key elements of the cmooc activities. dave cormier, the researcher who coined the term mooc, provides a definition of cmoocs: …four types of activities: aggregate, remix, repurpose and feed forward. therefore the intention of cmoocs is to harness the power of social and participatory media to enable participants to communicate and collaborate through a variety of channels; for example twitter, blogs, wikis, etc. and the use of hashtags and curation tools (such as pinterest or scoop.it) to filter and aggregate. the focus is on personalisation, but also collective intelligence (lévy 1997). each participate [sic] forges their own learning path through the materials; picking and mixing which content, activities and communications are meaningful for them. (conole, 2014, p. 70) the potential for personalization, crowd-sourced interaction and support, and open-endedness of the exploration provides a much-needed exploration of how cmoocs might be able to support for-credit university courses (gasevic, kovanovic, joksimovic, & siemens, 2014). the design team identified the social software platform as one that could support the type of interactions, which could occur in a group space. the pda mooc was the first mooc designed to support a university course while providing access for other interested online learners. this type of joint for credit open access delivery has been reported by other researchers, (cormier & siemens, 2010) but differs in that the platform used for the pda mooc was designed for self-regulated social media within a large online “group” space. curtin university’s first year education course titled, “living and learning in the digital age” (llda), a 13week course delivered in both campus and fully online modes, utilized the pda mooc in a parallel delivery. the goals of the mooc were to provide conceptual understandings and opportunities to participate in tasks exemplifying the topic. this provided an experiential learning space about the very topics being presented in both the pda mooc and llda courses. the parallel delivery with llda provided students with an innovation that supported active learning as a further way to engage in the topics that were relevant to the llda credit course. pedagogy and factors of the pda mooc implementation distance education has the significant challenge of transactional distance (moore, 1997) that is present between the teacher and the learner that must be addressed. in face-to-face classrooms teachers have the ability to observe students and use real-time visual communication skills, such as reading body language, to support and guide learners. in print-based distance education programs learner support was designed into the course materials as best as possible. this design approach often left the student support mainly on the students’ own shoulders. now with distance education’s ability to deliver via elearning, delivering materials in online spaces, transactional distance certainly has the potential to be greatly reduced. teacher-designed supports in many forms – social media, custom-video, email, skype – are all tools which can be employed to decrease transactional distance. however despite the potential, these approaches do not scale to provide direct teacher-student interactions where there are very large numbers of students. for moocs, then, another manner in which learner support can be provided is by designing for support by other learners or peer-to-peer support. 190 in the pda mooc the instructor-designers selected cmooc pedagogy while also designing for potential large numbers of students. the goal of supporting pda mooc learners by enabling them to access peer supports and personalize their learning pathways through internal (to the environment) exposure to social media tools and crowdsourced discussions were the key attributes of the connectivist approach. according to anderson and dron (2012), three families of distance education pedagogies cognitivist-behaviourist (cb), constructivist, and connectivist – may each have a role in the delivery of effective distance education. connectivism is built on an assumption of a constructivist model of learning, with the learner at the centre, connecting and constructing knowledge in a context that includes not only external networks and groups but also his or her own histories and predilections. at a small scale, both constructivist and connectivist approaches almost always rely to a greater or lesser degree on the availability of the stuff of learning, much of which (at least, that which is successful in helping people to learn) is designed and organized on cb models. the web sites, books, tutorial materials, videos, and so on, from which a learner may learn, all work more or less effectively according to how well they enable the learner to gain knowledge. even when learning relies on entirely social interactions, the various parties involved may communicate knowledge more or less effectively. (p. 92) some of the identified challenges in the delivery of cmoocs have been not related to the pedagogy but, rather, to the practical aspects of implementation (kop, 2011). using a social networking environment designed to provide the needed tools in a group space on one site, as opposed to some of the early cmoocs, where content was distributed over many tools on the internet (rodriguez, 2013), has shown itself to be one way to address this challenge (ostashewski & reid, 2010). providing common social media tools (twitter, blog, discussion forums, profiles) inside the group environment of the platform simplified access to these tools supporting learners who may be new to social media. the study the methodology utilized in this study was a case study design which allowed for a closer examination of one specific culture-sharing group, in this case, two cohorts of undergraduate students enrolled in a common first-year course. data was collected via an electronic survey which was conducted over a period of four weeks during a university semester. the students were approached via email, announcements on the course blackboard page and during face-to-face workshops. this was followed up by sharing with them the link to the electronic survey. the survey was hosted via an online website (qualitrics©) and had a participant consent mechanism built into the first page. all responses were anonymous and no personal details were collected. the survey comprised a combination of nine closed questions and two open questions organized around two topics: (a) understanding the experiences of the learners engagement with the mooc and (b) comparing the mooc experience with previous online learning. there was a potential respondent pool of 345 first-year undergraduate pre-service teacher education students enrolled in either the bachelor of education (primary) or the bachelor of education (early childhood education) programs in an australian university. this was a mixed cohort of students with 149 students enrolled in the face-to-face mode based on a university campus, and 196 enrolled in a 191 fully online mode. the total number of survey responses collected was 48 (n = 48) representing a participation rate of 14%. findings/data for purposes of clarity and organization, the findings will be presented around these two topics. (a) understanding the experiences of the learners’ engagement with the mooc this section of the survey contained six closed questions designed to collect information about the actual lived experience of participating in a mooc. the majority of participants (60.25%) stated that they enjoyed the mooc, and most (58.25%) felt it was easy to navigate or use. within the mooc site a number of different tools were used across the six weeks, in order to understand if the participants enjoyed using these tools they were asked to categorize them as being either; useful, useless or neutral. figure 2: perceived usefulness of mooc tools (n = 48) the most popular tools were the weekly videos, group discussion threads, group blogs, and group bookmarks. the next question asked respondents to select a statement that best reflected their opinion regarding their mooc experience. the results were as follows: 60% found the experience enjoyable, 12% found the experienced added nothing to the course, and 28% felt it was challenging and caused stress. the mooc was run for a six-week period of time, which was nested within the usual 12-week semester of study. the respondents were asked to select a statement that best reflected their opinion regarding this time length. forty-four percent felt that six weeks was long enough, 28% felt that this length of time was too long and that less would have been an improvement, whilst 28% felt that it would have been better to run the mooc for the length of the semester, 12 weeks. the next question sought to understand the impact of the mooc on the learning activities of the course students were enrolled in. thirty-two percent felt that the mooc enhanced the learning activities and content covered by the course, whilst 40% felt it supported them, and 28% felt it detracted from them. the mooc, by its nature, had non-university students participating. this was an interesting aspect that needed examining, as very few options within formal university programs of study allow for 192 non-enrolled students to participate. hence the respondents were asked to select a statement that best reflected their opinion regarding non-university participation. figure 3: reaction to non-university participants (n = 48) the results were interesting, since 55% had no strong opinion regarding this aspect, whilst 36% felt positive about it and nine percent were negative. the final two questions in this section were open questions. the answers that were collected were sorted and coded according to themes. the first asked generally if there was anything that to suggest that would improve the mooc. there were eleven responses collected. the rest of the statements were constructive suggestions regarding how to improve the mooc, for example: • ensuring that the content was synchronized between the mooc and the course: i found the weeks to be out of sync with the unit [course] weekly topics. maybe align them with each other to make it easier there were many comments on the actual structure and design of the mooc, which appeared to be an issue for those who contributed answers to this question. for example: • make it a little more simple to use. it was hard to find were [sic] you needed to post tasks. these were quite constructive, as it was clear the navigation around the mooc was an issue for users. there was one very negative comment: • don't use it. if you do, maybe make the system slightly usable. this one was a waste of time. an interesting issue was raised in this question, one that reflects the concerns of higher education institutions, the difficulties of merging fee-paying students with non-fee-paying students (i.e., enrolled versus non-enrolled). one respondent stated: • extra incentives for students who pay for their studies. different certificates of completion which require completion of specific tasks or required interaction to pass the unit [course] a final suggestion that was worth noting, concerned the issue of time and the study load: • time is a constraint as the unit [course] itself is demanding. i suggest that the tasks in the mooc are not so time consuming. 193 the final question in this section asked if there was anything else to share regarding their overall experiences with the mooc. there were a total of 12 responses collected in this section of the survey. these were broadly grouped into positive and negative comments, with the responses evenly divided between these (50%). the positive comments focused on the tools they used; the mode of presenting content and the sense of community that emerged: • studying in an online community is in my opinion one of the best ways of studying. views and opinions can be discussed immediately and feedback from peers is available. the negative comments ranged from observations regarding the need for digital fluency and how to use it efficiently; the need for it to be more strongly integrated within the course content and the stress it caused; • i would have like to have seen stronger integration of mooc into the unit [course] as a resource for gaining crowd information. (b) comparing the mooc experience with previous online learning this section of the survey contained three closed questions designed to compare participating in a mooc with previous online learning experiences. the results can be seen in figure 4. figure 4: comparing the mooc platform to blackboard (n = 48) the final question sought to establish if the inclusion of a mooc within a course made it more attractive to learners. figure 5: moocs and course selection (n = 48) 194 the majority of respondents (45%) stated that they would choose a course that had a mooc included within it over a course with no mooc; this was followed closely by those who stated that they would prefer a course without a mooc (36%) and those with no strong opinion represented 18%. discussion the mooc was developed and embedded within a common first-year course offered to two cohorts of students, face-to-face and fully online. this was their first semester of study in their first year of the program; and as such they generally had no prior experiences of lms programs such as blackboard, and were largely members of a generational cohort much-purported to be digitally fluent. it would appear that the context was such that it would provide insight into the impact, including new approaches such as moocs, without being compromised by prior experiences or online habits. this was important as the impact of lmss on students and the behaviours they acquire through studying via these platforms often represent habitual expectations and can result in culture shock when they encounter new ways of learning online. overall, the majority of students enjoyed the mooc experience, however a clear issue was difficulty in using it, navigating around the space, finding tools and understanding the new names commonly used tools had in this space (i.e., group wire posts rather than twitter). it was interesting to see that the most popular tools to emerge (videos, discussions threads, blogs, bookmarks) were also the ones that they would use most commonly in blackboard. perhaps there was some transfer across, as the cohorts were enrolled in three other courses and actively using blackboard during this period. whilst most enjoyed the experience, a significant number (28%) found it caused them stress and that working in the space was challenging. it was interesting to note that the length of time the mooc was available, six weeks, appeared to be satisfactory, but some suggested that it be expanded to cover the whole semester (12 weeks) and this would allow for the experience to be more embedded in their learning. the involvement of non-university people within the mooc space was an aspect that intrigued the researchers. the issue of including non-fee paying individuals within a space that included fee-paying was potentially challenging, and one respondent did identify this as an issue. not from the perspective of unfairness or anything similar, but from the issue of having different tasks or certificates of completion to distinguish the different types of involvement. it was anticipated that student participants would make connections to elements such as exposure to a wider audience; a sense of realness or authenticity that the mixed participant cohort would bring or even access to a wider range of opinions or experiences. the failure of these aspects to be picked up or noticed might be explained by the students being largely comprised of recent high school graduates or not thinking about learning, collaboration or cooperation. this needs exploring more as much research has focused on the need for higher education to include more authentic learning opportunities, or connections to a wider community, yet when engaged in this experience, students failed to recognise these elements within their overall learning experience. overall, 72% felt that the experience either enhanced or supported their learning experiences. this is a strong result and directs focus to where moocs may have the greatest contribution. this project sought to moocify an existing course. this worked partially, but there was some repetition of content, confusion from participants about the focus or aim of the mooc and how it fit within the 195 course itself. the mooc space can be viewed as being an alternative to lmss, which is problematical due to the need for teaching and learning to be conducted within specific platforms due to issues around assessment, grade centres and standardization (jimenez-romero, johnson & de castro, 2012). alternatively, it can be used to enhance the learning of the course, specifically where social media forms some element of the content. on a basic skill level, the students exit the experience with a new set of digital experiences: they have experienced a mooc, learnt new tools, learnt new terminology, experienced a technology that is current, and seen how it can be used in learning. these are strong positives. however, when planning to use a mooc it is clear it cannot merely repeat content or experiences, it should extend and engage students in a deeper level of learning within the topics of the course. they are an enrichment experience and, as such, it would appear this was not achieved in this project effectively. much of the written feedback was based around comments that focused on integrations, avoiding repetition, and being in sync with the course. this failure would explain the result that the mooc did not make the course more enjoyable or engaging than non-moocified courses. however, students did find something appealing in the experience, since they stated that they would choose a course with a mooc again. conclusion this study has generated some suggestions on how moocs can be used to support formal online courses spaces in higher education: 1. moocs should run for the length of the course. 2. they should be designed to enhance and support the learning goals of the course. 3. opportunities should be developed that extend students so that they engage in deep learning. 4. careful instructions supported by videos should be presented to assist participants in the navigation around a mooc and how to use the tools. 5. opportunities for peer-to-peer support, access to non-fee paying students, benefits of group activities as a way to enhance course activities should be made explicit to students at the start of the course. in addition, the pda mooc design provides an example of how a cmooc can be used to moocify the delivery of a formal online university course. this study provides evidence that cmooc implementations can be scalable, provide for valuable moocification of university-credit courses, support peer-peer interactions via integrated social media tools and techniques, and provide for open-access personal learning experiences. our research also supports wang, niiya, mark, reich, and wakschauer’s (2015) finding that students construct their own patterns of social media usage to meet their changing needs. the pda mooc shows that learning using the internet can be made personally meaningful for both formal credit and open access learners in the same space. moocification of a formal university course is perhaps one way in which higher education students and universities can engage with communities that are interested in the same topics for learning. future research is needed into what types of learner-learner and learner-tool interactions are required to design learning activities that support a wider range of personal learning. 196 also needed is a theoretical framework that provides an understanding of how cmoocs may be viewed in the wider scope of learning using the internet. further research on providing support to enable learners to capitalize on additional aspects of networked learning in cmoocs would advance this use. references anderson, t., & dron, j. (2012). learning technology through three generations of technology enhanced distance education pedagogy. european journal of open, distance and e-learning. retrieved from http://www.eurodl.org/materials/contrib/2012/anderson_dron.pdf bartlett, a. j. (2013). innovation in incapacity: education, techniques, subject. digital culture and education, 5(1), 2-17. butin, d.w. (2012). what mit should have done. elearn magazine. retrieved from http://elearnmag.acm.org/featured.cfm?aid=2263018 chao-chen chen, j. (2013). opportunities and challenges of moocs: perspectives from asia. paper presented at ifla wlic 2013 singapore, june 2013. retrieved from http://library.ifla.org/157/1/098-chen-en.pdf conole, g. (2014). a new classification schema for moocs. the international journal for innovation and quality in learning, 2(3), 65-77. cormier, d., & siemens, g. (2010). through the open door: open courses as research, learning, and engagement. educause, 45(4), 30-39. davies, m. (2012, december). can universities survive the digital revolution? quadrant, 1-22. curtin university. (2014). participating in the digital age: an open online course presented by curtin university. curtin university, perth, aus. gasevic, d., kovanovic, v., joksimovic, s., & siemens, g. (2014). where is research on massive open online courses headed? a data analysis of the mooc research initiative. the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 15(5). retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/1954/3099 jimenez-romero, c., johnson, j., & de castro, r. (2012). machine and social intelligent peer-assessment systems for assessing large student populations. in massive open online education. retrieved from http://oro.open.ac.uk/42087/1/intelligent_peer_marking_full_paper_reviewed_edition2013.pdf ladyshewsky, r. k., & soontiens, w. (2013). managing the online learning revolution in an mba course: quality assurance through strategic development. msm: maastricht school of management, working paper 2013/26. means, b., toyama, y., murphy, r., bakia, m., & jones, k. (2009). evaluation of evidence-based practices in online learning: a meta-analysis and review of online learning studies. us department of education. retrieved from https://www2.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/tech/evidence-based-practices/finalreport.pdf moore, m. g. (1997). theory of transactional distance. in d. keegan (ed.), theoretical principles of distance education (pp. 22-38). london: routledge. nicoara, e. s. (2013). the impact of massive online open courses in academic environments. paper presented at the 9th international scientific conference elearning and software for education, bucharest. ostashewski, n. & reid, d. (2012). designing learning activities in a social networking environment: challenges, successes, and lessons learned. in t. amiel & b. wilson (eds.), proceedings of edmedia: world conference on educational media and technology 2012 (pp. 1713-1718). association for the advancement of computing in education (aace). rodriguez, c. o. (2013). two distinct course formats in the delivery of connectivist moocs. turkish online journal of distance education, 14(2), 66-80. 197 schreurs, b., van den beemt, a. a. j., prinsen, f., de laat, m., witthaus, g., & conole, g. (2014). investigating the social configuration of a community to understand how networked learning activities take place: the oeru case-study. in s. bayne, c. jones, m. de laat, t. ryberg, & c. sinclair (eds.), proceedings of the 9th international conference on networked learning 2014 (pp. 261-270), retrieved from https://pure.tue.nl/ws/files/54659242/schreurs.pdf tang, h., & carr-chellman, a. (2016). massive open online courses and educational equality in china: a qualitative inquiry. journal of educational technology development and exchange (jetde), 9(1), 4. retrieved from http://aquila.usm.edu/jetde/vol9/iss1/4/ woldegiyorgis, a., & carvalho, l. (2015). massive open online courses (moocs) and the 'revolution' in higher education: implications for african higher education. retrieved from http://www.academia.edu/18140412/massive_open_online_courses_moocs_and_the_revolution_in_hig her_education_implications_for_africa authors dr. nathaniel ostashewski is assistant professor at the centre for distance education at the athabasca university, canada. email: nostashewski@athabascau.ca dr. jennifer howell is associate professor and dean teaching and learning at the faculty of humanities, curtin university, australia. email: jennifer.howell@curtin.edu.au dr. jon dron is professor and chair, school of computing and information systems at the athabasca university, canada. email: jond@athabascau.ca microsoft word naidu.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 143-160 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. designing reflective practice in the context of oer-based e-learning shironica p. karunanayaka1, som naidu2, j.c.n. rajendra1, & h.u.w. ratnayake1 1the open university of sri lanka 2the university of the south pacific, fiji abstract: much is said about the importance of reflective practice especially in the professions. yet much of what happens as part of reflective practice in the professions such as teaching is most of the time left to chance. reflective practice allows practitioners to see the link between theory and practice by thoughtfully considering their own experiences, and applying knowledge to practice. in this paper we argue that for reflective practice to be meaningful and useful to professionals, it should be carefully designed with appropriate structure and guidance. we discuss how this was achieved by being pro-active about promoting and nurturing reflective practice within the context of a professional development program with sri lankan educators on oer (open educational resources)-based e-learning, and how it supported fostering open educational practices (oep). the oer-integrated online learning experience was designed with various strategies adopted to enhance reflection ‘in’ and ‘on’ action, within a situated learning pedagogical design – scenariobased learning (sbl). content analysis of the qualitative data mainly gathered through participants’ self-reflections, supplemented with course team members’ reflections, focus group interviews and the open-ended questions in questionnaire surveys, revealed that a scenario-based approach to learning incorporating authentic learning activities and assessment tasks, such as concept mapping, online discussions, reflective journal writing, and rubric-based feedback on assessment tasks, all helped scaffold participants' approach to reflective practice. results show that these strategies that were adopted enhanced their critical thinking, creativity, and collaborative learning as well as self-esteem, also indicating a shift towards oep. we conclude that careful design of the learning experiences is critical in promoting and supporting reflective practice among educators, and the use of such strategies in the design of oer-based e-learning keywords: reflective practice; oer-based e-learning, scenario-based learning, open educational practices. introduction the significance of reflection and reflective practice in professional development is a much-discussed subject. reflection allows professionals to monitor and self-regulate their practices by thoughtfully considering their own actions and experiences, seeing the link between theory and practice and applying such knowledge to practice. as such, reflective practice is a key to progressive development of professionals that enables them to become reflective practitioners. yet, much of what happens as part of reflective practice in the professions such as teaching is most of the time left to chance. in this paper we argue that for reflective practice to be meaningful and useful to professionals, it should be carefully designed with appropriate structure and guidance. we discuss how this was achieved by being pro-active about promoting and nurturing reflective practice within the context of a 144 professional development program with sri lankan educators on oer (open educational resources)-based e-learning, and how it supported fostering open educational practices (oep). conceptual framework reflective practice in professional development reflection is a form of mental process, thinking about what we have done, learned and experienced, which is used to fulfil a purpose or to achieve some anticipated outcome (moon, 1999; 2005). reflective practice becomes a key strategy for self-improvement in a professional setting, as it involves critical self-analysis in which individuals thoughtfully consider their own experiences in applying knowledge to practice (schön, 1983; 1987). hence, it is a very productive process leading to great self-awareness in individuals by identifying practices that have worked well, as well as areas for improvement, as a step towards positive changes in their practices, both in personal and professional contexts. a number of models on reflective practice that have been presented over the years attempt to explain how theory is linked to practice through reflection. for instance, the experiential learning theory (kolb, 1984) illustrates an iterative cycle of four stages— concrete experience; reflection; abstract conceptualisation; and active experimentation. according to this model, learning occurs moving between active and reflective modes, emphasizing the significance of reflecting upon the experience for learning to happen. similarly, the ‘learning by doing’ model (gibbs, 1988) provides some key points in development, especially description, evaluation, analysis and action. it requires practitioners to provide a clear description of the situation, analysis of feelings, evaluation of the experience, analysis to make sense of the experience, conclusion where other options are considered, and reflection upon the experience to examine what you would do if the situation arose again. this model encourages the use of critical reflection in converting new learning and knowledge into action and change. critical reflection takes place when we analyze and test the justification of ‘taken-for-granted’ premises and challenge the validity of our presuppositions (mezirow, 1990). it is a process of questioning our feelings, beliefs, values, and behaviors in order to justify our actions and describe why we do things the way we do, and what other differing views or behaviors might be there. this process would help practitioners to develop a rationale for their practices and to make informed decisions in their contexts. such reflective action, based on critical assessment of assumptions underlying their beliefs and behaviors, becomes an integral element in decision-making (mezirow, 1990). the significance of reflective practice in the teaching profession has been widely discussed and well researched. while reflection is a form of mental processing that is used to fulfil a purpose, reflective learning emphasizes the intention to learn from current or prior experience (moon, 2013). through a reflective practice process the insights and learning gained through experiences can be used by the practitioners to continuously learn, grow and develop in and through practice. the notions of ‘reflection-in-action’, and ‘reflection-on-action’ (schön, 1983) allows practitioners to engage in a process of continuous learning through critical reflection. 145 reflection ‘in’ action and reflection ‘on’ action donald schön’s (1983) model focuses on reflective practice as a means for professional growth and on the role of the reflective practitioners in terms of two aspects — learning to reflect ‘in’ action (ria) and reflect ‘on’ action (roa) (munby, 2012). ria is ‘thinking on your feet’ or reflecting while engaging in an action, and roa is ‘looking back’ or reflecting after the completion of an action or an experience (schön, 1983). ria allows practitioners to constantly be aware and monitor one’s own actions and make changes as required during the experience itself, while generating new understandings of the situation. however, this will be triggered with a ‘surprise’: the practitioner allows himself to experience surprise, puzzlement, or confusion in a situation which he finds uncertain or unique. he reflects on the phenomenon before him, and on the prior understandings which have been implicit in his behaviour. (schön, 1983, p. 68) the experience of encountering a phenomenon where the practitioner allows him/herself to feel “surprise, puzzlement, or confusion”, and reflect on this feeling and what caused it, will enable him/her to further explore the situation and appropriately act upon it instantly. roa, on the other hand, is a post-action reflection where a professional looks back on past events and generates new understandings on his/her actions. we reflect on action, thinking back on what we have done in order to discover how our knowing-inaction may have contributed to an unexpected outcome (schön, 1983, p. 26). roa involves critically analyzing and evaluating the experience that had occurred, reflecting on how this practice can be further developed or changed after the event. this allows and will help practitioners to plan and improve their next course of action based on their critical reflection. these two notions, ria and roa, are complementary in having a clear link or relationship between them, and together they play a significant role in improving teaching-learning practices. this provides a useful framework to plan strategies to support reflective practice in professions (munby, 2012). the reflection in action and reflection on action framework (schön, 1983) provided guidance in the development of a professional development course on oer-based e-learning at ousl, for practitioners in the higher education setting, where the learning experiences were carefully designed in a structured manner, including specific strategies to support reflective practice among them. a scenario-based pedagogical approach to support reflective practice scenario-based learning (sbl) is a model of situated learning that is grounded in constructivist pedagogy (duffy & jonnasen, 1991). the concept of situated learning involves immersing learners in authentic and real world learning experiences to provide them with opportunities to engage in meaningful learning activities (brown, collins & duguid, 1989). situating learners in such meaningful and authentic learning contexts has the potential to enhance effective, efficient and engaging learning (naidu, 2010). in an sbl environment, learners are placed in an authentic learning scenario that takes the form of a storyline embedded in a real life context in which learners are required to assume a key role to achieve a goal (schank & cleary, 1995; schank, fano, jona & bell, 1994). sbl thus provides a meaningful learning context, where learners face various challenges in the form of learning activities 146 and assessment tasks within the learning scenario. in addressing these challenges, learners will be able to accomplish the intended learning outcomes and demonstrate the desired competencies (naidu, 2006). sbl design promotes a learning-centred approach, shifting from a content-focus to a context-focus. it has been successfully adopted in a practitioner-oriented professional development programme for teacher educators – mate-i, which has proven sbl to be a very effective approach in making reflective practitioners (naidu, menon gunawardena, lekamge & karunanayaka, 2005). similarly, a number of case studies illustrate how sbl can be deployed to prepare graduates of various disciplines to their professions, in a variety of contexts (errington, 2010). use of an sbl approach in an online environment makes online learning more interesting, allowing learners to actively participate in finding solutions to real-world problems, and to meaningfully apply their knowledge (chu, 2007; karunanayaka & naidu, 2009; mery & blakiston, 2010). however, design and development of rich and resourceful authentic learning scenarios and using them to orchestrate appropriate online learning experiences to engender reflective practice is a complex task, which requires careful thinking and meticulous planning (naidu, menon gunawardena, lekamge & karunanayaka, 2007). further, design, development and implementation of oer-based e-learning courses using the sbl approach was found to be a very challenging, yet a rewarding experience for educators, making them reflective practitioners (karunanayaka, 2014; karunanayaka & naidu, 2014). an innovative approach to learning experience design, a ‘learning engine’ framework provided a useful strategy for effective, efficient and engaging oer-integrated e-learning based on sbl pedagogical design (fig. 1) (see details at naidu & karunanayaka, 2014). even though designing such meaningful learning experiences is a very challenging process, when executed well, sbl design has the potential to promote reflective practice, supporting both reflection ‘in’ and ‘on’ action. 147 figure 1: the learning engine framework (source: naidu & karunanayaka, 2014, p. 8) design and development of the oer-based e-learning online course the oer-based e-learning (oerel) developed at ousl is an adaptation of a fully online professional development course of the commonwealth educational media centre for asia (cemca). this course was developed based on the sbl pedagogical design (naidu, 2010), integrating the ‘learning engine’ framework (naidu & karunanayaka, 2014) and the ‘opal’ framework (ehlers, 2011). a carefully orchestrated series of online learning experiences based on the sbl approach, together with different levels of oer integration at different levels, horizontally – in learning experiences within each module — and vertically, across the five modules, supported practitioners in moving from oer to oep (fig. 2) (see karunanayaka, naidu, rajendra & ratnayake, 2015 for details). 148 figure 2: matrix of oer-integration among five modules of the oerel course (source: karunanayaka, naidu, rajendra, & ratnayake, 2015, p. 343) the learning design included an authentic learning scenario in each module that challenged participants to engage in learning activities leading to assessment tasks with the support of learning resources. each assignment consisted of three sections: an individual task; a group discussion forum; and a self-reflection. the participants were provided clear guidelines to write a short reflection on their learning experience, as shown in fig. 3. in addition, an assessment rubric used to assess and provide feedback to their reflections (fig. 4) was also shared with the participants. 149 figure 3: guidelines provided for participants to write self-reflections figure 4: assessment rubric used for self-reflections within the learning experiences designed in each of the modules, the participants were given various opportunities to reflect ‘in’ action and reflect ‘on’ action (schön, 1983). table 1 provides a summary of different aspects of the course design adopted to facilitate and promote reflective practice among participants during their learning process. 150 table 1: strategies adopted in the course design to facilitate reflective practice a description of a learning experience in one module is presented in table 2 as an example to illustrate how different strategies were employed within the sbl pedagogical design to support reflective practice. table 2: an example of learning scenario, learning activities and assessment tasks as shown in the above example, the sbl design initially situated the participants in a challenging situation in an authentic learning scenario where they were activated with a goal to achieve. this made it mandatory for them to reflect ‘in’ action in order to move forward– analyze the prevailing ‘puzzling’ or ‘confusing’ phenomenon based on their prior experiences, and also to think ahead about 151 the actions required by them to face this challenge. further, there was a sequence of learning activities that emerged from the scenario leading to the assessment tasks. these supported participants to reflect ‘ín’ while ‘experimenting’ with their actions, reviewing, revising and ‘changing’ their work, while developing ‘new understandings’ during the process. these tasks also allowed the participants to reflect ‘on’ their actions to think back at the end of each of the activities, reflecting once each task was completed, and plan for future actions, based on what was learnt through the reflections methodology research design the aim of this study was to explore how a systematic design of reflective practice within the context of a professional development online course on how oer-based e-learning, impacted promoting, supported reflective practice among educators and fostered their adoption of oep. a case-study approach, which is an in-depth investigation of a single unit of study through examining the firsthand experiences of individuals in a real life context (bogdan & biklen, 1998; yin, 2003), was adopted as the research design. research questions the following research questions were addressed in the case study: • what is the effect of the scenario-based learning pedagogical design in promoting reflective practice among educators? • how and to what extent do the strategies adopted within the course design enhance reflection ‘in’ action and reflection ‘on’ action? • what challenges were faced by the educators in their reflective practice process? • what are the impacts on educators of the learning experience design integrated with reflective practice? participants a group of 35 educators at the open university of sri lanka (ousl) constituting 18 females (51%) and 17 males (49%) who enrolled in the oerel course, were the participants of the study. table 3 presents a summary of the participant profile. table 3: participant profile category number percentage % gender female 18 51.4 male 17 48.6 highest educational qualifications phd/mphil 16 45.7 masters/pg diploma 10 28.6 first degree 09 25.7 experience as an educator in the higher education system > 20 yrs 07 20.0 11-15 yrs 06 17.2 < 10 yrs 22 62.8 152 while a majority of the participants (62.8%) had less than 10 years of experience in the higher education system, they were well-qualified academics with either phds or mphils (45.7%) and with other post-graduate qualifications (28.6%). yet, the number of active participants gradually decreased during the course of study and finally only 10 academics (29%) successfully completed all five modules in the course. collection and analysis of data the key data collection strategy adopted for this study was participants’ self-reflections written at the end of each learning experience. this was supplemented with course team members’ reflections, focus group interviews and the open-ended questions in learning experience questionnaire surveys. a simple coding system developed based on the conceptual framework of reflection ‘in’ action and reflection ‘on’ action (schon, 1983), was adopted for the content analysis of qualitative data, as show in table 4. table 4: coding system adopted for the content analysis of qualitative data reflection in action (ria) reflection on action (roa) element code element code puzzling [p] analyzing [an] experimenting [e] challenges [ch] reviewing; revising [r] impacts [im] new understandings [n] application [ap] chunks of reflective statements obtained from the qualitative data were considered as ‘units of analyses’. after an initial analysis on ria and roa based on this coding system, a detailed analysis was conducted to identify specific strategies supported, challenges faced, and impacts related to the reflective practice process. results and discussion what is the effect of the scenario-based pedagogical design in promoting reflective practice among educators? the course team members’ and the participants’ reflections were analyzed to find out the effect of sbl design in promoting reflective practice. some sample quotes are provided in table 5. as evident by the above quotes, the sbl pedagogical design had supported integration of strategies to promote reflective practice, supporting both ria [p,e,r,n] and roa [an,ch,im,ap] among the participants. situating them in an authentic ‘scenario’ with a challenge compelled participants to reflect ‘in’ action – to analyze the prevailing situation while experiencing it, and think ahead about the actions required by them, based on their prior experiences. 153 table 5: sample quotes on the effect of the sbl design on reflective practice quote from a course team member’s reflections: … this is the first time that i was involved in designing sbl for facilitating learning…it gave me an opportunity to realize when designing sbl how important that one should look into the learning outcomes and identify what the students should achieve on completion, and then how one should structure the scenario…trigger discussion and…drive into collaborative learning...i noticed…that students were very constructive and open in writing their reflection for each assignment…i strongly believe that when students reflects on their assignments they might have found their gaps and would have helped them to rectify when writing the next assignment… quote from a participant’s reflections: i really liked the sbl design…this was something new to me. [an]…each module was contextualized and situated in an authentic setting with tasks requiring us to engage in a number of activities which centered on designing an oer basede-learning course in our related field. [p]…the real life activities such as writing the learning outcomes, developing the learning scenarios and the activities as well as designing the assessment tasks to fit the learning outcomes were challenging yet motivating. [e] [r] [ch]… the experience i gained from engaging in these tasks was invaluable. [n] [im]…i have since given greater attention to ensuring that the assessment tasks i select are in keeping with the learning outcomes…[ap] further, the sequence of learning activities that emerged from the scenario also motivated participants to reflect ‘ín’ while experimenting with their actions, reviewing and revising their work and developing new understandings during the process, and leading to the completion of assessment tasks. these also supported them to reflect ‘on’ their actions – to think through each of the activities and reflect once the assessment tasks were completed, and plan for future actions, as evident by following quotes: by doing this assignment, i learnt a lot! [n] at the beginning i didn’t know about abcd concept of writing lo. [p] by studying given reading materials, i was able to learn the meaning of each and how to use it meaningfully. [n] writing lo is a major task for academics when writing course materials and also later on to publish these materials as oer. though i write many course materials...i didn’t do it with the correct understanding. by doing this assignment, i gained that skill… [e] [r] at the beginning...i had many doubts while trying to understand how to write efficient lo. [ch] as always, discussion forum helped me a lot to clear my doubts as well as learn with understanding. [an] we got enough reading materials to upgrade our knowledge. now i have a good confidence to write lo for a given course or a session. thank you so much again!! [im][ap] it motivated me to involve in this study as it is an authentic one and felt that i am a part of it, in making the ousl oer policy. [an] reading resources found in this section was helpful to a certain extent, however in order to gather more information, i had to read some more web resources, particularly on oer policies related to other universities. [p] [ch] the draft ousl oer policy document posted…became a very ‘live’ document in organising the answer related to this assignment…[e] [r] [an] i am glad, at least this assignment gave me a chance to contribute our thoughts related to oer policy, whether those recommendations are forwarded/ considered or not. [im][ap] this is an interesting module because it gave me endless exploration through global knowledge base to find the exact meaning of such terms like e-learning, online learning and affordance of e-learning used in the learning activity. [e] [n] i have a challenge to find acceptable definition and understand the 154 concept behind such terms. [ch]…based on the literature and learning resource provided, i successfully overcome this issue because it gave me some encouragement and put me in the correct tract as i understand [n] [an]…in future, i am expecting to deliver the courses in oer-based with the help these concepts. [im][ap] the sbl design allowed the immersion of participants in real-life, challenging situations that prompted ria. further, the learning scenario started with a precipitating event that ‘triggered’ them to engage in a sequence of activities to address the problem (naidu, 2010) which also necessitated ria in each step to move forward, as well as roa at the culmination, to make use of that experience for the future. the ‘learning engine’ framework (naidu & karunanayaka, 2014) adopted to develop such learning experiences within the sbl approach was very accommodating to design, and integrated specific strategies in a structured manner to promote ria and roa among the participants. how and to what extent the strategies adopted within the course design enhanced reflection ‘in’ and reflection ‘on’ action? participants’ feedback on specific strategies used in each module revealed how and to what extent the different strategies have affected their reflective practices. some examples are given below: concept mapping (module 1): when i start to draw my concept map on openness in education, i was not aware of any concepts related to the topic.[p]…i got a paper and drew the concept map providing the relationships one by one. at the beginning it was a total mess. i drew again and again.[e]…then i started to go through my group members maps and tried to comment on them.[r]…the exercise enlightened me on focal concepts, the relationships, benefits, impacts.[n]…after completing the map, i realized that i missed to add several examples and also some pictures.[an] more reading would help me to do a better job…in future…[ap] searching for different types of oer materials (module 2): i never knew that there were such opportunities in oer based e-learning [p]. this particular assignment provided me an opportunity to learn on search engines, advanced learning and oer repositories, what i have never experienced [e] [n]. further i realized that a good video can teach many things which cannot explain by printed materials or f2f teaching [an]. this would definitely impact on my online teaching methods in future… [im] [ap] online quiz on licence types (module 3) : i tried the quiz before reading to check my prior knowledge of license types.[p] i found that while i had an idea of what the terms meant when it came to actually indicating the correct combinations i failed miserably. [e] happily, after the readings i got just one type wrong [r] …that was an achievement. [im] it was interesting to note the patterns of reflective practice of both ria [p, e, r, n] and roa [an, ch, im, ap] within the strategies, as depicted by the coded quotes of participants. in particular, the discussion forum activities included in all modules played a key role in supporting the reflective learning of participants, as evident by the coded quotes given below: …even though the learning may look somewhat simple and small, the richness of information available within it could be much deeper and richer. [an] the postings...in the discussion forum further emphasized this. [an]…it is really an exhilarating experience. [an][im] here i found different persons 155 looking at things from different viewpoints and bringing out the richness in the lesson material. [an][im] i could not participate in discussions and post my assignments to get peer feedback. [ch]…however, i followed all the discussion posts, posted by others and got some valuable insights in drafting my assignment. [r][n] this is the beauty of online learning, having all discussions posts stored and can be retrieved even at a later stage. [an]...i also felt the value of communication and collaboration in an elearning situation which is crucial for meaningful learning. [im] what i have learned from this learning experience is the value of “social presence” and the peer feedback both by the peers and the facilitators.[an] the motivation is very important to go forward! [im] …engaging in discussion forums helps us to realize that we do not learn in a vacuum; we construct knowledge by interacting with our peers. [an] [im] the best part of this is collaborative learning that takes place through the discussion with peers [an] [im]. it gives you lot of insight and allows you to refine your own work [n] [an]. earlier i had some doubts that when allowed collaborative learning whether you will be totally influenced by others and your own creative thoughts may not come to work [p] [ch]. but after start following the course i found that belief is not correct [e] [im]. the peer-facilitated discussion forums were developed based on key design principles of elearning (salmon, 2000) that encouraged participants to collaboratively construct knowledge through social negotiation and self-regulation, and at the same time supporting reflective practice. these examples reveal that specific strategies included within the learning experience, such as concept mapping, quizzes, and online discussions, have all helped scaffold participants' approach to reflective practice. what challenges were faced by the educators in the reflective practice process? despite the various strategies adopted attempting to encourage participants to continuously engage in reflective practice, numerous challenges have affected their reflecting process, as summarized in table 6. time constraint was a common issue faced by all participants who were full time academics. reflection essentially requires time to think, either ‘on your feet’ (ria) as well as ‘looking back’ (roa) (schon, 1983). the novelty of the content (e.g., oer and related concepts), certain activities (e.g., concept mapping, swot analysis) as well as the need to critically review of each other’s work and provide constructive criticisms in the forums, required substantial time. hence, the time allocated to engage in multiple tasks, within the stipulated deadlines, was claimed as insufficient by the participants. the complex nature of the activities, which required mostly higher order cognitive skills, such as critical thinking, analytical thinking, reflective thinking and creativity increased the cognitive load (sweller, 1988) of the participants. even though peer-facilitated discussions played a key role in collaborative and reflective knowledge construction, an expectation of more instructor guidance and feedback was indicated by the participants. 156 table 6: key challenges faced by participants to engage in reflective practice challenges effects supportive quotes novelty self-learning doubts on understandings for me, reading took a considerable amount of time… most of the information was new… …the learning started with a bit of confusion on the types and categories of oer materials… …i had to relearn many things afresh… time constraints inability to meet the deadlines managing the time was the biggest challenge to adhere to deadlines… finding time was a challenge as i wanted to go through the materials first and carry out the research systematically referring all the resources… peer-facilitation vs. instructor facilitation in the discussion forum expectation of more instructor feedback, rather than peer feedback. most of the knowledge construction was handled by peers… it would have been better if there were more interactions by the facilitators... …what i have learned from this learning experience is the value of providing clear instructions and providing timely and constructive feedback (both as peers and facilitators)… too many higher order thinking activities cognitive load all activities require higher order thinking skills and need time to think…and articulate…i think the facilitators have underestimated the time required to carry out this type of higher order activity which needs time to read, think, analyse and reflect points… technical problems problems with the lms i was very unhappy… while waiting in front of my computer for more than 4 hours… what are the impacts of the learning experience design integrated with reflective practice, on educators? results show that the learning experiences designed within the modules have impacted on the participants in significant ways. a summary of impacts given from the learning experiences in different modules is presented in table 7 with examples and supportive quotes from the participants. a closer analysis of the participants’ reflections revealed that their critical thinking, creativity, collaborative learning as well as self-esteem have been enhanced during the process. further, it indicates a shift towards oep, in the educational practices of the participants. for instance, integration of oer in different ways, at different levels in all activities in all modules of the oerel course has supported participants in engaging in self-study and independent learning, as well as reflective learning (karunanayaka et al., 2015). these activities have further enabled the developing of their competency in adopting oer in all 5rs – retain, reuse, revise, remix, redistribution (wiley, 2014), as well as the creation of oer. on the other hand, group learning activities, especially the peerfacilitated discussions, enhanced collaborative learning practices involving shared knowledge construction among the participants, with the support of oer-integrated learning (karunanayaka, rajendra, ratnayake, & naidu, 2016). 157 table 7: impacts of the learning experience on educators learning experience impacts supportive quotes selection and categorization of oer (module 2) collaborative learning; critical thinking; selfesteem …the categorization of oer aroused some doubts. [p]... after getting feedback from peers i was able to clarify the doubts.[r]…i've rearranged the types and found facts to justify the selection regarding the topic. [e] [r]… at the end of the assignment task my knowledge in oer came to a higher level. [n] [im] licensing (module 3) critical thinking previously, i thought that the two terms (copyright and licensing) were interchangeable. [p] however, now i realize the difference. [n]… i am very grateful for this enlightenment, since i thought that it was perfectly within my right to use material that was in the public domain without any copyright statement. [n] [an] i now see that not only did i endanger my own reputation but that of the institution as well, and i am determined to make this known to others. [im][ap] writing learning outcomes (module 4) critical thinking this assignment opened my eyes to look at the course in a holistic manner as well as to write learning outcomes more accurately. [n]…as a teacher the experience gained is invaluable. [im] in future i will use this knowledge gained in writing learning outcomes. [ap] designing an oerintegrated elearning experience (module 5) creativity self-esteem this was a great opportunity to think on how to design an oer course to deliver it an effective manner online [an]…this exercise gave us the chance to demonstrate our creativity [im] …not only it helps in selecting suitable oer but it also helped us in developing/creating our own homegrown oer...[ap] such enhancements in innovative use and creation of oer and collaborative practices in the use of oer foster and promote open educational practices (oep) (ehlers, 2011). hence, the systematic design of reflective practice process in the oerel course has fostered adoption of oep among the participants, while supporting ria and roa. conclusions and implications the findings of this case study show that reflective practice among educators is enhanced by the adoption of a scenario-based approach to learning and teaching. the design of strategies such as concept mapping, online discussions, reflective journal writing, and rubric-based feedback on assessment tasks have all helped to scaffold participants' approach to reflective practice. these strategies have also helped enhance their critical thinking, creativity, collaborative learning as well as self-esteem, and helped promote a shift towards open education practices, despite the constraints of time. we are able to conclude that careful design of learning experiences is critical in promoting and supporting reflective practice among educators, and the use of such strategies in the design of oerbased e-learning. 158 acknowledgements the work that is reported in this study has been supported with funding from the commonwealth educational media centre for asia (cemca). an earlier version of this paper is published in pcf8 conference proceedings, available at http://oasis.col.org/handle/11599/2514 references bogdan, r. c., & biklen, s. k. (1998). qualitative research for education: an introduction to theory and methods. boston: allyn & bacon. brown, j. s., collins, a., & duguid, p. (1989). situated cognition and the culture of learning. educational researcher, 18, 32-42. chu, k.c. (2007). using scenario-based learning for e-learning in vocational education. in r.c. sharma & s. mishra (eds.), cases on global e-learning practices: successes and pitfalls. hershey, pa: igi global. retrieved from http://www.irma-international.org/viewtitle/6256/ duffy, t. m., & jonassen, d. h. (1991). constructivism: new implications for instructional technology? 30(10), 7-12. ehlers, u-d. (2011). extending the territory: from open educational resources to open educational practices. journal of open, flexible, and distance learning, 15(2), 1-10. retrieved from http://journals.akoaotearoa.ac.nz/index.php/jofdl/article/viewfile/64/46 errington, e.p. (ed). (2010). preparing graduates for professions using scenario-based learning. retrieved from http://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/11638/3/11638_errington_2010_front_pages.pdf gibbs, g. (1988). learning by doing: a guide to teaching and learning methods. further education unit. oxford polytechnic: oxford. karunanayaka, s., & naidu, s. (2009). developing professional competencies of teacher educators in the use of educational technology, with scenario-based learning. in v. kinuthia & s. marshall (eds.), cases ‘n’ places: global cases in educational technology (pp. 123-132). charlotte: information age publishing. karunanayaka, s. & naidu, s. (eds.). (2014). integrating oer in educational practice: practitioner stories. nugegoda: the open university of sri lanka. retrieved from http://www.ou.ac.lk/home/images/ousl/publications/intergratingoerineducationalpractice.pdf karunanayaka, s. (2014). open university of sri lanka–integrating oer in a teacher education course. in s. naidu & s. mishra (eds.), case studies on oer-based elearning. new delhi: cemca, pp. 1-10. retrieved from http://oasis.col.org/bitstream/handle/11599/561/casestudies_oer-based_elearning.pdf karunanayaka, s. p., rajendra, j.c.n., & ratnayake, h.u.w., naidu, s. (2016). peer-facilitated discussions to enhance oer-based elearning. aaou journal, 1(1), 1-16 retrieved from http://www.emeraldinsight.com/1858-3431.htm doi: 10.1108/aaouj-07-2016-0022 karunanayaka, s., naidu, s., rajendra, j.c.n., & ratnayake, h. (2015). from oer to oep: shifting practitioner perspectives and practices with innovative learning experience design. open praxis, 7(4), 339-350. retrieved from http://www.openpraxis.org/index.php/openpraxis/article/view/252/0 kolb, d.a. (1984): experiential learning: experience as the source of learning and development. englewood cliffs, nj: prentice hall mery, y., & blakiston, r. (2010). scenario-based e-learning: putting the student in the driver’s seat. 26th annual conference on distance teaching & learning. retrieved from http://www.uwex.edu/disted/conference/resource_library/proceedings/28769_10.pdf 159 mezirow, j. (1990). how critical reflection triggers transformative learning. in j. mezirow (ed.), fostering critical reflection in adulthood, (pp. 1-20). san fransisco: jossey-bass. retrieved from http://www.ln.edu.hk/osl/conference2011/output/breakout/4.4%20%5bref%5dhow%20critical%20reflectio n%20triggers%20transformative%20learning%20-%20mezirow.pdf moon, j. (1999). reflection in learning and professional development. london: kogan page. moon, j. (2005). a handbook of reflective and experiential learning. taylor & francis e-library, 2005. retrieved from http://perpustakaandeajulia.weebly.com/uploads/1/8/2/6/18261275/a_handbook_of_reflective_and_experien tial_learning_-_theory_and_practice.pdf moon, j. (2013). reflection in learning and professional development: theory and practice. routledge falmer: new york. munby, h. (2012). reflection in action and reflection on action. retrieved from http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1390&context=eandc naidu, s., & karunanayaka, s. (2014). engines of education: integrating oer in learning and teaching. in s. karunanayaka & s. naidu (eds.), integrating oer in educational practice: practitioner stories, (pp. 3-22). the open university of sri lanka. retrieved from http://www.ou.ac.lk/home/images/ousl/publications/intergratingoerineducationalpractice.pdf naidu, s. (2006). e-learning: a guidebook of principles, procedures and practices. new delhi: commonwealth educational media centre for asia. retrieved from http://oasis.col.org/bitstream/handle/11599/53/elearning_guidebook.pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y naidu, s. (2010). using scenario-based learning to promote situated learning and develop professional knowledge. in e.p. errington (ed.), preparing graduates for the professions using scenario-based learning, (pp. 3949). mt gravatt: post pressed. retrieved from https://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/11638/3/11638_errington_2010_front_pages.pdf naidu, s., menon, m., gunawardena, c., lekamge, d., & karunanayaka, s. (2005). quality teaching and learning in the master of arts in teacher education (mate-international) program at the open university of sri lanka. paper presented at the biennial conference of the open and distance learning association of australia (odlaa), 9-11 november, 2005. adelaide, south australia. naidu, s., menon, m., gunawardena, c., lekamge, d., & karunanayaka, s. (2007). how scenario-based learning can engender reflective practice in distance education. in m. spector (ed.), finding your voice online: stories told by experienced online educators. mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates. salmon, g. (2000). e-moderating: the key to teaching and learning online. london: kogan page. schank, r. c., & cleary, c., (1995). engines for education. hillsdale, new jersey: lawrence erlbaum associates schank, r. c., fano, a., jona, m., & bell, b. (1994). the design of goal-based scenarios. the journal of the learning sciences, 3(4), 305-345. schön, d. (1983). the reflective practitioner: how professionals think in action. new york: basic books. schön, d. (1987). educating the reflective practitioner: toward a new design for teaching and learning in the professions. san francisco (ca): jossey-bass. sweller, j. (1988, april). cognitive load during problem solving: effects on learning. cognitive science, 12(2), 257– 285. retrieved from: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1207/s15516709cog1202_4/pdf wiley, d. (2014). the access compromise and the 5th r. weblog. march 5 2014. retrieved from http://opencontent.org/blog/archives/3221 yin, r.k. (2003). case study research, design and methods (3rd ed.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. 160 authors shironica priyanthi karunanayaka is a professor in educational technology at the open university of sri lanka (ousl). she has been serving at ousl since 1993, and is former dean of the faculty of education and former head of the department of secondary and tertiary education. her professional expertise and research interests are in the areas of open and distance learning, e-learning, open educational resources and open educational practices. email: spkar@ou.ac.lk som naidu is currently pro vice-chancellor flexible learning, and director of the centre for flexible learning at the university of the south pacific. professor naidu has spent most of his professional life in the higher education sector in a variety of roles to do with enhancing learning and teaching practices in open, flexible, distance, online learning and elearning, as well as education more generally in various jurisdictions and contexts ranging from those in developing and developed contexts. email: sommnaidu@gmail.com j.c.n. rajendra is a professor in physics at the open university of sri lanka and has a distinguished academic career spanning more than three decades. in addition to his own research in physics, he has spent substantial amount of his professional life in enhancing teaching and learning practices in physics education and in research leading to challenges focused on science education, especially in an odl environment. email: jcraj@ou.ac.lk u. w. ratnayake is a senior lecturer and currently the head of the department of electrical and computer engineering at the open university of sri lanka. her main research area is artificial intelligence. she spends most of her time to enhance teaching and learning 'software engineering' for undergraduates in odl mode. email: udithaw@ou.ac.lk microsoft word cooshna-naik.docx issn: 2311-1550 2022, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 89-103 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. exploring the use of tweets and word clouds as strategies in educational research dorothy cooshna-naik university of mauritius abstract: this paper presents personal insights and discussions on the exploration of specific strategies which relate to data collection and analysis used to support the focus group discussion data collection and preliminary analysis of a doctoral research entitled undergraduate students’ experiences of learning with digital multimodal texts. the main objective of the doctoral research was to understand the different ways undergraduate students experienced learning with digital multimodal texts (dmts) within the context of a history module included in their first-year programme of studies both as readers (consumers) and authors (producers). data were collected through semi-structured interviews, written reflection accounts, a focus group discussion and consideration given to the dmt (a video) produced by the participants. the focus group discussion event included a hands-on task whereby participants were requested to write their views in response to a given prompt question in the form of tweets. also, the written tweets were visualised as word clouds for the purpose of initial analysis. the findings reported in this paper, which are based on observation notes and investigation of the word clouds, suggest that the tweet-related, hands-on task acted as a good ice breaker, making the participants feel at ease and more relaxed about sharing their views amongst each other while eliciting discussions and fostering deeper thinking. also, the word clouds were revealed to be an effective data visualisation tool allowing emerging and salient themes to stand out from the participants’ written tweets and reflections. keywords: word clouds, tweets, educational research, multimodal texts. introduction given the highly mediated world in which we are living, the necessity for integrating technologies in teaching and learning is becoming crucial in order to meet the requirements of 21st-century students. today, with the rise of internet technologies, students have the possibility and the flexibility to access varied multimodal texts which include print as well as non-print forms of texts that they use for multiple purposes. similarly, educators may tap into the potential of digital learning resources which they can use as instructional aids/materials and explore new pedagogies that support acquisition of 21st-century skills and competencies. not all educators seem to be fully conscious of this. several researchers have claimed that it has become necessary for educators to rethink their pedagogical approaches, curriculum content and assessment strategies (hampson, patton & shanks, 2013; robinson, 2009; scott, 2015) since students of this generation, according to taylor and parson (2011, p. 6), “appear to have ‘different’ needs, goals, and learning preferences than students in the past”. many higher education institutions (heis) are facing challenges to meet the demands of a student population who are very consumer-oriented and who seek quality education. 90 educators are expected to create learning conditions that lead to meaningful and quality learning experiences (hénard & roseveare, 2012; poon, 2013). however, it is noted that lectures as an instructional strategy to transmit knowledge still seem to predominate in some heis (achuonye, 2015; smith & valentine, 2012). new modes of communication are influencing our students’ literacy practices and as educators, we cannot afford to ignore this and as such have the responsibility to bring in novel ways of addressing the needs of our learners so as to provide them with quality experiences. moyle (2010, p. 5) notes that educators in the 21st century are faced with the challenge of demonstrating “fresh thinking about what is taught, how it is taught and why it is taught”. this paper discusses an exploratory aspect of a doctoral study entitled undergraduate students’ experiences of learning with digital multimodal texts, which was designed as a pedagogical intervention involving a group of first-year students from the university of mauritius which is the oldest hei of mauritius, an upper middle-income country situated in the indian ocean. it explores specifically two strategies used during a focus group discussion which aimed at, i) eliciting reflections and discussions amongst the participants, and (ii) visualising the data collected. starting with a brief background of the larger (doctoral) study, the paper continues with a description, discussions and reflective thoughts on the implementation of the two strategies used during the focus group discussion. situating the context to better situate the context from which this paper is drawn, this section presents a brief overview of the doctoral study which was conducted out of an interest in understanding the multimodal learning practices and multiliteracies of the current generation of students, especially with the increasingly new genres of texts finding their way into the education landscape. the doctoral study used a qualitative methodology within the interpretivist paradigm known as phenomenography, a research approach aiming at “‘description, analysis and understanding of experiences” (marton, 1981, p. 180) to explore the variation in the ways a group of undergraduate students experienced learning with dmts, within the context of a module referred to as mauritian history (hist1002y), as (i) consumers and (ii) as producers. this module is a core module running over two semesters, which is included in the first-year ba (hons) joint humanities, ba (hons) history and political science and ba (hons) history and sociology programme of studies. this yearly module, hist1002y, has been delivered using a web-enhanced modality for a few years now. through the web-enhanced delivery mode of the module, students are able to access the module lecture notes and presentations, assignments, and also submit their completed assignments and receive feedback from their instructor via the institutions’ e-learning platform. for several years now, this module has relied on face-to-face lectures as the main instructional strategy to transmit knowledge. however, there have been some concerns raised by the module instructor, such as the difficulty for students to connect the past and present, to visualise and demonstrate imaginative reconstruction of text-intensive lecture notes and the challenges for lecturers to fully engage and create a sense of belonging for the subject especially when dealing with large cohorts of students. in view of providing adequate e-learning content and pedagogies to students and as a way to address the concerns raised by the module instructor, the curricular content of hist1002y was enhanced through the provision of multimedia content in the form of interactive multimedia cds and interactive quizzes. some documentary films were also screened during the face-to-face lecture 91 sessions. additionally, a multimodal assessment involving students as producers of their own dmt in the form of a history-related documentary video was explored. guided by phenomenography research methodology, the doctoral study collected data through two rounds of semi-structured interviews, written reflection accounts, and a focus group discussion to gain insight into students’ experiences of learning with dmts during two learning situations conceptualised as follows: • learning situation 1 (ls1) consisted in providing the participants with a range of dmts which they were expected to access, utilise and engage with during the first semester of the module. in ls1, the participant (student) was viewed as a consumer (user/recipient) of the dmts. the range of dmts included the following: o several powerpoints designed by the module instructor, which addressed the different topics of the module. o two historical documentary films, identified by the module instructor as relevant and pertinent, which were screened in class. o a multimedia enhanced compact disc (cd) with various interactive features such as an animated digital story, an animated timeline, quizzes and an archaeology game. o an interactive multimedia quiz game entitled the british treasure, a self-assessment multimedia resource consisting of quizzes through which students learn about the british period in mauritius and assess their knowledge by attempting a series of quizzes. • learning situation 2 (ls2) required the participants to complete a multimodal work as part of the assessment of hist1002y which consisted in creating a history-related documentary style video. within ls2, the participant/student took the role of a writer/author/creator/producer. participants had a choice of two topics on which they could base their video, namely, (i) what’s in a name: family name or family history, and (ii) what’s in a name: your street name. given that the aim of this paper is to explore tweets and word clouds as strategies to support data collection and the analysis phase in research, the literature review limits itself to contexts, purposes and ways tweets and word clouds are used. literature review tweets: contexts and purposes of use nowadays, terms such as tweets, twitter, tweeting are familiar to many internet and social network users. many people from different backgrounds and geographical locations engage in tweeting, which is a mix of texting, blogging and social media. basically a tweet is a short text-based message of less than 280 characters (at the time of the study, the limit was 140 characters) which a person shares with others via the online social networking and microblogging platform https://twitter.com/ created in march 2006. the tweets can also be sent through text messages and emails. this platform allows users to read and write brief texts on a range of topics and issues. chisanga et al. (2014) further explain that a tweet acts as “a lightweight, easy form of communication that enables users to broadcast and share information about their activities, opinions and status” (p. 27). through twitter, people are able to not only share information but also receive information from others which can be commented on and reposted (bristol, 2010). the fact that a tweet is written within a limited number of characters requires 92 the writer of the message to be focused and concise in expressing the message he/she wants to communicate and share with others. numerous studies have explored and analysed the usage or content of tweets in domains such as politics (diakopoulos & shamma, 2010; tumasjan et al., 2010; yulan et al., 2012), teaching and learning (boumediene et al., 2018; bristol, 2010; hull & dodd, 2017; risser, 2013; soluk & buddle, 2015), healthcare and clinical practice (pershad et al., 2018). for instance, hull and dodd (2017) surveyed educators from colleges and higher education institutions in the usa identified as using twitter in their classrooms. the objective was to find out how they were using twitter, their views/reactions and that of their students regarding its use, how they evaluate its pedagogical effectiveness and impact on students’ learning. the findings revealed that students reacted positively towards the use of twitter in the classrooms and that twitter represents a valuable platform for educators to support students’ learning and foster good pedagogical practices. similarly, the case study by boumediene et al. (2018) explored master’s and doctoral students’ use of twitter in an english foreign language (efl) writing class in an algerian hei. in this study, the teacher posted a topic tweet related to an efl writing syllabus which students needed to re-tweet using links, their own written comments and in this way engage in discussions with others in the class. the findings showed that while there was an initial apprehension regarding the use of twitter as a tool for learning at the beginning of the course, students gradually became more receptive and recognised its benefits. they found that engaging in the twitter activity as proposed by the teacher was helpful in enhancing interaction and communication between students. however, the study also showed that albeit the general positive views about twitter, the doctoral students seemed to be more in favor as opposed to master students who had a preference for more conventional approaches to teacher-student interaction. the researchers associated this finding with the level of maturity and confidence of doctoral students as opposed to master-level students who they believe are less independent as learners. some researchers have made use of tweets in conjunction with poem writing as a research strategy (chisanga et al., 2014.; pithouse-morgan et al., 2015). for instance chisanga et al.’s (2014) self-study research reported how a group of university researchers (staff-students and supervisors) who formed part of the “transformative education/al studies (tes) project”, which is a national research foundation (nrf)-funded project led by researchers from three universities in south africa…” (p. 22) became involved in a “tweet poem activity” (p. 23) during a two-day workshop entitled preparing new paradigms to transform educational landscapes, held in durban in november, 2013. through this activity, these researchers wrote anonymous tweets to reflect on their experiences of the tes project and on what it meant to them to be participants in the project. the writing of the tweets was guided by the question: “what have you learned about yourself during self-study research?” (p. 23). different groups were formed, and the tweets were shuffled and shared amongst them. after being assigned to a tweet randomly, the researchers within each group worked collaboratively to identify words and sentences which were meaningful to them. these were then rearranged to create a found poem, which was then presented in a creative manner to the other participants of the workshop. a similar approach was undertaken by pithouse-morgan et al. (2015), where a group of self-study research supervisors engaged in creating poems based on tweets they wrote and word clouds they generated from these tweets to reflect on the concept of co-reflexivity. in both these studies, the strategies of using tweets 93 and word clouds were used as a means to facilitate the poetry-making tasks and were found to be a helpful strategy for the researchers to express their thoughts in a concise but conversational manner. using word clouds as an education and research tool word clouds are also referred to as “tag clouds” or “term clouds,” (brooks et al., 2014, p. 192). it is a text visualisation tool which generates a visual display of texts where words that are used more frequently appear bigger or have “more prominence in the representation” (mcnaught & lam, 2010, p. 630). numerous software applications found on the web may be used to generate word clouds such as tagcrowd, tocloud, makecloud, worditout, tagxedo and wordle to name a few. mcnaught & lam (2010) are of the opinion that amongst those applications, wordle developed by jonathan feinberg (2009), an ibm developer, stands out for its versatility and its ease of use. word clouds have been used as an education tool to encourage critical thinking, discussions and to support meaningful interaction in online discussion forums (joyner, 2012), to evaluate the impact of instruction on students’ learning (huisman et al., 2011). word clouds have been incorporated in language classrooms to help students develop skills such as reading, writing, speaking and listening (baralt et al., 2011; tafazoli, 2013). as a tool or strategy to support data analysis, word clouds have been used by a few researchers who have reported benefits and challenges or limitations associated with the use of such a tool for research (mcnaught & lam, 2010; clement et al., 2009; pithousemorgan et al., 2015; ramlo, 2011; williams et al., 2013). for instance, clement et al. (2009) used word clouds to compare and analyse the literary writing style of novels written by different authors and they were able to identify words that were frequently used and thus derived their own interpretation and meanings with respect to the novels. mcnaught and lam (2010) explored word cloud analysis in two educational research projects. in one project, the researchers used the transcripts of six focus group meetings which they fed to the wordle application to generate six word clouds in order to have a quick overview of the data. the second project was aimed at gaining an insight into students’ experiences of e-book reading. the student participants spent 12 weeks reading an e-book and, in parallel, had to comment on their likes and dislikes in their respective online journals. the text entries in the journals were then fed into wordle to generate word clouds. the researchers described the nuances in the interpretation of the word clouds. even though, mcnaught and lam (2010) found that as a research tool, a word cloud to some extent may be useful to have a rapid view of the data, they also highlighted aspects of ambiguity that may arise depending on how the system displays the words, as some words may be misinterpreted. moreover, since word clouds take out the words from their context, it may be difficult for researchers to get a true picture of the data. thus, the researchers noted that word clouds should be used in conjunction with other strategies to enhance their effectiveness as a research analysis tool. word clouds, as noted by cidell (2010), may be an interesting tool for exploratory textual analysis by identifying words that frequently appear in a set of interviews, documents, or other texts. methods as pointed out above, the main doctoral study used a qualitative methodology within the interpretivist paradigm known as phenomenography, a research approach aiming at “description, analysis and understanding of experiences” (marton, 1981, p. 180). in phenomenography, the main data collection method used is interviewing (marton, 1988). other than interviewing, collier-reed and 94 ingerman (2013) point to other methods such as written accounts of respondents and reviews of video recordings. drawings and focus groups have also been used as data collection methods as noted by edwards (2007). for this paper, consideration is given to the focus group discussion data collection phase, which was carried out to consolidate the interview data collected during the two rounds of semi-structured interviews which had already been carried out for ls1 and ls2, respectively. ethical clearance to conduct the study was granted from relevant authorities and gatekeepers. purposes of the focus group discussion in phenomenography the researcher focuses on the variations in experiences rather than the singular essence of experience, and on collective meaning rather than individual experience. thus, the focus group discussion served the purpose of gaining collective insights on what participants had to say about their experiences as consumers and producers of dmts. furthermore, it was a platform which enabled discussions between the participants on a similar phenomenon, namely, the use of dmts for learning, so as to look for divergent and similar views. procedures the focus group discussion was conducted on the hei premises and, as far as possible, at the convenience of the participants and after the participants had experienced both learning situations (ls1 and ls2). a focus group discussion guide was prepared in advance. out of the nine targeted participants for the focus group discussion, only eight participants were present. all participants were seated around a table but they were regrouped, as per their programme of studies, in three teams to facilitate interaction amongst them and also for moderation purposes. each team was assigned identification codes (e.g., jh for participants from the joint humanities programme). table 1 shows how the teams were organised. for ethical considerations, pseudonyms were used to identify the participants and to preserve anonymity and confidentiality. table 1: participants regrouped as teams for focus group discussion teams participant pseudonyms and identification codes jh-ba (hons) joint humanities poonam jh1 mustafa jh2 romika jh3 hs-ba (hons) history and sociology faridahs1 heshanihs2 khajifahhs3 hps-ba (hons) history and political science alvin hps1 urmilahps2 the focus group discussion was a collective event with the researcher acting as the moderator and facilitating the discussion amongst the participants. four assistant moderators helped in the conduct of the focus group discussion. 95 analysis and findings strategy 1: the tweet hands-on activity along with verbal discussions between the participants and the focus group discussion moderator (the researcher), part of the focus group required the participants to engage in a hands-on activity, which aimed at encouraging individual as well as collaborative discussions. the participants had to write down their reflections in the form of a tweet in response of the following prompt: learning mauritian history with digital multimodal texts: as a first year undergraduate, what does it mean to you? the process of moving from individual thinking to collaborative discussion is described diagrammatically in figure 1. figure 1: process of moving from individual thinking to collective discussion it is to be noted that for practical reasons, the tweet activity was not carried out using the online twitter platform. instead, it focused on the act of writing tweets (short messages of not more than 140 characters each) on a sheet of paper similar to the approach used in self-studies of chisanga et al. (2014) and pithouse-morgan et al. (2015). participants were given approximately 15 minutes to write their individual tweets. figure 2 shows examples of participants’ written tweets. 96 figure 2: examples of participants’ handwritten tweets once the individual tweets were completed, each team typed the individual tweets as a single document using a laptop which was made available. this allowed each member in the team to have an overview of the responses within their respective teams. each team was then invited to discuss amongst themselves before verbally summarising what the combined tweets reflected. following this, they were asked to voice their views to everybody present during the event. this hands-on activity gave the participants the opportunity to think deeper about the prompt before voicing their views to everyone. strategy 2: generating the word clouds to visualise the data additionally, following pithouse-morgan et al. (2015), the data collected were brought into the software application wordle to generate visual representations in the form of word clouds. these were created immediately after the focus group discussion to gain a collective sense of the thoughts shared across the panel of participants. the process used to create the word clouds for each team is illustrated in figure 3. 97 figure 3: using word clouds to visualise the responses from the tweets firstly, each team combined tweets which participants had initially typed using the laptop and fed them into the wordle application (www.wordle.net/) as shown in figure 3. this step helped generate word clouds for each team. figure 4 displays an example of the word cloud created using the combined tweets written by participants from the ba (hons) joint humanities programme. figure 4: word cloud generated using the combined tweets of participants from the ba (hons) joint humanities programme of studies to gain a collective picture of the data responses, a second strategy to visualise the data was explored. a word cloud was generated using the combined tweets from all three teams. this resulted in the word cloud displayed in figure 5. 98 figure 5: word cloud generated from all participants’ combined tweets on a given prompt during the focus group session the effectiveness of the word clouds as visualisation tool was further explored. as noted earlier in this paper, when creating a word cloud from a text, the more frequently a word appears, the bigger it is displayed in the word cloud making it more prominent in the visual presentation. to understand and give some interpretation to the word cloud which was generated using all participants’ combined tweets (see figure 5), the words that appear to be prominent in the word cloud were identified, while words such as learning and history were excluded, as these two words were already in the prompt given and the tweets showed that some participants used these words often when formulating their tweet responses. key words such as interesting, understanding, new, better, means, and way, as highlighted in figure 6, appeared to be more prominent. figure 6: salient words with potential meaning in relation to the given prompt since in phenomenography the focus is on conceptual meanings to categorise people’s description of their experiences, these salient words were associated with possible themes for further investigation. 99 for instance, the word new was associated with the concept of novelty, the word better could be linked to positive aspects of learning while at the same time linking to words such as effective, success and efficient, which also appeared in the word cloud but were less prominent. reflecting on the word cloud representation, it is noted that when using the raw text and generating the word cloud, the meaning of certain words get lost. therefore, as suggested by ramlo (2011), hyphenating phrases so as to remain closer to the context and to enhance the process of interpretation/meaning making was considered. for instance, from the raw text of one of the tweets, a sentence which was formulated as: it means #evolution in the way i will learn. #less_books, the word cloud as shown in figure 6 displays the term books and less as two distinct terms. by putting a hyphen between the word less and books in the raw texts and generating another version of the word cloud (see figure 7), it was possible to retain the meaning. likewise, this approach was used for those sentences which lost their meanings in the first version of the word cloud. figure 7: exploring hyphenation of phrases to preserve meaning discussion strategy 1: the use of tweets the exploration of the above two strategies used during the focus group discussion led to some pertinent reflections on their effectiveness in research methods. as far as strategy 1 is concerned, that is, the use of tweets, the aim was to engage the participants in deeper thinking and to facilitate discussion. following its implementation with the eight participants, the hands-on tweet activity revealed itself to be a good ice-breaker, making the participants feel at ease and more relaxed about sharing their views amongst each other. the focus group regrouped participants from the three different programmes of studies and the participants, though they were students following a common module (hist1002y) were not necessarily acquainted with or accustomed to each other. a focus group discussion setting, especially where the participants are students and the researcher an academic, may appear to some participants as a space similar to that of a classroom, where the tensions of teacher-student power relations still may be felt. as noted by kvale (2006), it is important not to overlook such asymmetries of power and to ensure that participants are involved in the process of meaning-making. the hands-on activity was carried out in an informal manner and made the environment appear less intimidating for the participants, since they were not expected to provide an instant reply to the prompt statement given. furthermore, the tweet activity gave more time for participants to think and critically reflect on their experiences. it gave them time to think deeper about what it meant to them to learn mauritian history through and with dmts and express their thoughts 100 in concise yet meaningful words before elaborating their voiced opinions to the whole group. this is in line with the findings of boumediene et al. (2018) where the use of tweets were found to foster interaction and communication amongst students and also to support reflection as noted by chisanga et al. (2014) and pithouse-morgan et al. (2015). since the hands-on activity involving the tweet writing was introduced at the start of the focus group discussion, it contributed to making the whole event less daunting and was a good way to get the participants into discussions for the rest of the focus group event. strategy 2: the use of word clouds the implementation of the word cloud was mainly chosen as a way to visually represent and synthesise important ideas from the responses of the participants, to get a bigger picture of their learning experiences with dmts and what these meant to them. from the perspective of a researcher, the use of a word cloud application to create and explore different word clouds appear to have the potential to support data analysis and findings depending on how the strategy is implemented. in the case of the current exploration presented in this paper, word clouds were found to provide a spontaneous and instant way to view emerging ideas from the data. this supports the findings of other researchers who have explored the use of word clouds to support data analysis (mcnaught & lam, 2010; pithouse-morgan et al., 2015; viégas & wattenberg, 2008). moreover, the exploration of the data collected, tools and the strategies carried out showed that there are some caveats that should not be disregarded. it is important to note that word clouds as a tool to support data analysis should not be considered in isolation or as a standalone tool research tool as suggested by mcnaught and lam (2010). moreover, the word clouds generated using the raw texts of the tweets did not consider the context and distorted some sentences thus losing their meaning as noted by some researchers (ramlo, 2011, mcnaught & lam, 2010, williams et al., 2013). using the approach adopted by ramlo (2011), it was possible to bring out the meaning of the words as expressed by the participants in the tweets. however, the exploration exposed in this paper was limited to the use of a specific word cloud application software and would require further research to determine whether other word cloud applications allow for more flexibility as opposed to the wordle application. another issue observed regarding the structure of word clouds, which is in line with the observation made by cidell (2010), halvey and keane (2007), is that it could bias the researcher’s interpretation, especially in relation to font sizes. similarly, it was noted in the case of this exploration that there were some words that could potentially have importance in the interpretation of the data and for meaning making but did not stand out since they were perhaps not used as frequently as some other words. conclusion this paper has presented some insights and reflections about the exploration of two specific strategies implemented during the focus group discussion conducted in the context of a doctoral study, which sought to understand the different ways undergraduate students doing a history module experienced learning with dmts. asking students to write their thoughts about their experiences of learning in the form of tweets was one of the strategies used. this strategy was found to be a good ice-breaker especially in a focus group setting regrouping participants who may feel intimidated. tweets were also helpful in eliciting discussions amongst the participants and thus enriching the responses 101 emerging from the focus group discussion. visualising participants’ tweets through word clouds was another strategy which was used. despite some challenges and limitations observed during the exploration of word clouds as a research tool, it was possible to identify some preliminary findings in an instant manner, which served as a helpful starting point for further detailed analysis which used phenomenography to categorise participants’ ways of experiencing learning with dmts. the exploration related to these two strategies was limited to one specific type of data set, namely focus group discussion responses. further research could be carried out to establish their relevance and pertinence for other data sets. acknowledgement: the author wishes to thank her ph.d supervisors, dr linda van laren and professor claudia mitchell for the motivation to write this paper, as well as professor rada tirvassen for his guidance during her doctoral study from which this current work was derived. her appreciation also goes to dr vijaya teelock and her students at the university of mauritius who participated in the study. references achuonye, k. a. (2015). predominant teaching strategies in schools: implications for curriculum implementation in mathematics, science and technology. educational research and reviews, 10(15), 2096-2103. https://doi.org/10.5897/err2015.2184 baralt, m., pennestri, s., & selvandin, m. (2011). action research: using wordle to teach foreign language writing. language learning & technology, 15(2), 12-22. http: doi.org/10125/44245 boumediene, h., bavaharji, m., & berrahal, f. k. (2018). the effect of using twitter on improving efl students’ writing: a case study. international journal of humanities and social science invention (ijhssi), 7(5), 26-32. http://www.ijhssi.org/papers/vol7(5)/version-2/d0705022632.pdf bristol, t. j. (2010). twitter: consider the possibilities for continuing nursing education. the journal of continuing education in nursing, 41(5), 199-200. https://doi.org/10.3928/00220124-20100423-09 brooks, b. j., gilbuena, d. m., krause, s. j., & koretsky, m. d. (2014). using word clouds for fast, formative assessment of students' short written responses. chemical engineering education, 48(4), 190-198. http://journals.fcla.edu/cee/article/download/83408/80239 chisanga, t., rawlinson, w., madi, s., & sotshangane, n. (2014). enacting reflexivity through poetic inquiry. educational research for social change (ersc), 3(2), 21-36. http://ersc.nmmu.ac.za/articles/vol_3_no_2_chisanga_pp_21_to_36_november_2014.pdf cidell, j. l. (2010). content clouds as a method of exploratory qualitative data analysis. area, 42(4), 514-523. http://hdl.handle.net/2142/50762 clement, t., plaisant, c., & vuillemot, r. (2009). the story of one: humanity scholarship with visualization and text analysis. proceedings of digital humanities 2009, 22-25 june 2009. university of maryland, usa. https://romain.vuillemot.net/publis/dh09-the-story-of-one.pdf collier-reed, b. i., & ingerman, a. (2013). phenomenography: from critical aspects to knowledge claim. in m. tight, & j. huisman, theory and method in higher education research: international perspectives on higher education research (vol. 9, pp. 243-260). emerald group publishing. diakopoulos, n. a., & shamma, d. a. (2010). characterizing debate performance via aggregated twitter sentiment. chi 10 proceedings of the sigchi conference on human factors in computing systems, april 10 15, 2010 (pp. 1195-1198). atlanta, georgia, usa: acm, new york, ny, usa. https://doi.org/10.1145/1753326.1753504 102 edwards, s. l. (2007). phenomenography: “follow the yellow brick road!”. in s. lipu, k. williamson, & a. lloyd, exploring methods in information literacy research (pp. 87-110). centre for information studies, charles sturt university. halvey, m. j., & keane, m. t. (2007). an assessment of tag presentation techniques. www '07 proceedings of the 16th international conference on world wide web, may 08-12, 2007, (pp. 1313-1314). banff, alberta, canada. https://doi.org/10.1145/1242572.1242826 hampson, m., patton, a., & shanks, l. (2013). 10 ideas for 21st century education. https://www.innovationunit.org/publications/10ideasfor21centuryeducation/ hénard, f., & roseveare, d. (2012). fostering quality teaching in higher education: policies and practices. institutional management in higher education (imhe). huisman, r., miller, w., & trinoskey, j. (2011). we’ve wordled, have you? acrl techconnect, 72(9), 522-526. https://crln.acrl.org/index.php/crlnews/article/view/8634/9055 hull, k., & dodd, j. e. (2017). faculty use of twitter in higher education teaching. journal of applied research in higher education, 9(1), 91-104. https://doi:10.1108/jarhe-05-2015-0038 joyner, f. (2012). increasing student interaction and the development of critical thinking in asynchronous threaded discussions. journal of teaching and learning with technology, 1(1), 35-41. https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/jotlt/article/view/2041 kvale, s. (2006). dominance through interviews and dialogues. qualitative inquiry, 12(3), 480-500. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800406286235 marton, f. (1981). phenomenography: describing conceptions of the world around us. instructional science, 10(2), 177-200. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00132516 marton, f. (1988). phenomenography: a research approach to investigating different understandings of reality. in r. r. sherman, & r. b. webb, qualitative research in education: focus and methods (pp. 141-161). london: routledgefarmer. mcnaught, c., & lam , p. (2010). using wordle as a supplementary research tool. the qualitative report, 15(3), 630-643. http://www.nova.edu/ssss/qr/qr15-3/mcnaught.pdf pershad, y., hangge, p. t., albadawi, h., & oklu, r. (2018). social medicine: twitter in healthcare. journal of clinical medicine, 7(6). https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm7060121 pithouse-morgan, k., muthukrishna, n., pillay, d., van laren, l., chisanga, t., meyiwa, t., . . . stuart, j. (n.d.). learning about co-flexivity in a transdisciplinary self-study research supervision community. in k. pithouse-morgan, & a. p. samaras (eds.), polyvocal professional learning through self-study research (pp. 145-171). sense. poon, j. (2013). blended learning: an institutional approach for enhancing students' learning experiences. merlot journal of online learning and teaching, 9(2). http://jolt.merlot.org/vol9no2/poon_0613.pdf ramlo, s. (2011). using word clouds to visually present q methodology data and findings. journal of human subjectivity, 9(2), 99-111. risser, h. s. (2013). virtual induction: a novice teacher’s use of twitter to form an informal mentoring network. teaching & teacher education, 35, 25-33. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2013.05.001 robinson, k. (2009). the element: how finding your passion changes everything. penguin books. scott, c. l. (2015). the future of learning 3: what kind of pedagogies for the 21st century? unesco education research and foresight. [erf working papers series no. 15]. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0024/002431/243126e.pdf smith, d. j., & valentine, t. (2012). the use and perceived effectiveness of instructional practices in two-year technical colleges. journal on excellence in college teaching, 23(1), 133-161. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ej972560 103 soluk, l., & buddle, c. m. (2015). tweets from the forest: using twitter to increase student engagement in an undergraduate field biology course. fl000research 4. https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.6272.1 tafazoli, d. (2013). wordling: using word clouds in teaching english language. international journal of instructional technology and distance learning, 53-58. taylor , l., & parsons, j. (2011). improving student engagement. current issues in education, 14(1), 1-33. http://cie.asu.edu/ tumasjan, a., sprenger, t. o., sandner, p. g., & welpe, i. m. (2010). predicting elections with twitter: what 140 characters reveal about political sentiment. proceedings of the fourth international aaai conference on weblogs and social media. http://www.aaai.org/library/icwsm/icwsm10contents.php viégas, f. b., & wattenberg, m. (july/august 2008). timelinestag clouds and the case for vervnacular visualization. interactions, 15(4), 49-52. http://doi:10.1145/1374489.1374501 yulan, h., hassan, s., zhongyu, w., & kam-fai, w. (2012). quantising opinions for political tweets analysis. lrec 2012, eighth international conference on language resources and evaluation, 21-27 may 2012 (pp. 39023906). open research online. http://oro.open.ac.uk/40659/1/217_paper.pdf author: dorothy cooshna-naik, ph.d., is a senior lecturer in visual communication at the centre for innovative and lifelong learning (cill) of the university of mauritius. her first degree is in applied arts. she holds her m.a. from the university of strasbourg, france and her ph.d. from the university of kwazulu-natal, durban, south africa. her research interest focuses on areas such as visual communication, computer mediated communication and pedagogies, alternative modes of assessment, multimedia learning and multimodal learning experiences and how emerging technologies and pedagogies can be leveraged to support and sustain teaching and learning at all level of education. in parallel, she has worked on several locally and internationally funded research projects. email: d.cooshna@uom.ac.mu cite this paper as: cooshna-naik, d. (2022). exploring the use of tweets and word clouds as strategies in educational research. journal of learning for development, 9(1), 89-103. microsoft word raphael.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 196-210 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs towards educational technologies integration in tanzania christina raphael and joel s. mtebe university of dar es salaam, tanzania abstract: this study examines pre-service teachers’ (n = 386) self-efficacy beliefs towards educational technologies integration in the classroom at the two colleges in tanzania that prepare secondary education teachers. using regression analysis, the study found out that the determinants of self-efficacy beliefs among pre-service teachers towards educational technologies integration are support, perceived ease of use, performance expectancy, and social influence. the findings of this study enhance our understanding of factors that hinder teachers from integrating educational technologies into the classroom. keywords: self-efficacy, educational technologies, pre-service teachers, educational technology integration introduction enhancing technological integration in education is one of the pivotal issues in tanzania today, as the country envisions leaping towards being a middle-level income earner and a semi-industrialized country by 2025 (mwtc, 2016). as a result, the government and other stakeholders have been making considerable investments to ensure that secondary schools have the necessary ict infrastructure as well as e-content that can be used to improve the quality of education. however, relatively few teachers have been integrating educational technologies into the classroom environment (andersson, nfuka, sumra, uimonen, & pain, 2014; kafyulilo, fisser, pieters, & voogt, 2015; kihoza, zlotnikova, bada, & kalegele, 2016; unesco, 2015). this fact is unsettling given the fact that, in many universities in tanzania, educational technologies are integrated into pre-service teachers’ training programs. the pre-service teachers are often trained on technical skills as well as on how to employ them in the classroom. moreover, a large percentage of current students are becoming increasingly competent and skillful with various educational technologies. it is therefore expected that teachers’ skills in using these technologies for enhancing teaching and learning in these schools should match that of their students. studies conducted in tanzania have identified extrinsic factors such as lack of computers, poor internet connectivity, inadequate training and support, and lack of time as barriers for teachers to integrate educational technologies into the classroom (lwoga, 2012; mtebe, mbwilo, & kissaka, 2016). nevertheless, intrinsic barriers such as computer self-efficacy beliefs are described as being more influential than extrinsic ones in teachers’ decisions to use technology ( ertmer, ottenbreit-leftwich, & york, 2007). 197 bandura (1977) defines self-efficacy as the strength of one's beliefs in one's own ability to complete tasks and reach certain goals. bandura adds that self-efficacy is not concerned with the skills an individual has but with the judgments of what one can do with whatever skills one possesses. such individuals will tend to prefer and enjoy behaviors which they feel they are capable of performing compared to those with lower self-efficacy beliefs (abbitt, 2011). therefore, effective classroom technology integration depends on teachers’ beliefs of having sufficient ability to adopt and use them in classroom (chen, 2004; de, uçar, & demir, 2014). that is to say, pre-service teachers with higher technology self-efficacy beliefs are prone to use and integrate technology more into the classroom than pre-service teachers with lower self-efficacy beliefs. therefore, understanding pre-service teachers’ beliefs about educational technologies provides insight into how they are likely going to use them in a classroom environment in the future. this paper examines factors that influence pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs towards educational technologies’ integration into the classroom in tanzania. the study was conducted in two university colleges: dar es salaam university college of education (duce) and mkwawa university college of education (muce), with a sample of 386 pre-service teachers. research context the government of tanzania and other stakeholders have been making considerable efforts to embrace secondary schools with ict infrastructure as well as installing various education technologies in a bid to improve the quality of teaching and learning. to ensure smooth deployment of educational technologies, the government has been making efforts to provide electricity to the majority of schools in the country. currently, 30.4% (1,368) of schools are connected to national grid electricity (nge), while 837 schools use solar power, 569 use generators, and the rest use biogas and wind power (urt, 2014). moreover, the government, through the ministry of education and vocational training (moevt), developed content for 70 topics and 147 subtopics of physics, chemistry, biology and mathematics, enhanced with various multimedia elements. the developed content has been shared to secondary school students via an online platform (www.shule.ac.tz). students all over the country have been accessing the content through this system. the initiative also included the training of more than 2,000 teachers from 858 schools to be able to use the content to complement classroom delivery (mtebe, mbwilo & kissaka, 2016). other firms that have complemented the government’s efforts by developing e-content that can be used to improve the quality of teaching and learning in secondary schools in tanzania include christian social services commission (cssc, 2014), brainshare, shuledirect, and 21 ict solutions. the brainshare firm developed content in english, mathematics, science and social studies in audio-visual format with animations. similarly, shuledirect developed content for biology, civics, chemistry, english, geography, history, mathematics and kiswahili (mtebe & kissaka, 2015). so far, there are more than 10,000 users registered in the system. there are some efforts to equip secondary schools with computers as well as connecting them with the internet in various regions in tanzania. for instance, the universal communications service access fund (ucsaf) equipped 1,000 teachers with laptops in 10 districts in rural areas. british council tanzania donated more than 700 computers in secondary schools in various regions in tanzania 198 (british council tanzania, 2013). similarly, halotel supported 400 schools and tigo supported 700 with computers connected to the internet in selected regions of the country (kazoka, 2016; tanzania telecoms, 2016). given these initiatives, the majority of students in secondary schools are increasingly becoming competent and skillful with various educational technologies. it is therefore expected that teachers’ skill in using these technologies to enhance teaching and learning in these schools could match that of their students. the situation is different as a larger number of teachers do not integrate them into classroom despite having graduated with knowledge and skills of using various educational technologies. therefore, there is a great necessity to understand factors that influence self-efficacy beliefs of preservice teachers towards integrating educational technologies in the classroom. according to giles and kent (2016), pre-service teachers’ technology self-efficacy belief is a creditable indicator of graduates’ likelihood to use educational technology throughout their careers; thus, it is imperative that new teachers graduate with a high sense of self-efficacy regarding their abilities to use technology as an effective teaching tool. related works technologies can profoundly affect what teachers choose to do, how they do it, and whether or not they have a chance at succeeding (govender & govender, 2009). thus, self-efficacy beliefs are crucial in influencing teachers to use technologies in their daily teaching roles. for instance, ball and levy (2008) investigated the impact of self-efficacy, computer anxiety, and technology experience on instructor intention to use technologies in a small private university in the united states of america and concluded that self-efficacy was the only major determinant of teacher intention. teo (2009) examined the relationship between teachers’ self-efficacy and intention to use technology using a sample of 1,094 pre-service teachers at a teacher training institute in singapore. teo found that teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs had a direct effect on pre-service teacher’s perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and behavioral intentions. curts, tanguma, and peña (2008) also conducted a study to predict teachers’ self-efficacy in using technology for pedagogical purposes using a sample of 438 teachers in a hispanic school in texas. it was revealed that teachers' self-efficacy beliefs had a direct influence on classroom technology integration. giles and kent (2016) conducted their study using 28 pre-service teachers at a university’s college of education in the united states to determine preservice teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs related to integrating technology into instruction. data indicated that almost all (93%) of the participants incorporated technology into the lessons they taught, with the majority (68%) of participants reporting a high level of confidence in their ability to select and utilize technology in teaching. further, 89% of the participants felt they could integrate technology across the curriculum with 80% indicating they were capable of determining the why, when, and how to do so most of the time. likewise, albion (2001) explored teachers’ self-efficacy on classroom technology integration using a sample of 89 pre-service teachers and found that teachers with high self-efficacy beliefs had more classroom technology integration. the other profound revelation on the subject came from abbitt (2011) in his study on self-efficacy beliefs in technology integration of pre-service teachers using technological pedagogical content knowledge (tpack). the study was done using a sample of 45 199 pre-service teachers. findings revealed that there was a strong positive correlation between selfefficacy and technology integration as predicted by tpack domains. these studies and many others from the literature clearly indicate that teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs have a significant influence on classroom technology integration and, thus, form a basis for this study. in tanzania, however, the majority of existing studies that have investigated teachers’ barriers towards integrating technology into the classroom have been concentrated into extrinsic factors, such as lack of computers, poor internet connectivity, and inadequate training and support (lwoga, 2012; mtebe & raisamo, 2014). the majority of these factors have been overcome by the increasing support from the government and other stakeholders, which equips many schools with computers connected to the internet. still, the majority of teachers in secondary schools do not make use of these technologies in the classroom environment. this points to the need for examining intrinsic factors as barriers towards technology integration. research model and hypotheses the study adopted factors from literature that could influence pre-service self-efficacy beliefs towards educational technologies integration into the classroom. these factors are shown in table 1, followed by proposed research model in figure 1. table 1: factors that can influence teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs towards digital technology integration no. factors source 1. performance expectancy bandura, (1977) 2. social influence bandura, (1989); higgins & compeau, (1995) 3. perceived ease of use albion, (1999) 4 support higgins & compeau, (1995) figure 1: proposed research model 200 the constructs and the hypotheses are described next. support the availability of reliable support services to pre-service teachers has the potential to influence judgments on their capabilities to use educational technologies. higgins and compeau (1995) point out that the higher the support for using technology, the higher the individual's self-efficacy beliefs. therefore, it is important to include support as one of the factors that can influence pre-service teachers to use the technology. hypothesis 1—support has an effect on pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs towards educational technologies integration in the classroom. perceived ease of use perceived ease of use refers to the extent to which an individual believes that using a certain technology will be free of effort (venkatesh, 2000). rogers (1995) describes the attributes of the technology itself as one of the major factors affecting people’s attitude toward new technology. therefore, people who have a tenacious belief in their capabilities in using technology will persevere in their efforts despite innumerable difficulties and obstacles. in this way, the perceived ease of use will likely heighten self-efficacy beliefs, as it will lead to increased performance and accomplishments. hypothesis 2— perceived ease of use has an effect on pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs towards educational technologies integration in the classroom. social influence social influence is the extent to which users perceive what influential people close to them believe in the use of a particular technology (venkatesh et al., 2012). according to higgins and compeau (1995), individuals rely on the opinions of others in forming judgments about their own abilities. therefore, higher levels of technology integration among peers is likely going to increase other pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs. when these pre-service teachers observe their peers use these technologies in the classroom successfully, they will become confident that they can similarly perform. such beliefs are likely going to increase their self-efficacy towards using technologies in teaching. hypothesis 3—social influence has an effect on pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs towards educational technologies integration in the classroom. performance expectancy performance expectancy is defined as the degree to which users believe that using a certain technology will enable them to accomplish certain activities (venkatesh et al., 2003). bandura (1977) points out that individuals tend to persuade themselves that if others can do something, they should be able to achieve at least some improvement in the same type of performance. in the context of this study, self-persuasion represents the degree to which pre-service teachers believe that using educational technologies will enable them to perform teaching activities much better than before. such kinds of beliefs are likely to increase their self-efficacy. hypothesis 4—performance expectancy has an effect on pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs towards educational technologies integration in the classroom. 201 methodology data collection instrument bandura (2006) argues that there is no all-purpose measurement of perceived self-efficacy and that, scales must be tailored to suit the specific context of a given study. thus, items for each construct adopted from the literature were tailored to suit the context of this study as shall be explained. the instrument developed for this study uses a 5–point likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). table 2 shows part of the data instrument used for data collection (excluding the demographics). table 2: the items construct construct code item performance expectancy pe1 i find educational technology useful in teaching pe2 using educational technology enables me to accomplish teaching activities more quickly pe3 using educational technology increases my knowledge in subjects i will teach. pe4 using educational technology increases my skills for learning courses at college. perceived ease of use peou1 my interaction with educational technologies is clear and understandable. peou2 learning how to use educational technologies is easy for me. peou3 i find educational technologies easy to use peou4 it is easy for me to become skillful at educational technologies. social influence si1 people who influence my behavior will think that i should use educational technologies. si2 people who are important to me will think that i should use educational technologies. si3 people whose opinions that i value prefer that i use educational technologies. support s1 the staff in the it unit provides support when using educational technologies. s2 the training provided by the it unit has enhanced my ability to use educational technologies. s3 the it unit staffs are competent with educational technologies. s4 the it unit staffs have adequate knowledge to help me if i experience any problems with educational technologies. teachers’ selfefficacy ts1 i feel more competent with the educational technologies than most other people at college. ts2 i know enough about the educational technologies to get my teaching activities done. ts3 compared to other people at the college, i know a lot about the educational technologies. ts4 i use the educational technologies as much as possible note. scale labels: 1 – strongly agree, 2 – agree, 3 – neutral, 4 –disagree, 5 – strongly disagree 202 study population and data collection the study was conducted at duce and muce. these are two constituent colleges of the university of dar es salaam mandated to train pre-service teachers who are going to teach in secondary schools and teachers’ training colleges. a total of 411 questionnaires were printed and self-administered to respondents. all respondents were guaranteed confidentiality and they were not required to fill in the name field. a total of 386 out of 411 respondents returned the questionnaires. this was 93.9% of all respondents, whereby 39.4% (152) of respondents were from muce, and 60.6% (274) of respondents were from duce. the data collection was done between april and june 2016. data were analyzed using statistical packages for social science (spss) version 20. reliability and validity reliability is used to ensure the consistency of the results for the various items being tested within each component (foster, 2001). it is normally evaluated by assessing the internal consistency of the items representing each construct using cronbach’s alpha (cronbach, 1951). based on the spss results, the cronbach alpha coefficient for the 19-item instrument was 0.906. according to nunnally (1978), the value of cronbach’s alpha should be positive and even greater than .700. as shown in table 3, cronbach alpha value for seven constructs is above 0.700. therefore, it can be concluded that the instrument used for this study was reliable. the overall questionnaire was considered valid as it used the same items from previous surveys. table 3: cronbach's alpha coefficients for construct reliability measurement construct cronbach's alpha 1. perceived ease of use .811 2. performance expectancy .738 3. social influence .721 4. support .785 5. teachers’ self-efficacy .752 sampling adequacy the kaiser-meyer-olkin measure of sampling (kmo) was used to measure the sampling adequacy of the data. according to kaiser (1973), a kmo below .50 is unacceptable and factor analysis should not be performed. in this study, the kmo was .916, hence, confirmed the sampling adequacy. moreover, bartlett’s test of sphericity, p < .001, indicated that the correlation between items was sufficiently large for performing the principal component analysis (pca). findings ownership and use of devices respondents were asked to indicate which devices they personally own. as expected, more than 90% of pre-service teachers indicated that they own mobile phones and nearly two thirds of respondents indicated they own laptops. figure 2 shows the distribution of respondents who own devices. 203 figure 2: distribution of respondents owning devices. the study also found that 25.6% of respondents have access to desktop computers at the colleges. relatively fewer pre-service teachers (0.8%) reported they use scanners. figure 3 shows the distribution of respondents per usage of various devices at the college. figure 3: distribution of respondents using various devices at the colleges. use internet to search course material the study examined how pre-service teachers use the internet to access course material. interestingly, many respondents indicated that they use the internet once per week (30.8%) or several times per week (36.5%) to access course material as illustrated in figure 4. 39.4 97.2 59.1 desktop computers mobile phone laptop 25.6 21 0.8 0.5 desktop computers printer scanner none 204 figure 4: distribution of respondents per usage of the internet to access course material. hypotheses testing identifying the factor structure factor analysis (fa) was performed using the principal component analysis extraction method on 24 items using direct oblimin rotation with kaiser normalization. the aim of the fa was to show whether the related items were clustered under the same construct or not. the minimum factor loadings should be .300 (hair, black, babin, & anderson, 2009). the loadings per each item are shown in table 4. all items in the research instrument loaded successfully. research model summary four factors were subjected to linear regression analysis to measure the success of the model and predict causal relationship between the factors and teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs. the four factors are perceived ease of use, performance expectancy, social influence, and support. using the enter method, a significant model emerged: f (4,381) = 39.535, p < .0005. the model explains 28.6% of the variance (adjusted r2 = .286) in pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs towards educational technologies integration. table 5 shows a summary of the research model. table 5 shows a summary of predictive factors in terms of beta values for each hypothesis obtained from regression analysis. the results show all factors were found to have significant effect on preservice teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs. the beta values are shown in table 6. a summary of how the hypotheses have been tested is shown in table 6. 1.3 2.6 17.1 30.8 36.5 11.7 never once per semester once per month once per week several times per week daily 205 table 4: factor loadings on each construct s peou si pe ts peou1 -0.744 peou2 -0.802 peou3 -0.833 peou4 -0.625 pe1 0.839 pe2 0.78 pe3 0.496 pe4 0.29 si1 -0.852 si2 -0.721 si3 -0.574 s1 0.774 s2 0.832 s3 0.749 s4 0.488 ts1 0.637 ts1 0.787 ts3 0.772 ts4 0.624 table 5: summary shows the success of the research model model r r2 adjusted r2 se .542 .293 .286 .845 note. se = standard error of the estimate table 6: unstandardized and standardized regression coefficients for the constructs construct b se b p s .294 .05 .294 .000 peou -.137 .05 -.137 .006 si -.115 .05 -.115 .023 pe .184 .048 .184 .000 206 table 7: summary of results hypothesis testing results conclusion hypothesis 1 support has an effect on preservice teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs towards educational technologies integration in the classroom. b = .294, p < .000 supported hypothesis 2 perceived ease of use has significant effect on pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs towards educational technologies integration in the classroom. b = -.137, p < .05 supported hypothesis 3 social influence has significant effect on pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs towards educational technologies integration in the classroom. b = -.115, p < .05 supported hypothesis 4 performance expectancy has significant effect on pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs towards educational technologies integration in the classroom. b = .184, p < .000 supported note. statistically significant values at p < .05 or p < .001 discussion integrating technology into teaching is among the greatest challenges facing today’s teachers. in tanzania, the government and other stakeholders have been investing heavily in equipping secondary schools with computers connected to the internet. similarly, teachers have been equipped with skills to integrate these technologies into the classroom. despite several existing initiatives, few teachers have been integrating them into the classroom environment. existing studies have focused on investigating extrinsic barriers that hinder teachers from classroom technology integration (e.g., andersson et al., 2014; a. kafyulilo et al., 2015; unesco, 2015). this study focused on intrinsic barriers, specifically factors that influence teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs towards educational technologies integration in the classroom. in this study, four factors: support, performance expectancy, perceived ease of use, and social influence that can influence pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs towards educational technologies integration in the classroom were assessed. support was found to be the strongest predictor (b = .294). this implies that teachers believe that provision of support will increase their capabilities to integrate technologies in the classroom (raphael & mtebe, 2016). albion (1999) describes such support to include several workshops over an extended period, training, and on-site support. therefore, institutions and other stakeholders involved in teacher training should seek to provide continuous support services to pre-service teachers in order to increase their self-efficacy beliefs. 207 performance expectancy was also found to have significant effect (b = .184) on pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy in educational technologies integration. this means pre-service teachers believed that using these technologies would assist them in enhancing their teaching activities. according to higgins and compeau (1995), individuals would use technologies if they could see that there would be positive benefits (outcomes) in their activities. rogers (1995) adds that new technologies will increasingly be used if potential adopters perceive that the innovation has an advantage over previous innovations and that the innovation has observable results. therefore, institutions and stakeholders involved in teacher education should emphasize the value and potential of these technologies in improving learning outcomes. by doing so, pre-service teachers will see the importance of technology integration and therefore increase their self-efficacy beliefs. the study also found that perceived ease of use had a negative significant effect (b = -.137) on preservice teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs in educational technologies integration. this finding suggests that the pre-service teachers believed that educational technologies are difficult to use. this finding is consistent with a study conducted on a sample of 1,137 teachers in tanzania (mtebe et al., 2016). the authors found that many teachers perceived that multimedia enhanced content was not easy to use for teaching. therefore, the low usage of educational technologies in teaching could be due to teachers’ own judgement that the technologies were difficult to use. therefore, there is a need for institutions in tanzania to integrate technology competencies into the curriculum for teacher education (govender & govender, 2009). another interesting finding was that social influence had a negative significant effect (b = -.115) on pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs towards educational technologies integration. a possible explanation for this could be that teachers do not perceive that their colleagues could influence them to use educational technologies. according to higgins and compeau (1995), individuals rely on the opinions of others in forming judgments about their own abilities. it seems, therefore, teachers feel that their colleagues cannot influence them to use educational technologies as they themselves do not make use of them in teaching and learning. another finding from this study is that, despite the fact that many pre-service teachers have access to educational technologies, they have not integrated them into their classroom environment when they graduate. in this article, we found that 97% of pre-service teachers own mobile phones while 59% own laptops. this finding further supports the fact that extrinsic barriers are influential in hindering teachers from integrating technologies into the classroom. therefore, the need to assess judgments about their capabilities and beliefs towards integrating these technologies in enhancing teaching and learning is important. conclusion and suggestions for the future educational technologies integration in the classroom is inevitable in the current generation of prodigital technology students, and the constant changing technological environment in secondary schools. unlike the past, most of students today enter school having knowledge of various technologies and skills in using them. it is therefore important to orient pre-service teachers with these skills, so that they integrate these technologies to enhance teaching as well as to provide education that meets the diverse learning styles of individual students in their professional careers. therefore, this study was conducted on teacher trainees who are going to be teachers in the secondary schools in 208 years to come. increasing the self-efficacy beliefs among these teachers will likely influence their pedagogical decisions and integrate these technologies in the classroom in future. despite findings from this study, some limitations are worth mentioning. the study was based on quantitative research methods measuring individual perceptions on teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs with regard to the use of educational technologies for teaching and learning. further research should be undertaken to complement the findings using qualitative research methods. future research will help to answer some questions such as why teachers’ own judgement is that the technologies were difficult to use, or why teachers do not perceive that their colleagues could influence them to use educational technologies. despite this limitation, this study enhances our understanding of factors that hinder teachers from integrating educational technologies into the classroom. references abbitt, j. t. (2011). an investigation of the relationship between self-efficacy beliefs about technology integration and technological pedagogical content knowledge (tpack) among preservice teachers. journal of digital learning in teacher education, 27(4), 134–143. http://doi.org/10.1080/21532974.2011.10784670 albion, p. (1999). self-efficacy beliefs as an indicator of teachers’ preparedness for teaching with technology. in proceedings of the 10th international conference of the society for information technology & teacher education (site 1999) (pp. 1602–1608). http://doi.org/10.1007/s10876-009-0253-6 albion, p. (2001). some factors in the development of self-efficacy beliefs for computer use among teacher education students. journal of technology and teacher education, 9(3), 321–347. andersson, b., nfuka, e. n., sumra, s., uimonen, p., & pain, a. (2014). evaluation of implementation of ict in teachers’ colleges project in tanzania. bandura, a. (1977). self-efficacy: toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. psychological review, 84(2), 191– 215. http://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295x.84.2.191 bandura, a. (1989). social cognitive theory. in annals of child development. six theories of child development (vol. 6, pp. 1–60). greenwich, ct: jai press. bandura, a. (2006). guide for constructing self-efficacy scales. in self-efficacy beliefs of adolescents (pp. 307–337). http://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781107415324.004 chen, l.-l. (2004). pedagogical strategies to increase pre-service teachers’ confidence in computer learning. educational technology & society, 7(3), 50–60. cronbach, l. j. (1951). coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests. psychometrika, 16(3), 297–333. cssc. (2014). the performance enhancement by e-learning for secondary schools. curts, j., tanguma, j., & peña, c. m. (2008). predictors of hispanic school teachers’ self-efficacy in the pedagogical uses of technology. computers in the schools, 25(1–2), 48–63. http://doi.org/10.1080/07380560802157766 de, e. h., uçar, m. b., & demir, c. (2014). the investigation of self-efficacy of pre-service science teachers and pre-service physics teachers towards web pedagogical content knowledge regarding internet use habits. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 116, 3395–3399. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.01.771 ertmer, p.a., ottenbreit-leftwich, a., & york, c. s. (2007). exemplary technology-using teachers: perceptions of factors influencing success. journal of computing in teacher education, 23(2), 55–61. foster, j. j. (2001). data analysis using spss for windows versions 8-10: a beginner’s guide. sage publications ltd. giles, r. m., & kent, a. m. (2016). an investigation of preservice teachers’ self-efficacy for teaching with technology. asian education studies, 1(1), 32-40. http://doi.org/10.20849/aes.v1i1.19 209 govender, d., & govender, i. (2009). the relationship between information and communications technology (ict) integration and teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs about ict. education as change, 13(1), 153-165. http://doi.org/10.1080/16823200902943346 hair, j. f., black, w. c., babin, b. j., & anderson, r. e. (2009). multivariate data analysis (7th ed.). upper saddle river, njl: prentice hall. higgins, c. a., & compeau, d. r. (1995). development of a measure and initial test. mis quarterly, 19(2), 189211. http://doi.org/10.2307/249688 kafyulilo, a., fisser, p., pieters, j., & voogt, j. (2015). ict use in science and mathematics teacher education in tanzania: developing technological pedagogical content knowledge. australasian journal of educational technology, 31(4), 381-399. kaiser, h. f. (1973). an index of factorial simplicity. psychometrika, 39(1), 31-34. retrieved from http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ej105008 kazoka, l. (2016, december 3). tanzania: halotel offers free internet to 400 schools. tanzania daily news. dar es salaam. retrieved from http://allafrica.com/stories/201609150157.html kihoza, p., zlotnikova, i., bada, j., & kalegele, k. (2016). classroom ict integration in tanzania: opportunities and challenges from the perspectives of tpack and samr models. international journal of education and development using information and communication technology, 12(1), 107-128. lwoga, e. (2012). making learning and web 2.0 technologies work for higher learning institutions in africa. campus-wide information systems, 29(2), 90-107. http://doi.org/10.1108/10650741211212359 mtebe, j. s., & kissaka, m. m. (2015). heuristics for evaluating usability of learning management systems in africa. in p. cunningham & m. cunningham (eds.). ist-africa 2015 conference proceedings (pp. 1-13). lilongwe, malawi. mtebe, j. s., mbwilo, b., & kissaka, m. m. (2016). factors influencing teachers’ use of multimedia enhanced content in secondary schools in tanzania. international review of research in open and distributed learning, 17(2), 65–84. mtebe, j. s., & raisamo, r. (2014). investigating perceived barriers to the use of open educational resources in higher education in tanzania. international review of research in open and distance learning, 15(2), 43-65. mwtc. (2016). national information and communication technology (ict) policy. dar es salaam, tanzania. retrieved from https://tanzict.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/national-ict-policy-proofed-final-nic-review2.pdf nunnally, j. (1978). psychometric theory. new york, ny: mcgraw-hill. raphael, c., & mtebe, j. s. (2016). instructor support services: an inevitable critical success factor in blended learning in higher education in tanzania. international journal of education and development using information and communication technology (ijedict), 12(2), 123-138. rogers, e. m. (1995). diffusion of innovations. new york, usa. tanzania telecoms. (2016, july 31). 700 schools in tanzania to be connected to the internet. dar es salaam. retrieved from http://tanzaniainvest.com/telecoms/schools-internet-connectivity-tigo teo, t. (2009). examining the relationship between student teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs and their intended uses of technology for teaching: a structural equation modelling approach. turkish online journal of educational technology tojet, 8(4), 7-15. unesco. (2015). ict competency standards for teachers: competency standards modules. retrieved from http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-url_id=25731&url_do=do_topic&url_section=201.html venkatesh, v. (2000). determinants of perceived ease of use: integrating control, intrinsic motivation, and emotion into the technology acceptance model. information systems research, 11(4), 342-365. 210 venkatesh, v., morris, m. g., hall, m., davis, g. b., davis, f. d., & walton, s. m. (2003). user acceptance of information technology: toward a unified view 1. mis quarterly, 27(3), 425-478. venkatesh, v., thong, j. y. l., & xu, x. (2012). consumer acceptance and use of information technology: extending the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology. mis quarterly, 36(1), 157-178. authors christina raphael is a lecturer in the department of educational foundations, management and life long learning at the dar es salaam university college of education (duce), a constituent college of the university of dar es salaam, tanzania. email: christin.raphael@gmail.com joel s. mtebe is a lecturer of computer science and elearning in the department of computer science and engineering, college of information and communication technologies. he is also the director of center for virtual learning (cvl), of the university of dar es salaam, tanzania. e-mail: jmtebe@gmail.com microsoft word clinton-lissell.docx issn: 2311-1550 2021, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 255-268 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. open pedagogy: a systematic review of empirical findings virginia clinton-lisell university of north dakota abstract: open licensing used in open educational resources allows for teaching and learning techniques that are not possible with traditional copyright. there is a growing body of empirical research on open pedagogy. however, definitions and instantiations of open pedagogy vary in the literature. the purpose of this review was to systematically search and synthesize empirical findings on open pedagogy that were beyond simple use of open educational resources. in this, the definitions of open pedagogy across empirical reports were examined. generally, open pedagogy was defined in the context of open licensing affordances; however, there were exceptions particularly when examining faculty experiences with open pedagogy. overall, both students and faculty reported positive experiences with open pedagogy, although there was some concern about public sharing as well as confusion about the logistics of open pedagogy tasks and the technicalities of open licensing. synthesised findings may be used by faculty to inform use of open pedagogy especially when considering issues with student confusion and changing power dynamics. keywords: open pedagogy, open education, systematic review. introduction open educational resources (oer), which are teaching and learning resources with open licensing (d’antoni, 2009), have become more commonplace in education (contrada & good-schiff, 2021). their open licensing allows them to be accessible online without fees, which benefits students and institutions by reducing the financial costs of education (ikahihifo et al, 2017). indeed, the cost savings are the most popular motivator for faculty to adopt oer (fischer et al, 2020). however, the cost savings oer affords are not their only potential benefit: the open licensing allows for pedagogical techniques that are not possible with traditional copyrighted materials (derosa & robison, 2017), namely student creation or editing of artefacts that are then available for others to use (wiley & hilton, 2018). these techniques are broadly known as open pedagogy and there is a growing body of research on students and faculty who experience it. however, the concept of what open pedagogy is and its instantiations vary across studies (witt, 2020). the purpose of this systematic review is to examine how open pedagogy is conceptualised in empirical studies in which the affordances of open licensing beyond simple oer use were examined. in addition, the findings of studies on open pedagogy based on students and faculty are synthesised. in this way, the current study builds on witt’s (2020) analysis of open pedagogy to examine how research findings may vary depending on definitions. what is open pedagogy? the open licensing of oer through creative commons permits activities that are not permissible with traditional copyrights. there are numerous levels of open licensing (see green, 2017, for a detailed 256 description of open licensing). the least restrictive level allows what are known as the “5r activities” in which users have the right to retain, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute (wiley & hilton, 2018). in contrast, traditional copyrights typically do not allow anyone other than the copyright holder to have these rights (pomerantz & peek, 2016). moreover, sharing and posting digital materials is often complicated and poorly understood under traditional copyright (todorova et al, 2017; wahid & abdul ghani azmi, 2020). traditional copyright laws often vary by country which may increase confusion (todorova et al, 2017; wahid & abdul ghani azmi, 2020; wijminga et al, 2017). open licensing is more globally standardised, such as that developed by creative commons (green, 2017). open licensing allows for pedagogical techniques in which instructors and students can adapt and develop materials to be shared with others. these techniques are referred to as open pedagogy, also referred to as open educational practices, open education pedagogy, and oer-enabled pedagogy. in a blog post by david wiley in 2013, open pedagogy was defined as “only possible in the context of the free access and 4r permissions characteristic of open educational resources” (final paragraph; later broadened to 5r permissions to include retain). the term open educational practices also emerged, being defined in some contexts as using oer (andrade et al, 2011) and in other contexts as teaching and learning activities that not only use but create and reuse oer (conole, 2010). in this way, there is overlap between open pedagogy as defined by wiley (2013) and open educational practices when students create or edit artifacts for others to use. however, open pedagogy viewed in this manner would not include simple use of oer whereas open educational practices would (cronin & maclauren, 2018). the concept of open pedagogy has had multiple interpretations. a model of open pedagogy with eight key attributes to guide instructors in using oer was developed by hegarty (2015). these attributes were helpful for open pedagogy but did not necessarily require open licensing to incorporate, such as connected community, peer review, and reflections. this broader approach is contrasted with a more precise approach by wiley and hilton who coined the term oer-enabled pedagogy (2018). oer-pedagogy is a specific approach regarding teaching and learning techniques that are only possible through open licensing (the 5rs). similarly, derosa and robison (2017) describe oer use as a “jumping off point” for empowering students with student-centered, process-oriented learning through open licensing. this was further developed by describing open pedagogy as an “access-oriented commitment to learner-driven education and as a process of designing architectures and using tools for learning that enable students to shape the public knowledge commons of which they are a part” (derosa & jhangiani, 2018, pp. 13-14). in other words, open pedagogy is a method for students to be knowledge creators rather than only knowledge consumers. in the current review, the term open pedagogy is used to broadly describe teaching and learning techniques made possible through open licensing (also referred to as oer-enabled pedagogy; wiley & hilton, 2018). moreover, there is a focus on how the open pedagogy definition or explanation in the study aligns with oer-enabled pedagogy as described by wiley and hilton (2018). this is to allow for a detailed examination of how the study’s examination of open pedagogy resonates with the affordances of open licensing and contrasts open pedagogy with other effective pedagogical techniques that do not require open licensing (e.g., collaborative learning, non-disposable assignments in general). this approach allows for an examination of the unique nature of open pedagogy. 257 in addition to variation in conceptualising open pedagogy, course projects and assignments based on open pedagogy can be realised in several manners. editing wikipedia articles, producing videos demonstrating examples, writing test bank questions, social annotation, student development of syllabi and course assignments, and co-creating a textbook with students were all examples described in the literature (croft & brown, 2020, derosa & robison, 2017; wiley & hilton, 2018; see bali et al, 2020, for a typology). one unifying characteristic of these tasks is that they are not “disposable” assignments only completed for the students’ learning experience (jhangiani, 2017). in contrast, they are non-disposable (also termed persistent or renewable) assignments that have value beyond the students’ learning (seraphin et al, 2019). these pedagogical techniques would not be legally as feasible with traditional copyright because only the copyright holder could revise and redistribute materials. moreover, having student artefacts be openly licensed allows them to be freely used by others (wiley & hilton, 2018). the variation in the term open pedagogy as well as different manners of instantiation and tools and ways of measuring both usage and effect, make synthesising research findings challenging (wiley & hilton, 2018; witt, 2020). these definitions vary even when the open pedagogy techniques all involve students creating, editing, or remixing oer. open pedagogy in a study may be conceptualised as process oriented and emphasising collaboration (masterman, 2016), learner directed (bonica, 2018), or enabled by open licensing (kruger & hollister, 2020). therefore, there is a need to explicitly examine definitions in research before delving into interpretations of the findings. doing so allows for a nuanced synthesis of empirical findings interpreted in the context of the components and instantiations of open pedagogy involved. conceptually, there have been important discussions and proposals for how education could be more diverse, equitable, and inclusive through open pedagogy (bali et al, 2020; clinton-lisell et al, 2021; hodgkinson-williams & arinto, 2017; lambert, 2018). there has been critically needed attention to how the increase in access and reduced educational costs provided by oer are aligned with social justice principles (hare et al, 2020; kruger & hollister, 2020; nascimbeni & burgos, 2019). this may be particularly true for individuals in lowand middle-income countries as open education in general may enhance access to education (bentley & chib, 2016; cox et al, 2020). in addition, open pedagogy could empower students, especially those who are marginalised, as knowledge creators not just consumers (bentley & chib, 2016; hodgkinson-williams & trotter, 2018). because students have opportunities to create artefacts for others to use, open pedagogy may support representational justice, that is, the equitable expression of voice (lamber, 2018). this may be particularly important in the global south as information in oer is too often from the united states or canada (king et al, 2018). this leads to a north-south information flow of materials that lack cultural context (hare, 2015). through open pedagogy, students could create or revise locally relevant oer to allow for amplification of global southern voices. because students have opportunities to create artefacts for others to use, open pedagogy may support representational justice, that is, the equitable expression of voice (lamber, 2018). one area of critical importance in open pedagogy is how it relates to student learning outcomes. open pedagogy has been conceptually linked with philosophies known to benefit student learning, such as constructivism and student-centered learning (allsop et al, 2020; isik et al, 2018), as there is meaningful engagement with the content and students are actively engaged in developing their 258 knowledge (masterman, 2016). therefore, one can intuit that open pedagogy would likely benefit student learning. however, without empirical evidence regarding learning outcomes, one cannot determine if open pedagogy actually improves student outcomes. in addition to learning outcomes, student perceptions of pedagogy, including open pedagogy, are also important to consider (goodman et al, 2018). student perceptions are important because if they do not perceive a pedagogical technique as advantageous for their learning, they are less likely to benefit from that technique (brazeal & couch, 2017). in addition, students who have positive attitudes towards their courses in general are more likely to persist (cavanagh et al, 2018; england et al, 2017). moreover, student descriptions of their experiences with open pedagogy may provide helpful feedback for instructors on how to better use the technique in their courses (e.g., clinton & khan, 2019). the experiences of faculty with open pedagogy are important to examine. if faculty have negative experiences using open pedagogy, then the likelihood they will use it logically decreases. in addition, exploring faculty experiences may yield useful information on how to effectively implement open pedagogy. in doing so, other faculty members can better understand how to use it in their courses and instructional designers can better advise faculty in their professional development. the current study given the complexities involved in defining and practicing open pedagogy as well as the growing empirical examination of open pedagogy, a review is necessary. such a review can synthesise the various definitions and instantiations of open pedagogy in the empirical literature to develop a lens for examining the various research findings. in other words, a thorough review would allow for examination of not only how open pedagogy is defined, but how the findings relate to the definitions (see witt, 2020, for a focused review on the definitions of open pedagogy). in addition, the status of the findings on student learning outcomes, student perceptions of open pedagogy, and faculty experiences teaching with open pedagogy can be synthesised through a review. in this way, a review would provide a better understanding of the existing literature as well as identifying gaps in which more research is needed. there are three research questions that guide this review: 1) what were commonalities and differences in the concept of open pedagogy across studies? 2) what were the findings of open pedagogy studies focusing on students? 3) what were the findings of open pedagogy studies focusing on educators? method studies were considered relevant if they: 1) described themselves as examining open pedagogy (or a similar term), 2) reported empirical data on student or faculty experiences with open pedagogy (both qualitative and quantitative studies were eligible), and 3) were conducted in the context of course assignment (rather than students assisting with developing oer outside of academic responsibilities for pay; e.g., hodgkinson-williams & paskevicius, 2013, or experiences with oer that did not involve students editing or creating artefacts (e.g., hollich & moore, 2020; kaatrakoski et al, 2017; littlejohn & mcgill, 2016; tang et al, 2020). studies constrained to oer use have been examined in multiple 259 syntheses (clinton & khan, 2019; hilton, 2016, 2020; therefore, they were not included in this review. studies had to be in english due the linguistic limitations of the research team. relevant studies were searched for systematically. first, four scholarly databases were searched (scopus, directory of open access journals, web of science, and academic search complete) with phrases such as “oer pedagogy,” “open pedagogy,” “open educational practices,” and “open education pedagogy.” this yielded 2,719 citations with 165 duplicated that were deleted. the remaining 2,554 were each screened by two independent researchers (the author resolved conflicts) using the tool abstrackr (wallace et al, 2012). from this screening, the full texts of 35 reports were screened and 12 reports were relevant based on the inclusion criteria. backwards searches of the references of these reports were conducted and two additional relevant reports were identified. a forward search of reports that had cited these 14 reports yielded an additional two relevant reports. the authors of each relevant report were contacted to ask about any additional relevant studies. two additional reports were suggested that were added to the review. this led to a total of 18 reports in this systematic review (one report had separate empirical studies of faculty and students). coding in preparation for analyses, the reports were each coded for basic methodological information, study purpose, conceptual definition of open pedagogy, type(s) of open pedagogy, and findings. descriptions of studies relevant to students are in an appendix in table 1 and those from educators are in table 2. results general description of studies there were fourteen studies on student learning outcomes and perceptions. in terms of geographical settings, thirteen of the studies were in the united states or canada, which indicates a lack of global diversity common in this field (see clinton & khan, 2019). the methodologies used varied across studies. surveys were used in ten of the studies with mixed methods approaches such as interviews used along with surveys in three of the studies with surveys. three of the studies used interviews (without surveys) and two examined course assignments relevant to the open pedagogy experiences (one of which also used a survey). one study examined student learning outcomes. there were six studies on faculty experiences. five of them used qualitative methods, specifically interviews, and a sixth used survey methodology. the geographical settings varied. the purposes of the studies also varied in whether instructors knew about open pedagogy (nascimbeni & burgos, 2019), how open pedagogy was enacted (e.g., paskevicius & irvine, 2019), and how instructors viewed their students’ experiences with open pedagogy (e.g., al abri & dabbagh, 2019; masterman, 2016). rq1: open pedagogy definitions/explanations despite the divergence of views on the nature of open pedagogy previously described, there were consistencies in the definition of open pedagogy across studies likely due to the inclusion criteria. in most of the studies reviewed, open pedagogy involved students creating novel and useful artefacts that had value beyond learning (i.e., renewable assignments). most of the studies explicitly indicated that the artefacts would be publicly shared and openly licensed. the affordances of open licensing were also described as crucial for open pedagogy across several studies. indeed, the description of 260 open pedagogy in several of the studies specifically mentioned open licensing (al abri & dabbagh, 2019; kruger & hollister, 2020; nascimbeni & burgos, 2019; sheu, 2020; tillinghast et al, 2020). however, there were variations across definitions even with those focused on open licensing. in some studies, the focus was on student-created oer in terms of open licensing (al abri & dabbagh, 2019; hare et al, 2020; hollister, 2020; tillinghast et al, 2020). in others, the focus was on the value of the student artefacts beyond the class (e.g., baran & al zoubi, in press; bloom, 2019). generally, the descriptions and instantiations of open pedagogy in the reviewed studies converged with the concept of oer-enabled pedagogy (wiley & hilton, 2018). there were three studies in which there was not a definition of open pedagogy that aligned with oer-enabled pedagogy (cronin, 2017; masterman, 2016; paskevicius & irvine, 2019). in each of these studies, a purpose of the study was to explore faculty teaching techniques for open pedagogy. masterman (2016) grounded open pedagogy with existing pedagogical models noting the clear connection with student-centered teaching philosophies. cronin (2017) described a continuum of open teaching techniques in which valuing social learning and non-traditional instructor roles as characteristics of open educators. paskevicius and irvine (2019) focused on digital literacies and how power dynamics shift in open pedagogy compared to traditional pedagogy. one area in which studies varied was on whether publicly sharing and openly licensing materials was optional or required. generally, public sharing and open licensing were optional. there were two studies in which it was explicitly required (bonica, 2018; zhang et al, 2020). in the bonica (2018) study, students had the option of using a pseudonym rather than their names if there were concerns about privacy. however, bonica reported that all students opted to use their real names in order to showcase their work to potential employers in the future. zhang and colleagues (2020) had students post on public social media platforms. in their findings, a need to better support and adapt activities for shy students was noted. findings about students the majority of studies with students focused on their perceptions of open pedagogy in its various instantiations. across studies, students generally perceived open pedagogy as a positive and meaningful learning experience. students expressed appreciation in developing artefacts that could be used by others. this appeared to foster pride in their work likely because they knew it would be seen and used by others (al abri & dabbagh, 2019; hollister, 2019; zhang et al, 2020). in addition, students reported feelings of agency as scholars—that they were contributing to a body of knowledge rather than simply consuming what is already known (baran & al zoubi, 2020). students reported developing better critical thinking skills through open pedagogy than traditional pedagogy (hilton et al, 2019, 2020). this is likely because students had to evaluate sources and synthesise ideas when creating their artefacts in addition to giving and receiving feedback to improve their work (cargas et al, 2017). evaluating sources and peer feedback are not unique to open pedagogy but these techniques may be important for successful open pedagogy (hegarty, 2015). this development of critical thinking through open pedagogy could explain one of tillinghast and colleagues’ (2020) findings. students in course sections with oer without open pedagogy reported better perceptions of the oer textbook than did students in the open pedagogy sections using the same oer. given that the open pedagogy task was to improve the oer textbook, students in the open 261 pedagogy section may have been more skeptical of the existing textbook. rather than accepting the textbook as being authoritative and complete, students who were tasked with improving the textbook realized that it, like all textbooks, was imperfect (e.g., woodson, 2015) learning outcomes were examined in only two studies. tillinghast and colleagues (2020) as well as bloom (2019) compared course sections with students’ open pedagogy to students having more traditional assignments. the two approaches to open pedagogy differed in that tillinghast and colleagues had students revise an existing oer textbook and bloom had students develop oer learning tools. however, their findings regarding student learning outcomes were similar. neither found differences in performance for grades in the course. bloom noted that increases in writing mechanics knowledge appeared to be larger for students in the open pedagogy group, but this difference was only marginally significant. given the relatively small sample, it is possible that reliable results could be found with a larger sample in future research. there were negative experiences reported by students that should be considered when designing and implementing open pedagogy. across the studies, open pedagogy involved a departure from traditional, instructor-centered instruction in which the students’ artefacts do not have an impact outside of the students’ learning and grades. given the difference from previous learning experiences and the potential for public display of their work, it is not surprising that there were relatively high rates of anxiety associated with open pedagogy reported in one study (hollister, 2019). however, this may have been somewhat due to the short timeframe to complete the project. in addition, instructors can prevent unnecessary anxiety by ensuring students understand policies for public sharing and use for information (one source of student concern: baran & al zoubi, 2020). peer collaboration, although not unique to open pedagogy, was a negative experience if students resented being dependent on their peers for successful projects (flinn, 2020). there was also some critique about the role of students, rather than instructors, in developing course materials, namely because there were concerns about accuracy (hilton et al, 2019). although technology, and the various problems involved with it, is not unique to open pedagogy, sharing and open licensing of student artefacts generally involves use of digital technologies. not surprisingly, there were issues specifically with technology reported in two studies (e.g., hilton et al, 2019; zhang et al, 2020). as such, faculty should be mindful of how to best support students as they learn new technologies. part of this could be limiting the number of technological tools students need to learn as too many can be overwhelming (zhang et al, 2020). another part could be ensuring that the tools are ones students are familiar with so that students could focus on their artefact creation rather than learning new tools. in flinn (2020), students used technology they were already well-versed in and students reported feeling confident using the tools in the course. findings about faculty faculty perceptions of student experiences with open pedagogy often converged with findings on what students reported. this is reassuring in that there does not appear to be a sharp divide between what faculty think students experience and what students actually report experiencing. namely, that students have more pride in their renewable assignments than they do with traditional assignments and that open pedagogy promotes active student learning (al abri dabbagh, 2019; masterman, 2016). 262 one common theme across studies is that open pedagogy is not the default approach of educators (cronin, 2017; nascimbeni & burgos, 2019; tillinghast et al, 2020). this is the case even when examining educators adopt oer (cronin, 2017; nascimbeni & burgos, 2019; tillinghast et al, 2020). one reason for this may be that faculty are focused on the cost savings advantages of oer and simply not aware of the pedagogical opportunities afforded by oer (fischer et al, 2020). other barriers include concerns about student privacy, uncertainty about the benefits of open pedagogy for student learning, skepticism about the potential quality of student-created resources, and lack of institutional support for open pedagogy (cronin, 2017; masterman, 2016). one method that could potentially address some of these barriers would be to provide training in open pedagogy using open pedagogy. for example, faculty could receive training in social annotation through using social annotation tools themselves (kalir et al., 2020). in this way, faculty could receive support while also learning methods of protecting student privacy and ensuring quality. quality of student-created resources could also be checked through rubrics and peer review (al abri & dabbagh, 2019). concerns about the effectiveness of open pedagogy is a question that can be addressed through further research. although this review presents evidence that students generally find open pedagogy helpful (in various conceptualisations and instantiations), little is known about learning outcomes (in contrast to the ample empirical evidence on open textbook and oer efficacy in general; clinton & khan, 2019; hilton, 2016, 2020). limitations and future directions there are limitations of the studies reviewed and the review itself that need acknowledgement. namely, there was a lack of global diversity in the studies. with the notable exception of nascimbeni and burgos (2019) in which 36 countries were represented in the sample, the geographical settings were the united states, canada, and western europe. future research studies should examine open pedagogy specifically in lowand middle-income countries. this would be particularly important to understanding the specific role of social justice in open pedagogy. through opportunities for students to share their knowledge and perspectives through co-creation of oer, open pedagogy provides opportunities for representational justice, that is, being able to share one’s experiences and voice (clinton-lisell et al, 2021; hodkinson-williams & trotter, 2018). however, such opportunities should be empirically examined through inquiry to examine if open pedagogy truly supports representational justice, especially in low-and-middle-income countries. that said, lack of access to the internet and other resources would likely need to be addressed in some contexts, particularly in rural areas of the global south, before the potential benefits of open pedagogy could be realized (king et al, 2018). overwhelmingly the findings regarding students were about perceptions. there is more direct inquiry needed in terms of student learning outcomes. in addition, many studies embraced a broad view of open pedagogy in terms of multiple instantiations. this allows for a broad overview of student experiences co-creating oer and sharing their work publicly. however, given that student perceptions vary depending on the instantiation of open pedagogy (hilton et al, 2020), more focused examinations in the future would be useful. for example, a study in which students had multiple experiences with open pedagogy within a course (e.g., sheu, 2020) could ask students to compare their 263 experiences with the various instantiations. such an approach would build on hilton and colleagues’ (2020) informative work by having comparisons with the same students and instructor. one limitation of this study is that studies may be examining open pedagogy without using the “open” label. for example, editing wikipedia articles is an example of oer-enabled pedagogy (wiley & hilton, 2018) and there has been research on this topic (apollonio et al, 2018; maggio et al, 2020; petruccoal & ferranti, 2020). however, these studies on student or faculty perception of editing wikipedia articles were not couched in the concept of open pedagogy in their reports. therefore, such reports, as well as reports of other techniques that would fit the criteria of oer-enabled pedagogy (e.g., stovall et al, 2019; wiley et al, 2017) would not inform the first research questions about how open pedagogy is defined in empirical research and were not included in this review. there were several instantiations of open pedagogy that have been described in articles, but not included in this review because empirical data were not included. these articles often have rich and helpful descriptions of how techniques such as social annotation or editing the writing in existing oer (e.g., jhangiani, 2017; kalir et al, 2020). future researchers could use these descriptions as a roadmap for investigating these techniques in the context of open pedagogy research. conclusion open education has prompted a movement to empower students in manners that are not possible with traditional copyrighted materials. open pedagogy is an important component of this movement and there is a growing body of empirical research on the topic. this review served to synthesise the various definitions and instantiations of open pedagogy as well as the research findings regarding students and faculty. although definitions varied, student experiences were fairly consistent across studies with students generally viewing open pedagogy positively. faculty generally viewed their experiences as beneficial as well. references *indicates inclusion in systematic review *al abri, m. h., & dabbagh, n. (2019). testing the intervention of oer renewable assignments in a college course. open praxis, 11(2), 195–209. https://doi.org/10.5944/openpraxis.11.2.916 allsop, j., young, s. j., nelson, e. j., piatt, j., & knapp, d. (2020). examining the benefits associated with implementing an active learning classroom among undergraduate students. international journal of teaching and learning in higher education, 32(3), 418-426. https://www.isetl.org/ijtlhe/pdf/ijtlhe3877.pdf andrade, a., ehlers, u. d., caine, a., carneiro, r., conole, g., kairamo, a.-k., & holmberg, c. (2011). beyond oer: shifting focus to open educational practices [opal report 2011]. open education quality initiative. https://oerknowledgecloud.org/content/beyond-oer-shifting-focus-open-educational-practices bali, m., cronin, c., & jhangiani, r. s. (2020). framing open educational practices from a social justice perspective. journal of interactive media in education, 2020(1), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.5334/jime.565 *baran, e., & alzoubi, d. (2020). affordances, challenges, and impact of open pedagogy: examining students’ voices. distance education, 41(2), 230–244. https://doi.org/10.1080/01587919.2020.1757409 264 bentley, c. m., & chib, a. (2016). the impact of open development initiatives in lower-and middle income countries: a review of the literature. the electronic journal of information systems in developing countries, 74(1), 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1681-4835.2016.tb00540.x *bloom, m. (2019). assessing the impact of “open pedagogy” on student skills mastery in first-year composition. open praxis, 11(4), 343. https://doi.org/10.5944/openpraxis.11.4.1025 *bonica, m., judge, r., bernard, c., & murphy, s. (2018). open pedagogy benefits to competency development: from sage on the stage to guy in the audience. journal of health administration education, 35(1), 9-27. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327670570 brazeal, k. r., & couch, b. a. (2017). student buy-in toward formative assessments: the influence of student factors and importance for course success. journal of microbiology & biology education, 18(1). https://doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.v18i1.1235 cargas, s., williams, s., & rosenberg, m. (2017). an approach to teaching critical thinking across disciplines using performance tasks with a common rubric. thinking skills and creativity, 26, 24–37. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2017.05.005 cavanagh, a. j., chen, x., bathgate, m., frederick, j., hanauer, d. i., & graham, m. j. (2018). trust, growth mindset, and student commitment to active learning in a college science course. cbe—life sciences education, 17(1), ar10. https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.17-06-0107 clinton, v., & khan, s. (2019). efficacy of open textbook adoption on learning performance and course withdrawal rates: a meta-analysis. aera open, 5(3), 1-20. 10.1177/2332858419872212 clinton-lisell, v., legerski, e., rhodes, b., & gilpin, s. (2021). open educational resources as tools to foster equity. in c. ozaki & l. parson (eds.), teaching & learning for social justice and equity in higher education, volume 2 (pp. 317-337). palgrave macmillan. conole, g. (2010). defining open educational practices (oep) [blog post]. http://e4innovation.com/?p=373 contrada, c., & good-schiff, k. (2021). ladders in the orchard what’s next for oer? in college and research libraries news, 82(3), 132–136. association of college and research libraries. https://doi.org/10.5860/crln.82.3.132 cox, g., masuku, b., & willmers, m. (2020). open textbooks and social justice: open educational practices to address economic, cultural and political injustice at the university of cape town. journal of interactive media in education, 2020(1), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.5334/jime.556 croft, b., & brown, m. (2020). inclusive open education: presumptions, principles, and practices. distance education, 41(2), 156-170. https://doi.org/10.1080/01587919.2020.1757410 *cronin, c. (2017). openness and praxis: exploring the use of open educational practices in higher education. international review of research in open and distance learning, 18(5), 15-34. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v18i5.3096 cronin, c., & maclaren, i. (2018). conceptualising oep: a review of theoretical and empirical literature in open educational practices. open praxis, 10(2), 127-143. https://www.learntechlib.org/p/183580/ d’antoni, s. (2009). open educational resources: reviewing initiatives and issues. in open learning, 24(1), 3-10. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680510802625443 265 derosa, r., & jhangiani, r. s. (2018). open pedagogy. in e. mays (ed.), a guide to making open textbooks with students. rebus community. derosa, r., & robison, s. (2017). from oer to open pedagogy: harnessing the power of open. in open: the philosophy and practices that are revolutionizing education and science (pp. 115–124). ubiquity press. https://doi.org/10.5334/bbc.i england, b. j., brigati, j. r., & schussler, e. e. (2017). student anxiety in introductory biology classrooms: perceptions about active learning and persistence in the major. plos one, 12(8), e0182506. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0182506 fischer, l., belikov, o., ikahihifo, t. k., iii, j. h., wiley, d., & martin, m. t. (2020). academic librarians examination of university students’ and faculty’s perceptions of open educational resources. open praxis, 12(3). https://doi.org/10.5944/openpraxis.12.3.1081 *flinn, c. (2020). trades students’ perceptions of their experiences in the co-creation of oer. (unpublished dissertation). royal roads university. goodman, b. e., barker, m. k., & cooke, j. e. (2018). best practices in active and student-centered learning in physiology classes. advances in physiology education, 42(3), 417-423. https://doi.org/10.1152/advan.00064.2018 hare, s. (2015). a critical take on oer practices: interrogating commercialization, colonialism, and content. in m. bali, c. cronin, l. czerniewicz, r. derosa, & r. jhangiani (eds.), open at the margins. pressbooks. https://press.rebus.community/openatthemargins/chapter/a-critical-take-on-oer-practices-interrogatingcommercialization-colonialism-and-content/ *hare, s., frye, j. m., & samuelson, b. l. (2020). open pedagogy as an approach to introducing doctoral students to open educational resources and information literacy concepts. library trends, 69(2), 435-468. https://doi.org/10.1353/lib.2020.0041 hegarty, b. (2015). attributes of open pedagogy: a model for using open educational resources. educational technology, 55(4), 3-13. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44430383 *hilton, j., hilton, b., ikahihifo, t. k., chaffee, r., darrow, j., guilmett, j. a., & wiley, d. (2020). identifying student perceptions of different instantiations of open pedagogy. international review of research in open and distance learning, 21(4), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v21i4.4895 *hilton iii, j., wiley, d., chaffee, r., darrow, j., guilmett, j., harper, s., & hilton, b. (2019). student perceptions of open pedagogy: an exploratory study. open praxis, 11(3), 275–288. https://doi.org/10.5944/openpraxis.11.3.973 hilton, j. (2020). open educational resources, student efficacy, and user perceptions: a synthesis of research published between 2015 and 2018. educational technology research and development, 68, 853-876. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-019-09700-4 hilton, j. (2016). open educational resources and college textbook choices: a review of research on efficacy and perceptions. educational technology research and development, 64(4), 573–590. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423016-9434-9 hodgkinson-williams, c., & arinto, p. b. (2017). adoption and impact of oer in the global south. in adoption and impact of oer in the global south. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1005330 266 hodgkinson-williams, c. a., & trotter, h. (2018). a social justice framework for understanding open educational resources and practices in the global south. journal of learning for development, 5(3), 204-224. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej1197462.pdf hollich, s., & moore, j. (2020). open pedagogy big and small: comparing open pedagogy efforts in large and small higher education settings. in k. davies hoffman & a. clifton (eds.), open pedagogy approaches. milne library. *hollister, c. (2020). using open pedagogy to engage lis students: a case study. journal of librarianship and scholarly communication, 8(1), 2357. https://doi.org/10.7710/2162-3309.2357 ikahihifo, t. k., spring, k. j., rosecrans, j., & watson, j. (2017). assessing the savings from open educational resources on student academic goals. international review of research in open and distance learning, 18(7), 126–140. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v18i7.2754 isik, a. d. (2018). use of technology in constructivist approach. educational research and reviews, 13(21), 704-711. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej1197686.pdf jhangiani, r. s. (2017). ditching the “disposable assignment” in favor of open pedagogy. in w. altman & l. stein (eds.), essays from e-xcellence in teaching. society for the teaching of psychology. https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/g4kfx kaatrakoski, h., littlejohn, a., & hood, n. (2017). learning challenges in higher education: an analysis of contradictions within open educational practice. higher education, 74(4), 599–615. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-016-0067-z kalir, j., cantrill, c., dean, j., & dillon, j. (2020). iterating the marginal syllabus: social reading and annotation while social distancing. journal of technology and teacher education, 28(2), 463–471. https://www.learntechlib.org/p/216246/ king, m., pegrum, m., & forsey, m. (2018). moocs and oer in the global south: problems and potential. the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 19(5). https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v19i5.3742 *kruger, j. s., & hollister, c. (2020). engaging undergraduate public health students through a textbook creation project. pedagogy in health promotion, 237337992096241. https://doi.org/10.1177/2373379920962416 lambert, s. r. (2018). changing our (dis)course: a distinctive social justice aligned definition of open education. journal of learning for development, 5(3), 225–244. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ej1197463 littlejohn, a., & mcgill, l. (2016). ecologies of open resources and pedagogies of abundance. in lecture notes in educational technology, 9783662477236, 115-130). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-47724-3_7 maggio, l. a., willinsky, j. m., costello, j. a., skinner, n. a., martin, p. c., & dawson, j. e. (2020). integrating wikipedia editing into health professions education: a curricular inventory and review of the literature. perspectives on medical education, 9(6), 333–342. http://10.0.3.239/s40037-020-00620-1 *masterman, e. (2016). bringing open educational practice to a research-intensive university: prospects and challenges. electronic journal of e-learning, 14(1), 31-42. https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2s2.0-84964713745&partnerid=40&md5=aea65c49cc32c300f66533cf554d2b33 *nascimbeni, f., & burgos, d. (2019). unveiling the relationship between the use of open educational resources and the adoption of open teaching practices in higher education. sustainability (switzerland), 11(20). https://doi.org/10.3390/su11205637 267 *paskevicius, m., & irvine, v. (2019). open education and learning design: open pedagogy in praxis. journal of interactive media in education, 2019(1). https://doi.org/10.5334/jime.512 petruccoal, c., & ferranti, c. (2020). wikipedia as oer: the “learning with wikipedia” project. journal of elearning and knowledge society, 16(4), 38-45. https://doi.org/10.20368/1971-8829/1135322 pomerantz, j., & peek, r. (2016). fifty shades of open. first monday, 21(5). https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v21i5.6360 seraphin, s. b., grizzell, j. a., kerr-german, a., perkins, m. a., grzanka, p. r., & hardin, e. e. (2019). a conceptual framework for non-disposable assignments: inspiring implementation, innovation, and research. psychology learning and teaching, 18(1), 84-97. https://doi.org/10.1177/1475725718811711 *sheu, f. (2020). learner perceptions of open pedagogy in a psychology course: a case study on instructional design with open educational resources. in open educational resources pedagogy and practices (pp. 67-90). igi global. https://doi.org/http://doi:10.4018/978-1-7998-1200-5.ch004 *stancil, s. k. (2020). exploring working graduate students’ experiences with reusable assignments [north carolina state university]. in proquest dissertations and theses. http://ezproxy.library.und.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/exploringworking-graduate-students-experiences/docview/2400696925/se-2?accountid=28267 stovall, j. p., laird, s. g., welford, l., & williams, a. (2019). student and instructor generated open educational resources compare favorably to a traditional textbook. journal of forestry, 117(4), 370–378. https://doi.org/10.1093/jofore/fvz035 tang, h., lin, y. j. y.-j., & qian, y. (2020). understanding k-12 teachers’ intention to adopt open educational resources: a mixed methods inquiry. british journal of educational technology, 51(6), 2558–2572. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12937 *tillinghast, b., fialkowski, m. k., & draper, j. (2020). exploring aspects of open educational resources through oer-enabled pedagogy. frontiers in education, 5. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2020.00076 todorova, t.y., kurbanoglu, s., boustany, j., dogan, g., saunders, l., horvat, a., terra, a.l., landøy, a., repanovici, a., morrison, c., vanderkast, e.j.s., secker, j., rudzioniene, j., kortelainen, t., & koltay, t. (2017), information professionals and copyright literacy: a multinational study, library management, 38 (6/7), 323-344. https://doi.org/10.1108/lm-01-2017-0007 wahid, r., & abdul ghani azmi, i. (2020). comparative study on copyright exception for teaching purposes: australia, malaysia and the united kingdom. journal of international studies, 8, 31-45. http://www.ejournal.uum.edu.my/index.php/jis/article/view/7925 wallace, b. c., small, k., brodley, c. e., lau, j., & trikalinos, t. a. (2012). deploying an interactive machine learning system in an evidence-based practice center: abstrackr. proceedings of the acm international health informatics symposium, 819–824. https://doi.org/10.1145/2110363.2110464 wijminga, h., klomp, w., van der jagt, m., & poort, j. p. (2017). international survey on private copying: law and practice 2016. (wipo publication; no. 1037e/17). world intellectual property organization. https://www.wipo.int/publications/en/details.jsp?id=4183&plang=en wiley, d. (2013, october 21). what is open pedagogy? open content. https://opencontent.org/blog/archives/2975 wiley, d., & hilton iii, j. l. (2018). defining oer-enabled pedagogy. international review of research in open and distributed learning, 19(4). https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v19i4.3601 268 wiley, d., webb, a., weston, s., & tonks, d. (2017). a preliminary exploration of the relationships between student-created oer, sustainability, and students success. international review of research in open and distance learning, 18(4), 60–69. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v18i4.3022 witt, a. n. (2020). toward a working definition of open pedagogy. international journal of open educational resources, 3(2). https://doi.org/doi: 10.18278/ijoer.3.2.5 woodson, a. n. (2015). “what you supposed to know:" urban black students' perspectives on history textbooks. journal of urban learning teaching and research, 11, 57-65. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ej1071418 *zhang, x., tlili, a., huang, r., chang, t., burgos, d., yang, j., & zhang, j. (2020). a case study of applying open educational practices in higher education during covid-19: impacts on learning motivation and perceptions. sustainability (switzerland), 12(21), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.3390/su1221912 author: virginia clinton-lisell, phd, is an assistant professor in educational foundations and research at the university of north dakota. she holds a masters’ degree in teaching english to speakers of other languages from new york university and a doctorate in educational psychology from the university of minnesota. dr. clinton-lisell’s research focuses on the psychology of language, open educational resources, and student attitudes towards active learning. she is the editor of active learning in higher education. email: virginia.clinton@und.edu cite this paper as: clinton-lisell, v. (2021). open pedagogy: a systematic review of empirical findings. journal of learning for development, 8(2), 255-268. 268-a appendix table a1: studies focusing on student outcomes and perspectives author(s), year participants/educational setting, research methods, geographical location open pedagogy description, alignment with oer-enabled pedagogy (wiley & hilton, 2018) study purpose/questions findings al abri & dabbagh, 2019 graduate students in instructional design and technology (n = 11), openand close-ended survey, united states various descriptions of open pedagogy with a focus on oerenabled pedagogy through renewable assignments that have creative commons cc-by licensing. students developed and shared instructional materials. student artifacts had value beyond learning, were public (optional), and openly licensed (optional). to examine student perceptions of renewable assignments. students reported satisfaction with renewable assignments. the majority stated they would publicly share future assignments with a minority concerned about whether their work was of sufficient quality to be publicly available. motivations for renewable assignments included getting credit for work posted, sharing resources with others, and removing financial constraints to accessing learning resources. baran & al zoubi, in press graduate students in education courses, interviews (n = 13), united states “in this paper we define open pedagogy practices as a dimension of oep (open educational practices) that includes the teaching and learning practices while engaging in renewable assignments” (p. 4). students created oer (projects varied by course). student artifacts had value beyond learning, to analyse the components and outcomes (positive and negative) of open pedagogy practices. two positive outcomes were knowledge of open licensing and student agency. students felt empowered to share knowledge with open licensing, but also concerned about violated policies for public sharing and not getting appropriate attribution. in terms of agency, 268-b were public, and openly licensed. students felt their contributions were important and expressed pride in their work. bloom, 2019 first-year undergraduate students in composition courses (n = 92), quasiexperiment comparing learning outcomes between sections with open pedagogy sections without, united states “open pedagogy…refers to the broader practice of redesigning the educational experience to be more meaningful by leveraging the permissions of open content to involve students in a more engaged learning experience via assignments that include curation and remixing.” (p. 343). students developed learning tools to help others understand rhetoric. student artifacts had value beyond learning, were public (optional), and openly licensed (optional). to compare student learning outcomes between course sections with open pedagogy and sections with traditional, disposable assignments. student performance on a concept quiz and argumentative essay were very similar in the two sections. when pretest to posttest changes in writing mechanics knowledge were compared, both groups improved significantly and there was a marginally significant trend indicating more improvement for students in the open pedagogy sections. bonica, 2018 undergraduate students in a management course, surveys (n = 12), united states “…the objectives of learning and the methods used for learning are highly determined by the learners” (p. 12). students designed the syllabus and posted course portfolios (artifacts varied). student artifacts had value beyond learning and were publicly shared (required). open licensing of student artifacts was not reported. description of a use case of open pedagogy without an explicit purpose students generally reported that open pedagogy was effective, particularly with improving presentation skills, with one student expressing discomfort with the lack of structure. flinn, 2020 first-year students in electrical trades, mixed methods with questionnaire (n = 18) and interviews (n = 9), canada “a wide range of teaching practices that incorporate the use of oer and an open educational philosophy.” (p. 18). student artifacts had 1) to assess barriers to student co-creation of oer. 2) to examine the student experience of co-creation of oer. 1) finding information to create resources was a barrier for a few students. students generally reported having 268-c value beyond learning, were public (optional), and openly licensed (optional). the technological skills to create oer. students did not report accurate understanding of open licensing. some students struggled with collaborating with peers but noted improvements with time. 2) students had mixed opinions about whether they would prefer traditional textbooks over creating their own resources although they agreed they learned more with creating resources than they would have using a traditional textbook. hare et al, 2020 doctoral students in three education research courses (n = 34), content analyses of discussion board posts on open pedagogy and course evaluations, united states “in this article, open pedagogy refers to student creation of oer” (p. 441). students created an open research guide. student artifacts had value beyond learning, were public (optional), and openly licensed (optional). to investigate students’ process of mutual adaption when co-creating oer including any potential resistance or misunderstandings. students reported a desire to make their work available to nonacademics which was often motivated by social justice. however, some students felt it was inappropriate to be critiquing the work of other researchers. there were some examples of students conflating materials online without cost with oer in general. a small minority of student comments indicated resistance towards open pedagogy mainly because they did not view themselves as 268-d scholars and lacked selfefficacy in their skills. hilton et al, 2019 college students with 19 different instructors (n = 173), survey, united states “four common principles: focus on access, broadly conceived; emphasizes learnerdriven curricula and educational structures; stresses community and collaboration over content; sees the university in the context of a wider public” (p. 278). artifacts varied by instructor as did open licensing and sharing. to examine student perceptions of the value of open pedagogy (in multiple instantiations) compared to traditional teaching assignments overall, students reported same of greater value of open pedagogy over traditional assignments. critical thinking was reported the most supported by open pedagogy and mastery of academic content was the least supported by open pedagogy (although still better supported than traditional activities). in open-ended responses, students reported open pedagogy requires making connections across ideas, increased engagement, and real-world applications. criticisms of open pedagogy included instructors, rather than students, should make materials because student-made materials would likely be inaccurate. hilton et al, 2020 undergraduate students in two courses (each with different instantiations of open pedagogy; n = 84), survey, united states “open pedagogy contains many different interpretations, and it is continuing to develop” (p. 2). in one instantiation, students created multiple-choice questions. in the other, they co-created the syllabus and assignments. student artifacts had value 1) to examine student perception of the value of the two instantiations relative to traditional teaching. 2) to examine differences in student perceptions of the two instantiations. 1) students in both the multiplechoice and cocreating syllabus instantiations generally indicated they learned better course content, effective communication, and critical thinking skills compared to 268-e beyond learning, were public (optional), and openly licensed (optional). traditional teaching. 2) students tended to have more positive perceptions of the value for cocreating the syllabus and assignment than writing multiplechoice questions. hollister, 2019 library and information science graduate students (n = 26), survey and course reflection paper, united states “the author adopted an open pedagogy framework for the course that involved students creating their own textbook.” (p. 2). each student wrote a chapter about a non-north american country’s libraries and the chapters were combined into a text with creative commons licensing. student artifacts had value beyond learning, were public (optional), and openly licensed (optional). 1) to examine students experiences with the project. 2) to identify helpful and unhelpful components of this open pedagogy project 1) all of the survey responses indicated that the project was valuable and recommended it for future students. however, 60% of students also reported the project was anxiety provoking. 2) students appreciated the renewable aspect of the project and took pride in their work. the main criticism was the lack of time to fully develop the project. kruger & hollister, 2020 undergraduate students in a public health course, survey (n = 70), united states open pedagogy is defined based on wiley and hilton’s (2018) concept of oer-enabled pedagogy. students co-created an oer textbook. student artifacts had value beyond learning, were public (optional), and openly licensed (optional). to examine student experiences with cocreating an open textbook. students overwhelmingly agreed with statements about the textbook writing assignment being valuable, feeling confident in the process, and being engaging. sheu, 2020 undergraduate students in a lifespan development course (n = 42), surveys, united states open pedagogy is defined based on wiley and hilton’s (2018) concept of oer-enabled pedagogy. students created multiplechoice questions, to investigate the perceived value of renewable assignments as well as provide suggestions for improving future open pedagogy. this study focused on writing students who preferred open pedagogy reported writing questions helped with exam preparation and reading 268-f curated oer, and created websites. student artifacts had value beyond learning, were public, and openly licensed (optional). questions although other types of open pedagogy were incorporated in the course. comprehension. students who preferred traditional activities reported in depth thinking and not needing to be dependent on other students’ as in collaborative assignments. students appreciated that the questions were checked by the instructor prior to being on the exam, which provided assurance about quality. stancil, 2020 graduate students in education training degrees or certificates working fulltime in the same field (n = 18), interviews, united states definition was used from cronin, 2017, “collaborative practices which include the creation, use, and reuse of oer, as well as pedagogical practices employing participatory technologies and social networks” (p. 4). students created projects to address their needs at their jobs. student artifacts had value beyond learning (designed to be used in their employment) but sharing and licensing were not reported. 1) explore working graduate student perceived learning of course content through reusable assignments. 2) explore how working graduate students incorporate reusable assignments in their employment. 1) one theme was that student understanding of course content was enhanced by reusable assignments due to their direct application to the field. students also appreciated having autonomy in creating reuseable assignments, which along with real-world application, provided motivation to learn the course content. 2) students appreciated being able to use their course assignments in their work. this provided a valuable product for their employment which was an efficient use of their time as well as making the assignment have a 268-g real-world context. tillinghast et al, 2020 undergraduate students in an introductory nutrition course, quasiexperimental (one course with oer, another course with oer + open pedagogy), mixed-methods approach with survey (n = 317) and interviews (n = 20), united states “the 5rs permissions, which are the right to retain, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute…support open pedagogical approaches to instruction.” (p. 1). students had a project to locate relevant articles on “health at every size” for incorporation into their textbook. student artifacts had value beyond learning. because students were only responsible for identifying and recommending articles for incorporation into the textbook, public sharing and open licensing are not relevant (they did not write the additions themselves). 1) to compare the costs, outcomes, use, perception, and engagement of students in courses with or without open pedagogy. 2) to inquire with students in courses with or without open pedagogy about their experiences relevant to costs, outcomes, use, perception, and engagement. 1) open pedagogy did not directly affect the financial costs beyond the oer adoption relative to commercial textbooks. student grades and withdrawal rates were similar in the two courses. students read and perceived the course textbook similarly. engagement was similar except students without open pedagogy reported the textbook better helped explain course concepts. 2) students in both courses said the textbook was helpful for their learning as a supplementary resource. students in the open pedagogy course said the assignments helped with engagement. zhang et al, 2020 students in a university course on teaching family education during the covid-19 pandemic (n = 36), surveys and interviews, china “researchers and educators have shifted their focus from creating and publishing oer to practices that can be implemented using oer for education these are referred to as open educational practices.” (p. 2). student artifacts had value beyond learning, were public (required), and openly licensed (required). to examine student perceptions of a course based on open educational practices. students felt pride in their work because it was shared outside of the course. a challenge was learning how to use multiple technological tools for the course, some of which were not mobile compatible. students appreciated the opportunities to collaborate particularly due to the social isolation 268-h experienced during the pandemic. table 2: studies focusing on faculty experiences author(s), year participants, research methods, education setting, geographical location open pedagogy description, alignment with oer-enabled pedagogy (wiley & hilton, 2018) study purpose/questions findings al abri & dabbagh, 2019 one instructor, interview, graduate course in instructional design and technology, united states various descriptions of open pedagogy with a focus on oer-enabled pedagogy through renewable assignments that have creative commons cc-by licensing. students developed and shared instructional materials. student artifacts had value beyond learning, were public (optional), and openly licensed (optional). instructor perceptions of teaching with renewable assignments renewable assignments foster student pride in their assignments due to public availability. students also seemed to be more invested in the quality of their assignments because of the public sharing. rubrics and peer review would also improve quality. faculty may be more willing to assign renewable assignments if they could put the publicly shared works on their curriculum vitae. cronin, 2017 university instructors (n = 19) from a variety of disciplines, interviews, ireland “open educational practices (oep) is a broad descriptor of practices that include the creation, use, and reuse of open educational resources (oer) as well as open pedagogies and open sharing of teaching practices.” (p. 1). student artifacts and licensing varied by instructor. how do faculty use open educational practices (oep), reasons for lack of use of oep, what are shared themes in responses by educators who use oep? eight out of 19 participants reported using oep. those who were “open educators” reported having student discussions on social media, course assignments on public blogs, and supporting students to have their work publicly available. concerns about the effectiveness of oep and lack of resources to incorporate oep 268-i were common barriers. how to balance openness and privacy, valuing student learning through social interaction, as well as breaking down barriers in traditional teaching roles were themes of oep educators. educators who used oep reported proficient digital literacy. masterman, 2016 instructors at research-intensive universities (n = 14), semistructured interviews, united kingdom “characteristics of open learning…include: greater autonomy…learning through collaborating…validating each other’s learning by sharing and giving feedback” (p. 34). student artifacts and licensing varied by instructor. to explore connections between open pedagogy and existing models of college pedagogy. open pedagogy connected well with studentcentered philosophies of teaching. one theme is that open pedagogy supports dialogue between students and teachers that support knowledge development. generally, students creating oer was seen as a valuable activity for developing communication skills, but quality control checks needed to be in place. open pedagogy was aligned with the institution’s charitable mission. nascimbeni & burgos, 2019 university educators (n = 724), survey, 36 countries open pedagogies are practices that can only occur because of the licensing of oer. student artifacts and licensing varied by instructor. how familiar and capable are university educators to use open teaching approaches? educators were categorized as traditional (transmissive and didactic; 28%), engaging (collaborative methods with and without oer; 48%), and open teachers (co-create content with 268-j students; 24%). practices of open teachers included wikis, blogs, and communities of practice. paskevicius & irvine, 2019 university faculty (n = 11), interviews (phenomenological approach), canada various definitions and approaches were described. one purpose of the study was to examine how faculty themselves define it. student artifacts and licensing varied by instructor. to examine how faculty members who embrace open educational practices conceptualize those practices and how these practices influence their teaching practices. faculty reported that open pedagogy fostered personalized learning. open pedagogy enhanced diversity of student learning experiences, particularly with global resources and de-colonizing education. digital literacies were important for using open pedagogy. shifts in power from the teacher alone to shared power with students. microsoft word sianturi.docx issn: 2311-1550 2022, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 528-544 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. relationships between cognitive styles and indigenous students’ mathematics academic outcomes murni sianturi1, riska suliantin2 and hariani fitrianti3 1department of social sciences, the university of new south wales, nsw, australia 2muhammadiah junior high school, merauke, indonesia 3musamus university, papua, indonesia abstract: this article explores the link between cognitive styles and indigenous students’ mathematics academic outcomes. there were three different groups of indigenous west papuan students participating in this study: 9 junior high school students, 12 senior high school students, and 46 university students. data were collected from the results of the group embedded figure test and the previous semester's scores and analysed using a quantitative approach. in contrast to previous studies, the results indicated no significant correlation between cognitive styles and mathematics academic outcomes for junior and senior high school students. however, the different cognitive styles showed a significant contribution for university students. as indigenous students pursue a higher level of education, their cognitive styles would influence their mathematics academic outcomes. keywords: indigenous students, cognitive styles, mathematics academic outcomes, mathematics learning achievement, gender. introduction the contested discourses about the success of indigenous students have continued to be discussed among researchers (chung et al., 2021; harrison, 2011; lowe, 2017; sianturi et al., 2018). underperformance among indigenous students has been found globally (abdullah et al., 2013; burridge et al., 2012; dhir, 2015; chen, 2016; jacob, 2017; sianturi et al., 2018). for example, after several years of implementing a range of improvement strategies in australia, the percentage attainment rates of indigenous students in terms of literacy (department of the prime minister and cabinet, 2018; riley & webster, 2016) and numeracy performance lag behind those of non-indigenous students (department of the prime minister and cabinet, 2018). the literature also notes that the literacy and numeracy performances of indigenous west papuan students are lower than non-papuan students (bps, 2020; sianturi et al., 2018). according to the latest report on schooling annual evaluation in 2019, junior high and senior high school students' average scores on compulsory subjects were below the national average (kementrian pendidikan dan kebudayaan [indonesian ministry of education and culture] (kemendikbud), 2019). indigenous west papua students in merauke regency have the lowest scores in mathematics out of all the subjects offered in schools (kemendikbud, 2019). based on a report from previous research, it was discovered that west papuan students in higher education had only a 43 out of 100 score on the basic mathematical ability test (sianturi & suryani, 2017). 529 the mathematics academic achievement gap between indigenous and non-indigenous students has become a worldwide issue. the ongoing legacy of colonisation that persistently has impacts on western mainstream education, which numerically assesses the academic success of indigenous from colonial lenses, and the global neoliberal views that prioritise standardised scores, perpetuates placing these students in a marginalised position (rigney et al., 2020; sianturi, chiang, et al., 2022). despite the constant educational disadvantage faced by indigenous students, there remains a limited understanding of the source of the educational gap and of ways to improve indigenous students' outcomes and close the gap. although governments and schools have attempted to increase the students' learning achievement, the attempts seem to achieve less. for example, the indonesian government strives to enhance papuan students' academic success, making them equivalent to their indonesian peers, however, what the government has undertaken provides limited space for papuan students to multiply their potential (rahmawati, 2004; sianturi, chiang, et al., 2022). why? because these efforts are more likely to assimilate them into a community different from them (sianturi, chiang, et al., 2022). this community is inaccessible and culturally divisive (yunkaporta, 2009). if the focus of the government and teachers is only on how to make the scores of indigenous students equal to non-indigenous students, then the divide will never be closed. only if all parties can see the uniqueness and distinctive characteristics of indigenous students and their needs, and set aside the intention of equating all students with a standardised value, then the conceptualisations of knowledge and learning will be more inclusive (munroe et al., 2013; perso, 2012). this would encourage teachers to focus on efforts to understand students and dig deeper into their potential and the way they think and learn so that teachers will be able to design lessons that are appropriate and accessible for them (hogg & volman, 2020; sianturi et al., 2018). one of students’ characteristics seen as influencing the success of students' mathematical performance that teachers might consider is cognitive style. several studies have shown that there is a significant correlation between the classification of students' cognitive styles on their mathematics learning outcomes (azlina et al., 2018; jantan, 2014; nur & palobo, 2018). that is, the classification of certain cognitive styles of students affects them in approaching mathematics, which leads to their success in learning that subject. considering the low performance of indigenous west papuan students in mathematics, our study focused on identifying the relationship between their mathematics academic outcomes, cognitive styles, and gender. literature review cognitive styles and indigenous students’ ways of learning cognitive styles refer to the terminology used to describe an individual’s unique way of receiving and processing information (umaru, 2013; witkin et al., 1977). individuals may proceed with cognition differently, including attention, memory, awareness, understanding, perception, and reasoning (macneil, 1980; umaru, 2013). although cognitive styles are popular in psychological disciplines, cognitive styles have become expansive in educational fields. a growing literature has shown the relevance of cognitive styles to students’ learning process (jantan, 2014; singer et al., 2017; umaru, 2013), in which they are considered a determining element of students’ uniqueness in perceiving and managing information from the environment (kozhevnikov, 2007; singer et al., 2017). 530 cognitive styles are distinct from cognitive ability, which is often measured by intelligence tests (umaru, 2013; witkin et al., 1977). although cognitive style and cognitive ability probably influence learning practice performance, several cognitive styles may match some practices more than others and vice versa (kozhevnikov, 2007; riding & sadler-smith, 1997; singer et al., 2017; witkin et al., 1977). cognitive styles reflect qualitative rather than quantitative differences between individuals in their thinking processes (riding & sadler-smith, 1997; vega-vaca & hederich-martínez, 2015; witkin et al., 1977). while cognitive ability emphasises students’ intellectual level more, cognitive style is more about students’ ways of thinking, their steady mode of intellectual and perceptual functioning (umaru, 2013), and their attitudes toward interpreting situations and resolving matters in mind (desmita, 2012; umaru, 2013). the students’ preferred method of organising information leads them to develop knowledge (witkin et al., 1977), enables combination in a cross-ability and personality, and ultimately manifests it in several activities (desmita, 2012). witkin et al. (1977) studied individuals' ways of thinking profoundly and discovered two classifications of cognitive styles: field-independent (fi) and field-dependent (fd). the characteristics of a person classified as fi are: 1) proceeding with information in part patterns and analytic ways and having a tendency to one’s own self-defined purpose; 2) feeling challenged to learn and comprehend social information and contents and, therefore, requiring certain assistance (blanton, 2004; witkin et al., 1977); 3) developing inductive reasoning to interpret inputs (saville-troike, 2012) one’s own structures in unstructured situations (blanton, 2004; witkin et al., 1977), and feeling efficient working alone (vega-vaca & hederich-martínez, 2015; volkova & rusalov, 2016); 4) not being influenced by criticism and more introverted (vega-vaca & hederich-martínez, 2015); 5) tackling problems without explicit guidance and instructions (witkin et al., 1977). meanwhile, characteristics of a person classified as fd are: 1) proceeding with information in a whole pattern and defined structures and having a tendency to require reinforcement; 2) showing more interest in social contents and, therefore, memorising social information well (blanton, 2004; witkin et al., 1977); 3) developing deductive reasoning to interpret inputs (saville-troike, 2012), having difficulty with structured learning material (blanton, 2004; witkin et al., 1977), and enjoying working in a team (volkova & rusalov, 2016); 4) being influenced by criticism and more extroverted (vega-vaca & hederich-martínez, 2015); 5) needing clear instruction mnemonics or metaphors to solve problems (blanton, 2004). research in indigenous education suggests recognising indigenous children’s ways of learning (krakouer, 2015; yunkaporta, 2009). how indigenous students think is distinct from non-indigenous students. for instance, harris (1984) asserted that australian aboriginal students have unique elements of learning that are the same as other non-aboriginal students have. while non-aboriginal pupils get used to school-based learning, aboriginal children prefer informal learning. however, many parties, even the teachers themselves, do not understand this difference, thus generalising the learning approaches between indigenous and non-indigenous students (hughes & more, 1997). yunkaporta (2009) continued similar research and found eight indigenous ways of learning: 1) deconstruct/reconstruct: scaffolding and framing, working from a whole pattern to parts; 2) learning maps: explicitly visualising processes; 3) community links: embracing local perspectives and learning from the community; 4) symbols and images: utilising images, metaphors, and symbols to understand concepts; 5) non-verbal: using intra-personal and kinaesthetic skills to think, organise information, and 531 learn; 6) land links: place-based learning, linking content to local land and environment; 7) story sharing: approaching learning through narrative; 8) non-linear: producing innovations and understanding by thinking laterally or combining systems (pp. 46-50). the concepts yunkaporta (2009) discussed resonate with the fd classification criteria — there are some commonalities. evidence corroborates that some indigenous groups (e.g., native american and australian aboriginal learners) tend to be more fd (pewewardy, 2002; rasmussen et al., 2004). however, it should be noted that this prevalence is not general for all indigenous peoples; even within one group, the tendency to be fd cannot be generalised (rasmussen et al., 2004). this is further explained by kozhevnikov (2007), that although cognitive styles tend to be identical and stable in each individual, they are not consistent over time because changes may occur in line with responses to specific environmental situations. cognitive styles and mathematics learning there is a link between students’ cognitive styles and their mathematical achievement (jantan, 2014). this positive correlation has drawn several researchers’ interest to its profound impacts on more exceptional mathematical skills: creativity (azlina et al., 2018; singer et al., 2017), problem-solving (ademola, 2015; faradillah et al., 2018), mathematical communication (pratiwi et al., 2013) and particular subject areas, such as geometry (singer et al., 2017) and algebraic reasoning tasks (chrysostomou et al., 2013; rosita, 2018). these studies’ findings underscored the importance of delving in more substantial depth into how cognitive styles influence mathematics learning. singer et al. (2017) considered cognitive style a good predictor of students' mathematical creativity in a comprehensive analysis. some of these studies also provided recommendations for the idea of dynamic balance in teaching mathematics by embracing students' cognitive styles (chrysostomou et al., 2013; singer et al., 2017). cognitive styles and gender the literature has recognised the relationship between gender and mathematics performance (goodchild & grevholm, 2009; lin et al., 2020; munroe, 2016). there is a higher performance rate among males in mathematics than among females. during the mathematics learning process, compared to their male peers, girls tend to exhibit a less positive attitude towards mathematics (munroe, 2016). for questions in which they are uncertain of the answer, girls are less likely to take a risk (goodchild & grevholm, 2009). the discrepancy also appears in ways they approach mathematical problems. when determining the solutions process and presenting their results, boys are more likely to use diagrams, while girls prefer to utilise traditional methods and narratives (munroe, 2016). it is evident that there is a tendency for males to perform better on mathematics tests than females, when it comes to learning mathematics, and according to arnup et al. (2013), these discrepancies might be partly explained by the differences in the cognitive styles of the individuals. their study involving 190 primary school pupils aged between 8 and 11 years reported the relationship between cognitive styles, mathematics performance, and gender. based on the results presented, there was a difference in the way boys and girls perform mathematics based on their cognitive styles. it was found that there was a significant interaction between gender and cognitive styles in the context of 532 mathematics learning. compared to girls with the fi classification, boys with that classification performed significantly better. moreover, pathuddin et al. (2019) specifically studied the characteristics of male students with different cognitive styles in solving mathematics problems. boys with the fi cognitive style were typically capable of reshaping and connecting new information to the knowledge they already possessed and organised in resolving problems. contrary, it is difficult for boys with the fd classification to solve problems effectively as they feel challenged to organise their approach and connect new information to their existing knowledge. these previous studies focused more on the relations to mathematics performance, cognitive styles, and gender among students in general. although findings of studies that explored the prevalence of indigenous students’ cognitive classifications were presented in the previous discussion, those studies did not examine the relationships to mathematics academic performance, cognitive styles, and gender. therefore, a study that identifies the relationships between mathematical performance, cognitive styles, and gender among indigenous students is considered necessary. moreover, this is because indigenous students have different ways of learning from students in general. research objectives and questions this research profoundly investigated the relationships between indigenous students’ cognitive styles, gender, and mathematics academic outcomes. this study is critical to help teachers develop teaching strategies more relevant to indigenous students' characteristics and uniqueness and is accessible and inclusive for indigenous students. this study adds to the literature on cognitive styles and indigenous students' mathematical skills. the following research questions (rqs) were used to accomplish the objective of this study: rq1: is there a significant association between gender and indigenous students’ cognitive style classification? rq2: is there a significant relationship between cognitive styles and mathematics academic outcomes among indigenous west papuan students? research framework this study was structured according to the research framework illustrated in figure 1. in the present study, the relationship between cognitive styles, genders, and mathematics academic outcomes was examined among indigenous west papuan students who were enrolled in this study. there are three main pieces of information required in order to identify such a relationship, including gender, cognitive style classification, and mathematics academic outcomes. this study first examined whether or not there is a relationship between gender and cognitive styles. we identified if indigenous west papua students' gender affects their prevalence of cognitive style. the relationship between cognitive style classification and mathematics academic outcomes was sequentially investigated. through correlation analysis, we intended to understand if the prevalence of the cognitive style of indigenous west papua students affected their mathematics academic outcomes. 533 figure 1: research framework methods research methodology this study examined the relationship between cognitive styles, genders, and mathematics academic outcomes among indigenous west papuan students. in case-study research methods, researchers can explore the data closely within the context of a particular situation or issue in order to assess its relevance (zainal, 2007). typically, a small number of individuals, or limited geographical areas, are chosen as the subjects of a case study (creswell, 2014; zainal, 2007). there is a weakness that a case study may not have a broad application, due to the fact the statistical requirements may not be met when analyzing small data sets. if that is the case, case studies could be limited in their application (davies & beaumont, 2011). there is no one particular tradition of social scientific research that inspired case studies. "case study is defined by individual cases, not by the methods of inquiry used" (stake, 1994, 236). depending on the nature of the case, it can be complex or simple (stake, 1994). it is also possible for case studies to be quantitative and/or qualitative. using quantitative analysis, case studies can include both empirical and analytical elements (mills et al., 2010). because our study concentrated on a small group of indigenous west papuan students inhabit in the merauke area who had a specific case in terms of low mathematics performance, we considered our study a simple case study using quantitative analysis, as we discussed in the previous section regarding the low mathematics performance of indigenous west papuan students at different school levels. depending on each child's age and grade level, as well as the academic area in which the child was studying, the role of cognitive style in relation to academic achievement could vary (saracho, 1988). we were interested in identifying how the cognitive styles differ for each level. research on cognitive styles using geft is generally intended for individuals or groups of young people over ten years old, particularly research that specifically discusses the area of mathematics. therefore, in our relationship between gender and cognitive style relationship between cognitive style and mathematics academic outcomes indigenous west papuan student geft score cognitive style gender field independent t field dependent mathematics academic outcomes 534 study, we intended to examine these three different levels (i.e., junior and senior high schools, and university). population and sample although, in order to sample cases in a quantitative study it is necessary to have some understanding of both the cases and the populations within which they are drawn, thompson (1999) and uprichard (2013) asserted that we need to know what kinds of methods are most appropriate to deal with certain cases. some cases in quantitative studies employ non-probability (non-random) sampling for some consideration (vehovar et al., 2016). as a way of optimising response rates, non-probability sampling is also introduced in quantitative research (asiamah et al., 2022). non-probability sampling methods are often used by researchers for practical reasons. there are specific criteria that are used to select non-probability samples, such as: practicality (data can be collected more easily and efficiently through a sample); necessity (not all populations can be studied because they are too large or inaccessible); cost-effectiveness (there is expense involved — equipment, travel, etc.) and a reduction in participant enrollment manageability (using smaller datasets, the process of storing and conducting statistical analyses is easier and more reliable) (asiamah et al., 2022; uprichard, 2013; vehovar et al., 2016). this sampling method will help particularly early career epistemologists who might have to consider cost-effectiveness (since many of them might not receive funding or sponsorship), conduct feasible studies and obtain an understanding of reporting their practices plausibly (asiamah et al., 2022). to bridge tensions between methodological and practical activities (uprichard, 2013), researchers must determine the limits of inference (asiamah et al., 2022) and whether or not it is intended to generalise population. as long as there is researcher awareness of the epistemological perspectives they adopt, the door is opened to a set of other discussions. although this study employed a quantitative approach, some practical consideration was made to select non-random sampling. as early-career researchers, cost-effectiveness, practicality, and necessity were the most reasonable justification that we took into account. therefore, it is less likely that we could make statistically valid inferences about the population at large based on nonrandom selection methods rather than based on a probability sample. our study focused on a group of indigenous west papuan students who lived in the merauke district and who had a specific case in terms of low mathematics performance. the number of indigenous papuan people is decreasing compared to non-indigenous, and, in general, indigenous papuans live in remote areas, where access to them is quite difficult and costly. therefore, we identified schools and universities that we could reach, as well as classes and majors that have a fairly large proportion of indigenous papuan students. we decided to select two schools and one department of a local university. for confidentiality purposes, the names of the schools and university were anonymous. after discussing with homeroom teachers at each school and the head of the department of primary teacher education, we recruited the seventh grade for the junior high school, the eleventh grade for the senior high school and the secondand third-year students for the university. all participants were indigenous west papuans (n = 67), in which n = 9 were junior high school, n = 12 senior high school, and n = 46 university students (table 1). 535 table 1: demography of participants criteria junior high school senior high school university n male female n 4 5 9 8 4 12 15 31 46 27 40 21 tool used a group embedded figure test (geft) was given to gather information about students’ cognitive styles. geft is a set of psychometric tests developed by witkin et al. (1977) and commonly used to classify individuals as fi or fd learners. geft takes 15 minutes to complete. it consists of three subcategories: subcategory i (a part of training, three minutes to complete), which consists of seven items; subcategories ii and iii (main parts, six minutes to complete for each), respectively, comprise nine items − one point for each correct answer and zero for the wrong answer. the maximum total score is 18, and the minimum is zero. if a geft taker gains a total score in the range of 0 to 9, he/she is classified as fd, while in the range 10-18, he/she is classified as fi (kamaruddin et al., 2004). the geft is a standardised test and has been tested across a wide range of cultures to ensure its reliability and validity. since the geft was published, some scholars have tested and employed it, and it shows a strong correlation ranging from .60 to .90 (fyle, 2009; jantan, 2014; lis & powers, 1979; panek et al., 1980; witkin et al., 1971). this correlation remains strong even when it is translated in indonesian (kamaruddin et al., 2004; nugraha & awalliyah, 2016; puspananda & suriyah, 2017) and employed in the merauke regency (nur & palobo, 2018; nur & nurvitasari, 2017). puspananda and suriyah (2017) in their research on factor analysis on the geft to measure cognitive styles found that the geft instrument has one dominant dimension, namely, cognitive styles. the validity and reliability show the internal consistency of the geft, and, therefore, geft is ready to use (puspananda & suriyah, 2017). this consideration led our study to use a translated version of geft (kamaruddin et al., 2004; nur & nurvitasari, 2017) without testing it. data collection and analysis there were two kinds of data gathered in this study, one was the information about students' cognitive style classifications, and another was students’ mathematics learning achievements. students’ cognitive styles were collected from the geft results of each student. as this study is a continuation of previous research (sianturi, suliantin, et. al., 2022), where the cognitive style classifications of the junior and secondary high school students in that study were used for this study. we distributed geft to university students (appendix a). students’ mathematics academic outcomes for junior and secondary high school levels were gathered from mathematics academic scores from the latest semester. meanwhile, the mathematics academic outcomes of university students were collected from their grades in their geometry and measurement course. all scores here use percentage grading systems with the scale of 0-100. we employed fisher’s exact test value, independent t-test, and nonparametric correlation (spearman rho) assisted by spss statistic 26 to analyse the data (creswell, 2014; creswell & guetterman, 2019). fisher’s exact test value was utilised to determine whether there is a significant association between 536 gender and students’ cognitive style classification (rq1). meanwhile, independent t-test, and nonparametric correlation (spearman rho) were employed to identify whether there is a significant relationship between cognitive styles and mathematics academic outcomes among indigenous west papuan students (rq2). ethical clearance ethical approval was granted from the local ethics committees of the local university, the head of the department, and the principals of each school. all participants provided informed consent. the names of each school and university were kept anonymous for confidentiality purposes. results gender preferences as our data sample sizes were too small and data violated an assumption for chi-square tests, we used exact fisher’s exact test value to discover whether the number of fi and fd learners was associated with the gender of the students. table 2 shows that the p-value of 1.000 (for junior high school and university students) and the p-value of .333 (for senior high school students) were greater than .05. thus, we concluded there was no significant association between gender and students’ cognitive style classifications (fi and fd). table 2: cognitive style classifications and gender seventh grade value df asymptotic significance (2sided) exact sig. (2sided) exact sig. (1sided) pearson chi-square .032a 1 .858 continuity correction .000 1 1.000 likelihood ratio .032 1 .858 fisher’s exact test 1.000 .722 linear-by-linear association .029 1 .866 n of valid cases 9 eleventh grade pearson chi-square 2.182b 1 .140 continuity correction .136 1 .712 likelihood ratio 2.385 1 .122 fisher’s exact test .333 .333 linear-by-linear association 2.000 1 .157 n of valid cases 12 university students pearson chi-square 1.012c 1 .314 continuity correction .055 1 .814 likelihood ratio 1.622 1 .203 fisher’s exact test 1.000 .499 linear-by-linear association .99 1 .320 n of valid cases 12 a. 4 cells (100.0%) have expected count less than 5. the minimum expected count is .89. b. 3 cells (75.0%) have expected count less than 5. the minimum expected count is .33. c. 2 cells (50.0%) have expected count less than 5. the minimum expected count is .65. 537 cognitive styles and learning achievement table 3 provides the relationship between geft results and student mathematics academic outcomes. for junior high school students, it shows p-values = .412 (p > .05) and spearman correlation coefficient (r) = .313 and for senior high school students, p-values = .181 (p > .05) and spearman correlation coefficient (r) = .414. differently, for university students, p-values = .002 (p <. 01) and spearman correlation coefficient (r) = .438. table 3: correlation between mathematics learning achievement and geft scores criteria junior high school senior high school university mean sd r p* mean sd r p* mean sd r p** learning achievement 62.44 5.28 .313 .412 37.67 8.08 .414 .181 60.33 19.70 .438 .002 gift 4.33 4.12 3.33 2.77 1.72 3.17 n 9 12 46 *95% confidence level **significance at the .01 level meanwhile, students’ cognitive styles did not significantly affect either junior high school or senior high school students’ learning outcomes; they significantly affected the learning outcomes of the university students. although the cognitive styles of junior high school and senior high school students positively affected their learning outcomes, the correlation was small. table 4: the effect of cognitive styles on mathematics academic outcomes criteria junior high school senior high school university f pa t p* f pa t p* f pa t p* math outcomes 2.815 .137 .768 .472 b b 2.609 .026 2.5222 .119 2.213 .032 fi/fd a levene’s test, variance is homogenous at 95% confidence level b levene's test is not computed because there are less than two non-empty groups. *significance at the .05 level prior to using independent t-test, we tested whether the data were normally distributed. the results of normality test for each level showed p-values = .151 (p < .05), p-values = .200 (p < .05), p-values = .000 (p < .05), which means all data distributed normally and independent t-test could be applied (appendix b). the effect of cognitive style classifications on mathematics academic outcomes is described in table 4. it showed that p-values =.472 (p > .05), p-values =.026 (p < .05), and p-values =.032 (p < .05), for each junior high school, senior high school, and university students, in order. the differences in fi or fd classifications only positively influenced mathematics academic outcomes of 538 the senior high school and university students. if we compare the correlation value of junior high school, senior high school, and university students and the description in table 4, we discover that students' cognitive styles provide greater influence as students age. students with the fi classification were more likely to have better learning outcomes than students with the fd classification, in line with their ages. table 5 shows that p-values = .014 (p <. 01) and spearman correlation coefficient (r) = .369. it shows that the relationship between the fd and mathematics outcomes of university students was significantly correlated. table 5: relationship between field-dependent and mathematics outcomes of university students variable r p** math outcomes .369 .014 fd **significance at the .01 level discussion in previous and recent research, it has been noted that cognitive styles have a positive connection with many cognitive attributes (umaru, 2013; volkova & rusalov, 2016) and mathematics (chrysostomou et al., 2013; jantan, 2014; rahman, 2013; singer et al., 2017; suranata et al., 2019). however, our findings support a slightly different point of view. this study’s findings revealed that indigenous students’ cognitive styles, both junior high school and senior high school, did not significantly correlate with students' mathematics learning outcomes. although the correlation was positive, the cognitive styles showed a small contribution to supporting indigenous students in achieving their learning outcomes. meanwhile, higher education students' cognitive styles significantly influenced their learning outcomes. however, it was seen that the positive correlation became more noticeable as the students’ grade level increased. a small correlation for younger students was also discovered by jantan (2014), where cognitive styles were more likely to influence students’ outcomes as the child matures. this may occur because of the way teachers deliver mathematics material that is not relevant to the students’ environment. yunkaporta (2009) argues that educators often focus on linear viewpoints, a part of western-oriented pedagogy, within school practices, which further marginalises indigenous students by preventing them from reconstructing their own knowledge. the learning outcomes collected in this study were analysed together with geft scores that were mathematics academic outcomes measured according to standard scores. given the small contribution of cognitive styles to mathematics academic outcomes for younger students, this may be acceptable. a study involving papuan students aged 10-12 years by sianturi et al. (2018) also found that the delivery of learning materials for papuan students was often monopolised by the dominant culture, making it difficult for students to grasp mathematics learning. furthermore, another study stated that the education implemented in many schools in west papua attempted to alienate papuan students from their environment and culture (sianturi, chiang, et al., 2022). however, it should be noted that this needs to be studied with a qualitative approach. the aim is to see how indigenous students' ways of learning, culture, the environment, and even their gender, affects indigenous papuans' cognitive styles prevalence and the ways students capture information 539 conveyed during the mathematics learning process. previous studies that discovered a positive correlation between cognitive styles and mathematical achievement involved students in general (e.g., ademola, 2015; azlina et al., 2018; chrysostomou et al., 2013; faradillah et al., 2018; pratiwi et al., 2013; rosita, 2018; singer et al., 2017). thus, more similar studies involving indigenous students’ mathematics learning are required. topics about the relevance of indigenous ways of learning and cognitive styles to students' mathematical abilities, but not taken from standardised mathematics outcomes, might be worth considering for further research. other than the insignificant differences between cognitive style and learning outcomes against previous studies' results (scholar & abdurauf, 2015), our results also identified slight differences according to gender. our research results indicated no significant association between indigenous students' gender and cognitive style classification. in other words, no matter whether an indigenous west papuan student was a boy or a girl, his or her cognitive style would not be affected. however, we could not articulate this statement strongly because of the limited number of participants we studied. conclusion and recommendations this study sought the relationship between cognitive styles and mathematics academic outcomes among indigenous west papuan students. there is no significant correlation between the indigenous students’ cognitive styles and mathematics academic outcomes at the junior and senior high school level. indigenous students with different cognitive styles might show a small improvement in accomplishing their learning outcomes. as indigenous students pursue a higher level of education, their cognitive styles will influence their mathematics academic outcomes. the findings of this study provide recommendations for school practices and policymakers. teachers should recognise indigenous students' cognitive styles when developing teaching instructions and assessments. knowing indigenous students’ diverse characteristics and needs might help teachers create more culturally appropriate lessons for students. as cognitive styles might influence students’ mathematics academic outcomes as their school level increase, teachers might consider their cognitive classifications for each school level. the results of the study should be viewed within the context of several limitations. considering the small number of participants and the fact that we employed non-probability sampling in this study, it is not possible to generalise the results of this study. thus, a similar procedure with a larger sample size could be applied for future research with probability sampling. studies using qualitative approaches to find the relationship among indigenous students' ways of learning, cognitive styles, gender, culturally responsive approaches, and their impacts on mathematical performance might be considered for future research. acknowledgements: we are thankful for all students who dedicated their time and energy to take part in this research. we also express our gratitude to the homeroom teachers and principals of the junior and senior high schools, and the head of the department of primary teacher education who supported and facilitated this research. the meaningful input and feedback from two anonymous peer-reviewers and colleagues that improved this article is also highly appreciated. 540 funding: there was no financial support received by the authors from any organisation for the work submitted for publication. disclosure statement: the authors reported no potential conflict of interest. references abdullah, r. bin, mamat, w. h. w., amir zal, w. a., & ibrahim, a. m. bin. (2013). teaching and learning problems of the orang asli education: students’ perspective. asian social science. https://doi.org/10.5539/ass.v9n12p118 ademola, k. (2015). predicting academic success of junior secondary school students in mathematics through cognitive style and problem solving technique. journal of education and practice, 6(4), 72-79. arnup, j. l., murrihy, c., roodenburg, j., & mclean, l. a. (2013). cognitive style and gender differences in children’s mathematics achievement. educational studies, 39(3), 355–368. https://doi.org/10.1080/03055698.2013.767184 asiamah, n., mensah, h. k., & oteng-abayie, e. f. (2022). non-probabilistic sampling in quantitative clinical research: a typology and highlights for students and early career researchers. international journal of applied research on public health management, 7(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.4018/ijarphm.290379 azlina, n., amin, s. m., & lukito, a. (2018). creativity of field-dependent and field-independent students in posing mathematical problems. journal of physics: conference series, 947(1), 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1088/17426596/947/1/012031 blanton, e. l. (2004). the influence of students’ cognitive style on a standardized reading test administered in three different formats. the university of central florida orlando. burridge, n., whalan, f., & vaughan, k. (2012). indigenous education: a learning journey for teachers, schools and communities. in indigenous education: a learning journey for teachers, schools and communities. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6091-888-9 chen, s. (2016). dawning of hope: practice of and reflections on indigenous teacher education in taiwan. policy futures in education, 14(7), 943-955. https://doi.org/10.1177/1478210316656312 chrysostomou, m., pitta-pantazi, d., tsingi, c., cleanthous, e., & christou, c. (2013). examining number sense and algebraic reasoning through cognitive styles. educational studies in mathematics, 83, 205-223. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-012-9448-0 chung, c., huan, h., tseng, k., jung, r., & chen, c. (2021). transformation from traditional schools to alternative schools: curriculum leadership of the principals of taiwanese aborigines. asia pacific education review, 22(1), 53-66. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-020-09663-9 creswell, j. w. (2014). research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (4th ed.). sage publications, ltd. creswell, j. w., & guetterman, t. c. (2019). educational research: planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research (6th ed.). pearson. davies, m., & beaumont, t. j. (2011). case studies: research methods. in study skills for international postgraduates (pp. 1-7). the university of melbourne. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-230-34553-9 department of the prime minister and cabinet. (2018). closing the gap: prime minister’s report 2018. https://www.pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/reports/closing-the-gap-2018/employment.html desmita, o. (2012). psikologi perkembangan peserta didik [developmental psychology of students]. pt. rosdakarya. dhir, r. k. (2015). indigenous peoples in the world of work in asia and the pacific. international labour organization. www.ilo.org/publns 541 faradillah, a., hadi, w., & tsurayya, a. (2018). pre-service mathematics teachers ’ reasoning ability in solving mathematical non-routine problem according to cognitive style. journal of physics: conference series, 948(1), 1– 6. fyle, c. o. (2009). the effects of field dependent/independent style awareness on learning strategies and outcomes in an instructional hypermedia module. florida state university. goodchild, s., & grevholm, b. (2009). an exploratory study of mathematics test results: what is the gender effect? international journal of science and mathematics education, 7, 161-182. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10763007-9114-7 harris, s. (1984). aboriginal learning styles and formal schooling. the aboriginal child at school, 12(4), 3–23. harrison, n. (2011). teaching and learning in aboriginal education (2nd ed.). oxford university press. hogg, l., & volman, m. (2020). a synthesis of funds of identity research: purposes, tools , pedagogical approaches, and outcomes. review of educational research, 90(6), 862–895. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654320964205 hughes, p., & more, a. j. (1997). aboriginal ways of learning learning styles. annual conference of the australian association for research in education, 1-21. jacob, m. m. (2017). indigenous studies speaks to american sociology: the need for individual and social transformations of indigenous education in the usa. social sciences, 7(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci7010001 jantan, r. b. (2014). relationship between students’ cognitive style (field-dependent and field-independent cognitive styles) with their mathematic achievement in primary school. international journal of humanities social sciences and education (ijhsse), 1(10), 88–93. www.arcjournals.org kamaruddin, m. i. bin, bakar, z. b. a., surif, j. bin, & li, w. s. s. (2004). relationship between cognitive styles, levels of cognitive thinking and chemistry achievement among form four science students. universiti teknologi malaysia. kemendikbud. (2019). laporan hasil ujian nasional — papua [national examination results report papua]. https://bit.ly/3fbzsyr kozhevnikov, m. (2007). styles in the context of modern psychology: toward an integrated framework of cognitive style. psychological bulletin, 133(3), 464–-481. krakouer, j. (2015). literature review relating to the current context and discourse on indigenous cultural awareness in the teaching space: critical pedagogies and improving indigenous learning outcomes through cultural responsiveness. australian council for educational research, november, 1–21. https://research.acer.edu.au/indigenous_education/43/ lin, a. y., wu, c., chen, z., ku, p., lin, y., wu, c., chen, z., & ku, p. (2020). how gender pairings affect collaborative problem solving in social-learning context. international forum of educational technology & society, 23(4), 30-44. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26981742 lis, d. j., & powers, j. e. (1979). reliability and validity of the group embedded figures test for a grade school sample. perceptual and motor skills, 48, 660–662. https://doi.org/10.2466/pms.1979.48.2.660 lowe, k. (2017). walanbaa warramildanha: the impact of authentic aboriginal community and school engagement on teachers’ professional knowledge. australian educational researcher, 44(1), 35–54. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-017-0229-8 macneil, r. d. (1980). the relationship of cognitive style and instructional style to the learning performance of undergraduate students. journal of educational research, 73(6), 354-359. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220671.1980.10885265 mills, a. j., durepos, g., & wiebe, e. (2010). quantitative analysis in case study. in encyclopedia of case study research (pp. 761-764). sage publications, inc. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412957397.n279 542 munroe, e. a., borden, l. l., murray orr, a., toney, d., & meader, j. (2013). decolonizing aboriginal education in the 21st century. mcgill journal of education, 48(2), 317–337. https://doi.org/10.7202/1020974ar munroe, k. l. (2016). impact of open approach on students’ understanding of mathematical concepts: a gender comparison. graduate school for international development and cooperation, 22(2), 85–96. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/impact-of-open-approach-on-students’-understandingmunroe/a8fcb07b59eb2f7be012929c2d6ed346ff616dbc nugraha, m. g., & awalliyah, s. (2016). analisis gaya kognitif field dependent dan field independent terhadap penguasaan konsep fisika siswa kelas vii [field dependent and field independent cognitive style analysis on the mastery of physics concepts for class vii students]. prosiding seminar nasional fisika (e-journal) snf2016, v(oktober), 71–76. https://doi.org/10.21009/0305010312 nur, a. s., & nurvitasari, e. (2017). geometry skill analysis in problem solving reviewed from the difference of cognitive style students junior high school. journal of educational science and technology, 3(3), 205–210. https://doi.org/10.26858/est.v3i3.4130 nur, andi saparudin, & palobo, m. (2018). profil kemampuan pemecahan masalah matematika siswa ditinjau dari perbedaan gaya kognitif dan gender [profile of students' mathematical problem solving abilities in terms of differences in cognitive style and gender]. kreano, jurnal matematika kreatif-inovatif, 9(2), 139-148. http://journal.unnes.ac.id/nju/index.php/kreano%0aprofil panek, p. e., funk, l. g., & nelson, p. k. (1980). reliability and validity of the group embedded figures test across the life span. perceptual and motor skills, 50, 117 1-1 174. https://doi.org/10.2466/pms.1980.50.3c.1171 pathuddin, budayasa, i. k., & lukito, a. (2019). metacognitive activity of male students: difference field independent-dependent cognitive style. journal of physics: conference series, 1218(1), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/1218/1/012025 perso, t. f. (2012). cultural responsiveness and school education with particular focus on australia’s first peoples: a review & synthesis of the literature. menzies school of health research, centre for child development and education, darwin northern territory. pewewardy, c. (2002). learning styles of american indian/alaska native students: a review of the literature and implications for practice. journal of american indian education, 41(3), 22–56. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24398583 pratiwi, d. d., sujadi, i., & pangadi. (2013). kemampuan komunikasi matematis dalam pemecahan masalah matematika sesuai dengan gaya kognitif pada siswa kelas ix smp negeri 1 surakarta tahun pelajaran 2012/2013 [mathematical communication skills in solving math problems in accordance with the students’ cognitive styles at year 9 smp negeri 1 surakarta academic year 2012/2013]. jurnal pembelajaran matematika, 1(5), 525–538. https://jurnal.fkip.uns.ac.id/index.php/s2math/article/view/3525/2459 puspananda, d. r., & suriyah, p. (2017). analisis faktor pada group embbeded figures test untuk mengukur gaya kognitif [factor analysis on group embedded figures test to measure cognitive styles]. seminar matematika dan pendidikan matematika uny 2017, 225–230. http://repository.ikippgribojonegoro.ac.id/id/eprint/1384%0a rahman, a. (2013). pengajuan masalah matematika ditinjau dari gaya kognitif dan kategori informasi [the submission of mathematical problems in terms of cognitive style and information categories]. jurnal ilmu pendidikan, 19(1), 244–251. https://doi.org/10.17977/jip.v19i2.4220 rahmawati, a. (2004). papuan ethno-political conflict: causes, contexts , and policy implication. naval postgraduate school. rasmussen, c., sherman, j., & baydala, l. (2004). learning patterns and education of aboriginal children: a review of the literature. the canadian journal of native studies, 24(2), 317-342. http://www3.brandonu.ca/cjns/24.2/cjnsv24no2_pg317-342.pdf 543 riding, r. j., & sadler-smith, e. (1997). cognitive style and learning strategies: some implications for training design. international journal of training and development, 1(3), 199–208. https://doi.org/10.1111/14682419.00020 rigney, l., garrett, r., curry, m., & macgill, b. (2020). culturally responsive pedagogy and mathematics through creative and bodybased learning: urban aboriginal schooling. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013124519896861 riley, t., & webster, a. (2016). principals as literacy leaders with indigenous communities (pallic) building relationships: one school’s quest to raise indigenous learners’ literacy. teaching education, 27(2), 136-155. https://doi.org/10.1080/10476210.2015.1049261 rosita, n. t. (2018). analysis of algebraic reasoning ability of cognitive style perspectives on field-dependent field-independent and gender. journal of physics: conference series, 983(1). https://doi.org/10.1088/17426596/983/1/012153 saracho, o. n. (1988). cognitive styles and young children’s learning. early child development and care, 30(1-4), 213–220. https://doi.org/10.1080/0300443880300118 saville-troike, m. (2012). introducing second language acquisition. cambridge university press. scholar, t. m., & abdurauf, r. a. (2015). cognitive styles field dependence / independence and scientific achievement of male and female students of zamfara state college of education maru, nigeria. journal of education and practice, 6(10), 58–64. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej1081653.pdf sianturi, m., chiang, c. l., & hurit, a. a. (2018). impact of a place-based education curriculum on indigenous teacher and students. international journal of instruction, 11(1), 311–328. https://doi.org/10.12973/iji.2018.11122a sianturi, m., chiang, c. l., & sumarsono, a. (2022). the preservation of the identity and culture of the indigenous lanninese people of west papua, indonesia, through education (preservación de la identidad y la cultura del pueblo lani, comunidad indígena de la provincia indonesia de papúa occidental, a través de la educación). culture and education, 34(2), 424–465. https://doi.org/10.1080/11356405.2022.2034287 sianturi, m., & suryani, d. r. (2017). performansi matematika dasar siswa papua calon guru sekolah dasar [the basic mathematical performance of indigenous students in higher education]. in m. palobo, a. k. hidayat, o. dadi, & n. r. marwa (eds.), inovasi pendidikan dan pembelajaran dalam rangka percepatan pembangunan di daerah pinggiran [educational and learning innovation in the context of accelerating development in outlying areas] (pp. 178–190). fkip musamus university. sianturi, m., suliantin, r., & sianturi, i. a. j. (2022). culturally relevant teaching: a case study on indigenous students’ cognitive styles and difficulties in processing information. [manuscript submitted for publication]. singer, f. m., vouca, c., & pelczer, i. (2017). cognitive styles in posing geometry problems: implications for assessment of mathematical creativity. zdm, 49(1), 37–52. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-016-0820-x stake, r. e. (1994). case studies. in n. k. denzin & y. s. lincoln (eds.), handbook of qualitative research (pp. 236247). sage publications. suranata, k., rangka, i. b., ifdil, i., ardi, z., dharsana, i. k., suarni, n. k., & gading, i. k. (2019). exploring of mathematics learning difficulties for students based on heterogeneous group and cognitive style in elementary school. journal of physics: conference series, 1157, 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1088/17426596/1157/3/032091 thompson, c. (1999). if you could just provide me with a sample: examining sampling in qualitative and quantitative research papers. evidence-based nursing, 2(3), 68–70. umaru, y. (2013). influence of reflective and impulsive cognitive styles on students’ achievement in mathematics among senior secondary school students. ife psychologia, 21(2), 123–128. 544 uprichard, e. (2013). sampling: bridging probability and non-probability designs. international journal of social research methodology, 16(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2011.633391 vega-vaca, m. l., & hederich-martínez, c. (2015). the impact of a cooperative learning program on the academic achievement in mathematics and language in fourth grade students and its relation to cognitive style. new approaches in educational research, 4(2), 84–90. https://doi.org/10.7821/naer.2015.7.124 vehovar, v., toepoel, v., & steinmetz, s. (2016). non-probability sampling. in c. wolf, d. joye, t. w. smith, & y. fu (eds.), the sage handbook of survey methodology (pp. 329–345). sage. volkova, e. v., & rusalov, v. m. (2016). cognitive styles and personality. personality and individual differences, 99, 266-271. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.04.097 witkin, h. a., moore, c. a., goodenough, d. r., & cox, p. (1977). field dependent and field-independent cognitive styles and their education implications. review of educational research, 47(1), 1-64. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543047001001 witkin, h., oltman, p. k., & raskin, e. (1971). manual embedded figures test, children embedded figures test, grup embedded figures test. consulting psychology press, inc. yunkaporta, t. k. (2009). aboriginal pedagogies at the cultural interface [james cook university]. http://eprints.jcu.edu.au/10974/%0a zainal, z. (2007). case study as a research method. jurnal kemanusiaan, 9(june), 1-6. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/11784113.pdf authors: murni sianturi is an indigenous researcher with 7 years’ experience working with indigenous communities. she is currently a scientia phd candidate at the university of new south wales. she has more intentionally focused on issues influencing indigenous west papuan students, with a specific interest in mathematics learning, identity, and culture. specifically, building on her experiences as a mathematics teacher at all school levels and a local university lecturer, her work is concerned with schooling practices and indigenous students’ identities, impacting their experiences, culture, identities, and learning achievements. her current research project focuses on using technology to facilitate partnerships between schools and indigenous west papuan parents. (http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2898-7084). email: m.sianturi@unsw.edu.au riska sulantin is a mathematics teacher at muhammadiah junior high school, merauke, papua. born and raised in the remote area of west papua, riska has an interest in educating children living in rural areas. in addition to her career as a teacher, she is also actively involved in community activities. email: rsuliantin@gmail.com hariani fitrianti is a lecturer at musamus university, papua. her research interests aim to explore students’ mathematical learning and statistical analysis in educational research. email: harianifitrianti@unmus.ac.id cite this paper as: sianturi, m., sulantin, r., & fitrianti, h. (2022). relationships between cognitive styles and indigenous students’ mathematics academic outcomes. journal of learning for development, 9(3), 528-544. bonk motivations, achievements, and challenges of self-directed informal learners in open educational environments and moocs curtis j. bonk and mimi miyoung lee vol. 4, no. 1 abstract this research targeted the learning preferences, goals and motivations, achievements, challenges, and possibilities for life change of self-directed online learners enrolled in a massive open online course (mooc) related to online teaching hosted by blackboard using coursesites. data collection included a 40-item survey, of which 159 mooc respondents completed the close-ended survey items and 49 completed the 15 open-ended survey items. across the data, it is clear that self-directed online learners are internally motivated and appreciate the freedom to learn and the choice that open educational resources provide. people were also motivated to learn informally from personal curiosity and interest as well as professional growth needs and goals for self-improvement. identity as a learner was positively impacted by informal online learning pursuits. foreign language skills as well as global, cultural, historical, environmental, and health-related information were among the most desired by the survey respondents. the main obstacles to informal online learning were time, costs associated with technology use, difficulty of use, and lack of quality. qualitative results, embedded in the findings, indicate that self-directed learners take great pleasure in knowing that they do not have to rely on others for their learning needs. implications for instructional designers are offered. introduction we are in the midst of an incredible array of changes in both k-12 and higher education today that would have been unthinkable just a decade or two ago. as part of the proliferation of global online education, people in remote parts of the world are learning from well-known professors at institutions such as princeton, rice, harvard, and mit; typically, without a fee (friedman, 2013; pappano, 2012; sandeen, 2013). countless millions of individuals are engaged in self-directed, informal, and solitary learning experiences, while myriad others are collaboratively learning with global peers who have signed up for the same course or learning experience (kim, 2015). with the emergence of web-based learning resources and tools, global collaboration and self-directed learning are now parallel and simultaneous events (lee & bonk, 2013). in the process, new ecologies of learning are emerging that need to be better understood (kim & chung, 2015; wilcox, sharma, & lippel, 2016). waks (2013) in his book, education 2.0: the learningweb revolution and the transformation of the school, offers a conceptual model to make sense of the educational possibilities brought about by an age of abundance of learning technologies. he points out that collaborative technologies, open access textbooks, e-books, learning repositories, social networking technology, web conferencing, and open educational resources (oer) are enabling greater opportunities for learners’ self-determined or self-directed learning. detailed below are a few key trends and historical markers for this self-directed learning movement or shift toward the use of more free and open content. the rise of massive open online courses (moocs) the evolution of oer and opencourseware (ocw) (mit, 2001), and online learning in general, has led to the creation of massive open online courses (moocs). moocs illustrate the fact that we have entered an age of information abundance in huge contrast to previous times of information scarcity (kop, fournier, & mak, 2011). taking advantage of such resources, thousands, or even tens or hundreds of thousands of people around the world often enroll in a single mooc experience such as ones on social networking technology, sustainable health diets, introductory chemistry, or artificial intelligence (bowman, 2012). while it is a recent phenomenon, by early 2016, more than 4,000 such courses across a wide range of disciplines were available from mooc providers such as udemy, udacity, coursera, novoed, and edx and listed in portals such as class central and the mooc list (bersin, 2016; online course report, 2016; wexler, 2015). equally impressive, over 35 million learners enrolled in such courses that were offered by instructors from more than 570 different universities (carter, 2016; online course report, 2016; shah, 2015). by the end of 2016, this grew to more than 58 million students enrolled in nearly 7,000 moocs at over 700 universities around the world (shah, 2016). coursera alone accounted for more than 23 million mooc enrollments. research from rita kop and her colleagues (kop et al., 2011) indicated that it is possible for a mooc to provide more than traditional course information and assignments. moocs, in fact, can support the building of connections between those seeking to learn something and course facilitators as well as among the learners themselves in a rich online community. when designed to harness information flows within networks of people, the result can be exciting and spontaneous learning. such moocs illustrate concepts and principles related to a new learning perspective called connectivism (downes, 2012) and have been branded as “cmoocs” (morrison, 2013). in fact, the first mooc, which was offered by george siemens of athabasca university and stephen downes of the canadian research council in 2008 (downes, 2012), was a cmooc. it was not until three years later that moocs received national and international attention. more specifically, in the fall of 2011, a series of moocs from stanford each enrolled more than 100,000 participants (beckett, 2011; markoff, 2011). these were dubbed xmoocs since they were taught in a similar fashion to campus-based lecture courses (morrison, 2013). due to the size of the enrollments, moocs have drawn much media and government attention (young, 2012). naturally, there is much interest and attention today related to the business plans and sustainability of these new forms of educational delivery (bonk, lee, reeves, & reynolds, 2015, 2018; kolowich, 2013) as well as their impact on the educationally underserved (bethke, 2016; schmid, manturuk, simpkins, goldwasser, & whitfield, 2015). in addition, mooc experts and educators are debating issues related to accreditation, assessment, attrition, design and development, quality, personalization, competency, and credentialing (bonk et al., 2018; lee & reynolds, 2015). among the other key concerns related to moocs and the use of open education include participant motivation and retention as well as resulting learning (lee & reynolds, 2015). a mooc study in the area of bioelectricity at duke university highlighted the fact that many people attend the first couple of weeks of a mooc and then are no longer heard from (belanger & thornton, 2013; catropa, 2013); a large percentage, in fact, sign up but never access any of the course resources or engage in any of the course activities. similarly, a set of six moocs at the university of edinburgh (e.g., courses on critical thinking, introductory philosophy, equine nutrition, ai planning, astrobiology, e-learning and digital cultures) also found that the retention rate in a mooc is often quite low (moocs @ edinburgh, 2013). in terms of participant motivation and goals in the edinburgh study, participants signed up for various reasons, including the desire to learn about the subject matter, try online education, experience a mooc, browse the course, obtain a certificate, improve career prospects, and become part of a learning community. recent studies of moocs and other forms of open education have relied on both data analytics and clickstream forms of data which can be problematic (christensen, steinmetz, alcorn, bennett, & woods, 2013; edx, 2014). clearly, while moocs may enroll thousands of participants who view a particular online lecture or respond to a set of survey questions, scant information is provided about why a certain lecture or a particular survey answer was selected more often. additional insights can be garnered from expanding the data collected beyond computer log data (gasevic, kovanovic, joksimovic, & siemens, 2014). in one of the largest qualitative studies of moocs, veletsianos and his colleagues (veletsianos, collier, & schneider, 2015) have uncovered many insights related to moocs and open education. importantly, they remind us of the saliency of learner choice and personal agency when deciding to sign up for a mooc or browse open educational resources (oer). to them, learner interviews, focus groups, content analyses, and other qualitative research methods often better illuminate learner aspects of self-directed online learning (lee, 2016). these methods can be especially important for learners who tend to be more shy or quiet in the mooc (veletsianos, 2015). without a doubt, it is vital to begin to understand the emotions, study skills, learning goals, actual achievements, challenges and potential frustrations, and social networks of those learners. in effect, enhanced insights into the people engaged in learning from moocs and other forms of open education are needed (lee, 2016; liu et al, 2014; watson et al., 2015; weibe, thompson, & behrend, 2015). the need for the study of self-directed learning without a doubt, informal learning resources and tools are proliferating online (bonk, 2009; cross, 2007). as a consequence of this age of information abundance, there is greater emphasis on self-directed learning and learners assuming more control over their learning activities (brookfield, 2013; sze-yeng & hussian 2010); especially in online environments (song & hill, 2007). this trend is pervasive across all age levels and occupations. for instance, some young people are skipping k-12 school settings and instead studying from oer (al haddad, 2011). other youth who lack decent textbooks or have limited access to quality teachers, such as young children in india, are learning from free and open videos provided by the khan academy (chandrasekaran, 2012). at the same time, some adolescents are learning multiple languages through free online video and text resources (leland, 2012). the importance of self-directed learning (sdl) has been noted for decades. research from deci and ryan at the university of rochester (e.g., deci & ryan, 2008; ryan & deci, 2000), for instance, reveals the need for learning tasks to be personally meaningful, interesting, enjoyable, and embedded with a sense of control or personal autonomy. learners must also be given a chance to set personal goals and self-monitor their progress toward them (reeve, 1996). in recapping the literature on sdl, abdullah (2001) noted that those who are self-directed learners are persistent, self-disciplined, goal oriented, independent, self-confident, and generally enjoy learning. they also self-monitor, evaluate, and regulate their own learning. from this perspective, learners need greater opportunities to learn, and, in the process, gain a sense that they are free to learn when and where they feel the need (reeve, 1996). learning should be learner-driven and filled with opportunities for learners to make decisions and take responsibility for their own learning (rogers, 1983). the more that learners can freely and openly explore learning experiences, the greater the chance that they will exhibit their creativity and participate in productive ways in the world at large (rogers, 1969). in effect, there is a growing need for allowing greater learner choice and fostering volition in the material that is selected and in the tasks in which they express their learning gains. learner volition and inner will or purposeful striving toward some action or learning goal is at the crux or heart of self-directed learning pursuits. in recapping the literature on intrinsic motivation, pink (2009) makes the claim that this internal drive system is focused on getting better at something that is personally meaningful or relevant. in many ways, distance learning on the web is an ideal platform for testing theories related to intrinsic and self-directed learning (sdl). for many of the pioneers of distance learning research, learning via television, correspondence, and satellite were highly appropriate formats for learners who were already self-motivated (wedemeyer, 1981). building on decades of such learning formats, garrison (1997) designed a comprehensive sdl model with three interacting dimensions; namely, (1) self-management, (2) self-monitoring, and (3) motivation. garrison pointed out that sdl is successful when learners can take control of the learning context to reach their personal learning objectives (song & hill, 2007). to attain to their goals, they must effectively manage the learning resources that are provided; often with little or no guidance. of course, as learning online from ocw, oer, and moocs shifts control of the learning environment toward the learner, there are problems, challenges, and opportunities for learners related to effective resource use. the challenges and barriers of many sdl environments include less immediate feedback and guidance, a high degree of impersonalization, learner procrastination, and being overwhelmed by the resources made available by the instructors or learning designers (graham, 2006). given these issues, it is not too surprising that the recent emergence of online learning and oer has reawakened interest in the field of self-directed learning (hyland & kranzow, 2011). adults, in particular, are being pressured to keep their knowledge and skills up-to-date in order to handle fast changing work requirements. as a result, lifelong learning and self-directed learning have risen in importance (lin, 2008). however, there are relatively few studies of the experiences of self-directed online learners as they move through non-formal learning channels. therefore, it is vital for researchers to investigate the potential of free and open learning materials and resources and what learners encounter as they explore them. in particular, there is a pressing need to better understand the goals and aspirations as well as the obstacles and barriers to success in non-formal learning environments by the people learning from open educational content and courses such as moocs or open learning portals. study purpose and design purpose as noted in the preceding section, free and open online learning resources have become widely available. one consequence of this more open educational world is that learners are increasingly self-directing major aspects of their learning. the purpose of this study, therefore, is to investigate the self-directed online learning pursuits of participants of a mooc hosted by coursesites from blackboard. more specifically, the research attempted to reveal the (1) learning preferences; (2) goals and motivations; (3) achievements; (4) obstacles and challenges; and (5) possibilities for life change of self-directed online learners. in similarity to studies from liu et al. (2014) and watson et al. (2015) which inquired into the preferences of learners in a mooc, both qualitative and quantitative methods were employed in this study. however, unlike those studies, this particular project did not target mooc behaviors specifically; instead, a survey was designed to explore self-directed learning preferences and experiences from informal online learning resources including moocs and other forms of open education. in effect, this research project attempted to more generally understand learner preferences, goals, successes, and challenges when engaged in informal online learning. as educators and instructional designers better understand success stories as well as the challenges and obstacles of non-formal learning with oer and emerging learning technology, they can design and develop enhanced online learning contents and supports. in addition, documented life changes from oer can also serve as catalysts and benchmarks for others to utilize such resources (bonk, lee, kou, xu, & sheu, 2015). web-based survey instrument a list of over 300 informal, open education, and extreme learning websites was created by a team of researchers based on a thorough literature review as well as from soliciting expert recommendations, reviewing online news, and scanning through blog posts and other online resources. these web resources included those related to language learning, adventure learning, social change/global education, virtual education, learning portals, and shared online video. after six months of reviewing the literature and these recommendations, an evaluation scheme was developed for online informal learning resources. the final eight criteria in the scheme included: (1) content richness, (2) functionality of technology, (3) extent of technology integration, (4) novelty of technology, (5) uniqueness of learning environment/learning, (6) potential for learning, (7) potential for life-changing impact, and (8) scalability of audience. each informal learning website was evaluated according to these eight criteria using a 5-point likert scale (1 is low; 5 is high) (bonk, kim, & xu, 2016; kim, jung, altuwaijri, wang, & bonk, 2014). after spending a year evaluating 305 of these websites (bonk, et al., 2016; kim et al., 2014), a 40-item survey questionnaire was designed using surveyshare, a web-based survey hosting service. as indicated, the survey was designed to better understand the preferences, goals, achievements, and obstacles of self-directed learning from such free and open online environments. it was also intended to help the researchers collect personally impactful stories related to self-directed learning (bonk, lee, kou, et al., 2015; bonk et al., 2016). the close-ended portion of the survey inquired into many aspects of informal online learning (e.g., favorite websites when needing information, goals one wished to accomplish through informal learning pursuits, reasons for exploring web resources informally, and typical barriers or obstacles faced when learning informally on the web. in effect, these questions addressed a wide gamut of issues related to informal and self-directed learner use of open educational resources and open learning opportunities. in addition to those 25 close-ended questions, respondents had the option to complete 15 open-ended questions that asked about their informal learning experiences (see appendix a for details on the “open-ended survey questions”). among them were questions related to respondent goals and aspirations using oer, ocw, and moocs. participants were also asked about their most interesting and successful informal learning experiences and what they accomplished. another open-ended item concerned advice or suggestions for others wanting to learn informally with oer, ocw, and other web resources and technologies. still other open-ended items included those related to the informal learning influences and supports that they received (e.g., colleagues, mentors, friends, etc.). finally, we were curious about the challenges and obstacles that informal learners faced when using online educational resources. analysis of the qualitative data the qualitative data from relevant open-ended questions was analyzed by a team of qualitative researchers. team members coded the data for themes and comparisons across such themes. where appropriate, the qualitative findings were used in the sections below to supplement the quantitative findings from the close-ended items already discussed. analyses of the qualitative data evolved over time with repeated checks from the research team members. after several rounds of preliminary analyses and discussions, it was decided to examine the responses to all 15 open-ended items for each survey participant. essentially, participant answers to the 15 questions were treated as one short interview for each respondent. this decision was important since respondent goals, motivations, achievements, and challenges related to oer, ocw, and moocs might actually be embedded in an adjacent question to the one that specifically asked about it. two rounds of coding were required to generate the requisite coding scheme. the qualitative data analysis is intended to make evident how human lives are impacted from self-directed online learning using open forms of education. background on the data and the subject population a massive open online course (mooc) on instructional ideas and technology tools for online success was taught from late april to early june in 2012. it was hosted by the e-learning company, blackboard, using their free course management system called coursesites. shortly after the course ended, a link to the 40-item web-based survey was sent out to 3,800 participants of the mooc. the survey took approximately 15 to 20 minutes to complete. as a mixed methods study, various quantitative results are supplemented by our open-ended survey findings. there were 159 completed surveys from the blackboard mooc participants, including 49 who completed the optional open-ended items. the majority of the survey respondents were female (73%) and were from north america (81%). in addition, 72% were over 40 years old. it is important to mention that a large percentage of the respondents in this subject pool were college instructors who signed up for the mooc as a means of enhancing their skills in teaching online. they found out about the mooc through press releases from blackboard as well as from an email message sent to users of coursesites. findings learning preferences results respondents were asked about the places in which they learned informally with technology as well as the devices that they used for such endeavors. not too surprisingly, the mooc respondents typically used a laptop computer (89%) or desktop computer (75%) to access informal learning resources. the majority of respondents also used a smart phone (67%) or tablet computer (52%). at the same time, many of these individuals relied on devices such as e-book readers (39%), ipods (28%), car cd/dvds (26%), or tv with internet (15%) to informally learn with technology. clearly, while traditional desktop and laptop computing devices are the most common informal learning access points, there are a wide range of delivery mechanisms for engaging in informal and open learning today. as noted, most respondents also utilized smart phones as well as tablet computers and nearly half had some type of an e-book reader. such mobile learning devices extend the possibilities for self-directed informal learning to all aspects of one’s life and all types of activities in which one engages. it was also deemed important to know where people are typically located when using such devices. home (89%), work (73%), school or university (61%), or anywhere with a mobile device (56%) were among the popular places for accessing informal learning resources and materials (see figure 1). other common locations included a café or bookstore (38%), car, truck, or bus (33%), library (32%), and subway or train (15%). respondents were also engaged in such activities when hiking, walking, or jogging (11%), attending sporting or entertainment events (8%), and when on a boat or out at sea (6%). as the earlier question about delivery vehicles for informal learning indicated, it seems that learning is occurring in all aspects of one’s life. stated another way, mobile computing devices and wireless connections to the internet are vital aspects of learning today; especially that which is informal, open, and in more extended or unusual situations, such as when on an excursion or engaged in a leisure pursuit. while understanding the devices and locations for informal learning is informative, it is also vital to know what web resources self-directed learners are accessing to learn. to address this issue, we inserted two general survey questions about such resources. first, we asked the respondents to list the three best web sites, other than search engines, that they used for learning something when they had a fairly simple task or question. somewhat predictably, most of the respondents listed wikipedia and youtube as resources that they used to address such basic knowledge question needs. the next most popular resources for factual information were lynda.com, facebook, ask.com, ehow, and webmd. in addition, four people mentioned pinterest, ted, twitter, or online dictionaries in general. and three people listed how stuff works, the khan academy, lifehacker, the new york times, techrepublic, wolfram alpha, or yahoo answers. evidently, if people cannot find an answer in wikipedia or youtube, the possible avenues one might pursue to get an answer can multiply. figure 1. places respondents engage in informal learning with technology (n = 158). next, we inquired about the three best educational or information-rich websites that users might recommend to others to significantly change their lives in a positive way. the top “life-changing” resource listed was ted talks, followed by youtube and wikipedia. tied for fourth on the list were itunes university and the khan academy. after that, resources deemed life changing included merlot, the bbc, educause, free technology for teachers, lifehacker, and the mit ocw project. a few people mentioned the chronicle of higher education, the new york times, and pinterest. the respondents were also asked how they find out about new or interesting informal resources on the web to learn from. more than 75% simply browsed the web on their own. the next most important information sources were email, e-newsletters, and online news or announcements. after that, respondents relied on their friends and colleagues or blogs or podcasts to which they subscribed. social networking sites like facebook, twitter, and google hangouts were also popular. evidently, learners no longer solely turn to printed news, books, and magazines or even instructors for their learning. such information sources remain important but were far down the list of the preferred options. goals and motivations results in addition to the tools and resources for self-directed learning, we hoped that this research would shed insight into the purposes and goals of those attempting to learn informally with technology. according to the survey results, the vast majority of our respondents simply wanted to acquire a new skill or competency (85%). at the same time, many hoped to learn something that they could use to help others (65%) or society in general (37%). nearly half of the respondents indicated that they desired to acquire cultural knowledge (45%), teamwork or collaboration skills (44%), or something to better their lives (44%). four in ten respondents explored resources on the web in order to learn how to fix something. somewhat fewer were there to engage in a game or learning quest (21%). ironically, only one-third were learning informally in hopes of course credit and even fewer were interested in completing courses or modules that did not count for a degree (27%). what is clear is that respondents learn informally online with specific skills in mind, not the eventual completion of a course or degree program. humanitarian and personal reasons typically outweigh academic ones. respondents were then asked about specific information or knowledge in which they would like to learn informally online. as shown in figure 2, roughly half were seeking language skills or cultural information. nearly 4 in 10 respondents often were hoping to gain health-related content or global information. also important was historical information (36%), environmental information (27%), science skills (25%), vocabulary (23%), artistic skills (23%), and mathematical skills (19%). interestingly, far fewer were intending to gain outdoors, musical, or athletic skills. figure 2. specific information or knowledge wanting to learn informally online (n = 154) as shown in figure 3, there are many intrinsically motivating factors involved in informal learning online. survey respondents found their general interest in the topic to be vital (see figure 3). most also selected professional growth needs, curiosity, a personal need for information, goals for self-improvement, and choice or freedom in the selection of topics or resources to explore as the main reasons for accessing informal online learning resources and websites. other motivational factors included wanting to learn something new, feelings of personal control over one’s own learning, and finding that a website or activity looks exciting. somewhat surprisingly, only about one in five respondents indicated that they explored the web as part of their hobbies. when asked about the purposes or goals from their most interesting informal online learning activity, there were many motivators. in building on our quantitative findings detailed in figure 3, our qualitative analyses of the open-ended survey items also explored learner motivation. overall, the key findings about learner motivation hold from both of these analyses, though to different degrees, with more emphasis on one’s hobbies and informal learning quests in the open-ended items. among our primary qualitative findings were five key motivators or goals for the respondents; namely, they wanted: (1) to improve their job prospects; (2) to pursue personal interests or hobbies; (3) to obtain certification of some type; (4) to access particular information or resources; and (5) to find ways to expand upon their formal learning. while these goals were quite diverse, each relates to finding a way to improve one’s competencies or life situation. figure 3. main reasons to informally explore the web to learn (n = 158) suffice to say, the reasons for self-directed online learning are quite varied, from basic information seeking to expanding upon one’s career knowledge base to job advancement to personal fulfillment. in terms of information seeking, many participants see the web as a means of self-reliance. as one respondent noted, she and her husband were diyers. “today, we were trying to install a pool filter—we got instructions off you tube. i also just bought a recumbent exercise bike—i looked at online reviews before making a choice.” she then added, “knowing that i did not need to ask an actual person for help was life changing. i am an introvert by nature, and i prefer to figure things on my own. knowing that i can research informally on the web is reassuring.” as shown by the above quote, several traits or characteristics about informal online learners emerged from the data. as alluded to above, many felt a strong degree of intrinsic motivation and prided themselves for being a self-directed learner. as part of this, they emphasized the aspect of informal learning that was most valuable; namely, “my own pleasure” or passion. such individuals valued their learning autonomy and considered it highly empowering. as one person stated, “i continue to research my interests for my own pleasure, especially on sites like amazon for books and e-books, and have ongoing email alerts for journal content. i also use online sources for job hunting and professional networking.” simply put, self-directed online learning is a highly gratifying and rewarding experience. this sense of personal gratification, at least in part, comes from the fact that many of one’s information needs are readily accessible online. as an earlier quote indicated, the fact that a person no longer has to rely on someone else for assistance is extremely reassuring to self-directed online learners. in effect, informal learning from oer seems to increase self-confidence and enhances one’s sense of self-efficacy as a learner. learning achievements results it was deemed important to ask what people typically accomplished when in informal online environments. fortunately, as displayed in figure 4, most respondents realized their goal of learning something new (84%). half of them felt better about themselves as learners. many even changed their beliefs about what learning is (39%). a sense of personal freedom was noted by 35% of the respondents. around 30% deemed keeping up with their friends to be a major achievement, while 20% said the same about keeping up with family members. importantly, slightly more than one in five got a new job from their informal learning experiences. a similar percentage discovered a new occupational or career interest, while slightly less of the respondents (16%) were promoted in their work setting. in addition, one in four had received a certificate of some type. based on such responses, there is no doubt that informal online learning is changing the lives of many people. as indicated by in the earlier quote about installing a pool filter, there is also increased confidence and pride when one can be self-directed in learning. similarly, another respondent noted, “i don't know if you consider this formal or informal but it has been something i have accomplished on my own. it has been empowering and rewarding to become a research detective online.” clearly, this individual valued the enhanced learning independence and sense of personal accomplishment from utilizing open education content and resources. figure 4. achievements from learning informally online (n = 156) not too surprisingly, when these blackboard mooc participants were asked about their most interesting or successful informal learning experience, many of them focused on their recent mooc experience. others discussed prior professional development experiences (e.g., learning a new screencasting software tool, finding resources for stories of indigenous populations in australia for one’s class, etc.). some detailed their hobbies and personal interests (e.g., learning the korean language from podcast shows while bike riding, finding an interesting new recipe, locating information for sightseeing during a conference in new orleans, watching ted talks on climate change or neuroscience, etc.). others mentioned additional online courses or moocs that they had taken or were in the midst of. as is evident, our findings do not relate strictly to moocs; nonetheless, responses related to the blackboard mooc that they had all just experienced clearly filtered through many of their open-ended responses. implicit within the figure 4 data is the notion that many respondents mentioned increased their sense of personal identity from their informal learning pursuits, and, as a result, they felt better about themselves as a learner. the following quote from a female respondent is quite telling. it has made my job much easier and it's been easier for me to execute certain tasks, making me more willing to take on bigger challenges. it was also shown me how enjoyable it is to learn a computer language. it opened my mind to considering possibilities in this area. it also made my husband respect my ability around computers a bit more. experiencing high levels of achievement or success in informal online learning is vital, but it is also important to understand the factors that lead to those successes and failures. figure 5 provides an overview of some of the key ones. as would have been predicted by rogers (1969), freedom to learn was rated the highest (61%), followed by having an opportunity to create or produce something (52%), a sense of resource abundance (47%), collaboration (44%), control over the activity or resource (41%), choice (38%), and a sense of fun (38%). opportunities to share ideas, feel some sense of adventure, receive advice from others, experience a novel technology, and obtain system feedback were also important. what these results signal is that informal learners want the freedom to choose what they want to learn. when the resource pool increases, so, too, do the choices and opportunities for learner autonomy. figure 5. factors leading to success or personal change when learning informally online (n = 159) the qualitative data also indicated that another important characteristic of these self-directed learning respondents was that they enjoyed meeting people with similar interests in an online community; however, they would not necessarily enjoy face-to-face (ftf) interaction with these same people. there apparently is some psychological safety from realizing that the expert resources are available online when needed but that you do not have to personally meet or know the individuals who are helping you out. in addition, our analyses indicated that a fairly common trait of these informal learners was that they considered sharing to be an important part of the educational process. informal learners often become part of a network of peers who “love the nuggets of information that i share with them” (e.g., podcast information, recent technology news, etc.). as one person noted, informal learning “influenced my professional life – i guess i have more social capital.” another stated: my key moment came when i discovered a community of like-minded scholars from around the world. i no longer felt isolated or disconnected. this has become my most valuable support network and i am grateful. another trait revealed in the qualitative data was their personal pride in creating or contributing something to the mooc or informal learning resources that others could use. such feelings of pride and personal empowerment make sense since, as noted in the earlier literature review, self-directed learning often leads to exploration and creative outcomes (lin, 2008; waks, 2013). however, it is a balancing act. as one person argued, when credentials like badges are added, they tend to take away from the fun and enjoyment of learning something new. such extrinsic motivators often turn a playful pursuit of learning into a competition. just play around with ideas for alternatives to printed texts and don't be afraid to create your own, even if they're amateurish. perhaps people who are experimenting can get together in groups: as writers, [sic] people (including me) don't seek out readers enough and that will also apply to people experimenting with alternative modes. i think we need to de-emphasize [sic] formal assessment and accreditation and encourage our playful side to see what is possible. too much informal learning wants to get itself 'badged' or validated too quickly and this means it’s losing its genuine amateur status. at the same time, another respondent who successfully completed two workshops offered by wiki educator and learned many new skills about wikis found herself, “highly motivated to do all i could and learn as much as possible.” this respondent also stated that the “certification scheme in the wiki workshop was also very motivating, and i achieved wiki apprentice 2 level so far.” finally, any achievement from self-directed learning often requires some form of support or guidance. consequently, one survey question inquired as to the supports for their informal learning on the web. more than 60% of the survey respondents sought help from friends and colleagues, whereas 20% relied on their teachers or instructors. relatively few relied on counselors or advisors (3%), family members (11%), or tutors or mentors (11%). instead of family members or tutors, nearly one-third utilized experts and one-fourth trusted upon people that they never met. in effect, many respondents felt comfortable seeking out external experts or people that they did not personally know. given the power of the web to connect individuals across time and distance, this may be one of the key findings of this study. obstacles and challenges results we were not only interested in informal learning successes, but also obstacles and challenges that respondents faced in their self-directed learning pursuits. of the four key problems or challenges salient in figure 6, the most significant, not unexpectedly, was the lack of time for informal online learning (64%). another obstacle was the fact that some informal learning resources and tools have associated technology or membership fees (39%). and if they are free, they may be difficult to use (27%). fourth, for many people, high quality informal learning resources are simply difficult to locate (26%). less significant issues or challenges related to technology requirements embedded in the use of informal learning resources, support issues, website accessibility, and self-motivation or interest to use. figure 6. obstacles and challenges faced when learning informally online (n = 158) several participants mentioned the issue of trust when discussing their informal and self-directed learning problems. as one person stated, “the only challenge is knowing if a website is a trusted one.” another mentioned, “don't be too trusting of the documentation. it's written by humans and has the potential for error. move on, don't waste time.” in effect, the participants were raising issues about quality. another raised the issue of finding quality content, “i think the hardest part is finding a mooc that would work. it is not like there is a directory of moocs.” to be fair, as noted earlier, many such mooc directories have emerged since that time (e.g., class central, the mooc list, etc.). in addition to discerning the availability and quality of open educational content and resources, some of our respondents mentioned that informal learning was not taken seriously by their superiors. this situation, too, will likely improve over time. possibility for life change results when these individuals who attended the mooc were asked to rate the impact of informal web-based experiences on their lives, the vast majority were highly positive. in fact, on a scale of 0 (i.e., “no impact”) to 5 (“some positive impact”) to 10 (“significant positive impact”), only 5% of the respondents indicated a rating of under 5 and 8% were neutral. even more impressively, 1 in 5 respondents marked 10 and nearly 80% indicated a 7 or higher in terms of impact. apparently, informal learning leaves an indelible mark on one’s life. conclusions and implications there is a dearth of knowledge about the motivations, achievements, and challenges of self-directed online learners. as mentioned in the literature review, this particular study follows the lead of veletsianos et al. (2015), liu et al. (2015), and watson et al. (2015) in offering qualitative insights into learner activity when engaged in moocs and other forms of open education. as a mixed methods study, the survey not only revealed general insights into the learning habits, needs, and goals of, and obstacles to, self-directed online learners but also more specific insights into the actual learning needs and experiences of those utilizing such environments. given this scope, we contend that the findings of the present study address many audiences including higher education administrators, policy makers, learners, instructors, instructional designers, digital scholars, and researchers. as such stakeholders might hope, the present research indicates that open educational courses and content have directly benefited many people who long for the freedom and opportunity to direct their own learning pursuits. this research project investigated five key areas of the self-directed and informal learning pursuits of people enrolled in a mooc; namely, their: (1) learning preferences; (2) goals and motivations; (3) achievements; (4) obstacles and challenges; and (5) opportunities for life change. a summary of the findings related to each area is offered below. learning preferences recap learning in the 21st century takes place in many arenas. informal learning not only occurs in the home, school, and work environments, but also in a wide array of other potential learning environments, such as cafés, libraries, trains, and airports. nevertheless, home, work, and school environments still predominate. and, as displayed by recent developments in tablet computing and smart phones, the use of devices to access these assorted informal contents is expanding. when online, our survey participants were often supported not just by friends and colleagues, but also by leading experts that they have never met. oer plays a key role in the lives of self-directed learners. as shown in a parallel study of ours (bonk, lee, kou, et al., 2015), respondents often turned to wikipedia and youtube for their initial online inquiry. however, unlike our previous study, other useful online resources include lynda.com, twitter, facebook, ted talks, and online dictionaries. many of the sites preferred by the respondents to this particular study might be considered online portals and referenceware such as the new york times, webmd, ask.com, and yahoo answers. not too surprisingly, several of the other key resources mentioned were shared online video sites (e.g., ted, how stuff works, the khan academy, etc.). clearly, social media, email, e-newsletters, and online news sites help in providing awareness to newly popular informal learning resources as they emerge. perhaps among the most noteworthy finding of this study, and for readers of the journal of learning for development (jl4d), was that many of these resources were deemed to hold potential for significant life change (e.g., the bbc, itunes university, the chronicle of higher education, the mit ocw project, and merlot) (see also kim, et al., 2014). goals and motivations recap there are myriad goals and motivations for informal online learning. in similarity to a previous study of ours (bonk, lee, kou, et al., 2015), among the primary incentives include professional growth, self-improvement, learning about a specific topic, satisfying one’s curiosity, and general information needs. informal online learners, including mooc and open education participants, appreciate the options and opportunities to learn on their own. the personal freedom to explore whatever one wishes to learn is a key reason why self-directed online learning is so powerful. many of the respondents had specific goals that were highly personal in nature. others wanted to learn something that would help others or society as a whole. as people explore informal online resources, they enhance their professional expertise, acquire the skills to fix things at home, school, or work, become more confident in themselves as learners, and find ways to help others in need of similar knowledge. evidently, such intrinsic motivators pervade informal learning endeavors, thereby allowing the various walls previously inhibiting learning to be readily pushed aside. across the data, there is enhanced understanding of the goals of self-directed online learners across different open education delivery systems including ocw, oer, and moocs. better documentation of these pursuits can motivate and inspire others. it can also help designers of such environments to better understand the goals of self-directed online learners, thereby enabling them to create more engaging informal learning experiences, resources, and environments. at the same time, this enhanced understanding might lead to ideas on how to support individuals who lack such self-directed learning skills. achievements recap in terms of actual achievement, our initial findings are quite revealing. among the achievements found in the qualitative as well as quantitative data was simply feeling better about oneself as a learner. there is an enhanced sense of identity and self-worth. some of the open-ended responses revealed people who were discovering areas of interest to be passionate about. and others were beginning to recognize their new skills and talents. many people who decide to learn online from oer or moocs are perpetual learners. such learners include individuals who are looking to move up in their careers as well as others simply wanting to learn something new about a topic of interest. these self-directed online learners are acquiring skills in starting up new businesses, web design, computer science, teaching, speaking a language, and many other fields. they are gaining these skills through videos, discussions, documents, and a host of online resources. along the way, they are learning how to fix bicycles and swimming pools, practice a new language, discover vast new communities of like-minded scholars, become online researchers and detectives, and improve their current and future job prospects. they are also creating and sharing personal creations or works of art, finding and sharing novel resources, and experiencing a new sense of freedom to learn. it is vital to add that most of them seem to be having much fun while in the midst of such informal learning quests. clearly, the open learning world has provided exciting ways for these individuals to learn informally online and they are quickly taking advantage of it. obstacles and challenges recap despite these positive findings, many important challenges and issues remain. for instance, time, quality, training, technology requirements, and cost remain barriers to full participation in such web resources, courses, and opportunities. internet access and firewall issues, though lower than expected, still hold back too many learners from pursuing their passions or finding new ones. perhaps the challenge that can be most readily addressed by educators and instructional designers is providing help in finding and evaluating the quality of open educational content. fortunately, researchers are increasingly targeting this issue with frameworks and various quality assurance criteria for assessing the quality of online contents (margaryan, bianco, & littlejohn, 2015; mishra & kanwar, 2015; swan, day, bogle, & van prooyen, 2015). better understanding of the barriers and obstacles when learning from oer or a mooc should prove highly valuable to the designers of such content as well as those creating new online education courses and degree programs from that content. possibility for life change recap one of the final areas of interest was whether the participants experienced some type of life change from their use of informal learning resources. importantly, nearly 9 in 10 respondents indicated that they had, in fact, experienced a life change from their informal learning pursuits. given that similar results were also found in a parallel study of ours (bonk, lee, kou, et al., 2015), such overwhelming results clearly signal that self-directed online learning pursuits are having a major societal impact; especially that which is more informal and outside the purview of traditional forms of education. lives are being changed, both modestly (e.g., obtaining a specific skill to use that same day) or in more monumental ways (e.g., getting a new job or moving up at work). for many, open educational resources, massive courses, and other online content offer a sense of accomplishment outside of the high stress of most formal educational arenas. in informal web-based settings, there is a chance for discovery, reflection, choice in one’s learning path, and much opportunity for greater self-confidence and enhanced personal identity. limitations in addition to the open issues that remain, there were several key limitations that should be mentioned related to this particular study. first of all, the survey respondents were participants in a mooc addressing online instruction tools and techniques. it is likely that such people have more experience using online resources and open content than the average person. on a related issue, there is an underlying assumption that most mooc participants are self-directed online learners. despite such assumptions, we admittedly did not examine the self-directed learning traits of the research participants. that remains an open issue for future researchers. in terms of respondent demographics, the mooc participants were predominantly female and most were over age 40. geographically, the vast majority were from north america. further narrowing the generalizability, most were employed as instructors in higher education settings. as readers of this journal realize, people in rural communities in southern tanzania, western china, or the outback of australia might have vastly different motivations and expectations from using open educational content as well as highly distinctive challenges, systems of support, and actual achievements. one should also keep in mind that these mooc participants volunteered or self-selected for the study. it is likely that such individuals had more positive open education experiences to share. had all 3,800 people enrolled in the mooc responded to the survey, many of the aggregate results presented here might have been different. clearly, the response rate of 4% was particularly low, but such response rates are not uncommon for opt-in online surveys (cho & larose, 1999). there were still other limitations. for instance, only 49 of the 159 survey respondents answered the open-ended items. in addition, due to the self-paced nature of the course, we do not know how many people successfully completed the mooc. at last count, just a couple dozen people received badges for course completion. finally, as a mixed methods study, only a portion of the qualitative results could be included here due to length limitations. instructional implications despite the above limitations, there are numerous instructional design implications from this study. first of all, those designing open educational contents such as moocs, ocw, or oer for self-directed learners need to embed opportunities for learner choice, control, fun, professional growth, and a general sense of freedom to learn. often, such learners are not pursuing course credits, credentials, or items on their transcripts; instead, they simply want specific topical information that can help them deal with a personal issue or problem at work. as such, instructional designers need to make access to that information expedient and convenient while also fostering additional learner curiosity and exploration. clearly, better understanding of the key learning motivators by those designing the instruction would appear to be crucial in enhancing and extending the learning outcomes. second, implicit in our research findings is that technology selection does matter to self-directed online learners. given their interest in personal and professional growth, instructional designers might embed opportunities for discussion and reflection with others using online discussion forums, synchronous chats, collaboration tools, and learning communities. such tools can foster a sense of external support and caring for one’s self-directed learning pursuits. self-directed learners not only want to learn from others, they also want access to productivity tools that allow them to offer something creative or generative in return. however, technology cost issues and ease of use continue to play a central role in ultimate use. third, the designers and developers of web resources for informal and self-directed learning need to realize that with the plethora of resources to select from, there is a need for guidance in finding, selecting, and using high quality content. for instance, moocs have evolved so quickly that, as mentioned, there are now lists of mooc options (e.g., class central, technoduet, the mooc list, and open culture). of course, all mooc vendors (e.g., edx, coursera, udacity, canvas, novoed, etc.) have their lists as well. in addition to such mooc listings, various models and frameworks for self-directed distance learning, such as those from garrison (1997) and song and hill (2007), can offer insights into the learning processes and opportunities for such learners. admittedly, however, these mooc-related frameworks, tools, and resources will need to relentlessly evolve to keep pace with the vast and perpetual human learning and development changes taking place in this age of increasingly free and open education (bonk, 2009, 2015; kop & fournier, 2010). future research directions this was just one study of the vast field of moocs and open education. however, a parallel study of mit ocw users by bonk, lee, kou, et al. (2015) confirms many of the findings detailed here. additional inroads are now needed. for instance, it is vital to understand the specific types of resources that informal learners find valuable for their changing learning needs. what are the purposes and goals that lead someone to use a specific oer over another or to sign up for a particular mooc? and what factors or learning components support participant retention in a mooc? are there online supports or scaffolds that can be embedded to directly address the paltry completion numbers of most moocs to date (catropa, 2013; sandeen, 2013)? given the findings of the current study, there are many directions for such research. first, direct interviews with participants should reveal specific motivational factors in accessing and using open educational contents. do these motivational tendencies lean toward intrinsic aspects of motivation or more extrinsic ones? inquiries into the benefits of informal learning pursuits should also be investigated. do informal learners hope to receive some type of credential or badge from the completion of a mooc or pass a test related to their ocw explorations? it is plausible that additional insights into the key motivators can lead to immediate application, thereby benefiting countless learners around the planet. these are among the questions that our research team is currently exploring. we are not alone. as an emerging field of study, there will be waves of research questions that appear during the coming decade. given that self-directed learning from informal online contents is fast becoming a key aspect of one’s learning history, every person could be impacted in some way from such research. as a result, we hope to play a small role in the evolution of this widening field of self-directed online learning from open educational contents. at the same time, we look forward to the discoveries of other researchers and scholars who are simultaneously pushing the field of moocs and open education ahead in their own unique and exciting ways, including those who publish their ground-breaking and illuminative works here in the jl4d. acknowledgments: the authors would like to acknowledge sarah-bishop root and jarl jonas of coursesites by blackboard for their timely, extensive, and unwavering support in this research project. they warmly encouraged the first author to offer the first massive open online course (mooc) sponsored by blackboard. in addition, shuya xu from indiana university (iu) is thanked for the design of the survey instrument used in this study. many other members of the self-directed online learning environments (sole) research team at iu offered their support to this project and are thanked here. references abdullah, m. h. (2001, december). self-directed learning, eric digest, edo-cs-01-10. available from: http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ed459458.pdf  al haddad, a. (2011, november 11). too smart for school, too young for college. the national. available from: http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-news/too-smart-for-school-too-young-for-college beckett, j. (2011, august 16). free computer science courses, new teaching technology reinvent online education. the stanford report. available from: http://news.stanford.edu/news/2011/august/online-computer-science-081611.html belanger, y., & thornton, j. (2013, february 5). bioelectricity: a quantitative approach. duke university's first mooc. available from: http://dukespace.lib.duke.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/10161/6216/duke_bioelectricity_mooc_fall2012.pdf bersin, j. (2016, january, 5). use of moocs and online education exploding and here’s why. forbes. available from: http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshbersin/2016/01/05/use-of-moocs-and-online-education-is-exploding-heres-why/#b4c28997f090 bethke, r. (2016, may 2). developing country mooc users not like those the u.s. ecampus news. available from: http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/developing-country-mooc/ bonk, c. j. (july 2009). the world is open: how web technology is revolutionizing education. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. bonk, c. j., kim, m., & xu, s. (2016). do you have a sole?: research on informal and self-directed online learning environments. in j. m. spector, b. b. lockee, & m. d. childress (eds.), learning, design, and technology: an international compendium of theory, research, practice and policy. section: informal resources and tools for self-directed online learning environments (pp. 1-32). aect-springer major reference work (mrw). bonk, c. j., lee, m. m., kou, x., xu, s. & sheu, f.-r. (2015). understanding the self-directed online learning preferences, goals, achievements, and challenges of mit opencourseware subscribers. educational technology and society, 18(2), 349-368. available from: http://www.ifets.info/journals/18_2/26.pdf; bonk, c. j., lee, m. m., reeves, t. c., & reynolds, t. h. (eds). (2015). moocs and open education around the world. ny: routledge. bonk, c. j., lee. m. m., reeves, t. c., & reynolds, t. h. (2018). the emergence and design of massive open online courses. in r. a. reiser & j. v. dempsey (eds.), trends and issues in instructional design and technology (4th ed.), (pp. 250-258). new york, ny: pearson education. bowman, k. d. (2012, summer). winds of change: is higher education experiencing a shift in delivery?, public purpose magazine (from the american association of state colleges and universities). available from: http://www.aascu.org/workarea/downloadasset.aspx?id=5570 brookfield, s. d. (2013). powerful techniques for teaching adults. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. carter, j. (2016). mooc and learn: the university with 35 million students. techradar. available from: http://www.techradar.com/us/news/world-of-tech/mooc-and-learn-the-university-with-35-million-students-1318037 catropa, d. (2013, february 24). big (mooc) data. inside higher education. available from: http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/stratedgy/big-mooc-data chandrasekaran, a. (2012, october 15). lacking teachers and textbooks, india’s schools turn to the khan academy to survive. the new york times blog. available from: http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/15/lacking-teachers-and-textbooks-indias-schools-turn-to-khan-academy-to-survive/ christensen, g., steinmetz, a., alcorn, b., bennett, a., & woods, d. (2013, november 6). the mooc phenomenon: who takes massive open online courses and why? university of pennsylvania. available from: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2350964 cho, h., & larose, r. (1999). privacy issues and internet surveys. social science computer review, 17(4), 421-434. cross, j. (2007). informal learning: rediscovering the natural pathways that inspire innovation and performance. san francisco, ca: pfeiffer/wiley. deci, e. l., & ryan, r. m. (2008). facilitating optimal motivation and psychological well-being across life’s domains. canadian psychology, 49, 14-23. available from: https://selfdeterminationtheory.org/sdt/documents/2008_deciryan_canpsy_eng.pdf downes, s. (2012, may). connectivism and connected knowledge: essays on meaning and learning networks. available from: http://www.downes.ca/files/connective_knowledge-19may2012.pdf edx (2014, january 21). harvard and mit release working papers on open online courses. edx blog. available from: https://www.edx.org/blog/harvard-mit-release-working-papers-open#.voenbo1tfjs friedman, t. (2013, january 26). revolution hits the universities. the new york times. available from: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/27/opinion/sunday/friedman-revolution-hits-the-universities.html?_r=0 garrison, d. r. (1997). self-directed learning: toward a comprehensive model. adult education quarterly, 48(1), 18-33. gasevic, d., kovanovic, v., joksimovic, s., & siemens, g. (2014). where is research on massive open online courses headed? a data analysis of the mooc research initiative. the international review of research in open and distance learning, 15(5). available from: http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/viewfile/1954/3111 graham, c. r. (2006). blended learning systems: definition, current trends, future directions. in c. j. bonk and c. r. graham (ed.), the handbook of blended learning: global perspectives, local designs (pp. 3-21). san francisco, ca: pfeiffer publishing. available from: http://www.publicationshare.com/c1-charles-graham-byu--definitions-of-blended.pdf hyland, n., & kranzow, j. (2012). faculty and student views of using digital tools to enhance self-directed learning and critical thinking. international journal of self-directed learning, 8(2), 11-27. available from: http://sdlglobal.com/ijsdl/ijsdl8.2.pdf kim, m., jung, e., altuwaijri, a., wang, y., & bonk, c. j. (2014, spring). analyzing the human learning and development potential of websites available for informal learning. international journal of self-directed learning, 11(1), 12-28. available from: http://sdlglobal.com/ijsdl/ijsdl%2011.1%20final.pdf kim, b. (2015). (ed.). moocs and educational challenges around asia and europe. seoul, korea: knou press. kim, p., & chung, c. (2015). creating a temporary spontaneous mini-ecosystem through a mooc. in c. j. bonk, m. m. lee, t. c. reeves, & t. h. reynolds (eds.), moocs and open education around the world (pp. 157-168). new york, ny: routledge. kolowich, s. (2013, february 21). how edx plans to earn, and share, revenue from its free online courses. the chronicle of higher education. available from: http://chronicle.com/article/how-edx-plans-to-earn-and/137433/ kop, r., & fournier, h. (2010). new dimensions to self-directed learning in an open networked learning environment. international journal of self-directed learning, 7(2), 2-20. available from: http://www.sdlglobal.com/ijsdl/ijsdl7.2-2010.pdf   kop, r., fournier, h., & mak, j. s. f. (2011, november). a pedagogy of abundance or a pedagogy to support human beings? participant support on massive open online courses. international review of research on open and distance learning, 12(7). available from: http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/1041/2025 lee, m. m. (2016). exploring research paradigms for moocs and open education. invited presentation at e-learn 2016—world conference on e-learning, washington, dc. lee, m. m., & bonk, c. j. (2013). through the words of experts: cases of expanded classrooms using conferencing technology. language facts and perspectives, 31,107-137. lee, m. m., & reynolds, t. h. (2015). moocs and open education: the unique symposium that led to this special issue. in special issue: moocs and open education. international journal on e-learning, 14(3), 279-288. leland, j. (2012, march 9). adventures of the teenage polyglot. the new york times. available from: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/11/nyregion/a-teenage-master-of-languages-finds-online-fellowship.html?pagewanted=all lin, l. (2008). an online learning model to facilitate learners’ rights to education. journal of asynchronous learning networks, 12(1), 127-143. available from: http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej837473.pdf  liu, m., kang, j., cao, m., lim, m., ko, y., myers, r., & weiss, a. s. (2014). understanding moocs as an emerging online learning tool: perspectives from the students. the american journal of distance education, 28(3), 147-159. margaryan, a., bianco, m., & littlejohn, a. (2015). instructional quality of massive open online courses (moocs). computers & education, 80, 77-83. markoff, j. (2011, august 15). virtual and artificial, but 58,000 want a course. the new york times. available from: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/16/science/16stanford.html?_r=0 mishra, s., & kunwar, a. (2015). quality assurance for open educational resources: what’s the difference? in c. j. bonk, m. m. lee, t. c. reeves, & t. h. reynolds (eds.), moocs and open education around the world (pp. 119-129). new york, ny: routledge. mit (2001, april 4). mit to make nearly all course materials available free on the world wide web. mit news. available from: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2001/ocw.html mooc @ edinburgh 2013 – report #1 (2013). mooc @ edinburgh 2013 – report #1. university of edinburgh, edinburgh, scotland. available from: http://www.era.lib.ed.ac.uk/bitstream/1842/6683/1/edinburgh%20moocs%20report%202013%20%231.pdf morrison, d. (2013, april 22). the ultimate student guide to xmoocs and cmoocs. mooc news and reviews. available from: http://moocnewsandreviews.com/ultimate-guide-to-xmoocs-and-cmoocso/ online course report (2016, january). state of the mooc 2016: a year of massive landscape change for massive open online courses. available from: http://www.onlinecoursereport.com/state-of-the-mooc-2016-a-year-of-massive-landscape-change-for-massive-open-online-courses/ pappano, l. (2012, november 2). the year of the mooc. the new york times. available from: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/04/education/edlife/massive-open-online-courses-are-multiplying-at-a-rapid-pace.html?pagewanted=all pink, d. h. (2009). drive: the surprising truth about what motivates us. new york: riverhead books. reeve, j. (1996). motivating others: nurturing inner motivational resources. allyn and bacon: boston. rogers, c. r. (1969). freedom to learn: a view of what education might become. columbus, oh: charles merrill. rogers, c. r. (1983). freedom to learn for the 80s. columbus, oh: charles e. merrill publishing company. ryan, r. m., & deci, e. l. (2000). self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. american psychologist, 55, 68-78. available from: https://selfdeterminationtheory.org/sdt/documents/2000_ryandeci_sdt.pdf sandeen, c. (2013, summer). assessment’s place in the new mooc world. research & practice in assessment, 8, 5-12. schmid, l., manturuk, k., simpkins, i., goldwasser, m., & whitfield, k. e. (2015). fulfilling the promise: do moocs reach the educational underserved? educational media international. 52(2), 116-128. doi: 10.1080/09523987.2015.1053288 shah, d. (2015, december 21). by the numbers: moocs in 2015. class central. available from: https://www.class-central.com/report/moocs-2015-stats/ shah, d. (2016, december 25). by the numbers: moocs in 2016. class central. available from: https://www.class-central.com/report/mooc-stats-2016/ song, l., & hill, j. (2007). a conceptual model for understanding self-directed learning in online environments. journal of interactive online learning, 6(1), 27-42. available from: http://www.ncolr.org/jiol/issues/pdf/6.1.3.pdf swan, k., day, s., bogle, l., & van prooyen, t. (2015). amp: a tool for characterizing the pedagogical approaches of moocs. in c. j. bonk, m. m. lee, t. c. reeves, & t. h. reynolds (eds.), moocs and open education around the world (pp. 105-118). new york, ny: routledge. sze-yeng, f., & hussian, r. (2010). self-directed learning in a socioconstructivist learning environment. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 9, 1913-1917. veletsianos, g. (2015, may 27). the invisible learners taking moocs. inside higher ed. available from: https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/higher-ed-beta/invisible-learners-taking-moocs veletsianos, g., collier, a., & schneider, e. (2015). digging deeper into learners’ experience in moocs: participation in social networks outside of moocs, notetaking and contexts surrounding content consumption. british journal of educational technology, 46(3), 570-587. waks, l. j. (2013). education 2.0: the learningweb revolution and the transformation of the school. builder, co: paradigm publishers. watson, s. l., loizzo, j., watson. w. r., mueller, c., lim, j., & ertmer, p. a. (2015). instructional design and facilitation of a human trafficking mooc: a case study of attitudinal change. unpublished manuscript. wedemeyer, c. a. (1981). learning at the back door: reflections on nontraditional learning in the lifespan. madison, wi: university of wisconsin press. reissued: september 2010. weibe, e., thompson, i., & behrend, t. (2015). moocs from the viewpoint of the learner: a response to perna et al. (2014). educational researcher, 44(4), 252-254. wexler, e. (2015, october 19). moocs are still rising, at least in numbers. the chronicle of higher education. available from: http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/moocs-are-still-rising-at-least-in-numbers/57527 wilcox, k. e., sarma, s., & lippel, p. h. (2016, april). online education: a catalyst for higher education reforms. mit online education policy initiative: final report. cambridge, ma: mit. available from: https://oepi.mit.edu/files/2016/09/mit-online-education-policy-initiative-april-2016.pdf young, j. r. (2012, june 25). a conversation with bill gates about the future of higher education. the chronicle of higher education. available from: http://chronicle.com/article/a-conversation-with-bill-gates/132591/ appendix a. open-ended survey items open-ended items (optional) (28) some people learn a lot from exploring web resources or information on their own. can you describe your most interesting or successful informal learning experience? what did you accomplish? please provide as many details of your story as you can remember. (29) in what ways was this informal learning activity unusual, interesting, or different compared to how you have learned in the past or compared to others? (30) why did you want to do this learning activity or task? what was your purpose or goals? please describe what captured your interest. (31) has your life changed in a small or big way as a result of this informal learning activity or experience? if so, how? (32) what was the key moment when learning informally with technology where you felt a personal change? if so, please describe that moment, as best you can. for instance, were there certain things you recall happening that led to this key moment? (33) did any of this influence your personal, school, or social life? if so, how or in what ways? (34) did you face any obstacles or challenges during this time when learning informally with technology? if so, how did you overcome them? (35) what did you think about during this event or experience? did you share your thoughts about this informal learning activity with anyone else? please explain. (36) who or what influenced you to learn informally online or use a certain technology or online resource? did you have any role models or mentors? did anyone help you? if so, how? (37) did others help or support you to learn this way? for example, were there any friends, family members, or organizations that might have helped you? (38) what role did technology play (if any) in this key moment? stated another way, how did technology help your informal learning experience? (39) were there any cool, extremely different, or unusual uses of technology that helped you learn or succeed? (40) were there any particular technologies that you wish you had that might have helped improve your overall experience? (41) imagine someone trying to accomplish the same thing 10 years in the future. can you think of what technologies or other supports they might use to accomplish a similar task? what technologies might you use in the future? (42) how might others try to do what you are doing? do you have any suggestions for others who want to learn on their own or informally with web technology or resources? authors dr. curtis j. bonk is professor at indiana university teaching psychology and technology courses. drawing on his background as a corporate controller, cpa, educational psychologist, and instructional technologist, bonk offers unique insights into the intersection of business, education, psychology, and technology in his popular blog, travelinedman. in addition to many national and statewide innovative distance teaching awards, in 2014, he received the mildred b. and charles a. wedemeyer award for outstanding practitioner in distance education, and, in 2016, he received the aace fellowship award from the association for the advancement of computing in education for his leadership and service to the field. from 2012 to 2017, bonk has been annually named by education next and listed in education week among the top contributors to the public debate about education from more than 20,000 university-based academics. he has authored several widely used technology books, including the world is open, empowering online learning, the handbook of blended learning, electronic collaborators, adding some tec-variety which is free as an ebook (http://tec-variety.com/), and, most recently, moocs and open education around the world (http://www.moocsbook.com/). email: cjbonk@indiana.edu dr. mimi miyoung lee is professor in the department of curriculum and instruction at the university of houston (uh). she received her ph.d. in instructional systems technology from indiana university at bloomington in 2004. she is co-director of the uh doctoral program in curriculum and instruction focusing on urban education. during past few years, mimi has published research on stem related professional development programs, cross-cultural training research, interactive videoconferencing, self-directed learning from moocs and opencourseware (ocw), and emerging learning technologies such as wikis. her other research and teaching interests include global and multicultural education, woman leaders in asia, teacher training for diversity, discourse analysis and cmc, and critical ethnography. most recently, professor lee was co-editor of “moocs and open education around the world” published by routledge in 2015 as well as special journal issue of the international journal on e-learning (ijel) on moocs and open education also in 2015. email: mlee7@uh.edu microsoft word senteni.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 375-378 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. book review using icts and blended learning in transforming tvet colin latchem (editor) commonwealth of learning and unesco, 2017, xiii, 225 pp, isbn: 978-1-894975-85-8 at a time when skills development for livelihoods is a key priority for most governments, the potential of technical and vocational education and training (tvet) to address many of the challenges facing individuals, communities and governments worldwide in their efforts towards achieving employment, decent work and sustainable development is being increasingly recognised. tvet is, accordingly, becoming a policy priority in many countries and regions around the world. however, it is clear for both governmental institutions and international organisations, that simply scaling up tvet provision in its current forms is not only unlikely to be feasible, it is also unlikely to be an adequate response to meet demand and that the nature and roles of tvet systems in contributing to more equitable and sustainable holistic development will require their continuous transformation and expansion. the current book, using icts and blended learning in transforming tvet, edited by colin latchem under the auspices of col and the unesco, is a collection of articles emphasising the role of odl in relation to skilling, and identifying the ways in which information and communication technology– based (ict-based) methodologies can contribute to such transformation and expansion. in the first part of the book, the editor, sets up the context. chapter 1 identifies the demand and challenges in line with the revised goals for tvet, as defined by unesco in 2015, to reflect the new trends and needs for youth and for the informal sector, along with gender and sustainable development issues. in order to achieve these goals, the author defines a set of principles based on the empowerment of individuals and the promotion of employment, decent work and lifelong learning, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, social equity and environmental sustainability. he then outlines some policies that would allow an effective implementation of these principles, in particular the validation of informal and non-formal learning, the development of outcomes-based qualifications frameworks, the establishment of regulatory mechanisms to support learning pathways and the mobility of learners and workers, and the recognition of prior learning. the reader is cautioned about the challenges this transformation will face, the main ones being the changing world of work in the 21st century, the increased importance of small and medium-sized enterprises, and the increasing difficulty of ensuring equal access, avoiding gender discrimination and taking into account the imperatives of sustainable development. the second chapter is especially aimed at the reader who may be familiar with the nature and operations of tvet but less knowledgeable about open, distance, online and blended learning, while other readers may be familiar with ict-based modes of delivery but less familiar with the needs and 376 challenges facing the tvet sector. this chapter examines how icts can be harnessed to achieve such transformation and expansion, providing a detailed and comprehensive inventory of ict-based applications, approaches, tools, and methods in teaching and learning. this chapter demonstrates the many ways in which icts can be used to help tvet transform its operations, raise its profile, improve the quality of its courses and services and collaborate to create a training ecosystem wherein, as in natural ecosystems, all the different stakeholders in the internal and external organisational ecosystem share and exchange information, resources and sources to each other’s benefit. the opportunities for making best use of these media and modes range from opening up tvet learning opportunities for remote, disadvantaged and minority communities, to meeting the demand from overseas students attracted to the opportunity to study globally-provided online programmes of proven high standards. it shows that the challenges of harnessing the technology and achieving access, connectivity, content development, localisation and customisation to maximise capacity development are there, waiting to be met. the second part of the book is a collection of nine case studies whose authors are affiliated with institutions that have long-standing partnerships with col and/or unesco. the case studies illustrate the kinds of measures that can be undertaken to apply ict-based, blended and flexible means of delivery to the transformation of tvet at the national, state and institutional levels. they provide a comprehensive overview of the ways in which nations, states, institutions and ngos are using technologies and methods to increase the reach, equitability and impact of tvet, improve learning outcomes and services to students and establish new paradigms and environments for developing the knowledge and skills required for tomorrow’s world of work. chapter 3 describes how the federal institute for vocational education and training (bibb) operates as a centre for vocational research and the progressive development of vocational education and training (vet) in germany. chapter 4 describes the organisation and operations of the open training and education network (oten) in new south wales, describing the transition process from the correspondence model to online, multimedia and interactive provision. this chapter also explains the role of quality assurance, student responsiveness and external partnerships. chapter 5 describes the work of the sri lankan ministry of youth affairs and skills and development, the national competency standards, the role of the tertiary and vocational education commission and how the distance education modernisation project was initiated to encourage and support distance education to increase access to post-secondary education. chapter 6 is a case study of the open polytechnic, new zealand’s leading distance learning provider which annually enrolls 29,000 mostly adult students throughout the country and internationally. the chapter shows how the institution considered the options for the transformations needed in its policies, procedures and uses of icts in order to capitalise on the new paradigms and maintain its competitiveness. chapter 7 explains how the university of technology, jamaica, the leading technological university in the commonwealth caribbean, developed and delivered four ict-based, blended cross-caribbean, inservice tvet programmes. it describes lessons learned from the steps it took in creating and 377 providing these programmes, why the various modes of delivery were chosen, the partnerships involved and the outcomes of these initiatives. chapter 8 explains how reforms over the past decade have improved the image of finland’s tvet and helped to reduce unemployment levels. the chapter then examines how tvet teachers were challenged to embrace 21st-century learning solutions, and to use an entrepreneurial hub, providing a unique learning environment, combining the worlds of learning and work in which everyone is a learner and a teacher. chapter 9 reports on the innovation in vocational education and skills training in africa (invest africa) programme supported by the commonwealth of learning in partnership with the commonwealth association of polytechnics in africa. it describes how rogers’s diffusion of innovation model was used to train early adopters to catalyse a shift to the adoption of flexible and blended means of delivery. chapter 10 shows how the tvet academy, a french non-profit ngo, piloted the use of videorecordings of “benchmarking” teachers and videoconferencing to help teachers in regional and provincial cambodia training centres improve their teaching. chapter 11 describes two pilot projects that provided e-apprenticeship programmes in manitoba and nova scotia in canada. replacing classroom attendance with ict-based instruction meant that apprentices could remain within their own communities, save on study costs and “earn and learn.” employers only lost the service of these apprentices for short periods every week rather than for block periods of study at colleges. the chapter examines the conduct and outcomes of these two projects and also the developments that have occurred since their introduction and evaluation. chapter 12 examines the issues of cost that need to be considered in adopting these new approaches. chapter 13 considers planning for successful and sustainable applications of icts, and chapter 14 draws conclusions and makes recommendations for the international organisations, governments, policy makers, managers and staff responsible for tvet. the first merit of colin latchem's book is to propose an analysis of the needs and challenges of vocational education in the 21st century, while offering a range of solutions for a better deployment of tvet taking advantage of the possibilities offered by technology. beyond general principles and recommendations, the book covers many ways that educational technologies have been used successfully in other areas of education. far from acknowledging that the reader is already familiar with the details of these usages, latchem recalls an inventory of educational technologies and related andragogies, enabling the neophyte reader to better take advantage of the rest of the book. another merit of the book is it shows how the recommendations of col and unesco for the modernization of vocational education have been effectively implemented in several countries. through the nine case studies presented in the book, latchem’s co-authors draw lessons from these experiences, thus offering a springboard to an area where development has become an urgent priority throughout the world. in summary, the publication is commensurate with the ambitions of its publisher and proves to be a useful document for tvet stakeholders and practitioners, who are often more familiar with the realities of the field than with the current possibilities of transforming these realities by taking 378 advantage of a combination of technology and new pedagogical approaches better suited to the emerging needs of a changing world of work. reviewed by: prof. alain senteni, former dean of the school of e-education at hamdan bin mohammed smart university in dubai, and former director of the vcilt at the university of mauritius. email: senteni@gmail.com microsoft word abeywardenafm.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 366-374 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. print2screen mobile app: embedding multimedia in printed odl course materials using qr codes ishan sudeera abeywardena commonwealth of learning, canada abstract: with the rise of oer and multimedia such as youtube videos, many academic institutions are becoming mindful of the richness they bring into the teaching and learning process. given that multimedia resources cannot be directly integrated into printed material, the only available alternative is to print hyperlinks, which teachers and learners can manually type into a web browser. this method becomes ridiculously ineffective as the length of the url increases. to address this limitation with a special focus on print based odl course materials, the commonwealth educational media centre for asia (cemca), which is a regional center of the commonwealth of learning (col), developed an innovative solution to seamlessly integrate multimedia into printed material using quick response codes (qr codes) or 2d barcodes and an android mobile application named “print2screen”. this paper highlights the rationale behind print2screen, the development process, how the solution is implemented in a real world scenario and the benefits it will bring to the odl community especially in rural and developing parts of the world where stable access to technology is still a costly commodity. keywords: print2screen, qr codes, mobile learning, mobile apps, print based materials, multimedia content, augmented learning, android. introduction the world is rapidly moving towards a digital culture where teaching and learning is migrated to cyberspace from a conventional brick and mortar classroom. given that elearning and mobile learning are attractive propositions for countries with robust technological infrastructure, the global south is still struggling to mainstream digital methods of delivering education due to various technological and financial inhibitors. this has spelled a potential slow death for printed material in developing countries where the medium is predominantly used for delivering education in schools, conventional universities, vocational training institutions and open universities. with increased emphasis on enriching the traditional teaching and learning processes through the inclusion of open educational resources (oer) and multimedia such as youtube videos (merkt, weigand, heier, & schwan, 2011), educators have been forced to innovate new methodologies to bring the two realms together. in this context, new pedagogies such as flipped classrooms (kim, kim, khera, & getman, 2014), massive open online courses or moocs (dewaard, et al., 2011) and mobile learning (herrington, herrington, mantei, olney, & ferry, 2009) have come to the rescue of those mavericks who want to harness technology to transform the way they teach and the way the learners learn. given that these innovative approaches are radicalizing teaching and learning, the digital 367 divide has become more prominent between the global north and south in terms of access to highspeed internet, computer literacy and technology infrastructure (liyanagunawardena, williams, & adams, 2013). furthermore, many academics are unwilling to make the move towards going completely digital (straumsheim, 2016). thus, a significant need has arisen to identify new methodologies to ensure that a learner in a developing country, using printed study materials due to limited access to technology, would have the same enrichment through multimedia and digital resources as a more privileged western counterpart. in recent times, the advent of mobile devices and smartphones with relatively low-cost mobile internet access has acted as an agent for reducing the digital divide. based on their study in armenia, pearce and rice (2013, p. 17) argue: …relatively early on in the widespread diffusion of the internet in armenia (via pc, mobile, or both), access to the internet by mobile phones is more likely by lower sociodemographic levels and those with lower english skills. this result supports the notion that this device may be an alternative route to internet resources and thus reduce some gaps over time, compared to the traditional pc-based internet use, with its attendant access, technology, complexity, skill, and cost factors. from his study of minorities in the usa, prieger (2015, p. 18) states: some evidence indicates that minorities use broadband internet access to address and remedy deficiencies in human capital. for example, a survey conducted by the fcc found that african americans are significantly more likely to take online classes than whites by a margin of 37% to 22% (horrigan, 2010). the importance of the internet for finding employment is also greater for african americans, with african americans being more likely than whites (83% versus 55%) to go online to get information about or apply for a job. given the penetration, mobile devices and mobile internet access have become the logical choice for new innovation aimed at blending traditional printed course delivery with multimedia and digital resources. in this regard, the use of quick response codes (qr codes) or 2 dimensional barcodes (2d barcodes) are making headway in the academic community (ozcelik & acarturk, 2011). qr codes or 2d barcodes (figure 1) were first introduced by a japanese company in 1994. these types of barcodes were designed for inventory tracking and were given the name “quick response” as they were intended to be read and decoded at high speeds. technologically, a qr code is a matrix code, which is developed to contain information in both vertical and horizontal directions, whereas a regular barcode has only one direction. therefore, a qr code can hold a considerably greater amount of information. another benefit is that data can be recovered even when the qr code is damaged or when parts are missing (rouillard, 2008). 368 figure 1: an example of a qr code uluyol and agca (2012) introduced a text-plus-mobile model where 2d barcodes are encoded with web urls, which host related animations, embedded in textbooks. their results revealed that the participants in the text-plus-mobile phone condition had higher retention and transfer scores than the participants in other conditions. they also found significant differences between the text-plus-mobile phone condition and the text-only and text-plus-picture conditions on retention and transfer scores. agca and özdemir (2013) used microsoft tag technology in conjunction with printed books to facilitate learning of english language as a foreign language. their findings show that the environment created curiosity for students and made the vocabulary learning activity more attractive by motivating students in a positive way. a similar study was conducted by liu, tan and chu (2010), who used qr codes and augmented reality in teaching english. qr codes have also been used in library systems where collections are coded into qr codes and made available as printed pamphlets or online on the library webpage (ashford, 2010). another application is to use qr codes in conjunction with gps technology to deliver location-aware content to learners (chin & chen, 2013). further, qr codes have been used in classroom noticeboards to provide students with additional information via the internet (chaisatien & akahori, 2007). the print2screen app described in this research paper focuses not only on using qr codes to embed information but also to assist learners in their learning process by keeping persistent records and allowing social learning. the next sections describe the technology and implementation strategy of the print2screen system in the distance learning environment. technology the traditional method of integrating multimedia such as youtube videos into a printed course material is to provide a url, which the learner could type into a browser. with more complex urls, this becomes a tedious and inefficient task. the print2screen app attempts to address this issue by allowing learners to access multimedia resources referred to in a printed material through the use of a mobile phone or tablet. print2screen is the second generation of the android mobile app “augmenlearn” designed and developed by the commonwealth educational media centre for asia (cemca), india, which is a regional centre of the commonwealth of learning (col), canada. the android operating system (os) is arguably dominating the current smartphone and tablet market. the free and open source software (foss) frameworks and ease of use have made it the most sought-after os for use by manufacturers. due to its commitment to open, foss nature and penetration, android os was 369 chosen as the platform for the print2screen app. furthermore, the app was developed using the mit app inventor 2 (http://ai2.appinventor.mit.edu) cloud-based foss development platform, utilizing the concepts of visual programming where no programming code was written. this allows the app to be easily customizable by teachers and learners who have no prior programming experience (abeywardena, 2015). the key sections of the print2screen app are shown in figure 2. the key features of the print2screen app are described in table 1. creating print2screen compatible qr codes print2screen compatible qr codes contain more information than a regular qr code, which may only have a url encoded. a print2screen compatible qr code has the title, description/notes and url encoded into it to enhance the learning experience. the qr codes need to be generated as text using qr code generation software. there are many free qr code generators available online such as, http://www.qr-code-generator.com, http://goqr.me and https://www.the-qrcode-generator.com. the string for generating a print2screen compatible qr code should be in the following format separated by semicolons: resource url; title of resource; notes (e.g. brief descriptions. questions etc.) the following is an example of a string used to generate print2screen compatible qr codes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyub1qibha8&index=2&list=plxnjcvb8z8ds1umcwf2cvjoigxsdrp4j; techniques of critical thinking; this is a short video that explains how to acquire and develop techniques of critical thinking and what are the obstacles or hurdles in critical thinking. the print2screen compatible qr code for the above string is shown in figure 3. table 1: key features of the print2screen app feature description home screen gives access to the key features of the app from one convenient location. learners can scan the qr codes, check my library for previously viewed resources, share and discuss resources on their social media platforms and access online help/information. scan qr code the app will launch the camera of the phone to scan the print2screen compatible qr code. once the qr code is scanned, it will provide the title and notes for the particular multimedia resource. the learner is able to view or cancel at this point depending on the information provided. if the learner chooses to view, the resource is automatically added to the “my library” for easy access. my library provides a listing of all the resources viewed. it also provides a search feature, which allows the learner to search for a particular resource within the library. through the my library, learners can access pre-defined notes for a particular resource. they can also add new notes for a particular resource, which will help in revision. discuss on social media learners are able to share a resource they have viewed through social media such as facebook or twitter and discuss with peers, tutors and teachers. they can also use this feature to send direct emails or text messages to the tutors or teachers highlighting doubts or clarifications. online information and help provides learners with a dynamic list of frequently asked questions (faqs) assisting them on how to use the print2screen app and how to create compatible qr codes. 370 home screen view a resource make notes on resources my library of resources discuss a resource on social media online information and help figure 2: key sections of the print2screen app figure 3: print2screen compatible qr code as a step towards improved security, only resources from trusted websites are compatible with print2screen (e.g., col.org, cemca.org.in, oasis.col.org, youtube.com, vimeo.com, nptel.ac.in, commons.wikimedia.org, and www.flickr.com). 371 implementation the primary target audience for the print2screen app is distance learners from developing countries who depend on printed course material and mobile internet. the augmentation of printed material with multimedia, such as video, and the availability of social learning features, such as messaging, allows learners to have a richer learning experience whilst potentially achieving the set learning outcomes. the alpha version of the application was circulated to five partner institutions where they tested it for two weeks. at the end of the alpha testing stage, feedback was provided which was used to improve the print2screen system as a beta version for public use. the beta version of the appi is available for the android os and can be downloaded free of charge from the google play store for smartphones and tablets running the android os. as a pilot, print2screen compatible qr codes were generated and embedded into four odl courses, which had approximately 10 supplementary video lectures each. the courses were: • critical thinking & social media technology (http://oasis.col.org/handle/11599/2383); • android programming: first thrust towards android (http://oasis.col.org/handle/11599/2382); • quantitative skills for competitive exams (http://oasis.col.org/handle/11599/2385); and • biodiversity conservation conservation skills (http://oasis.col.org/handle/11599/2384) figure 4 demonstrates how the print2screen compatible qr codes are embedded in one of the courses. figure 4: a print2screen compatible qr code embedded in the biodiversity conservation course the courses, which are available as oer under a cc by 4.0 international license, are currently being offered to learners in graphic era hill university, india. further, the technology was introduced to col’s innovation in vocational education and skills training (invest) africa teacher group, during 372 a capacity building workshop conducted in nakuru, kenya. some initial feedback gathered from the group using the invest africa community of practice is as follows: i have used p2s app for android. i have noticed that it can be a quick way of capturing information if one is reading and would require to note information for further reference. i have used the p2s app a number of times and it worked perfectly well. i will recommend it for the print-based flexible learning materials. easy to use for me. i downloaded the app, it’s interesting to view the document after capturing. as future work, the user experience of using the print2screen app will be surveyed in the next stage of implementation. conclusion bridging the gap between printed course materials and multimedia, such as youtube videos, is a challenge that needs to be overcome by modern educators who aspire to bring new pedagogical approaches to traditional modes of delivery. in this light, the use of mobile technologies and qr codes — or 2d barcodes — have gained the attention of practitioners as a means of building interactivity and multimedia into static printed course material. print2screen is an android mobile application, which harnesses the power of qr codes to enrich the learning experience of users who are still dependent on printed course materials due to various socio-economic and technological barriers. the app allows learners to view multimedia embedded in printed course material using a smartphone or mobile device. it also has the ability to keep a library of resources viewed, add notes to a particular resource for future reference and share a resource on social media for social learning. the app is currently in the beta testing phase and is being piloted in four odl courses. the print2screen app can be downloaded free of charge from the google play store. acknowledgements an initial version of this paper was presented at the 8thpan-commonwealth forum (pcf8), kuala lumpur, malaysia in november 2016; dr alison mead richardson is acknowledged for all the support provided in beta testing the print2screen app through the invest africa group; dr shahid rasool and cemca for the support provided in hosting and publishing the app on google play; and dr ramesh sharma for the support provided in conceptualizing the first generation of the app. references abeywardena, i. s. (2015). educational app development toolkit for teachers and learners. vancouver: commonwealth of learning. retrieved from http://oasis.col.org/handle/11599/1729 agca, r. k., & özdemir, s. (2013). foreign language vocabulary learning with mobile technologies. procediasocial and behavioral sciences, 83, 781-785. retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/s1877042813012147 ashford, r. (2010). qr codes and academic libraries reaching mobile users. college & research libraries news, 71(10), 526-530. retrieved from http://crln.acrl.org/content/71/10/526.short chaisatien, p., & akahori, k. (2007, july). a pilot study on 3g mobile phone and two dimension barcode in classroom communication and support system. seventh ieee international conference on advanced learning technologies (icalt 2007), (pp. 111-113). retrieved from 373 https://www.researchgate.net/profile/prach_chaisatien/publication/4265249_a_pilot_study_on_3g_mobile _phone_and_two_dimension_barcode_in_classroom_communication_and_support_system/links/0fcfd50 c4b52a91c31000000.pdf chin, k. y., & chen, y. l. (2013). a mobile learning support system for ubiquitous learning environments. procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 73, 14-21. retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/s1877042813003066 dewaard, i., koutropoulos, a., keskin, n., abajian, s. c., hogue, r., rodriguez, c. o., & gallagher, m. s. (2011). exploring the mooc format as a pedagogical approach for mlearning. in proceedings of 10th world conference on mobile and contextual learning, (pp. 138-145). retrieved from http://www.academia.edu/download/32377703/conference_procedings.pdf#page=149 herrington, j., herrington, a., mantei, j., olney, i., & ferry, b. (2009). using mobile technologies to develop new ways of teaching and learning. in j. herrington, m. j, i. olney, b. ferry, & a. herrington (eds.), new technologies, new pedagogies: mobile learning in higher education (pp. 1-14). wollongong: university of wollongong. retrieved from http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/5227/1/using_mobile_technologies.pdf horrigan, j. (2010). broadband adoption and use in america. federal communications commission. retrieved from http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/doc-296442a1.pdf kim, m. k., kim, s. m., khera, o., & getman, j. (2014). the experience of three flipped classrooms in an urban university: an exploration of design principles. the internet and higher education, 22, 37-50. retrieved from http://www.academia.edu/download/33655841/the_experience_of_three_flipped_classrooms_in_an_urba n_university-_an_exploration_of_design_principles.pdf liu, t. y., tan, h., t., & chu, y. l. (2010). qr code and augmented reality-supported mobile english learning system. proceedings of mobile multimedia processing (pp. 37-52). springer berlin heidelberg. retrieved from http://sites.psu.edu/mobilelearners/wp-content/uploads/sites/6345/2013/10/qr-code-and-augmentedreality-supported-mobile-english-learning-system.pdf liyanagunawardena, t., williams, s., & adams, a. (2013). the impact and reach of moocs: a developing countries’ perspective. elearning papers(33). retrieved from http://centaur.reading.ac.uk/32452/ merkt, m., weigand, s., heier, a., & schwan, s. (2011). learning with videos vs. learning with print: the role of interactive features. learning and instruction, 2(6), 687-704. retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.477.3414&rep=rep1&type=pdf ozcelik, e., & acarturk, c. (2011). reducing the spatial distance between printed and online information sources by means of mobile technology enhances learning: using 2d barcodes. computers & education, 57(3), 20772085. retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/cengiz_acarturk/publication/220139992_reducing_the_spatial_distan ce_between_printed_and_online_information_sources_by_means_of_mobile_technology_enhances_learnin g_using_2d_barcodes/links/004635393067ca3d73000000.pdf pearce, k. e., & rice, r. e. (2013). digital divides from access to activities: comparing mobile and personal computer internet users. journal of communication, 63(4), 721-744. retrieved from http://www.academia.edu/download/31556616/jcom12045.pdf prieger, j. e. (2015). the broadband digital divide and the benefits of mobile broadband for minorities. the journal of economic inequality, 13(3), 373-400. retrieved from http://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1044&context=sppworkingpapers 374 rouillard, j. (2008). contextual qr codes. in the third international multi-conference on computing in the global information technology (pp. 50-55). ieee. straumsheim, c. (2016). no rush to 'go digital'. inside higher ed. retrieved 02 23, 2016, from https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/02/22/studyfacultymembersskepticaldigitalcoursematerialsunf amiliaroer uluyol, c., & agca, r. k. (2012). integrating mobile multimedia into textbooks: 2d barcodes. computers & education, 59(4), 1192-1198. retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/s036013151200139x author: dr. ishan sudeera abeywardena is advisor: open educational resources at the commonwealth of learning. email: iabeywardena@col.org i https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=appinventor.ai_ishan_abeywardena.print2screen_beta microsoft word khan.docx issn: 2311-1550 2022, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 305-316 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. 305 promoting positive education through constructivist digital learning heutagogy: an intervention outcome tanuja khan and sheena thomas bhopal school of social sciences abstract: the present day school system curtails children’s natural growth and interferes with their freedom to explore. it is here that teachers have an opportunity to engage meaningfully with the student community, and make them and society aware of the importance to explore and become self-determined and autonomous learners. sustained engagement of students in an online class is only possible with continuous efforts from teachers. constructivist digital learning heutagogy could be the effective solution to break the monotony in online classes, and also to break away from teacher-centric classes and to bring about constructive engagement among the learners in online classes. online education has very much changed the needs of education. today we need an education system which is self-driven and facilitated by a teacher or a more knowledgeable other. the study throws light on cdlh (constructivist digital learning heutagogy) model. four-week training (how to teach with the use of the cdlh model) was given to tgt mathematics teachers and then an intervention at six months will be provided by the same mathematics teachers to their students to assess the psychological indicators like positive emotions (expression, emotion management, expressing gratitude), academic achievement (focus and persistence), learning engagement (love of learning) and positive relationship (peer relationships and empathy) taught by the cdlh model. cdlh model has been validated and tested for reliability (pls sem software) in the pilot test conducted. results revealed that learning through constructivist digital learning heutagogy supported academic achievement, learning engagement and positive emotions, whereas it also showed that the peer relationship was not supported by the intervention. very importantly it helped to break the monotony of the class. keywords: constructivist digital learning heutagogy, positive emotions, engagement, academic achievement and positive relationship. introduction digital learning has become a widely accepted approach in new normal and is considered as a path breaking solution that can overcome the limitations of on-campus learning (faria et al., 2015). acceptance of learning by technologies generally depends on technology related beliefs and the perceived ease of use (stephan et al., 2019). it can be assumed that students' emotional experiences, among other factors, have an impact on their use of digital learning (wortha et al., 2019). various studies were conducted in digital learning environments and some of the major concerns were how emotionally do students perceive digital learning environments, and how the degree of acceptance of technology has been answered. humans are emotional creatures due to their social nature and emotions are rarely of a concern in an educational setting (li et al., 2020). emotions are always classified on the basis of affect to identify the difference between positive and negative emotions (amantha et al., 2014). emotions are a core factor of learning. studies have shown that multiple 306 emotions are co-experienced during learning and have a significant impact on learning outcomes (wortha et al., 2019). emotions have been theoretically and empirically linked to engagement and learning outcomes in many domains and settings (wijekumar, 2021). it is time that we focused on improving emotional balance of learners to improve their wellbeing (d’errico et al., 2018). emotional learning involves the skills to recognise emotions like care, help, love, hate, etc., and it helps in making decisions and establishing positive relationships (arguedas et al., 2016). at the beginning of the outbreak of pandemic technophobia was the growing problem between the learners as there was no second choice for continuing the studies further. many troubles were encountered by teachers and students and because of all these, and the frustration and anxiety being part of a learner’s life, the skill of emotional management was helpful (oluwalola, 2015). various research has shown that emotional management is an important part of students’ learning, especially with reference to digital learning (mendzheritskaya & hansen, 2019). digital education has a lack of interaction which brings about an emotional upheaval (zembylas et al., 2008). emotions are directly connected with values, and give birth to values in human beings from childhood, like gratitude is connected with emotions of thanks. various studies were conducted on the gratitude emotion during digital classes, and it brings values in learners when there is no physical contact between the teachers and learners, a growing learner needs psychological and educational values that show that gratitude has positive effects on relationships, mood, and learning (wilson & foster, 2018). positive education and constructivist approach to learning psychological wellbeing among youth has an emerging and important topic with reference to digital education. various intervention programs and workshops were designed to focus on positive youth development and strengthen their wellbeing. positive education considers skill development for achievement and wellbeing in education. the positive education schools association worked along the same line with the aim of enhancing students’ wellbeing through harnessing academic growth and promoting student engagement and retention. the field of positive education seeks to address this demand by developing and evaluating the efficacy of intervention so that it ensures maximisation of students’ wellbeing. learners are supported in order to develop deep understanding by making meaningful connections between concepts within the subject matter and the real world around them. they are encouraged to discover new knowledge through synthesis, analysis, evaluation and creation. with this reference teachers must carefully select the pedagogical approaches that encourage quality learning. student-centric learning strategies include participative, experiential, cooperative, collaborative, group discussion, group work, case studies, role play, presentation, etc. to support all these student-centric strategies a constructivist approach to teaching was introduced. a constructivist approach focuses on learning through interactive teaching and alternate assessment techniques giving the locus of control to the learner. here the emphasis is on the process and not on the product, which stimulates the students to be active and receptive to learning even in an online mode. this generates a lot of positive emotions like gratitude, love of learning, academic engagement and emotional management, which will hold the interest of the learners on the online platform and make them constructors of knowledge. collaboration of constructivism and digital learning refers to the need to break the monotony of digital class hours. there were not many studies conducted on the collaborative approach of learning 307 to develop a positive education behaviour in students. to address this gap in the literature, this study focused on the constructivist digital learning heutagogy approach to learning, which aims to contribute to the positive education field by asserting that the student process of learning by constructivist digital learning heutagogy. high quality learning experiences promote students’ positive emotions, engagement, peer relationships and academic achievement, which, in turn, enhance the effectiveness of interventions. children spend a lot of time in schools be it online or offline. it has been observed that after schools shifted online many students experienced fatigue, depression and many other psychosocial disorders emerging out of isolation and social distancing. these negative emotions can be minimised if cdlh is adopted. current intervention approaches positive education has been developed in many forms, including but not limited to positive emotion, engagement, relationship and achievements and whole college approaches. several positive education interventions were provided in promoting students’ wellbeing. in this study the intervention was designed with the collaboration of the perma model and constructivist approach to learning, with reference to digital learning which was named as the cdlh model of learning. the aim for this collaboration is to reduce the monotony of digital classes and develop positive behavior among learners. cdlh interventions are a widespread approach to enhance wellbeing across the lifespan, and these interventions are applied to support the wellbeing of learners in digital educational settings. positive outcomes, such as decreased monotony in digital classes, reduced stress and anxiety and increased peer relationship and academic achievement have been identified in the cdlh interventions with the learners. conceptual framework a sudden change in learning has significantly changed the learner’s outlook for life, especially within the education system where learners faced many challenges due to sudden changes in the education system from face-to-face to a digital system. an intervention from cdlh was given to 37 pupil teachers through a 15-day workshop on the topic of sets from mathematics. from the learner’s point of view, positive emotions (expression of emotions, emotions management and gratitude), engagement (love of learning), academic achievement (focusing and persistence) and positive relationship (peer relationship and empathy) (fig. 1) were considered. during the online workshop facilitators dealt with the topic through a constructivist approach of learning to inculcate positive education among the pupil teachers. pupil teachers were purposively selected for the current situation, as they will become teachers soon, so they can implement the approach during their own teaching-learning process. a pre-test was conducted before the start of the workshop and a post-test was conducted after the workshop to ascertain the effectiveness of the model. 308 figure 1: conceptual framework the research model for this study is depicted in figure 2. teaching through the cdlh model is considered as the independent variable. positive emotions (expression of emotions, emotions management and gratitude), engagement (love of learning), academic achievement (focusing and persistence) and positive relationship (peer relationship and empathy) were considered as the dependent variable. 309 figure 2: cdlh model of learning research hypotheses development this study will attempt to explore the following research hypotheses based on the research model illustrated in figure 2. • hypothesis 1 (h1): cdlh model has a significant direct impact on the positive emotions of the learners. • hypothesis 2 (h2): cdlh model has a significant direct impact on the learning engagement of the learners. • hypothesis 3 (h3): cdlh model has a significant direct impact on the academic achievement of the learners. • hypothesis 4 (h4): cdlh model has a significant direct impact on the positive relationship of the learners. methods and measures a quasi experimental research design was used for the study. reliability and validity of the selfconstructed questionnaires were tested with the help of sem (structural equation model) software. self-constructed questionnaires were then administered to 30 learners in a pilot study to check the fitness of model. the analysis was done with sem software. the study used descriptive as well as inferential statistics. 310 the questionnaire consisted of 34 items meant to collect information about demographic (04 items) and research variables (30 items). the questionnaire was divided into two sections. the first section contained questions about demographic variables and other personal information. the second section contained questions about the constructs included in the research. constructs were measured by a five-point likert scale. the instruments were measured on a five-point likert-type scale ranging from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree. each of the variables contained different unique questions. the questionnaire instruments were pre-tested and piloted to have clarity and anticipated challenges eliminated before the actual instrument administration. pre-testing and piloting contribute to achieving acceptable validity and reliability, remove ambiguities and unclear statements/questions, and, finally, add value and credibility to the entire research processes. the constructive feedback received from the pre-testing and piloting was instrumental in revising some portions of the instrument structural equation model is used to check the validity and reliability of the self-reported questionnaire. a questionnaire was developed with a five-point likert scale of strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree and strongly disagree. the questionnaire items were analysed using sem software. following are the values for reliability and validity as shown in table 1. table: 1: construct reliability and validity cronbach’s alpha rho_a composite reliability average variance extracted (ave) academic achievement 0.717 0.815 0.823 0.565 cdlh model 0.932 0.941 0.942 0.543 learning engagement 0.899 0.905 0.936 0.831 peer relationships 0.857 0.917 0.902 0.701 positive emotions 0.769 0.780 0.845 0.526 note: all constructs in this study are first-order reflective; measurement quality being verified by examining constructs reliability and discriminant validity. all the values of composite reliability indicators were higher than 0.7, and internal consistency was assessed via cronbach’s alpha coefficient, and all values were above 0.8, indicating excellent (1.0-0.90) reliability for all the constructs used in the study. the average of variance extracted (ave) was also examined for each construct, and values were substantially higher than chin’s (1998) suggested 0.5 thresholds. all the values of the construct were above the threshold values, so the questionnaire used was appropriate for the study. 311 discriminant validity fornell-larcker criterion (1981) was applied to investigate discriminant validity (see table 2). fornelllarcker criterion helps to evaluate the degree of shared variance that exists between the latent variables. table 2: discriminant validity academic achievement cdlh model learning engagement peer relationships positive emotions academic achievement 0.751 cdlh model 0.687 0.737 learning engagement 0.720 0.660 0.912 peer relationships 0.610 0.666 0.602 0.837 positive emotions 0.794 0.739 0.730 0.594 0.725 note: the numbers in bold in figure 1 represent square root of average variance extracted (ave) and signify discriminant validity. other figures are correlation coefficients. the results of table 2 indicate that the square root of the average variance extracted (ave) was higher than that of all crossed construct correlation values, indicating that the study is fit for conduction of final analysis. structural model assessment structural equation model (see fig. 3) was employed in order to establish a relationship between the constructs and their prognostic significance. bootstrapping process was employed with 500 bootstraps without changing the sign. this process helped in the identification of p-values for the framed hypotheses of the present study. 312 figure 3: structural equation model 313 path coefficient (pre-test score) table 3: mean, stdev, t-values, p-values original sample (o) sample mean (m) standard deviation (stdev) t statistics (|o/stdev|) p values hypothesis digital learning -> academic achievement 0.111 0.142 0.119 0.930 0.353 not supported digital learning -> learning engagement 0.103 0.101 0.136 0.753 0.452 not supported digital learning -> peer relationship 0.828 0.819 0.085 9.697 0.000 supported digital learning -> positive emotions 0.378 0.352 0.333 1.136 0.257 not supported interpretation of hypotheses: • cdlh model does not have a significant direct impact on the positive emotions of the learners. • cdlh model does not have a significant direct impact on the learning engagement of the learners. • cdlh model has a significant direct impact on the academic achievement of the learners. • cdlh model does not have a significant direct impact on the positive relationship of the learners. path coefficient (post-test score) table 4: mean, stdev, t-values, p-values original sample (o) sample mean (m) standard deviation (stdev) t statistics (|o/stdev|) p values hypothesis digital learning -> academic achievement 0.921 0.915 0.041 22.273 0.000 supported digital learning -> learning engagement 0.811 0.787 0.121 6.688 0.000 supported digital learning -> peer relationship 0.837 0.816 0.098 8.537 0.000 supported digital learning -> positive emotions 0.807 0.796 0.091 8.854 0.000 supported 314 interpretation of hypotheses — the four hypotheses mentioned below have a positive significant relationship with construct: • cdlh model has a significant direct impact on the positive emotions of the learners. • cdlh model has a significant direct impact on the learning engagement of the learners. • cdlh model has a significant direct impact on the academic achievement of the learners. • cdlh model has a significant direct impact on the positive relationship of the learners testing effectiveness of cdlh model • association between digital learning and academic achievement determined by t-value was 0.930 in pre-test and 22.273 in post-test. this shows there is a significant difference created by cdlh. results show that learning through constructivist digital learning heutagogy supported the academic achievement. • association between digital learning and learning engagement determined by t-value was 0.753 in pre-test and 6.688 in post-test. this shows there is a significant difference created by cdlh. results show that learning through constructivist digital learning heutagogy supported the learning engagement. • association between digital learning and peer relationship determined by t-value was 9.697in pre-test and 8.537 in post-test. this shows there is no significant difference created by cdlh on the peer relationship. results show that learning through constructivist digital learning heutagogy is not supported by the peer relationship. this revealed that peer relationship does not depends on any teaching interventions. • association between digital learning and positive emotions determined by t-value was 1.136 in pre-test and 8.853 in post-test. this shows there is a significant difference created by cdlh. results show that learning through constructivist digital learning heutagogy supported the positive emotions. results and discussion association between the constructs after using the cdlh model is statistically significant. this reinforces our belief in the model. the cdlh model has been found to significantly impact the positive psychology of learners, basically focusing on their emotional wellbeing. the learners’ emotional well-being will determine their interest and engagement in studies. this will also help them to be self-determined learners facilitated by motivated teachers. this study aimed to gain insight into the pupil-teacher experience of learning about positive education within a whole college approach to positive education. the results provided insight into the role of various components of positive education: participative, experiential, cooperative, collaborative, group discussion, group work, case studies, role play, presentation, etc. moreover, the results supported that student-centric learning approach experiences were active and meaningful, and met the learners’ need. results from the present study revealed that learning through constructivist digital learning heutagogy supported academic achievement, learning engagement and positive emotions, whereas it also showed that peer relationships were not supported by the intervention. 315 these findings are significant for positive education as they suggest that the constructivist digital learning heutagogy experiences have the potential of affect implementation. references amantha, j., muniandy, b., ahmad, w., & wan, j. (2014). the emotional effect of multimedia induced emotions on e-learning among polytechnic students. international conference on emerging trends in academic research, bali, indonesia arguedas, m., daradoumis, t., & xhafa, f. (2016). analyzing the effects of emotion management on time and self-management in computer-based learning. computersin human behavior, 63 (november, 2017), 517-529. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.05.068 d’errico, f., paciello, m., de carolis, b., vattanid, a., palestra, g., & anzivino, g. (2018). cognitive emotions in e-learning processes and their potential relationship with students’ academic adjustment. international journal of emotional education, 10(1), 89-111. faria, a. r., almeida, a., martins, c., & gonçalves, r. (2015). emotions in online learning, 16-21. https://doi.org/10.14257/astl.2015.97.03 gillaspy, e., & vasilica, c. (2021). developing the digital self-determined learner through heutagogical design. higher education pedagogies, 6(1), 135-155. https://doi.org/10.1080/23752696.2021.1916981 jain, s., lall, m., & singh, a. (2020). teachers’ voices on the impact of covid-19 on school education: are edtech companies really the panacea? contemporary education dialogue. https://doi.org/10.1177/0973184920976433 li, l., gow, a. d. i., & zhou, j. (2020). the role of positive emotions in education: a neuroscience perspective. mind, brain, and education, 14(3), 220-234. https://doi.org/10.1111/mbe.12244 mendzheritskaya, j., & hansen, m. (2019). the role of emotions in higher education teaching and learning processes. studies in higher education, 44(10), 1709-1711. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2019.1665306 mohammed, husam, s., & kinyo, l. (2020). the role of constructivism in the enhancement of social studies education. journal of critical reviews, 7(7), 249-256. innovare academics sciences pvt. ltd.chttps://doi.org/10.31838/jcr.07.07.41 oluwalola, f. k. (2015). effect of emotion on distance e-learning — the fear of technology. international journal of social science and humanity, 5(11), 966-970. https://doi.org/10.7763/ijssh.2015.v5.588 saucerman, j., ruis, a. r., & williamson shaffer, d. (2017). automating the detection of reflection-on-action. journal of learning analytics, 4(2). https://doi.org/10.18608/jla.2017.42.15 stephan, m., markus, s., & gläser-zikuda, m. (2019). students’ achievement emotions and online learning in teacher education. frontiers in education, 4(october), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2019.00109 tümen akyıldız, s. (2019). do 21st century teachers know about heutagogy or do they still adhere to traditional pedagogy and andragogy? international journal of progressive education, 15(6), 151-169. https://doi.org/10.29329/ijpe.2019.215.10 wijekumar, k. (2021). influence of emotions on digital learning. educational technology research and development, 69(1), 55–57. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-021-09957-8 wilson, j., & foster, r. (2018). the power, structure, and practice of gratitude in education: a demonstration of epistemology and empirical research working together. international christian community of teacher educators journal, 13(1), 4. 316 wortha, f., azevedo, r., taub, m., & narciss, s. (2019). multiple negative emotions during learning with digital learning environments – evidence on their detrimental effect on learning from two methodological approaches. frontiers in psychology, 10(december), 1-19. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02678 zembylas, m., theodorou, m., & pavlakis, a. (2008). the role of emotions in the experience of online learning: challenges and opportunities. educational media international, 45(2), 107-117. https://doi.org/10.1080/09523980802107237 authors: tanuja khan is an assistant professor at the bhopal school of social sciences. email: tanu.r0304@gmail.com sheena thomas works at bsss college, habibganj, bhopal. email: sheenathomas04@gmail.com cite this paper as: khan, t., & thomas, s. (2022). promoting positive education through constructivist digital learning heutagogy: an intervention outcome. journal of learning for development, 9(2), 305-316. microsoft word olcott.docx issn: 2311-1550 2022, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 145-150 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. book review the 60-year curriculum: new models for lifelong learning in the digital economy eds. christopher j. dede and john richards new york routledge, 2020, pp. 167 isbn 978-0-367-42319-3 (hbk) isbn 978-0-367-82127-2 (pbk) isbn 978-1-003-01361-7 (ebk) the 60-year curriculum: new models for lifelong learning in the digital economy examines new vantage points for higher education reform and global shifts in workforce development driven primarily by new models of lifelong learning. the chapter authors have provided insightful and occasionally provocative analyses of how universities in the digital economy will need to reconceptualise their models of lifelong learning given the impacts of digital technologies and increases in life expectancy resulting in longer careers and the need for education, training, upskillingre-skilling-upgrading. in sum, these trends mean that “what we learn, when we learn it, how we learn it, and who we learn it from will all change” (scott, p. 25). chris dede opens chapter 1 with an introduction to the concept of the 60 year curriculum (60-yc) in which he highlights that this will entail present and future workers needing lifelong learning over a sixty-year span — ages 15-75 approximately. dede notes that the 60-yc concept, originally coined by dr. gary matkin, dean of continuing education, university of california-irvine, referred to continuing education centered on lifelong learning linked to occupational changes and transitions. dede draws upon some notable national studies in the us to demonstrate the changing nature of work, the need for reskilling and updating skills, and the increasing number of providers that will exist upon the lifelong learning continuum. perhaps the first observation of the 60-yc is that in reality it should be called the 40-45-yc. the focus of this book is on adult-career reskilling and professional development across the lifespan assuming multiple careers for future workforces. the assumption that this lifelong learning will be needed from ages 18-78 may ultimately be the lifelong period of work for most, but not the lifelong learning retraining-upskilling-reskilling longevity corridor. there are two reasons for this observation. first, most students entering college at age 18 won’t need anything resembling adult retraining or upskilling until at least age 25 and perhaps even later. yes, students 18-25 may dabble in different offerings even whilst in the middle of pursuing a degree but this will not be career development or 146 upskilling or reskilling. they don’t have a career yet. this may more aptly be called the student’s career scanning and prioritisation period. secondly, not all people will choose retraining/upskilling at age 65 for one last career push. yes, some may choose a lifetime executive education course at age 55 but most workers post 65 will be looking for ways to have more leisure, travel, and down time, not a longer career. people will want a longer retirement. in sum, the most realistic corridor for the future curriculum is probably 40-45 years with the key point being that working life may last 55-60 years, but not the corridor where most people will engage and pay for retraining and upskilling. andrew scott’s chapter 2, entitled “education, age, and machine” opens with a discussion of five major economic challenges facing us universities, and global universities in general. the first challenge is a levelling off of qualifications or human capital — stated more simply, there is less need for high-end degrees in the workforce because the trend of increasing successive qualifications is coming to an end. a second challenge is ‘cognitive only’ jobs are reversing so the highest qualified workers are moving down the occupational latter — highly educated workers are taking jobs they are over-qualified for which in turn creates job displacement particularly for lowskilled and low-education workers. a related third challenge of course comes along with this — credentials don’t match workforce markets which is what has happened in recent years. we have an over-qualified workforce that does not align with the actual workforce needs of society and employers. a fourth challenge commonly cited is automation. without question, most of us have already been affected by digital technologies and our reliance on computers to process, store and communicate information and knowledge. interestingly, scott suggests in this chapter that only 9% of the workforce will lose their jobs due to automation. the final challenge is longevity — people will be on the job longer over their careers which in turn means alternative lifelong learning opportunities will be needed. scott concludes the chapter with a discussion of some select impacts of these challenges. michel servoz engages the reader in chapter 3, with the insightful title “are we ready for the jobs the digital economy will offer to us?” indeed, this question has a corollary and that is will we be willing to take those jobs that are offered to us? servoz follows the opening chapters by dede and scott by accentuating that the workforce and career traditions have been turned upside down. digitalisation has altered 90% of all work, some jobs more than others. today’s elementary students may be preparing for a future in which the jobs they enter the workforce for do not even exist. servoz, perhaps drawing upon his experience in the european union, suggests that the 60-yc must start with k-12 basics. in essence basic computational, digital literacy and communication skills will need to be refined and at the high school level a greater focus on vocational technical training may need to be integrated into the sector. servoz cites examples from switzerland and germany as well at the tafe voc-tech system in australia whose models have produced robust economic stability and jobs for young entry level workers. the author has suggested that he will need reform, the private sector must be more involved and public employment services may take a greater collaborative role with he and the private sector. the 147 chapter concludes with a reflective discussion about who pays for all of this workforce development — government, employers, workers, universities, taxes? interestingly, servoz appears to be asking these questions in the european context, not the american workforce and he landscape. unlike most eu countries, the us does not have a national qualifications framework and the training and lifelong learning provider continuum is quite vast and complex to navigate. in chapter 4, “employing the 60-year curriculum as a strategic approach”, ann brewer discusses the 60-yc as a strategic approach for colleges and universities. the underlying theme of this chapter focuses on the need for engaging students in their own learning design; and greater design input from other key stakeholders such as employers, industry councils, etc. a related area is reframing university lifetime relationships — strategic student relationship management whereby students stay linked for professional development and/or reskilling with their core university. stephen harmon and nelson baker provided an interesting vantage point in chapter 5 on the transformation of georgia tech university (gtu) and creating the next in higher education at georgia tech. this is an excellent essay on how one institution has chosen to look long term (2040) and embrace bold visions of forecasting its future. the authors highlight the success of their online master’s degree in computer science by emphasising that their two guiding principles were: 1) design for online, and 2) plan for scaling for larger numbers of students. additional factors related to lifetime education are covered: rate of knowledge creation; industry need, longer lifespan, multiple careers, and educational debt. gtu’s future initiates focus on whole person education; new models of advising; new products and services; ai and personalisation and distributed world-wide presence. punya mishra and jacqueline smith from arizona state university (asu) cover design models for lifelong education in chapter 6 entitled “known for whom we include: designing model for lifelong education at arizona state university”. the authors open their chapter by aligning the open university in the uk with the concept of the 60-yc. however, the catalyst for the creation of the ou by british prime minister harold wilson was not adult learning per se; it was a direct response to an elite social structure that historically excluded the majority of people from university except the very wealthy and privileged upper classes in the uk. as a us-centric book, citing well known and reputable lifelong education providers such as the university of wisconsin-madison, university of california, and/or penn state university (and many others), would have aligned much better with the topic and chapter focus than the ou. the authors provided an excellent discussion of innovative initiatives, practices and strategic positioning taken by asu in the past ten years and the critical role top leadership has played in this transformation. this section is worth reviewing by all readers — it will give you some interesting ideas to consider at your own institution. in chapter 7, “market-driven education: the imperative for responsive design and application”, jason wingard and christine farrugia open their discussion with a focus on the misalignment between university offerings and employer needs, which in practice means graduates lacking the skills that many employers need upon hiring. 148 universities are certainly at fault for some of this by getting it wrong, having a rigid curriculum that cannot be adapted, and a focus of general education skills over specialised skill domains. this assumes, of course that employers know exactly what they need and often they do not know. the columbia university school of professional development case study is terrific. why? because it is built around context, culture, and the audiences where it does business. new york city is a competitive market and whilst the outsider might think what a captive market, the truth is, providers face many challenges in terms of competitive pricing, diversified program offerings, scheduling, and more. james honan offers a unique perspective on executive education in the 60-yc by providing a case study of harvard’s institute for education management (iem) in chapter 8. this is a very good example of what might be very attractive later along the 60-yc cycle although as stated earlier i would probably envision executive programmes of the future for those in the 35-55 age range. certainly, there will be those who jump to a higher position like a presidency or ceo in their late 50s where a tailored executive education programme could be exactly what the doctor ordered. others may opt for these for other personal reasons and less for professional advancement. as a graduate of the institute for the management of lifelong education (mle) similar to the harvard institute, nearly thirty years ago, this reviewer left a two-week executive education programme (age 38) with a sense of renewal, a broader professional network, new learning and unlearning, diverse new vantage points from which to guide my career and work, rejuvenation, and of course lifelong friendships. these outcomes could not have been accomplished online nor could they today in 2022. in chapter 9, huntington lambert and henry leitner complement the earlier case study of columbia’s school of professional development by outlining some of the key steps the harvard division of continuing education has taken and is taking to integrate the 60-yc. what is clear is that harvard has detailed its inventory of all available current units and offerings that would fall along the 60-yc — some have long histories and others are relatively new in response to new employer needs or skills and competency-based certifications. key elements for implementation — objectives, virtualisation, personalisation, credential harmonisation, institutional collaboration and task are covered. a summary discussion of measuring success and performance is also provided. in the final chapter, chapter 10, john richards sums up some key observations from the book and offers insights into the future of the 60-yc. he astutely notes that societal trends create a constantly changing landscape which in turn drives workforce and economic development. whether one chooses the 60-yc or a narrower work window in the future of 40-45 years, what is not debatable is that people will have multiple jobs and need periodic and continual lifelong learning opportunities whether upskilling, re-skilling, professional development, and/or executive education renewal. richards offers a good discussion of the domains of competence for the future. these include intrapersonal, interpersonal, and cognitive competence. finally, the chapter addresses the issues of a changing andragogy model for the future. summary and recommendation what is glaringly obvious to the reader is this book is written by authors who work at elite universities that are well resourced, have elite level services and research capability. in fact, they are 149 not representative of the majority of faculty and leaders in the majority of american colleges and universities in the us. does this matter? probably not, although certainly the idea of the 60-yc may have better been embraced with community college representation either in the authorships or institutional examples. a small percentage of community college graduate students transfer — most complete associate of science (as) or associate of applied science (aas) technical-vocational degrees to go to work. community colleges belong in the forefront of this discussion about future adult education. moreover, it should be noted that the push for open us adult higher education emanates from community college ‘open door’ policies of the 1970s. public regional state universities will play an immense role in adult education in the future. even land-grant universities and private universities and colleges will likely be on the adult education and workforce training playing field. the book would have benefitted from a discussion about the basic norms, context and culture of us higher education. context and culture matter, even outside of cambridge and nyc. generally, there is widescale consensus that higher education policy in the us needs restructuring, new pedagogy models, financial reform — in short, a new path to the future. where is the editor’s advocacy of ‘unlearning’ on these? it is not just concepts and constructs in the academic realm that need ‘unlearning’ from things that just do not apply anymore, but we need this across the megaenvironment of higher education. an invaluable contribution to this book would have been a contemporary discussion of microcredentials, oers, assessment models, national qualification frameworks and most importantly the credentials evolution-revolution. no single book can address everything, but these are inextricably linked to this emerging employment landscape and are priority discussion and policy briefs across the global he landscape. despite these delimitations and oversights, this is a powerful book. this book is extraordinarily wellresearched and is a good example of a resource for a scholar-practitioner because the problem we all face is that real life doesn’t play by these rules. it shifts, it changes, social values and norms ebb and flow and much of this will not be found in logic or statistics. adaptable and responsive education institutions will be a critical market differentiator in the future adult education sector. the book’s authors make us think, they make us challenge some of those outdated assumptions that professor dede believes we should ‘unlearn,’ and it makes us want to outline what our own institutions need to do to be on the adult education playing field for the future. what do we already have? what expertise and history do we have in outreach? what works and does not work in our partnerships with employers? with government? with competitors? indeed, this book is us-centric and written from elite university vantage points on the future of higher education and the world of work. moreover, the gender and ethnic diversity of the authors could have been more inclusive and representative. this element was rather disappointing given the sociopolitical landscape that has defined the us over the past six years. in summary, i recommend this book to all aspiring educational leaders. it will be a valuable resource and reference for the future. this book can feel frustratingly elite at times, inspiring at other times and even irrelevant at moments. despite these observations, one must concede the foundations of this book and the 60-yc future view of the world of work and adult education, in its many guises, is on the mark and heading in the right direction. 150 reviewed by: professor don olcott, jr., frsa, honorary professor of leadership and odl at the university of south africa (unisa) and instructor with oldenburg university in germany. dr. olcott’s leadership, work and scholarship have been recognised on five continents. email: don.olcott@gmail.com cite this paper as: olcott, d. j. (2022). book review: the 60-year curriculum: new models for lifelong learning in the digital economy. journal of learning for development, 9(1), 145-150. microsoft word panda1br.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 379-381 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. book review promoting use and contribution of open educational resources sanjaya mishra new delhi: cemca, isbn: 978-81-88770-31-1, pp xii+148. (available online at http://oasis.col.org/handle/11599/2659) the current movement toward open educational resources (oer) has a long historical precedence in the open education movements including that of the provision of equality of educational opportunity, recognising, though, that two individuals, not even twins, learn the same way. this later became a more contentious issue for the designers of oer as well as the planners with regard to, respectively: how best to serve the individual learning styles of learners, and what could be the cost-efficiency of alternative learning resources, including oers. the above unresolved issues notwithstanding, the promise of oer (and subsequently moocs as a part of oer and the oer movement), starting from unesco’s coinage of the term and mit’s opening up of large numbers of courses for free, and subsequent initiatives by ukou, ignou, col, edx, corsera, udacity, khan academy and many others, has generated considerable enthusiasm in policy makers as well as academic leaders and teachers. ‘open sharing’ has been a foundational issue for large-scale use of oer; and it is as much personal as systemic. therefore, it is imperative that these and a multitude of dimensions need to be rigorously examined through research for its effective / productive use of oer. the now-recognised debate on adoption and use of ict through the “dominant diffusion model of the past, and the social shaping model of the recent times” may help us appreciate how best oer can be leveraged to derive the most utility. the end-user is the key to oer theory and practice. it is in this context that the current research undertaken by dr mishra could be located. teachers, as practitioners, are a sceptical lot, who need to be convinced that something is worth doing; need to be facilitated in how best to do it; and, most importantly, need a ‘system’ within which such a seamless activity can be undertaken. these are critical issues which need to be addressed; and the current research assumes considerable significance inasmuch as it has tried to comprehensively examine the issue from a variety of dimensions. the research, as part of roer4d network and funded by idrc (canada), is very timely, and addresses how best oers can be used / reused more effectively by both contributors and non-users. the study was conducted on 148 indian college and university teachers (finally, 117 questionnaires and interviews could be analysed), who attended four interactive workshops on oer by the commonwealth educational media centre for asia (cemca) in four regions of the country. the interactive sessions included: just-a-minute sessions, interactive quiz sessions, snowball sessions, and panel discussions. a structured attitude towards open educational resources (atoer) scale, 380 developed by mishra et al (2016), was used in this study. the scale was further standardised through factor analysis, and 17 statements (13 on sharing, and 4 on adaptation) were finally used. the study focused on four variables: attitudes, motivations, barriers, and quality—within a well-structured research framework derived from the activity theory of engestrom (1987) and the idea of mediating tool advocated by vygotsky (1978). while fully establishing the reliability and validity of the research instruments, the researcher has also adopted appropriate statistical tools to analyse data—both quantitative and qualitative. the quadrant used for analysis included: contributor-noncontributor-user-nonuser. the findings suggest that: i) though teachers generally have a positive attitude toward oer and are happy to ‘share’, they are not as much willing to use oer of others; ii) the most important user-motivation was willingness to share, followed by learning opportunities, collaboration and professional image, though, ‘learning effectiveness of students’ could not be identified as a motivator; iii) for perception of quality of oer, authenticity was a major factor, followed by appropriateness to current teaching-learning and localisation of content; iv) the major barriers included lack of knowledge about licensing and copyright issues, current teaching workload, lack of technical support, and absence of oer policy; and v) the regression analysis results indicate that the displayed positive attitude was highly influenced by opportunities of partnership, learning and recognition opportunities, and the philosophy of reaching-the-unreached. this is a comprehensive and well-designed study, and was conducted within a well-articulated framework, useful for both policy analysis as well institutional and faculty adoption of oer. more research, though, is needed to further crystalise how best oer can address the twin pillars of higher education in india today—numbers on one hand, to increase ger; and quality on the other hand, to achieve employability and happy living. some research outputs by the reviewer, in collaboration with colleagues from asia (chen & panda, 2012; santosh & panda, 2016; panda & santosh, 2017), may be of use to interpret the findings of dr mishra in context. i shall also suggest relating this study to dr mishra’s recent well-articulated paper on oer (mishra, 2017). we need to focus also on some very interesting findings vis-à-vis unanswered questions. why does a positive attitude toward oer not lead to actual use of oer? is professional ethics anything to do with use of oer? why is it that the prime factor of student actual use and learning effectiveness is not a significant motivator? could important motivation factors include: i) factoring of oers in the api and promotion? ii) who shares the cost of developing oer? iii) when one’s own oer is sharable, why bring in the issue of authentication of oer developed by others? how could private and some profitmaking institutions use oers to their advantage, and why are public institutions lagging behind? the researcher’s quadrant of types of oer practitioners (figure on p. 12) further suggests that it is important to study a very important part of the quadrant, i.e., why does one think of contributing, but not using oer? this is very disturbing. furthermore, the model for promoting oer in india (figure on p. 119) is highly appreciated. experience tells us that lack of a ‘system’ is the major constraint in so far as use of ict, including moocs and oer, in india is concerned. the system and culture of seamless facilitation and blending of icts and oer in teaching-learning, professional development including performance appraisal, and institutional accreditation is lacking. this needs further articulation. 381 however, this reported research is a very significant contribution to oer literature. i must note, not only that this is a significant addition to oer research literature, but also that the well-articulated research framework adopted by the researcher is worth consideration for future oer studies. references chen, q. & panda, s. (2012). needs for and utilization of open educational resources in distance education: a chinese survey. educational media international, 2, 1-16. engestrom, y. (1987). learning by expanding: an activity-theoretical approach to developmental research. helsinki, finland: orienta-konsultit. mishra, s., sharma, m., sharma, r. c., singh, a., & thakur, a. (2016). development of a scale to measure faculty attitude towards open educational resources. open praxis, 8(1), 5-69. retrieved from https://openpraxis.org/index.php/openpraxis/article/view/236 mishra, s. (2017). open educational resources: removing barriers from within. distance education, 38(3), 369-380. retrieved from http://doi.org/10.1080/01587919.2017.1369350 panda, s., & santosh, s. (2017). faculty perception of openness and attitude towards open sharing at the india national open university. international review of research in distance and online learning. (in press) santosh, s., & panda, s. (2016). sharing of knowledge among faculty in a mega open university. open praxis, 8(3), 247-264. retrieved from https://www.openpraxis.org/index.php/openpraxis/article/view/317/221 vygotsky, l. (1978). mind in society. cambridge, ma: harvard university press. reviewed by: santosh panda is a professor of distance education, staff training & research institute of distance education (stride), indira gandhi national open university (ignou). in the past, he has been: director, stride & director, inter-university consortium, ignou; director, association of indian universities (aiu), new delhi; director of flexible learning centre, the university of the south pacific, fiji; a senior fulbright scholar, university of new mexico, usa; and chairperson, national council for teacher education, government of india. email: spanda.ignou@gmail.com). butcher2 harnessing oer to drive systemic educational change in secondary schooling neil butcher, andrew moore and sarah hoosen vol. 3, no. 1 introduction there is growing interest about the concept of open educational resources (oer) and how it can transform education around the world, with governments exploring the potential of oer and considering policy positions supportive of open licensing. however, at the school level, they may not be leveraging the full transformative potential of oer as the majority of oer initiatives have focused on creating openly licensed materials that tend to support traditional educational models – most notably, through the development of open textbooks. while open textbooks may help to reduce costs, they are still largely based on an assumption that the underlying curriculum, classroom-based organizational models, and roles and responsibilities defined for teachers are what will best prepare young people for their subsequent entry into society and further education. the innovation of oer thus tends to reproduce content-heavy, top-down models of education that were developed hundreds of years ago to meet the needs of societies in the aftermath of the industrial revolution, and teacher-centric models in which the student is still primarily a passive ‘consumer’ of prescribed educational content whose main task is to complete standardized assessments in order to receive accreditation. simultaneously, though, the pace of technological change is generating advances in human resources, production processes, and the nature of products and services. consequently, different skills are increasingly needed in the workplace, many of which are not central to the design of the traditional school system. the urgent imperative – and the real transformational potential of oer –-is thus to evolve new systems of education that can help our societies, and especially our youth, to navigate their way through a world in which the disruption wrought by information and communication technologies (ict) requires a completely new approach to knowledge, skills, and competence. ubiquitous access to open content offers an opportunity to re-think the basis on which we organize the educational experiences of school students and to liberate the time of teachers so they can focus on providing meaningful support to students rather than continuing to act predominantly as conduits of information from the textbook to the students. this provides an opportunity to overhaul resource use and the nature of teacher-student interaction so that students can develop key attributes required for success in the knowledge society. this paper thus seeks to engage with the challenge of determining the conditions under which use of oer can drive a transformative educational agenda in schooling systems. it considers two key emerging questions: what role can oer most effectively play in supporting school-level pedagogical transformation? given the inherent conservatism in public schooling systems, what policy approaches may most successfully initiate such transformation? in exploring answers to these questions, we initiated two action research exercises: one at the school level at a private school in johannesburg, south africa; and the other at a national level in antigua and barbuda. developing a model of transformation at the school level: the case of st peter’s college st peter’s college is a co-educational private secondary school located in johannesburg, south africa. the college is engaged in a long-term planning exercise to consider alternative educational models that will enable it to manage education challenges proactively to the benefit of students. in consultation with key stakeholders at the school, several principles were identified as important in developing a new educational model for the school. these included, for example: changes should lead to reductions in operational costs over time; changes made to the educational model of the college should improve the overall performance of students in their final grade 12 examinations; the model should allow for individualized progress; and the focus should be on fostering the key attributes amongst students, such as a strong moral and ethical framework; independent thinking; self-motivation, ambition, and drive; internal responsibility for deadlines and punctuality; initiative; and a practical outlook. exploration of an approach to implementing this alternative model recognized it would not be feasible to expect schools to move away from current school organizational models unless parents (and teachers) were confident that students would perform at least as well in the final examinations under a new innovative model as they would under the old model of education. thus, a phased approach is being adopted in implementing the new education model. pilot study a small pilot study was conducted to explore how best to adopt new teaching and learning methodologies to encourage greater student engagement and responsibility, and to gauge student and staff reactions to a change in teaching and learning methodologies. the pilot ran over four weeks during september and october, 2013. it placed heavy emphasis on harnessing oer to enable student-led content creation, with a long-term view of demonstrating that students can use oer to create self-paced learning environments that significantly accelerate their journey through the formal curriculum. the pilot design was influenced by the vision of creating a student-centric learning environment, and the plan noted that students should help to develop and work through structured pathways of learning – with associated multimedia content for each subject developed in an institutional virtual learning environment (vle). the pilot exposed students and staff to a vle called canvas and a repository of oer that supported the formal curriculum. an internet search for appropriate oer was conducted to find quality resources for the pilot activities. the pilot was conducted with 22 grade 10 students from an engineering graphic design class, and 11 students from the top-performing grade 10 mathematics class. students were required to work with one or two ‘study buddies’ to foster joint accountability for achieving learning objectives. these sets of ‘buddies’ were allocated a section of the curriculum to develop and provided a set of oer to use as building blocks for the relevant sections they were to compile. students were tasked with adapting and reorganizing curriculum resources so that they taught formal concepts, content, and skills in ways that were relevant for their peer’s age group and interests. they were provided basic training on how to organize their content and activities into canvas. they were required to populate the empty vle with oer, either from the repository or others they had found online and assessed as beneficial. they were also required to create learning activities that meaningfully covered the curriculum objectives. they then had a two-week period to craft and finalize their ‘lessons’ as an extra curricula activity. essentially, students had the task of developing an online learning environment authored by themselves for themselves. the logic of this is that, if such an approach – with quality reviewed by participating teachers rather than the environment being built by them – this would demonstrate effective use of oer to create a student-centric environment where students are responsible for their learning and for devising processes to achieve it. there is good educational evidence that this kind of hands-on approach can create more effective learning for students, but it also creates the potential to set up the kind of flexible learning environment anticipated by st peter’s college, as it breaks dependence on the teacher or textbook as the primary content source. importantly, students would also be learning a number of key information literacy skills – working in online environments, searching for resources, reviewing and making content choices, and so on – while working their way through the formal curriculum. the educator’s role was to facilitate the creation of this learning environment, offer guidance and mediate problems and conflicts, and to refrain from traditional teaching. in the final week of the pilot there was an opportunity to try out each other’s ‘lessons’. despite the small sample and competing priorities from the school’s regular programme that limited student engagement, the pilot revealed some interesting findings. students’ responses reflected positively on the access to varied resources and media available both within the oer repository and on the internet at large. importantly, the pilot raised awareness among students to question the use of a single authoritative text that is traditionally associated with a particular course of school subject. students’ comments referenced their sense of engagement, control and accountability in designing and/or adapting resources to teach their peers. students commented on the platform’s ability to let them be creative, and demonstrated this through their selection of images and videos that supported the curriculum. however, they raised a concern about the lack of authority linked to their peers’ lessons. they feared being taught ‘wrong’ information or acquiring incorrect skills. this raises the issue of empowering students to evaluate and assess the quality of online information, which is an increasingly important skill in an information society. students found it easy to work in the vle. however, they used the school’s computer laboratory for their work, which meant that they were constrained by specific times when they could work on the vle. nevertheless, all groups found enough time to create their lessons but they encountered restricted access – to the computer laboratories in general, and to sites blocked by the school filtering systems. an evaluation of the student vle ‘lessons’ revealed that all the courses were didactic in nature and characterized by large amounts of exposition, with little opportunity for a user to practise or test themselves against the curriculum outcomes. it is possible that students emulated traditional methodologies because this is what they were familiar with. thus, implementation of this kind of approach may require some ‘un-learning’ by students, but this is also likely to change naturally over time as they grow in confidence and experience with practice. many of the courses were, however, pitched at peers with graphics and examples relevant for their age group. students raised reservations about whether this education model would prepare them adequately to write existing standardized examinations (which would require a longer-term investigation in order to be fully tested). the implication of this concern is that resistance to a change in the college’s education model may come from successful students, who might feel that their chances of ‘success’ will be jeopardized. this is especially true in a school like st peters college, which performs favourably in exit examinations. towards change while not revolutionary per se, the elements that made up the pilot were important stepping stones to achieving more significant future changes, as mapped out by the college. important areas that were investigated under this pilot included new roles for students and staff. the educators involved also began to experience their new roles as facilitators: fostering coherence and discipline in thinking, especially when preparing curriculum materials for others, coping with the challenges of unlimited choice and encouraging learners to become creators in the educational environment. the pilot also ushered in the first use of oer and a vle by the college and exposure to it will be useful in setting up new initiatives amongst the broader school body in the future. this case study illustrates an example of how use of this oer vle prototype allows students the opportunity to learn the curriculum, and facilitates the idea of increasing self-study over time, thereby increasing the scope for introducing greater flexibility into the timetable. in this context, oer was used in a different way, as students were responsible for assembling the content, thereby challenging the notion of the teacher and textbook as the authoritative sources of knowledge. students were actively involved in deciding on the different content options and refining their work, thereby developing the key skills required in today’s world, including information literacy skills. if such a change in direction is possible at the individual school level, the next issue is to consider how to facilitate an entire system to change, which was also explored. developing a model of transformation across a system for change to be effective, it needs to be driven at the systemic level – ideally by government-level policy changes, as these ultimately direct the operations of most public schooling systems. however, such change is difficult as it requires consensus from a wide range of stakeholders, most of whom are inherently conservative in protecting traditional educational models. likewise, the short-term nature of political appointments inhibits risk-taking in these public systems. consequently, such change needs to be incremental in nature, so as to create as little disruption as possible and to create buy-in from all stakeholders. furthermore, this allows for planning the use of technology as a regular occurrence, and not just a once-off, allowing currency with global trends, and to learn from and respond to previous changes. in order to test this approach, an action research exercise was conducted. this action research focused on primarily on the secondary school system of antigua and barbuda, in order to research and understand the kinds of policy changes that are needed to effect meaningful systemic change in education, so that oer can fulfil its full potential. context antigua and barbuda, located in the eastern caribbean, was chosen as the location for action research as the senior secondary system in that country is very small (just over 25 schools), thus allowing for a better possibility to demonstrate systemic change. additionally, the government expressed strong commitment to implementing significant systemic transformation in schooling, in recognition of the reality that the current schooling system is not adequately preparing students for their future, and is especially not yet contributing to the development of new economic sectors. this created the material conditions to be able to re-think the organization and management of schools and the school day. ensuring the necessary infrastructure as a first step in actualizing its commitment to integration of ict in education, the government committed to provide the necessary infrastructure to support change, including community computer access centres, mobile it classrooms, a one-laptop-per-teacher initiative, free internet access, and the provision of samsung galaxy tablets with free access to mobile 4g lte connections to every senior secondary student in the country. this clearly demonstrates the government’s budgetary commitment to infrastructure, which is a first key requirement for systemic change to be possible. however, a new policy environment to leverage the effectiveness of the infrastructure investment was required. shaping the policy environment a new policy on ict in education, approved in june 2013, contains a highly ambitious agenda for educational transformation, and encapsulates a strong commitment to oer and open licensing. the policy highlights the shifting role of educators, from teaching content to facilitating learning and allowing for self-paced learning. it also articulates how this approach can mitigate drop-out rates and facilitate self-employment. a forward-looking policy of this kind is an important first step in leading systemic change but it is not a sufficient condition. consequently, the next step in the process was to develop a comprehensive new ict master plan to guide future procurement and deployment of ict in schools. the activities identified within the master plan, developed in october 2013, also encouraged interpreting the policy in ways that promoted educational transformation. a few examples include a requirement that oer be exploited, that government release its education materials with an open licence to encourage sharing, and that senior secondary students had access to their own digital devices. engagement with schools the new ict in education policy highlights the importance of ensuring that school leaders play a critical role in defining future plans for the use of ict in classrooms. as part of ensuring that the schools’ needs and requirements are central to all future planning, a school ict integration plan was circulated to schools to assess what technology schools already have and whether it is working; plans schools have for using ict; schools’ priorities regarding buying new equipment; competency levels of staff and their professional development needs, and how schools maintain their ict. in important ways, therefore, the ict in education policy and master plan are modelling a school-centred approach to policy implementation, in ways that would hopefully mirror the underlying ethos of the learner-centred approach touted for schools themselves. oer vle prototype for antigua and barbuda within this policy environment, the oer vle prototype discussed in the st peter’s college example was developed further for use across the secondary school system in antigua and barbuda. an oer repository was added to the canvas vle and populated with over 500 mathematics oer by a specialist mathematics educator, who organized and sequenced the resources within the vle component of the prototype so they responded to particular specific objectives as stated in the caribbean secondary education curriculum (csec) mathematics syllabus. an online mathematics ‘textbook’ was thereby compiled from available, quality, free oer. while the prototype could be used like a traditional static textbook, the oer vle prototype’s real power lies in providing students and educators the tools to manipulate and customize its resources. the prototype also offered automatically marked quizzes and tests, which could be adapted to suit local needs. existing open source education tools were used to provide the oer textbook prototype’s functionality. two systems were interlinked, a vle and a content repository. learner management system (canvas) the open source canvas vle was deployed, primarily because its interface allowed for seamless transition and easy navigation between resources of different formats. canvas also has good assessment functionality, allowing for the construction and easy adaptation of tests. additionally, it allows public access so that users can bypass the login and password screens to allow ease of access to the ‘textbook’. however, when a class or group wish to manipulate the ‘textbook’, then canvas offers customizable permissions that can be set up for individual staff and or students. another piece of functionality offered by canvas  that was essential to the model was the ability to deploy copies of a master course so that different groups had their own version of the textbook to manipulate and develop. electronic content repository (drupal database) alongside the vle, but linked to it, is a content repository developed as a drupal module. it provides functionality for the storage of electronic documents and ‘tagging’ of all oer. the repository stores metadata for all the oer used in the prototype, and every oer collected was described against the caribbean examination council’s (cxc) csec mathematics curriculum. this allowed student and staff developers looking to rework the ‘textbook’ an initial bank of existing and additional oer to peruse and consider—all linked to the curriculum. the repository’s search facility allowed users to search according to curriculum statements, subject topics, oer service providers and resource formats. as new resources became available, they were added to the repository. an additional function of the repository was the provision of a facility that allowed the scaling up of the ‘textbook’ so that it could be quickly adapted to support curricula from elsewhere. additional curriculum taxonomies could be added and mapped against the existing taxonomy to enable linkages to appropriate oer already in the database. the repository also provided the ‘textbook’s’ home page, containing directions on how to use the oer vle prototype and repository and provided a list and links to the mathematics topics (see http://www.caribbeanoer.org). deployment strategies while the oer vle platform was designed to be adapted to differing contexts, various deployment scenarios were anticipated in the early stages: minimal deployment strategy (public access / teacher reference), which allows resources to be read and interacted with but not manipulated or changed – much like a regular textbook, but with interactive elements and self-assessment opportunities. standard deployment strategy (contextual repurposing by educators), which provides teachers with permissions to access and edit a school version of the master oer ‘textbook’ – thus the oer ‘textbook’ can be manipulated to suit local learning contexts. advanced deployment strategy (students as content authors), which allows students to have editing rights, using the same tools provided to educators in the standard setup. pilot study in march 2014, four schools in antigua and barbuda were identified to pilot each of the oer vle prototype’s deployment strategies with their teachers and students. the pilot schools were provided a set of activities that guided them to use the prototype. in order to expedite the repurposing of the oer vle prototype to better suit specific needs, a set of simple ‘how-to’ guides were developed for the students and staff. on completion of the pilot, teacher experiences were collected using an online survey. the results suggested that educators considered a number of different ways to deploy the prototype within their current teaching styles. they enjoyed the access to new digital formats and resources (particularly video and interactive media) that the prototype provided, and found repurposing the course materials to better suit their teaching styles easy. additionally, they reported that there were sufficient assessment opportunities for students to measure their mastery of curriculum objectives. they tended to use the prototype ‘as is’ but welcomed the functionality to repurpose the prototype and include contextually relevant/localised content. however, there was also evidence to suggest that the current form of the prototype had not been incorporated into daily teaching strategies. mitigating factors included lack of sustained pressure by the school management/education ministry to use the tool, difficulties associated with accessing computers and the internet (i.e., access and cost), and complexities in the management of the prototype – in particular – generating school instances of the materials and the granting of permissions. nevertheless, some educators reported that they were keen to upload and share their class materials within the prototype. changes at a regional level antigua and barbuda is a member of the organization of eastern caribbean states (oecs). during the 23rd meeting of oecs ministers of education in october 2013, ministers endorsed the proposal to continue developing a prototype open textbook initiative for the oecs. thus, the antigua and barbuda initiative is effectively a regional pilot activity. additionally, ministers agreed to collaborate with notesmaster to import all of the meta-data from the oer repository into the notesmaster system in order to take advantage of the powerful social networking tools that are built into that platform. this provides fertile ground for implementing new initiatives that have the potential to drive systemic change. if the initiative in antigua and barbuda proves successful, it can be rapidly scaled across the nine other states in the region. conclusion oer initiatives that simply replace proprietary resources with openly licensed ones but with no significant intention to shift the basic productivity of teacher-student interactions, are unlikely to lead to any kind of significant systemic transformation. the experiments conducted at st peter’s college have demonstrated a significantly different application of oer, one that is both much cheaper even than oer textbook initiatives (given the vast eco-system of oer that exists already online, once the vle infrastructure is established, basic capacities are developed, and models can be demonstrated to work successfully, there is no major additional investment required of any kind) and that brings the added value of developing a much wider range of student competencies than just subject knowledge. more importantly, though, if such approaches gain traction, they have very significant potential to create the opportunity to reconfigure fundamentally the weekly school timetable in order to create much greater space to introduce other changes planned by the college. making these shifts are much easier at a single, private school than across an entire system. while the work done in antigua and barbuda is too early to claim success, there are already many important tools emerging that might provide a roadmap for effective change. these include the following: proactive, visionary statements of policy intent; detailed strategic plans, with clear targets that work towards the achievement of the policy vision; budgetary and logistical commitments from government to ensuring that ict infrastructure is universally applied across the whole system; strong engagement with principals and school management in planning the integration of ict into schools on an ongoing, annual basis; creation through prototypes of models that demonstrate the potential for oer to serve a transformative educational agenda; strong engagement and professional development to enable core groups of teacher ‘champions’ to lead the process of change; careful evaluation to measure the impact of changes ushered in by innovations as they are introduced. thus, while success is far from assured, we believe that this research demonstrates that there is both sufficient evidence of the failure of traditional schooling models to meet changing social needs and enough pointers to the kinds of systemic actions required for the proponents of oer to no longer chase after ‘low hanging fruits’ that simply reinforce the failed models of schooling, but, rather, seek to build sustained pressure for long-term, educationally effective systemic change. neil butcher is based in south africa, from where he provides policy, technical advice and support to national and international clients in educational planning, use of educational technology and distance education, both as a full-time employee at the south african institute for distance education (saide) from 1993 to 2001 and as director of neil butcher & associates. he has assisted educational institutions with transformation efforts that focus on effectively harnessing the potential of distance education methods, educational technology, and oer. e-mail: neilshel@nba.co.za andrew moore works at neil butcher and associates as an author, materials developer, instructional designer, web interface designer and educational technology trainer. he manages projects designed to provide capacity to staff at african higher education institutions in designing, developing and deploying e-learning solutions, as well as projects providing capacity to courseware developers across the continent in identifying, adapting, and sharing open education resources (oer). andrew has an med from the university of pretoria (2002). e-mail: andryn@iafrica.com sarah hoosen is a researcher and project manager at neil butcher and associates in johannesburg, where she works on projects in the higher education area, including institutional strategy development and the evaluation of education and technology. sarah has has published widely on distance education and oer and has a master's in counselling psychology. e-mail: sarahhoosen@nba.co.za microsoft word nitschke.docx issn: 2311-1550 2020, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 233-245 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. the implementation of notesmaster as a learning platform for secondary education: a case of the namibian college of open learning (namcol) jan jacobus nitschke and wilhelmina louw namibian college of open learning (namcol) abstract: the namibian college of open learning (namcol) is a government-funded educational institution that provides study opportunities to adults and out-of-school youth. namcol has adopted the notesmaster platform as a learning portal for its secondary education programme. this study aims to share the namcol experience, in using notesmaster as a preferred platform for oer in open schooling, including experiences of the content developers, tutors and learners. data was gathered from learners, tutors and content developers to assess their involvement and determine to what extent the platform has contributed to their success in teaching and learning. in documenting and sharing the successes and challenges experienced by namcol, this paper could serve as a valuable resource to any open innovative school seeking to implement its own oer development programme and subsequent provision to learners and tutors. keywords: elearning, open schooling, open educational resources. introduction the namibian college of open learning (namcol) and notesmaster global started collaborating in 2012 to develop interactive learning resources for the college’s secondary education programmes on the notesmaster namibia learning platform (accessible on www.notesmaster.com). since the introduction of the platform, 5776 resources, including interactive notes, namcol assignments and mock examination papers with memorandums for grade 10 and 12 subjects were published. the content is published as open educational resources under creative commons, cc by-sa license. namcol learners receive a full set of study guides for each subject in which they register, thus, notesmaster content serves as additional learning resources. the notes created on notesmaster focus on content that is perceived as difficult or where learners did not fare well in examinations. since the introduction of notesmaster in 2012, several pilots were conducted to focus on specific areas of the platform, including content development, tutoring and learning. training was conducted either to enhance course writing or to assist tutors in utilising the learning content better or with learners to access the platform and use the content to improve their understanding. teachers from formal schools were trained to support namcol’s programme developers in creating the notes. the notes had to include audio and video clips as well as animations where necessary. notes can only be published once cleared by three peer reviewers, as well as approved by the subject and elearning programme developers. this is to ensure correctness of content but also to improve the quality of the notes. 234 the content is based on the national curriculum and can be used not only by namcol learners and tutors, but also by learners and teachers in the formal education system. awareness raising and training sessions were presented to education directors, education officers, teachers and learners to ensure that the content was used as intended. this study aims to evaluate the success of all these activities and to determine what benefits, if any, accrue. the study also aims to review the notesmaster implementation strategy and determine areas where improvement is required or areas where the college has done well. in this way, good practices can be strengthened, while improvements can be made where required. thus, learners and teachers can have an improved learning experience while using the notesmaster platform. the review process began with a review of the appropriate literature, which is presented in the next section and assists in placing the study in context. literature review open schooling involves the physical separation of the school-level learner from the teacher and the use of non-traditional teaching methodologies, and information and communication technologies (icts) to bridge the separation and provide education and training (abrioux & ferreira, 2009). the separation from the classroom and teacher in open schooling provides more freedom for the learner but also requires discipline and places a higher burden of self-responsibility on the learner. this relates to self-directed learning (andragogy), an approach which recognises that these learners are typically older than day-scholars, where learners take responsibility for their learning and are able to plan and organise their own learning (len, 2019). it also relates to self-determined learning (heutagogy) where the learners’ capacity and capability is enhanced to prepare them well for the modern workplace (hase & kenyon, 2007). hence, it is important to provide additional support to the learner to ensure that the experience is enhanced and that the learner has the necessary resources to master the learning content well. in the odl system, incorporating open educational resources (oer) is one way to address the everincreasing costs of textbooks that have a restrictive effect on access to education and to allow teachers to repurpose content to fit their own context (makoe, 2010). the literature has also shown that oer has widened access to education without compromising quality (ozdemir & hendricks, 2017). in the case of namcol, the notesmaster platform was introduced to expand on the learning experience of the learner and to provide additional resources to the print-based learning content through the use of oer. namcol uses the notesmaster platform to develop learning content for secondary education and make this available for free. the purpose of adopting oer is to promote equitable access to education, especially for distance learners (willems & bossu, 2012). both printbased resources and the online resources are much needed by learners to provide options for their preferred means of study. this blended learning resources approach combines the best elements of online and printbased material (watson, 2015). the development and provision of online learning content is key in the odl mode of study as the learner can interact with the content in different formats, for example, e-book, audio, video and/or animations. this makes provision for different preferences to learning and fills some of the gaps caused by the separation between learners and tutors. 235 the online learning platform also provides for the formation of study groups, interaction between the tutors and learners, sharing of ideas directly with the tutor or in the group and the contextualisation of content to the learner’s environment (butson & thomson, 2014). this interaction between the learners, the learners and tutors, and the content allows the learners to take responsibility for their own learning and ensure that the learning experience contributes to an improved understanding of the environment in which they live. it is, however, important for the content developers to know and understand the needs of the tutors and learners for whom the content is developed. if the content is developed, but not utilised by tutors and learners it will serve no purpose. this is supported by liang and chen (2012, p. 1333) who state that, “no matter how well the instruction is designed, if the learner cannot gain access to the course learning materials via the technology due to physical or financial constraints, the instructional design is rendered useless and non-existent.” therefore, tutors should form part of the development process and learners should continuously engage with the content for maximum benefit from it. the provision of computer devices and internet connectivity remains key in the successful introduction of online learning. this has been observed in the tertiary programmes offered online at namcol. if learners do not have the necessary support in terms of devices and internet access they rather revert to studying with printed study material only. the same applies to secondary education learners to whom namcol provides study material at enrolment. it becomes easy to fall back to printed study material as soon as challenges arise with technology (keengwe & kidd, 2010), even though the additional resources provide focus on problem areas that seem not to be adequately addressed in print. the aim of the oer that are available on notesmaster is to assist the learner by providing multimedia content to enhance the learning experience and improve understanding of the learning content. audio, video and animations are used to explain the content more effectively than print allows. if learners don’t use the multimedia content they miss out on the opportunity for this improved understanding intended with the multimedia. the next section outlines the methods used in the study. methods this paper analyses data gathered from content developers, tutors and learners on their experiences in the year of the study, and previous years, and on how notesmaster has contributed to an improved understanding of the learning content as well as enhanced the learning experience. the survey method was employed for data collection as the population of the study was known to the researchers and also formed part of the implementation of the notesmaster project. all who were engaging with the notesmaster platform had email addresses or such addresses were created for them. the email address was required to register and log on to the notesmaster platform. it was appropriate to email the questionnaires to those involved the project. as also described by ponto (2015) the survey would be administered through email to provide demographic information of participants and also gauge their opinions on the notes created on the notesmaster platform. ponto indicates that “survey research can use quantitative strategies (e.g., using questionnaires with numerically rated items), and qualitative strategies (e.g., using open ended questions) or using both (mixed method)” (ponto, 2015, p. 168). 236 in this case, the mixed method was employed as questionnaires with both open-ended and closedended questions were administered with a range of participants in the population, namely, content developers, tutors and learners. in this way participants with different roles and different needs could express their opinions on the learning content and its use. questionnaires were developed on google forms and were electronically administered, apart from the pre-workshop learner questionnaire, which was administered in person. the target population of this study entailed all programme developers and course writers, and the tutors, teachers and learners involved in the programme at the time, as well as the administrators of the programme. this makes a relatively small population (235 in total), which required the researchers to approach the full population through electronic mail as they were largely scattered. data collection was done through questionnaires for the following groups: • learners (58) who attended a training workshop to prepare them to use the notesmaster platform. before they attended the workshop a questionnaire (pre-workshop questionnaire) was administered to determine their readiness for online learning. the questionnaire assessed their experience in using computer and mobile devices, the internet and email and learning online. • the second questionnaire to learners was administered about a year later, after they had engaged with the content. in this case more learners were included, apart from the 58 who attended the workshop, as they also used the notesmaster platform. the questionnaire (post-workshop questionnaire) was emailed to 120 learners and 45 responded. the questionnaire assessed the learners’ engagement with the content in terms of ease of access and navigation, what type of content they accessed and the benefits they reaped. • the third questionnaire was emailed to the 70 tutors involved in the programme and 39 responded. the questionnaire assesses the tutors’ views on the quality of the notes, the ease of access and navigation of the platform, to mention a few. • the last questionnaire was for programme developers and course writers (referred to as content developers) and was emailed to all 45 content developers who were involved in the programme, and 31 responses were received. the questionnaire assessed a range of experiences related to the material development process, instructional design, platform navigation and challenges, amongst others. the survey results were analysed using google forms and an excel spreadsheet for both quantitative and qualitative data. the responses to the open-ended questions were coded by assigning labels to each response and organising them into categories in line with the description by mccombes (2019). the results are presented in charts, tables and a generic format. based on the findings from the data collected, conclusions were made on successes and challenges in the notesmaster implementation. recommendations are made to address the challenges and build further on good practices. the results are presented in the next section using the categories described above. 237 results the data is presented as feedback from learners, tutors and content developers. learners the intention with the pre-workshop questionnaire was to access the readiness of learners to engage in elearning activities. out of 58 learners who responded, 66.1% were female and 33.9% were male — all of those who took part in the workshop. this is in line with namcol’s general enrolment for secondary education, where female enrolment forms two thirds of the total enrolment. the respondents indicated that they have reasonable access to devices like mobile phones and computers but very limited access to the internet (only 6.9%). this is also visible in the low number of learners having accessed learning content on their devices (24.1%). less than 10% of the respondents had used a learning platform to access content or to take part in online chats or discussion forums. it was evident that the learners at the time did not really engage in formal online learning. the following chart depicts the experiences and activities of 45 learners as they engaged with the platform, based on the post-workshop questionnaire. chart 1: learner activities/experiences the intention with the post-workshop questionnaire was to assess the extent to which learners used the notesmaster platform and whether or not they found value in it (see chart 1). out of 45 respondents, 60% were female and 40% were male. respondents indicated that the engagement with notesmaster was a rewarding experience for them and most of them gave positive feedback, in the sense that the platform was easy to access (80%) and to navigate (84.4%). they mostly accessed assignments (73.3%) and mock examination questions with memoranda (46.7%), and only to a lesser extent content notes and videos (22.2%). a significant number of respondents (62.2%) experienced a better understanding of the content while even more believed the portal had the potential of increasing understanding of subject content (84.4%). the learners indicated that the use of the 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 the platform was easy to access the platform was easy to navigate mostly accessed assignments mostly accessed mock examination questions with memoranda mostly accessed content notes and videos learner activity/experience number 238 platform and content will lead to improved learner performance in examinations and, hence, they will recommend it to other learners. tutors the intention was to assess tutors’ perception about the online oer on notesmaster. out of 39 respondents, 30.8% were female and 69.2% were male. the tutors who engaged with the content had very similar experiences as learners. the overall majority (85.7%) of the respondents found the access and navigation easy (see chart 2). chart 2: ease of access and navigation tutors had much interest in the assessment activities with mock examination questions and memoranda and, as well, exercises were high on the priority list. they expressed positive views about the resources having the potential to improve performance in examinations. they also accessed images, videos and illustrations, amongst others. in terms of the quality of notes and the appropriateness of the learning content to the curriculum, the respondents found it useful, very good and enriching. they used the resources mostly for lesson preparations and face-to-face teaching. quality of notes the overall responses by the tutors on the quality of the notes were positive, as indicated in chart 3 below. 239 chart 3: views of tutors on quality of notes respondents describe the learning resources as very good, useful and enriching. respondents also recognised that some notes are difficult to access and others require tutor input. content developers the 31 content developers (subject matter experts, in chart 4) who responded, consist of a combination of teachers from formal schools (38.7%), retired teachers (9.7%), education officers (9.7%) and instructional designers (9.7%). these comprised 74.2% female and 25.8% male respondents. they were all appointed on a part-time basis. the programme developers from namcol formed 32.2% of this group. the majority of the content development team members had more than 15 years’ experience in teaching the respective subjects. chart 4: composition of content developers 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 very good useful enriching and resourceful difficult to access require tutor input quality of notes 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 teachers from formal schools retired teachers education officers instructional designers programme developers content developers number 240 material development and instructional design experience the majority of the respondents had experience in developing distance education learning material (print, multimedia and online learning material and assessment) prior to the notesmaster project. the majority of the subject team members fulfilled both the role of content writer and peer reviewer, with the exception of those teachers who were appointed only as writers or content editors. all teams had a language editor and subject programme developer to assist with quality assurance. the elearning programme developer fulfilled the role of instructional designer and overall quality assuror. part of the project was to train the content developers to ensure that all of them understood what the project entailed (see table 1). they were also informed about the development processes for online learning materials and the content of the notesmaster training manual. training and support (n = 31) table 1: training and support of content developers training focus excellent very good good satisfactory poor training on the tools (e.g., materials, skills, and techniques) needed 10 15 4 2 0 script writing for audio and video 4 8 11 4 0 creating audio clips 3 9 12 5 1 image editing 4 10 7 5 1 screencast videos 1 5 9 7 3 training on how to search for oer 5 13 5 5 1 training on use of the different elements of the notesmaster platform 9 8 10 2 1 peer review comments 5 13 9 3 1 instructional design 4 10 11 2 1 storyboarding 1 7 13 4 1 notesmaster training manual 3 8 15 3 0 quality check before publishing notes 5 12 9 1 1 the overall response on the quality of training given to content development teams was very positive. respondents rated the training on the tools (e.g., materials, skills and techniques) needed to develop notes from very good to excellent. the training on the use of different elements of the notesmaster platform scored ratings from good to excellent, whilst the notesmaster manual was mostly rated good to very good. respondents regarded the training on how to search for oer mostly as very good. the overall response on the quality of support given to content development teams was positive. training and support provided in terms of script writing for audio and video and the creation of audio and videos was rated mostly from good to very good. the support given in terms of image editing was rated from very good to good, whilst the support provided in terms of storyboarding was rated from good to very good. the support in terms of instructional design was rated as good to very good. respondents rated the support they received through the peer review comments and quality check before publishing the notes as very good to good. 241 platform navigation the respondents rated the platform from very good to good in terms of the organisation of the platform, user friendliness and technical support from notesmaster. the respondents’ satisfaction with the overall support from namcol was experienced as very good to excellent. confidence gained table 2 depicts the confidence gained by the content developers throughout the project. table 2: confidence gained by content developers activity excellent very good good satisfactory poor how to do the storyboarding (planning) of the note 2 11 9 6 1 writing scripts for audio and video clips 2 11 10 3 2 using audacity audio recording and editing tool 3 7 10 6 4 using open source image editing tool (photofiltre) 4 8 9 5 4 searching for and evaluating oer 4 10 8 5 3 creating interactive online notes 4 13 8 4 1 the overall rating for the confidence gained could be linked to the quality of the training and support provided to course development teams throughout the development process. areas where the confidence levels were still low indicate that the respondents needed to practice more on the use of the tools. the levels of confidence of course teams are also reflected in the different types of notes created on the platform. the notes differed in terms of the use of multimedia elements to make notes interactive, where 25% of the notes included text, images, audio, embedded videos, quizzes and hyperlinked content, while 17.9% of the notes created included fewer multimedia elements. challenges the content developers responded as indicated in table 3 to possible challenges they experienced in the process. table 3: challenges of content developers responses (31 content developers) yes no lack of knowledge on how to write distance-learning material 9 (29.0%) 21(67.7%) computer competency 6 (19.4%) 25 (80.6%) workload 23 (74.2%) 7 (22.6%) access to computers 3 (9.7%) 28 (90.3%) internet access 11 (35.5%) 19 (61.3%) finding relevant oer 11 (35.5%) 18 (58.1%) delays in peer feedback 15 (48.4%) 16 (51.6%) time 26 (83.9%) 5 (16.1%) navigation on the platform 10 (32.3%) 21 (67.7%) 242 responses showed that the major challenges experienced by course development teams were in terms of workload and time. they had the least challenges with access to computers and computer competency. quality of the learning resources sixty-one percent (61%) of the respondents created between 10 to 50 notes, while the other 39% created more than 50 notes. seventy two percent (72%) of the respondents had between 10 and 50 notes peer reviewed, while 28% had more than 50 notes peer reviewed. this is a positive indication of the success of the training and support provided to the course teams. respondents strongly agreed that the peer review comments enabled them to improve the quality of the learning resources and that the process has developed their abilities and skills to teach their subjects. the peer review process further assisted them to apply theory to practice and developed their ability to provide constructive critique to others. the screenshot below (figures 1 and 2) presents two notes from the platform, one from economics and the other from english. figure 1: economics note on scarcity figure 2: english active listening note it is evident that the notes are well designed with colourful pictures and highlighted text. audio and video clips are embedded in the notes. references are clearly indicated. discussion the development of online learning content is useful for distance education learners as they can access the content in their own time, while it provides for multimedia to enhance the understanding of the subject matter. however, there are a number of internal and external factors that impact the success of the development of the content as well as the use of the content by tutors and learners. 243 in the case of namcol, the development of the content is largely slowed down by the unavailability of the content developers. the institution does not have the resources to appoint fulltime content developers, hence, the majority of developers work on a part-time basis. in this way the college has less control over the pace of development. despite this situation, much success has been achieved and many notes have been created in different subject areas, while the capacity of developers was built through the process. in the case of both tutors and learners the general experience was positive. they could access the learning platform and found the navigation easy. this is key in the design of the platform, as difficulties in this area will discourage the users to a large extent. both the tutors and learners experienced improved understanding of the subject matter and believed that the content had the potential to improve examination results. this is essential to note as it is a major achievement of the platform. the multimedia is supposed to provide alternative means of engaging with the content that was only provided in print before but is now available in audio, video and animations. learners learn differently and, hence, the variety of media should provide for the different learning preferences of the learners. the challenges experienced by the tutors had much to do with their own ability to use the platform or technical challenges with email or the internet. one respondent thought that some of the notes were cluttered and this could easily be addressed by adopting a common template. learners generally have limited access to the internet and it remains a challenge for them to access audio and video that requires much data. the resources spent to develop and avail online learning content will be in vain if the content is not accessed and used by tutors and learners. therefore, namcol opted to make the content available as open educational resources (oer) to ensure that tutors and learners did not need to pay for the content. the college has taken a strong position on oer and, thus, developed and implemented a policy to guide the development and provision of oer. hence, the notesmaster resources can be accessed and used for free by anyone around the world. in order to ensure that the platform is known by those it is intended for, the college has organised many awareness sessions with education officers, teachers, learners and school principals. in addition the college offered free training to those who wished to utilise the platform in their teaching and learning. this is an ongoing process and it is the wish of the institution that the notesmaster platform will become the preferred learning platform in namibia. conclusion and recommendations the development of the notesmaster online learning content and its provision as oer is a milestone for namcol and a huge contribution to open schooling. this was perhaps the only project of its kind in namibia, at the time, as the researchers were unable to find evidence of a similar project locally. although the value of the learning content and its potential contribution to improved performance in examinations were indicated by the respondents in this study, further research is required to determine its impact on examination results. the content is in line with the national school curricula and there are sufficient assessment activities for learners and tutors to engage with. results indicate that the quality of the notes is high and multimedia adds value to the written content to increase understanding. the access to the portal and the navigation is regarded as easy. 244 the few challenges, like the ability of tutors to use the platform and technical challenges with email and the internet, are manageable and can be addressed in the near future. the challenges of content developers are to be addressed by the college, especially related to their capacity in developing the notesmaster content and the provision of computer and internet access, as well as finding oer to use in content development. issues around workload and time can also be addressed by employing subject matter experts on fixed-term contracts. in the case of learners and tutors, capacity should be developed continuously to make it easy for them to use the content. the provision of computer and internet connectivity to all of them might not be easy to address, but the college has already set up computer centres and resource centres throughout the country to support them as far as possible. this is a common goal for the education sector, hence the college joined hands with other institutions through the namibian open learning network trust to widen access for learners. in this way learners also have access to resource centres and, hence, computers and the internet through other member institutions of the trust. the college has gone a long way in introducing oer in open schooling and will have to ensure that tutors and learners gain maximum benefit from this investment. references abrioux, d. a. m. x., & ferreira, f. (eds.). (2009). open schooling in the 21st century. vancouver: commonwealth of learning. butson, r., & thomson, c. (2014). challenges of effective collaboration in a virtual learning environment among undergraduate students. creative education, 5(16), 1449-1459. retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ce.2014.516162 hase, s., & kenyon, c. (2007). heutagogy: a child of complexity theory. complicity: an international journal of complexity and education, 4(1), 111-119. keengwe, j., & kidd, t. t. (2010). towards best practices in online learning and teaching in higher education. merlot journal of online learning and teaching, 6(2). len, k. e. (2019). blended learning model: a practical approach for the professional development of university students in cameroon. creative education, 10, 583-599. retrieved from https://doi.org/10.4236/ce.2019.103042 liang, r., & chen, d. v. (2012). online learning: trends, potential and challenges. creative education 3(8), 13321335. retrieved from doi: 10.4236/ce.2012.38195 makoe, m. (2010). the suitability of oer in open distance learning. retrieved from http://uir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/3713 mccombes, s. (2019). how to do survey research. retrieved from https://www.scribbr.com/methodology/surveyresearch ozdemir, o., & hendricks, c. (2017). instructor and student experiences with open textbooks, from the california open online library for education (cool4ed). journal of computing in higher education, 29(1). retrieved from doi 10.1007/s12528-017-9138-0 ponto, j. (2015). understanding and evaluating survey research. journal of the advanced practitioner in oncology, 2015(6), 168-171. retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/286445115 watson, j. (2015). promising practises in online learning. blending learning: the convergence of online and face-to-face education. north american council for online learning. willems, j., & bossu, c. (2012). equity considerations for open educational resources in the localization of education. retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01587919.2012. 245 authors: jan jacobus nitschke is the director, curriculum and material development directorate, namibian college of open learning. previously, he was the manager for research, quality assurance and development. he is spearheading new and revised programmes at namcol with material development for secondary, tertiary and vocational training. email: nitschke@namcol.edu.na wilhelmina louw has been a programme developer at the namibian college of open learning (namcol) since 2006. she developed distance education study material (print-based, radio and video programmes) for grade 10 and 12. her first exposure to elearning and open educational resource development was with the col oers4os project in 2009. starting september 2013, ms louw became the programme developer: elearning for open schooling at namcol. she successfully spearheaded online open educational resources content development on the free elearning notesmaster platform. email: louw@namcol.edu.na cite this paper as: nitschke, j. j., & louw, w. (2020). the implementation of notesmaster as a learning platform for secondary education: a case of the namibian college of open learning (namcol). journal of learning for development, 7(2), 233-245. microsoft word donnelly.docx issn: 2311-1550 2021, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 611-620 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. learning development’s role in supporting academic synergies through co-evolution of teaching excellence and practice roisin donnelly technical university, dublin abstract: this report from the field discusses a new approach taken to the co-evolution of teaching excellence and evidence-based practice in the context of learning development in a technological university in ireland. it explores supporting faculty in their exploration of pedagogic inquiry and teaching excellence and how this can co-evolve to generate synergies in academic productivity (the core activity sets of the faculty). a key part of this learning development work is understanding how integrating inquiry and teaching can drive excellence and pedagogic innovation in practice. keywords: co-evolution, pedagogic inquiry, scholarship, teaching excellence. introduction a new initiative introduced to the role of learning development is discussed, which involves supporting faculty to seek evidence-based approaches to achieve excellence in their teaching practice. a key question is how to gather the right types of evidence to demonstrate teaching excellence. a coevolutionary strategy for exploring the evidence base for teaching excellence within the context of a new technological university in ireland is discussed. studies on synergies focus on the process rather than the outputs. the theoretical approach underpinning this work is based on theories of ‘coevolution’ (volberda & lewin, 2003; volberda, 2005), and a model is proposed that can recognise and capture the interactions and complex underlying processes in exploring teaching excellence and the integration of conscious continuous inquiry of practice, processes, and activities in teaching and learning. the aim of this work was to conduct a literature review on the research-teaching nexus, how the issues were being problematised, and consideration of how the synergies’ theoretical lens was appropriate. the argument is that progressing pedagogic inquiry and teaching excellence can coevolve within a learning development framework. through appropriate inquiry designs, an evidence base can emerge from teaching practice. from this, the potential for co-evolutionary change is explored (how it informs teaching and programme development plans, how it influences t & l policy). consideration is needed on how this data can be used to inform curriculum development going forward since the technological university has unique access across the higher education sector in ireland with organisations — with a focus on the contemporary skills issues if it is to retain its position as truly practice led/informed. the study of concepts and practice of excellence in relation to teaching and ensuring a quality student learning experience have evolved a model of co-evolutionary strategy for exploring the evidence base for teaching excellence. it involves conscious continuous 612 inquiry and teaching integration, retrospective learning and analysis, emerging phenomena during teaching, and collaborating with others to provide a strong evidence base on teaching. a recent body of work on teaching excellence by kahn & anderson (2019) has put a renewed lens on the challenges around the concept and focused on understanding teaching excellence through sharing practice-based case studies. this current work has been informed by their advice to think about taking a different approach to understanding excellence: what might it look like in our practice? who might we collaborate with in developing teaching excellence – our peers, our students, or a whole university approach? how can we encourage our colleagues and their students to explore the concept of teaching excellence with us? in a learning development role in a new technological university, supporting faculty to plan and undertake structured inquiry into their teaching includes stages of increasing evidence on teaching excellence through empirical studies, having a clear vision of excellence followed through with actions, that is underpinned by shared values and common grounds for intellectual commitment. this all takes place to support academics in becoming better teachers and pedagogic inquirers within the limitations of a system with workload models, time pressures, student diversity, and publication challenges. part of the repertoire for someone working in the role of leading learning development in a university is the power of using case studies as exemplars of good practice, as they capture the pedagogic interventions from practice that might be lost otherwise. integral to the choice of cases to promote is how they reflect the values of learning development such as inclusivity, authenticity, reflection, learner-centredness, scholarship and collaboration. context ireland’s first technological university in dublin came into existence in january 2019, merging three higher education institutions that have been in existence for decades: research-active teachers are integral for its future success. the range of work involved in supporting teaching and inquiry are not mutually exclusive, and is undertaken by heads of learning development, in conjunction with a range of professional services. universities are where research and teaching meet, and scholarship is necessary to underwrite taught programmes. however, schmidt (2019) argues that converting, en masse, academics into teaching-only roles that break the link between higher education and research results in a segregation of teaching and research workforces. he posits that many of the next generation of students will be taught entirely by people who may be great educators but are divorced from the creation of new knowledge; as that generation become the teachers of their successors, university teaching will become even more disconnected from the leading edge of knowledge. in ireland, the modernisation of higher education report (mcaleese, 2013) recommends that every institution should develop and implement a strategy for the support and on-going improvement of the quality of teaching and learning, devoting the necessary level of human and financial resources to the task, and integrating this priority into its overall mission, giving teaching due parity with research. this is particularly pertinent for the new technological university in the consideration of questions such as, where is teaching and learning as part of the institutional profile? what strategies or benchmarks are used for enhancing the quality of teaching in the university? how do we incorporate these into the university profile and mission, to make it clear to staff and students that the institution is affirming the importance of teaching and developing its quality? 613 one of the measures included within the technological university’s strategic plan is the promotion of excellence in teaching and learning to underpin a high quality student experience, curriculum design, and professional development of faculty. there is an opportunity as well as perhaps a challenge to develop a new and unique dynamic, entrepreneurial and innovative environment that can support high quality teaching and a distinctive learning experience for students. an effective working balance between inquiry, teaching and industry engagement will be key as will a clear understanding about how this will operate, and each relate to one another. this will necessitate clarity around standards, processes and practices. technological universities will discover how dependent they are on being a nexus of teaching and research, with the interconnection between teaching, research and scholarship being inviolable. ross and collier in supiano (2019) highlight the paradoxical views that exist about the teachingresearch nexus, with commentators adamant that the title “university” be reserved for institutions active in research, despite widespread scepticism that research activity enhances teaching quality. helfand (2019) argues that academics, who value research over everything else, whose data of their own is precious to them, completely ignore all data related to teaching. as the teaching-research nexus has persisted for decades and is unlikely to be resolved “any time soon”, it is important to continue to explore its academic synergies. by exploring the concept and practice of teaching excellence and pedagogic inquiry through the lens of co-evolution, the aims of this report were to: • understand how academics create research from their daily practice/teaching experience so that they can concurrently build a scholarship and a teaching profile (by focussing on synergies in the co-evolutionary process). • develop an academic synergies model for exploring excellence within teaching as an evidencebased practice. character of the learning innovation: theories of co-evolution co-evolution refers to the simultaneous evolution of entities and their environments, whether these entities be organisms or organisations (baum & singh, 1994). this report draws on theories of coevolution existing within various fields such as sociology and biology (thompson, 2005; gomulkiewiz et al, 2007) and combines this with the synergy construct from the strategic management literature (e.g., shaver, 2006). there are three criteria for co-evolution to happen (thompson, 2005; gomulkiewiz et al, 2007): the existence of co-evolutionary hot and cold spots; selection mosaics; and trait remixing. this work considers what this could look like in an educational context — specifically in an exploration of the dynamism of co-evolution between teaching excellence and evidence-based pedagogic inquiry. the literature in education and management relies on other theories to explain co-evolutionary phenomenon such as organisational learning perspectives (koza & lewin, 1998) or complexity theory (mckelvie, 1999) but theories do exist across other fields. in sociology and economics, scholars such as noorgard (2006) envisage a co-evolutionary world as a patchwork quilt of cultures with real possibilities towards harmony between individuals and their environment. this is as opposed to the modernist perspective that is deterministic in nature emphasising continuous development and 614 improvement but disrespecting the complexity and uncertainty within the journey. table 1 provides an overview of what the literature is saying about synergies in this context. table 1: literature synopsis on synergies scholars recognise the necessity to create synergy between research and teaching in university structure and culture (griffioen & de jong, 2015; jenkins & healey, 2005). mclean & barker (2004) refer to the ‘enduring myth’ of a symbiotic relationship between teaching and research. brennan et al (2019) argue that teaching and research are often organised and managed as separate activities, underscoring their duality in the modern university. however as groningen et al (2017) report, awards and career progression are often research based. does a research teaching nexus exist as a ‘whipping tool’ for institutional level and policy strategizing? or is there evidence of synergies in research output drawn from teaching? problem in education literature is that studies on synergies create even more tension because they focus on process rather than productivity (sedow, 2000). the business strategy literature offers a frame for examining the dynamics of synergies: emphasis is on similarity (e.g., chatterjee, 1986; homberg & bucerius, 2005; seth, 1990) and complementarity (kim & finkelstien, 2009; milgrom & roberts, 1995) perceived inter-relatedness and autonomy (zaheer et al, 2011) others have substantiated the criteria for co-evolution (thompson, 2005; gomulkiewiz et al, 2007) as firstly the presence of ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ spots. these represent times when the fitness of both groups is affected by the distribution of traits in the other (hot spot) or not (cold spots). many examples exist in criticisms of government policy and responses to public needs (cerna, 2013). similarly, universityindustry engagement has been accused of being poor because their motivations are not aligned (perkmann et al, 2013); firms are concerned with their customers and their industry-level activities, while universities are concerned with teaching and theorising and not focussing on practical business needs. at times, however, both do become ‘hot spots’, for example developing successful industrybased apprenticeship programmes or the adaption of a useful tool for industry such as the business model canvas that is widely utilised by new business start-ups (bocken & snihur, 2020). in a hot spot, options for trait remixing exist which is the second criteria for co-evolution. an example is between a university research office and the school/department, where individuals may have different influences — some perhaps considering more efficient ways of inquiry, others seeking out major funding or focusing on staying ‘small’ but active in their inquiry activities. this is what gomulkiewiz et al (2007) refer to as ‘selection mosaics’. the outcome of this ‘hot spot’ interaction with ‘selection mosaics’ leads to the third criteria of co-evolution — ‘trait remixing’ — which reflects the coevolutionary changes. the interactions of groups in their environment or ecosystem explains which selective forces are affecting the evolution of each group contributing to ‘fitness’ (norgaard, 2006). co-evolution is not an evolutionary approach towards an end vision of ‘excellence’ that is so often the focus of education and management thinking. rather, it is the interaction of groups with others that ensures fitness of the system as a whole. although the outcome may not be certain, the emphasis is on managing the interactions with people and process and in this regard, the role of heads of learning development in pedagogic inquiry and teaching as facilitators and managers of co-evolution is a critical position towards fitness within an institutional environment. kernohan (2018) states that enhancement needs 615 time, permission, and support. it is argued here that a synergistic approach to the facilitation and management of this co-evolutionary process should drive strategy, without concern of where the end goal is because the system will be fitter with careful attention to the interactions and the process. impact on development synergies in co-evolution of teaching excellence and inquiry so what is teaching excellence? this question has garnered significant debate over a number of years. skelton (2009, p. 107) reported that ‘excellence has become a meaningless concept’. excellent teachers remain contested and interpretative terms, feeding into the issues of knowledge co-creation and the social constructivist nature of teaching and learning. what is an excellent teacher and from whose perspective? ross and collier (2019) make a point about “not yet-ness”, in relation to excellence — getting there and being comfortable with that status, realising that the goalposts are ever-changing. this is a state that is arrived at with time and associated effort; knowing what worked with a class last week will work with the same class this week, or knowing what to try out and experiment with so as to keep student progress moving. the learning environment is constantly evolving, as is the student profile and discipline fields, and all necessitate the teacher to evolve, too. grove (2018) argues that finding the right way to recognise teaching excellence has become something of an obsession in recent years. land & gordon (2015, p. 23) suggest a framing tool for teaching excellence initiatives at school/departmental level which can be useful for planning initiatives (table 2). table 2: to support learning development planning how are institutional policy decisions articulated with faculty policy formulation? how effective are these articulations in the promotion of teaching excellence how would innovative work relating to teaching excellence be reported to the main university committees? what mechanisms are in place to monitor the development and progress of teaching excellence at faculty/departmental level? how are faculty/departmental strategies for teaching excellence aligned with strategies for research excellence? how is teaching excellence visible in strategic documents and implementation plans for the faculty or individual schools and departments? in what ways has research into teaching been supported within the faculty/department in the last five years? are there any systematic ways of modelling expert/excellent practice within programmes and modules? how are programme teams helped to develop and embed excellent practice within a new programme? how is teaching excellence monitored and evaluated within undergraduate and postgraduate teaching within the faculty/department? what methods of dissemination and what resources have been used to raise faculty awareness of teaching excellence within the school/departments? are teaching and learning modules integrated into doctoral programmes? what might be the incentives or disincentives faculty/department level for pursuing teaching excellence? are professional development planning or faculty review schemes used in any way to foster teaching excellence? another useful example for the technological university is the curtin teaching excellence criteria (tucker et al, 2014) which provide a single set of measures to underpin all relevant reward and recognition processes, so that teaching excellence is clear and consistent with the university’s strategic 616 goals. the teaching excellence criteria are designed to assist individual faculty, particularly new and early career staff, in clarifying expectations, as well as providing guidelines to assist in the process of supporting academics and establishing guidelines for promotion and awards. the scholarship of teaching and learning for curtin is systematic inquiry, critique, research and development in teaching, learning and the broader educational context which advances and publicly provides educational benefit to students, faculty and the higher education sector. the scholarship of teaching and learning underpins the teaching excellence criteria and involves a distinct set of attributes: planning and designing learning activities and courses; teaching and supporting student learning; assessment and giving feedback to students; developing effective learning environments, student support and guidance; integration of scholarship, inquiry and professional activities with teaching and in support of student learning; evaluation of practice and continuing professional learning; professional and personal effectiveness. in the technological university, a reputation for research-informed teaching, small classes, good support for student diversity, career planning, and strong links with industry has steadily built up over time. central to the learning development support of this work in the years ahead will be leading on the progression of teaching excellence and in supporting faculty to plan for and collect evidence of their continually developing practice. this includes offering professional development opportunities on the inquiry-based impact of teaching excellence. figure 1 shows a snapshot of teaching and learning professional development (pd) on offer to faculty in one of the colleges in the technological university, highlighting the potential for synergies between teaching excellence and evidence-gathering. figure 1: sequencing pd opportunities within a co-evolutionary perspective 617 co-evolution is concerned with the logic of understanding how individuals, groups and environments influence each other. studies consider the influence of the macro on the meso environment (paniccia & baiocco, 2018) but also on peer-to-peer groups’ influence. co-evolution does not have to be about just relationship interactions but can also include stories or rituals between and across groups. emphasising co-evolution means a focus on the process rather than outcomes. it is important to highlight that innovation does not equate to excellence — it just reflects the influences on education that lead to evolution, and arguably is seen as a mechanism to facilitate a process towards excellence. teaching and learning development can benefit in a number of ways when academics draw directly on the inquiry process and its outputs: • curriculum which draws on current research stays fresh and dynamic, and students can see how learning about a subject in the abstract is connected to real time development of the subject, and of the aspects of the world that it is concerned with. • curriculum which draws on the teacher’s own inquiry gives the teacher an added incentive to engage with the students and gives the students a sense of connection with the inquiry process and with the dynamic nature of their discipline. • curriculum which allows students to engage in inquiry processes engages them more actively in their learning and in the subject. it supports important notions such as active learning, students as partners and students as co-creators of the curriculum. it plays an important role in developing a range of important graduate attributes, both professional and personal, helping to build student confidence, ability to communicate effectively, and sense of an academic and specialist self. figure 2 introduces an evolving model for capturing the co-evolutionary approach to pedagogic inquiry and teaching excellence. the study of concepts and the practice of excellence in relation to teaching and ensuring a quality student learning experience have evolved this model of coevolutionary strategy for exploring the evidence base for teaching excellence. it involves conscious continuous inquiry and teaching integration, retrospective learning and analysis, emerging phenomena during teaching, and collaborating with others to provide a strong evidence base on teaching. ashwin (2018) argues that while popular discourse and policy tend to focus on the inspirational individual teachers and researchers who change the world, in reality these changes are much more the result of collective and communal endeavours. in building a model for co-evolving synergies, the criteria for co-evolution are defined as the points where synergies can be recognised/measured. co-evolutionary interactions mainly explain the nature of relationships in terms of the complex processes and not the outcome. 618 figure 2: towards a model for co-evolution of pedagogic inquiry and teaching excellence the overarching aim of the model is to focus on process rather than outcome and build academic synergies into the process. in adopting a co-evolutionary model, synergies can be achieved in the hot spots, and in the cold spots from knowledge absorption. co-evolutionary aspects in the model imply: • there are both hot and cold spots: the former being when individuals are receptive to absorbing outside influences and the latter when individuals are looking inwards. • the receptiveness to outside influences changes the characteristics of the individual/group but the dynamic nature of moving between hot and cold spots means that the outcome is not deterministic. moreover, the complex process rather than the system is important (this is where the need for continuous innovation emerges). the reasons why it is more important to work on the process rather than the system, even if outcomes cannot be determined and may be negative are: • the environment is uncertain and trying to achieve fixed outcomes is risky. academic peers students university-wide approach model of coevolution of teaching excellence and inquiry what does teaching excellence look like? how to build knowledge capital across teaching and inquiry? who might we collaborate with in developing teaching excellence? how can we encourage colleagues and their students to inquire into the concept and practice of teaching excellence with us? how do we gauge understanding? what will evidence look like? how do we capture it? how do we initiate interest? how do we sustain it longer term? what pd opportunities are needed? how do we identify hot and cold spots? where can synergies be identified and measured? 619 • processes are reflected in activities and synergies can be integrated into activities so excellence and productivity can be better controlled in the process. • there is more participant control of the process than the outcome (motivating influence). in terms of the role of learning development, it is important to not try to influence and control the system because there are too many uncertainties in that; instead focus on the processes/activities that you can control. we are trying to help academics manage their careers, to become better at inquiry and excellent teaching within the limitations of a system (with workload models, time pressures, student diversity and publication challenges, among others). this institutional culture is also viewed as an ‘educational gains indicator’ (gibbs, 2012). the technological university emphasises the importance of the provision of career-focused education through quality teaching and learning to create a distinctive, high quality, experiential student experience. there is a reputation for inquirybased practice, classes with a good teacher-student ratio, support for student diversity, career planning, and strong links with industry. conclusion and plans for future work over the last ten years, universities have made more of a conscious shift away from what were viewed as individual ‘pet’ projects to ones of more strategic benefit. this is in part echoing an observable shift in learning development from one of addressing ‘ineffective teaching practices’ to one which encourages engagement of faculty with disciplinary inquiry and scholarship in teaching and learning (hutchings et al, 2011) that can be used to inform institutional teaching practice as well as lead to publication. in a new technological university, with its intended research targets, formal recognition of scholarship of teaching in its own right could add a further dimension of academic professional activity. this recognition could involve not only the effective application of co-evolution theory to enhance quality of practice but also the contribution to new knowledge. to encourage faculty to engage in more inquiry to support teaching excellence and ultimately enhance the quality of student learning will necessitate appropriate, timely professional development opportunities alongside formal recognition and incentives. this process of co-evolution of teaching and inquiry, supported by learning development, can be adopted by others, as it is collaborative, measurable and scalable. john cotton dana eloquently summarises its essence: “who dares teach must never cease to learn”. further research is planned to explore how co-evolution can impact the continuum from early career academics to more experienced faculty, as well as institutional integration of teaching and inquiry and opportunities for measuring success. acknowledgement: i would like to thank my colleague dr deirdre mcquillan for engaging in a number of discussions and a presentation which led to the formation of this paper. references ashwin, p. (2018). the importance of arguing over teaching excellence. times higher education. bocken, n., & snihur, y. (2020). lean startup and the business model: experimenting for novelty and impact. long range planning, 53(4), 101889. grove, j. (2018). career plan puts teaching at the heart of the promotions process. times higher education. kahn, p., & anderson, l. (2019). (eds.), developing your teaching: towards excellence (2nd ed.). routledge. 620 kernohan, d. (2018). after the goldrush: 30 years of teaching quality enhancement. https://wonkhe.com/blogs/after-the-goldrush-30-years-of-teaching-quality-enhancement/ koza, m., & lewin, a. (1998). the co-evolution of strategic alliances. organization science, 9(3), 255-264. land, r., & gordon, g. (2015). teaching excellence initiatives: modalities and operational factors. higher education academy. mcaleese, m. (2013). improving the quality of teaching and learning in europe’s higher education institutions. eu commission. noorgard, r. (2006). development betrayed: the end of progress and a co-evolutionary revisioning of the future. routledge. paniccia, p.m.a., & baiocco, s. (2018). co-evolution of the university technology transfer: towards a sustainability-oriented industry: evidence from italy. sustainability, 10, 4675. ross, j.r., & collier, a. in supiano, b. (2019). a professor interviewed hundreds of excellent teachers and found a common theme. chronicles of higher education. https://www.chronicle.com/article/a-professorinterviewed/246056 schmidt, b. (2019). walling off teaching from research will block the road to eminence. times higher education. tucker, b., chalmers, d., cummings, r., stoney, s., elliott, s., wicking, r., & jorre de st jorre, t. (2014). one university’s experience of embedding the australian university teaching criteria and standards framework. volberda, h.w. (2005). knowledge and competitive advantage: the coevolution of firms, technology, and national institutions. the academy of management review, 30(2), 446-448. volberda, h.w., & lewin, a.y. (2003). co-evolutionary dynamics within and between firms: from evolution to co-evolution. journal of management studies, 40(8), 2111-2136. author: dr roisin donnelly was working as head of learning development when this work was undertaken in the college of business, technological university dublin. prior to this, she worked in academic professional development institutionally and nationally in ireland. email: roisin.donnelly@tudublin.ie cite this paper as: donnelly, r. (2021). learning development’s role in supporting academic synergies through co-evolution of teaching excellence and practice. journal of learning for development, 8(3), 611-620. microsoft word ally_2.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 221-228 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. use of tablet computers to improve access to education in a remote location mohamed ally1, v. balaji2, anwar abdelbaki3 and ricky cheng2 1 athabasca university, canada 2 commonwealth of learning, canada 3 reach out to asia, qatar abstract: a research project was carried out in using mobile learning to increase access to education. this project is contributing to the achievement of goal 4 of the sustainable development goals (sdgs), which is to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”. the mobile learning project involved the use of mobile technology to deliver learning materials to students to provide flexibility of access. students used tablet computers to access electronic learning materials from the aptus local server without having to connect to the internet. the aptus system is portable and was designed by the commonwealth of learning to allow learners to connect to digital learning platforms and access course materials without the need for internet access. the project was implemented in a school in pakistan. a total of 74 grade 8, 9, and 10 students were involved in this project. the research revealed a positive impact on students and on learning as a result of their participation in the mobile learning project: students were better able to use the mobile technology for learning. both students and parents also indicated that the project increased the students’ knowledge on the use of tablets for learning. parents indicated that the mobile learning project increased their childrens’ interest in studying. teachers also acknowledged that the students were taking more interest in classroom learning and concentrated on their tablets during study. students were tested before and after they were supplied with content on their tablets. the post-test scores were significantly higher than the pre-test scores, indicating the use of the tablets for learning improved students’ performance. keywords: mobile learning, tablets, aptus introduction widespread use of affordable mobile technology is an important development for education in the current era, especially in developing countries and remote areas where computers are not available and there is limited internet access and unreliable or no electricity. also, as recent refugee crises show, the most effective way to educate refugees is through mobile technology. there are technologies available that allow for the delivery of education in refugee camps where there is no internet access and limited or no electricity. leaders of nations are committed to achieving “inclusive and equitable quality education and promot[ing] lifelong learning opportunities for all”, which is goal 4 of the sustainable development 222 goals (sdgs). to provide education for all, governments have no choice but to use mobile technology to educate citizens in some contexts. the technology can be recharged using alternate power sources, such as solar and wind, and learners can access learning materials from local servers. in developed countries, students already have mobile devices that they can use for learning. in some countries the use of mobile technology is banned (beeston, 2017). rather than ban the use of mobile devices in schools, teachers should be trained on how to use mobile technology in education and the school system should be mobile-friendly. use of mobile technology should be integrated into the learning process. there is no turning back, since mobile technologies are here to stay and they have to be part of the delivery mix (philip, 2017). the research project described in this paper used flexible technologies to deliver education anywhere and at anytime. research was carried out in using tablets to increase access to education in swat, pakistan. the project was implemented in allama iqbal public school and college kanju swat, pakistan. grades 8, 9, and 10 were involved in the project. the mobile learning project involved the use of tablets and a local server called aptus to deliver learning materials to students and to provide flexibility of access to electronic learning materials. the aptus system was developed by the commonwealth of learning (col). it is a portable system and was designed to allow students to connect to digital learning platforms and access course materials without the need for grid electricity or internet access. this ideal situation was found in an area like swat where there is limited or no access to the internet and an unreliable supply of electricity. moreover, the costs of the aptus system and the tablet computers are reasonable, which makes them a good choice for large-scale implementations. all learning materials were saved on the aptus device. in the delivery system, students used the wireless capability of the tablet computers to access the learning materials from the aptus system and then they completed learning activities individually and in small groups. to orient teachers, four days of training was conducted for three teachers from allama iqbal public school & college kanju swat, pakistan. the following research questions guided the research conducted in this project: 1. how effective is mobile learning as a delivery method for learning and student support as measured by students’ performance? 2. how do students react to the use of mobile learning as a learning and support method as measured by students’ feedback? 3. what are teachers’ experience using mobile learning as a teaching and delivery method as measured by teachers’ feedback? literature review the project provided students and teachers of schools in remote locations with access to electronic learning materials on a local server without the need for grid electricity or the internet. without technology such as the aptus system, teachers and students in remote locations of pakistan are at a disadvantage in accessing education. they cannot access electronic learning materials that are current. the aptus system consists of a server that allows students and teachers to access learning materials on 223 tablets that can be charged (col, 2016). the project focused on pedagogical approaches including drill and practice, tutorials, project based learning, and problem based learning. as organizations and governments around the world implement accessible education for all, they must generate a sense of urgency to deliver education on mobile devices so that learners can access learning materials from any locations and at any time, especially for students living in remote areas and in different time zones (ally & tsinakos, 2014; dolan, 2016). the aptus mobile learning system can be used in remote areas, since the learning materials are stored on a local server and students access them from the server using the wireless capability of the tablets (col, 2016). with systems such as the aptus, learning will move further outside of the classroom and into the learner s’ environments, both real and virtual, thus becoming more situated, personal, collaborative and lifelong (naismith, lonsdale, vavoula, & sharples, 2006). however, teachers will need to be trained to develop and deliver education using mobile technology (harper & milman, 2016). the effectiveness of mobile learning depends on how creative the teachers are when developing mobile learning materials (mohamed, chebbi, and behera, 2016). the growth of the use of mobile devices has surpassed the growth of any technology in our history (pew research center, 2017). these devices are seen by citizens around the world as a way to add flexibility to their lives and by governments to give citizens the opportunity to have equal access to education. mobile technologies such as the aptus system are here to stay and will be used in all segments of education to reach the goal of education for all (ally, 2009; ally, 2014; gaskell & mills, 2009). gaskell and mills (2009) list the different ways mobile technologies can be used in education. these include administration of learning, monitoring students’ progress, providing learner support, presenting interactive activities to promote higher-level learning, delivery of learning materials, use of context specific activities, just-in-time learning, and reaching the disabled. mobile learning facilitates equal opportunity for all by allowing learning to be accessible across time zones and locations and where distance is not issue for the learner. wireless mobile devices are small enough to be portable, which allow learners to use the device from any location to interact with other learners from anywhere and at any time to share information and expertise, complete a task, or work collaboratively on a project. the multimedia capabilities of the tablets allow students to access multimedia materials, which motivate students to learn and enhance learning because of the different levels of processing (mayer, 2009). mobile learning benefits learners since they can use mobile devices to learn in their own learning community where situated learning, authentic learning, context aware learning, contingent learning, augmented reality mobile learning, and personalized learning are encouraged (traxler, 2010). use of mobile technology by learners will help learners develop the 21st century skills required when they join the work force (bestwick & campbell, 2010), such as conducting online research, use of technology, becoming independent thinkers, and using virtual communication. teachers will have to be creative when they develop mobile learning materials to provide learners with 21st century skills (dold, 2016; henriksen, et al, 2016). methodology the mobile learning project was implemented in a school for four weeks. teachers from grades 8, 9 and 10 prepared study plans for delivery on the tablets. all learning materials were loaded on the 224 aptus server. the project used a blended learning approach, consisting of face-to-face instruction and mobile learning where students used the tablets to access learning materials from the aptus system to learn independently. the teachers served as tutors while the students worked independently to complete the lessons. data was collected in the areas of knowledge, attitude and behavior about the use of tablets for learning from the students who were the main target group of the project. qualitative data was also collected from teachers, parents and students to obtain feedback on their attitude and knowledge on the use of mobile learning. the preand post-data provided evidence on how use of tablet in teaching improved the quality of education. the study was conducted in allama iqbal public school & college kanju swat, pakistan. the data was collected at school level from three grades (8, 9 and 10). the grade 8 subject was pakistan study, the grade 9 subject was english, and the grade 10 subject was physics. overall, 77 students participated in the study. three students dropped out during post-data collection, so 74 students participated in preand post-data collection. data collection included preand post-questionnaires to get student feedback on the mobile delivery system, and content testing to determine how much students learned. in addition, six (three preand three post-) focus group discussions were held with students from each grade and six (three preand three post-) focus group discussions were held with parents of students from each grade. six (three preand three post-) interviews were held with three trained teachers who were involved in the project. the pre-questionnaire was designed to determine students’ background on their experience of using technology and how much they knew about the subject. the post-questionnaire was designed to determine if students benefitted from using the technology to learn and how much they learnt about the subject. focus group discussions were held with the students after they used the technology to get feedback on their feelings and experience of using the technology to learn. focus group discussions were also held with parents to determine how their children benefitted from the innovative learning method. also, the teachers were interviewed to determine their experience in using the technology to teach. results and discussion the data was collected and analyzed by an independent research assistant who had no connections either with the schools involved with the research or with the lead researcher and the research funding agencies. preand post-questionnaire responses 1. used computers or tablets before: the students were asked whether they had used a computer or tablet before. seventy-nine percent of students said they had never used a computer or tablet before the start of the project. the 21% who said that they used a computer or tablet before were from grades 9 and 10. it seems as if the older students had computer experience compared to the younger students. upon completion of the project all students were able to use the tablets to learn. the students benefitted from the project since the majority of the students were able to use the tablets for the first time. also, in the focus group discussion, the students mentioned that after they used the computer to learn they understood how the computer could be used for learning purposes. 2. have a computer at home: at the start of the project only 19% of students said that they have computer at home. after the project, 25% said that they have a computer at home. it seems as if the 225 students’ use of the tablets at school influenced some parents to purchase home computers. at the focus group with the students, some students mentioned that before the project their parents did not allow them to use computers at home; however, after the project parents allowed them to use computers at home to learn. it appears that after the project some parents saw the benefit of using a computer to learn and they allowed the students to use a computer at home 3. would enjoy using computers to learn: before the start of the project, students were asked whether they would enjoy using computers to learn. the response was positive, with 97% agreeing or strongly agreeing. the same response was obtained after the students used the tablets to learn. the use of the tablets in the project did not change the students’ positive feelings about using the tablets to learn. young students are motivated to use technology to learn and if given the opportunity they will use technology to learn. this is clearly demonstrated by a research project conducted by mitra (2014). 4. improved computer skills: upon completion of the project, students were asked whether participation in the project improved their computer skills. ninety-six percent said that using the tablets to learn improved their computer skills. it appears that one of the benefits of using the tablets to learn was improved students computer skills, which is important for the digital era in the 21st century. 5. comfort in using the tablets to learn: before the start of the project, students were asked whether they would be comfortable using the tablets to learn. seventy-eight percent said they would be comfortable. upon completion of the project, students were asked to indicate their level of comfort using the tablets to learn. all students agreed that they were comfortable using the tablets to learn. 6. use of tablets improved academic performance: at the completion of the project, 98% of students said that use of tablets improved their academic performance. 7. learning alone: the project used a blended approach where students used the tablets to learn alone some of the time. before the start of the project students were asked whether they enjoy learning alone. fifty-eight percent said that they did. upon completion of the project, 89% said that they enjoyed learning alone after using the tablets to learn. learning alone is an important skill for future implementation of mobile learning and for the delivery of education in remote locations. preand post-test a pre-test was administered before students used the tablets to learn to determine their prior knowledge of the course content. upon completion of the project, where students use the tablets in a blended format to learn, a post-test was administered to determine how much they learned. both the preand post-tests measured the achievement of the course learning objectives and they were parallel, which made sure they measured the same learning objectives. t-test was conducted to determine if there were any significant differences between performance on the pre-test and the post-test. results indicated that there was a significant difference (p < 0.05) indicating that students perform significantly better on the post-test (mean = 62.92) when compared to the pre-test (mean = 43.27). feedback from focus groups 1. teachers’ feedback the teachers prepared their learning materials and loaded them on the aptus server or they used existing open access materials that were on the server. the teachers liked the option of storing all of the learning materials on the server so that students can access the learning materials from one 226 location. this also prevented students from having to access the internet, which is restricted in some school systems. the teachers also mentioned that they developed personally and professionally when using the mobile technology system for teaching. the teachers liked the multimedia capabilities of the tablets, which allowed students to look at videos and pictures. the multimedia made students more attentive to the lessons, which may have improved their performance. use of video motivated students to learn. the teacher found the blended approach, which combined independent study and teacher directed classes, as appropriate for teaching the students. they mentioned that the blended approach that used the tablets is more effective than the traditional way of teaching, since students are able to access a variety of materials and can review the learning materials at any time using the tablets. the teachers also reported that the students were able to quickly learn how to use the tablets to access the learning materials. the students also showed more interest in learning after they started to use the tablets. the teachers reported a few challenges. the teachers were trained on how to use the technology three months before the implementation. as a result, the teachers had to re-learn how to use the technology immediately before the implementation. also, the teachers said that they needed technical support during the implementation. providing technical support is important for innovative projects, such as this project, to succeed. 2. students’ feedback the students mentioned that the tablets make it easy to learn and they can download the lessons on memory card and take the card home to access the lessons using their home computers. some students also reported that they learn faster when using the tablets. one student mentioned that with the tablets, they could zoom out to make the text larger for easy reading, especially for students with eyesight problems. this is one example of how the tablets and other technologies can be used to educate the disabled. conclusion in the electronic era, where all sectors of society are becoming digital, it is important for students to be computer literate to survive in the 21st century. allowing students to learn using electronic devices, such as tablets and computers, will improve their computer and research skills. at the same time, as students access learning materials using digital devices, they learn independently, which allows them to be self-directed and become independent thinkers. these are important skills for the 21st century workplace. results from this project demonstrate that the use of mobile technology to access and interact with electronic learning materials benefit students’ academic performance and improve their ict skills to prepare them for the technological era. the aptus system, along with the tablets, provides flexible access to education that can help to reach students in remote locations, especially girls, who face many restrictions in obtaining a basic education. this landmark project is contributing to the achievement of goal 4 of the sustainable development goals (sdgs) to: “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”. schools in remote locations will benefit from the results of this project. use of mobile learning is a great opportunity to provide education for all and nations must generate a sense of urgency to innovate education using mobile technology to 227 educate all citizens to change the world. based on the outcomes of the project, it is recommended that the project be scaled up to reach more students in remote areas and disadvantaged areas. mobile technologies are becoming more powerful and with the use of apps, which students can download in order to learn from anywhere. as technology emerges with wearable devices and 3d glasses, there will be opportunities for using augmented and virtual reality so that students in remote locations and refugee camps can get real life experience in different contexts through virtual worlds (campbell & cameron, 2016). the use of wearable devices and 3d glasses requires minimal power so they are easy to re-charge. learning materials will be available as open education resources and will exist in the cloud so learning can take place there (mitra, 2014). the use of these emerging technologies will revolutionize the delivery of education so that there can be education for all to achieve goal 4 of the sustainable development goals. acknowledgements thanks to reach out to asia (rota), a center of qatar foundation, and the commonwealth of learning (col) for providing funding and support to complete this research project. also, thanks to care international and idea for providing support for the project in pakistan. references ally, m. (2014). increasing access to education for all through mobile learning. vancouver: commonwealth of learning. retrieved from http://oasis.col.org/handle/11599/703 ally, m., & tsinakos, a. (eds.). (2014). increasing access through mobile learning. vancouver: commonwealth of learning. retrieved from http://oasis.col.org/handle/11599/558 ally, m. (ed.). (2009). mobile learning: transforming the delivery of education and training. edmonton: au press retrieved from http://aupress.ca/index.php/books/120155 bestwick, a., & campbell, j.r. (2010). mobile learning for all. exceptional parent, 40(9), 18-20. beeston, l. (2017, february 18). toronto school bans cellphones from class. the star. retrieved from https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2017/02/18/toronto-school-bans-cellphones-from-class.html campbell, c., & cameron, l. (2016). scaffolding learning through the use of virtual worlds. in sue gregory et al (eds.), learning in virtual worlds: research and applications (pp. 241-259). edmonton: au press. col (n.d.). classroom without walls. retrieved from. https://www.col.org/sites/default/files/aptus-brochure.pdf dolan, j.e. (2016). splicing the divide: a review of research on the evolving digital divide among k–12 students. journal of research on technology in education, 48(1), 16-37, doi: 10.1080/15391523.2015.1103147 dold, c.j. (2016). rethinking mobile learning in light of current theories and studies, the journal of academic librarianship, 42(6), 679-686. gaskell, a., & mills, r. (2009). using mobile technology for learner support in open schooling: a european perspective. in s. mishra (ed.), mobile technologies in open schools (pp.65-89). vancouver: commonwealth of learning. retrieved from http://oasis.col.org/handle/11599/78. harper, b., & milman, n.b. (2016). one-to-one technology in k–12 classrooms: a review of the literature from 2004 through 2014. journal of research on technology in education, 48(2), 129-142, doi: 10.1080/15391523.2016.1146564 228 henriksen, d., mishra, p., & fisser, p. (2016). infusing creativity and technology in 21st century education: a systemic view for change. educational technology & society, 19(3), 27–37. mayer, r. e. (2009). multimedia learning (2nd ed.). cambridge; new york: cambridge university press. mitra, s. (2014). the future of schooling: children and learning at the edge of chaos. prospects, 44(4), 547–558. doi 10.1007/s11125-014-9327-9 mohamed, s., chebbi, m & behera, s.k. (2016). pervasive mobile learning system in the new millennium. american journal of educational research, 4(18) 1257-1264. doi: 10.12691/education-4-18-3 naismith, l., lonsdale, p., vavoula, g., & sharples, m. (2006). literature review in mobile technologies and learning. report 11, bristol: futurelab. retrieved from https://lra.le.ac.uk/bitstream/2381/8132/4/%5b08%5dmobile_review%5b1%5d.pdf pew research center. (2017). mobile fact sheet. retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheet/mobile/ philip, t.m. (2017). learning with mobile technologies. communications of the acm, 60(3), 34-36. traxler, j. (2010). distance education and mobile learning: catching up, taking stock. distance education, 31(2), 129-138. authors dr. mohamed ally is a professor in distance education, centre for distance education, and a researcher in the technology enhanced knowledge research institute (tekri) at athabasca university, canada. email: mohameda@athabascau.ca dr. v. balaji is director, knowledge management at the commonwealth of learning, canada. email: vbalaji@col.org anwar abdelbaki is ict for education manager at reach out to asia qatar foundation, qatar. email: abaki@qf.org.qa ricky cheng is knowledge services manager at commonwealth of learning, canada. email: rcheng@col.org microsoft word cossa.docx issn: 2311-1550 2022, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 291-304 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. innovative open schooling in secondary education in mozambique: technological conditions for students to attend distance learning sérgio paulo cossa1 and fernando ramos2 1national institute of distance education, mozambique 2university of aveiro, portugal abstract: this article describes part of the results, taken from ongoing initial research, on the potential of new media in distance education. the article explores the technological conditions that students involved in open and innovative schooling (ois) experience, focusing on the fifteen schools in mozambique. participants were selected by intentional sampling and a mixed method research approach was then followed. the results revealed that, in general, minimum technological conditions were created at schools for the distance learning process, despite some asymmetries between schools and students. these findings are useful for documenting and sharing the real condition under which ois operates in the mozambican context. furthermore, it is key to influencing educational policies in order to include training in digital literacy, as well as strategies for technology distribution for students from the mentioned schools. these are also crucial for an in-depth reflection on the aspects to be improved for a better implementation of ois. keywords: distance education, open and innovative schooling (ois), technological conditions for students to attend distance learning. introduction taking into account the potential in the use of information and communication technologies (ict) in education, within the scope of its ict policy mozambique undertook to: encourage and develop the teaching of computer science in many different levels of the national education system (nes); to promote the use of the internet at schools; to prepare teachers to be ict promoters at schools; and progressively to provide schools with the equipment needed to access and master implementation of the policy mozambique ict (2000). as a result, within the framework of the ict policy, as well as the educational strategic plan, in 2011, mozambique developed an educational technology plan (etp). the etp is simultaneously an overview document on the introduction and impact of ict on the evolution of the teaching model and learning paradigm in mozambique. the etp defines and prioritises the initiatives to implement in the nes which involve ict, as being a source of information for the preparation of annual plans and budgets and a follow-up and monitoring tool (ministério da educação e desenvolvimento humano [minedh], 2019). in its pillar 1 – information and communication technologies, the etp has elected as its operational objective, to leverage the nes through the introduction of technology and internet access, where equipment and connectivity are considered as the basis for the etp development. 292 according to minedh (2019), the etp identified, to be achieved by 2026, two priority areas of action for the achievement of a technological infrastructure that allows the education system to incorporate the new icts: • equipment: equip 100% of classrooms in schools with computers and equipment to support new pedagogical methods, as well as promote the use of computers by students (five students/one pc); and • connectivity: provide internet access to all schools (100% of schools with internet access) and develop local network infrastructures in schools (100% of schools with a local network). however, because of limited availability of resources, the potential of ict in the mozambican education sector is still much less than desired. "the introduction of ict in education is associated with the existence of electrical and telecommunications infrastructures, which require huge investments. although minedh shows sensitivity on the need to include ict in the educational process, namely at curriculum level, for this to be expanded it is important that infrastructural issues are resolved" (minedh, 2019, p. 44). schools and students still do not make adequate use of technology potential for the mediation of the teaching and learning process because of weak penetration of electronic devices and internet access for learning. it is because of this limited availability of resources that the it policy already required a strategy to proceed progressively, mobilising all national capacities and the international community. in light of this, mozambique, like belize, vanuatu, malawi, trinidad and tobago, and zambia, introduced the new model of open and innovative schooling (ois) in 2015, with the aim to satisfy the needs of out-of-school children, as well as of young people and adults who need a second chance to complete their schooling or improve their school results. the operational model of the ois programme consists of building the capacity of teachers to develop and use curriculum-based open educational resource (oer), managing the use of the developed e-content and ensuring the sustainability of the e-learning platform … or offline through col’s aptus device. the ois model focuses on the deployment of aptus to reach communities with limited or no internet access (commonwealth of learning [col], 2018a). the aptus is a low-cost device that allows educators and learners to connect to digital learning platforms and content without the need for grid electricity or internet access. this mini-pc requires only battery power which can be recharged via grid power or solar charger, as needed. it can host up to 128gb of educational content and facilitate interactive, virtual learning anywhere – whether in a remote rural village or on a vast university campus. the result is a “classroom without walls” that can be set up within minutes and accessed by any learner with a laptop, tablet, or mobile device (col, 2018a). the capacity of aptus technology to expand access to digital study materials, to widen access to education, and to improve school performance was confirmed in a recent study by cossa et al. (2021), carried out with students, teachers, and managers, who were involved in piloting the ois in mozambique. on the other hand, the study shows several aspects that need to be improved for successful ois implementation. 293 the four prerequisites for the success of ois are: well-trained teachers, quality learning resources, appropriate use of technology and good management of schools/support centres and, in mozambique, a framework was developed and the prerequisites for successful ois implementation were met (col, 2018b; manyamba et al., 2021). however, there are still no in-depth studies on the level of satisfaction of the different stakeholders on these prerequisites, as well as their effectiveness for the success of the ois. as a result, a study aimed at finding out the main factors that can influence the successful use of new media in the provision of distance education (de) in lower secondary education (es1), in mozambique, focusing on ois, is currently being carried out by a student from universidade de aveiro, within the scope of his doctoral thesis. in this study, to ensure coherence and systematisation between the objectives, the research question, as well as the research problem, were established, as were the key concepts, their dimensions and their respective indicators, based on quivy & campenhoudt's (1998) model of analysis. it was assumed that to opt for the ois among the 15 schools, it was important to consider the technological capacity of students to study at a distance, based on the idea of col and freeman (2003), who argue that for each technology that decision-makers are considering using in their institution, there are some issues that they will have to take into account, as well as some aspects regarding the implications of their technological options towards their students. therefore, this study aims to analyse whether, for the implementation of ois in the 15 schools, the decision makers have taken into consideration the following aspects: • will students have access to the aptus technology? (if not, how will these students get access to the learning content in ois?). • how much will it cost students to purchase devices to get access to the content hosted on aptus; how much will it cost them to use the aptus technology? • do students know how to use aptus technology? • will schools help students acquire the knowledge needed to use aptus technology? therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explore the technological capacity of students to study at a distance, focusing on the ois model currently being implemented in 15 secondary schools in mozambique, based on some initial results of the original ongoing research. methods the data examined in this paper, were drawn from the original research findings, collected from a survey by hard copy questionnaire of 327 students, in september 2021. given that intact groups already exist, the participants were selected by convenience sampling (coutinho, 2015). according to the initial plan, designed for the first study, each school would support 20 students, making a total sample of 300 students. thus, pedagogical technicians at the central level, who assisted us with the data collection in 15 ois schools, took 22 student surveys to the schools, two surveys being used for contingencies. considering that de students are only present at the resource centres (rc) on the days scheduled for face-to-face tutorial sessions, the criterion used for the selection of students participating in the study was based on the order of arrival of those who had 294 scheduled face-to-face tutorial sessions on the day of data collection at the rc. we believe that this criterion conditioned the variation in the number of participants per school. however, emília daússe secondary school in inhambane had a different criterion. their school managers made a specific schedule with the students for their participation in the study and, as a result, 46 students were present at the rc on the day of data collection. and, to include all students, and with the permission of the data collection team, the school decided to reproduce additional questionnaires for the remaining students. therefore, this was the main reason for the high number of students attending compared to other schools. the difference in criteria between emília daússe secondary school in inhambane and the other 14 schools, was based on the fact that our sample was made up of participants we had access to in order to collect data in different schools. this is suitable for coutinho’s (2015) criteria on convenience sampling. the data collected were analysed through a thematic content analysis method, and descriptive and non-inferential statistics were also applied in the evaluation of the responses to the questionnaires, due to the small sample size, with an average of 22 students per school. all similar responses were grouped into categories that reflected various topics related to the experiences, opinions and realities of the students enrolled in ois in mozambique. findings and discussion comparing the participation of students per school, the results show that emília daússe secondary school of inhambane, had the highest number of participating students 46 (14%); followed by nampula, xai-xai and manhiça secondary schools, with 22 students each (7%); the secondary schools of macombe, machava-sede and noroeste 1, participated with 21 students each (6%); the secondary schools of pemba, emília daússe de changara, eduardo mondlane de gorongosa, and manjacaze, with 20 students each (about 6%); and finally, the secondary schools of cuamba, namialo, nicoadala and samora machel, with 18 students each (about 5%). preparation on how to study at a distance the results showed that, overall, in the fifteen ois schools, 72% of students had preparation on how to study at a distance, and 28% did not. the results have revealed that a significant percentage of students had preparation on how to study at a distance, although we believe that this number of students cannot be considered ideal. all students were supposed to have an orientation on how to study at a distance, since "the implementation of the ois was preceded by training tutors and managers of support and learning centres in matters related to skills development to enhance the tutoring of enrolled students in the secondary distance learning program (sdlp). the covered topics included pedagogical strategies to support active learning through the integration of technology supported by aptus device" (col, 2020). considering the results per school, it was found that nicoadala secondary school, with 100%, had the highest proportion of students who had had some preparation in how to study at a distance, while the eduardo mondlane secondary school in gorongosa, with 25%, had the lowest proportion, among all the schools, as shown in figure 1. 295 figure 1: percentage of students who had preparation on how to study at a distance per school based on a cascade training model, a manager from each rc participated in a centrally organised training session on preparing students to study at a distance, and in turn, this teacher/manager from the rc had the task of replicating this training session for his/her colleagues, who were appointed to mediate the teaching learning process (tlp) through de in the school. it is believed that this cascade training model has the advantage of reaching a larger number of teachers in a short time, and of being less costly. however, when there is no immediate follow-up and support in schools by the central level body to ensure this cascading training is carried out as soon as the rc managers return to schools, this may be a flawed strategy. it is presumed that such a lack of follow-up and monitoring of the capacity-building training being replicated in schools may have been the cause of this proportional difference in student s’ preparation to study at a distance between different ois schools. presumably, each school has acted according to the commitment of its managers with respect to de implementation, and not based on a centrally-defined standard for monitoring and supporting schools in their preparation for the introduction of the new model of ois. access to a computer or other electronic device the overall result (figure 2) shows that 61% of students had access to a computer or other electronic device, and 29% did not have access. the remaining 10% of students did not respond to this question, so their situation is unknown. among those who had access to a computer or other electronic device, 33% had access at home, and 28% at school. among the fifteen schools, nampula secondary school stood out, with 100%, the highest percentage of students with access to a computer or other electronic device, while eduardo mondlane secondary school in gorongosa had the lowest percentage of students, 5%, with access to a computer or other electronic device. 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 120% cu am ba pe mb a na mp ula na mi alo ni co ad ala sa mo ra m ac he l em ília d .-c ha ng ar a m ac om be ed ua rd o m . g or on go sa em ília d .-in ha mb an e xa i-x ai m an jac az e m an hiç a m ac ha va -se de no ro es te 1 pr op or tio n did you have any preparation on how to study at a distance? yes no 296 however, machava-sede and noroeste 1 secondary schools had the highest percentage of students, both with 48%, with access to a computer or other electronic device at home, while at eduardo mondlane secondary school in gorongosa, no student had access to a device at home. results show that nampula secondary school stood out with 78% of students who had access to a computer at school, and eduardo mondlane secondary school in gorongosa had the lowest percentage, where no student had access to a computer or other electronic device at school. these results may be due to the unaffordable cost of the devices, as it remains a significant barrier to access to electronic devices in mozambique. our perception is that there is a need for an immediate intervention by the mozambican government in subsidising access to electronic devices, among other options, such as philanthropic acts to support access and their use on behalf of education. figure 2: students with access to a computer or electronic device per school type of electronic device which they have access to concerning this, the students, had the possibility of ticking more than one option. the fact that the results (figure 3) show that a smartphone is the device which students have more access to, at 53%, confirms other data from the national statistics institute (ine) (2019), which showed that, in mozambique the percentage of the population with mobile phone ownership, at 28%, is higher than the population with access to a computer (26%) or to a tablet (19%). the highest proportion of students who had access to a computer/laptop (67%) is in nampula secondary school, while nicoadala and samora machel secondary schools, stood out when results revealed that no student, from these two schools, had access to a computer/laptop. 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% cuamba pemba nampula namialo nicoadala samora machel emília d.-changara macombe eduardo m. gorongosa emília d.-inhambane xai-xai manjacaze manhiça machava-sede noroeste 1 do you have access to a computer or other electronic device? do not answer i do not have access at school at home 297 data from ine (2019) indicate that in mozambique overall, the percentage of the population actively using a computer/tablet use was 4% 11% in areas urban and 1% in rural areas, respectively. maputo city stood out for having the highest proportion (25%). from these data, it could be predicted that not all students involved in ois would have access to a computer/tablet. curious is the non-existence of a correlation between the location of the schools, urban or rural area, and the number of students who had access to a computer/tablet. so, considering data from ine (2019), it was supposed that the students from noroeste 1 secondary school were those with more access to a computer/tablet, due to its location in maputo city, the capital of the country, compared to the students from other schools. contrary to the expectation, the results showed that the students from nampula secondary school had more access. another curious finding is that mocombe secondary school, a non-urban school, had the highest proportion of students who have access to a tablet (25%), compared to other schools located in urban areas. in contrast, the results showed that no student at samora machel secondary school, a school located in an urban area, had access to a tablet. regarding access to a smartphone, the data revealed a contradiction between the question, "do you have access to a computer or other electronic device?" with the following question, "what kind of electronic device do you have access to?" the contradiction lies in the fact that the results showed that eduardo mondlane secondary school in gorongosa had the highest proportion of students (86%) with access to a smartphone, and those were the same students who replied ‘no’ to the question, "do you have access to a computer or other electronic device?” perhaps, for this question, there might have been a misinterpretation of the term "electronic device" by the participants, consequently, they might not have known that a smartphone is an electronic device, thus, the reason for this contradiction. the fact that no students had access to a smartphone in samora machel secondary school, according to the data, can probably be explained by the organisational matters of some mozambican schools. the introduction of many new programmes in schools, especially those which are centrally decided, are usually accompanied by a package of material and financial resources for their implementation, and, as a result, it may have been thought that as ois is a new programme and centrally designed, in the same way, devices would be distributed to students, which, in our opinion, should have been the case. we, therefore, suspect that the answers given by the students may have been influenced by this reasoning. 298 figure 3: type of electronic device that students have access to per school access to a device with an internet connection results (figure 4) revealed that 69% of students had access to a device with an internet connection, and 31% did not have access to the internet. the school with the highest proportion of students with internet access (13%) was emília daússe secondary school in inhambane. among students with access to an internet-enabled device, the results showed that 18% had an internet connection at home, 26% at school, and 25% on their mobile device. the secondary schools of machava-sede and manhiça, both with 45%, had the highest proportion of students who had an internet connection at home, while at emília daússe secondary school in inhambane, no student had an internet connection at home. for students who had an internet connection at school, the results revealed that nampula secondary school, with 91%, had the highest proportion, and at nicoadala secondary school, no student had an internet connection at school. regarding the internet connection on their mobile device, eduardo mondlane secondary school in gorongosa, with 86%, had the highest proportion of students, and nampula secondary school had no student with an internet connection on a mobile device. 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% cuamba nampula nicoadala emília d.-changara eduardo m. gorongosa xai-xai manhiça noroeste 1 what electronic device do you have access to? none smartphone tablet computer/laptop 299 figure 4: students with access to an internet-connected device per school the results shown in figure 4 are not far behind what we expected when we started this study, as the accessibility report 2021 (alliance for affordable internet, 2021) indicates that mozambique is ranked 51st (out of 72 studied countries) in the accessibility drivers index (adi), in terms of the infrastructure country sub-index (35.23), and access sub-index (49.45). the drop from the 43rd position, which it previously held, in this ranking is an indicator of the slow pace of progress of policies and regulations towards greater internet accessibility. given the potential for technology enabled learning (tel) in the internet connected environment, in terms of multimedia content, interaction, synchronous and asynchronous learning opportunities, there is a need to accelerate innovative approaches to create programmes that can subsidise internet access, and expansion of school or community wifi, as options to connect students. it must be highlighted that, it is exactly in these areas where open schooling is critical to ensure that children, youth and adults out of the school system have adequate access to learning opportunities that can provide a sustainable livelihood. therefore, improving access to technology in such contexts is a priority, and the learning process, enabled by technology, can strengthen current open schooling models to increase learning opportunities and the quality of learning experiences (mays, 2020). quality of internet connectivity used results revealed that 41% of the students considered the quality of the internet to be very good, 35% good, 10% poor, and 14% very poor. the school with the highest proportion of students who considered internet connectivity as very good was nampula secondary school, (91%), and the school with the highest proportion of students who considered internet connectivity as very poor was cuamba secondary school, (38%) (figure 5). 300 figure 5: ois students' perception about the quality of the internet current skill level in using mobile phone, tablet or computer technologies for learning results revealed that 33% of the students, considered their level of skill in using mobile phones, tablets or computers as very good; 40% considered it as good, 16% as weak, and 11% as very weak. cuamba secondary school had the highest proportion of students who considered their current skills in using mobile phones, tablets, or computers for learning as very good, at 47%; and nampula secondary school had the highest proportion (38%) of students who considered their current level of skills in using technologies as very weak (figure 6). we think that the pace of introduction, the ois student´s familiarity with the technology of aptus and the accessibility of immediate support are significant contributors to the successful adoption of ois. 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 120% cuamba nampula nicoadala emília d.-changara eduardo m. gorongosa xai-xai manhiça noroeste 1 how do you rate the quality of the internet connectivity you use? very weak weak good very good 301 figure 6: ois students' perceptions about their level of skills in using devices for learning using the internet to carry out research results revealed that 30% of the students used the internet to carry out research very often, 33% used it frequently, 14% occasionally, and 23% never. secondary schools from pemba and namialo, both with 13%, had the highest proportion of students who used the internet to carry out research very frequently. emília daússe secondary school in inhambane had the highest proportion of students (24%) who used the internet frequently as well as occasionally (22%); and cuamba secondary school had the highest proportion of students, 12%, who had never used the internet for research. use of internet to communicate with colleagues results revealed that 35% of the students used the internet very often to communicate with their classmates, 22% used it frequently, 15% occasionally, and 27% never used the internet to communicate with their colleagues. emília daússe secondary school in inhambane had the highest proportion of students, 18%, who used the internet very often, and, also, the highest proportion of students who used it frequently, 23%, and occasionally, 15%. the highest proportion of students who had never used the internet to communicate with their classmates belonged to cuamba secondary school, 13%. use of internet to communicate with teachers results revealed that 20% of students used it very often to communicate with their teachers, 24% used it frequently, 18% occasionally, and 37% had never used the internet to communicate with their 302 teachers. these results by schools revealed that emília daússe secondary school in inhambane had the highest proportion of students, 18%, who had used the internet very frequently to communicate with their teachers, 27% frequently, and 25% occasionally. cuamba secondary school had the highest proportion, 13%, of students who had never used the internet to communicate with their teachers. conclusion this article aimed to explore the technological conditions for students to participate in distance learning, focusing on ois, underway in fifteen secondary schools in mozambique. the main findings indicate that, overall, there is a considerable proportion of students without any preparations for elearning (28%); without any access to a computer or electronic device (29%); without access to a device with an internet connection (31%), who consider the quality of the internet as weak (24%); without any skills in using mobile phones, tablets or computers (27%); who have never used the internet for research (23%), or to communicate with their colleagues (27%), or with teachers (37%). findings related to these indicators vary considerably between schools, that is, we did not find any standard performance in the fifteen schools which clearly identifies them as ois schools. the preparation of students for distance learning, the digital literacy of students, the use of aptus, and the distribution of mobile devices for students are elements that were excluded in the implementation phase of the ois, although it seems clear they are essential components without which none of the proposed benefits in the use of aptus technology for learning would be achieved. digital literacy does not only improve access to higher quality educational materials but it is also a gateway to more opportunities. for children and young people, these experiences and skills are crucial for their ability to survive and thrive in the globalised world. therefore, digital empowerment needs to be intentionally integrated into all technology-based education initiatives" (wiebe et al., 2022). consequently, there are challenges for ois implementation regarding e-learning preparation, management and capacity building of all stakeholders, provision of enough devices, and provision of the internet to prevent learners and the school community from rejecting technology-mediated education and denying its adoption. furthermore, the ois goals need to be explained in more detail to students and school communities, as this may pave the way for subsequent success as the current beneficiaries of ois become advocates of technologies use in education provision. the provision of de, using technologies, has increasingly been creating innovations, improving access and opening opportunities. what is known, however, is that it is not spontaneous but rather the result of a breakthrough, a lot of scientific research and many innovations. therefore, we believe that the findings in this study could be useful for documenting and sharing the real condition under which open and innovative schooling operates in the mozambican context. furthermore, they are also crucial for an in-depth reflection on the aspects to be improved for a better implementation in the later stages. we concur with mays (2020) that, "there is no one perfect model for open schooling; each country will need to tailor the model to match their priorities" (p. 20). acknowledgement: we would like to thank professor jossias de arminda chauque and the school community of the fifteen ois in mozambique. 303 references alliance for affordable internet. (2021). the affordability report 2021. https://a4ai.org/affordabilityreport/report/2021/ col. (2018a). aptus: transforming the teaching-learning experience with low-cost innovative technology. col. (2018b). mozambique 2015-2018: country report. commonwealth of learning. http://hdl.handle.net/11599/874 col. (2020). mozambique 2018-2020 country highlights. commonwealth of learning. http://hdl.handle.net/11599/3541 col & freeman, r. (2003). planeamento de sistemas de educação à distância: um manual para decisores. commonwealth of learning. http://www.abed.org.br › planejamentosistemas cossa, s. p., nakala, l. p. m., & cherinda, n. a. i. e. p. (2021). open and innovative schooling: an implementation experience in fifteen secondary schools across mozambique. journal of learning for development, 8(3), 601-610. https://jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/article/view/580 coutinho, c. p. (2015). metodologia de investigação em ciências sociais e humanas: teoria e prática. (e.a.s.a., ed.) (2ª edição). coimbra: almedina. ine. (2019). iii recenseamento geral da população e habitação de 2017. http://www.ine.gov.mz manyamba, c., phundulu, m., vally, z., muchesa, e., & mosselson, m. (2021). social return on investment analysis of support from the commonwealth of learning for the open and innovative schooling model. commonwealth of learning. http://oasis.col.org/handle/11599/3934 mays, t. (2020). the need for and nature of open schooling. in t. mays & k. singh (eds.), addressing the learning needs of out-of-school children and youths through the expansion of open schooling (pp. 9-46). commonwealth of learning. http://hdl.handle.net/11599/3731 minedh. (2019). as tecnologias de informação e comunicação a potenciarem o ensino em moçambique, 2ª versão, maputo. http://www.mined.gov.mz/legislacao/documents/plano_tecnologico _educacao_2a_versao.pdf quivy, r., & campenhoudt, l. van (2005). manual de investigação em ciências socias: trajetos. in g. valente (ed.), manual de investigação em ciências sociais (4a). grandiva. http://www.grandiva.pt wiebe, a., crisostomo, l., feliciano, r., & anderson, t. (2022). comparative advantages of offline digital technology for remote indigenous classrooms in guatemala (2019-2020). journal of learning for development, 9(1), 55-72. https://jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/article/view/607 authors: sérgio paulo cossa is a multimedia in education phd student at the university of aveiro. he has a master’s degree in planning and management from unesco international institute of educational planning, france; a postgraduate professional certificate in educational planning, economics and finance from the university of the witwatersrand, south africa; a postgraduate in educational management and administration from the university eduardo mondlane, mozambique, and a degree in physical education and sports teaching from the pedagogical university, mozambique. his main research interests are related to multimedia in distance education, innovative open schools, and digital collaborative learning tools. his professional career has mostly been related to secondary schools teaching since 1995, as an education planner since 2004 and recently (2018) as a col focal point in mozambique, coordinator of open schooling innovative in mozambique and digimedia digital media and interaction research centre phd student (2021). email: sergiocossa@ua.pt and https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9379-7463 304 fernando ramos holds a degree in electrotechnical engineering and telecommunications (1979) and a phd in electrotechnical engineering/telecommunications systems (1992) from the university of aveiro. he has been a full professor at the university of aveiro since 2003. expert in digital media, elearning and distance education, he held teaching, research, scientific coordination and management positions in the department of electronics and telecommunications (1982-2000), department of communication and art (2000-2021) and in the centre for multimedia and distance education (1998-2009) of the university of aveiro, having also carried out and coordinated several research and cooperation projects as an international consultant, namely in collaboration with higher education institutions in the portuguese-speaking african countries and timor-lorosa'e. he served as president of the commission for distance learning of a3es – agency for assessment and accreditation of higher education (2020-2021). he is currently the rector of universidade portucalense. email: fernando.ramos@ua.pt cite this paper as: cossa, s. p., & ramos, f. (2022). innovative open schooling in secondary education in mozambique: technological conditions for students to attend distance learning. journal of learning for development, 9(2), 291-304. microsoft word musyimi.docx issn: 2311-1550 2021, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 182-191 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. developing skills to unlock kenya’s industrial growth: the influence of provision of modern teaching and learning equipment in tvet in kenya caroline musyimi coast institute of technology, voi, kenya abstract: this study explores the influence of modern teaching and learning equipment on improving vocational education quality and employment rates and its long-term effect on kenya’s journey to achieve industrialisation by the year 2030. the study adopted a cross-sectional survey research design. stratified random sampling was used to sample 172 students. data was collected using questionnaires and analysed through the theoretical lenses of globalisation and vocationalism. the results show that the provision of modern equipment has improved kenyan tvet classrooms to meet industrial standards and allowed the development of essential skills. also, there has been improved collaboration between tvet institutions and local industries, exposing tvet students to the real labour market while still in college. the tvet students had also improved confidence in themselves and they had acquired employability skills. the findings of this study further revealed that the government of kenya has increased its efforts in revitalizing the tvet institutions with modern teaching and learning equipment to improve the quality of training in those institutions. keywords: technical vocational education and training, teaching and learning equipment, vocational education quality, industrial standards. introduction technical vocational education and training (tvet) is education and training which offers knowledge and skills for employment. unesco, 2006 defines tvet as an educational process characterised, in addition to general education, by the study of technology and related sciences, practical skills acquisition, attitudes, understanding and knowledge relevant to occupants in various economic sectors and social life. technical and vocational education is an educational process which involves, in addition to general education, the study of technologies and related sciences and acquisition of practical skills, attitudes, understanding and knowledge relevant to occupations in various sectors of economic and social life (okoye & arimonu, 2016). over the years, tvet has received recognition worldwide as a major driving force in both socio-economic growth and development in technology. for instance, during the united nations education scientific and cultural organization (unesco) third international congress on tvet in shanghai, china in 2012, the representatives present concluded that transforming tvet should be a top priority in the need to build greener societies and tackle global unemployment. emphasis was placed on updating and developing mechanisms and tools to identify current and future skills needs, to ensure the relevance of tvet programmes to rapidly changing labour markets, economies and societies (bukit, 2012). consequently, this has obligated the policy makers to focus on improving and maintaining the quality 183 of tvet programs to ensure that learners attain the relevant skills that formed the bedrock for poverty reduction, economic recovery, and sustainable development (king, 2009; hollander & mar, 2009). china serves as an example of a country in which growth has been driven by tvet policy actions. china has experienced a decrease in the number of people employed in agriculture by 60% and an increase in the number of people employed in manufacturing and construction, and services and tourism by 25.2% and 32.7%, respectively (heti, 2013). kenya, on the other hand, is still experiencing a high unemployment rate due to unresponsive tvet systems, despite the two being developing countries. this is due to the fact that the tvet sector in kenya has been experiencing several hindrances towards the achievement of its goal; the most pressing ones being: a mismatch between the skills offered in tvet institutions and the actual labour market demand — and this leaves most of the graduates unemployed—and, secondly, in most of tvet institutions in kenya, curriculum delivery is theory based, unlike the desired combination of theory and practical mode; finally, the tvet institutions are under-equipped and, thus, they continue to use old technologies which are no longer relevant in industry (moest, 2014). however, in the recent past, tvet policy reforms have gained momentum, drawing on a policy framework, called reforming education in kenya: sessional paper no. 14 of 2012, which resonates with the kenya vision 2030, postulating that kenya should be fully industrialised by the year 2030 (maina, 2015). these reforms have seen kenya partnering with different countries, including china, in a bid to revitalise their tvet institutions. this study, therefore, has articulated the globalisation and vocationalism theory in an effort to understand the importance of investing in tvet for economic growth. after over five years of investment in tvet, the kenyan government holds that the tvet is doing well. however, very few researchers have ventured into providing empirical evidence, except for a study by musyimi, malechwanzi and heng (2018), which explored qualitatively the impacts of modern equipment. to fill this knowledge gap, the present study explores the impacts of modern teaching and learning in promoting the quality of vocational education for employment generation and poverty reduction in kenya. objectives of the study the specific objectives of the study were stated as follows: 1. to determine the influence of modern teaching and learning on the development of employability skills of tvet graduates in kenya. 2. to determine whether the availability of modern equipment could improve learners’ academic performance in tvet in kenya. consequently, the following two research questions guided the study: 1. what is the influence of modern teaching and learning on the development of employability skills of tvet graduates in kenya? 2. how does the availability of modern equipment improve learners’ academic performance in tvet in kenya? 184 significance of the study the findings of the study could be useful in a number of ways. firstly, they could assist the ministry of education in making policy decisions on resource allocations to tvet institutions to enhance the quality of technology education for industrial development. secondly, tvet institutions could, based on the findings, adopt measures that will optimise the available resources for effective teaching and learning. literature review conceptual framework technology is defined as an application of scientific knowledge to equip society with the needed and desired skills and knowledge to change and manipulate the human environment (sönmez, 2014); while technology in education is defined as the designs and environments that influence learners (nanjappa & grant, 2003). in our day-to-day lives, technology has brought fundamental structural changes that can be integral to achieving significant improvements in productivity. technology also has the power to transform teaching by ushering in a new model of connected teaching. it is generally accepted that appropriate use of technological applications in higher education can help instructors to structure more active learning activities. research shows that active engagement in the learning process helps to motivate students and enhance their learning outcomes (gleason, peeters, targoff, karr, mcbane, kelley, thoma & denetchew, 2011). new technologies can facilitate active engagement in learning by reducing the amount of class time in which students sit passively listening to lectures. instructional resources and tvet outcomes the assumption that curriculum and teaching have an impact on students’ outcomes has long been held as the truth. however, it is becoming more apparent that instructional resources have influence on students’ outcomes. there is substantial evidence that instructional resources have an effect on students’ learning and success. it is generally accepted that instructional resources improve the understanding of subject matter and the knowledge retention of learners. it is for this reason that most developing countries like kenya, ethiopia and nigeria, among others have resolved for the implementation of competency based training (cbt) (geressu, 2017; michael & isaac, 2015). one of the important aspects of skill-based training is that learning concentrates on the development of reallife skills and competencies. for successful implementation of cbt, it is important to emphasize the need for up-to-date teaching and learning resources to enhance the acquisition of the skills needed in the labour market. one of the main outcomes of a college education is students’ cognitive or intellectual development. arum and roksa (2011) posited that the main aim of instruction is to help students learn to solve problems and think critically. due to the changing nature of the world of work, the nature of problems changes every day and for tvet graduates to be able to cope with the changing labour market, they need to have higher order thinking skills. previous research has shown that instructional resources have an effect on the learners’ cognitive ability (nwike & catherine, 2013). learning technologies put the learner in control of the instructional process, thus, ensuring that the learner determines the learning goals, and the learner decides when goals are satisfied and when new goals are in order (halverson & smith, 2009). technology has been argued to have a positive impact on our way of thinking by making us more intelligent and, thus, the main purpose of incorporating 185 technology in learning is not to bring about change in the ready-made world but change in the students’ cognitive skills. another important outcome is the skill-based outcomes of tvet learners. skills are critical in the economic development of nations since, as the economies move from dependence on first industry, which is agricultural production, to manufacturing and service industries, workers and enterprises must be able to acquire new technical, entrepreneurial, and social skills (asian development bank, 2009). tvet institutions are expected to play a pivotal role in skills development, hence, promoting the necessary skills, knowledge and expertise needed for more sustainable societies and greener economies. according to dunbar (2011), skills development refers to a shift from an emphasis on supply-led systems, which dictate the mode of learning and the pathways to be followed, to an emphasis on the acquisition of skills required in the labour market. this change of prominence alters the relationship between skill acquisition and the labour market, allowing for a greater range of types of learning environment, flexibility of content and engagement. the main issues in tvet in developing countries relate to outdated curricula, which is often out-of-touch with current market needs. in most cases, tvet learners have been trained in skills which are no longer relevant to the current labour market, hence, creating a disconnect between training and employment opportunities (pompa, 2014). to ensure a smooth transition of young people from formal training to work, tvet institutions should be in a position to offer a viable path, which can be possible only through the designing of work-oriented tvet programs. theoretical framework this study is hinged on two theories: globalisation and vocationalism. globalisation is described as a set of forces that affect the social, economic and political aspects of life. this set of changes has affected the world of work, hence, calling for a change in the kind of skills required in the world of work. vocationalism is discussed as an emerging trend in the developing tvet sector, which is a response to the global competition demand driven by workforces needed for a knowledge-based economy. globalisation, or the joint, world-wide expansion of the world’s economy, is a popularly debated topic among economists. globalisation shakes all aspects of life; economically, politically, and socially. one of the things globalisation has been credited with is that it has helped in the creation of diversified and flexible learning systems and improved the quality of communication systems that have led to increased efficiency in the delivery of higher education (machingambi, 2014). with a fast-changing world, both economically and socially, education has been recognised as the basic means of promoting skills needed for globalisation. globalisation theorists argue that despite the fact that higher education systems are unique to different nations, depending on their needs, global forces have brought about a shift in the nature and purpose of higher education (kandiko, 2010; machingambi, 2014). this shift is evident in many ways, ranging from the massive expansion of higher education, changes in the higher education curricula and broadening of the providers of higher education. according to grubb and lazerson (2005), globalisation in education is like an education gospel that diffuses education internationally. there has been a substantial convergence of educational systems worldwide. starting with different educational backgrounds, political systems and economies, both developed and developing countries have developed similar ideologies, institutions and curricula (grubb, 2006). with the changing culture, economy, and technology, kenya needs to place herself on the world map, through ensuring that the young people have high-quality skills for prosperity. a 186 well-equipped tvet system plays a vital role in the economic growth and development of a country and a well-trained and motivated workforce maximises output to expedite socio-economic development. concurrently, vocationalism postulates that educational systems should be guided by the needs of the economic system so as to ensure a supply of skilled labour needed for national and global economies (bills, 2009). technological advancements in the world today have greatly affected the labour market with low-skill, manual workers being those most affected through either the elimination of jobs they held initially or the introduction of new skill requirements for those jobs. industrial processes have been greatly affected by technological advancement, including process control instrumentation, use of robots, and cad and cam tools. this has led to a call for a change in classroom instructional methods so as to guarantee a supply of personnel with skills that match the changing labour market. vocationalism calls for educational reorientation by curriculum planners, policy makers, teachers, parents, students and all stakeholders in the education industry around the globe to make education vital in the preparation of learners to meet the needs of the labour market. the tvet education system of kenya has been deeply influenced by the country’s long-term development goal under the name vision 2030, which greatly requires skilled manpower to achieve and compete in the international arena. methods this section presents the design adopted for the study, description of the research participants, the administration and validation of research instruments, and data analysis and ethical considerations that guided the study. research design this study employed a cross-sectional survey research design, and the data was collected using a survey questionnaire. participants the target population comprised 172 students from three tvet institutions which had received modern teaching and learning equipment. proportional stratified random sampling was used to select students from each of the three tvet institutions. the sample was comprised of 32% females and 68% males. in terms of age, the majority of the students were below the age of 24 years, representing 86% of the total number of students, whereas those above the age of 24 years represented only 14%. the age is considered normal since students completing secondary education in kenya usually transit to post-secondary institutions at ages slightly above 18. instrument validation and administration questionnaires were used to collect data. other than questions seeking demographic information, and open-ended questions in the questionnaire, all other questions were in form of three-point or fivepoint rating scales. the questionnaire solicited background information, information on the adequacy of physical facilities, and teaching and learning resources, and how they influenced the quality of learning. the questionnaires were piloted to 30 respondents, who never took part in the main study. the instruments were contentand face-validated by subjecting them to thorough scrutiny from experts in curriculum development. the instruments had an acceptable internal consistency of 0.732, 187 0.884, 0.834 and 0.857 respectively, which was above the threshold value of 0.70 for consistent and reliable scale (peterson, 1994). data analysis and ethical considerations descriptive statistics were used to analyse quantitative data by filling frequencies and percentages presented in a table. open ended questions were analysed qualitatively in narrative form and also presented qualitatively. the study adapted the acceptable research ethics; the researchers obtained a research permit from the national council of science and technology (kenya), sought consent of the directors of the community colleges, teachers and students and assured them that the confidentiality of data, anonymity, and their privacy and safety would be observed and maintained. findings and discussion this section presents and discusses the findings of the study based on the two research questions as follows. influence of the new teaching and learning equipment on students’ academic performance the study sought to determine the influence of modern t&l equipment on tvet students’ academic performance in kenya. from the findings of the study, as shown in table 1, a majority of the students indicated that a practical learning period had helped them improve in their academic achievement (mean = 3.96). this is in agreement with a study by nwike and catherine (2013), which concluded that instructional materials enable students to enhance theoretical knowledge with hands-on skills through practice, hence, improving their learning and performance. further, the findings revealed that a majority of the students were satisfied with their performance (mean = 4.05) and believed they were self-driven (mean = 4.17). it is generally accepted that the incorporation of technologies in teaching can facilitate active engagement in learning by reducing the amount of class time in which students sit passively listening to lectures. research shows that active engagement in the learning process helps to motivate students and enhance their learning outcomes (gleason et al, 2011). moreover, from the findings of this study, it was revealed that students were happy to study in the field they specialised in (mean = 4.16) and they were confident to recommend tvet courses to others (mean = 4.17). this, therefore, shows that the tvet institutions are increasingly gaining a good image different from the long-held belief that tvet institutions are left only for failures. it is also a clear indication that the new teaching and learning equipment motivates students to learn and believe in themselves. this is in line with the findings of a study by muhammad, bakar, mijinyawa, & halabi (2014), that concluded that there exists a strong relationship between motivation and students’ academic performance. further, the study revealed that students’ motivation serves as a yardstick in predicting their performance. 188 table 1: teaching and learning equipment and students’ academic performance descriptive statistics n minimum maximum mean std. deviation my practical learning period has helped me to improve in my academic achievement 172 1 5 3.96 .798 i feel i have become a higher order thinker as a result of this course 172 2 5 4.13 .598 i feel more self-reliant as a result of this course 172 1 5 4.10 .687 i enjoy working on my assignments 172 1 5 4.02 .738 i am able to complete my assignments on time 172 1 5 4.01 .801 i feel that my performance in the tvet program is good so far 172 1 6 4.05 .771 i am a self-driven student 172 1 5 4.17 .794 if asked i would recommend tvet courses to others 172 1 5 4.16 .788 i am happy that i chose to study in this particular field 172 1 5 4.17 .736 valid n (listwise) 172 influence of modern teaching and learning equipment on learners’ employability skills development with respect to the students’ perceived employability, as shown in table 2, a majority of the students indicated that they used the workshop only once in a week (mean = 3.36). this is perceived as a problem since tvet education is supposed to be practical, skill acquisition-oriented, meaning that tvet students should spend more time in the workshops. in recent times, there has been an emphasis on tvet institutions in many developing countries to concentrate on training that will equip learners with concrete skills that are required in the job market unlike the traditional way of abstract learning (jones, 2005). for instance, tvet institutions in kenya are expected to play a vital role in ensuring the supply of skilled personnel to industry and the informal sector. this would be possible only if tvet institutes concentrate more on a curriculum that is more practical than theory-based. nevertheless, a majority of the students believed that their capability to work in industry had improved (mean = 4.05) and that their practical learning would promote their future employment (mean = 4.30). this finding is in line with the widely accepted belief that education and training for productive employment is vital for economic and social development. further, research by ferej, kitainge, & ooko (2012) proposed that for a country to succeed in skills development, matching the skills supplied with the demand in the labour market is very important. 189 additionally, the students were confident of getting a job after their graduation (mean = 4.19); and they were confident to attend a job interview (mean = 4.06). this shows that whatever they were being taught in college was relevant with the expectations of the labour market, which is in agreement with the theory of vocationalism belief that educational systems should be guided by the needs of the economic system, so as to ensure a supply of skilled labour needed for national and global economies (bills, 2009). according to a study by musyimi et al (2018), kenya has emulated china by adopting vocationalism in education for faster economic development. vocationalism has been credited for china’s rapid economic growth in a period of close to four decades, which has seen her become the second largest economy in the world. table 2: teaching and learning equipment and students’ employability skills development descriptive statistics n minimum maximum mean std. deviation how often do you use your school workshop 172 1 6 3.36 1.099 my capability to work in the industry has improved 172 1 5 4.05 .850 i believe that practical learning will promote my future employment 172 1 5 4.30 .758 i am confident of getting a job after finishing my course 172 1 5 4.19 .902 i feel confident to attend a job interview in the industries 172 1 5 4.06 .832 specialist knowledge 172 1 5 3.82 .809 critical analysis 172 2 5 4.00 .618 logical thinking 172 2 5 4.08 .613 interpersonal skills 172 1 5 4.15 .706 ability to work in a team 172 1 5 4.07 .957 valid n (listwise) 172 conclusion based on these findings, tvet institutions in kenya have been revitalised through the provision of modern teaching and learning equipment, which has led to vocationalisation of tvet education in kenya, hence, bringing about the provision of quality training leading to employment. also, there has been improved collaboration between tvet institutions and local industries, which has led to the provision of industrial attachment, therefore, ensuring that tvet students get exposed to the real labour market while still in college. further the provision of modern teaching and learning equipment has changed the image of tvet in kenya due to the improved quality of the programs offered in tvet. the tvet students have also improved confidence in themselves as they had acquired employability skills. 190 references arum, r. & roksa, j. (2011). limited learning on college campuses. springer science+business media, llc, 203-207. doi:10.1007/s12115-011-9417-8 asian development bank (2009). good practice in technical and vocational education and training. http://hdl.handle.net/11540/2410 bills, d. (2009). vocationalism. in a. furlong (ed.), handbook of youth and young adulthood: new perspectives and agendas (1st ed., pp. 127–134). routledge. bukit, m. (2012). strengthening tvet teacher education: report of the unesco-unevoc online conference. paper presented at the unesco-unevoc international centre for technical and vocational education and training, bonn, germany. dunbar, m. (2011). engaging the private sector in skills development. https://www.norrag.org/fileadmin/events/oxford/oxcon_2013_dunbar.pdf ferej, b. a., kitainge, k., & ooko, z. (2012). reform of tvet teacher education in kenya: overcoming the challenges of quality and relevance. paper presented at the paper presented at the triennale of the association for the development of education in africa (adea), ouagadougou, burkina faso. geressu, b. s. (2017). impact of competence-based training on employability of technical and vocational graduates in ethiopia. tuning journal for higher education, 5(1), 101-119. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.18543/tjhe5(1)-2017pp101-119 gleason, b. l., peeters, m. j., resman-targoff, b. h., karr, s., mcbane, s., kelley, k., & denetclaw, t. h. (2011). an active-learning strategies primer for achieving ability-based educational outcomes. american journal of pharmaceutical education, 75 (9), 186. doi:10.5688/ajpe759186 grubb, w. n. (2006). vocationalism and the differentiation of tertiary education: lessons from us community colleges, 30(1), 27-42. https://doi.org/10.1080/03098770500431973 grubb, w. n., & lazerson, m. (2005). the education gospel and the role of vocationalism in american education. american journal of education, 111(3), 297-319. doi:10.1086/429112 halverson, r., & smith, a. (2009). how new technologies have (and have not) changed teaching and learning in schools. journal of computing in teacher education, 26(2). https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej907118.pdf heti, m. m. (2013). factors influencing demand for tvet in nyeri county, kenya. (unpublished master’s thesis). university of nairobi. hollander, a., & mar, n. y. (2009). towards achieving tvet for all: the role of the unesco-unevoc international centre for technical and vocational education and training. in r. maclean & d. wilson (eds.), international handbook of education for the changing world of work: bridging academic and vocational learning (vol. 1, pp. 41-57). springer. jones, c. a. (2005). assessment for learning. https://dera.ioe.ac.uk/7800/1/assessmentforlearning.pdf kandiko, c. b. (2010). neoliberalism in higher education: a comparative approach. international journal of arts and sciences, 3(14), 153-175. king, k. (2009). education, skills, sustainability and growth: complex relations. international journal of educational development, 29(2), 175-181. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2008.09.012 machingambi, s. (2014). the impact of globalisation on higher education: a marxist critique. journal of sociology and social anthropology, 5(2), 201-215. https://doi.org/10.1080/09766634.2014.11885625 191 michael, k. r. e. o., & isaac, o. (2015). enhancing technical and vocational education and training (tvet) in nigeria for sustainable development: competency-based training (cbt) approach. journal of education and practice, 6(29). muhammad, a. s., bakar, n. a., mijinyawa, s. i., & halabi, k. a. (2014). impact of motivation on students’ academic performance: a case study of university sultan zainal abidin students. the american journal of innovative research and applied sciences. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. musyimi, c. m., malechwanzi, j., & heng, l. (2018). the belt and road initiative and technical and vocational education and training (tvet) in kenya: the kenya-china tvet project. frontiers of education in china, 13(3), 346–374. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11516-018-0017-x nwike, m. c., & catherine, o. (2013). effects of use of instructional materials on students cognitive achievement in agricultural science. journal of educational and social research, 3(5). doi:10.5901/jesr.2013.v3n5p103 okoye, r., & arimonu, m. o. (2016). technical and vocational education in nigeria: issues, challenges. journal of education and practice. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej1089786.pdf pompa, c. (2014). tvet and skills training in fragile and conflict affected countries. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/57a089eb40f0b6497400030e/tvet_and_skills_training_in_fra gile_and_conflict_affected_countries_60.pdf unesco (2006, june). participation in formal technical and vocational education and training programs worldwide. https://unevoc.unesco.org/fileadmin/user_upload/docs/a_technical_and_vocational_education_and_traini ng_strategy_for_unesco._background_paper_by_kenneth_king.pdf author: caroline musyimi holds a master’s degree in educational technology from the central china normal university and a bachelor’s in technology education from the university of eldoret. caroline is a full-time lecturer at the coast institute of technology. she has experience in teaching, preparation of online educational resources, research and innovation as well as supervision and examination of students. email: caromusyimi@gmail.com cite this paper as: musyimi, c. (2021). developing skills to unlock kenya’s industrial growth: the influence of provision of modern teaching and learning equipment in tvet in kenya. journal of learning for development, 8(1), 182-191. santally a social partnership model to promote educators’ development in mauritius through formal and informal capacity-building initiatives mohammad issack santally, dorothy cooshna-naik, noel conruyt and caroline koa wing vol. 2, no. 1 abstract this paper describes a social partnership model based on the living lab concept to promote the professional development of educators through formal and informal capacity-building initiatives. the aim is to have a broader impact on society through community outreach educational initiatives. a living lab is an environment for user-centered innovation, based on the observation of everyday user practice and experience for solving problems but is also based on users’ active participation, with an approach that facilitates their influence in the open and distributed innovation process (participatory design). it is defined as 4p innovation, namely, public-private-people-partnership. the objectives are thus political and strategic, focusing on the social role of innovation, i.e., trying to totally realize human potential by increasing creativity. in 2009, the virtual centre for innovative learning technologies (vcilt) embarked on the sidecap project, funded by the eu-acp in a consortium led by the open university of the uk. the work of the vcilt in the context of the sidecap project was essentially focused on the repurposing of open educational resources to fit in the local mauritian context. at the same time, the vcilt received an internal grant to work on the development of interactive learning materials using the integration of text-to-speech technology in instructionally designed powerpoint presentations. during the same period, the centre launched an innovative online training programme for in-service educators to allow them to top-up their qualifications in the field of educational and instructional technologies. the set of activities described in the paragraph above, resulted in a succession of action-reflection cycles which developed into the concept of a living lab. we report the living lab setup at the university of mauritius, by showing how the research activities at the vcilt led to a series of development and applications in a real-world context, related to the formal teacher training courses and informal continuous professional development of educators via the establishment of a social entity in a partnership with microsoft indian ocean and french pacific under the partners in learning program. the model is referred to as a multiple-impact social partnership model.  therefore, there are three major components that would form the backbone of our living lab, namely, research and development, teacher education and, finally, the social entity that links the private and public sectors, and educators, in a social partnership. introduction in 2001, for the university of mauritius to get on the elearning bandwagon, the virtual centre for innovative learning technologies (vcilt) was created in a bid to modernize the distance education concept by fully utilizing the possibilities offered by it-enabled networked systems and the internet. since its establishment, the centre has brought in some non-negligible innovations in the teaching and learning landscape. inevitably, as with any innovative practices, it has also brought its share of disruption in the traditional university setting; what we term as ‘’constructive disruption’’, especially with respect to the conception of pedagogy and educational practice in teacher education. the educational philosophy behind the in-service teacher training courses at the university of mauritius is inspired by bob moon’s position in the 2010 issue of the commonwealth of learning connections magazine. in the article “time for radical change in teacher education”, moon argues that it is time to implement new technologies in teacher training courses so as to focus on the continuous professional development of educators. adopting a very critical view of the so-called brick-and-mortar institutions for teacher training, moon (2010) points out, “there is absolutely no way the bricks-and-mortar institutions of teacher training created in the last century will be adequate for the 21st century needs”. a living lab is an environment for user-centered innovation, based on the observation of everyday user practice and experience for solving problems but is also based on users’ active participation, with an approach that facilitates their influence in the open and distributed innovation process (participatory design). it is defined as 4p innovation, namely, public-private-people-partnership. the objectives are thus political and strategic, focusing on the social role of innovation, i.e., trying to totally realize human potential by increasing creativity. in 2004, the first online course was launched (in a masters in educational technology program, formerly computer-mediated communication and pedagogies), mainly targeting educators and training professionals in industry.  in 2009, the top-up programme in educational and instructional technologies was run to bridge the gap between educators holding a teacher’s diploma (qualified teacher status) and those eligible to join in a masters programme. at the same time, the centre embarked on a few research projects related to education technology and pedagogies related to the integration of ict in education. there was also a need to address the problem of capacity building of educators to equip them with the 21st century teaching and learning skills. this was done in a novel approach using action-research cycles, combining research and development activities to design and develop online teacher education programs for in-service educators (cycle 1 of an action research cycle), in line with the philosophy of 21st century training needs (moon 2010). the process led to the setting up of a living lab to expand the initiative to include non-formal outreach initiatives, to promote continuous professional development of educators at a larger scale in partnership with the private sector (represented by microsoft indian ocean and french pacific), and a social entity called helping our people (cycle 2).  the link between cycle1 and cycle 2 of this action research cycle is mediated by the people (represented by educators and the staff of the vcilt). theoretical concepts according to conruyt (2013) when one instantiates it in a domain, a living lab includes public and private actors, companies, associations, and individual actors, whose objective is to co-design, to develop and to test life-size services, tools and new practices: the aim is to take out the research of laboratories to make it come down in the daily life, often by having a strategic view on the potential uses of these technologies. all this takes place in cooperation between local authorities, companies, research laboratories, as well as potential users, via helping platforms for designing innovative services and analyzes of their usages. it is a question of favoring the culture of opening (open innovation), of sharing its networks and of involving the users from the beginning of the conception. cunningham et al. (2011) summarize the concept by referring to living labs as both a milieu (environment, arena) and an approach (methodology, innovation approach). they argue that it is a concept that refers to a research and development (r&d) methodology where innovations (services, products and application enhancements) are created and validated in collaborative, multi-contextual, empirical, real-world settings (geerts, 2011:21), and seen as a new character in the open innovation chain (lepik et al., 2010:1091). from the above definition and explanation, it can reasonably be argued that the living lab concept has theoretical foundations related to the concept of activity theory, and action research. activity-theory (engeström 1987) is one of the main developments that characterize contextual approaches to cognition. it is a theoretical framework for analysing human practices in context. an activity is reflected through actions as people interact with their environment. activity theory has been successfully applied in different research domains (taurisson & tchounikine 2004; korpela et al. 2001; collins et al. 2001) as the main theoretical framework to model human activity systems and it is well adapted for contemporary modelling of educational contexts. wilson (2006) argues that while activity theory cannot be seen as a predictive theory, it is a very appropriate conceptual framework providing a coherent terminology that can be shared by researchers, within which different theoretical perspectives can be employed. macisaac (1995) postulates that action research is a “reflective process of progressive problem solving led by individuals working with others in teams or as part of a community of practice to improve the way they address issues and solve problems”.  action research is basically research that leads to action that uses a spiral of steps, each of which is composed of a circle of planning, action, and fact-finding about the result of the action (lewin 1948). figure 1 illustrates a simple model of the cyclical nature of the typical action research process adapted from the work of macisaac (1995). figure 1: action research cycles with reference to a living lab, action research becomes an appropriate overall framework to evolve the cycles of activities leading to user and field-testing in real-life situations while activity theory provides the right model for studying human interaction and behavior throughout each cycle of activity, using the change laboratory method as the main instrument to deal with the issue of process change and improvement. the living lab (misp) misp is essentially an integration of the research and development model described above that has governed our applied research activities in education technology, and the community engagement model described above with the establishment of the helping our people entity. it is based on whitehead’s (2012) education research philosophy for social change through action research and the living lab paradigm for teaching and learning (conruyt 2013).  a living lab is an environment for user-centered innovation, based on the observation of every-day user practice and experience for solving problems, but also based on their active participation, with an approach that facilitates their influence in the open and distributed innovation process (participatory design). it engages all concerned partners in real-life contexts, and aims to create sustainable usage values (kareborn et al. 2009). it is defined as 4p innovation, namely public-private-people-partnership. the objectives are thus political and strategic, focused on the social role of innovation, i.e., trying to totally realize human potential by increasing creativity (conruyt 2013). the misp model fits in the 4p innovation framework where the public sector is represented by the vcilt and the university, the private sector is represented by microsoft indian ocean and french pacific or other actors in the future, with the people being academics, educators, and youth volunteers (students). the beneficiaries and the partnerships among these actors are mediated through a collective social movement called helping our people. the research and development model (cycle 1) the research and development model (cycle 1) is based on a practitioner-oriented concept where research and development essentially become the drivers for practice-oriented enquiries to improve teaching and learning systems. it aims at field experimentation to test new practices, which are then formalized into teaching methods that can be cascaded down to educators for classroom application. the educators at the receiving end also become engaged in an action-reflection cycle where the feedback is fed into the system for continuous improvement and refinement of teaching techniques and the application of ict tools in day-to-day practice. the model is conceptually elaborated in figure 2 below using the mot taxonomy (paquette 2003). figure 2: the research, development and application model and the action-reflection cycle (i) the vcilt and teacher education in 2004, the first online course was launched (in a masters in educational technology program, formerly computer-mediated communication and pedagogies), mainly targeting educators and training professionals in industry. the course was offered using an innovative teaching and learning model focusing on an activity-based pedagogy to promote the acquisition of competencies and development of skills among educators (santally and raverdy 2006; santally 2012). in 2009, due to an increasing number of requests from in-service educators who did not meet the requirements to enroll in the masters course, the vcilt team introduced another innovation in the teacher training system with the honors’ bachelor’s online degree in educational and instructional technology, targeted mainly towards primary school educators who have a diploma in education and/or a teacher training certificate and ten years of teaching experience (cooshna-naik et al. 2011). it was at that time a first step towards the implementation of a formal recognition of prior learning as an alternative entry route to university studies. while the vcilt is a real-world entity existing in a brick-and-mortar institution, the introduction of online learning through a reconceptualization of the teaching and learning process has led to a departure from traditional teacher training methods.  the model of online instruction is based on a three-phased approach, namely, the knowledge acquisition phase, the knowledge application phase and the knowledge construction and reflective practice phase (santally & senteni 2004).  in the knowledge construction and reflective phase, emphasis is laid on collaborative work, where the learner becomes an important agent in the learning process (hannafin & land 1997) while the role of the teacher/lecturer undergoes a paradigm shift from the knowledge holder to the manager, orchestrator and facilitator (schneider 2003). in an endeavor to bring a transformative approach to promote the educational philosophy we had adopted, a three-fold method was applied. the first aspect was to inculcate a new educational culture in aspiring educators who have embarked on a university degree course of study. the second aspect was to provide a route for in-service educators to upgrade their qualifications (better income, and promotion prospects) through an innovative degree in education technology by transforming them into digital migrants, and the third element was to influence policy makers by demonstrating that technology has increased access to education and has transformed traditional practices. (ii) the sidecap project this project is a european union (eu) funded project, as part of its acp-eu cooperation programme in higher education (edulink). sidecap stands for staff improvement in distance education for caribbean, african and pacific universities. there are five institutions involved in this project, namely, the open university of the uk (project leader), the university of the highlands and islands millennium institute (uhi) in scotland, the university of mauritius (uom), the university of the west indies of trinidad & tobago (uwi) and the university of the south pacific (usp). the vcilt piloted the sidecap project on behalf of the university of mauritius for the period 2008-2012. the involvement of the vcilt at the level of the project mainly looked at the repurposing of open educational resources to fit into different learning and educational contexts. a lifecycle model for the repurposing of oers was proposed (santally 2011) which has been applied to the design and development of online programmes at the vcilt. the resources that were produced during experimentation in the sidecap project were then disseminated as an online continuous professional development course for mauritian educators. the course, which can reasonably be considered a μooc (micro open online course) attracted about 300 educators in 2010. the pool of educators who followed this course eventually regrouped into a socially connected pool of potential future students to feed into the formal teacher training courses of the university. the project also investigated the issues surrounding the copyleft licensing schemes in terms of reuse, repurposing and value-addition of existing open educational materials. the main outcome of the sidecap project was that the models and methods that were developed and experimented ensured the initial sustainability of the online learning courses of the vcilt. as a result, in three years the student population increased from 10 to 300 and a total of eight parallel cohorts of students enrolled in four different online programmes of studies. the ongoing in-service teacher training programmes were updated to reflect the latest progress, such as the inclusion of a module on the design and development of oers and a module on copyright and intellectual property issues in education. (iii) the rapid e-learning methodology rapid e-learning is a term that has emerged from the concept of rapid development as applied to the software development industry. the key is to acquire the ability to develop and deploy high quality interactive multimedia e-learning courses, which are generally short to medium length learning units in a minimum amount of time (brandon 2005). rapid e-learning is an emergent methodology that has recently gained momentum as more and more user-friendly authoring tools are being developed. in 2008, in parallel to the sidecap project, the vcilt embarked on a research and development project aiming at creating video lectures through the integration of two simple technologies, namely, microsoft powerpoint and text-to-speech. the project gradually evolved by 2010 into the rapid e-learning methodology which allowed for the development of interactive learning materials in a reduced time period and with minimal technical computing skills.  furthermore, a training and development methodology has been put in place by the research team to disseminate the technique in an extensive two-day workshop to educators and education practitioners. the rapid e-learning project emerged as a research and development project that led to the development of a service with respect to the development of interactive learning materials. in 2010 the vcilt secured a consultancy to digitize six courses for the hamdan-bin-mohamed e-university of dubai and in 2011, the technique was applied in a project funded by the commonwealth of learning to develop interactive materials in the local language for its lifelong learning for farmers, and its women empowerment programme in mauritius. in 2012, the technique was disseminated in india at the makerere university in uganda for the commonwealth of learning, and in two international professional development workshops in south africa and in mauritius for african educators and academics. the rapid e-learning methodology was integrated within the work that was carried out in the sidecap project, as the methodology was specifically adapted to fit in the value-addition process of the proposed lifecycle for oer development and reuse. this resulted in a set of video lectures that were developed and hosted on an open channel on youtube. the rapid e-learning methodology is currently being further developed to apply for mobile and portable devices to support mainly the windows 8, android and ios platforms. the 4p connection (cycle 2) the microsoft partners-in-learning program the rapid e-learning project created a link tunnel between the sidecap project, the in-service educators and the microsoft partners-in-learning (pil) program (www.pil-network.com) in mauritius. the microsoft pil program is managed by the microsoft indian ocean and french pacific branch, based in mauritius and the aim is to promote the integration and the use of information and communication technologies in the classroom, with the main focus on the primary and secondary education sectors. the pil network provides educators with ongoing training and free tools as well as access to a broad range of technologies and lesson plans to improve classroom practices. this is in line with the very essence of the article of moon (2010) based on the belief that “education and training should be an entitlement for all teachers at all stages in their careers” and that research has demonstrated that when “this entitlement is honored, learners achieve more and schools improve”. the rapid e-learning methodology relies intensively on microsoft powerpoint as the prototyping and development workbench. this methodology with the ability of the team to cascade it down to educators to empower them to develop their own learning materials has prompted microsoft to fund the training of an initial 50 educators on the technique in 2012. the idea is to decentralize the content development process to enable educators to develop curriculum related materials in a shorter time-span than it would normally take a small, dedicated team of content developers, as is currently the practice under the sankoré project, an initiative of the franco-british summit and the government of mauritius. while interactive whiteboards has been deployed in the primary schools with each school being equipped with a sankoré classroom, the minister of education and human resources announced the phase ii of the project to start after august 2013 whereby mauritius was supposed to receive about 520 interactive whiteboards and digital equipment from the french authorities (government portal 2013). the main advantage of shortening the time spans for the development of interactive and digital learning materials that would fit in the context of the deployment of interactive whiteboards in schools is that technology becomes obsolete very fast. a study by bahadur and oogarah (2013) revealed that very few educators were actually using the interactive whiteboards, and that it was unclear that those who were using them in our schools were actually doing so in an effective way. it was furthermore revealed that educators had acknowledged a lack of necessary skills and competencies to fully utilize the equipment as well as the necessary technical support to ensure correct operation. it was also noted that much of the equipment was not functioning and/or had been damaged by students. the social entity – helping our people the government, in 2003, launched the zep project in a coordinated effort to deal with the learning difficulties faced by children coming from poor localities. mahadeo and gurrib (2008) report that within the framework of the zep project, children are entitled to: (i) pedagogical innovations with respect to teaching and learning; (ii) improved provision with respect to their diet; (iii) a health programme for all of them; (iv) a teaching support kit; (v) a monitoring system with new indicators; (vi) a databank to keep the policy dialogue active and (vii) involvement of the local community. it is within such a social engagement context that the non-governmental organization helping our people was established to act in a broader context in line with the living lab philosophy. the concept of youth empowerment has been embodied in the functioning of the organization in two ways. the first one is to take undergraduate, full-time, university students and train them through capacity-building projects to assist in and to ultimately lead technical teacher-training workshops, and, to inculcate a culture of social values and voluntary work to contribute to the welfare of society and student surroundings in general. youth empowerment is conceptually defined at the level of the organization in figure 3 below. figure 3: conceptual model for youth empowerment as can be seen, the core values and elements rely on the establishment of mutual trust between youth and their mentors, the development of leadership and human values by providing opportunities to become autonomous and confident, and to get access to new openings through ongoing capacity building. a first account of field activity in this section we describe a first application of the misp model for the year 2013. the activities are divided into two categories, namely, the socially oriented professional activities that originate from the capacity building feature of the research and development model presented in figure 1, and the social community service element of the helping our people entity. interactive materials development training in mauritius the training was conducted through funding from microsoft indian ocean and french pacific under the partners-in-learning umbrella. two batches of 24 and 21 participants were trained during the period 15th-19th april 2013. the training targeted educators of the primary and secondary sector and the title of the training was, “interactive materials development for the digital classroom”. the training was focused on the development of skills and the acquisition of competencies by the participants. as such two techniques of instructions were used: (1) instructor-led tutorials, and (2) an independent self-executed learning activity by the participants. this approach ensures that all participants have achieved the minimum expected learning outcomes after the training session. partners-in-learning network initiation in rodrigues under the existing partnership between helping our people and microsoft indian ocean and french pacific, for the promotion of the partners in learning program among educators, a two-day training in june 2013 for educators in rodrigues had been organized in collaboration with the ict centre of excellence in rodrigues. there were 26 participants in the training. all participants are educators based in rodrigues. the educators were exposed to the use of microsoft powerpoint as a platform to develop interactive learning resources. they were then introduced to the partners in learning network where they carried out activities such as registration and completion of a profile, participation in online discussions, and sharing of learning resources and tools. the 2013 educational technology seminar the seminar of the year 2013 was centered on action research and the use of icts in the classrooms. the seminar was organized in collaboration with microsoft indian ocean and french pacific ltd.  seventy-five educators attended the one-day workshop where professor jack whitehead talked about  action research and the principle of researching, inquiring on and improving one's own practices, while professor noel conruyt from the university of reunion spoke on the living labs concepts in the context of teaching and learning. this workshop was a follow-up to the training sessions conducted in april 2013 under the support of microsoft in the partners in learning network (www.pil-network.com) program. educators were trained to develop their own interactive learning materials and to use the partners in learning network as a common educational social network and sharing platform.  the partners-in-learning network boot camp the purpose of this boot camp is to sustain the initiatives started with respect to the professional development of educators conducted in april and june 2013, respectively. it is now proposed to engage the next logical cycle of action research, that is, moving from the training cycle to the production cycle. this is in line with future plans to set up a living lab model for teaching and learning in mauritius. the production cycle took the form of an intensive boot camp of three days, where 25-30 educators came together and produced educational resources related to the curriculum using microsoft partners in learning pedagogical tools. these resources were then be uploaded to and shared on the partners in learning network site. the educators involved in this boot camp participated in the expert educator competition of microsoft. reflective discussion in developed countries, finland serves as an excellent example, and it is widely said and demonstrated that research has been the driving force behind innovation that led to the socio-economic developments of the countries through industrialization, the design and development of new products and services to the global markets (oecd 2010). research and development in the context of developing countries should also embody community service as an important and key element to promote social justice and alleviation of poverty. in a country like mauritius where free primary, secondary and tertiary education has been a landmark in the socio-economic development and political stability of the country, it is deplored that research in education for development has long been a sideline issue, despite having three public universities and one dedicated institution for teacher training. recently the concept of ‘maurice ile durable (mid)’ has been put forward as the new leitmotiv for promoting socio-economic development, social justice and education in a framework respecting the environmental eco-system. such an ecosystem that the mid concept is trying to promote is perfectly in line with the concept of living labs put forward in the implementation of the misp model. the living lab is essentially a research lab that fundamentally departs from the closed and restricted nature of research laboratories working on ‘closed’ innovation, as opposed to the concept of an ‘open’ user-centered innovation system where all stakeholders form an integral part of the process. hence the ‘living’ concept being embodied and replacing the term research in research labs. conclusion living labs are emerging as a new model to support co-creative, human-centric and user-driven research, development and innovation in order to better cater to people’s needs. mauritian society, amid the concepts of a sustainable mauritius, is at a junction where traditional models of research and development have started to show their limits in sustaining a modern society that can effectively address growing challenges like education reforms, poverty alleviation, global economic crises, and environmental protection. the misp model, although operational at a micro-level and at an infancy stage, tries to embody the new open innovation concepts as proposed by the living lab ecosystem, and can serve in the longer term as an example for other initiatives. references bahadur, g. k., & oogarah, d. (2013). interactive whiteboard for primary schools in mauritius: an effective tool or just another trend? international journal of education and development using ict, 9(1). [online] http://ijedict.dec.uwi.edu/viewarticle.php?id=1559 [accessed 6th august 2013] brandon, b. (2005). exploring the definition of rapid e-learning. [online] http://www.elearningguild.com/pdf/4/rapid_elearning_whitepaper_3-2-05.pdf [accessed 19th april 2012] collins, p., shukla, s., & redmiles, d. (2001). activity theory and system design: a view of the trenches. computer-supported cooperative work, special issue on activity theory and the practice of design, 11(1-2), 55-80. cooshna-naik, d., gunness, s., nowbuth, m., & baguant-moonshiram, y. (2012). fostering an e-learning culture amongst mauritian educators. proceedings of the conference on internationalization of tertiary education in mauritius. tertiary education commission, mauritius. conruyt, n. (2013). e-co-innovation for making e-services: living labs as a human-centered digital ecosystem for education with ict, 7th ieee international conference on digital ecosystems and technologies, dest 2013, july 24-26, menlo park, california, usa. cunningham, p., herselman, m., & cunningham, m. (2012). supporting the evolution of sustainable living labs and living labs networks in africa. ist-africa initiative and llisa. http://www.ist-africa.org/home/files/supporting_the_evolution_of_sustainable_living_labs_and_living_labs_networks_in_africa.pdf [accessed 2nd august 2013] engeström, y. (1987). learning by expanding. helsinki: orienta-konsultit oy. geerts, g. (2011). a design science research methodology and its application to accounting information systems research. international journal of accounting information systems, 12(2). retrieved from  http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/s1467089511000200 republic of mauritius. (2013). mauritius gears up for phase ii of sankoré project.  [online] http://www.gov.mu/english/news/pages/mauritius-gears-up-for-phase-ii-of-sankoré-project--.aspx [accessed 6th august 2013] hannafin, m., & land, s. (1997). the foundations and assumptions of technology-enhanced student centered learning environments. elearning reviews, 25, pp. 167-202. korpela, m., mursu, a., & soriyan, a. (2001). information systems development as an activity. special issue on activity theory and the practice of design, 11(1-2). lepik, k-l., krigul, m., & terk, e. (2010). introducing living lab's method as knowledge transfer from one socio-institutional context to another: evidence from helsinki-tallinn cross-border region. journal of universal computer science, 16(8), 1089-1101. lewin, k. (1948). resolving social conflicts: selected papers on group dynamics. gertrude w. lewin (ed.). new york: harper & row. mahadeo, s. k., & gurrib, m. (2008). priority education zones in mauritius. prospects, 38 (2), 227-235. springer. maclsaac. d. (1995). an introduction to action research. [on-line]. available: http://physicsed.buffalostate.edu/danowner/actionrsch.html moon, b. (2010). time for radical change in teacher education. connections. commonwealth of learning. [online] http://www.col.org/news/connections/2010feb/pages/faircomment.aspx [accessed 6th august 2013] oecd. (2010). finland: slow and steady reform for consistently high results. in strong performers and successful reformers in education: lessons from pisa for the united states. oecd. 2010 [online] http://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisaproducts/46581035.pdf [accessed 6th october 2013] paquette, g. (2003). instructional engineering for network-based learning. san francisco: pfeiffer/wiley santally, m. (2011). oers in context: a case-study of innovation and sustainability of educational practices at the university of mauritius. european journal of open, distance and online learning. [online] http://www.eurodl.org/materials/contrib/2011/santally_mohammed_issack.htm [accessed 3rd august 2013] santally, m., raverdy, j. (2006). the master’s program in computer-mediated computer communications: a comparative study of two cohorts of students. educational technology research and developmen, 54(3), 312-326. santally, m. (2012). training of in-service educators through online activity-based learning. international journal of technologies in learning,19(2). santally, m., & senteni, a. (2004). a cognitive approach to evaluating web-based distance learning environments. international journal of instructional technology and distance learning, 2(1), 41-53. schneider, d. (2003). conception and implementation of rich pedagogical scenarios through collaborative portal sites: clear focus and fuzzy edges. in proceedings of the international conference on open & online learning, icool 2003, mauritius. taurisson, n., & tchounikine, p. (2004). supporting a learner community with software agents. educational technology& society, 7(2), 82-91. whitehead, j. (2012). educational research for social change with living educational theories. educational research for social change, 1(1), 5-21. wilson, t. d. (2006). a re-examination of information seeking behaviour in the context of activity theory. information research, 11(4). available from http://informationr.net/ir/11-4/paper260.html accessed 14 december 2007. mohammad issack santally is a senior lecturer in education technology and officer-in-charge of the virtual centre for innovative learning technologies, university of mauritius. e-mail: m.santally@uom.ac.mu dorothy cooshna-naik is a lecturer, visual communication, university of mauritius. e-mail: d.cooshna@uom.ac.mu noel conruyt is a professor of information technology at the university of reunion island. e-mail: noel.conruyt@univ-reunion.fr caroline koa wing is a partners in learning program manager, microsoft indian ocean and french pacific. e-mail: i-cakoa@microsoft.com microsoft word allela.docx issn: 2311-1550 2020, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 384-398 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. effectiveness of multimodal microlearning for in-service teacher training melisa achoko allela,1 betty obura ogange,2 muhammad ibn junaid3 and prince brainard charles4 1technical university of kenya; 2commonwealth of learning; 3usmanu danfodiyo university, nigeria; 4freetown teachers' college, sierra leone abstract: to meet the growing demand for continuing professional development of practising teachers, the integrated in-service teacher training (inset) programme aims at making permanent improvements on the quality of teaching and learning for junior secondary school (jss) teachers in sierra leone. within this context, a toolkit for school-based teacher development was created and microlearning identified as an ideal mode to deliver the toolkit content. in this paper, we present the design considerations that informed this decision as well as challenges and lessons learned from the first implementation of the inset project for junior secondary school teachers in sierra leone. a multimodal approach was considered and implemented to mitigate internet access challenges and to expand learning opportunities. these include a mobile app version of the toolkit, offline access to microlearning resources on the teacherfutures platform via the moodle mobile app, a mobile app version of one inset module, an e-portfolio to be used by participants in sharing their learnings as demonstrated and practised during a face-to-face roll-out seminar, and finally, whatsapp groups in which different schools engaged in discussions based on the questions on the toolkit. preliminary findings indicate a strong preference among participants for the use of whatsapp as the main channel of communication within the communities of practice; and very limited use of the main e-learning moodle platform and e-portfolio. this necessitates a need to critically evaluate the effectiveness of the design of a multimodal approach for delivering microlearning content. from this, we seek to establish a set of design considerations, capacity building and technical support issues derived from analysis of data emerging from the ongoing project rollout. this will inform future integration of microlearning resources in the teacher training project. keywords: teacher training, multi-modal, micro-learning. introduction several studies have supported the notion that ongoing teacher professional development is important for positively impacting their practice (barrera-pedemonte, 2016; oecd, 2015; villet & moon, 2017). in addition, teacher preparedness through continuing professional development is directly correlated to improved learning outcomes (barrera-pedemonte, 2016; villet & moon, 2017). with increasing demands on teachers, such as the need to keep up with rapid changes brought about by technology disruption, adoption of learner-centric methods and differentiated learning approaches needed to develop 21st-century student competencies, it is essential to explore new ways in which technology integration can be used to strengthen in-service training in order to meet these evolving needs. 385 traditionally, professional development has taken place in formal pre-service as well as in-service professional development in the form of periodic workshops, and in-class observations as well as single session workshops (elliott, 2017). such training sessions often occur when students are not present, are disconnected from each other, and are also detached from the teachers own classroom practice. as a result, teachers fail to sufficiently gain new competencies needed to support their students in acquiring the complex skills often associated with the 21st-century skills that are crucial for success in today’s world. as indicated in the oecd annual report 2005 45th anniversary report (2005), teacher training institutions should adopt in-service professional development to ensure quality of the teaching workforce and meet the needs of a hypercompetitive global economy. thus, professional development that is packaged as part of an on-demand, active ongoing exchange in situated workplace learning environments, characterised by peer learning between and amongst teachers, portends increased benefits to help teachers acquire instructional strategies to teach these skills. such workplace learning has long been used by large corporations in the form of short-focused microlearning modules aimed at building employee knowledge, continually reinforcing competencies, providing quick access to information, and even identifying and predicting problems. these targeted and personalised microlearning modules have been proven to help reduce knowledge gaps and build workers’ confidence in performing tasks (buchem & hamelmann, 2010; hug, 2005). we can thus deduce that in-service professional development can benefit from a microlearning strategy. microlearning involves the use of bite-sized (chunked), well-planned modules and short-term learning activities. according to hug (2005) micro-learning matches the brain’s limitation of working memory by reducing the cognitive load that is characteristic of more traditional long-format instruction. it enables flexible and self-paced learning and fits well into a teacher’s work demands. as such, microlearning promises numerous benefits for in-service teacher training. first, since it makes use of existing web technologies and new trends in e-learning and educational technology, content can be deployed, curated, accessed and shared by users on multiple devices. for teacher training, this means that teachers can use tools that they are already familiar with to access, curate and develop content. secondly, while traditional teaching methods are often instructor led and thus limit the level of interaction between learners (teachers), micro-learning is more “hands on” and collaborative. collaboration tools enable learners to learn from subject matter experts within a group and therefore benefit from working together. in such a scenario, learners can also become content creators, by responding to questions on social forums, and blogging or providing feedback to other learners within a community of practice. thirdly, since micro-learning lessons are short, they are also quick to produce. this is especially useful where content needs to be frequently updated since teacher educators can review the teaching content and edit out redundant information to ensure accuracy and simplicity. furthermore, while developing content might require the use of technology that needs to be paid for, many tools and technologies that support micro-learning (such as social media) are freely available over an internet connection. in addition, learners can often use tools that they already have, such as mobile phone devices, to record, edit and publish micro-learning lessons. fourthly, when coupled with a learning management system (lms), the in-built analytics system enables tracking of user participation, engagement and feedback. lastly, micro-learning supports active interaction via synchronous and asynchronous channels of communication, such as discussion forums, messages, blogs, social media pages, etc. here, teachers can raise questions, respond to questions, share learning outcomes and teaching methods, and learn from the experience of others. teacher educators on the 386 other hand can monitor the effect of training by analysing the feedback received from teachers. the platform supports interaction among teachers, between teachers and teacher trainers (mentors) and between mentors from different institutions. this study is based on the findings from the implementation of the inset project at the freetown teachers training college (ftc) in sierra leone. ftc (now freetown polytechnic) was established in 1975 following mergers of colleges to serve the western region of sierra leone. it is one of the main teacher training institutions in the region offering pre-service and in-service training at the secondary school level (htc). in a move to break away from the traditional print-based, teacher-centric, distance education, in-service training, ftc, through the support of the commonwealth of learning, sought to integrate microlearning and educational technologies to improve the quality of its in-service teacher training programme. the inset project was thus motivated by the need to make permanent improvements to the quality of teaching and learning by addressing the training needs of pre-service and in-service junior secondary school teachers in sierra leone. as a result, the key research questions guiding this study include: • how can a microlearning strategy be incorporated into ongoing in-service teacher professional development? • what tools support access to content in low internet resource areas? • how can these tools help build virtual communities of practice and can they enable active learning and support for work-embedded collaboration? • do the microlearning objects offer opportunities for feedback and reflection? • how can a microlearning strategy be effectively synchronised with a teacher’s already packed daily schedule over a sustained duration? this study sought to answer these questions as well as present challenges and lessons learned from the first implementation of the integrated in-service teacher training project (inset) project. methods research design the purpose of this study was to examine how effective was the integration of a microlearning strategy into the school-based teacher professional development programme at ftc. teacher professional development is a complex and multifaceted process that incorporates different forms of change that occurs over a sustained period and that is implemented within specific contexts. this study is therefore delimited to the implementation of microlearning as a strategy for dissemination of training materials related to the tpd programme only. furthermore, it presents preliminary results to propel future investigation on whether participants implemented what they had learned in their teaching. as such, a mixed-methods approach that consists of multiple data sources was considered. this is supported by studies that indicated that such an approach is ideal for evaluating and making data-driven decisions regarding professional development such as how it should be developed and delivered (thomson, 2020). furthermore, mixed method research enables triangulation of data which yields better inferences and minimises weakness that may result from single-method bias, thereby providing an opportunity to test the consistency of research findings. thus, the quantitative data 387 provided data against which to establish whether the microlearning approach was having the intended effect. the qualitative data was used to provide detail on the quantitative results. the integrated in-service teacher training (inset) programme the school-based teacher professional development program that provided the context for this study is known as the integrated in-service teacher training (inset) programme. this programme was implemented at the freetown teachers college (ftc) in sierra leone. like many training institutions in sierra leone, ftc has traditionally relied heavily on teacher-focused, paper-based, and largely theoretical distance learning for in-service training. this has resulted in a situation where teachers do not possess adequate skills to support students’ learning, and, further, do not possess requisite skills to deploy technology enabled approaches to aid in teaching and learning. through technical and financial support from the commonwealth of learning (col), ftc developed a technology enhanced school-based teacher development (sbtd) framework for the training of junior secondary school (jss) teachers in selected secondary schools in the freetown and kono districts. through the inset programme, col supported ftc in the design and implementation of in-school strategies to improve the quality of its distance education training using mobile technology with a focus on microlearning to manage the delivery of content. following the results of a baseline study conducted by ftc (junaid, 2018) to determine indicators for measuring the intervention process, the expected results, as well as how these could be measured, col’s blueprint and toolkit for school-based teacher development (sbtd) was adapted for use in inservice training at ftc. further, microlearning was employed as a strategy for disseminating content related to continuing professional development of both student teachers and teacher educators, as well as to stimulate peer learning through networked learning and communities of practice (cops). this was positioned to enable horizontal learning, to allow every participant to contribute to the learning process. thus, the overarching pedagogy of the inset programme is a socially mediated constructivist approach that uses microlearning to disseminate the toolkit contents as well us enable collaborative learning within a community of practise. it is reiterated that the sbtd toolkit serves as the primary point of reference and is intended to provide “guidance and supporting resources for a school-based programme of around 12–15 weeks’ duration". at the heart of the inset programme are four modules at various stages of completion that have been adapted from open educational resource (oers) by teachers at ftc and that integrate microlearning. the modules are: teaching and learning for sustainable development, ict for teachers’ learner-centered approaches, commonwealth digital education leadership training in action (c-delta) and inset module 1 (teaching and learning for sustainable development). multimodal approach to break away from traditional print-based content delivery that characterised the distance learning programme at ftc, a multimodal approach was considered for dissemination of the toolkits’ chunked content and to ensure completion within the proposed 60-70 hours. use of mobile technologies facilitated the creation of a community of practice amongst the teachers and mentors. furthermore, this approach was considered ideal to mitigate internet access challenges and to expand learning opportunities by varying the mode of delivery thereby creating personalised learning experiences. 388 the learning design encompassed two face-to-face workshops (including a launch seminar), postworkshop activities targeting teacher trainers and school champions, as well as the multimodal approach detailed below. these made use of active learning techniques that encompassed a wide range of interactions as detailed in the project reports (allela et al, 2018a, 2018b). the face-to-face sessions placed emphasis on learning by experience (by doing) as well as through interactions with other participants who formed the community of practice. the multimodal approach included the following components: i. teacher futures moodle platform: the teacher futures website is a learning management system built on open source technology that contains different sections (metacourse areas) for participating countries. from the country page, users can link to their respective branded institution pages and, further, be enrolled into ongoing courses as listed on the institution pages. figure 1: freetown teachers' college page on the teacherfutures platform showing list of courses figure 2: the sbtd toolkit page on the teacherfutures website 389 ii. accessing the teacherfutures platform via the moodle mobile app: the moodle mobile app allows users to access and interact with content on the moodle platform whilst offline such as posting on discussion forums, replying to messages, attempting quizzes and activities, reading forum posts, or submiting assignments. these are automatically synchronised with the live content on the learning management system when the device is connected to the internet. during the programme roll-out workshop session, participants (mentors, teachers, and school champions) were instructed on how to access and download the moodle app from the android store, apple and windows app store, and through practical demonstration, were shown how to log in to the teacherfutures moodle platform via the app in order to view and access the sbtd toolkit resources offline. iii. mobile app version of the sbtd toolkit: the elearning xhtml editor (exe) was used to create a resource package of the sbtd toolkit containing both questions and discussions for the mentors’ version, and only the questions in the teachers’ version. exe is an easy-to-use material authoring tool, that allows for the creation of interactive learning materials. it can be used to package pages containing various media formats such as text, images, video, and audio clips, and also supports attachments of different file type such as pdfs. further, it exports content that can be embedded as a scorm package on a learning management system (lms), or be made available as a downloadable resource containing several interlinked webpages for offline access on a browser. iv. mobile app version and print version of one inset module: while the sbtd toolkit focuses on giving “detailed introduction from which schools and teachers can develop further programmes and activities” and addresses key topics around literacy, numeracy, and subject pedagogic knowledge, the inset modules are a set of four topics that teachers, working in teams, adapt to fit the sierra leone context and integrate microlearning as well as learner focused approaches in its delivery. of the four topics, the inset module 1 (teaching and learning for sustainable development) was presented during the programme roll-out seminar to show how the module is structured, and its embedded microlearning resources, and how it can be implemented. a print version and mobile app version of the document was made available to all participants. the print version had embedded multimedia based microlearning resources using qr codes that can be accessed using the print2screen app (abeywardena, 2016) that embeds multimedia resources into the print based material. 390 figure 3: page from inset module teaching and learning for sustainable development showing embedded resources the print version of the modules was based on the inset course design template which served as an integrated course design template for print, elearning and microlearning delivery in line with the relevant col guidelines on learning design as well as standards for design and development of microlearning. this was intended to be used as a guide for developing module content in a consistent manner for further uploading to the lms as well output on other mobile formats. the inset course design template was first presented to the ftc teacher educators during a learning design workshop that served as a technical and pedagogical quick start guide on developing content for print and elearning microlearning delivery. v. e-portfolio used by participants to share their learning as demonstrated and practiced during the face-to-face roll-out seminar: during the roll-out seminar, participants engaged in active learning through demonstration, prompt, and practice exercises (i do, you do, we do) on how to create eportfolios on the teacher futures’ moodle site. eportfolios make visible student learning and are a digital collection of resources containing course-related work and may also contain other aspects of a student teacher’s life such as their interests and employment history. each participant was required to log in to the lms and access the exabis portfolio block on the sbtd toolkit page. the demonstration session entailed instructions on creating cvs, creating categories and enabling sharing settings, creating eportfolio artefacts, uploading files (images, documents and videos) to the eportfolio and, lastly, adding a shared “my views” page and to share the portfolio content with other participants. participants were also shown how to view posts that had been created and shared by others. vi. whatsapp groups in which different schools engaged in discussions based on the questions on the toolkit: during the programme roll-out, 12 whatsapp groups were created for the 12 participating schools in the freetown and kono areas. jss teachers (trainees) and school champions from the schools were enrolled into the groups as well ftc mentors (experts outside the school) who formed the basis of the communities of practice. further, an additional whatsapp group (the sbtd toolkit group) was created in which participants from across the different schools could join and interact with each other. 391 microlearning in the cop involved (i) receiving impulses in the form of “bite-size bursts” of content knowledge, short videos, links to online web resources, or models of classroom best practices, which teachers can adapt and use from the ftc mentors, (ii) acquiring experience by engaging in carrying out assigned tasks, and (iii) learning from colleagues on the basis of shared knowledge and generation of new knowledge and improved practice within the ‘community that learns’ (por, 2001). it was anticipated that the results of discussions (responses to questions from the toolkit) would be gathered in the trainees’ electronic portfolios on the teacher futures moodle site to demonstrate competence and improved practice of the trainees. this is currently ongoing. population and sample the target population consisted of junior secondary school teachers and teacher educators in sierra leone. a subset of this population consisting of twenty (20) teacher educators from the freetown teachers’ college who took part in the first learning design workshop, forty-four (44) participants (school principals, secondary school teachers, and teacher educators from ftc) who took part in the rollout seminar, as well as eighty-six (86) teachers from the participating project schools who were enrolled after the programme launch, constituted a representative sample. the teachers in the sample set were drawn from fourteen (14) secondary schools within the freetown and kono districts. eleven (11) of these schools had taken part in an earlier baseline study (junaid, 2018). data collection process qualitative and quantitative data was gathered from the baseline studies, observations during the face-to-face learning design workshop and programme launch seminar, as well as from postworkshop evaluation. the instruments for data collections entailed questionnaires (head teacher interview questionnaire, teachers questionnaire) administered by enumerators to inform the baseline study, the classroom observation schedule and students’ environmental awareness questionnaire used by enumerators ahead of the roll-out of the programme, observation during the learning design workshop and launch seminar, post-workshop evaluation questionnaire and discussion on the whatsapp communities of practice. piloting of the instruments (questionnaires and observation schedules) in a school context during the baseline study was integral towards establishing content validity. data analysis and results the ensuing data was reviewed against the levels of the kirkpatrick model of program evaluation based on the work of guskey (2000) in applying this model to educational contexts. these levels are participants’ reactions to the professional development programme (reaction); whether participants achieved the desired learning outcomes (learning), participants’ use of new knowledge and skills in their teaching, and resultant improvements in participants learning (behaviour). the first three levels (reaction, learning and behaviour) represent the dependent variables, while the independent variable pertains to the microlearning approach employed in the inset school-based teacher professional development project reported in this study. 392 results results from inset baseline study from the inset baseline study conducted in 2017 (junaid, 2018), it was evidenced that the prospects for success for a technology enabled training approach were quite high. the data for the inset baseline was obtained from 130 junior secondary school teachers in the participating project schools. results indicated individual teachers’ readiness at 77%, willingness to experiment with technology at 88%, eagerness to use computers and internet in teaching and learning at 95%, teachers’ perception of e-learning as a viable alternative to traditional methods (89%) and the strong need for e-learning in their schools at 97%. from the data, it was evident that teachers had a positive attitude towards the use of icts, perhaps due to the pervasiveness of ict tools in everyday life, 55% of the teachers at the participating schools owned smartphones and 62% reported that they use social networking platforms such as whatsapp in their regular communication. conversely, 70% of the teacher educators at ftc indicated that they possess smartphones and 80% reported that they actively used social media tools. idividual teachers’ readiness 77% willingness to experiment with technology 88% eagerness to use computers and internet in teaching and learning 95% teachers’ perception of e-learning as a viable alternative to traditional methods 89% need for e-learning in their school 97% inset baseline study 393 from the baseline study, it was apparent that the teachers were willing to engage in collaborative learning that entailed sharing and exchange of knowledge, information, ideas, and practices. this is important for teacher empowerment through “connection to” and “participation in” a community of practice that drives horizontal learning. furthermore, the baseline study indicated low ict infrastructure readiness at both the participating schools and the freetown teachers college. this was in reference to internet connectivity, hardware and software availability as well as technical support. while this has improved in recent months, particularly at ftc, at the time the baseline was conducted, the lack of adequate enabling technology to support effective deployment of technology mediated training, seemed like an initial impediment. however, high rates of ownership of mobile devices and access to internet via low cost data bundles was an apt alternative for content delivery and training. from the recommendations of the baseline, it was suggested that the choice of technology used should be based on “its accessibility, reliability and compatibility”. using this criteria, mobile technology owing to its widespread use among teachers and teacher educators becomes a promising contender. results following the roll-out seminar (workshop) twenty-three (23) participants completed an evaluation form upon conclusion of the roll-out seminar. on a scale of 1-5, 63% of the participants indicated that they were satisfied with the session, while 76.9% expressed satisfaction with the contents of the training. the 23.1% who gave a rating of 4 out of 5 indicated that hardware limitations, such as laptops and internet modems, would hamper how the mentors and school champions effectively engage in the cops. on a similar scale, 100% of the respondents rated the training as relevant and helpful towards their own professional development. an open response question on key take-aways leaned heavily on the use of new technologies that they previously had no experience with, such as creating e-portfolios, using social media in a structured manner to support learning and communication within a community of practice, as well as active learning through practice exercises relevant to their day-to-day activities in the classroom. regarding potential areas of improvement, there were several sentiments that the face-to-face training should be conducted over a longer period to ensure that individuals who are not well versed with the technologies being used have time to learn. overall, the participant’s responses in the post-workshop evaluation indicated that the face-to-face session explaining the toolkit and associated microlearning resource, created a positive learning experience and that the intended learning outcomes from the week-long session was achieved. pedagogical considerations one of the main concerns in moving away from traditional print-based distance education training is whether technological integration can promise the same (or better) results as traditional instruction. to address this concern, it is useful to take into account additional benefits of this approach such as instructional methods (associated feedback, collaboration activities, self-paced study, personalising learning paths based on learners’ needs) that are ideal for teacher training. structured well, technology integration can be as effective as traditional training at a lower cost and can reach a wider target audience who have challenges attending conventional face-to-face classroom training. such challenges were attributed to proximity from the main training location such as the freetown teachers’ training college, teachers’ limited time due to family and work commitments, and even 394 restricted mobility. as such, technology mediated school-based teacher training using microlearning and mobile technologies was considered as an ideal option for low-capacity environments. collaboration the need for collaboration between teachers and mentors within one school and across different schools (bruns & luque, 2015, p. 200 cited in the sbtd toolkit) was considered as essential towards enabling learning from each other’s practice based on various thematic issues addressed in the sbtd toolkit. collaborative learning within a community of practice is key towards contributing to quality teachers’ professional development since new knowledge can be applied and integrated into the learner’s world. such a collaboration is attainable in low internet resource areas using social media platforms such as whatsapp, facebook and twitter, which enable social learning (i.e., learning with and from others). furthermore, the bite-sized communication that takes place on social-media platforms — characterised by a preference for smaller pieces of information — is very much aligned with microlearning. content can be easily accessed and shared across multiple devices using features such as chat, forward, comment, share, like, etc. for academic and professional development, they are ideal for sharing information, engaging in discussion, and curating content as well as professional networking. of the aforementioned platforms, whatsapp is one the most popular messaging applications in the world with over 1.5 billion monthly users in 180 countries (iqbal, 2019). whatsapp was also already installed in many of the participants mobile phones. its big advantage over regular messaging is that it is ‘free’ over an internet connection and supports the transmission of varied media such as video, images and audio files. as such, it was an ideal platform to establish the cops within and across the participating schools. at present, the main limitation with the whatsapp application is that it caps the group members numbers at 256, and that new users cannot see older posts created before they joined the group. microlearning micro-learning objects/lessons are typically short in duration — not longer than ten minutes if in the form of time-based media (such as video), or as single images that contain condensed information (such as infographics). in the dissemination of the sbtd toolkit contents, the microlearning resources were presented as short videos, short audio clips, images, quick reading materials, brief quizzes and the requirement to contribute to discussion threads. the content capacity of micro-learning lessons is generally small and carries the overarching advantage of focused emphasis and a clear theme. microlearning was well suited to accommodate the demands of teacher training, which include the following: • lifelong learning: junior secondary school (jss) teachers are constantly required to reflect on current ideas about education and teaching such as learner-focused teaching approaches, apply new knowledge, adapting to changes in curricula, as well as identifying current and future needs for professional development. • fragmented learning: jss teachers already have busy schedules and heavy workloads that include teaching, administrative and curriculum-related activities. in addition, they have social responsibilities, which may take up most of their spare time. thus, traditional long 395 format e-learning or distance education in-service training is no longer effective in achieving expected results and may result in inefficient training. • self-learning: learning motivation and the intention to stick to a professional development programme is often prompted by the individual. because of this, teachers place great emphasis on the practicability or usefulness of knowledge and its application to problem solving. this prompts the need for flexible and personalised training, where teachers can choose what to learn and at what pace, according to their own requirements. they can reference the content as often as they wish, and competence can be evidenced through micro-learning assessments at the end of each lesson. this was identified as crucial towards maintaining enthusiasm, avoiding burnout and ingraining a sense of professional fulfillment. further, as teachers adapt and use oers in their day-to-day practice, they must also possess the skills to create oers as part of their professional development. challenges and lessons learnt face to face training the importance of face-to-face sessions in technology mediated training cannot be overstated. there were several challenges that could only be addressed in actual face-to-face encounters vs doing so remotely. as a result, several targets were attained that facilitated the implementation of the inset programme remotely via whatsapp using microlearning. i. demystifying microlearning although teachers unconsciously engage in creating and sharing microlearning content, by composing and sending messages or sharing videos over social media, it is not an obvious strategy for in-service teacher training. the face-to-face training sessions prior to the launch of the inset programme were integral in building understanding amongst teacher trainers regarding microlearning. this included module content and structure for the inset modules, determining the duration of modules as well as identifying microlearning materials to include in the modules. teacher educators gained competencies in choosing available tools and technologies for specific pedagogical contexts to integrate microlearning resources into the four inset programmes. furthermore, following a detailed presentation on the structure of the inset modules using the course template, teacher educators were able to effectively adapt existing courses whilst integrating microlearning in the delivery of core activities. further, the face-to-face session enabled teacher educators to understand and experiment with the varied forms of microlearning objects, how to address different learning outcomes and how they can be used across multiple devices such as desktop/laptop computers and smartphones. this included creating videos from voice-over-powerpoint presentations, interactive pdfs, animation, infographics, social media, quick response codes and url shorteners. ii. simulation of working within the communities of practise during the face-to-face training session, it was possible to simulate how the training would be conducted on the selected platforms (whatsapp and the teacher futures moodle platform). the 396 teacher educators (mentors), school principals and teachers were able to demonstrate how they would interact with one another in real life outside the ftc training environment whereby schools would be working independently. participants in each group were able to: set up whatsapp groups (mentors), access their accounts on the teacher futures platform, access the toolkit content via the moodle app, message within the moodle app, post feedback on the teacher futures platform, and reply to posts on the discussion forums. it would have been difficult to demonstrate this remotely. access to resources on the teacherfutures moodle platform following the conclusion of the roll-out seminar, it was anticipated that teachers and mentors would continue to access the resources on the sbtd toolkit page on the teacherfutures website as they worked on the online versions of the inset modules. as such, teacher educators and teachers from different schools were granted access to microlearning resource page which served as a guide to assist content creators (teachers, teacher trainers, and the support team) in developing microlearning content in a consistent time saving manner. surprisingly, this was not the case. instead, usage statistics indicate that the teacher educators did not access the sbtd toolkit content on the teacher futures moodle platform after the face-to-face session. several reasons were attributed to this including lack of confidence in authoring their own content, forgotten login credentials (passwords and usernames) and lack of knowledge on know how to reset it themselves. furthermore, during the face-to-face training sessions, participants learnt how to create eportfolios on the teacher futures’s moodle site and were required to populate their eportfolios. although all the participants demonstrated competency in creating an eportfolio during the training, this activity did not continue once the face-to-face training concluded. the mentors at ftc continued to work on four modules of the inset programme and were able to identify existing oer resources to integrate into the courses as microlearning objects. cost implications and technology barriers although microlearning is touted as inexpensive to implement, concerns arose about feasibility of the implementation of the inset programme owing to electricity and internet constraints in some of the participating schools. to guarantee programme success, it was proposed that principals encourage teachers to participate by providing funds to purchase data and power banks. relevance teachers are more motivated to engage in training that fulfils their professional needs. as a result, while certificates of participation were awarded to workshop attendees, participants were concerned about which body would award the certificates of completion upon completion of the inset programme. this need for accreditation is linked to new requirements for professional development set by the newly formed teacher service commission in sierra leone. this indicated stronger motivation to participate if the programme is linked to the established standards and competencies that must be met and critical points for promotion (academic achievements, awards, proficiency, activities that pertain to academia) that must be demonstrated in a teaching portfolio. casual learners the success of microlearning is largely dependent on the motivation for self-learning. as a result, lack of self-motivation by the learner may lead to poor reception of the microlearning objects. this concern 397 was raised about how to manage teachers who are considered as not ‘hardworking’ and who rely on the work done by other teachers. it highlighted the need to address teachers’ attitude towards professional development and to seek ways to identify teachers who will fully participate in the programme. conclusions the analysis presented the main the design considerations that informed the implementation of the inset at the freetown teachers’ college (sierra leone) using microlearning as a strategy for inservice teacher training. following the programme rollout, it is evident that microlearning promises numerous benefits for in-service training. furthermore, face-to-face training in the early stages of programme implementation is equally important to build awareness and technical competency in authoring microlearning objects. since the programme is ongoing, there is an additional need to empirically measure the impact of the programme vis-à-vis the indicators for measuring programme success. furthermore, teachers still need additional technical support in authoring multimedia-based microlearning objects particularly in scenarios that require the use of new and emerging technologies such as augmented and virtual reality. data is already being yielded from the interactions in the communities of practice within and across different schools that will inform future evidence-based evaluation. references abeywardena, i. s. (2016). print2screen mobile app: embedding multimedia in printed odl course materials using qr codes. pan commonwealth forum (pcf8). retrieved fromhttp://hdl.handle.net/11599/2502 allela, m., ogange, b., & junaid, m. (2018a). report on inset roll-out seminar held at freetown teachers’ college sierra leone, 15th – 19th october 2018. freetown teachers college. allela, m., ogange, b., & junaid, m. (2018b). report on learning design workshop and post workshop capacity building for ftc staff on development of elearning and microlearning resources for school-based teacher development held at freetown teachers’ college sierra leone, 19th-23rd march 2018. freetown teachers college. barrera-pedemonte, f. (2016). high-quality teacher professional development and classroom teaching practices. oecd education working papers no. 141. https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/content/paper/5jlpszw26rvd-en buchem, i., & hamelmann, h. (2010). microlearning: a strategy for ongoing professional development. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341323117_microlearning_a_strategy_for_ongoing_professional_ development elliott, j. c. (2017). the evolution from traditional to online professional development: a review. journal of digital learning in teacher education, 33(3), 114–125. https://doi.org/10.1080/21532974.2017.1305304 hug, t. (2005). microlearning: emerging concepts, practices and technologies after e-learning. proceedings of microlearning conference. iqbal, m. (2019, february 19). whatsapp revenue and usage statistics (2019). http://www.businessofapps.com/data/whatsapp-statistics/ junaid, m. (2018). report of the inset baseline study on e-learning readiness at the freetown teachers college and selected junior secondary schools in sierra leone. commonwealth of learning. oecd. (2005). annual report 2005 45th anniversary. https://www.oecd.org/about/34711139.pdf 398 oecd. (2015). embedding professional development in schools for teacher success. https://www.oecdilibrary.org/content/paper/5js4rv7s7snt-en thomson, m. m. (2020). a mixed-methods investigation: involvement in a research experience for teachers’ professional development program. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781473982284 villet, c., & moon, b. (2017). can new modes of digital learning help resolve the teacher crisis in sub-saharan africa? journal of learning for development, 4(1). authors: melisa achoko allela is an assistant lecturer, department of design and creative media, technical university of kenya. email: melisallela@gmail.com betty obura ogange is an education specialist: teacher education at the commonwealth of learning. email: bogange@col.org muhammad ibn junaid is a professor at usmanu danfodiyo university, sokoto, nigeria. email: junaidmi@yahoo.com prince brainard charles is a teacher-educator at the freetown teachers' college, sierra leone. email: brainardprince@yahoo.com cite this paper as: allela, m. a, ogane, b. o., junaid, m. i., & charles, p. b. (2020). effectiveness of multimodal microlearning for in-service teacher training. journal of learning for development, 7(3), 384-398. bossu pacific leaders in open, online and distance learning carina bossu vol. 4, no. 1 introduction the pacific is a vast region, with a diverse range of cultures and stretched geographical lands, which covers large territories and long distances. open, online and distance learning (odl) has always played a key role in providing access to education to remote and rural students and disadvantaged groups. in fact, it could be argued that without odl, the levels of educational attainment in these regions would be much lower. however, there is work to be done, as some countries in the region still have infrastructure problems, such as internet connectivity and availability, which directly impact access to online and distance learning. in this piece about pacific leaders in odl, i noticed that despite the fact that many leaders have or have had a formal professional base at their institutions, many have worked across different nations and in collaboration with several national and international organisations. also, initially, odl leaders were predominantly male, but it did not take long for their female counterparts to join in and be recognised. encouraged by this journal’s editorial board, i made sure that the odl female leaders are well represented in this piece. this manuscript is divided in three sections; australia, new zealand and some small islands of the pacific region. this is by no means an exhaustive list of odl leaders in the region, but one that recognises the contributions of earlier theorists and some more current researchers and practitioners. finally, it is also important to highlight that the large majority of the leaders recognised here are renowned academics, researchers, practitioners and leaders due to their success, leadership and contributions to odl. therefore, most of them have published extensively, been invited to present at conferences and other national and international events, and have worked as consultants for key odl organisations and their partners, some during the course of their employment and/or after retiring. their career and academic successes are very important, but here i would like to focus on some of their key contributions to odl in the pacific region. australia distance education is part of the history of australian education, including at university and school levels. in 1911, the university of queensland established its “department of correspondence studies (white, 1982), while the first primary and early secondary school lessons broadcast by the school of the air to remote and rural australian children started on 8 june 1951. the school of the air still operates today in most australian states, with a total of 16 centres. with the assistance of modern learning technologies, it currently offers adult education and full secondary school education (http://www.australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/school-of-the-air). over the years, odl has become an important element of australian higher education generally, as most of its universities have an online presence. with such a long and rich history, there is no doubt that australia has many prominent odl leaders. terry evans is an emeritus professor at deakin university, where he was previously a professor and associate dean (research and doctoral studies) in the faculty of education. he currently works as a consultant and researcher in australia and overseas. he commenced his work in distance education in 1979 at the (then) gippsland institute of advanced education (now federation university) where he taught undergraduate sociology on and off campus. his first article on distance education, “communicating with students by audiotape” (evans, 1984) came from that period. in 1984 he joined deakin university as a lecturer in distance education and co-ordinated (with bruce king, university of south australia) the development of the first master of distance education program in australia. terry’s passion for research in distance education led to him leading six research in distance education (ride) conferences at deakin university between 1989 and 2004. ride conferences were attended by participants from many nations, with each conference leading to a published collection of selected revised papers. by the late 1990s, terry evans’s research interests moved into doctoral education, although often with online and distance education themes. his recent work is as a consultant and researcher in australia and overseas, including in the united kingdom and the pacific region (new zealand and in papua new guinea). in addition to this work, terry remains a member of editorial boards for ten international journals related to online, distance and open education. he also continues to supervise and examine phd candidates. bruce king’s career has spanned management, policy advice and curriculum development in distance education, open learning, and flexible delivery as theorist, practitioner and manager. he has held senior management positions in both universities, and vocational education and training systems. at the university of south australia he was responsible for the movement from conventional distance education to the flexible delivery of over 1200 courses online. highlights of policy advice include work for the commonwealth of learning (col), the australian government, the australian agency for international development (ausaid) and individual institutions in australia and the uk. he has provided expert advice in tonga, south africa, indonesia and sweden; was a member of the unesco panel of experts on distance education in russia; and represented the australian government in japan and thailand. he led the small team that developed the world’s first professional qualification for distance educators and was part of the group that formed the fundamental approaches to curriculum and delivery of open universities australia. since 2011 he has been a member of the ohs education accreditation board and is the education advisor to the board. jim taylor’s contribution to higher education, distance education and open educational resources (oer) is widely recognised. his academic career started in 1974 and since then he has been the recipient of many awards. these include: “honorary fellow of the commonwealth of learning” in recognition of his many contributions to higher education, distance education and open education resources; “member in the general division of the order of australia” for distinguished service to tertiary education, particularly open learning, on-line and distance education; “australian higher education quality award”, for meritorious service to quality advancement in australian higher education; and the “international council of distance and online education (icde) individual prize of excellence” for his significant contribution to research and development in the field of open and distance learning. he is a renowned scholar whose discourse on “fifth generation distance education” (taylor, 2001) has provided the much-needed framework for understanding the historical evolution and growing complexity of open and distance learning. emeritus professor at the university of southern queensland since 2012, he is currently deeply involved in the establishment of the oer universitas (oeru), which will provide free access to higher education to students in all parts of the world using oer learning materials. colin latchem has over thirty years' experience of leading and managing distance education, educational technology and educational change. in the 1970s, he was a pioneer in the uk in educational television and learning resources and he established the learning resources unit at stanmillis college of education (now part of queen's university) belfast, and was a consultant to the uk national council of educational technology. in australia, where he now lives and works, he held a professorial position as the head of the teaching learning group at curtin university of technology, perth western australia until 1998. in this role, he was responsible for academic staff development, open and distance education and educational technology. he also served on the academic programs board of the open learning australia consortium, was national president of the open and distance learning association of australia (odlaa) and undertook major consultancies into, e.g., the university of the south pacific; satellite uspnet, the tanami network, a videoconferencing network for aboriginal communities in the australian outback, and the western australian telecentre network. one of his books on leadership received the 2002 charles wedemyer award for the best book of the year on distance education in the us. colin is now a consultant and writer. he works mainly in australia and the asia-pacific although he has also spent a year working in the caribbean on a commonwealth fund for technical cooperation consultancy. anne forster has over forty years’ experience in academic and executive roles in open, online and campus based learning in australia and internationally. anne is experienced in enterprise wide management with a background spanning all sectors, multiple disciplines and communities. she is a specialist in the development and management of education and training that leverages technology, innovative pedagogy and the design of alternative pathways for people seeking flexibility in meeting their learning goals. anne has held a number of positions in universities and private companies in australia, canada and the uk, leading change initiatives and supporting academic professional development over periods of rapid growth and technology disruption.  concurrent with these positions she has retained consultancy services in canada, where she lived for ten years, while she is now based in sydney, australia. anne has also has consulted in the asia pacific region, uae, south africa, india, europe, canada and the usa. she values her professional association with organizations committed to scalable, affordable and effective solutions to meet the challenges in developing countries, such as the commonwealth of learning (col), icde, the european distance and e-learning network (eden) and the usdla. she is a former president of odlaa and participates locally with elnet, anz mlearn and the sydney education technology start up group. yoni ryan began her distance education career in 1975 at the then tasmanian college of advanced education, ironically one of australia’s smallest states, and perhaps not the first place one would consider as a distance education practitioner. however, the college had begun to realise that many of the state’s citizens had no ‘local’ access to further education, and that tasmania had one of the lowest rates of participation in education in australia. yoni’s determination to be involved was motivated by a strong commitment to equity and access and her early passion for odl led to a long-term commitment to furthering these goals. this has led to a more than 40-year contribution to odl policy and practice, spanning teaching and research in the south pacific, the solomon islands, africa, and australia. she has led or consulted on projects for ausaid, col, the uk’s higher education funding council for england (hefce), and individual australian universities on their odl operations, which have resulted in more streamlined operational procedures. yoni has also contributed to the development of state and national policies on odl. her analysis of quality assurance processes for odl in the past few years has led to some universities modifying often complex and vague qa ‘checklists’. her most recent contributions to mooc development over the past three years are a response to the changing nature of odl. belinda tynan started her journey in the field of odl in 2003, but she has worked nationally and internationally in universities since 1998. belinda has made outstanding contributions to odl in australia and globally. she is a woman who is driven by the potential for distance and online education to be transformational for all. she has been at the forefront of promoting what australia and, at times, the pacific region has to offer. belinda has had several senior roles, including as pro vice chancellor learning, teaching and quality at the university of southern queensland, and pro vice chancellor learning and teaching at the open university uk. currently, she is the deputy vice chancellor (education) and vice president at the royal melbourne institute of technology, australia. last year she was elected to the icde. perhaps belinda’s most important contribution to odl in this region was the conceptualisation and leadership of the dehub project; which was a 3.6 million dollar project to further research and develop odl in australia. the university of new england hosted dehub (http://wikieducator.org/dehub) and it ran in partnership with two universities in australia and one in new zealand. at the close of the project, more than 400 outcomes were recorded. belinda has played an important role in bringing australia back into the col after a number of years of being outside the group. she has worked with several international organisations such as icde, unesco and col and the tertiary education and quality standards agency (australia) on matters including online and distance learning. she is a fellow of eden. robyn smyth retired as the director of learning and teaching support at the university of southern queensland in mid-2014. while in that position she supervised teams providing professional development and student support for online, face-to-face and blended curricula. she also specialised in curriculum design in the distance and online modes and the ways in which they can promote transformative and student centred pedagogies in higher education.  her particular focus at the university of new england (1998 to 2012) was the development of innovative synchronous video conferencing to support distance and dual campus students in effective learning and student support as they entered and continued distance study. with the support of the excellent technical advice available robyn promoted such synchronous communication for the benefit of student learning, innovating ways to effectively engage students and support their learning and personal needs as they entered and maintained distance study. robyn has been an active researcher and continues to supervise doctoral students investigating practice, theory and pedagogy in higher and distance education. her interests lie in rich media, including the practice and pedagogy of m-learning, higher degree supervision, and professional development. using technology to support curriculum design in complex contexts and the potential for open and synchronous communication tools to support student learning are core research interests, for which she won australian government office of learning and teaching grants. principally, her research was focussed on innovating pedagogy and managing educational change to support innovation in open and distance education. the concept of openness was also an interest that stemmed from her work in bhutan, where she experienced the inequity of access to knowledge first hand. mike keppell is currently the pro vice-chancellor (learning transformations) at swinburne university of technology. in this position, he oversees the learning transformations unit, which provides professional development and support for teaching staff across all modes of learning (digital, blended and mobile). professor keppell has made significant contributions to research and knowledge in the field of learning spaces, blended, online and distance learning, learning-oriented assessment, and transformative learning using design-based research, throughout his career, as he worked in seven different universities in australia, canada and hong kong. he has been the recipient of numerous grants, awards and prizes, and has led a wide range of projects and worked with diverse groups of stakeholders and organisations nationally and internationally. mike is a passionate and dedicated educator, facilitator, researcher, supervisor, mentor and leader, who creates opportunities for rich, interactive and sustained forms of professional development, including for odl, to empower staff and for assessment-as-learning strategies to create the problem-solvers of the future. an example of such leadership was the flexible learning institute’s (fli) teaching fellowship program developed in 2012 to enhance teaching and learning at charles sturt university, using blended and flexible learning and utilising distributive leadership as a catalyst for curriculum change. the teaching fellowship program engaged 26 fellows across four faculties, 23 schools and nine different campuses. he is a life member of the australasian society for computers in learning in tertiary education (ascilite), after serving 12 years on the executive including three years as treasurer and three years as president. roderick sims’ 40-year career in education and computing began 1976, as a primary teacher, and ended with the graduation of his last phd student in december 2016. at the same time as rod was teaching, computers made their social impact and with rod’s skill for programming, he was appointed as a consultant to the first large-scale computer-based education system into australia (plato), introduced by control data in 1979, when he was appointed as a consultant to the project. the combination of educational theory and computer programming formed the praxis that guided the remainder of his career. in 1986, rod took an academic appointment as a lecturer in computing and education, which led to his involvement in the creation of specific degrees for teachers and trainers in learning technologies for flexible and distance learning. rod has also served on boards in leadership roles (ibstpi, adcis, ascilite, odlaa) and has hosted and coordinated national conferences. he was awarded in 1995 a fellow of ascilite, and in 1998 a fellow of the australian computer society. his latest theoretical contribution was a design framework in the manuscript design alchemy: transforming the way we think about learning and teaching published in 2014 (sims, 2014). rod believes strongly that, while the power of computer technology has been effectively leveraged to manage and report on student activity and performance not only in face-to-face, but also in online, flexible and distance education, the opportunity and responsibility of academia to continue to harness digital technology for true human-computer learning, conceived decades ago, has yet to be fully realised. som naidu has spent most of his professional life in the higher education sector in a variety of roles to do with enhancing learning and teaching practices in distance education, online learning and e-learning, as well as education more generally, in various jurisdictions and geographical locations. som is currently a consultant in technology, education and design at monash university in australia. he has served as president of odlaa, and is executive editor of its journal distance education, assistant editor of the journal of interactive learning environments, a co-editor of the routledge book series on open, flexible and distance learning, and a member of the inaugural routledge education arena panel of editors. in may 2014 the open university of sri lanka awarded dr. naidu a d.litt. (honoris causa), in recognition of his extensive contribution to the field of open, flexible, distance and e-learning both regionally and internationally. som’s experiences, together with his theoretical and practical work have been key to the odl community, especially in designing and implementing capacity building workshops in the areas of open educational practices, online learning and e-learning. his professional consultancies in the field include numerous capacity building projects in course and curriculum design and development, online learning and e-learning in india, sri lanka, malaysia, singapore, belize, namibia, western samoa, maldives and the solomon islands. sue gregory is a long-term adult educator and passionate about teaching traditional and distance pre-service and postgraduate education students how to incorporate technology into their teaching. an example of sue’s expertise is in adopting and adapting a virtual world (second life) to enhance learning and teaching in higher education in the pacific region. through her avatar jass easterman, sue has been using second life by applying her virtual world knowledge to expose her students, both on and off campus, to the learning opportunities in virtual worlds since 2007, and has also been involved with many national and university projects creating and using learning spaces in virtual worlds. she has been instrumental in bringing almost 1,000 students online synchronously to explore the use of a virtual world as a teaching and learning tool. sue was also the lead for an australian government office of learning and teaching (olt) category 1 project “virtualprex: innovative assessment using a 3d virtual world with pre-service teachers", a team member on four other olt projects and received an olt citation in 2012. since 2009, she has been chair of the australian and new zealand virtual worlds working group and is also a chair of research, an education scholar and member of the ict team in the school of education, university of new england, armidale, australia, where she is based. she also holds a senior fellowship of the higher education academy. sue is an adjunct research fellow with curtin university. sue has been a member of the ascilite executive since 2012, and is currently the vice president. julie willems is currently a lecturer in blended learning at deakin university. julie’s passion and experiences with distance education started when she was a rural-based student from the 1980s to 2000s when she completed the majority of her undergraduate and graduate studies. this experience informed not only julie’s own teaching practices, but also guided her choice of graduate research projects, which included an examination of equity issues for learners in computer-mediated environments. one of julie’s priorities is the promotion of ways in which access to education can be increased for those who have been often marginalised. as a result of the publications arising from her research into equity issues in distance learning, julie was invited to participate in the government’s national policy forum for education in 2013. she was a recipient of the auda foundation's national research grant in 2011 for her i-survive project, which investigated the use of ‘back channel’ communications via mobile technologies and social media during australian emergencies and disasters. dr willems is also an enthusiastic and experienced teacher, facilitator and practitioner with particular interest in examining alternative pedagogical practices for blended, online and distance learning. in addition, julie has been involved in key national and international professional bodies in the region, including odlaa where she was the vice president from 2013 to 2014, and as an executive member of the ascilite since 2015. julie’s work within these organisations also reflects her research interests of inclusion and technology. helen farley has pioneered the delivery of online and distance learning to incarcerated students. she is particularly passionate about using educational technologies to address inequity in higher education. helen is currently an associate professor working at the digital life lab at the university of southern queensland. she has led a number of projects that have taken digital technologies into correctional centres to provide prisoners with access to higher education among which her latest project, called ‘making the connection’, is a $4.4 million australian-government heppp-funded project that started in late 2013. this project has developed two internet independent technologies and technologies: 1) a server and 2) 11-inch notebook computers onto which a modified version of the university of southern queensland’s learning management system (an instance of moodle called studydesk) has been installed. the project has won a number of prestigious awards; to date, it has attracted some 1400 course enrolments across queensland, act, tasmania, western australia and the northern territory. helen’s additional contribution to odl has been her work on mobile learning. she was the project leader of the collaborative research network project, developing a mobile learning evaluation framework, with colleagues from usq, the australian national university and the university of south australia. the framework identifies critical success factors at four levels: 1) pedagogical – learning; 2) pedagogical – teaching; 3) technical; and 4) organisational. the project also originated a novel definition of mobile learning with the capacity to change over time as new technologies emerge onto the market. helen is an advocate for the use of virtual worlds for education and is an active member of the australia new zealand virtual worlds working group. helen sits on the ascilite executive, is an associate editor off that society’s journal, ajet, and leads their community mentoring programme. new zealand similarly to australia, open and distance learning plays an important role in providing access to education to a diverse range of new zealanders (children and adults). in new zealand, distance education also started as correspondence studies, but it has now transitioned to incorporate learning technologies and the internet. the new zealand tertiary education sector is relatively small compared to the australian one, but, its eight universities and more than double that number of institutes of technology and polytechnics, have strong representation throughout the country via smaller campuses and study centres. despite the fact that new zealand is a “predominantly urban country, with 86.4 percent of the population living in urban areas”, there are still a significant number of rural and remote isolated regions that are sparsely populated. therefore, odl is key to extend equality of educational opportunity and to contribute to the development of a skilled labour force. as a result, it is not surprising that new zealand is also home to several odl leaders. claire matthewson’s career in odl in the pacific region runs from 1984 to her retirement in 2011. during this time she worked in several countries in the region, and was involved in programme and systems development, organisational management, research, and project leadership. from the mid-‘80s, she was the university of otago’s first director, distance teaching. from 1990 to 1995 at the university of the south pacific (usp), she was director, university extension, overseeing the provision of distance programmes in usp’s 12 member countries, and responsible for the staff and centres in these locations.  during this time, she chaired the steering committee for establishing pirade (the pacific islands regional association for distance education) and, elected in port moresby, was its inaugural president from 1993–1995. after that, claire was director, international programs (distance) at simon fraser university in canada (a long-time usp partner in developing pacific community nutrition materials). this position’s main focus was on developing distance education capability in west africa and south east asia. she returned to new zealand as the executive director (faculty) at the open polytechnic. claire worked with several international organisations, which resulted in important contributions, including an analysis of all pre-tertiary, preparatory distance programmes in oceania (usp’s 12 states plus australia, new zealand, and papua new guinea); a feasibility study for distance education in the republic of the marshall islands; and a five-year development plan for nzoda assistance for distance education in the south pacific. her contributions are well documented and one of her most well-known articles was published in 1984 titled “whose development, whose needs – on the politics and practice of education aid to the south pacific” (matthewson, 1984). the publication won the nucea (national university continuing education association, usa)’s elizabeth powell award. caroline seelig has over 25 years’ experience as a senior manager in new zealand’s tertiary education sector. throughout her career, she has taken on several leadership roles, which provided her the opportunities to lead institutional strategies and investment planning, to oversee flexible learning, teaching and delivery units, academic portfolio development, quality management and student support. she has also been involved in a wide range of successful collaborative initiatives and projects to drive change and innovation in online and distance learning. since taking up her role as chief executive in 2009, open polytechnic has gone from strength to strength. under dr seelig’s leadership, open polytechnic’s course and qualification results now match those of face-to-face polytechnic providers in new zealand. passionate about the benefits that distance learning can deliver to lifelong learners, caroline has been instrumental in open polytechnic’s digital transformation. caroline is an honorary fellow and learning advisor of the col. she is a previous chair of new zealand institutes of technology and polytechnic’s (nzitp) and was recently a member of the icde’s task group on student success. the success of distance learners is also one of caroline’s passions, as she spent the last three years, leading the development of an innovative platform (iqualify) that was designed to meet the digital learning needs of current students. iqualify provides a social learning experience, which is intuitive, responsive, informed by analytics, and can be “white-labelled” for partners. currently, iqualify is licensed by a wide range of domestic and international partners, including universities, polytechnics, private providers, corporate and community organisations. caroline has particular interest in the areas of odl leadership, organisational digital transformation and e-learning educational performance. niki davis is the university of canterbury distinguished professor of e-learning and director of the college of education, health and human development e-learning lab. she is recognised internationally as a leading expert in information and communication technologies in teacher education. she is sought by unesco, national agencies, companies, scholarly societies and institutions for her expertise. niki is a past president of the flexible learning association of new zealand (flanz) and is currently an editor of the journal of flexible and distance learning. awards for teaching and service include recognition as an outstanding global educator by the international society of information technology and teacher education and for outstanding service by the international federation of information processing. past experience includes the teaching of science and computer science in secondary schools and tertiary education. sarah stein is the director, distance learning at the university of otago, new zealand, a strategic role to facilitate change and development in distance education in collaboration with her colleagues. sarah’s past work experience includes primary school teaching, curriculum advising in primary and secondary schools, and academic staff development for online and distance learning in australian universities, including the university of new england and the university of queensland. as a researcher, sarah has made significant contributions to the theory and practice of open and distance learning in the region through her research, leadership and mentoring on distance education, student evaluations, teacher professional development, and technology and science education. sarah supervises postgraduate research students and runs academic staff development activities. she is currently the president of flanz, which is the new zealand professional association for those interested/working in the areas of open, flexible and distance learning. she is also a member of the ako aotearoa (new zealand’s national centre for tertiary teaching excellence) southern hub advisory group, which assists in identifying issues across the sector, setting priorities for the hub, contributing to research project approval processes. wayne mackintosh has made significant contributions to the advancement of open and distance learning not only in the pacific region, but also globally. he is the founding director of the open educational resources (oer) foundation headquartered at otago polytechnic, new zealand. he is coordinating the establishment of the oeru, an international innovation partnership, which aims to widen access to more affordable education for all. wayne holds the unesco / icde chair in oer at otago polytechnic and serves as a member of the board of directors of the oer foundation. he is a strategic innovator with a passion for open sourcing education. for example, he was the founding project leader of new zealand's elearning xhtml editor (exe) project (www.exelearning.org) and founder of wikieducator (www.wikieducator.org) — an international community of educators collaborating on the development of free/libre teaching materials in support of all national curricula. wayne has extensive international experience in educational technology, learning design and the theory and practice of odl. he has previously been education specialist, elearning and ict policy at col, and associate professor and founding director of the centre for flexible and distance learning (cfdl) at the university of auckland, new zealand. at the university of auckland, he was tasked with elearning strategy and leading cfdl's professional staff team. prior to moving to new zealand he spent eleven years working at the university of south africa (unisa), a distance learning institution and one of the world's mega-universities. wayne has participated in a range of international consultancies and projects including work for col, the international monetary fund, unesco and the world bank. mark brown is currently ireland's first chair in digital learning and director of the national institute for digital learning (nidl). prior to taking up this position at the start of 2014, mark had worked for more than 20 year in higher and distance learning in new zealand. his last role at massey university was as the director of the national centre for teaching and learning as well as director of the distance education and learning futures alliance (delfa). in addition, mark had responsibility for oversight of the central hub of ako aotearoa national centre for tertiary teaching excellence. his contributions to odl in the pacific region have been of significant importance as he played key leadership roles in the implementation of several major university-wide digital learning and teaching initiatives. mark was also president of the new zealand association for open, flexible and distance learning (deanz) and treasurer and an executive committee member of the ascilite. he is a recipient of a national award for sustained excellence in tertiary teaching and remains a member of the new zealand academy of tertiary teaching excellence. he continues contributing to open and distance education in the pacific region as he still has strong professional links with organisations, institutions and scholars in the region. small islands of the pacific region as i mentioned earlier, this article is divided into three parts in an attempt to assist readers to better identify odl leaders by the region in which they are most influential. the third section is dedicated to the small pacific region. according to professor emma kruse vaái (2017), online and distance education are key to provide opportunities and access to education in the small islands of the pacific region. the use of online and distance learning is critical to the development of the small island developing states (sids) of the pacific where remoteness is a key challenge to a region which spans one-third of the earth’s surface and consists of thousands of islands located far and wide across the pacific. goal 4 of the sdg’s ‘ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all’, is also addressed by the availability of online and distance learning. many pacific women unable to further their education off-island because of various reasons such as family commitments, cost or distance; are enabled by on-line and distance learning to continue to post graduate levels. traditionally in the pacific; university and post graduate studies required locals to go to new zealand, australia or fiji for a number of years. now there are choices of going off island or staying back and still access and progress through online or distance mode. (kruse vaái, 2017) emma kruse vaái is a professor of the national university of samoa and represents the pacific region as a member of the board of governors and executive committee of col. as a founding member and first chair of the management committee of the virtual university for small states of the commonwealth (vussc) (2004), she is a strong advocate for open distance and online learning and the use of open educational resources (oer) for education and sustainable development in the small island states of the pacific region and the commonwealth. through collaborative efforts of vussc members and strong support from col, small states actively contribute to global development, international academic collaboration and lead educational reform through the innovative use of information and communications technologies (ict). at present in samoa the upgrading of all teachers (primary and secondary) to degree level has propelled the national university and ministry of education to collaborate in the provision of open and distance education for the many who are located in outer islands and villages. emma continues to advocate for national policy developments in open and distance education as well as the development and use of open educational resources (oer). the successful trial of the col aptus device at the national university of samoa is another step towards further confidence and competence for teachers and students to be part of the oer community and enabling access to quality learning materials. rajesh chandra’s contributions to open and distance learning started when he was a practitioner and continued at the university of the south pacific (usp) in 1990 when he became pro vice-chancellor (academic). since then, he has closely guided usp’s learning and teaching and flexible learning as a teacher, policy maker, and implementer. he commissioned two reviews of flexible learning, one in 2000, and another in 2014 by col to ensure that the university’s philosophy and practice of distance and flexible learning were comparable with the best universities in this field. he led a sustained campaign, strengthened by his later appointment as deputy vice-chancellor, to ensure the mainstreaming of flexible learning into the university’s overall learning and teaching. as vice-chancellor and president since 2008, rajesh has been responsible for the development of two strategic plans through which major initiatives were taken in new pedagogies, programmatic conversion of programmes for online delivery, and in the expansion of access to remote areas by leveraging icts innovatively. rajesh also collaborated with col to jointly establish the pacific centre for flexible learning for development (pacfold) to improve capacity building in this vital area. as chair of the human resources working group of the council of regional organizations of the pacific, he has worked closely with ministries of education and other tertiary education providers in the pacific to spread the practice and benefits of flexible learning. rajesh has played a pioneering role in distance and flexible learning that has made usp a hub of learning, cutting-edge pedagogies, and an example of providing access even to the remotest communities in the pacific. he was made an honorary fellow of the commonwealth of learning in 2016. theresa koroivulaono is currently the president of the college of the marshall islands. her vision for the college focuses on transforming educational opportunities and scaling resources through collaboration between small islands’ developing states with selected international partners. with the inclusion of blended learning initiatives in the college of the marshall islands’ strategic plan 2016-2018, she aims to introduce odl in the republic of the marshall islands to increase access to cost-effective, educational opportunities. prior to that she was the head of the learning design team at the center for flexible learning, at the university of the south pacific (usp). under her leadership, a whole range of innovative and pedagogically sounded educational resources were designed, developed and externally reviewed. these materials were for different modes of delivery primarily to students in the twelve countries of the usp region. theresa also led a number of collaborative research projects at regional and international levels that focused on areas that include distance learning methodologies and best practices, open education resources (oer) and leveraging technology for education. she has presented at conferences worldwide and published in the aforementioned areas. theresa is passionate about increasing access to tertiary education in the sids of the pacific through leveraging technology for odl delivery and supported by oer. richard guy has made significant contributions to open and distance learning in the pacific region, most specifically in papua new guinea, during his academic career. he has engaged in several projects in the region and worked with several international organisations, including australia and in papua new guinea. richard was director of the advanced diploma unit at the goroka campus of the university of papua new guinea, and then later moved to the port moresby campus of the university. the advanced diploma unit was funded by the government to provide distance-education courses for secondary teachers across papua new guinea to improve their knowledge and skills. richard has also worked in the northern territory of australia on distance programmes with aboriginal people. his research has been primarily focused on the relationships between distance-education pedagogies and indigenous cultures in papua new guinea. his work has been well documented and exposed the problematic nature of practising distance education in developing nations, mostly in papua new guinea. guy is currently a consultant with coffey international development, in papua new guinea. final considerations as can be seen from this piece, there is no shortage of odl leaders in the pacific region. their hard work has assisted in the development, progress and establishment of odl in this region for decades, from creating and offering formal degrees and programs, to informal and localised capacity building activities, from developing theories to applying them in practice. some of them have been working with odl since the correspondence model, as educators and also as learners, while others have entered the field when technology was already recognised as an important resource to enhance learning and teaching in odl. as discussed here, the pacific region is a vast area of land and sea, which still poses many challenges and opportunities to odl in region. however, odl in the pacific region is more equitable, is of higher quality and better designed to meet the needs of learners in the region, uses cutting edge technologies (virtual worlds and mobile learning) and open educational resources, reaches all types of leaners, including those incarcerated and those in isolated and rural areas, and continues producing high quality professionals and educators; all because of the legacy, leadership, perseverance and commitment of people like the leaders presented here. finally, i would like to thank the leaders who kindly assisted me with this manuscript; some of them i have known for many years, while others i had the pleasure to get in touch for the first. thank you also to the journal editors, who were very professional and patient with me. thank you all for your time, generosity and kindness. references evans, t. d. (1984). communicating with students by audiotape. teaching at a distance, 25, 108-113. kruse vaái, e. (2017). informal communication. matthewson, c. (1994). whose development, whose needs – on the politics and practice of education aid to the south pacific. canadian journal of distance learning, 9(2), 35-47. http://www.ijede.ca/index.php/jde/article/view/224/624 sims, r. (2014). design alchemy: transforming the way we think about learning and teaching. springer. taylor, j.c. (2001). fifth generation distance education. detya’s higher education series, report no. 40, june. white, m. (1982). distance education in australian higher education — a history. distance education, 3(2), 255-278. doi:10.1080/0158791820030207 author: dr carina bossu is a lecturer in learning and teaching at the university of tasmania (utas). having graduated from her phd in 2010, which investigated higher and distance education, in particular policies and staff development practices to support distance educators, carina’s academic career has been largely devoted to advocating and researching open educational practices (oep) to enhance learning and teaching in higher and distance education. prior to utas, she was a research fellow with dehub at the university of new england (une) where her role was to investigate the use and adoption of oer across the australian higher education sector. carina led and collaborated in several large research projects, including projects in partnership with institutions in new zealand and fiji. these projects were funded by the australian government office for learning and teaching (olt) to investigate several aspects of oep across the australian higher education sector. currently, she is involved in several institutional, national and international collaborations related to oep, including research projects, consultancies, phd supervision and mentoring, amongst other activities. carina’s professional leadership in oep in australia has been recognised nationally and internationally, through invitations to present and publish in this area; as well as invitations to conduct consultancy work. in 2013 routledge education awarded carina the new researcher “one to watch”, and more recently (2016) she has been awarded an australasian society for computers in learning in tertiary education (ascilite) fellow. carina is also a member of several key professional organisations and a reviewer of a number of well-established and recognised journals. email: carina.bossu@utas.edu.au disclaimer: the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the journal of learning for development, its editors, editorial team, and its publisher – commonwealth of learning.  microsoft word biccardjic.docx issn: 2311-1550 2023, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 222-235 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. student perceptions of online examinations as an emergency measure during covid-19 piera biccard, patience kelebogile mudau and geesje van den berg university of south africa abstract: this article explores student perceptions of writing online examinations for the first time during the covid-19 pandemic. prior to the pandemic, examinations at an open and distance learning institution in south africa were conducted as venue-based examinations. from march 2020, all examinations were moved online. online examinations were introduced as an emergency measure to adhere to safety and health protocols. although students in developed countries have indicated benefits to online examinations, less is known about students living in the global south when it comes to writing examinations online. not enough is known about the benefits and challenges of online examinations since they were implemented as an emergency measure. we aimed at exploring student perceptions of writing online examinations for the first time, to improve examination processes by including student views. through an analysis of 336 written responses to an open-ended question posed at the end of an online survey, we established that digital access, duration of the examination, and the examination system interface affected students’ success in online examinations. based on the findings, we recommend that students need to be given tools and data to participate in online examinations. furthermore, students should be granted ample opportunity to practise writing online examinations while receiving the necessary support. keywords: online examinations, student perceptions, digital divide, open distance learning, covid-19. introduction in recent history, the most significant disruption to education was brought about by the covid-19 pandemic (radu et al., 2020). social distancing measures necessitated by the pandemic required a rapid escalation to online examinations to keep people safe and to meet assessment objectives (khan, et al., 2021; reedy, et al., 2021; unesco, 2020). while there were associated cost and administrative benefits for institutions (reedy et al., 2021), several challenges emanated from online examinations. the speed at which the change to online examinations happened took university administrators, academics, and students by surprise. several studies (but not exhaustive) have been conducted based on this emergency mode of examinations. most studies focused on quantitative data, while only a limited number of the studies featured africa or south africa. our research focused on more qualitative aspects of student perceptions of online examinations and was set in south africa, involving 336 participants. a need for studies from developing countries has been noted (afacan adanir et al., 2020), while we are also writing to address the gap in what is known about pandemic-driven online examinations (bishnoi & suraj, 2020). students' perceptions of online examinations in developed 223 countries are positive (butler-henderson & crawford, 2020), but perceptions in developing countries are still unclear. the south african higher education landscape is complex, known to be under-resourced, and caters to students from diverse social and economic backgrounds (ngqondi, maoneke & mauwa, 2021), leading to inequalities within this space. bishnoi and suraj (2020) affirm that students from poorer backgrounds are disadvantaged by online examinations. this was confirmed by rahim (2020), who identified student diversity (including their access to the internet) as one of the nine factors to consider when designing online assessments. however, design implies a thoughtful process, while the move to online examinations in 2020 was rushed. the context of this research is a mega open distance learning university in south africa. prior to covid-19, many courses were offered in a correspondence mode (postal), with support and resources offered online for those students who could access the learning management system (lms). students could post or upload formative assessments onto the university's learning management system. summative assessment was either conducted via a venue-based examination (more common) or by submitting a portfolio. in keeping with safety protocols, students were compelled to submit formative assessments online from early 2020. in addition, traditional venuebased examinations moved to online examinations. we were interested in investigating how students experienced this change in examination format to respond to the identified paucity in the literature. this research is significant because it provides a more holistic picture of student perceptions when a sudden change is made to an examination format. the current literature presents the digital divide in terms of access to physical devices or connectivity. at the same time, we explore the broader implications of the digital divide to include mental and usage access. research question the primary research question was: what are student perceptions of writing online examinations as an emergency measure during the covid-19 pandemic in an odl institution? conceptual framework south africa has been described as one of the most unequal countries in the world (sulla et al., 2022). as such, the digital divide is a concept that is particularly relevant to this article. it denotes a split between groups of people who have access to technology and those who do not (van dijk, 2002; 2017). however, van dijk identifies four important stages of access, namely mental access, materials access, skills access, and usage access, all bearing on this study. mental access refers to computer anxiety. in this research, students used technology for the first time to write online examinations, which undoubtedly caused some anxiety. materials access refers to the tools, data and connectivity needed to participate in an online examination. not all students in south africa have access to digital devices for learning, such as desktop computers, tablets, and laptops. skills access refers to the digital competencies to navigate through various platforms and perform tasks such as downloading and uploading an online examination. usage access refers to how students have previously had the opportunity to use technology and may have particular importance in the context of this research. while students may be using devices and the internet for other purposes (socialising, communicating, etc.), they have not used their devices or connectivity for writing online examinations. van dijk (2002) further theorises that the four stages of digital access are successive and cumulative. usage is the fourth of these stages and presupposes that mental, materials and skills access are in place. however, students in this research study had to move onto an online examination mode as a matter of emergency, and, therefore, the three earlier stages may not be 224 sufficiently developed to ensure a smooth transition to the fourth stage, that of usage access. these four stages of technology access can be presented as follows (figure 1): figure 1: authors’ figure based on four stages of technology access according to van dijk (2002). the digital divide has more grave consequences than inconvenience and perpetuates existing societal inequalities (bozkurt & sharma, 2020). although the digital divide has long existed, the covid-19 pandemic has entrenched it and may create a greater gulf between those who have mental, materials, skills, and usage access issues and those who do not. distance education has made access to higher education easier and more equitable (houlden & veletsianos, 2019). however, with distance education moving exclusively online during the pandemic, it may now be exclusionary when digital access is not the same for all students (lembani et al., 2020). lembani et al. (2020) set out that the digital divide is not only about access but includes more complex issues, such as lack of cognitive and social resources. significantly, their study found that more than double the number of students living in urban areas had home access to computers and the internet compared to those living in rural areas. while their study proposed that there are different levels of access across, for example, the rural-urban divide, they were able to consider public internet spaces and regional centres as access spaces for students. in the context of this research article, these spaces were unavailable to students due to lockdown measures. it can be surmised that by moving examinations from venue-based to entirely online, students in lower socio-economic sectors of society would be disadvantaged, since digital devices (laptops), access to an internet connection and the cost of data are not equitable across all students. the digital divide as a conceptual framework is, therefore, a pertinent lens for exploring students’ perceptions of online examinations in this context and our research question is located within this conceptual framework, as we sought to understand online examinations through that lens. in the next section, we explore the literature relevant to online exams: digital access, duration of the examination, and the examination system interface. literature review digital access khare and lam (2008, p. 391) suggested that online examinations "make sense for students who already have access to computers and network connections". for example, butler-henderson and crawford’s (2020) systematic review of research in mainly developed countries found that only 225 one study indicated technological problems due to slow system response. this may be different in south africa where connectivity is inconsistent and one of the most expensive in the world (chinembiri, 2020). most universities in south africa decided to move examinations online due to the "extraordinary circumstances of 2020" (reedy et al., 2021, p. 1), and network connectivity, or the lack thereof, was not the determining factor. lack of access to necessary devices was one of the biggest challenges students experienced during the pandemic (bashir et al., 2021). these authors also report that while students could access devices at the university library or in their departments before the pandemic, many only had smartphones and struggled to complete their online examinations on these devices. this study also reported that unstable internet connections and the cost of data contributed to the financial burden of the students, who were mainly from middle and lower-middle-income families (bashir et al., 2021). digital access challenges related to data costs, devices and internet connectivity are significant in online examination participation and success. however, when students manage to access the online examination, other factors influence their success, such as the time they have to complete and submit their examination responses and the user-friendliness of the examination interface. we now turn to these. duration of the examination session the literature does not agree on the ideal time allocation for online examinations. reedy et al.’s (2021) study found that students complained about a lack of time, while others experienced having too much time to complete online examinations. genis-gruber and weisz’s (2022) study presented findings that the duration for online examinations ranged from 4 to 24 hours because contingency measures needed to be considered. at the institution involved in this research, traditional venue-based examinations ranged from 2 to 3 hours, while online examinations ranged from 4 to 72 hours. thomas and cassady (2021) referred to insufficient time for the examination (including loss of time due to slow typing), inadequate orientation to the examination system, gaining access to the examination, uploading of the examination, and periodically saving answers. more examination time is a need reported by a large portion of students (khan & khan, 2019; ilgaz & afacan adanır et al., 2020). a small part of the faculty acknowledges time issues on behalf of students (reedy et al., 2021). faculty, in general, seem to pay great attention to the duration of online examinations, but only in considering it as a factor that can enable or minimise cheating behaviours (ng, 2020; reedy et al., 2021; munoz & mackay, 2019). students in reedy et al.’s (2021) study, that cited too much time, indicated that they were confused by having ample time because they then assumed they should reference their work as they would in an assignment. the change from 'writing' to 'typing' answers may also be a factor in a student's need for more time, especially if they are not skilled typists, as was cited by hillier (2014). munoz & mackay (2019) found that insufficient time may leave students feeling helpless, and this may lead to cheating. khare and lam's (2008) suggestion is to have online examinations take place over a few days and not hours since this would make it difficult to find an outsider to write the examination on their behalf. however, they recommend that online examinations be made up of case studies and higher-order questions. 226 the duration of an online examination is a complex issue and follows a goldilocks principle, where either too much time or too little time has its challenges. irrespective of the suitability of the time frame for the examination, the management of the submissions process through the examination system interface is another matter we raise here. examination system interface if the system is not intuitive, the interface of the university examination system itself can be either enabling or disenabling for students when they write an online examination, according to butlerhenderson and crawford (2020). while their systematic review found that font sizes, colours and timers were studied in the literature, the ease of use of the examination system itself may need further investigation. furthermore, systems may become more ‘intuitive’ the more students use them (i.e., usage access). student ability to navigate effectively the online examination site speaks to its usability (alshira’h et al., 2021), which relates to intangibles such as ease and effectiveness. however, it speaks specifically to the system's simplicity, the speed of finding content and the ease of navigation (alshira’h et al., 2021). muzaffar, et al. (2021) identified the usability of the examination system as a leading attribute when conducting their systematic review of online examination solutions. however, it was the least researched idea in the last five years. these authors concluded that good usability indicates that the system is easy and intuitive to use and should not require additional training. for alshira’h et al. (2021), e-learning platforms must be accessible and easy to use to succeed. fawaz and samaha (2020) confirmed that the sudden move to online learning led to anxiety in many students. furthermore, they reiterate that students who were not accustomed to online learning experienced intense emotional discomfort. navigating the online examination space may cause anxiety in students, especially when the interface is being used for the first time or is not easy to use. anxiety is the first consideration in the digital divide (van dijk, 2002, 2017) and may exacerbate materials, competence, or usage access issues. methods research methodology the research methodology was qualitative, even though the data came from a questionnaire. the last question in an online survey sent to students was open-ended, and the written responses comprised the data set for this study. typically, open-ended questions require qualitative methods to code and facilitate understanding (feng & behar-horenstein, 2019). population and sample we surveyed bachelor of education (bed) students and post graduate certificate in education (pgce) students. we invited all students enrolled in the bed and pgce to participate in the survey via a link sent to their university email. a total of 43,331 students received the link to the questionnaire. students were given one month to respond to the survey and a follow-up reminder was sent after two weeks. only 2,858 students responded to the quantitative part, while 1,899 responded to the open-ended question, which denotes the qualitative part. our dataset reflects a 4.4% response rate to the open-ended question. in general, survey response rates are notoriously low (cohen et al., 2018). tools this research used an open-ended question as part of a more extensive study on students’ perceptions of moving teaching, learning and assessment entirely online during covid-19. the complete questionnaire comprised two parts, a quantitative section with likert-type questions 227 and a section with a concluding open-ended question. due to the large data set, we only focused on the qualitative responses to the open-ended question. in terms of content validity, the openended question is relevant and representative of the construct or topic of interest, i.e., online examinations, since the respondents decided to focus their answer on an aspect of the online examinations. we clarified the concept “online examination” by reviewing the literature. we also clarified and evaluated the responses both individually and collectively to ensure that the responses were relevant to the construct. the procedure of data collection the open-ended question, “from your experience, please share any recommendations for learning during future disruptions”, was not a compulsory part of the questionnaire. we were looking for responses from students who wanted to share their experiences. this would avoid forced or superficial answers to the open-ended question. the responses were screened for the word “exam”, which would include any responses that used “exam,” “exams,” “examination,” or “examinations.” a total of 336 responses using this filter was found. the responses that contained the word “exam” were analysed by the three authors. we coded individually and then coded together to ensure the consistency of the coded data. we used colour coding to annotate the data and then created categories and themes. in addition, we allowed for open coding to capture any data that represented new themes. ethical clearance and permission to conduct the research was given by the ethics committee of the participating institution (ref: 2020/08/12/90159772/19/am). no names of students nor e-mail addresses were collected in the survey — it was entirely anonymous. the following limitations in the study were noted. firstly, the low response rate of students to the survey. secondly, only students registered for two qualifications in education were sampled. findings the six-phase thematic analysis of braun and clarke (2006) was used to analyse the data. these authors define thematic analysis as a flexible method to systematically identify and organise data into patterns of meaning (braun & clarke, 2012). the six phases we followed were: 1) to familiarise ourselves with the data, 2) to generate initial codes, 3) to search for themes, 4) to review them, 5) to define and name them, and 6) lastly, to write the report. in our case, we worked deductively by looking for responses that contained the word “exam” and analysed them. braun and clarke ( 2012) state that by following a deductive approach, researchers bring to the data certain concepts, ideas, or topics that they use for coding and interpreting the data. a total of 336 students out of 1,899 chose to respond to the open-ended question about an issue related to online examinations, even though we did not ask a specific question about examinations. three themes predominated the data we analysed. students frequently mentioned that they ran out of time when writing the examination; they were not equipped with suitable devices, data, and connectivity, which we called “digital access”, and they struggled with the examination system itself, which we called the “usability of the examination system interface.” we now present the main findings. duration of the examination a total of 69 out of the 336 responses that included the word “exam” related to time or duration of the online examination. 228 this theme revealed that several students referred to the duration of the examination as insufficient for them to complete the examination. insufficient time was caused by challenges in navigating the examinations system and network challenges when writing their examinations, leading to non-submission of their examination papers. their comments also reflected other technical challenges, such as using equation editors. the comments do not reflect a problem in answering the actual questions about the module content during the given time. the respondents suggested that: the time given to write the exam was not enough since some of us were not good at using computers. we struggle using microsoft office, and writing exam equations become more timeconsuming. we need more time when writing our exams...because we experience more problems many students were used to writing exams only at a physical venue and not used to writing online examinations. some students mentioned that typing (instead of writing) also increased the time needed for the examination simply because they typed slowly, unlike when they write (similar to hillier, 2014): the university must increase the time for online examinations, typing, and submitting scripts because this is a lot of work. one student indicated that the written questions were more time-consuming than the multiplechoice questions: [we needed] enough time during exams, especially on written exams with no multiple-choice questions. while multiple-choice examinations are helpful in marking efficiency and randomised question banks can mitigate against cheating, there are times when a written response is more suitable to the content of the course. this may be the case in many education courses, where students must bridge the divide between theory and practice. similarly, most students also referred to needing more time to upload their exam because of network delays and what they considered to be problems with the submission system: i want to ask the university to look into the time of online exams as it is little and find other options to submit online examinations. at times, the system does not allow us to submit exams without any form of difficulty, and that caused us to submit late or not be able to submit at all. the time constraints experienced by students seemed to stem from lack of typing as well as network and system problems. institutional readiness is essential to ensure sufficient time is allocated to an online examination that considers these aspects. since this might be an ongoing process, institutional readiness should include policies, resources, and practices (rahim, 2020), to create consistency in terms of examination duration across all faculties and subjects, while also accommodating external contingencies (khan et al., 2021; reedy et al.; 2021; unesco, 2020). time allocation for online examinations should consider the time needed for typing, connectivity, digital competence in uploading a document, and problems with the system itself. considerations other than limiting the duration of an online examination to prevent cheating should be considered. students may feel added anxiety (mental access) when writing online examinations if they have time constraints that affect their ability to answer questions and submit their answers. digital access a total of 71 responses related to digital access during the examinations. this included comments about devices, data, or network connections. 229 contributing to time challenges was unreliable internet connectivity. when the internet connection was interrupted, students had difficulties completing their exams on time. apart from losing connectivity and having to log into their examinations again, others had challenges because of slow internet connections. the challenge of having a stable internet connection during online examinations is not unique to south africa, and has, for example, been confirmed by research in romania by radu et al. (2020) and shraim (2019) in australia. as an example of internet challenges, a student said: ... at times, the internet was very slow when i was trying to download or upload my examination script. during times when the internet was too slow, the connection was interrupted and students could not proceed, confirming the finding in a study by radu et al. (2020), where students cited internet connectivity as the most problematic area in completing their online examinations. from students' responses, it also seemed as if internet interruption was not a one-off occurrence. a student stated: i experienced problems with multiple-choice question exams. when the internet connection was interrupted, as it often does, we had to log back into the exam and start from the beginning. some students did not have enough time to restart from the beginning. when students experienced challenges with an unstable internet connection, it was not always clear where the problem was. one possibility is that the system at the university was slow due to high student numbers writing the online examinations in the same time slot, thus overloading the system, or it could have been a slow internet connection on the side of the student. in this regard, a student made the following request to the university: ensure that students [are] not struggling to connect to the institutional internet connection while we are writing exams. power outages contributed to the general problem of internet connection. below are two examples of students referring to issues related to electricity and connectivity: what if there is load shedding [the practice in south africa of rotational electricity supply when demand exceeds capacity] during the writing of an online examination? it is difficult because sometimes we have electricity and signal problems during the examination. related to the access to connectivity was access to data and tools, which van dijk (2002) refers to as materials access. some students indicated that they did not have the necessary tools and data to write online examinations and requested these to write their online examinations. for example, a student said: provide all students with laptops and data bundles during examinations, not only the bursary students, it is unfair towards the rest of us [who do not receive laptops and data]. although all students had sufficient data, because they received data bundles from the university during examination periods, only students who had bursaries from the national bursary fund received laptops (van den berg, 2021). students were not dependent on laptops before the pandemic for their examination writing since the latter were venue-based. therefore, students who did not own laptops and the necessary data bundle had serious challenges writing online examinations. comparable results on the lack of the needed devices, internet access and data costs were reported in research by bashir et al., (2021) in bangladesh. the authors noted that, before the pandemic, students went to venues at the university to access devices. 230 in this regard, a student in this research noted: please ensure that all learners have the right equipment to make online learning more accessible and successful. provide students with monthly data, not only during exams. another added: the university must stop online examinations because some students do not have smartphones or laptops, while some cannot finish writing their exams due to network problems. the comment above is in line with the argument of khare and lam (2008), who state that online examinations only work for students who have access to computers and network connections. radu et al. (2020) reiterated that students who lack suitable tools and access to stable connectivity would face the most challenges in fully online learning. in addition, existing injustices are perpetuated when students do not have functional tools, data, or digital skills (govindarajan & srivastava, 2020). iivari et al. (2020) indicate that various digital divides exist and were highlighted by the pandemic (e.g., resources, skills, and access). usability of the examination system interface a total of 97 comments were about challenges related to the online examination system. it is important to note that the issues highlighted in this article were interrelated. unstable internet connectivity affects students' engagement with and perception of the examination system interface. when students experience challenges downloading or uploading their examination scripts or answering multiple-choice questions online, it may be related to their device, the internet connection, or the interface itself. while system access and connectivity are two issues, they are related when students report their challenges with online examinations. while students may indicate a system problem, it could be due to operating systems and personal or workplace firewalls (butler-henderson & crawford, 2020). internet connectivity also affects how systems respond. for khan and khan (2019), how the change from traditional examinations to online examinations is facilitated is one of the most critical elements to accepting online assessments from a student perspective. we received the following statement referring to the interface itself: try to make the system more straightforward during the examination and minimise having different options for writing online exams per module. some courses used multiple-choice examinations, while others required written responses to the examinations. this meant that students might have had to learn how to navigate both of these platforms. to help students locate the examination papers, they were published on two systems, and extra links were provided for uploading purposes; however, this may have confused the students further, as indicated in this example: i want to ask the university exam team not to change how we download and upload documents. students felt that an orientation session would make them more comfortable with online examinations. this can be seen as an example where students understand that usage access would mitigate the new online examination situation. ideally, a slower transition would have assisted students in familiarity with the interface, but this was not possible in the context of pandemicdriven educational decisions: i recommend that students be orientated with online examinations. also, the system is so complicated as it took me four whole months trying to learn and understand it. 231 for some students, the access to or navigation of the interface proved too much, and their preference would be to write traditional examinations in what can be seen as “digital exclusion” (coleman, 2021 p. 3): i would like an opportunity to write my exams in a hall because it is difficult for some of us to write exams online. last year i failed twice to submit my exams. what is evident is that “the problems of digital access for all has still not been solved, and this was worsened by the pandemic crisis” (alvarez jr, 2021, p. 26). a further complication was the invigilation systems used by the institution to uphold the academic integrity of online examinations, which many students found difficult: the university must come up with another invigilation tool for the exams because iris is complicated, and i was unable to use it. the invigilation system meant that students required two devices to write their online examinations, and students had to navigate both systems to ensure a successful examination sitting. the university did offer online workshops to mediate the new examination system and proctoring tools. not all students attended these, however, students who did attend reported positive outcomes from attending the sessions: the online classes really helped a lot with examination preparation. however, data-conscious students may have chosen not to attend these sessions to ensure they had data for their examinations. although the same learning management system as the teaching space was used for the examinations, the university rolled out orientation sessions to assist students with what van dijk (2002; 2017) termed “mental access”, i.e. anxiety. while students welcomed the examination preparation session, it does imply that either the system requires added training, in which case it may not be user friendly, or that the students were not engaging with the lms for learning purposes and were therefore not comfortable in navigating the system. this may refer to usage access as a barrier to successful examinations. it is, therefore, possible that usage access affects mental access and skills access. if that is the case, then van dijk’s ideas that the four access points are successive (moving from mental access to materials access to skills access and then, finally, to usage access) and cumulative may not be fully formulated. we may need to consider the interdependency of the four access points with each other. conclusion the purpose of this research was to explore student perceptions about writing online examinations for the first time as an emergency measure brought about by the covid-19 pandemic. according to broom (2020), 46% of the global population (mainly in low-income countries), live entirely offline. therefore, sweeping decisions to move all examinations online can only be justified by serious safety concerns. digital exclusion (coleman, 2021) in all its forms was exacerbated by the pandemic (alvarez jr, 2021). however, examinations had to continue to allow students to progress with their studies. our findings highlighted three areas of concern for students: insufficient time, digital access, and system interface problems. considering that many students did not have enough time to complete their online examinations, more research is needed to allocate the correct time frames to online examinations. traditional time allocations for sit-down 232 examinations need to be revised when setting online examinations. in terms of digital access, students need stable internet connections, which also affects the time necessary to complete their examination. in addition, students require tools and data to be successful at online examinations. for examination system interfaces, students need to be able to navigate the interface intuitively, based on their previous learning on the lms. system interfaces where students need extensive training may not be suitable, considering the anxiety inherent in examinations. our suggestions to leaders in higher education would be the following: • consider the time allocated to online examinations during challenging digital access conditions. • institutions should provide digital access for students in terms of tools and data to mediate materials and skills access. • students should have ample opportunities to familiarise themselves with examination systems to mediate mental and usage access concerns. the themes of digital connectivity, duration of the examination and system interface occurred throughout the dataset. in exploring the digital divide in the dataset, we found numerous examples of issues with mental access (anxiety), materials access (devices, data, and connectivity), competency access (skills to use technology) and usage access (students not accustomed to using technology for online examinations). the three themes we discussed provide important insights into usage access. we take up the issue noted by lembani et al. (2020) that social access played a factor for the students in our research. students could not rely on their peers to assist them since all students were writing online examinations for the first time. they could not depend on each other for previous knowledge or experience in writing online examinations. we, therefore, propose that usage access in the digital divide be broadened to include a communal social usage aspect. the findings also suggest that the digital divide concepts may need to include other access avenues such as ‘support access’ — like peer learning, tele-support centres, twitter hashtags or videos that students could watch to become more familiar with online examinations. furthermore, support access would require universities to consider ‘practice’ online examinations for students to feel comfortable with the online examination system interface. since the pandemic brought about the move to fully online examinations in many contexts, this field is only in its infancy and requires further research. we also suggest that usage access may instil skills access; we, therefore, suggest further theoretical and empirical work be done on the digital divide, especially the cumulative and success aspects. limitations the study's limitations are that only one college at one university was used for data collection. since all colleges within the university and all institutions are unique, the results may differ if conducted at other colleges and institutions. using a digital survey is also a limitation since many students may experience a digital divide and not always have access to tools or data to participate in the study. however, the number of responses and the themes generated shed light on student experiences of online examinations during covid19. 233 future directions of study considering the limitations, we recommend further studies on how student experiences can enhance the use of online examinations. we also recommend studies of a more quantitative nature, or mixed-method studies, to focus more specifically on online examinations, since they will remain a resident of the distance learning landscape. references afacan adanır, g., i̇smailova, r., omuraliev , a., & muhametjanova, g. (2020). learners’ perceptions of online exams: a comparative study in turkey and kyrgyzstan. the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 21(3), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v21i3.4679 alshira’h, m., al-omari, m., & igried, b. (2020). usability evaluation of learning management systems (lms) based on user experience. turkish journal of computer and mathematics education, 12(11), 64316441.  https://www.turcomat.org/index.php/turkbilmat/article/view/7031/5737 alvarez jr, a.v. (2021). rethinking the digital divide in the time of crisis. globus journal of progressive education, 11(1), 26-28.  https://doi.org/10.46360/globus.edu.220211006 bashir, a., uddin, m.e., basu, b.l., khan, r., hardiyanti, d., nugraheni, y., nababan, m., santosa, r., gozali, i., lie, a., & tamah, s.m. (2021). transitioning to online education in english departments in bangladesh: learner perspectives. indonesian journal of applied linguistics, 11(1), 11-20.  https://doi.org/10.17509/ijal.v11i1.34614 bishnoi, m.m., & suraj, s. (2020). challenges and implications of technological transitions: the case of online examinations in india. paper presented at the 15th (ieee) international conference on industrial and information systems (iciis), 540-545. https://doi.org/10.1109/iciis51140.2020.9342655 bozkurt, a., & sharma, r.c. (2020). emergency remote teaching in a time of global crisis due to coronavirus pandemic. asian journal of distance education, 15, i-vi. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3778083 braun, v., & clarke, v. (2006). using thematic analysis in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, 3, 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa braun, v., & clarke, v. (2012). thematic analysis. american psychological association. https://doi.org/10.1037/13620-004 broom, d. (2020, april 22). coronavirus has exposed the digital divide like never before. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic-digital-divideinternet-data-broadband-mobbile/ butler-henderson, k., & crawford, j. (2020). a systematic review of online examinations: a pedagogical innovation for scalable authentication and integrity. computers & education, 159, 104024. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2020.104024 chinembiri, t. (2020). despite reduction in mobile data tariffs, data still expensive in south africa. africaportal. despite reduction in mobile data tariffs, data still expensive in south africa (africaportal.org) cohen, l., manion, l., & morrison, k. (2018). research methods in education (8th ed.). routledge. coleman, v. (2021). digital divide in uk education during covid-19 pandemic: literature review. research report. cambridge assessment. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ed616296.pdf fawaz, m., & samaha, a. (2020). the psychosocial effects of being quarantined following exposure to covid-19: a qualitative study of lebanese health care workers. international journal of social psychiatry, 66(6), 560-565. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020764020932202 feng, x., & behar-horenstein, l. (2019). maximising nvivo utilities to analyse open-ended responses. the qualitative report, 24,(3), 563-571. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2019.3692 genis-gruber, a., & weisz, g. (2022). challenges of online exam systems in the covid-19 pandemic era: eassessment of perception, motivation, and performance. in measurement methodologies to assess the effectiveness of global online learning (pp. 108-136). https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-8661-7.ch005 234 govindarajan, v., & srivastava, a. (2020). what the shift to virtual learning could mean for the future of higher ed. harvard business review, 31(1), 3-8. https://hbr.org/2020/03/what-the-shift-to-virtuallearning-couldmean-for-the-future-of-higher-ed   hillier, m. (2014). the very idea of e-exams: student (pre) conceptions. in b.  hegarty, j. mcdonald, & s.-k. lok (eds.), rhetoric and reality: critical perspectives  on educational technology. proceedings of the australasian society for computers in learning in tertiary education (ascilite) (pp. 77-88). https://ascilite.org/conferences/dunedin2014/files/fullpapers/91-hillier.pdf  houlden, s., & veletsianos, g. (2019). a posthumanist critique of flexible online learning and its “anytime anyplace” claims. british journal of educational technology, 50(3), 1005-1018. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12779 iivari, n., sharma, s., & ventä-olkkonen, l. (2020). digital transformation of everyday life — how covid19 pandemic transformed the basic education of the young generation and why information management research should care? international journal of information  management, 55, 102-183. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2020.102183 ilgaz, h., & afacan adanır, g. (2020). providing online exams for online learners: does it really matter for them? education and information technologies, 25(2), 1255-1269. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-01910020-6 khan, m.a., vivek, v., khojah, m., nabi, m.k., paul, m., & minhaj, s.m. (2021). learners’ perspective towards e-exams during covid-19 outbreak: evidence from higher educational institutions of india and saudi arabia. international journal of environmental research and public health, 18(12), 6534, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18126534 khan, s., khan, r.a. (2019). online assessments: exploring perspectives of university students. education and information technologies, 24, 661–677. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-018-9797-0 khare, a., & lam, h. (2008). assessing student achievement and progress with online examinations: some pedagogical and technical issues. international journal on e-learning, 7(3), 383402. https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/23620/  lembani, r., gunter, a., breines, m., & dalu, m. t. b. (2020). the same course, different access: the digital divide between urban and rural distance education students in south africa. journal of geography in higher education, 44(1), 70-84. https://doi.org/10.1080/03098265.2019.1694876 munoz, a., & mackay, j. (2019). an online testing design choice typology towards cheating threat minimisation. journal of university teaching and learning practice, 16(3). https://doi.org/10.53761/1.16.3.5 muzaffar, a.w., tahir, m., anwar, m.w., chaudry, q., mir s. r., & rasheed, y. (2021). a systematic review of online exams solutions in e-learning: techniques, tools, and global adoption. ieee access, 9, 32689-32712. https://doi:org/10.1109/access.2021.3060192 ng, c.k.c. (2020). evaluation of academic integrity of online open book assessments implemented in an undergraduate medical radiation science course during covid-19 pandemic. journal of medical imaging and radiation sciences, 51(4), 610-616. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmir.2020.09.009 ngqondi, t., maoneke, p., & mauwa, h. (2021). a secure online exams conceptual framework for south african universities. social sciences & humanities open, 3, 100-132. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssaho.2021.100132 radu, m.c., schnakovszky, c., herghelegiu, e., ciubotariu, v.a., & cristea, i. (2020). the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on the quality of educational process: a student survey. international journal of environmental research and public health, 17(21), 7770. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17217770 rahim, a.f.a. (2020). guidelines for online assessment in emergency remote teaching during the covid-19 pandemic. education in medical journal, 12(2), 59-68. https://doi.org/10.21315/eimj2020.12.2.6  reedy, a., pfitzner, d., rook, l., & ellis, l. (2021). responding to the covid-19 emergency: student and academic staff perceptions of academic integrity in the transition to online exams in three australian universities. international journal for educational integrity, 17(9), 2-32. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40979-021-00075-9  shraim, k. (2019). online examination practices in higher education institutions: learners’ perspectives. turkish online journal of distance education, 20(4), 185-196. https://doi.org/10.17718/tojde.640588  235 sulla, v., zikhali, p., & cuevas, p.f. (2022). inequality in southern africa: an assessment of the southern african customs union (english). world bank group. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099125303072236903/p1649270c02a1f06b0a3ae02e57 eadd7a82 thomas, c.l., & cassady, j.c. (2021). validation of the state version of the state-trait anxiety inventory in a university sample. sage open, 11(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440211031900 unesco. (2020). exams and assessments in covid-19 crisis: fairness at the center.  https://en.unesco.org/news/exams-and-assessments-covid-19-crisis-fairness-centre  van den berg, g. (2021). the role of open distance learning in addressing social justice: a south african case study. in social justice and education in the 21st century (pp. 331-345). springer, cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65417-7_17 van dijk, j.a. (2002). a framework for digital divide research. the electronic journal of communication, 12 (1&2), 1-7. volume 12 numbers 1.pdf (utwente.nl) van dijk, j.a. (2017). digital divide: impact of access. the international encyclopedia of media effects, 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118783764.wbieme0043 authors: piera biccard holds a phd in curriculum studies and is a lecturer in the department of curriculum and instructional studies, unisa. she lectures honours students and publishes in the field of mathematics education and the development of mathematics teachers. she holds an nrf rating in this field. she has also authored publications in the field of open distance education—a subject that has captured her interest and expertise in recent times. email: biccap@unisa.ac.za patience kelebogile mudau, ph.d., is an associate professor in the department of curriculum and instructional studies, college of education, unisa. she currently teaches two modules of the med in open distance learning (odl); curriculum development in odl and management in odl. she is involved in the coordination of the online teaching and learning certificate of advanced studies (cas), emanating from the memorandum of agreement between unisa and oldenburg universities. her research interests are open distance e-learning, open education practices and technology enhanced learning. email: mudaupk@unisa.ac.za geesje van den berg is a full professor in the department of curriculum and instructional studies, unisa and a commonwealth of learning chair in open distance learning (odl) for teacher education. her research focuses on student interaction, academic capacity building, openness in education, and teachers’ use of technology in odl. she has published widely as a sole author and co-author with colleagues and students in curriculum studies and odl. she leads a collaborative academic capacity-building project for unisa academics in odl between carl von ossietzky university of oldenburg in germany and unisa. she is the programme manager of the structured master’s in education (odl) programme and teaches two modules. numerous master's and doctoral students have completed their studies under her supervision. email: vdberg@unisa.ac.za cite this paper as: biccard, p., mudau, p.k., & van den berg, g. (2023). student perceptions of online examinations as an emergency measure during covid-19. journal of learning for development, 10(2), 222-235. microsoft word jamatia.docx issn: 2311-1550 2022, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 563-575 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. effects of online yoga training on self-perceived stress of the students of certificate programme in yoga (cpy) of ignou biplab jamatia school of health sciences, indira gandhi national open university abstract: yoga and meditation have become widely accepted as nonpharmacologic modalities for stress and anxiety reduction as well as general health. indira gandhi national open university (ignou) school of health sciences (sohs) launched a six months-long certificate programme in yoga (cpy) in july 2019 for students who have cleared their 12th class. the objective of this study was to find out the effects of online yoga training on self-perceived stress among the students of the cpy programme enrolled during the academic year 2021. this was a study with both preand post-tests and was carried out on the students of the cpy programme between march and december 2021. a total of 69 and 81 students participated from the january 2021 and july 2021 batches, respectively. the perceived stress scale (pss) was used as a tool to measure the level of stress. a structured close-ended questionnaire was sent by google forms to ascertain self-perceived stress. the total mean value of the pss score after online yoga training decreased from 18 + 5.9 sd in the pretest to 13.7 + 6.5 sd in the post-test of students from the january 2021 batch, and from 17.4 + 5.8 sd in the pre-test to 13.1 + 5.6 sd in the post-test of students from the july 2021 batch. the difference of mean value of pre-test and post-test of both the batches of students after online yoga training were significant (p value < 0.0001). the online yoga training was effective in reduction of perceived stress score among the students of the certificate programme in yoga (cpy). keywords: yoga, online practical training of yoga, stress reduction with online yoga. introduction school of health sciences (sohs) of indira gandhi national open university (ignou) launched a six months’ certificate programme in yoga (cpy) in july 2019 for the 12th pass candidates. admission was offered in the january and july admission cycle of each year. this programme is offered through open and distance (odl) mode. self-learning materials (slm) were given to the students for theoretical as well as for practical courses. learners had to visit the study centre to attend the practical training in face-to-face mode in this programme. the face-to-face practical training was disrupted during the covid-19 pandemic. approximately 1.46 million deaths out of 63.1 million confirmed cases due to the novel coronavirus (covid-19) were reported by november 30, 2020. people were living under tremendous psychological pressure (chhetri et al., 2021). the study also mentioned that isolation, engaging in online classes, frequent network failure, and peer and parental pressure added to students’ perceived stress. as expected, the pandemic influenced the psychological health of students worldwide. 564 context the certificate programme in yoga consists of three courses. among them two are theory courses and one is practical. all the theory and practical course are compulsory. theory course 1, and course 2 represent the disciplines of introduction to yoga and yogic texts and yoga and health, respectively. the theory course 1 and 2 comprised a total 18 units (chapters) and 14 units respectively. the practical course consisted of a practical manual with seven units, and a log book. there were 12 days of face-to-face compulsory practical training. the practical training was provided online through google meet during the pandemic period. daily practical training sessions were announced to all students in advance. all students were asked to read the practical manual before the online session. only one teacher provided the online training during the entire session. during the online live session, the teacher initially announced the sequence of activities. then he described any particular practical activity, subsequently he demonstrated the particular activity by doing it himself. the teacher also kept describing each step of the practical activity. then he explained other necessary information, like benefits, precautions and contraindications of the activity. he also explained what are the mistakes commonly observed amongst those doing these particular activities. then he instructed all students to do the same activity and kept correcting the students one by one. one more yoga expert and the author himself also observed the activity of the students and advised the students as necessary. any questions about the particular activity were discussed before proceeding to the next activity. all students were asked to practice the activities taught on the particular day. on the next day, a quick revision of all practical activities carried out on the previous day were performed by the teachers as well as by the students. online theory counselling as well as interactive radio counselling sessions were also provided to the students of this programme. candidates had to go through a structured assessment system for the theoretical and practical course and they had to pass all the courses to earn the degree certificate. theoretical framework the theoretical framework has four dimensions, namely, stress, pandemic related stress, yoga as a non-pharmacological treatment of stress and the biological plausibility of yoga in the reduction of stress. stress is defined as “a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or very demanding circumstances” (lemay et al., 2019). stress is a commonly experienced aversive state purported to impact the course of disease and illness at a systemic level (cohen et al., 2015). increased stress, depression and anxiety are the features of modern lifestyles (hidaka, 2012). stress affects students’ physical, mental, social, and intellectual health. students do not always possess the necessary stress management skills and coping strategies. an international study among 9,565 individuals from 78 countries, during the height of the lockdown (april – june, 2020), the pandemic was experienced as at least moderately stressful for most people, and 11% reported the highest levels of stress (gloster et al., 2020). physical activity is one coping strategy that is perhaps underutilised by many students (sharma, 2013). 565 a nationwide lockdown and call for home quarantine has been an unprecedented action taken by the authorities in india to control the spread of covid-19 during the pandemic, but it is also associated with psychological effects in the form of both posttraumatic stress disorder (ptsd) and depression (singh & khokhar, 2021). it was observed that the psychological effect during the pandemic of losing loved ones would have been worse compared to the psychological effects due to lockdown. seeking information one or twice a day, staying connected with the family and friends, exercise and yoga at home, nurturing hobbies, amplifying positive and hopeful stories, etc., are some of the activities that can calm our minds and reduce anxiety (patnaik & maji, 2020). physical activity such as yoga is a key element in health promotion (tripathi et al., 2018). this study also suggest that the traditional expressions of yoga as a lifestyle is firmly rooted in and committed to the classic texts (e.g., yoga sutra by patanjali, and hatha yoga texts like hatha yoga pradeepika, gheranda samhita) and also embrace the concept of the eight limbs, or aspects, of yoga. yoga is a sanskrit word meaning unity of mind and body, which has been used in eastern societies for the past 5,000 years and has recently received much attention from western countries (barnes et al., 2004). yoga and meditation have become widely accepted as nonpharmacologic modalities for stress and anxiety reduction as well as general health (erogul et al., 2014; ross et al., 2015). in patanjali yogasutras, yoga is defined as, “yogas citta vritti nirodhah” and it means ‘yoga is the ability to calm/direct/restrain/cease the fluctuations of the consciousness/mind where all misconceptions (vrittis) that can exist in the mutable aspect of human beings (citta) disappear, thereby, leading to samadhi (a state where the perceiver abides in his or her own/true nature or identity) (swami niranjanananda saraswati, 2002). yoga holds potential as a self-empowering, nonpharmacological method for enhancing stress management and wellness in college students (sengupta, 2012). it was observed that suryanamaskara, a yogic practice was effective in leading to relaxation dispositions, such as physical relaxation, mental quiet, being at ease/peace, being rested and refreshed, having strength, awareness and joy and in reducing sleepiness, somatic stress, worry and negative emotion at a dispositional level (tripathi et al., 2018). literature shows that yoga intervention increases immune function and promotes brain activity in areas associated with positive emotions, reduces anxiety and negative affect, and prevents a relapse of depression (jain et al., 2007). the practice of yoga can reduce the allostatic load in stress response systems and restore optimal homeostasis; increase the parasympathetic nervous (pn) and decrease the hypothalamic-pituitaryadrenal (hpa) axis; increase gaba activity; stretch receptors in the alveoli, baroreceptors, chemoreceptors, and other sensors throughout the respiratory structures and send information about the state and activity of the respiratory system through vagal afferents and brainstem relay stations to other cns structures (streeter et al., 2012). furthermore, it was observed that the practice of yoga helped decrease sns activity, reduce inflammatory markers (tumor necrosis factor, interleukin-2, creactive protein), reduce stress markers (cortisol), increase strength, flexibility, circulation and cardiorespiratory capacity, reduce social isolation, foster networks that reinforce physical activity, and increase awareness of physical and mental states (wren et al., 2011). 566 literature review a systematic review of yoga interventions for helping health professionals and students demonstrates that mental and physical benefits, particularly reduction in stress and musculoskeletal pain, can be obtained through implementation of yoga interventions for students across a variety of settings and backgrounds (ciezar-andersen et al., 2021). a randomised crossover trial was conducted from july 2017 to may 2018, on 20 female nurses in their 20s to 30s who were working the night shift at a university hospital. after yoga training the mean questionnaire score for "psychological and physical stress reactions" was significantly reduced after the group yoga session. in addition, the mean score was significantly lower after four weeks of at-home practice than before or after group yoga, or after four weeks of the usual stress relief methods (miyoshi, 2019). a quasi-experimental study with pre post-tests where the dass-21 (depression anxiety stress scale-21) was used as a study instrument in which hatha yoga exercises and training sessions were held for four weeks (three times a week; 60-70 minutes each time) by a specialist. a total 52 women with a mean age of 33.5 ± 6.5 were included for analysis. depression, anxiety, and stress decreased significantly in women after 12 sessions of regular hatha yoga practice (p < 0.001). further, this study also concluded that yoga has an effective role in reducing stress, anxiety, and depression (shohani et al., 2018). a systematic review conducted by rosario andrea cocchiara et al. observed that yoga appears to be effective in the management of stress in healthcare workers, but it is necessary to implement methodologically relevant studies to attribute significance to such evidence (cocchiara et al., 2019). a study on college students with a sixweek pilot program that consisted of a 60-minute vinyasa flow yoga class once weekly, was followed by guided meditation delivered by trained faculty members at the university of rhode island college of pharmacy in which the students experienced a reduction in stress and anxiety levels after completing a six-week yoga and meditation program preceding final examinations. results suggest that adopting a mindfulness practice as little as once per week may reduce stress and anxiety in college students (lemay et al., 2019). students experienced a reduction in stress and anxiety levels after completing a six-week yoga and meditation program preceding final examinations. results suggest that adopting a mindfulness practice as little as once per week may reduce stress and anxiety in college students (lemay et al., 2019). a systematic review and meta-analysis observed that workplace yoga interventions were more effective when compared to no treatment in a work-related stress management (della valle et al., 2020). research question traditionally, yoga training is carried out in face-to-face mode and it was proven that yoga training is effective in reducing stress in an individual. however, the effects of online yoga training in reduction of stress in an individual is not clear. is online yoga training helpful in reducing the stress of an individual? objective this study aims to find out the effects of online yoga training on self-perceived stress among the students of the cpy programme enrolled during the academic year 2021. methods this was a preand post-test study, and was carried out on the students of the certificate programme in yoga (cpy) programme during march to december 2021. 567 the practical training was comprised of prayer, sohamjapa, four types of shatakarma (cleansing practices), eight types of sandhichalana (loosening exercises), surya-namaskara, asana (standing asana = 9, seating asana = 20, prone asana = 6, supine asana = 12), six types of pranayama (regulation of breath), three types of mudra and four types of bandha. the following practical training was provided under this programme. the first online practical training session was conducted from march 31 to april 28, 2021 and the second online practical training session was conducted from october 12 to november 20, 2021. each day around two hours (7 – 9 a.m.) of live online practical demonstration, practice under supervision and doubt clarification sessions were conducted. the abovementioned practical activities were divided into daily sessions and announced to the students in advance. it helped students read in advance for each practical activity. the recorded sessions were uploaded to youtube and links were provided to the student asynchronous learners for future guidance. a few days' gap between the two live sessions were provided to the learners for their own practice. tools the perceived stress scale (pss) was used as a study instrument to measure the stress of an individual. this scale consisted of 10 questions. for each question option, students could choose zero to four (0 = never, 1 = almost never, 2 = sometimes, 3 = fairly often, 4 = very often). the scores were reversed for questions 4, 5, 7, and 8. in these four questions, the scores (4 = never, 3 = almost never, 2 = sometimes, 1 = fairly often, 0 = very often) were different. individual scores on the pss can range from 0 to 40 with higher scores indicating higher perceived stress. individual scoring from 0 13, 14 -26, and 27 40 would be considered low stress, moderate stress and high perceived stress, respectively (cohen & williamson, 1988). these structured close-ended questions were sent to the candidates through email in google forms. a few questions on demographic profile, like, age, gender, place of residence, education, and occupation were also asked in this questionnaire. sample size and sampling techniques two groups of students, i.e., the batch of students enrolled in the january 2021 session and the students enrolled in the july 2021 admission session were enrolled in this programme. there were a total 167 and 293 students enrolled in the january 2021 and july 2021 sessions, respectively. all students in both the batches were included in this study. questionnaires were sent to all students enrolled in both sessions. however, a total of only 69 students from january 2021 and 81 students from july 2021 participated in this study. data collection the questionnaire was sent through google forms to the students and they were asked to fill in the form before the beginning of any theory as well as any practical training. form filling was not mandatory for the students and they had the choice to not fill in this form. forms filled in by the students after starting the practical training were not included in this study. students were requested to fill in the same form again after completion of the online practical training. a second reminder was sent through email after a week to those students who filled in the form before the online practical training and had not filled in the form after the completion of that training. students who filled in the 568 form again after the second week of the first reminder were not included in this study. the same mechanism was followed to collect data from the second batch also. nature of data the perceived stress scale (pss) is an ordinal type of categorical variable. the ages of the students were taken as continuous variables. other categorical variables like, gender, place of residence are binary (dichotomous) data. however, education and occupation of the students are nominal types of categorical data. data analysis the demographic profile, like, gender, place of residence, education and occupation variables were initially described in percentage (frequency). the ages of the students were described in terms of mean age. mean score of perceived stress scale (pss) were categorised into low stress, moderate stress and high perceived stress. the number of students in low stress, moderate stress and high perceived stress in both pre-test and post-test were compared with the chi square test. differences of the mean value of pre-test and post-test of the total pss score were analysed with the spearman correlation coefficient test. comparison between low, moderate and high pss scores among pre-test and post-test were calculated by the spearman correlation coefficient test. comparison of the mean value of pre-test and post-test of the total pss score among dichotomous variables (gender and place of residence) were analysed by wilcoxon’s two-sample test. comparison of the mean value of pre-test and post-test of the total pss score among nominal variables (education and occupation) were analysed by kruskal-wallis test. analysis of the data was carried out in epi info (version 7.2). p values less than 0.05 were taken as significant difference between pre-test and post-test. limitation and delimitation this study was carried out only in the group of students enrolled in the certificate programme in yoga. only motivated students who were willing to learn yoga were accepted into this programme. the group of students enrolled in this group may not represent all of society. many students chose not to fill in the feedback form for this study. there was no control group in this study. findings and discussion the students that participated in this study were very diverse in age, occupation and place of residence. the students represented almost all states of the indian nation. the total number of students enrolled in the january 2021 and july 2021 sessions were 167 and 293, respectively. a total of 69 students (41.3% of total) and 81 (27.6% of total) students from the january 2021 and july 2021 batch responded, respectively. a total of 17 students (10 from the january 2021 batch and seven from the july 2021 batch) filled in the online form pre-test but did not fill in the post-test form and were not included in the analysis of this study. 569 table 1: total number of the enrolled students and students who responded item students of january 2021 students of july 2021 total total enrolled students 167 293 460 male 63 (37.8%) 133 (45.6%) 196 (42.6%) female 104 (62.2%) 160 (54.6%) 264 (57.4%) responded on the online google form 69 (41.3% out of total students) 81 (27.6% out of total students) 150 (32.6% out of total students) male 28 (40.6%) 36 (44.4%) 64 (42.7%) female 41 (59.4%) 45 (55.6%) 86 (57.3%) the number of students who responded preand post-test were 69 (41.3%) and 81 (27.6%) in the january 2021 and july 2021 batches, respectively. the total number of student respondents were 150 (32.6%) of a total of 460 students from both batches. male and female respondents were 28 (40.6%) and 41 (59.4%) in the january 2021 batch and 36 (44.4%) and 45 (55.6%) in the july 2021 batch, respectively. mean age of the male and female students were 34.2 + 11.6 sd and 30.4 + 7.7 sd for the january 2021 session and 31.7 + 10.8 sd and 31.7 + 9.1 sd for july 2021 session. table 2: demographic profile of the students who responded item students of january 2021 students of july 2021 residence rural 20 (29%) 29 (35.8%) urban 49 (71%) 52 (64.2%) education level 12th pass 4 (5.8%) 15 (18.5%) graduate 36 (52.2%) 33 (40.7%) post graduate 26 (37.7%) 30 (37%)) above post graduate 3 (4.3%) 3 (3.7%) occupation students 21 (30.4%) 25 (30.9%) housewife 7 (10.1%) 10 (12.3%) employed in govt. sector 16 (23.2%) 16 (19.8%) employed in private sector 10 (14.5%) 18 (22.2%)_ self employed 11 (15.9%) 6 (7.4%) others 4 (5.8%) 6 (7.4%) mean age male 34.2 + 11.6 sd 31.7 + 10.8 sd female 30.4 + 7.7 sd 31.7 + 9.1 sd 570 the percentage of students in low stress, moderate stress and high stress as per perceived stress scale (pss) score of preand post-test was 12 (17.4%) [95 % ci 9.3 – 28.4%], 52 (75.4%) [95 % ci 63.5 – 84.9 %], 5 (7.2%) [95 % ci 2.3 – 16.1%] and 34 (49.1%) [95 % ci 37 – 61.6% ], 34 (49.1%) [95 % ci 49.2 – 50.7%], 1 (1.4%) [95 % ci 0.04 – 7.8 %] of the students of january 2021, respectively. the percentage of students in the low stress pss category increased from 17.4% in the pre-test to 49.1% in the post-test. however, the percentage in moderate stress pss decreased from 75.4% in the pre-test to 49.1% in post-test. percentage in the high stress pss also decreased from 7.2% in the pre-test to 1.4% in the posttest. this means a number of the students with moderate stress and high stress were shifted to the low stress category after the online practical training of yoga. the difference of the number in low stress, moderate stress and high stress in preand post-test was significant (p value < 0.0001). table 3: frequency of level of self perceived stress among the students perceived stress score (%) students of january 2021 pretest posttest p value low stress (0 – 13) 12 (17.4%) [95 % ci 9.3 – 28.4%] 34 (49.1%) [95 % ci 37 – 61.6% ] chi square 17.7; p value < 0.0001 moderate stress (14 – 26) 52 (75.4%) [95 % ci 63.5 – 84.9 %] 34 (49.1%) [95 % ci 49.2 – 50.7%] high stress (27 – 40) 5 (7.2%) [95 % ci 2.3 – 16.1%] 1 (1.4%) [95 % ci 0.04 – 7.8 %] total students 69 (100%) 69 (100%) students of july 2021 pretest posttest low stress (0 – 13) 22 (27.2%) [95 % ci 17.8 – 38.2%] 42 (51.9%) [95 % ci 40.5 – 63. %] chi square 12.9; p value < 0.001 moderate stress (14 – 26) 55 (67.9%) [95 % ci 56.6 – 77.8%] 39 (48.1%) [95 % ci 36.9 – 59.5%] high stress (27 – 40) 4 (4.9%) [95 % ci 1.3 – 12.1%] 0 total students 81 (100%) 81(100%) the percentage of students in low stress, moderate stress and high stress as per perceived stress scale (pss) score of the preand post-test was 22 (27.2%) [95 % ci 17.8 – 38.2%], 55 (67.9%) [95 % ci 56.6 – 77.8%], 4 (4.9%) [95 % ci 1.3 – 12.1%]; and 42 (51.9%) [95 % ci 40.5 – 63. %], 39 (48.1%) [95 % ci 36.9 – 59.5%] of the students of july 2021, respectively. the percentage of the students in the low stress pss category increased from 27.2% in the pre-test to 51.9% in the post-test. however, the percentage in moderate stress pss decreased from 67.9% in the pre-test to 48.1% in the post-test. the ercentage in high stress pss also decreased from 4.9% in the pre-test to 0% in the post-test. this means a number of 571 the students with moderate stress and high stress were shifted to the low stress category after the online practical training of yoga. the difference of the number in low stress, moderate stress and high stress in preand post-test was significant (p value < 0.0001). this means the online practical training of yoga was useful in the reduction of stress. table 4: mean value of self perceived stress score among the students perceived stress score (mean) students of january 2021 students of july 2021 (mean + sd) pretest + sd posttest + sd p value pretest + sd posttest + sd p value low stress (0 – 13) 9.2 + 4 8.3 + 3.7 0.33 10 + 3.1 8.7 + 3.6 0.18 moderate stress (14 – 26) 18.9 + 3.4 18.7 + 3.7 0.63 19.4 + 3.1 17.8 + 2.8 0.01 high stress (27 – 40) 29.2 + 2.3 29 + 0 29.7 + 1.9 0 total participants 18 + 5.9 13.7 + 6.5 p < 0.0001 17.4 + 5.8 13.1 + 5.6 < 0.0001 total mean value of the perceived stress scale (pss) score after online practical yoga training decreased from 18 + 5.9 sd in the pre-test to 13.7 + 6.5 sd in the post-test of students of january 2021, respectively. differences of mean value of preand post-test of pss were statistically significant (p value < 0.0001). the mean value of low stress, moderate stress and high stress of preand post-test was 9.2 + 4 sd,18.9 + 3.4 sd, 18.9 + 3.4 sd and 8.3 + 3.7 sd, 18.7 + 3.7 sd, 29.2 + 2.3 sd of the students of january 2021, respectively. total mean value of the low stress pss decreased from 9.2 + 4 sd in the pre-test to 8.3 + 3.7 sd in the post-test. in a similar manner the mean value of the moderate stress pss decreased from 18.9 + 3.4 sd in the pre-test to 18.7 + 3.7 sd in the post-test. differences in the mean value of the preand post-test of both the categories, i.e., the low stress and moderate stress of students were not significant ( p value > 0.05). total mean value of the perceived stress scale (pss) score after online practical yoga training decreased from 17.4 + 5.8 sd in the pre-test to 13.1 + 5.6 sd in the post-test of students of july 2022, respectively. differences of mean value of the preand post-test of pss were statistically significant ( p value < 0.0001). the mean value of low stress, moderate stress and high stress of preand post-tests was 10 + 3.1 sd, 19.4 + 3.1 sd, 29.7 + 1.9 sd and 8.7 + 3.6 sd, 17.8 + 2.8 sd of the students of july 2021, respectively. total mean value of the low stress pss decreased from 10 + 3.1sd in the pre-test to 8.7 + 3.6 sd in the post-test. in a similar manner the mean value of the moderate stress pss decreased from 19.4 + 3.1 sd in the pre-test to 17.8 + 2.8 sd in the post-test. differences in the mean value of pre and post-tests of low stress pss of students were not significant (p value > 0.05). however, differences in the mean value of preand post-tests of moderate stress pss of students were not significant (p value > 0.05). table 5 suggests that the mean value of the preand post-tests of pss in males decreased from 16.9 + 6.2 sd to 13.8 + 6.8 sd and 15.8 + 6.4 sd to 12.6 + 5.7 sd among the students of the january 2021 sessions and july 2021 sessions, respectively. the mean value of preand post-tests of pss in females decreased from 18.8 + 5.7 sd to 13.7 + 6.5 sd and 18.6 + 6.5 sd to 13.5 + 5.5 sd among the students of 572 the january 2021 sessions and july 2021 sessions, respectively. the difference in the mean value of pre and post-tests of pss in both genders, i.e., male and female, were observed as significant (p < 0.05) in students of the january and july 2021 batches. the mean value of the pre-test and post-tests of pss in students staying in rural areas decreased from 19.3 + 2.8 sd to 14.5 + 4.9 sd and 17.5 + 6.5 sd to 14.5 + 6.1 sd among the students of the january 2021 and july 2021 sessions, respectively. the difference in the mean value of the preand post-tests of pss in students staying in rural areas were observed as significant (p < 0.005) in the students of january 2021 but were not significant ( p < 0.089) among the students of the july 2021 batch. table 5: mean value of self perceived stress score among different groups of the students perceived stress score mean value students of january 2021 (mean + sd) students of july 2021 (mean + sd) pretest + sd posttest + sd p value pretest + sd posttest + sd p value total participants 18 + 5.9 13.7 + 6.5 <0.0001 17.4 + 5.8 13.1 + 5.6 < 0.0001 gender male 16.9 + 6.2 13.8 + 6.8 < 0.04 15.8 + 6.4 12.6 + 5.7 < 0.03 female 18.8 + 5.7 13.7 + 6.5 < 0.004 18.6 + 6.5 13.5 + 5.5 < 0.001 residence rural 19.3 + 2.8 14.5 + 4.9 < 0.005 17.5 + 6.5 14.5 + 6.1 < 0.089 urban 17.4 + 5.9 13.4 + 7.1 < 0.003 17.3 + 5.5 12.4 + 5.2 < 0.001 education 12th pass 17.2 + 2.8 17.7 + 6.1 0.9 16.7 + 5.9 12.8 + 4.3 < 0.07 graduate 18.8 + 6.4 14.7 + 6.6 < 0.006 18.1 + 6.2 13.7 + 5.7 < 0.008 post graduate 17.5 + 5.6 12.3 + 6.4 < 0.004 17.2 + 5.5 12.6 + 6.1 < 0.003 above post graduate 14 + 5.5 8.6 + 4.7 < 0.12 18.6 + 4.6 14.6 + 6.1 < 0.2 occupation employed in govt sector 18.1 + 5.6 15.1 + 5.6 < 0.78 16.3 + 5.8 11.6 + 7.1 < 0.06 employed in private sector 19.6 + 7.8 13.5 + 5.1 < 0.05 17.3 + 4.1 14.7 + 5.8 < 0.15 housewife 17.4 + 5.5 8.2 + 5.9 < 0.012 18.3 + 6.9 11.7 + 5.4 < 0.02 self employed 16. 4 + 5.1 14.6 + 7.4 < 0.5 17.1 + 6.1 9.8 + 2.6 < 0.036 students 19.2 + 4.7 15.1 + 6.2 < 0.01 18.2 + 7.1 14.5 + 4.7 < 0.02 others 13.6 + 9.6 9.5 + 10.8 < 0.46 15.8 + 3.4 11.2 + 2.3 < 0.08 the mean value of the pre-test and post-tests of pss in students staying in urban areas decreased from 17.4 + 5.9 sd to 13.4 + 7.1 sd and 17.3 + 5.5 sd to 12.4 + 5.2 sd among the students of the january 2021 and july 2021 sessions, respectively. the difference in the mean value of the preand posttests of 573 pss in the students staying in rural and urban areas were observed as significant (p < 0.05) in the students of the january and july 2021 batches, respectively. the difference in the mean value of the pre-test and post-tests in graduate and post-graduate candidates, employed in the private sector, housewives, and student groups were observed as significant (p < 0.05) in the students of the january 2021 batch. the difference in the mean value of the preand post-tests in graduate and post-graduate candidates, housewives, the self-employed and student groups was observed as significant (p < 0.05) in the students of the july 2021 batch. the mean value of the total stress score was significantly reduced in both batches of the students. the percentage of students under the category of low stress, moderate stress and high stress were significantly improved after the training. the difference in the mean value of the preand post-tests in the 12th pass and above post-graduate candidates, those employed in the government sector, and self-employed groups were observed as not significant (p < 0.05) in the students of the january 2021 batch. the difference in the mean value of the preand post-tests in the 12th pass and above post-graduate candidates, those employed in government and private sector groups were observed as not significant (p < 0.05) in the students of the july 2021 batch. conclusion and recommendation in this study, it was concluded that online yoga training could reduce the self-perceived stress levels in the students of the cpy programme. these results suggest that adopting the regular practice of yoga may reduce stress levels among the students. it may not be feasible for everyone to join yoga training through the face-to-face mode. future online yoga training with a larger number of students and long-term follow-up are needed to ensure a sustained beneficial effect. higher education institutions may consider the inclusion of online yoga practice regularly to reduce the stress of students. acknowledgment: we sincerely thank all the students who gave their valuable feedback for this study. we also thank the school administrations for their consent and cooperation. financial support and sponsorship: nil. conflicts of interest: there are no conflicts of interest. references barnes, p. m., powell-griner, e., mcfann, k., & nahin, r. l. (2004). complementary and alternative medicine use among adults: united states, 2002. advance data, 343, 1-19. chhetri, b., goyal, l. m., mittal, m., & battineni, g. (2021). estimating the prevalence of stress among indian students during the covid-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional study from india. journal of taibah university medical sciences, 16(2), 260–267. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtumed.2020.12.012 ciezar-andersen, s. d., hayden, k. a., & king-shier, k. m. (2021). a systematic review of yoga interventions for helping health professionals and students. complementary therapies in medicine, 58, 102704. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ctim.2021.102704 cocchiara, r., peruzzo, m., mannocci, a., ottolenghi, l., villari, p., polimeni, a., guerra, f., & la torre, g. (2019). the use of yoga to manage stress and burnout in healthcare workers: a systematic review. journal of clinical medicine, 8(3), 284. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm8030284 574 cohen, b. e., edmondson, d., & kronish, i. m. (2015). state of the art review: depression, stress, anxiety, and cardiovascular disease. american journal of hypertension, 28(11), 1295–1302. https://doi.org/10.1093/ajh/hpv047 cohen, s., & williamson, g. (1988). perceived stress in a probability sample of the united states. in s. spacapam & s. oskamp (eds.), the social psychology of health. sage, 31-67. della valle, e., palermi, s., aloe, i., marcantonio, r., spera, r., montagnani, s., & sirico, f. (2020). effectiveness of workplace yoga interventions to reduce perceived stress in employees: a systematic review and metaanalysis. journal of functional morphology and kinesiology, 5(2), e33. https://doi.org/10.3390/jfmk5020033 erogul, m., singer, g., mcintyre, t., & stefanov, d. g. (2014). abridged mindfulness intervention to support wellness in first-year medical students. teaching and learning in medicine, 26(4), 350-356. https://doi.org/10.1080/10401334.2014.945025 gloster, a. t., lamnisos, d., lubenko, j., presti, g., squatrito, v., constantinou, m., nicolaou, c., papacostas, s., aydın, g., chong, y. y., chien, w. t., cheng, h. y., ruiz, f. j., garcia-martin, m. b., obando-posada, d. p., segura-vargas, m. a., vasiliou, v. s., mchugh, l., höfer, s., … karekla, m. (2020). impact of covid-19 pandemic on mental health: an international study. plos one, 15(12), e0244809. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0244809 hidaka, b. h. (2012). depression as a disease of modernity: explanations for increasing prevalence. journal of affective disorders, 140(3), 205–214. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2011.12.036 jain, s., shapiro, s. l., swanick, s., roesch, s. c., mills, p. j., bell, i., & schwartz, g. e. r. (2007). a randomized controlled trial of mindfulness meditation versus relaxation training: effects on distress, positive states of mind, rumination, and distraction. annals of behavioral medicine: a publication of the society of behavioral medicine, 33(1), 11-21. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15324796abm3301_2 lemay, v., hoolahan, j., & buchanan, a. (2019). impact of a yoga and meditation intervention on students’ stress and anxiety levels. american journal of pharmaceutical education, 83(5), 7001. https://doi.org/10.5688/ajpe7001 miyoshi, y. (2019). restorative yoga for occupational stress among japanese female nurses working night shift: randomized crossover trial. journal of occupational health, 61(6), 508–516. https://doi.org/10.1002/13489585.12080 patnaik, n. m., & maji, s. (2020). psychological issues and stress on people in the purview of covid-19 pandemic lockdown. food and scientific reports, 1, 36-40. ross, a., williams, l., pappas-sandonas, m., touchton-leonard, k., & fogel, d. (2015). incorporating yoga therapy into primary care: the casey health institute. international journal of yoga therapy, 25(1), 43-49. https://doi.org/10.17761/1531-2054-25.1.43 sengupta, p. (2012). health impacts of yoga and pranayama: a state-of-the-art review. international journal of preventive medicine, 3(7), 444-458. sharma, v. k. (2013). effect of yoga on autonomic functions and psychological status during both phases of menstrual cycle in young healthy females. journal of clinical and diagnostic research. https://doi.org/10.7860/jcdr/2013/6912.3451 shohani, m., badfar, g., nasirkandy, m. p., kaikhavani, s., rahmati, s., modmeli, y., soleymani, a., & azami, m. (2018). the effect of yoga on stress, anxiety, and depression in women. international journal of preventive medicine, 9, 21. https://doi.org/10.4103/ijpvm.ijpvm_242_16 singh, s. p., & khokhar, a. (2021). prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder and depression in general population in india during covid-19 pandemic home quarantine. asia pacific journal of public health, 33(1), 154-156. https://doi.org/10.1177/1010539520968455 575 streeter, c. c., gerbarg, p. l., saper, r. b., ciraulo, d. a., & brown, r. p. (2012). effects of yoga on the autonomic nervous system, gamma-aminobutyric-acid, and allostasis in epilepsy, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. medical hypotheses, 78(5), 571-579. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mehy.2012.01.021 swami niranjanananda saraswati. (2002). yoga darshan. yoga publications trust. tripathi, m. n., kumari, s., & ganpat, t. s. (2018). psychophysiological effects of yoga on stress in college students. journal of education and health promotion, 7, 43. https://doi.org/10.4103/jehp.jehp_74_17 wren, a. a., wright, m. a., carson, j. w., & keefe, f. j. (2011). yoga for persistent pain: new findings and directions for an ancient practice. pain, 152(3), 477-480. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pain.2010.11.017 author: dr biplab jamatia is an associate professor at indira gandhi national open university. he is programme coordinator of the pg diploma in clinical cardiology, pg diploma in hiv medicine, pg certificate in acupuncture, certificate in geriatric care assistance, and certificate in phlebotomy assistance, certificate programme in yoga. email: biplabjamatia@gmail.com cite this paper as: jamatia, b. (2022). effects of online yoga training on self-perceived stress of the students of certificate programme in yoga (cpy) of ignou. journal of learning for development, 9(3), 563-575. microsoft word kalibwani.docx issn: 2311-1550 2021, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 431-447 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. scaling smallholder farmer empowerment: lessons from the lifelong learning program in uganda rebecca kalibwani,1 medard kakuru,2 alexis carr3 and moses tenywa3 1bishop stuart university, uganda 2economic policy research centre, uganda 3commonwealth of learning, canada abstract: an evaluation study of the lifelong learning for farmers (l3f) program was undertaken in two sites; in the central and northern regions of uganda. propensity score matching (psm) was used to measure the impact of the program on crop and household income, as well as the empowerment levels of its participants. the two sites had differences not only in geographical location but in historical background and implementation of the program, which may have influenced the livelihood outcomes. despite these differences, the results of the study confirm the potential of the l3f approach to raise participants’ crop and household income relative to non-l3f counterparts, significantly so for women participants. there is also sufficient evidence to confirm that l3f positively contributes to farmer empowerment, and, subsequently, their livelihood. the paper draws lessons for scaling the empowerment process using the lifelong learning for farmers’ model in uganda. keywords: lifelong learning for farmers, empowerment, propensity score matching, uganda. introduction there is a wide and growing interest in transformative empowerment as a means of poverty reduction in agricultural development. true empowerment enables farmers to make decisions that result in transformation of their farming systems with a higher degree of productivity, efficiency, sustainability, and inclusiveness (bartlett, 2008). the lifelong learning for farmers (l3f) program was developed and has been supported by the commonwealth of learning (col), to empower farming communities (carr, et al, 2015), towards the same goals for transforming the agriculture sector in developing countries. the l3f approach focuses on linking three types of capital: social, human, and financial capital. integration of these three types of capital helps in removing the barriers to the agricultural development process. human capital under the lifelong learning for farmers model is viewed as learning, knowledge acquisition, reflective practices, skills and competencies that enhance farmer empowerment. human capital innovations entail human resource outreach and training leveraging the use of learning icts. they also entail the use of other technologies for production, irrigation, and value addition, among others, to enable farmers to overcome the barriers they face. social capital innovations harness community collective action through creation of social systems, such as innovation platforms, savings and credit cooperatives (saccos), self help groups (shgs), 432 village banks, community banks, and cooperatives. these foster increased benefits and social protection from risks. social capital also allows for community based interactive learning, although social learning has to be linked to lending for purposes of generating financial capital. financial capital focuses on facilitating access to low interest loans to enable farmers to invest in quality inputs, and eventually to access markets. such access to both input and output markets enhances market inclusion for men and women farmers in the rural areas. the integration of these three forms of capital is believed to have the potential to result in transformative learning that subsequently empowers them to overcome their unique constraints in development (carr, et al, 2015). background of the l3f program in uganda in uganda, the l3f program was launched during 2009-2010 to test the efficacy of the l3f model in the kabale district of uganda. at that time, the program focused on sorghum and potato growers belonging to bakiga communities in selected villages of kabale, and on the batwa community, whose main economic activity was honey collection from wild forests in kisoro (carr et al, 2015). this was meant to enable a social inclusion that would ground the model in the local context. the communities were mobilised, and organised into self-help groups (shgs) and saccos. various stakeholders were involved for capacity building, technical support and systems management. these included makerere university, district local governments in kabale and kisoro (kdlg), the ministry of agriculture, animal industry and fisheries (maaif), the national agricultural research organisation (naro) and the rural farmers as primary stakeholders, among others. in 2010, the open distance learning network (odln) registered the agricultural innovation system brokerage association (aginsba) as a social enterprise with a mission to empower communities with improved skills, business linkages and e-services for improved access to socio-economic, financial and human capital. odln had this specific mandate of powering ict-based learning among rural agricultural communities. since then, aginsba has been very instrumental in the implementation of l3f in uganda by generating, processing and providing information through multimedia on agricultural and other related matters. aginsba facilitates access to loans for local and other farmers at subsidised rates, and links l3f agricultural activities to government, nongovernmental organisations, and the private sector, as partners in improving farmers’ livelihoods. during 2012-2015, the focus was on institutionalising l3f and building the distributed capabilities of l3f partner organizations (balasubramanian et al, 2015). this was meant to have more organisations participating in the program and, in particular, the formation of saccos to enable the communities to get involved in community-based savings and lending. it was felt that saccos as social enterprises would enable l3f to scale up in uganda. among the achievements of the l3f program during 2012 2015 was that 2,000 participants accessed finance, social capital and learning in kabale district, about 400 personnel of naro, maaif, were trained in gender-sensitive l3f, the national organic agriculture movement in uganda (nogamu) participated in organic certification of products, while makerere university facilitated capacity building activities. aginsba, in turn, launched and registered two saccos. at the community level, among the l3f participants, there was an increase in perceived income, and empowerment as compared to non-l3f farmers, over 50% of whom were women (tenywa, 2019a). 433 one of the major challenges in agriculture in this region as identified at the onset of this initiative was low capital formation and inaccessibility to agricultural credit. muarik through aginsba introduced “table banking” as a form of community banking, in which the shgs came together to participate in saving as well as intra-group and inter-group lending. community banking is a major element of the l3f that is believed would enable more convenient access to financial credit by rural men and women farmers than commercial banking, thus facilitating access to production inputs to complete the empowerment process. the period from 2015 onwards saw enhanced effort in consolidating government and financial institution linkages and strengthening of saccos, partnerships for increased access to credit by l3f saccos, and scaling the l3f business model in uganda. this paper focuses on the relationship between lifelong learning and the key program indicators, crop and household income arising from the improved access to financial credit and production inputs, and empowerment levels arising from enhanced knowledge sharing and learning of men and women farmers in uganda. an evaluation study was undertaken in two sites: masaka district in central uganda, and selected districts in northern uganda. these are areas where the l3f program was scaled up from south-western uganda since 2015. located in two different geographical locations, and with differences in their historical background, the program was implemented with a different approach in each of the two sites. the results of the evaluation are, therefore, used to draw lessons for a wide range of considerations for scaling up the l3f program in uganda. lifelong learning and small holder farmer empowerment lifelong learning has a very significant place in developing countries because this is where millions of people do not have access to formal education and their learning is mainly either non-formal or informal (abiy et al, 2014). it has been richly credited to have tremendous value for such populations in developing countries. according to ahmed, 2014, it embraces all forms of learning experiences, and helps individuals to engage in purposeful interactions with their environment through the development of their knowledge, skills and critical thinking abilities. abiy et al (2014) add that it plays an essential role in enabling individuals to adapt to, deal with, new challenges and changes in their own lives and surrounding environment. mwaseba et al (2009) find lifelong learning to be that transformative learning that leads to significant changes in a participant s’ values and attitudes. lifelong learning empowers rural farming communities in a way that challenges the non-formal and informal learning promoted by agricultural extension systems that follow didactic pedagogies (carr et al, 2015). these extension systems offer a top-down, one-way flow for educating farmers. they focus on the supply of new knowledge from research to farmers rather than providing a mechanism for nurturing the innovative capacity of multi-stakeholders, especially the farmers, to make markets work and address recurrent production and market risks in complex farming systems (tenywa et al, 2011). in realization of this constraint, roling (1988) proposed a three-dimensional model that forms the basic premise for an extension approach that can lead to empowerment. the three-dimensional model (consisting of the structure, institution, and process) is elaborated by carr et al (2015), as the basis for the lifelong learning for farmers (l3f) program. the model is perceived to promote interactive learning, and a farmer-centric knowledge management system that can empower farming communities (carr et al, 2015). 434 the process of empowering individual men and women farmers is described by hennink et al (2012) as a process of transformation that enables individuals to make independent decisions and take action on these decisions to make changes in their lives. the lifelong learning initiative supports this view and is premised on the belief that an effective linkage of three types of capital, social, human and financial, can create space in which the capacity of farmers and other value-chain stakeholders can be built. l3f utilises appropriate odl strategies and icts to build capacity among farmers, landless laborers, extension officials and other stakeholders within the agricultural value chains. this model provides them with quality learning opportunities facilitated by appropriate odl strategies and icts, enables them to adopt sustainable agricultural practices, builds their capacity in financial literacy to enhance the performance of financial capital, and enables improved organisational capacity. the expected outcomes of this model include increased crop sales by the participating households, improved household incomes, and overall empowerment of the participating men and women farmers. these form the basis for the evaluation of the l3f program from which lessons for scaling empowerment are drawn. description of the study sites masaka district (central uganda) the l3f program in masaka was begun in 2015 as an effort to scale up the program in kabale district in the southwest and sheema district in the western region. in 2015, farmer profiling and registration on the m-omulimisa, a web-based mobile app, began. this has been a continuous process up to now. the implementation of the l3f program in masaka took an approach that was similar to that used in southwestern uganda, although while there was academic leadership in kabale, in masaka it was mainly private-sector led. in 2017, the communities and stakeholders were mobilised and organised to form a bean innovation platform (ip) (also called ekimeeza kye’bijanjaalo in the local dialect). the formation of a bean ip was expected to bring together all stakeholders who would be relevant in the development of the bean value chain. the purpose of forming an ip was to ensure mutual conscientization, and a common understanding of the agenda of each stakeholder on the ip (carr et al, 2015). it would also enhance provision of technical support especially for production and ensure proper systems management. a number of stakeholders from the private and public sectors joined the bean ip and each played a fundamental role. the masaka microfinance and development cooperative trust (mamidecot), a microfinance organization, joined to offer credit to farmers at low interest rates; the community enterprise development organisation (cedo) supplied improved bean seed under a contract farming arrangement and offered training; the masaka diocesan development organisation (maddo) offered training, especially to farmers in dairy farming, while the masaka district local government (mdlg) supported the bean ip with extension services (tenywa 2019 a, b). in masaka district, the bean ip and hence l3f at the time of the study was functional in three subcounties: kyanamukaaka, kabonera and mukungwe. the farmers in these sub-counties were organised in shgs to access extension services and technical support from partners. the farmers were contracted by cedo to multiply seed so that at harvest, they sold it back to cedo at an agreed buyback price. shgs who needed credit to purchase seed and other inputs such as fertiliser, were able to get it from mamidecot. financial credit from mamidecot included crop insurance and carried a relatively low interest rate compared to the market rate. it should be noted here that all farmers (l3f and non l3f) who wished to, received credit as cash from mamidecot to spend on inputs of their 435 choice, while others participated in a contract farming arrangement with cedo, where the latter provided them with bean seed. these two forms of credit management influenced the outcomes of the program, offering insights for program scaling. lira-apac (northern uganda) the l3f program in northern uganda was functional in over nine districts surrounding the lira district. the districts included lira, apac, alebtong, kole, kwania, oyam, among others. these were among the districts that in the recent past received post-conflict relief from international agencies and were at a stage of engaging actively in household income generation activities for poverty reduction. since 2015, there was effort to mobilise farmers into shgs using the village agent model. this model was one of those characteristics that differentiated the l3f program arrangement in the north from the one in masaka district. in this model, village agents were identified from among community workers and extensionists in the communities where they resided. village agents worked as individuals, who were facilitated by development agencies in the region, to offer a service to their communities. they mobilised farmers to form shgs, and gave basic training on agronomic practices, soil fertility management, sustainable agriculture, and financial literacy among others. the village agents trained the farmers mainly using a face-to face approach, since a good majority of the farmers were not yet able to use the digital platform. most village agents, however, could access information from the platform. in this way, village agents were able to generate demand for agricultural inputs by the farmers in the community, before a planting season. the microfinance institution that was in the village model arrangement in northern uganda was microfinance support centre (msc), a government supported institution, with offices in all regions of the country. an agreement was made between the input supplier and msc for the former to supply the inputs to the farmers, and the latter to pay the supplier. in this arrangement, the farmers were contracted to repay the funds extended to the input supplier, at a relatively low interest rate, and crop insurance. these arrangements were mediated by aginsba. the mobilisation and sensitisation of the farmers in northern uganda took place between 2016-2018. it was during this period that aginsba identified the village agents, and together with institutions involved in extension work such as local government, were given the necessary capacity building. the village agents subsequently went on to sensitise the communities, form groups and conduct various training. the arrangement to acquire inputs using in-kind credit from msc only began and was effected in the year of the study, 2019. this is because of the difficulty of finding a source of credit in the local context. mobilisation and profiling of farmers took place at the same time. farmers were registered on the m-omulimisa platform to receive information and be able to interact with experts on the platform. methods in order to establish the relationship between l3f and the key program indicators, an impact evaluation of the program was conducted in the two study sites mentioned above. the study involved a review of relevant literature and project documents, a household survey among l3f participants and non-l3f farmers using a structured questionnaire, a stakeholders’ workshop, and key informant interviews. 436 study area the selected locations are shown in figure 1 below. figure 1: map of uganda showing the selected areas for the study sample selection and size both l3f (henceforth, participants) and non-l3f (henceforth, non-participants) respondents were considered for this study. in order to circumvent the spill-over effects of participation (engaging in l3f activities) to non-participants, the two categories of respondents were selected from different subcounties. the l3f respondents were randomly selected from the participating sub-counties, and, likewise, the non-l3f respondents were selected from the non-participating sub-counties. while 437 selecting participating and non-participating sub counties, effort was made to select those that were similar in terms of the geographical location, agro-ecological and socio-economic characteristics. this was important as a way of controlling for many variables, thus ensuring that the difference in the outcome variable between the participants and non-participants was solely due to program participation. following lehr (1992), the formula used in this study to determine the minimum sample size was specified as: 𝑛 = 32 𝐸𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑡 𝑠𝑖𝑧𝑒! where n is the sample size. the effect size is a measure of the effect of the intervention in standard deviation units of the outcome. in this study, our individual randomised trial was designed to detect an effect size of 0.35, which gave us a sample size that is both big and cost effective (lehr, 1992). the selected effect size gave us a minimum total sample size of 261 individuals for each of the study sites, which made a total sample of 562 respondents for both sites. in the actual sampling, a total of 563 respondents were selected as per the distribution in table 1 below. table 1: distribution of sampled respondents by site and sex region participants non-participants total female male female male central 50 68 94 76 288 north 32 106 42 95 275 total 82 174 136 171 563 data analysis assessment of impact of l3f on crop and household income the method of propensity score matching (psm) was used to assess the impact of l3f on crop and household income. in effect, psm estimates the average treatment effect on the treated (att). given income difference between participants and non-participants (yd) as an outcome indicator, the average impact of participating in the l3f program on its farmers (referred to as att in the impact assessment literature) is defined as the difference between the expected income received by l3f farmers and the expected income difference if they had not joined the program: attd = e(y1d|p = 1) – e(y0d |p = 1) (1) where attd = average impact of treatment on the treated for the income outcome; p = participation (p = 1 if l3f participating farmer, and p = 0 if non-l3f farmer); y1d = income difference of the farmer after joining l3f program; y0d = income difference of the same beneficiary if he or she had not joined the program (caliendo & kopeinig, 2005). 438 propensity scores (ps) were used to match l3f farmers to non-l3f farmers and hence assess the income difference between the two farmer categories. the ps were predicted using a binary probit regression model that satisfied both the common supporti condition and the balancing property, not only for the total sample in each region but also for men’s and women’s samples separately. estimating and comparing the levels of empowerment in order to estimate and compare the levels of empowerment among participants and nonparticipants, male and female farmers, an empowerment index was estimated using an empowerment module. the index was constructed through a two-step process using factor analysis (fa). the empowerment module had attitudinal questions designed to capture four empowerment indicators (psychological, social, economic and political aspects) at three different levels — household, enterprise and community. there was a set of questions under each level of the empowerment indicators and respondents were asked to respond to the questions by using a seven-point likert scale, ranging from 0 (strongly disagree) to 7 (agree). in the first step, the responses to the set of questions under each level for each empowerment indicator were combined by fa to generate 12 indices. in the second step, the 12 indices generated in the first step were combined (also using factor analysis) to generate the empowerment index. indices generated had a big range (0.0049 – 109.481), which makes interpretation difficult. we circumvent this scenario by normalising the indices to a scale of 0 – 100. results descriptive statistics of the respondents masaka district (central uganda) the central region of uganda is relatively more urbanised, with 50% of the country’s 20 largest urban centres (ubos, 2016) and well resource-endowed in a coffee-banana perennial farming system. in particular, the l3f program in masaka is functional at the bean ip. the age and household size of the respondents were not significantly different between the l3f and non-l3f respondents, and neither was women’s participation in the survey across the two categories. these statistics are shown in table 2 below. the acreage of land owned by the respondents was also not significantly different between the l3f and non-l3f respondents. however, a relatively larger percentage of l3f respondents (84.8%) had their main source of income as crop farming, compared to non-l3f respondents (70.8%). this reflects the mission of the l3f program to target rural resource poor farmers involved in crop farming. although with a few livestock farmers (7.6% of l3f and 12.3% of non l3f respondents), it is therefore not surprising that over 70% of the respondents participated in crop farming as their main source of income, and that the gross cropped land was significantly higher for the l3f than the non-l3f respondents (p < 0.05). the education level of the l3f participants was significantly higher than that of the nonparticipants at the 5% level. 439 table 2: descriptive characteristics of the respondents in masaka (central region) l3f sub-counties non-l3f sub-counties sample size (n) 118 170 t/chi-sq average or percent average or percent age (yrs) 50 48.3 1.081 (0.281) household size 7 6.3 1.579 (0.115) women 42.40% 55.30% 1.081(0.281) education level (yrs) 8.7 7.6 2.301(0.022)** main source of income (crop farming) 84.80% 70.80% land owned (acres) 6.1 3.1 1.575(0.116) gross cropped land (acres) 3.1 2.32 2.176 (0.031)** ** significance at the 5% level (source: survey data, october 2019) when these characteristics are disaggregated by gender, there was neither a significant difference in age nor household size between male and female respondents across both l3f and non-l3f. this further confirms homogeneity across the two categories of respondents. however, a significant difference (p < 0.000) in education level was observed between male and female non-l3f respondents, while there was no significant difference between male and female l3f respondents. on average, the l3f respondents were significantly more educated (p < 0.05) than their non-l3f counterparts. this finding seems to suggest that in the central region, both men and women farmers, who have attained some level of education, are more likely to join the l3f due to a higher valuation of knowledge than the less educated. in particular the relatively educated women were more likely to participate in l3f than their non-educated counterparts. northern uganda northern uganda, as opposed to the central region, is less urbanised, less resource-endowed, and has an annual crop-based farming system. in the study areas of northern uganda, the l3f and non-l3f respondents were not significantly different in age, number of women respondents and education level. both categories had crop farming as a main source of income, as over 80% of them indicated so but the l3f and non-l3f respondents differed significantly in the acreage of land owned, and gross cropped land. the l3f respondents had significantly more of both than the non-l3f respondents (table 3). similar to the central region, since the l3f program focuses mostly on crop farming, it is not surprising that l3f respondents should have more cropped land. it is also possible that they participated in the program because they owned enough land to enable their participation. 440 table 3: descriptive characteristics of the respondents in the northern region l3f sub-counties non-l3f sub-counties sample size (n) 138 137 t/chi-sq average or percent average or percent age (yrs) 42.6 41.2 0.904(0.367) household size 7 6 4.835(0.000)*** women 23.20% 30.70% 1.950 (0.163) education level (yrs) 8 8 0.094(0.925) main source of income (crop farming) 92.50% 83.90% land owned (acres) 5.1 3.8 3.079(0.002)*** gross cropped land (acres) 4.1 3.2 2.728(0.007)*** ***significance at the 1% level (source: survey data, october 2019) gender disaggregation showed that while female l3f respondents, on average, had relatively fewer years of school education (4.7 years), as compared to 5.7 years for the female non-l3f respondents, they also had relatively less cropped land (3.1 acres) compared to their non-l3f counterparts (3.6 acres). the impact of the l3f program on crop and household income in the northern region, the findings reveal that crop and household incomes of the participants were significantly higher than those of the non-participants, at 10% and 5% levels of significance, respectively, as shown in table 5. it is also worth noting that women l3f participants had both crop and household income significantly higher than that of their non-l3f counterparts. the male participants also had relatively more crop income than male non-participants, although the finding was not significant. table 5: effect of l3f participation on crop and household income in northern region outcome radius caliper matching att effects females male total crop income 575,300*** 21,000 456,000* household income 3,173,300** -224,000 4,269,000** (source: survey data, october, 2019) ***, **, * denotes significance at 1%, 5% and 10% level, respectively in the central region, results of propensity score matching show that male and female l3f participants obtained relatively more crop and household income than their non-l3f counterparts. these differences were, however, not statistically significant. the results are shown in table 6 below. 441 table 6: effect of l3f membership on crop income and household income in central region outcome radius caliper matching (r = 0.005) att effects females male total crop income 71,000 455,100 285,000 household income 980,000 -137,000 131,100 (source: survey data, october 2019) ***, **, * denotes significance at 1%, 5% and 10% level, respectively impact of l3f on farmer empowerment central region generally, there was a significant impact of l3f on farmer empowerment in the central region. the mean empowerment index for l3f members was 49.6 while that of non-members was 39.6. the difference between the two indices was significant at the 1 percent level (t = 2.799, p-value = 0.006). this finding is to be expected based on studies elsewhere (carr et al, 2015). when disaggregated by gender, the empowerment index for male l3f members (53.7) was significantly (t = 1.824,p = 0.071) higher than that of female l3f members (44.1). even among non-l3f members, the empowerment index for males (47.7) was significantly higher than that of their female counterparts (33.4). comparing gender variations, the empowerment index for female l3f members was significantly higher than for non-l3f female members (t = 2.324, p-value = 0.022). however, the empowerment index for male l3f members was not significantly different from that of non-l3f male members (t = 1.162, p-value = 0.247), perhaps due to the availability of off-farm opportunities for non-l3f males in urban areas. these findings reveal that l3f does increase empowerment for both male and female participants but significantly so for female participants. the difference between the empowerment indices of male and female l3f participants is significant at the 10% level, while the difference between the male and female non-l3f respondents is significant at the 1% level. these results are shown in table 7 below. table 7: empowerment indices of l3f and non-l3f respondents in the central region female male t-statistic(p-value) mean l3f members 44.1 53.7 1.824(0.071)* 49.6 non-members 33.4 47.7 3.146(0.002)*** 39.6 t-statistic (p-value) 2.324(0.022)** 1.162(0.247) 2.799(0.006)*** mean 37.1 50.4 3.882(0.0001)*** (source: survey data, october, 2019); ***,**,* denotes significance at the 1%, 5%, and 10% levels respectively northern region in the northern region, on the contrary, the findings reveal the reverse. the empowerment index for l3f members was 34.3 while that of non-members was 41.6 and the difference between the two indices was significant at 5 percent (t = 2.483, p-value = 0.014) (table 8). comparing within group variations, the empowerment index for male l3f members (34.7) was not significantly (t = 0.204, p = 0.839) different from that of female l3f members (33.8). even among non-l3f members, the empowerment index for males (41.8) was not significantly different from the females’ (41.3). 442 comparing gender variations, the empowerment index for female non-l3f members (41.3) was higher than for female l3f members (33.8) but the difference was also not significant (t = 1.544, p-value = 0.127). however, the empowerment index for male non-l3f members was significantly higher than that of l3f male members (t = 1.910, p-value = 0.058). table 8: empowerment indices of the l3f and non-l3f respondents in northern uganda female male t-statistic (p-value) mean l3f members 33.8 34.7 0.204(0.839) 34.3 non-members 41.3 41.8 0.103(0.918) 41.6 t-statistic(p-value) 1.544(0.127) 1.910(0.058)** 2.483(0.014)** mean 38.0 38.1 0.052(0.959) (source: survey data, october, 2019); ** denotes significance at the 5% level the empowerment indices of the respondents in the two study regions are further illustrated in figure 2 below. figure 2: empowerment indices of the respondents from the two regions lessons for scaling up the empowerment process the characteristics of the respondents in the two regions of the study seem to be quite comparable. in both regions, gross cropped land was more among the l3f respondents than the non-l3f, an indicator of the effort of the program to pursue its objective of enhancing crop production among the participants. furthermore, the average level of education was higher for men than for women among both l3f and non-l3f respondents. this is also true with the rest of the ugandan population. the literacy rate is higher for men (77%) than for women (67%) (ubos, 2016). while the level of education is a factor that has been known to contribute to farmers’ participation in development programs such as l3f, and the subsequent empowerment from such programs, women farmers in uganda have been found to be relatively less educated than their male counterparts (ubos, 2016). 41.3 41.8 33.4 47.7 33.8 34.7 44.1 53.7 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 female male female male northern central e m po w er m en t i nd ex non-participants participants 443 without their participation, women farmers often fail to benefit from the empowerment that would ensue from such a program. bartlett, 2008 advises that facilitating the process of empowerment should involve stimulating the mind through experiential learning, encouraging and supporting observation and experimentation. such a process should enable women farmers to overcome their fear about their lack of education, which holds them back from participating in development programs. in order to upscale an empowering l3f program to women farmers, the focus of the program on crop production seems to be right to ensure the inclusion of women. hossain and jaim (2011) argue that employment and income generation from their farm activities are some of the important elements that bring success in a program for empowering women. further flexibility and integration of experiential learning in l3f would support women with little or no education at all, and those with small plots of land, to participate in the program. the results of this study seem to suggest that the l3f program, operating with the village agent model, and coupled with an in-kind credit in northern uganda has potential to increase crop and household income, significantly so for women participants. in order for this potential to be fully realised, the operations of the village agents and the administration of the in-kind credit ought to be strengthened, by ensuring commitment by msc, working with m-omulimisa, to provide access to loans. the results of the propensity score matching in the two study sites seem to give evidence that the l3f program, albeit in different applications, has the potential to raise participants’ crop and household income, and subsequently enhance their livelihood, relative to non-l3f counterparts. however, in the two sites, there were differences in the administration and management of credit, institutional and market inclusion, and human resource development using icts. these differences might be responsible for the differential impact of the program in the two study areas. in northern uganda, credit was offered in-kind, as explained in section 1. this practice ensured financial inclusion that was in compliance with the l3f approach of building a disciplined saving culture for community based banking, providing a worthwhile basis for engaging commercial banks in a scaling-up process for l3f. on the contrary however, the method of in-kind credit administration may not be that compliant with the principles of l3f empowerment. compliance would mean that an individual is enabled to make independent decisions about the use of credit funds, where to buy inputs, and where to sell the output. however, in the socio-economic and geographical circumstances surrounding the northern region of uganda, it seems plausible to scale up the same intervention to communities in similar situations. full compliance to the principles of empowerment would be a gradual process as the farmers begin to appreciate the gains in household and crop income arising from this arrangement. there were other factors that seemed to influence the outcomes on crop and household income in the two applications of l3f. first, financial credit was obtained at a relatively lower interest rate of 13% per annum (pa) in the north, compared to 24% pa in the central region as revealed from personal interviews with the respective service providers. both were, however, associated with crop insurance provided through the agricultural insurance scheme, a government insurance program. a low interest rate coupled with crop insurance was well appreciated by crop farmers and would most likely provide improvement in livelihoods in any scaling-up process. secondly, it is worth noting that in both applications, farmers looked for their own markets. even in masaka, where there was a possibility for farmers to obtain bean seed from cedo with a contract to sell the grain back to cedo 444 at harvest, farmers were tempted to default on their contracts as they looked for buyers with a better price. during the scaling up of l3f, the design of the program should consider including competitive market actors such as wholesale or bulk buyers of produce, and processors among the institutions to integrate in the program. this would facilitate access to markets especially for women farmers and enhance market inclusion in the program. thirdly, the role of a village agent as a facilitator of knowledge exchange and learning, was crucial in the north where farmers were remotely located, and out of reach of most conventional extension service deliveries. l3f farmers nearly depended solely on the guidance of the village agent, more so that the use of icts for information sharing was not yet widespread. for l3f farmers’ crop and household income performance to be relatively better than their non-l3f counterparts renders credit to the village agents as key facilitators of this approach. in remote locations, therefore, with less resource endowment, the village agent approach appears to be worth scaling up. the findings on the impact of the l3f program on crop and household income confirm the hypothesis that if rural credit was blended with appropriate capacity building, it could result in improved crop and household incomes. however, an in-depth analysis of the nature of credit at the two sites reveals that, in addition to the difference in the interest rates offered, there were other differences between the two sites that could potentially affect credit performance. the differences between the two sites include whether credit was given in-kind or cash, whether the input procurement process was managed within the arrangement or whether farmers out-sourced inputs by themselves, and how information was accessed and shared, in addition to the specific characteristics of a given location. the key lessons for financial inclusion, therefore, are low or modest interest rates on financial credit, with agricultural crop insurance to reduce the risks associated with crop failure. the scaling-up process will also require a deliberate effort to enable farmers to access markets within any l3f approach. these findings seem to suggest that during the study period, l3f in northern uganda could not yet produce the expected positive impact on the empowerment of the participants. there might be several reasons for the seemingly poor performance of the program on empowerment indices in the northern region. first, most of the period between 2015-2019 was spent on mobilising farmers, profiling them and creating awareness about the program. most other capacity building activities would take place only after this. for example, the financial credit arrangement was effected in 2019, hardly a year after actual implementation. on the contrary, in the masaka district of the central region, the bean ip was established in 2017. the key stakeholders of the bean value chain were mobilised, and activities, meetings, training, and organising for credit access, were begun shortly after. by the time of the study, therefore, there was more engagement of the farmers in production than in the north, and hence more visible impact. secondly, there are differences in social capital formation between the ip and village model application. in the village agent model, the farmers interact mostly with the village agents. the latter are their main source of information on a number of issues: which crops would be best for the season, where seed will be obtained from, and best agronomic practices. in this model, the farmers rarely engage with other stakeholders in the value chain, on the same platform, like they do in the arrangement in the masaka district. this is likely to have a delayed effect of the program on their empowerment. an enormous amount of literature alludes to the complexity of the empowerment process with insights as to why the process could fail. wortmann-kolundzija (2019) commends the 445 importance of continued support and guidance from stakeholders, to the implementation of interventions as well as member participation, among other incentives, if full empowerment is to be achieved. in the northern region, the absence of organisations to impart such informational capital was conspicuous, with a possible negative impact on the observed levels of empowerment as compared to the central region. scaling-up the l3f empowerment would consider involving a number of organisations, value chain stakeholders, and any other actors that would contribute to increasing informational resources in the empowerment process. it is equally important to note that enhanced use of icts would fast-track extension service delivery, providing information to wider audiences of farmers in remote and hard-to-reach areas, faster. but ict use was not active, especially in the north. lastly, for the mean empowerment indices of the central region to be relatively higher than the north is not surprising. the central region is likely to be more privileged than the north, in terms of access to information, good markets as a result of its relative proximity to the capital city in kampala (ubos, 2016), and a longer period of general political stability. the northern region, at the time of this evaluation, was undergoing livelihood recovery in the post-conflict period (levine, 2016). notwithstanding, the results of the study show that participation in l3f has the capacity to narrow the gap between male and female farmer empowerment. conclusion although in the early stages, and with different challenges of implementation in the two sites, there is sufficient evidence to confirm that l3f positively contributes to farmer empowerment. the approach of credit being administered in-kind to the farmers by the l3f program seems a plausible starting point to scale an empowerment process for rural communities of poor farmers that are remotely located such as those in northern uganda. these results confirm the potential of l3f to raise participants’ crop and household income, and subsequently their livelihood, relative to non-l3f counterparts, significantly so for women participants. it is also clear that a credit arrangement with a low cost of borrowing, coupled with agricultural crop insurance, is most preferred to boost both financial and social inclusion of the majority of rural farmers. financial inclusion should be enhanced by leveraging the principles and discipline of community banking to integrate commercial banks in the program. however, commercial banks will be needed for a wider loan portfolio to cover more farming communities. scaling up of l3f empowerment should also consider involving market actors such as wholesale and other bulk buyers, and processors to open up market opportunities for the participants. this is one of the mechanisms that can support market inclusion, especially for women farmers. where a number of organisations are integrated into the approach to provide a variety of services and information, there is clear empowerment of the farmers. this is the direction that a scaling-up process should take. where it is not possible to integrate a diversity of organisations, the village agent model could be enhanced by facilitating the village agents to cover a wide geographical location and execute their role. the use of icts, which was found to be limited in the study sites, should be activated by supporting more farmer registration on to mobile platforms and training more facilitators for elearning in the farming communities. this has an unexplored potential to scale empowerment in the l3f program in uganda. 446 acknowledgement: the authors wish to acknowledge the commonwealth of learning (col), aginsba, mamidecot, cedo, microfinance support centre (msc), village agents in lira, the farming communities in masaka district (central uganda), and in the selected districts of northern uganda. references abiy, d.s., kabeta, g.g., & mihiretie, d.m (2014). developing a lifelong learning system in ethiopia: contextual considerations and propositions. international review of education, 60(5), 639-660. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24637095 ahmed, m. (2014). lifelong learning in a learning society: are community learning centres the vehicle? chapter 6 in education, learning, training, https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1163/j.ctt1w76wjj.14 balasubramanian, k., carr, a., & tenywa, m.m. (2015). l3f in uganda: 2012-2015, outcome evaluation draft report, april, 2015. bartlett, a. (2008). no more adoption rates! looking for empowerment in agricultural development programs. development in practice, 18(4/5), 524-538. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27751956 bryson, a., dorsett, r., & purdon, s. (2002). the use of propensity score matching in the evaluation of labour market policies. working paper no. 4, department for work and pensions. caliendo, m., & kopeinig, s. (2005). some practical guidance for the implementation of propensity score matching. discussion paper number 1588. carr, a., tenywa, m.,m., & balasubramanian, k. (2015). from learning to empowerment: a study of smallholder farmers in south west uganda. journal of learning for development, 2(3), 1-15. hennink, m., ndunge, k., pillinger, m., & jayakaran, r. (2012). defining empowerment: perceptions from international development organisations, development in practice, 22(2), 202-215. hossain, m. & jaim, w.m.h. (2011). empowering women to become farmer entrepreneur. a paper presented at the conference on new directions for smallholder agriculture, 24-25 january, 2011, rome, ifad hq. lehr, r. (1992). sixteen s-squared over d-squared: a relation for crude sample size estimates. statistics in medicine, 11, 1099-1102. levine, s. (2016). livelihood recovery in post-conflict northern uganda. secure livelihood research consortium (slrc) working paper, 42, feinstein international centre. mwaseba, d.l., mattee, a.z., kaarhus, r., lazaro, e.a., mvena, z.s.k, wambura, r.m., & kiranga, e. d. (2009). perceptions and practices of farmer empowerment in tanzania. development in practice, 19(3), 403-413. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27752069 roling, n. (1988). extension science: information systems in agricultural development. cambridge university press. tenywa, m.m. (2019a). strengthening scaling of l3f business model in uganda, final report, august, 2019. tenywa, m.m. (2019b). strengthening participation for increased access to credit by l3f saccos, interim activity report 2, may, 2019. tenywa, m.m., rao, kpc., tukahirwa, j.b., buruchara, r., adekunle, a,a., mugabe, j., wanjiku, c., mutabazi, s., fungo, b., kashaija, n.i., m., pali, p., mapatano, s., ngaboyisonga, c., farrow, a., njuki, j. & abenakyo, a. (2011). agricultural innovation platform as a tool for development oriented research: lessons and challenges in the formation and operationalization. journal of agriculture and environmental studies, 2(1), 117146 447 uganda bureau of statistics (ubos) (2016). national housing and population census 2014, final report. wortmann-kolundzija, e. (2019). empowering smallholder farmers through farmer organisations: insights from kenya and burkina faso. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/337759337 authors: dr. rebecca m. kalibwani is a senior lecturer at bishop stuart university, mbarara, uganda. she is an economist and a specialist in agricultural economics. she supports development projects in formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. her research interests include socio-economic research, rural development, agribusiness, entrepreneurship, and impact studies. email: rmkalibwani@faest.bsu.ac.ug medard kakuru is a development economist and an agricultural economist. his research interests are food security, poverty, climate change, unemployment, agricultural policy analysis, agribusiness development studies and impact evaluation. he works at the economic policy research centre (eprc) as a research analyst. email: medakseth@gmail.com alexis carr is the monitoring & evaluation manager for the commonwealth of learning (col). she supports col in the areas of project management, research, and monitoring and evaluation. she has authored or coauthored numerous publications and peer-reviewed articles based on col’s research. email: acarr@col.org dr. moses m. tenywa serves as the education specialist; agriculture and livelihoods of the commonwealth of learning (col) since 2019. he is a long-term proponent of open distance learning (odl) and use of ict. before joining col he served as a professor of soil science at makerere university, uganda. currently, he is promoting open distance learning in the lifelong learning for farmers model across the four regions of the commonwealth. email: mtenywa@col.org cite this paper as: kalibwani, r., kakuru, m., carr, a., & tenywa, m. (2021). scaling smallholder farmer empowerment: lessons from the lifelong learning program in uganda. journal of learning for development, 8(2), 431-447. 1the common support condition ensures that any combination of characteristics observed in the treatment group can also be observed among the control group (bryson et al, 2002), hence making matching feasible. microsoft word chimpololo.docx issn: 2311-1550 2020, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 190-203 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. an analysis of heutagogical practices through mobile device usage in a teacher training programme in malawi andrew chimpololo university of malawi abstract: this paper analyses the mediation of heutagogical practices using mobile devices in a teacher training programme in malawi. existing literature suggests that the use of mobile devices facilitates the development of heutagogy, an educational approach characterised by interdependent learning, doubleand triple-loop learning and participation in communities of practice. the study draws on three major heutagogical principles for its theoretical foundation. it adopts the case study method, and uses questionnaire, semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and personal diaries for data collection. mobile phone ownership is almost universal at the college and most of the student-teachers possess at least one internet-enabled device. despite laptop ownership and institutional access to computers being low, a relatively high number of student-teachers frequently use computers in their studies to complement mobile phones. regarding heutagogical practices, few student-teachers claim to engage in interdependent learning as well as doubleand triple-loop learning. conversely, most of them tend to participate in communities of practice, particularly those involving students only. in addition, few student-teachers hold the intention to use their devices in their own teaching. keywords: heutagogy, teacher education, learner-centred, mobile devices. introduction background teacher education in malawi is plagued by staffing challenges. according to the malawi education sector performance report (mespr), more than 60% of the teachers in secondary schools are unqualified (ministry of education science and technology [moest, 2015). the government of malawi hires under-qualified and unqualified teachers to fill acute staffing gaps at the secondary school level (moest, 2015). secondary school student-teachers are recruited either among fresh secondary school graduates or through upgrading schemes which target practising, unqualified or under-qualified teachers who want to advance their qualifications. the staffing problem is further compounded by underfunding. a higher percentage of the 2014/15 budget appears to have been allocated to higher education (30% with about 12,000 learners) and secondary education (14% with about 761,000 learners) compared to basic education (53% with about 3,688,000 learners) although the overall allocation was insufficient (nkhokwe, ungapembe & furukawa, 2017). the pupil-teacher ratio (ptr) at the secondary school level, which was 41:1 in 2015, is higher than the moest target of 20:1 (index mundi, 2017, sourced from the united nations educational, scientific, and cultural organization (unesco) institute for statistics). the moest, through the national education sector plan (nesp) for the 2008 – 2017 period, acknowledges that limited funding leads to inefficiencies that affect the quality of teacher education (moest, 2008). a poor learning environment in colleges 191 impacts negatively on the preparation of teachers and demotivates potential student-teachers to enroll (see also msiska et al, 2013). this paper provides an analysis of heutagogical practices through the use of mobile devices among student-teachers at domasi teachers training college in malawi. this is a public institution established in 1993 to train secondary school teachers as one way of addressing an acute shortage of qualified teachers which continues to affect the education sector to date. review of research studies there is currently a divide between policy and practice insofar as teaching is conducted at all levels of the education system in malawi. whilst government policies and donor-funded programmes direct educational institutions to use learner-centred approaches, the education system is characterised by attitudes and values which treat learners as empty vessels, do not take account of prior learning, and do not consider the learners’ perspective (mizrachi, padilla & susuwele-banda, 2010; chilemba & bruce, 2015). although the teacher training curricula promote the application of learner-centred attitudes and values, mizrachi et al (2010) observe that the reality in training institutions is that learner-centred attitudes and values are not modelled by lecturers. they further note that most student-teachers lack the ability to transfer skills from college to the workplace after their graduation. it is assumed in the present study that the student-teachers get influenced by the attitudes to learners that they experience in college as well as lack of use of icts and other resources. learner-centred attitudes and values are desired in education because they promote learner independence, increase motivation and enhance learners’ control of the learning process (blaschke, 2012). heutagogy, the promotion of self-directed learning, is one learner-centred philosophy which the student-teachers could adopt in their teaching and learning activities. the philosophy helps to increase self-efficacy, enables learners to manage their own learning as well as reflect upon what is learned and how it is learned (booth, blaschke & hase, 2016). heutagogy also promotes collaboration among learners. mobile devices provide an opportunity for the student-teachers to operate independently as they would be able to access online teaching and learning resources at their own convenience. the use of mobile devices could also help to enhance teaching and learning processes among the student-teachers in the face of an acute teacher shortage. macra (2014) reveals that 74% of tertiary students in malawi have access to the internet through their mobile phones. three main heutagogical principles are considered in the present study based on the works of blaschke (2014) and hase (2009; 2014). the first one, interdependent learning, concerns a learner’s ability to learn by themself through practices such as exploration, discovery, research, testing hypotheses, validation and collaboration (hase, 2014). these practices not only help in knowing how to access information but also how to conduct meaningful research and be able to validate knowledge. interdependent learners know how to access information and verify sources by accessing appropriate journals and books or networking with experts and peers to find out if what is being read can be substantiated (hase, 2014). this includes the ability to think rather than blindly accepting everything. the second principle revolves around doubleand triple-loop learning. doubleand triple-loop learning are both facilitated through self-reflection. as the learners engage in interdependent activities such as exploration, research and collaboration, they need to reflect upon what is learned and how it is learned (blaschke & hase, 2016). double-loop involves analysing what has been learnt and how the new knowledge and the path to learning have influenced the values and belief system (hase, 2009). thus, the learner reflects upon the problem-solving process and how it influences the learner’s own 192 beliefs and actions. triple-loop learning involves double reflection in and on action as well as outside contribution by learning lessons from experience (barbat, boigey & jehan, 2011). while double-loop learning promotes the application of knowledge and experiences to familiar as well as novel situations, triple-loop learning helps to develop better understanding of how to respond to the learning environment and deepening one’s comprehension of why one chooses certain studying patterns. the third principle concerns participation in communities of practice (cops) where people with common interests and goals engage to develop knowledge and themselves both personally and professionally (lave & wenger, 1991). cops are bound by specific practices, identities, and patterns of participation. within such communities, members share their experience and tacit knowledge in free flow, improving their abilities and skills, and fostering learning (agrifoglio, 2015). the members explore ideas, discuss situations and needs, and help each other solve problems, although they do not meet every day. while individual members possess their own experiences, cops simply allow them to share such experiences with other members when they meet. table 1 below outlines examples of heutagogical practices related to interdependent learning, doubleand triple-loop learning, and participation in communities of practice. table 1: examples of heutagogical practices interdependent learning doubleand triple-loop learning participation in communities of practice exploration to learn new things engagement in self-reflection joining and participation in online and face-to-face educational communities comprising lecturers and other experts discovery of new knowledge ability to analyse what has been learnt joining and participation in online and face-to-face educational communities comprising fellow learners engagement in research activities ability to analyse how new knowledge and the path to learning influences one’s values and belief system sharing knowledge and content in educational communities testing hypotheses ability to identify learning lessons from experience accessing knowledge and content in educational communities validation of knowledge application of knowledge and experiences to familiar as well as novel situations asking questions in educational communities collaboration with lecturers and other learners ability to respond to problems and issues related to the learning environment responding to questions and issues in educational communities the practices among the heutagogical principles presented in table 1 are interrelated and, most often, complement one another. the development of heutagogy can be linked to the concept of mediated learning experience since, in both situations, learners are guided to “learn how to learn” (metacognition) by someone who is more knowledgeable (greenberg, 2000). the goal is to assist someone to become a more skilled and independent learner. the student-teachers at domasi college serve two roles, as learners (at the college) and teachers (at the workplace), hence, the need for them to develop 193 effective analytical and self-reflection skills as well as understand the critical role of the teacher in enhancing informal learning opportunities. research objectives the aim of this research was to examine the mediation of heutagogical practices using mobile devices in teacher education. to achieve this aim, the study attempted to address the following questions: 1. how are mobile phones supporting self-determined learning? 2. to what extent do mobile phones support metacognition and collaborative learning? 3. how does a heutagogical intervention affect the student-teachers’ intention to use mobile devices in their teaching? methods research method this study is an action research case study within the interpretive paradigm. the interpretive paradigm is primarily concerned with generating context-based understanding of people’s thoughts, beliefs, values and associated social actions. when applied to educational research, the paradigm enables researchers to build rich local understandings of the life-world experiences of teachers and students, and of the cultures of classrooms, schools and the communities they serve (taylor & medina, 2013). in the present study, the paradigm was used to analyse the attitudes and experiences of the student-teachers concerning the use of mobile devices to support self-determined learning. population and sample of the total population of 696 student-teachers in second, third and fifth year at domasi college, 394 student-teachers participated in the survey, representing 57%. the other student-teachers in the three years were either away on teaching practice or chose not to participate due to other reasons. all the 394 student-teachers at the college took part in the questionnaire survey. semi-structured interviews were also conducted with the college principal, dean of students, dean of education and head of mathematics. another set of semi-structured interviews was held with 12 randomly selected studentteachers. in addition, three focus group discussions (fgds) were conducted – one for each year of study – which involved a total of 18 student-teachers. each fgd had six participants who were selected through purposeful sampling to ensure that the groups were as diverse as possible in terms of gender, and discipline. this sample size was based on stewart and shamdasani (1990) who postulate that an effective fdg has between six and eight participants (cited in gill, stewart, treasure & chadwick, 2008). instruments the data collection exercise included multiple methods comprising a questionnaire survey, two sets of semi-structured interviews, and focus group discussion (fgds). the questionnaire had two sections. the first section collected demographic information pertaining to the type or field of study, year of study, gender, age, teaching experience and place of work. the second section comprised questions concerning the kinds of devices in possession of the student-teachers, the extent to which mobile devices are used as learning tools and any indications of self-determined and collaborative learning among the student-teachers. the other questions explored the student-teachers’ attitudes towards the use of mobile devices both in their studies and teaching activities and the influence of 194 device characteristics. most of the items in this section were developed based on a five-point likert scale. two interview guides were developed for each of the two sets of interviews. the first interview guide focused on background information about the college, while the second guide helped to collect data concerning the student-teachers’ use of mobile devices to support their learning. another guide was developed for the fgds, and its themes stimulated the student-teachers to identify any other issues to do with how they use mobile devices to support their learning which were not highlighted in the questionnaire responses. the questionnaire and three guides were first piloted before their use to check their reliability and validity. procedure of data collection and analysis the first set of semi-structured interviews were conducted during the situational analysis phase and focused on contextual profiling of the research site to obtain background information about the college and the research participants (student-teachers). these interviews involved the college principal, dean of students, dean of education and head of mathematics. the second set comprised interviews with the 12 student-teachers. during these interviews, the student-teachers provided useful and elaborate data on their experiences regarding the heutagogical use of mobile devices. they further provided valuable insights on past events regarding the general use of icts at the college. three focus group discussions (fgds) were conducted with the student-teachers. the fgds, which took two-hours each, complemented the questionnaire survey and provided an opportunity for the participants to clarify complex issues. data analysis was an ongoing process in this study and was conducted in three main phases. the first phase began right in the field during the data collection exercise where emerging themes were identified and preliminary data categorisation was done. the qualitative data analysis programme, nvivo version 11 was used for data management. the second phase focused on formal analysis of the data collected through the questionnaire, semi-structured interviews and fgds. the third phase concerned interpretation and discussion of the results based on heutagogical principles as presented in the first section. results the results have been presented under two major themes: access and use of mobile devices and extent of self-determined learning. access and use of mobile devices access to computers among the student-teachers seems to be limited at the college, with only 12 functioning computers open to all student-teachers and another 10 reserved for computer science student-teachers. furthermore, about 47% of the student-teachers who participated in this study own a laptop. despite limited institutional computer access and low laptop ownership, general computer use seems to be relatively high among the student-teachers. the results indicate that 65% of the student-teachers use a computer for academic purposes every day. additionally, six percent use it at least once a week, nine percent use it once a month and 20% never use it at all. mobile phone ownership is almost universal among the student-teachers. about 98% of the student-teachers in this study had a mobile device. approximately 91% had one mobile phone while 13% owned two mobile phones. in addition, eight percent of the student-teachers had either a tablet only or both. it should be noted that not all phones or tablets are necessarily internet-enabled. it is important to note that these 195 results only refer to ownership and do not entail actual use. in terms of internet-enabled devices, a total of 83% of the student-teachers owned at least one such device, excluding the overlaps with laptops. it appears that daily use of mobile devices in studies is relatively frequent among the student-teachers. about 61% of the student-teachers claimed to use their mobile devices for study purposes every day. a further 20% indicated that they do so at least once a week, 12% at least once a month, and only seven percent never at all. the results show no correlation between daily use of mobile devices and year of study, gender or subject studied. despite the slight difference in figures for male (64%) and female (56%) student-teachers, the student-teachers’ observations seem to differ based on gender. while a female student-teacher explained that she mostly uses her mobile device for chatting with friends, a male student-teacher indicated that mobile devices have made his academic life simpler. he explained that: “i do a majority of my academic work on my tablet. i even write my class notes on it.” he further pointed out that the practice has enabled him to explore so much about the potential of using mobile phones as learning tools. there is a significant correlation between daily use of mobile devices and location of work (p-value = < 0.0001). about 96% of the student-teachers who work in urban areas and 40% of those in rural areas indicated that they use their mobile devices for studies every day. in addition, 77% of those who did not indicate their location of work stated that they do so every day. during interviews, an urban-based student-teacher explained that: “i get on to the internet every day to read about what i learn in class. it’s a great idea and i learn a lot. i’ve even managed to influence my three friends to do the same”. she added that the friends thanked her for this. this student-teacher appears to be an opinion leader who succeeded in influencing the behaviour of her friends through peer-to-peer communication channels. a rural-based student-teacher pointed out that he uses his mobile phone sparingly because there is no electricity at his school. he stated that, “i use my phone only for important communications. if i use it for teaching and learning activities, that will eat up my battery power which means that i will spend a lot of money to have it charged again”. while as noted above that student-teachers are required to use computers in some of their courses, one studentteacher observed that: “the college has few computers so we rely on our phones to do internet searches. in fact, it’s very convenient since we can do it everywhere.” extent of heutagogical practices the extent of heutagogy has been examined based on the student-teachers’ self-reported practices. the practices relate to the extent of interdependent learning, doubleand triple-loop learning and participation in communities of practice. interdependent learning practices the results reveal little evidence of interdependent learning – a learner’s ability to learn by oneself through exploration, discovery, research, testing hypotheses, validation and collaboration – among the student-teachers. less than half of the student-teachers (45%) indicated that they engage in interdependent learning to a high extent. approximately 42% stated that they do so to a low extent, while 13% indicated that they never do that at all. during interviews, a student-teacher observed that their study activities after class normally revolve around what has been determined by their lecturers, “despite the fact that we determine the study times on our own. at the end of almost every class, 196 we’re given topics to study or assignments to work out.” another one noted that, “sometimes we do have the opportunity to study whatever we want but such occasions are rare. we have heavy workloads in each subject and our studying patterns follow what has been suggested in class.” engagement in interdependent learning does not seem to be influenced by year of study, gender or discipline. despite this, the student-teachers’ observations seem to vary depending on year of study. a fifth-year student-teacher indicated that, “i do a lot of exploration on the internet to get new information. sometimes, this involves discussions with others to assist each other on difficult areas”. conversely, a second-year student-teacher observed that interdependence could result in time wastage as “there is already enough material suggested by the lecturers to work on. every week we have about two assignments to write, and this demands a lot of time to complete”. with p-value = < 0.0001, the majority of the urban student-teachers (93%) and a few of those in the rural areas (21%) claimed to engage more in interdependent learning. about 59% of those who did not indicate their place of work also stated that they do so to a high extent. one urban student-teacher explained that: “after every class, i always feel the urge to read online resources to improve my understanding of concepts. it is very useful and i learn a lot”. he added that in his studying pattern priority is given to subjects in which he performs poorly. doubleand triple-loop learning practices doubleand triple-loop learning encompasses the analysis of what has been learnt, how the process of learning occurred and how the new knowledge and learning process influenced one’s thinking (selfreflection). it further embraces the ability to choose one’s best style of learning and apply the knowledge and experiences one has acquired to both familiar and unfamiliar situations. the present study reveals low levels of practice of doubleand triple-loop learning among the student-teachers. about 23% of the student-teachers reported that they practice doubleand triple-loop learning to a high extent, 57% to a low extent and 20% never at all. there is a significant correlation between doubleand triple-loop learning and year of study. the majority were the second-year student-teachers (31%), against fewer in the third (21%) and fifth (16%) year, who indicated that they engage in doubleand triple-loop learning to a high extent, signifying pvalue = 0.04694 and p-value = 0.00555 respectively. the gap between third and fifth year appears to be insignificant. a fifth-year student-teacher pointed out that she does not ever remember getting involved in self-reflection about her learning processes. she pointed out that “i usually analyse what i have learnt, but i don’t scrutinise the process of learning itself”. these sentiments were shared by a third-year student-teacher who noted that he does not know his best learning style. “honestly, i can’t tell what my best style of learning is. it just happens subconsciously”. doubleand triple-loop learning appears to correlate significantly with discipline of study (p-value = 0.01832). many of the science student-teachers (31%) and a few of those in the humanities (15%) indicated that they engage in doubleand triple-loop learning to a high extent. one science student-teacher remarked that, “i usually reflect on how i learn and how i could improve my learning abilities…particularly when studying mathematics”. 197 participation in communities of practice student-teachers’ participation in online and face-to-face communities of practice seems to be high. about 70% of the student-teachers claimed to participate in communities of practice while 30% indicated that they do not. it appears that most of the student-teachers participate in communities comprising students only. almost 59% of the student-teachers indicated that they are currently members of communities involving students only, while only 11% participate in communities which include lecturers. one student-teacher observed that, “i feel more comfortable to participate in communities made up of students only because we’re all at the same level. i don’t think of joining one which includes lecturers because i may fear to participate freely”. extensive participation in communities of practice appears to be low among the student-teachers. about 46% of the student-teachers indicated that they participate to a high extent while 24% stated that they do so to a moderate extent. figure 1 below presents a comparative picture of the studentteachers’ extensive engagement in heutagogical practices (as a percentage). figure 1: extent of heutagogical practices among the student-teachers extensive engagement in heutagogical practices across all the three principles is comparatively low. one student-teacher explained that communities of practice “offer us a precious opportunity to network with knowledgeable people all over the world who share important information”. another one stated that, “we have a group of over 30 students in our class in which we help one another on academic problems. sometimes we meet face-to-face but most of the times we discuss issues through whatsapp”. extent of participation in communities of practice correlates significantly with year of study. with p-value = 0.00176, the majority of the fifth-year student-teachers (61%), against fewer in 198 the second year (31%), indicated that they participate in communities of practice to a high extent. there is a minor difference between fifth and third year (43%) as well as between third and second year. one third-year student-teacher revealed that he was unable to participate extensively in cops due to teaching practice commitments. he stated that, “i’m very busy this semester because of teaching practice. i don’t use my phone the same way i did last year … i spend a lot of time preparing for lessons”. extensive participation in communities of practice correlates significantly with location of work (p-value = < 0.0001). there is a major difference in the figures for urban (88%) and rural (25%) student-teachers. in addition, 56% of those who did not indicate their place of work claimed to participate in cops to a high extent. a rural-based student-teacher indicated that, “i only participate in these communities when i’m here on campus because the phone network is very poor where i work”. he added that he collaborates broadly during his presence at the college. another rural studentteacher observed that “our group has been around for some time now and the membership keeps on growing. i’m happy to be part of this group as i get much support from my friends”. she added that her participation decreases during college vacation due to poor phone network in her area. regarding recency of participation, few student-teachers (29%) stated that they actively participated in communities of practice over the last six months. a further 21% reported that they had only done so over the last one year while for 20% it was more than one year ago. one student-teacher explained that they became very busy after the first semester as they had to prepare for teaching practice in the second semester. “in this (second) semester, we have little time to use our phones. the code of conduct does not allow us to take or use mobile phones during teaching practice hence limited opportunity to access the internet”. another student-teacher observed that they made slight use of their mobile phones in the second semester because they had to work extra hard to ensure that they improve their final grades. he explained that, “i wanted to limit my social activities, and unfortunately that meant little use of my phone”. he added that every student-teacher in their class aimed at obtaining a minimum average of credit for their degree. recency of participation does not correlate with year of study, gender and discipline. during interviews, third-year student-teachers indicated that they were encouraged by one of their lecturers to join academic communities where they could share and discuss educational issues. one of them stated that “sometimes we work in groups in class, and these groups continue to exist through whatsapp even after the specific objectives have been completed. students bring out academic problems and we help one another to solve them”. he further revealed that the lecturer encourages them to join communities comprising students from different institutions to promote diversity. with p-value = < 0.0001, there is a major gap in the figures for urban (66%) and rural (14%) student-teachers. moreover, 33% of those who did not indicate their location of work claimed to have actively participated in cops in the last six months. discussion the results have been discussed in terms of access and use of mobile devices as well as the heutagogical principles of interdependent learning, doubleand triple-loop learning and participation in communities of practice. 199 access and use of mobile devices while ownership of laptop computers is high among the student-teachers, there are few desktop computers available for student use at domasi college. in general, few student-teachers tend to use computers in their studies. gregson and jordaan (2009) observe that there is limited integration of technology among teachers in the developing world. budgetary constraints hamper innovation in education delivery in malawi as academic institutions are unable to acquire appropriate technologies to enhance teaching and learning processes (nkhokwe, 2017). other experts argue that several factors including age, gender, experience, discipline of study and location influence the varying degrees of technology integration in education (benner & pence, 2013; osei, larbi & osei-boadu, 2014; abukhattala, 2016). the present study shows that a slightly higher percentage of the student-teachers own a mobile device than an earlier survey report that indicated 88% as the ownership rate for students pursuing tertiary education in malawi (macra, 2014). this difference could be attributed to the increase in mobile phone access in malawi over the past few years (see porter et al, 2016) as well as the fact that over half of the respondents (about 75%) in the present study are in-service student-teachers who earn a salary and can afford a mobile phone. the results suggest that most of the student-teachers own internetenabled devices, whilst only a small percentage of the “laggards” (17%) does not own one. according to rogers (2003), laggards are near isolates in social networks and tend to be suspicious of innovations and change agents. slightly over half of the student-teachers frequently use mobile devices in their studies. currently, the results suggest that student-teachers in the late majority have started using mobile devices in their studies on a daily basis at the college. according to rogers (2003), individuals in the majority make a decision to begin using technology as a result of increasing network pressures. factors such as year of study, gender or subject studied tend not to influence daily use of mobile devices. although the influence of gender on daily use of mobile devices seems insignificant, the uses differ between males and females. whilst the male student-teachers use them for academic purposes, the female ones mostly use them for social purposes. however, discipline of study correlates with daily use of mobile devices as most of the fifth-year student-teachers and those studying science appear to use computers extensively. it is interesting to note that a majority of the student-teachers in these two groups own laptops. previous studies indicate significant differences in technology integration across disciplines, with science teachers applying it more in their teaching than their humanities counterparts (karaseva, pruulmann-vengerfeldt, & siibak, 2015; fry, 2006). location of work also affects daily use of mobile devices as more student-teachers who work in urban areas use their devices for studies every day than those in rural areas. some of the urban student-teachers appear to be opinion leaders who succeed in influencing the behaviour of their friends through peer-to-peer communication channels. the rural student-teachers face a number of challenges to use of mobile devices such as lack of electricity in their areas, which makes use of electronic gadgets almost impossible. in most rural areas in malawi, people charge their mobile phones in shops at a cost. for such students, the use of mobile devices appears to compensate for the shortage of institutional computers and low internet access among the student-teachers. 200 extent of heutagogical practices the results reveal that the student-teachers engage partially in interdependent learning as their study content is mostly determined by the lecturers. however, there is some autonomy as they can determine the study times on their own. these findings appear to corroborate the tendency towards teacher-centred education in malawi (chilemba & bruce, 2015). even though engagement in interdependent learning seems not to be influenced by year of study, the observations of fifth-year student-teachers vary with those in second year. the former feel interdependent learning is crucial in their studies while the latter think otherwise. regarding location of work, more of the urban studentteachers engage in interdependent learning than those in the rural areas. as indicated earlier, prevailing conditions to promote interdependent learning are comparatively poor in the rural areas. according to hase (2014), interdependent learners master skills related to information access, research procedures and knowledge validation. these skills are much needed by student-teachers in malawi where libraries are under-resourced and individuals need to go online to access valuable academic content. the student-teachers tend to engage in doubleand triple-loop learning to a low extent. it appears that only innovators, early adopters and a few in the early majority practice doubleand triple-loop learning at the college. the innovators are the student-teachers who are eager to try new ideas and their “venturesomeness” is almost an obsession; the early adopters have opinion leadership and act as role models in innovation; while the early majority are those who would adopt new ideas just before the average member of the college does (see rogers, 2003). engagement in doubleand triple-loop learning is influenced by year of study. surprisingly, more of the second-year student-teachers engage in doubleand triple-loop learning to a high extent than those in third and fifth years. the fifth-year student-teachers were expected to engage more doubleand triple-loop learning given their financial capability and increased access to computers and other devices. in relation to discipline of study, most science student-teachers engage in doubleand triple-loop learning to a high extent than their humanities counterparts. the experiences of the science student-teachers depict self-reflective practices where individuals analyse their study processes and determine their appropriate learning strategies as part of doubleand triple-loop learning. most of the student-teachers at domasi college participate in communities of practice. these include online as well as face-to-face forums which deliberate on academic issues. however, the studentteachers’ participation tends to be high for communities comprising students only. while being part of networks which include lecturers seems to be restricted to innovators and early adopters, participation in communities comprising students only appears to be common practice as studentteachers in the early majority and a few in the late majority seem to have joined the trend. comparatively, there is generally high engagement with only one heutagogical principle (participation in cops) unlike with the other two (interdependent learning and doubleand tripleloop learning). this revelation points to the need for deliberate interventions by the college to create a conducive environment that promotes the use of mobile devices to facilitate interdependent learning as well as doubleand triple-loop learning. most universities prohibit the use of mobile phones in learning settings (fernandez, 2018) and the level of infrastructure development does not support the application of mobile technologies (ali, shaame & kombo, 2013). additionally, the internet bandwidth in academic institutions is significantly low and this inhibits access to online resources. 201 since student-teachers at domasi college and other similar institutions serve two complementary roles, the modelling of practices which support independent learning is important in colleges of education. in line with blaschke and hase (2016), through self-reflection, the student-teachers would become more aware of their preferred learning style and easily adapt to new learning situations, thus, enabling them to become more capable and self-reliant learners. more of the older student-teachers in fifth year as well as those in urban areas participate in communities of practice to a high extent than those in second year and rural areas, respectively. the student-teachers presented situations where they were able to portray self-reflexivity and analyse their learning environment through identification of barriers and determination of appropriate decisions on how to improve their learning processes. furthermore, some of the student-teachers’ experiences relate to the mediated learning experience (greenberg, 2000) as they ably engaged in analytical processes of their learning and determined novel ways of how to deal with barriers impeding heutagogical use of mobile devices. although the results show high participation of the student-teachers in communities of practice involving themselves, it appears that the participation slowed down significantly within the last six months before this study. several factors influenced this decline such as the occurrence of teaching practice for those in third year, where use of mobile phones was not allowed, and commencement of the second semester in which they had to prepare for final-year examinations. it is intriguing that there were no variations based on year of study because most of the fifth-year student-teachers owned laptops and claimed to use computers extensively, unlike those in the lower levels. the third-year student-teachers revealed that their lecturers encourage them to join cops. consistent with the extent of participation, recency of participation corresponds with daily use of mobile devices in terms of location of work with those based in urban areas registering a high rate. in malawi, student-teachers working in urban areas have a greater chance to use their devices for academic purposes than their colleagues in rural areas due to the availability of a relatively good mobile network. conclusion the study suggests that mobile devices, particularly mobile phones, present a unique opportunity for the integration of technology in teacher training programmes within the developing world. this is so as ownership of mobile phones seems almost universal among the student-teachers and most of them possess at least one internet-enabled device. additionally, there are generally positive perceptions towards the use of mobile devices as learning tools as well as high intention to use the devices in one’s own teaching. to foster the development of interdependence and doubleand triple-loop learning among student-teachers, training institutions need to create a conducive environment where learners are provided the freedom to define their own learning paths and determine individual learning styles. such an environment requires the establishment of reliable internet connectivity and formulation of favourable policies. furthermore, there is a need to encourage student-teachers to join and actively participate in communities of practice where they would be able to enrich their academic potential through access to educational resources and interaction with experts in their field. the success of technology adoption in education also hinges on student-teachers being independent and reflective on their learning processes since they function both as learners (during their studies) and teachers (after graduation). there is further need for them to be creative and resourceful in accessing educational 202 content, and be able to determine their own learning plans and behaviours as well as identify ways to improve them. references agrifoglio, r. (2015). knowledge preservation through community of practice. springerbriefs in information systems, doi 10.1007/978-3-319-22234-9_2. blaschke, l. m. (2014). moving students forward in the pah continuum: maximizing the power of the social web. in l. m. blaschke, c. kenyon & s. hase, self-determined learning. amazon. blaschke, l. m. (2012). heutagogy and lifelong learning: a review of heutagogical practice and self-determined learning. the international review of research in open and distance learning, 13(1), 5671. blaschke, l. m., & hase, s. (2016). heutagogy: a holistic framework for creating twenty-first century selfdetermined learners. in b. gros et al. (eds.), the future of ubiquitous learning, lecture notes in educational technology. berlin: springer-verlag. booth, m., blaschke, l., & hase, s. (2016). practicing the practice: the heutagogy community of practice. in j. mcdonald & a. cater-steel (eds.), communities of practice: facilitating social learning in higher education. heidelberg, germany: springer verlag. chilemba, e. b., & bruce, j. c. (2015). teaching styles used in malawian bsn programmes: a survey of nurse educator preference. nurse education today, 35, e55–e60. gill, p., stewart, k., treasure, e., & chadwick, b. (2008). methods of data collection in qualitative research: interviews and focus groups. british dental journal 204, 291-295, doi:10.1038/bdj.2008.192. retrieved from http://www.nature.com/bdj/journal/v204/n6/full/bdj.2008.192.html greenberg, k. (2000). the cognitive enrichment advantage teacher handbook. arlington heights, il: skylight professional development. gregson, j., & jordaan, d. (2009). exploring the challenges and opportunities of m-learning within an international distance education programme. in mohammed, a. (ed.), mobile learning transforming the delivery of education and training (pp. 215-246). edmonton: au press. hase, s. (2014). skills for the learner and learning leader in the 21st century. in l. m. blaschke, c. kenyon & s. hase, self-determined learning. united states: amazon. hase, s. (2009). heutagogy and e-learning in the workplace: some challenges and opportunities. impact: journal of applied research in workplace e-learning, 1(1), 43-52. index mundi. (2017). malawi: pupil teacher ratio. retrieved from https://www.indexmundi.com/facts/malawi/pupil-teacher-ratio lave, j., & wenger, e. (1991). situated learning: legitimate peripheral participation. cambridge: university of cambridge press. macra. (2014). survey on access and usage of ict services in malawi 2014 report. blantyre: macra. mizrachi, a., padilla, o., & susuwele-banda, w. (2010). active-learning pedagogies as a reform initiative: the case of malawi. american institute for research, usaid. moest (2015). education sector performance report. lilongwe: ministry of education. moest (2008). national education sector plan (2008-2017). lilongwe: moest. msiska, f. g. w., chimpololo, a., liwambano, p. n., maere, c., mbendera, a., phiri, d. d., salagi, e., & yambeni, a. m. (2013). audit study to determine the effectiveness of open, distance and e-learning delivery mode in broadening and increasing access to education and training in malawi. vancouver: commonwealth of learning. 203 nkhokwe, m., ungapembe, f., & furukawa, n. (2017). identification of groups of secondary school teachers who leave the teaching profession in malawi. field report 3. jica research institute. porter, p., hampshire, k., milner, j., munthali, a., robson, e., de lannoy, a., bango, a., gunguluza, n., mashiri, m., tanle, a., & abane, a. (2016). mobile phones and education in sub-saharan africa: from youth practice to public policy. journal of international development, 28, 22–39. rogers, e. m. (2003). diffusion of innovations (5th ed.). new york: free press. stewart, d. w., & shamdasani, p. m. (1990). focus groups. theory and practice. london: sage publications. taylor, p. c., & medina, m. n. d. (2013). educational research paradigms: from positivism to multiparadigmatic. the journal of meaning-centered education, 1, 2. author: andrew chimpololo is an independent researcher who undertook the research that forms the evidence for this article when working for the industry training federation in new zealand. email: achimpololo@poly.ac.mw cite this paper as: chimpololo, a. (2020). an analysis of heutagogical practices through mobile device usage in a teacher training programme in malawi. journal of learning for development, 7(2), 190-203. microsoft word prinsloo.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 104-118 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. leaders in distance education on the african continent paul prinsloo university of south africa (unisa), south africa introduction recognising and documenting leadership in distance education on the african continent is a daunting task, fraught with a number of difficulties, such as deciding on which criteria to consider and who to include. and are these criteria truly global or are there issues relating to those used to select individuals on the african continent? other challenges include, but are not limited to, the following questions: how do we evaluate and define leadership in distance education on the african continent? are we looking for individuals who have contributed to the advancement of distance education as praxis on the african continent, regardless of their international gravitas, or are we looking for african scholars who shaped our understanding of distance education as a specific research and theoretical field in the context of africa? we also need to consider what sources we will use to identify leaders in distance education on the african continent. will we only use published literature and scholarship in the field of distance education, such as books, reports and articles in scholarly journals? in addition, how do we engage with the realities that reports of exemplary leadership in distance education may not be digitally available, or available in english? what are the implications if we find, as i will point out later, that there is very little recognition of african leadership in distance education, with the exception of a few individuals and institutions, outside of africa? having recognised some of the questions pertaining to recognising leadership in distance education on the african continent, i do not claim that the task was unique in its difficulty or more difficult than, for example, documenting leadership in distance education in other geopolitical contexts. each of the contributors to this initiative to recognise and celebrate leadership in distance education leadership in the journal of learning for development may have interpreted this task differently, depending on their own location, context and expertise in the field. inevitably, a multitude of intersecting, often interdependent and mutually constitutive personal, disciplinary, institutional and geopolitical factors shaped my own approach to this task. a short background to distance education on the african continent the african continent comprises 54 sovereign states, each with its own educational regulatory framework and development agenda. despite these differences, most african states share in the intergenerational legacy of colonisation and the historical and continued marginalisation in international economic, social, and scholarly networks. in documenting leadership in distance education on the african continent, we therefore cannot ignore the historical and persistent effects of 105 the global asymmetries of knowledge production and dissemination (e.g., epstein, boden, deem, rizvi, & wright, 2008; hoppers, 2000; stack, 2016). there is, up to the present, as far as i could establish, no comprehensive account of the history and evolution of distance education on the african continent. while distance education as a particular form of educational provision has a long and rich history on the african continent (perraton, 1992), a scholarly recognition of the variety, richness, and evolution of distance education on the african continent is often disregarded or absent in publications on the evolution of international distance education. in contrast to the scant evidence of the evolution of distance education on the african continent (see, for example, cleveland-innes and garrison, 2010; holmberg, 1995; holmberg, bernath, and busch, 2005; keegan, 1996; moore and kearsley, 2011; peters, 2002; world bank, 1988), african scholars, such as aderinoye, siaciwena, and wright (2009), adekanmbi, (2004), ajadi, salawu and adeoye (2008), botha (2011), jenkins (1989), kinyanjui (1998), mays (2005), ojo and olakulein (2006), prinsloo (2016a) and wolff (2002) do provide glimpses of the evolution of distance education on the african continent in specific contexts or relating to specific elements of distance education provision. in an attempt to revisit the different theories on the evolution of distance education, heydenrych and prinsloo (2010) provide a provisional critique of these theories by attempting to map the phases in the evolution of distance education and by pointing to a broader perspective, which includes histories of knowledge production in the global south. despite the obvious limitations and challenges faced in any attempt to document the contributions of individuals to the evolution of distance education on the african continent, this article provides brief glimpses of particular individuals who contributed to the expansion of distance education in specific contexts. the list of individuals celebrated in this article is neither complete nor comprehensive but begins a conversation to prompt further research on the evolution of distance education on the african continent, and those individuals and organisations that contributed to the evolution. brief notes on my research design and methodology earlier in this article i acknowledged the implicit and explicit factors and challenges in acknowledging and documenting distance education leadership on the african continent. i have no doubt that my own location at the most southern part of the african continent and as a staff member at a distance education institution (unisa) have an impact on my research, despite/amid my intentions to remain aware of the potential for bias, omission and disregard. in a desktop study i relied on what is digitally available on the internet in regard to scholarly articles or institutional web sites. i engaged only with sources that were published in english. while i appreciate the input and contributions of other researchers and scholars who sent me extracts and/or contributions, there was often no way that i could verify the source or claims made in the article or news item. as a starting point, i circulated an email (dated 4 november, 2016b) to a range of scholars and experts in the distance education field in southern africa to get a sense of potential candidates. in the email i explicitly mentioned “the limitations of my own networks and knowledge about possible candidates, [and] i also think it would be arrogant for me to assume such a responsibility on my own. i would therefore like to invite you to be part of this project” (prinsloo, 2016b). i also made my own intention 106 explicit “not to focus on the role of the different principals, vice-chancellors, and/or rectors” of the different distance education institutions because: to focus on these people in leadership positions will make the list incredibly long, and may result in a who’s who of the top echelon of institutions. the bigger danger is that once you mention one vc or chancellor, you open pandora’s box and the others who are not mentioned may feel aggrieved. though i do acknowledge that the individuals in these positions did play a crucial role in the growth and development of online and distance learning, i would really like to focus those who shifted discourses and practices, who made us, think afresh regarding the potential and challenges in odel (prinsloo, 2016b). as a follow-up, i also tweeted information regarding the project and asked my twitter network to share the call for an expression of interest. i also posted the invitation to participate or to ‘nominate’ individuals on my facebook page and linkedin profile pages. i sent emails to a range of african distance education organisations asking for participation in ‘nominating’ potential candidates. the google doc i created where people could post names only had 15 entries after two months, with most of the names being from south africa and the majority of names from the fields of online (and not particularly distance) education and open educational resources (oer) contexts. until recently, unisa was the only dedicated comprehensive distance education institution in south africa (prinsloo, 2017); therefore it was not strange that most of the suggested people were from unisa. i therefore acknowledge that as a result of the above approach and the relatively low response rates, this article does not claim to provide a comprehensive overview of everyone who played a leadership role in distance education in an african context. instead, the selection is personal and potentially biased. it is, nevertheless, a transparent attempt to highlight and celebrate the contributions of some individuals in the field of distance education. i have no doubt that another researcher may have selected/included other individuals than those below. from my understanding and expertise in the field, i am, however, convinced that there would have been overlaps between the different researchers’ lists. individual profiles the following profiles of individuals are in no particular order. i did however sequence the profiles in such a way as to prevent a clustering of profiles from one particular gender or geopolitical location. the length of each profile bears no significance to the gravitas of the person and is rather a reflection of my chosen research methodology and approach and information forthcoming from those acknowledged at the end of the article. jenny glennie (south african institute for distance education or saide, south africa) jennifer glennie, usually known as jenny, is the founding director of the south african institute for distance education (saide), an independent non-profit organization based in south africa, but working across sub-saharan africa. she has committed most of her working life to investigating and promoting distance education, and, more recently, technology and open education resources (oer), to create meaningful educational opportunities for poor and marginalised groups. before the formation of saide, in apartheid south africa, this campaign was driven against difficult odds and in the face of an extremely hostile government. for fifteen years and in various senior capacities in sached (the sa council for distance education), glennie played a leading role in large 107 projects emphasising contextually appropriate, activity-based learning materials and a wide range of student support mechanisms (unheard of in south african distance education at the time). these included teacher upgrading projects, a groundbreaking 24-page educational newspaper supplement covering formal and non-formal courses aimed at black adults and out-of-school youth, a university access programme for poorly prepared students, and a programme for the training of labour and community organizers. soon after saide’s establishment, in 1994, glennie spearheaded an international review that assessed current distance education provision and painted a vision of the contribution that distance education could make to the transformation of south africa’s education system. building on this, glennie played a leading role in shaping what is considered to be quality distance education in south africa through the development set of guidelines, published by nadeosa – south africa’s distance education association, of which she was a key mobiliser and the founding president ‒ and saide’s good practice guide for distance education in a digital age, developed for the council on higher education. through a number of contributions by saide to government, she helped shape and inform south africa’s distance education policy across the post-schooling sector in the direction of an open learning perspective. she has consistently placed emphasis on the importance of student success as a complement to the usual emphasis on student access. she brought this passionate commitment to the governance positions to which she was appointed: south africa’s representative on the commonwealth of learning (col) for two terms, and the broad transformation forum and the council of unisa (south africa’s massive distance education university) for over 20 years. after serving on the organizing committee for the second pan-commonwealth conference in durban in 2002 and as joint chair of the organizing committee for the all-african ministers’ conference in cape town in 2004, glennie became increasingly involved in sub-saharan africa through the african council on distance education (which recently officially recognised saide’s contribution), and a number of initiatives supporting african universities and teacher training colleges. the emergence of open educational resources (oer) was an important development for glennie, with saide embracing the concept at an early stage as further ammunition in its quest to extend access to quality education. among other initiatives, which saide embarked on, to enhance the development of policy and practice, glennie co-edited a book of case studies for col/unesco, and was joint author of a paper in a subsequent collection. saide’s pioneering recent african storybook initiative embodies glennie’s commitment: using the concept of oer and a technology platform, it provides children in a score of african countries and 104 languages with contextually and culturally appropriate stories to read, setting them on a path to a life of reading and learning. the commonwealth of learning has conferred on jenny glennie the title of honorary fellow for her contribution to distance education, and the university of pretoria has awarded her the chancellor’s medal for her contribution to education in south africa. 108 dr bakary diallo (african virtual university or avu, kenya) in 2015, the african virtual university (avu) was acknowledged by the international council for open and distance education (icde) for its role in the expansion of educational opportunities in africa, through e-learning programmes to 57 countries (https://www.icde.org/prize-winners-in-2015). the prize was awarded in recognition of the fact that the avu managed this feat despite various challenges, such as the complexities of working with partner universities, limited resources and linguistic and cultural barriers. receiving the prize on behalf of the avu was dr bakary diallo. diallo’s influence and impact in the field of distance education have been shaped by his involvement in education since 1989 as a secondary school teacher (in senegal), a researcher, a project administrator, consultant and academic. in 2007 he was appointed as the ceo and rector of the avu. with a consistent focus on the integration of icts in higher education institutions, it comes as no surprise that diallo became involved in the avu in 2007 (http://www.avu.org/avuweb/en/staff/drbakary-diallo/). not only did the avu bring educational opportunities to the doorstep of many who would have been excluded from accessing higher education, it also, under the leadership of diallo, spearheaded the early adoption of open educational resources (oer) on the african continent. in collaboration with the massachusetts institute of technology (mit), the avu launched a pilot project in 2005 “aimed at increasing the use of opencourseware (ocw) materials in african institutions of higher learning” (diallo, & rasugu, 2009, p. 2). in a context of a severe lack of resources faced by many institutions of learning as well as students, “oers provide a partial solution to this inequality” (diallo, & rasugu, 2009, p. 4). a further contributing factor to the scope of the role played by diallo and the avu in this regard is the fact that countries in africa and other developing world contexts, often use learning content derived from developed world contexts and the materials are not always appropriate for the needs and world-views of african learners. the avu, under the leadership of diallo, worked across borders and languages in anglophone, francophone and lusophone africa to foster “regional integration and mobility for education professionals in sub-saharan africa” (diallo, & rasugu, 2009, p. 5). professor nyameko barney pityana south africa prof pityana has been called “a distinguished odl expert, a theologian, a lawyer, an activist and custodian of human rights, a delightful and respected intellectual and scholar [who] has in very many ways endeared his unique personality to all who have crossed his path” (jegede, 2011, p. 1). when the idea of the african council for distance education was mooted in 2002 at a conference of the scop (the standing committee of presidents and vice chancellors) under the aegis of the icde held at unisa, pityana was a member of the executive committee. while distance education was, by then, well established on the african continent, african distance education institutions had only observer status in the icde and were not full members. in his role on the executive of the acde and as vice chancellor of unisa, pityana worked relentlessly to advance distance education, not only on the african continent, but internationally and in developing world contexts. an example of his passion to realise the potential of distance education on the african continent is his belief that distance education can not only widen access and increase participation in higher education but do so in costeffective ways without sacrificing quality (pityana, 2009). he, however, warns against “the uncritical acceptance and implementation of odl as an ‘easy way out’” and points to the need that institutions 109 “must also acknowledge the significant and serious challenges which have to be overcome in its implementation, including financial resources and intellectual capital” (p. 8). to realise the potential of distance education we “will have to look afresh at collaborations and partnerships, preferably through a strategic lens that discourages fragmentation and piecemeal efforts and that encourages consolidation, cooperation and mutual benefit” (p. 18). throughout his career pityana advanced the aims and mandate of distance education at various international fora such as the pan commonwealth forum, the united nations, unesco, and the commonwealth of learning, always emphasising distance education’s unique potential not only to provide access to educational opportunities but also to contribute to broader humanity. jegede (2011) quotes sir john daniel who said of unisa under the leadership of pityana, “‘no university in the world has faced a more challenging trajectory than unisa in the last two decades” which included “the daunting task of transforming the philosophy, pedagogy, structures and people of a massive institution while continuing to teach students effectively” (p. 2). pityana has “consistently directed attention to the practice and use of odl for global benefits and the need for a continuous review of the theories which scaffold this area of human endeavour” (jegede, 2011, p. 3). professor olugbemiro jegede (nigeria) one cannot speak about the national open university of nigeria (noun), the largest tertiary institution in nigeria, without reference to the impact of the scholarship and leadership of professor olugbemiro jegede, the founding vice-chancellor of noun. in 2001 jegede was invited by the federal government of nigeria to promote distance learning in nigeria. he assumed the position as the national coordinator of the national open and distance learning programmes in 2001 and in 2003 he was appointed as the founding and current vicechancellor of noun. jegede has had vast experience in different distance education contexts and roles such as at curtin university of technology’s science and mathematics education centre (perth, australia); as founding director for the centre for research in distance & adult learning, the open university of hong kong; the foundation head for the research & evaluation unit distance education centre at the university of southern queensland (toowoomba, australia) and the foundation dean and professor of education, department of education, faculty of education, the university of abuja, nigeria. in addition to contributing to the development of distance education on the african continent, jegede also has an extensive publication record in various internationally refereed journals in distance education. he is furthermore a long-standing member of the icde and served as chairman of its task force on research in 1995. he is also a member of the executive board of the african council for distance education (acde) (http://www.olugbemirojegede.com/page_about_more.html). jegede is one of the most cited african scholars in distance education. his co-authored articles with aikenhead titled “cross-cultural science education: a cognitive explanation of a cultural phenomenon” (aikenhead & jegede, 1999) and “transcending cultural borders: implications for science teaching” (jegede & aikenhead, 1999) have, in particular, been widely cited. of interest in regard to jegede’s research is the fact that his research is embedded in his own disciplinary background in the sciences he is a chartered biologist of the united kingdom institute of biology. 110 his research not only speaks to a deep concern for african learners but also critically reflects on the challenges of (science) education. for example, in 1992 he co-authored an article “adopting technology in third world classrooms: students' viewpoint about computers in science teaching and learning” (jegede & okebukola, 1992). specific to research in distance education, he co-published “gender differences in factors influencing achievement of distance education students” (taplin & jegede, 2001), and “from convocation to flexible learning: the role of odl in community development” (jegede, 2009). his research is, however, not limited to the african continent as he has also published “distance education research priorities for australia: a study of the opinions of distance educators and practitioners” (jegede, 1994). his contribution to the field of distance education was acknowledged by the icde in 2015. catherine ngugi, open educational resources, kenya in mapping and recognising leadership in distance education, it is interesting to see how different individuals link across the continent and across initiatives and themes. catherine ngugi is a prime example. not only is she the project director of oer africa, a saide initiative (of which jenny glennie is the ceo) based in kenya, she also established the avu’s research & innovation facility (rif) in january 2005 and managed it until september 2007. she began her career in the private sector in kenya and has since worked for the council for the development of social science research in africa (codesria), and the oxfam gb west africa regional office before joining saide. she is, furthermore, a rockefeller associate of the african gender institute (university of cape town), and has authored a number of publications (http://gedc2013.engineering.nd.edu/bio-pdfs/ngugi.pdf) in a seminal article, ngugi (2011) mapped the role of open educational resources (oer) in the development and future of higher education on the african continent against the backdrop of “historical phases of colonialism, post-colonialism, and current ongoing national and regional agendas” (p. 277) and the “geographical breadth and cultural and linguistic complexity” (p. 278). ngugi (2011) explores, inter alia, the role of funding, lack of infrastructure, role and competencies of faculty, as generative mechanisms in addressing the intergenerational legacies of colonialism and, in the case of south africa, apartheid. while oer do offer huge potential for education on the african continent, ngugi (2011) warns that “it is naive to assume that all oer created outside africa is equally relevant in africa” (p. 284) and that africa has to become producers instead of only consumers of content generated outside of the continent. oer is therefore “not a panacea, but one incremental step to bridge the yawning gap in access, equity, and quality that prevails in much of african education” (p. 286). in a recent article, ngugi and butcher (2016) provide a very sobering view on the role of oer africa in supporting the development and use of oer in three african countries, namely kenya, tanzania, and south africa. they report that there has been “a significant increase in interest in establishing clear ip policies to manage the complex range of issues associated with copyright management that have been introduced by the growth of open licences” but that there is “a misalignment between oer practices and institutional priorities and hr policies” resulting in faculty being unclear with regard to how they will be “rewarded and recognised for their engagement in materials development processes” (p. 9). ngugi and butcher (2016) conclude that “only when universities place as much value on teaching and learning as they do on academic research will we begin to see research into the 111 relative effectiveness of different educational methods become an institutional priority and incentives for academics or support staff to conduct such research concomitantly strengthened” (p. 10). prof mandla makhanya – south africa prof mandla makhanya is the current executive committee president of the icde, vice chancellor of unisa and the treasurer of the acde. what makes makhanya’s career trajectory so remarkable is the fact that he rose through the ranks after starting as a junior lecturer in the sociology department at unisa. he then became the dean of the faculty of humanities and social sciences, and later the executive dean of the college of human sciences and pro vice chancellor of unisa. he holds a ba and a ba (hons) (in sociology), a diploma in tertiary education, a master’s degree in industrial sociology and a dphil. the university of athabasca in canada conferred upon him a phd (honoris causa) in 2007 in recognition of his exemplary leadership at unisa and his contribution as a distinguished scholar in distance education. he has published widely and his expertise in distance education is respected and acknowledged far beyond the borders of south africa and the african continent (http://www.acdeafrica.org/prof-mandla-makhanya). a leitmotif in makhanya’s scholarship on open distance learning is his commitment to realise the potential of distance education in contributing to the needs of human development on the african continent. in order to realise this potential, odl institutions need to “think broadly, to partner wisely and to advance courageously” (mckay & makhanya, 2008, p. 47). makhanya (in jegede, 2011) refers to open and distance learning “as the ‘cinderella’ of higher education delivery, hemmed in on all sides by discriminatory policies, practices and perceptions, and odl providers are faced with difficult challenges that need to be overcome if its full potential and promise are to be realised” (p. 2). reflecting on the theme of the 26th international council for open and distance education (icde) world conference, makhanya (2016) states that “in continuing and realising the potential of distance education provision and, increasingly, distance e-learning, we have to seriously consider some of the core assumptions and questions that have informed distance education provision up to now… [and] consider how issues such as quality, access and cost are impacted upon by changing funding regimes, the massification of education, an increasing number of institutions offering e-learning, changing student profiles and advances in educational technology” (pp. 237-238). he continues to state that there is “no silver bullet or easy solutions” in “growing capacity [in open and distance education] in comprehensive, systemic and holistic ways” (p. 238). delvaline möwes (namibia university of science and technology or nust, namibia) delvaline möwes, like many other distance education practitioners (see jegede above), holds a variety of academic qualifications and has a range of disciplinary interests. she holds a phd in education specialisation in student support in open distance learning (odl), a med (cum laude) in educational psychology and bed honours from the university of namibia; a bachelor of science degree from the university of johannesburg (majoring in computer science & mathematics) and a post graduate higher education diploma. she is currently director: centre for open and lifelong learning (coll) at the namibia university of science and technology (nust) and has held this position since 2002. she began her career in odl in 1992 at the university of namibia’s (unam) centre for external studies. 112 möwes has had a rich experience in distance education and has presented her research at a range of scholarly conferences, keynotes, workshops and seminars in portugal, malaysia, new zealand, germany, cambridge, india, seychelles, mauritius, nigeria, south africa, zambia and botswana. at present she is the chair & vice-chair of the namibian open learning network (nolnet) board of trustees; chairperson of the nolnet management committee; member of the namibian national core team for odl policy development; and member of a range of nust committees and task teams. she is also an odl subject matter expert for the namibian qualifications authority (nqa) audit team for institutional and programme accreditation for both public and private odl providers; country representative and executive member of the distance education association of southern africa (deasa); country representative and chairperson of the sadc-technical committee on odl (sadc-tcodl); executive member of the forum of african women educationalists in namibia (fawena); and a commonwealth of learning (col) consultant in zambia and nigeria. she serves on several editorial boards as reviewer, and acts as external examiner and graduate supervisor. throughout her career in teaching, research, and consultancy, she has had extensive exposure and a proven capacity to lead in a stimulating and culturally diverse environment, including a strong background of 25 years hands-on experience at both middle and senior level management in higher education and odl. in this, she has added value to the strengthening of technology-enhanced learning and the odl profile in namibia, botswana, zambia, nigeria and portugal. in her role as director she is accountable for an annual budget of ±n$51 million and received the col award for institutional excellence in distance education in 2010, kerala, india. this award was in recognition of the significant achievements in the innovative and effective application of appropriate learning technologies, demonstrating the centre’s long-term and on-going success in making learning opportunities more accessible to students who might otherwise not have participated in the learning experience. möwes also received the education leadership award in 2014 at the global distance learning congress, mumbai-india, endorsed by thought leaders, for her leadership of and contribution to the field of education, and for being a role model and believer in cutting edge change. her most recent accolade was in november 2016 when she was tasked by the nolnet board to present namibia’s national odl policy to cabinet and received the confirmation soon after that cabinet had approved the policy. ambassador nicholas kuhanga tanzania ambassador kuhanga was the principal academic tutor of the institute of adult education (iae) and a lecturer in adult education, department of education (presently school of education), university of dar es salaam, in the early 1970s. as the minister of national education (1977 – 1979) he conceived and presided over the distance teacher training of a primary school teachers' project, whose major objective was to satisfy the need of the required number of teachers for universal primary education (upe) by 1977. a total of 35,000 primary school leavers were successfully trained as grade c teachers between 1974 and 1977. it would have taken 15 years to train the same number of teachers conventionally. as a serving vc of the university of dar es salaam (1979 – 1988) kuhanga undertook a study visit at the open university (uk) in 1979 in order to learn how its experiences could benefit tanzania in the area of dissemination of tertiary education. unfortunately, however, the university senate turned down his recommendation for the establishment of an external studies department at 113 udsm. according to him, "the university was not ready to offer cheap correspondence degrees". ironically, it was during this time (1979) that the university of nairobi set up its external studies department, and, more ironically, the initial cohort of out students (1994 1999), relied entirely on study materials from the external studies department, university of nairobi, to study and complete successfully their programmes, particularly, ba, ba (ed), bsc, bsc (ed), bcom and bcom (ed). between 1988 and 1990 kuhanga led the committee set up by the minister of education, the late amrani mayagilla (1985 – 1991), to collect views on the need, feasibility and resource requirements for establishing an open university in tanzania. the study culminated in the famous kuhanga report of 1990, the foundation on which the out act of 1992 and hence out itself are erected. while kuhanga stepped down as the vc of udsm in order to head the committee, he continued to retain his position as the chair of the council of the institute of adult education (iae). for this reason, on the occasion of the 1st unesco international seminar on distance education held in arusha, 24th – 28th september 1990, kuhanga was unanimously elected as the seminar chair. prior to the appointment of the retired president of the 4th phase government, he dr jakaya m. kikwete, as the chancellor of the udsm in november 2015, kuhanga served as the acting chancellor of the udsm. presently, kuhanga is, among other responsibilities, the chair of the council of sokoine university of agriculture (sua) and a founding member of the distance education association of tanzania (deata). thandi ngengebule – south africa thandi ngengebule initially qualified in the field of social work but embarked on a teaching career in swaziland, where she qualified as a teacher and taught at a high school for 17 years. in 1985 she joined the sached (south african committee for higher education) trust, an ngo which specialized in the development and delivery of distance educational solutions for disadvantaged black learners in apartheid south africa, and in 1987 she joined the sached management team as one of the assistant directors. in this capacity her role expanded to the management and oversight of a diversity of distance education programmes, including a support programme for teacher upgrading (tup) and the distance education university students support project (dusspro) dedicated to supporting tertiary learners studying through unisa. she was also involved in the development of the adult secondary education curriculum (aseca) as alternative capacity development for adult learners at the basic education level. from 1990 onwards she also facilitated the relocation and administration of the (saeu) the south african extension upgrading programme from tanzania for further delivery of its distance education programmes and support of south african refugees in the post-independence environment. as one of the critical activist organisations standing against apartheid education, sached also participated in a variety of initiatives lobbying the national education system to recognize the importance of education beyond the schooling system generally and more specifically the role of learner support in the transformation of distance education delivery. against this background, ngengebule’s organisational expertise was further validated when the university of south africa (unisa) employed her in 1994 as head of the department of student support. her role was to assist the university to initiate and integrate learner support processes into unisa’s teaching and learning environment in collaboration with the various teaching and administrative departments. she was also responsible to oversee the development of systems for 114 setting up the face-to-face tutor system, the recruitment and training of tutors, and overall advocacy for the integration of tutorial support into the unisa tuition policy. the delivery of tutorial support services expanded from an initial delivery at a regional network of six sites in (1995-2004) to a coordinated delivery in a regional network of 38 sites (2007/2008). in addition, the department facilitated the development and presentation of the first formal tutor development and training workshop in unisa in may 1995, in collaboration with the uk based international extension college (iec) and sached’s distance education training unit (detu). from 1985, ngengebule was an active member and sached’s representative in the distance education association of southern africa (deasa). between 1993-1995 ngengebule became the first woman to take up the position of chairperson of the deasa executive committee. this committee consisted of five other women — leaders in distance education institutions from botswana, lesotho, swaziland and sached. in that period this committee played a vibrant role in strengthening deasa’s organizational, professional and leadership role and also built strategic partnerships with other regional and international organizations, for example: commonwealth of learning (col), international council for distance education (icde), the african council for distance education (aade) and the south african extension unit (saeu) in tanzania. because of her expertise and experience in deasa, ngengebule as the then unisa representative, developed and delivered a concept paper for the launch conference of the african council for distance education (acde) at the egerton conference in kenya, january 2004. the launch conference resulted in the acde’s founding constitution and the formation of the first executive committee with representation from mauritius, rwanda, sudan, nigeria and unisa. in addition to leading and participating in many odl staff development training initiatives in the sadc region she also participated in staff development workshops at the seychelles distance education centre and at the open university of sudan in khartoum. she has also attended and presented papers in a number of odl conferences locally, in the sadc region, in the continent and internationally. she has contributed to the development of the ba (odl), a course developed by unisa, and has contributed to a number of publications which include the first edition (1998) and second edition (2008) learner support: case studies of deasa member institutions. evelyn nonyongo – south africa evelyn nonyongo’s role in and contribution to odl emanate from her experience of studying for her first degree through correspondence education offered by the university of london and the learner support that she received from a non-governmental organisation called the south african committee for higher education (sached) trust. without this external learner support (in the form of a bursary for tuition fees, face-to-face support in the form of weekly tutorials and a study centre for quiet study and interaction with other learners and extra-mural activities), she would not have completed her first degree. this experience kindled and nurtured her interest in, and activism on behalf of, integrated learner support that, in her view, should be the responsibility of institutions providing odl and not external organisations like sached. hence, except for a two-year teaching job in soweto during the early 1970s, her entire working life to date has centred on various facets of odl and included contributions to odl policy development, theory and practice in a practical, experiential and integrated manner. 115 there is no doubt that through the provision of learner support to london university and later to unisa students, sached made a significant contribution to thousands of students enrolled by these two institutions. however, sached had very limited influence on providing input into these institutions’ policy and provision; neither was sached’s contribution to the success of these students recognised. activism on integrated learner support, therefore, became one of the major thrusts of nonyongo’s work in sached’s project called the distance university students support project (dusspro) that serviced unisa students and which she managed nationally in learning centres located in cape town, durban, grahamstown, johannesburg and pretoria. the dusspro experience highlighted the need for the development of staff in odl generally, including integrated learner support. in partnership with the united kingdom international extension college, a new project to train odl practitioners was introduced in sached after dusspro’s demise and provided useful training to communities in the mpumalanga, eastern cape and gauteng provinces. this training was adopted as the certificate for distance education practitioners by the unisa institute for continuing education that nonyongo managed from 1995 to 2007. this certificate was offered in collaboration with the commonwealth of learning (col) and the distance education association of southern africa (deasa) and provided valuable training to odl practitioners in the southern africa region and other parts of africa. even in her post-retirement years, nonyongo has continued her interest, knowledge sharing and practitioners’ development and training in odl and in the development of open education resources (oer). examples are assisting practitioners in botswana, zambia and ghana to develop open education resources for open schooling through the col/ william & flora hewlett foundation, an oer project, which included subjects such as commerce, mathematics and physics (zambia); geography, and human and social biology (botswana) and hotel front office operations and kitchen operations. nonyongo’s interest in the collaborative approach to odl programme development and provision was also applied in other programmes like the diploma in youth development, and through active participation in odl professional associations like deasa and the national association of distance education association of south africa (nadeosa). she was part of the commonwealth-wide group that developed the diploma in youth development, championing its formal adoption as one of unisa’s offerings and managing its implementation. with regard to professional associations, she was the founding secretary of nadeosa and in deasa she had at various times been a member of its planning committee, secretary, treasurer and learner support committee member. all these positions involved policy development, planning, programme implementation and managing finances. she was part of the first and only all-female executive of the south africa/botswana deasa branch which counted amongst its successes the raising of a substantial sponsorship for deasa projects from an external donor, and the production of a book of case studies of deasa institutions’ learner support services, which became a handbook to guide learner support practitioners and which was developed collaboratively in deasa regional workshops. conclusions both the task of identifying leadership in distance education, as well as leadership per se, does not happen in a vacuum. we need to understand the definition of leadership and the processes of 116 identifying leadership in a particular historical context (evans and nation, 1992). it is clear that we cannot and should not document contributions to distance education on the african continent without seriously accounting for how these contributions and the documentation of these contributions were and are shaped by africa’s history, past and present. this article’s attempt to celebrate the contributions of a number of african individuals is taking place at a particular junction in history, and is, despite this article’s limitations, a purposeful act, not only to celebrate but also to provide a counter-narrative to some of the uncontested beliefs and claims regarding distance education on the african continent. acknowledgements dr jeanette botha (unisa), prof elifas sibande (open university of tanzania), jennie glennie (saide), evelyn nonyongo, thandi ngengebule, prof pamela ryan (higher education consultant) and dr delvaline möwes (nust). references aderinoye, r., siaciwena, r., & wright, c. r. (2009). a snapshot of distance education in africa. the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 10(4). retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/764/1350 adekanmbi, g. (2004). the transformation of distance education in africa. retrieved fromhttp://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.518.8011&rep=rep1&type=pdf aikenhead, g. s., & jegede, o. j. (1999). cross-cultural science education: a cognitive explanation of a cultural phenomenon. journal of research in science teaching, 36(3), 269-287. ajadi, t. o., salawu, i. o., & adeoye, f. a. (2008). e-learning and distance education in nigeria. tojet: the turkish online journal of educational technology, 7(4). retrieved from http://www.tojet.net/articles/v7i4/747.pdf botha, j. (2011). the role of higher education policy in distance education provision in south africa. university of south africa. retrieved from http://uir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/4937 cleveland-innes, m.f., & garrison, d.r. (eds.). (2010). an introduction to distance education. understanding teaching and learning in a new era. new york, ny: routledge. diallo, b., & rasugu, p. (2009). the avu oer architecture & strategy. retrieved from http://fr.wikieducator.org/images/1/12/oer.pdf epstein, d., boden, r., deem, r., rizvi, f., & wright, s. (eds.). (2008). geographies of knowledge, geometries of power: framing the future of higher education (volume 1). new york, ny: routledge. evans, t., & nation, d. (1992). theorising open and distance education. open learning, 7(2), 3-13. heydenrych, j. f., & prinsloo, p. (2010). revisiting the five generations of distance education: quo vadis? progressio, 32(1), 5-26. holmberg, b. (1995). the evolution of the character and practice of distance education. open learning, 10(2), 4753. holmberg, b., hrsg. bernath, & busch, f. w. (2005). the evolution, principles and practices of distance education (vol. 11). bis. retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/1e49/4afabaf38b9f4ab47639a84b8806ea7c6871.pdf hoppers, c.a.o. (2000). african voices in education: retrieving the past, engaging the present and shaping the future. in p. higgs, n.c.g. vakalisa, t.v. mda, & n.t. assie-lumumba, (eds.). african voices in education (pp. 1-11). landsdowne, south africa: juta & co. ltd. jegede, o. j. (1994). distance education research priorities for australia: a study of the opinions of distance educators and practitioners. distance education, 15(2), 234-253. jegede, o. (2009). from convocation to flexible learning: the role of odl in community development. retrieved from http://uir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/21227 jegede, o.j. (2011). when the unthinkable happens. open praxis, special edition, october, 1-4. 117 jegede, o. j., & okebukola, p. a. (1992). adopting technology in third world classrooms: students' viewpoint about computers in science teaching and learning. journal of educational technology systems, 20(4), 327-334. jegede, o. j., & aikenhead, g. s. (1999). transcending cultural borders: implications for science teaching. research in science & technological education, 17(1), 45-66. jenkins, j. (1989). some trends in distance education in africa: an examination of the past and future role of distance education as a tool for national development. distance education, 10(1,) 41-63, doi: 10.1080/0158791890100105 keegan, d. (1996). foundations of distance education (3rd ed.). new york, ny: routledge. kinyanjui, p. e. (1998). distance education and open learning in africa: what works or does not work. retrieved from http://oasis.col.org/handle/11599/1596 makhanya, m. s. (2016). reflections on special issue of distance education. distance education, 37(2), 237-238. mays, t. (2005). costing distance education and open learning in sub-saharan africa. open learning, 20(3), 211225. mckay, v., & makhanya, m. (2008). making it work for the south: using open and distance learning in the context of development. in evans, t. d., haughey, m., & murphy, d. (2008). international handbook of distance education (pp. 29-48). bingley, uk: emerald group publishing. moore, m.g., & kearsley, g. (2011). distance education: a systems view of online learning. belmont, ca: cengage learning. murphy, p., & zhiri, a. (eds.). (1992). distance education in anglophone africa. washington, d.c.: world bank. ngugi, c. n. (2011). oer in africa’s higher education institutions. distance education, 32(2), 277-287. ngugi, c., & butcher, n. (2016). separating rhetoric from reality: the process of institutionalizing oer practices at african universities. retrieved from http://oasis.col.org/handle/11599/2532 ojo, o. d., & olakulein, f. k. (2006). distance education as a women empowerment strategy in africa. turkish online journal of distance education, 7(1), 271-280. perraton, h. (1992). a review of distance education. in murphy, p., & abdelwahed, z. (eds.), distance education in anglophone africa: experience with secondary education and teacher training (pp. 7-15). washington, dc: world bank. retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/44817038_distance_education_in_anglophone_africa_experience_ with_secondary_education_and_teacher_training peters, o. (2002). distance education in transition: new trends and challenges. bis verlag. pityana, n. b. (2009). open distance learning in the developing world: trends, progress and challenges. retrieved from http://uir.unisa.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10500/411/icdemaastricht250609.pdf?sequence=1 prinsloo, p. (2016a). (re)considering distance education: exploring its relevance, sustainability and value contribution, distance education, 37(2), 139-145, doi:10.1080/01587919.2016.1188445 prinsloo, p. (2016b, november 4). personal communication. prinsloo, p. (2017). online distance education in south africa: past, practice and prognosis. in zawacki-richter, o., & qayyum, a., (in press.). national systems in an era of global online distance education. athabasca university press. stack, m. (2016). global university rankings and the mediatization of higher education (palgrave studies in global higher education). hampshire, uk: palgrave macmillan. taplin, m., & jegede, o. (2001). gender differences in factors influencing achievement of distance education students. open learning, 16(2), 133-154. wolff, l. (2002). the african virtual university: the challenge of higher education development in sub-saharan africa. techknowlogia, international journal of technologies for the advancement of knowledge and learning, 4(2). world bank. (1988). education in sub-saharan africa. policies for adjustment, revitalization, and expansion. washington, d.c.: world bank. retrieved from http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/816101468009945118/pdf/multi-page.pdf 118 author paul prinsloo is a research professor in open distance learning, department of business management. email: prinsp@unisa.ac.za microsoft word orwenjo.docx issn: 2311-1550 2021, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 582-600 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. teachers’ perceptions of open educational resources: the case of open resources for english language teaching (orelt) in kenya daniel ochieng orwenjo1 and fridah kanana erastus2 1the technical university of kenya 2kenyatta university abstract: the use of open educational resources (oers) in the teaching and learning of various subjects is a relatively new innovation in the kenyan school system. with the advent and subsequent liberalisation of ict, material developers are subsequently shifting away from the traditional modes of material development in the form of textbooks and other “canonical” formats which require the teacher to use them as they are handed down without any input or modification. the open resources for english language teaching (orelt) is one such educational innovation. this paper reports the findings of a baseline survey conducted in kenya with a view to finding out the views and perceptions of kenyan junior secondary school teachers with regard to the adoption of open resources for the teaching of english language in kenyan secondary schools. sixty (60) jss teachers of english from rural and urban schools and of mixed gender were invited for a four day orelt in-service induction workshop at the kenyatta university conference centre. the teachers were then given orelt materials in the form of cds and textbooks for use in teaching english in their schools. they were also registered on the online orelt platform and each given log in credentials to enable them freely to access the materials and freely interact with fellow teachers throughout the commonwealth. the study reports that whereas teachers are ready to embrace the use of open resources, they have varying perceptions on the suitability and potential efficacy of open resources in kenyan classrooms. it also emerges that such differing perceptions are constrained by institutional, cultural, pedagogical and personal factors. accordingly, the study recommends a more structured, inclusive bottom-up approach to any educational innovation as a means of ensuring success. keywords: orelt, perceptions, esl, education innovation, teacher education, kenya. introduction in a rapidly changing and globalising world, many initiatives to modernise education and to optimise student learning have been launched in schools around the world. language teaching in general, and second-language teaching in particular, has been a fertile ground for such modernisation and optimisation initiatives. in english as a second language (esl) contexts such as sub-saharan africa (ssa) where language teaching occurs in multilingual contexts, with a dearth of a clear nexus between existing language in education policy and actual classroom practice, the need to constantly innovate and (re)train language teachers on such innovations has always been felt. the general goal of such educational innovations is the creation of powerful learning environments capable of realising the main goals of modern education, namely the acquisition of high-quality knowledge, problem-solving 583 skills, self-directed learning skills, and transferability of knowledge and skills (konigs, brand-gruwel & van merrienboer, 2007). because of the unique and pivotal position occupied by teachers in the teaching and learning process, investigating their perceptions on the potential of orelt materials in improving the teaching of english provides useful insights into the extent to which the materials have been successfully adopted, implemented and used as teaching resources. additionally, they can provide information about the current state of the implementation and its agreement with the original design, thereby providing useful feedback to the designers of the innovation (in this case, the commonwealth of learning) on the feasibility or otherwise of the innovation. this paper, therefore, reports on the perceptions of kenyan junior secondary school (henceforth, jss) teachers with regard to the feasibility or otherwise of orelt materials in improving teaching of english in kenyan schools. the open resources for english language teaching (orelt) is a project by the commonwealth of learning, canada, intended to support the classroom activities of teachers in jsss. the aims of orelt are to provide a bank of ‘open content’ multi-media resources in online, offline and traditional text formats that will support school-based education and training for jss teachers; provide ‘open content’ support resources for teacher educators who train teachers for jss; and to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas and experiences and sharing of elt resources among teachers and teacher educators across the commonwealth. the context of elt teaching in the kenyan school system the kenyan language in education policy prescribes english as the medium of instruction and a subject of study in all levels of learning from grade 4 in primary schools except where other languages are taught as subjects. in the lower grades (1-3) the predominant language of the catchment area is used as the language of instruction while english is taught as a subject. the emphasis placed in learning english is borne out of the belief that successful mastery would open opportunities for employment to the learners later in life (orwenjo, 2012). the high premium placed on english in the school system would lead one to imagine that a lot of resources would be channeled by the government and other stakeholders towards the elt curriculum, yet nothing could be further from the truth. a number of factors such as high student numbers caused by the introduction of free primary and secondary education (muchiri, 2009; glasson, 2009) and limited learning resources (muthwii & kioko, 2004) have conspired to contribute to an environment where both teachers and learners are faced with a myriad of challenges within and outside the classroom. this has been compounded by a reluctance to and an aversion for uptake of new media and information communication and technology (ict) in teacher pedagogical practice and professional development programmes via which such challenges could be ameliorated (nyarigoti, 2017; anyiendah, 2017). this is the context within which the orelt study was carried out. objectives of the study the objective of the study was to assess the attitudes of kenyan jss teachers towards the orelt materials. these materials had been piloted in a baseline survey in which the teachers took part as key respondents. 584 theoretical issues a theoretical issue that emerges with regard to innovation relates to its adoption or acceptance. an innovation has to be adopted before it can really be considered as one. the present study uses the technology acceptance model (tam) (davis, 1989) as a framework to explain the perceptions of orelt resources by the teachers and its subsequent adoption or otherwise by them. tam considers external factors such as system design characteristics to critically contribute to an individual’s perceptions of how easy to use and how useful a new technology is considered. these perceptions in turn inform the intention to use the technology, and finally determine the actual usage. this information is presented in figure 1 below. figure 1: technology acceptance model (tam) (davis, 1989) the present study considers this model suitable because the orelt materials are essentially an instance of technological innovation in elt in kenya. critical to the understanding of the perceptions of teachers is the perceived ease of use, which in turn is determined by self-efficacy (legris, ingham, & collerette, 2003), which in turn is grounded on the idea self-beliefs affect motivation and cognition (bandura, 1982). therefore, self-efficacy examines perceptions toward the ability to do a given task (in this instance, to adopt and use orelt materials). this personal belief is closely related to the construct of perceived ease of use. similarly, outcome expectations or judgments as identified by bandura (1982) align well with perceived usefulness in determining if adopting the technology has value. the second theoretical issue regards the nature of perception as applied to this study. here, we are concerned with the perceptions of the jss teachers on the potential of orelt materials in improving the learning of english in kenyan secondary schools. perception can be defined as the way in which something is regarded, understood, or interpreted. perception has mostly been viewed from the psychological and philosophical perspectives where, in the former, it is considered to be basically equivalent to cognition and, in the latter, a logical process. such theories include indirect realism (russell, 1997; broad, 1923; jackson, 1977; robinson, 1994), critical realism (coates, 2007), intentionalism (see, among others, harman, 1990; tye, 1992, 1995; byrne, 2001) and naïve realism (martin 2001, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2010; campbell, 2002; brewer, 2007, 2011, 2017; fish, 2009). however, it appears that these theories of perception emphasise a more analytical or concrete look at the issue, whereas perception may be a more qualitative or abstract construct based upon teachers’ willingness or goal-oriented behaviours in adopting the orelt materials. this paper views perception as a more affective and motivation-related or goal-driven action on the part of the teachers in using the orelt 585 materials in the english language lessons. moreover, most of the studies on perception of open educational resources such as those of rowell (2015) and hendricks, reinsberg and rieger (2007) have tended to focus on the students, perhaps understandably so because the students are the ultimate beneficiaries of the open resources. an understanding of the perceptions of teachers, who are the main implementers of the curriculum, would go a long way to providing insights into the efficacy or otherwise of oers, hence, the present study. the study adopted the coup framework, the open education group’s approach to studying the impact of open educational resources (like open textbooks) and open pedagogy in secondary and post-secondary education to unravel the attitudes of jss to orelt materials. coup stands for: • cost • outcomes • usage • perceptions if educational costs are reduced, and the oer ensure an up-to-date and immediate access to materials by both students and teachers, then the likelihood that this will positively impact student outcomes remains tremendously high. outcomes could also be affected by how teachers and students use oer in ways that differ from how they use traditional materials. finally, teacher perceptions of oer have the potential to shed light on conflicting use patterns and outcomes. for these and other reasons, the use of a framework such as coup provides a minimal basis for future comparative research on oer. it is for these reasons that the coup framework was adopted to assess the perceptions of the kenyan jss teachers’ perceptions of the potential of orelt to improve the quality of esl teaching in kenya. methods research design the study employed a cross-sectional survey research design which sought to describe the attitudes, opinions, behaviours or characteristics of jss teachers with regard to orelt materials. after two months of trying out the orelt materials in their schools, the facilitators visited the teachers in their schools, observed the lessons and interviewed them on their perceptions on the efficacy of the materials in line with the coup framework discussed above. these visits provided observational data which was triangulated with the survey data, apart from acting as a monitoring and evaluation mechanism. study population and sample the study population consisted of 2,680 teachers spread over 180 schools. sixty (60) jss teachers (30 males and 30 females) were randomly selected from 60 schools for the present study. data collection a baseline survey was conducted by way of determining the initial attitudes, beliefs and practices of the teachers with regard to the use of oer. the participants were then introduced to the six orelt modules and the orelt online platform by three workshop facilitators. for each module the facilitators took the participants through its content, learning activities and learning resources. the 586 participants were then assigned discussion tasks on each module, which they performed in breakout groups and later presented in plenary. research instruments two instruments, namely a pre-workshop and a post-workshop questionnaire were administered to the teachers. for this questionnaire bliss et al’s (2013) survey questions provided the basis for survey development and were modified and expanded to fit the purpose and scope of this study. to ensure instrument validity, survey questions were reviewed by multiple experts in the field of open resources and open learning. the survey instrument was then modified based on expert feedback and delivered to the teachers via the orelt platform and their individual emails. findings based on the descriptive statistics arising from the quantitative and thematic analysis of the qualitative data, this section, therefore, presents the findings related to cost, outcome, use, perception of quality and accessibility. cost cost saving is one of the most important factors that contribute to making a decision to adopt open resources or not. this is especially so in developing countries like kenya, where the resources are always scarce and the budgetary allocation for the education sector is ever dwindling and always in need of support from donors and other development partners. the adoption of open educational resources can impact a range of financial and cost metrics not only for students and institutions but also for the government at large, and thereby have hugely significant budgetary implications. proponents of oer have posited that the use of these resources instead of traditional publisher textbooks or digital materials have a net impact of saving costs across the board. as compared to rural teachers (87%), only eight (13%) urban teachers felt that the orelt materials were expensive as compared to the traditional textbooks. this information is presented in figure 2 below. 587 figure 2: perceptions of teachers on the relative cost of orelt materials as compared to traditional textbooks on further probing, it emerged that the teachers who felt that the materials were more expensive also considered the costs of the initial installation of the hardware, such as computers and projectors; the software, cost of electricity; hiring and training of personnel; and the physical infrastructure. in most of the rural schools visited, there was hardly any physical infrastructure that would support the introduction of orelt materials. indeed, in many of the rural schools, they would have to begin by establishing a source of power due to lack of access to electricity. in considering the costs, therefore, it appears that most rural teachers were making consideration of the fact that it would be cheaper to buy the textbooks than to put up from scratch the initial infrastructure that would support the introduction and use of orelt materials in the respective schools. most of the urban schools on the other hand, already had relatively well-established ict infrastructure, such as computer laboratories, internet connectivity and overhead projectors. consequently, a majority of them needed only ways of accessing the open resources for them to introduce orelt materials in their schools. all the teachers interviewed averred that the use of orelt materials also reduced cost of learning due to their nature of being almost entirely support-free models. unlike other digital and technological learning resources that required constant and periodic user support, the orelt materials, due to their flexible and adaptable nature, were largely support free and the end users could easily make required modifications and adaptations on their own. outcomes critics of oer such as bates (2001) have often argued that their use will negatively impact learning as compared to the use of traditional textbooks. proponents of oer, on the other hand, have argued that using these resources instead of traditional publisher textbooks or digital materials increases student rural teachers 13% urban teachers 87% rural teachers urban teachers 588 access to critical learning materials and expands teachers’ academic freedom, consequently improving student learning outcomes. the outcomes strand of the present study provides empirical evidence about the magnitude and direction of the learning impacts of oer adoption: • improvements in overall student performance • changes in pedagogical practice • more preparation time. we explored how the adoption of orelt materials impacted students and teachers in several meaningful ways. teachers were asked questions relating to three aspects of the impact of orelt materials: teacher preparation time, pedagogical change and student preparation. more than half of the teachers reported spending more time preparing for their lessons compared to when they had taught the course in the past. they said that they needed more time to study and familiarise themselves with the orelt materials, and even more to set up the necessary equipment in class. a number of teachers also noted that they spent more time in evaluating the assignments and tasks that the students performed using the orelt materials as opposed to the previous case, where tasks in the traditional textbooks were assessed by simply marking the students’ workbooks. this information is presented graphically in the figure 3 below. figure 3: perceptions of teachers on the time spent in using orelt materials as compared to traditional textbooks 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 more time to study and familiarize themselves with the orelt materials more time to set up the necessary equipment in class. more time in evaluating the assignments and tasks less time spent no difference in time spent 589 in figure 3 above, it emerges that, as already stated, more than half of the teachers felt that they had to spend more time in using the orelt materials as opposed to the traditional textbooks. they had varied reasons to account for this, with the majority stating that it took them more time to familiarise themselves with the orelt materials. we also looked at how the flexibility and adaptability inherent in oer affected teachers' pedagogical practice. seventy-five percent of teachers reported some change in instructional practice when they used the orelt materials. some reported changes were a direct result of the digital nature of many of the texts and other changes were an indirect effect resulting from the impact of the materials on students. in the first case, many teachers reported increasing their effective use of technology in the classroom, while a handful reported technology getting in the way of teaching and learning. in the second case, teachers reported that their students were more engaged and interested in the orelt resources. a number of teachers also reported that orelt materials enabled positive changes in their instruction. for instance, several teachers indicated that they had started employing student-centered instruction, such as collaborative and active learning strategies, as well as implementing flipped classroom methods. these instructional approaches, in turn, helped the faculty members employ different types of assessments, and enabled displaying/referring to the open textbook during class, or facilitated the use of applied examples. teachers also commented that the ability to customise the textbook enhanced the relevance of the content to the student. these teachers, in turn, felt more latitude to give more assignments and assessments, as well as cover more content. this information is presented in the figure 4 below. 590 figure 4: perceptions of teachers on the effect of orelt materials on their pedagogical practice over 20 percent of teachers described the advantages of oer in terms of student access to materials at the very beginning of the course. for example, one teacher wrote, "having the book immediately available online helps the class progress faster." and another teacher described how his students "are prepared from the beginning of class." a few teachers discussed other advantages of continuous online access to materials, including more student interest and engagement. one teacher described this advantage, saying, “students are better prepared as they have access to the reading materials at little or no cost. students are more engaged and have more interesting questions." another teacher explained how better access to resources affected her class instruction: "i am able to refer to material knowing that all students will have access to the same material." nearly a quarter of teachers reported no change in their teaching practice as a result of using the oer textbook. for example, one teacher said that her practice changed "remarkably little…the text provides much of the same content as a commercial text." use we examined how teachers use orelt materials, the teachers’ perceptions of the likelihood of their students continuing to use the materials and the teachers’ future intentions to continue using orelt materials. of the faculty members in the study, 25% provided their students with links to download or read the textbooks on mobile devices or in web browsers. in addition, 82% of the faculty members reported that they adapted, modified, and/or improved the open textbooks, indicating that they made the time and effort necessary to tailor the open textbook for optimal use in their particular courses (see figure 5). 0 5 10 15 20 25 increased effective use of technology technology getting into the way of teaching and learning increased engagement and interest on the part of the learners possibility of covering more content no change 591 figure 5: use of orelt materials in addition, the analysis revealed a strong intention by the teachers with regard to continued use of the orelt materials with 97% reporting that they will likely continue using them in the future. ninety-three percent of the teachers reported that their students were also likely to continue using the materials. neither teachers nor students reported meaningful increases in student use of orelt materials compared to use of traditional texts. similarly, there was no significant improvement in the teachers’ use of the materials or, conversely, a reduction in their use of the traditional textbooks. this could be attributable to two factors: the materials were still relatively new to both the teachers and their students and they were therefore still in the process of familiarising themselves with the materials. secondly, the exam-oriented nature of the kenyan educational system rarely gives teachers the opportunity to venture out of the prescribed textbooks due to the belief that the examinations will be drawn from these texts. therefore, although the teachers adopted the orelt resources, they still reported more use of the traditional prescribed textbooks. perceptions on quality we sought to find out the perceptions of the teachers of the quality of orelt materials based on the constructs outlined in the work of bliss et al (2013). this included questions on their judgement of the quality of the orelt materials relative to traditional textbooks, their rigour and coverage and their perceptions about the ease of use of their formats, structures and other design features. seventy-two percent of teachers thought that the orelt materials were better in quality than the traditional textbooks, 17% perceived them to be of the same quality as traditional textbooks, 5% to be worse than that of traditional textbooks while 13% did not know. this information is summarised in figure 6 below. 592 figure 6: perceptions of teachers on the quality of orelt materials a deeper thematic analysis was conducted in order to identify the respondents’ general perceptions of the quality of open textbooks as well as the rationale for these perceptions (see table 1). in all cases where the quality was perceived to be worse than those of traditional textbooks, teachers cited technology problems or general poor text quality as reasons for giving a low rating. the teachers who mentioned technology issues did not provide much detail but it appears that student access to the internet and perceived student preference for printed textbooks was at the heart of what made the orelt materials worse for these teachers. for example, one of the teachers wrote, "students have limited access and prefer print sources [because] that is what they are used to." 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 i don’t know better than the quality of traditional textbooks same as the quality of traditional textbooks worse than the quality of traditional textbooks perceptions of teachers on the quality of orelt materials 593 table 1: thematic analysis of teachers’ perceptions of the orelt materials quality themes illustrative data better same worse design interactivity readability navigation supplementary materials quality of content the ability to customise modernity user-friendliness clear explanations updated content portable/accessible/responsive design examples and exercises same level of quality same content objectives similar organization similar visuals/media reputable authors peer reviewed readability similar mistakes between published and open textbooks same learning objectives same publishing process lack essential materials outdated research/teaching methods poor editorial quality poor figures/illustrations lack of supplemental materials lack of multimedia materials alignment between the content and user’s need orelt materials have the advantage of being available in multiple formats such as hardcopy, online and cd-rom. this makes them easy to adapt and customise. the supplementary materials for orelt materials also come from diverse sources and different formats thus making them more interactive because they are being constantly updated, orelt materials are more modern than traditional textbooks which take long to revise the existence of the orelt materials in many formats make them portable and accessible. i do not see any much difference anyway so long as the orelt materials and the traditional textbooks stick to the syllabus for me, there is not much difference what matters is whether students pass the exams or not, the type of materials they use is not important. there is not much difference because the orelt materials are just the traditional textbooks in a different format the orelt materials lack professional editing. the examples and case studies in the orelt materials are from other countries and have no relevance to local context. the orelt materials are not aligned to the kenyan syllabus and exams the content in the orelt materials cannot be adequately covered within the lessons as time tabled in the kenyan system those materials can only work in developed countries with stable electricity and reliable internet the other teachers who thought the orelt texts were worse than the traditional textbooks focused on various aspects of quality in general. one teacher explained that in her text the "information is 594 disconnected [and] the images and diagrams are poor," another teacher mentioned that, "the layout is hard to read," and a third teacher described the coverage of her textbook as "not as thorough" as her previous book. another issue with regard to quality had to do with the relevance of the materials to the local kenyan situation. to this end, the teachers pointed out that some of the learning activities and resources were far removed from the local context and, therefore, needed to be adapted to the local situations so that the students could easily identify with them. perception of quality and student performance we sought to establish the perceptions of the teachers with regard to whether the quality of orelt materials would have any impact on student performance. we posed the question: “in your opinion how would the quality of orelt materials impact on the student performance in english?” sixtyseven percent of the teachers believed that the quality of orelt materials positively impacted student performance, while 23% believed that it negatively affected student performance and 7% believed that quality did not impact student performance. three percent of the teachers responded that they did not know how the quality of the materials impacted on student performance. this information is presented in figure 7 below. figure 7: perceptions of teachers on the quality of orelt materials and student performance since the entire effort of producing open learning materials such as the orelt materials is, in essence, geared towards improving learning and, ultimately, the students’ school outcomes, it was felt that merely gauging the teachers’ perception on the quality of these materials, without endeavoring to find out how such perceived quality would impact on student performance, would not serve the purpose of having the materials. this is what informed the decision to examine the impact of the quality of the orelt materials on student performance. 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 positive impact negative impact no impact i don’t know teachers' perceptions on the quality of orelt materials and student performance 595 perception of quality and adoption intentions finally, we examined whether or not the quality of orelt materials would determine whether teachers would adopt the materials in their teaching even after the final phase was done out of the realisation of the central importance of quality of any teaching and learning resources. moreover, the teachers had rated the quality of these materials as being far above that of the traditional textbooks (see figure 7), and as likely to have a positive impact on the students’ performance (see figure 8). it was therefore imperative to find out whether the very positive perceptions on quality would influence adoption of the orelt materials. this is because the overall goal of the development of the orelt materials was to have them adopted as instructional materials in the entire commonwealth. quality was operationalised in terms of jung, bauer and heaps’ (2017) conceptualisation of the quality of open textbooks which focuses on content, affordability, accessibility, physical presentation and authorship reputation. figure 8 below shows the responses of the teachers regarding the quality of orelt materials and their adoption intentions. as can be seen, a majority of the teachers reported that their adoption intentions were conditional on the quality of the materials being better than those of the traditional textbooks which they were already using, while none reported having the intention of never adopting the materials. this shows that overall, the teachers had the intention of adopting the materials, albeit in varying degrees and circumstances. figure 8: teachers’ perceptions of the quality of orelt materials and their adoption intentions discussion the literature on oer promotes a wide range of benefits of oer, such as encouraging lifelong learning (joyce, 2006), improving teaching skills through resource development and adoption of learner-centred pedagogies (carey & hanley, 2008; conole, 2012; joyce, 2006; rolfe, 2012), reducing 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 i would never adopt the orelt materials regardless of the quality i would adopt the orelt materials regardless of the quality i would adopt the orelt materials only if their quality is better than that of traditional textbooks i would adopt the orelt materials even if their quality is lower than that of traditional textbooks i would adopt the orelt materials if their quality is the same as that of traditional textbooks teachers' perception of quality of orelt materials and their adoption intentions 596 costs for students and faculties by reducing reliance on commercial textbooks (joyce, 2006), improving collaboration between colleagues within and between institutions (joyce, 2006; rolfe, 2012), reducing barriers to translation of materials into other languages (hilton & wiley, 2012), improving accessibility for vision-impaired learners and keeping educational resources up-to-date by avoiding lengthy (and costly) publishing processes (baraniuk & burrus, 2008; joyce, 2006). some equate oer adoption with opportunity to improve teaching skills and methods, as well as the opportunity to connect, share and collaborate with colleagues (baraniuk, 2008; petrides, nguyen, kargaliani, & jimes, 2008). the present study contributes to this debate on the perceived benefits and disadvantages of the oer movement. with regard to costs, the project appears to have been successful in demonstrating that open educational resources can be used to lower the cost of elt teaching in kenya. future research should focus on understanding how the shortcomings identified by the teachers involved in this pilot project can be addressed so that the materials are rolled out all over the country. while there was general agreement that the orelt materials reduced the cost of educational materials to students, many teachers reported that using them required more preparation time than using traditional materials. it is presumed that teachers spent more time preparing to teach either because they were adapting and revising existing orelt materials or they were calculating in the time spent developing the materials specific to this initiative. either way, this finding has at least one important implication for future orelt initiatives: despite the many clear advantages of orelt, obtaining instructor buy-in could be hindered by the reality of increased preparation time. one approach to ameliorate this concern would be to get buy-in first from those willing to spend more time. the issue of infrastructure in terms of it facilities, power source and qualified personnel also came up as a cost factor in the current study. this calls to attention the need to examine unique educational environments before making blanket statements on the cost factor in oer. this is due to the realisation that costs may vary not necessarily as a result of the oer but also as a factor of the infrastructural development of a country or a region. also recurrent in the literature is the issue of sustainability of the oer movement (baraniuk, 2008; barrett et al, 2009; reed, 2012; rolfe, 2012). of major concern is the longevity of oer repositories that have been set up using significant financial investment. baraniuk (2008) discusses how some repositories may move to fee-for-access. reed (2012) also opines that “the success of the open content movement is reliant on wide participation and a critical mass of ‘open’ content”, (p. 1). he argues that without a critical mass of open content and participants, the whole idea of oer would be selfdefeating since the perceived benefits would be encumbered and mitigated by lack of access, yet this is one of the underpinning principles behind oer. this idea of a ‘critical mass’ of content and participants engaged in oer relies on broad collaboration across academia; what rolfe refers to as a “positive collegiate culture” (p. 1), which she argues needs to be supported at an institutional level (rolfe, 2012). the findings of the present study throw new light on the sustainability debate with regard to oer. as reported in this paper, teachers expressed strong intentions about adopting the orelt materials and continuing to use them in their english classrooms. there is strong evidence of this intended continuity and adoption since in some schools within the urban areas, teachers had formed discussion blogs on facebook and the orelt platform for the same purpose. accordingly, it is our view that although the duration of the project is still too short for any definitive statement on sustainability, there are early indications that this could be achieved within the framework elucidated by baraniuk, (2008); barrett et al, (2009); reed, (2012); rolfe, (2012). 597 it has also emerged from this study that teachers have varying perceptions on the efficacy of orelt resources in improving the learning of english in kenyan secondary schools and that such perceptions are constrained by institutional, cultural, pedagogical and personal factors. there is, therefore, a need for a more structured, inclusive bottom-up approach to any educational innovation as a means of ensuring success. one viable pathway in this direction is found in the concept of open education practices (oep). according to the ehlers (2011), oep is defined as the full set of practices around the creation, use and management of oer. this includes the tools that are used to support this process, the resources themselves and any enabling frameworks. oep covers the full spectrum of policy, research and practice around oer and involves almost all stakeholders involved in supporting and managing learning provision in educational systems. oep address the whole oer governance community: policy makers, managers/administrators of organisations, educational professionals and learners. issues of access, equity and quality still continue to bedevil the entire spectrum of the kenyan education system. one way of addressing these issues is the adoption of oer such as the orelt materials. yet, for successful implementation and adoption of the orelt materials in the kenyan school system, the concept of oep needs to be adopted by policy makers, the government and other stakeholders in the education sector as a means of ensuring a structured rollout of the orelt innovation in the kenyan school system without any of the encumbrances that may be occasioned by the institutional, individual and cultural diversity of the kenyan nation. conclusion we hold the view that the use of open resources in education in teaching and learning is an idea whose time has come. especially in sub-saharan countries where educational costs are exorbitantly high, their proper use can effectively increase access and quality. the emergent bottlenecks that are associated with costs and quality, as discussed in this paper can easily be addressed to further the use of open resources. this study has thrown some positive light on the issue of adoption of open resources in the kenyan school system by pointing out the unanimous willingness of teachers to adopt these materials for their teaching. since adoption of oer is not an end in itself but a means to an end, there is need for further studies which interrogate the impact of the use of these resources on student performance and school outcomes in general. references anyiendah, m.s. (2017). challenges faced by teachers when teaching english in public primary schools in kenya. frontiers in education, 2. bandura, a. (1982). self-efficacy mechanism in human agency. american psychologist, 37(2), 122-147. baraniuk, r. g. (2008). challenges and opportunities for the open education movement: a connexions case study. in t. iiyoshi & m. vijay kumar (eds.), the collective advancement of education through open technology, open content, and open knowledge (pp. 229-246). the mit press. baraniuk, r.g., & burrus, c. s. (2008). viewpoint: global warming toward open educational resources. communications of the acm, 51, 30-32. barrett, b., grover, v., janowski t., van lavierena, h., ojoa, a. & schmidta, p. (2009). challenges in the adoption and use of open course ware: experience of the united nations university. open learning, 24(1), 31-38. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02680510802627803#.u7bn1fldu8k 598 bates, t. (2001). international distance education: cultural and ethical issues. distance education, 22(1), 122-136. bliss, t., hilton, j., wiley, d., & thanos, k., (2013). college student and faculty perceptions of the cost and quality of open textbooks. first monday, 18(1). bliss, t., robinson, t., hilton, j., & wiley, d. (2013). an oer coup: college teacher and student perceptions of open educational resources. journal of interactive media in education, 2013(1). brewer, b. (2017). the object view of perception. topoi 36, 215-227. brewer, b. (2011). perception and its objects. oxford university press. brewer, b. (2007). perception and its object. philosophical studies 132, 87-97. broad, c. (1923). scientific thought. kegan paul, trench, trubner & co. byrne, a. (2001). intentionalism defended. the philosophical review 110, 199-240. campbell, j. (2002). reference and consciousness. oxford university press. carey, t., & hanley, g. l. (2008). extending the impact of open educational resources through alignment with pedagogical content knowledge and institutional strategy lessons learned from the merlot community experience. in t. iiyoshi & m. vijay kumar (eds.), the collective advancement of education through open technology, open content, and open knowledge. mit press. coates, p. (2007). the metaphysics of perception. routledge. conole, g. (2012). fostering social inclusion through open educational resources. distance education, 33(2), 131134. doi:10.1080/01587919.2012.700563 davis, f. d. (1989). perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance of information technology. mis quarterly, 13(3), 318-340. ehlers, u. d. (2011). extending the territory: from open educational resources to open educational practices. journal of open, flexible and distance learning, 15(2), 1-10. fish, w. (2009). perception, hallucination, and illusion. oxford university press. glasson, t. (2009). improving student achievement: a practical guide to assessment for learning. carlton south, vic: curriculum corporation. harman, g. (1990). the intrinsic quality of experience. philosophical perspectives 4, 31-52. hendricks, c., reinsberg, s. a., & rieger, g. w. (2017). the adoption of an open textbook in a large physics course: an analysis of cost, outcomes, use, and perceptions. the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 18(4). hilton j., & wiley d. (2011). open access textbooks and financial sustainability: a case study on flat world knowledge. international review of research in open and distance learning, 12(5). http://hdl.handle.net/10515/sy57s7j58 jackson, f. (1977). perception: a representative theory. cambridge university press. joyce, a. (2006). oecd study of oer: forum report. international institute for educational planning, 15. jung, e., bauer, c., & heaps, a. (2017) higher education faculty perceptions of open textbook adoption. international review of research in open and distributed learning, 18(4). könings, k. d., brand-gruwel, s., & van merriënboer, j. j. g. (2007). teachers’ perspective on innovations: implications for educational design. teaching and teacher education, 23, 985-997. 599 legris, p., ingham, j., & collerette, p. (2003). why do people use information technology? a critical review of the technology acceptance model. information management, 40, 191-20 martin, m. (2010). what’s in a look? in b. nanay (ed.), perceiving the world. oxford university press. martin, m. (2006). on being alienated. in t. gendler & j. hawthorne (eds.), perceptual experience. oxford university press. martin, m. (2004). the limits of self-awareness. philosophical studies, 120, 37-89. martin, m. (2002). the transparency of experience. mind & language 17, 376-425. martin, m. (2001). beyond dispute: sense-data, intentionality and the mind-body problem. in t. crane & s. patterson (eds.), history of the mind-body problem. routledge. muchiri, m. n. (2009). papers on language and culture: an african perspective. [s.l.]. authorhouse. muthwii, m., & kioko, n. (2004). new language bearings in africa. multilingual matters. nyarigoti, n. (2017). the state of english language in kenya: teacher perspectives. imperial journal of interdisciplinary research (ijir), 3(1), 2401-2408. orwenjo, d. o. (2012). multilingual education in kenya: debunking the myths. international journal of multilingualism, 9, 294-317. petrides, l., nguyen, l., kargaliani, a., & jimes, c. (2008). open educational resources: inquiring into author reuse behaviors. paper presented at the times of convergence. technologies across learning contexts: 3rd european conference on technology enhanced learning, ec-tel 2008, california, usa. reed, p. (2012). awareness, attitudes and participation of teaching staff towards the open content movement in one university. research in learning technology, 20. https://doi.org/10.3402/rlt.v20i0.18520 robinson, h. (1994). perception. routledge. rolfe, v. (2012). open educational resources: staff attitudes and awareness. research in learning technology, 20(0). doi: 10.3402/rlt.v20i0/14395 rowell, j. l. (2015). student perceptions: teaching and learning with open educational resources. [unpublished doctoral dissertation, east tennessee state university]. russell, b. (1997). the problems of philosophy. oxford university press. tye, m. (1995). ten problems of consciousness. mit press. tye, m. (1992). visual qualia and visual content. in t. crane (ed.), the contents of experience. cambridge university press. wiley, d., hilton, j., ellington, s., & hall, t. (2012). a preliminary examination of the cost savings and learning impacts of using open textbooks in high school science classes. international review of research in open and distance learning, 13(3). authors: daniel ochieng orwenjo is an associate professor of applied linguistics and director, centre for language and communication studies at the technical university of kenya, kenya. email: orwenjo@gmail.com fridah kanana erastus is a senior lecturer at the department of literature, linguistics, and foreign languages, at kenyatta university, kenya. email: erastusfk@gmail.com 600 cite this paper as: orwenjo, d. o., & erastus, f. k. (2021). teachers’ perceptions of open education resources: the case of open resources for english language teaching (orelt) in kenya. journal of learning for development, 8(3), 582-600. microsoft word neal.docx issn: 2311-1550 2023, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 139-141 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. book review identity, pedagogy and technology-enhanced learning: supporting the processes of becoming a tradesperson selena chan springer nature singapore pte ltd., 2020, pp. 201, isbn 978-981-15-2128-7 identity, pedagogy and technology-enhanced learning supporting the processes of becoming a tradesperson is a good place to start if you want to understand the practice of vocational education and training (vet). each chapter includes a summary of relevant research, references an extensive bibliography, and introduces various frameworks to make sense of, and support the application of, the concepts discussed. it covers modern use of technology in trades teaching and vet research and the author illustrates points with evidence from her own experience. the first chapter introduces the importance of occupational identity formation in the trades and the concept of ‘learning as becoming’ for apprentices. the second chapter outlines three elements by which apprentices learn skills (doing), knowledge (thinking) and dispositions (feeling and being). the first element is constructivism — learners need to build into their cognitive structures ways of doing, thinking, feeling and being, for the occupation they are learning. the second element is socio-cultural — teachers or trades tutors, peers, workplace colleagues, mentors and teammates help apprentices learn. the final element is socio-material — those learning trades work with animate or inanimate objects, materials and machinery specific to their occupation to become able to do, think, feel and be. the third chapter digs deeper into the socio-cultural and socio-material aspects, noting the multiliteracies and complexity inherent in these processes. chapter 4 discusses the role of socio-cultural and socio-metric feedback within authentic learning environments, such as workplaces and simulated contexts. the first is from teachers, peers and various work colleagues and relies on a blend of verbal and non-verbal means. the second is feedback from the materials with which apprentices learning to become tradespersons must engage (sociomaterial). tradespeople build skills through deliberate practice involving repetitive learning to establish muscle memory and attain automaticity. experts can struggle to deconstruct their practice because they learned it in a holistic way. this chapter discusses the application of the feed up, feedback, feed forward framework in trades contexts to seek to overcome these challenges. chapter 5 then focuses on the potential for digital technologies, such as simulators, to enable and enhance sociocultural and socio-material feedback. it introduces a framework for implementing technology in vet environments, drawing on new zealand case studies. advantages of technology include its accessibility, timeliness and multimedia capabilities. challenges include the text literacy focus of 140 systems developed for school and higher education contexts and the digital literacy of vet teachers and learners. the sixth chapter explores how to teach tradespersons to become teachers by drawing on the apprenticeship model with which they are familiar, providing a range of opportunities for observation, imitation and practice, and recognising the multiliteracies they bring and need to pass on to their learners. this chapter also outlines teaching and learning strategies to assist vet learners. it discusses the cognitive apprenticeship theory of learning and vet-appropriate approaches such as project-based learning and practical demonstration, illustrating these with examples. chapter 7 argues for scholarship of teaching and learning to extend beyond its present focus on school and higher education to vet. it introduces a framework for paradigms, strategies, approaches and methods for researching vet learning, and stresses the importance of involving vet teachers and learners in the process. the author shares an example of practice-based participative research from her own experience. chapter 8 then digs deeper into the use of video to study the learning of a trade. video is a powerful tool for gathering authentic practice and for involving teachers and learners in the process, and can capture the different modes and literacies relevant to vet. with growing uptake of mobile phones, video is increasingly affordable, accessible and easy to use. however, there are potential challenges with ethical use and ensuring validity, reliability and generalisability. again, the author shares her experience in effective use of video in researching vet. the last two chapters look to the future. the ninth chapter discusses the future of trades learning, first considering predictions regarding the future of work and from this arguing for ongoing demand for the trades. it identifies skills to include in future-proofed vet curricula, such as the ability to solve ‘wicked’ problems, keep innovating through ‘design thinking’ and self-directed career planning. the final chapter then raises the age old issue of lack of parity of esteem between vet and other education sectors, despite growing recognition of its present and future economic importance and the rewards within trades occupations, particularly for those who have an affinity for practical work. the book ends with a repeated call for greater support for vet-specific scholarship of teaching and learning initiatives. a key strength of this book is that it brings together a wealth of literature across the topic of vet teaching and learning. vet education is less frequently researched, so it can be hard to find amongst the plethora of education papers published. it is helpful to have succinct summaries of existing research in one place, supplemented by workable frameworks and the author’s own research. where relevant, the book draws on evidence from other spheres of research, such as the school and higher education sectors, and sports and medical training, and applies it to the vet context. however, it is unashamedly vet-focused and digs deeply into concepts that are specific to that sector. vet is more complex than other types of education. learners who are diverse in age and background learn in schools, tertiary settings and workplaces to prepare for hundreds of different occupations. pedagogical approaches used in school and higher education, as well as authentic learning environments, develop competence in complex work-relevant tasks. it is helpful to have frameworks to help practitioners understand and navigate these complexities. this book introduces new frameworks, references those developed by others, and applies frameworks developed in other contexts to learning a trade. 141 however, academic jargon and repeated use of the passive voice mean that readers (certainly, this reader) may have to re-read sentences to be sure of their meaning. admirable attempts to help readers understand by signalling topics before they are introduced and summarising after they have been covered result in extra reading and some confusion as to which topic is being covered when. when writing about education, there is an ongoing tension between academic rigour and ease of understanding by practitioners. i believe this book veered too far towards the former to be of value to many vet practitioners — not because they couldn’t understand it but because they lack the time to read and re-read it, to be able to comprehend and apply it. i hope that researchers and those responsible for supporting and upskilling vet teachers will take the time to understand the wealth of knowledge within this book and use it to develop accessible resources that help practitioners understand and apply the riches contained within it. this will ensure that vet teaching and learning is able to develop innovative solutions to meet the constant shifts in digital technologies and the ongoing challenges posed by the future of work. reviewed by: ms. terry neal is a former education specialist at the commonwealth of learning. email: tneal@col.org cite this paper as: neal, t. (2023). book review: identity, pedagogy and technology-enhanced learning: supporting the processes of becoming a tradesperson. journal of learning for development, 10(1), 139-141. microsoft word karunanayaka.docx issn: 2311-1550 2023, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 24-37 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. blending innovative pedagogy and technology for capacity development of educators during the pandemic shironica priyanthi karunanayaka open university of sri lanka (ousl) abstract: the increased use of digital learning environments augments the adoption of open practices in education which contributes to sdg4. the covid-19 pandemic has compelled an accelerated move towards technology-enhanced learning, prompting educators to re-think and re-design learning environments grounded in innovative pedagogy and technology. in the current scenario it is imperative that educators are offered capacity development opportunities to meaningfully engage in digital and open practices. this paper presents a case study of an online capacity development intervention in oerintegrated technology-enhanced learning (tel) material creation, implemented with a group of 15 educators selected using the purposive sampling method. it focused on the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of oer-integrated tel materials by the educators. the intervention comprised a carefully designed learning experience with intensive hands-on activities in a moodle online learning environment, supplemented with a series of zoom-based interactive workshops. the study explored the design strategies that enhanced the creation of oer-integrated tel materials by the educators, challenges encountered by them and how those were managed, and the effects of the intervention on changing their thinking and practices. multiple data gathering occurred via questionnaires, discussion forums, reflective journals, and focus group interviews. primarily, an in-depth content analysis of the qualitative data gathered was conducted. the findings revealed that the systematic learning experience design, which adopted a ‘learning by designing’ approach harnessing the affordances of both technology and pedagogy, empowered educators to become active creators of oer-integrated tel materials and to take leadership in integrating digital and open practices into teaching-learning processes. keywords: technology-enhanced learning, innovative pedagogy, learning experience design, capacity development, learning by designing, digital practices, open practices. introduction as envisioned by the global report of the international commission on the futures of education (unesco, 2021) a radical rethinking is desired on the role of education, learning, and knowledge via a new social contract for education towards reimagining our shared and interdependent futures. two basic principles — assuring the right to quality education throughout life; and strengthening education as a public endeavour and a common good — help empower future generations to reimagine their futures (unesco, 2021). the 2030 agenda for sustainable development recognises students as global citizens who require the competencies to build sustainable futures in an increasingly interdependent world (unesco, 2015). hence, the development of learner qualities, including skills to manage the complex challenges of the future, is essential (oecd, 2018). 25 the sustainable development goal 4 (sdg4) aims to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all (unesco, 2015). the increased use of digital environments in teaching and learning augments the adoption of open practices in education, thus, contributing to sdg4. the concept of open educational resources (oer) also contributes to sdg4 via promotion of free and open access to educational materials, advocating the use, creation and sharing of resources, and enhancing a culture of creative, cooperative, and participatory learning (cape town open education declaration, 2007). the covid-19 pandemic has compelled an accelerated move towards technology-enhanced learning, prompting educators to re-think and re-design learning environments grounded in innovative pedagogy and technology. in the current scenario it is imperative that educators are offered capacity development opportunities to meaningfully engage in digital and open practices. this paper presents a case study of an online capacity development intervention on oer-integrated technology-enhanced learning (tel) material creation, implemented with a group of educators studying for their master’s degrees in teacher education. literature review and conceptual framework teaching is a ‘design science’ (laurillard, 2012). teachers engage in designing meaningful learning experiences and productive learning environments for their students. as emphasised by the constructivist theory, meaningful learning will take place through a blend of active, constructive, cooperative, authentic, and intentional learning (jonassen et al., 1999). further, meaningful learning occurs when learners are actively engaged in knowledge construction through learning activities which are ‘situated’ or contextualised (brown et al., 1989), and when learners are challenged with solving real-world problems (merrill, 2018). integration of technologies also enhances the teachinglearning process. however, meaningful learning with technology will occur only if the focus is on learning with technology, using them as ‘cognitive tools’, rather than as mere delivery tools (jonassen et al., 2008). re-imagining and re-designing learning environments, harnessing the affordances of both pedagogy and technology, based on learning theory and practical design frameworks is thus vital. learning experience design is a creative process in which innovative pedagogy and novel technology play a significant role. the core of innovative pedagogy is to bridge the gap between the educational context and working life, through developing teaching-learning processes for competency development of students enabling their personal and professional growth, to apply gained knowledge in practical contexts (penttilä, 2016). pedagogical innovations promote the development of competencies often referred to as ‘21st century skills’ including critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and creativity. engagement in meaningful learning with technology also supports development of these higher order cognitive skills, empowering learners to function as productive individuals of the 21st century. the affordances of web technologies and an increased range of digital tools available provide numerous opportunities for teachers to create innovative learning experiences for their students. nevertheless, enduring transformations in teaching and learning will be possible through pedagogical improvements along with the technological integrations (sharples, 2019). as emphasised in the constructionist theory (papert, 1980) learning can be fostered through a creative process of construction. when learners are enabled to function as designers and creators, they engage in meaning making for themselves through a process of construction, which creates a rich context for 26 learning. such a ‘learning by design’ approach values the process of learning as well as its outcomes (paniagua & istance, 2018). integration of digital technologies in teacher professional development supports teachers to design innovative technology-enhanced learning (laurillard, et al., 2018). capacity development programmes incorporating learning by designing opportunities will empower and encourage teachers to become innovative designers of technology-enhanced learning experiences for their students. professional development initiatives designed for educators essentially require an appropriate blend among the subject matter content, pedagogical approaches, and technology integrations. the technological pedagogical content knowledge (tpack) framework (koehler & mishra, 2009) presents different forms of knowledge required by educators to be effective in technology-enhanced teaching-learning processes. it highlights three broad knowledge bases: content knowledge (ck), pedagogical knowledge (pk), and technological knowledge (tk); as well as their various interactions: pedagogical content knowledge (pck); technological pedagogical knowledge (tpk); technological content knowledge (tck); and the synthesised knowledge on all these (tpack) (koehler & mishra, 2009). (see figure 1). figure 1: tpack framework (source: http://tpack.org) the tpack framework offers useful direction for educators on how technology can be effectively integrated into the teaching-learning process, addressing the pedagogical requirements to teach the subject matter content in specific contexts (koehler & mishra, 2009; mishra & koehler, 2006). an effective merge of technology, pedagogy and content in the teaching-learning process is achievable only by the effective design of learning experiences. when educators function as ‘designers’ they can 27 apply the synthesised knowledge via tpack into practice by designing appropriate learning experiences for their students (koehler et al., 2016). however, learning experience design needs careful thought about the intersections of subject matter content, pedagogical approaches, and technological affordances (naidu, 2016). the tpack framework guided the conceptualisation of the current study in which a fully online professional development intervention for educators in oerintegrated tel material creation was designed and implemented. research questions the following research questions guided the inquiry: 1. what design strategies of the intervention enhanced the creation of oer-integrated tel materials by educators? 2. what challenges were encountered by the educators during the intervention and how were those managed? 3. what are the effects of the intervention on changing educators’ thinking and practices? methods research design the research adopted a case study design, which is an in-depth investigation of a contemporary phenomenon within its real-world context (yin, 2014). in the current study context, an initiative of a redesigned fully online learning environment, blending innovative pedagogy and technology, was implemented as an intervention to manage the unanticipated educational issues caused during the covid-19 pandemic. since the case study approach generates a multi-faceted understanding of a complex phenomenon, it proved to be an appropriate method to evaluate the innovative initiative by capturing its various aspects, especially the effects of the design strategies adopted. it allowed a detailed investigation of the phenomenon in context through an integral and iterative process, using rigorous methodology. participants the participants of the study were selected using the purposive sampling method. they included fifteen (15) educators who were enrolled in the course “teacher educator as an educational technologist” in english medium, in the master of teacher education (mte) study programme. the participants comprised 12 female and three male participants, all within the age group of 31-50 years. professional experience varied between 6-20 years among a majority, while five had more than 20 years of experience in the field of education. accordingly, the participants comprised a group of mature and experienced teacher educators, who were pursuing a postgraduate degree for their professional development. course design the course, “teacher educator as an educational technologist” is one of the compulsory courses in the mte programme. it focuses on developing the competencies of educators in the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of technology-enhanced learning (tel) materials. it was originally designed as a blended course containing face-to-face contact sessions supported with an online learning environment in the moodle lms. addressing the sudden compelling need to move totally 28 into the online mode of course delivery due to the pandemic, this course was redesigned as a fully online intervention with intensive hands-on learning experiences in the moodle lms, supplemented with a series of zoom-based interactive workshops. from its initiation this course had adopted an innovative pedagogical design – scenario-based learning (naidu et al., 2007; karunanayaka & naidu, 2009). the students are situated in authentic learning scenarios, and they engage in a series of learning activities and assessment tasks linked with their real-life practices, supported with learning resources. they are assessed through inter-linked assignments in the form of three mini projects during the process, instead of a traditional final examination. the redesigning of the course involved addition of further innovative design features carefully merging content, pedagogy, and technology as appropriate, to be implemented in a fully online learning environment using various features of the zoom platform and the moodle lms (see tables 1 and table 2). table 1: key design features of the course merging content, pedagogy, and technology course: teacher educator as an educational technologist key competency: ability to design, develop, and evaluate a technology-enhanced learning material learning outcomes content pedagogy technology 1. explore strategies to make teaching and learning an effective communication process teaching-learning methods and techniques communication methods learning scenario a "what shall i do?" learning scenario b "a trigger!" online quizzes zoom polls online discussion forum online reflective journal 2. plan a technology-enhanced learning material applying the technological pedagogical content knowledge (tpack) framework tpack framework integrating content, pedagogy, and technology learning scenario c "facing the challenge” concept mapping videos on tpack zoom breakout rooms online discussion forum online reflective journal 3. design meaningful learning experiences for the technologyenhanced learning material with appropriate integration of multimedia instructional design models; interactive multimedia; digital tools; designing meaningful learning experiences open educational resources (oer) learning scenario d "moving forward" constructive alignment learning experience design storyboarding (mini project 1) video on addie model, videos on oer using free digital tools (padlet, mentimeter, edpuzzel, flipgrid, etc.) creating/sharing oer zoom breakout rooms online discussion forum online reflective journal 4. develop the technologyenhanced learning material using selected software design aspects: information design instruction design interaction design interface design learning scenario e "on track..." critical review of tel materials online activity-based assignmentcreating oer-integrated tel materials (mini project 2) zoom breakout rooms using free digital tools creating/sharing oer creating oer-integrated tel materials zoom breakout rooms online discussion forum online reflective journal 5. evaluate the technologyenhanced learning material evaluation methods methods of data collection and analysis instrument preparation report writing learning scenario f – “reaching the goal!" implementation and evaluation of the oerintegrated tel material (mini project 3) online quizzes zoom breakout rooms zoom presentations online discussion forum online reflective journal 29 process the systematic capacity development intervention was implemented with the group of participants, in accordance with the five stages of the addie instructional design model — analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation. it comprised continuous intensive hands-on learning activities (both individual and group-based) and assessment tasks (including self, peer, and tutor assessments), supported with various digital tools and online learning resources, providing capacity development, guidance, motivation, and constructive feedback to the participants (see table 2). the intervention was implemented during a period of six months. table 2: a summary of the activities of the intervention phase learning activities (individual/group) assessment tasks (self/peer/tutor) analysis select a topic to develop a technologyenhanced learning (tel) material. analyse your target group, subject matter content and context. state the learning outcomes. identify the specific forms of knowledge required to teach with technology based on the tpack framework. create a concept map depicting your plan. quiz teaching learning methods (s) quiz effective communication (s) zoom group presentations (p) discussion forum: sharing concept maps (p) mini project 1 (t) part i – a concept map of the tel material part ii – an explanatory report part iii – discussion forum; reflective journal design design the learning experience for a tel material including learning activities, assessment tasks, and learning resources, ensuring constructive alignment with the learning outcomes, and integrating multimedia elements. search and find relevant oer to be reused/revised/remixed. quiz – oer and creative commons (s) zoom group presentations (p) discussion forum: sharing table of constructive alignment (p) discussion forum: sharing oer found (p) development create a detailed storyboard depicting all elements in the planned oer-integrated tel material. critically review sample tel materials based on information design; instruction design; interaction design; interface design. develop learning resources/assets using free digital tools. share your creations as oer. discussion forum: sharing storyboards (p) discussion forum: sharing created oer (p) mini project 2 (t) part i – creation of an oer-integrated tel material part ii – report on the design and development of the tel material part iii – discussion forum; reflective journal implementation prepare an implementation plan and an evaluation plan. develop data collection instruments, implement the tel material with a selected target group. collect and analyse data. prepare an evaluation report. discussion forum: sharing implementation and evaluation plans (p) discussion forum: sharing data collection instruments (p) mini project 3 (t) part i – a concept map of the tel material part ii – an explanatory report part iii – discussion forum; reflective journal evaluation collection and analysis of data data gathering occurred throughout the process via multiple sources including questionnaire surveys, discussion forum posts, reflective journal entries, and focus group discussions. 30 the specific data sources are listed below: • pre-implementation questionnaire (15 responses) • mid-implementation questionnaire (11 responses) • post-implementation questionnaire (11 responses) • discussion forum: ‘use of tpack framework to plan tel materials – sharing concept maps for peer review’ (15 participants) • discussion forum: ‘designing meaningful learning experiences’ (15 participants) • discussion forum: ‘design and development of the oer-integrated tel material (11 participants) • discussion forum: ‘implementation and evaluation plans’ (11 participants) • reflective journal entries (15 participants) • focus group discussion (11 participants) the data triangulation in this manner allowed ensuring validity through the convergence of information retrieved from different sources and developing a comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon (patton, 2002). out of the 15 participants who commenced the course, only 11 participants have successfully completed it by fulfilling all assessment requirements. mainly, a qualitative approach was adopted in the analysis of data obtained from multiple sources, addressing the three research questions. an in-depth content analysis and interpretation of data was conducted using coding and categorisation, in terms of specific codes derived under three key categories — technology, pedagogy, and content, in line with the tpack framework. findings research question 1: what design strategies of the intervention enhanced the creation of oerintegrated tel materials by educators? the findings of the preliminary questionnaire revealed the participants’ existing practices in relation to their use of learning resources. all participants claimed that they got resources from different sources such as libraries and the internet, as well as from their colleagues, and sometimes even developed resources on their own. however, as revealed by the mid-intervention questionnaire, the participants became aware of free digital tools and oer only after the intervention, and became interested in them as evident by the following quotations: it's amazing, i am using free digital tools whenever i need…i know how to work with digital tools like kahoot, edpuzzle, padlet, flipgrid and google forms and…padlet… now i'm keen about these oer…copyrights and obey to those. once i start searching…i narrow down to cc (licenses) and use these resources. while all participants were extremely motivated to create free and open educational resources by themselves to integrate in the teaching-learning process, they also comprehended that it was quite challenging to use oer to create tel materials because, “for some topics it is somewhat difficult to find resources”, “selecting the best material is a problem” and “have to sacrifice more time”. 31 nevertheless, it was revealed by the data analysis of the post-intervention questionnaire that all participants were satisfied either 'extremely' or 'to a great extent' with the design and development of oer-integrated tel material by themselves during the intervention, as exemplified by the following quotations: i got lots of experience…via tpack, addie model…oer and creative commons… this novelty of experience made it extremely interesting and exciting to design and develop the tel material. i am satisfied that i was able to create a tel material incorporating relevant multimedia. further, all participants were satisfied with the various design strategies adopted in the intervention, which have enhanced their learning experiences. the analysed qualitative data in relation to design strategies are presented in table 3, supported with selected excerpts. table 3: design strategies that have enhanced the process category codes supportive quotations content study guide study guide, learning schedule specifies the week-to-week activities that we are expected to complete to achieve the final goal. it’s like a map with directions showing us to the correct point. constructivist theory i realized that the constructivist learning approach and rapid change in technology field…further encourage 21st century skills such as creativity, innovation and learning to learn. communication strategies it is possible to create meaningful learning...by gaining knowledge how to use effective communication strategies in the teaching and learning process. id models i read about the addie model and came to know five main concepts to organize the tel materialanalysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation. oer i was delighted to know the free availability of invaluable and huge pool of open educational resources (oer). tpack framework i learnt what is tpack framework as integrating technology, pedagogy and content knowledge...i have gained interest… pedagogy scenario-based learning the authentic learning experience with the scenario-based step wise approach made me more confident about the process. constructive alignment constructive alignment was a novel concept…and i understood that there should be a logical alignment between learning outcomes, learning activities and assigned tasks. concept mapping concept mapping...is a practical tool which represents meaningful relationships increasing our ability to learn meaningfully. storyboarding the storyboards help to design the sequence of the learning experience wonderfully and creatively. creation i was happy to produce a resourceful, interactive self-learning tel material…i was also able to utilize interactive multimedia. collaboration this was a very exciting and novel experience for me, as we have to participate in online collaborative learning activities. 32 interactivity we can interact with peers very easily and can get feedback very well for our activities. reflection reflection allows us to see the improvement within ourselves as well as a way to rectify any errors. technology lms quizzes the online quiz…stimulates my interest of effective teacher communication in education. lms discussion forum the peer comments received from discussion forums also helped me to further development of the design. zoom breakout rooms breakout room in the zoom meeting room was a novel experience for me. zoom polls at the end of the session, i eagerly participated in the online zoom polling session…even it was a novel experience. digital tools i was able to obtain lots of knowledge and hands on experiences with some important technology tools…such as edpuzzle, padlet, flipgrid, wordwall and mentimeter. it was observed that the supportive design strategies were related not only to the three key categories — content, technology, and pedagogy — but also with a blend of their interactions, as depicted by the following quotation: …with the knowledge and experience gained through scenario based authentic learning environment, moodle based learning resources, zoom day school activities, peer comments and support, explanations made by the lecturer and also from my own searching and practicing of using and incorporating new software tools, ultimately i was able to achieve the expected outcome within the assigned time duration… the supportive design strategies of the intervention, as revealed by the analysis of data are summarised below: • knowledge construction on the tpack framework and its applications • concept mapping to plan a tel material based on the tpack framework • learning experience design based on constructivist theory of learning • sharing draft concept maps for peer review • competency development on using free digital tools • competency development on searching, selecting, and integrating oer • knowledge construction on id models and design aspects • storyboarding on tel material and sharing for peer feedback • learning activities using different features in the zoom platform o individual activities (e.g.: quizzes; polls) o group activities (breakout rooms) o watching video clips and discussions o activities with various digital tools o group presentations and peer feedback 33 • learning activities using different facilities in the moodle lms o announcements and guidelines o learning resources o discussion forums o reflective journal o assessment rubrics research question 2: what challenges were encountered by the educators during the intervention and how those were managed? key challenges faced by the participants during the overall process are summarised in table 4. table 4: key challenges faced by the participants categories codes supportive quotations content pedagogy technology novel concepts novel pedagogies novel technologies almost all the concepts were new… how to select the design model…connect design aspects with tpack framework…draw the concept map…storyboarding and following the addie model… technology using digital tools at the commencement it was an extremely stressful experience...i had to spend a lot of time with digital tools. oer integration it was my first time to be aware about oer ...i was not successful...to find oer to integrate in my lesson. technological issues i am not much familiar with technology…the first part of this was very difficult and it was stressing. pedagogy traditional practices switching from traditional ways into modern approaches was a challenge for me… how to overcome a traditional lesson plan and come out with a newer approach to a lesson incorporating new concepts…was another challenge that i faced. content language issues i had to translate sinhala material to english…using a glossary…it was difficult to translate… other workload with my multiple responsibilities i found it very difficult. many a time i was thinking to give up because the workload is very heavy… covid-19 our convent was under quarantine due to covid-19. i was tempted many times to give up, but the valuable experience…encouraged me to go on... many aspects of the intervention were totally novel to the participants, which involved pedagogically complex and technologically challenging tasks. hence, they experienced a ‘cognitive load’ (sweller, 1988) during the process. however, they made concerted efforts to overcome the challenges, with commitment, motivation, and determination. 34 research question 3: what are the effects of the intervention on changing educators’ thinking and practices? the intervention has significantly affected changing thinking and practices of the participants, as evident by their self-reflections, summarised in table 5. table 5: changes in thinking and practices of the participants categories codes supportive quotations content using oer checking the creative commons license of the resources available on the internet before using…now i am aware that we cannot use the material on the internet as freely as we want. creating oer now i'm confident in creating and sharing oer integrated tel material. i published my tel material in the oer commons. pedagogy pedagogical methods my mind has changed…how those pedagogical methods of teaching are the tools for communication in education process. teaching-learning strategies i have taken a new turn in the teaching-learning process of my college i started to implement some of the strategies i used and practice through this course. communication both the teacher and the student have to communicate well in order to get the right results in education. communication is the foundation of education technology. creativity the whole process of designing the tel material was given me the feeling of an artist. it was really an artistic creation of a storyboard and a flowchart which i really enjoyed doing. critical thinking at the end of the activity, i was surprised of the work i did. the impact created on me from this activity is...if you think and act, you can be successful. reflection reflective learning is to review on achievement of each of the learning outcomes gradually in getting learning experiences. we have learnt how to write and submit reflections. self-learning i believe that this tel material will be a very effective one to the students and teachers too, as they can observe the improvement of the student by self-learning. technology competent in technology use when looking back at the whole learning experience…it made me aware that, it had made me a different person. now i am a teacher educator who is more competent in using technology… extended use of technology my idea of using technology…has gone beyond the boundaries of using zoom or teams…now i am aware of the real meaning of using technology to enhance the teaching-learning process… positive thinking my zero-knowledge technology turns to a better position, i am able to be a positive thinker. i understood my capacity of myself on technology i wish to design a good tel material in future. using interactive software i felt that we could make our students’ learning process more effective by appropriately utilizing those interactive and attractive software tools… creating tel materials i wish to develop many other tel materials to facilitate my teaching learning process… 35 sharing oer i'm very proud of this oer...i'm so excited that this learning material i created can now be used by anyone in the world... promote networking we must help our students to connect with the global world…we can lead our students to global education. the key effects of the intervention on the educators are summarised below: • ability to effectively blend subject matter content with pedagogy and technology • using and integrating free digital tools • using, adapting, integrating, creating, and sharing oer • increased confidence in designing and developing oer-integrated tel materials • enhanced creativity, critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and reflection • motivation to continue with creating innovative oer-integrated tel materials the findings revealed that this innovative experience inspired the participants to adopt constructivist theoretical approaches, pedagogical frameworks, instructional design models, and novel technologies in their teaching-learning process, and in the creation of tel materials. it has also encouraged them to use, integrate, and create digital tools and oer. the practical design strategies employed in the intervention, along with tutor guidance and peer feedback, have supported them immensely to proceed with motivation, despite the various challenges faced by them. discussion and implications overall, the systematic capacity development intervention has enabled educators to become active creators of oer-integrated tel materials. the learning experience which adopted a scenario-based pedagogical approach (naidu et al, 2007) combined with learning by designing (paniagua & istance, 2018), has encouraged educators to engage in a creative process of construction (papert, 1980) resulting in their empowerment as innovative designers of technology-enhanced learning experiences for their own students (laurillard, et al., 2018). specifically, the appropriate merging of technology, pedagogy, and content in the design of learning experiences in the intervention, based on the tpack framework, has supported educators to function as designers themselves, and apply their synthesised knowledge via tpack into actual practice (koehler et al., 2016). the findings establish and confirm the essential need for learning experience design with careful intersection of subject matter content, pedagogical approaches, and technological affordances (naidu, 2016). online teaching and learning should not be considered just as another mode of content delivery, but as an opportunity to adopt alternative pedagogical methods focusing on knowledge management and competency development (bates, 2019). the current study implicates how an exclusively online capacity development experience encompassing innovative design strategies can facilitate educators’ shift from being mere consumers of knowledge to creators of knowledge, harnessing the affordances of both technology and pedagogy. further, empowering educators to take a leadership role as ‘change agents’ (fullan, 2015) is vital. future research along these areas in diverse educational settings should provide useful insights for practitioners. 36 in the current global context, particularly within the covid-19 pandemic scenario, enacting changes in the thinking and practices of educators towards embracing digital education practices and open educational practices becomes quite significant. rethinking and redesigning of online learning and capacity development initiatives, with an appropriate blend among content, pedagogy, and technology, will contribute to positive transformations in teaching and learning and lead us towards reimagining our shared futures (unesco, 2021). references bates, a.w. (2019). teaching in a digital age: guidelines for designing teaching and learning. tony bates associates ltd. https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/teachinginadigitalagev2/ brown, j.s., collins, a., & duguid, s. (1989). situated cognition and the culture of learning. educational researcher, 18(1), 32-42. cape town open education declaration (2007). cape town open education declaration: unlocking the promise of open educational resources. http://www.capetowndeclaration.org/read-the-declaration fullan, m. (2015). the new meaning of educational change. (5th ed.). teachers college press. jonassen, d.h., howland, j.l., marra, r.m., & crismond, d.p. (2008). meaningful learning with technology, (3rd ed.). pearson international. jonassen, d., peck, k., & wilson, b. (1999), learning with technology: a constructivist perspective. merrill. karunanayaka, s., & naidu, s. (2009). developing professional competencies of teacher educators in the use of educational technology, with scenario-based learning. in w. kinuthia & s. marshall (eds.), cases ‘n’ places: global cases in educational technology (pp. 123-132). information age publishing. koehler, m.j., & mishra, p. (2009). what is technological pedagogical content knowledge? contemporary issues in technology and teacher education, 9(1), 60-70. koehler, m.j., mishra, p., akcaoglu, m., & rosenburg, j.m. (2016). the technological pedagogical content knowledge framework for teachers and teacher educators in m.n. panigrahi (ed.), ict integrated teacher education. (pp. 20-30). cemca. laurillard, d. (2012). teaching as a design science. routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203125083 laurillard, d., kennedy, e., charlton, p., wild, j., & dimakopoulos, d. (2018). using technology to develop teachers as designers of tel: evaluating the learning designer. british journal of educational technology, 49(6), 1044-1058. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12697 merril, m.d. (2018). using the first principles of instruction to make instruction effective, efficient, and engaging. in r. west (ed.), foundations of learning and instructional design technology (1st ed.). https://lidtfoundations.pressbooks.com/chapter/using-the-first-principles-of-instruction-to-makeinstruction-effective-efficient-and-engaging/ mishra, p., & koehler, m.j. (2006). technological pedagogical content knowledge: a new framework for teacher knowledge. teachers college record, 108 (6), 1017-1054. https://www.punyamishra.com/wpcontent/uploads/2008/01/mishra-koehler-tcr2006.pdf naidu, s. (2016). the case for open educational practices. distance education, 37(1), 1-3. https://doi.org/10.1080/01587919.2016.1157010 naidu, s., menon, m., gunawardena, c., lekamge, d., & karunanayaka, s., (2007). how can scenario-based learning engender and promote reflective practice in online and distance education. in m. spector (ed.), finding your online voice: stories told by experienced online educators (pp. 53-72), lawrence. 37 oecd (2018). the future of education and skills. education 2030. oecd publishing. https://www.oecd.org/education/2030/e2030%20position%20paper%20(05.04.2018).pdf paniagua, a. & istance, a. (2018). teachers as designers of learning environments: the importance of innovative pedagogies. educational research and innovation, oecd publishing. https://read.oecdilibrary.org/education/teachers-as-designers-of-learning-environments_9789264085374-en#page1 papert, s. (1980). mindstorms: children, computers, and powerful ideas. basic books. patton, m.q. (2002). qualitative research and evaluation methods. sage publications. penttilä, t. (2016). developing educational organizations with innovation pedagogy. international e-journal of advances in education, 2(5), 259-267. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/306924907_developing_educational_organizations _with_innovation_pedagogy sharples, m. (2019). practical pedagogy: 40 ways to teach and learn. routledge. sweller, j. (1988). cognitive load during problem solving: effects on learning. cognitive science, 12, 257-285. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15516709cog1202_4 unesco (2015). sustainable development goal 4. https://sdg4education2030.org/the-goal unesco (2021). reimagining our futures together: a new social contract for education. global report from the international commission on the futures of education. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000379707 yin, r.k. (2014). case study research design and methods (5th ed.). sage. author: shironica priyanthi karunanayaka is a senior professor in educational technology at the open university of sri lanka (ousl). she was an academic at ousl since 1993 and has served as the dean of the faculty of education and as the head of the department of secondary and tertiary education. she also has experience as a secondary school teacher of science over a decade. she holds a first class in the bachelor’s degree in science from the ousl, receiving the award of the gold medal for best performance in 1990. professor karunanayaka holds a doctor of education from the university of wollongong, australia, specialising in information technology in education and training. her research focus in the areas of educational technology, learning experience design, open educational resources, and open educational practices. she served as an honorary adviser to commonwealth of learning (col) during 2019-2021. email: spkar@ou.ac.lk cite this paper as: karunanayaka, s.p. (2023). blending innovative pedagogy and technology for capacity development of educators during the pandemic. journal of learning for development, 10(1), 24-37. microsoft word mphahlele.docx issn: 2311-1550 2021, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 501-515 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. the influence of covid-19 on students’ learning: access and participation in higher education in southern africa ramashego mphahlele1, mmabaledi seeletso2, gistered muleya3 and francis simui3 1university of south africa 2botswana open university 3university of zambia abstract: recent experiences of institutions in covid-19 have heightened the need for research on its impact on higher education institutions globally. this article’s authors are from higher learning institutions in botswana, south africa and zambia, which used a blended learning model before covid19. most of their students used the traditional part of blended learning, depending on the print, postal service, and face-to-face. these students’ access and participation in learning during covid-19 were negatively affected. using digital equity as a framework, this paper explores the influence of covid-19 on students’ access and participation in online learning. there seem to be significant disparities in access and participation in high-quality technologies and severe educational inequities. this digital inequality impact calls for civic awareness in digital literacy among the citizenry if the gap between the rural and urban, have and have not digital immigrants and digital natives are to be bridged. keywords: access, digital awareness, digital equity, digital knowledge, digital literacy, online learning. introduction the covid-19 pandemic struck the world when higher learning institutions in many countries were involved in the on-going process of globalisation, demographics, and the rapid pace of technological advancement to broaden access to lifelong learning opportunities. according to yang, schneller, and roche (2015), the process of globalisation was to ensure that education and learning are available to a diverse student population. in some instances, the shift towards online learning brought uncertainties that seemed to affect diverse student populations (montacute & holt-white, 2020). these uncertainties include having to leave the university and study in home conditions that were likely to differ considerably, with less well-off students more likely to be living in cramped housing conditions, perhaps without adequate access to the technology needed to complete their work, or trying to work alongside dealing with difficult financial situations at home. against this background, this paper aims to: • establish the influence of covid-19 on student learning • explore students’ access and participation in higher education during covid-19 502 • describe the importance of digital equity for access and participation in online learning. background this paper is based on three case studies from three institutions situated in south africa, zambia, and botswana, which gradually adjusted from blended learning to the fully online learning mode before covid-19. the majority of students in these institutions reside in remote rural areas with limited resources and internet connectivity. they relied mostly on face-to-face, print, and postal service for participation in learning activities. the sudden closure of learning institutions due to covid-19 forced these institutions to move immediately into a fully online learning space. as much as some institutions saw online learning as the best method to give the student access to education and to enable participation, teymori and fardin (2020) affirm that online learning has its specific issues and challenges, including unfamiliarity with new technology and methods of dealing with unknown challenges, for many academics and universities. teymori and fardin (2020) further remark that during covid-19, online learning provided access to education for many students but stressed the importance of increased digital awareness. this paper uses digital equity to explore students’ experiences in the three universities’ access and participation in online learning, where digital awareness is one of the components of digital equity. digital awareness is perceived by reimer (2017) as much more than just knowing how to use a computer. he describes digital awareness as an act of understanding and utilising technology in an increasingly interconnected world. in studies that present problems associated with the transition from conventional (face-to-face) learning to online learning aboagye (2020) discovered accessibility issues due to connectivity, and dhawan (2020) highlighted participation issues where students felt unengaged. with this background, it is evident that covid-19 has influenced student learning in one way or another. in the next section, we use the literature on empirical studies to explore the influence of covid-19 on student learning. literature review in this section, we share our understanding of the existing research and debates around the influence of covid-19 on student learning, in particular focusing on higher learning institutions. we sampled two studies conducted in 2020, which were about the influence of covid-19 on students. the first study we selected was conducted by gonzalez et al (2020), in which they aimed to identify the effect of covid-19 confinement on students’ performance. they used a quantitative experimental design to prove or disprove the hypothesis formulated as covid-19 detention significantly impacts students’ performance. gonzalez et al’s (2020) participants were students who registered for “applied computing” and “metabolism.” for the experimental group, they sampled students who were registered in the 2019/2020 academic year. for the control group, they sampled students of “applied computing” and “metabolism” from the academic years 2017/2018 and 2018/2019 and students of “design of water treatment facilities” from the academic year 2017/2018. in the case of “design of water treatment facilities,” a longitudinal study has been performed in the academic year 2017/2018 to analyse the effect of rewards in the students’ learning strategies, especially those related to time management. in the longitudinal study of “design of water treatment facilities,” the experimental group corresponds to the third stage of the research. the findings from gonzalez et al’s (2020) study 503 revealed significant differences between students’ performance in confinement with the performance in previous periods where activities were not limited to distance learning. however, gonzalez et al (2020) could not confirm if the difference is either the new learning methodology or the new assessment process. the second study was conducted by aucejo, french, ugalde araya, and zafar (2020) at arizona state university in the us using an instrument to discover the pandemic’s causal impact on students’ current and expected outcomes. aucejo et al (2020) surveyed approximately 1,500 students who were programmed in qualtrics. they collected data on students’ demographics and family background, their recent experiences (both for academic outcomes and non-academic outcomes), and their future expectations. importantly, for this study, the survey collected data on what these outcomes/expectations would have been in the counterfactual state without covid-19. the findings revealed that 13% of students had delayed graduation due to covid-19. the most interesting result was the negative economic and health impacts of covid-19, which have been significantly more pronounced for less advantaged groups, and that these differences, according to aucejo et al (2020), can partially explain the underlying heterogeneity that they documented. aucejo et al’s (2020) study results suggest that by focusing on addressing the economic and health burden imposed by covid19, as measured by a relatively narrow set of mitigating factors, policymakers may be able to prevent covid-19 from widening existing achievement gaps in higher education. from the two studies, this paper identifies the following factors as those that most influenced students’ learning during covid-19: lockdown or confinement, which led to distance learning and socio-economic issues. lockdown or confinement which led to distance learning most countries went into lockdown between march and may 2020, leaving the educational institution with a pedagogical shift from their traditional methods to online education, which only catered to distance learning. mishra et al (2020) adopted lewin’s (1958) three-step process of change management theory (unfreezing → changing → refreezing) to deal with the paradigm shift to distance learning. mishra et al (2020) argue that the refreezing step is inevitable for integrating technology in the teaching-learning process that enables one to teach students with the methods they would feel comfortable with and match the demands of 21st-century technology. on the other hand, dhawan (2020) highlights some disadvantages that online distance learning may have on students, such as limited interactions and fewer practical activities. dhawan stresses that sometimes, online content is theoretical and does not let students practice and learn effectively. the rapid distance learning caused by covid-19 for some students in rural areas negatively influenced various communication kinds that distance learning implies due to the network’s weakness. the lockdown, which was meant to enforce the covid-19 protocols of social distancing, hindered access to schools and teachers. this was necessary to reduce transmission and to flatten the curve (unesco, 2020). socio-economic issues that affected learning during covid-19 lockdowns as indicated in the previous section, all educational institutions had to close, compelling those who were teaching face-to-face to adapt to the distance learning mode. most students who were staying closer to institutions for ease of access to university resources had to move back home, where some have overcrowded households that make it difficult for one to have space to study. in certain areas 504 there is a lack of or limited internet connectivity and electricity. stelitano et al (2020) affirm the disparities in internet access for households with higher poverty levels and rural areas which affected student engagement during covid-19. on a positive note, hedding et al (2020) presented some of the south african educational websites’ remedial efforts by declaring their sites data-free to students. however, hedding et al (2020) cautioned that there were still difficulties for students living in remote areas where the electricity supply is inconsistent, and network coverage is inadequate despite the remedial efforts. students’ access and participation in higher education during covid-19 access to higher education has been a dominant feature in the literature even before covid-19, with some identified barriers such as location and distance from the university, financial pressures, and other social problems (mphahlele, 2020). in the same vein, seneviratne (2020) acknowledges that access to higher education has always been a challenge for governments and universities, but the covid-19 pandemic and attempts to shift to online learning have been a setback, not just for access but also to ensure that all groups thrive and succeed in higher education. the studies mentioned below reported some experiences that affected students’ access and participation in online learning during covid-19: • rainford (2020) discussed technological inequalities focusing on analysis done by clements (2020) about the southern universities network and concluded that even when households do have broadband connections, they may be of limited speed • mishra et al (2020) highlighted the difficulties experienced during online practicals, which required systematic demonstration of the whole process in the students’ presence. this paper notes that access and participation in higher education during covid-19 focused mainly on digital access and online participation. digital access during covid-19, as reported by mphahlele (2020), was affected by, amongst other things, the financial ability to have technology in the home because of socio-economic status, disabilities, and physical location. online participation was mostly affected by limited, or lack of, digital knowledge, awareness, and digital skills due to unequal access and opportunity to access digital tools and resources. unesco (2018) defines digital skills as the ability to use digital devices, communication applications, and networks to access and manage information. against this backdrop, we identified digital equity as a suitable lens through which to explore the experiences of mathematics second-year students’ access and participation in online learning. methods this paper is based on three case studies of students registered in an open and distance learning (odl) university in botswana, south africa or zambia. we generated data from the students’ queries, which were sent through emails and discussion forums. for this paper, we selected only queries that reflected the influence of covid-19 on students’ learning. as highlighted in the section above, we used digital equity as a framework to explore the influence of covid-19 on students’ learning. the influences are presented through the three components of digital equity, namely, digital access, awareness, and knowledge. 505 the sample each author used the queries generated from the students in their modules. we selected one module each. figure 1 below illustrates the sample students from which the queries were extracted. figure 1: sample from each case study data collection and analysis each author randomly extracted queries from the emails he or she received from students as well as from the discussion forums or chatrooms of the learning management systems. we used the following criteria to select the queries that would respond to this paper: • digital access • digital awareness • digital knowledge the scale the extracted data was sent to the first author to generate codes on it using atlas.ti. we generated quotes using the three digital equity framework components (digital access, awareness and knowledge). table 1: number of quotes generated from atlas.ti codes botswana south africa zambia digital awareness 10 111 21 digital knowledge 21 150 27 digital skills 15 175 32 total 46 436 80 506 it should be noted that the quotes in table 1 were generated from the queries selected as per the three components of the digital equity framework. to ensure the reliability of the codes, the fourth author performed co-coding to ensure intercoder reliability of the data. although, mouter (2012) acknowledges intercoder reliability when manual coders are used instead of utilising text software such as atlas-ti, we argue that as long as two different researchers coded the same body of content and generated similar codes, the codes are reliable. we also used cohen’s kappa coefficient as emphasised by mphahlele (2018) to measure intercoder reliability. all the codes in table 1 show strong intensity because cohen’s kappa coefficient levels of intensity are the following: (0) = no mention – the theme is not expressed in any way; (1) = suggested mention – suggestive of the theme; (2) = basic mention – a clear mention of that theme; and (3) = emphatic mention – a mention with a strong emphasis or great intensity. confidentiality and anonymity we used pseudonyms to identify the students and used the abbreviated country name and the number at the end of the name. for examples, bo student 1 – for the first botswana student. sa student 1 – for south african student. za student 1 = zambian student. botswana case study students’ digital awareness students’ awareness is essential for the facilitation of online interaction, which is a critical component of online learning. one can conclude that when online learning was prioritised and rolled out at bou, some students lacked digital awareness of what it entailed. looking at their learning space, the moodle, students have left many tasks incomplete. they would often respond to tasks but fail to click on “submit” to complete the tasks. failure to submit will render the student getting a 0 (zero) for the work. however, there were a few students that accessed the discussion forums and offered guidance to others, as evidenced by the below conversation: i think the quiz is all about leadership in an org. how do you lead, the style you employ (techniques). if some of your techniques are not working, how do you overcome them? student 4. attempt 2 can be done even the next day or any other day before the quiz closes … bo student 4. some of the students missed tests that were scheduled for specific dates as well as other assessment components. others indicated that they struggled to find the necessary information and instruction for various assessment components and items through their discussion forums. the struggle is evident in the below discussion: has there been any progress or information on something which is supposed to begin today … mook or mock something… student 2. help me, and i cannot manage to log in, just shows that it is an invalid login. bo student 3. how am i supposed to give an example now that the quiz is closed …? bo student 5. they were also unable to submit their completed works. of interest is that some students, most of whom are quite elderly, struggled to use other gadgets such as smartphones for learning instead of their preferred laptops. 507 students’ digital knowledge with the introduction of online learning, it was clear that students had problems accessing online reading resources. for graduate programmes, students can access online resources as they predominantly use journal articles for their assignments. these articles are accessed through various resources, and students need to navigate the learning management system (lms) to access them. since some students lacked the necessary knowledge to access the portal and navigate through to access these journals, they usually missed their assignments. the quotes below represent some of the frustrations from students who were just introduced to online learning: so, what happens if one failed to do all forums? bo student 1. i do not have marks for forum two, but i fully participated … bo student 2. i do not even know how to access the student mail … bo student 6. students’ digital skills accessing and navigating the lms remained a serious challenge. some students were unable to access and navigate the portal. these students not only missed most of their content. they also missed online assessments such as chats and discussion forums as well as quizzes. others would access them but failed to do only what was necessary to complete tasks. this failure was mainly because most of them did not follow the instructions that were provided to guide them. some struggled to complete tasks due to their limited digital skills. students prepared and completed their microsoft word assignments but then failed to upload and submit them for marking and grading. they were also unable to structure their works correctly; for instance, they could not justify their text, could not space, used different font types and sizes for a single document, at times in the same paragraph. submitting attachments was also generally a challenge. students would submit unlabeled assignments without cover pages. south african case study as a lecturer in one of the odl universities in southern africa, i have used blended learning as a delivery model for the past two years. the university gradually moved into the fully online teaching mode when covid-19 interrupted teaching and learning activities. covid-19 catalysed the gradual movement fully online because the university had to stop all print media and focus on a digital media. the first thing i noticed from the students’ communication in the learning management system (lms) was their limited digital knowledge, as table 1 recorded 150 codes based on lack of or limited knowledge. digital knowledge, according to bélisle (2006), is knowledge not only accessed through digital tools but also partially processed through digital tools. digital knowledge is evident when one can access information (such as databases, digital libraries, or simply the web) and cope with details of immeasurable quantities, with significant levels of complexity, accessible at incredible speeds. for consistency with other case studies, digital awareness is discussed first before digital knowledge. 508 students’ digital awareness based on the queries raised by sa students in the previous section, it is safe to conclude that some lack or have limited digital awareness: … i am unsure of where to find the information to answer the question in this learning unit. do we do our research and google the different games, or are we supposed to use specific given information? (sa student 4) kindly share how you reached your activities; that is, if you are using a phone, my phone does not show all the tools. (sa student 5) … it is my third attempt to submit my activity, the checklist. first, the attachment was not attached, and the 2nd and third times, it loads someone else’s work. (sa student 6) … i am still confused i do not know where to submit my work; i saw other students submitting activities 1 and 2; where can i find them? (sa student 7) …, where can i get the template to the powerpoint? (sa student 8) …i do not have a laptop for now to do all the activities; lockdown is really affecting me. …..can i submit all the activities later when i am sorted with a laptop. (sa student 9) students’ digital knowledge the limited, or lack of, digital knowledge in some sa students was evident through learning activities that were required of them, such as online quizzes: … please kindly assist. i read somewhere students talking about true/false questions but am lost. (sa student 1) … i have read the study guide, and i see the activities, but i have a problem with where to do the activities. (sa student 2) apologies for asking on every discussion topic on how to access the learning unit activities. i am struggling to find it; as soon as i click on this module, it shows my announcements, assessments, discussions, and so forth, but it does not show anything about online assessment or learning units. (sa student 3) these are some of the quotes from the discussion forum. the lack of digital knowledge made the sa students fearful, and they were afraid to fail the module. students’ digital skills some sa students seemed to have challenges completing certain activities due to limited digital skills: i worked through my powerpoint presentation, but now m struggling to upload it. when i try to upload, it says file empty. i do not know what i am doing wrong. (sa student 10) good evening mam, i am trying to work on the activity of bridging through 10 to add and subtract, and i am not very good with computers. is there a particular software i can use to make the number lines and draw my bridge? (sa student 11) evening, i cannot find where i should upload or submit my presentation for this learning unit 3. (sa student 12) 509 i was done with the clip a long time ago, but it cannot be published even if i use other people s laptops. from my side, i play it plays but to publish is a problem. (sa student 13) zambia case study students’ digital awareness socio-economic factors appear to have played a significant role in disabling students’ digital awareness, affecting their access to and utilising e-learning services. for instance, za student 14 observed that: lack of resources to buy internet bundles has become the order of the day for most of us students from underprivileged homes. (za student 14) equally, socio-economic factors manifested themselves in a poor learning home environment, as further noted by za student 14, lack conducive home environment is also among the challenges i am personally facing when it comes to e-learning. i come from a low socio-economic status background. (za student 14) in addition, za student 17 retorted that: being the oldest child means that i have to take care of my younger siblings, especially during my parents’ absence. ……. i missed my class that day because, being the eldest child, i was obliged to attend to our guest. (za student 17) za student 17’s concerns were re-echoed by za student 19. she retorted that: i do not work; my parents do not even manage to cater to the whole family from 1 to 30. furthermore, to make the situation worse am a female by nature, and it is hard for me to have a 10k for bundles…. . (za student 19) za student 21 shared her account regarding the challenges associated with her socio-economic status concerning e-learning. she observed that: my personal e-learning experience has not been good. i do not have enough time to do work. it is quite difficult for me to pick on my studies, plus we get much more assignments than in normal class. (za student 21) students’ digital knowledge za students’ low socio-economic status was compounded by the poor internet connectivity in most rural areas, as reported by several students who could not benefit from the e-learning initiative. for instance, za student 14 noted that: students like me without reliable internet access because of a network problem; internet connectivity in kalomo district, the southern part of the country where i come from, is still in its infancy. (za student 14) internet connectivity challenge was equally faced by za students 16 and 19. for za student 16, she noted that: … the internet was the biggest challenge around now. limited internet is due to the constraints in finances as the service providers have excessively increased the price for data bundles and the 510 network failure in places like kabwe where we have no good internet connection. (za student 16) while za student 19 observed: another challenge i am facing is a poor network. how does the government expect me to learn effectively with such poor network coverage? every time i tried to log in to my moodle account, the network trips irritated me much. (za student 19) further, za student 17 recounted from her experience that: during the lecture, the network goes down, which further interrupts the lecture; by the time i get back online when i am done trying to reconnect, i would have missed important points explained by my lecturer. sometimes the network is so bad that i missed an entire lecture. (za student 17) students’ digital skills digital immigrants’ syndrome entails a negative attitude to e-learning devices due to failure to adapt to the digital era’s demands. this syndrome was noted among learners and staff in zambia. for instance, za student 14 argued that: many of our lecturers are just sending assignments and learning materials on moodle; there is no direct interaction between learners and lecturers. (za student 14) in the same vein as za student 14, za student 20 noted that: the other challenge i am facing with this e-learning is that online instructors tend to focus on theory rather than practice. it is not easy to understand some of my lessons in other courses because my other courses require practice, not just being given notes that i cannot understand independently. the challenge of e-learning has made me struggle to adapt to it because i was used in a regular classroom. (za student 20) similarly, to za students 14 and 20, za student 15 reflected on the student side as follows: it is tough for me to understand fully because i mostly understand better through face-to-face interaction. studying from e-learning resources is very hard for me because i do not understand what is being taught by the lecturer. (za student 15) given the challenge of erratic electricity power supply and poor internet connectivity, za student 23 explained how she managed to use social media to mitigate the associated e-learning challenges: the only advantage is that some courses in my study program have whatsapp groups update me on the lessons and assignments given to those accessing moodle. also, only two lecturers have given out their email addresses to submit my assignment as an unregistered student. as a female, i have to look at other responsibilities in a home, such as house chores that would take most of my time. hence, having less time to study the recently shared notes in the whatsapp group. (za student 23) discussions and conclusions from the results presented above, this paper identifies the following as important to digital equity for access and participation in online learning: access to digital information, equal access to technology, and closing the digital divide. the importance of digital equity is used in themes to discuss the results in the section below. 511 access to digital information based on the findings, it is evident that many students are unable to find information on various digital platforms. although these pre-service teachers’ inability might be because of other factors such as socio-economic circumstances, one must acquire digital knowledge to navigate digital platforms with ease. the study conducted by kajee and balfour (2011) reported that most students did not have digital access at school or home. more than nine years later, in 2020, it is still evident that students’ access to digital information remains a serious challenge. the lack of digital knowledge is not unique to the students of the university of south africa. adult students enrolled with the bou face similar challenges, as evidenced by students’ conversations 2, 3 and 6. what remains a mystery, though, is that most students have computers and smartphones. however, they use them only for other things and not for teaching and learning. they do not consider these learning tools, and this has to be demystified for them to appreciate that their mobile devices can also be used for learning. another challenge for students, especially those from the lower socio-economic strata, is the poor quality of internet network coverage in rural areas as well as an insufficient electric power supply, as noted by pre-service teachers 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 and 23. the issue of insufficient electric power supply was also researched by muleya et al, 2019; simui et al, 2018; and simui, nyaruwata, and kasonde-ngandu, 2017, who noted the presence of digital immigrants in higher education zambia and also highlighted the challenge of poor internet connectivity especially in rural zambia where the bulk of students reside. equal access to technology the academic literature on students’ access to technology has revealed that digital access can measure students’ level of participation in online learning. therefore, a lack of equitable access to technology and information deprives students of participation in teaching and learning activities. access to technology is more than just providing devices and connectivity to students. it also involves making sure every student is aware of various digital tools that can be used in digital spaces because the absence of awareness can negatively affect learning access. sa students 4, 5, 6 and 7 struggled because of the lack of digital awareness. the lack of digital awareness also applies to students enrolled with bou. therefore, it remains imperative for institutions to train their students to use their gadgets as learning tools effectively. the need to train students calls for civic awareness in digital literacy to bridge the gap between the rural and urban and the rich and poor if e-learning initiatives are to take root in south africa. these observations are also echoed in the works of the other scholars among them (muleya, 2017a, 2017b, 2018a, 2018b, 2019; bergersen & muleya, 2019; machila et al, 2018; magasu, muleya & mweemba, 2020; mupeta et al, 2020; habanyati et al, 2020; mwase, 2020; mwanangombe, 2020). bridging the digital divide bridging the digital divide should be viewed as just digital freedom and an attempt to improve diverse populations’ lives. taking some lessons from covid-19, bridging the digital divide should be responsive to and inclusive of all population members in line with the sustainable development agenda 2030 (simui, 2018 and simui et al, 2018). the digital divide is one of the factors influencing digital equity, and it is noted that the bridging of the digital divide is an enabler for students in higher education to acquire digital skills for online learning. institutions need to take responsibility to induct their students into the use of technology to ensure its effective use. for bou, which has a mostly adult 512 population, there is a need to expose students to the effective use of technology for teaching and learning. some bou students have always been technophobic despite having the necessary devices. being technophobic has been evident in online assessments, especially those that are synchronous, where students failed to interact with each other and even the facilitator. it later became clear that some students had help typing their assignments from their children and even grandchildren. they did not type the assignments themselves. conclusion this paper established the influence of covid-19 on most students’ learning. this influence was perpetuated by shifting from different modes such as blended learning and face-to-face to online distance learning. the literature shows that the shift presented some positive outcomes, revealing some digital equity gaps in other areas. we argue that students’ access to online learning and higher education participation require technological resources and internet connectivity. the presented preservice teachers’ queries affirm the need and importance of digital equity to access learning and participate in an online learning space. institutions of higher learning must work on a digital equity framework consisting of an access and participation plan that will ensure that students, during their first year at the university, are equipped with digital knowledge, awareness of essential features of the digital space as well as ability to use relevant digital skills to participate in online learning spaces. references aboagye, e., yawson, j. a., & appiah, k. n. (2020). covid-19 and e-learning: the challenges of students in tertiary institutions. social education research, 1(1), 109-115. aucejo, e. m., french, j., ugalde araya, m. p., & zafar, b. (2020). the impact of covid-19 on student experiences and expectations: evidence from a survey. journal of public economics, 191(1), 1-15. bergersen, a., & muleya, g. (2019). zambian civic education teacher students in norway for a year—how do they describe their transformative learning? sustainability 2019, 11(24), 1-17. bélisle, c. (2006). literacy and the digital knowledge revolution. in a. martin, & d. madigan (eds.), digital literacies for learning (pp. 51-67). facet. clements, n. (2020). southern universities network (sun) internet access analysis of participant data. southern universities network. dhawan, s. (2020). online learning: a panacea in the time of covid-19 crisis. journal of educational technology, 49(1), 5-22. gonzalez, t., de la rubia, m. a., hincz, k. p., comas-lopez, m., subirats, l., fort, s., & sachaid, g. m. (2020). influence of covid-19 confinement on students' performance in higher education. plos one, 15(10). habanyati, h., simui, f., kanyamuna, v., & muleya, g. (2020). lived experiences of multi-banked bank account holders with a focus on banks at manda hill mall, lusaka, zambia. advances in social sciences research journal, 7(6), 208-223. hedding, d. w., greve, m., breetzke, g. d., nel, w., & jansen van vuuren, b. (2020). covid-19 and the academe in south africa: not business as usual. south african journal of science, 116(7/8), 1-3. kajee, l., & balfour, r. j. (2011). students’ access to digital literacy at a south african university: privilege and marginalisation. southern african linguistics and applied language studies, 29(2), 185-194. 513 machila, n., sompa, m., muleya, g., & pitsoe, v. j (2018). teachers' understanding and attitudes towards inductive and deductive approaches to teaching social sciences. multidisciplinary journal of language and social sciences education, 1(2), 120-137. magasu, o., muleya, g. & mweemba, l. 2020. pedagogical challenges in teaching civic education in secondary schools in zambia. international journal of science and research (ijsr), 9(3), 1483-1488. mishra, l., gupta, t., & shree, a. (2020). online teaching-learning in higher education during the lockdown period of the covid-19 pandemic. international journal of educational research open, 1(2021), 1-8. montacute, r., & holt-white, e. (2020). covid-19 and social mobility impact brief #2: university access & student finance. the sutton trust. mphahlele, r. s. (2020). online learning support in a ubiquitous learning environment. in g. durak, & s. çankaya (eds.), managing and designing online courses in ubiquitous learning environments (pp. 1-18). igi global. mphahlele, r. s. s. (2018). information communication technologies as a support mechanism for learners experiencing reading difficulties in full-service schools. [doctoral thesis, unisa]. http://uir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/13299 muleya, g., simui, f. mundende, k., kakana, f., mwewa, g., & namangala, b., (2019). exploring learning cultures of digital immigrants in technologically mediated postgraduate distance learning mode at the university of zambia. zambia informational communication technology (ict) journal, 3(3), 1-10. muleya, g. (2017a). the conceptual challenges in the conceptualisation of civic education. journal of lexicography and terminology, 1(1), 59-81. muleya, g. (2017b). civic education and civics: where do we draw the line? journal of lexicography and terminology, 1(2), 125-148. muleya, g. (2018a). civic education in zambia before and beyond the golden jubilee. in g. masaiti (ed.), education at fifty years of independence and beyond. unza press. muleya, g. (2018b). civic education versus citizenship education? where is the point of convergence? journal of lexicography and terminology, 2(1), 109-130. muleya, g. (2019). curriculum policy and practice of civic education in zambia: a reflective perspective. in a. petersen et al (eds.), the palgrave handbook of citizenship and education. palgrave mcmillan. mupeta, s., muleya, g., kanyamuna, v., & simui, f. (2020). imperial districts civic entrepreneurship: the implementation of civic innovations in the governance of the university of zambia. advances in social sciences research journal, 7(7), 674-685. mwanangombe, c., mundende, k., muzata, k. k., muleya, g., kanyamuna, v., & simui, f. (2020). peeping into the pot of contraceptives: utilization among adolescents within a conservative culture zambia. american journal of educational research, 8(8), 513-523. mwase, d., simuyaba, e. mwewa, g., muleya, g., & simui, f. (2020). leveraging parental involvement in the education of their children as a conflict resolution strategy in selected secondary schools, zambia. international journal of research and innovation in social science (ijriss), iv( vii), 356-365. rainford, j. (2020). moving widening participation outreach online: challenge or opportunity? perspectives: policy and practice in higher education, 25(1) 2-6. reimer, m. (2017). digital awareness among today's graduates. https://www.iavalley.edu/ schleicher, a. (2020). the impact of covid-19 on education: insights from education at a glance 2020. oecd. 514 seneviratne, k. (2020). covid-19 a threat to higher education access and success. https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20201120100921758 simui, f. (2018). lived experiences of students with visual impairments at sim university in zambia: a hermeneutic phenomenological approach. [unpublished doctoral thesis, university of zambia]. http://dspace.unza.zm/handle/123456789/5884 simui, f., kasonde-ngandu, s. cheyeka, a. m., simwinga, j., & ndhlovu, d. (2018). enablers and disablers to academic success of students with visual impairment: a 10-year literature disclosure, 2007–2017. british journal of visual impairment, 36(2), 163-174. simui, f., mwewa, g., chota, a., kakana, f., mundende, k., thompson, l., mwanza, p., ndhlovu, d., & namangala, b. (2018). whatsapp as a learner support tool for distance education: implications for policy and practice at university of zambia. zambia ict journal, 2(2), 36-44. simui, f., nyaruwata, l.t., & kasonde-ngandu, s. (2017). ict as an enabler to academic success of students with visually impaired at sim university: hermeneutics approach. zambia ict journal, 1(1), 5-9. stelitano, l., doan, s. y., woo, a., diliberti, m., kaufman, j. h., & henry, d. (2020). the digital divide and covid-19 teachers' perceptions of inequities in students' internet access and participation in remote learning. rand corporation. teymori, a. n., & fardin, m. a. (2020). covid-19 and educational challenges: a review of the benefits of online education. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344312224_covid19_and_educational_challenges_a_review_of_the_benefits_of_online_education unesco (2020). covid-19 impact on education. unesco. unesco (2018). digital skills critical for jobs and social inclusion. unesco. yang, j., schneller, c., & roche, s. (2015). the role of higher education in promoting lifelong learning. unesco institute for lifelong learning. authors: dr ramashego shila mphahlele is a senior lecturer in the department of early childhood education. she is currently seconded as a professional development specialist. she published and co-published several research outputs (articles and book chapters) in accredited publishing institutions nationally and internationally. coedited a book titled empowering students and maximizing inclusiveness and equality through ict, published by brill sense in april 2021. email: emphahrs@unisa.ac.za dr mmabaledi seeletso is a lecturer and heads the department of educational management and leadership, in the school of education, botswana open university. her major research interests lie in the areas of online teaching and learning, student support and open educational resources. email: mmaba.see@gmail.com dr gistered muleya is an educationist with vast experience in civic/citizenship education, educational studies, human rights education, democracy and governance and global studies. he has over 24 years of teaching experience both at the secondary school and university level. he has presented papers both locally and internationally and has also published in local and international peer-reviewed journals. currently, he is a lecturer /researcher of civic /citizenship education in the school of education at the university of zambia. he also serves as an assistant director in charge of postgraduate programmes at the institute of distance education of the university of zambia. email: muleya71@yahoo.com dr francis simui is an educationist with vast experience working with civil society organisations focused on education in zambia. his areas of specialisation include: (i) developing and managing an effective open and distance education system; and (ii) developing and managing an effective inclusive education system. currently, he works for the university of zambia under the institute of distance education as head of department, programmes development and production, and lecturer of special/inclusive education. email: francis.simui@unza.zm 515 cite this paper as: mphahlele, r., seeletso, m., muleya, g., & simui, f. (2021). the influence of covid-19 on students’ learning: access and participation in higher education in southern africa. journal of learning for development, 8(3), 501-515. microsoft word gunwant.docx issn: 2311-1550 2022, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 492-508 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. a systematic study of the literature on career guidance expert systems for students: implications for odl shilpa gunwant1, jeetendra pande1, raj kishor bisht2 1department of computer science, uttarakhand open university, haldwani, uttarakhand, india 2department of mathematics and computing, graphic era hill university, dehradun, uttarakhand, india abstract: the continual evolution of employment opportunities in the present industrial era has raised the need for career-long expert advice. similar to other fields, thankfully technology has come to our rescue in the area of career guidance also. this paper presents a systematic review of expert systems (es) developed for career guidance, course selection and evaluation of students in the past ten years. the popular research databases google scholar and science direct were used for obtaining the relevant research papers through broad keywords. the keywords were refined to identify the articles related to rule-based, case-based and fuzzy logic-based es used for career guidance. a total of twenty-five peerreviewed relevant articles with full-text available online was selected for the final study. in order to avoid duplicity, technical reports and unreferenced literature were excluded. the review identifies the relatively high weight given by the researchers to rule-based systems owing to their simplicity and broad applicability. however, the relative merits and demerits of rule-based, case-based and fuzzy logic-based es are highly dependent on the field of application. nevertheless, es find wide applications in the area of career guidance and have the potential to enhance the career guidance accessibility of the most remote students. keywords: expert systems, rule-based, case-based, fuzzy logic, artificial neural network. introduction originated at stanford university, expert systems (es) are specialised programs that derive their expertise from the knowledge of domain experts in a specific field. interestingly, these systems were designed to extract knowledge by interviewing an expert (zwass, 2016). generally speaking, the term expert system refers to a software program that mimics the decision-making trait of human experts (başçiftçi & avuçlu, 2018). an es is designed to be asked questions and provide a suitable explanation to the user. the extracted knowledge is used as an input for a computer program for qualitative and quantitative evaluation. web-based es have gained significantly with the advent of the internet and mobile devices, which can be interconnected. this technology has led to significant enhancement in the accessibility of the information, making it time and location independent. these systems are far better than conventional programs due to their capability to deal with faulty reasoning and insufficient data (siler & buckley, 2005). as shown in fig. 1, the three essential components of an es are a knowledge base, inference engine, and user interface. the knowledge base contains facts, rules and other knowledge required to solve the problem. the representation of knowledge in the knowledge base is done with the help of semantic networks, frames and production 493 rules. finally, this knowledge is utilised by the es through an inference engine, including the ifthen rules available within the knowledge base (wagner, 2017). figure 1: components of a typical expert system the inference engine uses forward (known facts to resulting conclusions) and backward (hypothesis to supporting facts) chaining to search and pattern matching. the user interface is used to interact with the es. the knowledge base and inference engine are the two components that convert a computer program into an es. the effective interconnection between these components allows the human expert to professionally obtain the stepwise solution to specific domain problems. this interconnection makes es knowledge-intensive software with advisories and solutions providing the capability for problems typically requiring human intervention (liao, 2005). various techniques such as knowledge-base, rule-base, inductive learning, artificial neural network (ann), fuzzy logic, case-based reasoning and model-based reasoning have been used to develop es (liao, 2005). the rule-based technique is tricky to implement as the knowledge acquired from the expert is often challenging to put into the es via the if-then rule. additionally, it poses a problem for the developer to extract accurate and actionable information from the expert. the knowledgebased system has improved over the earlier es, which was incapable of acquiring knowledge from the experience of the expert. due to this incapability, it was difficult to manipulate the rules without disturbing the connectivity among them. present knowledge-based systems — being improved versions of previous es — are capable of adding and modifying rules while maintaining continuity. inductive learning is based upon previous examples solved by an expert and, therefore, evokes the rules extracted from that expert. the annbased systems work on the belief that information processing in human beings occurs via interaction among countless neurons. the neurons in the human brain function by collecting and transmitting information through synergy among the nuclei, axons and dendrites. the case-based systems function by deciding on the solution of the given problem by retrieving historical cases related to it from its memory. this system is analogous to the system of memory-based solutions experts in diagnosis, law and planning. these systems derive their strength from a repository of previous cases indexed to permit quick retrieval as and when desired. the es offer several advantages due to the amalgamation of human expertise and computers. such systems ease the inadequate dissemination of human expertise with improved chances of taking appropriate decisions consistently. these facilitate real 494 time decision-making, ensuring effective utilisation of the available data. most of the time, the decisions taken are bias-free and without the interference of human emotions. on the one hand, the expert feels free to concentrate on more creative activities, whereas the user feels free to ask questions without hesitation. this paper presents a systematic review of the various types of es currently employed for students' career guidance. articles published between 2001 and 2021 were selected from popular databases such as google scholar and science direct through a logical and reproducible methodology. a total of 25 articles were selected for the final study using keyword-based search and review techniques. the broad objective of the study was to collect and disseminate information regarding current progress in the field of career guidance es. the article is focused on rule-based, knowledge-based, fuzzy logicbased es used for the career guidance of students. various applications of these es in career guidance are discussed, and reasonable conclusions are inferred regarding their applicability. to the best of the author's knowledge, no single review article compares rule-based, case-based and fuzzy-logic-based es developed for the career guidance of students. the yearning to understand the status of current research in the field of career guidance es is the primary motivation behind this article. this article shall serve as a secondary source of scholarship in the career guidance es for scientists and engineers in this area. study problem the rule-based es is the most straightforward and commonly used ai technique. this technique employs joint conditional statements, which can be applied to more minor problems. on the other hand, the case-based technique is essential as it helps understand how human beings process information depending on their previous experience. finally, the fuzzy-logic-based es depends on fuzzy logic rather than boolean logic. fuzzy logic can capture all the possibilities lying between true and false. such systems are employed when something is vague or unclear and is used to resemble human nature. unfortunately, to the author's knowledge, no single article covers a literature survey of career guidance es based on techniques such as rule, case and fuzzy logic in detail. this article attempts to address this research gap through a systematic and replicable review. literature review the development of es, being a complex process, poses a problem for developers and managers at various levels. developing a faster, more advanced, reasonable es with a shorter lead time is still challenging for the scientific community. over the last decade, several applications have been developed in different fields like engineering (mohammed et al., 2019; nurhadi & tarng, 2011; deng et al., 2018; singholi & agarwal, 2018), medicine (akben, 2019; shaheamlung, kaur, singla, 2019; zarandi et al., 2019; saibene et al., 2021), agriculture (prasad & babu, 2008; joy & sreekumar, 2014; agrawal & kamboj 2019; chakraborty & chakrabarti, 2008), education (campagni et al., 2015; pordelan et al., 2018; drigas et al., 2004; moa et al., 2019), etc. scope of es in career guidance career guidance is a complicated yet highly significant component of an individual's life who is undergoing the career selection phase. it encompasses various activities such as information flow, teaching, assessing, mentoring and advising the individual to extract useful information about him or her. in other words, career guidance is a complex process involving more than one expert in an area to 495 derive meaningful information-based conclusions. being highly globalised and competitive, the job market requires an optimum balance between immediate career selection decisions and their longterm implications. therefore, integrating multimedia and digital technologies has enormous potential to aid the student in making a fruitful career choice. a career guidance system care must be capable of delivering generic and personalised guidance to students. the evolution of serious games has been instrumental in addressing this issue by adequately indulging the students and tracking the outcomes. the games have proven instrumental in extracting useful information from individuals (dunwell et al., 2013). an innovative method for extracting information from students via google home and telegram as speech and text-based systems has been presented by calvo et al. (2017). the extracted information was used as a personality database, and profile analysis was performed via watson. these applications developed a user-friendly and interactive interface between seventy-two computer science students and a bot. the results indicated high usability of the system and user/system engagement enhancement. the statistics testified to the system’s ease of use since 89% of the students and 95% of the students were able to learn it quickly. several factors included in career guidance have recently shifted the focus of researchers towards computer-assisted guidance systems. few of the systems, sigi plus, discover, and choices, have been discussed in detail in the literature (peterson et al., 1994). most of these systems are designed to cater for the need of a particular country as per its specific needs. interestingly, artificial intelligence can significantly widen the acceptability of career guidance systems. a fuzzy-logic system for ninth-grade students' career guidance has been presented by peker et al. (2017). the proposed system has been successfully applied to forecast students' interest in various areas, viz., information technology, automotives, accounting and electrics-electronics, etc. the grade-point average was considered the input set for the decision-making problem through suitable questionnaires and interviews. various parameters, such as correlation coefficient, classification accuracy, confusion matrix, and mean absolute error, were used for determining performance. the manual conventional career guidance methods are particularly inefficient and ineffective in countries like india. this issue solicits the need to automate the career guidance process via computer-based techniques to enhance its reach among indian students. such a system may benefit a diverse group of individuals seeking career guidance. a tic-tac-toe gameplay-based system for the intelligence assessment of bachelor of technology students of india has been presented by prakash et al. (2013, 2017). the students found it interesting to participate in a game-based es to assess the psychological factors playing a vital role in career selection. meaningful results were derived by determining various factors, viz., patience and perseverance, problem-solving speed, etc. methods the guidelines recommended by xiao & watson for conducting a systematic literature review were followed in the present paper for shortlisting the relevant research articles (xiao & watson, 2019). subsequently, the research criteria were refined intuitively to narrow the search by selecting proper keywords. research articles that provided information about rule-based, case-based and fuzzy logicbased es used for career guidance of students were included in this study. articles on career guidance using other techniques and es designed for professionals were excluded from the study. both 496 application and web-based es have been included in the study. only articles written in the english language were selected. selection criteria popular databases such as google scholar and science direct were searched to obtain research articles. for the initial identification of relevant articles, broad keywords such as "expert system components", "expert system scope", "expert systems in career guidance", and "artificial intelligence" were used. this methodology yielded a total of 652 articles from the google scholar database. similarly, a search in science direct resulted in 412 articles. the initial screening of titles resulted in the final 109 articles from all these databases. as the scope of the article was narrowed, refined keywords such as "career selection expert systems", "rule-based expert systems in career guidance", "case-based expert systems in career guidance", and "fuzzy-logic based expert systems in career guidance" were used. subsequently, 52 articles published between 2001 and 2021 related to the present study were shortlisted. the highest number of articles were from the years 2017 (7), 2018 (7) and 2019 (8) due to the relative abundance of literature. finally, single articles were selected from 2001, 2004, and 2006, primarily covering computer applications, fuzzy reasoning, es, and knowledge representation. figure 2 shows the distribution by year of articles reviewed in this study. figure 2: distribution by year of articles considered in this study final selection the 52 articles were further scrutinised and finally 25 articles (ten rule-based, six case-based and nine fuzzy-logic-based articles) were short-listed as most relevant to the present study. the title, author names, and year of publication of all the 52 articles were diligently recorded for each. articles published in high-quality peer-reviewed journals or books by reputed publishers were considered in the present study. to remove duplications and avoid a lack of peer-reviewed articles, technical reports and non-referenced documents were excluded from the study. to further evaluate the quality of these articles, the full-text articles were read thoroughly. important information was systematically extracted from the selected articles and presented in the present study. figure 3 summarises the process of review systematically. 497 figure 3: summary of the process of review results in this section, we examine the various es discussed so far that are available in the literature. we describe the technology of each of these es. rule-based expert system rule-based systems facilitate the availability of computational mechanisms found in most of the es. these systems have a long history of being applied to various areas. the knowledge base of rulebased systems is represented via an agglomeration of simple and easily perceivable if-then rules. these if-then rules are employed as inference methods for extracting novel logical conclusions from existing knowledge. interestingly, equivalent logical statements can be effectively employed to represent the rules and facts in a rule-based system. the consolidation of various restrictions and language-based additional constructs, along with tight integration among language and evaluation mechanisms, has significantly enhanced the advantages of rule-based systems (kovarik, jr, 2006). figure 4 shows the general architecture of a rule-based system. 498 figure 4: the general architecture of a rule-based system (kovarik, jr, 2006). another web-based es designed using clips and php as tools has been developed by rudolph and abunawass (2015). the system employs clips for inferring a new rule base for streamlining the process of advising undergraduate students. the system has been employed to monitor students' progress while planning for the future course they select. the range of advisements includes those regarding the student's progress and future courses. it also enables determining the number of eligible students and whether or not a student satisfies the course requirements. the characteristics such as personality traits, viz. talent, interest, knowledge, etc., have been utilised for developing a web-based career guidance system (desnelita, 2017). the system is specifically designed to encompass a variety of factors for helping school students in career counselling and career development. a software-based system for interest evaluation of students for providing career guidance has been developed by balasubramanyam et al. (2018). the interest of students was extracted using a comprehensive questionnaire. table 1 summarises the primary different rule-based es developed for career guidance. the swi-prolog tool has been used to develop a software-based career guidance system (iwayemi et al., 2016). the mbti indicator system was successfully used to provide career guidance to the students as per their personality types. a web-based es has been developed for selecting online courses offered by all the kurdistan region's public and private universities (ahmed & ghareb, 2018). the system allows students to select a course based on various factors, viz. degree, student major, annual cost and time required for completion, etc. a software-based es using clips language to store the rules has been developed by aslam and khan (2011). the system considers the record as well as the capability of students to suggest a university major. the students' ability, capability and intelligence were measured via two questionnaires consisting of 100 and 50 questions, respectively. a web-based system for students studying in pretertiary institutions in nigeria has been presented by abisoye et al. (2014). the system was implemented through php, html, css, javascript and mysql to suggest careers to the students. the developed system was implemented with fifty students, of whom 70% found it very helpful. table 1 summarises the primary rule-based es developed for career guidance. 499 table 1: summary of main rule-based es developed for career guidance s. no. tools used key findings reference 1 clips language and visual basic software for selecting university major based on student record, ability and capability test. (aslam & khan 2011) 2 kappa-pc expert system environment intelligent decision support software for undergraduate university major search and selection. (al ahmar, 2012) 3 boot strap 3 containing html, css, javascript for front end and xampp for back end a web-based career guidance es was developed to enable pre-tertiary science students to choose careers via electronic means (smartphones, laptops etc.). the system was up to 95% accurate with 70% satisfaction levels and 80% information adequacy. (kazeem & onwuka 2017) 4 rule-based inference and expert system shell an easily navigable standalone system that compares data captured from the student with the information available in the database. more than 90% of students accepted that they could plan their careers better due to the expert advice given by vignan's career guidance es (vcges). (swarup et al., 2014) 5 php, html, css, javascript and mysql the system is implemented and tested in a web-based system to transform manual processes into automated processes for students in pre-tertiary institutions in nigeria, and 76% of students responded positively to the system. (abisoye et al., 2014) 6 php and clips expert system tool web-based system for streamlining the advising process of undergraduate students, regularly monitoring the student's progress and planning for future courses and projects. (rudolph & abunawass, 2015) 7 swi-prolog, mbti test career advisor es based on mbti indicator suggest students the career field based on different personality types. (iwayemi et al., 2016) 8 html, css, javascript, php, php my admin a web-based system includes talent, interest, ability, personality, knowledge and other supporting factors for providing career guidance. (desnelita 2017, december) 9 the software was developed using waterfall methodology, c# was used as the programming language, and the database was created using microsoft access the proposed model accepts the choice of preferred courses from the user. the obtained results were encouraging and paved the way for developing more complex es, especially for the placement of students. (kabari & agaba, 2019) 10 software-based ( tools not mentioned) this system considers the interest evaluation test for career selection, compares that result with existing data, and provides the result. (balasubramanyam et al., 2018) 500 case-based expert system the case-based es is an experience-based system employed for solving new problems by adapting previously successfully solved identical problems. case-based systems facilitate the establishment of a novel intelligent technology that can solve a problem while adapting to newer situations. it is conceptually based on the fact that human beings solve various problems by gathering experience. humans generalise the patterns of cases into rules, the principal unit of knowledge being 'the case'. the reasoning is presented by associating the given problem with previous identical cases (clifton & frohnsdorff, 2001). case-based reasoning is extensively used where conventional rule-based reasoning is weaker, viz., knowledge acquisition, incomplete information-based reasoning, machine learning, etc. a software-based system using a dataset of 1,000 cases stored in an excel file implemented via matlab-based gui has been reported by ezenkwu et al. (2015). the case-based system was developed to guide tertiary students or students facing problems completing their course. the data collected from the counsellor was based on students' performance in ten subjects. another web-based system with the dataset containing the record of passed-out students has been successfully implemented at covenant university has been developed by daramola et al. (2014). this system helps both academic staff and students of the university to select the right course. the system was designed using a java es shell and implemented using apache tomcat as a web server. a software-based es for helping students in high school and secondary classes has been developed by mundra et al. (2014). the system was designed using a java-based interface, mbti model, machine learning and rule-based systems. the subject-related essential data marks of the student and personality factors calculated by the mbti model were used for career suggestions. three modules were created for testing and calculating different factors, report generation and augmenting the knowledge base for unknown cases. a software-based system has been developed through the nearest neighbour technique of data mining (ansari, 2017). the system included 11 different factors, which the students rated on a fivepoint scale as per their preference. the students are provided primary, secondary and higher-level guidance by the system. the knowledge base is continuously enhanced by updating the solution whenever guidance is unavailable at the primary level. a software-based es with 12 attributes related to ability, aptitude, interest and personality has been presented by waghmode and jamsandekar (2016). the data-mining technique was implemented through weka processing filters, and the data set was collected from the counsellor. the system was designed specifically for secondary-level students after calculating various factors through a questionnaire. the machine learning algorithms viz. id3, prism and part were 100% accurate in classifying the rules. another software-based es for providing vocational guidance to high school and intermediate students using the ai model implemented through ann has been reported by sodhi et al. (2016). ann was implemented through matlab, the gui was developed using the guide tool, and matlab 7.8 and spss were used for the statistical analysis. the differential aptitude test (dat) and scientific knowledge and aptitude test (skat) were used to assess an individual's specific abilities in different areas. the objective was to develop a standalone system for guiding students with a vocational orientation. table 2 summarises the primary case-based es used for career guidance. 501 table 2: summary of the main case-based es developed for career guidance s. no. tools used key findings reference 1 apache tomcat, java expert system shell, java database connectivity (jdbc), java servlets. a web-based system that helps academic staff and university students select the right course. this system is successfully implemented experimental version in the computer science department of covenant university (daramola et al., 2014) 2 java-based interface, mbti model, machine learning students' primary data, marks in different subjects and personality factors calculated by the mbti model is used for career suggestion. four different modules are used in this process. (mundra et al., 2014) 3 matlab based gui guides the tertiary students who face problems completing the course and poor performance. with euclidean distance, the cbr algorithm achieved a 0% classification error on the test-case (ezenkwu et al., 2015) 4 matlab 7.8, guide tool, spss 17.0. standalone system for guiding students of 10th and 12th in vocational interest, with the help of dataset stored in the database. two different techniques of ai are used classification and regression. (sodhi et al., 2016) 5 weka preprocessing filters software that guides secondary level students after calculating 12 different factors using questioner. different machine learning algorithms viz. id3, prism and part give 100% accuracy in classification along with rules. (waghmode & jamsandekar, 2016) 6 data mining technique nearest neighbour multilevel career guidance was provided to students that included 11 different factors. (ansari, 2017) fuzzy logic-based expert system fuzziness pervades most of the perceptions and thinking processes of human beings. fuzzy logic can model complex processes comprising unclear information and limited resources. developing career guidance es is an important area where strict and rigid rules would not be a truthful evaluation of the subjects. human beings are prone to place things into categories that are not precise or complete. this elicits the need for fuzzy logic, which can represent such complicated and vague behaviour of human beings and guide them in effective decision-making. various tests such as the holland code and the five-factor model have been employed for designing career selection systems for school and university students. the factor model has been utilised for better career matching through an indigenous software-based es. innovative technologies such as topsis and fuzzy cognitive maps have been used for better career matching (chen et al., 2018). another software-based es for guidance counsellors and senior high school students has been developed by natividad et al. (2019). the system employs various filtering methods such as correlation-based, gainratio, infogain, relief and symmetrical. weka tool and matlab were used for implementing the system, and the data was gathered through structured questionnaires and the marks obtained by students in tests. a web-based es utilising the mamdani fuzzy model to represent data has been developed by peker et al. (2017). the performance was evaluated through correlation coefficient, confusion matrix, and mean absolute error. the system was effectively used to guide 502 ninth-grade students in career selection out of four fields: electronics, accounting, information technology and automotive. data acquisition was accomplished via questionnaires, and the output was considered a career point value. a web-based es for helping the students in career selection via linguistic variables and fuzzy rules has been developed by razak et al. (2014). the trapezoidal function was used to generate membership, and the input values were converted into the linguistic variable in the fuzzification process. awoyelu et al. have presented a software-based es for deciding the career path of students using their past academic record, bece results, and personality (awoyelu et al., 2020). the system developed using crisp sets converted to fuzzy sets using the nearest neighbour algorithm was highly accurate (~ 90%). a web-based es for predicting students' career paths via prediction algorithms such as cart, c4.5, c5 and id3 for identifying students' attributes has been presented by joshi (2020). the data was acquired from employees working in different organisations, college databases, and social sites. a knowledge-based es consisting of factual and heuristic knowledge using natural language processing prolog has been developed by srivathsan et al. (2011). a student's performance is inferred from various aptitude tests via the quadbase dialogue management system for deriving primary suggestions. the system is designed to provide career guidance to high school and intermediate students based on the marks extracted from their mark sheets and inputs. table 3 summarises the main fuzzy logic-based es employed for career guidance. table 3: summary of main fuzzy logic-based es developed for career guidance s. no. tools and techniques used key points reference 1 topsis and fuzzy cognitive map the career test (ct) tool provides better career matching for school and university students. typical and atypical factors were calculated by different tests like holland code, five-factor model, zi wei, dou, shu and constellation used to calculate career matching. (chen et al., 2018, june) 2 weka tool and matlab primary data was gathered through a structured questionnaire, and students' class marks are 716 entries. from that, 60% was used as a train set, 20% for the validation and 20 % for the test set. for feature selection, different filtering methods like correlation-based, gainratio, infogain, relief and symmetrical help predict career selection. (natividad et al., 2019, february) 3 asp.net, matlab and mamdani fuzzy model asp.net, matlab and mamdani fuzzy model input values for the system are students' gpa in 9th grade, mathematics, social science and career interest taken by the questionnaire and output as a career point value. this study used correlation coefficient, confusion matrix, mean absolute error and classification accuracy for the performance evaluation. (peker et al., 2017) 4 trapezoid function to generate membership function. web-based system for career counselling. input values taken from the student's data are converted into a linguistic variable in the fuzzification process. with the help of linguistic variables, fuzzy rules have been developed, and the system guides the students. (razak et al., 2014, june) 503 5 matlab and knearest neighbour algorithm with 90% accuracy, this system can decide career paths for students using bece results, past academic records and personality profiles. crisp sets are converted to fuzzy sets using the fuzzy k nearest neighbour algorithm method. (awoyelu et al., 2020) 6 the decision tree algorithms used are cart, c4.5, c5 and id3. this system included modules like the maintenance module, evaluation module, online testing module, test generation module, and report generation module. after giving the test summarised result from the system will give information about in which the subject he is interested in, which proves to be a better decision for his future. (joshi et al., 2020, july) 7 prolog and natural language processing the knowledge base was developed with the help of both factual and heuristic knowledge. different aptitude tests and their inputs judge the student's performance. this system used a quadbase dialogue management system to implement natural language processing. (srivathsan et al., 2011, february) 8 trapezoidal membership function the datasets were collected from the career center, registrar, and guidance and counselling with prior approval from the schools' academic heads through a questionnaire. this study used the (rmse) rootmean-square error and (mae) mean absolute error to calculate the efficiency of the built fuzzy model. (casuat et al., 2020, august) 9 gaussian membership functions (gaussmf), dsigmf (difference between two sigmoidal functions) and pi curve (pimf) the proposed fuzzy system is essentially a humanoid career counsellor model simulation. the linguistic variables and their term sets, the membership functions adopted for fuzzification/defuzzification and the fuzzy rules form the core of the fis. the system's knowledge base consists of the information and data bank as well as the rules that guide the judgment of the experts. (singh & malik, 2019) conclusions in this era of fast-paced learning, students must be ready to undergo lifelong learning to ensure a satisfying career. this paper reviewed various types of es designed for providing career guidance to students at various levels of education. the study emphasises rule-based, case-based, and fuzzy logicbased es used in career guidance. a total of twenty-five full-length articles were selected from the popular research databases google scholar and science direct. it was observed that rule-based career guidance systems are most popular mainly due to the ease with which these can be designed. also, they permit the user to develop the rules as per the requirements. overall, it can be asserted that these career guidance systems helped students achieve success, specialisation, performance and selfevaluation. table 4 summarises the key features of rule-based, case-based and fuzzy logic-based es. recently, game-based es have emerged as an attractive technique for providing career guidance to students. however, it is still not clear whether all the parameters can be considered or not while designing a game-based es. therefore, despite the usefulness of career guidance es, career guidance from real experts is still a recommendation. the information presented in the present review should be helpful for various decision-makers in government agencies, policymakers, funding institutions 504 and other sections of society. the replicability of the review was ensured through a systematic methodology for selecting the research articles via suitable keywords. table 4: summary of key features of rule-based, case-based and fuzzy logic-based es parameters rule-based fuzzy logic-based case-based knowledge representation the knowledge base consists of if-then rules degree of membership represented using fuzzy logic the cases are stored and accessed to solve a new problem learning ability cannot learn independently and update the existing knowledge base the ability to learn from the experience is inadequate it offers incremental and sustained learning uncertainty tolerance difficult to calculate uncertainty uncertainty can easily handle by probabilistic reasoning cannot handle uncertainty imprecision tolerance the requirement for precise information is very low the requirement for precise information is very high, as fuzzy logic can deal with imprecision the requirement for precise information moderated explanation facility yes linguistic variable helps in this process adapting previously successful solutions to similar problems inference engine conclusion derive after processing the rules fuzzification and de-fuzzification used in processing the rules a case consists of a problem, its solution, and, typically, annotations about how the solution was derived knowledge update the addition of new rules is sometimes tough hard to introduce new linguistic variables into the existing structure systems learn by acquiring new cases maintainability comparatively difficult very difficult the knowledge update makes maintenance easier processing time very high due to each rule being processed processing time is reduced compared to rule base expert system may impose long retrieval times knowledge structure ad hoc, cannot understand logical dependence of rules fully unstructured structured declaration of interests: the author declares that she has no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. funding: no funding was received for this work. 505 references abisoye, o. a., alabi, i. o., ganiyu, s. o., abisoye, b. o., & omokore, j. (2014). a web based career guidance information system for pre-tertiary institution students in nigeria. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/abisoyeblessing/publication/279957557_a_web_based_career_guidance_information_system_for_pretertiary_institution_students_in_nigeria/links/559fc88408ae3dbcbe876b9a/a-web-based-career-guidanceinformation-system-for-pre-tertiary-institution-students-in-nigeria.pdf agrawal, k., & kamboj, n. (2019). smart agriculture using iot: a futuristic approach. international journal of information dissemination and technology, 9(4), 186-190. ahmed, z. a., & ghareb, m. i. (2018). an online course selection system: a proposed system for higher education in kurdistan region government. international journal of scientific and technology research, 7(8), 145160. akben, s. b. (2019). determination of the blood, hormone and obesity value ranges that indicate the breast cancer, using data mining based expert system. irbm, 40(6), 355-360. al ahmar, m. a. (2012). a prototype rule-based expert system with an object-oriented database for university undergraduate major selection. proceeding of international journal of applied information systems (ijais), 1-5. alao kazeem, a., & ibam onwuka, e. (2017). development of a web-based intelligent career guidance system for pre-tertiary science students in nigeria. circulation in computer science, 2(8), 4-17. ansari, g. a. (2017). career guidance through multilevel expert system using data mining technique. international journal of information technology and computer science, 9(8), 22-29. aslam, m. z., & khan, a. r. (2011). a proposed decision support system/expert system for guiding fresh students in selecting a faculty in gomal university, pakistan. arxiv preprint arxiv:1104.1678. awoyelu, i. o., oguntoyinbo, e. o., & awoyelu, t. m. (2020). fuzzy k-nearest neighbour model for choice of career path for upper basic school students. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/tolulope-awoyelu2/publication/343716134_fuzzy_knearest_neighbour_model_for_choice_of_career_path_for_upper_basic_school_students/links/5f577951a 6fdcc9879d6725c/fuzzy-k-nearest-neighbour-model-for-choice-of-career-path-for-upper-basic-schoolstudents.pdf balasubramanyam, s., usharani, d. p., reddy, a. h. v., swetha, d., kumar, g. n. s., anusha, k., & ahammad, s. h. (2018). selecting a college academic branch-a design decision taking system for student career selection. international journal of engineering & technology, 7(4.19), 323-328. başçiftçi, f., & avuçlu, e. (2018). an expert system design to diagnose cancer by using a new method reduced rule base. computer methods and programs in biomedicine, 157, 113-120. calvo, d., quesada, l., lópez, g., & guerrero, l. a. (2017, november). multiplatform career guidance system using ibm watson, google home and telegram. in international conference on ubiquitous computing and ambient intelligence (pp. 689-700). springer, cham. campagni, r., merlini, d., sprugnoli, r., & verri, m. c. (2015). data mining models for student careers. expert systems with applications, 42(13), 5508-5521. casuat, c. d., isira, a. s. m., festijo, e. d., alon, a. s., mindoro, j. n., & susa, j. a. b. (2020, august). a development of fuzzy logic expert-based recommender system for improving students' employability. in 2020 11th ieee control and system graduate research colloquium (icsgrc) (pp. 59-62). ieee. chakraborty, p., & chakrabarti, d. k. (2008). a brief survey of computerized expert systems for crop protection being used in india. progress in natural science, 18(4), 469-473. 506 chen, y. t., peng, w. c., & yu, h. y. (2018, june). identify key factors for career choice by using topsis and fuzzy cognitive map. in 2018 ieee/acis 17th international conference on computer and information science (icis) (pp. 104-109). ieee. clifton, j. r., & frohnsdorff, g. (2001). applications of computers and information technology. handbook of analytical techniques in concrete science and technology, 765-799. daramola, o., emebo, o., afolabi, i. t., & ayo, c. k. (2014). implementation of an intelligent course advisory expert system. ijarai) international journal of advanced research in artificial intelligence, 5(4). deng, z., zhang, h., fu, y., wan, l., & lv, l. (2018). research on intelligent expert system of green cutting process and its application. journal of cleaner production, 185, 904-911. desnelita, y. (2017, december). counseling model application: a student career development guidance for decision maker and consultation. in iop conference series: earth and environmental science (vol. 97, 1, p. 012045). iop publishing. drigas, a., kouremenos, s., vrettos, s., vrettaros, j., & kouremenos, d. (2004). an expert system for job matching of the unemployed. expert systems with applications, 26(2), 217-224. dunwell, i., lameras, p., de freitas, s., petridis, p., star, k., hendrix, m., & arnab, s. (2013, september). metycoon: a game-based approach to career guidance. in 2013 5th international conference on games and virtual worlds for serious applications (vs-games) (pp. 1-6). ieee. ezenkwu, c. p., johnson, e. h., & jerome, o. b. (2015). automated career guidance expert system using casebased reasoning. computing, information systems, development informatics & allied research journal. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/chinedu-ezenkwu2/publication/314286511_automated_career_guidance_expert_system_using_casebased_reasoning_technique/links/58bff57f458515bc83906ebc/automated-career-guidance-expert-systemusing-case-based-reasoning-technique.pdf iwayemi, a., oladejo, b. f., & adeleke, d. s. (2016). career advisor expert system based on myers briggs personality assessment. in ocri (pp. 207-211). joshi, k., goel, a. k., & kumar, t. (2020, july). online career counsellor system based on artificial intelligence: an approach. in 2020 7th international conference on smart structures and systems (icsss) (pp. 1-4). ieee. joy, j., & sreekumar, k. (2014). a survey on expert system in agriculture. international journal of computer science and information technologies, 5, 7861-7864. kabari, l. g., & agaba, f. (2019). an intelligent career advisor expert system. international journal of advanced research and publications, 3(4), 91-94. kovarik jr, v. j. (2006). cognitive research: knowledge representation and learning. in cognitive radio technology (pp. 365-399). newnes. liao, s. h. (2005). expert system methodologies and applications—a decade review from 1995 to 2004. expert systems with applications, 28(1), 93-103. moa, a. f., labulan, p. m., & harjanto, a. (2019, june). the development of expert system application for 10th grade accounting program students' behavior consultation at smk negeri 16 samarinda. in educational sciences international conference (esic 2018) (pp. 127-130). atlantis press. mohammed, a.a., ambak, kamarudin, mosa, a.m., & syamsunur, d., (2019). expert system in engineering transportation: a review. journal of engineering science and technology, 14(1), 229-252. mundra, a., soni, a., sharma, s. k., kumar, p., & chauhan, d. s. (2014). decision support system for determining: right education career choice. icc (pp. 8-17). 507 natividad, m. c. b., gerardo, b. d., & medina, r. p. (2019, february). a fuzzy-based career recommender system for senior high school students in k to 12 education. in iop conference series: materials science and engineering (vol. 482, no. 1, p. 012025). iop publishing. nurhadi, h., & tarng, y. s. (2011). experimental pc based tgpid control method for 2d cnc machine. expert systems with applications, 38(7), 8949-8962. peker, m., gürüler, h., şen, b., & i̇stanbullu, a. (2017). a new fuzzy logic based career guidance system: webcgs. technical gazette, 24(6). peterson, g. w., ryan-jones, r. e., sampson jr, j. p., reardon, r. c., & shahnasarian, m. (1994). a comparison of the effectiveness of three computer-assisted career guidance systems: discover, sigi, and sigi plus. computers in human behavior, 10(2), 189-198. pordelan, n., sadeghi, a., abedi, m. r., & kaedi, m. (2018). how online career counseling changes career development: a life design paradigm. education and information technologies, 23(6), 2655-2672. prakash, c., rathor, a. s., & thakur, g. s. m. (2013). fuzzy based agriculture expert system for soyabean. in international conference on computing sciences wilkes100-iccs2013, jalandhar, punjab, india (vol. 113). prakash, v. c., sastry, j. k. r., priyanka, b. m., kuma, k. p., deepika, c., & yadav, n. p. k. (2017). assessing the intelligence of a student through tic-tac-toe game for career guidance. international journal of pure applied mathematics, 117(16), 565-572. prasad, g. n. r., & babu, a. v. (2008). a study on various expert systems in agriculture. extension of technologies: from labs to farms, 297. razak, t. r., hashim, m. a., noor, n. m., abd halim, i. h., & shamsul, n. f. f. (2014, june). career path recommendation system for uitm perlis students using fuzzy logic. in 2014 5th international conference on intelligent and advanced systems (icias) (pp. 1-5). ieee. rudolph, e., & abunawass, a. (2015). automating academic advising and course schedule planning with a clips expert system. in proceedings on the international conference on artificial intelligence (icai) (p. 393). the steering committee of the world congress in computer science, computer engineering and applied computing (worldcomp). saibene, a., assale, m., & giltri, m. (2021). expert systems: definitions, advantages and issues in medical field applications. expert systems with applications, 177, 114900. shaheamlung, g., kaur, h., & singla, j. (2019, december). a comprehensive review of medical expert systems for diagnosis of chronic liver diseases. in 2019 international conference on computational intelligence and knowledge economy (iccike) (pp. 731-735). ieee. siler, w., & buckley, j. j. (2005). fuzzy expert systems and fuzzy reasoning. john wiley & sons. singh, h., & malik, a. (2019). a study of fuzzy rule based expert system applications in the field of education. an international journal of engineering science-special issue, 31. singholi, a. k., & agarwal, d. (2018). review of expert system and its application in robotics. in intelligent communication, control and devices (pp. 1253-1265). springer. sodhi, j. s., dutta, m., & aggarwal, n. (2016). efficacy of artificial neural network based decision support system for career counseling. indian journal of science and technology, 9(32). srivathsan, g., garg, p., bharambe, a., varshney, h., & bhaskaran, r. (2011, february). a dialogue system for career counseling. in proceedings of the international conference & workshop on emerging trends in technology (pp. 630-634). swarup, m. b., rani, d. a., & satish, b. v. expert (2014). system approach to effective computer-based career guidance for engineering students. international journal of scientific research in computer science applications and management studies, 3(3). 508 waghmode, m. l., & jamsandekar, p. p. (2016). expert system for career selection: a classifier model. international journal of advanced research in computer science and management studies, 4. wagner, w. p. (2017). trends in expert system development: a longitudinal content analysis of over thirty years of expert system case studies. expert systems with applications, 76, 85-96. xiao, y., & watson, m. (2019). guidance on conducting a systematic literature review. journal of planning education and research, 39(1), 93-112. zarandi, m. f., soltanzadeh, s., mohammadi, a., & castillo, o. (2019). designing a general type-2 fuzzy expert system for diagnosis of depression. applied soft computing, 80, 329-341. zwass, v. (2016, february 10). expert system. encyclopedia britannica. https://www.britannica.com/technology/expert-system authors: shilpa gunwant obtained her b.sc. degree from kumaon university, uttarakhand, india, in 2005 and completed her master's in computer applications from uttarakhand technical university, dehradun, uttarakhand, india, in 2009. she is currently pursuing a phd from the department of computer science, uttarakhand open university, haldwani, uttarakhand, india. her research interests include expert systems in education, artificial intelligence and the internet of things. email: shilpa15aneja@gmail.com jeetendra pande is an associate professor of computer science department at uttarakhand open university, haldwani. his current areas of interests are cyber security, computer forensics, component based software development, education technology and open educational resources. email: jpande@uou.ac.in raj kishor bisht is an associate professor at graphic era hill university dehradun, uttarakhand, india. email: bishtrk@gmail.com cite this paper as: gunwant, s., pande, j., & bisht, r. j. (2022). a systematic study of the literature on career guidance expert systems for students: implications for odl. journal of learning for development, 9(3), 492-508. microsoft word banezjic.docx issn: 2311-1550 2023, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 196-209 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. thematic construction of digital visual arts: implications for digital pedagogy richard mendoza bañez batangas state university, jplpc-malvar campus, philippines abstract: this paper attempts to describe the signifier choice of student artists in thematic representations of digital visual arts and determine its implications for digital pedagogy. utilising a qualitative approach to research and covering a corpus of six digital artworks of student artists, the semiotic analysis utilising peirce’s (1991) sign modes showed the student artists’ preference for mostly indexical and symbolic signifiers in thematic representations of filipinos’ resiliency to the pandemic. this signifier choice of student artists was influenced by their experience, family, self, other artists, and their initiatives for finding information and drawing inspiration from online sources, as revealed in the conducted focus group discussion (fgd) with the participants. moreover, the individual interviews with the participants demonstrated that the student artists’ choice of signifiers served as a vehicle for expression, representation, and impression of ideas, themes, and abstractions dominating their artworks. this study calls for the integration of digital artmaking tools into pedagogy to provide opportunities for artistic expression and support diverse representation. teachers can introduce various digital tools and platforms, create assignments that encourage creative experimentation, and foster a safe and inclusive classroom environment. future research could explore the practical applications of digital pedagogy in visual arts education. keywords: signs, student artists, thematic representation. introduction digital arts occupy a crucial role in enhancing students’ digital literacy while enabling them to acquire essential skills and learning through open and distance education. within this digital pedagogy, the integration of digital arts into education has become increasingly important as it offers numerous benefits for students (gonzález-zamar & abad-segura, 2021). digital art tools and technologies have the potential to engage students in learning and help them develop the skills that are necessary for them to participate effectively in digital society. with the rise of open and distance learning, digital arts can be used to enhance students’ engagement and learning experiences, which could bridge the digital divide, especially in developing countries. by incorporating digital arts into the learning process, students can become familiar with digital tools and technologies that can capacitate them to be more digitally literate. this familiarisation with digital tools can help them acquire the skills necessary to participate in digital economies and societies (gonzález-zamar et al., 2020). hence, the integration of digital arts into open and distance learning could play a vital role in enhancing digital literacy and promoting economic and social development. 197 digital arts have also emerged as a primary media for artistic expression as artists have shifted to various social media platforms in showcasing their visual arts. with the generation of young artists who are digital natives, contemporary visual arts are likely to be produced and enhanced digitally as artists explore a wide array of illustrator and photo editing tools to communicate messages through their respective artworks. educators have also recognised the importance of digital tools in fostering learners’ creativity and, thus, becoming prevalent in modern-day art education (boyland, 2021). these computer-mediated arts have also become mainstream in school visual arts competitions, as the utilisation of different digital tools enhances students’ artistic expression while honing their critical thinking and stimulating their skills (gökçearslan et al., 2019). while the benefits of the art-making process utilising digital tools to students have become widely acknowledged by educators, appreciation of themes conveyed by digital visual arts still heavily relies on the subjective perception of these arts as end products carrying meanings represented by their graphical elements rather than by drawing attention to the intricate art-making process. this common practice of art appreciation provides a minimal understanding of the artists as part, or essential, elements of their artworks. current and available studies consider digital arts as the final product by capitalising on their aesthetics and meanings. li (2022) and bo et al. (2018) ventured to develop computational methods for understanding the meaning and evaluating the artistry of digital arts using both machine and deep learning techniques. meanwhile, kovalova et al. (2022) view this art medium as a form of post-modern art challenging the traditional notions and practices of interpretation and aesthetics. this focus on meanings and aesthetics provides limited opportunity for exploration of the complexity in which digital artists craft their artwork. despite this limited exploration of the intricacies of the digital art-making process, scholars are becoming interested in understanding the numerous processes engaged in by digital artists and their implications for pedagogy. gonzález-zamar and abad-segura (2021) and tusiime et al. (2020) rationalised the need to deepen the understanding of educators about the complex digital art-making process to develop effective teaching strategies that could guide students in exploring this digital art media. likewise, welch (2021) argues the importance of considering artists’ experiences and unique attempts in communicating messages to comprehensively make sense of their respective artworks. within the context of digital pedagogy, it is essential to acknowledge that the perception and appreciation of digital arts extend beyond the end products. it is equally crucial to appreciate the complex art-making process that constitutes the artists’ attempt to visually represent the themes they intend to deliver through their artworks. this intricate artmaking process includes the artists’ choice of graphical elements or signifiers in communicating their ideas and intended messages. this acknowledgment of the intricate art-making process can lead to the recognition of the potential benefits of incorporating digital art education into pedagogy, such as enhancing the learning experience and improving students’ critical thinking and creativity. in understanding the complex digital artmaking of student artists, educators can explore the artists’ attempts in carefully selecting and illustrating graphical elements in constructing themes they intend to convey. this exploration entails an individual familiarity with visual signifiers. visual signifiers, according to bradley (2016), are signs that usually take various forms such as words, numbers, graphics, and the like, which artists use to encode messages to construct themes of their artworks. the clarity of themes constructed in visual artworks is affected by the intricacy of the sign type of each graphical element used in representing ideas that can help in the 198 construction of themes of graphical art. student artists may opt to use iconic graphical elements directly illustrating the concepts they want to showcase, indexical images, which make use of the association of graphics to the construct they represent, and symbolic signs that are arbitrary to the ideas they project (bradley, 2016). knowledge of how student artists construct themes of their artworks through carefully considering the sign types of the graphical element they illustrate in conveying ideas can lead to a better understanding of the intricate digital artmaking and appreciation of this emerging visual art media and, therefore, has significant implications for digital pedagogy. by understanding the thought processes and techniques used by student artists in creating their digital artworks, educators can design effective and engaging pedagogical strategies that foster creativity, critical thinking, and digital literacy skills in students. by also encouraging students to consider the sign types of graphical elements in their art, educators can help them develop a deeper understanding of how meaning is conveyed through digital media, enabling them to create and appreciate more sophisticated and compelling visual narratives. this study attempted to explore student artists’ signifier choice in the thematic construction of visual arts and its implications for digital pedagogy. it distinguished the sign types used by student artists in communicating the meanings or signified the graphical elements or signifiers of their respective visual arts. it then explored student artists’ drivers and functions of their choice of signifiers in conveying themes of digital graphic arts. it also determined the implications for digital pedagogy of the student artists’ signifier choice in the thematic construction of visual arts. theoretical framework this study is anchored on semiotics in which meanings of discrete images are considered to be created through considering their elements, which ferdinand de saussure, a swiss linguist, termed as signifiers and signified (silverman & rader, 2018). this signification involves the actual graphical element or the signifier and the message it carries or the signified. the meaning created when a signified was taken together with its signifier depends largely on decoders or experiential and cultural knowledge. in the same way, student artists’ choice of signifiers heavily relies on the common experiential and cultural knowledge they embed in their graphical representation to communicate ideas or concepts. the meaning created between the signified and signifier is influenced by the sign type associated with these elements. charles peirce, an american philosopher, distinguishes the types of signs into iconic, indexical, and symbolic signs (mesthrie et al., 2009). a graphical element can be considered an icon when its message or signified replicates the actual characteristics of this concrete graphical representation, e.g., a photograph of a cat to represent a cat. meanwhile, graphics can be classified as an index when their message correlates to or is in a logical association, such as a cause-and-effect relationship, with the image, e.g., a pile of wood with smoke to connote fire. on the other hand, visual representation can be a symbol when its signifier involves an arbitrary relationship with its signified such as in the case of three stars and a sun to symbolise the philippines. among these sign types, student artists may choose appropriate signifier-signified relations to communicate messages considering their experiential and cultural knowledge in their graphical representations to construct themes of digital visual arts. 199 methods research design the study utilised qualitative research design in describing the student artists’ signifier choice in the thematic construction of digital visual arts. creswell and poth (2018) characterise this research design as an inquiry into understanding the meaning of the participants’ perspectives through indepth data collection involving documentary analysis and interview. within the scope of the study, this in-depth collection of data centred on the documentary analysis of a collection of digital visual arts by student artists and their perspectives on digital artmaking through individual interviews and focus group discussion (fgd) to understand their choice of graphical elements in representing the theme of their digital artworks. this research made use of the text data derived from the semiotic analysis of a corpus of digital visual arts and the thematic analysis of transcripts from the conducted fgd and individual interviews with the participants, who were student artists. participants the study utilised the purposive sampling method in determining the participants. the purposive sampling method involves selecting participants based on specific characteristics relevant to the research objectives (creswell & creswell, 2018). since the study dealt with understanding digital artmaking as a phenomenon involving student artists’ choice of graphical elements in representing themes in digital arts, six student artists, who competed in the multi-media arts competition of a southern tagalog state university in the philippines, were considered participants in the study. these participants were purposively chosen as they had engaged in digital visual arts in graphically presenting the theme of the 2020 philippine national language month celebration, hence, they had provided reliable data about their signifier choice in the thematic construction of digital visual arts. this homogenous sample of the participants, who had provided their consent to partake in the study, represented the entire number of student artists involved in digital visual arts during the mentioned competition in the specified research locale, thus, the researcher deemed this sample sufficient for the study. materials this research analysed a corpus of six digital visual arts by student artists representing the six colleges of a constituent campus of a southern tagalog state university in the philippines. these six digital visual arts were entries for the multi-media arts competition during the 2020 celebration of the philippine national language month with the theme, language of history, history of language: the indigenous languages for philippine unity against pandemic. the student artists who created these digital visual arts granted their permission to include their digital artworks as part of the study’s corpus and provided their consent to participate in the study. data collection corpus construction a corpus of six digital visual arts that had been entries in the multi-media arts competition was semiotically examined to generate the text data needed in describing the student artists’ signifier choice in visually presenting the theme of the 2020 philippine national language month celebration. the graphical elements in each digital visual art were identified and textually described to represent the individual signifier of each textual description. a total of 61 textual descriptions of the graphical elements in the corpus of six digital visual arts were identified and 200 subjected to semiotic analysis to describe the student artists’ signifier choice in the thematic construction of digital visual arts. focus group discussion the researcher facilitated a focus group discussion (fgd) with the six student artists who illustrated the analysed digital visual arts. through roundtable discussion, these student artists were asked about the drivers, which influenced their choice of signifiers in the thematic construction of their visual arts. their responses were transcribed for analysis. the transcriptions underwent interpretive phenomenological analysis (ipa) to capture the inspirations from which their signifier choice was derived. interview individual interviews with the student artists was also conducted to further identify the functions of their signifier choice. with the help of prepared guide questions, the researcher identified the functions played by the signifiers illustrated by student artists in constructing the themes of their digital visual arts. transcripts were also made from the responses of each student artist in the prepared guide questions. these responses also underwent ipa analysis to clarify the functions played by student artists’ choice of signifiers. the various methods utilised by the researcher helped in encapsulating the intricacy of digital artmaking of student artists. data analysis semiotic analysis this study made use of semiotic analysis in distinguishing the signifier choice of student artists in the thematic construction of digital visual arts. a corpus of six digital visual arts by student artists was analysed considering ferdinand de saussure’s (1966) notion of signifiers and signified. graphical elements constituting each visual art were identified to closely examine the message carried by each graphical representation, which was then affirmed by the identified student artist as the creator of the specific graphical representation. this affirmation of the message carried by the individual graphical element of its creator enabled the researcher to accurately draw the signified of each of the signifiers constituting the individual digital visual art. after drawing the signified, each signifier or graphical element was categorised according to charles pierce’s (1991) sign types. through examining the relation of signified with its signifiers, each graphical element was categorised into icon, index, or symbol, revealing the prevalence of the sign types used by student artists in the thematic construction of their respective digital visual arts. interpretive phenomenological analysis the text data generated from the conducted focus group discussion (fgd) and the individual interview with the participants were subjected to interpretive phenomenological analysis (ipa). ipa requires a detailed examination of participants’ experiences by subjecting the text data obtained from an interview or fgd to thematic analysis to identify common patterns within the collected qualitative data (smith & osborn, 2020). this approach to analysing text data was used in the study to examine the beliefs valued by the participants in making their choice of graphical elements in representing the themes of their digital visual arts. this analysis is conducted to offer insights into the drivers that influenced student artists’ signifier choice in the thematic construction of digital visual arts and the perceived functions of each signifier embedded in their graphical artworks. the text data were transcribed and thematically analysed by drawing the themes and subthemes prevailing in the data to reveal the drivers influencing the student artists’ choice of signifiers and the perceived function of each signifier. 201 results sign types prevailing among the signifiers in constructing theme of graphic arts a total of 61 graphical elements were identified among the corpus of six graphic arts by student artists in constructing the theme provided during the graphic arts competition. the sign types prevailing among the graphical elements of the corpus of graphic arts are illustrated in table 1. table 1: sign types prevailing among the signifiers in constructing themes of graphic arts. signifier signified sign thematic construction 1. covid-19 [3] covid-19 iconic language of history, history of language: the indigenous languages for philippine unity against pandemic 2. person eating healthy food person eating healthy food 3. doctors and nurses wearing face masks and face shields frontliners 4. group of houses with trees beside community 5. pedestrian lane pedestrian lane 6. road sign road sign 7. hospital [2] hospital 8. road road 9. health supplies and equipment: soap, alcohol [3], thermometer, and water from faucet safety and protection awareness indexical 10. police officer wearing facemask [2] 11. nurse looking back while holding her facemask 12. frontliner [2] wearing an armor, holding a megaphone, and holding an alcohol with x letter 13. a man that covers his ears and wears a face mask 14. health worker with placard, “manatili sa bahay (stay at home).” 15. family watching news report 16. stay at home sign 17. quarantine sign and people wearing face mask 18. ascending arrow left labeled with economics labor, innovations, and economic progress 19. bills 20. cellphone 21. man working with communication technologies 22. driver wearing facemask 23. jeepney and tricycle vehicles 24. janitor wearing facemask with alcohol spray 25. two men working with a carabao 26. people in their different professions walk. 27. kneeling while praying man spirituality, positivism, and resiliency 28. praying lady in silhouette 29. child happily playing hopscotch 30. sun 31. trees and building 32. birds 33. a gamer student casting spell 202 34. student wearing facemask holding office pen and paper education and literacy 35. student happily reading book on language of history 36. piece of paper with a, ba, ka, da 37. man with salakot filipinism and national identity 38. old woman wearing a facemask with pseudo baybayin symbol 39. a young girl holding the philippine flag 40. rizal, bonifacio, lapu-lapu, jaena 41. four people looking straight ahead wearing flag colored shirt 42. indigenous tribes 43. baybayin syllables (ya, ba, o, da, ka, ngo, la, lu, ya, yo, a) written on a colored paper 44. white curtain division 45. earth surrounded by the philippine flag gradient with word spelled baybayin peace and unity symbolic 46. people shaking hands 47. emblem 48. hand with covid-19 advisory and golden hand with baybayin, “pag-asa” are linked together 49. group of people wearing face masks making bayanihan with the nipa hut 50. philippine flag gradient [2] nationalism and patriotism 51. philippine flag with tagalog words “kalayaan” and words spelled in baybayin 52. philippine flag-colored human gripping fist 53. yellow, black and blue tiled background 54. nipa hut 55. tagalog words, “kaunawaan, kamalayan, pagkakaisa, pamamahayag, tamang impormasyon” desired filipino traits 56. words spelled in baybayin, “pakikidigma, bayanihan” 57. cross sign christianity 58. green trees life 59. sun hope 60. alibata “ka” buwan ng wika 61. wind challenges table 1 shows that eight graphical elements are categorised as iconic signs. these iconic signs represent the entities involved and operating within the context of the prevailing pandemic. iconic signs such as covid19, person eating healthy food, frontliners, community, pedestrian lane, road sign, hospital, and road provide a clear illustration of the common encounters during the pandemic. these iconic signs used by the student artists in making their respective graphic arts revealed their attempt to describe the current situation that they tried to relate to the theme of the competition, which also focused on the prevailing pandemic, thus, creating clear imagery of the pandemic. meanwhile, 36 indexical signs were identified among the graphic arts of student artists. these indexical signs encapsulate the filipino resiliency against the pandemic. this resiliency from the pandemic is depicted among the graphic arts by student artists as attainable through observing safety and protection, promoting awareness through education and literacy, and enhancing labor through 203 innovations for economic progress to lessen the adverse effect of the pandemic among filipinos. this resiliency against the pandemic is also ensured by filipinos’ spirituality and positivism in fostering filipinism and national identity. these indexical signs clearly illustrate what the student artists believe to be agents of resilience, which they seemed to realise and reflect out of their experiences considering the events happening within their locations at particular times. on the other hand, 17 graphical elements among the corpus of graphic arts were reported to be symbolic signs. these symbolic signs represent the unique aspiration of filipinos for peace and unity that are important in overcoming the challenges brought by the current health crisis. these symbolic signs are also found to reflect the unique response of filipinos in attaining their collective aspiration, which includes practicing nationalism and patriotism, manifesting the desired filipino traits, and adhering to the tenets of christianity such as valuing life and possessing hope despite uncertainties. drivers of student artists’ choice of signifiers in constructing graphic arts table 2 shows the drivers of artists’ choice of signifiers in constructing graphic arts. based on the emerging themes from the responses of the student artists their choice of signifier was influenced by their experience, self, family, other artists, and research. these influences were regarded as the drivers of their choice of signifiers in constructing graphic arts. table 2: drivers of student artists’ choice of signifiers in constructing graphic arts. themes subthemes exemplars first-hand experience encounters as ordinary individual i also experience and saw the people around me how they suffered due to covid-19 [p1] encounters as active officer i got my inspiration from experiences because being an rotc officer we are able to promote unity… [p2] self motivation derives from self i inspire myself to be more crowned to be better [p3]. family inspiration from family members followed by inspiration from my parents, friends…[p3] other artists insights from other artists … inspiration from … fellow artists… [p3] before i made the entry, i asked my artist acquaintances to help me find out what is the message of this entry can be… [p6] research information from online sources i also searched the internet for what was the happening at this time of pandemic… [p6] legend: [p] followed by a number represents the participant number assigned to each individual in the study. their first-hand experiences of the covid-19 pandemic provided them inspiration in portraying how the health crisis affected the lives of ordinary individuals. this portrayal of the covid-19 encounters among common individuals in their graphic arts illustrates people’s vulnerability to the consequences of the pandemic, thus, creating a receptive stance or perspective of the situation. meanwhile, their encounters as active student officers enabled them to visualise the leadership manifested by people in times of crisis. this visualisation of people’s leadership creates an active stance or perspective of the pandemic in which people are taking action to find solutions to problems. both receptive and active perspectives of the health crisis due to the covid-19 pandemic 204 illustrated in digital visual arts by student artists were derived from their own experiences. this recounting of personal experiences as ordinary individuals and as active officers influences the choice of visual representation by student artists in capturing the prevailing condition, hence, their own experiences were helpful in conveying the message that they considered in illustrating their graphic arts. student artists’ own selves and families were influential in their choice of signifiers for constructing visual arts. their enthusiasm for creating better artworks, reinforced by the encouragement of their family members, served as inspiration for their creative expression through making graphic arts. this inspiration from self and family members motivated them and developed their confidence in artistically creating graphical elements considering the various sign types to convey the theme of their digital visual arts. confidence and motivation are important for individuals to translate messages in their artworks. these artworks containing elaborate messages and were inspired by the student artists’ family members, which enabled them to express their creativity. this driver can be described as a tendency to experience a feeling of inspiration that can lead to creativity through the comforts provided by family members. student artists’ choice of signifiers was also influenced by other artists. by having the same niche and passion for digital arts, student artists consulted other graphic artists about visually representing ideas through appropriate choice of signifiers. this consultation with other artists provided an opportunity for exchanges of best practices in digital artmaking. thus, insights from the other artists became a source of inspiration for the student artists as they engaged in an intensified interaction for having similar interests in art making. student artists tend to engage in research to obtain inspiration for an artwork by searching the internet for valuable information about the health crisis to be fully aware of happenings around the globe. by browsing the internet, student artists explored other information relevant to the concept they were portraying and innovative ideas that could improve the craftsmanship of their digital visual arts. this implies that the internet has become an indispensable part of people’s interests including arts as different platforms to carry new information that could stimulate innovative ideas. functions of student artists’ choice of signifiers in constructing themes of graphic arts table 3 shows the responses of the student artists in the interview facilitated through individual video conferencing. the functions of student artists’ choice of signifiers in constructing themes of graphic arts were identified through the emergence of themes from the analysed transcripts of the conducted interviews. student artists carefully choose signifiers to incorporate in their respective artworks for expression, representation, and impression. through expression, student artists were able to communicate the messages and themes of their graphic arts through carefully selected symbols or images. this allowed them to share ideas and experiences of the situation they were depicting in their respective artworks. this sharing of ideas and experiences allowed them to connect with their audience through a clear depiction of common and similar experiences, enabling the viewers to easily comprehend the meaning portrayed in their artworks. thus, expression as a function is comprised of creating, responding, and performing artwork in expressing ideas. representation emerges as the second major theme, which covers representing ideas, themes, and abstractions. this function enabled the student artists to portray their thoughts and represent the construct dominating their thinking. this representation of their thinking required their ability to 205 choose and illustrate images that harmoniously recreated the ideas, themes, or abstractions represented in their digital arts. by bringing the interaction of these various approaches to art representation, viewers can discern how a wide range of techniques and artistic interests work within digital arts. student artists’ techniques and abilities are helpful in refining their respective artworks to represent ideas and meanings. they can improve their skills and abilities in making artworks as they constantly engage in representing ideas and themes for efferent and aesthetic purposes. table 3: functions of student artists’ choice of signifiers in constructing themes of graphic arts. themes subthemes exemplars expression conveying messages or themes images are of big help in…conveying the message because just like what i have said it is easier to understand of the viewers. [p1, p2, p4] the graphics or symbols help in conveying the theme by artistically expressing ideas and abstract concepts or represented on it. [p4] representation representing ideas, themes, abstractions to represent not just the modern citizen, but present our ideas or messages that we want to deliver to the viewers. [p5] i use these graphics or symbols we have a message that will immediately, and it will connect to the theme…[p1] impression providing inspiration and stimulating awareness each symbol that is placed here will imprint on the mind of the person who just wants to help people. [p5] the strength to provide information and give color and inspiration to everyone, addressed by the other graphics and symbols i used in my multimedia art. [p3] help in spreading…that…we are not the only ones who are aware of this, it should be known by the people around us. [p6] legend: [p] followed by a number represents the participant number assigned to each individual in the study. impression serves as the third theme. this function provides an opportunity for student artists to inspire and stimulate awareness of the prevailing situation among their audience. this function relates to the aesthetic and instrumental value of the arts having the capacity to influence viewers. the student artists believe that the meaning communicated by their digital arts can provide inspiration to the viewers to positively consider the covid-19 health crisis as an opportunity for developing resiliency while being conscious of how people can adapt and find solutions to the health crisis. thus, impression is an attempt to provide awareness and inspiration that can influence people. discussion and implications this study describes the use of digital visual arts to communicate societal and cultural phenomena, particularly in the context of the covid-19 pandemic in the philippines. this involves examining how student artists represent their intended messages and how they shape viewers’ perceptions of reality (silverman & rader, 2018; azcárate, 2022). the findings revealed that student artists used iconic, indexical, and symbolic signs as signifiers in illustrating the themes of their digital artworks. iconic symbols were used to provide a clear picture or imagery of real-life scenarios or events which stimulate the viewer’s sensibility and contribute to effective visual 206 communication (ghio et al., 2021). meanwhile, indexical signs were used to showcase how people reacted to the covid-19 pandemic as influenced by their time and place, making these signs effective in influencing people’s cognition (whittingham, 2019). symbolic signs were used to present the collective consciousness of filipinos, with regard to the prevailing health crisis, which is important in forming a national identity (bedir & öztunç, 2022), and allows artists to showcase filipinos’ unique and collective aspirations during the health crisis. thus, student artists’ signifier choice in the construction of the theme of their respective digital arts enabled them to develop and enhance their digital literacy through creative expression using digital tools and media. dilmaç (2020) noted that the use of digital tools and media in digital art promotes student engagement and motivation by providing students with opportunities for creative expression and personal connection with their artwork. the study also reveals that student artists’ signifier choice in the thematic construction of digital visual arts is primarily influenced by their personal experiences and realisations, which allows them to create authentic and meaningful visual representations. this personal connection between the artist and their artwork can enhance their creative expression, build confidence, and inspire them to communicate their worldviews through their craft. the support system of family, fellow graphic artists, and online sources also plays a significant role in improving their creative expression (kang et al., 2019; cristóvão et al., 2020). by emphasising the importance of personal experiences and realisations in creating meaningful visual representations, educators can encourage students to draw upon their own lives and perspectives in their digital art projects. as these students are encouraged by a supportive environment, including the assistance of peers and access to online resources, they are provided with opportunities for collaborative learning and online engagement to enhance their creativity and technical skills (bower et al., 2015). meanwhile, the student artists’ choice of signifiers in constructing the theme of their graphic arts has been instrumental in providing them with opportunities for expression, representation, and impression. the student artists’ expression, representation, and impression were achieved through careful selection of symbols and accurate graphical representation of their thoughts. this expression has the potential to inspire and influence the audience through the message communicated in their digital visual arts. this result clearly implies that digital visual arts can be used as a tool for effective communication and engagement with students. the careful selection of symbols and accurate graphical representation of thoughts can aid in the effective communication of ideas and concepts, thereby enhancing the learning experience for students. moreover, the impression created by digital visual arts can inspire and motivate students, leading to better engagement and participation in online learning environments (archibald & kitson, 2019). implications for digital pedagogy the use of digital artmaking in communicating messages and ideas can serve as a meaningful and rich learning experience for students while developing their digital literacy skills. with the increasing demand for digital literacy in various academic disciplines, integrating digital artmaking into academic curricula can enhance students’ digital literacy, creativity, and critical thinking skills. as such, educators in institutions offering open distance and e-learning modalities should consider incorporating digital artmaking into their academic curricula to provide students with opportunities for artistic expression while developing their digital literacy skills. the study highlights the importance of the careful choice of signifiers by student artists to effectively communicate their messages and ideas, while showcasing their creativity and critical thinking skills in crafting their artwork, and trainers of student artists should consider the 207 intricate digital artmaking captured in the study in coaching their trainees on thematical constructions of graphic arts. art appreciation courses could also provide reflective activities that enable student artists to understand their signifier choice in crafting their artworks. the study showcases the role of digital visual arts in expressing resilience amidst the pandemic, and highlights how digital artmaking has become an emerging medium for filipino student artists to communicate their experiences and advocacies. this finding emphasises the importance of digital artmaking in providing a platform for artistic expression, representation, and impression of ideas, themes, and abstractions that dominate the artworks of student artists. given that digital art-making has become an important medium for student artists to communicate their experiences and advocacies, there is a need to integrate digital art-making tools into pedagogy. teachers could introduce various digital tools and platforms that students can use to create artwork, such as adobe photoshop, illustrator, and procreate. it is also crucial to encourage students to express themselves creatively and experiment with different techniques and styles. teachers could create assignments that encourage students to create digital artworks that reflect their personal experiences, emotions, and advocacies. digital art-making provides an avenue for diverse representation and exploration of various themes and abstractions. teachers could create a safe and inclusive classroom environment that encourages students to explore their culture, identity, and heritage through their artworks. however, it is important to note that the study only focused on a specific group of filipino students, and, as such, the findings may not necessarily reflect the perspectives of students from other cultural and economic backgrounds. future research may explore how cultural and economic factors might influence student artists’ signifier choice and their capabilities in using online tools to represent themes of digital visual arts. moreover, similar studies could be conducted to capture other characteristics and practical applications of student artists’ choice of signifiers in the thematic construction of varied visual art forms which may draw other implications for digital pedagogy. references archibald, m. & kitson, a. (2019). using the arts for awareness, communication and knowledge translation in older adulthood: a scoping review. arts & health, 12, 1-17. doi:10.1080/17533015.2019.1608567. azcárate, a.l.v. (2022). cognitive semiotics: an overview. mind and matter — challenges and opportunities in cognitive semiotics and aesthetics. doi:10.5772/intechopen.101848 bedir, u., & öztunç, m. (2022). symbolic construction of national identity: a qualitative analysis of ngos instagram posts on national days. the turkish online journal of design, art and communication, 12(1), 192-211. bo, y., yu, j. & zhang, k. (2018). computational aesthetics and applications. visual computing for industry, biomedicine, and art, 1(6). https://doi.org/10.1186/s42492-018-0006-1 bower, m., dalgarno, b., kennedy, g.e., lee, m.j.w., & kenney, j. (2015). design and implementation factors in blended synchronous learning environments: outcomes from a cross-case analysis. computers & education, 86, 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2015.03.006 boyland, j. (2021, february 16). digital art education tools encourage students’ creativity and curiosity. edtech focus on k-12. https://edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2021/02/digital-art-education-toolsencourage-students-creativity-and-curiosity bradley, s. (2016, april 5). icon, index, and symbol — three categories of signs. vanseo design. https://vanseodesign.com/web-design/icon-index-symbol/ 208 creswell, j.w., & creswell, j.d. (2018). research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (5th ed.). sage publications. creswell, j.w., & poth, c.n. (2018). qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among five approaches (4th ed.). sage publications. cristóvão, a.m., candeias, a.a., & verdasca, j.l. (2020). development of socio-emotional and creative skills in primary education: teachers’ perceptions about the gulbenkian xxi school learning communities project. frontiers in education, 4, 160. doi:10.3389/feduc.2019.00160 dilmaç, s. (2020). students’ opinions about the distance education to art and design courses in the pandemic process. world journal of education, 10(3), 113-126. https://doi.org/10.5430/wje.v10n3p113 ghio, m., sanguinetti, m., & cangelosi, a. (2021). iconicity and affordances in visual communication: a review of the literature and future directions. cognitive science, 45(1), e12914. https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.12914 gökçearslan, ş., solmaz, e., & coşkun, b. (2019). critical thinking and digital technologies: concepts, methodologies, tools, and applications. in f.s. topor (ed.), handbook of research on individualism and identity in the globalized digital age (pp.141-167). igi global. doi:10.4018/978-1-5225-8060-7.ch066 gonzález-zamar, m., abad-segura, e., de la rosa, a.l., & lópez-meneses, e. (2020). digital education and artistic-visual learning in flexible university environments: research analysis. education sciences, 10, 294. doi:10.3390/educsci10110294 gonzález-zamar, m.d., & abad-segura, e. (2021). digital design in artistic education: an overview of research in the university setting. education sciences, 2021, 11, 144. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci11040144 kang, x., chen, w., & kang, j. (2019). art in the age of social media: interaction behavior analysis of instagram art accounts. informatics, 6, 52. doi:10.3390/informatics6040052 kovalova, m., alforova, z., sokolyuk, l., chursin, o., & obukh, l. (2022). the digital evolution of art: current trends in the context of the formation and development of metamodernism. revista amazonia investiga, 11, 114-123. doi:10.34069/ai/2022.56.08.12 li, j. (2022). application of computational digital technology in the improvement of art creation. security and communication networks, 2022, 1-13. doi:10.1155/2022/7723251 mesthrie, r., swann, j., deumert, a., & leap, w.l. (2009). introducing sociolinguistics. edinburgh university press. peirce, c.s. (1991). peirce on signs: writings on semiotics by charles sanders peirce (j. hoopes, ed.). university of north carolina press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5149/9781469616810_hoopes saussure, f.d. (1966). a course in general linguistics (w. baskin, trans.). mcgraw-hill. silverman, j., & rader, d. (2018). the world is a text: writing about visual and popular culture: updated compact edition. broadview press. smith, j.a., & osborn, m. (2020). interpretative phenomenological analysis. in the sage handbook of qualitative research methods in psychology (2nd ed.). (pp. 271-286). sage publications. tusiime, w.e., johannesen, m., & gudmundsdottir, g.b. (2020). teaching art and design in a digital age: challenges facing ugandan teacher educators, journal of vocational education & training. doi:10.1080/13636820.2020.1786439 welch, g. (2021). why the arts and artists are important. 10.4324/9780429433917-27 whittingham, c.e. (2019). geosemiotics. social geography: preschool places and school(ed) spaces. journal of literacy research, 51(1), 52-74. 209 author: richard mendoza bañez is an associate professor specialising in undergraduate and graduate teacher education programs at batangas state university, jplpc-malvar campus. he has an ed.d. in educational management and a master of arts in teaching degree in english. his primary focus centres on language and literature pedagogy, particularly in teaching english as a second language (esl), empowering students to engage in dynamic curricular opportunities. as a researcher, he explores the intricate roles of language in educational leadership, supervision, and other crucial topics related to educational innovation. he is also an aspiring literary artist, with his works featured in publications such as covid-19 pandemic poems by cape comorin publisher, love letters in poetic verse and castles and courtyards by southern arizona press, and spring offensive by culturecult press. email: richardbanez97@gmail.com cite this paper as: bañez, r.m. (2023). thematic construction of digital visual arts: implications for digital pedagogy. journal of learning for development, 10(2), 196-209. microsoft word myers.docx issn: 2311-1550 2023, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 55-74 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. democratising the design of educational games for social change: an approach based on critical pedagogy christina myers1, lara piccolo2 and trevor collins3 1the overseas development institute 2the open university, uk and code university of applied sciences 3the open university, uk abstract: digital games can be used as educational tools for tackling structural inequalities and promoting social justice. designing games with these purposes is a complex task that requires a myriad of combined expertise, including games’ mechanics, software development, educational game design, pedagogy and knowledge of the educational topic (which can target specific social issues). democratising the design of educational games is used to increase the agency and participation of diverse and novice groups throughout design processes and can be used to improve the efficiency of such games as it directly leads to the inclusion of broad voices, knowledge, experiences and perspectives. this research adopted a design-based research methodology to create, evaluate and validate 13 design principles to democratise the design of educational games for social change. three research phases were implemented in turn: a preliminary, prototyping and evaluation phase. the preliminary phase was based on creating these principles by grounding them on fundamentals of critical pedagogy, a theory of education which presents pedagogical techniques to accelerate learning, engagement and social change. the prototyping phase was based on conducting semi-structured interviews to assess and improve these principles with educational and game design experts. during the evaluation phase, these principles were applied and evaluated during two weekend-long game design events, called game jams. these were open to anyone interested in creating a digital game to raise awareness of gender inequalities, and 13 of the 23 participants (57%) had no previous experience in game design. this research presents theoretical and practical contributions related to how to democratise educational game design for social change. it evidenced the relevance of facilitating design principles that address what could be done to trigger learning in games; why this learning could be facilitated, from both pedagogical and gaming perspectives; and how to implement these principles into educational games. keywords: educational game design, democratising game design, social change, inclusion and diversity. introduction about 2.4 billion people globally play video games on a weekly basis (liao et al., 2020). and an increasing number of games have been adopted as engaging, impactful and motivational tools for digital education (gee, 2005; satrio et al., 2021; wouters & van oostendorp, 2017). games can be fun; engaging; they can allow players to explore different environments; to collaborate; to repeatedly practice skills; players can also experiment with consequences of their actions; they can build relationships and communities; and can tell stories in immersive and interactive ways. games can also be used as a means of raising awareness and promoting change towards social justice and equalityi. 56 for example, the game spentii intends to raise awareness about surviving poverty and homelessness. in this game, players are given facts about homelessness and poverty by playing the character of someone facing financial struggles and at risk of losing their home. it was reported that for two years after its release in 2011, the game was getting about 5,000 new plays each day, and a total of more than two million people were playing this game as of the beginning of 2020iii. games are not always designed to trigger learning, awareness or social change. games are, in fact, often associated with issues related to misrepresenting, discriminating, objectifying and stereotyping women and girls, people of colour, minorities, lgbtq+, and other groups often facing discrimination (kafai et al., 2016). a possible explanation is that games often echo the experiences and perspectives of their designers, reflecting the evidenced lack of diversity in the gaming industry and directly within teams involved in games design (deen et al., 2015; kennedy, 2018). enabling the participation of broader audiences in designing games generates new opportunities to share diverse experiences, stories, knowledge and reflections related to social issues, and, in turn, to enhance learning and social change. strategies to democratise game design can be used to tackle issues related to misrepresentation, under-representation and discrimination in the design of technologies, as it can lead to increasing the agency and participation of diverse and novice groups throughout design processes (fleischmann, 2015). the democratisation of educational games design can also directly impact the effectiveness of games, and especially to reach their intended educational outcomes (deen et al., 2015). it is also evidenced as a process that offers opportunities for learning to broad and novice groups that are involved in designing such games (myers, 2021). this paper introduces a set of 13 design principles aimed at enabling novice audiences to understand how to design educational games targeted at improving critical thinking and enhancing learning about social change. grounded on the fundamentals of critical pedagogy (freire, 1960), these design principles were iteratively created, evaluated and validated following a design-based research methodology (brown, 1992; collins 1992). the design principles were studied and applied through semi-structured interviews and during two weekend-long events called game jams, which were aimed at designing games in a short period of time (kultima, 2015) and organised on the theme of gender equality. the game jams provided guidance and support for the participants to elaborate on their own ideas and life experiences to create a game that critically questioned power structures and structural inequalities. despite the growing interest in the use of digital games for education and social change, the lack of diversity in teams of game designers often leads to the creation of games that promote inequalities and discrimination. one promising solution to tackle this issue, and to design educational games that lead to improved learning outcomes, is the democratisation of game design, where broad and diverse groups are given agency to design games that reflect their ideas, knowledge and experiences. while previous studies have demonstrated the potential benefits of democratising educational game design, there is still limited understanding of how to do this in practice. to the best of our understanding, this research presents the first set of design principles, that use critical pedagogy, to democratise the design of educational games to specifically raise awareness of social issues. 57 literature review in this section, approaches to design and democratise educational games found in the literature are described and discussed, followed by an introduction to critical pedagogy. educational game design three main approaches to design educational games that dominate the literature are based on using educational game attributes associated with game elements, adopting conceptual models and applying design principles. most of these approaches rely on identifying educational game attributes, which are design features implemented using game elements that could contribute to enhancing learning outcomes in games. table a in the appendix summarises the educational game attributes and game elements found in the literature. from a practical perspective, the first main approach to design educational games, namely using game attributes for educational game design, is mostly used to enable game designers to explore educational game attributes and elements that could be used to facilitate learning in games. this approach does not address the designer’s conceptual understanding of educational game design, as it simply enables designers to access ideas to create learning through gaming. to support designers in understanding why certain game attributes and elements could be better than others for a game, approaches that provide access to supporting information and that integrate educational approaches are needed — these are referred to as conceptual models and principles of educational game design. the second main approach to design educational games, adopting conceptual models, is a game design strategy that explores how to apply educational approaches to the design of educational games. amory (2007) presented the game object model ii, which aims at introducing the connections between games and educational theories through the illustration of the interrelated components and dependencies of game elements. arnab et al. (2015) presented a model to connect educational theories and game mechanics, which are described as the gaming activities, tools and goals of a game. building on this study, carvalho (2017) developed a conceptual model that represents how game elements could be associated with different educational outcomes. finally, lameras et al. (2017) created a taxonomy linking learning and game mechanics to guide university teachers in using educational games. these studies present a variety of educational theories and game elements enabling experienced groups to explore and reflect on potential combinations for their game. however, these models can pose risks, especially for groups with little or no expertise in educational game design. firstly, they do not present how certain educational approaches are better suited to certain educational topics and, secondly, they do not elaborate on why certain combinations of educational approaches and game features could be more appropriate than others. these models are exclusively based on inviting experienced designers to discuss what might be the most suitable combinations of educational approaches and game elements for their games. the third approach found in the literature is to propose principles to design educational games, which are based on presenting supportive information of how to design educational games. schrier (2017) proposed 10 design-principle categories to create educational games specifically on the topic of morality. the proposed principles are composed of supportive information and game examples and are introduced as initial principles to consider when creating educational games on the topic of morality. a limitation of these principles is that they do not provide information on why these 58 principles could be used to trigger learning in games. this information is considered relevant in scenarios where novice groups are involved in designing educational games, as it could be used as supportive information to inform their design decisions. gee (2005) proposes an approach based on principles that align educational approaches with game design. more specifically, the work of gee presents 13 principles of learning in games that explain how and why gaming could be used for learning by building on the literature of gaming and educational theories. for example, the first principle, titled co-design, is described as “good learning requires that learners feel like active agents (producers) not just passive recipients (consumers)” and provides supporting information on why this principle is suitable to trigger learning from both gaming and educational perspectives as well as presenting game examples (gee, 2005, p. 6). these principles are considered suitable for use in conceptualising educational games. however, indications on how to implement a principle into a game rely on introducing two to three game elements as examples, which can be considered insufficient for scenarios where these principles are used with novice groups. in addition, these principles are targeted at providing generic information on educational game design, which suggests that these principles have to be adapted to conceptualise educational games specifically on improving critical thinking and tackling social issues. the following sections introduce and elaborate the concept of critical pedagogy to be used together with gee’s (2005) principles. critical pedagogy critical pedagogy is presented as the application of critical theory to education and is often attributed to the brazilian educator and philosopher paulo freire. critical theory was first described by max horkheimer in 1937 as a theory targeted at criticising and changing society by reducing injustice and oppression through the development of self-reflective knowledge and critical thinking (slattery, 2013). paulo freire applied this theory by proposing an educational approach to trigger critical thinking, to raise awareness of social issues, and to create democratic engagement in tackling social, political and economic inequalities through literacy education. critical pedagogy presents principles to apply this approach into practice, which are introduced below. everyday life experiences critical pedagogy uses everyday life experiences, where social issues are faced or observed as a starting point for educational interventions. these experiences are described as the educational material that is used to trigger learners to develop broader knowledge, critical reflections and understanding about social and political issues. using everyday experiences is also described as an opportunity to contextualise learning and to enable learners to relate to educational topics, which in turn can influence their participation in discussions (darder, 2003). dialogue guidance on how to use these experiences leads to another aspect of critical pedagogy, which is to enable egalitarian participation in learning and teaching using dialogue. this is used to challenge hierarchical positions between students and teachers by identifying everyone involved in educational interventions as egalitarian learners — who can both teach and learn through dialogue (giroux, 2018). 59 in this way, dialogue is also intended to enable learners to have agency over their educational pathways (schugurensky, 2014). learners as agent of change another aspect of applying critical pedagogy is to ensure engagement with social and political issues, and to portray learners as agents of change. critical pedagogy is presented as a “mode of intervention” (darder, 2003, p. xii) where reflection needs to be directed toward enabling learners to perceive issues as transformable and to develop ideas on solutions aimed at tackling them. praxis at the centre of critical pedagogy lies the idea of ‘praxis’, which expands on how to trigger learning and develop solutions to tackle issues (lankshear et al., 1993). in the context of learning, praxis is described as a cyclic process of putting theory into practice and vice versa (freire, 1970; ledwith, 2015). learning is created through performing actions in practice and by reflecting on these actions. these reflections are then used to inform subsequent actions, leading this cycle to be repeated (ledwith, 2015). gee’s essay on the empirical relevance of critical pedagogy (freire, 1970) already suggests a connection between critical pedagogy and the principles of learning in games (gee, 2014). the works of frasca (2001) and torres (2015) explored potential synergies between gee’s principles of learning in games and critical pedagogy. frasca (2001) used critical pedagogy to adapt the game the sims to stimulate players to think critically about social issues, while torres (2015) created a game that considers inequalities by following the life of a young black woman in colombia. this research aims to use critical pedagogy as a foundation to democratise educational game design for raising awareness of social issues and intends to boost understanding of practical approaches to democratise the design such games. research questions the main research question of this study, namely: how to democratise educational game design on social issues? aims to advance understanding of practices needed to democratise educational game design on social issues. this study also explores the following sub-question: what resources can be used to democratise educational game design practices? in order to illustrate ways to apply and adapt educational game design practices to be understood and used by broad audiences, that include novice game designers. methods in this section, the research methodology with the data collection and analysis approaches to design, evaluate and validate the design principles are presented. research methodology this research adopted design-based research, a methodology within educational research based on elaborating interventions aimed at solving issues related to learning and teaching (brown, 1992; collins, 1992). two aspects of design-based research often highlighted are its collaborative features and the application of iterative processes to create and improve interventions. we adopted plomp’s (2013, p. 15) three phases to implement an iterative process: preliminary research, prototyping and 60 evaluation. during the preliminary research phase, the complementarity between critical pedagogy (freire, 1970) and gee’s principles of learning in games (gee, 2005) was used to create an initial version of design principles intended to support novice groups in designing educational games for social change. during the second phase, the prototyping phase, the initial prototype of the design principles was discussed with james paul gee, the author of the principles of learning in games (gee, 2005) (see section titled educational game design), and john lockhart, the director of the global paulo freire institute, during semi-structured interviews. the interviews were transcribed, and the data was directly used to improve the list of design principles. in the last research phase, the evaluation phase, the design principles were assessed during two weekend-long game jams. these game jams provided guidance and support to the participants and were open to anyone interested in creating a game to raise awareness of gender inequalities. gender equality was used as a case study for this research and the participants were randomly allocated to groups of five people. the groups were invited to read, discuss and use these design principles to design an educational game aiming at raising awareness of gender inequalities. the design principles were used as part of a comprehensive framework to support and guide novice groups to design educational games to tackle gender equalityiv. the framework consisted of a process with structured resources and activities to enhance learning by supporting egalitarian participation and agency. it offered collaborative learning opportunities for groups to engage with the social issue of gender equalities, relying on storytelling, and on the exchange of perspectives and experiences. population and sample in total, 23 people participated in the game jams, and further details of the game jams, as well as the games created, can be found in myers (2021). ten of the 23 participants (43%) had previous experience in game design and only three participants (13%) had some previous experience in educational game design. in total, five participants (22%) had participated in a game jam previously, and four participants (17%) had experience with computer programming. both game jams and each group had diversity in gender, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation and age, for instance, 53% of the participants were from black, asian or minority ethnic backgrounds, 26% of participants had a sexual orientation other than heterosexual, and their ages varied across adult range categories from 16-to-21 to over 52. data collection and analysis the data collection methods applied to assess the design principles included: observation, interviews, and feedback questionnaires. coaches, who participated in the game jams to guide and support participants, were asked to capture observation notes with a template document that provided guidance on what data needed to be reported; these included the questions that participants asked and requests for clarification. semi-structured group interviews were also used to evaluate the proposed design principles, and the questions used during these interviews included perceptions of the design principles, recommendations to improve them and their potential suitability for use to democratise educational game design. feedback questionnaires, completed by each participant individually, were completed at the beginning and at the end of both days. the participants were asked to fill out individual questionnaires that comprised open-ended questions and likert scales, and these included background information, their previous experiences designing games, their perceived 61 learning about educational game design acquired using the design principles and ideas to improve the design principles. all these resources can be accessed as open-source documents in myers (2021). ethical clearance this research followed the ethical standards and processes of the open university. the research design for each study was approved by the university’s human research ethics committee. results and findings this section presents the results and finding of this research — it first introduces evaluative data, presenting the results related to using the design principle in practice during two game jams. the section then presents the final list of the 13 design principles. questionnaires the questionnaires were used to assess the participants’ learning about educational game design during the game jam, and their views on the potential relevance and usefulness of the design principles to democratise educational game design. the first question aimed at capturing participants’ perceived learning about educational game design by using the design principles and used a likert scale ranked from 1 (none) to 5 (a lot) — the responses are presented in table 1. three participants (p), namely p5, p17 and p21, reported having some previous experience in the design of educational games. their responses are marked with an asterisk in the following table. table 1: perceived learning about educational game design by discussing the design principles perceived learning using design principles frequency participants 1 (none) 0 2 (a little) 0 3 (some) 5 p4–p5* –p16p19 – p20 4 (very much) 7 p3–p8-p9-p11-p14-p18-p22 5 (a lot) 11 p1-p2-p6-p7-p10-p12-p13-p15-p17*-p19-p21 as table 1 illustrates, all participants reported learning 3 (some), 4 (very much) or 5 (a lot), with 11 participants responding 5 (a lot). the responses by the three participants who had previous experience with educational game design were similar to the rest of the participants as two of them reported learning 5 (a lot) and one of them 3 (some), suggesting that these participants could also learn about educational game design by accessing the design principles. all participants, including the ones with previous experience designing educational games, reported satisfactory levels of perceived learning about educational game design accessing and using the design principles. 62 participants were also asked about the usefulness of the design principles to support them with ideas to design educational games. the responses per participant are presented in table 2. table 2: usefulness of the design principles per participants to provide support with ideas to design educational games reported usefulness frequency participants 1 (not at all) 0 2 (a little) 0 3 (reasonably) 2 p9-p22 4 (very) 11 p1-p2-p3-p4-p5*-p6-p8-p9-p14-p17*-p18 5 (extremely) 10 p7-p10-p11-p12-p13-p15-p16-p20-p21*-p23 this table shows that 21 participants reported that the design principles were either 4 (very) or 5 (extremely) useful to support them with ideas to design educational games, suggesting that the design principles were appreciated by the majority of the participants as a supporting resource to design educational games for social change. the participants were also asked to report on how much they would recommend these design principles to people who intend to design educational games. the responses per participant are presented in table 3. table 3: responses per participants on how much they would recommend the design principles recommendation to design educational games frequency participants 1 (not at all) 0 2 (a little) 1 p16 3 (reasonably) 1 p8 4 (very) 9 p1-p4-p5*-p6-p9-p11-p13-p14-p19 5 (extremely) 12 p2-p3-p7-p10-p12-p15-p17*-p18-p20-p21*-p22-p23 this table shows that in total 21 participants would recommend the design principles either 4 (very) or 5 (extremely), which suggests that the design principles were appreciated by the majority of participants as resources to design educational games. an open-ended question asking the participants to justify their response was answered by 16 participants. ten of the 16 (63%) described 63 the information presented as valuable, which is exemplified by p7 who expressed “lots of great information communicated in a very understandable way” and p14 who said “they are great to get information and think critically about how to encompass the social issue within an educational game structure”. p16, p19 and p20 commented that the amount of information presented for each principle felt like it was too much information when first received. participant p10 said that they were eyeopening on how complex educational game design is, p16 said that they present patterns to follow to design educational games and p18 expressed that the game elements were inspiring. regarding the practical use of the design principles, the main findings are that, first, they were perceived as useful to learn about educational game design and support groups with ideas to design educational games by most participants. second, that the majority of participants would recommend the design principles to people who intend to design educational games on social issues. and third, recommendations to improve the use of the design principles included reducing the amount of textual information. group interviews the group interviews were used to evaluate the application of the design principles into games and gather a general impression about their potential suitability to learn about educational game design. the transcripts of the interviews on educational game design were coded and categorised into the use of the design principles and feedback on the design principles. concerning the use of the design principles, all groups mentioned that the information presented was either ‘useful’ or ‘helpful’ to design their educational games. this is exemplified by p7 who said, “i think that they are really useful resources. without them i wouldn’t know how to do it, how to design a game that creates learning” and p9 who said, “to define the interactional model of the games these [design principles] are very useful, they help us define a structure – to define how to reach the learning outcome of our game.” another group mentioned that it was difficult to use them at first and suggested that a presentation illustrating how to use them with examples would have improved their understanding. regarding the collected feedback on the design principles, two groups suggested reducing the amount of text to improve the design principles’ layout. observation notes the observation notes were used to identify potential issues when groups used the design principles. the data reported that all groups needed clarification on how to use the design principles when they first received them. in response to this, the lead researcher supported the participants with information related to the objectives of the design principles, and why these were used as part of the game jam and used examples to support instructions. this enabled all the groups to discuss each of the principles and select the ones to be used in their games. based on the data collected, the following section introduces the design principles as an outcome of this research. design principles this section now introduces the final list of the 13 design principles, validated during the evaluative study. as presented, the objective of the design principles is to democratise the design of educational games to facilitate critical thinking and learning about social issues by supporting novice groups in exploring, understanding and implementing practices of educational game design on the topic of 64 social change. each principle is composed of a short description, together with insights on why it could be used to tackle social issues and examples of how it could be applied in games. these principles were presented in a flash card format, and the final set of 13 cards are published online and shared using open access policiesv. the final list of the 13 design principles is presented in table 5. the game elements could not be introduced in this table but can be found directly on the cards for each principle introduced above. table 5: 13 design principles design principle and subtitle example use to create social change use to design games game example 1. identity people's sense of identity changes as they learn studying engineering helps people develop their identity as engineers learning about inequalities can change the way people perceive life experiences players develop an identity through their characters experiences the sims is a simulation game that allows players to project their identity through their characters. it also invites players to explore different identities by playing multiple characters. 2. customisation people have different preferences about how they process and remember information some people learn better from visual representations than from text flexibility over how to learn about a topic helps people discover ways of learning that suit their skills and abilities games can offer a range of different learning and playing styles in the football game fifa, players can customise the level of difficulty and competition within their games. 3. co-design learning as an active process involving interaction with other people asking questions and discussing topics helps people develop their own understanding and learning social interaction enables people to learn from one another players' actions with characters or other players shapes their gaming experience the game nanocrafter is a scientific discovery game that invites players to explore biology and develop research ideas in an online community of experts and other players. 65 design principle and subtitle example use to create social change use to design games game example 4. manipulation and distributed knowledge manipulating things in an environment supports immersion and facilitates learning through exploration understanding cultures can be enhanced by visiting countries as well as reading about them critically engaging with other people and objects in different contexts enables people to question and extend their knowledge controlling characters and objects helps a player to become immersed in the game in quandary players lead a new human colony where they need to make ethical decisions based on the testimonials of characters they meet. 5. well-ordered problems solving problems in an increasing order of difficulty enhances learning learning dance steps before performing a dance starting by reflecting on inequalities in one's own life helps understand larger social issues the first levels of games help players acquire skills that are needed later in the game in dragonbox algebra 5+ players learn to solve complex calculations. they start with very simple sums before solving more complex equations. 6. pleasantly frustrating creating challenges that feel hard but achievable enhance learning playing sports against people at a similar level makes the competition pleasantly frustrating people feeling empowered to learn and act is essential for social change games adjust the level of difficulty of challenges and give feedback to players just dance is a dancing game with increasingly complex moves. 7. cycle of expertise developing expertise through practice musicians progress through their grades by practising and performing set pieces of music learning through cycles of reflection (theory) and action (practice) helps people understand social issues games create cycles of expertise through levels where players develop expertise at solving challenges codecombat is a game where players learn how to program. every line of code written has a direct consequence in the game that the players observe. 66 design principle and subtitle example use to create social change use to design games game example 8. information providing information when needed enhances learning (e.g., information just-in-time or ondemand) road signs are examples of justin-time information (information used directly) and websearch is an example of ondemand information (access more information when desired/needed) encouraging curiosity and reflection helps people make use of available information the rules of the game are available ondemand as a manual or just-in time as instructions spent is a game about surviving poverty and homelessness. players are given facts about homelessness and poverty to inform their decisions in the game. 9. fishtanks fishtanks are used to manage complex problems by controlling separate elements of the problem scientists study river ecosystems by analysing fish in a fishtank and gradually adding more elements from the river environment discussing acts of institutional discrimination helps people understand the causes of social inequalities games use fishtanks to avoid overwhelming players 1979 revolution is a game about the iranian revolution. players take the role of a photojournalist to explore the moral dilemmas of increasing complex situations. 10. sandboxes sanboxes are realistic learning spaces where risks are managed to encourage discovery architects create models of houses before building them discussing different perspectives encourages people to explore social issues and learn without fearing failure games offer sandbox levels where players can explore the game without risks bury me, my love is a game where a syrian couple communicates by phone message. the player messages his wife to help her while she flees to europe as a refugee. 11. skills as strategies people learn and practice skills better when they understand them as strategies for accomplishing their goals understanding the importance of practice and training everyday helps athletes win competitions people learn and practice ways of treating people fairly as a strategy to reduce social inequalities a player learns and practices specific skills as a strategy to win the game in the citizen science game, players learn about responsible actions to save a lake from pollution. 67 design principle and subtitle example use to create social change use to design games game example 12. systems thinking understanding how skills, strategies and ideas fit into the big picture help people learn understanding climate change helps people explain the importance of recycling understanding the shape of society helps people explain everyday inequalities knowing the objective of the game helps players to understand how to play it parable of the polygons is a segregation simulator used to explore the interaction between social group size and proximity. the players move four types of polygons to form happy groups. 13. meaning as action concepts and words are more meaningful when they are tied to personal experiences people's understanding of pollution is based on their own experiences of it using examples from everyday life experiences helps people understand inequalities games enable concepts and words to be understood through the player's experiences depression quest lets people play the role of someone living with depression. the game raises awareness of depression and suicide prevention. discussion this paper introduces an approach to democratise educational game design addressing a topic that stands as a social issue. this approach is grounded on critical pedagogy to propose design principles for supporting the inclusive participation of novice and diverse groups in educational game design processes. this paper focuses on the design principles only, although the game jams needed resources to support participants in other aspects, such as the ideation phase and developing the educational games (myers, 2021). this research illustrates the relevance of adopting the principles proposed by gee (2005) as a foundation to democratise educational game design, and to explicitly connect them with critical pedagogy to tackle social issues. the synergies between the principles of gee (2005) and the principles of critical pedagogy were revealed with the recognition that the ideas they presented were based on related educational pedagogies and were targeted at similar educational outcomes. it was also identified that these principles were complementary, given that the principles of gee (2005) presented insights on how to trigger learning in games, while critical pedagogy presented pedagogical techniques to improve critical thinking and learning as well as to raise awareness of social issues. this research argues that aligning gee’s (2005) principle with critical pedagogy by considering their similarities and complementarities contributed toward selecting, structuring and presenting information in an adequate way to democratise knowledge of educational game design on social issues. this research evidences the suitability of the proposed design principles from theoretical and practical perspectives. the theoretical perspective was validated by james paul gee and john lockhart 68 regarding foundational relevance of the proposed principles. the format and content of the design principles were confirmed as suitable to both support learning about educational games and to design them in practical terms during the game jams and the analysis of their outcomes. the findings of this research must be seen in the light of some limitations. the first limitation concerns the evaluation of the learning acquired by the participants of the game jams. the analysis of learning was conducted using responses based on the participants’ perceptions. therefore, the results can only be used as indicative measures and not as an objective evaluation of learning. perceptions of learning were considered relevant for this research, since the proposed design principles were developed to make participants feel empowered to learn and able to create educational games on social issues. another limitation is related to the number of participants, as the design principles were evaluated by 23 people and in london. arguably, applying the proposed design principles by participants in different contexts could reveal additional issues that would need to be considered to adapt the use of the design principles. these could include translation needs, validation and/or contributions to their content by local or regional groups and redefining the game examples to align them with regional experiences and popular games. lastly, the design principles were validated in game jam scenarios. using these design principles in other settings could present additional opportunities and challenges, such as exploring their potential relevance to be used to design educational games that could be launched in the gaming industry, and how (if at all) they could contribute to improving players’ learning outcomes about social issues. conclusion emerging evidence shows that diversity, for instance in age, ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, and gender, within groups of designers plays a crucial role in improving the efficiency and inclusivity of educational games. educational games have also been widely used as immersive, fun and impactful tools to raise awareness of social issues. democratising the design of educational game design on the topic of social issues by enabling broad audiences to create such games, stands as an opportunity to enable anyone to improve learning outcomes through gaming by sharing diverse and inclusive experiences, knowledge and perspectives. this study explored ways to apply and adapt educational game design practices and pedagogical techniques to be accessible and used by broad audiences, that include novice and diverse groups. this research contributes to the literature on educational game design by presenting insights on how and what kind of resources are needed to democratise knowledge of educational game design on social issues. it is argued that this information should address what could be done to trigger learning in games by presenting principles of educational game design; why this learning could be facilitated, from both educational and gaming perspectives and; how to implement these principles into a game. these design principles can support groups, particularly those that are novice and diverse, in owning and participating in educational game design processes by enabling them to access, apply and reflect upon specialised knowledge related to pedagogy, educational game design and social issues. in addition, the design principles can also be used to directly design educational games for social change and can contribute toward capacitating the potential of educational games to facilitate awareness of a social issue, critical thinking and potentially triggering a social change. 69 future investigation is necessary to evaluate the relevance of the participants’ suggestions to improve the design principles application. these include evaluating additional guidance with examples illustrating how to use the design principles. the design principles could also be applied to tackle social issues other than gender inequalities, such as racism, discrimination against the lgbtq+ communities, and religious discrimination, and their potential relevance could be rigorously evaluated. this research validated the use of the proposed design principle to support game jam participants in learning about educational game design and implementing such principles in their games. future investigation could build on these findings and explore the use of design principles to support groups in fully developing the games, perhaps in a context different from a game jam, where the games are more likely to be fully completed and implemented into the gaming industry. acknowledgement: this research was funded by the open university in the uk, through a full-time phd studentship with the knowledge media institute, supervised by the second and third authors of this paper. references amory, a. (2007). game object model version ii: a theoretical framework for educational game development. educational technology research and development, 55(1), 51-77. beetham, h. (2008). review: design for learning programme phase 2. jisc commissioned report. http://www. jisc. ac. uk/media/documents/programmes/elearningpedagogy/helenbeetha mreviewphase2. doc blunt, r. (2007). does game-based learning work? results from three recent studies. in proceedings of the interservice/industry training, simulation, & education conference, 945-955. national defense industrial association. brown, a.l. (1992). design experiments: theoretical and methodological challenges in creating complex interventions in classroom settings. the journal of the learning sciences, 2(2), 141-178. carvalho, m. (2017). serious games for learning: a model and a reference architecture for efficient game development. [phd thesis, technische universiteit eindhoven.] collins, a. (1992). towards a design science in education. in e. scanlon & t. o’shea (eds.), new directions in educational technology. nato asi series. darder, a. (2003). the critical pedagogy reader. psychology press. deen, m.f., nack, f., & haggis, w. (2015). diversity through specificity: design lessons learned from the games [4diversity] jams. in proceedings of the 12th international conference on advances in computer entertainment technology (ace '15). association for computing machinery. article 5, 1-10. doi:https://doi.org/10.1145/2832932.2832957 dempsey, j.v., haynes, l.l., lucassen, b.a., & casey, m.s. (2002). forty simple computer games and what they could mean to educators. simulation & gaming, 33(2), 157-168. elverdam, c., & aarseth, e. (2007). game classification and game design: construction through critical analysis. games and culture, 2(1), 3-22. flanagan, m. (2009). critical play: radical game design. mit press. fleischmann, k. (2015) the democratisation of design and design learning — how do we educate the next– generation designer. international journal of arts & sciences, 8,101-108. frasca, g. (2001). rethinking agency and immersion: video games as a means of consciousness raising. digital creativity, 167-174. freire, p. (2005). pedagogy of the oppressed (m.b. ramos, trans.). continuum. in p. freire & d. macedo (1987). literacy: reading the word and the world. routledge. 70 garris, r., ahlers, r., & driskell, j.e. (2002). games, motivation, and learning: a research and practice model. simulation & gaming, 33(4), 441-467. gee, j.p. (2014). language and literacy: reading paulo freire empirically. university of wisconsin-madison. gee, j.p. (2005, march). learning by design: good video games as learning machines. e-learning and digital media, 2(1), 5-16. doi:10.2304/elea.2005.2.1.5. giroux, h.a. (2018). when schools become dead zones of the imagination: a critical pedagogy manifesto. the wiley handbook of global educational reform, 503–515. habgood, m.p.j., ainsworth, s.e., & benford, s. (2005). endogenous fantasy and learning in digital games. simulation & gaming, 36(4), 483-498. kafai, y.b. (2005). the classroom as” living laboratory”: design-based research for understanding, comparing, and evaluating learning science through design. educational technology, 28-34. kennedy, h.w. (2018). game jam as feminist methodology: the affective labors of intervention in the ludic economy. games and culture, 1555412018764992. kiili, k. (2005). digital game-based learning: towards an experiential gaming model. the internet and higher education, 8(1),13-24. kultima, a. (2015). defining game jam. in fdg proceedings of the 10th international conference on the foundations of digital games (fdg 2015), june 22-25. lameras, p., arnab, s., dunwell, i., stewart, c., clarke, s., & petridis, p. (2017). essential features of serious games design in higher education: linking learning attributes to game mechanics. british journal of educational technology, 972-994. lankshear, c. mclaren, p.l., & mclaren, p. (1993). critical literacy: politics, praxis, and the postmodern. suny press. laurillard, d. (2013). rethinking university teaching: a conversational framework for the effective use of learning technologies. routledge. ledwith, m. (2015). community development in action: putting freire into practice. policy press. liao, g.y., tseng, f.c., cheng, t., & teng, c.i. (2020). impact of gaming habits on motivation to attain gaming goals, perceived price fairness, and online gamer loyalty: perspective of consistency principle. telematics and informatics, 49,101367. lindley, c.a. (2003). game taxonomies: a high level framework for game analysis and design. gamasutra: the art and business of making games. michael, d.r., & chen, s.l. (2005). serious games: games that educate, train, and inform. muska & lipman/premiertrade. myers, c. (2021). a framework to democratise the design of educational games on social issues during game jams [phd thesis, the open university.] https://oro.open.ac.uk/78558/ o’connor, d.l., & menaker, e.s. (2008). can massively multiplayer online gaming environments support team training? performance improvement quarterly, 21(3), 23-41. owen, m. (2004). an anatomy of games: a discussion paper. future-lab. plomp, t. (2013). educational design research: an introduction. educational design research, 11-50. prensky, m. (2008). students as designers and creators of educational computer games: who else? british journal of educational technology, 39(6),1004-1019. schrier, k. (2017). designing games for moral learning and knowledge building. games and culture, 14(4). schugurensky, d. (2014). paulo freire. bloomsbury publishing. slattery, p. (2013). curriculum development in the postmodern era. routledge. torres, c. (2015). simular problemas sociales con videojuegos. kepes, (12). 71 van staalduinen, j.-p. (2011). a first step towards integrating educational theory and game design. in handbook of research on improving learning and motivation through educational games: multidisciplinary approaches, 98-117. igi global. wilson, k.a., bedwell, w.l., lazzara, e.h., salas, e., burke, c.s., estock, j.l., orvis, k.l., & conkey, c. (2009). relationships between game attributes and learning outcomes: review and research proposals. simulation & gaming, 217-266. wouters, p., & van oostendorp, h. (2017). overview of instructional techniques to facilitate learning and motivation of serious games. in instructional techniques to facilitate learning and motivation of serious games, 116. springer. authors: christina myers is a senior research officer at the overseas development institute (odi) with the equity and social policy programme. she has been working for edtech hub, a global research partnership generating evidence and research related to educational technologies. her research explores the design and implementation of educational technologies and how they could be used to improve girls’ education, equity and children's learning outcomes. email: csmyersa@gmail.com lara piccolo is a research fellow at the knowledge media institute of the open university in the uk. lara is a human-computer interaction expert in socio-technical design and a senior lecturer in interaction design at code university of applied sciences. her research looks at the design and role of technology to engage people and communities with some global challenges like climate change, inequalities and universal access to technology. email: lara.piccolo@open.ac.uk trevor collins is a senior research fellow at the open university’s knowledge media institute. his interdisciplinary research focuses on the design and use of technologies to enhance teaching and learning. this includes the development of interactive web broadcasting to provide lab and fieldwork experiences at a distance, and the use of mobile and network technologies to facilitate the participation of students with disabilities in field courses. email: trevor.collins@open.ac.uk cite this paper as: myers, c., piccolo, l., & collins, t. (2023). democratising the design of educational games for social change: an approach based on critical pedagogy. journal of learning for development, 10(1), 55-74. notes i e.g., game for changes (www.gamesforchange.org), which is a label, proposed by a non-profit organisation, that encompasses games that have educational components and that intends to create social change. ii https://playspent.org/ iii see statistics: https://www.whitenoiselab.com/interactive/spent iv this framework can be accessed here: https://ordo.open.ac.uk/articles/presentation/framework_to_democratise_educational_game_design_on_social_issues/12458285/1 v the cards can be found online at the following url: https://figshare.com/articles/figure/educational_game_design_cards/7466879 72 appendix table a: educational game attributes, educational game elements and references educational game attributes educational game elements (ideas for implementing educational game’s attributes) references access to educational information • integration of voices • text • verbal communication • photographic content • link to external webpage • information about the game • information on characters • educational purpose • signs • reminders • indications • hints schrier (2019); beetham (2008); gee (2005); laurillard (2013); prensky (2008) assessment and feedback • scoring • ranking • tracking performance • numerical score • sensory stimuli (e.g. explosion as indication of result) • gaining/losing lives • progress bar • dashboards • virtual currencies • progress tree • rewards • feedback as motivation and information on performance • opportunity to learn from mistakes • feedback given by the game, characters or objects • self-evaluation feedback • one way to finish the game • more than one way to finish the game • incomplete or unresolved endings • hints on available actions • encouraging actions by a reward or penalty • tutorials levels with no consequences • repeat task or level when player loses • re-entry level schrier (2019); lameras et al. (2017); van staalduinen (2011); wilson et al. (2009); carvalho (2017); elverdam and aarseth (2007); kiili (2005); michael and chen (2005); dempsey et al. (2002) customisable game features • customisable feedback • customisable pace • customisable solution parameters (access to hints, etc ) • multiple player options (e.g. collaborative or competitive) • customisable level of pressure • different types of rewards • customisable appearances of character • personalised character names • time adjustment • increase or reduce the number of hints • tracking performance • customisable playing styles e.g. achievers (winning points), socializers (social interactions), explorer (discovering areas) or fighters (competition) • customisable learning styles e.g. visual learners (visualising information), auditory learners (hearing information), reading or writing learners (using text), kinesthetic learners (hands-on experiences) schrier (2019); carvalho (2017); flanagan (2009); gee (2005); lindley (2003) designers’ intentions • text or verbal recording on character design (cloths, gender, ect) • text or verbal recording on game environment (research, historical background, etc) • presentation of designers’ values • introduction of designers schrier (2019); van staalduinen (2011); flanagan (2009); gee (2005); lindley (2003) game objectives and rules • description of rules • access to instructions • game instruction • questions and answers • system rules • procedural rules • imported rules • descriptions of character’s goals • tutorials about character’s goals • pop-up information and reminders • illustrations of the consequences of player’s actions • irreversible consequences • replay opportunities • cut scenes to recap and set goals lameras et al. (2017); wilson et al. (2009); o’connor & menaker (2008); blunt (2007); amory (2007); kiili (2005) 73 educational game attributes educational game elements (ideas for implementing educational game’s attributes) references gaming atmosphere • fantasy adventure • trusting environment • realistic atmosphere • everyday interactions • authentic speech and dialogue • letters from characters • photos from the past schrier (2019); wilson et al. (2009); habgood et al. (2005); owen (2004) gaming environment • description of boundaries within the games • definition of time • definition of game scope • theme of game • genre of game • different contexts in the game schrier (2019); van staalduinen (2011); wilson et al. (2009); elverdam & aarseth (2007) goals • definition of gaming goals • definition of educational goals • short-term goals • long-term goals • missions within the game • map of the game • overview of strategy • description of characters’ duties • illustration of progress in game • illustration of character’s progress • descriptions of character’s goals • tutorials about character’s goals • pop-up information and reminders wilson et al. (2009); o’connor & menaker (2008); carvalho (2017); amory (2007); kiili (2005); gee (2005); garris et al. (2002) interactions • dialogue between characters • friendships between characters • listening to other characters/objects • non-verbal communication • physical interaction between characters • use of communicative symbol • romantic interactions between characters • dialogue between players • listening/speaking to other players • multiplayer features • community building activities between players • integration with social media platforms schrier (2019); van staalduinen (2011); carvalho (2017); wilson et al. (2009); o’connor & menaker (2008); amory (2007); dempsey et al. (2002); prensky (2008) learning activities • reflective opportunities • creative writing • memorising activities • labelling diagrams and concepts • incomplete statement • webquest • scientific experiments • brainstorming activities • open discussions • guided discussions • debates • calculation • question-asking activities • citation reading • creative expression • deliberation • persuasion/negotiation activities • reading activities • test skills in the game • access to explanations and training • mentoring by other characters schrier (2019); lameras et al. (2017); carvalho (2017); beetham (2008); laurillard (2013) players’ curiosity • unusual analogies • unusual situations • surprises • mysterious scenes • vivid visual • vivid auditory • mysterious characters • unexpected skills or abilities of character • counter-stereotype characters • unpredictable character personalities • character’s secrets van staalduinen (2011); wilson et al. (2009); amory (2007); garris et al. (2002) problemsolving activities • game levels • tutorials • increasing levels of difficulty • use of acquired skills or knowledge • structured problems • overview of the problem • problems provided by the player, other characters or game events • multiple ways to solve a problem • problems presented as conflicts • decomposition of problems • repeat challenges • interviews with characters schrier (2019); van staalduinen (2011); carvalho (2017); amory (2007); dempsey et al. (2002); prensky (2008) 74 educational game attributes educational game elements (ideas for implementing educational game’s attributes) references story and narrative • story presented through character interactions • story presented through environment exploration • introduction of a protagonist • introduction of the story • story plot (e.g. conflict, implications and resolutions) • perspective of storyteller • skip scenes • emotional stories • dramatic scenes • story premise • atmospheric music • sound effects • characters’ voices schrier (2019); lameras et al. (2017); wilson et al. (2009); o’connor & menaker (2008); lindley (2003) microsoft word zeybek.docx issn: 2311-1550 2022, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 190-208 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. investigation of pre-service teachers’ readiness levels for online learning and engagement levels in the online environment gülçin zeybek karamanoğlu mehmetbey university, turkey abstract: the aim of this study was to examine pre-service teachers’ readiness levels for online learning and engagement levels in the online environment in terms of various variables and to determine the relationship between readiness levels for online learning and engagement levels in the online environment. the design of the research is the correlational survey model, one of the quantitative research designs. the study group of the research consisted of pre-service teachers who were studying in the faculty of education at a state university in turkey. in the study, a personal information form, the “online learning readiness scale” and the “student engagement scale” were used as measurement tools. within the framework of quantitative data analysis, descriptive statistical techniques, mann-whitney u test, kruskal-wallis h test and pearson correlation technique were used. when the research findings were examined, it was seen that the pre-service teachers’ readiness for online learning was high in all dimensions; when it comes to engagement in the online environment, it was observed that they obtained high mean scores in the total scale, and the behavioural engagement and cognitive engagement dimensions, while they obtained a moderate mean score in the affective engagement dimension. in addition, it is one of the important results of the study that there was a medium-level, positive and significant relationship between pre-service teachers’ readiness levels for online learning and engagement levels in the online environment. keywords: online learning, readiness, student engagement, online environment. introduction with the introduction of computers and networks into our lives, developments and changes occur in many areas and make their presence felt in society. according to the digital 2021 turkey report, 70% of turkey's population actively uses social media, 77% uses the internet actively, and mobile connection usage is around 90%. while we use the internet for about eight hours and social media for about three hours on a daily basis, our tv watching time is around three hours (dijilopedi, 2021). one of the areas where changes are experienced most intensely is the field of education and training. technological developments have brought many changes in the way we learn, as in many of our habits; teaching and learning has become possible through new technologies and the internet, beyond the classroom environment. in this period, when digital communication opportunities are increasing day by day, it is mentioned that there are new tools that facilitate various learning styles and that can be used in classroom and virtual environments (ünlü, 2019; sarıtaş & barutçu, 2020). online learning has become widespread in many educational institutions due to its availability regardless of geographical location, its low cost, and the flexibility it provides to both students and teachers (o'lawrence, 2005; oliveira et al., 2018). in recent years, higher education institutions have 191 been providing access to course materials and course programs over the internet, and the application areas of online learning activities are becoming more widespread day by day. from both a pedagogical and technical perspective, the field of online learning is rapidly changing and evolving. researchers are expanding the concepts of what knowledge, skills, and attitudes are necessary for the success of online learning (watkins et al., 2004). one of the variables that are highly effective in the success of online learning activities is students' readiness for online learning (oliver, 2001). as online learning or internet-based distance learning has become more common recently, many professionals have begun to question whether distance education students are ready to succeed in this environment (watkins & corry, 2004). if individuals are not satisfied with the technology they use and do not feel ready to use it, then they avoid using this technology. for this reason, as new technologies emerge, it is important to measure the readiness level of the people who will use them (lin & hsieh, 2007). since distance education is carried out with technological support, it is important to measure the readiness of the individuals who will receive this education. readiness for online learning readiness for online learning has been defined differently by various researchers. according to smith (2005), readiness for online learning is “the state of having the motivation for learning, the necessary technological skills, the learning style and the knowledge, skills and beliefs necessary to manage one’s own learning in the online environment”. according to warner et al. (1998), readiness for online learning consists of three dimensions: “preferring online learning to face-to-face learning, the individual’s self-confidence in using the internet and computer technologies to fulfill his/her learning tasks, and the student’s ability to take responsibility for his/her own learning in the online learning environment”. according to oliver (2001), readiness for online learning is a structure consisting of “ability to use technological tools, access to technological tools, technology literacy and self-regulatory learning dimensions”. choucri et al. (2003) described online readiness as “the ability to demonstrate competence in the use of e-resources such as the internet”; on the other hand, borotis and poulymenakou (2004) evaluated readiness for online learning in terms of “mental and physical readiness for online learning experience and action”. hung et al. (2010) discussed online learning readiness with the dimensions of self-directed learning, online learning motivation, learner control, computer/internet self-efficacy, and online communication self-efficacy. because of the use of the scale developed by hung et al. (2010) in this study, these sub-dimensions were taken into account. in addition to student readiness in the use of online learning environments, ensuring continuity is a basic requirement in achieving the intended use of these learning environments. it is possible to say that learning begins and continues when students spend enough time in online learning environments, ensure adequate engagement, and interact with the content, teacher or peers (dağhan & akkoyunlu, 2016). in some studies conducted in recent years, it has been noticed that it is necessary to focus on the continuity of use behavior rather than the short-term use of various learning environments (alraimi et al., 2015; chen et al., 2015). it is considered important to increase the engagement of learners in learning environments in order for them to continue working despite the difficulties they face and to ensure their engagement in the environment (ergün & kurnaz, 2017). 192 student engagement the effort and time students spend in the learning environment is called student engagement. students with a high level of engagement strive not only to obtain grades, but also to do more with what they learn (kuh, 2009). according to fredricks et al. (2004), there are three types of engagement: behavioural, affective, and cognitive. behavioural engagement refers to various types of behaviour such as engagement in academic or non-academic school activities; it generally includes academic, social and extracurricular involvement. this kind of engagement is important in preventing decreased attendance or withdrawal from the course and in gaining the expected academic outcomes. affective engagement refers to all emotional reactions of students in the classroom such as interest, happiness, sadness and distress (stipek, 2002); in other words, it generally includes positive and negative judgments about the school, academics, classmates, and teachers. affective engagement is estimated to affect the willingness to do a job or establish a bond with an institution. cognitive engagement includes the student’s willingness to put forth the necessary effort to grasp complex ideas and difficult skills; it is considered as a psychological investment in learning (ergün & kurnaz, 2017). in this study, engagement in online learning has three dimensions: behavioural, affective, and cognitive. the emotional, behavioural and cognitive aspects of engagement play an important role in the learning process and social development. student engagement includes attention, focus, belief, interest and emotions that successfully motivate students to practise higher levels of critical thinking skills and foster meaningful learning experiences to achieve course learning goals and progress in their education (yehya, 2020). active student engagement is always a challenge for educators, regardless of teaching methods, and this degree of difficulty increases significantly in distance/online learning (ahshan, 2021). today, especially after the corona virus epidemic, online teaching has become a common teaching tool in educational institutions at all levels. however, in order for online learning to achieve its purpose and be effective, it is important to question whether students are ready to be successful in the online learning environment, and their level of engagement. this study is considered important in terms of determining the level of preparation for online learning, drawing attention to this issue, revealing the current situation and the need for improvement. 21st-century teachers will not assume traditional teacher roles in online or face-to-face education but will rather take on the role of facilitating learning and raising productive generations in education where students are at the centre (çatana kuleli, 2018). it is expected that the findings obtained from this research will be useful in drawing the attention of institutions and individuals who prepare and implement teacher training programmes, and authors and bookstores who prepare books for teacher candidates, to the need for online learning readiness. in addition, it is expected that the results of the research will affect the prospective teachers’ awareness of the role of the 21st-century teacher and enable them to organise their studies in order to develop these skills in their own education and will shed light on new studies of other researchers in the field. in the literature, there are studies showing that online learning readiness and student participation are important in creating positive learning outcomes or achieving academic success in online learning environments (carini et al., 2006; çakır & horzum, 2015; demir & horzum, 2013; demiralay et al., 2016; hung, 2016; junco, 2012; junco et al., 2011; kuh, 2009; latheef et al., 2021; mckeithan et al., 2021; vayre & vonthron, 2018). 193 although there are studies examining these two cases (readiness for online learning and engagement in the online environment) separately in the literature, no study has been found that addresses the relationship between them. based on these explanations, this study aims to determine pre-service teachers’ readiness for online learning and their online engagement levels, to examine these dependent variables in terms of different variables, and to determine the relationship between preservice teachers’ online learning readiness levels and online engagement levels. the internet, which is increasing in prevalence, is used by more than 65% of the world’s population (internet users, 2021). with the rapid advancement of technology, the areas of access to the internet have also increased. internet access is available from notebooks, tablets and mobile phones (durmuş et al., 2018). internet access and mobile technology ownership are rapidly spreading in turkey and the world, and the usage time of these technologies is also increasing. in order not to lag behind in the digital age, most countries develop policies for the use and expansion of the internet and mobile technologies, which have a vital role in information production. this is especially true of mobile technology and the use of the internet, which reaches down to very young ages, and also leads to a search for opportunities in the field of education (güler et al., 2017). based on this information, the dependent variables of the research were also examined in terms of internet usage time and engagement in online courses. in this regard, the sub-problems of the research are stated below: 1. what is the readiness level of pre-service teachers for online learning? 2. do pre-service teachers’ readiness levels for online learning differ significantly according to their average weekly internet usage time? 3. do pre-service teachers’ readiness levels for online learning differ significantly according to the tools they use to attend online classes? 4. what is the level of engagement of pre-service teachers in the online environment? 5. do pre-service teachers’ online engagement levels differ significantly according to their average weekly internet usage time? 6. do pre-service teachers’ levels of engagement in the online environment differ significantly according to the tools they use to participate in online courses? 7. is there a significant relationship between pre-service teachers’ readiness for online learning and their level of engagement in the online environment? methods research design the design of this research is the correlational survey model, one of the quantitative research designs. correlational survey models are research models that aim to determine the existence and degree of cochange between two or more variables. in this type of research, three different situations may arise when trying to find out whether the variables change together: there is no significant relationship between the two variables, the variables are proportional in the same direction (positive), or the variables are proportional in the opposite direction (negative) (karasar, 2009). since the main purpose of this study is to determine the relationship between pre-service teachers’ readiness for online learning and their level of engagement in the online environment, the research design was determined as a correlational survey model. 194 sample the study group of the research consisted of pre-service teachers who were studying in the faculty of education at a state university in turkey. while creating the sample, reaching pre-service teachers studying in different branches and at different grade levels was tried. the study was carried out in the academic year 2020-2021. the students participating in the study have been studying via distance education since the middle of the 2019-2020 spring semester due to the covid-19 pandemic. in the period when the study was conducted, distance courses were conducted through a learning management system called alms. therefore, the participants of the research have taken online courses before and are still taking them. the distribution of the study group according to various demographic characteristics is given in table 1. table 1: distribution of pre-service teachers according to their demographic characteristics gender f % female 169 74.4 male 58 25.6 total 227 100 branch primary school teaching 12 5.3 middle school mathematics teaching 26 11.5 pre-school teaching 76 33.5 guidance and psychological counseling 113 49.8 total 227 100 grade level 1st grade 84 37.0 2nd grade 115 50.7 3rd grade 19 8.4 4th grade 9 4.0 total 227 100 average internet usage time per week 0-7 hours 134 59.0 8-14 hours 55 24.2 15 hours and over 38 16.7 total 227 100 online course attendance tool desktop/laptop 149 65.6 mobile device 78 34.4 total 227 100 measurement tools in the research, an individual information form was prepared by the researcher in order to collect the demographic information of the pre-service teachers. in the individual information form, the gender of the pre-service teacher (female/male), the branch where he/she was studying (primary school 195 teaching, middle school mathematics teaching, pre-school teaching, guidance and psychological counseling), the grade he/she was studying (1/2/3/4), the average weekly internet usage time (0-7 hours/8-14 hours/15 hours and over) before starting the online lessons, and the tool used for participating in online lessons (desktop-laptop/mobile device) were included. in the study, the online learning readiness scale developed by hung et al. (2010) and adapted into turkish by yurdagül and alsancak sırakaya (2013) was used in order to determine the readiness levels of pre-service teachers for online learning. the process of obtaining the turkish version of the scale was carried out with 13 field and language experts, and the application process was carried out with 724 students from five different universities. within the scope of the adaptation study, the fivefactor relational model was tested as in the original scale, the gfi value was 0.94, cfi was 0.94, nfi was 0.92, and a perfect fit was obtained, where the turkish scale could measure five interrelated factors as in the original scale. these factors were: computer and internet self-efficacy, self-directed learning, learner control, learner motivation, and online communication self-efficacy. as a result of the factor analysis of the data obtained from the paper-pencil application of the turkish version of the scale, the correlations of 18 items in five different sub-dimensions gave significant results. as a result of the confirmatory factor analysis, the standardised factor loadings of the five different subdimensions of the online readiness structure of the scale items were found to range between 0.60 and 0.90, and they were found to be statistically significant according to the t values in the parametric test. in addition to this, the mean square root of variance explained for all dimensions of the scale was greater than 0.50 and was greater than its correlation with other dimensions. the construct validity study on the correlations between the sub-dimensions and the mean explained variance values yielded positive results. these results show that the turkish version of the learner readiness scale for online learning is a valid and reliable measurement tool (yurdugül & alsancak sırakaya, 2013). in the study, the student engagement scale developed by sun and rueda (2012), and adapted into turkish by ergün and koçak usluel (2015), was used in order to determine the level of engagement of pre-service teachers in the online environment. the adaptation study was carried out with 398 students who answered the scale. first and second level confirmatory factor analyses were performed for construct validity studies of the scale, and the internal consistency coefficient was calculated for reliability studies. as a result of the confirmatory factor analysis, it was found that the model related to the 19-item scale consisting of three factors, namely, behavioural, cognitive and affective engagement, showed a good fit. the reliability coefficients of the factors in the scale ranged between .62 and .90. the item-total correlations of the items in the scale were calculated between .265 and .658. the analyses showed that the turkish version of the scale is a valid and reliable measurement tool. data collection and analysis necessary permissions were obtained before the data related to the research were collected, and the data were collected from volunteer pre-service teachers who were willing to participate in the study. at the beginning of the data collection process, the purpose of the study was explained to the participants, the instructions for filling in the scales were shared with them, and they were asked to answer the scale items sincerely and objectively. in addition, it was stated that the responses to the scales would not be used for any purpose other than the scope of the research. later, data collection tools were transferred to the virtual environment and an internet access address was given so that preservice teachers could answer using these tools. all of the pre-service teachers in the study group 196 filled in the scale items completely. the application of the scales to the pre-service teachers was completed in approximately two weeks. the collected data were transferred to the computer environment in order to prepare them for analysis, and the analyses were carried out. within the framework of quantitative data analysis, descriptive statistical techniques, the mann-whitney u test, the kruskal-wallis h test for independent samples and the pearson correlation technique were used. the kolmogorov-smirnov and shapiro-wilk tests were used to determine whether the distributions of the measurements related to the dependent variables were normal for the statistical techniques to be applied in the research. since the statistical (null) hypothesis in the analysis was established as “the distribution of scores does not differ significantly from the normal distribution”, the calculated p value being greater than α=.05 is interpreted as the fact that the scores do not deviate excessively from the normal distribution at this significance level and that that the distribution is suitable for the use of parametric tests (büyüköztürk, 2007). accordingly, it was observed that the distribution of the measurements related to the dependent variables did not show a normal distribution in terms of the average weekly internet usage time and the tools for participating in online courses (α < .05). based on this finding, the mann-whitney u and kruskal-wallis h tests, which are non-parametric tests, were used for the variables mentioned. findings descriptive statistical techniques were used to determine the readiness levels of pre-service teachers participating in the research for online learning, and the results are presented in table 2. table 2: pre-service teachers’ readiness levels for online learning factors n x̄ sd min max computer self-efficacy 227 11.55 1.92 3.00 15.00 self-directed learning 227 19.08 2.56 11.00 25.00 learner control 227 10.51 1.75 5.00 15.00 learner motivation 227 15.31 2.07 8.00 20.00 communication self-efficacy 227 11.03 2.02 5.00 15.00 total 227 67.47 7.02 40.00 85.00 when table 2 is examined, the total mean scores of the pre-service teachers participating in the research for readiness for online learning are observed as (x̄ = 67.47); the computer self-efficacy mean score is observed as (x̄ = 11.55); the self-directed learning mean score is observed as (x̄ = 19.08); the learner control mean score is observed as (x̄ = 10.51); the learner motivation mean score is observed as (x̄ = 15.31); and the communication self-efficacy mean score was observed as (x̄ = 11.03). considering the min-max score range of the relevant scale, it can be said that the participants obtained high mean scores. the kruskal-wallis h test was applied in order to determine whether the online learning readiness levels of the pre-service teachers participating in the research differed significantly according to the average weekly internet usage time before starting the online learning applications, and the results are presented in table 3. 197 table 3: kruskal-wallis h test results for pre-service teachers’ readiness for online learning according to internet usage time when table 3 is examined, it is seen that the level of readiness for online learning of the pre-service teachers participating in the research does not differ significantly depending on the average time of weekly internet use; however, there is a significant difference in the sub-dimensions of “self-directed learning” [x2 = 6.997, p ≤ 0.05] and “learner control” [x2 = 6.625, p ≤ 0.05]. in both dimensions, the mean scores of the participants whose average weekly internet use was 0-7 hours were higher than those who had 8-14 hours of weekly internet use and 15 hours or more. the mann-whitney u test was applied to determine whether the online learning readiness levels of the pre-service teachers participating in the research differed significantly according to the tools they used while participating in online learning, and the results are presented in table 4. factor period n mean rank df x2 p computer selfefficacy 0-7 hours 134 111.34 2 .863 .649 8-14 hours 55 120.74 15 hours and over 38 113.64 total 227 self-directed learning 0-7 hours 134 122.27 2 6.997 .030 8-14 hours 55 109.46 15 hours and over 38 91.41 total 227 learner control 0-7 hours 134 123.05 2 6.625 .036 8-14 hours 55 98.53 15 hours and over 38 104.49 total 227 learner motivation 0-7 hours 134 115.63 2 .429 .807 8-14 hours 55 114.25 15 hours and over 38 107.89 total 227 communication self-efficacy 0-7 hours 134 115.20 2 .291 .865 8-14 hours 55 114.62 15 hours and over 38 108.88 total 227 total 0-7 hours 134 119.41 2 2.664 .264 8-14 hours 55 109.93 15 hours and over 38 100.80 total 227 198 table 4: mann-whitney u test results for pre-service teachers’ readiness for online learning according to the tools they used while participating in online learning factor tool n mean rank sum of ranks u p computer selfefficacy desktop/laptop 149 120.18 17906.50 4890.50 .042 mobile device 78 102.20 7971.50 total 227 self-directed learning desktop/laptop 149 116.50 17359.00 5438.00 .424 mobile device 78 109.22 8519.00 total 227 learner control desktop/laptop 149 110.52 16468.00 5293.00 .262 mobile device 78 120.64 9410.00 total 227 learner motivation desktop/laptop 149 118.46 17651.00 5146.00 .148 mobile device 78 105.47 8227.00 total 227 communication self-efficacy desktop/laptop 149 113.70 16941.50 5766.50 .923 mobile device 78 114.57 8936.50 total 227 total desktop/laptop 149 116.46 17352.00 5445.00 .435 mobile device 78 109.31 8526.00 total 227 when table 4 is examined, it is seen that the level of readiness for online learning of the pre-service teachers participating in the research does not differ significantly depending on the tools they used while participating in online learning; however, there is a significant difference in the “computer selfefficacy” [u = 4890.50, p ≤ 0.05] sub-dimension. the “computer self-efficacy” mean scores of the participants who attended online courses via desktop/laptop computers are higher than those who attended via mobile devices. descriptive statistical techniques were used to determine the level of engagement in the online environment of pre-service teachers participating in the research, and the results are presented in table 5. table 5: level of engagement of pre-service teachers in the online environment factors n x̄ sd min max behavioral engagement 227 19.04 2.84 8.00 25.00 affective engagement 227 17.91 4.33 6.00 29.00 cognitive engagement 227 31.18 4.18 16.00 40.00 total 227 68.12 8.89 42.00 89.00 when table 5 is examined, the total mean scores for online engagement of the pre-service teachers participating in the research are observed as (x̄ = 68.12); the behavioural engagement mean score is observed as (x̄ = 19.04); the affective engagement mean score is observed as (x̄ = 17.91); and the 199 cognitive engagement mean score is observed as (x̄ = 31,18). when the min-max score range of the relevant scale is taken into account, the participants obtained high mean scores in the total scale and the behavioural engagement and cognitive engagement dimensions; in the affective engagement dimension, however, it was seen that they obtained a moderate mean score. the kruskal-wallis h test was applied to determine whether the levels of engagement in the online environments of the pre-service teachers participating in the research differed significantly according to the average weekly internet usage times before starting the online learning applications, and the results are presented in table 6. table 6: kruskal-wallis h test results for pre-service teachers’ online engagement levels according to their internet usage time when table 6 is examined, it is seen that the levels of online engagement of the pre-service teachers participating in the research differs significantly depending on their average weekly internet usage time [x2 = 6.583, p ≤ 0.05]; in addition, there was a significant difference in the sub-dimensions of “behavioral engagement” [x2 = 6,905, p ≤ 0.05] and “cognitive engagement” [x2 = 6.389, p ≤ 0.05]. considering the aforementioned sub-dimensions and total scores, it is seen that the participants with 0-7 hours of internet usage obtained the highest mean scores, while the participants whose internet usage time was 15 hours or more obtained the lowest mean scores. the mann-whitney u test was applied to determine whether the online engagement levels of the preservice teachers participating in the research differed significantly according to the tools they used while participating in online learning, and the results are presented in table 7. factor period n mean rank df x2 p behavioral engagement 0-7 hours 134 122.22 2 6.905 .032 8-14 hours 55 109.53 15 hours and over 38 91.49 total 227 affective engagement 0-7 hours 134 119.99 2 2.797 .247 8-14 hours 55 104.00 15 hours and over 38 107.36 total 227 cognitive engagement 0-7 hours 134 122.85 2 6.389 .041 8-14 hours 55 104.77 15 hours and over 38 96.16 total 227 total 0-7 hours 134 123.24 2 6.583 .037 8-14 hours 55 102.53 15 hours and over 38 98.04 total 227 200 table 7: mann-whitney u test results for pre-service teachers’ online engagement levels according to the tools they used while participating in online learning factor tool n mean rank sum of ranks u p behavioral engagement desktop/laptop 149 122.76 18291.50 4505.50 .005 mobile device 78 97.26 7586.50 total 227 affective engagement desktop/laptop 149 115.12 17153.00 5644.00 .721 mobile device 78 111.86 8725.00 total 227 cognitive engagement desktop/laptop 149 120.39 17937.50 4859.50 .042 mobile device 78 101.80 7940.50 total 227 total desktop/laptop 149 120.49 17953.00 4844.00 .039 mobile device 78 101.60 7925.00 total 227 when table 7 is examined, it is seen that the level of engagement in the online environment of the preservice teachers participating in the research differs significantly depending on the tools they used while participating in online learning [u = 4844.00, p ≤ 0.05]; in addition, there is a significant difference in the sub-dimensions of “behavioral engagement” [u = 4505.50, p ≤ 0.05] and “cognitive engagement” [u = 4859.50, p ≤ 0.05]. when the aforementioned sub-dimensions and total scores are examined, it is seen that the mean scores of the participants who attended online courses via desktop/laptop computers are higher than those who attended via mobile devices. pearson correlation technique was applied to determine whether there was a significant relationship between pre-service teachers’ readiness for online learning and their level of engagement in the online environment, and the results are presented in table 8. 201 table 8: the relationship between pre-service teachers’ readiness for online learning and their online engagement levels b eh av io ra l en ga ge m en t a ff ec tiv e en ga ge m en t c og ni tiv e en ga ge m en t e ng ag em en t i n th e on lin e en vi ro nm en t computer selfefficacy pearson correlation .369 .064 .225 .255 sig. (2-tailed) .000 .339 .001 .000 n 227 227 227 227 self-directed learning pearson correlation .491 .213 .583 .535 sig. (2-tailed) .000 .001 .000 .000 n 227 227 227 227 learner control pearson correlation .546 .367 .486 .581 sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 .000 .000 n 227 227 227 227 learning motivation pearson correlation .454 .343 .477 .536 sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 .000 .000 n 227 227 227 227 communication self-efficacy pearson correlation .379 .134 .334 .343 sig. (2-tailed) .000 .043 .000 .000 n 227 227 227 227 readiness for online learning pearson correlation .659 .327 .632 .667 sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 .000 .000 n 227 227 227 227 when table 8 is examined, it is seen that there is a moderate, positive and significant relationship between pre-service teachers’ readiness for online learning and their online engagement levels (r = .667, p ≤ 0.05). accordingly, it can be said that as the pre-service teachers’ readiness for online learning increased, their level of engagement in the online environment also increased. in addition, it was observed that there was a positive and significant relationship between the dimensions of readiness for online learning and the dimensions of learner engagement in the online environment (p ≤ 0.05). discussion, conclusion and suggestions when the research findings are examined, it is seen that the pre-service teachers’ readiness for online learning was high in all dimensions; when it comes to engagement in an online environment, it was observed that they obtained high mean scores in the total scale and behavioural engagement and cognitive engagement dimensions, while they obtained a moderate mean score in the affective engagement dimension. when the relevant literature was examined, it was seen that similar results were obtained in various studies (chung et al., 2020a; chung et al., 2020b; küsel et al., 2020; priyadarshini & bhaumik, 2020). when the research findings are examined, it is seen that the level of readiness for online learning of the pre-service teachers participating in the research does not differ significantly depending on the average weekly internet usage time; however, it is observed that there is a significant difference in the sub-dimensions of “self-directed learning” and “learner control”. in both dimensions, the mean scores 202 of the participants whose average weekly internet usage was 0-7 hours were higher than those with 814 hours of average weekly internet use and 15 hours or more. the internet usage time mentioned here is the time that the participants spent on the internet before starting their online courses; it does not refer to education and training. therefore, it is necessary to look at the internet usage purposes of today’s youth as well as the internet usage period. knowles (1975) describes self-directed learning as individuals taking initiative in understanding their own learning needs, setting goals for themselves, finding the necessary resources for learning, determining appropriate learning strategies, and evaluating their own learning; garrison (1997) defined it as the ability of students to take individual responsibility in determining learning outcomes, cognitive processes and self-management processes. learner control, on the other hand, is the dimension of a student’s directing his/her own learning experience and process (shyu & brown, 1992). in the 21st century, individuals do not use the internet only to perform some transactions that will facilitate their daily work. they use it mostly for entertainment and having a good time, and spend serious time in social media (i̇nce & koçak, 2017). social media constitutes an important part of internet use among young people (obee, 2012). while the internet is used for the purposes of education, obtaining information and sharing, unintended and long-term use of the internet may occur due to the convenience it provides (yılmazsoy & kahraman, 2017). according to the data of the turkish statistical institute (2016), between the years 2013-2016, the internet was mostly used by the 16-74 age group for creating a profile on social media, sending messages or photos, etc. as their use of the internet of this kind increases, they have less time to plan their own learning, set learning goals, manage learning, reflect on all these and spend time on them. for this reason, it is a normal result of the research that the participants who had less internet usage time obtained higher mean scores for“self-directed learning” and “learner control”. according to another finding of the study the participants’ online learning readiness levels differed significantly in the “computer self-efficacy” sub-dimension, depending on the tools they used while participating in online learning. the “computer self-efficacy”mean scores of the participants who attended online courses via desktop/laptop computers were higher than those who attended via mobile devices. according to a study conducted by google inc. (2013), it was found that in turkey, 91% of internet usage via smart phone is for entertainment, 84% is for communication, and 68% is for the purpose of obtaining information. the use of social media with voice or video calls over the internet has increased over the years, and the rate of information usage has decreased over the years (güler et al., 2017). in this case, it can be interpreted that individuals who participate in online learning by using desktop/laptop computers use personal computers for learning more than individuals who participate in online learning using mobile devices, and thus their computer skills are improved more. when the research findings were examined, it was seen that the levels of online engagement of the pre-service teachers participating in the research differed significantly depending on the average weekly internet usage time, and that there was also a significant difference in the sub-dimensions of “behavioural engagement” and “cognitive engagement“. considering the aforementioned subdimensions and total scores, it is seen that the participants with 0-7 hours of internet usage obtain the highest mean scores, while the participants whose internet usage time was 15 hours or more obtain the lowest mean scores. behavioural engagement includes behaviours such as obeying the rules, solving the problems encountered, making an effort to learn, being able to pay attention to the lesson 203 and continuing and completing the given tasks on time. cognitive engagement includes doing research from different sources on subjects related to the course, questioning the information obtained while doing this, controlling the tasks performed, working without worrying about grades, and spending time and effort on learning. as stated before, today’s youth use the internet mostly for communication and entertainment purposes. individuals who spend a long time on the internet for non-teaching purposes will have difficulty finding enough time and energy to participate in behavioural and cognitive terms. the fact that as the duration of internet use of the participants increased, their engagement in the learning environment decreased can be explained by these factors. according to another finding of the study, the level of engagement of the participants in the online environment differed significantly depending on the tools for participating in online learning; in addition, it was observed that there was a significant difference in the sub-dimensions of “behavioral engagement” and “cognitive engagement”. when the aforementioned sub-dimensions and total scores are examined, it is seen that the mean scores of the participants who attended online courses via desktop/laptop computers are higher than those who attended via mobile devices. in the age we live in, it is known that students mostly use their mobile devices to communicate, use social networks, browse the internet and have fun, and that they use computers when it comes to studying and doing homework. for this reason, it is normal for students who participate in online learning via desktop/laptop to have higher levels of engagement than those who participate via mobile devices. according to the last finding of the study, it was seen that there was a moderate, positive and significant relationship between the readiness level of pre-service teachers for online learning and their level of online engagement. accordingly, it can be said that as the pre-service teachers’ readiness for online learning increased, their level of engagement in the online environment also increased. in addition, it was observed that there was a positive and significant relationship between all dimensions of readiness for online learning and all dimensions of online learner engagement. it is known that readiness to learn creates motivation, enables self-directed learning, and in this way, increases learner engagement and ensures continuity. it can be said that the significant relationship between the two mentioned variables may have arisen from these factors. universities had to change their teaching practices and provide the necessary technical infrastructure due to the covid-19 pandemic. however, having a good technical background does not mean that everyone is ready to use it (küsel et al., 2020). evaluating students’ readiness for online learning is an issue that many educational institutions and educators need to analyse. students’ readiness for online learning is not only related to technical skills in using computers, mobile devices and the internet, but also to how students perceive online teaching and their learning preferences. when it comes to readiness for online learning, all these variables should be considered together (smith, 2005). student engagement is considered important for learners to continue working despite the difficulties they face and to focus on the subject. studies show that students have high dropout rates in online learning environments. these rates can reach up to 90% in massive open online course platforms where students register voluntarily, unlike in compulsory education (rivard, 2013). for this reason, factors such as the grading of students on these platforms and the effectiveness of their attendance in the course should be considered. online learner engagement and interpersonal interactions with instructors and fellow students can improve student performance and also reduce student attrition rates (soffer & cohen, 2019). instructors in higher education should maximise student engagement to 204 develop high-quality learning experiences in online environments (fallahi, 2019; weidlich & bastiaens, 2018). based on all these reasons, besides ensuring the readiness of students for online learning, it is considered very important to take measures to increase their engagement in their course and learning. hergüner et al. (2020) revealed that students’ online learning attitudes have a positive effect on their readiness for online learning. therefore, in order to provide the learner with good online learning, it is an important need to create a positive online learning attitude. research findings by aguilerahermida (2020) revealed that attitude, motivation, self-efficacy and technology use play an important role in students’ cognitive engagement and academic performance. in the study conducted by erdoğdu and çakıroğlu (2021), the positive effect of humour elements in online materials on increasing behavioural, cognitive and emotional engagement was observed. in the study conducted by petillion and mcneil (2020), open communication and flexible teaching and assessment methods are recommended to ensure student engagement. online learning can provide an active social presence that encourages meaningful interactions with content and peers through active discussions, collaborative learning opportunities, group conferences, problem-based learning, and simulations that require students to apply new learning in real-life settings (weidlich & bastiaens, 2018). effective and meaningful teacher and peer interactions are essential to foster engagement for students (moore & shemberger, 2019). it may be possible to foster quality engagement through strong teacher/student interaction and meaningful student/student interaction. in order to increase emotional, social and cognitive engagement, it is necessary to understand the emotional skills and abilities students need, interact with students, enable them to become computer and media literate, which allows them to use online learning without technical difficulties, support students to network and share experiences with other students, and create technological collaborations. references aguilera-hermida, a. p. (2020). college students’ use and acceptance of emergency online learning due to covid-19. international journal of educational research open, 1. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedro.2020.100011 ahshan, r. (2021). a framework of implementing strategies for active student engagement in remote/online teaching and learning during the covid-19 pandemic. education sciences., 11(9), 483. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci11090483 alraimi, k. m., zo, h., & ciganek a. p. (2015). understanding the moocs continuance: the role of openness and reputation. computers & education, 80, 28-38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2014.08.006 borotis s., & poulymenako, a. (2004, july). e-learning readiness components: key issues to consider before adopting e-learning interventions. paper presented at the e-learn: world conference on e-learning in corporate, government, healthcare, and higher education, washington, dc, usa. https://www.learntechlib.org/p/1155 büyüköztürk, ş. (2007). manual of data analysis for social sciences (7th ed.) [sosyal bilimler için veri analizi el kitabı]. pegem academy publishing. çakır, ö., & horzum, m. b. (2015). the examination of the readiness levels of teacher candidates for online learning in terms of various variables. journal of theory and practice in education, 11(1), 1-15. https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/eku/issue/5464/74166 205 carini, r. m., kuh, g. d., & klein, s. p. (2006). student engagement and student learning: testing the linkages. research in higher education, 47(1), 1-32. http://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-005-8150-9 çatana kuleli, s. (2018). evaluation of pre-service teachers’ readiness level for online learning and computational thinking skills. [unpublished master’s thesis, düzce university]. chen, c. p., lai, h. m., & ho, c. y. (2015). why do teachers continue to use teaching blogs? the roles of perceived voluntariness and habit. computers & education, 82, 236-249. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2014.11.017 choucri, n., maugis, v., madnick, s., siegel, m., gillet, s., o’donnel, s., & haghseta, f. (2003). global e-readiness – for what. center for e-business at mit. group for globalisation of e-business, sloan school of management. chung, e., noor, n. m., & vloreen, n. m. (2020a). are you ready? an assessment of online learning readiness among university students. international journal of academic research in progressive education and development, 9(1), 301–317. http://dx.doi.org/10.6007/ijarped/v9-i1/7128 chung, e., supamaniam, g., & dass, l. c. (2020b). online learning readiness among university students in malaysia amidst covid-19. asian journal of university education (ajue), 16(2), 46-58. https://doi.org/10.24191/ajue.v16i2.10294 dağhan, g., akkoyunlu, b. (2016). validity and reliability study about predictive structures of continuous usage in online learning environments. ege education journal, 17(1), 198-224. https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/225066 demir kaymak, z., horzum, m. b. (2013). the relationship between online learning students' readiness for online learning, their perceived structure and interaction [çevrimiçi öğrenme öğrencilerinin çevrimiçi öğrenmeye hazır bulunuşluk düzeyleri, algıladıkları yapı ve etkileşim arasındaki ilişki]. journal of educational sciences in theory and practice [kuram ve uygulamada eğitim bilimleri dergisi], 13(3), 1783-1797. https://acikerisim.sakarya.edu.tr/handle/20.500.12619/73217 demiralay, r., bayır, e. a., & gelibolu, m. f. (2016). investigation of relationship between students’ personal innovativeness and readiness for online learning. journal of research in education and teaching, 5(1), 161-168. http://www.jret.org/fileupload/ks281142/file/18a..raziye_demiralay.pdf dijilopedi. (2021). turkey internet, social media and mobile usage statistics 2021. https://dijilopedi.com/turkiyeinternet-sosyal-medya-ve-mobil-kullanim-istatistikleri-2021/ durmuş, h., günay, o., yıldız, s., timur, a., balcı, e., & karaca, s. (2018). internet addiction in university students and change through university life. anatolian journal of psychiatry,19(4), 383-389. https://alphapsychiatry.com/content/files/sayilar/98/383-389.pdf erdoğdu, f., & çakıroğlu, ü. (2021). the educational power of humor on student engagement in online learning environments. research and practice in technology enhanced learning, 16(9). https://telrp.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s41039-021-00158-8 ergün, e., & koçak usluel, y. (2015). the turkish adaptation of student’s engagements scale in online learning environment: a study of validity and reliability. eğitim teknolojisi kuram ve uygulama, 5(1), 20-33. https://doi.org/10.17943/etku.64661 ergün, e., & kurnaz, f. b. (2017). the relationship between student engagement and sense of community in online learning environments. kastamonu education journal, 25(4), 1515-1532. https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/kefdergi/issue/30766/332498 fallahi, m. (2019). making instruction work for adult learners. in m. khosrow-pour (eds.), outcome-based strategies for adult learning (pp. 1-11). igi global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-5712-8.ch001 206 fredricks, j., a., blumenfeld, p., c., & paris, a., h. (2004). school engagement: potential of the concept, state of the evidence. review of educational research, 74(1), 59-109. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543074001059 garrison, d. r. (1997). self-directed learning: toward a comprehensive model. adult education quarterly, 48(1), 18–33. https://doi.org/10.1177/074171369704800103 google inc. (2013). our mobile planet: türkiye mobil tüketiciyi anlama. ipsos mediact. güler, h., şahinkayası, y., & şahinkayası, h. (2017). the penetration of internet and mobile information technologies: opportunities and limitations. journal of social sciences [sosyal bilimler dergisi], 7(14), 186-207. https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/386968 hergüner, g., son, s. b., hergüner son, s., & dönmez, a. (2020). the effect of online learning attitudes of university students on their online learning readiness. tojet: the turkish online journal of educational technology, 19(4). https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ej1272871 hung , m., chou, c., chen, c., & own, z. (2010). learner readiness for online learning: scale development and student perceptions. computers & education, 55, 1080-1090. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2010.05.004 hung, m. l. (2016). teacher readiness for online learning: scale development and teacher perceptions. computers & education, 94, 120-133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2015.11.012 internet users (2021). internet users in the world. http://www.internetlivestats.com/internet-users i̇nce, m., & koçak, m. c. (2017). social media habits of university students: a case of necmettin erbakan university. karabuk university journal of social sciences institute [karabük üniversitesi sosyal bilimler enstitüsü dergisi], 7(2), 736-749. https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/joiss/issue/32387/360236 junco, r. (2012). the relationship between frequency of facebook use, participation in facebook activities, and student engagement. computers & education, 58, 162-171. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2011.08.004 junco, r., heiberger, g., & loken, e. (2011). the effect of twitter on college student engagement and grades. journal of computer assisted learning, 27, 119-132. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2729.2010.00387.x karasar, n. (2009). scientific research method (19th ed.) [bilimsel araştırma yöntemi]. nobel publishing. knowles, m. s. (1975). self-directed learning: a guide for learners and teachers. association press. kuh, g. d. (2009). what student affairs professionals need to know about student engagement. journal of college student development, 50, 683-706. http://doi.org/ 10.1353/csd.0.0099 küsel, j., martin, f., & markic, s. (2020). university students’ readiness for using digital media and online learning—comparison between germany and the usa. education sciences, 10(11), 313-325. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci10110313 latheef, z. i., robinson, r., & smith, s. (2021). realistic job preview as an alternative tool to improve student readiness for online learning. online learning, 25(2), 208-232. https://doi.org/10.24059/olj.v25i2.2216 lin, j. s. c., & hsieh, p. l. (2007). the influence of technology readiness on satisfaction and behavioral intentions toward self-service technologies. computers in human behavior, 23(3), 1597-1615. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2005.07.006 mckeithan, g. k., rivera, m. o., mann, l. e., & mann, l. b. (2021). strategies to promote meaningful student engagement in online settings. journal of education and training studies, 9(4), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.11114/jets.v9i4.5135 moore, k., & shemberger, m. (2019). mass communication andragogy for teaching online adult learners. teaching journalism & mass communication, 9(1), 35-40. http://www.aejmc.us/spig/journal 207 obee, j. (2012). the ultimate teen guide. the scarecrow press. o’lawrence, h. (2005, june). a review of distance learning influence on adult learners: advantages and disadvantages. paper presented at the meeting of the informing science and it education joint conference. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228339127 oliveira m. m. s., penedo a. s. t., & pereira v. s. (2018). distance education: advantages and disadvantages of the point of view of education and society. dialogia, 29, 139-152. http://doi.org/10.5585/dialogia.n29.7661 oliver, r. g. (2001). assuring the quality of online learning in australian higher education. proceedings of 2000 moving online conference. (pp. 222-231). gold coast, qld. norsearch reprographics. petillion, r. j., & mcneil, w. s. (2020). student experiences of emergency remote teaching: impacts of instructor practice on student learning, engagement, and well-being. journal of chemical education, 97(9), 2486-2493. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.0c00733 priyadarshini, a., & bhaumik, r. (2020). e-readiness of senior school learners to online learning transition amid covid-19 lockdown. asian journal of distance education, 15(1), 244-256. https://www.asianjde.com/ojs/index.php/asianjde/article/view/456 rivard, r. (2013). measuring the mooc dropout rate. inside higher ed. https://immagic.com/elipary/archives/general/genpress/i130308r.pdf sarıtaş, e., & barutçu, s. (2020). digital transformation in education and students' readiness to learn online: a research on pamukkale university students in the period of pandemic. journal of internet applications and management, 11(1), 5-22. https://doi.org/10.34231/iuyd.706397 shyu, h. y., & pown, s. w. (1992). learner control versus program control in interactive videodisc instruction: what are the effects in procedural learning? international journal of instructional media, 19(2), 85-95. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/scott-pown-12/publication/258245258 smith, p. j. (2005). learning preferences and readiness for online learning. an international journal of experimental educational psychology, 25(1), 3-12. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144341042000294868 soffer, t., & cohen, a. (2019). students' engagement characteristics predict success and completion of online courses. journal of computer assisted learning, 35(3), 378-389. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcal.12340 stipek, d. (2002). good instruction is motivating. in a. wigfield & j. eccles (eds.), development of achievement motivation. academicpress. sun, j. c.-y., & rueda, r. (2012). situational interest, computer self-efficacy and self-regulation: their impact on student engagement in distance education. british journal of educational technology, 43(2), 191-204. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8535.2010.01157.x turkish statistical institute [türkiye i̇statistik kurumu]. (2016). household information technologies usage survey [hanehalkı bilişim teknolojileri kullanım araştırması]. http://www.tuik.gov.tr/veribilgi.do?id ünlü, m. (2019). international studies on improving the quality of e-learning environments in the digital age. journal of ufuk university institute of social sciences [ufuk üniversitesi sosyal bilimler enstitüsü dergisi], 8(16), 165-182. https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/1476301 vayre, e., & vonthron, a.-m. (2018). relational and psychological factors affecting exam participation and student achievement in online college courses. the internet and higher education, 43, 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2018.07.001. warner d., christie g., & choy s. (1998). readiness of vet clients for flexible delivery including on-line learning. australian national training authority. 208 watkins, r., & corry, m. (2004). e-learning companion: a student’s guide to online success. houghton mifflin watkins r., leigh d., & triner d. (2004). assessing readiness for e-learning. performance improvement quarterly, 17(4), 66-79. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1937-8327.2004.tb00321.x weidlich, j., & bastiaens, t. (2018). technology matters – the impact of transactional distance on satisfaction in online distance learning. international review of research in open and distributed learning, 19(3), 222-242. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v19i3.3417 yehya, f. (2020). promoting technology implementation learning paradigm for online learning in secondary education. global journal of information technology: emerging technologies. 10(1), 12-21. https://doi.org/10.18844/gjit.v%vi%i.4620 yılmazsoy, b., & kahraman, m. (2017). investigation of internet addiction levels of distance education students [uzaktan eğitim öğrencilerinin internet bağımlılık düzeylerinin incelenmesi]. journal of open education practices and research [açıköğretim uygulamaları ve araştırmaları dergisi], 3(4), 9-29. https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/403875 yurdugül, h., & alsancak sırakaya, d. (2013). online learning readiness scale: a study of validity and reliability [çevrimiçi öğrenme hazır bulunuşluluk ölçeği: geçerlik ve güvenilirlik çalışması]. education and science [eğitim ve bilim], 38(169), 391-406. http://eb.ted.org.tr/index.php/eb/article/view/2420/521 author: gülçin zeybek is an assistant professor at karamanoğlu mehmetbey university. email: gozkan80@hotmail.com cite this paper as: zeybek, g. (2022). investigation of pre-service teachers’ readiness levels for online learning and engagement levels in the online environment. journal of learning for development, 9(2), 190-208. microsoft word pant.docx issn: 2311-1550 2023, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 38-54 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. thematic and sentiment analysis of learners’ feedback in moocs harsh vardhan pant1, manoj chandra lohani1 and jeetendra pande2 1graphic era hill university 2uttarakhand open university abstract: in recent years, sentiment analysis has gained popularity among researchers in various domains, including the education domain. sentiment analysis can be applied to review the course comments in massive open online courses (moocs), which could enable course designers’ to easily evaluate their courses. the objective of this study is to explore the influential factors that affect the completion rate of moocs and unravel the sentiments of dropout learners by evaluating learners’ feedback. in the present study, sentiment analysis was performed using python programming and nvivo tools on the feedback of the learners enrolled in three moocs entitled introduction to cyber security, digital forensics and development of online courses for swayam, which was hosted on the swayam platform (www.swayam.gov.in). two instruments were used for data collection: (1) a structured questionnaire using a 5-point likert scale was administrated using google forms — the questionnaires have also some additional open-ended questions — and (2) semi-structured interview schedules with the domain experts. the feedback was collected using google forms and a total of 324 responses were received between april 23, 2022 to may 31, 2022. the non-probability sampling method served as the sampling approach in the quantitative phase in this study. during analysis, the findings of the feedback uncovered important dimensions of some peculiar factors that may be responsible for retention of learners, i.e., content localisation, credit mobility and latest trend courses that were less explored in the earlier literature. keywords: thematic, sentiment, analysis, feedback, mooc, retention. introduction moocs were considered as panacea for higher education during covid-19 by providing flexible education for learners. many governments in different countries are facing financial pressure in the field of higher education and its infrastructure, in addition to scholarships and student loans. so, several countries, including india, have advocated for massive open online courses, not only to educate students who work but also who live remotely or cannot access traditional university campuses for other reasons. however, the literature shows that online distance education has dropout rates higher than traditional education (xavier & meneses, 2020). understanding factors that influence learners’ education is a fundamental process to promote student retention. to do this learners’ feedback represents a vital source of information that can also be used by e-instructors in order to improve teaching pedagogies and training activities. the popularity and significance of learners’ feedback and reviews have increased, particularly in the covid-19 pandemic times, when most educational institutions have changed their teaching approach from traditional face-to-face learning to the online learning method. 39 as we know, the demographic nature of moocs is very complex, with learners coming from various countries, having different languages, castes and creeds. a large volume of information in the form of reviews and comments are produced through the mooc forums by them, regarding the course and other aspects of moocs. so, for the moocs analyst it is a complex task to analyse the sentiment of learners’ comments, so that he/she can take the necessary action to help dropout learners and increase the retention rate in the mooc platform. one way to overcome these challenges is by leveraging the advantages of sentiment analysis and opinion mining techniques (dalipi et al, 2021). sentiment analysis systems use natural language processing (nlp) and machine learning (ml) techniques to discover and retrieve information and opinions from vast amounts of textual information (cambria et al., 2013). the main goal of the current study is to evaluate the feedback and systematic reviews of learners enrolled in moocs entitled introduction to cyber security, digital forensics and development of online courses for swayam, offered through the swayam platform (www.swayam.gov.in) and to find out the actual factors that influence the learners’ retention in moocs using sentiment analysis. the result of the study could assist mooc designers to identify the crucial factors responsible for retention and, therefore, reduce the learners’ dropout rate by addressing those factors. related research sentiment analysis is not a new term. the origin of sentiment analysis can be traced to the 1950s, when sentiment analysis was primarily used for written paper documents (scott & buzzlogix, 2015). we have seen a massive increase in the number of papers focusing on sentiment analysis and opinion mining in recent years (mika et al., 2018). in table 1 the authors have listed some related work which has been published in top-ranking journals. table 1: recent published work and literature in sentiment and thematic analysis on moocs authors title objective/findings (aytuğ, 2019) sentiment analysis on massive open online course evaluations: a text mining and deep learning approach the purpose of our research is to present an efficient sentiment classification scheme with high predictive performance in mooc reviews, by pursuing the paradigms of ensemble learning and deep learning. (dalipi et al., 2021) sentiment analysis of students’ feedback in moocs: a systematic literature review this article is a systematic literature review on the use of sentiment analysis for evaluating students’ feedback in moocs, exploring works published between january 1, 2015, and march 4, 2021. this study found that the research has revolved around six areas: mooc content evaluation, feedback contradiction detection, sa effectiveness, sa through social network posts, understanding course performance and dropouts, and mooc design model evaluation. 40 authors title objective/findings (greenland & moore, 2021) large qualitative sample and thematic analysis to redefine student dropout and retention strategy in open online education this study finds a probability-based qualitative sample of 226 participants captured dropout subthemes down to a 5% level of incidence or frequency of occurrence. (sraidi, et al., 2022) a sentiment analysis based approach to fight moocs’ drop out this article explores new tools and methods (quality and machine learning) to analyse the different limitations and difficulties learners face in moocs. (xavier & meneses, 2020) dropout in online higher education: a scoping review from 2014 to 2018 this article presents a scoping review of the recent literature on the theme, focusing on dropout definitions, concepts, and models, study domains and themes, methodological approaches, and findings. table 1 shows the last three years of published research papers regarding the related work. although, aytuğ (2019) analysed a corpus containing 66,000 mooc reviews, the study is silent with regard to specified research questions. studies like dalipi et al. (2021) and xavier and meneses (2020) have found the various themes but these articles are based on literature reviews. although there have been numerous studies conducted on the topic, such as those by sraidi et al. (2022) and greenland & moore (2021), sentiment analysis has been able to identify the primary reasons for high dropout rates but identifying crucial factors that contribute to student retention remains a challenging area of research. so, it seems a further detailed investigation is needed. christensen et al. (2013) reported that the motivations for learners from diverse national cultures are different. in a country like india, where many languages and dialects are spoken, as well as in the swayam portal, where the learner enrolment graph comes first in all reputable mooc platforms, doing research in such an environment could strengthen the credibility of all the above research. content localisation, latest trend course and credit mobility may also be another factor for strengthening and retaining the learners in moocs (pant et al., 2021). these motivational factors are identified and published, after the findings of the various literature reviews (pant et al., 2021). given the earlier findings from the literature above, the researchers wanted to verify whether or not addressing these factors was effective in practice. to do this, qualitative and sentiment methods seemed to be suitable methods to understand the sentiments of learners regarding the given factors. so, this study mainly focused on exploring the influential factors that affect learners’ intention to retention in moocs using sentiment analysis with following research questions: rq1: what are the influential factors that affect learners’ intention to retention in moocs? rq2: does retention in moocs depend on content localisation, trendiest course and credit mobility factors? methods a mixed-methods approach with both qualitative and quantitative methods was adopted for the study. 41 sample the population of the current study was the learners enrolled in the moocs introduction to cyber security (10,440 enrolments), digital forensics (3,883) and development of online course for swayam (879 enrolments), which were offered through the swayam platform between january and june 2022, with a of total 15,202 enrolments. a self-selected, non-probability sampling method was used as a sample methodology in the quantitative phase of this study due to the vastness of the target population and the difficulty in collecting the sampling frame. feedback from 324 students was collected from the three courses of the swayam. the objective of the questionnaire was to collect the learners' opinions about the factors that motivated them to complete these moocs. a structured questionnaire using a 5-point likert scale was administrated using google forms. the questionnaires additionally had some open-ended questions. the language of the questions was in english and hindi and they were all translated by a language expert. instruments two instruments were used for data collection: a survey questionnaire and interview schedules. an online survey was administered to learners from different swayam courses viz. introduction to cyber securityi, digital forensicsii, and development of online course for swayamiii through a google form shared with the students between march and june 2022. quantitative data was collected through the survey with respect to the following dimensions: role of instructor for learners (ril), perceived usefulness (pu), behavioural intention (bi), content localisation (cl), credit mobility (cm) to promote e-education, perceived job performance, social influence and latest-trend course impact on e learning. the demographic data of age, gender and education was also recorded. qualitative data was collected through open-ended questions and interview schedules prepared for the experts who were actively engaged in the development of moocs for swayam. cronbach’s alpha coefficient was calculated for questionnaire reliability through the spss tool. the statistical value of cronbach’s α (given in table 2) was between 0.751 to 0.873. table 2: cronbach’s alpha coefficient of reliable variables used in the study beside the survey questionnaire, a focus group discussion was conducted for qualitative research. a semi-structured interview, with five experts who had designed and developed in various moocs 42 hosted on the swayam platform, was conducted to investigate the factors affecting the retention rate in moocs. data refining data refining is an essential process when analysing a large volume of text. this extensive procedure consists mainly of converting unstructured text data into structured forms (ban et al., 2019). the whole data refining process can be divided into five steps as follows: step 1: segment text reviews by language in an excel spreadsheet to facilitate further analysis. step 2: change the case of the entire feedback to lower case and removing special characters, stop words (words that do not add meaning, such as he, have, etc.) and the new line character in python (see fig. 1). step 3: exclude from the concerned subject all reviews, filled in by the users, that were not valid. step 4: with the help of an online translator, all reviews covered by this study were translated into english no matter in what language they were originally written. step 5: finally, with the assistance of an online spell checker, all reviews were revised in order to be correctly interpreted by further analysis software. figure 1: code for data pre-processing procedure for data analysis this work is part of a research programme to investigate the learners’ sentiments regarding the retention factor in moocs. the challenge was to develop a better and deeper understanding from the data collected, to improve the student experience of joining and learning through a mooc in the swayam portal. in order to accomplish the tasks online, a feedback form and reviews were collected from the enrolled course learners. a mixed-methods approach, i.e., using quantitative and qualitative data, was used and it collected data from google forms that were constituted in two parts. the first part was a 5-point likert-scale survey, with 25 statements about expected factors influencing retention 43 or dropout in moocs. the second part consisted of open-ended questions. the approach used for qualitative analysis was a systematic and novel multi-methodological procedure that combined word cloud visualisation (see fig. 2); automated thematic analysis and sentiment analysis in nvivo 12 and python. this integration of visualisations enabled us to identify five themes in order to analyse the factors of retention or dropout in moocs, and 21 sub-themes of relationships between mooc motivation and retention. the main themes of the learners’ feedback were identified by a manual study of each learner’s feedback. thereafter, an analysis of the text as such was performed. this was performed by using word frequency analysis (wfa) through nvivo, which gave us the number of times a word was used in the entire sample set of learner’s feedback. the more frequently a word was used in the feedback, the bigger was its size in the word cloud (figueiredo et al, 2019). sentiment analysis sentiment analysis is the act of computationally recognising and classifying opinions stated in a text, particularly to ascertain if the writer had a favourable, negative, or neutral viewpoint on a certain subject, item, etc. (onan, 2021). sentiment analysis may be applied to analysing learners’ reviews, opinions, sentiments and emotions towards provided education and services. this study contains review and feedback statements about mooc course experiences. thereby, as a means to reach the goals proposed by this research, it will be possible to uncover and classify any relevant semantic and emotional information regarding the retention or dropout rates in moocs selected by this study. results this paper's analysis and results reporting format adheres to theme analysis principles (e.g., maguire & delehunt, 2017). this paper has described the report of qualitative findings by using percentages. table 3 shows the result, including percentages relating to theme frequency. these results have then been further interpreted in the subsequent discussion section, which includes verbatim comments from some participants. table 3: main reasons and associated sub-themes to increase retention in moocs key themes and subthemes initial main motive % motive overall % base: 324 participants n n job promoted trendy course 30.5 45.4 18 147 high demand of trendy course. 8 52 perceived usefulness of latest trend course. 4 44 retention of complete course. 6 51 university policies and processes 20.3 19.1 12 62 credit mobility 5 24 placement policy 4 20 certificate credential 3 18 44 key themes and subthemes initial main motive % motive overall % base: 324 participants n n social effect 18.6 13.2 11 43 general family commitments (like health, geographical area, economic, etc.) 4 15 relationship and affinity. 2 8 past experiences of friends and family circle. 5 20 content and language 15.25 12.3 9 40 workability of english language. 1 4 localisation of content. 3 13 localisation makes translation skill redundant. 1 4 comprehension and retention in regional language. 2 8 english as a barrier in moocs. 1 2 content must have depth in knowledge as per market requirement. 1 9 technical support motivation 15.3 10 9 32 improving assignment techniques. 3 12 improving broadband connection. 6 18 key themes and subthemes behavioural intention as a predictors in respect of the intention to continue using moocs enhancement in learning interest due to the mooc. usefulness of mooc material in completion of course. prospects of local content in mooc course. prefer online learning table 3 presents the five main reasons (themes) for mooc retention, along with 21 associated subthemes. in this table, the frequency or number of mentions for each theme and sub-theme is provided. the second column shows the frequency of learners that listed the themes and sub-themes as their initial main factors for continuing in the moocs. these themes are presented in the order of frequency of mention/occurrence. the third column in table 3, referred to as “motive overall”, shows the frequency of all mentioned factors regarding learners’ retention in moocs, as well as those that the interviewer found worthy of probing. the percentages in column 2, initial main motive, therefore, relate the proportion of the total 59 participants that mentioned each theme as their main reason for retention in the moocs. in contrast, the percentages in column 3, reasons for overall motivation relate each theme's mention as a proportion of the total 324 learners’ motivation reasons given. 45 the thematic analysis identified key learner-informed motivations and associated sub-themes needed to increase retention in moocs (see table 3). frequency analysis frequency analysis was conducted in order to uncover the most mentioned words associated with motivation factors in moocs. this type of analysis is essential, especially at the beginning of the textual data analysis, since it can assist in identifying which factors are mostly discussed and assessed in the reviews. table 4: frequency analysis results s.n. job related motivation social and personal motivation course or module design motivation technical support motivation 1 job 3.30% advice 3.12% course 3.78% instructions 0.68% 2 government 3.16% friends 2.38% trend 2.12% improve 0.81% 3 policy 2.81% opinion 2.18% demand 1.78% assignment 0.94% 4 organisation 1.35% family 0.78% module 1.15% connectivity 3.16% 5 employment 0.97% relatives 0.72% content 1.11% instructor 2.12% 6 profession 0.92% interest 0.70% regional 0.99% teacher 0.52% 7 credit-mobility 0.88% parents 0.65% localisation 0.98% interface 0.51% 8 certificates 0.84% experience 0.64% syllabus 0.95% design 0.50% 9 credit-points 0.72% personal 0.58% knowledge 0.86% friendly 0.59% 10 credibility 0.68% individual 0.47% popular 0.75% internet 1.21% as shown in table 4, after conducting the word search query, unrelated words, verbs, adjectives, articles, conjunctions, prepositions, pronouns, and others were removed. only nouns related to mooc attributes were maintained. also, the word moocs, which was the most frequent noun in the reviews, was removed since it is not a mooc attribute but the mooc unit itself. the outcomes of this query support the selection of mooc retention or mooc dropout issues or factors. discussion the findings reveal the complexities of learning difficulties in moocs. this study also illuminates multiple motivational factors that influence retention rate. it was observed that there is no singular factor responsible for learners’ retention in moocs, nor is it influenced by only a single issue. when interviewed, many individuals mentioned the influence of multiple variables. however, as per the frequency analysis, table 5 represents ten preliminary overall motivators of retention. 46 table 5: the preliminary overall motivators of retention are presented below (ranked in order of frequency) ten preliminary main cause of retention and overall motivation factors 1st job oriented course 3rd perceived opinion regarding the course by learners 2nd high demand of trendy course 4th module designed as per market needs 5th content localisation 6th using broad band connection. 7th improve assignment instructions and support 8th user friendly interface of lms 9th government support 10th credit mobility these motivations (themes) were subsequently grouped into the following four broader categories, which are described below: job related motivation, social and personal motivation, course content or module design motivation and technical support motivation. besides these, 21 sub-themes offer new motivation insights and are discussed below in order of their frequency of mention. job related motivation such type of motivation arises when learners take moocs to acquire skills and knowledge that will help them in their current or future job roles. learners may be motivated by the prospect of gaining a competitive advantage in the job market or to maintain their job positions and advance their careers. almost half of the learners related personal motivations as the main cause of their retention, which supports the observations of earlier online education researchers such as beer and lawson (2017). within this category, a job or employment was the theme most frequently mentioned: 45.4% or 147 out of the 324 learners indicated that this was their most motivational factor (see column 3 in table 3). six learners out of 18 (33.3%) verified the same during interviews (see column 2 in table 3). for example: i prefer to join the skill oriented course to increase my job prospects. a few of these categories have been touched on in the literature. for example, earlier literature indicated that most of the mooc learners were working and their studies were related to their job and profession (bayeck, 2016; xiong et al., 2015). lu et al. (2017) reported that there was a significant relationship between course relevancy and employment and mooc users’ satisfaction and depth of learning. job satisfaction was a factor influencing turnover intention. government policies, like credit mobility and certification, were other motivations and themes mentioned, which accounted for 38.7% and 29%, respectively, of the students' initial main reasons for retention (table 3). for example: (a) i prefer the course which facilitates course mobility. (b) the weight of the end-of-term examination in the mooc adds value to an online course. the national education policy (nep) has made several realistic and reformative steps towards the encouragement of mooc education. for example, (c) credit points are an important aspect in the national educational policy. (d) i think, i had sustained in the course due to credit point, because, my job is transferable. 47 as per our study no previous literature has been found regarding this particular motivation. it will be interesting to find out in future research what percentage of mooc learners are employed and which percentage were motivated to acquire mooc certificates or receive benefits from credit mobility. social and personal motivation some motives found in this study were personal and social reasons — linked to family and relationships — and perceived opinions regarding a course. social motives were the most popular factor (about 13.2%, n = 324) to encourage participants to complete moocs. family circumstances (aldowah et al, 2020), personal interest (watted & barak, 2018), personal reasons (petronzi & hadi, 2016), and prior experiences (greene et al., 2015) are some of the reasons that can personally motivate or de-motivate learners. meeting new people (uchidiuno et al., 2018), having friends join a course, and connection with others (bayeck, 2016) affected mooc learners’ decisions to choose a course and complete it. in cases of concern about completion in a mooc course, if any learners were influenced by the perception of their friends, family members, religion or culture, then such types of factors could be studied in the mentioned categories. some beginners chose courses based on a combination of what suited them and what seemed to offer good prospects after completion, according to the opinions of their families, friends or teachers. they seemed highly motivated to continue their courses as the following example shows: my friends told me that the course is job oriented and very popular now a day, such motivation triggered me to remain in the mooc. during the interviews, four learners mentioned their main reason for not continuing their course as being general family commitments. in addition, five learners specified the category of perceived opinion regarding the course by other learners. course content or module design motivation course motivation refers to the potential of course structure, design, and content to cause learners to decide whether to take and complete moocs or not. in this study some motivations were revealed, such as module design as appropriate to market needs, high demand of trendy courses and content localisation, which 28.8% of learners (fig. 3) mentioned as the main cause of retention in their moocs. in these categories learners considered many sub-themes also, such as content must have depth in knowledge as per market requirements, and the course was covered as described in the syllabus, etc. (see table 3). one respondent explained that: i have completed this course because it is more practical, interactive and based on the demand of market need. it also gives the facility of translation of scripts in to my regional language. goopio & cheung (2020), aldowah et al. (2020) and said el, (2017) have emphasised the role of course design but all these studies provide much less information about specific motivation factors for module design, which 22.5% of learners mentioned as the main motivation cause when the course content had the depth of knowledge as per market requirements. for example: trendy courses enhance our creativity so i will always prefer to join the mooc course which are high in demand at market. 48 thirteen percent of the students were motivated because the course covered the prescribed syllabus, and there were easy methods for communication with the e-instructor. twenty-six percent were motivated through content localisation. technical support motivation this refers to the extent to which technology encourages learners to engage in and finish moocs. the current study found the following technical motivations: improved assignment instructions and support, and a good broadband connection. nine interviewees mentioned an internet connectivity issue and broadband network coverage issues, such as the following: i’m not sure online education is for the country like india, where 4g speed is just like 2g and in the rural areas like my village no broadband connection is available. however, it may be specific for some region and due to more number of mobile users. behavioural intention predicting the intention of human behaviour is an inherently complex topic that is related to the manner and reasons behind people’s actions. during the study, it was observed that different learners demonstrated different behavioural intention in the same subject matter. for example, to increase the perceived effectiveness of moocs during course study, group discussions with students were conducted on related topics with e-instructors. the behavioural intentions of the learners were different during group discussions in different subjects. for example, in the group discussions in the introduction to cyber security and digital forensics courses, it was seen that the rate of participation of learners was negligible in the digital forensics course. to continue with this topic one interviewee noted that: group conversations encourage deeper understanding of a topic and improve long-term retention. while one of the other participants countered that: the group conversation tool used in mooc confuses many learners. word frequency analysis cloud visualisation (fig. 2) about learners’ views indicated the most frequent words were as follows: job/trend/popular/market-demand/job–oriented (142), friends (45), opinions (40), content (29), and internet (26). the outcomes of the word frequency analysis validated the key themes and sub-themes which were investigated and have been discussed in the above section. figure 2: word cloud of mooc platform 49 mooc learners’ retention strategy — a framework for evaluating and responding to retention causes figure 3: conceptual strategic framework for evaluating retention in moocs 50 the literature provides a number of recommendations for improving the learner retention rate. for example, diego et al. (2020) developed a modelling framework to maximise the effectiveness of retention efforts. however, their data set in this research was based on academic and prematriculation information. additional data sets may supply information relevant to retention because student dropout is a context-specific phenomenon. in the context of developing effective retention strategies, de oliveira et al. (2020) reviewed the factors that prevented students’ dropout in higher education. but in more recent research authors have focused specifically on mooc-based factors that prevent retention, based on the sentiment analysis of the learners’ feedback. adhering to this perspective, figure 3, which is based on the outcome of this study, presents a strategic framework for evaluating and responding to the causes of retention within the context of a massive open online course. it presents a concise synthesis of this study's thematic analysis and proposed strategic retention perspective. it provides insights into the contribution of the factors that influenced retention in moocs. it also depicts the design and prioritisation of appropriate retention initiatives. the righthand side of the framework lists the four broad motivational categories (i.e., job related, social and personal, module design and technical support motivation), which are made up of the four key retention themes and 16 associated sub-themes. the percentages and the physical size of the pie charts and their segments reflect the contribution of each category and theme to the retention of learners. the right-hand side lists the four retention themes, and the sub-themes that reflect learners' suggestions about ways that could have helped them complete their course. lastly, the capturing of job-related and planned module design motivation, as defined in this study, could be used as a better motivational approach to students continuing and remaining in the course. evaluation of the above bulleted list in figure 3 represents the main reasons for dropouts and motivations for retention in moocs. these learners’ suggestions could prevent dropout from happening and could better enable universities to develop a student-informed retention strategy. conclusion in a densely populated country like india, moocs have experienced tremendous growth. however, they suffer low retention rates that cause concern for online educators by creating negative perceptions about online learning (stone & o'shea, 2019; tang & chaw, 2019). a considerable amount of research has therefore been investigated to try to improve retention. despite substantial research, a lack of in-depth understanding of retention in moocs has been cited as the essential problem, with more detailed investigation being called for (e.g., lamon et al, 2020; xavier & meneses, 2020; pant et al., 2021). during the covid-19 pandemic there was more need for moocs, so it will be essential to find out the retention factors, if any, and predict the actual reasons for learner dropout. the current research represents the value of using a larger qualitative probability-based sample, in combination with in-depth interviewer probing and thematic analysis to find out the factors of retention. the thematic analysis identified five main themes for mooc retention, along with 21 associated subthemes and ten motivational factors. recent studies have highlighted some particular themes, like government policies and trendy courses, along with some general factors, like content localisation and credit mobility. during our investigation, some common factors that had already been uncovered in earlier studies re-appeared, such as course content, social and technical factors, which validated the previous research with a different sample from a large context such as india (using a major platform like swayam) and with different demographic data. 51 as with most research, there were limitations in this study that should be acknowledged. in particular, this study only examined feedback from specific courses in swayam, which meant the results may not always be generalisable. other limitations included the limited potential for statistical analysis (e.g., cooper & schindler, 2014) which is typical within qualitative investigations. references aldowah, h., al-samarraie, h., alzahrani, a. i., & alalwan, n. (2020). factors affecting student dropout in moocs: a cause and effect decision-making model. journal of computing in higher education, 32, 1-26. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s12528-019-09241-y aytuğ, o. (2019). sentiment analysis on massive open online course evaluations: a text mining and deep learning approach. computer applications in engineering education, 1-18. doi:10.1002/cae.22253 bayeck, r. (2016). exploratory study of moocs learners’ demographics and motivation: the case of students involved in groups. open praxis, 223–233. https://doi.org/10.5944/openpraxis.8.3.282 cambria, e., schuller, b., xia, y., & havasi, c. (2013). new avenues in opinion mining and sentiment analysis. ieee intelligent systems, 18(2), 15-21. doi:10.1109/mis.2013.30. cooper, d.r., & schindler, p. s. (2014). business research methods (12th ed.). mcgraw hill international. cooperman, l. (2014). foreword. in a. okada (ed.), open educational resources and social networks: co-learning and professional development. scholio educational research & publishing. dalipi, f., zdravkova, k., & ahlgren, f. (2021). sentiment analysis of students' feedback in moocs: a systematic literature review. frontiers in artificial intelligence, 728708(4). doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/frai.2021.728708 de oliveira, c., sobral, s., ferreira, m., & moreira, f. (2020). how does learning analytics contribute to prevent students’ dropout in higher education: a systematic literature review. big data and cognitive computing, 5(64). doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/bdcc5040064 diego, o., jonathan, v., sebastián, m., jaime, m., & wouter, v. (2020). uplift modeling for preventing student dropout in higher education. decision support systems, 134. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dss.2020.113320. figueiredo, r., quelhas, o., vieira neto, j., & ferreira, j. (2019). the role of knowledge intensive business services in economic development: a bibliometric analysis from bradford, lotka and zipf laws. gestão & produção, e4356. doi:https://doi.org/10.1590/0104-530x4356-19 goopio, j., & cheung, c. (2020). the moocs dropout phenomenon and retention strategies. journal of teaching in travel & tourism. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/15313220.2020.1809050 greene, j.a., oswald, c.a., & pomerantz, j. (2015). predictors of retention and achievement in a massive open online course. american educational research journal, 52(5), 925–955. doi:https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831215584621 greenland, s.j., & moore, c. (2021). large qualitative sample and thematic analysis to redefine student. british journal of educational technology, 1-21. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.13173 lamon, s., knowles, o., hendy, a., story, i., & currey, j. (2020). active learning to improve student learning experiences in an online postgraduate course. frontiers in education, 5, 1-10. doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/ maguire, m., & delehunt, b. (2017). doing a thematic analysis: a practical, step-by-step guide for learning and teaching scholars. all ireland journal of teaching and learning in higher education, 9(3), 3351–3365. mika, v.m., daniel, g., & miikka, k. (2018). the evolution of sentiment analysis—a review of research topics, venues, and top cited papers. computer science review, 27, 16-32. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosrev.2017.10.002 52 onan, a. (2021). sentiment analysis on massive open online course evaluations: a text mining and deep learning approach. computers in the application of engineering education, 29, 572–589. doi:10.1002/cae.22253 pant, h.v., lohani, c.m., & pande, j. (2021). exploring the factors affecting learners' retention in moocs: a systematic literature review. ijicte, 17(4), 1-17. doi:http://doi.org/10.4018/ijicte.20211001.oa3 petronzi, d., & hadi, m. (2016). exploring the factors associated with moocs engagement, retention and the wider benefits for learners. european journal of open, distance and e-learning, 112-129. doi:https://doi.org/10.1515/eurodl-2016-0011 said el, r.g. (2017). understanding how learners use massive open online courses and why they drop out: thematic analysis of an interview study in a developing country. journal of educational computing research, 55(5), 724–752. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0735633116681302 scott, s., & buzzlogix. (2015). sentiment analysis 101. https://www.kdnuggets.com/2015/12/sentiment-analysis101.html sraidi, s., smaili, e., azzouzi, s., & charaf, m. (2022). a sentiment analysis based approach to fight moocs’ drop out. in networking, intelligent systems and security. smart innovation, systems and technologies (vol. 237, pp. 509-520). springer. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-3637-0_36 stone, c., & o'shea, s. (2019). older, online and first: recommendations for retention and success. australasian journal of educational technology, 1, 57–69. doi:doi:10.14742/ajet.3913 tang, c.m., & chaw, l. (2019). driving high inclination to complete massive open online courses (moocs): motivation and engagement factors for learners. electronic journal of e-learning, 17, 118-130. doi:https://doi.org/10.34190/jel.17.2.05 uchidiuno, j.o., ogan, a., yarzebinski, e., & hammer, j. (2018). going global: understanding english language learners’ student motivation in english-language moocs. international journal of artificial intelligence in education, 28(4), 528–552. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s40593-017-0159-7 watted, a., & barak, m. (2018). motivating factors of moocs completers: comparing between universityaffiliated students and general participants. the internet and higher education, 37, 11-20. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2017.12.001 xavier, m., & meneses, j. (2020). dropout in online higher education: a scoping review from 2014 to 2018. elearn center, universitat oberta decatalunya. doi:https://doi.org/10.7238/uoc.dropout.factors.2020 xiong, y., li, h., kornhaber, m.l., suen, h. k., p.b., & goins, d. d. (2015). examining the relations among student motivation, engagement, and retention in a mooc: a structural equation modeling approach. global education review, 2(3), 23-33. authors: harsh vardhan pant is an assistant professor at the amrapali institute, haldwani, india and is pursuing a phd in computer science from graphic era hill university, bhimtal campus, india. the key area of his research is in the analytical study in a distance education domain such as moocs. email: pant.vardhan@gmail.com manoj chandra lohani is a professor and head (cse) and campus director, graphic era hill university, bhimtal, india. as well as a phd in computer science, he holds an ms degree in cyber security and cyber laws. with more than 20 years in teaching and research, prof. manoj chandra lohani gives the bhimtal campus of gehu both academic and administrative leadership. email: getmlohani@gmail.com jeetendra pande is an associate professor, computer science, uttarakhand open university, haldwani-263139, india. dr. pande has published over 18 research papers in international journals, 15 papers in conference proceedings, and three refereed books. his research interests include cyber security, computer forensics, component-based software development, education technology, and open educational resources. he has been 53 involved in many projects as a principal investigator sanctioned by the government of india, government of uttarakhand and commonwealth educational media center for asia. he is a member of several academic and professional bodies in the area of computer science and distance education. email: jpande@uou.ac.in cite this paper as: pant, h.v., lohani, m.j., & pande, j. (2023). thematic and sentiment analysis of learners’ feedback in moocs. journal of learning for development, 10(1), 38-54. notes i https://onlinecourses.swayam2.ac.in/nou22_cs09/preview ii https://onlinecourses.swayam2.ac.in/nou22_cs09/preview iii https://onlinecourses.swayam2.ac.in/nou22_ge51/preview latchem informal learning and non-formal education for development colin latchem vol. 1, no. 1 abstract the following article examines the issues of open, distance and technology-based informal learning and non-formal education for individual and community development. it argues that these two modes of education, which are estimated to constitute 70-90% of lifelong learning, are insufficiently represented in the literature of open and distance learning and development. to ensure that these forms of provision take their rightful place alongside the mainstream systems of formal education, it is posited that far more research and evaluation is needed in order to demonstrate their potential and evince quality in their outputs, outcomes and impacts. introduction the launch of the journal of learning for development is to be celebrated on four accounts. firstly, this further affirms that learning for development is the overarching aim of col’s 2012-2015 three-year plan in support of achieving a number of the millennium development goals (mdgs), education for all (efa) goals, and commonwealth priorities of peace, democracy, equality and rule of law. secondly, this publication provides opportunities to examine and report on learning for development in sectors other than formal education. the literature of open and distance learning (odl) is overwhelmingly concerned with higher education, despite the fact that only 7% of the world’s population will ever have a chance to study for a degree. thirdly, this journal provides the opportunity to apply the broader principles of educational technology, as well as the tools, to learning for development. luppicini (2005, p. 108) defines educational technology as follows: a goal oriented, problem-solving systems approach utilising tools, techniques, theories, and methods from multiple knowledge domains to: (1) design, develop, and evaluate, human and mechanical resources efficiently and effectively in order to facilitate and leverage all aspects of learning, and (2) guide change agency and transformation of educational systems and practices in order to contribute to influencing change in society. reviewing 695 articles published in five prominent distance education journals between 2000 and 2008, zawacki-richter, bäcker, vogt (2009) concluded that research in this field is dominated by studies into computer-based education and instructional design while such issues as cultural factors, inter-institutional collaboration, leading and managing change and innovation, costing, professional development and quality are ‘dreadfully neglected.’ while many applications of learning for development make use of information and communications technology (ict) and mass media, as shown in the examples in this article, those that succeed also evidence careful consideration of the learners’ needs and circumstances, instructional design and other systems that appeal to and support the learners. fourthly, this journal provides a tabula rasa upon which all of those practitioners and researchers committed to learning for human and community development can give full expression to their thoughts, ideas, experiences and findings in regard to this all-important dimension of lifelong learning. maximising human potential the idea that societies can be improved by direct human action is relatively new. it owes much to the early 19th-century social theorists who held that advances in technology, science, and social organisation inevitably lead to improvement in the human condition and marxist and post-modernist beliefs in the need for the constant disturbance of social conditions and the power of individuals and groups with the aid of knowledge, technology and experimentation to reshape their societies. such thinking has certainly made life better for countless millions over the past 200 years. however, the fact remains that 85.4% of the world's population lives in developing countries in which millions of children, more than half of them girls, still miss out on even the most basic schooling, nearly a billion people are still incapable of reading a book or writing their own names, almost half the world’s people still live on less than us$2.50 a day, and 1.2 billion 15 24 year olds represent 40% of the world’s unemployed (world economic forum, 2012). such inequitable access to educational opportunity fosters social unrest and hinders the realisation of untapped human potential that is so critical to development. most people’s learning throughout their lifespans is informal, occuring in family, community and work settings (jeffs and smith, 1997, 2005, 2011) and much of what they also learn is by means of non-formal education. unesco (1997, p. 41) defines non-formal education as: “organised and sustained educational activities that do not correspond exactly to the definition of formal education [and] may have differing durations and may or may not confer certification.” as the council for europe (2000) acknowledges, formal educational systems alone cannot respond to the challenges of modern society. they require reinforcement by non-formal educational practices and non-formal education needs to be a de facto partner in the lifelong process and accessible for all. these two collateral sometimes blurring forms of learning, informal learning and non-formal education, provide the basis for that critically important and enduring attitude: the desire to go on learning. however, despite their importance, it is difficult to find research findings or case studies regarding these means of learning for development, particularly in the context of developing countries. this article therefore aims to help set the research agenda by examining the issues, conceptual frameworks and interventions in this field. informal learning in the case of formal education, the goals, locations and methods are externally determined by the educational or training providers. in informal learning, the aims and pursuit of knowledge or skills are individually or group determined (cofer, 2000) and it is commonly estimated that 70-90% of human learning falls into this category. based upon a year-long study in the us, the national science foundation-funded life center developed a representation of the percentage of their waking hours that americans spend in formal and informal learning environments throughout their lifespan (see figure 1). it is important to note that much of the intermittent formal learning throughout people’s working life shown in this figure may well be non-formal in nature. basing his findings on a two-year study, cofer (2000) calculated that each hour of formal learning gives rise to four hours of informal learning a 4:1 ratio. figure 1. estimated time spent in formal and informal learning environments (life center: stevens, r. bransford, j. & stevens, a., 2005) coffield (2000) opines that informal learning should not be regarded as an inferior form of learning or a mere precursor to formal learning, but as fundamental and valuable in its own right. erault (2000) posits that there are three forms of informal learning: incidental and implicit, in which new facts, ideas and behaviours are learned without any conscious attempts or explicit knowledge of what is being learned; reactive,in which learning is explicit but virtually spontaneous; and deliberate, wherein there is clear intention to acquire new knowledge or skills. these three forms of learning are so much part of everyday life that they are rarely recognised as learning, but they form the basis for that critically important enduring attitude; the desire to learn and go on learning. incidental and implicit learning hague and logan (2009) observe that encouraging and supporting self-directed informal learning is important to development. it helps individuals and groups face economic, technological and social change, improve their health and life expectancy, achieve greater self-efficacy, self-confidence, well-being and happiness, and develop shared norms and values. part of being an effective facilitator of informal learning (and non-formal education) involves understanding how adults learn best. knowles (1984) suggests that adult learners: are internally motivated and self-directed bring life experiences and knowledge to their learning experiences are goal oriented are relevancy oriented are practical like to be respected. however, in developing countries and traditional cultures learning for development not only requires adherence to these principles but appreciation of how beliefs, ideas, behaviours and practices are transmitted from one individual to another, from one community to another, and from one generation to another (phillips and vaughn, 2009). while caution is needed to avoid the kinds of labeling and stereotyping which diminish people, educational and training providers may need to consider hofstede’s (1997; 2001) five dimensions of culture. the first of these is power distance how people understand their place in the system. the second is individualism vs. collectivism the extent to which there is strong group cohesion and a high degree of loyalty and respect for other members of the group. the third is masculinity vs. femininity the traditional male or female values and roles in society. the fourth is uncertainty avoidance the degree to which people seek rules, order and ‘collective truth’. the fifth is long vs. short term orientation the importance that societies place on tradition, the present and the future. these cultural dimensions can explain observed differences in learning styles in non-industrialised societies and western countries. in pre-colonial africa, the foundations of indigenous education were preparedness, functionalism, communalism, perennialism and holisticism (adeyemi and adeyinka, 2003). indigenous knowledge was generated by local communities in response to the particular physiological, agricultural, ecological, socio-economic, cultural and political challenges they faced (fasokun, katahoire & oduaran, 2005). and education was concerned with the expected roles in society. girls were socialised to serve their husbands, care for the home, teach their daughters the rudiments of home keeping and work on the farms. boys were trained in whatever the particular ethnic groups, clans or families depended upon for their livelihoods — hunting, herding or farming (marah, 2006). both ninnes (1991) — writing about informal learning in the solomons —and grimes and crawford (2011) — describing learning in australia’s remote traditional aboriginal communities — note that this occurs through observation, imitation and trial and error in real life settings, respects common themes of law, land, language, kinship, identity, ceremony and autonomy and is significantly determined by the status of the person holding and imparting the knowledge. the northwest indian applied research institute (undated) explains that traditional american northwest indian values, behaviours and learning are permeated by a sense of belonging, group solidarity and security and consensus rather than competing for personal advantage. the focus is on ‘being’ rather than ‘becoming’,listening is preferred to speaking and the emphasis is on affective communication, unfamiliar personal encounters are treated with caution and the orientation is to the present and immediate tasks to hand. things happen when they are ready to happen. grimes and crawford (2011) warn that failure to acknowledge the educational implications of such findings can lead to misunderstanding, mistrust and rejection. informal learners’ experiences of, and attitudes towards, educational technology also need to be considered from cultural and generational perspectives. technology is neither culture-blind nor culture mitigating (phillips and vaughn, op cit). in the uk, 79% of adults report that they average 8½ hours a week on some form of technology-enhanced informal learning, mainly at home (hague and logan, 2009). in canada, 90% percent of 8-year-olds use computers, 60% have mastered apps on cell phones or tablets, and 10% already use educational software and 6% use computers for their homework (conrad, 2013). in the us, the average 8-18 year old spends over 7 hours a day watching tv and using digital devices, as much time as they spend in formal schooling (rideout, foehr and roberts, 2010). research in denmark, shows that so motivated to use ict are pre-school children that if they are unable to receive help from their parents and teachers, they experiment or consult with their peers, both of which actions serve them well when starting school (sørensen, danielsen and nielsen, 2007). sugata mitra’s hole-in-the-wall experiments in india have shown that within a month of embedding computers in the walls of slums, local children without any prior experience or adult support are capable of browsing the internet, cutting and pasting, dragging and dropping items, creating folders, playing games and starting to use the internet for learning. dangwal and kapur (2008) attribute this to children’s inherent desire to make sense of the world, recognition of the importance of ict and use of collaborative and trial and error learning without fear of making mistakes. sefton-green (2004) concludes that technology-enhanced informal learning is an integral part of children’s education because it not only develops technical knowledge and skills but is constructivist (enabling them to reflect upon and construct their own understanding of the world), experiential (involving behavioural and affective as well as cognitive dimensions) and situated (joining and learning from online communities through social media). these are the very attributes needed for learning for development, for self-directed individuals to break out of the confines of traditional learning and use, share or create information in innovative ways and, thus, become force multipliers in their own environments (malyn-smith, 2004). however, it must always be remembered that there are still many parts of the world where limited access to computers and the internet limits children’s and adults’ opportunities for informal learning to be influenced and supported in these ways. the mass media are another powerful means of incidental and implicit learning. recognising that television viewing is a popular activity for pre-school children, the producers of such series as sesame street, and local variations like takalani sesame in south africa and galli galli sim sim in india, combine child development concepts with innovative production techniques to provide informal learning for pre-schoolers in basic numeracy, literacy and social and motor skills development. tv programmes can also be designed to stimulate older children’s experiential learning by encouraging visits to zoos and museums and creativity, critical thinking, and consideration of ethical issues. when it comes to adult audiences, katz, blumler, and gurevitch (1974) suggest that people not only turn to the mass media for entertainment or relaxation but to fulfill their needs for: information about society (through news, current affairs and documentaries); sense of identity (seeking behavioural models in magazines and soaps); and integration and social interaction (learning about other people’s circumstances through novels, films and tv drama). there are also films and television series that are more intentionally educational. david attenborough’s wildlife programmes are recognised as a globally significant source of informal learning in the biological and environmental sciences (dingwall and aldridge, 2006), al gore’s an inconvenient truth has done much to raise global awareness of climate change; (marcus & stoddard, 2009) and ken burns’ tv documentary series, the civil war brought that period of us history alive for millions worldwide. all such programmes enlarge peoples’ experiences and encourage them to discuss these issues with others. reactive learning because role models in the mass media strongly influence cultural attitudes and behavior, radio and tv ‘soap operas’ can be used to achieve scarcely noticed acculturation and impart pro-social values (ryerson, 2007). the telenovelas pioneered in latin america by mexican writer-producer-director miguel sabido both promoted social development goals and appealed to mass audiences because their story lines were full of emotion, conflict and suspense. so popular was one of these soaps, simplemente, which was designed to promote literacy that when the storyline had maría marrying her literacy teacher, 10,000 fans gathered outside the church where the wedding sequence was being filmed, all in their sunday best with gifts for the ‘newlyweds’. another telenovela using the sabido method promoted the personal benefits of family planning and led to greatly increased numbers of phone calls requesting family planning, voluntary workers, women enrolling in the national family planning clinics, sales of contraceptives and mexico receiving the 1986 united nations population prize for achieving the foremost population success story in the world. invited to india, sabido developed another tv series on caste and the empowerment of women. in this soap opera which regularly attracted audiences of over 50 million, a girl from a hindu family fell in love with a muslim boy and a young man wanted to marry a woman from a lower caste. at the end of each episode, the leading actor encouraged viewers to discuss the issues raised in the programme and during the programme’s run, he received over 400,000 letters from young viewers pleading with him to convince their parents to let them marry the man or woman of their choice (singhal, rogers and brown, 1993). similar entertainment-education strategies are employed on radio and tv across the globe. every week, seven million kenyans watch a serial called makutano junction in which the characters behave in ways not uncommon to the viewers, such as errant husbands spending money on alcohol rather than life-saving medicine for their children. an sms/text interface and website enables viewers to obtain follow-up information and put personal questions to experts (bansal, 2012). in 1994 taliban attempts to ban a radio soap promoting women's rights failed because so many talibs were themselves enjoying the programme (hegarty, 2012). nor should it be forgotten, as haque (2012) observes, that in the developing world there are centuries-old traditions of using cultural forms to educate people. so providers of informal learning can also make use of street theatre, music, dance, puppetry and poetry to bring people together, present alternative viewpoints, stimulate discussion and build collective commitment to change. dancer, researcher and social worker sangeeta isvaran (2004) describes her work for unesco, world vision, oxfam, handicap international and other ngos, in which she uses the performing arts and role-plays to strengthen bonds within and between communities and for the purposes of hiv/aids and health education, empowering and rehabilitating sex-workers and healing for survivors of natural disasters. deliberate learning again, a variety of media and methods can be employed to motivate and teach deliberate informal learners. for example, in india, combining same-language subtitling (sls) with the showing of bollywood movies on tv provides over 200 million early-literates with 30 minutes of weekly reading practice at a yearly cost of us$1 per 10,000 people. because these programmes have a particularly high appeal to women, this makes a strong contribution to the advance of female literacy (kothari, 2005). but it is radio which remains the most ubiquitous tool for reaching those on the margins of society in the developing world. sets cost as little as us$5, are portable, run on batteries and can be used for individual or group learning by illiterate, semi-literate and minority language groups. community radio, with its advantages of being local, having the listeners’ trust and enabling the voices of communities to be heard is used widely in africa, the asia-pacific region, the caribbean and latin america to raise local awareness of issues and educate listeners through drama, music, interviews, discussions, phone-ins and reports from the field. ponti (2011) shows that a shift from the subject-authority pattern of education to an agential pattern of peer-based education results in more invested learning, so community radio is particularly valuable when it is interactive. mudzi wathu community radio in malawi transmits weekly maternal and child health programmes with follow-up discussions by women’s listening and learning clubs facilitated by specially trained local women (pringle, rosato and simbi, 2010). in a number of countries, including sri lanka, afghanistan, kenya, sierra leone and columbia, radio plays a valuable role in peace-building and community reconciliation in the wake of war and civil conflict. for example, in uganda, the community-owned radio apac invited youths, women, politicians, the police, community elders and former lord’s resistance army (lra) rebels into the studio to respond to comments and questions from the listeners and mediate the opposing views to teach tolerance and reconciliation (baksh and munro, 2009). evaluating the agricultural development programmes provided by 25 radio stations in ghana, malawi, mali, tanzania and uganda, the 2007-2010 african farm radio research initiative (afrri) found that dialogic programmes involving broadcasters, farmers, farming organizations, extension officers, researchers and ngos and the use of mobiles for interviews, phone-ins, text messaging and sms quizzes led to improved farming methods (perkins, 2011). the canadian non-profit, farm radio international, which partners with 400 radio broadcasters in 38 african countries to fight poverty and food insecurity, uses the free open-source voice content management freedom fone system to reach communities without access to other media and enable callers, who because of literacy and language barriers might otherwise remain less heard, to send and receive text and voice messages via the most common telephony channels. communities in the developing countries who are still disconnected from the global technological revolution can also gain access to computers, the internet and informal learning and skills training through telecentres. these centres operate in many countries and while they take different forms and operate under different names and management systems, their common aim is to reduce feelings of isolation and provide digital technologies and services for individual and community learning and development. a global organisation, telecentre.org (http://www.telecentre.org), connects and helps grassroots telecentres to share ideas, resources, learning and best practice and build networks which help the members build on each other’s work and develop a stronger, more sustainable telecentre ecosystem. considerably ingenuity also is shown in the provision of mobile outreach. in sri lanka, the unesco-supported kothmale community radio’s ict-equipped three wheel motorbike or etuktuk not only brings e-learning to local village people but enables them to plan, record and edit their own programmes (grubb, 2006). in northwestern bangladesh, in a project which received the 2005 us$1 million bill & melinda gates foundation access to learning award, ict-equipped river boats take technology and training staff into remote villages to provide informal learning in ict, sustainable farming and health and environmental matters, and again help the villagers develop locally relevant materials (alluri and ballasubramanian, 2012). thanks to search engines such as google, informal learners can immediately access any information they need. youtube has matured into one of the biggest resources for educational content ever and social media tools enable learners to share knowledge and join learning communities. the worldwide move to free and open publishing also provides informal learners with access to vast range of online resource repositories, open education resources (oer) and massive open online resources (moocs). twenty eight percent of the users of the delft opencourseware repository and 43% of those accessing the massachusetts institute of technology’s mit opencourseware are informal learners (didderen and sloep, 2013). the uk open university’s openlearn provides informal learners with access to over 650 courses. some of these learners may first have become aware of these learning opportunities through associated tv or radio programmes co-produced with the bbc. the openlearn website provides a variety of learning resources and activities, systems that compare users' profiles, suggest items they may have not yet considered and enable them to create personalised learning environments, and information and support for learners wishing to progress from incidental to more deliberate or formal learning (gomez et al, 2012). openlearn is an educational technology system designed for informal learners and over the past five years, it has attracted over 20 million unique visitors, 200,000 of whom have registered on the site and 1,000 of whom sign up monthly for formal study. while the take up and impact has been considerable, there is unfortunately no current means of measuring the extent or depth of learning by non-registering and other informal learners (lane, 2012). with the advent of web 2.0, not only can informal learners self-educate but also contribute to learning with others who share educational, intellectual, social or demographic commonalities. in the case of the non-profit peer to peer university (p2pu) volunteer course organisers submit their ideas and seek guidance from experts and community members to create open source wiki-type materials and learner support systems. in the australia-based digital version of the international university of the third age, u3a online, retirees with ict skills and specialised knowledge and interests create courses for other older learners anywhere in the world. with increasing lifelong learning expectations, the demand for such forms of informal learning from those towards the end of the lifelong learning continuum seems likely to increase (swindell, 2002). non-formal education non-formal education takes many forms: part-time ‘second chance education’ for those unable to benefit from regular classes; youth clubs with substantial educational purposes; adult and continuing education; community education; personal development programmes such as cultural, language, fitness and sports programmes; and professional and vocational programmes for the unemployed and upgrading workforces. in the developing world, the author (latchem, 2010) found that non-formal education included: literacy, numeracy and basic education for adults, out-of-school youth and school dropouts. youth group and social development. community mobilisation and development. gender issues. knowledge and skills development in crop science, animal husbandry, fishing, forestry, nutrition, water supply and sanitation, family planning, childcare, healthcare, hiv/aids prevention, gender equity, public safety and justice, reconstruction and reconciliation, computing and environmental, ecological and conservation issues. small-scale business and local enterprise skills development. inclusive education for those with special needs who are currently excluded, enabling them to become valued, contributing members of their communities. information about democracy, human and civil rights and constitutional and voting systems. some governments establish departments that are explicitly responsible for non-formal education, adult education or lifelong learning, typically within the ministries of education, as in mongolia. some governments assign responsibility to other ministries, for example in malaysia, the ministry of women, family and community development. regional differences in patterns of provision can also be observed: basic education is the principal form of non-formal education in much of latin america and the caribbean (96%), sub-saharan africa (93%) and the arab states (84%) while vocational and work-related education tend to dominate in europe (89%) and asia (83%) (unesco, 2009). continual investment in education and training is seen as essential for upgrading the skills of an ever-larger segment of the world’s population in response to the growth of globalisation, broader markets and new technologies. overall, within the oecd countries, over 40% of adults participate in formal and/or non-formal education in any given year. however, participation ranges from over 60% in new zealand and sweden to less than 15% in greece and hungary. on average, individuals in these countries can expect to receive 988 hours of non-formal education during the course their working lives, 715 hours of which will be job-related. adults with higher levels of education are more likely to participate in, and receive up to three times as many hours of, non-formal education than those with lower levels of attainment and so there is still great need to make non-formal education more accessible for people of all ages and particularly the informationand assistance-deprived (oecd, 2011). the limited non-formal education provision in developing nations is of particular concern. surveying 28 developing countries, the education and policy center (2008) applied four measures: the extent of non-formal attendance and non-formal attainment; the impact of non-formal education; gender and urban/rural distribution: and the relation of non-formal education to household income. only in burundi, chad, the gambia, guinea-bissau, myanmar, niger, and senegal was the score above 5% in one or more of these four measures. in 6 other countries, non-formal education levels were between 1-5% in at least one measure, and in the remaining 15 countries, less than 1% by all measures. it is shown that the poor and least educated in the developing economies are likely to be discouraged and prevented by institutional/organisational barriers, situational barriers (such as insufficient time or resources for study, location and factors related to linguistic and ethnic minority status) and dispositional barriers (psychological factors which impede their participation) (unesco, 2009). non-formal education is provided by public institutions, public-private partnerships, employers, trade unions, media organisations, civic social groups, ngos and international agencies. kahler (2000) found that it was ngos, sometimes working in parallel or collaboration with government agencies, who with their flexibility and ability to intervene in a timely fashion were at the forefront of innovation in non-formal education for community development, health education, enterprise development, agriculture and environmental education. he stressed the need for trust and cross-sectoral collaboration in addressing the complexities of community-based education programmes in areas such as water and sanitation, pest management and reproductive health. he also advocated a human resource development approach and involving the beneficiaries in experiential learning so that they felt that they had ownership of the developmental process, grew in self-confidence and mastered the knowledge and skills needed to do the job. he also observed the importance of ensuring quality in the learning methods and materials. he concluded that all of these measures demanded significant investments in staff, time and resources. non-formal education and educational technology while not all open and distance development projects require ict, the world bank (2012) observes that the opportunities for fulfilling the promise of ict for development has now grown enormously, given that 5 billion people in developing countries use mobile phones, and the number of internet users has risen 10-fold, facebook has more than 800 million users worldwide, and twitter handles more than 1.6 billion searches a day. in such an inter-connected world, it should be much easier and economical to help people learn how best to farm and fish, where their best markets are, how to start and improve their small enterprises and how to make their voices heard and trigger change, for example, by reporting illegal logging, violence against women and corruptive practices, and to maximise human capacity in disadvantaged, remote and rural communities, and among women and the disabled. to these ends, the world bank is committed to supporting: transformation: integrating innovations into service delivery and accountability processes and carrying out associated policy and institutional reforms. innovation: supporting grassroots technology entrepreneurship and public-private programmes aimed at developing ict skills and promoting innovation. connection: policy reforms and investments to achieve greater access to ict services in higher risk countries. reviewing non-formal education in developing countries, foster (2011) observes a move from top-down provision to collaborating with local communities in the development and dissemination of new knowledge, skills and methods and the use of a bricolage of social constructivist, connectivist, constructionist and ict-basedlearning to help realise the 21st-century ambition of ‘knowledge societies.’ an example of this is shown in the commonwealth of learning’s lifelong learning for farmers (l3f). this programme helps small-scale farmers in southern india, sri lanka, jamaica, kenya, mauritius and papua new guinea value-add their farming and make more sustainable use of natural resources. daniel and alluri (2006) explain that a fundamental principle for l3f is the avoidance of top-down planning and unidirectional communication. l3f involves: inviting farmers to form associations and realise their own visions of development for their communities. identifying and training local leaders within these farming communities. gaining the support of agencies with expertise in agriculture, veterinary science, open learning and technology in providing the content and support where needed and verifying the farmers’ practices. persuading local telecom providers that providing the farmers with cheap or free mobile phones to access the courseware and market and weather information will produce increased business in the longer term. persuading commercial banks to provide loans on favourable terms to farmers who can demonstrate their improved knowledge, capacity and productivity. using mobiles for training purposes and for training farmers to develop their own digital images and voice recordings to persuade others of the merits of their newly-acquired farming methods in ways that circumvent the problems of illiteracy and make it easy to translate material into other languages and dialects and change, extend and update content. evaluations of l3f by speirs, (2008), spaven, (2009), thamizoli et al. (2011) and others show that the outcomes include more profitable farming enterprises, greater market awareness, more enterprise development by women, significantly improved assets, income and household infrastructure, higher levels of empowerment and stronger cognitive social capital. l3f has also been shown to be capable of replication and adaptation in other countries and contexts. with its culturally appropriate methods and applications of ict, its synoptic and collaborative approach and its capacity to achieve significant and replicable outcomes, this programme serves as an example of the more broadly defined educational technology systems that are called for in learning for development. to make optimal use of the available knowledge and experience and build capacity in developing countries non-formal education can involve cross-border collaboration. in the cherie blair foundation for women’s mentoring women in business programme, business professionals and entrepreneurs around the globe mentor women who are establishing small-to-medium enterprises (smes) in developing economies such as china, kenya, malaysia, rwanda, pakistan and the philippines. in the year-long, fortnightly, one-hour sessions, these mentors use skype, 3g-enabled smartphones or tablets to help these emergent female entrepreneurs develop their knowledge and skills in business and technology. they brainstorm and collaborate, combining their experiences and insights to achieve mutual progress. this programme is found to be having a positive impact on these aspiring entrepreneurs’ abilities in english, using ict, developing their enterprises and accessing new markets. the 32-nation virtual university of the small states of the commonwealth (vussc), which is co-ordinated by the commonwealth of learning and collaboratively developing and delivering oer in tourism, entrepreneurship, professional development, disaster management and a range of technical and vocational subjects, not only makes its courses available for formal, accredited study but to private and other organisations for non-credit study for employment and job creation and, in the case of its disaster management materials, to ngos training relief/first response workers in guyana and other countries. another possible cross-border collaborative model is suggested by a development arising from sugata mitra’s experiments with 6-12 year olds using 'hole in the wall' computers and learning in self organised learning environments (soles) in india, cambodia and several african countries. reflecting on what children can learn on their own from the internet and the fact that there are still many children in the world who, for whatever reason, cannot receive an adequate education, mitra began to wonder whether there were people in the world who would be willing to voluntarily mediate in children's learning for one hour a week and, thus, provide an alternative form of schooling. there is now a self-organised cloud of e-mediators, known as the ‘granny cloud’ because they are retired teachers who have volunteered to engage in a project supported by the school of education, communication and language sciences at newcastle university. several hundred ‘grannies’ interact in weekly one-hour sessions with children in india and columbia in what is called a self organised mediation environment (some). they read stories to the children talk about matters of mutual interest and provide encouragement and praise in developing these children’s english language abilities. the e-mediators also encourage and advise each other by means of facebook and a wiki (mitra & kulkarni, no date; wakefield, 2012). this work is still essentially at the pilot stage and while it is cheap it has not been without its challenges and setbacks, technologically and culturally, but such an initiative serves as a reminder that there still many exciting possibilities waiting to be explored. evaluation and quality assurance this overview has illustrated some exciting and worthwhile developments and indicated that there is great potential in informal learning and non-formal education for development. however, as sinclair (2002) observes, sustainability is an important consideration, so it is important to prove that programmes can endure and serve similar needs in other contexts. unfortunately, there is so little rigorous reporting in this sector that it is difficult to prove what works well and some of findings are far from encouraging. quality is another issue to be considered. there have long been concerns over the status, lack of evaluation, quality of the outcomes and limited impact on social and economic development in open and distance non-formal education programmes (dodds, 1996; spronk, 1999; perraton, 2000). batchelor et al (2003) noted the widespread hope within the international development community that harnessing ict to non-formal education would be a powerful means of development and achieving the millennium development goals. however evaluating several years’ worth of world bank infodev programmes, they found that the programme proposals and plans were ambitious in scope but imprecise in their measures of success and by the time they filtered down to the local provider and community levels, the concepts and expectations were neither well understood nor consistently implemented and monitored. as a consequence, the analysts and decision makers were struggling to make sense of the mixed experience in order to justify major policy or investment decisions and the sponsors were growing uneasy about the programmes’ value. meta-analyses of ict-supported non-formal education projects in asia for canada’s idrc-cdri (baggaley, 2004) and the japanese funds-in trust / unesco (kobayashi et al., 2005) revealed that many of these programmes lacked performance indicators, many providers lacked training in research and evaluation, and many local practitioners were reluctant to report on what was occurring on the ground. when the office of inspector general (2010) audited the multi-million dollar usaid/philippines education quality and access for learning and livelihood skills programme (equalls) which was intended to rectify disparities in education access and quality in areas of the philippines affected by conflict and poverty, it was found that the programme had achieved variable success, the targets had not been clearly defined, that key documents were not in order, some reports were unreliable and inconsistent with the performance indicator definitions, oversight of the programme’s partners was weak, and potential corruption was going unreported. unicef’s (2009) evaluation of the unicef 2004-2009 education in emergencies and post-crisis transition (eepct) programme in angola, colombia, côte d‘ivoire, liberia, the philippines and sri lanka, found a lack of evidence on the outcomes and impacts of the various interventions, considerable gaps between the evidence base of the evaluations and unicef’s expectations of the programme and the need for a stronger quality assurance. drawing on such evidence as he could find of programmes designed to bridge the educational and digital divide, kenny (2006) ended up questioning the advisability of channelling scarce funds into ict in developing countries when they are confronted such basic challenges in education, health, and infrastructure. so there is great need for accountability, quality assurance, measuring benefits in terms of outputs, outcomes and impacts and substantiating the claims that open and distance non-formal education fosters development and represents value for money (latchem, 2012). such data are essential to convince: policy makers, to help them visualise, prioritise, plan and budget for such programmes. sponsors, governments and other agencies of the responsible and effective use of their funding and support. all other stakeholders who stand to gain from these programmes and desire the non-formal education sector to receive greater recognition and support. conclusion informal learning and non-formal education have a great potential for helping a wide range of learners achieve more desirable and rewarding circumstances for themselves and their communities. however, the conclusions to be drawn from this paper are that: developments and issues in these two important modes of provision are insufficiently represented in the literature of open and distance learning. more needs to be done to indicate the ways in which these two modes serve the needs of learners and society so that they can take their rightful place alongside the formal systems of education. research and evaluation are needed in regard to the design, development, application and evaluation of systems, methods, ict, mass media and traditional forms of communication for learning for development, including cultural factors, inter-institutional, inter-sector and cross-border collaboration, change management, costing, quality assurance and professional development. there is need for greater understanding of how to enable the transition from informal learning to non-formal and/or formal education. there is need and scope for new empirically-tested models and systems for successful and high impact learning for development. in all of these regards the journal for learning for development will play a key and highly influential role on the international stage. references adeyemi, m. b., & adeyinka, a. a. (2003). the principles and content of african traditional education. educational philosophy and theory, 35(4), pp. 425-440. alluri, k., & balasubramanian, k. (2012). theoretical perspectives on the contributions of col-protein to open and distance learning for development. vancouver: commonwealth of learning. baggaley, j. (2004). distance learning technologies: deploying canadian and southern technology engines to build an asian research network. consultant’s report, idrc-cdri. retrieved july 5, 2013 from: this url. baksh, r. & munro, t. (2009). learning to live together: using distance education for community peacebuilding. vancouver: commonwealth of learning. retrieved july 5, 2013 from: this url. bansal, s. (2012, january 26, 2012). soap operas with a social message. opiniator. retrieved july 5, 2013 from: this url. batchelor, s., evangelista, s., hearn, s. et al. (2003). ict for development contributing to the millennium development goals: lessons learned from seventeen infodev projects. washington, dc: world bank. cofer, d. (2000). informal workplace learning: practice application brief, no 10. us department of education: clearinghouse on adult, career and vocational education. coffield, f. (2000). (ed.). the necessity of informal learning. bristol: the policy press. conrad, b. (2013). media statistics children’s use of tv, internet, and video games. hammonds plains, nova scotia, canada: techaddication. retrieved july 5, 2013 from: this url. council of europe. (2000). recommendation 1437. (2000). non-formal education.  assembly debate on 24 january 2000 (1st sitting). text adopted by the assembly on 24 january 2000 (1st sitting). retrieved july 5 from: this url. dangwal, r., & kapur, p. (2008). children's learning processes using unsupervised ‘hole in the wall’ computers in shared public spaces. australasian journal of educational technology, 24(3), pp. 339-354. retrieved july 5, 2013 from: this url. daniel, j., & alluri, k. (2006). using technology to expand learning: helping farmers prosper. commonwealth finance ministers reference book. london: henley media group, published on behalf of the commonwealth secretariat. retrieved july 5, 2013 from: this url. didderen, w., & sloep, p. (2013). oer and informal learning. trend report open educational resources, pp.15-20. amsterdam: open educational resources special interest group. retrieved july 5, 2013 from: this url. dingwall, r. & aldridge, m. (2006). television wildlife programming as a source of popular scientific information: a case study of evolution. public understanding of science, 15, pp.131-152. retrieved july 5, 2013 from: this url. dodds, t. (1996). the use of distance learning in non-formal education. vancouver: commonwealth of learning/cambridge, uk: international extension college. retrieved july 5, 2013 from: this url. education and policy data center. (2008). the extent and impact of nonformal education in 28 developing countries. washington, dc: education policy and data center. retrieved july 5, 2013 from: this url. eraut, m. (2000). non-formal learning, implicit learning and tacit knowledge in professional work. in f. coffield (ed.), the necessity of informal learning. bristol: the policy press. fasokun, t. o., katahoire, a., & oduaran, a. (2005). the psychology of adult learning in africa. cape town: unesco & pearson education south africa. foster, c. (2011). paper no. 46: icts and informal learning in developing countries. university of manchester, uk: centre for development informatics. retrieved july 5, 2013 from: this url. gomez, s., watton, p., andersson h., & watton, d. (2012). supporting formal and informal, non-traditional learning in the workplace through cpd-related oers. video presentation at cambridge 2012: innovation and impact openly collaborating to enhance education. retrieved july 5, 2013 from: this url. grimes, b., & crawford, w. (2011). strong foundations for community based legal education in remote aboriginal communities. darwin: north australian aboriginal justice agency. retrieved july 5, 2013 from: this url. grubb, b. (2006). etuktuk takes internet and radio to sri lankan villages. unesco communication and information sector's news service. september 5, 2006. retrieved july 5, 2013 from: this url. hague, c., & logan, a. (2009). a review of the current landscape of adult informal learning using digital technologies. bristol, uk: futurelab retrieved july 5, 2013 from: this url. haque, r. (2012). learning through traditional cultural forms. in i. pringle, e. mittal & m. valdés (eds.). learning with community media: stories from the commonwealth and latin america, pp. 42-48. vancouver: commonwealth of learning. retrieved july 5, 2013 from: this url. hegarty, s. (2012, april, 27). how soap operas changed the world. bbc news magazine. retrieved july 5, 2013 from: this url. hofstede, g. h. (1997). culture and organizations. new york: mcgraw hill. hofstede, g. h. (2001). culture's consequences: comparing values, behaviors, institutions, and organizations across nations. thousand oaks, ca: sage 2001. isvaran, s. (2004). using aspects of performing art forms in non-formal education. paper presented at the unesco regional expert symposium on arts education in asia, hong kong, sar china 9 – 11 january 2004. retrieved july 5, 2013 from: this url. jeffs, t., & smith, m. k. (1997, 2005, 2011). what is informal education? the encyclopaedia of informal education. retrieved july 5, 2013 from: this url. kahler, d. (2000). end-of-decade assessment of jomtien goals: linking nonformal education to development – ngo experiences. paris: unesco. retrieved july 5, 2013 from: this url. katz, e., blumler, j.g., & gurevitch, m. (1974). uses and gratifications research. the public opinion quarterly, 37(4), pp. 509-523. retrieved july 5, 2013 from: this url. kenny, c. (2006) overselling the web? development and the internet. boulder, co: lynne rienner publishers. knowles, m. (1984). the adult learner: a neglected species (3rd ed.). houston: gulf publishing. kobayashi, t., ueno, m., hirasawa, t., & kuroda, k (2005) report on the evaluation mission on the japanese funds-in trust (jfit) for the promotion of the effective use of ict in education. (mimeograph). bangkok: unesco asia & pacific regional bureau for education. kothari, b. (2005). same-language subtitling. blog, monday, december 12, 2005. retrieved july 5, 2013 from: this url. lane, a. (2012). how oer support lifelong learning. in r. mcgreal, w. kinuthia, s. marshall, & t. mcnamara (eds), perspectives on open and distance learning: open educational resources: innovation, research and practice. vancouver: commonwealth of learning. retrieved july 5, 2013 from: this url. latchem, c. (2012). a quality assurance toolkit for open and distance non-formal education. vancouver: commonwealth of learning. retrieved july 5, 2013 from: this url. luppicini, r. (2005). a systems definition of educational technology in society. educational technology & society, 8 (3), pp.103-109. retrieved july 5, 2013 from: this url. malyn-smith, j. (2004). power users of technology who are they? where are they going? why does it matter? un chronicle, pp. 58-61. retrieved july 5, 2013 from: this url. marah, j. k. (2006, june).the virtues and challenges in traditional african education. the journal of pan african studies, 1(4). retrieved july 5, 2013 from: this url. marcus, a. s., & stoddard, j. d. (2009). the inconvenient truth about teaching history with documentary film: strategies for presenting multiple perspectives and teaching controversial issues. social studies, 100(6), 279-284. retrieved july 5, 2013 from: this url. mitra, s., & kulkarni, s. (no date). self organized learning environments & self organized mediation environments popularly known as the granny cloud! retrieved august 5, 2013 from: this url. ninnes, p. (1991). informal learning strategies in the solomon islands. paper drawn from an ma thesis: culture and learning in western province, solomon islands. retrieved july 5, 2013 from: this url. northwest indian applied research institute. (no date). traditional native american values and behaviors. olympia, wa: evergreen state college. retrieved july 5, 2013 from: this url. oecd (2011). how many adults participate in education and learning? education at a glance. pp. 364-378. retrieved july 5, 2013 from: this url. office of inspector general. (2010). audit of usaid/philippines’ education quality and access for learning and livelihood skills program, phase ii. audit report no. 5-492-10-013-p, september 23, 2010. manila, philippines: u.s. agency for international development. retrieved july 5, 2013 from: this url. perkins, k. (2011). participatory radio: an effective model for enhancing productivity in africa. poster presentation at increasing agricultural productivity & enhancing food security in africa, addis ababa, ethiopia, 3-11 november, 2011. retrieved july 5, 2013 from: this url. perraton, h. (2000). open and distance learning in developing countries. london & new york: routledge. phillips, r., & vaughn, l.m. (2009). diverse ways of knowing and learning: the impact of culture. the open medical education journal, 2009, 2, pp. 49-56. retrieved july 5, 2013 from: this url. ponti, m. (2011). sociotechnical relations in the creation of an interest-driven open course. e-learning and digital media, 8(4), pp. 408-422. pringle, i. rosato, m., & simbi, c. (2010). community learning: perspectives on the role of media in non-formal education with a case study from mchinji district, malawi. commonwealth education partnerships 2009/10. retrieved july 5, 2013 from: this url. rideout, v. j., foehr, u. g., & roberts, d. f. (2010). generation m2: media in the lives of 8to 18-year-olds. menlo park, ca: henry j. kaiser family foundation. retrieved july 5, 2013 from: this url. ryerson, w.n. (2007). the effectiveness of entertainment mass media in changing behavior. shelburne, vt: population media center. retrieved july 5, 2013 from: this url. sefton-green, j. (2004). report 7: literature review in informal learning with technology outside school. bristol, uk: futurelab. retrieved from: this url. sinclair, m. (2002). planning education in and after emergencies. fundamentals of educational planning, 73. paris: unesco/london: department for international development. retrieved july 5, 2013 from: this url. singhal, a., rogers, e.m., & brown, w. j. (1993). harnessing the potential of entertainment-education telenovelas. gazene, 51, pp. 1-18. retrieved july 5, 2013 from: this url. sørensen, b. h., danielsen, o., & nielsen, j. (2007, march ). children’s informal learning in the context of schools of the knowledge society. education and information technologies, 12(1), pp 17-27. retrieved july 5, 2013 from: this url. spaven, p. (2009). evaluation of the commonwealth of learning 2006–2009 plan: final report, march, 2009. vancouver, canada: the commonwealth of learning. retrieved july 5, 2013 from: this url. speirs, k. (2008, march 6). lifelong learning for farmers. commonwealth quarterly. retrieved july 5, 2013 from: this url. spronk, b. (1999). non formal education at a distance: a framework for discussion. paper prepared for a round table discussion at the 1st pan commonwealth forum on open learning, 1–5 march 1999, bandar seri begawan, brunei darussalam. retrieved july 5, 2013 from: this url. swindell, r. (2002). u3a online: a virtual university of the third age for isolated older people. international journal of lifelong education, 21(5), pp. 414-429. retrieved july 5, 2013 from: this url. thamizoli, p., francis, h., soundari, h., kamaraj, k., & balasubramanian, k. (2011). learning for farming initiative: longitudinal study tracing the lifelong learning for farmers activities in tamil nadu, india 2011. vancouver, canada: commonwealth of learning. unesco. (1997). international standard classification of education isced 1997. paris: unesco. unesco. (2009). global report on adult learning and education. hamburg: unesco institute for lifelong learning. retrieved july 5, 2013 from: this url. unicef. (2009). education in emergencies and post-crisis transition: a synthesis of main findings from evaluations, 2004-2009: evaluation office working paper. new york: united nations children’s fund. retrieved july 5, 2013 from: this url. wakefield, j. (2012). granny army helps india's school children via the cloud. bbc news: technology, 30 april 2012. retrieved july 5, 2013 from: this url. world bank (2012). ict for greater development impact world bank group strategy for information and communication technology 2012-2015. washington, dc: world bank. retrieved july 5, 2013 from: this url. world economic forum (2012). global agenda council on youth unemployment 2012-2013. cologne/geneva. retrieved july 5, 2013 from: this url. zawacki-richter, o., bäcker, e. m., & vogt, s. (2009). review of distance education research (2000 to 2008): analysis of research areas, methods, and authorship patterns. the international review of research into open and distance learning, 10(6). colin latchem was formerly the head of the teaching learning group at curtin university, perth, western australia and the president of the open and distance learning association of australia. in recent years, he has consulted, held visiting professorships in asia, researched and authored a number of books and many papers on open and distance education. e-mail: clatchem@iinet.net.au microsoft word perris.docx issn: 2311-1550 2021, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 346-363 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. developing partnerships to acquire impact: the role of three regional centres’ capacity building efforts for odl adoption in the emerging world kirk f. perris1 and rory mcgreal2 1commonwealth of learning, canada 2athabasca university, canada abstract: partnerships are central to the awareness, implementation and development of open and distance learning (odl). it is an attribute that is distinct in the higher education sector, where odl has made a large footprint by dispelling the notion that university enrolment is reserved for a narrow and elite demographic. the commonwealth of learning (col) operates to advance the uptake of odl amongst the 54 member states of the commonwealth. col leverages its work through various channels, and the col regional centres play a pivotal role as partners to col and, in turn, to acquire new partners that may benefit from col’s technical expertise. the regional centres, strategically located across the commonwealth, engage primarily in capacity building for odl. their constituents include governments, institutions, and individual learners. this paper explores the role of col regional centres to grow existing partnerships and to form new ones in the pursuit of odl expansion. the formation of partnerships is understudied in the odl space, yet it has been pivotal in augmenting the visibility and importance of odl around the world. drawing on data from an evaluation of three col regional centres conducted at the end of 2019, and reporting on follow-up activities to the mid-point of 2021, this paper highlights how the rcs are achieving their mandate to engage partners and, in the process, have achieved shortand long-term outcomes since 2018. findings provide insight into the effectiveness of rc activities, relative to the number of institutions and individuals reached, complemented with inputs from rc stakeholders, mostly comprised of rc staff. recommendations are offered, with the paper positing that the role of the regional centres should continue and expand to other areas of the commonwealth premised on their ability to build and sustain partnerships through capacity building efforts. keywords: odl, regional centres, partnerships. introduction this paper considers the centrality of partnerships in the adoption of open and distance learning (odl), an understudied focus that has enabled the widespread adoption and growth of open universities and other institutions around the world. the authors define partnerships as an arrangement between two entities that is mutually beneficial, sustained over time, and carrying the purpose to have impact for each other’s stakeholders. the united nations articulates partnerships as essential to realising its sustainable development goals (sdgs), and includes goal 17, partnerships for the goals as a means to, “revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development,” with renewed emphasis advocating for, “strong international cooperation… to ensure that countries have the means to recover from the pandemic.” (united nations, 2020). col aligns its mandate, learning for 347 sustainable development, to the sdgs, and in particular sdg4, focused exclusively on education. it requires, however, a vast network of partners, and the regional centres act as invaluable levers to advance col’s mandate, building on an under-reported tradition of partnerships in the odl space to advance its uptake in institutions around the world. the open university of the united kingdom: early efforts to form bilateral partnerships in odl from its early days in the late 1960s and the 1970s, the open university of the united kingdom (ouuk) engaged in bilateral arrangements with governments around the world. through the provision of technical advice, the united kingdom quickly raised the profile of its odl model in an international milieu. early adopters like india made minimal modifications in establishing their national open university effectively replicating the ouuk’s decentralised network of study centres. china took a different approach and instead created a vast network of semi-autonomous provincial universities in every major city and province (perris, 2012). these efforts by the ouuk gave it an international profile and a bona fide sense of legitimacy as an institution type designed for educable populations irrespective of background. consequently, the ouuk model has made a positive contribution to nation building around the world, and that continues in the present day. with the accelerated growth of higher education enrolment around the world, it is not surprising that other institutions that engage in odl have surfaced to also build partnerships in this expansion. the rise of odl-oriented institutions: the expansion of multilateral partnerships most odl-oriented institutions have focused more on building partnerships through advocacy, rather than the capacity building focus of the ouuk. promoting the merits of odl multilaterally through declarations, policy briefs and other documents has been the focus of international bodies like icde, and unesco and regional bodies including the asian association of open universities, the african centre for distance education and the distance education association of southern africa. while important, advocacy is decoupled from coordinated on-the-ground capacity building, which is essential to making odl ‘stick’, and what we posit as integral to forging sustainable partnerships. two multilateral entities that are purposefully oriented toward fostering impact through capacity building efforts are the south african institute for distance education, focusing on the provision of odl in southern africa, and col, focused on the provision of odl to the majority of the 54 member states of the commonwealth. these organisations support policy development, materials production, and on-the-ground (and increasingly virtual) capacity building activities. col, though small with an annual operating budget of approximately usd 10 million, is primarily focused on capacity building and leverages its vast networks to run its activities. among its most important partners are its regional centres. the regional centres are hosted in dedicated distance, or dual-mode institutions, and like the ouuk bilateral arrangements, the regional centres build legitimacy of odl for their hosting institution and the broader higher education sector in the regions where they are located. the col rcs engage in capacity building, usually in the form of workshops coupled with ongoing support, and monitoring and evaluation. activities may be one-off short term engagements, or multi-phased engagements spread over longer periods. given the geographical isolation of col in western canada — far removed from its clusters of partners in the caribbean, subsaharan africa and asia-pacific — it is imperative for col to forge meaningful partnerships and for its regional centres to engage in this outreach throughout the commonwealth. 348 central to this paper is to report on the activities of three regional centres (rcs) established by the commonwealth of learning (col), which have been integral to col’s development of partnerships and uptake of odl. the investigation draws inferences from the activities initiated by the rcs and provides insights into the scope and relevancy of each rc for odl, from intervention to pursuing outcomes. while the rcs have faced ongoing resource challenges, they have made progress and this is reflected in the strength of partnerships to effect change, and particularly as it relates to reaching sustainable development goal 4, uniquely focused on advancing access to quality education for alli. the rcs include organisations in nigeria, botswana, fiji and maltaii, with activities in western and southern africa, the south pacific and pan-commonwealth. they were established to augment col’s visibility and impact in the field through four strategic areas that, in addition to capacity building and advocacy, include networking, and sustainability in odl (mcgreal, 2020)iii. undergirding these areas is partnerships, and this paper will focus on how such arrangements are essential to grow the uptake of odl and ultimately widen access to quality learning opportunities. in this sense, the paper serves to illuminate col’s unique role in developing partnerships multilaterally and that this has been greatly enhanced through the operations of its regional centres. the commonwealth of learning: origins and expansion the commonwealth of learning was established by the heads of commonwealth states in 1987. conceptualised as an intergovernmental organisation dedicated to the advancement of odl, col was viewed as an invaluable addition to the commonwealth organisations to widen educational access to its member states. with headquarters in metro vancouver, col is located in an otherwise isolated area of the commonwealth with its closest member state being jamaica, over 5,000 kms away. col responds to the needs of its member states through a vast network of educational institutions and other partners (governments, agencies, and consultants). in its current strategic plan (2015af), col is focused on three pillars: • improved sustainable livelihoods • increased and equitable access to, and use of, quality learning opportunities • improved organisational capacity to leverage odl the origin of col regional centres is varied but rooted in linkages with institutions carrying an odl focus. retridol (regional training and research institute for open and distance learning) is an academic unit of the national open university of nigeria (noun) and engages primarily with integrating odl into higher education institutions in the five commonwealth states of the westafrica sub-region. sadc-cde (southern african development community centre for distance education) hosted by botswana open university (bou), is tasked with capacity building in odl in k12 and higher education sectors across 11 commonwealth states in the sadc region. pacfold (pacific centre for flexible and open learning for development), housed at the university of the south pacific, aims to empower pacific communities through lifelong learning with the adoption and application of flexible open and distance learning for development (fol4d). pacfold supports the odl needs of the 11 pacific island countries (pics) that are also members of the commonwealth. the 3cl foundation (commonwealth centre for connected learning), has a pan-commonwealth mandate that is largely focused on building digital competencies (e.g., blockchain technology, digital literacy), with a remit that expands beyond europe to the broader or pan-commonwealth. 349 the work of the three rcs of focus overlaps in some areas (e.g., higher education), but they otherwise have their own niche or specialisation. in terms of mandate, the rcs engage in advocacy, capacity building, networking, and sustainability. the rcs build on a tradition of partnerships in the odl space to carry out their work and widen the uptake of odl. they do so in collaboration with col staff, who work with the regional centres in the areas of governance structures, strategic planning, and activity implementation. col provides funds to implement activities of the regional centres, and the hosting organisation provides funds for staffing, office space and related amenities. this can be otherwise characterised as a close relationship, formalised through a memorandum of understanding, usually over three years between col and each regional centre. weekly, if not daily, engagements between col and the rcs are essential. this is a reflection of the extensive number of activities the rcs undertake, which will be summarised later in this paper. literature review the context of odl is storied and well documented (moore & kearsley, 2004, holmberg, 2005). its formal establishment can go back to the founding of the university of south africa in 1949, the first wholly dedicated distance learning institution, or to the extension examinations enabled by the university of london starting in the 18th century. the global spread of odl, however, took off after the formation of the open university in the united kingdom in 1969. by the 1970s, models of open universities sprang up in israel, thailand, canada and elsewhere (daniel, 1998). today there are dozens of open universities — india and china alone are home to over 60 combined when considering their state and provincial open universities. the open university of china (ouc) and the indira gandhi national open university (ignou) were modeled after the ouuk and these asian open universities benefited early on in their formation from technical expertise imported from the united kingdom (perris, 2015). the formation of botswana open university and the open university of tanzania were supported by the commonwealth of learning (tait, 2016; cutting, 1989), and other institutions provide more supporting roles through advocacy and thought leadership. both the ouuk and col continue to play important roles in the expansion of single and dual-mode universities; the former institutional type largely characterised as focused primarily on distance teaching, and the latter institutional type largely characterised as offering both contact and distance forms of instruction, and often delivered concurrently. the growth in open universities and dual-mode universities is not surprising. worldwide, participation rates in post-secondary education (pse) remain highly uneven with ranges from 70% to 5% of the age cohort, defined as the 17-23 year old demographic (oecd, 2020). for countries with lower participation rates in pse, human and financial resources are the primary constraints, and governments — which remain the primary backers to post-secondary education — continue to recede from funding commitments to the tertiary sector. according to daniel (2004), compared to the bricks and mortar institutions, odl systems are far more efficient to run. he argues that the odl model avoids the pressures to maintain a large institutional campus and gains efficiencies through its ability to scale enrolment. consequently, costs, including tuition, remain comparatively lower to conventional institutions, and as unit costs are spread across greater numbers of learners, revenue streams correspondingly increase (daniel, 1996; daniel, 2004; datt, 1988). the presence and impact of odl is strongest in the emerging world context (perraton, 2000). unisa, as noted above, was the world’s first dedicated distance teaching university, predating the open 350 university by 20 years. the open university of china (ouc) and the indira gandhi national open university (ignou) have a combined enrolment of approximately five million learners, making them, by far, the largest universities in the world by enrolment (perris, 2015). south america, the caribbean, sub-saharan africa, and pacific-asia all are home to open universities, dual-mode universities, and related institutions. similarly, there are dozens of open school initiatives spread across south asia, sub-saharan africa, the caribbean, and the pacific, along with formal odl or related bodies in each of these regions. the formation of these institutions would have been hampered without the sharing of sustained technical inputs derived from experienced partner institutions. interestingly, partnerships are not only between institutions, but within institutions as well. while open universities, for example, conduct research, their primary role is teaching and learning at a distance. the physical separation of teacher and learner presents challenges and learning materials, coupled with other supports, aim to ameliorate challenges presented by distance (e.g., learner isolation). the formation of learning materials, and curriculum in particular, is usually devised through course teams rather than individual academics. daniel describes this as, “one of the highest expressions of scholars being scholarly” (daniel, 2001, p. 22). course materials are outcomes of multiple perspectives, debate, and consensus building. in addition to augmenting quality, the process creates an atmosphere of collegiality that is largely lacking in academic circles, yet open universities have modeled this for years, bringing in subject matter experts from other institutions with regularity. the model is consistent in many open universities, and the sharing of resources also strengthens partnerships domestically. both ignou and the ouc, for example, serve as central authorities in the development and distribution of materials for their partner institutions in india and china, respectively. state open universities in india, often translate materials derived from ignou into local languages, promoting ignou’s materials in the process (perris, 2012). in the international milieu, the commonwealth of learning serves as a reputable multilateral organisation that positions capacity building and partnerships as central to its mandate. it does so through varying means. facilitated and self-paced courses that range from moocs to master’s level degrees (in conjunction with universities) are actively promoted through its partners. these course offerings enrol thousands of learners annually and are an effective means to reach a broad swathe of citizens in the member states of the commonwealth. workshops, and related training impacts hundreds of institutions as well, and serve as focused and scalable means to impact learners. the regional centres play a role leveraging these efforts through their own networks and linkages to regional bodies. retridol and sadc-cde, for example, include the economic community of west african states (ecowas) and the southern african development community (sadc) on their advisory boards. these regional entities offer strategic inputs to the rcs informed by their engagement with ministries of education, and other bodies. pacfold, located in the fijian capital of suva, does not have a direct link to its regional body, the pacific islands forum secretariat (pifs), but plans are in place to bring on pifs as a collaborative partner. linkages between the rcs and regional partners are also formed through dedicated distance learning associations, such as the african council for distance education and the distance education association of southern africa. institutional and personal connections also elevate the rcs’ visibility and ability to forge partnerships. col also has dedicated focal points or country representatives, who serve as designated individuals in a ministry or learning institution that source or recommend new partners for col and the regional centres. 351 in combination, the focus on partnerships is prominent in the odl space. the ouuk led the formation of partnerships at an early stage of its development, and this continues in the present day. its reputation and impact to provide sound technical expertise abroad has been a strong impetus that has grown odl internationally. the ouuk emulates its building of partnerships abroad with a commitment to forging partnerships within the institution relative to its administration and curriculum. the commonwealth of learning has made partnerships central to its mandate, and does so through varying channels, with the regional centres playing a pivotal role. the effectiveness of this model is the point of focus in this paper, with the following research question posed, how far has col and its regional centres developed partnerships through advocacy and capacity building efforts, and is this sufficient to have meaningful impact in the regions they serve? to address this question, this paper will outline and share results from two sources. first, an evaluation commissioned by col and conceptualised and executed by the paper’s authors in 2019; and second, a reporting on activities undertaken by the regional centres from 2018 to the mid-point of 2021. methods the study was formulated based on two main sources of data; an evaluation of the regional centres completed in late 2019, and follow-up data collection reporting on progress of activities and growth of partnerships to mid-2021. evaluation to ascertain the role of col’s rcs in imparting change regionally, the researchers conducted an evaluation commissioned by the commonwealth of learning over three months in the fall of 2019. the premise of the evaluation was to illuminate the activities of the regional centres, and to acquire a deeper understanding of how they have engaged with col, the extent of their advocacy, formation of partnerships, and any impact observed from their capacity building activities. data collection of the evaluation included documents (secondary resources) and survey and interviews (primary resources). a large volume of documents from each regional centre were supplied by col (n = 40) complemented with web searches to discover other documents or corroborate existing information related to the projects. documents included minutes of meetings, a constitution, workshop reports, annual reports, articles, and descriptions of the rcs. the researchers composed a list of interview questions relevant to all the rcs. data collection from primary sources was conducted in two ways: through the survey questionnaire circulated by email, and a purposeful follow-up interview by email with some of the participants to elicit further information and to triangulate data drawn from their responses to the questionnaire. the survey questionnaire focused on questions related to roles and practices, values, supports and enabling and inhibiting factors for implementation of the programme of each rc. descriptive data were compiled and listed from the responses to the different questions. content analysis of the survey questions was conducted with the intention of discerning any categories, concepts, or overall themes, based on the opinions of these rc leaders, thus ensuring that a sufficient variety of contexts and positions were adequately represented. a total of nine surveys were sent out with five follow-up interviews completed with participants from their home locations. the participants include rc directors, one vice chancellor, and an officer who participated from an rc activity. 352 data from rc activities to complement the 2019 evaluation, data from workshops and other activities was compiled from the period of 2018 to mid-2021. this included courses offered by the rcs and training offered by col to the rcs. the data includes the number of institutional partners and individuals reached. methods deployed the methodology used for this investigation includes triangulation. validation is important but triangulation helped researchers to understand implementations better by eliciting different perspectives on the same phenomena. in this investigation, researchers identified and used the following three methods. first, an analysis of documents provided by the rcs, col, and from an internet search; second, the creation and distribution of a survey and, third, follow-up interviews with the respondents conducted to dig deeper into their responses to provide more insights. fourth, data was shared by col on activities from 2018 to mid-2021 and a descriptive analysis is provided. findings retridol retridol was established in 2003 as a col regional centre. over its existence, it has engaged in a range of activities centred on widening the adoption of odl in higher education institutions. since 2017, it has primarily focused on supporting the transition of traditional universities to dual-mode course delivery (face-to-face and distance) in western africa. given that this region has among the lowest participation rates in the world, there is an acute need to widen enrolment through differentiated pathways, and odl has become widely accepted as a viable alternative to campusbased solutions. nigeria, for example, has a dedicated odl unit in the national universities commission, charged with dual-mode accreditation. retridol activities although successful transitions cannot be guaranteed, the rc is increasing awareness of and advocating for odl through varying channels. retridol embarked on a two-country sensitisation workshop in ghana and the gambia in 2018, but progress was delayed due to inadequate funds from institutions and a developing model for the project, that has since matured. over time, it was realised that the model had to support institutions in policy development, pedagogical training, course development, online platform (or learning management system) training, and utilising open educational resources (oer). to 2021, retridol has conducted in-person and virtual workshops on these topics in all five commonwealth states of wasriv, and there are now 26 partner institutions involved in the dual-mode project. retridol also ran workshops on oer development, and gender mainstreaming. in total, the regional centre has developed partnerships with 46 institutions in wasr. to date, the product of this work has been the accreditation of dual-mode provision of three universities in nigeria, and the formation of policies in oer, odl and gender by 15 institutions. over 800 individuals have been trained as a result of participation in 15 workshops since 2018. in addition to its capacity building efforts, retridol also publishes a twice yearly journal entitled, the west african journal of open and flexible learning (wajofel), and hosts symposia and participates in conferences annually. 353 retridol is staffed with four professionals, of which three are full professors, and an administrative complement of four others, including a driver. the resource constraints they face are more aligned to funding activities, as noun has been able to adequately fund its on-the-ground operations. challenges facing retridol several challenges to successful transitions to dual-mode in this region have been identified. these include the high cost of setting up an online platform and significantly, the dearth of programmers and other technicians able to implement one. these reasons, combined with low human capacity to maintain sustainable operations in dual mode, and a lack of demand from potential students for odl courses despite unmet demand for higher learning, all contributed to the reticence of universities to make the change. moving forward, post-pandemic in western africa however, the covid pandemic forced major changes, including the closing of all schools in nigeria and other countries in the region. traditional methods of teaching employed by university and library systems in nigeria have collapsed since students left their campuses on account of the covid-19 pandemic (ifijeh & yussuf, 2020). many nigerian universities have been forced by the pandemic to begin adopting online teaching and learning methodologies. such scenarios are opening new opportunities for retridol as unmet demand for learning persists. the growing numbers of qualified secondary school graduates, as well as working adults who wish to upgrade their skills requires just-in-time interventions to which odl is designed to accommodate. retridol’s capacity building expertise in odl is essential to support institutions wishing to address the growing demand for education using online technologies in western africa. it has laid an important foundation to continue working with partners, balanced with seeking new ones, without over-extending resources. sadc-cde botswana-based sadc-cde has been a major regional leader in building the capacity of institutions to deliver quality odl courses and capacity building for adoption of technology-enabled learning (tel) and related activities. sadc-cde was established in 2007 with the dual support of botswana open university (then botswana college of distance and open learning) and the ministry of basic and secondary education (then the ministry of education). over time, sadc-cde has provided training in odl to eleven commonwealth countries in the southern africa regionv. thousands of students in this region have earned academic credentials through odl in colleges and universities located in lesotho, namibia, botswana, south africa, mauritius, tanzania, eswantini, and mozambique, and col and sadc-cde have been important contributors to this work. sadc-cde activities since 2018, sadc-cde has run workshops on non-formal education, gender mainstreaming, and open schooling, mainly in capacity building for tel. sadc-cde has also sponsored learners to enrol in the certificate for distance education practitioners, offered by botswana open university. currently there are 33 learners enrolled, emanating from lesotho, malawi, mozambique, seychelles and eswatini. the focus of sadc-cde has returned to open schooling, and it is also supporting a teacher education initiative underway in the region that is centred in south africa. in the open schooling activity, there are four institutions building programmes for tel and they are located in 354 botswana, namibia, lesotho and tanzania. since 2018, 19 institutions have participated in workshops and nearly 700 individuals have been trained. challenges facing sadc-cde adequate human resources and funding for activities were considered to be the main challenges to the growth of the rc and the sustainability of its activities. the rc director, as one of two staff in sadc-cde, also serves as the col focal point for the dissemination of odl activities nationally in botswana. this additional role has provided new partnerships for the rc and col. one project recently concluded with the human resource development council under the federal government of botswana. to sustain and develop new partnerships, there are important issues around infrastructure to be addressed by governments and the telecom industry. the internet is considered to be “the bedrock” of odl, so its availability and reliability are very important. there is limited internet connectivity and limited access to computers in many countries in the sadc region, so odl through internet delivery has not always been feasible. sadc-cde staff felt that, as part of their mandate, there was a need to lobby for odl by advocating for improved internet reliability and accessibility in the region in order to reduce inequality and support for sdg4. in this sense, print distribution is still important, yet this poses other challenges for the rc. there is a significant disparity among the different countries and institutions, so there cannot be a one-size-fitsall approach to odl adoption. in this sense, sadc-cde needs to be agile in how it engages with partners, and to ascertain the level of infrastructure within a given institution. bringing together institutions with varied infrastructure has been problematic in some projects (e.g., non-formal education), despite affirmation, for example, that internet connectivity in institutional contexts was reliable. another challenge was the variance in understanding of concepts of odl. most regional workshop participants came from conventional educational backgrounds. oer, open pedagogies and open access are not adequately known among faculty and institutions in the region even though a regional policy on odl has been adopted by sadc ministers of education (sadc, 2012). these are being introduced as new concepts. workshops and short online courses have been suggested as a means of transferring knowledge on openness. to date, the rc has only engaged in limited work to develop or use oer. one suggestion from the authors is to focus more on developing national policies and strong advocacy to prioritise and institutionalise oer. respondents to the survey felt that odl should be a work in progress and so believed that capacity building activities such as face-to-face workshops were important, as compared to running some workshops online. they also felt that the networking opportunities of these face-to-face workshops helped rc staff to target specific supporters, and, ultimately, fortify partnerships. moving forward, post-pandemic in southern africa sadc-cde leaders believed that any move towards blended learning by institutions in the sadc region would be a welcome development, so the recent covid-inspired impetus to odl by institutions throughout the regions has been viewed favourably. online learning is considered to provide learners with greater autonomy and more opportunities for interaction in comparison with classroom-based education. respondents also believed that odl can make teaching easier and can be 355 more cost-effective than classroom-based education. to what extent can the rc bring in new partners, will continue to pose challenges. given it is to respond to the needs of 11 countries in the region, with a staff complement of two, clearly indicates sadc-cde has overachieved since 2018. in other contexts, sadc-cde respondents felt that the criteria for assessing the quality of odl courses should be similar to those used in face-to-face courses in all respects but need not be the same. a parity of standards is needed rather than attempting to make them the same. for example, “online courses can take advantage of simulated/virtual environments with relative ease,” was a comment from one interviewee. some criteria for evaluation could therefore be different. research, particularly with a focus on southern africa, is also considered to be an important focus for the rc. there are plans to introduce research dissemination forums in support of odl research in the region. however, respondents felt that the shift to a research emphasis could sideline capacity building needed by partners, and so a careful consideration of research focus will be needed. pacfold pacfold was established in 2013 and is a collaboration between col and the university of the south pacific (usp). it has the vision of empowering pacific communities through lifelong learning. its goal is to promote the adoption and application of flexible open and distance learning for development (fol4d) and to use methods and technologies to address the challenges that face the pacific island countries and their people. pacfold is focusing its attention on the adoption of fol4d methods for capacity building in technology-enabled learning for sustainable development in their region. in addition to capacity building, these efforts encompass advocacy, communication, innovation, and research supporting all subject areas and educational levels. this includes training faculty, while providing human and technical resources. four priority areas have been identified: 1. to create awareness of fol4d; 2. to build capacity in fol4d to increase access to relevant nonformal and formal learning; 3. to support fol4d policy development; and 4. to provide a platform promoting research in fol4d. pacfold activities the pacfold goal is to use methods and technologies to address the challenges that confront pasifikers. its mission is, “to be a network of networks to facilitate flexible and open learning for sustainable development in the pacific”, with a focus on capacity building, advocacy, innovation and research. over the past three and a half years, pacfold has engaged in capacity building for uptake of tel, developed courses, and engaged in research. capacity building has been focused on formal and non-formal learning, specifically in the k-12 sector. in 2021, pacfold and col collaborated on a research publication addressing out-of-school-children in the pacific (narayan et al, 2021). contributors hailed from all nine pacific island countries (pics) of the commonwealth, and col and pacfold have engaged in a knowledge mobilisation activity, workshopping the major findings of the book toward developing country-specific interventions. col and pacfold also engaged in capacity building amongst eight pics to develop a suite of courses on youth work, of which six have been offered. another course offering has been on developing numeracy skills amongst young people. in total, these courses have reached over 3,000 learners. capacity building has reached all nine pics, and partnerships have been forged with each ministry and five educational institutions. given the aggregate total of inhabitants amongst the nine pics is approximately ten million, the number of institutional partners is comparatively smaller than the regions covered by retridol and sadc 356 cde. there are only a few educational institutions which pacfold has yet to engage, and given its progress, further outreach is promising. the university of the south pacific, where pacfold is housed, is also well-positioned to enhance its partnership with this regional centre. usp, for example, is well advanced in its use/reuse and assembly of oer. it is among the first universities in the world to mainstream oer with a specific policy that requires oer and monitors the implementation (see https://policylib.usp.ac.fj/form.readdoc.php?id=736). all usp course developers are now required to search for oer in the first instance, only considering other options after a thorough search of existing oer materials. respondents also believed that oer and open licensing awareness was not widespread in the region but it is just “a matter of time” before oer become more widely adopted regionally. such progress is relevant beyond the pacific, and pacfold is well positioned to leverage the progress made by usp in oer and flexible learning, to other regions of the commonwealth. the pacific region has also moved ahead in developing regional open and distance learning quality assurance guidelines and aims to make effective use of the col transnational qualification framework, which the member states are expected to domesticate for use nationally (commonwealth of learning, 2015b). these measures will help to promote more regional collaborations and promote standardisation allowing for greater flexibility for students in choosing online courses and programmes. pacfold is well-positioned to develop such guidelines and create a harmonised qualifications network with usp guidance. gender sensitivity is recognised as a cross-cutting theme that is present in all the operations of the rc. pacfold respects and proactively supports diversity, including gender equality. this is a central focus for their work in a region with a wide range of different cultures and ethnic groups. challenges facing pacfold like sadc-cde, pacfold has a small staff complement. the director’s primary duties are to oversee the centre for flexible learning, and staff from this centre are occasionally seconded to work on pacfold activities. without consistent staffing, however, the growth of pacfold will remain largely dictated by col and its pool of consultants. this should be addressed as on-the-ground specialists dedicated to pacfold work is needed at a time when there is more and more attention devoted to these small island states. moving forward, post-pandemic in the south pacific covid-19 did not have the deleterious effects in the south pacific region as it did elsewhere. the pacific island countries were quick to impose lockdowns, and the spread of infections was minimal. amidst the lockdowns, however, institutions scrambled to go online and many struggled to minimise disruptions to learning. the outcome has been an elevated sense of acquiring more digital competencies and getting up to speed with other regions in the world to deliver digital learning. the most acute challenges facing the south pacific region are climate change adaptation and disaster risk management. sea levels are rising impacting these small island states relative to land erosion, salination of crops, flooding and other negative effects. the region is also subject to cyclones that wreak havoc in the region each year, causing immense damage to infrastructure, including schools and other educational institutions. moving more learning online would be an effective means to minimise such disruptions, and institutions would benefit from sharing resources and expertise for 357 digital learning, as it develops, to create sustained learning environments when such deleterious weather events occur. a major challenge for col, the regional centres and their partners in implementing odl, it is essential for the rc proponents to understand and be very clear in their understanding of odl in relation to classroom-based education. in the email surveys, it was clear that odl was perceived by some (if not most) of the respondents as simply “a viable alternative” to faceto-face education. it was not seen to be an essential aspect of 21st century learning, but rather as an adjunct to, or an equal approach to classroom-based learning. this rather “defensive” attitude regarding odl can undermine meaningful advocacy and capacity building efforts with partners. more and more, odl is becoming essential for learning as is being shown now with the pandemic and the pivot towards online learning by institutions globally. odl can no longer be seen as an “add-on” or an “equal contender” with traditional classroom-based education. the covid-19 response by institutions, pivoting to online or blended forms of learning, aligns them more with the world's social and economic activities that have become ubiquitous online. to maintain that contemporary education need not be online is simply not defensible. despite the reticence of institutions to implement odl, there is no evidence that classroom-based learning is better than odl. quality criteria for education should be the same, no matter the technology used. research shows that there is “no significant difference” in educational outcomes regardless of the technology used for delivery (russel, 1999). the rcs agree that there should not be separate evaluation criteria for odl. antediluvian attitudes toward odl, such as those expressed by educators who perceive odl as “a last resort”, are not only outdated but also wrong and so should be challenged forcefully. there is no evidence supporting their views. the argument in favour of odl and digital learning in general becomes unassailable after covid, a point that is reinforced by the fact that the vast number of jobs today demand online digital skills (world economic forum, 2020). how better to master them than by participating in odl? odl is essential for 21st century learning. the traditionalist protectors of 19th century learning environments must be challenged forcefully and led to accepting the realities of the modern world. there is no modern education without online components, whether that be fully online or blended or any combination of the two. modern education does not include uniquely classroom-based learning with no online components. odl proponents should be more proactive in advising their communities of the outdated inadequacies of traditional, colonial education and profile odl, not as the education of the future, but as a necessity for citizens in today's digital world. limitations the methodology included an examination of documents and corresponding data, mainly provided by col, the participants and an internet search using google. this approach was limited to the documents that were provided or were found online. however, this limitation was addressed to some degree through triangulation in the questionnaire and follow-up interviews. the small number of participants who responded to the survey (nine) and who were interviewed (five) could also be considered a limitation of this investigation. the interviews and follow-ups were conducted remotely using email. this is also a limitation as the verbal and visual cues available in oral and video interviews were not available. this circumscribes the ability of the researchers to 358 understand the context and situational phenomena. however, the interviewees were not randomly sampled. rather, they were sampled from staff of the regional centres under study, or with whom they have close professional ties (e.g., a vice chancellor or project participant). the problem with real-time internet connectivity in the different regions led to the decision to forego the oral/visual interviews. no irony is lost on the notion of our position on 21st century learning, and research efforts being hampered by inadequate 21st century technology and connectivity. technology is essential to modern day life and participation. the point extends to governments and the private sector to coordinate efforts to build the needed infrastructure for its citizenry. discussion and conclusion the paper posed the research question, how far has col and its regional centres developed partnerships through advocacy and capacity building efforts, and is this sufficient to have meaningful impact in the regions they serve? in moving toward answering this question, it is important to reflect on data that informs the challenges the rcs face to carry out their work, which is a direct link to effectively working with their partners. what became clear from the survey and interviews of rc staff and other stakeholders was the expression of consistently strong support for col. the objectives and goals of the three rcs as noted in the documents and reinforced in the interviews, demonstrated alignment with col's strategic plan, including emphases in the rcs on regional capacity-building, advocacy, networking, and expansion within their respective regions. although the formation of partnerships is not explicit, it falls under the areas of networking and expansion, and the rcs have done an admirable job to grow their network of partners since 2018, when col made a concerted effort to enhance its support to the regional centres. the rcs, however, remain a work-in-progress, and at this point growth appears less important than sustainability. while desires for sustainability of the projects was made clear, there were no rc plans that focused on how to go about ensuring the ongoing operations of the regional centres other than continuing in the same way with institutional and col support. for example, an overall theme was, not surprisingly, a call for col to provide more funding in order to sustain and expand its present activities. resource constraints will continue to limit the impact of the rcs unless other funding complements can be sourced. this expands to the provision of adequate staffing, as noted particularly in sadc-cde and pacfold. face-to-face learning has been the priority workshop format among all the rcs, primarily because of the unfamiliarity of the participants with odl. however, future efforts, especially now due to the pandemic, must include more online training and communications, and the rcs have an emerging model to move in this direction. since august 2020, two rcs have remodeled the generic threeor four-day workshop into a six-week online engagement that melds synchronous and asynchronous activities. this has proven successful as participants, working in situ, meet with their facilitator for a two-hour weekly online workshop and then perform varying activities asynchronously in between these weekly sessions. the exit activity of an action plan to demonstrate the knowledge learned and its proposed application to a given institution has been universally adopted in this new model. it is a 359 contrast to the outcome of the conventional workshop where participants efforts are curtailed when they return to the office and other work has piled up. the workshopping online facilitates the capacity building into their everyday office work, and this has proven to yield more tangible results than the conventional in-person intensive workshop experience. as well, face-to-face learning in a workshop setting is all too often supportive of passive learning and traditional learning styles, with information being fed to the participants. online learning is typically more interactive, where the participants must communicate to acquire the knowledge or skills required and having this stretched over time enables better absorption of ideas and time to reflect on its relevance to a given institutional environment. it cannot be expected that participants can effectively be introduced to odl, solely with face-to-face workshops in a short threeor four-day span with competing interests of travel, meeting new individuals, and being in unfamiliar surroundings. some of these realities also apply to the university lecture hall, particularly due to the lack of interactivity that characterises the didactic orientation of knowledge purveyor to knowledge receiver. students, now because of the covid pandemic, are being forced to take more online courses with or without prior experience online. indeed, growing pains have occurred and to ameliorate these changes, faculty in the universities now must step up to the challenge of odl. the rcs have been achieving success in building regional capacity in odl. their efforts have led to positive awareness of odl along with odl skills training in their respective regions. however, there needs to be more attention paid to achieving long-term outcomes. this requires efforts to assign deliverables and monitor the post-training activities of the participants in their home institutions to ensure outcomes are realised in the partner institutions. the new model identified above, that requires action plans as an exit activity in capacity building workshops, bodes well for acquiring tangible longterm outcomes from the rcs’ activities. as reported by the participants and the partners involved in the interview process, the rcs are gaining relevancy in their respective regions. they have developed networks and partnerships, significantly increasing odl capacity in their regions. however, the rcs also need to become more visible in their respective regions, especially among key decision makers in government, intergovernment and private sectors. rc representatives should make more efforts to participate with and lobby ministers in donors' meetings to secure funding to support their odl activities. the rcs have a reasonable track record of conceptualising suitable activities, building partnerships, and generating short-term and some long-term outcomes, and, as a result, sustainability, and leadership in odl can be ensured. the primary area of improvement noted was the increase in odl awareness through the training of partners’ staff, by providing workshops both face-to-face and online. to properly introduce faculty in the regional universities to odl, then they must experience online learning in practice. it is recognised that this is problematic for some institutions in some, if not many, of the regions in question, yet we view this as largely temporary as infrastructure is improved and internet data becomes more affordable. it was also apparent that the use/reuse of oer was not significant, even in the south pacific (other than usp) which is adopting policies supporting oer. there are significant opportunities to raise awareness and increase odl capacity by taking advantage of the affordances of oer. the rc host 360 institutions are all partners of the oeru, which is an international consortium that originated with col that offers free courses online as oer that can be used for credit at partner institutions. several southern african regional partner universities are also oeru partners, including unisa, north-west university (south africa), botswana open university, the university of namibia, and the open university of zimbabwe. oeru has made available an open source learning platform that supports online delivery of courses that can be maintained at little cost (lane & good, 2019). oeru has also piloted a col award-winning course learning in a digital age that could be effectively used to promote odl in all the regions (see: https://oeru.org/courses/). the rcs can take full advantage of their memberships (and partners' memberships) in oeru. oeru has a course delivery platform that supports online learning at little cost. oeru staff are open to working with institutions in training and implementations. they also offer an award winning oer set of modules for odl training. overall, the rcs have reached dozens of institutions and thousands of individuals through capacity building, training and course activities. the formation of partnerships has been instrumental, and the rcs, largely under-resourced, have made important inroads in their work. to have meaningful impact in the region, however, more work is needed, and this is largely rooted in their governance structures and availability of resources. despite progress, it is impractical for a two-person operation to have sustained impact in a region of 11 countries, as is the case in sadc-cde. the challenges are very similar in pacfold. retridol has proven most effective, and a direct link can be drawn to the number of its administrative and professional staff. it should also be reminded that retridol has been in operation since 2003. it has had both time to mature, and, with a smaller remit of five countries, has enabled greater progress, by comparison to the other rcs. of course, nigeria, with a population of 200 million demands more attention than small states like eswatini with a population of one million in sadc, or nauru with a population of 10,000 inhabitants in the south pacific. yet, in retridol’s case, population size has not overburdened this regional centre. in fact, retridol has been able to scale its activities, and the dual-mode project continues to grow. how far col and its regional centres may expand will remain a question of investment, and, frankly, a bit of patience. the sustainable development goals are the spawn of the millennium development goals in 2000, and other edicts such as education for all in 1990 (the jomtien declaration), and the universal declaration of human rights of 1948. the focus of these documents persists as quality education remains elusive for millions. the recognition of partnerships as integral to making progress, as has been outlined under goal 17 of the sdgs, indicates how important the sharing of resources, expertise and networks are to reach development objectives. the odl space has had a legacy of leveraging partnerships, and the success is evidenced by the dozens of odl institutions established and millions of individuals reached. col and the rcs must continue this work, and not just grow, but nurture partnerships toward a path for sustainability. recommendations the following recommendations are offered for the rcs in order to build their capacity building efforts to widen partnerships and odl adoption in the emerging world. while the findings of this study are not genreralisable, they could be relevant to other organisations implementing or considering partnering in odl interventions in developing country contexts. 361 o1. rcs should transition, holding less face-to-face and many more online workshops and other training sessions. o2. rcs should arrange for bi-annual teleconferences with each other and col to update their partners on activities. o3. rcs should take advantage of opportunities with government and the private sector to lobby for funding for specific projects, including building of infrastructure for online learning. o4. rcs should take measures to arrange for odl champions in each partner institution in their region who could serve as a point of contact and report on outcomes within their universities. a list of partners for regular contacts should be established. a conferencing site is not recommended as these are seldom used. emails are a simple and effective means of maintaining communities. o5. gender sensitivity should be integrated into all aspects of the work at the rcs and continue to be supported among partner institutions through online workshops. o6. rcs should take full advantage of their memberships (and partners' memberships) in oeru. oeru has a suite of scalable open source applications that support online learning at little cost. they are open to working with institutions in training and implementations. they also offer an award winning oer set of modules for odl training. over time, and outside of bilateral arrangements, modeling open and distance learning (odl) activities has been largely limited to advocacy work. the commonwealth of learning manifests its work in odl primarily through capacity building. the rcs leverage this mandate as dedicated entities in strategic areas of the commonwealth. the regional centres carry a mandate for capacity building with a focus on building partnerships and achieving outcomes that are sustainable. measures of success are emerging as evidenced from some long-term outcomes, and by a new virtual model to engage in capacity building. the col regional centre model is unique in the field of odl and should be expanded to enhance the uptake of odl in the emerging world. references commonwealth of learning (2015a). strategic plan 2015-2021. http://oasis.col.org/bitstream/handle/11599/826/col%20syp__96%20dpi_final%20web%20single%20pag es.pdf?sequence=5&isallowed=y commonwealth of learning (2015b). transnational qualifications framework for the virtual university for small states of the commonwealth: procedures and guidelines. http://oasis.col.org/bitstream/handle/11599/501/tqf.pdf?sequence=4 cutting, a. k. (1989). the role of media technology within the proposed open university of tanzania. commonwealth of learning. daniel, j. s. (2004, november). from the triangle to the pentagon: open universities in the 21st century. keynote paper presented at the 18th annual conference of the asian association of open universities, shanghai. http://www.col.org/resources/speeches/2004presentations/pages/2004-11-30.aspx daniel, j. s. (2001). open learning at a point of turning. indian journal of open learning, 10(1), 19-31. 362 daniel, j. s. (1998). mega-universities and knowledge media. taylor & francis. daniel, j. s. (1996). mega universities and the knowledge media: technology strategies for higher education. kogan page. datt, r. (1988). distance education versus traditional higher education: a cost comparison. in b. n. koul, b. singh, & m. m. ansari (eds.), studies in distance education (pp. 130-149). association of indian universities & ignou. holmberg, b. (2005). the evolution, principles and practices of distance education. studien und berichte der arbeitsstelle fernstudienforschung der carl von ossietzky universität oldenburg. http://oasis.col.org/bitstream/handle/11599/501/tqf.pdf?sequence=4 ifijeh, g., & yusuf, f. (2020, november). covid – 19 pandemic and the future of nigeria's university system: the quest for libraries' relevance. journal of academic librarianship, 46(6). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc7426696/. lane, d. c., & good, c. (2019). oeru's delivery model for changing times: an open source ngdle. paper presented at the world conference on online learning, dublin, ireland. https://docs.oeru.org/s/fxqk2rjbzwck8ia mcgreal, r. (2020). evaluation report on three regional centres established by the commonwealth of learning. commonwealth of learning. http://oasis.col.org/handle/11599/3730 moore, m. g. & kearsley, g. (2004). distance education: a systems view. wadsworth publishing. narayan, s., naidu, s., mays, t. & perris, k. (2021). out of school children: a contemporary view from the pacific island countries of the commonwealth. commonwealth of learning. http://oasis.col.org/handle/11599/3779 national universities commission (n.d.). guidelines for open and distance learning in nigerian universities. https://www.nuc.edu.ng/project/open-and-distance-education/ organisation of economic cooperation and development (oecd). (2020). population with tertiary education. https://data.oecd.org/eduatt/population-with-tertiary-education.htm perraton, h. d. (2000). open and distance learning in the developing world. psychology press. perris, k. f. (2015). comparing the open university systems of india and china: origins, developments and prospects. frontiers of education in china, 10(2), 274-305. perris, k. f. (2012). online learning in the open university systems of india and china: a comparison of responses to globalization. university of toronto (canada). https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/handle/1807/32862 russel, t. l. (1999). the no significant difference phenomenon: as reported in 355 research reports and summaries and papers: a comparative research annotated bibliography on technology for distance education. https://books.google.ca/books/about/the_no_significant_difference_phenomenon.html?id=bmovnqaacaaj& redir_esc=y southern african development community (sadc) (2012, june). regional open and distance learning policy framework. https://www.sadc.int/files/3113/7820/8525/approved_regional_odl_policy_framework_june_2012_1.pdf tait, a. (2016). consultant report: transformation of bocodol. unpublished report. commonwealth of learning. united nations (2020). sustainable development goals. https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment world economic forum (2020). the future of jobs report. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/wef_future_of_jobs_2020.pdf 363 authors: dr kirk perris is adviser: education at the commonwealth of learning and oversees its regional centre initiative. he has worked with distance teaching and research universities, as a faculty member, researcher, and consultant and his areas of specializations are quality assurance, technology-enabled learning, and open education. email: kperris@col.org professor rory mcgreal is the unesco/international council for open and distance education chair in open educational resources (oer) at athabasca university, canada. he is charged with promoting oer internationally, particularly in developing nations in support of unesco strategic development goal 4: education for all. email: rory@athabascau.ca cite this paper as: perris, k. f., & mcgreal, r. (2021). developing partnerships to acquire impact: the role of three regional centres’ capacity building efforts for odl adoption in the emerging world. journal of learning for development, 8(2), 346-363. i the sustainable development goals (sdgs) were established by the united nations and a host of other partners in 2015. there are 17 sdgs. ii the paper will not focus on malta, as it remains in the early stages of development. iii there is a fourth regional centre, the commonwealth centre for connected learning, located in malta. at the time of the evaluation, on which this paper is based, this regional centre was at an early stage of operations, and therefore has limited focus in this paper. iv the commonwealth states of wasr include cameroon, the gambia, ghana, nigeria and sierra leone. v the commonwealth member states of sadc include botswana, eswatini, lesotho, malawi, mauritius, mozambique, namibia, seychelles, south africa, tanzania, and zambia. microsoft word ramjattan.docx issn: 2311-1550 2020, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 142-160 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. agricultural extension agents’ use of learning-based extension methods in trinidad and tobago jeet ramjattan,1 ataharul chowdhury2 and wayne ganpat1 1the university of the west indies 2university of guelph, ontario, canada abstract: agricultural extension agents are highly credited for their roles of providing advice to farmers and supporting their learning and decision-making to improve livelihoods. the use of appropriate methods to promote learning in developing countries, including trinidad and tobago, has often been highlighted as a development priority. nevertheless, agricultural extension agents encounter difficulties in applying new competencies. understanding and utilising appropriate methods based on farmers’ learning needs is critical. this study sought to investigate extension agents’ use of learning-based extension methods. a survey was conducted with 106 extension agents. descriptive statistics and logistic regression analysis were used to analyse data. the findings show that male agents prefer plant clinics and farmer field school learning methods. social influence and networking among organisations had a significant influence on the use of discovery based learning methods. the positive influence of social pressure motivated the agents. the study recommends supporting facilitative conditions through a coordinated programme and to focus on farmers’ learning as a critical consideration for improving the use and impact of learningbased methods. keywords: learning-based methods, agricultural extension, extension agent, trinidad and tobago. introduction agricultural extension is traditionally described as an informal educational process, providing advice and technology transfer from agricultural research institutions to solve farmers’ problems and improve livelihoods. extension services, heretofore, were provided mainly by public sector organisations. the extension agents acted as liaisons between researchers, policymakers and farmers and were responsible for communicating knowledge and information to help farmers in decisionmaking (oakley & garforth, 1997). internationally, extension organisations are transforming from traditional public extension to a broader system of actors and stakeholders comprising research, extension, technology users, private input supply companies, non-governmental organisations and support structures, such as markets and credit (ganpat, 2013, p. 95; sulaiman, hall & raina, 2006). this new paradigm shift empowers millions of farmers worldwide, creating opportunities to increase productivity, sustainable development and food security. furthermore, extension services have expanded using advanced methods to provide adequate responses to client needs in a globally changing environment (helene-collion, alex, byerlee & rivera, 2004). 143 globally, knowledge intensive methods and practices are being emphasised for achieving effective problem solving, collaborative learning and holistic development (world bank, 2012; allahyari, chizari & mirdamadi, 2009; tropical agriculture platform, 2016). advances in technology, changes in agents’ role and clientele needs now require extension educators to rethink traditional programme delivery (davis, 2006). extension agents’ new roles comprise adopting enhanced learning-based methods for facilitating collaborative learning and knowledge management (ganpat, harder & moore, 2014). these extension methods include group participatory methods, such as, farmer-field schools and plant clinics, agro-ecosystem analysis, field days, and discovery-based methods used to facilitate learning and change in communities (faure, desjeux, & gasselin, 2012; davis & sulaiman, 2014). farmer field school (ffs) pioneered in the 1990s by the food and agriculture organization, is a method of supporting experiential learning, where farmers meet regularly in an action learning group platform facilitated by a local extension agent to study the “how and why” of a particular topic, such as, crop or livestock, and make informed decisions (fao, 2016; friis-hansen & duveskog, 2008). cost benefit evaluations in kenya, uganda and tanzania reported that ffs positively impacted yields by 60 percent, and improved income and participation by women and low-literacy farmers (davis et al, 2012). discovery based learning (dbl) method uses the constructivist theory of learning (loevinsohn, berdegué & guijt, 2002) in which learning activities are conducted to enhance farmers’ own understanding and knowledge of a topic through experience and reflection. dbl is a flexible method in which various tools (e.g., video, pictures/demonstrations) are used to engage participants in experimentation, observation and measurement, which allow them to draw their own conclusions (van mele, salahuddin & magor, 2005). simple exercises and tools supported by dbl were very effective in stimulating learning among rice-value chain actors and helping farmers to make informed decisions for improving their livelihoods in bangladesh (van mele et al, 2005). agro ecosystem analysis (aesa) is a tool that helps farmers to examine their farm from the aspects of ecology and economics, as well as wider socio-political issues. the analysis is conducted by visiting the farm plots, observing and taking measurements, recording observation, and then comparing and analysing the information before deciding what to do. aesa and dbl are also used within ffs (fao, 2016). they may be used separately, depending on the purpose of learning and development. plant clinic is a community based advisory method of providing plant health care services to farmers in public spaces, such as marketplaces, bus stops, cooperatives and village centres (danielsen & kelly, 2010). farmers bring their diseased plant samples and a trained expert discusses how to manage the problem based on observations. partnerships between non-profit organisations and public extension agencies for implementing plant clinic reported positive impacts for adoption of sustainable farming practices and improving livelihoods of over 31 million farmers in asia, africa and the americas (cabi, 2019). plant clinic has been reported as an effective method for reaching more farmers with a timely low-cost service, and increasing adoption of sustainable plant protection practices, harvests and achieving other benefits, such as, a reduction in pesticide abuse, and improvement in food security (bantley et al, 2010; ghosh, taron & williams, 2019). according to unesco (2017), learning-based education (lbe) methodology is a well-established approach empowering learners to develop competencies, reflect on their own actions and consider their current and future social, cultural, economic and environmental impacts. effective education 144 methods require the adoption of action-oriented, transformative pedagogy, in support of self-directed learning, participation and collaboration. educators must possess the necessary abilities, skills, knowledge and attitudes that promote delivery of education with a shift from teaching to learning. therefore, extension professionals’ skills, knowledge, behaviours and abilities must be clearly defined (caffarella, 2002; mulder, 2014). the use of learning-based, field-adapted and participation-oriented methods enhances the abilities of farmers and rural communities to make choices concerning agricultural extension programme content (rivera, 1998). facilitation of farmers’ learning depends mostly on agents’ understanding of client characteristics, the information they receive, competencies of agents and the appropriateness of the methods used (kantner, 1982). the ministry of agriculture and food production of trinidad and tobago emphasises learning-based extension methods for improving service and meeting national development goals. however, successful transformation correlates with extension agents’ perception and use of these new methods of extension (ramjattan, ganpat & chowdhury, 2017). in trinidad and tobago, there is limited evidence about extension agents’ extant use of learning-based methods of extension. opinions suggest extension agents are not operating at optimum efficiency levels (ganpat, 2013, p. 142). the role of extension in training and dissemination of knowledge and innovation is critical to minimising the problems of poverty, hunger and improving livelihoods (chikaire, nnadi, nwakwasi & ejiogu-okereke, 2011). extension organisations operate as change agents at the level which directly impacts the intended beneficiaries whose livelihoods are directly reflected in the quality of services they provide (anderson & feder, 2007). efforts are being made to improve the efficiency of the ministry of food production by redefining the government’s role in agriculture. consequently, new strategies, alliances, technologies and priorities for extension services are outlined in the ministry’s action plan (mfpla, 2011). despite these efforts, farmers are not satisfied with the public extension services of trinidad and tobago (qamar, 2013; cunupia farmers association, 2011). furthermore, it is also stated that the ministry’s staff are often engaged in many administrative activities, which result in agents spending less time on actual advisory duties, rendering them unable to assist farmers in solving problems (spence, 2010). these factors have resulted in unsatisfactory growth and development of the agricultural sector and as such its contribution to gdp remains low (qamar, 2013). to overcome these deficits in trinidad and tobago, new tools and techniques are being applied. the ensuing impact is the evolution of a system that employs group and mass methods using multiple communication techniques and adult education practices. an analysis of extension agents’ extant use of learning-based methods will provide important insights for service provider organisations in the forecasting of learning-based methods and requirements for attaining the goal of service transformation. therefore, the study sought to analyse extension agents’ use of learning-based extension methods in trinidad & tobago, and to determine factors affecting use of learning-based extension methods. theoretical framework the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (utaut) model (venkatesh, morris, davis & davis, 2003) was adopted for use as the theoretical framework of this study. the utaut model was designed to evaluate an intention to use technology, thereby, predicting the acceptance and usage of technology. in this investigation, the utaut model was applied to assess the intention of extension 145 agents towards using the four previously defined learning-based methods. in this case, the model thereby predicts the use of these methods by extension agents and, subsequently, the prevalence of these learning-based methods in extension agents’ engagement with target farmers. applying the model to this investigation allows for an understanding of implementation success rates and provides an improved prediction of adoption. as such, this model has been recommended and validated as a way of affording a basis to investigate the factors influencing extension agents’ use of learning-based methods in trinidad and tobago. utaut was created to have an integrated and unified theoretical basis which could be applied without having to collate different models and theories when studying issues in adoption. before the utaut model was created, analysis of the adoption of extension method was commonly approached using the fundamental theory of planned behaviour (which provides an understanding of the determinants which inform decisions made by extension providers). the accompanying and prevailing systemic extension model was the transfer of technology (tot) model, which was focused on production improvements, increasing yields, and linear handing down of advice from experts to extension agents to farmers (davis, 2009). this type of technical knowledge transfer is no longer the focus of extension, and agencies are required to facilitate development through new approaches based in participatory methods that account for the perception and attitudes of the target farmers (davis, 2009; roling & pretty, 1997). as more theories emerged (e.g., predictive persuasion theories), essential factors including expectations, such as motivation, performance and feelings were acknowledged and included as determinants of and reactions towards adoption (bandura, 1986). these theories point to the phenomenon of different individuals in similar environments receiving, perceiving and cognitively transforming information differently due to variation in cognitive styles, mental processes and personal factors (van den ban & hawkin, 1996). eight leading theories and models were incorporated into the utaut model, thus rendering it a model with eight constructs. factors and variables considered this study evaluated the eight constructs in the utaut model: 1) perception of external control, 2) performance expectancy, 3) perceived usefulness, 4) effort expectancy, 5) facilitating conditions, 6) networks and alliances, 7) institutional support and 8) social influence. the details of these eight constructs as they were applied to the four learning-based methods following the utaut model (venkatesh, morris, davis & davis, 2003) are as follows: 1) perception of external control refers to the agents’ perception of constraints to using learning extension methods because of limitations that the agents have little or no control over and perceive as obstacles to the acceptance and use of such learning extension methods. 2) performance expectancy is used to provide an assessment of the agents’ perceived benefits of using learning extension methods. 3) perceived usefulness of learning extension methods is an instrument that assesses the agents’ perceptions of the intensities of gains in job satisfaction. 4) effort expectancy is assessed to rate the degree of ease associated with agents’ competency in using learning extension methods. 146 5) facilitating conditions is an estimation of the magnitude to which using innovations is expected to improve the agent’s image in the extension sector. it examines the availability and accessibility of the necessary resources included to capture the discernment of the infrastructure required for the acceptance of learning extension methods used in extension work. 6) networks and alliances associated with the use and acceptance of learning extension methods are related to agents’ level of and use of collaboration and partnership arrangements. networks and alliances occur when roles are shared, and the coordination of programmes is jointly led to the achievement of common goals. 7) institutional support is a measure of an individual’s perception of the ability of an organisation to provide adequate technical support and the necessary infrastructure to use the learning methods. 8) social influence is a concept used to measure the use and acceptance of learning extension methods by quantifying the extent of a respondents’ agreement to questions about what important methods that others believe they should use and accept. current literature shows that most of the studies conducted in extension methods in trinidad and tobago have not explored the agents’ acceptance and use behaviour towards emerging extension methods, such as learning-based methods. most extension researchers focus on the adoption of innovations by farmers. though lesser studied, research conducted on the acceptance and use behaviour of dissemination technologies among the agricultural extension agents themselves across different organisations is of paramount importance. objectives this study focuses on agents’ acceptance and use of extension methods (learning-based extension methods, in particular). in addition to the eight previously defined constructs of the utaut model, extension agents’ characteristics were also evaluated. the seven characteristics of extension agents investigated in this study are: 1) extension service provider group/institution, 2) level/category of work, 3) educational background, 4) work experience in years, 5) age, 6) gender, 7) area of expertise. it is suggested that these characteristic factors moderate the constructs in the utaut model. therefore, these factors and the constructs in the utaut model should not be isolated from each other and ought to be analysed through holistic investigation, as attempted in this study. other studies have explored how these two types of variables are related and ultimately influence attitudes towards, and use of, technology, such as the influence of gender on student adoption of e-government services in kuwait and ict in indian government organisations (al-awadhi & morris, 2009; gupta, dasgupta & gupta, 2008). the underpinning significance of this study is a collective investigation of the different types of factors influencing the acceptance and use of learning-based extension methods by describing the acceptance and use behaviour of extension agents. 147 methods study area the study was conducted in the republic of trinidad and tobago, where approximately 18,968 households were involved in agriculture on an average of less than 10 hectares each. of this, 72.4% were involved in crop production and 16.1% in mixed agriculture while the remainder were engaged in apiculture, aquaculture and horticulture. services are provided to farmers across eight agroecological zones in trinidad, and two in tobago by multiple organisations including public, private and state-owned organisations. population and sampling the target population comprised all the extension agents (n = 110) of the public, state-assisted and private extension services of trinidad and tobago employed in the sector (march to may 2015) during the survey. a purposive sampling was conducted on the official office days at each of the eight county offices. a list of individual agents assigned to a district and responsible for an agroecological zone, for which services are provided to farmers was obtained from the county offices’ records of personnel employed. a total of 106 out of the 110 agents responded to the survey questionnaire, giving a response rate of 96%. method of inquiry and collection of data a face-to-face structured interview was conducted, using a pilot-tested questionnaire to obtain data from respondents serving public state agencies and private extension services. the survey instrument captured demographic, socio-economic, job-related information, and technology use information in two sections; (a) seven demographic and job characteristics questions and; (b) eight variables as per the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (utaut) (venkatesh, morris, davis & davis, 2003). variables (summarised in table 1) were measured using a four-point likert scale (“strongly agree”, “agree”, “disagree”, “strongly disagree”) where strongly agree was coded as (4) and strongly disagree was coded as (1). these scales were validated by a panel of six experts in the field of extension that comprised directors and university lecturers with experience in the trinidad and tobago extension system. the instrument was pre-tested with ten extension agents and adjustments were made accordingly. data were analysed using descriptive statistics and logistic regression. four separate logistic models were run to identify the factors predisposing the use of learning methods, viz., (i) dbl (ii) aesa (iii) plant clinics, and (iv) ffs. the questionnaire was designed using the constructs of unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (utaut). 148 table 1. description of variables used in regression analysis of factors influencing extension agents use of new extension methods explanatory variables levels specification perception of external control continuous four-point likert scale performance expectancy continuous four-point likert scale perceived usefulness continuous four-point likert scale effort expectancy continuous four-point likert scale facilitating conditions continuous four-point likert scale networks and alliances. continuous four-point likert scale institutional support /level of involvement. continuous four-point likert scale social influence to using new methods continuous four-point likert scale age a 18 to 30 years; 31 to 45 years; 46 to 60 years 1 – if 18-30 years 0 – otherwise 1 – if 31-45 years 0 – otherwise gender male female 1 – if male 0 – otherwise service provider b ministry of food production (public); private input suppliers; state assisted 1 – if private input suppliers 0 – otherwise 1 – if state assisted 0 – otherwise position in organisation c managerial level; supervisory level; field level 1 – if managerial level 0 – otherwise 1 – if supervisory level 0 – otherwise education diploma; undergraduate degree; post graduate degree 1 – if diploma 2 – if ug degree 3 – if pg degree experience d 5 years and less; 6 to 10 years; over 10 years 1 – if 5 years and less 0 – otherwise 1 – if 6 to 10 years 0 – otherwise expertise crop; livestock 1 – if crop 0 – otherwise coding and data analysis coding was done using excel to categorise and sort the data for entry into the analytical software statistical package for the social sciences (spss), version 22. demographic information of the respondents was analysed using descriptive statistics such as means, frequencies and percentages. logistic regression was used for predicting the outcome of the dependent variable based on the predictor variables operationalised from the (utaut) model of 149 technology use and acceptance. in this study, the dependent variable was the agents’ use of learningbased extension methods. logistic regression was used to identify and predict whether agents will or will not use learning-based extension methods. this type of analysis was suitable because it provides an estimate of observed values of the bounds within a qualitative response design. results socio-economic, demographic and job-related information profile of extension agents in trinidad and tobago descriptive analysis disclosed that most agents in trinidad and tobago (88%) belonged to the extension service provider group; public extension – ministry of food production (mfp), followed by private input suppliers (8%) and state-assisted agencies (4%) (table 2). most extension agents were agricultural assistant i (47%), while 18%, 14% and 6% were agricultural extension aide (aea), agricultural assistant (ii) and agricultural assistant (iii), respectively. most of the agents attained tertiary level education, 27% possessed diplomas, 26% possessed associate degrees, 24% possessed undergraduate degrees and 18% held postgraduate degrees, while 5% had other certificates (secondary school education alone). some 29% of the agents had 1 to 5 years’ work experience, 34% belonged to the 6 to 10 years’ work experience range and 37% were in the 11 years and over work experience category. the highest percentage of agents (53%) fit into the age category range from 31 to 45 years, 26% fell into the 18 to 30-year age category and 21% into the 46 to 60-year age category range. there were slightly more males (54%) than females (46%). regarding the area of expertise, the highest percentage of extension workers (57%) possessed general extension expertise, while administrative and other areas of expertise were low (2%), followed by 29% expertise in crop production. livestock production expertise was a mere 12%. 150 table 2: socio-economic profile of extension agents in trinidad and tobago parameters categories frequencies (%) extension service provider group/institution public extension (mfp) 88 state assisted agencies 4 private agro-chemical input suppliers 8 level /category of work management /administrative agricultural officer i 15 supervisory agricultural assistant iii 6 agricultural assistant ii 14 field staff agricultural extension aide 18 agricultural assistant i 47 educational background associate degree diploma undergraduate degree post graduate degree other 26 27 24 18 5 work experience (years) 1 to 5 6 to 10 11 and over 29 34 37 age (years) 18 to 30 31 to 45 46 to 60 26 53 21 gender female male 46 54 area of expertise crops livestock 69 31 use of learning-based extension the use of the four learning extension methods was compared by service providers for gender (table 3) and education (table 4). the results of use by gender comparison among the three categories of service providers showed that use of plant clinics was highest followed by ffs. when compared, the use of dbl and aesa methods both showed lower patterns of use. among service providers, male agents showed the highest preference for using plant clinics and ffs. in contrast, female agents among all three extension service providers found dbl and aesa methods suitable in meeting clients’ needs and were more inclined to use it in service delivery. among the four methods investigated, use of dbl and aesa were equally lower (58%) compared to the use of plant clinics and ffs methods which was much higher, 84.9% and 72.6%, respectively. 151 table 3: gender-based comparison of learning methods by the extension service provider methods ministry private state total use m f t m f t m f t m f t dbl% 61.2 61. 3 61. 2 33.3 66. 7 44. 4 0.0 50.0 25.0 56. 1 61. 2 58. 4 aesa% 61.2 61. 3 61. 2 33.3 66. 7 44. 4 0.0 50.0 25.0 56. 1 61. 2 58. 4 clinics% 89.8 77. 2 83. 8 100. 0 66. 7 88. 9 100. 0 100. 0 100. 0 91. 2 77. 5 84. 9 ffs% 79.5 59. 0 69. 8 100. 0 66. 7 88. 9 100. 0 100. 0 100. 0 82. 4 61. 2 72. 6 sample size 49 44 93 6 3 9 2 2 4 57 49 106 m – male; f – female; t – total agents who favoured the use of dbl (70%) held undergraduate degrees followed by 61.17 % of agents with diplomas. in contrast, the least used was (46.15%) agents with postgraduate degrees (table 3). similarly, for private agents, there was 66.66% use by those with ug degrees and 50% with pg degrees. the use of dbl for state-assisted agents was even less (25%) for those with ug degrees. state agents with pg degrees did not use this method. this method was the least used method of extension among all the different educational qualifications’ categories. from the findings, a clear pattern emerged in the use of dbl, the agents with postgraduate degrees being reluctant to select this type of learning method. this implies that in addition to educational, demographic, and associated job factors, underlying constraints such as level of worker experience, age and institutional support influenced their choice. on the other hand, aesa was fairly well accepted among the provider agents. comparatively, the use of aesa varied according to educational qualifications. aesa was used by 65.38% of the agents with ug degrees, followed by those with diplomas (59.68%), and, of the agents with post-graduate degrees, only 44.44 % were using aesa. holders of post-graduate degrees viewed aesa as being less appropriate and thus chose other extension methods. plant clinics were widely used among all three extension service provider groups. mfp agents had an overall total of 91.6% who used plant clinics, while, for private service providers, it was 83.8%. state-assisted agents had 88.8% overall. it is apparent from the result that this method allowed greater achievement in meeting institutional goals and client satisfaction. it was found that when the organisations supported agents in their use and application of this method, increases in client satisfaction levels were obtained. use of ffs according to education categories disclosed that among the different agents who provide service, 69.8% of the agents with diplomas from the mfp, 50% of those with ug and 46.1% of the agents of the mfp with pg used farmer field school (ffs) methods. overall the total amount of agents using ffs in extension work was 72.60%. ffs was popular among the institutions as this type 152 of learning initiative was found useful for enhancing collaboration, encouraging client participation and facilitating joint problem-solving. all categories of agents found ffs useful in achieving the agricultural extension objectives of greater involvement, empowerment and the strengthening of clients’ capacity to learn and adopt innovations. factors influencing use of learning-based methods the determinants of use of learning based methods (table 5) show the results of the factors predisposing the extension agents use of four learning-based extension methods, (1) dbl (2) aesa (3) plant clinics and (4) ffs were analysed by adopting four separate logistic regression models. dbl the logistic regression model of extension agents’ use of dbl method (table 5) showed a good fit explaining that 54% of the variation (adjusted r2 0.545) in the dependent variable was due to changes in the independent variables. the statistically significant variables of the logistic regression model for extension agents’ use of dbl were public perception, networking and alliances, social influence, supervisory level and crop expertise. dbl positively influenced extension agents’ understanding of the public perception of service delivery and, as such, may have been limited only to the specific programme needs of the clients. agents perceived dbl to be more useful when the level of collaboration and shared partnership increased among service providers and stakeholders. there was a negative relationship between social influence and use, implying that agents were not in full agreement about which methods were important to use and did not let others’ beliefs inform their decisions. extension supervisors credited dbl with improving the efficiency and effectiveness of extension delivery services and promoted its use to provide a relative advantage in comparison to traditional practices. the lack of motivation by agents with crop expertise to use this method could be attributed to insufficient training and technical support. agents with crop expertise were less confident to implement programmes of this nature. there is a need for further training and a greater understanding of how to enable the transition to learning-based extension methods in programme implementation. 153 aesa the logistic regression model of extension agents’ uses of aesa (table 5) proved to be a good fit with an overall accuracy rate of 86.8% and an χ2 value of 67.317. r2 value was 0.681. the public perception variable was significant; agents preferred aesa when programme outcomes allowed clients to participate. the probability of agents using aesa was positively related to observable benefits. facilitating conditions were positively correlated to the use of aesa; this implies that agents would accept and use aesa when the necessary infrastructure was available. administrators saw the value of this method in improving service provision; thus, they made the necessary resources available. agents were interested to use this method when there were opportunities to solve client problems. the benefits were realised when there was programme relevance in facilitating content-specific technology dissemination. this method proved to be appropriate for specific situations but was not always applicable. this technique was applied due to generated interest in areas where agents sought to provide handson field experience. however, administrators saw it as an effective tool that was seemingly superior to existing practices as tangible benefits were derived. the consensus among agents was that the level of persuasion required for fundamental reform was insufficient to enhance the uptake and establishment of this type of extension method on a much larger scale. they were unlikely to accept aesa as useful and beneficial as there was a lack of evidence for its applicability in all situations. the evidence to support aesa as a preferred method of extension was not found and, therefore, it is evident aesa did not gain widespread acceptance and use by the agents in trinidad and tobago. plant clinics the logistic regression model of agents' use of plant clinic methods (table 5) proved to be a good fit with an overall accuracy rate of 94.3% and an χ2 value of 101.547. the r2 value was 0.591. the statistically significant variables in the logistic regression model of extension agents’ use of plant clinics were effort expectations, institutional support and gender. the model predicted that the likelihood of agents using plant clinics was amplified for agents interested in improving client satisfaction. positive increases in the coefficients of the use of plant clinics resulted as the agents realised observable benefits and situation applicability. this model provided evidence to suggest that such an approach was tenable and, therefore, the high emphasis was placed on the functional efficacy of plant clinics, which led to increased use and acceptance. it was probable that respondents who were concerned with the effort expectations were more likely to use plant clinics. the results observed that the necessary critical linkages and support were major enabling factors and that common interests drove agents. this method may have focused on the interdependence of the stakeholders involved and, as a result, the productive potential of this method was explored to a higher degree than others. there was a statistically significant relationship between the use of plant clinics and male extension agents. it was probable that respondents who were concerned with the perception of client satisfaction were more than 3.3 times as likely to use plant clinics. 154 ffs the logistic regression model of extension agents’ use of ffs (table 5) proved to be a good fit with an overall accuracy rate of 82.1% and an χ2 value of 55.820. the r2 value was 0.510. the results revealed that five of the predictor variables showed statistical significance; facilitating conditions, networking and alliances, age categories, gender and crop expertise indicated strong linkages existed between these and the dependent variable use of farmer field schools (ffs). agents recognised that ffs requires significant investment in resources. the success of this method depended on multiple providers to achieve its objectives and was favoured more when the opportunity for partnership arose. increases in facilitating conditions and networking positively increased the use of ffs. farmers were offered the chance to choose which innovations were relevant for adoption in their practice when they were given necessary information, knowledge and hands-on experience using appropriate and efficient technologies. the informal and participatory nature of ffs and the hands-on approach to problem-solving improved service quality and client satisfaction. therefore, agents concerned with service quality and client satisfaction were more likely to use ffs in situations where implementation barriers hindered use. the agents belonging to the 31 to 45 years age category were more inclined to use ffs, indicating that experience and training were factors influencing the use of ffs. males were more comfortable using ffs, and the chances increased for the provider organisations whose agents possessed crop expertise. 155 table 5: determinants of use of learning-based extension method predictor variables dbl aesa plant clinics ffs p values (exp β) s.e. p values (exp β) s.e. p values s.e. p values (exp β) s.e. perception of client satisfaction 1.104* (3.017) .627 1.079** (3.083) .316 1.050* (3.350) .558 -.510 (.600) .371 perception of external control .004 (1.004) .059 .016 (1.016) .035 .083 (1.086) .051 .033 (1.034) .035 performance expectations -.144 (.866) .096 .018 (1.019) .044 .041 (1.042) .072 .025 (1.026) .052 perceived usefulness .119 (1.126) .084 .006 (1.006) .045 .070 (1.072) .081 -.016 (.984) .049 effort expectancy -.027 (.973) .068 .038 (1.039) .034 1.12* (2.89) .590 -.033 (.997) .038 facilitating conditions -.037 (.964) .064 -1.025* (3.975) .553 -.023 (.977) .052 .094** (.910) .045 networking and alliances 1.439* (4.215) .560 .173 (1.189) .214 -.352 (.703) .343 .531* (1.701) .288 institutional support .109 (1.115) .136 -.053 (.948) .082 1.326** (3.722) .471 -.023 (.977) .087 social influence -.138* (.871) .077 -.005 (.995) .042 .058 (1.060) .080 .082 (1.086) .051 age 18 to 30 2.065 (7.884) 2.409 -.051 (.950) 1.376 1.625 (5.077) 1.997 3.168* (23.755) 1.762 age 31 to 45 1.511 (4.533) 2.124 1.068* (2.911) .939 2.173 (8.787) 1.480 2.028* (7.595) 1.093 gender 1.380 (3.976) 1.589 -.597 (.550) .695 -2.228* (.108) 1.187 -2.663*** (.070) .926 state service -.792 (.453) 4.756 .010 (1.010) 1.503 .345 (1.407) 1.435 .295 (1.342) 1.216 private service -.657 (.518) 3.485 -3.313 (.036) 2.273 -.857 (.528) 3.305 2.065 (7.884) 2.409 manager level 2.930 (5.124) 4.818 2.682** (3.068) 2.551 3.315 (2.526) 3.819 2.933 (4.788) 2.932 super level 3.540* (2.472) 2.160 -1.69 (.844) 1.055 1.551 (4.715) 1.827 1.386 (3.999) 1.469 education 1.218 (3.380) .921 -1.77 (.838) .412 -.655 (.520) .717 -.742 (.476) .501 experience < 5 -.974 (.378) 1.920 -1.209 (.298) 1.083 1.131 (3.100) 1.708 -.940 (.391) 1.296 experience >10 .225 (1.253) 1.478 -.784 (.457) .883 .342 (1.407) 1.447 -.705 (.494) 1.026 crop expertise -3.264** (.038) 1.563 -.125** (.883) .748 -1.039 (.354) 1.081 1.409* (.244) .816 livestock expertise -2.010 (.145) 1.460 -.464 (.629) .958 -2.019 (.133) 1.500 .294 (1.342) 1.216 constants -24.540 (.000) 9.211 21.285 (.000) 8.721 -39.041 (.000) 9.737 41.668 (.000) 9.097 note, *p < 0.10; **p < 0.05; *** p < 0.01; figures in parenthesis indicate (exponential β) predicted log odds ratio. s.e = standard errors associated with coefficient. 156 discussion and conclusion the findings of the study add important insights into worldwide debates concerning the use of learning-based extension methods by agricultural extension organisations and the changing roles of agents. social influence and networking had a significant influence on extension agents’ use of aesa and dbl methods. this implies that agents were motivated by the positive influence of social pressures and collaborations with people viewed as important to them in encouraging the use of these methods. agents realised that plant clinics could be organised quickly, providing prompt advice to more farmers. administrators strongly supported plant clinics, recognising that resources could be effectively utilised when farmers came to the clinics in one place rather than an individual agent travelling great distances and meeting fewer farmers. the training of agents as “plant doctors” enhanced their capacity and boosted their confidence in pest and disease diagnosis, enabling them to provide on-the-spot reliable and practical recommendations. this improved farmers’ knowledge and practice which led to positive impacts on farm productivity and income. like impact evaluations conducted in uganda (brubaker, danielsen, olupot, romney & ochatum, 2013), this study found that outreach and scaling-up is required to allow accessibility for farmers in rural areas. overall, the use of learning-based extension methods was positively influenced by many variables. agents who used learning-based extension methods found that they could provide more relevant service, which enhanced their clients’ ability to make informed decisions. this capability to empower clientele led to a positive perception among agents towards using the methods to improve the quality of services offered. facilitating conditions positively influenced the use of learning-based extension methods by the agents in trinidad and tobago. hence, the improvement of facilitating conditions with consideration to the provision of organisational and technical infrastructure is necessary. if extension organisations are to attain the benefits of using learning-based extension methods, access to resources in the areas of infrastructure, materials, equipment and funding must be made acquirable. the extension agents highlighted human resource development and training opportunities as limitations to the use of the extension methods. personnel development and reskilling of staff to transform their service provision capabilities into the specific competencies necessary for effective action must be made accessible. extension worker competence could be improved by providing training related explicitly to interactive, learner-centred service provision. it is therefore critical that administrators and policy makers conduct staff evaluations to identify gaps and provide in-service training to agents already employed, and review curricula at the tertiary training organisations to incorporate learning-based methods for individuals interested in entering a career in agricultural extension. the public extension service of trinidad and tobago has the largest number (92%) of agents employed in the country. the extension division of the ministry of agriculture is mandated to provide capacity development training for staff. it is crucial therefore to provide adequate capacity building in the area of learning-based methods for the agents of the various agencies. this must be done to ensure agents periodically upgrade their knowledge and skills to adequately address the emerging dynamics of extension service and the continually changing needs of farmers. if agents can meet the needs of the farmers through their capacity development, this would lead to synergies whereby development goals are realised. 157 the study indicated that middle-aged (30-45 years) extension agents were more inclined to use learning-based methods. contrastingly, those of the 46 to 60 years’ experience category were less willing to use the four methods. this suggests that technical competence is a necessity in motivating agents to use these methods. these agents were likely to be less confident in the use of learning methods of technology dissemination. as such, management practices should support continuous training that provides the necessary skills and knowledge needed for a transformation from teaching to learning. networking and institutional support are necessary for facilitating the conditions that encourage the adoption of learning-based methods. extension organisations may adopt innovative strategies, for instance, the strengthening of joint coordinated programmes such as plant clinics and ffs, which can capitalise on the competitive advantage and help mobilise resources for the use of learning-based methods. multiple service providers collaborating in an extension system can contribute different types of services, funding, resources and information. greater collaboration could impact positively on the ability of service providers to sustain the use of learning-based extension methods in fulfilling the educational needs of diverse clientele and address rural development challenges. since social influence was responsible for extension agents’ use of learning-based methods, extension organisations should organise a “share fair” or encourage agents to share experiences using social and collaborative media. creating these types of synergies that include a wide range of actors at different levels could facilitate the sharing of knowledge and competencies. the successful implementation of ffs and plant clinic methods required significant investments in resources and obligations to regular routines. bello-bravo, seufferheld & agunbiade, (2011) in a study of gender-related issues in ffs, revealed that many limiting factors in agricultural societies in west africa cause low participation of women in ffs, and extension services did not cater for the circumstances regarding womens’ participation. similarly, in trinidad and tobago, it was evident that these commitments proved to be limitations in programme implementation for some of the female agents. hence, strengthening female agents' functional and technical skill, and reducing the programme activities to the critically-needed aspects of farmer learning are key enablers in improving their use of these methods. it is necessary to conduct studies to examine and understand why female extension officers are less inclined to use ffs to develop strategies to increase participation and understand the socio-economic barriers and inequalities. the extension system in trinidad and tobago must develop and design unique extension services to promote increased gender involvement for both clients and agents. the formation of women farmers' groups is one such strategy for changing the design of extension services to adapt to these circumstances. women agents working with women’s groups can lead to an increase in female participation in ffs and ensure higher client and agent involvement in these programmes. this study found that there is a critical need for assessing individuals, organisations and system-level service provisions in understanding the importance of promoting the use of appropriate learningbased extension methods. it is imperative to re-define the roles of extension agents with respect to building agents’ capacity and enhancing their ability to adapt collaborative learning and holistic development. 158 furthermore, the need exists to undertake empirical analyses to provide valuable insights in designing policies to enable extension services in trinidad and tobago to be more effective, and impactful. references allahyari, m. s., chizari, m., & mirdamadi, s. (2009). extension-education methods to facilitate learning in sustainable agriculture. journal of agriculture and social science, 5(1-2), 27-30. al-awadhi, s., & morris, a. (2009). factors influencing the adoption of e-government services. journal of software, 4(6) doi: 10.4304/jsw.4.6.584-590 anderson, j., & feder, g. (2007). agricultural extension. in handbook of agricultural economics, vol. 3. (pp. 2344 – 2367). washington, dc: world bank. bandura, a. (1986). social foundations of thought and action: a social cognitive theory. englewood cliffs, nj: prentice hall. bantley, j. w., et al. (2009). plant health clinics in bolivia 2000—2009: operations and preliminary results. food security, 1(3), 371-386. retrieved from doi: 10.1007/s12571-009-0033-z bello-bravo, j., seufferheld, f., & agunbiade, t. a. (2011). gender and farmer field schools in agricultural production systems in west africa. the international journal of science in society, 2. retrieved from https://doi.org/10.18848/1836-6236/cgp/v02i04/51280 brubaker, j., danielsen, s., olupot, m., romney, d., & ochatum, n. (2013). impact evaluation of plant clinics: teso, uganda. retrieved from https://www.cabi.org/uploads/cabi/expertise/cabi-wp6-impact-of-plantclinics-teso-uganda.pdf cabi. (2019). plantwise: helping farmers lose less and feed more. retrieved from https://www.cabi.org/projects/plantwise/ caffarella, r. (2002). planning programs for adult learners: a practical guide for educators, trainers and staff developers (2nd ed.). new york: john wiley & sons. chikaire, j., nnadi, f., nwakwasi, r., & ejiogu-okereke, n. (2011). the changing roles of agricultural extension to achieve food security and improve rural livelihoods in imo state, nigeria. researcher, 3(10), 41-48. danielsen, s., & kelly, p. (2010). a novel approach to quality assessment of plant health clinics. international journal of agricultural sustainability, 8, pp. 257-269 davis, g. (2006). avoiding the "rut" in program development and delivery: improving our understanding of learning style preferences. retrieved from https://www.joe.org/joe/2006august/rb1.php davis, k.e. (2009). agriculture and climate change: an agenda for negotiation in copenhagen – the important role of extension systems. washington dc: international food policy research institute. davis, k. et al. (2012). impact of farmer field schools on agricultural productivity and poverty in east africa. world development. retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2011.05.01 davis, k., & sulaiman, v. r. (2014). the new extensionist: roles and capacities to strengthen extension and advisory services. journal of international agricultural and extension education, 21(3), 6-18. doi:10.5191/jiaee.2014.21301 fao. (2016). farmer field school guidance document: planning for quality programmes. rome: food and agriculture organization. faure, g., desjeux, y., & gasselin, p. (2012). new challenges in agricultural advisory services from a research perspective: a literature review, synthesis and research agenda. the journal of agricultural education and extension, 18(5), 461-492. retrieved from doi:10.1080/1389224x.2012.707063 159 friis-hansen, e., & duveskog, d. (2008). linking the learning process in farmer field schools to impact of transformative change. paper presented at the workshop on rethinking impact: understanding the complexity of poverty and change 26-28 march, cali, colombia. ganpat, w., (2013). the history of agricultural extension in trinidad and tobago. kingston: ian randle publishers. ganpat, w., harder, a., & moore, a. (2014). envisioning the future of extension and advisory services in the caribbean. journal of international agricultural and extension education, 21(3):19-31. ghosh, s., taron, a., & williams, f. (2019). the impact of plant clinics on the livelihoods of bangladeshi farmers. cabi study brief 29: impact. retrieved from https://dx.doi.org/10.1079/cabicomm-62-8107 gupta, b., dasgupta, s., & gupta, a. (2008). adoption of ict in a government organization in a developing country: an empirical study. the journal of strategic information systems, 17(2), 140-154. retrieved from doi: 10.1016/j.jsis.2007.12.004 helene-collion, m., alex, g., byerlee, d., & rivera, w. (2004). extension and rural development: converging views on institutional approaches? retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/409a/49050d8bd118bcc543de15b615608efd8626.pdf?_ga=2.162846012.147460 4606.1572371365-516127670.1554667443 kantner, d. (1982). how agents and clients view programs. journal of extension, 4(9), 4-8. loevinsohn, m. e., berdegué, j. a., & guijt, i. (2002). deepening the basis of rural resource management: learning process and decision support. agricultural systems, 73(2002), pp. 3-22. mfpla. (2011). strategic plan 2011-2015. ministry of food production, land and marine affairs, government of trinidad & tobago. mulder, m. (2018). conceptions of professional competence. in s. billett, c. harteis, & h. gruber, international handbook of research in professional and practice-based learning. (pp. 107-137). netherlands: springer. oakley, p., & garforth, c. (1997). guide to extension training. rome: food and agriculture organization of the united nations. qamar, m. (2013). world wide extension study—trinidad and tobago. g-fras.org. retrieved from http://www.gfras.org/en/world-wide-extension-study/central-america-and-the-caribbean/caribbean/trinidad-andtobago.html#ict ramjattan, j., ganpat, w., & chowdhury, a. (2017). value of modern extension methods in improving image and quality of extension: perception of extension agents in trinidad and tobago. journal of agricultural extension and rural development, 9(8), 155-162. retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.5897/jaerd2017.0882 rivera, w. (1998). agricultural extension as adult education: institutional evolution and forces for change. international journal of lifelong education, 17(4), 260-264. retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0260137980170405 roling, n., & pretty, j. (1997). extension’s role in sustainable agricultural development. in b. e. swanson, r. p. bentz, & a. j. sofranko, improving agricultural extension. a reference manual, chapter 20. rome: fao. spence, j. (2010, september 15). developing the agriculture sector. trinidad express newspaper. strong, r., ganpat, w., harder, a., irby, t., & lindner, j. (2014). exploring the use of information communication technologies by selected caribbean extension officers. the journal of agricultural education and extension, 20(5), 485-495. sulaiman, v., hall, a., & raina, r. (2006). from disseminating technologies to promoting innovation: implications for agricultural extension. paper prepared for the saic regional workshop on research-extension linkages for effective delivery of agricultural technologies in saarc countries, hyderbad, india. tropical agriculture platform. (2016). common framework on capacity development for agricultural innovation system: guidance note on operationalization. cab international, wallingford, uk. 160 van den ban, a.w., & hawkin, h. s. (1996). agricultural extension, (2nd ed.). london: blackwell science ltd., 5966. van mele, p., salahuddin, a., & magor, n. p. (eds.). (2005). innovations in rural extension: case studies from bangladesh. oxfordshire, uk: cabi publishing. venkatesh, v., morris, m., davis, g., & davis, f. (2003). user acceptance of information technology: toward a unified view. mis quarterly, 27(3), 425-478. united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization. (2017). education for sustainable development goals: learning objectives. paris, france. retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0024/002474/247444e.pdf world bank. (2012). agricultural innovation systems. an investment sourcebook. washington dc: the world bank. authors: jeet ramjattan is a ph.d candidate at the department of agricultural economics and extension, the university of the west indies. email: jeetramjattan@gmail.com ataharul chowdhury is an assistant professor, school of environmental design and rural development, university of guelph, canada. email: ataharul.chowdhury@uoguelph.ca wayne ganpat is a professor, department of agricultural economics and extension, the university of the west indies. email: wayne.ganpat@sta.uwi.edu cite this paper as: ramjattan, j., chowdhury, a., & ganpat, w. (2020). agricultural extension agents' use of learning-based extension methods in trinidad and tobago. journal of learning for development, 7(2), 142-160. tanyanyiwa department involvement in instructional materials development for odl study at the zimbabwe open university (zou) vincent itai tanyanyiwa and betty mutambanengwe vol. 2, no. 2 abstract the teaching and designing of modules at zimbabwe open university (zou) is the principal responsibility of a single body of teaching staff, although some authors and content reviewers could be sourced from elsewhere if they are not available in zou. this survey, through a case study, examines the involvement of lecturers and staff in the department of geography and environmental studies in instructional materials development for open and distance learning (odl). the study inquired into the time lecturers spent on module development and writing, their levels of satisfaction with the materials they produced, their preferences with regard to teaching and instructional materials development strategies, and their views on how the process of instructional materials development at the university could be improved. the study found out that there is need for more time for materials development, better coordination and planning, greater consultation among colleagues, and adequate support services in instructional materials development for odl to improve on the quality of modules. the department should be fully involved in instructional materials design and development to be effectively familiar with the odl mode of learning and the students for whom the materials are intended. there is need for course writers (designers), prior to developing instructional materials, to spend time in the regional centres, which are located in the ten geo-political regions of zimbabwe, so that they become familiar with the local learning context. one of the main recommendations is that there is need for course writers and content reviewers, as well as editors, to always undergo training in odl and instructional materials development for odl. introduction the zimbabwe open university (zou) is the only institution of higher learning mandated by the government of zimbabwe to offer open and distance learning (odl). zou started as an offshoot of the university of zimbabwe’s centre for distance education (cde) in 1993 to accommodate those people who would not have been in a position to go to conventional, residential, tertiary institutions for further education due to inadequate funding or other commitments. in 1996, the centre became the university college of distance education (ucde). on 1st march 1999, through an act of parliament, ucde became the zou. zou offers degree and non-degree programmes through odl. the teaching / learning system comprises printed materials (popularly referred to as modules) as the main medium of instruction, face-to-face tuition supported by audio and video materials and other odl methods whenever those are available. this paper analyses how the department of geography and environmental studies (dges) is involved in module/instructional materials development and the sustainability of that process. the production of modules by zou is quite pertinent because other conventional universities tend to look down upon zou modules; however, these modules are widely used in all universities in zimbabwe. in addition, some of the part-time tutors and module writers are from these conventional universities. various departments in zou should, therefore, be more involved in module production so as to enhance quality and show good academic standing. objectives of the study the aim and objective of this study was to assess how the department of geography and environmental studies is involved in module production. the research objectives were to: document the process of module writing at zou map stakeholders in the module production system and establish their role and influence determine how the department of geography and environmental studies at zou could be more involved in the production of modules. conceptual framework collaborative team approach to learning/work cooperative learning and/or collaborative learning incorporate group work. people learn from one another through observation, imitation and modelling through encompassing attention, memory and motivation through continuous reciprocal interaction between cognitive, behavioural and environmental influences (bandura, 1977). collaboration entails colleagues being responsible for one another's learning as well as their own and reaching that goal implies that they have helped each other to understand and learn. on the other hand, hill (2011) says that collaboration requires a conscious effort to create a way of working that promotes cooperation among different parts of an organization to achieve its shared goals and, in this case, the shared goal is the development of world-class learning materials (the modules). the collaborative team approach should be used in the development of teaching/learning materials as the module is the teacher and yields high products through the cross-pollination of ideas. furthermore, collaboration leads to the sharing of resources as well as the fact that people are more likely to get their work done on time, and more people with diverse experiences leads to better products. however, the team approach is not necessarily effective without the right team members, good team management and a conducive environment for individual contribution. cooperative learning facilitates the completion of a specific end product in groups. cooperation and collaboration appear to overlap. in collaborative learning, peers take full responsibility for working together, building knowledge together, changing and evolving together and improving together. collaborative and cooperative learning is based on constructivism, premised on the understanding that knowledge is constructed and transformed by peers, so that each individual can become a self-directed learner. depending on the group’s autonomy, the module writing leader may have to provide very precise instructions about the writing process. instructions should include: how to get started, the level to which the material should be pitched, what type of participation is expected from colleagues and how the final product should look. an illustration of instruction is detailed in appendices 1 and 2 which are instructions given to module writers, editors and content reviewers by mdu in order for team members to come up with comparable odl learning materials, because, in odl, the module is the tutor, the syllabus and the learning material. assessments of members’ contributions can be done through participation (quality and quantity), preparation (collaboration), punctuality (interpersonal skills), respect (interpersonal skills), contribution of ideas (collaboration), creativity (problem-solving) and commitment (collaboration). active exchanging, debating and negotiating ideas within groups increases interest in doing work together. importantly, team members become critical thinkers (totten, sills, digby & russ, 1989). team members working in small groups tend to learn more, as they keep the information longer and also their work depends on "group goals" and "individual accountability" (slavin, 1989). hence every group member has to learn/do something. people who learn most are those who offer and accept elaborated explanations about what they are learning and how they are learning it (webb, 1985). technological advances and changes in the organisational infrastructure call for teamwork within an organisation. people need to think creatively, solve problems, and make decisions as a team, therefore; this research intended to study department involvement in the production of odl materials at zou. literature review what is so special about odl? what odl is, continues to change due to evolving technology. the definition of odl, as used at the zou, is related to this definition by the commonwealth of learning (col): open and distance learning is a way of providing learning opportunities that is characterized by the separation of teacher and learner in time or place, or both time and place; learning that is certified in some way by an institution or agency; the use of a variety of media, including print and electronic; two-way communications that allow learners and tutors to interact; the possibility of occasional face-to-face meetings; and a specialised division of labour in the production and delivery of courses (commonwealth of learning, 2004). odl has distinct features that separate it from conventional education. these features include the separation in time and space of teacher and learners; industrialised processes; scalability and cost efficiency; and the use of technology for learning, flexibility and reach (rumble, 1989). the key characteristics of odl are openness, instructional design, and learner centeredness and support. the odl philosophy that education is a human right is based on openness with regard to people, places, methods and ideas, as indicated by rumble (1989). in odl, the learning materials take the place of the teacher. therefore, materials need to be consistently and carefully designed, planned, tested and revised. unlike textbooks, odl materials use embedded learning devices and design to encourage and support self-study (unesco, 2001). instructional design has been defined as: the systematic development of instructional specifications using learning and instructional theory to ensure the quality of instruction. according to rowntree (1994), effective odl materials have to be: purposeful, that is, encompassing the needs of the learner well-structured, so that the material is user friendly paced to cater for diverse odl learner characteristics engaging, in order to encourage further reading so that the learner is able to follow and understand the concepts. odl material development is rooted in the following questions, which zou department of geography and environmental studies and mdu should bear in mind as they embark on module writing: who will the learners be? how old will they be? what prior knowledge will they have? why do they want to study? open learning is an approach to all education that enables as many people as possible to take advantage of affordable and meaningful educational opportunities throughout their lives through: sharing expertise, knowledge, and resources; reducing barriers and increasing access, and acknowledging diversity of context. principles learners are provided with opportunities and capacity for lifelong learning. learning processes centre on the learners and contexts of learning, build on their experience and encourage active engagement leading to independent and critical thinking. learning provision is flexible, allowing learners to increasingly determine where, when, what and how they learn, as well as the pace at which they will learn. prior learning and experience is recognised wherever possible; arrangements for credit transfer and articulation between qualifications facilitate further learning. providers create the conditions for a fair chance of learner success through learner support, contextually appropriate resources and sound pedagogical practices. methodology this paper presents a case study of module development at the zimbabwe open university (zou). the case study research design was used, since it allows data from multiple methods. questionnaires were administered to identify: the reasons behind materials production; to explore the mode of operation, spatial dynamics and factors influencing the selection of data collection strategies, including observation, and key informant interviews. key informant interviews were conducted to participants in table 1 below, including the reasons why they were interviewed. table 1. participants who took part in the study participant reason(s) for participation no. dean faculty of science and technology  provides academic and strategic leadership within their faculty. plays a pivotal role in the overall academic and strategic development of the faculty, and is an ex officio member of the university administration.  1 chairperson dept of geography and environmental studies (dges) chief administrator of the department and the primary representative of the academic discipline. maintaining standards of the discipline, and meeting the professional expectations of the departmental faculty. 1 lecturers / regional programme coordinators (rpcs) – dges normally the authors of the modules and are responsible for editing, content reviewing, marking and setting examination and assignment questions as well as teaching/tutoring.   8 director materials development unit (mdu) is the general overseer of the unit who reports to the director, information communication and technology (ict)? 1 manager -  mdu deputises the director and works hand-in-hand with the director in the overall function of the unit.  1 editors – mdu responsible for the day-to-day operations of the mdu 2 students bsc (hons) ges consumers/readers of the module, i.e., the module is the syllabus for a specific course. 10 results and discussion stages in module production at zou at the zou, module production goes through different stages involving skilled and experienced personnel all with a common goal of producing quality product. every zou module has a preamble that says that teaching and learning materials are user friendly and written by professionals, who are highly qualified and experienced, from zimbabwean universities, research institutions and industry as well as other tertiary institutions in the country and sister institutions in sadc region and abroad. the main stages in module production (fig. 1) are as follows: the dges identifies the courses that are involved in the bachelor of science (honours) in geography and environmental studies, the only programme running with 40 courses/modules in the institution. a module writer with the requisite qualifications and experience is identified both within and outside zou by the department. the department, through the chairperson, recommends the name of the author and content reviewer to the human resources department on recommendation by the dean. the human resources department normally approves the name of the writer and content reviewer through the issuance of a contract specifying the terms of agreement, such as the period in which the module has to be produced, and remuneration and other terms and conditions. a writer/content reviewer/part-time editor accept and sign the contract to start work. once the contract is signed, module writing begins and on completion, the module is handed back to the department which will in turn forward the draft module to the content reviewer. content reviewing the aim of reviewing a draft module (manuscript) is to provide the writer with constructive feedback in order to enhance the quality of the final product. the content reviewer examines coverage of essential components appropriate to the level of the intended readership. after content review the module is sent back to the author to effect changes and suggestions made by the content reviewer. after incorporating the content reviewer’s comments, the draft module is sent for the editorial process. editing the mdu identifies an editor who is competent in the subject area, to closely and carefully read the draft module in order to check on the coherence of ideas, clarity of concepts, correct grammar, punctuation and spelling and general work presentation / layout. after editorial work the module is then send back to the writer, through the faculty, who will effect editorial changes and suggestions. the module is then taken back to the editor for edit proofing, which is the final stage of the editorial process, to check on whether the author has effected changes suggested accordingly and errors that might be created during faculty changes. desk top publishing – the draft module is sent for desk top publishing, which is type-setting in conformity with the zou house style. at this stage, graphic designers work on diagrams and design covers for the modules. the type-set work is returned to the editor to check on omissions, overrides and clarity of illustrations that might occur during the dtp and graphic designing processes. the errors are rectified by the type setter before the draft module is forwarded to the faculty for approval. quality assurance – the personnel in this unit ensure that the draft module is of high quality, conforms to the standards association of zimbabwe (saz) iso 9001 and that it adheres to the zou rules and regulations before it is approved for mass production at the zou press. module printing – the approved and now camera ready copy is forwarded electronically to the zou press in pdf format for mass production. printed copies are checked for the quality of printing, alignment, pagination and general presentation. distribution/sale of module to students, learners and other interested individuals. the printed modules are issued to paid-up students, including those outside the zimbabwean borders (the virtual region) and other interested stakeholders. the module can also be accessed online through myvista, provided the interested individual has paid for the material. any comments and anomalies noted by the stakeholders and that need attention, are forwarded to the faculty to be incorporated in the next issue, to ensure client satisfaction. figure 1: the diagrammatic module processing movement deans’ remarks on the development and provision of study material deans desire a situation where developers of study materials continue to maintain standards, review modules and include current trends across the board (for all the modules and programmes on offer). chairpersons and programme coordinators indicated that the zou should always contract writers with experience and qualifications in using and preparing odl materials for the benefit of the user. authors should be hired based on their qualification and experience in the development of odl materials. perceptions on the quality of zou modules quality is the ability to satisfy customers’ needs and expectations on both price and non-price factors. according to menon (2007), quality is a characteristic of the products and services an organisation offers. at the zou, quality in the production of learning materials (modules) is ensured through the involvement of team members with many different skills, capabilities and interests, who come together with the common purpose of producing odl materials (webb, 1985; vengesayi, 2011). however, clients have their own perceptions on the quality of zou modules. this is evidenced by responses from zou module users, who expressed that zou learning materials were of high quality since some students and tutors from institutions of higher learning and other universities use the modules during their teaching and learning. however, all the student respondents argued that there are some modules that are outdated and need review. the same students said that zou modules are used by students in all universities in zimbabwe because their colleagues who are in other universities often ask for modules from them. as is common in any situation, there are those who feel that some modules need reviewing because some of the information they contained was outdated, a view held by all geography lecturers who feel an urgent need to revise / rewrite some modules that were written when the university opened its doors in 1999. the challenges of collaborative team approach to module writing involving many people for a common purpose during module production has its challenges, for example: understanding each other’s professional language and protocols the risk of lack of clarity arising about the roles and responsibilities of practitioners involved in odl materials production process finding time for all those involved to meet and deliberate on issues arising from the module development process contributions from other team members not being considered seriously, which is demoralising and, therefore, retards module development the production of quality teaching and learning materials being hampered and compromised by inadequate training for those involved in the development of the teaching and learning materials writers viewing the editor’s comments negatively and refusing to effect constructive suggestions writers submitting drafts with unclear illustrations without source information, which make it difficult for graphic designers to polish the images. therefore, the faculty should be involved at every stage of module development in order to guide team members particularly on issues that are subject specific (technical). challenges faced in module writing at the moment there is a lack of current material (e.g., books, manuscripts and journals) to use during the writing process, although the use of online resources has greatly improved the situation. there is a lack of critical software, such as anti-plagiarism software to check written work for the amount of plagiarism, grammar check software to correct grammatical errors, spelling mistakes and misused words and finally geographical information systems (gis) software for the creation of maps. there is also insufficient time allocated to write modules, since staff has their permanent duties either within or outside zou. the zou module writing style is not well-adhered to by authors (e.g., referencing, layout, objectives, activities, etc.) and we observed that in recently written modules, authors have been using different writing styles. this is despite the fact that mdu gives writers and content reviewers’ guidelines during training workshops on how to write and review modules (see appendices 1 and 2). how the dges can be more involved in module writing programme leaders/lecturers should always work hand-in-hand with mdu course designers and personnel from the quality assurance department to ensure module quality and adequate coverage of concepts during module writing and content reviewing. the same should also be applied when existing modules are due for review. in addition, personnel from industry and commerce should be consulted on what to include in the learning materials in line with the expectations of industry and commerce. zou should provide the author with current books, manuscripts, journals and easy access to the library, so that they are able to produce modules that are up to date and therefore relevant. modules with outdated information can only be used within zou and not by other universities/organisations, as this may cause embarrassment to zou and, therefore, lower its credibility or standing. zimbabwe open university should also provide the authors with all software required during the writing process. twoto three-week retreats that facilitate writing are necessary, because authors can concentrate solely on module writing when away from the university and not worry about their other duties. divided attention impairs quality work. adherence to contractual obligations with respect to the date of completion of the manuscript is problematic; writers need to work on a single module at a time. writers struggle to deliver on time because they are working on several modules at once. in the same vein, there is need for a module to be written by at least two authors to improve on quality, i.e., writing teams that can share academic, technical and professional skills and knowledge so that the final product provides an intellectual and professional environment for the student. module writing workshops and training are critical to ensure that authors maintain a uniform writing standard, as per zou house style. colour printing of modules should be done when necessary, especially in areas where graphics are needed. some modules (e.g., gis and remote sensing) need to be printed in colour. some of the content (e.g., maps) require colour printing so that they are visible to the reader and depict features realistically. to ensure that zou modules are credible and world class; authors and content reviewers should have the necessary qualifications and experience (e.g., a background in the subject matter of the module being written, such as agriculture, counselling, education, etc.). module writing should not be seen as a money making venture, since this tends to compromise the quality of modules. writers, content reviewers and editors need to observe deadlines. mdu appointed editors should edit manuscripts within a reasonable timeframe; delays in this part of the module production cycle are a major problem at the moment. the department was previously told that there was a shortage of editors. since new editors have been trained and hired, one hopes the delays will be done away with. some editors do not appear very knowledgeable with the content they edit, judging by the comments they make, hence, there is a need for ongoing training, so that all departmental members could eventually become editors of the modules for which they work with. after the department has effected the editor's comments and sent the corrected copy to the mdu, there is a long wait until the department is told that they will be receiving inputs from the quality assurance unit. this stage should be expedited. but if each team member does his/her duty properly, these unnecessary delays would become a thing of the past. at the zou, module writers, content reviewers and part-time editors are dissatisfied with late payments for their services during the learning material production process. obviously, the result is a compromise in the quality of manuscripts submitted to zou for further processing. this is one critical area that has led to a slowing down of the process of module writing. when the module is finalised, it is released to the students through the regions/regional centres. the department struggles to get an opportunity to see the finished product. to date the department (including the authors) has not had an opportunity to view several new modules, due to financial constraints that require the modules to be printed on demand only, based on the number of registered students. this is an area of great frustration. mdu and corporate services need to agree on how copies of new modules are distributed to the department and authors as well as to other units. all the lecturers indicated that the zou module could be sent to interested stakeholders, such as potential employers of graduates, for cross-checking the relevance of the information contained therein, provided that they are cooperative and have time to leave their co-business. this could be a fairly simple process because, before a degree programme is launched, it is a requirement by zimche that the views of all relevant stakeholders are incorporated (stakeholder consultation/needs assessment survey). the contribution of courses in the dges to social and economic development in zimbabwe geography is a multidisciplinary subject that has a myriad of career options in areas ranging from meteorology to disaster management. geography seeks to equip students with a holistic understanding of the earth and its systems, as well as to develop skills in graphing, measurement, analytics, mathematics and leadership. issues analyzed include climate change, global warming, desertification, el niño, and water resources, among others, including an understanding of global political issues between countries and cultures, as well as cities and their hinterlands, and between regions within countries. the vision of the department of geography and environmental studies (dges) is to be a world-class department producing environmentally literate graduates with holistic and sustainable development skills, knowledge and attitudes. dges is committed to education about the environment, for the environment and in the environment. this is done through developing human resources for national and international environmental agencies as well as preparing non graduate teachers (normally those with a diploma in education-geography) so that they are able to teach geography and environmental studies to all levels of the secondary school system. graduates are also equipped with knowledge and practical skills so that post ‘ordinary level’ and ‘advanced level’ graduates are able to specialise in geography and environmental studies. there is also training for environmental managers in industry. research and dissemination of information in geography and environmental studies is also done by both students and faculty members, so as to develop policy that is research(science) driven, as well as to empower those who work or want to work in community environmental projects. zimbabwe is currently formulating a climate change policy and the department is heavily involved. the majority of dges graduates are working in various sectors of the economy as lecturers, environmental officers, safety officers, hydrologists, land planners, environmental journalists, parks and wildlife officers, economic planners and land surveyors, among others. the majority of the graduates are employed in government ministries (e.g., ministry of environment, water and climate, non-governmental environmental organisations, such as environment africa, wwf, as well as quasi governmental departments, such as the parks and wildlife management authority of zimbabwe (pwlma), the environmental management agency (ema) and the forestry commission (fc), among others. conclusion module production is a very long process at zou. it would be prudent if the mdu is made a stand-alone entity within the university to promote efficiency and cut down on the bureaucratic procedures that have to be followed. this is based on findings that some courses or programmes had to be shelved due to the non-availability of modules. a number of modules are old; they date back from when the programme began. these modules need to be reviewed soon. the major complaint from the lecturers is that they are not given adequate time to write modules and the remuneration is quite low. lecturers are also saddened by the current zimbabwe council of higher education (zimche) standards promotions ordinance, which states that five module units are equivalent to one refereed paper in a journal. part-time work is heavily taxed in zimbabwe and this is one area that needs cooperation from all stakeholders so that there is a win win situation in module development. recommendations in view of the findings above, it is recommended that: despite numerous difficulties encountered by odl practitioners in zou, materials development should be given priority so that the modules are ready in plenty of time to guide students through the syllabuses presented in the modules. more financial resources could be channelled to these units to produce quality and relevant modules on time. a study of student motivators could help zou and other odl institutions to develop appropriate course materials and this should, therefore, entail more departmental involvement in module production. zou’s materials development unit should always cultivate a culture of team spirit and collaborate with faculties and other stakeholders in the production of quality odl materials. the government, through the ministry of higher and tertiary education, science and technology should provide loans and grants to finance module development at zou; with the expectation the resulting high quality modules could easily be sold to defray expenses. the ministry, through zimche, should come to zou’s aid, as it is the only accredited odl university in zimbabwe and is currently facing stiff competition from other universities who are offering odl programmes under the guise of block release programmes a close examination of the inherent problems in odl will help overcome some of the problems encountered by both students and zou. there is a need for research into course development techniques, which will enable zou to identify the methods best suited to developing any odl programmes they wish to undertake. references bandura, a. (1977). social learning theory. new york: general learning press. centre for distance education. a student’s handbook. university of zimbabwe (unpublished). commonwealth of learning (col). (2004). planning and implementing open and distance learning systems: a handbook for decision makers. col: vancouver. hill, g. (2011). ten principles that drive effective collaboration. in beyerlein, m.m., & harris, c. (eds.), guiding the journey to collaborative work systems. pfeiffer. available at: http://www.opti mapartners.co.uk/blog-and-news.asp?id=opt-bc100010 ‎accessed on 17 july 2013. menon, m.b. (2007). reflections on quality assurance in open distance learning. workshop on performance indicators for quality assurance in distance higher education. commonwealth of learning: colombo, sri lanka. rowntree, d. (1994). preparing materials for open, distance and flexible learning: an action guide for teachers and trainers. london: kogan page. rumble, g. (1989). “‘open learning’, ‘distance learning’, and the misuse of language.” open learning, 4(2): 28-36. slavin, r. e. (1989). research on cooperative learning: an international perspective. scandinavian journal of educational research, 33(4), 231-243. totten, s., sills, t., digby, a., & russ, p. (1991). cooperative learning: a guide to research. new york: garland. unesco. (2000). the efa 2000 assessment: country reports, zimbabwe. retrieved from: http://www.unesco.org/education/wef/countryreports/zimbabwe/rap-port_0.html unesco. (2001). teacher education through distance learning. retrieved from: http://unescodoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001242/124208e.pdf vengesayi, c.k.t. (2011). course teams article. presented at a zou workshop in harare. (unpublished). webb, n. m. (1985). student interaction and learning in small groups: a research summary. in lazarowitz, r. h. et al. (eds.), learning to cooperate, cooperating to learn. new york: springer, 148-172. zindi, f., & aucion, r. (1994). is distance education the answer? focus on tanzania and zimbabwe. deosnews, 4(4). http://www.ed.psu.edu/acsde/deosnews/deosnews4_ vincent itai tanyanyiwa is a lecturer, department of geography & environmental studies, zimbabwe open university. e-mail: tanyanyiwavi@yahoo.com betty mutambanengwe is an editor, zimbabwe open university. e-mail: ? microsoft word kassim.docx issn: 2311-1550 2022, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 17-36 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. reconsidering access: using specific impact ranking metrics to manage access in conventional and open higher education halima-sa’adia kassim1 and david rampersad2 1the university of the west indies 2higher education consultant abstract: this paper considers the widening access and participation agenda, its implications for higher education institutions (heis) and contends that it must be underpinned by strategic measurement and monitoring. access is viewed through the following lenses: (i) supporting participation, and (ii) facilitating equity. using mixed methods, the paper draws on data from the university of the west indies (uwi) and provides examples from key plans and initiatives over 20 years to showcase how the uwi has increased access. concurrently, the need for more nuanced and complex datasets to assess the extent of equity is highlighted with metrics drawn from the times higher education university impact ranking. the authors argue that the strategic use and management of data can promote public accountability associated with access and boost institutional reputation. however, universities will have to be innovative and accelerate measures to survive/thrive in the post-pandemic environment by identifying their institutional scope and “system of interest” in widening access. keywords: access and participation, equity, measurement and monitoring, the university of the west indies, caribbean. introduction the onset of the novel coronavirus (covid-19) in late 2019 and the subsequent declaration by the world health organization (who) of covid-19 as a pandemic led to various forms of lockdowns designed to prevent the spread of the disease. only essential businesses could remain open. by earlymay 2020, face-to-face teaching at all levels for more than 1.2 billion students in over 190 countries, including more than 160 million students in latin america and the caribbean (eclac august 2020, 1), was replaced by remote learning which was designed to facilitate, in theory, access for continuity of education participation. this momentous event highlighted issues of access and the urgency of the widening access agenda. this paper considers what access means and for whom, and contends that this agenda requires robust measurement and monitoring. access is viewed through two lenses, viz. supporting participation and promoting equity. consequently, policymakers and higher education administrators must consider population characteristics to determine access patterns and initiatives. utilising mixed methods, illustrations from key plans and examples of initiatives over a 20-year period, as well as student population data of the university of the west indies (uwi), was examined. additionally, data was extracted for the uwi open campus (oc), which is mandated to increase access for underserved populations, to show how it has implemented the widening participation 18 agenda. moreover, as part of the access of equity project, key indicators developed by the times higher education university impact ranking are considered as an intervention for additional data capture and tracking. overview of the university of the west indies the uwi, a regional university with five campuses that serve seventeen countries and british overseas dependent territories in the commonwealth caribbean, has developed an aggressive approach to ensure access to education. since 1997, its strategic plans have emphasised increasing participation, serving diverse communities and populations by addressing enrolment deficits for persons with geographic, gender and special vulnerabilities, among other needs. additionally, the open campus (oc), established in 2008, with fifty in-country site locations, offers multi-mode teaching (distance, blended, online and face-to-face) for pre-university, professional and continuing education programmes, as well as a three-tiered registration process to facilitate access to tertiary education. the oc emphasises its mission to be “open and available to all people who wish to reach their full potential” (oc website) and has introduced measures that demonstrates that “system of interest” (lane 2017, 279). socioeconomic profile of the region addressing the issue of access requires understanding socioeconomic realities as changes in economic growth can impact the quality of life for certain sectors of the population. significant regional vulnerabilities include exposure to natural and manmade disasters, limited economic diversification, high public indebtedness and small open and trade dependent economies that result in low economic growth, and high unemployment and underemployment especially, among youth and women. other forms of exclusion include ethnicity, race, identity and sexual orientation, disability, migrant status, and nationality, among others. since these vulnerabilities foster poverty and disrupt the educational pursuits of young people, public policies and interventions that promote inclusive and resilient growth are required. concomitantly, the region is experiencing a decline in fertility and a reduction in mortality, leading to fewer people under the age of 20 and a growing older population. the contributing countries of the uwi is likely to experience a 15.3% increase in population between 2005 and 2030. the economically active population increased as did median age (see table 1). the higher education sector must respond as the focus shifts from the traditional student and consider lifelong learning in different formats while also bearing in mind, inadequate information communication technology (ict) infrastructure and low connectivity, particularly, for various socioeconomic, geographically isolated, underserved populations (cepal, oecd & caf, 2020, n.p.). 19 table 1: demographic data — caribbean 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025 2030 population growth1 (‘000) 39746 41217 42622 43532 44806 45829 economically active population (15-64) (‘000) 2 25441 26770 27908 28484 29350 29742 median age3 27.8 28.8 30.2 31.9 33.3 34.7 source: un population database. 1 uwi-17-, antigua and barbuda, the bahamas, barbados, belize, bermuda, the british virgin islands, the cayman islands, dominica, grenada, jamaica, montserrat, st. kitts and nevis, st. lucia, st. vincent and the grenadines, trinidad and tobago, and turks and caicos. 2 antigua and barbuda, bahamas, barbados, belize, grenada, jamaica, saint vincent and the grenadines, and trinidad and tobago. 3antigua and barbuda, bahamas, barbados, belize, grenada, jamaica, saint lucia, saint vincent and the grenadines, and trinidad and tobago. regionally, economic growth contracted by 0.6% per year on average over the period 2014–2019 (imf jan 2020 and eclac dec 2019). as gdp is expected to further contract, fewer resources will be available for public expenditure including for the education sector thereby slowing the development process and shared prosperity (cdb 2016, 22). since gross enrolment ratios (ger) for tertiary education in latin america and the caribbean (lac), declined from 116.05% in 2005 to 108.73% in 2018 (uis, 2020) (see table 2), “safeguarding financing for education” so as not to exacerbate “inequalities in access to education” (eclac aug 2020, 16) must be at the forefront of government policies to facilitate social and economic recovery. table 2: gross enrolment ratios country 2005 2018 country 2005 2018 uwi contributing countries other anguilla 113.4 .. australia 102.7 100.1 antigua and barbuda .. 105.0 canada 97.3 101.5 bahamas 100.4 81.3 china .. 100.2 barbados 96.1 99.3 cuba 101.1 101.9 belize 113.2 111.7 germany 103.1 103.8 bermuda 97.5 .. ghana 86.5 103.5 british virgin islands 112.3 102.5 indonesia 107.9 106.4 dominica 91.4 .. malaysia 99.9 .. grenada 103.2 106.8 new zealand 99.7 101.0 jamaica .. 91.0 south africa 105.9 98.5 montserrat 156.1 109.5 turkey 103.1 94.9 saint kitts and nevis 109.6 .. united kingdom of great britain and northern ireland 106.3 101.0 saint lucia 102.9 102.6 united states of america 101.8 (+) 101.2 (+) 20 country 2005 2018 country 2005 2018 saint vincent and the grenadines 118.1 113.4 vietnam 97.7 110.5 trinidad and tobago 99.2 (+) .. turks and caicos islands 80.9 116.5 world 102.2 101.1 latin america and the caribbean 116.0 108.7 small island developing states 99.7 118.4 europe 101.7 101.0 northern america 101.4 101.2 source: http://data.uis.unesco.org/# +: national estimation note: number of students enrolled in a given level of education, regardless of age, expressed as a percentage of the official school-age population corresponding to the same level of education. however, a high ger generally indicates a high degree of participation, whether the pupils belong to the official age group or not. a ger value approaching or exceeding 100% indicates that a country is, in principle, able to accommodate all of its school-age population, but it does not indicate the proportion already enrolled. the achievement of a ger of 100% is therefore a necessary but not sufficient condition for enrolling all eligible children in school (uis). recognising the challenges in access, caricom (caribbean community), an inter-governmental organisation comprising fifteen small island states and five associated members, has been working to increase and democratise access to tertiary education. its human resource development (hrd) strategy 2030 emphasises access, participation, equity, quality, and relevance to redress the socio-economic deficits in education and broaden and democratise the education system. this vision aligns with sdg 4 of agenda 2030: quality education for all. strategic imperatives for the tertiary education sector include increasing enrolment to support priority development needs, reinforcing flexible pathways to facilitate learners’ needs, and promoting inclusion and diversity (caricom hrd strategy 2030, 2017, 42). they are expected to strengthen the access in equity agenda and foster socio-economic growth. however, the impact of covid-19 and the public policy response have exacerbated existing economic challenges for vulnerable population groups (international banker, dec 2020; imf oct 2020, xv; and eclac aug 2020, 16). low-income families, single parents, and mixed households1 face reduced incomes (caricom et al. july 2020, 22). the levels of poverty and extreme poverty could increase and the impact on hunger could be significant (eclac and fao june 2020, 20). heis will therefore have to consider how to attract and provide access to persons whose immediate concern may be livelihood security. methods the authors made use of the sequential explanatory mixed methods design, consisting of two distinctive and interactive approaches as outlined by creswell (2009). quantitative data in the form of student population data for the uwi and its online campus (open campus) was collected and analysed over a 20-year period identifying changes in patterns in enrolment based on selected variables (e.g., campus, age, etc.). a qualitative case study approach was used to collect text data from strategic plans, policies and initiatives by the university to determine access projects and activities. the results of the two approaches were subsequently interpreted to obtain a more comprehensive 21 view of the research problem, i.e., measures that promote access and support equity and highlight the importance of data monitoring to ensure equitable participation. overview of the concept of access the concept of widening access is multidimensional and includes barriers to participation, structural factors, individual agency, building resilience, and institutional practices. in the widening access discourse, attention is drawn to non-traditional students and those who constitute this group. cotton, nash and kneale (2017) note that they include first generation students, mature students, disabled students, single parents, students from low-income families, and minority ethnic groups as well as migrants and refugees, indigenous persons and, in the caribbean, young males. focus on widening access entails reasonable equal opportunity for persons to access higher education (clifford et al.2012) while others like tikly and barret (2011) and alexander and hlalele (2012) emphasise the notion of ‘parity of participation’ and reducing socially created and reinforced differences in privileges and material advantages of some to the detriment of others. drawing on the concept of social and cultural capital by bourdieu (1986) that aids in reproducing and enabling hierarchies, driscoll (2013) highlights the actual or potential resources individuals require to support their tertiary education pursuits including their ability to finance direct and indirect costs. this supports the view of alexander and hlalele (2012, 487) that access and participation cannot be isolated from “broader societal changes and constitutional contexts.” other areas of focus include a resilience approach and institutional initiatives related to retention and completion (cotton, nash & kneale 2017; prodan et al. 2015; ziderman 2013). the authors of this paper concur with the perspective of access advanced by deller, kaufman and tamburri (2019, 6) and prodan et al. (2015, 537), which they believe offers insight into the institutional approach adopted. these authors conceptualise access in the following ways: i. growth model focuses on increasing the capacity of the system to accommodate an increasing number of students who want to attend college/university ii. equity of access model focuses on which students are — and which are not — taking part in higher education or gaining entry. adoption of these models will provide acute insight into the type of access initiatives and help identify the use of strategic indicators. heis that measure access in terms of the growth model focus on enrolment rates and utilise additional parameters such as gender, nationality, age, first-generation, income, and disability that introduce layers of insight into marginalised or under-represented groups within the institution. for the equity of access model, attention is focussed on under-represented groups. global and regional policy perspectives the introduction of widening participation policies and initiatives since the 1970s, a result of labourmarket oriented logic and equity of opportunity philosophies (détourbe & goastellec 2018, 1), has led to the expansion of post-secondary and tertiary education (pste). in the caricom region, the emphasis began to shift from a regional university and national pstes to private and offshore institutions which offer courses or programmes approved for delivery to students at a location outside of the country of an hei’s main campus through cooperation with an international partner. this dual 22 approach is perceived as an efficient means of fostering access to quality programmes and, simultaneously, economic, and social development through development of human capital. from the 1990s, the multilateral agenda was designed to address global challenges including, poverty, inequality, human rights, education, and environmental degradation among others. lane (2017, 275) noted that “education for all has been a concept at the heart of international development since 1990 and has found its latest instantiation within the sustainable development goals (sdgs) as sdg 4, ‘ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all’”. of the ten targets listed for sdg4, two are integral to access: i. ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality technical, vocational, and tertiary education, including university ii. eliminate gender disparities in education and ensure equal access to all levels of education and vocational training for the vulnerable, including persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples, and children in vulnerable situations. since 1993, caricom has emphasised access and participation in tertiary education. the future of education (1993, 22-23), the first regional educational policy document, stressed developing communication and technologies, improving access, and utilising open learning strategies to deliver tertiary instruction. the subsequent human resource development policy in 1997 highlighted the imperative of increased access to education and training and critically set an enrolment target of at least 15% of the post-secondary age cohort in tertiary-level education by 2005 (caricom 1997). some two decades later, caricom (2017, 25) indicated that “[s]everal member states are also working towards or have exceeded the targets of 15% tertiary education participation.” however, eclac (2019, 192) and caricom (2017, 30) have noted that enrolment rates in the caricom region remain at less than half the rate of developed countries. recognising that such deficits will have a deleterious impact on the social and economic development of its member states, caricom continues to emphasise increasing and democratising access to tertiary education to “strengthen equity in access to and provision of hrd [and] assure relevance of hrd to learners’ needs and socio-economic demands” (caricom hrd strategy 2030, 2017, 54). the baseline report for the caricom human resource development 2030 strategy has recommended targets for measuring access and participation for the tertiary education sector (see table 3). table 3: regional baselines — access and participation targets indicator regional baseline regional indicative targets percentage of students enrolled in stem programmes at the tertiary education level1 37.96% 50% gender parity index at tertiary level2 2.17 1 source: caricom 2019, 8, 10, 52-54. 1 the caricom member states for which data were aggregated were: the bahamas, barbados, belize, british virgin islands, guyana, montserrat, st kitts, st lucia, trinidad and tobago, and turks and caicos islands. 2 the caricom member states for which data were aggregated were: the bahamas, belize, british virgin islands, st kitts, st lucia, suriname, and trinidad and tobago. 23 at the sub-regional level, the organisation of eastern caribbean states (oecs), an eleven-membercountry economic union, has developed education sector strategies since the early 1990s. its oecs education sector strategy (oess) 2012-2026 supports the widening access agenda and requires member states to align their education sector strategies to the regional strategic imperative to increase provisions for tertiary and continuing education (oecs 2012, 14, 82-83). broadening of access at the uwi demographic data for the uwi as a whole and for the oc specifically show variations in the student population. at the university-level, the undergraduate population was 78.3% of the total student population in 2008 and 71.5% in 2018. the share of oc enrolment was 11.9% in 2008 but with fluctuations over the subsequent ten-year period. while in 2012 and 2013, the oc share of total university enrolment fell to under 10%, overall university enrolment increased. the oc which started with an enrolment of 5,196 students in 2008 increased its share to 30.7% in 2018. undergraduates represented 99.6% of its student population in 2008 and 84.5% in 2018. the data suggest that the proportion of undergraduates to postgraduates is growing (see table 4). table 4: ten-year enrolment trends at the university and open campus 20082009 20092010 20102011 20112012 20122013 20132014 20142015 20152016 20162017 20172018 20182019 % chan ge uwi (total – on and off campus) under gradu ate 34110 33496 35075 36188 36829 36756 34443 34334 34549 34449 35327 3.5 gradu ate 7610 9589 8091 8701 10242 10184 9688 9694 9762 9336 9167 20.4 grand total 43579 46440 48575 50439 52031 52091 49064 49092 49162 48525 49380 13.3 open campus under gradu ate 5177 5607 5932 5914 6282 6047 5407 5421 5717 5352 5738 10.8 gradu ate 19 141 237 302 362 359 313 723 914 924 1051 5431.5 grand total 5196 5748 6169 6216 6644 6406 5720 6144 6631 6276 6789 30.6 oc enrolm ent as % of total univer sity enrolm ent 11.9% 11.1% 10.7% 10.3% 9.9% 9.9% 10.5% 10.5% 10.5% 10.7% 13.7% 24 moreover, females outnumbered males, with the female-to-male ratio in 2008 at 2.2:1 and in 2018 2:1. while the gender participation gap narrowed slightly at the university level it widened at the oc, diverging from the university pattern on enrolment with a 4.1:1 female-to-male ratio in 2008 and a 5.4:1 female-to-male ratio in 2018 (see table 5). table 5: ten-year enrolment trends at open campus and university — gender 20082009 20092010 20102011 20112012 20122013 20132014 20142015 20152016 20162017 20172018 20182019 university female 69.2% 68.6% 68.5% 68.1% 68.7% 68.2% 66.9% 65.9% 65.4% 65.6% 66.6% male 30.8% 31.4% 31.5% 31.9% 31.3% 31.8% 33.1% 34.1% 34.6% 34.4% 33.4% open campus female 80.3% 80.8% 81.1% 82.0% 84.6% 85.0% 85.5% 84.8% 84.9% 84.6% 84.4% male 19.7% 19.2% 18.9% 18.0% 15.4% 15.0% 14.5% 15.2% 15.1% 15.4% 15.6% the overall university student population by age group was more traditional. the 24 and under group accounted for just over half of the student population (53%) and the 25-34 group just over 25%. conversely, at the oc, the largest age cohort was 25-34 (44%) followed by the 35-44 group (25%). the 45-54 and 55 and over groups accounted for less than 10% and 2% at oc and the uwi (see table 6). table 6: ten-year enrolment trends at the university and open campus — age age group s 20082009 20112012 20132014 20152016 20182019 20082009 20112012 20132014 20152016 20182019 university-level open campus (all levels) 24 and under 49.5% 53.4% 50.8% 56.3% 57.3% 19.2% 18.9% 18.8% 18.1% 20.0% 25-34 28.0% 26.9% 29.1% 26.0% 25.5% 43.6% 44.9% 45.5% 44.0% 42.8% 35-44 13.7% 12.4% 12.6% 11.4% 11.3% 26.5% 24.1% 25.2% 26.4% 25.6% 45-54 7.3% 6.0% 6.0% 5.4% 4.5% 9.9% 9.8% 8.4% 9.8% 9.6% 55 and over 1.5% 1.4% 1.5% 1.3% 1.2% 0.7% 0.9% 1.0% 1.5% 1.8% the oc, as previously noted, has fifty sites in the region facilitate the broadening of access. for convenience, ten-year data is broken into two discrete periods — 2008-2013 and 2013-2019. overall, at all sites, there was an increase in enrolment of 16.5% at the undergraduate level and a 303.7% at the 25 graduate programme over the ten-year period. at the undergraduate level, there were declines in monserrat and jamaica by 92% and 19%, respectively (see table 7). table 7: enrolment at open campus country sites country sites 2008-2013 2013-2019 2008-2013 2013-2019 undergraduate graduate total 28907 33682 1061 4284 anguilla 417 847 11 125 antigua 996 1249 15 158 bahamas 223 881 100 348 barbados1 953 1341 13 271 bermuda 4 4 belize 741 968 19 158 british virgin islands 274 4 2 25 cayman islands 208 626 12 107 dominica 1654 1893 32 222 grenada2 1798 2249 42 141 guyana viso 0 1 0 2 jamaica3 7288 5887 257 882 montserrat 364 354 4 12 st kitts and nevis4 938 1329 9 89 st. lucia 2510 3783 137 295 st. maarten viso 0 2 0 1 st. vincent and the grenadines 1420 2450 50 191 trinidad and tobago5 9087 9373 358 1218 turks & caicos 32 108 0 35 virt intl. student office viso 0 3 0 4 1 barbados – data for cave hill and the pine combined. 26 2 grenada – data for carriacou and st george’s combined. 3 jamaica – data for brown’s town, camp road, denbigh, junction, mandeville, may pen, mona, montego bay, morant bay, ocho rios, port antonio, savanna-la-mar, swtc, and vere combined. 4 st kitts and nevis – data for st kitts and nevis combined. 5 trinidad and tobago – data for gordon street, mayaro, point fortin, san fernando, sangre grande, st augustine, and tobago combined. the issue of access and participation is tied to demographic changes as well as the individual’s inclination or immediate interest and resources to pursue further education. the state of the economy and labour market opportunities also influence the choice to move seamlessly through the education system or to delay entry. one way to bridge that gap for those seeking advanced credentials (baccalaureate degrees) and workplace experience is the use of prior learning assessment (pla). this approach “evaluates learning gained outside a traditional academic environment” and “captures the college-level learning and knowledge students acquire while living their lives—working, participating in employer training programs, serving in the military, independently studying, volunteering or doing community service, and studying open-source courseware” (sherron et al. 2019, 62). moreover, it “supports student persistence, shortens time-to-degree, and boosts degree completion” (sherron et al. 2019, 62) which is important for the adult student or those from underserved populations. as an opportunity for extending access, pla was endorsed as a “mechanism which involves identifying learning, documenting, assessing, and recognising acquired skills, knowledge, values, and abilities of individuals from non-formal and informal sources.” the oc offered pla as an option for matriculation/admission and for advanced placement for specific year 1 social sciences/humanities programmes. pla is a new initiative to the region and not surprisingly, enrolment of students remains low. of the 818 who expressed interest and received pre-advising only few were eligible. only thirty-one students (24 female and 7 male) were registered for pla between 2014 and 2019 from ten sites. pla offers a level of access but requires strategic and targeted marketing and a critical identification of programmes/courses that will suit the needs of the population and the labour market. equity of access at the uwi are diversity and inclusion critical to the widening access and participation agenda? or are they understood to be subsumed under increasing participation rhetoric? are persons with disabilities or the indigenous population seen as important in increasing male participation or having polices to facilitate access to persons with lower matriculation requirements? to achieve the goal of inclusion and equity universities must move from broadening access to deepening access (prodan et al. 2015, 537), which is moored to broader societal and constitutional contexts (alexander & hlalele 2012, 487). this will require heis particularly in developing countries to place emphasis on ‘parity of participation’ (tikly & baret 2011), which must be ably supported by a robust dataset that considers the fragmented nature of the population and gauge the extent of access measures and how these are implemented. heis should therefore consider their scope and “system of interest” (lane 2017, 279) to ensure relevance to their mission, operational context, and resources. social injustice issues require policy measures that ensure access and success of students. institutions may therefore find it useful to audit their administrative systems, policies, and services to grapple with issues of poverty, inequality, and disadvantages affecting students/potential students by 27 considering what systems and mechanisms exist to support this sub-population and if they are sufficient before integrating add-ons. ideally, these policies (e.g., access and participation plans, outreach public education activities, financial aid, mentoring programmes, non-discrimination policies, public education events, etc.) should support the potentialities of the different sub-population groups and ensure that either the disparities are reduced, or no new disadvantages are introduced by systematic monitoring. the uwi has undertaken several measures that support the implicit vision of the sdgs. table 8 highlights some of those policies and initiatives that contribute to measuring progress on the sdgs and provides the foundations for access based on equity. table 8: examples of policies and initiatives by the uwi in support of sdgs and access based on equity sdg examples of policies examples of initiatives sdg 1: no poverty • provision of scholarships and bursaries by the uwi development and endowment fund (uwidef), financed by annual contributions from donors, assists with tuition costs. also, hardship grants, which assist with living expenses and tuition fees. • provision of local area scholarships — undergraduate scholarship for students from sangre grande (north-eastern town in trinidad) for the faculty of science and technology at st augustine campus. • implemented a programme for staff to make monthly contributions towards a fund to assist students with living expenses. sdg 2: zero hunger • oc offered a ‘one time’ 2.5% covid-19 relief discount applicable to students who paid their fees in full during the first month of the ay2020/2021. sdg 4: quality education • the uwi quality policy (2017) sdg 5: gender equality • the uwi gender policy (2017) • code of principles and responsibilities for students sdg 10: reduced inequalities • student disability policy • ensures that students with disabilities receive equal access and opportunities to participate in all university programmes, services, and activities. this includes referrals to campus service providers (e.g., housing, health services, food services, transportation) and co-ordination of academic accommodations (e.g., classroom situations, examinations). 28 in 2019, the times higher education introduced a new league table, university impact rankings, that captures metrics on the 17 sdgs. it offers a framework for action and reform on key social, economic and environment issues and challenges facing the global community. the uwi has participated in this ranking and for the 2021 iteration, it supplied data for three of 16 optional goals — health, gender inequality and climate action — and the compulsory sdg, partnership for goals. overall, the uwi was ranked in the the 401-500 band of over 1,117 universities. for the social equality/justice sdgs, it was ranked among the top-300 universities of 776 ranked universities for gender equality with a score in the range of 49.4–55.2. this sdg ranking offers a plausible set of metrics that can be captured, measured, and tracked. such measures enable heis to fit into a wider global development agenda and offer a platform for heis to align their strategies and agendas to the relevant sdgs. additionally, they offer heis the opportunity to showcase their teaching/research/outreach activities in the areas of poverty, inequality, and disadvantages, the core of social justice issues and to connect more strategically to their stakeholders including students. the metrics are also relevant for benchmarking access and inequalities (see table 9). table 9: the university impact ranking indicators related to access sdg rationale metric and indicator implications for access sdg 1: no poverty demonstrate how heis are helping to address intergenerational poverty by offering persons from poorer backgrounds quality education proportion of students receiving financial aid to attend university because of poverty number of low-income students receiving financial aid the proportion of low-income students to those of higher income shows if income is barrier. the percentage of lowincome students receiving indicate if systems are in place to mitigate challenge with income. sdg 2: zero hunger student food insecurity and hunger (programmes or interventions) the prevalence of food insecurity will aid in deciding the programme or intervention required to maintain a healthy life and ensure positive education outcomes. sdg 4: quality education explores early years of schooling and lifelong learning proportion of firstgeneration students number of students starting a degree number of first-generation students starting a degree data on the proportion of firstgeneration (and continuing generation) students will show if lack of “navigational capital or understanding of college access and success process” (nrc 2012, 34, 39) is a hindrance. sdg 5: gender equality focuses on “providing women and girls with equal access to education [as] a key part of delivering gender equality” proportion of firstgeneration female students number of women starting data on the proportion of firstgeneration (and continuing generation) females will show if lack of “navigational capital or 29 sdg rationale metric and indicator implications for access a degree number of first-generation women starting a degree understanding of college access and success process” (nrc 2012, 34, 39) is a hindrance. proportion of women receiving degrees number of graduates: total number of graduates by subject area (stem, medicine, arts & humanities / social sciences): total data on the proportion of women receiving degrees will show if parity has been achieved in certain disciplines. proportion of international students from developing countries number of international students from developing countries data on this (and developed countries) show the diversity that can be used to promote inter-cultural understanding. sdg 10: reduced inequalities explores how universities are tackling economic, health based and international inequalities. proportion of students with disabilities number of students with disability data on this will identify students with impairments, or impairments and activity limitations, and thus, create a barrier for participation and performance. the indicators draw attention to the social issues and relations and under-represented groups that can impede access. however, as some institutions may not be capturing specific datapoints it may be useful to consider alternatives such as surveys to collect data on basic needs including, for instance, housing and food security. several universities in the united states have undertaken targeted surveys of students to better understand the prevalence of food insecurity.2 or in the absence of datapoints on first-generation students, it may be prudent to include such a question on student entry or experience surveys. although there may be concerns regarding confidentiality and data privacy given small subpopulations especially, in developing countries, availability of data remains a fundamental part of interrogating the widening and deepening access project and to fulfil the social justice agenda. nevertheless, there are subtleties regarding the indicators based on a geographical and cultural understanding of how inequalities operate. are the international higher education indicators identified culturally relevant to a postcolonial region? should heis determine other specific development indicators? which approach is most effective for a publicly funded university? and, how valuable is the monitoring of ‘parity of participation’ (tikly & baret 2011), for informing university decision making and performance? in the caribbean, there is a disparity between male and female entry rates to heis, which requires interrogation regarding educational choices and achievement and, as such, it might be more relevant to look at an indicator that focuses on male 30 participation. moreover, monitoring and tracking of entry and progression rates must be extended to include differences in programme level and disciplinary differences. furthermore, an indicator on the indigenous population is desirable given the presence of such sub-populations in several caricom countries. while the the focuses on data for first-generation students, it may be relevant for this indicator to intersect with indigenous students, i.e., the number of first-generation indigenous students. where does the uwi go from here? as the public higher education sector responds to the needs of a ‘new normal’ environment, the focus, for some, is on expansion through the creation of mega-universities via partnering and collaboration and building new virtual campuses that will inter alia educate working adults who are seeking to enhance their skills. nevertheless, issues of quality, affordability and flexibility will have to be interwoven into their plans and offerings. however, public institutions in the caribbean have competitive factors — history, brand recognition, and accreditation — which can be leveraged to tap into wider global markets including the diasporic market. in the case of the uwi, its access agenda is now intertwined with its expansionist plan. under its global collaboration agenda, it has established several global sites (e.g., uwi-university of havana, uwi-suzhou, uwi-suny, etc.) thereby, realising the goal of accessing the international student market. however, international students’ numbers remain low at one per cent of total student enrolment. this move to access the international student market must be evaluated through the lens of what unique programmes and experience can be offered to stimulate the blue or orange economy, medicine, area studies, sustainable development, etc. what unique online or blended or face-to-face experience is on offer? the uwi established its fourth landed campus in antigua and barbuda in 2019 — the five islands campus — to provide more direct access to higher education to the population of the eastern caribbean. more recently, it announced its intention to embrace the remote online market by creating a global online campus that builds on the infrastructure and capacities of the other campuses. it expects to enroll between 50,000 and 100,000 global self-funding students by 2022 from regional and international markets. these include guyana and the non-english speaking caribbean, a southern regional continental strategy that will enable the uwi to enhance its access of equity agenda by including the indigenous population, which represents 10% of the total population, and the geographically isolated population in the continental hinterlands. despite these initiatives, concerns with sustainability for regional and international student access and participation remain, given the current economic climate, demographic pressures, changes to the nature of work, and the relevance of higher education vis à vis the attractions of the labour market. more importantly, the dual expansionist strategy ought to be interrogated to determine if it will indeed improve national and regional student access, participation and equity and its contribution to improving quality educational outcomes. or will it lead to increased tension as more resources are directed to accessing external markets and the gains in regional student access and participation decline? will increased national and regional access be improved through joint degree programme offerings? what are the social and economic costs of the widening access agenda and the various interventions applied by heis? what new or adapted teaching and learning ecosystems will need to 31 be created? will global classrooms be the wave of the future? what legal issues will have to be considered in this new impetus to access and knowledge management? these are some of the issues that the uwi will have to contend with. beyond the university setting, there is also a need to consider the effectiveness of the widening access agenda for public heis over time, which is linked to the structural policy (re)forms and the broader social justice agenda. both a cost-analysis of the gains/expected gains from the promise of expanded access, and a determination of areas of critical and essential change that can drive the benefits of widening access and participation in developing countries, are required. other future considerations for higher education the access measures discussed earlier are particularly relevant not only for benchmarking, but especially, in this current social and economic climate where there are job losses, and the transfer to students of increased cost-sharing, which raise concerns about the affordability of higher education. the disquiet about the relevance and value of higher education, declining absorptive capacity of the labour market, and mismatch of skills to labour market needs will also affect the decision of persons to access higher education. the shift from the traditional form of higher (academic-oriented) education to para-professional and/or technical and vocational education and training will negatively affect enrolment. other factors such as changing demographics and competition from international players may also negatively affect interest in heis. the 4ir (fourth industrial revolution) has implications for all aspects of economic activity as well as for the role of higher education. the education sector will thus have to reconsider its delivery mode, pedagogy, credentialing, and its role in “shaping future technology by being the testbeds for innovation and educating future generation” (world economic forum). there are likely to be noticeable changes in workforce requirements leading to a demand for retooling/reskilling, which in the caribbean will depend on the extent of uptake and absorptive capacity of the labour market. as the market changes and the imperative of retooling/reskilling becomes acute, will this upskilling cost be borne by the individual, or will medium-to-large size companies develop and implement their own programmes or collaborate to create corporate universities? in addition to preparing individuals to live, adapt and work within the 4ir culture, heis must also prepare them to function effectively in the anthropocene epoch. thus, they will have to determine what new knowledge, skills and values are needed and what shape the curricula and co-curricular will take especially, as they move towards transdisciplinary programmes. further, the nature of employment is changing from “full time permanent jobs …. towards non permanent flexible types of jobs that are project based” (abrol, srivastava & suman 2020, 14). there are increasing trends towards pop-ups, and micro, small and medium enterprises (msmes). job patterns are changing to cater to ‘gig’ workers, who are hired for specific deliverables and can be engaged in multiple places. while the focus is on the skills to deliver on the immediate job needs, this approach can have a deficit impact on foundational learning critical to creating a creative, innovative, knowledge-based economy, particularly in developing countries. the extent to which heis will be impacted depends on the pace of labour market transformation. as institutions seek to reimagine what the learner, learning and learning communities would look like they will have to ensure that persons with learning interests and needs have appropriate training 32 forms (e.g., modular, stacked, etc.) and pathways (e.g., traditional, pla, etc.). they will also need to conduct gap analyses and mapping of their own programmes and competencies taught against those required for the transformations in the labour market. for instance, what would be the best training model for the gig workforce to ensure that they have best opportunities to compete successfully? heis can also draw on the information available from tracer surveys, as well as “labor intermediation platforms [that] capture a wealth of information on job seekers (what jobs they have as well as their qualifications and skills), and exactly what employers are looking for. this type of data has multiple advantages” (bosch, pagés & ripani 2018, 19). these platforms supply details on types of jobs being generated and the skills required. additionally, a probabilistic classification model based on national labour/occupational data can be used to calculate whether an occupation is computerisable or not using the frey and osborne 2013 model. big data is being used to improve decision-making and drive operational and programme improvements and predict outcomes. as institutions grapple with the looming changes because of 4ir, job market transformations, the impact of covid-19 and the anthropocene crisis, upscaling the use of data/big data/learning analytics to improve access, entry, participation, and success is a matter of urgency. analysis of demographic and performance data will help predict student enrolment and outcomes, whether a student will enrol at an institution, stay on track for courses, or require additional support. this would help institutions meet the annual enrolment targets and revenue goals laid out in their access and participation plans and introduce more targeted recruiting and more strategic use of institutional aid for underserved communities. conclusion this paper contends that access is more than increasing participation and that heis should identify their institutional scope and “system of interest” in widening access. more importantly, it highlights that heis, in scaling-up their management of access, must increase the strategic use and management of data. the paper also points out that using the metrics developed by the university impact rankings and tailoring it to its needs is a good starting point to uphold the goal of access of equity. a case study of the uwi is provided to show that data on access is available but that greater analysis of other intersectionalities (e.g., indigenous, disabilities, etc.) to promote public accountability associated with access and boost institutional reputation is required. ideally, this strategic data use and management should be accompanied by an audit/assessment of the measures that facilitate a more inclusive community and secure equitable outcomes for our students. further, a strategic exercise that maps the immediate and short-to-medium term needs of the labour market is needed to determine the type of programmes required are matched to access and participation. access also includes measures that enable students to successfully complete their studies, which was not considered in this paper. however, the current economic crisis combined with the pandemic will affect enrolment and completion rates in the short-to-medium term. thus, universities will need to be innovative and to fast-track measures to survive/thrive in the current environment while holding to its tri-mission. the authors carefully considered the myriad barriers that impact college access for students. the case study of the uwi (2019) adds insight to their assertions regarding the importance of data monitoring to ensure equitable participation. the authors spotlight additional questions and gaps in knowledge 33 that will need future investigation. they highlight the impact of demographics on the ability to deepen access to college work among diverse populations. pairing the case study of uwi (2020) with sustainability goals offers a framework to investigate strategies that may be useful in promoting participation among disparate groups. considering how universities obtain and implement student demographics data will enhance their ability to apply participation goals more effectively. overall, the authors contribute to the general base of knowledge in the specific area of interest and provide a necessary platform for additional inquiry in that field. acknowledgement: the authors acknowledge the contributions of dr. glenford howe (senior research/programme officer in the institutional research department, office of the principal, the open campus), who offered conceptual insights on the issue of access and critically reviewed the draft paper in keeping with intellectual content and global trends in higher education. we also acknowledge the colleagues who provided us with datasets from the open campus. references alexander, g., & hlalele, d. (2012). university access, inclusion and social justice. south african journal of higher education, 26(3), 487-502. aucejo, e., french, j., araya, p. u. & zafar, b. (2020, august 9). covid-19 is widening inequality in higher education. voxeu — center for economic and policy research (cepr). https://voxeu.org/article/covid-19widening-inequality-higher-education bosch, m., pagés, c. & ripani, l. (2018). the future of work in latin america and the caribbean: a great opportunity for the region? banco interamericano de desarrollo. https://www.iadb.org/en/labor-and-pensions/futurework-latin-america-and-caribbean-what-will-labor-market-be-women caribbean community. (n.d.). human resource development 2030 strategy: unlocking caribbean human potential. caricom secretariat. https://caricom.org/documents/16065-caricom-hrd-2030-strategy-viewing.pdf caribbean community. (1997). creative and productive citizens for the twenty-first century. caricom. https://caricom.org/creative-and-productive-citizens-for-the-twenty-first-century/ caribbean community. (1993). the future of education in the caribbean caricom regional education policy. caricom. http://caricom.org/documents/12090-the_future_of_education_in_the_caribbean.pdf caribbean development bank. (2016, may). the changing nature of poverty and inequality in the caribbean: new issues, new solutions. https://www.caribank.org/sites/default/files/publication-resources/study_thechanging-nature-of-poverty-and-inequality-in-the-caribbean-new-issues_-new-solutions.pdf caribbean community, caribbean development bank, and regional network of planning officers. (2019). readiness for action: the baseline and situational analysis report for phase i of the caricom hrd 2030 strategy. https://caricom.org/wp-content/uploads/caricom-report-v2-final.pdf caricom, cdema, wfp & fao. (2020, july). caribbean covid-19 food security & livelihoods impact survey regional summary report. https://docs.wfp.org/api/documents/wfp0000114475/download/?_ga=2.160247861.989513302.1606398440-2025809950.1606398440. cepal, oecd & caf. (2020, september). special feature: the caribbean small states. latin american economic outlook 2020 digital transformation for building back better. lc/pub.2020/10. http://www.oecd.org/dev/americas/leo-2019-chapter-6.pdf clifford, m., miller, t., stasz, c., sam, c., & kumar, k. (2012). the impact of different approaches to higher education provision in increasing access, quality, and completion for students in developing countries: a systematic review. eppi-centre, social science research unit, institute of education, university of london. 34 cotton, debby r.e, nash, t. & kneale, p. (2017, january). supporting the retention of non-traditional students in higher education using a resilience framework. european educational research journal, 16(1), 6279. https://doi.org/10.1177/1474904116652629 creswell, j. w. (2009). qualitative procedures. research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. sage publications ltd. cuite, c.l., brescia, s.a., willson, k., weintraub, d., walzer, m., & bates, l. (2020 ). basic needs insecurity among rutgers-new brunswick students. https://go.rutgers.edu/basicneedsstudy deller, f., kaufman, a. & tamburri, r. (2019). redefining access to postsecondary education. higher education quality council of ontario. https://heqco.ca/pub/redefining-access-to-postsecondary-education/ détourbe, m-a., & goastellec, g. (2018). revisiting the issues of access to higher education and social stratification through the case of refugees: a comparative study of spaces of opportunity for refugee students in germany and england. social sciences, 7(10), 186. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328069251_revisiting_the_issues_of_access_to_higher_educatio n_and_social_stratification_through_the_case_of_refugees_a_comparative_study_of_spaces_of_opportu nity_for_refugee_students_in_germany_and_england driscoll, e. m. (2013). higher education: a perspective of administration, access, affordability and the policy that drives it. [phd dissertation, kent state university]. https://www-s3-live.kent.edu/s3fs-root/s3fs-public/driscollhigher-education-a-perspectiveof-administration-access-affordability-and-the-policy-that-drivesitelizabeth-m-driscoll.pdf economic commission for latin america and the caribbean and food and agriculture organization. (2020, june 16). preventing the covid-19 crisis from becoming a food crisis: urgent measures against hunger in latin america and the caribbean. covid-19 report. https://repositorio.cepal.org/bitstream/handle/11362/45726/1/s2000392_en.pdf economic commission for latin america and the caribbean and the regional bureau for education in latin america and the caribbean of the united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization. (2020, august). education in the time of covid-19. covid-19 report. https://repositorio.cepal.org/bitstream/handle/11362/45905/1/s2000509_en.pdf economic commission for latin america and the caribbean. (2019, december 12). the 2014-2020 period will mark the lowest growth in the last seven decades for latin american and caribbean economies: eclac. https://www.cepal.org/en/pressreleases/2014-2020-period-will-mark-lowest-growth-last-seven-decadeslatin-american-and economic commission for latin america and the caribbean. (2020). demographic observatory, 2019 (lc/pub.2019/24-p). https://repositorio.cepal.org/bitstream/handle/11362/45198/1/s1900739_mu.pdf economic commission for latin america and the caribbean. (2019). social panorama of latin america, 2019. (lc/pub.2019/22-p/rev.1). https://repositorio.cepal.org/bitstream/handle/11362/44989/1/s1901132_en.pdf frey, c. b., & osborne, m. a. (2013, september 17). the future of employment: how susceptible are jobs to computerisation? technological forecasting and social change, 114, 254-280. https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/downloads/academic/the_future_of_employment.pdf inter-american development bank. (2019, june). caribbean region quarterly bulletin 2019 and beyond, 8(2). https://publications.iadb.org/publications/english/document/caribbean_region_quarterly_bulletin_volume _8_issue_2_june_2019_en_en.pdf international banker. (2020, december 21). finance: what a covid-19 vaccine means for the global economic recovery. @ international banker. https://internationalbanker.com/finance/what-a-covid-19-vaccine-meansfor-the-global-economic-recovery/ 35 international monetary fund. (2020, october). world economic outlook: a long and difficult ascent. lane, a. (2017). open education and the sustainable development goals: making change happen. journal of learning for development, 4(3), 275-286. mezied, a. a. (2016, january 22). what role will education play in the fourth industrial revolution? world economic forum. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/what-role-will-education-play-in-the-fourthindustrial-revolution/ national association of student personnel administrators. (2020). first-generation student success – statistics. https://firstgen.naspa.org/ navita, a., srivastava, m. & suman, s. (2020). recognition of prior learning: strategy for increasing gross enrolment ratio in india. association of indian universities 58, 7. https://eg4.nic.in/gfgckar/dfiles/ebooks/ir/universitynewsvol58no26june29july052020.pdf# page=6. organisation for economic co-operation and development. (2019, march). latin american economic outlook 2019: development in transition poverty and income inequality in latin america and the caribbean. oecd publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/9c21e638-en organisation of eastern caribbean states. (2012). oecs education sector strategy 2012-2026. oecs. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1syg5eix8ftvlacrkylw9ml09scux_mn0/view prodan, a., maxim, e., manolescu, i., arustei, c. c. & guta, a. l. (2015). access to higher education: influences and possible implications. procedia economics and finance, 20, 535-543. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/s2212567115001069 ross, d. (n.d. ). impact rankings methodology 2021 version 1.0. times higher education. https://the-impactreport.s3-eu-west1.amazonaws.com/impact_guide_2021/the+impactrankings+methodology+2021_a4_final_based+on +v1.3.2.pdf todd, s., cherrstrom, c. a., boden, c. & wilson, l. (2019). innovation in prior learning assessment: program, course, model, and best practices. paper presented at the annual meeting of the adult higher education alliance (43rd, orlando, fl, mar 7-8, 2019). https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ed597802 stebleton, m. j. (2020, august). food insecurity, covid-19, and role of student affairs educators. jcc connexions, 6(3). university of minnesota-twin cities. https://www.naspa.org/blog/food-insecurity-covid-19-and-roleof-student-affairs-educators tikly, l., & barrett, a. m. (2011). social justice, capabilities and the quality of education in low income countries. international journal of educational development, 31, 3-14. unesco. (n.d.). unesco institute of statistics – national monitoring – gross enrolment ratios. http://data.uis.unesco.org/# united nations. un population database. https://population.un.org/wpp/dataquery/ university of the west indies. (2022). about the uwi open campus. https://www.open.uwi.edu/about university of the west indies. (2022). division of student services and development (dssd) – hardship fund. st augustine campus. https://sta.uwi.edu/dssd/hardship-grant-fund university of the west indies. (2020, november 27). uwi pursues global online campus. news. https://open.uwi.edu/uwi-pursues-global-online-campus university of the west indies. (2020, july 16). covid-19 relief discount for semester 1 2020/2021. open campus. https://www.open.uwi.edu/sites/default/files/covid%20relief%20discount%20semester%201%2c%2020202 1.pdf 36 university of the west indies. (2019, june 26). statement from the vice-chancellor new uwi campus in antigua and barbuda: a hub to enable greater participation in the development agendas of the oecs. https://www.uwi.edu/featured-story/fiveislandscampus.asp university of the west indies. (2019, may). report from the university of the west indies open campus to the board for undergraduate studies on the implementation of prior learning assessment. university of the west indies. (2018, may 24). campus news staff notices adopt-a-student programme. st. augustine campus. https://sta.uwi.edu/news/notices/notice.asp?id=24756 werener, a. (2020, january 29). outlook for latin america and the caribbean: new challenges to growth. imfblog. https://blogs.imf.org/2020/01/29/outlook-for-latin-america-and-the-caribbean-new-challenges-togrowth/ werener, a. (2020, june 26). outlook for latin america and the caribbean: an intensifying pandemic. imfblog. https://blogs.imf.org/2020/06/26/outlook-for-latin-america-and-the-caribbean-an-intensifying-pandemic/ authors: dr. halima-sa’adia kassim holds a phd in history from the university of the west indies and is employed as a senior planning officer with responsibility for institutional research and business intelligence in the office of planning, vice chancellery, the university of the west indies. prior to re-joining the uwi, she held positions such as deputy programme manager for gender and development at the caricom secretariat in guyana, head of continuing studies at cipriani college of labour and cooperative studies (cclcs), and special advisor to the president of the republic of trinidad and tobago. her research interests include gender and multiculturalism with reference to the muslim community and gender and higher education. email: halima-sa'adia.kassim@sta.uwi.edu david rampersad has worked in the field of higher education for more than two decades. he has managed relationships of the university of the west indies with other universities, research organisations and specialist organisations; been responsible for research management; and has overseen the enhancement, through the application of uwi expertise, of the knowledge-based capacity of major national agencies, regional private sector organisations, boards of regional organisations and governing bodies of tertiary level education institutions in the caribbean. email: dgmrampersad646@gmail.com cite this paper as: kassim, h-s., & rampersad, d. (2022). reconsidering access: using specific impact ranking metrics to manage access in conventional and open higher education. journal of learning for development, 9(1), 1736. _____ 1 mixed households are composed of immediate family members, other relatives as well as non-family members (caricom et al. july 2020, 2). 2 examples of food insecurity surveys undertaken at us heis include: (i) hope lab survey 2018 – approximately 48% of two-year college students experienced food insecurity, and 41% of four-year students identified as food insecure. upwards to 10% of college students have gone an entire day without eating. (ii) rutgers-new brunswick students undertook a basic needs insecurity survey 2019 — one in three rutgers students reported having been food insecure in the 30 days prior to the survey — 31.5% undergraduates and 29.9% graduates. (iii) real college hope lab report 2020 — nearly three in five students were experiencing basic needs insecurity (food and/or housing) and 38% of students at four-year institutions were affected by food insecurity. see aucejo et al. 2020, stebleton, 2020 and cuite et al. 2020. microsoft word roxasjic.docx issn: 2311-1550 2023, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 297-311 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. collaborative research writing in the new normal: students’ views, challenges, coping strategies, and takeaways mark joshua roxas university of perpetual help, cavite, philippines abstract: the ‘new normal’ setup of education posed challenges on courses requiring learners’ collaboration. despite the proven advantages of collaborative writing, several challenges still confront the learners which may affect the quality of their output. collaboration per se is already a challenge for learners in face-to-face classes, more so in online distance learning. thus, this study explored the views, challenges, coping strategies, and takeaways of senior high school students in collaborative research writing in the ‘new normal.’ thirty (30) reflective essays written by senior high school students from three (3) academic strands, namely humanities and social sciences, general academic, and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics were analysed. ten (10) sample essays from each strand were selected through critical case sampling. findings revealed that students view collaborative research writing in general as easy, while some see it as difficult. the students met challenges in research technicalities, communication, and collaboration. varied coping strategies were identified, such as having a positive mindset, being patient, considerate and determined, seeking help from others, maintaining proper communication and collaboration, seeking spiritual guidance, and taking a break. ultimately, the takeaways of the students were not limited to academics or cognitive aspects—they were also able to gain important values. keywords: collaborative writing, academic writing, senior high school, new normal. introduction the covid-19 pandemic is far more than a health crisis: it is affecting societies and economies at their core (united nations, 2020). based on the data of the world health organization (who), as of april 2021, there have been 150,220,310 confirmed cases of covid-19, including 3,158,792 deaths. this phenomenon constituted the new normal in the way people live, especially in the field of education. as defined by the department of health (2021, p. 6), “the new normal is characterized by volatility and uncertainty. thus, the government must implement interventions that will increase the confidence of society to optimise economic activities in the presence of covid-19, support the population groups that are most affected, and deliver existing programs through efficient and effective approaches in light of the new normal.” the efforts to mitigate the threats of covid-19 became detrimental in almost all sectors and industries including public health, food systems (world health organization, 2020), the pharmaceuticals industry, the solar power sector, tourism, and the information and electronics 298 industry (haleem, et al., 2020). the education sector was no exception. as reported by the united nations (2020), the pandemic affected around 1.6 billion learners in more than 190 countries across continents, and was considered as the most severe cessation of education systems in history. closures of schools and other learning facilities affected 94% of the world’s student population. in the philippines, school closures afflicted more than 28 million learners (unesco, 2020). the department of education (deped) implemented “blended learning” programmes, involving online classes, printed materials and lessons broadcast on television (deped tv) and social media to continue educating students despite the lockdown. private schools, and higher education institutions also adopted varied forms of distance learning modalities. as emphasised by the department of health (2021, p. 8), during the ‘new normal’: digital technology and e-commerce will be used more extensively in order to maintain physical distance. mobility of individuals and social gatherings have been limited by community quarantines, travel restrictions, and minimum public health standards. digital technology has made processes of communication easier in the new normal. social media and mobile technology can also make information dissemination and data collection more efficient, as long as it is used appropriately and within the bounds of data privacy. the new normal setup of education, which is highly reliant on online and distance learning, posed challenges especially in subjects or courses that require intensive collaboration among learners. in the philippine basic education curriculum, grade 12 senior high school (shs), students are required to accomplish a full-blown research paper in their inquiries, investigations, and immersion class. research, as a form of academic writing, follows strict processes, rules, and conventions. given its complexity, roxas (2020) argued that academic writing at advanced levels is challenging and difficult, more so with shs students. thus, teachers utilised various strategies to address the difficulties relative to the demanding and laborious nature of research writing. for instance, research outputs in senior high school are most commonly done collaboratively. collaborative writing further augments the knowledge bases of the learners as they tap into their peers’ writing skills (swain & lapkin, 2001). in consonance, torres (2020) emphasised that collaborative academic writing is beneficial for students as they can gain insights from their peers, which somehow lessens the burden of accomplishing the specific task. storch (2011) suggested that collaborative writing can combine the merits of learner-to-learner interaction with the processes of writing, such as “testing hypotheses, receiving and noticing feedback, and focusing on accuracy” (p. 276). montero, (2005) also averred that collaborative writing is a highly motivating learning experience for students, as well as a creative pedagogical tool for teachers. writing collaboratively also encourages individual participation, increases self-confidence, and, most importantly, improves productivity. in other words, collaborative writing enables the generating and solidifying of shared knowledge (wigglesworth & storch, 2012) as learners craft their writing pieces in cooperation with other students (kormos et al., 2014; storch, 2011). however, despite the cited advantages, several challenges still confront learners, which may affect the quality of their output, such as working with group members who are uncooperative or those with conflicting personalities (torres, 2020). it can be noted that collaboration per se is already a challenge for the learners in face-to-face classes but more so in the context of online distance learning, which is a relatively new practice. additionally, tutty and klein (2008) noted that students who were in face-to-face collaboration found it easier to share information than in the virtual 299 collaboration, therefore, this study aimed at exploring the views, challenges, and takeaways of senior high school students in collaborative research writing in the context of the ‘new normal.’ research questions this study aimed to explore the senior high school students’ experiences in collaborative research writing in the ‘new normal.’ specifically, it tries to answer the following questions: 1. what are the views of senior high school students toward collaborative research writing in the new normal? 2. what are the challenges met by senior high school students in collaborative research writing in the new normal? 3. how did the senior high school students cope with the challenges in collaborative research writing in the new normal? 4. what are the important takeaways gained by senior high school students in collaborative research writing in the new normal? research paradigm figure 1: the paradigm of the study presenting the concepts explored. the above figure shows the different concepts explored in the present study, which constitute the entirety of students’ experiences in collaborative research writing in the new normal. the participants’ experiences were explored in the context of four (4) aspects, which were: 1. the views on collaborative research writing in the new normal, which shed light on how senior high school students perceived collaborative writing based on their experiences of completing a research paper in the covid-19 pandemic era; 2. the challenges in collaborative research writing, which described the hurdles and difficulties faced by the participants as they conducted their collaborative research in the new normal; 3. the coping strategies, which is imperative to discuss after identifying the challenges, 300 in order to understand how the participants managed the hurdles and difficulties they encountered in collaboratively accomplishing their researches in the new normal; and 4. the takeaways, which provide us with the salient learning gained by the participants as they experienced collaborative research writing in the new normal. by looking into the aforementioned aspects, the present study provides a clear picture of how the participants perceived the totality of their research writing experiences. these concepts served as the basis for a deductive approach in data analysis, where coding and theme development were directed by existing concepts or ideas. methods research design this qualitative research employed content analysis (ca) as a research design. as defined by bryman (2016) ca is the study of documents and communication artefacts, which might be texts of various formats, pictures, audio, or video. this study focused on written reflective essays as a source of data. corpus of the study the study analysed thirty (30) reflective essays written by senior high school students from three (3) academic strands, namely humanities and social sciences, general academic, and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. the following questions were given to the students as a prompt for writing the reflective essays: 1. how would you describe your experience in completing a collaborative research project in the new normal setup (online distance learning)? 2. what are the most important things or concepts that you have learned in pr2 and iii? why do you consider them important? 3. what are the challenges that you have met throughout the completion of your research project (from planning to completion of the final paper)? 4. how did you cope with those challenges that you have met? explain specific instances/strategies. ten (10) sample essays from each of the three (3) strands were selected through critical case sampling which is the process of using a small number of important cases that are likely to "yield the most information and have the greatest impact on the development of knowledge" (patton, 2001, p. 236). the following considerations were observed in critically selecting the sample essays: 1. number of words/lengths of the essays. 2. completeness/adherence to the prompt. 301 3. overall quality of the reflective essays. data analysis procedure the data were analysed through reflexive thematic analysis (braun & clarke, 2006) which involves the process of data familiarisation, data coding, and theme development and revision. moreover, a deductive approach was utilised where coding and theme development are directed by existing concepts or ideas. in the case of the present study, the themes and subthemes were extracted and guided by the four elements elucidated in the research paradigm. to find the accuracy and validity of the findings, the four rudiments of methodological rigour, which are transferability, conformability, dependability, and credibility, were observed (tobin & begley, 2004). transferability was exhibited as the students shared their experiences in collaborative research writing in the new normal through reflective essays, which were then translated into meaningful themes and sub-themes. the deductive approach to thematic analysis guided by the research paradigm established conformability of the findings. to ensure dependability, intercoder reliability was observed in extracting themes and sub-themes from the sample reflective essays. to guarantee credibility, member checking through an online focus group discussion (fgd) was also performed to confirm the themes and sub-themes that emerged from the analysis. additionally, ideas or excerpts from the sample reflective essays expressed in filipino were translated into english. ethical considerations the author sought permission from the participants prior to the conduct of the study, explaining the purpose, procedures, and possible utilisation of their reflective essays. the researcher kept the utmost confidentiality and anonymity with regard to the sample reflective essays’ authors. the results do not necessarily reflect the overall quality of the teaching learning-process and the delivery of instruction offered by the university. findings and discussion what are the views of senior high school students toward collaborative research writing in the new normal? collaborative research writing in the new normal is difficult it was revealed that the new normal education setup made collaborative research writing more difficult for the participants. the participants did not find the online modality of learning efficient and engaging compared to face-to-face, due to the lack of physical interaction with their peers: i think doing the research in this kind of crisis is difficult. i did not find it engaging and i cannot feel the thrill upon finishing it. it is more like i am obliged to do it for the sake of graduating. this whole online distance learning is not really efficient for me unlike being with my friends, classmates, and teacher. i feel more tired than usual. (reflection #24) furthermore, the participants experienced emotional and physical challenges, such as breakdowns, frustration, and tiredness or exhaustion caused by the online learning set up: 302 my experience in this research project was like a roller coaster ride. it was difficult for us to complete the paper, especially since we are in an online setup. i had a lot of breakdowns in the past two semesters. (reflection #2) the frustration came to me when i found out that we are still required to conduct a study despite the unusual and uncomfortable situation. i must admit that i once found it extremely disheartening, and just the thought of it made me feel countless things that words such as ‘worried’, ‘intimidated’, or ‘alarmed’ cannot precisely describe. (reflection #11) there's also a time when you'll feel exhausted because of the time that you're exposed to the gadgets and all your schoolwork takes place online. it can break you physically and it will break you more mentally. (reflection #14) this finding corroborates with the studies of baticulon et al. (2020); cao et al. (2020); rajkumar (2020); tandon (2020) and copeland et al. (2021); where it was pointed out that the pandemic has given students uncertainty, stress, and anxiety. juggling between academic tasks while in a pandemic was definitely a challenge, and may be detrimental to their academic performance. another participant also shared that the online class was really different from what they were used to and was definitely a new experience for them: online learning is a new experience for all students. i had a hard time adjusting because i lost the courage to learn and to attend classes because it just felt different compared to face-to-face classes. i had a hard time getting up in the morning and attending my 8:00 am class. (reflection #27) the participants also shared that there were various adjustments they had to make to cope with the new education setup, specifically online distance learning. it was revealed that the participants experienced pressure in accomplishing what was expected of them, which may have included performing well when facing the challenging times brought about by the pandemic: i wouldn’t say it was depressing, but i wasn’t happy either. the adjustments we made mixed with the pressure of meeting the expectations as a student was not fun at all. as someone who is not “techy”, i find it really hard to keep up with other students. (reflection #19) the participants also pointed out that these adjustments may not only be applicable to the students but also to the teachers: the new normal setup was indeed a new experience for everyone not just us students but as well as teachers so we really had to adjust with each other and find a compromise to still effectively learn and deliver quality education. (reflection #13) kerres, (2020) and wang et al. (2020) supported this idea and claimed that teachers also had challenges in operating the system and in facilitating online learning. 303 collaborative research writing in the new normal is easy on the other hand, some of the participants were able to see the positive side of the situation. it was averred that the online learning setup made the research process and tasks easier to conduct. this was due to the numerous technological tools and platforms that they could take advantage of: it was much easier through the use of technology. it feels weird n some sort of ways or feelings that i tend to get all the time considering that this is a major subject to be taken seriously and not to be underestimated. (reflection #30) the said findings were consistent with the study of ng (2012); roblek et al. (2019) and barrot et al. (2021), which divulged that the students encountered the least difficulties in technological literacy and competency as they belong to generation z, also known as digital natives. collaborative research writing in the new normal is challenging but fulfilling it was also articulated that although the new normal education setup was challenging, the students were still able to learn many things. moreover, they ended up feeling fulfilled after they accomplished all the requirements, especially their collaborative research output: for me, it is indeed challenging and brings worries and fulfillment. challenging because i never experienced conducting and finishing any research until i reached this group research study. it is fulfilling for the reason that we all know that we did our best together with my groupmates to finish our paper works. (reflection #17) i had many new experiences that gave me new knowledge since this was only my first time conducting research. it’s not easy because you will have difficulties communicating with one another… and some things are easier to discuss in person. but i can say that even though we’re facing a pandemic, i still got an opportunity to learn and experience writing a research paper. (reflection #3) this experience was memorable, meaningful, significant, helpful, and beneficial. it helped me to overcome many things, to be more responsible, more productive, stronger, and more confident. (reflection #20) what are the challenges encountered by senior high school students in collaborative research writing in the new normal? challenges relative to research technicalities looking into the challenges encountered by the participants, research technicalities were one of the major concerns. they encountered difficulties in formulating a research topic and title. this was due to the restrictions brought about by the pandemic. for instance, in the stem strand, experimental research topics were somehow challenging to conduct because access to laboratories was not possible: first of all, we faced challenges in thinking of topics related to our strand (stem). especially since we were encouraged to conduct experimental studies, and we cannot really go out of our houses due to the pandemic. (reflection #10) 304 data collection was another issue, since the participants encountered difficulties in looking for respondents or participants, as well as administering research instruments, and performing experiments. since the government implemented lockdown and physical distancing protocols, the participants were restricted to conduct their study at home. this made doing the data collection collaboratively impossible, thus causing difficulties and challenges: the challenges we encountered as a group came mostly from the data gathering procedure… not all students tend to respond or answer the given surveys from researchers which causes insufficient data… (reflection #30) interviewing virtually has also been one of our challenges while doing our research project. i think it became a hurdle for us because some people don’t really answer the interview questions that we gave to them. some say that they'll answer it later but do not really do so. (reflection #25) it is definitely risky for us to get the samples during the pandemic, but we have to take it for the sake of the research. (reflection #28) numerous studies, such as those of barrot et al. (2021), day et al. (2021), and kapasia et al. (2020) confirmed the detrimental effects of covid-19 restrictions on students’ learning experiences. challenges relative to communication and collaboration among group members another very prevalent problem that was revealed based on the experiences of the participants was inefficient communication and collaboration due to unresponsive or uncooperative group members. efficient communication is one of the important factors that makes collaboration successful: the challenges that we encountered throughout the completion of this research was probably the/those uncooperative members, as at first, they will ask for what they can help to accomplish the task and will ask so many questions regarding it, but at the end of the day, they did not make it, and did not know how to make it. (reflection #17) i think the biggest challenge was my group mates. i would constantly send messages to our group chats so we can talk about the things that we need to accomplish, but they rarely reply. i would distribute the tasks among my group members, but they do not accomplish the task on time. (reflection #22) rotas and cahapay (2020) and sarvestani et al. (2020) affirmed that students encountered difficulties in communicating with their classmates, especially in group activities. there were also group members who could not fully participate due to internet connectivity problems and lack of devices and other resources: to be honest i find completing a collaborative research project quite a challenge and somewhat stressful and since this is collaborative, communication with other members is essential and not all members communicate effectively due to various reasons such as having a problem with internet connections and some are not always available during collaboration and due to this not all members contribute. (reflection #8) 305 to be honest, we always do things at the last minute due to lack of communication and initiative… i understand that there are times that each member may encounter problems on their end, internet connection or loss of electricity for example… (reflection #2) the same finding can be gleaned from the study of belgica et al. (2020) and barrot et al. (2021) where it was reported that internet connectivity and the poor utility of tools were some of the major factors that caused difficulties in online learning. how did the senior high school students cope with the challenges in collaborative research writing in the new normal? the student researchers utilised varied strategies to cope with the identified challenges. having a positive mindset, being patient, considerate, and determined definitely helped the participants stay grounded on their goals. during challenging times like the pandemic, these values really helped in coping with the situation: being patient and considerate towards my other group mates. i didn’t really know what they were going through, especially in this situation. (reflection #2) patience, perseverance, and determination are really needed in order to finish the task because in the end, you would realize that it is really rewarding to accomplish a fortypage paper. (reflection #3) my strategy to overcome all the challenges and problems in making our research paper is to be strong and competitive. if i will not be strong, it may hinder the completion of our paper. being competitive does not mean looking into others as competitors, but pushing yourself to go beyond the limits. (reflection #9) seeking help from others, such as their peers, and teachers also aided the students in addressing problems relative to research technicalities: throughout the whole school year, i am able to cope with the challenges by asking for help from other people such as our grade 12 adviser who gives our group very good advice in creating our paper. (reflection #8) moreover, the students still did their best in maintaining proper communication and collaboration despite uncooperative group members. some of them believed that efficient communication and collaboration are key to producing a quality research project: it all boils down to proper communication. we reached out, and she also complied as well. and we took it from there. we made sure that each one of us is contributing equally and fairly. we make sure to listen and consider all ideas and thoughts from our group members before we proceed to the next step. (reflection #13) communication, collaboration with your group members, and trusting yourself are the keys to being able to come up with a quality collaborative research project may it be in the new normal setup or face-to-face classes. (reflection #3) 306 good communication is really helpful within your group since all of you are needed to work together to finish the paper. accepting others’ opinions and ideas on how to achieve the group’s goals is a key to fully understanding each other’s views. (reflection #5) interestingly, the students did not forget to seek spiritual guidance despite the hardships: we made it a habit to pray before and after every meeting to ask for the lord’s guidance since we know that it is only through him that we can execute our tasks properly. (reflection #12) another is praying, i think when you fully understand the fact that you are a spiritual being your life will be much clearer. through this, i seek the counsel of god on how should i do this certain thing and ask for his strength to be upon me. in the end, we are always looking for the purpose in everything we do that’s why my spiritual growth increased my academic performance as well. (reflection #18) taking a break and maintaining a healthy balance between leisure and academic work was also observed by other students as ways to help them to cope with their difficulties: taking a break really helped me survive the school year. whenever i feel overwhelmed with the things going on, doing something different aside from academics whenever i take a break really helped me cope up with the stress and burnout i’m feeling. doing the things that i really love really helped me. (reflection #2) i coped with the challenges that i have experienced through being patient and balancing school priorities with the things i love doing… i just go outside our home to breathe and cool myself down… maybe continue reading a book, or playing with my dogs. if i am stressed, can’t think clearly, or don’t have the mood to do school tasks, i will eat, do some sketching, or take a nap to give my mind a rest. (reflection #6) knowing when to take a break is also important. there were times i wanted to work, but my brain couldn’t handle it; there were also times i needed to rest, but my brain wouldn’t quiet down. finding that balance and awareness kept my sanity levels relatively intact. (reflection #16) these findings were congruent with the study of fawaz et al. (2020 p. 5) where it was emphasised that “students employ active-oriented coping mechanisms, as they acknowledge their situation and they try to deal with it rather than just give up on it.” what are the important takeaways gained by senior high school students in collaborative research writing in the new normal? the findings showed that the participants learned many research-related concepts and skills such as avoiding plagiarism, using different citation formats, different data analysis procedures, and writing each part of the research paper: i am able to appreciate the value of citations. this is a way of acknowledging and respecting the owner of the information that we have used in backing up our research. (reflection #10) the thing that i should really remember and never forget to bring with me up to college is the use of apa citation. (reflection #12) 307 third one is to avoid plagiarism, as a writer, i experience how hard it is for an author to make your own story copied by someone else without your consent, to which i never applied plagiarism in our research. for the past 2 years studying at this university, i developed my skills in summarizing, quotation and paraphrasing to avoid committing this crime of act. (reflection #28) additionally, the students were also able to realise and appreciate the value of research in their lives. they were able to understand its practical applications about their future field of specialisation or work: i also realized how important research is in the different areas or sectors of development, especially in our developing country. (reflection #13) the most important thing out of all these is learning and accepting the value of research itself. most people or students tend to disregard the subject of research. many would say that it is tedious, uninteresting, or even costly. but if you as a person fully understood the value of research in our lives, you would be very thankful that the whole idea of it even exists. because without it, we would not be here where we are in our position today. and everything that we see around us, is a product of research. (reflection #23) another that is simple but is worth mentioning would be the fact that research is really important. sadly, this truth is still often overlooked… people forget that our today’s needs are supplied by research, that certain solutions to global problems are the products of innovation, and that research is the origin of every new learning. (reflection #11) more importantly, student-researchers were able to imbibe important values such as patience, teamwork, collaboration, cooperation, and time management: i learned to widen my patience and understanding to others because of the times that i need to let my members whenever they did not fulfill their task or when they admit that they cannot do it. (reflection #4) be patient and diligent in doing your work. you must go through all the processes to make a great output and not make any rush moves to achieve the best results. (reflection #17) the participants also acknowledged that without teamwork and collaboration, they would not be able to successfully attain their goals, such as completing a group task. everyone must be able to give their own valuable contribution: i learned the importance of teamwork, having initiative in doing the tasks, and how to collaborate with other classmates in this kind of setup. it would be really difficult to complete group tasks without your members’ full cooperation. (reflection #2) being cooperative and responsible are the important values that i learned in making research because since it is group work, everyone is expected to contribute in doing it so it is really a big problem if a member is not responsible. (reflection #7) time management and avoiding cramming was also necessary in successfully completing a task: having time management… this will help us stay focused on doing a specific task. i found it very important not just only for one subject but for all subjects as well. (reflection #21) 308 i learned how important it is to manage our time wisely and do the assigned tasks as soon as possible because it is stressful when you cram. also, your output will not be of good quality. (reflection #22) these findings suggest that the collaborative research writing experience developed not only the cognitive abilities but also the affective aspect of the senior high school participants. conclusion and recommendations figure 2: the major themes that emerged from the study’s findings. the study explored the collaborative research writing experiences of senior high school students in the new normal by analysing thirty (30) reflective essays. the themes derived from the corpus of the study shed light on the participants’ views, challenges, coping strategies, and learnings relative to collaborative research writing. based on the findings, the participants of the study had different views on collaborative research writing in the new normal. some viewed it as easy, and some regarded it as difficult. various challenges were also encountered by the students, such as those associated with research technicalities, and communication and collaboration. varied coping strategies utilised by the participants were also identified, such as having a positive mindset, being patient, considerate and determined, seeking help from others, maintaining proper communication and collaboration, seeking spiritual guidance, and taking a break. ultimately, the learnings of the senior high school participants were not limited to academics or cognitive aspects—they were also able to assimilate important values. 309 anchored in the findings yielded by the study, the researcher recommends that: 1. teachers should devise ways on how to closely monitor students’ participation and contribution in collaborative research writing tasks in the new normal. this is to minimise the overarching problem of uncooperative and unresponsive group members. 2. students should be given only a reasonable number of tasks. this way, the students will be able to better manage their time and focus on producing quality output, rather than just for the sake of submission or completion. 3. curriculum planners might also consider revisiting the practical research curriculum to check if the contents and competencies are still feasible for teaching despite the restrictions caused by the covid-19 pandemic. 4. future researchers might pursue a quantitative exploration of the effectiveness of collaborative research writing in the context of the new normal or online distance learning setup. 5. similar studies might be pursued relative to collaborative writing in the context of creative writing and other writing types. limitations this study focused only on the experiences of three (3) academic strands in a senior high school in the philippines; humanities and social sciences, general academic, and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. other strands were not included since they were not under the tutelage of the author in the school year when the study was conducted. references barrot, j.s., llenares, i.i., & del rosario, l.s. (2021). students’ online learning challenges during the pandemic and how they cope with them: the case of the philippines. education and information technologies, 26(6), 7321-7338. baticulon, r.e., alberto, n.r., baron, m.b., mabulay, r.e., rizada, l.g., sy, j.j., tiu, c.j., clarion, c.a. & reyes, j.c. (2020). barriers to online learning in the time of covid-19: a national survey of medical students in the philippines. medrxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.16.20155747 belgica, c.g., calugan, j.a., dumo, j.u., simber, l.a. (2020, december 18-20). online distance learning: thematic study on the challenges faced by educare college inc. primary pupils [paper presentation]. aretl 2020, oxford, united kingdom. https://www.dpublication.com/wpcontent/uploads/2020/12/30-10340.pdf braun, v., & clarke, v. (2006). using thematic analysis in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, 3, 77–101. doi:10.1191/1478088706qp063oa bryman, a. (2016). social research methods. oxford university press. cao, w., fang, z., hou, g., han, m., xu, x., dong, j., & zheng, j. (2020). the psychological impact of the covid-19 epidemic on college students in china. psychiatry research, 287, 112934. copeland, w.e., mcginnis, e., bai, y., adams, z., nardone, h., devadanam, v., & hudziak, j.j. (2021). impact of covid-19 pandemic on college student mental health and wellness. journal of the american academy of child & adolescent psychiatry, 60(1), 134–141. 310 day, t., chang, i.c.c., chung, c.k.l., doolittle, w.e., housel, j., & mcdaniel, p.n. (2021). the immediate impact of covid-19 on postsecondary teaching and learning. the professional geographer, 73(1), 1–13. department of health. (2021). the new normal for health. health policy development and planning bureau. fawaz, m., al nakhal, m., & itani, m. (2021). covid-19 quarantine stressors and management among lebanese students: a qualitative study. current psychology, 1–8. haleem, a., javaid, m., & vaishya, r. (2020). effects of covid-19 pandemic in daily life. current medicine research and practice, 10(2), 78–79. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmrp.2020.03.011 kapasia, n., paul, p., roy, a., saha, j., zaveri, a., mallick, r., & chouhan, p. (2020). impact of lockdown on learning status of undergraduate and postgraduate students during covid-19 pandemic in west bengal. india. children and youth services review, 116, 105194. kerres, m. (2020). against all odds: education in germany coping with covid-19. postdigital science and education, 1-5. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42438-020-00130-7 kormos, j., byrnes, h., & manchón, r.m. (2014). differences across modalities of performance. taskbased language learning–insights from and for l2 writing, 193-216. 10.1075/tblt.7.08kor montero, a. (2005). what a feeling! motivating efl students through collaborative writing with poems. english teaching forum, 43(3), 36-38. ng, w. (2012). can we teach digital natives digital literacy? computers & education, 59(3), 1065-1078. patton, m.q. (2002). qualitative designs and data collection. qualitative research and evaluation methods, 143, 98. rajkumar r.p. (2020). covid-19 and mental health: a review of the existing literature. asian journal of psychiatry, 52, 102066. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2020.102066 roblek, v., mesko, m., dimovski, v., & peterlin, j. (2019). smart technologies as social innovation and complex social issues of the z generation. kybernetes, 48(1), 91–107. rotas, e.e., & cahapay, m.b. (2020). difficulties in remote learning: voices of philippine university students in the wake of covid-19 crisis. asian journal of distance education, 15(2), 147-158. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4299835 roxas, m.j.d. (2020). exploring senior high school students’ academic writing difficulties: towards an academic writing model. ioer international multidisciplinary research journal, 2(1). sarvestani, m.s., mohammadi, m., afshin, j. & raeisy, j. (2019). students’ experiences of e-learning challenges: a phenomenological study. interdisciplinary journal of virtual learning in medical sciences, 10(3), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.30476/ijvlms.2019.45841 storch, n. (2011). collaborative writing in l2 contexts: processes, outcomes, and future directions. annual review of applied linguistics, 31, 275-288. swain, m., & lapkin, s. (2001). focus on form through collaborative dialogue: exploring task effects. longman, pearson education. http://www. longman.co.uk/ tandon r. (2020). covid-19 and mental health: preserving humanity, maintaining sanity, and promoting health. asian journal of psychiatry, 51, 102256. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2020.102256 tobin g.a., & begley, c.m. (2004). methodological rigour within a qualitative framework. journal of advanced nursing, 48(4), 388-396. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.13652648.2004.03207.x 311 torres, r.b. (2020). challenges encountered in a collaborative academic writing task: a case of tvl students in a philippine university. universe international journal of interdisciplinary research, 1(2). tutty, j.i., klein, j. d. (2008). computer-mediated instruction: a comparison of online and face-to-face collaboration. education tech research development, 56(4), 101-124. united nations. (2020, april). a un framework for the immediate socio-economic response to covid-19. https://unsdg.un.org/sites/default/files/2020-04/un-framework-for-the-immediate-socioeconomic-response-to-covid-19.pdf wang, c., cheng z., yue, x-g. & mcaleer, m. (2020). risk management of covid-19 by universities in china. journal of risk and financial management, 13(2), 36. https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm13020036 wigglesworth, g., & storch, n. (2012). what role for collaboration in writing and writing feedback. journal of second language writing, 21(4), 364-374. world health organization. (2020, october 13). impact of covid-19 on people's livelihoods, their health and our food systems. https://www.who.int/news/item/13-10-2020-impact-of-covid-19-on-people'slivelihoods-their-health-and-our-food-systems author: asst. prof. mark joshua d. roxas, maed, lpt graduated from the philippine university — the national centre for teacher education with a degree of bachelor of secondary education, major in english. he obtained his master of arts in education major in english at the university of perpetual help — las piñas campus. he has completed the academic requirements for the degree of doctor of philosophy in education, major in english, in the same university. he is a full-time faculty, and cocurricular activities coordinator at the shs department. he also serves as an assistant professor iv at the college of arts, sciences, and education at the university of perpetual help — molino campus. he received an international award as an outstanding researcher and research adviser from the lumina foundation for integral human development. he was also recognised as an outstanding educator in the field of research and humanities and social sciences by beyond books publications, philippines, and colorado global schools, colorado, usa. he is an associate member of the dost – national research council of the philippines. email: roxas.mjdg@gmail.com cite this paper as: roxas, m.j. (2023). collaborative research writing in the new normal: students’ views, challenges, coping strategies, and takeaways. journal of learning for development, 10(2), 297-311. younger moon, bob. (2013). teacher education and the challenge of development: a global analysis. new york: routledge. mike younger vol. 1, no. 2 this is a wide-ranging, ambitious book that sets out to explore the connectivities between teacher education and the development agenda, in the context of lowand middle-income economies. in four distinct sections, it brings together authors who have engaged centrally with the debates over the last two decades to explore international dilemmas about teacher supply and teacher quality, contextualised within large population countries and other countries within the global south, and explores new strategies for teacher education and teacher development. the first section of the book analyses assumptions that underlie the present structures of teacher education, presenting a sharp and incisive discussion of the capacity of large-scale, teacher education systems to produce an adequate supply of appropriately trained teachers. the links between the characteristics and qualities of teachers and pupil achievement are highlighted, and issues of ongoing teacher professional development, teachers’ working conditions and teacher retention, within a context of economic and cost constraint, are explored with clarity and penetration. section 2 provides four case studies (china, nigeria, india and brazil) which focus on governments’ responses to the challenges of teacher supply where school systems are both large and growing rapidly. there is some unevenness here, in both length and depth of analysis, but there is nonetheless a fascinating detail and perceptive analysis of change and progress in the individual countries. the balance between local and national initiatives and modes of control, the impact of regional tensions and inequalities, different approaches to teacher education and professional development, and the extent to which educational performance has shown genuine improvements, are recurring themes, explored to a greater or lesser degree in each context.  in the third section, a range of research studies address the dimensions of quality teaching and teachers, with a refreshing and innovative focus on the lives of teachers, how they make sense of their roles and exist meaningfully as teachers within the context of very challenging working conditions, and, crucially, how they succeed in their mission to educate. taking a different perspective from the all too familiar rhetoric of absentee, unqualified, poor quality teachers, this focus on teachers’ lives in ghana, pakistan, sudan and tanzania is rich, insightful and imaginative, and offers a vital lens for further research on effective teachers and teaching.   new strategies for teacher education and teacher development provide the focus for the concluding section of this volume. here, the evidence from the previous chapters is drawn together to challenge the predominance of traditional campus based models of teacher training.  thus, it is here, in chapters by anamuah-mensah et al and by power that the potential of new models, developed through needs analysis and structured around networks, hubs and banks, are reviewed, and the role of mobile communications and open educational resources are explored. in a powerful and critically reflective final chapter, moon and umar propose a  reorientation of the teacher education and development agenda, through an analysis based not just on the numbers of teachers required and the nature and length of pre-service training but on a  re-examination of the nature and staffing of the initial and continuing teacher education curriculum, the support offered to teachers in their posts, particularly to women teachers working in rural contexts, and how to achieve change in the discourse within which teachers lead their professional lives. this volume is, then, a welcome addition to the literature on teacher education within the context of the global south and the goals of the education for all (efa) agenda. it offers a considered, perceptive and holistic overview, and gives voice to some new directions for our consideration. it is particularly refreshing to have an opportunity to focus on the in-depth case studies of china, india, nigeria and brazil, although there is a feeling perhaps of a missed opportunity here to examine in more detail the circumstances and pre-conditions which have sparked the genuine improvements in educational performance in some of those contexts, improvements which are merely hinted at in the introduction to section 2 (pp. 53-54). similarly, the research studies in section 3 offer a freshness and vitality which present new perspectives and an originality that should prompt new direction in our teaching and research; here, particularly, the focus on women teachers is deservedly addressed in some detail, and the chapters by tao (on teacher capabilities in tanzanian primary schools) and by aslam and kingdom (on teacher practices which influence pupils’ achievements) are invaluable additions to the literature.  inevitably there are quibbles: final editing might have been tighter (page numbers are missing in the text on p. 54; social networking has had a profound effect, rather than a profound affect, on p. 87; some sentences lack verbs, as on p. 101), and the freedom offered by the editor and the variety of styles adopted by the 22 contributors mean that some chapters are more rigorous and convincing than others. at times, too, fascinating issues are raised but not developed in sufficient detail for this reader:  dembele and miaro ii’s overview of promising paths in pedagogical innovations (pp. 194-195), for example, promises a rich discussion which does not materialise; equally, moon and umar’s sevenfold analysis, offered as a concluding chapter, merits much more discussion and might perhaps have provided a structure for the whole volume. finally, despite its title, much of the focus of the volume is on the continuing education and professional development of teachers, and more attention to pre-service initial teacher education would have ensured a more balanced volume.   despite these reservations, however, there is no doubt that this is an invaluable addition to the global debate, in the context of efa. the authors offer new perspectives on well-known themes, present case studies which raise new issues and yet more challenges for policy-makers, teacher educators and academics, and suggest new directions for research and for policy. mike younger works at cambridge university. e-mail: mry20@cam.ac.uk daniel what learning for what development? sir john daniel vol. 1, no. 1 abstract after reviewing the evolution of attitudes to poverty and education we note how it influenced the early provision of schooling and the emergence of a global agenda for international development and universal education. at first, this agenda was grounded in the enlightenment values that inspired the universal declaration of human rights but economic arguments for reducing poverty and expanding education became more prominent towards the end of the 20th century. sen’s notion of development as freedom brings these ideas together and will strongly influence the development agenda for the coming decades. implementing this agenda will require a shift from top-down, donor-driven projects to grassroots approaches that take advantage of mobile technologies. introduction: the evolution of attitudes to poverty and education  for most people development means less poverty and learning means more education. today each seems self-evidently ‘a good thing’, but we should remember that these beliefs are quite recent.   in the case of poverty ravallion (2013) found that it was not until the 1990s that ‘a coherent theoretical framework emerged to show how high levels of poverty stifled investment and innovation’. the world bank adopted the motto ‘our dream is a world free of poverty’ in 1990.   ancient observations about poverty include jesus christ’s statement that ‘the poor you will always have with you’ (matt. 26:11, mark 14:17, and john 12:8). he was likely recalling the old testament statement: ‘for there will never cease to be poor in the land. therefore i command you: you shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land’ (deut. 15:11).   in the 18th century, however, some economic thinkers argued against following such injunctions to palliate poverty because they regarded poor people as instrumental in ensuring economic development. for bernard de mandeville it was, "manifest that in a free nation where slaves are not allow’d of, the surest wealth consists of a multitude of laborious poor … and great numbers of them should be ignorant as well as poor" (de mandeville, 1728). later in that century adam smith argued for a more humane view and by the end of the 19th century alfred marshall (1890) pleaded ‘may we not outgrow the belief that poverty is necessary?’  twentieth century economists, notably john maynard keynes, buttressed this plea by arguing that reducing poverty would aid growth because of the extra consumption it would generate. others, having showed that low levels of education, health and nutrition could keep people stuck in penury, urged that subsidizing education and health care were not only intrinsically desirable but helped people to break out of poverty (the economist, 2013).  as well as having a humane view of the evil of poverty, adam smith (1776) was also an early proponent of the importance of learning. in the wealth of nations he argued for universal education on the grounds of public order and the preservation of freedom: "an instructed and intelligent people … are always more decent and orderly than an ignorant and stupid one… in free countries, where the safety of government depends very much upon the favourable judgment which the people may form of its conduct, it must surely be of the highest importance that they should not be disposed to judge rashly or capriciously concerning it."   as with poverty, the translation of smith’s views on education into action by governments to create school systems took another hundred years, but by the end of the 19th century some leading countries had legislated for education. in meiji japan an education act was issued in 1872. its main objective was to provide education to everybody, regardless of status and gender, so that the whole population would be able to enjoy happiness and prosperity equally. the act stated that, "learning is the key to success in life, and no man can afford to neglect it. … everyone should subordinate all other matters to the education of his children. …henceforth, through out the land, without distinction of class and sex, in no village shall there be a house without learning, in no house an ignorant person" (pyle, 1969: 33).  across the pacific in the united states, the first compulsory school attendance act had been passed by massachusetts in 1852. it reflected the view that in a heterogeneous society the masses had to be educated in order to understand the written codes of the governing laws and documents of the new country. compulsory education was enacted in britain in 1880. in 1881, under the short presidency of jules ferry, france introduced universal primary schooling that was ‘secular, free and compulsory’ and open to both boys and girls. in 1882 further legislation made schooling compulsory for children aged 7 to 13 (cned, 2008: 7).  however, to equate the expansion of education with the enactment of legislation and the establishment of state schooling systems, as most historians do, is to miss important initiatives to encourage learning in earlier times. west (1994) claimed that in britain and some other western countries universal primary education was achieved predominantly though private schools. for example, writing in the edinburgh review in 1813 james mill, the father of john stuart mill, wrote of "the rapid progress which the love of education is making among the lower orders in england. even around london … which is far from the most instructed and virtuous part of the kingdom, there is hardly a village that has not something of a school, and not many children of either sex who are not taught more or less, reading and writing" (tooley, 2009: 237).  tooley quotes this example in his iconoclastic work the beautiful tree. the title is from a speech by mahatma gandhi at chatham house, london in 1931. he said: "i say without fear of my figures being challenged successfully, that today india is more illiterate than it was fifty or a hundred years ago, and so is burma, because the british administrators, when they came to india, instead of taking hold of things as they were, began to root them out. they scratched the soil and began to look at the root, and left the root like that, and the beautiful tree perished" (2009:212). tooley adds that the peer-teaching methods used in these indigenous indian private schools were being copied in schools in england early in the 19th century and influenced pestalozzi (2009: 230).  global agendas for international development and universal education  whatever the considerable merits of such indigenous private education systems, the colonial powers introduced systems of government schools in most developing countries. at independence these systems were taken over and developed further by the new governments. they naturally became the focus of attention for intergovernmental bodies, particularly unesco, the world bank and the oecd, which tried to help governments expand and improve education. indeed, until very recently unesco and many of its member governments automatically assumed that if education is a public good it must be provided free by the state as a public service. this was the prevailing ethos when the international community began to take steps to fulfil the aspiration of education for all that figures in the universal declaration of human rights, which states:   everyone has the right to education. education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. elementary education shall be compulsory. technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. it shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the united nations for the maintenance of peace. parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children. (united nations general assembly, 1948)  the ‘rights-based’ principle articulated in this declaration continues to provide the fundamental rationale for the expansion of education and the pursuit of other development goals. the enlightenment-inspired idealism that led to the creation of the united nations and this declaration of human rights after world war ii was also an important factor supporting the wave of decolonisation that gathered speed from the 1950s on. many newly independent countries made heroic efforts to expand education and pursue other civil development goals.   however, the harsh realities of the cold war, its accompanying arms race and the global energy upsets of the 1970s hindered the attainment of these goals both directly, by weakening economies, and indirectly by undermining democracy and governance in many states. by the late 1980s, when it became clear that educational development was going backwards in many poor countries, the world decided that concerted action was needed. the term ‘international development’ gained currency to describe the attempts by richer countries to help poorer countries, both individually through national agencies and collectively through intergovernmental bodies.   the figures were stark. in 1985 some 105 million children aged between six and eleven were not in school, the majority of them girls. economic recessions and financial crises in various developing countries were eroding the increases in school enrolments and literacy rates achieved in the 1970s. forecasts suggested that the number of out-of-school children might double to 200 million by 2000. "given the centrality of education to countries’ economic and social growth this did not bode well for world development", noted the world bank (2000: 3).   in 1990 four agencies of the un system [unesco (united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization), unicef (united nations children’s fund) undp (united nations development programme) and the world bank] convened the world conference on education for all (efa) in jomtien, thailand. its purpose was to stimulate international commitment to a new and broader vision of basic education: to "meet the basic learning needs of all, to equip people with the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes they need to live in dignity, to continue learning and to contribute to the development of their communities and nations" (world bank, 2000: 3).  the outcome of jomtien was a set of six targets — adopted by 155 governments, 33 intergovernmental bodies and 125 non-governmental organisations — that were to be reached by the year 2000. the targets addressed, in summary: the expansion of early childhood care. universal completion of primary education. improvement in learning achievement (with targets). reduction of adult illiteracy. expanded training in essential skills for youth and adults. general education for sustainable development. this first concerted international effort to get all children into school showed how difficult it is for such ‘top-down’ initiatives to achieve success. despite follow-up efforts the targets were not achieved. in absolute terms the world went backwards. in 1990 100 million children aged 6 to 11 were not in school and by 2000 this number had grown to 125 million.   various reasons were adduced to explain failure. six major changes affected education during the 1990s. first, population growth – notably a 25% increase in the number of 6 to 14 year-olds in africa and a 15% increase in south asia, east asia and the pacific – had moved the goalposts out of reach. second, many countries were afflicted by conflict and natural disasters. third, hiv/aids began to reverse the development gains of previous decades and had particularly dire effects on education systems as children became aids orphans and teachers died. fourth, because of the break-up of the soviet union and yugoslavia there were 20% more countries in the world by 2000 and education systems that had previously provided relatively complete coverage had been broken up. fifth, there were major economic crises in many countries in africa, asia and eastern europe finally, the exponential rise of communication technologies created a ‘digital divide’ that further increased the disparities between developed and developing countries.   the world bank concluded: "six developments of the 1990s impacted strongly on education and have forced a fundamental rethinking of efa, its role, goals and means as part of the end of decade review. clearly efa can no longer be attained through business as usual, with the usual players. even if all the firm commitments made in 1990 had been met, efforts during the 1990s would have proved inadequate" (world bank, 2000: 9).   others went further and questioned the basis of the approach. in the words of easterly (2001: 73): "the failure of government-sponsored educational growth is once again due to our motto: people respond to incentives. if the incentives to invest in the future are not there, expanding education is worth little. having the government force you to go to school does not change your incentives to invest in the future. creating people with high skills in countries where the only profitable activity is lobbying the government for favours is not a formula for success. creating skills where there exists no technology to use them is not going to foster economic growth". the on-going debate about development, of which this is an example, spawned much research on the link between educational expansion and economic development.   meanwhile, it seemed that the international community was still trying to achieve efa through business as usual by convening another world forum on education for all in dakar, senegal in 2000.  once again a set of six targets were agreed to, with 2015 as the most common deadline (unesco, 2000). there were, however, two important differences compared to jomtien.  first, the world bank (2000:15) claimed that it had ‘distilled at least eight core lessons from the past decade, which can help renew the final push towards efa’. these were: strong political commitment at the country level is the cornerstone of success. quality is as important as quantity. governments cannot deliver on efa alone – partnerships with families and civil society are essential. countries make better progress when they have developed sector policy frameworks that treat all levels and forms of education comprehensively. inefficient use of education resources constrains progress, notably the failure to allocate funds for learning materials and in-service teacher training, both of which have a major influence on quality. education must adapt quickly to new economic, technological and social challenges, such as the increased role of markets and information technology. education must be cushioned during crises. education expansion needs to be supported by a growing economy. while most of these lessons may seem rather obvious, they did help to make the post-2000 efa campaign more focussed than the efforts of the 1990s. the beneficial influence of learning materials and in-service teacher education on quality was an important theme.   second, the renewed efa campaign was set in the wider context of the millennium declaration agreed to by the world’s heads of government at the united nations in 2000. in this they committed their governments to eight millennium development goals (mdgs) that included, in summary form, two of the dakar goals: achieve universal primary education:   ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling. promote gender equality and empower women:   eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015. unesco was charged with coordinating the implementation of the dakar agenda but the world bank had the overall responsibility for the mdgs. inevitably, and probably rightly, this meant that vastly more resources were directed to the two goals given above than to the four other dakar goals. these four addressed early childhood care and education, life-skills programmes for youth and adults, adult literacy and education, and improving quality at all levels by focusing on learning outcomes (unesco, 2000:15).  i describe elsewhere the mechanisms, such as the fast-track initiative, that were put in place to coordinate the work of the national and international development agencies after 2000. although some significant countries (e.g., nigeria, pakistan) are unlikely to achieve the mdg of universal primary education by the target date of 2015, in most cases progress has been considerable, which has moved the challenge of universal schooling to the secondary level (daniel, 2010).   what learning for what development?  in the late 20th century, as bodies like the world bank began to take an interest in what they called ‘human capital development’, the focus of arguments justifying the expansion of education acquired an economic spin. by 1990, when the jomtien conference convened, the notion that education contributed to economic growth had become a truism.   we noted earlier that the emergence of global agendas for educational expansion provided incentives for research on the links between learning and development, particularly economic development. what does this research tell us and how has it influenced views on how development should be defined and how learning can help to achieve it?   easterly (2001: 84) reviewed the relationships between economic development and a number of measures of educational expansion. having found little correlation between economic growth and the expansion of primary education, he reviewed mankiw’s (1995) claim for a stronger correlation with the expansion of secondary enrolment but showed that this did not hold up either. pscharapoulos (2008) presented a 50-year recap of research on the relative importance of various levels of education to economic growth in which he suggested that early childhood education was now the key factor. given the confusion, easterly had concluded that "education is another magic formula that has failed us on the quest for growth". hanushek & wössmann (2007) were less dismissive but indicated that what counts is not a particular level of schooling but the quality of education on offer and the learning outcomes achieved.    amartya sen (1999) argued for a more holistic perspective on the role of education in development. for him the search for a single magic bullet to destroy poverty and create steady economic growth is an illusion. he argued that: "the case for taking a broad and many-sided approach to development has become clearer in recent years, partly as a result of the difficulties faced as well as successes achieved by different countries over the recent decades. these issues relate closely to the need for balancing the role of the government – and of other political and social institutions – with the functioning of markets" (sen, 1999: 126).   even the world bank, in which the search for single all-purpose drivers of development had a strong hold on professional thinking for several decades, has come around to the need for an integrated and multifaceted approach (stiglitz, 1998).  sen’s integrated approach is based on the concept of development as freedom. for him development is a process of expanding the real freedoms that people enjoy. this broad process embraces all narrower views of development such as growth of individual incomes, facilities for education and health care, civil rights, technological progress and social modernisation.  viewing development as the expansion of freedoms puts the focus on the purposes that make development important rather than on some of the means of achieving it.    freedom is central to the process of development for two distinct but complementary reasons. the first reason is evaluative: the primary assessment of the progress of development is whether the freedoms that people have are enhanced. the second reason is effectiveness, because the ‘achievement of development is thoroughly dependent on the free agency of people’ (sen, 1999: 4).   such a broad approach to development gives a vital role to education even if the expansion of schooling in a particular jurisdiction does not give an immediate economic pay-off. the history of japan and other east asian countries shows that universal education should be seen as a basis for economic development rather than its cause. those economies greatly expanded education (and health care) before they broke out of poverty. but once other factors were favourable for economic growth the good levels of education and literacy allowed these countries to develop rapidly. sen (1999: 42) argues that once it adopted a form of market economics china grew more rapidly than india because it already had higher levels of education and health care.  today, examples of jurisdictions as diverse as cuba and the indian state of kerala show that high levels of literacy and health care do not of themselves create economic growth. experience suggests, however, that if such jurisdictions were to adopt economic policies that favoured growth they would develop more strongly than others starting without such a base. political and economic freedoms promote economic growth considering development as freedom makes education a constituent component of development as well as a means for promoting it. education fosters some freedoms directly and, since freedoms strengthen each other, it has a knock-on effect that promotes development generally. the notion of agency also helps to change the concept of development from a process that is imposed on people by governments and development organizations to something that they do for themselves. this goes further than easterly’s (2006) contention that development occurs when people respond to incentives and not as the result of any grand plan imposed from above. free human beings have their own aspirations.  sen (1999: 199, 220) illustrates this rather nicely by pointing out that because of its strong emphasis on women’s education the birth rate in the indian state of kerala has fallen faster than in china with its coercive one-child policy. educating women is a good example of education being a constituent of development since its effect in reducing both fertility and infant mortality has been widely demonstrated. cohen (2007, 2008) argues that girls’ education is the surest route to sustaining a liveable planet.    we conclude that educating people is a vital component of development. it should not be seen primarily as the creation of human capital for the purpose of economic production, but as the nurturing of human capability that gives people the freedoms to lead worthwhile lives. this suggests that education for the 21st century should develop people's capacity to become self-directed learners, which is a major change from the focus on teaching and rote learning that still passes for education in some developing countries.  learning for development in the future  although 2015 is the target date for most of the mdgs we can already make a preliminary assessment of their impact. in summary, since 2000 we have seen the most significant reduction ever of the numbers living in poverty and the campaign for universal primary education has been fairly successful. the picture is less rosy for the health targets.   in view of these results the un is preparing proposals for a new set of development goals with a target date of 2030. a high-level panel made up of three heads of government (indonesia, liberia and uk) reviewed the experience of the mdgs and made some preliminary proposals for new goals (united nations, 2013). its assessment of the mdgs provides the springboard for its own proposals:    ‘they did not focus enough on reaching the very poorest and most excluded people. they were silent on the devastating effects of conflict and violence on development. the importance to development of good governance and institutions that guarantee the rule of law, free speech and open and accountable government was not included, nor the need for inclusive growth to provide jobs. most seriously, the mdgs fell short by not integrating the economic, social, and environmental aspects of sustainable development as envisaged in the millennium declaration, and by not addressing the need to promote sustainable patterns of consumption and production.’  these conclusions pick up some of the themes of the efa global monitoring reports that unesco publishes annually, in particular the 2009 report, which was titled overcoming inequality: why governance matters (unesco, 2008). furthermore, we can detect in this assessment, and particularly in the panel’s suggestions for 12 new goals, a shift from the mainly economic view of development that inspired the mdgs towards sen’s concept of development as freedom.   there will be many inputs to this goal-defining process before a list is presented for un approval. for example, the centre for international governance innovation has proposed its own ‘bellagio goals’ (cigi, 2013) and helpage international (2013) has urged the inclusion of a goal related to ageing populations.   we note that the panel’s proposed goals for education and work pick up some of the goals of the 2000 dakar efa framework that did not figure in the mdgs (unesco, 2000: 15). they also emphasise lifelong learning, which did not feature explicitly in that framework. their educational goals urge more pre-primary education and lower-secondary education, stress the importance of learning outcomes at all levels and call for increasing opportunities to acquire skills for work. concerning work, the goals call for increasing the number of solid jobs, decreasing the number of young people not in education, employment or training, strengthening productive capacity by providing universal access to financial services, transportation and ict, and increasing the numbers of new start-up companies through an enabling business environment that promotes entrepreneurship.  implicit in the plans for achieving the 2000 mdgs was considerable reliance on the actions of governments and intergovernmental agencies. whatever the content of any development goals eventually approved by the un for the period 2015-2030, they will certainly rely for their attainment on actions by a more diffuse partnership giving greater roles to individuals, communities and institutions. this is partly because rich-country governments are most unlikely, for example, to donate major funds to a new global campaign for secondary education as they did for universal primary education. more positively, it also reflects a greater appreciation of the importance of what sen calls the ‘free agency of people’ in determining and guiding their own development as individuals and communities. in other words, development will become more bottom-up and less top-down.  from top-down to bottom-up  until recently, large donor-funded development projects based on an idea emanating from research by an international agency or a developed-country think tank were fashionable. a good example, with a big ego thrown in, was the millennium villages project masterminded by jeffrey sachs of the earth institute and launched in 2005 (wikipedia, 2013).   this is not the place to review the project properly, but the controversy it has generated suggests that this model of intervention may have run its course. easterly (2005), a long-time critic of big top-down development projects, contested the principles on which it is based. more serious is the recent debate sparked by clemens (2012) over the absence of any proper evaluation data to buttress the large claims made by the project, a debate that made it to the pages of nature (murphy, 2011; retraction watch, 2012)     an example of a contrasting approach to development through a bottom-up approach is the programme of lifelong learning for farmers (l3f) that that commonwealth of learning has refined with village communities around the world for over a decade (balasubramanian & daniel, 2011). it is based on four principles that resonate strongly with those that inspired the un panel’s report: unexploitative contractual relationships between rural producers and the public and private sectors to promote rural entrepreneurship; learning as a self-sustaining process that draws in secondary stakeholders to support lifelong learning for farmers because they benefit too. in particular, appropriate capacity building improves the performance of rural credit and encourages the banking sector to support the approach; capacity building also enlarges the market for bank credit among marginalized sections of the rural poor, particularly women; through structures such as rural internet kiosks, rural tele-centres, mobile phones and community radio, icts can facilitate the capacity building process acceptably and effectively. this is just one instance, taken from the field of agriculture and rural development, of an approach that gives people the chance to determine the goals for their own development and the lifelong learning projects that can help to achieve them. this programme has been carefully evaluated and shows high returns on the very small investment of external funds, as well as substantial improvements in prosperity that are not matched in ‘control’ villages where l3f was not implemented. the project has also pioneered the mass use of mobile technologies in support of learning.    an important question is whether this grassroots approach can be used in future to filter, refine and implement some of the ‘big ideas’ for development that will continue to come from researchers and think tanks. an interesting test case could be the campaign to arrest desertification inspired by the work of alan savory (savory institute, 2013; savory, 2013). savory’s theories about the benefits of the holistic management of grazing are contested (maughan, 2013; mcwilliams, 2013) and the likely truth is that they may work in some cases but not in others.   adopting a bottom-up approach along the lines of the lifelong learning for farmers programme could be an effective way to test the theory and find out where it works and where it does not. refining global ideas through local experience in this way will enable communities to take charge of their own development and seek the information they need to implement it.      references balasubramanian, k., & daniel, j. (2011). knowledge transfer for a horticultural revolution: the lifelong learning for farmers model. acta horticulturae. (ishs) 920:13-21. retrieved august 2, 2013 from: this url and this url.   cigi (centre for international governance innovation). (2013). post-2015 development development agendaagenda: goals, targets and indicators. retrieved august 1, 2013 from: this url. clemens, m. (2012). impact evaluation in aid: what for, how rigorous? slide presentation. retrieved august 7, 2013 from: this url.   cned. (2008). l’histoire du cned depuis 1939, chasseneuil-futuroscope, france : centre national d’enseignement à distance.  cohen, j. (2007). beyond primary: making the case for universal secondary education – powerpoint presentation. retrieved july 31, 2013 from: this url.  cohen, j. (2008). make secondary education universal. nature, 456, pp. 572-573.  daniel, j. s. (2010). mega-schools, technology and teachers: achieving education for all. routledge.  de mandeville, b. (1728). the fable of the bees (5th ed.). london, p. 328, cited in k. marx, capital, vol. 1, london, 1976, ch. 25, p. 765.  easterly, w. (2001). the elusive quest for growth: economists’ adventures and misadventures in the tropics. cambridge: mit press. easterly, w. (2005). a modest proposal, review of the end of poverty: economic possibilities of our time, by jeffrey sachs, penguin press, washington post, march 13. retrieved august 7, 2013 from: this url. easterly, w. (2006). the white man’s burden. penguin press. hanushek, e. a., & wössmann, l. (2007). education quality and economic growth. washington dc: world bank. retrieved august 2, 2013 from: this url.   helpage international. (2013). post-2015 and sustainable development goals. retrieved august 2, 2013 from: this url.   mankiw, n. g. (1995). the growth of nations. brookings papers on economic activity 1, 275-326. washington dc: brookings institution.  marshall, a. (1890). principles of economics (8th ed., 1920), london: macmillan, p. 2. maughan, r. (2013, march 18). holistic grazing guru pieces together false assumptions to produce ineffective but popular recommendations on climate change. the wildlife news. retrieved august 7, 2013 from: this url. mcwilliams, j. (2013). all sizzle and no steak. slate. retrieved august 7, 2013 from: this url. murphy, t. (2011). the empire strikes back: sachs vs. the world. a view from the cave: reporting on international aid and development. retrieved august 7, 2013 from: this url.   pscharapoulos, g. (2008). economics of education: a 50-year recap. slide presentation. retrieved august 1, 2013, from: this url.   pyle, k. b. (1969). the new generation in meiji japan. stanford university press.  ravallion, m. (2013). the idea of anti-poverty policy, nber working paper no. 19210. retrieved july 31, 2013 from: this url.  retraction watch. (2012). former millennium villages project staffer responds to critical nature editorial. retrieved august 7, 2013 from: this url. savory, a. (2013). how to fight desertification and reverse climate change. ted talk. retrieved august 7, 2013 from: this url. savory institute. (2013). holistic management overview. retrieved august 7, 2013 from: this url.  sen, a. (1999). development as freedom. oxford.  smith, a. (1776). the wealth of nations, book v chapter 1 para. v.1.189.  retrieved august 2, 2013 from: this url.    stiglitz, j. e. (1998). an agenda for development in the 21st century. in pleskovi, b., & stiglitz j. e. (eds.). annual world bank conference on development economics 1997. washington dc: world bank. the economist. (2013, july 27) penury portrait.   tooley, j. (2009). the beautiful tree. cato institute: penguin.  unesco. (2000). the dakar framework for action: education for all – meeting our collective commitments. unesco, paris. retrieved august 2, 2012 from: this url.   unesco. (2008). overcoming inequality: why governance matters. efa global monitoring report. unesco publishing and oxford university press. retrieved august 3, 2013 from: this url.   united nations general assembly. (1948). universal declaration of human rights (article 26). retrieved august 3, 2013 from: this url.   united nations. (2013). a new global partnership: eradicate poverty and transform economies through sustainable development. report of the high level panel of eminent persons on the post-2015 development agenda. retrieved august 3, 2013 from: this url. west, e. g. (1994). education and the state, (3rd ed.). indianapolis: liberty fund.  world bank. (2000). education for all: from jomtien to dakar and beyond. paper prepared for the world education forum in dakar, senegal, april 26-28, 2000, world bank, washington dc. retrieved august 3, 2013 from: this url. sir john daniel served as president and ceo of col from 2004 to 2012. he is now working on a variety of international projects, notably as education master in the beijing detao masters academy, china and chair of the uwc (united world colleges) international board. e-mail: odlsirjohn@gmail.com  microsoft word kinshuk.docx issn: 2311-1550 2022, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 381-393 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. future directions for digital literacy fluency using cognitive flexibility research: a review of selected digital literacy paradigms and theoretical frameworks amy caton1, danita bradshaw-ward2, kinshuk3 and wilhelmina savenye4 1texas a&m university 2dallas college 3university of north texas 4university of arizona abstract: as learners engage, test, and apply new subject knowledge, they often expend their cognitive capacity on the technological tools designed to capture their learning progress and outcomes. the energy and attention spent on these tools reduces their capacity to engage deeply with new learning concepts. digital literacy skills require both cognitive and technical skills to develop a learner’s ability to locate, use, and communicate information. increasingly complex information environments create various barriers for student learning, and as our learning and working industries continue to evolve and integrate technologies, students must overcome these barriers by bridging learning needs and technology expectations. this research explores the value of developing digital literacy to improve learners’ cognitive flexibility by decreasing technological cognitive load and increasing learning fluency. the findings highlight the need for establishing scaffolded digital literacy skills and digital tool selection, and expand college readiness requirements to include digital literacy as a prerequisite skill for learners. keywords: cognitive, digital literacy, technology. introduction students are accustomed to and comfortable with engaging diverse digital tools for socialising, playing and shopping but there is a gap and even resistance to using digital tools to discover, design, or create in digital learning environments, and an even wider gap in ability to transfer digital knowledge across education and industry. educators have similar challenges but also have the additional challenge of being leaders setting expectations and modeling usage of digital tools in diverse learning environments. in this context, the definition for digital literacy fluency includes both students and educators as learners. learners need fluency across diverse skill sets to vacillate between primary and secondary knowledge generation, and surface and deep problem solving (paas & sweller, 2011; sweller, 2021). we identify three learning barriers, including digital tool adoption, digital fluency, and transfer of digital knowledge to help learners solve complex and ill-structured problems; to deal with uncertainty; and, to adapt emotionally and culturally (pulakos et al., 2000). the aim of this research is to develop the concept of digital literacy fluency as a solution to the established barriers. 382 in order to help learners overcome barriers, established frameworks for digital learning need to be explored in conjunction with cognitive learning practices. for example, bloom’s digital taxonomy creates a framework of levels of cognitive learning in a hierarchical pattern from simplest to higher and more complex learning to engage, test, and apply new subject knowledge. bloom’s digital taxonomy provides “foundational action terms to describe the learning outcomes of users’ interaction” in digital learning environments (piskurich, 2015, p. 134). fluency in digital tool use reduces cognitive load and enables learners to become flexible and adaptable in digital environments. as learners have limited cognitive capacity, energy and attention, cognitive flexibility has been recognised as a key indicator of learning behavior in complex tasks (alexopoulou et al., 2020). building from learners’ development toward cognitive flexibility, the aim is then to improve learners’ cognitive adaptability in transferring knowledge across diverse disciplines and digital environments. digital literacy skills require both cognitive and technical skills to develop a learner’s ability to locate, use, and communicate information in complex learning environments. digital literacies are multifaceted, often combining diverse seemingly simple literacies to form complex skill sets aimed to address deep problem solving in digital learning environments. theoretical approach connectivism (siemens, 2017) is an important learning theory and the underlying theoretical approach that is used to ground the premises of this research. this theory “is positioned as a new philosophy of education for the digital age” and includes “learning that lies outside the learner, in social networks and technological tools” (mattar, 2018, p. 201). connectivism is formed from the fundamental ideas in constructivism, behaviorism, and cognitivism and relies heavily on the works from three foundational psychologists: jean piaget, john dewey, and lev vygotsky. jean piaget’s theories center learning on the individual through interactions between ideas and experiences and is evidenced through his theory of cognitive development as a progressive process through four stages. john dewey’s theories on education builds on piaget’s cognitivism by including learning through real world activities and inquiry sustaining learning. lev vygotsky similarly focused his theories on individual ideas and experiences but also includes the social aspects of learning through experiences. his concept of zone of proximal development (zpd) (vygotsky, 1978) identifies a virtual space between what a learner already knows and what they cannot know without an instructor. the common beliefs among these theorists is that “learning is active, not passive; language is an important element in the learning process; and learning environments should be focused on the learner” (mattar, 2018, pg. 205). these theorists founded constructivism before learning environments became deeply integrated with technology and hyper-social environments. both of these elements have altered our approach to learning formally and informally. this research uses connectivism to account for the incorporation of learners’ cognitive capacity and digital literacy and the flexibility between these abilities. learners’ cognitive capacities are by nature dynamic and influenced by diverse learning environments (adam-turner & burnett, 2018), and connectivism is the preferred theory for a digital age. connectivism supports learners' ability to actively acquire knowledge and appropriately communicate across various culturally and socially diverse digital platforms. 383 cognitive adaptability our society and learning environments dynamically change and are influenced by rapid increases in scientific knowledge and workplace demands for twenty-first century skills. at every stage of learning, we are faced with competing demands for attention when learning with technology and cope by developing diverse learning strategies. the “ability to adapt our thinking, drive, and emotions to changing and novel problem situations has become essential (scherer, 2015, p. 1). vandenbos (2007) defined adaptability as the “capacity to make appropriate responses to changed or changing situations; the ability to modify or adjust one's behavior in meeting different circumstances or different people” (p. 17). cognitive capacity creation of new knowledge in complex learning environments requires access to both working memory and reasoning. humans are adapted to making optimal use of available information but we have natural limits to our cognitive capacity and are cognitively affected by the level of complexity for diverse activities. overwhelmingly complex tasks, as in learning new technology or problem solving, can harvest negative feelings toward educational digital technology use, which decreases working memory capacity and cognitive capacity, ultimately decreasing cognitive flexibility for engaging in new learning concepts (ou et al., 2018). cognitive flexibility cognitive flexibility is the human ability to adapt the cognitive processing strategies to face new and unexpected conditions in the environment (cañas et al., 2003). it is also defined as “the ability to spontaneously restructure one’s knowledge, in many ways, in adaptive response to radically changing situational demands” (spiro & jehng, 1990, p. 165). this definition involves three important concept characteristics. firstly, cognitive flexibility is an ability that could imply a process of learning, that is, it could be acquired with experience. secondly, cognitive flexibility involves the adaptation of cognitive processing strategies. the principle of cognitive flexibility refers to the working system of the human brain, wherein all the information obtained is stored in memory which can then be recalled when needed to be rebuilt into new knowledge under different conditions (jones & day, 1997; cloonan & fingeret, 2020). so, it can be concluded that cognitive flexibility is the ability to think about things in different ways, and relation to the learning process should be able to improve cognitive flexibility. to improve and/or enhance a learner’s cognitive flexibility in today’s diverse learning environments immersed with learning technological tools, studies have shown that regular and repetitive mental stimulation using technology is a reasonable tool that results in improved cognition, focus, and taskswitching (alexopoulou et al., 2020). at the same time, today’s learners are overwhelmed with the task of learning new technologies, which can be discouraging thus decreasing cognitive capacity for engaging in learning new concepts. ou et al. (2018) describe that positive (activating) moods can “increase working memory capacity, thereby facilitating cognitive flexibility and restructuring, as well as more deliberate, analytical, and focused processing and combining of information” (p. 741). on the contrary, negative factors that affect mood, such as fear and anxiety in learning a new technological tool, can lead to decreased ability to shift attention, limited cognitive categories (cognitive capacity), and reduced cognitive flexibility (ou et al., 2018). that is, when engaging in learning new 384 technological tools, learners’ experience with their task can directly impact cognitive capacity ultimately affecting cognitive flexibility. digital literacy our global society is learning to adapt to rapid technological changes from print to digital information sources which is altering our digital information seeking behavior. as information is presented in many forms across a growing plethora of sources, most learners must be taught how to find, sort, evaluate, integrate, and share digital information for different audiences. while most learners, regardless of age, are competent at navigating the internet for general information, asking them to use the same tool for educational purposes such as analysing, evaluating, and creating with digital information exposes learning barriers. digital literacy continues to be the keystone literacy for learners navigating blended formal and informal learning environments. it was defined by paul glister in 1997 as “the ability to understand and use information in multiple formats from a wide range of sources when it is presented via computers” (glister, 1997, p. 1). since then, the definition has dynamically shifted based on the innovations of the platforms of retrieving, processing and using information (jantijes, 2019). the american library association currently defines digital literacy as “the ability to use information and communication technologies to find, evaluate, create, and communicate information, requiring both cognitive and technical skills” (ala, 2022, para. 1). researchers are beginning to also include social elements in addition to cognitive and technical, such as stordy’s (2015) definition of digital literacy as “the abilities a person or social group draws upon when interacting with digital technologies to derive or produce meaning, and the social, learning and work-related practices that these abilities are applied to” (p. 472). digital literacy is a “much-needed prerequisite for students to excel in a blended learning environment” (tang & chaw 2016; techataweewan & prasertsin 2017; anthonysamy et al., 2020, p. 2394) and imperative for educators and students alike, to be efficient in digital societies (al-qallaf & al-mutairi, 2016). students enjoy focusing on technologies that they are already comfortable using in their personal life and the interactive aspects of digital tools, yet they are not quite sure how they contribute to their learning (duffy & ney, 2015; neier & zayer, 2015; tovin, 2017). nearly 80% of young individuals use the internet only for social activities, but use of technologies for education purposes has been very low (abbas, hussain, & rasool, 2019). colleges and universities are seeing gaps in perceived digital literacy readiness expectations among faculty and students. while students are perceived as engaged with digital technologies and presumed proficient, they lack the digital literacy skills necessary to meet the learning objectives in digital tools equipped learning environments (muresan & gogu, 2013). digital literacy requires both cognitive and technical skills “to make effective use of technology for learning, one needs to have a certain level of digital literacy (tang & chaw, 2016, p. 1). the characteristic of being digitally literate extends beyond digital skills with hardware and software and includes a broader mastery of competencies including cognitive, technical and socioemotional learning in diverse learning environments (ng, 2012). to be considered digitally literate, an individual needs to develop multiple literacies which then shape functional skills, values, attitudes, and 385 behaviors around information discovery, integration, creation, and dissemination (mohammadyari & singh, 2015). digital literacy as a complex skill perceptions of digital literacy are inconsistent due to a wide diversity of definitions and relationships among adjacent literacies. the way we discover, share, and apply information has fundamentally changed as we continue to develop diverse media sources, rely on the abundance and immediacy of information, and practice social filtering (storksdieck, 2016). diverse organisational systems exist throughout the research to establish boundaries for literacies that are directly and adjacently related to digital literacy including but not limited to hague and payton (2011), belshaw (2011), ng (2012), and spires and bartlett (2012). common adjacent literacies include computer and technology, media and new media, and information literacy. digital literacy models can be categorised into two areas, government policies for broad societal change and higher education andragogy and praxis. the theme across digital literacy models is the inclusion of literacies adapted to and generated from digital learning environments at the intersection of critical technical and reasoning skills. while scholars focus on different dimensions of digital literacy, “individual differences in cognitive ability may well explain different types of digital media skills [. . . ] for expressing the technological, social, and cognitive skills required in digital environments” (atoy et al., 2020, p. 1016). while digital literacy is becoming recognised as a central gateway and empowering agent in academia (radovanović et al., 2015). a major barrier to improving digital literacy is the digital divide. access to technology as well as training on digital tools also create a divide of literacy and skills (haythornthwaite & andrews, 2007; radovanović et al., 2013; van dijk, 2005). students as future global citizens will require interaction and training with digital tools to communicate in an efficient and ethical manner. according to atoy et al. (2020), “people with high levels of digital literacy are more active in social affairs; are better able to express their opinions; and are able to search and understand desired information, express, share opinions or thoughts freely, and have a better understanding of those of others” (p. 1016). higher education plays a key role in acquiring the skills necessary for students to be properly integrated into the professional context; however, despite the constant adaptation of new technologies and methods of social interaction across industries and academic disciplines, many higher education institutions have not yet fully embraced digital literacy as a fundamental literacy (caldevilla-domínguez et al., 2021). the guiding motivation for changing the way students learn is that they should be better prepared for college, career, and civic engagement in a pluralistic and democratic society that puts considerable emphasis and trust into the notion of ‘‘informed decision-making’’ by all. to do this, higher education institutions must rethink ways to speed up the quality of learning by fostering digital literacy (abrosimova, 2020). complex information environments the information environment is becoming more complex with the growth of access to information sources, expanding media and technologies, and responses to diverse information presentation strategies (thompson, 2013). the development of increasingly complex information environments reshapes our approach to diverse literacies, going so far as to evolve the initial concept of literacy from a simple ability to read and write to requiring mastery of diverse `skill-based literacies'. digital literacy is evolving from the plethora of new technologies and a wider variety of media and services 386 “showing that, as with literacy itself, these seemingly simple forms of literacy require a wide spectrum of skills, knowledge, understanding and attitudes” (bawden, 2001, p. 226). digital literacy as a threshold concept is troublesome as mastery requires a complex combination of skills through a nonintuitive process, “reveal[ing] the true complexity of the information environment in which students find themselves” (bingham et. al., 2017, p. 438). current learners are the first generation to grow up in a digital world using digital tools primarily for social and collaborating purposes and “in this highly interconnected and technologically rich world, university students need to acquire more skills, adaptability, and flexibility to prepare themselves for the future workplace” (anthonysamy et al., 2020, p. 2394). increasingly complex information environments create the cascading barriers for student learning, as discussed in the next sections. digital tool adoption technology, as the driving force of educational processes, has transformed the teaching–learning landscape and changed the ways students and teachers think, perform, interact and process information (raymundo, 2020, p. 224). digital technologies are pervasive and students are “exposed to a plethora of information, yet they lack the ability to incorporate those in academics” (p. 237) yet failing to gain meaningful and constructive learning experiences that can be acquired with the use of digital tools in conjunction with traditional pedagogies (amin & mirza, 2020). in conjunction with increased use of technologies in learning spaces, a number of challenges with digital tool adoption have emerged. this research has focused on few of them, namely scarcity of time, attitude towards digital tool use, and the dual information technology (it) roles of instructors (with limited institutional support). technology-aware learners in both virtual and physical learning environments demonstrate strong task switching skills but are challenged by scarcity of time. digital tool adoption requires keeping up with constant change, and applying new teaching strategies linked to technology, pedagogy, and instructional plan (kundu & bei, 2021). this forces teachers and students to shift their routines, including concentration, focus, and attention span while learning, and implementing and operating digital technologies. blended learning environments require learners to become proficient in digital literacy but as this is a complex skill, learners often adopt digital tools without considering the time commitment through proper vetting. inadequate preparation can lead to reinforcing established negative or positive attitudes about digital tool adoption. attitude among learners about digital tool use and the desire to modify current teaching and learning practices directly affect the integration and implementation of digital tools in the digital learning environments (wohlfart et al., 2021). the correlation between positive attitude and digital tool adoption is a common theme in the research. a positive attitude among learners fosters an increase in available cognitive capacity, and assists in expanding cognitive flexibility to afford restructuring processes that are deliberate, analytical, and focused (ou et al., 2018). on the contrary, a negative attitude toward digital tool use and adoption hinders the integration process. heterogeneity among the learning population also has impact in terms of divergent attitudes towards digital tool application, understanding, and integration in learning environments (wohlfart et al., 2021). while instructors are aware of the diversity of learners' limitations, few consider these limitations in digital 387 tool adoption. positive attitude towards digital tool use combined with fully functional infrastructure for schools, students, and teachers alike can strengthen digital tool integration (wohlfart et al., 2021). instructors’ are challenged by the use and integration of digital tools that are considerate of the diversity of accessibility among students. further, crisis-induced changes influence instructors to evaluate their role using digital tools for distance learning, and reconsidering and challenging educational norms (lockton & fargason, 2019; wohlfart et al., 2021). instructor and learner support and training are important in influencing technology adoption and to “broaden students' conceptualisations of and approaches to learning” (lai et al., 2012, p. 577). the assistance of associated infrastructure and digital support teams affect the adoption, integration, and acceptance of digital tools. digital fluency while digital technologies are is easily accessed by people everywhere, lthe iterature has long identified the risk of a ‘fluency gap’ due to learners' inability to use the technology fluently (resnick, 2001). digital fluency is defined as the ability to leverage technology to create new knowledge, new challenges, and new problems and to complement these with critical thinking, complex problem solving, and social intelligence to solve the new challenges (wang et al., 2013). therefore, learners must diligently engage in the use of technologies educationally and personally to fully maximise the potential of technologies for education (lai et al., 2012) and close the fluency gap (wang et al., 2010). competency, perceived correlation between technology use and study demands, educational technology resource potentials, and available support in digital tool learning environments influence learners’ use of technology for learning and digital fluency. therefore, digital fluency requires excellent “communication skills, new media literacy, and cognitive load management to address the issues, and concerns we face today and in the future” (peacock, 2020, para. 1). learners need to develop media literacy skills as a component of digital literacy to be prepared for a world that expects them to be digital citizens, which includes the ability to use technology safely, responsibly, critically, productively and civically (takavarasha et al., 2018). media awareness, or media literacy, is a multidimensional critical thinking skill (leaning, 2017; potter, 2010) and is defined as a “movement, designed to help to understand, to produce and negotiate meanings in a culture of images, words and sounds [ ... ] a critical autonomy relationship to all media”. (koltay, 2011, p. 212 ). the cultivation of media literacy is necessary for learners’ communication and navigation in digital environments. learners with higher levels of media literacy are better equipped to analyse media using critical thinking (luo et al., 2022). therefore, new media literacy education enables learners to build media awareness, approach media in a more critical manner while mitigating the negative effects of misinformation in media (al-zou’bi, 2021; luo et al., 2022). as learners become more engaged with media (digital technologies), they take on a “more active construction, creation and sharing in media participation” (luo et al., 2022, p. 2). another component for achieving digital fluency is cognitive load, which refers to the demand of complex tasks, such as navigating digital tools and technology in learning spaces, on working memory (sweller et al., 1998). learners seeking solutions to a learning problem often begin problem solving by analysing surface structures for commonalities and use general means-end problem solving strategies. primary information, knowledge, skills, and processing provides learners surface 388 level problem solving abilities that progressively shift to enhance secondary knowledge and skills for deeper problem-solving (paas & sweller, 2011; sweller, 2021). however, situations that induce high levels of cognitive load, such as deep problem-solving, can impede learning and efficient performance on designated tasks (chen, et al., 2012). the natural information processing system established that learners “acquire novel information, process and store it before retrieving it from storage to govern action that is appropriate for the environment” (sweller, 2020, p. 4). digital fluency is the ability to reformulate knowledge and produce information to express oneself creatively and appropriately in a digital environment (wabg, myers, & sundaram, 2013). the establishment of positive attitudes toward digital tool use and integration increases cognitive capacity and enhances cognitive flexibility among digital learners. learner training, institutional infrastructure, and repetitive mental preparation promotes an increase in cognitive capacity and cognitive flexibility which can lower cognitive load to foster digital fluency (ou et al., 2018; alexopoulou et al., 2020). digital literacy fluency for learners to be successful in today’s increasingly complex information environments, they must master the ability to navigate digital technologies and work toward addressing complex problems. critical thinking, problem solving, and social intelligence are new skills required of future learners. teaching learners to manage cognitive capacity and cognitive flexibility creates opportunity to develop mastery in their domain knowledge and competency as global citizens. however, learners have limited cognitive capacity for navigating, retaining, and developing new knowledge using educational digital tools. at the same time, learners show decreased cognitive flexibility due to reduced efficiency of working memory toward complex tasks and increased complexity of taskswitching. to address the concerns we face today and in the future, educators and students need to develop greater digital fluency to become informed global citizens who can utilise digital educational technologies, navigate within digital learning environments, and display communication competencies. learners are immersed in technologies daily for personal use. interaction with smartphones and personalised virtual assistance technologies, such as alexa and siri, are common practices when seeking digital information. learners of all ages are comfortable and proficient in steering through the internet for basic information. however, learners often lack the skills to utilise the same tool to find, sort, analyse, evaluate, create, and share digital information. learners use technologies for entertainment and social interaction, yet the use of digital tools and proper use of educational technologies is unclear (shopova 2014; anthonysamy et al., 2020; tovin, 2017). as learners blend personal and educational use of digital technologies, the ability to understand and use acquired digital information is necessary (glister, 1997). learners must also understand how both malicious and benevolent information architecture manipulates their behavior in online spaces. disinformation and manipulation through technology architecture can be mitigated through increased digital literacy as a means of cognitive resistance to manipulation (kozyreva et al., 2020). therefore, digital literacy is a prerequisite for learners to efficiently navigate these blended learning environments (techataweewan & prasertsin 2017; anthonysamy et al., 2020). to navigate constantly evolving digital environments, learners must be fluent in digital technologies which is a cumulation of information literacy, technology literacy, media literacy, and digital literacy. 389 the digital world has created a shift in traditional definitions of literacy, prompting “new” forms of literacies to evolve (buschman, 2009). however, “there is no single literacy that is appropriate for all people or for one person over their lifetime and that would not require a constant updating of concepts and competences in accordance with the changing circumstances of the information (digital) environment” (koltay, 2011, p. 219). conclusion this research explored digital literacy as a catalyst for increasing learner’s adaptive cognitive flexibility. this research explored the value of developing digital literacy fluency using digital educational tools. learning environments both online and offline require learners to develop fluency in complex literacy skills. the learners’ relationships among new literacies is dynamic and dependent on the learner’s application and skill level of each literacy in order to create meaning through a combination of literacies. the ability to learn with these complex literacies is complicated by rapid diversification of online information presentation strategies. digital information is not presented in a consistent manner and learners must constantly task their working memory to sort the information and simultaneously work toward mastery of highly related but diverse literacies. mastering multiple literacies is complicated first by complex information architecture and second by the spectrum of individuals’ knowledge and attitudes toward learning and technology. the goals are for the learners to develop beyond surface knowledge into deep knowledge and discover their path through the nonintuitive processes for navigating, selecting, and incorporating new information into new knowledge. digital literacy is a culmination of complex relationships among literacies and complex learning attitudes and environments. learners’ ability to transfer knowledge technically, socially, and cognitively across disciplines and industries using digital literacies is the culmination of skills needed for digital literacy fluency. learners’ ability to transfer personal digital technology use skills to educational practice is often lacking. lifelong learners need to be able to apply, deconstruct, and synthesise new knowledge throughout their lifetimes to become culturally informed and ethical global citizens. future research into cognitive flexibility could establish digital literacy as a core skill for learners in the digital age and provide additional tools for educators to understand how we can increase learning efficiency. the findings highlight the need for future research to develop assessment tools determining the relationship among digital literacy fluency and cognitive flexibility. these studies could develop this research further by exploring how we 1) curate positive attitudes toward technology and digital learning environments; 2) measure cognitive flexibility and adaptability; 3) deep problem solve using digital literacy skills; and, 4) develop a sense of global citizenship. as our learning and working industries continue to evolve and integrate digital technologies, students must overcome learning barriers to become discerning citizens and scholars by bridging learning needs and technology expectations with disciplinary content in order to achieve educational and career success. references abrosimova, g. (2020). digital literacy and digital skills in university study. international journal of higher education, 9(8), 52-58. adam-turner, n., & burnett, d. (2018). leadership perspectives of digital learning and digital literacy adoption. community college enterprise, 24(2), 21-48. 390 alexopoulou, a., batsou, a., & drigas, a. (2020). mobiles and cognition: the associations between mobile technology and cognitive flexibility. international journal of interactive mobile technologies, 14(3), 146-156. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijim.v14i03.11233 al-qallaf, c., & al-mutairi, a. (2016). digital literacy and digital content supports learning: the impact of blogs on teaching english as a foreign language. the electronic library, 34(3), 522-547. https://doi.org/10.1108/el05-2015-0076 american library association. (2022). digital literacy. https://literacy.ala.org/digital-literacy/ amin, h., & mirza, s. (2020). comparative study of knowledge and use of bloom's digital taxonomy by teachers and students in virtual and conventional universities. asian association of open universities journal, 15(2), 223-238. https://doi.org/10.1108/aaouj-01-2020-0005 anthonysamy, l., choo koo, a., & hin hew, s. (2020). self-regulated learning strategies in higher education: fostering digital literacy for sustainable lifelong learning. education and information technologies, 25(4), 2393– 2414. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-020-10201-8 atoy jr, m., garcia, f., cadungog, r., cua, j., mangunay, s., & de guzman, a. b. (2020). linking digital literacy and online information searching strategies of philippine university students: the moderating role of mindfulness. journal of librarianship & information science, 52(4), 1015–1027. http://10.0.4.153/0961000619898213 bawden, d. (2001). information and digital literacies; a review of concepts. journal of documentation, 57(2), 218259 belshaw, d. (2011). what is “digital literacy”? [doctoral dissertation, university of durham]. ethos. bingham, t. j., wirjapranata, j., & bartley, a. (2017). building resilience and resourcefulness: the evolution of an academic and information literacy strategy for first year social work students. information and learning sciences, 118(7/8), 433-446. buschman, j. (2009). information literacy, “new” literacies, and literacy. the library quarterly, 79(1), 95-118). caldevilla-domínguez, d., martínez-sala, a.-m., & barrientos-báez, a. (2021). tourism and ict. bibliometric study on digital literacy in higher education. education sciences, 11(4), 172. cañas, j., quesada, j., antolí, a., & fajardo, i. (2003). cognitive flexibility and adaptability to environmental changes in dynamic complex problem-solving tasks. ergonomics, 46(5), 482-501. chen, f., ruiz, n., choi, e., epps, j., khawaja, m. a., taib, r., yin, b., & wang, y. (2012). multimodal behavior and interaction as indicators of cognitive load. acm transactions on interactive intelligent systems, 2(4), 1-36. https://doi.org/10.1145/2395123.2395127 duffy, k., & ney, j. (2015). exploring the divides among students, educators, and practitioners in the use of digital media as a pedagogical tool. journal of marketing education, 37(2), 104-113. https://doi.org/10.1177/0273475315585826 hague, c., & payton, s. (2011). digital literacy across the curriculum. curriculum & leadership journal, 9(10). http://www.curriculum.edu.au/leader/default.asp?id=33211&issueid=12380 haythornthwaite, c.& andrews, r. (2011). e-learning theory and practice. sage publications. jones, k., & day, j. (1997). discrimination of two aspects of cognitive-social intelligence from academic intelligence. journal of educational psychology, 89(3), 486. koltay, t. (2011). the media and the literacies: media literacy, information literacy, digital literacy. media, culture & society, 33(2), 211-221. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443710393382 kozyreva, a., lewandowsky, s., & hertwig, r. (2020). citizens versus the internet: confronting digital challenges with cognitive tools. psychological science in the public interest, 21(3), 103-156. https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100620946707 391 kundu, a., & bej, t. (2021). covid 19 response: an analysis of teachers’ perception on pedagogical successes and challenges of digital teaching practice during new normal. educational information technology, 26, 6879. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-021-10503-5 lai, c., wang, q., & lei, j. (2012). what factors predict undergraduate students’ use of technology for learning? a case from hong kong. computers & education, 59, 569-579. lockton, m., & fargason, s. (2019). disrupting the status quo: how teachers grapple with reforms that compete with long-standing educational views. journal of educational change, 20(4), 469-494. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10833-019-09351-5 luo, t., lang, s., & kang, s. (2022). new media literacy and news trustworthiness: an application of importance–performance analysis. computers and education, 185(104539), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2022.104529 mattar, j. (2018). constructivism and connectivism in education technology: active, situated, authentic, experiential, and anchored learning. revista iberoamericana de educación a distancia, 21(2), 201-217. mohammadyari, s., & singh, h. (2015). understanding the effect of e-learning on individual performance: the role of digital literacy. computers & education, 82, 11-25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2014.10.025 muresan, m., & gogu, e. (2013). e-learning challenges and provisions. procedia — social and behavioralsciences, 92, 600–605. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.08.7 neier, s., & zayer, l. (2015). students’ perceptions and experiences of social media in higher education. journal of marketing education, 37(3), 133-143. https://doi.org/10.1177/0273475315583748 ng, w. (2012). can we teach digital natives digital literacy? computers and education, 59(3), 1065-1078. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2012.04.016 ou, z., chen, t., li, f., & tang, p. (2018). constructive controversy and creative process engagement: the roles of positive conflict value, cognitive flexibility, and psychological safety. journal of applies social psychology, 48, 101-113. paas, f. & sweller, j. (2011). an evolutionary upgrade of cognitive load theory: using the human motor system and collaboration to support the learning of complex cognitive tasks. educational psychology, 24(1), 27–45. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-011-9179-2 peacock, m. (2020). digital fluency: the finance challenge. fei daily. https://www.financialexecutives.org/feidaily/january-2020/digital-fluency-the-finance-challenge.aspx piskurich, g. (2015). rapid instructional design learning id fast and right (3rd ed.). wiley. pulakos, e., arad, s., donovan, m., & plamondon, k. (2000). adaptability in the workplace: development of a taxonomy of adaptive performance. journal of applied psychology, 85(4), 612-624. https://doi.org/10.1037/00219010.85.4.612 radovanović, d., hogan, b., & lalić, d. (2015). overcoming digital divides in higher education: digital literacy beyond facebook. new media & society, 17(10), 1733-1749. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444815588323 raymundo, m. (2020). fostering creativity through online creative collaborative group projects. asian association of open universities journal, 15(1,) 97-113. scherer, r. (2015). is it time for a new measurement approach? a closer look at the assessment of cognitive adaptability in complex problem solving. frontiers in psychology, 6, 1664. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01664/ shopova, t. (2014). digital literacy of students and its improvement at the university. journal on efficiency and responsibility in education and science, 7(2), 26-32. https://doi.org/10.7160/eriesj.2014.070201 siemens, g. (2017). connectivism. in r. west (ed.), foundations of learning and instructional design technology. https://lidtfoundations.pressbooks.com/chapter/connectivism-a-learning-theory-for-the-digital-age/ 392 spires, h., & bartlett, m. (2012). digital literacies and learning: designing a path forward. friday institute white paper series, 5. https://www.fi.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/media/media/2013/05/digital-literacies-andlearning.pdf spiro, r. & jehng, j. (1990). cognitive flexibility and hypertext: theory and technology for the non-linear and multidimensional traversal of complex subject matter. in d. nix & r. j. spiro (eds.), cognition, education, multimedia: exploring ideas in high technology (pp. 163–205). lawrence erlbaum associates. stordy, p. (2015). taxonomy of literacies. journal of documentation, 71(3), 456-476. https://doiorg.libproxy.library.unt.edu/10.1108/jd-10-2013-0128 storksdieck, m. (2016). critical information literacy as core skill for lifelong stem learning in the 21st century: reflections on the desirability and feasibility for widespread science media education. cultural studies of science education, 11(1), 167-182. sweller, j. (2020). cognitive load theory and educational technology. education technology research development, 68, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-019-09701-3 sweller, j. (2021). the role of evolutionary psychology in our understanding of human cognition: consequences for cognitive load theory and instructional procedures. educational psychology review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-021-09647-0 sweller, j., van merrienboer, j., & paas, f. (1998). cognitive architecture and instructional design. educational psychology review, 10(3), 251-296. takavarasha, s., cilliers, l., & chinyamurindi, w. (2018). navigating the unbeaten track from digital literacy to digital citizenship: a case of university students in south africa’s eastern cape province. reading & writing, 9(1), a187. https://doi.org/10.4102/rw.v9i1.187 tang, c., & chaw, l. (2016). digital literacy: a prerequisite for effective learning in a blended learning environment? the electronic journal of e-learning, 14, 54–65. techataweewan, w., & prasertsin, u. (2017). development of digital literacy indicators for thai undergraduate students using mixed-method research. kasetsart journal of social sciences, 39(2), 215-221. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.kjss.2017.07.001 vandenbos, g. (2007). american psychological association dictionary of psychology. apa. van dijk, j. (2005). the deepening divide: inequality in the information society. sage publications. vygotsky, l. s. (1978). mind in society: the development of higher psychological processes. harvard university press. wang, q., myers, m., & sundaram, d. (2013). digital natives and digital immigrants: towards a model of digital fluency. business & information systems engineering, 5(6), 409-419. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12599-013-0296-y wang, r., wiesemes, r., & gibbons, c. (2010). developing digital fluency through ubiquitous mobile devices: findings from a small-scale study. computers & education, 58(1), 570-578. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2011.04.013 wohlfart, o., trumler, t., & wagner, i. (2021). the unique effects of covid-19—a qualitative study of the factors that influence teachers' acceptance and usage of digital tools. education and information technologies, 26(6), 7359–7379. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-021-10574-4 authors: amy caton is an associate instructional professor in liberal studies at texas a&m university and a phd student in learning technologies at the university of north texas. her research interests are in critical digital literacies for student success in higher education, equitable access to open information systems and architecture, and innovative learning technology for improving global citizenship. email: amysmith6@my.unt.edu 393 danita bradshaw-ward is a biology instructor at dallas college and a phd student in learning technologies at the university of north texas. her research interests are digital tool and technology-based learning design, application, and evaluation specifically aimed at stem and biology education. her work explores learning barriers for underrepresented populations aiming to improve stem success in higher education. email: danitabradshaw-ward@my.unt.edu kinshuk is the dean of the college of information and professor in learning technologies at the university of north texas. his work has been dedicated to advancing research on the innovative paradigms, architectures and implementations of online and distance learning systems for individualised and adaptive learning in increasingly global environments. email: kinshuk@ieee.org wilhelmina savenye is an emeritus professor of learning design and technology at arizona state university. she is also a senior education advisor for the nsf-funded engineering research center for bio-mediated and bioinspired geotechnics (cbbg), and associate graduate faculty of learning technologies at the university of north texas. her research interests are design and evaluation of learning environments, including those involving online and digital learning, informal learning, stem, and technology-integrated instruction. email: wilhelmina.savenye@unt.ed cite this paper as: caton, a., bradshaw-ward, d., kinshuk, & savenye, w. (2022). future directions for digital literacy fluency using cognitive flexibility research: a review of selected digital literacy paradigms and theoretical frameworks. journal of learning for development, 9(3), 381-393. creed continuity education in emergency and conflict situations: the case for using open, distance and flexible learning charlotte creed and roslyn louise morpeth vol. 1, no. 3 abstract emergency and conflict in countries such as syria, the philippines, sri lanka  and afghanistan have made us more aware of the long-term serial disruption and psychosocial damage faced by people caught up in emergency and conflict areas.  open, distance and flexible learning (odfl) has sometimes been employed in these regions to maintain a degree of continuity in education. for the most part, however, this role has been ad hoc, short-term, and often bearing limited relation to the psychosocial and educational needs of the displaced or traumatised populations it serves. but could odfl play a more planned, significant and relevant role in emergency and conflict regions and if so, how?  this paper will address this core question.  we identify particular aspects of odfl programmes, which are especially useful in reaching and extending basic and secondary education to hard-to-reach children and those in emergency and conflict contexts. through a specific case study of the recent conflict in sri lanka, we show how odfl is currently being used for these groups and to what effect. we argue that by building on proven achievements and integrating odfl more systematically into the existing national planning for conflict and emergency zones, it could play a significant and cost-effective role in these regions and also, more widely, in facilitating links between the non-formal and formal sectors and improving the quality of provision. introduction the complexities of education in emergency situations emergency situations, whether due to conflict, natural disaster, health epidemic or economic fallout, have, unsurprisingly, a direct impact on access to education. it is only relatively recently, however, that we have gained a deeper, more nuanced understanding of the complexities of that impact and what is needed to respond effectively and with sustainable results.  for example, a recent report to the un human rights council, coomaraswamy (2010) described the realities children face in refugee camps in sudan, chad and dr congo: the first thing one notices is that they are dangerous, in the sense that you always meet children who have been victims of sexual violence when they went to get firewood or went to the toilet etc so they are dangerous places. secondly, they are places of idleness. there are situations where children are recruited into armed forces and therefore many have been recruited by one group or another. a first step towards making things safer for displaced children would be a guarantee that all children are offered at least some regular education to keep them away from the militias, and to give them some skills, for the time when they can restart their lives again. in some regions, however, schools, students and teachers can be actual targets: last november, men on motorbikes used water pistols to squirt acid in girls’ faces as they walked to school on the outskirts of kandahar. more than a dozen girls and several teachers at the mirwais school for girls had acid thrown in their faces and one was so badly disfigured that she had to go abroad for treatment. the attacks caused such distress and fear that many parents kept their girls home for several weeks but most have since returned to the school, vowing not to be intimidated’. (starkey, 2009) displacement of people – whether in emergency or conflict situation – is usually serial, has a disproportionate effect on the most vulnerable communities and can extend beyond national boundaries. for example, among the many people affected in the monsoon flooding in pakistan, were 45,000 afghan refugees forced by the floods to flee from their refugee camps and without the identification cards needed for registration with the pakistani relief organisations. responses, educational or otherwise, must take into account both immediate needs but also longer-term interventions and systems for recovery and reconstruction. this can be difficult to achieve because many international ngos and donors tend to exit when the immediate impacts of an emergency have been stabilized. the shortfall in aid to pakistan and syria has reminded us too that donors prefer to fund countries that have both a good track record and good systems in place to disburse funds and to monitor spending. the international network for education in emergencies (inee) also warns us that ‘depending on the nature of design and implementation education has the potential to perpetuate or entrench dynamics of fragility’ (inee, 2013).   emergency situations can exclude large numbers of children and others from receiving any form of education.  according to recent estimates, (save the children, 2010, unesco ,2013) there are thirty-nine million school-age children (out of the estimated seventy-two million not in school) who live in conflict-affected areas and fragile states. one in three children in these areas do not attend school compared to one in eleven children in other low -income countries.  the figure is higher in some countries:  in liberia, 73% of primary-aged children are out of school; 81% in somalia and 80% in afghanistan’s uruzgan, helmand and badges provinces. the barriers are highest for the poorest and most disadvantaged children: girls, children from minority ethnic groups, disabled children and those living in remote rural areas that have little or no chance at all of going to school. the role of education in emergencies the vital role of education as a response to emergencies has been recognized with the establishment of the inter-agency network for education in emergencies (inee) a global network of around 1,400 individual and organisational members who work together within a humanitarian and development minimum standards framework to ensure the right to education in emergencies and post-crisis reconstruction: education is not only a right, but in situations of emergencies, chronic crises and early reconstruction, it provides physical, psychosocial and cognitive protection, which can be both life saving and life-sustaining. education sustains life by offering safe spaces for learning, as well as the ability to identify and provide support for affected individuals – particularly children and adolescents. education mitigates the psychosocial impact of conflict and disasters by giving a sense of normalcy, stability, structure and hope for the future during a time of crisis, and provides essential building blocks for future economic stability…. it can also save lives by protecting against exploitation and harm, including abduction, recruitment of children into armed groups and sexual and gender-based violence. lastly, education provides the knowledge and skills to survive in a crisis through the dissemination of lifesaving information about landmine safety, hiv/aids prevention, conflict resolution and peace building (inee, 2004:5) what can odfl offer? in this paper we are making the case that, with political will and careful advance planning, odfl could play a significant role in conflict and disaster areas. for example, teachers and radio broadcasters with training for emergency situations could develop banks of ready-made educational resources which could be deployed at different stages of emergencies to provide children with immediate educational continuity, whether informal or formal. these could take the form of, for example, open-source resources mapped against the national curriculum (for both students or teachers) and ready-made radio programmes (for early childhood care and education, psycho-social, family or child-to-child approaches, edutainment and more structured educational programmes with accompanying print materials). given the right policy and infrastructural framework, odfl can demonstrably support five areas in education but could be more widely deployed for educational provision in conflict and disaster areas in an integrated, coordinated, comprehensive and planned way. open learning: five broad different purposes     purpose examples accessing education 1 para-formal and alternative schooling systems open schools community schools alternative life-skills-based basic education 2 supporting successful transition to and performance in formal schools early childhood care and education [ecce] feeder or bridge schools continuity schooling accelerated learning (al) supporting education 3 raising the quality of formal and non-formal school by providing ready-made educational resources structured learning materials schools radio and tv broadcasting interactive radio instruction 4 training, networking and resources for intermediaries (e.g. teachers, broadcasters, mentors, planners) teacher training and professional development by distance education e-networks for teachers, educational broadcasters, planners self-study manuals for teachers, educational broadcasters and planners open source educational resources 5 communication for development (c4d) strategies campaigning programmes focused on children’s needs – school readiness, health, nutrition advocacy edutainment – broadcasting soaps with campaigning messages source: unicef, 2009: 16 displacement and odfl’s role in continuity education and equivalency displacement, whether internally (idps) or externally (edps), is the most significant cause of educational discontinuity and lack of access to certification in emergency contexts. this has a serious long-term impact on the life chances of those affected and odfl could play a significant role in addressing this. fieldwork evidence from sri lanka in our report (unicef, 2009a) is revealing about the complex nature of displacement: movement within a conflict area; movement from a conflict area to a camp or resettlement area; return home after the immediate emergency; relocation to another camp or resettlement area, and repeated displacement from the new area, for numerous reasons. many experiences of disruption and displacement are not single events, but a number of random forced migrations, which may display no coherent pattern of movement, may consist of temporary stops each lasting only a few weeks, and might altogether last for months, years or even decades. a series of short-term accommodations of displacement meant that children lost up to a year or more of any kind of schooling. even when families were settled in particular idp camps, (and ‘being settled’ would be something that only became apparent after a certain amount of time had elapsed), schooling was fragmented, with children first in school in the camp (being taught typically by a mixture of qualified and volunteer teachers) and then taking classes using the premises of local schools after the local children had finished for the day. by this stage many of the children found it difficult to resume their schooling and were stigmatised as a group. where resettlement and a movement back to the home village has taken place, there was evidence that only a proportion of children have returned to their original school: in our field study examples of both primary and secondary schools the proportion was between 40% and 80%. attendance at all of the schools we visited was also low, in some cases with more than 20% of the children not in school on the day of the visit. it seems likely as well that the serial disruption to these children’s education and the consequent sheer amount of school missed is an important factor in subsequent non-attendance even if they are officially considered back in school. kirk (2009) makes the point that a lack of education and certification for refugee or displaced children, youth and adults denies them a sense of identity – either continuity with the mother country or belonging to the host country – as well as access to other services and resources of the state. as funding for education usually drops after the initial emergency, formal recognition and identification of certification possibilities need to be built into the initial response to an emergency situation. for the longer term, kirk (2009) argues, donor support and ministries of education should, encourage national curriculum, assessment, certification and validation development within regional and international frameworks, which support cross-border equivalency, interoperability and mutual recognition and validation. the quality assurance needed to provide the security for registration, exam papers, marking, etc. is demanding but necessary particularly where accreditation and certification is provided in asylum countries. this requires strong coordination and collaboration. (kirk, 2009:114) it just so happens that these facilitative mechanisms – increasingly called flexible learning strategies already exist in the form of large-scale special schooling systems (with independent routes to recognised equivalent achievement and transition) and initiatives supporting transition to (and performance within formal or parallel) schooling systems, albeit not widely used in emergency contexts at the moment but which nevertheless could provide strategies for addressing access and certification challenges in emergency situations rapidly and at scale (see tables 1 and 2 below).  all have been successful in providing education to out-of-school-children (oosc) and youth, which include learners in conflict and emergency zones. no one case provides a single solution but they provide a body of established work and commonalties from which to learn: flexible approaches and delivery which can adapt to the needs and life circumstances of excluded children and young people close partnership between government and ngos which allows for the creativity and community-based approach of ngos within an overriding government framework and supportive government legislation equivalency of accreditation ease of transition between alternative and regular education provision potential for accelerated curriculum and also a curriculum which allows children and young people to gain educational skills alongside more functional learning community-based approach, recruiting teachers from the community and training them to work holistically supporting social as well as educational aspects of children’s lives and also facilitating change in community attitudes. table 1. initiatives supporting transition to and performance within formal or parallel schooling systems strategy governance delivery examples early childhood care and education programs (ecce) promoting school readiness among disadvantaged children. large-scale government-led initiatives, some in partnership with ngos; small targeted ngo crèche-type projects. pre-primary schools located near or in compounds of government or registered non-government primary schools, radio broadcasting, crèche-type projects the equal access initiative, nepal brac pre-primary schools (bpps), bangladesh project why, india second chance bridging programs preparing oosc for transition to formal schooling government or ngo-led programs, largeor small-scale initiatives residential schools in urban and rural areas with high numbers of working children, child marriages mv foundation, india sarva shiksha abhiyan (saa), india rosc, bangladesh community projects linking to equivalent exam systems moe-led initiatives via network of ngo-led community initiatives ngos working with specific groups, accredited by open schools with independent route to equivalency exams butterflies, india the flexible junior secondary certificate, bangladesh integration of non-formal schools into the formal infrastructure and exams ngo-led community schools, or go and ngo and un partnerships initially, then  taken over by governance by moe rural and urban community schools supported by apex organization initially cope, afghanistan community primary school program, bhutan pace-a, afghanistan child-seeking outreach programs of elite schools bridging oosc into orbit of formal and recognized schools elite fee-paying schools subsidizing compound schooling and/or dual or external enrolment with local government primary school outreach school within the compound of a fee-paying school with access to formal exams; dual/external enrolment with examination board st agnes loreto day school, india continuity schooling for children of seasonal migrant workers local government schools + worksite ngo partnerships four-dimensional model strengthening local government schools + seasonal hostels in villages, worksite schools/centers, and summer accelerated bridge course in villages. janarth, setu and sankalp, india special strategies for idps, edps and refugees moe, ngos, un agencies facilitation of cross-border examinations, distance learning, host country school access, refugee educators, camp schools, broadcasting. nios, india (distance learning) school-in-a-box, bee communication hub, the recreation kit, unicef table 2. special schooling systems strategy governance delivery examples open schools moe initiated, in various organizational structures (e.g. parastatal, university) with authority to provide nationally-recognized qualifications centrally or via network of accredited ngos government rural and urban clcs and accredited ngos, all supported by apex organization (resources, teacher support, accreditation) running on demand education. transition to formal education potential. national institute of open schooling, india open school, sri lanka bangladesh open school namibian college of open learning community-based schools ngo mainly but can include moe partnerships. state recognition and potential for transition at secondary level rural and urban community schools supported by apex organization brac, bangladesh adep, afghanistan cope, afghanistan equivalence programs moe centrally-produced curriculum resources equivalent to formal + route to national equivalence exams government clcs, islamic boarding schools, religious and social organizations or community organizations, all supported by apex organization. transition to formal education potential alternative learning system, philippines packet a, b and c, indonesia rural small-school development and reform moe or moe + local ngo partnerships a multi-grade educational model for small rural schools or substitution of locally-trained teachers for absentee professional teacher escuela nueva, colombia shiksha karmi project, india the lok jumbish project (ljp), india integrated general and vocational (igve) schools moe recognized ngos with funding from bilateral agencies, ingos, world bank + employers local clusters of four integrated general and vocational schools + one technical school. sitting government exams and linking technical education with mainstream underprivileged children’s educational program (ucep), bangladesh apex organisations for special schooling systems the national institute for open schooling (nios) in india offers basic, secondary and vocational education to its own students but also operates as a parastatal invested with the power to act as an external examination board on a national scale up to pre-degree level. one of its roles is as an apex organisation with the remit to be an accrediting agency for other state open schools and ngo providers, enabling them access to recognised certification, to cherry-pick from their good quality, ready-made materials and to benefit from advice, staff development and training in how to create their own materials. it also allows for opportunities for cross-border education for displaced or expatriate indiana through, for example, its study centres in kuwait, nepal and uae. large-scale schooling systems like nios and brac in bangladesh have the potential to provide a life-cycle approach to provision so that learners have progression routes through levels and between different providers, as well as access to recognised formal or equivalent qualifications. they also take advantage of the principles of technology (e.g., specialization division of labour, economies of scale and ict) to operate at scale and widen access to high quality education at low cost. they could provide a mechanism for each of the identified strategies for addressing identified certification challenges in table 3 below. table 3: strategies for addressing certification challenges for refugees and idps   strategy populations actors case study examples 1 facilitation of cross-border examinations for idp and refugee students (may include working with regional examination bodies) returnees, refugees, idps moes, ngos, un agencies, teachers south sudan/uganda, afghanistan/pakistan, guinea/liberia, guinea/sierra leone, ingushetia/chechnya, drc congo/congo 2 facilitation of host country school access and examinations for refugee students refugees, idps moes, teachers, un agencies, ngos, donors liberia/sierra leone, liberia/ghana, somalia/kenya, eritrea/ethiopia, myanmar/thailand 3 development of distance learning alternatives refugees ngos, universities sudan/chad, myanmar/thailand 4 support for refugee educators in the development of local certification boards refugees un and ngos, refugee teachers and educators inter-regional examinations board in tanzania 5 policy development for returning refugees and idps and for local integration returnees, ‘locally integrating former refugees’ moe, ngos, un agencies southern sudan, afghanistan, burundi, liberia 6 advocacy and technical support for development of international and regional conventions refugees, idps un agencies, moes latin america four examples of odfl interventions: from a sri lankan case study school in a box the most well-known education resource for allocation in an emergency situation is the teacher’s emergency pack, the ‘school in a box’. the school in a box has been used extensively in sri lanka, post-tsunami, and has been regularly deployed in its conflict situations. on the day of the field visit to trincomalee, for example, the plan was to send out 19 schools in a box to augment other resources in three temporary learning centres (tlcs) being set up to accommodate 1 500 students. as a basic piece of kit, it has wide application in that it can be used in any teaching and learning situation and across all age groups. it provides the basic necessities for setting up a classroom and is designed to cover the first 72 hours of any emergency situation. but it does not of itself provide teaching and learning: this also necessitates, among much else, curriculum materials and teachers. school in a box is designed to be used with a ‘locally developed teaching guide and curriculum’ which means resourcing at a much more localised level than is required to provide the quite generic equipment in school in a box. providing appropriate local curriculum materials, say, in local languages, also necessitates a high degree of forward planning, both in terms of the logistics of getting the right materials to the right places, and in the longer-term, the resourcing and the development of the materials. home school programme this is a programme being developed by the ministry of education and the national institute of education (nie) to support children in conflict-affected areas in situations where security issues mean that they cannot attend school. the home-school modules are designed to provide learning for children in grades 1–5 (though similar modules for children in lower secondary school are under discussion). the aim of the programme is to ‘enable children to continue to follow the school curriculum and to attain the required level of learning achievement despite being unable to attend school on a daily basis’. the fact that they are being developed by nie, the institute responsible for the development of all curriculum materials in the formal system of education, ensures that the modules follow the national curriculum for these grade levels. the modules cover mathematics and first language sinhalese and tamil, each with its own booklet of materials. the idea of the likely learning situation is that children would be allocated to a group of children who live close to one another and would gather in the home of one of the group. the person leading the learning, a ‘mediator’ would be a parent or young adult who has had a secondary education and so would be able to support the children working on the modules. there would be a teacher; a ‘facilitator’ rotating among the various groups offering help and guidance. catch up education (cue) the cue programmes are the responsibility of zonal education authorities and provincial education authorities and development partners like unicef and save the children provide significant financial support and technical assistance. cue is designed to support a wide variety of children, including those who are not attending school as well as those who are in school but who require support to reach the required levels of their peers. a typical cue class is a multigrade class run separately to others in the school, either during school hours or outside them, and conducted by specially trained teachers (or volunteers) adopting group-based and child-centred teaching methods. for children caught up in the conflict but have been resettled in schools, catch-up is seen as providing a final return to normalcy, a ‘getting back on track’. however, it is acknowledged that to date there has been little analysis of the effects on children of their participation in these classes, nor whether in fact they do reintegrate successfully back into the formal system. where children are in catch-up classes during school time, they are, of necessity missing out on the classes being taken by their peers. the open school the open school in sri lanka was inaugurated in 2005 and began its programmes in 2007, with significant continued funding from the german development partner, gtz. it offers courses, which have equivalency in terms of end-of-year accreditation, to grades 6–11 in the formal system. because it has so recently come into existence, (and just as the home-school programme above) it is still in the process of developing materials, particularly in tamil and particularly at the higher levels. for this reason at least, it would not necessarily be entirely straightforward in practice for an open school ‘graduate’ to bridge the gap from completing level 3 (the equivalent of completing year 11) and successfully take ‘o’ level examinations and supplementary materials are being developed by open school for that purpose. the open school has so far been targeted at several kinds of marginalised groups of young people. those include moslem children who have been brought up in fundamentalist communities and attend religious schools which do not recognise the formal system of schooling; children of veddah communities (groups which are said to be indigenous to sri lanka and which predate the sinhalese and tamil communities), children of plantation workers, young people and adults in prisonand in correctional centres, and young people and adults who have been caught up in the armed conflict in the north and east.  the present number and geographic spread of regional centres (and students) is limited. but both the ministry of education and the department of open school are enthusiastic about scaling up the initiative, particularly by establishing centres in the conflict-affected areas of the country. nevertheless of the 13 centres currently open, only the three centres in puttalam are catering to large numbers of idps, although there are current plans to raise awareness of the open school in the conflict-affected areas in the trincomalee district. evidence of the acceptability of the open school in sri lanka is limited by its relatively recent introduction, the relatively small number of current centres and dependence on donor funding. however, it is providing education, which has currency within the formal system and can issue end-of-year certificates for the government grades 6–11 to students who have completed its courses. and although the open school nationally is catering to relatively few students at the moment compared with an estimated need, the centre in puttalam for example is attracting large numbers of new students. the success in puttalam of the open school, with 11 sub-centres opening and hundreds of students on waiting lists, suggests that the open school in sri lanka could achieve more widespread acceptability given the right conditions. sri lanka emergency educational provision: building for the future with the decades-long conflict apparently over, there are real opportunities for sri lanka to address the needs of the thousands of children and young people who have been affected by the conflict. however, challenges persist.  there are signs that the large amounts of funding which poured into sri lanka after the 2004 tsunami are now drying up. save the children in sri lanka, for example, announced significant cutbacks in operations and staff in 2009. this is a reminder that the work of international development partners is often at the mercy of decisions made thousands of miles from the places they affect. the overall plan must be to further develop the skills and expertise of sri lankans to meet the needs of children affected by conflict. the need to build local capacity was something highlighted in many of the discussions with sri lankans, and especially those who are tamil-speaking. in terms of the specifics of this conflict, there are serious political conversations needed to address matters such as the chronic shortage of tamil-speakers in key areas such as the development and writing of curriculum materials. the shortage of teachers in the conflict-affected areas in idp camps and temporary learning centres where volunteers are drafted in to fill the gaps, and in resettlement schools where tamil-speaking maths, science and english teachers are in chronically short supply, is an issue to be urgently addressed with government. it appears to be the case that government priorities for new educational interventions firmly enshrine the formal system, and its improvement, as the primary site for the achievement of education for all, with non-mainstream options only for exceptional cases, for whom the formal system is proven to be inappropriate. but the formal school model, with its fixed schedules and five-to-seven year cycle, age-related enrolments and grades, and its teacher-delivered standard national curriculum, can present a barrier in itself. children in difficult circumstances need provision, which is flexible enough to respond to their needs, and the context in which they live, but which also leads to recognized educational achievement and further educational opportunities. while emergencies can and do increase vulnerability, there are views and experience that disasters can sometimes offer opportunities for longer-term change in terms of equality and quality of provision. a major reason for highlighting the work of the open school is that they are in-country organisations, which, as such, are able to formulate long-term policies that are owned by the citizens of sri lanka. there is a clear potential in the open school, and in continued partnerships with other organisations, to meet the complex needs of those affected by conflict. one necessity might be to help the open school to lower its age requirement and develop materials for a younger age group, because, although it has primary-age students, these are outside its official age-remit. conclusions the picture that emerges from our discussions and case study can be summarised in four main points: educational responses need to be based on an expanded vision of access to basic education and on a careful analysis of specific access issues from a deep understanding of a national and local context. significant progress in providing education in emergency contexts to children and others is only likely to be made through abandoning ad hoc provisions for more strategic planning, one which considers ways of introducing flexibility and a diversity of provision, approaches and providers. as poverty is a cross-cutting issue among displaced groups, any responses necessarily need to be multi-dimensional and multi-sectoral and address issues such as psychosocial aspects, health and nutritional support, proactive child-seeking practices, birth registration, stipends and so on. a key area in planning is likely to be the need for enabling frameworks and infrastructures for policy and accreditation, which can build constructive links between formal and non-formal provision and allow for successful transitions between them. the need for research in this paper we have been making the case for raising the profile of odfl as a planned strategic response to providing continuity education in emergency and conflict situations. but underlying the policy gap is a data gap stemming from the need for: strengthening the monitoring and profiling of learners affected by emergency and conflict zones strengthening the monitoring of existing learning activities, e.g., far more documentation of field experience on the value and impact of existing odfl approaches to education in the prevention of, response to, and recovery from natural disasters and complex emergencies. monitoring transitions (or non-transitions) of learners back into mainstream or non-formal education and the degree of articulation between the formal and non-formal sectors. rigorous tools and methodologies to measure the value and impact of these odfl approaches and to establish the intellectual, academic and research foundations of the field and support its professionalization  and capacity to produce and be informed by sound research. the synthesis of existing research and evidence about odfl interventions in emergency and natural disaster areas to highlight and cross reference topics and themes and identify research priorities and knowledge. the inee’s ‘academic space’, and the networks coordinated and inter-agency approach, would be a natural site for this platform. in-depth country studies reviewing the existing educational policy, planning, provision and providers for conflict and emergency zones in close consultation with the key players and organisations involved, and determine whether and in what ways odfl could make a useful, possibly significant, contribution to providing continuity education in these areas. fast deployment, mother-tongue resources, access to accreditation and cross-border education and certification are likely to emerge as key issues. open learning may already be in use in these zones and another strand to the research would be to determine whether any economies of scale, effort and costs can be made in terms of pre-preparedness through a more coordinated use of open learning. in-depth country studies examining the potential for national frameworks/safety nets for continuity education in war and disaster zones which might include an open framework for accreditation and a common framework of learning outcomes, quality criteria, assessment identifying the teacher education needs for specialist provision in conflict and disaster zones coda:  odfl for emergency contexts is not new the use of open and distance learning to maintain continuity of education is not new, for example, the   namibian education project (later called the namibian extension unit), set up in zambia in the 1980s for political refugees from namibia and angola at the height of the struggle for independence. the project provided formal education at a distance as well as adult basic education in health and other areas. many of these refugees became the future leaders of namibia in the 1990s when independence was achieved and the leaders returned home. the extension unit was reorganised with donor support to provide traditional formal education through distance learning and established a strong tradition of distance learning from secondary level to degree level in namibia today. there are similar examples from south africa where the south african extension unit worked through the solomon mahlangu freedom college in tanzania, with support from unhcr to provide education for the members of the exiled african national congress and other refugees.  open schools are not a new concept. more than fifty years ago, canada, australia and new zealand all had government-run educational programmes which offered courses from kindergarten to grade 12 through what we would now call distance education. australia's school of the air, which used radio to reach children on the remote farms in the outback, captured the imagination of the world. these programmes were designed for particular groups, such as the children living on scattered sheep farms or in families responsible for lighthouses. they also served students in small towns whose schools could not offer specialized courses for want of qualified teachers. these open schools also served in times of crisis. when new zealand had to shut down its whole school system because of epidemics of measles in 1985, 1991 and 1997, all the children in the country studied for a period of weeks through the correspondence school. the largest open school outside the commonwealth, france's centre national d'enseignement à distance (cned) was created to serve the thousands of french children who were evacuated from the cities at the outbreak of world war ii. these early open schools were successful. at the primary school level, their parents using high quality learning materials tutored pupils. at the secondary level, students were usually highly motivated learners taking the courses to satisfy requirements needed for admission to specific programmes of advanced study. acknowledgements the authors would like to acknowledge the contribution to this paper of our colleagues, dr jane cullen, dr elspeth page and janet raynor, who worked  with us for cdec on  the research and writing of the unicef report  ‘open and distance learning  for basic  education in south asia’ ( see reference below unicef 2009). the case study of sri lanka is based on fieldwork by jane cullen and elspeth page in march 2009, and additional research and writing by jane cullen in may 2009. we would also like to offer our appreciation to susan durston, who in her post of unicef regional education adviser, south asia region, initiated the research into the potential of open and distance learning to meet the needs of the most hard to reach, including children caught in emergency and conflict situations. key agencies and background reading for education in emergency and conflict zones international network for education in emergencies (inee) http://www.ineesite.org international rescue committee, http://www.rescue.org save the children, http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/sites/default/files/docs/education_in_emergencies_policy_brief_1.pdf unesco,  http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/themes/post-conflict-and-post-disaster-responses/education-in-emergencies/ &  http://www.alp-edu.net/ & http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0018/001833/183363e.pdf unicef, http://www.unicef.org/eapro/activities_3836.html & http://www.unicef.org/education/bege_61685.html war child, www.warchild.org.uk references coomaraswamy, r. (2010). un warns of refugee camp dangers to children bbc. bbc online news 15.9.10, available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11307679 (accessed on 15.9.10) creed, c., & morpeth, r. (in press). review of daniel, j. mega-schools, technology and teachers: achieving education for all. open learning: the journal of open and distance learning. routledge. daniel, j. (2009). mega-schools, technology and teachers: achieving education for all. oxford: routledge. inee. (2004). minimum standards for education in emergencies, chronic crises and early reconstruction: a handbook. geneva: inter-agency for education in emergencies. kirk, j. (ed.). (2009). certification counts: recognizing the learning attainments of displaced and refugee students. paris: iiep. save the children. (2010). the future is now. london: save the children alliance. available at http://www.savethechildren.net/alliance/media/newsdesk/2010-05-11.html (accessed 15.9.10) starkey, j. (2009, may 13). girls target in taliban gas attack. the independent newspaper. available at http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/girls-targeted-in-taliban-gas-attack-1684028.html (accessed 15.9.10) unesco. (2013). flexible learning strategies for out-of-school children and youth. bangkok: unesco http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0022/002230/223023e.pdf unicef. (2009a). open and distance learning for basic education in south asia: its potential for hard-to-reach children and children in conflict and disaster areas. kathmandu: unicef rosa. http://www.unicef.org/rosa/odl_report_(final_version)___10_dec_09.pdf (accessed 20.10.13) unicef. (2009b). open and distance learning for basic education in south asia: its potential for hard-to-reach children and children in conflict and disaster areas, country reports. kathmandu: unicef rosa. http://www.unicef.org/rosa/odl_country_report_(final_version)___10_dec_09.pdf (accessed 20.10.13) charlotte creed works at the open school trust, national extension college, cambridge, england. e-mail: charlotte.creed@o2.co.uk roslyn louise morpeth is the chief executive of national extension college, cambridge, england. e-mail: ros.morpeth@nec.ac.uk microsoft word hanief.docx issn: 2311-1550 2021, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 568-581 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. factors inhibiting sports lecturer’s publication productivity in international journals yulingga nanda hanief1, aridhotul haqiyah2, mashuri eko winarno1, budiman agung pratama3 and albadi sinulingga4 1universitas negeri malang 2universitas islam 45 bekasi 3universitas nusantara pgri kediri 4universitas negeri medan abstract: scientific publication is an essential part of research dissemination, irrespective of the productivity effects on lecturers' careers. therefore, this study aims to determine the internal and external factors inhibiting the productivity of sports lecturers' publication in international journals. this is qualitative descriptive research with a survey method and questionnaire used to collect data from 74 sports lecturers in indonesia by using google form. the data were further analysed to reduce the number of the original variables using the factor analysis method with the validity tests includes kmo (kaiser meyer olkin), bartlett, and msa (measure of sampling adequacy) used for reliability. the results showed that the sports lecturer’s writing ability and cost are responsible for inhibiting publications' productivity in international journals as opposed to gender analysis. the majority had limited time to write because most of their activities were carried out in the field. grants offered by both the government and universities are expected to be absorbed to support the sports lecturers' publication activities in indonesia. further studies need to be carried out by analysing the college type, academic position, and age as considerations for stakeholders to take strategic steps to overcome publication challenges. keywords: inhibitors, publications, lectures, sports. introduction scientific writing is one of the essential ways used to disseminate research, evaluate academic performance, and analyse lecturers' career development (abbott et al, 2010; chang et al, 2017; lippi & mattiuzzi, 2017). according to the indonesian ministry of research, technology and higher education (kemenristekdikti, 2016), it explicitly regulates the academic atmosphere in which publications' needs are a priority for lecturers. an increase in the publications leads to a rise in productivity. bowman & kinnan (2018) stated that citations indicate the authority of the academic expertise in a particular field. research becomes barren without publication, which tends to affect academics’ career and funds acquisition (curzon & cleaton-jones, 2012; duracinsky et al, 2017). in writing scientific articles, the materials need to be adequately prepared and analysed to avoid being rejected for journal publication (maiorana & mayer, 2018). scientific articles are a combination of a comprehensive literature search, statistical data collection, and clear and concise structured writing 569 while avoiding common mistakes (maiorana & mayer, 2018). therefore, adequate knowledge and implementation of basic article writing rules, structure, and scientific papers’ presentation are needed to increase chances for successful publication (maiorana & mayer, 2018). academic institutions are increasingly interested in determining and ranking research productivity methods (wilkes et al, 2015). lecturers as authors provide productive insight on their profession in terms of development opportunities, investments in knowledge, and approaches to advanced practices (mckellar & currie, 2015). however, it is ideal to note that publication productivity or quantity differs from quality. the science and technology index (sinta) is a web-based information system used to rapidly, efficiently, and comprehensively evaluate research, institutions, and journals’ performance in indonesia (kemenristekbrin, 2018). sinta displays the lecturers' publication history (author profiles) from various databases, including google scholar, web of science (wos), scopus, intellectual property right (ipr), books, and networking. furthermore, it displays authors’ publication quartile and type in scopus, and determines whether the articles are proceedings or scientific journals. since 2011, sinta has recorded and displayed publications’ history in indonesia with benchmarks and analysis used to identify institutions' rights to elaborative partnerships and an expert’s directory. according to 2015-2019 data obtained from sinta, 925 lecturers from 24 state and 74 private universities produced 19 document publications in an international journal, and 17 in scopus indexed proceedings (hanief et al, 2020). the criteria used to determine international articles are web of science-indexed journals or scopus with an impact factor (if) from the thomson reuters or scimago journal rank (sjr). this is also confirmed by data from kemenristekdikti (2016), showing that authors write many publications produced by authors from indonesia in the fields of science, technology, health and medicine, such as engineering (15.14%), medicine (10.64%), computer science (10.2%), agriculture and biological sciences (9.57%), and physics and astronomy (5.39%), while publications in the field of social sciences, which include applied linguistics and language education (4.74%), and in the field of arts and humanities — only (0.91%). this means that very few indonesian academics in the social sciences and humanities have succeeded in publishing their articles in international journals compared to other fields. some relevant research shows that three main factors have hindered the lecturers in indonesia from submitting their articles to international journals, namely a lack of self-confidence in the quality of their research and articles, experiencing difficulties in preparing a paper in english, and there is no adequate reward for those who successfully publish in journals internationally (arsyad et al, 2019). meanwhile, in malaysia, the external inhibitors to doctoral candidates’ publication at several universities in malaysia are limited funds, translator and proofread service fees, response time by reviewers, discouraging review results, and difficulty in working with co-authors. internal factors are: limited english language ability, inadequate writing time and ability, and restrictions associated with sending the manuscripts (habibi et al, 2019). furthermore, from a diazepam survey on 1191 researchers working at ap-hp (assistance publique – hôpitaux de paris), almost all had difficulty in publication (duracinsky et al, 2017). approximately 79% stated that they had limited time to write a script, while 40% had inadequate english language skills. according to the psychology study programme of uin sunan kalijaga, 20 lecturers and students stated that they experienced lots of inhibitors in making a publication, with the main factor being poor technology (julianto, 2019). in 570 recent years, the vietnamese government has also attempted to encourage publication by its academic staff, however, tran et al (2020), in their study, state that factors related to policies, factors related to ability, and factors related to networks are the inhibiting factors for publication productivity in vietnam. the option of open access is also a consideration for writers to publish their work in a journal. the consideration is that some open access journals impose publication costs on the author, while those that do not apply open access can be reached free of publication fees but the manuscript queue is very long. one interesting fact is that some publications with open access have a disincentive in the form of fees (warlick & vaughan, 2007), so the authors consider publishing their work in journals that do not apply for open access. several previous studies have mentioned several factors inhibiting scientific publication in each country (habibi et al, 2019; tran et al, 2020; warlick & vaughan, 2007). this study seeks to determine the inhibiting factors for scientific publication focused on sports in indonesia, especially research aimed at lecturers in departments of physical education, health, and recreation in indonesia. researchers attempt to investigate inhibiting factors that are both internal and external. the subjects involved are those who have published articles in international journals. this research is important due to its ability to determine the factors hindering publications' productivity of sports lecturers in indonesia. identifying these factors can ensure that stakeholders, as well as the directorate general of higher education and culture ministry of indonesia, can implement policies in an effort to promote sports lecturers' publication. this study aims to determine the factors that inhibit sports lecturers’ publications productivity in indonesia. in this study, researchers investigated the internal and external inhibiting factors. interestingly, not a few lecturers are good trainers at regional, provincial, national, and even international level competitions. however, it is important to academically determine the factors that make them less productive when they become coaches. besides subjects at the national level, this research also uses factor analysis as a differentiator from previous studies to explore the publication's inhibiting factors. however, this study reduces many original variables to new numbers called a factor or latent. based on the above explanation, this study aims to determine the factors inhibiting the sports lecturer publications' productivity in international journals. methods research design to reach our research objectives and answer our research questions, this study uses mixed methods, simple quantitative methods, and with an emphasis on following simple qualitative methods, as indicated by creswell (2009). simple quantitative methods are used to determine the level of agreement or disagreement among the studied subjects related to certain statements. for example, the higher the percentage of the population who voted 'strongly agree', the higher the support for that statement. a simple qualitative method was carried out by conducting interviews with 5% of all participants, selected randomly. participants the sampling procedure was conducted by inviting participants who work as sports lecturers from various universities to participate in this study, especially for lecturers who have difficulty publishing and have a history of having their articles rejected by international journals. ninety-six participants 571 from both state and private universities in indonesia accepted the invitation to be involved in this study. out of the 96, 74 were further analysed with these criteria: 1) have never published articles in international journals (indexed scopus in quartile 1 to 4 or indexed by web of science in core collection ssci / scie), and 2) are sports lecturers. the research related to human use complied with all the relevant national regulations and institutional policies, followed the tenets of the declaration of helsinki, and was approved by the committee for ethical health research of universitas nusantara pgri, kediri, indonesia with the number 054/lppm unp kd/ec/v/2020. all subjects were required to fill in and sign informed consents when they decided to participate in this study. instrument data were obtained using a questionnaire, compiling the literature, as well as conducting face-to-face and telephone interviews with three experts. the three experts are scientific publication experts — as indicated by their history of many publications in international journals — the head of the scientific publication centre from one university, and two collaborative research experts. the question grid referred to the objective of knowing the internal and external inhibiting factors. the number of questions was 14. the questionnaire was tested for validity with sig. < 0.05 for all questions, with a cronbach's alpha value of 0.902, used to examine its reliability. table 1: question instrument grid of factors inhibiting sports lecturer’s publication productivity in international journals no. measured aspects indicator question number question type 1. internal factors 1. language ability / mastery 2. limitations in writing good articles 3. ability / mastery of research procedures and techniques 4. age 5. lack of motivation 1-5 positive 2. external factors 1. limited publication costs 2. limited access to journals relevant to articles 3. collaboration network limitations 4. incredible teaching load 5. limited reference sources that support the article 6. limitations in adapting to the template style 7. limitations in the submission process on the journal website 8. the article was submitted to an international journal but was rejected 9. was busy taking care of the family 6-14 positive 572 data collection this research was carried out during the covid-19 pandemic with the application of large-scale social restrictions. therefore, areas in the red zone were prohibited from holding meetings that involved many people. the research subjects, comprising 96 participants, were invited to attend an online meeting using the zoom cloud application on may 16, 2020. they were asked to fill out the questionnaire based on their experience using google forms. the questionnaire's estimated completion time was less than five minutes, and no compensation was offered to the participants. the factor analysis results in the first stage involved 14 items. we tested the validity of the question items using aiken’s validity coefficient. three raters were involved in the content assessment. the validity test can be seen in table 2. table 2: validity test results item rater s1 s2 s3 σs v category i ii iii item 1-14 64 58 37 50 44 23 117 0.696 medium the results of the calculation of the validity test using aiken’s coefficient of 14 items obtained values of 0.696, so that the 14 items were declared valid and could be used as research instruments. data analysis only complete questionnaires were submitted and analysed. factor analysis was used to explain the relationship between several independent changes to determine the dominant factor. hypothesis testing in this study was to determine the correlation coefficient for each predictor, the y regression equation for each predictor variable, and the y regression equation for all predictor variables simultaneously with multiple correlation coefficients. calculations in hypothesis testing used kaisermeyer-olkin and barlett's test of sphericity, the anti-image correlation test, total variance explained test, communalities, component matrix, and component score coefficient matrix. data were processed with the help of spss 23 software. the results of the interviews were analysed qualitatively. this aims to find the main reasons regarding the factors inhibiting the productivity of publications in international journals. reasons that are often presented with logical explanations are indicators of the main reasons. the analysis carried out included three stages. first, tagging data based on recurring themes. second, count recurring themes. third, interpret from the analysis of the first and second stages. the analysis was carried out to synchronise the findings on the quantitative analysis, which was fundamentally supported by the open comments of the respondents. results and discussion results factor analysis in this study is used to factor together a set of variables that are deemed worthy of analysis. the measurement sub-variables were determined long before the analysis was carried out. the analysis used was the r factor — to see the correlation between the sub-variables, after obtaining the value of the r factor. then data reduction is carried out to produce a new variable that includes several other variables. the variables which are the dominant determinants of the factors inhibiting 573 will be tested to see whether all of them are important variables, or only part of it deserves to be analyzed and grouped into the main factors. factor analysis i table 3 shows the kaiser-meyer-olkin (kmo) and barlett test used to determine the 14 factor items. the kmo and bartlett's test output results show that the kaiser-meyer-olkin measure of sampling adequacy value is 0.820 and the sig. = 0.000 < 0.05. this shows that the set of variables in this study is significant and can be further processed. table 3: kmo and bartlett's test results analysis of factors inhibiting the sports lecturers publication kaiser-meyer-olkin measure of sampling adequacy. .820 bartlett's test of sphericity approx. chi-square 729.954 df 91 sig. .000 furthermore, the data will be processed by looking at the partial correlation between the two variables, while still including all variables. this detection is done by looking at the anti image correlation, which produces a measure of sampling adequacy (msa) value between 0 and 1. if msa = 1, the variable can be predicted without error by other variables, if msa > 0.5, the variable can still be predicted and can be analysed further, and if the msa < 0.5, then the variable must be eliminated and cannot be further analysed or excluded from the other set of variables. the partial correlation magnitude between variables is determined by analyzing the anti-image correlation, as shown in table 4. the result produces an msa value above 0.5, therefore, variables are predictable and were analysed further. this means that all these variables can be tested further using the extraction process with the principal component analysis method, which results in the value of communalities (table 5). table 4: measure of sampling adequacy (msa) value variables anti-image correlation value english ability 0.796 publication cost 0.799 limited writing ability 0.770 limited access to journals relevant to the article 0.716 the lack of collaboration networks 0.812 excess teaching burden 0.871 limitations in determining references relevant to the article 0.874 limitations in adjusting articles with templates 0.861 difficulties in submitting articles 0.814 articles rejected by the editor 0.804 limited time due to busy schedules with family 0.871 the limited ability/mastery of research procedures and techniques 0.809 age 0.891 motivation 0.745 574 table 5: communalities result variables initial extraction english ability 1 0.830 publication cost 1 0.671 limited writing ability 1 0.901 limited access to journals relevant to the article 1 0.448 the lack of collaboration networks 1 0.652 excess teaching burden 1 0.666 limitations in determining references relevant to the article 1 0.628 limitations in adjusting articles with templates 1 0.662 difficulties in submitting articles 1 0.538 articles rejected by the editor 1 0.582 limited time due to busy schedules with family 1 0.342 the limited ability/mastery of research procedures and techniques 1 0.798 age 1 0.707 motivation 1 0.477 from table 5 it can be seen that the highest extraction value is the limited writing ability sub-variable, with a value of 0.901 or 90.1%, and the lowest extraction value is limited time due to busy schedules with family, with a value of 0.342 or 34.2%. then to find out the contribution of each variable to each component, it is necessary to carry out a rotation process that produces a component matrix. furthermore, to determine how many possible factors can be formed, is shown in table 6. table 6: total variance explained component initial eigenvalues total % of variance cumulative % english ability 6.944 49.603 49.603 publication cost 1.958 13.987 63.589 limited writing ability .988 7.061 70.650 limited access to journals relevant to the article .786 5.613 76.263 the lack of collaboration networks .691 4.936 81.199 excess teaching burden .541 3.863 85.062 limitations in determining references relevant to the article .453 3.235 88.298 limitations in adjusting articles with templates .421 3.007 91.305 difficulties in submitting articles .364 2.602 93.907 articles rejected by the editor .298 2.131 96.038 limitation time due to busy family schedules .205 1.465 97.503 the limited ability/mastery of research procedures and techniques .153 1.095 98.598 age .141 1.005 99.603 motivation .056 .397 100.000 table 6 shows the total variance with two factors formed from 14 variables. the first and second are initial eigenvalues with values of 6,944 (49.603%), and 1,958 (13.987%), respectively. the following screen plot picture (figure 1) also shows the component numbers formed with initial eigenvalues above 1. 575 figure 1: screen plot for two factors formed in component numbers 1 and 2 therefore, to determine each variable's contribution, it is necessary to carry out a rotation process that produces a component matrix. table 7: component matrices variables component 1 2 english ability .668 .620 publication cost .684 -.451 limited writing ability .793 .522 limited access to journals relevant to the article .518 -.424 the lack of collaboration networks .700 -.403 excess teaching burden .782 -.232 limitations in determining references relevant to the article .667 .429 limitations in adjusting articles with templates .806 -.112 difficulties in submitting articles .728 -.095 articles rejected by the editor .743 -.173 limited time limitation due to busy family schedules .569 -.134 the limited ability/mastery of research procedures and techniques .764 .463 age .827 .150 motivation -.516 .460 table 7 shows the component matrix of the relationship of each variable to the factors to be formed. variable 1 has a correlation value of 0.668 and 0.620 in factors 1 and 2. 576 table 8: rotated component matrix no. variables component 1 2 1. english ability .060 .909 2. publication cost .807 .142 3. limited writing ability .217 .924 4. limited access to journals relevant to the article .668 .047 5. the lack of collaboration networks .785 .187 6. excess teaching burden .728 .369 7. limitations in determining references relevant to the article .190 .770 8. limitations in adjusting articles with templates .662 .472 9. difficulties in submitting articles .594 .431 10. articles rejected by the editor .659 .385 11. limited time due to busy family schedules .506 .293 12. the limited ability/mastery of research procedures and techniques .237 .861 13. age .498 .677 14. motivation -.690 -.020 table 8, which consists of the rotated component matrix results, confirms the variables classified as factors 1 or 2. the correlation value of item 1, with factor 1 and 2 are 0.060, 0.909, respectively. item 1 is included in factor 2 because the correlation value is higher, with the remaining variables adjusted in accordance with the magnitude. therefore, variables included in factor 1 are items 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 14 because the correlation value is higher than factor 2, while the variables included in factor 2 are items 1, 3, 7, 12, and 13 because the correlation value is higher than factor 1. factors with more than one variable combination are named using the surrogate approach by determining those that represent these factors. this selection of these variables is based on the highest loading factor or with a new name that represents the characteristics of these variable combinations. in factor 1, item 2 is the highest loading factor with the inability to write articles properly according to international journal criteria, while in factor 2, item 3 is the highest loading factor, which is publication cost is an inhibitor. table 9: the relationship gender with several item variables no. variables chi-square value sig. 1. english ability 3.359 0.339 2. publication cost 1.812 0.612 3. limited writing ability 2.416 0.491 4. limited access to journals relevant to the article 1.476 0.688 5. the lack of collaboration networks 1.243 0.743 6. excess teaching burden 1.969 0.741 7. limitations in determining references relevant to the article 6.837 0.145 8. limitations in adjusting articles with templates 1.240 0.744 9. difficulties in submitting articles 0.860 0.835 10. articles are rejected by the editor 2.837 0.585 11. limited time due to busy family schedule 0.279 0.964 12. the limited ability/mastery of research procedures and techniques 3.555 0.470 13. age 5.362 0.252 14. motivation 4.707 3.19 a chi-square test was carried out to determine the correlation between factors and gender. table 9 shows that the chi-square test results have a sig. value above 0.05 for all factors, which means that they are not correlated with gender. 577 discussion this study aims to determine the factors that inhibit sports lecturer publication productivity in indonesia. the findings show that there are two main factors in inhibiting sport lecturers from writing articles, namely, internal and external factors. the first factor is related to issues such as publication cost, limited access to journals relevant to the article, lack of collaboration networks, excess teaching burden, limitations in adjusting articles with templates, difficulties in submitting articles, articles rejected by the editor, limited time due to busy family schedules, and motivation. the second factor is related to issues such as english ability, limited writing ability, limitations in determining references relevant to the article, the limited ability/mastery of research procedures and techniques, and age. the ability to write scientific articles is one of the obstacles to publishing in international journals. this finding is in line with a previous study carried out by habibi et al (2019), which stated that postgraduate students at malaysian universities also experience issues regarding the writing ability factor. poorly written articles cast doubts on the results interpreted by the study on scientific value (maiorana & mayer, 2018). julianto (2019) also stated that one of the factors inhibiting the publication of lecturers and students is issues pertaining to the ability to write. the main reasons for rejection are: 1) inappropriate, incomplete, and poorly explained statistics, 2) overly interpreted results, 3) incorrect population or instruments, 4) small and non-representative samples, and 5) text that is not properly written or is difficult to understand (bordage, 2001; pierson, 2004). according to maiorana & mayer (2018), surgeons' writing difficulty is caused by various factors, such as inadequate writing time because most of them spend most of their time in practice and consultation. sports lecturers in indonesia experience a similar situation because they spend extensive time teaching and carrying out studies. most lecturers also spend time channeling hobbies, such as playing tennis, badminton, and futsal, with computers only used for administrative purposes. some of the sports coaches at organisations are lecturers, therefore, most of their time is spent in field activities such as teaching and training. under these conditions, time limitations become part of the inhibiting factors for writing (duracinsky et al, 2017; habibi et al, 2019; scherer et al, 2015; walker, roberts, & gill, 2019). in this study, the collaboration network was the second inhibiting factor due to its importance in promoting research. a study in pre-hospital emergency care concluded that decision-makers' collaboration benefits are significant (johnson et al, 2017). walker et al (2019) stated that 97% of respondents agreed that collaboration is important in promoting research due to its ability to enable researchers to exchange knowledge. therefore, government needs to promote research activities which encourage researchers to work collaboratively, both in science and other fields. studies conducted by düking et al, (2018) attempted to integrate sensors in competitive sports to maximise the athletes’ role, which is inseparable from collaboration across disciplines. another finding was that the highest loading attribute in factor 2 is publication costs, which is undeniably becoming the latest trend for publication in journals. this funding factor caused journals to develop rapidly since the launch of open access (oa) in 2000 (pinfield, salter, & bath, 2016; solomon & björk, 2016). this finding was also corroborated by habibi et al (2019) who stated that a lack of funds is one of the inhibiting factors of publication for phd students at three malaysian universities. publication costs make it difficult to increase the number (duracinsky et al, 2017; scherer et al, 2015) and over the last decade, the budget has grown, with an increase in the number of oa 578 journals that allow free access to readers but not to the authors (boumil & salem, 2014; tzarnas & tzarnas, 2015). one of the reasons why cost is a publication inhibitor is due to the increase in the number of publications expected and the need for quality in all these publications (tzarnas & tzarnas, 2015). the second factor was mastering language ability, which was found to be the most inhibiting by several researchers (berendt et al, 2017; duracinsky et al, 2017; habibi et al, 2019). this is because english, one of the significant requirements for articles published in many journals, is not a native language; therefore, writing is difficult (maiorana & mayer, 2018). despite the numerous available native language speakers who can provide translation and editing services, it is expensive using their services (habibi et al, 2019). duracinsky et al (2017) and scherer et al (2015) also confirmed that limited english language skill is one of the main publication obstacles. chi-square test results showed no correlation between all factors and gender, therefore, it is concluded that gender is not an inhibiting factor. however, several other studies stated that women show increased publications at the faculties of academic urology (mayer et al, 2017) and radiation oncology (holliday et al, 2014). however, in early 2006, men published nearly twice as many articles in accredited journals than women (prozesky, 2006). career guidance that leads to publicity makes women more productive than men in some contexts. research limitations the use of google form prevents respondents from filling out the online questionnaire multiple times. furthermore, this study was carried out for a short time with limited budget (cunningham et al, 2015; fan & yan, 2010). the research was also limited due to poor internet access because the subjects studied came from various regions spread throughout indonesia with various types of network providers. conclusion the study showed that the main inhibiting factors for the publication of articles in international journals by sports lecturers in indonesia are insufficient writing ability and publication costs. the majority had limited time to write because most of their activities were carried out in the field. grants offered by both the government and universities are expected to be absorbed to support the sports lecturers' publication activities in indonesia. furthermore, the universities need to promote and encourage them to take part in scientific article writing training organised by both the universities and the government. references abbott, a., cyranoski, d., jones, n., maher, b., schiermeier, q., & van noorden, r. (2010). metrics: do metrics matter? nature news, 465(7300), 860-862. https://doi.org/10.1038/465860a arsyad, s., purwo, b. k., sukamto, k. e., & adnan, z. (2019). factors hindering indonesian lecturers from publishing articles in reputable international journals. journal on english as a foreign language, 9(1), 42-70. https://doi.org/10.23971/jefl.v9i1.982 berendt, l., petersen, l. g., bach, k. f., poulsen, h. e., & dalhoff, k. (2017). barriers towards the publication of academic drug trials. follow-up of trials approved by the danish medicines agency. plos one, 12(5), e0172581. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0172581 579 bordage, g. (2001). reasons reviewers reject and accept manuscripts: the strengths and weaknesses in medical education reports. academic medicine, 76(9), 889-896. https://doi.org/10.1097/00001888-200109000-00010 boumil, m. m., & salem, d. n. (2014). in... and out: open access publishing in scientific journals. quality management in healthcare, 23(3), 133-137. https://doi.org/10.1097/qmh.0000000000000035 bowman, d., & kinnan, s. (2018). creating effective titles for your scientific publications. videogie, 3(9), 260. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016%2fj.vgie.2018.07.009 chang, h.-t., lin, m.-h., hwang, i.-h., chen, t.-j., lin, h.-c., hou, m.-c., & hwang, s.-j. (2017). scientific publications in gastroenterology and hepatology in taiwan: an analysis of web of science from 1993 to 2013. journal of the chinese medical association, 80(2), 80-85. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcma.2016.06.006 creswell, j. w. (2009). mapping the field of mixed methods research. sage publications. cunningham, c. t., quan, h., hemmelgarn, b., noseworthy, t., beck, c. a., dixon, e., samuel, s., ghali, w. a., sykes, l. l., & jetté, n. (2015). exploring physician specialist response rates to web-based surveys. bmc medical research methodology, 15(1), 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-015-0016-z curzon, m. e. j., & cleaton-jones, p. e. (2012). writing scientific papers for publication: “without publication research is sterile.” european archives of paediatric dentistry, 13(1), 4-10. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf03262834 düking, p., stammel, c., sperlich, b., sutehall, s., muniz-pardos, b., lima, g., kilduff, l., keramitsoglou, i., li, g., & pigozzi, f. (2018). necessary steps to accelerate the integration of wearable sensors into recreation and competitive sports. current sports medicine reports, 17(6), 178-182. https://doi.org/10.1249/jsr.0000000000000495 duracinsky, m., lalanne, c., rous, l., dara, a. f., baudoin, l., pellet, c., descamps, a., peretz, f., & chassany, o. (2017). barriers to publishing in biomedical journals perceived by a sample of french researchers: results of the diazepam study. bmc medical research methodology, 17(1), 1-10. https://dx.doi.org/10.1186%2fs12874-017-0371-z fan, w., & yan, z. (2010). factors affecting response rates of the web survey: a systematic review. computers in human behavior, 26(2), 132-139. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1016/j.chb.2009.10.015 habibi, a., sofwan, m., yaakob, m. f. m., & mukminin, a. (2019). barriers to publication: stories of ph. d. students from malaysian universities. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libphilprac/3567/ hanief, y. n., firmansyah, g., gazali, n., ramadan, g., bangun, s. y., & winarno, m. e. (2020). produktivitas publikasi dosen pendidikan jasmani di indonesia: suatu kajian pada sinta dari 2015-2019 [spreadsheet]. retrieved from: http://repository.unpkediri.ac.id/192/ holliday, e. b., jagsi, r., wilson, l. d., choi, m., thomas jr, c. r., & fuller, c. d. (2014). gender differences in publication productivity, academic position, career duration and funding among us academic radiation oncology faculty. academic medicine: journal of the association of american medical colleges, 89(5), 767–773. https://doi.org/10.1097/acm.0000000000000229 johnson, m., o’hara, r., hirst, e., weyman, a., turner, j., mason, s., quinn, t., shewan, j., & siriwardena, a. n. (2017). multiple triangulation and collaborative research using qualitative methods to explore decision making in pre-hospital emergency care. bmc medical research methodology, 17(1), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-017-0290-z julianto, v. (2019). faktor-faktor penghambat meningkatnya kemampuan publikasi di program studi psikologi uin sunan kalijaga yogyakarta. jurnal psikologi integratif, 6(2), 131-140. https://doi.org/10.14421/jpsi.v6i2.1525 kemenristekbrin. (2018). sinta (science and technology index). http://sinta.ristekbrin.go.id/ 580 kemenristekdikti. (2016). kekuatan 50 institusi ilmiah indonesia: profil publikasi ilmiah terindeks scopus. direktorat pengelolaan kekayaan intelektual, direktorat jenderal penguatan riset dan pengembangan kemristekdikti indonesia. lippi, g., & mattiuzzi, c. (2017). scientist impact factor (sif): a new metric for improving scientists’ evaluation? annals of translational medicine, 5(15), 303. https://doi.org/10.21037/atm.2017.06.24 maiorana, f. a., & mayer, h. f. (2018). how to avoid common errors in writing scientific manuscripts. european journal of plastic surgery, 41(5), 489-494. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00238-018-1418-z mayer, e. n., lenherr, s. m., hanson, h. a., jessop, t. c., & lowrance, w. t. (2017). gender differences in publication productivity among academic urologists in the united states. urology, 103, 39-46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.urology.2016.12.064 mckellar, c., & currie, g. (2015). publication productivity in the medical radiation sciences. journal of medical imaging and radiation sciences, 46(3), s52–s60. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmir.2015.06.013 pierson, d. j. (2004). the top 10 reasons why manuscripts are not accepted for publication. respiratory care, 49(10), 1246–1252. https://europepmc.org/article/med/15447812 pinfield, s., salter, j., & bath, p. a. (2016). the “total cost of publication” in a hybrid open-access environment: institutional approaches to funding journal article-processing charges in combination with subscriptions. journal of the association for information science and technology, 67(7), 1751-1766. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.23446 prozesky, h. (2006). gender differences in the journal publication productivity of south african academic authors. south african review of sociology, 37(2), 87-112. https://doi.org/10.1080/21528586.2006.10419149 scherer, r. w., ugarte-gil, c., schmucker, c., & meerpohl, j. j. (2015). authors report lack of time as main reason for unpublished research presented at biomedical conferences: a systematic review. journal of clinical epidemiology, 68(7), 803-810. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2015.01.027 solomon, d., & björk, b.-c. (2016). article processing charges for open access publication—the situation for research intensive universities in the usa and canada. peerj, 4, e2264. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27547569 tran, t., trinh, t.-p.-t., le, c.-m., hoang, l.-k., & pham, h.-h. (2020). research as a base for sustainable development of universities: using the delphi method to explore factors affecting international publishing among vietnamese academic staff. sustainability, 12(8), p. 3449. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12083449 tzarnas, s., & tzarnas, c. d. (2015). publish or perish, and pay—the new paradigm of open-access journals. journal of surgical education, 72(2), 283-285. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsurg.2014.09.006 walker, e. s., roberts, r. a., & gill, j. h. (2019). collaboration, competition and publication in toxicology: views of british toxicology society members. toxicology research, 8(4), 480-488. https://doi.org/10.1039/c9tx00063a warlick, s. e., & vaughan, k. (2007). factors influencing publication choice: why faculty choose open access. biomedical digital libraries, 4(1), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1186/1742-5581-4-1 wilkes, f. a., akram, h., hyam, j. a., kitchen, n. d., hariz, m. i., & zrinzo, l. (2015). publication productivity of neurosurgeons in great britain and ireland. journal of neurosurgery, 122(4), 948-954. https://doi.org/10.3171/2014. 11.jns14856 authors: yulingga nanda hanief is a lecturer at the department of sports coaching education, faculty of sports science, state university of malang, indonesia. his research interests are publication analysis and athlete performance analysis. apart from being a researcher in sports, he is also the editor of several sports journals, especially the managing editor of the indonesian educational sports journal (jopi) published by the ministry of youth and sports, republic of indonesia. email: yulingga.hanief.fik@um.ac.id 581 aridhotul haqiyah is a lecturer at the health and recreation physical education study programme, faculty of teacher training and education, universitas islam 45 bekasi, indonesia. she conducts research and produces publications related to sports education, especially the sport of pencak silat, including reference books on pencak silat (2019), statistics in education and sports (2021), sport psychometric interests (2018), sports management (2019), strong against corona (2020), and disruption of sports learning strategies (2020). email: aridhotulhaqiyah@yahoo.com professor mashuri eko winarno is a lecturer at the department of sports education, faculty of sports science, state university of malang, indonesia. he is a professor in the field of sports evaluation, who conducts research and publishes. email: winarno_eko@yahoo.com dr. budiman agung pratama is a lecturer at the master of sports teacher training programme, postgraduate programme, universitas nusantara pgri kediri, indonesia. his research interests in motor skill fundamentals and traditional sports. email: agung10@unpkediri.ac.id albadi sinulingga is a lecturer at the department of sports coaching education, state university of medan, indonesia. apart from teaching, he also researches in the fields of sports evaluation and sports management. email: albadifatherpspa@gmail.com cite this paper as: hanief, y. n., haqiyah, a. winarno, m. e., pratama, b. a., & sinulingga, a. (2021). factors inhibiting sports lecturer’s publication productivity in international journals. journal of learning for development, 8(3), 568-581. microsoft word stutchbury.docx issn: 2311-1550 2021, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 10-26 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. what prevents teacher educators from accessing professional development oer and mooc? storytelling and professional identity in ugandan teacher colleges alison buckler,1 kris stutchbury,1 george kasule,2 jane cullen1 and doris kaije2 1open university, uk 2kyambogo university, uganda abstract: tutors working in colleges of education in sub-saharan africa are responsible for teaching, and inspiring hundreds of thousands of aspiring teachers. yet they have received little attention in the literature, often being depicted as a conservative cohort of professionals, unprepared for their role, yet resistant to change. this study reports on how 39 tutors from eight colleges in uganda see their professional role and their responsibilities, and if professional development oer will have any impact on their professional role. the research adopted a storytelling approach. tutors were supported in developing a (true) story about their work that they felt would give previously untold insight into their profession. the stories were analysed through a professional identity lens. the group emerged as agentive and caring, committed to developing as teacher educators but with a highly individual approach to their work. the nuanced understanding of tutor professional identity facilitated insights into why professional development oer aimed at this group did not have the intended impact. keywords: teacher professional development, oer, storytelling, professional identity. introduction … by seeking help i became equipped, skilled and enlightened (norah, cg1) like most stories generated during a storytelling research project with ugandan teacher educators, norah’s focuses on professional learning. norah narrates a trajectory for this learning which is replicated across the stories: a lack of skills or knowledge becoming visible through self-reflection and rectified through self-direction, a movement from embarrassment or shame to achievement and pride. in this paper, we unpack this trajectory within the contexts of education shifts in uganda, and the attempted integration of a professional development open educational resource (oer) designed to support teacher educators to develop their practice in line with the changing national agenda. we draw on data from a research collaboration between the open university, uk and kyambogo university, uganda. the study was initiated to understand the impact of oer resources developed by the tessa (teacher education in sub-saharan africa) programme1 on tutors’ practices, and in particular a recently-launched mooc (massive open online course). however, despite examples of impact identified through the mooc’s monitoring and evaluation activities, the preliminary stages of the research suggested that uptake in the primary teacher colleges (ptcs) was limited; none of the 11 tutors participating in the research were aware of the mooc; and only a minority had heard of tessa more generally. as these tutors worked in colleges where senior staff had participated in workshops to introduce the tessa resources and the mooc, this was unexpected. the research focus shifted to better understand attitudes to professional learning and mechanisms for knowledge sharing, and how these might explain the lack of demand for this sort of professional development. educational outcomes for children in uganda remain low (moes, 2016). teachers are reported to struggle with the pedagogical skills and subject knowledge necessary to deliver the curriculum, with tensions between expectations for teaching and structural, cultural and financial school contexts (bold et al, 2017; bannink et al, 2019). ptcs produce around 7,000 primary teachers each year (kyeyune, 2011), so the implication is that changes are needed in these institutions — yet little is known about the professional lives of teacher educators (also referred to as tutors) in these and similar contexts. much of the limited literature available depicts a conservative cohort of professionals, unprepared for their role, who feel under-valued in the tertiary education hierarchy and who are resistant to change (o’sullivan, 2010). this study aimed to move beyond this persistent characterisation. the research adopted a storytelling approach where tutors were asked to share and write a story about their experiences as a tutor that gave insight into their profession. the stories were then analysed to respond to the following questions: 1. what factors contribute to the professional identity of college tutors in uganda? 2. in developing their identity as a tutor, what is important to them? 3. how does tutors’ professional identity influence engagement with professional development activities? a book containing all of the stories is available online2. in this paper we draw on excerpts to illustrate professional identity. it offers a specifically ugandan lens to build on the work of murphy and wolfenden (2013), stutchbury (2019) and buckler (2019) — all of whom have emphasised the need for more professional dialogue between tutors to support their learning and professional identity development in contexts of policy change. in addition, by using an innovative storytelling methodology it provides deeper insights into tutors’ professional lives and how professional learning might be accommodated and supported through — but not exclusively through — oer. context a starting point for this paper is that the work of the thousands of teacher educators working in colleges and universities across the sub-saharan africa (ssa) region is both under-represented and under-conceptualised. in a global review of 137 papers about teacher education (lunenberg et al, 2014), only two were from the 46 countries that make up ssa3. the key messages from the limited literature are that teacher educators are inappropriately recruited, under-qualified, discontented with their status, over-burdened and unsupported (see ballantyne, 1999; robinson, 2003; baiyelo & oke, 2015; o’sullivan, 2010). they are positioned as experts within institutions (akyeampong, 2017; stutchbury, 2019; murphy & wolfenden, 2013), but also often depicted as inadequate and responsible for many of the failings at school level (see obanya, 2015; ogunyemi & agbatogun, 2015; pryor et al, 12 2012). in addition, much of the literature fails to recognise teacher educators as learners and takes very little account of what they need to learn, for what purpose and how this learning might come about. this matters because policy aspirations across ssa are asking for new approaches to teaching (moes, 2012; moge, 2013). if teachers are expected to change, then teacher educators need to change as well. teacher education is complicated because student-teachers will learn as much from what is done as from what is said: it is important, therefore, that teacher education models the sort of pedagogy being promoted (cochran-smith, 2003). the ugandan thematic curriculum for schools, introduced in 2006, aims to more effectively engage learners through dialogic teaching approaches (altinyelken, 2010). at this time, the minimum qualification for tutors in uganda was upgraded from a diploma to a bachelors’ degree. the government also introduced an additional qualification — certificate of teacher education proficiency (ctep) — but less than half of the 900 tutors who took the course passed the examinations (kyeyune, 2011). o’sullivan (2010) reports that ctep — even for tutors who passed — did not support pedagogic change. following the introduction of the thematic curriculum, the government of uganda asked for educators to develop the skills and attitudes needed to be able to engage with technology to support teaching, and stated their intention to provide the necessary training (altinyelken, 2010). kyomuhendo and kasule (2017) emphasise the cultural importance given to tutor professional knowledge in uganda, an emphasis reinforced in high-status international assessments of educators in ugandan settings (wane & martin, 2016). uganda continues to direct national and international funds towards teacher education. a ministry of education report highlighted four major investments, including £4m for the development of the 45 ptcs (moes, 2017). this report also noted a key challenge in uganda: the “over glorification of university education” and the “negative perception of vocational-skills training” (p. 10). teacher education at ptcs sits uneasily between the two. the tessa oer were designed to provide professional development for teacher educators to support new curricula across africa. they model learner-centred pedagogy (schweisfurth, 2013) and focus on issues highlighted by teacher educator colleagues from across africa in project-related workshops, for example, active learning and teaching, and ict integration. the mooc consolidated the oer into a discrete course for tutors. evidence from mooc evaluation surveys and case studies suggests that participation can fulfil its intended aspirations and provide tools to help teacher educators develop expertise in new pedagogies (stutchbury et al, 2019). uptake of the mooc in uganda was relatively low, especially given its promotion at a workshop which included senior representatives from every ptc and national teacher college (ntc). [there were 308 registered users in uganda between november 2017 and june 2019, compared to nigeria (1293), kenya (958) and ghana (621)]. there is a tendency when interventions are not implemented to put this down to “barriers” (schweisfurth, 2011). checkland et al (2007) found that non-implementation of policy in the field of health was an emergent property of underlying realities and could be modified if these realities were addressed. ‘barriers’ therefore are often framed as being external to the situation, and individuals become less important than the context. building on hodgkinson-williams et al’s (2017) suggestions about factors affecting oer uptake in similar contexts, this study aimed to better understand the working lives of tutors, their perceptions of underlying social and organisational realities that form 13 their professional identity and how these might impact on their uptake of professional development initiatives. teacher educator professional identity the second starting point for the study is the premise that “ultimately the quality of teacher education programmes is a reflection of the state of the hearts and minds of teacher educators and of their desire and ability to imagine their work in new and refreshing ways and then to take concerted action to realise their visions” (dinkleman, 2011, p. 309). having a clear sense of ‘who they are’ (‘hearts and minds’) and ‘what they do’ (how they imagine their work) is necessary to help teacher educators to respond to the changing context in which they work (davey, 2010). ‘who they are’ and ‘what they do’ can be expressed through the concept of professional identity. in this study, professional identity is considered to be ‘emergent’ as tutors take action in their colleges (stutchbury, 2019). if we can find out about tutors’ perceptions of professional identity it will provide insights into how they are constrained and empowered in their role and what sort of professional development might enhance their capacity to respond to changing contexts and policies. a review of teacher education research reveals different perspectives on professional identity, depending on whether a socio-cultural stance (e.g., menter, 2011, swennen et al, 2010), a psychological perspective (e.g., murray & male, 2005) or a post-structural view (e.g., white, 2014; dinklemann, 2011) is adopted. drawing on davey (2010) we take the view that professional identity embraces all these perspectives and: 1. is both personal and social in origin; 2. is multifaceted and fragmented, as well as evolving and shifting in nature, in response to national and institutional policies; 3. involves emotional states and value commitments; 4. involves some sense of group membership. within this framework, how tutors carry out their role (their agency) will be constrained and empowered by the social structures in which they operate (archer, 1995). social structures include roles and responsibilities (institutional structures), the curriculum and policy environment (embodied structures) and the ideas that underpin the activities of the teacher educators (discursive structures) (scott, 2010). structure and agency are seen as dialectic, giving rise to emergent properties that are not reducible to the sum of their parts (tikly, 2015). interactions between agents, between structures and between agents and structures can give rise to professional identity (as an emergent and fluid state) which cannot be reduced to the components from which they arise. through taking action in their social setting, therefore, professional identity will emerge. complementing davey (2010) with scott (2010), we propose that the professional identity of teacher educators will have several interrelated dimensions: • past histories including roles and experiences • the professional knowledge they hold and value • how they see this complex role 14 • the political, institutional and cultural environment in which they work and their response to that environment • the relationships they have within the institution with peers, teachers and students • their sense of agency. from our collective experience of working at the college level in uganda, we recognise that tutors are not often encouraged to examine their identity or their practice or question the status quo — reflexivity and reflexive discourse are not common. yet this does not mean that they are not ‘agentive’. for example, they can negotiate difficult economic or political situations and create opportunities (stutchbury, 2019). their agency is not necessarily directed towards pedagogic changes, and the challenge for teacher education is to understand how it might be (see pawson & tilley 1997). this challenge shaped the second research question, which acknowledges that professional identity is, in part, self-constructed. we also recognise (as highlighted in wolfenden & adinolfi, 2019) that agency in relation to professional decisions can manifest as ‘non-action’ and that this is different to a lack of engagement. in this research we were interested in recognising tutors’ professional identity and what this means for their professional practice (particularly in relation to taking — or considering taking — action to develop their professional practice) through a research design based on storytelling. the study a team of four researchers (two uk-based and two ugandan) visited eight colleges in july 2018. we spent one day together in one college to collaboratively refine the methodology and then split into two teams, with one team visiting three colleges and the other visiting four. the team conducted semistructured interviews with college principals and vice-principals. these were designed to elicit contextual information to better understand the social environment of the college. however, the primary activity in each college was a storytelling research workshop. using a storytelling approach to explore professional identity ‘stories’ are often associated with fiction or entertainment. but the process of generating (non-fiction) stories through research aims to be as rigorous as other qualitative approaches such as interviewing and focus groups. in fact, these methods are often used to help build the narrative and generate data within the process. krueger (2018) describes the disciplined inquiry necessary for story research; a process which demands focused preparation and follows deliberate and transparent steps to generate and document participants’ stories. storytelling — as we use it in this research — positions the storyteller at the heart of their story. this helps us to understand how they see themselves in relation to the structures within which they exist and how they see themselves in relation to other people in these structures (bhaskar 1994). it does not just extract knowledge from participants but supports them to think about and share their experiences differently and, through this, can “humanise and politicise learning processes” (wheeler et al, 2018, p. 1). across the eight colleges, 39 tutors participated in the workshops to develop and share a story about their professional experiences. to minimise disruption at the colleges we did not have a strict sampling policy. we suggested to principals that the workshops would work better with < 8 participants and the tutors who attended were those who were either selected by the principal and 15 released from teaching for the day, or those with a light-teaching schedule on the day of the workshop who volunteered out of interest. we did not turn anyone away who wanted to participate, so workshops had between 3-10 participants. we drew on the transformative storytelling approach developed by wheeler et al (2018) but adapted it to be workable in one-day workshops, maintaining a focus on the core elements of the approach: iteration, listen and trust. through a range of creative activities, tutors were supported to write a story they thought would help people to understand what it was like to be a tutor in uganda. while the stories are — for each tutor — a personal story, the iterative nature of the workshop activities encouraged multiple sharing of each story as it developed. the intention was that this would support understanding across the group of tutors and researchers of how stories are linked to each other, and the wider society in which they are positioned (trees & kellas, 2009). this approach aligned with our conceptual frameworks of professional identity, and bruner’s writing about the symbiotic nature between “our experience of human affairs” and “the narrative we use in telling about them” (1996, p. 132). we drew on the work of jackson (2013) and the idea that telling stories to other people about our experiences can change our sense of who we are. the space to iteratively articulate an experience and shape it into a coherent narrative can help people to see the links between individuals, their actions and the institutional structures in which they are operating. a portrait of professional identity emerges through a cycle of reflection and narration around how the teacher educators were — or could have been — agentive in relation to the event they describe in their story. we do not suggest that the stories provide a comprehensive account of the tutor experience, therefore, rather an insight into how tutors see themselves and/or how they want to be seen by their colleagues and the outside world. data collection and analysis the ‘data’ consists of 39 hand-written stories (between 200-1000 words in length) (uganda college tutors, 2019) and the notes from discussions around story development4. analysis of a story process requires a different approach to what might be used for an interview transcript, and we drew on a quote from walter benjamin (1973): “a story [...] does not expend itself. it preserves and concentrates its strength”. we first aimed to identify this ‘concentrated strength’ and looked for story archetypes (lewis, 2011) framed around the six dimensions of teacher educator professional identity set out above. we asked ourselves ‘what dimension does this story mainly speak to?’ the researchers each identified one archetype per story, before sharing and debating these until we (as a group) agreed. we then re-read the stories and workshop notes and asked ourselves ‘what else is the tutor communicating?’ in order to elicit what appeared to be important to the tutors in relation to how they represented themselves as professionals. this was an iterative, dialogical process of analysis that began in the workshops themselves and was naturally influenced by our own histories, positionalities and professional interests and experiences. we were careful to acknowledge these when different interpretations of the data arose. relatedly, while reflecting on the stories and the workshop notes, we considered what was not discussed, as well as what the participants chose to share (rosiek & heffernan, 2014): the research team have a long history of involvement in teacher education and it was interesting to consider why key issues from the wider field were absent in the stories. the interview data was used to triangulate and contextualise the storytelling data. 16 findings: what do the stories tell us about tutor professional identity in uganda? while much of the literature positions teacher educators’ practice in sub-saharan africa as static and resistant to change, tutors in this research presented themselves as dynamic, and open to — as well as able to enact — change. in the first stage of analysis we categorised 20 of the 39 stories under the archetype of ‘professional knowledge’, i.e., this was the primary dimension of identity that was showcased through the story. the second stage of analysis revealed that, in 26 of the stories, tutors emphasised the importance of continuing to learn and develop professional practice throughout their career. the low levels of engagement with the oer, therefore, appeared even more perplexing. in this section we showcase excerpts from the stories (uganda collegetutors, 2019) organised around our professional identity framework. we then draw on this data to suggest why the oer may not have had the anticipated impact within the colleges. past histories the stories suggest that despite low salaries tutors feel that their role is a respected one, valued by society. this is particularly in comparison to the role of a teacher which tutors spoke of somewhat negatively. haruna’s story (cg5) compares an incident from his days as a teacher when he was threatened by a parent wielding a panga, to the respect he commands now he is a tutor: “of course i don’t tell student-teachers that they won’t be respected, we have to tell them that [teaching] is an honourable profession. but they do already know how other people view teachers, and often come to me and ask ‘once i am a teacher, what does it take to become a tutor?’” peter (cg7) writes how he “encourages all students… to read hard and become tutors themselves”. because most of the tutors started their careers as teachers, this is significant in terms of their identity — defined in relation to what it no longer is as much as what it is now. over the past decade, as we discussed above, the government of uganda has invested in tutor professional development. as a result, younger tutors had been promoted from schoolteacher to college tutor following a period of upgrading at university. however, a common experience among the older tutors was receiving notification of a promotion from teacher to tutor with no warning, no training and little time to adjust, or they were suddenly moved from one subject area to another within the college: i trained as a secondary school teacher to teach agriculture, but in 2004 i was posted to a ptc and appointed to teach agriculture… i will admit myself that i had inadequate experience. i always felt challenged… because these students were me not so long ago! (samuel, cg1) i remember how i felt when my boss asked me to teach local language education, i thought to myself ‘this is going to be a big challenge’. i did not even know where to begin, you see i had never taught this subject, not even for a second […] it was more than difficult, it was like writing on water, really a nightmare. (jackson, cg1) norah, whose story we opened this paper with, describes how she was unexpectedly promoted from being a secondary school teacher to a tutor of primary-level student-teachers with no additional training. norah was so “unsure and scared” about her ability to supervise trainee teachers’ practical work that she went out of her way to avoid it, making excuses to her students, and feeling wretched about it. 17 tutors took it upon themselves to get up to speed. one day norah worked up the courage to ask a senior colleague for help. she frames this as a turning point in her career, from which she has “not looked back”. jackson writes “like a small stream, i was a trickle, but i […] tried to imagine my potential as a mighty river. i tried to learn as much as i could about the subject. i visited resource centres, i scoured the college library… i read the syllabus, i re-read the curriculum… so i started slowly and in fear, but with persistence… now [two decades later] i am so resourceful in local language teaching that others come to me for guidance… i am now that mighty river”. samuel writes “i took on this task with commitment and intent… while i had serious doubts to do the work well, i now feel confident and enjoy the profession i did not train in, which came as somewhat of a surprise”. the ‘sink or swim’ situation that launched these tutors’ career in teacher education appears to have shaped their identities around being responsible for their own success. professional knowledge as noted, we identified professional knowledge as the most common story archetype. while some did emphasise the importance of collegial learning — “the tutoring journey brings with it extended, lifelong friendships with colleagues who become people to learn from and learn with.” (peter, cg7) — the notion of working and learning independently was a much more regularly recurring theme. the most commonly described method was the importance of trying out new techniques and reflecting on student interest, behaviour, feedback and grades to evaluate effectiveness: later the students were amazed that the salt that had formed was of the same nature, colour and taste that they had dissolved in their water earlier on. they began to shout ‘wooh! this science is truly a miracle!’ [...] i realised how different their excitement was [...]. their reaction just made me feel it was my best lesson as a tutor! (terah, cg5) i asked the students what they knew about circle properties. i was surprised by their answers: ‘it is difficult!’ it is for mathematicians only!’… i don’t know why but i had a quick realisation that if they feared the topic, the plan i had made for the lesson would not do anything to help them feel less afraid. i abandoned the lecture notes i had planned on using… i just got the students to draw circles and we talked about them together. (richard, cg8) given that tutors’ professional learning was predominantly self-directed, formal training courses, which were only rarely available, were highly valued. on occasion they could lead to promotion but the intrinsic value of these courses and their contribution to building other dimensions of professional identity was specifically highlighted in eight stories. they most commonly described training focused on learner-centred approaches: i used to use the lecture method – just as i had been taught. i would prepare my notes from the textbooks, stand at the front and deliver my lecture. afterwards the class was usually somewhat quiet. i never really knew if they had taken the knowledge in, or not. then, i was invited to a workshop on different methods of teaching science. my eyes were opened up! i quickly developed an urge to try practical methods! only a week after i attended the workshop, the opportunity arose… (william, cg5) abdallah (who chose not to reference his college) wrote: “…[it] was time for me to get serious and practise [learner-centred methods]”. he describes how he was able to engage a student who was bored in kiswahili lessons by teaching her the kiswahili words for amusing insults. he attributed formal training to giving him the confidence to “understand the kind of people you are dealing with” 18 to “kill negative attitudes” towards difficult subjects. tutors linked the ideas and approaches gained through formal development programmes to a shift in how they saw their role and their students, which we turn to now. how tutors see their complex role taken as a whole the stories suggest that tutors recognise their role as extending beyond the classroom. many highlighted the responsibility to support students (men and women mostly in their late teens and early 20s) through a wide variety of social issues. in ‘unique duty as a tutor’, augustine (cg7) wrote about a situation that opened his eyes to the challenges young people face: “…an idea sparkled in my mind that teaching was not enough, however engaging and practical the methods, these young people also needed mentors to talk to and guide them through their studies”. sarah (cg8) writes about a time she found two students unconscious after a drug and alcohol binge: “i had a choice. i could discard these boys, or i could help them… i made more of an effort to get to know them as people and encouraged other people to do the same so they would feel they had support all over campus”. some stories also point to the external-facing role of tutors. in ‘teacher educators as a community resource’, waliya (cg2) was invited by a former student to visit their school and lead some informal in-service training for the teachers. this was so successful she now offers the training to other local schools. in fact, almost all the stories, whatever the focus, contain an explicit or implicit message about the value of the tutor role: to society in general, or examples of being celebrated by others for their work: a tutor’s students are like arrows which shoot up in various directions, and every arrow has a catch, which is a successful career. i have trained students who have gone on to become classroom teachers, of course, but also politicians, head-teachers, mentors and counsellors… i like to think: each year 500 students pass through my hands. these students go on to become teachers and teach 100 children each year. many of these children will be inspired by the teachers i taught, and they too will join the college… and they too will become teachers and teach 100 children, and the journey continues. (peter, cg7) however, while it is widely reported in the literature that classrooms in uganda are not supporting the learning of all children (bannink et al, 2019) there was no reference across the stories — explicitly or implicitly — to the collective effort required from tutors and colleges to respond to such a big challenge. none of the stories pointed to a level of urgency that we might expect on improving teaching and learning. in fact, without exception, challenges written into the stories were articulated as personal. while there were examples — like in norah’s story — of having taken or given advice to someone, problems and, ultimately, solutions lay with the tutor themselves, in their own immediate sphere of influence. this is also apparent in the way the tutors wrote about success in their role; it mainly linked to students’ immediate enthusiasm for or understanding of a particular idea or concept or validated by a high examination pass-rate. success is only linked to the ongoing work of their students in primary school classrooms in three of the stories (including peter’s story, above). responses to political, institutional and cultural environments the complexity of tutors’ roles has been recognised at policy-level: two years before the research took place, the ugandan national assessment of progress in education board carried out a study into the 19 literacy and numeracy proficiency of children, in-service teachers, pre-service teachers and tutors (uneb, 2015). the report pointed to a range of issues in the colleges that trickled down to impact on children’s learning and how colleges could better support and prepare student-teachers to deal with challenges at school level. only two stories alluded to this: the moment i interacted with the community i saw that even those i did not teach were saying that i was a good teacher educator, simply because i didn’t just teach students to pass their exams, but i also gave them insight into the world of schools […] all in all, a good teacher educator should be one that engages their students positively and talks about negative effects that might hamper the teachers’ career in the process of their duty to educate the masses. (nuhu, cg3) ‘when change changes you’ (josephine, cg7) is a story within a story. in it, a tutor tells her studentteachers that they are going to learn about conducive classroom environments, and proceeds to tell them a moving story about the relationship between a teacher and a child who has become withdrawn due to a difficult home life and bullying. the story concludes: “then one student said ‘but madam, i thought this lesson was about how to make the classroom conducive to learning’. i said, ‘but it was’. a conducive environment doesn’t start with wall charts or bright posters or the way in which you arrange the desks, a conducive environment starts with you, and the care, love and empathy you demonstrate for the children you teach.” relatedly, none of the stories referenced the revised curriculum for schools, or how their own teaching had had to adapt to support teachers to engage with this curriculum only two of the stories referenced the changing nature of the teaching role and the identities of young people joining the college: teaching a 21st century teacher can be challenging if you don’t understand them and teach them in the way they want to be taught. you have to listen to them to be able to respond to their specific needs. (ally, rufungura ptc) overall, the stories suggest that individual tutors are less engaged that might be expected in the external environment, especially the urgent — and very public — message around the need to improve the quality of learning and teaching in uganda. rather than relate their role to this challenge, they nearly all focused on their immediate students, and on helping them to succeed in their examinations. none of the stories talked about students’ teaching practice, or visiting students in schools, except one case of a tutor’s informal visits unrelated to her formal responsibilities (waliya, cg2). relationships looking across the stories, the relationship between tutors and individual students appears to be hugely important. in ‘making the difference’, for example, stephen (cg7) writes about a student who struggled in his class. he took a special interest in this student: “i took on the role of john’s social studies tutor, but also his mentor, guide and coach. i offered him remedial classes every single day.” other stories highlighted how tutors’ experiences had led them to be kinder and more tolerant of poor behaviour, understanding that it was often underpinned by some deeper emotional problem: “[this experience] reminded me that understanding students as individuals, understanding their backgrounds is important, but also the things that are going on in their lives as they study.” 20 (augustine, cg7). in ‘love not fear’ (anonymous) the tutor took a diploma in special needs education and learned to be more inclusive: “i also learned here that the stick i had been carrying was scaring the learners, and that love, a positive attitude and kind language were the keys to motivating learning, not fear.” relationships with colleagues, on the other hand, were mainly represented as reserved and hierarchical. they were most commonly described in terms of the giving and receiving of advice or being directed to do something by someone in authority. the hierarchical nature of relationships in the colleges is illustrated in a number of stories (described above) in which tutors describe being asked to do something of which they had no previous knowledge or experience. in all the examples of these requests there was an acceptance that having been asked to do something by the principal it should not be questioned. there seemed to be no expectation of being offered training or support, and no apparent resentment at being put in this position. rather, there was a sense of pride that the person in charge had faith in their ability to take on this challenge. there are only two stories which describe how tutors have worked together as a professional group. for example, norah, (cg1) wrote “now, years later, i actively try and share my skills with other tutors who are new. therefore, i encourage other tutors to feel free to consult each other. as tutors we should always share, consult and discuss amongst ourselves, to become better teacher educators and learn new strategies to overcome our challenges.” however, both examples allude to the notion that this practice of working together is not the norm, rather something these tutors have worked hard to facilitate; there is an implicit suggestion that sharing knowledge and skills is a top-down practice. their sense of agency much of the literature on tutors in sub-saharan africa suggests that they struggle to act agentively. buckler (2019), for example, describes how tutors at a college in ghana feel frustrated and insulted by restrictions on their behaviour and teaching. stories across our collection, however, showcase agentive acts both inside and outside the classroom. for example in ‘going digital’ susan (cg6) writes about how she revolutionised pe teaching at her college by co-opting the it department to help her students to access sports and training videos online. grace (cg5) describes how she fought for the admission of a visually impaired student who senior colleagues wanted to reject on grounds grace thought to be uninformed by contemporary inclusion policies. william (cg5) writes about a time he overlooked a misdemeanour from two cheeky but promising students that would have led to an exclusion if the principal had found out. the story is written with much comedy but the decision to protect their academic record was reached through serious deliberation. more generally, agency is represented through the most common story archetype — the proactive decision to build their professional knowledge. for example: “the task ahead of me was enormous but i knew that i had to tackle it wholesomely” (henry, cg3), “this story is about how i helped to shift the reality [of student re-takes] to a number of distinctions” (kwizera, cg3). it is important to remember that the stories present a persona that the tutors constructed through the narrative, and the approach itself encourages participants to put themselves at the centre of their story. however, the fact that so many tutors chose to write a story which positions them as agentive suggests that there are more opportunities for agentive behaviour within the tutor role than the literature has previously implied. 21 discussion and conclusions the stories reveal a group which values the professional knowledge that they hold and see themselves as more expert than the teachers they are preparing. they enjoy the recognition this brings and feel pride when their students do well. they are caring, motivated and will seek advice when they encounter difficulties. for many a key part of their identity has been shaped by the past experience of having been assigned to a role in the college that they had not trained in. they accepted the situation and saw themselves as independently responsible for their own development. overcoming difficulties alone was a source of pride, although formal professional development opportunities were enthusiastically embraced. how can what the stories suggest about tutor professional identity help us to understand why the oer did not take off in the colleges as expected? we suggest four key interrelated reasons. expectations of and for professional development the tutors framed ‘professional development’ in their stories as an opportunity to attend a formal programme. in all cases this was something that they were ‘selected’ to attend by a member of the senior team and the training itself took place face-to-face outside of the institution. while there were many examples of tutors seeking additional knowledge or skills, these were all informal opportunities and were viewed as serving a different purpose, i.e., responding to an immediate need. while the underpinning ideas of the oer were present in tutors’ depiction of their work, they find themselves in a hierarchical system with very little autonomy over their professional progression. in addition, tutors were keen to gain promotion before they retire, to enhance their pension. promotion is not necessarily related to demonstrated skills in learning and teaching but rather to attending particular promotion programmes and passing exams; these kinds of formal professional development opportunities were highly sought after especially among the older participants. finally, none of the tutors referenced the internet as a location for formal professional learning and the challenges they identified in their work were very specific and related to a perceived lack of understanding around a particular subject or pedagogical approach. few looked online for learning opportunities, but even if they had it is unlikely with these intentions in mind that they would have come across the oer. the senior staff who had attended the oer workshops recognised tutors’ desire for professional development and had responsibility for allocating places in programmes but most had not shared these free resources with the tutors. we suggest, therefore, that the tessa oer do not align with college staff’s collective understanding of the opportunities for and outcomes of developing professional knowledge, including a lack of formal accreditation. tutors not recognising the long-term challenges that the oer aim to address as their challenge to tackle the mooc was designed around the challenges in education in uganda at the primary level and aimed to address these at the college level. however, there was no sense of collective ownership of these challenges or similar challenges facing many other countries — chronic underachievement, a lack of support for teachers, under-resourcing and new curricula calling for radical new approaches. for nearly fifteen years, teachers and tutors have been working in the context of a new thematic curriculum, demanding the ability to communicate enhanced subject knowledge in creative, inclusive, ways. the effort expected from teachers and teacher educators is considerable; they are all being asked to teach in a way in which many have not been taught and have no experience. the tutors 22 identified some of these challenges as they related directly to their own work but the challenges at the primary level were not recognised as their own. they were understandably preoccupied with the immediate risks to their success and that of their students, for example, long commutes to colleges, intensive workloads, a lack of resources for teaching and student-wellbeing. their professional time, energy and agency was directed towards these local issues, not the more widespread impact of their role beyond the college. while the notion of group membership (davey, 2010) is important in the shaping of their professional identity, there was no sense in these stories of tutors feeling part of a professional team — people working together to recognise, discuss and address the national-level task of how to prepare teachers for a new, more inclusive context. this builds on an observation from moon and umar (2013) that there is a culture of individualism in which the autonomy in the classroom extends to all aspects of work of teacher educators, and meetings are administrative rather than discursive or developmental: the desire to change among these tutors is strong but the individualism culture is still evident. the importance of oer ‘champions’ the tessa programme’s efforts to engage a wide audience of tutors with the mooc drew, in part, on wolfenden et al’s (2017) study of oer engagement in higher education institutions in east africa. they emphasised the importance of local ‘champions’ of oer who drew on them in their teaching and promoted them among their colleagues in and beyond their institutions. by strategically engaging college principals and deputy principals with the mooc through workshops, it was intended they would enact this champion role on return to their institutions. in fact, when interviewed (six months after the workshop), most spoke sheepishly about not having got around to sharing the workshop resources. the walls of the college libraries were covered with posters promoting various education initiatives; tessa, quite understandably, may have been viewed by the principals as just another competing programme and a diversion from the core curriculum. these libraries were full of books but mainly multiple copies of a small range of textbooks. there were signs banning students and tutors from taking their own books or electronic devices into the libraries. the practice of using a range of resources to support tutor learning and delivery of the curriculum was not established within the colleges. while many tutors described finding their own resources for learning this was positioned as an individual innovation and not something that was commonplace. while the mooc aligned with the national framework and curriculum and modelled the kinds of things that are valued at a policy level, the workshops did not engage or persuade the senior staff members to be ‘champions’ in the way that was hoped. this is something that the programme needs to give more attention to in the future by finding ways to engage with existing agendas at a college level. technology hodgkinson-williams et al (2017) highlight access as a key constraint in the uptake of digital resources and it is crucial that this element is recognised in terms of these tutors. only three of the stories feature ict and the opportunities it affords. only half of the tutors have email addresses and interviews with college principals suggested that the level of ict skills amongst the staff is quite low. in some of the rural colleges, electricity supplies are erratic, making accessing digital resources even more difficult and unlikely. notices in the library of some of the colleges also suggest that the electronic devices that students have access to (mobile phones) are seen as a distraction rather than an educational resource. even the tutors who owned a smart phone and could get online the connection was not made between 23 professional learning or the availability of resources and the internet. ict is still regarded as an ‘add on’ and is part of the social rather than the professional lives of tutors. concluding thoughts the stories have helped us to understand how tutors see their professional identity and the things that are important to them. it challenges the existing literature, and portrays an engaged, proud professional group. however, they work in a very hierarchical system, which means that they have little autonomy over their careers. many take personal responsibility for solving immediate problems (like being asked to teach an unfamiliar subject) but not for their professional development, other than pushing to attend up-grading courses. in some ways this study demonstrates the untapped potential of this workforce; the storytelling methodology gave the tutors the opportunity to demonstrate that they see themselves as agentic and can enact agency within their professional settings. however, collective ownership of the challenges facing the broader education system and issues facing teachers, alongside mechanisms for collaborative working, are required to harness the energy and commitment and agency displayed by this group of college tutors. without a collective effort — and support for teacher educators to work as a collective — interventions at the college level may be unlikely to have the desired impact on teachers’ work in schools. the insights that have emerged from the tutors’ stories have significant implications for the implementation of educational initiatives. tessa was originally conceived as an initiative in which the effort was focused on the site where change is needed most — the classroom (elmore, 1980). gathering evidence (stutchbury, 2016; wolfenden et al, 2017; hodgkinson-williams et al, 2017) suggests that without institutional support and a cultural shift that encourages the sharing of resources, this is not enough. many tessa champions have emerged over the years but deep penetration into the system has only come about through a combination of champions, and engagement at the top. for the tessa mooc initiative, this did not happen in uganda. however, the evidence from this research is that there is a desire to learn, a sense of moral purpose and professional resilience amongst this group, which could be harnessed more effectively to improve teaching and learning at the college, and the classroom level. notes 1. tessa is a pan-african network of teachers and teacher educators, in partnership with the open university, uk, see http://www.tessafrica.net/ 2. http://www.tessafrica.net/sites/www.tessafrica.net/files/files/tessa_ugandaresearch_storybook_onlin eversion.pdf 3. these two studies were both from south africa. the review contained 23 papers from the netherlands — a country with a population less than half that of uganda’s. 4. only two of the eight colleges had internet access, and one of these had only one working computer. we invited tutors to bring laptops to the workshops but only one tutor did. this meant that stories were scripted and edited by hand and gives an insight into the more general access to computers at work (and, as suggested by the ugandan researchers, the practice of not using personal computers for work activities). the research team typed up the stories and the analysis was undertaken using the on-screen versions. 24 references akyeampong, a. (2017) teacher educators’ practice and vision of good teaching in teacher education reform contexts in ghana. educational researcher, 46(4), 194-203. altinyelken, h. k. (2010). curriculum change in uganda: teacher perspectives on the new thematic curriculum. international journal of educational development, 30(2), 151-161. archer, m. (1995) realist social theory: the morphogenetic approach. cambridge: cambridge university press. baiyelo, t. d., & oke, c. o. (2015). policy issues in teacher education. in b. adegoke & a. oni (eds), teacher education systems in africa in the digital era. codesira. ballantyne, r. (1999). an analysis of geography teacher educators’ perceptions of curriculum 2005. south african geographical journal, 81(2), 75-79. benjamin, w. (1973). the storyteller. in h. arendt (ed.), (h. zohn, trans.), illuminations (pp. 83-109). fontana/ collins. bannink, f., nalugya, r. & van hove, g. (2019). ‘they give him a chance’ — parents’ perspectives on disability and inclusive primary education in uganda. international journal of disability, development and education. bhaskar, r. (1994). plato etc: the problems of philosophy and their resolution. verso publishers. bold, t., filmer, d., martin, g., molina, a., rockmore, c., stacy, b., & wane, w. (2017). what do teachers know and do? does it matter? evidence from primary schools in africa (policy research working paper no. 7956). world bank group. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/882091485440895147/pdf/wps7956.pdf bruner, j. (1996). the culture of education. harvard university press. buckler, a. (2019) being and becoming in teacher education: student-teachers’ freedom to learn in a college of education in ghana. compare, 50(6), 844-864. davey, r. l. (2010). career on the cusp? the professional identity of teacher educators. http://ir.canterbury.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10092/4146/thesis_fulltext.pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y dinkelmann, t. (2011). forming a teacher educator identity: uncertain standards, practice and relationships. journal of education for teaching, 37(3), 309-323. krueger, r. a. (2018). an introduction to storytelling research. https://richardakrueger.com/storytelling/ kyeyune, r. (2011). learning to teach reading and mathematics and its influence on teaching in uganda, teacher preparation and continuing professional development in africa, country report. https://www.sussex.ac.uk/webteam/gateway/file.php?name=report-uganda-1july2011.pdf&site=320 kyomuhendo, f., & kasule, g. w. (2017). tutor competence and teacher trainee academic performance in primary teachers’ colleges in the southern region of uganda. international journal of education and research, 5(9), 275-284. lewis, p. (2011) storytelling as research / research as storytelling. qualitative inquiry, 17(6), 505-510. lunenberg, m., dengerink, j., & korthagen, f. a. j. (2014). the professional teacher educator: roles, behaviour, and professional development of teacher educators. sense publishers. menter, i. (2011). four academic sub-tribes but one territory? teacher educators and teacher education in scotland. journal of education for teaching, 37(3), 293-308. ministry of education. (2012). a policy framework for education: aligning education and training to the constitution of kenya (2010) and kenya vision 2030 and beyond (draft). government of kenya. 25 http://uil.unesco.org/i/doc/lifelong-learning/policies/kenya-a-policy-framework-for-education-seconddraft.pdf ministry of general education. (2013). the zambian education curriculum framework. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/df75/aee6567b16a0483d09eb139d5abe05b92c44.pdf moes (2019). special needs and inclusive education department: summary. http://www.education.go.ug/data/smenu/15/special%20needs%20and%20inclusive%20education%20.html moes (2017). education and sports sector strategic plan 2017/8-2019/20. http://www.education.go.ug/files/downloads/education%20and%20sports%20sector%20strate gic%20plan.pdf moes (2016). ministry of education and sports sector fact sheet 2002-2016. moon, b., & umar, a. (2013). reorientating the agenda. in b. moon (ed.), teacher education and the challenge of development. abingdon: routledge. murphy, p., & wolfenden, f. (2013). developing a pedagogy of mutuality in a capability approach: teachers’ experiences of using the open educational resources (oer) of the teacher education in sub-saharan africa (tessa) programme. international journal of educational development, 33, 263–271. murray, j. & male, t. (2005). becoming a teacher educator: evidence from the field. teaching and teacher education, 21, 121-141. obanya, p. (2015). re-profiling the teacher and teacher educators. in b. adegoke & a. oni (eds), teacher education systems in africa in the digital era. codesira. ogunyemi, b., & agbaogun, a. (2015). integrating technology into social science teacher education in nigeria. in b. adegoke & a. oni (eds), teacher education systems in africa in the digital era. codesira. o’sullivan, m. (2010). educating the teacher educator — a ugandan case study. international journal of educational development, 30, 377-387. pawson, r., & tilley, n. (1997). realistic evaluation. sage. pryor, j., akyeampong, k., westbrook, j., & lussier, k. (2012). rethinking teacher preparation and professional development in africa: an analysis of the curriculum of teacher education in the teaching of early reading and mathematics. the curriculum journal, 23(4). robinson, m. (2003). teacher education policy in south africa: the voice of teacher educators. journal of education for teaching, 29(1), 19-34. rosiek, j. l., & heffernan, j. (2014). can’t code what the community can’t see: a case of the erasure of heteronormative harassment. qualitative inquiry, 20(6), 726-733. schweisfurth, m. (2011). learner-centred education in developing country contexts: from solution to problem? international journal of educational development, 31(5), 419-426. scott, d. (2010). education, epistemology and critical realism. routledge. stutchbury, k. (2019). teacher educators as agents of change? a critical realist of a group of teacher educators in a kenyan university. (unpublished edd thesis.) the open university. stutchbury, k. (2016). an evaluation of tessa secondary science. http://www.tessafrica.net/reports 26 stutchbury, k., chamberlain, l. & amos, s. (2019). supporting professional development through moocs: the tessa experience. in pan-commonwealth forum 9 (pcf9), 2019. conference proceedings. commonwealth of learning, vancouver, canada. swennen, a., jones, k., & volman, m. (2010). teacher educators: their identities, sub-identities and implications for professional development. professional development in education, 36(1-2), 131-148. trees, a. r., & koenig kellas, j. (2009). telling tales: enacting family relationships in joint storytelling about difficult family experiences. western journal of communication, 73, 91-111. uganda college tutors (2019). rose beds, thorns and a resource for the nation. http://www.tessafrica.net/sites/www.tessafrica.net/files/files/tessa_ugandaresearch_storybook_onlineve rsion.pdf uneb (2015). national assessment of progress in education. uganda national examinations board. https://uneb.ac.ug/downloads/nape_primary_full%20report_2015.pdf wane, w., & martin, g. (2016). education service delivery in uganda. world bank and african economic research consortium. wheeler, j., shahrokh, t., & derakshani, n. (2018). transformative storywork: creative pathways for social change. in j. servaes (ed.), handbook of communication for social change. 1-22. springer. white, e. (2014). being a teacher and a teacher educator — developing new identity? professional development in education, 40(3), 436-449. wolfenden, f., & adinolfi, l. (2019). an exploration of agency in the localisation of open educational resources for teacher development. learning, media and technology, 44(3), 327-344. wolfenden, f., auckloo, p., stutchbury, k., cullen, j. (2017). teacher educators and oer in east africa: interrogating pedagogic change. in c. hodgkinson-williams, & p. b. arinto (eds.), adoption and impact of oer in the global south cape town. african minds publishers. chapter 8. authors: dr alison buckler is a senior research fellow with an interest in international teacher development, the capability approach and storytelling methodologies. email: alison.buckler@open.ac.uk dr kris stutchbury is a senior lecturer in teacher education, academic director of tessa and co-director of zest. email: kris.stutchbury@open.ac.uk dr george kasule is head of the department of educational planning and management, kyambogo university, uganda. email: gwkasule@kyu.ac.ug dr jane cullen is a senior lecturer in international education and development and academic director of openstem africa. email: jane.cullen@open.ac.uk doris kaije is a lecturer specialising in social ethical issues, a gender specialist, teacher educator and coordinator of the tessa team at kyambogo university. email: doriskaije@yahoo.com cite this paper as: buckler, a., stutchbury, k., kasule, g., cullen, j. & kaije, d. (2021). what prevents teacher educators from accessing professional development oer and mooc? storytelling and professional identity in ugandan teacher colleges. journal of learning for development, 8(1), 10-26. microsoft word joshi.docx issn: 2311-1550 2020, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 473-478 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. reports from the field: primary school in brazil using finnish innovation pedagogy to create meaningful online education during the covid-19 pandemic marjo joshi, 1 minna scheinin, 1 luis miranda2 and juliana piispa1 1turku university of applied sciences, finland 2iso colégio e cursos, paraiba, brazil abstract: iso colegío in paraiba, brazil, implemented finnish innovation pedagogy from turku university of applied sciences (tuas) as a pedagogical strategy in their new primary school in early 2020. the implementation started in class teaching but due to the pandemic, it was transferred online, still using the new pedagogical approaches. experiences by teachers and pupils have so far been mostly positive. management has been satisfied with the overall success and plan to continue with innovation pedagogy as a strategy. keywords: pedagogy, online learning, brazil, finland. introduction the aim of the project in february 2020, iso colegío (iso) opened a new primary school in paraiba, brazil, that offers pupils and families in the region an opportunity to use a new, more active way of learning using a pedagogical approach of innovation pedagogy from finland. finland’s good results in pisa were already well-known in brazil and there had been great interest in finnish methods in the local education arena (välijärvi et al, 2007). some key features of the finnish education system of interest to iso were student-centeredness, equality, support, assessment and pedagogical solutions. in finnish schools, students are active learners, who work in constructive interaction together with others (national core curriculum for basic education 2014, 2018). trust and good relationships in all school work are, in addition to what is listed above, key features in the finnish education system. finland has highly qualified teachers based on the competitive and academically challenging teacher education system. this enables the teachers to have professional autonomy for teaching and development (sahlberg, 2015). the system develops a strong trust in teachers’ capacity to take the responsibility for the best of their students’ learning. the cooperation between tuas and iso school showed this trust and willingness for a good relationship from the very beginning of a mutual path. iso had started collaboration with turku university of applied sciences (tuas) in autumn 2019 to adopt innovation pedagogy (kettunen et al, 2013) as the pedagogical strategy of the new school. innovation pedagogy is based on collaborative, active learning that supports creation of innovations 474 and development of innovation competencies for future working life and society, both in class and online (innopeda.fi, 2020). the aim of implementing innovation pedagogy at iso was to introduce a new, more active way of learning using pedagogical methods and iso wanted to use the approach from the finnish education system as a framework. the new pedagogical strategy was first implemented onsite in the premises of the new school in february 2020. however, due to the covid-19 pandemic, the strategy was implemented in online learning as well, starting from april 2020. iso is the first school in brazil to implement the pedagogical principles of innovation pedagogy in basic education at the strategic and operational level. the context iso provides private basic education in paraiba, in the north-eastern part of brazil. the school has been operating as a primary school since february 2020. the number of students in the new school was 460 as of february 2020. the number of staff was 210, including 56 teachers. the region relies on tourism as its main income, and gdp was r$ 62.387 mi (ibge, 2017). in december 2019, the state of paraiba had 4,868 basic education schools with 548,659 enrolments, and, of this total, the municipal network was responsible for 66.9% of schools, followed by the private network with a 19.1% share (inep, 2019). most schools in the region still use traditional methods of education, focusing on teacher-led, lecture-based sessions without active or interactive elements to engage the pupils. also, assessment is still summative and based on end-of-course final exams. whilst distance learning is common in higher education, especially in remote areas of brazil, enabling access to education, online learning and teaching is not yet part of primary education. what is more significant in this case, online learning is not currently fully accepted as part of formal education at the primary level, and only 50% of studies completed online during the pandemic is counted towards the official transcript. another factor contributing to this case is digital readiness, which, in brazil, is not at as high a level as in finland. the pandemic has shown the importance of digital readiness in business and society, and finland was number one out of 28 eu member states in the most recent (european commission, 2020) digital economy and society index (desi), thus making readiness for online studies more accessible, too. for example, according to 2018 data, only 27% of brazilians had a portable computer at home (cetic, 2018), whilst 81,6% had access to internet (idados, 2020). introducing the pedagogical strategy at iso involved a development process, which included, among others, teacher training and systematic consultation meetings to ensure fulfilment of standards and guidelines of quality assurance (joshi et al, 2019) for implementing innovation pedagogy as a pedagogical strategy. the process started with a development plan that would introduce innovation pedagogy in different parts of the school, including management, learning environments, teaching and assessment. the development plan was created in collaboration with iso during a visit to turku, finland, in autumn 2019. introducing online teaching and learning was planned to be implemented at a later stage of the development process but due to the covid-19 pandemic, it had to be brought forward. the next step in the plan was to train the new teachers hired to teach in the school. two innopeda® trainers from finland held an intensive training week in paraiba in december 2019. the purpose of the training was to equip teachers with principles and methods of innovation pedagogy. the teachers 475 were already experienced in basic education and had a primary school teacher’s degree, but were not familiar with innovation pedagogy or finnish education approaches at a deeper level. most of them had no experience of online teaching, either. the teachers were highly enthusiastic and took active part in all activities and development tasks during the intensive week, as well as in the online part of the training that continued until early spring 2020. the school opened in february 2020 in the new premises, where learning environments were designed modelling those in finnish primary schools to enable active learning. moreover, teachers were ready to implement new ways of teaching and assessing the pupils using principles and methods of innovation pedagogy, coupled with updated knowledge on finnish basic education. the character of the innovation in learning some of the new concepts to teachers, students and parents alike were student-centeredness, informality, active and interactive approaches, different ways of assessing, as well as giving and receiving feedback. in the brazilian context, they were not used to allowing room for equal interaction and open communication in the classroom between teachers and pupils. moreover, most of the teachers had not used activating teaching methods or different ways of assessing, especially processlike, continuous assessment and feedback. pupils had not assessed their own work before, nor their peers’ work. activities done in the classroom and outside of the classroom, including home, were new concepts to all parties. innovation competencies, similar to transferrable competencies, were also new as learning objectives to all. teachers started implementing these new approaches in class teaching, and were supported in that process by the innopeda® trainers online. managers of iso were also actively involved in the development process and supporting their staff in their new role. in the first few weeks of the covid-19 pandemic, the situation in brazil seemed to be under control and schools remained open. however, as the situation worsened, schools in paraiba were forced to close. initially, all teachers were sent on anticipated annual vacation of one month, with the plan of returning to work after that. however, after returning from leave, it became clear that teaching and learning would have to be transferred to the online environment. since iso had only recently opened, the premises that were designed for onsite teaching were not yet equipped for fully online implementations. moreover, some teachers and pupils lacked equipment suitable for online studying. iso had to react quickly and acquire an online platform to transfer the newly implemented approaches of innovation pedagogy, and decided to select microsoft teams as their online learning environment. tuas innopeda® trainers supported iso managers and teachers throughout the process of transferring their education online, and offered consultation and shared experiences of online learning practices during the pandemic from experts in finnish basic and higher education. teachers quickly adopted new ways of creating active and interactive learning online, created videos to engage the pupils and gave access to learning materials via online means. they began collaborating with pupils in the teams environment in both synchronous and asynchronous ways. parents were kept informed via email, whatsapp, an online agenda and phone calls about each day’s activities, tools, expectations and requirements, as well as ways of assessing the pupils. 476 the impact on development, including evidence in the first few weeks of school, when pupils were still studying at the new school premises, they reported they had enjoyed school more than ever before, with some even stating they did not want to leave the school, something quite unheard of in many other school contexts. moreover, pupils seemed to adapt to online studies quickly, and were keen to do the activities given by their teachers. pupils were proud of the work they had produced and were able to see results. some parents were unsure about the success and reliability of the new pedagogical strategy and shared concern over a possible lack of teaching or unfamiliar assessment methods. some, on the other hand, were excited with the change and were ready to move forward with the new world of online education. some families did not have suitable devices for online learning at the beginning, which slowed down their participation. the pandemic also affected some families in terms of economic and health issues, which, in turn, had an effect on the pupil’s participation in online education. teachers shared feelings of initial anxiety and stress over the new role and using new methods and approaches, but also felt tremendous feelings of success and confidence in making a difference in reshaping education. they felt proud of producing high quality online education under such time constraints. managers of iso were overall satisfied with the implementation of innovation pedagogy in both onsite and online contexts in such demanding times. plans for future work the steps taken at iso school to overcome the crisis of covid-19 have been laborious and have demanded commitment from the school management and teachers. however, going strongly online in an unexpected situation will also help the school in the future to ensure quality, equity and wellbeing in education, especially if a second wave of the virus occurs. according to oecd (2020), next steps should foster the approaches that bring schools and homes closer together and foster the autonomy of students to manage their own learning. iso plans to continue implementing innovation pedagogy as a pedagogical strategy in both onsite and online contexts, as well as implementing a feedback and development system to ensure their internal quality management. collaboration with tuas continues with the next steps of the development process. further training will be required for online teaching and learning, as well as technical skills related to online teaching. evaluations and research will be conducted on both onsite and online implementations in the near future to fully see the impact that utilising a new strategy has had on learning results, student satisfaction, the professional competence of teachers or regional development, to name a few. importantly, iso continues to support teachers and pupils in their journey to a new way of learning, inspiring them to gain new skills in innovation competencies and to approach education in a more active manner. collaboration with families and the surrounding community is important, and they hope the change in education they have started may make a difference in the future of the region as well. references cetic. (2018). cgi.br/nic.br, centro regional de estudos para o desenvolvimento da sociedade da informação (cetic.br), pesquisa sobre o uso das tecnologias de informação e comunicação nos domicílios brasileiros. tic domicílios 2018. http://data.cetic.br/cetic/explore?idpesquisa=tic_dom 477 european commission. (2020). digital economy and society index (desi) 2020 finland. policy report. https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/countries-performance-digitisation ibge. (2017). official gdp data in brazil. instituto brasileiro de geografia e estastística. https://www.ibge.gov.br/explica/pib.php idados. (2020). a desigualdade no acesso à internet entre estudantes do ensino básico das redes pública e privada. https://idados.id/blog/desigualdade-acesso-a-internet-entre-estudantes-do-ensino-basico-das-redes-publicae-privada inep. (2019). annual census of basic education in brazil. instituto nacional de estudos e pesquisas educacionais anísio teixeira. ministério da educação. http://portal.inep.gov.br/informacao-da-publicacao//asset_publisher/6jyisgmamkw1/document/id/6880186 innopeda.fi. (2020). innovation pedagogy. https://innopeda.turkuamk.fi/language/en/home/ joshi, m., storti, a., & scheinin, m. (2019). siqa standards and guidelines for innopeda® quality assurance. turku university of applied sciences. unpublished internal document. kettunen, j., kairisto-mertanen, l., & penttilä, t. (2013). innovation pedagogy and desired learning outcomes in higher education. on the horizon, 21(4), 333-342. https://doi.org/10.1108/oth-08-2011-0024 national core curriculum for basic education 2014. (2018). finnish national agency for education. publications 2016:5. helsinki: juvenes print – suomen yliopistopaino oy. oecd. (2020). education responses to covid-19: an implementation strategy toolkit. oecd education policy perspectives no 5. https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/docserver/81209b82en.pdf?expires=1596172490&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=3742f3ef62d226a19406c032c264d675 sahlberg, p. (2015). finnish lessons 2.0: what can the world learn from educational change in finland? teachers college press. välijärvi, j., kupari, p., linnakylä, p., reinikainen, p., sulkunen, s., törnroos, j., & arffman, i., (2007). the finnish success in pisa and some reasons behind it. 2. pisa 2003. institute for educational research, university of jyväskylä. jyväskylä: kirjapaino oma oy. https://jyx.jyu.fi/bitstream/handle/123456789/37478/978-951-39-3038-7.pdf?sequence=1 authors: marjo joshi specializes in online education and, as part of turku university of applied sciences (tuas) future learning design team, she develops online education at an institutional level. she trains teachers in online pedagogy and manages the pedagogical development of fully online degree programmes. her research interests include development of online degree programmes, online teaching, internationalization online and pedagogical strategies. she has worked as senior lecturer (business english communication, intercultural communication) at tuas since 2005, with extensive teaching experience to degree programme students and corporate clients at local and international levels. (see more at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marjojoshi/) email: marjo.joshi@gmail.com minna scheinin works as the head future learning design unit at turku university of applied sciences (tuas), finland. her unit is responsible for developing education in a comprehensive way, with special focus on development of innovation pedagogy and online learning. her unit is also responsible for internationalization strategy work and year-round studies. her background is language and communications and she formerly worked as the head of the language centre at tuas. currently, her special interests are digital learning environments, good practices in e-learning and multimodality in learning design. she is also interested in new teacher roles and preparing students for future work. email: minna.scheinin@turkuamk.fi luis miranda works as a teaching and learning coordinator at iso colégio e cursos, paraiba, brazil. he has been working at iso since 2019, and has been part of management team since. from 2015-2019 he worked at the unipê — university center of joão pessoa, brazil, as information and innovation manager and, since 2018, he coordinated the international affairs and cooperation networks. during 2013-2015 he was vice rector at pontificio collegio portoghese in rome, italy. his research interests include teaching good practices, innovative 478 pedagogical practices, teacher training, neuroscience and humanistic philosophy and education. linkedin profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/profluismiranda/ email: luismiranda@isocolegioecursos.com.br juliana amaral piispa works as an education designer in education export at turku university of applied sciences. as a brazilian in finland, she has great insight into the educational field in both countries, and her current interests include education and learning, as well as innovation, globalization and sustainable development. email: juliana.piispa@turkuamk.fi cite this paper as: joshi, m., scheinin, m., miranda, l., & piispa, j. (2020). reports from the field: primary school in brazil using finnish innovation pedagogy to create meaningful online education during the covid-19 pandemic. journal of learning for development, 7(3), 473-478. mtebe developing multimedia enhanced content to upgrade subject content knowledge of secondary school teachers in tanzania joel s. mtebe, elia y. kibaga, alfred a. mwambela, and mussa m. kissaka vol. 2, no. 3 abstract the failure rates and lack of interest amongst students in science and mathematics in secondary schools in tanzania is a serious problem. the ministry of education and vocational training (moevt) implemented a project to enhance and upgrade the pedagogical knowledge and subject content knowledge of teachers in selected difficult topics in science and mathematics in secondary education. this article reports on the process involved in the development of multimedia enhanced content that involved teachers, facilitators, and technical staff. the developed content was evaluated for its satisfaction using a sample of 72 experts that included teachers and instructors after using the content for 10 days. generally, respondents were satisfied with the quality of the developed multimedia enhanced content. however, accuracy had a minimum percentage of users’ satisfaction with 37%. this shows that the majority of the content had spelling and grammatical errors that were supposed to have been corrected before producing the final product. although this is ongoing work, we believe that the lessons learned from our efforts can be useful to similar organizations planning to develop multimedia enhanced content for educational purposes. introduction science and technology are vital tools for accelerating a country’s socio-economic development, especially in developing countries such as tanzania (unesco, 2009). however, tanzania is faced with an acute shortage of science and technology professionals in almost every sector, such as engineering, medicine, and architecture. increasing the quality and quantity of such professionals will accelerate the country’s socio-economic development and reduce extreme poverty. improving the quality of science and mathematics education in secondary education as a starting point is advantageous. this is because the knowledge acquired from the elementary stage provides a good base for courses such as medicine, biochemistry, and environmental sciences (thomas & israel, 2013). science and mathematics education in secondary education in tanzania is faced with several challenges. as a result, the failure rates and lack of interest among students in science and mathematics in secondary schools is becoming a serious problem. it has been reportedpass rates in physics was 26.3% in 2008 and dropped to 13.7% in 2011, while that of chemistry was 32.9% in 2008 and dropped to 15.8% in 2011. a similar trend can be observed in biology and mathematics. for instance, the pass rate for biology dropped from 15.1% in 2008 to 9.4% in 2011, while that of mathematics dropped from 9.2% in 2008 to 5.8% in 2011 (moevt, 2012). in addition, there is a severe shortage of qualified school science teachers in tanzania. according to the world bank project paper (world bank, 2014), the country needs 26,998 secondary school science teachers immediately but the tertiary education institutions in the country can only produce 2,300 graduates annually. the project paper added that, of the current 10,400 in-service secondary school science teachers, many do not have sufficient pedagogical and subject content knowledge. while science and mathematics account for 46 percent of the curriculum, only 28 percent of teachers are qualified to teach these subjects. several interventions exist to address the situation. some of the interventions include the school science project, the school mathematics project, and ispaces. for instance, the ispaces project aimed to enable students and teachers in secondary schools use information and communication technologies (ict) to improve the quality of teaching and learning science, mathematics and english (semali, 2013). the majority of these projects have been focused on students as well as equipping schools with ict equipment. however, less effort has been made to upgrade science and mathematics teachers in pedagogy and subject content knowledge of the subjects they teach. citing the importance of pedagogy and content knowledge of teachers, ball and mcdiarmid (1990) pointed out that, the myriad tasks of teaching, such as selecting worthwhile learning activities, giving helpful explanations, asking productive questions, and evaluating students' learning, all depend on the teacher's understanding of what it is that students are to learn. (p. 1) in alleviating this problem, the ministry of education and vocational training (moevt) implemented a project to upgrade subject content knowledge of science and mathematics teachers. specifically, the project aimed to upgrade pedagogy and subject content knowledge of selected difficult topics in mathematics, physics, biology, and chemistry in secondary education. the main objectives of this article are to report on the: process involved in the development and integration of multimedia enhanced content; and present the preliminary results from the users satisfaction with the developed multimedia enhanced content. the project was designed to develop and integrate content with the latest ict specifically multimedia elements. the choice of using multimedia to enhance the quality of content was based on the fact that the multimedia content can enhance learners’ understanding of concepts that cannot easily be explained using text alone (thomas & israel, 2013). they can also simulate real processes and execute “virtual experiments” that would be dangerous, and costly if conducted in a school laboratory (hennessy, deaney, & ruthven, 2006). the project is in line with the ministry’s mission which includes the following statement, “integrate ict to enhance access, equity, quality and relevance of basic education, while stimulating and improving teaching and life long learning” (moevt, 2007). although this is ongoing work, we believe that the lessons learned from our efforts can be useful to similar organizations developing, or planning to develop, multimedia enhanced content for educational purposes. content knowledge for science teachers upgrading the content knowledge of teachers in secondary education is important to the improvement of teaching and learning. the content knowledge includes “concepts, theories, ideas, organizational frameworks, evidence and proof, as well as established practices and approaches toward developing such knowledge” of a given subject (koehler, mishra, & cain, 2013). failure rates of students in science and mathematics has been linked to a shortage of science teachers, text books and teaching aids in secondary schools in tanzania (unesco, 2009). less attention has been given to how teachers need to understand the subjects they teach (ball, thames, & phelps, 1985). the lack of content knowledge has a direct impact on student achievement in a given subject (metzler, & woessmann, 2012). if teachers have inaccurate and inadequate knowledge of a given subject they teach, they might transfer their own misconceptions to their students (özden, 2008). therefore, understanding the content knowledge to be taught is a central requirement of teaching (ball, & mcdiarmid, 1990; shulman, 1987). in fact, teachers who are competent in the content knowledge of the subject can ask productive questions, prepare learning activities that enable students to learn and foster mastery of the content, and give helpful explanations to students (ball & mcdiarmid, 1990). while mastery of content to teach is a central requirement for any teacher, formulating the subject-matter for student learning is also important (shulman, 1987). for instance, a teacher may have adequate content knowledge the functions topic in mathematics but may lack the knowledge and skills in how to enable students to understand this content. in addition to the lack of content knowledge of the subjects they are supposed to teach, many teachers do not have an adequate knowledge of pedagogy that is applicable to teaching science and mathematics in secondary schools. this knowledge is unique to teachers, and, in fact, is the heart of teaching (cochran, 1992). due to these challenges, students perceive these subjects as unattractive, very difficult, tedious, incomprehensible, boring, and irrelevant to understanding the world around them (siabeycius & poicin, 2012; wieman & perkins, 2005). therefore, equipping teachers with content knowledge as well as pedagogical content knowledge will improve the quality of science and mathematics education in tanzania. the ict retooling project the main objective of the ict retooling project was to improve the quality of teaching and learning in science and mathematics in secondary schools in tanzania. it was designed to use the latest ict to upgrade subject content knowledge of secondary school science and mathematics teachers on the topics perceived as difficult. the university of dar es salaam college of ict (coict) developed and integrated the multimedia elements to enhance the content in the selected difficult topics. the content was digitized and enhanced with various multimedia in order to facilitate self-learning. the developed multimedia enhanced content was packed into 2,500 digital versatile disc (dvds) and uploaded into the customized moodle learning management system (lms) (http://retooling.udsm.ac.tz). the content was also used to train a total of 2,000 teachers in 19 selected centres countrywide. in selecting teachers for the retooling project, an examination (pre-test) was given to 3,500 teachers in the selected centers. out of 3,500 teachers, 2,000 teachers who did not do well in the pre-test examination were selected. sixty facilitators (15 from each institution) from dar es salaam university college of education (duce), mkwawa university college of education (muce), the state university of zanzibar (suza), university of dar es salaam college of ict (coict), and the open university of tanzania (out) were tasked to train the selected 2,000 teachers (500 by each institution). the selected facilitators were faculty members who had the subject knowledge and training experience. in the next section, the process of developing multimedia enhanced content is explained in detail. the process used to develop multimedia enhanced content selection of difficult topics the ministry conducted the needs assessment to identify topics that were difficult to some students and, thus, needed improvement. based on the needs assessment, a stakeholder meeting was held in arusha comprising lecturers from the university of dar es salaam and the university of dodoma, tutors from teachers’ colleges, school inspectors, and secondary school teachers. the meeting was held to identify the topics that were perceived to be difficult to teach and for students to understand. information from the national examination results both current and historical were used to verify the results from the needs assessment and the failure rates in some selected specific topics. a matrix was developed indicating various topics in the syllabi that were perceived to be difficult. a total of 70 topics and 147 subtopics were classified as difficult. the distribution of the topics and subtopics per subject is shown in table 1. table 1. distribution of topics and subtopics per subject. topics subtopics physics 20 34 chemistry 20 47 biology 14 34 mathematics 16 32 total 70 147 development of the template the development of content involved mainly two groups of people namely subject matter experts (smes) and multimedia technical staff. the smes are teachers selected from secondary schools who are competent in science and mathematics subjects, with at least seven years of teaching experience. a total of twelve (12) smes (i.e., three for each subject: biology, chemistry, physics and mathematics) were involved. the multimedia technical staff are experts in developing multimedia enhanced content from coict. in order to guide the content development process it was important to develop a course content template. past course design experience was used to develop a template that allows for the creativity and excitement that helps smes to develop the content that is engaging and that will enable learners to learn independently. the template incorporated some important instructional design principles, such as bloom’s taxonomy (bloom, 1956) and gagne's nine levels of learning (gagné, 1985) to ensure the developed content would meet the intended pedagogical objectives. the developed template was used to train smes responsible for developing the content. the training took place at coict premises at kijitonyama for one day. the training focused on the principles of creating learning materials for independent learning and content development templates. participants also shared experiences on how to search resources that can be used to develop content for selected topics. during the training, smes raised some issues that were supposed to be incorporated in the template. comments and suggestions from smes during the training were incorporated in the template and the final content development template was agreed. some of the components of the template include the rationale of the topic/subtopic, the welcome note, introduction of the topic/subtopic, the objectives, and the content of the topic/subtopic. other components are the self-assessment section for smes to write review questions, a summary of the topic/subtopic, and links to additional resources. digitization of content blueprints the smes of each subject used the agreed-upon template to develop the content blueprints. the process of content development was closely guided by instructional designers from coict, lecturers from duce, muce, suza, and out. the whole team met in arusha for 11 days to help teachers to digitize content of the difficult topics. several resources were used to develop the content blueprints. first, some of the contents were summarized directly from secondary education textbooks. smes brought some textbooks that they have been using in teaching science and mathematics in secondary schools. the textbooks were from different authors. most of these textbooks were those recommended by the ministry. in addition, some of the content was summarized from teachers’ handouts. second, some of the content was carefully selected and downloaded from the internet but they were edited to fit within the context of a given topic. relevant open educational resources (oer) repositories were identified with materials that could enhance the quality of each subject. the smes used these repositories to enrich the content of their topics. they also identified relevant videos and animations from these repositories that could help to enhance the text content. the links of each identified video or animation were inserted at the relevant point in the text content. the use of oer and internet resources was in line with moevt policy (statement 6.2.6) that encourages “the use of free and easily accessible teaching and learning materials, as well as free and open source software” (moevt, 2007). development and integration of multimedia elements once all the content blueprints were developed by smes, the coict team spent time to identify the kind of multimedia elements (video, audio, or animation) that would enable the content to be easily understood by learners. this process involved two teachers from each subject and two instructional designers. this team reviewed each topic and subtopic and discussed how the content could be enhanced for self-learning. after identifying the multimedia elements suitable for each topic, 12 teachers and 20 technical staff from coict took 16 days in morogoro to verify, validate, and convert the content blue prints into multimedia enhanced content. during this period, the identified links were revisited; videos were downloaded and edited. table 2 shows the number of recorded videos from experiments conducted in the laboratory and developed animations. table 2. number of recorded videos from experiments conducted in the laboratory and developed animations subject/type physics chemistry biology mathematics total edited videos 16 6 39 7 68 animations 7 4 1 45 57 recorded videos  10 9 5 1 25 still pictures 0 0 5 0 5 recording and editing of videos some downloaded videos were found to be relevant and suitable for the syllabi and they were used directly to enhance the content. however, we had to rerecord the voice in most of the downloaded videos. the majority of audio tracks in the videos were in accents associated with western countries (e.g., america) as well as india. these accents would have been difficult for students to understand. therefore, the subject matter experts had to record the new voice-overs in english with a tanzanian accent. the videos were edited using adobe premier pro while adobe audition was used to record voice-overs for each selected video. the coict team inserted the new videos into the content using lectora software. figure 1 shows an example of the interface designed using lectora software that was used to integrate multimedia elements into the content. figure 1: the design of interface used to integrate multimedia elements into the content in addition, some videos could not be found in the oer repositories. the majority of such videos were those related to experiments. arrangements were made to record them in the nearest secondary school. the requirements of each experiment were established, such as the chemicals, specimens, and facilities needed for each one. once the requirements were established, the nearest schools were consulted and visited for recording. before recordings were made, smes wrote the scripts and then rehearsed the material. the rehearsals were very useful as they enabled the technical team to record for only a short time. the actual recording of the videos took 10 days at kilakala secondary school. the recorded videos were then edited, and inserted into respective topics in the content. development of animations apart from videos and voice-overs, the content was also enriched with animations. animations were intended to enhance the pedagogical content knowledge in areas of the content that was difficult to explain using text alone (murray & guimaraes, 2008). some teachers had good subject content knowledge but lacked the knowledge to explain to students in a manner that could enable students to understand the concepts. animations played a significant role in overcoming this. as shown in table 2, there were a total of 57 animations for all subjects. most of these animations could not be found in the oer repositories and therefore the team had to develop them from scratch. the animations were developed using adobe flash software while others were narrated and repackaged using microsoft powerpoint. the animations were developed as learning objects to explain specific concepts that seemed to be difficult for students to understand. the design and development of animations was based on interaction design and graphic design principles proposed by holzinger, & ebner (2003). the graphic design such as colours, navigations bars, and appearance were selected carefully to ensure the animations were attractive, engaging and intuitive, and to enable learners to navigate easily. it should be noted that poorly designed animations are often cognitively demanding and decrease students’ learning outcomes (koning, tabbers, rikers, & paas, 2011). moreover, the controls were added (such as pause and replay buttons) to enable students to review the animation at their own pace and time. according to mayer and chandler (2001), learners learn better when they control the pace of the instruction. for complex animations, instructions were provided to enable learners to understand various concepts in visual form complemented by text. multimedia integration the developed multimedia elements were integrated into content using lectora software. the content of each subject was proofread and checked for errors and consistency. the videos and animations were replayed to ensure that they were playing correctly as per the written scripts. the multimedia enhanced content was then uploaded into the moodle learning management system (lms) and also burned onto dvds. validation of multimedia enhanced content the final version of the multimedia enhanced content was validated by a team of stakeholders who spent 8 days in mwanza from 16-23 december 2014. the validation team included 60 facilitators from duce, muce, out and suza, and 20 teachers from secondary schools. the content was validated to check that: the content covered the knowledge gap identified in the needs assessment of difficult topics the quality of multimedia elements was acceptable that multimedia elements were meeting the proposed instructional principles and the design and presentation of the multimedia enhanced content was acceptable. knowledge gap the validation team agreed that the majority of the content covered the perceived difficult topics. however, more content was added for almost every topic and subtopic in order to enhance the existing content. the team also corrected spelling and grammatical errors. quality of multimedia elements the majority of the videos downloaded from the oer repositions were found to be of good quality. nonetheless, 21 videos out of 68 were replaced, as they did not provide the required pedagogical value to the intended content. in many cases this happened after the initial content was changed or edited extensively, thus leaving the multimedia elements disconnected from the new content. moreover, 10 videos were found to be poor and the team re-recorded them. the videos were re-recorded at duce campus using facilities of the demonstration secondary school. design and presentation of the multimedia enhanced content the majority of members of the evaluation team were satisfied with the design of the interface and the overall feel and look of the template used to develop and integrate multimedia content. however, a few suggestions were made. these include: the name of the assessment button to be the same as the title of the page where the assessment takes place. the assessment caption to be renamed to self assessment. the navigation showing topic > subtopic to be made in such a way that learners are able to go to the beginning of the topic/subtopic without necessarily using the previous button or a menu button. assessing satisfaction with the multimedia enhanced content educational multimedia development requires substantial resources. therefore, it is important that both the processes and products of multimedia development are evaluated (albion, 1999). a user satisfaction study was conducted to find out if prospective users were satisfied with the multimedia enhanced content that was developed. we adopted five components: content, accuracy, format, interface, and satisfaction from two studies (doll, & torkzadeh, 1988; wang, 2003) that were relevant for this study. the questionnaire comprised 17 questions categorized into five components. respondents were asked to rate each question using a 5-point likert scale ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. the respondents were also involved in the validation process of the multimedia enhanced content. these were 20 science teachers from rural secondary schools in the kagera and mara regions, 60 facilitators from 4 universities (duce, muce, out and suza), 16 smes, and 15 education professionals from the ministry. they spent 10 days reviewing the multimedia content in groups of 5. out of 100 questionnaires distributed, 72 respondents completed and returned the questionnaires. findings interface the interface has a significant direct positive influence on learners’ satisfaction and usage of the multimedia enhanced content (ardito et al., 2005). if the interface is easy to use and learn, learners will use the system more often and they will be satisfied (mtebe & raisamo, 2014a). on the other hand, an interface which is not user-friendly will cause learners to spend more time learning how to use it rather than learning the content (ardito et al., 2005) and they might feel lost, confused, or frustrated (tarigan, 2011). respondents were asked to rate the ease of use, user-friendliness, and the ease of learning with the interface. as shown in figure 2, the majority of respondents (89%) indicated that the interface was easy to use, 91% indicated that the interface was user-friendly, and more than two-thirds of the respondents (78%) indicated that the interface was easy to learn. figure 2: respondents’ feedback on usability of the interface of multimedia content (n = 72) format respondents were asked to rate if the sequence of the content was effectively organized and easy to follow by learners. seventy-seven percent of respondents indicated that the content was effectively organized to allow learners to follow without much difficulty. however, 17% of respondents were neutral while 5% of respondents disagreed (see figure 3). figure 3: respondents’ feedback on the format of multimedia content (n = 72) content learners satisfaction is influenced more by the quality of the content than by the type of technology used to deliver the instructions (tarigan, 2011). tarigan added that systems that cannot provide sufficient content for understanding a subject matter normally results in learners’ dissatisfaction. therefore, it is important to evaluate if learners are satisfied by the quality of the content. respondents were asked to rate the quality of the multimedia enhanced content. the majority of respondents rated the content was up-to-date (85%), followed by 86% of respondents indicating that the content had sufficient content to enable learners to complete the learning process, and 84% of respondents indicated that the content has educationally significant concepts, models, and skills for the subject. figure 4 indicates respondents’ feedback on the quality of the content. figure 4: respondents’ feedback on the quality of the multimedia enhanced content (n = 72) moreover, 77% of respondents indicated that multimedia items such as videos, animations and simulations included in the content allowed learners to control content. in addition, 78% of respondents indicated that the content was presented appropriately to suit the learners’ knowledge, skills and abilities, while 22% of respondents were neutral and none of the respondents disagreed (see figure 5). figure 5: respondents’ feedback on content control and learners’ knowledge of the content (n = 72) accuracy inaccurate content can mislead learners. therefore, it is important to develop content that is free of spelling and grammatical errors. respondents were asked about the accuracy of the content and if the content was free of spelling and grammatical errors. thirty-eight percent of respondents indicated that the content was free of spelling and grammatical errors, while 19% of respondents disagreed and 43% were neutral. in terms of accuracy, nearly twothirds (68%) of respondents indicated that the content was accurate while 28% of respondents were neutral and only 4% respondents disagreed (see figure 6). figure 6: respondents’ feedback on accuracy of the content (n = 72) general satisfaction respondents were asked to indicate their general satisfaction about the multimedia enhanced content. the majority of respondents (89%) were satisfied with the multimedia enhanced content, while only 10% of respondents were neutral. however, 1% of respondents were dissatisfied. figure 7 shows the distribution of respondents based on overall satisfaction with multimedia content. figure 7: distribution of scores regarding overall satisfaction with the multimedia content (n = 72) content improvement another workshop was organised with 12 smes and 19 technical staff to improve the multimedia enhanced content, taking into account proposed improvements that were suggested during the validation workshop in butimba, mwanza. the workshop took place in morogoro for 10 days. the number of videos that were proposed in butimba increased significantly. the evaluation team thought that videos were useful, especially for content that was developed for self-learning. therefore, more video clips were proposed in almost every subtopic. due to the increased number of videos, seven (7) technical staff were sent to nairobi, kenya to be equipped with the skills necessary to record and edit videos. this training took place for five (5) days. content packaging after the second improvement workshop, the content was ready for packaging. the work started by developing the content in the lectora software. the lectora version of the content was then burned onto the dvds. a total of 2,500 dvds were burned with multimedia enhanced content. the dvds were also labelled in order to differentiate between dvds on different subjects. figure 8 shows a sample of the printed dvd. the dvds were then distributed to four institutions, with each receiving a total of 600 dvds. figure 8: sample copy of a printed dvd for biology the same content was then uploaded into the customized moodle lms. in order to ensure quick and easy access of the content, the videos were uploaded in youtube and then linked into the lms. the lms was registered and it is accessible via http://retooling.udsm.ac.tz. facilitators were registered and given usernames and passwords to access the system. discussion the failure rates and lack of interest in science and mathematics in secondary education has a negative impact on the economy. it creates a negative cycle for producing technicians, engineers and scientists that the country needs for its economic transformation. this has a serious effect on the country’s economic development and aspirations to transform itself into a knowledge-based economy. the majority of existing initiatives to improve the quality of science and mathematics teaching and learning have focussed on increasing the number of science and mathematics teachers, improving teaching and learning infrastructures, equipping schools with ict and other teaching facilities in various schools. however, few initiatives have focused on upgrading pedagogical knowledge and subject content knowledge of in-service teachers, especially using icts. the findings and experience gained from this project will help other institutions planning to develop multimedia enhanced content to improve pedagogy and/or subject content knowledge of teachers in secondary education. the most interesting finding emerged from this study was that the majority of members of the evaluation team indicated that the content had spelling and grammatical errors during a validation workshop. this was evident from the fact that 19% of respondents disagreed and 43% were neutral when asked if the content was free of errors and spelling mistakes. this was expected given the small number of smes and the timeframe that was provided to develop the content. the project utilized two smes for each subject to develop the content. this is a small number of experts compared to the number of topics and subtopics that was supposed to be developed. time constraint was another major factor, since most of the activities were implemented towards meeting the project deadline. for instance, smes spent 10 days in arusha and 10 days in morogoro to develop content blueprints. in fact, the time allocated to develop the content and proofread the developed content was too short. if smes were given enough time, errors and spelling mistakes would not have been made in the first place. however, the next workshop that was held after the validation workshop improved the accuracy of the content. another important finding from implementing this project was that there was very little oer content that was relevant to the context of the syllabi in tanzanian secondary education. most of the resources were either irrelevant or focused on higher education. generally, unwin et al. (2010) noted that, there is relatively little indigenous african content in the oer repositories. unwin and colleagues added that this is due to the fact that the majority of teachers in africa do not have expertise and experience to develop teaching content. as a result, most of the content and multimedia elements were developed from scratch. the most interesting experience obtained from this project was that, many teachers in secondary schools are not aware of copyright and licensing issues regarding the use of content from the internet. initially, teachers downloaded videos and copied notes from the internet without checking the copyright of the contents. as a result, some content was found to be protected by copyrights while others had creative commons (cc) licenses with various options. we had to revisit all the multimedia elements and remove all elements that were protected under copyright and intellectual property rights. also, we had to acknowledge the content based on specific cc licences specified in the original materials. the findings of the study corroborates similar studies that were conducted elsewhere in tanzania. for instance, mtebe and raisamo (2014b) found that nearly two thirds of respondents did not have the skills to use oer, including the cc licensing, in a study conducted in 11 higher education institutions in tanzania. similarly, samzugi and mwinyimbegu (2013) found instructors and students depended on librarian assistance to find relevant oer due to lack of skills to find oer. these findings clearly indicate the need to conduct awareness workshops and train teachers and smes on how to create and/or use already existing oer from various repositories. in addition, there is also a need to encourage teachers to develop quality local content and share them in oer repositories. conclusion the purpose of the current study was to report on the process involved in the development and integration of multimedia elements into content that was going to be used to enhance the pedagogical knowledge and subject content knowledge of secondary teachers in tanzania. moreover, the developed multimedia enhanced content was validated and evaluated by a group of stakeholders involving teachers, smes, facilitators, and educational experts from the ministry. while the development process had some challenges, the majority of users were satisfied with the quality of the developed multimedia enhanced content. the article has reported the findings of an ongoing project. the benefits of multimedia enhanced content will be realized once the teachers have used the content for some time. a study to investigate the extent to which the developed multimedia material enhanced and upgraded pedagogical knowledge and subject content knowledge of teachers in the subjects they teach should be conducted. ultimately, the effect of the use of the material on the grades of students will determine the effectiveness of the multimedia enhanced material. acknowledgements this paper emerged from a larger ph.d study that was funded by the swedish international development agency (sida) through the embassy of sweden in kampala (uganda), and the directorate of research and graduate training (drgt) at makerere university. references albion, p. r. (1999). heuristic evaluation of educational multimedia: from theory to practice. in 16th annual conference of the australasian society for computers in learning in tertiary education, ascilite (pp. 9-15). brisbane, austrlia. retrieved from http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/brisbane99/papers/albion.pdf ardito, c., costabile, m. f., marsico, m. de, lanzilotti, r., levialdi, s., roselli, t., & rossano, v. (2005). an approach to usability evaluation of e-learning applications. universal access in the information society, 4(3), 270–283. doi:10.1007/s10209-005-0008-6 ball, d. l., thames, m. h., & phelps, g. (1985). content knowledge for teaching: what makes it special? journal of teacher education, 59, 389-407. ball, d., & mcdiarmid, w. (1990). the subject matter preparation of teachers. in handbook of research on teacher education (pp. 437-449). new york: macmillan. bloom, b. s. (1956). taxonomy of educational objectives book 1: cognitive domain. chicago: david mckay company. cochran, k. f. (1992). pedagogical content knowledge: an integrative model for teacher preparation. journal of teacher education, 44(4), 263-271. doll, w. j., & torkzadeh, g. (1988). the measurement of end-user computing satisfaction. mis quarterly, 12(2), 259–274. retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/248851 . gagné, r. m. (1985). the conditions of learning and theory of instruction. (f. edition, ed.). new york: holt, rinehart and winston. hennessy, s., deaney, r., & ruthven, k. (2006). situated expertise in integrating use of multimedia simulation into secondary science teaching. international journal of science education, 28(7), 701-732. doi:10.1080/09500690500404656 holzinger, a., & ebner, m. (2003). interaction and usability of simulations & animations: a case study of the flash technology. in proceedings of human-compuetr interaction interact’03 (pp. 777-780). ios press. retrieved from http://www.interact2003.org koehler, m. j., mishra, p., & cain, w. (2013). what is technological pedagogical content knowledge (tpack )? journal of education, 193(3), 13-20. koning, b. b. de, tabbers, h. k., rikers, r. m. j. p., & paas, f. (2011). attention cueing in an instructional animation: the role of presentation speed. computers in human behavior, 27(1), 41-45. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2010.05.010 mayer, r. e., & chandler, p. (2001). when learning is just a click away: does simple user interaction foster deeper understanding of multimedia messages? journal of educational psychology, 93, 390-397. metzler, j., & woessmann, l. (2012). the impact of teacher subject knowledge on student achievement: evidence from within-teacher within-student variation. journal of development economics, 99(2), 486-496. doi:10.1016/j.jdeveco.2012.06.002 moevt. (2007). ict policy for basic education. dar es salaam, tanzania. moevt. (2012). report and analysis of the results. dar es salaam, tanzania. mtebe, j. s., & raisamo, r. (2014a). a model for assessing learning management system success in higher education in sub-saharan countries. the electronic journal of information systems in developing countries, 61(7), 1-17. retrieved from https://www.ejisdc.org/ojs2/index.php/ejisdc/article/view/1128 mtebe, j. s., & raisamo, r. (2014b). investigating perceived barriers to the use of open educational resources in higher education in tanzania. international review of research in open and distance learning, 15(2), 43-65. murray, m., & guimaraes, m. (2008). animated courseware support for teaching database design. computing sciences in colleges, 24(2), 144-150. özden, m. (2008). the effect of content knowledge on pedagogical content knowledge : the case of teaching phases of matters. educational sciences: theory & practice, 8(2), 633-646. samzugi, a. s., & mwinyimbegu, c. m. (2013). accessibility of open educational resources for distance education learners: the case of the open university of tanzania. huria journal of out, 14(76-88). semali, l. (2013). the ispaces framework to restructure culturally responsive secondary science curriculum in tanzania. journal of contemporary issues in education, 8(2), 32-46. shulman, l. s. (1987). knolewledge and teaching: foundations of the new reform. harvard education review, 57(1), 1-21. siabeycius, j., & poicin, d. (2012). how ict can enhance the attractiveness of mathematics and physics in primary school. problems of education in the 21st century, 50, 101-107. tarigan, j. (2011). factors influencing users satisfaction on elearning systems. jurnal manajemen dan kewirausahaan, 13(2), 177-188. retrieved from: http://cpanel.petra.ac.id/ejournal/index.php/man/article/viewarticle/18333 thomas, o. o., & israel, o. o. (2013). effectiveness of animation and multimedia teaching on students ’ performance in science subjects. british journal of education, society & behavioural science, 4(2), 201-210. unesco. (2009). needs assessment study of tanzania’s science education. retrieved from: http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/multimedia/hq/sc/pdf/sc_a_needs_assessment_study_of_tanzania_science_education.pdf unwin, t., kleessen, b., hollow, d., williams, j., oloo, l. m., alwala, j., muianga, x. (2010). digital learning management systems in africa: myths and realities. open learning: the journal of open and distance learning, 25(1), 5-23. doi:10.1080/02680510903482033 wang, y.-s. (2003). assessment of learner satisfaction with asynchronous electronic learning systems. information & management, 41(1), 75-86. doi:10.1016/s0378-7206(03)00028-4 wieman, c., & perkins, k. (2005). transforming physics education. physics today, 58(11), 26-41. doi:10.1063/1.2155756 world bank. (2014). tanzania science and technology higher education project additional financing and restructuring. retrieved from: http://www.gtai.de/gtai/content/de/trade/fachdaten/pro/2014/09/anlagen/pro201409305014.pdf joel s. mtebe is a lecturer of computer science and elearning in the department of computer science and engineering, college of information and communication technologies. he is also the director of center for virtual learning (cvl), of the university of dar es salaam, tanzania.. e-mail: jmtebe@gmail.com elia y. kibaga is the director of research and documentation at the tanzania institute of education. e-mail: kibgaelia@yahoo.co.uk alfred a. mwambela is a senior lecturer of electronics at the department of electronics and telecommunication engineering, college of information and communication technologies, university of dar es salaam. e-mail: nkomo98@yahoo.com mussa m. kissaka a senior lecturer of electronics at the department of electronics and telecommunication engineering, college of information and communication technologies, university of dar es salaam. he is also a principal of the college of ict. e-mail: mkissaka@yahoo.com microsoft word ng.docx issn: 2311-1550 2021, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 456-464 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. reports from the field: secondary school in hong kong integrating the spirit of humanities into steam education sin fai eric ng and chin hung ng ccc kei heep secondary school, hong kong abstract: a small project of steam education called “innovation for love and care” was implemented in a local secondary school in hong kong. four seventh-grade students participated from november 2020 to february 2021. the project aims to integrate humanism into the traditional steam curriculum, to stimulate the students’ innovation in a people-oriented approach. the project consisted of three modules implemented by means of both online teaching and face-to-face lessons due to the covid-19 pandemic. the responses of the students were very positive. the overall performance has been recognised by the school management team. for the next step, the project team plans to expand the project to all seventhgrade students. keywords: hong kong, humanities, interdisciplinary approach, steam education. introduction to respond to the challenges of the e-society, such as the labor workforce being replaced by machines and a lack of creativity, it is suggested that students should be equipped with the knowledge and skills of steam (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) (anito & morales, 2019). educational authorities of different regions or countries have vigorously promoted steam education in the past ten years, so as to develop students’ problem-solving ability, communication skills, creativity and learning ability (monkeviciene, autukeviciene, kaminskiene, & monkevicius, 2020). these skills are necessary for students to prepare for their future (hau, cuong, & tinh, 2020). hammad (2020) found that school principals generally supported the implementation of steam education in their school (hammad, 2020), which can help promote students’ creativity and enhance their competitiveness in their future careers. although steam education has been highly valued, there is limited research on its teaching practices (quigley, herro, king, & plank, 2020). under this background, the project team established a small steam education project in hong kong ccc kei heep secondary school supported by the vice-principal, which is to integrate humanism into the traditional steam curriculum to stimulate the students’ innovation in a people-oriented approach. more importantly, this project aims to cultivate students with a sense of humanism — as a maker, we should have love and care. to explain, the invention of new products from steam education is to help disadvantaged people. the project was from november 2020 to february 2021, and the project team achieved initial results in cultivating students’ humanism. this paper shares those practical experiences with the educators. 457 the context some people argue that steam education is more important than humanities education due to its practical values, however, humanistic heritage is also essential to create moral meaning for steam. that is, humanities education should not be ignored but should be placed in the same position as steam education. it is because humanities education can provide different insights for the students to understand the meaning of steam (hartzell, 2017). some scholars also opposed excluding humanities from the steam curriculum, since it could limit the intellectual development of the students (kim, 2016). fundamentally, the main purpose of steam education is to cultivate students’ ability to solve complicated problems faced by human beings (madden et al, 2013). it means that steam education should be people-oriented and directed towards satisfying human needs. in fact, steam includes art education that can effectively help students develop creativity, and that creativity can be transferred to the innovation of technology (hawari & noor, 2020). for example, macduff et al (2020) conducted a study in the arts and humanities approach (e.g., visualisation) to spark the innovation of nurses in handling the problem of antimicrobial resistance within the community and found that this project could help the nurses foster innovation in nursing practices. therefore, integrating humanities education into the traditional steam curriculum can provide a basis for students to understand the needs of human beings (the goal of invention is to solve the problem faced by human beings) and to employ the skills from steam to develop people-centric and target-specific innovations. the relationship between the sciences and humanities is mutually complementary. for instance, (i) the change of society affects the development of sciences; (ii) political change influences the focus of science research; (iii) nature inspires the philosophy thought of human beings and ethical problems related to science, etc. (leftwich, 2002). this means that there are many meaningful connections between science and the humanities, and they can inspire each other to generate new knowledge. interdisciplinary explorations can provide different perspectives for students to nurture new ideas. essentially, steam is a kind of interdisciplinary exploration that can offer a medium to students for exploring social issues and increasing their awareness of the real world, which eventually helps them build up their innovation ability through those processes mentioned above (guyotte, sochacka, costantino, kellam, & walther, 2015). thus, if teachers can skillfully combine steam education with humanities education, students can understand steam knowledge more deeply and comprehensively, and then they can integrate what they have learnt in humanities into the innovations and creative ideas in steam. the main objective of steam education is to enhance students’ ability to solve real-world problems, so that they can feel satisfied by contributing to others (hong, hwang, szeto, tai, & tsai, 2016). more importantly, the students’ innovation cultivated by steam education should be connected to the real world, so that students can understand their responsibility to make a better world (watters & diezmann, 2013). the statements above emphasise that steam education should be people-oriented and that innovation in science is to improve our quality of life. with this background, the project team discovered that most hong kong schools have tended to focus on the application of technology under the current steam curriculum, however, only a few schools have educated their students about the objectives of and attitudes in using technology. because of this, the project team integrated humanities education into steam education, and launched a tailor-made 458 project called “innovation for love and care” to teach the students why we need to carry out innovation in technology (helping the poor and disadvantaged groups, making a better life for people, etc.) and what attitude should the makers have (ethical, caring, love, etc.). through the open recruitment process, four seventh-grade students were recruited. they voluntarily participated in the course after school. before the experiment, the project team discussed the contents and activities included in the project. after that, the project team invited experienced teachers in curriculum design to give suggestions to the project team, so that the course could be appropriately revised. overall, this project involved three modules, with each containing five lessons (35 minutes per lesson). the first two modules were implemented in online teaching due to the class suspension during the covid-19 pandemic. the last module was conducted through a face-to-face lesson, since the invention task was more complicated and more supervision for the students was expected. the character of the innovation in learning many picture books focus on civic and moral education since the readers can learn and reflect on the moral values in the content (johansson, 2013). for example, some picture books explain the reasons behind the destruction of the natural environment, including economic, political, etc., and encourage people to maintain the environment, pursue justice and to befriend and ethically support the natural environment (echterling, 2016). therefore, three picture books were used as the teaching materials in this project for the part of humanities education. the first book was missing mummy (figure 1). in this story, a child whose mum had died was depressed initially but eventually overcame the difficult situation. the project team used this picture book to teach students to comfort the afflicted. the second book is the dead bird (figure 2), which was about some kind-hearted children who discover a dead bird on the ground of the park. they all feel sad and hold a funeral for it. the students would learn how to show their love and care to all the things in this world. the third book is if i become a mayor (figure 3), which was about a little girl meeting a woman who carried a baby on her back and searched for food from rubbish bins. the girl felt very unhappy and decided to run in an election for mayor, hoping to tackle the problem of poverty. the project team educated the students to take care of disadvantaged groups and help them maintain their daily life. the teacher-students discussion was implemented to deepen students’ understanding of the contents of the picture books. figure 1: the cover of missing mummy 459 figure 2: the cover of the dead bird figure 3: the cover of if i become a mayor drama, micro-writing and appreciation of chinese popular songs were the main activities of of the art education part of this project. these art activities could spark the imagination of students so that they could fully understand the situation of the characters in the stories. as a result, they could also understand why using technology or inventing new products could help solve the problems of people in need. in steam education students learned different steam knowledge to help the characters in the three picture books, respectively. for missing mummy, the students learned the principle of an electronic circuit and applied what they had learned to make a luminous wish card for the child who lost his mum. when the card was opened, the light bulb glowed, signifying that the child could walk out of sadness and give himself hope. for the the dead bird, the students learned the principle of leverage, and used it to make a machine called “birds flying to heaven”. it represented the sincere wish of the children: the hope the bird could rest in peace. for if i become a mayor, the students were taught the concept of “design thinking” and how to apply it in an invention. the specific practices were as follows: 1. using the storyline of the picture book to trigger students' empathy for the poor; 2. defining the real needs of the poor, e.g., lack of enough food; 3. ideating: conducting research and 460 developing works with which to address the needs of the poor; 4. discussing which ideas could be more suitable; and 5. creating a device called “the robot for watering” for the mayor in the story, which could be placed in a small space to automatically water the crops so that the problem of insufficient food for the poor would be relieved. figure 4 shows the course component of the project. to emphasise, the art education here was different from the “arts” of steam — it means promoting the innovative thinking of students. on the contrary, the “arts” of steam means using arts only to beautify the invented product. figure 4: the course component of “innovation for love and care” project the impact on development, including evidence in the first module, the students reported that they quite liked the lessons, because the picture book stories provided a background for the invention and they could understand the reasons for making such inventions. in addition, they found that the lyrics and melodies of the selected chinese popular songs could powerfully resonate with them, particularly when facing the death of their beloved people. some students thought that it was so meaningful to create a wish card with a light bulb (figure 5) for the child who lost his mum because they could give him hope and let him find comfort in reading the wish card. one student indicated that it was amazing to apply the technical skills to make something that could give warm feelings to the afflicted. figure 5: the luminous wish card in the second module, the students reported that, after the lesson, they learned that they should be considerate to all the lives in this world. one student thought that the “birds flying to heaven” machine (figure 6) could help children concretise the good wish for the dead bird. despite the good reasons for the invention, they indicated that it was not easy to make the machine, since they needed 461 to balance the weight of the bird figure and the motor. however, they loved the task, since it was challenging for them. the machines made by the students were exquisite, which showed that they were willing to embellish the machine attentively. figure 6: “birds flying to heaven” machine in the third module, the students collectively expressed that they loved this task very much, owing to having the freedom to design their own robot (figure 7). the robot was connected to a sensor. if it detects a lack of water, it irrigates the plants (crops) automatically (figure 8). the students indicated that sometimes the sensor was extremely sensitive, as a result, much water was released when moving the plants. additionally, they understood that the main objective of the invention was to solve the problems faced by poor people and help them have a better life. some students happily indicated that if they could invent this robot for watering successfully, many families in the cities could install the robot in their homes, so that they could produce some food for the poor. the students were satisfied by their invention, since they fully understood the reason for the innovation: improving the life quality of the disadvantaged group (figure 9). figure 7: the students making their own robot 462 figure 8: the robot for watering figure 9: a participant with his invented products plans for future work there are some limitations to this project. firstly, the number of recruited participants is extremely small due to a lack of funding (i.e., this project was self-financed by the project team); therefore, the result obtained in this project could not be easily inferred to all students in hong kong. secondly, in view of the spread of covid-19, the first two modules could only be implemented in online teaching, so the interaction between teachers and students was limited, and the teachers could not immediately fix the technical problems encountered by the students during the invention process. thirdly, due to 463 the limited teaching time and financial constraints, the project team could only implement three modules in total. nevertheless, the preliminary result sheds some valuable insights: 1. the students understood the spirit of a “maker” (i.e., inventions for people in need and innovation for a better life quality for people); 2. the students learned basic technological principles and applied them to their inventions. 3. an interdisciplinary approach (humanities, arts and steam) was implemented to cultivate the design thinking of students, and the students’ overall responses were positive. in future, the project team plans to continuously design cross-curriculum for steam, so that students can comprehensively understand the background of innovation and invention. on the other hand, the project team will try to apply for funding, so that the size of the project can be expanded to all seventh-grade students, or even all the students of the whole junior form. moreover, the project team intends to invite other educators from different schools to form a professional community, so that different educators can share their practical experience there. also, the educators can cooperate with a potential partner in implementing a new steam education project and integrate the resources which they have held, respectively, so that the resources can be used effectively. lastly, the project team will think about how to strengthen students' creative ability and hands-on ability, so that they can be trained to create inventions independently anywhere. references anito, j. c., jr., & morales, m. p. e. (2019). the pedagogical model of philippine steam education: drawing implications for the reengineering of philippine steam learning ecosystem. universal journal of educational research, 7(12), 2662–2669. echterling, c. (2016). how to save the world and other lessons from children’s environmental literature. children’s literature in education, 47(4), 283–299. guyotte, k. w., sochacka, n. w., costantino, t. e., kellam, n. n., & walther, j. (2015). collaborative creativity in steam: narratives of art education students’ experiences in transdisciplinary spaces. international journal of education & the arts, 16(15), 1-39. hammad, s. (2020). school leaders’ perceptions about steam education to develop steam schools in pakistan. lc international journal of stem, 1(4), 155-165. hartzell, r. (2017). stem and the arts and humanities: debunking a false dichotomy. independent school, 76(2), 66-71. hau, n. h., cuong, t. v., & tinh, t. t. (2020). students and teachers’ perspective of the importance of arts in steam education in vietnam. journal of critical reviews, 7(11), 666-671. hawari, a. d. m., & noor, a. i. m. (2020). project based learning pedagogical design in steam art education. asian journal of university education, 16(3), 102–111. hong, j. c., hwang, m. y., szeto, e., tai, k. h., & tsai, c. r. (2016). positive affect relevant to epistemic curiosity to reflect continuance intention to join a hands-on making contest. eurasia journal of mathematics, science and technology education, 12(9), 2267–2279. johansson, v. (2013). “i am scared too”: children’s literature for an ethics beyond moral concepts. the journal of aesthetic education, 47(4), 80-109. kim, p. w. (2016). the wheel model of steam education based on traditional korean scientific contents. eurasia journal of mathematics, science & technology education, 12(9), 2353-2371. 464 leftwich, g. m. (2002). science and the humanities: the case for state humanities councils. technology in society, 24(4), 523-530. macduff, c., marie rafferty, a., prendiville, a., currie, k., castro-sanchez, e., king, c., ... & iedema, r. (2020). fostering nursing innovation to prevent and control antimicrobial resistance using approaches from the arts and humanities. journal of research in nursing, 25(3), 189-207. madden, m. e., baxter, m., beauchamp, h., bouchard, k., habermas, d., huff, m. ... & plague, g. (2013). rethinking stem education: an interdisciplinary steam curriculum. procedia computer science, 20, 541-546. monkeviciene, o., autukeviciene, b., kaminskiene, l., & monkevicius, j. (2020). impact of innovative steam education practices on teacher professional development and 3-6 year old children’s competence development. journal of social studies education research, 11(4), 1-27. quigley, c. f., herro, d., king, e., & plank, h. (2020). steam designed and enacted: understanding the process of design and implementation of steam curriculum in an elementary school. journal of science education and technology, 29, 499-518. watters, j. j., & diezmann, c. m. (2013). models of community partnerships for fostering student interest and engagement in stem. journal of stem education: innovations and research, 14(2), 47-55. authors: sin fai eric ng specialises in chinese language and literature education. he develops affective education at the secondary school levels. he has worked as a chinese language teacher in secondary school since 2012. his current research interests include the teaching of chinese popular songs and picture books. he is also interested in teacher training and pre-service teacher education. email: ngsinfai@gmail.com chin hung ng specialises in arts education. he develops steam education at the primary and secondary school level. he has rich experience in designing and implementing steam education. he is the author of a steam education textbook. he has been invited as a guest speaker for different seminars of steam education. email: chinhung212@gmail.com cite this paper as: ng, s. f. e., ng, c. h. (2021). reports from the field: secondary school in hong kong integrating the spirit of humanities into steam education. journal of learning for development, 8(2), 456-464. srivastava recognition of prior learning (rpl) and skill deficit: the role of open distance learning (odl) mamta srivastava and s. s. jena vol. 2, no. 1 abstract skills acquisition is vital for any economic growth, particularly in an era of economic and technological changes. the need for skill development is a vital challenge, foremost for a developing nation, such as india. therefore, vocational education and training (vet) is a direct means of providing workers with skills more relevant to their livelihood needs and generating a harmonized condition that should be linked directly to industry’s needs and requirements. skilling half a billion of india’s population by 2022 is the biggest challenge and most ambitious goal ever set by the country in the field of education and training. on the one hand, there are millions of people in india who have a considerable level of skill in a particular area but they do not have any formal certification to verify their existing skills, and on the other hand they are unable to further improve upon this already acquired skill to be commensurate with industry’s needs. hence, there is a need for a way to credit  these already acquired skills through a qualifications framework, against which individuals' skills could be mapped. recognition of prior learning (rpl) is a relatively new concept for india. presently no system has been developed in the skill training sector for assessment, accreditation and certification of prior learning. during 2013, the government of india entrusted the national skill qualification framework (nsqf) with the responsibility for developing a robust system for assessment, accreditation and certification of prior learning by educational institutions, both in the formal and non-formal education sectors. a concerted effort has been made by the national institute of open schooling (nios), an examining body at the school level, devoted to disadvantaged groups using open distance learning (odl) mode, under the auspices of the ministry of human resource development, for assessment, accreditation and certification of skills in the informal sector workforce with industry partners. an attempt has been made through this paper to portray the framework developed by nios, and to discuss the issues and challenges related to implementing rpl in a socio-economic environment as diverse as india’s. backdrop skill building is viewed as an instrument to improve the effectiveness and contribution of the workforce in terms of overall productivity and production.  it could also be seen as an instrument to empower the individual and improve his/her social acceptance or value.  in this era of globalization and economic change we must strive to offer learning opportunities to all, throughout life, by developing and improving structures and procedures to recognize all forms of learning, particularly the outcomes of both non-formal and informal learning. as estimated by the government of india, approximately 93% of the country’s workforce is in the unorganized sector, which consists of all unincorporated private enterprises owned by individuals or households engaged in the sale and production of goods and services operated on a proprietary or partnership basis and with less than ten workers in total. this cuts across all economic activities and includes rural and urban areas. it contributes about 60% of the country’s gdp. strengthening the skill base of the work force of the unorganized sector would improve productivity, working conditions, and, thus, living standards. hence, it has been thought appropriate to develop a system of institutional mechanisms, which would help to develop an action plan, execute the strategic plan, and monitor the skill development efforts for the unorganized sector. the government of india’s 2009 national skill development policy emphasizes all of this in view of the importance of the unorganized sector, its contribution to a sustainable economy and resulting, thereby, in nation building.  with about 12 million persons expected to join the workforce every year in india, and an existing skill development capacity of about 3.4 million workers, it is imperative that the country enhances its skilling, technical and vocational educational capacity to about 15 million, since significant sections of the existing workforce need to be trained. india has set a huge target of training 500 million youth by 2022, as per skill development policy that has been developed by the government. india has one of the youngest populations in the world and a very large portion of this young population has a reasonable knowledge of english. therefore, it has been thought appropriate that this group of people gain the potential to reach the same skill levels as in other countries, and also become competent enough to accommodate india’s own demand for skilled workpower. as far as skill development in the informal sector  is concerned the same is taking place largely in an unstructured way, i.e., people acquire skills at the work-place while they help their parents, relatives and employers, and in the process acquire a skill, often a rudimentary one, that subsequently gets refined to a more advanced level. such persons do not have a formal certificate and, thus, earn lower wages and are exploited by employers. they have come through the informal system, due to the socio-economic circumstances of the family and the necessity of earning a livelihood, rather than attending a formal course. while their productivity is low, their contribution to the national gdp cannot be ignored. the terms "unorganized‟ and "informal‟ sectors are often used interchangeably, as mentioned in the  report of the committee on unorganized sector statistics. learning through working does help in acquiring skills, and needs to be recognized, certified and appropriately rewarded. recognition of prior learning (rpl) is an appropriate method of assessment that considers whether the candidates can meet the assessment requirements for competencies that they already possess. valuing and recognizing these learning outcomes may significantly improve the self-esteem and well being of individuals, motivate them to further their learning and strengthen their labour market opportunities. this may also help integrate broader sectors of the population into an open and flexible education and training system. india’s vet system has almost no process where the prior learning of someone who may have worked in the unorganized sector for decades can be recognized and certified. on 19th december 2013, the cabinet committee on skill development approved the national skills qualifications framework (nsqf), a quality assurance framework which organizes qualifications according to a series of levels of knowledge, skills and aptitude. these levels are defined in terms of learning outcomes which the learner must possess, regardless of whether they were acquired through formal, non-formal or informal learning. another problem is the significant drop-out rate for students after completion of class 10. current statistics indicate that net enrolment in vocational courses in india is about 5.5 million per year, compared to 90 million in china and 11.3 million in the united states (us). a mere two per cent of indian workers are formally skilled. significantly, the bulk of the labour force in india who work in the unorganized sector — about 93 per cent —are largely untouched by any kind of formal training. by way of comparison, 96 per cent of the workers in south korea receive formal skills training, as do 80 per cent in japan, 75 per cent in germany and 68 per cent in the united kingdom (uk). according to the boston consulting group (bcg) report prepared for the confederation of indian industry (cii), india’s workforce in 2006–07 numbered 484 million   (sinha et al., 2008). the bcg study indicates 40 per cent of the current workforce is illiterate and another 40 per cent is made up of school dropouts. those who are vocationally-trained, diploma holders, graduates and above comprise a mere 10 per cent of the overall workforce, while those who have completed 12 years of schooling comprise another 10 per cent. (chinoy, 2013). india has set a huge target of training 500 million people by 2022, which requires programs that are scalable, replicable and accessible. a large portion of the employment would occur in the lower portions of the skill pyramid. there is large demand and supply gap, where the current supply is unable to meet the ever-growing labour demands both in quality and numbers. however, in the indian context the qualifications system still focuses on recognition of competencies acquired through the formal system of education. as a result, a large number of individuals who have acquired learning through informal or non-formal learning modes remain unrecognized. this has led to a huge under-utilization of human talent and resources in indian society. therefore, the learning outcomes that young people and adults acquire in the course of their life in non-formal and informal settings need to be assessed, certified and recognized, to motivate them for lifelong learning and to enhance their productivity. this paper intends to address these issues by making suggestions for the development of a policy on the recognition of prior learning in open and distance learning. recognition of prior learning (rpl) is a tool that is widely used internationally to bring people who have been excluded from learning back into training and education. it does this by recognizing and giving credit for the knowledge and skills these people already have, by boosting self-esteem and allowing for access to new training opportunities or better employment prospects. rpl can help deliver a fairer, more efficient, more flexible and more inclusive skills system, especially where many people have little formal education. after the notification of the national skills qualification framework, national skills development agency ( nsda) organized a preliminary meeting on recognition of prior learning (rpl) on 27th january 2014. the small number of participants in the first meeting agreed that a broader set of stakeholders should be involved in the process. consequently, the national skill development agency (nsda), along with the national institute of open schooling (nios), organized a national workshop on “strategy planning for implementing rpl for informal sector workers” on 24th april 2014, after which, rpl pilots in five sectors were planned. the pilots in some sectors have just started and others have yet to get underway. the need for rpl in india india is often thought of as a country with millions of unskilled people. year after year, large numbers of people drop out of school at various stages and are without any qualifications. they are then absorbed in the enormous informal economy and have to make their living as best as they can. but are these millions really “unskilled”? in many cases, no. they may lack qualifications and they may stand to benefit greatly from training, but rarely are they starting from a base of zero in terms of skills. although employers (or even the individuals themselves) may not recognize it, workers in india’s informal economy often have significant skills, knowledge, and know-how that could form the basis of their further development. three hundred and fifty million out of india’s 510 million strong workforce are employed in the informal sector and acquire skills at their workplace through non-formal/tacit learning. the need for rpl in india arises from the national objective of moving towards a lifelong learning society, in which learners will be enabled to take up learning opportunities at chosen stages throughout their lives. we know that recognition of prior learning (rpl) is the formal assessment, certification and recognition of the skills and knowledge a person has acquired regardless of how or where these competencies were attained.  at the same time rpl creates new routes to qualifications for adults, taps unrecognized talent, and, in many cases, motivates people to resume their formal studies and provides a baseline  assessment, which is a good start before re-skilling . rpl, for the employer, is a cost effective and efficient method (time-wise, since there is no duplication of learning) to build skill levels in an organization and is a critical and relevant investment for the workforce. this also provides employers with the flexibility to make calculated, differential wage / compensation plans linked to workforce skill-levels. solution the solutions to address the challenge of skill acquisition within the informal sector workforce, in our opinion, rest largely upon interventions, skill recognition and training including a recognition of prior learning assessment frame-work and on-demand, modular vocational skills training accessible to workers) and support with employment linkages. these solutions are listed below: link rpl to a national curriculum and qualification as the currency of learning, speed up the process of rpl for the underprivileged, who lack educational opportunities, and for those acquiring skills in informal situations. a common rpl framework is, therefore, needed as vocational training, both in the formal and informal modes, which vary greatly in india. develop an rpl policy and practices that explicitly address the visible and invisible barriers to learning and services. such an approach is required to ascertain the commitment from all players sinvolved, and to  remove barriers so as to  build a visible, usable,  and credible  system which leads to  an   effective and creative vehicle for lifelong learning.  develop an rpl framework of outcomes-based qualifications against which prior learning can be mapped, in order to produce a form of recognition that can be interpreted by training providers and employers, as well as the learners themselves.   nios has developed  a framework, for recognition of prior learning  with the support of col and opnz. from a skills development perspective, a credible ‘prior skills recognition programme’ that helps measure the knowledge and skill levels of the workforce can play a pivotal-role in addressing the skill gaps of the indian workforce. recognize prior knowledge to help policy makers undertake systematic planning that addresses the characteristics of the learners. this would serve as a diagnostic tool for dynamic planning, which, in turn, would increase the productivity of the country. recognition of prior learning as a tool in the development of india a very important and prevalent system of skill training in india has been informal training. such training is often passed on from generation to generation. it is also acquired at the work place as on-the-job training. persons trained this way earn low wages, despite being fully skilled, and are often exploited by the employers since they do not have any formal certificate. even though their productivity is low in comparison to that of others who have been formally trained, their contribution to the national gdp cannot be ignored. to overcome this situation it is essential to develop  a system of certification that not only recognizes such skills but also provides further education and training in a mode that suits their economic circumstances, among other factors. this would not only help the informally trained to earn a decent living but would also contribute to the national economy through increased productivity. technical and vocational education and the training of large populations is an important aspect of the millennium development goals (mdgs). but traditional systems of training individuals for technical and vocational careers often cannot meet the massive need. among the options available to achieve the targets of the mdgs is the application of open and distance learning (odl) methods. over the past over forty years, trainers all over the world have come to appreciate the immense value of using odl methods to provide continuous, "just-in-time" training for workers in various fields. open learning in vocational and technical education has a tremendous amount to offer the new world of work because it is responsive, flexible, fosters independent learning, can be set up in a way that fosters teamwork and allows the immediate transfer of skills through workplace-based learning. open learning also reinforces qualities of self-reliance, mobility and rapid adjustment to the change needed for economic survival in today’s world. the potential and possibilities in the open distance learning mode have undergone remarkable changes so that, today, odl systems, which use a variety of technologies and learner support modalities, can go well beyond teaching merely theoretical subjects. there is enough experience around the world to show that appropriately organized, distance learning experiences, supported by both face-to-face (f2f) and virtual interactions, and hands-on skill development sessions, can be an effective mode to develop technical and vocational competencies. (mennon, 2013)   recognition of prior learning is a crucial area in an open and distance learning system. recognition of prior learning enables effective and maximum utilization of human resources and can be considered as a ‘tool’. the relevance of vocational education has increased in the rapidly growing indian economy, especially in light of the government’s thrust towards universalisation of secondary education, skills development and social justice through inclusive education and training. through the national vocational education qualifications framework (nveqf) the government is looking to formally integrate vocational education with its current conventional secondary and post-secondary educational streams, to provide an opportunity and incentive to students to explore a universe of opportunity. rpl has the potential to be a powerful tool in the development of india and in the implementation of the reconstruction and development programme. it can empower individuals, provide a skill focus for employers, and assist in economic and social development. in terms of the current political, economic and social context in the country, rpl is seen to have the capacity to contribute to redress equity by opening up more ways for people to attain qualified status. it could: enable more people to reach higher levels of qualification and expertise by beginning with an acknowledgement of existing skills and knowledge contribute to enhancing international economic competitiveness by building on often invisible and unacknowledged workforce skills offer the first step in attaining the goal of developing a multi-skilled and flexible workforce by acting as an auditing tool to quantify existing competence. education and training should be available to all, and the process of lifelong learning should be encouraged. people should be continually involved in acquiring new skills and should also gain rewards for existing skills, experience and learning previously unrecognized. rpl in india can thus be seen as a mechanism to accelerate the redress of past unfair discrimination in education, training and employment opportunities. conclusion prior learning assessment and recognition can take various forms and outcomes can be used for a large number of purposes relevant to the goals of individuals, labour market partners and society at large. institutions and employers can make better use of their resources by not making people learn and do what they already know and can do. it will also enable millions to gain livelihoods and take our country ahead in its path towards inclusive and sustained growth. from an organizational perspective, rpl provides a solid base for long-term human resource development and improvements in morale, quality service, and variability. for individual employers rpl could directly address the lack of self-confidence so acute due to recent economic and employment treads in india. from a skills development perspective, a credible ‘prior skills recognition programme’ that helps measure the knowledge and skill levels of the workforce could play a pivotal role in addressing the skill gaps of the indian workforce. skills recognition and certification initiatives in the informal economy through recognition of prior learning (rpl) processes will provide an important pathway for the 90 per cent of indians who work in the so-called unorganized sector (nceus report, 2009). however, the process of skills recognition in the informal economy will need to be accompanied by provision of an rpl infrastructure, which is affordable, reliable and efficient. there will be challenges in identifying where skills exist, documenting those skills, communicating with the potential candidates, as well as administering the process. methods for this should be established, such as portfolio review, written/oral exams, and demonstrations. a relatively open examination system relating to a national qualifications framework and the relevant standards should be created for more transparency, so that it benefits those people who have acquired their knowledge and skills outside the education system. guidance and information campaigns will be needed for the learner to be guided through the process (singh, 2011). references chinoy, d. (2013). skill development in india: a transformation in the making. http://nsdcindia.org/pdf/iir-dilip.pdf (accessed july 16, 2013) mole (ministry of labour and employment), government of india. (2009). national policy on skills development. ministry of labour and employment: new delhi http://labour.nic.in/policy/nationalskilldevelopmentpolicymar09.pdf. (accessed july 14, 2013) mhrd. (2012). national vocational education qualifications framework (nveqf) new delhi, 3 september, 2012 f. no. – 1-4/2011-ve. http://www.aicte-india.org/downloads/nveqf_notification_mhrd_goi.pdf. mennon, m.b. (2013). 2013 discussion paper on “developing implementation strategy for nveqf in open schooling in india. national statistical commission, government of india. (2012, february). report of the committee  on unorganized sector statistics: learning through working nceus (national commission for enterprises in the unorganised sector). (2009). skill formation and employment assurance in the unorganised sector.   http://dcmsme.gov.in/skill_formation_and_employment_assurance_in_the_unorganised_sector.pdf(accessed july 26, 2013) national institute of open schooling, india. (2013). framework for recognition of prior learning. noida, delhi. singh, m. (2011, september). skills recognition in the informal sector. towards a new global world of skills development? tvet’s turn to make its mark. norrag news, 46, pp. 79-81. http://uil.unesco.org/fileadmin/keydocuments/lifelonglearning/en/globalinventoryonnqfs_india_130509_final-final.pdf ( accessed july 26, 2013) sinha, j. k., abraham, j., & vohra, r. (2008). india’s demographic dilemma: talent challenges for the services sector — [bcg report]. new delhi: confederation of indian industry and boston consulting group. mamta srivastava is a senior faculty member at the national institute of open schooling india. e-mail: mamtasrivastava@nios.ac.in s. s. jena is former chairman, national institute of open schooling, and, currently, regional director at indira gandhi national open university, india. e-mail: ss.jena@hotmail.com microsoft word neal.docx issn: 2311-1550 2021, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 465-468 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. book review virtual reality in curriculum and pedagogy: evidence from secondary classrooms erica southgate routledge, 2020, pp. 135, isbn: 978-0-367-26202-0(hbk)/6(pbk)/2(ebk) the aim of virtual reality in curriculum and pedagogy: evidence from secondary classrooms is to ‘stimulate a deeper conversation about the pedagogical value of ivr by sharing insights into what happens when you take this emerging technology out of the controlled conditions of laboratory and put it into the dynamic natural setting of the school’. the introduction starts with the author’s story of how she connected with a school principal to do research in schools. it then explains technical terms used in the book, including outlining the difference between immersive virtual reality (ivr), the focus of the book, and screen virtual reality. this section also helps readers new to the field understand such terms as positional tracking, degrees of freedom, interaction and navigation, cybersickness and learning affordance. the chapter ends with a brief outline of the key ideas in the book and the content of the next seven chapters. the second chapter gives a brief history of virtual reality research, with a focus on use of ivr for education in schools. this section introduces the five learning affordances of virtual reality as being first-person order experiences, natural semantics (understanding the basis of something before learning about the abstract equivalent), size and scale manipulation, reification (transforming abstract ideas into perceptible representations), and transduction (extending a user’s ability to experience what they cannot normally sense). it also discusses ethical and legal considerations, particularly with children given how real virtual environments can seem. other things to consider include the potential for users to experience cybersickness, with symptoms similar to motion sickness, and privacy implications. the next chapter summarises research related to the pedagogy of ivr, highlighting the need to blend signature pedagogies of specialist subjects with the learning affordances of ivr. it presents the actions pedagogy for immersive learning (apil) framework, an ivr-specific framework designed to support schoolteachers to make informed educational decisions regarding ivr applications. the framework introduces three realms — teacher, learner and technical, each with five actions, such as asking, considering, reflecting, checking and developing. teachers would need to do some actions on their own and some with their learners. the chapter also introduces two scaffolds to illustrate pedagogically different experiences within ivr and encourage thoughtful ‘choreography of learning’. the first scaffold classifies ivr according to the degree of learner-embodied interaction and autonomy 466 in the learning experience. the second scaffold discusses moving beyond the ‘tech as tool’ metaphor, recognising that ivr can be a tool, but can also be the whole experience. having set the scene with research and frameworks, the fourth chapter outlines both school contexts and the methodology for the two studies that are the heart of the book. the next chapter describes the context-specific practical and technical issues that the two teams encountered when doing their research. this includes difficulties in timetabling, finding the right physical space, overcoming technology policies and processes, and responses to ‘ethical conundrums’ resulting from working in classrooms, rather than lab settings. the book shares specific strategies on addressing ethical issues, such as posters developed to give students necessary information and having a ‘spotter’ with students while in the virtual environment. chapter 6 details results from the use of ivr with two year 9 science classes at a ‘low-income highschool community’ in new south wales, australia. the selected learning outcome was ‘a student can analyse interactions between components and processes within biological systems’. students worked in groups of three to build a 3d representation of the body organ of their choice. they built their model, cross-section or diorama in the ’no code create’ software minecraft vr. time in ivr was restricted to manage the risk of cybersickness and because ivr equipment had to be shared between teams. multiple teams juggling finite resources required teams to coordinate with peers and manage their projects carefully to achieve the outcomes. the study used preand post-knowledge tests to assess the acquisition of lower order content knowledge in the ivr group and a control group. the two groups spent the same number of hours learning, with the ivr group spending 60% of their time working with ivr. the control group spent these hours in a traditional classroom setting. test results showed no significant difference between the two groups in understanding the topic. however, screen capture recordings of team interactions and teacher and student interviews, indicated that the ivr group developed significantly in skills such as collaboration, effective communication, and problem-solving, as a result of the ivr component of their learning. the study also assessed onand off-task behaviour in ivr. the thought was that the experience might be overwhelming and distracting for students, especially if they were new to the environment, and this risked cognitive overload. the result showed that with no explicit instruction or scaffolding, most groups ‘exhibited metacognitive processes and positive examples of regulation for learning, especially socially shared regulation’. the research team found that most teams were on task at least 80% of the time. even the team for whom minecraft vr proved too distracting demonstrated collaboration, communication and regulating behaviour, just not towards the biology-focused learning outcome. this chapter also shares one in-depth case study, which enables readers to understand how the learning affordances of ivr contributed to deeper learning. the seventh chapter shares the story of the second ivr project, which was in a ‘rural, low-income community’ in new south wales, australia. the context was a senior drama class and ivr was used to help the students develop the ‘abstract notion of directorial vision’. they worked in groups of three to develop prototypes for costumes and set designs for a contemporary australian play, using the ‘no code create’ 3d drawing program tilt brush. the teaching team used a highly experimental process, learning with their learners how to use the ivr to support the learning outcomes. teachers perceived a risk of cognitive overload, particularly early in the process, due to the many features of tilt brush, the intensity of the virtual experience and the complexity of the students’ task, i.e., translating abstract 467 concepts into symbols. they broke the creative process down into three intersecting phases — orientation, preparation and production, and provided different learning supports at each stage. over time, during their projects, groups moved from co-operation, where teams agreed on specific tasks to be done individually, to collaboration, where students interacted fluidly in and out of tilt brush to modify the design or give feedback and suggestions. an in-depth case study illustrates how the process worked and student and teacher perspectives on how ivr was able to support the learning process. the case study includes dialogue captured from video recordings, focus groups and peer-to-peer interviews and images from tilt brush, which, while very different from true immersion, gives some sense of what was created. benefits from using ivr included greater engagement, enriched learning across ‘content mastery, effective communication, critical thinking and problem-solving, collaboration, self-directed learning, and an academic mindset’. another benefit noted was the elevation of students who were talented but tended to be more reserved. the author also comments on the powerful effect of ‘levelling the playing field of privilege’ through a rural, low-income community with evidence of an achievement gap, being able to use ivr in a similar way to cuttingedge international theater projects. the final chapter discusses the lessons learned from the two research projects and outlines questions still to be answered when considering the use of ivr in schools. the research showed that the main barriers to classroom implementation were not pedagogical but physical — difficulty finding suitable physical spaces, and technical — lack of reliability of ivr equipment and constraints imposed by school internet networks. there were also equity issues, with boys being more likely than girls to have had prior experience in ivr and students having different access to devices. pedagogically, teachers were able to leverage the signature pedagogies in how they used ivr. for science, this was the use of representational models to teach about physical and conceptual aspects of phenomena, for drama the signature pedagogy was improvisation. as students were able to enter a virtual world and work with others to create their own part of it, they experienced a greater level of immediacy, authenticity and autonomy when learning than when using screen-mediated virtual reality or in traditional collaborative classroom contexts. in looking to the future, the last section notes the need to better understand ethical, practical and technical considerations when using ivr in school settings, the importance of co-designing research with teachers to further investigate how ivr might add value to learning in schools, the increasing importance of teaching pre-service teachers and the teaching profession about the technical and pedagogical potential of ivr, and the need for policymakers to also understand the opportunities and challenges with using ivr. in my view, virtual reality in curriculum and pedagogy: evidence from secondary classrooms effectively achieves its aim as stated in the first paragraph. it provides a gentle introduction to virtual reality for those new to the topic, with explanations of terms and summaries of the history of virtual reality and the pedagogy of ivr. at the same time, the summaries will still be of interest to those more familiar with the research because they tackle complex issues stemming from the immaturity of use of this technology and the range of opportunities and challenges it offers educators, particularly those working with children in schools. they also offer frameworks to help those wishing to work with ivr navigate this complexity. 468 the four chapters that outline the methodology, the nuts and bolts of using the technology and the honest stories of the two ivr projects, contribute significantly to the ivr conversation. they are honest, practical accounts of what went well and what might be better to do differently, with evidence to support both. the higher-level descriptions of each project, supplemented by one in-depth case study for each, rounded out by reflections on the pedagogical implications, give readers a real sense of what happened and what was learned without having too much to read. i can imagine busy teachers might find time to read a book this size, which is an important way to contribute to a deeper conversation, by including practitioners as well as researchers in the process. so, in summary, the book is an accessible starting point for those new to the field wanting to understand ivr, its potential benefits and issues yet to be resolved, and assess whether this technology might be relevant in their context. for those who have decided they wish to move into using ivr, it provides the right blend of inspiration, practical advice and things to look out for. for those already using ivr it contributes reflective insights which can supplement their existing knowledge and experience. reviewed by: ms. terry neal is an education specialist at the commonwealth of learning. email: tneal@col.org cite this paper as: neal, t. (2021). book review: virtual reality in curriculum and pedagogy: evidence from secondary classrooms. erica southgate. journal of learning for development, 8(2), 465-468. microsoft word pullenayegem.docx issn: 2311-1550 2021, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 327-345 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. contradictions in learner interactions in a blended-learning writing course: an activity theory analysis judy pullenayegem, radhika de silva and gayathri jayatilleke the open university of sri lanka abstract: this paper reports on the use of engeström’s (1987) activity theory (at) framework to gain insights into the contradictions that emerge within the activity system of the online component of an advanced writing skills course, delivered in a blended-learning mode using the process approach. activity theory, with its principle of contradictions, has been used successfully to identify tensions that arise in interactions between and among participates in online environments. the focus of this mixedmethod study was to identify challenges participants experienced due to externally imposed conditions when engaging in the online activities. data was collected through semi-structured interviews and the online log reports from the learning management system (lms). contradictions emerged between and among the elements of two activity triangles within the activity system of the online writing course. implications of these contradictions were noted to take steps to improve the design of the online component of the writing course. keywords: activity theory, contradictions, advanced writing skills, blended learning, process approach. introduction academic writing is an indispensable skill for undergraduates in he institutions, but it is also one of the most complex skills that can be mastered. research indicates that second-language learners find it very challenging to master academic writing in their disciplines (grabe & kaplan, 1996; jones, 1999; kroll, 1990). in the sri lankan context, this problem was evident in the conventional universities (fonseka, 2008; illangakoon, 2011/2012; kumara, 2009; perera, 2006; sivaji, 2011/2012), as well as in the open and distance learning (odl) context at the open university of sri lanka (de silva, 2014; raheem & ratwatte, 2001; ratwatte, 2005). reviewing the foregoing studies, it was clear that the odl learners at the tertiary level, who are esl learners, required extra support to improve their academic writing skills, particularly their essay writing skills, to meet the demands of their present and future studies. furthermore, strategic instruction using online technologies was seen to have potential to improve the english academic writing skills of esl learners which endorses the use of the blendedlearning (bl) mode to teach them (ferriman, 2013; liu, 2013; yoon & lee, 2010). since the ousl had the infrastructure facilities already in place to make this possible, it was decided to conduct an advanced writing skills course in the blended-learning mode to develop the essay writing skills of the learners. the course aimed to help the learners write coherent and well organised academic essays using a variety of essay organizational patterns. to enable them to develop their essay writing proficiency, an approach that has exerted a significant influence in l2 writing pedagogy and classroom instruction to 328 essay writing, the process approach (pa) (polio, 2001; raimes, 1985; silva, 1990; zamel, 1983), was used. this paper reports on part of the study that used engeström’s (1987), activity theory (at) as a framework to gain insight into the contradictions that emerged in the online component of the advanced writing skills course offered in the bl mode. the objective was to ascertain the challenges faced by the participants in engaging in the designed activities due to the externally imposed conditions with the intention of improving the course design. the following research questions were investigated: 1. how does the implementation of explicit rules affect interaction and collaboration among learners when engaging in the specified online activities? 2. how does the division-of-labour affect interaction and collaboration among the community (learners and tutor) when engaging in specified online activities? literature review much research has been conducted in the use of the pa in teaching writing in a bl mode (adas & bakir, 2013; ferriman, 2013; shafiee et al, 2013; yoon & lee, 2010). however, there is limited research both internationally and locally in the field of writing research that utilizes the pa, in which the at framework with its principle of contradictions was used to investigate learner interactions in the online environment. at an international level, a study conducted only online at a university in new zealand used at to determine the positive changes in the operation of a computer mediated writing programme (brine & franken, 2006). the findings revealed that the at framework was effective in highlighting several issues and constraints in the activities pertaining to the co-construction of a text. the tensions that surfaced in the activity system of the task; between the subjects, rules, roles and the division-of-labour revealed that different students had different perceptions about the ways activities were carried out. some students enthusiastically adopted them while others contested them. activity theory as a framework of analysis was also utilized in a study in the sri lankan context by jamaldeen et al (2016). the purpose of this study was to investigate the social and technical activity system relevant to the area of introducing m-learning to enhance english language learning among school leavers. in this instance, participants exhibited a strong need to enhance their english language proficiency, and therefore engaged in a number of activities using their mobile devices to access information. rules set in place were followed by the subjects, and the roles of participants, facilitators and learners were clearly defined and adhered to. thus, revealing that implementation of an mlearning platform for enhancing the learners english language proficiency has the potential to be successful. a recent study conducted in the odl context in sri lanka used at and pa to improve essay writing at the tertiary level. the purpose of this study was to investigate the extent of learners’ interaction with online mediation tools, and the most significant contradiction that emerged was the underutilisation of the mediation tools due to time constraints, a lack of motivation, and disparate language proficiency (pullenayegem, de silva, & jayatilleke, 2020). 329 each of the aforementioned studies used at as their framework, which highlighted several issues and constraints in activities related to the co-construction of knowledge. however, the results were mixed. while the study at the international level revealed that not all students were keen to engage in the prescribed activities, the 2016 sri lankan study showed a higher level of student engagement with participants being eager to enhance their language learning and following the rules set in place. the recent 2020 study in the odl context in sri lanka revealed that the most significant contradiction was the under-utilisation of the mediation tools due to time constraints, a lack of motivation, and disparate language proficiency. this study used the pa to improve the writing skills of learners at the tertiary level. the purpose of the present study helps to fill the gap in the literature by investigating the use of at and pa to study the contradictions that emerge in relation to learner engagement in online activities due to externally imposed conditions when learning english essay writing in a blendedlearning course. as well as to determine how implementation of explicit rules affect interaction and collaboration among learners, and the division-of-labour affects interaction and collaboration among the community. theoretical framework activity theory is a dynamic framework that is used to understand the complexities that exist in an activity system and is an invaluable aid in bringing to light any contradictions or tensions that can arise within the elements of an activity system or between activity systems (engeström, 1987, 1999). the structure of the activity theory model consists of two triangles, an outer, larger triangle, and a smaller, inner triangle, with its apex pointing downwards (figure 1). the three nodes of the larger triangle represent the elements; tools – rules – division-of-labour (t-r-dol) of the activity system, and the three nodes of the inner triangle represent the elements; subject-community-object (s-c-o), the lines between the elements in turn form smaller triangles within the activity system. the lines between these six elements represent the relationships between these elements. furthermore, as researchers point out, any activity system will inevitably contain contradictions, however, these contradictions serve a useful purpose, in that they can cause change and development (engeström & meittinen, 1999). figure 1: engeström’s (1987) model of an activity system 330 the at framework offers a broad lens of inquiry and has been useful in highlighting contradictions that occurred in schools and institutions of higher learning. a number of studies using at and its principle of contradiction as a framework have been used in a variety of educational contexts. the use of at affords opportunity to study these contradictions with a view to bringing about "change, innovation or development" (ekundayo, et al, 2012, p. 13). the at framework was utilized to examine web-based writing projects, to understand how to develop and sustain long-term writing instruction projects. contradictions that arose in the activity system of an online writing project in a study carried out by palmquist et al (2009), enabled the team members to identify several contradictions between the elements, and within the elements of the activity system of the project. these contradictions led to changes in the writing support system offered to students following the course, and copyright protection for contributors to the project. using at was viewed as extremely beneficial in enabling the team to develop a writing environment to support their student population. baran and cagiltay (2010), using an internet platform, investigated the effectiveness of the use of online communities of practice (ocops) in the professional development of mathematics teachers. the themes that emerged from the participants’ reports were categorised under each component of at and compared with the data received from the participants’ discussion list messages and interviews. the results of this study show that the use of the at in analysing the data was effective in evaluating and comparing ocops designed and built with a design and implementation processes. another study by gedera and william (2013) utilized at to identify the tensions and conflicts, and how learner participation was affected due to the contradictions that arose in a fully online course at a university in new zealand. several contradictions were noted from the analysis of the powerpoint presentations and learner messages in the discussion forums of the lms. these contradictions were found in the presentation of course material as respects readability of texts on the screen, difficulty in downloading some of the podcasts, and lack of adequate planning regarding the individual responsibilities in communicating clear and accurate information to learners. tensions and contradictions were experienced due to limited teacher guidance and feedback in the discussion forums. the tensions and conflicts encountered showed areas that required improvement. barab et al (2002), used at to analyse the learner and instructor participation in a computer-based three-dimensional (3-d) modeling course for learning astronomy. the tensions in the relationship between learning astronomy and building 3-d models, and the interaction between pre-specified, teacher-directed instruction versus emergent student-directed learning were analysed. the at analysis revealed that often the actions of model-building and astronomy-learning were the same, and directed-learning emerged from the rules, norms, and divisions-of-labor and not from teacherdirected or student-directed learning. this insight could enable instructional designers and educational researchers to meet the challenge of designing or re-designing courses to ensure that meaningful participation and learning takes place. the results of the above studies show that the use of at can contribute significantly to improving the design and implementation of online courses, because the contradictions that emerge highlight areas that need to be given attention for better results. 331 method research context the focus of this study was the online component of an advanced writing skills course offered in the bl mode to learners of the diploma in english language and literature at the open university of sri lanka (ousl). the course aimed to help the learners write coherent and well-organised academic essays using a variety of essay organisational patterns, for which the process approach (pa) was used. the course consisted of seven (7) face-to-face (f2f) sessions, with each session being of three hours duration. each session focused on specific stages of the pa to writing: pre-writing, drafting and revising, editing and proofreading, and sharing (publishing), and application of all the stages in writing three types of essay organisational patterns. at the end of each day school session learners were required to participate in the online activities designed for each respective online session. participants were required to interact with each other, within their assigned groups in discussion forums (dfs). the assigned tasks included giving peer feedback, making needed changes in their assignments based on peer feedback, submitting the edited assignment for tutor feedback, and submitting the final edited copy of the assignment to the final copy forum to share with peers. this paper focuses on how the implementation of explicit rules affects interaction and collaboration among learners, and how the division-of-labour affects interaction and collaboration among the community when engaging in specified online activities (table 1). table 1: online course activities, rules and division-of-labour ses. activities rules division-of-labour 1 pre-writing (a) 1. brainstorm given topic: (health / education / employment / media) 2. draw mind-maps 1. produce and upload draft assignment to df for peer feedback 2. give at least one feedback comment to a group member only within assigned group 3. upload revised assignment based on peer feedback to assignment box for tutor feedback 4. upload final revised assignment based on tutor feedback to final copy forum for sharing individual task 1. produce and upload mind-map of chosen topic to the dfs 2. revise assignment based on peer feedback 3. upload revised assignment based on peer feedback to assignment box for tutor feedback 4. upload revised assignment based on tutor feedback to final copy forum for sharing peer task: 1. give feedback on at least one submission of group member tutor 1. give feedback on uploaded assignment 2 pre-writing (b) 1. write essay outline 2. write a body paragraph 3 drafting & revising 1. write first draft of essay (intro. body & concluding paragraphs) 4 editing and proofreading 1. edit errors language, grammar and vocabulary, 2. proofread for errors punctuation, spelling etc. application – organizational patterns 5 compare/contrast essay topic – house & apartment 6 problem / solution essay topic – garbage disposal in city of colombo 7 cause / effect essay topic – migration of women to middle east publishing (sharing) at all stages 332 methods of data collection this study utilised the explanatory sequential mixed methods research design. both quantitative and qualitative data were used to enhance the validity and the reliability of the research findings. volunteer participants, who made up the study’s sample, included 64 adult learners composed of females (47), and males (17). the majority were between 20 and 30 years of age, followed by those between 31 and 40 years, with 14 participants being over the age of 41. the majority (39) were teachers, and of these 24 were english-language teachers. those employed in administrative capacities or were students studying at other universities numbered 17, while two were homemakers, and six were unemployed, respectively. the quantitative data were collected through log reports in the initial stage. the online log reports automatically recorded the participants’ interaction in the online environment when engaging in the assigned online activities. thereafter, qualitative data were gathered from semi-structured one-on-one post interviews with 34 participants. a cross section of participants age-wise, and according to their secular and domestic commitments, were chosen. the interview questions focused on the two research questions related to the imposition of rules, and the division-of-labour in the activity system of the online component of the course. data analysis initially the online logs were filtered to generate data to determine the extent of participation of each participant in conforming to the activity triangles, subject-rules-object (s-r-o), and community– division-of-labour–object (c-dol-o) of the activity system of the online course, using the at framework (table 2), and the data were analysed. the interview responses were transcribed and coded using the coding procedure; qualitative content analysis (qca) suggested by schreier (2012). in order to answer the research questions, two separate coding frames were drawn. the initial coding frame for research question 1 was drawn up based on the main category (challenges) and subcategory (conformity to and view of rules). the coding frame for research question 2 was based on the main category (challenges) and sub-category (conformity to and view of division-of-labour). the units of coding were the statements or phrases in the responses that meaningfully related to each of the categories. table 2: description of activity system of the advanced writing skills course nodes description subject learners of the advanced writing skills course object to practice writing essays using the stages of the pa. outcome to develop the competency in academic writing rules the protocols to be followed when engaging in activities community the learners and the tutor of the advanced writing skills course division-of-labour the individual tasks, task between peers, and tutor task. 333 results question 1: how does the implementation of explicit rules affect interaction and collaboration among learners when engaging in the specified online activities? the overall results of the data gathered regarding the activity triangle of the s-r-o presented in table 3, help to identify contradictions that are described thereafter. table 3 records the number of participants who engaged in activities in the four sessions of the six stages of the pa, and three sessions of the application stage. this data formed the basis for the questions in the interviews in order to determine challenges encountered by participants in interacting and collaborating with each activity. table 3: overall results of conformity to rules in the s-r-o activity triangle as table 3 shows, of the 64 participants in the study, only 31 participated in the online activities, which is less than half the sample in this study. session 1, activity 1, had the highest number of participants (26). thereafter, the number participating decreased to 20 in session 2, activity 2, with the least number of participants (5), recorded in session 4. the contradictions that emerged related to the subject-rules-object (s-r-o) triangle of the activity system of the online course are next presented. total no. of participants in study (n = 64) stages of the process approach application stage sess. 1 sess. 2 sess. 3 sess. 4 sess. 5 sess. 6 sess. 7 act. 1 act. 2 act. 1 act. 2 act. 1 act. 1 act. 1 act. 1 act. 1 in fo rm al /fo rm al te xt b ra in st or m / m in d m ap o ut lin e b od y pa ra gr ap hs d ra ft a nd r ev is e e di t a nd p ro of re ad c om pa re / c on tr as t p ro bl em / s ol ut io n c au se a nd e ff ec t no. no. no. no. no. no. no. no. no. r u l e total no. of active participants in each session 31 25 27 20 21 5 9 10 12 1 produce and upload draft assignment to df for peer feedback 26 25 24 19 19 5 9 9 11 2 give at least one feedback comment to a group member only within assigned group 18 11 22 16 15 1 6 4 7 3 upload revised assignment based on peer feedback to assignment box for tutor feedback 20 24 13 19 13 5 9 10 11 4 upload final revised assignment based on tutor feedback to final copy forum for sharing 14 18 17 8 n ot r eq ui re d. 7 7 6 5 334 contradiction 1: failure to conform to all the rules the data presented in table 3 shows that no participant conformed to all the rules. even though 31 participated in session 1, activity 1, only 26 participants conformed to rule 1. least conformity to the rules was seen in the editing and proofreading stages; five participants conformed to rules 1 and 3, and one (1) participant conformed to rule 2. thereafter, a nominal increase in conformity to the rules is recorded in the application stage that required writing three types of essay organisation using the pa. furthermore, it is evident that the rule that the majority of participants failed to conform to in all seven sessions was rule 4; uploading the final edited copy after receiving tutor feedback. this aspect was elaborated on in the interviews in the following responses: … if others are there and they won’t participate i can’t help. . . [sf-2860-interview] i didn’t receive much comment … only one or two … [sf-1557-interview] i have two kids and i tried to do a lot because … then sometimes i miss this part because we had to do a lot of work [sf-3526-interview] the main reasons for failure to adhere to all the rules as observed in the selected comments of the interviewees were the lack of participation by peers within groups, and constraints of time and family obligations. contradiction 2: rules too restrictive the second contradiction that emerged is that some participants found the rules restrictive. this surfaced due to the rule that restricted them to give feedback to only members within their own groups as is observed in the following interview comment: well i was tempted to do so, [give comments to members of other groups] but, because, due to the rules you only can comment on that, you know it was like forcefully, like don’t type anything, don’t type anything, but just read. [sm-2622-interview] contradiction 3: difficulty to conform to the rules due to excess activities the third contradiction that emerged related to rules was that some participants viewed conformity to all four rules as being difficult, since it required the cooperation of other group members to complete a given activity within a given time frame. also, too many activities in the process made conformity to the process tedious and confusing. these difficulties are revealed in the following interview comments of the participants: it was a bit difficult because once i finish, if i finish my paper fast then i would have to upload it then getting some one’s feedback was difficult because sometimes people in the group would not participate at all so like we can wait till some one’s comment or upload something for me to send the assignment to you and then that was a bit frustrating… [sf-3470-interview] … without having a long process. maybe, ok, submit your essay, and maybe comment on someone like make it short, rather than editing and again posting, it’s a bit tedious even for me. [sf-6504-interview] there were so many, so many steps to do no! little bit it confused, it was little bit confused, madam [sf-3772-interview] 335 contradiction 4: conformity to rules beyond the control of the subject the fourth contradiction was that conformity to the rules was beyond the control of subjects because of delays in receiving comments on participants’ submissions from peers in the group as typified in the comment below by an english language teacher, who exhibited high proficiency in writing, with a pre-test mark of 68% and a post-test mark of 80% and exemplifies participants’ perception of the rules: yes, i would say now, it was like this, now for example, now say an essay, we need to submit it, then we need to comment, and then we need to wait for someone to comment and then incorporate it into our essay, and so it was a bit long, long thing, especially with all the other commitments, … and also we need to wait for someone. that was also, i mean, was not in our hands. so, i mean and it was only after that, that we got tutor feedback [sf-6504-interview] question 2: how does the division-of-labour affect interaction and collaboration among the community when engaging in specified online activities? table 4 presents the overall results of the data regarding the activity triangle of the c-dol-o. the table shows the number of participants who actively engaged in each of the seven sessions in relation to individual, peer, and tutor task (to give feedback on uploaded assignments). noteworthy contradictions related to the individual tasks, peer task, and tutor task were recorded. significantly, the highest number of participants was 31; less than half the sample of 64. also, contradictions existed in all the tasks: individual, peer, and tutor, related to the c-dol-o activity triangle. several contradictions were found to be common to all the nine activities designed for the online component of the course, which will be presented below. data gathered from the log reports are corroborated with interview comments. 336 table 4: overall results of division-of-labour in the c-dol-o activity triangle the contradictions that emerged related to the c-dol-o activity triangle of the activity system of the online course are next presented. total no. of participants in study (n = 64) stages of the process approach application stage sess. 1 sess. 2 sess. 3 sess. 4 sess. 5 sess. 6 sess. 7 act. 1 act. 2 act. 1 act. 2 act. 1 act. 1 act. 1 act. 1 act. 1 i n fo rm al / fo rm al te xt br ai ns to rm / m in d m ap o ut lin e b od y pa ra gr ap h d ra ft a nd r ev is e e di t a nd p ro of re ad c om pa re / c on tr as t p ro bl em / s ol ut io n c au se a nd ef fe ct no. no. no. no. no. no. no. no. no. total no. of active participants in each session 31 25 27 20 21 05 09 10 12 task individual task 1. produce and upload specified assignments to the df relative to each stage of the pa for peer feedback 26 25 24 19 19 05 09 09 11 2. revise assignment based on peer feedback 17 15 12 14 14 01 06 03 10 3. upload revised assignment to assignment box based on peer feedback for tutor feedback. 20 24 13 19 13 05 09 10 11 4. upload revised assignment based on tutor feedback to final copy forum for sharing 14 18 17 08 not rqd. 07 07 06 05 task peer task 1. give feedback on at least one submission of a group member 18 11 22 16 15 01 06 04 07 task tutor task 1. give feedback on uploaded assignment 20 24 17 19 13 05 09 10 11 337 contradiction between subject (learner) and individual tasks the overall results in the c-dol-o activity triangle, as presented in table 4 above, help to identify the contradictions between the subject (learner) and the four (4) individual tasks. there was a noticeable decline in the number of participants, as well as the number of submissions in the latter stages of the pa. the four individual tasks related to the sixth stage of the pa, editing and proofreading in session 4, saw a significant decline. thereafter, an overall low engagement was in the individual tasks in the application stage, with the highest, 11 participants, who engaged in writing the cause-and-effect essay, and the lowest, three, in writing a problem/solution essay. sample comments related to individual tasks are as follows: i actually, i kind of logged in, and i was just keeping in touch. but i submitted only the first … assignment that is the changing from informal to formal, so i participated only in that. [sf-6504interview] i have two kids and i tried to do a lot because … then sometimes i miss this part because we had to do a lot of work [sf-3526-interview] . . . editing was something very hard, because editing means editing our own, our own work was a little difficult because we need to realize what we have written is wrong to find that is a little difficult that was very hard [sf-4668-interview] actually, if i think about it now, i think, i must say, i didn’t consider it [engagement in online activities] so important. i suppose if had, i might have done it … the fault is mine [sf-5537interview] …actually if you can make it compulsory then that is better … somehow i might have done that [sf-2605-interview] …if we were getting marks then i think i would probably stay up in the nights and you know do it somehow… we didn’t, you know, not very committed to always participate. but then if we were getting marks, i think everyone would at least stay up in the night without worrying about waking up early morning the next day, and somehow finish it [sf-3470-interview] these comments reveal several challenges that contributed to low participation in individual tasks. these included time constraints due to family and career commitments as well as disparate language proficiency. also, the lack of incentive, such as making the task compulsory and giving marks, adversely affected self-motivation. contradictions between subject (learner) and peer task engagement in the peer task as presented in table 4 shows that contradictions emerged between the subject (learner) and peer task. the peer task was to give feedback on at least one submission of a group member. as in the individual tasks, the key issue was the decline in engagement in activities in the latter stages of the pa, including the application stage. as respects the peer task, a nominal increase from 18 in activity 1 in session 1 to 22 in activity 1 in session 2 was recorded in the pre-activity stage. thereafter, there was a sharp decline in participants to a single (1) participant engaging in the editing and proofreading stage in session 4. engagement 338 level in the application stage, too, decreased to four in session 6. the following comments highlight the tensions in this area: though there were fifteen, i don’t remember the exact amount, twenty in a group but only ten, five to ten members were in that group actively… [sf-3673-iterview] … since all were on a last minutes people we get together and tomorrow we try to get views the day before, then we found on the online session, that we don’t get much people at the final hour and since you have to get the feedback we won’t have time to submit the assignment [sm-2622interview] … for example now say an essay we need to submit it, then we need to comment, and then we need to wait for someone to comment and then incorporate it in to our essay and so … especially with all the other commitments, and … and also we need to wait for someone. that was also, i mean, was not in our hands. … i mean and it was only after that, that we got tutor feedback. [sf6504-interview] i try to correct, sometimes, i couldn’t, i don’t have idea about how to correct mistakes [sf-2643inteview] … actually quality from my peers were not all that good [sf-3797-interviews] first actually i felt a bit embarrassed … because i remember the discussion [df] was going on we got to know certain people are quite higher than us and they are good in their vocabulary, and to share ours with errors and all embarrassed [sf-5719-interview] the above comments indicate that lack of engagement or delayed engagement in the peer tasks presented a challenge to the participants. additionally, the disparate language competency of participants caused some who were less proficient to refrain from commenting. also, those who were less proficient in the english language did not know how to correct mistakes in their own writing. furthermore, those who were more proficient viewed others’ submissions as being of a poor quality. contradictions between subject (learner) and tutor task the tutor had a single task of giving feedback on assignments uploaded by participants. table 4 shows the number of assignments to which the tutor gave feedback in all seven sessions of the course. the tutor’s task was to give feedback to help the individual learners to revise their initial submissions of texts, and not for subsequent revised submissions. the comment by one participant [sf-1557] draws attention to the inadequacy of the tutor’s single feedback on submissions. she expected the tutor to check her revised submission prior to uploading it to the final copy forum as revealed in this statement: … the final stage, the very end of it, i don’t know whether you have checked the thing otherwise i wish if you have checked the final thing then it’s perfect like, after making the correction, we don’t know whether our corrections are correct even …to do the final copy as well. [sf-1557interview] discussion and recommendations the findings reveal that the participants experienced several challenges that interfered with interaction and collaboration between participants in the online environment of the course. as respects the implementation of the rule element, participants found it challenging to adhere to all the rules. three significant contradictions that emerged were related to the view that the rules were 339 restrictive and did not give opportunity to interact with, and give feedback to, learners in other groups. the number of rules was excessive and conforming to four (4) rules was difficult. the third contradiction related to conformity to the rules being beyond the control of the subject. challenges were also present as respects the dol in the online environment, the individual tasks, peer task and tutor task. the major challenges encountered were related to low participation in individual tasks. these included time constraints due to family and career commitments as well as poor language proficiency. also, the lack of incentives, such as making the task compulsory and giving marks, adversely affected self-motivation. the challenges that affected interaction in the peer task were the lack of engagement or delayed engagement in the tasks. additionally, the disparate language competency of participants caused some who were less proficient to refrain from commenting. those who were less proficient in the english language did not know how to correct mistakes in their own writing. also, those who were more proficient viewed others’ submissions as of a poor quality. the tutor task did not present much of a challenge. the common contributory factors for the tensions within the two activity triangles (s-r-o) and (cdol-o) were: 1) time constraints, 2) disparate english language proficiency levels, and 3) motivation, which will be expanded on below. time constraints time constraints due to personal and institutional factors impinged on the level of interaction and participation in most activities, as well as the extent of feedback. this was observed within and between the subject-rules, and the community-dol of the two activity triangles. these results were endorsed by the interview responses. time constraints due to personal factors were because the majority of participants were adult learners, who were employed with secular and domestic commitments. balancing these multiple roles along with their studies was challenging (quimby & o’brien, 2004, topham, 2015). furthermore, these commitments impinged on the level of participation because time was required to think about what to say in order to contribute meaningfully to online dfs. these results are also supported by the findings in other studies (chathurika, & rajapaksha, 2017; fung, 2004; mason, 2011; ng & cheung, 2007; yukselturk, 2010). time constraints due to institutional factors were related to the set rules and the number of activities included in the course. many participants confirmed at the interviews that they felt that the rules were too many, and some found the procedures when engaging in the activities complex and time consuming. also, the lack of peer responses and delay in responses in the dfs impinged on their time. considerable time is also taken to read and respond to posts. the study by beaudoin (2002) found that less visibly active students spent 7.6 hours on an average during a two-week period of online conferences reading the comments of others. they also spent another 2.2 hours writing comments. these hours were spent only for participation in discussion. in this present research, at each stage of the pa participants were required to engage in several tasks: individual, peer, individual and tutor tasks, reading messages, writing assignments and reflective journals. the responses to the interview reinforce the finding that the online course activities took more time and commitment than anticipated. 340 english language proficiency disparate english language proficiency contributed to contradictions in the two activity triangles (s-ro), (c-dol-o). the findings revealed a close interrelationship between interaction, feedback and motivation; one can cause a reaction in another and vice versa. these were adversely affected by disparate english language proficiency, as confirmed by the interview responses. the findings also show that there was a significant relationship between language proficiency and online interaction, as endorsed in the study conducted by leung (2013). in the present research, participants who were less proficient in the english language engaged minimally in individual and peer tasks in the assigned activities when they realised that others in their respective groups were more proficient. some participants were de-motivated from engaging more fully in assigned activities especially in the latter phases of the course for the same reason. this was especially evident in the editing and proofreading session that required a higher level of language proficiency resulting in reduced feedback on peer submissions. these results corroborate with the findings by gunawardena and jayatilleke, (2014) in a study on online learning and cross-cultural e-mentoring which revealed that the participants with limited linguistic proficiency participated less, and therefore suggested that this limitation of these esl learners be taken into consideration when designing online activities. motivation both external and internal aspects of motivation contributed to the tension in the (s-r-o) and (c-dolo) activity triangles of the activity system of the advanced writing skills course. external factors adversely affected both interaction and engagement in the assigned activities, as well as feedback which was ascertained from the log file reports and confirmed by the interview responses. the interview responses reveal that the two primary reasons were the lack of incentives because no marks were allocated for engagement in the assigned activities, and the other was that engagement was not compulsory. this resulted in the participants circumventing rules and failing to contribute meaningfully to the assigned activities. a similar lack of incentive was noted in other studies (aduayiakue, et al, 2017; fung 2004; lee & brian, 2011). conversely, studies conducted by nandi et al (2011), attributed greater participation in the dfs because the tasks were made compulsory and marks were awarded. garaus et al (2015) in their study recommend that giving online learners small rewards is beneficial as it gives opportunity for the learner to get feedback, which would not be possible if they did not submit their work and makes it possible to engage the learner in greater interaction and does not take away their autonomy. considering the findings of these studies with the results of the present research, it is evident that compulsory discussion forum assignments and allocation of marks would motivate students’ engagement in assigned activities. the contradictions encountered in this study is in keeping with foot’s (2014, p. 17), observation that contradictions are like “illuminating hinges” that give greater insight into the workings of an activity system and open up opportunities to develop the activity under consideration; viewing the interactions in the online environment enabled identification of the challenges faced by the learners, which need to be addressed to facilitate greater participation and interaction among participants. in distilling the results of the study several key factors have contributed to decreased participation in the latter stages of the course. foremost, was the constraint of time because most participants were adults with secular and domestic commitments. next was the disparity in language proficiency levels 341 of participants. also, the rules imposed were too restrictive, excessive and beyond the control of the subjects. yet another factor was the lack of incentives that affected motivation. these outcomes indicate that at an institutional level, consideration has to be given to the above factors in designing future online courses for esl students. consideration could be given to extending the duration of the course, increasing the period between each session, thus giving more time for the completion of the online activities as well as imposing reasonable rules that are within the control of the subjects. also providing motivation through rewards would be a strong incentive for greater engagement and interaction. to address the learners’ limited language proficiency, consideration could be given to design more optional online activities, such as quizzes and self-correction tasks, whereby the learners can readily improve their language competency. conclusion this study reported on the application of activity theory’s principle of contradictions to analyse the challenges encountered by esl learners in a blended learning writing course. the most significant challenges that interfered with interaction and collaboration among participants were the strict rules, and the number of rules that were required of the participants who were adult learners. these necessitated participants to devote considerable time to the activities. also, the disparity in the level of english language proficiency affected adequate interaction; this together with the time constraints of the working adults, whose second language is english, impinged on the extent of interaction because gaining language proficiency needs time. in this study at with its principles of contradictions makes a significant contribution to the body of knowledge in terms of its use in examining online interactions in the field of blended-learning writing pedagogy. further research could also be carried out to investigate interaction in the f2f component of a blended learning writing course and a comparison made of the challenges learners encounter in the f2f and online environments, which might yield further insight and widen the knowledge in the field of writing research. references adas, d., & bakir, a. (2013). writing difficulties and new solutions: blended learning as an approach to improve writing abilities. international journal of humanities and social science, 3(9), 254-266. https://staffold.najah.edu/sites/default/files/28.pdf aduayi-akue, j., lotchi, k., parveen, s., onatsu, t. & pehkonen-elmi, e. (2017). motivation of online learners. jamk open access online magazines, evolving pedagogy greetings from finland. https://verkkolehdet.jamk.fi/ev-peda/2017/01/25/motivation-of-online-learners/ barab, s. a., barnett, m., yamagata-lynch, l., squire, k., & keating, t. (2002). using activity theory to understand the systemic tensions characterizing a technology-rich introductory astronomy course. mind, culture, and activity, 9(2), 76-107. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327884mca0902_02 baran, b., & cagiltay, k. (2010). the dynamics of online communities in the activity theory framework. educational technology & society, 13(4), 155-166. http://www.ifets.info/journals/13_4/14.pdf 342 beaudoin, m. f. (2002). learning or lurking? tracking the “invisible” online student. internet and higher education, 5, 147-155. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.505.5696&rep=rep1&type=pdf brine, j. w., & franken, m. (2006). students' perceptions of a selected aspect of a computer mediated academic writing program: an activity theory analysis. australasian journal of educational technology, 22(1), 21-38. https://doi.org/10.14742/ajet.1305 chathurika, p.r.d., & rajapaksha, p.l.n. r. (2017). learner’s perception on online learning in open and distance education mode in the diploma in early childhood and primary education, the open university of sri lanka. international journal of scientific research, 2(4), 42-52. http://journalijsr.com/content/2017/ijsr33.pdf de silva, r. (2014). writing strategy instruction: its impact on writing in a second language for academic purposes. sage journals. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/1362168814541738 engeström, y. (1999) activity theory and individual and social transformation. in y. engeström, r. miettinen, & r-l. punamaki (eds.), perspectives on activity theory. cambridge university press. engeström, y. (1987). learning by expanding: an activity-theoretical approach to developmental research. helsinki: orienta-konsultit. http://lchc.ucsd.edu/mca/paper/engeström/learning-by-expanding.pdf ekundayo, s., wang, w., & andrade, a.d. (2012). the use of activity theory and its principle of contradictions to identify and analyse systemic tensions: the case of a virtual university and its partners. paper presented at conference, conf-irm 2012 proceedings, 33. http://aisel.aisnet.org/confirm2012/33 ferriman, n. (2013). the impact of blended e-learning on undergraduate academic essay writing in english (l2). computers & education, 60(1), 243-253. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2012.07.008 fonseka, g. (2008). the teacher's role in achieving student empowerment through english. in d. fernando, & d. mendis, (eds.), english for equality, employment and empowerment (pp. 27-37). ceylon printers ltd. foot, k. a. (2014). cultural-historical activity theory: exploring a theory to inform practice and research, journal of human behavior in the social environment, 24(3), 329-347. https://doi.org/10.1080/10911359.2013.831011 fung, y. y. h. (2004) collaborative online learning: interaction patterns and limiting factors. open learning, 19, 135-149. https://doi.org/10.1080/0268051042000224743 garaus, c., furtmuller, g., & guttel, w. h. (2015). the hidden power of small rewards: the effects of insufficient external rewards on autonomous motivation to learn. academy of management learning & education, 15(1). https://doi.org/10.5465/amle.2012.0284 gedera, d. s. p., & williams, p. j. (2013). using activity theory to understand contradictions in an online university course facilitated by moodle. international journal of information technology & computer science, 10(1), 32-41. grabe, w., & kaplan, r. b. (1996). theory and practice of writing: an applied linguistic perspective. longman. gunawardena, c.n., & jayatilleke, b. g. (2014). facilitating online learning and cross-cultural e-mentoring. culture and online learning: global perspectives and research, 67-68. stylus publishing, llc. illangakoon, s. r. (2011/2012). identifying threshold vocabulary for academic study. in h. ratwatte (ed.), vistas, journal of humanities and social sciences, 7 & 8, 141-159. nawala, sri lanka: open university of sri lanka. jamaldeen, f., ekanayaka, y., & hewagamage, k. (2016). a theoretical approach to initiate mobile assisted language learning among school leavers and university students of sri lanka. in proceedings of mobile assisted language learning, australasian conference on information systems 2015. adelaide. 343 jones, c. (1999). the student from overseas and the british university. in c. jones, j. turner & b. street (eds.), students writing in the university: cultural and epistemological issues (pp. 37-56). john benjamins publishing company. kroll, b. (ed.). (1990). second language writing. research insights for the classroom. cambridge university press. kumara, m.d.s.s. (2009). compilation and linguistic analysis of a dedicated corpus for the applied sciences: special focus on the spoken academic discourse of the applied sciences study programme of the rajarata university of sri lanka. (unpublished ma dissertation.) university of kelaniya. lee, c. hin, b. (2011). effect of incentivized online activities on e-learning, the procedia – social and behavioral sciences, 28, 211216. leung, s. (2013). english proficiency and participation in online discussion for learning. paper presented at iadis international conference on cognition and exploratory learning in digital age (celda 2013). fort worth, tx, oct 22-24, 2013. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ed562207.pdf liu, m. (2013). blended learning in a university efl writing course: description and evaluation. journal of language teaching and research, 4(2), 301-309. https://doi.org/10.4304/jltr.4.2.301-309 mason, r. b. (2011). student engagement with, and participation in, an e-forum. educational technology & society, 14(2), 258-268. http://196.21.61.18/bitstream/10321/2455/1/mason_jets_vol14%232_pg258-268_2011.pdf nandi, d., hamilton, m., harland, j., & warburton, g. (2011). how active are students in online discussion forums? in j. hamer & m. de raadt (eds.), conferences in research and practice in information technology (crpit), 114. proceedings in 13th australasian computing education conference (ace2011), australian computer society, inc. ng, c. s. l., & cheung, w. s. (2007). comparing face to face, tutor led discussion and online discussion in the classroom. australasian journal of educational technology, 23(4). https://doi.org/10.14742/ajet.1246 palmquist, m., kiefer, k., & salahub, j. (2009). sustaining (and growing) a pedagogical writing environment: an activity theory analysis. in d. n. devoss, h. a. mckee, & r. (d.) selfe (eds.), technologies and sustainability. https://ccdigitalpress.org/book/tes/index2.html perera, k. (2006). laying the foundations: language planning in the eltu. in h. ratwatte, & s. herath (eds.), english in the multilingual environment (pp. 47-57). open university of sri lanka. polio, c. (2001). research methodology in second language writing: the case of text-based studies. t. silva 7 p. matsuda. (eds.), on second language writing. (pp. 91-116). erlbaum. pullenayegem, j.c.n., de silva, k.r.m., & jayatilleke, b.g., (2020) open and distance learner engagement with online mediation tools: an activity theory analysis. open praxis, 2(4) 469-483. doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.5944/openpraxis.12.4.1129. quimby, j. l., & o'brien, k. m. (2004). predictors of student and career decision-making self-efficacy among nontraditional college women. the career development quarterly, 52(4), 323– 339. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-0045.2004.tb00949.x raheem, r., & ratwatte, h. (2001). regional variations in student proficiency and its implications for language planning. in d. hayes, teaching english: possibilities and opportunities. selected papers from the 1st international conference of the sri lanka english language teachers’ association (pp. 23-36). colombo, sri lanka: the british council. ratwatte, h.v. (2005). teaching in the learner’s second language: the ousl context. extended abstract. silver jubilee ousl academic sessions (pp. 92-100). open university of sri lanka. 344 raimes, a. (1985). an investigation of how esl students write. (report no. fl 015 822). paper presented at the annual meeting of the teachers of english to speakers of other languages. (19th, new york, ny, april 9-14, 1985). (eric document reproduction service no. ed 271 965). http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ed271965.pdf shafiee, s., koosha, m., & afghari, a. (2015). call, prewriting strategies, and efl writing quantity. english language teaching, 8(2), 170–177. https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v8n2p170 silva, t. (1990). second language composition instruction: developments, issues, and directions in esl. in b. kroll (ed.), second language writing research: research insights for the classroom. (pp. 11-23). cambridge university press. sivaji, k. (2011). a study of the impact of direct and indirect error correction on undergraduate writing at the faculty of arts. (master’s thesis). university of jaffna. the open university of sri lanka digital repository. http://digital.lib.ou.ac.lk/docs/bitstream/701300122/527/1/karunathevy%20sivaji.pdf topham, p. (2015). older adults in their first year at university: challenges, resources and support. university of the west of england. schreier, m. (2012). qualitative content analysis in practice. sage. yoon, s. y., & lee, c. h. (2010). the perspective and effectiveness of blended learning in l2 writing of korean university students. multimedia-assisted language learning, 13(2), 177-204. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/287640821_the_perspectives_and_effectiveness_of_blended_lear ning_in_l2_writing_of_korean_university_students yukselturk, e. (2010). an investigation of factors affecting student participation level in an online discussion forum tojet: the turkish online journal of educational technology, 9(2) 24-32. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej897999.pdf zamel, v. (1983). the composing processes of advanced esl students: six case studies. tesol quarterly, 17, 165187. authors: judy pullenayegem is a senior lecturer and serves as the director of the english for general academic purposes (egap) programme at the department of english language teaching (delt) at the open university of sri lanka. she holds a phd in open and distance learning, and teaching english as a second language. she specializes in teaching english in the esl context, in conventional, blended, and online courses. her research interests include l2 writing and online teacher education in the open and distance learning (odl) context. email: jcpul@ou.ac.lk radhika de silva is a senior lecturer in language studies at the open university of sri lanka. she holds a phd in language education from university of reading, uk. she has extensive elt and teacher training experience. she teaches and mentors undergraduate and postgraduate level students. her research interests include l2 writing, strategy instruction, eap, language teacher education, language testing, and open and distance education. email: krsil@ou.ac.lk gayathri jayatilleke is a professor in educational technology, and the acting director of the centre for educational technology and media (cetme) of the open university of sri lanka (ousl). she holds a phd in educational technology from the open university, uk, a master’s in education and development from the institute of education, university of london, uk and a b.sc. (natural sciences) from the university of colombo, sri lanka. she has extensive experience as a teacher, researcher and a trainer in the field of open and distance learning (odl) and educational technology. email: bgjay@ou.ac.lk 345 cite this paper as: pullenayegem, j., de silva, r., & jayatilleke, g. (2021). contradictions in learner interactions in a blended-learning writing course: an activity theory analysis. journal of learning for development, 8(2), 327-345. nabushawo unlocking the potential of public libraries in supporting distance learning harriet mutambo nabushawo, jessica norah aguti and mark winterbottom vol. 3, no. 1 abstract this paper examines the place of public libraries in supporting distance learners in makerere university, exploring the factors which affect utilisation of their services. the study adopted a survey design with 300 b.ed. students, collecting data through focus group discussions, structured questionnaires and individual interviews. introduction distance education has gained a lot of popularity in many ugandan institutions of higher learning mainly due to an explosive demand for higher education in traditional universities. the conventional system of education can no longer accommodate all aspirants to higher education and this development is, therefore, forcing many institutions of higher learning in uganda to reposition themselves to become dual mode universities in order to satisfy the ensuing demand (muyinda, 2012). however, being a relatively new mode of study the management of the teaching and learning processes still remains a challenge especially when it comes to provision of students support services such as off-campus library services. nabushawo (2014) contends that relevant and quality study materials are the main teaching tool as well as the teacher for distance learners. this therefore suggests that supporting students is a very critical factor in influencing effective teaching and learning in open and distance learning (odl) programmes (gil-jaurena, 2014; tait, 2003). provision and access to library services by the odl students at makerere university is therefore central to ensuring quality education. given the context, this study has focused on the traditional distance education which still depends mainly on print-based study materials, with limited ict integration in the teaching and learning processes. odl at makerere university odl at makerere university commenced in 1991 as the popularly named external degree programme (edp) with the bachelor of education and bachelor of commerce external (chick, 1990). these were later joined by the bachelor of science external, bachelor of agriculture and rural innovation, and diploma in youth in development work. the main objectives of starting external programmes in the makerere university according to aguti (2009, p. 219) were to: increase university intake in some courses that meet urgent educational needs extend universal education extend the use of university resources to eligible and interested people who could not pursue full-time courses and programmes at the university campus. the study package in the external degree programmes at makerere university includes study materials that are specially prepared to enhance independent study, and textbooks which are supplemented with two residential face-to-face tutorial sessions every semester at the main campus (dde, 2006). during the face-to-face sessions students meet their administrators, tutors and peers for academic and administrative support. these students come from different parts of the country where they work and live and, therefore, remote support is very crucial in tutoring, access to library services, discussion groups with peers, etc. in this study, we will examine the role of public library services in supporting distance learners. literature review with non-traditional education having rapidly become a major element in higher education with expansion and an estimated enrolment of 15,000 students in ugandan universities (siminyu, 2003; matovu, 2012). there is, therefore, greater recognition of the need for library resources and services at locations other than main campuses to facilitate teaching and learning processes (acrl, 2008). odl students are entitled to library services and resources equivalent to those provided to students in conventional systems. however, according to stephens (1996) traditional library services often fail to adapt to the needs of odl learners, especially in dual mode universities. for instance, they fail to provide off-campus library services like region-wide borrowers’ cards and consortia membership between academic libraries. that is why parnell (2002) contends that it may be unethical to offer a qualification to students without providing them with adequate resources for study. hence, to protect the credibility of distance learning courses, adequate investment in library services is needed by university administrators, both on and off campus (acrl, 2008). this situation may however be changing with the development of online studies and open educational resources which are readily available to the students as long as they are on the network. however, investment is still required in ict infrastructure to enable students to access e-resources both on campus and off–campus. although other research has examined the role of libraries in odl, especially those on campuses (mayende & obura, 2013; kawalya, 2010; middleton, 2005; watson, 2003) there is little research on off-campus libraries and specifically the significance of public libraries in supporting odl. gopakumar and baradol (2009) opines that the constraints that motivate students to opt for odl are the same ones that limit their ability to use a centrally, often urban-located, library. they are likely to be working full time, and have family commitments, in addition to their student responsibilities; these obligations influence their access to study materials, both in time and space (aguti, 2004). they, therefore, rely on library services at remote sites, interlibrary loans or travel to the main campus. odl institutions commonly try to open study centers near to the students to offer academic support, which will often include library services. library requirements for distance learners are threefold: the need for materials, facilities, and information and user services (nicholas & tomeo, 2005). rather than being expected to go to the library whilst in odl, the library should go to the students. the main library service of emphasis to odl students are the study materials provided by the tutor, and supplementary resource materials such as textbooks, journal articles from various data bases, cds, audio tapes, video, internet services, e-books and online resources. in odl, study materials take some of the role of the teacher in the classroom and, regardless of the technology used, their provision and accessibility are central to facilitate teaching and learning processes. burgstahler (2002) says that the effectiveness of odl is measured by the availability and accessibility of specially designed learning materials, with learners having enough time to use them to avoid surface learning. in other words involvement in odl means acceptance of the principle that learners, regardless of their geographic location and obligations, have a right to all support services for the purpose of completing their programmes successfully. the role of public libraries in odl in uganda at makerere university, library services have traditionally been offered through a book bank system where core textbooks are acquired by university departments and study materials are produced specifically for distance learners. library services, therefore, are offered through the departmental book bank at the main campus, in regional university study centre libraries, and sometimes in public libraries. according to mayende and obura (2013), the department has an estimated collection of 350 titles of study materials, with 28,000 copies lent out to students on the main campus and in collaborating libraries. as much as the department has tried to take its services nearer to the students, complaints have consistently come from students regarding the inadequacy of library services up-country. this is mainly because the good text books are in the main library at the main campus and, therefore, cannot be accessed easily by odl students. the university has also subscribed to several online data bases but the ict infrastructure is not available in the up-country centers and, therefore, odl students cannot access these resources (mayende & obura, 2013). according to bbuye (2010) and mayende and obura (2013), with the exception of the upgraded centers of fort portal and jinja, odl library services in the up-country study centres of makerere university in uganda are neither equipped with substantial collections nor provide students with appropriate services. alongside poor internet access, and inadequate or outdated study materials, students struggle to get relevant resources to complete assignments and many do examinations without fsupplementary reading, which consequently affects the quality of not only their grades but also the education they receive. lack of access to library services and related instructional resources is perceived to be an obstacle to starting or expanding odl programmes (burgstahler, 2002). given the above, many students have found support and assistance from public libraries across the country. according to corbrett and brown (2015) public libraries have always supported distance learners as members of the community, being entitled to support like anyone else. in an effort to support odl students, makerere university has been collaborating with public libraries to offer library services. lebowitz (1997) adds that public libraries are often critical to the development of odl as they enhance teaching and learning processes through provision of library services to the students. however, in uganda, such support is not fully integrated in the university's provision and better coordination may help secure effective student support. this paper, therefore, examines the place of public libraries in supporting distance learners in makerere university, uganda. in uganda some public libraries have proven more effective in supporting learners due to their consistent distribution across the country, and the extent of services and facilities they can provide. they have regular opening hours, including weekends, reading space, a variety of reading materials (including research reports, government documents and reference books) and internet facilities, which provide e-books and online resources. the makerere university library collections are also accessible through its online catalogue, which provides web-based access to a broad variety of electronic databases viewed as abstracts and full text.  these however, are not accessible to most of the odl students up-country (mayende & obura, 2013). corbrett and brown (2015) confirm that public libraries have always purchased databases, journal subscriptions or reference books specifically with students' needs in mind. however, they confess that there is a limit to which public libraries can support university students without better collaboration between library and the university. as noted earlier, odl students are unique and have different needs which cannot fit within the existing university infrastructure and policies (acrl 2008). this, therefore, means that deliberate policies have to be made by the universities to support odl. this is also echoed by watson (2003) who says modalities and strategies have to be devised by librarians, distance educators and administrators to take library services to the students. borrowing of learning materials should not be inhibited by lending restrictions and study materials should be provided in as many locations as possible (aguti, 2004). many institutions offering odl collaborate with public libraries by linking students to their university libraries electronically and by providing deposit collections at public libraries remotely (corbrett & brown, 2015). in this study, we examine the nature of support services offered by public libraries to makerere university odl students in uganda. our motives for such a study reflect a drive within the university to increase the quality of odl education. that said, utilizing public libraries as facilitators to odl may provide a way to support odl across similar contexts, particularly in those where online access is low, as in rural communities. we focus in particular on the following research questions: what is the nature and status of academic support services to odl students offered by public libraries in uganda? what affects the utilization of study materials and other resources in public libraries in uganda? research design and sampling procedure this study employed a survey research design which used both qualitative and quantitative approaches to data gathering and analysis. to attempt to make the study representative, data were collected in the four regions of uganda (central, east, north and west). four public libraries were visited — one from each region. these libraries were selected purposefully to match those areas with the greatest concentration of odl students. cluster sampling was used to select 300 students out of 3500 in the b.ed. programme offered through odl in makerere university. the clusters of b.ed. students included 90 first-year and 210 third-year students, who were asked to share their experiences regarding student-support, and, specifically, library services up-country. the two groups of students were chosen to share their expectations (first-years) and experiences (third-years) in relation to library services in odl. thirty key informants were also purposively selected to participate in the study. these included seven librarians, five lecturers, ten students and six members of staff from the odl department. data collection and analysis information from respondents was gathered using a structured questionnaire, interviews and focus group discussions (fgds). fgds were held in each of the public libraries visited and the purpose was to solicit in-depth information from a cross-section of key informants. an observation check list was also employed to establish the actual facilities available to students. for purposes of triangulation, relevant documentary evidence was used to support and validate information obtained using other techniques. interview and focus-group dialogue was recorded, categorized, and thematically coded in order to draw conclusions. some numerical data were also analyzed with descriptive statistics. findings and discussions in this section, the findings of the study are presented in relation to the research questions. support services to odl students offered by public libraries students across uganda were asked to indicate the services and facilities available in public libraries which they had used to facilitate their learning. the details are shown in table 1. table 1: services and facilities accessible in public libraries available services and facilities  yes % no % odl study materials 126 42% 174 58% other supplementary reading materials 112 37% 188 63% computers and other accessories 198 66% 102 34% internet and online data bases 223 74% 77 26% technical staff (librarians and ict) 220 73% 80 27% reading space 189 63% 111 37% utilization of study materials and other resources in public libraries some of the factors raised in the interviews with students, librarians and programme administrators in relation to utilization of the resources are discussed below. results from the table 1 show us that some students have been utilizing the services and facilities in the public libraries, especially the internet and online databases (74%). they also benefited from technical staff (73%), reading space (63%) and study materials (42%). however, a large percentage said there are no study materials (58%) and supplementary reading materials (63%). interviews with students who did not visit the library revealed that many students were not aware of the services and facilities available in the public libraries. these responses from students have been analyzed together with the observations and interviews carried out with the librarians and programme administrators, while examining the factors affecting the utilization of public libraries by distance learners of makerere university. awareness analysis of the students' responses from table 1 show that a good number of students are not aware of the existence of the public libraries and the services therein and therefore made minimal use of them. for example 58% of them did not know that study materials had been deposited in the public libraries and 63% had no idea that they can obtain supplementary materials from the public libraries. this was very prominent in northern and eastern uganda as librarians reported that students had not visited the library in the last four years. this was mainly attributed to breakdown in communication among students, programme administrators and public libraries. the librarian in fort portal said; “we have resources here which can be utilized by the odl students but they do not come! the university should communicate to the students to come and utilise these facilities.” there is a need to improve communication to students about the existence of public libraries so the resources can be utilised to full potential by odl students. emphasis should be given to communicating and maintaining contact with students through a variety of media, using available technologies like mobile phones, networks and systems (muyinda, 2010). the relationship with other stakeholders like librarians should be nurtured as well to ensure a smooth running of activities by partner institutions. middleton (2005) observes that if such relationships are not well handled, collaborations can be hindered by factors like inflexible organizational management structures and narrow administrative vision. presence of study materials results in table 1 indicate that 42% of the students confirmed that odl study materials were available in the public library, while 58% claimed they were absent. the quality of study materials available to the students is also important as ordinary textbooks may not facilitate learning. students preferred if they were in a self-study interactive format whether they were print-based or technology mediated. use of ordinary books and articles may turn out to be counterproductive, as students claim they are difficult to comprehend without the guidance of the tutors. essentially, the students prefer the study materials that have been specially prepared for their learning, since they are easy to understand and have been prepared for that purpose. acrl (2008) further advises that study materials should have sufficient quality, depth, quantity, scope, and currency to meet all students’ needs in fulfilling course assignments, meet teaching and research needs, and facilitate the acquisition of lifelong learning skills. in this respect, students were further asked to indicate multiple responses whether the study materials given to them had interactive features to facilitate learning. the details of students' responses are shown in figure 1. figure 1: interactive features in study materials from students' responses, the major characteristic of the learning materials was to give examples (16%). the learning materials also contained statements of what students were to learn (15%), served as study guides (14%), and contained summaries (13%), among others. usually, where study materials are not written in an odl mode, the material should be accompanied by a study guide to facilitate learning. during the study, all the students interviewed reported that they are not given any study guides to accompany the study materials. in the absence of study guides, the students are left to use the study materials as they are and yet these are not interactive to facilitate learning. in view of the challenges regarding the quality of study materials, programme administrators suggested the need for more facilitation to train tutors and writers in materials development so as to improve the quality. variety of study materials the study found out that the reading materials in the public libraries were mainly print materials, as reported by 94% of first-year and 76% of the third-year students (table 2). on the other hand the results in table 2 below indicates minimal use of audio (5.6%), video (5.6%), and audio-visual materials (5.6 %). this is mainly attributed to inadequate resources both human and financial to produce these materials. according to administrators of the programme, the required expertise and infrastructure is not in place to facilitate production of these materials. the programmes therefore depend mainly on the print study materials which take the form of text books, readers, study guides, handouts and extracts from various literature sources and specially designed materials, written in a style appropriate to distance learners (aguti, 2004). there is a danger, however, in relying on only print materials because according to bates (1994), print promotes accumulation of facts and information but not critical thinking. the programme administrators are therefore encouraged to use blended methods of teaching materials to enhance acquisition of the relevant competencies. table 2: variety of study materials available in the public libraries year of study   first third   frequency percent frequency percent print material yes 85 94.4 160 76.2   no 5 5.6 50 23.8 audio material yes 5 5.6 53 25.2   no 85 94.4 157 74.8 video material yes 5 5.6 5 2.4   no 85 94.4 205 97.6 audio visual material yes 5 5.6 24 11.4   no 85 94.4 186 88.6 availability of supplementary materials the students (74%) who visited the public library also reported that the study materials deposited there are outdated and therefore not very helpful while doing their research. they however, applauded the library for providing a variety of references, from both the shelves and the internet, which they have utilized as supplementary references. in this respect, the librarians requested that the university should send them up to update study materials to facilitate learning. information communication technologies (icts) new developments in ict offer a lot to odl in terms of information retrieval and access, interaction and collaboration. the internet broadens the scope of odl by extending the time and location boundaries in which courses can be delivered (tan, lin, chu, & liu, 2012). all the public libraries visited had ict facilities like computers and the internet, which provided opportunity for online research, as well as typing. the librarians also reported that through the national library board, they have subscribed to some online databases like ebsco, emerald and some african journals which are accessible by their readers. students who had visited the library (74%) confirmed that they had access to it facilities, including the internet. they appreciated electronic materials although they did not have access to the databases the university subscribes to because there is no arrangement by the university to have these accessed through the public libraries. the students using the library did have access to computers to do their in-depth research using online resources. however, mayende and obura, (2013) contend that with appropriate infrastructure in place, electronic delivery of information materials from the main campus to the public libraries is possible but only if the working relationship between library and university is streamlined. without free provision of ict services, students suffered from financial hardship, which could form a barrier to participation. one b.ed student who was not aware of the library services lamented: “we have been spending a lot of money in internet cafes to surf and do research when we could access the internet cheaply here!” this is a sign that students are not well informed of the resources available to them at these public libraries. librarianship the public library had trained staff in the field of information science and competently served students. according to records from the public libraries website, all public libraries are being managed by trained librarians. the study also established from the libraries visited that the officers in charge had at least a diploma or degree in library and information science. this was also seen from the way study materials deposited for students were well organized on the shelves but staff complained that only a few students had actually borrowed books. they also indicated the poor reading culture among the students: “our students do not have a reading culture; even the available resources are not fully utilized”. qualified personnel are very important because they can ably assist students to source the references and journal articles from the databases. in case of effective decentralization of library services including online materials, these staff could assist the students competently because of their familiarity with the software (mayende & obura, 2013). according to acrl (2008), in some cases the collaborating institution must provide professional and support personnel with clearly defined responsibilities at the appropriate location(s) to attain the goals and objectives for library services in the distance learning programme. reading space the study found out that public libraries have ample reading space which odl students utilized for their reading, with 63% of the students who have been visiting the public libraries reporting a conducive reading environment. many of these students, as already noted, may not be able to read in their homes or where they work because of family or employment obligations. many of them claim to do serious reading and studying only when they report for face-to-face tutorials on campus. remoteness from the library to the public library is also a factor that can affect its utilization. this is mainly a problem because they are all located in urban centres and some students find it difficult to reach them because of poor roads and poor transport. one b.ed student said: “from my home to lira town is about 85 miles and i use two taxis! i can only come to the public library if i am sure the study material i need is there.” recommendations the fact that the university took steps to deposit study materials in public libraries for odl students is evidence enough that the university was concerned about the need to support odl students. what is therefore required of the university is to renew the contract so as to establish formal collaboration and facilitate smooth working relationships. inter-library cooperation is not new in education and particularly in odl. morrissett and baker (1993) contend that the backbone of odl library services is embedded in cooperation of libraries at a local, national and international level. the study established that study materials in the public libraries are inadequate, outdated and do not comply with odl standards of study materials (acrl, 2008). as the university renews its commitment to work with the public libraries, up to date and relevant study materials should be deposited, preferably those written in an interactive manner to facilitate independent study. similarly, given the evolution of odl from first generation to, now, fifth generation, which is technology mediated, arrangements should be made so that the university can give public libraries access to its databases for odl students to access eresources wherever they are. noted further was that public libraries have been very supportive in offering library services to odl students who visited them. however, they are not being utilized fully due to inadequate information about their locations and services. the programme administrators should therefore avail students with relevant and regular information about public libraries, their locations and the services available there. the students who visited the public libraries appreciated the conducive environment for reading, which was not available in the study centres. students interviewed preferred the study materials deposited in the public libraries, rather than the centers, because of other added advantages like the internet connection and the availability of supplementary reading materials from the libraries’ other collections. the internet also enables students to access online databases and other open education resources, which enhanced students' research and knowledge base. the university should harness the working relationship it already has with public libraries so as to utilize their rich resources for students’ learning. the university should also increase the allocation of funds towards odl activities as well as continue lobbying the development partners to support the revamping of library services for odl students. these funds can facilitate the equipping of odl branch / partner libraries with relevant study materials to ensure adequacy and convenience. relevant and up to date study materials need to be developed for students and supplementary reading materials bought or adapted. similarly, to have students access on-line materials requires ict infrastructure in place and, of course, qualified staff. interviews with the odl administrators revealed poor funding towards library services and specifically study materials' production for odl, such as print study, audio and audiovisual materials, plus e–resources. these materials can be acquired through buying, making and adapting (perraton, 1993). according to the findings from administrators, huge investment is required in developing study materials for distance learners in terms of acquiring qualified personnel to develop materials as well as the technology required for audio and audio-visual materials. one of the administrators said, “study materials production is a process that requires huge funds because of the relatively long process involved right from course design, writing, editing, reviewing and finally publishing”. conclusions the study established that, over ten years ago, the university signed a memorandum of understanding with public libraries to deposit some study materials in the libraries to be accessed and utilized by odl students. this arrangement has been very effective in supporting odl students because public libraries are widely spread across the country and almost all students can access them. through this relationship, students have been able not only to access the study materials but also get access to other services in the public library. these include reading space, computers, internet, and supplementary reading materials from the shelves and also online resources from the databases they subscribe to. however, the study also found out that the study materials deposited in these libraries are outdated and no longer very helpful to the students. this could have been because, over time, the working relationship between the two institutions has become weak, mainly due to a failure to renew the contract, making it difficult to deposit any further study materials at the public libraries. students’ ignorance about the facilities and services at the public libraries may also be attributed to poor public relations or a breakdown in communication between the university staff and the students. references acrl. (2008). guidelines for distance learning library services. illinois: american library association. retrieved from the web at http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/guidelines aguti, j.n. (2004). a study of in-service distance education for secondary school teachers in uganda. developing a framework for quality teachers education programme. unpublished ph.d thesis, university of pretoria. aguti, j.n. (2009). university education for national development: makerere university’s dual mode experience. in s. marshall, w. kinuthia, & w. taylor (eds.), bridging the knowledge divide. educational technology for development (pp. 215-229). charlotte, nc: information age publishing. bates, a.w. (1994). distance education, educational technology. in t. husen & t.n. postlethwaite (eds.), the international encyclopaedia of education, (2nd ed.). oxford: elsevier science, pp. 1573-1580. burgstahler, s. (2002). distance learning: universal design, universal access. aace journal, 10(1), 32-61. chick, j. (1990). building for the future: the development of distance education programmes at makerere university, uganda. vancouver: commonwealth of learning. corbrett, a., & brown, a. (2015). the roles that librarians and libraries play in distance education settings. online journal of distance learning administration, 18(2). retrieved from http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/summer182/corbett_brown182.html dde. (2006). revised programme for the bachelor of education (b.ed.). makerere university, kampala. gil-jaurena, i. (2014). student support services in open and distance education. open praxis, 6(1), 3-4. gopakumar, v., & baradol, a. (2009). assuring quality in distance education for library and information science: the role of the library. library philosophy and practice 2009. retrieved from http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~mbolin/gopakumar-baradol.htm lebowitz, g. (1997). library services to distance students: an equity issue. journal of academic librarianship, 23(4), 302-308. matovu, m. (2012). distance education in uganda: issues, opportunities and challenges. oida international journal of sustainable development, 4(9), 63-70. mayende, j., & obura, c.o. (2013). distance learning library services in ugandan universities. journal of library and information services in distance learning, 7(4), 372-382. middleton, michael r. (2005). library support for online education: elements of successful delivery. in pedro isaías, piet kommers, & maggie mcpherson, (eds.), iadis international conference e-society 2005, 27-30 june 2005, qawra, malta. morrissett, l. a., & baker, t. d. (1993). assessing and enhancing off-campus library services in western kentucky. collected works-proceedings (o21), 169. muyinda, p. b. (2010). deploying and utilising learning objects on mobile phones. ph.d thesis, makerere university. unpublished. muyinda, p.b. (2012). open and distance learning in dual mode universities: a treasure unexploited. in l. joi moore & angela d. benson (eds.), international perspectives of distance learning in higher education. intech: rijeka, retrieved from http://cdn.intechopen.com/pdfs-wm/32516.pdf nicholas, m., & tomeo, m. (2005). can you hear me now? communicating library services to distance education students and faculty. online journal of distance learning administration, 8(2). retrieved from http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/summer82/nicholas82.htm parnell, s. (2002). redefining the cost and complexity of library services for open and distance learning. international review of research in open and distance learning, 3(3), 43-60. perraton, h. (1993). distance education for teacher training. london: routledge. siminyu, s. (2003) distance education in universities in uganda: an inventory. paper presented to all africa university day at makerere university. (unpublished). tait, a. (2003). reflections on students support in open and distance learning. journal for international review of research in open and distance learning, 4(1). retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/134/214 tan, t.h., lin, m.s., chu, y.l., & liu, t.y. (2012). educational affordances of a ubiquitous learning environment in a natural science course. educational technology & society, 15(2), 206-219. watson, e.f. (2003). developing library and information sciences for distance education. vancouver: commonwealth of learning. authors harriet mutambo nabushawo is a lecturer in the department of open and distance  learning, school of distance and lifelong learning. e-mail: hnabushawo@gmail.com jessica norah aguti is an education specialist, teacher education at commonwealth of learning (col), canada. e-mail: jaguti@col.org mark winterbottom is a senior lecturer at the faculty of education, university of cambridge, united kingdom. e-mail: mw244@cam.ac.uk microsoft word pandaeditorial.docx issn: 2311-1550 2023, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. i-vi this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. editorial technology and pedagogy for learning and capacity building santosh panda indira gandhi national open university, new delhi in any technology-enabled learning formulation, it is important to consider the pedagogic affordances of technology, and how to develop the required level of competency and concomitant capacity building to undertake teaching-learning and training activities of high quality. there are a variety of frameworks and guidelines available on tel, and we, as teachers, trainers and researchers, need to consider reviewing the research literature, analysing the effective blending of pedagogy and technology, developing appropriate learning resources (and/or considering existing open educational resources and moocs), understanding the challenges faced especially due to the covid-19 pandemic, and appropriating the quality assurance frameworks and parameters, among others. the present issue of the journal, comprising one invited paper, five research papers, two case studies, and two book reviews, addresses the above issues and concerns. in the invited but peer-reviewed paper, loglo and zawacki-richter have critically analysed published research studies on the use of digital media by higher education students in africa. while students had been constrained in their mobile access with low bandwidth, the student learning activities had low congruence with their subject area or programme of study. the authors suggest: i) designing and implementing active learning (rather than transmitive learning) while studying online; ii) focusing on developing theoretical frameworks for conducting research as well as solving technical issues, and iii) enhancing teacher digital proficiency. the research section includes five peer-reviewed papers. in the first research paper, karunanayaka argues for capacity development for teachers to be able to engage meaningfully in online and open education practices. she presents an evaluative case on the design, development and implementation of oer-based technology-enabled learning (tel), focusing primarily on the design of interactive learning experiences and hands-on activities within a moodle-based lms, supplemented by interactive workshops conducted through zoom. the research results suggest the effectiveness of adopting a ‘learning by designing’ approach for the effective integration of pedagogy and technology in empowering teachers to actively engage in the design of oer-integrated tel and open practices. in the second research paper, learners’ feedback on moocs has been analysed by pant, lohani and pande by using the technique of ‘sentiment analysis’ through python programming and nvivo tools. the results suggest three important primary factors, besides others, affecting the retention of learners — job-oriented courses, content localisation, and assignments and learner support. the researchers have suggested a framework on related factors which may be considered for learner retention in moocs. ii christina myers and colleagues report the findings of a study on designing digital educational games on the theme of gender equality meant for specially developing critical thinking and concerns for social change. the study was grounded on freire’s critical pedagogy and design-based research methodology. the three-phase study yielded thirteen design principles based on observation, interview and feedback from diverse groups of participants. the suggestions on this pedagogic technique and required resources shall be helpful to teachers elsewhere. the fourth research paper, by verulava, shengelia and makharashvili, reports the challenges faced by both university students and teachers during covid-19 in georgia. like elsewhere in the world, these respondents also underlined online distance teaching as the best opportunity to keep teachinglearning going, and also one which saved on costs and provided opportunities to learn new skills and new experiences. there were also constraints relating to communication, the learning environment for engagement, and social relationships. we have included, in the fifth research paper, student perception of quality assurance in higher education in vietnam, a country on which a very much lesser number of research reports is available. hien ta and colleagues used valid responses collected from 1,323 students from five major cities. the results indicated that most of the students were aware of the policy, goals and areas of quality assurance, though the same level of awareness was not found with regard to quality implementation in higher education in the country. in the case study section, we have included two peer-reviewed papers. in the first case study, kanyemba and josua report the findings on student perception of online learning in namibia during covid-19. though online learning was useful to students during the pandemic, especially in improving digital skills and information search, the common challenge experienced by them included subject knowledge acquisition. as elsewhere in the globe, here in namibia, the students preferred blended teaching-learning and assessment, which is now considered by teachers and students as the most appropriate design and delivery strategy especially in higher and professional education. the second case study by shala and grajcevci investigated the impact of ict on the achievement of school students on the programme for international student assessment (pisa) in kosovo. the findings, based on responses from 5,058 randomly selected students from 224 schools, on socioeconomic and school complex factors and achievement in reading mathematics and science, suggest a strong relationship between ict usage and student achievement. in a context where diversity in student groups raise the question of equity and where there is gender difference in ict access (female students had a lower online presence compared to their male peers), access to equitable resource needs to be ensured. besides, the other primary issue to be considered is if the students are using ict for only chatting and personal communication or for learning, including doing home assignments. in our book review section, the two book reviews put up by our book review editor dr. mairette newman on i) encyclopedia of female pioneers of online learning, and ii) identity, pedagogy and technology-enabled learning, are related to the theme of this issue of the journal, and should be of interest to our readers. this journal is indexed in scopus and eric (besides other indexing services) which had over 4,000 views and downloads. i take this opportunity to sincerely thank dr. tony mays, iii dr. jako oliver and alan doree for facilitating this issue being published on time. we hope, our readers enjoy reading and benefitting from the papers and book reviews of this issue. acknowledgements: we sincerely acknowledge the following scholars for their support to jl4d in peer reviewing the papers submitted to the journal published in 2022. professor mohamed ally, athabasca university, canada. dr virginia clinton-lisell, university of north dakota, usa. dr alexis carr, simon fraser university, canada. dr. olabisi kuboni, independent consultant, west indies. professor sugata mitra, newcastle university, uk. professor sutapa bose, indira gandhi national open university, india. professor goolam mohamedbhai, formerly association of african universities and university of mauritius. professor som naidu, technology, education and design associates, australia. dr. revati namjoshi, maharashtra knowledge corporation ltd, india. professor don olcott, jr., university of south africa, south africa. dr margaret funke omidire, university of pretoria, south africa. dr matt smith, university of wolverhampton, uk. dr. irwin devries, royal roads university. professor karen aline françoise ferreira-meyers, university of swaziland. dr stella hadjistassou, kios research and innovation center of excellence. dr felix kayode olakulehin, national open university of nigeria. dr. marianne raley, university of phoenix, usa. dr dianne thurab-nkhosi, the university of the west indies. dr freda wolfenden, open university uk. a. m. abirami, thiagarajar college of engineering. dr adebowale oluwasegun adebagbo, yaba college of technology, lagos, nigeria, in affiliation with university of nigeria, nsukka. adeoye ademakinwa , kwara state college of education, oro, nigeria. mint husen aditama, universitas negeri manado. lady angela, university of the philippines integrated school, the philippines. lilian anthonysamy, multimedia university, malaysia. gulden akin, ankara university, turkey. davi apriandi, universitas pgri madiun. prakash v. arumugam, wawasan open university, malaysia. dr. ashish kumar awadhiya, indira gandhi national open university, india. goonesh bahadur, university of mauritius. hyejin bak, seoul national university, south korea. dr biswajit behera, central university of punjab, bathinda, india. magdelene brown, vellore institute of technology. aris budianto, universitas negeri malang, malang, indonesia. iv abolaji bukki, olabisi onabanjo university, ago-iwoye. josephine ie lyn chan, wawasan open university, malaysia. dr hemlata chari, mumbai university, india. huan chin, universiti sains malaysia. valdenildo pedro da silva, instituto federal do rio grande do norte/brasil. olha fast, the municipal higher educational institution “lutsk pedagogical college” of the volyn regional council. suritno fayanto, state university of malang. devine grace funcion, leyte normal university. sneh bansal ruby garg, chandigarh college of education, india. dr monika gautam, amity university uttar pradesh, india. liudmyla havrilova, donbas state pedagogical university, russia. adane hailu herut, dilla university. nur hidayat, universitas negeri surabaya. success osatohanmen imamun, university of abuja, nigeria. uttam jadhav, sanjay ghodawat university, atigre, kolhapur, india. muhammad nurrohman jauhari, universitas pgri adi buana surabaya. ariel san jose, southern philippines agribusiness and marine and aquatic school of technology. lawrence kabinga, the unicaf university. ngepathimo kadhila, university of namibia. raj kishor kampa, berhampur university, india. kinjari kancharla, chettinad academy of research and education. erasto kano, the university of dodoma. mr. gurumurthy kasinathan, it for change. dr ceyhun kavrayici, anadolu university, turkey. charlene kaereho, university of namibia. ayse kizildag, aksaray university. dr monica lintang laxmi, indira gandhi national open university, india. mwajuma ibrahim lingwanda, mbeya university of science and technology. elisei lubuva, local government training institute-dodoma, tanzania. ishmael magare, botswana open university. elma rosalia malinda, sebelas maret university. dr hamisi mfaume, dar es salaam university college of education. dr ephraim mhlanga, saide, south africa. dr sushmita mitra, ex director, sss, national institute of open schooling, india. ms. entle puleng modise, university of south africa. revelation serathi molokwane, durban university of technology. dr ioana tuugalei chan mow, national university of samoa. dr joel s. mtebe, university of dar es salaam. v evode mukama, commonwealth of learning, canada. rohmat mulyana, uin sunan gunung djati bandung. caroline musyimi, tvet specialist. sammy muteti mutisya, maasai mara university harshith b nair, regional institute of education-ncert, mysuru, india. placidius ndibalema, the university of dodoma. joseph njiku, university of dar es salaam. alice macharia njuguna, zetech university. wahyu nugroho, universitas sebelas maret. oluwatosin oguntoye, afe babalola university ado-ekiti. john-jude chukwuka omeife, stirling college of teachers. dr. offia tugwell owo, rivers state university, port harcourt, nigeria. dr kshama pandey, mjp rohilkhand university, bareilly. santanu patra, netaji subhas open university. jupeth pentang, western philippines university. k.d.r.l.j. perera, the open university of sri lanka. luka pongračić, university of slavonski brod. jani prinsloo, eiffel corp (pty) ltd. dr s k pulist, indira gandhi national open university, india. poonam punia, bpsmv university, khanpur kalan, india. ibnu rafi, yogyakarta state university. dr prabhas ranjan, patna womens college, patna university, patna. yousra banoor rajabalee, mauritius institute of education. harikrishnan ranganathan, university of cyberjaya. annisa rhenadia, state university of jakarta. m. rais ridwan, stkip ypup makassar. mulyadi rusli, universitas nurdin hamzah. dr mohammad issack santally, university of mauritius. prakriti ranjan sarkar, aliah university. professor rekha sharma sen, indira gandhi national open university, india. anshuman sharma, babasaheb bhimrao ambedkar university, lucknow. dr ramesh c sharma, ambedkar university delhi, india. dr sadrag panduleni shihomeka, university of namibia. dr murni sianturi, the university of new south wales, ausralia. beatrice sichombe, namibian college of open learning (namcol). selvakumar silaiyappan, alagappa university, karaikudi. silvita, sebelas maret university. dr sivankutty v s, alagappa university, karaikudi. kwong nui sim, auckland university of technology. vi dr v s sivankutty, cochin university of science and technology. bobur sobirov, samarkand branch of tashkent state university of economics. mamta srivastava, national institute of open schooling. muhammad amin sunarhadi, sebelas maret university. sutirna sutirna, universitas singaperbangsa karawang. ying tang, southwest university. mr vincent itai tanyanyiwa, zimbabwe open university. anita l thomas james, university of technology, jamaica. mrs grace apondi titi, ramogi institute of advanced technology. aisyamariam abdul uzza, asia pacific university of technology and innovation. afam uzorka, kampala international university. aisyamariam abdul uzza, asia pacific university of technology and innovation. joseph villarama, central luzon state university. seema yadav, the bhopal school of social sciences. santosh panda chief editor, jl4d cite this paper as: panda, s. (2023). editorial — technology and pedagogy for learning and capacity building. journal of learning for development, 10(1), i-vi. microsoft word gentles.docx issn: 2311-1550 2022, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 151-154 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. book review embedding social justice in teacher education and development in south africa eds. carmel mcnaught and sarah gravett new york routledge, 2021, pp. 226, isbn 9780367348533isbn this edited volume by carmel mc naught and sarah gravett is part of a series titled perspectives on education in africa. the series seeks to “offer tools for analysing, for understanding, and for decisionmaking concerning contemporary issues of education in africa” (p. xiii). its underlying assumption is that such tools and analysis, while respectful of other perspectives should be grounded in indigenous knowledge and experience as a way of decolonising african education. the promotion of african scholarship about africa is seen as a way of enhancing education in and for african people by celebrating it and theorising lessons for the future. the book lives up to these expectations as it offers readers fourteen chapters by twenty-five authors from africa, the uk, europe, and canada, situated in universities and development agencies. together, they give robust, critical analyses of various aspects of teacher education and teacher development in africa such as philosophical assumptions, professional development and learning principles, economic models, environmental concerns, and access to digital resources. their aim is to confront issues of social injustice by envisioning ways of facilitating “socially just educational development” through improved teacher preparation curricula and practices. this aim is also met through the presentation of empirical research on “pragmatic strategies” and “forward-looking” initiatives in initial and in-service teacher education. the book is organised into four sections. the first is titled “overview considerations.” it begins with chapter 1, in which gravett and mcnaught pose broad questions about the readiness of teacher education to prepare teachers for a rapidly changing world. invoking the concept of a “volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous” (vuca) (p. 4) situation, to convey the difficult challenges teacher education in africa faces, they suggest it must be reimagined. they propose teacher education must focus on making curricula relevant by curating them to be lifeworthy — ready to manage “the demands of a fast -changing world and uncertain future” (p. 8). lifeworthy teacher education would be current and cutting edge, include literacies for a digital world, and would position teachers to be “lifeready”— able to use and transfer knowledge as and when needed. this perspective is supported in chapter 2 as habler, bennett and damani, propose and discuss eight culturally appropriate principles for designing effective teacher professional development and learning for sub saharan africa. in chapter 3, ogange and carr highlight the accomplishments of the commonwealth of learning (col) “teacher futures” programme in seven african countries, as examples of how open educational resources can strengthen the role of teacher education in “increasing access to and 152 participation in education, particularly in sub-saharan africa” (p. 45). the section concludes with a chapter by dembowski who explains how “socialjustice policies” can impact “the prosperity and stability of nation state” (p. 63). chapters 5 and 6 in section two speak to initial teacher education initiatives that are transformative in helping student teachers develop agency as prospective change agents. batchelor and mahomed describe an education excursion project where students are helped to confront their personal experiences of oppression and social injustice. this facilitates critical understanding of social injustice and development of professional competencies and dispositions for social justice advocacy. petersen, maseko, nthimbane and cancelliere, advocate social justice-oriented service learning as a similar strategy for preparing student teachers to become “critical, caring and transformative actors in society” (p. 95). research on school and community-based teacher development activities is highlighted in section three. these include a successful participatory action learning and action research (palar) model described in chapter 7, whereby in-service teachers learn to take individual and collective ownership of processes for addressing “personal and contextual psychosocial challenges” (p. 122). the author, setlhare, contends this enables teachers to become more confident and prepared to support learners psychosocially in sustainable ways. in chapter 8, sinyolo, illustrates the value of teacher-development programmes that involve genuine participation of teachers and other key stakeholders in their conceptualisation. he argues this approach “ensures ownership and successful implementation” (p. 142). drawing on lessons learned from examples such as the prize-winning quality-ed programme, he proposes a teacher-competence-based model for building the capacity of teachers for promoting social justice. chapter 9 also subscribes to the idea that opportunities to facilitate “the co-construction of knowledge” (p. 148) by teachers and school communities are powerful strategies for developing culturally relevant and socially just pedagogy. its authors, mcateer and wood, share the results of a participatory action research where teaching assistants (tas) were trained and mentored to strengthen communication between parents and teachers in low-income communities. this facilitated the role of the tas in moderating epistemic injustice as they became conduits for bridging the languages and knowledge of the world of communities and teachers. in chapter 10, gravett and eadie, document the conceptualisation and framing of the sandbox project — an “education-focused, design-based research project” (p. 163), this is intended to “advance theoretical insights” and develop “tested artefacts and practices” (p. xvii) through a series of interventions designed to develop teacher competencies for a “changing world” (p. 169). this objective is grounded in the researchers’ belief that enabling teaching and learning that meets the demands of a rapidly changing world is a “social-justice imperative” (p. 175). section four shifts attention to issues of curriculum in teacher education. all three chapters are underpinned by a critical theoretical view of curriculum as a “space of power, social justice, caring and debate” (p. 182). the authors see critical consideration of curriculum — exposing how it is complicit in reproducing social inequalities as key to redressing social injustice in education. in chapter 11, mdzanga and moeng, argue for the recognition of the pedagogical value of all african languages in teaching and scholarship. they contend that language politics and policies in higher education institutions in south africa must be reformed because their “epistemologies and knowledge systems. . .. remain rooted in colonial, apartheid and western worldviews and epistemological 153 traditions” (p. 186). english remains the dominant language for teaching. this serves to marginalise many students from non-english speaking backgrounds. this is a social justice issue. it is thus critical that teacher educators and teacher trainees be made aware of this challenge: teachers must be prepared to “understand language as a social-justice issue” (p. 191) and to advocate for revision of current language policies. mills and perumal (chapter 12) take a similar position as they discuss the potential of using “music education as a pathway to social justice” in south african universities. they argue that higher education curricula should “decentre hegemonic, western-centric, sociocultural accounts of knowledge production” (p. 197) and instead embrace african musicology. they also invite readers to consider the possibilities of using critical pedagogy for music education as a means of disrupting the ideologies of privileging western music. in chapter 13, kennedy and lautenbach suggest that assessment becomes a social-justice issue if it fails to consider fairness and equity. this has become more apparent because of the covid-19 pandemic as universities have had to convert to online learning and assessment. the authors share how a pragmatic approach to designing assessment, motivated by concerns for fairness and equity in a time of unprecedented rapid change and uncertainty, precipitated more relevant and socially just pedagogical principles and thinking. they suggest sustaining such pragmatism has significant implications for addressing social injustice in the future. in chapter 14, the editors ask “where to from here?” because the book was in production during the pandemic, they chose to summarise how this new reality “shed additional light” (p. 230) on the themes addressed. they conclude that it has implications for principles of designing teacher education including that “teachers need to be versatile and adaptive; quick-fix technologies do not work; sound pedagogy and the public good [should] guide learning design; responsiveness in research and development projects is essential; and long-term relevance works with responsiveness to immediate needs” (pp. 230234). this summary is instructive and serves to position the conclusions drawn throughout the book in an even more forward-thinking way. at the same time however, it may have been useful to pay some attention to highlighting key takeaways in relation to the aims of the book outlined in the preface. this is particularly important as overall the book makes a powerful contribution in several ways. first, it delivers in its mission to address the issue of embedding social justice in teacher education and teacher development in africa. this is accomplished through the various philosophical discussions and critical theoretical discourses about the concept of social justice. almost every chapter offers a sound, scholarly, theoretical consideration of its meaning and what it should look like in action. the editors state that their intention was not to give a textbook definition of the concept. instead, they invited “readers to see the nuances in interpretation and action that each of the authors . . . has taken” (p. xv). the authors however have succeeded in doing more than offering various nuances. they give rich, intellectual discussions of social justice which could be collated and theorized in a chapter on its own. this is a missed opportunity for enhancing the scholarly contribution and impact of this volume. similarly, it is indicated in the front of the book that it will be of interest to a range of education stakeholders as it “considers the need for teacher education to be transformational and address conventional pedagogy as well as the rights and duties of all citizens.” this is achieved by offering both theoretical and empirical perspectives and examples which can be considered, adopted, and 154 adapted by stakeholders. as a reviewer, however, i was surprised that other lessons to be learned from reading this volume were not mentioned. for example, the chapters that highlight empirical research have included detailed accounts and justifications of their methodologies. these can be considered as exemplars for reporting research and may prove very useful to prospective teacher educator and student teacher researchers. the chapters also model critically reflective thought and writing with unapologetic critiques of current realities which are assertive but not aggressive in tone. they also promote a key element in making teacher education and teacher development transformational — the elevation of teacher voice. the contribution made by this book in modeling teacher educator research and the power of teacher voice for change, is significant. a final critique is the absence of a chapter that conveys the context of the volume. for readers who are not african, it would have been helpful to include at least a brief introduction to the geography, history and geopolitics of the continent. this would help readers appreciate even more the magnitude of the challenges identified in the book and what the editors describe as “our narrative journey across africa” (p. xv). although some chapters, particularly the empirical ones, mention several african countries, references to south africa seem dominant. despite these omissions, the editors should be highly commended for pulling together a group of contributors whose work is rich, deep, and rigorous in its scholarship. the volume is a very good read for both african and other international readers. it inspires readers to engage in critical reflection of what obtains, as a means of envisaging a better future — for the role of teacher education and teacher development in making the world a better and more socially just space. reviewed by: carol hordatt gentles, phd, of the university of the west indies, mona. email: carolgentles1@yahoo.com cite this paper as: gentles, c. h. (2022). book review: embedding social justice in teacher education and development in south africa. journal of learning for development, 9(1), 151-154. microsoft word makoe.docx issn: 2311-1550 2021, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 487-500 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. leadership for development: re-shaping higher education futures and sustainability in africa mpine makoe and don olcott, jr. university of south africa abstract: leading change in higher education has been a major challenge in countries of limited resources, such as those in sub-saharan africa. most african universities have struggled with this transition mainly due to lack of the requisite information and communication technology (ict) infrastructure, inadequate expertise for online pedagogies and inability to provide computers to their students and staff. when faced with the recent changes, caused mainly by the covid-19 pandemic that forced every person to work and learn remotely, many academic leaders were completely ill-prepared to deal with changes of this magnitude. the aim of this paper is to provide recommendations for shaping the future of higher education in africa going forward. this will be done by analysing trends and opportunities created by these changes with the aim of accentuating the need for a renewed pan-african ubuntu that embraces the future, respects the unique dignity, cultures, languages and heritage of nations preand post-colonialism, and inspires the african union agenda 2063, the africa we want. keywords: leadership, africa, higher education, ubuntu, digital technologies. introduction if you want to go fast, go alone. if you want to go far, go together. african proverb higher education institutions in africa have been increasingly faced with complex challenges including the digitisation of education caused by the rapid development of emerging technologies (nowrie, 2012), increasing demand for higher education (roser, 2020; mwagiru & horrell, 2020); and inadequate finance and funding for public education and government support (ayee, 2014; wangenge-ouma & kupe, 2020). the global pandemic has further exacerbated the range and depth of economic, educational, political, social and health crises across the world (bozkurt et al, 2020). the level of instability and disruption created by these continuing crises are unprecedented since world war ii. moreover, this pandemic has been particularly difficult in african nations where many challenges such as sluggish economic growth leading to extreme poverty, shortage of high-level skills to service emerging economies, and massive demands for higher education were already pervasive, prior to the pandemic, relative to education. education, as a system, is expected to capacitate people with the necessary knowledge, skills and attitudes to address social and political ills such as poverty, ill-health, climate change, slow job-creation, slow economic development, threats to peace and fragmenting social cohesion. indeed, we cannot underscore the fact that education is at a crossroads across the african continent given the myriad of challenges on the higher education horizon. 488 the african context in the past thirty years, higher education institutions have been going through many challenges created by disruptive technological changes that have impacted heavily on their operations. this is taking place at the forefront of the african educational landscape that is faced with a massive digital divide due to uneven access to digital technologies. moreover, emerging research from the pandemic may suggest the digital divide is actually more severe than earlier estimates in both developing and developed countries (bozkurt et al, 2020). in most sub-saharan african countries, internet access, particularly in rural communities, is limited and unreliable. there are severe limitations on the amounts of data that can be seamlessly and instantly accessible online, yet slow internet access/speeds make the educative process fragmented and frustrating for students and faculty. the low socio-economic levels of students further exacerbates the near impossible barriers facing students and rural communities in particular. this context was exacerbated by the covid-19 pandemic which hit the continent so that almost overnight people were forced to work remotely and learn remotely in an attempt to curb the spread of the virus. teachers everywhere were expected to move their classrooms into an online space. this was done irrespective of whether the teachers were ready for it or not. most teachers had very little knowledge or experience of teaching online and when they were faced with a transformation of this magnitude, they found themselves confused, frustrated and demoralised. most african universities struggled with this transition mainly due to lack of the requisite information and communication technology (ict) infrastructure, inadequate expertise for online pedagogies and inability to provide computers to their students and staff. many academic leaders were completely illprepared to deal with changes of this magnitude. on the one hand, they had to ensure that teaching and learning occurred irrespective of whether people were ready or not. on the other, they had to provide resources to support the transition. and yet, amidst all of these challenges and even the pandemic, there is one fact that has provided a unique opportunity for all social institutions. the pandemic has provided a window of opportunity on one level to do a strategic reset (olcott, 2021; mcgreal & olcott, 2021) and re-think our educational systems and how we can navigate the current barriers and shape our universities and schools to be innovative, adaptable social and humanitarian institutions for the future. the issue at hand is what it means to be a higher education institution in africa and how this should shape the institutions, curriculum, scholarship and how students should be funded. this is a complex terrain within which university executives are expected to lead and manage. all over the world this strategic reset is affording leaders of institutions and organisations an opportunity to consider: what were we doing before the pandemic that worked, what didn’t and what changes can leverage our capacity to adapt and thrive in the future? and indeed, it is critical that we analyse these within the african context and its diverse and complex landscape. the landscape drivers the starting point of responding to this question is to examine how higher education leaders handled dramatic changes caused by the pandemic with the aim of strengthening what worked well, eliminating what didn’t work and taking forward what is likely to thrive in the future. the futures research methodology of trends and emerging issues analysis was used to determine trends and issues that arise to determine their development over time and how academic leaders responded to 489 these changes. although the process of identifying both trends and emerging issues are similar, trends analysis focuses on issues that have fully emerged and might develop into a problem or an opportunity later while emerging issues “are potential problems or opportunities in their earliest stage of development … that might eventually become a problem or opportunity,” (dator, 2018, p. 6). analysing current trends will provide information on what will happen if the trend continues and may cause the trend to change (inayatullah, 2013). trends are an important part of futures thinking because “they show ways in which the past and the present give rise to the future by forecasting what might happen if a trend were to continue” (oecd, 2019, p. 45). in this paper, trends analysis will focus on the pre-pandemic trends such as globalisation, demographics, the use of technologies that enable flexible working environments, mobile internet, artificial intelligence, open education practices and micro-credentialing. while academic leaders were trying to deal with all these trends, the covid19 pandemic emerged with its own set of challenges that needed to be addressed immediately. the response to the changing environments calls on academic leaders to be visionary to move the institution forward. because change is highly unpredictable, it is often affected by current events that influence our thinking such as the technologies, economic, social and political pressures; as well as the covid-19 pandemic. when faced with these challenges, leaders were left with no choice but to react to the situation as it presented itself. reaction is a response to an urgent need to respond, however, this is different from action, which requires anticipations (kotter, 2021). the lack of preparation for many eventualities tends to be the biggest challenge for leaders in general. this is further exacerbated in african higher education where leaders tend to focus on operational rather than strategic matters. the role of an academic leader is to provide a vision that stimulates hope and gives people a positive sense of direction (inayatullah, 2013). roser (2020) argues that the leadership practices of the past, as well as the current approaches, are no longer enough to meet future challenges. adapting new approaches and applications of leadership will be imperative. scope and purpose this paper discusses key issues including leadership, vision, digital technologies in the 4th industrial revolution, credentialing options, change management, online and open education, academic quality and other issues. the next section will target the game changers — the key issues that many observers see as most critical to reshaping the future of education in general, and higher education in particular, particularly across africa. trends and emerging issues analysis tries to take something obvious in the present which could grow into an opportunity in the future (dator, 2018). these emerging issues will be discussed in a synergistic manner to demonstrate key interrelationships and implications for institutions. the final section of this paper provides leaders with recommendations for going forward with reshaping their institutions, risk assessments, and contingencies for remaining agile and adaptable to changing markets and conditions. pre-pandemic emerging trends without question, many major trends were occurring in higher education prior to the pandemic. we were seeing shifts in economic power globally moving greater influence out of europe and the us towards china. we were seeing international higher education facing new challenges where a new global regionalism was occurring with institutions and foreign students looking more closely at their 490 educational options in their own region rather than the us, uk, and australia — the typical big three of international host institutions. higher education has not been spared from the impact of these global changes. vision making the volatile higher education landscape that needs to meet the challenges of globalisation needs to develop leaders who are able to drive the institutions into the future. while the higher education institutions in other parts of the world are strategically positioning their institutions to address challenges that are brought in by new trends, many african academic leaders are continuing with business as usual forgetting that the success or failure of an institution is often attributed to its leader (kotter, 2021; olcott, 2021). without a compelling vision of what higher education should look like, the institution may not reach its goal. it is the responsibility of a leader to ensure that there is a wellfounded vision that will take the university forward (olcott, 2021). visioning focuses on the potential change that is likely to make a fundamental difference in higher education in the future. it requires african academic leaders to move beyond political expediency and lead from the trenches with those who will support their vision (kotter, 2021; olcott, 2021). demographic realities the african higher education landscape has been affected by the drivers of change in the political, social and economic environment. one of the drivers of change is changing demographics. currently, the continent is faced with an explosion of a growing number of young people who are in desperate need of a university qualification. about 60% of students in sub-saharan africa will be younger than 25 years in 30 years, according to unesco (2021) projections. the economic growth and the development agenda of the “african we want” is in the hands of these young people, according to the african union agenda 2063 which sees them as the best resource for the continent (agenda 2063, 2015). if africa’s young people receive the right education and training, they will be able to drive the development of the continent with sustainable and long-term custodianship of their own resources (agenda 2063, 2015). to reach this goal, higher education leaders need to start planning to ensure that these large numbers of young people have access to equitable quality education as their basic human right (roser, 2020). the growing trend of young people who seek spaces in higher education is forcing universities to expand the system from an elite model to a mass model. the digital revolution in the past thirty years, there have been profound and pervasive changes brought in by technology. the permeation of technology in every aspect of human life that has transformed the way people communicate, socialise, buy and sell, teach and learn. while educational institutions used to be the only ones that produced and disseminated knowledge, now the internet has revolutionised how knowledge is developed and communicated. virtually any person could be a developer or a producer of knowledge. the use of icts in education cannot be underestimated. every dimension of the higher education space has been touched by technology. the tension happens when society cannot catch up, when power relations do not change (inayatullah, 2013). it has made it possible that education resources developed everywhere and anywhere in the world can be picked up and used for teaching and 491 learning for free. the adoption of these emerging technologies in higher education has impacted on the pedagogy, the processes and support systems and structures. hülsmann (2016), however, reminds us that digital tools — icts — can also be the achilles heel for lower socio-economic and disadvantaged groups. these groups often spend close to 25% of their personal income (4-5% in developing countries) on technology, which is a large percentage given that the personal income amount is low to start. hülsmann (2016) further suggests that icts may, in fact, exacerbate the ‘digital divide’ which makes this a particularly acute problem for sub-saharan africa and other regions on the continent. these changes also affect the way the university is managed. to ensure that technology is used optimally in the higher education sector, academic leaders need to come up with plans and strategies that ensure that no person is left behind. the increased demand for technologies in the education space “requires higher education leaders to possess a broader and more sharp set of skills than in the past” (odhiambo, 2014). academic leaders are expected to lead change by predicting what is essential for their institution in order to develop appropriate policies and implementable strategic plans that enable them to adjust and adapt to the new environment (nworie, 2012). academic leaders who are going to make it through these rampant changes are those that are resilient, dynamic and have the ability to apply flexible and creative approaches to navigate through hurdles posed by online learning (kotter, 2021; olcott, 2020, 2021; reed, 2018). examining the deeper implications of the technological trends in africa reveals that many people, especially those who live in remote, rural areas, are not fully benefiting from the affordances of technologies. online learning was increasing all over the world but the actual geographic uses of online teaching and learning remained regional, national and local. there is no evidence that 100% online global higher education was or is expanding. despite the capacity to ‘go global,’ most institutions across the world, including open universities, have a very small geographical service region even in the digital online era (olcott, 2021). micro-credentials and oers micro-credentials are increasingly gaining momentum amongst universities for re-thinking their credentials base (brown, giolla mhichil, beirne & mac lochlainn, 2021; futurelearn, 2020; mcgreal & olcott, 2021; olcott, 2021). are degrees and certificates the best options for putting students to work? perhaps new micro-credentials that give students greater options for entering the workforce must be a first priority going forward? of course, there must be jobs in the first place but a better balance may serve both the educational and employment needs of students and society. in concert with emerging micro-credentials, we have also seen greater interest in oers despite their advocacy not achieving what was hoped for in the 2012, 2017 and 2019 unesco recommendations (www.unesco.org). the fact is that the growth has been slow during the last ten years and most faculty, students, and other stakeholders still lack awareness about the basics of oers and how they can be value-added to students and to themselves. oers do have potential to increase access and lower costs going forward but we have to move beyond simplistic notions that moocs are the yellow brick road to oz (pickard, 2018). 492 these emerging pedagogical practices, and ict, enables communication that radically reduce constraints of distance and time in the academic space. new technologies have the capacity to augment what universities have been doing over the years by offering new ways of exploring and applying knowledge and creating learning communities. however, the implementation of these innovative practices in higher education requires “innovation, risk taking, and continuous learning; and new skill sets that traditional strategies of the past are not sufficient to address” (mrig & sanaghan, 2017, p. 4). emerging issues during the pandemic olcott (2021) summarised the response of education to the global pandemic. he wrote: during the pandemic, educational institutions across the world responded by going online but were not agile enough do it fast with efficiency, quality and consistency (bozkurt et al, 2020; olcott, 2020). the response was fast but there was only one other option to a lockdown — go online (or do nothing). it is likely that the post pandemic assessment will provide data that shows uneven successes with this response. academic leaders didn’t really have to make any decision other than go or not go. it was an international health crisis and failure to respond was not an option. there was only one option — lockdown = online. (p. 6) in general, and validated by bozkurt et al (2020), the vast majority of schools and higher education institutions across the globe lacked the training for faculty, student and faculty support services, technological infrastructure, and, most importantly, the planning and leadership necessary to lead effectively during a crisis. this is a primary example of why leaders fail to lead effective change — no vision, no contingencies, no preparations of key human resources, and an unwillingness or inability to see the forest for the trees. academic leaders that don’t plan for the future, will fail in the present. indeed, these same issues have remained on-going challenges for african schools and universities. jean-louis (2021) was even more candid about the emerging challenges during and post pandemic. he suggested inequality amongst various groups in terms of access and resources was significant; racism and the lack of diversity in many areas appeared more pronounced; social trust in sources of informal and knowledge were now questioned more than ever; the digital divide is larger than we expected, including amongst some of the groups we were already aware of in developing countries; some nations and universities are highly dependent upon international students to the point of economic vulnerability; the mental health of remote working and the pandemic adversely affected a majority of the population; many jobs we thought were essential are not secure whilst others considered mundane are now essential; and climate change continues to wreak havoc upon the planet. most of these observations can also be attributed to the african continent and higher education systems. distance and online learning seem to be the only viable option that offered flexible ways for delivering content and resources while enabling interaction amongst students and teachers during the pandemic. however, as noted above, most institutions lacked the basics to employ online delivery given this delivery mode requires heavy investment in ict infrastructure (hardware and software), digital capacity, learners and teachers’ capabilities to engage in teaching, learning and assessment practices (bozkurt et al, 2020). this was a major challenge because many african countries do not have 493 a stable electricity supply, let alone appropriate devices and internet connectivity that can enable teachers and students to engage in online teaching and learning. in addition, the costs of data in some countries are prohibitive for most students and teachers. almost all institutions struggled with this transition. without these basic necessities, students from underserved, marginalised and povertystricken communities did not have access to the digital devices that are required for remote online learning. therefore, efforts should focus on expanding access to all learners and teachers irrespective of their environment. it is important that solutions for developing countries should ensure that no learner is left behind. the disruptive events due to covid-19 have prevented and continue to prevent students and teachers from meeting face-to-face and, as such, require alternative delivery modes of teaching and learning. teachers were not only expected to adopt online delivery options to ensure that learning occurs during lockdowns, they had to teach while working from home. for the first time in the history of higher education, large numbers of students and teachers who were used to studying in a defined classroom environment had to move their teaching and learning online without the necessary competencies, training, support services and digital tools to do so. in an attempt to move teaching to an online environment, many higher education leaders neglected to recognise that classroom-based teaching is fundamentally different from online teaching. in a classroom, an educator teaches a group of students who are congregated in one place. however, in an online learning environment, an educator teaches an individual student who is sitting alone in a house that may be full of other people who are not involved in learning. in this context, the educator uses different approaches to ensure that students that are isolated are motivated to learn and participate in online activities. the place and time in which teaching and learning take place is a critical component of the education transaction. adopting technology for teaching and learning remotely changes the dynamics of practices and the systems needed to support students. these changes did not only alter processes and practices in the odl context, they subsequently affect how people lead this change in odl (nworie, 2012). it was therefore critical that teachers were provided with the necessary knowledge and skills so that they were empowered to teach online. given there was very little time to design and develop online content and prepare learning materials for online teaching, some institutions looked for technical assistance and support from distance education communities (olcott, 2020). working in collaboration with other experienced online institutions and international partners assisted universities to upskill and equip lecturers/teachers with appropriate skills to teach through this mode of delivery. instead of developing new programmes which may take time, oer and moocs licensed under creative commons 4.0 international share alike that had been developed elsewhere were used to speed up the process of staff training and development of online course content. this was done in some institutions that recognised the need for trained teachers. however, the success of these training programmes depended on solid strategic plans and policies which guide the implementation of online learning. although many campus-based universities struggled with moving to distance online learning, the distance learning mode of delivery is not new on the african continent. the university of south africa (unisa), the first university to offer higher education courses through correspondence, is based on the continent. in light of prohibitive costs of building new higher education institutions to accommodate more school leavers, post-graduates and working adults in universities, education 494 policy documents in most african countries refer to distance and online education as the solution to address the growing need of students who seek access into higher education at reduced costs. however, the uptake of online learning over the years has been very slow. it is only recently, when the deadly covid-19 virus led to the closure of educational campuses, thereby compelling students to stay at home, and resulting in governments being forced to consider remote online teaching, that adoption of this mode accelerated. these changes did not only affect the teaching and learning practice but also affected where teaching and learning took place. working in an unfamiliar environment created its own set of challenges. people had to negotiate between a working and a home environment. this “tidal wave of change will soon make the way we work almost unrecognizable” to higher education leaders’ who had to manage people who were working away from the office (coetzee et al, 2021). this change of managing a dispersed and geographically separated workforce is likely to be the norm in the future. transformation of this magnitude may result in confusion, frustration, low morale and low motivation for the people involved. it is precisely during this period that leaders have to be innovative in addressing these challenges. however, leaders in higher education institutions have mostly been reactive in dealing with challenges impacting their institutions and slow at producing proactive solutions. by and large, leaders failed to seize the opportunities created by the covid-19 pandemic. the game changers: what leaders must empower across africa indeed, one of the most powerful revelations to emerge from the global pandemic is the reality that academic leaders can blend power, empathy, humanism and compassion into the decision-making processes that translates to effective and transformational leadership (friedman, 2020). the examples are all around us. jacinda ardern, prime minister of new zealand and angela merkel, chancellor of germany, are two primary examples. conversely, perhaps the lighter side of these examples accentuate that rhetoric, money, political standing and influence are seldom as important leadership attributes as sound judgment and common sense – both which they don’t teach you in graduate school or on the job. the us and the uk are two cases in point on this score who managed the pandemic with disastrous results and were both led by male leaders. resetting the stage: a pan-african philosophy for ‘ubuntu’ the humanistic philosophy and concept of ubuntu is a proudly south african philosophy based on people’s relation to others, that is, umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu — “i am what i am because of others.” as a result, ubuntu discourages the view that an individual takes precedence over the community, thus, making the value of identifying with others and responding to their needs as important. focusing on people’s allegiances, discourages the view that the individual takes precedence over the community. “ubuntu relates to communities, which, whether poor or thriving, cannot survive on individual efforts” (makoe & shandu-phetla, 2019, p. 132). in modern south africa, this unique philosophy is expansive, often drawing upon essential moral ideals, working together, empathy and empowering a collective humanity. nelson mandela writing in the preface of richard stengel’s mandela’s way: fifteen lessons of life, love and courage (2009) referred to ubuntu as an african concept that means “the profound sense that we are human only through the humanity of others; that if we 495 are to accomplish anything in this world, it will in equal measure be due to the work and achievement of others.” inevitably, the mix of interpretations makes a universal definition problematic — or does it? at the heart of ubuntu is the restoration of dignity and humanism in the modern era — the coming together of a preand post-colonial heritage and history that defined the african experience, spirit and moral foundations. more precisely, this heritage combined with mandela’s words above, reflect the idea that ‘we are in this together’ long before it became a popular sound bite for the current pandemic. we must now move beyond the rhetoric and translate how this pan-african view of ubuntu can become the centre of african education going forward. ubuntu is linked with the notion of education as a common good which reflects social and cultural practices that engender participation, cooperation and reciprocity. therefore, the context of coming and working together for the common good is essential to paving the future for education. the new ubuntu for education first and foremost must become apolitical. political appointments to lead institutions must be abolished. university leaders must be trained, certified and experienced leaders, not part-time political administrators. innovative public schools and universities need seasoned and experienced leaders of complex organisations. indeed, politics cannot and should not be eliminated altogether but must be in the roles that support education in the best ways — policy making, funding allocation and accountability, quality, and employment generation. pan-african ubuntu must be built on the educational context, continuity, cooperation, communication, and community across the continent. african leaders can borrow and adapt best practices from other nations, developed and developing, but at the end of the day, the african union agenda 2063 of the africa we want should drive decisions about translating external strategies into local and regional pan-continental adoption. leaders at all levels must empower this spirit of panafrican ubuntu for navigating education into the future. we are in this together! pan-african imperatives for education: a macro view a pan-african philosophy of ubuntu in and of itself is not enough to transform african education. a very courageous, realistic and pragmatic mindset will be necessary for transformation and it has to start with leadership. despite our best intentions, hope is not a strategy and what will be needed is decision making that may in fact produce pain before gain. without question, any renewal will require strong leadership in at least the following areas. • develop digital infrastructure: internet access, and training for online delivery for students, staff and faculty must be the continent’s primary strategic goal. societal infrastructure, economic expansion, and workforce development and internationalisation depends on infrastructure. eighty-two percent of people in sub-saharan african do not have internet access, mostly those living in rural communities. without this educational highway for the future, african rhetoric bravado will remain empty platitudes. this is the primary game changer that leverages every other social institution across the diverse african landscape. • re-commit to long-term planning with short-term goals and milestones to reflect progression towards an agreed-upon long-term vision (kotter, 2021). the challenges are immense and no 496 matter from what vantage points we observe african education, the inherent limitations on resources result in poor judgment and decision making. • recognise societal impacts and the future are linked to ensuring a robust k-12 elementarymiddle-secondary-tertiary-lifelong education system. sound bites or league table progress for universities are more platitudes than impactful leadership. the fact is the vast majority of student leavers arriving on the steps of africa’s universities are not prepared for university study. this in turn places immense burdens upon university faculty who may spend as much time on remedial education as they do providing these students with a viable and springboard credential into the world of work. • reorganise university strategic goals by starting first with funding agencies and political leaders. the resource challenges facing african educational institutions at all levels has received ubiquitous coverage across the scholarly landscape. the leadership problem here is not the challenges per se, it’s the continuous deployment of similar strategies and practices that do not result in positive outcomes and impacts. the insanity principle — doing things over and over the same way and expecting different outcomes is counterproductive. within this challenging landscape, the game changers for african higher education in the future will require laser-focused decision making and judgment. • embrace the concept of the pan-african ubuntu as a foundation for the complex transformations of the future of higher education across africa. tia (this is africa) respects pre-colonial histories, cultures, customs, languages, humanism, and dignity. it celebrates africa as a unique ‘frontier of knowledge’ for the world, not simply for western nations nor colonial powers who in the main have retained power over many key societal systems and infrastructure (thompson, 2020). • prioritise organisational structures and models that prepare school leavers for university study from the primary and secondary school levels. • leverage credentials by shifting away from a credential focus on degrees and certificates and re-organise the university towards micro-credentials for skills-based preparation for faster school-to-work programmes. degrees and certificates are not being abandoned, they are being repositioned for societal impacts that lead to economic and workforce development (brown et al, 2021; mcgreal & olcott, 2021; olcott, 2021). • build partnership models that collectively focus on economic development and workforce development. political, business and university leaders must work collaboratively and invest funds targeted at economic initiatives that increase the public goods available to the majority of society. increasing the number of degree completers at the top ten universities will not do this. education must be tied to work and careers and create opportunities for all students’ post high school. in sum, not all students are meant or suited to attend university. these game changers form the core values of a continent-wide pan-african ubuntu meant to reframe the entire educational landscape. academic leaders of this transformation will require courage and resiliency where collective societal welfare supersedes political agendas, corruption, and self-interests. 497 it is a long-term vision but one that must be embraced if productive and sustainable change is to occur across the african educational sector. recommendations for university leaders within the context of a new pan-african ubuntu described above, the following recommendations are intended to focus on institutions. some of these build upon current initiatives whilst others challenge the status quo for post-colonial norms that have been ineffective. they are the prerequisites for managing the game changers outlined above. indeed, this is a strategic reset for leaders. • digital infrastructure and online scaling — this is your future. the entire world is online with agile and fluid digital infrastructures and online delivery. without this you are not on the global playing field. competition will only increase and nearly all providers will be delivering education, training and research online. • harness human potential — this is a paradox. you need digital infrastructure to compete yet you need to harness and foster the best in your human resources. people ultimately are the main resource for change and, therefore, they need to be provided with the training and decision-making autonomy they need to move the institution forward — digitally! • redesign credentials for economic development — african students need jobs and a source of income. economic development and stability of your nation requires universities to put students to work — not just give them degrees and certificates. redesign your credentials base now — by offering more short-term skill based training that links to employer needs and to public service. • quality and accountability matter — everyone is accountable. faculty, students, political leaders, funders, private companies, and all other stakeholders in the educational enterprise. money should reward and follow quality and impacts not simply previous years’ budgets. quality should drive your institution. even open universities that scale up to thousands of students usually grow too fast and are unable to provide academic quality, well-trained faculty and infrastructure upgrades and student support service at levels that clearly reflect quality. mediocrity should never be acceptable simply because you expand access. • zero-based resourcing — visionary and bold university leaders will need to restructure their institutions to go online, create micro-credentials, re-think faculty contractual parameters, expand digital infrastructure and internet access to students and other stakeholders. institutional budgets will be transformed and will need to consider new needs rather than old funding patterns that were primarily based upon past funding allocations. are you a leader that is willing to make every unit in your new university justify now what monies they need and for what purposes? summary indeed, the challenges facing the future of education in africa are formidable. conversely, the pandemic has afforded all nations and universities a period for strategic reset, to shift directions and navigate a new future. many new ‘normals’ will emerge, not simply one. this paper accentuates the need for a renewed pan-african ubuntu that embraces the future, respects the unique dignity, cultures, languages and heritage of nations preand postcolonialism, and inspires a new brand of 498 ‘tia = this is africa’ solidarity that recognises that africa is its own frontier of knowledge, of wealth, and of opportunities to share with the world and to be shaped by the world. the future will demand pan-african approaches to many issues. the first and most important is building the digital infrastructure and internet access for peoples across the continent. this is the first priority because everything flows from this capacity to build societal institutions, compete in the marketplace, create micro-credentials and jobs focused on skills and complemented by degree and certificate seekers — digital capacity enables all of these. this pan-african domain will also require a renewed focus on k-12 education so that school leavers arriving at the university doorstep are prepared for university study. strong universities with weak k12 systems is the ultimate negative paradox. africa must build strong systems from k lifelong learning. new partnership models amongst business, education and government must lead this transformation. at the institutional level, online delivery is not optional for african leaders. competitors are already online and this is a normative feature for doing business in the future. universities without online capacity will not be able to compete in the he educational market. leaders must harness their human potential with strong training and support systems. digital infrastructure is only as effective as the people designing, managing, using and supporting the systems. micro-credentials will be offered digitally because employers will be able to have their current employees take these online. leaders must motivate their academics to reorganise their curricula to accommodate the micro-credentials revolution that is already here. degrees and certificates will still be in high demand but not everyone needs or wants these — they want a job and a university’s contributions to society and the nation start with putting people to work even if their degree is not the entry credential. africa needs micro-credentials and skill-focused training to leverage employment opportunities for job-seeking students. leaders must renew their commitment to long-term strategic planning and to ensuring contingency planning is part of that process. quality and accountability must apply to all stakeholders and universities must defend academic quality as important as unmanaged enrollment growth. more does not always mean better and universities are no exception. high numbers with low quality will be detrimental to universities. in sum, the future of education in africa will require courageous, autonomous, and bold leaders who place the public good and the welfare of their nation first and foremost. leadership must build trust and confidence through empathy and refrain from the blame game. instead, leaders must reassure people that a bright future is possible despite the challenges that arise. decision making will require sound judgment and at times firm resolve which in fact can co-exist with empathy, kindness and care for the human condition (friedman, 2020). a brave new world is waiting for africa and its future. it is simply a matter of going. references african union commission (auc). (2015). agenda 2063: the africa we want. african union commission. ayee, j. r. a. (2014). academic leadership in africa. in j. r. a. ayee & b. g. jallow (eds.), leadership in postcolonial africa. palgrave macmillan. doi:10.1057/9781137478122 499 bozkurt, a., jung, i., xiao, j., vladimirschi, v., schuwer, r., egorov, g., lambert, s. r., alfreih, m., pete, j., olcott, jr., d. rodes, v., aranciaga, i., bali, m., alvarez, jr., a. v., roberts, j., pazurek, a., raffaghelli, j. e., panagiotou, n., de coëtlogon, p., shahadu, s., brown, m., asino, t. i. tumwesige, j., ramírez reyes, t., barrios ipenza, e., ossiannilsson, e., bond, m., belhamel, k., irvine, v., sharma, r. c., adam, t., janssen, b., sklyarova, t., olcott, n. ambrosino, a., lazou, c., mocquet, b., mano, m., & paskevicius, m. (2020). a global outlook to the interruption of education due to covid-19 pandemic: navigating in a time of uncertainty and crisis. asian journal of distance education, 15(1), 1-126. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3878572 brown, m., giolla mhichil, m. n., beirne, e., & mac lochlainn, c. (2021). the global micro-credential landscape: charting a new credential ecology for lifelong learning. journal of learning development, 8(2), 228-254. https://jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/article/view/525 coetzee, j., neneh, b., stemmet, k., lamprecht, j., motsitsi, c., & sereeco, w. (2021). south african universities in a time of increasing disruption. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 24(1), doi:https://doi.org/10.4102/sajems.v24i1.3739 dator, j. (2018). emerging issues analysis: because of graham molitor. world futures review, 10(1), 5-10. https://doi.org/10.1177/1946756718754895 friedman, u. (2020). new zealand’s prime minister may be the most effective leader on the planet. the atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/04/jacinda-ardern-new-zealand-leadershipcoronavirus/610237/ hülsmann, t. (2016). the impact of ict on the costs and economics of distance education: a review of the literature. commonwealth of learning (col). http://oasis.col.org/bitstream/handle/11599/2047/2016_hulsmann_theimpact-of-ict.pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y inayatullah, s. (2013). futures studies: theories and methods. in f. d. junquera (ed.), there's a future: visions for a better world (pp. 36-66). bbva. www.wfsf.org/...futures...inayatullah-futures-studies-theories-and-methods jean-louis, m. (2021). the future of learning in colleges and universities post covid-19. contact nord, 1-5. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/future-learning-colleges-universities-post-covid-19-maxim-jean-louis/ kotter, j. p. (2012). leading change. harvard business review press. makoe, m., & shandu-phetla, t. p. (2019). using mobile-based social media to facilitate interaction and build communities through the lens of ubuntu in distance education. journal for learning development, 6(2), 130142. mcgreal, r., & olcott, d. j. (2021, january). (unpublished report). transforming workforce futures: strategic perspectives and practices for university micro-credentials. athabasca university micro-credentials landscape report, 1-48. athabasca. mrig, a., & sanaghan, p. (2017). the skills future higher-ed leaders need to succeed. academic impressions. https://www.academicimpressions.com/pdf/future-skillset.pdf mwagiru, n. f., & horrell, z. (2020). african futures: social capital. foresight for development. http://www.foresightfordevelopment.org/library/55/1470-african-futures-social-capital nworie, j. (2012). applying leadership theories to distance education leadership. online journal of distance learning administration, 15(4). odhiambo, g. (2014). the challenges and future of public higher education leadership in kenya. journal of higher education policy and management, 36(2), 183-195, doi:10.1080/1360080x.2014.884676 oecd (2019). education at a glance 2019: oecd indicators. oecd publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/f8d7880d-en 500 olcott, d. j. (2021). (in press). micro-credentials unleashed: a catalyst for strategic reset and change in u.s. higher education. the american journal of distance education. olcott, d. j. (2020). in search of zorba: are you fit to lead an online distance education organisation? open education: the journal for open and distance education and educational technology, 16(2), 6-19. https://ejournals.epublishing.ekt.gr/index.php/openjournal/article/view/9749 pickard, l. (2018). analysis of 450 mooc-based microcredentials reveals many options but little consistency. https://www.classcentral.com/report/moocs-microcredentials-analysis-2018/ reed, d. e. (2018). resilient educational leaders in turbulent times: applying the leader resilience profile to assess resiliency in relationship to gender and age. perifiria, 10(2), 119-134. roser, m. (2020). future population growth. https://ourworldindata.org/futurepopulation-growth stengel, r. (2009). mandela’s way: fifteen lessons on life, love and courage. (preface by nelson mandela.) crown publishing. thompson, a. (2020). understand the meaning of ubuntu: a proudly south african philosophy. culture trip, 15. https://theculturetrip.com/africa/south-africa/articles/understanding-the-meaning-of-ubuntu-a-proudlysouth-african-philosophy/ unesco. (2021). covid-19 education response: snapshot of educational challenges and opportunities for recovery in africa. https://fr.unesco.org/sites/default/files/20210527a_snapshot.pdf authors: dr. mpine makoe is a commonwealth of learning chair in oep/oer r at the university of south africa. email: qakisme@unisa.ac.za dr. don olcott, jr., frsa, is an honorary professor at the university of south africa and president of hj associates. he is also an adjunct instructor with oldenburg university. email: don.olcott@gmail.com cite this paper as: makoe, m., & olcott, jr., d. (2021). leadership for development: re-shaping higher education futures and sustainability in africa. journal of learning for development, 8(3), 487-500. microsoft word fast.docx issn: 2311-1550 2022, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 73-88 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. examining the practices and challenges of distance education of phd candidates in the context of covid-19 olha fast1, olena semenog2, myroslava vovk3, nazar buhaichuk1 and galyna golya1 1the municipal higher educational institution “lutsk pedagogical college” of the volyn regional council 2sumy state pedagogical university named after as makarenko 3ivan ziaziun institute of pedagogical and adult education naes of ukraine, kyiv abstract: the distance education system is actively developing in the world due to the covid-19 pandemic. the sharp transition of phd candidates to distance education caused difficulties in organising the educational process. the aim of this study was to analyse the methods of distance education for postgraduate students in the context of a covid-19 pandemic. a survey of graduate students was conducted through specially-designed and semi-standardised interviews of focus groups of producers and consumers of educational services. the study showed that the process of adaptation of postgraduate students majoring in physical culture and sports and biology was much more difficult than in the major educational, pedagogical sciences and philology. the reasons for the problems of distance education of phd candidates included the complexity of creating educational and methodological materials for distance learning; lack of a centralised system of certification and accreditation of electronic courses; insufficient motivation of teachers; shortage of teachers who could competently develop distance learning courses in higher education. the study identified opportunities to implement promising areas of online learning in the system of training of academic and teaching staff: retraining of a large proportion of the teaching staff, implementation of a system approach to the development of the online environment of educational institutions, development of skills and abilities to use educational content. prospects for further research include the study of problems of violation of academic integrity by postgraduate students in the course of distance learning. keywords: training of phd candidates, distance education/learning, covid-19 pandemic, online learning technologies, health and recreational technologies. introduction the covid-19 pandemic has significantly changed social reality. having been faced with quarantine restrictions, educational institutions switched to the introduction of distance education as the main and sometimes the only possible learning environment. higher education has faced new challenges and obstacles due to the total transition to distance learning. the transition of higher education to the prevailing distance form has led to the transformation of educational practices of teachers and postgraduate students who were forced to work with educational materials online. this has created a challenging situation in higher education systems, especially regarding the training of academic and teaching staff. 74 literature review in general, the problem of introducing distance technologies in the educational process of phd candidates has not been sufficiently studied and developed. the researchers pointed out three levels of readiness of the education system to use remote learning technologies: the level of teachers (supervisors), the level of phd students and the level of universities (zvavahera & masimba, 2019). as for other factors of distance learning in the paradigm of phd candidates’ training, in general, the situation can be described as an antithetical dichotomy. on the one hand, in terms of age, indicators of professional orientation, competence, professional self-determination and general conscious attitude to learning, this group of students is clearly the most profitable in the entire vertical of higher education. on the other hand, distance learning can be a challenge for future doctors of philosophy due to: a) lack of skills in independent research (occurs due to the dominance of mostly reproductive activities within academic programs and curricula in undergraduate and graduate programs); b) lack of initiative (due to the lack of attention to leadership qualities of students); c) difficulties in optimizing the independent work of students in the triad of professional activity (for employed applicants due to balancing studies with employment responsibilities (alhattab, 2021)) and household problems. besides, many students at this level have their own families, which also require increased attention to combine learning, life and professional activities. this indicates the need to study the problems and further prospects for the development of distance education in the context of phd candidates’ training. distance learning technologies are playing an increasingly important role in modern society, and are successfully implementing the wider educational practice in the following forms: distance competitions, educational projects, distance courses, etc. (kaliuzhka et al., 2020). distance education, or distance learning, is an area of education that focuses on pedagogy, technology, and instructional systems aimed at delivering education to students who are not physically “on site” (unesco, 2010). new terms are now emerging: online learning, digital learning, e-learning, and virtual learning, which are synonymous and interchangeable, and are only defining the mechanism of distance learning (traxler, 2018), but also remote learning (o'regan, 2020). the development of distance learning can be considered both as a direct consequence of digitalisation in higher education (ilmarinem & koskela, 2015) and the form of emergency remote education (ere) during the recent health emergency. however, it should be clearly stated that although the digitalisation of public life contributes significantly to the spread of distance learning, the idea arose to use distance learning in the 20s of the twentieth century (sumner, 2000). according to other versions, in general, it was adoped in the 40s of the nineteenth century (kurzman, 2013). however, for the present study we are specifically interested not in the whole wide topic of distance learning and its peculiarities within multiply autonomous fields. we are concentrated on how distance learning influences the training of phd candidates as a whole and within specialties of postgraduate studying and on the ways, techniques, and theoretical and practical bases of training phd candidates remotely in order to achieve advanced educational goals. therefore, the logic of organising the review of relevant literature is subjected to this goal. 75 it is also important to be aware that the quality of distance learning is highly dependent on the country in which the problem is being studied. for example, a unicef 2021 report noted that countries such as benin, burundi, cote d'ivoire, congo, ethiopia, madagascar, malawi, niger and togo need very significant changes in the education system, in particular with regard to remote format (cornér et al., 2018; alhattab, 2021; cuschieri, 2021). when we talk about the experience of phd candidates’ training, we certainly mean in countries with good practices in the training of scientists. however, we understand that the national context is sometimes decisive in the practice and philosophy of the perception of distance education, as an alternative to traditional formats of educational interaction. approaches to the organisation of distance learning for full-time and parttime doctoral candidates also needs differentiation (o'regan, 2020; alhattab, 2021). the use of computer technology is dominant for remote education. and in the learning process of phd candidates it has a positive effect on the quality of searching relevant information, using online platforms to interpret the data, organising online exploring activities and working with large volumes of information that is necessary in the process of working on an individual phd scientific topic. remote communication with the supervisor changes the standard roles of the participants of the educational process, though, not as crucially as it occurred within school, college or undergraduate educational levels (gray & crosta, 2019; alebaikan et al., 2020). this is because in the framework of interaction between the phd candidate and supervisor, it is a common practice to build it on the ground of learner = “knowledge coordinator” and supervisor = “mentor”, “assistant” (rather than supervisors as so-called “hands-off supervisors” (gruzdev et al., 2020)). effective scientific/explorative oriented learning and writing a research paper requires a strong internal motivation from a postgraduate student. lack of clear control and lack of self-organisation of postgraduate students may reduce the quality of distance learning. to measure the effectiveness of postgraduate research guidance, gruzdev et al. (2020) introduce the concept of “shortest expected time-to-degree”, according to which “superheroes” and “mentors” as similar styles of leadership show the best results. the results of previous studies show that time constraints, formal constraints, irregular contacts and technological difficulties are the main problems that phd supervisors face. phd studentand supervisorinteraction, diversity, perceptions, virtual communities, and academic collaboration are the biggest challenges for distance learning supervisors. students’ attitudes, supervisors’ positioning manner, and organisation skills of both are the key success factors in remote research supervision (zaheer & munir, 2020). training of phd candidates is difficult and stressful for postgraduate students (mccauley & hinojosa, 2020) and is different from the training of undergraduate or graduate students. postgraduate students have a significant psycho-emotional stress, so it is recommended to overcome it through the implementation of health and recreational technologies (bugaychuk, 2015). they may find it difficult to communicate with professors and peers, and the impact and complexity of interaction are then greatly reduced (wang & delaquil, 2020; lekhetho, 2022). the postponement and cancellation of academic conferences is another aspect that has an immediate, medium-term, and long-term impact on graduate students and early-stage researchers (al-shahrani & mohamad, 2018; cuschieri, 2021). therefore, it is important for supervisors to establish, albeit not as frequently as in full-time study, regular conferences with phd candidates (bireda, 2019). it is important that postgraduate students are ready for the conference: both on the amount of work on the dissertation, which has been set aside 76 since the previous meeting, and on questions to the supervisor. in this way, the conferences will be as productive as possible. among other problems, rockinson-szapkiw & watson (2020) also note the problems of combining distance learning and doctoral studies in educational programmes, managing their family and academic life. we have mostly discussed the issues related to distance learning for future phds. however, it is the remote format that also offers several advantages. it is the opportunity to devote more time to the development of the topic, structure and content of research work, to explore more deeply the empirical material needed to prepare quality research. besides, it is a chance to focus on research and becoming a scientist as opposed to having to spend a lot of time attending regular classes (for example, time on the way to university). remote learning of phds means also greater autonomy in work, development of skills of self-control and a conscious approach to writing a work. one of the main advantages is the ability to live and even work in one country, and study on a postgraduate level in another one, organising all the necessary communication online (cuschieri, 2021; olszewska, 2020). as a result, we want to summarise that, given the key points identified in the review of the literature on the topic, the quality of the relationship between supervisor and future phds is the key factor in the success of distance learning at the postgraduate level. under such conditions, all other factors, including the frequency of contacts, lack of face-to-face interaction, formal and classroom organisation of the learning process, etc., recede into the background and are determined by the quality of the first factor. by means of proper cooperation with the supervisor, any disadvantages of distance postgraduate learning can, on the contrary, become advantages and significantly reduce “expected time-to-degree”. nevertheless, we aim to estimate the whole spectrum of multiple factors that influenced phd training in the paradigm of remote learning. therefore, the sharp transition to distance learning, the peculiarities of the organisation of education at the third level of higher education, societal challenges and the relatively poorly explored subject of distance postgraduate learning determine the topicality and necessity of research, the main aim of which is to analyse the implementation of distance learning methods in the context of the covid-19 pandemic. this aim involved the following objectives: 1) to investigate whether there is a difference in the adaptation of graduate students of different majors to distance learning technologies; 2) to identify the causes of problems in the implementation of distance education; 3) to identify opportunities for the implementation of promising areas of online learning in the system of training academic and teaching staff. materials and methods the study was organised in three stages during 2020-2021: 1. theory and design 2. experimental 3. generalising. 77 stage 1: theory and design the first stage, the theoretical and design stage (january-may 2020) involved the selection, substantiation and theoretical understanding of the problem and research topic, as well as the study of the experience of implementing distance education in the pre-pandemic period. this stage was aimed at in-depth study of previous achievements of scientific practice in the field of distance learning for phd students to identify those basic pillars that will be embodied in a further adapted experimental version. for the experimental model were taken all the positive vectors, practices, developments, which were summarised above in the literature review section. in addition, within the theoretical and design stage, the programme and methodology of the experiment were developed, namely a survey for graduate students based on the protocols of the focus group meeting. stage 2: experimental the second — experimental stage (june-december 2020) — provided for a survey of postgraduate students. the following are the main aspects that determined the features of the survey phase to collect empirical data for current scientific study. population and sampling according to the state statistics service of ukraine (2019), 6,951 postgraduate students of all specialties were studying in ukraine in 2020. these statistics made up the general population of our sample. to calculate the size of the required (representative) sample we used an online calculator (http://socio-lab.vntu.edu.ua/download/calculator.html). online calculator is a digital tool that, among other options, allows you to automatically and accurately calculate the number of respondents in the sample required for a demonstrative and scientifically reliable statistical study. the sample size was calculated taking into account the programmed confidence probability / accuracy (in our study – with a confidence probability of 97%; allowable confidence interval (error — 5%); and the general population (total respondents — 6,951 phd students). online calculator found that the size of a valid sample was 445 people. the respondents of the study were postgraduate students majoring in 011 educational, pedagogical sciences, 017 physical culture and sports, 035 philology, 091 biology, who studied in the first year of the third level of higher education. in the structure of respondents, the first place was taken by students majoring in 011 educational, pedagogical sciences (34.99%), the second — postgraduate students majoring in 035 philology (33.33%), which was two-thirds of all respondents. postgraduate students majoring in 017 physical culture and sports and 051 biology took the following places in the structure of respondents: 20.9% and 11.58%, respectively. experimental background the experimental background of the study was the municipal institution of higher education “lutsk pedagogical college” of the volyn regional council (council of young scientists), makarenko state pedagogical university of sumy, ivan ziaziun institute of pedagogical and adult education of the national academy of pedagogical sciences. the main study was preceded by a focus group meeting held as part of the preparation of the current research to determine the basic problems of distance learning of phd candidates in the context of a pandemic. focused group interview is a qualitative method of research, involving a group interview, organised in the form of a conversation of several respondents on a topic set by the interviewer-moderator. the meeting was attended by 78 representatives of the group of educational programmes of each major. this was the impetus for further development of the content of the survey of graduate students on the quality of distance learning. instrument a survey of postgraduate students was conducted according to the objectives through specially designed and semi-standardised interviews of focus groups of producers and consumers of educational services. while conducting the set of interviews, we took into account mostly the technics described by merton et al. (1956) and rädiker (2020). the aim was to assess the role and place of distance learning technologies in training future academic and teaching staff, as well as the possibilities of introduction of promising directions of online training in the system of the third-level higher education. the survey consisted of the following blocks of questions: assessment of postgraduate students’ adaptation to the conditions of distance learning; assessment of the level of teachers’ work; assessment of difficulties of remote work; technologies and means of distance learning. data collection the data were collected on a voluntary basis, with prior acquaintance of respondents with the objectives of the study, as well as information on how to fill out questionnaires that have both closed and open-ended questions. the surveys were conducted using the services of google forms, survio, and anketolog. identical in structure and content, questionnaires were posted online in all three mentioned services. the respondent could choose any of them at their own discretion. most of the questionnaires’ responses (95.7%) received used google forms. therefore, only this platform can be used in similar studies in the future, as the other two have proven ineffective for this study population. technically and procedurally, google forms has proven to be the most successful. meanwhile, these services helped to collect data during distance learning, and the survey results were automatically processed and presented in the form of visual generalised diagrams. stage 3: generalising the third — generalising — stage (january-may 2021) dealt with the processing of measurement data, and interpretation of statistical indicators. at this stage, the obtained results were compared with the expected ones and previous research on the selected problem; recommendations were developed and the results of the study were represented. the degree of satisfaction of consumers of educational services (future phd candidates) in the context of distance learning was rated by the parameters of 1 to 5 points. statistical processing of the material was performed in ms excel. while generalising the data of interviews and interpreting them qualitatively we used the technics described by reiter & witzel (2021). findings we planned and conducted a pedagogical experiment in accordance with the aim and objectives of our study. postgraduate students assessed the level of their adaptation to the conditions of distance learning while studying in the context of distance education (june-december 2020) (table 1). the evaluation was performed on a 5-point scale to determine the arithmetic mean and standard error of the mean. 79 the standard error of the mean (sem) is the standard theoretical deviation of all the average sample sizes extracted from the population. the standard error of the mean is calculated as follows: where: s is the standard deviation calculated from the sample, n is the number of observations in the sample. table 1: assessment of adaptation of postgraduate students of different majors to distance learning technologies (rated from 1 to 5 points) major (м ± м) 017 physical culture 3.55±0.11 091 biology 3.49±0.09 035 philology 3.68±0.15 011 educational, pedagogical sciences 3.82±0.18 total 3.65±0.32 when asked how convenient it was to study in the context of distance technology, more than 50% of respondents gave positive feedback. the postgraduate students noted that they began to fall behind less in the fulfilment of curricula in complex subjects; it became easier to pass a test and the exam; it became easier to deal with the scientific component of the educational programme; they found more opportunities to consult with their supervisor; there was more time for self-development, participation in conferences, training events, etc.), although 28.13% noted some difficulties in the transition to distance learning. among the answers, the most common were allegations that postgraduate students began to postpone assignments for later, the motivation to write articles and abstracts decreased; the availability of consultations with their supervisor decreased, the lack of systemic mentoring by the supervisor reduced the effectiveness of writing a dissertation, etc.), and 21.75% could not answer the questionnaire. in the answers of the respondents to the questions about the use of distance education tools, the electronic information environment of the university (77.3%), online lectures (youtube) (77.5%), lecture presentations (48.2%), and zoom sessions (39.4%) took the lead. at the same time, only 16.3% of the respondents indicated that they used the full range of distance learning tools offered by the educational institution. this means that a significant number of teachers do not use and do not motivate postgraduate students to use distance technology in full, teachers do not have sufficient experience and skills to use online educational resources. however, it is important that phd candidates noted that they began to use specialised search engines to search for scientific information (citeseer, google scholar, scirus, etc.), scientometric databases (web of science, scopus, google scholar, rinc, index copernicus), and online education platforms (edera, wisecow, impactorium, etc.). the first experience of conducting a survey of graduate students to identify problems that arise when working with e-courses and analysis of the point of view on the effectiveness of distance technology in the educational process will contribute to the development of the programme to improve e-learning technologies for postgraduate students who cannot attend classes “on site”, who conduct research or 80 experiments abroad, have difficulty moving, etc. the postgraduate students assessed the ease of using the portal of the hei’s electronic information educational environment on a 5-point scale at 3.41 ± 0.06 points, and the difference of the scores between the faculties was not significant (p > 0.05). the students assessed the level of teachers’ work on the implementation of distance learning at 3.89 ± 0.05 points, while the assessments of postgraduate students of different educational programmes differed (figure 1). postgraduate students majoring in 017 physical culture and sports and 091 biology rated the work of their teachers lower (3.82 ± 0.10 and 3.80 ± 0.08 points, respectively) than those majoring in 011 educational pedagogical sciences and 035 philology (4.04 ± 0.11 and 4.12 ± 0.13 points, respectively) (p < 0.05). we explain this by the fact that the majors 017 physical culture and sports and 091 biology are more practically oriented. obtaining a degree in 091 biology requires special material and technical resources for teaching and conducting experimental research, which greatly complicates the teacher’s work and the possibility of effective virtual teaching. the educational programme in 017 physical culture and sports is focused on conducting research in the following areas: sports; physical education, health-improving physical activity of various groups of the population, and requiring experimental work in the appropriate sports facilities, which were closed during the pandemic. figure 1: assessment of the level of the teachers’ work on the implementation of distance learning programmes for postgraduate students of different majors the level of work of the distance education department of the educational institution on the implementation of training in the context of a pandemic was assessed by postgraduate students at 3.47 ± 0.06 points, and no significant difference between different majors was found (p > 0.05). the postgraduate students assessed the degree of difficulties they faced at 2.82 ± 0.06 points, the respondents were unanimous in their assessments (p > 0.05). a significant number of respondents faced technical problems during distance learning, including technical interruptions in the process of reproduction of material (55.79%), low internet speed (52.25%), and only 25.77% of respondents indicated the absence of technical problems (figure 2). 3. 82 3. 8 4. 04 4. 12 3. 89 017 physical culture and sports 091 biology 035 philology 011 educational, pedagogical sciences total 81 figure 2: the main technical problems in the implementation of distance learning technologies according to postgraduate students of different majors moreover, 35.39% of postgraduate students majoring in 035 philology indicated the lack of technical problems in the process of implementing distance education technologies. at the same time, only 20.95% of postgraduate students majoring in 091 biology indicated the lack of technical problems in the process of implementing distance education technologies (figure 3). figure 3: lack of technical problems in the implementation of distance education technologies according to postgraduate students of different majors 24.80 21 35.3 26.50 22.8 52.5 59.5 42.4 46.9 52.3 61.7 56.8 47.1 51 55. 8 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 0.00 10.00 20.00 30.00 40.00 50.00 60.00 70.00 017 physical culture and sports 091 biology 035 philology 011 educational, pedagogical sciences total no problems low internet speed technical failures 24 .8 2 20 .9 5 35 .2 9 26 .2 3 25 .7 7 017 physical culture and sports 091 biology 035 philology 011 educational, pedagogical sciences total 82 a significant number of respondents complained about the general issues of technical support of distance learning at the university level. in particular, 44.44% of respondents indicated that there are difficulties in using the distance education website, while 38.77% could not answer this question. there were 16.55% of respondents who indicated the difficulty of updating the content of classes and the possibility of archiving educational material, 7.33% the unavailability to download any educational material, and 6.38% indicated that postgraduate students did not receive technical assistance despite repeated attempts to obtain it (figure 4). figure 4: list of claims of postgraduate students to the technical support of distance learning in our opinion, such frequent complaints about the technical support of the distance education process can be explained by the fact that materially and technically the universities were not ready to fully switch to distance education. the rating of claims, made on the basis of the analysis of questionnaires and interviews of focus groups of postgraduate students, is as follows: 1. the distance learning website constantly hangs, does not cope with volumes of users, reboot is required. 2. the moodle platform is unstable, there are frequent software failures. 3. high level of problems with communication with teachers. 4. there is no stability of the feedback system between supervisors and postgraduate students. 5. there is no possibility of discussions of assignments for independent work with the teacher. 6. many postgraduate students feel an acute lack of methodically developed material for writing a research paper, or practical recommendations. in addition to technical problems during 2020, many postgraduate students lacked communication with groupmates, supervisors, face-to-face discussions with teachers, discussions of research results at the department supplemented by the complexity of distance learning and problems of concentration during self-study of educational material and writing a research paper. 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 i did not receive a login and password immediately the university website often malfunctions i wrote a request to the site, i didn't get and answer i did not receive help, although i applied several times the difficulty of updating the content of assignments and the possibility of archiving the training material is not available for download difficult to answer 017 physical culture and sports 091 biology 035 philology 011 educational, pedagogical sciences total 83 when analysing the opinions of postgraduate students on distance learning technologies, the ranking of answers to the question of what forms of work are most often used by teachers is headed by the placement of educational materials on the educational portal of the educational institution (78.49%). the next places are occupied by giving out assignments for self-fulfilment (73.76%), online testing (60.99%), checking assignments for self-fulfilment (57.92%), conducting video classes (55.08%), and conducting individual lessons (14.66%) (figure 5). figure 5: variants of educational technologies the teachers use to conduct classes with postgraduate students in the context of distance learning as for the types of devices used by postgraduate students in the context of implementation of distance learning technologies, the most popular were laptops and mobile phones — 78.01% and 82.03%, respectively. personal computers (28.61%) and tablets (11.35%) were rated next. the analysis of semi-standardised interviews of the focus groups of consumers and producers of educational services on passing exams showed that more than two-thirds of the postgraduate students were afraid of online exams, although more than half believed that their assessments during the online session would not change compared to the face-to-face ones. meanwhile, according to a quarter of graduate students, the prevalence of dishonest behaviour during exams increased, although others believe that no change had taken place during the winter session. during the surveys, graduate students also noted the prevalence of plagiarism or other dishonest behaviour during the winter session. 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 online testing conducting video classes checking assignments for self-fulfillment providing assignments for independent work placement of educational materials conducting individual lessons 017 physical culture and sports 091 biology 035 philology 011 educational, pedagogical sciences total 84 discussion answering the questions of our study, we note: 1. the study showed that there is a difference in the adaptation of postgraduate students of different majors to distance learning technologies. the representatives of the major 017 physical culture and sports and 091 biology found it more difficult to adapt to distance learning. this was also confirmed by studies that it is more difficult for the representatives of technical (ishchenko & horbunovych, 2021) and medical majors (çifcibaşi et al., 2020), and applied majors in general (zakharova et al., 2021) to adapt to the conditions of distance education. the data obtained were confirmed by a study by ivanov and tzankova (2020), stating that students are not inclined to replace practical activity with online theory. online education significantly enriches students’ knowledge but cannot replace practical activity. thus, it is more difficult for graduate students of practice-oriented majors to adapt to the conditions of distance learning, but the use of this form of education for such majors is not only possible but necessary, however, with certain limitations. these limitations are because the development of professional competencies and training in practical skills requires traditional in-class education. all theoretical training and development of professional skills can be implemented remotely. this requires careful revision of the curriculum and the division of training programmes into distance and traditional “phases”. 2. in our opinion, the reasons for most problems of distance education are high complexity associated with the need to create teaching materials for distance learning. but understanding that the cost of resources is offset in the future by reducing the time to successfully complete certain types of training, first of all, for teachers, should stimulate their further movement towards preparation of high-quality educational and methodical materials. this is also emphasised in other work (pogodaeva et al., 2019) where the authors state that in their opinion, using identical pedagogical and didactic practices as in full-time education reduces the quality of distance learning. in our view, a significant disadvantage of distance education of phd candidates is the lack of a centralised system of certification and accreditation of electronic training courses for future academic and teaching staff, resulting in many “electronic courses, textbooks, platforms, cases, etc.”, which are actually ordinary digitised texts. an important factor hindering the more intensive introduction of distance technologies is the lack of motivation of teachers to work in this direction (orhan & beyhan, 2020; giacosa, 2020). moreover, the issue of the shortage of teachers who could competently develop and implement distance learning courses in higher education remains acute. studies confirm the view that participants in the educational process do not have sufficient knowledge and experience in distance education. besides, the problem remains urgent in the form of technical difficulties, troubleshooting equipment (failures in the transmission of sound, images, etc.), the full feedback between students and teachers, personalisation of materials, and implementation of the procedure for identifying postgraduate students (aliyyah et al., 2020). 85 3. eliminating the problem of implementing the methodological plan (the need to develop a large number of presentations, tests, assignments and other educational elements) in online education, as well as problems of the gap in the digital culture between younger and older generations, requires retraining of a large proportion of the teaching staff. this is also emphasised in studies by budnyk et al. (2021) and lane & gregson (2019). it is important to train staff who can manage the educational process under the conditions of limited ability to influence the audience and the degree of control over the involvement of postgraduate students in the process of developing professional competencies. we believe that a systemic approach to the development of the online environment of educational institutions will reduce the significance of the shortcomings of distance education. research has shown that digital technologies and tools significantly expand the use of innovative teaching methods, but postgraduate students and teachers need to develop skills and abilities to use educational content, skills in finding scientific information, as well as to promote academic integrity. the market for the training of phd candidates should be filled with quality online educational products, so it is important to create certified training courses in the future, especially for subjects of general fundamental training of postgraduate students (philosophy, foreign language, ukrainian language, etc.). in our opinion, it is important to develop a strategy for the implementation of distance education of phd candidates, taking into account the specifics of their majors, at the regulatory level. according to a study by shkabarina et al. (2021), which indicates the effectiveness of interactive methods in distance education, we propose to use modern innovative technologies for the training of phds. research limitations the main limiting factor of the study is that the experimental work was conducted only for postgraduate students majoring in 011 educational, pedagogical sciences, 017 physical culture and sports, 035 philology, 091 biology. another limiting factor is the formative experiment carried out only during the first session of postgraduate students in the first year of study. conclusions the problem of distance education for phd candidates is topical in the system of higher education. the covid-19 pandemic was the main stimulus for the development of distance learning, so the education system faced the need to urgently adapt the existing third-level educational programmes to distance format. the study revealed the challenges that the institution faced in the transition to total distance education of phd candidates in the context of a pandemic. the experiment allowed us to conclude that distance education provides the development of the author’s position on training phd candidates: the acquisition of skills of independent choice of research methods, improving the theoretical level of training, and independently searching for resources and methods of work. the postgraduate student becomes the author of his/her own individual educational programme and research, which most postgraduate students were not ready for. 86 the lack of a systemic digital educational environment in most heis does not allow for the modernisation of the process of training phd candidates. in real practice, remote technologies do not provide the same quality and efficiency of the result as the traditional forms of training the phd candidates, especially in the case of practice-oriented majors. the practical significance of the study is that the identified challenges and contradictions in the training of phd candidates in distance education allow identifying mechanisms and technologies to optimise the implementation of online learning in heis. the obtained data can be useful for heads of postgraduate and doctoral departments, heads of distance education departments, heads of educational quality assurance centres, teachers and research supervisors of postgraduate students. it is difficult to cover all the challenges faced by higher education in the total transition to distance education in a pandemic in one study, so the prospects for further research are the study of problems of addressing the level of academic integrity of future academic and teaching staff during distance learning. references alebaikan, r., bain, y., & cornelius, s. (2020). experiences of distance doctoral supervision in cross-cultural teams. teaching in higher education, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2020.1767057 alhattab, s. (2021). at least 200 million schoolchildren live in countries that remain unprepared to deploy remote learning in future emergency school closures – unicef. https://www.unicef.org/eap/press-releases/least-200-millionschoolchildren-live-countries-remain-unprepared-deploy-remote aliyyah, r. r., rachmadtullah, r., samsudin, a., syaodih, e., nurtanto, m., & tambunan, a. r. s. (2020). the perceptions of primary school teachers of online learning during the covid-19 pandemic period: a case study in indonesia. journal of ethnic and cultural studies, 7(2), 90-109. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejecs/388 al-shahrani, a., & mohamad, m. (2018). online supervision for phd students in saudi arabia: a review between idealism and realism. elearning & software for education, 1, 349-355. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3030-64671-4_2 bireda, a. d. (2019). doctoral student connectedness in open distance learning: a case of students and supervisors. africa education review, 16(5), 16-28. budnyk, o., zozuliak-sluchyk, r., nedilskyi, s., chervinska, i., malanіuk, t., prevysokova, n., & ketsykzinchenko, u. (2021). modern digital distance learning technologies: challenges of future teacher training. revista inclusiones, 41-53. bugaychuk, n. (2015). ways to optimize the physical education of students of higher educational institutions at the present stage. physical education, sports and health culture in modern society. scientific work collection of the lesya ukrainka volyn national university, 32, 56-60. çifcibaşi, h. s., berkay, k. e. f., özyiğit, i. i̇., sayin, s., göztepe, a., güven, s. g., & atici, s. (2020). distance education in medical schools: the experience and opinions of academicians and students. turkish medical student journal, 7(3), 115-129. cornér, s., pyhältö, k., peltonen, j., & bengtsen, s. s. (2018). similar or different? researcher community and supervisory support experiences among danish and finnish social sciences and humanities phd students. studies in graduate and postdoctoral education. cuschieri, s. (2021). the initial steps towards a phd. in to do or not to do a phd? (pp. 9-14). springer, cham. 87 giacosa, a. (2020) can emergency remote education make our universities “smarter”? some reflections based on students’ perceptions. in g. adorni, a. de lorenzo, l. manzoni, & e. medvet (eds.), proceedings of the didamatica 2020: “smarter school for smart cities” 6-8 may 2020, trieste, italy, (pp. 198-207). aica. gray, m. a., & crosta, l. (2019). new perspectives in online doctoral supervision: a systematic literature review. studies in continuing education, 41(2), 173-190. https://doi.org/10.1080/0158037x.2018.1532405 gruzdev, i., terentev, e., & dzhafarova, z. (2020). superhero or hands-off supervisor? an empirical categorization of phd supervision styles and student satisfaction in russian universities. higher education, 79(5), 773-789. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-019-00437-w ilmarinem, v., & koskela, k. (2015). digitalisaatio [digitalization]. talentum. ishchenko, r., & gorbunovich, i. (2021). efficiency of distance learning of physics of students of technical specialties in quarantine conditions. physical and mathematical education, 29(3), 63-67. https://doi.org/10.31110/2413-1571-2021-029-3-010 ivanov, v., & tzankova, j. (2020). online distance education on wordpress web based platform as an innovation in the learning process of sports students from medical university–sofia during the pandemic of covid19. pedagogy, 92(s7), 143-151. kaliuzhka, n., samoilenko, n., zdanevych, l., kyselova, o., terentieva, n., & koval, d. (2020). distance education as an alternative form of learning during a pandemic. systematic reviews in pharmacy, 11(9), 458461. https://doi.org/10.31838/srp.2020.9.64 kurzman, p. a. (2013). the evolution of distance learning and online education. journal of teaching in social work, 33(4-5), 331-338. https://doi.org/10.1080/08841233.2013.843346 lane, a., & gregson, j. (2019). fostering innovations in pedagogical practices: transforming distance education through a professional development programme using oers. pan commonwealth forum 9 (pcf9), 9-12 sep 2019, edinburgh, scotland. http://oasis.col.org/bitstream/handle/11599/3387/pcf9_papers_paper_99.pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y lekhetho, m. (2022). postgraduate students’ perceptions of support services rendered by a distance learning institution. international journal of higher education, 11(7). https://doi.org/10.5430/ijhe.v11n7p24 mccauley, k. d., & hinojosa, a. s. (2020). applying the challenge-hindrance stressor framework to doctoral education. journal of management education, 44(4), 490-507. https://doi.org/10.1177/1052562920924072 merton, r. k., fiske, m., & kendall, p. l. (1956). the focused interview. the free press. olszewska, k. (2020). the effectiveness of online learning in the era of the sars-cov-2 pandemic on the example of students of polish universities. world scientific news, 148, 108-121. o'regan, m. a. (2020). learning at a distance but not a distance learner: meeting the needs of a diverse body of students post covid-19. all ireland journal of higher education, 12(2). orhan, g., & beyhan, ö. (2020). teachers’ perceptions and teaching experiences on distance education through synchronous video conferencing during covid-19 pandemic. social sciences and education research review, 7(1), 8-44. pogodaeva, m. v., mikhailova, e. k., & usheva, t. f. (2019). the use of reflexive approach in distance education of students at teacher-training institutions. in proceedings of the 2019 4th international conference on distance education and learning (icdel 2019). https://doi.org/10.1145/3338147.3338148 rädiker, s. (2020). focused analysis of qualitative interviews with maxqda: step by step. maxqda press. reiter, h., & witzel, a. (2021). das fokussierte interview. socarxiv. https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/598wu rockinson-szapkiw, a., & watson, j. h. (2020). academic-family integration: how do men and women in distance education and residential doctoral programs integrate their degree and family? online learning, 24(4), 112-130. https://doi.org/10.24059/olj.v24i4.2318 88 shkabarina, m., vitiuk, v., surzhuk, t., iovkhimchuk, n., & klochko, t. (2021). the effectiveness of the implementation of interactive methods in the distance learning system of future primary school teachers. laplage em revista, 7(extra-d), 332-342. https://doi.org/10.24115/s2446-622020217extra-d1105p.332342 state statistics service of ukraine (2019). higher education in ukraine in 2019. statistical information. http://www.ukrstat.gov.ua/operativ/operativ2005/osv_rik/osv_u/vysh_ osvita/arch_vysh_ osvita.htm. sumner, j. (2000). serving the system: a critical history of distance education. open learning, 15(3). https://doi.org/10.1080/713688409. traxler, j. (2018). distance learning – predictions and possibilities. educational sciences, 8, 35. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci8010035 unesco (2010). trends in tertiary education: sub-saharan africa. unesco. wang, l., & delaquil, t. (2020). the isolation of doctoral education in the times of covid-19: recommendations for building relationships within person-environment theory. higher education research & development, 39(7), 1346–1350. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2020.1823326 zaheer, m., & munir, s. (2020). research supervision in distance learning: issues and challenges. asian association of open universities journal, 15, 131-143. https://doi.org/10.1108/aaouj-01-2020-0003 zakharova, u. s., vilkova k. a., & egorov g. v. (2021) it is impossible to teach this online: applied specialties in a pandemic. educational studies moscow, 1, 115–137. zvavahera, p., & masimba, f. (2019). the use of information and communication technology in supervising open and distance learning phd students. ukrainian journal of educational studies and information technology, 7(3), 32-41. https://doi.org/10.32919/uesit.2019.03.04 authors: ohla fast is an associate professor at the department of pedagogy and phycology, faculty of primary education and physical culture of the municipal higher educational institution “lutsk pedagogical college” of the volyn regional council. she also holds the position of vice-rector. email: olgafast43@gmail.com olena semenog is a professor and head of the ukrainian language and literature department, faculty of foreign and slavic philology of the sumy state pedagogical university named after a. s. makarenko. e-mail: olenasemenog@gmail.com myroslava vovk works as a senior researcher and head of the department of pedagogical education content and technologies at the ivan ziaziun institute of pedagogical and adult education naes of ukraine. e-mail: miravovk7@gmail.com nazar buhaichuk is a postgraduate student at the department of physical culture and sport, faculty of primary education and physical culture of the municipal higher educational institution “lutsk pedagogical college” of the volyn regional council. e-mail: nazario292@gmail.com galyna golya is a postgraduate student at the academic services office of the municipal higher educational institution “lutsk pedagogical college” of the volyn regional council. e-mail: hholya@lpc.ukr.education cite this paper as: fast, o., semenog, o., vovk, m., buhaichuk, n., & golya, g. (2022). examining the practices and challenges of distance education of phd candidates in the context of covid-19. journal of learning for development, 9(1), 73-88. darojat quality assurance in asian open and distance learning: policies and implementation ojat darojat, michelle nilson and david kaufman vol. 2, no. 1 abstract open universities have emerged as an innovative pillar in the expansion of access to higher education participation, with single-mode distance education providers broadening access in many countries through economies of scale supported by large enrolments. these models raise questions about the quality of education provided. this paper reports on a comparative case study of quality assurance (qa) programs in distance education at three open universities in southeast asia. focusing on qa development and implementation in learner support services, the study explored qa policies, supporting management practices and structures, and the influence of internal and external environmental factors, as identified through thematic analysis of data from semi-structured interviews and policy documents. the results showed many similarities in qa for learner support at the three institutions. their learner support services were determined to be responsive to government and external quality agencies, external cultural and language factors, and student feedback. editorial note: anak bangsa open university (abou) is a pseudonym used for another university, and there is no abou as such. all references are to actual documents and processes of said university but readers will not find the documents cited under abou in the references. introduction open universities have emerged as an innovative pillar in the expansion of access to higher education participation. according to guri-rosenblit (2005), open and distance teaching institutions have mushroomed outside conventional universities, reflecting diverse clientele, programs, and funding models. following the example of the united kingdom open university, established in 1969, single-mode distance education providers have broadened access to higher education in many countries and enjoyed economies of scale supported by large enrolments (moore & kearsley, 2012). tait (2008) notes that “broadly speaking, they are for development, not just for teaching and research, nor even for adult higher education at a distance” (p. 93). that said, the role of open universities as a path to obtaining academic qualifications, while also providing mass education in a country or region, is essential to their purpose and value. examples of these institutions include pakistan’s allama iqbal open university (3.2 million students), india’s indira gandhi national open university (3 million students), and the open university of china (2.7 million students). nekongo-nielsen (2006) nicely explains the role of open and distance education in development as follows: education in general continues to be a crucial means to national development, and a well-educated and trained population is found to contribute meaningfully to the socio-economic development of any country (marope, 2005). in addition, open and distance learning methods and programmes are known to make valuable contributions to the socio-economic development of countries that offer such programmes. many countries have therefore recognized that open and distance learning is a powerful tool for achieving the country’s educational and training needs and a potent instrument in creating a learning society capable of bringing about scientific, technological, social, and economic development (p. 1). in spite of their strategic role of providing access to higher education, these newer universities face many of the same challenges found in many institutions instrumental in development, such as challenges with human resources, distribution of goods and services and continuing support for infrastructure. for this study, the challenges are in providing tutors, academic advisors, schedulers, and technical assistance (rena, 2007); difficulty in overseeing instruction delivery (rashid & rashid, 2012); and establishing infrastructure and delivery of academic and logistical student support services (hoosen & butcher, 2012; inglis, 2003). as a result of these continuing pressures on the institutions, distance education has been regarded as poor quality and substandard (daniel, 2012; davies, howell, & petrie, 2010; mcisaac & gunawardena, 2001), leaving the impression in some circles that open universities deliver a second-rate education (stella & gnanam, 2004). the balance between access and quality is a complex calculus that transcends open universities; the debates surrounding these concerns reach into bricks and mortar institutions as well (bastedo & gumport, 2003). in fact, the enormous scale of these huge single-mode distance education institutions naturally raises questions about the quality of education provided. quality assurance initiatives in open universities can help to address these challenges and questions by establishing acceptable best practices and developing standards of quality by which distance education can be objectively judged (davies et al., 2010). there is scant research-based literature to guide policymakers, managers, and practitioners in applying qa in education (jung & latchem, 2012), resulting in the quality of distance education being described as “an uncharted area for many qa agencies” (stella & gnanam, 2004, p. 150). it is therefore important to study quality assurance at university-level distance teaching institutions, in particular as these institutions play such a vital role in regional development and innovation. this research explored quality assurance policies and their implementation at three open universities in southeast asia, all well-established and serving large numbers of distance learners across wide geographical areas. focusing particularly on learner support services (those that facilitate student learning processes and ensure that learners’ needs are met), it examined qa using a comparative case study approach, with the goal of understanding and learning from the ways in which these universities are working to achieve high-quality innovative distance education in their unique cultural contexts. background the term quality assurance in distance education is generally understood to refer to policies, actions, systematic standards, and procedures designed to enhance quality and achieve pre-determined quality criteria (e.g., see stella & gnanam, 2004; tait, 1997). implementing quality assurance (qa) programs in distance education is challenging, partly because quality in this domain is difficult to define or standardize. open higher education serves multiple stakeholders, involving relationships between and among faculty, learning material developers, tutors/instructors, learners, administrators, employers, government, and professional bodies. integrating these diverse perspectives to make quality definitions and standards acceptable throughout the system is a complex and multi-faceted process. qa relies on best practices, standards, performance indicators, and feedback to support quality evaluation and improvement. generally, qa models in industry, such as iso 9001 and the baldrige national quality award, offer additional perspectives. iso 9001 requires that quality must be integrated into the systems and procedures of the organization in its attempt to make continuous improvement (sallis, 2002), while the baldrige model, as applied to education, helps educational institutions to gain competitive advantage through the establishment of criteria for excellence and recognition for performance (sallis, 2002). the commonwealth of learning (col) provides a qa model specifically for distance learning that provides standards and performance indicators for key performance areas (col, 2009). for the col, learner support must effectively provide tuition (activities that promote intellectual support such as explaining a concept or instruction to the learners, exploring issues with the learners, and giving feedback to the learners) and counselling (personal and emotional support such as providing learners with information and advice, taking action to help learners, and advocating on their behalf). a related qa framework from the asian association of open universities (aaou) sets out important guidelines for ten strategic issues in the distance education system (aaou, 2010). in this framework, learners are supported by a range of opportunities for real two-way communication through the use of various forms of technology for tutoring at a distance: contact tutoring, assignment tutoring, mentoring, counselling, and peer support structures. distance education theories also offer guidelines for achieving quality, as do successful institutional examples and qa practices in other domains. theories proposed by scholars can guide and support good practice (peters, 2003). for example, holmberg’s theories of interaction and communication (1983, 1986, 2007) articulate the importance of teacher-learner dialogue; moore and kearsley (2012) stress that, despite the increasing importance of online delivery and services, face-to-face (f2f) interaction is still sometimes most effective for some services. wedemeyer (1981) and moore (1993, 1994) also emphasize the importance of communication as support for learners’ autonomy and independence during distance learning. the need for learner support in distance teaching comes from the recognition that learning processes take place with a geographical separation of teaching providers (tutors, instructors, and learning material developers) and students. this learning mode requires distance students to work alone for most parts of the learning process. therefore, distance learners have unique needs, and many practitioners in the field believe that providing distance learners with appropriate support services will increase the quality of their learning (lee, 2000; simpson, 2002). their unique needs include the following: 1) information to help learners relate to the institution and understand its systems, 2) contact with tutors to help maintain motivation and overcome learning problems, 3) a strong institutional identity to feel that they are part of a body of learners rather than studying in isolation, and 4) advice on how to study in distance education delivery mode (col, 2009). there are two different perspectives from which to approach learner support: supplementary and holistic (robinson, 1995; tait, 1995). the supplementary approach is more limited in that learner support is confined as an add-on to learning materials; the holistic/ complementary approach views learner support services as pervading the entire education system (lee, 2000). holmberg’s theory of interaction and communication resonates with qa in learner support dimensions in that it addresses the importance of counselling and tutoring as well as simulated conversation built into the design of the self-learning materials; these are important components of both the aaou and col qa models (aaou, 2010; col, 2009). this study reviews qa in learner support areas based on these models because these organizations have had a significant influence on qa in the three institutions involved in this research. it is particularly important to study quality assurance at these distance education institutions, since these institutions play such a vital role in regional development and innovation. research purpose the overall purpose of this study was to explore the development and implementation of qa at three open universities in southeast asia: sukhothai thammathirat open university (stou) in thailand, anak bangsa open university (abou) in malaysia, and universitas terbuka (ut) in indonesia. this article reports on results related to institutional policies and the implementation of qa in learner support areas, documenting and comparing the three institutions’ qa approaches and implementation methods with the goal of advancing understanding of qa programs in open universities in the southeast asian context. methodology research questions the portion of the research reported on in this article, part of a broader investigation into qa in the three universities, was guided by two main research questions: what are the institutional policies that support qa in learner support areas in the selected universities? how are the selected universities implementing qa policies in learner support areas? research approach this study employed the case-study research methodology, which attempts to understand phenomena in the social world (stake, 2005; yin, 2012). it investigated and analysed the universities’ qa programs for the purpose of gaining insight and collective understanding of how these universities develop and implement qa policies, revealing key characteristics of the qa programs employed by each of the three universities. data collection and analysis the data sources for this case study consisted of interviews with key informants and institutional policy documents. documentary analysis was used primarily to answer the research questions about formal written qa policies, while interviews sought to build understanding of the knowledge and views of key people who developed and carried out these policies. the multiple data sources allowed for triangulation of findings and conclusions about policies, practices and procedures, and problems. data analysis included the development of coding, conceptual categorisation, and thematic grouping (saldana, 2009). supported by maxqda version 10 software, this phase involved identifying closely related codes by pointing out differences and similarities, underscoring underlying and recurrent concepts, grouping related concepts, and developing conceptual constructs. further, using the list of categories as a reference, we identified the passages in the transcripts that represented the emerging themes for each institution’s individual case study. finally, a cross-case table display (miles & huberman, 1994) was employed for each of two issues underlying the related research questions (qa policies and implementation). this allowed us to compare and contrast the three cases and to discern patterns or themes. in the cross-case analysis, tables were used to indicate the summary of the findings of the comparison of the qa policies and practices in the three dtus according to two parameters, the institutional qa policies and implementation that support the qa in learner support areas. the purpose of comparison was to highlight the continuum of differences and similarities of existing phenomena being observed in each institution and to provide further comment and researchers’ impressions as to the extent of the differences. results research question 1: what are the institutional policies that support qa in learner support areas in the selected universities? in order to understand the extent to which the qa program adoption relies on institutional policies that fully support the definition, development, and implementation of the program, we explored the nature of qa policies at each of the three institutions. these policies also guide the institutions in resourcing, regulating, and maintaining their qa systems. while focusing on qa in learner support areas, data in these case studies highlighted the importance of university-wide policies, particularly as articulated in qa manuals, as the foundation for qa in individual areas. emergent themes from the individual case studies are summarized in table 1. table 1. emergent themes related to institutional policies supporting qa in learner support areas. theme university stou abou ut foundational role of the university qa manual a guide for implementing the full qa system, emphasizing the use of key performance indicators and internal and external qa audits a guide for university-wide qa implementation the first level in a hierarchy of quality management documentation implementation guide containing ten quality areas of the university qa framework role of institutional policies as guides for qa in learner support policies in teaching and learning provision and student development activities as qa guides for learner support areas, focusing on the development of student self-learning skills policies in teaching and learning provision and support services as guides for qa learner support areas, with focus on students’ needs and continuous improvement policies in teaching and learning provision and support services as guides to ensure that learner support services fit students’ needs theme 1: the foundational role of the university’s qa manual. quality assurance is regarded as a current and innovative practice in asian online learning institutions. university qa manuals are important official documents at stou, abou, and ut. because quality emphasizes establishing and meeting standards for products and services, these texts set out standards and performance indicators, as well as important background and procedural information such as the university’s profile, institutional quality statements, quality components, procedures and guidelines, and internal mechanisms for evaluating quality performance. stou has adopted a qa systems approach, and its qa manual covers all aspects of the system, including policies and procedures, indicators and benchmarks, guidelines for self-assessment reporting, and guidelines for assessing the quality of education (stou, 2011). it defines internal and external qa dimensions and sets out key performance indicators (kpis) and guidelines to achieve the standards. it clearly defines guidelines for a self-assessment report (sar), outlining the purpose, structure, and elements to be followed by all departments across the university. the manual was developed in accordance with guidelines from government agencies responsible for controlling and regulating higher education quality. when viewed as a tool for development, it provides a shared understanding of the baseline expectations for delivery of services and supports. the abou and ut qa manuals are similar to that at stou in that they outline comprehensive quality program frameworks. the latest version of abou’s quality manual (abou, 2011) is a major reference and a required template for department-level qa manuals. for implementation purposes, the university’s manual is supplemented by quality operations documents for individual quality areas, such as abou (2012), the manual of the center for student management (csm). this provides detailed guidelines about quality criteria and how support services should be organised and delivered to students. the qa manual at ut presents the background of ut’s quality framework and the structure and components of qa, covering 10 quality areas with best practices that serve as the university’s quality policies. the latest version (ut, 2012) is used as the current guideline for qa programs and serves as a major reference for quality manuals in different service delivery areas. this study found that quality manuals are important guides for qa implementation. belawati, zuhairi, and wardani (2012), senior managers at ut, addressed this importance as follows: the qa policy manual … explained the job descriptions and performance standards/ criteria, how feedback would be provided, the appeals process, and how various incentive systems related to performance. it was found that these not only helped staff in performing their daily tasks, but also triggered the realization that their knowledge and skills could always be improved upon and that targets and performance indicators could always be raised. (p. 116) cross-case analysis also found that the development and implementation of quality manuals in these three open universities emphasize actions to develop, change, and maintain the work culture to support the implementation of their qa programs. these frameworks allow for the development of a consistent set of expectations and a process whereby innovation and learning can be fostered. theme 2: the role of institutional policies as guides for qa in learner support areas. the focus of qa policies at stou, abou, and ut differ, but all emphasize student skills and needs. although each institution has different qa policies in learner support areas, the policies at all three universities address two dimensions: teaching and learning provision, and support services. teaching and learning provision refers to the various academic services provided by the university to promote students’ learning; support services include a variety of non-academic kinds of support based on students’ requirements. at stou, institutional policies for qa in learner support areas promote the development of student self-directed learning skills. the policies outline systems and mechanisms to (1) provide information and educational services to students, and (2) promote student development activities that are also useful to alumni (stou, 2011, p. 162). the qa policy in student support services is particularly evident in (1) technical advisory services and guidance to students, (2) provision of useful information for students, (3) activities to improve student academic performance, and (4) activities to develop students’ knowledge and experience that are also designed to be useful to alumni. at abou, quality emphasizes customer needs and continuous improvement. policies there outline infrastructure and services to support these priorities, including student feedback to assist with improving their offerings. for example, some students prefer to be involved in face-to-face (f2f) sessions and self-directed learning using modules rather than online tutorials. at ut, qa policies address the provision of services for teaching and learning, and student support, setting out general guidelines for service provision and criteria for evaluation. stou, abou, and ut have thus all been deeply involved in designing quality policies that serve as guides for implementing qa in learner support areas. in all three universities, qa follows quality standards (indicators, benchmarks, or statements of best practices) that are intended to enable people to understand and contribute to the qa program. research question 2: how are the selected universities implementing qa policies in learner support areas? the universities’ quality policies and practices provide the foundation for qa implementation in the area of learner support. qa implementation is then both supported by and responsive to their internal and external environments. table 2 summarizes emergent themes related to systems, practices, and priorities in the universities’ internal environments. table 2. emergent themes related to the institutions’ internal environments. theme university stou abou ut support from the internal environment for qa in learner support areas supported by two levels of qa management systems and the centralized educational quality assurance and coordinating center adoption of pdca quality cycle importance of both academic and administrative staff supported through centralized qa management systems and distributed learning centers  adoption of pdca quality cycle importance of both academic and administrative staff supported through centralized qa management and distributed regional offices  adoption of pdca quality cycle importance of both academic and administrative staff qa emphasis in learner support emphasis on employment of a blended learning pedagogy and the important roles of the office educational services and the distributed student clubs emphasis on employment of a blended learning pedagogy and e-crm to promote students’ success emphasis on employment of a blended learning pedagogy and learning skills workshops to support students’ success theoretical basis for the implementation of teaching and learning processes holmberg’s interaction and communication theory holmberg’s interaction and communication theory holmberg’s interaction and communication theory theme 3: support from the internal environment for qa in learner support areas. in all three universities, qa implementation in learner support areas is supported by internal environments integrating qa into their organization structures and management systems. centralized qa centers, along with learning centers scattered across their countries, have been regarded as strategic units for qa management, while qa systems and human resources have played key roles. qa management structures and systems. all three universities have created centralized qa centers to coordinate and manage their departments across the university, within faculties or schools that perform learning support activities, and offices of student management. at stou, the office of educational quality assurance and coordinating center has played strategic roles in diverse activities including reviewing qa policies, organizing training sessions to implement sar, and coordinating all departments in executing quality standards. each department or faculty has a qa committee responsible for an annual performance review. at abou, centralized qa management has been carried out by the institute of quality, research and innovation (iqri), which has promoted quality within the university, provided necessary training for academic and administrative staff, and promoted quality culture across departments. similarly, the quality assurance center (pusmintas) at ut has played important roles in organizing quality initiatives and managing quality processes within the university as well as coordinating internal and external quality audits. all the open universities have been supported by the development of study centers (stou version) or learning centers (abou and ut version) that offer local learner support services throughout their countries. for example, these support services provide academic and non-academic counselling, manage f2f tutorials and practicum activities, and distribute learning materials. the pdca quality cycle. all three universities have adopted as the basis for their qa management the classic shewhart pdca (plan – do – check – act) cycle (deming, 1993; gabor, 1990). for planning, a series of information sharing, training, and management meetings have ensured that all staff understand the qa policies and participate accordingly. then all faculties and other supporting departments execute the work of their respective qa areas in accordance with quality policies and performance indicators. self-assessments are then performed, followed by management review meetings at the department and university levels to identify weaknesses and challenges during the implementation and to take necessary action for future qa programs. interviewees reported that the adoption of the pdca cycle in the universities’ qa systems has contributed significantly to these universities in maintaining and improving the quality of their distance education. human resources. there is no doubt that the implementation of qa in learner support areas in the three universities has been strongly supported by both academic and administrative staff. academic staff and administrators, often referred to as human resources, are the most valuable assets who manage, implement, and evaluate all of the activities of qa programs at stou, abou, and ut. corresponding to holmberg’s (1995) ideas about course development, academic staff at all three institutions have been involved in designing and developing learning materials (as content developers, course reviewers, and instructional designers), performing teaching and learning processes (e.g., tutoring and academic counselling), preparing test items for final examination, managing courses, and being involved in managing quality programs. all three universities employ as tutors non-permanent staff from other institutions, particularly from public and private local universities, with status equal to that of professors in conventional universities. all the universities in this study reported seeing these tutors as a critical component of program quality and conduct training sessions to help them develop appropriate tutoring skills and attributes to complement their subject matter competency. academic counselling responsibilities at all three institutions involve email, telephone calls, texting, and the use of social media. effective administration is the second crucial component of distance education quality in all three universities. administrative staff shoulder a far more complex burden than in conventional universities, encompassing central office and regional offices, learning centers scattered in many locations, and administrative links with diverse suppliers such as other educational institutions (for tutors), post offices and shipping companies (for delivery of learning materials), commercial television and radio telecommunication corporations (for broadcasting and communications links), commercial banks, and regional and local universities’ libraries. stou administrative staff members handle learner support areas such as information services, student inquiries and complaints, and organization of f2f and online tutorials and local student club activities. the administrative staff play a substantial role in qa implementation as committee participants and chairs and in helping to develop qa policy, monitor implementation, and represent the university on government qa bodies. administrative staff at both abou and ut are deeply involved in learner support activities, including counselling programs, organizing orientation programs, implementing customer relationship management, organizing and analyzing students’ feedback, organizing study skills workshops, conducting examination clinics, and providing financial assistance for eligible students. interviews at all three institutions confirmed that administrative staff play essential delivery and qa roles, particularly in learner support areas, and significantly contribute to helping the three universities achieve consensus in implementing and maintaining quality and student satisfaction for these functions. theme 4: qa emphasis in learner support. closely aligned to the institutional policies, as previously discussed, the application of qa in learner support areas at stou, abou, and ut emphasized two broad areas: (1) blended learning pedagogy, and (2) programs of student activities and support services tailored to student needs and institutional priorities. these confirm the common view that learner support comes from a collection of services that work together for more effective learning. holmberg (1995) argued that distance learning instructional processes should be based on the insight that student learning activity or student-centered learning is more important than teacher-centered learning. according to holmberg (1995) and moore (1977), distance education is concerned with developing independent and autonomous learning. because the specific characteristics of distance education providers are different from conventional universities in their separation of students from teachers and the extensive use of media in instructional processes, it is the task of tutors, instructors, course developers, planners, and administrators to develop learning support services that promote independent learning. consistent with this argument, stou, abou, and ut have all implemented blended learning pedagogies that emphasize the need for and development of independent student learning. self-guided study (the term used at stou) (stou, 2012), self-managed learning (used at abou) (abas, sankaran, bakar, johari, & ayob, 2009), and self-directed learning (used at ut) (ut, 2010) all describe independent study that is used together with f2f sessions, online tutorials, mobile learning (m-learning), and tutorials by radio and television. for example, stou supports self-managed learning with mixed media packets of textbooks, workbooks, cassette and video tapes, radio and television programs, tutorials, and practice in stou’s study centers (stou, 2004, 2012). abou’s blended pedagogy (self-managed learning, f2f classes, and online learning) requires distance learners to engage in self-managed learning most of the time. “however, even in this, tutors have a crucial role to play. [they] need to consistently provide learners with moral support and encouragement throughout their learning process” (abas et al., 2009, p. 27). at ut, this encouragement is seen as important for motivating students to regularly manage their time for learning (ut, 2010). moore and kearsley (2012) stressed that although an increasingly large range of materials for students are delivered by the internet, some learner support services are better provided in a f2f group setting. student feedback reinforced this finding at all three universities. the importance of online platforms for learning support has increased at stou, abou, and ut. online learning has empowered distance students to interact with tutors and other students in more flexible ways (magano & carvalho, 2010). at stou, online learning services have been used for graduate programs, allowing students to update teaching content from tutors and take part in online discussions that fit with their own schedules (stou, 2003); this has strengthened student engagement and improved the student experience in the instructional process. web boards have also been used to promote students’ learning and support tutor-learner interaction (stou, 2012). abou has developed myvle, a “home-grown” learning management system, to support online learning services (ali & fadzil, 2012). ut-online, now supported by moodle, was launched in 2002 and offers internet-accessible online tutorials and counselling; it is now being extended to all courses. theme 5: theoretical basis for the implementation of teaching and learning processes. in all three universities, the implementation of both academic and learner support processes has been closely aligned to holmberg’s (1995) interaction and communication theory. many interview subjects, supported by data in official institutional documents, confirmed that interaction and communication on different media channels have been highly important for maintaining educational quality. reflecting holmberg’s (2007) ideas, the three universities have been deeply involved in building real dialogue through e-mail, telephone, audio and video conferences, and simulated dialogue through conversational course writing. these practices reflected holmberg’s (1986) principal argument that the “communication element is rightly considered a cornerstone of distance education” (p. 54). pre-produced course materials (print, tv and radio, and online) are the universities’ major forms of learning materials for independent study. in relation to the autonomy and independence theory proposed by wedemeyer and moore (cited in keegan, 1996), holmberg (1995) maintained that students in distance education were independent “in carrying through a program of study” (p. 15) in terms of time, course, and place. as distance learners have “different capacities for making decisions regarding their own learning” (moore & kearsley, 2012, p. 213; emphasis in original), distance learners have choices to decide “where and when to learn [and] how much of a course to undertake at a time” (holmberg, 1995, p. 15). development and regular revision of course materials by multi-skilled course teams help to ensure and maintain their quality in all three institutions. holmberg (1995) argued that distance teaching institutions should provide learner support services that promote real communication and interaction. stou, abou, and ut have done this through teaching delivery modes such as f2f tutorials and online learning. the use of online learning helps the three universities not only to provide one-way content presentations but also to support two-way interactions and collaborative learning, thus supporting communities of inquiry (garrison, anderson, and archer, 2000). at the time of this research, all three universities were also heavily involved in providing f2f tutorial sessions; although these were not compulsory, many students asked for and attended them. holmberg (1995) identified three ‘guiding operational values’ for implementing learner support at a distance: personal relationships, empathy, and friendly conversation. interviewees at stou, abou, and ut all confirmed the importance of developing personal relationships between tutors and learners. tutors and administrative staff are encouraged to develop a ‘personal touch’ with their students in their interaction and communication, and stou and abou have assigned staff to maintain close communications with their students. interviewees recognized this as important for keeping students in their programs and attaining their educational goals. empathy is seen as critical when counsellors or academic advisors encounter distance learners with either academic or non-academic problems. an interviewee at abou shared this intense experience: a student told me that she was sick and was going for an operation for cancer. she left the message asking “if i die please help for funerary arrangements. i left your phone number with my doctor...’ so, when we express our empathy to the students, they trust us.... they believe that we are the ones who can share their feelings and problems. a respondent at ut noted that expressing empathy has kept his students from dropping out and motivated them to continue their study and success. friendly and encouraging conversation was also consistently seen as important for reducing isolation and supporting students’ success. theme 6: influence of the universities’ external environments. their external environments push the three universities to continuously evaluate their strategic directions in implementing qa programs. this final section discusses relationships between the implementation of qa in learner support areas, at stou, abou, and ut and their external environments (table 3). responses to the local culture. implementation of qa in learner support areas in the three southeast asian open universities tended to vary with their particular local cultures. among other things, learner support services have been designed to meet the needs of local students, including their common learning habits, religions, and languages. interviewees identified language as the most critical aspect in designing both academic content and support services. with regard to the importance of language in designing support for students, simpson (2002) warned that, “anyone providing support should be aware that … students might be more at risk in situations where their language skills are under stress” (p. 160). therefore, language choice for pre-produced learning materials and other support services has been considered a strategic decision. stou and ut use their national languages, thai and indonesian, in their learner support services; this has allowed their faculty, administrative staff, and especially students to clearly express their understanding of learning content and to participate in meaningful thinking. in contrast, abou has chosen english, rather than the national language, bahasa melayu, for all of their learning materials and support. one interviewee noted that this is not an obstacle for abou’s students, since they understand english well, but this does bring into question the role of language in development. however, another commented that some students wish to study in melayu, and abou has developed soft copy (online) learning materials in this language that can be accessed by their students at no cost. according to one respondent at ut, local languages might be used during f2f tutorial sessions and in other interaction and communication settings, although this is not the university policy. interviewees also described how students’ ethnicity and religion have influenced the universities’ support services. for example, abou and ut have been particularly concerned with muslim students; they provided an interfaith room (surau) at each of their learning centers to serve students during tutorial and final examination sessions. to address ethnicity issues, the universities employ local people in administrative positions, as well as faculty members from local universities for tutorial services. table 3. emergent themes related to the institutions’ external environments. theme university stou abou ut influence of the universities’ external environments on qa implementation in learner support response to the local culture, particularly language support from educational technologies for both academic and administrative services  correspondence with government qa standards alignment with standards of the baldrige national quality award response to the local culture, particularly language support from educational technologies for both academic and administrative services  correspondence with government qa standards alignment with is0 9001 and col qa toolkit response to the local culture, particularly language and learning habits support from educational technologies for both academic and administrative services  correspondence with government qa standards alignment with iso 9001 and icde standards educational technology support. instructional design and delivery in open universities have progressed in line with the advancement of technologies. technologies have created new opportunities and possibilities for learning and instruction (halverson, 2009), and all three universities rely on current technologies to deliver their academic, administrative, and communication services. for example, stou broadcasts academic services via four satellite tv channels (stou, 2004, 2012); ut uses a virtual private network (vpn) for data transaction and video conferences in its head office and across 37 regional offices (ut, 2010), and abou uses its own learning portal, my virtual learning environment (myvle), to support various e-learning activities. myvle has been supplemented with multimedia capabilities featuring e-mail, digital library, and learner connections (abou, 2006). government qa standards. stou, abou, and ut all operate within qa frameworks and quality criteria mandated by their national governments. stou is required by law to follow internal and external specifications. internal ones, overseen by the office of the higher education committee (ohec), focuses on inputs and processes, while external standards, under the office for national education standards and quality assurance (onesqa), are focused on qa outputs. abou must ensure that its academic programs and qualifications comply with the malaysian qualifications framework (mqf), which provides guidelines, standards, and codes of practice to help higher education institutions, including distance higher education, enhance their educational programs through internal and external quality audits (ali & fadzil, 2012). as in malaysia, all higher education institutions in indonesia, including ut, are bound by quality standards governed by the national accreditation board of higher education (dghe). alignment with professional qa agencies’ standards. in line with their internal efforts to establish rigorous and innovative qa systems, stou, abou, and ut have all sought external validation to ensure that their efforts have indeed resulted in better quality performance. at the time of this research, stou was in the initial stages of applying for the us-based malcolm baldrige national quality award (sungkatavat & boonyarataphan, 2012). the baldrige model covers seven core components: leadership; strategic planning; customer and market focus; measurement, analysis, and knowledge management; human resources; process management; and business results (sallis, 2002). top management at stou confirmed in an interview that the university preferred adopting the baldrige award criteria because “iso standards are focused on some aspects, but the malcolm baldrige has an overall focus — total quality management. it’s a good system.” meanwhile, abou and ut adopted iso quality standards for some core business areas, but not for the whole university. in 2006, ut was awarded certification for iso 9001:2000 for the course material distribution from the ut headquarters to regional offices. ut later (between 2007 and 2011) earned iso certificates for these areas: development of learning and examination materials, academic administration services, promotion and cooperation, and student/ learning services for regional offices (yuniati, hardini, sunarsih, meilani, & belawati, 2012). rather than use business process evaluations, abou has adopted iso standards based on administrative units. four of its strategic units have been iso-certified: registration, the center for instructional design and technology (cidt), the center for student management (csm), and the digital library (ali & fadzil, 2012). the adoption of iso qa standards has helped abou and ut to develop their qa manuals and thus ensure the expectations and quality of their academic and learner support processes. standard operating procedures (sops) have been regarded as current practices that help to maintain process consistency and support the commitment of all staff involved in their respective quality areas. ut’s staff and top leader confirmed the impact of adopting iso on their development as follows: based on the experience of the past five years of using the iso system, a positive impact on staff and university performance has been observed, resulting in a significant decrease in students’ complaints and problems. it is of course a ‘bonus’ that having iso certificates also helps to strengthen public confidence in ut. (yuniati et al., 2012, p. 88) ut and abou have also adopted additional qa standards. since 2009, abou has periodically carried out self-assessment using the commonwealth of learning (col)’s qa toolkit for distance higher education institutions and programmes (ali & fadzil, 2012). ut has been certified by the international council for open and distance education (icde) since 2005. the adoption of these qa programs has resulted in quality initiatives and continuous improvement involving people and communications across departments, as emphasised by senior managers at abou (ali & fadzil, 2012): recognizing that teamwork and collaboration within and across departments are the mainstay of any quality management system, the university gives due emphasis to holding qa meetings that are attended by quality management representatives from all departments. this facilitates communication and encourages collective and coordinated quality initiatives. (p. 263) it was also reported that the adoption of iso and other external qa standards, such as icde and the baldrige award, have supported these three dtus as learning organizations and have enabled them to remain competitive and innovative in their educational business environments. stou, abou, and ut have been totally involved in implementing self-assessment and external quality audits for evaluating the implementation of their quality policies. these continuous internal and external quality assessments have also supported strategies informing their quality practices. theme 7: student involvement in qa. the three universities involved in this research confirmed that students are very important and are regarded as their major customers or crucial stakeholders. using different mechanisms, all have involved their students in designing and implementing qa programs in learner support areas by soliciting regular student feedback and developing quality guidelines based on students’ perspectives. table 4. student involvement in qa. theme university stou abou ut student involvement in qa regular surveys and tutor evaluations regular feedback through the e-crm system, surveys, and evaluations of tutors, modules and courses regular student surveys evaluating all services abou, which has declared itself a “customer-focused organization” (ali & fadzil, 2012, p. 263), has integrated students’ feedback for quality improvement into its online systems. ut and stou ask their students to evaluate every tutor’s performance. interviewees at abou and ut reported that their students are regularly involved in assessing the level of quality achievement in the core areas of registration, learning materials, learner support services, examinations, and academic administration. students’ feedback samples are analyzed and reported in management review meetings at department and university levels. this student feedback is then used for continuous improvement in policies, standards, and procedures as well as human resources and the qa program itself. conclusion this study has found that stou, abou and ut share many similarities in their policies and implementation of quality assurance for learner support services. for example, the foundation of their qa programs each included the development of a detailed qa manual, which served as important documents, guiding qa implementation throughout their institutions. institutional qa policies and guidelines, with a strong focus on student needs and the development of learning skills, have also supported qa implementation, as have the universities’ management systems, administrative structures, and academic and administrative staff. in particular, the universities’ innovative approach to quality assurance centers and geographically distributed learning centers has played a strategic role in supporting the implementation of qa in learner support areas. this process has confirmed for multiple stakeholders of these institutions that the education provided nationally to hundreds of thousands of learners is meeting their needs and those of their governments. stou, abou, and ut also share similarities in integrating qa into their learner support activities and processes. closely aligned to holmberg’s (1995) theory, their learner support processes emphasize interaction and communication in order to promote student engagement and effective learning. similarly, the recommendations of gooley and lockwood (2012) note the importance of peer connections, problem solving, and modeling behaviours and outcomes, all of which are present in the institutions studied here. this study also confirms the importance of relationships between the implementation of qa in learner support areas and the universities’ external environments. external factors identified as important influences on the implementation of qa programs include local culture and language, educational technology, governments, and external qa agencies. these findings are similar to robinson’s (1995) findings that effective learner support in open and distance education is heavily contingent on local circumstances. thus, models of ‘good practice’ for learner support in developed countries with modern and different educational settings are not always appropriate for countries with different cultures. finally, student involvement, particularly through regular feedback, is confirmed as a key to implementing and maintaining qa in academic and learner support services. as this study has only focused on qa programs at open universities operating in developing countries, its findings may not be relevant for other settings. however, the three case studies reveal interesting patterns in the ways qa approaches are implemented in unique and innovative ways in response to demands within each educational, institutional, social, cultural, and political setting. we see common themes regarding problems, challenges, experiences, and achievements in employing qa programs in open and distance learning institutions. the adoption of quality frameworks at all three universities can be regarded as an exemplar of the innovative implementation of qa agendas in odl universities, specifically in the southeast asia context. editorial note: while the references here are correct, readers will not find the documents related to abou as these have been changed to hide the identity of the organization. references association of asian open universities (aaou). (2010). quality assurance framework. retrieved from http://www.aaou.net. abas, z. w., sankaran, t., bakar, w. l. l. w. a., johari, h., & ayob, a. p. (2009). abou tutor’s handbook. unpublished internal document, anak bangsa open university, kuala lumpur, malaysia. ali, a., & fadzil, m. (2012). open university malaysia. in i. s. jung, t. m. wong, and t. belawati (eds.), quality assurance in distance education and e-learning: challenges and solution from asia (pp. 258 – 274). new delhi, in: sage publications. anak bangsa open university (abou). (2006). quality policy and client charter: prospectus 2006. kuala lumpur, malaysia: anak bangsa open university. anak bangsa open university (abou). (2011). institut kualiti, penyelidikan, dan inovasi: manual kualiti [institutional quality, research, and innovation: quality manual]. unpublished internal document, anak bangsa open university, kuala lumpur, malaysia. anak bangsa open university (abou). (2012). pusat pengurusan pelajar (csm): manual operasi perkhidmatan csm [student management centre (csm): operations manual]. unpublished internal document, anak bangsa open university, kuala lumpur, malaysia. bastedo m. n., & gumport, p. j. (2003). access to what? mission differentiation and academic stratification in u.s. public higher education. higher education, 46(3), 341-359. belawati, t., zuhairi, a., & wardani, i. g. a. k. (2012). quality assurance in a mega-university: universitas terbuka. in i. s. jung & c. latchem (eds.), quality assurance and accreditation in distance education and e-learning: models, policies, and research (pp. 113-123). new york: routledge. the commonwealth of learning (col). (2009). quality assurance toolkit for distance higher education institutions and programmes. vancouver, bc: commonwealth of learning. daniel, s. j. (2012). foreword. in i. s. jung & c. latchem (eds.), quality assurance and accreditation in distance education and e-learning: models, policies, and research (pp. xiii-xvi). new york: routledge. davies, r. s., howell, s. l., & petrie, j. a. (2010). a review of trends in distance education scholarship at research universities in north america. international review of research in open and distance learning, 11(3), 42-56. deming, w. e. (1993). the new economics for industry, government, and education. boston, ma: mit press. gabor, a. (1990). the man who discovered quality: how w. edwards deming brought the quality revolution to america—the stories of ford, xerox, and gm. new york: times books. garrison, r., anderson, t., & archer, w. (2000). critical inquiry in a text-based environment: computer conferencing in higher education. internet & higher education, 2(2), 87-105. doi:10.1016/s1096-7516(00)00016-6 gooley, a., & lockwood, f. (2012). innovation in open and distance learning: successful development of online and web-based learning. new york: routledge. guri-rosenblit, s. (2005). diverse models of distance teaching universities. in c. howard, j. v. boettcher, l. justice, k. schenk, p. l. rogers, & g. a. berg (eds.), encyclopedia of distance learning (pp. 674-680). london: idea group reference. halverson. t. (2009). distance education innovations and new learning environments: combining traditional teaching methods and emerging technologies. amherst, ny: cambria press. holmberg, b. (1983). guided didactic conversation in distance education. in d. sewart, d. keegan, & b. holmberg (eds.), distance education: international perspectives (pp. 114-122). london: croom helm. holmberg, b. (1986). growth and structure of distance education. buckingham, uk: croom helm. holmberg, b. (1995). theory and practice of distance education. london: routledge. holmberg, b. (2007). a theory of teaching-learning conversations. in m. g. moore (ed.), handbook of distance education (pp. 69-75). mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates. hoosen, s., & butcher, n. (2012). quality assurance for distance education in sub-saharan africa. in i. jung & c. latchem (eds.), quality assurance and accreditation in distance education and e-learning: models, policies, and research (pp. 48-57). new york: routledge. inglis, a. (2003). planning and management of networked learning. in s. panda (ed.), planning and management in distance education (pp. 171-181). london: kogan page. jung, i. s., & latchem, c. (2012). preface. in i. s. jung & c. latchem (eds.), quality assurance and accreditation in distance education and e-learning: models, policies, and research (pp. xvii-xxi). new york: routledge. keegan, d. (1996). the foundations of distance education. london: routledge. lee, y. (2000). current status of learner support in distance education: emerging issues and future research agenda. in annual proceedings of selected research and development papers presented at the national convention of the association for educational communications and technology (pp. 177-185). magano, j., & carvalho, c. v. (2010). from traditional teaching to online learning: revolution or evolution. in h. song (ed.), distance learning technology, current instruction, and the future of education: applications of today, practices of tomorrow (pp. 17-26). new york: information science reference. marope, m. t. (2005). namibia human capital and knowledge development for economic growth with equity. africa region human development working paper series no. 84. washington, dc, usa: the world bank. mcisaac, m. s., & gunawardena, c. n. (2001). theory of distance education. retrieved from http://www.aect.org/edtech/ed1/13/13-03.html. miles, m. b., & huberman, a. m. (1994). qualitative data analysis (2nd ed.). thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. moore, m. g. (1977). on a theory of independent study. ziff papiere no. 16. (pp. 3-30). hagen, de: fernuniversitat. moore, m. g. (1993). theory of transactional distance. in d. keegan (ed.), theoretical principles of distance education (pp. 33-38). london, uk: routledge. moore, m. g. (1994). autonomy and independence. the american journal of distance education, 8(2), 1-5. moore, m. g., & kearsley, g. (2012). distance education: a systems view of online learning. belmont, ca: wadsworth. nekongo-nielsen, h. (2006, october). the contributions of open and distance learning to national development in namibia. paper presented at the fourth pan-commonwealth forum on open learning. retrieved from http://pcf4.dec.uwi.edu/viewpaper.php?id=351 peters, o. (2003). models of open and flexible learning in distance education. in s. panda (ed.), planning and management in distance education (pp. 15-27). london: kogan page. rashid, n., & rashid, m. (2012). issues and problems in distance education. turkish online journal of distance education-tojde, 13(1), 108-114. retrieved from http://tojde.anadolu.edu.tr/yonetim/icerik/makaleler/726-published.pdf rena, r. (2007). challenges in introducing distance education programme in eritrea: some observations and implications. turkish online journal of distance education-tojde, 8(1), 191-205. retrieved from http://tojde.anadolu.edu.tr/yonetim/icerik/makaleler/323-published.pdf robinson, b. (1995). research and pragmatism in learner support. in f. lockwood (ed.), open and distance learning today (pp. 221-231). london: routledge. saldana, j. (2009). the coding manual for qualitative researchers. thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. sallis, e. (2002). total quality management in education. london: kogan page. simpson, o. (2002). supporting students in online, open and distance learning. london: kogan page. stake, r. e. (2005). qualitative case studies. in n. k. denzin & y. s. lincoln (eds.), the sage handbook of qualitative research (pp. 443-466). thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. stella, a., & gnanam, a. (2004). quality assurance in distance education: the challenges to be addressed. higher education, 47(2), 143-160. sukhothai thammathirat open university (stou). (2003). 25th anniversary sukhothai thammathirat open university. bangkok, th: the office of the university press. sukhothai thammathirat open university (stou). (2004). 26th anniversary sukhothai thammathirat open university. bangkok, th: the office of the university press. sukhothai thammathirat open university (stou). (2011). quality assurance: the elements of quality indicators and evaluation criteria. unpublished internal document, university thammathirat sukhothai kingdom, bangpood, nonthaburi, thailand. sukhothai thammathirat open university (stou). (2012). educational opportunity for all: stou distance learning system (stou newsletter). bangkok, th: the office of the university press. sungkatavat, p., & boonyarataphan, t. (2012). thailand’s sukhothai thammathirat open university. in i. s. jung, t. m. wong, & t. belawati (eds.), quality assurance in distance education and e-learning (pp. 25-41). new delhi, in: sage publications. tait, a. (1995). student support in open and distance learning. in f. lockwood (ed.), open and distance learning today (pp. 232-241). london: routledge. tait, a. (1997). quality assurance in higher education: selected case studies. vancouver, bc: the commonwealth of learning. tait, a. (2008). what are open universities for? open learning: the journal of open, distance and e-learning, 23(2), 85-93. universitas terbuka (ut). (2010). brief information about universitas terbuka indonesia: submission to international council for open and distance education (icde) standard agency (isa). universitas terbuka, jakarta, indonesia. universitas terbuka (ut). (2012). sistem jaminan kualitas universitas terbuka: jkum ut00 [universitas terbuka quality assurance system: jkum ut00]. unpublished internal document, universitas terbuka, jakarta, indonesia. wedemeyer, c. a. (1981). learning at the back door. reflections on non-traditional learning in the lifespan. madison, wi: university of wisconsin. yin, r. k. (2012). application of case study research. los angeles: sage publications. yuniati, s., hardini, p. k., sunarsih, d. meilani, a., & belawati, t. (2012). indonesia’s universitas terbuka. in i. s. jung, t. m. wong, and t. belawati (eds.), quality assurance in distance education and e-learning: challenges and solution from asia, (pp. 81–93). new delhi, in: sage publications. ojat darojat is the director of quality assurance at universitas terbuka. e-mail: ojat@ut.ac.id michelle nilson is an associate professor in the faculty of education, simon fraser university. e-mail: mnilson@sfu.ca david kaufman is a professor in the faculty of education, simon fraser university. e-mail: dkaufman@sfu.ca microsoft word beukes-amiss.docx issn: 2311-1550 2022, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 376-380 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. book review guidelines on open and distance learning for youth and adult literacy unesco institute for lifelong learning and the commonwealth of learning unesco and commonwealth of learning, 2021, pp. 104, isbn: 978-1-7772648-5-7 guidelines on open and distance learning for youth and adult literacy, by the unesco institute of lifelong learning and the commonwealth of learning, sets the scene with noteworthy messages from the director, unesco institute of lifelong learning (uil), and the president and ceo from the commonwealth of learning (col). the publication highlights the progression of open and distance learning (odl) for youth and adult learners as an alternative to traditional education delivery, reinforcing the importance of change, and updating and reimagining existing practices taking cognisance of the context and needs of youth and adult learners, especially after the significant disruptions of covid-19 on the education system. it further elaborates on the existing literature regarding adult literacy programmes and educational provision employing odl, but asserts that “no specific guidelines for planning, designing, developing, implementing and evaluating youth and adult literacy programmes using odl have been published to date” (p. 2). it is estimated that 773 million youth and adults, the majority being women, lack literacy skills, which are fundamental for growth. the recommendations contained within these guidelines are critical for institutions and literacy training providers, focus on achieving the sustainable development goals (sdgs) through socio-economic transformation and ensure the right to education. the aim of this book in the form of guidelines is to “offer an introduction to and guidance on the design of odl programmes for youth and adults who lack basic literacy and numeracy skills” (p. 3), featuring issues that youth and adult learners face. the book is organised into, two key parts: part 1 focuses on the four key steps for planning and implementing odl programmes for youth and adult literacy, and part 2 focuses on media and technologies for literacy. in part 1 the authors make the assertion that planning requires investment in time and resources and recommend four key steps. step 1: planning and designing the first guideline relates to ensuring that programmes are developed on a needs basis with considerations being made on what is available and what still needs to be introduced and for which target audience. the authors highlight that planning should be in line with national policies and strategies, to ensure effective transition. they recommend identifying the needs of the learners, their particular demographic factors, design requirements, and considering universal design for learning (udl) principles, cultural and social 377 relevance of learning materials, and language for both facilitators and learners. they suggest that curriculum mapping plays a significant role in ensuring programmes relate and are aligned to communities and the way of life of the learners. other considerations that they stress include accessibility and delivery mode, learner support structures, identification of appropriate assessment strategies and selection of appropriate technologies, dedicated facilitator training and support, administrative and information and communication technology (ict) support, monitoring and evaluation (m&e) systems, intense financial planning, involvement of various partners and establishment of long-lasting partnerships. that the authors recommend these steps from the onset is creditable as so often programmes are launched without consideration of these elements. step 2: development of instructional and learning materials step 2 reiterates the importance of instructional and learning materials in odl programmes and underlines the transfer of knowledge, and accessibility of learning materials through various media and self-learning. the publication presents aspects of material development in detail, such as the principles used for youth and adult literacy odl programmes and content development that ensures self-learning. included in this step is an analysis of the characteristics of distance learning materials, structure and quality, diversification of media usage, models and approaches for course development; equity and inclusion, costing and human resource considerations in odl course material development and the use and role of open educational resources (oer) in materials development. also included are suggestions for assessment, instruments and tools with particular reference to “what a learner is required to do, how they must do it, when they need to do it and how long it should take” (p. 42). the authors caution that mistakes in materials development for odl programmes are costly to rectify and if materials are not standardised, people will not enroll as estimated, which then defeats the purpose of the programme. step 3: implementing and managing odl literacy programmes this step focuses on effective recruitment and training processes, learner enrolment and support, finances and administrative tasks, and implementation of quality assurance strategies for odl programmes in youth and adult literacy. financial investment in odl administrative systems is costly as they are scaled and implemented at a distance. the book suggests facilitators need to develop different skills required for effective teaching, such as attitudes/feelings that enable them to be open to learning and grasping new concepts and knowledge/awareness that enables them to detect any changes in circumstances, especially for adult learners, and implementing the appropriate distance education practices. this step is well presented, however, more information on how learners actually register for such programmes, the requirements for documentation (including facilitators) and the general numbers each facility should have as a maximum per session to ensure that learners get the most out of the odl programme would have been helpful. step 4: monitoring and evaluation of odl literacy programmes in step 4, importance is placed on monitoring and evaluation (m&e) of odl youth and adult literacy programmes. emphasis is on continuous monitoring and evaluation of methods, approaches, resources and technologies used during the design and implementation of an odl programme, to 378 ensure they yield the required results. this may lead to programme upgrades and consideration of new and more effective designs. the authors also refer to the direct correlation of the m&e planning referred to in step 1 and the actual m&e implementation in this step. the book highlights guidelines and frameworks that help establish learner analytics. this step also discusses the importance of data collection, data management and reporting systems — data analysis that could aid in informed decision-making and most importantly the implementation of feedback that could inform improvements. elements of data collection identified are feedback from facilitators, designers and learners; assessment of outcomes of content knowledge, technology needs and access; learner engagement with content; internal and external process efficiency and enrolment information together with completion rates. this step ends with a checklist for odl programmes for youth and adult literacy, regarding planning, implementation and monitoring that is invaluable for all implementers. in part 2: media and technologies for literacy, the authors zoom in on “the various technologies that can support the delivery of such programmes” (p. 62) they believe that any odl programme in youth and adult literacy must recognise and embrace the use of media but emphasis should be on relevance for different learner types. the authors also caution that “technology choices should be assessed in terms of function, delivery channels, reach, access to devices, software, interface requirements (including accessibility), type of content, support requirements and affordability” (p. 62). this is a critical point as it is relevant to the context of lessdeveloped countries where the majority of the populations still reside in rural areas, where they cannot afford digital devices but connectivity issues also reign supreme. the authors then discuss a variety of technologies and how they can be used to advance odl programme delivery. print media print media includes resources such as textbooks, study guides and instructional materials. the authors recognise that print media remain very popular even in the face of new technologies due to their “ease of access and use” (p. 62). radio radio is one of the most accessible media forms be it analogue or digital. the book highlights the ability of radio to facilitate learning in local languages and repeating programmes, both of which help provide an almost flexible learning mode. although learning in groups with facilitators, as well as the integration of interactive radio instruction (iri) participatory exercises, may be an attractive initiative, it is important to consider the stability of radio frequencies as well as the effectiveness of facilitators delivering the learning process through radio. television the authors argue that programmes delivered via television can be interactive and offer an engaging option that enables group work and monitoring of activities. this is useful, however, the book does not explicitly explain how television would enable odl on a channel basis. questions one might ask are: how would it be implemented? on what channels? are they available on local signals in all 379 areas? besides television, are other accessories like digital decoders required? answers to these can give stakeholders an idea of how to enable odl through the use of television as a learning tool. digital technologies the book underscores the importance of interactivity in content, especially through the use of various social media platforms. it is clear that the use of digital platforms is growing, especially as a result of the pandemic. however, it is important to be cautious when measuring success insofar as these technologies have not yet been widely used in a full system that is heavily dependent on them. pros and cons are referenced by the authors in this regard. the publication highlights various digital technology considerations, such as mobile learning, virtual classrooms, massive open online courses (moocs) and various online tools and platforms such as social media and artificial intelligence (ai). the authors particularly highlight the high usage of mobile phones in a developing country context and its potential for literacy programmes but also caution about certain constraints in this regard. worth considering is the fact that, although virtual learning and ai provide advanced levels of learning, they are still far from being considered fully effective tools for odl, especially on the basis of accessibility and the high costs they require to implement on a wide range/scale. conclusion overall, this book offered a holistic view and approach for the implementation of an odl programme in youth and adult literacy in an in-depth manner, and the authors should be commended for the rich literature analysis and incorporation of worldwide case studies and highly relevant examples throughout their publication. it is a well-articulated publication, showing promising results, especially for the development and implementation of odl programmes with specific relevance to youth and adult literacy, as the world pivots from traditional learning practices. this book could aid institutions or individuals considering the implementation of odl programmes right from planning and implementation to active monitoring and evaluation. the authors offer practical guidance, balancing advice on what to do with what not to do. the authors balance between availing guidance and what could work and possible unavoidable challenges. acknowledging the richness of this publication goes without saying, however, deeper insight into funding would have strengthened it, especially in relation to establishing estimates, cost breakdown analysis and information on how funds are distributed and kept and used in the various communities. as more odl systems are rolled out an updated edition could draw on empirical data, results and their success to further support the guidelines. the authors should also be commended for acknowledging the scope limitations of their publication throughout the respective parts and drawing the reader’s attention to additional research or reading. reviewed by: dr. catherine margaret beukes-amiss, the director of the centre for innovation in learning and teaching (cilt) at the university of namibia (unam) where she practices the implementation of odel activities and strategies. she is passionate about the enhancement and infusion of technology in learning and teaching in a higher education context. email: cmbeukes@unam.na 380 cite this paper as: beukes-amiss, c. (2022). book review: guidelines on open and distance learning for youth and adult literacy. unesco institute for lifelong learning and the commonwealth of learning. journal of learning for development, 9(2), 376-380. bose curriculum transaction in nios: overcoming the limitations of packaged instructions sutapa bose vol. 1, no. 3 abstract low learning outcomes in indian schools and the promotion of rote learning by their instructional systems have been documented time and again. schools are therefore required to adopt india’s national curriculum framework (ncf) (2005) that includes guidelines for curriculum transaction. however, the learning outcomes and the kind of learning likely to be promoted by the instructional system of open schools in india, including the national institute of open schooling (nios) remain excluded from these deliberations. so these two aspects of nios have been examined and it has been inferred that the learning outcomes are unsatisfactory; the instructional system is not designed for meaningful learning; and the self-learning material used for delivering instructions is a barrier to the adoption of the ncf guidelines. thereafter, it is proposed that the personal contact programme (pcp) is a component of the instructional system of nios that will lend itself to the adoption of the ncf guidelines, provided it is designed suitably. subsequently, a pcp design based on the ncf directives for organising instructional processes is suggested in the context of nios. introduction the sixth goal of the dakar framework for action (2000) is about improving the quality of education and the achievement of recognized and measurable learning outcomes. learning outcomes are the intentional and expected effects of the educational system (unicef, 2000). in india, poor quality education results in poor learning outcomes in every stage of education and, as per the current five-year-plan (2012-2017), this is the greatest challenge to india’s educational sector (planning commission [government of india], 2013). however, now the focus is not just on learning outcomes but also on the quality of instructions. it is felt that the quality of education may not be high even in schools with higher learning outcomes, as they may still emerge from rote learning. this is indicated by the quality education study (qes) (2011), carried out on the students of the fourth, sixth and eighth grades of schools of india to investigate whether they were able to apply learning and think critically. the qes study revealed that students cannot answer questions that require them to think and that they were not progressive in thought on social and environmental issues. as per the report of this study, there is an apprehension that students unable to think critically will not be able to think rationally and discriminate between good and bad decisions with regard to various social and ecological issues. this study also revealed that though the fourth graders performed below the international average, by the time they reach the eighth grade their performance was on par with the global average, because they performed better answering questions that require straightforward use of learnt techniques or procedures but not as well on those that require the application of concepts and critical thinking.  more unsettling is the revelation that the study was not based on students from public schools in rural areas but from the top 89 private schools catering to students from well to do families located in five metropolises. soon after this, india’s dismal ranking in 2012 in the programme for international student assessment (pisa), a worldwide study that measures 15-year-old students' scholastic abilities including problem solving, hit the headlines. india opted out of pisa in 2013 (chhapiah, 2013). the qes and pisa findings are not surprising. they are in line with the views expressed in several documents like the reports of the education commissions set up by the government of india in 1952 and thereafter in 1964, india’s national policy on education formulated in 1986, the learning without burden report submitted to the government of india in 1993 and the national curriculum framework (ncf) (2005), that teaching and learning in schools were for short-term information accumulation meant to last only until examination. but rote learning still plagues the indian educational system (mukherjee, 2013) andthe instructional system in schools imparts instructions in a way that encourages it (gohain, 2014; ncf, 2005; planning commission [government of india] 2013). moreover, teachers remain unable to integrate teaching, learning and assessment (gohain, 2014). hence, continuous assessment required for supporting meaningful learning is also lacking.  it is now felt that the quality of education that promotes rote learning and ignores the development of higher order cognitive abilities cannot be rated as high (venkataraman, 2011).   unlike meaningful learning, which requires the learner to trace the interrelation between old and new learning, rote learning leads to the storage of new learning as discrete entities, in isolation from the larger cognitive structure and is lost after some time (ausubel, 1962). hence, the new learning has limited use for application and therefore, for problem solving. its retention could also be for a short time, which could be till assessment, when it has to be recalled. this is true for situations in which the instructional system is dominated by the assessment system as in school education in india that has come to be driven by high-stake examinations based on information-loaded textbooks (ncf, 2005). assessment carried out in indian schools is also blamed for valuing rote learning more than analytical thinking (ncf 2005; planning commission [government of india] 2013). as there is a fundamental link between assessment and teaching and learning (kirkwood & price, 2008), the instructional system favours rote learning and recall of fixed responses. though earlier it had been pointed out by the learning without burden report (1993) that the teaching method and textbooks are under the pervasive effects of the examination system and textbooks are designed to pass on information, however, even now, textbooks are the main source of information and students often study only for marks (mukherjee, 2013). national curriculum framework (ncf) guidelines for curriculum transaction the ncf (2005) aims to guide the development and transaction of curriculum in schools and to address the problems of transmission of information and rote learning. it includes guidelines for curriculum transaction to make learning active, social and meaningful. schools are supposed to adopt these guidelines and the current five-year plan of the indian government reiterates this. the guidelines are as follows: connecting knowledge to life outside the school;  ensuring that learning shifts away from rote methods enriching the curriculum so that it goes beyond textbooks; making examinations more flexible and integrating them with classroom life; and  nurturing an overriding identity informed by caring concerns within the democratic polity of the country.  the first guideline aims to contextualize learning and ensure that the content gets a broader perspective as it is linked to the life of the learners during the instructional process. the second guideline intends that learners are enabled to link new and old learning so that they develop conceptual clarity and are encouraged to think critically and apply learning. the third guideline aims to address the problem of considering textbooks as the sole and final source of knowledge. it is in fact an extension of the first guideline and requires that learners be introduced to various sources of knowledge. this will introduce learners to various views, sometimes even contradictory ones and help them to build a perspective that may accommodate diverse opinions. the fourth guideline seeks to make assessment a formative process so that teaching and assessment determine each other and the meaningfulness of learning can be ascertained on a continuous basis. the language of the fifth guideline is complex and so is its intention. it underscores the need to raise awareness, nurture a sense of identity and the ability for critical thinking on socio-political realities. it also intends that learners are helped in internalizing india’s constitutional values of equality, justice, liberty and fraternity so that democracy does not remain only as a form of governance but becomes a way of life for them. thus, while making learning an active process to be carried out through group activities, it seeks to impart training in citizenship for india, a democratic polity. for implementing these guidelines the ncf suggests pedagogies involving activities of various kinds like reading, discussion, sharing experiences, creating things and so on, to be carried out collaboratively. concern for quality in india doesn’t extend to open schools the documents that indict the instructional system of schools for low learning outcomes and rote learning and the ensuing concern about the quality of school education, exclude open schools, including the national institute of open schooling (nios). this is in spite of the fact that these schools enroll millions and are taking india closer to the goal of education for all. the current five-year plan of india (planning commission [government of india] 2013) is also concerned about the transactions and assessment in classrooms and urges schools to base these processes on the ncf, but it is oblivious to these processes in open schools. even the ncf that provides guidance to the instructional processes in schools is silent on the transaction of curriculum in open schools. though open schools are widening access to schooling, their learning outcomes and the kind of learning their instructional system is likely to promote are overlooked. therefore, inferences about these two aspects have been drawn on the basis of the results of the pubic examinations held for the secondary and senior secondary levels, and the features of the instructional system of nios. however, the inferences are only in the context of india, indian schools and the nios. learning outcomes of national institute of open schooling   nios learners appear at public examinations held at the end of an academic session, twice every year. the percentage of candidates from the academic stream passing the secondary (x grade) and senior secondary (xii grade) level academic examinations from 1991 to 2013 are available in the examination profile of nios, on its website (http://www.nios.ac.in/stastical-report/academic-examination-profile.aspx). the data on this site indicates that the percentage of those passing the secondary level examination has exceeded 50% only three times: in may 2003, april 2012 and april 2013. otherwise, it has been less than 50%. at the senior secondary level, the percentage of those passing has always been well below 50%. the handbook for academic facilitators of nios (n.d.) says that examination results show that the level of performance is low and there is need for academic support. the qes report cautions that that the outcome of rote learning is often deceptive and appears as apparent learning but does not make students capable of higher order thinking skills. so the learning outcomes do not necessarily imply that those who passed did so because learning was meaningful for them. but consistently low learning outcomes imply that many have not been able to learn. this indicates that the transactional distance, which is the psychological or communicative space that separates instructor from learner in the transaction between them (moore, 1997), has not been bridged by the instructional system. features of the instructional system of national institute of open schooling the nios imparts instructions mainly through self learning material (slm) in print, which is supplemented by instructions in audio and video. a learner also has to attend the personal contact programme (pcp). assessment is carried out for tutor-marked assignments and through public examinations (nios prospectus, 2013-2014). a critical look at these components of the instructional system reveals the following: self learning material (slm) the delivery of instructions is mainly through slm. a number of quality assurance mechanisms are adopted by open distance learning (odl) institutions to satisfy expectations of excellence (arinto, 2007). besides, the curriculum of nios being based on the ncf, the slm includes the themes suggested by it and the content is enriched with cases and activities that the learners are supposed to carry out. so the quality of the content of slm may be as good as and even better than that imparted in many conventional schools of india that, as per the current five-year plan of india, are grappling with the shortage of trained teachers.  still, the slm has many limitations. first, learners are expected to be self-directed, independent and autonomous but even adults may not be prepared for self-directed learning (knowles 1970, as cited in moore, 1997) and a majority of nios learners are children. though children today have better access to information technology and may be self-directed learners, and there are also no reasons to undermine the self directedness of any group of learners, nevertheless, from the learning outcomes at the public examinations of nios as mentioned earlier, it seems that the learners were not motivated and self-directed enough to carry out activities, read and reflect on the cases given in the slm. also, the slm on its own does not have the means to ensure it. so there may be passive reception. second, slm-based instructions involve didactic exposition with transmission of information through the print medium. the recorded programmes in the audio and video media are also meant for reception. this type of instructions does not necessarily lead to rote learning, especially if the learner has relevant concepts in the cognitive structure; appropriate advance organisers are provided to anchor the new learning within the pre-existing cognitive structure, there is scope for drill so that new and old learning get integrated, and there is continuous assessment of new learning getting anchored appropriately in the old learning (ausubel, 1962; 1963, as cited in ivie, 1998). however, the slm lacks the means to fulfill these requirements, as it comprises an inert package of instructions. the use of such pre-packaged instructions may lead to passive learning, which remains superficial or limited to surface information processing (kasworm & yao, 1992). third, the slm presupposes a particular level of previous knowledge. but there is no mechanism to assess whether the learners of even the same grade actually have it. fourth, as per the handbook for academic facilitators of nios (n. d.) learners are supposed to be using the instructional package developed by nios. the hypothetically perfect package of instructional materials (sewart, 1993), produced in bulk is transported to learners who are supposed to be the recipients of   pre-packaged past knowledge (moore, 1986, as cited in kasworm & yao, 1992). this approach  is criticized by situated cognition theorists like brown, collins & duguid, (1989) for treating knowledge as an integral, self-sufficient substance, theoretically independent of the situations in which it is learned and used and activity and context for learning not being regarded as essential but merely ancillary to learning. learning as individuals, using the information included in the slm, has therefore neither a physical nor the social context. slm-based learning being individualized, limits the scope for sharing experiences, which is required, especially when children are from an underprivileged background, which is true for nios, because their experiences and realities are underrepresented in school knowledge and also because it connects learning to life (ncf, 2005). but slm on its own has no mechanisms to ensure discussions, collaborations and negotiations for co-construction of knowledge, making it closed to the knowledge, experiences and views that learners bring to the learning situation. hence, the possibilities for instruction to the point of indoctrination rather than education are much greater (sewart, 1993). slm therefore promotes the banking model of education (bouchard & kalman, 1998) and a culture of silence. the behaviorist tradition of imparting instructions endorses standardized, externally defined and controlled curricula, based on predefined objectives, defined independently of the learner, and undermines the possibilities for learners to construct meaning and for the educational programme to respond to individual needs (education for all: the quality imperative, 2005). the slm is a product of this tradition and none of the guidelines of ncf can be implemented through slm-based teaching and learning. personal contact programme (pcp) the nios organises pcp on holidays and weekends at the accredited institutions (ais) that are the study centers of nios. the ais are usually housed in government-recognized conventional schools. up to a maximum of thirty pcp classes are organised per subject and five additional practical classes are held for subjects requiring practical activity. the classes are held in the face-to-face mode by tutor-cum-counsellors. however, attendance is compulsory on only 15 days (nios prospectus, 2013-14). as per the handbook for academic facilitators of nios, pcp is organised to supplement learning with the help of slm. it intends to support learners who may be school drop outs, first generation learners, working children and street children, since they do not get enough support at home and may confront problems while studying with the help of slm and, hence, they need help and guidance not only to continue learning but also for using the instructional package effectively. this handbook also says that the pcp purports to bring together learners for interaction with teachers and peers; provide learners with counseling and tutoring facilities, feedback on assignments, access to library of the ai, additional learning inputs through recorded audio and video programmes of nios, practical work sessions for subjects requiring it, motivation to learn and assistance for learners preparing for term end examination. the pcp is thus based on the assumption that the instructional package is adequate for learning and it is the learner, who perhaps being a school drop out, a first generation learner, a working child or someone dwelling in the street, cannot get help from home and is, hence, incapable of decoding the information encoded and packaged in the otherwise perfect slm.  therefore, these learners have to be supported for the problems they face. the validity of the assumption is debatable because how well the privileged children of the indian schools would fare if they were left on their own with an slm has not been studied. this assumption actually does not acknowledge the limitations of the slm. accordingly the aim of pcp is not to address the limitations of the slm but only that of the learners. moreover, the expectation is that learners including children can identify and list their learning problems and during pcp will approach the tutor-cum-councillors, whom they have never met, and articulate those problems. the onus is thus not on the institution to assess learning on a continuous basis and provide feedback. however, suggestion for carrying out group work, discussions, brainstorming and other activities during pcp has been made in the handbook for academic facilitators. it implies that the institution feels that learning with slm limits these activities. but these suggestions are not backed by a plan for implementation. assessment assignments make assessment a formative process and attaching weight to it is a mechanism for ensuring that learners take it seriously. since 2013-14, the term end examination has 80% weight, as one tutor-marked assignment with 20% weight in the total assessment scheme has been made compulsory (nios prospectus, 2013-14). but only one compulsory assignment for a subject hardly makes assessment a formative process.  also, the blueprint and question paper of the term end examination (available on the nios website) indicate that the weight for the items requiring application of knowledge is usually no more than 10%. most of the test items therefore do not require learners to think critically and apply learning. hence, rote and recall can help in passing the tests. although information laden text books are not used by learners for rote learning but the slm, loaded with information, substitutes for text books. so, given the type of learning the slm is likely to promote, learning by rote for assessment cannot be ruled out. inferences about the learning outcomes and the instructional system of nios the learning outcomes of nios are, as pointed out earlier, low. they indicate the inadequacy of the instructional system and the need for academic interventions providing support to learners. the instructional system is designed more for transmission of information than for facilitating meaningful learning. indian schools are being urged to adopt the ncf to address the problems of transmission of information and rote learning. nios, being one of the schools, also requires it and that, too, on an urgent basis (nios, 2012). but this has not happened and transaction of curriculum is still through an instructional package used for delivering instructions. the package comprises mainly the slm, which will constrain the pedagogies that consider learning as an active and social process. hence, the use of slm is a barrier to the implementation of the ncf guidelines. there are also other barriers to the implementation of the ncf guidelines, like the isolation of learners and the huge number of learners accommodated every year, making effective formative assessment through assignments challenging. the ncf criticizes the use of instructional packages but suggests no alternative for the packages used in open schools. therefore, in spite of its weaknesses, the value of slm in distance education is immense and it has to be continued. however, the pcp is a component of the instructional system that has the means to overcome the barriers to the ncf guidelines and especially because, now,  attendance of learners in the pcp is compulsory for fifteen days, when the ncf guidelines can be adopted for curriculum transaction. designing personal contact programme of  nios for adopting ncf guidelines a learning programme needs a deliberate goal, a strategy for attaining it and the criteria for achievement (moore, 1986). the four questions listed by the ncf for organising the instructional processes of a learning programme are in line with these requirements and can comprise the conceptual framework for the pcp in the following manner: what are the educational purposes? the pcp should aim to address not only the problems faced by the individual learners but also compensate the pedagogic limitations of the slm. so it will not just bring together learners to solve their problems but will be an intervention for organizing activities to be carried out in teams, using multiple sources of information available in the ai. the activities presently supposed to be carried out at the pcp such as clarification of doubts; laboratory work and so on will be a part of the curriculum transaction process planned for the pcp.   what educational experiences are likely to help in achieving the purposes? so that knowledge does not remain as a finished product for transmission but is built through meaningful experiences, the ncf requires learners to have various experiences such as experimenting, reading, carrying out activities, reflecting, sharing experiences and expressing oneself through speech, discussions, debates, role play, writing and so on. the ncf also requires learners to make things. the experience of carrying out authentic tasks like designing and creating artifacts, requiring application of knowledge (barron & darling-hammond, 2008) is also required by india’s central board of secondary education (cbse), that had initiated nios as a pilot project and now presently affiliates with about fifteen thousand schools. it has listed various activities, including those for the creation of artifacts for school subjects to be carried out as projects by learners during school hours under the direct supervision of teachers (cbse, 2012). but in open schools, the scope for such project based learning is limited. however, since schools/institutions having proper facilities are selected as ais during the pcp, it is likely that the library and technological facilities of ais can be used by learners for carrying out these activities. learners of nios also need to be oriented to distance education, the programme in which they have enrolled and the role of a distance learner. this is likely during the induction programme organized for them but a recapitulation may be useful. life skills education imparted in conventional schools is also needed. experiences relevant to these elements are also to be provided during the pcp. how can these educational experiences be meaningfully organised? first, the relevant activities need to be conceptualized. second, a schedule for 15 days with sessions earmarked for various kinds of experiences is required. the schedule needs to begin with a session for ice breaking so that learners get to know each other and the tutor-cum-counselors. thereafter, sessions need to be included for orientation of learners to open schooling, nios, the academic programme, the role of learners, the support they can expect from the institution, and skills for reading, writing and studying, activities for developing life skills (like those listed by the cbse in the handbooks it has designed for teachers) reading content from slm and supplementing it from books, newspaper and magazines from the ai library; carrying out activities and solving the problems given in the slm; discussions, debates, brainstorming, quizzes, role play on the topics identified by the learners and resource persons and especially on the cases included in the slm; tutorials for difficult material identified by the  learners and the tutor;  writing assignments and journal writing to record experiences and reflections; demonstrations by teachers and laboratory work for subjects requiring it; carrying out projects; and using audio and video programmes of the nios. for all the activities, the objectives and learning outcomes need to be defined. third, the sessions for listening to audio and watching video, as well as demonstrations and presentations made by the teacher, should allow time for interaction with the students. fourth, working as teams, learners can co-construct knowledge and use their collective knowledge for problem solving (bielaczyc & collins, 1999). hence, teams need to be formed in a way that learners of different ages and, if possible, even with different learning problems, should be grouped. this will help in peer tutoring. fifth, for the problems and activities included in the slm and projects to be carried out, objectives, learning outcomes, steps to be taken by the learners, the resources required and a rubric for assessment need to be predetermined and shared with the learners. sixth, the tutor-cum-counselors at the ai need to facilitate the activities, assess learning while learners are engaged in activities to ensure that learning is meaningful and provide feedback on a continuous basis. in keeping with the fifth guideline of ncf, they have to encourage interaction and steer it towards dialogue, which as per moore (1997), is purposeful, constructive, mutually respectful, allows active listening as well as a contributing, and builds on the contributions of others.                                                                                                                                         how to ensure that the educational purposes are indeed being accomplished? to ensure that the educational purposes are indeed being accomplished, formative assessment, on the basis of predetermined learning outcomes and rubrics, is necessary and feedback should be continuous and descriptive (cbse, 2012). monitoring the pcp will also help to ensure that the educational purposes are indeed being accomplished. monitoring can be through visits by nios officials and also through perusal of the records maintained by the ais for attendance of learners, as well as assignments submitted, records of lab based activities and the portfolios submitted by learners. orientation of the tutor-cum-counselors of ais for their role in the pcp is also required. conclusions in indian schools understanding has been bartered away for memory-based short-term information accumulation for examination, using information laden textbooks (ncf, 2005). the learning outcomes are also low. therefore, the quality of school education is a cause of concern. however, the learning outcomes of open schools are overlooked and the use of information packaged as slm for summative assessment is also accepted. open schools, admitting the marginalized, thus remain at the margins of the educational system. this could be because doubts persist about the effectiveness of odl institutions though they are educating millions (arinto, 2007; daniel, kanwar & uvalić-trumbi, 2008). but odl being one of the modes of imparting education, open schools are an integral part of the school system. hence, the quality of instruction in open schools matters, especially because the learners, unlike those of conventional schools, are not likely to have access to learning facilities beyond those provided by the institution. moreover those educated by open schools also become a part of the workforce and many may aspire to higher education. one of the mission statements of nios also says that efforts for ensuring equity in education do not end with providing access but also include deliberate measures worked out to ensure quality of education. to improve instructional processes, schools are supposed to implement the ncf that includes guidelines for curriculum transaction. although the ncf is now about a decade old, at least the qes does not indicate its implementation. also, whether the guidelines will be a panacea for the deep-rooted problem of rote learning is yet to be ascertained. nevertheless, they are rooted in modern views on learning and the current five-year-plan and also the nios require that they be adopted.  however, adopting the ncf guidelines in nios is difficult because its instructional package comprises mainly the slm that lacks the mechanisms to ensure active and collaborative learning. in spite of this the slm cannot be discontinued because there is no alternative for it. nor can the summative assessment system be replaced by an effective formative assessment through numerous assignments, because the number of learners accommodated annually is too large. however, during the pcp, though it is held for a limited duration, curriculum transaction can be based on the ncf guidelines, provided it is designed for it.   though the pcp has been pinpointed as the component of the instructional system, which can be engineered to facilitate learning but it has to be admitted that learning in distance education is determined by many factors that are interrelated in a complex way. therefore, the assumption that taking care of one component of the instructional system will guarantee significant enhancement in learning outcomes, is simplistic. however, it is a component that is more amenable to the changes sought for facilitating learning. therefore, the design of the pcp can be based on a conceptual framework comprising the four questions raised by the ncf for organising instructional processes. this will make the pcp a goal oriented process with a definite strategy for implementation. it cannot be claimed that a pcp of 15 days, even if well organised, will fully address the constraints imposed by the slm and the assessment system. but it is the only component in the instructional system that can be tailored for ncf based learning. second, it will initiate learners into practices like working with peers, voicing their opinion, reading, thinking and carrying out activities and thus be better equipped for making optimum use of the slm. effective simulated conversation between the learner and the learning material (holmberg, 1983) is more likely to happen after this type of pcp. third, it will build an acquaintance with the ai and encourage learners to come back to it for guidance. fourth, discussions and sharing experiences will introduce learners to multiple views and knowledge will be built through meaningful experiences, organised and conceived through language (ncf, 2005) and foster much needed communication skills and linguistic abilities. the pcp thus designed will not be meant for transacting the entire curriculum within fifteen days but for helping learners in learning to learn. besides, unless it is implemented well, the changes expected may remain elusive. though, a  design for pcp has been suggested to compensate the limitations of slm,it is pertinent to mention that the concerns expressed about the instructional system and learning outcomes and the subsequent suggestions for designing the pcp are entirely in the context of india, and, in particular, to only one institution, the nios. therefore, these conclusions as well as suggestions may have limited applicability. still, given the enrolment of nios, if the design is implemented and if it is found to be effective for facilitating learning, the beneficiaries would number in thousands.  references arinto, p.b. (2007). going the distance: towards a new professionalism for full-time distance education faculty at the university of the philippines. the international review of research in open and distance learning, 8(3). retrieved march 13, 2012 from: http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/409/941. ausubel, d. p. (1962). a subsumption theory of meaningful verbal learning and retention. the journal of general psychology, 66, 213-244. barron, b., &. darling-hammond, l. (2008). san francisco: jossey-bass. retrieved january 15, 2012 from: http://www.edutopia.org/pd teaching for meaningful learning: a review of research on inquiry-based and cooperative learning.fs/edutopia-teaching-for-meaningful-learning.pdf bielaczyc, k., & collins, a.  (1999). learning communities in classrooms: a  reconceptualization of educational practice . in c. m. reigeluth (ed.), instructional design theories and models (vol. ii, pp. 2-20). mahwah nj: lawrence erlbaum associates.  retrieved january 15, 2012 from: http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic541040.files/bielaczyc%20and%20collins-learning%20communities%20in%20classrooms.pdf bouchard, p., & kalman, l. (1998). distance education and learner autonomy: some theoretical implications. actes du 15ème colloque de l’associationcanadienne pour l’étude de l’éducation des adultes.université d’ottawa. retrieved january 16, 2013 from this url. brown, j.s.,  collins, a., &  duguid, p. (1989). situated cognition and the culture of learning.  educational researcher, 18 (1), 32-42. retrieved march 16, 2013 from: http://www.exploratorium.edu/ifi/resources/museumeducation/situated.html cbse (2012). notification of clarifications regarding implementation of school based assessment under continuous and comprehensive evaluation formative and summative assessments. retrieved january 16, 2013 from: http://tir.cbseacademic.in/webmaterial/notification/cbse_cce%20feedback.pdf chhapiah. h. (2013, june 1). india chickens out of international students assessment programme again. the times of india. retrieved january 11, 2014 from: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/education/news/india-chickens-out-of-international-students-assessment-programme-again/articleshow/20375670.cms daniel, j., kanwar, a., &  uvalić-trumbić,s.  (2008). achieving quality in distance education. commonwealth of learning resources. retrieved august, 2013 from: http://www.col.org/resources/speeches/2008presentations/pages/2008-04-04.aspx unesco. (2005). education for all: the quality imperative. paris: unesco.. retrieved january 16, 2013 from: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001373/137333e.pdf nios (n.d.). examination profile. retrieved january 16, 2012 from: http://www.nios.ac.in/stastical-report/academic-examination-profile.aspx gohain, m.p.  (2014, march 6). cce has improved scores, not teaching. new delhi: the times of india. nios (n.d.). handbook for academic facilitators of nios. retrieved january 16, 2014 from: http://www.nios.ac.in/media/documents/hand%20book%20for%20academic%20facilitatiors-final.pdf holmberg, b. (1983). guided didactic conversation. in d. sewart, d. keegan & b. holmberg (eds.), distance education: international perspectives (pp.114-122). london: croom helm. retrieved june 11, 2012 from: http://www.c3l.uni-oldenburg.de/cde/support/readings/holm83.pdf ivie, s.d. (1998). ausubel's learning theory: an approach to teaching higher order thinking skills. high school journal, 82(1), 35-42. retrieved june 11, 2012 from: http://imet.csus.edu/imet9/281/docs/ivie_1998.pdf kasworm, c. e., & yao, b. (1992). the development of adult learner autonomy and self-directedness in distance education. paper presented as part of the 16th world conference. international council on distance education. bangkok, thailand. retrieved may 11, 2012 from: http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ed355453.pdf kirkwood, a., & price, l. (2008). assessment and student learning: a fundamental relationship and the role of information and communication technologies. open learning, 23(1), 5-16. ministry of human resource development. (1993). learning without burden. report of the national advisory committee appointed by the ministry of human resource development. new delhi: government of india. moore, m. (1986). self-directed learning and distance education. journal of distance education, 1(1), 7-24. retrieved june 11, 2012 from: http://www.jofde.ca/index.php/jde/article/view/307/201 moore, m. (1997). theory of transactional distance. in d. keegan (ed.) theoretical principles of distance education (pp. 22–38). new york: routledge. retrieved june 11, 2012 from this url. mukherjee, r. (2013). indian education system: what needs to change? unlawyered [blog]. retrieved june 11, 2013 from: http://startup.nujs.edu/blog/indian-education-system-what-needs-to-change/            ncert. (2005). national curriculum framework. new delhi: ncert. nios. (2012).  chairman’s message. retrieved june 11, 2012 from: http://www.niosrcben.org/directormessage.php nios. (2014). prospectus 2013-14: academic courses secondary and senior secondary. retrieved march 1, 2014 from: http://nios.ac.in/media/documents/prospectus%20-%202013-14.pdf planning commission (government of india). (2013). twelfth five year plan (2012-2017) social sectors. vol.iii. new delhi: sage publications. 47-124. wipro and educational initiatives pvt. ltd. (2011). quality education study report. retrieved june 11, 2013 from: http://www.teindia.nic.in/e9-tm/files/qes-executive-summary-high-resolution.pdf sewart, d. (1993). student support systems in distance education. open learning, 8(3), 3-12. unesco. (2000). the dakar framework of action. paris: unesco. united nations international children's emergency fund (unicef). (2000). defining quality in education. a paper presented by unicef at the meeting of the international working group on education florence, italy. retrieved november 11, 2012 from: http://www.unicef.org/education/files/qualityeducation.pdf venkataraman, k.  (2011, december 12). learning by rote prevalent in top schools too. the hindu. retrieved october 11, 2012 from: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/learning-by-rote--in-top-schools-too/article2707562.ece sutapa bose is an assistant professor at indira gandhi national open university. e-mail: http://www.ignou.ac.in microsoft word kalinkara.docx issn: 2311-1550 2022, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 229-252 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. rethinking evaluating the use of distance learning systems in the context of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology-2 yusuf kalinkara and tarik talan gaziantep islam science and technology university, turkey abstract: various theories and models are used to understand the impact of technology in education. one of these models is the utaut-2 model. this model allows us to understand the acceptance and use of technology. in this study, students' intentions and behaviours related to using the ubys system, which is used as a learning management system, were examined within the framework of the utaut-2 model. the structural equation model was also used in the study. smart pls 3.3.5 and ibm spss statistics v20.0 programmes were used for all data analyses. the study was conducted with 208 university students in 2021-2022. the result of structural equation modeling is that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, facilitating conditions, and hedonic motivation are among the variables that influence the use and acceptance of ubys. the components of the model explain 75% of behavioural intentions. with the knowledge gained in this study, it may be possible to increase the usefulness of the ubys system used. at the same time, the results of this study should make an important contribution to the literature on the utaut-2 model. keywords: unified theory of acceptance and use of technology-2, technology acceptance model, distance learning systems, structural equation model. introduction with technology development, many transactions are now conducted over the internet. internet technologies are widely used for many transactions in our daily lives, such as banking, shopping, and accessing information. internet and communication technologies are also commonly used in education. with the increasing use of technological tools in education, distance learning applications, in particular, are becoming more popular. distance learning, which allows students to receive their education via the internet, is widely used, especially in times of pandemics. distance learning systems can be used as stand-alone educational environments, or they can be integrated or complementary with formal educational environments. the fact that the internet provides easy access to information, is inexpensive, enables user interaction, and can be enriched with multimedia tools brings distance education to the forefront (kılınç, 2015). distance education has become an indispensable structure for schools so that learning processes are not interrupted, especially during a pandemic period when there are restrictions. in the future, education will transform into a new hybrid/mixed system, i.e., face-to-face and distance education will be used together. 230 in recent years, the widespread availability and affordability of the internet have led to distance learning systems being accepted as suitable platforms for education and becoming methods preferred by millions of people. however, the covid-19 pandemic spread around the world has also made these systems a mandatory part of education. these systems, both web-based and mobile compatible (akkuş & kapıdere, 2015), are now being produced and offer low cost of ownership and tools to solve educational problems in a variety of environments in public institutions and the private sector. without time and location constraints, these systems provide various opportunities such as personal and professional development, participation in academic or certificate programmes for individuals who have limited time for work reasons or cannot be at the location where classes are being held (akyürek, 2020; al & madran, 2004; batdi, dogan & talan, 2021; carswell & venkatesh, 2002). therefore, such a system enables educational equity and supports lifelong learning. these systems, which allow synchronous and asynchronous instruction, provide features such as defining live lessons, creating curricula, assigning teachers and students, adding rich content, creating discussion groups, tracking homework/projects, exams/tests, and assessment and grading. in addition, these systems offer several advantages in reusing and updating the content and the system (akkuş & kapıdere, 2015; akyürek, 2020; al & madran, 2004; deperlioğlu & ergün, 2011). as distance education has become more widespread, research has also accelerated. researchers are exploring topics such as the qualities of distance education, models for distance education, and the benefits of distance education in their research. however, distance education is also a technology and an innovation. for this reason, distance education is evaluated as an innovation, and its use and acceptance are the subjects of research. each innovation has a different impact on human life. the adoption and acceptance by people are as important as the innovation itself. there are various theories and models about the acceptance and use of innovations. these theories and models allow us to understand why people adopt or reject innovations. the theory of diffusion of innovations, which is one of these theories, draws attention to the acceptance and adaptation of innovations. in particular, rogers' theory of the diffusion of innovations is widely used in this field (demir, 2006; sahin, 2006). in addition to this theory, other theories deal with the acceptance and diffusion of innovations. one of them is the theory of reasoned action. this theory is based on social psychology and deals with the diffusion of innovations at the individual level (usluel & mazman, 2010). the theory of reasoned action states that an individual's ability to behave appropriately in an innovation process is related to the individual's intention, while the individual's intention is influenced by attitudes and subjective norms (fishbein & ajzen, 1975). in reviewing the literature, it is clear that many studies use models related to technology and integration. examining situations such as user acceptance, use, or adoption of various technologies used in education should help better understand the use of these technologies in education. this study aims to identify the factors that influence student behaviour when using distance learning systems. thus, it will be possible to develop an appropriate distance education system that meets the expectations of students. it is expected that the results obtained in this study will enlighten new studies for similar learning systems. the distance learning system examined in the study has a structure that allows students to learn online. students can use their usernames and passwords to access this distance learning system, an open-source system. students who participate in the distance learning system can follow the lessons 231 synchronously and asynchronously. many different lessons are offered online through this system. the system also allows students to interact with each other. the population of this study, which is a descriptive study, consists of students studying at a state university in the southeast anatolia region of turkey. an attempt was made to reach the sample using an appropriate sampling method. the completion of the online scale was voluntary. theoretical framework technology integration is when teachers use technology to improve students' thinking skills (hennessy et al., 2005). technology integration processes that enrich students' thinking styles also mean student-centered processes that increase students' social learning skills and self-learning skills and enable self-management (şendurur & arslan, 2017). technology integration generally refers to integrating information and communication technologies into the classroom environment. some theories are based on the applications made in technology integration (çakıroğlu, 2016). when new technologies are used in the context of technology integration, it is not only about hardware such as computers, projectors, smartboards, and tablets but also about applications and software in education. when technology is mentioned in teaching environments, innovation is also mentioned. society's acceptance and use of innovation are complex processes involving many components. in the context of technology integration, related technologies are examined in the context of theories of diffusion, adoption, and use of innovations (çakıroğlu, 2016). diffusion of innovations rogers' (2003) theory of diffusion of innovations refers to the processes of acceptance and rejection of ideas, practices, and environments that are perceived as new by individuals or organisations. the theory of diffusion of innovations is described by four main elements (çakıroğlu, 2016; sahin, 2006). the innovation element is the ideas, practices, or environments that an individual or community encounters for the first time and that individuals or organisations define as new. communication channels refer to communication between individuals who know about the innovation and those who do not. time refers to the time that elapses before individuals adopt and begin to use the innovation. a social system means that the diffusion, adoption, or rejection of innovation affects the social system. in this context, for example, innovators leading other individuals may be evaluated so that the innovation is socially accepted. the innovation-decision process consists of five steps (çakıroğlu, 2016; sahin, 2006). (1) knowledge: this is the step in which the innovation is perceived, and the individual is aware of the innovation. (2) persuasion: this is the step in which the individual's attitude toward the innovation decreases and uncertainty about the results of the innovation decreases. (3) decision: this is the step in which the individual's behaviour is observed to accept or reject the innovation. (4) implementation: this is the step where the individual begins to use the innovation. although the previous steps are mostly mental processes, this step shows that the individual uses the innovation itself. (5) confirmation: in this step, the individual uses the innovation for a short period of time and then continues to use it or discards it permanently. the innovation-decision process is illustrated in figure 1. 232 figure 1: the innovation-decision process at each of these steps, there is also the possibility of rejecting the innovation. in addition, technology acceptance varies according to individual characteristics. while some individuals adopt innovations much more quickly, the process is slower for others. reasoned action theory according to this theory, intention is important in the emergence of an individual's behaviour. attitudes and subjective norms influence the intention. attitudes consist of beliefs and outcomes for the appropriate behaviour. subjective norms are expressed as beliefs about motivation and rules (fishbein & ajzen, 1975). this theory is also important at the stage of adopting innovation and making it a behaviour. the reasoned action theory is expressed in figure 2 (çakıroğlu, 2016; davis, bagozzi & warshaw, 1989). figure 2: theory of reasoned action technology acceptance model in addition, there are some models about how technology is adopted as innovation and translated into human behaviour. one of these models is the technology acceptance model (tam). tam and similar models are of great importance in the context of innovation diffusion and adoption. tam is a model whose origins are based on the theory of reasoned action. the purpose of the tam is to present a model that determines user behaviour and the level of technology acceptance based on a small number of variables. the tam consists of external variables, perceived usefulness, ease of use, attitude toward using, behavioural intention to use, and actual system use. the components of the tam are shown in figure 3 (davis, bagozzi & warshaw, 1989). 233 figure 3: technology acceptance model technology acceptance model-2 after developing the tam, attempts were made to develop new models to explain technology acceptance or further explanatory models by updating the existing models. in venkatesh and david's (2000) study, referred to as technology acceptance model-2 (tam-2), various components were added to the model to overcome the limitations of the tam. the components of tam-2 are shown in figure 4. figure 4: technology acceptance model-2 unified theory of acceptance and use of technology there are also different rules for the tam. as seen in figure 5, venkatesh et al. (2003) proposed a unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (utaut) by adjusting the weaknesses and strengths of the models already presented in their study. in the utaut, performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and facilitating conditions are the four key elements of use and intention. in addition, use and intention and the role of key moderators, gender, age, experience, and voluntariness of use were examined (venkatesh et al., 2003). 234 figure 5: unified theory of acceptance and use of technology unified theory of acceptance and use of technology-2 the utaut was reconstructed by venkatesh et al. (2012) and named the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology-2 (utaut-2). the new model does not include the voluntariness of use of the utaut. unlike the old model, the variables hedonic motivation, price value, and habit were included in the new model. in terms of behavioural intention, the old model explained 56% of the variance, while the new model explains 74% of the variance (yılmaz & kavanoz, 2017). utaut-2 is also a model used to understand the use and adoption of various technologies such as distance education. as can be seen in figure 6, the utaut-2 model consists of several variables (kandemir, 2020; venkatesh et al., 2003; venkatesh et al., 2012; yılmaz & kavanoz, 2017): figure 6: unified theory of acceptance and use of technology-2 235 purpose and importance of this research many theories and models can be used in the context of technology integration in the classroom. with the studies conducted based on these theories and models, it will be possible for the theories and models to provide generalisable results. for this reason, such a study was needed to determine technology acceptance and use cases. the covid-19 pandemic, which has become a significant public health issue in recent years, also has implications for education. as a result of the pandemic, countries have developed their educational landscapes in different directions. distance education systems are among the technologies whose importance and use have increased with the pandemic. for this reason, it is important for technology integration to work with utaut-2 on the acceptance and use of distance education systems, which have become increasingly important in the wake of the pandemic. during the pandemic, individuals benefit from technology to continue and sustain their educational lives. adoption and use of these technologies may be due to factors arising from the technology itself and risk perceptions related to pandemic conditions. altay's (2021) study examined the risk perceptions of academics using the distance learning system as part of tam. in this study, in relation to the pandemic's compelling conditions and risk perception of the pandemic, the use and acceptance of the distance education system by students under utaut-2 were investigated. this aspect of the study is intended to contribute to the literature. utaut-2 is a model introduced in 2012. it is important to test this model with different technologies to make it a valid model. it is evident from the literature that the utaut-2 model has been tested with various technologies and methods. for example, the labsafety programme (ameri et al., 2020), lesson capture system (farooq et al., 2017), online meetings via zoom (zulherman et al., 2021), google classroom for mobile learning (kumar & bervel, 2019), open educational resources (jung & lee, 2020), immersive virtual reality in education (bower, dewitt & lai, 2020), acceptance of blended learning (dakduk et al., 2018), and the use of social networks in education (gharrah & aljaafreh 2021) were studied under the utaut-2 model. on the other hand, the literature points out that the utaut-2 model has not been studied with some technologies. studying this model with many different technologies will strengthen the model. therefore, in this study, it is possible to investigate the corresponding model with more technologies. thus, researchers test the same model with different technologies and serve to make the model more comprehensive. in addition, researchers verify the model with these studies. for this reason, conducting such a study allows the model to be tested with more technologies. several internal and external factors influence technology integration. in addition to external variables such as cultural and social influence, institutional support, and technological infrastructure, internal variables such as innovation, perceptions of technology competence, and beliefs are also important in assessing the barriers encountered in technology integration. some of the variables that hinder technology integration include lack of time, lack of effective training, lack of accessibility, lack of technical support, resistance to change, and attitudes. such studies are needed to understand better these and similar factors that influence technology integration. for all these reasons, it is aimed to examine the distance education system within utaut-2. to this end, the university information management system (ubys), a technology used by students for distance education, has been 236 examined within the utaut-2 model. in this way, an attempt is made to determine the acceptance and use of technology for educational purposes by students and determine their attitudes toward adopting the technology. methods this section of the study contains information about the research model, the hypotheses used in the study, and the participants. explanations of data collection instruments and data analysis are also provided. research model and hypotheses this study used the descriptive model, which is one of the quantitative research methods, in an attempt to uncover students' cognitive structures related to technology acceptance and use. the study used the utaut-2 scale developed by venkatesh et al. (2012) and adapted by baraz et al. (2021) in the data collection phase. the appropriate scale was presented in the online environment, and an attempt was made to obtain data from the students. the study model is based on the utaut-2 model prepared by venkatesh et al. (2012). the price value (pv) in the aforementioned model was excluded from the model as it has no meaningful counterpart in the study. this model, which examines the variables that influence usage behaviour, is shown in figure 7. figure 7: the model used in the study the study's hypotheses and the model's visual version are shown in figure 7. according to the model created, the variables pe, ee, si, fc, hm, and ht positively influence the variable bi. the variables fc, ht, and bi positively influence the usage status. 237 performance expectancy (pe) pe is the extent to which the use of technology benefits an individual in performing certain activities. pe is a model that helps and supports consumers using technology (vekatesh et al., 2012). in this study, pe was investigated to understand the use of distance learning systems by the students. the hypothesis stated in the study is as follows: h1: pe has a positive impact on students' behavioural intentions in using the distance learning system. effort expectancy (ee) ee is the extent of ease associated with an individual's use of technology. yılmaz and kavanoz (2017) define ee as users' belief that using a certain technology is easy and effortless. at the same time, ee also represents the time advantage that the use of the particular technology brings to the user. in this study, the following hypothesis was formulated to determine the effort expectancy of students using a distance learning system: h2: ee has a positive impact on students' behavioural intentions in using the distance learning system. social influence (si) si is how individuals perceive that significant others believe they should use a particular technology. si is a concept in utaut (venkatesh et al., 2003). si is the belief that an individual’s use of technology should be shared with others and significant others. si can be evaluated in the context of friends, colleagues, or family members (khechine et al., 2014). si was not ignored in this study, and the following hypothesis was made regarding this variable. h3: si has a positive impact on students' behavioural intentions in using the distance learning system. facilitating conditions (fc) fc is the extent to which the individual perceives the resources and support available to perform a behaviour. fc is defined as the belief of individuals who use technology that a technical and organisational infrastructure supports individuals in using technology (venkatesh et al., 2003). in the model fc, utaut-2 is defined as consumers' belief that there are resources and support to sustain a behaviour (venkatesh et al., 2012). in this study, the variable fc was examined with the following hypothesis while students used the appropriate system. h4a: fc has a positive impact on students' behavioural intentions in using the distance learning system. h4b: fc has a positive impact on students' behaviour using distance learning system. hedonic motivation (hm) hm is the pleasure and enjoyment derived from using the technology in question. hm is not included in utaut. in the utaut-2model, this variable was proposed by venkatesh et al. (2012). hm is defined as the pleasure and enjoyment an individual gets from using a technology (venkatesh et al., 2012). the hypothesis of hm proposed in this study is as follows: h5: hm has a positive impact on students' behavioural intentions in using the distance learning system. 238 price value (pv) pv is the relationship between the benefits of the technology and the monetary cost of using it. therefore, pv, a concept related to costs and prices, is defined as the relationship between the fee paid to use the technology and the benefits obtained. venkatesh et al. (2012), in the utaut-2 model, claim that this variable, the cost of technology, influences the use of technology by individuals. in this study, students using distance learning systems were excluded from this variable model because they did not pay the price. habit (ht) ht refers to the automatic behaviour of an individual. limayem et al. (2007) describe the habit of individuals in performing various functions automatically based on their prior learning. when the studies in the literature are examined, it is seen that many studies express that behavioural intention is affected by habit (khan, 2020). the hypothesis regarding the relevance of the habit with behavioural intentions in the use of the distance learning system is presented below: h6a: ht has a positive impact on students' behavioural intentions in using the distance learning system. h6b: ht has a positive impact on students' behaviour using distance learning system. behavioural intention (bi) bi is the tendency of an individual to perform a particular task. bi, an individual's intention to perform a certain task, is included in the utaut-2 model (yılmaz & kavanoz, 2017). in the context of the model used in this study, the hypothesis about bi is presented below: h7: bi has a positive impact on students' behavioural intentions in using the distance learning system. in the literature, there are several studies within utaut-2 in areas such as distance education, especially online learning. for example, kandemir (2020) attempted to explain teachers' use of eba (eğitim bilişim ağı), morpa campus, and okulistik educational environments in the context of utaut-2. diri and açıkgül (2021) also used the utaut-2 model for mathematics learning in their study. in the mentioned study, utaut-2 was used for mobile technologies in mathematics learning. in another study, the utaut-2 model was used to investigate university students' use and adoption of mobile phones (nikolopoulou, gialamas & lavidas, 2020). social networks have also been studied within the utaut-2 model. for example, huang (2018) used the utaut-2 model in his study to explain the use and adoption of social networks by chinese university students. as can be seen, the literature has examined the use of various technologies in education using the utaut-2 model. however, as distance learning systems have recently increased in importance due to the pandemic and new distance education technologies are being challenged, it is of great significance to study distance learning systems in terms of technology use and acceptance. for these reasons, such a study was conducted to uncover students' behaviour in distance education. therefore, this study examined the distance learning systems used during the pandemic period. participants the study was conducted during the fall semester of the 2021-2022 academic year. the participants of the study were 208 undergraduate students studying at a state university in the southeast anatolia 239 region of turkey. the participants volunteered to participate in the study. the research population consists of 1,700 students studying at the college in question and actively using the ubys system. since it was difficult to reach the entire population due to cost and time constraints, the study was conducted with a specific main sample. there are different opinions about the number of samples at the stage of generalising the sample to the population. büyüköztürk et al. (2008) state that variables such as the type of research, the design of the research, and the number of variables to be analysed are important in calculating the sample. oral and çoban (2020), on the other hand, consider it sufficient to reach at least 100 samples for descriptive studies, at least 30 for experimental studies, and at least 50 for correlational studies. in this study, data were collected from a total of 208 students. table 1 shows the distribution of participants by gender and age. table 1. demographic information about the participants variables category f % gender female 124 59.62 male 84 40.38 age ≤ 18 22 10.58 ≥ 19, ≤ 21 153 73.56 ≥ 22 33 15.87 total 208 100 table 1 shows that more than half of the participants (59.62%) were female. the percentage of males was 40.38%. it can be said that there is an unequal distribution by age in the study. it was found that participants were generally between 19 and 21 years old (73.56%). in the active use of distance learning systems, the access to and use of these systems by participants is of great importance. in this regard, information was collected on computer ownership status, daily internet usage time, frequency of distance learning systems use, and experience with computer use. the corresponding results are presented in table 2. table 2. participants' information on technology use variables category f % daily internet usage time < 1h 8 3.85 ≥ 2, ≤ 4h 33 15.87 ≥ 5, ≤ 7h 113 54.33 ≥ 8h 54 25.96 the frequency of distance learning systems use sometimes 48 23.08 medium 132 63.46 very often 28 13.46 computer use experience < 1y 74 35.58 ≥ 2, ≤ 4y 45 21.63 ≥ 5, ≤ 7y 30 14.42 ≥ 8y 59 28.37 computer ownership status yes 119 57.21 no 89 42.79 total 208 100 240 when table 2 is examined, it is seen that 54.33% of the participants use the internet on average five to seven hours per day. in addition, it was observed that most of the participants (63.46%) used distance education systems at a moderate level. it was also found that approximately one in three participants (35.58%) had been using a computer for less than a year. in addition, it was observed that approximately half of the students (57.21%) who participated in the study had computers. data collection instruments the demographic information form and the utaut-2 scale were used for data collection. detailed information on the data collection instruments can be found below. demographic information form the demographic information form was used to obtain various demographic information from the participants. this form asked for information about gender, age, average daily internet usage time, frequency of distance learning systems use, computer use experience, and computer ownership status. utaut-2 scale the utaut-2 scale applied to the participants was developed by venkatesh et al. (2012). the scale was adapted into turkish by baraz et al. (2021). the scale consists of eight factors and 30 items. factors in the scale are: performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, hedonic motivation, habit, and behavioural intention. the scale is a 7-item likert type. the first seven factors used in the scale were rated from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (7). the last factor in the scale, use case, was adapted to the distance education system and was rated from always (1) to never (7). results smartpls 3.3.5 programme was used to analyse the data. ibm spss statistics v20.0 (statistical package for the social sciences) was used to analyse the data from the demographic information form. the partial least squares method of structural equation modeling was used in the testing phase of the model. the values of construct reliability and convergent validity were examined to evaluate the created model. the criteria of convergent validity and discriminant validity were also discussed. for construct reliability, cronbach's alpha (cronbach, 1951), rhoa (dijkstra & henseler, 2015), and composite reliability (hair et al., 2017) values were examined. as shown in table 3, the corresponding values are above 0.70, and the average variance extracted for each construct is above 0.5, as suggested by fornell and larcker (1981) for multivariate constructs. 241 table 3. construct reliability and validity cronbach's alpha rho_a composite reliability average variance extracted (ave) bi 0.813 0.821 0.893 0.739 ee 0.871 0.884 0.910 0.718 fc 0.843 0.846 0.895 0.681 hm 0.911 0.911 0.944 0.850 ht 0.861 0.866 0.906 0.706 pe 0.941 0.948 0.957 0.849 si 0.841 0.841 0.905 0.760 u 0.802 0.812 0.862 0.557 in considering the appropriate structure, discriminant validity was also examined. according to the criteria of fornell and larcker (1981), the evaluation is based on the average variance extracted values located at the top of the column where the square root value is located. the mean-variance values are in bold in each column, as shown in table 4. as also shown in table 4, discriminant validity could not be achieved for some constructs. table 4. fornell-larcker criterion analysis bi ef fc hm ht pe si u bi 0.860 ee 0.820 0.847 fc 0.708 0.663 0.825 hm 0.763 0.733 0.763 0.922 ht 0.774 0.861 0.671 0.792 0.840 pe 0.760 0.808 0.701 0.705 0.732 0.922 si 0.718 0.787 0.845 0.682 0.722 0.806 0.872 u 0.326 0.350 0.361 0.381 0.322 0.285 0.355 0.746 fornell and larcker's (1981) criteria are used to establish the distinctiveness of a model. in addition, the heterotrait-monatrait ratio is also considered a value since it is criticised that the above criteria are not sufficient to show distinctiveness. in a consistent model, the values of the heterotrait-monatrait ratio should be less than 1.00 (henseler, ringle & sarstedt, 2015). as seen in table 5, the corresponding values are below 1.00. 242 table 5. heterotrait-monotrait (htmt) correlation analysis bi ee fc hm ht pe si u bi ee 0.946 fc 0.858 0.765 hm 0.884 0.800 0.867 ht 0.925 0.998 0.782 0.874 pe 0.867 0.880 0.789 0.759 0.810 si 0.864 0.898 0.998 0.779 0.832 0.898 u 0.396 0.404 0.429 0.443 0.366 0.319 0.428 evaluation of the structural model to evaluate the structural model, the values of the goodness-of-fit measures can be considered in the first step. more than one analysis can be based on the results for the goodness-of-fit measures assessed in the confirmatory factor analysis. goodness-of-fit is expressed as the ratio of explained generalised variance to total variance (erkorkmaz et al., 2013). this study examined the srmr and rms theta values to evaluate the goodness-of-fit measures. the srmr value takes values between 0 and 1. when the srmr value approaches zero, it can be said that the value represents a good adaptation (schermelleh-engel, moosbrugger & müller, 2003). the srmr value is expected to be less than 0.08 (hu & bentler, 1998). similarly, the rms theta values were also examined for acceptable model fit. for the goodness-of-fit measure, the rms theta value is expected to be less than 0.12 (henseler et al., 2014). as can be seen in table 6, when the structural model is examined in terms of the goodness-of-fit measures, it can be seen that the srmr values are close to the acceptable value of 0.08, but the rms theta values are far from 0.12. table 6. model fit measures goodness-of-fit measures srmr 0.096 rmstheta 0.223 the coefficients of determination, which is the level of explanation of the variables, were also examined. the r2 coefficient of determination helps determine the extent to which other variables explain a change observed in the variables. it is equal to the square of the correlation coefficient (büyüköztürk, 2002). the results regarding the r2 value, which provides information on the extent to which other variables can explain the variables, are presented in table 7. examination of the rsquared values shows that the degree to which other variables explain behavioural intention is 75%. other variables can explain usage status within the model at 14%. table 7. r square r square bi 0.750 u 0.144 243 compatibility between the elements of the structural model was also investigated. a configuration with 500 iterations and 500 subsamples was chosen to test the hypotheses, as in the smartpls programme. as seen in table 8, some hypotheses were not supported. some hypotheses could not satisfy the condition (p < 0.05). table 8. path coefficients, total effects, and significance levels original sample (o) sample mean (m) standard deviation (stdev) t statistics (|o/stdev|) p values h1 pe -> bi 0.174 0.171 0.084 2.083 0.038 h2 ee -> bi 0.448 0.454 0.099 4.513 0.000 h3 si -> bi -0.124 -0.125 0.098 1.267 0.205 h4a fc -> bi 0.209 0.211 0.096 2.173 0.030 h4b fc -> u 0.236 0.242 0.081 2.906 0.004 h5 hm -> bi 0.190 0.188 0.095 2.010 0.045 h6a ht -> bi 0.059 0.059 0.099 0.600 0.549 h6b ht -> u 0.100 0.104 0.108 0.929 0.353 h7 bi -> u 0.082 0.081 0.099 0.822 0.412 when tables 7 and 8 are evaluated together, pe, ee, fc, and hm explain 75% of behavioural intention. according to the obtained results, pe is an important variable that predicts behavioural intention. according to this result, students believed that the technology they use will be beneficial for them. it was found that ee had a significant impact on explaining behavioural intention. this means that students perceived the technology in question as easy to use and did not put much effort into it. also, fc was identified as a variable that has an influence on explaining behavioural intention. fc means that individuals perceive the available resources and support to perform a behaviour. according to this result, students were satisfied with the available resources when using ubys, and they felt supported. it was found that fc is a variable that influences behavioural intention and predicts individuals' active use of the appropriate technology. consequently, active use of technology is significantly related to available resources and support provided. from the research findings, it was concluded that another variable that explains behavioural intention is hm. the fact that hm is a significant predictor of behavioural intention means that students enjoy and have fun using this technology. students enjoy using the ubys system. the model that resulted from the study is shown in figure 8. table 9 shows the acceptance or rejection status of the hypotheses. 244 figure 8: the structural model with results table 9. hypothesis testing results hypothesis effect p values remarks h1 pe -> bi 0.038 supported h2 ee -> bi 0.000 supported h3 si -> bi 0.205 not supported h4a fc -> bi 0.030 supported h4b fc -> u 0.004 supported h5 hm -> bi 0.045 supported h6a ht -> bi 0.549 not supported h6b ht -> u 0.353 not supported h7 bi -> u 0.412 not supported note: p < 0,05 discussion as a result of the widespread use of internet technologies, e-learning environments have become more important. e-learning environments have gained importance, especially recently, due to the need created by the coronavirus pandemic. courses continue in e-learning environments as educational institutions take a break from face-to-face instruction from time to time due to the pandemic. elearning involves the use of learning management systems for educational purposes, such as course tracking, online course participation and note viewing. the university information management system (ubys) used at the university where the study was conducted can also be considered a learning management system (lms). the lms stands for systems that enable the management of educational content and the systematic continuation of learning. lms 245 allows the individualisation of learning and the monitoring of learners and teachers. ubys, with its automation and management tools, can be considered an lms. in this system, students can follow their courses synchronously or asynchronously, communicate with their classmates, track their homework/projects, and take exams. thus, ubys has a function used in distance education and complements face-to-face instruction. this study aims to evaluate the ubys system within the framework of the utaut-2 model. the model used in the study to represent technology acceptance and usage status of technologies by students has been used previously to evaluate other technologies. similar to this study, lms tools are also examined within the utaut-2 model. it should be noted that various technologies have been assessed using this model in the literature. for example, farooq et al. (2017) studied the lecture capture system using the utaut-2 model. in this study, conducted on 481 samples of business students, it was found that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, price value, hedonic motivation, and habit determine the use and adoption of each technology. in this study, hypotheses were formed about the components that make up the model. the result of the study was that some of the hypotheses were accepted, and others were rejected. the h1 hypothesis was “performance expectancy has a positive impact on students' behavioural intentions in using the distance learning system”. the result of the study was that the h1 hypothesis was supported. the study of several studies on performance expectancy concluded that it is an important predictor of behavioural intentions. for example, dakduk et al. (2018) showed in their research that the most important determinant of behavioural intention is performance expectancy. however, asare et al. (2016) concluded that performance expectancy is not a significant predictor of behavioural intention. on the other hand, yıldız and dinçer (2021) found that performance expectancy was found to have a significant impact on behavioural intention. the study suggests that participants are aware of the benefits of the technologies they use. gharrah and aljaafreh (2020) used the utaut-2 model to investigate students' learning objectives in social networks in jordanian universities. the result of the study was that performance expectancy is among the determinants of behavioural intentions. performance expectancy is the belief of the individual using the technology that the technology will improve their performance. considering the studies in this context, it can conclude that some of the technologies used have an impact on the user's performance, while some technologies do not have a significant impact on performance. the second hypothesis examined in the study is “effort expectancy has a positive impact on students' behavioural intentions in using the distance learning system”. at the end of the study, information was obtained that confirmed this hypothesis. effort expectancy means that users find it easy to use the appropriate technology. the result of the study is that the participants believe that they do not have much difficulty using the corresponding technology. there are research findings in the literature that contradict the results of the study or come to similar conclusions. for example, dakduk et al. (2018) concluded in their study that the variable effort expectancy is an important predictor of behavioural intention. nikolopoulou et al. (2020), on the other hand, concluded that the variable of effort expectancy does not influence behavioural intention. in their study, nikolopoulou et al. (2020) examined mobile phone use among university students using the utaut-2 model. in the study conducted with 540 university students in greece, mobile phone use in college was examined using 246 online tools. the study found that the main predictors of behaviour were habit, performance expectancy, social influence, and hedonic motivation. behavioural intention, facilitating conditions, and habit directly affect use. in their study of social learning, gharrah and aljaafreh (2020) concluded that the variable effort expectancy significantly predicts behavioural intention. the significant effect of effort expectancy on behavioural intention can be explained by assuming that the technologies used are relatively easy to use (yıldız & dinçer, 2021). effort expectancy is the belief that participants will not exert much effort when using the technology. in addition, the study found that there is a significant and inverse correlation between participants' behavioural intentions and effort expectancy. in other words, if participants put a lot of effort into using the technology in question, it will influence their behavioural intentions. the third hypothesis, “social influence has a positive impact on students’ behavioural intentions in using the distance learning system,” was not confirmed in the study. the social influence is expressed in the sharing of technology with friends, colleagues, and the social environment. this study showed that there was no social influence on students' use of the distance education system. gharrah and aljaafreh (2020) concluded that the social influence variable is a significant model predictor. on the other hand, dakduk et al. (2018) found that social influence did not significantly affect behavioural intention. this was due to the fact that the organisations conducted participation in these manager training programmes. nikolopoulou et al. (2020) showed the effect of social influence on behavioural intention. in interpreting this finding, they related it to peer, educator, and parent endorsement of use. yıldız and dinçer (2021), in the related study, found the social influence variable to have no significant effect on behavioural intention. this indicates that participants are not influenced by the opinions and recommendations of others when using the technology in question. thus, it can be seen that social influence can be a determinant of behavioural intention depending on the technology used. one of the conclusions that emerged from this study concerns the facilitating conditions. two hypotheses were made within the model: h4a: “facilitating conditions have a positive impact on students' behavioural intentions in using the distance learning system” and h4b: “facilitating conditions have a positive impact on students' behaviour using distance learning system”. facilitative conditions were important determinants of both behavioural intention and active use. the conclusion is that facilitating conditions significantly impact the model when users believe there is technical and organisational support for using the technology while using it. consequently, participants in this study believed that their technology provided sufficient technical and organisational support. gharrah and aljaafreh (2020) concluded that facilitating conditions do not influence behavioural intentions and usage. in this study, it was found that students' behavioural intentions were not influenced by facilitating conditions. most students had access to computers and internet connections and did not require organisational support to use the technologies. baraz et al. (2021), examined the ecampus system of anadolu university. the study conducted with 7575 students investigated students' behaviour using the utaut-2 model. in the study in which an organisational structure was examined, it was concluded that facilitating conditions were a significant predictor of behavioural intention. kumar and bervell (2019) investigated the use of google classroom for mobile learning in higher education. in this study, using the utaut-2 model with 163 students, the facilitating conditions were found to have no significant effect on behavioural intention and active use. in their study, yıldız and dinçer (2021) examined health professionals' behavioural attitudes toward information technologies within 247 the utaut-2 model. when testing the hypotheses made in the corresponding study, it was found that the facilitating conditions did not affect the behavioural intentions. in the study, the fact that facilitating conditions do not influence behavioural intentions is explained by the lack of support individuals’ experience in using technology. at the same time, organisational or technical deficiencies are eliminated (yıldız & dinçer, 2021). consequently, the impact of facilitating conditions on behavioural intention and active use varies depending on whether the technology is used individually or for an organisational purpose. hedonic motivation is another variable that was examined in this study. this variable, which is not included in the utaut model, was added to the utaut-2 model according to venkatesh et al. (2012). hedonic motivation refers to users' enjoyment of using the technology in question. the hypothesis in the form of h5: “hedonic motivation has a positive impact on students' behavioural intentions in using the distance learning system”, was confirmed as the result of the study. this shows that students enjoy using the distance education system. gharrah and aljaafreh (2020) concluded that hedonic motivation does not affect behavioural intention. in a related study, it was found that the reason is that users are observed by their teachers when they use social networks for educational purposes, which makes the related technology boring. dakduk et al. (2018) stated in their study that one of the factors that did not influence behavioural intention was habits, as they examined executive education programmes. they explained that habits do not influence behavioural intention because it is not a continuous programme. dakduk et al. (2018) also attempted to explain the relationship between hedonic motivation and the duration of the experience. according to this study, the level of hedonic motivation may decrease with increasing user experience. this is because the more the individual uses the technology in question, the more boredom s/he may develop in using the technology, which may affect hedonic motivation. the intention to continue using the technology is directly related to how enjoyable and entertaining the technology in question is. kasaj and xhindi (2016) found in their study that the relationship between hedonic motivation and the behavioural intention was higher in females than in males. in another study, hedonic motivation was found to be the most important variable influencing behavioural intention (yang, 2013). also, yıldız & dinçer (2021) found that hedonic motivation influenced participants' behavioural intentions significantly but in the opposite direction. that is, health professionals were more likely to be dissatisfied when using the appropriate technology than to be satisfied or content. according to the results of the studies, hedonic motivation can be considered an important predictor of the model, depending on age and the technology used. this study examined habit, defined as the automatic performance of certain functions. the study posits two hypotheses about habit: h6a: “habit has a positive impact on students' behavioural intentions in using the distance learning system” and h6b: “habit has a positive impact on students' behaviour using distance learning system”. as a result of the study, the habit variable was found to have no significant effect on behavioural intention or active use. other studies on habit, i.e., the behaviour of performing certain functions automatically based on a prior learning process, have yielded different results. gharrah and aljaafreh (2020) concluded in their study that the habit variable influences behavioural intention. it can be said that the habit variable can adequately explain behavioural intention because students use social networks in their daily lives. dakduk et al. (2018) also concluded in their study that habits do not significantly influence behavioural intention. as stated in the study, it can be concluded that habits do not directly influence behavioural intention but are related to age, gender, 248 and experience (dakduk et al., 2018). venkatesh et al. (2012) found no statistically significant relationship between hedonic motivation and habits and gender, age, and experience, but some studies have found a relationship between these variables. baraz et al. (2021) concluded in their study that habit is an important predictor of behavioural intentions. in the dissertation study with 376 participants, the utaut-2 model was used to examine teacher use in eba, morpakampus, and okulistik (kandemir, 2020). in the corresponding study, habit, social influence, and facilitating conditions were found to be determinants of behavioural intention. in explaining behavioural intention, habit was found to be the most important factor with 36%. another variable whose effects on behavioural intentions were examined is a habit, and the habit was identified as an important predictor of behavioural intentions in the study. habit refers to the automatic and reflexive execution of technology use. this indicates that health professionals are now accustomed to using the relevant information technologies (yıldız & dinçer, 2021). behavioural intention is an individual's willingness to perform a particular task. in the context of this study, some variables predict behavioural intention. behavioural intention is also a predictor of active use. in this context, the “behavioural intention has a positive impact on students' behavioural intentions in using the distance learning system” hypothesis was established, and the accuracy of this hypothesis was tested. as a result of the study, it was found that the corresponding hypothesis was not supported. the study also examined the demographic information of the participants without considering the moderation effect. the demographic information shows that the participants have a relatively heterogeneous structure in terms of gender. this is also important for the results of the study. again, 73.5% of the participants are between 19 and 21 years old. this study, conducted with a young group of participants, has limitations in terms of age. other studies could examine more heterogeneous groups as an age variable. the survey also asked questions to determine the frequency of use of the ubys system or the amount of internet use by participants. when participants' daily internet use was examined, it was found that 54.3% of participants used the internet between five and seven hours per day. some of the components of the model examined in the study could be related to such behaviours of the participants. the frequency of use of the ubys system was also among the questions asked of participants. it appears that participants used ubys to a moderate extent. participants were also asked questions about their experience using a computer and owning a computer. based on the responses to these questions, it is possible to interpret the variables that influence participants' behavioural intentions. conclusion therefore, this study examined the ubys system within the utaut-2 model to understand participants' behavioural intentions. the associated variables explained 75% of the behavioural intentions. behavioural intentions, on the other hand, explained 14% of usage. as a result of the study, a statistically significant model was determined. based on the results, learning management systems that are more likely to be adopted by participants can be developed. at the same time, the results of this study can provide guidance for various researchers. different researchers can contribute to this topic by replicating the results of this study for other technologies and at different sample levels. 249 references akkuş, i̇., & kapıdere, m. (2015). mobile e-learning management systems in distance education. 9th international computer & instructional technologies symposium – icits2015, 20-22 may 2015, sandıklı, turkey. akyürek, m. i̇. (2020). distance education: a literature review. medeniyet eğitim araştırmaları dergisi, 4(1), 1-9. al, u., & madran, o. (2004). web tabanlı uzaktan eğitim sistemleri: sahip olması gereken özellikler ve standartlar. bilgi dünyası, 5(2), 259-271. doi:10.15612/bd.2004.491. altay, ş. (2021). determining the direct and moderator effect of covid-19 risk perception: research over technology acceptance model variables. fiscaoeconomia, 5(3), 902-917. doi:10.25295/fsecon.952399. ameri, a., khajouei, r., ameri, a., & jahani, y. (2020). acceptance of a mobile-based educational application (labsafety) by pharmacy students: an application of the utaut2 model. education and information technologies, 25(1), 419-435. doi:10.1007/s10639-019-09965-5. asare, a., yun-fei, s., & adjei-budu, k. (2016). adoption of e-learning in higher education: expansion of utaut model. european academic research, 3, 13236-13259. baraz, b., atik, e., & atik. e. (2021). examination of the use of learning management system within the scope of technology acceptance model: the case of anadolu university. the black sea journal of social sciences, 13(24), 503-522. doi:10.38155/ksbd.886333. batdi, v., dogan, y., & talan, t. (2021). effectiveness of online learning: a multi-complementary approach research with responses from the covid-19 pandemic period. interactive learning environments. doi:10.1080/10494820.2021.1954035. bower, m., dewitt, d., & lai, j. w. (2020). reasons associated with preservice teachers’ intention to use immersive virtual reality in education. british journal of educational technology, 51(6), 2215-2233. doi:10.1111/bjet.13009. büyüköztürk, ş. (2002). factor analysis: basic concepts and using to development scale. educational administration: theory and practice, 32(32), 470-483. büyüköztürk, ş., kılıç-çakmak, e., akgün, ö., karadeniz, ş., & demirel, f. (2008). bilimsel araştırma yöntemleri (29. baskı). pegem akademi. carswell, a. d., & venkatesh, v. (2002). learner outcomes in an asynchronous distance education environment. international journal of human-computer studies, 56(5), 475-494. doi:10.1006/ijhc.2002.1004. cronbach, l. j. (1951). coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests. psychometrika, 16(3), 297-334. doi:10.1007/bf02310555. çakıroğlu, ü. (2016). öğretim teknolojilerinin öğrenme ortamlarına entegrasyonu. in ç. kürşat & g. yüksel (eds.), öğretim teknolojilerinin temelleri: teoriler, araştırmalar, eğilimler (pp. 571-588). pegem akademi. dakduk, s., santalla-banderali, z., & van der woude, d. (2018). acceptance of blended learning in executive education. sage open, 8(3), 1-16. doi:10.1177/2158244018800647. davis, f. d., bagozzi, r. p., & warshaw, p. r. (1989). user acceptance of computer technology: a comparison of two theoretical models. management science, 35(8), 982-1003. doi:10.1287/mnsc.35.8.982. demir, k. (2006). rogers’ theory of the diffusion of innovations and online course registration. educational administration: theory and practice, 47(47), 367-392. deperlioğlu, ö., & ergün, e. (2011). uzaktan eğitim uygulamaları ve öğretim yönetim sistemleri. xiii. akademik bilişim konferansı bildirileri, 2-4 february, inonu university, malatya, turkey. 250 dijkstra, t. k., & henseler, j. (2015). consistent partial least squares path modeling. mis quarterly, 39(2), 297316. diri, e., & açıkgül, k. (2021). investigation of mobile technology acceptance levels of high school students in mathematics learning. educational technology theory and practice, 11(2), 494-516. doi:10.17943/etku.943357. erkorkmaz, ü., etikan, i̇., demir, o., özdamar, k., & sanisoğlu, s. y. (2013). doğrulayıcı faktör analizi ve uyum indeksleri. turkiye klinikleri journal of medical sciences, 33(1), 210-223. doi:10.5336/medsci.2011-26747. farooq, m. s., salam, m., jaafar, n., fayolle, a., ayupp, k., radovic-markovic, m., & sajid, a. (2017). acceptance and use of lecture capture system (lcs) in executive business studies: extending utaut2. interactive technology and smart education, 14(4), 329-348. doi:10.1108/itse-06-2016-0015. fishbein, m., & ajzen, i. (1975). belief, attitude, intention, and behavior: an introduction to theory and research. journal of business venturing, 5, 177-i89. fornell, c., & larcker, d. f. (1981). evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. journal of marketing research, 18(1), 39-50. doi:10.1177/002224378101800104. gharrah, a. s. a., & aljaafreh, a. (2021). why students use social networks for education: extension of utaut2. jotse: journal of technology and science education, 11(1), 53-66. doi:10.3926/jotse.1081. hair, j. f., hult, g. t. m., ringle, c. m., & sarstedt, m. (2017). a primer on partial least squares structural equation modeling (pls-sem). sage publications. 211-213. hennessy, s., ruthven, k., & brindley, s. (2005). teacher perspectives on integrating ict into subject teaching: commitment, constraints, caution, and change. journal of curriculum studies, 37(2), 155-192. henseler, j., dijkstra, t. k., sarstedt, m., ringle, c. m., diamantopoulos, a., straub, d. w., & calantone, r. j. (2014). common beliefs and reality about pls: comments on rönkkö and evermann (2013). organizational research methods, 17(2), 182-209. doi:10.1177/1094428114526928. henseler, j., ringle, c. m., & sarstedt, m. (2015). a new criterion for assessing discriminant validity in variancebased structural equation modeling. journal of the academy of marketing science, 43(1), 115-135. doi:10.1007/s11747-014-0403-8. hu, l. t., & bentler, p. m. (1998). fit indices in covariance structure modeling: sensitivity to underparameterized model misspecification. psychological methods, 3(4), 424-453. doi:10.1037/1082-989x.3.4.424. huang, x. (2018). social media use by college students and teachers: an application of utaut2. [doctoral dissertation, walden university]. jung, i., & lee, j. (2020). a cross-cultural approach to the adoption of open educational resources in higher education. british journal of educational technology, 51(1), 263-280. doi:10.1111/bjet.12820. kandemir, a., (2020). explanation of teachers' use of eba, morpa campus, okulistik educational environments with unified theory of acceptance and use of technology model (utaut-2). [master’s thesis, gaziantep university]. kasaj, a., & xhindi, t. (2016). predicting factors of use in a hedonic volitional setting, by using utaut2 model. journal of international scientific publications, 10, 558-571. khan, z. u. (2020). consumers' behavioral intentions toward social media: a case of pakistani market. [doctoral dissertation, yaşar university]. khechine, h., lakhal, s., pascot, d., & bytha, a. (2014). utaut model for blended learning: the role of gender and age in the intention to use webinars. interdisciplinary journal of e-learning and learning objects, 10(1), 3352. 251 kılınç, m. (2015). the effectiveness of distance education a research on i̇nönü university distance education centre of theology degree completion program example. [doctoral dissertation, inonu university]. kumar, j. a., & bervell, b. (2019). google classroom for mobile learning in higher education: modelling the initial perceptions of students. education and information technologies, 24(2), 1793-1817. doi:10.1007/s10639018-09858-z. limayem, m., hirt, s. g., & cheung, c. m. k. (2007). how habit limits the predictive power of intention: the case of information systems continuance. mis quarterly, 31(4), 705–737. doi:10.2307/25148817. nikolopoulou, k., gialamas, v., & lavidas, k. (2020). acceptance of mobile phone by university students for their studies: an investigation applying utaut2 model. education and information technologies, 25(5), 41394155. doi:10.1007/s10639-020-10157-9. oral, b., & çoban, a. (2020). kuramdan uygulamaya eğitimde bilimsel araştırma yöntemleri (1. baskı). pegem akademi. rogers, e. m. (2003). diffusion of innovations (5th ed.). free press. sahin, i. (2006). detailed review of rogers' diffusion of innovations theory and educational technology-related studies based on rogers' theory. turkish online journal of educational technology-tojet, 5(2), 14-23. schermelleh-engel, k., moosbrugger, h., & müller, h. (2003). evaluating the fit of structural equation models: tests of significance and descriptive goodness-of-fit measures. methods of psychological research online, 8(2), 23-74. şendurur, p., & arslan, s. (2017). investigation of changes in factors affecting the technology integration in education. mehmet akif ersoy university journal of education faculty, 43, 25-50. doi:10.21764/efd.21927. usluel, y. k., & mazman, s. g. (2010). eğitimde yeniliklerin yayılımı, kabulü ve benimsenmesi sürecinde yer alan öğeler: bir içerik analizi çalışması. çukurova university faculty of education journal, 3, 60-74. venkatesh, v., & davis, f. d. (2000). a theoretical extension of the technology acceptance model: four longitudinal field studies. management science, 46(2), 186-204. doi:10.1287/mnsc.46.2.186.11926. venkatesh, v., morris, m. g., davis, g. b., & davis, f. d. (2003). user acceptance of information technology: toward a unified view. mis quarterly, 27(3), 425-478. doi:10.2307/30036540. venkatesh, v., thong, j. y. l., & xu, x. (2012). consumer acceptance and use of information technology: extending the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology. mis quarterly, 36(1), 157-178. doi:10.2307/41410412. yang, s. (2013). understanding undergraduate students' adoption of mobile learning model: a perspective of the extended utaut2. journal of convergence information technology, 8(10), 969-979. doi:10.4156/jcit.vol8.issue10.118. yıldız, y. k., & dinçer, h. (2021). investigation of health professionals’ behavioral attitude regarding information technologies and innovations with the utaut-2 theory. gümüşhane university journal of health sciences, 10(4), 656-666. doi:10.37989/gumussagbil.904912. yılmaz, m. b., & kavanoz, s. (2017). the validity and reliability of turkish version of unified theory of acceptance and use of technology-2. international periodical for the languages, literature and history of turkish or turkic, 12(32), 127-146. doi:10.7827/turkishstudies.12064. zulherman, z. n., pangarso, a., & zain, f. m. (2021). factor of zoom cloud meetings: technology adoption in the pandemic of covid-19. international journal of evaluation and research education, 816-825. doi:10.11591/ijere.v10i3.21726. 252 authors: yusuf kalinkara is a phd student at fırat university, institute of educational sciences, department of computer education and instructional technologies, and works as a lecturer at gaziantep islamic science and technology university, department of information technologies. his interests are metaverse, educational technologies, blockchain, and nft. email: yusufkalinkara@gmail.com or https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6077-9800 tarik talan is an assistant professor in the department of computer engineering at gaziantep islam science and technology university. he received his bsc in computer education and instructional technology from inonu university in 2005, his msc in educational technology from suleyman demirel university in 2014, and his phd in the department of informatics, istanbul university in 2018. his research areas include blended learning, distance education, augmented reality, meta-analysis, meta-thematic analysis, bibliometric analysis, and the use of social media in education. he has published his academic works in national and international journals. email: ttalan46@hotmail.com or https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5371-4520 cite this paper as: kalinkara, y., & talan, t. (2022). rethinking evaluating the use of distance learning systems in the context of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology-2. journal of learning for development, 9(2), 229-252. microsoft word olcott.docx issn: 2311-1550 2020, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 494-496 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. book review transforming universities with digital distance education: the future of formal learning mark nichols new york routledge, 2020, pp. 167 isbn 978-1-138-61471-0 (hbk) isbn 978-1-138-61470-3 (pbk) isbn 978-0-429-46395-2 (ebk) transforming universities with digital distance education: the future of formal learning arrives at a timely demarcation point to consider the future for digital universities. the author provides an insightful and occasionally provocative analysis of how universities might reframe what they do, how they do it, and most importantly how they can best serve students using digital distance education in both traditional higher education and vocational and technical education. indeed, the reader will not agree with many of the assertions made in this book. at the same time, this book will make you think, which is exactly what education should do according to the author – make the student think differently about the world – and be engaged, enlightened and empowered. this book focuses on commonwealth country universities, specifically drawing upon the uk, australia and new zealand. the references, case studies and examples are largely, but not exclusively, from these three countries. indeed, institutional transformation and change require staff, money and time and these all are part of the resource continuum. this could be construed as meaning the dde model is suited primarily for well-resourced institutions in developed countries. this is not the case. the dde model can be incrementally adapted, hence making it feasible for institutions to progress their distance learning enterprises in developing nations even if they are in the early stages of development. the commonwealth focus is not a major limitation, however, having some comparative examples from outside the commonwealth as well as from developing commonwealth nations would have been very useful to the reader. a discussion of us higher education, given it is the standard for quality and excellence globally, would also have been a good addition for the reader as a comparative metric with other institutional models and approaches, particularly those dual mode universities that balance campus and distance education missions. the digital distance education (dde) university built around accessibility, scalability and personalisation is the primary goal of this book. the dde university, in fact, should engage, enlighten 495 and empower its students. the paradox here, however, is subtle yet provocative: access, scalability and personalisation mean different things to different educators and as noted they require sustainable resources. access in the developing context usually means basic needs, technology and then university programmes. scalability has been the mantra of open universities and is equated with serving tens of thousands of students. conversely, scaling with de is not a factor in us dual mode universities primarily due to funding and state control structures that make it virtually impossible to scale big numbers. the heart and soul of this book are chapters 4-7. chapter 4 presents the dde model and reflects a synthesis of the foundations of access, scale and personalisation in concert with the goals of engagement, enlightenment and empowerment presented earlier. the author argues the dde university should be built around eleven (11) core elements. these include: consistency, data analytics driven, digitally agile, evidence-based, expert taught, flexible, learning-activity oriented, ai assisted, relational, success-driven and systematic. the reader may note these eleven characteristics or building blocks are not new. all are used across the higher education spectrum in different types of institutions and different contexts. what dr. nichols has done is astutely bring these together in one model designed to create a new composite model for the dde university. the reader will find this chapter to be an exciting shift in focus targeted at redesigning open and distance learning enterprises. the author argues that a dde university should include all eleven components. this position will likely evoke diverse perspectives and vantage points. chapter 5 is a perfect change of pace where four module narratives are provided for two students, a tutor and a lead faculty member and describes their roles and self-assessments of learning and teaching experiences. these portraits are composites take from students and staff at the open university. chapters 6-7 detail key teaching roles, including the lead academic, learning designer, tutor and student support team. it is clear this chapter builds upon the open university’s globally recognised team approach for designing and developing open education. the final chapter focus is on operating models and organisational change, both areas that are incredibly complex and very contextual and culturally specific. the real disconnect for this final chapter is it could have summarised and emphasised the key elements and themes of the book targeted directly at the dde model. the most conspicuous omission from this book is a discussion about leadership. whether transforming an open or dual mode university or leading change towards a future vision, leadership plays and even more important role than technology. this is also where a discussion of leading change and organisational models could have been included, perhaps in two chapters. change models are predicated on visionary and creative leadership. change initiatives, more often than not, fail. in summary, my final critique recognises that despite some limitations, this work makes a valuable contribution to the field. dr. nichols has presented a sound argument for reframing what we mean and need in a distance education university. he knowingly articulates his focus on access, scale and personalisation with the expectation that there will be debate, critique and resistance to his postulates. 496 indeed, the most important contribution of this book is the author has expanded and reframed the dialogue of what it means to be a distance learning university. even the novice institution new to distance education can take the basics of the model, the delineation of teaching roles, and module development to begin the process of learning for development, particularly and rightly in developing countries. this book is a refreshing and candid analysis of some of the key issues facing distance education institutions. the timing for this book could not be better to stimulate much needed discussion and debate across the profession. leaders and dde practitioners committed to positioning their institutions for the future will find this book a valuable resource to compete and thrive in the new normal for digital distance education. reviewed by: professor don olcott, jr., frsa, is a global odl consultant based in romania. he holds appointments at the university of maryland global campus (usa), oldenburg university (germany) and as honorary professor of odl at the university of south africa (unisa). email: don.olcott@gmail.com cite this paper as: olcott, d. j. (2020). book review: transforming universities with digital distance education: the future of formal learning. journal of learning for development, 7(3), 494-496. microsoft word shala.docx issn: 2311-1550 2023, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 122-133 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. ict and internet usage among kosovar students: the impact of trends on achievement in the pisa scales arif shala1 and albulene grajcevci2 1aab college, prishtina, kosovo 2university isa boletini, mitrovice, kosovo abstract: the current analysis aims to research the impact of ict usage on students’ achievement in the 2018 pisa assessment, specifically achievement in mathematics, science and reading scales. in this assessment, a total of 5,058 randomly selected students from 224 schools across kosovo took part in the study. in addition, to the subscales assessing reading, mathematics and science achievement, participants also completed a variety of questionnaires developed by oecd to assess perceptions, socioeconomic factors and classroom/school contexts, among others. current study analysis reveals the link between achievement and ict usage among students, such as using computers for research, reading news, learning something new, and reading emails, among others. in a developing country where the achievement gap between students is increasing rapidly it is crucial to understand how access to resources hinders equity. results indicate that access to the internet and computers at home links to higher achievement. however, kosovar students tend to use technology and the internet mainly to chat with friends, and significantly less for learning something new or for doing homework. gender differences are evident, with female students reporting a lower online presence. in conclusion, kosovar students use computers and the internet mainly for entertainment and not for learning, which suggests that achievement cannot be attributed to ict access and/or use. keywords: ict, internet, pisa performance, kosovo. introduction digital skills are becoming more and more important for learning in the current century, with online learning being the most important upcoming trend in knowledge delivery (finn, 2002). this new form of learning has been accredited for its power to transform education (dziuban et al., 2005; garrison & kanuka, 2004; graham & robison, 2007), as well as its unlimited implementation across versatile settings and domains (bonk et al., 2006; picciano & seaman, 2009). research on the impact of icts in teaching, learning and performance has not been scarce as a wide body of literature exists. the initial studies generally focused on the use of computers but during the years the focus has shifted to the impact of activities such as usage of the internet, blogs, wikis and online platforms, to name just a few. as the focus of the studies was mixed, so were the results of the studies. studies have come to both conclusions, that icts impact learning and performance, as well as the application of ict in schools does not influence learning and performance in students (au-yongoliveira et al, 2018; ausbusson et al., 2014; sherman et al., 2010). while research is far from conclusive, the clear advantage of technology is that it enables students to access educational materials and resources online at any time that is suitable for them. the first issue 123 raised here is that technology can also hinder learning by attracting attention to online games or chats, thus distracting learning. similarly, the use of ict in learning can also reduce significantly the creativity of learners, since the application of ict uses a set of acceptable responses/behaviours (halverson et al., 2012; livingson & condie, 2006). considering existing evidence, the question is to what extent, if at all, ict use impacts achievement in domains such as reading, math and science. the study of fuchs and woessman (2004) reported that there is a positive correlation between performance in pisa and the availability of computers in school settings. the study of coates et al. (2004), reported that across three universities students performed 15% higher when they had a face-to-face interaction compared to those who learned only online. similarly, the study of rouse et al. (2004) discovered that software programmes designed to enhance language and reading literacy skills, did not lead to language acquisition or the improvement of reading literacy skills as expected. another study that researched the impact of modes of learning on students who attended statistics and managerial economics classes, discovered that students who had a traditional learning setting performed 14.1% higher compared to students who learned only online. the mode of learning on the other hand, did not significantly affect performance and learning in the managerial economics class (anstine & skidmore, 2005). education systems across world are expected to prepare students for a globalised society (livingston, 2001), at the heart of which lies the potential of information and communication technologies to shape learning and achievement (21st century literacy summit, 2002) at a time when research evidence is yet inconclusive. many supporters of such technologies list the ways in which such development leads to more effective teaching and learning (mcguinness, 1999). evidently, research studies maintain that such advances make learners more active as well as enhance their thinking skills (livingston et al., 2004). ict will also enable teachers to create powerful teaching strategies as well as enhance their professional development. current studies report that students and teachers are gaining ever increasing access to technologies including but not limited to the internet, laptops, mobile phones and interactive whiteboards (condie et al., 2005; et al., 2002). the issue with ict application in schools is that research consistently reports mixed implications (fraillon et al., 2014; escueta et al., 2017). the findings from pisa also follow this line of reasoning — using ict in the classroom does not lead to higher performance in pisa scales. the one remaining argument is that using icts in the classroom will ultimately impact the time the teacher has at his/her disposal, what has to be taught as well as what methodologies are used to teach, and it is these variables that undeniably shape achievement in students (scherff & piazza, 2008; schmidt & maier, 2009). researching the impact of ict in learning demands researchers not only understand how often and what types of ict students used but also what strategies are used in teaching and learning. students’ digital skills are increased by including competency-based learning in curricula (european commission, 2013). in order to address this need, education systems are not anymore teaching ict skills in one subject, rather, they are expanding digital literacy learning over many subjects and years (european commission, 2013). this makes ict skills the skills that are needed in many subjects but the learning of such skills is a topic on its own. considering the important impact of ict skills on learning, pisa 2021 assessment will measure ict literacy as a sole domain. the idea is to assess ict literacy, more specifically what competence should students have and how these competencies should 124 be assessed. pisa defines ict literacy as “the interest, attitude and ability of individuals to appropriately use digital technology and communication tools to access, manage, integrate and evaluate information, construct new knowledge and communicate with others in order to participate effectively in society” (lennon et al., 2003, p. 8). research studies link student achievement with the quality of tasks assigned by the teacher (e.g., education queensland, 2002; national council of mathematics, 2000; newmann et al., 1996; snape & fox-turnbull, 2013). evidently there is a growing number of research studies that explore the application of learning technologies by teachers (e.g., see ertmer et al., 2012; mueller et al., 2008). teachers on a daily basis decide what technologies to use based on how these technologies foster student learning (halverson et. al, 2012; livingston & condie, 2006). teachers make such choices based on their beliefs, self-efficacy and attitude towards learning technologies (ertmer et al., 2012; mueller et al., 2008) as well as their competence in it (voogt & knezek, 2008). nevertheless, somekh (2008) argues that the responsibility for using technology in teaching and learning remains with the schools. schools ought to encourage teachers to use technology innovation in their teaching (livingston & condie, 2010) and what decides the application of technologies in learning are the perceptions of how useful as well as user friendly such technologies are (davis, 1989). the application of technologies in teaching has been reported to result in higher satisfaction, and motivation as well as efficiency but also to increase interaction and flexibility (british educational communications and technology agency, 2008; kennewell et al., 2008; smith et al., 2005). the use of technologies in some studies has been linked to higher attention, concentration and reflection as well as more collaboration (kennewell & beauchamp, 2007). there are also researchers that maintain that learning technologies do nothing more than reinforce traditional instruction (higgins 2005, schuck & kearney, 2008). nonetheless, the majority of researchers maintain that technology has changed teaching and learning approaches across schools (livingston & condie, 2010). icts in education have been evaluated by pisa as well. firstly, students in most countries have access to ict, they have the internet at home and school and these practices have only expanded since the 2015 pisa. in the pisa assessment of 2003, 57% of students participating in the pisa assessment had the internet at home, while this number increased to 92% in the 2015 assessment. by 2015 roughly 91% of students participating in the assessment had the internet in school (lorenceau et al., 2019). considering such developments, it is no surprise that students nowadays spend more time online while they are at home as well as while they are in school. as the internet becomes more readily available, the use of the internet by students is increasing as well. an example of such an enormous increase is the country of costa rica where students in 2012 spent 19 hours online, but in 2015 spent 37 hours online, a considerable increase of 18 hours per week. on average, in oecd countries in 2015, students reported spending 2.7 hours more online compared to 2012. the increasing trend of internet usage is not showing any signs of decrease (lorenceau et al., 2019). according to pisa data students in taipei spent 7.7 hours more online in 2015 than they did in 2012; belgian students spent 7.3 hours more; and students in austria and spain spent 6.3 hours more online in 2015 compared to 2012 (lorenceau et al., 2019). on average, data from the 2012 and 2015 assessments indicate that across all oecd countries the hours students spent online have increased from 21 to 29 hours per week, an overall increase of 8 hours per week (oecd, 2018). the issue with increased time spent online is that, while students gain 125 access to more opportunities, they also become more exposed towards possible risks (hooft graafland, 2018). according to hooft graafland, 2018), when students go online they can gain access to online classes, as well as learn more about health, identity and any other issue that may be of relevance to them. according to oecd (2018) students who spend more time online are the disadvantaged students, and such exposure can lead to students not being content with their lives, while also exposing them to dangerous practices such as violence and online bullying to name some (lorenceau et al., 2019). the study of angrist and lavy (2002) on the impact of computers in elementary and middle school students’ learning indicated that using computers in learning and teaching did not lead to higher scores. in fact, 4th grade students had higher mathematics scores when they attended schools that did not use computers, as compared to students who did attend schools that used computers in teaching and learning. on a similar note, goolsbee and guryan (2002) reported that students’ achievement was not increased in schools which invested in internet connections, instead an increase in the use of the internet by students was reported. in the netherlands, investments in software and computers have not resulted in enhanced student achievement; instead, they have negatively impacted the learning of language and mathematics (leuven et. al, 2004). the study of benjerjee et al. (2004) conducted in poor urban areas in india discovered that the use of mathematics software in schools did increase mathematics skills, while it did not have a positive impact on other skills or subjects. similarly, the study of machin et al. (2006) on the impact of ict in student performance in the years 1999-2003 reported that the use of icts had a positive impact on student performance. the study of spiezia (2014) reported that students who used computers more performed better in pisa, this evidently was true across all countries. the differences were larger and significant between students who used a computer every day and those who did so only once or twice a week. in countries such as norway and czech republic, students who used a computer once or twice a week had 40 points more than students who used a computer less than that. furthermore, students who use the computer every day in the case of chile and the czech republic performed 70 to 51 points higher than students who used the computer once or twice a week. in countries such as norway, portugal, croatia and hungary the difference in performance was 40 points, while in austria, belgium, italy, the netherlands, spain and lithuania the difference was 35 points. the issue of using ict in education is a very important topic in developing countries such as kosovo. it is very often the case that failures in education reforms are attributed to lack of such resources. this trend is not unique to kosovo, since a study of oecd conducted in 2010 reported that investments in technology are pouring in because educators evidently believe that schools will use such technologies and they will eventually be of benefit (spiezia, 2014). furthermore, in a time when achievement gaps between students are rapidly increasing it is important to understand that in a developing country context, not having access to ict resources does in fact translate into lower achievement. in kosovo, large achievement disparities are evident between students in high resource schools and students attending low resource schools. this achievement gap amounted to one full academic year in the 2015 pisa assessment in mathematics, science and reading, and in the 2018 pisa assessment the achievement gap increased to 2.3 academic years between these groups of students (shala, et al., 2021). to that end, it is important to understand in a developing country context how ict resources link to student achievement. 126 the objective and hypotheses while there may be considerable research studies conducted abroad, no research study exists in the link between ict usage and kosovar students. in order to address this research gap, the current study researches the ict usage trends among kosovar students, such as using computers for chatting, research information, reading news, learning something new, and reading emails, among others. furthermore, the study explores gender differences in usage trends, and to explore if gender plays a role in such trends. finally, the study researches the impact on performance of gender, internet access and access to computers to complete homework. considering the existing literature, the current study addresses the impact of ict skills and resources in the performance of kosovar students in pisa. the study researches the trends among the online presence of kosovar students in order to understand their impact on achievement. h1. students who have a computer they can use for schoolwork will outperform students who do not. h2. there is a significant positive correlation between having access to the internet and performance in pisa. h3. there are gender differences in using computers and the internet. h4. students will use computers and the internet mainly for activities other than learning. methods respondents current research makes use of the pisa data explorer available on the website of the organization for economic co-operation and development (oecd pisa explorer, 2018). the online dataset provides information on all variables for all countries participating in the pisa assessment. in the case of this publication only the data for kosovo were analysed. in 2018, 5,058 students from 224 schools participated in the assessment, representing 25,739 students at the age of 15 in kosovo. procedure during 2018 across 224 schools in kosovo, students were randomly selected to participate in the pisa study. instead of the paper and pencil version of the pisa 2015, pisa 2018 was a computer-based assessment for kosovar students. once the data have become available, oecd provides data sets that can be downloaded by everyone but it also provides a data explorer that enables researchers to directly conduct analysis on the oecd website on their selected variables (oecd pisa explorer, 2018). for the present analysis the online pisa data explorer was used. the data explorer allows researchers to conduct several statistical procedures such as t-tests and anova and obtain p-values. the analyses were done in the pisa data explorer which enables researchers to select variables and conduct tests on their relation to pisa results. the study used the following variables: internet access, access to computers, using computers and the internet to read emails, chat online, read news, learn something new and to search for practical tips. the hypotheses of this study are built on the existing literature. to that end we expect to find a significant positive correlation between student 127 performance in reading literacy, mathematics and science on the one hand, and computer usage trends on the other. instrument current research makes use of the pisa data explorer available on the website of the organization for economic co-operation and development (oecd pisa explorer, 2018). the online dataset provides information on all variables for all countries participating in the pisa assessment. in the case of this publication only the data for kosovo were analysed. the subscale used in this study is the home possessions subscale as well as the internet presence and usage subscales. results in terms of gender differences, female students outperformed boys in the reading scale and the science scale. the difference in performance in the reading literacy scale was 26 points, a difference that was significant p < 0.00. in addition, female students outperformed male students by six points in science, a difference which was also significant p < 0.01. the only scale in which male students performed higher than female students was the mathematics scale — four points higher — but this difference was not significant p > 0.05. students who had a link to the internet at home, performed higher in all achievement scales compared to students who had no link to the internet. the difference was five points in reading literacy, 44 points in mathematics and 36 points in science. in addition, students who had access to a computer at home to use for schoolwork, outperformed students who did not have a computer by five points in reading literacy, 16 points in mathematics and, finally, by 16 points in science. table 1: pisa performance of kosovar students according to gender and home possessions reading literacy mathematics science female 366 364 368 male 340 368 362 a link to the internet yes 358 371 370 no 353 327 334 a computer you can use for schoolwork yes 358 371 370 no 353 355 356 when asked how often they read e-mails 2,152 students which is roughly half of the participants, responded that they did not know what e-mails were or they had never read e-mails. a large number of participants, more specifically 1,262 students reported that they read e-mails several times a month, 812 said that they did so several times a week and, finally, 438 students reported that they read emails several times a day. more than half of the participants reported chatting online several times a day (n = 2,707). students also reported using chat several times a week, more specifically 823 students did so. considering this number, 76% of the participants used chatting online every day or several times a week. this is a huge contrast to reading e-mails online, when only 27% did so every day or several times a week. online chat was used several times a month by 514 students, never or almost never by 445, and only 129 reported not knowing what it was. similar to using the internet for chatting versus checking e-mails, 46% of the participants did not know what e-mails were or never 128 checked them. in contrast, only 12% of the participants did not know what online chats were or never used them. table 2: frequency of internet presents of kosovar students when asked if they read online news, 1,060 students reported that they read news many times a day, 1,336 reported that they read news several times a week, 1,042 participants read the news several times a month, 976 never or almost never read the news and, finally, 192 reported that they did not know what this was. when asked about how often they searched online for something new 1,071 students reported doing so every day, 1,663 searched online several times a week, 1,092 searched online several times a month. in contrast 623 reported that they never or almost never searched online for new things and, finally, 195 students did not know what searching online was. to elaborate, 17% of kosovar students never searched online for new information. only 657 students reported that they participated in online groups or forums several times a day, and a similar number, 361 students, did not know what this was. finally, the majority of students searched online for practical information several times a week or several times a month, which was 54% of all participants, only 827 searched online several times a day and, finally, 24% never searched online for the new information. table 3: frequency of internet presence of kosovar students according to gender i don’t know what this is never or almost never several tmes a month several times a week several times a day female male female male female male female male female male reading emails 314 492 789 557 621 641 393 419 166 272 chat online: whatsapp and messenger 36 93 206 239 247 267 415 408 1376 1331 reading online news 60 138 536 440 490 552 704 632 487 573 search information online to learn something new 56 139 272 351 551 541 900 763 515 556 online forums and groups 141 220 866 647 597 554 434 514 247 410 search for practical information (tips, recipes, etc.) 86 178 515 505 707 611 632 586 360 467 i don’t know what this is never or almost never several times a month several times a week several times a day reading emails 806 1346 1262 812 438 chat online: whatsapp and messenger 129 445 514 823 2707 reading online news 198 976 1042 1336 1060 search information online to learn something new 195 623 1092 1663 1071 online forums and groups 361 1513 1151 948 657 search for practical information (tips, recipes, etc.) 264 1020 1318 1218 827 129 in terms of gender differences, male students reported that they read e-mails more often than female students, the same trend is visible across all measures, with male students reporting more online presence compared to female students. understanding gender differences is important primarily because gender differences are evident in pisa studies (sälzer, 2021), and exploring how girls and boys differ in their use of ict resources could explain these achievement differences. discussion and conclusion recently researchers and policy makers have increased their attention to the impact of information and communication technologies (ict) on achievement and performance. to that end, a review of current understanding in the domain reveals that policy makers are rather enthusiastic about the impact of ict to learning and achievement, while researchers on the other hand have not been able to find enough evidence to support the enthusiasm of policy makers (spiezia, 2014). the current analysis also reveals that in a developing country’s context while students who had access to computers and internet did perform higher that those who did not have access, students mainly used such resources for entertainment and not learning. the results obtained from the pisa dataset reveal that kosovar students, tended to use computers and the internet mainly for chatting, the number of students who used such resources decreased in cases of reading email, doing homework or learning something new. interestingly enough, the trend remained the same for female students as well, however they reported lower usage of computers and the internet for all variables. while female students reported lower internet presence, in the meantime female students outperformed male students in the reading literacy scale as well as the science scale. in both cases the differences were significant. changes and advancements in technology have shaped the manner of not only how we interact with one another and communicate, but also how we evolve and learn (gonçalves et al., 2016; moreira et al., 2016). having access to the internet has made individuals connect to one another, become technologically fluent and has raised their global awareness (jordan, 2016). the changes in technology and young learners, have made the use of ict in education necessary, while this has also contributed to the issue of knowledge management. the use of technology in teaching, it is argued, makes students more focused than when they are in class (fonseca et al., 2014), while also making them feel challenged. in the meantime there is also evidence from 35 countries that there is a negative correlation between the use of digital devices and student achievement in pisa scales (sälzer, 2021). in kosovo, however there is a lack of education software and tools in the national language and this may have contributed to students not being able to use ict resources for learning. access to such technologies has led to the belief that icts contribute to education, as governments have developed online learning platforms, mostly in mathematics and science, in order to promote student learning and enhance the effectiveness of learning. these platforms include not only texts but also simulations and animations. such platforms go one step further by enabling not only teacherbased assessment but also self-assessment, which allows students to check their learning (livingston & condie, 2010). the study by condie et al. (2005) indicates that, due to the inclusion of ict in schools, scottish students were able to use the internet and use e-mail as well as write. while the presence of technologies is growing across education systems, the understanding of teachers on how to use this technology to increase learning should also grow. enabling students to 130 learn independently online and then incorporate this learning into classroom learning is the new challenge teachers face (oliveira et al., 2018). education technologies have the power to reshape the relationship between teachers and students, with the latter becoming knowledge creators as opposed to passive recipients of knowledge and information from teachers (livingston & condie, 2004) this change in roles will require students to take responsibility for their learning, while teachers will have to adjust from their role as the sole providers of knowledge to leaders of the learning process (oliveira et al., 2018). evidently, teachers need to learn how to restructure the relationship with students, how to develop online learning environments that enable students to learn on their own as well as reflect on their learning, and teachers will also need to teach students how to connect different forms of learning as well as previous knowledge to the newly acquired one. failure to adopt any of these roles leads to teachers withdrawing from the experience (halverson et. al, 2012; livingson & condie, 2006). in conclusion, large achievement gaps among categories of students in kosovo may provide a picture of a largely inequitable education system. in this regard the common understanding is that such differences may be due to a lack of resources such as computers and the internet at school and at home. in a first review of results this may well become a main argument, since students who have access to computers and the internet at home had higher achievement in all pisa scales, namely reading literacy, mathematics and science. students who had access to the internet at home and who had a computer to do their homework on, were the ones who also had higher achievements in all pisa scales. this may easily contribute to policy makers emphasising the need to equip schools with computers in an attempt to drive achievement of all students and in the meantime ensure equitability. however, a deeper analysis of pisa data reveals that it is important to understand two issues: first how such resources are used by learners and, secondly, in what ways can such resources be used to ensure learning. in regard to the issue of how ict resources are used by students in kosovo, the analysis reveals that computers and the internet are mainly used for leisure and learning. this then raises the issue of how to ensure that such resources are truly used for learning, and in the case of kosovo this may then link to the development of education tools and software in the national language and training teachers to actually use these resources in their teaching. evidently, in developing countries, equity in education is not secured by making resources available, instead it largely depends on changing perceptions and practices. references angrist, j., & lavy, v. (2002). new evidence on classroom computers and pupil learning. economic journal, 112, 735-765. anstine, j., & skidmore, m. (2005). a small sample study of traditional and online courses with sample selection adjustment. journal of economic education, 36, 107-127. au-yong-oliveira, m., gonçalves, r., martins, j., & branco, f. (2018). the social impact of technology on millennials and consequences for higher education and leadership. telematics and informatics, 35, 956-963. british educational communications and technology agency (2008). harnessing technology school survey 2007: analysis and key findings. http://dera.ioe .ac.uk/1552/ bonk, c.j., kim, k. j., & zeng, t. (2006). future directions of blended learning in higher education and workplace learning settings. in c. j. bonk & c. r. graham (eds.), the handbook of blended learning: global perspectives, local designs (pp. 550–567). pfeiffer. 131 coates, d., humphreys, b., kane, j., & vachris, m.a. (2004). ‘no significant distance’ between face-to-face and online instruction: evidence from principles of economics. economics of education review, 23(6), 533-546. condie, r., simpson, m., payne, f., & gray, d. (2002). the impact of information and communication technology initiatives in scottish schools (insight series no. 2). seed. condie, r., munro, r., & muir, d. (2005). the impact of ict initiatives in scottish schools: phase3. seed. davis, f.d. (1989). perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance of information technology. mis quarterly, 13(3), 319-339. dziuban, c., moskal, p., & hartman, j. (2005). higher education, blended learning and the generations: knowledge is power—no more. in j. bourne & j. c. moore (eds.), elements of quality online education: engaging communities (pp. 85–100). sloan consortium. education queensland (2002). new basics: the why, what, how and when of rich tasks. queensland state education. european commission (2013). survey of schools: ict in education — benchmarking access, use and attitudes to technology in europe’s schools. http://dx.doi.org/10.2759/94499. ertmer, p.a., ottenbreit-leftwich, a.t., sadik, o., sendurur, e., & sendurur, p. (2012). teacher beliefs and technology integration practices: a critical relationship. computers & education, 59(2), 423-435. escueta, m., quan, v., nickow, a.j., & oreopoulos, p. (2017). education technology: an evidence-based review. national bureau of economic research. http://dx.doi.org/10.3386/w23744 fonseca, d., martí, n., redondo, e., navarro, i., & sánchez, a. (2014). relationship between student profile, tool use, participation, and academic performance with the use of augmented reality technology for visualized architecture models. computers in human behavior, 31, 434-445. fuchs t., & woessmann, l. (2004). computers and student learning: bivariate and multivariate evidence on the availability and use of computers at home and at school. cesifo working paper no. 1321. cesifo. fraillon, j., ainley, j., schulz, w., friedman, t., & gebhardt, e. (2014). preparing for life in a digital age. springer international publishing, cham. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14222-7 garrison, d. r., & kanuka, h. (2004). blended learning: uncovering its transformative potential in higher education. the internet and higher education, 7, 95-105. doi:10.1016/j.iheduc.2004.02.001 goolsbee, a., & guryan, j. (2002). the impact of internet subsidies in public schools. nber working paper, 9090. gonçalves, r., martins, j., & rocha, á. (2016). internet e redes sociais como instrumentos potenciadores de negócio. risti – revista ibérica de sistemas e tecnologias de informação 09–11. graham, c.r., & robison, r. (2007). realizing the transformational potential of blended learning: comparing cases of transforming blends and enhancing blends in higher education. in a.g. picciano & c.d. dziuban (eds.), blended learning: research perspectives. the sloan consortium. halverson, l.r., graham, c., spring, k.j., & drysdale, s. (2012). an analysis of high impact scholarship and publication trends in blended learning. distance education, 33, 381-413, doi:10.1080/01587919.2012.723166 hooft graafland, j. (2018). new technologies and 21st century children: recent trends and outcomes. oecd education working papers, no. 179. oecd. https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/e071a505-en. jordan, p. (2016). how to define millennials? gen c traveller. kennewell, s., & beauchamp, g. (2007). the features of interactive whiteboards and their influence on learning. learning, media and technology, 32(3), 227–241. lennon, m., kirsch, i., von davier, m., wagner, m., & yamamoto, k. (2003). feasibility study for the pisa ict literacy assessment: report to network, educational testing service. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ed504154 livingston, k., & condie, r. (2010). the impact of an online learning programme on teaching and learning strategies. theory into practice, 45, 150-158. doi:10.1207/ s15430421tip4502_7 132 livingston, k. (2001). disadvantaged teenagers and technology. russell sage foundation. livingston, k., soden, r., & kirkwood, m. (2004). post-16 pedagogy and thinking skills: an evaluation. learning and skills research centre. lorenceau, a., marec, c., & mostafa, t. (2019). upgrading the ict questionnaire items in pisa 2021. oecd education working paper no. 202. http://www.oecd.org/officialdocuments/publicdisplaydocumentpdf/?cote=edu/wkp(2019)10&doclanguag e=en martins, j., gonçalves, r., oliveira,t., cota, m., & branco, f. (2016). understanding the determinants of social network sites adoption at firm level: a mixed methodology approach. electronic commercial research applications 18, 10-26. mcguinness, c. (1999). from thinking skills to thinking classrooms: a review and evaluation of approaches for developing pupils’ thinking (research brief no. 115). her majesty’s stationery office, department for education and employment. moreira, f., ferreira, m.j., santos, c.p., durão, n. (2016). evolution and use of mobile devices in higher education: a case study in portuguese higher education institutions between 2009/2010 and 2014/2015. telematics and informatics. mueller, j., wood, e., willoughby, t., ross, c., & specht, j. (2008). identifying discriminating variables between teachers who fully integrate computers and teachers with limited integration. computers & education, 51(4), 1523–1537. national council of mathematics (2000). principles and standards for school mathematics. author. newmann, f., marks, h., & gamoran, a. (1996). authentic pedagogy and student performance. american journal of education, 104(4), 280–312. oecd (2018). pisa 2021 mathematics framework (first draft), edu/pisa/gb(2018)4. 45th meeting of the pisa governing board, directorate for education and skills, programme for international student assessment. https://www.upc.smm.lt/naujienos/smm/penkiolikmeciumatematinis-rastingumas/gb-2018-4-pisa-2021mathematics-framework-first-draft.pdf oecd (2018). pisa in focus #83. https://www.oecdilibrary.org/docserver/1e912a10en.pdf?expires=1548775159&id=id&accname=ocid84004878 &checksum=cd46091cff6d eae7985bf0545a3b5a88 oecd (2010). inspired by technology, driven by pedagogy: a systemic approach to technology-based school innovations (centre for educational research and innovation). oecd publishing. http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/ inspired-by-technology-driven-by-pedagogy_9789264094437-en picciano, a.g., & seaman, j. (2009). k–12 online learning: a 2008 follow-up of the survey of u.s. school district administrators. sloan consortium. http://www.sloanconsortium.org/publications/survey/pdf/k12_online_learning_2008.pdf rouse, c., krueger, a., & markman, l. (2004). putting computerised instruction to the test: a randomized evaluation of a `scientifically-based' reading programme. nber working paper, 10315. sälzer, c. (2021). lesen im 21. jahrhundert: lesekompetenzen in einer digitalen welt. deutschlandspezifische ergebnisse des pisa-berichts „21st-century readers“. shala, a., grajcevci, a., & latifi, f. (2021). does socioeconomic status influence achievement? an analysis of the performance of kosovar students on the 2015 and 2018 pisa assessment. journal of elementary education, 14(4), 393-408. scherff, l., & piazza, c. (2008). why now, more than ever, we need to talk about opportunity to learn. international literacy association wiley. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/40058135. 133 schmidt, w., & maier, a. (2009). opportunity to learn. in g. sykes et al. (eds.), handbook of education policy research. routledge. sherman, t., m., sanders, m., & kwon, h. (2010).teaching in middle school technology education: a review of recent practices. international journal of technology and design education, 20, 367-379. smith, h.j., higgins, s., wall, k., & miller, j. (2005). interactive whiteboards: boon or bandwagon? a critical review of the literature. journal of computer assisted learning, 21, 91–101. snape, p., & fox-turnbull, w. (2013). perspectives of authenticity: implementation in technology education. international journal of technology and design education, 23(1), 51-68. somekh, b. (2008). factors affecting teachers’ pedagogical adoption of ict. in j. voogt & g. knezek (eds.), international handbook of information technology in primary and secondary education (pp. 449–460). springer science+business media. spiezia, v. (2010). does computer use increase educational achievements? student-level evidence from pisa. oecd journal: economic studies, 2010, 1-22. voogt, j., & knezek, g. (2008). it in primary and secondary education: emerging issues. in j. voogt & g. knezek (eds.), international handbook of information technology in primary and secondary education (pp. 5-22). springer science+business media. authors: arif shala teaches at aab college, prishtina, kosovo. he holds a phd in education from ludwig maximilian university of munich, germany. his expertise is in educational science, with a specific focus on 21st-century skills, student performance, learning in the new era and digital learning. email: arif.shala@universitetiaab.com albulene grajcevci teaches at the university isa boletini mitrovice. she holds degrees from ludwig maximilian university of munich, germany and the university of prishtina, kosovo. her expertise is in educational psychology, with a special focus on achievement goals, achievement emotions, organisational learning and computer enhanced learning. email: albulene.grajcevci@umib.net cite this paper as: shala, a., & grajcevci, a. (2023). ict and internet usage among kosovar students: the impact of trends on achievement in the pisa scales. journal of learning for development, 10(1), 122-133. microsoft word anderson_galley.docx issn: 2311-1550 2020, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 119-121 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. 119 book review moocs and open education in the global south: challenges, successes and opportunities k. zhang, c. bonk, t. c. reeves & t. h. reynolds (eds.) new york: routledge, 2020, pp. 392, isbn: 978-0-367-02577-9 many western educators live under the mistaken impression that massive open online courses are a waning fad that never lived up to the disruptive potential claimed by its early evangelists. however, even so-called educational experts are often unaware of the long-term impact of educational technologies after the initial glow and flush of venture capital has faded. moocs certainly fall into this category. class central reports that in 2019 some 13,500 mooc courses were delivered to over 110,000,000 learners worldwide (an annual increase of over 18%). the moocs and open education book promises to be an important resource for educators globally. it not only provides concrete examples of mooc and oer use in countries throughout the global south but also deals with instructional design, effects of government policy, adoption issues, faculty and student perceptions of value, the state of research and more. thus, it is an important and a timely publication. but first let me get two issues out of the way — if not resolved. it is both ironical and disturbing that an important educational text dealing with openness is itself distributed in closed format. the text retails for a $140 (us) in hardcover and $50 in paper. doubtless, the inability to not make this work available in open access will considerably reduce its impact on the very educators, administrators and policy makers it is designed to aid. a second irony is that the text (on the global south) is edited by four academics from the usa. and six of the 28 chapters are authored by north american authors — though, to be fair, all have some reference to the south. having gotten those concerns off my chest, let’s clarify a few definitions. the term global south has emerged as a more acceptable successor to terms including “developing countries” or “3rd world” in part because it gives room for the development of south-south partnerships and knowledge sharing, without a sense of defining one’s identity or economy in terms of other wealthier nations.i next, we need to be clear that the term mooc itself has evolved since it was coined in 2008 by dave courmier. in this text you will hear of moocs that are not open (some charging students tuition and one cannot assume that the course content in a mooc is openly licensed). we also have examples of moocs with compulsory face-to-face tutorials, and great variation in the length of courses and whether or not the course is available continuously or follows strict calendar dates. we find examples of moocs that 120 encourage and reward collaborative learning as well as those that celebrate the personal choices allowed by independent study. this lack of precise definition illustrates the way that the content and the technology of delivery can be, and is, morphed by users to fit specific cultural contexts — and this in itself makes the book worthwhile. the chapters in the book shift between a focus on open educational resources (oer) — used in mostly formal education contexts, to moocs which are actually just online courses offered for credit and with credentialled examinations, through to what has become the classic mooc with free entry but no formal accreditation without payment. again, these diverse applications make the reader well aware that something is happening with the affordance of the net to deliver quality educational content and support (limited) interactions all near zero cost. however, it doesn’t happen the same way in all countries – even those in the same “global north” or “south” classifications. many of the chapters are case studies of implementation in either formal higher education or professional education contexts. i was especially impressed with the case studies that are backed with strong data sets or provide a detailed look at research literature output from their geographic context. i also liked the diverse outlook of the authors. as expected, some chapters are authored by formal education leaders of established and mostly open universities. others are authored by instructional designers looking for ways to surmount the challenges of student-student and student-teacher interaction, while maintaining scalability. others focus on the impact of open resources on the organisations, as to who develops and delivers these open resources. at 358 pages, i won’t attempt to provide a summary of each chapter in this brief review — in any case the editors do so at the beginning of each of the sections — these sections (of three to five chapters) range from historical perspectives, current practices and designs, professional development collaboration policies and organisational innovations. a few of the chapters provide data on course enrollments and completion and, not unexpectedly, completion rates of these moocs are lower than courses given on campus. however, we read examples of professional development courses in which well over 50% of the students complete the course and the assignments. the editors even speculate that completion rates on moocs are much higher in the global south than elsewhere. while i am not convinced that there is a generalisable difference, we see that courses designed to meet specific audiences, that are well designed and that are supported by government and by employers can achieve very respectable completion numbers. the multi-national contexts highlighted in the book allow for comparison of instructional designs (from those countries with a strong tradition on content dissemination, to those struggling to retain strong student-centered interactions). we also can see quite clearly the differences when moocs or oer that are mandated or at least supported by government policy and funding. in some countries the ministry of education funds particular mooc courses and decides on the delivery institution and delivery mode. in others, contexts initiatives are led by single academics or internal university departments. finally, we see marked differences in the use of national or even local languages of instruction versus countries in which exposure to and competence in international languages (notably english) is paramount. these cultural differences give strength and value to the work and helps us appreciate that moocs and oer are very malleable tools that can be, and are, used for many different purposes. 121 i’ll conclude with a brief comment on the value of the editors’ contributions to the work. i do so at risk of offending at least two of whom i regard as friends. as a book editor myself and a series editor of the emerging issues in the distance education series from athabasca university press, i have come to learn more than i really care to about the role of the editor in a scholarly edited text. as expected, the editors introduce each section and summarise in a few paragraphs the main contributions of each chapter. the editors also set out an initial list of questions that hopefully are answered in the text in their introductory chapter. unfortunately, the final chapter (by the editors) does not revisit nor answer these questions. instead it continues the usual educational technology “we’re off to the future” rosy scenario in which technology answers all educational problems (at low cost of course!) with little critical analysis of emerging issues of surveillance, growing poverty, inequality, and the environmental impact of technology production and use and other social challenges. yes, moocs and oer offer opportunity but they are unlikely to be a panacea for many of our emergent concerns — in the global south and north. notwithstanding my minor concerns, this is a very useful book that will serve to both inform and inspire educators and administrators and policy makers struggling to make effective and affordable education available to all. reviewed by: professor terry anderson, professor emeritus, athabasca university, canada. email: terrydanderson2@gmail.com cite this paper as: anderson, t. (2020). book review: moocs and open education in the global south: challenges, successes and opportunities. edited by k. zhang, c. bonk, t. c. reeves & t. h. reynolds. journal of learning for development, 7(1), 119-120. i see https://jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/workflow/index/397/4 for further discussion. microsoft word pandaeditorial.docx issn: 2311-1550 2022, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. i-iii this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. editorial learning for development: lessons from diverse contexts and perspectives santosh panda indira gandhi national open university, new delhi there has been a contemporary trend in educational delivery, as also in education research studies, toward technology-enabled learning, which offers scope for contexualisation and appropriateness for effective and quality individual and group learning. this trend, though, does not preclude the age-old and conventional campus-based learning. the trend, in fact, has more been toward diversified forms of ‘blended teaching-learning’ – with the nature of the ‘blend’ varying according to the context and current provision in respective educational/ national contexts. in the developing countries, the discourse is more vulnerable in respect of appropriate decision-making for an equitable and inclusive educational provision. practical field experiences, as also rigorous research studies, should significantly contribute to such decision-making at governmental, institutional and faculty level. keeping this in view, we have put together, in this issue of the journal, the following research articles/ studies, case studies, reports from the field, and book reviews which may inform us in further visualising and implementing our actions. the “research articles” section contains seven papers. our first research paper focuses on a wiki as a social technology tool in teaching-learning for school students. this interview-based research indicates that teachers who had experience in learning wikis in their higher studies not only found it useful for their school students but also it contributed to online collaboration, construction of new knowledge, and technology integration. in the next research paper on mobile as a teaching tool in secondary schools, the author reports the findings of a phenomenological research (documentary review, semi-structured interview, focus group discussion) on school teachers, which suggests that while teachers not only did not use the full potential of mobile in their teaching, there was also misuse of mobile phones in schools, and so there is a need to develop contextual guidelines and frameworks on ethical use and integration of mobile technology in teaching and learning. in the third paper on anxiety and depression of college students caused by covid-19, the authors found that the covid distress factors had significant impact on distress, though they could not predict the level of depression symptoms. the suggestions given by the authors shall be useful to teachers and parents in other institutional and social contexts and in both conventional and online provision. the next paper explores the relationship between educational growth and growth in employment in the secondary education sector in turkey, and the author provides for alternative education delivery strategies, including especially online and blended learning, to enhance access to quality education and to build skilling and employability into the school curricula. the fifth paper reports the findings of a study on the factors influencing student use of an online lms. the findings suggest that behavioural intention factors comprising performance expectancy, effort ii expectancy, facilitating conditions and hedonic motivation explosions explained up to 75% variance in student use of the lms. these findings shall be useful for those engaged in enhancing the large-scale use and effectiveness of an lms in online and blended learning. the subsequent study reports on the positive attitude of students towards online teaching during covid-19 across academic programmes. a possible factor included higher online teaching skills by teachers and higher digital skills by the students, possibly due to increasing use of social networks. the researchers suggest practitioners should take note of the factors of student perception and teacher effective communication to improve the effectiveness of online teaching-learning. the final paper in this section reports a comparative study of the effectiveness of paper and pencil approach and digital technology approach in teaching 3d geometry. while prior knowledge and experience was crucial for the success of the paper and pencil approach, digital technology provided for more handy and richer resources (in cases where prior knowledge was fragile). however, the authors suggest that both approaches need to be judiciously combined in the teaching of geometry. we have included seven papers in the “case study” section. the first case reports on school teachers’ self-efficacy in technology integration for teaching. the findings suggested that teachers had a moderate level of technology integration self-efficacy, and that gender and professional development in technology integration affected teacher self-efficacy, so these factors, therefore, need to be considered in technology mainstreaming initiatives. the second case analyses open and innovative schooling in mozambique, and suggests that while minimal technology conditions were created in the schools, institutional leaders and policy makers should consider factors like digital literacy and technology redistribution in their policy and implementation strategies for open schooling. effectiveness of the intervention of constructivist digital learning heutagogy is the theme of the third case study. the findings suggest that a significant training intervention for senior school mathematics teachers based on the model of constructivist digital learning heutagogy can positively affect the emotions, academic achievement, learning engagement, and, to an extent, peer relationship of students, and contribute to breaking class monotony. the fourth case is on teacher training and the role of self-assessment in increasing learning outcomes of students. the findings suggest that selfknowledge, self-directed learning, self-designed projects, and self-reported assessment positively influence student learning outcomes. from the fifth case study on learning preferences of undergraduates of this generation, the two important findings shall be of interest to teachers and researchers alike: high preference for multimodal learning, as well as for unimodal learning styles, among different student populations. the last two case studies focus on the context of covid-19-related anxiety and depression, and the role of mothers as teachers. in the case on depression, the results suggest that while the distress factors do not have any influence on the overall level of depression, they do impact the general level of anxiety of the students. in the latter case, the authors found that mothers were affected by the pandemic and had to deal with issues relating to teaching their own children, supervision of studies, modular schooling, and children’s learning vis-à-vis mothers’ learning. the authors suggest that schoolteachers need to consider these factors and make necessary interventions to support mothers as teachers. in the “reports from the field” section, the authors report on a process improvement approach in online business education through lean thinking, and suggest related guidelines on taking care of online business education post-pandemic. iii the two book reviews — one on open education and self-directed learning in africa reviewed by ephraim mhlanga, and the other on odl for youth and adult literacy reviewed by catherine beukesamiss — should be useful to planners, teachers and researchers dealing with ‘learning for development’. this has been a bumper issue for this scopus-indexed journal. we have been receiving a growing number of new submissions, and the referral and editorial processes have been further capacitated to take on the additional load, while still maintaining full objectivity and rigour. i take this opportunity to sincerely thank tony mays (managing associate editor) and alan doree (copy editor) who have meticulously followed the process of review and put together this important issue of the journal. while we hope that this issue shall be of use to our readers, we would also be glad to receive more rigorous (qualitative and quantitative) research papers, case studies, and field experiences on themes relating to ‘learning for development’. santosh panda chief editor, jl4d cite this paper as: panda, s. (2022). editorial — learning for development: lessons from diverse contexts and perspectives. journal of learning for development, 9(2), i-iii. microsoft word wiebe.docx issn: 2311-1550 2022, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 55-72 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. comparative advantages of offline digital technology for remote indigenous classrooms in guatemala (2019-2020) adrienne wiebe1, luis crisostomo2, ruben feliciano2 and terry anderson3 1change for children 2ammid — maya-mam association for research and development 3athabasca university abstract: technology has been viewed as a means to improve the quality of education for children globally, particularly in remote and marginal communities. this study examines the comparative advantages of the use of appropriate technology (off-line servers with digital libraries connected to a classroom set of laptops) in ten intervention schools in indigenous communities in guatemala for one school year. the study was too short (due to pandemic restrictions) to demonstrate statistically significant differences for learning outcomes. however, using an instructional core model as a framework, qualitative findings supported four previously identified comparative advantages, and identified four additional ones relevant to remote indigenous communities. the intervention validated the ability of technology to improve standardised instruction, differentiated instruction, opportunities for practice, and learner engagement. newly identified advantages are: access to high-quality educational resources (substitution for print materials), teacher capacity-building, student technical skills and digital literacy, and sharing cultural knowledge. keywords: technology for global education; digital education in remote communities; educational technology, indigenous communities. introduction despite the expectation in the past few decades that technology would be able to improve the quality of education for children and youth around the world, the results have not yet met expectations (sancho-gil et al., 2020). building on recent efforts to identify the specific technology-based strategies that can improve student learning, this study explores the potential advantages of technology for schools in remote indigenous communities. the “instructional core” model provides a theoretical framework for this study (cohen & ball, 1999). in this model, student learning can be understood as the result of a teacher and student in the presence of content, like three points of a triangle. the three elements interact to facilitate student learning which is at the centre, or core. the relationship between these three elements, and not the qualities of any one element, determine the nature of instructional practice and the resulting student learning. there is on-going exploration of the balance between these elements (anderson, 2003), however, it is clear that the three components are interdependent, and that a change in one, will affect the other components and the resulting student learning. thus, improved learning can occur with: 56 1. an increase the teachers’ instructional knowledge and skill (teacher capacity); 2. an improvement in the quality and appropriateness of the content students learn (quality content); 3. a change the role of the student in the instructional process (student engagement). using this model as a base, the brookings institution (ganimian et al., 2020) identified four promising comparative advantages of technology at distinct intersections of the teacher-student-content triad (figure 1): 1. scaling up standardised instruction through distance education and pre-recorded lessons; 2. facilitating differentiated instruction through live one-on-one tutoring and computeradaptive learning; 3. expanding opportunities for practice through practice exercises; 4. increasing learner engagement through such things as video tutorials and games/gamification. figure 1: comparative advantages of education technology (from: ganimian et al, 2020, p. 29) 57 research questions in order to further explore the four comparative advantages of technology and their application in the context of schools in remote indigenous communities, this study focused on the following research questions: 1) how do the “four comparative advantages of technology” for student learning function and perform in schools in which digital interventions were used in remote indigenous communities in guatemala? 2) are there additional comparative advantages or disadvantages that digital technology offers in schools in remote indigenous communities in guatemala? context and intervention the study examined the deployment and use of mobile learning labs (mlls) in ten schools in a project implemented by two guatemalan and two canadian not-for-profit organizations: ammid, mundo posible, 60 million girls, and change for children. the intervention included ten schools: seven primary schools (grades 1-6) and three junior high schools (grades 7-9). the schools had a total of 1,638 students and 87 teachers in 2020. the mlls consisted of a rachel plus 3.0 and a classroom set of tablets with keyboards. rachel (remote area community hotspot for education and learning) is a portable, battery-powered, device that contains open educational resources (oer) and websites, school curriculums, educational games, and various digital libraries. rachel wirelessly delivers (with a range of up to 35 metres) the content to tablets, laptops, or smartphones with no internet or data plans required. the mlls are utilised off-line, however, content on the rachel can be updated by taking them to a place with internet connections and uploading new material programs from the mundo posible/world possible website. this website provides a wealth of oer materials, teacher support, research and impact reports and sales information for the rachel system. local users can upload their own materials, but they cannot modify existing files on rachel. the rachels deployed in this intervention contained the follow content: an off-line version of wikipedia; ka-lite, a version of khan academy but for places without the internet; guatemala ministry of education curriculum, modules, and textbooks; education materials produced in other countries such as nicaragua, el salvador, panama, mexico, and educator; the wikihow site; full latin american library; great world books, and many educational games and exercises. participating school and project staff received an initial full-day training on the operation, management, and maintenance of the equipment, followed by weekly school support visits from a pedagogy trainer and technical facilitator. each school created a schedule for usage of the technology, with each teacher having access for two to five hours per week for use with their students depending on the size of the school. teachers participated in virtual and in-person pedagogical training on a weekly-basis. they learned various ways to utilise the technology in their classrooms for instruction, practice, reference, and creative activities. with this support, teachers planned how to integrate the technology into their lessons. in addition, students had access to the equipment on their own for research, homework, or self-directed exploration. 58 while guatemala has made significant progress in the last 25 years, major challenges exist in the drive towards inclusive and equitable quality education for all; notably geographic and gender inequalities, and the poor quality of much of the instruction. the urban-rural inequalities in terms of educational quality and completion rates are considerable, with drop-out rates higher in rural and indigenous communities where students often leave school due to poverty. about 60% of guatemalans live on less than us$4 per day, and 40% on less than us$2.5 per day. of those living with poverty, 52% are indigenous (world bank, 2016). an international comparative study (ministerio de educación, 2018) indicated that in guatemala, student performance in reading and mathematics is among the lowest in latin america, and one study (ministerio de educación, 2014) revealed that the majority of grade 6 students in guatemala did not pass national standardised achievement exams for math (56% failed) and language (60% failed). inadequate teaching materials and resources and a lack of on-going teacher training and support, particularly in rural and indigenous communities, are identified as the primary causes of these learning deficiencies (naslund-hadley et al., 2014). the municipality of comitancillo, where this project was implemented, is typical of communities in western guatemala. comitancillo has a high population density with a population of 60,000 people, of which 99% identify as mam, one of the 31 maya ethnic groups in guatemala. the local economy is based on subsistence and small-scale farming in this agriculturally-marginal mountainous terrain. household economies are supplemented by labour migration within guatemala and to other countries. guatemala has the fourth highest rate of chronic malnutrition in the world and the highest in latin america, with indigenous and rural populations disproportionately affected. chronic childhood malnutrition (and stunting) affects 58% of indigenous children under the age of five (world bank, 2021). primary schools function in about 80 rural communities in the municipality. there are junior high schools (grades 7-9) in over 25 communities. there are nine high schools (grades 10-12). while an almost equal number of boys and girls attend school in comitancillo, the drop-out rate is high. of those completing primary school, only half continue on to junior high. of those completing grade 9, only 42% continue on to high school. the electricity grid has reached most areas of the municipality, however, there are still households without electricity (prensa libre, 2019). most households now have a cell phone; however, mobile phone coverage is limited or unreliable because of sparse population and mountainous geography. internet access in comitancillo is poor, and in some communities, it is lacking completely. comitancillo is located in the department of san marcos, one of the departments in guatemala with the highest poverty rates and the largest gap in internet access (media landscapes, 2018). methods this study was conducted by a collaborative research team consisting of six local, school directors and educators and the advisory input of the local education supervisors from the ministry of education. a mixed methods approach utilising quantitative and qualitative data was employed to address the study’s research questions. a quantitative study was conducted during the 2019 school year. this was complemented with qualitative data collected in focus group discussions, in-depth interviews, and systematic classroom observations in 2019 and 2020. 59 the quantitative component assessed student learning in mathematics and reading in grades 6 and 7. ten control schools were identified which had similar characteristics and contexts to the ten intervention schools (figure 2). preand post-tests for mathematics and reading performance were administered at the beginning of the school year in february 2019 and at the end of the school year in october 2019. the test data was analysed to determine any changes in student performance and whether there was a statistically significant difference between the intervention and control groups. the total number of grade 6 students was 512 in the 20 schools: 269 in the intervention schools and 243 in the control schools in 2019. a sample size of 200 students was selected, that is, a random subsample of 10 students (five girls and five boys) was selected from each of the 20 schools. a total of 193 students completed the pre-test and 192 students completed the post-test. figure 2: study communities of comitancillo, guatemala standardised national tests of the ministry of education were used to evaluate student performance. the tests consisted of forty questions in each subject. the reading test measured knowledge, recall, usage, comprehension, and analysis. the math test measured probability, geometry, patterns, sets, fractions, decimals, percentages, and problem solving. the test results were graded manually and electronically, and the data was analysed using a statistical software program. qualitative data was collected through semi-structured individual interviews and focus group discussions conducted by native bilingual spanish and maya-mam speakers in the first year in october, 20219. these interviews aimed to capture the perceptions of teachers and students about the effectiveness of the technology intervention focused on “six core investigative criteria (situation specificity, cultural sensitivity, practical usability, theoretical applicability, economic scalability, and viable sustainability)” (kim, 2009, 416). an interview schedule was developed by the research team and two team members were trained to conduct the interviews and facilitate the focus groups discussions in mam or spanish. transcripts were then analysed by the research team. 60 to delve more deeply into the perceptions and experiences of the student and teacher participants, a second phase of qualitative data collection was undertaken in june and july 2020. semi-structured interviews were conducted with pedagogical advisors, school principals, teachers, and students of grade 6 and 7. a stratified sample of 25 students, 10 teachers, and five school principals and administrators were selected from among the 10 intervention schools with 50% female and 50% male participants. in addition, interviews were conducted with three pedagogical advisors of the ministry of education. all quotes in the article are direct translations from spanish into english of the transcripts. the first language of the teachers and students is mam; spanish is their second language and the primary language of education. findings and discussion scaling up standardised instruction access through technology to high-quality standardised instruction and content has been shown to be particularly important for improving student learning in contexts “in which teachers have low levels of pedagogical and subject matter expertise” (ganimian, et al., 2020, 31). the evidence from this study supports this evidence. in focus group discussions and in-depth interviews, both students and teachers reported that the instructional videos and audio files provided clear and accurate instruction of basic concepts, particularly for math, sciences and spanish, and that these were used extensively in lessons. the khan academy instructional videos, in particular, were referenced by the majority (20/25) of students and all (10/10) of the teachers as effective tools for reinforcing student learning. both students and teachers reported that the audio and video lessons on the mlls facilitated learning in a variety of ways. the recorded lessons enabled students to repeat the explanations if they did not understand something the first time. recorded lessons overcome any deficiencies in the individual teachers’ presentation of the topic. when questioned specifically about learning math and reading, 10/25 of students in individual interviews indicated that the mlls helped explain and clarify concepts they had learned in class. the majority of students reported using the technology for instruction videos, explanatory exercises, and reinforcement exercises to strengthen math and reading skills. this finding is consistent with other research evidence of the relative effectiveness of computerassisted learning (cal) and traditional teaching. a study in sacatepéquez, guatemala found that “combining technology with khan academy produces a higher positive effect on math performance… relative to the comparison group, the pilot intervention leads to an average increase of 10 points in math scores out of a possible score of 100 points" (fundación sergio paiz andrade, 2016). in liberia, an evaluation of an afterschool program using khan academy mathematics programs found that while quantitative results after one year were mixed, there was evidence of generally more improvement in performance among the pilot group as compared to controlled student groups without access to the khan academy programs (curtis & kellerer, 2016). larger scale studies have also contributed to the evidence-base that teacher instruction augmented with computer math programs can result in improved student learning outcomes. research evidence includes a randomised controlled trial of technology classrooms in primary schools in el salvador (büchel, et al., 2000), computer-assisted learning in schools for migrants in beijing, china (lai, et al., 2015), and an intervention of tablets with math software for primary students in malawi (pitchford, 2015). 61 facilitating differentiated instruction teachers with low-levels of training, limited resources, and large class sizes often have difficulty meeting the unique learning needs of all their students. in both focus groups and individual interviews, teachers reported that the educational technology facilitated differentiated instruction adaptable to the specific needs of students. this included facilitating individually-paced learning, project-based learning, and using multiple methods to present and reinforce content. teachers were able to use the mlls to diversify their teaching strategies. with support from the project staff, the teachers learned ways to facilitate learning in groups, pairs, and individually, and to use videos, games, and project-based approaches to learning. in the focus groups, teachers indicated that this enabled students to work at their own pace and gave teachers an opportunity to provide additional support to those students who lagged behind. students also appreciated the variety of learning methods. the majority of students in the interviews (21/25) reported that the mlls enabled diverse forms of organisation in the classroom, such as working in groups, pairs, or individually, which was rare previously. numerous students highlighted the benefits of learning through visual and auditory means offered by the mlls. in focus group discussions and individual interviews, students noted that the mlls facilitated “learning by seeing,” through videos, images, graphics, pictures, and games, “learning by hearing,” through listening to books read aloud, to presentations, and to music, and “learning by doing,” through practice exercises and interactive educational games. expanding opportunities for practice both students and teachers highlighted the extensive opportunities afforded by technology for additional “practice” of new subject matter (i.e., mathematical operations, reading vocabulary, and grammatical structures). the additional practice can be individually-paced and can reinforce new knowledge. classroom observation by the research team before the intervention revealed that the majority of teaching was delivered in “chalk-and-talk” format which emphasises teacher exposition and student copying and memorising. due to a shortage of textbooks and educational resource materials, students focus on copying information from the blackboard into their notebooks, and they may not have time to understand the new concepts being presented (ganimian et al., 2020, 44). this is similar to research findings elsewhere in latin america that indicate that traditional teaching practices based on teacher presentation, repetition, and memorisation continue to predominate in the region (naslund-hadley et al., 2014, 121). during the intervention, project staff encouraged teachers to use the mlls to offer students the opportunity to practice what they had learned in class so that students could confirm if they had understood correctly, and then practice the new skills or knowledge until they were confident in their learning. during in-depth interviews, students reported that the mlls enabled them to practice and reinforce math and language concepts that they had learned in the class (16/25) and to better understand subject matter that had been presented in the class (9/25). when learning math and reading in spanish, the rachel provided tools to practice what we learned… using rachel, we practiced spelling words correctly, where to put punctuation, identifying numbers with denominators, heterogeneous and compound numbers. it helps us practice multiplication and division and analyze prime and composite numbers. – student, grade 7, chamaque 62 with rachel, the students individually or in pairs watch videos of how to carry out mathematical processes and they practice the different exercises. in reading, the students have the opportunity to read the same text [as in the video lesson], where the teacher puts into practice the guided reading, and also evaluates them with questions about each story or text. – teacher, villa nueva primary school while teachers could have offered opportunities for students to do in-class practice without technology, the introduction of the mlls was a catalyst for teachers to move away from lecturedominated lessons, and to build in time for student practice. increasing learner engagement it was clear that “learner engagement” not only involved more entertaining and interactive ways of learning (i.e., educational games and videos), but also more self-directed and autonomous opportunities propelled by individual student’s interest. both students and teachers highlighted the ways in which the mlls motivated learning. i was very surprised when i heard about rachel. and, when it finally arrived in my little school, i was very happy. when i used it for the first time, it was very interesting and i learned a lot… it has been fun because it contains educational games and interesting videos. i confess that before we had rachel, classes were a little boring, but now with the presence of the technology, classes have become fascinating, very interesting, and more engaging. – student, grade 7, taltimiche in the sixth-grade class, what is interesting is the interest and dedication of the students when working with rachel. when they realise that it is time to work with rachel, they jump for joy. when prompted to research a topic, they take the time and start browsing all over rachel. everything is different when using rachel, because they enjoy working with technology. – teacher, cuatro caminos primary school however, “learner engagement” went beyond just making learning “fun.” in interviews, students indicated that the mlls supported increased learner engagement in their own learning; not as much through games and video tutorials, as through the opportunity for self-directed learning (10/25) and enabling students to build self-confidence in their understanding of concepts and content (6/25). unfortunately, one-quarter (6/25) of students noted that the mlls were not used to increase learner engagement, but rather, were merely a substitute for traditional teacher lectures and hardcopy texts and worksheets. the content on rachel allows students to obtain more extensive knowledge; rachel presents several sources of information, facilitates many ways of learning, provides access to extensive content, and creates interest in children in their own learning. – teacher, el paraiso primary school providing free access to high-quality educational resources most obviously, the mlls provide access to educational resources, libraries, and reference materials in schools and communities that have very limited resources and internet connectivity. students had access to the technology an average of two to three hours per week. this was not just the replacement of print materials with digital materials, it was the first time many schools and communities had access to an extensive collection of high-quality educational resources and an enormous library. 63 the rachels used in this program contained the complete guatemalan national curriculum, as well as several spanish digital libraries, and the equivalent of an off-line wikipedia created by downloading various online resources and webpages in a pdf format and uploading them onto the rachel. the cost of access to this abundance of resources in rural, remote, and poor communities is made affordable by a digital off-line format rather than in a physical library or through connection to the world wide web. all teachers felt that the mlls provided an excellent source of educational resources that they would not otherwise be able to offer their students. for students, learning to do research, synthesising and presenting information has been a valuable new opportunity. as noted above, there is cell phone signal available in most of the municipality, but internet connections are costly. in some communities there are “internet cafes” with computers connected to the internet, and members of the public can pay to use the equipment, however, few students can afford more than quick 30-minute sessions. rachel is very important. with access to reference materials and the virtual library on rachel, we no longer have to do research on the internet [go to town and pay to use a computer in an internet café]. being able to use rachel implies less economic expense. rachel contains all kinds of educational content, games, videos and everything that can help us learn so much. – grade seven student, taltimiche most grade 6 and 7 students interviewed and those participating in the focus groups (16/25), stated that this was the greatest advantage of the mlls. students reported that before the intervention, they had to travel to the town centre of comitancillo, which is up to two hours away from some villages, and then pay to utilise an internet café to research school assignments. for students from poor families, the free access to unlimited resources on the rachel was a tremendous benefit and could make the difference between continuing their schooling or dropping out of school. this finding corroborates research elsewhere which has documented the cost-effectiveness of computers over print textbooks for provision of classroom learning content, in cases where more than three textbooks were substituted with digital versions (bando et al., 2017). in the comitancillo case, complete textbook sets for all subjects and all grades, as well as extensive libraries were made available on the mlls. building teacher capacity teachers highlighted three ways that the mlls improved the quality of their teaching: 1) diversifying their teaching strategies, 2) strengthening their own grasp of the subject matter, and 3) standardising instruction. it is a great library that allows us to better prepare classes, investigate, facilitate processes through manipulation, and stimulate the interest of students. – teacher, tuixoquel junior high similarly, the in-depth interviews with school principals confirmed that the primary benefits of the technology for teachers were: 1) they gained skills and confidence with the technology, 2) they had access to a wealth of educational resources, and 3) they learned new teaching strategies. most teachers have very limited previous experience with technology. while many have cell phones, most do not have smartphones, laptops, or computers. few have experience with using technology for research or educational purposes. while younger teachers are often more familiar with using technology, most older teachers have no experience. there is currently no support for teacher capacity-building in the use of technology by the ministry of education, either in basic teacher 64 training or in ongoing professional development programs. thus, firstly, teachers need instruction in the use and maintenance of the equipment before they can effectively use it with their students. once teachers were somewhat comfortable and confident in their use of the equipment, they began to utilise the technological resources to improve their pedagogy practice. the rachels were useful to teachers for preparing lesson plans and enabled them to ensure that they had accurate information to share with their students. they explored the virtual library to get more information for their lessons on subjects such as: mathematics, biology, language arts, and english language instruction. sometimes, i do not have all the information in the national curriculum for a topic that i have to teach to my students. before i would be scrambling to find any information i could from friends, or other teachers. now, i can look up additional information or explanations, and i can be sure that the information i share with my students is accurate. – teacher, tuixoquel junior high school the project also included project staff support and materials on the rachels for teachers to learn new teaching strategies such as: project-based learning, comparative charts, concept maps, and individual inquiry-based learning. both teachers and student reports, as well as classroom observation, indicated that there was an increased variation in the pedagogy strategies utilised in the classroom as a result of these training sessions. developing digital literacy learning to use technology was a very important outcome of the project for both teachers and students. the most recent data available from unesco (2013) indicates that in guatemala more than 50% of households do not have a computer or internet connection, and this is estimated to be about 80% in rural and remote areas. for the majority of the total number of participating teachers in the intervention schools (63% 95/150), this was the first time they had opportunity to use this type of technology. similarly, for most of the total number of participating students (70% 1260/1800), this was the first time they had the opportunity to use educational technology, to learn to operate a tablet and to perform basic computer operations. the remainder of students indicated that they some limited experience, mostly with cell phones, and during the project their abilities advanced in searching the databases and utilising various applications. i couldn’t even turn on a tablet before rachel arrived. but now i know how to turn on a tablet, navigate rachel, download a book, and do exercises. with the tablets i have learned many things that i did not know. now, classes are more fun. above all, rachel has taught me to love reading books. – student, grade 6, cuatro caminos primary school something that always impresses me is to see how students who do not even have a smart cell phone, immediately acquire the ability to turn on the tablet with rachel, enter and look for what the teacher tells them. this does not happen when students are asked to research something in physical textbooks. this shows that students have a great curiosity to get into the use of technology, which at the same time is becoming a necessity for the development of humanity. – school principal, canoa de sal tele-secondary school use of the mlls in remote communities without internet connectivity will not overcome the first level of the digital divide, that is the physical connection to the digital world through the internet. 65 however, mlls do facilitate reduction of the second aspect of the first level of the digital divide, that is material access, which includes computer devices, software, maintenance, and peripheral equipment (van deursen, et al., 2019). in addition, mlls in the classroom provided opportunity to increase the digital literacy of teachers and students, that is the technical and cognitive skills to use information and communication technologies, that relates to the second level of the digital divide. thus, while the physical divide is not yet bridged, provision of off-line educational resources in the form of mlls provides the opportunity to reduce the gaps in material access and it is possible for teachers and students to begin to overcome material and skills barriers to the digital world — an imperative for young people entering the work force. those who cannot use it confidently, whether communities, teachers, or students, will become increasingly marginalised (social exclusion) within the modern world. digital literacy not only improves access to higher quality educational materials, it is also a door to increased opportunity. digital literacy was not an element included in the original theoretical model (figure 1), however, we found that it is an essential component without which none of the proposed benefits of technology use are not possible. digital capacity-building needs to be intentionally integrated into all education technologically-based initiatives. for marginalised communities in the global south, these experiences and skills are vital for young people’s ability to survive and thrive in the globalised world. integrating family, community, and cultural perspectives an additional element, not highlighted in the original theoretical model, is the role of the students’ families and communities in the relationships and interactions within the instructional core model. the maya-mam social and cultural context of the remote communities in comitancillo is particularly pervasive and cohesive despite outside influences. the educational technology used here showed potential to be a tool for increased family and community engagement in the education of young people. family and community support for education is critical to the success of students, especially those in indigenous communities. according to a recent study of indigenous communities in canada, new zealand, and australia, the three key elements to improve indigenous education are: 1) quality and effectiveness of teaching; 2) active engagement of families and communities in students’ education; and 3) provision of direct support to students (oecd, 2017). technology in the classroom in comitancillo not only generated motivation among the students to learn, but it also increased the interest of parents in their children’s education, as reported by project staff: the implementation of the mlls in the schools motivated the parents to accompany and ensure the training of their sons and daughters by making constant visits to the establishments to verify the progress of the use of technology by the students in the classrooms… in the intervention schools, parents contributed with the purchase of materials to protect the technological equipment and strengthen security in the classrooms. – project staff member parental interest in the educational technology seems to stem from several factors: their desire for their children to be able to compete in the wider world where digital knowledge and skills are a 66 requirement, their hope that new and innovative investments in the local school will improve the quality of education, and their desire to ensure that this new initiative is a success. community cultural and linguistic content potential uses of technology to capture and share traditional indigenous cultural knowledge through audio, visual, and interactive means have not yet been extensively investigated. studies of indigenous education have identified the need for ‘decolonising’ learning processes and content and strengthening gender-equitable perspectives (munroe, 2013; un, 2010). this includes respecting indigenous knowledge and its unique approaches to learning, respecting indigenous holistic vision/perspectives, integrating indigenous and local community content, and reducing gender-based barriers to education. research in latin american indigenous education programs highlights the importance of upgrading educational resources and teacher capacity, and the need for engagement of families, communities, and social movements related to human rights, cultural identity, and respect for diversity to provide the context in which indigenous education can flourish (cortina, 2017; lopez, 2014). evidence from studies of the guatemalan bilingual-intercultural education program demonstrates similar findings (usaid, 2013). the government of guatemala has been committed to high-quality bilingual/intercultural education for more than 40 years, however, given the diversity of cultural and language groups, it has been a challenge to achieve this goal for speakers of the twenty-one mayan languages in guatemala. mam, the language spoken in comitancillo, is the fourth largest linguistic group in guatemala, with 500,000 speakers. many of the students in the rural communities start school speaking only mam, and they begin to learn spanish during primary school. comitancillo has the highest percentage of maya-mam teachers of municipalities in guatemala. in the early 1990s, less than 10% of the teachers in comitancillo were maya-mam speakers. today, 570 teachers of the total 597 (95%) government employed teachers in comitancillo are maya-mam (ministry of education, 2016). despite this, there is a lack of resource materials for teaching mam language and culture. the mlls offer the opportunity for teachers, students, and community members to create, upload and share open education resources (oer) for teaching mam language and culture. during the project, a total of 134 documents and educational resources of culturally and linguisticaly-specific maya-mam content, including language learning materials, information on local culture and history, and research studies on the community were uploaded to rachel servers. teachers received about two hours of instruction on the mam materials and potential ways of using these. all teachers reported using the new content, particularly for teaching mam reading and writing. teachers in younger grades especially liked the printable words in mam and spanish which they could place around the classroom on various objects. junior high teachers appreciated the reference information about their own community, such as research studies on various social, economic, and cultural aspects of comitancillo. teachers and students noted that the mam materials were relevant and of good quality. however, at present, they are all un-editable pdf documents. in the future, teachers and students would like to experiment making additional video and audio recordings, as well as creating more interactive educational materials. 67 student learning outcomes: the data as noted, a sample of 192 students completed preand post-tests, 50% from intervention schools and 50% from comparable control schools. the tests administered were the official grade 6 national exams of the ministry of education for assessing reading and mathematics learning based on the national curriculum. table 1 outlines the results of the pre and post-tests, demonstrating a lack of statistically significant differences between the two groups, with a confidence level of 95%. in fact, in mathematics, both grades in the control schools showed greater improvement over the nine-month period than the intervention schools. only in the grade 7 reading test did the students in intervention schools show a greater and statistically significant improvement over the students in the control schools. table 1: average percentage scores on preand post-texts reading spanish mathematics average (mean) score pre-test post-test difference pre-test post-test difference gr. 6 intervention schools 32.89 32.06 -0.83 29.38 29.92 +0.55 gr. 6 control schools 29.32 28.57 -0.75 21.25 24.79 +3.54 gr. 7 intervention schools 29.40 34.08 +4.58 31.67 33.42 +1.75 gr. 7 control schools 30.95 33.88 +2.93 28.2 31.12 +3.10 two observations are necessary when assessing these disappointing results: one related to the length of the study, and the second related to the national educational context. the length of the study was not sufficient to demonstrate a significant change in student learning outcomes. school closures in march 2020 due to the global pandemic shortened the study from two years (2019-2020), to only one school year (nine months) of classes. the results are similar to those found in other studies. a 2018 study elsewhere in guatemala of student performance after one year of implementation of mlls similar to the ones in this intervention showed improved performance of students with access to technology at a rate that was statistically significant but not to a level of 95% confidence (centro de investigaciones educativas, 2018). additionally, a large-scale randomised evaluation of the one laptop per child program in peru was conducted in 2011, using data collected after only 15 months of implementation in 319 primary schools in rural areas of the country (cristia et al., 2012). “the results indicate that the program increased the ratio of computers per student from 0.12 to 1.18 in treatment schools. this expansion in access translated into substantial increases in use both at school and at home. no evidence is found of effects on enrollment and test scores in math and language.” (4). however, the study did find some positive effects in general cognitive abilities that suggested advantages and potentially longer-term impacts if students and teachers have the proper training and support. the second observation is the overall low scores. these comitancillo students scored between 28% and 34% on national exams on which they would ideally be scoring marks over 60% at the end of the school year. these low scores are comparable to national averages which show that only 29% of students passed the grade 6 reading exams, and 45% passed the math exams (conadur, 2017), reflecting the generally poor quality of education in guatemala. 68 conclusions we conclude by returning to the research questions that guided this study. 1) how do the “four comparative advantages of technology” (ganimian et al., 2020) for student learning function and perform in schools in marginalised indigenous communities in guatemala? despite the shortened length of the project due to school closures as a result of the covid-19 pandemic, the research findings corroborated and further nuanced the four comparative advantages of education technology identified in the brookings review (ganimian et al., 2020). in this guatemalan study, the technology was found to: 1) increase standardised instruction particularly through the use of instructional videos; 2) facilitate differentiated instruction through opportunities for individual learning; 3) expand opportunities for practice especially in the use of learning games and exercises to reinforce new subject matter; and 4) increase learner engagement as a result of interactive and self-directed learning opportunities. 2) are there additional advantages that technology can offer in schools in marginalised indigenous communities in guatemala? the study provided evidence of four potential additional advantages or key intervention points where technology can improve student learning in marginalised indigenous communities. these are: 5) free access to high-quality resources, 6) teacher capacity-building, 7) student learning to use technology, and 8) developing and sharing family, community, and cultural knowledge and engagement (figure 3). figure 3: theoretical model with findings from guatemala project (blue) while these additional advantages, such as free access to resources and development of digital literacy, may seem obvious or immaterial in many global contexts, for marginal indigenous 69 communities, these are potentially ground-breaking and transformative. these elements need to be identified, highlighted and intentionally developed in theoretical models and in the implementation of other educational technology enhanced programs. recommendations for a next stage of implementation of mlls in the classroom are: • offer more and ongoing training for teachers on how to integrate technology into their lessons in creative and engaging ways that are student-centered; • include intentional training for students on how to use and manage both hardware and software to build digital and technological knowledge and skills; • extend after-school opportunities for students to use the technology for homework assignments, research and personal interest; • develop student and community ability to create and share more community and cultural educational resources; • work closely with local, regional, and national education authorities to develop and implement technology programs so that initiatives are sustainable and closely integrated into national planning and curriculums. recommendations for further research • utilise both context-specific learning outcome evaluations in addition to standardised national tests to assess student learning results; • investigate further the differential experiences of girls and boys, teachers and administrators, and according to grade level in the impact of technology use; • undertake a longitudinal study which follows the experience and learning results over the course of at least three-years of full implementation. authors’ contribution: field research was led by dr. luis crisostomo and ruben feliciano (m.a.) of ammid [maya-mam association for research and development] in comitancillo, guatemala. dr. adrienne wiebe led data analysis and writing, and dr. terry anderson provided scholarly context and analysis. project staff were: darwin gabriel ramirez (technical coordinator) and leonel lopez perez (pedagogy facilitator). members of the guatemala research team were: adelaida salvador agustín, luis arturo feliciano cardona, francisco mauricio salvador, eliseo miranda salvador, luis fernando feliciano lópez, and yener manuel miranda salvador. text editing in canada was done by carina de micheli. mundo posible provided the technology, as well as technical training and support. funding: this project was generously funded by 60 million girls, a montreal-based public foundation dedicated to promoting girls’ education in developing countries, and change for children, an international development organization, based in edmonton, with over 40 years’ experience in education, water, health, and agriculture in latin america and africa. references anderson, t. (2003). getting the mix right again: an updated and theoretical rationale for interaction. the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 4(2). https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v4i2.149 büchel, k., jakob, m., kühnhanss, c., steffen, d., & brunetti, a. (2020). the relative effectiveness of teachers and learning software: evidence from a field experiment in el salvador. https://ideas.repec.org/p/bss/wpaper/36.html 70 centro de investigaciones educativas (2018). reporte mundo posible. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/59ca7affc027d8c503b12596/t/5c816dd8104c7bc62fc4b463/155198615353 4/reporte+de+investigación+mundo+posible.pdf cohen, d. k., & ball, d. l. (1999). instruction, capacity, and improvement. (cpre research report series). consortium for policy research in education, university of pennsylvania, graduate school of education. philadelphia, pa. conadur (2017). plan nacional de desarrollo k’atun: nuestra guatemala 2032. http://www.segeplan.gob.gt/downloads/plan_nacional_de_desarrollo_katun_2032.pdf cortina, r. (ed.). (2017). indigenous education policy, equity, and intercultural understanding in latin america. palgrave macmillan. cristia, j., ibarrarán, p., cueto, s., santiago, a., & severín, e. (2013). technology and child development: evidence from the one laptop per child program (idb working paper series 304). https://publications.iadb.org/en/technology-and-child-development-evidence-one-laptop-child-program curtis, h., & kellerer. p. (2016). liberia afterschool program: a pilot study using ka-lite in a remote rural county. doceo center, northwest nazarene university. fundación sergio paiz andrade (2016). evaluation report: assessing the use of technology and khan academy to improve educational outcomes in sacatepéquez. https://www.manausconsulting.com/publications/2017/11/23/assessing-the-use-of-technology-and-khanacademy-to-improve-educational-outcomes-in-sacatepquez-guatemala ganimian, a. j., hess, f. m., & vegas, e. (2020). realizing the promise: how can education technology improve learning for all. technical report. brookings institution. https://www.brookings. edu/wpcontent/uploads/2020/08/edtech_playbook_full_v2. pdf. kim, p. h. (2009). action research approach on mobile learning design for the underserved. educational technology research and development, 57(3), 415-435. lai, f., luo, r., zhang, l., huang, x., & rozelle, s. (2015). does computer-assisted learning improve learning outcomes? evidence from a randomized experiment in migrant schools in beijing. journal of economics of education review, 47. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/s027277571500045x lopez, l. e. (2014). indigenous intercultural bilingual education in latin america: widening gaps between policy and practice. in r. cortina (ed.), the education of indigenous citizens of latin america. multilingual matters. ministerio de educación (2014). informe departamental y municipal de primaria 2014. https://www.mineduc.gob.gt/digeduca/documents/informes/2014/informe_dep_primaria2014.pdf ministerio de educación (2018). guatemala en pisa-d. programa internacional de evaluación de estudiantes. https://www.mineduc.gob.gt/digeduca/documents/pisa/informepisadguatemala.pdf media landscapes (2018). guatemala mobile coverage. https://medialandscapes.org/country/guatemala/telecommunications/mobile-coverage munroe, e. a., borden, l. l., orr, a. m., toney, d., & meader, j. (2013). decolonizing aboriginal education in the 21st century. mcgill journal of education, 48(2), 317-338. naslund-hadley, e., varela, a. l., & hepworth, k. a. (2014). what goes on in latin american math and science classrooms: a video study of teaching practices. global education review, 1(3), 110-128. oecd (2017). promising practices in supporting success for indigenous students. https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264279421-en 71 orozco, m., & valdivia, m. (2017). educational challenges in guatemala and consequences for human capital and development. https://www.thedialogue.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/educational-challenges-in-guatemala-andconsequences-for-human-capital-and-development-1.pdf pitchford, n. j. (2015). development of early mathematical skills with a tablet intervention: a randomized control trial in malawi, frontiers in psychology. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00485/full prensa libre (2019). cómo llevar energía eléctrica a las comunidades más aisladas del país, jun 19, 2019, https://www.prensalibre.com/tema/cobertura-electrica-a-comunidades/ sancho-gil, j. m., rivera-vargas, p., & miño-puigcercós, r. (2020). moving beyond the predictable failure of edtech initiatives. learning, media and technology, 45(1), 61-75. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17439884.2019.1666873?journalcode=cjem20 usaid (2013). manual de buenas prácticas en educación bilingüe y intercultural. http://reaula.org/administrador/files/manual%20de%20estrategias%20de%20buenas%20practi cas%20en%20ebi.pdf unesco (2013). strategic approaches on the use of icts in education in latin america and the caribbean. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000223251_eng united nations (2010). briefing note no. 3, gender and indigenous peoples’ education. un office of the special advisor on gender issues and advancement of women, and the secretariat of the un permanent forum on indigenous issues. united nations (2015). transforming our world: the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. van deursen, a. j., & van dijk, j. a. (2019). the first-level digital divide shifts from inequalities in physical access to inequalities in material access. new media & society, 21(2), 354-375. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1461444818797082 world bank (2016). guatemala — country partnership framework for the period fy17-20. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/623141604622180572/guatemala-country-partnershipframework-for-the-period-fy17-20 world bank (2021). the world bank in guatemala. https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/guatemala authors: adrienne wiebe is an applied anthropologist with 40 years’ experience working in community-based research and practice in latin america and canada. she has a phd in anthropology from the university of alberta, and has lived and worked for many years in ecuador, guatemala, and mexico in collaboration with indigenous communities. she is currently international projects manager for change for children, a not-for-profit international development organization based in edmonton, alberta, canada. email: adrienne@changeforchildren.org luis crisostomo has a doctorate in education from the university of costa rica. he is a leader in bilingual and intercultural education, and has worked for the ministry of education of guatemala in the development of curriculum for education in mayan communities throughout the region. email: asoammid@yahoo.com.mx ruben feliciano has a masters' degree in education. he worked in education and community development for over thirty years, including filling the role of executive director of ammid [maya-mam association for research and development], a community-based organization located in comitancillo, san marcos. email: asoammid@yahoo.com.mx 72 terry anderson is an education researcher and teacher, focusing on ict tools in teaching and learning. he is professor emeritus (now retired) having taught in the master’s and doctoral education programs in distance education at athabasca university, canada's open university. he is the editor emeritus of the open access journal, the international review of research on open and distance education (irrodl) and a member of tekri (technology enhanced knowledge research institute) at athabasca university. email: terrydanderson2@gmail.com cite this paper as: wiebe, a., crisostomo, l., feliciano, r. & anderson, t. (2022). comparative advantages of offline digital technology for remote indigenous classrooms in guatemala (2019-2020). journal of learning for development, 9(1), 55-72. microsoft word onesmus.docx issn: 2311-1550 2020, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 423-432 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. hindrance to technologically guided education in kenya secondary schools: a case study of embakasi girls’ school gicheru onesmus jomo kenyatta university, kenya abstract: the covid-19 epidemic has forced education managers and teachers to begin or enhance e-learning mode of education across the world. kenya has not been left behind. this article is geared towards identification of challenges that face technologically based / supported education in schools. keywords: pedagogy, blended education, professional, digital, technological, accessibility, availability, covid-19. introduction the covid-19 epidemic has forced education managers and teachers to begin or enhance the elearning mode of education across the world. kenya has not been left behind. this article is geared towards identification of challenges that face technologically based / supported education. firstly, is the accessibility question. availability of ict systems and devices is limited for most learners, teachers, and parents due to their socio-economic status. even for cases where gadgets and platforms are available, the drive and preference of the owners of devices / systems towards their use for education is not guaranteed. there is also a question of the digital divide, since most kenyan parents and schools do not have internet access or smart phones, even though they may have a mobile device. secondly, is the issue of pedagogy – this implies practice and methodology that best fit the teaching of youthful students. use of technologies in teaching should be done in a professional way by adhering to how instructional materials are prepared, dissemination of the same materials and then fusing them with technology for effective teaching and learning. there are few programmes that address this aspect in a professional way in africa. the screenshot below is an indication of factors that may hinder e-learning education. it was taken from the online training of machakos university tutors. a survey was done where the participants indicated challenges that they may face in their teaching. clearly, students’ readiness to engage, pedagogy and access were their main concerns as shown from the percentages rated for each challenge. 424 figure 1: response from machakos university training participants on the main challenges on e-learning general objective the study sought to find out the main challenges that face digital learning in a typical kenyan secondary school. specific objectives (i) to what extent does the availability and access of digital technologies affect provision of eeducation? (ii) what is the level of professional training towards instructional systems design (isd) in technologies in kenya’s teacher post-primary training institutions? scope the study took a middle-class school for data on access to e-learning resources — where teachers and students were involved for the last four months during the covid-19 period. for pedagogy and professional training, the research sought information from teachers in the same school and observation from their transcripts as far as isd-related courses are concerned. literature review in this section, a literature review based on availability, access and digital pedagogy is discussed. it will shed light on the important factors that guide any e-learning or digital education provision, especially strategies employed during the covid-19 period. 425 e-learning/technology guided education e-learning has no universal agreed-upon definition. however, from the word, we note that the letter ‘e’ stands for electronic. this implies that e-learning is an art of teaching and learning by use of electronic devices that are said to be digital for data transfer. according to ehler (2011) “e-learning (or sometimes electronic learning or e-learning) is a term which may be used to encompass all forms of technology-enhanced learning (tel) or in some cases very specific types of tel such as online or web-based learning. that said, the term does not have a universally accepted definition and there are divides in the e-learning industry about whether a technology-enhanced system can be called elearning, if there is no set pedagogy as some argue e-learning is.“ it is for this reason that the study took any form of education using digital technology as e-learning. availability and access of technologies according to njenga (2020), “the pandemic has accelerated digital transformation and is heavily skewed towards integration of digital technology to a more adaptable fully digitally enabled solution. the collaboration technological adoption of smartphones and computers has aided access to the internet and digital public service thereby helping overcome the current covid-19 related challenges that we never worried about before.” the education sector is one of the sectors that have fallen in line. most countries and institutions have tried to incorporate ict for the new normal but most of them are far from ready, despite the notion expressed by njenga. the importance of any resource becomes relevant to human beings when it is available for use. it therefore follows that availability of learning materials is crucial for success in education. according to jocelyn (2018), “learning materials are crucial to the success of student achievement conversely, lack of the learning resource minimize or block any meaningful teaching and learning”. it is prudent to note that society can only make use of resources when they are available, since no one can make use of what is not there the exposure of any technological resource sometimes alienates users to explore and learn from them. according to (amirault et al, 2012), “limited shelf life of new devices and software in addition to barriers in internal organization hinder universities from effectively and efficiently integrating new technologies.” in fact, you cannot have effective blended or pure digital learning without the accompanying resources. equity is an attribute that should always be a concern when discussing availability of any resources. access to the available technology or resource is a different thing altogether. a resource may be physically there but not accessible for a specific need. for instance, there are people in society who cannot afford internet to access the related information resources. cultural issues and socio-status class in society always brings the digital divide to the fore, and access is not equitable. according to gorski (2015), “like the racial and gender divides, the socio-economic digital divide must be understood in a larger socio-political and socio-historical context.” therefore, digital technologies will always fail to give all members of society even access. this lack of uniformity is passed on to the success quality and scaled learning when digital technologies are deployed for learning and teaching. 426 a report by usawa (ngo), as reported by githinji (2020), points out that “only 22% of children have access to learning through internet, “ and she adds that, “less than 10% of learners in public schools have access of digital learning materials.“ this was a study in kenya on digital learning status. according to john et al (2015) “internet service providers to kenyan universities which include the government owned kenya education network (kenet) should lower further the cost of internet bandwidth to make it more affordable by universities. this can be achieved through more bandwidth cost subsidy by the government to kenyan universities through kenet. adequate internet bandwidth will ensure faster internet connectivity hence facilitating easier access to e-learning”. since most e-learning platforms make use of the internet, the speed and cost usually hinder the access and provision of digital e-learning, and it leads to inadequate learning. other resources apart from the internet as a resource, a good e-learning experience involves a lot more. the basic requirements such as software, text editor, browser, plugins, a pdf reader, a webcam, headset and ftp client are all items that come with some cost. if one goes on listing more tools for technologically guided learning, then we have tools like projectors, video cameras, printers, scanners and loudspeakers/microphones. it is therefore evident that even starting e-learning at a basic level, there would be some cost involved. instructional systems design any good and effective digital or technologically-based learning comes with a suitable instructional design (id) or instructional systems design (isd). this is basically a practice of systematically designing, developing and delivering instructional products and experiences both digital and physical in a consistent and reliable manner. for example, andrea (2018) observes, ”there has been a number of instructional design models and processes defined through the years but only a few have widely been accepted and implemented by most instructional design practitioners.” this is an area that requires tutors and educationists to be well-equipped with appropriate pedagogy, as discussed in this study report. professional pedagogy in e-learning good instructional design using digital technologies requires training of tutors to get the right methods and authority tools for their specific areas. indeed, putting educational resources online or even offline (synchronous or asynchronous) without the right pedagogy leads to having learning that is incoherent and of poor quality. according to brendon et al (2018), “there are nearly 300,000 teachers across australia. they need access to ict improvement for classroom implementation and to keep up with continuous technological advances. this needs to be regular, scaffolded and sustainable”. most institutions in kenya, and probably in most of sub-saharan countries, were caught off-guard by the campus closures and they rushed to quick-fix programmes to offer online education. many staff were professionally unprepared for this shift in pedagogy. as noted by mehlinger and powers (2020): “according to the association for educational communications and technology, one of the principal professional associations representing educational technologists, ‘instructional technology is a complex, integrated process involving people, procedure, ideas, devices and organization for analyzing problems and devising, implementing, evaluating and managing solutions in which learning is purposive and controlled (p.4).” 427 according to commlab india, “instructional design strategies and their importance in e-learning design. an instructional design strategy is a high-level approach of how a particular subject will be taught. it encompasses the methods techniques and devices used to instruct learners”. it is therefore clear that a well-thought-out technological learning strategy will be needed to deliver the intended learning outcome. importantly, for example, a tutor must be able to involve learners actively online, where there is no face-toface interaction. as teachers, we know that curriculum development involves making decisions about what students will learn, while instructional design involves decisions about how students will learn it. they are related but not synonymous. this aspect of expertise is important as hulimann, march and rogers (2013) observe, “curriculum development is central to teaching quality. yet as research has shown, it is rarely given priority in university departments.” gautam (2020) opines, from an e-learning industry perspective, that “migrating existing classroom training programs to an all-digital avatar calls for effort, beyond the mere application of existing technology solutions, in order to offer virtual learning. rather, they represent a more fundamental rethinking of the learning experience to enable collaborative, interactive social learning experiences for groups of learners.“ factors that may be barriers to digital learning from the same article are ”budgetary constraints due to economic instability, lack of infrastructure, and most importantly, unavailability of e-learning content and trainers with remote training expertise”. the swift change affected many countries, even the developed countries faced challenges, because even if one had addressed some of the factors, others may still have been missing. methods sampling the study focused on an ‘average’ school located between a slum and a middle-class residence. it was envisaged that the data collected would represent the majority of socio-economic contexts from where the students came, and that this snapshot could provide insight into the bigger picture of the status of kenya secondary schools’ preparedness status for digital learning. the study used purposive stratified random sampling to get its data. • data was collected from whatsapp assignment groups. observation of records was key. the participants for the whatsapp assignment groups were noted and the number of the participants recorded. the number of the students was extracted from the school register. the records from education units were recorded from different teachers’ transcripts. 428 figure 2: a sample screenshot of a whatsapp participants forum for form 3 learners • phone interviews were also undertaken for two categories of the population. teachers were called for information on the college or university they attended. the other important phone interviews were done for the randomly selected students from the whatsapp participants groups at each level, that is, from form one to form four. the students were asked whether they had accessed assignments sent by the teachers and the state of their completion. table 1: a sample question for students the methods used were convenient during the current covid-19 period as both methods avoided physical and social interactions. the only limitation is that some of the answers relied on the honesty of the respondents. the researcher’s professional manner sought to reduce any anxiety which might cause respondents to be dishonest. results and data analysis content accessibility the study obtained results that were analysed using three tables, as shown below. table 2: whatsapp percentage of students in the school stream no. of students no. of students in whatsapp % form 1 200 105 53 form 2 220 74 34 form 3 210 120 57 form 4 135 64 47 total 765 363 47 the table above shows the number of the students in the school who were involved in the study. it was done per form level. in addition, the table indicates the students who were on whatsapp groups used by teachers to send assignments. a percentage of the whatsapp members against the total number of students per form level was calculated. it was evident that the students who were in the form level students name accessed and did assignments (yes/no) 429 whatsapp groups were less than the school population. not all students had access to a smart phone able to access whatsapp. table 3: analysis of students who did the assignments stream no. of students in whatsapp students interviewed assignment done/accessed % who did assignment form 1 105 11 2 18 form 2 74 8 4 50 form 3 120 12 4 33 form 4 64 9 2 22 363 40 12 30 the study proceeded to get the percentage of students who accessed and did the assignment. it narrowed down to the students who were in a whatsapp group. for any form, the number of students interviewed was above an average of ten percent for the whatsapp groups in order to have a good population sample size. table 4: overall analysis of assignment access for all stream no. of students assignment done/accessed % form 1 200 2 1.00 form 2 220 4 1.82 form 3 210 4 1.90 form 4 135 2 1.48 overall 765 12 1.57 the table above, compared the percentage of assignments done against the whole school population. clearly, the whole idea of access to the technologically-based education solution for this school was far below optimum. it brings to the fore that teaching high school youth from an average socioeconomic class of society using mobile technology is quite a tall order. there may be more reasons for this but the key thing illustrated by these results is that access to technology, and the content attached to it, is a big challenge for the developing countries at this period of covid 19. in fact, the shortcomings of this approach are depicted by the bar chart below. 430 figure 3: access comparison so, although access to mobile technology is growing, we cannot assume that all students have access to smart mobiles nor that they will have the data, skills or desire to use the technology even if they have it. this then speaks to how teachers motivate and support the students to use the technology they have. how prepared are teachers for mobile pedagogy? pedagogy pedagogy training is very important for the success of any form of teaching. all training institutions should be able to adhere to international standards for professional pedagogy. in this study, ten universities from where teachers from the school under study trained were identified. by examining the teacher’s education units from their transcripts, it was observed that only one university had a full course and units for an instructional system design module, as indicated by the table below. table 5: number of isd units in teachers training institutions university no. of isd units (education) machakos 0 kenyatta 0 nairobi 0 kttc 0 nttc 0 mt. kenya 0 jomo kenyatta 1 riara 0 moi 0 karatina 0 total 1 % 10 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 form 1 form 2 form 3 form 4 overall access comparision no.of students assigment done/accessed % 431 conclusion provision of ict resources to secondary schools and using professional pedagogy in sub-saharan africa is a big challenge, especially during the current pandemic-covid-19. there is need to restructure and make the necessary policies that should include funding to schools towards ict integration in education. the results from the study show an alarming level of poor ict penetration among kenyan students in a typical school. it is made worse by lack of expertise of tutors who are expected to author and deliver content to the technologically-deprived learners. digital devices and access to internet are paramount for quality and quantity of learning content. professional pedagogy is needed for proper direction and stimulation for digital learning. this helps the learner to engage in a friendly and frequent manner while maintaining a high level of skills attainment. although this study was limited to a single school, and might usefully be extended to a larger sample of schools, the fairly ‘typical’ nature of this school does suggest that there may be some systems challenges that need to be addressed. all training institutions need to include instructional systems design (isd) in their teacher education programmes. well-designed and implemented isd training equips the teacher with the twenty first century (21st century) skills: collaboration, creativity, critical thinking and communication. these skills are essential across all professions. the ministry of education (moe), teachers’ service commission (tsc) and the kenya institute of curriculum development (kicd), universities and teachers’ training colleges should have a joint consortium to re-evaluate the current education framework for future planning and delivery of ict blended education. evidently, covid-19 has exposed our education system’s ict underbellies. however, there is a silver lining — having learned from the current experience, countries can now work towards and invest in a professional and stable instructional systems design environment for the future. acknowledgement: i would like to convey my gratitude to the students, teachers and school institutions administrators who provided me with information for this article. i also thank my family for their psychological support during the entire period of study. and to the almighty god, thanks so much for everything. references andrea, m. (2018). instructional design models: comparing addie, bloom, gagne & merril. dashe & thomson, inc. https://www.dashe.com/blog commlab bloggers. (2018, january 5). instructional design strategies and their importance in e-learning design. commlab india. https://blog.commlabindia.com/e-learning-design/instructional-design-strategy-importance-in-e-learning ehler, u.d. (2011). handbook of research of information communication technology policy: trends, issues and advancements (vol. 2). delta state university. doi: 10.4018/978-1-161520-847-0 gautam, a. (2020, june 12). is covid-19 disrupting online learning for good? e-learning industry blog. https://elearningindustry.com/covid-19-disrupting-online-learning gorski, p. (2015) education equity and the digital divide. aace, journal, 13(1). hyndman, b. (2018, august 15). ten reasons teachers can struggle to use technology in classroom. charles sturt university. https://news.edu.au/3172970/features/society/ 432 jocelyn, r. (2018, june 27). the importance of learning materials: the classroom. https://www.theclassroom.com/importance-learning-materials-teaching-662885.html john, k. t., & alex, m. m. (2015). challenges of implementing e-learning in kenya: a case of kenyan public universities. international review of research in open and distance learning, 16(1). doi:10.191.73/irrodl.v16i1.1816 mehlinger, h. d., & powers, s. m. (2020). technology in education. https://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2495/technology-in-education-school.html njenga, g. (2020, july 13). digital transformation amid covid-19. the standard. https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/commentary/article/2001378655/digital-transformation-amid-covid 19. author: gicheru onesmus is an educational technology and communication lecturer at machakos university, kenya and an education integration and instructional design lecturer at jomo kenyatta university, kenya. he has an m.sc. in ict and instructional design and a b.ed (science). he was a physics and computer teacher for many years in kenyan public secondary schools. email: gicheruones@gmail.com cite this paper as: onesmus, g. (2020). hindrance to technologically guided education in kenya secondary schools: a case study of embakasi girls’ school. journal of learning for development, 7(3), 423-432. microsoft word porter.docx issn: 2311-1550 2021, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 469-472 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. book review an introduction to distance education: understanding teaching and learning in a new era m. f. cleveland-innes & d. r. garrison (eds.) routledge, 2021, pp. 296 the second edition of this textbook on distance education is a book of essays by well-known canadian distance education scholars and their colleagues from australia, new zealand, spain, sweden, and the united states. some of the authors appeared in the original 2010 edition of the text, and because their work is noted as seminal by the editors, they provide updated views on their research and its implications within the current educational context. the second edition, like the original, is organized in chapters nested under four themes, with a lively foreword written by richard a. schwier, professor emeritus from the university of saskatchewan. as a textbook designed to support a course on distance education, it is well organized with concept definitions in each chapter and questions for reflection, review, and discussion. in addition, a “significant contributor” is highlighted at the close of each chapter, with a brief summary of their contributions to distance education theory and practice. the organization of the book is as follows: the foreword: an attendant posture part i an evolving distance education 1. teaching and learning in distance education: continue a new era 2. from independence to collaboration: a personal retrospective on distance education 3. formal and informal paths of lifelong learning: hybrid distance educational settings for the digital era 4. failures of open and distance education’s successes part ii distance education in the post-industrial context 5. teaching and learning in post-industrial distance education 6. into the breach: the emerging landscape in online learning 7. blended learning revisited 8. 8. repositioning and re-purposing distance education for the future 470 part iii leading the change 9. leadership in a new era of distance higher education 10. from distance education to blended learning: leading pedagogical change part iv summary and conclusions 11. teaching, learning, and beyond before reviewing this new edition of an introduction to distance education: understanding teaching and learning in a new era, i searched out reviews of the previous edition, published in 2010. i found a “preliminary review” by tony bates on his websitei and bookmarked it for consideration after i had finished reading the updated 2021 edition. as a textbook, the editors have done an exemplary job of assembling essays reflecting commentary on significant topics along with accompanying research by the chapter authors to trace the history of distance education as a domain of practice. it is important to note that distance education as experienced by the authors and highlighted through the research they present, pre-dates many contemporary approaches to distance education that also enable access, choice, and flexibility for students through online learning, networked learning, and specialized forms of digital learning, such as moocs. the authors set out to use their historical views of distance education to probe the relationship between distance education theories and the evolution of practice that is occurring in a dynamically changing digital environment. the problem for me as a reviewer was the scarcity of research citations beyond 2015, with the majority of the research cited coming from pre-2010, and primarily focused on theory without many contemporary practice examples that would have made the second edition of the text seem a better fit in my experience. much of distance education is practice oriented, with changes occurring through practitioner research, combined with new opportunities presented by technological innovations that cause us to think and act in new ways. i note that tony bates offered a similar critique of the lack of balance between theory and practice in his preliminary review of the 2010 edition. it is as if theory is the only driver of distance education practice, while in 2021 it might actually be the reverse. the dynamism and messiness of emergent agile approaches to online and flexible learning have been highlighted over the past years and especially in the last two years when institutions, faculty, and students adjusted through necessity to online learning as a mainstream practice. in that sense, the second edition is a useful contribution as a text and as a reference for practitioners engaged in ongoing action and innovation, as well as a reflection and review opportunity to assess how their interventions square with historic research. as an example, the community of inquiry (coi) framework (garrison, 2017), has been used extensively to examine distance education, blended learning, and online learning. it remains a topic of contemporary discussion about the design of technology-enabled learning programs and has retained its value. but, what comes after coi as theory in the space? two of the most interesting sections of the book are the chapter on learning analytics, ai, and blockchain technologies, written by phil ice and melissa layne, and the foreword by rick schwier. 471 the chapter on artificial intelligence (ai) by ice and layne is both illuminating and scary at the same time. the authors provide a succinct review of developments in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning, as well as discussions of learning analytics and their application. topics such as student retention, career planning, and performance tracking are linked to analytics and ai techniques, as well as to institutional funding and economics. while the economic linkages may not be the first thing that comes to mind for practising distance educators or researchers, the topics are clearly important to many administrators charged with managing public funds and maximizing the benefits of education in systems where there are insufficient places for learners in conventional institutions. ice and layne end their chapter with considerations of secure and immutable records of learning, the stuff of digital micro-credentialing, an emergent priority for many governments seeking to provide reskilling and up-skilling opportunities for their citizens. the rise of blockchain thinking in education and its convergence with oer-based resources for online learning sets up an interesting conclusion to the chapter and provides a set of issues for further discussion, which the chapter questions underscore. the foreword to the second edition of the book makes it clear that much has changed in the world of distance educators since the 2010 edition, but much also remains the same. schwier recommends that we use perspective to review what has gone before, learn from the research, and consider the tensions that exist in the apparent stasis of some organizations towards accepting the legitimacy of online and distance education, while the world moves forward at a pace, and issues such as equity and access to education remain. in the foreword, schwier also recommends chapter 11 by cleveland-innes and garrison as a starting point to reading the entire volume, despite the fact that it is the reflective organizer that the textbook’s editors would like you to consider as an exit and springboard to further thinking. in a sense, chapter 11 could be the beginning of a next volume in the series which could focus on the growing dominance of online learning as a mechanism to bridge distance and time, while also providing opportunities for design creativity through innovative learning practices and practitioners. i for one would like to hear far more practitioner voices in any future book. in summary, the book provides a strong grounding in the theory of distance education and the crossover points between those theories and affordances of online learning and newer developments such as ai, learning analytics, and blockchain technologies – all of which will have implications for educational practice and will in turn spawn new theories that will arise from these innovative developments and practices reviewed by: david porter is the principal consultant at dp+associates and the book review editor for the jl4d. email: david@dpassociates.ca 472 cite this paper as: porter, d. (2021). book review: an introduction to distance education: understanding teaching and learning in a new era. m. f. cleveland-innes & d. r. garrison (eds.). journal of learning for development, 8(2), 469-472. i bates, a.j. (2010. preliminary book review: an introduction to distance education. april 19, 2010. https://www.tonybates.ca/2010/04/19/preliminary-book-review-an-introduction-to-distance-education/ microsoft word nyangara.docx issn: 2311-1550 2023, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 134-138 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. 134 book review the encyclopedia of female pioneers in online learning susan bainbridge and norine wark routledge 2023, new york, pp. 522, isbn:978-1-032-23035-1 the encyclopedia of female pioneers in online learning is a fascinating compilation about the work of thirty leading educational experts who have lived and worked in eighteen countries across the globe. their knowledge and contribution to the field has shaped and improved how people learn online. the women in this book were some of the first to introduce new ideas, concepts and applications in distance education and online learning, and they continue to contribute to distance education, elearning and open and distance learning. as strong proponents for phenomenology, the authors, bainbridge and wark, have given these women a platform to share their subjective interpretation of experiences as pioneers in online learning. bainbridge and wark contend that the contributions of female pioneers to the development of online learning have traditionally been missing in literary references and so they set out to conduct research to confirm the validity of their speculations. they concluded that literature on female pioneers in online learning appeared as “a paragraph or two” in journal articles, “a single podcast” and largely on educational institution faculty web pages. they agreed that this was an injustice that needed correcting and initially thought to write a reference book but chose instead to honor the voices of the women. given that a great number of the pioneers were, at the time, still alive, they preferred to let the women tell their stories in person. the result is an encyclopedia that has something for everyone. it introduces female pioneers in online learning to historians, writers, educators, students and journalists, in an easy to access handbook. the data from the interviews and the authors’ analysis of this data offers researchers and scholars a critique of perspectives, experiences and contributions made by female pioneers and thought for future research. any internet search for interview-based books yields a long list of books based on a single famous person; this encyclopedia is a rich 30-person interview repository. in terms of genre and subject matter, the closest volume is the encyclopedia of distance learning, 2nd ed. (rogers et al., 2009). while an excellent rendition, the encyclopedia of distance learning focuses on trends, topics and technologies with an emphasis on emerging trends. the more than 100 research articles add to the body of literature but the reader ends up with no better understanding of the renowned experts who wrote the articles. bainbridge and wark have it the other way around. the autobiographical approach has been tweaked to amplify the voices of female pioneers in a way that is unique and refreshing. they introduce readers to the person, allow each pioneer to tell her story, and only then provide readers with a list of 135 publications, and research articles. an embedded youtube link and qr code allow the reader to listen to each recorded interview, bringing the reader even closer to the pioneer. the book is organised into two main parts. part one, chapter 1, “initial thoughts” is an introductory chapter focusing on the background, aim, scope, content and structure of the encyclopedia. part two begins at chapter 32 and is set out in the form of a conventional thesis, explaining the methodological and analytical processes undertaken by the authors. chapter 1 explains how the thirty women included in the book were selected. firstly, the authors agreed on the definition of a “pioneer” and the scope of time in which one could be considered a pioneer. potential candidates had to fit the profile of a founder/trailblazer, leader, researcher/writer who initiated their activities between 1970 and 2000. bainbridge and wark argue that if a woman chosen began her pioneering activity after 2000 it was likely because online learning had already been introduced into her country, or because she had introduced an activity new to her context. the women selected were also asked to suggest the names of other females who could potentially be included in the book. in discussing their selection, bainbridge and wark make an interesting statement regarding what they refer to as the “historical pattern of development in online learning”. the pioneers were selected based on their ability to communicate in english. the authors link this ability to communicate in english to the internet and expansion of the world wide web which began in north america and spread to other countries. i find this link presents a jarring note as it seems to assume that pioneering work in online learning was only possible in english-speaking countries. one wonders whether greater effort could have been made to find pioneers in non-english speaking countries to provide a richer and more diverse perspective, perhaps even challenging the historical pattern mentioned earlier. chapters 2 to 31 present the detailed transcripts of interviews conducted with each pioneer. the chapters present the pioneers in alphabetical order, weaving a story from past to present as the reader follows each woman on her journey. the same set of 14 questions was used for all interviews, allowing for the collection of comparable data. a question asking the pioneers to discuss any interesting memories or thoughts that they wanted to share with other stakeholders yielded answers that are as varied as the pioneers’ own journeys and perceptions, giving a rich depth to the standard interview questions. the chapters begin with a photograph and biography of the pioneer, revealing a rich diversity of educational backgrounds ranging from agriculture to psychology. the common thread in these backgrounds is that pioneers in online learning did not necessarily have any training in the field; they went on to acquire their knowledge and passion and skill through further studies, work and professional experiences. on page 417, bainbridge and wark state that three-quarters (74.1%) of the pioneers interviewed had educational backgrounds not connected to distance learning, education or technology. a logical explanation given is that when many of these women were students, online learning was non-existent, and the use of information and communication technologies was not widespread in education. only four of the pioneers had any experience as a distance education learner prior to working in the field, making their work as educators more extraordinary. 136 each pioneer discusses the circumstances that led her into distance education, and the state of distance education when she entered the field. social justice is rated as the highest initiator. the pioneers stated they were interested in dealing with issues such as learner support, marginalised groups, adult education and education for women. they were further influenced by female colleagues, leaders and mentors, although eleven pioneers indicated no one piqued their interest in online learning. in exploring the experiences of the pioneers, bainbridge and wark looked at the challenges the women encountered in the field of distance education over the years. the biggest challenge was acceptance or understanding. since distance education was not the norm, they faced both personal challenges, such as credibility and gender bias, as well as institutional challenges ranging from funding and developing systems, to overcoming institutional skepticism. all the pioneers went on to influence developments in online learning not just in their own countries, but in diverse institutions all over the globe. when asked what accomplishments in the field of distance education they wished to share, the pioneers’ answers demonstrate why they deserve this accolade. they have set up or upgraded learning centres, developed and implemented new programmes and courses, researched, written and published and collaborated internally in their institutions and countries, and externally with institutions beyond their borders. the greatest changes mentioned over time with regard to online learning include advances in technology, changes in the distance education model and moving fully online. other notable changes were acceptance and understanding and research in online learning. the research interests mentioned include computermediated communication, policy and governance, learner autonomy and open educational resources. it is worth noting as an overview of the biographical section of this encyclopedia that bainbridge and wark compare each transcript to others in the encyclopedia. this comparison allows the reader to see the similarities and differences across the parent themes. fourteen parent codes were identified and are presented in the order of most discussed to least discussed: background, benefits of distance learning, learning environment, challenges, accomplishments, changes over time, research interests, goals, interesting memories, early founders, others for the book, career history, final thoughts and gender general comments. some did not respond to all the questions, or in some instances gave very brief answers. as a result, some interview transcripts are much longer than others. traditional scientific rigor would have omitted incomplete transcripts but, in keeping with a phenomenological approach, the authors have published what they were given, resulting in an authentic and believable compilation. part two of the encyclopedia of female pioneers in online learning will be of interest primarily to scholars and researchers who wish to thoroughly understand the process of data collection and analysis that resulted in this volume. chapter 32, “analysis of interviews,” reads like a 48-page conventional thesis, a richly detailed description of the process the authors took on to create this book. the chapter begins with a discussion and definition of terms. it is interesting to note that the authors did not force a single definition of online learning on their respondents; rather, they allowed interviewees to interchangeably use the terms distance education, computer-mediated communication, open and distance learning, and online learning as these terms have evolved over time and are used differently in various contexts. the authors did set out criteria for inclusion as a pioneer, encompassing the following key terms: founders, leaders, researchers, writers. 137 qualitative research methodology was selected to collect and analyse data. while the interview script was in english, it was altered slightly for those for whom english is a second language. in the transcripts the authors are careful to show for which pioneers the interviews were not in english. it is in keeping with the theme of online learning that only one interview was conducted in person; the rest were either in a telephone or virtual meeting. the interviews were conducted between 2018 and 2019. the section on selection of respondents in this chapter is a detailed explanation of how the candidates’ list was developed and the inclusion and exclusion criteria that resulted in 30 pioneers. the reader is reminded that earlier in chapter 1 bainbridge and wark mentioned that they initially thought to write a reference book from secondary sources and ended up employing a two-phase snowball sampling strategy. the exhaustive process is a clear indicator that the pioneers we read about in this volume are at the top of their field. the rest of the chapter discusses the data analysis process, results, coding themes, background of where the respondents work or had worked and includes helpful visuals that summarise the dataheavy information. the authors discuss each of the 14 parent codes, giving an in-depth analysis of the sub-themes (child, grand-child and great grandchild codes) generated from each. researchers interested in qualitative analysis will find the discussion informative, while quantitative researchers and general readers will benefit from the explanation of codes and units in the section titled data analysis process. three of the parent codes were emergent, while two other parent codes, technology and gender, cut across most of the parent codes. bainbridge and wark discuss these emergent issues, illustrating their explanation with interview quotations and literary references. in concluding chapter 32, the data analysis process is well summarised. it presents the reader with the authors’ perceptions of the findings and is useful for a reader who may not want to read through the entire chapter; however, it offers little in the way of conclusions. this candid look at the research limitations is refreshing. the authors acknowledge that reliance on the english language limited access to potential candidates, and scarcity of resources made it difficult to identify candidates. one improvement that may have increased ease of use was to give readers a timeline. the authors chose to present the pioneers alphabetically. since the women all worked from 1970 to 2000, a timeline summary could have been included. this would have given readers a fresh perspective of the contributions over time, of each of these pioneers. final thoughts are offered in chapter 33. the recap begins by presenting a summary of the key findings, key implications for stakeholders, and future research. researchers taking up the future research questions already have a rich resource in this encyclopedia, not only in the interviews conducted but also in the papers, articles and books attributed to each pioneer and the references provided by the authors. one begins reading the encyclopedia of female pioneers in online learning expecting bare facts and data. but from the very beginning the reader is drawn into the individual lives of these incredible women — their successes as well as their challenges. bainbridge and wark have given visibility to 30 women’s voices and faces. by asking the pioneers they interviewed to suggest names of other women that could be included in the book, bainbridge and wark ended up with a list of potential candidates for future 138 consideration. this offers readers the hope that volume ii of this incredible encyclopedia is in the planning. reviewed by: dr karen nyangara is adviser: gender at the commonwealth of learning. email: knyangara@col.org cite this paper as: nyangara, k. (2023). book review: the encyclopedia of female pioneers in online learning. journal of learning for development, 10(1), 134-138. microsoft word haynes-brown.docx issn: 2311-1550 2023, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 312-315 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. book review becoming an effective teacher: a teaching reference book for teachers, teacher educators and student teachers a competency based curriculum (cbc) support florence kisirkoi and michelle d. cude kenya literature bureau, nairobi, 2021, pp. 203. isbn 978-9914-40-0000 the book becoming an effective teacher by kisirkoi and cude (2021) is a good resource text written for pre-service and in-service teachers and teacher educators. using a mix of theoretical and practical discourse, the authors of the book focus specifically on a key ingredient needed for effective teaching and learning in the 21st century, that is enabling teachers and teacher educators to conceptualise their classrooms in more student-centred ways. to dissect this very complex topic, the book is divided into three broad themes: i) the teaching profession, ii) learner-centred methods of teaching, and iii) towards teacher professional development, with 16 chapters. the chapters presented under each theme provide a focus on different yet critical components of the themes. through this approach both teachers and teacher educators are provided with a balanced discussion of how each component of teaching is connected such that the ultimate goal of becoming more prepared to address the changing needs of the 21st-century student is achieved through the application of student-centred teaching methods. at the end of each chapter questions are presented to prompt the reader to pause, review and reflect on the key issues addressed in the chapter. a useful list of references is presented at the end of each chapter. these features make it easy for teacher educators to integrate the content as reference material for courses being taught at the teachers’ college level and for student-teachers’ independent exploration of the content. under the first theme, entitled the teaching profession, there are three important chapters. the first chapter delineates the authors’ position on the importance of teachers and the profession of teaching with a call for fair remuneration and greater levels of esteem for the profession owing to the heavy role played by teachers in shaping future generations. the chapter also presents the overarching purpose of the book and definitions are also presented at the end of the chapter to provide readers with a clear understanding of the key stakeholders involved in the process of teaching and learning at various levels in the local context. chapter 2 focusses on defining teaching and the qualities of an effective teacher. the authors explore the concepts of what is entailed in teaching and the qualities of effective teachers in an integrated manner that illustrates the complex task of teaching and the importance of demonstrating effectiveness as a teacher regardless of the situation and circumstances. chapter 3 outlines the key features of effective teacher education programmes aligned with providing 313 a better understanding of the critical role of the teacher educator to the student-teachers’ preparation and success. in this chapter, the authors also consider the contentious issue of who has the right to play the role of supervisor. they contend that “those who do not prepare student teachers …should not play the role of teaching practice supervisor and assessor. they have no moral right to do so” (p. 25). chapter 3 ends with a focus on modelling student-centred practices in teacher preparation programmes supported by a case study with practical examples. the issues raised in these first three chapters have been cause for concern and debate in teacher education circles for decades and were appropriately broached for consideration and discussion as part of the theme. the second theme explores the concept of learner-centred methods of teaching coupled with active and experiential learning. the first chapter under theme two, chapter 4, provides an overview of the learner-centred approach, active learning approach and experiential learning. building on this broad understanding of effective approaches to teaching and learning, chapter 5 addresses in a very practical manner, the issue of the lecture method, a staple in teacher preparation programmes that often fails to model learner-centred teaching. while the authors highlight the deficiencies of the lecture method, they do not disregard it as an important method of teaching, rather, they provide practical suggestions on how to improve the lecture method to make it more “responsive to students, more engaging and more relevant” (p. 39). chapters 6, 7 and 8 under this theme emphasise practical methods of teaching embedded in a learnercentred approach. these chapters focus on questioning, discussion and groupwork methods, respectively. the authors expound on the role of each of these methods in teaching, and the theoretical base guiding their development and use. the discussion of these methods is supported by concrete examples of activities that can be designed and implemented in the classroom to achieve more learnercentred teaching. chapter 9 deals with experiential learning and introduces specific methods that can be used to support experiential learning: problem-based learning, simulations, roleplays, miming and dramatisation. in covering problem-based learning and role plays, useful examples of how they can be used in teaching are provided. chapter 10 speaks to the issue of assessment by providing various methods of assessment that can be applied for both formative and summative purposes. these methods are presented in support of the authors’ view that teachers must be continuously gauging the extent that learners are grasping the concepts being taught. some of the methods presented are quick and easy ways of checking students’ progress, while others are grounded in providing teachers with a deeper understanding of assessment through the use of activities such as portfolios and performance-based tasks. the chapter also deals with designing good assessments through a focus on developing rubrics and test construction. the wide array of topics covered in this chapter make it a good starting point for teachers and teacher educators to begin to develop a good understanding of effective assessment practices. chapter 11 is focused on another critical component needed for teacher effectiveness, specifically, the use of teaching and learning resources as tools for facilitating active learner-centred classrooms. the chapter presents an overview of a variety of learning resources that can be used, guidelines for 314 identifying or developing them as well as possible applications in lesson delivery. again, through these concrete examples, teacher educators and student-teachers alike are provided with clear illustrations of how to make their lessons more student-centred and effective. although technology falls under the category of resources, the authors appropriately present technology resources as a broad heading in the latter segment of the chapter. the use of educational technology resources is presented as critical in facilitating and advancing students’ learning. the authors provide muchneeded guidance on how various technological resources can be integrated in the teaching and learning processes, and possible challenges that teachers may encounter as they attempt to integrate these resources in their teaching. by presenting not just the benefits but some of the possible challenges they communicate an acknowledgement that educational technology is not a panacea for achieving teaching effectiveness but, rather, a tool that must be integrated with careful thought and planning. the final chapter under theme two is titled “how to be an effective teacher: a vision of learner centred teaching in action”. as the title suggests, in chapter 12 the authors demonstrate how the different theories and methods discussed in the preceding chapters are connected to create active learner-centred effectiveness in the classroom. this is accomplished through a discussion of elements of effective teaching and examples of methods that can be used to engage learners and sustain their interest. this chapter provides case studies with real-life examples that focus on how to use different teaching strategies for learning-centred teaching. this chapter is also rich in opportunities for the reader to review and reflect through a series of questions presented at the end of different subtopics addressed in the chapter. the third and final theme in this book is titled towards teacher professionalism. through a discussion of various topics in chapters 13, 14 and 15, the authors seek to outline the steps involved in the process of becoming a professional teacher, ranging from activities and document preparation that are required for beginning teachers, to the roles of teacher educators in supporting teachers on their journey into teaching through microteaching and practicum exercises. the book concludes with a discussion of the importance of professional development for lifelong learning for teachers in chapter 16. the authors address critical issues that neophyte teachers face as they enter the classroom this contribution would be even greater if the authors were to make it available as an open textbook, thereby providing student-teachers, teachers and teacher educators the opportunity to customise this valuable resource for specific courses and contexts. reviewed by: dr tashane haynes-brown is a lecturer in teacher education at the university of the west indies, jamaica. she serves as coordinator for the master’s in teacher education programme and coordinator of undergraduate programmes in the school of education. email: tashane.haynesbrown@uwimona.edu.jm / tashane.haynesbrown@gmail.com 315 cite this paper as: haynes-brown, t. (2023). book review. becoming an effective teacher: a teaching reference book for teachers, teacher educators and student teachers. a competency based curriculum (cbc) support. journal of learning for development, 10(2), 312-315. microsoft word josua.docx issn: 2311-1550 2023, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 109-121 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. technology as a key driver in enhancing scientific education during the covid-19 era at the university of namibia saara kanyemba1 and lukas matati josua2 1university of namibia, windhoek, namibia 2university of namibia, oshakati, namibia abstract: student profiling on the use of technology for teaching, learning and assessment has the potential to enable educators to enhance their transformational teaching strategies. therefore, this study explored the views of students on use of technology to facilitate online learning during covid-19. the study employed a quantitative approach to collect data using a google form questionnaire. nineteen conveniently sampled respondents (38%) were drawn from a population of 50 students registered for first-year bsc microbiology and bsc environmental biology in 2021. the collected data was analysed through descriptive statistics using microsoft excel 2010. the findings revealed that during online learning some students (63%) experienced challenges related to subject knowledge acquisition. a majority of the students (84%) preferred face-to-face or blended teaching learning and assessment to ensure pedagogic access. it is concluded that students’ exposure to online learning helped improve skills, such as typing (79%), internet information searching (95%) and general computer skills (89%). thus, it is recommended that academics and students should be assisted with training, and higher education curricula should encourage the use of digital technology, which prepares students to be relevant in the digital society. keywords: technology, science, online pedagogies, face-to-face teaching, covid-19, digital learning. introduction the lock-down measures taken to contain the coronavirus disease of 2019 (covid-19) led to the disruption of traditional face-to-face epistemologies. this prompted institutions of higher learning to shift teaching to online instructional methods, as an alternative to enable the continuation of academic activities. academic institutions were, however, caught off guard in terms of technology use, thus, both lecturers and students needed to acquaint themselves with the new normal of online pedagogies. although the use of technology in education dates back to the 1960s, it was not until the emergence of covid-19 that online teaching, learning and assessment became a norm for many academic institutions (akram et al., 2021; kaisara, & bwalya, 2021). the measures taken by countries all over the world to contain the virus drastically challenged traditional approaches to teaching and learning (kadhila & nyambe, 2021). consequently, the onset of the covid-19 pandemic led to the collapsing of traditional face-to-face education systems from junior level to tertiary level, especially during the lockdown period which began in 2020 (mishra et al., 2020). it was such major changes which prompted decision makers in the namibian education setting to consider the online teaching, learning and assessment pedagogies as alternative ways of moving forward academically. 110 as much of a relief as it was, the shifting of academic activities to online provision was both an enabling and a constraining factor, given that academic institutions were caught off guard technologically. for example, some institutions in sub-saharan africa did not have the already established platforms that can be used to facilitate online learning (koninckx et al., 2021; mashau, & nyawo, 2021). in addition, institutions were also not prepared in terms of their human capital, as lecturers had to acquaint themselves with online technological facilities to be able to carry out online teaching (faturoti, 2022). moreover, students also needed to familiarise themselves with online learning platforms or tools, upgrade their computer skills, ensure that they had access to the internet all the time, etc. this was a challenge, as shifting to online came with the assumption that educational institutions had all the capacity and infrastructure necessary to ensure the undisturbed progression of remote/online teaching and learning (tshiningayamwe et al., 2020). however, this was not the case as explained above. among technologies that are playing a role in education is information and communication technology (ict), which provides information through telecommunication (ratheeswari, 2018). in the past, however, so many drawbacks limited the transformation of academic activities to online, and these included ict barriers as well as both digital and equipment barriers (ali et al., 2018; mohamedbhai, 2020). this is because, harnessing ict to improve learning requires that students and teachers have adequate access to digital technologies and the internet in their classrooms, thus, allowing the availability of high quality and culturally responsive digital content (ratheeswari, 2018). there are currently many different computer-based learning platforms and delivery methods available, including multimedia, educational programming, simulations, games, and the usage of new media on fixed and mobile platforms, which are used as approaches to online learning and are thus applicable to all subject areas (urdan & weggen, 2000). however, the use of most of these platforms has only been common among distance learning students who have no access to the traditional faceface classroom (keengwe & kidd, 2010). this paper presents the views from the experiences imposed by online teaching, learning and assessment, on a group of science students enrolled for the module cell molecular biology and genetics during the first semester of 2022. these students were in their second year of study at the time they filled out the questionnaire for this research, which means these are students who started their university life (the 2021 academic year) completely online and were thus considered to be in a better position to complete this survey. therefore, this study explored the views of students on the use of technology to facilitate online learning during covid-19. literature review conceptualising the sudden use of technology in higher education during covid-19 in education, the use of technology has been associated with positive learning attributes such as improving student learning outcomes, improving access to learning, as well as enhancing learners’ motivation (lai & bower, 2019). this has been made possible via technology-based learning platforms such as mobile learning, social media and microblogging, e-portfolios, digital games, online learning or moocs, as well as virtual learning environments (lai & bower, 2019). in today’s competitive world, this is essential to ensure that graduates are technology-oriented in various aspects of life 111 (fillion et al., 2007). however, the use of these platforms in higher education institutions did not become a norm until covid-19 imposed it. due to restrictions that came with covid-19, such as social distancing, educational institutions were compelled to make an immediate transition to remote methods of learning which heavily depend on technology (abu talib, et al., 2021). unfortunately, these transitions to online learning came suddenly and therefore did not allow adequate preparations for the challenges ahead to be faced (hodges, et al., 2020). hence, although technology existed long before covid-19, both students and lecturers in various institutions of higher learning, including the university of namibia (unam), were still not prepared for the sudden shift to completely online teaching, learning and assessment (agormedah et al., 2020; coman et al., 2020; haiduwa et al., 2022; karakose, 2021; malatji et al., 2021). existing technological challenges faced by students many students struggled to navigate through online learning due to challenges presented by the use of technology (dube, 2020). tshiningayamwe, et al. (2020) stated that online teaching and learning was relatively new to a number of lecturers and students in southern african countries. a number of studies revealed that the migration to online teaching and learning during covid-19 offered some challenges (demuyakor, 2021; magesa & josua, 2022; moluayonge, 2020). in namibia, a reflective paper by magesa and josua (2022) cited poor internet connectivity as a challenge. this is in line with the findings of a study by moluayonge (2020) in cameroon. studies by al-ataby (2020) and moluayonge (2020) found that lack of reliable internet connectivity was one of the pitfalls experienced. demuyakor (2021) found that in ghana the lack of digital enabling mechanisms, such as laptops and smartphones, as well as unstable electricity supply and the high cost of internet bundles, impeded learners from learning effectively during covid-19 era. it was also reported that some students lost interest because they felt they were not engaged in lessons. some learners and lecturers developed a digital phobia, which hinders effective instructional engagements (magesa & josua, 2022). long-term consequences of online learning one of the major outcomes of having been exposed to online learning as a result of the covid-19 lockdown was realising the need to be technology-oriented in teaching and learning as much as possible. this is because the shift was more of an eye-opener (senthil kumaran & periakaruppan, 2022), which provided an idea of how the future is likely to be in terms of technology-based learning. for example, as mentioned above it was not until the lockdown imposed by covid-19 that the importance of having a curriculum that can also be taught completely online was understood. this has, therefore, caused a huge transition in the education system to put in place measures that could possibly allow online teaching, learning and assessment to become a normal practice. some of the observed ways by which covid-19 has impacted education include the fact that academic performance may vary with respect to the socio-economic status of students, as more environmental stress is imposed on those from less privileged backgrounds (di pietro et al., 2020). this means that it is crucial for institutions of higher learning to improve their measures in terms of offering inclusive education that can ensure less privileged students are not left behind in times of critical situations such as that experienced with covid-19. additionally, it is also worth noting that the pressure imposed on students also caused them to become academically mature as they were pushed to do whatever they could to pass their courses (bhagat & kim, 2020). this was also shown in 112 another study where 71% of students in south africa confirmed that online education helped them to become independent (cranfield et al., 2021). higher education institutions’ response to the covid-19 pandemic as a result of the broad-based crisis created by the covid-19 pandemic, higher education institutions globally were forced to abruptly adopt online pedagogies (while completely neglecting face-to-face pedagogies) in an attempt to cut the spread of the virus (altbach & de wit, 2020). this was made possible using information and communication technology (ict) solutions, which enabled institutions to deliver their courses via remote teaching and learning (kadhila & nyambe, 2021; mohamedbhai, 2020). however, barriers were highlighted in terms of some institutions being well equipped when it comes to ict infrastructure as compared to others; similarly, some students were in a better position to afford internet connectivity, mostly those in urban areas in comparison to the ones in rural areas (mohamedbhai, 2020). conceptualising of online pedagogies in higher education during covid-19 online pedagogies have been defined as teaching, learning and assessment that is enabled through the use of technologies such as ict, the internet or web-based applications, as well as electronic systems which allow remote delivery of learning content (ali et al., 2018; arkorful & abaidoo, 2015). because information is not shared in a physical class, students usually have high flexibility in terms of how and when to do their work, as well as ease of access to the high volume of information available, which thus promotes critical thinking, and allows them to become independent and take control of their own learning (kakuchi, 2021; larbi-apau, 2021). however, since the lecturer does not have much control of the students, online pedagogies are also associated with a high level of academic dishonesty, as well as a lack of networking among students (kakuchi, 2021). furthermore, it also presents a negative impact to the scientific fields which require students to carry out hands-on experiments as part of their curricula (kadhila & nyambe, 2021), which cannot be accomplished online. as a result, complete online education may hinder the national goals, such as access to quality education, because some students may have challenges with internet connectivity for learning purposes. during the covid-19 outbreak, online pedagogies were made possible by the use of technology which allowed remote education via virtual learning, distance learning, mobile learning, cooperative learning and even machine learning (paschal & mkulu, 2020). the success of online learning is, however, dependent on digital skills among students and their lecturers, the availability of educational technologies, as well as good internet connectivity in the learning environment (paschal & mkulu, 2020). at the university of namibia, particularly, lecturers were given approximately only one week to prepare their lessons and make them fit for online delivery (kadhila & nyambe, 2021), which was a challenge to many. objectives of the study the study was guided by the following objectives: 1) to identify the views of students on online teaching, learning and assessment as enabled by the existing technology. 2) to establish how students described the online learning experience at university. 113 3) to find out how students rated the quality of teaching of fully online compared to face-toface or blended teaching and learning. 4) to assess whether the online learning experience improved students’ general functional skills. research questions the study employed the following research questions: 1) what are the views of students on online teaching, learning and assessment as enabled by the existing technology? 2) how would students describe the online learning experience at university? 3) how do students rate the quality of teaching of fully online compared to face-to-face or blended teaching and learning? 4) how has the online learning experience improved students’ general functional skills? methods the study employed a quantitative approach to collect data from 19 conveniently sampled respondents (38%). the data for this study was collected during covid-19 lockdowns and restrictions. therefore, convenience sampling was used, which provided a chance to whomever happened to be available during the time of data collection to be included (kumar, 2014; mills & gay, 2016). population the target population was 50 students enrolled at the university of namibia for second-year bachelor of science microbiology, and bachelor of science environmental biology in 2022. these students started off their university life completely online in 2021 due to the restrictions imposed by the covid-19 pandemic, hence, their selection. sample the sample was drawn from a homogenous population, which, according to brynard et al. (2014,) indicates “the more homogenous the population, the smaller the sample size” (p. 58). however, only 19 respondents filled out a google form questionnaire, which was shared with the whole population of 50 students. the data from these 19 respondents was then analysed through descriptive statistics using microsoft excel 2010. results and discussions what are the views of students on online teaching, learning and assessment as enabled by the existing technology? the findings from this study demonstrated that the shift to online teaching, learning and assessment presented major challenges to science students at the university of namibia. internet connectivity, inability to interact with peers and lecturers, as well as technological barriers to facilitate online learning, are some of the major challenges faced by students enrolled for the first-year bsc microbiology and bsc environmental biology programmes, during the 2021 academic year. a similar study revealed similar results which indicated that in shifting to online learning, students faced 114 challenges such as technological barriers, lack of proper training, low motivation, resource constraints and low computer literacy (anwar et al., 2020). challenges with internet connectivity although the university has made provisions of internet devices to students, these devices were reported to have slow internet connections in some parts of the country. this presented challenges to many students in accessing their learning platforms, and they thus ended up missing out on lectures and submission deadlines. the missing of submission deadlines was not only a challenge to students but also put pressure on the lecturers, since this forced them to set up different make-up activities and exams for students who missed their first opportunity due to internet connectivity issues. in order to overcome this challenge, students residing in areas with a poor connection had to find solutions such as buying mobile data regularly, moving in with relatives who had the internet at home, or finding a place with internet to rent, all of which are costly. the study found that most students (13/19, 68%) had the internet at home, as compared to 3/19 (16%) who needed to buy data regularly and the other 3/19 (16%) who actively made use of the unam internet device. however, of the 68% who had the internet at home, 4/13 (31%) were either renting or hosting in relatives’ houses. the above findings were no surprise, as the issue with internet connectivity has been a major drawback to students’ learning in many universities, during online teaching and learning, as a result of the covid-19 pandemic (gurung, 2021; khanna & prasad, 2020; mathew & iloanya, 2016; sartika et al., 2021). some students were also employed as frontline workers who were tasked with combatting the covid-19 pandemic. curbing the spread of the disease was a priority over teaching and learning. consequently, these students could not attend most of the online lectures and were left behind. sometimes arrangements had to be made to accommodate such affected students. however, this also meant an increased workload for the lecturers. preference between virtual and physical lab sessions the other criterion assessed on the views of students towards online pedagogies was the preference of students for practical learning, between online virtual lab simulations and physical lab practice. interestingly, none of the respondents indicated they preferred virtual lab simulations. this is not surprising, given that science experiments are robust, require critical thinking, and thus are better done in a physical lab where one can troubleshoot as much as possible. students also mentioned that physical experiments allowed them to see where one went wrong, how they could correct the mistake, and also to experiment using the things around them and the available lab consumables. this could be the reason why other studies described lab simulations as better when used only as pre-lab assignments or active learning exercises in lectures, instead of serving as viable substitutes for inperson labs (alvarez, 2021). how would students describe the online learning experience at university? many students described their first year at university to have been the worst learning experience ever, both in terms of technology upgrades (53%) and subject knowledge acquisition (63%) (fig. 1). the students believed that with everything being online, it was a bit unfair to them since this was their first year and thus, they did not have any prior university experience of how things were done. this is because the students were never exposed to online learning in high school, and it was thus a challenge to use the presented technologies, such as the learning platforms, to complete their academic tasks. 115 this higher expectation placed on their shoulders therefore forced students to work extra hard in order to be able to pass their courses. however, some students also showed concern as they ended up being tempted to get involved in illegal activities, such as using their friends, relatives or even paying someone to do their schoolwork for them, since there was no physical control from the lecturers. consequently, students who took this route are now suffering terribly in their second year, which is face-to-face, which shows that they did not acquire any knowledge from 2021 onto which they could build in 2022. the knowledge to solve problems related to technology has been reported in other studies as one of the major challenges faced by students ever since the transition from face-to-face to online pedagogies (khanna & prasad, 2020). nevertheless, a total of 47% of the respondents also demonstrated that in terms of technology upgrades, online learning was the best experience. this could be attributed to the fact that the students navigated through the different learning platforms by themselves and this must have upgraded their technological learning experience. this was a good sign, as it is crucial for students and academics to develop the habit of accepting change over time, as well as practising the art of being positive about technology upgrades (khanna & prasad, 2020). moreover, in today’s competitive world, as stated earlier, the expectation for graduates to be technology-oriented is essential (fillion et al., 2007), and because of this, both institutions of higher learning and even elementary schools are increasingly transforming from traditional classrooms to digital technology rooms (weyant & gardner, 2010). figure 1: the online learning experience of students 116 how do students rate the quality of teaching of fully online compared to face-to-face or blended teaching and learning? in response to the mode of teaching that students preferred between online (2021) and face-to-face or blended mode (2022) in terms of quality, a majority of the students (84%) indicated they preferred the face-to-face mode. one main reason for this preference was the fact that students usually feel closer to their lecturer and could easily interact and ask questions. students also reported they were more confident in a face-to-face class as compared to an online class. in other institutions of higher learning, students highlighted that the whole absence of socialisation that would normally take place in a traditional classroom, as well as issues like lecturers taking time to respond to students’ emails, adversely affect the whole learning environment (adnan & anwar, 2020). all these issues are likely to discourage students from liking online learning. hence, institutions of higher learning need to do something that will ensure that implementation of online learning in universities encourages rather than discourages students, perhaps through technology upgrades of the online learning system. furthermore, although this was not assessed in the current study, it is possible that the experience and total enthusiasm of lecturers about becoming digitalised may have contributed to lowering the quality of online teaching. as a result, with faculty members being continuously expected to remain competitive in this digitalised era, professional development in the use of technology is thus crucial, so is the infusion of technology-focused courses into the curricula (alsaady, 2007). interestingly, it has even been shown that higher education institutions are falling behind as students are already more experienced in content sharing, as well as web technologies, than their professors at the university (barnatt, 2009), which could thus reduce their interest in attending online lessons from inexperienced lecturers. how has the online learning experience improved students’ general functional skills? the study lastly investigated how online pedagogy improved the reading, typing and internet information searching as well as general computer skills of students during the academic year 2021. most students reported a high improvement in their internet searching (95%), general computer skills (89%), and also typing skills (79%) due to online learning (fig. 2). in support of these results, another study showed that the online education during the pandemic also helped to improve the digital literacy of students in south africa (68%), wales (50%) and hungary (37%) (cranfield et al., 2021). this could be attributed to the fact students had no choice but to make use of various digital platforms, in order to ensure success in their schoolwork. as a result, this must have helped them to become more digitalised, which is thus an advantage. 117 figure 2: some students’ skills that were improved as a result of the complete online learning that was imposed by the covid-19 pandemic in 2021 conclusion and recommendations conclusion despite the small sample size, this study further showed that the shift to online pedagogies due to covid-19 has presented major challenges to both students and academics in institutions of higher learning. with the significant challenges associated with technology, which was experienced by students in this study, the importance of technology advancement in schools that will allow the embracing of online teaching, learning and assessment as a norm was demonstrated. it was further shown that although lab simulations were used on behalf of physical lab exercises, they may not serve as the best tool for practical exposure to students, given that the knowledge being passed on is restricted only to what is available online, which may not necessarily be reflective of the targeted context. nevertheless, students still demonstrated an appreciation of the online learning experience as it allowed them to upgrade in terms of technology advancement, as well as gaining digitalised skills. lastly, it is worth noting that the research instrument (questionnaire) used in this study was not statistically checked for validity or reliability, hence, strongly suggesting that similar studies in future should consider this in order to ensure reliability of the obtained results. recommendations the study presents several recommendations. it is recommended that: • when training students, the content should be more appropriate to the local context, to make it responsive to local demands and what they have at their disposal • internet connectivity and accessibility should be widened across the country • the institutions should consider designing their own lab simulations to reduce the overreliance on online experiments designed by other institutions 118 • professional development on the use of technology is crucial, therefore, the technology focused courses should be infused into the curricula • the university should upgrade the technological infrastructures as well as ensuring that staff members remain updated in terms of technology • policies should be introduced to curb irregularities such as students using their friends, relatives or even paying someone to do their schoolwork for them since there is no physical control from the lecturers • the online curricular activities should be designed with the inclusion of socialisation that would normally take place in a traditional classroom. conflict of interest: authors have no conflict of interest in publishing this paper. references abu talib, m., bettayeb, a.m., & omer, r.i. (2021). analytical study on the impact of technology in higher education during the age of covid-19: systematic literature review. education and information technologies, 26(6), 6719-6746. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-021-10507-1 adnan, m., & anwar, k. (2020). online learning amid the covid-19 pandemic: students' perspectives. online submission, 2(1), 45-51. agormedah, e.k., henaku, e.a., ayite, d.m.k., & ansah, e.a. (2020). online learning in higher education during covid-19 pandemic: a case of ghana. journal of educational technology and online learning, 3(3), 183210. akram, h., yingxiu, y., al-adwan, a.s., & alkhalifah, a. (2021). technology integration in higher education during covid-19: an assessment of online teaching competencies through technological pedagogical content knowledge model. frontiers in psychology, 12, 736522. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.736522 al-ataby, a. (2020). technology-enhanced learning and teaching in covid-19 era: challenges and recommendations. international journal for innovation education and research, 8(10), 317-331. ali, s., uppal, m.a. & gulliver, s. (2018) a conceptual framework highlighting e-learning implementation barriers. information technology & people, 31(1), 156-180. https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/70274/ alsaady, a. (2007). planning strategy and the use of information technology in higher education: a comparative analysis of two universities in michigan. [ph.d. thesis, capella university.] https://www.learntechlib.org/p/123016/. altbach, p., & de wit, h. (2020). postpandemic outlook for higher education is bleakest for the poorest. international higher education, (102), 3-5. alvarez, k.s. (2021). using virtual simulations in online laboratory instruction and active learning exercises as a response to instructional challenges during covid-19. journal of microbiology & biology education, 22(1), ev22i21. 2503. anwar, m., khan, a., & sultan, k. (2020). the barriers and challenges faced by students in online education during covid-19 pandemic in pakistan. gomal university journal of research, 36(1), 52-62. arkorful, v., & abaidoo, n. (2015). the role of e-learning, advantages and disadvantages of its adoption in higher education. international journal of instructional technology and distance learning, 12(1), 29-42. barnatt, c. (2009). higher education 2.0. international journal of management education, 7(3), 47-56. bhagat, s., & kim, d.j. (2020). higher education amidst covid-19: challenges and silver lining. information systems management, 37(4), 366-371. 119 brynard, d., hanekom, s., & brynard, p. (2014). introduction to research (3rd ed.). van schaik. coman, c., țîru, l.g., meseșan-schmitz, l., stanciu, c., & bularca, m.c. (2020). online teaching and learning in higher education during the coronavirus pandemic: students’ perspective. sustainability, 12(24), 10367. cranfield, d.j., tick, a., venter, i.m., blignaut, r. j., & renaud, k. (2021). higher education students’ perceptions of online learning during covid-19—a comparative study. education sciences, 11(8), 403. demuyakor, j. (2021). covid-19 pandemic and higher education: leveraging on digital technologies and mobile applications for online learning in ghana. shanlax international journal of education, 9(3), 26-38. https://doi.org/10.34293/education.v9i3.3904 di pietro, g., biagi, f., costa, p., karpiński, z., & mazza, j. (2020). the likely impact of covid-19 on education: reflections based on the existing literature and recent international datasets (vol. 30275). publications office of the european union luxembourg. dube, m. c. (2020). online learning challenges postgraduate certificate in education history students faced during covid-19 at the university of zululand. yesterday and today, (24), 136-157. https://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2223-0386/2020/n24a7 faturoti, b. (2022). online learning during covid19 and beyond: a human right based approach to internet access in africa. international review of law, computers & technology, 36(1), 68-90. https://doi.org/10.1080/13600869.2022.2030027 fillion, g., limayem, m., laferrière, t., & mantha, r. (2007). integrating ict into higher education: a study of onsite vs online students' perceptions. academy of educational leadership journal, 11(2). gurung, s. (2021). challenges faced by teachers in online teaching during covid-19 pandemic. the online journal of distance education and e-learning, 9(1), 8-18. https://tojdel.net/journals/tojdel/articles/v09i01/v09i0102.pdf haiduwa, t., ntinda, m.n., hasheela-mufeti, v., & ngololo, e.n. (2022). integrating complementary learning tools in moodle as a response to the covid-19 pandemic: a survey of lecturers' and students' experiences and perceptions. in teaching and learning with digital technologies in higher education institutions in africa (pp. 179-194). routledge. hodges, c., moore, s., lockee, b., trust, t., & bond, a. (2020). the difference between emergency remote teaching and online learning. educause review, 3. https://er.educause.edu/articles/2020/3/the-differencebetween-emergency-remote-teaching-and-online-learning kadhila, n., & nyambe, j. (2021). barriers to the quality of emergency online pedagogies in higher education during the covid-19 pandemic: a case study from the university of namibia. journal of learning for development, 8(3), 516-531. kaisara, g., & bwalya, k.j. (2021). investigating the e-learning challenges faced by students during covid-19 in namibia. international journal of higher education, 10(1), 308–318. kakuchi, s. (2021). student dropout rate on the rise due to pandemic impact. university world news. karakose, t. (2021). emergency remote teaching due to covid-19 pandemic and potential risks for socioeconomically disadvantaged students in higher education. educational process: international journal, 10(3), 53-62. keengwe, j., & kidd, t. t. (2010). towards best practices in online learning and teaching in higher education. merlot journal of online learning and teaching, 6(2), 533-541. khanna, d., & prasad, a. (2020). problems faced by students and teachers during online education due to covid-19 and how to resolve them. paper presented at the 2020 6th international conference on education and technology (icet). koninckx, p., fatondji, c., & burgos, j. (2021). covid-19 impact on higher education in africa. oecd. 120 kumar, r. (2014). research methodology: a step-by-step guide for beginners (4th ed.). sage publications. lai, j.w., & bower, m. (2019). how is the use of technology in education evaluated? a systematic review. computers & education, 133, 27-42. larbi-apau, j. (2021). e-learning could develop students’ critical thinking skills. university world news: africa edition. magesa, e., & josua, l. (2022). use of technology to morph teaching and learning in higher education: post covid-19 era. creative education, 13, 846-853. malatji, k.s., kadhila, n., & malatji, m.j. (2021). a pedagogical shift in the institutions of higher education: response to covid-19 in three african universities. psychology and education, 58(4). 4884-4895. https://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/88643 mashau, p., & nyawo, j.c. (2021). the use of an online learning platform: a step towards e-learning. south african journal of higher education, 35(2), 123-143. https://dx.doi.org/10.20853/35-2-3985 mathew, i.r. & iloanya, j.e. (2016). open and distance learning: benefits and challenges of technology usage for online teaching and learning in africa. proceedings of the pan-commonwealth forum 8(pcf8). mills, g., & gay, l. (2016). educational research: competencies for analysis and applications (11th ed.). pearson education. mishra, l., gupta, t., & shree, a. (2020). online teaching-learning in higher education during lockdown period of covid-19 pandemic. international journal of educational research open, 1, 100012-100012. mohamedbhai, g. (2020). covid-19: what consequences for higher education. university world news, 9. moluayonge, g. (2020). the use of modern educational technologies in remote learning in higher education during a pandemic: the case of covid-19 in cameroon. journal of learning for development, 7(3), 479-484. paschal, m.j., & mkulu, d.g. (2020). online classes during covid19 pandemic in higher learning institutions in africa. global research in higher education, 3(3), 1-21. ratheeswari, k. (2018). information communication technology in education. journal of applied and advanced research, 3(1), 45-47. sartika, f., ritonga, m., lahmi, a., rasyid, a., & febriani, s.r. (2021). online learning in the low internet area, planning, strategies and problems faced by students during the covid-19 period. in d. oliva, s. a. hassan, & a. mohamed (eds.), artificial intelligence for covid-19 (pp. 413-421). springer. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69744-0 senthil kumaran, v., & periakaruppan, r.m. (2022). covid-19 pandemic is an eye-opener for academicians to use the technology in the teaching–learning process. international journal of educational reform 2023, 32(1), 318. https://doi.org/10.1177/10567879221076079 tshiningayamwe, s., silo, n. & dirwai, c. (2020). the shifts to online learning: assumptions, implications and possibilities for quality education in teacher education. southern african journal of environmental education, 36(3), 16-33. urdan, t.a., & weggen c.c. (2000). corporate e-learning: exploring a new frontier. wr hambrecht + co. weyant, l.e., & gardner, c.l. (2010). web 2.0 applications usages: implications for management education. journal of business, society & government, 2, 67-78. authors: saara kanyemba is a lecturer in the department of biochemistry, microbiology and biotechnology at the university of namibia. she holds a master’s of science in medicine from the university of cape town, south africa. saara was a candidate in the postgraduate diploma in higher education (pdhe). her research interests 121 include teaching and learning in the higher education context, curriculum development and decolonialisation of the higher education setting. email: skanyemba@unam.na lukas matati josua is a senior lecturer in the department of high education and lifelong learning at the university of namibia. he holds a phd in educational management and administration from the university of namibia and a postgraduate diploma in higher education for academic developers from rhodes university, south africa. matati holds a master’s of education (education management and administration) and mentored saara in the pdhe. his research interests include decoloniality, the higher education context, educational management and leadership. email: ljosua@unam.na cite this paper as: kanyemba, s., & josua, l.m. (2023). learning with digital media: a systematic review of students’ use in african higher education. journal of learning for development, 10(1), 109-121. microsoft word passos.docx issn: 2311-1550 2021, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 621-624 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. book review reimagining digital learning for sustainable development: how upskilling, data analytics, and educational technologies close the skills gap ed. sheila jagannathan routledge, 2021, pp. 379, isbn-13: 978-0367540180 reimagining digital learning for sustainable development offers a compilation of curated insights from leading experts in the educational sector, as they contemplate how educational systems will have to reinvent themselves to support the achievement of the united nations’ sustainable development goals (sdg) by 2030. the ambitious sdgs pose multi-sectoral challenges requiring massive upskilling and reskilling of the workforce as it faces the challenges of meeting the job requirements of the fourth industrial revolution. as they acknowledge that educational systems must prepare learners for multiple career pathways involving jobs that do not yet exist, the authors posit that resourceful and innovative approaches to educational development will be required for meaningful and powerful transformation of educational institutions that, to this day, are constrained by a system created for the first industrial revolution. lifelong learning is brought to the forefront as a model for developing institutional capacity, on the fringes of formal education. building on the ‘digital tsunami’ brought about by the covid-19 pandemic that catapulted teaching and learning into the digital sphere worldwide, educational institutions must leverage the creative destruction empowered by emergency remote teaching to deconstruct secular credentialing systems and create flexible and adaptive learning environments. contributors to the book examined realworld cases and assessed the impact of the pandemic on educational practices as the world adapts to a ‘new normal’ of educational provision enabled by technology to solve complex development challenges. in some of the chapters, the potential of emergent technologies such as virtual reality (vr) and augmented reality (ar) grounded on artificial intelligence (ai) principles is emphasized as part of the solution to address rapidly growing skill gaps in uncertain and shifting workplaces. however, the authors also acknowledge that agile strategies that will work in scalable and flexible bandwidth environments will be fundamental to enable educational transformation in the global south. woven through the chapters is the notion that sustainable investment in connectivity, infrastructure, human capital and the creation and curation of digital content will be essential to accelerate learning transformation and the accompanying shift in content formats and pedagogic approaches that will reshape educational institutions. 622 the book is organised into eight themes, each including distinct but complementary chapters. the first theme, learning in the 21st century, examines the scale of the educational challenge brought about by the demands of the fourth industrial revolution in terms of the massive skilling that will be required to respond to sustained economic development. the rich discussion in the four chapters contained in this theme explores capacity development as critical to achieving the sdgs through a cross-sectoral, multi-layered approach anchored on flexible and adaptive lifelong learning technology-based approaches and the deconstruction of the traditional degree, supported by complementary, modular, micro-credentialling systems. the discussion examines the crucial role of technology in enhancing scalability at affordable rates to mitigate the stark inequalities in digital access and the lack of digital skills among teachers uncovered by the pandemic, especially in developing economies; and it underlines how ‘unlearning’ of conventional behaviours will be instrumental in the introduction of new educational models focused on changing teaching and learning paradigms. the second theme, innovative pedagogies to advance reach, relevance and quality learning outcomes, focuses the discussion on issues of quality around teaching and learning enabled by technology. chapter 5 starts the theme with an interview with tony bates, who introduces the idea of blended learning as the future of teaching, especially as a consequence of the covid-19 pandemic, while chapter 6 brings in the context of the south pacific region, reiterating how conventional approaches to teaching and learning are failing to address educational challenges in developing regions: new pedagogic models enabled by technology are needed, however, a plan for affordable digital technologies will be imperative for success. the last two chapters in this theme take a deeper look at how standards that define quality need to be adapted to reflect new educational design paradigms enabled by technology to support learner-centric approaches and decentralised credentialling models. the university of edinburgh manifesto for teaching online described in chapter 8 goes further to suggest that a divergence from conventional best practices towards contextual, socially-embedded approaches in digital education will be key to educational transformation and quality learning outcomes. in theme 3, new models for deeper learning, the authors propose alternative methodologies such as massive open online courses (mooc), gamification and immersive simulations and vr as paving the way to achieve the sdgs. chapter 9 highlights the success of moocs in specific developing contexts as this type of delivery can address local teacher shortages. however, the issue of local contextualization for relevance of teaching remains to be addressed. chapters 10 and 11 on game mechanics and immersive learning introduce the concepts of badges and advocate for gamification strategies in learning design to nurture learner agency in capacity development systems that can be adapted and managed by learning communities as opposed to institutions. the discussion framed around the effectiveness of gaming as a learner-centric approach to design highlights the hindrance of the high cost of game development. it is made abundantly clear that a funding and cost recovery model is required over multiple years, especially as it concerns developing countries. theme 4, digital and blended learning in action: good practices and cases, presents specific cases from different parts of the world where capacity development for the public sector has been successfully implemented using digital and blended models. tec de monterey in mexico has seen tremendous success in the implementation of a massive learning programme that linked learning to jobs in the public sector through distance learning supported by communities of practice. flexible models were 623 designed to make education accessible in remote areas through local learning centres. in malaysia, a structured, systematic approach supported by governmental institutions and strategic partnerships led to the successful implementation of a capacity development initiative to upskill the workforce in the public sector. in latin america and the caribbean, livelihoods were improved through the continuous upskilling of workers in the public sector as a result of the establishment of an e-learning ecosystem that promotes lifelong learning, supported by stackable digital credentials. china has used its 5g infrastructure as well as ai and gamification approaches to support lifelong learning, reskilling workers and addressing the need for continuous capacity development. india has focused on vocational education and training (vet) to provide alternative lifelong learning opportunities to enhance employability for its growing youth work force. public/private partnerships as well as the institutionalisation of national standards have enabled the delivery of relevant training through digital portals and created pathways for students. chapter 17, in theme 5, the future of content development: leveraging open resources, addresses the integration of open educational resources (oer) to mediate access to quality resources for teaching and learning. oer foster lifelong learning and can be integral to providing equitable quality learning opportunities to support the achievement of sdg 4: quality education, especially if framed by national and institutional policy. in theme 6, the power of the platform, the discussion is centred on how educational technology (ed tech) can offer possibilities for changing educational paradigms, facilitated by learning management systems (lms) such as moodle, underpinned by open educational practices (oep) and backed by socio-constructivist and constructionist approaches to teaching and learning. lms designed for lowbandwidth environments will be fundamental in the implementation of flexible personalised learning environments. furthermore, while ed tech infrastructure, such as 5g networks, blockchain applications to facilitate and validate credentialling systems and teaching and learning applications supported by ai, will improve levels of personalisation, they are capital-intensive technologies that will require sustained funding, better attained through strategic cooperation and partnerships. at the simplest level, virtual tutors and chatbots powered by ai allow for scalability of learner-centric design and socratic delivery methods impossible to deliver otherwise in mass education settings. however, the development costs for these technologies must be taken under serious consideration. as theme 7, modernizing learning measurement, evaluation and credentialing through data analytics for insights and decision making, delves into the world of predictive analysis, the discussion in the chapters advocates for the benefits of data-driven decision-making for continuous improvement, especially when framed by carefully designed monitoring and evaluation (m&e) systems. however, ethical issues about the gathering of student data come to the surface, as those data can be used to make decisions about students, such as acceptance into programmes, or can easily prejudice administrators’ or professors’ impressions of their students’ interests and abilities. in chapter 23, the author speaks to the importance of protecting faculty and students’ rights to privacy and encourages institutions to scrutinize the kind of data they need to collect in the function of how that data will benefit instructors and learners or how it will affect the improvement of teaching and learning. theme 7 closes with an analysis of open badges, as compared to traditional credentialing systems, and, in the realm of data 624 analytics, it discusses the types of data that can be incorporated into a single badge. although badging systems aim to provide a richer image of a graduate profile, which cannot be done with conventional (flat) credentials, the criteria for the badge and the types of information it will contain, need to be carefully determined with a focus on promoting learner mobility and interoperability across educational institutions. the last theme in the book, mobilizing partnerships to support pathways to work, puts forward partnership models focused on relationship building with key stakeholders that will be integral to thriving educational ecosystems. partnerships are hailed as key to bringing down silos and to meeting educational goals, underpinned by common value sets and shared collaboration. in moving from a conceptual framework to action, chapter 26 highlights how the democratization of digital tools can be accelerated due to the ‘open’ movement, making learning resources more accessible to all. as a stark reminder, the author doesn’t lose sight of how, during the pandemic, inequitable access to the internet negatively impacted livelihoods of individuals already disadvantaged as they were denied access to schooling. in summary, this book provides practical and useful insights on the state of educational provision in a post-pandemic world, putting forward alternatives for how and where to invest in education and capacity development to meet the sdgs. digital learning needs agility, as the speed of change is faster than institutional response. innovative partnerships are necessary to support educational transformation and will be vital for success, more so in developing countries. the growing youth population can be galvanized to catapult change forward, but that change will need a roadmap backed by sound national and institutional policy that is visionary and futuristic. reviewed by: rosario passos, instructional designer, cascadia interactive solutions, ltd. email: rosario@cascadia.bc.ca cite this paper as: passos, r. (2021). book review: virtual reality in curriculum and pedagogy: evidence from secondary classrooms. ed. sheila jagannathan. journal of learning for development, 8(3), 621-624. microsoft word oladejo.docx issn: 2311-1550 2020, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 161-173 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. participatory management, professional development, and teachers’ job performance in public secondary schools in ogun state, nigeria ajetunmobi funmilayo grace, maruff akinwale oladejo and muhideen adewale oladejo university of lagos, department of educational management, lagos, akoka, nigeria abstract: this correlational survey study examined professional development, participatory management, and teachers’ job performance in public secondary schools in ogun state, nigeria. the sample size comprised 504 participants selected through a multi-stage sampling technique from 12,745 teachers in 217 public secondary schools. the study was guided by two null hypotheses, tested at 0.05 level of significance. two researcher-designed instruments namely. participatory management and professional development questionnaire (pm/pdq) and teachers’ job performance scale (tjps), were used to collect data. the pearson product-moment correlation statistical tool was used for data analysis. results showed that teachers’ job performance was significantly and positively related to both professional development and participatory management respectively. the study concluded that teachers’ job performance could be enhanced through these two management intervention strategies. it was therefore, recommended among other things, that concerned authorities should improve on existing teachers’ professional development programmes and encourage participatory management among the teachers. keywords: management intervention strategies, professional development, participatory management, teachers’ job performance. background to the study teachers are considered as the eventual, on-the-spot operatives of the policies in education of any nation, including nigeria. whatever happens to the operators may eventually be reflected in the quality produced by the system. the federal republic of nigeria (2013, p. 2) specifically stated that “no education can rise above the level of her teachers”. this implies that teachers’ job performance will have a significant influence on the students and society at large. teachers are trained to deliver the content of the subject matter in their respective fields, set a high standard that will challenge the students, discipline the students when necessary, overcome blindspots and evaluate the students’ progress based on outlined goals and objectives in the school, among other things (chamundeswari, 2013). teachers are also involved in the training and molding of the students, thereby, making them useful to themselves and society (usman, 2016). hence, teachers’ failure in the delivery of expected services to the scholars in the teaching-learning process might culminate in the breakdown of the educational system. robbins and coulter (2007) asserted that the teaching profession is such that it requires the teacher’s ability and commitment to performing assigned tasks effectively. thus, the job performance of a teacher in the school system should not be hidden; rather it should be seen and measured as a factor that preserves the quality of the school. kagoda (2011), therefore, emphasised that a teacher can only be considered successful in the teaching and learning process when such an individual knows 162 thoroughly what is to be taught, and has the necessary ability needed to link the understanding of the subject matter and the students through appropriate communication skills. a teacher’s job performance entails the achievement of educational goals through the process of teaching-learning. this is buttressed by the assertion made by ige (2013), that teachers’ job performance includes prompt attendance to lesson delivery and coverage of the syllabus among other issues. teachers’ job performance, therefore, refers to the ability of teachers to combine relevant inputs for the enhancement of teaching and learning processes, and the level of the teachers’ participation in the day-to-day running of the school (amos & loko, 2015). based on the significant responsibility of a teacher in the school it is, therefore, necessary for concerned authorities to keep investigating and working towards factors that can enhance the job performance of the teachers. the direct involvement of secondary school teachers in school governance, otherwise known as participatory management, has been found to be one of the management intervention strategies that may enhance the job performance of teachers. mohamed (2011) defines participatory management as an inclusive governance system that empowers teachers to participate in the daily functions and policy-making processes in the school. according to olorunsola and olayemi (2011), participatory management by secondary school teachers allows the teaching staff to cooperate with the school administrators, thereby, assisting with the resolution of intensifying problems confronting the school. this involvement serves as an indisputable asset to the school and the management. the quality of education available to any citizen of a country cannot be disconnected from the level of teachers’ professional development. according to wood and bennett (2000), professional development is an on-going process of education, training, learning, and support activities engaged in by qualified teachers, which often takes place in either a work-based setting or otherwise, in order to promote learning and the development of professional knowledge, skills and values. oguntimehin (2001) specifically noted that staff development in an organisation, teachers included, might bring about reduction of wastage; improvement of quality of work; increase in job performance; improved skills, knowledge and attitude of staff; enhancement of the implementation of new policies and regulations; and should enhance the growth of the organisation. this study, therefore, investigated some management intervention straetegies namely participatory management and professional development in relation to teachers' job performance in public secondary schools in ogun state, nigeria. statement of the problem teachers are central to the smooth operations of the school system. their performance on the job is therefore, essential to the attainment of educational aims and objectives. for this to happen, the teachers should be professionally trained and qualified, and given opportunity to contribute to policies and decisions affecting their job and individual well-being. one of the major problems facing secondary education today is the poor job performance of teachers. in fact, sonnentag and spychala (2010) observed that job performance as a concept has received considerable scholarly research attention for the past 15 to 20 years. teachers’ job performance seems to be a problem in public secondary schools in ogun state, nigeria. observation shows that teachers in public secondary schools in ogun state, nigeria suffer from 163 stunted career growth, inadequate facilities to teach effectively, non-involvement in formulating policies that affect their job, and lack of regular professional training to keep up with developments in the profession. these issues have caused the job performance of teachers to leave much to be desired. failure to address this problem could lead to further production of sub-standard school graduates and poor intake into tertiary institutions, or workplaces. could the perceived poor job performance among teachers in public secondary schools be due to their non-involvement in decision-making or non exposure to regular professional development? this study, therefore, investigated this relationship among participatory management, professional development, and teachers’ job performance in public secondary schools in ogun state, nigeria. purpose of the study this study examined the relationship among participatory management, professional development, and teachers’ job performance in public secondary schools in ogun state, nigeria. specifically, the study set out to: 1. investigate the relationship between participatory management and teachers’ job performance; and 2. ascertain the correlation between professional development and teachers’ job performance. research hypotheses the following null hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance to guide the study: 1. there is no significant relationship between participatory management and teachers’ job performance. 2. professional development does not relate significantly to teachers’ job performance. literature review a brief review of the relevant literature on the selected study variables was carried out. this was done under the following sub-headings: concept of teachers’ job performance the term “performance” describes how an employee carries out the task that makes up the job. it may also be defined as the capability of a worker to combine appropriate behaviour towards the realisation of organisational goals and objectives. the educational system of any nation cannot be better than the quality of services rendered by the teachers in the teaching-learning process (oyeleke, 2012). epie (as cited in fasan, 2005) observed that performance can be taken as the set of behaviours focused on the achievement of organisational goals. it includes not only direct task-oriented behaviour, but also onthe job task behaviours, such as inter-personal relations at work. performance, therefore, could be expressed in terms of quantity and quality of output, levels of absenteeism and turnover, profitability and the quality of industrial relations. according to fasan (2005), teachers’ job performance refers to a process whereby teachers accomplish or carry out the given work within or outside the school system satisfactorily to the extent that the output, when measured or seen, will show the expected behaviours from the teachers. fasan also 164 noted that teachers’ job performance could be analysed in terms of be seen as leadership function;, executive function; and interactive functions. participatory management and teachers’ job performance according to olorunsola and olayemi (2011), participation of teachers in the decision-making process in a school system serves as one of the paramount platforms for the realisation of set goals and objectives in a school. this is because teachers have direct contact with the students, and are daily observers of issues happening in the classroom and the entire school, unlike the principal or other school administrators. this statement corroborates the view of nadeem (2012), who asserted that consulting teachers on issues that affect the students, teachers, and the entire system, often enhances the mental health of the teachers. nadeem, therefore, outlined the importance of participatory management to include the commitment of the teachers to the achievement of jointly set goals in the school system, the discouragement of competition and rivalry among the teachers, and the achievement of robust conclusions on any subject matter. ejiogu (2010), therefore, opined that involving teachers in school governance and decision-making is appropriate and needed, because support can be generated for the achievement of the decision made. giving teachers a participatory management platform in the school, thus encourages the creation of unique ideas through shared knowledge, expertise and experience. participatory management can be considered as a shift from a traditional management style to a more innovative management style that permits the lower-level staff to lend their voice in organisational matters for the purpose of enhancing job performance and the achievement of organisational set goals (glew, o’leary-kelly, griffin & van-fleet, (as cited in olorunsola & olayemi, 2011). the involvement of teachers, therefore, has the potential to increase teachers’ job performance, giving the teachers a sense of ownership of the school, and creating a democratic atmosphere in the school. according to hashim and wok (2015), involvement of workers, teachers included in the organisational decision-making processes, will enrich the understanding and acquaintance of the workers with the outlined everyday jobs. consequently, the understanding of teachers could be broadened when they are involved in the decision-making process on issues surrounding their service delivery in the school system thereby giving room for greater cooperation of teachers with the school administrators. udoh and akpa (as cited in olorunsola & olayemi, 2011) also commented that involvement of teachers in the decision-making process (participatory management) in the school tends to encourage the teachers to be more committed to the school (the teaching and learning process), more supportive of the principal, to reduce conflict within the school, and to ensure realisation of set goals and objectives in the school. mullins (2005) opined that the survival of any organisation in a competitive world depends on the participation of staff in decision making for the organisation for a robust job performance. school managers and administrators, therefore, should see the need to consider the ideas of teachers as important and relevant to the successful management of the school. in addition, khoza (as cited in mohamed, 2011) further indicated that a participatory style of management in any work organisation can bring about increase in employee commitment and sense of belonging, increase in employee productivity, enhanced job satisfaction, high job performance, etc. 165 omobude and igbudu (2012) conducted a study on the influence of teachers’ participation in decision making on their job performance in secondary schools in oredo local government area of edo state, nigeria, using the fisher’s z test statistical tool for the hypotheses raised in the study. the study reported that participation in decision making by teachers can influence performance as teachers who participate in decision making tend to perform better than those who did not have a say in the school governance or issues that affect the school. omobude and igbudu also found out that teachers in privately-owned secondary schools often enjoy more participatory management opportunities compared to teachers in public secondary schools, where the ministry of education’s influence on decision making is quite pronounced. omobude and igbudu, therefore, felt that teachers, who are participatory managers in their schools, tended to perform better than those who did not have participatory management platforms in the schools. uchendu, anijaobi-idem, and nkama (2013) opined that teachers, who are the cornerstone of good education in any secondary school, often have the required wealth of skills, experience, knowledge and ability needed as inputs for the achievement of set goals and objectives in the school, particularly in the aspects of students’ academic excellence and character moulding. involvement of teachers in the decision-making process is, therefore, considered a likely factor for the enhancement of teachers’ job performance in secondary schools in nigeria. conversely, the job performance of some teachers, whose service delivery and contribution to the progress of a school might be enhanced by participatory management opportunities, could become low due to the discouragement of such participation (omobude & igbudu). in fact, olorunsola and olayemi (2011) noted that when the views and suggestions of teachers on issues in a school are ignored or considered irrelevant, the following can be the outcome: conflict, frustration on the job, teachers alienated from management, etc. professional development and teachers’ job performance the quality of education available to any citizen of a country cannot be disconnected from the level of teachers’ professional development and the extent to which the outlined jobs in a school are performed by the teachers (kamoh, ughili & abada, 2013; ofojebe & chukwuma, 2015). the essence of professional development of teachers via different training platforms is to sharpen their existing skills or help the teachers to develop specialised skills that could enhance their level of creativity and innovation (dangara, 2016). staff (teachers’) training and development are therefore imperative for a robust job performance by the teachers (sarbeng, 2013). this implies that the job performance of the teachers may not be disconnected from the job professional development packages made available to them. ganser (2000) also defined professional development as the development of individuals in their professional roles through formal or informal experiences such as seminars, workshops, conferences, reading professional publications. etc. professional development programmes are therefore, organised to keep teachers current, vibrant and versatile, particularly in this age of socio-economic, political, scientific and technological changes, thereby, enhancing the job performance of the teachers. according to onyene (2000), the rapid and continuous advancement in information and technology also demands teachers’ continuous professional development. considering the level of global advancement in information technology and science, it is expedient that teachers’ capacity to teach 21st-century students should be enhanced through up-to-date professional development programmes 166 but it is necessary to determine how timely and updated are such trainings, considering the level of exposure of the present generation of students, whose handset is connected to the world wide web (internet) (anam, rashid, rab, mizna, simra, igbal & rida, 2013), in nigeria, the present social and economic state of the nation has necessitated the need for regular professional development for teachers at all levels of education. consequently, for sustainable systemic change in secondary education, professional development of teachers should be based on the individual training needs of teachers (kamoh et al, 2013). research has also shown that nothing can be done in a school without the service delivery of teachers, whose professional development on the job could bring about an enhanced job performance. amos and loko (2015) for example, submitted that teachers are interested in the teaching and non-teaching activities in school, however, the performance of the teachers on the job therefore may not be disconnected from how well they are professionally developed. furthermore, hervie and winful (2018), asserted that teachers who have benefitted from different professional development platforms can handle the changing demands of the profession and also serve as better teachers in terms of knowledge development and lesson content delivery. several studies have also established the fact that secondary school teachers are the key drivers of the teaching and learning process in school, with the enormous task of ensuring necessary changes in the life of their students. in lagos state, for example, alade and odebode (2014) conducted a study that showed how much the lagos “eko” secondary education project for teachers in public secondary schools equipped the teachers with needed knowledge, skills, strategies and methodologies for robust job performance. they found that professional development of teachers has a significant impact on their job performance. the development of the knowledge, skills and attitudes of teachers can thus facilitate the development of individual teachers and the entire school system. adenaike and olaniyi (2010), also found that the performance of some senior secondary school students in ogun state, nigeria, was grossly affected by the use of out-dated methods of teaching by their teachers, due to the lack of relevant and up-to-date professional development in their subject areas. furthermore, okeleke, uzoka and oladejo (2017), using chi-square and analysis of variance statistical tools on data collected in order to ascertain the influence of training on academic staff performance in colleges of education, in south-west nigeria, established a significant correlation between professional development and performance. this implies that professional development of employees via an appropriate training platform is crucial for good job performance. oguntimehin (2001); falemu (2012); oladejo and oladejo (2016), specifically noted that the development of the staff (teachers included) in an organisation (the school system) can bring about the following: reduction of wastage; improvement of quality of work; increase in job performance; improvement of skills, knowledge and attitude of the staff; enhancement of the implementation of new policies and regulations; and improved survival and growth of the organisation. according to ogunlade, kamongers, and abdulkadir, (2015), teachers are role models to the students and, as managers of the instructional process in the school, on-the-job training will be necessary to keep the teachers abreast of the ever-evolving advancement in information technology and current trends in the educational enterprise. ogunlade, et al, also noted that teachers kept up to date with 167 changes in their profession, through constant training or seminars, often developed cooperation and synergy attributes, thereby, serving the school as indebted personnel, due to the huge investment made by the school in their career. conversely, adenaike and olaniyi (2010), argued that outdated methods of teaching used by some teachers in nigerian public secondary schools has resulted in the output of low-performance graduates, both at the higher education level and those in the labour market, thereby, impacting the economy negatively. this may be rectified with the appropriate use of professional development programmes targeted at the specific training needs of teachers. method this section of the paper includes the description of the procedures and methods used in the study which include research design, population of the study, sample and sampling techniques, research instruments and instrumentation, validity of instruments, reliability of instruments, procedure for data collection, and method of data analysis. research design the correlational survey research method was used for the study. the research design employed in the study, therefore, enables the researcher to describe the relationship between participatory management, professional development and teachers’ job performance using public secondary schools in ogun state, nigeria. population the population for the study consisted of all the teachers in public secondary schools in ogun state, nigeria. the total number of public secondary schools and the teaching staff respectively in ogun state were 474 and 12,745, respectively. sample and sampling technique the sample size used in this study was 504 public secondary school teachers in ogun state, nigeria. a multi-stage sampling approach was used to select the participants for the study. the schools were stratified based on the existing 20 educational zones in ogun state. a proportionate stratified random sampling technique was used to further select participants in each school, based on the total number of teachers in the schools. research instruments two sets of self-designed instruments were used to collect data for the study. these are the participatory management and professional development questionnaire (pmpdq) and teachers’ job performance scale (tjps). the participatory management and professional development questionnaire (pmpdq) contained two sections; section a, which sought demographic information of the participants (teachers), such as gender, marital status, highest academic qualification, years of teaching experience, and age range, while section b contained two subscales (professional development with five items, and participatory management with nine items) making 14 items in all for the section b, on which the perceptions of public secondary school teachers in ogun were sought. 168 the questionnaire items were structured on a 4-point likert-type scale of always, sometimes, rarely and never used for items on professional development and participatory management. the response categories range from 4 = always, 3 = sometimes, 2 = rarely and 1 = never for positive items, while the negative items were scored in reversed order. the teachers’ job performance scale (tjps) contained two sections. section a sought information on the gender of the teachers, while section b contained 22 items rated on a 4-point likert scale of always, sometimes, rarely and never used to measure the job performance of public secondary school teachers in ogun state. for always, sometimes, rarely and never, the response categories were 4, 3, 2, 1, respectively, for positive statements, while the negative items were scored in reverse order also. validity of the instruments the questionnaires were validated by experts in area of measurement and evaluation, who vetted them in items terms of their relevance to the subject matter, their coverage of the content areas, the appropriateness of language usage and clarity of purpose, thereby, giving the questionnaires content validity. corrections of errors identified by the experts were effected, which further enhanced the suitability of the instrument for the study. reliability of the instruments to estimate the reliability of the instruments, the instruments were pilot tested on 100 teachers from selected secondary schools in ikenne l.g.a in ogun state, nigeria, which did not form part of the studied sample. the data obtained was subjected to cronbach alpha reliability testing to estimate the internal consistency of the instrument. the reliability coefficients of the sub-scales are summarised in table 1, which shows that the instruments were reliable. table 1. reliability coefficient of research instruments items no. of items alpha coefficient professional development 5 0.81 participatory management 9 0.76 teachers’ job performance 22 0.77 the questionnaire items were reviewed based on the outcome of the pilot test and necessary corrections were made. data analysis and results this section brings to the fore the analysis of the collected data and the results generated. the two null hypotheses were tested here. hypothesis one h01: there is no significant relationship between participatory management and teachers’ job performance in public secondary schools in ogun state. the hypothesis was tested using the pearson-product-moment correlation statistical tool and a summary of the results is presented in table 2. 169 table 2. participatory management and teachers’ job performance variable n mean std dev. df rcal p-value remark decision participatory management 25.56 6.10 471 469 .201** .001 significant null hypothesis rejected teachers’ job performance 81.15 4.62 * correlation is significant at 0.05 level (2-tailed). table 2 presents the summary of the analysis between participatory management and teachers’ job performance in public secondary schools in ogun state. it shows that there was a significant and positive relationship between participatory management and teachers’ job performance in public secondary schools in ogun state (r = .201; p < .05; df = 469). thus, the researchers failed to accept the null hypothesis which stated there is no significant relationship between participatory management strategy and teachers’ job performance in public schools in ogun state, nigeria. this means that participatory management had significant relationship with teachers’ job performance. hypothesis two h02: there is no significant relationship between professional development and teachers’ job performance. the hypothesis was tested using the pearson product-moment correlation statistical tool and the summary of the results is presented in table 3. table 3. professional development and teachers’ job performance variable n mean std dev. df rcal p-value remark decision professional development 14.09 3.79 471 469 .253** .001 significant null hypothesis rejected teachers’ job performance 81.15 4.62 * correlation is significant at p < 0.05 level (2-tailed). table 3 presents the summary of analysis between professional development and teachers’ job performance. it shows that there was a significant and positive relationship between professional development and teachers’ job performance in public secondary schools in ogun state (r = .253; p < .05; df = 469). thus, the researchers failed to accept the null hypothesis which stated that there is no significant relationship between professional development and teachers’ job performance in public schools in ogun state, nigeria. this implies that professional development of teachers had significant relationship with their job performance. 170 discussions of findings discussions of findings generated from the study are presented in this sub-heading. regarding participatory management and teachers’ job performance, the finding from hypothesis one showed a significant and positive relationship between participatory management and teachers’ job performance in public secondary schools in ogun state. the findings from this hypothesis supports the notion that involving teachers in participatory management activities in school administration is important to ensure their commitment to change and the entire teaching-learning process. this result is in line with that of olorunsola and olayemi (2011) who reported that daily involvement of secondary school teachers in ekiti state in the decision-making process enhanced the level of satisfaction and job performance of the teachers. the finding from hypothesis two also showed a significant and positive relationship between professional development and teachers’ job performance in public secondary schools in ogun state. this finding is an indication that notable improvements in education may never take place if professional development is not provided, hence, professional development is key to meeting today’s job performance need of teachers. alade and odebode (2014) revealed that, done well, professional development of teachers has the potential to equip the teachers with needed information, expertise, strategies and methodology necessary in the teaching and learning process, thereby, enhancing their job performance. this finding is also consistent with the position of ofojebe and chukwuma (2015) as well as ejiogu (2010) whose studies confirmed a significant and positive relationship between employee professional development and job performance. another study by oleforo, ikpe and bassey (2015) found out that teachers’ job performance had a significant relation to professional development of teachers in the form of seminars, workshops and conferences. this implies that the knowledge acquired from such activities often brings about the desired level of service delivery from the teachers to the pupils, especially in the teaching-learning process. the finding of adenaike and olaniyi (2010) also concurred with the outcome of this study as it established a relationship between professional development and the job performance of the teachers. the findings of this study, therefore, call for a robust effort from concerned authorities to enhance the job performance of teachers through the application of appropriate management intervention strategies in the form of professional development programmes that meet the needs of the teachers, and in the inclusion of participatory management opportunities for the teachers. conclusion teachers’ job performance often sets the tune for the overall achievement of set goals and objectives of a school. based on the findings of this study, it can be easily inferred that teachers’ job performance in public secondary schools in ogun state was significantly related to participatory management and professional development. in an attempt to boost teachers’ job performance and ensure excellent service delivery that will bring about the achievement of the set goals and objectives in the school system, educational managers and administrators should continually explore areas of professional development needs of the teachers, particularly in subject-need targeted help for non-performing teachers, and the provision of participatory management experiences for all the teachers. nigerian policy makers and educational stakeholders are, therefore, expected to also give adequate attention to the provision of up-to-date 171 professional development programmes for the teachers, and to ensure participatory management by teachers in the school. recommendations considering the findings from this study and the conclusions drawn therefrom, the study makes the following recommendations: 1. principals should not handle the affairs of a school in an autocratic manner. rather, teachers should be given the privilege of enjoying participatory management, which could give them a sense of accomplishment as co-drivers of the negotiated vision of the school. 2. improving the 21st-century skills of teachers through continuing professional development opportunities should be the goal of concerned authorities of public secondary schools in ogun state, such that teachers can be professionally developed with the ability of meeting the demand of the fast-growing technology in the world, thereby, competing favourably with other teachers within and outside the country. references adenaike, a., & olaniyi, o. s. (2010). impact of total quality control measures on senior secondary school students’ academic performance in ogun state. academic leadership, 8(4), 33-43. alade, o. m., & odebode, o. o. (2014). an assessment of the impact of the teachers’ professional development programme under lagos “eko” secondary education project in lagos state. journal of education and practice, 5(19), 1-8. amin, m., shah, r. u., ayaz, m., & atta, m. a. (2013). teachers’ job performance at secondary level in khyber pakhyunkhwa, pakistan. gomal university journal of research, 29(2), 13-20. amos, i., & loko, g. i. (2015). assessment of teachers’ motivation approaches in the less developed countries. journal of education and practice, 6(22), 10-17. anam, a., rashid, s., rab, n. i., mizna, s., simra, a, igbal, a., & rida, t. (2013). the impact of employees training on the job performance in education sector of pakistan. journal of scientific research, 17(7), 1273-1278. chamundeswari, s. (2013). job satisfaction and performance of school teachers. international journal of academic research and social sciences, 3(5), 420-428. dangara, u. y. (2016). educational resources: an integral component for effective school administration in nigeria. research on humanities and social sciences, 6(13), 27-37. ejiogu, a. (2010). total involvement management: a 21st century imperative. lagos: chartered institute of administration. falemu, s. t. (2012). employee training influence on organizational productivity. journal of extension, 35(1), 6070. fasan, c. o. (2005). empowering teachers for effective job performance. in r. a. alani (ed.), managing the educational system (pp. 195-206). lagos: triumph-providential publishers. federal republic of nigeria. (2013). national policy on education. (6th ed.). lagos: nerdc press. ganser, t. (2000). professional development for teachers: the vision. national association for scholarship pedagogy, 84(2), 9-14. ghulam, m. s., nasim, q., & sahid, m. (2015). a study of factors influencing public sector secondary school teachers’ job satisfaction. international journal of academic research in business and social sciences, 5(5), 262-275. 172 hashim, r., & wok, s. (2015). levels of engineers’ participative decision-making in tenaga nasional berhad. asian social science, 11(17), 130-133. retrieved from https://doi/10.5539/ass.vl ln17p130 hervie, d. m., & winful, e. c. (2018). enhancing teachers’ performance through training and development in ghana education service (a case study of ebenezer senior high school). journal of human resource management, 6(1), 1-8. ige, a. m. (2013). provision of secondary education in nigeria: challenges and way forward. journal of african studies and development, 5(1), 1-9. kagoda, a. m. (2011). the influence of the school’s learning environment on the performance of teacher trainees on school practice: a case of the school of education, makere university, uganda. current research journal of social sciences, 3(3), 244-252. kamoh, n. m., ughili, l. s., & abada, a. a. (2013). enhancing the teacher profession: key to revamping the educational sector in nigeria. social sciences and humanities 4(1), 129-139. koopmans, l., bernaards, c. m., hildebrandt, v. h., schaufeli, w. b., de-vet, h. c. w., & beek, a. j. (2011). conceptual frameworks of individual work performance: a systematic review. journal of occupational and environmental medicine, 53(8), 856-866. retrieved from doi:10.1097/jom.ob013e318226a763. mohamed, n. f. (2011). the impact of teacher inclusion in decision-making on school performance. (unpublished master’s thesis). the british university, dubai. mullins, l. j. (2005). management and organization behavior. (7th ed.). new jersey: pearson prentice hall. nadeem, m. (2012). participative management style: a tool to enhance quality education. journal of humanities and social sciences, 4(2), 8-15. ofojebe, w. n., & chukwuma, t. c. (2015). teacher empowerment: an imperative for promoting quality education in anambra state secondary schools. journal of emerging trends in educational research and policy studies. 6(2), 189-197 ogunlade, j. o., kamongers, w. a., & abdulkadir, a. (2015). motivational factors and teachers’ commitment in public secondary schools in mbale municipality. journal of education and practice, 6(15), 117-122 oguntimehin, a. (2001). teacher effectiveness: some practical strategies for successful implementation of universal basic education in nigeria. african journal of educational management, 9(1), 151-161. okeleke, q. o., uzoka, n. e., & oladejo, m. a. (2017). employee training, socio-demographic characteristics and job performance of academic staff in public colleges of education in southwest, nigeria, al-hikmah journal of education, 4(2), 135-145. oladejo, m. a. & oladejo, m. a. (2016). staff training programmes and employees’ productivity at lagos state ministry of education in nigeria. journal of indonesia untukkajian, 1(2), 179-188. oleforo, n. a., ikpe, u. i., & bassey, e. a. (2015). management strategies and secondary school teachers’ job performance in akwa ibom south senatoria district. asian journal of management sciences & education, 4(2), 151-158. olorunsola, e. o., & belo, f. a. (2018). administrative challenges and principals’ managerial effectiveness in ogun state public secondary schools. international journal of educational administration and policy studies, 10(5), 48-56. retrieved doi:10.5897/ijeaps2017.0546 olorunsola, e. o., & olayemi, a. o. (2011). teachers participation in decision making process in secondary schools in ekiti state, nigeria. international journal of education administration and policy studies, 3(6), 78-84. omobude, m., & igbudu, u. (2012). influence of teachers’ participation in decision making on their job performance in public and private secondary schools in oredo l.g.a of edo state, nigeria. european journal of business and social sciences, 1(5), 12-22. 173 onyene, v. (2000). dynamics of institutional management: towards strategic administrative competence. lagos: sam orient publisher. oyeleke, o. (2012). a comparative analysis of the image of status of nigerian teachers: 1960-1985 and 1986-2010. retrieved from http://journal.lib.uoguelp.ca/index.php/ajota/view/1777/2593 robbins, s., & coulter, m. (2007). management (international edition). new jersey: pearson prentice hall. sarbeng, i. b. (2013). staff training and development interventions and teaching performance: application of structural equation model. international journal of human resource studies, 3(4), 159-176. sonnentag, s., volmer, j., & spychala, a. (2010). job performance. retrieved from http://kops.ub.uni.kconstanz.de/volltext/2010/12183 talabi, a. s. (2012). employees’ training and development for optimum productivity. the role of industrial training fund (itf), nigeria. journal of international institute for science, technology and education, 2(4), 50-58 uchendu, c. c., anijaobi-idem, f. n., & nkama, v. i. (2013). oganisational behaviour and teachers’ work performance in cross river state, nigeria. journal of emerging trends in educational research and policy studies (jeteraps), 4(2), 288-292. usman, y. d. (2016). educational resources an integral component for effective school administration in nigeria. journal on research on humanities and social sciences, 6(13), 27-37. wood, d., & bennett, n. (2000). changing theories, changing practices: exploring teachers’ professional learning. teaching and teacher education, 16, 635-647. authors: dr ajetunmobi funmilayo grace holds a ph.d in educational administration from the department of educational management, university of lagos, akoka, nigeria. she obtained her first and second degrees in mathematics education and education administration and planning, respectively. she specializes in personnel management and has published papers in reputable journals. email: foyebanjo82@gmail.com dr maruff akinwale oladejo holds a ph.d in educational management from university of ibadan, ibadan, nigeria. he is a senior lecturer in the department of educational management, university of lagos, akoka, nigeria and specialises in educational policy, planning, and economics of education. he was a visiting researcher at irmm, universiti malaya in 2013. email: maoladejo@unilag.edu.ng dr muhideen adewale oladejo holds a ph.d in educational management from the department of educational management, university of lagos, akoka, nigeria. his research interests cut across educational planning and administration of education. he has published articles in reputable national and international journals. he is currently working with the lagos state universal basic education board. email: deenoladejo@gmail.com cite this paper as: grace, a. f., oladejo, maruff akinwale & oladejo, muhideen adewale (2020). participatory management, professional development, and teachers’ job performance in public secondary schools in ogun state, nigeria. journal of learning for development, 7(2), 161-173. microsoft word verulava.docx issn: 2311-1550 2023, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 75-90 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. challenges of distance learning at universities during the covid-19 pandemic in georgia tengiz verulava, kakha shengelia and giorgi makharashvili caucasus university abstract: adaptation to distance learning, which is one of the most effective ways of fighting against the covid-19 pandemic, presented numerous challenges to society and the economy. the study aims to assess the consequences of distance learning as a result of the pandemic from the perspective of students and teachers. quantitative research was conducted. the students (n = 417) and teachers (n = 47) of all disciplines from tbilisi universities (republic of georgia) participated in the research. non-probability convenience sampling technique was used for the study. respondents evaluated the process of distance learning positively since they had the opportunity to attend lectures from any location, thus, saving costs, learning new skills, gaining valuable experience, and having more free time left than before. using a likert scale, the distance learning process was positively assessed by students (3.2 points out of 5) and teachers (3 points out of 5). the majority of students (n = 288, 69%) preferred the synthesis of distance and auditory learning methods as they consider the student’s own choices in a superior way. respondents pointed out some deficiencies, such as limited communication, technical access difficulties, low quality and malfunction of internet access, an inconvenient environment, students’ involvement process and complicated social relationships. the crisis caused by the covid-19 epidemic has identified the need to advance the methods of high-quality acquisition of knowledge. it is preferable to equip university auditoriums with the necessary technical capabilities and to develop curricula that allow students to decide whether to attend lectures in the classroom or to participate online. keywords: distance education, distance learning, online education, educational technologies, students’ perception. introduction in december 2019, a new coronavirus (sars-cov-2) infection (covid-19) was detected in hubei province, china. on january 30, 2020, the world health organization declared the coronavirus as a global threat, and on march 11, as a pandemic (cucinotta & vanelli, 2020). the first case of virus infection in georgia was confirmed on february 26, 2020. on march 21, 2020, a state of emergency was declared for the entire territory of georgia, and from march 31, a general quarantine regime was introduced. covid-19 continues to spread around the world, with more than 550 million confirmed cases and more than six million deaths reported across almost 200 countries. in georgia, as of october 2022, there have been 1.7 million confirmed cases of covid-19, including 16,900 deaths, reported to who (who, 2022). 76 besides many health problems and challenges, the covid-19 pandemic had a major impact on various aspects of human life (cao et al., 2020). it affected social, economic, political, and educational processes (brooks et al., 2020). to avoid further deterioration of the situation, it was necessary to take special measures based on the concept of social distance. social distance allows us to avoid being in crowded spaces, as it increases physical space among people and prevents the spread of disease. the majority of the pandemic-affected countries have successfully managed to slow the spread of the virus. this has been achieved by carrying out radical measures such as banning public events and gatherings, staying at home, restrictions on domestic and international travel, and the temporary closure of educational institutions (owusu-fordjour et al., 2020). the transition to distance learning is one of the most effective ways to reduce the spread of the virus, but despite that, it has created many challenges for both students and teachers, as well as for their families, friends, employers, and, consequently, for society and the economy (rose, 2020). the adaptation to distance learning has completely changed the normal process of teaching in educational institutions, and consequently, innovative teaching methods have been introduced. during distance learning, questions arise: does it provide the same knowledge as we are used to in the classroom, and how much does it help students gain knowledge? how can we help students who do not have reliable access to the internet or students who are without the necessary technology to participate in distance learning? numerous articles have already been published about the various aspects of the covid-19 pandemic crisis – particularly, its impact on physical and mental health, the economy, society, and the environment (kaparounaki et al., 2020; iyer et al., 2020; aker & mıdık, 2020; reznik et al., 2020). among the reported challenges are organisational, technical and adaptation difficulties, lack of appropriate devices necessary for online learning, problems with internet connections, poor learning spaces at home, stress among students, and lack of fieldwork and access to laboratories. although there are few studies that report the online learning challenges that universities experience during the pandemic, limited information is available regarding the specific strategies that they used to overcome them. in this regard, it is interesting to study the changes that have taken place in the education system during the covid-19 pandemic to make this process more effective. literature review the advancement of communication technologies led to a new method of teaching — electronic/distance learning. distance learning is a form of education where teachers are physically separated from students in the teaching process. distance learning using electronic technologies is not a new phenomenon and has been used in higher education institutions for many years (leszczyński et al., 2018). using electronic technologies has played an important role in increasing the productivity of teaching (berawi, 2020). with the help of the internet, students can easily get the information they need and listen to the professor directly or asynchronously. besides, they can contact the professor and solve problems remotely. distance learning can be used in remote areas, such as rural areas. there are asynchronous, synchronous, and mixed models of online learning. synchronous online learning means that the teacher and the student have to be online at the same time, however, they may be in different places, furthermore, video/audio conferencing, electronic message boards, and 77 webinars are used during the learning process. apart from this, asynchronous online learning does not require both the teacher and the student to be online at the same time and is not strictly timed. this kind of learning process combines online courses based on digital media and forums, blogs, emails, and social networks. also, there is a mixed learning method that combines the components of both, synchronous and asynchronous learning. the sudden and quick transition from conventional learning to distance learning had a major impact on students ’attitudes toward the learning process (verma et al., 2020). students' practices related to academic work have changed (switching to online lectures, closed libraries, new assessment methods, etc.) (kamarianos et al., 2020). students' social lives changed (dormitories were closed, meetings with friends stopped, parties and trips were canceled), as well as their financial situation (job loss, uncertainty about their financial status, education, and future careers), and mental health (fears, frustrations, anxiety, boredom, etc.) (perz et al., 2020; pan, 2020; elmer et al., 2020; elmer et al., 2020). regarding positive effects, it should be mentioned that e-learning has made the education process more student-centered, creative, and flexible (markus, 2020). lecturers and students were forced to explore new methods of distance learning that had not been used before. e-learning creates a relatively free environment. there is more opportunity to communicate with people at any time. stress has been reduced because the course of the lectures does not require physical involvement. the presence of teachers and students in one space helps strengthen relationships between them. in addition, online learning means constant engagement with teachers and as a result, it reduces unpleasant distance. e-learning reduces the cost of education since it is more optimal and affordable and it does not require moving through space and time (cheng, 2011). studies show that distance learning platforms allow students to access a variety of learning resources without limiting time and space (rienties et al., 2016). online tuition is particularly effective and makes e-learning easily accessible for students living in rural and remote areas. it also reduces administrative costs associated with renting an apartment and buying teaching equipment (e.g., desks, chairs). one of the advantages of distance learning is the easy access to the study material anywhere after connecting to the internet and also it reduces the cost of transportation and renting an apartment (molotsi, 2020). self-directed e-learning allows students to manage their activities independently. despite the positive aspects of e-learning, studies emphasised the challenges associated with distance learning such as disorganised infrastructure, internet problems, technological difficulties, and lack of access to software and internet services. the level of electricity and internet infrastructure in georgia is lower than average. communication may be interrupted during lectures and students should relogin to continue the session. technological underdevelopment interrupts full and adequate involvement in the online learning process. inequality in technology and internet access is particularly noticeable for poor students (adresi, 2020). a pandemic may widen the gap between students, which would negatively affect their education (fawaz & samaha, 2021). online teaching is especially problematic for students who study medicine, natural sciences, and other similar fields because there is a limited opportunity to conduct practical and laboratory work. for medical students, experience and education gained in the clinical environment is crucial and cannot 78 be fully replaced by distance learning. to some extent, this problem can be solved by simulations with virtual patients (vps) and real clinical scenarios. the university environment and auditoriums offer students the opportunity to have direct communication with each other, which plays a significant role in the socialisation process between students. it includes students’ interaction and self-expression. this transition of the educational process to the online format has a negative impact on the psychological condition of students and has led to problems such as stress, social isolation, and depression (othman et al., 2019). social isolation and reduction of activities lower students’ motivation, which causes the feeling of unproductiveness. studies have found a close connection between online learning satisfaction and psychological state (depression, anxiety and stress). the lower the level of satisfaction with online learning, the higher the rate of depression, anxiety, and stress that can be seen among students (fawaz & samaha, 2021). the study aims to assess the opportunities and challenges of distance learning as a result of the covid-19 pandemic from the perspective of students and teachers. thus, the objectives of the present study are: • to identify the challenges and obstacles that students and teachers faced in the rapid implementation of online education, • to study the opportunities, that online education created for students and teachers, • to understand and utilise the best methods and modes to engage and motivate the students in elearning, • to identify the preferred choice of distance learning method (ordinary, auditory learning, synthesis of auditory and distance learning), • to assess readiness for a pandemic during the transition to distance learning. furthermore, the study addresses future implications and the potential of blended learning as a future solution. methods research methodology a quantitative, cross-sectional research design was used for this study. population and sample the students and teachers at all levels (undergraduate, master's degree, doctorate) and disciplines of caucasus university, ivane javakhishvili tbilisi state university, and ilia state university (republic of georgia) participated in the research. these three universities were selected to represent both private and public universities. non-probability convenience sampling technique was used for sample collection (stratton, 2021). the data was collected from june 2021 until the end of october 2021. the data was gathered at a specific time, and therefore, the study was cross-sectional. the universities received an email with the option of either forwarding or otherwise providing a list of their students’ email addresses so that we could contact them personally. the total number of questionnaires distributed among students were 500, 79 and 417 responses were useful, resulting in an 83.4% response rate. the proportion of study participants varied according to stages. we included bachelors (n = 336, 80.6%), masters (n = 77, 18.5%) and phd students (n = 4, 1%), and among them 26 (6.2%) were foreign students from all three universities who participated in the survey. the study was attended by 47 teachers, including visiting professors (n = 25, 54%), associate professors (n = 11, 23%), full professors (n = 9, 19%) and assistant professors (n = 2, 4%). tools used a pre-structured online questionnaire made via the google forms electronic platform was used as a research tool. it was developed based on the existing literature and was adapted to the reality of georgia. before taking up the research, the questionnaire was pre-piloted and, after piloting, minor adjustments were made to the questionnaire. the questionnaire included socio-demographic data and closed-ended questions, and respondents could express opinions on both content and technical issues. the average duration for completing the questionnaire was 10 minutes. data collection and analysis the study involved pre-structured online interviews as a data collection method. the researcher employed pre-structured interviews to collect data from all categories of participants. the open-ended nature of pre-structured interviews motivated the interviewees to fully express their opinions and experiences, enabling the researcher to explore in-depth insider perspectives. after finishing the research, the data was transferred and encoded in spss. both one-dimensional analyses, in the form of frequencies, and two-dimensional analyses, in the form of cross-constructions, were used while analysing the data. ethical clearance before starting the study, we received approval from the research and ethics committee of caucasus university. before participating in the study, selected individuals were given informed consent forms. survey participants could voluntarily leave the survey at any time. the questionnaire was accompanied by an instruction/description that included several indications that the survey was anonymous, and respondents did not have to indicate personal data that would allow them to be identified. the aim of the research was described in the description of the questionnaire. findings respondents had to rate the distance learning process on a 5-point likert scale where 5 meant very good and 1 very bad (fig. 1). overall, students rated the distance learning process positively, with an average score of 3.2 points. as for the distribution of point averages by levels, it was found that graduate students evaluated the process even more positively than undergraduate students. undergraduate students rated the distance learning process with an average score of 2.8 points, while the average for graduate students was 3.5. the teachers who participated in the study positively evaluated the distance learning process. their average point for distance learning was 3 points. the results show that there was no negative effect from switching from face-to-face to online learning. this 80 was due to the fact that this is the generation of the digital age, who are familiar with online learning and have good digital skills. figure 1: respondents rate of the distance learning process on a 5-point likert scale the majority of the students (n = 288, 69%) and teachers (n = 38, 81%) preferred the synthesis of distance and auditory learning methods (fig. 2). figure 2: the preferred choice of distance learning method rural students (n = 44, 77%), urban students (n = 244, 67.7%), students who were unemployed (n = 288, 69%) and who worked and studied all at once (n = 84, 65%) were particularly satisfied with this method. students’ answers to this question did not differ according to their gender; both male (n = 62, 68%) and female (n = 226, 69%) students preferred the synthesis of distance and auditory learning methods. surprisingly, georgian and non-georgian students' attitudes towards the distance learning method were different. all the non-georgian speaking students (100%) preferred the synthesis of distance and auditory learning methods. as for the difference between universities, caucasus university students generally preferred the synthesis of distance and auditory learning methods to online teaching. 2.8 3.5 3 undergraduate students graduate students teachers 12 19 69 19 15 81 distance learning ordinary, auditory learning synthesis of auditory and distance learning students teachers 81 female teachers (n = 25, 83.3 %%) prefer even more the synthesis of distance and auditory learning methods, compared to male teachers (n = 13, 76.5%). the majority of teachers agreed (n = 18, 38.3%) or slightly agreed (n = 10, 21.3%) with the opinion that they needed more effort while teaching online. table 1: which teaching method would you prefer? distance learning ordinary, auditory learning synthesis of auditory and distance learning all student teacher student teacher student teacher student teacher sex female 40 (12.3%) 1 (3.3%) 60 (18.4%) 4 (13%) 226 (69%) 25 (83%) 326 (78%) 30 (64%) man 10(11%) 1 (5.9%) 19(20.9%) 3(18%) 62 (68%) 13 (77%) 91 (21.8%) 17 (36%) residence city 43 (12%) 3 (7%) 73 (20%) 5 (11%) 244(68%) 36 (82%) 360 (86%) 44 (94%) village 7 (12%) 0 (0%) 6 (11%) 2(33.3%) 44 (77%) 2(66.6%) 57 (14%) 3 (6.4%) citizenship georgian 50 (13%) 2 (4%) 79 (20%) 7 (15%) 262(67%) 38 (81%) 391 (94%) 47(100%) foreigner 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 26(100%) 0 (0%) 26 (6%) 0 (0%) are you employed? yes, i am a full time 32 (35%) 13 (10%) 84 (65%) 129(30.9) yes, i'm a part-time 18 (46%) 10 (16%) 33 (54%) 61(14.6% i am not employed 0 (0%) 56 (25%) 171(75%) 227 (54%) all 50 (12%) 9(19.1%) 79 (19%) 7 (15%) 288(69%) 38 (81%) 417(100%) 47(100%) the majority of students did not agree (n = 200, 48%) or slightly consented (n = 103, 24.7%) with the opinion that the quality of learning has improved in the online learning mode, although according to their answers, the frequency of attending lectures increased (table 3). the majority of teachers did not agree (n = 17, 36.2%) or slightly consented (n = 19, 40.4%) with the opinion that the quality of teaching improved when switching to online learning. advantages of distance learning students point out the advantages of the online teaching method along with the pros of synthesising distance and auditory learning methods. in general, the majority of students (n = 183, 43.9%) agreed and relatively agreed (n = 116, 27.8%) with the statement that while switching to distance learning, they spent more time studying (table 2). however, more students agreed (n = 189, 45.3%) and 82 relatively agreed (n = 154, 36.9%) that they have much more free time within this kind of learning method. the majority of students completely agreed (n = 171, 41%) or relatively agreed (n = 138, 33.1%) with the opinion that they are more able to attend lectures under distance learning conditions. in addition, a larger proportion of students surveyed agreed (n = 185, 44.4%) or relatively agreed (n = 147, 35.3%) that switching to distance learning gave them new, useful skills and experience. moreover, a larger proportion of students surveyed agreed (n = 142, 34%) or relatively agreed (n = 192, 46%) with the statement that the quality of the university's transition to distance learning was acceptable. the majority of teachers completely agreed (n = 26, 55.3%) or relatively agreed (n = 12, 25.5%) with the opinion that they had more free time left in distance learning conditions (table 2). furthermore, most of them (n = 32, 68%) admitted that they generally enjoyed working from home since they had comfortable conditions at home (n = 40, 85%). table 2: assessment of distance learning strongly agree more or less agree more or less disagree strongly disagree i need more effort in distance learning than in the classroom student 18 (4.3%) 79 (18.9%) 229 (54.9%) 91 (21.8%) teacher 18 (38.3%) 10 (21.3%) 6 (12.8%) 13 (27.7%) during distance learning, i am more able to attend lectures student 171 (41%) 138(33.1%) 64 (15.3%) 44 (10.6%) with the distance learning method, the quality of teaching in general is improved student 25 (6%) 89 (21.3%) 103 (24.7) 200 (48%) teacher 0 (0%) 11 (23.4%) 17 (36.2%) 19 (40.4%) when using the distance learning method, i have more free time student 189 (45.3%) 154(36.9%) 47 (11.3%) 27 (6.5%) teacher 26 (55.3%) 12 (25.5%) 6 (12.8 %) 3 (6.4%) using the remote method, i gained new useful experiences and skills student 185 (44.4%) 147(35.3%) 51 (12.2%) 34 (8.2%) teacher 20 (42.6%) 21 (44.7%) 6 (12.8%) 1 (2.1%) i have comfortable conditions for distance learning at home student 183 (43.9%) 144(34.5%) 69 (16.5%) 21 (5.0%) teacher 27 (57.4%) 13 (27.7%) 5 (10.6%) 2 (4.3%) i generally like working from home student 114 (27.3%) 160 (38.4%) 73 (17.5%) 70 (16.8%) teacher 9 (19.1%) 23 (48.9%) 7 (14.9%) 8 (17%) the quality of the organization of distance learning by the university is very good student 142 (34.1%) 192 (46%) 65 (15.6%) 18 (4.3%) teacher 30 (63.8%) 14 (29.8%) 2 (4.3%) 1 (2.1%) with distance learning, more time is saved on learning student 183 (43.9%) 116 (27.8%) 62 (14.9%) 56 (13.4%) 83 willingness to switch to distance learning mode according to the majority of students surveyed (n = 211, 50.6%), they were generally ready to switch to distance mode, yet they also had to learn something (table 3). in terms of previous experience, only 8.4% of students (n = 35) did not have the experience of attending lectures or seminars online before the pandemic and had to learn everything from scratch. most of the teachers (n = 39, 83%) were fully ready to switch to distance mode, as they had already given lectures/internships online. students’ and teachers’ positive attitude toward online learning during the coronavirus pandemic suggests that they had online learning skills before the pandemic. it should be noted that at the beginning of the pandemic, all students and teachers were given additional training in online teaching. table 3: how do you assess your readiness for a pandemic during the transition to distance learning? i was prepared in advance to use the distance learning method in general i was ready to switch to the distance learning method, but i had to learn some things i was poorly prepared to switch to the distance learning method i needed to learn a lot all student undergraduate 81 (24.1%) 176 (52.4%) 49 (14.6%) 30 (8.9%) 336(80.6%) master's degree 34 (44.2%) 34 (44.2%) 5 (6.5%) 4 (5.2%) 77 (18.5%) doctorate 2 (50%) 1 (25%) 0 (0.0%) 1 (25%) 4 (1%) all 117 (28.1%) 211 (50.6%) 54 (12.9%) 35 (8.4%) 417(100%) teacher 16 (34%) 23 (48.9%) 6 (12.8%) 2 (4.3%) 47 (100%) the majority of students (n = 285, 68.3%) mainly used moodle's platform for online learning mode (fig. 3). this rate is the same for both undergraduates and graduate students, as well as for students from different universities. students also used the whatsapp, and skype platforms for online learning (14% of respondents). most of the teachers (n = 30, 64%) mainly used the moodle platform for the online teaching mode. however, they also used the whatsapp, and skype platforms (n = 18, 38%) and university e-learning resources (n = 9, 19%). 84 figure 3: electronic resources used in distance learning remote switching problems obstacles were faced up to when switching to distance learning mode. most of the students surveyed (n = 189, 45.3%) stated that access to the internet was not significantly problematic, or not problematic at all (n = 166, 39.8%) and therefore they had access to online lectures on time (table 4). respondents for whom access to online lectures was very problematic were only 15.6% (n = 63). similar results were seen from a survey of teachers. according to the vast majority of teachers (n = 43, 91.5%), access to the internet was not significantly problematic, or not problematic at all. when switching to the distance learning method, the least problematic was the comfortable workplace for students (n = 88, 21.1%). controversially, the most problematic thing for students was the lack of skills or experience when switching to distance learning (n = 53, 12.7%). according to teachers, the biggest obstacle in terms of online learning was the weak technical capabilities of the techniques used by students (n = 28, 59.6%). the least problematic thing for them was lack of skills or experience (n = 4, 8.5%). 68 11 18 14 2 8 64 15 19 38 11 i use the capabilities of an e-learning system based on moodle. i use social networks (e.g. facebook, twitter) i use the university's elearning resources i use messengers like viber, whatsapp, skype, or others i do not use electronic resources i use other electronic resources students teachers 85 table 4: remote switching problems very problematic pretty problematic not greatly problematic not problematic at all proper technological equipment (computer, tablet) student 13 (3.1%) 52 (12.5%) 186 (44.6%) 166 (39.8%) teacher 0 (0%) 3 (6.4%) 16 (34%) 28 (59.6%) internet access student 22 (5.3%) 40 (9.6%) 189 (45.3%) 166 (39.8%) teacher 0 (0%) 4 (8.5%) 0 (0.0%) 43 (91.5%) comfortable place to work student 27 (6.5%) 61 (14.6%) 170 (40.8%) 159 (38.1%) teacher 3 (6.4%) 9 (19.1%) 0 (0.0%) 35 (74.5%) good communication from the university while in remote mode student 25 (6.0%) 44 (10.6%) 166 (39.8%) 182 (43.6%) teacher 0 (0.0%) 3 (6.4%) 0(0.0%) 44 (93.6%) lack of skills or experience in using distance learning on my part student 17 (4.1%) 36 (8.6%) 196 (47.0%) 168 (40.3%) teacher 0 (0.0%) 4 (8.5%) 0 (0.0%) 43 (91.5%) weak technical capabilities of the equipment used student 11 (2.6%) 52 (12.5%) 197 (47.2%) 157 (37.6%) teacher 28 (59.6%) 17 (36.2%) 0 (0.0%) 2 (4.3%) insufficient methodological or technical capabilities of the e-learning system student 17 (4.1%) 61 (14.6%) 204 (48.9%) 135 (32.4%) teacher 0 (0.0%) 9 (19.1%) 0 (0.0%) 38 (80.9%) discussion research has shown that the distance learning process was positively assessed by both students and teachers. many students were satisfied with distance learning because they had more free time, since they did not have to waste time on travelling to and from university, and could spend more time studying some disciplines or engaging in activities they were interested in. travel costs were reduced. students who attended the lectures from the district villages were allowed to save on the cost of renting an apartment. in addition, they were more likely to attend lectures on distance learning. similar results have been seen in other studies (pelikan et al., 2021; katić et al., 2021). students living in villages and remote areas were particularly satisfied with the distance learning method. our findings are consistent with the results of rahman (2021). most of the respondents enjoyed working from home as they had comfortable conditions there. lecturing remotely was more mobile, since both students and lecturers had the opportunity to join the lecture from any location if they had access to the internet. according to most students, the distance learning method gave them new useful experiences and skills. it enables students to develop valuable skills independently. the student masters the skills of self-education, self-realisation and self-expression, learning, and working independently. it also gives 86 the opportunity to practically use brand-new, previously unknown possibilities of communication technologies. most of the students and teachers were ready to switch to the distance mode of learning because they had taken lectures online before. however, studies confirm that some teachers did not have real practice and experience in online learning (aroshidze & dzagania, 2021; şahin, 2021). students and teachers were forced to master new methods and technologies (zoom, teams, skype), as well as video conferencing, screen sharing, and various technical skills. the majority of students and teachers preferred the synthesis of distance and auditory learning methods as it takes into account the specifics of particular subjects and the students' own choices. this kind of choice allows those who prefer to get an education remotely to choose an online course, and students who learn better only through direct communication to choose auditory training. in this regard, it is necessary to equip university auditoriums with the necessary technical capabilities and to develop curricula that will allow students to decide whether to attend the lecture in the auditorium or to join online. the synthesis of distance and auditory learning methods is a rather complex problem and requires further research. even though the transition to distance learning has undoubtedly proved to be an effective tool in protecting oneself from the covid-pandemic, there are many drawbacks. this could be caused by limited distance learning communication, technical difficulties, and an uncomfortable environment. the most problematic for students was the comfortable workplace needed for distance learning. according to the teachers, the biggest obstacle in online teaching was the weak technical capabilities of the equipment used by the students or its complete absence. according to the survey results, access to the internet was problematic for some of the surveyed students (15.6%, n = 63). it was primarily related to the low quality and malfunction of the internet in several regions (villages) of georgia and, because of that, students were not able to participate in both lecture and practical classes. all these reasons discussed above led to a low level of students’ knowledge. it is also noteworthy that some of the students from rural districts had an opportunity to save on costs associated with renting an apartment. however, online tuition became a serious challenge for them as they faced the problem of accessing the internet. studies show that in some cases, due to the lack of experience of working in distance learning mode, too much time in the beginning was spent on the technical organisation of the lecture (entering the platform, turning on the microphone, adjusting the camera, etc.), which negatively affected the quality of online lectures (roszak et al., 2021). one of the serious problems for teachers is the form of students’ involvement (they have the right to "cover" their faces). the students have the right not to turn on the video camera, or "cover" their face, which excludes visual contact and disrupts the process of exchanging knowledge. consequently, it is difficult for the teacher to understand how well the students perceived the explained lecture. however, while turning off the video eye, students can easily be distracted by various activities and they may not concentrate on the lecture material. students find the process of learning with a computer screen boring and they are less motivated to participate in lectures. 87 research has shown that the majority of students and teachers think that the online distance learning regime has a negative impact on the quality of learning. in this regard, the test methodology for assessing student knowledge is particularly problematic. closed-ended testing is sometimes used to test students’ knowledge, accompanied by a few possible answers. this kind of exam tests students’ memory more than their knowledge and excludes students’ critical thinking and reasoning skills. other research also shows that students do not find online lessons as effective as traditional teaching methods (nepal et al., 2020; abbasi et al., 2020). students who are in favor of online learning, however, believe that it reduces their use of vehicles and the cost of attending auditorium lessons. in addition, while online lectures can be recorded, independent learning is much more significant. the study also included non-georgian students and the vast majority of them preferred the synthesis of distance and auditory learning methods. apart from the academic point of view, this may also be related to their socialisation, as in most cases non-georgian students are not permanent residents of georgia and their only source of socialisation is the university. consequently, during the distance learning mode, they lose their only place for making new friends. usually, the time spent at the university for students is memorable and impressive. at the same time, students had direct contact with lecturers during conventional studies, not only in the auditoriums but also in the university library, cafes, and various university events, where useful information can be shared. other studies also confirm that students' social interactions and relationships have become increasingly complex during distance learning (leal et al., 2021). most students and teachers have access to all the necessary technical equipment needed for distance learning (computer, personal computer, tablet, mobile phone, etc.). they have the freedom to choose the most convenient learning platform. students and teachers mainly use moodle's platform for online learning mode. however, some students are involved in the learning process through mobile phones and apply to platforms such as whatsapp, skype, etc. (yilmaz, 2016). mobile devices are simple and comfortable to use and they are becoming ever more popular. however, in some cases, the use of mobile phones was associated with the lack of computers and, because of that, students were not able to complete tasks on time, so they had to write homework by hand, then take a picture of it and send it in by e-mail. it should also be highlighted that some students were not properly skilled in computer technology. conclusion and recommendations the technological progress of the 21st century has had a great impact on the process of education. the crisis caused by the covid-19 epidemic has identified the need to advance the methods of continuous, high-quality acquisition of knowledge. to protect education from the pandemic, an online teaching model was introduced, which resulted in a serious challenge to both the student and the teacher. the study found the following aspects of students’ and teachers’ satisfaction with online learning: more free time, reduced travel costs, and technical support availability and flexibility. online learning helps students acquire the skills needed to work independently, enhance self-organisation skills, communicate effectively with computer technology, and make responsible decisions independently. most of the students and teachers prefer the synthesis of distance and auditory learning methods. 88 when teaching online, it is necessary to turn students from passive beneficiaries to involved students through interactive sessions, presentations and open discussions. it is preferable to equip university auditoriums with the necessary technical capabilities and to develop curricula that allow the synthesis of distance and auditory learning methods. further research on the development of online learning is needed. universities might take the opportunity to identify shortages, to share the experience on the global level and to encourage more transnational cooperation in order to increase the quality of global education, with the aim of constructing a worldwide online education network. references abbasi, s., ayoob, t., malik, a., & memon, s.i. (2020). perceptions of students regarding e-learning during covid-19 at a private medical college. journal of pakistan medical association, 36(covid19-s4), s57-s61. doi: 10.12669/pjms.36.covid19-s4.2766 adresi, y. (2020). investigation of students’ attitudes towards applied distance education in the covid-19 pandemic process in higher education institutions: example of physiotherapy and rehabilitation department. necmettin erbakan university faculty of health sciences journal, 3(1), 1-6. aker, s., & mıdık, ö. (2020). the views of medical faculty students in turkey concerning the covid-19 pandemic. journal of community health, 45(4), 684–688. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10900-020-00841-9 aroshidze, m., & dzagania, i. (2021). pros and cons of online learning. international scientific conference online learning under the conditions of covid-19 and educational system. academy of educational sciences of georgia. berawi, m. a. (2020). empowering healthcare, economic, and social resilience during global pandemic covid-19. international journal of technology, 11(3), 436–439. doi: https://doi.org/10.14716/ijtech.v11i3.4200 brooks, s. k., webster, r. k., smith, l. e., woodland, l., wessely, s., greenberg, n., & rubin, g. j. (2020). the psychological impact of quarantine and how to reduce it: rapid review of the evidence. the lancet, 395(10227), 912–920. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30460-8 cao, w., fang, z., hou, g., han, m., xu, x., dong, j., zheng, j. (2020). the psychological impact of the covid-19 epidemic on college students in china. psychiatry research, 287, 112934. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2020.112934 cheng, y. m. (2011). antecedents and consequences of e-learning acceptance. information systems journal, 21(3), 269-299. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2575.2010.00356.x cucinotta, d., & vanelli, m. (2020). who declares covid-19 a pandemic. acta bio-medica atenei parmensis, 91(1), 157–160. doi: 10.23750/abm.v91i1.9397 elmer, t., mepham, k., & stadtfeld, c. (2020). students under lockdown: comparisons of students’ social networks and mental health before and during the covid-19 crisis in switzerland. plos one, 15 (7), e0236337. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0236337 fawaz, m., & samaha, a. (2021). e-learning: depression, anxiety, and stress symptomatology among lebanese university students during covid-19 quarantine. nursing forum, 56(1), 52–57. https://doi.org/10.1111/nuf.12521 kamarianos, i., adamopoulou, a., lambropoulos, h., & stamelos, g. (2020). towards an understanding of university students’ response in times of pandemic crisis (covid-19). european journal of education studies, 7(7), 20-40. doi:10.46827/ejes.v7i7.3149 89 kaparounaki, c. k., patsali, m. e., mousa, d. p. v., papadopoulou, e. v., papadopoulou, k. k., & fountoulakis, k. n. (2020). university students’ mental health amidst the covid-19 quarantine in greece. psychiatry research, 290, 113111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2020.113111 katić, s., ferraro, f. v., ambra, f. i., & iavarone, m. l. (2021). distance learning during the covid-19 pandemic. a comparison between european countries. education sciences, 11(10), 595. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci11100595 leal, filho., w., wall, t., rayman-bacchus, l. mifsud, m., pritchard, d. j., lovren, v. o., farinha, c., petrovic, d. s., & balogun, a. l. (2021). impacts of covid-19 and social isolation on academic staff and students at universities: a cross-sectional study. bmc public health, 21(1), 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-11040z leszczyński, p., charuta, a., łaziuk, b., gałązkowski, r., wejnarski, a., roszak, m., & kołodziejczak, b. (2018). multimedia and interactivity in distance learning of resuscitation guidelines: a randomised controlled trial. interactive learning environments, 26(2), 151-162. https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2017.1337035 iyer, p., aziz, k., & ojcius, d.m. (2020). impact of covid-19 on dental education in the united states. journal of dental education, 84(6), 718-722. https://doi.org/10.1002/jdd.12163 molotsi, a. r. (2020). the university staff experience of using a virtual learning environment as a platform for elearning. journal of educational technology & online learning, 3(2), 133-151. https://doi.org/10.31681/jetol.690917 nepal, s., atreya, a., menezes, r. g., & joshi, r. r. (2020). students’ perspective on online medical education amidst the covid-19 pandemic in nepal. journal of nepal health research council, 18(3), 551-5. https://doi.org/10.33314/jnhrc.v18i3.2851 othman, n., ahmad, f., morr, c. e., & ritvo, p. (2019). perceived impact of contextual determinants on depression, anxiety and stress: a survey with university students. international journal of mental health systems, 13(1), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13033-019-0275-x owusu-fordjour, c., koomson, c.k., & hanson, d. (2020). the impact of covid-19 on learning. the perspective of the ghanaian student. european journal of educational studies, 7(3), 88-101. doi: 10.5281/zenodo.3753586 pan, h. (2020). a glimpse of university students’ family life amidst the covid-19 virus. journal of loss trauma, 25(6-7), 594-597. https://doi.org/10.1080/15325024.2020.1750194 pelikan, e. r., korlat, s., reiter, j., holzer, j., mayerhofer, m., schober, b., … & lüftenegger, m. (2021). distance learning in higher education during covid-19: the role of basic psychological needs and intrinsic motivation for persistence and procrastination–a multi-country study. plos one, 16(10), e0257346. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0257346 perz, c. a., lang, b. a., & harrington, r. (2020). validation of the fear of covid-19 scale in a us college sample. international journal of mental health addictions, 20, 273-283. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-020-00356-3 rahman, a. (2021). using students’ experience to derive effectiveness of covid-19-lockdown-induced emergency online learning at undergraduate level: evidence from assam, india. higher education for the future, 8(1), 71-89. https://doi.org/10.1177/23476311209805 reznik, a., gritsenko, v., konstantinov, v., khamenka, n., & isralowitz, r. (2020). covid-19 fear in eastern europe: validationof the fear of covid-19 scale. international journal of mental health addictions, 19(5), 19031908. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-020-00283-3 rienties, b., giesbers, b., lygo-baker, s., ma, h. w. s., & rees, r. (2016). why some teachers easily learn to use a new virtual learning environment: a technology acceptance perspective. interactive learning environments, 24(3), 539-552. https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2014.881394 90 rose, s. (2020). medical student education in the time of covid-19. jama, 323(21), 2131-2132. doi:10.1001/jama.2020.5227 roszak, m., sawik, b., stańdo, j., & baum, e. (2021). e-learning as a factor optimizing the amount of work time devoted to preparing an exam for medical program students during the covid-19 epidemic situation. healthcare, 9(9), 1147. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare9091147 şahin, m. (2021). opinions of university students on effects of distance learning in turkey during covid-19 pandemics. african educational research journal, 9(2), 526-543. doi:10.30918/aerj.92.21.082. stratton, s. j. (2021). population research: convenience sampling strategies. prehospital and disaster medicine, 36, 373-374. doi:10.1017/s1049023x21000649 verma, a., verma, s., garg, p., & godara, r. (2020). online teaching during covid-19: perception of medical undergraduate students. indian journal of surgery, 82(3), 299-300. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12262-020-02487-2 yilmaz, o. (2016). e-learning: students input for using mobile devices in science instructional settings. edu learn, 5(3), 182-92. doi:10.5539/jel.v5n3p182 world health organization. (2022). worldometer covid-19 data. authors: tengiz verulava is a professor at caucasus university and director of the health policy and insurance institute. he holds a phd in medical sciences. he has over 25 years of experience on european union and national (georgia) funded projects. his research portfolio includes 16 books and over 300 journal papers in international peer-reviewed scientific journals. he is a chief editor of the scientific journal health policy, economics, and sociology. dr. verulava was awarded the order of best scientist by the shota rustaveli national science foundation (2018) and for the best scientific paper by the association of security researchers science for sustainable development and security (2021). dr. verulava is an honorary research fellow of school of psychology and public health at la trobe university (melbourne, australia) and is active in organising annual scientific conferences on health policy, economics, and sociology. his research interests are focused on public health, health economics, health sociology, global health, managed care, primary health care, insurance, and universal health care. email: tverulava@cu.edu.ge kakha shengelia is a president of caucasus university. he holds an ma from tbilisi state university; an mba degree in management from the university of hartford (hartford, usa) and a phd from georgian technical university (georgia). dr. shengelia was a member of parliament of georgia, deputy chairman of committee of education, science, sport and culture and committee of foreign affairs. he was a vice-mayor of tbilisi in social affairs and is a president-elect of the iaup (international association of university presidents). dr. shengelia was awarded the presidential order of excellence by the president of georgia and the ring of honor by the university of applied sciences upper austria. dr. shengelia is an honorable doctor of tallinn university of technology and a member of the steering committee of nispacee (the network of institutes and schools of public administration in central and eastern europe). dr. shengelia was conferred the title of honorary doctor of universidad autónoma de guadalajara. email: kshengelia@cu.edu.ge giorgi makharashvili is a professor at caucasus university and a dean of the school medicine and healthcare management. he holds an md degree from tbilisi state university. email: gmakharashvili@cu.edu.ge cite this paper as: verulava, t., shengelia, k., & makharashvili, g. (2023). challenges of distance learning at universities during the covid-19 pandemic in georgia. journal of learning for development, 10(1), 75-90. chizuko using community radio in a rural women’s post-literacy programme in nepal chizuko nagaoka and manohar karki vol. 1, no. 2 abstract this paper examines the literacy and post-literacy needs of rural women in nepal, describes a pilot study in using community radio to supplement a classroom-based post-literacy programme for these women, analyses the findings of this intervention and considers the implications for similar programmes in other settings. introduction the federal democratic republic of nepal is a small himalayan country sandwiched between india and china. it has a population of around 27 million, most of the people live in rural areas and almost 70% of the workforce is involved in agriculture.  nepal was originally a monarchy but following a devastating ten-year civil war (1996-2006), it became a democratic republic in 2008. the social and economic costs of this civil war, discrimination against women, ethno-religious minorities and low caste groups and a lack of basic education provision in the rural and remote areas combine to handicap the country’s economic development. however, globalisation and the market economy are increasingly impacting the lives of the nepalese, many of whom aspire to raise their living standards and seek employment in areas other than agriculture. nepal’s newly-achieved democracy means that people can access mass media and need to be able to voice their opinions. these developments make it essential that all nepalese can read and write. currently, around 43% of the population is illiterate. illiteracy is particularly high amongst females over the age of 15 (65%) (unesco kathmandu 2011).  the nepalese ministry of education and a number of non-governmental organisations (ngos) are taking steps to provide socially disadvantaged and marginalised groups with equal access to basic education through the 2001-2015 education for all national plan of action. as cisse (2001) observes, "while illiteracy hinders development, literacy alone does not necessarily lead to development. literacy programmes succeed only if they result in changed living conditions for the learners and their ability to solve problems and accept responsibilities. post-literacy is therefore an indispensable part of development." the majority of nepalese are keen to acquire life skills that will lift them out of poverty. so the national literacy campaign is not only concerned with basic and functional literature but provides post-literacy programmes that encourage new ways of thinking, communicating and acting, etc. radio has been found to be a particularly effective medium for providing such programmes in the mountainous, hard-to-access regions of nepal because many people already receive their news, information and entertainment in this way. the use of radio for national development dates back to the 1970s when the nepalese government broadcast programmes on healthcare, agriculture, forestry, environmental matters and teacher training. with the rise of democratisation in the 1990s, the people demanded a free voice and uncensored journalism and this led to the establishment of community radio stations in almost 75 districts, and these too played an important role in development for remote areas (bhutia and martin, 2007; pringle and subba, 2007), providing non-formal education programmes for women and other excluded groups. being locally-based, focused on local needs and willing to involve local people in programme planning and presentation, these stations have strong followings and high levels of credibility. and regardless of differences in ethnicity, caste or academic levels, the further people live from urban areas, the more they listen to community radio, and if they do not have their own radios, they listen on someone else’s — and increasingly, on their mobile phones. the adult women's literacy programme among its various activities, the ministry of education initiated a national adult women’s literacy programme. this is designed to help rural women in particular to achieve basic literacy in nepali language and numeracy skills. the learning materials in the specially-designed and illustrated textbook, mahilako saksharata pustka (the women’s literacy book) address topics that are critical to these women’s lives, for example, preventing diarrhoea, avoiding common diseases, getting drinking  water, family planning, loan systems and women’ s rights. during the first six months of this programme, the women attend night classes to learn to read and develop the language skills they need to deal with their own life issues. the classes are run by specially trained facilitators who use the so-called guru-guru system, in which the class groups repeat words after the facilitators and then write them down. this basic instructional method enables the participants to learn to read and write nepali but it does nothing to develop the critical thinking skills essential for social change. however, in the following three months-long post-literacy classes, the women in these reading groups not only reinforce and improve their reading skills but discuss and apply what they have read to particular community concerns. reconsidering the post literacy programme the programmes were carried out in two communities — bungmati and tenuhawa. eighty percent of the inhabitants of bungmati are hindus. buddhists, an indigenous newari maharjhan caste community and the tamang ethnic group make up the other 20%. while 79% of the male adults in bungmati can read and write, only 45% of the females are literate. in tenuhawa, 80% of the villagers are muslims. however the district verges on a world heritage site famed as the holy birthplace of the lord buddha so the surrounding communities are a mix of hindu and muslim, who tend to lead separate lives. fifty-six percent of the adult males in tenuhawa and 76% of the females are illiterate. most of the women attending these post-literacy classes had not gotten opportunities for formal schooling during their childhood due to religious reasons, traditional customs or economic problems. the class facilitators were higher secondary-level graduates who lived in the same villages, were known to the participants and well-attuned to their circumstances. the associated radio broadcasts featured the voices of these local women and also addressed issues of village life identified as important by these women. in bungmati, the barakhari (read and write) programme was transmitted in nepali and produced in partnership with radio sagarmatha and skill and education for underprivileged (sefu). in tenuhawa, the hamar gaunghar (our village, our locality) broadcasts were transmitted in bhojpuri and produced in cooperation with radio lumbini and the lumbini branch of nepal foster mate. in both cases, the village women gathered in weekly listening groups – in bungmati in a classroom at the local school and in tenuhawa at the local community learning centre — and following the broadcasts then discussed the issues raised, assisted by the local facilitators. the topics covered in the broadcast series are shown in table 1. table 1: the topics covered in the two series of community radio broadcasts. location, radio station and broadcasts episodes bungmati barakhari (read and write) radio sagarmatha　 (broadcast october december, 2010 for 15 minutes every monday 7-7.15 pm) the importance of non-formal education for women. the changes brought about by non-formal education. farming and education. how husbands and families can help in education. women who are keen to attain classes but restricted by their families. experiences of women barred from joining literacy classes. encouraging families to join literacy classes. pollution – the effects of dust and smoke on health. what women gain from adult learning. teaching women with different capacities in the same class. safe motherhood. need for continuity in non-formal education. tenuhawa hamar gaunghar (our village, our locality) radio lumbini (broadcast september 2010 february, 2011 for 30 minutes every monday, 7 – 7.30 pm)   health and cleanliness personal cleanliness importance of washing hands. oral hygiene. genital hygiene. household cleanliness safe and pure water. cleanliness of house. use of toilets. education educational equality education for all education for life agriculture using compost and manure kitchen gardening bio-farming forestry and environment marshy land plantation cleaning surrounding areas human rights children’s rights women’s rights human rights religious tolerance communications communication in the village communication skills advantages of effective communication evaluating the programmes in funding community development programmes the following were considered: the intended outputs (the immediate effects of the programmes on the participants), outcomes (the shortto medium-term effects on the participants), and impacts (the long-term effects on the participants). with this in mind, one year to eighteen months after these programmes had finished, surveys were conducted within these two communities to gauge how the women’s behaviours and understandings had changed as a consequence of these programmes. the researchers first explained their process to the two village development committees, gained their permission to proceed, then randomly selected 50 women in both communities to interview. it was clear both from these interviews and the meetings with the villagers that the broadcasts had been very popular and had attracted large audiences. it was also found that people in the surrounding villages who had not been targeted had also being listening to these broadcasts and were keen for further programmes based on their own particular needs. but what was really being looked for was evidence of changed behaviours and here the findings were encouraging.  in bungmati, it was found that men and women were now working together to clean up the areas surrounding their houses, that the number of women visiting the village health post had almost doubled, that many more women were now being allowed to join the women’s activity because their husbands and family members recognised its importance, that the women were now much more forthcoming in suggesting future programmes and what community issues needed to be addressed, and that the men were also keen for similar broadcasts on the issues of concern to them. one husband observed: before barakhari, i didn’t allow my wife to attend the night class. but then i changed my mind because i was very glad to hear my wife’s voice through the radio. after this, i recommended her to join to the class. in tenuhawa, it was found that some women had brought their daughters along to the night classes because they were attending a madrasa where they only learned to quote the holy koran in urdu, as a consequence of which they could neither read nor write in nepali. it was also found that the villagers were now using soap and clean water to wash their hands and dishes rather than ash and muddy water, that there was a 20% increase in the number of women visiting the local health post, and that the muslim women were more openly questionning medical personnel on medical or gynaecological matters and therefore receiving far more beneficial medical advice. one of the local doctors commented: most muslim women do not talk to non-family men but after the broadcasts, they talked and asked about their personal health problems. i thought they would always live “on the other side of the curtain”, but now this is gradually changing. the potential for making future programmes more interactive by linking community radio and mobile phones was confirmed by the finding that in both villages the women regularly listened to the radio on their mobiles. conclusions while this was a small-scale pilot and survey, the findings indicate that: it is important to re-consider the meaning of literacy and broaden the term to include all means of learning for development. literacy should not simply be regarded as a technical, neutral skill, a matter of learning to read, but it should also involve learning how to observe, listen, think, discuss and write about what is being read and how this relates to people’s lives, needs and concerns. community radio is a useful means of building on face-to-face post-literacy programmes for development purposes in rural and remote communities because of its high credibility with local populations. being particularly popular with rural women, radio can be an effective means of providing learning related to their needs. in developing such programmes, it is important to draw on the listeners’ (in this case, rural women’s) life expectations and experiences and enable their voices to be heard. the listeners need to be enabled to apply their new learning and share their experiences and ideas with their neighbours and other women to help them improve their lives. this is best done by forming listening and learning groups who can discuss the programmes, consider the implications of the new learning and decide what further actions are needed. this calls for careful selection and training of local facilitators who are well-known to the learners and familiar with their concerns and interests. community radio can also help inter-generational learning, in this case with women sharing their learning with their daughters. in this way, families and entire communities can gain from post-literacy and community development programmes. rural communities are often divided along the lines of gender, religion and caste. bringing the various problems of daily life and their solutions to the attention of entire communities and improving personal communications and interaction by means of radio, may go some way towards solving the traditional socio-cultural problems of village life. there would appear to be scope for using these means for other community and vocational skills development programmes. with mobile phones becoming more common, it is possible to make these programmes more participatory and interactive by using live phone-ins to enhance the debates and knowledge-building. acknowledgements the authors would like to acknowledge the support of the following people and organizations: samjhana maharjan radio sagarmatha kaji ratna shakya nepal foster mate under sefu paramashila baniya professor colin latchem radio lumbini toyota foundation references bhutia, k.t., & martin, k. (2007). forging innovation: community multimedia centres in nepal. new delhi: unesco. retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0015/001545/154528e.pdf cisse, s. (2001). post-literacy in mali. adult education and development, 57. retrieved from http://www.iiz-dvv.de/index.php?article_id=455&clang=1 nagaoka, c. (2002). a critical perspective of non-formal education in nepal: focusing on the peculiar nepalese social constitution. lifelong education and libraries, 2. department of lifelong education, kyoto university. pringle, i., & subba, b. (2007). ten years on: the state of community radio in nepal. paris: unesco. unesco  kathmandu (2011). unesco country programming document for nepal 2011–2013. retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002114/211447e.pdf chizuko nagaoka is a fellow in the national institute for educational policy research and a part-time lecturer in the department of lifelong learning and career design in hosei university, tokyo, japan. e-mail: n_agao@mvh.biglobe.ne.jp manohar karki is a program director and coordinator with sefu in nepal. e-mail: siddultha@yahoo.com microsoft word ibrahim.docx issn: 2311-1550 2020, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 433-446 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. teaching and learning experiences in medical education during the covid-19 pandemic: the case of kilimanjaro christian medical university college (kcmuco), tanzania glory ibrahim, heavenlight luzinge and gibson kapanda kilimanjaro christian medical university college (kcmuco), tanzania abstract: objective the purpose of this paper was to share teaching and learning experiences during the covid-19 pandemic and mandated university closure. methods a cross-sectional study was conducted among all eligible students and faculty members using voluntary anonymous questionnaires. to capture the attitudes and perceptions of respondents, five-point likert scale questions were used. results a total of 865 (58%) students and 57 (51%) faculty members participated in the survey. uptake of elearning platforms increased by 15.4% for students, 43.0% for faculty and by 22.3% in courses. the overall students’ strength of consensus measure of perception on accessibility of platforms was 65% and support entities 79%. about 70% of students owned a smartphone as a learning device. more than 67% of the students highlighted the cost of internet bundles as a major challenge. conclusion shifting from blended learning to online learning during the lockdown was feasible given the preplanned e-learning practices. keywords: covid-19, online learning, blended learning, students and faculty experiences. introduction the emergency of sars-cov-2 (covid-19) has disrupted many aspects of daily living including normal functioning of institutions of higher learning (reimers et al, 2020). the world health organisation (who), defines covid-19 as infectious disease caused by the most recently discovered coronavirus, resulting in a spectrum of illness ranging from asymptomatic infection to the common cold to severe acute respiratory syndrome. according to recent publications (naciri et al, 2020) the education sector is one of the largest and most delicate social sectors that has been heavily affected by the pandemic in various countries around the world. in response to the coronavirus outbreak, many governments worldwide, including african governments, tanzania included, took the decision to close educational institutions to contain the disease. medical education faculty and students have been forced to adapt to the new ways of learning, such as shifting their preclinical curriculum to e-learning on videoconferencing platforms like moodle and zoom to deliver medical education content in the absence of face-to-face teaching (rose, 2020). however, researchers in educational technology are lately concerned with the speed of shifting to online learning, whereby a list of institutions are shifting precipitously with little or no careful instructional design and planning (hodges et al, 2020). 434 according to watson (2008), moving instruction online seems to bring flexibility of learning to any location. online learning basically refers to the idea of using online tools for learning. studies show that for more than a decade medical schools have been working to transform pedagogy by reducing lectures, using technology to enhance active and self-directed learning, and promoting individualised and inter-professional education (irby et al, 2010; skochelak et al, 2017). with the current pandemic disruption forcing a shift in medical education to online, this paper aims to describe the processes and experiences in teaching and learning during the covid-19 pandemic. e-learning situation before the pandemic at kcmuco at the kilimanjaro christian medical university college (kcmuco) there has been utilisation of various e-platforms to enhance teaching and learning over the years (lisasi et al, 2014; tibyampansha et al, 2017; vovides et al, 2014). this transformation started in 2010 after the kilimanjaro christian medical centre, medical education partnership initiative (mepi) project identified a gap in the delivery of a robust medical education curriculum and invested heavily in upgrading the information and communication technology (ict) infrastructure. at the beginning, for the purpose of ensuring a successful deployment of the new technology, the learning management system (lms) was introduced to help enhance teaching and learning, which empowered kcmuco to have both face-to-face and online learning, hence, blended learning. the good services offered by the technology have allowed utilisation of e-learning systems such as leo, moodle, lecturio and other e-learning tools. leo is a full-featured education management system designed to simplify the delivery of a complex medical curriculum. the system was designed and built at the duke university school of medicine beginning in 2005; it has been used at kcmuco since 2011 for curriculum mapping, content management, assessment, scheduling functions, and support team-based learning. lecturio is a platform that provides education material in the fields of medical science, clinical science, pre-med and nursing. kcmuco has been utilising the system since early 2019. moodle is an open source lms that provides online interaction between students and teachers and also supports offline learning via its application. kcmuco has been using moodle since 2014 mainly as a backup system for online examinations. interventions taken to facilitate quick turnround to online distance learning because of covid 19, all the universities in tanzania were mandated to close on march 18 2020 to contain the spread of pandemic. however, with kcmuco the ict investment built over previous years and the pre-existing e-learning practices rescued the situation in maintaining the teaching and learning without much interruption. various interventions were undertaken to promote the transition to completely online learning, and they are listed below. re-engaging and introducing new users to the systems: following the order from management of continuing teaching and learning across all faculties and directorates, the e-learning team members quickly streamlined their efforts to support the process by introducing and re-engaging all the students and faculty members to utilise the e-resources intensively. 435 sharing of the information: from the time of the closure of the university, important information such as manuals, timetables and links were shared through various means including systems available, emails and social media. orientations: orientations to faculty members from various faculties (nursing, medicine and rehabilitation medicine) were carried out for five days to refresh/introduce them to the available eresources. for the purpose of ensuring good communication, systems availability and usage, the training covered three major areas; communication tools, how to access the available e-learning systems and the usage of lms systems, mainly with regard to content management, assessment, discussion and communication. introduction of other e-resources: kcmuco had to introduce live video conferencing tools, such as zoom and google meeting, to replace face-to-face learning. to allow access for unlimited time and numbers of participants, zoom accounts were purchased for teaching activities. prepare and coordinate teaching schedule: with the interruption of the annual teaching timetable that preexisted, there was a need to prepare and share a new timetable that covered the required curricular material. intensifying the use of support systems: the use of ticket systems and social media for reporting any challenges faced was intensified to a great extent. the e-learning team with the help of other entities, such as the student government, the tumaini makumira university students’ organization (tumaso), deans of the students’ office and heads of departments had to utilise support systems to make sure teaching and learning continued without challenges. follow-up: there was close monitoring of learning activities from the management with the help of the e-learning unit. the main aim was to have at least three reading lectures and one assessment per week for each cohort of students, and two discussion sessions per course. method monthly reports during the study period (march to may 2020) were extracted from the systems to capture the utilisation of the systems by students, a cross-sectional study was also conducted using voluntary anonymous questionnaires (one for students and another for faculty members) consisting of 17 questions. two online questionnaires were administered via survey monkey (1999-2020 survey monkey) in may 2020. all kcmuco faculty members and students were eligible to complete the survey questionnaire. the links for the questionnaires were sent to students and faculty members on the lms and social networking groups such as whatsapp and through personal email addresses. the questionnaires were left open from mid-may to mid-june. to capture the attitudes and perceptions of respondents, five-point likert scale questions were used. positive statements were given a five-point score for ‘strongly agree’ and a one-point score for ‘strongly disagree’. the questions solicited information on teaching and learning experiences during the three-months closure of the university, challenges faced, lessons learnt and recommendations for further improvement of online medical education. the reliability of the data collection tools was tested by cronbach’s-α. cronbach’s α³ 0.80 was considered of high reliability. cronbach’s-α for the students’ tool ranged from 0.79 to 0.95 while that of the faculty tool was from 0.81 – 0.87. data analysis the data were imported from survey monkey to, and analysed using, ibm’s statistical package for social sciences (spss, chicago, il) version 20. categorical data were summarised using frequency 436 and percentage while means and standard deviations (sd) were used to summarise numerical data. strength of consensus measure (scns) was computed to summarise five-point likert scale-type of data (scns ³ 80% was considered as significant). results characteristics of study participants characteristics of students a total of 865 (58%) out of 1486 students pursuing different health and allied health professions participated in the survey. the majority 551 (63.7%) of student participants were male, 669 (77.9%) were aged between 18-24 years, and 609 (70.9%) were pursuing a doctor of medicine degree (table 1). table 1: characteristics of students who participated (n = 865) variable n % sex: female 314 36.3 male 551 63.7 age (years) (n = 859): younger than 18 4 0.5 18 – 24 669 77.9 25 – 34 174 20.3 35 – 44 11 1.3 older than 45 1 0.1 professional course pursued diploma in health lab sciences (dhls) 20 2.3 diploma in occupational therapy (dot) 8 0.9 bachelor of science in health lab sciences (bshls) 214 24.7 doctor of medicine (md) 609 70.4 others* 14 1.6 year of study by profession** dhls 1 10 1.2 dhls 2 10 1.2 dot 1 4 0.5 dot 2 2 0.2 dot 3 2 0.2 bshls 1 106 12.3 bshls 2 108 12.5 md 1 176 20.3 md 2 154 17.8 md 4 227 26.2 md 5 52 6.0 others* 14 1.6 *others include: bachelor of science nursing year 4, bachelor of science physiotherapy year 4, bachelor of science prosthetics & orthotics year 4, and postgraduates **numbers 1-5 denote year of study, for examples, md 5 – doctor of medicine year 5 characteristics of faculty members a total of 57 (51%) out of 110 faculty participated in the survey of which 35 (61%) were male. the majority of 25 (45%) were aged between 40-60 years; more than two-thirds — 39 (68%) — had teaching experience of more than five years at kcmuco; however, only five (9.1%) were full professors (table 2). 437 table 2: characteristics of faculty members (n = 57) variable n % sex (n = 57): female 22 38.6 male 35 61.4 age (years) (n = 56): younger than 40 18 32.1 40 60 years 25 44.6 older than 60 13 23.2 years of teaching experience at college (years) (n = 57) up to five 18 31.6 more than five 39 68.4 academic seniority (n = 55): professor (full) 5 9.1 professor (assoc.) 4 7.3 senior lecturer 7 12.7 lecturer 20 36.4 assistant lecturer 15 27.3 tutorial assistant 4 7.3 utilisation of e-learning platforms by students lcms+/leo: by early march 2020 before the closure of the universities, 1239/1603 (77.3%) of enrolled students, 61/114 (53.5%) of faculty members, and 41 courses out of 300 (13.7%) courses at kcmuco were using leo. by the third week of university closure there had been an increment of 15.4% students, 43% faculty members and 22.3% courses, making a total of 1486, 110 and 108, respectively, in the system. out of these additions, a report from the system shows that 58%, 76% and 63% of students were able to utilise the system off campus for the months of march, april and may, respectively (figure 1). 438 figure 1: utilisation of leo during university closure lecturio: there has been 13% increase of lecturio usage, whereby 480 (32.3%) of students were using the system before covid-19 while, during the outbreak, 674 (45.3%) students were utilising this supplementary system for their learning purposes (figure 2). 439 figure 2: number of students utilising lecturio pre and during covid 19 period videoconference platform: the overall students’ participation on zoom classes was 60.9%, however, the majority, 90%, were md5 while only 45% were bsc. lab 2 (figure 3). figure 3: utilisation of video conferencing platform during university closure 440 students’ perception of accessibility of e-learning platforms during lockdown students’ perception on accessibility of the e-learning platforms at their premises after university closure on was rated with scns of 65.4%. the strength of consensus measure on perception of accessibility for leo was 78%, lecturio, 65%, and the ticketing system and zoom were 59% each (table 3). table 3: strength of consensus on ease of access of learning platforms in the students’ areas platform n ve e n d vd mean (sd) scns (%) lcms+/leo 859 289 (33.6) 336 (39.1) 142 (16.5) 72 (8.4) 20 (2.3) 3.9 (1.0) 77.6 lecturio 816 115 (14.1) 304 (37.3) 228 (27.9) 119 (14.6) 50 (6.1) 3.4 (1.1) 65.2 ticket system 778 87 (11.2) 200 (25.7) 296 (38.0) 126 (16.2) 69 (8.9) 3.1 (1.1) 59.4 zoom 829 122 (14.7) 261 (31.5) 189 (22.8) 154 (18.6) 103 (12.4) 3.2 (1.2) 59.5 mean scns 65.4 ve = very easy, e = easy, n = neither easy nor difficult, d = difficult, vd = very difficult perception on support of various entities to students and faculty in online distance learning from the student perspective, support from class representatives was rated highly by students (scns = 86%) followed by support from family member(s) or friends (scns @ 84%), while access to a good internet connection at home was rated low (scns @ 65%). the overall scns on support of entities was 79%. on the other hand, there was very strong consensus from faculty members on the helpfulness of various college entities with strength of consensus measures ranging from 92% for support available from the lms team, to 83% for support from colleague(s) to manage their workload with overall mean scns of 87% (figure 4). 441 figure 4: strength of consensus on support from various entities students’ ownership of computing devices among 865 students, more than two-thirds (603, 69.7%) owned a smartphone while tablets and desktop computers were less commonly owned, (< less than 15% of students). nineteen out of 865 students (2.2%) did not own any type of computing device (figure 5). 442 figure 5: students’ ownership of computing devices by type identified challenges by students and faculty members during distance learning and teaching the challenges faced by students included the cost of purchasing mobile internet bundles (67.4%), gaining access to good quality internet (65%), finding time to study (59.2%), getting help when there is something one does not know/understand (57.2%), collaborating online with fellow students (55.6%), and missing informal conversations with teachers and fellow students (53.5%) (figure 6). 443 figure 6: distribution of challenges faced by students in distance learning during the lockdown (n = 865) the main challenges that were encountered by faculty included unstable network connectivity, students not able to access and join the system, poor responses from students to download materials, and inability of conducting practical sessions. 67.4 65.0 59.2 57.2 55.6 53.5 49.9 47.6 41.2 39.0 33.5 33.4 30.9 18.8 8.1 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 affording to purchase mobile internet bundle gaining access to good quality internet finding time to study getting help when there is something you do not know/understand collaborating online with your fellow students missing informal conversations with teachers and fellow students motivating yourself to study finding a place to study getting the feedback that you need from your instructors problems installing required software or hardware (e.g. for video conferencing) having to become familiar with many new different technologies/platforms problems using the required software or hardware understanding what you are asked to do gaining access to lcms+/leo understanding how to use lcms+/leo percent of students c ha lle ng es fa ce d by s tu de nt s in d is ta nc e le ar ni ng 444 discussion the study revealed that utilisation of e-learning platforms increased to a great extent during the lockdown, with leo being more preferred. it was also observed that the majority of students own and utilise smartphones for learning purposes. both students and faculty showed the importance of the support from various university entities for their role as a link between students, faculty and elearning experts. quality and access to reliable internet services/high cost of internet bundles were noted as major challenges to uptake of online learning during the lockdown. the high preference of leo to other e-learning platforms could be explained due to the fact that leo is the primary system and it integrates the other two systems. also, students’ perception of relatively high accessibility of leo compared to other e-learning platforms could also be an alternative explanation for the preference. furthermore, since the other two platforms are video-oriented and therefore need high-speed internet to utilise, they pose a challenge in terms of affordability as was indicated by the students. identical findings were also observed with students from princeton university in the united states (gilbert, 2020) and hungarian higher education institutions (iau, 2020) whereby the internet affordability brought difficulties for the video conferences and real-time video classes. moreover, among the computing devices used to access online platforms, smartphones and laptops were commonly used devices that played a part in smoothing the accessibility and utilisation of the eresources. similar findings were observed in the study conducted in australia and turkey (roberts & rees, 2014; yilmaz, 2016). the authors revealed that students prefer using mobile devices compared to other devices for the reason that learning can occur anywhere and anytime. these reflect the situation in our area as most students’ own mobile devices and use them for their studies as indicated during the pandemic time. furthermore, the study highlighted challenges faced with learning and teaching during the outbreak despite the majority being able to access the systems. cost of purchasing mobile internet bundles, gaining access to good quality internet, collaborating online with fellow students and missing informal conversations with teachers were the common challenges faced by students during the lockdown. this was in line with the study on the effect of covid-19 on education among 52 african countries (elearning africa, 2020). to our knowledge, these students who have been accessing student wifi at the college, were given space for their studies, including private and discussion rooms, hence, being away from the college during the pandemic led to the above challenges. additionally, poor internet connection and inability to carry out practical sessions were the major challenges highlighted by faculty members during the university lockdown. conclusion and recommendations teaching and learning in medical education were possible despite the lockdown, through carefully pre planned e-learning practices. the institution was able to rapidly migrate from blended to online learning during the pandemic with few interventions to facilitate the transition. institutions of higher learning in lowand middle-income countries should invest in and harness technology with the purpose of facilitating e-learning practices, even on-campus learning and teaching. moreover, we call upon internet service providers to lower their prices for academic learning activities since the internet is no longer a luxury but a necessity in low and middle-income countries. 445 acknowledgements this study received support from the u.s. national institutes of health through the healthprofessional education partnership initiative (hepi) grant # r25tw011227. also, thanks to kcmuco students and teaching staff, kcmuco management, chrispina tarimo, gabriel msuka, deodatus mogella, prof. alfred mteta, ahaz kulanga, dr. charles muiruri and prof. john bartlett for their contributions. references elearning africa. (2020). the effect of covid-19 on education in africa and its implications for the use of technology. the_effect_of_covid-19_on_education_in_africa.pdf gilbert. (2020). two weeks into zoom, students reflect on challenges of online learning. the princetonian. https://www.dailyprincetonian.com/article/2020/04/two-weeks-into-zoom-students-reflect-onchallenges-of-online-learning hodges, c., moore, s. & lockee, b. (2020). the difference between emergency remote teaching and online learning. https://er.educause.edu/articles/2020/3/the-difference-between-emergency-remote-teaching-and-onlinelearning iau. (2020). regional/nationalperspectives on the impact of covid-19 on higher education. https://www.iauaiu.net/img/pdf/iau_covid-19_regional_perspectives_on_the_impact_of_covid-19_on_he_july_2020_.pdf irby, d. m., cooke, & molly, m.d. (2010). calls for reform of medical education by the carnegie foundation for the advancement of teaching: 1910 and 2010. academic medicine, 85(2). https://journals.lww.com/academicmedicine/fulltext/2010/02000/calls_for_reform_of_medical_education _by_the.18.aspx lisasi, e. et al. (2014). modernizing and transforming medical education at the kilimanjaro christian medical university college. academic medicine: journal of the association of american medical colleges, 89(8 suppl), s6064. https://doi.org/10.1097/acm.0000000000000327 naciri, a., baba, m. a., achbani, a., & kharbach, a. (2020). mobile learning in higher education: unavoidable alternative during covid-19. aquademia, 4(1), ep20016. https://doi.org/10.29333/aquademia/8227 reimers, f., schleicher, a., saavedra, j. & tuominen, s. (2020). supporting-the-continuation-of-teaching-andlearning-during-the-covid-19-pandemic. https://www.oecd.org/education/supporting-the-continuation-ofteaching-and-learning-during-the-covid-19-pandemic.pdf roberts, n., & rees, m. (2014). student use of mobile devices in university lectures. australasian journal of educational technology, 30(4), article 4. https://doi.org/10.14742/ajet.589 rose, s. (2020). medical student education in the time of covid-19. jama, 323(21), 2131–2132. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2020.5227 skochelak, s. e., & stack, s. (2017). creating the medical schools of the future. academic medicine, 92(1). https://journals.lww.com/academicmedicine/fulltext/2017/01000/creating_the_medical_schools_of_the_f uture.11.aspx tibyampansha, d., ibrahim, g., kapanda, g., bartlet, j., tarimo, c., mteta, k., & muiruri, c. (2017). implementation of a learning management system for medical students: a case study of kilimanjaro christian medical university college. vovides, y., et al. (2014). a systems approach to implementation of elearning in medical education: five mepi schools’ journeys. academic medicine: journal of the association of american medical colleges, 89(8 suppl), s102106. https://doi.org/10.1097/acm.0000000000000347 watson, j. (2008). blending learning: the convergence of online and face-to-face education. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ed509636 yilmaz, o. (2016). e-learning: students input for using mobile devices in science instructional settings. journal of education and learning, 5(3), 182–192. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ej1104721 446 authors: glory ibrahim is a senior learning management system specialist, kilimanjaro christian medical university college (kcmuco), sokoine road, moshi, tanzania. email: glory.ibrahim@kcmuco.ac.tz heavenlight luzinge is a learning management system administrator, kilimanjaro christian medical university college (kcmuco), sokoine road, moshi tanzania.heavenlight.luzinge@kcmuco.ac.tz gibson kapanda is a statistician, kilimanjaro christian medical university college (kcmuco), sokoine road, moshi tanzania. email:gibson.kapanda@kcmuco.ac.tz cite this paper as: ibrahim, g., luzinge, h. & kapanda, g. (2020). teaching and learning experiences in medical education during the covid-19 pandemic: the case of kilimanjaro christian medical university college (kcmuco), tanzania. journal of learning for development, 7(3), 433-446. microsoft word west.docx issn: 2311-1550 2020, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 261-263 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. book review an introduction to cyber security for busy people: how to be safe and secure in the digital world dr. derek w. keats kenga solutions, 2020, pp. 100 the author of an introduction to cyber security for busy people, dr derek keats, has worked in the information technology field for decades, and as he says, “since the days of punch cards”. he has researched and published numerous academic papers on information technology and is a high profile technology and open source advocate. dr keates has for more than eight years been responsible for cybersecurity in two fintech companies and is an active consultant in the cybersecurity field. this book is short and purposefully presented as a quick read for those who need an overview on the topic of cyber security. keats speaks about the threats users and organisations face, presents examples of typical threats and suggests ideas for preventing threats. his style is easy to read for the business and general reader and is not aimed at the it specialist. it provides both a useful background and information to better position many people to know what questions to ask and how to understand the threats without being an it expert. dr keats provides an interesting yet brief history of the developments from early computers (of which he has personal experience) to modern global networks. his descriptions of examples of cybercrime do not stop at only those committed online but also show how crimes in the analogue world (the physical world we live in) can impact the online world. relating to the protection of critical personal and business data, dr keats uses the acronym “cia”, or confidentiality, integrity and availability. good cyber security needs to protect all three of these. he goes on to explain how vulnerabilities in computer software can be exploited by cyber criminals and become a threat. readers learn how to apply the principle of minimising the “attack surface” so as to reduce the chances of being attacked. descriptions are included of a wide range of attacks that may crop up in conversations, especially when it people are present. a basic knowledge of the terms and what they mean can be extremely helpful to the non-it person when in conversation with it specialists. even though one may add many software protections to a computer, users need to be especially aware of the physical security of devices. the number of computers, smartphones and other devices that are stolen each year must support an army of equipment sellers and re-sellers. 262 dr keats introduces readers to a conceptual framework for planning called “vpptf” or vision, process, people, technology and finance. a focus on technology can lead one to ignore other aspects. vision refers to the vision a person or organisation has for cybersecurity and how to prevent, contain and recover from breaches. processes refer to what is in place to deal with cybersecurity threats. people are those who are assigned to cybersecurity roles. technology tools refer to the kinds of hardware and software we are spending money on. aare they the right tools? all this needs to be budgeted for (finance) and managed by adequately skilled personnel. if skilled people are empowered to protect an organisation’s digital assets, they will ensure that the most appropriate available administrative, physical and technical controls are in place. if your organisation does not yet have a person who has cyber security as a key focus area, you need to review the situation urgently. that person should be able to create a defence in depth approach and implement technologies to help reduce the risks to your organisation. the book provides an outline for a simple and basic attack prevention approach that can help the non-it manager hold the muchneeded discussion with it specialists. some of the simplest checks individuals need to perform are to see what the administration login passwords are for devices around the house, such as wifi routers. these are often set to “admin”, “administration” or “password” which any mischievous person nearby can exploit and potentially make changes to your home it system. one of the most common ways for your personal computer to become infected is via the clicking of links in emails or by plugging in other people’s usb memory sticks (“thumb drives”). dr keats recommends implementing incident management, including these processes: (1) prepare and plan; (2) detect, alert and report; (3) assess and decide; (4) respond; (5) learn and record. this would help to create constant learning opportunities and continue to build the organisation’s cyber defences. dr keats is a well-known supporter of open source and so readers can expect to hear about the use of the linux operating system from time to time throughout the book. the book is well illustrated to help readers visualise the concepts. dr keats is a strong supporter of the free and open source software (foss) movement and user of creative commons copyright licenses. basic computer literacy is a minimum requirement these days and will become even more essential as the so-called fourth industrial revolution settles in around us in the workplace. it is no longer enough to accept digital illiteracy for oneself while expecting others (such as students and subordinates) to be digitally literate and fluent. saying “i just want it to work” to another person without having a working level of digital fluency is no longer acceptable. if you feel left behind, it is time to make the effort and become digitally fluent if you wish to remain in the current and future workforce. personal cyber security is an important aspect of being digitally fluent. one of the reasons for a lack of cyber security in organisations may be the inability of management to come to terms with the extent of the effort required to develop, run and keep safe the it systems that everything depends on. perhaps if senior managers equipped themselves with the necessary digital skills, they could reduce the risk to the organisation of it system failures and attacks. the reviewer has heard there are two kinds of organisations — those that have been hacked and those that are still going to be hacked. managers who have not gained a good understanding of their digital environment can look forward to a possible future of being hacked! 263 dr keats runs a website and consulting company that provides services in it, kenga solutions: https://kengasolutions.com reviewed by: mr paul west is an independent consultant and senior advisor in distance education, open learning, knowledge management, oers and project management. email: pgwest@pgw.org cite this paper as: west, p. (2020). book review: an introduction to cyber security for busy people: how to be safe and secure in the digital world. derek w. keats. journal of learning for development, 7(2), 261-263. microsoft word pandaeditorial.docx issn: 2311-1550 2023, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. i-vii this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. editorial changing perceptions of ‘learning for development’ in the new normal santosh panda indira gandhi national open university, new delhi in the ‘editorial’ to the first foundation issue of this journal, then chief editor professor alan tait had underlined: “while in most cases education is seen as an essential contributor to the human capital that countries need to grow economically and socially, there is a counter view that education, especially at the tertiary level, provides legitimacy for a filter for the labour market and legitimation of elites, and for under and unemployment, as much as it provides real skill and knowledge essential for employment for the majority. development is in other words a contested concept, and this journal will welcome contributions to the necessary debates about how development is conceived by those who contribute to it through the organisation of learning opportunities in all their range, informal as well as formal”. further, he had noted “the journal will provide a place where researchers and practitioners provide studies of the impact of innovation in learning on development”, and “the journal critically engages with the questions as to what development is and how it should be supported, of relevance also in developed country contexts where development discourse is, regrettably, less familiar” (tait, 2014). professor tait had comprehensively deliberated on the concept and field of ‘learning for development’, and invited contributions which could engage with this field and also take the field forward. in the same foundation issue of our journal, sir john daniel took the discourse on ‘learning for development’ forward, and comprehensively articulated the present and future possibilities. while quoting the universal declaration of human rights, 1948 that “education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms”, he stated the initial formulation of the world bank on ‘human capital development’ and the linkage between learning and economic development, which gradually moved to lay stress on the quality of education rather than the level of schooling provided. it then required development and quality to be addressed through integrated and multifaceted approaches. sir john emphasised amartya sen’s concept of ‘development as freedom’ (sen, 1999), and that the purposes of development as expansion of freedom are more important than the means through which development is ensured, and that the achievement of development is dependent on the agency of people. he writes: “we conclude that educating people is a vital component of development. it should not be seen primarily as the creation of human capital for the purpose of economic production, but as the nurturing of human capability that gives people the freedoms to lead worthwhile lives. this suggests that education for the 21st century should develop people’s capacity to become self-directed learners” (daniel, 2014). ii for the mdgs and sdgs, the role of individuals, communities and institutions (as free agency of people) assumes critical importance. while partnership and collaboration are essential, the development agenda today needs to focus on lifelong learning, and skilling and re-skilling even more than before. also, for development agendas to succeed, a bottom-up approach (rather than a top-down approach) is essential. daniel (2014) underlined the lifelong learning for farmers (l3f) programmes of the commonwealth of learning as an excellent example of a bottom-up approach, which was based on partnership, sustainable learning, capacity building, and use of grass-roots technology applications. the achievement of the un sustainable development goals by 2030, and especially the sdg-4 on quality learning for all (i.e., inclusive and equitable quality education, and promotion of lifelong learning opportunities for all), requires massive investment in ‘learning for sustainable development’. in a recently published book on digital learning for sustainable development, sheila jagannathan (2021) from the world bank provides a comprehensive work on the contribution of digital learning (i.e., disruptive digital technologies influencing every aspect of human activity and absorption and application of learning) to skilling and employability, and sustainable development. in the context of adult and lifelong learning, akkerman and bakker (2011b) argue that there are boundaries in the communities and learning spaces, and that boundaries, like socio-cultural differences determining action and interaction in the community, can also facilitate adult learning by compelling us to reconsider assumptions and look beyond the boundary familiarity. in the context of learning for development (l4d), boundary crossing by negotiating and selecting the best and the appropriate from other boundaries or contexts should be facilitated by educational provisions and discourses. this has also been reiterated by wenger (2000), while describing situated learning in the community of practice, that there is a need for cross-boundary encounters to learn the mystery of the otherness and expand one’s horizon. four types of learning were needed to be nourished in this context — identification, coordination, reflection, and transformation (akkerman & bakker, 2011a). today, social technologies and networks in the context of globalisation facilitate this cross-boundary learning much more than before. from a psychological perspective, and in the context of schooling and early childhood care and education (ecce), teachers face the dilemma of linking learning to development, especially as the backdrop to the piagetian theory of development driving learning (i.e., object performance) and the vygotskian theory of learning driving development (i.e., cultural tools) (vygotsky, 1978). in this context, fowler (2017) suggests that teachers need to make instructional judgements based on students’ emerging capabilities and teacher-adult guidance and support. one major consideration for the contribution of learning to identity, community, and development is ‘learning to learn’, and harnessing the skills of cognitive and metacognitive learning strategies. while these could be considered in school curricula, further brushing up is possible through post-schooling work experience, and also more of student engagement at further and higher education (cornford, 2002). an established, but often contested, concern for development relates to ‘human resource development’, which unfortunately is interpreted as ‘objects’ of target groups instead of subjects of iii development (rogers, 1990). this strand focuses on enhancing competencies of human resources rather than focusing on ‘development’, including working with multi-stakeholders, with indigenous and disadvantaged people. education is for social justice and one primary concern is redistribution of wealth in favour of the deprived. however, sen (1999) postulates individual freedom of choice of capabilities of becoming and doing. further explaining sen’s approach to the pedagogy of capabilities, panda (2022) writes, “as against human capital approach, the capability approach fosters individual informed and reflective choices in ways of living, and self-determination for ends and values of life, dominated by considerations of justice and equality. the central idea behind ‘pedagogy of capabilities’ is that education must develop individual capabilities to value freedom and dignity, and ensure rights – right to enhancement of new possibilities, right to inclusion, and right to participation – as also questioning and reflecting on educational development for ‘whom’ and for ‘what’. capability and freedom to pursue development through capacitation are crucial, and justice is central to teaching-learning and assessment” (p. 48). in reference to the above discussions, while emphasising ‘learning for development’, we may have already undermined the role and context of ‘education’ for development, since education assumes a wider encompassing concept than ‘learning’. whereas, in our case, we construe the broader power of ‘education’ for individual, community, regional and global development (and ‘development’, which presupposes also leading to individual freedom and growing competencies to be able to traverse the path toward self-realisation and self-exhilaration), and which subsumes ‘learning, within that construction. over the past decade since the foundation of jl4d (2014-2023), the papers published in the journal have covered the following seven major themes (and also some micro-themes relating to the major focus of the journal): • learning for development – discourse and practice. • lessons from diverse contexts and perspectives. • technology and pedagogy for learning and capacity building. • capacity building for new modes of learning and teaching. • research on technology-enabled learning. • researching technology-enabled teaching, learning and training. • technology-enabled learning: oer, moocs, and other tel designs. most of the papers published in the journal more recently have focused on covid-19 and ‘learning for development’ during the pandemic. we also devoted a special issue to this theme. while the trend continues in the contemporary issues, most papers and researchers have gone beyond the pandemic to refocus on the seven and related themes as noted above. the revised journal focus statement for jl4d, as agreed upon, includes the following: the journal of learning for development, a scopus-indexed journal, provides a forum for the publication of research with a focus on innovation in learning, in particular but not exclusively, open and distance learning (odl), and its contribution to development. if the research is not directly about odl, then we encourage authors to consider submitting research on equity, access iv and success using technology-enabled learning. content includes interventions that change social and/or economic relations, especially in terms of improving equity. the focus of the journal and its papers shall continue to be within the conceptual and thematic boundaries set as above. the first peer-reviewed invited paper by mark nichols underlines relooking at what is meant by and included in 'online education', especially in the context of covid-19 and the emergency remote teaching-learning, which sustained teaching-learning during the pandemic, but has undermined what is meant by online education. unfortunately, uses of online search of literature, emailing, online networking, networked computer transfer of data, and simple use of online support to students in odfl programmes and courses have been construed as online education. the author argues that merely using educational technology as a vehicle to distribute courses and data may not be online education; it must involve educational pedagogies and educational processes of teaching-learning. to consider this further as legitimate, we need to reflect upon: i) how is online education different from other forms of education? ii) what are its strategies and operations? iii) what is the common understanding about online education across the board, and iv) what teaching-learning strategies and learning experiences does it involve? the author provokes the odfl practitioners further to consider the multiplicity of terms like 'hybrid', 'blended', and 'hyflex', and also the processes involved while loosely describing what is online education. the distinctiveness of open, distance and flexible learning (odfl) needs to be maintained and reflected upon especially at the onslaught of “online” education. we need to seriously consider teacher involvement and voice, instructional location, learner engagement and conversation, besides other pedagogic factors. [we invite our readers to engage with this paper and also with the author to take the commentary and the debate further vis-a-vis odfl and online education.] we have included eight research papers in this issue of the journal. in the first research paper, rabajalee, jugurnath and santally report the findings of a research study, at the back of the mauritius national policy on oer, on the factors influencing teacher adoption of oer in mauritian secondary schools. while half of the sampled teachers wanted to use oer, factors like productivity, interactivity, infrastructure, and some constraining factors were associated with teacher attitude and adoption of oer in the curriculum design and teaching-learning. in the second research paper, drushlyak, semenikhina and kharchenko present the effectiveness of digital technologies for inclusive teacher training through a specially-designed model in two universities in ukraine, and suggest that their pedagogic experiment and analysis by using the sign test was found effective. the authors suggest that for using the pedagogic model for inclusive teacher preparation, specialised subject domainspecific software for use of digital technologies needs to be created and used by both the teachers and the students. a similar but interesting work on digital pedagogy by using university students' construction/creation of digital visual arts in the philippines during the pandemic is reported on by richard bañez. the author suggests that while the students’ experience, family, and choice of artists influenced their construction, the choice of artists influenced their expression, representation, impression, and abstraction. the author underlines that digital pedagogy (by integrating digital artmaking tools in teaching-learning) should be considered by educators and teachers, and further research studies are v needed on its application in-context across domains/disciplines for learning activities, assignments, and creative experimentation of ideas, and across-cultural and socio-economic factors. a new area of work under 'learning for development' has been reported by gulden akin who investigated the impact of adult literacy and vocational education for prison inmates on their postprison life and livelihood in turkey. through interviews and thematic analysis, the author found that an increase in the level of education significantly contributed to the group dynamics and transformation in their lives, including developing the competency of self-directed learning. those with open schooling or distance higher education experienced more confidence in becoming active and productive citizens, and those with vocational education could locate better jobs. however, religious education imparted in the correctional settings did not have much effect on the prisoners in their post-prison life. the author suggests considering more digital and technology-enhanced learning in correctional settings to educate and empower those who are behind the bars and who learn behind the bars. the next research paper deals with student perception of online examination during the covid-19 pandemic in south africa. like elsewhere in the globe, venue-based examinations moved online during the pandemic. though an open-ended survey, biccard, mudau, and van den berg found that system interface, digital access, and the duration of examination significantly affected student success in online examinations. there were also issues relating to student anxiety, devices and connectivity, digital skills, and student acquaintance with the novel form of online examinations; and, therefore, continuous learner support and learner empowerment is needed for online examinations to be sustained in the future. work-based learning for undergraduate engineering and technology programmes in tanzania is the theme of the next research paper. mwajuma lingwanda reports on a flexible work-based learning model for engineering diploma holders intending to upgrade to a bachelor's degree. the sampled final year diploma students significantly favoured the flexible work-based learning model, as against the inflexible campus-based learning. the author suggests, however, piloting of the model with more research evidence before mainstreaming it for undergraduate engineering and technology programmes. the research paper by joseph lobo deals with factors affecting student resilience and engagement in higher education during the pandemic. the author found that academic resilience was positively related to student engagement and teacher emotional support; and, therefore, there is a need to provide for more personal and contextual resources to support online students. in the last research paper, yanti sulistyana reports the effectiveness of a guided inquiry-based e-module in learning integrated science process skills among senior secondary school students. we present two case studies in the next two papers — one on an offline lms, and the other on collaborative research writing during the pandemic. maro and colleagues report findings of practical experiments on low-cost digital devices to implement an offline lms. further, factors like hardware capability, software stacks, and platform optimisation need to be considered for the selection of a micro-server for an offline lms. in the next case study, mark roxas reports on online collaborative research writing during the pandemic through analysis of reflective essays written by senior high school students. while students faced problems in research technicalities and collaboration strategies, vi there is a need to consider various identified coping strategies like self-determination, positive attitude, peer-help, and spiritual guidance. the book review on ‘becoming an effective teacher’ included in the book review section should interest our readers and be useful, too. this issue of the journal has added further to the expanding and diversified field of ‘learning for development’; and includes major themes of: online learning, digital technologies and pedagogies, online examinations, inquiry-based e-modules, learning behind bars, work-based learning, and collaborative research writing. i take this opportunity to thank associate editors dr tony mays and dr jako olivier, book review editor dr mairette newman, technical editor alan doree, and editorial assistant carol walker for facilitating this issue being published on time. we hope our readers enjoy reading and benefitting from the papers and book reviews of this issue. we will invite reader reflections and commentaries, especially on the first article by mark nichols, and readers may like to engage further with mark on his views and commentaries (nichthus@outlook.com). references akkerman, s.f., & bakker, a. (2011a). boundary crossing and boundary objects. review of educational research, 87. akkerman, s.f., & bakker, a. (2011b). learning at the boundary: an introduction. international journal of educational research, 50, 1-5. cornford, i.r. (2002). learning-to-learn strategies as a basis for effective lifelong learning. international journal of lifelong education, 2(4), 357-368. daniel, j. (2014). what learning for what development? journal of learning for development, 1(1). fowler, r.c. (2017). reframing the debate about the relationship between learning and development: an effort to resolve dilemmas and reestablish dialogue in a fractured field. early childhood education, 45, 155-162. jagannathan, s. (2021). reimagining digital learning for sustainable development. routledge. panda, s. (2022). pedagogy and teaching-learning strategies. in b. das et al. (eds.), pedagogy in practice: project-based learning in media policy and governance. bloomsbury. sen, a. (1999). development as freedom. oxford university press. tait, a. (2014). learning for development: an introduction. journal of learning for development, 1(1). vygotsky, l. (1978). interaction between learning and development. in m. gauvain & m. cole (eds.), readings on the development of children. scientific american books. wenger, e. (2000). communities of practice and social learning systems. organization, 7, 225-246. santosh panda chief editor, jl4d vii cite this paper as: panda, s. (2023). editorial — changing perceptions of ‘learning for development’ 
in the new normal. journal of learning for development, 10(2), i-vii. gilzen-cheese the nexus between stakeholder engagement and instructional quality: the case of the uwi open campus’s awareness and professional development towards a quality support framework florence gilzene-cheese vol. 2, no. 2 … unfinished, unclear, unrefined and unknown are words that may describe the quality delivery culture at the uwi oc. keeping step with the times, we are working to change those descriptors to reinforced, rational, refined and recognised! abstract with changes in the global economic landscape, universities are employing adjunct staff to instruct their online courses in new and expanding programs. concomitantly, the growth of information and communication technology worldwide has facilitated the creation of classrooms without walls and universities without borders. the challenge for institutions is to create that nexus between programme quality and instructor engagement, especially where the instructors are just adjunct members of the staff. the university of the west indies (uwi), through its virtual open campus (oc), has aligned its strategic objective of excellence to “…provide multiple, flexible paths for all constituencies to pursue tertiary education over their lifetime (uwi, 2012)” with the development of a framework that provides support for adjunct faculty members who are often “new to online”. this article is predicated on a quality framework established within the uwioc at the start of the academic year 2012/13. it draws on the processes used with online educators while the university restructured its quality assurance (qa) procedures. i will discuss how a quality framework might affect instructional practices in distance education while broadening the understanding of what it means to facilitate focused student engagement. data for the study will be generated through multiple methods: ethnographic observations; focus group interviews and document and artefact collection – reports on the use of two monitoring instruments. i will analyse key components of the oc quality structure; quality context issues and their contribution to success; and essential principles for ongoing assessment and planning to maintain the cycle. the discourse examines the possible effects of the changes, if any, through a practice-oriented perspective on quality amidst changes occurring within the uwi’s virtual campus. it also contemplates how the process of increased monitoring and accountability works towards quality improvement. key findings are presented with graphic and narrative arrangements supported by literature in the area of institutional quality. introduction the growth of information and communication technology worldwide has facilitated the creation of classrooms without walls and universities without borders. the reaffirmation of unesco’s goal of ‘education for all by 2015’ in dakar brought many of the challenges for developing countries to the fore and raised the question of their collective abilities to reach the goal for the respective countries. one item from the dakar framework, which resonates with educators globally is, “ensuring that the learning needs of all young people and adults are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life skills programmes.” keeping step with the times, the university of the west indies (uwi), through its virtual open campus (oc), has aligned its strategic objective of excellence to “…provide multiple, flexible paths for all constituencies to pursue tertiary education over their lifetime ” with the dakar framework for action. background this article is predicated on a quality framework established within the uwi open campus at the start of the academic year 2012/13. it draws on the processes used with online educators while the university restructured its quality assurance procedures. in this paper i discuss how a quality framework might affect instructional practices in distance education, while broadening the understanding of what it means to facilitate focused student engagement. i will analyse key components of the oc quality structure; quality context issues and their contribution to success; and essential principles for planning to maintain the cycle. i also examine the possible effects of the changes, if any, through a practice-oriented perspective on quality amidst changes occurring within the uwi’s virtual campus. the discourse also considers how the process of increased monitoring and accountability works towards quality improvement. key findings are presented using narratives supported by literature in the areas of open and distant learning (odl) and institutional quality. the uwi context and key components of the oc quality structure several features of the uwi that are pertinent to the development of a quality culture are presented in brief below. the university began teaching in 1948 at mona in jamaica as a university college affiliated with the university of london, and became independent in 1962. today, the uwi is a dual mode institution offering teaching by face to face and distance education modalities. the university has physical campuses at mona in jamaica, st augustine in trinidad and cave hill in barbados. the open campus is the 4th campus which was created to reach the underserved populations affiliated with the uwi. the campus currently serves 17 anglophone caribbean countries—anguilla, antigua & barbuda, bahamas, barbados, belize, bermuda, british virgin islands, the cayman islands, the commonwealth of dominica, grenada, jamaica, montserrat, st. christopher & nevis, st. lucia, st. vincent & the grenadines, the republic of trinidad & tobago and turks and caicos. the distributed locations of the campus and the use of adjunct facilitators (who serve students in diverse locations), have made it critical for the uwi open campus to create and implement quality assurance processes. to provide educational access to its underserved population and maintain quality, the uwi open campus provides programmes through distance modalities that offer flexibility of time, space and place through individualized curricula. the adjunct staff that work at the uwi open campus are specialists in their fields of experience and provide examples for students which are applicable for the workplace. the changes in content and instructional strategies make it necessary to examine the quality of content and instruction to ensure quality, currency and reach for the changing small state economies. a quality framework facilitates uniformity in the area of andragogy and supports a standardized process. in exploring open and distance learning for development, the commonwealth of learning (col) describes the flexibility of odl environments as “…the provision of learning opportunities that can be accessed at any place and time. flexible learning relates more to the scheduling of activities than to any particular delivery mode.” (p. 1). concurring with this principle, the uwi open campus has made its first small steps towards faculty development to ensure that the multiple, flexible paths to tertiary education and lifelong learning remain viable and accessible while maintaining the value of its educational product. while the university has embraced the significance of the relationship of odl to its processes, unfinished, unclear, unrefined and unknown are words that may describe the quality delivery culture at the uwi open campus. keeping step with the times, we are working to change those descriptors to reinforced, rational, refined and recognised! the campus seeks to accomplish its goal of creating a quality culture and maintaining its value through faculty guidelines and related actions predicated on the use of five key components for delivery: training and development planning course document preparation course monitoring guidelines course coordinators’ report course evaluation processes. figure 1: five key components of the uwi open campus quality structure. while training and development planning, document preparation and course monitoring make significant contributions to the quality framework, they rely on the timing and frequency of prevalent components—course evaluation and reporting. these components form an interlocking whole, presented graphically in figure 1. the general principles related to the implementation of the quality delivery structure is summarised as follows: create a culture of quality from the beginning through exceptional planning, model good examples and build out on the gains and successes. arrange a quality feedback loop between the adjunct faculty and oc delivery support and administration personnel to facilitate ongoing programme and course evaluation and effect timely modification in keeping with updates to the teaching disciplines, learner diversity and work-based reform. factor feedback gained from learner (midand end of course-) evaluations into the delivery modification and guidelines for future delivery. support the creation of delivery guidelines – content, guides, schedule and expectations – that encourages and support student engagement with; course content, peers, facilitators and the delivery platform. for best effect, these guidelines are prepared ahead of delivery to allow for adequate interactions among facilitators and learners in the delivery process. focus on the best practices for quality delivery in the odl environment. consistent with the focus on quality delivery output, conduct initial training and ongoing in-service support for all adjunct faculty members. primarily, the focus of the quality structure is the development of engendered best practices. this design affirms the empowerment of faculty through effective odl practices. the branding of the institution and visibility in the marketplace, with increased learner capacity and related institutional throughput are secondary to the delivery of a quality educational product. share institutionalized delivery best-practices that facilitate innovations and flexible delivery to diverse learners. emphasise the importance of sustained excellence with the learner as the central focus, while engaging in service excellence through research and structured reform. use documented guidelines to monitor faculty direction and learner experiences (see appendix a). strengthen the development of excellence through documented best practices and a system of ongoing support. support openness and the existing reporting framework by prompting multiple avenues of communications, opportunities for collaboration and information exchange. increase the prospects of course and programme effectiveness through timely and constructive feedback; modify the existing structures to admit changes to the learner facilitator narratives that allow for critical thinking and reflective practice of the facilitators and the learners. a quality frame for the uwi open campus is created through adherence to the foregoing combined principles through an implicit agreement to adopt and advocate for the best practices that emerge through their application. quality context issues and their contribution to success the most critical strategy in the development of a quality structure is to promote excellence in the delivery of courses among adjunct faculty taking into consideration the mission of the oc to create multiple flexible paths for lifelong learning. the oc has therefore included quality preparation of faculty in its delivery framework. this integration of quality into the training preparation and ongoing support is considered critical in ensuring that new and continuing faculty members possess the requisite knowledge, skills and abilities to operate in the odl environment (anderson, 2004). anderson presents the view of “…the creation of an effective online educational community as involving three critical components: cognitive presence, social presence, and teaching presence” (p. 273). in describing the “presences” anderson introduces cognitive presence as the development of an environment where critical thinking and engagement occur with specific discipline based content. social presence, by distinction, is the development of a supportive environment where the learner is comfortable in expressing his or her ideas. the final of the three presences; teaching presence, embodies the multiple roles of the facilitator who is responsible for; creating the learning experience, creating strategies for engagement and going beyond moderating the experience to demonstrating content expertise. anderson (2004) believes that the needs of the distance learners should be assessed and preparation made to accommodate the prescription and negotiation of content through the teaching presence roles. at the uwi open campus, faculty preparation occurs through continuous engagement and the development of the presences articulated by anderson. in this section, i explore what is implicit in anderson’s three critical components, which encompasses and evaluates delivery and makes adjustments through the lens of expertise. the presences are examined against the background of support at uwi open campus for faculty engagement and the development of the facilitator roles and characteristics. i specifically examine the perspectives of five master tutors who responded to an opportunity to initiate changes in the course preparation and monitoring practices towards the development of a quality culture at the oc. master tutors are course facilitators who embrace and exemplify the components of the quality framework through best practices in their course processes. they encourage stake-holder buy-in and provide support with the initial training processes. the masters mentioned in this paper are pam, claire, anna, eve and janis, who work in the management studies, educational administration and literacy programmes. collectively, they have over fifty years of experience working in their disciplines at the tertiary level. they provide mentoring support for new facilitators and remain on call to support facilitator development and in-service training. the sub-topics; possibilities, monitoring and implications, represent three critical steps taken by the uwi open campus in keeping with changing learner needs and global odl development. these steps focus the discussion on salient ideas from anderson’s research and the connection of the components the oc quality structure. overall, the discussion here should prove valuable to new odl faculty and programme administrators who are currently adjusting to changes in curriculum delivery and the expectations of a technology literate society where institutions use odl to deliver continuing education programmes. possibilities in this context, possibilities refer to the creation of the learning experience inclusive of initial and ongoing document preparation and the training support that is provided for the faculty member. at the oc, the ethos of excellence is founded on commitment to service delivery. the oc first selects content experts from various disciplines and establishes a common standard for the preparation of facilitators through training and ongoing support for the development of their teaching practice. facilitators are encouraged to embrace diversity working towards the achievement of every student. pre-planning considers the needs, which include; the learning style preferences, geographical locations and culture of all learners and match appropriate instructional strategies, assessment and opportunities for engagement that will cater for these needs. anna’s views on the training options are below: vignette 1: the role of in-service training in the quality delivery process anna –“what have we been doing so far to ensure quality delivery? many issues have been raised about the quality of online instruction. to provide quality online instruction, qualified instructors must first be prepared. so far, we have been preparing instructors who provide quality online instruction by: encouraging coordinators/e-tutors to take courses to better understand technology [odl principles]. ensuring that coordinators/e-tutors have the support of other instructors who have taught online courses before, as well as administrative and technical support. encouraging coordinators/e-tutors to consider how to increase the interaction among studentscoordinators/e-tutors and peer-interactions by using various types of instructional design methods. encouraging students to evaluate the courses continuously and periodically so as to improve online teaching i agree that there is more to be done, but yes! we can achieve quality delivery!” monitoring in keeping with the theme of development of social presence for the learner, monitoring enables the creation of a model of independence and accountability for the course facilitator. feedback on quality processes is facilitated through the creation of monitoring instruments (see appendix b) that are used by the programme manager to monitor course processes. this allows acknowledgement of best practices and recommendations for training. development of a social presence also helps to remove the transactional distance that mitigates negotiation processes in odl. the seminal theory of transactional distance articulated by moore (1993) remains current (twenty years later) and its principles validate our processes. it encompasses “…the universe of teacher-learner relationships that exist when learners and instructor are separated by space and/or time” (p. 22). the theory describes the relationship among the variables of dialogue, structure, and learner autonomy, and how these variables may be negotiated to increase or reduce transactional distance. the implementation of the monitoring process at the oc assures quality delivery by allowing insights into the strategies used to reduce transactional distance and promote them as best practices for decreasing distance. the views below represent the commitment of three master tutors to the quality structure: vignette 2: achieving quality delivery anna – “as a facilitator in the learning process, i pay attention to classroom dynamics and seek to create a supportive environment for students, within which they feel safe taking risks and making mistakes. similarly, i see my own role not as infallible expert, but as someone engaged in reciprocal learning and dialogue with students.” janis – “i certainly believe that we can and should strive for excellence in our standard of delivery.  many students come to us very apprehensive about the [prospect] of learning online.  so that we are charged to reassure them that the task at hand is one which is manageable and once we commit to supporting their goals and maintaining the university’s standards certainly our customers will be very appreciative.” eve – “we all come from different walks of life … [i’m] inspired and encouraged because we all have such varied experiences and come from varied professional backgrounds, yet we are united on the common basis of education and the passion for facilitating education.  it is this pride in what we do that should continue to lead us to strive for betterment and the pursuit of “quality”. this, however, i believe won’t come easily.  as they say – “rome wasn’t built in a day”…..it will take a lot of work and determination which i believe is well within our reach. what we do goes beyond the classroom – so we have to ensure we provide more than content knowledge.  students may be very shy and apprehensive, but they are very wise indeed – they know the level of involvement and effort and responsibility tutors have in their success; so we must communicate our expectations continuously and provide support – not only academic.  a lot of what we are faced with is social, not only academic; so we must have a proper system to be able to gauge feedback / performance.  students sometimes tend to lack commitment to work / studying / reading, but it is critical, so we have a responsibility to provide support in this aspect – as their performance is a reflection on our work and our effort. as we progress through the semester; i am certain of the quality we will achieve.  let us keep in mind these [success] factors: leadership, motivation, teamwork, example, inspire, vision and training.” implications the final point in this section examines the implications of cognitive, social and teaching presences for instruction and knowledge development. pedagogical principles and the needs of the adult learner along with the two previous points inspire the implications. the non-threatening environment for learner engagement and cognitive presence go hand in hand for the development of teaching presence. facilitator roles are encouraged through course reports and evaluation; data collection, analysis, validation and use. facilitators embrace their roles; demonstrate content expertise, create learning experience and select appropriate strategies for engagement. their actions inspire learner confidence and foster a feeling of belonging in the learning community. in this development, the facilitator must master critical technology improvements and control of the learning management system operating within the institution. support is provided for ongoing development in these areas to ensure that the ideas work together to maintain the culture of quality at work within the institution, two master tutors expand in the vignette below: vignette 3: quality involvement pam – “i think we can achieve quality delivery…. from my observation persons are scoring high on the key areas indicated in the monitoring form. it suggests that there is a thrust towards quality. the sharing of best practices will also go a far way in attaining this goal.” claire “…quality delivery is possible but not with apathy and 'otherness'. if we will achieve this currently nebulous quality at the oc, we cannot abdicate our own responsibility or leave the onus on that 'other’ person. we all are important parts of the process and whatever role we have is critical to our collective success. it is through this process of symbiosis and reciprocity that is found in working together that we will be able to achieve the institutional and programme quality we desire and deserve.” maintaining the cycle – essential principles for ongoing assessment and planning the quality structure emphasizes choice and allows the facilitators to make these choices, informed by learner evaluation of the courses. ongoing monitoring by internal administrative staff increases the range of options for training and support and improves the teaching practice of adjunct faculty. as an odl institution, the uwi open campus cannot afford to ignore opportunities for institutional development through faculty improvement. rather, we have taken steps to face up to the challenges and changing needs of our institution. much progress has been made in establishing a quality culture at the uwi open campus over the last two years. the points presented identify the provisions and strategies for improved staff processes. the stakeholders at the uwi open campus have benefited from the structured process that the quality framework provides. this is evident in the courses across tutorial groups and locations where positive changes in quality standards are evident. we have achieved buy-in by adjuncts who are now requesting additional training and mentoring to meet the targets outlined in the quality frame. while the gains might not be considered as a giant leap, the steps represent the beginning of a valuable journey towards sustainability of this quality culture. the key strides are dependent on the stakeholders’ involvement, recognition and acceptance of diversity and a strong commitment to the process. the culture of quality created at the uwi open campus is sustainable through the efforts of all concerned over the long term. references anderson, t. (2004). teaching in an online learning context. retrieved from: http://cde.athabascau.ca/online_book/ch11.html commonwealth of learning. (2013, july 19). open and distant learning for development. retrieved from: http://www.col.org/ education for all. (2000). dakar framework for action. retrieved from: http://www.col.org/pcf5/themes/intdevtgoals.html#edforall moore, m. g. (1993). theory of transactional distance. in d. keegan, theoretical principles of distance education. london: routledge. the university of the west indies. (2012, july). uwi strategic plan 2012 2017. strategic objectives. kingston, jamaica: university of the west indies. florence gilzene-cheese is instructional development coordinator (lecturer), programme delivery department, academic programming and delivery division, the university of the west indies, open campus. e-mail: florence.gilzene-cheese@open.uwi.edu jamatia bridging the gap between community and cardiologists biplab jamatia vol. 2, no. 1 abstract cardiovascular diseases are an emerging cause of morbidity and mortality in india. india produces less than 150 cardiologists annually, leading to a gap between the need and availability of trained professionals. a three-year cardiology-training programme is available for post-graduate doctors in the conventional medical education system. the majority of the people living in rural areas, small towns, and district towns in the country do not have any access to cardiac care, because trained cardiologists are mostly concentrated in the metropolitan are or capital cities. to address this issue indira gandhi national open university has designed and developed a two-year, full-time training programme in the area of non-invasive cardiology for medical graduates, named the post graduate diploma in clinical cardiology, which is being offered through the open and distance learning mode. the objective of the programme is to train a large number of medical graduates effectively to enable early recognition, management and prevention of common cardiovascular diseases. learners have been given the opportunity to train in different departments and are posted in various areas in this programme, such as management of common cardiovascular diseases (6 months), ecg and stress testing (3 months), echocardiography (3 months), icu/ccu management (6 months), paediatrics cardiology (3 months), preventive cardiology (3 months). self-learning materials, 33 video programmes (1260 minutes), and a monthly, live, interactive teleconference (90 minutes), have been incorporated into this programme. beside these, 50 theory counselling sessions, 25 guest lectures, seminars, journal clubs and case discussions have been provided in every training center. hands-on skills training is provided to every learner as prescribed in this programme. the 72 credits in the programme are divided into seven theory and six practical courses. students need to pass in each course independently both in the internal examination and the term end examination. the minimum teacher-student ratio has been maintained strictly in both training and term end practical examinations. the topmost cardiac institutes/hospitals across the country have been identified as training centers, as per the norms of the university. this programme began with 116 students in 16 training centers in 2006. in 2013, 443 students were enrolled in 67 training centres. more than 320 cardiologists are involved as academic counselors in this training programme. a total of 1006 candidates have successfully completed their training and many of them are providing services in small or district towns of the country. introduction cardiovascular diseases are the most important causes of morbidity and mortality in developed countries. but in developing countries such as india, in addition to the infectious diseases, non-communicable diseases (ncds) like cardiovascular diseases have also emerged as significant causes of morbidity and mortality.   the increased prevalence of cardiovascular diseases the world over, and particularly in india, is because of changing life styles and increased life expectancy, attributed to improved healthcare systems. cardiovascular diseases, namely ischaemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, rheumatic heart disease (rhd) etc., are responsible for 27 percent of all deaths in the south-east asia region. in a review conducted in 1996 (published in the annual report 2006 – 2007, ministry of health and family welfare, government of india), it was reported that the prevalence of coronary heart disease (chd) had increased from 1 percent in 1960 to 9.6 percent in 1995 among urban indians.  similarly, the prevalence among the rural residents of india rose from 2 percent in 1974 to 3.7 percent in 1995. the prevalence of chd is now (2006-2007) reported to be 3 – 4 percent in rural areas and 8 – 10 percent in urban areas, among adults. based on this official data, it is estimated that there were approximately 29.8 million patients with chd in the year 2003. with an estimated 10 percent attrition and event rate, the annual report projected an annual new event or death of 2.9 million persons per year with nearly 1.5 million people dying due to chd every year. cardiovascular diseases contributed to 25 percent of deaths among the adult population in 2005.3 the present health infrastructure of india produces less than 150 dm/ dnb cardiologists annually to take care of the burden of the disease. 4  in the conventional education system of the medical stream, dm/dnb in cardiology is a 3 – year, full-time, residential, super-specialist training programme. a medical school graduate (an mbbs) needs to complete a 3 year post graduation in general medicine/pediatrics after completion of the five and half years graduation training programme (mbbs) to be eligible for cardiology training, i.e., a dm/dnb in cardiology. most doctors trained in cardiology were located in metropolitan areas or big cities, as infrastructure, financial resources and clinical practice are easily available, as opposed to a rural or small/district town set up. hence, trained cardiologists are mostly concentrated in the tertiary setups located in metropolitan areas or big cities, leading to a gap between the need and availability of trained cardiologists. but health or cardiovascular diseases do not distinguish either between rural and urban populations, or the rich and the poor. the national health profile 2005 (national health profile 2005, pp. 8 & 28) reported that, in india, approximately 26 percent of population live below the poverty line and more than 72 percent live in rural areas.5 post-graduate doctors in medicine (md) attend to cardiovascular cases in small/district towns and rural areas, without the appropriate training in cardiology, since a post graduate doctor in medicine undergoes training in the department of cardiology for only 4-6 months in his or her 3 year-training period.   keeping the prevalent medical scenario in mind, this paper seeks to critique the two-year training programme conceptualised, designed and developed by the school of health sciences, indira gandhi national open university new delhi, india. this programme is offered through the open and distance learning system in an effort to bridge the gap between the community at large and trained cardiologists. it needs to be re-iterated that this programme was planned with a certain vision in mind, that of providing good cardiac care to all, and in keeping with this vision, the programme was designed and extra advantage was given to medical doctors serving in non metropolitan areas, with the hope that even if only 20 percent of the trained cardiologists serve the district level town then the community at large will benefit from their expertise. methodology to meet the objective outlined earlier, the school of health sciences (sohs), indira gandhi national open university (ignou) launched a two-year training programme in non-invasive cardiology for mbbs graduates in june 2006. the programme being discussed is the post graduate diploma in clinical cardiology (pgdcc). it is a 72 credit programme consisting of seven theory and six practical courses, with 58 percent credit dedicated to the practical component. one credit in the ignou system of teaching/ learning methodology is equivalent to 30 hours of study. however, in the pgdcc programme, 1 credit/ 30 hours of study translates into 30 hours of supervised training and does not include the time that one may take to study at home or to write his/her assignments. it means students are receiving approximately 3 hours (2160 hours / 730 days) supervised, hands-on skilled training or theory counselling every day. this programme also prescribes the minimum number of practice cases needed under supervision, e.g., echocardiography, 100 cases; bed-side pediatric, 20 cases, etc. leaners need to maintain a log book of their day-to-day practical activity, which is assessed by academic counselors periodically and at the time of the term end practical examination. table 1: posting schedule of the pgdcc programme area of training duration of training first year   wards + opd           (mccl* 003) 3 months ecg/stress testing (mccl 001)       3 months echocardiography (mccl 002) 3 months icu/ccu (mccl 006)                        3 months second year   special observation (mccl 006) 1 month icu/ccu (mccl 006) 2 months ward+ opd (mccl 003)           3 months paediatric cardiology (mccl 004)   3 months preventing cardiology (mccl 005) 3 months *mccl is a  practical training course code. candidates need to complete the 24 months training programme within a maximum 48 months, i.e., 4 years.  the selection process of the candidates was through an entrance examination followed by centralized counselling. induction meetings were organized on the same date after the centralized counseling for allotment of psc. in this meeting students were informed about the aim and objectives of the training, training package, assessment methods, rule and regulation of the university, etc. the total number of seats in each programme study centre (psc) is limited to a maximum of 10. this programme began with 16 pscs activated in 2006 and, due to the great demand for more seats, the number of pscs was increased to 67 in 2013.  the programme fee is rs. 100,000/ (indian rupees or approximate us$ 1667/, if us$ 1 = rs. 60/indian rupees). only cardiac hospital institutions conducting a dm or dnb cardiology programme are eligible to be training centres for the pgdcc programme. these training centres are called programme study centres (pscs) in our terminology. the academic counsellors who counsel the students are fully fledged, trained cardiologists  (dm/dnb cardiology) already working in pscs. training packages of this programme consist of self learning materials (slms), theory and practical classes/academic counselling at psc, case discussion, monthly live interactive teleconferences, interactive radio counseling and the broadcast of video programmes. a total of 37 units/chapters in 13 blocks/booklets were provided as self-learning materials, along with six practical log books to each of the students. special hands on training is imparted on electrocardiography (ecg), stress testing, echocardiography, out-patient department (opd) and ward management of cardiovascular diseases, pediatric cardiology, intensive coronary care, cardiac emergencies and community posting. all training is imparted in reputed cardiac hospitals across the country. a minimum of 50 theory counseling sessions of academic counselling must be conducted within two years of the training period. each learner must present eight seminars, eight journal clubs and nine case discussions. psc must arrange 25 guest lectures of the learners to understand different areas associated with non-invasive cardiology. the 25 guest lectures were further divided into six on diabetes mellitus, five in pulmonology, four in radiology, four in cardiac surgery, four in anesthesiology and two in nephrology. live interactive teleconferences, which are one-way video and two-way audio, have been conducted for 90 minutes every month. these live teleconference sessions are also webcast, besides being broadcast through gyandarshan channel 2. students from across the country participated and lots of interaction took place during the live teleconference sessions. short message service (sms) service is utilized to inform the schedule and topic of teleconference sessions, dates of examination, results and other support services.  a total of 33 video programmes (1260 minutes) has made available to all learners. it is mandatory for students to maintain a minimum of 85 percent attendance in both the theory and practical components independently. the evaluation strategy of this programme consists of continuous as well as term end evaluation for both theory and practical courses. continuous evaluation has a 50 percent weightage and is conducted at the psc at intervals of three to four months. the first-year theory term end examination is to be attempted only after completing a full academic year of training. the second-year term end theory examination is to be attempted at the end of the two-year training period. the term end practical exam is conducted after the completion of the two-year training period. a one-day, term-end practical examination is conducted in a psc, depending upon the number of the learners, in the presence of internal and external practical examiners. the number of examiners depends on the number of learners who appear in the practical examination (ratio 1:3). the marking scheme of the term end practical examination is standardized and followed for assessment of each learner. quality assurance a monthly/quarterly/annual academic training calendar for both the theory as well as the practical component, prepared by the respective psc is sent to the regional centre and programme coordinator in the headquarters at ignou. meetings are also arranged with the programme in-charges (pics) at a national level annually in order to monitor the quality of training and improve upon the programme every year. the mailing addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses of the programme coordinator, regional director, programme in-charges (pics) and other support divisions are distributed to all leaners, pics and academic counsellors. the programme coordinator also receives continuous feedback and suggestions from students, pics, and regional directors through various media. the advisory board of the pgdcc programme also provides support in monitoring activity. table 2: total number of programme study centre, academic counselors, students enrolled and passed out in the pgdcc programme year number of the programme study centre no of the academic counsellors number of the students enrolled number of the candidates successfully completed this programme [year of convocation]* 2006 16 102 116 --- 2007 22 150 133 --- 2008 35 206 253 88 2009 44 261 262 101 2010 56 278 297 194 2011 66 320 348 210 2012 66 320 209 180 2013 67 325 443 233 total 67 325 2061 1006 *there is a lag of 2-4 years in certification, since a valid registration period is 2-4 years; e.g., students enrolled in 2006 would complete their programme in 2008. students of the 2012 and 2013 batch are still in the training. it needs to be highlighted that this pgdcc two-year programme is a highly intensive programme that entails a student – teacher ratio of approximately 2:1. the strength of this programme is that doctors are trained for two years on a full-time basis in non-invasive cardiology, in which all hands-on skill training is guided by trained and experienced cardiologists. training is implemented only in cardiac institutes already conducting a dm/dnb cardiology-training programme. orientation training programmes of academic counselors of the training institution have been conducted before students enrolled in the training centre. learners are benefited by not only an odl system but also the support of the conventional education system. since students are directly attached to a cardiac institution on a full-time basis, academic counsellors are available round the clock for expert guidance in theory as well as the practical components of training in cardiology. students are also getting the benefit of all the support of the university, such as self-learning materials, multimedia packages, live interactive teleconferences, etc. however, the one major weakness of the programme, as visualised by us, is the non-recognition by the medical council of india. figure 1: geographical distribution of pgdcc trained doctors practicing in small towns in india conclusion an academic degree of a diploma in clinical cardiology is viable after a medical graduation degree/mbbs. this programme has in a sense brought to light the fact that quality training, even in a traditionally non-open and distance learning area such as in cardiac care, is not only possible but also highly desirable through the open and distance learning system in convergence with the partnership of reputed cardiac institutes in the country. it needs to be highlighted that such a programme is also not available in the conventional medical education system and is a first for both medical education as well as the odl. not only this but the pgdcc programme is also the first and only full-time medical education programme for medical graduates (mbbs) in the world to be imparted through the odl system. already 1006 candidates have successfully completed their training to date. as per informal feedback from pgdcc candidates who have graduated, many of them were successfully practicing in the non-invasive area in district towns (as shown in figure no 1). the vision also included a bridge to be built between the communities (particularly the rural and non-metropolitan community) and cardiologists through the odl system, and a fond hope that the medical professional/ personnel would also be able to fulfill some of their social responsibilities. recommendation this is an innovative programme that is still evolving. the programme team is working constantly towards enriching the training package in order to produce quality doctors trained in cardiac care for the community. the advisory board of the programme recommended revision of the curriculum of the programme along with the building of an online platform with the learning management system.   acknowledgement: post graduate diploma in clinical cardiology programme team. references government of india. (2005). central bureau of health intelligence (in collaboration with who india country office). new delhi, pp. 8 & 28. government of india. (2005). health information of india. new delhi. government of india. (2006-07). ministry of health and family welfare. annual report. new delhi, pp. 152-153. who. (1992). nutrition and development: a global assessment. available at: http://www.who.int/nutrition/en/ who. (2006). the world health report: working together for health. available at: http://www.who.int/whr/2006/en/ biplab jamatia is an assistant professor, school of health sciences, indira gandhi national open university, maidan garhi, new delhi, india. e-mail: biplabjamatia@gmail.com microsoft word rabajaleejic.docx issn: 2311-1550 2023, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 149-176 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. educator perspectives and intention to adopt oer in teaching and learning in secondary schools in mauritius yousra banoor rabajalee1, bhavish jugurnath2 and mohammad issack santally2 2mauritius institute of education 2university of mauritius abstract: there has been a growing interest in the use of open educational resources (oer) to support educators to adapt, use, re-use, remix and recontextualise content for teaching and learning. the purpose of this study was to investigate the extent and intent of adoption of oer practices and tools in secondary schools in mauritius within a sustainable and innovative teaching and learning model. the main objective was to investigate whether the inclusion of oer in teaching could help maintain quality instruction and sustain a viable economic model for learners. moreover, this study assessed the readiness and attitudes of secondary educators in their intention to adopt oer. a survey was carried out among 271 secondary school educators to determine the influential factors in the intention to adopt oer in teaching. factor and regression analysis were carried out to estimate the significance of each independent variable. the findings of this study reported that productivity, interactivity, infrastructure and constraining factors were among the factors that had a significant effect on teachers’ adoption of oer in their teaching process. combined with other findings as reported in the literature, this study also helps to enlighten policymakers about teachers’ intention in adopting oer in secondary schools in mauritius and how they add value to the teaching and learning processes. the cabinet of ministers in mauritius approved the national policy on oer in december 2022. keywords: oer, ict, teachers, digital content, technologies, communication, utaut. introduction icts in teaching and learning have brought important changes in the contemporary education context, where teachers have to adapt on one hand and address students’ needs on the other (joshi & poudel, 2019; grigoryan, 2020). at present, it can be observed that there is a growing and wide interest in icts to open access to education, academic content, and knowledge through open educational resources (oer) (unesco, 2012; kanwar, 2015). oer are essentially learning objects, which may be of different granularity (santally & senteni, 2005). they are designed to be freely and easily accessible to anyone. the accessibility of oer is particularly important where access to educational resources is limited (krelja kurelovic, 2016). oer can provide access to highquality educational materials for learners who might otherwise have limited opportunities to learn. this includes learners in developing countries, remote areas, and marginalised communities (oates & hashimi, 2016). the open and accessible nature of oer helps to contribute to the teaching and learning process by supporting an improved quality of teaching as well as improving students’ learning outcomes (oates & hashimi, 2016). 150 however, while learning objects are not necessarily ‘open’, oer are released mainly under open licences (for example, creative commons) and are available freely for educators and practitioners to adapt, use, reuse and re-contextualise at all levels of education, with a view to widen access to education. they can also be adapted to meet learners’ needs in diverse ways (weller et al., 2015). moreover, given that they are openly licensed, educators can modify the oer to fit the specific needs of their students, including their cultural and linguistic differences. this allows educators to create content that is more relevant and engaging to their students to facilitate their learning (trust et al., 2022). in addition, oer are designed to promote sharing among the educators’ community. educators are encouraged to share the oer they create and use with other educators and learners. this enables a global network of educators to collaborate and share best practices, which ultimately benefits both educators and students. the open and collaborative nature of oer helps to build a community of educators who can work together to create high-quality educational resources that are accessible to all. the massachusetts institute of technology (mit) launched the open courseware (ocw) initiative in 2001, with the aim to offer and release a significant number of its courses as educational resources freely and openly on the internet. however, the licensing initially adopted was seen as a barrier for re-use and adoption in the academic sphere and the ocw initiative subsequently adopted the creative commons licence in 2004 (barrett et al., 2009). similar initiatives for developing and using oer were being promoted by the commonwealth of learning, unesco, and the open university (uk) via the openlearn platform (unesco, 2012; butcher, 2015). in the mauritian context, one of the government’s strategic objectives has long been to transform mauritius into a cyber-island. for the education sector, this implies the integration of icts at all levels and the setting of policies that align the education systems to contemporary trends and practices. this includes the adoption and creation of oer for inclusive and equitable education. while the use of oer is growing in popularity among educators, its implementation from a pedagogical, economical, and institutional perspective, has been slow to formalise as it generally works in isolation and not really within well-established policy frameworks (petrides et al., 2008; littlejohn & hood, 2017). for example, in kenya, the uptake and reuse of oer in secondary and primary schools continues to be very low (orwenjo & erastus, 2018). as oer is still a relatively new concept, many educators and institutions are still learning about its potential benefits and challenges. its implementation involves a paradigm shift in traditional educational practices, and there are a number of challenges that need to be addressed before adoption can take place (orwenjo & erastus, 2018). one of the main challenges is the lack of awareness and understanding of oer among educators, institutions, and policy makers (miao et al., 2016). many educators may not be aware of the potential of oer, and institutions may not have the expertise or educational structure to support the implementation of oer (khanna & basak, 2013). policy makers become hesitant to support oer because of concerns, as identified by unesco (2010), about quality assurance mechanisms, copyright, sustainability strategies and the potential impact on traditional textbook publishers. furthermore, there seems to have been significant development in many countries, which have either established oer strategies or adopted oer guidelines or even just become involved in the oer movement (unesco, 2019). however, while oer has the potential to expand access to education, it also remains uncertain as to whether there is adequate 151 availability of technology and infrastructure to support oer in lowand middle-income countries. for example, in many underdeveloped areas, internet access is limited or non-existent and this can contribute to a first-level digital divide among teachers (hassler & jackson, 2010). similarly, tang and bao (2020) also explained how the second-level digital divide in education, such as the necessary digital literacy skills, can also contribute to a lack of efficiency in using and adapting oer by teachers in underdeveloped areas and, as such, this could limit the potential impact of oer on teaching and learning outcomes. the government of mauritius approved in december 2022, the national policy on open educational resources. the objectives of the policy are as follows: • encourage and embed a culture of oer adoption and integration, including revision, remixing, repurposing, and reuse; • establish a framework to provide access and allow sharing of educational materials produced by public funds; and • share privately produced open educational materials through the issue of appropriate licenses. • furthermore, the policy stipulates that an online national oer policy would be set up to host and provide access to oer. in this research, the aims were to investigate whether the inclusion of oer in the teaching and learning processes could help to maintain a good quality level, sustain a viable economic model with a reduction of cost for learners, increase access, and achieve the intended learning outcomes without any negative impact on the learners' experience. literature review oer were considered an innovative concept that would play an important role in ‘ensuring wide access to quality higher education in developing countries and full participation of universities in these countries in the rapidly evolving world higher education system’ (unesco, 2002, p. 24). open educational resources were defined as resources that can be used and adapted by a community of educational practitioners and other users essentially for non-commercial purposes (unesco, 2002, p. 24; rodríguez et al., 2017). oecd (2007, p. 30) defined oer as “digitized materials available freely and openly for educators, students and self-learners to use and re-use for teaching, learning and research”. oer as an educational initiative opened access to education whether at the primary, secondary, college or professional level (prasad & rao, 2016). in mauritius, the ministry of education, tertiary education, science and technology has pledged for the development of a policy to promote a culture of using oer to increase and widen access to education at all levels. the goal is to ensure “inclusive and quality education for all and promoting lifelong learning” (dookun-luchoomun, ioren international conference speech, 2015, n.p.). moreover, it is also argued that adapting oer to the national educational landscape in mauritian education could address the rate of failure and illiteracy at the primary level and promote the integration of ict in the education system (auckloo, 2014). while the use of oer in secondary schools is not new, it has become more widespread in recent years due to advances in technology and changes in the way education is delivered (tlili et al., 2021). the growth of digital resources and online platforms has made it easier for educators to access and share oer, and many schools are now actively promoting the use of oer as a way to 152 reduce costs, increase access, and improve learning outcomes for students. the study by robinson et al. (2014), which investigated the use of oer in science subjects in secondary schools, explained that the adoption of oer would be appropriate for cost savings and educational achievement. similarly, wiley et al. (2012) conducted a study over two years, with middle and high school science teachers, and they also supported the cost savings element as well as the impact on the learning of students. the adoption of oer in teaching in secondary education provides numerous potentials, including equitable access to education (ngimwa & wilson, 2012), personalised instruction (hilton, 2016), reduction of educational cost for institutions and students (hilton et al., 2014) and the empowerment of teachers’ creativity (mishra, 2012). however, there are also some challenges associated with using oer, such as technical expertise, quality control, and copyright issues (tlili et al., 2021). hence, to ensure successful implementation of oer in secondary schools, it is important for the teachers to receive professional development opportunities to support them in this transition. the ministry of education and human resources in mauritius has engaged in an initiative to release all textbooks for primary and lower secondary education free on the internet. this effort culminated in the official approval and endorsement of the national oer policy by the government in december 2022. furthermore, tablets have been distributed to students in primary and secondary schools in the context of curriculum digitisation. it has, however, been reported that the use of tablets has not been fully exploited in the classroom for the benefit of teaching and learning (hurreeram & bahadur, 2019; jugee & santally, 2016). this can create opportunities to reduce government expenditure, thus, providing the opportunity for the state to invest in other potentially more effective educational interventions. for secondary schools, the cost of curricular resources is usually passed on to students. it has been argued that those textbooks cost one fourth as much as tuition at public four-year institutions (wiley et al., 2012). therefore, with oer, it is often advocated that a more democratic and expanded access to education for all people could be provided, in line with the sustainable development agenda. as such, there should be a substantial savings on costs for the students without impacting negatively on their learning (allen, 2010; hilton & wiley, 2011). however, simply by eliminating barriers such as costs, oer cannot possibly make knowledge more easily accessible (luo et al., 2020). some researchers postulate that with the adoption and use of oer, both formal and informal students could benefit from the flexibility of access to learning at no or low cost and such potential could contribute to both formal and informal education (bossu & tynan, 2011; panke, 2011). on the other hand, kanwar et al. (2010) reported that ease of accessing learning is not applicable to teachers and students in developing nations, where the constraints are not specifically due to physical access but also exist in terms of social, political and cultural values that restrict access. this is mostly significant to people who come from socio-economically deprived backgrounds or to school districts with limited curricula. due to students’ needs and the requirements of customised education resources, there can be some considerable limitations that arise as a substantial challenge to the implementation of oer (kanwar et al., 2010). therefore, lowering the cost of education does not necessarily make it more accessible. moreover, the development of oer also brings advantages to educational institutions, educators, and traditional and non-traditional learners (zaid & alabi, 2020). at the institutional level, leaders and policy makers can pilot programmes that lead to financial benefits to students (weller et al., 153 2015). they can also decide on the quality assurance mechanisms with respect to oer and the ways to facilitate access to students, especially those with disabilities (bossu & tynan, 2011). similarly, educators can benefit by developing a pool of resources that can be used to review and adapt existing learning content. oer also supports open pedagogy development and application and encourages educators to collaborate and share teaching resources (beetham et al., 2012). researchers have mentioned that oer can assist educators to decrease teaching preparation time and allow more effort towards allowing students to engage with a better learning experience (johnson et al., 2010; willems & bossu, 2012). the development of oer can also help educators to improve the quality of their teaching practices (kanwar, 2015). however, one of the key difficulties faced by educators in the use and repurposing of oer is the absence of understanding with respect to copyright and intellectual property issues (bossu & tynan, 2011; nikoi et al., 2011). it is important to understand that when the content is released openly or under any kind of license, certain aspects related to intellectual property rights remain a concern (santally, 2011; hylén, 2021). consequently, the sustainability of oer activities in the long term can become a constraint to the host institution, especially as the nature and promise of oer is continually evolving in the landscape of teaching and learning (smith & wang, 2007). the use of oer was also found to improve students’ performance, satisfaction and engagement (weller et al., 2015). similarly, hilton (2016) postulated on the efficacy and use of oer, that both students and educators benefit in terms of reduced costs, improved learning outcomes and learning experience. technology acceptance model the technology acceptance model is a useful framework for understanding users' attitudes and behaviours towards technology, and it has been widely applied in various research and practical settings. percy and belle (2012) investigated the factors that would influence teachers’ attitudes in adopting oer in their teaching process. the study was carried out in africa and the sample consisted of teachers from east, west and southern africa and a survey was used to gather information. a modified version of the utaut model was used to identify the impact of certain factors on an educator’s intention to adopt oer. the result indicated that ‘performance expectancy’ and ‘effort expectancy’ had a positive influence on an educator’s ‘behavioural intention’ to adopt and use oer, and ‘effort expectancy’ had a robust influence on the actual use of oer while ‘facilitating conditions’ was statistically insignificant. moreover, the researchers laid emphasis on performance expectancy by indicating that oer could empower educators to accomplish teaching activities more rapidly and flexibly or even help them to build their teaching viability. mtebe and raisamo (2014) studied the challenges and teachers’ behaviour in adopting oer in higher education in tanzania. the latter used the utaut model to stimulate educators’ intention to adopt and utilise oer in their teaching processes. a sample size of 104 teachers was chosen randomly from five higher learning institutions in tanzania. it was found that ‘effort expectancy’ had a significant positive effect on teachers’ intention to adopt oer, while ‘performance expectancy’, ‘facilitating conditions’, and ‘social influence’ did not have a significant effect. similary, kandiero (2015) conducted a study with 45 full-time educators, examining their behaviour in adopting oer in zimbabwe. the findings demonstrated that effort and performance expectancy had a positive influence on their intention to adopt and utilise oer. on the other hand, social influence and the facilitating conditions were not significantly correlated to their behavioural intentions towards oer. 154 padhi (2018) examined the factors that could influence teachers’ behaviour in adopting oer in india. the author focused on the utaut model, with data collected through surveys from 22 indian universities. from this study it could be noted that the constructs ‘performance expectancy’ and ‘effort expectancy’ were positively significant and the constructs ‘social influence’ and ‘facilitating conditions’ were both insignificant. thus, the result indicated that the variables ‘performance expectancy’ and ‘effort expectancy’ positively influenced teachers’ behaviour in adopting oer in their teaching process. research context and methodology the main purpose of this study was to investigate the factors influencing teachers’ intention to adopt oer in their teaching and learning process. the research questions were addressed through a survey among secondary school educators to determine the influential factors in the adoption of oer, thus, using mainly a quantitative approach. the research design was based on the theoretical framework proposed by venkatesh et al. (2003) and focused on the data-gathering methods used as shown in figure 1 below: figure 1: the utaut model (venkatesh et al., 2003). most studies that adopted the utaut (unified theory of acceptance and use technology) model have either extended the model by including new factors, or reduced existing factors to suit a specific context of the research study. similarly, this analysis extended the model to suit the context of oer adoption in the secondary schools of mauritius as shown in the figure 2 below: 155 figure 2: research model. the utaut model was used as it provides a comprehensive framework to understand user behaviour with regards to various technologies and the model proposes that user acceptance and use of technology are influenced by five key factors: 1. performance expectancy refers to the degree to which individuals believe that using a particular technology will them to perform their tasks more efficiently. as such, productivity is seen as a type of performance expectancy, where the individual believes that using the technology will increase his ir her productivity to complete tasks quickly and accurately. 2. effort expectancy refers to the degree to which an individual believes that using a particular technology will be easy and require minimal effort. interactivity is considered as a type of effort expectancy, as the level of interactivity of a technology influences the perceived ease of use by the user. 3. facilitating conditions are the necessary resources that can be used to support the use and acceptance of a particular technology. infrastructure is a facilitating condition as it ensures the availability of infrastructural resources to support user acceptance and use of technology. 4. perceptions are all those benefits and potential advantages that an individual perceives will be gained upon using the technology. 5. constraining factors are all those challenges and barriers that impede the use of technology. 156 research questions to achieve the objectives of this study, as highlighted in the introductory section, the following research questions were addressed: 1. what are the attitudes of the secondary educators with respect to the behavioural intention to adopt oer? 2. what are the facilitating conditions that secondary schools provide to educators to support the behavioural intention to adopt oer? 3. what are the constraints that educators might face in their behavioural intention to adopt oer at the secondary level? the following hypotheses, which are consistent with the research questions, have been proposed: • h1: perception is positively correlated with the behavioural intention to adopt oer • h2: productivity is positively correlated with the behavioural intention to adopt oer • h3: interactivity is positively correlated with the behavioural intention to adopt oer • h4: infrastructure is positively correlated with the behavioural intention to adopt oer • h5: constraining factor is positively correlated with the behavioural intention to adopt oer while h1, h2 and h3 were the associated hypotheses with the rq1, h4 was associated with rq2 and h5 was associated with rq3. data subjects for this study, the data subjects were educators (of all genders) in secondary schools for the year 2018. to estimate the required sample size while achieving representativeness, the margin of error and the level of confidence had to be agreed upon as these are important factors to take into account to obtain accurate estimates. the sample size of this study was calculated based upon education statistics (2017) and the number of educators enrolled in 2017 were 9,181. therefore, the formula to achieve the required sample size is: 𝑛 = 0.25 𝑥 9181 0.25 + (9181)(0.05/1.96)! = 368 the 368 survey questionnaires were distributed to secondary school educators around mauritius. however, only 271 were returned and were used for analysis. the questions in the survey were formulated such that they addressed the research objectives of the study. the educators were selected based on qualifications, knowledge, and experience in it for delivery of classes. the educators with experience in it were those who held a qualification in it-related fields, that could confirm their expertise in it. their knowledge in it was related to their use of it tools in their teaching practice. based on the number of questionnaires that was administered, the response rate was 73.6%, which was satisfactory. the remaining 26% non-response rate was mainly attributed to time constraint, lack of knowledge on oer and lack of interest. however, 271 survey responses from the educators, which represented 73.6%, were acquainted with and knowledgeable about oer. in terms of gender distribution, it can be found that the larger share of the respondents in the surveyed sample were female teachers, amounting to a figure of 51.3%, while 48.7% constituted male teachers, as shown in figure 3. among the respondents who participated in the 157 survey, it can be observed that most of them belonged to the age group of 20-25 years (27.3%), followed by 22.9% who were aged between 36-40 years, 21.4 % for the age group above 40 years,15.1% for the age group 31-35 years and 13.3% were 26-30 years, as illustrated in figure 4. figure 5 shows that the highest number of years of experience of the educators were from 11-15 years, with a percentage of 29.9 %, while 28.8 % represent educators with experience from 5-10 years. the least amount of experience was above 15 years, representing 16.2% of the sample. figure 3: gender of respondents. figure 4: range of age of respondents. figure 5: number of years of experience in academia. data analysis ibm spss 23 was used to carry out reliability tests, descriptive statistics, factor analysis and probit regression, which helped in the interpretation of results. factor analysis was used to reduce the variables into a set of independent factors and probit regression was conducted to estimate the significance of each independent variable with the adoption of oer. from the survey questionnaire that was administered, it is good to note that the secondary educators were dealing with lower secondary students, who were from grades 7 to 9. these classes were conducted using the traditional face-to-face approach. the following information was gathered from the educators’ point of view: [1] subject areas that will more likely use oers in teaching • science: 38% • ict: 31% 158 [2] subject areas that will less likely use oer in teaching • accounting: 30.3% • others: 24% • mathematics: 21.4% [3] factors that are valued most when teaching with oer • productivity: 35.8% • interactivity: 30.6% • accessibility: 23.6% • other: 10% [4] ict techniques that are being used in teaching and learning in schools • web technologies: 82.3% • software applications: 12.5% • other: 5.2% the statement that schools in mauritius possess all the conditions to benefit from implementing oers in teaching was supported by 50.9% of the secondary educators, while 49.1% do not seem to agree with this statement. that secondary schools are ready to adopt the use of oer in teaching was supported by 60.9%, while 39.1% do not seem to agree. the educator population agree (87.5%) with the fact that oers should be used in teaching, while 12.5% do not seem to agree. during this process of gathering information from the survey questionnaires, a reliability test was carried out to estimate the internal consistency of items in the questionnaire and to assess to what degree people were reliable while responding to these items. this ensured reliability of the findings. as shown by table 1 below, the adequate estimation of alpha is estimated at 0.700 and higher and since the subsequent alpha score is 0.791, 0.860, 0.865, 0.858 and 0.877, which surpasses the base level, this demonstrates reliability among the data collected. table 1: reliability test. validity test the utaut framework was used as a basis for assessing the validity of the instrument developed to measure the educators’ behaviour in their intention to adopt technology. we have developed 159 items from the instrument that are directly aligned with the utaut constructs, and these are performance expectancy, effort expectancy, facilitating conditions, perceptions and constraining factors. findings to provide a broader picture of the data being analysed, some basic descriptive statistics were carried out to give a better insight prior to dealing with the specific research questions. the detailed tables are included in the appendix to this paper. in line with the hypotheses that were formulated in the study, the items which are questions in the standardised questionnaire that were administered (found in the appendix ) were classified under five main clusters and these are displayed follows: cluster 1: perception the questions which are related with the perception cluster were as follows: qu 1: how far do you agree that educators will have a positive attitude towards the use of oer in teaching? qu 2: how far do you agree that secondary schools will readily adopt oer in their education system? qu 3: oer allow educators to upload assignments/test papers/ homework? qu 4: if given a choice i prefer uploading notes/videos and other teaching materials? qu 5: oer permits me to organise subject material into a logical structure? qu 6: oer directly improves the quality of the teaching experience? qu 7: oer are not as good as purchased textbooks? figure 6: perception cluster: educators’ perception towards the behavioural intention to adopt oer. from the ‘perception’ cluster, which is about the educators’ perception towards the behavioural intention to adopt oer, it can be observed that more than 50% of the educators’ population agreed they have a positive attitude towards integrating oer into teaching. 160 cluster 2: productivity the questions which are related with the productivity cluster were as follows: qu 1: to what extent do you believe that the introduction of oer will be a positive learning experience for students at secondary level? qu 2: how far do you agree with the concept that adoption of oer will be related to productivity? qu 3: how far do you agree that oer will have a positive influence in education at the secondary level? qu 4: how far do you agree that oer will motivate students to adopt a positive learning attitude towards secondary education? qu 5: how far do you agree that oer will be a key aspect in developing lifelong learning competencies among different users in secondary schools? qu 6: how far do you agree that oer will be an effective means of teaching? qu 7: how far do you agree with the concept that oer will be a key aspect in promoting research and development? qu 8: how far do you agree that oer will be an encouraging factor to improve admission rates in secondary schools? figure 7: productivity cluster: impact of using oer on students’ learning experience. from the ‘productivity’ cluster, where the view was to understand the impact of using oer in teaching, it can be observed that according to educators, the adoption of oer will enhance students’ learning experience and their competencies and promote research and development. cluster 3: interactivity the questions which are related with the interactivity cluster were as follows: qu 1: how far do you agree that oer will be an interactive role in promoting secondary education? 161 qu 2: i would describe using oer as interesting? qu 3: how far do you agree that oer will help my students learn more about a subject? qu 4: how far do you agree that oer will improve my students' satisfaction with a subject? qu 5: how far do you agree that oer will improve my students' grades? qu 6: how far do you agree that oer will improve my students' evaluation of a subject? qu 7: to help my students better learn the material, i will incorporate ict tools in the classroom. figure 8: interactivity cluster: attitudes of educators with respect to the behavioural intention to adopt oers in teaching. from the ‘interactivity’ cluster, which looks at the attitudes of educators with respect to ease of use of oer in teaching, it can be observed that more than 50% of the educators’ population agreed that oers could help to promote secondary education and improve students’ grades. this is because when the students get opportunities for interaction and engagement with the learning materials, such as through the use of multimedia elements and collaborative activities, they are more likely to benefit from them, which can lead to improved academic performance. cluster 4: infrastructure the questions which are related with the infrastructure cluster were as follows: qu 1: how far do you agree that secondary schools have an adequate technical support for ict? qu 2: how far do you agree that secondary schools have adequate instructional support for ict? qu 3: how far do you agree that secondary schools will not have adequate resources to invest in broadband, hardware and software? 162 figure 9: infrastructure cluster: facilitating conditions to support the behavioural intention to adopt oers. from the ‘infrastructure’ cluster, which gives an indication of the facilitating conditions schools have to support the adoption of oer, it was observed, from the educators’ perspective, that the majority of them agreed that schools lack the ict infrastructure to adopt oer. the schools do have adequate support in terms of technology and pedagogy but not in terms of infrastructure, which encompasses issues with broadband, hardware and software, respectively. cluster 5: constraining factors the questions which are related with the constraining factors cluster were as follows: qu 1: lack of necessary resources to access oer? qu 2: lack of broadband and other technical innovations? qu 3: lack of necessary knowledge to use and integrate oer into the subject? qu 4: lack of effective communication about the scope and capabilities of oer? qu 5: lack of skills to select appropriate oer and reuse or remix them? qu 6: lack of awareness among academics of copyright issues? qu 7: lack of quality assurance about the availability of digital resources? qu 8: lack of time to produce shareable materials? 163 figure 10: constraining factors cluster: constraints during the behavioural intention to adopt oer in teaching. finally, from the ‘constraining factors’ cluster, which depicts the constraints educators might face during the use of oer in teaching. it can be observed that all of them agreed that there can be issues that are related to a lack of technical innovation and access to existing oer. there can also be a lack of awareness on copyright issues and intellectual property rights. however, they agreed that these also signal that these drawbacks have to be reviewed so as to ease the adoption of oer in teaching. factor analysis factor analysis was utilised in the examination of the response patterns for the statements in the survey. questions that were highly correlated regarding the response pattern were gathered under a particular factor. the premise to utilise factor analysis was that since this study, which was comprised of various factors, there might exist a higher relationship between them which could have rendered the interpretation complex. thus, factor analysis, which is a data reduction tool, was used so as to expel any repetitive factors and cluster those having a similar difference into independent groups. consequently, in this study, factors were extracted through principal component analysis with rotation method oblimin with kaiser normalisation. the rotation method was utilised to detect large loadings and limit these incidences. the component matrix was taken into consideration for those statements that were extracted under only one component, and the pattern matrix was analysed for those that were extracted under more than one component. the latter was chosen for ease of interpretation. kmo and bartlett’s test to represent the feasibility of factor analysis, the kmo measure of sampling adequacy and bartlett's test of sphericity were carried out for every extraction as they appeared in the subsequent parts. the kmo measure confirms whether the factors were sufficiently large enough to be correlated and a minimum value of 0.5 was required to continue with factor analysis, while the bartlett test indicates if there is a relation between the factors and a level of significance less than 0.5 signs for the viability of factor analysis. 164 extraction under factor 1 table 2: kmo and bartlett’s test for factor 1. as per the outcomes, since kmo has a minimum value of 0.748 and bartlett’s test has a level of significance less than 0.5, the two designated tests confirmed the feasibility of the data reduction on the group. table 3: pattern matrix for factor 1. the above table shows that three items were extracted under component 1, while three items were extracted under component 2. a high correlation can be noted among the items making them highly representative for the factor. extraction under factor 2 table 4: kmo and bartlett’s test for factor 2. by observing the above outcomes, it can be seen that the kmo value for the eight set of variables amounts to 0.860, which is sufficiently high while for the bartlett’s test, it demonstrated significance less than 0.5, in this way showing factor analysis can be done. 165 table 5: pattern matrix for factor 2. with reference to the output structure matrix, six variables were extracted under component 1 while two components were extracted under component 2. regarding the loading pattern, all the variables were found to varying effect on the component. extraction under factor 3 table 6: kmo and bartlett’s test for factor 3. the kmo value equating to 0.852 and the bartlett’s test of sphericity with a level of significance less than 0.5, shows that the variables can be reduced into factor 3. table 7: component matrix for factor 3. with reference to the output component matrix, seven variables were extracted under factor 3. concerning the loading pattern, all the variables were found to varying effect on the component. 166 extraction under factor 4 table 8: kmo and bartlett’s test for factor 4. the outcomes indicate a fairly high kmo value and a significant value of 0.000, with regards to the bartlett's test that entails the viability to perform factor analysis on the three sets of variables as they appeared in the following part. table 9: component matrix for factor 4. three variables were extracted under the factor ‘infrastructure’ with varying magnitudes of factor loadings. all three items displayed robust association with the component. extraction under factor 5 table 10: kmo and bartlett’s test for factor 5. the measure of sampling adequacy shows an adequate value of 0.839 and the bartlett’s test indicates a significant value of 0.000 resulting in the application of data reduction. table 11: pattern matrix for factor 5. table 11 shows that five items were extracted under component 1 and three items were extracted under component 2. the results point to that the statements being strongly correlated. 167 summary of the components extracted to sum up, two clusters which were ‘interactivity’ and ‘infrastructure’, were extracted under one component and three other clusters, which were ‘perception’, ‘productivity’ and ‘constraining factors’ were extracted under two components. in order to be in line with the research model the items under component 2 were eventually rejected for the subsequent analysis. multivariate regression analysis was used to test and to give solid confirmation of the hypotheses. this eventually provided an insight about the clusters that will help teachers with the adoption of oer in teaching. more specifically, a probability model was utilised to test for the significance of the hypotheses as demonstrated hereinafter by regressing the extracted elements with the dependent variable. probit regression was employed as the dependent variable is dummy. adoption, termed as the dependent variable, was measured dichotomously, that is on the basis of two outcomes; the variable takes a value 0 if teachers are ready to adopt oer in their teaching and learning, or a value of 1 if they don’t want to adopt oer in teaching and learning processes, while the independent variables constitute perception, productivity, interactivity, infrastructure and constraining factor. results from probit regression table 12: model fitting information. table 13: pseudo r-square. it can be noted from pseudo r² table that the nagelkerke’s r² is 0.418, the cox & snell’s r² is 0.221 and the mcfadden r² is 0.331. table 14: probit estimates. table 15 depicts the regression results of the variables and at a level of significance of 0.05, and it indicates that out of the five variables examined only four of them were found to significantly affect the adoption of oer. 168 summary of the tested hypotheses table 15: summary of hypothesis testing. discussion it can be deduced that the perception of teachers and their peers towards oer was not a significant factor to determine their intention to adopt oer in the teaching and learning process. on the other hand, it can be observed that there is a significant positive relationship between ‘adoption of oers’ and ‘productivity’. the coefficient of ‘productivity’ is 0.461 which shows that an increase of 1 unit in ‘productivity’ will increase ‘adoption’ by 0.461 unit. ‘productivity’ was utilised to determine how much a teacher trusted that a specific innovation would help them in performing better in their activity and, as per the results, it can be noted that oer are perceived to add both value and quality to the educators’ teaching, thus enhancing their overall job performance, which is in line with the arguments of dutta (2016). moreover, oer is a useful tool that will empower educators to accomplish teaching activities more rapidly and flexibly, or even help them to build their teaching viability. the result can be considered to be coherent as the result of ‘productivity’ is in line with the studies of venkatesh et al. (2003), percy and belle (2012), dulle and minishi-majanja (2011) and mtebe and raisamo (2014). the hypothesis ‘interactivity’ was found to be positively significant with a coefficient of 0.352. therefore, the more teachers interact with oer, the easier it will be to incorporate it into their teaching process. additionally, the variable was used to determine teachers’ degree of ease regarding the utilisation of oer. the findings suggest that instructors believe oer will be easy to use and free of effort. this result aligns with the finding of the study carried out by venkatesh et al., (2003) and percy and belle (2012). on the contrary, this outcome is not in line with the study of mtebe and raisamo (2014) who investigated the factors in adopting oer in tanzania. the fourth hypothesis, ‘infrastructure’ was found to be positively significant with a coefficient of 0.364. the outcome can be marked to be rational since the expectation from ‘infrastructure’ is to bring more facilities and innovation into the teaching process, which will give rise to ‘adoption’. in addition, the variable was utilised to determine the degree to which a teacher believes that the institution possesses adequate technical infrastructure to support the utilisation of oer. therefore, the oer adoption rate may eventually increase with an improved and modern technological infrastructure. this result is in line with the study of venkatesh et al. (2003). lastly, it could be noted that the variable constraining factor was positively significant with adoption. an increase of 1 unit of constraining factor will result in an increase of 0.336 unit of adoption. the result is quite incoherent as the relationship should have been negative. the more 169 institutions overcome the challenges and constraints, the easier it will be for the teachers to incorporate oer in their teaching process. this element further demonstrates, in line with the finding of kandiero (2015) with respect to social influence, that in the mauritian context the constraining factor plays a significant role in shaping the behavioural attitude towards oer adoption. indeed, the perception of peers towards each teacher is an important cultural aspect to be taken into account. it remains to be further investigated whether this finding is mainly linked to an afro-indian context or can be generalised to other cultures as well. the cultural dimension could be another element to further investigate, and that could help improve the contextual applications of the utaut model in other studies of a similar nature. the findings have implications at policy level with respect to the education landscape in mauritius. the government have invested heavily in icts in schools over the past decade. however, as highlighted by researchers, there have been challenges in terms of the digitisation of curriculum and the use of icts for teaching and learning, including the deployment of tablets in the primary and secondary schooling sectors. this is also reflected in the perceptions of the respondents, where more than 50% were not of the view that there was appropriate technical and instructional support for the integration of icts in schools. having recourse to open educational resources can accelerate the curriculum digitisation process, as existing oers can be used and repurposed to fit into the local context and be rapidly deployed on tablets. the findings demonstrate a generally positive attitude of educators towards oer, and with the right tools, support, and incentives, they may be able to improve the learning experience of their learners in the classrooms. this study provides a starting point for the authorities to reflect on the implementation of the national oer policy and the enabling environment needed in the teaching and learning landscape of schools and universities. from the study, it is clear that the success of the national oer policy will depend on key elements which are central to its acceptance and adoption by teachers. the authorities have to invest further in the improvement of infrastructure, and the capacity-building of teachers. furthermore, there is a need to review the curriculum design and development process for proper integration of oer, including guidelines for educators on how to access, use and reuse oer from the national oer repository. there is a need for incentives to bring a paradigm shift to the minds of educators as well so that they also become creators of local and contextually relevant oer rather than just consumers. limitations of the study there are two main limitations of this study. the first limitation is linked to the assumption that the respondents are familiar and proficient in oer related concepts and definitions. while the term itself has been widely popularised, many practitioners are not necessarily aware and conversant with oer concepts and practices. this element may bring some bias or inaccuracy in terms of their responses. the second limitation of the study is in terms of the generalisability of the findings. while the research approach and method may be replicated especially in developing island states using education systems similar to or inspired by commonwealth models, the findings are nevertheless intrinsically linked to existing government policy related to open educational resources as well as the teacher training models in place. therefore, some caution has to be exercised in terms of generalising the findings of this research. some countries may be more committed towards oer and have in place national oer policies and well-elaborated action plans, while others may be in the early phases of oer adoption. 170 conclusion the purpose of this study was to identify the factors that would influence teachers’ behavioural intention to adopt oer in their teaching and learning processes, respectively. a survey was carried out among 271 teachers and, as per the findings, it can be concluded that among the factors analysed, it was eventually the factors perception, productivity, interactivity, infrastructure and constraining factor, which were found to positively induce teachers’ adoption of oer in their teaching process. additionally, the study revealed than more than 50% of teachers want to adopt oer in their teaching and learning processes. the findings reveal key implications for a successful implementation of the national oer policy, namely, investment in infrastructure, capacity-building of educators, review of curriculum design and development, incentives, and strategies to bring a paradigm shift for educators to become creators and consumers of oer through a decentralised and participative approach to curriculum digitisation. references allen, n. (2010). a cover-to-cover solution: how open textbooks are the path to textbook affordability. an open education reader. http://www.studentpirgs.org/sites/student/files/reports/a-cover-to-coversolution_4.pdf auckloo, p. (2014). harnessing classroom practices with flexible use of open educational resources: the case of mauritius with the tessa experience. conference proceedings, ireland international conference on education (iice-2014). october 27-29, dublin, ireland. barrett, b.f., grover, v.i., janowski, t., van lavieren, h., ojo, a., & schmidt, p. (2009). challenges in the adoption and use of opencourseware: experience of the united nations university. open learning: the journal of open, distance and e-learning, 24(1), 31-38. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680510802627803 beetham, h., falconer, i., mcgill, l., & littlejohn, a. (2012). open practices: briefing paper. jisc, 2012. https://oersynth.pbworks.com/w/page/51668352/openpracticesbriefing bossu, c., & tynan, b. (2011). oers: new media on the learning landscape. on the horizon, 19(4), 259-267. http://doi.org/10.1108/10748121111179385. butcher, n. (2015). a basic guide to open educational resources (oer). commonwealth of learning (col). http://oasis.col.org/handle/11599/36 dulle, f.w., & minishi-majanja, m.k. (2011). the suitability of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (utaut) model in open access adoption studies. information development, 27(1), 32–45. https://doi.org/10.1177/0266666910385375 dutta, i. (2016). open educational resources (oer): opportunities and challenges for indian higher education. turkish online journal of distance education, 17(2). grigoryan, t. (2020). investigating the effectiveness of ipad based language learning in the uae context. open learning: the journal of open, distance and e-learning, 1-23. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680513.2020.1718488 hassler, b., & jackson, a.m.m. (2010). bridging the bandwidth gap: open educational resources and the digital divide. ieee transactions on learning technologies, 3(2), 110-115. https://doi.org/10.1109/tlt.2010.8 hilton, j. (2016). open educational resources and college textbook choices: a review of research on efficacy and perceptions. educational technology research and development, 64(4), 573-590. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-016-9434-9 171 hilton iii, j.l., robinson, t.j., wiley, d., & ackerman, j.d. (2014). cost-savings achieved in two semesters through the adoption of open educational resources. international review of research in open and distributed learning, 15(2), 67-84. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v15i2.1700 hilton, j., & wiley, d. (2011). open-access textbooks and financial sustainability: a case study on flat world knowledge. the international review of research on open and distance learning, 12(5). https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v12i5.960 hylén, j. (2021). open educational resources: opportunities and challenges. https://www.oecd.org/education/ceri/37351085.pdf hurreeram, s.l., & bahadur, g.k. (2019). investigation into a second attempt at the re-introduction of tablets in the education system of mauritius: a case study. international journal of education and development using information and communication technology, 15(4), 22-34. johnson, l., levine, a., smith, r., & stone, s. (2010). the 2010 horizon report. new media consortium. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ed510220.pdf joshi, k.r., & poudel, g.p. (2019). role of icts in promoting learner independence and motivation in english language classes. interdisciplinary research in education, 4(1), 67-76. https://doi.org/10.3126/ire.v4i1.25741 jugee, s., & santally, m.i. (2016). the tablet pc initiative in mauritius—a situational analysis. ijaeduinternational e-journal of advances in education, 2(4), 14-22. kandiero, a. (2015). educators' challenges and behavioural intention to adopt open educational resources: the case of africa university, zimbabwe. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/20062 kanwar, a. (2015). open education resources (oer): what, why, how? http://dspace.col.org/bitstream/handle/11599/775/2015-03-oer-what-whyhow.pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y kanwar, a., kodhandaraman, b., & umar, a. (2010). toward sustainable open education resources: a perspective from the global south. american journal of distance education, 24(2), 65-80. http://doi.org/10.1080/08923641003696588 khanna, p., & basak, p.c. (2013). an oer architecture framework: needs and design. international review of research in open and distributed learning, 14(1), 65-83. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v14i1.1355 krelja kurelovic, e. (2016). advantages and limitations of usage of open educational resources in small countries. international journal of research in education and science, 2(1), 136-142. littlejohn, a., & hood, n. (2017). how educators build knowledge and expand their practice: the case of open education resources. british journal of educational technology, 48(2), 499-510. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12438 luo, t., hostetler, k., freeman, c., & stefaniak, j. (2020). the power of open: benefits, barriers, and strategies for integration of open educational resources. open learning: the journal of open, distance and e-learning, 35(2), 140-158. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680513.2019.1677222 miao, f., mishra, s., & mcgreal, r. (2016). open educational resources: policy, costs, transformation. unesco publishing. ministry of education and human resources. (2015). ioren international conference speech 2015. http://ministry-education.govmu.org mishra, p.k. (2012). training teachers to use and produce open educational resources: a win-win approach. journal of educational technology, 9(2), 1-7. 172 mtebe, j.s., & raisamo, r. (2014). challenges and instructors’ intention to adopt and use open educational resources in higher education in tanzania. international review of research in open and distributed learning, 15(1), 249-271. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v15i1.1687 ngimwa, p., & wilson, t. (2012). an empirical investigation of the emergent issues around oer adoption in sub-saharan africa. learning, media and technology, 37(4), 398-413. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2012.685076 nikoi, s.k., rowlett, t., armellini, a., & witthaus, g. (2011). corre: a framework for evaluating and transforming teaching materials into open educational resources. open learning: the journal of open, distance and e-learning, 26(3), 191-207. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680513.2011.611681 oecd. (2007). giving knowledge for free: the emergence of open educational resources. http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/35/7/38654317.pdf oates, l., & hashimi, j. (2016). localizing oer in afghanistan: developing a multilingual digital library for afghan teachers. open praxis, 8(2), 151-161. orwenjo, d.o., & erastus, f.k. (2018). challenges of adopting open educational resources (oer) in kenyan secondary schools: the case of open resources for english language teaching (orelt). journal of learning for development, 5(2), 148-162. padhi, n. (2018). acceptance and usability of oer in india: an investigation using utaut model. open praxis, 10(1), 55-65. international council for open and distance education. https://www.learntechlib.org/p/182381/ panke, s. (2011). an expert survey on the barriers and enablers of open educational practices. educación abierta: transformar las prácticas educativas. elearning papers. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/230856143_an_expert_survey_on_the_barriers_and_ena blers_of_open_educational_practices prasad, r.s., & rao, j.p. (2016). oers: issues and challenges of copyrights, licensing and access. http://hdl.handle.net/11599/2634 percy, t., & van belle, j.p. (2012, september). exploring the barriers and enablers to the use of open educational resources by university academics in africa. in ifip international conference on open source systems (pp. 112-128). springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-33442-9_8 petrides, l., nguyen, l., kargliani, a., & jimes, c. (2008). open educational resources: inquiring into author use and reuse. international journal of technology enhanced learning, 1(1-2), 98-117. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-87605-2_39 robinson, t.j., fischer, l., wiley, d., & hilton iii, j. (2014). the impact of open textbooks on secondary science learning outcomes. educational researcher, 43(7), 341-351. http://doi.org/10.3102/0013189x14550275 rodríguez, g., pérez, j., cueva, s., & torres, r. (2017). a framework for improving web accessibility and usability of open course ware sites. computers & education, 109, 197-215. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2017.02.013 santally, m.i. (2011). oers in context—case study of innovation and sustainability of educational practices at the university of mauritius. european journal of open, distance and e-learning, 14(1). https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej936383.pdf santally, m. & senteni, a. (2005). a learning object approach to personalized web-based instruction. european journal of open, distance and e-learning. https://old.eurodl.org/?p=archives&year=2005&halfyear=1&article=166 smith, m.s., & wang, p.m. (2007). the infrastructure of open educational resources. educational technology, 10-14. www.jstor.org/stable/44429520 173 tang, h., & bao, y. (2020). social justice and k-12 teachers' effective use of oer: a cross-cultural comparison by nations. journal of interactive media in education, 2020(1). tlili, a., zhang, j., papamitsiou, z., manske, s., huang, r., & hoppe, h.u. (2021). towards utilising emerging technologies to address the challenges of using open educational resources: a vision of the future. educational technology research and development, 69, 515-532. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-021-09993-4 trust, t., maloy, r.w., & edwards, s. (2022). college student engagement in oer design projects: impacts on attitudes, motivation, and learning. active learning in higher education, 14697874221081454. https://doi.org/10.1177/14697874221081454 unesco. (2002). unesco promotes new initiative for free educational resources on the internet. https://distanceeducator.com/unesco-promotes-new-initiative-for-free-educational-resources-on-the-internet/ unesco. (2010). global trends in the development and use of open educational resources to reform educational practises (policy brief). unesco institute for information technologies in education. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0019/001913/191362e.pdf unesco. (2012). 2012 paris oer declaration. world oer congress, paris, june 2012. http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/multimedia/hq/ci/ci/pdf/events/english_paris_oer_d eclaration.pdf unesco. (2019). survey on government oer policies. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000246687.locale=en venkatesh, v., morris, m., davis, g., & davis, f. (2003). user acceptance of information technology: toward a unified view. mis quarterly, 27(3), 425-478. http://doi.org/10.2307/30036540 weller, m., de los arcos, b., farrow, r., pitt, b., & mcandrew, p. (2015). the impact of oer on teaching and learning practice. open praxis, 7(4), 351-361. https://www.learntechlib.org/p/161984/ wiley, d., green, c., & soares, l. (2012). dramatically bringing down the cost of education with oer: how open education resources unlock the door to free learning. center for american progress. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ed535639.pdf wiley, d., hilton iii, j.l., ellington, s., & hall, t. (2012). a preliminary examination of the cost savings and learning impacts of using open textbooks in middle and high school science classes. international review of research in open and distributed learning, 13(3), 262-276. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v13i3.1153 willems, j., & bossu, c. (2012). equity considerations for open educational resources in the globalization of education. distance education, 33(2), 185-199. http://doi.org/10.1080/01587919.2012.692051 zaid, y.a., & alabi, a. o. (2020). sustaining open educational resources (oer) initiatives in nigerian universities. open learning: the journal of open, distance and e-learning, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680513.2020.1713738 174 appendix 1. perception table a1: perception towards oer strongly disagree disagree neutral agree strongly agree 1 how far do you agree that the academics will have a positive attitude towards the use of oer in the teaching and learning processes? 9.2% 10.0% 26.6% 46.5% 7.7% 2 how far do you agree that secondary schools will readily adopt oer in their education system? 2.6% 10.7% 36.9% 44.6% 5.2% 3 oer permits me to upload assignments/test papers/ homework? 6.3% 10.0% 24.0% 53.5% 6.3% 4 if given a choice i prefer uploading notes/videos and other teaching materials? 1.5% 7.4% 20.3% 57.2% 13.7% 5 oer permits me to organise subject material into a logical structure? 1.5% 6.3% 21.8% 57.2% 13.3% 6 oer directly improve the quality of teaching experience? 1.8% 6.3% 27.7% 49.8% 14.4% 7 oer are not as good as purchased textbooks? 1.8% 10.3% 33.6% 43.2% 11.1% 2. productivity table a2: productivity with oer strongly disagree disagree neutral agree strongly agree 1 to what extent do you believe that the introduction of oer will be a positive learning experience for students at secondary level? 1.5% 4.1% 18.1% 57.9% 18.5% 2 how far do you agree with the concept that adoption of oer will be related to productivity? 1.5% 5.2% 23.6% 51.3% 18.5% 3 how far do you agree that oer will have a positive influence in education at the secondary level? 1.5% 6.6% 17.0% 59.4% 15.5% 4 how far do you agree that oer will motivate students to adopt a positive learning attitude towards secondary education? 0.7% 7.4% 21.4% 54.2% 16.2% 5 how far do you agree that oer will be a key aspect in developing lifelong learning competences among different users in secondary schools? 0.7% 5.2% 17.0% 61.3% 15.9% 6 how far do you agree that oer will be an effective means of teaching? 1.1% 6.6% 17.7% 59.4% 15.1% 7 how far do you agree with the concept that oer will be a key aspect in promoting research and development? 4.8% 19.6% 57.9% 17.7% 8 how far do you agree that oer will be an encouraging factor to improve admission rates in secondary schools? 0.7% 4.8% 25.1% 59.0% 10.3% 175 3. interactivity table a3: interactivity with oer strongly disagree disagree neutral agree strongly agree 1 how far do you agree that oer will be an interactive role in promoting secondary education? 8.1% 7.7% 26.2% 49.4% 8.5% 2 i would describe using oer as interesting? 2.2% 5.2% 22.1% 60.9% 9.6% 3 how far do you agree that oer will help my students learn more about a subject? 1.1% 5.9% 26.9% 57.2% 8.9% 4 how far do you agree that oer will improve my students' satisfaction with a subject? 1.1% 7.4% 28.8% 53.9% 8.9% 5 how far do you agree that oer will improve my students' grades? 1.1% 9.2% 31.4% 50.9% 7.4% 6 how far do you agree that oer will improve my students' evaluation of a subject? 3.3% 6.6% 21.4% 62.0% 6.6% 7 to help my students better learn the material, i will incorporate ict tools in the classroom. 1.8% 8.9% 15.5% 61.3% 12.5% 4. infrastructure table a4: infrastructure to support oer strongly disagree disagree neutral agree strongly agree 1 how far do you agree that secondary school have an adequate technical support for ict? 3.0% 10.7% 25.1% 44.3% 17.0% 2 how far do you agree that secondary school have an adequate instructional support for ict? 3.7% 8.5% 25.5% 44.3% 18.1% 3 how far do you agree that secondary schools will not have adequate resources to invest in broadband, hardware and software? 3.7% 12.2% 24.7% 42.1% 17.3% 5. constraining factors table a5: constraining factor of oer strongly disagree disagree neutral agree strongly agree 1 lack of necessary resources to access oer? 0.7% 8.5% 29.2% 54.2% 7.4% 2 lack of broadband and other technical innovations? 0.4% 10.7% 26.6% 53.5% 8.9% 3 lack of necessary knowledge to use and integrate oer into the subject? 1.1% 11.1% 25.5% 54.2% 8.1% 4 lack of effective communication about the scope and capabilities of oer? 1.1% 8.5% 23.6% 58.7% 8.1% 5 lack of skills to select appropriate oer and reuse or remix them? 1.5% 8.1% 23.2% 57.9% 9.2% 176 6 lack of awareness among academics of copyright issues? 1.5% 7.0% 24.7% 58.3% 8.5% 7 lack of quality assurance about the availability of digital resources? 1.1% 8.1% 27.3% 54.2% 9.2% 8 lack of time to produce shareable materials? 3.3% 9.6% 29.5% 51.3% 6.3% profile of the participants out of 271 educators who participated in the survey, 51.3% were females and 48.7% were males. they were also of different age groups whose range are as follow: • 20-25 years: 27.3% • 26-30 years: 13.3% • 1-35 years: 15.1% • 36-40 years: 22.9% • above 40 years: 21.4% the participants also counted different number of years of experience in teaching, that can be represented as follows: • less than 5 years: 25.1% • 5-10 years: 28.8% • 11-15 years: 29.9% • above 15 years: 16.2% data availability the datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. authors: dr. yousra banoor rajabalee is an elearning specialist. she specialises in educational technologies and computer-based instructional design. she is a lecturer in education technology at the mauritius institute of education and a member of the pole of research on innovative pedagogies, technologies and practices in education at the university of mauritius. email: y.rajabalee@mie.ac.mu dr. bhavish jugurnath is currently a senior lecturer at the university of mauritius. for the last two years his research has pursued excellence in research and innovation, and he has completed a book publication global microfinance, which is currently in press by world scientific publishing (usa). he has published several papers exploring these topics from different perspectives, and is currently working on consolidating this work and developing it into a book project. he has also been involved in innovative and interdisciplinary research exploration and has been successful in publishing fifteen refereed journal articles. email: b.jugurnath@uom.ac.mu dr. mohammad issack santally is currently a professor in education technology, and the pro-vicechancellor (academia), at the university of mauritius. he is an active researcher in the field of education technology and e-learning and has been involved in a number of regional consultancies for institutions such as the commonwealth of learning, comesa and sadc. email: m.santally@uom.ac.mu cite this paper as: rajabalee, y.b., jugurnath, b., & santally, m.i. (2023). educator perspectives and intention to adopt oer in teaching and learning in secondary schools in mauritius. journal of learning for development, 10(2), 149-176. microsoft word laksmi.docx issn: 2311-1550 2021, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 532-540 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. implementation of problem based learning to increase scientific explanation skill in biology learning about the environment monika lintang laksmi1, dewi puspita sari1, yudi rinanto1 and raden rara sapartini2 1sebelas maret university, indonesia 2one senior high school, surakarta, indonesia abstract: this research aimed to describe and find out whether implementation of problem-based learning can improve scientific explanation skills in biology learning about the environment. the research method was classroom action research through the implementation of problem-based learning. this classroom action research consisted of two cycles, which were concluded by planning, acting, observing and reflecting. the research subject was a natural science class consisting of 34 students. data were collected by essay test, observation method, interviews and documentation. data were validated by the triangulation technique consisting of three components: data reduction, data presentation and conclusion. the research results showed improvement in the scientific explanation skills of students on the implementation of problem based learning. the percentage improvement of students' scientific explanation was 61% in claim, 53% in evidence, and 51% in reasoning. keywords: problem based learning, scientific explanation, classroom action research, biology education. introduction education is everyone's learning experience for survival. education in the school environment occurs because of interactions between the commissions in the school consisting of students, teachers, school officials, and parents or guardians (astuti, 2017). interactions in the classroom occur between teachers and students. interaction activities between teachers and students that occur reciprocally for educational purposes can also be called the learning process. the learning process that students go through involves cognitive, affective, and psychomotor abilities (putri & hamid, 2016). an initial observation that has been done by researchers in one senior high school in surakarta during the learning process showed that 52.9% of students chatted with their friends, 20.6% of students played on cellphones, 47% of students responded to teacher questions with simple answers, 17.6% of students responded to questions demanding a lengthy explanation of the process or reason for the phenomenon and 35.4% of the students did not respond to teacher questions, thus, many students do not respond to the ongoing learning process. minimal student response in the learning process results in low student understanding (fauziah, 2010), and, therefore, influences students' answers about explanations of a phenomenon (rohwer & rice, 2015). explanation of the reason or cause of a phenomenon is an activity in preparing a scientific explanation (berland & reiser, 2008), and the ability of students to provide scientific explanations is less than ideal in most contexts. 533 an explanation by students is often called a scientific explanation in the learning process (nasir & nur, 2018). a scientific explanation has three components: claim, evidence and reasoning (osborne & patterson, 2011). scientific explanation describes the product of science in the form of a scientific explanation of the process, cause and reason for the occurrence of a phenomenon (mcneill & krajcik, 2009). the link between claim, evidence and reasoning is used to assess students' understanding, so an assessment in the form of rubrics is required to evaluate students' scientific explanation skills. based on the results of initial observations that have been made by researchers about students' scientific explanation skills of students at one senior high school surakarta in a conventional learning model, 65.4% of students were not able to make claims, 80.1% of students did not have evidence, and 83.09% of students were not able to connect claims and evidence into reasoning. the follow-up observation concluded that the scientific explanation ability of students was less than optimal. scientific explanation skills are acquired within a learning process that actively engages students. student activity is demonstrated through collaborative activities and analysis through scientific investigation (hmelo-silver, 2004). therefore, scientific investigations produce answers in the form of scientific explanations. the scientific explanation requires unstructured problems to get many solutions to the same problem (noer, 2011). learning models that accommodate unstructured problem solving use problem-based learning approaches (chin & chia, 2006). a problem-based learning model typically has five stages, namely: (1) meeting the problem, (2) problem analysis and learning issues, (3) discovery and reporting, (4) solution presentation and reflection and (5) overview, integration and evaluation (tan, 2003). the stages of a problem-based learning model, therefore, accommodate the development of students' scientific explanation skills. the ‘meeting the problem’ stage allows students to understand the existing problem so that various questions can arise at this stage. the problems stimulate students to make preliminary explanations as the initial stage in developing scientific reasoning. the ‘problem analysis and learning issues’ stage is a phase for students doing problem analysis. this stage provokes students to come up with a claim in the form of a solution to answer questions at the meeting of the problem stage (kumala et al, 2017). the third stage is ‘discovery and reporting’, and students are tasked with collecting data to prepare a solution. this stage enables students to find evidence in scientific explanation skills (faizah et al, 2018). another scientific explanation component that is accommodated through the discovery and reporting stage is the reasoning component. group discussions at the discovery and reporting stage train students to develop reasoning appropriately by linking claims and evidence (alozie et al, 2010). the next stage of solution ‘presentation and reflection’ is presenting solutions that have been prepared and reflected upon. problem solutions provided need to address the data that has been collected. this stage enables students to reflect on the solutions that have been made to connect claims and evidence to the best reasoning (drăghicescu et al, 2014). based on the results of the background description, researchers formulated the following problem: "can problem-based learning improve scientific explanation skills in environmental materials for one surakarta high school students?" following the problem formulation, the study explored whether there was improvement of students' scientific explanation skills after using problem-based learning. 534 methods research methodology the research adopted class action research methodology. population and sample the research was conducted at one senior high school surakarta, located at monginsidi street no. 40 surakarta. the subjects in this study were in a natural-science-class, which comprised 34 students. the class selection was based on students' lack of ability to convey scientific explanations judging by the observation results. data collection and analysis the data collected during the study represented the achievement of students' scientific explanation skills, observations, interviews with teachers and students and documentation of activities. data collection was done using test and non-test techniques. data validity tests were conducted using triangulation techniques. the data obtained was rated using a likert scale for each scientific explanation indicator. data analysis was completed in three stages: data reduction, data presentation and conclusion drawing. indicators of success in the study are characterised by changes in the improved scientific explanation of students. result and discussion result students' scientific explanation skills were analysed in each cycle. the analysis of students' scientific explanation ability was assessed from each component of the scientific explanation. the results of the analysis showed changes, improvement, and decreases at each stage of the action cycle. the achievement of the students' scientific explanations score at the pre-cycle stage shows that students, in drafting scientific explanations, had relatively low skills which need to be improved. actions can be taken to accommodate the ability to develop student scientific explanation by applying a learning model that involves students actively participating in the learning process. experts believe that scientific explanations can be developed through learning involving active student participation (aguiar, 2016). problem-based learning involves students directly investigating the veracity of an unstructured problem to provide some resolution, and it is aligned to support training to develop students' scientific explanation skills (berland & reiser, 2008). scientific explanation skills consist of three components: claim, evidence and reasoning. the discussion of the results of the study will discuss one by one the three components. claim a claim is an idea, opinion or hypothesis about an event (kaya, erduran & cetin, 2012). a claim must describe what happened or identify the causative factors of an event (novak, mcneill &krajcik, 2009). a claim is the easiest component to disclose. claims are made to be the basis of other components (amielia, suciati & maridi, 2017). the results of the increase in claim components in this study can be seen in figure 1, as follows. 535 figure 1: claim score percentage figure 1 indicates the percentage of students' scores in the claim component from the pre-cycle to cycle 2. the highest claim component score increased from pre-cycle action to cycle 1 action by 75%. the increase in the percentage of claim scores indicated in figure 1 also occurs in cycles 1 to 2. most students obtained the highest increase of 50% from cycle 1 to cycle 2. the average percentage of claim component scores in the pre-cycle stage to cycle 1 increased by 50%, while cycle 1 to cycle 2 increased by 11%. the percentage of the claim component score of each student mostly increased across the cycles. but a decrease in the percentage of claim scores was observed in one student from cycle 1 to cycle 2. one student who experienced a decrease in claim scores was the student number 20. the decrease in student claim scores was due to the lack of understanding concepts about environmental change materials, and student number 20 entered the class 40 minutes late, hence, did not follow the learning stage of meeting the problem and problem analysis of the learning issues. meeting the problem and problem analysis stages both play a role in forming a scientific understanding of students in order to compose the initial claim. evidence the next stage of problem-based learning is discovery and reporting, where students act as researchers who are tasked to collect data and information in developing solutions. students collect data used as evidence relating to the causes and impacts of environmental damage in a particular area in cycle 1 and environmental conservation efforts through recycling of contaminants in cycle 2. the evidence obtained by students comes from tracing information through learning resources and conducting direct investigations in the field. the evidence obtained during the investigation process was written in a worksheet. data collection activities or evidence in the form of facts about an event enable students to compile evidence components on scientific explanation capabilities (faizah et al, 2018). the results of the increase in evidence components in this study can be seen in figure 2, as follows. 536 figure 2: evidence score percentage figure 2. indicates the percentage gain of the students' scores on the evidence component of the precycle stage, the first cycle, and the second cycle. the highest evidence score increase from the pre-cycle to cycle 1 was obtained by student number 26, with 50%. some students did not experience an increase, with a fixed score percentage of 25% obtained by student number 8. the increase in score was also experienced from cycle 1 to cycle 2, the most significant increase being 50%. in the pre-cycle stage, seven students (6, 10, 13, 19, 25, 29 and 31) received a percentage of evidence score of 0%. these students are judged incapable of disclosing evidence according to reading. the evidence mentioned by students at the pre-cycle stage was not present in the reading and did not corroborate the statements that had been made before. the average percentage of evidence component scores in the pre-cycle to cycle 1 stage increased by 30%, while cycle 1 to cycle 2 increased by 23%. the percentage of the score of the evidence component of each student increased across the cycles. the evidence component had a lower score percentage than the claim component, implying that most students had difficulties determining the evidence that corresponds to an event. the low percentage of evidence scores compared to claims was due to students' weak mastery of the concept. incorrect data or information can be acquired by students who are weak in the mastery of concepts. low understanding of concepts confused students in the data collection process of searching for evidence (mcneill & krajcik, 2009). the increase in grades from cycle 1 to cycle 2 was due to teachers' guidance at the discovery and reporting stage. teachers ask students to look for evidence from valid, accountable sources. if possible, the teacher asks students to see the evidence they have previously obtained from various sources. some groups got evidence from the students' direct observations. students who are used to finding and compiling evidence from valid sources can improve their concept understanding skills. high student concept understanding skills facilitates students’ gathering evidence (mcneill & krajcik, 2009). the percentage of evidence scores in cycle 2 was shown to increase compared to cycle 1, which indicates that guidance by teachers can actively build students' skills in solving problems and assist students in improving reasoning activities and understanding of scientific concepts (smyrnaiou et al, 2012). thus, students find it easier to compile evidence that can support their claims. 537 reasoning in addition to accommodating students to find evidence, the discovery and reporting phase can accommodate students to develop sound reasoning. group discussions at the discovery and reporting stage train students to develop reasoning appropriately by linking claims and evidence (alozie et al, 2010). the solution presentation and reflection stage is the stage for students to make presentations about their solutions and reflect. problem solutions provided by each group need to address the facts and information that have been collected. students discuss to develop reasoning that can relate each piece of evidence to the student's statement. at this stage, students play a role in connecting the information data obtained into a solution according to each group's idea (drăghicescu et al, 2014). the solution presentation and reflection learning phase can accommodate students to bring up the reasoning component in compiling scientific explanations. the solution to the student's problem that is finally found can change from the formulation of the solution or the initial statement that the student made as a hypothesis, therefore, at this stage, the students must re-correct the initial claim that they have made. the results of the increase in reasoning components in this study can be seen in figure 3, as follows. figure 3: reasoning score percentage figure 3 indicates the percentage gain of the reasoning component score of each cycle from the precycle to the 2nd cycle stage. the highest increase in reasoning scores (50%) increases in the pre-cycle to cycle 1. some students did not experience an increase in the pre-cycle stage to cycle stage 1, namely, student number 22, with a score percentage of 25%. at the pre-cycle stage, 11 students (2, 7, 8, 17, 19, 24, 25, 28, 31, 33 and 34) could not write down reasons to corroborate the statements and evidence that they had made. eleven students had a reasoning component score percentage of 0%. this is because the learning model used at the pre-cycle stage did not enable students to make excuses to corroborate their statements. 538 the average percentage of reasoning component scores in the pre-cycle stage to cycle 1 increased by 33%, while in cycle 1 to cycle 2 it increased by 18%. each student's reasoning component score percentage improved across the cycles. some students obtain a constant percentage of reasoning scores from the pre-cycle stage to cycle 1. the constant increase in the percentage of reasoning scores obtained by student number 2 increased by 50% in each cycle, and students numbered 24, 29 and 30 increased by 25%. the percentage of reasoning scores that did not improve was due to students having difficulties linking supporting evidence to statements that were made before. the process of linking supporting evidence with claims requires understanding the concept. low understanding of concepts by students leads to supporting evidence with claims not following scientific principles (hsu et al, 2015). the corrective action for cycle 2 is that teachers should assist students in actively helping them improve reasoning activities and understanding of scientific concepts. teachers should guide students to listen and pay attention when other groups give presentations on how to solve a problem. teachers should provide students with several opportunities to ask questions and argue and give feedback when students finish presenting results, asking questions or making remarks. corrective action in cycle 2 can increase the percentage of evidence scores from cycle 1 to cycle 2. thus, the improvement provided by the teacher can improve the student’s understanding of the concept so that students can connect supporting evidence with claims following scientific principles. the increase in the percentage of evidence scores in cycle 2 is directly proportional to the increase in reasoning scores in cycle 2. the improvement of the two components of scientific explanation is directly proportional to the statement that the completeness of the evidence owned by students influences the preparation of reasoning to reinforce the statements that have previously been made (supeno et al, 2017). discussion the student's scientific explanation skill score increases from each cycle because students compose claims, evidence and reasoning during the learning process. the written evaluation test given at the end of the cycle directs students to compile scientific explanations. improved scientific explanation skills can occur when students must explain claims, evidence and reasoning in writing (mcneill, 2010). the high percentage of scientific explanation component scores shows that students have compiled claims, submitted appropriate evidence and supported claims, and could develop reasons for the relationship between claim and evidence in explaining a phenomenon (yao et al, 2016). the percentage score of the scientific explanation claim component had a higher average than the evidence and reasoning components. the low percentage of scientific explanation component scores indicates that students had difficulty in compiling scientific explanations. students' problems in compiling scientific explanations was due to basic knowledge and understanding of concepts (yao et al, 2016). students' difficulty in compiling scientific explanations occurred when students were required to provide evidence that matched the initial statement. inappropriate evidence resulted in errors in the preparation of reasons. reasoning prepared by students should connect claims and evidence so that the student's explanation can be accepted. scientific principles and correct concepts are needed for students to develop scientific explanations to connect supporting evidence and statements that give rise to the reason for an event (hsu et al, 2015). 539 the stages of the problem-based learning model can enable students to develop claims, source evidence and demonstrate reasoning. the problem meeting stage enables students to provide preliminary ideas as the initial stage of compiling scientific explanation. the problem analysis and learning issues stage enables students to bring up claims. the third stage is discovery and reporting to acclimate students to find evidence and discuss reasoning. the solution presentation and reflection stage enables students to reflect on the reasoning that has been made. conclusion based on the research results, problem-based learning can improve students' scientific explanation skills in biological materials about the environment. the syntax of problem-based learning accommodates improved scientific explanation skills used gradually in three cycles (pre-cycle, cycle 1, and cycle 2). the percentage of scores of the three scientific explanation components increased from the pre-cycle stage to cycle stage 2, the increase in the score of the claim component was 61%, the evidence component 53% and the reasoning component 51%. references aguiar, o. g. (2016). explanation, argumentation and dialogic interactions in science classrooms. cultural studies of science education, 11(4), 869-878. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11422-015-9694-4 alozie, n. m., moje, e. b., & krajcik, j. s. (2010). an analysis of the supports and constraints for scientific discussion in high school project-based science. science education, 94(3), 395-427. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.20365 astuti, c. c. (2017). original research article analisis korelasi untuk mengetahui keeratan hubungan antara keaktifan mahasiswa dengan hasil belajar akhir. journal of information and computer technology education, 1(april), 1-7. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.21070/jicte.v1i1.1185 berland, l. k., & reiser, b. j. (2008). making sense of argumentation and explanation. science education, 93(1), 26–55. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.20286 chin, c., & chia, l. g. (2006). problem-based learning: using ill-structured problems in biology project work. science education, 90(1), 44-67. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.20097 drăghicescu, l. m., petrescu, a.-m., cristea, g. c., gorghiu, l. m., & gorghiu, g. (2014). application of problem-based learning strategy in science lessons – examples of good practice. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 149, 297-301. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.08.245 faizah, l., probosari, r. m., & karyanto, p. (2018). penerapan problem based learning untuk meningkatkan keterampilan argumentasi lisan siswa kelas xi pada pembelajaran biologi. jurnal biotek, 6(2), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.24252/jb.v6i2.6395 fauziah, a. (2010). peningkatan kemampuan pemahaman dan pemecahan masalah matematika siswa smp melalui strategi react. forum kependidikan, 30(1), 1-13. hmelo-silver, c. e. (2004). problem-based learning: what and how do students learn? educational psychology review, 16(3), 235-267. hsu, c. c., chiu, c. h., lin, c. h., & wang, t. i. (2015). enhancing skill in constructing scientific explanations using a structured argumentation scaffold in scientific inquiry. computers and education, 91, 46-59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2015.09.009 540 kumala, g. s. r., nurlaelah, i., & setiawati, i. (2017). bernalar dan argumentasi melalui problem based learning. quagga, 9(2). https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.25134/quagga.v9i02.748 mcneill, k. l. (2010). explanations, arguments and evidence in science, science class and the everyday lives of fifth grade students. mcneill narst. mcneill, k. l., & krajcik, j. (2009). synergy between teacher practices and curricular scaffolds to support students in using domain-specific and domain-general knowledge in writing arguments to explain phenomena. journal of the learning sciences, 18(3), 416-460. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508400903013488 nasir, m., & nur, m. (2018). training inquiry model ditinjau dari kemampuan scientific explanation mahasiswa. bioedukasi jurnal pendidikan biologi, 9(1), 51-56. https://doi.org/10.24127/bioedukasi.v9i1.1383 noer, s. h. (2011). pembelajaran matematika berbasis open-ended. jurnal pendidikan matematika, 5(1), 104-111. osborne, j. f., & patterson, a. (2011). scientific argument and explanation: a necessary distinction? science education, 95(4), 627-638. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.20438 putri, a., & hamid, a. (2016). persepsi guru terhadap kualitas buku ajar fisika kelas x sma negeri se-kota banda aceh. jurnal ilmiah mahasiswa, 1(4), 208-211. rohwer, y., & rice, c. (2015). how are models and explanations related? erkenntnis, 81(5), 1127-1148. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10670-015-9788-0 smyrnaiou, z., foteini, m., & kynigos, c. (2012). students’ constructionist game modelling activities as part of inquiry learning processes. electronic journal of e-learning, 10(2), 235-248. supeno, kurnianingrum, a. m., & cahyani, m. u. (2017). kemampuan penalaran berbasis bukti dalam pembelajaran fisika. jurnal pembelajaran dan pendidikan sains, 2(1), 64-78. tan, o. s. (2003). problem-based learning innovation: using problems to power learning in the 21st century. cengage learning. yao, j.-x., guo, y.-y., & neumann, k. (2016). towards a hypothetical learning progression of scientific explanation. asia-pacific science education, 2(4), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41029-016-0011-7 authors: monika lintang laksmi is a master’s student in biology education at sebelas maret university, indonesia and a biology tutor at primagama, surakarta, indonesia. email: monikalintang@student.uns.ac.id dewi puspita sari is a lecturer at sebelas maret university, indonesia. her research interests include biology education, especially animal development structure and ornithology. email: dewipuspita@staff.uns.ac.id yudi rinanto is a lecturer at sebelas maret university, indonesia. his research interests include biology education, especially medicinal plants and metabolism. email: yudirinanto@staff.uns.ac.id raden rara sapartini is a teacher at one senior high school, surakarta, indonesia. her research interests include biology education in high school/class action research. email: rsabio8@gmail.com cite this paper as: laksmi, m. l., sari, d. p., rinanto, y., & sapartini, r. r. (2021). implementation of problembased learning to increase scientific explanation skill in biology learning about the environment. journal of learning for development, 8(3), 532-540. babu e-learning and development: lessons from multi-disciplinary capacity strengthening suresh chandra babu vol. 1, no. 3 abstract this paper documents the experience and lessons from implementing an e-learning program aimed at creating multidisciplinary research capacity. it presents a case study of bringing together a multidisciplinary group of professionals on-line to learn the skills needed to be a successful researcher in the context of hiv/aids and food security problems in eastern and southern africa. lessons from the experience for future development of similar courses indicate that some of the factors that can enhance the success of e-learning programs in developing countries are: assessing the needs of the participants, easy access to educational technology, addressing the differing learning styles of the participants, continuous interaction and commitment of course moderators, enabling access to open access learning materials and combining various pedagogical approaches.. the paper concludes that enhancing the skills of professionals in developing countries through e-learning programs is imperative to meet the human capacity needs for greater economic development and service delivery. i. introduction it is well recognized that countries that invest in developing the capacity of their citizens have been able to achieve faster growth (barro, 1996)1. however, investments in human capacity development compete with other development priorities and take a long time to produce results (fukuyama, 2004)2. regular learning and higher education programs have limited enrollment opportunities and often do not supply adequate capacity, which is needed for implementing development interventions. e-learning programs have emerged as a major innovation in the last two decades to fill the supply gaps in the skills needed by mid-career professionals (holmes and gardner, 2006; veletcianos & kimmons, 2012). governments and development partners in developing countries have invested considerable resources to build regional and national institutions that can organize and offer e-leaning programs (gulati, 2008).  yet, such approaches are not fully recognized by employers in hiring and promoting development professionals. in the development process, e-learning programs also continue to face implementation challenges (okonkow, 2012; babu et al, 2013). recognizing the need for increasing local capacity for delivering services in social development, planners and policy makers have called for innovation in educational approaches (leary and berge, 2006). developing countries have invested in distance education and e-learning programs both through the public and private sectors3 (gulati, 2008). in addition, international programs have also developed and offer development oriented e-learning courses. however, these emerging programs continue to face challenges for further development and funding. the quality of education offered through e-learning programs continues to be questioned (smyth and zanetis, 2007). due to a lack of empirical studies in the context of development capacity building, the benefits and costs of promoting e-learning program for developing skills for program development and implementation remains unclear (ogunsola, 2010). the donors funding e-learning programs increasingly ask for the evidence of success in terms of the effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability, and impact of distance learning programs (rosenburg, 2001; andrews and haythornthwaite, 2007). distance education through e-learning and its application to development capacity strengthening is fairly new and still in its infancy (de la peña-bandalaria, 2007; welsh et al, 2003; robins and webster, 2002; taylor, 2001). although the role of distance education in building the skills of farmers and rural communities has a long history, the ict version of such courses only began to emerge during the midto late 1990s with the use of online learning delivery methods (mandinach, 2005). this has led to development organizations exploring opportunities to increase cost-effectiveness and to reach a larger segment of the population (potashnik & capper, 1998; unesco, 2002). as the use of ict-based distance education in strengthening capacity for delivery of development programs and projects continues to increase, so does the use of a higher level of interactivity among the participants of the e-learning programs and their organizers (garrison and anderson, 2003; johnson and aragon, 2003).   yet, documentation of the issues, constraints, and challenges in implementing on-line courses for creating development capacity continues to be limited in developing countries. this paper uses a case study of multidisciplinary capacity strengthening for hiv/aids and food security research using web-based learning approaches to analyze the application of best practices of e-learning, and to document lessons for the future implementation of such courses for generating development capacity. this paper is organized as follows: the next section presents a case study that applies the best practices of on-line learning; this is followed by lessons learned from the experiment and concluding remarks in the last section. ii. multi-disciplinary capacity development using e-learning: application of best practices as described below, the basis of this case study was to strengthen capacity of the members of a regional network on hiv/aids, rural livelihoods, and food security (renewal) program. a major interest in web-based learning for this program was using online technologies to offer distance education programs to present an opportunity to build and strengthen networks of learners around a central theme (such as the renewal network). one of the methods to build sustainability into development programs is through the creation of in-country, stakeholder networks. online courses often incorporate discussion forums to stimulate dialogue on a particular subject between learners and this flow of communication and ideas can further strengthen networks and develop a deeper sense of identity as a member of a particular network. initial efforts to develop an open and distance learning for this program began in 2005/06 with the development of a first online proposal writing course. this initial course was offered in what could be termed the first-generation style of online learning. while plans were discussed and proposed to develop additional online courses, none were offered until the course under discussion here was offered in 2009 for the renewal program. in the following sections we examine some of the best practices that online course designers and capacity strengthening programs use and how they were applied to the current case-study course. we begin with a description of the on-line course and its methodology. renewal online course training methodology in response to a need identified by the renewal program, an online course was developed to provide hands-on technical assistance in the development of action research proposals. this course provided the opportunity for researchers in the renewal network to use a real-life proposal in their course work and emerge with a high quality proposal that could be submitted to potential donors for further consideration. specific objectives of the course included: developing the skills for preparing policy research proposals understanding the elements of a winning proposal analyzing some examples of good proposals gaining practical skills for organizing the components of a proposal reviewing some of the existing resources for proposal writing. the course reviewed the standard elements that comprise competitive grant applications, and, through studying real and stylized proposals and completing a series of exercises and quizzes, to help participants recognize the characteristics of good, fundable proposals. participants learned to write clear, compelling prose that demonstrates their expertise and their qualifications to do the work they propose. participants learned to identify which grant-makers fund the kind of work proposed, to generate proposal ideas through a literature search and brainstorming, and to pitch their ideas and research plans convincingly. one of our primary goals was to capitalize on, and further strengthen, the network of practitioners, policy makers and researchers gathered during the renewal capacity strengthening workshops conducted in 2008 through open dialogues during the course modules. in order to further strengthen the network, the course was open only to participants who were nominated by the renewal national coordinators in malawi, kenya, south africa, uganda and zambia. the course was designed based on proposal writing courses previously given in a face-to-face format in 2005 and later transformed into an online course in 2006. for the purposes of the 2009 course, the course materials were adapted to moodle (stewart et al, 2007; witworth and benson, 2010), an open source, online course management system, and tailored to fit the needs and expectations of the renewal participants. the course was designed to take participants approximately two hours per week over of four weeks. the target group and their needs as institutions develop strategic plans for web-based, open and distance education programs, it is important that they know precisely who it is that they are targeting as the end consumer, or the learner in question. one of the attributes of the latest generation of online delivery methods is its capacity to specialize and tailor courses to precisely fit the needs of the target learners. there are four categories of information about their potential learners in particular that course designers can use to tailor learning materials: (i) demographics; (ii) motivation; (iii) learning factors (study skills); and, (iv) subject background (freeman, 2004). information on learner demographics such as age range, gender, and employment can be used by the course organizers to group potential learners into various classes (if more than one class is being offered during the year. for example, many times it is desirable to have courses filled with learners from diverse demographic backgrounds so that learner-to-learner exchanges are more informative as learners from different backgrounds are able to share their individual experiences and areas of expertise. motivational factors such as learning for problem solving on the job compared to gaining additional certification for the purposes of getting promoted to a higher position may have implications for the participation and demand for knowledge from the course contents. study skills of the learners, such as time management, nature of preparation for the course, and familiarity with on-line methods of learning, have implications for the design and delivery of the course materials. participants with an adequate background may advance smoothly compared to those who have not covered the prerequisites. armed with information regarding the potential learners’ motivation, study skills and prior subject matter knowledge, course designers and developers are able to target the learning materials to fit the needs of the learners. this information might be useful in designing the types of learning tools and activities for the course assessment and exchanges between learners and tutors/facilitators and between the learners themselves. how this information is gathered is dependent on how the course enrollment is planned. if it is an open enrollment course, it is more difficult to gather the information with sufficient lead time for the information to be used to shape the learning materials of the course. while not always feasible, if the course has closed enrollment pre-enrollment learner questionnaires might be gathered in order to shape and tailor the course’s learning materials during the course development phases. useful data might include: reasons the learners are planning on taking the course, why they were nominated; what background knowledge they have in the subject matter (e.g., if any previous courses in the subject matter have been taken); and prior experience with online distance learning. as mentioned in the previous section, the renewal online proposal writing course was developed specifically for the renewal hub country networks in kenya, malawi, south africa, uganda, and zambia. the national regional coordinators in each country nominated up to ten participants for this closed enrollment course. the nomination process took place one month prior to the commencement of the course so specific learner profile information was not incorporated into the learning materials. however, the course was specifically designed for the renewal network, even without knowing who the specific learners would be, and thus incorporated renewal documents and background resource materials into the learning materials as will be discussed in the following section. developing learning materials as indicated above, online learning provides a high level of flexibility that enables institutions to surpass geographical boundaries and the boundaries of time zones. however, along with this level of flexibility comes a heightened importance that the learning materials be designed to engage learners and promote learning based on a sound pedagogy (ally, 2004). there are four key factors that determine a good learning experience – be it formal or informal, traditional or distance learning: (i) how the course is organized; (ii) how the learning information is presented; (iii) the quality of resources; and (iv) how the tutor-facilitator responds to learners (o’rourke, 2003). this section will look at how the first three areas were addressed in developing the learning materials for the renewal proposal writing course. a later section on facilitating group learning and learner support will address the role of the tutor-facilitator’s responsiveness to learners. developing online courses from traditional face-to-face capacity strengthening courses requires more than simply posting the face-to-face printed materials online. the learning experience cannot be directly translated from one format to the other so the learning resources and materials from the face-to-face course need be redesigned in order to create a more effective learning experience in an online environment (abel, 2005). however, there are important aspects of many face-to-face courses that need to be converted in as close to its original form as possible in order to maintain the benefits for the learners. active learning is an important aspect of on-line courses, as it engages the learner beyond the reading course materials, particularly when there are no face-to-face sessions. it helps to make learning practical and interactive with peer learners and helps to increase the analytical and evaluative nature of learning processes. for example, course projects are an important practice that should not be left in the traditional classroom but also incorporated into online learning (tobin, 2004). many activities and exercises that are typically offered in a group setting during a traditional face-to-face course can be redesigned as a group online activity using course management system applications such as discussion forums. during the four-week course, course modules were designed to cover all aspects involved in writing a proposal from start to finish. the course was organized with lesson materials broken down into four to five brief lesson modules covered on a weekly basis and designed to take approximately half an hour per module. the learning materials began with an introduction to the purpose of proposals and a discussion of when writing a full proposal is required. topics over the following weeks addressed the specific components of a proposal and the suggested order in which proposals should be developed. during the latter half of the course, modules addressed topics such as the proposal’s logical framework, budgets and the proposal components that are prepared at the end of the development process, such as the background section, summary and proposal cover letters. generally speaking, the skills necessary in writing proposals are universal and not a subject matter that can be tailored; however, throughout the course, material examples were used to illustrate the point of the lessons. these examples and illustrations were drawn from renewal specific subject matter, published renewal documents and renewal proposals. additionally, learners were encouraged to use any proposals that they might be working on in the completion of lesson exercises and/or discussions in the forums. such an output oriented approach to learning helps the participants to relate the learning to their own on-going projects and make learning meaningful. this would enable the participants to seek advice and suggestions for improvement by the course tutor-facilitator and other participants. some sample proposals were also included in the additional resources section of the course. these proposals were actual proposals that were submitted by various divisions of the international food policy research institute (ifpri) to donors for funding. all of the sample proposals used in this course were successfully granted funding and, as such, served as good examples of what comprises a convincing proposal. the proposal writing course resources were presented using, primarily, brief text webpages with the lesson material. this was done in order to circumvent any problems learners might have with connectivity issues. with this format the materials could readily be printed and worked on physically until their internet connection was restored. following the first renewal online course, a second course on the writing and presentation of scientific research was also developed for the renewal network. with this second course, in order to adjust the lesson materials to different types of learners with different study skills, the lesson materials were presented in two formats – both as text webpages, as with the first course, and in a powerpoint presentation slide format. learners were able to choose their preferred method of viewing the materials. in developing the renewal online courses, no formal review process took place in order to assure the quality of resources; however, the learning materials were drawn from courses conducted in both traditional and distance learning formats. while preparing the materials for this specific course, the evaluation reports and feedback from the previous courses was consulted in order to address any issues and serve as a quality control check. application of e-learning best practices tobin (2004) highlights a set of best practices for the development and implementation of e-learning programs.  table 1 summarizes how these best practices were observed during the development of the case study course and the related challenges. they are further elaborated on below. table 1. application of the e-learning best practices best practice principles of a e-learning design (tobin, 2004) how applied to the case study student-faculty contact the course offered no face to face opportunity for the students and the faculty to interact. however, there were several discussion sessions on-line in which the interactions with students helped to further guide the students in the learning process. cooperation among students the course was designed for the adult learners who are in their beginning to mid-career levels. as most of the participants were from similar thematic backgrounds there was natural cooperation among the participants. however, due to varying levels of research involvement and experience as researchers, participants differed in their learning speed. active learning the main learning objective was to develop the ability of the participants to develop their own winning proposal. this made it possible to incorporate the active learning aspect of the e-learning. since participants had their own assignment of developing a proposal for funding their research, the learning process involved analyses and evaluation of their practical outputs and higher level of participation in the discussions. the active learning also helped to improve the knowledge, attitude and practice of developing a winning proposal. prompt feedback e-learning programs can be effective only when the feedback on the assignments and the regular enquiries are addressed on a regular and prompt basis. this is essential to keep the interest of the participants and help them learn on the routine basis. moderator for the course was available for the duration of the course on a regular basis and this met the expectation of the participants. time on task timing of the tasks assigned to the participants and regular followup helps to increase the retention and the completion rate of the participants. however, the availability of computers and access to internet connections could be challenging in the context of the developing country’s participants. yet, frequent reminders and holding the participants accountable for their contributions and assignments help in reducing delinquency. communicating high expectations courses that expect high levels of participation and involvement of the students in the course activities and that expect high quality of work during assignments and reporting could be a way of increasing the status of on-line learning. when the course contents were connected to an outcome that could result in further rewards such as career development opportunities and further funding for research through high quality outputs, learning could be taken seriously. however, such expectation from the participants should be communicated clearly at the beginning of on-line programs. respecting diverse talents and ways of learning on-line courses, particularly adult-learning programs, attract participants who may come from diverse backgrounds and who are used to different approaches to learning. yet, bringing them all together in virtual mode requires respect and appreciation for this diversity by the course managers. aligning the contexts and delivery of the course to meet this diversity could help in increasing the retention and completion rates of on-line courses source: authors’ compilation. the student-faculty contact much of the student-faculty contact was developed through the tutoring sessions.  the role of the tutor-faculty is much more than either an uninvolved administrator of the course or just that of a professor imparting knowledge to a group of students; rather, in web-based, open and distance learning, tutors are “facilitators of learning” (denis et al., 2004). this is further emphasized by howell et al.’s (2003) description of tutors as serving the roles of: facilitator, teacher, organizer, assessor, mentor, role model, counselor, coach, supervisor, problem solver and liaison. o’rourke (2003) suggests that there are four main categories of tutoring skills: (i) guiding the learning process; (ii) enabling the learning; (iii) supportive; and, (iv) administrative. with the renewal proposal writing course, one tutor-facilitator performed all four of the tasks outlined above in order to fully support the learners. these tasks took a greater amount of time when corresponding on a regular basis than had been budgeted or foreseen by the course developers, particularly with regards to the supportive tasks, since few of the learners had previous experience with online courses. the most challenging role was that of facilitating and encouraging learner-to-learner exchanges as will be seen in the following section.  cooperation among the students as in traditional courses, the value of learner-to-learner exchanges and class dialogues cannot be underestimated. spontaneous and cultivated discussions among students and collaborative activities often aid in the translation of theoretical lessons into concrete concepts that learners can apply in practice. the benefits of these interactions are necessary regardless of whether the classroom is a physical or virtual one; however, in an online learning environment, strategies need to be developed during the planning stages and learner-to-learner exchanges need to be carefully cultivated in order to bear fruit. o’rourke (2003) suggests three possible strategies in designing a collaborative group learning situation: plan a complete program of group activities for the entire course duration; prepare a few activities at first and then enable learners to direct their own group work; or provide learners with guidelines for planning their own group activities and let them carry out their own plans. in two of the three strategies, the tutor-facilitator plays a direct role in shaping the interactions between learners; however, even then, it is the learners themselves, thorpe (2002) suggests, that ultimately shape the substance and meaning of the collaborations. this would indicate that the most supportive role that a tutor-facilitator might play is that of a motivator. understanding the motivation of the participants in taking the course was helpful in guiding them on how the course contents might help in achieving their career goals. if the appropriate triggers are found to motivate learners to participate in group activities, it would follow that meaningful exchanges between learners would ensue. just as in traditional face-to-face classroom settings, the various types of group learning activities include: small-group discussions, debates, demonstration and practice, situational analysis, case studies, learner presentations, and role-plays. during the first course on proposal writing, the second strategy listed above was applied to the course. the tutor-facilitator encouraged participants to initiate group interactions via the discussion forum online learning tool, beginning with introductions and providing the learners with information regarding what types of proposals they were working on within the particular renewal subject area. the group discussions were not required as part of the assessment of the course participation and while, it was encouraged, the tutor-facilitator did not play an ongoing active role to stimulate dialogue; rather, it was hoped that the dialogue would be spontaneous following the first few planned activities. it was found, however, that this did not provide sufficient motivation. just over a third of the learners participated in the initial discussion forums with the very few of the discussions resulting in any interchange of ideas; rather, the discussion forum became static with individual postings that were not connected and learners did not tend to respond to each other’s entries. the second online course on writing and presenting scientific research adopted a different approach and made participating in discussion forums a mandatory component of the course as suggested by tobin (2004). additionally, the first of o’rourke’s (2003) strategies was applied with discussion forums being planned for each week’s set of lessons. the discussion forums had specific topics and specific questions were asked of the learners. this approach had dramatically different results with over three-fourths of the learners participating in the discussion forums. however, it should be noted that while participation in the forums did take place with this first strategy there were no spontaneous discussions; exchanges between learners took place as required and on the subject matter specifically suggested by the tutor-facilitator. one of the similarities between the learner-to-learner exchange strategies between the two courses was that in both the tutor-facilitator did not take an active and ongoing role. several of the studies examined during the literature review for this paper (tobin, 2004, o’rourke, 2003, and thorpe, 2002) suggested that consistent active correspondence and encouragement on the part of the tutor might be a key to motivating learners to participate. prompt feedback through assessments one of the ways to provide feedback on the progress made by the participants is through the assessment of their assignments and discussion points. there are two primary considerations when planning the various course elements with the aim of assessing learners: (i) how assignments, exercises, tests, etc. are designed to evaluate learner knowledge; and (ii) what role assessment and feedback serve for the course and the institution’s online, distance learning program. assessing learners presents a difficult challenge for institutions such as ifpri in which learners participating in capacity strengthening workshops and short courses do not receive any credit for the course per se. also, in the traditional face-to-face workshop counterpart to the online courses there are no assignments or quizzes, rather, participation is typically voluntary and consists of only group discussions or group exercises followed by plenary sessions. prompt feedback to the participants is effective regardless of the type of online course being offered (e.g., credited course from an institution of higher education or a non-credited capacity strengthening short course from a development institution) as long as there are some assessment tools applied during the course (o’rourke, 2003). during the renewal proposal writing course two primary assessment methods were used to monitor learner progress: quizzes and brief writing assignments. during the scientific writing course an additional assessment method was used as already mentioned in the form of participation in discussion forums. additional indicators were gathered on an informal basis to monitor learner progress and participation. these indicators included: the number of course modules attended, level of participation in online discussions, frequency of visitation to the online course website, the number of assignments completed, and finally, the average score on each assignment. time on tasks timing various tasks during the course is essential for the successful completion of the learning objectives.  course assignments were a key part of the renewal course. the course assignments need to be carefully developed, keeping in mind the various elements of the online learning environment and full range of possibilities offered by the course management software program being applied. while the list of elements below that lead to a good assignment is not exclusive to online and open distance learning programs, they warrant inclusion here partly because there is less room for error in an online setting where there is not frequent physical contact between learners and tutor-facilitators. through ensuring that these elements are included in the course assignments, the course tutor-facilitator will more readily be able to accurately assess the learner’s progress and ensure that the assignments are of high quality. communicating high expectations communicating a high level of expectation and holding the staff offering the course to that high expectation requires increasing the intensity of activities on several fronts. it could be equally rewarding in terms of better participation and successful completion of the courses. typical activities in the management and administration of an online learning course include: financial aspects (developing and monitoring course budgets), student recruitment, processing inquiries, learner enrollment and registration, material development, assessment, and technological considerations (freeman, 2004). with an online learning program there is a blurring of the lines between administrative tasks, course development and learner support tasks. with small online learning programs, individuals, often the course facilitator or tutor may need to play several of these roles at once. in planning the management and administration aspects of an online learning program, freeman (2004) suggests that there are three areas in particular to consider: staff development, quality assurance and support staff. staff development is an important consideration for management when planning to incorporate an online distance learning program due to some of the unique characteristics and skill sets needed for designing and conducting a high quality, online learning programs. staff labor time and financial resources are needed in order to ensure that staff development incorporates the necessary skill set in order to perform tutoring, course development, and technology related tasks (freeman, 2004). as in this case study with the online proposal writing course, quite often staff need to work from the ground up to develop online courses, beginning with learning how to use the course management software package, in this case the moodle program. once staff are familiar and comfortable with the software package they can design and develop the course using the full range of learning tools provided by this package. finally, staff need to allocate sufficient labor resources to conduct the course and perform the various tutor functions. the case study course discussed here was run with minimal support staff. it did involve high intensity involvement of the staff involved, which may not always possible unless the course generates adequate resources to hire more human resources. having high expectations for the participants is directly related to offering high quality content.  as previously mentioned in earlier sections of this paper, there is great variance in the quality of online courses available to learners. freeman (2004) suggests two areas in particular in which quality standards might best be addressed: (i) products learning materials, courses, assessment, standard of learning achieved; and (ii) services advice and counseling, registration, tutoring, and technology. quality assurance is a delicate balance of course design, pedagogy, technology, and fulfilling the learners’ needs (rovai & barnum, 2003). quality assurance techniques for online distance learning that might be considered most appropriate for development and research institutes include: using expert groups to develop curricula, conducting a peer review of learning materials, piloting materials, and collecting feedback from learners (freeman, 2004). the contents of the case study course was developed using several rounds of group presentations and discussion during the development of its face-to-face version. as one increases the expectations for participants, the intensity of involvement increases for the staff designing and conducting the courses. one of the significant differences between traditional face-to-face learning and online, open and distance learning is that there is a far greater need for support staff assistance in running an online course. some of the tasks the support staff perform include: dealing with inquiries from prospective learners, giving information and advice to prospective learners, enrolling and registering learners, maintaining learner records, producing learning materials and uploading and programming learning materials to the learning management system platform (freeman, 2004). it is important to not underestimate the support staff time and necessary skill set for administering to these tasks. quite often, these tasks may also be combined with the facilitator-tutor functions, such as in the case of the renewal courses discussed in this paper, however, this further increases the time commitment needs of the tutor. respecting diverse talents and ways of learning given the diverse nature of the participants, there is a need to appreciate the challenge some students face with a new way of learning through on-line courses. studies seem to suggest that online, open distance courses have a considerably higher propensity for learners to withdraw or dropout. studies suggest that 40-50% dropout rates are common in distance learning courses in general (potashnik & capper, 1998). some of the reasons behind this seemingly high dropout rate include (chyung, 2001) unattractive course layout, low relevancy of course objectives, lack of self-motivation on the part of the learners, and an unfamiliar on-line learning environment. while course designers could address some of these factors in advance, some of them, such as the lack of motivation on behalf of the learner cannot be foreseen without conducting fairly comprehensive learner profiles as previously discussed. in general, identifying the motivational factors that interests various groups and meeting them through appropriate incentives would help in increasing the retention and completion. internet connectivity in terms of the band-width remains a challenge for effective participation in the courses. for the renewal proposal-writing course, forty-four participants registered from the five renewal network hub countries. these registered learners came from an assorted background and included researchers, practitioners, policy makers and graduate students. of these initial participants approximately 50% completed the course and participated on a weekly basis. four participants needed to withdraw from the course almost immediately upon registering due to business travel conflicts. of the other registered participants we do not know the reasons for their departure from the course but we know that learners from one of the countries, malawi, with severe internet connectivity challenges had the lowest completion rate and thus it is suspected that technological issues were to blame for the high dropout rates amongst registered learners that country. course assessments and evaluations in addition to analysis of the best practices presented above, the on-line course studied here revealed further insights.  mandinach (2005) suggests three general goals for the evaluation of online learning courses: (i) measuring the impact learning has on the individual learner in order to measure the institution’s capacity for fulfilling the learning objectives of the course; (ii) measure the impact of online learning as a relatively new learning process; and, (iii) gather information at the organizational level about the impact of the institution’s online learning program. additional reasons for conducting post-course learner surveys (and/or mid-course surveys) include evaluating (freeman, 2004) the effectiveness of the course in terms of learner participation, quality of course materials, on-line support and assessment systems, and the accuracy and the current nature of the contents. course evaluations are essential in order to ensure the quality of the course and the institution’s overall online distance learning program. it is essential that the evaluations be analyzed and the information within applied to subsequent courses. in the case of the proposal-writing course, summative evaluation methods were applied with a participant evaluation questionnaire distributed to learners following the course’s completion at the end of october, 2009. with the scientific writing course, both formative and summative learner evaluations were administered, with formative evaluations gathered from learners every two weeks in order to ensure that the course was on the right track and fulfilling the needs of the learners. from the submitted learner evaluations of the proposal writing course (50% of registered learners completed the post-course evaluation and sent in their feedback), overall satisfaction with the course was good,—83% of respondents ranked the course as good or excellent and the remaining respondents ranked the course as average (17%). furthermore, the vast majority of respondents (94%) further indicated that the course was relevant and of use to them. most participants (60%) indicated that they did participate actively in the course though challenges with workloads, travel and internet connectivity issues were felt to interfere with course participation. furthermore, suggestions for methods to improve group discussions included recommendations already reviewed in the previous section; specifically, increased participation on behalf of the tutor-facilitator to stimulate interesting discussions and making participation in discussion forums mandatory. in reviewing the objectives of the course and the materials addressed, participant evaluations suggest that subsequent courses give fuller attention to reviewing existing resources for the preparation of proposals. time management seemed to be an important consideration both for the individuals involved (e.g., juggling their work loads and travel schedules) and for the overall course (e.g., many felt that the course should have covered a longer period of time). finally, learners were asked what they considered to be particular strengths and weaknesses of the course. some of the suggested strengths included: (i) concise and practical course materials; (ii) well organized with a logical and comprehensive succession of lesson modules; (iii) current course materials which were relevant to the learner’s professions and needs. perceived weaknesses included: (i) course duration was too short; (ii) some learning materials were too basic and/or vague; and, (iii) insufficient contact and/or the tutor-facilitator was not sufficiently active. these comments as well as other suggestions from the course evaluation are addressed in the following section on lessons learned. iii. lessons learned the key lessons learned and recommendations for future web-based distance education courses are as follows. profile learners to tailor course modules it is important to determine the learner profiles of prospective students (i.e., through a brief survey upon enrollment). this would serve several functions, including the assurance that the course is designed for the targeted population so that the lesson modules and materials are neither too technical nor too general. for example the learning approaches and methods will differ when courses are designed for adult learners as compared to one for young active learners (arthur and tait, 2004). if possible a survey of potential learners should be conducted in advance of course development in order to tailor the course design to match the needs of the prospective learners. courses need to be designed to ensure that they will trigger learners’ motivations. as mentioned in the opening sections of this paper, learner profiles are changing as are their driving motivations. in the case study analyzed in this paper the feedback from the participants indicated that adult learners could be motivated by a strong connection between the learning outcomes and their careers and potential for professional advancement. external expectations and social relationships are also motivational forces for older learners (howell et al., 2003). furthermore, if a pool of students was obtained well in advance during, for example, the strategic planning of the year’s courses, administrators would be able to group learners according to their existing and desired skill sets, moving towards an even more tailored and learner-oriented learning environment. in lieu of profiling learners in advance of the course, formative evaluation methods might be applied at regular intervals throughout the course. this was the method applied to ifpri’s second online learning course for renewal on writing and presentation of scientific research. with this method, the direction of the course and the presentation of learning materials could be altered mid-course in order to better fit the needs of the students. this process of tailoring the course to fit the needs and expectations of the learners is important as the institution also looks for ways in which to build a reputation for offering high caliber online distance education programs. tailoring courses also helps the institution find its niche in a competitive market for web-based distance education programs. furthermore, providing courses that are too simplified or basic, present the risk of damaging the institution’s reputation for providing high-quality resources. foster a sense of security and confidence in learners adult learners tend to feel somewhat insecure when embarking on an online distance learning challenge (howell et al., 2003). it is understandably even more challenging for adult learners without prior experience with online learning and located in developing countries that frequently experience connectivity challenges. studies indicate that it is particularly important in the first few weeks of an online course that technological and support services be firmly established and visible to online learners so that they are made to feel comfortable (howell et al., 2003) (menchaca & bekele, 2008). exerting this extra effort during the initial stages of the course registration, enrollment and opening weeks can help reduce the potential risk for these participants to drop out of the course due to frustrations trying to learn how to maneuver within the online learning environment. in order to smooth the way for learners to access the course website, the course facilitator took extra steps to pre-register and enroll all of the participants. learners received an email prior to the course’s commencement with complete and comprehensive instructions on how to enter the course website and access the learning materials. however, even with these preventative measures, several participants still encountered difficulties that delayed their participation in the course by a week or two. in subsequent courses it is recommended to plan an extra week for course registration and enrollment during which time learners can familiarize themselves with the learning environment prior to the course’s commencement. it is important to also build some flexibility into the course schedule to address issues that might arise once the course has already begun. for example, during the proposal writing course, several connectivity issues surfaced mid-course that required a course extension; these included electricity rationing in kenya, and a series of prolonged connectivity failures for the malawian learners. the course dates were extended by a full month so that all participants would have the time and opportunity to complete the materials. in addition to extending the course dates, the facilitator also made additional efforts to correspond regularly with those learners being affected by the connection failures so that they did not feel left behind. target all types of learners just like in face-to-face, traditional classrooms, the design of online courses should acknowledge and attempt to target all different types of learners. there are three “types of learners”: auditory learners (prefer to listen to information), visual learners (prefer to read information) and kinesthetic learners (prefer hands-on experience and/or demonstration) (felder and brent, 2005). in distance education, it may be more difficult to determine what types of learners are participating in a course. nevertheless, lessons, modules and exercises need to take different forms and methods by applying multiple tools (i.e., not exclusively powerpoint presentations) in order to reach all three types of learners. some learners, due to their learning style may find online learning to be more challenging, which may result in dropping out of the course. however, some studies suggest that this outcome might be avoided through integrating a strong learner support system in the course and maintaining high levels of communication between the tutor-facilitator and challenged learners (hubschman, 1999). fostering dialogue between learners encouraging dialogue and learner-to-learner exchanges in an online setting is a formidable challenge. this could be one way to provide the needed support to the students in e-learning programs (tait, 2003; mason, 2006)). incorporating dialogue among the learners serves two overall functions, in particular: (i) it helps create a social learning environment and social network; and (ii) it utilizes an additional type of learning tool to target all three types of learners discussed above. additionally, learner-to-learner exchanges offer learners an additional type of resource as they are able to learn from each other’s experiences and professional areas of expertise. however beneficial it may be, online learners seem to be somewhat reluctant to initiate dialogues and participate actively in discussion forums. one of the challenges seems to be one of motivation: learners do not necessarily realize the potential benefits they would receive if they participated more actively in learner-to-learner dialogues. if it is not a requirement (like an assignment or quiz) it is difficult to instill motivation in the participants.. in the proposal writing course, participation in dialogues was voluntary and as a result, it was lackluster and not a dynamic component of the course. during the subsequent scientific writing online course, participation in at least a majority of the dialogue forums was made mandatory for course credit. the result of this was a dramatic increase in the interactivity of the learners. additionally, dialogue among learners is partly dependent on course momentum. during the first half of the proposal writing course there was more participation in the discussion forums, however, once the course dates were extended participation in the forums slowed considerably; the more drawn out the course the less intense the momentum and the less dynamic the interactions between learners. the role of the tutor-facilitator is also vital to the process. when the tutor plays a less active role, the learners seem to take it as a cue. the tutor also has the unique ability to create direct links and identify similarities between learners. the role of the tutor as a rapporteur of the dialogues among the participants proved valuable in implementing the case study course discussed here. course schedules and time management the course’s time management strategy needs to be carefully planned in advance. an important consideration when determining the course schedule is the characteristics of the registered learners, or the learner profiles. as indicated in the immediately preceding recommendations, online course designers need to foster a learning environment that provides flexibility in time, space, and pace and facilitates active and interesting dialogue amongst learners. however, there is almost an inherent conflict between these two objectives. for instance, as experienced in the proposal-writing course, a long duration (e.g., two or three months for a short course) slows the course momentum and subsequently dampens the learners’ motivation to participate in forum dialogues, and vice versa. a related challenge is that in order to encourage learners with tight schedules and limited time available to commit to an online course (particularly one for which the learners have no tangible outcome other than personal/professional growth – e.g., a course that is not accredited nor attached to a degree program) a longer course duration is often necessary (howell et al., 2003). achieving the correct balance between the two objectives takes careful planning and the dedication and active involvement of the course facilitator. tobin (2004) suggests that one remedy to this challenge is to space deadlines intermittently throughout the course in order to provide a context for regular contact with the course tutor and between the learners while still structuring the course to take place over a longer duration. importance of tutor-facilitator commitment it is important to accurately plan for the real time commitment involved in tutoring/facilitating online courses. managers need to keep in mind the lengthy list of roles and responsibilities that tutor-facilitators must perform while conducting an online course, particularly if the tutor-facilitator roles are combined or intermingled with learner support roles and course development and design. in this context, courses that contain high doses of synchronous learning where all participants are expected to connect on-line at the same time and learn the same content could be much more involving than the asynchronous learning approaches which allows more flexibility to both facilitators and the students. in addition to the sheer quantity of work and tasks involved in operating an online course on a day-to-day basis, it is important to recollect that modern, online learners tend to not be tolerant of delays by course organizers-facilitators, which can greatly affect the perceived quality of the online course (howell et al., 2003). as evidenced by the evaluations of the proposal writing course, learners seemed appreciative of constant and immediate correspondence letting them know when their submissions would be evaluated and that their submissions had been received. when this correspondence faltered or was delayed, learner feedback was immediate. thus, there is a need for effective managemen of learners’ expectations relating to regular communications and the technical communication and feedback. setting up clear rules of communication before beginning the course would be highly useful. linking online distance education programs as mentioned in earlier sections of this paper, one of the motivations for incorporating online open and distance education programs for ifpri is the potential for linking these learning resources to other existing and future programs. the strategic linking of tailored online courses to research projects within the institution, offers an opportunity to holistically package its research and capacity strengthening services in order to improve its competitive advantage in the pursuit of donor funding. finally, this might promote the development of partnerships to offer additional courses or identify needs among the partner universities that do not currently have distance-learning programs. maintaining an ongoing awareness of technological trends in distance education it is important that online course designers and managers maintain an awareness of both the latest trends and advances in the available technology and online learning management platforms, as well as the current technological capacity of their targeted learners. appropriates of this medium of learning should recognize the challenges faced by developing countries in having adequate ict infrastructure. the ict field is constantly and rapidly evolving, as are the capabilities of course management software programs. in order to maintain low capacity strengthening expenses while developing the renewal online courses, course developers utilized an open source course management software program (moodle). as was addressed in the opening paragraphs of this paper, continuing education and lifelong learning is not limited to those learners that we are targeting. it also applies to the course designers as well. it is important that they keep in touch with ongoing developments and the latest course development tools being offered by programs such as moodle. open source course management systems present the appearance of a low-cost, flexible solution to online course delivery but that appearance is deceiving. the cost of the required programming and technical support must be added to the low cost of the source code. the inherent ability to customize an open source system for a particular use must be balanced with the need to provide students with an interface that does not detract from their learning. finally, the ease of acquisition of open source systems by programs within institutions challenges the economies of scale that many institutions gain with centralized systems. campus-level concerns can lead to distance educators being directed towards solutions that are less appropriate for their specific contexts. iv concluding remarks speeding up the development process will require increasing the productivity of various sectors such as agriculture, health and education in the developing world. however, knowledge and skills development are fundamental to increasing the productivity of human resources in these sectors. the development community has invested in various forms of capacity strengthening with limited success in the last fifty years. this is partly due to the lack of an adequate quantity of the human capital to address the emerging multidisciplinary development problems. the e-learning course described above is a result of the recognition of the extreme scarcity of interdisciplinary graduate training. a major benefit of developing such skills is to increase the ability of the local professionals to sustain their skills as well as to effectively use them in multidisciplinary problem solving. the case study described above brought out relevant lessons for the future implementation of the e-learning courses for development objectives.  in summary, the case study demonstrates that an on-line course that increases faculty – student interaction, provides for adequate learner-learner interaction, gives adequate incentive to the participants, maintains high relevancy to real world problem solving, and respects the diversity of the participants’ background and ways of learning is more likely to be successful. finally, while there is a definitive role for e-learning programs in addressing the capacity constraints in developing countries the need for increasing their effectiveness and efficiency can hardly be overemphasized. footnotes human capital as a factor explaining the growth of the countries has received increasing recognition since the publication of barro (1996). several empirical models have been attempted. yet research on appropriate and cost effective methods for developing local capacity remains an under researched area. see fukuyama (2004) for an exposition of capacity development issues in the context of national building and the conflicting choices policy maker have to make in building local capacity for strengthening nations. the university of south africa and the indira gandhi national open university are some good examples of distance education programs in developing countries. african virtual university is another attempt to extend learning opportunities to learners in the distance and e-learning mode. references abel, r. (2005). implementing best practices in online learning.  education quarterly, 3. arthur, l., & tait, a. (2004). too little time to learn?: issues and challenges for those in work. studies in the education of adults, 36(2), pp. 222-234. ally, m. (2004). foundations of educational theory for online learning. in t. anderson (ed.) theory and practice of online learning. athabasca, ab.: athabasca university. retrieved march 13, 2010 from: http://books.google.com/books?id=rifnwzu3hr4c&source=gbs_navlinks_s andrews, r., & haythornthwaite, c. (2007). introduction to e-learning research. in r. andrews & c. haythornthwaite (eds.), the sage handbook of e-learning research (pp. 1-52). london: sage. babu, s.c., ferguson, j., parsai, n., & almoguera, r. ( 2013). open distance learning for development: lessons from strengthening research capacity on gender, crisis prevention, and recovery. the international review of research in open and distance learning, 14(5), 1-24. barro, r. j. (1996). “determinants of economic growth: a cross-country empirical study.” nber working paper no. 5698. chyung, s. y. (2001). conducting learner analysis to adjust online instruction for your faceless learners. in proceedings of the 17th annual conference on distance teaching & learning (pp. 85-90). madison, wi: university of wisconsin-madison. denis, b., watland, p., pirotte, s., & verday, n. (2004). roles and competencies of the e-tutor. networked learning conference: lancaster university. http://www.shef.ac.uk/nlc2004/proceedings/contents.htm dela peña-bandalaria, m. (2007). impact of icts on open and distance learning in a developing country setting: the philippine experience. international review of research in open and distance learning, 8(1). freeman, r. (2004). planning and implementing open and distance learning systems: a handbook for decision making. vancouver, canada: commonwealth of learning. fukuyama,  f. (2004). nation building. ithaca: cornell university press. garrison, d.r., & anderson, t. (2003). e-learning in the 21st century: a framework for research and practice. london: routledge. gulati, s. (2008). technology-enhanced learning in developing nations: a review. international review of research in open and distance learning, 9(1). holmes, b., & gardner, j. (2006). e-learning: concepts and practice. london: sage publications howell, s., williams, p., & lindsay, n. (2003). thirty-two trends affecting distance education: an informed foundation for strategic planning. online journal of distance learning administration, 4(3). retrieved february 12, 2010 from http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/fall63/howell63.html hubschman, b.g. (1999). how do different types of adult learners adapt to distance education? paper presented at the annual meeting of the american educational research association, montreal. (eric document reproduction service no. ed 441-156) johnson, s., & aragon, s. (2003). an instructional strategy framework for online learning environments. new directions for adult and continuing education, 100. leary, j., & berge, z. l. (2006). trends and challenges of e-learning in national and international agricultural development. international journal of education and development using ict, 2(2). mandinach, e. b. (2005). the development of effective evaluation methods for e-learning: a concept paper and action plan. teachers collegerecord, 107(8), 1814-1835. mason, r. (2006).  learning technologies for adult continuing education. studies in continuing education, 28(2), 121–133. menchaca, m. p. & bekele, t. a. (2008). learner and instructor identified success factors in distance education. distance education, 29(3), 231-252. ogunsola, a. (2010). face-to-face tutoring in open and distance learning the nigerian situation.  international journal of open distance education, 20-29. okonkow, c.a. (2012). a needs assessment of odl educators to determine their effective use of open educational resources. the international review of research in open and distance learning, 13(4) 293-312. o'rourke, j. (2003). tutoring in open and distance learning: a handbook for tutors. vancouver: col. potashnik, m., & capper, j. (1998, march). distance education: growth and diversity. finance & development, 35(1), 42-46. robins, k., & webster, f. (eds.). (2002). the virtual university? knowledge, markets, and management. oxford: oxford university press. rosenburg, m. (2001). e-learning: strategies for delivering knowledge in the digital age. new york, ny: mcgrawhill. rovai a.p., & barnum k.t. (2003). online course effectiveness: an analysis of student interactions and perceptions of learning. journal of distance education, 18, 57-73. smyth, r., & zanetis, j. (2007). internet-based videoconferencing for teaching and learning: a cinderella story. distance learning, 4(2), 61-70. stewart, b., briton, d., gismondi, m., heller, b., kennepohl, d., mcgreal, r., & nelson, c. (2007). choosing moodle: an evaluation of learning management systems at athabasca university. international journal of distance education technologies, 5(3). tait, a. (2003). reflections on student support in open and distance learning. international review of research in open and distance learning, 4(1). taylor, j. c. (2001). fifth generation distance education. paper presented at the icde world conference, düsseldorf, germany. thorpe, m. (2002). rethinking learner support: the challenge of collaborative online learning. open learning, 17(2), 105-119. tobin, t. j. (2004). best practices for administrative evaluation of online faculty. online journal of distance learning administration, 7(2). unesco. (2002). open and distance learning: trends, policy and strategy considerations. paris: unesco. veletcianos, g., & kimmons, r. ( 2012). assumptions and challenges of open scholarship. the international review of research in open and distance learning, 13(4), 166-189. welsh, e.t., wanberg, c.r., brown, k.g., & simmering, m.j. (2003). e-learning: emerging uses, empirical results, and future directions. international journal of training and development, 7(4), 245-258. witworth, a., & benson, a. (2010). learning, design, and emergence: two case studies of moodle in distance education. in g. velestonis, emerging technologies in distance education. athabasca university press. suresh chandra babu is a senior research fellow responsible for capacity strengthening programs at the international food policy research institute in washington d.c. e-mail: s.babu@cgiar.org microsoft word edward.docx issn: 2311-1550 2021, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 129-145 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. interplay between literacy and health services access: the case of elderly exemption beneficiaries in tanzania joshua edward institute of adult education, university of dar es salaam, tanzania abstract: over the last two decades research has indicated an unpleasant experience for the elderly with exemptions. an important question for this paper is whether the unpleasant exempted experience for the elderly in accessing health services is linked to illiteracy. since illiteracy can affect how services are used and its results, the answer to this paper’s question could affect how health services are accessed and their associated outcomes. policy implementors are operating without a solid knowledge of this relationship. the study used a mixed methods approach. purposive random sampling was applied to select 879 elderly and was guided by research assistants in filling in the questionnaires. also, purposive sampling was used to recruit 23 key informants. results indicates a significant relationship between illiteracy and selected indicators of health service access: awareness, acceptability and adequacy. this paper argues for more training opportunities through non-formal programs among adults and communication capacity building among health providers based on the results of implementing the elderly exemption policy in ubungo and mbarali districts in tanzania. keywords: literacy, exemption policy, health services access and elderly. introduction in tanzania, the elderly health fee exemption policy was introduced to overcome the financial barrier in accessing health services among elderly people (urt, 2007). according to the national ageing policy (2003), elderly people are men and women aged 60 and above. the government enacted the health fee exemption policy to enable the elderly who cannot afford the cost of health services to access health care in public health facilities. the enaction of the health fee exemption policy is guided by a cost sharing manual. the manual classifies the exempted elderly people into two categories. the first group comprises those who are living in extreme poverty; usually on relief funds under the tanzania social action fund (tasaf). the elderly people who fall into this category are entitled to the full health fee exemption. the second category is the elderly who have substantial income but cannot afford to cover the entire costs of health services and, therefore, are subjected to a partial health fee exemption (exemption with subsidisation). the policy allows the elderly to seek treatment from the grassroots level to the national level through a referral system. the ministry of health community development, gender, elderly and children (mhcdgec) is the policy custodian that oversees policy implementations at the national level. while the local government authorities, through the social welfare and health departments, implement the 130 policy at the district and grassroots levels by systematically coordinating the identification of beneficiaries and grant exemptions to eligible elderly people to utilise health services. to create awareness of the health fee exemption policy, the ministry of health community development, gender, elderly and children (formerly the ministry of health and social welfare) use an advocacy approach to raise stakeholders’ awareness on various health issues, such as health fee exemption policy (mhsw,2010). the advocacy materials include leaflets, banners, billboards, fliers, periodical publications and electronic media, such as radio and television programs. however, according to munishi (2010) and nzali (2016) there is low awareness of health fee exemption policy due to lack of a well-organised plan to disseminate information, and a weak monitoring and evaluation framework. this implies that the public is not adequately informed about the policy. furthermore, nzali (2016) explains that the public, especially the elderly, have limited access to sources of information, such as brochures and noticeboards, which are the main sources of information. it is worth noting that most elderly people have limited or no reading skills. another factor to consider is that local community leaders at the grassroots level provide insufficient information about the policy during community meetings. therefore, this hinders awareness about health fee exemption policy among the elderly community. literacy concept and tanzania’s experience literacy is a globally advocated concept and yet lacks a global general definition. the simplest form of literacy is the ability to read and write (keefe & copeland, 2011). according to the united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization (unesco) literacy can be measured based on individual abilities to identify, interpret, create and communicate signs in digital media and text. moreover, complexity in defining literacy might increase from how reading and writing skills have been best acquired (mlekwa, 1994; keefe & copeland, 2011). this implies that the skills can be gauged from a poor level (illiterate) to a sufficient level (literate). the furthest complexity might be how the sufficiently well-acquired reading and writing skills are applied to further knowledge in a certain field of study that produces a certain level of pre-determined outcome. for example, in the field of health studies “health literacy” does not measure ability to read and write health concepts but the ability to critically weigh and manipulate the implications on relationships among meaningful determinants of health. this implies the ability to put into use efficiently and productively certain knowledge and not just the ability to barely read or write. therefore, a measure of literacy reflects demands for skills around an individual’s environment and the scope/level to which a skill has been mastered. however, factors such as culture, availability of resources that advocate learning — including schools, technology and individual willingness) influence literacy acquisition. in tanzania literacy is defined in the context of one’s mastery of the abilities to read, write and understand numeracy (mlekwa, 1994; iae, 2011). in recent years the literacy of older adults has been declining compared to the 1970s and 80s. data from the education sector development plan (esdp) 2016/17-2020/21 indicates that nearly a quarter of adults are illiterate (urt, 2018). adult and nonformal education (anfe) contributed significantly to the previously recorded highest literacy levels (iae, 2011; hall, 2020). the institute of adult education (iae) established in 1972 is a pillar of anfe. it regulates provision of anfe and offer various awareness raising programs across health services, agriculture, the citizenry (through various methodologies including peer-to-peer education), multimedia, publications and electronic media (radio and television). it is worth noting that, the 131 public sector policy shift from service provision to the liberal economy in 1980s and 90s exposed the anfe to funding vulnerabilities. health service access concept johnson (1991) defines health services access as the degree to which individuals or groups are able to obtain the needed services from the health systems. this implies that access is gaining entry into health facilities and actually utilizing health services. additionally, saurman (2016), argues that obtaining the needed service from health systems implies interaction between the supply side (health service provider) and the demand side (elderly people, in this case). penchinsky and thomas provide a 5 “a” indicators for measuring access to health services: availability, accessibility, affordability, adequacy and acceptability. availability implies the state of a health facility to have sufficient services and resources that meet patients’ needs in relation to health services. it is important to observe that health facilities are ranked into levels: lower (dispensaries) and upper level (national referral hospital). however, most elderly people are at the grassroots level, which hosts most dispensaries and is limited to offering primary health services. this denies the elderly access to specialised health services, especially for noncommunicable diseases, such as diabetes and high blood pressure. this means that the elderly have to travel longer distances to seek specialised health care. in addition to that, most public health facilities experience a deficit of medical supplies and lack specialised health care providers (geriatricians). this, as well, discourages the elderly from seeking health service as it affects the quality of service received. another consideration in measuring access to health services is accessibility, which implies the distance from the health facility to the service user (elderly people). for instance, in tanzania the desirable distance is a 5 km radius (urt, 2007). however, most health facilities in rural areas are within a radius of 5-10 km (munishi, 2010). longer distance tends to discourage the elderly from seeking health services. another measure is affordability, which implies monetary and non-monetary costs incurred by service providers and patients to obtain health services. for the case of exempted elderly people, the monetary cost might include an indirect cost, such as the cost of transport and foregone revenue. nonmonetary costs include waiting time. usually, long hours waiting discourages elderly people from accessing health services. the last, but not least, measure of access in penchinsky and thomas’ 5 “a” indicators is adequacy, which implies organization of services in a manner that is compatible with the user’s lifestyle. moreover, saurman (2016) modified penchinsky and thomas’ 5 “a” indicators by adding awareness, thus, improving these indicators to 6 “a” (see figure 1). 132 figure 1: saurman’s modified 6 “a” indicators of access to health services. source: saurman (2016) awareness connotes application of strategies and channels of communication to enrich understanding of procedures and services for obtaining healthcare. most often elderly people that are eligible for exemption end up not benefiting because they are not aware of the available services and the procedures. in some cases, the medium used by policy implementors to communicate policy information might be less accessible to elderly people. the most preferable way to disseminate information at local levels is the noticeboard. the majority of the elderly have limited locomotive abilities and a high number are illiterate, especially in rural areas. shrestha, (2010) further argued that, while each factor is independent, yet, in a way, they are somehow interconnected. as noted by shrestha, the application of any number of factors in measuring access to health services should not only reflect the interest but also the context of the study. moreover, the author classified the factors into two groups. the first four factors (with addition of “awareness”) signify potential access to health services while the last two “adequacy and acceptability” signify realised access, which is actual utilization of health services (shrestha, 2010). from 5 “as”, this paper has selected only 3 “as” to form the framework in measuring health services access in the ubungo and mbarali districts. the selected 3 “as” are awareness (elderly people decide on when to seek health services, the source of policy related information among elderly, their policy awareness and understanding), adequacy (the elderly’s choice of health facility and the last visited health facility) and acceptability, which aims at assessing elderly people’s relaxed engagement with health workers, perceived stigma and satisfaction with health services. how does illiteracy affect access to health services? as explained by sandiford et al (1995) illiteracy widens the gap in information searching and decision making that, in turn, determines if and how services are approached. for instance, sandiford et al (1995) points out that if access to health services were minimal, a child of a literate mother would have more chances of obtaining health care compared to that of an illiterate mother. further, kumeh et al (2020), noted that there is positive relationship between the literacy of a mother and child’s 133 malnutrition status. this means that regardless of asymmetry in the supply of public goods or services illiterate individuals have significantly less chances of benefiting. according to wedin (2008), literacy can be used as gatekeeper in social services. this implies it is most likely for illiterates to be excluded from the official discourse on services. for example, for an elderly person to acquire an exemption identifier card there are written guidelines. this means that only those that can read will obtain first-hand information. thus, those who can’t read might either receive such information through word of mouth, which is prone to distortion, or might not receive it at all. in most cases this tends to reduce the confidence of illiterate people to pursue information and obtain exemption identifier cards. methods this study used a mixed-method approach with multiple case-study design. the design was useful in comparing and contrasting findings between the mbarali and ubungo districts. it used a crosssectional approach to collect data from july 2019 to september 2019. multi-stage sampling was applied, and purposeful sampling was used to select elderly people aged 60 years and above who are beneficiaries of the exemption policy. thereafter, purposive random sampling was applied to select 879 elderly people who were guided by research assistants in filling in the questionnaires. respondents were asked if they could read and write in swahili for the purpose of determining the level of guidance needed in reviewing and signing participants’ consent form and filling in their questionnaire. also, purposive sampling was used to recruit 23 key informants who were comprised of policy makers, district health managers, district social welfare officers and health workers in public health facilities (dispensaries, health centers and the district hospital), district social welfare officers, local community leaders, elderly committee members and stakeholders from non-governmental organizations (ngos). quantitative data was collected through survey questionnaires. the questionnaires were administered by interviewing respondents using mobile technology data collection software “kobocollect”. data was downloaded, cleaned and analyzed. descriptive statistics analysis was done using stata 14 software. the analysis of data was guided by the three purposely selected indicators of health services access. logit regression analysis was applied to determine the level of association between selfreported literacy status and indicators of health service access. these indicators were used to form categories of the results. the indicators were awareness, decision on when to seek care, source of policy related to information, policy awareness, and policy understanding. other indicators were adequacy; rationale for choosing health facility and reported last visit to a health facility level. indicators of acceptability, engagement with health workers, perceived stigma, and satisfaction with health services were also used to form the categories. furthermore, qualitative data was collected through in-depth interviews. interviews lasted between 30 and 60 minutes and were conducted in kiswahili and recorded. verbatim transcription of interview materials was done and then transcripts were translated to english by a language professional. data was analyzed using nvivo 12 software and coded into themes. the findings are presented in the following section. 134 results results on literacy status among elderly surveyed in this study indicate that the illiteracy rate among the elderly is higher in mbarali district, standing at 58.8% (325) compared to ubungo district, which is 25.9% (113). the literacy status established by this study in two districts resulted from respondents’ self-reported ability to read. however, according to the national bureau of statistics, the elderly national illiteracy rate is 51.9% (nbs, 2012). elderly’s decision on when to seek health services the study observed that 71.5% of the illiterate elderly seek health services when they are seriously ill, against 23% of the literate elderly. it noted that the literate elderly seek health services even with a mild illness (see table 1). as stated by one health worker, “in spite of being exempted from paying for cost of care, most elderly often come to seek health care when the condition has developed extreme health repercussion” (kii #03-health worker). table 1: elderly reported experience of when the decision to seek health services was made across districts source of policy related information illiterate elderly literate elderly frequency percent frequency percent severe illness 236 54% 128 23% i do regular checkups 96 22% 103 19% mild illness 106 24% 318 58% total 438 100% 549 100% ubungo district source of policy related information illiterate elderly literate elderly frequency percent frequency percent severe illness 94 83% 118 48% i do regular checkups 14 12% 27 8% mild illness 5 4% 178 55% total 113 100% 323 100% mbarali district source of policy related information illiterate elderly literate elderly frequency percent frequency percent severe illness 142 44% 10 4% i do regular checkups 82 25% 76 34% mild illness 101 31% 140 62% total 325 100% 226 100% source: research 2019. 135 source of policy related information among elderly people it is beneficial to identify the strongest medium for transmitting policy related information. most often the medium tends to affect the level of policy awareness and understanding. from the findings across study districts, it was observed that word of mouth from peers is a major source of policy information among the illiterate elderly. while the literate elderly highly relied on local government offices to receive policy information. however, media, such as brochures, were also used as source of information, although, at minimal levels, as shown in figure 2. figure 2: elderly self-reported source of policy related information source: research 2019 policy awareness among elderly people given the fact that information is power, it was crucial to determine the level of awareness about policy related information among the elderly. the findings show that awareness among the literate elderly is higher, standing at 80% compared to 30% of the illiterate elderly as shown in table 2. 136 table 2: elderly self-reported policy awareness levels across districts illiterate elderly literate elderly awareness levels frequency percent frequency percent very high 6 2% 97 18% high 13 4% 146 27% moderate 79 24% 193 35% very low 96 29% 74 13% low 136 41% 39 7% total 330 100% 549 100% ubungo district illiterate elderly literate elderly awareness levels frequency percent frequency percent very high 4 4% 53 16% high 6 5% 87 27% moderate 37 33% 113 35% very low 24 21% 28 9% low 42 37% 42 13% total 113 100% 323 100% mbarali district illiterate elderly literate elderly awareness levels frequency percent frequency percent very high 2 1% 37 16% high 7 3% 78 35% moderate 42 19% 47 21% very low 72 33% 28 12% low 94 43% 36 16% total 217 100% 226 100% source: research 2019 policy understanding among elderly people the power of information to act and create impact relies on the correctness of information at hand. when asked to explain the criteria of policy beneficiaries, the study established that across study districts 6.5% (13) of the illiterate elderly surveyed understood the health fee exemption policy, against 19% of surveyed literate elders. however, when asked to explain the exemption criterion for policy beneficiaries’, none of the surveyed illiterate elderly were able to correctly cite the policy criterion. on the other hand, surprisingly, regardless of their self-reported level of policy understanding as indicated in table 3, 17 (3.4%) and 2 (1.7%) of the literate elderly from ubungo and mbarali districts, respectively, managed to explain correctly the health fee exemption policy criteria. 137 table 3: elderly self-reported policy understanding levels across study districts understanding levels illiterate elderly literate elderly frequency percent frequency percent i understand very well 2 1% 34 7% i understand 11 5% 61 12% moderate 52 25% 36 7% i don’t understand 96 45% 148 30% i don’t understand completely 50 24% 214 43% total 211 100% 493 100% ubungo district understanding levels illiterate elders literate elders frequency percent frequency percent i understand very well 3 3% 26 12% i understand 11 10% 34 16% moderate 23 20% 36 17% i don’t understand 18 16% 114 54% i don’t understand completely 58 51% 1 0% total 113 100% 211 100% mbarali district understanding levels illiterate elders literate elders frequency percent frequency percent i understand very well 2 1% 5 4% i understand 11 5% 16 13% moderate 16 8% 13 11% i don’t understand 96 45% 16 13% i don’t understand completely 86 41% 69 58% total 211 100% 119 100% source: research 2019 although the majority of the elderly had a misconception about the policy, one of them from ubungo district correctly explained the policy by saying, “the policy pardons poor elderly who cannot afford to pay for health fee” (sri #149-illiterate urban). on the contrary, the majority of those who were unable to explain the policy criterion had the following to say, “the policy pardons all elderly aged 60 and above to pay for health services” (sri #232-illiterate rural). another misconception among the elderly about the policy criterion is “every elderly with elderly identity card should receive health services without paying” (sri #16-literate urban). from the evidence, low levels of understanding the policy at the local level are influenced by a lack of proper documented policy information. as stated by one community leader, “i haven’t come across any physical policy document. i am told to tell elderly that they have to register and be exempted from paying health fee.” (kii #01-community leader). 138 elder’s choice of health facility the findings show that the illiterate elderly’s choice of health services is largely influenced by the proximity of health facilities to their homes. however, literate elderly are more likely to choose health facilities based on the service offered (see figure 2). “i did not go the district hospital in spite of being referred there, i cannot afford the travel cost”. in addition to that, the national health system ranking of health facilities pre-determines the kind of services that can be accessed in certain level facilities as pointed to by one quality assurance expert, “elderly are prone to non-communicable diseases. our national health system has categorised such treatment as specialised service. such services can be accessed at least from district hospital level and above.” (kii #05-national level policy). figure 3: elderly self-reported behavior in selection of health facility source: research 2019 last visited health facility across study districts, when asked about their last visit to a health facility, 68% of the illiterate and 53% of the literate elderly indicated that they had visited a hospital level facility. on the other hand, in the ubungo district, 58% of the literate and 43% of the illiterate elderly had visited the dispensary level facilities (see figure 3). “i usually go the district hospital, but when i wake up that day i was not feeling well and had no money. that’s why i went to our village dispensary”. the study noted that there is a strong relationship between the elderly visiting a dispensary level facility and elderly complaints of unmet health service needs as evidenced in the following extract from one of the respondents: “... majority of elderly people suffer from non-communicable diseases such as diabetes. but they visit grassroots dispensaries for treatment of such condition. as a result, they complain being denied proper treatment” (kii #02-district health manager). 139 figure 4: elderly reported last visited health facility level source: research 2019 engagement with health workers the findings of the study show that 65.4% of the literate elderly were comfortable when engaging with health workers, compared to 35.7% of the illiterate elderly. one elderly person said, “i have eyesight problem. i was asked to read the signs and i couldn’t. though that lady (a nurse) try something else to evaluate if i could see at different intervals, my mind was not there. i couldn’t focus i was thinking of the embarrassment”. however, in the ubungo district, the majority of both literate (64.3%) and illiterate (63.7%) elderly were comfortable when dealing with health workers. moreover, in the mbarali district, the majority of the illiterate elderly (67%) indicated that they were more likely to feel high tension when engaging with health workers (see table 4). though when they give medication they explain me thoroughly on timing when to take medication. due to old age i have become forgetful, when i have several medication i get confused and sometime if i feel relief i stop taking them. i become so worried on if the doctors asked how i sed my previous medication. the study observed that some patients tend to experience a natural phobia with a hospital environment. as stated by one key informant, “i know some patients feel a bit intimidated by [the] hospital environment. though in reality they shouldn’t. i think it’s just a natural phobia.” (kii #04health worker) 140 table 4: elderly perceptions on their encounter with health workers across districts state of mind when engaging health worker illiterate elders literate elders frequency percent frequency percent very comfortable 36 11% 193 35% comfortable 82 25% 166 30% am not sure 10 3% 37 7% uncomfortable 96 29% 104 19% very uncomfortable 106 32% 49 9% total 330 100% 549 100% ubungo district state of mind when engaging health worker illiterate elders literate elders frequency percent frequency percent very comfortable 12 11% 102 32% comfortable 52 46% 106 33% am not sure 4 4% 18 6% uncomfortable 24 21% 76 24% very uncomfortable 21 19% 21 7% total 113 100% 323 100% mbarali district state of mind when engaging health worker illiterate elders literate elders frequency percent frequency percent very comfortable 24 11% 91 40% comfortable 30 14% 60 27% am not sure 6 3% 19 8% uncomfortable 72 33% 28 12% very uncomfortable 85 39% 28 12% total 217 100% 226 100% source: research 2019 perceived stigmatisation from the findings of the study across the districts, both literate (81%) and illiterate (60%) elderly noted that they did not experience stigma when dealing with health workers in public health facilities. however, in the ubungo district, 46% of the illiterate elderly expressed their experience of being stigmatised by health workers at public health facilities, against 5% of the literate elderly. there was a similar trend in the mbarali district, with 37% of the illiterate elderly experiencing stigma, compared to 38% of the literate elderly, as shown in figure 4. 141 figure 5: elderly self-reported perceptions on stigma during the last encounter with health workers source: research 2019 satisfaction with health services the findings across the districts indicate that 70% of the literate and 69% of the illiterate elderly were satisfied with the health services they received in public health facilities. for example, in the ubungo district, 58% of the literate elderly were satisfied with the health services they received during their last visit to a public health facility. on the other hand, the study noted that 76% of the literate and 78% of the illiterate in mbarali district were satisfied with the health services they received (see table 5). 142 table 5: elderly self-reported perceived satisfaction with health services received across districts satisfaction with health services received illiterate elders literate elders frequency percent frequency percent very dissatisfied 33 10% 117 21% dissatisfied 68 48% 48 9% moderate 14 4% 24 4% satisfied 152 46% 278 51% very satisfied 63 19% 82 15% total 330 100% 549 100% ubungo district satisfaction with health services received illiterate elders literate elders frequency percent frequency percent very dissatisfied 16 14% 102 42% dissatisfied 49 43% 32 10% moderate 2 2% 1 0% satisfied 45 40% 182 56% very satisfied 1 1% 6 2% total 113 100% 323 100% mbarali district satisfaction with health services received illiterate elders literate elders frequency percent frequency percent very dissatisfied 17 8% 15 7% dissatisfied 19 9% 16 7% moderate 12 6% 23 10% satisfied 107 49% 96 42% very satisfied 62 29% 76 34% total 217 100% 226 100% source: research 2019 discussion over the years, access to exempted health services among the financially vulnerable elderly has improved in tanzania, especially after the introduction of identification cards. however, satisfaction of the provision of health services remains questionable. as indicated in the study, the elderly population is less satisfied with the services. this is mainly due to weak infrastructure, an inadequate supply of drugs, the attitude and skills of health workers and lack of access to information. however, results indicate that the intensity of factors that limited health services access in the ubungo and mbarali districts were higher among the illiterate compared to the literate elderly. on awareness, the illiterate elderly decide to seek care only when seriously ill. the study shows that the inability to read 143 intensifies health illiteracy and increases the likelihood of seeking healthcare at the late stages of diseases. as dewalt et al (2004) observed, the illiterate individuals are more likely to have late diagnoses of diseases that result in irreversible damage. in addition to that, the study showed that the illiterate elderly highly relied on word of mouth as a major source of policy information. this implies that they have limited abilities for searching information, and their knowledge of policy information relies on someone else’s knowledge, which might have been distorted. further, the illiterate elderly’s levels of policy awareness and understanding proves that they received distorted policy information. on the adequacy measure, the illiterate elderly’s choice of health facility was not compatible with their health needs as they were more likely to visit a health facility due to its proximity. thus, the majority of the elderly visited dispensaries regardless of the seriousness of their illness. this implies that the majority of elderly people that visited dispensaries couldn’t receive treatment for non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes. moreover, this finding signifies the elderly’s complaints about the shortage of medical supplies at lower-level health facilities. as dewalt et al, (2004) observed, there is a significant relationship between reading abilities and individuals’ knowledge of health services. the study reported those with reading abilities to have more knowledge of health services outcome. this implies that with the advantage of informed decision they might have more chances of locating compatible health facilities. on the acceptability measure, the illiterate elderly felt higher tension when engaging with health workers. this implies that the quality of information shared with health workers (physicians) was compromised or, rather, insufficient. as a result, some health conditions might go undiagnosed if not well captured during consultation. in addition to that, the illiterate elderly were perceived to be more stigmatised by health workers than literate ones when receiving health services in the same facilities. this implies that the patient-physician relationship is less friendly. however, studies conducted by nzali (2016), and sanga (2013), indicate that health workers lack skills to attend to older adults. this implies that the quality of services offered to the elderly by health workers is not sufficient. further, the illiterate reported a higher dissatisfaction with health services. the implication here is that the processes and treatment obtained in public health facilities needs improvement. conclusion and recommendations from the above examination of findings, it is rational to conclude that illiteracy affects the experience of exempted elderly people in accessing health policy benefits. this study recommends the following actions for improving the elderly experience in access to and utilization of health services in a policy context. a) the local governments at district levels should collaborate with the institute of adult education and other education stakeholders to design and operate adult literacy programmes. b) policy awareness raising campaigns — the district social welfare office should collaborate with health sector stakeholders at local levels to disseminate policy-related information more effectively in the pursuit of raising awareness on health matters. c) awareness for health workers should be more compassionate in the sense of building elderly confidence and happiness when seeking health care. 144 d) improvement in medical and diagnostic services. the government should improve the budget to make the availability of drugs and diagnosis services more effective. this study serves as the first work of which the author is aware that assessed the interplay among factors on the demand side for health services access within a health services safety net policy. the author suggests two main directions for further research. first, a broader study covering more districts to further elucidate illiteracy impact on health services access. second, a randomised study that would be crucial to confirm that the negative results on determinants of health services access found in this study were indeed casually related to illiteracy. references dewalt, d. a. et al (2004). “literacy and health outcomes: a systematic review of the literature,” journal of general internal medicine, 19(12), pp. 1228-1239. doi:10.1111/j.1525-1497.2004.40153.x. hall, b. l. (2020). elimu haina mwisho: mwalimu nyerere ’ s vision of adult education. papers in education and development, 38(38), 1-14. iae (2011). report on 50 years of independence (1961-2011) and future prospects of the next 50 years. dar es salaam. johnson, c. (1991). access to health care in america. journal of the national medical association. doi:10.5860/choice.31-0970. kumeh, o. w. et al (2020). literacy is power: structural drivers of child malnutrition in rural liberia. bmj nutrition, prevention and health, 3(2). doi:10.1136/bmjnph-2020-000140. mlekwa, v. m. (1994). contribution of literacy training to development in the context of tanzania: emerging issues and research implications. utafiti, 1(1). mhsw (2010). regional referral health management newsletter: policy dissemination, a top gear for health sector reform in tanzania, (3), 1-8. munishi, v. (2010). implementation of exemption and waiver mechanism in tanzania: success and challenges. nzali, a. s. (2016). determinants of access to free health services by the elderly in iringa and makete districts, tanzania. http://41.73.194.142:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/2053. sandiford, p. et al (1995). the impact of women’s literacy on child health and its interaction with access to health services. population studies, 49(1), 5-17. doi:10.1080/0032472031000148216. sanga, g. s. (2013). challenges facing elderly people in accessing health services in government health facilities in moshi municipality area. journal of chemical information and modeling, 53(9), 1689-1699. doi:10.1017/cbo9781107415324.004. saurman, e. (2016). improving access: modifying penchansky and thomas’s theory of access. journal of health services research and policy, 21(1), 36-39. doi:10.1177/1355819615600001. shrestha, j. (2010). evaluation of access to primary healthcare. (unpublished thesis.) international institute of geoinformation science. tanzania national bureau of statistics. (2012). literacy and education monograph. https://www.nbs.go.tz/nbs/takwimu/census2012/literacy_and_education_monograph.zip united republic of tanzania (2003). national ageing policy. ministry of labor, youth, development and sports. united republic of tanzania (2007). national health policy. ministry of health. 145 united republic of tanzania (2018). education sector development plan (2016/17-2020/21). ministry of education, science and technology, 246. https://www.globalpartnership.org/sites/default/files/2019-04-gpe-tanzaniaesp.pdf. wedin, å. (2008). literacy and power: the cases of tanzania and rwanda. international journal of educational development, 1(6), 754-763. doi:10.1016/j.ijedudev.2007.09.006. author: joshua edward is a doctoral candidate at the institute of development studies, university of dar es salaam. currently, he holds a teaching position at the institute of adult education. previously, he worked in the ngo sector as a monitoring, evaluation, research and learning expert. email: joshuaedward2020@gmail.com cite this paper as: edward, j. (2021). interplay between literacy and health services access: the case of elderly exemption beneficiaries in tanzania. journal of learning for development, 8(1), 129-145 microsoft word mcburnie.docx issn: 2311-1550 2020, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 485-493 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. is there learning continuity during the covid-19 pandemic? a synthesis of the emerging evidence chris mcburnie, taskeen adam and tom kaye open development & education abstract: since the onset of covid-19, governments have launched technology-supported education interventions to ensure children learn. this paper offers a narrative synthesis of emerging evidence on technology-based education to understand the current experiences of learners, teachers and families. studies find that few students in lowand middle-income countries have access to technology-supported learning with the most marginalised children appearing to have the least educational opportunities. as such, the education response to covid-19 could widen existing inequalities. keywords: covid-19, educational technology, learning continuity, access to education, kenya. senegal, ethiopia, mongolia, ecuador, vietnam, ghana, bangladesh. introduction the covid-19 pandemic has disrupted education worldwide. in response, a variety of alternatives to school-based learning are emerging. many of these alternatives depend on technology, further exacerbating the digital divide and educational inequality (bozkurt et al, 2020). in sub-saharan africa, for instance, unicef (2020) estimates that at least 49% of children cannot access remote learning via the internet or broadcast media. at the start of the covid-19 pandemic, there was little data on efforts to ensure learning continuity during school closures. recently, however, various studies have analysed the education response to covid-19. the purpose of this note is to synthesise emerging findings from studies on learning continuity at the primary and secondary level in a sample of lowand middle-income countries (kenya, senegal, ethiopia, mongolia, ecuador, vietnam, ghana and bangladesh). these studies focus on access to learning opportunities rather than learning outcomes. our findings can inform ongoing efforts to ensure children can access education when out of school. this synthesis focuses on technology-supported learning continuity, which we define as everything from educational radio and television to online learning on mobile phones, tablets and computers. below, we discuss eight lessons that emerged from our synthesis. 486 lesson 1: children in lowand middle-income countries have varying levels of access to technology-supported learning current evidence shows that access to educational technology — and technology-supported learning continuity — varies significantly between countries. in senegal, a survey reported that only 10% of children have used radio or television to learn since the start of the pandemic (le nestour et al, 2020). in mongolia, access to technology-supported learning opportunities appears to be higher. a household phone survey indicated that 75% of children engaged in distance learning in the week prior to the study (world bank & national statistics office of mongolia, 2020). popular distance learning activities included educational television (89%) and online lessons (37% (world bank & national statistics office of mongolia, 2020)). only 2% of learners accessed educational programmes on the radio (world bank & national statistics office of mongolia, 2020). in bangladesh, a world bank study found that 48% of learners who receive poverty-targeted stipends have access to television and that 39% of students have access to the sangsad educational television channel (biswas et al, 2020). similarly, another phone survey revealed that only 16% of children in rural bangladesh have accessed televised classes (asadullah, 2020). what does this evidence mean for policymakers? the above insights suggest that the reach of technology-supported education interventions is highly context-dependent. depending on the context, an appropriate multi-modal or non-technological approach to learning continuity needs to be utilised. lesson 2: disruptions to educational continuity negatively impact the well-being of students and teachers school closures pose new risks to the safety and well-being of learners. out-of-school children and young people can face pressure to work, marry and start a family. in bangladesh, a brac (2020) phone survey found that the number of children working more than two hours per day to support their families economically has risen fourfold since the start of the pandemic (brac, 2020). between april and june, a national youth telephone helpline in malawi saw an 83% increase in reports of child marriage and a 150% increase in reports of child rape compared to this time last year (rigby, 2020). the mental health of learners can also suffer when schools are closed. in thailand, an online survey revealed that 70% of young people feel frustrated, anxious and stressed as a result of the lockdown (unicef et al, 2020). in particular, respondents reported that they were worried about their education, employment and loneliness (unicef et al, 2020). similarly, a world bank phone survey in ecuador found that children are most concerned about disruptions to their education and long periods of social isolation (asanov et al, 2020). the stress of lockdown — and the educational impact of covid-19 — extends to teachers. in a phone survey in vietnam, for example, 62% of teachers believe that the shift to online learning has increased their workload (hoang et al, 2020). notably, more than a quarter of teachers reported that they are stressed as a result of these increased (hoang et al, 2020). 487 lesson 3: current provision of learning is not equitable school closures have disproportionately affected the most marginalised children: learners from the poorest households, families with low pre-existing levels of education and students in remote areas. children from less affluent communities appear to have low access to learning continuity. in ecuador, survey findings suggest that learners from the lowest wealth quartile are more than twice as likely to have completed no schoolwork than learners from the highest wealth quartile (asanov et al, 2020). in senegal, a survey reported that 20% of children from ‘poor’ households have pursued no learning activities compared to 15% of children from ’non-poor’ households (le nestour et al, 2020). in kenya, survey findings indicate that only 16% of learners in public primary schools have access to digital learning resources compared to 48% in private primary schools (uwezo kenya, 2020). moreover, children in rural areas have relatively limited access to technology-supported learning opportunities. in mongolia, a phone survey found that 51% of students in urban areas have access to a computer or a laptop compared to 21% in rural areas (world bank & national statistics office of mongolia, 2020). a recent study in ethiopia found that 38% of urban children have engaged in distance learning during the pandemic compared to 12% of rural children (scott et al, 2020). the educational background of parents and caregivers can also matter. a study in rural bangladesh found that parents with secondary education spent 31% more study time with their children than parents without secondary education (asadullah, 2020). in ecuador, children whose mothers’ education level is high-school or lower are less likely to access technology-supported learning than those whose mothers’ education level is beyond high school (asanov et al, 2020). based on these findings, policymakers should consider family wealth, parental education and the location of students when designing learning continuity interventions. lesson 4: online learning platforms are not being accessed by students governments are increasingly using online learning platforms to store and disseminate content during school closures. however, very few students in lowand middle-income countries are accessing online resources. a phone survey in senegal found that less than 1% of learners have accessed online courses since schools closed (le nestour et al, 2020). moreover, a recent study in ghana indicated that only 15% of children have accessed internet-based learning materials during the pandemic (innovations for poverty action, 2020). in kenya, students and teachers identified a lack of electricity, internet and devices as limiting their access to digital resources (uwezo kenya, 2020). even where students can access online learning, they are not necessarily using digital platforms. in bangladesh, a survey found that only 1.5% of students with internet access used online materials in the week before the study (biswas et al, 2020). in ecuador, a world bank survey found that 74% of students have internet access at home and that 59% of students have a computer or a tablet (asanov et al, 2020). however, only 8% of students in grades 10, 11 and 12 used the ministry of education’s learning platform in the week prior to the survey (asanov et al, 2020). before governments invest in online platforms, they need to ensure that learners have a suitable device and a desire to use the service. 488 lesson 5: device ownership does not equal learning continuity recent studies have identified that even when children have access to some form of educational technology, they may still lack access to learning continuity. effort is required to ensure students can use devices for learning with the support of their families. in kenya, for example, approximately 60% of students have access to radios at home yet only 19% of learners have listened to educational radio broadcasts (uwezo kenya, 2020). similarly, 39% of students in bangladesh can access the sangsad educational television channel but only 17% of learners have watched televised lessons (biswas et al, 2020). a major impediment to student engagement may be a lack of high-quality content. prior to the pandemic, approximately two-thirds of countries did not use digital education resources while only 10% of countries had digital resources available for learning outside of school (patrinos & shmis, 2020). deploying distance learning has required governments to rapidly acquire more content of a higher quality. going forward, programme designers must ensure students have access to content that fosters a desire to engage in learning and to return to school. lesson 6: the schedule of educational programming matters, especially for children from low-income families educational programming must be broadcast at times that are appropriate for students — and the wider household — to ensure learning continuity. when scheduling broadcasts, programme designers should consider socioeconomic factors. a recent world bank survey in ecuador found that most children allocate time to their studies in the morning (asanov et al, 2020). while some learners may study at a later time, students from lowincome families often need to spend their afternoons completing household chores (asanov et al, 2020). these children may miss out on programming that is broadcast in the afternoon. this finding could have significant ramifications in other lowand middle-income countries. in uganda, 71% of children are required to complete housework during the day (brac, 2020). likewise, 59% of students in sierra leone are responsible for chores now that they are out of school (brac, 2020). in bangladesh, students are now spending twice as much time performing chores and paid labour than when schools were open (asadullah, 2020). the experience of students in ecuador — and the potential ramifications in other countries — means that programme designers must carefully schedule broadcasts to ensure children from low-income households are not further disadvantaged. lesson 7: parents and caregivers play an important role in facilitating homebased learning the current discourse on home-based learning has primarily focused on children. what devices can children operate? how can learners use smartphones for independent study? these types of questions are undoubtedly important as children take on greater responsibility for their learning during school closures. however, these questions overlook the importance of parents and caregivers in leading and supporting household learning activities. 489 since the onset of the covid-19 pandemic, caregivers in lowand middle-income countries have played a key role in facilitating home-based education. in mongolia, for example, a world bank phone survey found that three-quarters of households with school-enrolled children pursued distance learning in the week prior to the study (world bank & national statistics office of mongolia, 2020). notably, 74% of these households reported that children required a caregiver to support educational activities (world bank & national statistics office of mongolia, 2020). even where students can access and use educational resources, parents and caregivers need to guide and scaffold the home-based learning experience. similarly, a greater number of children in kenya have accessed educational resources from their parents than via the radio, whatsapp or the national online learning repository (uwezo kenya, 2020). meanwhile, low levels of literacy — and digital literacy — among caregivers have limited their capacity to support children with technology-based learning (uwezo kenya, 2020). in this context, policymakers should explore ways to enhance the capacity of caregivers to mediate learning rather than distributing content on devices that households cannot access or use. lesson 8: teachers, parents and caregivers require additional support to facilitate home-based learning governments and schools should increase contact with teachers to provide clarity on their expected role. since schools closed, teachers have received mixed and changing messages that have exacerbated the uncertainty and anxiety associated with the pandemic (bozkurt et al, 2020). in vietnam, a phone survey found that more than half of teachers believe that they have received inadequate support from school leaders during covid-19 (hoang et al, 2020). meanwhile, approximately three-quarters of respondents believe that they have received inadequate support from the ministry of education and training (hoang et al, 2020). even though parents and caregivers can facilitate home-based learning, they need direction and guidance. in kenya, for instance, an uwezo study found that 20% of parents did not know that their children should continue to study while schools are closed (uwezo kenya, 2020). this proportion rises to 80% in the remote county of mandera (uwezo kenya, 2020). in particular, parents highlighted the need to raise awareness about distance learning at a community level (uwezo kenya, 2020). in response, initiatives such as the keep kenya learning campaign aim to work with families to identify suitable approaches to supporting education in the home. education providers can use technology to communicate with parents and to coordinate home-based learning. in botswana, young 1ove sends caregivers a basic numeracy problem via text message to share with their children at the start of each week (angrist et al, 2020). afterwards, facilitators walk through the problem with both caregivers and students on speakerphone (angrist et al, 2020). after four weeks, the intervention had already resulted in statistically significant learning gains in numeracy (angrist et al, 2020). where do we go from here? the current pandemic has disrupted, and will continue to disrupt, the education and wellbeing of learners worldwide. at present, evidence suggests that a limited number of children in lowand middle-income countries have access to technology-based learning. importantly, the most 490 marginalised children appear to have the least access to learning continuity. after the crisis, many learners may not immediately return to school, and those who do will have likely benefited from home-based learning interventions to varying degrees. during school closures, a reliance on technology-supported education interventions could leave the poorest students behind and widen existing inequalities. at the same time, learning continuity is not dependent on technology. in ghana, for example, almost 60% of respondents report that children are using their own school books to learn at home (innovations for poverty action, 2020). in the shortterm, caregivers and parents will likely play a significant role in facilitating home-based learning although they will need structured support. this does not mean that education providers cannot use technology to support teaching and learning in the future. yet, decision-makers should explore mediumto long-term opportunities to use educational technology to build back better and to ensure we are better placed to respond to future crises. the process of evidence collection is far from over and you can see open development & education’s evidence library for further updates. references this list of links and references is available on the following website: https://docs.opendeved.net/lib/59b8x7k8. angrist, n., bergman, p., brewster, c., & matsheng, m. (2020). stemming learning loss during the pandemic: a rapid randomized trial of a low-tech intervention in botswana (ssrn scholarly paper id 3663098). https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=3663098 asadullah, n. (2020). covid-19, schooling and learning. brac. https://bigd.bracu.ac.bd/wpcontent/uploads/2020/06/covid-19-schooling-and-learning_june-25-2020.pdf asanov, i., flores, f., mckenzie, d., mensmann, m., & schulte, m. (2020). remote-learning, time-use, and mental health of ecuadorian high-school students during the covid-19 quarantine. world bank. http://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/328261589899308503/pdf/remote-learning-time-use-andmental-health-of-ecuadorian-high-school-studentsduring-the-covid-19-quarantine.pdf biswas, k., asaduzzaman, t., evans, d., fehrler, s., ramachandran, d., & sabarwal, s. (2020). tv-based learning in bangladesh: is it reaching students? world bank. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/34138 bozkurt, a., et al. (2020). a global outlook to the interruption of education due to covid-19 pandemic: navigating in a time of uncertainty and crisis. asian journal of distance education, 15(1), 1–126. chttp://www.asianjde.org/ojs/index.php/asianjde/article/view/462 brac. (2020). rapid food and income security assessment round 2: how are brac international volunteers and programme participants coping with covid-19. https://covid19.bracinternational.nl/wpcontent/uploads/2020/04/bi-covid-19-rapid-assessment-round2_20200424.pdf hoang, a.-d., pham, h.-h., le, q.-a. t., dinh, v.-h., le, t.-t. t., & nguyen, y.-c. (2020). survey on vietnamese teachers’ perspectives during covid-19 [data set]. harvard dataverse. https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtml?persistentid=doi:10.7910/dvn/focpkh innovations for poverty action. (2020). ghana recovr survey analysis. https://www.poverty-action.org/ le nestour, a., moscoviz, l., & mbaye, s. (2020). phone survey on the covid crisis in senegal. centre for global development. https://dataverse.harvard.edu/file.xhtml?persistentid=doi:10.7910/dvn/9xe95f/95rw9c&version=3.0 491 patrinos, h., & shmis, t. (2020). can technology help mitigate the impact of covid-19 on education systems in europe and central asia? world bank. https://blogs.worldbank.org/europeandcentralasia/can-technology-helpmitigate-impact-covid-19-education-systems-europe-and rigby, j. (2020, august 14). child marriages skyrocket in malawi as covid-19 closes schools, figures show. the telegraph (uk). https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/women-and-girls/child-marriages-skyrocketmalawi-covid-19-closes-schools-figures/amp/ scott, d., favara, m., & porter, c. (2020). listening to young lives at work in ethiopia. (covid-19 phone survey headlines report). oxford department of international development. https://www.younglives.org.uk/sites/www.younglives.org.uk/files/yol-ethiopia-headlinesfirstphonesurvey-aug20_0.pdf unicef. (2020). covid-19: are children able to continue learning during school closures? https://data.unicef.org/resources/remote-learning-reachability-factsheet/. unicef, children and youth council of thailand, undp, & unfpa. (2020). a survey on impacts of covid-19 pandemic on children and young people and their needs. https://www.unicef.org/thailand/media/4031/file uwezo kenya. (2020). are our children learning? the status of remote-learning among school-going children in kenya during the covid-19 crisis. uwezo kenya. https://palnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/usawaagenda-2020-report.pdf world bank, & national statistics office of mongolia. (2020). results of mongolia covid-19 household response phone survey (round 1) (working paper no. 150989). world bank. http://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/656061595316484647/pdf/results-of-mongolia-covid-19household-response-phone-survey-round-1.pdf authors: chris mcburnie is an analyst with open development & education. previously, he spent approximately 18 months designing and implementing a number of school-based development projects in east africa and india. in 2019, chris graduated with an mphil in development studies from the university of cambridge where he focused on how institutions influence the impact and uptake of education interventions. email: chris@opendeved.net dr. taskeen adam is a senior analyst with open development & education. her phd research highlighted that historical injustices, cultural imposition, and economic dependence continue to play a pivotal role in education. alongside her academic pursuits, she pioneered khwela (a regional online course platform) and solar powered learning in south africa as well as mobile education for smart technology in india. prior to her career shift to edtech, she worked as an electrical engineer, specialising in measurement and control. email: taskeen@opendeved.net tom kaye, is a senior education specialist with open development & education. he has more than 10 years’ experience developing, implementing and evaluating education policies and programs in australia, africa, asia, and the middle east. in addition to his consulting work, tom is a ph.d. candidate at the vrije universiteit amsterdam; his research focuses on exploring how technology can enhance learning outcomes in developing countries. email: tom@opendeved.net cite this paper as: mcburnie, c., adam, t., & kaye, t. (2020). is there learning continuity during the covid-19 pandemic? a synthesis of the emerging evidence. journal of learning for development, 7(3), 485-493. 492 appendix the following table provides a breakdown of the studies considered in this paper. paper population intervention outcome stemming learning loss during the pandemic: a rapid randomized trial of a low-tech intervention in botswana (2020) 4,500 families with primary-school-age children in botswana a weekly text message with a maths problem followed up with a phone call learning gains of 0.29 standard deviations and increased parental engagement in learning covid-19, schooling and learning (2020) 5,193 bangladeshi primary and secondary school students in rural areas and urban slums multimodal approach consisting of televised classes, online lessons and self-study materials low access to and engagement with technology-based learning initiatives as well as an 80% reduction in total study time remote-learning, timeuse, and mental health of ecuadorian high-school students during the covid-19 quarantine (2020) 1,500 students aged 14 to 18 in ecuador multimodal approach using multiple online platforms (e.g., government site, zoom, youtube) and educational television most students have access to learning continuity but few are using the government platform. students from poorer households have less access to learning resources tv-based learning in bangladesh: is it reaching students? (2020) 2,000 grade 9 students who receive povertytargeted stipends in bangladesh government television and online learning programmes half of students with access to educational television watch government programmes while only 2% of students with access to the internet use online resources to learn survey on vietnamese teachers’ perspectives during covid-19 (2020) 294 teachers in vietnam online learning programmes teachers feel that the shift to online learning has increased their workload yet they lack support from school leaders and the government ghana recovr survey analysis (2020) 1,633 household respondents in ghana multimodal approach consisting of educational television, online resources and self-study materials 64% of primary-age learners and 57% of secondary-age learners are continuing to study although most students are using self-study materials rather than technology phone survey on the 1,023 household multimodal approach 30% of learners are 493 covid crisis in senegal (2020) respondents in senegal consisting of educational television, radio, online resources and self-study materials pursuing no learning activities with significant differences in access to technology-based interventions across household wealth listening to young lives at work in ethiopia (2020) 2,471 young people in ethiopia who form part of the oxford young lives programme government distance learning programme only 12% of children in rural areas are learning during; only 14% of children whose parents have no education participate in distance learning a survey on impacts of covid-19 pandemic on children and young people and their needs (2020) 6,771 young people aged 15 to 19 in thailand government distance learning programme 70% of young people feel stressed due to lockdown and the inability to continue their studies and see their peers as normal are our children learning? the status of remote-learning among school-going children in kenya during the covid-19 crisis (2020) over 3,700 heads of households and school leaders in kenya multimodal approach consisting of educational television, radio, online resources, materials sent over whatsapp and email, and materials provided by parents only 22% of children are accessing digital learning resources with significant variation across regions and school type results of mongolia covid-19 household response phone survey (round 1) (2020) 1,333 households in mongolia multimodal approach consisting of educational television, radio and online learning approximately 75% of children have access to learning continuity with most preferring television; children in rural areas have less access to technology supported education interventions microsoft word marojic.docx issn: 2311-1550 2023, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 280-296 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. deployment of offline learning management systems: comparing the performance of selected micro-servers in tanzania salome maro1, aron kondoro1, björn haßler2, joel mtebe1 and jamie proctor3 1university of dar es salaam, tanzania, africa 2open development & education, london, uk 3edtech hub country lead, tanzania, africa abstract: low-powered mobile devices such as raspberry pis and tablets can be used as microservers to implement offline learning management systems (lms). despite their potential, especially for low-income countries, such as tanzania, no research is available detailing the affordances of these devices for supporting lms features. this study investigated the suitability of various low-cost micro-servers for deploying lmss. it compared the performance of the raspberry pi, android tablet, and chromebook in terms of lms benchmarking, response time, and resource utilisation. results showed all devices had sufficient hardware resources to support the lms, however, software stacks, i/o performance, and platform optimisations affected the micro-servers' performance. the chromebook had the best performance in terms of response time, followed by the raspberry pi and tablets. in terms of cost, the raspberry pi was the cheapest option. the installation process for tablets was more cumbersome than the other devices, meaning the devices with better tooling and a more conventional software stack were a better option for deploying offline micro-servers. keywords: micro server, learning management systems, offline learning management systems. introduction the last two decades have seen growing adoption and use of various learning management systems (lms) such as moodle and blackboard to enhance the quality of teaching and learning in lowand middle-income countries (lmics). lmss, for example, enable learners to access materials electronically to supplement face-to-face teaching (unwin et al., 2010). more broadly, educators can use these systems to deliver courses through flipped, online, or blended modes to provide greater access to learning in remote areas (hennessy et al., 2022). according to the ambient insight report, lms adoption was expected to grow at a rate of 15% each year between 2011 and 2016 and at a rate of 0.9% between 2016 and 2021 (adkins, 2013). continued improvement of ict infrastructure and proliferation of mobile phones in lmics implies that many educational institutions will likely shift towards technology-enhanced teaching and learning, such as using lmss. moreover, the covid-19 pandemic has increased the demand for governments to provide accessible technology-enhanced teaching and learning 281 across various geographical areas (mcburnie et al., 2020). consequently, the adoption and use of lmss have continued to increase as many institutions and schools have been shifting to a technology-enhanced delivery mode. in tanzania, nearly 50% of the 60 higher learning institutions have installed an lms, with moodle being the most popular one (mtebe & raisamo, 2014). even in primary/secondary education, a number of lmss have been implemented (mtebe et al., 2016; mwakisole et al., 2018). despite the continued adoption and use of lmss in lmics, the limited technological infrastructure, especially the speed and cost of the internet, remains one of the major challenges (mukuni, 2019). an lms requires digital devices, internet access, and the electrical power to be used effectively. these infrastructures are not evenly distributed across lmics, with some regions having limited internet access and power (haßler et al., 2022). for instance, of 45 reviewed articles on the implementation of lmss in tanzania, 60% of the articles indicated ict infrastructure problems, especially the lack of internet connectivity, as the major barrier to implementation (mtebe & raphael, 2018). similarly, bervell & umar, 2018 also rank ict infrastructure as the main challenge towards implementing lmss (bervell & umar, 2018). in addition to ict infrastructure, the cost of the internet in lmics remains high. in 2021, the international telecommunication union (itu) reported the average price of 2 gb prepaid mobile broadband, when expressed as a % of average per capita gross national income (gni), was 6.5% in africa compared to 0.5% in north america (itu, 2021). in tanzania, the cost of 1 gb has doubled in the past two years, due to the introduction of new government taxes on telecommunications companies (makakala, 2021). moreover, using typical servers to host lmss locally in all schools is highly costly. given these challenges, several solutions have been proposed for implementing lmss and other digital technologies, such as zero rating. however, while zero-rating gives free access to lmss and other resources, there are still costs to be covered by other stakeholders, such as the government, network operators, content providers or donors (mcburnie et al., 2020). platforms that use limited data, such as kolibri, can be used (mcburnie et al., 2020) but kolibri requires a micro-server, such as the raspberry pi or other single-board computers (dhuny et al., 2022; ibarra et al., 2017; soto et al., 2019). using raspberry pi as a micro-server to access an lms has shown great potential (dhuny et al., 2022; ibarra et al., 2017). however, while the raspberry pi (with a linux operating system) is an obvious choice for a micro-server, there are now other types of applicable devices, such as tablets and smartphones. such devices have similar specifications (compared to a raspberry pi 4b), therefore, it stands to reason they could also be used as micro-servers. as the cost of handheld devices is plummeting, a comparison of performance among various devices is important to determine the most effective low-cost micro-server in providing offline access to an lms. moreover, compared to a raspberry pi, a tablet/phone has the advantage of a user interface (screen) as well as an uninterruptible power supply (battery). another obvious advantage of the raspberry pi is the stability of the platform. research questions this study aimed to compare the performance of the raspberry pi, android tablets, and chromebook when used as micro-servers to deploy an lms offline. specifically, we aimed to answer the following research questions: 282 1. how do the lms benchmark results of the three micro-servers compare? 2. how does workload affect the performance of the micro-servers? 3. how do the three micro-servers compare in terms of resource utilisation? the findings from this study are important to those who plan to use micro-servers in implementing lmss in areas with limited connectivity. related research three research themes are closely related to our work. first, studies that perform a comparison of raspberry pis when used as web servers, since they are the most researched micro-server. second, studies that use micro-servers in school environments, and third, studies that compare the performance of different micro-servers when used as web servers. comparison of the performance of raspberry pi as a server the majority of studies have evaluated the performance of various models of raspberry pi or evaluated the performance of raspberry pi as a server for a specific application. for instance, hajji and tso (2016) compared the cpu utilisation, server throughput and network throughput of a single raspberry pi 2b and a cluster of 12 nodes for big data applications (hajji & tso, 2016). the study compared the performance of the raspberry pi 2b cluster when implemented traditionally and when used virtually. the results showed that the average network requests of the raspberry pi were 2809 req/s for 1 kb workload and 98req/s for 100 kb workload in the traditional implementation and 957.5 req/s, for 1 kb an d98req/s for 100 kb workload in the virtualised setup. the cpu utilisation was high for a lower workload (67.2%) and low for a higher workload (22.3%), due to higher software and hardware interface interruptions triggered by docker when running smaller loads. gamess & shah, (2022) studied the network capabilities of several raspberry pi models (zero w, zero 2 w, 3b, 3b+ and 4b). the performance evaluation was based on the tcp and udp throughput, the tcp and udp round-trip time, and the performance achieved when transferring files with ssh. the study showed ipv4 had a slightly better performance than ipv6. when using an ethernet cable, the variations in performance among the different raspberry pi models were noticeable; the zero w had the poorest performance and 4b showed the best performance. rahmat et al., (2019) evaluated the performance of raspberry pi image processing built using open mpi. the results showed the programme worked well in the cluster scope and the image conversion process performed better in the cluster scope than on a single device. similarly, lima et al., (2019) conducted a performance evaluation of the raspberry pi zero w, working as an iot gateway and running mqtt using the processor temperature, the cpu usage level, and the rate of mqtt received messages under different quality of services (qos) as performance metrics. the results showed the qos level chosen affected its performance, cpu usage level, and temperature. it was also observed that the raspberry pi’s cpu usage did not reach the maximum, even when a considerable number of machines/terminals sent data to it. it may be likely that the internet network used in the experiment limited the number of messages sent per machine, and not the raspberry pi itself. other studies have evaluated the performance of raspberry pi in real-time (carvalho et al., 2019), in load balance on an apache2 server, using student information system (sis) as an application (maduranga & ragel, 2016), and in machine 283 learning problems in edge computing (komninos et al., 2019). raspberry pi as offline micro-servers in school environments ibarra et al. (2017) implemented mini lmss for schools to enable learners to access educational resources using the raspberry pi offline. the study found that the server responded reasonably to 200 requests, simulating 10 different computers accessing simultaneously. similarly, dhuny et al. (2022) compared the performance of running a lamp stack with moodle on a raspberry pi 32 sd and sdd and 64 sd and sdd. the study measured the response time and application performance index (apdex) for a 32-bit os and 64-bit os and compared them against an increasing load. the response time improved from 46.9s to 35s for a medium-sized course with 100 users with the 64-bit ssd. the apdex showed that the raspberry pi’s cpu was the limiting factor, preventing the web application from scaling beyond 40 users for medium-sized courses. soto et al. (2019) implemented an lms on a raspberry pi to provide access to educational resources in rural schools. although teachers were satisfied with the content and were able to access the educational resources easily, a performance evaluation of the raspberry pi was not conducted. several other studies, such as gadhave & kore, (2016) and ncube et al., (2020), have implemented an lms on a raspberry pi in providing access to resources in areas without internet access, however, all of these studies ended up evaluating the user's perception without conducting a performance evaluation of the raspberry pi itself. comparison of the performance of different micro-servers relatively few studies have compared the raspberry pi with other devices, and, to the best of our knowledge, no studies have done a comparison of the raspberry pi with tablets. istifanos and tekahun, (2020) compared the performance of raspberry pi 3b and a typical laptop as servers using an experiment whereby served content, server software, and the number of simulated users sending requests were altered throughout the experiment. in this study, more than 1,000 http requests were sent to the two servers. the study showed that, for static content, the raspberry pi achieved a response rate as high as 1,164 requests per second and cpu consumption that varied between ≈6% and ≈40%. however, on one occasion, the laptop exhibited a better processor utilisation serving http requests for one user. for dynamic content, the raspberry pi had a slower response time. vaidya et al., (2021) compared the performance of a raspberry pi 4b (2gb ram), macbook air with an apple m1 chip and a macbook air with an intel processor as web servers. the findings showed the raspberry pi 4b could serve between 400-600 requests per second; the mac air with intel processor was almost the same; the mac air with m1 processor was in the range of 200-400 requests per second. the mac air intel performed the best in terms of concurrent users, and the mac air m1 was the best in terms of cpu usage, as it maintained its cpu usage and did not show any significant fluctuations. methods research methodology the study used an experimental approach where the performance of the micro-servers — running a moodle-based lms (https://tcpd.tie.go.tz) — was tested on four different devices: a raspberry pi, a chromebook, a low-spec tablet, and a high-spec tablet. the dependent variables measured in the experiment were the performance of the micro-servers in terms of benchmark results, response time, and resource utilisation, while the independent variable was the load in 284 terms of the number of requests the devices were subjected to. devices and their measurement specifications of each of the devices as well as the software stack used in the experiment are given in table 1. the lms used in the experiment contained materials to support teachers' continuous professional development in pre-, primary and secondary schools in tanzania. at the time of the experiment, it contained 16 courses with learning materials such as text, images, and videos, as well as discussion forums and quizzes. to run the lms on the different devices, a lamp stack (web server and database server) was installed on each device the lms configured. specifically, we used apache 2, php 7.4, mariadb and moodle version 3.11. to enable offline access for the raspberry pi and the tablets, the built-in wireless hotspot was configured to make the lms accessible. although the chromebook had a wireless adapter, it was impossible to set up a wireless hotspot to access the web server directly. this is because crostini was hosted as a virtual box inside chrome os and had no interface to the hardware of the chromebook and, therefore, could not access the wireless adapter. therefore, an external router was used to connect the chromebook and lms users. table 1: specifications of the different micro-servers. the performance of micro-servers for the lms was tested using three measurements: lms benchmarking, load testing, and resource utilisation. device specifications price (usd) operating system raspberry pi 4b processor: quad-core cortex-a72 (arm v8) 64-bit soc @ 1.8ghz memory: 4gb hard drive: 16 gb (sd card) 200 raspbian high-spec tablet processor: octa-core (1x3.09 ghz cortexa77 & 3x2.42 ghz cortex-a77 & 4x1.80 ghz cortex-a55 memory: 8 gb hard drive: 256 gb 900 android + termux low-spec tablet processor: octa-core (4x2.0 ghz kryo 260 gold & 4x1.8 ghz kryo 260 silver) memory: 3 gb hard drive: 32 gb 285 android + termux chromebook processor: octa-core (2.4ghz intel core i51135g7) memory: 8 gb hard drive: 128 gb 700 chrome os + crostini 285 lms benchmarking benchmark is a performance benchmarking plugin provided by moodle. the plugin assesses lms performance by conducting tests using various scenarios and measures five key parameters: server speed, processor speed, hard drive speed, database speed, and page loading speed. each test generates a score that is compared to predefined threshold values. the benchmarking plugin runs ten tests described in table 2. table 2: tests run by the moodle benchmark plugin. test description moodle time measures the time taken to load configurations from the moodle configuration file. processor processing speed measures the processor speed by calling a function with a loop. reading file performance reads a file several times and measures the average reading speed. the file is read from the moodle temporary folder writing file performance writes several files to the moodle temporary folder and measures the average writing time. reading course performance reads a course several times and measures the average reading speed. the course is read from the database. writing course performance writes to a course several times and measures the average writing speed. the course is written in the database. database performance creates and executes a complex sql query and measures the time taken to execute the query (database speed). login time performance for a guest account measures the loading time for the login page of guest users. login time performance for a fake user account measures the loading time for the login page for fake users. load testing the capacity of the system to handle a load of users was measured by simulating several users performing various activities in the lms using the jmeter. jmeter simulates a specified amount of load by generating numerous http requests and monitoring the responses. in this study, the response time was used to measure the performance of applications under different loads. resource utilisation the resource utilisation of the micro-servers was compared by measuring the average load, cpu utilisation and ram usage. to get the measurements for resource utilisation, we used the “top” command in linux, which shows a dynamic and real-time view of the resources utilised 286 by different processes on the thread level. the results of the top command were exported to a text file for analysis. the experiment two sets of experiments were conducted. the first experiment was to run the moodle benchmark tool on each device. as described above, the moodle benchmark tool provides performance metrics of the server. the second experiment was conducted by simulating three different scenarios on each device using jmeter. the first scenario simulated a single user accessing the lms for a ramp-up period of 1 second. in the second scenario, the number of users was increased to 30 with a ramp-up period of 6 seconds. in the third scenario, the number of users was increased to 100 with a ramp-up period of 40 seconds. for each test case, the tool was configured to simulate users interacting and viewing selected pages in the lms. these included users viewing the front page of the lms, viewing the login page, logging in and out of the system, viewing a course module, viewing a forum activity, filling out a forum reply and viewing course participants. each test case was repeated three times and the average response times as well as the resource utilised were recorded. findings the results are structured according to the three research questions that the study aimed to answer. how did the lms benchmark results of the three micro-servers compare? the moodle benchmarking tool was used to determine how the lms behaves under the different device configurations when not being utilised by any users. table 3 shows the results. table 3: benchmark results of the different devices. test time (sec) acceptable limit critical limit pi low spec tablet high spec tablet chromebook moodle time 0.020 0.018 0.011 0.017 0.5 0.8 processor processing speed 0.301 0.122 0.098 0.147 0.5 0.8 reading file performance 0.050 0.079 0.072 0.027 0.5 0.8 writing file performance 0.402 0.845 0.522 0.238 1 1.25 reading course performance 0.108 0.344 0.235 0.063 0.75 1 writing course performance 0.096 0.126 0.108 0.246 1 1.25 database performance (#1) 0.032 0.042 0.033 0.017 0.5 0.7 287 database performance (#2) 0.038 0.039 0.028 0.024 0.3 0.5 login time performance for the guest account 0.081 0.087 0.081 0.047 0.3 0.8 login time performance for a fake user account 0.057 0.335 0.166 0.121 0.3 0.8 total time (seconds) 1.185 2.037 1.354 0.947 benchmark score (lower is better) 118 204 135 95 results show each device setup was able to pass the benchmarking test. on each device, the benchmarking test was completed below the acceptable limit. however, the test took the longest time, 2.037 seconds, on the low-spec tablet, while the chromebook was the fastest to complete the test at 0.947 seconds. as a result, the chromebook had the best score (95). further analysis of the results shows that, on each device, the writing performance step was the main bottleneck during the test. for instance, on the raspberry pi, the file writing step took the longest time, contributing 40% of the total time of the test. similarly, on the chromebook, the file writing and course writing steps were the longest, with each contributing 25% and 26% of the total time. on the other hand, processor performance was only a limiting factor on the raspberry pi. on the raspberry pi, the processor speed step was the second slowest, consuming 25% of the total test time. this step was less significant on all other devices compared to other steps involved in the test. this was expected as the raspberry pi had a less powerful cpu than the other devices. how did workload affect the performance of the micro-servers? table 3 shows the results of each device, with its response time based on the number of users simulated (1, 30 or 100). raspberry pi the response time in the raspberry pi increased as the number of users increased (see figure 1). while there was not a big difference between 1 user and 30 users, a larger difference in the response time was seen when users were increased to 100. the login process was the slowest, taking 1,354 milliseconds, compared to other course activities, which were all below 700 milliseconds. overall, the response time was below the recommended acceptable limit for web applications, which is 2,000 milliseconds. 288 figure 1: a graph showing raspberry pi’s performance. low-spec tablet the low-spec tablet had the highest response time overall when compared to the other devices. when adding users from 30 to 100, the response time increased sharply. except for viewing the front page and viewing the login page activities, the rest of the activities had a response time that was above 7,000 milliseconds, as seen in figure 2. this is a significant amount of time for a user to wait for a page to respond. figure 2: a graph showing the low-spec tablet’s performance. high-spec tablet the response time of the high-spec tablet is shown in figure 3. the performance of the high-end tablet was not as expected as the number of users was increased. one would expect the 289 response time to increase with an increase in users. however, in some cases, the opposite occurred, for example, with regard to the login function, as seen in the graph. the researchers had two theories to explain this: first, tablets usually have a lot of applications running in the background, such as location apps, which could have been using the resources of the tablet during testing and, second, tablets usually have two modes of running, the energy-efficient mode which is usually on and does not utilise the full capacity of the tablet or the more powerful mode, which is switched on when the tablet has a larger load. additionally, the tablet required a lot of technical tinkering to make it possible to host the lms, which may also have led to unpredictable performance for the tablet. figure 3: a graph showing the high-spec tablet’s performance. chromebook figure 4 shows the results of the response time of the chromebook compared to the number of users. the chromebook showed a steady increase in response time as the number of users increased. the activity that took the longest to respond was the login function, with an average of 1,200 milliseconds, which was a better performance compared to the other devices. however, connectivity issues were observed between the chromebook and the router. during the tests, there were several occurrences when the chromebook could not connect to the router until it was restarted and/or the router type was changed. this behaviour was random and could be a potential bottleneck to using the chromebook as a micro-server. 290 figure 4: a graph showing the chromebook’s performance. comparison of the four devices the response time of the different devices when 1, 30 and 100 users were simulated, are shown in figures 5 through 7. the chromebook had the best response time with all activities for one user, taking 518 milliseconds or less; for 30 users, taking 750 milliseconds or less; and for 100 users, taking less than 1,203 milliseconds. the raspberry pi was second-best in terms of response times, with all activities being less than 816 milliseconds with one user, 865 or less with 30 users and 1,354 milliseconds or less with 100 users. for the tablets, the high-spec tablet performed better than the low-spec tablet as expected. for all activities tested, the high-spec tablet had a response time of 1,021 milliseconds or less for one user, 992 milliseconds for 30 users and 982 milliseconds for 100 users. the low-spec tablet had the highest response time of 1,819 milliseconds or less for one user, 2,212 milliseconds or less for 30 and an increase to 7,912 milliseconds or less for 100 users. overall, the low-spec tablet performed the worst in terms of response time. 291 figure 5: response times for the four devices for one user. figure 6: response times for the four devices for 30 users. 292 figure 7: response times for the four devices for 100 users. how did the three micro-servers compare in terms of resource utilisation? during the experiment, we observed how the device resources (ram and cpu) were utilised. none of the tests reached the maximum utilisation of the device's cpu or ram. we concluded that all devices had the technical capacity to be able to run the lms. this is expected because all the devices tested met moodle's recommended hardware requirements, which were 5 gb disk space, 2 ghz dual-core processor, and 1 gb ram. discussion technologies that allow users to access an lms in areas with limited connectivity are growing. most existing studies have adopted various models of the raspberry pi as a web server to provide access to an lms. while the use of a raspberry pi in such contexts has shown great potential, the need to explore other types of micro-servers and compare their performance with the raspberry pi is important. since servers are computers that come in different sizes, shapes, and with different operating systems (istifanos & tekahun, 2020), providing a comparative evaluation enables those who are using an lms to select convenient technological solutions based on their contextual settings. our results show that except for the low-spec tablet, the raspberry pi, high-spec tablet, and chromebook (in the configuration stated above) are viable solutions for the deployment of an offline lms. the chromebook had the best response time followed by the raspberry pi and the high-spec tablet. these findings corroborate a similar study by istifanos and tekahun (2020) that compared the performance of a raspberry pi and a laptop. the authors found that both laptop and raspberry pi performed well with more than 100 users but the laptop had better performance. however, the performance of the raspberry pi can be improved. for instance, dhuny et al. (2022) used a 3-tiered architecture, running the linux, apache/nginx, mariadb and php (lamp) stack on a 64-bit operating system (os) and a solid-state disk inside a raspberry pi, for performance evaluation and the relative response time improved by 11.9 s for a medium-sized course with 100 users with the upgrades. the findings above and our findings imply that theoretically, the raspberry pi, high-end tablets, and chromebooks can provide access for up to 100 users with adequate performance in terms 293 of response time and resource utilisation. therefore, in schools with many teachers (up to 100) the raspberry pi, a high-spec tablet, and a chromebook should be adequate micro-servers for the lms. however, limitations do need to be considered. practically, the raspberry pi has a limitation on the maximum number of devices that can be connected simultaneously to its hotspot. the raspberry pi used in this study (see table 3), when configured with minimal firmware, could support up to 19 devices simultaneously (rpi-distro, 2021). for the chromebook, an additional router is needed to provide a hotspot. this adds to the cost and requirements for reliable power for both the chromebook and the router. it is advisable to use a usb-powered router, powered using the chromebook itself. the random connectivity issues between chromebook and the router could also be a bottleneck to using the chromebook as a micro-server. regarding the tablets, in practice, they are limited by the number of users who can connect via hotspot. android tablets allow connecting only 10 devices simultaneously. however, since the testing was conducted using a simulation tool, the results indicate that when using an external router to connect more users, the tablet had good performance (less than 1,000 milliseconds response time for as many as 100 users). therefore, a tablet could be used as a micro-server for less than 10 users and if used without a router, and up to 100 users if used with a router. additionally, tablets require extra configurations to ensure that the server processes are not optimised, and they do not enter the sleep state. conclusion this study compared the performance of three lms micro-server setups (raspberry pi 4, chromebook, and tablets). all micro-servers had sufficient hardware resources to support the lms and passed the minimum performance requirements for smooth operation. all devices also had a software stack that supported all the features and functions provided by the lms. however, the main constraint was the i/o performance of these devices. furthermore, the actual installation process was still cumbersome. apart from the raspberry pi, the other devices still had limited tools and software incompatibility issues that made this process difficult. the results also show that the performance comparison of the micro-server between devices was influenced by hardware capability and other factors, including software stacks and platform optimisations. for instance, despite having the more powerful chip, the android devices had mixed performance results. this was due to software issues and the level of efficiency optimisations on these android devices. therefore, the main distinguishing factor that determined the suitability of the micro-server setup was the maturity and stability of the platform environment. the devices with better tooling and a more conventional software stack, i.e., the raspberry pi and chromebook, were still the better option for deploying offline micro-server solutions. the android platform was still too dynamic and not optimised for running server applications, despite the convenience and advantages. while all three micro-servers were low-cost (less than $1,000) the cheapest option was the raspberry pi; it cost only $200 compared to the high-spec tablet which cost $900 and the chromebook, which cost $700. note that, depending on the number of teachers in a school, all the devices might require an extra router, which would also add to the cost. in a country like 294 tanzania, where the government owns around 25,626 schools, considering adequate performance and cost savings, the raspberry pi appeared to provide an optimal solution. future work for this study is to deploy the micro-servers in real schools and evaluate their performance in practice as well as evaluate any practical issues that may arise. references adkins, s.s. (2013). the africa market for self-paced elearning products and services: 2011-2016 forecast and analysis. ambient insight. bervell, b., & umar, i.n. (2018). blended learning or face-to-face? does tutor anxiety prevent the adoption of learning management systems for distance education in ghana? open learning: the journal of open, distance and e-learning, 35(2), 159-177. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680513.2018.1548964 carvalho, a., machado, c., & moraes, f. (2019, october). raspberry pi performance analysis in real-time applications with the rt-preempt patch. 2019 latin american robotics symposium (lars), 2019 brazilian symposium on robotics (sbr) and 2019 workshop on robotics in education (wre). https://doi.org/10.1109/lars-sbr-wre48964.2019.00036 dhuny, r., peer, a.a.i., mohamudally, n.a., & nissanke, n. (2022). performance evaluation of a portable single-board computer as a 3-tiered lamp stack under 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems. array, 15, 100196. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.array.2022.100196 gadhave, v.d., & kore, s.n. (2016, may). portable attendance system integrated with learning management systems like moodle. 2016 ieee international conference on recent trends in electronics, information &amp; communication technology (rteict). https://doi.org/10.1109/rteict.2016.7808198 gamess, e., & shah, s. (2022, april 18). network performance evaluation of several raspberry pi models for ipv4 and ipv6. proceedings of the acm southeast conference. https://doi.org/10.1145/3476883.3520234 hajji, w., & tso, f. (2016). understanding the performance of low power raspberry pi cloud for big data. electronics, 5(4), 29. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics5020029 haßler, b., mtebe, j., abdelrahman, s., adam, t., kondoro, a., koomar, s., & mashauri, o. (2022). technology options for tcpd in tanzania [technical report. edtechhub.]. https://docs.edtechhub.org/lib/x8qrz5ej hennessy, s., d’angelo, s., mcintyre, n., koomar, s., kreimeia, a., cao, l., brugha, m., & zubairi, a. (2022). technology use for teacher professional development in lowand middle-income countries: a systematic review. computers and education open, 3, 100080. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.caeo.2022.100080 ibarra, m.j., huaraca, c., soto, w., & palomino, c. (2017, october). mlms: mini learning management system for schools without internet connection. 2017 twelfth latin american conference on learning technologies (laclo). https://doi.org/10.1109/laclo.2017.8120932 istifanos, m., & tekahun, i. (2020). performance evaluation of raspberry pi 3b as a web server [bachelor’s thesis. blekinge institute of technology.] digitala vetenskapliga arkivet. itu. (2021). the affordability of ict services. https://www.itu.int/en/itud/statistics/documents/publications/prices2021/itu_a4ai_price_brief_2021.pdf 295 komninos, a., simou, i., gkorgkolis, n., & garofalakis, j. (2019). performance of raspberry pi microclusters for edge machine learning in tourism. european conference on ambient intelligence. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/performance-of-raspberry-pi-microclusters-for-edgekomninos-simou/b7464258deb91e358c19f4620f8a7c9f5a14699d lima, d.b.c., silva lima, r.m.b., farias medeiros, d., pereira, r.i.s., souza, c.p., & baiocchi, o. (2019, october). a performance evaluation of raspberry pi zero w-based gateway running mqtt broker for iot. 2019 ieee 10th annual information technology, electronics and mobile communication conference (iemcon). https://doi.org/10.1109/iemcon.2019.8936206 maduranga, m.w.p., & ragel, r.g. (2016). comparison of load balancing methods for raspberry-pi clustered embedded web servers. https://doi.org/10.1109/icsec.2016.7859875 makakala, c. (2021). mobile internet price hikes in tanzania. what could go wrong? the citizen. https://www.thecitizen.co.tz/tanzania/oped/-mobile-internet-price-hikes-in-tanzania-what-couldgo-wrong--3303598 mcburnie, c., adam, t., kaye, t., & haßler, b. (2020). zero-rating educational content in lowand middle-income countries. edtech hub. https://doi.org/10.53832/edtechhub.0004 mtebe, j.s., mbwilo, b., & kissaka, m.m. (2016). factors influencing teachers’ use of multimedia enhanced content in secondary schools in tanzania. the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 17(2). https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v17i2.2280 mtebe, j.s., & raisamo, r. (2014). investigating perceived barriers to the use of open educational resources in higher education in tanzania. the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 15(2). https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v15i2.1803 mtebe, j.s., & raphael, c. (2018). a critical review of elearning research trends in tanzania. journal of learning for development, 5(2). https://doi.org/269 mukuni, j. (2019). challenges of educational digital infrastructure in africa: a tale of hope and disillusionment. journal of african studies and development, 11(5), 59-63. mwakisole, k., kissaka, m., & mtebe, j. (2018). feasibility of cloud computing implementation for elearning in secondary schools in tanzania. international journal of education and development using ict, 14(1). ncube, b.n., owolawi, p.a., & mapayi, t. (2020). adaptive virtual learning system using raspberry-pi. 2020 international conference on artificial intelligence, big data, computing and data communication systems (icabcd), 1-5. https://doi.org/10.1109/icabcd49160.2020.9183844 rahmat, r.f., saputra, t., hizriadi, a., lini, t.z., & nasution, m.k.m. (2019). performance test of parallel image processing using open mpi on raspberry pi cluster board. https://doi.org/10.1109/elticom47379.2019.8943848 rpi-distro. (2021, october 1). firmware-nonfree/debian/config/brcm80211/cypress at bullseye · rpidistro/firmware-nonfree. github. https://github.com/rpi-distro/firmwarenonfree/tree/bullseye/debian/config/brcm80211/cypress soto, c., jimenez, w., ibarra, m., moreano, l., & aquino, m. (2019, october). digital educational resources to motivate environmental education in rural schools. 2019 xiv latin american conference on learning technologies (laclo). https://doi.org/10.1109/laclo49268.2019.00052 unwin, t., kleessen, b., hollow, d., williams, j.b., oloo, l.m., alwala, j., mutimucuio, i., eduardo, f., & muianga, x. (2010). digital learning management systems in africa: myths and realities. open learning: the journal of open, distance and e-learning, 25(1), 5-23. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680510903482033 296 vaidya, k., patel, v., & gangrade, m. (2021). comparison between performance of raspberry pi 4b and laptop computer as a server. international research journal of engineering and technology (irjet), 8(11), 696-701. authors: dr. salome maro is a lecturer at the department of computer science and engineering in the college of information and communication technologies at the university of dar es salaam. she also works with the centre of virtual learning (cvl) as the coordinator for external online programs offered by the university of amity in india. dr. maro has done several consultancies with different government institutions in tanzania, where her main area of expertise is system analysis and design as well as business process re-engineering. her main areas of research are in software engineering and edtech, where she investigates how to utilise different modern and affordable technologies to improve teaching and learning activities. dr. maro holds a phd and an msc in software engineering from the university of gothenburg in sweden. she has published a number of papers in international peer reviewed journals and currently supervises both msc and phd students in the department of computer science. email: salomehonest@gmail.com dr. aron kondoro is a lecturer in the computer science and engineering (cse) department at the university of dar-es-salaam (udsm), tanzania. his research interests include information and communication systems security, iot, mobile computing, machine learning, and educational technology (edtech). his research and consultancy activities involve evaluating the effectiveness of information systems, developing secure ict systems, and using mobile technologies to develop applications for educational and financial use cases. aron has been involved in several projects, including retooling — designing multimedia enhanced content for secondary schools in tanzania; data mining of learning management schools in secondary schools (halostudy) and many others. email: awkondoro@gmail.com björn haßler is the director of open development & education (https://opendeved.net), a founding director at the edtech hub (https://edtechhub.org) and a visiting researcher at the faculty of education (university of johannesburg). he specialises in sustainable and scalable approaches for programme implementation. his research interests include digital technology (for education and research), teacher professional development, education systems research and equity/inclusion, work-based learning, and the role of organisational learning for effective research designs and programming. he is a passionate communicator with strengths in developing and leading successful collaborations, specialising in sustainable and scalable approaches for improving people's lives. email: bjoern@opendeved.net prof. joel s. mtebe is an associate professor of computer science at the university of dar es salaam in tanzania. he has been working as a consultant for the edtechhub, supporting the use of technology in supporting teachers' continuous professional development project for primary education in tanzania. joel has participated in several educational technology projects and innovations, such as data mining from online learning systems in schools (the halostudy system), and games-based learning and digital diaries for parental engagement. prof mtebe has supervised several master’s and phd students and has examined several theses and dissertations. email: jmtebe@gmail.com jamie proctor is edtech hub's country lead for tanzania. he is based in dar es salaam and coordinates different activities for the hub, such as research and engagement, specifically in tanzania. he also supports the helpdesk and sandbox work regionally across southern africa. before joining the edtech hub, he worked in dfid leading on edtech. his background is largely in tech — spanning the startup and the uk government digital worlds. email: jamie@edtechhub.org cite this paper as: maro, s., kondoro, a., haßler, b., mtebe, j., & proctor, j. (2023). deployment of offline learning management systems: comparing the performance of selected micro-servers in tanzania. journal of learning for development, 10(2), 280-296. microsoft word sulistyanajic.docx issn: 2311-1550 2023, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 267-279 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. effectiveness of guided inquiry-based mosiry e-module on the immune system in improving students' integrated science process skills (sps) yanti sulistyana, meti indrowati and joko ariyanto sebelas maret university, indonesia abstract: integrated science process skills online learning cannot be taught optimally so learning media are needed that can teach integrated, interactive, and practical sps. one such media is an emodule. this study aimed to determine the feasibility and effectiveness of guided inquiry-based emodule, or mosiry, in improving integrated sps of class xi students in the immune system subject. this research is a developmental research, using the 4d development design stages: 1) defining; 2) designing; 3) developing; and 4) disseminating. the sample was selected using a purposive sampling method. data was collected by using observation, interviews, questionnaires, and pretest/post-test; and data was analysed based on media feasibility, and effectiveness analysis. the results of this study were that the mosiry e-module is suitable for use as a learning medium for the immune system and could improve students' sps in the moderate category. keywords: e-modules, guided inquiry, integrated sps, and the immune system. introduction integrated science process skills (sps) empower students to be able to answer their questions, interpret what they observe, and design experiments to test their ideas (evriani et al., 2017). based on the regulation of the minister of education and culture or permendikbud (indonesian), no. 21/2016, the skill of designing an investigation with the correct procedure is one of the competencies that must be achieved in secondary level biology learning. integrated sps trains students to formulate hypotheses, identify variables, define variables operationally, describe relationships between variables, and organise data in tables and graphs to achieve an understanding of the material (joefrey, 2017). improved integrated sps enables students to better understand concepts, processes, and positive attitudes; students are expected to properly and correctly apply concepts that are understood in everyday life as a provision for them in dealing with social life (asis, et al., 2021; stephen, 2019). integrated sps must be taught because it plays a role in formal and lifelong education (leonor, 2015). based on data from the 2020 ministry of education and culture, indonesia, it is known that the results of the 2019 biology national examination proved that mastery of biology material had not reached 50%, especially with abstract material (kemendikbud, 2020). based on schleicher's 2018 data report on the 2018 pisa ranking in the field of science (schleicher, 2018), it is known that indonesia was still ranked 69 out of 71 countries, with a score of 396 points out of the highest total 268 of 707.93 points. students' integrated sps is still lacking, including the ability to hypothesise (fitriana et al., 2019), communicate (elvanisi et al., 2018), predict, determine variables, investigate, analyse, and arrive at conclusions (yunita, 2021). the integrated sps of 11th-grade science high school students in thailand is low, in descending order of formulating hypotheses, experimenting, interpreting data, making conclusions, operationally defining variables, identifying variables, and controlling variables (seetee et al., 2016). the low integrated sps can cause students' understanding of the material to be low, especially for abstract material such as the immune system material. the immune system material is complex (sumari, 2020) because it is so abstract and students find it challenging to visualise the material, especially the working mechanism of the immune system (raida, 2018), and the structure of antibodies or antigens (dawson et al., 2014). teachers also have difficulty in designing learning strategies for the immune system material because there are many sub-materials in the immune system material. so, to present this material, the teacher completes it by using the lecture method (raida, 2018). based on these facts, one of the factors that can cause a lack of integrated sps for students is the learning model. lecture learning does not expose students to problem-solving so students learn passively. this is exacerbated by online learning, where students have only a very short study time, and because some material is delivered only through videos, students interact just briefly with their teacher, so students can be more passive in their learning. passive students have difficulty acquiring their sps (sulistri et al., 2018). the learning model thought to help improve students' sps is the guided inquiry method (derilo, 2019; yildirim et al., 2016). the guided inquiry learning model can improve sps because, in the learning stage, it provides many opportunities for students to seek and find facts on their own through direct experience so that learning can be said to run optimally (rizal, 2014). based on the problems that have been described, it is necessary to have learning media that can apply guided inquiry learning, material visualisation, and interactive and practical study so that students can train in integrated sps during online and offline learning (sumari, 2020). the learning media offered are multimedia, namely, the combination of more than one media, including sound, text, graphics, animation and video (marjuni, 2019) into an interactive relationship (darmawan, 2012). e-modules are multimedia because they can contain practical learning materials, methods, and evaluations (istuningsih et al., 2018; wibowo, 2018) and images, videos, and material links can be included to help students visualise the material and create experiences and new learning as well as practice questions (hafsah et al., 2016; serevina, 2018). the use of e-modules in online and offline learning is necessary because learning can never be separated from technological developments. based on the background that has been stated, it is necessary to develop a guided inquiry-based mosiry e-module. to analyse the results of the research, the objectives of this research are: 1. what is the feasibility of the guided inquiry-based mosiry e-module on the immune system as a learning medium for class xi science students? 2. what is the effectiveness of the guided inquiry-based mosiry e-module in improving the integrated sps of class xi science students on the immune system? 269 methods research design the method used in this study was the 4-d method, which has four stages, namely define, design, develop, and disseminate (thiagarajan et al., 1974; lestari, 2018). the 4-d method is more concise but includes all stages so that it can produce products that meet good criteria and are empirically tested, that there is an analysis of the curriculum, which is the main reference in learning, and that there is an analysis of tasks and concepts that play a role in the goals and design of learning media. the products developed are then tested for feasibility and effectiveness. population and sample the population in this study included students of class xi science senior high school in one of the schools in surakarta city, central java province, indonesia, with a total of 203 students. the sample in this study was students of class xi science 4, totaling 30 students for limited trials and for large-scale trials. two other classes, namely, students of class xi science 1 as the control group, totaling 41 students, and students of class xi science 2 as the experimental group, which totaled 41 students. the purposive sampling method determined the sample (lenaini, 2021). samples were selected based on class homogeneity, class distribution, class xi science in the even semester, receiving immune system material, and owning a smartphone/laptop. the main requirement for allocating classes into control and experimental groups was that the class was homogeneous and normally distributed, which can be seen from the scores of students for each class on the semester exams. tools and techniques data collection used three techniques, namely: observation, interviews, and questionnaires. the observation technique was systematic observation and recording of the symptoms that appeared in the object of research. the interview technique collected information by asking questions orally, and these were then answered orally as well. the questionnaire technique is the collection of information by asking written questions, which are then answered in writing. there were three questionnaires in this study, namely a product validation questionnaire, a needs analysis questionnaire, and a response questionnaire (meilina et al., 2020). mosiry e-module validation: validation was done to check whether or not the learning media developed was valid. the preparation of the e-module validation sheet was based on a materials grid, media, and learning assessment instruments. response test: the response test was used to determine the response of students and education practitioners to the developed mosiry e-module. positive student responses can be used as a benchmark so that students feel more comfortable with the learning media used in the learning process (nugraha et al., 2013). the response test was carried out twice, namely, the small group response test and the large group response test. the small group test aimed to determine the feasibility of the media and its revision, and the large group test aimed to determine student responses to the media. effectiveness test: the effectiveness test was carried out using the pre-test/post-test control group design. pre-test/post-test control group design is a form of an experiment involving two groups, namely, the experimental group and the control group, which were selected through purposive sampling. the pre-test and post-test aimed to compare the data before and after being given treatment (khaatimah, 2017). the use of this technique aimed to determine the effectiveness 270 of the mosiry e-module in improving the integrated sps of class xi students on the material of the immune system. data analysis technique qualitative analysis qualitative data were obtained from observations, interviews, suggestions, and input from validators, as well as suggestions and input from the distribution of response tests to the mosiry e-module based on guided inquiry for the immune system material for class xi senior high school. quantitative analysis quantitative data were obtained from the results of needs analysis, media feasibility analysis, and media effectiveness analysis. the results of the questionnaire analysis of student needs and media feasibility analysis were in the form of a checklist (√) with a likert scale of 1 to 4, which has a gradation of choice from very positive to very negative, without hesitation choices. the likert scale can be used to measure the opinions, attitudes, and perceptions of a person or group (sugiyono, 2013). likert scale criteria are listed in table 1. table 1: criteria for the likert scale. criteria number very good 4 nice 3 less 2 much less 1 (meilina et al., 2020, p. 46) the validation analysis data collected was converted into percentage form through the formula: ps = n / n x 100% information: ps = score percentage n = total score obtained n = maximum score (akbar, et al., 2017, p. 137) the validation data presented were then categorised as validity/level of media feasibility. media eligibility categories are listed in table 2. table 2: media eligibility category. eligibility criteria eligibility level category 85.01 % 100.00 % very valid/appropriate can be used without revision 70.01 % 85.00 % valid/appropriate can be used but minor revision 50.01 % 70.00 % less valid/good it is recommended not to use because of major revision 01.00 % 50.00 % invalid/appropriate cannot be used (wulandari et al., 2020) 271 data analysis of effective results were in the form of pre-test/post-test scores. the pre-test/post-test values were then calculated using the normalisation-gain (n-gain) test formula, which is as follows: 𝑵 𝑮𝒂𝒊𝒏 = 𝑷𝒐𝒔𝒕 − 𝒕𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝑺𝒄𝒐𝒓𝒆 − 𝑷𝒓𝒆 − 𝒕𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝑺𝒄𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝑰𝒅𝒆𝒂𝒍 𝑺𝒄𝒐𝒓𝒆 − 𝑷𝒓𝒆 − 𝒕𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝑺𝒄𝒐𝒓𝒆 (nismalasari et al., 2016, p. 190) the resulting n-gain value is then categorised based on the level of the n-gain value. the category of n-gain values is shown in table 3. table 3: category n-gain. n-gain value interpretation 0.7 < g < 1 high 0.3 < g < 0.7 medium 0 < g < 0.3 low g = 0 no increase -1 < g < 0 there is a decrease (sundayana, 2014) results this research focused on developing a mosiry e-module based on guided inquiry to improve students' integrated science process skills on the immune system. the mosiry e-module was accessed via the internet in the search menu or via the link provided by the teacher. the mosiry emodule could be accessed anytime and anywhere. the e-module has a book-like appearance and could be opened according to page order or you could skip several pages, either back to the previous page or to the earliest or last page. it could be set to open pages automatically, search every word and zoom in or out. page minimisation could be shared with other students via email or through other communication channels. the e-module had links to materials, and assignments. links could be visited using a smartphone scan and directly link the user with material, assignments or a collection of assignments. the link could also contain a video explaining the material or assignment stimulus. table 4: components in the mosiry e-module. no. description display 1 there was a menu zoom in, thumbnails, auto flip, first, previous, page, next page, last, social share, enable full screen, and share. 272 2 students could access a scan code in the material section of the mosiry emodule. 3 students could access a scan code in the assignment section of the mosiry e-module. the e-module contained material on the immune system that could be used to learn biology online and offline. the mosiry e-module focused on investigative activities based on everyday problems presented by the applicable curriculum. before distributing the e-module, an e-module assessment was done based on the material, the media, and the learning experts. in addition to biology teachers and students, through a limited-scale field test, the following data were generated, as given in tables 5, 6 and 7. table 5: material expert assessment results data. no. assessment aspect value category 1. content feasibility aspect 98% very valid 2. aspek kelayakan penyajian 92.86% very valid average 96.43% very valid table 6: media expert assessment results data. no. assessment aspect value category 1. language and readability aspects 98% very valid 2. aspects of the feasibility of graphics 90.63% very valid average 95.31% very valid table 7: learning expert assessment results data. no. assessment aspect value category 1. aspects of guided inquiry 75% valid 2. integrated sps aspects 80% valid average 77.50% valid 273 table 5 shows that the value obtained from the expert validator of the content feasibility aspect was 98%, and the presentation feasibility aspect was 92.86%. the average value of material expert validation was 96.43% and had a very valid/very good category. table 6 shows that the value obtained from the media expert validator on the language and readability aspects was 98%, and the graphic feasibility aspect was 90.63%. the average value of media expert validation was 95.31% and had a very valid/very good category. table 7 shows that the value of the validator of the guided inquiry aspect of learning experts was 75%, and the integrated sps aspect was 80%. the average value of learning expert validation was 77.50% and had a valid/good category. the mosiry e-module, validated by material, media, and learning experts, was then put to a small-scale field test. the small-scale field test involved two biology teachers and 30 students, resulting in the data listed in tables 8 and 9. table 8: limited-scale field test for biology teacher assessment results data. no. assessment aspect value category 1. media aspect 90.63% very valid 2. material aspect 93.75% very valid 3. language aspect 87.50% very valid average 90.63% very valid table 8 shows that the teacher's assessment of the mosiry e-module on the media aspect was 90.63%, the material aspect was 93.75%, and the language aspect was 87.50%. the teacher's average assessment of the mosiry e-module is 90.63%, with a very valid/very good category. table 9: limited-scale field test for biology student results data. no. assessment aspect value category 1. media aspect 87.33% very valid 2. material aspect 89.33% very valid 3. language aspect 97.08% very valid average 91.25% very valid table 9 shows that the students’ assessment of the mosiry e-module on the media aspect was 87.33%, the material aspect was 88.96%, and the language aspect was 89.33%. the average student assessment of the mosiry e-module was 91.25%, with a very valid/very good category. the validated mosiry e-module was tested in a wide field by involving the module in learning activities and distributing response questionnaires to an experimental class of 41 students. this questionnaire contained an assessment with a likert scale from 1 to 4, as well as impressions and messages after using the mosiry e-module. the results of the response questionnaire in the large group test are listed in table 10. table 10 shows that students' responses to the mosiry e-module on the media aspect were 90%, the material aspect was 91.34%, and the language aspect was 96.34%. the average student assessment of the mosiry e-module was 92.56%, indicating a positive response. learning using the mosiry e-module received a very positive response from students; besides that, students also expected the development of a similar e-module for other biology materials. in learning to use the mosiry e-module a pre-test and post-test were conducted. the results of calculating the n-gain test pre-test/post-test values for the experimental and control class are listed in table 11. 274 table 10: large-scale field test results data. no. assessment aspect value category 1. media aspect 90% very valid 2. material aspect 91.34% very valid 3. language aspect 96.34% very valid average 92.56% very valid table 11: n-gain value. n-gain score test calculation results notes experiment class notes control class n-gain score n-gain score average 56.6704 average -27.0064 minimum -25.00 minimum -131.58 maximum 100.00 maximum 31.76 table 11 shows that the average value of the n-gain score of the experimental class was 56.6704, with a minimum value of -25.00 and a maximum value of 100.00. it shows that there is an increase in the value of the pre-test/post-test. meanwhile, the average value of the n-gain score for the control class is -27.0064, with a minimum value of -131.58 and a maximum value of 31.76. it shows that there is a decrease in the value of the pretest-posttest. based on the n-gain value, applying the mosiry e-module in biology learning could help improve the integrated sps of students in the medium category. in biology learning, using the mosiry e-module could improve students' integrated sps. the increase in students' integrated sps in each component was different. the improvement of students' integrated sps in each component is listed in table 12. table 12 shows an increase in the integrated sps of students in the medium category in the experimental class and a decrease in the integrated sps of students in the control class. in the control class, the students’ ability to formulate hypotheses increased with an n-gain score of 10.61, the ability to define variables decreased with an n-gain score of -40.48, and the ability to define variables operationally decreased with an n-gain score of -61.54, the experimental design ability decreased with the n-gain score of -33.33, and the data presentation ability increased with an n-gain score of 12.73. overall, the average n-gain score in the control class was -22.40. in the experimental class, the students’ ability to formulate hypotheses increased with an n-gain score of 57.58, the ability to define variables increased with an n-gain score of 37.29, the ability to define variables operationally increased with an n-gain score of 67.35, and the ability to design experiments increased with an n-gain score of 77.27. the ability to present data has increased with an n-gain score of 63.64. overall, the average n-gain score in the control class was 60.62. the product in a guided inquiry-based mosiry e-module was distributed to teachers throughout indonesia, with various representatives in each region. the distribution was done door-to-door for the surakarta area for as many as two schools, and google forms for national distribution to as many as 12 schools. based on the dissemination that was carried out, an assessment was done by the respondents (table 13). 275 table 12: table of n-gain of sps components. no. integrated sps component control class n-gain score experiment class n-gain score pre post pre post 1. formulation of hypothesis 34 41 10.61 34 72 57.58 2. variable definition 58 41 -40.48 41 63 37.29 3. operational definition of variables 61 37 -61.54 51 84 67.35 4. experimental design 67 56 -33.33 56 90 77.27 5. presentation of data 45 52 12.73 45 80 63.64 average 52,97 45.30 -22.40 43.37 77.89 60.62 conclusion decrease increase (moderate) table 13: dissemination assessment. no. assessment aspect value category 1. media aspect 93.75% very valid 2. material aspect 93.30% very valid 3. language aspect 91.07% very valid average 92.70% very valid table 13 shows that the teachers’ response to the mosiry e-module in the media aspect was 93.75%, the material aspect was 93.30%, and the language aspect was 91.07%. the average student assessment of the mosiry e-module was 92.70%. it shows that the teachers' response to the mosiry e-module was very positive. discussion mosiry e-module products based on guided inquiry the development of the mosiry e-module was carried out in the four stages suggested by thiagarajan et al. (1974) and lestari ( 2018), namely 4-d (define, design, develop and disseminate). the developed e-module was an e-module that integrates the syntax of the guided inquiry learning model. the syntax of learning using the guided inquiry method, according to kuhlthau, included: open, immerse, explore, identify, gather, create, share, and evaluate (kuhlthau et al., 2012). these stages can be simplified into problem orientation, problem identification, formulating hypotheses, collecting data, analysing data, and drawing conclusions. identifying variables, formulating hypotheses, and processing and presenting data are investigative skills required in middle-level biology learning (permendikbud, 2016). the guided inquiry syntax includes the investigation procedure in the student's integrated sps. therefore, the integrated sps can be increased with guided inquiry-based learning (suwardani et al., 2021). the learning process using the mosiry e-module was carried out by the stages of the guided inquiry activity based on opinions (hidayati et al., 2021), namely, through working on the questions contained in the learning activities in the e-module. work on the questions was done in groups, with the following stages: 1) orientation and identification of problems, with problems that connect the material with everyday life; 2) develop hypotheses, based on problem orientation; 3) collect and analyse data, through video links to material related to the problem; 4) communication, through presentation activities; and 5) making conclusions, making conclusions verbally and making posters. through this activity, students are expected to be able to practice investigations and train students in integrated sps. 276 eligibility of guided inquiry-based mosiry e-module the mosiry e-module, based on guided inquiry, was tested for feasibility by expert validators and practitioners. the results of the media expert validator showed a percentage of 95.31% and had a very good category, the material expert validator showed a percentage of 96.43% and had a very good category, and the learning expert validator showed a percentage of 77.50% and had a decent category. based on the validation results, mosiry's e-module practitioners had a very decent category, with a percentage of 90.63% for teachers and 90.63% for students. overall, the mosiry e-module based on guided inquiry had a feasibility of 91.25% with a very good/very valid category. in addition to the assessment as a percentage, the mosiry e-module validation also contained suggestions and input. before the large group test was carried out, suggestions and inputs from expert validators and practitioners were used to improve the mosiry e-module. effectiveness of guided inquiry-based mosiry e-module the effectiveness of the mosiry e-module can be determined based on the pre-test/post-test values calculated using the n-gain formula. based on the n-gain test, it is known that the n-gain score of the control class was -27.0064, which means that learning that has not been taught in the investigation was ineffective in improving students' integrated sps. in contrast, the experimental class had an n-gain score of 56.6704, meaning that learning using mosiry e-module was quite effective in improving students' integrated sps. conclusion the guided inquiry-based mosiry e-module was categorised as good by expert validators and practitioners. a. media expert: 95.31% (very decent category) b. material expert: 96.43% (very decent category) c. learning expert: 77.50% (decent category) d. practitioners 1) teachers: 90.63% (very decent category) 2) students: 91.25% (very decent category) overall, the mosiry e-module based on guided inquiry had a feasibility of 90.22% and had a very decent category. in the medium category, the mosiry e-module based on guided inquiry was categorised as effective for improving students' integrated sps. based on the research conclusion, this study suggests that teachers could use guided inquiry-based e-modules to improve their students' integrated sps, especially when dealing with abstract material. for future researchers, it is also suggested to distribute the e-module more widely. references akbar, f. & hartono, r. (2017). development of student activity sheets using the 4-d development model on disaster mitigation and disaster adaptation for class x high school. journal of geographic education, 22(2), 135-147. doi:https://doi.org/10.24815/jipi.v5i1.18979 asis, a., khaeruddin, k., & haris, a. (2021). study of the application of inquiry learning models on science process skills in physics learning. journal of science and physics education (jspf), 17(1), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.35580/jspf.v17i1.19035 darmawan, d. (2012). learning technologies. pt remaja rosdakarya. 277 dawson, m. & milne, g.r. (2014). immunological and blood products: pharmaceutical monographs (vol. 5). butterworth-heinemann. derilo, r.c. (2019). european journal of education studies basic and integrated science process skills seventh-grade learners. european journal of education studies, 6(1), 281-294. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2652545 elvanisi, a., hidayat, s., & fadillah, e.n. (2018). analysis of science process skills of high school students skills analysis of science process of high school students. journal of science education innovation, 4(20), 245-252. doi: https://doi.org/10.21831/jipi.v4i2.21426 evriani, e., kurniawan, y., & muliyani, r. (2017). improving integrated science process skills (sps) through the application of guided inquiry learning models with student generated representation (sgrs) strategies. journal of physics education, 5(2), 119-125. fitriana, f., kurniawati, y., & utami, l. (2019). analysis of students' science process skills on reaction rate material through the bounded inquiry laboratory model. journal of tadris kimiya, 4(2), 226-236. doi:http://doi.org/10.15575/jtk.v4i2.5669 hafsah, n.r.j., rohendi, d., & purnawan, p. (2016). application of electronic module learning media to improve student learning outcomes in mechanical technology subjects. journal of mechanical engineering education, 3(1), 106-112. doi:https://doi.org/10.17509/jmee.v3i1.3200 hidayati, s.n., sunyono, s., & sabdaningtyas, l. (2021). inquiry-based e-lkpd in effort to improve the fourth grade students’ learning outcome. international journal of educational studies in social sciences (ijesss), 1(3), 129-132. https://doi.org/10.53402/ijesss.v1i3.28 istuningsih, w., baedhowi, b., & sangka, k.b. (2018). the effectiveness of scientific approach using emodule based on learning cycle 7e to improve students ’ learning outcome. international journal of educational research review, 3(3), 75-85. https://doi.org/10.24331/ijere.449313 joefrey, r. & morales, m.p.e. (2017). investigating the effects of customized cognitive fitness classroom on students’ physics achievement and integrated science process skills. international journal of research studies in education, 6(3), 81-95. doi:https://doi.org/10.5861/ijrse.2016.1648 khaatimah, h. & wibawa, r. (2017). the effectiveness of the cooperative integrated reading and composition learning model on learning outcomes. journal of educational technology, 2(2), 78. https://www.neliti.com/id/publications/274210/efektivitas-model-pembelajaran-cooperativeintegrated-reading-and-composition-te#cite kemendikbud. (2020). national exam results report. educational assesment center. https://hasilun.pusmenjar.kemdikbud.go.id/#2019!smp!capaian_nasional!99&99&999!t&t&t&t&1 &!1!& kuhlthau, c.c., maniotes, l.k., & caspari, a.k. (2012). guided inquiry design: a framework for inquiry in your school. abc-clio. lenaini, i. (2021). purposive sampling techniques and snowball sampling. journal of historical studies, research & education, 6(1), 33-39. doi:https://doi.org/10.31764/historis.v6i1.4075 leonor, j.p. (2015). exploration of conceptual understanding and science process skills: a basis for differentiated science inquiry curriculum model. international journal of information and education technology, 5(4), 255-259. https://doi.org/10.7763/ijiet.2015.v5.512 lestari, n. (2018). procedural adopting the 4d model from thiagarajan: a study on the development of a biotechnology lkm using the pbl model for students. fst undana scientific journal of technology, 12(2), 56-65. https://ejurnal.undana.ac.id/index.php/jurnal_teknologi/article/view/1170 marjuni, a. & harun, h. (2019). the use of online multimedia in learning. idaarah: journal of education management, 3(2), 194. https://doi.org/10.24252/idaarah.v3i2.10015. 278 meilina, f., fadli, s., & maya, s. (2020). development of learning media in the form of miniature traditional houses on theme 7 for grade iv students at sdn 002 tebing, karimun regency. minda journal of education, 2(1), 44-51. https://ejurnal.universitaskarimun.ac.id/index.php/mindafkip/article/view/167/145 nismalasari, n., santiani, s., & rohmadi, m. (2016). application of the learning cycle learning model to science process skills and student learning outcomes on the subject of harmonic vibration. journal of education, 5(september), 188-194. doi: https://doi.org/10.23971/eds.v4i2.511 nugraha, a.d., binadja, a., & supartono, s. (2013). development of sets oriented constructivist teaching materials for redox reactions. journal of innovative science education, 2(1), 27-34. http://journal.unnes.ac.id/sju/index.php/jise permendikbud. (2016). regulation of the minister of education and culture of the republic of indonesia number 37 of 2018. jdih.kemdikbud.go.id. raida, s.a. (2018). identification of high school biology material is difficult according to the views of high school students and teachers in salatiga city. journal of biology education (jobe), 1(2), 209–222. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.21043/jobe.v1i2.4118 rizal, m. (2014). the influence of guided inquiry learning with multiple representations on science process skills and mastery of science concepts in junior high school students. journal of science education, 2(3), 159-165. http://journal.um.ac.id/index.php/jps/ schleicher, a. (2018). pisa 2018 insights and interpretations (p. 8). oecd 2019. seetee, n., coll, r.k., boonprakob, m., & dahsah, c. (2016). exploring integrated science process skills in chemistry of high school ช ◌ั◌้ นม ◌ั ธยมศ ◌ึ กษาตอนปลาย. international (humanities, social sciences and arts), 9(4), 247-259. https://he02.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/veridian-e-journal/article/view/64368/52804 serevina, v. & sari, i.j. (2018). development of e-module based on problem based learning (pbl) on heat and temperature to improve students’ science process skill. turkish online journal of educational technology, 17(3), 26-36. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ej1184205 stephen, i. & daikwo, s. (2019). manuscript info abstract introduction. international journal of advanced research (ijar), 9(05), 400-405. https://doi.org/10.21474/ijar01/12852 sugiyono. (2013). metode penelitian pendidikan pendekatan kuantitatif, kualitatif, dan r&d. alfabeta. sulistri, e., rosdianto, h., & lestari, w. (2018). student science process skills (sps) with the predict observe and explain (poe) model on energy matter. variable, 1(2), 66-72. https://doi.org/10.26737/var.v1i2.812 sumari, g.d. & aminatun, t. (2020). development of m-learning material on the immune system to improve critical thinking ability and learning independence for high school students. journal of mathematics and science education, 8(2), 103-113. doi: https://doi.org/10.21831/jpms.v8i2.21224 sundayana, r. (2014). educational research statistics. alphabet. suwardani, s., asrial, a., & yelianti, u. (2021). analysis of guided inquiry learning models on students' science process skills in science subjects in junior high school. scientific journal of biology education, 7(3), 185-194. doi: https://doi.org/10.22437/bio.v7i3.13072 wibowo, e.d.i. (2018). pengembangan bahan ajar e-modul dengan menggunakan aplikasi pengembangan bahan ajar e-modul. uin ril. wulandari, r.i., harlita, h., & nurmiyati, n. (2020). development of virtual laboratory learning media based on discovery learning immune system material for class xi mipa. educational research media: journal of research in education and teaching, 14(1), 61-70. https://doi.org/10.26877/mpp.v14i1.560 279 yildirim, m., calik, m., & ozmen, h. (2016). a meta-synthesis of turkish studies in science process skills. international journal of environmental & science education, 11(14), 6518-6539. http://www.ijese.net/makale/938.html yunita, n. & nurita, t. (2021). analysis of students' science process skills in online learning. pensa e-journal: science education online, 9(3), 378-385. https://ejournal.unesa.ac.id/index.php/pensa/article/view/41088 authors: yanti sulistyana is a lecturer in biology education, sebelas maret university, indonesia. email: yantisulistyana16@gmail.com meti indrowati is a lecturer in biology education, sebelas maret university, indonesia. email: metiindrowati@staff.uns.ac.id joko ariyanto is a lecturer in biology education, sebelas maret university, indonesia. email: jokoariyanto@staff.uns.ac.id cite this paper as: sulistyana, y., indrowati, m., & ariyanto, j. (2023). effectiveness of guided inquiry-based mosiry e-module on the immune system in improving students' integrated science process skills (sps). journal of learning for development, 10(2), 267-279. microsoft word san jose.docx issn: 2311-1550 2022, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 351-362 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. mothers as teachers: the new role of mothers in the new normal ariel san jose1, maria gregoria r. concepcion2 and buena san jose3 1southern philippines agribusiness and marine and aquatic school of technology 2higher college of technology, abu dhabi, united arab emirates 3independent researcher abstract: the covid-19 pandemic brought havoc to everyone but much more to child-rearing mothers. this qualitative study explored the new roles of mothers in the new normal specifically as being teachers to their children. six mothers, who had public and private elementary grade children were purposely chosen. information was gathered through a researcher-made validated interview questionnaire. collection of information was done online through facebook messenger and emails. data analysis produced six themes, namely, complication in becoming mother-teachers, benefits in teaching one’s own children, supervision of children’s studies, impression of children of the modular schooling, considerations on children’s learning and reflection on mothers’ learning. each theme was discussed thoroughly. to address the situation of these mothers, the department of education might consider giving support through home-visit tutorials. teachers could introduce strategies to mothers on how to manage the studies with their children. moreover, the local government unit (lgu) may initiate alternative solutions led by the department of social welfare and development (dswd) to unburden the mothers of their situations. keywords: mothers, teachers, roles, new normal. introduction many families have faced unexpected obstacles as a result of the covid-19 pandemic, and these longterm demands are likely to contribute to increasing stress among parents (adams et al., 2021). during the covid-19 pandemic, schools around the world shuttered their doors to prevent the virus from spreading. due to the physical closure, a rapid shift to distant learning occurred, putting more responsibility for learning on the shoulders of parents (aldossari & chaudry, 2020) especially on mothers who assumed much of the responsibilities at home (clark et al., 2021). according to misirli and ergulec (2021), parents who undertake home tutoring face a variety of issues, including a lack of knowledge of the materials, difficulties maintaining the child's motivation, a lack of patience and internet connectivity. it was also reported by kalsoom (2022) that mothers teaching their children in pakistan suffered a deterioration of their well-being and had their mental health affected, while said et al. (2021) said that in the united arab emirates (uae) mothers felt the pressures of time management and a negative effect on their jobs. however, o’reilley (2020) pointed out that despite the enormous burden on mothers, governments, the media, and society have all rejected, ignored, and ridiculed mothering. 352 in the philippine context, after nearly eight months of school closures, the department of education (deped) indicated that classes would resume in october 2020. however, the department of education mandated that blended-learning and modular methodologies be used instead of face-to-face instruction. cahapay (2021) reported that the basic education learning continuity plan (belcp) of the department of education uses print-modular learning, television-radio, and synchronous and asynchronous teaching methods. according to hernando-malipot (2020), the majority of pupils favoured print-modular learning over online learning out of all the deped's alternative modalities. as a result of this change, students stayed at home with their mothers who acted as their mentors. gonzales (2020) pointed out that the deped recommended parents should not act as teachers to their children but rather act as motivators and checkers to see if their children had completed their modules. teachers, on the other hand, became module collators and assessors. moms became teachers and, worst of all, answer-givers, because certain module questions were difficult to understand and key solutions offered were wrong. these scenarios brought further stress to a role that is already hard for mothers. according to susilowati and azzasyofia (2020), the added stress experienced by moms as teachers was due to their inability to supervise their children's education. the absence of learning tools, such as an internet connection and the digital literacy abilities of mothers, is cited by putra et al. (2020) as a source of difficulty in home-based schooling. the researchers hypothesised that parental characteristics such as socio-economic status and educational attainment can contribute to teaching efficacy. philippine mothers are now known for combining traditional and modern parenting techniques. this means that their commitment and perseverance are not confined to domestic responsibilities. they also strive for wellbeing in all parts of their lives, especially for their children (terol, 2016). rojas (2017) went on to say that philippine women are good nurturers of their children. according to hierarchy structure (2018), moms are the first teachers for children in a philippine home. given these traits of philippine women, it would be fascinating to see how they adapted to their new responsibilities of teaching their children as a result of covid 19. research questions this qualitative study explored the new roles of mothers during the new normal. it also looked into their first-hand experiences of being mothers and teachers to their children. specifically, this study sought to answer the following questions: 1. what were the reactions of mothers in their new role as teachers to their children? 2. how did mothers manage their dual roles? 3. how did the participants’ children find home schooling? 4. what insights did the mothers obtain from their experiences? theoretical lens this study was anchored on two propositions. first, the concept of the dual roles of the mother as a teacher, and second, family stress. according to claesson and brice (1989), the dual roles of mother and teacher are complementary. expectations for both roles, however, were vague and, in some cases, overly high. nonetheless, as teachers, mothers gained understanding and learned coping and benefiting skills for their dual function. in the context of the covid 19 pandemic, de jong et al. (2021) 353 noted that evidently the homeschooling of children had put extra demands on mothers who, according to darmody et al. (2020) and moore et al. (2020), assumed more responsibilities in the household. on the other hand, family stress involves stressors that affect the family such as physical and mental health concerns, economic, intensified child-parent relationships, and home schooling (wu & xu, 2020). family stressors can also be characterised into three layers of family meanings: (1) situational meanings, (2) family identity, and (3) family worldview (patterson & garwick, 1994). the occurrence of covid-19 can be considered a situation meaning. cassinat et al. (2021) found that the pandemic increased strain and commotion within the many families, and these changes had ramifications for numerous family connections, consistent with a family stress perspective. these two concepts were appropriate in the current study because they looked into the new roles of mothers with school-aged children and at the same time determined the stresses the covid-19 pandemic had brought to the mother and child relationship. methods research design the qualitative-interpretive phenomenology was applied in this investigation. if the research attempts to examine the individual's personal lived experiences, opinions, and viewpoints, the qualitative technique is frequently used, according to torres et al. (2020). in addition, according to qsr (2010), qualitative methods are concerned with an individual's learned information, acquired behaviors, formulated motivations, and desire as a result of the experience. the qualitative method was used because the researchers wanted to learn about the first-hand experiences of mothers who acted as mentors to their children during the covid-19 outbreak. interpretive phenomenology, on the other hand, makes it easier to explain and comprehend the individual's experiences with the phenomenon (benner, 1994; friesen et al., 2012; koch, 1996; rae, 2000; van manen, 1997). research instrument the researchers created interview-guide questions based on the research questions to acquire the necessary information. there were four main and ten follow-up questions. all the questions were open-ended to give the participants the opportunity to elaborate on their experiences. according to weller et al. (2018), open-ended inquiries allow participants to respond spontaneously, and elucidate salient information while wright and powell (2006) said that it elicits narratives. the mothers' reactions to their new job as mentors to their children, how they managed their new situations, how their children found the new set-up of learning modality, and the key learning they obtained were all explored in this study. before giving the interview guidelines to all the mothers, two mothers were given the interview guide questions to test its face validity. face validity is the degree to which an instrument appears to measure what it is designed to measure, according to alhooti and urubio (2019) and janssen et al. (2017). for internal validity, the instrument was also given to three qualitative-expert validators. validators' comments and suggestions were integrated into the instrument. the researchers conducted these steps to strengthen the authenticity and credibility of the instrument. research participants all six mothers in this study had first-grade students enrolled in either public or private schools. moreover, all mothers were housekeepers and had no teaching experience. "lyn" was the first 354 participant and she was 31 years old. she has completed high school. her husband was a call center agent. "cheng," the second participant, was 29 years old and the mother of two children. she had also completed high school. her husband was employed as an auto-mechanic. "zel," a 47-year-old mother of two, was the third participant. she previously worked in japan. she had earned her bachelor's degree. "vanilla," a 47-year-old mother of two, was the fourth participant. she was a college graduate. her husband worked in the academe. "christ," the fifth participant, was 37 years old and the mother of two children. she was a high school graduate. participant 6 was "vangie." she had three children. she was a college graduate. lyn’s, cheng’s, vanilla’s and christ’s children were studying in public schools while zel’s and vangie’s children were studying in private religious schools. mothers whose children were beyond the first grade were not included in this study. furthermore, only moms who consented to participate in the study were considered participants. lastly, this study did not assess mothers' satisfaction on the modular approach's implementation of the deped. scope and limitations snowball sampling was used to choose the participants for this investigation. they were chosen because: (1) they were housekeepers, (2) they had first-grade children, (3) they were not teachers or had prior teaching experience, and (4) they were residents of talomo district, davao city. due to the limited number of participants, the findings of this study cannot be applied to all mothers with firstgrade children attending public and private schools during the covid-19 pandemic. the results may only apply to the mothers who took part in the study. however, the researchers suggested that another quantitative investigation with a larger sample size could be undertaken to confirm or challenge the findings of this study. ethical consideration every study requires authors to report on the ethical implications of their research. this is to see if the study was carried out in a compassionate manner (connelly 2014). similarly, human participants must be protected by the application of appropriate ethical principles (arifin, 2018); research participants must be protected at all times during the study (pietilä et al., 2020). in this study, the researchers observed consent and principles of justice during the conduct of the study, as well as strictly observing informed consent, non-deception, confidentiality, and principles of social justice. informed consent. before starting the study, the researchers used philippine indigenous methods (fim) such as pakikipagkwentuhan (chatting) and patanong-tanong (asking questions), pagmamasid (observing) and pakikipagpalagayang-loob (building rapport). after implementing these, the researchers learned about the conditions of the mothers. they were caught unprepared and challenged by the new set-up. then, the researchers wrote letters of consent to selected mothers. consent letters were given through emails as attachments or messengers. the consent was deemed necessary since it demonstrated respect for the participants' autonomy. non-deception. this was addressed by including the research objectives and names and contact information of researchers in the interview guide protocols. this was done so that participants could contact the researchers at any time if they had any questions or concerns. 355 confidentiality. this is critical in the stewardship of participants' personal information, according to duncan et al. (2011). furthermore, kaiser (2012) and holt (2021) stated that confidentiality involves ensuring that no one other than the researchers have access to the participants' information in order to avoid antagonism. in this study, the participants were given pseudonyms by the researchers in order to maintain their anonymity. social justice. tang and bao (2020) opined that understanding the situations of the participants at the time enhances social justice for them. likewise, russell (2019) averred that giving value and priority to a certain issue is also a way of promoting justice. the researchers decided to publish this study to an internationally refereed journal so that the issue of mothers as teachers could be disseminated and gather an audience. also, this study was presented at a few conferences where it obtained much affirmation. results and discussion the findings were arranged in a three-column table (see table 1). each column contains the themes, core ideas, and frequency of response, respectively. the responses were categorised into three groups: general, typical, and variant. the frequency of response pattern of the information was judged as general if it reached 50% or more; typical if it reached 21 to 49%; and variant if it reached less than 20%. table 1: themes and core ideas on mothers as teachers themes core ideas frequency of response complication in becoming a teacher to the child having difficulty in adjusting general benefits in teaching own child making more time general focusing on their studies supervision of children’s studies managing time by scheduling general controlling emotions delaying gratification typical stopping the teaching when the child is tired applying strategies learned from school impressions of children in the modular schooling getting bored and missing their classmates general having difficulty answering the module’s questions consideration on the learning of the child having time to focus on their studies general realizing the importance of time and education variant reflection on mothers’ experiences teaching is not easy especially your own child general exercising more patience in teaching the child typical supporting your children in their education variant source: data analysis of the information obtained 356 complication in becoming a teacher to the child all mothers admitted that the new set-up created much difficulty on their part. they needed to adjust in terms of time, the attitude of their children, and answering the module’s questions. the reactions of mothers revealed that they were concerned about their children's education. they lacked confidence in themselves and couldn't rely on their own ability to instruct. they were also concerned about their children's behavior because, in their experience, their children tended to follow their teachers' instructions. vangie was the only one of the five mothers who hired a tutor. she did it to relieve herself of her children's academic obligations. this means that a family's economic circumstances could make it easier for mothers to teach their children. as a result of covid-19, women confronted a range of challenges, according to crosslin and bailey (2021), including higher effort, blurring boundaries between a mother and a teacher, and the house becoming a school place. furthermore, the findings were comparable to those of parczewska (2020), who discovered that a number of polish moms described the covid-19 situation as difficult, and that the responsibilities associated with home schooling were beyond their abilities. mothers are frequently doubtful of their own abilities and solutions, and they were concerned about the futures of their children. to eliminate mothers' misgivings and reduce their uncertainty, the researchers feel that extensive cooperation and collaboration between parents and instructors is required. teachers need to make regular house visits so that students can develop a personal connection with their teachers as an example of coordination and collaboration. home visits during the epidemic, according to mañosca (2021), foster communication not only between parents and teachers, but also between teachers and pupils. according to flack et al. (2020), teachers should also be concerned about their pupils' emotional well-being during the covid-19 pandemic, that is teachers need to focus more on maslow’s hierarchy over bloom’s taxonomy. benefits in teaching one’s own child despite their difficulties, the moms typically recognised the advantages of teaching their children. they were able to devote more time to their children's schooling and bonding. mothers and their children were found to spend more time at home with each other. this situation suggests that, despite the increased strain, moms were able to find the bright side of the situation. despite the benefits of this situation, kokhanova et al. (2021) discovered that many parents were dissatisfied with distance learning due to the lack of total contact and engagement with students and teachers. furthermore, abuhammad (2020) reported that most parents were opposed to remote learning because of personal, technical, logistical, and financial obstacles. supervision of children’s studies mothers usually agreed that they needed to manage their time when it came to their children's schooling. they set aside time to respond to the modules as well as time to play. however, due to tiredness, there were moments when the specified schedule was not adhered to. furthermore, the moms acknowledged that they had to control their emotions and exhibit patience when teaching their children. mothers were more anxious when the questions in the modules were challenging and they 357 needed to conduct research to find answers. mothers with higher educational attainment had an easier time understanding than those moms who did not. typically, some mothers used a delayed gratification strategy with their children, preparing favourite snacks or presenting gifts after the modules were completed. when other mothers notice that their children were already sleepy, they set a time limit and gave them a break. similarly, some mothers used tactics that they had learnt in their schooling. according to bembenutty (2021), some moms employed delayed gratification to keep their children motivated, maintained a high level of selfefficacy, and kept their cognitive and affective systems in a healthy balance. duran and grissmer (2020) pointed out that immediate gratification, rather than delayed gratification, might teach youngsters self-control. furthermore, octaberlina and muslimi (2020) stated that providing pupils with breaks was essential for pupils to recover their energy and relax their minds. impressions of children in the modular schooling the mothers generally stated that their children missed the face-to-face method, yearned for their classmates, and were bored. because of the inter-agency task force's (iatf) age-restriction policy, their children rarely left the house; as a result, they spent much of their time at home with their mobile phones. furthermore, the majority of the modules presented to the youngsters were difficult to work through. images were confusing, directions were imprecise, and critical responses were inaccurate. furthermore, tasks that needed performance outputs, such as making reflections, giving personal definitions of terms, sketching humans and animals, and others, were not age-appropriate. the majority of the mothers were irritated by this. the errors discovered by the mothers in the modules corresponded to reports in online newspapers by rappler's magsambol (2020) and cnn philippines (nicholls, 2020) that the deped’s self-learning modules (slms) contained factual, typographical, and computation equation errors, as well as spelling and grammatical errors. it was observed that mothers with a college education noticed module errors more than those who had not. consideration on the learning of the child with the new normal, most mothers stated that they and their children had more time to concentrate on their education. they were, however, dubious about their ability to teach. other moms, on the other hand, believed that, despite their difficulties, their children's education remained their first priority, and that they were willing to sacrifice. de jong et al. (2021) expected that mothers' selfefficacy in teaching would have a substantial impact on how they dealt with the added responsibilities of homeschooling. similarly, they predicted that parental characteristics such as social-economic status and stress would have an impact on their teaching self-efficacy. it was interesting to note that mothers with higher educational attainment were more patient to their children. on the contrary, mothers with lower educational attainment were stricter and impatient. they imposed stern study schedules for their children. reflection on mothers’ experiences most mothers revealed that teaching their own children was not easy because, admittedly, they were not equipped with the knowledge and strategies. they were forced to accept the responsibility of teaching their children because they had no choice. moreover, some mothers realised that they needed to have more patience and understanding for their children. other mothers mentioned that they were ready to sacrifice to support their children’s education. 358 this study is consistent with dps kolar and road bhopa's mother-teacher concept, which states that mothers comprehend and adjust for their children. they were always concerned about the well-being of their children and were willing to make sacrifices to ensure their success. this finding also suggested that covid-19 had a significant impact on mothers' psychological well-being, emotions, and family relations (clark et al., 2021). in the same vein, kalsoom (2021) stated that, due to the epidemic, moms confront challenges such as balancing job and family life, finding space and resources to teach their children, and learning new skills to teach their children. mothers had little choice but to accept their circumstances and, worse, suffer from mental confusion as a result of their multiple responsibilities. conclusion admittedly, all mothers lack knowledge of the new set-up which brings many difficulties on their part. they have no choice but to adapt to the new situation. their concern for their children's education implies they value education despite the fact that not all of them finished their education. this attitude of the mothers reflects the filipino value of education. on the other hand, the mothers lacked confidence in mentoring their children and concern for their children's behavior implies that, in terms of education, they trusted the teachers. to take the dual roles of mothers, the mothers set timetables for module learning and play. likewise, they needed to control their emotions and prolong their patience. some mothers also employed delayed gratification. this implies that mothers can develop a quick approach based on their children's attitudes. home schooling makes the children bored and they want to have face-to-face schooling. due to the restrictions, most children cannot go outside but instead stay at home with their electronic gadgets. boredom is a natural reaction among children; however, yearning to have the old face-to-face classroom implies that the children are not used to the new set-up, which is modular and online. although most mothers were doubtful of their ability to teach their children, however, they are thankful that they can give time to the education of their children. the pandemic allows them to bond. they realised that despite the challenges they encountered in dealing with the education of their children, it remains their priority and they are willing to sacrifice for the children. implications to address the situation of these mothers, the deped may consider giving support through homevisit tutorials. teachers may introduce strategies to mothers on how to manage studies with their children. moreover, the lgu may initiate alternative solutions led by the department of social welfare and development (dswd) to unburden the mothers of their situations. references abuhammad, s. (2020). barriers to distance learning during the covid-19 outbreak: a qualitative review from parents’ perspective. heliyon, e05482. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/s2405844020323252 alhooti, s. e., & urubio, m. l. (2019). an effective project selection criteria: a key to successful project delivery for small to medium enterprises in kingdom of bahrain. ijo-international journal of business management, 2(09), 54-67. http://www.ijojournals.com/index.php/bm/article/view/224 359 arifin, s. r. m. (2018). ethical considerations in qualitative study. international journal of care scholars, 1(2), 30-33. https://journals.iium.edu.my/ijcs/index.php/ijcs/article/view/82 bembenutty, h. (2021). sustaining motivation and academic delay of gratification: analysis and applications. theory into practice, (in press). https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00405841.2021.1955555 benner, p. (1984). from novice to expert: excellence and power in clinical nursing practice. addison-wesley. https://journals.lww.com/ajnonline/citation/1984/12000/from_novice_to_expert__excellence_and_power_i n.27.aspx cahapay, m. b. (2021). philippine basic education learning continuity plan: creating space for indigenous peoples toward inclusive post-covid-19 education. international journal of pedagogical development and lifelong learning, 2(1). https://www.researchgate.net/profile/michaelcahapay/publication/346474579_philippine_basic_education_learning_continuity_plan_creating_space_f or_indigenous_peoples_toward_inclusive_post-covid19_education/links/5fc44519299bf104cf93e2a3/philippine-basic-education-learning-continuity-plancreating-space-for-indigenous-peoples-toward-inclusive-post-covid-19-education.pdf claesson, m. a., & brice, r. a. (1989). teacher/mothers: effects of a dual role. american educational research journal, 26(1), 1-23. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3102/00028312026001001 clark, s., mcgrane, a., boyle, n., joksimovic, n., burke, l., rock, n., & o’sullivan, k. (2021). “you’re a teacher you’re a mother, you’re a worker”: gender inequality during covid-19 in ireland. gender, work & organization, 28(4), 1352-1362. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/gwao.12611 connelly, l. m. (2014). ethical considerations in research studies. medsurg nursing, 23(1), 54-56. https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=gale%7ca360608990&sid=googlescholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn =10920811&p=aone&sw=w&usergroupname=anon%7e30a1ae48 crosslin, l., & bailey, l. e. (2021). mother school leaders negotiated blurred lines between work and home during covid 19. planning & changing, 50. https://education.illinoisstate.edu/downloads/planning/crosslin_pandc_50.3-4.pdf darmody, m., smyth, e., & russell, h. (2020). the implications of the covid-19 pandemic for policy in relation to children and young people: a research review. survey and statistical report series, 94. http://www.tara.tcd.ie/bitstream/handle/2262/96590/sustat94.pdf?sequence=1 de jong, p. f., schreurs, b. g., & zee, m. (2021). parent–child conflict during homeschooling in times of the covid-19 pandemic: a key role for mothers’ self-efficacy in teaching. https://psyarxiv.com/feuj9/ duncan, g. t., elliot, m., & salazar-gonzález, j. j. (2011). why statistical confidentiality? in statistical confidentiality (pp. 1-26). springer. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4419-7802-8_1 duran, c. a., & grissmer, d. w. (2020). choosing immediate over delayed gratification correlates with better school-related outcomes in a sample of children of color from low-income families. developmental psychology, 56(6), 1107. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2020-21374-001 flack, c. b., walker, l., bickerstaff, a., earle, h., & margetts, c. (2020). educator perspectives on the impact of covid-19 on teaching and learning in australia and new zealand. melbourne, australia. pivot professional learning. https://inventorium.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/pivot-professional-learning_state-ofeducation-whitepaper_april2020.pdf 360 friesen, n., henrikson, c., & saevi, t. (eds.). (2012). hermeneutic phenomenology in education: method and practice. sense publishers. https://books.google.com.ph/books?hl=en&lr=&id=bw95grzzyjyc&oi=fnd&pg=pr5&dq=friesen,+n.,+henr ikson,+c.,+saevi,+t.+(eds.).+(2012).+hermeneutic+phenomenology+in+education:+method+and+practice.%c 2%a0rotherdam,+the+netherlands:%c2%a0sense+publishers.&ots=th62c9uxxk&sig=0wp5etctnebkquf ctllnixombqo&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false gonzales, c. (2020, october). parents as teachers at home? deped says they’re needed to ‘motivate’ kids. inquirer.net. https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1343835/parents-as-teachers-at-home-deped-says-theyre-neededto-motivate-kids#ixzz6jp05u5uy hernando-malipot, m. (2020 july). deped: most students prefer ‘modular’ learning over online. manila bulletin. https://mb.com.ph/2020/07/03/deped-most-students-prefer-modular-learning-over-online/ hierarchy structure (2018). filipino family hierarchy. https://www.hierarchystructure.com/filipino-familyhierarchy/ janssen, e. m., marshall, d. a., hauber, a. b., & bridges, j. f. (2017). improving the quality of discrete-choice experiments in health: how can we assess validity and reliability? expert review of pharmacoeconomics & outcomes research, 17(6), 531-542. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14737167.2017.1389648 kaiser, k. (2012). protecting confidentiality. the sage handbook of interview research: the complexity of the craft, 457-465. https://books.google.com.ph/books?hl=en&lr=&id=vcfszsvzdwkc&oi=fnd&pg=pa457&dq=kaiser,+k.+(20 12).+protecting+confidentiality.+the+sage+handbook+of+interview+research:+the+complexity+of+the+craf t,+457-465.&ots=aruhpyibz7&sig=zbwqya_jml9uy9jzfcdwbtgvnc8&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false kalsoom, q. (2021). covid-19: experiences of teaching-mothers in pakistan. journal of gender studies, 1-13. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09589236.2021.1923464 koch, t. (1996). implementation of a hermeneutic inquiry in nursing: philosophy, rigour and representation. journal of advanced nursing, 24, 174-184. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1046/j.13652648.1996.17224.x kokhanova, o. p., stolyarchuk, o. a., & sorokina, o. (2021). benefits and risks of distance learning for the first-year students' adaptation. https://elibrary.kubg.edu.ua/id/eprint/35495/ magsambol, b. (2020, october 23). 30 errors found in deped's learning modules. rappler. https://www.rappler.com/nation/errors-identified-deped-learning-modules-distance-learning mañosca, e. c. o. (2021). parental involvement in home visitation: its relation to students personal development amidst the pandemic. epra international journal of multidisciplinary research, 7(6), 342-352. https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2c5&q=ma%c3%b1osca%2c+e.+c.+o.+%282021%29.+ parental+involvement+in+home+visitation%3a+its+relation+to+students+personal+development+amidst+th e+pandemic.%c2%a0epra+international+journal+of+multidisciplinary+research%2c%c2%a07%286%29 %2c+342-352.&btng= moore, q., beebe, j., & bakhiet, z. (2020). hidden figures: the economic impact of covid-19 on low-income women and their children. issue brief no. 04.09.20. rice university’s baker institute for public policy. https://doi.org/10.25613/eyn0-gf68 nicholls, a. c. (2020, october 23) 41 errors in self-learning modules monitored by deped. cnn philippines. https://www.cnn.ph/news/2020/10/23/41-errors-self-learning-modules-monitored-by-deped-.html parczewska, t. (2020). difficult situations and ways of coping with them in the experiences of parents homeschooling their children during the covid-19 pandemic in poland. education 3-13, 1-12. 361 pietilä, a. m., nurmi, s. m., halkoaho, a., & kyngäs, h. (2020). qualitative research: ethical considerations. in the application of content analysis in nursing science research (pp. 49-69). springer, cham. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-30199-6_6 putra, p., liriwati, f. y., tahrim, t., syafrudin, s., & aslan, a. (2020). the students learning from home experiences during covid-19 school closures policy in indonesia. jurnal iqra: kajian ilmu pendidikan, 5(2), 3042. qsr international. (2010). what is qualitative research? http://www.qsrinternational.com/ what-is-qualitativeresearch. aspx. rae, d. (2000). understanding entrepreneurial learning: a question of how? international journal of entrepreneurial behaviour and research, 6, 145-159. https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/13552550010346497/full/html rojas, j. f. m. (2017, may 14). the roles of mothers. business mirror. https://businessmirror.com.ph/2017/05/14/the-roles-of-mothers/ russell, s. t. (2019). social justice and the future of healthy families: sociocultural changes and challenges. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/fare.12358 susilowati, e., & azzasyofia, m. (2020). the parents stress level in facing children study from home in the early of covid-19 pandemic in indonesia. international journal of science and society, 2(3), 1-12. http://ijsoc.goacademica.com/index.php/ijsoc/article/view/117 tang, h., & bao, y. (2020). social justice and k-12 teachers' effective use of oer: a cross-cultural comparison by nations. journal of interactive media in education, 2020(1). https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ej1253879 terol, n. (2016 may 23). new truths about filipino moms. business mirror. https://businessmirror.com.ph/2016/05/26/new-truths-about-filipino-moms/ torres, r. m. v., sangala, l. j. t., san jose, a. e., & mortos, a. r. (2020). untold stories of student-mothers’ academic journey: a phenomenology. journal of studies in social sciences and humanities, 6(4), 158-169. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/ariel-san-jose/publication/347355080_untold_stories_of_studentmothers'_academic_journey_a_phenomenology/links/5fda1328299bf14088139331/untold-stories-ofstudent-mothers-academic-journey-a-phenomenology.pdf van manen, m. (1997). researching the lived experience: human science for an action sensitive pedagogy (2nd ed.). althouse press. https://books.google.com.ph/books?hl=en&lr=&id=1lzmdaaaqbaj&oi=fnd&pg=pp1&dq=van+manen,+m .+(1997).+researching+the+lived+experience:+human+science+for+an+action+sensitive+pedagogy+(2nd+ed.). %c2%a0ontario,+canada:%c2%a0althouse+press.&ots=qwdz9ycro4&sig=0avuwjwgjzdnuv_8fr6syn7 ze7e&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false weller, s. c., vickers, b., bernard, h. r., blackburn, a. m., borgatti, s., gravlee, c. c., & johnson, j. c. (2018). open-ended interview questions and saturation. plos one, 13(6), e0198606. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0198606 wright, r., & powell, m. b. (2006). investigative interviewers' perceptions of their difficulty in adhering to openended questions with child witnesses. international journal of police science & management, 8(4), 316-325. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1350/ijps.2006.8.4.316 authors: ariel san jose formerly worked at gulf college, oman and is presently a faculty member at the institute of human service at the southern philippines agribusiness and marine and aquatic school of technology, malita, davao occidental. email: ariel.sanjose@spamast.edu.ph 362 maria gregoria r. concepcion is a former lecturer at gulf college, oman and is currently a lecturer at the higher college of technology, abu dhabi. email: maria.con1920@gmail.com buena san jose formerly worked at the office of the registrar at the university of the immaculate conception, davao city. email: ayensanjose30@gmail.com cite this paper as: san jose, a., concepcion, m. r. g., & san jose, b. (2022). mothers as teachers: the new role of mothers in the new normal. journal of learning for development, 9(2), 351-362. microsoft word kinyua.docx issn: 2311-1550 2021, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 171-181 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. 171 when the trainer is untrained: stakeholder incapacitation in implementation and utilisation of open educational resources in kenya ann hildah gatakaa kinyua chuka university, kenya abstract: open educational resources (oer) are geared towards promoting accessibility to education and to help overcome certain constraints to education associated with traditional ways of learning. however, these oers can only be successfully rolled out and utilised in environments already enjoying certain infrastructural empowerments, including teacher-preparedness, availability of equipment to allow use of oers and learner exposure and knowhow. this poses a major hurdle in many public and private schools in kenya, which are in far-flung areas without electricity, mobile-phone connectivity, internet services and serviceable roads that allow movement to a cyber cafe where internet services may be accessed at a fee. these difficulties are encountered by both teachers and their learners. this paper seeks to discuss the challenges faced in implementation of oers, especially by the teachers who are expected to sensitise learners to the availability and utilisation of oers, while they themselves are either unaware of them, poorly trained to handle them or are under-facilitated to carry out their mandate. the study was carried out in tharaka-nithi county, kenya. the county was chosen because challenges related to oer have been reported there. the county has 104 secondary schools. a sample size of 45 schools representing 20% of the respondents was considered sufficient for the study. a questionnaire was used to obtain data on the teachers’ ict competencies, their awareness of and attitudes towards oer and the challenges they faced in the implementation of oer. the study found that utilisation of oer stands at about 3% as a result of ignorance regarding oer or a negative attitude towards them, poor ict skills amongst the teachers and poor or inadequate resources within and around the schools. keywords: open educational resources (oer), educational infrastructure, teacher competence. introduction as part of youth empowerment programmes in the country, the government of kenya, through the communications commission of kenya (cck), has aggressively set out to improve digital communications structures countrywide. this has especially been emphasised in education institutions. as a necessary support, the government, through the last mile initiative, has also made efforts to increase electricity connectivity countrywide to increase access to electronic devices, especially for youth. as a matter of policy there are efforts to connect primary and secondary schools in even the remotest parts of kenya. in the last two years alone, the government has ensured that nearly 70% of kenyan public primary schools, up from about 20%, are connected to electricity, thereby, facilitating the laying and use of ict networks and other infrastructure (orwenjo & erastus, 2018). the kenya institute of curriculum development (kicd) has embraced oer in instruction and, 172 in conjunction with the ministry of education, is in the process of rolling out a new competence based curriculum (cbc) which advocates for critical thinking, creativity and digital literacy. by policy, secondary schools are required to have mandatory computer classes for all learners and funds have been provided to ensure internet connectivity, at least within the school compound, with a view to creating avenues for use of oers. the cape town open education declaration exalts the availability of oers, free for all to use in a world where each person on earth can access and contribute to the sum of all human knowledge. however, the declaration goes on to acknowledge that there are hurdles in the utilisation of oer resources and their integration in promoting instruction and learning. this paper discusses these and other barriers that have hampered the utilisation of oers in educational institutions in tharaka-nithi county. tharaka-nithi county is one of the 47 administrative counties in kenya introduced with the promulgation of a new constitution in 2010. it is in the eastern parts of kenya. geographically, the county features extremes in land and climatic conditions: zones with fertile, arable lands with climatic conditions conducive for agriculture on one hand, and zones with arid or semi-arid lands with hostile climatic conditions on the other. however, in all these zones we have primary and secondary schools with students competing for the same opportunities. in kenya schools are categorised as national, extra-county, county or sub-county schools. national schools are the top schools; they enrol students who score the highest marks in the kenya certificate of primary education (kcpe), the kenyan national exam taken at the end of primary school learning. they have to admit students from all parts of the country, following some specific guidelines.1 all of them are boarding schools and usually they are primed with human and physical resources and have enough infrastructural facilities, either through direct government funding or through stakeholder participation.2 there are only two national schools in tharaka-nithi county, ikuu boys and chogoria girls national schools. extra-county schools admit above-average, same-sex students from within the county and the neighbouring counties, again, according to a quota system. they have large student populations and usually enjoy sensible infrastructural support, including enough classrooms, well-equipped science laboratories, learning materials and boarding facilities. there are 23 extra-county schools in tharakanithi county. county schools admit students from within the county only. the majority of them are boarding schools but in recent years some have admitted day scholars. depending on the locality and stakeholder support these schools enjoy poor to fairly good learning support facilities but teacher numbers have to be supplemented through bom3-employed teachers who take up teaching as a parttime job as they wait for a “better” job. a good number of them admit both boys and girls. there are 32 county schools in tharaka-nithi. sub-county schools are lowest in the ranks: apart from enrolling students who do not post very impressive marks in kcpe, they are also home to bright but needy students who cannot afford the higher cost of being in faraway extra-county and national schools. many of them emerged as community initiatives in response to the free tuition secondary education (fste) initiative introduced by the government in 2008 to address the high cost of education and poor transition rates 173 from primary to secondary school (ohba, 2009). through ftse the government pays kes 10265 per student while parents meet costs like uniforms, lunches, transport and boarding fees for those in boarding schools. sub-county schools accommodate many learners who cannot attend schools far away from home due to the attendant costs. they are generally poorly funded and being day schools are “mixed”; they lack amenities like running water or electricity. being far flung and oftentimes infrastructurally difficult to access, they also suffer a constant shortage of teachers, despite a hardship allowance paid out monthly to teachers who serve in the remote areas of the county, and many times learners have to settle for inexperienced, oftentimes untrained bom-employed teachers. these schools mostly have semi-permanent shelters for classrooms and administration offices and have the barest minimum in the name of science laboratories, though, they are an absolute necessity for preparation for the final course exam, kenya certificate of secondary examination (kcse) which has practical exams in biology, chemistry and physics. there are 47 sub-county schools in the county. literature review open educational resources (oer) are freely accessible, openly licensed text, media, and other digital assets that are useful for teaching, learning, and assessing as well as for research purposes. the term open educational resources first came into use at a conference hosted by unesco in 2002 and was defined as “the open provision of educational resources, enabled by information and communication technologies, for consultation, use and adaptation by a community of users for non-commercial purposes” (johnstone, 2005). oer designates teaching, learning and research materials in any medium, digital or otherwise, that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions. the definition of oer now most often used is: “open educational resources are digitised materials offered freely and openly for educators, students and self-learners to use and reuse for teaching, learning and for research” (unesco). oer provide an alternative to the rising costs of education — it is a movement in education that seeks to counter costly, commercially produced learning content, typically textbooks, with publicly accessible content that is licensed so that it can be freely distributed and shared. it alleviates the burden of student debt while providing opportunities to students who might not otherwise be able to afford or access learning materials. in response to the effectiveness of oer compared to traditional commercial textbooks, research now indicates that oer are equally or more effective (undp, 2016). increased access to the internet and computing devices by individuals and schools have been instrumental to the growth and institutionalization of the movement toward open educational resources. in explaining the concept of the openness of resources, materu (2004) emphasises free availability over the internet and as few restrictions as possible on the use of the resource, whether technical, legal or price barriers. on the other hand, downes (2006) argues that the concept of ‘open’ entails, at a minimum, no cost to the consumer or user of the resource and questions whether certain resources that require registration or subscription membership or even a small fee to access can indeed be called open. in the technical domain, tuomi (2006) posits that technical constraints, such as lack of interoperability and the unavailability of technical specifications can limit openness, where those who conceptualise oer fail to put into account different user system interfaces, or where learning resources that can be used are located behind passwords in learning management systems and not available to external users. 174 the cape town open education declaration notes that by use of oers, “educators worldwide are developing a vast pool of educational resources on the internet, open and free for all to use. these educators are creating a world where each and every person on earth can access and contribute to the sum of all human knowledge. educators, learners and others who share this belief are gathering together as part of a worldwide effort to make education both more accessible and more effective.” however, the declaration goes on to acknowledge that there are hurdles in the utilisation of oer resources and their integration in promoting instruction and learning. part of these include lack of awareness amongst educators as well as lack of government support towards implementation, borne out of ignorance or lack of conviction about the usefulness of the resources. this paper discusses these and other barriers that have hampered the utilisation of oer in educational institutions in tharakanithi county, kenya. theoretical framework data analysis for this paper was done against the background of two theories: human capital theory (schultz, 1981), and educational production functions (coleman, 1966). human capital theory posits that human capital consists of knowledge, skills and abilities of the people employed in an organisation. bontis, crossan and hulland (2001) define human capital as the individual knowledge stock of an organisation as represented by its employees — the human factor in the organisation; the combined intelligence, skills and expertise that give the organisation its distinctive character. competence includes skills and education, while attitude covers the behavioural component of the employees’ work. intellectual agility enables one to change practices and to think of innovative solutions to problems. human capital, therefore, signifies any stock of knowledge or characteristics the worker has, either innate or acquired, that contribute to his or her productivity. this theory has been employed in this paper in commentaries on the abilities of teachers to utilise and implement oer in instruction. the education production function theory, as applied in education, examines the relationship among the different inputs into the educational process and outcomes of the process. it relates various inputs affecting a student’s learning, for example, schools, families, peers and neighbourhoods, to measured outputs including subsequent labour market success, college attendance, graduation rates, and, most frequently, standardised test scores. this theory has been applied in this paper with regard to data related to the availability of teaching/learning resources and the infrastructural support within and around the school. research questions this study was guided by two research questions: 1. what teacher-based challenges hinder the implementation and utilisation of oer in secondary schools in tharaka-nithi county? 2. what infrastructural challenges hinder the implementation and utilisation of oer in secondary schools in tharaka-nithi county? 175 methods population and sample the study was located in tharaka-nithi county, kenya. this was a quantitative research study that employed a descriptive research design. the study population comprised teachers in all the 104 secondary schools in the county. through stratified sampling, four extra county schools, five county schools and six sub-county schools were selected for the study. however, the two national schools in the county were purposively included in the study. from each school, four teachers (each from form one to form four) were randomly selected. in total 68 teachers participated in the study. they all had the requisite qualification to teach in kenyan secondary schools — either a diploma or a bachelor’s degree in their areas of specialisation. their ages ranged from 24-55 years and their teaching experience varied from 3-25 years. data collection and analysis the study used structured questionnaires to collect primary data. the questionnaires were tailored to capture information on teachers’ levels of education, their ict competencies, adequacy and state of facilities within the school and supporting infrastructure in the schools. faculty members who are experts in educational technology reviewed the questionnaire to improve on its face and content validity. to improve on its reliability, the questionnaire was piloted in the neighbouring embu county which has similar characteristics as tharaka-nithi county. the questionnaire was responded to through a face-to-face interaction with the respondents. the data collected was cleaned up and keyed in for analysis aided by the statistical package for social sciences (spss) version 22 for microsoft windows. findings the study’s findings are presented and discussed under the following themes: teacher-based challenges and resource-based challenges in the implementation of oer in tharaka-nithi county following research questions 1 and 2, respectively. teacher-related challenges lack of awareness an overwhelming majority (92.4%) of the teachers were unaware of oer. having not been beneficiaries of such resources themselves they came into the field with a mindset fixated on traditional texts as the only source of educational learning. this was especially the case with teachers who had been in service for over fifteen years. they admitted to knowing that there is a lot of information on just about everything on the internet but they were not aware that part of that information could actually help them in delivering their subject content to their learners. these finding are similar to those of a study by bateman (2006) amongst university students and lecturers, whereby, nearly every respondent was ‘unfamiliar’ with the concept of oer. teachers’ ict skills slightly more than half (52%) of the respondents had basic computer skills and rated their computer skills as either good or fair. the younger teachers formed the bulk of this group. almost half (48%) of the respondents admitted to having very poor ict skills. however, they could operate their smart 176 mobile phones. these included the older teachers who also had been in service for many years. of the computer literate teachers, 88% were self-taught, especially out of necessity, when pursuing higher education. teachers who had pursued post-graduate studies, both the younger and the older ones, had better ict skills because it was a necessary skill in the pursuit of their studies. as a result, their ict abilities were selective, based on what was relevant during their studies. while some were proficient at microsoft word applications, they were incompetent at ms excel or ms powerpoint. negative attitudes one hurdle to the implementation of oer was the poor attitude some teachers had towards them. even in the schools with operational computers and the internet, 63% of the teachers reported viewing the setting up of classes for oer utilisation as an unnecessary bother, because they had to make prior arrangements to access computer rooms that were inadequate and move their students from their regular classrooms. sometimes, they reported, the computer room attendants were not cooperative, as this exercise required extra attention on their part. in addition, 38% of teachers who tried to use oers reported being victims of negative attitudes from their colleagues. this came, especially from the older colleagues with poor ict skills, who equated use of oers by the younger teachers as a way to show-off their ict skills. incompatibility with kcse syllabus although 33% of the respondents were aware of oer, more than three quarters of them rarely, or never, used them. when asked why they did not use oer in spite of being aware of them, one, a teacher of english and literature, and also a beneficiary of open resources for english language teaching (orelt) training, said, “no time. i am always trying to cover the syllabus using the prescribed texts from the ministry of education.” the ministry of education, through the kenya institute of education (kie), approves course books and syllabus content for all subjects taught in primary and secondary schools. in turn, the kenya national examination council (knec) is mandated to set national exams based on this content. the points of emphasis in the kcse syllabus are different from those in the oer materials and, therefore, this incompatibility discourages teachers from using oer because they might view them as a waste of precious time.4 this problem has been escalated by the current score-based syllabus that has seen instruction and learning in kenyan schools reduced to a drill to pass the national exams, a problem that is hoped to be remedied by the introduction of the competence based curriculum, cbc.5 teachers who had exposure to orelt materials judged the orelt materials as being shallow in content as compared to the kie approved textbooks. resource-based challenges open education resources are supported by relevant infrastructure. as bateman (2006) observes oer are open and free only theoretically because, in reality, especially in the developing world, these resources are neither open nor free to those unable to access the basic yet necessary infrastructure: electricity, computers with affordable software and the internet. challenges encountered in the implementation of oers in tharaka-nithi county are discussed hereunder. 177 lack of power connectivity despite efforts to improve electricity connectivity countrywide, this has not been realised in many parts of the country. more than a fifth (22%) of the schools are not connected to the national grid. this is especially the case in the arid tharaka sub-county. the majority of the schools without electricity in the county are in this area. the lack of electricity meant that schools could not buy computers, as indicated by 89% of the teachers. thirteen percent of the schools use generators as a power source but these are switched on at particular times, mainly for two to three hours for evening preparations and for two hours just before dawn for the benefit of the boarding students. the respondents cited the impossibility of using generators to run computers for any oer classes, and so many of these schools do not have computer classes. the lack of a reliable power supply also means teachers used their mobile phones sparingly, because teachers usually must pay for recharging fees in the nearest facility where power is available. this discouraged them from using their mobile phones for any oer interactions. inadequate school facilities sub-county schools are poorly funded and under-facilitated day schools have the bare minimum in terms of basic school amenities. many of these schools have semi-permanent structures for classrooms, staff rooms, and administrative offices. many are in areas that have no electricity, which means that teachers and students have no access to even a cyber cafe. kamacabi secondary school in tharaka, for example, is 21 km away from the nearest market that enjoys electricity services. gaciongo secondary school has electricity and teachers admitted to having a computer room with a few computers, which only the computer lessons’ teacher has access to. teachers from certain county and sub-county schools declared that they had some computers from the government which are, however, in a store because their schools had yet to build permanent rooms where they could be placed for access. this was a common problem because, out of security concerns, permanent and customised facilities were needed for the placement of computers, yet there were no resources to build these facilities. in both of the national schools, where we expect resources to be adequate or nearly adequate, the ratio of computer to students is 1:40. in a girls’ extra-county school in a semi-urban area and which enjoys internet connectivity, there is an average of 55 students per class but there is only one computer room with 17 working computers. this means that at least three students must share one computer whenever they have computer lessons, reducing the individual interaction and therefore learning effectiveness, one of reasons the teachers cited for their reluctance to take students to the computer laboratory. with such a situation computer accessories, like overhead projectors, video and audio players and cassettes, all of which are meant to aid and promote use of oer, are obviously out of reach for these schools. poor ict connectivity over 70% of the teacher respondents admitted to having both power and some computers in their schools. however, in many schools in the tharaka area there was no mobile phone signal or internet connectivity. government efforts to lay an underwater fibre optic cable that has subsequently seen increased internet connectivity and speed to 15 mbps throughout the country were yet to reach these extremely remote areas. even in schools that have computer facilities and internet service another major hurdle was that internet connectivity was limited only to the administrative offices. some 178 innovative teachers used their private modems to access information but used them only sparingly because they were expensive to fund. some teachers in schools with limited connectivity cited uncooperative staff as a reason they are reluctant to seek out oer in such environments where only the school secretary’s computer, for example, is internet-serviced. poor institutional support while discussing the use of oer in universities, bateman (2006) laments the lack of concrete structures to see to their implementation. this is replicated in high schools; while the ministry of education through the kicd had embraced the use of oer, they have not, however, set a framework for their utilisation, nor in empowering staff through focused training, in accommodating oer in the timetable nor in serious resource mobilisation. often it is individual institutions or teachers who work out a criterion for their use and often with little regard to the consistent use, sustainability, or future role of oer. on the ground, individual institutions also fail to offer teachers the requisite support for the use of oer in classroom instruction. some science teachers who had used their modems and mobile phones for certain practical demonstrations to the students said it was too expensive to be done regularly as the schools did not refund the cost of the internet bundles used. seven language teachers who had attempted to use orelt were also frustrated by the requirement to teach harmonised content across the stream even when the other streams might be handled by teachers who are not aware of oer or have no competence to handle them. computers teachers also complained that they were able to achieve very little learning during the stipulated 40 minutes lesson especially with such few computers. requests to have computer classes during extra but paid hours (for example, weekends) were not usually supported by the management. while some schools had extended internet services to the staff room, management from many schools were reluctant to do this, citing costs, and yet many teachers felt that this would make access to oer and other information easier, and it would enable them to enrich their lesson content. discussion of findings one thing that was very clear from the findings of this paper is that over 90% of teachers teaching in secondary schools in tharaka-nithi county are ignorant of the concept of oer. furthermore, some teachers who are aware of oer lack the ict skills to be able to effectively use them. in the light of human capital theory this is a pointer towards less productivity owing to lack of knowledge and expertise of the teachers, which calls for action on the part of the education managers — firstly, there is a need to do in-service training to sensitise the teachers to the existence and importance of oer. secondly, it is imperative that this in-service training extends to equipping all teachers with a measure of ict competencies that could ensure their participation in the utilisation of oer. in the long run this will update the workforce for more productivity. the education production function theory relates the different inputs to the educational process and outcomes of the process. the findings of this study reveal that in order to promote learning in secondary schools in tharaka-nithi county, there is a real need to update facilities in and around the schools to give the teachers and students an opportunity to use oer. united nations sustainable development goal no. 46 cites reasons for lack of quality education as lack of adequately trained teachers, poor conditions of schools and equity issues related to opportunities provided to rural children (undp, 2016). kenya, being a member state, should show commitment to this ideal by 179 ending the tokenism mentality evident in policy without implementation follow-up. apart from ensuring electricity and internet connectivity throughout the country, specifically in the extremely remote parts of tharaka-nithi, funding of schools should be done equitably to ensure that every school in the county has proper tuition and boarding facilities, including functional science laboratories and computer rooms. this tokenism is evident in the equipping of schools; even in schools with internet connectivity, very little learning by way of oers can take place in an environment where 1300 students share 30 computers as individual learners’ interaction with these computers is minimal. conclusion by embracing the use of oer, the ministry of education in kenya, through kicd, has taken a step in the right direction. however, there is a need to follow up policy with implementation: the kicd should work out a policy framework for the implementation of oer and not just leave it to individual institutions or teachers to apply them in accordance with their respective means or abilities. this should include in-service training to promote teachers’ ict skills, developing curricula that integrate oer and equipping schools with relevant resources. in their turn teachers and other instructors should recognise and appreciate oer as a useful supplement to their traditional teaching resources. they must be willing to align themselves in the direction the educational world is going by actively updating their ict skills and making efforts to integrate oer as they impart knowledge to their learners. apart from steering the country in the direction of shared knowledge worldwide, this will also ensure equity of opportunities for learners countrywide, who are competing for the same opportunities regardless of the category of school they are in or the locality in which the school is situated. this fact has been forcefully brought home in the face of the world-wide covid-19 pandemic which has virtually frozen traditional methods of instruction and learning. in kenya, the minister for education has been at pains to explain his claim that learners are continuing their learning online when only less than 10% of the learners in both primary and secondary schools have access to any form of online learning platform. this should be a wake-up call to the government to ensure that all learning institutions in the country are upgraded and facilitated to adopt and incorporate technology in learning and instruction. notes 1. the quota system was enacted in 1978 to promote the admission of students from disadvantaged areas to kenya's secondary schools. students selected from these areas may have specified lower marks to gain admission into the national schools. 2. main stakeholders will be the sponsoring denomination and the alumni association. 3. school management in kenya are overseen by boards of management (bom) which from time to time approve local employment of teachers and support staff when there are none forthcoming from the government. 4. in orwenjo and erastus (2018) teachers cited difficulties in the preparation of lesson plans based on orelt materials because of incompatibility of learning activities whereby those in the oer had no direct socio-cultural and pedagogical relevance to the local situations in the kenyan schools. 5. the kenyan cbc is a new system of education designed by the kenya institute of curriculum development (kicd) team and launched by the ministry of education in 2017. the cbc is designed to 180 emphasise the significance of developing skills and knowledge and applying those competencies to reallife situations. however, its implementation is facing a lot of opposition from teachers’ unions and parents’ associations that complain that there was no proper stake-holder engagement before its implementation. 6. the 17 sustainable development goals (sdgs) are the world's best plan to build a better world for people and our planet by 2030 (https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/). adopted by all united nations member states in 2015, the sdgs are a call for action by all countries — poor, rich and middle-income — to promote prosperity while protecting the environment. references bateman, p. (2006). discussion paper: the avu open educational resources (oer) architecture for higher education in africa. oecd expert meeting — barcelona. bontis, n., crossan, m., & hulland, j. (2001). managing an organizational learning system by aligning stocks and flows. journal of management studies, 39(4). coleman, j. s., campbell, e. q., hobson, c. j., mcpartland, j., mood, a., weinfeld, f. d., & york, r. l. (1966). equality of educational opportunity. washington, dc: government printing office. downes, s. (2006). models for sustainable open educational resources. national research council, canada. http://www.oecd.org/document/32/0,2340,en_2649_33723_36224352_1_1_1_1,00.html johnstone, s. (2005). open educational resources and open content, background note. international institute for educational planning, internet discussion forum on open educational resources, open content for higher education. materu, p. (2004). open source courseware: a baseline study. the world bank, washington, dc. orwenjo, d. o., & erastus, f. k. (2018). challenges of adopting open educational resources (oer) in kenyan secondary schools: the case of open resources for english language teaching (orelt). journal of learning for development, 5(2), 148-162. schultz, t. w. (1981). investing in people: the economics of population quality. university of california press. tuomi, i. (2006, october). open educational resources: what they are and why do they matter. http://www.oecd.org/edu/oer united nations development programme (2016). sustainable development goals. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/ author: dr. ann hildah kinyua is a lecturer of english and linguistics in the department of humanities, chuka university, kenya. she holds a bed (arts) from kenyatta university, an ma (english) from egerton university and a phd in linguistics from chuka university. she is currently undertaking an ma in forensic linguistics at california university of pennsylvania. her main research interests are in syntax and morphology, linguistic typology, sociolinguistics and applied linguistics. she also has interest in education and pedagogical practice. email: hgatakaa@chuka.ac.ke 181 cite this paper as: gatakaa, a. h. g. (2021). when the trainer is untrained: stakeholder incapacitation in implementation and utilisation of open educational resources in kenya. journal of learning for development, 8(1), 171-181. microsoft word mohd.docx issn: 2311-1550 2022, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 331-339 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. learning preferences of generation z undergraduates at the university of cyberjaya natasha mohd ishak1, harikrishnan ranganathan1* and kamalambal harikrishnan2 1physiotherapy programme, faculty of allied health sciences, university of cyberjaya, selangor, malaysia 2st.francis international school, chennai, india *corresponding author email: hari4physio@gmail.com abstract: a new generation (generation z) of learners has entered universities/colleges. they were raised in an environment full of technology and high access to the online world which well affected their preferences for receiving information. it is indispensable to know their preferred learning style, which could aid in enhanced content delivery. the main aim of this study was to infer the gen z undergraduates’ learning preferences. in this cross-sectional study, convenience sampling was applied. the vark questionnaire link was forwarded through the student whatsapp groups. descriptive and group comparisons were inferred using the chi-square test with p < 0.05 as level of significance. three hundred gen z undergraduates from university of cyberjaya participated in this study. there is a statistically significant higher preference for multimodal learning (75.7%) with higher preference among male gen z undergraduates. there is a statistically significant difference in the preference for various learning styles among the undergraduates who preferred unimodal learning style. gen z undergraduates at the university of cyberjaya preferred the multimodal form of learning while the kinaesthetic mode of learning was highly preferred by both unimodal and multimodal learners. keywords: generation z, gen z, learning preferences, learning style, undergraduates, vark. introduction a learning style implies an individual’s desired way to absorb, process, understand and preserve information. in simple terms, it is the way that various students learn (tophat.com, 2020). it performs a vital role in learners’ lives (akram awla, 2014). a better knowledge and comprehension about the various styles will be increasingly important as classroom volume increases (romanelli, 2009). moreover, educators can attempt to modify their teaching style to fit their students’ learning styles (akram awla, 2014). it has been reported that identifying learning styles at the primary education level may aid learners’ achievement and reduce negative student attitudes about certain lessons (özerem & akkoyunlu, 2015). we believe information about the undergraduates’ learning styles may also yield similar benefits. it is indispensable for undergraduates to be self-aware about their learning preferences in order to modify their study techniques accordingly (wehrwein et al., 2007). moreover, recognising their learning styles is inevitably vital from a pedagogical point of view (afshan, 2019). multimodal learning refers to learning through a combination of various modes such as visual, aural, read/write and kinaesthetic. in previous studies, (baykan & nacar, 2007; ojeh et al., 2017; sarabiasiabar et al., 2015; urval et al., 2014) the majority of the students preferred the multimodal style of 332 learning when compared to the unimodal style, however, there is a different preference in mode of learning among unimodal learners. research among bachelor’s medical and health science students in three universities in malaysia has shown a preference (78.04%) for the unimodal style of learning and the most common learner type is read/write (wong et al, 2017). though less preference (10%) for multimodal learning is noted in another study conducted among polytechnic students in a private university in malaysia, there is a higher preference (34.2%) for visual learning (othman et al., 2019). the above findings depict a diversity in student preferences of learning styles. application of learning style inventories to improve students’ self-awareness is not explored much (childs-kean, et al., 2020). a study among academicians in the uk depicted that though there is a general belief in application of learning styles, only one-third of them were applying it (newton & miah, 2017). prior to implementing learning style-based teaching, it is worthwhile to understand the preferred learning style(s) of them (payaprom & payaprom, 2020). especially it is required to explore this among the new generation of learners (generation z) who entered tertiary education in the last decade (ding, guan, & yu, 2017). generation z (gen z) are people born after millennials between the mid-1990s and the early 2000s (howe, 2014). gen z grew up in a high-tech, on-demand, hyper-connected and impatient environment. gen z is the first global generation with high interest in and avenues for learning (hampton & keys, 2016). technology has a powerful influence on the learning of gen z (nicholas, 2019). teaching gen z is challenging , since educators have to shift from conventional teachinglearning approaches and are required to find various strategies to teach in order to reach their imagination, interest and understanding (cilliers, 2017). it has been expected that these digital natives would have a unique preference and learning style. hence, inferring the learning style of gen z students is inevitable. we tracked a study about the learning preferences of gen z students in malaysia, however, they did not differentiate the preference of learning styles among students of various programmes (othman et al., 2019). the findings of this study will add to the literature related to learning style preferences among gen z undergraduates. the impact of various factors such as gender and programme of study on learning style preferences were also inferred in this study. methods this study is a cross-sectional study and used the convenience sampling method. the sample size for this study was calculated using rao soft sample size calculator. the calculation was based on 5% margin of error, 95% confidence level and 50% response distribution. this study obtained approval from university of cyberjaya research ethics committee. the inclusion criteria of the study were undergraduate students born after 1994 irrespective of year of study. this study was conducted between march 2020 and september 2020. all the undergraduates were given an information sheet, consent form and questionnaire in a google form that was distributed through whatsapp. in this study a reliable (leite et al., 2010) and valid (fitkov-norris & yeghiazarian, 2015) vark questionnaire was utilised to find out the learning preferences of each participant. other demographic information such as the gender and programmes of the undergraduates were taken into context. this survey ceased once we achieved the response of the calculated number of sample size (n = 300). 333 data analysis the data from google forms were downloaded in a microsoft excel worksheet and analysed using spss (version 22, ibm corp., armonk, new york). descriptive statistics such as frequency and percentage were calculated. the chi-square test was used to infer mode of learning preferences based on the vark mode of learning, and differences in learning preference based on gender and programme among gen z undergraduates in the university of cyberjaya. results undergraduates’ demographic details were tabulated in table 1. more female undergraduates (63%) participated in this study. both malaysian and non-malaysian undergraduates were involved in this study. undergraduates from seven programmes of four faculties (medicine, pharmacy, allied health, and traditional/complementary medicine) were involved in this study. there is no equal representation of students from various programme of study as provided in table 1. table 1: demographic details variable n (%) gender male female 110 (36.7) 190 (63.3) programme* bphysio bbet mbbs bpharm bosh bhms bpsy 38 (12.7) 19 (6.3) 90 (30) 37 (12.3) 54 (18) 9 (3) 53 (17.7) *bphysio-bachelor in physiotherapy bbetbachelor of biomedical engineering technology bpharm – bachelor of pharmacy mbbsbachelor of medicine and bachelor of surgery bpsybachelor of psychology bosh – bachelor in occupational safety and health bhms – bachelor of homeopathic medical science learning style preferences of undergraduates were tabulated in table 2. most of the undergraduates (75.7%) were multimodal learners while only a quarter of them preferred unimodal learning. based on a chi-square test there was a statistically significant χ2 (1, n = 300) = 79.053, p < 0.05 preference for multimodal learning in comparison to unimodal learning. among the overall learning preferences (including unimodal learners and multimodal learners) there was a slightly higher preference of kinaesthetic mode of learning followed by read/write and auditory mode of learning. a similar pattern of preference was noticed among the unimodal learners where a statistically (chi-square) significant difference χ2 (3, n = 73) = 15.932, p < 0.05 was deduced. 334 table 2: learning preferences variable n (%) level of significance learning preferences unimodal multimodal 73 (24.3) 227 (75.7) 0.000* learning preferences (vark) (unimodal +multimodal learners) visual auditory read/write kinaesthetic 208 (69.3) 208 (69.3) 212 (70.7) 239 (79.7) vark preferences of unimodal learners visual auditory read/write kinaesthetic 10 (13.7) 11 (15.1) 21 (28.8) 31 (42.5) 0.001* *p < 0.05 preferences in learning style based on gender and programme of study is tabulated in table 3. there is a significant difference χ2 (1, n = 300) = 9.037, p < 0.05 in the learning preferences between male and female undergraduates. there is a higher preference for multimodal learning (85%) among male undergraduates. however, there is no significant χ2 (6, n = 300) = 2.607, p > 0.05 difference in unimodal versus multimodal learning based on the programme of the study. the majority of the gen z undergraduates (> 66%) irrespective of programme of study preferred multimodal style of learning. table 3: difference of learning preferences based on gender and programme variable unimodal multimodal asymptotic sig. n (%) n (%) gender male female 16 (14.5) 57 (30.0) 94 (85.5) 133 (70.0) 0.003* programme bphysio bbet mbbs bpharm bosh bhms bpsy 7 (18.4) 3 (15.8) 25 (27.8) 9 (24.3) 14 (25.9) 3 (33.3) 12 (22.6) 31 (81.6) 16 (84.2) 65 (72.2) 28 (75.7) 40 (74.1) 6 (66.7) 41 (77.4) 0.856* *p < 0.05 335 table 4: overall learning preferences among different genders and programmes variable visual auditory read/write kinaesthetic n (%) n (%) n (%) n (%) gender male female 83 (75.5) 125 (65.8) 85 (77.3) 123 (64.7) 84 (76.4) 128 (67.4) 90 (81.8) 149 (78.4) programmes bphysio bbet mbbs bpharm bosh bhms bpsy 26 (68.4) 15 (78.9) 62 (68.9) 24 (64.9) 38 (70.4) 6 (66.7) 37 (69.8) 30 (78.9) 13 (68.4) 57 (63.3) 27 (73) 37 (68.5) 6 (66.7) 38 (71.7) 24 (63.2) 13 (68.4) 61 (67.8) 26 (70.3) 42 (77.8) 7 (77.8) 39 (73.6) 36 (94.7) 16 (84.2) 67 (74.4) 26 (70.3) 44 (81.5) 6 (66.7) 44 (83) the overall (unimodal + multimodal) learners’ most chosen learning preferences was kinaesthetic mode of learning, which includes 81.8% of males and 78.4% of females (table 4). similarly for male undergraduates, visual mode of learning was the least chosen mode of learning (75.5%) while for females, the least chosen mode of learning was the auditory learning (64.7%). overall learning preferences among undergraduates in different programmes can be seen in table 4. the undergraduates from the bphysio, bbet, mbbs, bosh and bpsy programmes highly preferred the kinaesthetic mode of learning with percentages of 94.7, 84.2, 74.7, 81.5 and 83.0, respectively. in contrast, there was a higher preference towards the auditory mode of learning (73.0%) among bpharm undergraduates whereas bhms undergraduates favoured on read/write mode of learning (77.8%). discussion unimodal versus multimodal this research showed that the majority of the gen z undergraduates at uoc preferred multimodal learning. this was supported by a previous study (baykan & nacar, 2007) where a majority of the students at erciyes university preferred multimodal learning instead of unimodal learning. besides that, this study was also compatible with other studies that used the vark questionnaire as research instrument (alkooheji & al-hattami, 2018; lauc et al., 2014; payaprom & payaprom, 2020; urval et al., 2014). this indicates that student learning may be enhanced when they are exposed to multiple modes of presentation of content. some of the possible rationales include: undergraduates’ inclination towards applying all their senses to absorb information (slater et al., 2007), the unique characteristics of gen z like lack of attention (chicca & shellenbarger, 2018) vulnerability to distractions (jaleniauskiene & juceviciene, 2015), and high-tech, on-demand, hyper-connected and impatient environment in which gen z has grown up. moreover, gen z is the first global generation with high interest in and avenues for learning (hampton & keys, 2016) that is also attributed to their 336 multimodal learning preferences. in contrast, a study conducted in three universities in malaysia among health science and medical undergraduates depicted a higher preference for the unimodal learning style (wong et al., 2017). though this study also used a vark questionnaire, the participants were only from first year and this study was conducted in 2015. there could have been a possible shift from unimodal learning to multimodal learning among undergraduates over these years. most preferred mode of learning kinaesthetic learning is the highly preferred mode of learning in the present study. previous studies (kharb, samanta, jindal, & singh, 2013; payaprom & payaprom, 2020) were also coherent with this finding. kinaesthetic learners will learn superlatively by doing, experiencing, moving, and handling. they prefer hands-on activities (jamie & karen, 2014). it has been reported that gen z also inclined towards active learning (thinnukool & kongchouy, 2017) and learning by doing (adobe, 2016; barnes & noble college, 2016; puiu, 2017). moreover, gen z college students have a proclivity to learn practical knowledge to apply for future occupations or undertakings (nicholas, 2019). these would have attributed more preference towards kinaesthetic learning among undergraduates in this study. the present study involved medical and health sciences undergraduates whose curriculum involves lots of hands-on sessions. this would be another reason for more preference towards the kinaesthetic mode of learning. unfortunately, owing to present pandemic situations, many of the undergraduates have been undergoing online classes for more than one year. the educators should consider appropriate measures to include the kinaesthetic mode of learning in the online mode of teaching learning process as well. gender differences in learning preferences one of the main findings of this study showed that there was a significant difference between learning preferences between male and female undergraduates. although both genders preferred multimodal learning, there was a higher preference for multimodal learning among males when compared to female gen z undergraduates. this finding was the same as the previous studies among undergraduates (afshan, 2019; veena & shastri, 2013; wehrwein et al., 2007). it is unclear regarding the reasons for the same. the overall highly preferred mode among both genders is kinaesthetic mode, which is similar to a previous study (afshan, 2019) whereas the least preferred mode of learning among male and female gen z undergraduates was visual and auditory mode, respectively. influence of programme in learning preferences a majority of the gen z undergraduates, irrespective of programme of study, preferred the multimodal style of learning. similarly, kinaesthetic mode of learning is highly preferred by gen z undergraduates in most of the programmes of study except bhms and b. pharm undergraduates. in conjunction with this study, a previous study among physical therapy and rehabilitation and nursing students also found a preference for kinaesthetic learning, however, in the same research, the researchers found that the nutrition and dietetic students preferred the auditory style (cetin & erel, 2018). a majority of the gen z undergraduates preferred the multimodal form of learning, irrespective of gender and programme of study. similarly, the kinaesthetic mode of learning was highly preferred by gen z undergraduates in most of the programmes of study except bhms and b. pharm undergraduates. this study’s findings reveal multiple modes including the kinaesthetic mode of 337 delivering teaching and learning content can be considered to facilitate learning among gen z undergraduates. limitations there are certain limitations in this study that need to be considered while trying to generalise the outcomes. there is no adequate representation of undergraduates from all the programmes. there is a possibility of response bias, since the vark questionnaire is a self-reported measure where response may change based on the situation at the time. recommendations future studies could target a large sample of gen z students across malaysia. this study could be extended among other programme students such as management, it, and engineering undergraduates. follow-up studies could be steered in the future, which may track the changes of learning preferences from the beginning to the end of the courses. qualitative studies could be considered to explore the factors ascribing their learning preferences. conflict of interest: the authors declare no conflict of interest. acknowledgement: we would like to express our gratitude to all the participants involved in this study for their support and cooperation throughout the study. references adobe. (2016). gen z in the classroom—creating the future. adobeeducate.com/genz afshan, k. (2019). do learning styles influenced by gender: a qualitative study among physiology undergraduate medical students. international journal of physiology, 7(4), 61-66. doi:https://doi.org/10.37506/ijop.v7i4.59 akram awla, h. (2014). learning styles and their relation to teaching styles. international journal of language and linguistics, 2(3), 241. doi:10.11648/j.ijll.20140203.23 alkooheji, l., & al-hattami, a. (2018). learning style preferences among college students. international education studies, 11(10), 50. doi:10.5539/ies.v11n10p50 barnes & noble college. (2016). getting to know gen z exploring middle and high schoolers' expectations for higher education. baykan, z., & nacar, m. (2007). learning styles of first-year medical students attending erciyes university in kayseri, turkey. advances in physiological education, 31(2), 158-160. doi:10.1152/advan.00043.2006 cetin, s. y., & erel, s. (2018). determining the learning preferences of the students of the faculty of health sciences in cyprus international university. shs web conf., 48, 01026. doi:https://doi.org/10.1051/shsconf/20184801026 chicca, j., & shellenbarger, t. (2018). connecting with generation z: approaches in nursing education. teaching and learning in nursing, 13, 180-184. doi:10.1016/j.teln.2018.03.008 childs-kean, l., edwards, m., & smith, m. d. (2020). use of learning style frameworks in health science education. american journal of pharmaceutical education, 84(7), ajpe7885. doi:10.5688/ajpe7885 cilliers, e. j. (2017). the challenge of teaching generation z. people: international journal of social sciences, 3(1), 188-198. doi:10.20319/pijss.2017.31.188198 338 ding, d., guan, c., & yu, y. (2017). game-based learning in tertiary education: a new learning experience for the generation z. international journal of information and education technology, 7(2), 148-152. doi:10.18178/ijiet.2017.7.2.857 fitkov-norris, e. d., & yeghiazarian, a. (2015). validation of vark learning modalities questionnaire using rasch analysis. journal of physics: conference series, 588, 012048. doi:10.1088/1742-6596/588/1/012048 hampton, d. c., & keys, y. (2016). generation z students: will they change our nursing classrooms? journal of nursing education and practice, 7(4). doi:10.5430/jnep.v7n4p111 jaleniauskiene, e., & juceviciene, p. (2015). reconsidering university educational environment for the learners of generation z. social sciences, 88(2). doi:10.5755/j01.ss.88.2.12737 jamie, p., & karen, p. (2014). different keystrokes for different folks: addressing learning styles in online education. information systems education journal, 12(2), 29-37. kharb, p., samanta, p. p., jindal, m., & singh, v. (2013). the learning styles and the preferred teaching-learning strategies of first year medical students. journal of clinical and diagnostic research, 7(6), 1089-1092. doi:10.7860/jcdr/2013/5809.3090 lauc, t., kisicek, s., & bago, p. (2014). multimedia resources in an online course: access and usage with respect to sensory modality. https://hrcak.srce.hr/129526 leite, w. l., svinicki, m., & shi, y. (2010). attempted validation of the scores of the vark: learning styles inventory with multitrait–multimethod confirmatory factor analysis models. educational and psychological measurement, 70(2), 323-339. doi:10.1177/0013164409344507 newton, p. m., & miah, m. (2017). evidence-based higher education is the learning styles 'myth' important? frontiers in psychology, 8, 444. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00444 nicholas, a. j. (2019). preferred learning methods of generation z. paper presented at the northeast business and economics association 46th annual conference. ojeh, n., sobers-grannum, n., gaur, u., udupa, a., & majumder, m. a. a. (2017). learning style preferences: a study of pre-clinical medical students in barbados. journal of advances in medical education & professionalism, 5(4), 185-194. thinnukool, o. & kongchouy, n. (2017). is facebook a suitable tool in modern world technology for active learning in as regards 21st century learning? international journal of emerging technologies in learning, 12(10), 173-191. othman, a., abdul rashid, m., ismail, i., mohamad saad, s., norizan, s., & misnan, s. (2019). changing the learning wheel: gen z learning style. paper presented at the international conference on business, education, innovation & social sciences, malaysia. özerem, a., & akkoyunlu, b. (2015). learning environments designed according to learning styles and its effects on mathematics achievement. eurasian journal of educational research, 15(61), 61-80. doi:10.14689/ejer.2015.61.4 payaprom, s., & payaprom, y. (2020). identifying learning styles of language learners: a useful step in moving towards the learner-centred approach. journal of language and linguistic studies, 16, 59-72. puiu, s. (2017). generation z – an educational and managerial perspective. revista tinerilor economiști, 62-72. sarabi-asiabar, a., jafari, m., sadeghifar, j., tofighi, s., zaboli, r., peyman, h., . . . shams, l. (2015). the relationship between learning style preferences and gender, educational major and status in first year medical students: a survey study from iran. iran red crescent medical journal, 17(1). e18250. doi:10.5812/ircmj.18250 339 slater, j. a., lujan, h. l., & dicarlo, s. e. (2007). does gender influence learning style preferences of first-year medical students? advances in physiology education, 31(4), 336-342. doi:10.1152/advan.00010.2007 tophat.com. (2020). learning style glossary. https://tophat.com/glossary/l/learningstyle/#:~:text=a%20learning%20style%20is%20the,process%2c%20comprehend%20and%20retain%20inform ation.&text=auditory%20learners%20prefer%20to%20listen,audiobooks%20rather%20than%20print%20ones urval, r. p., kamath, a., ullal, s., shenoy, a. k., shenoy, n., & udupa, l. a. (2014). assessment of learning styles of undergraduate medical students using the vark questionnaire and the influence of sex and academic performance. advances in physiology education, 38(3), 216-220. doi:10.1152/advan.00024.2014 veena, & shastri, s. (2013). learning preferences among students. iosr journal of humanities and social science, 15(6). wehrwein, e. a., lujan, h. l., & dicarlo, s. e. (2007). gender differences in learning style preferences among undergraduate physiology students. advances in physiology education, 31(2), 153-157. doi:10.1152/advan.00060.2006 wong, r. s. y., siow, h. l., kumarasamy, v., & shaherah fadhlullah suhaimi, n. (2017). interdisciplinary and inter-institutional differences in learning preferences among malaysian medical and health sciences students. journal of advances in medical education & professionalism, 5(4), 164-171. authors: natasha mohd ishak. email: nathasha1912@gmail.com harikrishnan ranganathan. email: hari4physio@gmail.com kamalambal harikrishnan. email: nathasha1912@gmail.com cite this paper as: ishak, n. m., ranganathan, h., & harikrishnan, k. (2022). learning preferences of generation z undergraduates at the university of cyberjaya. journal of learning for development, 9(2), 331-339. microsoft word panda2al.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 245-259 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. asian leaders in open and distance education santosh panda indira gandhi national open university, india introduction the asian distance education system is probably the largest in the world. no other continent has seen such a serious policy discourse, as well as determined efforts in its practice, as asia, since the focus invariably has been democratisation of education, access and equity, cost of education, and sociocultural and political legitimacy through education as empowerment. technology, which has taken centre stage in the asian countries today, was a major consideration for such educational endeavours and could pave the way for successful implementation of earlier correspondence education, followed by distance, online and blended learning. this continent has seen great leaders who have contributed not only to their own system of education but also to the world, especially the commonwealth. it may not be out of place to note that asian leaders have risen to become vice president of the col (g. ram reddy), president of col (gajaraj dhanarajan and asha s. kanwar), president of icde, under whom the icce was rechristened as icde (bakhshish singh), and president of icde (tian belawati). it has been very difficult to select leaders of distance education as profiled in this article, and the utmost attempt has been made to avoid any subjectivity or personal bias. it has been a challenge to cover the entire spectrum of asian countries to identify leaders and despite efforts this may not have been very comprehensive due to the enormity of activity and personnel involved in asian distance education. bangladesh the following leader has been chosen though there are a few other leaders, including prof. badrul khan, who was born in bangladesh but contributed significantly from the united states (see ally, 2017). m. shamsher ali prof. m. shamsher ali, founder vice chancellor of bangladesh open university (bou), an eminent scientist of international repute, is a widely acclaimed distance educator in bangladesh. he is known for his promotion of public understanding of science using the methods of distance education. his advocacy initiative for bou in the mid-seventies was tremendous when he launched a movement for it in the media. the government made him the founder vice chancellor of bou in 1992 and project director (pd) of the bou implementation project, with financial assistance from asian development bank (adb). as per the provision of the bou project profile, bou was supposed to enroll learners after the development of infrastructure. however, prof. ali, in contravention to this provision enrolled students using government infrastructure. he successfully ran most of the programmes of the bou portfolio using self-learning materials (slms), radio-tv broadcasts and tutorial support 246 services. after his bou tenure, he joined a newly established private university southeast university (a leading private university now) again, as founder vice chancellor –– where he introduced an interactive mba programme though elearning. prof. ali was instrumental in developing the quality assurance instrument for the international distance education accreditation league (ideal), based in manila, of which he is a director. he successfully conducted the senior school certificate programmes for students who dropped out after finishing their grade eight studies. this programme of bou (which has now turned into a mega university) has been of paramount interest for the education of rural women, especially as part of their empowerment. he developed good collaboration with many distance education universities, including those of the subcontinent, especially with the indira gandhi national open university (ignou) during the tenure of prof. ram takwale as its vice chancellor. he also played a prominent role in the promotion of public understanding of science through radio and tv. at present, he has conducted more than three hundred programmes on tv, on different aspects of science and technology using de skills, including some on bbc on science and culture. the foundation laid by prof ali has facilitated subsequent (distance) educators and vice chancellors of bou to take forward the cause of odl, including that of oer policy and practice in 2016-17. india the late gaddam ram reddy there will be hardly any one from the developing world who has held top positions in diversified national and international fields of education (both mainstream as well as distance education) like prof. ram reddy, who was born in 1929 to a farmer’s family and rose to be one of the greatest educators in the country. he founded the first open university in india (apou/ braou) in 1982 and the first national open university in the country (ignou) in 1985; was the first vice president of the commonwealth of learning (col); was chairman of university grants commission in india; chairman of indian council for social sciences research (icssr); and founding chairman of national assessment and accreditation council. he was one of the legendary pillars of distance education in the world; and is popularly called ‘the father of distance education in india’. after being the vice chancellor of osmania university and founding vice chancellor of braou, prof. reddy could not sit idle. international developments and the domestic pressure for mass education ignited him to dig out the old parthasarathy committee report on national open university for india and pursue it vigorously. in recognition of his leadership and persistent endeavour, the government of india invited him to establish the national open university (ignou) which eventually was passed in the indian parliament in 1985, and prof reddy became its founding vice chancellor. during three years of his tenure, ignou established a large network of regional study centres in the country, and laid the foundation for many state open universities to come later. that was the foundation for a robust national system of odl which contributed to adoption in quite a few countries in the developing world. prof. reddy became the president of association of indian universities in 1987, and in 1989 a member of the commonwealth committee, the report of which led to the establishment of the commonwealth of learning (col), of which he became the founder vice president. in 1991, he was brought back to the country by the government of india to be appointed as the chairman of the university grants 247 commission, and subsequently established the national assessment and accreditation council as its founding chairman. that was followed by his appointment as chairman of icssr. prof. reddy had many awards to his credit, including doctorate honoris causa from the british open university, dlitt honoris causa from ignou, and a national citizenship award by the prime minister of india. it was in the icde birmingham conference (1995) that prof reddy, along with sir john daniel, was honoured with a lifetime achievement award in the field of higher and distance education with a full standing ovation. subsequently, prof ram reddy was posthumously conferred with a honorary fellow of col. the late v c kulandai swamy prof. kulandai swamy was civil engineer by training. he taught at iit madras before moving to head council for higher and technical education, chennai. on completion of this assignment, he took over as vice chancellor of madurai-kamraj university, madurai and then two consecutive terms as vice chancellor of anna university. in 1991, he was appointed (the second) vice chancellor of ignou. though he was relatively new to odl system when he joined ignou, it did not take him long to impress everyone with his vision, clarity of ideas, resoluteness in action, flexibility, accommodation, adaptability, foresightedness, conviction and ability to operationalise concepts. he was a scholar par excellence with a wide spread of accomplishments ranging from fundamental research in water resources engineering to sahitya akademi award in tamil literature. he was a poet at heart and some of his poems form part of the school curriculum. he tightened administrative structures in ignou through foresighted provisions in statutes and ordinances for good governance and laid down guiding principles for transparent administration and financial discipline. in this process, he created various authorities in the university. he was instrumental in creating distance education council (within ignou), which was mandated to promote, monitor and regulate single as well as dual-mode distance teaching institutions in the country. this gave ample evidence of his negotiation skills and persuasive powers. as founding chairman of distance education council, he gave new dimensions to the open and distance learning system in the country. he was an ardent advocate of teaching at a distance. to encourage research in distance education, the indian journal of open learning was started by ignou under his guidance. under his leadership, ignou achieved the unique distinction of being the first university in india to be recognised as centre of excellence by commonwealth of learning, vancouver, canada, for the creation of high quality self-instructional materials. after superannuating from ignou in 1994, the idea of a technology based university fascinated him. to translate his vision into reality, he took it upon himself to convince the government of tamil nadu about the usefulness of the initiative, and with his untiring efforts, tamil virtual university (not a university offering degrees) was established in chennai in the year 1998 to promote tamil language and literature amongst the tamil diaspora around the world. till now, this remains the only university of its kind in india. prof kulandai swamy was conferred honorary fellow of col. ram g takwale prof. ram takwale was born (1933) in a small agrarian village, had his school education mostly in villages, attended higher education in pune university, and took a ph.d. from moscow state 248 university. he has taught physics and guided research students in pune university for over two decades. his teaching and research interests shifted from theoretical physics to studies and developments in education during the latter part of his career. dr takwale was vice chancellor of three universities: pune university (1978-84); yashwantrao chavan maharashtra open university (ycmou) (1989-95) where he was also founder; and ignou (1995-98). since 1985 he has been working in the field of open and distance education, and has been interested in massification of quality higher education by using the latest information communication technologies. in a way, it may not be inappropriate to state that he is an exemplar of being both a pioneer and a practitioner of ict for education, training, administration and management, and community development. ycmou was an example of openness to people and their needs in terms of certificates /diplomas in skills, and vocational degree courses linked with life and work, as well as linking agrarian courses with the quality of agri-products and markets was a new way of applying odl to farm-field related activities (deshpande, 1999). courses for workers in factories and workshops in technical subjects were developed and deployed successfully at ycmou, and, later on, by ignou for tannery workers and construction workers at their work places. this work-place based education offered different dimensions for linking skills with work and further with cognitive learning processes. for this pioneering work, ycmou was awarded excellence in distance education, and dr. takwale as honorary fellow by col, vancouver. the foundational work of prof takwale has been carried forward by successive vice chancellors at ycmou, and this is an area of learning for odl institutions in the country and overseas. dr. takwale tried to add a role of national resource centre to ignou’s then distance education council, by pooling quality content for courses created by all open universities in india. all courses of ignou were added to the common pool for sharing with all open universities by forming indian open education network (openet) in 1996-97. during his tenure ignou started the direct uplink of tv programmes from its campus and mainstreamed the one-way video and two-way audio communication system. dr. takwale formed, with the help of unesco (bangkok), an association of south asia federation for distance education development (safded), and organized some international workshops for training distance educators from south asian countries. ignou expanded outreach of its educational programs to middle-east countries during his tenure. dr. takwale’s committee report for use of ict in higher and technical education in maharashtra in 2000 was instrumental in creating mkcl (maharashtra knowledge corporation ltd.) in 2001. this was a corporation involved in a cooperative endeavor started by the state government and universities in the state of maharashtra for profit to support education in maharashtra /india. dr takwale served mkcl as honorary director for a decade, and is now serving as chief mentor to activities of mkf, a non-profit company of mkcl for social development. mkcl and mkf are forming a digital platform for techno-educational facilities appropriate to the new age digital society. prof ram takwale continues to be an honorary fellow of col. 249 the late h. p. dikshit prof. hanuman prasad dikshit, obtained d. phil. d. sc. and d.sc./d. lit. honaris causa degrees from one conventional and three open indian universities. he served as the vice chancellor of madhya pradesh bhoj (open) university (mpbou) and ignou for a period of five years each and also of two conventional universities. he served on various apex level national boards/committees/councils of indian government responsible for drafting policies, development plans and their implementation in the field of education and distance education. elected as the first president of saarc consortium of open and distance learning and vice president world summit of mega universities (gmunet), he has also been chairman high power committee for distance education of the university grants commission. the policy document directions of development, developed by him as vice-chancellor mpbou (19962001), conceived major applications of ict to reach the unreached. the university envisaged multimedia regional/study centres to effectively reach very distant places through point-to-point communication. he revived the computer literacy and awareness (class) scheme for 400 schools in madhya pradesh, india and in 1998 launched an online programme on communicative skills. under his leadership, mpbou developed educational software for thousands of primary schools, which became very popular in other states and turned out to be a source of revenue generation. on joining ignou as vice chancellor (2001-2006), he dreamt of a mission of a well-connected india by re-engineering and re-shaping ict enabled systems to meet the requirement of education and capacity building programmes, with grassroots access, across the institutions and other sectors. thus, by 2004 a dedicated satellite – edusat – was launched and dr. dikshit was appointed chairman of the national steering committee for utilisation of capabilities like virtual classrooms, video on demand, database access, national repositories, radio networking, ku and extended c band interactive terminals with a footprint covering india and beyond. during his tenure, the interuniversity centre for technology-enabled flexible education and development and national centre for innovations in distance education was established at ignou; and the former took forward reforms in ict-enabled education by taking ignou and national de system from traditional de delivery to multimedia and online delivery. he will be remembered as a policy pioneer in the use of technology to enrich educational experiences. abdul waheed khan prof. abdul waheed khan, with master’s and doctoral degrees from university of wisconsin, madison, usa, is an internationally recognised leader in the application of information and communication technologies for education and development. he has always championed the cause of empowering people through access to information and knowledge. his journey from a remote village in india to high-profile positions in education, international development, diplomacy and media is an exciting story of a self-made man, a visionary, an institution builder and a dynamic leader. dr. khan served as assistant director general for communication and information at unesco in paris for nearly a decade. in this capacity, he was responsible for unesco’s global programmes in communication and information and its strategic initiative for building “inclusive knowledge societies” leading to the world summit on information society (wsis). he also served as vice chancellor of ignou and most recently served as the founder president of talal abu-ghazaleh 250 university of business (tagub) in bahrain. he has served in senior management and professional positions at the commonwealth of learning (col), vancouver, canada for nearly seven years. dr. khan was responsible for developing educational communication and information programs of col throughout the commonwealth. the commonwealth educational media center for asia (cemca), which he conceptualised and established, is a vibrant organisation serving open and distance learning communities in asia. he is an educational communications expert who has contributed immensely to building systems and processes for improving access to education through use of radio, television and the internet. he has significantly contributed to setting up the world summit on information society (wsis), as a process to build knowledge societies. he also focused on open solutions as ways to increase access to knowledge, and promoted the use of open educational resources (oers), open access to scientific information, and open source software. prof khan was subsequently conferred honorary fellow of col. asha s kanwar professor asha kanwar is one of the world’s leading advocates for learning for sustainable development, and technology/ odl and women’s empowerment. she was appointed president and chief executive officer of the commonwealth of learning (col) in 2012, becoming the first woman to head a commonwealth intergovernmental organisation. she first joined col in 2003 as the education specialist – higher education and policy — later serving as vice-president for six years. prior to col, she worked in africa as a senior consultant in open and distance learning at unesco’s regional office for education in africa (breda) in dakar, senegal. during this assignment, she promoted and coordinated open and distance learning in subsaharan africa and she was instrumental in placing it at the centre of ministerial deliberations and the agenda for the development of education in africa. the west african initiative led to the establishment of an odl resource centre at breda and later to the development of a regional centre of expertise at the national open university of nigeria. she received her undergraduate, master’s and mphil degrees from panjab university in india. she was awarded a doctor of philosophy in 1986 at the university of sussex and was a fulbright fellow for post-doctoral research at iowa state university, where she was later invited to teach and also her book was a recommended reading in many american universities. her engagement with distance education began in 1988 when she joined indira gandhi national open university as a reader. she later became professor and director of the school of humanities and was appointed pro-vice chancellor of the university from 1999 to 2000. prof. kanwar has received several honorary doctorates, including one from the open university, uk. a recipient of several awards and fellowships, including the international council for distance education prize of individual excellence in 2009, prof. kanwar was elected as a member of the icde executive committee, effective september 2015, for a four-year term. in all these capacities, she has stressed the importance of distance education and blended learning to the level of community through agriculture and livelihood programmes, and especially programmes for women’s entrepreneurship and empowerment. 251 rudder datt principal rudder datt (as he was often called as) is credited as the head of the first university correspondence education institute in the country in 1962, when the school of correspondence courses and continuing education was established at the premier university of delhi. this example of successful implementation led many universities to open up correspondence courses. as an old guard in distance learning and higher education politics in the country and also as an economist, rudder datt conducted the first comprehensive study on costing of correspondence/ distance education and campus-based education in india. this subsequently led to policy articulation for funding of distance education in the country. bakhshish singh prof. bakhshish singh is one of the old guards of correspondence/ distance education in india and also on the global scene (working alongside stalwarts like prof. börje holmberg, prof. charles wedemeyer, among others). he was founding director of correspondence/ distance education at punjabi university, and subsequently moved to ignou to establish the school of humanities and social sciences. his last assignment was de adviser to university grants commission when prof ram reddy was its chairman. he was a member of the third delegation to the erstwhile ussr to study correspondence courses and evening classes, which led to the establishment of such reforms in india. he founded the national council for correspondence education in the 1970s, and was responsible for drafting the proposal for national institute of correspondence education in 1993, though, for various reasons, this could not be established (yadav & panda, 1999). prof singh pioneered institutional research in de at ignou-dec (singh, mullick, & chaudhary, 1994), though he will be best remembered as the leader who as vice president of icce renamed the international council for correspondence education (icce) to international council for distance education (icde) in 1982 as its first president. other significant mentions other leaders who could not be profiled here due to lack of space include: prof. v. s. prasad who has been vice chancellor of braou and director naac and is a honorary fellow of col; fr t. n. kunnunkal who was founding chairman of the national open school, which later became national institute of open schooling; prof. r v r chandrasekhar rao who has been vice chancellor of braou and director, col; prof o s dewal who founded the open school (which was later renamed as nos and subsequently as nios (mukhopadhyay, 1994); prof. marmar mukhopadhyay, former chairman of national open school and vice president, icde; and prof. b. n. koul, who established the staff training and research institute of distance education at ignou and is a honorary fellow of col. indonesia tian belawati professor tian belawati has made lifetime professional contributions to open and distance learning (odl). she served as the rector of universitas terbuka (ut) (indonesia’s only open university) from 2009-2017, during which she took decisive actions to mobilise effort in partnerships with stakeholders to improve the quality of odl, develop greater public confidence in odel, and establish 252 collaborative effort with international as well as regional odel institutions and associations. she is extensively involved in various joint initiatives with other odel players and organisations in her capacity as both an odel researcher and top administrator. her professional achievements have led to her appointments as secretary general (2007-2009) and then president (2009-2010) of the asian association of open universities (aaou); and her leadership was further acknowledged at the global level through her appointment as a member of the election committee (2007-2009), a member of the executive committee (2009 to present), and as the president of the international council for open and distance education/icde (2010-2015). after the icde presidency, prof. belawati was asked to join the icde board of trustees starting in 2017. professor belawati has had extensive experiences in research, teaching, and administration of a largescale, open-university system, i.e., universitas terbuka (ut). during her term of rectorship, ut introduced the research-based policy making that has paved the way for the achievement and future direction of ut as a reputable quality odel provider. she introduced innovations and good practices in the use of new technology for the delivery of odel. her two-terms as vice rector, from 2001 up to 2009, took ut into a new odl platform in a developing country context through utilisation of new and appropriate technology. among others, she introduced innovations through ut online, such as online tutorials, open educational resources (oer), online examination, digital library, integrated information system for learning materials development, and other ict-based initiatives in teaching, learning and academic administration. she initiated advocacy at the national level on mainstreaming odel in indonesia. this resulted in the recognition of odel and the inclusion of odel in the national education law and its derivations. in addition, this recognition also resulted in the specifications of odel quality parameters used by the national accreditation board. ut is now the biggest odel provider in indonesia. she was the chair of the prestigious pandora project of idrc for transformation of distance learning technologies in the asian continent (belawati & baggaley, 2010). i must also note the significant contribution made by prof. atwi suparman, who was the rector of universutas terbuka, and also to indonesian as well as asian distance education including through the asian association of open universities. japan yoichi okabe especially after the renaming of u-air as the open university of japan (ouj), its own broadcasting centre and media-based learning centres have turned more toward recent developments in webbased education. the university judiciously mixes broadcasting, online learning and f2f interaction at its learning centres, and, about two years prior to the time of writing, offered academic programmes fully online. prof. okabe led the transformation of u-air into ouj as its founding vicepresident and in 2011 became its president. starting his career at the university of tokyo, he became the director of its research centre for advanced science and technology, and director of information technology. during his tenure at the ouj, prof. okabe steered the judicious and learner-friendly mix of the old broadcasting system and the learner centre system with the upcoming technologies of 21st century; and this foundational work led to the creation of a centre for ict and de in 2007, the launch of nation-wide digital broadcasting through broadcast satellite in 2011, the establishment of a centre 253 for open distance education in place of ict and de, and finally full online programmes in 2015. commenting on moocs, prof. okabe remarked that the u-air and ouj had produced more than 300 high quality video lectures, which are comprehensive in subject coverage and are available in open domain, and therefore are equivalent to moocs. in 2005 the japan open courseware alliance (jocw) was launched in cooperation with mit, and subsequently this took the shape of open courseware consortium (ocwc) with the larger involvement of universities and colleges, especially from the private sector. i must also note the significant contributions made by prof. takashi sakamoto and prof. hiromitsu muta to the policy and practice of distance education in japan. malaysia gajaraj dhanarajan tan sri prof. gajaraj dhanarajan is one of the leading pioneers of distance education in asia and, indeed, the world. with a bsc and msc from university of madras, dic and msc from university london, and phd in biology from university of aston, prof. dhanarajan has been subsequently conferred honorary degrees (honoris causa) from a dozen universities around the world. he started his career as a faculty member at university sains malaysia, associate professor of distance education, and deputy director of its centre for off-campus studies. subsequently dr. dhanarajan was invited by the government of hong kong to establish the open learning institute (later renamed as open university hong kong) as associate director, and became its director for five years in 1991. raj establishes leadership by setting examples; and one of those was making the oli self-sustaining, with negligible public funding but with a very high public reputation worldwide. an expert in strategic planning and educational leadership, he established a number of institutions including the wawasan open university in malaysia as its founding vice chancellor and ceo. in 1994, the malaysian state of penang conferred on him the order of chivalry (conveying the title of dato), and in 1995 the ouhk conferred on him an emeritus professorship. he received the highest malaysian civilian award, which carries the title of tan sri. the most significant contribution of prof. dhanarajan was to raise the reputation of open distance learning as the second president and ceo of col, contributing significantly through capacity building and establishing distance education systems in many developing countries. one of his significant contributions has also been improving the standard of research in open distance learning, which was neglected for quite some time. in 1997, he received the first aaou meritorious services award in recognition of his outstanding contribution to odl in asia. tan sri prof. dhanarajan was conferred honorary fellow of col in 2006 and received the 2013 icde prize for lifelong contribution to open distance education. anuwar ali tan sri prof anuwar ali championed lifelong learning and the democratisation of higher education through the open university of malaysia (oum) as its president. under his leadership, the university greatly increased its student enrolment and graduate numbers. learners could attend tutorials close to their homes or workplaces, thereby allowing oum to live up to its motto of “university for all”. another major achievement under prof anuwar’s leadership was the university’s close involvement 254 in the efforts of the ministry of education (moe) to upgrade school teachers to graduate status. oum provided in-service bachelor of education and bachelor of teaching programmes, specially designed in close collaboration with the teacher training division of moe. prof. ali introduced the flexible entry system in 2006, which allowed the university to admit learners based on prior learning. by giving credit to related work experience, oum paved the way for the implementation of recognition for prior learning in malaysia. other universities, with permission to implement this system, use the university’s model as a basis. in breaking barriers, oum has a special collaboration with prison authorities to offer its programmes to inmates. at the international level, he has been a strong advocate of meaningful collaborations with other educational institutions. although his tenure as president/vice-chancellor ended in 2015, prof. ali continues to lend a guiding hand to oum as its senior advisor, promoting oum programmes at the national and international levels. prof ali was conferred honorary fellow of col. pakistan the late wali muhammad zakia prof wali muhammad zakia, the founder of aiou, was the architect of the first-ever distance-level education institution in asia. dr. zaki remained the aiou’s vice chancellor twice from 1973 to 1975 and from 1990 to 1992. he was the first pakistani who was awarded phd by harvard university, usa in 1961. he received training in teacher education, educational planning, administration and management from usa, france and lebanon. in addition, dr zaki served as secretary of national education commission (nec), national book foundation (nbp), unesco, ministry of education and university of the punjab. he made an outstanding contribution in establishing the open university on a sound footing. it is because of him that today the university has turned into the most viable institution for promoting distance education in the country, with 1.3 million students and 44 regional offices across the country. he also had the distinction of serving abroad — as advisor/consultant in saudi arabia, nigeria and nepal — as the representative of unesco. naveed a malik prof. naveed akhtar malik is the founding rector of virtual university of pakistan (vup). dr. malik obtained his doctor of science degree from mit in the field of electrical engineering and computer science, specialising in digital signal processing. at the university of the punjab, pakistan, he established the spark source mass spectroscopy and later became the founding chairman of the department of computer science. he was appointed as the rector of vup in 2001. he is a life member of the pakistan institute of physics and was awarded the pakistan civil award of sitara-eimtiaz in 2008 for services to education. he was conferred the title of honorary fellow by the commonwealth of learning in 2016. in his position as rector and project director of the virtual university project, dr. malik was instrumental in spearheading the design, development and implementation of the university. by utilising the services of the best professors in the country and having them develop world-class courses, which were then delivered through broadcast television, the virtual university was able to overcome several challenges simultaneously: distance education no longer remained a “nameless, 255 faceless” method of education. having been a prolific systems and software developer himself, dr. malik was able to effectively combine these skills with his academic background to lead the development of the university’s learning management system (lms), as well as all its institutional management systems. of particular note is the virtual university’s examination system that allows students to create their own individual examination schedules within the dates provided by the controller of examinations. from 2005-2012, the university led two asia-wide research projects on distance education, funded by the international development and research center, canada, and dr. malik was the project coordinator for both projects. the first project titled “pan-dlt (asia): networking distance learning technology engines for research” (pandora) looked at the state of distance learning technologies in asia and how they could be leveraged as engines of growth, especially in the underdeveloped countries of the region. the second project “openness and quality in asian distance education” with a self-explanatory title was managed by a governing board, comprising professor tian belawati, professor insung jung and professor gajaraj dhanarajan, with professor malik as the head of the board. both projects resulted in a body of published work that gave new insights into distance education practices in the region and were able to provide sound policy guidelines to several countries. peoples’ republic of china it has been difficult to get access to and obtain information on chinese leaders in distance education. a few of them, who could not be contacted, include: prof. zhang deming, prof. xingfu ding, dr. wang yibing, dr. weiyuan zhang, and of course prof. yang zhijian, the current vice chancellor of open university of china which has above 3.59 million registered students. chen li prof. li chen is currently vice president of beijing normal university. she has been director of national lab of intelligent technology for online education, and executive dean of beijing institution for lifelong society. li has been working in distance education for over 25 years. she initiated the master’s programme and the phd programme of distance education in china. li has been working on the research fields of interaction theory and interactive media, and quality assurance of distance education. li chen has been involved in many international collaborative projects, such as strengthening capacity in basic education in western china 2006, quality assurance (qa) models, standards and key performance indicators for ict-supported distance education (de) in asia, and pandora. she has wide and close international collaborative relationships. the author of this article is proud to have worked closely and published with her while as a visiting professor twice at the beijing normal university. philippines felix librero the open university in the philippines is part of the university of philippines, though it is fully autonomous, and named as university of philippines open university (upou). prof. felix librero, who retired from the upou in 2013 to be a professor emeritus, had a doctorate in instructional 256 systems technology, was for six years the chancellor of upou and also the faculty regent for a year. he was a leader in the pandora project of idrc covering the entire asian region, and was chief editor of digital review of asia pacific. felix has contributed significantly to distance education in the philippines and the asian countries. his work can be judged from the definition of an emeritus professor given by the upou as: ‘an ideal academic, a true scholar and a master of his field shown by productive service, marked distinction and an infectious and untiring zeal to convince and help others attain academic excellence’. he also contributed through heading the development communication unit, working through its radio station and school-on-the-air, as dean of school of distance education, and as president of philippine society for distance learning. south korea insung jung prof. insung jung has been a professor of education at the international christian university (icu) in japan since 2003. before joining icu, she served as the director of the multimedia education center at the ewha womans university in south korea. the center was established to develop, deliver and manage e-learning programs for the university. she established numerous collaborative relationships with national, regional and international institutions to develop and deliver online programs to professional women in the region and throughout the world. some of those programs include: online courses on korean studies and women’s studies. between 1991 and 2000, she was a faculty member at the korea national open university (korea’s premier distance teaching institution) and conducted several research projects on the design, development and evaluation of various technology-enhanced types of education. prof. jung has contributed so much to the scholarly knowledge base of odel through her over 150 publications and numerous talks. she has also provided service to the profession through her leadership in various organisations. she has served as a director and an advisor to the international board of standards for training, performance and instruction (ibstpi), and sits on the editorial board of many refereed international journals on distance education and online learning. she served on the executive board of the international development research centre-sponsored openness and quality in de in asia project. moreover, she has been involved in korea’s national policy development in odel including a recent asean cyber university project. sri lanka chandra gunawardena prof. gunawardena joined the open university of sri lanka (ousl) as professor of education. she had served for 21 years as an academic in a conventional university and her colleagues’ efforts to dissuade her did not deter her from joining ousl as a career. the ousl conferred an honorary doctorate, doctor of letters, on her and made her an emeritus professor. she still works as emeritus professor of education at the ousl. her major contributions have been in the area of odl practice where she could help enhance the quality of the programmes of study by making them interactive and student-centered, especially the master of teacher education programme developed by the open university together with consultants from india and australia, which is scenario-based and the first of its kind in sri lanka. 257 her own personal contribution to distance education research is very significant. she participated in most distance education research conferences and also presented a positive image of the ousl at various international fora and such. after retirement she was appointed as the team leader of the distance education programme of the asian development bank, where she worked with more than twenty higher education institutions, training and guiding the academic staff to develop on-line programmes. she contributed, as a consultant, in training academics in asian, african, central american and pacific countries on multi-grade education, at the request of the commonwealth of learning and child-friendly schools at the request of the ministry of education, sri lanka. uma coomaraswamy prof. uma coomaraswamy, former vice chancellor of open university of sri lanka is a distinguished fellow of the commonwealth of learning, and has contributed significantly to odl in sri lanka, south asia, and the commonwealth. cool, persuasive, determined and, at times, demanding, she has strengthened de not only in sri lanka and south asia but also globally, promoting the cause of deserved but neglected third world countries. in 2009, she developed the concept paper for the national accreditation and assessment council for higher education, sri lankan ministry of higher education, which led to the establishment of such a system in the country. prof. coomaraswamy was conferred honorary fellow of col. charlotte ‘lani’ gunawardena born in sri lanka, prof. gunawardena is currently a distinguished professor of distance education and instructional technology at the college of university libraries and learning sciences, university of new mexico, albuquerque, usa. she has been a fulbright scholar working in morocco and sri lanka. she has extensively worked on culture and distance/ online learning; social technologies, online learning, and socially-mediated meta-cognition; social presence theory; social context of digital learning, and social construction of knowledge in online learning communities. she has extensively consulted internationally: the prestigious star project for the us department of education, national american research centre for health, world bank, asian development bank, and in many other projects, countries and agencies. she served on the army education advisory committee appointed by the us secretary of defense. she won the prestigious charles a. wedemyer award in de; and has been consistent in leading and facilitating aspiring but talented and committed young scholars in distance education, online learning, and instructional technology, and mentoring them and the cause of de for over three decades. she has also occasionally contributed to distance learning in the asian region, especially india and sri lanka. she is one of the few scholars of de research in the world who have enhanced the standard of research in de (which generally has not been viewed highly by mainstream researchers) and also that of de for the next generation to engage with. thailand whichit srisa-an one of the legends of global distance education, who built institutions and developed leaders for them, is prof whichit srisa-an, who is the founder and founding president of sukhothai thammathirat open university (stou), created through a royal charter in 1978 as the first open university in south-east asia. known as the father of distance education in thailand, he held master’s and doctoral degrees in educational administration from the university of minnesota, usa. 258 as both a civil servant and an educationist, he has also been permanent secretary, thailand ministry of university affairs, and had been rector of five universities. as a senator, member of parliament, and a minister of education, he significantly steered higher education reforms in the country, especially open distance education through stou. in recognition of his scholarly and able leadership, the wawasan open university conferred on him honorary dlitt ‘in recognition of a lifelong career dedicated to the development of education for the betterment of people’. conclusion the asian countries have shown tremendous growth in distance education and e-learning in the past decades, with the largest regional enrolment and highest number of open universities and dual-mode distance education institutions in the world. as sir john daniel noted, asia has seven out of 11 mega universities in the world (daniel, 1996). while analyzing the developments in distance education in the developing countries, perraton (2000) noted ideological, economic, and technological reasons why de has expanded globally and, more importantly, in the asian continent. the distance education programmes have significantly served the respective national development needs, and have also attracted international students under what is known today as mode 1 of gats—cross-border delivery. these countries have shown tremendous progress in the adoption and adaption of new media and technologies, oers and moocs, some of the country-specific developments being unique to this region. as latchem and jung (2010) remind us, the odl and ict developments in the region must respect their own unique contexts and values. however, access and equity, along with quality and parity of esteem, still remain as public issues to be addressed, though many countries have shown significant employability trends to offset the unfounded public perception. the contributions made by the above distance education leaders have resulted in very vibrant distance education systems and practices in the asian region. the current distance education administrators and policy makers are working hard toward harnessing the potential of ict and social technologies and networks, and also balancing access with employability and contribution to national human resource development needs. these are also the areas where the asian system is poised to show unique pathways to the entire globe. references ally, m. (2017). leaders in open and distance education in north america. journal of learning for development, 4(2), 119-126. belawati, t., & baggaley, j. (eds.) (2010). policy and practice in asian distance education. new delhi: sage publications pvt ltd & idrc. daniel, j. s. (1996). mega-universities and knowledge media: technology strategies for higher education. london: kogan page. deshpande, p. m. (1999). yashwantrao chavan maharashtra open university. in s. panda (ed.), open and distance education: policies, practices and quality concerns. new delhi: aravali books international. latchem, c., & jung, i. (2010). distance and blended learning in asia. london: routledge. mukhopadhyay, m. (1994). the unfolding of an open learning institution: the national open school in india. in m. mukhopadhyay & s. phillips (eds.), open schooling: selected experiences. vancouver: the commonwealth of learning. 259 perraton, h. (2000). open and distance learning in the developing world. london: routledge. singh, b., mullick, s., & chaudhary, n. (1994). correspondence/ distance education in india: an in-depth study. new delhi: indira gandhi national open university. yadav, m. s., & panda, s. (1999). open and distance higher education: policy and development. in s. panda (ed.), open and distance education: policies, practices and quality concerns. new delhi: aravali books international & network for staff and educational development. author: santosh panda is a professor of distance education, staff training & research institute of distance education (stride), indira gandhi national open university (ignou). in the past, he has been: director, stride & director, inter-university consortium, ignou; director, association of indian universities (aiu), new delhi; director of flexible learning centre, the university of the south pacific, fiji; a senior fulbright scholar, university of new mexico, usa; and chairperson, national council for teacher education, government of india. email: spanda.ignou@gmail.com microsoft word mays.docx issn: 2311-1550 2021, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 27-41 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. supporting teachers moving online, using a mooc, during the covid-19 pandemic tony john mays,1 betty ogange,1 som naidu2 and kirk perris1 1commonwealth of learning, burnaby, canada 2university of south pacific, fiji abstract: following campus closures due to the covid-19 pandemic, many ministries of education around the world requested teachers to move their teaching online. this case study reflects on how the commonwealth of learning responded to requests from two countries to provide support in pedagogical and curricular change for online learning in this process. a massive open online course (mooc) platform was used to upskill 11,568 teachers in two regions of the commonwealth. analytics from within the course, together with pre-, midand end-course surveys of participants’ perceptions indicated that while there was, and is, scope for improvement, the short course largely reached its objective of providing immediate support on an introductory level and that the approach adopted was largely appropriate for the purpose. keywords: covid-19, online teaching, oer, mooc. introduction the covid-19 pandemic disrupted the education of millions of learners around the globe. however, very few education systems and their teachers were prepared for the sudden transition to online learning that resulted (kanwar, 2020). this article focuses on two requests, from the ministries of education in fiji and trinidad and tobago, respectively, to the commonwealth of learning (col), to support their teachers in moving online. it explores how col responded, in partnership with its regional centre, the pacific centre for flexible and open learning for development (pacfold), which is hosted by the university of the south pacific. we developed and offered a short course called oer for online learning: an introduction (oer4ol), as a massive open online course (mooc) to address this need, and here we reflect on this work and what we learned from the process. context and background with the declaration of covid-19 as a global pandemic in march 2020, most school campuses were closed. governments in most developing and developed countries consequently recommended moving teaching and learning online. the oer4ol short course, therefore, responded to a ministrylevel request for short-term support for teachers who were struggling to support continuous learning during school campus closures. the course sought to provide practical advice in using oer and online resources and applications rather than to explore the theory of online learning or guidance on the use of a specific learning management system, since in most countries no common online platform was in place. 28 planning and design due to the need to support teachers before the start of the new school year, there was very little time for detailed planning of this course, a pressure also shared by others (ashman, et al, 2020). the new course outline was conceptualised on may 7, 2020 and the course and initial content were launched on may 15, 2020. simultaneously with the development of the content, discussions were held on how best to provide mentoring support and to monitor and evaluate implementation of the course. the four units of the course were developed and released progressively over the four weeks of the initial implementation. technology topics in the short course were introduced by short videos followed by content-based activities embedded in downloadable powerpoint presentations. each activity was linked to a discussion forum. participants were also directed to additional reading materials and/or web resources. assessment included active participation in discussion forums, an online quiz and an assignment comprising a lesson plan using oer, which could be taught without requiring teachers and learners to be in the same place at the same time. support for discussion forums was provided by local mentors over the four weeks of the first iteration of the course, which ran from friday may 15 to sunday june 24, 2020. the course was developed using mookit1, which was developed and is supported by the indian institute of technology, kanpur, india. technical support was available internally but where required the platform designers were contacted for advice. iterations of the short course as noted, the initial request for support came from the ministry of education in fiji, who actively promoted the course among teachers in that country. while the first iteration of the course was in process in response to the request from fiji, col responded to a request from the ministry of education in trinidad and tobago to create a second iteration of the course. feedback from the second iteration was so positive that the ministry requested a further iteration to try to reach all the teachers in trinidad and tobago in need of support. over the three iterations – one focused on the request from fiji and two focused on the requests from trinidad and tobago – some 11,568 teachers and others participated. both the second and third iterations of the course attracted participants also from fiji who had missed the first offering of the course. having run three iterations of the course, and with the third iteration involving three cohorts, we thought it would be interesting to explore comparative trends in engagement and feedback. literature review several years ago, moon (2010) warned of the need to train more teachers by using distance education methods because the limited capacity of traditional bricks and mortar provision alone would not allow us to train enough teachers to achieve universal access to education. as observed by hollands and tirthali (2014), moocs seemed to have the potential for cost-effective training provision at scale, 1 https://www.mookit.in/ 29 but a few other factors needed to be addressed if that potential was to be realised. also, in 2014, kanwar and balaji argued “the real advantages of moocs for development would be in skilling at scale with speed” (p. 7). as illustrated in a review of moocs and open education around the world (bonk et al, 2015), a diverse range of practices has emerged, and design, development and implementation of moocs continues to evolve (zhang et al, 2019). however, for our current purposes, kilgore et al (2015), observed that moocs could be used successfully for professional development, for participants across multiple institutions, if designed and developed appropriately. in india, for example, the national institute for open schooling (nios) took up the challenge of teacher development at scale, training 1.4 million untrained elementary school teachers in a single cohort over an 18-month period starting in october, 2017. nios made use of a combination of a mooc, centre-based support, free-to-air videos and mobile applications to reach these teachers (kharbanda, 2018; rajabalee, dundas & singh, 2020). in a recently completed long-term impact study of a mooc in technology enabled learning, perryman (2020) identifies four impact pathways which can be explored: implementation of new learning leading to improved learner outcomes; influence on colleagues’ changed practices; influence on institution leaders and developing practice through increased networking. it is the latter impact that is the focus of the current discussion as the others require further longitudinal research. however, as noted by stracke (2017) earlier, the key metric for a mooc should probably be the extent to which it meets the expectations and needs of the participants themselves. the oer4ol short course sought to initiate open discussion and sharing rather than limiting participants only to the initial contents provided by the course leaders. this is in line with recent recommendations for teacher development. for example, sayed and bulgrin (2020), reflecting on comparative case studies of teacher development approaches in africa, argue: a new approach to professional development is needed – one which conceives of development as “learning”. framing professional development as learning privileges the idea of teachers as members of a profession worthily engaged in continuous development of skills and knowledge throughout their professional career. this frames development as within the agency of teachers who not only identify what they need, but also what is appropriate to their own learning (p. v). methods since we needed to accommodate relatively large numbers and wished to foster cross-pollination of ideas through active participant engagement (walji, et al, 2016), and encourage the participation of women working in environments requiring maximum flexibility (almuhanna, 2018), and also because we needed the course to be free, open, mobile friendly and device agnostic, a mooc seemed an appropriate mechanism for the course to take. we also desired to exploit fully the opportunity of having a diverse range of participants (although focused on and marketed within two particular countries, once opened, the platform was open to anybody, anywhere and participants from 87 countries enrolled). it was important not only to help teachers think about how to guide learners’ independent use of prescribed textbooks, supplied or endorsed by the relevant ministry of education, but also to foster engagement with oer to strengthen inclusion and equity. we recognise that how we shape that engagement will affect the degree to which we achieve our objectives (veletsianos, 2020) and how we mediate engagement with oer, and with the ideas and opinions of others in that process, reflects our own assumptions about the nature of openness and knowledge creation (alevizou, 2015). if we wish 30 to influence pedagogy, then it is important that teachers engaged in a mooc exploring oer, themselves create and share oer as part of the process (hendricks, 2020). in addition, we needed to ensure that the scope of the course was manageable for teachers already under great pressure to adapt to new circumstances – hence it needed to provide “an introduction“ or “gateway” only on which more substantive engagements could be built subsequently (czerniewicz, et al, 2014; karunanayaka & naidu, 2020). as noted previously, the short course was designed, developed and implemented over a very short period. we were concerned that participants should actively engage with resources and applications and then share lessons of experience and feedback with their peers (and mentors). the course was divided into four units of learning of about three hours expected duration, each of which followed a similar sequence: • watching a short introductory overview of the content • downloading a powerpoint with key activities and embedded links to useful resources • sharing lessons of experience in one or more discussion forums • sharing a summary of key lessons and sharing of an additional consolidating resource, such as a reworked oer, an example lesson plan, or a set of guidelines for remote/online teaching. course contents: unit 1: using prescribed learning resources unit 2: using oer unit 3: learner and learning support unit 4: managing assessment and feedback. this paper focuses on what was learned from offering the course. results the short time available and the pressure to address an immediate need, required a pragmatic response. such an approach is characterised by a focus on action and change (goldkuhl, 2012), and that highlights what we wanted to achieve through evaluation of the short course: to determine what worked well and resonated with participants’ needs and also where we needed to improve the course for future participants. this study lent itself to a mixed method approach to review the relationship between the course, the mentors and participants with the aim of evaluating the course through the key stakeholders’ engagement and perceptions (the participants themselves). this strategy provided opportunities to do in-depth analysis of the programme using various data collection instruments (creswell & creswell, 2018), including surveys, teachers’ guided reflections, forum postings, direct observation of artefacts created and shared and even unsolicited emails, through which detailed information was acquired, and an applied social research process (yin, 2014). however, the short course is still very much a work in progress so the findings we present here are considered preliminary and formative. 31 instruments and data collection the data collection instruments included, pre-, midand endcourse surveys, observation of student engagement in discussion forums, review of examples of oer created by the participants, participants’ reflective “stories” on their experience as well as data analytics available within the platform. the preand endcourse surveys focused on collecting demographic data, as well as data about prior experiences perceptions and expectations, and variations of these surveys have been used in multiple projects. the mid-course survey was designed specifically to link with the overall purpose of the course. one of our key goals in this short orientation course was to shift participants’ belief systems about learning and teaching towards a more participatory and sharing culture, and we did this by example. for instance, we asked participants to, openly and freely, share their work in the course with their peers so they could all benefit from one another’s thinking. for the achievement of certification, we set hurdle requirements, such as share a lesson plan for comment and then submit a revised version as an assignment, the revised version being acknowledged for credit rather than a grade being assigned, while encouraging participants to provide feedback on the work of others. the idea behind this survey was to get a sense of participants’ beliefs about learning and teaching, education more generally, but especially about open educational practices (i.e., collaborative engagement with oers and their creation, use and repurposing for different contexts (ehlers, 2011), in order to be able to ascertain what we need to do now and, in the future, to shift those perceptions and perspectives towards more openness. all surveys were optional and participants were assured that while the survey responses would be used for research and development purposes, their personal information would be protected as any reporting would be anonymised. population and sample the population for the study was all participants who engaged with the course over the three iterations offered –1695 (iteration 1 – fiji+), 1114 (iteration 2 – trinidad and tobago+), 8759 (iteration 3 – trinidad and tobago+) – a total of 11,568 participants (inclusive of the course leaders and mentors). due to the larger numbers anticipated for the third iteration but the need to reach as many teachers as possible before the start of the new school year, participants were organised by the ministry into cohorts of about 2500 in size and brought into the programme every two weeks. however, no one was forced to exit the course after their two weeks was over and the course remained open for completion for another three weeks after the third cohort were due to complete. table 1 summarises the number of survey responses received. 32 table 1: survey responses pre-course mid-course end-course iteration 1 fiji+ 587 (34.6%) 95 (5.6%) 191 (11.3%) iteration 2 trinidad and tobago + 1 145 (13%) 157 (14%) 269 (24.1%) iteration 3 trinidad and tobago + 2 2778 (32%) 2003 (23%) 1623 (18.5%) 3510 (30.3%) 2255 (19.5%) 2083 (18%) data analysis given the introductory nature and limited scope of the course, we felt that a simple statistical analysis using tools already available in the mooc platform or within the survey platforms used (survey monkey and lime survey) would be appropriate to analyse the quantitative data. while for the qualitative data, we examined open-ended responses and identified recurring themes. findings and discussion findings from in-platform data analytics iteration 1 had 53.1% female participation, with most participants aged 21-50 and with graduate qualifications. there were 1,967 forums and 3,928 comments. iteration 2 had 58% female participation, with most participants aged 21-50 and with graduate qualifications. there were 356 forums and 4,525 comments iteration 3 had 79% female participation, again, with most participants aged 21-50 and with graduate qualifications. there were 10,930 forums and 81,835 comments findings from pre-course survey (demographics and expectations) there were 3,510 responses to the pre-course survey, representing 30.3% of the participants enrolled. the findings of the pre-course survey are summarised in table 2. 33 table 2: summary of responses to pre-course survey number of responses 3,510 % of population 30.3 iteration 1 (fiji+) % iteration 2 (t&t+) % iteration 3 (t&t+) % english as first language 36.79 64.32 96 connection to internet wired/wireless (home/office) 66.38 85.5 91.49 mobile internet available 42.71 44.27 44.22 no experience of supporting learners outside of the physical classroom 27.43 18.55 19.43 less than 8 weeks’ experience of supporting learners outside of the physical classroom 39.38 41.94 32.72 use of technology such as sms/ whatsapp to support classroom teaching sms: 40.93 whatsapp: 22.12 zoom: 18.14 skype: 9.29 radio: 11.28 tv: 9.29 google classroom: 25.44 other: 42.42 sms: 35.48 whatsapp: 83.06 zoom: 54.84 skype: 12.9 radio: 0.81 tv: 8.06 google classroom: 36.29 other: 29.03 sms: 22.18 whatsapp: 87.57 zoom: 42.51 skype: 4.76 radio: 1.69 tv: 4.84 google classroom: 34.09 other: 31.38 previous knowledge of oer/online learning (5-8/10) 54.86 60.48 53.12 oer/online learning included in previous studies (at least partly) 68 89 48.91 expectation of improved knowledge of oer 75.66 90.32 83.01 expectation of improved knowledge and ability in online learning 76.77 86.29 86.87 important to gain a completion certificate 74.12 73.39 65.12 expectation of improved teaching skills and job security 71.02 64.52 64.49 expectation of stronger online skills for use in daily life 72.79 70.97 71.33 34 as will be observed from table 2, participants in iteration 1 (targeted primarily at teachers from fiji and other pacific island states), had limited access to the wired internet and were more likely to make use of older technologies not so dependent on an internet connection (e.g., sms rather than whatsapp, more use of radio and television content). although participants had some prior knowledge of oer and/or online learning, improved knowledge in these areas was a high expectation for most participants, although fewer participants in iterations 2 and 3 (targeted primarily at teachers in trinidad and tobago and other caribbean island nations) anticipated improved teaching skills and job security as a result of taking the course. findings from mid-course survey (perceptions and perspectives on pedagogy) a total of 2255 (19.5%) completed the mid-course survey which requested a response to a variety of statements related to perceptions and perspectives on open educational practices as well as education broadly. the purpose behind the administration of this survey early in the course and then linked to reflection at the end was to see if these perceptions and perspectives had shifted as a result of their experience in the course. the findings were similar across all three iterations for most statements but we did note some variations in the responses. across all three iterations, participants had a strong belief in the notion of education as a human right and thought that technology could enhance the teaching and learning process. however, participants in iteration 1 placed greater emphasis on mastery of subject matter than participants in iterations 2 and 3 who were, perhaps, also valuing the process or learning or the achievement of cross-cutting learning competencies. there was a strong belief that resources developed using public funds should be available cost free and openly accessible, especially among participants in iteration 1. across all three iterations, participants felt that oer has potential to help teachers design more meaningful learning experiences, because of the possibilities for re-using, revising, remixing and sharing. participants recognised that teaching with technology takes time but were divided over whether it took more time than traditional teaching. few participants felt that finding and adapting oer was a poor use of a teacher’s time but they felt that it might be the case that sometimes the oer found might not be of the best quality. participants claimed they often integrated technology in their teaching, especially those in iteration 1. while participants in iterations 2 and 3 were less likely to actively avoid use of oer, participants in iteration 1 said they were more likely to use oer and to create their own. while the most common response to whether or not resources were used multiple times was ‘sometimes’, participants in iteration 1 suggested they were slightly more likely to modify, combine or re-organise resources before using them, and were slightly more likely to share. overall, having completed unit 2 on finding and using oer, participants across all three iterations said they would “often” use oer in various ways but recognised that finding and integrating oer could sometimes be time-consuming. most participants across all three iterations felt that use of oer only “rarely” or “sometimes” could lead to sharing wrong information. although a mooc is designed with an open audience in mind, it seems that when large numbers of participants from the same region engage in almost real-time discussions, a new regional dynamic begins to emerge. there was very positive feedback on the sharing of examples, and we speculate that this is partly because the teachers involved had already begun the process of adapting oer from 35 elsewhere to suit a particular context, requiring even less adaption for the next teacher within a similar context engaging with that resource. we were also made conscious of the ways in which access to technology affected how participants engaged. mid-course, we discovered a way to reduce the data-requirements of the short in-course videos, for example, and we felt that our decision to make all key resources downloadable for use off-line was also vindicated. findings from end-course survey (reflection in relation to expectations and pedagogic shifts) there were 2083 end-course responses representing 18% of the total population. the satisfaction ratings were slightly higher for iterations 1 and 2. the course was designed with the expectation that participants would spend about three hours on each unit (although a lot of additional optional readings were also provided). respondents reported spending on average 3.98, 3.99, and 4.34 hours per week, respectively, but some in iteration 3 felt they needed the full four weeks to complete the course properly, whereas the ministry had organised them into two-week cohorts to reach all teachers before schools re-opened. this could partially account for the slightly lower rankings assigned by participants in iteration 3. across all iterations of the course, participants indicated that access to computers by students and teachers, teachers’ knowledge and skills and access to training opportunities, as well as internet reliability and costs, will impact significantly on take-up of ict but most indicated that the course had impacted positively on their practice and that they were keen to learn more. findings from teacher stories participants were also invited to post reflections on ways in which the oer4ol course had impacted their teaching during covid-19. using a reflection guide supplied by the course leaders, they also shared stories on their plans for future classroom practice and expectations for teacher professional development and recognition. the responses were similar and mostly positive across all three iterations. teacher stories were shared by 95 (5.6%) participants from iteration 1, 119 (10.7%) participants from iteration 2, and 965 (11%) participants from iteration 3. most participants expressed satisfaction with the course, with a number indicating that it was their first time to participate in a mooc. there seemed to be general satisfaction with the technology used to deliver the course, with some participants experiencing challenges in accessing the course resources initially but finding overall that it was worth persevering: the best decision that l took in 2020 was to take this course. it has been so fulfilling and enjoyable. i have started to use all the skills learnt in preparing my worksheets and using oer so wisely, ensuring that it is not copied but open for use. the research guides, quizzes and portfolios were best part of learning. in addition, knowing more from other students was so meaningful and motivating. there wasn’t a time when l felt like giving up. this course inspired me to become better teacher (participant iteration 1). this was my first class with mooc and it was excellent. i have gained a lot of knowledge. (participant iteration 2) several participants indicated that their knowledge and skills in oer had improved significantly, and they felt ready to teach online. 36 the course helped me to be more proficient in the use of oer and to be mindful of copyright laws when using online resources. it also reminded me of the importance of timely feedback during assessments online as well taught me that students should have a breakdown of how they should be engaged in an online lesson. (participant iteration 3) this course … made me more knowledgeable about developing rubrics/portfolios and gave me great insight as to how imperative rubrics are needed for distance/online learning. (participant iteration 3) there was evidence of peer collaborative learning in the evolving teacher community as noted by several participants: i felt overwhelmed but understood that if i took everything one step at a time, i will get through it all. i met colleagues along the way who were able to assist in some areas and the level of collaboration experienced this year has been greater than anything i have experienced in my more than 20 years’ experience as a teacher. (participant iteration 2) yes, learning about oer has given me more opportunity to work with my students and assist my colleagues with the same. (participant iteration 3) most participants indicated that they had used the knowledge gained in their daily practice. asked whether any of the skills and knowledge gained / resources accessed had been helpful during covid19, some pointed out that the course had helped them in understanding not only how to teach online but also the learning experiences that their learners would go through while studying online. yes, this course will improve my teaching performance because i have a better understanding of the challenges that new online learners face, and how to adapt my approach to implement and support this new way of learning in a virtual environment. (participant iteration 3) one of the main highlights of this course is the notion that learning is not limited to the classroom, but anywhere can become a “learning space.” educators must use the appropriate tools to reach the learners in any learning space. (participant iteration 3) for others, the course stimulated reflections on previous courses delivered online, as well as the motivation to seek relevant online resources for the learner, now and in future: i am already seeing ways that we can reach students who may be absent due to illness or injury, ways we can facilitate their learning. (participant iteration 2) prior to this course, i did not recognize how much i was missing the mark with the methods i used to engage my learners. covid-19 forced us all to suddenly switch to online teaching and learning. now that i have gained this knowledge, i am confident that i’m able to meet the needs of all parties involved. (participant iteration 2) whereas the teachers felt that the course would improve their teaching performance, many were not as optimistic that it would improve their opportunity for promotion. yes, it will be an asset to promotion because the pandemic has pushed the world to use and become more dependent on the computer and other electronic technologies. (participant iteration 2) no, i don’t believe this course will give me an opportunity for a promotion, however it will further increase or improve my skills to enhance my teaching. (participant iteration 3) 37 however, several participants from iteration 1 (fiji+) felt that the course would improve their opportunity for promotion. the ministry had encouraged teachers to register and participate in this course thus our professional development hours will be updated (participant iteration 1). in a similar vein, the mooc seemed to have given the participants a sense of global visibility and pride in their teaching career for some participants in iteration 1. besides, some felt better prepared for any future school closures that would come about due to unforeseen disasters. i want the world to know that i am a teacher who can competently teach online (participant iteration 1). saying that the world is very small has come true. i have interacted and learnt something worthwhile with so many new and unfamiliar learners from different parts of the world (participant iteration 1). teachers’ opinions on their professional development journey in a post-covid-19 era were varied. the significance of teacher professional development was iterated in several posts, and so was the awareness about the need for on-going transition to technology-based learning. the need for teacher support towards safe teaching and learning environments was also a recurring theme. while covid-19 will be remembered for taking many, many lives, this period has revitalized my professional development and given me new life as an educator. (participant iteration 2) the course… showed me the need of always being alert with the way things are changing and how to adapt to these changes and make the best of it. (participant iteration 2) before the emergence of the covid 19 virus (and subsequently the pandemic) teaching consisted mostly of “chalk and talk”. the situation that we now face has forced teachers and administrators to search for new ways to teach. this course has definitely filled an important gap in the transition that we must now all make. i plan to use the knowledge that i have gained for the benefit of my learners. (participant iteration 3) the course has helped me develop not only as a professional, but as a lifelong learner in education. (participant iteration 3) findings from review of lesson plans more than 5,000 lesson plans were uploaded after peer review and discussion in a dedicated lesson forum, using a rubric as a guide. several examples of uploaded lesson plans, reflecting learning across the course, were randomly selected for review. some lessons learned from this exercise were: 1. it is good to provide a fully worked out example on the one hand but it can potentially limit creativity on the other. from the 5,000 lesson plans available, ministries could, however, build a set of examples for improvement and examples that could be used as models. 2. many teachers need more support to think through carefully what tool to use, and how and when to use it, to ensure ongoing communication throughout the learning process. 3. teachers generally need more support in how to structure activities for learners working independently and how to provide written guidelines. 38 need for improvement although “pinning” key discussion forums was helpful in focusing discussions, the inability to thread discussions made navigation difficult and participants also continued to generate their own discussion forums on the same topic. in future iterations we will use separate spaces for participantinitiated and teacher-initiated discussions. in addition to survey responses, we received several unsolicited emails from participants in iteration 3. a very few were critical of the course, for example: while i understand about licenses, those youtube videos with creative commons are limited, boring and not applicable to my grade level. … my internet went down since last friday and resumed late last night. how was extension of time going to be allotted to me if no restoration? (respondent iteration 3) i was not totally satisfied with this course. there was too much work and reading to do in a short space of time. i actually thought we would be taught how to use a new online platform. (respondent, iteration 3) the course outline indicated that the course would be at an introductory level and a set of separate resource links provided included resources linked to both primary programmes and several secondary subjects: i write to inform you that i found your course very beneficial especially given the current situation with education, but the mentors failed me. as a participant of cohort 1, i was disappointed that i was not able to receive additional guidance from the mentors when i requested such via email. … as a result, i had no choice but to submit my assignment without any guidance. this outcome was disappointing since it was stated via one of the videos posted on the site as well as under 'announcements' that mentors were there to lend assistance. (respondent iteration 3) as previously noted, a mooc by its very nature deals with large numbers. by and large, moocs are not designed for individualised feedback given the volume of learners, other than as automated in the form of a quiz, for example. if we were to use mentors again in future, it would be necessary to spend more time thinking about how best to use them. for example, each mentor could be assigned a specialist role, e.g., primary literacy, junior secondary maths and then create their own discussion forums about these. the following email reflects several that were received in which participants in iteration 3 felt they were unable to complete adequately within the two-week timeframe. however, all participants were granted extended access after the initial two-week period to complete all tasks assigned in the mooc. this course needs a longer time frame than 10 11 days to complete if participants are to gain knowledge and skills from it and feel comfortable and confident knowing that learning took place as well as they can use this to improve their jobs within the face of the current pandemic being experienced worldwide. (participant iteration 3) however, the following email reflects an appreciation that the course focused on the core needs and formed a base for further reflection and professional development as intended (and is more in alignment with the feedback received through the surveys and the teacher stories): 39 i need to express my heartfelt thanks and deep appreciation to the course team for the “caribbean regional: using open educational resources for online learning. “this was a most intensive, very comprehensive program of study that explored the core matter as it relates to the teacher, the learner, the curriculum to be delivered, the pedagogical tools, the actualizing of learning using technology. i was really absorbed in my learning and because of the design structure of this course, i felt compelled to do more. this has been the most useful tool empowering me with the invaluable knowledge and skills that i so need. (respondent, iteration 3) a significant number of participants in this oer4ol short course went on to engage with other short courses offered by col or through col’s partnership with coursera. conclusion and recommendations as an “introduction”, the short course seemed largely to have served its purpose. the major challenge for most participants in iteration 3 was the shorter timeframe adopted to try to support multiple cohorts before schools re-opened. one of the challenges when very large numbers of students are all posting examples and comments is that it becomes difficult to track the engagement and to respond appropriately. by using a cohort system to limit the number of very active participants to about 2,500 at a time, it was hoped that it would be more manageable to provide feedback and support. there is clearly a need for such a course. in revising the course for future use, we will need to: • improve the powerpoint resources and related videos; • integrate mentoring support more effectively; and • consider adding an introduction on use of a variety of online platforms (or at least indicate a link to another course covering this ground.) acknowledgement: we take this opportunity to record our thanks to dr venkataraman balaji, col’s vice president, for his advice and support during the three iterations of the short course and also to acknowledge the excellent technical support provided by the mookit team. references alevizou, g. (2015). from oer to moocs: critical perspectives on the historical mediation trajectories of open education. international journal of media and cultural politics, 11(2), 203-224. doi:10.1386/macp.11.2.203_1 https://www.academia.edu/19465648/from_oer_to_moocs_critical_perspectives_on_the_historical_medi ation_trajectories_of_open_education?email_work_card=view-paper almuhanna, m. a. (2018). participants’ perceptions of moocs in saudi arabia (phd thesis). school of education, university of sheffield. https://www.academia.edu/40204408/participants_perceptions_of_moocs_in_saudi_arabia?email_work_c ard=view-paper ashman, m., cruthers, a., grant, j., takacs, s., & fong, p. (2020). building an openly-licensed “course in a box” in a month. kpu teaching & learning commons, blog, october 9, 2020. https://wordpress.kpu.ca/tlcommons/building-an-openly-licensed-course-in-a-box-in-a-month/ bonk, c. j., lee, m. m., reeves, c. t., & reynolds, t. h. (eds.). (2015). moocs and open education around the world. routledge. 40 creswell, j. w., & creswell, j. d. (2018). research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (5th ed.). sage publications, inc. czerniewicz, l., deacon, a., small, j., & walji, s. (2014). developing world moocs: a curriculum view of the mooc landscape. journal of global literacies, technologies and emerging pedagogies, 2(3), 122-139. https://www.academia.edu/8363109/developing_world_moocs_a_curriculum_view_of_the_mooc_lands cape?email_work_card=view-paper ehlers, u-d. (2011). extending the territory: from open educational resources to open educational practices. journal of open, flexible, and distance learning, 15(2), 1-10. http://www.jofdl.nz/index.php/jofdl/article/download/64/46 goldkuhl, g. (2012). pragmatism vs interpretivism in qualitative information systems research. european journal of information systems, 21(2), 135-146. hendricks, c. (2020). students’ vital role in oer. http://pressbooksdev.oer.hawaii.edu/uhoerpubguide/chapter/engaging-learners-with-oer/##studentsvitalrole hollands, f. m., & tirthali, d. (2014). moocs: expectations and reality. full report. center for benefit-cost studies of education, teachers college, columbia university, ny. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/271841177_moocs_expectations_and_reality kanwar, a. (2020). challenges for elearning during covid-19. presentation to the 3rd international conference on distance and elearning (icdeel-2020), international islamic university, islamabad, pakistan. http://oasis.col.org/bitstream/handle/11599/3665/2020_kanwar_challenges_elearning_during_covid19.pdf?sequence=4&isallowed=y kanwar, a., & balaji, v. (2014). to mooc or not to mooc: that is the question. lecture given at wawasan open university, malaysia, september 17, 2014. http://oasis.col.org/handle/11599/754 karunanayaka, s. p., & naidu, s. (2020). teachers as designers: at the confluence of technology, pedagogy and oer. in essays in online education: a global perspective. unisa press, south africa, 33-46. kharbanda, a. (2018). nios to train all untrained teachers by 2019. comosa-connect, blog, march 1, 2018. https://comosaconnect.org/nios-to-train-all-untrained-teachers-by-2019/ kilgore, w., bartoletti, r., & freih, m. a. (2015). design intent and iteration: the #humanmooc. experience track: proceedings of the european mooc stakeholders summit 2015, 7-12. https://www.academia.edu/12440762/design_intent_and_iteration_the_humanmooc?email_work_card=v iew-paper moon, b. (2010, february). time for radical change in teacher education guidelines: using open and distance learning. connections 15(1). commonwealth of learning. perryman, l. (2020). tel mooc long-term impact evaluation study. commonwealth of learning. http://oasis.col.org/handle/11599/3482 rajabalee, y. b., dundas, d., & singh, c. kr. (2020). tel and open schooling. in t. mays & r. k. singh (eds.), addressing the learning needs of out of school children and youth through expansion of open schooling. commonwealth of learning (col). chapter 4. sayed, y., & bulgrin, e. (2020). teacher professional development and curriculum: enhancing teacher professionalism in africa. education international. https://issuu.com/educationinternational/docs/2020_eiosf_research_enhancingteachingprofessionaf 41 stracke, c. m. (2017). the quality of moocs: how to improve the design of open education and online courses for learners? in p. zaphiris & a. ioannou (eds.), learning and collaboration technologies. novel learning ecosystems. lct 2017. lecture notes in computer science, vol. 10295. springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-31958509-3_23 veletsianos, g. (2020, october 7). open educational resources: expanding equity or reflecting and further inequities? educational technology research and development. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-020-09840-y walji, s., deacon, a., small, j., & czerniewicz, l. (2016). learning through engagement: moocs as an emergent form of provision. distance education, 37(2), 208-223. https://doi.org/10.1080/01587919.2016.1184400 yin, r. k. (2014). case study research: design and methods (applied social research methods). sage publications. zhang, k., bonk, c. j., reeves, t. c., & reynolds, t. h. (2019). moocs and open education in the global south: challenges, successes, and opportunities. routledge. authors: dr tony mays is education specialist for open schooling at the commonwealth of learning. email: tmays@col.org. dr betty ogange is education specialist for teacher education at the commonwealth of learning. email: bogange@col.org dr som naidu is principal associate (technology, education and design associates), and executive editor of the journal distance education (https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/cdie20/current). he is a principal fellow of the higher education academy. http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7480-8120. email: sommnaidu@gmail.com dr kirk perris is advisor in education at the commonwealth of learning. email: kperiss@col.org cite this paper as: mays, t. j., ogange, b., naidu, s. & perris, k. (2021). supporting teachers moving online, using a mooc, during the covid-19 pandemic. journal of learning for development, 8(1), 27-41. microsoft word jurakovic.docx issn: 2311-1550 2022, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 253-266 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. students’ attitudes towards online teaching and communication during the coronavirus pandemic linda juraković,1 sanja tatković1 and petko radulović2 1juraj dobrila university of pula 2university high school of economics abstract: the relevance of the researched problem is due to the need for monitoring online teaching during the coronavirus pandemic and improving teachers' skills in the process of online teaching and communication with students. the purpose of the research was to find whether there were statistically significant differences in students' positive attitudes towards online teaching conducted in three different study programmes and the communication between students and professors during the coronavirus pandemic. the following methods were used in the research: theoretical (analysis, synthesis, generalisation), diagnostic (likert scale), statistics and graphical presentation of the results. our research also shows that students have positive attitudes towards online teaching and communication with teachers. a contribution to such students' attitudes was probably given by the university teachers' existing online teaching skills as well as students' digital skills and competencies owed to the use of social networks. the research aimed to draw attention to the factors that are important for the implementation of quality online teaching in faculties at the time of the pandemic. it emphasised the importance of researching students' perception of the quality of online teaching and various aspects of communication with teachers at a time when they were unable to communicate live. therefore, the research results can stimulate similar research in higher education to identify those factors that could contribute to the satisfaction of students and teachers with this type of teaching. keywords: monitoring the quality of education, monitoring communication, monitoring teachers’ competencies, students’ perception. introduction after the lockdown due to the coronavirus outbreak, online teaching and learning at higher education institutions became a lifeline for thousands of students who had the opportunity to continue their education at a time when the whole world around them seemed to have stopped. the coronavirus pandemic, which has led to an unprecedented health and socioeconomic crisis that we are still living in and is going to scar our times for a long period, has severely impacted the entire higher education sector around the world (marinoni et al., 2020). many governments took rapid and concrete measures in order to avoid spreading the pandemic and to ensure the continuity of the educational process (sobaih et al., 2020; nambiar, 2020). many organisations and associations involved in higher education, as well as student associations and organisations are conducting surveys with a specific focus on a region or on specific issues. covid-19 has brought out a drastic change in the educational system, especially in teaching and learning methods (ally, 2020). online teaching became an irreplaceable tool for maintaining education at universities. online learning and classes are 254 increasingly becoming part of education systems worldwide (nambiar, 2020). "both teachers and university students found themselves in a situation that the very day before was unimaginable" (plavšić et al., 2021). universities have focused on identifying ways to provide knowledge during the coronavirus pandemic. in a very short time they had to adapt educational processes for exclusively online teaching and learning (diković et al., 2021; shevchuk et al., 2021). online teaching produces many qualitative teaching and communication changes in the learning and teaching process such as temporal and spatial flexibility of learning and teaching, development of personalised learning, guidance, motivation and monitoring of students' work, and feedback on study and student progress (levchenko et al., 2021). nowadays, online teaching is crucial in the education systems of many countries. the research shows that online teaching and learning also stimulates innovation in the learning and teaching process, and encourages communication and social interaction. e-learning is also effective for acquiring knowledge and stimulating creativity among students (zare et al., 2016; berendieieva, 2021). during the coronavirus pandemic, it would hardly be possible to refer to teaching without the implementation of online learning. in this context, it is interesting to recall that more than 15 years ago, the well-known educationalists bognar and matijević (2005), when describing personal communication (communication between two or more people) and apersonal communication (communication mediated by a technical medium) pointed out that "it will certainly never happen that personal communication is overcome or completely replaced by apersonal communication in an educational process", as well as that "the pedagogical values of direct communication are far above any apersonal communication". they also pointed out that these two forms of communication complement and enrich each other, but are by no means mutually exclusive. at the same time, lavrentieva et al. (2020) assumed that the basic goal of interpersonal communication in teaching is to encourage meaningful and creative learning for lifelong learning and self-education, while zrilić (2010) believed that when developing the quality of communication attention should be given during all teaching phases. in the 1990s, the well-known communicator brajša (1994) advised that if educational processes in school are considered communication processes, at one end there is the teacher as the sender of the message, and at the other one there is the recipient, the student. a very complex communication dynamic takes place between them. in order for the message to be perceived by the students, they must hear it and understand it. this can be aggravated by mechanical interference (noise, slurred or quiet speech), but also by semantic interference (incomprehensible content). for this reason, the harmonisation of the sending and the receiving of the message during the conversation between teachers and students is the primary objective of a professional and successful conversation at school. today's society is based on the transfer of information, i.e., the processing, storage, availability, distribution and use of data with the help of information and communication technologies. learning in such a virtual environment requires different ways of teaching and learning (škugor & borić, 2011). students' education and teachers' training in higher education is not possible without the implementation of online learning and the application of modern information and communication technology (tatković & ćatić, 2009; barbieri et al., 2015). tatković and močinić (2012) emphasise that the teachers' ability to work efficiently should be regarded in three areas that partially overlap: 1. working with information, technology and knowledge, 2. working with people — students, teachers, adults, associates and other partners in the education process and, 3. working within society at local, 255 regional, national, european and global levels. looking upon education in today's coronavirus pandemic, these areas of education are becoming especially important because "in addition to knowledge, skills and values acquired through all subjects and cross-curricular topics, it is important to develop skills for virtual but also real/immediate social interaction (tatković et al., 2016). in the perspective of communication, it is possible that direct, social interaction will be neglected under the influence of social networks. therefore, schools should determine what their main objective will be in educating people, i.e., take into account the development of interpersonal skills and positive interpersonal relationships (tatković & močinić, 2012). observing teaching communication and education in the coronavirus pandemic conditions, these requirements represent a great challenge for education because modern media can change and are regularly changing human communication, and thus human society (kebritchi et al., 2017). by comparing face-to-face classrooms and online communication, it is possible to see that a face-toface classroom setting can provide immediate student feedback about the quality of lessons, delivery, and experience. upon entering the classroom, teachers establish immediate interaction with students. they can observe a students' body language (smile, look, hand movements, way of dressing, etc.), and these non-verbal cues help the teacher to immediately make adjustments in their teaching approach to best suit the needs of the students (burac et al., 2019). additional questioning and individualised attention in the classroom environment to gain a more detailed idea about the students' understanding of concepts being taught is a major advantage when compared to online channels. what might be easily perceived and approached in the classroom requires a little more probing and alertness in an online class (nambiar, 2020). proponents of online learning state that students can be more actively engaged and communicate with teachers or other students using tools such as video conferencing, social media and discussion forums, etc. they believe that online learning, compared to traditional learning, provides easier access to online resources, databases, journals and other material that normally would not be easily accessed in a library (lahoda, 2021). should a student have difficulty understanding part of the subject, finding advice on it could not be easier than having immediate access to additional, unlimited and, usually free, material online. moreover, online learning is designed to meet the needs of different types of students, who would not otherwise succeed in a traditional learning environment, as well as to complement a traditional multifunctional environment to make it even more appealing. however, the results of some studies (nambiar, 2020) indicate that face-to-face learning can be perceived more positively than online learning in terms of social presence, interaction, satisfaction and overall quality. even though online classes can be convenient in terms of saving time, still, both teachers and students deem it less effective and structured when compared to the classroom mode of learning. today's students are very skilled users of online learning and social media. at the same time, competent teachers are needed in pandemic times (popa et al., 2020; nambiar, 2020). kudriavtseva and solodovnik (2021) and tatković, and močinić (2012) in their research dealing with teachers' competencies, emphasised the importance of revising the initial teacher's education according to the knowledge and advantages provided by ict, so that they could be able to respond to the challenges of the future. these suggestions have proven to be useful. 256 in the context of the coronavirus pandemic, universities are fully relying on the power of online learning, given that they are under great pressure to provide students with the necessary education as well as to achieve teaching content and its primary function by using online teaching. the predictions of sahlberg (2012) have come true. ten years ago, he warned that in the future people would devote even more time to media and communication technologies and that "new social tools will expand opportunities for creative activities because people will be able to participate in open source projects, designing games or digital solutions in collaboration with other participants in these networks". research objectives the purpose of the research was to determine whether there were statistically significant differences in students' positive attitudes towards online teaching conducted in three study programmes during the coronavirus pandemic. it is hypothesised that there is no statistically significant difference in the positive attitude towards online teaching between students of computer science and those of preschool education. it is hypothesised that there is no statistically significant difference in the positive attitude towards online teaching between students of computer science, preschool education students and teacher study programme students. h1: there is no statistically significant difference in the positive attitude towards online teaching between students of computer science and those of preschool education. h2: there is no statistically significant difference in the positive attitude towards online teaching between students of computer science, preschool education and teacher study programme. the likert scale of positive attitudes towards computational thinking with five levels (from 1 – i completely disagree to 5 – i completely agree) was used for the research. methods in the first stage, a theoretical analysis of existing research was used. the literature and similar research have been studies and analysed. in the second stage, a diagnostic method was used. a query based on the likert scale with 11 questions and five offered answers was used. in the third stage, statistical methods were used (descriptive data analysis, t-test for independent samples and anova, and graphical data representation. the reliability of the scale was checked. the cronbach's alpha coefficient is 0.862, showing that the scale is reliable, i.e., there is an internal consistency of the scale. next, the suitability of the scale for factor analysis was established, i.e., the kmo test was conducted. the kmo indicator was 0.853, the bartlett test of sphericity was 0.000 and p < 0,05, respectively, the data being suitable for factor analysis. population and sample the research was carried out in june 2020 when, due to epidemiological measures taken during the coronavirus pandemic, the university shifted to entirely online classes. the questionnaire was administered online using the free google forms programme. students were invited to take part in the survey during the final weeks of the semester. they were asked for consent and they gave their answers anonymously. its administration took up to 15 minutes. the research was carried out with the approval of the university ethics committee. the focus of interest were the differences in the attitudes of students of the faculty of informatics and the faculty of educational sciences at the juraj dobrila university of pula towards online classes. the research was conducted on three independent samples. the first sample (n = 26) consisted of undergraduate and graduate students of the computer 257 science study programme at the faculty of informatics in pula. the second sample (n = 29) consisted of undergraduate students of the preschool education study programme at the faculty of educational sciences in pula, and the third one (n = 63) consisted of students of integrated undergraduate and graduate teacher study programme at the faculty of educational sciences in pula. the samples represent three different study programs at the faculty of educational sciences in pula. tools used first, a descriptive frequency analysis of likert scale was performed (table 1). table 1. descriptive frequency analysis question denomination average 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 n 118 118 118 118 118 118 118 118 118 118 118 118 mean 3.98 3.30 2.84 3.18 2.87 3.64 3.72 3.21 4.46 3.76 3.60 3.50 median 4.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 4.00 4.00 3.00 5.00 4.00 4.00 mode 4 3 3 5 3 5 5 3 5 4 5 std. dev. 0.974 1.161 1.262 1.459 1.248 1.339 1.268 1.340 0.946 1.079 1.361 variance 0.949 1.348 1.593 2.130 1.558 1.792 1.609 1.794 0.895 1.165 1.853 min 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 max 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 question denomination: 1 i can easily find a "common language" with professors using online communication. 2 i often communicate with professors about exam materials in online classes. 3 online communication with professors gives me clearer answers to the questions asked than when communicating "live". 4 i prefer online communication for consultations with professors to the "live" ones. 5 communication with professors in online classes is more dynamic and interesting than in the "ordinary" ones. 6 communication with professors in online classes will not make it difficult for me to apply in practice what i have learned. 7 communication with professors in online classes will not make it difficult for me to understand the new materials. 8 in online classes, technical difficulties are not an issue for me when communicating with professors. 258 9 my computer knowledge is not an issue for me when communicating with professors in online classes. 10 i am satisfied with the level of communication with professors in online classes. 11 when the pandemic is over, online communication should be used more for communicating with professors. procedure of data collection the descriptive analysis (table 1) shows that students answer the questions (denomination 1 and 9 – white on the chart) very positively (average score 3.98 and 4.46). other questions are also assessed above average (above score 3), except for questions denominated 3 and 5 (online communication with professors gives me clearer answers to the questions asked than when communicating "live", communication with professors in online classes is more dynamic and interesting than in the "ordinary" ones), where the scoring is much lower (2.84 and 2.87) (fig. 1). figure 1: graphic representation of results then, the reliability of the scale was checked. the cronbach's alpha coefficient is 0.862, showing that the scale is reliable, i.e., there is an internal consistency of the scale. next, the suitability of the scale for factor analysis was established, i.e., the kmo test was conducted. the kmo indicator was 0.853, the bartlett test of sphericity was 0.000 and p < 0,05 respectively, the data being suitable for factor analysis. the correlation matrix shows that most correlation coefficients are higher than 0.3. the total variance explained (table 2) under the initial eigenvalue header shows that two components have a value above 1, also visible from the scree plot (fig. 2), and that they explain 54.348 percent of the variance. 259 figure 2: scree plot table 2. total variance explained component initial eigenvalues extraction sums of squared loadings total % of variance cumulative % total % of variance cumulative % 1 4.566 41.506 41.506 4.566 41.506 41.506 2 1.413 12.842 54.348 1.413 12.842 54.348 3 1.046 9.513 63.861 1.046 9.513 63.861 4 0.804 7.307 71.169 5 0.741 6.735 77.903 6 0.578 5.258 83.162 7 0.511 4.643 87.804 8 0.384 3.493 91.297 9 0.345 3.137 94.434 10 0.319 2.899 97.334 11 0.293 2.666 100.000 extraction method: principal component analysis. the normality of distribution was determined (kolmogorov-smirnov test, p = 0.928) and it was concluded that an independent t-test could be conducted. the arithmetic mean of all scale particles was calculated and a t-test for independent samples was carried out. a t-test for independent groups was carried out in order to determine whether the attitudes of computer science students was different from those of preschool education students. results results related to hypothesis 1 it was found that computer science students (m = 3.6259; sd = 0.78890) did not have a statistically significant different attitude from preschool education students (m = 3.3480 sd = 0.75126) when it comes to a positive attitude towards online teaching (t = 1.338, p = 0.187 > 0,05, df = 56), i.e., both have a positive attitude towards online teaching and the first hypothesis was confirmed. then, a one-way 260 analysis of variance for independent samples was carried out. now, the sample also included the teacher study programme students (n = 63, m = 3.517 sd = 0.788), along with preschool education students (n = 29) and computer science students (n = 26). given that it is now a matter of testing the difference between the three arithmetic means, a one-way analysis of variance for independent samples was used (one-way anova). the following results (fig. 3) were obtained. table 3. anova results table 3.1 descriptives n mean std. deviation std. error 95% confidence interval for mean minimum maximum lower bound upper bound computer science 26 3.6259 0.78890 0.15472 3.3072 3.9445 1.82 4.82 preschool education 63 3.5166 0.78828 0.09931 3.3181 3.7151 1.64 5.00 teacher study 29 3.3480 0.75126 0.13950 3.0622 3.6337 2.09 5.00 total 118 3.4992 0.77893 0.7171 3.3572 3.6412 1.64 5.00 table 3.2 descriptives levene statistic df1 df2 sig. 0.324 2 115 0.724 table 3.3 anova sum of squares df mean square f sig. between groups 1.100 2 0.550 0.905 0.408 within groups 69.888 115 0.608 total 70.988 117 results related to hypothesis 2 the variance homogeneity test found that the condition for analysis of variance was met p = 0.324 (p > 0.005). after that, the analysis of variance was conducted p = 0.408 (p > 0.005), so we can determine that the difference was not statistically significant, i.e., there was no statistically significant difference in the positive attitude towards online teaching among the students of all three study programmes and the second hypothesis was confirmed. the processing was performed with spss for windows 20.0.0. the research results show that there was no statistically significant difference in students' attitudes towards online teaching, in spite of the fact that they attended different study programmes, at different levels and in different faculties. given that the sample also consisted of students who were not computer science students (preschool education and teacher study programme students), it is possible to assume that they have had online learning skills since before the pandemic, inasmuch as the results show they have positive attitudes towards online teaching organised during the coronavirus pandemic. it is assumed that the previous 261 knowledge and skills of using information and communication technology (ict) and networks were acquired during face-to-face classes (in the classroom) as well as after passing the exam "use of ict in teaching" (which is an integral part of their study programmes). positive attitudes towards online teaching among computer science students are expected given the nature of their study and the large number of it subjects they attend and the related exams they take. a contribution to such students' attitudes was probably given by the university teachers' existing online teaching skills. it should be noted that additional training for conducting online classes and using networks was organised for all teachers at the beggining of the pandemic. in addition, most teachers have been using ict since before the pandemic, i.e., they had previous it knowledge and skills they could apply during the pandemic. we can conclude that, although the pandemic surprised everyone, the faculties, students and teachers of that university possessed the necessary competencies for such an unexpected situation. the descriptive analysis figure shows that students answered the questions (denomination 1 and 9 – white on the chart) very positively (average score 3.98 and 4.46). other questions were also assessed above average (above score 3). on the basis of these results, it can be concluded that the specified aspects of online teaching and communication with teachers (described in the statements 1 9) were successful during the pandemic and that the transition from face-to-face teaching to online teaching had no negative effects. that can be explained by the fact that this is a generation of young people living in a digital age who are not unfamiliar with online teaching and possess good digital competences. if we analyse in detail the students' attitudes related to statements 1 9, we can conclude that they easily find a "common language" with professors using online communication, often communicate with professors about exam materials in online classes, prefer online communication for consultations with professors and consider that online teaching would neither present difficulties in applying the acquired knowledge in practice nor in understanding the new material. in addition, technical problems occurring during online classes are not an issue for communicating with professors and they believed they have enough previous it knowledge to communicate with teachers in online classes. very positive responses were shown regarding the statement, "when the pandemic is over, online communication should be used more for communicating with professors". the last statement confirms our assumption that online teaching was not new to students. however, our research also showed that two statements (3 and 5), referring to the clarity of communication, the dynamics and eagerness to comunicate with teachers were given rather a low score (2.84 and 2.87). statement 3 is the following: "online communication with professors give clearer answers to the questions asked than when communicating "live", while statement 5 is "the online communication with professors is more dynamic and interesting than in then the face to face communication." it is obvious that improvements are needed here and that in some segments of online teaching students evaluated the face-to-face teaching more positively (although the average score is satisfactory, amounting to 3.50). if we compare these results with similar research (sun et al., 2020) it is clear that online teaching should not simply copy traditional teaching and try to "translate" it into online teaching. online teaching must be interactive and innovative while also using 5g technology and artificial intelligence in the future. in the abovementioned chinese research, students rated the focus 262 on teaching (self-discipline) and control of the pace of learning the worst, i.e., situations that are more dependent on them (the students) and less on technology and teachers. on the contrary, what depends on teachers and the environment (technology) was rated the best. based on the expressed satisfaction with online teaching and communication with teachers, it can be concluded that the university and faculties where online teaching was organised and the research carried out were well prepared for the upcoming learning and teaching crisis period and that students and teachers have had the necessary competencies to attend and execute this type of teaching. students' attitude towards statements 10 and 11 (10 i am satisfied with the level of communication with professors in online classes, 11 when the pandemic is over, online communication should be used more for communicating with professors) (scores 3.7 and 3.6, respectively) also confirm students' satisfaction with online teaching and the communication with teachers as well as their desire to use this form of communication more frequently once the pandemic is over. we assume that this type of communication with teachers is especially suitable for commuter students, i.e., those residing outside the metropolitan area where the university is located. discussion taking into consideration the positive aspects of online education but also the obstacles mentioned above, we believe that the transition to exclusive online teaching and learning affected the educational process and the communication between students and professors. according to the pedagogical research, the teachers have to meet four major online education challenges in order to be able to teach successful online courses and improve their professional development for online and blended learning, and they are the following: demonstrate pedagogical skills in the online classroom, address their managerial role, establish relationships with students, and provide technical support (philipsen et al., 2019). odit-dookhan (2018) investigated students’ attitudes towards e-learning that reveals they were positive and even enhanced when they perceived that e-learning systems were easy to access. the romanian study (coman et al., 2020) shows that when learning exclusively online, some of the benefits and advantages previously mentioned diminish in value while disadvantages become more prominent. the universities were not ready to implement exclusively online teaching and learning. students considered the online educational process less valuable than the traditional face-to-face process, believing that it was more difficult to study and stay focused online. they also preferred the use of e-learning platforms in combination with traditional face-to-face teaching/learning to facilitate the educational process. the study also shows that it is possible for online learning to affect students’ performance because respondents reported poor assimilation of information, especially when attending more difficult courses in which professors did not have well-suited teaching methods. during online teaching, very few students had the courage to express their opinions or to write in forums because they felt more exposed. furthermore, the students felt they didn't have the courage to speak up out of fear of being ridiculed. it is interesting that a larger number of bachelor's students mentioned that online teaching was much more difficult than offline teaching, and master's students were more open to the use of the online environment in the learning process and they were more satisfied with their online experience. 263 our research showed students' satisfaction with online teaching and the communication with professors and did not show any differences in students' attitudes in relation to the level of studies they attended, the quality of communication with professors related to exam materials, the understanding of the teaching contents and clarity of teaching, dynamism and interesting nature of teaching. given previous experience, they had no problems using technical means. so, our findings are consistent with the results of sun et al. (2020) who conducted research among about 40,000 students at southeast university in china. most of the chinese students believed that the planned teaching objectives were fully attained and agreed that in addition to maintaining continuity of education, the teachers brought positive energy during classes to help them combat mental stress as the outcome and consequence of the quarantine. the chinese students were less enthusiastic when asked about ‘focus and restraint’ and assigned it a relatively low score, clearly implying a greater need to improve self-discipline and concentration. they also noted an unstable network speed, noisy environment and a lack of professional equipment provoked their distraction, and recommended combining recorded videos and live courses with more online interaction to mitigate the impact of unstable networks and increase students’ participation. our research shows that our students and professors adapted quickly to online teaching because they had been using e-learning platforms (moodle, zoom, bigbluebutton, google and others) prior to the coronavirus outbreak. however, some research points to some problems encountered by students and professors. aboagye et al. (2020) revealed that some higher education institutions were not prepared for exclusively online learning, and that also teachers and students were not prepared for the sudden shift to exclusively online learning and teaching. they were aware they needed time and more effort to adapt to the new learning and teaching situation, trying to find new strategies to adapt and meeting new challenges. the study of fatani (2020) illuminated the importance of satisfying the growing demands for online education while maintaining a worthwhile student learning experience. the author emphasises that teaching effectiveness and quality of education relied also on cognitive and social presence, and not only technology. in addition to technical support availability, the following areas are important for teachers' and students' satisfaction with online classes: quality and timely interaction and communication between students and professors, conducting online classes, teaching methods and assessment procedure, students' perception about the use of the online environment, and the relations and communication with professors (coman et al., 2020). conclusions and recommendations online teaching is an environment completely different from classroom teaching, therefore, it is not possible to simply duplicate the content of traditional classroom lessons. our research has pointed out some areas that are important for the satisfaction of students and professors with online teaching and learning, and they are the following: interaction among students, timely interaction between students and professors, innovative course content, technical support availability and flexibility of online courses compared to face-to-face ones. when teaching online, it is necessary to turn students from passive recipients to engaged learners through interactive question-and-answer sessions, presentations and open discussions. in the research process, new questions and problems arose that needed to be addressed. it is necessary to continue the research on the development of online teaching and learning, because it is not possible to transfer the face-to-face teaching methods to online teaching and learning. online education requires new competencies from teachers, enabling them to organise 264 interesting, proactive and dynamic teaching processes, which will facilitate the implementation of learning outcomes provided by study programmes. focused on the development of the quality of education, universities may take this unforeseen opportunity to detect deficiencies, to turn this emergency into an occasion to share the experience on the international level and to promote further international collaboration in order to speed up the quality of international education, with the aim of building a global online education network. the materials of the article could be valuable for other similar research on online teaching in higher education and in different countries, with the aim of making comparisons of the results and improving students’ and teachers' attitudes towards online learning in different study programmes and on different study levels. references aboagye, e., yawson, j.a., & appiah, k.n. (2020). covid-19 and e-learning: the challenges of students in tertiary institutions. social education research, 2(1), 1-8. https://doi.org/10.37256/ser.212021422 ally, w. (2020). online and remote learning in higher education institutes: a necessity in light of covid-19 pandemic. higher education studies,10(3), 16-25. https://doi.org/10.5539/hes.v10n3p16 barbieri, a., tatković, n., & barbieri, e. (2015). importance of information and communication technology (ict) in balance sheet categories training. mediterranian journal of social science, 6(255), 147-352. https://doi.org/10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n2s5p347 berendieieva, a. (2021) university education as a modern european trend of initial police training. journal of international legal communication, 1(1), 246-253. https://doi.org/10.32612/uw.27201643.2021.1.pp.246-253 bognar, l., & matijević, m. (2005). didaktika [didactics]. školska knjiga. brajša, p. (1994). pedagoška komunikologija: razgovor, problemi i konflikti u školi [pedagogical communication: conversation, problems and conflicts in school]. školske novine. burac, m.a.p., fernandez, j.m., cruz, m.m.a., & cruz, j.d. (2019). assessing the impact of e-learning system of higher education institution’s instructors and students. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331666136_assessing_the_impact_of_elearning_system_of_higher_education_institution's_instructors_and_students coman, c., tiru, l.g., mesesan schmitz, l., stanciu, c., & bularca, m. (2020). online teaching and learning in higher education during the coronavirus pandemic: students' perpective. sustainability, 12(24), 1-24. https://doi.org/10.3390/su122410367 diković, m., plavšić, m., & matković, r. (2021). online teaching during covid-19 from the university students’ perspective. in l. gómez chova, a. lópez martínez, & i. candel torres (eds.), inted 2021 proceedings (pp. 4149-4158). iated academy. fatani, t.h. (2020). student satisfaction with videoconferencing teaching quality during the covid-19 pandemic. bmc medical education, 20, 396. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-020-02310-2 kebritchi, m., lipschuetz, a., & santiague, l. (2017). issues and challenges for teaching successful online courses in higher education. journal of education technology systems, 46(1), 4-29. https://doi.org/10.1177/0047239516661713 lahoda, o. (2021). representative design practices as a designer’s right to creative communication. journal of international legal communication, 1(1), 205-215. https://doi.org/10.32612/uw.27201643.2021.1. 265 lavrentieva, o., pererva, v., krupskyi, o., britchenko, i., & shabanov, s. (2020). issues of shaping the students' professional and terminological competence in science area of expertise in the sustainable development era. e3s web of conferences, 166. https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202016610031 levchenko, i., dmytriieva, o., shevchenko, i., britchenko, i., kruhlov, v., avanesova, n., kudriavtseva, o., & solodovnik, o. (2021). development of a method for selected financing of scientific and educational institutions through targeted capital investment in the development of innovative technologies. easterneuropean journal of enterprise technologies, 3, 55-62. https://doi.org/10.15587/1729-4061.2021.235930 marinoni, g., van’t land, h., & jensen, t. (2020). the impact of covid-19 on higher education around the world. iauaiu.net. https://www.iau-aiu.net/img/pdf/iau_covid19_and_he_survey_report_final_may_2020.pdf nambiar, d. (2020). the impact of online learning during covid-19: students' and teachers’ perspective. international journal of indian psychology, 8(2), 783-793. https://doi.org/10.25215/0802.094 odit-dookhan, k. (2018). attitude towards e-learning: the case of mauritian students in public teis. people internatinal journal of social science, 4, 628-643. https://doi.org/10.20319/pijss.2018.43.628643 philipsen, b., tondeur, j., pareja roblin, n., vanslambrouck, s., & zhu, c. (2019). improving teacher professional development for online and blended learning: a systematic meta-aggregative review. educational technology research and development, 67(5), 1145-1174. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-019-09645-8 plavšić, m., diković, m., & matković, r. (2021). students’ experience of assessment in online higher education during covid-19. in l.gómez chova, a. lópez martínez, & i. candel torres (eds.), inted 2021 proceedings (pp. 4135-4143). iated academy. sahlberg, p. (2012). lekcije iz finske: što svijet može naučiti iz obrazovne promjene u finskoj [lessons from finland: what the world can learn from educational change in finland]. školska knjiga. shevchuk, s., kulishov, v., & shchypska t. (2021). vectors of development of educational and methodological competence of the modern teacher in the conditions of modernization of vocational education of ukraine. journal of international legal communication, 2, 63-74. https://doi.org/10.32612/uw.27201643.2021.2.pp.63-74 škugor, a., & borić, e. (2011). primjena nastavnih medija u nastavi prirode i društva [application of teaching media in teaching nature and society]. in a. jurčević lozančić (ed.), škola, odgoj i učenje za budućnost (pp. 397-405). učiteljski fakultet sveučilišta u zagrebu. sobaih, a. e. e., hasanein, a. m., & abu elnasr, a. e. (2020). responses to covid-19 in higher education: social media usage for sustaining formal academic communication in developing countries. sustainability, 12(16): 6520. https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/16/6520 sun, l., tang, y., & zuo, w. (2020). coronavirus pushes education online. nature materials, 19, 687. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-020-0678-8 tatković, n., & ćatić, i. (2009). implementation of ict in initial preschool teacher education. in e. kopasvukašinović (eds.), perspektive kvalitetnog obrazovanja predškolskog djeteta (pp. 29-66). pedagoški fakultet. tatković, n., & močinić, s. (2012). učitelj za društvo znanja. pedagogijske i tehnologijske paradigme bolonjskog porcesa [a teacher for the knowledge society. pedagogical and technological paradigms of the bologna process]. sveučilište jurja dobrile u puli. tatković, n., diković, m., & tatković, s. (2016). pedagoško psihološki aspekti obrazovanja [pedagogical psychological aspects of education]. sveučilište jurja dobrile u puli. zare, m., sarikhani, r., salari, m., & mansouri, v. (2016). the impact of e-learning on university students’ academic achievement and creativity. journal of technical education and training, 8, 25-33. https://publisher.uthm.edu.my/ojs/index.php/jtet/article/view/1152 266 zrilić, s. (2010). kvaliteta komunikacije i socijalni odnosi u razredu [communication quality and social relationships in the classroom]. pedagogijska istraživanja, 7(2), 231-242. https://hrcak.srce.hr/118096?lang=en authors: linda juraković is a doctor of economics and assistant professor at the department of early and preschool education, faculty of education, juraj dobrila university of pula, croatia. email: jurakovic8187@edu.cn.ua sanja tatković has a master’s of psychology and is an assistant professor at the department of early and preschool education, faculty of education, juraj dobrila university of pula, croatia. email: tatkovic8187@neu.com.de petko radulović is the headmaster of the high school of economics in pula, croatia. email: radulovic8187@acu-edu.cc cite this paper as: juraković, l., tatković , s., & radulović, p. (2022). students’ attitudes towards online teaching and communication during the coronavirus pandemic. journal of learning for development, 9(2), 253-266. microsoft word mfaume.docx issn: 2311-1550 2022, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 176-189 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. mobile pedagogical technologies and teachers' professional ethics in tanzania: an inquiry into the use and abuse of mobile phones by teachers in secondary schools hamisi mfaume dar es salaam university college of education abstract: emerging mobile technologies have significant educational benefits and raise several ethical concerns. this study examined the use and abuse of mobile phones by teachers in secondary schools in tanzania. it employed a qualitative phenomenological research design that involved three secondary schools and 44 participants, including teachers, school heads, teachers' service commission officers, education officers, and students in kinondoni district in the dar es salaam region. data were sought through semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, and documentary reviews and were subjected to thematic data analysis procedures. the findings indicated that teachers do not fully utilise their mobile phones for academic purposes in schools. also, abuse of mobile phones by teachers is commonplace in schools. the study recommends the need for a framework to guide teachers on the ethical use of the devices and for the curricula at all educational levels to incorporate content related to ict use ethics. keywords: mobile technologies, mobile phone, use and abuse. introduction in the 21st century, the world has experienced an ever-growing array of mobile technologies (omiunu, 2017). of course, the mobile phone is the most widely used, of many forms of technologies, with subscriptions reaching 8.6 billion globally (international telecommunication union [itu] 2021). its broad accessibility and converging functions have made it a powerful catalyst for transforming different sectors, including education (nazir, 2020). the device can empower the education sector by enhancing communication and interaction, access to educational materials, and collaborative learning (gibbons et al., 2018). also, it provides a portal for training and other educational-related services at convenient times and ubiquitously (unesco, 2017). with these rich educational potentials, a mobile phone has been considered an appropriate tool for educational development in most countries in sub-saharan africa. several mobile learning projects aimed at harnessing the device's potential have been apparent across countries (unesco, 2017). they include nokia's mobile mathematics and master math in south africa, m-pesa-project that supported in-service teacher training in kenya, a mobile literacy game in zambia, an e-reader, and a mobile math learning platform in ghana, among others (isaacs et al., 2019; jere-folotiya, 2014; roberts et al., 2015). 177 mobile phone use has been proliferating in tanzania, with subscribers reaching 51.22 million (itu, 2021). the increasing access to the device has prompted the government to consider its integration in education (the ministry of education and vocational training [moevt], 2007; gibbons et al., 2018). the potentiality of a mobile phone and the need for its integration into education is reflected in the ict policy for basic education launched in 2007 (moevt, 2007). to achieve the goal, the government and its partners have conducted several pilot projects to explore its educational relevance and equip teachers with the knowledge to utilise it in teaching (mtebe et al., 2015; gibbons et al., 2018; mtebe et al., 2020). moreover, initiatives to improve icts' infrastructure to support its usage in schools have been undertaken (kafyulilo, 2014). the ministry of education, science and technology's (moest) report indicates that until 2017, approximately 20% of schools and 34 teacher training colleges were connected to the internet that supports the educational use of the device (moest, 2017). notwithstanding these well-intentioned initiatives, successful integration of the device requires teachers who will use it in an ethical manner (moevt, 2007; gibbons et al., 2018). teachers' ethical conduct is necessary for realising any educational goal (vannuland & kandelwal, 2006). according to the code of conduct for teachers in tanzania, teachers have an ethical and moral obligation to ensure the well-being of the children under their care, the community, the state, the employer, and the teaching profession (the united republic of tanzania [urt], 2015). in this regard, they are obliged to maintain the highest standard of ethical conduct in their routine use of icts such as mobile phones (mfaume, 2020). failure to observe core ethical values will quickly lead to failure to attain the goal that the device was intended to support (swarts & wachira, 2010). despite the government's commitment to integrating the mobile phone in education, little is known about the current state of teachers' adoption and use of mobile phones in schools. besides, there have been tremendous reports about teachers' misuse of the device in schools (the national examinations of tanzania [necta], 2009; lubasi, 2017; mfaume & bilinga, 2017; ramadhan, 2018; mfaume, 2020). ignoring these reports will portend doom for the government's dedication to developing the educational use of icts, such as mobile phones, and heralds the possibility of increasing ethical abuse in the teaching profession. therefore, gaining a research-based understanding of the concern is crucial to curbing it. this study attempted to unpack the following key questions. research questions 1. how do teachers describe their educational utilisation of mobile phones in schools? 2. what, if any, are the prevalent forms of mobile phone abuse by teachers in schools? literature review modern technology like a mobile phone is inevitable in the education sector in today's world. this section presents literature related to the educational use and abuse of mobile phones by teachers across countries. teachers' adoption and use of mobile phones for educational purposes multifarious research studies on the adoption and use of mobile phones by teachers have been conducted worldwide. suki (2009) examined educators' readiness to use mobile phones for teaching. the study revealed that most educators had limited awareness of the educational worth of the device. as such, they disliked using it for teaching. another study by nordin et al. (2010) also found that the 178 student-teachers in malaysia were not interested to see the use of the device as a part of schools' curricula. thomas et al. (2013) found that though most pre-service and in-service teachers supported mobile phones for teaching and learning, their non-educational usage surpassed educational ones. ismail et al. (2013) found that teachers' adoption of the mobile phone as a pedagogical tool in malaysian schools is still low. most teachers did not perceive a mobile phone as a potential tool for education. they were sceptical about using it for teaching and learning. msuya (2015) studied mobile phone use in teaching and learning in secondary schools in the dodoma region in tanzania. the findings revealed that teachers were well acquainted with the educational potential of mobile phones. however, only 13% used it for teaching and learning. also, mwapele et al. (2018) explored secondary school teachers' adoption and use of mobile devices outside the classroom for learning in south africa and tanzania. the findings indicated that teachers in both countries had adopted mobile devices. most teachers spend hours on mobile devices, including social media, to fulfil their socialisation and recreational needs. some had adopted and used mobile devices for academic purposes. abusive use of mobile phones by teachers with the increasing uptake of mobile phone use by teachers, there has been a tremendous increase in reports of mobile phone abuse across countries. irira (2014) came across some tutors at the tanzania institute of adult education chatting on their devices and reading newspapers while invigilating examinations. a similar incident featured in the 2021/2022 university examination monitoring report released by the dar es salaam university college of education (duce) quality assurance office (duce, 2022). the report indicated that some examination invigilators were chatting in examination rooms. porter et al. (2016) reported that in malawi, ghana and south africa, most teachers made and received phone calls or exchanged messages in classrooms, seduced and bullied students through phones, and had prolonged chatting during working hours. karanja (2016) reported that in 2015, in kenya, some teachers and their heads of schools were charged with spearheading cheating during examinations through their mobile phones. in 2018, the national examination council of tanzania (necta) nullified the primary school leaving examination results due to cheating committed by the education officers in collaboration with heads of schools and teachers through whatsapp groups (ramadhan, 2018). pedraya (2016) reported that in michigan city, in june 2016, a high school teacher resigned after being found guilty of sexting students. in october 2017, a secondary school teacher in durban appeared before the court, accused of sexting a 13-year-old female student. in 2019 in kwazulu-natal, a male teacher was suspended for exchanging graphic sexual materials with pupils. accordingly, during the meeting with teachers in the dodoma region in tanzania, the then minister of education declared that many teachers failed to accomplish their professional duties due to prolonged chatting on whatsapp (lubasi, 2017). park (2016) reported that in new jersey, the authority held a substitute teacher for charges of possessing and distributing hundreds of videos depicting child sexual exploitation. recurring reports of these unprofessional incidents require research-based understanding to promote the proper use and curb misuse of the device in schools. methods the study adopted a qualitative phenomenological research design. the design focuses on individuals' views and experiences of a particular phenomenon (mertens, 2010; creswell, 2014). it allowed the researcher to capture in-depth data about the subject from participants with varied views 179 and experiences (king & horrocks, 2010; hossain, 2011). thus, it provided a deep understanding of the use and abuse of mobile phones by teachers in schools. the population of the study the total population of the study comprised 26,286 participants and 23 public secondary schools in the kinondoni district in the dar es salaam region. specifically, it involved six categories of participants, including the district secondary schools education officer, eight district school quality assurance officers, and five teachers service commission officers, 23 heads of public secondary schools, 944 secondary school teachers and 25,305 students. sample and sampling techniques the study involved three public secondary schools and 44 participants in kinondoni district in the dar es salaam region. specifically, the sample comprised one district secondary education officer, one district school quality assurance officer, three teachers' service commission (tsc) officers, three heads of schools, 18 teachers, and 18 students. data saturation determined the sample size (yin, 2011; patton, 2015). the schools' and participants' actual names were anonymous for ethical issues consideration. the researcher used a purposeful sampling technique in selecting sample schools and participants. the technique allowed the researcher to use his judgment to obtain the sample (magwa & magwa, 2015). therefore, the researcher selected the kinondoni district as a study area since it was a piloted area for ict integration in schools in the region. equally, the researcher selected schools equipped with ict facilities like internet and computer laboratories that support the educational use of mobile phones. the criteria assured the researcher of a high likelihood of finding relevant data to answer the research questions. the selection of the participants was twofold; the positions they held and the years of stay in a given school. for example, they were the head of the schools, class teachers, discipline, academic masters, and an education officer with at least five years of working experience. similarly, students involved were prefects and class monitors in their third and fourth years of study. these participants were overall in charge of education management and disciplinary matters. data collection and analysis the study involved three data collection methods: semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions (fgds), and document reviews (mogalakwe, 2006; willig, 2013). the researcher employed semi-structured interviews to collect data from all categories of participants except students who participated in fgds. the researcher also reviewed teachers' disciplinary records in schools and tsc offices, the tanzania cyber crimes act of 2015, the tanzania teachers' professional code of conduct, and the public service code of conduct (urt, 1996; 2015; tsc, 2016). the open-ended nature of semi-structured interviews motivated the interviewees to fully express their opinions and experiences, enabling the researcher to explore in-depth insider perspectives (turner, 2010). similarly, fgds offered a chance for students to probe each other in the course of discussions and provide detailed information on the subject (bryman, 2012); equally, documentary review enabled the researcher to complement and authenticate the data generated from interviews and fgds (mogalakwe, 2006). 180 the collected data were subjected to thematic analysis. the analysis involved six concurrent steps: data familiarisation, whereby the researchers read the transcripts repeatedly to know what emerged directly from the transcripts. then the researcher generated initial codes, searched for themes, reviewed themes, defined and named themes, and finally, the researcher conceptualised and interpreted the data and provided adequate evidence for each theme before the conclusions were drawn (braun & clarke, 2006; denscombe, 2007). braun and clarke (2006) suggested that researchers must get involved in data collection, transcription, and analysis for superior and insightful data analysis. in that regard, the researcher himself collected, transcribed, and analysed all the data. findings this section presents and analyses the findings of the study based on the research questions. teachers' educational utilisation of a mobile phone the first research question sought the teachers' views and experiences on whether or not they fully utilised their mobile phones for academic purposes in schools. responding to the question, all the interviewed teachers and school heads reported that even though most teachers possessed smartphones, they rarely used them for educational purposes. a female teacher at school "b" asserted: almost all of us own smartphones; however, we rarely use them for educational purposes...in most cases, we use them for communication and chatting... in corroboration, the head of school "a" added: teachers hardly use their phones for educational purposes. for instance, tigo offers our school a free internet bundle monthly for educational use, but the bundle always expires without being fully utilized... these initial responses prompted the researcher to inquire about the favourite use of the devices by most teachers in schools. the responses indicated that most teachers often use the devices for communication with relatives and friends. they also use them to chat about social and political affairs and make a follow-up of lifestyles and events of celebrities, in particular, musicians, artists, and politicians. consequently, they reported using the devices for leisure like playing games, listening to music, and watching movies. a male teacher at school "a" elaborated: usually, we use our phones to communicate with our families, friends, and business customers. we also chat about politics, make jokes, play games, listen to music, and watch videos... a male teacher at school "b" added: nowadays, teachers behave like journalists. instead of using the device to search for teaching and learning materials, they are often busy taking photos and videos and recording every event at school for posting on social media... the finding indicates that teachers underutilise their mobile phones for academic purposes in schools. it implies that the government's commitment and enthusiasm to integrate the use of this versatile device in education has merely remained on paper as policy statements. 181 the prevalent forms of mobile phone misuse by teachers in schools the second research question first required all participants to share their experiences on whether or not teachers abuse their mobile phones in schools. then, they were required to indicate the common forms of misuse they had experienced, if any. the findings indicated a consensus from all the participants that abuse of mobile phones by teachers was rampant in schools. the assertions below affirm: smartphones have escalated teachers' violation of professional ethics... it has been a norm for some teachers to chat, play games or listen to music via earphones while invigilating examinations (a male teacher at school "c"). the quality assurance officer supported this: misuse of mobile phones by teachers is apparent in schools. they use it to download and duplicate lesson plans and pretend to have prepared them... a female student at school "a" added: we have been witnessing our teachers misusing their phones every day. they chat in examination rooms, respond to phone calls and messages while teaching in classrooms, and disrupt our attention... it is evident from the quotations that the abusive use of mobile phones by teachers is prevalent in the studied schools. the participants described varied common forms of mobile phone abuse committed by teachers. they included: using mobile phones in classrooms: the participants reported that almost all teachers enter classrooms with their phones switched on. when they are alerted to incoming calls or messages, regardless of whether a critical part of the lesson is being presented, teachers often step outside to talk on their phone or talk even while in the classroom, leaving students unsupervised. the findings suggest that when teachers talked for quite a long time, they tended to forget where they ended and asked students to remind them. students' failure to remind them could either lead to punishment or mark the end of the lesson for that particular day. a female student at school "c" clarifies: almost all teachers enter classrooms with their phones switched on. when they ring, the wise one may simply say "sorry" and step outside the class to attend it. they can spend a long time forgetting where the lesson had ended and may request us to remind them. when we fail to remember, some can punish us or mark the end of the lesson for that day, claiming that we are lazy. the findings entail that teachers waste much instructional time for non-academic-related purposes in schools. usage of mobile phones in examination rooms: the participants reported that shortly after distributing question papers and letting the examination start, teachers tend to sit at the back of the examination room and immerse themselves in their phones, chatting. they neither move around to ensure students' observance of examination regulations nor attend to their needs for additional papers or clarifications on time. the practice was common, especially during the administration of internal school-based examinations. the behaviour provided an unfair advantage for students to cheat. a male teacher at school "b" asserts: 182 teachers breach examination rules, especially during the invigilation of internal examinations. after letting students start writing, they sit down and turn to their phones and chat or play games. they do not attend to students' needs for extra answer sheets or clarifications timely... a male student at school "b" added: after distributing examination papers and allowing starting the examination, teachers find back seats and immerse into their phones. unless a student knocks on the desk, can raise a hand for extra paper or clarifications with no response... students can exchange answers unnoticed... the finding may entail that some teachers might have insufficient knowledge of their roles as examination invigilators. also, examinations, particularly the internally-administered ones, are poorly supervised and jeopardise the real purpose of examinations. prolonged concentration on social network sites: the participants showed that teachers spend much of their working hours online. they chat, watch movies and play games at the expense of academic duties. as a result, some either forget to attend their class sessions or attend late. also, some failed to accomplish their duties, such as marking students' assignments timely. the head of school "b" noted: some teachers spend much of their working hours on social media and forget to attend to their class periods...they do not get time for thorough preparations and marking of students' assignments... a female student at school "b" supported: teachers spend much of their time chatting. some come late to class, and we hardly get their attention when we need academic support. teachers' prolonged concentration in chat rooms is a serious concern during working hours. it undermines teachers' commitment to work and the government's devotion to providing its citizens with quality education. the disclosure of official information: disclosing confidential official information was among the prevalent forms of mobile phone abuse in schools. the participants reported that some teachers use their phones to record confidential information, capture photos of confidential documents, and share with friends or post them online. a male teacher at school "b" said: with smartphones, there is no more secrecy at schools. sometimes a teacher may find the official document stamped "confidential," yet he/she may photo it and share it in whatsapp groups… the quality assurance officer supported this claim by declaring that some teachers and their school heads tended to leak confidential information related to school inspections. those tendencies compromise the attainment of quality education. the quotation elaborates: … as we finish inspecting school "a," teachers tend to inform their colleagues at school "b" about things we have inspected. sometimes they share inspection reports. this tendency compromises the quality of education in our schools. the tsc officers were also vocal about this. they cited the leak of the national primary school leaving examination through whatsapp groups in 2018 as evidence of the breach of confidentiality in schools. they argued that confidentiality disclosure is against the teachers' professional code of conduct and state laws. 183 cyber bullying: the participants admitted to having experienced cyber bullying in schools. they reported that some teachers use online forums such as whatsapp to send aggressive messages or upsetting calls to colleagues. the head of schools and discipline masters had received some bullying cases involving teachers, females particularly. during the hearing of the cases, they often come across terrifying insults, wrong names, and other forms of abusive language exchanged between teachers. the discipline master at school "c" remarked: some teachers here, females mainly, use their phones as weapons to harass and threaten their rivals. some days ago, we had a disciplinary case involving two female teachers. they exchanged disgusting text messages not expected of a professional teacher, so they were about to fight in the office… accordingly, two female students admitted having experienced upsetting phone calls from their teachers after rejecting their proposals to engage in love affairs. a student at school "b" added: one teacher required my phone number... later, he called and convinced me to engage in love affairs, but i rejected. then the teacher insulted and warned me that something terrible would happen if i dared to tell anyone. from the findings, it is evident that cyber bullying occurs in educational settings at an alarming pace. it is paramount to draw attention to this alarming threat and address it before it causes great harm. sexting: the findings disclosed that teachers use their mobile phones to engage in sexting of a varied nature. they download and share photographs and videos of an inappropriate nature through social network sites. such materials often spread far more on public sites and inadvertently reach minors. the female teacher at school "c" had this to say: mobile phones have made teachers suppliers of nude pictures. they download, receive, and share these materials, regardless of their impact on society. this behaviour is not expected of a professional teacher, even if we often take it as a joke… on the other hand, female students admitted receiving sexually suggestive messages from some male teachers. they reported that some teachers required students' phone numbers or provided theirs. after getting the numbers, they usually start exchanging chats associated with sharing sexually explicit messages and nude images. students added that sexting was rampant when student teachers arrived for the teaching practice. some male student teachers used their phones to seduce female students. some provided some females with new phones to keep in touch with them. a female student at school "b" clarified: one teacher gave me his phone number and told me to call him later. when i called, i was shocked when he said he loved me. i blocked him, and ever since, we are not in good terms. it is worse when student teachers from universities arrive here for teaching practice. they seduce us through the devices, and some are ready to buy you a new phone to keep in touch... the district tsc officer confessed that some teachers blur the professional boundary of their relationship with students. the officer cited an incident whereby a male teacher was dismissed from service after he was found guilty of showing students pornographic materials through his mobile phone. the findings signify that sexting is a growing concern among pre-service and in-service teachers. furthermore, female students seem to be more vulnerable if they are not protected. 184 taking and posting other persons' photographs online: the findings indicated that some teachers use their phones' cameras to take pictures and videos of colleagues and students without their consent and post them online. they could take and post photos and videos of their colleagues when falling asleep, marking students' exercise books, or punishing students. they post photos and videos of students who misbehave, fail to perform specific academic tasks in class, or the poorly scored students' examinations or assignment papers. this practice more often caused several problems in schools and the wider community. a male teacher at school "b" admitted: one day, a teacher captured a photo of his asleep friend, captioned it with some joking words, and posted it on the staff whatsapp group. the photo caused a severe conflict between the two and disturbed everything... also, a male teacher at school "c" supported: ...teachers record students who fail to pronounce some words or poorly scored examination papers and post online without consent. this tendency is against teachers' code of ethics... the tsc officer admitted to having witnessed students' papers with poor scores posted online. the officer said that the practice was an infringement of individual privacy, the teachers' code of conduct, and state law. the finding suggests the need for teachers to be aware that infringement of confidentiality is a criminal offense that deserves punishment. using mobile phones in staff meetings: it also emerged that teachers tend to pay greater attention to their mobile phones than to the main agenda during official meetings. they tend to hold their devices under the tables, texting, surfing, reading, or playing games while meetings are in progress. the participants said that it often occurs while discussing a critical agenda in a meeting, and then unexpectedly, the ringing tone or teachers' movements outside the room interrupt the attention. showing disappointment, the head of school "c" said: staff meetings are a place where teachers share ideas and set goals and strategies to attain the set goals…many teachers abuse this opportunity by concentrating on their phones. the meeting ends while some teachers have captured nothing… the practice affects the implementation of the resolutions reached. it is evident from the findings that misuse of mobile phones during meetings is a threat to the wellbeing of a school and the attainment of educational goals. cheating: the participants reported that teachers engaged in different forms of cheating through their phones. one form of cheating reported was the tendency of teachers to be absent at school but pretending to be in classrooms or nearby when called. the head of school "c" clarified in detail this situation: you may find a class without a teacher, but when you call a respective teacher, she/he can whisper, "sorry", i am in the class," and switch off the phone. some cheat that they are sick while actually, they attend their private businesses. other reported instances of cheating were concerned with examination dishonesty. the participants cited the leakage of the national primary school leaving examination that occurred in 2018 in dar es salaam, dodoma, mara, and mwanza regions as evidence for this concern. consider the quotation from a male teacher at school "b": 185 examination malpractices leakage through the devices has been a growing concern. we all heard of teachers and their superiors who leaked the primary school leaving examination through whatsapp in 2018 in dodoma, dar es salaam and mwanza regions. this kind of cheating happens in many schools secretly. also, the education officer declared having experienced cheating with mobile phones' aid during the mock examination administration. the officer said they caught some teachers with a list of specimens required for the biology subject practical examination recorded on their phones some days before students sat. they aimed to share the list with the laboratory technicians of their respective schools to assist their students in performing better. these incidents indicate that mobile phones have given cheating a new but more dangerous twist. the findings entail the need for more effort to ensure the safety of examinations in schools in this digital era. discussion the study's findings revealed that though most teachers own mobile phones that can support teaching and learning, very few utilise them fully for educational purposes. the findings are consistent with the findings of studies by suki and suki (2009), nordin et al. (2010), ismail et al. (2013), msuya (2015), and mwapele et al. (2018). these findings provide an insight that the government's commitment to integrating the use of a mobile phone as a strategy to promote access to quality education has not yet moved beyond general policy statements. in this regard, it can be argued that the use of icts such as mobile phones is a feasible solution to the problems facing the education sector in most developing countries like tanzania. thus, efforts to adopt the technology must provide teachers with adequate knowledge to use new technologies in education. studies (unesco, 2017; mwapele et al., 2018) indicate that teachers who use technologies have a relative advantage over colleagues who do not. teachers must be enthusiastic about adopting changes and deliver their lessons with modern approaches and tools such as mobile phones. on the other hand, the study revealed various forms of mobile phone abuse by teachers in schools. teachers make and receive phone calls regularly in classrooms. a similar practice was noted as prevalent in south africa, malawi, and ghana by porter et al. (2016). arguably, effective learning requires proper use of time and a conducive environment. teachers who make or receive phone calls in classrooms breach the professional code of conduct. they create a grim distraction in classrooms and waste instructional time. this situation indicates a need to promote responsible phone use, both inside and outside the classroom. the study revealed that teachers pay more attention to mobile phones during the invigilation of examinations. this practice was not significantly unique in this study. various reports have repeated the same (irira, 2014; duce, 2022). the proper invigilation of examination is a critical factor in determining the attainment of educational goals. thus, teachers' inclination toward mobile phones portends doom in attaining educational goals. teachers' time spent on social network sites was another concern revealed in this study. the finding correlates with the study by porter et al. (2016) that teachers in south africa, ghana, and malawi failed to provide students with academic support due to prolonged sessions online. this concern implies that in most cases, teachers hardly spend their time accomplishing their professional duties such as preparation of their lessons and marking assignments. it might also be an explanation as to 186 why some teachers fail to cover their subjects' syllabi. thus, teachers' failure to accomplish their duties due to excessive chatting is negligence and deserves serious attention. cheating, especially in examinations, was among the forms of mobile phone abuse revealed. this situation was not significantly different in other countries like kenya (karanja, 2016). an examination is a vital tool for evaluating the attainment of educational objectives. so far, when teachers use their devices to perpetrate cheating, they deliberately undermine the quality of education and portend doom for the future of the nation's citizenry. the respective authorities must take restrictive disciplinary measures to curb this growing concern for the nation's well-being. the findings revealed that teachers breached confidentiality through mobile phones. teachers as civil service servants in tanzania must understand that they are obliged by the law to maintain secrecy and confidentiality throughout their lifetime (urt, 2015). disclosing or releasing any information without official permission is unethical and illegal. therefore, teachers need to ensure that they obey laws in their routine use of mobile phones. this study also revealed the misuse of mobile phones in staff meetings. staff meetings are vital for the well-being of the school. it is a potential platform for school leaders and teachers to set goals and strategies to attain them. teachers' inclination on phones during the meetings signifies carelessness that is likely to impede the implementation of decisions reached and, ultimately, the attainment of educational goals. to this end, teachers must pay much attention to critical matters for education development. similarly, cyberbullying by teachers seemed to be commonplace in schools. the finding echoes what has transpired in studies by porter et al. (2016) and onditi (2017). cyberbullying can lead to emotional distress that can prompt students to stay away from school. this situation calls for the governments and the wider society to find appropriate ways of shielding educational settings from this harmful practice. furthermore, sexting by teachers was common in schools. the findings sustain various reports on sexting across countries (park, 2016; pedraya, 2016; porter et al., 2016). arguably, teachers hold a position of trust as crucial agents of transforming positive moral values in schools and communities. by engaging in sexting, they deserve severe punishment for betraying this trusted position and acting criminally. conclusions and recommendations although the analysis of data in this study has shown that a mobile phone has enormous educational benefits, teachers hardly use it for educational purposes. thus, the device plays a mundane role in enhancing teachers' pedagogical practices in schools. also, the study has disclosed various forms of mobile phone abuse by teachers in schools, including talking and texting in classrooms, examination rooms, meetings, prolonged sessions on social network sites, cheating, sexting, and cyberbullying. these behaviours are ethically unacceptable, and they might have been impinging negatively on the efficiency of the education system in tanzania. therefore, teachers need a framework that will provide clear direction for the positive use of the device for pedagogical purposes. due to the rampant abuse of mobile phones, it is imperative for the curricula at all educational levels to incorporate content related to ict use etiquette. for greater policing and for abusive uses of mobile 187 phones to be reported where necessary, it is imperative for clear procedures for reporting all forms of abuse be laid out. because the current study confined itself to a limited sample in one district in the country this warrants further research that will cover a wider area and larger sample. references braun, v., & clarke, v. (2006). using thematic analysis in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), 77101. bryman, a. (2012). social research methods. oxford university press. creswell, j. w. (2014). research design: qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approach (4th ed.). sage publications limited. denscombe, m. (2007). the good research guide for small-scale social research projects (3rd ed.). open university press. duce. (2022). quality assurance monitoring report for the first semester-2022. dar es salaam. duce. gibbons, a. j., galloway, d., mollel, a., mgoma, s., pima, m. & deogratias, e. (2018). mobile phone use in two secondary schools in tanzania. educational information technology, 23, 73-92. hossain, d. m. (2011). qualitative research process. postmodern openings, 7, 143-156. international telecommunications union [itu] (2021). quarterly communication statistics. telecommunication development bureau-itu. irira, e. m. (2014). effective management of examinations to achieve quality assurance: a case of the institute of adult education (iae). the open university of tanzania. isaacs, s., roberts, n., & spencer-smith, g. (2019). learning with mobile devices: a comparison of four mobile learning pilots in africa. south africa journal of education, 39(39), 1-3. ismail, i. b., azizan, s. n., & azman, a. n. (2013). mobile phones as a pedagogical tool: are teachers ready? international education studies, 6(3), 36-47. jere-folotiya, j. (2014). the effect of using a mobile literacy game to improve literacy levels of grade one students in zambian schools. educational technology research and development, 62(4), 417-436. kafyulilo, a. (2014). access, use, and perceptions of teachers and students towards mobile phones as a tool for teaching and learning in tanzania. education and information technologies, 19(1), 115–127. karanja, s. (2016). the report reveals how teachers and students used phones to cheat in kcse. daily nation. king, n., & horrocks, c. (2010). interviews in qualitative research. sage publications. lubasi, s. (2017, may 2). ndalichako awakemea walimu wanaoshinda kwenye whatsapp [ndalichako warns teachers over prolonged sessions on 230 whatsapp]. tsn. http://www.habar ileo.co.tz magwa, s., & magwa, w. (2015). a guide to conducting research: a student handbook. strategic book publishing rights co., llc. mertens, d. (2010). research and evaluation in education and psychology: integrating diversity with quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods (3rd ed.). sage publications. mfaume, h., & bilinga, m. (2017). prevalence of teachers' professional malpractices in tanzanian public secondary schools: what ought to be done? journal of education and training studies, 5(2), 43-52. mfaume, h. (2020). modern technology and teachers' professional ethics in tanzania: an investigation in the use of mobile phones by teachers in secondary schools. [ph.d. thesis, university of dar es salaam]. ministry of education and vocational training [moevt]. (2007). information and communication technology policy for basic education. dar es salaam: ministry of education and vocational training. moest. (2017). feasibility study exploring e-learning initiatives at secondary schools in tanzania mainland. dodoma. 188 mogalakwe, m. (2006). the use of documentary research methods in social research. african sociological review, 10(1), 221-230. msuya, o. (2015). mobile phone in teaching and learning in secondary schools in tanzania. international journal of education and research, 3(5), 207-218. mtebe, j. s., kandoro, a., kissaka, m. m., & kibga, e. (2015). using sms, mobile technology to access the mastery of subject content knowledge of science and mathematics teachers of secondary schools in tanzania. journal of social, behavioural, education, economic, business and industrial engineering, 9(11). mtebe, j. s., & raphael, c. (2020). eliciting in-service teachers' technological pedagogical content knowledge for 21st-century skills in tanzania. journal of learning for development, 5(3), 263-279. mwapele, s. d., & roodt, s. (2018). teacher's adoption and use of mobile devices outside the classroom for learning in africa: a case study of secondary school teachers in south africa and tanzania. conference on information communications technology and society (ictas), march, 2018, durban, south africa. national examination council of tanzania [necta] (2009). evaluation of the conduct of the primary school-leaving examination in tanzania mainland. http://www.unicef.org nazir, t. (2020). impact of classroom phubbing on teachers who face phubbing during lectures. psychology research on education and social sciences, 1(1), 41-47 nordin, n. m., hamzah, m. i., yunus, m. m., & embi, m. a. (2010). the mobile learning environment for the inservice school administrators. procedia — social and behavioural sciences, 7, 671-679 omiunu, o. (2017). paradoxical modeling of negative uses of ict and their implication among secondary school students in oyo state, nigeria. library philosophy and practice, 14(85), 1-32. onditi, h. z. (2017). cyberbullying in tanzania: the adolescents' experiences and psychosocial factors influencing coping strategies. the university of british columbia. park, e. n. (2016). bergen country substitute teacher arrested on child porn charges. cbs. patton, m. q. (2015). qualitative research and evaluation methods: integrating theory and practice (4th ed.). sage publications. pedraya, s. (2016). woodhaven high school teacher accused of sexting two students resign. http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/education porter, g., hampshire, k., milner, j., munthali, a., robson, e., de lannoy, a., & abane, a. (2016). mobile phones and education in sub-saharan africa: from youth practice to public policy: mobile phones and education in africa. journal of international development, 28(1), 22-39. doi:10.1002 /jid.3116. ramadhan, m. (2018, october 3). dangerous examination cheat network. http://www.dailynews.co.tz roberts, n., & vanska, r., & eskelinen, s. (2015). from challenging assumptions to measuring effects: researching the nokia mobile mathematics services in africa. south africa journal of education, 35(2), 1-13. suki, n. m. (2009). the use of the mobile device for learning: a case study. international journal of university teaching and faculty development, 1(1), 2-11. swarts, p., & wachira, e. (2010). tanzania: ict in education situational analysis. (global e-schools and communities initiative,) (pp. 20-33). teachers' service commission [tsc]. (2016). tanzania teachers' code of conduct. dodoma: government press. thomas, k., & o' bannon, b. (2013). cell phones in the classroom: pre-service teachers' perceptions. journal of digital learning in teacher education, 30(1), 11-20. turner, d. w. (2010). qualitative interview design: a practical guide for novice investigators. qualitative report, 15(3), 754-760. unesco. (2017). supporting teachers with mobile technology. unesco. 189 united republic of tanzania [urt]. (1996). code of ethics and conduct for the public service tanzania. the government printer. urt. (2015). cybercrimes act, 2015. the government printer. vannuland, s., & kandelwal, b. p. (2006). ethics in education: the role of teachers' codes. iiep-unesco. willig, c. (2013). introducing qualitative research in psychology. mcgraw-hill. yin, r. k. (2011). qualitative research from start to finish. the guilford press. author: hamisi mfaume is an assistant lecturer in the department of educational foundations management and life long learning, dar es salaam university college of education. email mfaumeham@gmail.com cite this paper as: mfaume, h. (2022). mobile pedagogical technologies and teachers' professional ethics in tanzania: an inquiry into the use and abuse of mobile phones by teachers in secondary schools. journal of learning for development, 9(2), 176-189. microsoft word drushlyakjic.docx issn: 2311-1550 2023, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 177-195 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. effectiveness of digital technologies in inclusive learning for teacher preparation marina drushlyak1, olena semenikhina1, inna kharchenko2, pavlo mulesa3 and volodymyr shamonia1 1suny state pedagogical university named after a. s. makarenko, ukraine 2sumy national agrarian university, ukraine 3uzhhorod national university, ukraine abstract: in this research, digital technologies that will potentially be useful for teachers in an inclusive educational space were considered. the combined classification of digital technologies of inclusive direction, including software and hardware in three main areas, is offered: for training and repetition; to help with learning; and to expand learning opportunities. the authors developed and theoretically substantiated a model for preparing pre-service teachers to use digital technologies in an inclusive educational space. the effectiveness of the developed model was tested through a pedagogical experiment that involved three tests based on criteria. the effectiveness of the authors’ model was confirmed by the sign test at the significance level of 0.05. keywords: digital technologies, inclusive educational space, children with special educational needs, teacher, teacher preparation. introduction the need to provide access to quality education for individuals with special educational needs has led to public demand for training a teacher who can operate effectively in an inclusive environment. at the same time, the widespread use of digital technologies has emphasised the need to rethink learning environments, tools, and teaching methods that engage all students in the educational process. these digital tools should be viewed as tools for socialisation and the development of adaptive skills for every child in society. therefore, scientific research related to the integration of digital technologies (dt) into an inclusive educational space (ies) is in focus. based on the analysis of scientific research, evidence supports the profile of a teacher of inclusive education (khamlichi, 2012). this profile offers recommendations for developing training curricula for pre-school and secondary school teachers in inclusive education, including its content and technological aspects. it is also important to note the significance of using computer tools to balance the socialisation of children with special educational needs (csen). 178 skorgie's (2010) research with pre-service teachers was based on the utilisation of virtual platforms with video materials and involved the solving of problem situations in families with children with disabilities in a virtual classroom setting. interactive pedagogy technology has proven to be effective in training teachers to work in an inclusive educational space (ies). this technology involves immersing students in the social role of parents of children with disabilities to consciously experience real situations and find solutions to real-life problems that arise in families with special needs children. other components of this training include keeping a reflective diary, reflexive immersion in specific situations that cause strong emotional responses, analysis of specific cases, and exploration of feelings of confidence and powerlessness. additionally, digital virtual learning technologies are utilised in this training. the findings of cargan and schmidt (2011) as well as de boer et al. (2011) confirmed that teachers are generally prepared to work with ‘typical’ children but require additional information and training to work with csen. this is due to a lack of experience in communicating and interacting with them, as well as limited knowledge of the relevant regulations and the unique developmental features of such children. based on the findings of folin and chambers (2011), it seems that having a deep knowledge of the legal framework of inclusive education and a high professional motivation, may not necessarily translate into better solutions for inclusive learning problems or stress relief in the classroom where a child with special needs studies. on the other hand, jones (2010) suggests that online learning can be a feasible format for providing support and advice to teachers working in inclusive educational spaces. the online course programme is designed to encourage reflective analysis and interactive discussions of the most common challenges that arise when teaching children with special educational needs (csen). according to the findings of hamburg and bucksch (2017), the use of digital technologies in working with children with special educational needs carries certain risks. however, the study also demonstrated that it is possible to develop competencies that can help csen integrate better into society. the authors argue that digital tools can play a crucial role in creating effective and affordable ways of adapting to the educational environment in inclusive classrooms. according to isăilă (2012), there is a growing awareness of the potential of dt for promoting social inclusion in european union (eu) policy documents. this suggests that policymakers recognise the importance of using dt to develop soft social skills such as teamwork, communication, adaptability, emotional intelligence, and negotiation skills. these skills can be enhanced through the use of social networks, online platforms, and cloud services, as mentioned in martynchuk (2019). therefore, it seems that dt has the potential to play a significant role in promoting social inclusion and helping individuals develop the skills they need to participate fully in society. based on the comprehensive analysis of the state of development of the problem of preparing teachers for the use of dt in ies, the results of scientific research indicate the crucial importance of digital skills in working with children with special educational needs (csen). our analysis of current research on this topic showed the availability of scientific results on the involvement of digital technologies in the socialisation of csen but the peculiarities of teacher training to use them look fragmentary. the inclusive paradigm of the new ukrainian school emphasises the public demand for professional training of teachers who can act effectively in an 179 inclusive educational space. the teacher should perceive digital technology as a tool for adapting to every child in society. this highlights the need for a rethinking of teacher training programmes and the urgency of developing new models for their training in ies. research objectives this study focused on the following research objectives: i) search and locate inclusive digital objectives. ii) design and develop a model for training pre-service teachers to use digital technologies in an inclusive educational space. iii) study the effectiveness of the model for training pre-service teachers to use digital technologies in an inclusive educational space. iv) suggest implications for teacher training to use digital technologies in an inclusive educational space. methods research methodology the study is grounded in the concept of professional self-realisation of teachers, who are expected to effectively organise a health-preserving educational environment for children with different educational needs in the context of the new ukrainian school. this requires teachers to possess digital skills and be able to critically evaluate opportunities for the integration of digital technologies in the educational process, based on the principles of pedagogy, psychology, and information technology. the process of preparing teachers to use dt in ies is viewed as a complex one that requires an understanding of the potential benefits of using dt to promote the inclusion of csen in the regular educational process. additionally, it involves the development of skills to use specialised hardware and software based on the nosology of csen to organise effective ies in the context of subject learning. the development of an appropriate model for teacher preparation involves a preliminary analysis of digital technologies that can potentially be helpful for teachers in ies. this analysis includes an examination of specialised computer tools to identify those that are appropriate for use in ies. the approach to this research is based on available theoretical results associated with the study of dt in inclusive education. at this stage of the study, the focus is on identifying digital technologies and tools that contribute to the organisation of an inclusive educational space or support the already created inclusive educational space. this involved a detailed analysis of available digital tools and software, considering their potential impact on the learning and inclusion of csen in the educational process. we have developed a model for preparing teachers to use dt in ies. checking the effectiveness of the developed model for preparing teachers to use dt in ies is realised with quantitative methods. we conducted a pedagogical experiment. 180 population and sample the pedagogical experiment was conducted at sumy state pedagogical university named after a. s. makarenko (29 respondents) and uzhhorod national university (15 respondents). the total number of respondents was 44. their anonymous participation in the experiment was agreed upon. tools to test the effectiveness of the developed model, the authors conducted diagnostics to determine the pre-service mathematics teachers' skills in using dt in ies. these diagnostics were based on performance indicators of practice-oriented tasks (figure 1). task: create a synopsis of a math lesson using inclusive digital technologies, which integrates learning material of general and special (correctional) curriculum so that children with different psychophysical and intellectual states study a similar topic in the lesson, but at the level of mastery which is available for each student. it is necessary to use such methods and forms of work that allow devoting appropriate time to children with special needs, without slowing down the pace of work of the whole class (special attention should be paid to the visualisation of learning material). develop handouts as needed. additional conditions: children with hearing disorders; 5th grade figure 1: practice-oriented task. indicators s1 – the skill to find/recommend appropriate inclusive hardware; s2 – the skill to find/recommend appropriate inclusive software; s3 – the skill to find/choose a suitable digital platform for the organisation of ies; s4 – the skill to use social services to organise quality communication; s5 – the skill to develop educational and methodological support (visual materials) taking into account the needs and capabilities of csen with the use of digital technologies. each of the first three skills was evaluated with 2 points. indicators s4 and s5 had a rating scale from 0 to 3 points. the maximum number of points was 10. statistical analysis of empirical data was conducted using the sign test. we conducted three control tests, the results of which recorded marks for each respondent. the recorded marks were then used to analyse the dynamics of positive and negative changes. 181 through the use of quantitative data and statistical analysis, we were able to determine whether the model was effective. procedure modeling the process of teacher training involved the analysis of educational and professional training programmes for teachers. we found out which educational components contribute to the formation of knowledge about dt in ies and characterised the ability to use dt in ies. we analysed approaches to the implementation of educational and professional programmes to identify such approaches that would contribute to the successful preparation of teachers for the use of dt in ies. we analysed the forms and methods of teaching to choose the most effective one for the authors' model. at this stage, the research approach was also of high quality. it was based on the available theoretical results related to the training of teachers, including teachers in the field of special education. in fact, at this stage of the study, we decided on methodological approaches to the training of teachers, as well as clarified the content, forms, methods, and means of their training. in other words, we developed a model for preparing teachers to use dt in ies. results inclusive digital technologies to address the first task, an analysis of internet sources was conducted to identify software and hardware tools that support inclusive learning. the analysis resulted in the discovery of a classification of digital tools for inclusive education by type, as presented in the work of okhrimenko and semenikhina (2019). their findings identified both hardware and software tools that can support inclusive education (figure 2). figure 2: hardware and software to support inclusive educational space. another important finding to note is the work of bondarenko (2018), which provides practical recommendations for the use of both hardware and software tools in an inclusive learning environment (figure 3). hardware •braille display •е-book •braille printer •braille keyboard •alternative keyboard •mouse for foot •trackball •touch screen •instructive display system of a head •stylus for mouth control •pc, tablet, smartphone •е-reader •vibration reminder system •digital pen with audio recording capability software •monitor screen readers •screen magnifiers •audiobooks •deaf communicators •speech synthesisers •audio to text converters •spell checker software •means for refraction •specialised training software •electronic educational resources •computer games of various types 182 figure 3: practical recommendations on the use of hardware and software (according to t. bondarenko). based on the analysis of scientific research, the finding of abbott (2007) is worth noting. abbott describes three main directions for the use of digital technologies in teaching students with disabilities: for training and repetition; to assist in learning; to enable learning opportunities (figure 4). figure 4: inclusive dt (by abbott). the first category of digital tools mentioned by the author included those that are designed to train students with disabilities to perform specific actions or operations. the use of such tools can contribute to greater socialisation and skill development. however, the author also notes autism, blind children or with residual vision screen reader, screen magnifier, audiobook, deaf communicator braille display, braille e-book, braille printer, braille keyboard combinatorial disorders, cumulative traumatic disorders, cognitive desorders hot keys alternate keyboard, trackball, touch screen paralysis, cerebral palsy, absence or damage to the extremities instructional display system of the head, mouse for the foot, stylus for control disorders of speech function speech synthesiser, voice recognition pc, tablet, smartphone, e-book attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder information managers, organisers vibration alarm system, digital pen with the ability to record audio inclusive digital technologies training and repetition assist in learning enable learning opportunities 183 that this type of digital technology is the most common one used for working with students with disabilities, but it may not guarantee the development of individual qualities that are in high demand by society today, such as creativity and soft social skills. the author suggests that while the first category of digital tools is appropriate for working with csen, it should not be seen as the only effective approach. this category should also include the use of virtual (vr) and augmented (ar) reality, as well as multimedia technologies, particularly in cases where access to real-world experiences may be limited or difficult. these technologies can also be particularly effective in developing the imagination of children with autism. in addition to abbott's three main directions for the use of digital technologies in the teaching of csen, other scientific investigations support the effectiveness of the first category of digital tools. one such investigation, conducted by bakker et al. (2016), found that computer games can be effective tools for working with csen. different types of computer games were identified, including adventurous (visually these games are designed as a cartoon but with interactive features, including the ability to control the course of events and focused on the development of logical thinking); strategic (the purpose of such games is the management of certain processes, the development of perseverance, the ability to plan actions); arcade (characteristic fragmentation of the game at the level where the reward and goal is the right to move to the next, more complex, level; train attention, reaction speed, eye gauge, observation, etc.); role (the ability to choose characters with certain roles and functions); 3d-action (focused on the development of motility, search skills); and logical (one task or several puzzles to develop the skills of arithmetic, reading, writing, etc.). clarifying the content of dt, designed to help (assist) in the learning process, abbott notes that the tools of this group are not a specialised platform or catalyst for the learning process itself but such tools create conditions for its implementation (for example, use of a speech device when individuals cannot speak for themselves, or the use of filters that relieve hand tremors while moving the mouse). to the second category of dt, aimed at assisting in learning, abbott includes also means of alternative communication and amplifiers of communication (alternative and augmentative communication), including, for example, systems of graphic symbols. along with alternative communication means, switch access technologies are considered. they make it possible to enter information via switches (button control, control of eye-tracking devices, etc.). the third category of dt involves creating opportunities for learning that did not previously exist. dt in this category plays an active role in organising the learning process by facilitating it and promoting cooperation. the key distinction between the third category and the other two is that without dt, such cooperation would not be possible. educational platforms, social networks and services, specially-designed information, and educational spaces that provide opportunities for communication and collaboration, are examples of dt in this category. turning to the third category of dt, abbott notes that the study of the first two categories prioritises the technologies themselves, rather than their results, while the main question is the conditions under which dt can be the most effective tool to support learning. the generalisation of the mentioned and other scientific research allowed us to combine the given classifications (figure 5). 184 figure 5: combined classification of inclusive dt. inclusive digital technologies training and repetition hardware braille printer braille keyboard foot mouse touch screen vibration reminder system stylus for mouth control digital pen with audio recording capability software monitor screen readers spell checker software means for refraction specialised software assist in learning hardware braille display alternate keyboard trackball pc, tablet, smartphone e-reader vibration reminder system software monitor screen readers screen magnifiers deaf communicators audio to text converters means for refraction electronic educational resources enable learning opportunities hardware braille display e-book foot mouse touch screen instructional display system of the head pc, tablet, smartphone stylus for mouth control software monitor screen readers audiobooks speech synthesisers specialised software educational computer games electronic educational resources 185 so, we have specified those digital technologies and tools that contribute to the organisation or support of the already created inclusive educational space. at the same time, the study of the results presented in marci-boehncke and vogel (2018) confirmed the presence of barriers that may arise in the implementation of dt in inclusive education: cognitive (in the perception of educational material using digital technologies); content barriers (the language of the device or software does not match the student's native language); didactic (students are not ready to learn using digital technologies, and the teacher does not have the skills to facilitate csen); financial (costs of the latest technologies and software). some of these barriers can be overcome by providing appropriate training for teachers in the successful use of dt in ies. the model of teachers’ preparation for the use of dt in ies teacher training in ukraine takes place within four years (240 credits, of which at least 60 credits are in class). in 1st and 2nd-year courses, there is generally psychological, pedagogical, and subject training. in 3rd and 4th-year courses, knowledge and skills of subject training technologies are deepened, and students learn to use specialised forms, methods, and means of learning for further professional activity. developing the model for preparing teachers to use dt in ies (fig. 6), we took into account d.sc. and ph.d. theses on specialties, 13.00.03 (correctional pedagogy) and 13.00.04 (theory and methods of professional education), educational and professional curricula of specialties, 014 secondary education and 016 special education. we took into account the potential of the following approaches: axiological (the importance of perceiving each as a unique individual with their own needs and interests; the importance of perceiving the values of digital society, self-realisation in the process of mastering digital heritage as a social value); integrative (synergistic combination of dt and psychological and pedagogical technologies); healthcare (learning process should be focused on the success and preservation of physical, mental and social health of young people); visual and digital (providing dt-based clarity, reproduction in the action of deep internal and associative connections, and basic concepts and processes, which are leading for the field of inclusion); and byod (use of own computer devices to support educational activities). we analysed the scientific results that described various models of teacher preparation for a particular type of activity. the generalisation of these results showed that to build a successful model for preparing teachers to use dt in ies, it is necessary to modernise the content of professional training to form ideas about the ways of using dt in the educational process (aluko & ooko, 2022) and the involvement of interactive teaching methods, for example, problem-based methods for the formation of scientific explanation skills (laksmi et al., 2021). the model for preparing teachers to use dt in ies was to be implemented in the conditions of the existing teacher training system. the developed model (fig. 6) was built based on educational and professional training programmes for teachers of sumy state pedagogical university (https://sspu.edu.ua/universytet/edusci/osvitni-prohramy) and involved three stages: motivational (the formation of students' understanding of the role and awareness of the prospects of using dt in the field of inclusion, motivation to use professional dt), cognitive 186 operational (the formation of students' knowledge and skills to use dt in professional activities, including for the organisation of ies), and reflexive (the formation of students' ability to reflect in the field of digital technologies for the organisation of ies). figure 6: the model of teachers’ preparation for the use of dt in ies. the effectiveness of the model for training pre-service teachers to use dt in ies the effectiveness of the developed model was verified through a pedagogical experiment that involved conducting three tests based on the results of each stage of teachers' preparation for using dt in ies. the evaluation was based on the criteria described earlier. indicators of the effectiveness of the developed model are indicators s1, s2, s3, s4, and s5 (we researched the dynamics of their development). the participants of the pedagogical experiment were students training to be mathematics teachers. the total number was 44 students. we proceeded from the fact that this group is multilevel in terms of the initial ability to use dt in ies, and the ability to learn. this led to the need to track the dynamics of each type of skill for every respondent. 187 the typical task on which students' ability to use dt in ies was tested is given in the section "materials and methods". it is professionally oriented and allows you to assess the existing skills complex. students were acquainted with the peculiarities of the experiment, its goals and methods of data collection. at the beginning of the pedagogical experiment, each student chose a number (number n from 1 to 44), which was then used as a marker to track the skills acquired by that student. in other words, during each assessment, each student indicated only a selected number n, which ensured their anonymity, and we could find out how they solved the test problem at different stages. data were collected during 2018-2021. the first test was in 2019, the second in 2020, and the third in 2021. after the second and third tests, the validity of the data was checked. we used these rules: 1) the data of the individual test were incorrect if the first and second tests had seven or more points; 2) the test data were incorrect if all three tests had the same number of points. the results of each of the stages are presented in table 1. table 1: results of the pedagogical experiment. s tu de nt n o m ar k 1 m ar k 2 m ar k 3 s tu de nt n o m ar k 1 m ar k 2 m ar k 3 s tu de nt n o m ar k 1 m ar k 2 m ar k 3 1 4 4 6 16 2 3 5 31 5 5 7 2 5 6 7 17 1 2 5 32 5 5 7 3 4 5 6 18 3 3 5 33 3 4 5 4 3 6 7 19 3 3 6 34 4 4 3 5 4 6 8 20 3 4 6 35 5 4 6 6 4 4 8 21 3 4 3 36 5 4 5 7 4 4 7 22 4 4 3 37 3 5 3 8 5 4 5 23 4 4 7 38 5 5 6 9 4 4 5 24 3 5 3 39 1 3 6 10 3 5 5 25 2 3 6 40 4 4 3 11 3 5 5 26 3 3 4 41 2 3 8 12 3 6 6 27 4 3 4 42 1 3 7 13 5 5 6 28 5 4 3 43 3 3 4 14 5 5 6 29 4 4 3 44 4 3 4 15 2 3 8 30 3 6 5 processing the results by the sign test required the construction of a table of identified changes (table 2). hypotheses h0 is “the developed model does not impact on the skill to use dt in ies” and hypotheses ha is “the developed model impacts the skill to use dt in ies”. 188 table 2: number of differences. changes negative without changes positive number of changes тemp. critical interval (significance level 0.05) the accepted hypothesis «–» «0» «+» n=«–»+«+» changes (1-2) 7 17 20 27 (8;19) на changes (2-3) 9 6 29 38 (13;25) на since the empirical value of the test is beyond the interval in both cases (20 > 19 and 29 > 25), it is necessary to reject hypothesis h0 and accept the alternative hypothesis (the developed model of preparing teachers for the use of dt in ies is effective). thus, at the significance level of 0.05, according to statistical estimates, the effectiveness of the model for preparing teachers to use dt in ies was confirmed. іmplications for teacher training to use digital technologies in an inclusive educational space we will now describe the implications of the developed model for teacher training to use digital technologies in an inclusive educational space. the first stage (motivational) planned to modernise the content of the discipline psychology and informatics disciplines: informatics, web-design (1st year) (table 3). table 3: improving the content of disciplines. discipline additional issues of introduction of dt in the educational process psychology 1. dt is a necessary condition for ensuring the social development of the student in ies. 2. ensuring pedagogical communication in the process of applying dt in ies. 3. modelling of the educational process using dt in ies. 4. the use of dt in organising and conducting individual mathematics classes in ies. informatics disciplines ("informatics", "webdesign", "workshop on the creating of multimedia learning means") 1. mastering various digital means of inclusive orientation. 2. formation of skills in the use of specialised hardware and software. 3. inclusion of electronic educational resources development issues in ies. the students’ preparation for the use of dt in the ies was organised in such a way that the study of these disciplines took place through visual lectures, and practical and laboratory classes organised with the use of dt. students were offered professionally-oriented tasks (cases), which created interesting professional situations and were aimed at developing specific knowledge in the field of the use of dt for inclusive education. for example, some practical classes in pedagogy and psychology were conducted as intellectual training, during independent and individual work focused on communicative strategies and tactics of professional communication between teachers and pupils, and worked on motivating professional communication skills (listening, proving their positions). at the same time, students were offered a professional situation in the form of a business game, mathematics 189 lesson in a classroom with a student with special needs. students learned to formulate questions and answers, to establish and maintain contact with csen, and there was the modeling of subject and social aspects of the lesson content in general, selection of teaching methods, and selection of visual means and digital learning means. in the process of studying information disciplines, students' ideas about hardware and software in an inclusive direction, in general, were formed. the lectures were devoted to the use of multimedia technologies in classrooms where there are pupils with special needs. this stage was more focused on the formation of skills: s1 – the skill to find/recommend appropriate inclusive hardware; s2 – the skill to find/recommend appropriate inclusive software; s4 – the skill to use social services to organise quality communication. at the second (cognitive-operational) stage, the content of the disciplines pedagogy (2nd year) and workshop on the creation of multimedia learning means (2nd year) was supplemented with questions about the introduction of dt in the ies (table 4). table 4: improving the content of disciplines (2nd stage). discipline additional issues of introduction of dt in the educational process pedagogy 1. possibilities of using dt in providing competence, activity, and personality-oriented approach in ies. 2. historical aspects of digitalisation of inclusive educational space. 3. information and digital competence of pre-service teachers. 4. creating a lesson using dt in ies. workshop on the creation of multimedia learning means 1. computer games in ies 2. digital education environment 3. inclusion of electronic educational resources development issues in ies. a special course called digital technologies in inclusive education (offered in the third year) played a crucial role in developing skills related to using digital technologies in the field of inclusion. the course content was designed to impart knowledge about digital tools for supporting children with special educational needs (csen) and mastering computer-based educational and methodological support for teaching children in ies. (figure 7). 190 figure 7: tasks of the special course, digital technologies in ies. during the special course, we placed particular emphasis on computer games designed for children with special needs. as a result, students were tasked with conducting a content analysis of the internet to identify available computer games that support school mathematics, including games focused on numbers (such as math learning), mindfulness (such as mathematics fanatics), logic (such as find a law), speed (such as developer: land of magic numbers), strategy (such as flash games like blue cube), games involving matches, and games for developing attention and memory skills. the students independently researched specialised development programmes and software packages: gcompris, omnitux (http://omnitux.sourceforge.net/), tuxmath, etc. this stage was more focused on the formation of skills: s2 – the skill to find/recommend appropriate inclusive software; s3 – the skill to find/choose a suitable digital platform for the organisation of ies; s5 – the skill to develop educational and methodological support (visual materials) taking into account the needs and capabilities of csen with the use of digital technologies. the third stage (operational-reflexive) of the pedagogical practice occurred during the third and fourth years of the programme. one of its objectives was to gain practical experience in using dt to organise ies and to reflect on these activities. as part of their industrial practice, students were tasked with describing the unique features of the educational process for children with different types of special needs, including those with developmental delays, speech disorders, intellectual disabilities, visual impairments, physical and mental disorders, and emotional and behavioural disorders. additionally, they were asked to identify the challenges that a mathematics teacher might face when using dt to organise ies and to share positive practices. theoretical: • to acquaint with digital technologies in working with csen, which allows the carrying out of effective social adaptation and supporting this category of persons. practical: • to acquire the skill to introduce a creative search for ways to improve the process of remedial learning through digital technology, and increase the efficiency of digital technology in an inclusive educational space; • to acquire the skill to freely own general and specialised software, create presentations, make video clips of lessons or educational activities, and select digital means to ensure the correctional and educational process; • to get an idea of ​​the possibilities of internet services for their their own pedagogical activities in an inclusive educational space; • to acquire knowledge, skills and abilities to work with digital technologies in ies. 191 for students, we note the importance of mastery of the specialised learning principles, which happens in school practice. to understand the holistic picture of the digitalisation of an inclusive educational space, the principle of the systematic use of digital technologies is important. in school practice, adherence to the principle of ontogenesis allows us to take into account the age and psychophysical characteristics of students, the nature of existing disorders, and to eliminate or correct disorders due to intellectual, speech, sensory, motor, and emotional defects, in order to create a full basis for child development. students’ mastery of the activity principle in learning is formed in practice due to the need to correct secondary disorders caused by primary defects in the child's development in real learning conditions. this stage focused on the formation of all skills: s1 – the skill to find/recommend appropriate inclusive hardware; s2 – the skill to find/recommend appropriate inclusive software; s3 – the skill to find/choose a suitable digital platform for the organisation of ies; s4 – the skill to use social services to organise quality communication; s5 – the skill to develop educational and methodological support (visual materials) taking into account the needs and capabilities of csen with the use of digital technologies. discussion this research followed the ideas of other scientists. thus, the authors de boer et al., (2011) confirmed that deepening knowledge, particularly on legislation related to inclusion, does not solve the problem of preparing teachers to work in inclusive classrooms. for our research, this became one of the arguments in favour of developing not only knowledge but also practical skills in pre-service teachers regarding the use of digital technologies (dt) in inclusive classrooms. the conclusions of the bakker et al., article (2016) on the usefulness of mini-games for improving knowledge of multiplication and division were reflected in our research when determining the types of dt for inclusive learning. in the findings of marci-boehncke and vogel (2018), the authors propose not only integrating dt into teacher training but also considering the development of digital literacy. this conclusion was reflected in the skills (s1-s5), the formation of which was provided for in our model. a confirmed alternative hypothesis (the developed model of preparing teachers for the use of dt in ies is effective) reinforces the results of other scientific research. the finding by khamlichi (2012) focuses on the fact that teachers need to choose methods and means of teaching based on the needs and capabilities of students. it is consistent with our conclusion that to organise inclusive learning the teachers must be able to select the appropriate digital technologies and appropriate software. the finding by scorgie (2010) concerns the upbringing of csen and strategies for their interaction with parents. parenting includes supporting the educational needs of children for their greater socialisation through the virtual world. therefore, the teacher's cooperation with parents on the use of dt for the development of their children is potentially effective. cagran & schmidt (2011), among other things, substantiate the importance of preparing teachers for work in inclusive classrooms, which correlates with the 192 conclusions of our study on the importance of preliminary preparation of mathematics teachers for the use of dt in inclusive classes. our study also follows the ideas of de boer et al. (2011) that substantiate the role of dt for the socialisation of csen as a leading goal of european policy. the problem of digital literacy of teachers is urgent for inclusive education. a group of researchers from the technical university of dortmund in germany have conducted a study focused on exploring the use of digital technologies in education (hamburg & bucksch, 2017). as part of their research, the scientists developed a project called the research centre for youth, media, and education, which was designed for pre-service teachers. within the project, students have the option to enroll in separate courses, such as digital learning in inclusive classrooms or methods for diagnosing reading competency and promoting reading. these courses encourage the use of digital tools to support learning. the main objective for students is to adapt their lessons to the unique capabilities, abilities, and interests of each child. a similar project and its outcomes are described in lazzari's (2016) research study, which discusses the organisation of the digital storytelling course for students in the special education programme. according to the author, the narrative structure of fairy tales can enhance the lives of children with special educational needs by stimulating their imagination, enabling them to express their emotions, identifying their challenges, and finding solutions to their problems. the cognitive, social, and emotional value of storytelling for children is critical. digital storytelling is a valuable tool that promotes the development of language skills, vocabulary, and general knowledge among students with special needs. in an experiment conducted at the university of bergamo, students were enrolled in a 24-hour digital storytelling course, which was delivered remotely. the experiment proved to be successful, and students expressed an interest in using similar technologies in the future in inclusive classrooms. it is also important to take into account the role of technology in improving the quality of life and expanding the range of possibilities of csen. there has been recent research focusing on the use of robots to support individuals with autism spectrum disorders (asd) (serna et al., 2016). for instance, yuen et al. (2014) have described a project that utilises robots to foster social interaction among adolescents with asd during educational activities. however, abbott (2007) points out that there is a dearth of extensive, long-term, and highquality research on this topic, which is consistent with the findings of mirenda et al. (2000). abbott notes that the majority of studies concerning the use of dt in inclusive education tend to be localised and lack a broad methodological framework. the findings of forlin and chambers (2011) note that the attitude of teachers towards inclusive education is important. the authors conclude that there are some positive links between teacher training and their experience of inclusive learning, so our model can be adapted and used in internships or teacher development in general. our research confirmed that the important thing for teachers is to realise the possibility of using dt in inclusive classes, gain knowledge about dt in the field of inclusive education in general and subject areas in particular, and the formation of dt skills to apply. therefore, professional training of teachers should include forming the mentioned learning outcomes. 193 conclusion after analysing the current state of the issue, it can be concluded that there are multiple scientific and pedagogical research studies focused on inclusive education and the preparation of pre-service teachers to use dt in ies. these studies are being implemented and incorporated into practice. the introduction of dt for the socialisation of children with sen, the methodological support for teaching children with sen in different subjects across various types of educational institutions, as well as the utilisation of mobile and distance technologies in the education of such children, are some of the main focus areas that have been explored. it seems like the generalisation of scientific results has shown that there is a systematic approach to working with children who need a special approach to learn for their socialisation. however, there are only fragments of research on pre-service teachers' preparation for using dt in ies. pre-service teachers’ preparation for the use of dt in ies is a complex process based on awareness of the importance of involving dt for the inclusion of csen in the regular educational process and involves the formation of teachers' skills to use (find and/or recommend) appropriate specialised hardware/software based on nosology for the organisation of an effective ies in the context of subject learning. other researchers have developed and theoretically substantiated the model of pre-service teachers’ preparation for the use of dt in ies, which is based on a set of methodological approaches (axiological, integrative, health care, byod, visual and digital), specific learning principles (the principle of systematic use of digital technologies; activity) and involves improving the content of certain educational components of educational and professional teacher training curricula (psychology, pedagogy, computer science disciplines), the use of forms (lectures-visualisations; practical and laboratory works; practice), methods (problem, case-method, modeling), and means (hardware and software of inclusive orientation; internet resources; professionally-oriented tasks). the effectiveness of the model of pre-service teachers’ preparation for the use of dt in ies was experimentally tested using the sign test. the conducted statistical analysis of the results of the pedagogical experiment confirmed the positive statistically significant dynamics at different stages of learning. based on the results of the pedagogical experiment, recommendations can be made for the preparation of pre-service teachers for the use of dt in ies. the developed model can be adapted to subject teachers with a focus on specialised software in their field (such as mathematics, physics, biology, etc.) and the development of appropriate variable courses (for example, mathematics in ies of secondary school, specialised mathematics software for csen, or digital technologies in teaching mathematics for csen, etc.). it is important to actively involve students in research work based on analysis, comparison, and critical evaluation of the available results of the introduction of dt in inclusive education and the practical experience of using dt in working with csen with its obligatory reflection. public demand for the use of dt in inclusive education highlights the need for communicative interaction between participants in the educational process of general secondary and higher education, which can be implemented through resource centres for the professional development of teachers (training, internships, training, etc.). 194 while fulfilling all the research objectives, this study highlighted the problem of professional development of teachers to develop their ability to use specialised software in inclusive educational institutions; the problem of professional training of specialists for the training of csen in the conditions of distance learning; the problem of using dt in the teaching of csen in non-formal education; the need to develop specialised electronic educational resources for inclusive educational space, etc. references abbott, c. (2007). e-inclusion: learning difficulties and digital technologies. futurelab education. aluko, f.r., & ooko, m.a. (2022). enhancing the digital literacy experience of teachers to bolster learning in the 21st century. journal of learning for development, 9(3), 420-435. https://doi.org/10.56059/jl4d.v9i3.662 bakker, m., van den heuvel-panhuizen, m., & robitzsch, a. (2016). effects of mathematics computer games on special education students’ multiplicative reasoning ability. british journal of educational technology, 47(4), 633-648. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12249 bondarenko, t.v. (2018). using information and communication technologies for providing accessibility and development of inclusive education. information technologies and learning tools, 67(5), 31-43. https://doi.org/10.33407/itlt.v67i5.2241 cagran, b., & schmidt, m. (2011). attitudes of slovene teachers towards the inclusion of pupils with different types of special needs in primary school. educational studies, 37(2), 171-195. de boer, a., pijl, s.j., & minnaert, a. (2011). regular primary schoolteachers’ attitudes towards inclusive education: a review of the literature. international journal of inclusive education, 15(3), 331-353. forlin, c., & chambers, d. (2011). teacher preparation for inclusive education: increasing knowledge but raising concerns. asia-pacific journal of teacher education, 39(1), 17-32. hamburg, i., & bucksch, s. (2017). inclusive education and digital social innovation. advances in social sciences research journal, 4(5), 161-169. https://doi.org/10.14738/assrj.45.2861 isăilă, n. (2012). social inclusion in the context of informational society. procedia–social and behavioral sciences, 46, 1006-1009. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.05.239 jones, p. (2010). my peers have also been an inspiration for me: developing online learning opportunities to support teacher engagement with inclusive pedagogy for students with severe/profound intellectual developmental disabilities. international journal of inclusive education, 14(7), 681-696. khamlichi, m. (2012). teacher education for inclusion. profile of inclusive teachers. european agency for development in special needs education. https://www.europeanagency.org/sites/default/files/profile-of-inclusive-teachers.pdf laksmi, m.l., sari, d.p., rinanto, y., & sapartini, r.r. (2021). implementation of problem based learning to increase scientific explanation skill in biology learning about the environment. journal of learning for development, 8(3), 532–540. https://doi.org/10.56059/jl4d.v8i3.531 lazzari, m. (2016). digital storytelling for inclusive education: an experience in initial teacher training. proceedings of the 10th international conference on e-learning. funchal, portugal, 199-203. marci-boehncke, g., & vogel, t. (2018). digital literacy and inclusion: the impact of theory and practice in teacher’s education. 12th international technology, education and development conference. https://doi.org/10.21125/inted.2018.1618 martynchuk, o.v. (2019). theory and practice of training future bachelors of special education in an inclusive educational space. [doctoral dissertation. mykola yarmachenko institute of special pedagogy and psychology of the national academy of sciences of ukraine]. 195 mirenda, p., wilk, d., & carson, p. (2000). a retrospective analysis of technology use patterns of students with autism over five years. journal of special education technology, 15(3), 5-16. https://doi.org/10.1177/016264340001500301 okhrimenko, o., & semenikhina, o. (2019). digital resources in the work of bachelor’s of special education. physical and mathematical education, 4(22), 127-132. https://doi.org/10.31110/2413-15712019-022-4-047 scorgie, k. (2010). a powerful glimpse from across the table: reflections on a virtual parenting exercise. international journal of inclusive education, 14(7), 697-708. serna, r.w., begum, m., & yanco, h.a. (2016). are robots ready to deliver autism interventions? a comprehensive review. international journal of social robotics, 8(2), 157-181. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-016-0346-y yuen, t.t., mason, l.l., & gomez, a. (2014). collaborative robotics projects for adolescents with autism spectrum disorders. journal of special education technology, 29(1), 51-62. https://doi.org/10.1177/016264341402900104 authors: marina drushlyak is a professor of the computer science department, faculty of physics and mathematics of sumy state pedagogical university named after a. s. makarenko. email: marydru@fizmatsspu.sumy.ua olena semenikhina is a professor of the mathematics department, faculty of physics and mathematics of sumy state pedagogical university named after a. s. makarenko. email: e.semenikhina@fizmatsspu.sumy.ua inna kharchenko is a professor of the department of state law disciplines and ukrainian studies of sumy national agrarian university. email: kharchenko-inna@ukr.net pavlo mulesa is an associate professor of the department of cybernetics and applied mathematics of uzhhorod national university. email: pavlo.mulesa@uzhnu.edu.ua volodymyr shamonia is an associate professor of the computer science department, faculty of physics and mathematics of sumy state pedagogical university named after a. s. makarenko. email: shamonawg@gmail.com cite this paper as: drushlyak, m., semenikhina, o., kharchenko, i., mulesa, p., & shamonia, v. (2023). effectiveness of digital technologies in inclusive learning for teacher preparation. journal of learning for development, 10(2), 177-195. microsoft word harsh.docx issn: 2311-1550 2022, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 37-54 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. decrypting the learners’ retention factors in massive open online courses harsh vardhan pant1,2, manoj chandra lohani1 and jeetendra pande3 1graphic era hill university, bhimtal campus, uttarakhand, india 2amrapali institute, haldwani, india 3uttarakhand open university, haldwani, india abstract: massive open online courses (moocs) have recently become attractive at most universities, and the number of moocs has risen significantly, particularly in india. despite their popularity, previous research has revealed a low course completion rate and a scarcity of research on the factors that influences learners’ retention in moocs. therefore, it is a good idea to investigate previous research to understand the factors behind the learners’ retention so that an ideal learning model can be created. this study used structural equation modelling to find out the unexplored learner retention factors in moocs and create a model, which may extend the satisfaction. mooc data sets were collected from different indian universities in uttarakhand state. this study has explored the majority of influencing factors correlated with learners’ satisfaction. the findings show that mooc usage intention is influenced by a willingness to credit mobility, the allure of the latest trendy course, content localisation and perceived effectiveness. keywords: classification, data-mining, mooc, factors, pls, retention, factor. introduction since 2011-12, massive open online courses have been playing an important role in the field of open and distance learning. with the advent of web technology, massive open learning is rapidly gaining importance and momentum. the study by dhawal shah (2021) reported that 900 universities around the world have launched free online courses. by the end of 2020, more than 180 million learners had signed up for at least one mooc. according to ricart, et al. (2020) the biggest advantage of moocs is the convenience of learning. in order to meet the growing demand for online education in india, the indian government has launched a number of projects to provide mooc courses, such as nptel, iitbx, swayam, etc. swayam (study webs of active learning for young aspiring minds) is a leading platform that was announced (2014) by the ministry of human rights development (mhrd) under its national mission on education through information & communication technology (nmeict). the swayam portal was launched in 2017. there exist a number of criticisms and challenges (but it is also important to understand there is a brighter side to moocs). moocs have very low completion rates (siliezar, 2020). kizilcec, et al. (2020) have studied one of the largest global field experiments in higher education, with a sample size of more than 250,000 mooc participants spanning more than two years and found that the learner satisfaction index did not increase. learners’ dropout in moocs is a major concern in the higher education and policymaking communities. many of the learners that are enrolled in moocs do not 38 complete their courses, which leads to higher dropout rates. therefore, the researchers were skeptical of the technology being used to teach engineering education and raised concerns about the moocs from a pedagogical, accessibility and usability point of view (gamage, 2020). moocs do not yet provide a broad array of educational opportunities for people without adequate english-language proficiency and, therefore, moocs may have limited potential for use in international development outside of english-speaking populations (stratton, 2016). after reviewing the criticism, the literature suggests poor participation in moocs after enrollment, as well as low completion rates is a source of concern. there may be various factors influencing the moocs model. understanding and improving the important factors of moocs can help retain learners in their course. the adequate moocs educational model can be built to reduce the attrition of learners. therefore, significant research is required to understand the nature of the learners to improve the quality of e-learning. the objective of this study is to examine unexplored factors than can predict the intention to retention of learners in indian moocs. the authors have explored various experiential variables that can be predictive of the extent to which learners actually expect to remain within the course. therefore, this research work attempts to understand the important attributes of the online learning environment. literature review the specific focus of the current paper is on learners’ experience in moocs and the effect of mooc characteristics on learner retention. learner retention is important as a measure of mooc success, since only those learners that persevere with a course have a chance of reaping the intended educational benefits of the learning experience. despite the large number of learners that sign up for moocs, only roughly 7-10% of them complete their courses (chen, 2017). analytic approach in massive open online course an analytic approach can be used in open online educational systems in order to: predict drop-out students, predict student academic performance, discovery of strongly related subjects in the undergraduate syllabi, knowledge discovery on academic achievement, classification of student performance in a computer programming course according to learning style to find out various factors which affect the academics of students (shaziya, zaheer, & kavitha, 2015). several research studies have been carried out to find the different factors affecting learning continuance and retention in distance learning courses. some important concerned research of the last two years is as follows in table 1. 39 table 1: list of last two years’ literatures related to investigate the factors, affecting retentions authors title dropout factors/ findings/approaches (altalhi, 2021) towards understanding the students’ acceptance of moocs: a unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (utaut) for saudi arabia. the results showed that acceptance of the moocs was substantially affected by its performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, self-efficiency, attitude, and facilitating conditions. (chiappe, 2021) retention in moocs: some key factors the need for certification and standardization as the main factors that affect attrition in moocs. (pathak & mishra, 2021) an empirical exploration of mooc effectiveness towards participants’ intentionfulfilment and learners’ satisfaction. the results reveal that the satisfaction level of the learner is affected positively by variables like online selfregulated learning which includes goal setting, behavioural variables and perceived course usability. (semenova, 2020) the role of learners’ motivation in mooc completion this study, estimated the role of motivation in a mooc’s completion, and their level of engagement with the course materials. (charo reparaz, 2020) self-regulation of learning and mooc retention goal setting and task interest are main predictors of mooc completion. mooc completers show higher levels of perceived effectiveness than non-completers. instructor support is not a relevant factor for mooc retention. (bingöl, 2020) factors for success and course completion in massive open online courses through the lens of participant types. this study finds the instructor effectiveness, course design, and personal factors, for success and course completion in moocs. (bagcı & celık, 2019) examination of factors affecting continuance intention to use webbased distance learning system via structural equation modelling this study concludes that, continuance intention to use web-based distance learning system was indirectly affected by perceived quality, perceived control, perceived usability; and was directly affected by satisfaction. (daneji, 2019) the effects of perceived usefulness, confirmation and satisfaction on continuance intention in using massive open online course (mooc) this study revealed that confirmation has a significant influence on students’ perceived usefulness and satisfaction while perceived usefulness has no significant influence on students’ satisfaction. it was observed that some previous work explores the factors which affect mooc completion/learner retention, as it is an important measure of mooc success. all abovementioned studies are common with respect to focusing on factors like course completion, engagement with course material, or 40 regarding teachers' experiences, platform design, social influence, or learners' behavior. there are still some important unexplored factors, that are untouched or have limited literature available, which make mooc systems successful (pant, lohani, & pande, 2019). hypotheses development to analyse potential factors or variables in structural equation modelling, one has to review the related literature to discover the characteristics of the proposed variables. pant, lohani & pande (2019) suggested ‘prior learning experiences’, ‘learning behaviours’, ‘content localisation’, and ‘government support’ as some of the potential motivational factors that are either untouched or have very limited literature available. so, the above recommendations were used to develop the following hypotheses: • instructor effect: (adamopoulos, 2013). some preliminary evidence of the role of instructors in mooc retention, with positive review comments about course instructors correlating with completion. however, adamopoulos (2013) used sentiment analysis rather than subjective measurement constructs in his research. yunjo, zhu, bonk, & lin (2020) explored instructors’ perceptions and support needs regarding gamification in moocs. other researchers that found the instructor effect factor are hew (2014), fianu, blewett, ampong, & ofori (2018), and aldowah (2019). despite these efforts, none of these studies examined the association between the impacts of the instructors’ interaction in mooc retention. based on the previous findings, this research proposes the following hypothesis: h1: instructors’ interaction will have a significant positive effect on intention to retention in moocs. • content localisation: affirmed that learners lacking english skills deem courses provided in english the most difficult obstacle, and they were less interested in taking the courses. class (2021) found the majority of mooc courses are offered in english (36,025), while only a few courses (128) are provided in hindi and other languages. chen (2013) found out about mooc opportunities and challenges with reference to culture, language, and economics from the perspective of china and other east asian countries. joseph (2013) promoted the provision of moocs in the languages and culture of the learners. sanchez-gordon (2014) emphasised that the international learners who attend moocs offered in a language different to their native language might face difficulty because of the language issues depending on their level of skill in that language. the impact of the language of moocs has not been investigated previously in the context of indian moocs’ acceptance and continuance. this study is the first effort that supposes that learners are likely to develop a positive intention towards their persistence in moocs if the courses are provided in their mother tongue, indian. as such, the following hypothesis was developed for this research: h2: content localisation support will have a significant positive effect on the perceived usefulness of moocs • credit mobility: credit means the unit award gained by a learner after study efforts of a minimum number of hours required to acquire the prescribed level of learning in respect of that unit. thus, credit mobility means the transfer of credits of such students enrolled in any higher education institution in india. according to the university grants commission of india 41 2016 regulation, “no university shall refuse any student for credit mobility for courses earned through moocs hosted on swyam”. sharma & sharma (2019) have supported credit mobility and see it as an innovative next-generation pedagogy. in earlier research and literature, a certificate credential was an important factor for the intention to continuation in the moocs. thus, it is important to see whether credit mobility as a factor will play a major role in the intention to retention or not. therefore, the following hypothesis was proposed: h3: "credit mobility" of moocs will have a positive impact on learner retention. • social influence: social influence is defined as the degree to which an individual perceives that others believe he or she should use the new system (venkatesh et al., 2003,). in previous research ‘social influence’ was measured by a number of various references like social recognition, social influence, behavioural intention and reputation. utaut, the extended model of tam, shows direct effects of social factors on behavioural intention. venkatesh, morris, davis & davis (2003) indicate that the utaut model explains approximately 70% of the variance in behavioural intention. there have been numerous contradictions in previous research findings. several studies like hong & kang (2011), nassuora (2012), and (lai, 2017)) have found a positive effect of performance expectancy on behavioural intention, but some other studies like jairak (2009) have not found a similar result. social influence factors have significantly positive effects on e-learning behavior intention and behaviors (chen & hwang, 2016). there was limited research based on the tam model with relationship to social influence and behavioural intention. so, this study proposes the following hypothesis: h4: social influence will have a significant positive influence on the behavioural intention to use moocs. • latest trend course impact on e-learning: the interest in lms and e-learning technology is at its peak, with venture capitalists and private equity firms pouring more money into developing online learning tools (bouchrika, 2020). as students and teachers recognise the need for advanced learning solutions, advances in educational concepts, technologies, and learning content are moving at a relentlessly fast pace. according to linkedin, the highest demand skills in the 2020s are in tech-related areas such as analytics, cloud computing, artificial intelligence (ai), and user experience (ux) design (coursera, 2019) the most popular courses demonstrate a continued demand for ai-related content across professions and lifestyles. therefore, the following hypotheses were proposed: h5: latest trend course will have a positive impact on learners’ retention in moocs. h6: latest trend course will have a significant positive effect on the behavioural intention to use moocs. • behavioural intention: behavioural intention is the core; the tam model uses behavioural intention as a predictor of the technology used behaviour. khan (2018) found that social recognition, perceived competence, and perceived relatedness have positive and significant effects on the behavioral intentions of the students. habits were hypothesised to have a positive influence on behavioral intention to use moocs (venkatesh, 2012). therefore, this study hypothesises that: 42 h7: behavioural intention of using moocs will have significant positive effects on learners’ retention in moocs. • perceived usefulness: perceived usefulness refers to the fundamental factors that affect continuance intention. perceived usefulness and satisfaction have significant effects on students’ continuance intention. several studies have found a direct positive relationship between users’ confirmation on their perceived usefulness and satisfaction (venkatesh, 2011; alraimi, 2015; daneji, 2019). this implies that, if users believe that using a mooc is very useful to them, they will be more satisfied with it and might retain in moocs. this study hypothesises that: h8: perceived usefulness will have a significant effect on learner’s retention in moocs. methods a mixed method approach with both qualitative and quantitative methods was adopted for the study. two instruments were used for data collection: a survey questionnaire and interview schedules. an online survey was administered to students from four universities located in the kumoun region of uttarakhand state in india through a google form shared with the students through email, and the announcement section of the lms between may 24, 2021 and june 24, 2021. quantitative data was collected through the survey with respect to the following dimensions: role of instructor for learners, perceived usefulness, behavioral intention, content localization, credit mobility to promote e education, perceived job performance, certificate credential, social influence and latest trend course impact on e learning. the demographic data of age, gender, education was also recorded. qualitative data was collected through interview schedules prepared for the experts who were actively engaged in the development of moocs for swayam and the institutional learning management system (lms). viewpoints, experiences, and detailed information obtained from the experts were qualitatively analysed to explain or elaborate upon the quantitative results obtained from the survey. survey design a set was formulated of 30 questions in the form of a 5-point likert scale in which responders specified their level of agreement to a statement as follows: (1) strongly disagree; (2) disagree; (3) neutral; (4) agree; (5) strongly agree. an online questionnaire was developed primarily using scales. the following items were adapted from peltier (2003): role of instructor for learners (ril, 4 items), perceived usefulness (pu, 3 items) and behavioural intention (bi, 5 items). some items are new in this study like, content localization (cl, 6 items), credit mobility to promote eeducation (cm, 4 items), perceived job performance (pjp, 3 items), certificate credential (5 items), social influence (si, 3 items), latest trend course impact on e learning (ltc, 3 items), was created. demographic data such as age, gender, education were also recorded. the full scale can be found in appendix a (see table 7). sampling convenience sampling was selected for this study. the targeted respondents were a group of it students in the uttarakhand open university (110 students), graphic era hill university (115 students), uttarakhand technical university (50 students) and kumoun university (150 students) of uttarakhand state in india. students enrolled in it courses, regardless of gender, age range, year of study and it major, participated in the survey. 43 data screening and measurement model out of 425 students that initially agreed to take part, 390 questionnaire responses were collected (a response rate of 91.7 %). ten cases were identified as showing unengaged responses to the likert scales (s.d. < 0.55) and were removed from the data set for the factor analysis and structural model analysis. the reliability of predicted variables was tested using cronbach alpha coefficient (as shown in table 2). all of the coefficient values were above the cut-off value of 0.7 as determined by the accepted measure for reliability (nunnally, 1978). table 2. cronbach alpha coefficient of the suggested model variables predictor mean standard deviation cronbach alpha coefficient cl 3.66 .943 0.873 cm 3.67 .948 0.851 si 3.45 9.17 0.809 ltc 3.62 8.34 0.787 ret 3.58 .927 0.831 pu 3.56 .943 0.825 bi 3.02 .848 0.751 initial data screening also identified the ‘instructor effect’ scale as problematic, with 90% of all participants answering ‘agree’ to all items on the scale, so this construct was excluded from further analysis. after analysis of the data and data screening following factor analysis the hypothetical model was considerably simplified with only four predictors items retained: content localisation, impact of credit mobility, implement the latest trend course in moocs, and social influence. the hypotheses were therefore reframed as hypothesis h1 was excluded. figure 1: the proposed research model 44 results demographic analysis a total of 380 students participated in the study by completing a questionnaire. table 8 shows the demographic details of the respondents. out of the 380 respondents, 210 (55.2%) were males and 170 (44.7%) were females. the average age of the respondents was 22 years old. the majority of the respondents (52.4%) were in their final year of study, followed by the first year (29.4%) and second year (18.2%). out of 380 respondents, 370 (97.3%) possessed at least one digital device, such as a smart-phone, laptop, tablet, etc. with internet access, and 97.2% of respondents had used their digital devices for learning purposes. factor analysis a total of six constructs namely content localization (cl), credit mobility to promote e-education (cm), social influence in e-learning (si), latest and trendy course (ltc), perceived usefulness (pu), and retention (ret) has been identified. out of these, four exogenous variables (cl, cm, si, ltc) and the remaining two have been treated as endogenous variables. the structural model along with its path coefficients are illustrated in figure 2. to assess the prediction accuracy of the structural model's endogenous construct, the coefficient of determination (r2 value), was calculated. the endogenous construct, ret, had an r2 of 0.625, according to the structural model. the four exogenous factors (cl, cm, si, ltc) significantly explain 62.5% of the variance in ret, indicating a moderate predictive value (hair, hult, ringle, & sarstedt, 2017). the inner model suggests that ltc and bi are strong predictors that significantly affect ret, with ltc (β = 0.0.511, t-value = 5.310) emerging as the strongest predictor, followed by bi (β = 0.385, t-value = 4.933). three key assessment criteria were used to evaluate the theoretical model, namely internal consistency reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant validity. composite reliability (cr) assesses internal consistency by factoring in the indicators' outer loadings and its satisfactory values should be above 0.7 (ramayah, 2018)). the degree to which a measure correlates positively with other measures of the same construct is known as convergent validity. the average variance extracted (ave) and the outer loadings of the indicators were assessed to assess convergent validity. ave values of 0.5 or above indicate acceptable convergent validity (bagozzi, 1988; hair, 2017). the outer standardised loadings of the measurement models for each tool’s technology acceptance are shown in table 3. the conclusion is that the constructs meet reliability and the convergent validity requirement at this point. discriminant validity was found to determine the scale to which some factors are truly distinct from other factors in the model. discriminant validity, a basic building block of model evaluation, ensures that a construct measure is empirically unique and represents phenomena of interest that other measures in a structural equation model do not capture (hair jr., 2010). the fornell-larcker criterion, cross loading criterion (hair, 2017), and heterotrait-monotrait ratio of correlations (htmt) (henseler, 2015) were used to assess discriminant validity. the output in table 4 represents that all defined constructs exhibited sufficient or adequate discriminant validity, where the square roots of aves for the reflective constructs of cl (0.763), cm (0.826), ltc (0.782), si (0.791), pu (0.758), ret (0.879), bi 45 (0.731) were all higher than the values of the inter-construct on the same columns and rows (fornell & larcker, 1981). the loadings of indicators on the assigned constructs were used in the cross-loading criterion. all of the loadings on the constructs were higher than the loadings on the other constructs. table 5 shows that the indicators of various constructs can be interchangeable. the variances between loadings across constructs were not less than 0.1 (snell, 2017). the htmt is a measure of similarity between latent variables. if the htmt is smaller than one, discriminant validity can be regarded as established. it has been observed in the literature that a threshold of 0.85 reliably distinguishes between those pairs of latent variables that are discriminant valid and those that are not. htmt was used to ensure every construct in this study was truly distinct from each other. table 6 shows that none of the confidence intervals for htmt values for structural paths contain the value of 1, indicating the adequacy of discriminant validity and there was no issue of high cross-loading among one another. table 3: convergent validity and composite reliability construct items loadings cr ave content localization (cl) cl_1_s1 0.735 0.850 0.587 cl_2_s1 0.755 cl_3_s1 0.769 cl_4_s1 0.801 cl_5_s1 0.766 cl_1_s2 0.730 credit mobility (cm) cm_1_s1 0.789 0.980 0.791 cm_2_s1 0.770 cm_3_s1 0.789 cm_4_s2 0.766 social influence (si si_1_s1 0.755 0.872 0.633 si_2_s1 0.779 si_3_s1 0.790 latest trent course ltc_1_s1 0.840 0.855 0.628 ltc_2_s1 0.801 ltc_3_s1 0.764 perceived usefulness (pu) pu_1_s2 0.805 0.880 0.613 pu_2_s2 0.790 pu_3_s2 0.766 learner retention (ret) ret_1_s2 0.850 0.830 0.665 ret_2_s2 0.880 ret_3_s2 0.830 behavioural intention (bi) bi_1_s2 0.749 0.895 0.725 bi_2_s2 0.847 bi_3_s2 0.762 bi_4_s2 0.752 bi_5_s2 0.814 46 table 4: discriminant validity – fornell-larcker criterion cl cm ltc si pu ret bi cl 0.763 cm 0.597 0.826 ltc 0.687 0.528 0.782 si 0.616 0.592 0.685 0.791 pu 0.634 0.626 0.672 0.742 0.758 ret 0.6.83 0.634 0.619 0.723 0.728 0.879 bi 0.543 0.657 0.521 0.631 0.573 0.735 0.731 table 5: discriminant validity — cross-loading criterion cl cm ltc gel pe ret bi cl_1_s1 0.732 0.536 0.433 06.28 0.478 0.374 0.368 cl_2_s1 0.822 0.462 0.442 0.547 0.642 0.528 0.587 cl_3_s1 0.776 0.356 0.576 0.558 0.548 0.621 0.572 cl_4_s1 0.725 0.523 0.613 0.487 0.625 0.145 0.486 cl_5_s1 0.736 0.556 0.235 0.521 0.421 0.541 0.654 cl_1_s2 0.756 0.664 0.664 0.412 0.358 0.564 0.475 cm_1_s1 0.652 0.756 0.253 0.367 0.425 0.661 0.525 cm_1_s2 0.632 0.758 0.436 0.482 0.687 0.624 0.621 cm_1_s3 0.621 0.854 0.546 0.553 0.471 0.241 0..435 cm_1_s4 0.523 0.798 0.258 0.587 0.523 0.158 0.643 ltc_1_s1 0.512 0.356 0.897 0.625 0.514 0.284 0.584 ltc_2_s1 0.613 0.546 0.762 0.258 0.165 0.614 0.341 ltc_3_s1 0.426 0.687 0.872 0.568 0.452 0.418 0.521 si_1_s1 0.543 0.689 0.387 0.787 0.254 0.289 0.655 si_2_s1 0.438 0.425 0.523 0.883 0.345 0.379 0.587 si_3_s1 0.258 0.487 0.574 0.851 0.246 0.281 0.535 pu_1_s2 0.368 0.563 0.648 0.284 0.864 0.589 0.205 pu_2_s2 0.625 0.478 0.287 0.425 0.725 0.812 0.375 pu_3_s2 0.456 0.348 0.618 0.568 0.817 0.642 0.423 ret_1_s2 0.523 0.582 0.354 0.645 0.347 0.765 0.642 ret_2_s2 0.562 0.678 0.426 0.284 0.625 0.827 0.713 ret_3_s2 0.621 0.614 0.524 0.482 0.564 0.895 0.562 bi_1_s2 0.544 0.621 0.502 0.501 0.422 0.613 0.713 bi_2_s2 0.603 0.525 0.313 0.613 0.233 0.685 0.738 bi_3_s2 0.322 0.513 0.402 0.652 0.633 0.525 0.825 bi_4_s2 0.425 0.4635 0.644 0.503 0.612 0.554 0.801 bi_5_s2 0.553 0.655 0.543 0.485 0.535 0.686 0.735 47 table 6: discriminant validity – htmt cl cm ltc si pu ret bi cl cm 0.797 ltc 0.687 0.725 si 0.712 0.713 0.849 pu 0.739 0.701 0.836 0.914 ret 0.743 0.672 0.748 0.762 0.825 bi 0.685 0.713 0.752 0.602 0.703 0.854 table 7: lateral collinearity assessment and hypothesis testing hypothesis relationship vif std beta std error t-value r2 f 2 q2 h1: cl->pu 1.909 0.305 0.077 3.102*** 0.625 0.203 0.384 h2: cm->ret 2.296 0.325 0.068 3.325*** 0.109 h3: si-> bi 3.016 0.084 0.025 1.632 0.008 h4: ltc-> ret 2.568 0.511 0.076 5.310*** 0.102 h5: ltc->bi 4.567 0.294 0.072 4.403*** 0.325 h6: pu-> ret 2.738 0.075 0.031 1.520 0.005 h7: bi->ret 1.907 0.385 0.078 4.933*** 0.204 note: ***p < 0.001 hypothesis testing the assessment of the structural model is presented in table 7 and afterwards is discussed. for a correct evaluation of the structural model, the issue of lateral collinearity must be addressed. in order to assess the collinearity issue, the variance inflation factor (vif) values were applied. in the current study all the independent variables were examined to verify their concerned vif values. lateral multicollinearity was observed clearly, which was above the threshold of 0.2 and below the threshold of five, indicating lateral multicollinearity was not a concern in the current study. eight hypotheses were established between the constructs in this study. in order to test the significance level, t-statistics for all paths were generated using the bootstrapping function of smart pls 3.0. based on the analysis of the path coefficient as shown in table 6, five out of eight relationships were found to have a t-value > 1.645, thus significant at the 0.05 level of significance. specifically, ltc-> ret (β = 0.511, t-statistic = 5.310, p < -.000), bi->ret (β = 0.385, t-value = 4.933, p < 0.013) and cm->ret (β = 0.325, t-value = 3.325, p < 0.001) are significantly related with ret. hence, the h2, h4 and h7 hypotheses directly supported ret. similarly, h1 and h5 were also significant and partially supported (see table 6). in addition to the null hypothesis significance tests (e.g., pvalues), the effect sizes provide a measure of practical significance in terms of the magnitude of the effect. besides, this effect size allows direct comparison of two or more quantities. the statistical 48 community has encouraged researchers to report effect size of the predictor constructs, so in this current study f2 for si->bi (0.008) was considered a weak effect size. the predictive relevance, stonegeisser's q2 value for the endogenous constructs ret was 0.384. it was clearly above zero and was above the medium threshold, indicating that exogenous constructs (cm, ltc) have medium predictive relevance for endogenous construct ret. discussion the objective of the current study is to investigate the usability factors that influence retention and continuance intention to use moocs in higher education by learners in selected universities of uttarakhand state in india. five usability factors of the technology acceptance model, namely cl, cm, ltc, si and pu, have been identified to predict mooc retention (ret). using the factor analysis, it was observed that the moderate predictive power (r2 = 0. 0.625), indicating that the five exogenous constructs (cl, rgp, ltc, cm and pe) moderately predicted the intention of retention in moocs. the findings also showed that ltc-> ret (β = 0.511, t-statistic = 5.310), bi->ret (β = 0.385, t-value = 4.933) and cm->ret (β = 0.325, t-value = 3.325) appeared to be strong predictors of ret, while perceived usefulness (pu->ret, β = 0.078, t-value = 1.520)) was not significant to influence in retention in moocs. this finding is similar with daneji (2019), where perceived usefulness was not a significant influence on satisfaction toward moocs (pu → sat, beta = 0.037, p-value = 0.560). however, mouakket (2015) and wu (2017) perceived usefulness related with continuance usage intentions has been found to be a strong and direct determinant in previous studies. the current study found a strong valid proof (table 7, h1) of suggestions and recommendations of previous studies that language may be an important themed issue with mooc design during implementation (liangxing, 2017), (trehan, 2017). recognising the utility of a regional language, swyam has started to provide support for eight indian regional languages in many of its courses (mhrd, 2020). keeping in view the attraction towards the 'credit mobility' feature of mooc, 82 undergraduate and 42 post-graduate courses of non-engineering faculties were available on the swayam platform in the year 2020 (pti, 2021). the h3 hypothesis has proven the success story of credit mobility features. the current study also supports the idea that social influence will have a significant positive influence on the behavioural intention to use moocs (si-> bi, (β) = 0.084(t) = 1.632, (p) = 0.153). it is a similar result of fianu, blewett, ampong & ofori (2018) i.e., (β) = 0.078, (t) = 1.520 p = 0.129 in the previous study. as previously discussed, this study also conducted an interview with five mooc course designers who have successfully developed mooc courses for swyam and the institutional learning management system (lms) and compares their views with the analytical results of the study. finally, this study concluded and recommended that latest trend course, credit mobility and content localization factors can play an impartment role in retention in the moocs. 49 conclusion and future work the purpose of this study was to look into the impact of the mooc experience on student retention. this study sheds light on four potential factors that may affect student retention of moocs, i.e., credit mobility, latest trend course, content localisation, and perceived effectiveness. the governments of india seem to have put their faith in the mooc concept, as shown from recent policy support (mhrd 2016, 2020). moocs as a learning platform have the potential to effectively provide knowledge and information whatever the educational subject learners want or need to learn. however, this potential may be unrealised unless user-friendly mooc design, pedagogy, service, and certification issues are successfully resolved, and sincere localisation efforts are made. however, the geographically limited population of the study also represents a limitation; further work would be needed to examine whether the results observed here generalise to mooc learners in other countries and learning contexts. this study used the convenience sampling method. it would be interesting to investigate further with a random sampling method. figure 2: complied lsi model result of smart pls analysis 50 references adamopoulos, p. (2013). what makes a great mooc? an interdisciplinary analysis of online course student retention. in proceedings of the 34th international conference on information systems (pp. 1-21). icis. aldowah, h., al-samarraie, h. & ghazal, s. (2019). how course, contextual, and technological challenges are associated with instructors’ individual challenges to successfully implement e-learning: a developing country perspective. ieee access, 7, 48792-48806. alraimi, k. m. (2015). understanding the moocs continuance: the role of openness and reputation. computers & education, 80, 28-38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2014.08.006 altalhi, m. (2021). toward a model for acceptance of moocs in higher education: the modified utaut model for saudi arabia. education and information technologies, 26(3), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-020-10317x bagcı, k., & celık, h. e. (2019). examination of factors affecting continuance intention to use web-based distance learning system via structural equation modelling. eurasian journal of educational research, 18, 43-66. https://dx.doi.org/10.14689/ejer.2018.78.3 bagozzi, r. y. (1988). on the evaluation of structural equation models. jams, 16, 74-94. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02723327 bingöl, i̇., kursun, e., & kayaduman, h. (2020). factors for success and course completion in massive open online courses through the lens of participant types. open praxis, 22(2), 223-239. https://dx.doi.org/10.5944/openpraxis.12.2.1067 bouchrika, i. (2020, september 7). 40 lms & elearning statistics: 2019/2020 data, trends & predictions. https://www.guide2research.com/research/lms-elearning-statistics business standard. (2021, july 19). percentage of stem women graduates in india higher compared to us, uk: govt. business standard. https://www.business-standard.com/article/education/percentage-of-stem-womengraduates-in-india-higher-compared-to-us-uk-govt-121071901120_1.html charo reparaz, m. a.-s. (2020). self-regulation of learning and mooc retention. computers in human behavior, 111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2020.106423 chen, j. (2017). motivations and challenges of using massive open online courses by students and instructors. international journal of education & teaching analytics. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2014.05.001 chen, j. c. (2013). opportunities and challenges of moocs: perspectives from asia. (pp. 1-17). fla wlic. chen, j.-t., & hwang, m.-y. (2016). the social influence factors that affect the e-learning behavioral intention and behaviors of civil servants: gender, age, and experience as moderators. journal of civil service, 8(2), 89119. chiappe, a., & castillo, b. (2021). retention in moocs: some key factors. ensaio: avaliação e políticas públicas em educação, 29(110). https://doi.org/10.1590/s0104-40362020002802667 class, c. (2021). languages. www.classcentral.com/languages: https://www.classcentral.com/languages coursera. (2019). 2019's most popular courses. https://www.coursera.org: https://www.coursera.org/collections/popular-courses-2019 daneji, a. a. (2019). the effects of perceived usefulness, confirmation and satisfaction on continuance intention in using massive open online course (mooc). knowledge management & e-learning, 11(2), 201-214. https://doi.org/10.34105/j.kmel.2019.11.010 51 dhawal shah, l. p. (2021). massive list of mooc providers around the world. class central. https://www.classcentral.com/report/mooc-providers-list/ fianu, e., blewett, c., ampong, g., & ofori, k. (2018). factors affecting mooc usage by students in selected ghanaian universities. educations sciences, 70(8). fornell, c., & larcker, d. f. (1981). evaluating structural equation models with unobserved variables and measurement error. journal of marketing research, 18(1), 39-50. https://doi.org/10.1177%2f002224378101800104 gamage, d. i. (2020). moocs lack interactivity and collaborativeness: evaluating mooc platforms. international journal of engineering pedagogy. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijep.v10i2.11886 hair, j., hult, g. t., ringle, c., & sarstedt, m. (2017). a primer on partial least squares structural equation modeling (pls-sem). sage publication,s inc. hair jr., j. b. (2010). multivariate data analysis: a global perspective (7th ed.). pearson education. hair, j. h. (2017). a primer on partial least square structural equation modeling (pls-sem). sage publications, inc. henseler, j. r. (2015). a new criterion for assessing discriminant validity in variance-based structural equation modeling. journal of the academy of marketing science, 43(1), 115-135. hew, k. f. (2014). students’ and instructors’ use of massive open online courses (moocs): motivations and challenges. educational research review, 12, 45-48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2014.05.001 hone, k. s., & said, g. r. (2016). exploring the factors affecting mooc retention: a survey. computers & education, 98, 157-168. hong, s., & kang, m. s. (2011). an international comparison of technology adoption. information & management, 1-8. jairak, k. p. (2009). an acceptance of mobile learning for higher education students in thailand. the internet and management, 17(sp3), 36.1-36.8. https://doi.org/10.3923/ajsr.2017.60.69 joseph, a. m. (2013). integration of massive open online education (mooc) system with in-class room interaction and assessment and accreditation: an extensive report from a pilot study. proceedings of international conference worldcomp, (pp. 103-111). http://worldcomp proceedings.com/proc/p2013/eee3547.pdf khan, i. u. (2018). predicting the acceptance of moocs in a developing country: application of task-technology fit model, social motivation, and self-determination theory. telematics and informatics, 35(4), 964-978. https://doi.org/10.1016/jtele.2017.09.009 kizilcec, f., reich, j., yeomans, m., dann, c., brunskill, e., lopez, g., . . . tingley, d. (2020). scaling up behavioral science interventions in online education. pnas. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1921417117 lai, y. h. (2017). the social influence on the behavioral intention to use mobile electronic medical records. asian conference on intelligent information and database systems. 710, 141-150. springer, cham. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-56660-3_13#citeas liangxing, l. (2017). an empirical analysis of chinese college learners’ obstacles to mooc learning in an english context. english language teaching, 136-150. https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v10n3p136 mhrd. (2020). national education policy 2020. government of india. mohan, m., upadhyaya, p., & pillai, k. (2020). intention and barriers to use moocs: an investigation among the post graduate students in india. education and information technologies, 25, 5017-5031. 52 mouakket, s. (2015). factors influencing continuance intention to use social network sites: the facebook case. computers in human behavior, 53, 102-110. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.06.045. nassuora, a. b. (2012). student acceptance of mobile learning for higher education. american academic & scholarly research journal,, 4, 1-5. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej1268812.pdf nunnally, j. c. (1978). psychometric theory. mcgraw-hill. https://www.google.co.in/books/edition/psychometric_theory_3e/_6r_f3g58jsc?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=f rontcover pant, h. v., lohani, m. c., & pande, j. (2019). descriptive analytics of moocs with ict in respect of developed countries and indian context. international journal of information communication technologies and human development. https://doi.org/10.4018/ijicthd.2019100102 pathak, a., & mishra, s. (2021). an empirical exploration of mooc effectiveness towards participants’ intentionfulfilment and learners’ satisfaction. vision. https://doi.org/10.1177/09722629211054170 peltier, j. d. (2003). virtual communities and the assessment of online marketing education. journal of marketing education, 25(3), 260-276. pti (ed.). (2021, 05 21). use swayam moocs and enable credit transfer in colleges from july: ugc tells universities. indiatvnews. https://www.indiatvnews.com/education/news-ugc-universities-swayam-moocsenable-credit-transfer-in-colleges-from-july-619313 ramayah, t. c. (2018). partial least squares structural equation modeling (pls-sem) using smartpls 3.0: an updated guide and practical guide to statistical analysis (2nd ed.). pearson. ricart, s., villar-navascués, r. a., gil-guirado, s., hernández, m. h., rico-amorós, a. m., & olcina-cantos, j. (2020). could mooc-takers’ behavior discuss the meaning of success-dropout rate? players, auditors, and spectators in a geographical analysis course about natural risks. sustainability. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12124878 roca, j. c. (2006). understanding e-learning continuance intention: an extension of the technology acceptance model. international journal of human-computer studies, 64(6), 683-696. sanchez-gordon, s., luján-mora, s. (2014). web accessibility requirements for massive open online courses. in proceedings of 5th international conference on quality and accessibility of virtual learning, (pp. 529-534). antigua, guatemala. semenova, t. (2020). the role of learners’ motivation in mooc completion. open learning: the journal of open, distance and e-learning. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680513.2020.1766434 sharma, a., ananthan, p. s., & sharma, r. (2019). innovative gen next pedagogy: education model for the modern world of artificial intelligence and beyond. university news, association of indian universities, 57(50), 28-32. http://www.was.org/meetingabstracts/showabstract/153822 shaziya, h., zaheer, r., & kavitha, g. (2015). prediction of students performance in semester exams using a naïve bayes classifier. international journal of innovative research in science, engineering and technology. doi:10.15680/ijirset.2015.0410072 siliezar, j. (2020, july 10). study: interventions to lift completion rates fall flat, but research points way to future inquiry. https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/07/in-intervention-study-moocs-dont-make-the-grade/ snell, s. d. (2017). integrated manufacturing and human resource management: a human capital perspective. academy of management journal, 35(3), 467-504. https://doi.org/10.2307/256484 stratton, c. &. (2016). exploring linguistic diversity of moocs: implications for international development. association for information science and technology. https://doi.org/10.1002/pra2.2016.14505301071 53 trehan, s. s. (2017). critical discussions on the massive open online course (mooc) in india and china. international journal of education and development using information and communication technology, 13, 141-165. https://www.learntechlib.org/p/180647/ venkatesh, v. t. (2011). extending the two-stage information systems continuance model: incorporating utaut predictors and the role of context. information systems journal, 21(6), 527-555. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.13652575.2011.00373.x venkatesh, v. t. (2012). consumer acceptance and use of information technology extending the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology. mis quarterly, 36(1), 157-178. https://doi.org/10.2307/41410412. venkatesh, v. t., morris, m. g., davis, g. b., & davis, f. d. (2003). user acceptance of information technology: toward a unified view. mis quarterly, 27(3), 425-478. https://doi.org/10.2307/30036540 weng, f., yang, r.-j., ho, h.-j., & su, h.-m. (2018). a tam-based study of the attitude towards use intention of multimedia among school teachers. applied system innovatiion, 1(3), 1-36. wu, b. &. (2017). continuance intention to use moocs: integrating the technology acceptance model (tam) and task technology fit (ttf) model. computers in human behavior, 67, 221-232. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.10.028 yunjo, a., zhu, m., bonk, c. j., & lin, l. (2020). exploring instructors’ perspectives, practices, and perceived support needs and barriers related to the gamification of moocs. journal of computing in higher education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12528-020-09256-w zhou, j. (2017). exploring the factors affecting learners’ continuance intention of moocs for online collaborative learning: an extended ecm perspective. australasian journal of educational technology, 33(5). https://doi.org/10.14742/ajet.2914 authors: harsh vardhan pant is an assistant professor at amrapali institute, haldwani, india and is pursuing a phd in computer science from graphics era hill university, bhimtal campus, india. email: pant.vardhan@gmail.com manoj chandra lohani is a professor and director, graphic era hill university, bhimtal campus, india. email: getmlohani@gmail.com jeetendra pande is an associate professor-computer science at
uttarakhand open university, haldwani, india. email: jpande@uou.ac.in cite this paper as: harsh, h. v., lohani, m. c., & pande, j. (2022). decrypting the learners’ retention factors in massive open online courses. journal of learning for development, 9(1), 37-54. 54 appendix: a table 8: survey questionnaire content localization (cl) (new for this study) cl_1_s1 if your preferred mooc course will be in english language as well as your own language, still i will prefer to enroll in english language. cl_2_s1 using the localisation of content in my mooc course can be useful to improve my study performance. cl_3_s1 translation skill is no longer the key differentiator in the various educational learning platforms available in the localisation field. cl_4_s1 when people are taught in their native language, they learn, comprehend, and retain information better than when they are taught in a foreign language. cl_5_s2 language is one of the main barriers in participating in moocs platform, particularly by participants of other languages, as most of the contents are available in english only. cl_6_s2 a discussion forum feature of moocs can be more useful and vibrant if it could be discussed in the localized language. credit mobility (cm) (new for this study) cm_1_s2 credit mobility was very helpful for completion my course. cm_2_s1 i will like credit transfer policy with more credit percentage if these are integrated in the academic curriculums. cm_3_s1 i felt credit mobility would give me a competitive edge and improve my employability. cm_4_s1 i felt, integration of online courses with the traditional system of education and allowing credit mobility is the way forward for education. social influence (si) [26] si_1_s1 people who are well-wishers to me think i should do moocs courses. si_2_s1 persons who influence and assist me in my career think i should do moocs courses si_3_s1 people whose opinion i value believe i should get moocs credit impact on e learning in latest trend course (ltc) (new for this study) ltc_1_s1 the latest trend course will have a significant positive effect on the perceived usefulness. ltc_2_s1 i have joined the course, because it is in trend and high demand in the market. ltc_3_s1 i have completed and retain this course due to high demand in the market. learner retention (ret) (hone & said, 2016) ret_1_s2 did you complete the mooc to earn a credential signifying official completion? (yes/no). if no, when did you drop out? (first few days, the first few weeks, towards the middle, towards the end/just before the end) ret_2_s2 how many exercises/assessments did you complete in the mooc? (all, most, around half, a few, none) ret_3_s2 how much of the mooc content do you estimate you watched or read? (all, most, around half, some, none) perceived usefulness (pu) (juan carlos roca, 2006) pu_1_s2 using the study material of moocs enhances the learning performance. pu _2_s2 using the mooc platform can increase my study effectiveness. pu_3_s2 i think the mooc learning platform is useful to upgrade me in career. bi_1_s2 using mooc materials in i had felt to enhance learning interest. behavioural intention (bi) bi_2_s2 i increase the occurrences of using mooc materials when i join the discussion forum in mooc platform. bi_3_s2 i intend to use mooc courses that have used content localization. (weng, yang, ho, & su, 2018) bi_4_s2 i have committed myself to submit the assignment on the due date. bi_5_s2 i would recommend to use the e-learning platform/moocs platform for my friends. microsoft word uzorka.docx issn: 2311-1550 2021, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 111-128 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. faculty members’ communication needs with regards to technology afram uzorka kampala international university, uganda abstract: educators are interested in the impact of technology on education and are supported by regulatory bodies promoting technology standards, recruiters seeking teachers with technology skills, legislated technology in the curriculum, and a demand for a technology skilled workforce. in response to the interest in technology in education, and faculty members incorporating technology in their work, this study was launched to investigate the communication needs of faculty members. this qualitative study selected a convenience sample of 120 faculty and administrators. using an interview guide, interviewers met with 100 participants. data was transcribed and entered into a database for analysis. findings reported were about technology in communication. concluding statements report that participants use technology in their communication. faculty members look to early enablers to share best technology practices. keywords: communication, faculty members, technology, e-mail. introduction as technologies converge with the field of education, it becomes increasingly apparent that academic educators need to become conversant with the application of technologies in their communications to support both their discipline, and pre-service and in-service teachers. whether technology is used to increase opportunity for interaction and problem solving in the traditional classroom or in a distance delivered course, it is only when the technology becomes transparent that the physical distance between teachers and learners becomes insignificant. rob values the ability of the educators to use technologies to not only reach out to learners and broaden their resources, but to simultaneously enhance their own quality of teaching and learning (rob, 2012). working with technologies working with technologies involves tools, techniques and processes (bates, 2019). bates’ description of technology, based on reviews in the field and extensive consultations with stakeholders, is adopted for this study. within this study "technology" refers to different pieces of equipment or tools such as electronic computers and calculators. technology refers to the techniques or ways technologies are used or manipulated. technology also refers to the purpose, use or application of the technology (bates, 2019). as the study progressed, it became clear to the researchers that most, if not all participants were familiar with the term "technology," and this study's reference to bates’ description of technology as a tool, technique or process was upheld. andragogy, constructivism technology can be used for communication, in research, and in teaching and learning. to support interaction, relevant content, and problem solving using technologies, attention is drawn to the 112 principles of andragogy and pedagogy. educators working with adults can use technologies as tools to support critical thinking, interaction, and independent learning that are integral to the theories of andragogy and constructivism (lane, 1996; nedungadi et al, 2020). principles of andragogy include the need for facilitated learning in a learner-centered environment with regard for individuals and their learning styles, relevant and applicable content, interaction, task-oriented exercises and opportunities for self-directed learning without loss of academic rigor. these principles of andragogy are recognised as key to constructivism (boettcher, 2007; niazi & bakhtiarvand, 2020). educators use constructivist principles to teach critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration and communication, and learners use constructivist principles when they apply their learning to their personal experiences and prior knowledge and when they learn to do for themselves (crawford, 1998; kálmán et al, 2020; university of missouri-columbia, 2020). andragogy and constructivism are strikingly similar in that they both promote relevance of content, participation of learners in the design and implementation stages of a course, self – directedness, facilitated learning and the linking of resources to learners, reflection on experience and knowledge, and collaboration or interaction between instructors and learners and among peers to support problem solving and critical thinking. educators need to learn to work with teams and use the technologies as vehicles for andragogy and constructivist principles to promote communication, interaction, and self-directed learning. systems view: working together to use technology when learning about and using technologies, educators rely on the skills and expertise of many specialists to plan, develop and implement courses and work with the learners. educators rely on the expertise and support of specialists to provide student, technical, media, instructional, audio, video, or administrative support in an inter-related and interdependent system (karen et al, 2007; knowlton & nelson, 2002; hattan & lupo, 2020). moore, supporting a systems view, challenges educators to move from perceiving instruction as individual work to seeing it as work with a team of specialists — "media specialists, knowledge specialists, instructional-design specialists, and learning specialists" (moore, 1993, p. 4). a systems view is important for educators to consider because all components are inter-related and interdependent and one change can have rippling effects (moore & kearsley, 1997; reyna, 2019), thus, communication skills become critical. from a comprehensive review of the literature, thach & murphy report that educators using technologies require planning, communication and collaboration skills as they work with teams and support groups to develop and implement successful programs (thach & murphy, 1994). successful integration of educational technology demands professional development, infrastructure and methodology changes, and stakeholder involvement, as well as a partnering process that encourages planning for coordination and teamwork (banathy, 1995; ellsworth, 1997; cobos & ruizgarcia, 2020). a team approach is necessary in the instructional design and delivery of technologymediated courses (bates, 2006; maldonado et al, 2018; phuong, foster & reio, 2020). learning and creating a technology-mediated course requires many different kinds of skills and experience from instructional designers, writers, media specialists, producers, technicians and support systems. knowlton and nelson identify design specialists, support people and colleagues that come together in a professional development environment to design "technology-based solutions" (knowlton & 113 nelson, 2002, p. 1); maloy and perry reveal a need for instructors to work in an interdisciplinary environment (maloy & perry, 1991); hardy and olcott warn instructors of the movement from an autonomy individual (independent) teaching environment to a team approach (hardy & olcott, 1995); and thach and murphy challenge everyone involved in distance education to be ready for collaboration, yet to respect individual, group and institutional integrity (thach & murphy, 1994). with an interest in the dynamics of small groups, bennis states that "none of us is as smart as all of us" (bennis, 1997, p. 35) and that we need facilitators or facilitation skills to help us work together to be more productive. although our communication skills are aided and abetted by technologies such as e-mail, we still need to have empowerment or participative management skills to work with groups (bennis, 1997). recognizing that no one knows all of the interesting uses or possibilities of integrating fast-changing technologies with instruction, knowlton and nelson, and bates suggest educators need to learn to work with teams to develop and deliver a quality learning product and an environment to facilitate higher-order thinking (bates,2006; knowlton & nelson, 2002). problem statement and research questions the accelerated development of technologies and its application to the field of education prompted olcott and wright to present an institutional framework to remind us that we need to renew our commitment to our most important resource — our faculty (olcott & wright, 1995). as a commitment to our most important resource, the purpose of this study was to investigate the communication needs of faculty members with regard to technologies. through the following research question, the study investigated the perceived communication needs of faculty members moving from a traditional to a technology mediated learning environment: • what do faculty members need in order to make technology an integral part of their communication process to enhance delivery of instruction, and to facilitate development of knowledge, skills and abilities? significance of the study as jonatan et al (2018) contend that little research is available on how faculty members want to participate in professional development opportunities regarding technologies integration in their communication process, this study was significant because its findings provided the basis for understanding the basic needs of faculty members and issues integral to the process of integrating technologies in their communication. this study also impacted groups of people who received information from the study to inform policy and administrative procedures with regard to integrating technology in the communication process of faculty members to enhance delivery of instruction and to facilitate development of knowledge, skills and abilities. literature review technologies are integrated into business, industry and education and are rapidly changing the way we learn, work, live and think. as technologies open up advanced avenues of communication, and new opportunities for interaction, critical thinking, problem solving and access to resources worldwide, educators need to prepare to explore the resultant impact on their role (snart, carbonaro & goodale, 2001; isa & julia, 2020). 114 collaboration and interaction among students, and between students and the instructor are vital links to constructivism and this "need for interaction is so well documented that it is practically a given" (hillman & gunawardena, 1994 as cited in siantz & pugh, 1997, p. 2; rogers, 2000). if a critical predictor of learners' motivation or intention to persist is instructor-learner interaction and if a critical predictor of learners' satisfaction in courses is learners' perception of interaction, then educators using the technologies need the skill to facilitate interaction. the results of pearson’s study that a significant relationship exists between learners' intention to persist and learner-instructor interaction has implications for instructors (pearson, 2004). it is a strong indicator that interaction strategies need to be implemented to positively influence motivation of learners. from a survey of current practitioners, kochery (1997) reports the most frequently mentioned training need was for help with facilitating interaction and feedback during interactive television courses. fulford and zhang's theory of cognitive speed helps explain this phenomenon (fulford & zhang, 1993). if people speak at 125-150 words per minute and the mind can process information at twice that rate, then listeners only need to use half their capacity to comprehend. using their remaining capacity, listeners are open to outside distractions and internal conversations or "renegade thought patterns." fulford & zhang's cognitive theory is important for educators to consider when working with learners in a virtual classroom. educators need to engage learners (listeners) by involving them in conversations and discussions with the instructor and among other learners and with the content, and by using a variety of hands-on, audio, and visual activities. although the findings in fulford & zhang's study provides strong evidence to support the need for two-way communication for learners' motivation and satisfaction, they note that this is not always possible. they ask what happens in learning experiences where it is impossible for all learners to interact because of variables such as the class sise, time, technology, content, or type of presentation. fulford & zhang reference the findings of kruh & murphy (1990) and yarkin (1983) for answers. the findings suggest that it is the learners' perception of interaction that correlates to satisfaction. the perception of ''vicarious interaction" is the interaction that happens internally and silently, where learners respond to questions, agree with answers, and ponder experiences to themselves. yarkin provides yet another key anticipated interaction linked to positive attitudes and recall of facts. when questions and encouragement to answer are thrown around like a ball, learners remain alert because they are not sure where the ball will land. to encourage interaction, willis suggests the use of advance organisers; practice sessions using the technologies, electronic journals for feedback, open office hours, management of discussions, and use of on-site facilitators as the instructor's eyes and ears (willis, 1995). willis encourages the use of technologies to provide feedback because learners are motivated to continue with the course if they have frequent contact with the instructor (willis, 1995). anderson and garrison challenge educators to participate in professional development to learn to implement learning activities that will take advantage of the interactive potential of the technologies. success of technology-mediated instruction such as teleconferencing and computer conferencing is dependent on teachers' ability to manage discussions and help learners create knowledge through interaction and critical thinking (anderson & garrison, 1995). methods the qualitative research method used in this study is outlined under the following subsections; design, participants, and procedures. the method is described in sufficient detail to demonstrate 115 how the qualitative method was conducive to the search questions and to the study, and to provide steps for conducting the research of value to the reader to follow and for other researchers to use for replication. details of the method are included to convey how the research was conducted, how the process adhered to professional guidelines, and how the research design met the goals of the study. cognizant of the need for dependability or ability for others to replicate or adapt the study under similar conditions, documentation of the design, sampling, interview, interview guide, transcribing, and analysis processes are included. design this study utilised a qualitative research design. the qualitative research design was selected as it was considered well suited to the problem or phenomenon under study, and the intended audience. the purpose of this study, to probe for deeper understanding of the communication needs of faculty members using technologies, made use of the strengths of qualitative methods to seek illumination, understanding and extrapolation to similar situations. johnson supported the qualitative research method for educators to "probe for deeper understanding rather than examining surface features" of factors that support learning and teaching (johnson, 1995, p. 2). similarly, armstrong (1998) selected a qualitative method including interviews to investigate and explore influences that motivate faculty to incorporate technology with their instruction. armstrong indicated that a qualitative method sought to gain a richer understanding of the experiences of faculty members, thus, contributing to a body of literature that is weak in linkages between faculty members as adult learners and their professional development with regard to technology. a qualitative method was also recommended for technology related studies: to investigate the adoption or integration of technologies in education (norum, 1997; pedretti & woodrow, 1999; strickland et al, 2020; martin & christopher, 2020). a qualitative approach was selected by the researcher because the method fit the purpose of the research questions, and because the method was supported by research in the field of education, in technology, and by researchers involved in similar studies. the use of interviews in the qualitative approach was considered as the study involved technologies that are diverse and continuously evolving. during the data collection process, the interviewer could use examples and probing questions to communicate the need for participants to respond about the use of technologies in their own work, not necessarily the use of computers. the technical vocabulary could be explained, examples could be given for clarification, and questions could be answered by the interviewer. the interviewer could observe and perceive if the participants understood the technology questions or were in need of clarification, and the interviewer could ask for a clarification of responses. the interviewer could strive to make the participants feel comfortable in responding to open questions to provide additional information and issues of value or of concern to them — responses the data collection designers and interviewers could not have elicited as they would not have known what questions to ask. interviews were also deemed appropriate as it was estimated that it would be more time effective for participants to verbally respond than to compose written answers. interviews as a means to collect data from participants were proposed. interview method the interview method was selected to capture an in-depth view from participants at a specific point in time in this study. the interview method was supported by hoepfl (1997) and denham and onwuegbuzie (2013), as a communication tool whereby interviewers could perceive non-verbal cues, 116 focus on research questions, ask for clarification, and yet allow participants opportunity to expand on their responses. for the interview, an interview guide was developed. in addition to using the literature review to investigate and explore existing work and issues in the topic area, the literature review was also used as a source of data to help determine interview questions. the interview guide was also based on input from three faculty members who were familiar with people and technology within the faculty. an interview beta test or pre-test was established to give the interviewers opportunity for practice interviewing, to test the interview guide, and to test the interview process. the beta-test participants were selected if they had similar responsibilities and background to the sampling group but who would not be involved in the study. part of the beta-test process was the opportunity for interviewers to revise the interview guide. the beta test lent itself to the question of credibility or the ability of the interview process to gain the perspectives of the participants. the beta test provided opportunity for edits, and revisions to the interview guide and interview process. the researcher and interviewers met periodically during the interview process to ascertain if the interview process and interview guide needed refining or were remaining a process to measure what it was purported to measure. no major revisions were necessary as the interview guide and interview process gathered the information it was intended to gather. selection of participants convenience sampling was used to select participants deemed by the researcher to be available and accessible and the most likely to provide the best information critical to the research topic, and representative of other faculties of education. the invitation to participate was sent to all 120 members and administrators involved with the faculty of education from one university at the time of the study. this non-random procedure was best described as a convenience sample. although convenience sampling can be limited to the perceptions of the participants, inviting all faculty members and administrators provided maximum variation and breadth across departments, subject areas, skills, fields of expertise, and positions. procedure interviews interviews were scheduled over a three-month time span to avoid changes in data and circumstances over time, to schedule the greatest number of participants with the least number of interviewers, and to allow for participants' previous commitments. the interviews were conducted over fourteen days during visits to the campus in november 2019, december 2019, and january 2020. each participant signed a consent form prior to beginning the interview. the interviews were semi-structured, using an interview guide and open-ended questions to explore the participants’ experience in using technology in research. in each interview, i adapted the questions based on how the participants responded to the open-ended questions. i also asked follow-up questions that were prompted by the information the participants shared. the interview was conducted individually, one participant at a time. all of the interviews took place in the participants' offices or a departmental meeting room on campus. most of the interviews were between 40 and 60 minutes, with only three lasting less than 35 minutes. with permission, all interviews were recorded. 117 the interview guide was developed based on the literature and input of the interviewers, and edits from the beta test. the interview guide was used to assist with the gathering of comprehensive information into the same topics for each participant, to keep the interview focused, and to make good use of both the interviewer and participant's time. the interview guide included topics of technology in research, and demographics. open-ended questions for comments were combined with each topic, and a final open-ended question at the end of the interview was included to ask participants if there was anything that was not included in the interview that they would like add. opportunity was made for participants to add comments or concerns of their choice. the interview guide was not intended to restrict the participants’ input but as booth and williams (1995), de (2020), and ramdial (2020), recognise, it was intended for the interviewer to be prepared and consistent. an application for ethical review was submitted to the university and approval was granted before the study was launched. a request was made to the office of the dean of education to gain access to the population. the dean of the faculty chose to describe the study to faculty members and administrators through an announcement letter. a typed invitation from the researcher was then sent through the mail to each invitee requesting volunteer participation in the study. the invitation outlined details of the study and included a release form. the interviewers contacted invitees by mail, telephone and through personal encounters to arrange personal interviews. interviews were conducted in the participant's office or area suggested by the participant as conducive to the interview. the invitation indicated the purpose of the study, information about the interviewers, anticipated time required, need for a signed release to participate in the study, ethical considerations, security and use of recording devices and transcription. the invitation doubled as a release form. before the interview began, participants were asked to sign the invitation/release form confirming that they understood the ethics, security, confidentiality, hazards, ownership, use of recorders and transcription services, use of data, and voluntary right of refusal and withdrawal. with a signed release form and verbal permission to use a tape recorder, the interview began. ethics were observed, permission from participants was obtained, and confidentiality in the data was considered by assigning numbers rather than names. interviewers wrote their own notes on the interview guide, used the guide to track questions answered, and to track topics or questions the interviewer might have wanted to return to or focus on. hoepfl (1997) and avidov (2020) support the use of a recorder as an indispensable tool to capture data, and the least intrusive tool to allow the interviewer to focus on the interview rather than on note taking. the recorded data were then compiled for transcription and analysis. database cognizant of the need for dependability or ability for others to replicate this study under similar conditions, the analysis process was documented. in preparation for analysis, the tapes of the interviews were transcribed and information from interview notes was added. a coding system was developed to organise the data by fields or categories, and, important to confidentiality, the names of the participants were replaced with numbers. to promote credibility of the analysis, the researcher developed an electronic database to record interview data. the interviewers met to review preliminary fields or categories, and revisions were made as necessary to the database structure. to prepare for analysis, each set of interview data was entered as a record into the database. 118 analysis analysis began and continued during data collection, using a qualitative content analysis approach, with the goal of allowing patterns to emerge as the research progressed (williams et al, 2014). qualitative content analysis involves a systemic coding of the data to identify themes or patterns. i began the analysis during transcription of the interviews. transcribing each interview myself allowed me to review and reflect on the interviews before beginning the formal coding. i created the transcripts within nvivo software, which allowed me to synchronise them with the audio files. this meant that i could easily review the audio as i was reviewing the transcripts if i wanted to verify tone or content. my initial coding focused on what was said. i coded the transcripts and documents for the topics that were mentioned, adding codes as new topics appeared. this initial coding was intended to help me identify topics that appeared repeatedly. then, i examined how each source addressed those common topics to identify similarities and differences. findings were reported using direct quotations, tables and figures for reference. sufficient information was provided for the reader to determine if the findings were applicable to other situations or as a guide to the future. findings the study investigated the participants' perceived communication needs with regard to technology. the participants were from the population of the entire faculty and administrators of the faculty of education from one university. from the 120 invited faculty members and administrators representing all departments within the faculty of education, 42 female and 58 male invitees participated. of the 20 who did not participate, two suggested a conflict of interest, six were out of the city or on sabbatical, and 12 either said no or did not respond. after signing a release form that outlined the ethical and confidentiality procedures and right to refrain from participation, the 100 participants were interviewed. the 100 participants reported on their use of technology in their work, and their needs and concerns with integrating technology into their communication. interviews were audiotaped and transcribed and combined with interviewer field notes for each participant. transcripts of data were analysed and emerging categories were established. entries cut from transcripts and pasted into the database included a variety of short answers, keywords and enough data from transcripts to understand the entry in context. queries to the database were established, and reports were run and analysed. within each category or field in the database, each faculty member participant (participant) in the study was assigned a database number to maintain confidentiality of names. when the findings reference a participant or participant's comments, the database number is recorded in parentheses. each table within the topics is preceded by a description of the comments. when quotes from participants are used, they are used as clarification. when participants were asked about communication, their major focus was on the computer and email as a communication tool. all participants (100%) talked about e-mail. participants also mentioned the telephone or cell phone (16%), voice mail (15%), fax (8%), websites (7%), text telephone system for deaf or hard of hearing people (tty) (1%), electronic meeting makers (1%), video/audio conferencing (2%), and the need for face-toface meetings (8%). participants were asked to think about the use they presently make of technology in communication with students regarding non-course related activities, with administrative staff, with students 119 regarding course related activities, with graduate students, and with colleagues or professional contacts. participants were asked if they have, at least once, used an electronic file transfer process. participants were also invited to contribute additional comments. general communication participants are using e-mail. as indicated in table 1, participants are using e-mail for general communication. of the 100 participants interviewed, almost all of the participants (92%) indicated they use e-mail to communicate with students for non-course related activities, and all participants (100%) indicated they used e-mail to communicate regarding administration. most participants (94%) indicated they have used an attachment or file transfer process at least once. as indicated in table 1, participants are using e-mail for communication regarding course related activities. of the 100 participants interviewed, a high number (91%) indicated they used e-mail to communicate with students for course related activities, and most participants (94%) used e-mail to communicate with graduate students. as indicated in table 1, all participants are using e-mail to communicate with colleagues or professional contacts. participants are using e-mail in their general communication, in their communication with undergraduate and graduate students, and with regard to their research and areas of interest. table 1: general use of technology as a communication tool n = 100 participants using technology to communicate 92 100 94 91 94 100 students regarding non-course related activities administrative staff attachment or file transfer process course related activities graduate students colleagues and professional contacts technology to communicate — non-course related activities most participants (92%) used e-mail to communicate with students regarding non-course related activities. as noted in table 2, technology has changed the way faculty communicates. the number of e-mail requests for information has increased, the time it takes to answer e-mail is continuously increasing, and people are demanding immediate responses. participants notes that their e-mail addresses are being obtained from a variety of sources such as university websites, from their publications, from the literature, and from other colleagues worldwide. as noted in table 2, participants are responding to inquiries from students all over the world, including former students, prospective students and students from other colleges and universities. participants are responding to requests for information about their area of expertise and research, requests to preview students’ resumes, proposals and research, and to requests for letters of reference, interview tips and information about career or educational opportunities. many requests are received for information about the university, programs and courses. participants noted that they provided marketing through e-mail responses. "we get e-mails like crazy, requesting information" (database participant #50) and “students are shopping for universities, searching for program descriptions, and 120 making decisions on what they see on our website, and from our responses" (61). although technology has increased the volume of communications that, in tum, places a stronger demand on participants' time and commitment to immediate replies, most participants (92%) recognise the importance of communicating and are striving to respond, however, to meet the challenge of electronic requests, and participants suggest administration could assume more responsibility for making information available. participants suggest they need a repository of drafts, templates, forms and marketing data to draw information from for their responses, and a website to communicate from the faculty or department to the many inquiries from prospective or interested students who have internet access (50, 30, 61, 65). table 2: communication for non course related activities — (92%) advantages concerns communicate with former and prospective students, local and international (3) (17). give interview tips (71). provide social, program inquiries (18). review resumes, reference letters (16) (8). get e-mails like crazy requesting information. everyone gets bombarded (50). people expect a very rapid response (23). need website one to many (61). information in a central placeserver (30). register and advise students online (65). opens up communication that might have died (former students}-changed nature of interaction (17). technology to communicate with administration in addition to seeing administration as a resource for information to communicate with former and prospective students, participants also note that e-mail is their direct connection with administration. "e-mail and list serves are our internal network" (65). all participants (100%) use e-mail in their communication regarding administration. as noted in table 3, participants see the advantages of e-mail and list serves to communicate with administration and they also see disadvantages. some participants critique e-mail as a push of information from administration rather than a pull of information from the participant on a need basis. participants suggest that written and signed communications get better attention, face-to-face meetings are better for understanding, the sheer amount of e-mail is taxing and time consuming to weed through, and it is often faster and more efficient to speak on the telephone or in person rather than type e-mail messages. however, participants recognise the strength of e-mail and list serves, commenting that it is good to receive announcements on time that they might otherwise miss out on, that it is a written and recorded message and a replacement of memos, that it provides access to shared data and that it is a help to prepare proposals and grants. all of the participants are using e-mail as a communication tool to networks within and among departments, their faculty, other faculties, central administration, graduate studies or support services. 121 table 3: communication with administration (100%) advantages concerns need to read because of the 5% nuggets from lists that is valued information (2). prefer e-mail for record of what was sent (25, 63). e-mail replaces memos (15). department, faculty, graduate studies get information when it is fresh and current, don't have to wait (4). formally written and signed correspondence gets better attention (2). for decision making, one-onone, face-to-face is best (20) telephone effective (10) technology to communicate with undergraduates — course related activities in addition to communicating electronically for non-course related information and with administration, participants are also using e-mail to communicate with students enrolled in their courses. almost all of the participants (91%) are using e-mail to communicate with students regarding course related activities. as noted in table 4, comments suggest students have limited access to computers and e-mail. although one participant indicates limiting availability of time online and limiting turnaround time for responses, another participant indicates being wired and available 24 hours every day, 7 days a week. one comment indicates a concern about confidentiality of e-mail addresses, and another believes it is public information. regardless of concerns, most participants (91 %) are distributing their own e-mail addresses and using e-mail to communicate with students regarding course related activities. table 4: communication for course related activities (91%) advantages concerns e-mail addresses for students that is public information as far as i am concerned (3). i am wired for them wherever they are, 24 hours a day (23) almost 100% have access to e-mail (12). legalities need to be worked out (61). time: yes, get back to them within a day (70) undergrads typically do not use e-mail or telephone to communicate with me, many do not have access to internet (2). technology to communicate with graduates – course/supervisory related activities in addition to communicating with undergraduate students regarding course related activities, most participants (94%) are also communicating with graduate students. as noted in table 5, participants who are teaching classes or supervising find the use of technology valuable to maintain contact with and distribute information to graduate students. participants are communicating with graduate students through e-mail, although many prefer face-to-face conversations when possible. "yes, grad students i supervise, i use e-mail quite a lot, for the lower level communication, but usually require face-to-face with graduate students for meatier aspects" (3). however, with so few students in residence, participants are finding e-mail an essential tool to stay connected to graduate students, to guide them in their courses, in their program and in their research. 122 table 5: communication with graduates (94%) advantages concerns constant contact with those doing thesis, projects, papers, easy for them to e-mail (4). always, for supervision, their work, anxiety attacks, finding work (8). so few are in residence, and those who are in residence will be home (28). yes. e-mail to make appointments but old fashioned come in and meet with me (18). face-to-face with graduates for meatier aspects (3). technology to communicate with colleagues and professional contacts all participants (100%) indicate they are using e-mail to communicate with colleagues and professional contacts. as noted in table 6, participants are communicating with colleagues and professional contacts within and among departments or faculties on campus, with a network of scholars throughout the world, and with organizations, colleges and other universities worldwide. participants suggest that e-mail is a great tool to establish rapport and build relationships with the people they meet personally, at face-to-face at meetings or conferences. although working globally opens up the need for language translation systems and although it is time consuming to filter through the mail and correspond with so many colleagues, all participants are using e-mail locally, nationally or internationally. participants identify e-mail as an easy-to-use tool that is key to effective and timely communication with professional contacts and colleagues in their field or area of expertise worldwide. "it is the most meaningful, professional contacts in my area of interest internationally, made possible through e-mail" (8). when communicating with colleagues, participants also note that they need to use a file transfer process to share data. table 6: communication with colleagues and professional contacts (100%) advantages concerns big improvement to communicate with other faculties (2). get information when it is fresh and current, continue networking started face-to-face at conferences (4). discover contacts at conferences or through literature, then build relationships through e-mail (8). most meaningful professional contacts in my area of interest internationally made possible through e-mail (8). communicate with researchers across the country (40, 13). however, a second language is a problem, need translation systems to be rapid and efficient (10). saves time but creates need for incredible amount of time (17). technology to communicate — attachments or file transfer process when asked about the process of file transfer, the majority of participants (94%) indicate they have used electronic file transfer at least once. as indicated in table 7, some participants have experienced difficulty with attachments or file transfer, are seeking further training, or are fluent with the process. concerns include hardware or software compatibility problems, lack of information about type of attachment or download, threat of viruses arriving with attachments, and lack of skill or knowledge of the function. however, participants indicate a need for further training in the area as they recognise the growing need for transferring files to and from students or administration, for collaborative writing and research, for board reviews, submission of articles, and submission of keynote speeches. 123 table 7: file transfer process (94%) advantages concerns write collaboratively (4). board reviews, articles, chapters or sections (63). virus alert (19). almost illiterate in this field (29). once in a blue moon (69). table 8: communication — other comments e-mail advantages e-mail concerns i could not get by without a computer – need to send in electronic even keynote speech. good for written record, but what about storage (15). yes e-mail i live by in all respects, very important. e-mail is like a conversation (38). i can get to my mail from anywhere in the world (77). takes 60 seconds to view and decide to delete or not (2). 20-30 messages waiting... spend a lot of the day dealing with e-mail (3). can't ignore the messages...can be horrendous (12). here is a recent proposal could you read it please ... and taking me a half a day to answer properly, and i haven't the time to do it, it's really a big pain (13). people expect a very rapid response (23). summary although participants recognise the drawbacks of e-mail, participants are using e-mail to communicate. participants are communicating regarding non-course related activities such as maintaining relationships with former students, providing research information to students and marketing information for new students — students from the campus or from anywhere else. participants are communicating with administration to both send and receive information regarding the administration of the department, faculty or university for students, or for their own professional development. participants who are teaching are using e-mail to communicate with the undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in their classes. participants are also using e-mail to continuously communicate with graduate students they supervise and colleagues worldwide. time spent communicating through e-mail has "significantly changed part of academic life" (12). as noted in table 8, e-mail is time consuming, often taking several hours a day to filter through incoming mail. it is also time consuming to compose responses especially if responses deserve research or thoughtful replies, or if there is a lack of keyboarding skills. the large number of e-mail messages sent and received also poses a problem of storage or archiving and retrieval. the participants note that e-mail has escalated a demand for responses — e-mail senders expect an immediate action or response within hours of a message no matter what time of day or what day of year the message is sent. however, as noted in table 8, participants also identified strengths of e-mail as "liberating for the deaf or hard-of-hearing people," (2) more like a conversation than a formal memo (38), a natural paper trail, and an excellent tool for information exchanges. participants have discovered a new world, using e-mail to communicate without leaving their desks. e-mail can be accessible from participants' local offices or from anywhere in the world a web browser connection is available (77). as technology opens up communication to and from students, participants are recognizing the potential to use technologies in their teaching and learning strategies. 124 conclusion based on the findings of this study investigating the communication needs of faculty members with regard to technology, the following conclusions emerged. 1. faculty are using technology, specifically e-mail, to communicate with administrators (100%), colleagues (100%), students (91%), and graduates (94%), and with other people outside of the university regarding non-course related activities (92%). 2. as faculty are using e-mail, and as faculty need information to learn about best practices, new technologies, and professional development opportunities, e-mail becomes a viable communication tool to meet their needs. recommendations recommendations for practice the following practical recommendations are offered for consideration: • faculty members indicate they communicate electronically with administration, students, and colleagues with common interests worldwide, without leaving their computers. faculty members also indicate that they are less dependent on hallway help with computer applications, and they can now print from within their offices and work from home. however, academic members need to devise ways to purposefully gather to share ideas and best technology practices to lead the way in education and technology. • faculty members indicate that the success of professional development regarding technologies is based on hearing about or seeing technologies from the media or early adapters, on support from academic leaders and administrators, on a network of contacts or registries of specialists, and, ultimately, on the infrastructure group that technically supports it all. based on the need for faculty to communicate within this interdependent system, the implementation of multicommunication strategies in the department, faculty and the university is recommended to keep people connected. multi-communication strategies could include electronic connections such as e-mail links to department / faculty / university newsletters, minutes of meetings or user groups, and the use of project, course, and department websites. colleagues could be invited as online guests in courses. summaries, pictures, and examples of faculty using technology could be featured, technology articles and magazines could be circulated, services available could be communicated continuously, and a buddy system or mentor opportunity to work with colleagues using technology could be established. new faculty could also be introduced to other faculty using technology, conversely, new faculty with experience with technology could share their ideas. recommendations for further research after analysing the data and themes emerging, and after further reading and research, the following recommendations are offered for further research. 125 1. replication of this study is recommended in other contexts, such as with other faculties of education, as other universities might serve a more geographically scattered population, or might be combined with a college with less focus on research, or a university that focuses on distance delivery. replication of this study is also recommended for other disciplines to learn how others apply technology in their communication and develop professional development initiatives. 2. ongoing studies are suggested to reveal how technologies are being used by administrators, faculty members, students at the university, student teachers, teachers, and students. ongoing studies to reveal how others are using technologies will help individuals realise how much they know and how much ''they don't know what they don't know" (74). references anderson, t., & garrison, d. r. (1995). transactional issues in distance education: the impact of design in audio teleconferencing. the american journal of distance education, 9(2), 27-45. armstrong, r. d. (1998). faculty strategies for learning to teach at a distance. (unpublished doctoral dissertation). university of wisconsin. avidov-ungar, o. (2020). the professional learning expectations of teachers in different professional development periods. professional development in education. doi:10.1080/19415257.2020.1763435 banathy, b. (1995). developing a systems view of education. educational technology, 35(3), 53-57. bates, a. w. (tony) (2019). teaching in a digital age (2nd ed.). https://teachonline.ca/ bates, a. w. (tony) (2006). the impact of technological change on open and distance learning. presented at queensland open learning network, brisbane, queensland, australia. https://doi.org/10.1080/0158791970180108 bennis, w. (1997). an interview with warren bennis. https://www.strategy-business.com/article/18276?gko=0e7a4 boettcher, j. (2007). ten core principles for designing effective learning environments: insights from brain research and pedagogical theory. innovate: journal of online education, 3(3), article 2. https://nsuworks.nova.edu/innovate/vol3/iss3/2 booth, w. c., colomb, g. g., & williams, j. m. (1995). the craft of research. the university of chicago press, 85146. cobos, r., & ruiz-garcia, j. c. (2020). improving learner engagement in moocs using a learning intervention system: a research study in engineering education. computer applications in engineering education. https://doi.org/10.1002/cae.22316 crawford, r. (1998). teaching and learning it in english state secondary schools— towards a new pedagogy. http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/7540/2/microsoft_word_-_j_ed_it.pdf denham, m. a., & onwuegbuzie, a. j. (2013). beyond words: using nonverbal communication data in research to enhance thick description and interpretation. international journal of qualitative methods. https://doi.org/10.1177/160940691301200137 ellsworth, j. (1997). technology and change for the information age. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ed439702 126 fulford, c., & zhang, s. (1993). perceptions of interaction: the critical predictor in distance education. the american journal of distance education, 7(3), 8-20. hattan, c., & lupo, s. m. (2020). rethinking the role of knowledge in the literacy classroom. reading research quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.350 hillman, d., willis, d., & gunawardena, c. (1994). learner-interface interaction in distance education: an extension of contemporary models and strategies for practitioners. the american journal of distance education, 8(2), 30-42. hoepfl, m. (1997). choosing qualitative research: a primer for technology education researchers. journal of technology education, 9(1) 1-17. isa, j., & julia, l. (2020). three types of integrated course designs for using mobile technologies to support creativity in higher education. computers & education, 146: 103782. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2019.103782 johnson, d. (1995). will our research hold up under scrutiny? journal of industrial teacher education, 32(3), 3-6. jonatan, c., marco k., karel, k., & yves, p. (2018). who is taking moocs for teachers’ professional development on the use of ict? a cross-sectional study from spain. https://doi.org/10.1080/1475939x.2018.1528997 kálmán, o., tynjälä, p., & skaniakos, t. (2020). patterns of university teachers’ approaches to teaching, professional development and perceived departmental cultures. teaching in higher education, 25(5), 595-614. doi:10.1080/13562517.2019.1586667 karen, m. d., catherine, c., & susan, a. (2007). improving classroom instruction: understanding the developmental nature of analyzing primary sources. rmle online, 30(6), 1-20, doi:10.1080/19404476.2007.11462039 knowlton, d., & nelson, w. (2002). faculty development by design. society for information technology and teacher education international conference 2002(1), 666-668. kochery, t. (1997). distance education: a delivery system in need of cooperative learning. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ed409847 kruh, j., & murphy, k. (1990). interaction and teleconferencing: the key to quality instruction. paper presented at the annual rural and small schools conference. manhattan, ks. eric document reproduction service. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ed329418 lane, c. (1996). the role of technology in the systemic reform of education and training. education journal, 8(6), 1-22. maldonado-mahauad j., pérez-sanagustín m., moreno-marcos, p. m., alario-hoyos c., muñoz-merino p. j., & delgado-kloos c. (2018). predicting learners’ success in a self-paced mooc through sequence patterns of self-regulated learning. in v. pammer-schindler, m. pérez-sanagustín, h. drachsler, r. elferink, m. scheffel (eds.), lifelong technology-enhanced learning. ec-tel 2018. lecture notes in computer science, vol 11082. springer, cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98572-5_27 maloy, w., & perry, n. (1991). a navy video teletraining project: lessons learned. the american journal of distance education, 5(3), 40-49. martin, k., & christopher, b. (2020). the professional development needs of beginning and experienced teachers in four municipalities in sweden. professional development in education. doi:10.1080/19415257.2020.1712451 moore, m. (1993). is teaching like flying? a total systems view of distance education. the american journal of distance education, 7(1), 1-10. 127 moore, m., & kearsley, g. (1997). study guide for distance education: a systems view. wadsworth cengage learning. nedungadi, p., devenport, k., sutcliffe, r., & raman, r. (2020). towards a digital learning ecology to address the grand challenge in adult literacy. interactive learning environments. doi:10.1080/10494820.2020.1789668 niazi, m., & bakhtiarvand, m. (2020). a model to improve the quality of e-learning in farhangian university of khuzestan. riels journal, 1. https://doi.org/10.47175/rielsj.v1i3.139 norum, k. (1997). lights, camera, action! the trials and triumphs of using technology in the classroom. journal of technology and teacher education, 5(1). olcott, d., jr., & wright, s. j. (1995). an institutional support framework for increasing faculty participation in postsecondary distance education. the american journal of distance education, 9(3), 5-17. pearson, w. (2004). supporting adult student persistence to the baccalaureate degree. the journal of continuing higher education. doi:10.1080/07377366.2004.10400282 pedretti, e., & woodrow, j. (1999). teaming technology enhanced instruction in the science classroom and teacher professional development. journal of technology and teacher education, 7(2), 1131-143. phuong, t. t., foster, m. j., & reio, jr., t. g. (2020). faculty development: a systematic review of review studies. new horizons in adult education & human resource development, 32(4). https://doi.org/10.1002/nha3.20294 ramdial, s. (2020). professional development for nurse educators. walden dissertations and doctoral studies. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/8644 reyna, j., hanham, j., vlachopoulos, p. et al (2019). a systematic approach to designing, implementing, and evaluating learner-generated digital media (lgdm) assignments and its effect on self-regulation in tertiary science education. research in science education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-019-09885-x rob, k. (2012). selecting online learning technologies: an interview with tony bates. https://www.facultyfocus.com rogers, d. (2000). a paradigm shift: technology integration for higher education in the new millennium. educational technology review, spring/summer, 19-33. siantz, j., & pugh, r. (1997). using interactive video for instruction. indiana university. snart, f., carbonaro, m., & goodale, c. (2001). technology needs of university teachers, classroom teachers, and pre-service teachers: how do we begin? finding the courage to teach in a changing world. western canadian association for student teaching conference, university of calgary, 2001. strickland-davis, s., kosloski, m., & reed, p. a. (2020). the impact of professional development grounded in social learning on community college faculty efficacy. community college journal of research and practice, 44(7), 492-507. doi:10.1080/10668926.2019.1616006 thach, l., & murphy, k. l. (1994). collaboration in distance education: from local to international perspectives. the american journal of distance education, 8(3), 5-21. university of missouri-columbia. (2020, february 24). technology in higher education: learning with it instead of from it. sciencedaily. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/02/200224131123.htm williams, w. j. warner, flowers, j. l., & croom, d. b. (2014). teaching with technology: north carolina agriculture teachers' knowledge acquisition, attitudes, and identified barriers. journal of agricultural education, 55(5), 1-15. doi:10.5032/jae.2014.05001 willis, b. (1995). distance education at a glance. engineering outreach, college of engineering, university of idaho. 128 yarkin-levin, k. (1983). anticipated interaction, attribution, and social interaction. social psychology quarterly, 46(4), 302-311. author: afam uzorka, phd, is a lecturer and research coordinator in the college of education, open and distance learning, kampala international university, uganda. email: afamuzorka@gmail.com cite this paper as: uzorka, a. (2021). faculty members’ communication needs with regards to technology. journal of learning for development, 8(1), 111-128. microsoft word ndibalema.docx issn: 2311-1550 2022, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 436-454 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. assessment of tutors’ level of ict competencies in teaching in teacher education in tanzania elisei emili lubuva1, placidius ndibalema2 and esther mbwambo2 1local government training institute, dodoma, tanzania 2university of dodoma, tanzania abstract: this study assessed tutors’ level of ict competencies and factors that influenced application of ict-pedagogical competencies in teaching in two teachers’ colleges. it adopted the level of ict competencies from the unesco ict-competence framework for teachers. a self-rating questionnaire was used to collect numeric data involving 70 tutors. two focus group interviews involving eight (8) participants in each college among the 70 respondents were used to collect qualitative data. mean scores and independent sample t-test were used to compare respondents’ level of ict competencies. standard multiple regression was used to evaluate the contribution of factors in predicting ict-pedagogical competencies. the findings revealed that knowledge acquisition was high, which signifies confidence in basic ict skills. knowledge deepening was low, which signifies low application of ict-pedagogical competencies in teaching across subjects. regression results revealed that practice had a positive unique influence in predicting tutors’ competencies in knowledge deepening. these findings suggest that tutors need more hands-on training in applying ict-pedagogical competencies in their classroom practice. keywords: ict competencies, knowledge acquisition, knowledge deepening. introduction worldwide, ict competencies are considered an essential requirement for teaching and learning in teacher education institutions (ferrari et al., 2014; tondeur, 2018; unesco, 2017). teacher educators are expected to demonstrate best practice in the use of ict in teaching in order to develop teachers who can apply technologies in their teaching at schools. there is consensus across studies that, competencies expected for effective ict use in teaching and learning form a composite of knowledge domains for subject content, pedagogy and icts (koehler et al., 2013; tondeur, 2018). however, ict frameworks adopted different foci to develop these competencies. the most common foci are in teaching subjects and ict in education competencies (unesco, 2018) studies confirm that, the technological pedagogical content knowledge (tpack) focuses on teaching subjects (tondeur, 2018; unesco, 2018). in this framework, subject content and pedagogical content knowledge (ck and pck) determine appropriate technological knowledge (tk) required to address the learning needs of the subject matter (mishra & koehler, 2006; unesco, 2018). whereas, the unesco ict competence framework for teachers (ict_cft)(unesco, 2018) focuses on ict in education competencies. like tpack, the unesco ict-cft consider quality learning as an essential outcome of effective use of ict competencies in education. while tpack focuses on integration of knowledge domains in a lesson or topic, the unesco ict-cft focuses on the ends for technology 437 use and the function of specific ict resources in addressing the learning needs of the subject matter (kozma, 2011; krumsvik, 2014; unesco, 2018). this paper was concerned with application of ict competencies in teaching in teachers’ colleges. the study was triggered by the persistence of tutors’ limited ict use in teaching as found in the evaluation report for the ict project for teachers colleges (bernt et al., 2014). similar results were noted in two successive ict competencies development initiatives, namely teacher development and management strategy tdms (moevt, 2015; urt, 2017), and the baseline survey for teacher education support project tesp (binde et al., 2017). it was not clear whether the problem was with the competence development process or the application of developed competencies in teaching and learning in teachers’ colleges. consequently, this paper intended to clarify the reasons for this competence development and practice gap by reporting findings from a study that assessed tutors’ level of ict competencies, and evaluating factors that influenced application of these competencies in teaching across subjects learnt in teachers’ colleges. development of tutors’ ict in education competencies in tanzania, tutors’ ict competence development is informed by the education and training policy etp (urt, 2014) and the national ict policy nictp (urt, 2016). these policies consider the use of ict in education as a useful supplement to the development of competent and competitive human capital in line with the knowledge economy’s needs. development of tutors’ ict in education competencies was considered a strategic entry point under the human capital competence development value chain. ict in education competent tutors were expected to prepare student teachers who can use ict in teaching at schools after graduation from teachers’ colleges(bernt et al., 2014). however, effective preparation of teachers depended on tutors’ competencies and disposition in the use of ict as a pedagogical tool in teaching and learning (ndibalema, 2014; tondeur, 2018). systematic development of tutors’ ict competencies occurred in several initiatives. however, this paper focused on three large scale initiatives which focused on all current 35 public teachers’ colleges and all tutors. the first was the ict project for teachers’ colleges 2005-2008 initiated by the government of tanzania under the swedish international development agency’s (sida) financial support (bernt et al., 2014). the second was the teacher development and management strategy (tdms) 2008-2013 (urt, 2017), under the then ministry of education and vocational training (moevt). the third was the teacher education support project (tesp) (2017-2021) (binde et al., 2017), initiated by the ministry of education science and technology (moest) under the financial support of global affairs canada. despite taking place in different years, the initiatives shared a number things. first, both developed tutors’ basic ict skills and ict in education competencies. it seemed that, in each initiative, there were tutors whose ict skills were at basic level and some had ict in education competencies as classified by unesco ict-cft (unesco, 2018). second, both focused on development of tutors’ ict competencies as a basis for preparation of teachers who can use ict in teaching at schools. third, both initiatives used similar yet separate content for basic ict skills and ict competencies for teaching and learning (bernt et al., 2014; binde et al., 2017). tutors’ basic ict skills entailed the use of word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, databases, and internet browsing as well as communication through e-mail, and social media. this content was 438 consistent with the international computer driving license (icdl) used as an assessment standard (bernt et al., 2014), whereas the ict in education competencies consisted of mapping web resources with subject content, multimedia lesson presentations, using the moodle learning management system (lms), and e-learning knowledge and skills (bernt et al., 2014). in an ideal situation, basic ict skills and ict in education competencies were expected to be a continuum in ict competence development (unesco, 2018). however, their separation yielded basic ict skills with technological competencies as an end and ict in education competencies. kozma, (2011, 4), classifies ict competencies into emerging, applying, infusing and transforming stages. however, he considers “emerging” and “applying” as basic ict skills because they focus on technology proficiency as an end. however, during the ict project for tcs, tutors’ training on basic ict skills was determined by their level of ict proficiency in accessing teaching and learning resources and participating in professional learning (bernt et al., 2014). it was highly probable that the intention to develop basic ict skills was to prepare tutors for more complex application of icts in teaching and learning. the infusing and transforming stages are the potential competencies for ict in education to contribute in addressing the learning needs of the subject matter (kozma, 2011; unesco, 2015). however, their contribution is never automatic, rather they need a seamless blending with appropriate subject content and pedagogical content knowledge to address the learning needs in a lesson or topic. transforming is the highest stage, where ict competencies contribute in creating new usable knowledge with benefits to the practitioner as an individual and towards societal good (unesco, 2018). like kozma’s stages, krumsvik, (2014), uses adoption and adaptation for basic ict skills, and appropriation and innovation for application of ict competencies in a lesson or topic. unlike stages of technology proficiency, the unesco ict-cft uses levels of ict competencies to classify ict use by combining knowledge about technologies with domains of practice which link the knowledge with practice (unesco, 2018). table 1, summarises the unesco levels of ict competencies and domains of professional practice expected of teaching staff. table 1: the unesco levels of ict competencies and domains of professional practice. source: ictcompetence framework for teachers (unesco, 2018) approach domains knowledge acquisition knowledge deepening knowledge creation understanding ict in education policy policy understanding policy application policy innovation curriculum and assessment basic knowledge knowledge application knowledge society skills pedagogy ictenhanced teaching complex problem solving self-management application of digital skills application infusion transformation organization and administration standard classroom collaborative groups learning organizations teacher professional learning digital literacy networking teacher as innovator 439 tanzania adopted knowledge acquisition and knowledge deepening levels into her ict competence standards for teachers (ict-cst) (urt, 2015), from the unesco ict-cft (unesco, 2018). knowledge acquisition is considered the basic level of ict competencies which manifest in the ability to use technologies as a supplement to classroom practice while enhancing users’ technological competencies (unesco, 2018). although the classification considers technology proficiency as an end, which is similar to kozma’s emerging and applying stages, the ict-cft framework supports a move from a focus on technology as an end to application of technology in teaching and learning (unesco, 2018). knowledge deepening strives for collaborative solution co-creation to a learning need or problem in a subject area (unesco, 2018). to be competent in this level, requires tutors’ ability to identify the teaching and learning needs that demand for ict intervention, then selection and effective use of appropriate technologies to meet the intended learning needs (unesco, 2018). knowledge creation level strives for lifelong higher-order capability in generating new usable knowledge for addressing real life problems within or beyond teaching and learning, for personal as well as societal good (unesco, 2018). further, tanzania adopted the six domains of professional practice (table 1) from the unesco ictcft. the first domain, understanding ict in education strives for informed interpretation of policy rationale for ict competences in education and to develop capability to discern when, where, how and why ict should be integrated in teaching (unesco, 2018). second, curriculum and assessment calls for tutors’ mastery of subject content and assessment criteria supporting teaching and learning. third, pedagogy calls for tutors’ ability to identify and apply the diverse strategies needed to orchestrate the learning process in relation to the subject, level of learners, and learner centered learning needs (unesco, 2015, 2018). fourth, application of digital skills encourages active participation in learning communities as the niche for knowledge co-creation and sharing appropriate technologies to particular learning needs (unesco, 2018). fifth, organisation and administration requires the demonstration of capability to create the physical learning environment that supports application of icts in teaching (unesco, 2018). expectations in this organisation include; preparation of ict facilities and how they can be used to support collaborative learning and bridging classroom and virtual learning environments (van wyk, 2018; young, 2017). sixth, professional learning strives for sustainable learning and practice. at a basic level, emphasis is on the ability to use evolving digital technologies to support one’s own professional learning (ferrari, 2012; from, 2017). whereas, knowledge deepening requires demonstration of the ability to participate actively in learning networks for knowledge co-creation and sharing innovative teaching strategies (unesco, 2015, 2018). however, to avoid mixing the ict competencies applied by tutors, this paper uses basic ict skills for technology proficiency and ict-pedagogical competencies for ict in education competencies based on unesco ict-cft (unesco, 2018). the study gap bernt et al. (2014) reveal that, between 2005 and 2008, the ict project trained 549 tutors in basic ict skills using the icdl standard, and by 2011, 457 tutors were trained in the application of ictpedagogical competencies in teaching. however, the project evaluation conducted in 2014 revealed 440 that, out of 457 tutors trained for ict in teaching, only 44% of the 80% evaluated used ict in teaching and learning. however, the nature of ict use by the majority (62%) was searching for teaching and learning materials for their subjects (bernt et al., 2014, 25). studies consider searching for materials in the internet as a basic ict skill (ferrari, 2012; fraillon et al., 2019). similarly, the tdms evaluation report concluded that, tutors’ ict skills were basic and needs sustainable measures (moevt, 2015). further, the tesp baseline survey conducted in 2017 revealed that, tutors’ ict use was mainly in basic knowledge and skills (binde et al., 2017). supporting this claim, the tesp annual implementation report (unpublished) of september 2019 revealed that 728 tutors from all 35 teachers’ colleges were trained for ict competencies. however, 457 had to start with basic ict skills (level 1), and 271 started with ict-pedagogical competences (level 2). although the modality for placing tutors in either of the proficiency levels was not revealed, having the majority of tutors in basic ict skills and in different projects suggests that, ict-pedagogical competencies were not adequately applied in teaching and learning. these reports not only suggested inadequate use of ict in teaching and learning but also raised a question about whether tutors were capable to apply their ict-pedagogical competencies in teaching. this paper, therefore, reports findings from a study which assessed tutors’ level of ict competencies, and factors that influenced their application of ict-pedagogical competencies in teaching. methods study location the study was conducted in two public tcs in tanzania named by the pseudonyms “mkasiwa” and “mianzini”, located in the dodoma and iringa regions, respectively, from february 19 to march 17, 2020. this was during the pre-test phase of the ongoing intervention study for strengthening tutors’ ict-pedagogical competences which involved the authors with tutors. the choice of study location was purposively made because the colleges acted as hubs for tutor professional learning for ictpedagogical competencies from the inception the ict project in 2005 to the tesp (binde et al., 2017). thus, they had functional ict facilities for teaching and tutors who participated in ict competence development from 2005 to 2019, which made them data rich for the study. data collection and analysis methods the study adopted a mixed methods approach to obtain data for enriched understanding of the study problem (creswell & plano clark, 2018). data were collected from both mkasiwa and mianzini’s tcs using a semi-structured questionnaire, which yielded a response rate of 70. data from the questionnaire focused on tutors’ practice in knowledge acquisition and knowledge deepening levels of ict competencies (unesco, 2018). convenience non-probability sampling technique was used to select respondents for the pre-test survey. this sampling technique was adopted to collect data used in this paper from an accessible population during the pre-test survey as recommended by west, (2016). qualitative data were collected using focus group interview (fgi) which involved eight (8) participants from mkasiwa and eight (8) from mianzini’s tc. the use of fgi helped the researchers to confirm not only tutors’ application of ict-pedagogical competences, but also to understand factors that influenced the tutors’ competencies in teaching. the use of fgi involved asking a question that 441 required multiple participants to answer up to the saturation point as indicated by cohen et al., (2018). purposive sampling was used to select tutors among the pre-test survey respondents from different specialisation subjects as participants for fgi. our interest was to understand different ways in which participants experienced application of ict competencies in teaching their specialisation subjects in order to avoid a biased interpretation of findings as recommended by cohen et al., (2018). fgi questions on ict use and factors influenced application of ict-pedagogical competencies that were informed by ict competence frameworks’ literature (ferrari et al., 2014; koehler et al., 2013; unesco, 2018). the factors were also informed by ict competence studies with validated questionnaires (fraillon et al., 2019; tondeur et al., 2017). moreover, documentary analysis was used to collect information from documents, like lesson plans and government reports needed in the study. the choice of a mixed methods approach, data collection methods and tools were informed by the need to confirm data for informed interpretation of findings. data from the questionnaire were analysed using ibm statistical package for social sciences (spss) version 22. descriptive statistics were used to compare mean scores for technologies used by tutors in knowledge acquisition (tuka) and knowledge deepening (tukd) levels of ict competencies. independent sample t-test was used to determine the level of significance and effect size of respondents’ mean scores for two groups of tuka (g1and g2). the use of word processing, spreadsheets and presentations formed g1, and the use of web browsers like google search, communication through e-mail and social media in teaching and learning formed g2. a similar test was conducted to mean scores of three tukd groups (g1, g2 and g3). the first group g1, assessed tutors’ use of ict in teaching, learning and assessment for learning. the second (g2) focused on tutors’ use of apps for creating graphics, audio, video and multimedia learning resource, and the third, (g3) focused on tutors’ use of icts resources for content creation, sharing and supporting learners’ needs during the lesson. furthermore, the standard multiple regression test was used to assess the contribution of the factors that influenced tutors’ use of ict competencies (independent variables) in explaining tutors’ tukd practice (dependent variable) as informed by pallant (2020). data from fgi and documentary reviews were transcribed and sorted and relevant participants’ expressions (excerpts) and information from documents were identified and used as evidence to support interpretation of findings as recommended by cohen et al., (2018). results tutors’ level of ict competencies by sex knowledge acquisition was the most prominent level of ict competencies afforded by tutors. this was revealed by both male and female tutors’ highest mean scores (x̅ ≥ 4) in tuka_g1 and tuka_g2 for word processing, and information access and communication through the internet and e-mail, respectively. use of spreadsheets was moderate (x̅ = 3.5). however, male respondents rated slightly higher than their female counterparts in the use of spreadsheets, presentations and use of social software in teaching and learning. table 2 summarises tuka results using the scale: 1 = not confident at all, 2 = slightly confident, 3 = somewhat confident, 4 = quite confident and 5 = highly confident. 442 overall, tuka results (table 2) suggest that, respondents were competent in basic ict skills with the highest mean scores (x̅ ≥ 4), and moderate levels (x̅ ≥ 3.5 and ≤ 3.9) in some applications as illustrated in table 2. moderate scores ranging x̅ ≥ 3.5 and above suggest some progress towards confident use of basic ict skills in carrying out general activities. this finding suggests that the competence development initiatives engaged tutors in practical use of ict tools and software in their daily activities. unlike tuka, respondents’ level of ict in knowledge deepening was low. findings from tukd (g1, g2 and g3) reveal the highest mean score of (x̅ ≥ 3.3) in the use of learning management systems, and the lowest (x̅ ≤ 2.5) in the use of audio tools to support learners with visual impairment. table 2: tutors’ level of ict competences in knowledge acquisition. source: field data. variables description male female mean sd mean sd tuka1_g1 create a document with texts, tables, graphics and hyperlinks using word processing program 4 0.9 4.1 0.8 tuka2_g1 present charts, grades, rank items and descriptive statistics using spreadsheet application 3.7 1 3.5 0.9 tuka3_g1 create basic presentation for a lesson in your subject topic using powerpoint or similar program 4.2 0.9 3.9 1 tuka4_g2 search electronic content from the internet and save in your computer hard drive. 4.2 1 4 0.8 tuka5_g2 send e-mail with an attachment 4.3 0.9 4.3 0.8 tuka6_g2 use social media like facebook, twitter and whatsapp to engage student teachers in academic interaction and active learning 3.8 1 3.6 1.3 valid n (list) 70 table 3 summarises findings from tukd using the scale: 1 = not confident at all, 2 = slightly confident, 3 = somewhat confident, 4 = quite confident and 5 = highly confident. overall tukd results (table 3) show that, respondents were somewhat confident in tukd with mean scores (x̅ ≥ 3 and ≤ 3.3). the findings reveal uncertainty of whether respondents were or were not able to apply their ict-pedagogical competences in teaching. this is because the mean scores for all tukd variables were less than (x̅ < 3.5) which suggests that they were struggling to model effective ict-pedagogical competences. nevertheless, male respondents rated slightly higher than their female counterparts in all tukd variables, as illustrated in table 3. this difference could have been caused by limited application of ict-pedagogical competencies among female respondents who were few in number, 15 (21.4%) compared to 55 (78.6%) male respondents. 443 table 3: tutors’ level of ict competencies in knowledge deepening by sex. source: field data. description male female variables mean sd mean sd tukd1_g1 create learning activities and assessment tools for student teachers using learning management platforms (e.g., moodle, blackboard) 3.3 1 3.2 1.2 tukd2_g1 use educational computer games to enhance student teachers’ creativity in teaching and learning. 3 1 2.7 1 tukd3_g1 using subject specific apps (e.g., puzzles) in teaching and learning 2.8 1 2.3 0.8 tukd4_g1 use free online library to access and share digital content for learning 3.2 1 3 1.1 tukd5_g1 use online support forum to ask for and share teaching and learning resources. 3.1 1 2.9 0.9 tukd6_g1 use electronic portfolio to assess student teachers’ learning progress. 2.9 1 2.8 0.8 tukd7_g1 assess your student teachers using online tests and examinations. 2.7 1 2.8 1 tukd8_g2 create audio clips for learning using audio editing software like audacity 3 1 2.2 1 tukd9_g2 create graphics for learning using graphics editing software and tools (e.g., photoshop, paint, snipping tool). 2.9 1 2.2 1 tukd10_g2 create video clips for teaching and learning using video editing software (e.g., movie maker). 2.9 1 2.1 1.1 tukd11_g2 create interactive content for teaching and learning using free multimedia-based learning software (e.g., simulations, animations) 2.9 1 2 1 tukd12_g3 use audio voice tools (e.g., narrator, jaws, and dolphin pen) to support student teachers with visual impairment. 2.5 1 1.6 0.7 tukd13_g3 use online educational video access and sharing sites (e.g., youtube) 3.3 1 2.5 1.1 tukd14_g3 share electronic content using file sharing applications (e.g., dropbox, google drive) 2.9 1 2.6 1.2 valid n (list) 70 tutors’ level of ict competencies by duty station similarly, respondents’ mean scores in tuka by duty station revealed a high level (x̅ ≥ 4) in some variables and moderate levels in others (x̅ ≥ 3.5 to 3.9), as illustrated in figure 1. 444 figure 1: tutors’ level of ict competences in knowledge acquisition by duty station as illustrated in fig.1, respondents rated a high proficiency (x̅ ≥ 4) in several tuka applications. these applications include communication through e-mail (tuka5_g2), presentation applications like powerpoint (tuka3_g1), internet browsing to access and share teaching and learning resources (tuka4_g2) as well as word processing (tuka1_g1). overall knowledge acquisition results show that, tutors at mianzini tc had slightly higher proficiency in basic ict skills than their mkasiwa tc counterparts. however, in terms of application, tutors in both colleges seemed to be confident in their basic ict skills, with the highest mean score (x̅ ≥ 4) in some tuka applications. similarly, the moderate level (x̅ ≥ 3.5 to 3.9) revealed progress towards confident application of tuka variables. however, confidence in tuka is an indicator of knowledge about respective technologies and their uses. knowledge deepening competence level was generally low, as a large number of applications had a mean score below 3.5 in both mkasiwa and mianzini tc as illustrated in figure 2. figure 2: tutors’ level of ict competencies in knowledge deepening 445 overall, knowledge deepening was low (x̅ < 3.5) in most variables. the highest mean score was (x̅ ≤ 3.7) was lower compared to knowledge acquisition (x̅ ≥ 4). the results suggest that tutors’ practice was more evident in basic ict skills than in ict-pedagogical competences. moreover, having a moderate (x̅ ≤ 3.7) level of knowledge deepening, suggests that, some tutors had experience in ictpedagogical competence, though not necessarily applied in teaching. the findings reveal a gap between understanding about icts and application of the same in teaching and learning. comparing the level of ict competencies the study used independent sample t-test to discern whether there was any statistically significant difference in respondents’ mean scores for the tukd dependent variable by sex and duty station independent variables. tukd was focused because it was the potential level for ict contribution addressing the learning needs in a lesson. the results are summarised in tables 4.1 and 4.2 for tukd by sex and duty station, respectively. table 4.1: group statistics on overall mean scores for knowledge deepening by sex. source: field data. competence levels sex n mean sd t-value p-value tuka_g1_pre male 55 12.0 2.55 0.492 0.624 female 15 11.6 2.47 tuka_g2_pre male 55 12.5 2.50 0.831 0.409 female 15 11.9 2.13 tukd_g1_pre male 55 21.3 6.84 0.813 0.419 female 15 19.7 5.43 tukd_g2_pre male 55 11.8 4.55 2.462 0.016* female 15 8.7 3.72 tukd_g3_pre male 55 8.8 3.46 2.066 0.043* female 15 6.8 2.57 overall tukd pre male 55 41.9 13.76 1.766 0.082 female 15 35.2 9.54 note: sd = standard deviation, * = the compared groups were statistically significantly different. similarly, table 4.2 compares group statistics on overall mean scores for knowledge deepening tukd by duty station. table 4.2: group statistics on overall mean scores in knowledge deepening by duty station. source: field data. competence level duty station n mean sd t-value p-value tuka_g1_pre mkasiwa tc 41 11.7 2.68 -0.895 0.374 mianzini tc 29 12.2 2.29 tuka_g2_pre mkasiwa tc 41 12.0 2.68 -1.254 0.214 mianzini tc 29 12.8 1.98 tukd_g1_pre mkasiwa tc 41 20.1 7.20 -1.415 0.162 mianzini tc 29 22.2 5.41 tukd_g2_pre mkasiwa tc 41 11.0 4.60 -0.257 0.798 mianzini tc 29 11.3 4.57 446 tukd_g3_pre mkasiwa tc 41 8.3 3.41 -0.26 0.795 mianzini tc 29 8.5 3.37 overall tukd_pre mkasiwa tc 41 39.4 13.86 -0.82 0.415 mianzini tc 29 42.0 12.29 results from tables 4.1 and 4.2 show that, the compared groups were statistically significantly different at p £ .05. although there was no statistical difference of sex as well as duty station on other variables, female and male respondents differed significantly on tukd_g2 (male mean = 11.8; sd = 4.55, female mean = 8.7, sd = 3.72, p = .016) and tukd_g3 (male mean = 8.8, sd = 3.46; female mean = 6.8, sd=2.57, p = .043) on their mean scores. the effect size to compare the proportion of group differences were of medium effect for both tukd_g2 (e2 = .08 or 8%) and tukd_g3 (e2 = .06 or 6%). the effect size to ascertain the significance of variables was informed by cohen’s 1988 eta squared test (pallant, 2016). the first is .01 = “small effect”, second, .06 = “medium effect”, and the third, .14 “large effect”. having identified the pattern of differences in mean scores at knowledge deepening level, it was necessary to understand factors and evaluate their influence in predicting tutors’ application of ictpedagogical competencies in teaching. factors influencing tutors’ application of ict-pedagogical competencies in teaching this objective intended to evaluate how well the factors could predict tutors’ application of ictpedagogical competencies in teaching. this evaluation would help researchers to make informed recommendations on the intervention needed to improve tutors’ application of ict-pedagogical competencies in teaching. to realise this outcome, the study used standard multiple regression model. variables evaluated were the ict-pedagogical competencies (dependent variable) which consisted of technologies used by tutors in the knowledge deepening level of ict competencies (tukd). independent variables consisted of tutors’ access and accessibility to ict resources “access”; ownership of laptops and smartphones “ownership”; actual use of ict resources in teaching “practice”; and attitude towards ict use in teaching “attitude”. standardised coefficients “beta” values were used to ascertain the contribution of each factor in predicting the dependent variable with significance probability value (p < .05). table 5 summarises the model’s output. as illustrated in table 5, out of the four factors analysed in the model, only total practice made a unique significant prediction of the overall tukd (beta = .373, p = .019). this means, the overall model explained 21.6% of the variance in overall tukd. the results suggest that, in every single unit of increase in practice, there will be an increase of .373 units of tukd. this is a proportional relationship implying that the variables were positively correlated. however, the variables access ( p = 0.47), ownership (p = 0.61) and attitude (p = 0.44) did not make a statistically significant unique contribution in predicting tukd with (p < .05), probably due to overlapping with other independent variables in the model. 447 table 5: regression coefficients for dependent variable overall tukd. source: field data. standardised t sig. correlations r2 f p-value collinearity coefficients statistics beta partial part tolerance vif access -0.084 -0.722 0.47 -0.089 -0.079 0.216 4.47 .003* 0.896 1.116 ownership 0.071 0.507 0.61 0.063 0.056 0.61 1.64 practice 0.373 2.399 .019* 0.285 0.263 0.499 2.006 attitude 0.098 0.77 0.44 0.095 0.085 0.743 1.345 checking for assumptions a key condition in regression analyses is ensuring that data meet the collinearity, normality, and outliers among other assumptions as interpreted in statistics (field, 2017; pallant, 2016; tabachnick & fidell, 2013). multicollinearity manifests in extremely high or low correlations of independent variables. however, a cutoff point greater than (>.10) and variance inflation factors (vif) below 10 are acceptable in multiple regression tests (tabachnick & fidell, 2013). the statistics (table 5) reveal that the independent variables did not violate the collinearity assumption as all variables had a tolerance indicator greater than .10 (access = 0.896); (ownership = 0.61); (practice = 0.499) and (attitude = 0.7). similarly, the variance inflation factor (vif) statistics for all four independent variables (table 5), were far below the cutoff point of 10 as recommended in statistics (tabachnick & fidell, 2013). normality assumption is illustrated using the distribution of residuals systematically from the center of the histogram or residuals forming a straight line along the probability plot (p-p) (pallant, 2016). figures 3 and 4 illustrate the normality assumption noted in this study. figure 3: regression standardised residual for overall tukd 448 figure 4: normal p-p plot of the regression standardised residual for tukd visual inspection of the regression standardised residual histogram (fig. 3) shows data were reasonably symmetrical which means no serious deviation from normality. this is also supported by the p-p plot (fig. 4) which show residuals reasonably distributed along the strait diagonal line from bottom left to top right revealing a positive linear relationship (pallant, 2016). further, the model scatterplot output (fig. 5) shows the distribution of residuals along the zero point in nearly rectangular shape. this distribution indicates that data had no serious outliers that could warrant data transformation or omission of variables as suggested in statistics (tabachnick & fidell, 2013). figure 5: the scatterplot for overall tukd findings from qualitative data like quantitative results, results from fgi showed that participants’ level of ict competencies was in basic ict skills. this result is based on tutors’ expressions when they answered a question that 449 inquired, “what ict resources did you often use in teaching your lessons?” the response revealed that a large frequency of participants’ views (7/10) used applications relevant to technological proficiency, as summarised in table 6. table 6: participants’ experiences in level of ict competencies participant college code description of examples of ict use remarks chemistry 1 use of internet to download models and electronic books ka ict1 1 browsing the internet to access content, use of c++ to teach simple programing in computer science class ka ict2 1 using notepad++ to teach web designing ka curriculum and teaching 1 using data projector to present my lessons through powerpoint ka biology 1 use of youtube videos to explain the lifecycle of malaria parasites and fertilization in flowering plant kd communication skills 1 use of online dictionary and puzzles to teach phonetic articulation and new vocabularies kd mathematics 2 use of word processing to prepare lesson plan, lesson notes and scheme of work ka biology 1 2 use of powerpoint to present lessons ka ict/ics 2 use of spreadsheets to produce examination results and powerpoint to present lessons in the class ka biology 2 2 use of flash animations and phet simulations to teach how digestion takes place kd key: 1 = mkasiwa, tc, 2 = mianzini tc; ka = knowledge acquisition, kd = knowledge deepening these findings (table 6) suggest that basic ict skills were more highly practiced than ict pedagogical competencies. however, tutors of ict subjects applied complex applications like c++ and notepad ++ which signified proficiency in the same. nevertheless, the complex applications were classified as technological competencies, because they were intended to develop technological skills like using programs and websites, respectively. tutors’ use of applications like phet simulations, flash animations, videos and puzzles in the lessons (table 6) suggests experiences in using ict-pedagogical competencies in teaching. however, such experiences were few — only three (3), which suggests limited practice. to confirm this limitation, the study analysed tutors’ lesson plans in order to see how icts were used in the lessons. out of 49 lesson plans prepared from july 2020 to july 2021, only 11 mentioned the use of ict. however, none of the 49 lessons mentioned or identified procedures for application of any ict in the lesson development section. the findings not only revealed a gap in planning for ict use in teaching but, also, could signify low competencies in actual use of ict to achieve pedagogical value in a lesson. in terms of factors, limited access and accessibility to ict facilities and internet in colleges appeared as a constraint to ict use in teaching, as described in the participants’ views in excerpts a, b and c. a. mathematics: “we only have 23 computers fixed in ict labs… we cannot easily use these computers to teach our subjects due to large class size up to 150 students… there are compulsory subjects like ict and ics with fixed timetable for all student teachers to use ict labs in their learning…” (fgi mianzini tc-february 19, 2020). 450 similar views were expressed in excerpts b and c for mkasiwa tc as follows: b. ict 2: currently we have 45 computers fixed in our ict lab, 08 laptops and 16 projectors used for teaching… over 560 student teachers (two years course) and 472 (three years course) use the ict labs in learning ict and ics compulsory subjects …” (fgi mkasiwatc-march 17, 2020). c. biology: “…good news, about 98%of all 49 tutors use their own smartphones and laptops to search for teaching and learning materials… however, the college has no internet connection…we are obliged to use our own internet bundle to download teaching and learning materials…”(fgi mkasiwatc-march 17, 2020). while access and accessibility to ict and internet for teaching and learning were crucial in tutors’ practice, excerpts a and b, showed that, the number of computers were few compared to the number of users — student teachers and tutors. moreover, the ict lab use arrangement seemed to be reserved for teaching ict and information and computer studies’ (ics) compulsory subjects. although it was necessary to develop student teachers’ basic ict skills through ict and ics subjects, the concern was that there was no similar priority accorded to the use of ict in teaching other subjects in teachers’ colleges. it was even evident from the framework for the implementation of the diploma in teacher education subjects, that ict and ics, like other subjects, are learnt because they are part of a curriculum requirement (tie, 2019, 15). however, neither the curriculum nor the framework explicitly guides how ict could be applied in teaching and learning across other subjects in teachers’ colleges. the findings implied that the use of ict in teaching and learning was not yet adequately streamlined in the curriculum implementation in teachers’ colleges, and consequently, application of developed ict-pedagogical competencies across subjects taught in teachers’ colleges appeared like an optional undertaking. excerpt “c” show tutors’ efforts to cope with internet access constraint. however, the use of their own laptops and smartphones remained at their discretion, as did the financial cost for an internet bundle. despite the benefits of using tutors’ own ict facilities in teaching, innovation seemed to be left to tutors to continue or stop. this situation was due to limited supportive supervision to encourage tutors’ innovative use of icts in their practice. discussion tutors’ level of ict competencies while development of tutors’ ict-pedagogical competencies, intended to strengthen teacher preparation in teachers’ colleges, findings of the current study (table 3s), revealed limited tutors’ practical know-how in planning and applying ict-pedagogical competencies in teaching. while the basic ict skills and ict-pedagogical competencies were similarly developed in several competence development initiatives (bernt et al., 2014; binde et al., 2017; moevt, 2015), tutors’ application of ictpedagogical competences reflected more theoretical understanding than practical experience. for instance, one could easily verify the use of basic ict skills in tutors’ work documents, like typed lesson plans and schemes of work, but teaching documents like lesson plans revealed limited evidence for ict adoption in teaching. similarly, if you compare results for basic ict skills (tables 2 and 6) with results for ict-pedagogical competencies (tables 3 and 6), you may notice that the competence development efforts played a key role in developing knowledge about icts, as well as knowledge of 451 how to use ict competencies in teaching. however, it was not clear whether the training packages engaged tutors in hands-on practice in applying ict teaching to basic ict skills. nevertheless, it was evident from the findings that the most proficiently practiced level of ict competencies was basic ict skills. but the most needed yet lowly practiced level of ict competencies was ict-pedagogical competencies (unesco, 2018). several studies confirm that, development of ict-pedagogical competencies need to seamlessly bring together subject content and pedagogy with ict-pedagogical competencies (mishra & koehler, 2006; unesco, 2018). although it was possible to bring these domains together during ict competence development, initiatives like the ict project and tesp had separate sessions for teaching subjects, as well as ict competencies (bernt et al., 2014; binde et al., 2017). with such disjointed complex domains, it seems the ict competence development initiatives did not heed the complexity of integrating these domains as cautioned in several studies (mishra & koehler, 2006; tondeur, 2018; unesco, 2018). consequently, it is highly probable that inadequate balance between theoretical knowledge and hands-on-practice during competence development could be one of the causes for limited application of ict-pedagogical competencies in teachers’ colleges. factors influencing tutors’ application of ict-pedagogical competencies it was clear from the etp, nictp, ict-cst and ict competence development initiatives that tutors’ ict-pedagogical competencies are a crucial element in developing teachers who could use ict in teaching at schools (bernt et al., 2014; binde et al., 2017; urt, 2014, 2015, 2016). however, what was developed in the training packages for tutors’ ict competencies mostly addressed ict competencies (unesco, 2018). what seemed to constrain effective application of ict-pedagogical competencies in teaching was tutors’ inability to practically incorporate ict competencies within the subject content and teaching and learning strategies. this result confirms the necessity for concurrent integration of subject content, pedagogical content knowledge and ict-pedagogical competencies as strongly emphasised in tpack (koehler et al., 2013; mishra & koehler, 2006; tondeur, 2018). moreover, the findings revealed a gap in management and administration of ict use in teaching and learning. despite tutors’ ict competence development for teaching, application of ict-pedagogical competencies was constrained by lack of agreement at management and administration levels on whether or not ict should be adopted in teaching and learning across all subjects taught in teachers’ colleges. educational and ict policies and competence development initiatives in tanzania imply icts need to be effectively employed in teaching and learning across all subjects in teachers’ colleges (bernt et al., 2014; urt, 2014, 2015, 2016). however, apart from the framework (tie, 2019) and subjects’ syllabi, which guide teaching of all subjects including ict and ics, there seemed to be no formal endorsement for the use of ict in teaching all subjects in teachers’ colleges. the bottom line for the gap in management and administration is that ict pedagogical competencies are developed in consistent progression, however, application in teaching is left at tutors’ discretion. it is highly probable that tutors’ high proficiency in basic ict skills is because of the frequency of their application and positive pressure from management to encourage their application. on the contrary, ict pedagogical competencies, which were expected to transform teaching and learning, appeared like an optional undertaking in teachers’ colleges. 452 conclusion the reality on the ground is that, between basic ict skills and ict-pedagogical competencies developed for tutors, basic ict skills were more proficiently practiced and frequently used by tutors. application of basic ict skills formed part of tutors’ work culture. however, ict-pedagogical competencies intended to innovate teaching and learning, were rarely practiced and their level of competence demonstrated by tutors was low. despite the competence development efforts, two major factors influenced their effective application in teaching. first, the competence development process seemed to emphasise theoretical knowledge for ict-competencies and how to employ them in teaching. the practical application in teaching seemed to be left to tutors to accomplish. similarly, within teachers’ colleges there seemed to be no strong emphasis and support to help tutors to consistently use their ict competencies innovatively in teaching. second, there seemed to be a gap in decision making at curriculum implementation and management levels on whether or not ict should be integrated in teaching across all subjects. this gap caused emphasis in teachers’ colleges to be in teaching ict and ics subjects because it was in the curriculum. it seemed the responsibility to use ict in teaching was reserved for tutors of ict/ics. the remaining tutors did not effectively apply their ict competencies in teaching. it appeared that it was no one’s responsibility to enforce application of ict pedagogical competencies in teaching. this means it was optional and at the tutors’ discretion to apply. consequently, it was highly probable that, the ict competence development initiatives did not adequately improve preparation of teachers who could integrate ict in teaching due to limited tutors’ application of ict-pedagogical competencies in teaching. recommendations to policy and curriculum actors, the paper recommends realigning the policy rationales for ict competence development and their integration in teaching across levels of policy implementation in order to overcome misinterpretation. to academicians and researchers, the study recommends an intervention study to bridge the gap between tutors’ knowledge of the subject matter and knowledge of ict in education competencies, the latter being referred to in this paper as ict-pedagogical competencies. references bernt, a., ngemera, n., edephonce, suleman, s., uimonen, p., & pain, a. (2014). evaluation of implementation of ict in teachers’ colleges project in tanzania (no. 26). sida. http://www.sida.se/publications binde, a. l., sayi, l., & kumburu, s. (2017). tesp needs assessment in teacher colleges in tanzania (pp. 1-65) [technical report]. centre for management excellence uk limited. www.cmeuk.com cohen, l., manion, l., & morrison, k. (2018). research methods in education (8th ed.). routledge. creswell, j. w., & plano clark, v. l. (2018). designing and conducting mixed methods research (3rd ed.). sage publications. ferrari, a. (2012). digital competence in practice: an analysis of frameworks. european union, 2012. https://doi.org/10.2791/82116 ferrari, a., brečko, b. n., & punie, y. (2014). digcomp: a framework for developing and understanding digital competence in europe. in-depth, 38. elearning papers. www.openeducationeuropa.eu/en/elearning_papers field, a. (2017). discovering statistics using ibm spss statistics (5th ed.). sage publications. https://www.pdfdrive.com/discovering-statistics-using-ibm-spss-statistics-d195143502.html 453 fraillon, j., ainley, j., schulz, w., duckworth, d., & friedman, t. (2019). iea international computer and information literacy study 2018 assessment framework. springer international publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19389-8 from, j. (2017). pedagogical digital competence—between values, knowledge and skills. higher education studies, 7(2), 43. https://doi.org/10.5539/hes.v7n2p43 koehler, m. j., punya, m., & cain, w. (2013). what is technological pedagogical content knowledge (tpack)? journal of education, 193(3), 13-19. https://doi.org/10.1177/002205741319300303 kozma, r. (2011). the technological, economic, and social contexts for educational ict policy. transforming education: the power of ict policies. unesco. krumsvik, r. j. (2014). teacher educators’ digital competence. scandinavian journal of educational research, 58(3), 269-280. https://doi.org/10.1080/00313831.2012.726273 mishra, p., & koehler, m. (2006). technological pedagogical content knowledge: a framework for teacher knowledge. 108(6), 1017-1054. teachers college record, columbia university. moevt. (2015). evaluation report for the teacher development and management strategy (2008-2013). ministry of education and vocational training, tanzania. ndibalema, p. (2014). teachers’ attitudes towards the use of information communication technology (ict) as a pedagogical tool in secondary schools in tanzania: the case of kondoa district, 2(2), 16. http://ijern.com/journal/february-2014/11.pdf pallant, j. (2016). spss survival manual: a step by step guide to data analysis using ibm spss (6th ed.). mcgraw hill education. pallant, j. (2020). spss survival manual. open university press. http://public.eblib.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=6215124 tabachnick, b. g., & fidell, l. s. (2013). using multivariate statistics (6th international ed.). pearson. tanzania institute of education. (2019). the framework for implementation of a three year diploma in teacher education for science and business studies. tanzania institute of education. www.tie.go.tz tondeur, j. (2018). enhancing future teachers’ competencies for technology integration in education: turning theory into practice. seminar.net international journal of media, technology and lifelong learning, 14(2), 216224. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ tondeur, j., aesaert, k., pynoo, b., van braak, j., fraeyman, n., & erstad, o. (2017). developing a validated instrument to measure preservice teachers’ ict competencies: meeting the demands of the 21st century: ict competencies for preservice teachers. british journal of educational technology, 48(2), 462-472. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12380 unesco. (2015). unesco ict competency framework for teachers. unesco. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002134/213475e.pdf unesco. (2017). leveraging information and communication technology to achieve education 2030 (pp. 1–24). https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000259587?posinset=1&queryid=n-explore-29d24e53-4c194469-b679-046cc0d1ee9f unesco. (2018). unesco ict competency framework for teachers: version 3. unesco. united republic of tanzania. (2014). education and training policy. ministry of education and vocational training, tanzania. http://www.moe.go.tz/sw/publications/send/27-policy-sera/220-sera-ya-elimu-2014.html united republic of tanzania. (2015). ict competency standards for teachers in tanzania. ministry of education and vocational training. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002348/234822e.pdf 454 united republic of tanzania. (2016). national information and communication technology. tanzania ministry of works, transport and communication. https://tanzict.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/national-ict-policyproofed-final-nic-review-2.pdf united republic of tanzania. (2017). national framework for continuous professional development. https://tinyurl.com/yckvz4kc van wyk, m. m. (2018). economics student teachers’ views on the usefulness of a flipped classroom pedagogical approach for an open distance elearning environment. the international journal of information and learning technology, 35(4), 255-265. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijilt-07-2017-0068 young, c. a. (2017). applying the flipped classroom model to english language arts education. information science reference. authors: elisei emili lubuva works at the department of community development, local government training institute, dodoma, tanzania. email: lubuvajr14@gmail.com placidius ndibalema is a senior lecturer of digital media psychology and ict pedagogical development in the department of educational foundations and continuing education at the university of dodoma. his main research areas include digital media psychology, e-learning, blended learning and bibliomentric analysis. he has researched and published widely in the areas of his specialisation. email: ndibaplac@yahoo.com esther mbwambo works at the department of educational management and policy studies, university of dodoma, tanzania. email: natherombwambo@gmail.com cite this paper as: lubuva, e. e., ndibalema, p., & mbwambo, e. (2022). assessment of tutors’ level of ict competencies in teaching in teacher education in tanzania. journal of learning for development, 9(3), 436-454. microsoft word pandaeditorial.docx issn: 2311-1550 2022, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. i-iii this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. editorial capacity building for new modes of learning and teaching santosh panda indira gandhi national open university, new delhi in many educational development initiatives across the globe, and especially in the commonwealth by the commonwealth of learning (col), capacity building at all levels and for all categories of people has been underlined as the foundation to shifting to new modes of teaching-learning-training during covid and also in the post-covid-19 era. the change management formulation through the model of ‘policy-technology-capacity building’ had emerged as a significantly effective strategy toward development and especially ‘learning for development’. we need more research evidence to further support this formulation, and also to contribute to possible directions for national, institutional and individual goal-setting and strategic applications in-context. it is hoped that the contributions to this issue of jl4d will further enlighten our understanding and suggest pathways toward implementation of education and training programmes in national, regional and institutional contexts. our ‘invited’ and peer-reviewed paper in this issue, by caton, bradshaw-ward, kinshuk and sevenye, deals with the theme of digital literacy, which is foundational to almost all aspects of life today, and, in this case, its effectiveness in enhancing the cognitive flexibility of learners. the research review highlights the contribution of digital literacy to facilitate cognitive flexibility and adaptability, deep problem solving, and reduction in cognitive load in dealing with various technological tools. in the ‘research’ section, we have included eight research papers dealing with the theme of this issue. the first paper by kuppuswami and ferreira focuses on the outcome of an online training programme for capacity building in gender equality and women’s empowerment, based on the knowledge attitude and skills (kas) model. the results of the study indicate positive impact of the training on knowledge, attitude and skills in respect of gender equality at the individual level, and enabling environment, policies, structures and practices at the organisational level. in the second paper, aluko and ooko present the findings of research on the digital learning experiences of teachers in rural south africa. the results show existing gaps between expectations and experiences, based on which the researchers recommend realignment of the teacher education curriculum with national skill requirements along with required teacher support. lubuva, ndibalema and mbwambo in the next paper report the findings of a qualitative research study on teachers’ ict competencies (against the unesco-ict competence framework) in tanzania. the results show that while teachers’ ict knowledge acquisition was high, their ict knowledge deepening was low, suggesting, thereby, low levels of technological pedagogic knowledge. since the regression analysis results showed that practice had a positive effect on knowledge-deepening, the researchers suggest intensive hands-on training to enhance the ict-pedagogical competencies of teachers. the next five papers focus on digital technologies, online learning, expert systems for career guidance for open and distance learning, educational web application, and indigenous education, especially ii during the time of the covid-19 pandemic. otamas and colleagues report the findings of their analytical and survey-based study on university distance and online learning in ukraine during the pandemic. while the pandemic-induced shift toward online education contributed to significant pedagogic transformation from traditional to modern methods of teaching, the survey of teachers and administrators especially for distance vocational education, showed constraints relating to access to online platforms, distance and blended course design, and student digital literacy vis-à-vis social media platforms, which the researchers suggest should be effectively addressed for effective blended learning in higher and other levels of education. in the next paper, chisag and tabuena present the findings of a swot analysis on online learning during covid-19 in ecuador. the documentary analysis-based qualitative study suggested that while there has been slow progress at the school level in the adoption of online and blended learning, there has been an increase in the number of educational start-ups during the pandemic in ecuador. in a study on technology-enabled career guidance based on online secondary sources, shilpa gunwant concluded that irrespective of the existence of rule-based, case-based and fuzzy logic-based career guidance systems, the expert systems (es) for career guidance have wider applicability especially for odl students. in another study conducted during covid-19 on university students’ perception of the usefulness on educational web applications toward personalisation of learning mathematics in mexico, salas-rueda and colleagues report the effectiveness of web applications in increasing student satisfaction, assimilation of knowledge, development of mathematical skills and distance learning. in the final paper in this section on indigenous students, sianturi, suliantin and fitrianti suggest that in papua new guinea, at the school level, while cognitive style did not have any significant relationship with student mathematics learning outcomes, it did have a positive effect in the case of university students. the researchers suggest appropriate technology-enabled mentoring intervention in strengthening the cognitive style of school students so that they could achieve quality learning experiences at the stage of higher education. in the next section on ‘case studies’, we report the findings of two cases – tvet through odl in namibia and yoga education through odl in india. sichombe reports the findings of a tracer study during the pre-covid years of the tvet students of namcol. the mixed-methods design research suggested significant impact of odl tvet on the graduates’ knowledge and skill adequacy for the job market. however, the experience of the graduates on the constraints during their study suggested further strengthening of the adequacy of equipment for training and internship while studying through open and distance learning. in the second case, biplab jamatia reports the findings of research through a pre-post-test design on the effectiveness of online yoga training in reducing the perceived stress level of students. the researcher suggests that yoga training, through the online certificate programme, reduced the self-perceived stress of the students, and therefore both yoga education and online training delivery have been effective in taking care of personal health status of students during the covid-19 pandemic. the various research studies included in this issue of jl4d clearly support the change management formulation that the ‘policy-technology-capacity building’ model has proved effective in dealing with institutional and individual changes. the reported research and case studies indicated that effective capacity building in respect of digital literacy/learning, online training, training on ict-pedagogical competencies, distance and online vocational training, and mentoring in educational web applications iii could support the new modes of teaching-learning during the pandemic, and are also pointers to changing technology-enabled teaching/learning/training for the post-pandemic world. we hope the papers included in this issue will interest our valued readers and contribute to further discourse and reflections in the policy-technology-capacity building formulation toward effective and sustainable ‘learning for development’. santosh panda chief editor, jl4d cite this paper as: panda, s. (2022). editorial — capacity building for new modes of learning and teaching. journal of learning for development, 9(3), i-iii. microsoft word west_galley.docx issn: 2311-1550 2020, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 116-118 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. book review essential skills for highly successful youths carolyne mande lunga novus print, 2019, pp. 181, isbn: 978-0-7998-0535-4 this is a book written for young people who are about to leave school and enter the world of tertiary education, an internship or work. it provides many useful lessons from a variety of sources. the author has reached into her personal experiences and attempted to provide young people with an encyclopaedia of useful how-to information. the book may at times seem a little directive to young people but the reader should keep in mind that many young people do not have parents or role models from whom they can learn. the book provides a useful resource that can be used individually or in groups, with or without a facilitator. if made available as an open book, this resource should be of great use if it can reach young people in formats that may be read on their smartphones. it will be essential to provide it in ebook formats such as epub and mobi. in the introduction, the author describes what led her to writing the book; how certain family members encouraged and supported her. having managed to complete a tertiary qualification and find work, she is now finding ways to help others though her experiences. tracing much of her young life, the author places the book on a personal level for other young people who can relate to her challenges and progress. carolyne mande lunga hopes that her book will provide critical skills that are important for successful youths. in an era of massive unemployment amongst youth, increasing levels of poverty, poor service delivery and increasing levels of disease, the author hopes that her work will revive hope among young people who are progressing through high school. this book identifies and describes the essential and critical skills which put youths on the path to success. skills identified in the book include lifelong learning, critical thinking, problem solving, entrepreneurship, financial literacy, creativity, innovation, emotional intelligence, information and communications technology, social media and other skills that are important to finding and retaining work. the author is positive and gives attention to positive thinking while providing “how to” details and the necessary actions to be taken to be successful. 117 the book is divided into the following sections: 1. thinking skills which comprise: a. problem solving b. creativity and innovation c. emotional intelligence d. decision making 2. action/creative skills: a. communication b. media and information literacy c. entrepreneurship d. financial literacy 3. skills for living in the world: a. lifelong learning b. leadership c. stress management 4. personal skills: a. flexibility and adaptability b. being positive at all times c. physical fitness, wellness and positive lifestyle 5. social skills: a. tolerance and mutual respect b. conflict resolution and negotiation c. social manners d. collaboration 6. information communications technology: a. using various ict tools 7. cvs, resumes, personal statements and cover letters: a. writing winning cvs b. writing a winning resumé c. writing a winning personal statement d. writing a winning cover letter 118 e. online applications f. succeeding at interviews g. other important things to be done. each section and chapter provide descriptions of the skills, where the skills are typically used in daily life. the importance of the skills is outlined, and questions posed to help the readers assess themselves. the format of questions posed to the reader may easily be transferred into a group discussion format to support a facilitator. references for further reading and research provide the essential information for personal skills building. where internet links (urls) are provided, the reader may need to search for the item using regular search engines. as is often found, so called “link rot” can set in and the urls may be found to no longer work. given the information provided and the references, updated urls should be traceable online. as the book has been written for youth and includes many urls to additional materials, it would benefit readers to have it available in ebook formats such as epub and mobi. this kind of book lends itself to regular updates, contextualising and translations, which could benefit from editable versions being made available in open book formats. reviewed by: mr paul west, independent consultant and senior advisor in distance education, open learning, knowledge management, oers and project management. email: pgwest@pgw.org cite this paper as: west, p. (2020). book review: essential skills for highly successful youth. carolyne mande lunga. journal of learning for development, 7(1), 116-118. microsoft word pandaeditorial.docx issn: 2311-1550 2021, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. i-iv this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. editorial learning for development – discourse and practice santosh panda ‘learning for development,’ or for that matter the broader formulation of ‘education for development,’ has attracted greater attention during the past decades with further articulations within lifelong learning/ education, education for sustainable development, and digitalisation and development. irrespective of varied perceptions and interpretations of ‘development’, the general view has been that education and learning must ensure freedom and lead to a holistic development of human beings in relation to their environment and context, and in relation to others. drawing on the work of amartya sen on ‘development as freedom’, daniel (2014) argues that economic and educational equality, universal human rights, values and sustainable development continue to (and, shall continue to) dominate the policy and practice of the development agenda of nation states. in the context of higher education, tait (2018) analyses that for widening access to higher and further education, the developments in ‘distance education’ have come a long way now, emphasising more of ‘open education’, with the affordances of digital technologies, contributing to the development agenda and also gradually blurring the distinction between online and campus-based education. this blurring and blending will continue further, vis-à-vis what happened during the period of covid-19 and beyond. today, technology dominates almost all aspects of human life and our environment, and information and communication technologies (ict) will further expand to new heights in the future, demanding our consistent engagement in reflective discourse on its contours and practices. in this context of the process of development, what zheng et al (2018) argue holds good – that we need to confront diverse ideologies, power structures and forces of power in the embedding of ict for development. in this context, development is viewed as short and medium term, and as long-term societal transformation, based on ‘development as discourses’, and in which ‘theory of change’ may provide the required direction toward implementation. within the sustainable development agenda, there is also a need to integrate sustainable learning and transformation in (higher) education; and self-reflection by teachers and trainers on their own values is critical in developing the potential of students to act as agents of sustainable development for a sustainable future (filho et al, 2018). the critical factors and the model formulated by rohweder and virtanen (2009), based on a constructive research approach, relating to contextual, mental and activity dimensions, may help educational institutions in their efforts toward promotion of societal change for sustainable development. the commonwealth of learning’s agenda and interventions have been based on the larger view of ‘learning for development’, as also on the more practical view of lifelong learning and learning for sustainable development, and a bottom-up approach to learning as a facilitative but self-sustaining process. to further this agenda among the scholarly circles and to critically appreciate the work done at the grassroots and in-context, it initiated in 2014 the scholarly ‘journal of learning for development’ which in the past has often deliberated and reported on the concerns of ‘learning for development’. in ii this issue of the jl4d, we present 11 articles which deal with this theme through various discourses as well as practices. the first ‘invited’ contribution to this issue by terry evans and viktor jakupec will add to the current discourses on ‘education/learning for development’. the scholars provide an extensive background discussion on the shaping of international development and sustainability; and deploy the theories of modernization and dependency to analyse how international aid agencies have basically driven the agenda of the developing nations to catch up with the developed ones. the authors plead for the commonwealth of learning (which is ‘one of the most significant multi-national organisations addressing education for development’) to develop and share more indigenous/ local knowledge as part of a ‘lockean commonwealth of learning’ and to sharpen the research capacity of developing nation states to produce more local knowledge and also to dig out the lost indigenous knowledge. in the second ‘invited’ contribution, mapine makoe and don olcott analyse and echo similar sentiments in the african context — with the backdrop of technological developments, the covid-19 pandemic and a perception of the ill-preparedness of the nation states — arguing that governmental and institutional policies need to be geared toward embracing the future with respect for dignity, indigenous culture, language and heritage, and for a renewed pan-african ubuntu. in the ‘research articles’ section, we have included six papers, which in one way or the other contribute to ‘learning for development’. two papers deal with covid-19 and pedagogy/ learning in the african continent. in the first research paper, ramashego mphahlele and colleagues from three southern african countries report on digital inequality in accessing online educational provisions in the covidera in comparison to pre-covid blended learning (which was generally accessible to all) due to significant gaps in digital access and literacy between rural and urban, and digital immigrant and digital native students. the authors suggest that there is a need to ensure digital equity among preservice teachers and also development of their digital learning skills. in the next paper, kadhila and nyambe, while echoing similar problems in namibia, found additional issues relating to navigation to learning content and quality of online learning. the authors underline for governments and institutions the importance of learning from the transitional phase of covid-19 and further developing online pedagogies as a definite trend for the future, with built-in quality assurance measures aligned to the newer approaches. in the repertoire of research and development in pedagogy and teaching-learning, constructivist approaches like problem-based learning (pbl) and project-based learning (prbl) assume prime importance. in the research study on pbl in biology learning, monika laksmi and colleagues report the significant impact of pbl on the development of scientific explanation skills in biology in school students. the authors recommend the use of pbl in school teaching, especially in the context of biological materials about the environment. doğan and batdı report on a meta-thematic analysis of brainstorming as a creativity-promoting technique and its impact on the achievement of learners. the researchers analysed 34 qualitative studies, and based on seven conducive studies, found that brainstorming had a positive impact on the cognitive and affective skills of learners (i.e., problem solving via critical thinking), and that future researchers should explore further on various divergent, convergent, lateral, critical thinking and problem-solving skills in diverse teaching contexts. iii in the next research paper, luwoye, bello and adeoye report findings of a study, by using multistage sampling and quasi-experimental design, on the impact of demo kits on misconceptions in mitosis and meiosis by senior secondary school students. the researchers found its positive impact, and therefore recommend for teachers to use demo kits for correcting preand post-instructional misconceptions of students. in a qualitative descriptive research, yulingga hanief and co-researchers report the factors that inhibit the publication productivity in international journals by sports lecturers. the major factors include the ability of scientific research reporting and costs involved in such an activity. time to devote to such work was also another factor, since most of the time was devoted to carrying out field work. the researchers suggest that institutions need to encourage faculty and facilitate their participation in training programmes on scientific article writing. we have included two ‘case studies’ in the next section — one on teachers’ perception of oer in english language teaching in schools, and the other on open and innovative schooling. orwenjo and erastus report the findings of a baseline survey on schoolteachers who had been provided access to open resources through the platform of open resources for english language teaching (orelt) and who had attended a training workshop on how to use oer. the researchers discovered various institutional, cultural, pedagogic and personal factors inhibiting teachers to use oer, and suggest an institutional bottom-up approach to the use of oer, factoring in the constraints that teachers face. cossa and co-researchers report a tracer study on the open and innovative schooling model piloted in fifteen secondary schools in mozambique in the use of digital oer. the study shows that generally the pilot was successful, though to scale up the innovation, certain factors including access to devices, teacher training and support, and integration to school curriculum need to be considered and strengthened. in ‘reports from the field’, we have included an important paper on learning development in a technological university in ireland. roisin donnelly analyses a new approach designed and deployed for colleagues on teaching excellence and evidence-based practice in teaching-learning/ pedagogic inquiry. the innovative approach to pedagogic inquiry involved effective integration of inquiry and teaching, leading to enhancement in faculty productivity. this is also a fine example of discourse on and evidence-based application of scholarship of teaching and learning in higher education, and a showcase on the shift from ‘teaching as reflective practice’ to ‘engagement in disciplinary inquiry and scholarship of teaching and learning’. the author suggests to further consider creation of appropriate and flexible opportunities for professional development with built-in recognition and incentives. we end this issue with a book review by rosario passos of virtual reality in curriculum and pedagogy: evidence from secondary classrooms, edited by sheila jagannathan. the review concludes that ‘this book provides practical and useful insights on the state of educational provision in a post-pandemic world, putting forward alternatives for how and where to invest in education and capacity development to meet the sdgs’. we hope the invited discourses and externally reviewed research papers on practices shall be useful to researchers and practitioners and contribute to the literature on ‘learning for development’. i must sincerely thank dr tony mays, associate editor, who has single-handedly put in so much for giving a iv shape to this november issue; and to alan doree who has meticulously copy-edited the articles. thanks are also due to all the contributors who have continued their work of research and scholarship even during the time of covid-19 and so have contributed to this issue of jl4d. santosh panda chief editor, jl4d references daniel, j. s. (2014). what learning for development? journal of learning for development, 1(1). filho, w. l. et al. (2018). the role of transformation in learning and education for sustainability. journal of cleaner production, 199, 286-295. rohweder, l. & virtanen, a. (2009). developing the model on the learning for sustainable development in higher education. journal of teacher education for sustainability, 11(1), 31-42. tait, a. (2018). education for development: from distance to open education. journal of learning for development, 5(2), 110-115. zheng, y., hatakka, m., sahay, s., & andersson, a. (2018). conceptualising development in information and communication technology for development (ict4d). information technology for development, 24(1), 1-14. cite this paper as: panda, s. (2021). editorial— learning for development – discourse and practice. journal of learning for development, 8(3), i-iv. microsoft word pandaeditorial.docx issn: 2311-1550 2020, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 122-126 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. editorial professional development and capacity building in learning for development santosh panda the work of the commonwealth of learning, as also that of many governmental and institutional initiatives, has been, in the past, based on ‘policy-capacity-technology’ as a theory of change framework within which national and institutional strategies on learning for development have been located. it has been argued that it works better when practice is based on policy, and when capacitybuilding mediates between policy and technology (panda & mishra, 2020). the authors suggest that such implementation needs to be contextual in consideration of ‘socio-cultural and educational ecologies’. in a recent unesco communiqué , in the context of oer, building capacity of stakeholders to create, access, use, adapt, and redistribute oer was highlighted as of prime importance along with policy, quality, sustainability, and international collaboration (unesco, 2019). in the past, varied professional development and capacity building strategies have been designed at national and institutional levels depending on the existing needs, resources, and constraints for learning and training designs. keeping in view these developments and future possibilities, we have devoted this issue of jl4d to the theme “professional development and capacity building in learning for development” which reports research and development in areas ranging from carpe diem to use of learning-based extension, professional development in schools, skills in the use of mobile learning, teacher competencies in ict integration in schools, skills in the design and implementation of learning platforms, self-regulated learning skills, vocational and entrepreneurial skills in vulnerable contexts, and workplace training. there is also an interesting book review on digital security and safety. carpe diem—"seize the day”—is basically a method of collaborative design of learning and online learning (ref. 5-stage model; salmon, 2013), involving a structured workshop framework through which team-based curriculum design is implemented with the objective of engaging faculty and others in designing student-centred learning experiences in teaching-learning and assessment, and, in the process, enhancing their digital capability. carpe diem has successfully been implemented all over the world since the beginning of this century, and especially at glasgow caledonian university, uk, to augment online programmes, and to augment blended programmes at the university of northampton, uk (usher et al, 2018); and cd has positively impacted student satisfaction and experience at the university of western australia (oakley, 2016). this could also be used to support the open pedagogy and open educational practices of the present times. the strength of carpe diem lies in the deployment of research-based pedagogies and appropriate new technologies into collaborative learning design, including moocs, online learning, and blended learning. both programme design in relation to especially authentic assessment (villarroel et al, 2018) and module design (salmon & wright, 2014) methods have been effectively used by learning designers all over the world, and its specific productive application has been online activities or e-tivities (salmon, 2013). gilly salmon is internationally famous for her work on an alternative model of online learning, 123 specifically the 5-stage model, with applications across all levels of education and training/ professional development. in a recent invited author contribution by jl4d, gilly discussed an excellent work on education 4.0 / industry 4.0 (salmon, 2019). again, in this july 2020 issue of the journal, she and her colleagues share an invited research paper on the application of carpe diem (cd) in an institutional context (at stellenbosch university—su, south africa), detailing all the nuances involved in its transformational implementation and institutional innovation. cd enacted “watersheds”— “key moments and movements”—in not only engaging and transforming the faculty and programme renewal, but also made the institutional transformation more learner-oriented with better service in even difficult circumstances. the planned learning design intervention included a one-week workshop for ten faculties with ten programmes, to redesign curriculum based on innovative and practical pedagogy and with focus on faculty creativity and ownership, and student needs and drivers. this was to be aligned with institutional vision, and “focusing on innovation, future vision, integration and inclusiveness”. the intervention had a positive impact on the faculty across disciplines in transforming their own notion of pedagogy and learning design; and the author notes that the role of the “facilitator” is critical in initiating, doing, and sustaining the institution-wide intervention and transformation. significant suggestions have been given for those who would cautiously but confidently tread the path; and as the progress and preparedness of su down the line for more than three years suggests (schoonwinkel, van de merwe & de klerk, 2020), the university had been well-prepared to handle the transformation even in the time of covid-19. the next research paper by ramjattan, chowdhury and ganpat presents a survey-based report on agricultural workers’ choice of learning-based extension methods in enhancing their learning and decision-making in agriculture methods and livelihood in trinidad and tobago. extension agents’ own learning was critical in the success of learning-based methods like plant clinic and field schooling. additional intervening variables which need to be seen in conjunction with such extension interventions included social pressure and extension agents’ networking. the agents acted as plant doctors, and the method of a collaborative plant clinic with group learning at the clinic was found more effective than the agent visiting each individual farmer. empowerment of farmers in the development of competencies through extension services was critical in ensuring transfer of learning to the field. since younger agents were more inclined to learning-based methods than the senior ones, the authors recommend continuous training in enhancing knowledge and skills that involves more learning and less teaching. ajetunmobi, maruff and muhideen, in the next research paper, report on the relationship between professional development, participatory management, and job performance of 12,745 teachers of public secondary schools in nigeria, assessed through reliable structured tools. both professional development and participatory management were positively related to job performance; and the authors recommend that more institutional interventions are needed in capacity-building initiatives where both principals and teachers act as co-drivers, and teachers’ competency is enhanced in respect of 21st-century skills and technology competencies. our next research paper is by mutisya who explored the factors associated with the ict skills of primary school teachers in kenya. in this multiple-regression analysis study, the researchers concluded that the single-most important factor was the attitude of teachers influencing their use of ict in teaching, and that all other six variables—performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social 124 influence, facilitative conditions, self-efficacy, anxiety—did not have any significant association with teachers’ use of ict in practice. the authors recommended continuous teacher training on subjectspecific ict technologies coupled with deployment of sufficient ict infrastructure and proper training of school heads for effective monitoring of the ict-integrated teaching-learning. chimpololo, in the next research paper, reports the findings of a study on development of heutagogical practices (“interdependent learning, doubleand triple-loop learning and participation in communities of practice”) through mobile learning in teacher training programmes in malawi, a country where there is almost a 60% shortage of school teachers. the research used both quantitative (questionnaire) and qualitative methods (case study, semi-structured interview, focus-group discussion, and personal diary) for data collection. though availability of ict infrastructure was low, most teachers used mobile devices with internet access and also computers in their schools. the findings suggested that while mobile devices facilitated communities of practice, only a few teachers were engaging in independent learning and in doubleand triple-loop learning. the authors suggest that to foster such conditions will require teacher training to be conducive to the use of technology for independent and collaborative student learning, and for teachers to engage in a collaborative community of practice as well as individual reflection on their own learning processes during and post-teacher training. effectiveness of any educational and/ or training intervention could be judged from the extent of its contribution to development of self-regulation/ regulated learning and meta-cognitive skills. this has been a weaker aspect of schooling and higher education in many parts of the globe, and more so in the context of open and distance learning (odl). in the next research study, de silva reports a study conducted through questionnaire and qualitative data (observation, reflection, focus group discussion) on how the kwl method (what i know, what i want to know, what i learned), employed in the teacher education programme at the open university of sri lanka (ousl), significantly contributed to the development of srl abilities of student-teachers. the author suggests further use of the kwl method in the context of odl since this system depends more on students’ ability of self-learning than teachers’ teaching. we present three case studies in the next section of the journal—workplace training, notesmaster learning platform, and child marriage and vocational skill development—which should be of interest and be useful to our readers. alkema describes the workplace training intervention in new zealand through the workplace literacy and numeracy (wln) fund for enhancing the literacy and numeracy (reading, writing, speaking, listening, mathematics) and digital skills of lower-skilled employees to be able to effectively deal with life, learning and work in the 21st century, and also to contribute to enhanced productivity. the researcher reviews studies conducted on the contribution of this fund toward individual, social, workplace, and economic outcomes, and suggests the framework of “employee outcome-employee learning-workplace outcome” to scale it up. significant is the author’s recommendation of appropriate policy intervention and continuous learning at workplaces which could be visible through enhancement of skills and productivity among employees. in the next case study, nitschke and louw report a research study on the success of the new notesmaster namibia learning platform for a secondary education odl programme at the namibian college of open learning (namcol). those involved in this initiative—learners, tutors, and content developers—all appreciated the effectiveness of the online platform, and the digital contents 125 generated are shared as open educational resources (oer, cc-by-sa). computer and internet access has been a major issue for open schooling, and namcol’s collaboration with the namibian open learning network trust may address this issue in future. in the third and final research case study, mnubi reports the findings on experiences drawn from the girls inspire project in tanzania where girls affected by child/ early/ forced marriages (260 female victims in this study) have successfully been trained on vocational and entrepreneurial skills, with enhanced freedom for making informed choices and participation in development. the three research-based case studies provide us significant data and information to make informed decisions on training, technology, and skilling interventions for adult literacy, open schooling, and vocational education for female victims. a danger in the technology-enabled world of today is digital and cyber insecurity; and the book review by paul west on safety and security measures in the digital world, and the book, under review, by keats (published in 2020) should be of interest to all of us. we hope this issue of jl4d on “professional development and capacity building in learning for development” will be of high interest to all of you, and will provide for further reflection, research, and appropriate action. santosh panda chief editor, jl4d references oakley, g. (2016) from diffusion to explosion: accelerating blended learning at the university of western australia. blended, 67. panda, s., & mishra, s. (2020). epilogue: mainstreaming technology-enabled learning. in s. mishra & s. panda (eds.), technology-enabled learning: policy, pedagogy, and practice. burnaby: the commonwealth of learning. (forthcoming) salmon, g. (2013). e-tivities: the key to active online learning. new york: routledge. salmon, g. (2019). may the fourth be with you: creating education 4.0. journal of learning for development, 6(2), 95-115. salmon, g., van der merwe, a., & schoonwinkel, a. (2019). carpe diem for educational transformation. world conference on online learning, dublin, december. salmon, g., & wright, p. (2014). transforming future teaching through carpe diem learning design. education sciences, 4(1), 52-63. schoonwinkel, a., van de merwe, a., & de klerk, m. (2020, april 23). navigating uncertainty in the move to online learning. university world news. retrieved from https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20200421085256435 unesco (2019, june 5). intergovernmental expert meeting adopts revised draft recommendation on open educational resources. paris: unesco. usher, j. macneill, j., & creanor, l. (2018). evolutions of carpe diem for learning design. compass: journal of learning and teaching, 11(1). 1-8. retrieved from https://journals.gre.ac.uk/index.php/compass/article/view/718 126 villarroel, v., bloxham, s., bruna, d., bruna, c., & herrera, c. (2017). authentic assessment: creating a blueprint for course design. assessment and evaluation in higher education, 43(5), 840-854. retrieved from doi:10.1080/02602938.2017.1412396 cite this paper as: panda, s. (2020). editorial— professional development and capacity building in learning for development. journal of learning for development, 7(2), 122-126. microsoft word gracemary.docx issn: 2311-1550 2020, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 479-484 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. the use of modern educational technologies in remote learning in higher education during a pandemic: the case of covid-19 in cameroon gracemary eloheneke moluayonge university of buea, cameroon abstract: in march 2020, the first case of covid-19 was discovered in cameroon. this led to the higher education institutions resorting to remote learning to ensure continued teaching and learning. the researcher thus set out to bring to the limelight some recommendations for the use of educational technologies for remote learning in cameroon and to propose some suggestions to the government, the policy makers, the stakeholders and the teachers for more effective implementation of e-learning in higher education institutions in cameroon. keywords: educational technologies, remote learning, covid-19, higher education. introduction on december 31, 2019, the world health organization (who) was notified of the prevalence of pneumonia in china, particularly in wuhan city, caused by an unidentified viral agent. it was later associated to the coronavirus (recerca-university of barcelona, 2020). the covid-19 disease is caused by a newly discovered virus-2019 novel corona virus from a family of viral pathogens responsible for diseases like severe acute respiratory syndrome and the common cold (who.int; recercauniversity of barcelona, 2020). what is most frightening about this disease is, as of august 2020, there were 231 vaccine candidates in development, however, no candidate had completed clinical trials to prove its safety and efficacy (vaccine center, london school of hygiene and tropical medicine, 2020). since the announcement of this novel disease, the world has been in panic and fear as this disease has gradually been transmitted across several countries around the globe. unfortunately, on march 6, 2020, the first case of covid-19 was confirmed in cameroon (kouagheu, 2020). washing of hands regularly with soap and water, avoiding the touching of the face, practicing physical distancing by avoiding unnecessary travel and staying away from large crowds were the safety precautions, amidst others, stipulated by who (who.int) to fight against the spread of covid-19. with the confirmation of covid-19 cases in cameroon, the government of cameroon decided to implement the who recommendations for combating the spread of covid-19. consequently, on march 17, 2020, an interministerial consultation was held on the instructions of the head of state of cameroon to assess the situation and identify a way forward (republic of cameroon, 2020a). instruction 3 of the measures that were presented by the head of state of cameroon at the end of the meeting, was that, as from march 18, 2020, till further notice all public and private training establishments of various levels of education, from nursery school to higher education, including vocational training centers and professional schools, would be closed (republic of cameroon, 2020b). as a result, as of march 18, most face-to-face activities were suspended in schools in cameroon. following these developments, 480 the deans and directors of higher education institutions met severally to decide on a way forward. in the case of the university of buea, the pioneer anglo-saxon university in cameroon, the use of elearning was approved for the continuation of lectures (university of buea, 2020). thus, lecturers resorted to remote learning to ensure the continuation of the smooth running of the teaching and learning process. even though universities timidly resumed face-to-face meetings after several months, it is evident that online learning is an innovation in our institutions which has come to stay. it is against such a backdrop that the researcher thought to highlight sample educational technologies recommended for remote learning in cameroon and finally give some practical suggestions for more effective implementation of remote learning in cameroon, particularly in the higher education sector. educational technological implementations in higher education in cameroon amidst the covid-19 pandemic the minister, in his circular letter no. 20-00016 of march 21, 2020 relating to preventive and control measures against coronavirus in the higher education system, recommended distance teaching involving digital lectures, emails, whatsapp, facebook, telegram, campus radios, audio and video recording, micro programs, telephone and television recordings and broadcasted lectures. for distance assessment, the minister recommended homework and examination papers sent to students digitally, written evaluations to be replaced by oral ones, and allowing one or more teachers to question the students using the aforementioned media outlets. concerning tele-defense, videoconferencing could be done, amidst other options. for distance research, documentary resources must be digitalised to create virtual libraries which could be accessible to teachers and students, distance experiments, tests and applied work. moreover, scientific events such as symposia and seminars should be held through the use of ict (minister of higher education, republic of cameroon, 2020). following the recommendations from the minister of higher education, the authorities of the higher institutions went ahead to implement specific e-learning platforms for the continuation of their students’ studies. for example, the registrar of the university of buea, in line with the resolutions of the meeting of the committee of deans and directors held on april 1, 2020, recommended that lecturers should convert their lecture notes into powerpoint presentations while the supporting reading materials should be in portable document format (pdf). these materials should then be uploaded into the e-learning platforms. in cases where the notes are not ready in pdf form, the lecturer can upload text, typed documents, or even photos into the course whatsapp forum. this should be followed up with audio explanations of the same notes, questions and responses. for the learning management system, the university of buea decided on google classroom and whatsapp, except for the faculty of education and the higher teacher’s training college, who will be using moodle. these went into effect from april 13, 2020 with the commencement of the second semester (university of buea, 2020). concerning internet service, the main service providers have been making efforts to ensure learning continues. for example, in the case of mtn cameroon, they provided the link <https://mtn.cm/schoolgoes-on> with approximately 44 sites from which students can learn using little or no data (mtn.cm). yoomee cameroon and camtel cameroon, both service providers, too, gave out discounted internet 481 bundles at 10.000xaf (usd 16) for 128 gb and 150 gb of internet respectively to be consumed within a month (yoomeemobile.com; camtel.cm). practical suggestions for more effective implementation of remote learning in the higher education sector of cameroon as we move from traditional to digital classrooms; stakeholders, policy makers, the government, teachers and even the students have to put all hands on deck to ensure a smooth transition. below are some suggestions and recommendations for more effective teaching, learning and engagement online. pedagogical suggestions group activities: in order to overcome the challenges of working in groups while learning online, the teacher can provide the students with tools for online collaboration (such as google docs and dropbox); video conferencing tools (google hangout, skype, zoom, googlemeet), and/or a platform for brainstorming ideas (padlet, mindmeister). students are noted for finding their own ways of collaborating given their situation (clinefelter & aslanian, 2016). when using video conferencing tools, it is recommended to tell the students to mute their microphones at the beginning of the lesson and only unmute if asked to speak. making the students prepare formal and informal speeches, and respond to critiques can also make learning more effective. with tools such as voicethread, flipgrid, and screencast-o-matic, students can record their presentation and share the link with the class (clinefelter & aslanian, 2016). discussions: in the absence of face-to-face discussions, student-student and student-instructor dialogue can be done either through the discussion section in the learning management systems, or through social networks such as whatsapp and facebook, as well as wikis, blogs, and portfolios. effective use of such platforms can help the students engage more with the content, the instructor and with each other (clinefelter & aslanian, 2016). in-class practice activities: add self-check questions to videos or lecture materials using interactive presentation tools such as nearpod, classflow, and edpuzzle. alternatively, online learning activities such as word puzzles, jeopardy, audio flashcards, or quizzes can be created with tools like quizlet, jeopardy labs and studystack (clinefelter & aslanian, 2016). exercise flexibility and understand limitations: some learners may be in areas where they will experience power outages, intermittent internet access or may not have a device for online learning. the teacher should be flexible in using alternative platforms for student submission in cases where they cannot access as prescribed. also, the teacher may have to directly email (or even mail) assignments, photos and videos to students to ensure that they obtain and submit completed work. the teacher should also consider allowing the students to take a picture with their devices or use free apps like camscanner, genuisscan, adobescan, etc., to scan assignments with their mobile devices and send them in (herzog & mawn, 2020). as a teacher you might also consider accepting learners who cannot afford a device to send their assignments through their peers’ devices or a parent’s, etc., and also to participate through their peers’ devices or platform account. 482 technological tools suggestions google has developed a number of educational products under the g suite. most of them are free and simple to navigate. there is google meet for video conferencing and messaging and google docs, sheets and slides through which students and teachers can work together on documents in real time. these can serve as wikis as they can be collectively edited. google sheets can be used to deliver quizzes and surveys, and google groups can create class discussions forums. there is also google classroom, which is a learning management system (google.com). given the present situation in cameroon, with an unstable energy supply (energy mix report, 2020) and expensive internet connection (toussi, 2019), these google products for education are highly recommended. in the case of a learning management system, google classroom could be ideal. this is because it is free of charge for educational purposes, easy to navigate, contains no ads, allows the teacher can give quick feedback through the comment section, and the comment section facilitates group discussion. this fosters collaboration and communication. if a student or teacher is already familiar with google products like gmail, it is easy to navigate the classroom interface (google.com). also, the classroom app is relatively light to download with a size of 11.93 mb. the moodle app for example has a download size of 15.44mb (apkpure.com). moreover, google classroom can be accessed offline and there can be more than one teacher per class (kurtz, 2020). furthermore, google classroom for education can accommodate an unlimited number of users unlike other lmss for school, which have a limit. moodle for school plan for example can accommodate up to 500 users (pardo-bunte, 2017). thus, google products for school could be ideal for cameroon. moreover, some time slots could be allocated on local radio stations for review of some basic university courses. this could go a long way to strengthen what the learners are receiving online. technological knowhow suggestions professor mbarika of the ict university cameroon raised some concerns with the practice of elearning in cameroon. one of which was the lack of appropriate training of the lecturers and students. a large number of university professors and students do not have the appropriate training to teach and learn online (journal du cameroun, 2020). this challenge could be resolved by having the university authorities organise forums and webinars for teachers of various institutions on some basic tips of how to go about online studies. the teachers could, in turn, transfer this knowledge to their students. in consideration of the inconsistent power supply and internet connections, tutorial videos and handouts could be done by the ict experts of the various institutions with regard to use of these e-learning platforms. these could be distributed to both teachers and students. evaluation suggestions discussion board and forum participation: the reward of a grade makes students more participative and responsive to the dialogue begun by the teacher and even ensures the continuation of the thread of discussion (greenlaw & deloach, 2003). students, thus, become co-constructors of the materials, examine alternative viewpoints and reach an agreement on a subject together (greenlaw & deloach, 2003). discussion boards and forums can thus be used to assess how much the students have understood a particular aspect of the curriculum. usually the learning management systems provide discussion boards, forums, chat rooms, comment sections, and so on, for the purpose of sharing ideas. 483 online quizzes and exams: online quizzes help the teacher know progressively how much the students have understood the material presented (martyn, 2003), thus, enabling the instructor to track the students’ performance. a quiz can be taken on google forms while an exam can be taken on goformative. furthermore, technological tools can also be used to monitor students taking exams online, such as proctorio, a google chrome extension, etc. electronic paper and project submissions: when the students submit projects and assignments online, this can be done from anywhere and doesn’t run the risk of going missing (ley, 1999). emma pass (2020) gave the following suggestions for projects that could be done and submitted online: taking a picture of anything and attaching online to an email or the learning management site; writing with google docs, either individually or in groups; creating a google slide presentation, individually or in groups; making a poster or infographic on canvas; recording a reaction or response on flipgrid; practicing vocabulary words on quizlet; tagging a research on thinglink; creating virtual tours on cospaces or google tour creator; making a video on wevideo; illustrating on google drawings; and doing a virtual scavenger hunt on google forms. conclusion the covid-19 pandemic has resulted in educational institutions across the world in general, and cameroon in particular, being obliged to rapidly harness and exploit the large array of existing educational technologies to construct content for remote learning for learners at all levels of education, in general and higher education in particular. these technologies and modes of teaching and learning always existed but have remained largely untapped, particularly in the case of education in cameroon until now. thus, the outbreak of this pandemic forcefully opened a new page in the book of the cameroon educational system. even though at the moment, there are some challenges with education going online in cameroon, it is hoped that with time, these challenges will be overcome and the educational system will be digitalised for the greater part of it. references clinefelter, d., & aslanian, c., (2016). online college students 2016: comprehensive data on demands and preferences. the learning house, inc. energy mix report. (2020). cameroon will reimburse electricity firm eneo a first tranche of fcfa 45bn. https://www.energymixreport.com/cameroon-will-reimburse-electricity-firm-eneo-a-first-tranche-of-fcfa45bn/ greenlaw, s., & deloach, s. ( 2003). teaching critical thinking with electronic discussion. the journal of economic education, 34(1), 36-52. herzog, j., & mawn, m. (2020). biology teaching in the time of covid-19: how to transfer to online learning. washington, dc: american society for microbiology. journal du cameroun. (2020). cameroon/coronavirus: ict university sets pace in e-learning after school shut down. https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/cameroon-coronavirus-ict-university-sets-pace-in-e-learning-afterschool-shutdown/ kouagheu, j. (2020). cameroon confirms first case of coronavirus. reuters. kurtz, j. (2020). even without internet at home, students can keep learning. https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/education/offline-access-covid19/ 484 ley, k. (1999). providing feedback to distant students. campus-wide information systems, 16(2), 63-70. martyn, m. (2003). the hybrid online model: good practice. educause quarterly, 1, 18-23. minister of higher education, republic of cameroon. (2020). circular letter no. 20-00016 of march 21, 2020 relating to preventive and control measures against coronavirus in the higher education system. https://www.minesup.gov.cm/site/index.php/2020/03/31/circular-letter-of-march-21-2020-relating-topreventive-and-control-measures-against-coronavirus-covid-19-in-the-higher-education-system/ pardo-bunte, m. (2017). moodle vs. canvas: key features and services comparison. https://www.betterbuys.com/lms/moodle-vs-canvas/ pass, e. (2020). online teaching in the time of coronavirus. https://www.edtechemma.com/single-post/2020/03/11/online-teaching-in-the-time-of-coronavirus recerca-university of barcelona (2020). covid-19 disease caused by coronavirus: worries, facts and science revolving around the viral epidemics first reported in wuhan. https://www.ub.edu/web/ub/en/recerca_innovacio/recerca_a_la_ub/recerca.html republic of cameroon. (2020a). analysis report. http://covid-19-cameroon.org/wpcontent/uploads/2020/03/encovid-19_proposals-col-dr-pleg.pdf republic of cameroon. (2020b). government response strategy to coronavirus pandemic (covid-19). https://www.spm.gov.cm/site/?q=en/content/government-response-strategy-coronavirus-pandemic-covid-19 savage, d. (1999). combating violence, disruption and harassment in the university community: a handbook for academic staff and faculty associations. donald c. savage consulting co. ltd. toussi, s. (2019). overview of cameroon’s digital landscape. https://cipesa.org/2019/09/overview-of-cameroons-digital-landscape/ university of buea. (2020). press release on covid-19. http://www.ubuea.cm/press-release-3/ vaccine center, london school of hygiene and tropical medicine. (2020). vaccine centre covid-19 response. https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/research/centres/vaccine-centre/covid-19 author: gracemary eloheneke moluayonge, ph.d, is an assistant lecturer, educational technology higher technical teacher’s training college of the university of buea, cameroon. email: graciacallisse@yahoo.com cite this paper as: moluayonge, g. e. (2020). the use of modern educational technologies in remote learning in higher education during a pandemic: the case of covid-19 in cameroon. journal of learning for development, 7(3), 479-484. tait editorial alan tait vol. 1, no. 1 learning for development: an introduction in a world crowded by journals, what is the need for a new one?  the worlds of education and development live two separate lives, and educators in particular too often limit their interest to the educational systems within which they work – hard and innovatively – without, however, often enough making that further step to plan for and evaluate the impact on and outcomes in development. this is as relevant in the richer countries, with their social segmentation and lack of equity in opportunity, not to speak of relative if not so often absolute poverty, as in the poorer countries. this journal aims to promote that alignment of learning for development the range of theories of development available for consideration is broad.  it includes understandings of the world that progress is built primarily on economic growth and that poorer countries should become like richer countries, to a hostility to the idea that economic growth is sustainable, and with considerable scepticism about the impact of development defined by the ‘north’ on the lives and cultures of the ‘south’.  while in most cases education is seen as an essential contributor to the human capital that countries need to grow economically and socially, there is a counter view that education, especially at the tertiary level, provides legitimacy for a filter for the labour market and legitimation of elites, and for under and unemployment, as much as it provides real skill and knowledge essential for employment for the majority. development is in other words a contested concept, and this journal will welcome contributions to the necessary debates about how development is conceived by those who contribute to it through the organisation of learning opportunities in all their range, informal as well as formal. within that range of possibilities for the meaning of development, the most dominant set of ideas over the last 20 years or so, especially for international governmental organizations, has been the human development model pioneered by undp through its annual world development reports. these began in 1990 with the celebrated but, at the time, challenging statement, ‘people are the real wealth of a nation’ (undp 2010 p. 1), which lay in contrast with the world bank approach to development at that time of gdp growth being the simple goal and measure for development (the economist, cited in undp 2010 p. 14).  while mahbub ul haq was the progenitor of this new approach in the undp, including the idea that the capacity to make choices was core to a framework for development, his partner at the time in this rethinking was amartya sen whose work developed under the title of capability approaches has subsequently become highly influential (sen 2001).  in brief, development activity should seek to support capabilities in people ‘to be and to do’. the approach has an existential commitment to human freedom to choose those capabilities, constrained as those freedoms may be by context. capabilities are supported by sets of skills and activities, known in sen’s terminology as ‘functionings’.  the skill of reading may for example support the capability for an individual to be the person she or he wants, and to gain a livelihood in a more fulfilling and materially rewarding way. this approach to development has been very influential in international governmental organisations charged on behalf of their governments with development goals over the last 20 or more years, and has more recently made an impact in particular in thinking about the education sector. evaluating these contested sets of ideas as to what make up development, and their relevance for innovation in learning and open and distance learning in particular, will be an important focus for the journal. education, primarily adult literacy and school enrolment, was included along with life expectancy and gdp per capita, to create a more complex set of measures than just gdp with which to assess development in the first undp annual report to address the issue in 1990 (saito p. 22). this new set of measures was known as the human development index (hdi).  education has thus been part of the overall framework of ideas, which became the capability approach from the beginning, along with the notion of freedom to make choices. it has however taken longer than expected for the ideas of the capability approach to make their way as an explanatory framework into education and in particular into the tertiary and higher education sectors.  saito summarizes sen’s view on the contribution that education can and should make to human capability: the human capital received from education can be conceived in terms of commodity production.  however sen argues that education plays a role not only in accumulating human capital but also in broadening human capability. this can be through a person benefiting from education ‘in reading, communicating, arguing, in being able to chose in a more informed way, in being taken seriously by others and so on.’ saito 2003 p. 24 saito points out also that education may not necessarily improve capabilities, as some kinds of education may even reduce them (rote learning, for example). while her comments relate to children and compulsory education they are highly relevant to tertiary and odl approaches: it seems appropriate to argue that education which plays a role in expanding a child’s capabilities should be a  kind of education that makes people autonomous. saito 2003 p. 28 the use of the capability approaches framework in the tertiary sector has been slim, but watts and bridges (2006) have analyzed the discourse of access to higher education.  they have critiqued the top-down nature of such policies in england, valuable though the goal may in general be to increase the study at university of a wider range of socio-economic backgrounds, on the grounds that the benefits are assumed rather than deriving from the young adults whom such polices are designed to serve.  the senian notion of freedom to choose is thus ignored. this may serve to explain the limited success that a decade of such widening participation policies and accompanying funds have had over the last decade in england in shifting the proportion of entrants to  higher education from  poorer socio-economic groups. open and distance learning, development  and social justice institutions and intergovernmental organisations in the field of education and development frequently frame their mission or vision explicitly in terms of social justice, (tait 2013).  what might they mean by that? the roots are both religious and secular, with the notion developed through the french revolution from whence we hold the notion of universal human rights, but used also over a long period by the roman catholic church in its positive option for the poor (tait and o’rourke 2014).  at core is a commitment to equality of human beings, the development of programmes of activity to deliver inclusion of the great majority in the benefits of society, and solidarity with those in need.  however, there is no worked out and articulated framework of understanding as to what a development framework for open education might look like.  earlier works such as rogers on adult learning more broadly assert the need for such a framework in richer as well as poorer countries, and evaluate the range of development ideas available.  many of the questions raised remain relevant, in particular the critique of human resource development as making objects of ‘target groups’ rather than subjects of development (rogers 1990). more specifically for odl, wall in writing about distance education with indigenous people in the north of canada, asserts the importance of partnerships and working with communities (wall 1992). unesco, in its policy document on open and distance learning (odl), explicitly linked its importance for the achievement of the right to education for all, and emphasized the significance for development of odl’s deployment of technologies for learning in educational contexts (unesco 2002 pp. 13-19). perraton makes an extended and sceptical examination of the claims of odl to contribute to development in the south, and identifies the high incidence of non-completion as a major stumbling block to the recognition of those claims (perraton 2000). reza asks still pertinent questions about how the impact of odl can be assessed in terms of personal, social and economic measures, and laments the absence of adequate data. she nonetheless concludes that there are benefits to its target audience but that future policy in this area must be better informed by research (reza 2004 p. 221). rumble has focused in the context of odl on one aspect of social justice, namely the contribution odl can make through the provision of education at prices affordable to the poor through redistributive taxation (rumble 2007). such an argument, and its accompanying polemic against neo-liberal approaches to society in general and education in particular, would if applied, at least arguably contribute to access to education, a necessary condition for social justice to be delivered. outside continental europe however that argument is not followed at least at the tertiary education level, and indeed in england has recently been comprehensively dismissed by the recent fees and funding policy for higher education, where university education has been positioned as private not a public good. kirkpatrick has argued that odl is central to delivery of the millennium development goals, and in particular draws attention to the scale of impact of oers on teacher education in african contexts (kirkpatrick  2008 pp. 26-28).   dladla and moon identify the need for ict solutions to the scale issues of teacher education in developing countries (dladla and moon 2013) the commonwealth of learning, which focuses its mission on the contribution that innovation in learning and in particular odl can make to development, is the first institution to propose the use of capability approaches in the odl field. col sets out its position clearly on both how development is to be framed and how education for development is to be understood.  the organisation’s three year plan 2012-15 states that following the ideas of development economist and nobel laureate the freedoms that men and women enjoy is a definition of development, and greater freedom empowers people to be more effective agents of development. col (2012 p. 9) it can be inferred that it is the framework of learning for development, rather than only on innovation in learning, that has over the last decade brought for col the explicit use of the dominant framework for development of the capability approach. this issue the journal is hosted and generously supported by the commonwealth of learning, an international governmental organisation (http://www.col.org), whose primary focus is on ‘learning for development’, and in particular the expansion of ‘the scale, efficiency and quality of learning by using appropriate technologies, particularly those that support open and distance learning (odl).’  as with col, the journal will take a particular interest in odl but will not be restricted in its focus on innovation in learning to odl, nor is it another journal of odl or distance, e or on-line learning.  as stated above, the journal will provide a place where researchers and practitioners provide studies of the impact of innovation in learning on development.  the journal will be published on an open access basis, as befits both the topic and the sponsoring organisation.  we will also publish on a rolling basis, archiving content on a periodic basis and publishing articles as soon as they have been reviewed and edited.  this means that authors will not have to wait in a long queue for publication, a considerable advantage deriving from the on-line character of contemporary journal publishing. we will publish scholarly articles, normally up to 6500 words, double blind refereed in the conventional way, although we also hope in due course to introduce some dimensions of  ‘open refereeing’, which allows the article to be published immediately and for the community to complement the anonymous refereeing process. we will also publish shorter case studies of projects that have contributed to development through innovation in learning (see elsewhere on the journal website for guidelines), which we intend to build up as a resource for both research and practice.  i am pleased to announce that we also have a reviews section, led by reviews editor dr godson gatsha of botswana college of open and distance learning.  along with our distinguished editorial board and regional associate editors, we hope readers will be fully engaged by what we publish, and will want to contribute and encourage colleagues to contribute. we are already very gratified that contributions to this first issue have fully justified our aspiration that there is space for a journal focusing in the field of learning for development. we could not have hoped for a more distinguished affirmation for the need for the journal than to have received a contribution from sir john daniel, former president and ceo of the commonwealth of learning.  in his article ‘what learning for what development?’ sir john gives an historical account of the evolution of attitudes of poverty and education, and sets these into the broader contemporary context of global agendas defined by international governmental organizations for development and universal education.  setting out a senian framework to development, daniel focuses on a grassroots agricultural project of lifelong learning for farmers to support his argument that bottom–up approaches are at least as important as top-down policy frameworks in testing sen’s ideas.  we believe that this in itself is an innovative focus and justifies the need for a journal to provide space and to encourage such analysis, which will in due course, we intend, benefit the participants in and users of such educational programmes, both formal and informal.  hayat al khatib in her case study of the arab open university provides evidence of the employment opportunities for graduates from the seven countries in the arab region within which it works. in particular she identifies as key the aims of the arab ou to recruit women and students from poorer backgrounds, and discusses the need to tailor the approaches to learning and teaching to the culture of the arab region with a significant element of face to face teaching in a blended offer.  finally al-khatib discusses the challenges faced when major open and distance learning interventions depend on teaching materials developed in western countries, and the importance of ensuring their appropriateness to the needs and culture of the arab region. osei and mensah report on a programme of science undergraduate education, tailored as  a top-up programme for diploma holders and delivered at a distance by kwame nkrumah university of science and technology, ghana.  the priority for the programme derives from the perceived shortage of science graduates in the  country, and science programmes delivered at a distance have been hampered by difficulties in teaching science skills to a sufficient degree off-campus.  the focus of the article lies importantly in the effort to support students and mitigate drop-out, which produces  graduation rates (not module completion rates) which  range from 36 to 93%, a very  high range of achievement in the distance education field. latchem makes an impassioned plea for non-formal and informal lifelong learning to be given more attention in the field of distance and e-learning and development outcomes.  he argues that the great majority of learning is in fact informal, and that technologies are having a very important impact in expanding this field, and yet research and discussion is very much focused on the formal sector.  this is an important clarion call for change, and latchem is surely right when considering the impact of informal learning on development. baggaley draws attention to the risk for the developing world of uncritical and uninformed adoption of recent mooc  practices, which have, he argues, been too little constructed with access to the literature and understandings of the distance education tradition. bagalley proposes that the field has too often been limited by the silos of specialisation, and that we need to see the integration of international development, community development and distance education literatures. seelig provides a case study of work in prisons undertaken by the open polytechnic of new zealand. she describes the innovation necessary to provide elements of technology supported learning with specially tailored tablet devices in order to comply with security needs as well as introduce support for individual learning.  the proportion of the indigenous maori population in prison  is high, as in other similar commonwealth contexts, and the development imperative clear. baijnath sets out a major programme of innovation by the university of south africa to introduce  online learning, of great significance as an example in the african continent marked by such disparities in wealth and access to technology.  he reports on the 6 signature courses, which will be represented  in all undergraduate degrees, based on heutagogical learner-centred principles.  the material can be carried on a device that can be plugged into a computer for those who do not easily have access to the internet, but which will provide some of the affordances of technology supported learning.  this was a major development with more than 33 000 students in the first presentation, and provides an important vehicle for the introduction of online learning in countries with significant populations in 'developing country' contexts. the issue concludes with three substantial book reviews by well-known experts who have taken themes central to the learning  and development focus of this journal. these themes include continued discussion of the management of the digital revolution for education in developing countries, with a particular focus on education systems in sub-saharan africa.  i am grateful to mark bullen, freda wolfenden and thomas hulsmann for this support to the journal. in conclusion the first issue has demonstrated the conceptual identity of this new journal, that there is a space where the contribution of learning to development can be framed for discussion. major themes addressed include employment and  livelihood outcomes, the need for science and and technology graduates in developing country contexts, the undervaluing and under-examination of informal and nonformal learning, and the management of the digital revolution for learning in ways that maximize inclusion and success.  the journal critically engages with the questions as to what development is and how it should be supported, of relevance also in developed country contexts where development discourse is, regrettably, less familiar. i am grateful on behalf of the editorial  board and the commonwealth of learning who support the journal for the confidence shown in this new initiative by all those who have contributed to this first issue. the second issue is already open, and i look forward to contributions and to reader response. in closing i would like to acknowledge the support of the editorial team of dr mark bullen (associate editor), dr godson gatsha (reviews editor) and patricia schlicht (editorial assistant) and i also want to acknowledge the leadership and support of professor asha kanwar, president of the commonwealth of learning, in the foundation of this journal, and for the valuable foreword she has provided.  without support from col and its president we would not be here. note: this introduction draws on tait, a. (2013) references commonwealth of learning. (2012).  three-year plan 2012-15: learning for development. retrieved from this url.  dladla, n., & moon, b. (2013). teachers and the development agenda: an introduction. in dladla, n., & moon, b. (eds.). teacher education and the challenge of development. london: routledge. 5-18. kirkpatrick, d. (2008). the challenge of the millenium development goals: role, potential and impact of open and distance learning (pp. 25-31). in open and distance learning for sustainable development. proceedings of the second african council for distance education conference, lagos. retrieved from this url. perraton, h. (2000). open and distance learning in the developing world. london: routledge. reza, r. (2004). benefits for students, labour force, employers and society. in perraton, h. & lentell, h. (eds.). policy for open and distance learning, (pp. 209-223). london: routledgefalmer. rogers, a. (1990). adults learning for development, london, cassell education with education for development. rumble, g. (2007). social justice, economics and distance education. open learning, 22:2, pp. 167-176. saito, m. (2003). amartya sen’s capability approach to education: a critical exploration. journal of philosophy of education, 37:1. pp. 17-33. sen, a. (2001). development as freedom. oxford university press. tait, a., & o’rourke, j. (2014). internationalisation, social justice and open, distance and e-learning: working with the grain’. in anderson, t. & zawacki-richter o. (eds.), online distance education: toward a research agenda.  edmonton: athabasca university press, (in press). tait, a. (2013, september). distance and e-learning, social justice and development: the relevance of capability approaches—the mission of open universities. international review of research of open, distance learning (irrodl). undp. (2010). world development report. new york: undp. unesco. (2002). open and distance learning, trends, policy and strategy considerations. (eds.), moore, m., & tait, a. paris:  unesco. wall, d. (1992). thoughts on the theory of community and distance education: the significance for maintenance and sustainability of development programs. in wall, d., & owen, m. (eds.). distance education and sustainable community development. canadian circumpolar institute with athabasca university press, edmonton. pp. 1-10. watts, m., & bridges d. (2006). the value of non-participation in higher education. journal of education policy, 21:3. pp. 267-290. alan tait is the editor in chief of the journal of learning for development. e-mail: alan.tait@open.ac.uk microsoft word papi.docx issn: 2311-1550 2020, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 467-472 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. supporting teachers in the transition towards distance education: challenges and means cathia papi téluq university, québec, canada abstract: during the lockdown as a result of the pandemic, it became necessary to deploy distance education in many countries, at all levels of education. this article presents the creation of a training course aimed at helping teachers to shift from in-person classes to distance learning. it highlights the issues and challenges encountered and pinpoints the first observable impacts of this course, as well as in-progress and upcoming developments. keywords: distance education, online learning, pandemic, transition. introduction the pandemic and the resulting containment measures have served to expedite the development of telework and distance learning in most countries. while some educational institutions were well prepared to contend with this situation, in that they already offered distance courses or had already needed to adapt their instruction during previous pandemics (lim et al, 2009), many others had to motivate their teachers and learners to change their practices. thus, in quebec, with the exception of téluq university and cégep à distance, whose courses are all provided via distance education, and of a few universities whose online course offerings are being deployed gradually, the majority of institutions were caught unprepared. teachers and learners alike were called upon to do their best to reinvent education from their home environment, which resulted in a variety of practices and testimonials emphasizing their feelings of anxiety and dissatisfaction being relayed by the media. quebec’s ministry of education therefore approached téluq university to create a distance learning course to help teachers in transitioning from in-person to distance teaching. in this article, we seek to describe the process of creating this course and the challenges that were met in order to achieve it, before concluding with the impacts and perspectives of the course. lockdown: a favourable context for fostering innovation in distance education? while distance education (de) has existed since the middle of the 19th century, it is the need to continue teaching during the lockdown period that has made many teachers and learners aware not only of its existence but also of its potential and limitations. by waiting to gain some perspective on the practices implemented by teachers, it was possible to see various ways in which this situation could be a source of pedagogical innovation. in fact, two primary educational engineering models were tested: on the one hand, the model created in the 1970s brought by the open university to the united kingdom or other equivalent models 468 elsewhere in the world, such as téluq university in quebec, and, on the other hand, the model that emerged in universities in the 2000s, with the development of learning management systems (lmss). in the first case, the de model, sometimes characterised as industrial, involves a large number of stakeholders striving to conduct needs analysis, to implement the instructional design of courses, to create content and learning activities, including their mediatised forms, and to coach students and evaluate their assignments. this model, initially designed for correspondence courses, was gradually adapted to the internet age (papi, 2016), whereas, the second model, which was more artisanal, was developed when the availability of platforms allowed teachers to put what they wanted online fairly easily, with no more support than an lms training course implemented at the institution in question, or with ad hoc advice from techno-pedagogues. on the one hand, the process of creating distance learning courses based on an industrial model is lengthy but leads to high-quality courses overall; the process of implementing courses following the artisanal model, on the other hand, is much faster but is likely to result in courses of varying quality. in the context of the pandemic, the first model proved to be too slow to create distance education courses corresponding to all of the in-person courses offered by a particular institution. as for the second model, it allows teachers who have already integrated the use of an lms into their practices to quickly turn to de, especially when they had already developed activities of this nature. however, not all teachers are accustomed to using a de platform, and some have tended to spend too much time researching effective technologies for sharing content, or communicating and multiplying the number of resources proposed to learners without always having a coherent plan to advance learning. in fact, as underscored by peraya and peletier (2020), when teachers do not fully grasp the unique features of de, they may tend to reproduce frontal, face-to-face teaching methods combined with the mediatization of current technologies. thus, during lockdown, many teachers turned towards what seemed the most familiar to them, by trying to deliver virtual classes in the same way as in-person teaching, while simultaneously deploring the limitations of the system, rather than re-examining the educational practices implemented. similarly, it has been a frequent practice for teachers to send homework to learners by email, indicating textbook exercises to be completed. finally, in order to be able to perpetuate traditional assessment carried out under limited-time supervision, online assignments or exams available for a limited period have often been paired with a videoconferencing system requiring the camera to be turned on. in short, despite a few innovative practices leveraging the imagination of teachers and their desire to help their learners as much as possible, far from implementing a new model of educational engineering or “education 4.0” (salmon, 2019), many teachers have primarily managed through resourcefulness and do-it-yourself solutions. it is therefore understandable why quebec’s ministry of education entrusted téluq university with the mandate to create a training course enabling teachers to become familiar with distance education. however, for a university that has long-term production processes and a range of experience in providing training about the particulars of distance education to university students specializing in this field, it has proven to be a considerable challenge to roll out a course, in an urgent situation, intended for teachers from preschool to university level, with varied skills and needs. we therefore propose to highlight different observations and reflections that marked the creation of this course. 469 creating a survival kit for diving into distance education familiarizing teachers with distance education involved constructing a course intended to equip teachers for distance education, both from a pedagogical and a technological standpoint. in the lockdown context and given the size of the targeted audience (more than 130,000 teachers in quebec), this course could be viewed as a survival kit for navigating the fraught transition from in-class teaching to distance education, which was achieved by means of asynchronous distance education between the end of april and the beginning of august 2020. we will review the two main challenges of this course, which is entitled j’enseigne à distance [i teach at a distance]―namely, to meet the needs of many teachers at various educational levels and, for this purpose, to quickly create a training course and make it available―by drawing attention to the directions taken by this project. first challenge: to meet the needs of teachers in order to foster adaptation to the needs of teachers, an agreement was reached to develop an asynchronous training course that is available at all times, is accessible free of charge and consists of microprograms that are separate from each other and comprised of relatively short modules (approximately one hour long). in addition, given that the idea of creating this course occurred when teachers had already started teaching at a distance, it was decided that rather than basing the training on a traditional course structure―1. instructional design 2. mediatization, 3. support, 4. assessment―it would be better to reverse the order a little, with the most urgent requirement being to offer the support microprogram to help teachers with course activities, and next to put the mediatization microprogram online, and only afterwards the instructional design microprogram, and finally, the assessment microprogram, which was the last one to be implemented, as it seemed less pressing in a local context, where many exams had been cancelled. in addition, a decision was made to organise the course via three pathways according to level of education― preschool/primary, secondary and higher education. thus, while the four microprograms have a similar orientation, the content of each of the modules included in these microprograms is specifically designed for a particular level of education. for example, given that the asynchronous learning mode is not adapted to young students, the course proposed for the preschool/primary level is more focused on what can be achieved in a synchronous mode, whereas for higher education, both synchronous and asynchronous communication modes are used. it was also necessary to seek out technologies that are accessible to the various teachers involved and to offer them ways not to design distance education courses that follow a traditional instructional design process, but to adapt courses initially designed to be given in the classroom such that they present a wide palette of types of assessment and marking methods that can be put into practice when necessary. finally, it seemed appropriate to reassure teachers and alleviate their fears about teaching at a distance, such as apprehensions of being overwhelmed by the vast array of technologies, and of finding it more difficult to detect cases of cheating during exams. hence the idea of calling on many stakeholders in educational settings to participate in the creation of some course content or in conducting interviews to enable teachers to have concrete examples of practices implemented by colleagues. in addition, in order to help teachers to support their learners, different resources are also recommended. thus, a course entitled j’enseigne à distance was created in this lockdown context and is relayed through microprograms aimed at providing support at the primary and secondary levels. 470 comprised of five video vignettes intended for parents supporting their primaryor secondary-level children who are taking distance courses, this training course can also be disseminated to parents through teachers who consider it to be relevant, just as works intended for distance students are sometimes cited in higher education microprograms so that teachers can recommend them to their students as needed. we now understand that this training course, initially designed as a survival kit, is ultimately a highly useful resource―one that draws on basic principles of distance education and that was created with the participation of many stakeholders. second challenge: to quickly create the training course and make it available in an attempt to mitigate the slowness associated with a distance education production model that is both industrial in terms of the division of work, and artisanal in that it was adapted to the individual needs of each course created and to the vision of all the professors who served as content experts, the immediate decision made was to put large teams to work at all levels. thus, many professors, technopedagogues, proofreaders, graphic designers, and integrators worked simultaneously so that the microprograms could be created and put online as quickly as possible. however, in spite of the labour power deployed in this manner, the training course could not be made available online as fast as we wanted due to various limitations. first of all, bringing teams to work together when they are not accustomed to doing so is a challenge in itself, particularly since the need to develop the training course quickly did not allow for the various collaborators to share their representations of their work and working methods upstream. we needed to begin work immediately, and therefore coordination and problem-solving had to be done as we went along, sometimes involving changes in what was being created. in addition, the audience of téluq university is generally restricted to a limited number of learners. in the context of the course j’enseigne à distance, to the extent that this training course targets a large number of teachers and can be accessed free of charge by anyone who is interested in it, different technological solutions were contemplated, and several problems had to be resolved along the way to be sure that an online traffic surge could be supported. furthermore, to avoid the substantial task of identifying and presenting technological tools in each module and to remain focused on pedagogy, a toolbox listing the main technological tools used in education was created for the training course as a whole. in order to make it easier for teachers to use the tools, they are organised by category (“collaborative tools”, for example), and the level of education for which they are used, their ease of mastery, language, cost and device compatibility are also specified and can serve as selection factors. in addition, links to existing tutorials are indicated for each tool. finally, since the training course modules were put online gradually as soon as they were created, to enable teachers to take advantage of them as soon as possible, it was also necessary to answer questions about the modules, while at the same time producing the rest of the training course. for instance, in response to requests from some teachers, a system for issuing certificates, not planned for initially, was designed when the first two modules were already on line. thus, throughout the development of this multifaceted training course, the urgency of the situation had to be balanced with the needs of teachers and the desire to provide quality content. 471 impacts and perspectives an initial observation is that this training course was eagerly anticipated. in fact, as soon as the first module was put online on may 4, traffic to the site was high (25,244 visitors) and three months later, as of august 3, we recorded a total of 120,469 visitors. thus, although the training course is accessible to everyone with no registration required, we are currently recording the number of subscribers to our mailing list (24,309 as of august 3) a figure that will certainly increase in the weeks to come, as people prepare for school to resume. in addition, it is interesting to note that, while the target audience is teachers in quebec, and no advertising was therefore done outside of the province, people who have occupations other than teacher have subscribed, as have people living outside of quebec. this can be seen on the map below (the darker the colour, the more visitors there are). figure 1: locations of visitors worldwide between may 4 and august 3, 2020 with its focus on pedagogy and the fact that it lists an extensive selection of technological tools, this training course is therefore bound to contribute to the transition from in-person to distance learning around the globe and, in particular, to be useful in countries where the necessary expertise for creating such microprograms is lacking. international interest will therefore certainly grow with the upcoming english-language version. 472 one of the next decisions to be made will therefore be simply to translate or to adapt the different microprograms to the canadian anglophone context. the second solution is clearly preferable but all of the skilled tradespersons working to develop these microprograms have already fallen far behind in creating téluq university credit courses. indeed, this unplanned training course became a priority as soon as it was commissioned, and the various stakeholders that worked to develop this course had to postpone planned activities and find the means to work without keeping track of their hours, despite the special circumstances of working remotely from home, and the need to improvise stages or make recordings using videoconferencing systems. while almost all of the french microprograms are now available online, and we are currently supporting teachers who are taking the course by offering a few webinars or personal development opportunities, it is worth noting that the creation of j’enseigne à distance, which is aimed at helping teachers to make changes―and even break new ground― in their pedagogical practices, has also been a source for renewing practices and identifying processes that require efficiency improvements at an institution that has a proven track record in this training mode. finally, it remains to be seen to what extent this training course will enable teachers to be inspired and supported in their technopedagogical practices, whatever the situation may be in the months to come. references lim, e. c., oh, v. m., koh, d. r., & seet, r. c. (2009). the challenges of “continuing medical education” in a pandemic era. annals, academy of medicine, singapore, 38(8), 724-726. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/vernon_oh2/publication/26795469_the_challenges_of_continuing_m edical_education_in_a_pandemic_era/links/5554430108ae6943a86f479f.pdf papi, c. (2016). de l'évolution du métier d'enseignant à distance. sticef, 23. http://sticef.univlemans.fr/num/vol2016/03-papi-ensaccapp/sticef_2016_ns_papi_03.htm peraya, d., & peltier, c. (2020). ingénierie pédagogique : vingt fois sur le métier remettons notre ouvrage…. distances et médiations des savoirs, 29. http://journals.openedition.org/dms/4817 salmon, g. (2019). may the fourth be with you: creating education 4.0. journal of learning for development, 6(1), 95‒115. https://jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/article/view/352 author: cathia papi, phd, is a professor at téluq university, where she is in charge of distance education (de) programs. she conducts research on the representations and uses of digital technologies in education, and on distance education support and interactions. she is the editor-in-chief of the journal mediations and mediatizations. email: cpapi@teluq.ca cite this paper as: papi, c. (2020). supporting teachers in the transition towards distance education: challenges and means. journal of learning for development, 7(3), 467-472. microsoft word nicholsjic.docx issn: 2311-1550 2023, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 142-148 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. commentary: what, exactly, is 'online' education? mark nichols open polytechnic business division, te pūkenga, new zealand abstract: as responsible educators, it is time we admitted that we do not know what 'online' education is. we also need to confront the discomforting realisation that no one else does, either. the term 'online' has reached the stage where it is now so inclusive as to be meaningless. in embracing too much, it describes nothing. what was once a useful term to describe using the internet as part of asynchronous distance education is now used universally, to describe almost anything. lectured, synchronous classes are now 'online' (johnson et al., 2022). emergency remote teaching and learning during the covid-19 pandemic was 'online'. including additional resources on an lms for students to refer to after class is considered ‘online’. across much of the educational spectrum, to be 'online' now is far from unusual. in this commentary i make the case that the term 'online' needs a forced retirement, or, at the least, additional context when it is applied. personal illustrations this matter came to a head for me across two major events, one international, the other local. the covid-19 pandemic required an immediate educational response. many teachers, eager to continue teaching their students (or else required to by desperate administrators), made the courageous, otherwise unnecessary, and formerly unprecedented move to full zoom and lms-based education. it is not disputed that this shift to what is widely known as emergency remote teaching/learning was unavoidably pragmatic and rushed (talib et al., 2021). it is unfortunate, though, that this shift became popularly known as a move to ‘online’ and even ‘distance’ education. the move to this form of ‘online’ education was experienced internationally and, in the minds of some, has tainted ‘online’ education in general as a second-rate option reserved for those unable or unwilling to access a classroom or lecture theatre. the second event was a local one: the bringing together of multiple aotearoa new zealand institutes of technology and polytechnics, and industry training organisations, into one. te pūkenga, the largest higher education provider in the country i am proud to call home, combines some nine on-the-job, fifteen on-campus, and one distance provider of tertiary vocational education and training (https://www.xn--tepkenga-szb.ac.nz/). early in the activity it became clear that the term ‘online’ was used in various ways across these providers, in ways that obscured some serious operational differences. the polytechnic i am part of at the time of submitting this piece, the open polytechnic business division of te pūkenga, is based on the classic open, distance and flexible learning (odfl) principles of 143 access, independent learning, and asynchronous education to the extent of moving toward anytime enrolment. this approach is facilitated ‘online’. however, a much larger group of providers in the te pūkenga network are also offering ‘online’ education — albeit in many ways that mostly do not facilitate anytime enrolment into substantial programmes, nor mirror the same asynchronous and cohort-free/independent study pathways offered through the open polytechnic approach. clearly, ‘online’ is an inadequate term to describe educational approaches. it runs the risk of a part representing the whole, simultaneously masking significant operational and strategic differences, and opportunities. further illustrations the term ‘online’ is an extremely general one, properly only indicating the facilitation of a computer network to transfer data. given that most activity in higher education now involves networked computers, it might be a fair stretch to describe all that we do — as administrators, academics — as ‘online’. i use email: does that make me an ‘online’ manager in ways that differentiate my role from that of other ‘online’ managers? when i research, i use online databases, and increasingly a browser-based word processor. am i, then, an ‘online’ researcher? or on the days i work from home, is it sufficient and accurate to define who i am solely as an ‘online’ employee, with no additional context? it is worth considering the inadequacies of ‘online’ across a broader lens. consider watching a movie. you might watch it by going to the cinema, or you may stream it from the comfort of home; you might watch it on a long-haul flight, or on your phone on the train. facilitating each of these options is a computer network transferring data, including cinemas which increasingly receive the movies they project through digital distribution. all, then, might be legitimately described as ‘online’ to some extent. a further illustration, demonstrating the category error that ‘online’ leads to: the term ‘vehicle’ is used to describe a range of transport modes that, a quick online search reveals, embraces at least military, domestic, and commercial means of travel. a ‘vehicle’ is at once both descriptive and useless as a means of communicating what i might be driving, as i may be a tank driver, bus driver, hovercraft pilot, coachman, remote control operator… i trust the point is made. from a passenger and driver perspective the type of vehicle is foundationally important. to extend this illustration, the ‘vehicle’ i am concerned with may need a specific type of fuel; only operate on roads (or perhaps may not need one at all); and require a specific licence. driving a horse and cart is a far cry from driving a tank, and simply maintaining even these two ‘vehicles’ requires completely different facilities, equipment, fuel, and training. coincidentally, considering the ‘vehicle’ example brings to mind the debate as to whether educational technologies ought to be considered ‘mere vehicles’ for the purposes of instruction (clark, 1983, 1994; koehler, 2016; kozma, 1991, 1994). is ‘online’ relevant in any way as a means of defining education? if ‘online’ literally means use of a network to transfer data, so by extension how a user accesses services, would it be a stretch to refer to on-campus learning as ‘commuter’ learning? applying the term ‘online’ to education is at best a category mistake, easily corrected. at worst, it is a naïve misunderstanding that may mislead educational decision-making and inappropriately signal a particular educational approach. in applying the term ‘online’ we 144 confuse the medium for the means. this is not only highly inaccurate; it is operationally and strategically dangerous. for all involved in odfl, whether academics or administrators, how educational efforts are aligned is significant to our learners, colleagues, and broader stakeholders (including funders and accrediting bodies). we need ways of describing practice that enable us to plan, refine, improve, and coordinate activities that are mutually understood. ‘online’ is simply not up to that task. refining the issue so, how might we proceed? how can we begin to tame the problem? a useful start would be to refine just what terminology should achieve for educational practitioners and decision-makers. in a paper published from pcf10 in calgary last year (nichols & seelig, 2022), dr caroline seelig and i suggested that helpful terminology describing forms of education should: 1. provide a clear distinction across different modes. how is this different from other forms? 2. benefit strategy and operational decisions. what opportunities does this offer, and how is it made to work? 3. enable a common dialogue in literature. how do we know we are talking about the same thing, for purposes of comparison? 4. give insight into the teaching and learning experience. what does the teacher do? the learner? what infrastructure is required? when we run the term 'online' across these four categories, it is clear that the term obscures more than it reveals. distinctiveness. higher education might be differentiated across the high-level categories of in-classroom; on-the-job; and open, distance, and flexible learning (odfl). these frequently overlap in practice however they are also reasonably descriptive of different teaching and learning from a student perspective. as recently as twenty years ago it was possible to talk about ‘dual-mode’ universities, that offered both in-classroom and distance education. blended, hybrid and other terms have since elbowed their way into dialogue. ‘online’ is a term that might be used to describe elements of practice across all these categories. of the categorical terms used to describe how education takes place, ‘online’ is the least distinctive. strategy and operations. there are many facets to this. one of the great barriers to higher education access is the ability for learners to begin study at any time. many open universities, for example, still have only a few semesters or presentations each year. my own institution offers courses monthly (soon likely twice per month), with the objective of anytime enrolment. the term ‘online’ is not a helpful one for this level of strategy, and neither does it give any insight as to the operating model requirements it has. neither does the term adequately indicate the sorts of roles, responsibilities, analytics, technologies, systems, or configurations necessary to support the sort of education that it attempts to describe. critically, neither does ‘online’ give any sense of the operational cost, up-front investment, scalability, or actual flexibility of the education on offer. 145 common dialogue. in academic literature as in real-life, describing a course as ‘online’ gives no clue as to the actual dynamics of education in play. it is possible for two educators or decision makers to talk completely past one another if they rely on the term ‘online’. for the moment, literature seems divided as to whether this represents a problem (johnson et. al., 2022; singh & thurman, 2019); after all, for most conversations taking place across immediate colleagues within a department or school ‘online’ likely has a shared meaning. at a larger scale, however, ‘online’ is extremely problematic given the range of meaning projected on to it by anyone using it. teaching and learning experience. 'online' can be — and is — used to describe both asynchronous and synchronous courses. the roles of learning designer, teacher, peerengagement, and course materials differ significantly across asynchronous and synchronous models. so, ‘online’ gives no insight into what a teacher does; the scope of course materials involved; the function of a tutor, if any; or the suggested pattern of study. when and how a student enrols might be completely different, as would weekly study patterns for a course based on zoom lectures, and one based on specially prepared courseware designed to facilitate asynchronous, independent learning. some forms of ‘online’ might be perfectly suitable for part-time or anytime study, while others might have strict timetables. so, i propose that we take a collective stand against the term ‘online’ as it relates to education. what then, might replace it? given the term ‘online’ is now in popular dialogue, how would we seek to fill the considerable vacuum left if we refused to use it? toward resolution sadly, there is no easy answer — primarily because of the chaotic mash that is terminology across odfl (‘online’ is but the latest open-ended term; ‘open’, ‘distance’ and ‘flexible’ also have chequered histories as journal debates across the 1980s and 1990s demonstrate). however, to suggest some hope and guidance, the earlier principles for describing forms of education may prove helpful. in a chapter for the handbook of open, distance and digital education (nichols, 2022) i suggested it would be helpful to distinguish between teaching models primarily on the basis of synchronicity, that is, whether by design a model begins from an asynchronous or synchronous assumption of the education experience. further definition may be possible based on: • the responsibility of tuition, whether it rests for example in a single teacher or is spread across an educational team that might include learning designers and tutors; • what provides the instructor voice, for example, it might be a didactic teacher or based in courseware constructed with a subject narrative; • the location of instruction, whether it is a classroom, lecture theatre, workplace, or fully independent; and • the level of peer involvement assumed in the model, whether conversational, casual, or optional. any new set of definitions will only be as useful as they are widely adopted, and it is not my intention to propose a new series of definitions in this piece; i am not deluded enough to assume that any proposal i make will be suddenly universal. my objective here is to 146 constructively provoke, rather than resolve. eventually it may be possible to harness the multiplicity of other terms already in the ring — ‘hybrid’, ‘blended’, ‘hyflex’ immediately spring to mind — and apply them in more deliberate ways. for now, at the least, when we describe the forms of education we are involved with as odfl practitioners, it might be optimal to provide some additional context. by way of a few examples: “we offer our courses online. by this, i mean that we create courseware suitable for independent study and anytime start. our learners are able to study anywhere on their own, with an academic on call offering assistance and connection.” “we have online courses, where our lecturers stream their live classes. this means learners are able to study flexibly while still enjoying the benefits of peer engagement through discussion forums and on-campus workshops.” “our online courses are designed to have learners interact in group work. it’s mostly self-directed, based on a series of reference materials and discussion prompts. our team of tutors helps guide the groups and make sure they keep to the semester schedule.” “online learning for us supports the workplace experience. learners need to pick up what they need for their study as assessment opportunities present themselves, and alongside their workplace mentors and colleagues. it’s mostly ‘how-to’ guides, demonstrations, and places to upload evidence.” across these four examples it is clear that “we offer our courses online…”, “we have online courses…”, “our online courses are…” and “online learning for us…” provide little clue as to the very real differences across the practices given dimension and life with just a few thoughtful additions. at the least, it’s incumbent for us all as those involved in and advocating odfl to be much more careful and considered as to how we explain what we do, and to ward off misunderstanding for those whose ‘online’ practice might be thought to resemble odfl when it patently does not. an important dialogue is needed if we are to maintain the value and distinctiveness of odfl so that it is not confused with the popular — not always effective — perception of whatever ‘online’ education is thought to be. may our innovation and forward-thinking plans for education instead be in the direction of open, distance, and flexible learning possibilities — noting that even across these terms we all hold so dear, definitions are contentious! that odfl is still misunderstood should also give us pause — references baldwin, r.g., & baumann, m.j. (2005). options for change: a flexible vehicle for curriculum evolution and reform. innovative higher education, 30(2), 89-98. bartlett, j.e., kotrlik, j.w. & higgins, c.c. (2001). organizational research: determining appropriate sample size in survey research. information technology, learning, and performance journal, 19, 43-50. billett, s. (1995). workplace learning: its potential and limitations. education + training, 37(5), 20-27. billett, s. (2000). guided learning at work. journal of workplace learning, 12(7), 272-285. billett, s., & choy, s. (2013). learning through work: emerging perspectives and new challenges. journal of workplace learning, 25(4), 264-276. doi:10.1108/13665621311316447. 147 brannen, j., & coram, t. (eds.). (1992). mixing methods: qualitative and quantitative research (vol. 5). avebury. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315248813. brodie, p., & irving, k. (2007). assessment in work-based learning: investigating a pedagogical approach to enhance student learning. assessment & evaluation in higher education, 32(1), 11-19. doi:10.1080/02602930600848218. collis, b., & moonen, j. (2002). flexible learning in a digital world. open learning: the journal of open, distance and e-learning, 17(3), 217-230. doi:10.1080/0268051022000048228. connor, a., karmokar, s., & whittington, c. (2015). from stem to steam: strategies for enhancing engineering & technology education. international journal of engineering pedagogy, 5(2), 37-47. http://dx.doi.org/10.3991/ijep.v5i2.4458. ferguson, c. (1998). the continuous professional development of engineers and flexible learning strategies. international journal of lifelong education, 17(3). 173-183. doi:10.1080/0260137980170303. fleming, j., & haigh, n.j. (2018). using sociocultural insights to enhance work-integrated learning. higher education, skills and work-based learning, 8(4), 395-407. herman, l., & mandell, a. (2015). experiential learnings revised. journal of learning for development, 2(1). https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej1106125.pdf helyer, r. (2011). aligning higher education with the world of work. higher education, skills and work-based learning, 1(2), 95-105. helyer, r. (2015). learning through reflection: the critical role of reflection in work-based learning (wbl). journal of work-applied management, 7(1), 15-27. lester, s., & costley, c. (2010). work-based learning at higher education level: value, practice and critique. studies in higher education, 35(5), 561-575. doi:10.1080/03075070903216635. linehan, m., & sheridan, i. (2009). workplace learning courses in irish third-level colleges. journal of workplace learning, 21(6), 496-504. doi:10.1108/13665620910976766. macleod, i.a. (2010). the education of innovative engineers. engineering, construction and architectural management, 17(1), 21-34. doi:10.1108/09699981011011294. metso, s., & kianto, a. (2014). vocational students' perspective on professional skills workplace learning. journal of workplace learning, 26(2), 128-148. mtebe, j.s., fulgence, k., & gallagher, m.s. (2021). covid-19 and technology enhanced teaching in higher education in sub-saharan africa: a case of the university of dar es salaam, tanzania. journal of learning for development, 8(2), 383-397. namjoshi, r. (2020). the role of industry in implementing work-based learning pedagogy. work based learning e-journal international, 9(1), 132-146. o'connor, b.n. (2004). the workplace learning cycle: a problem-based curriculum model for the preparation of workplace learning professionals. journal of workplace learning, 16(6), 341-349. doi:10.1108/13665620410550312. palmer, s. (2001). engineering flexible teaching and learning in engineering education. european journal of engineering education, 26(1), 1-13. doi:10.1080/03043790010009149. pon-barry, h., st. john, a., packard, b.w.l., & rotundo, b. (2019, february). a flexible curriculum for promoting inclusion through peer mentorship. in proceedings of the 50th acm technical symposium on computer science education (pp. 1116-1122). salmon, g. (2019). may the fourth be with you: creating education 4.0. journal of learning for development, 6(2), 95-115. 148 sweet, r. (2018). work-based learning: a handbook for policy makers and social partners in etf partner countries. european training foundation. doi:10.2816/018079. wanner, t., & palmer, e. (2015). personalising learning: exploring student and teacher perceptions about flexible learning and assessment in a flipped university course. computers & education, 88, 354-369. author: dr mark nichols is executive director of learning design and development with the open polytechnic business division of te pūkenga. mark is a commonwealth of learning chair, board member of the icde, an honorary fellow of eden, and a principal fellow of the higher education academy. mark is also on several journal editorial boards and has multiple publications. mark's long history in open, flexible, and distance education includes hosting the 'leaders and legends of online learning' podcast, an ironic title given the thrust of this article. email: nichthus@outlook.com cite this paper as: nichols, m. (2023). commentary: what, exactly, is 'online' education? journal of learning for development, 10(2), 142-148. microsoft word toquero.docx issn: 2311-1550 2021, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 448-455 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. academic silver linings in a philippine state university amid the early stages of pandemic cases cathy mae d. toquero college of education, mindanao state university-general santos city abstract: the primary role of the academe is knowledge building, however, due to the prevailing digital divide, some institutions of higher learning were not able to offer even emergency online teaching (eot) for continuous formal education during the early stages of the pandemic. this article highlights diversified ways that a state university from a developing country (philippines) responded to the crisis to offer assistance towards the social development of the stakeholders amid the covid-19 pandemic. keywords: covid-19, higher education, crisis response strategy, emergency response, philippines. introduction the covid-19 pandemic has taken the world off guard and continues to hit people in numerous nations. based on the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) dashboard of the world health organisation (who, 2021a), there are 101,561,219 confirmed cases of coronavirus with 2,196,944 deaths as of january 30, 2021. scientists, researchers, and medical experts from leading pharmaceutical industries, renowned laboratories, and top academies are racing to find a cure to prevent the spread of the deadly virus. despite global efforts, the number of cases is still on the rise around the world (hare et al, 2020) which causes extensive health concerns among the public (ather, patel, ruparel, diogenes, & hargreaves, 2020). in the philippines, there are 525,618 confirmed cases of covid-19 with 10,749 deaths as of january 31, 2021 (covid19tracker.ph.com). because of this, community quarantine, lockdown, social distancing, and school closures are still compulsorily implemented nationwide as preventive measures to control the spread of the virus. during the early stages of the pandemic, academicians and students went to alternative online delivery as mitigating measures to continue learning through virtual spaces. the country, however, was, and is not, prepared for online learning due to dominant issues such as internet connectivity, closure of internet shops, the remote location of many students, and many other social, curricular, and economic factors. despite these predicaments, some universities have found ways to extend the help to the community even beyond the classroom. the roles that the university portray are central to community development and is reflected in how it could identify, prioritise, and engage with its stakeholders (jongbloed, endres, & salerno, 2008). the help that the university can extend to its constituents could create a good and lasting impression to the stakeholders, especially in the time of crisis. 449 hence, this article reports on innovative strategies made possible through online communication applied by one of the few universities to provide practical assistance to some communities in the philippines during the early stages of the virus outbreak. figure 1: covid-19 cases reported weekly by who (2021b) regional and global deaths, as of january 24, 2021. aim of the programme initiative this article presents an analysis of the programme initiative of a state university in mindanao, philippines during the early phase of the pandemic. the anti-covid-19 programme of mindanao state university-general santos city (msu-gsc) aimed to create strategies that could cater to the university and the community stakeholders. the framework of msu-gsc also aimed to build activities with the goal to prevent the transmission of the 2019 novel coronavirus disease and help the local community. as a state university from a developing country with insufficient resources, it diverted to extend community support to stranded students, medical front-liners, and the rest of the stakeholders in the community. moreover, the functions of higher learning nowadays are not just the transmission of knowledge, and research, and training. the social responsibilities of the academe, especially amid the pandemic, include promoting awareness about covid-19 through online platforms and helping the community in any way it can to extend its efforts and resources. academicians play a crucial role in the social development of the stakeholders. due to a rapidly evolving situation, incorporating changeable statistics from the university is not viable at the moment. during this pandemic, there is a need to articulate the practises of the university on how it responds to the emerging real-life challenges due to an unprecedented emergency, hence, the researcher utilised memoranda from the institution, as well as facebook posts, facebook pages, chat messages, advisories, and online pictures to achieve this. the researcher reviewed the materials and studied the flow of communication among the students and the faculty. participant observation through the 450 online group chats and narrative experience of the researcher as one of the faculty members served as a way to create this report. likewise, data were observed through a public page of a state university in the philippines. the university dedicated this facebook page to serve as an information dissemination system for the online community to fight against the covid-19 pandemic. the article used the model of creswell (2013) to formulate data out of the relevant public documents. case context mindanao state university-general santos city is one of the three premier state universities in the soccsksargen area and the only state university located in general santos city, mindanao, philippines. it envisions becoming a national peace university in the country, considering its numerous peace efforts and the similar peace programmes it renders to the community. the university caters to multicultural groups of students from different areas in mindanao and has a special mandate from the philippine government to offer quality instruction to the tri-partite groups of muslims, christians, and indigenous people. at the advent of covid-19, the university was adversely affected as it did not have a distance learning environment. covid-19 has caused digital divides in some societies in developing countries such as the philippines due to the inaccessibility of distance education. consequently, the university ensured efforts to assist its local community, especially the students whose schooling was earlier terminated during the semester when the pandemic cases worsened in the country. because of the community quarantine and ongoing lockdown, the university could only cater to constituents within the general santos vicinity. due to the suspension of online delivery in the entire country after three days of the community quarantine, faculty members were not able to conduct online classes for the students during the early phases of the pandemic. to mitigate the dilemma, the state university shifted its efforts to help the stakeholders through looking for alternative ways other than online teaching but made full utilisation of an online platform such as facebook as the primary tool, and messenger for free online communication amid the pandemic. since the covid-19 testing medical centre in general santos city had limited supplies of ppe, the university made use of donations to create face masks, face shields, laboratory gowns and coats to freely give as assistance, and to supplement the equipment needs of medical professionals as well as catering to the fundamental preventive needs of its students and faculty. the local government had already proposed to include the state university as another testing centre in the city, and, at the time of writing, is undergoing the process for further context analysis for medical purposes. nevertheless, the efforts of the university just prove that “next to the area of training and research, higher education interacts with areas like health, industry, culture, territorial development, and the labour market” (jongbloed, endres, & salerno, 2008, p. 305). the university’s practical innovations during the early stages of the health emergency volunteerism efforts from faculty members and staff of msu-gsc have been the key to extend help to its stakeholders. the academe needs to form good relationships with the stakeholders since this is essential during the time of crisis (hocke-mirzashvili, kelly, & macdonald, 2005). the university’s partnerships have vital implications for the working arrangement of its governance and accountability to the community (jongbloed, endres, & salerno, 2008). 451 moreover, because of the call for online drive donations, the university has amassed sufficient donations of money, materials, and relief goods to give to the community. the crisis response efforts of the university have been made possible through the use of technology. the online platform, particularly facebook, has been very useful for reaching out to those students and individuals who need supplies. call for online donation drives there were students who had been stranded in the dormitories and boarding houses near the vicinity of the university. these students were from far provinces and they did not have sufficient transportation allowance to proceed to their residential areas. they decided to stay in the university and the boarding houses during the earliest implementation of the community quarantine, since they did not expect a rigid, enhanced community quarantine in general santos and the rest of the provinces. however, the university opted for online donation drives, which equipped the university with enough financial support from the community itself to give to the students and the medical frontliners. a report in one study stated that the stakeholders themselves wanted to receive news and updates from the social networks (hocke-mirzashvili, kelly, & macdonald, 2005). facebook has been useful for the academic community, since it is free and accessible online except for those who are in remote areas and do not have internet connectivity. the online call for donation drives is also effective as there are still more offerings of financial assistance at the time of writing. aside from this, numerous students from the said state university are also proactively engaged in many facebook groups that the university’s clubs and organisations have created so that they can share their learning and university-related experiences. support to stranded students though the university did not monitor earlier that there are students who stayed behind in the institution, even when there was an earlier memorandum of the cancellation of classes, the university looked for ways to supply the stranded students with food and allowances during the rest of the community quarantine. student affairs services organised the distribution of the relief goods to the stranded students. likewise, an alumni organisation of the university, especially of the elementary education department, also assisted the stranded students through financial assistance, relief goods, and online support. the students were thankful for the financial assistance, relief goods, and emotional support given to them, since they were far from their families and nobody could provide for their needs due to the lockdown. this highlights the responsibility of the academe to fulfil the needs of the students, since “universities have to understand the role of their stakeholders, identify their primary stakeholders and apply corresponding strategies to deal with them” (tetřevová, & sabolová, 2010, p. 231). counseling through online care centers social media plays a crucial role nowadays for faster dissemination of relevant and critical information. it can increase the voices of the people who can participate during the crisis (hockemirzashvili, kelly, & macdonald, 2005). consequently, online platforms, such as facebook and messenger, have been vital for the university to offer accessible services to the stakeholders for engagement even amid the pandemic. thus, for the community to also access emotional and mental health support, volunteer experts of msu-gsc with masters’ and doctors’ degrees related to 452 psychology, created facebook pages to give free consultation, health education, mental health tips, covid-19 related information, and biosafety protocols through an online mental health counselling page for the students and constituents to access anytime. students have chatted through online private messages to the experts, following the protocol for assurance on confidentiality. generation of knowledge though technology a significant social responsibility of universities is to represent the “centres of intelligence, knowledge and creative activity and plays [sic] the key role in the scientific, cultural, social and economic development of the society” (tetřevová, & sabolová, 2010, p. 229). being at the forefront of the generation of knowledge, msu-gsc contributes to knowledge production that gives limited supplies to the students through the formulation of products for sanitising. it is widespread in social media news that at the early peak of covid-19, people rushed to obtain supplies of hygiene materials. on a local level, there was no more supply of cleaning alcohol in the malls and stores because of the panic buying that happened when the community quarantine was announced nationwide. likewise, there was a control on the market regarding the distribution of these essential materials. for other people in the community to at least have a decent bottle supply, one of the departments of the university aligned with the natural sciences formulated hand sanitisers and alcohol cleaners to give to students, medical professionals and police officers. thus, the covid-19 situation allowed the academe to meet the needs of its stakeholders, especially concerning products that require scientific knowledge. technology has been instrumental for fast dissemination of information at a time when it is urgently needed to produce knowledge that can help save lives. informal social media education the educational system in the philippines is the same as that of the country of georgia, where there is a traditional setting that requires students to attend their classes through face-to-face education (basilaia & kvavadze, 2020) and the teachers lack training in online teaching (toquero, 2020). the researcher, who is a faculty member of the said university, initiated an alternative way to reach the students and help them learn through online platforms those lessons which were real-life events instead of the curriculum standards, since this was not possible due to the suspension. thus, a facebook messenger group was created as an informal online learning group chat made up of faculty members and students. through messenger, students have been extended relevant information about covid-19 and learnt topics related to the real-life contexts that emerged in the social media such as legalities, health and environmental issues. the researcher included this since it is administered to keep students updated and free from the problems of fake news. students shared and engaged themselves in conversation with the faculty members. this was also a way for faculty members to extend their expertise, despite the suspension of the online learning during the early rise of covid-19 cases. due to a lack of internet connectivity, financial constraints, and being in remote areas, some students were not able to access this unofficial social media education. 453 impact on development and evidence though the transfer and advancement of knowledge to the younger generation is the primary responsibility of a university, higher education today has born with public policy domains (jongbloed, endres, & salerno, 2008) and outreach to the community. the pandemic has driven the university to create innovative responses and services to mitigate the effect of the crisis and to address and alleviate the concerns of the public due to the spread of the virus. during this public health emergency, volunteers coming from the university have taken advantage of their expertise to actively participate and assist in the survival of the community in the fight against covid-19. at the time of writing, social media and online platforms have been highly significant for communication so that the academe can easily dispense relevant information about covid-19, ideate on crisis response strategies, and provide updates on relief efforts and donation drives for the benefit of the stakeholders. this emergency education also entails making use of available and accessible social networks as supplementary platforms to emergency learning during this educational crisis. the existing scenario proves that the role of the academe does not end in the classroom but goes even beyond the academe to foster social development and help people in the community amid the pandemic. however, the covid-19 global crisis is still ongoing so there is not enough data to validate and make reflective or evaluative notes on the effectiveness of using social media as a crisis response strategy. despite this reality, the use of facebook has been very helpful to implement the efforts of the university in the local community at the time of writing. consequently, a good reputation can affect the stakeholders and can influence student recruitment, research funding, financial donations and public support (kelley, 2014). having a good reputation is also an indicator that the university has made an impact on changing the life of the community for the better. by doing so, a university can be functional in its mission for social accountability, even in these times of distress. considerations for future works the article presents some of the efforts and roles that the academe has pursued during the pandemic. likewise, this paper comments on academic, policy, and social implications. part of the academic implications is to formulate a crisis preparedness plan (kelley, 2014) so that the academe has a forecast and can respond immediately to a possible virus outbreak in the future. this also includes conducting a needs assessment survey in the community. the university also needs to secure its readiness to implement the curriculum through emergency remote teaching (ert) so that the students can continue their opportunity to access education even during a crisis. policies related to online counselling should also be formulated to extend mental health services to the stakeholders even after the pandemic. socially, the academe can conduct surveys on the stakeholders for an ongoing dialogue and feedback during a crisis to evaluate the academe’s crisis response strategy (kelley, 2014). there remains a gap in the body of literature dealing with the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on the institutions of higher learning. for instance, the limitations of this article include having no validation on the stranded students and no faculty members who volunteered for the programme initiative of the state university were interviewed nor taken as participants, since the article relied only on natural observation, field notes and archival data. thus, future research should include having faculty members and students as participants of the study, and research can be done on the use of social media and online platforms to evaluate their effectiveness for crisis communications after the pandemic. research should also be conducted on the impact of the response strategies of the 454 university to provide for the needs of the stakeholders. in truth, covid-19 opened the gateways for the global health and educational crisis, and to which universities need to spearhead the global arena in the pursuit of evidence-based medical and educational revolutions amidst this post-truth period in human history. references ather, a., patel, b., ruparel, n., diogenes, a., & hargreaves, k. (2020). coronavirus disease 19 (covid-19): implications for clinical dental care. journal of endodontics, 46(5), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joen.2020.03.008 basilaia, g., & kvavadze, d. (2020). transition to online education in schools during a sars-cov-2 coronavirus (covid-19) pandemic in georgia. pedagogical research, 5(4), em0060. https://doi.org/10.29333/pr/7937 creswell, j. (2013). qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among five approaches (3rd ed). sage. hare, s. s., rodrigues, j., jacob, j., edey, a., devaraj, a., johnstone, a., mcstay, r., nair, a., & robinson, g. (2020). a uk-wide british society of thoracic imaging covid-19 imaging repository and database: design, rationale and implications for education and research. clinical radiology, 75(5), 326-328. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crad.2020.03.005 hocke-mirzashvili, t.m., kelly, s., & macdonald, p. (2015). student evaluations of a university crisis communication response: the gunman threat at north carolina a&t. public relations journal, 9(4), 1-24. http://www.prsa.org/intelligence/prjournal/vol9/no4/ jongbloed, b., enders, j., & salerno, c. (2008). higher education and its communities: interconnections, interdependencies and a research agenda. higher education, 56(3), 303-324. doi10.1007/s10734-008-9128-2 kelley, k. m. (2014). stakeholder perceptions of a university response to crisis. electronic theses and dissertations. paper 2401. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/2401 tetřevová, l., & sabolová, v. (2010). university stakeholder management and university social responsibility. wseas transactions on advances in engineering education, 7(7), 228-223. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www.wseas.us/elibrary/transactions/education/2010/88-330.pdf&ved=2ahukewjwozix3foahwxfogkhu7vbvsqfjaaegqiarab&usg=aovvaw2odqsw1ecmy1w4sus0rawo toquero, c. m. (2020). challenges and opportunities for higher education amid the covid-19 pandemic: the philippine context. pedagogical research, 5(4), em0063. https://doi.org/10.29333/pr/7947 world health organization (who, 2021a). who coronavirus disease 2019 dashboard. https://covid19.who.int world health organization (who, 2021b). weekly epidemiological update. https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/weekly-epidemiological-update---27-january-2021 author: cathy mae d. toquero is an assistant professor iv of the college of education, mindanao state university, general santos city, philippines. she has performed work-related functions such as programme organiser, training coordinator, project leader, among others in extension and research areas relative to peace education, impact evaluation, and other teacher training programmes. she is director for publications and peer review of the philippine association for researchers, education, and statistical software users (paressu), inc., and is currently the editor-in-chief of the asean journal of basic and higher education. email: cathymaetoquero@gmail.com 455 cite this paper as: toquero, c. m. d. (2021). academic silver linings in a philippine state university amid the early stages of pandemic cases. journal of learning for development, 8(2), 448-455. microsoft word ewing.docx issn: 2311-1550 2020, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 459-466 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. notes from the field: ‘nurses international’ uses oer to support nurse educators helen ewing,1 miriam chickering,2 lindsay burner,2 stacen a. keating,3 alex berland4 and erica frank5 1mcphs university, 2nurses international, 3new york university, 4bangladesh health project, 5university of british columbia abstract: educating nurses in developing countries is challenging due to limited resources. nurses international advances nursing education through the use of open educational resources, which provide a unique model to teach and mentor nurse educators globally. using current resources and materials that are free online and teacher-facing, an innovative program has been established that can be employed to support development of and scale education for the healthcare workforce, through teaching the teachers and enhancing the education of nurses. keywords: open educational resources, educator development, nurse education. introduction these field notes describe an initiative of nurses international (ni), a us-based non-governmental organization with a mission to create affordable, technology-enabled nursing curricula for developing countries, and to empower nurses to change their worlds. the purpose of this paper is to introduce journal readers to an innovative, volunteer-led application of open educational resources (oer) aimed at tackling a critical factor in achieving the united nations’ sustainable development goals (sdg), namely, training of front-line nurses (united nations, 2015). preliminary evaluation of the process and outcomes of the initiative has been initiated, data collection is underway concurrently with program development, mostly user demographics. unfortunately, due to limited resources for this volunteer-led initiative, evaluation has not progressed far. in addition to describing the open access curriculum and supports, we hope to engage collaborators with more general open education expertise to assist with implementing the initiative and assessing results. nurses are a vital component of health care systems, making up over half of the healthcare workforce (world health organization [who], 2020a), yet there are significant shortages of these professionals in most countries. in many low middle income countries (lmic), nurse shortages are compounded by a lack of capable nurse educators and of appropriate teaching materials. this bottleneck constrains production and supply of new nurses and limits their ability to perform in high-performance healthcare systems. distance learning technologies could mitigate the problem but teacher-facing openaccess resources are often unavailable and implementation may be challenging for novice educators. 460 global context and purpose of this initiative this initiative’s short-term aim is to support novice nurse educators with free online, teacher-facing, and up-to-date teaching materials, including guidance for usage and remote mentoring. this directly relates to sdg 4.c, “by 2030, substantially increase the supply of qualified teachers” (united nations, 2015). the initiative’s longer-term goal is to support achievement of sdgs related to higher education (sdg 4.3), employment in decent jobs (sdg 4.4) and accessibility (sdg 4.5). ni’s oer can positively change lives by preparing young men and women for well-paying jobs that advance population health through the contribution of skilled nurses. moreover, a curriculum that incorporates technological change in health care as well as nursing’s traditional caring values will positively impact lives of both the nurses and the communities they serve, thus addressing sdg 3 (improving good health and well-being). finally, this initiative is relevant for sdg 5 regarding gender equality. since females make up 70% of the healthcare workforce, promoting meaningful and well-respected work for women enhances gender equality especially in generating livable wages for greater economic freedom (boniol et al, 2019). the wider development context has been described in recent reports that document the critical need for health care workers, with a global shortfall of 5.9 million nurses (who, 2020a). this is not merely a problem of numbers: “educational institutions need to increase capacity and reform recruitment, teaching methods and curricula in order to improve the quality and the social accountability of graduates. the international community has an important role to play by partnering to support country-led efforts” (who, 2011, p. 3). the character of the innovation in learning our implementation method in this initiative can best be described as comprehensive support based on both high-tech and high-touch approaches. it is comprehensive and high-tech because the initiative involves creating and curating as an oer all clinical course content required for an english language, 4-year bachelor of science in nursing program. although we have applied student-centred design principles, the nurses international open education resource (ni-oer) is intended for nurse educators. accordingly, the ni-oer is linked to national league for nursing (usa) and who nurse educator competencies. we have described in nursing journals how the ni-oer serves as a resource to assist educators to develop those competencies deemed globally relevant by expert panels of nursing scholars (berland et al, 2020; keating et al, 2020). as each course component is produced by ni volunteers, it is posted on a web platform hosted by ni; following a simple registration process, users are provided a link so they can access the materials. the oer for each course includes classroom lectures (powerpoint slide decks), teacher references and student learning resources, evaluation tools such as assignments and exams, checklists for clinical practice, and administrative policies. by agreeing to the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0), educators can download the oer without cost and adapt it to local regulator’s requirements, clinical practice standards and cultural context. the oer for most clinical courses have already been completed – fundamentals of nursing practice, health assessment, medical surgical nursing, community health nursing, and nursing management and leadership. in all these, we have made a special effort to tackle modern nursing practice through 461 development of “soft-skills” such as reflective practice, ethical responsibilities, critical thinking, working in teams, and leadership (globescan, 2018). the courses in maternity nursing, pediatric nursing, mental health nursing, nursing research, informatics, and professional development are in various stages of progress. to our knowledge, based on many years of internet searching, the ni-oer is unique. as of early 2020, ni-oer components have been downloaded by hundreds of users in one hundred and twenty-four countries. the original curriculum was developed and tested at an english-medium private university in bangladesh (berland et al, 2010). due to an absence of qualified local faculty, most teaching in the early years was delivered by itinerant, mostly north american, volunteers, many of whom were bedside nurses, not professional educators. these on-site volunteers were guided by the founding faculty, based in canada and bangladesh, who were unable to locate a single source of resources and support for these novices and so provided early versions of the oer. the course materials were based on textbook outlines and canadian bscn syllabi, with some reference to high-level guidance from who. we learned from this experience that it is important to “lower the barriers and flatten the path” (heimans & timms 2018) because the internet is abundant with curriculum resources but these are often isolated fragments of inconsistent quality. for junior educators, whether local employees or visiting volunteers, this can be overwhelming, especially because few have been trained in critical appraisal of web content. this early experience with digital knowledge transfer also helped us understand the importance of adapting to the local context. although the ni-oer is based on “international standard” content it must also be adapted to lmic settings (commonwealth of learning, 2015). following these international standards helps users apply evidence-based practice to population health issues but they must also apply their own local knowledge to integrate differences in social structure, attitudes to learning, and professional values. for example, in bangladesh it was important to apply a “foundation and reiteration” or “spiral learning” approach to support capable students who were handicapped by weak english language skills, or poor secondary education. building on this approach, we plan to enhance ni’s support to educators with another innovation, using curriculum tracking software to link related concepts across courses. the supportive, high-touch aspect of the initiative derives from additional resources offered by ni to educators through a support system using the international community of nurse educators and clinicians associated with ni. users who download the oer materials are advised that they can access one-on-one advice or mentoring from an experienced ni volunteer faculty member. recently, ni has also responded to requests for mentors from educators working as administrators in colleges or in multi-site education-systems. ni’s support has included both development of specific oer material as well as application or implementation support. ni has also completed the first draft of an educator’s guide that provides simple guidance in student and course management for the novice educator as well as specific instructions for using the ni-oer. the educator’s guide specifically addresses teaching and learning theory, curriculum and course development strategies, best practices for engaging students, faculty and professional development, and an introduction to technology for learning. this resource aims to help strengthen novice educators in teaching pedagogy, utilization of the ni-oer or 462 other oer, and development of nursing faculty, and may be used as a stand-alone resource or to augment personal mentoring received from an ni volunteer faculty mentor, thus increasing the sustainability of the ni-oer. another reason why we characterize this initiative as high-touch is our plan to develop communities of practice related to each topic area. this sub-project would involve engaging, organizing and steering collaborative groups of educators to develop, adapt and share oer related to their topic. the communities of practice would also be tasked with managing the dynamic knowledge environment and updating each course to ensure it is based on current best practice. we believe that long-term sustainability could be feasible if a group of “connected connectors” who benefit from the oer also participate in maintaining it (heimans & timms 2018). we also expect that these groups would naturally engage in dialogue about their experiences and challenges, thus creating mutual support around common issues (bc campus, 2020). for instance, even experienced educators in wellresourced systems may find it difficult to promote development of professional practice in areas such as values formation, professional identity, and ethical orientation. the communities of practice will offer a safe space to share teaching strategies related to professional practice such as case studies, use of mainstream media, and “teachable moments” in clinical practica. additionally, over time, we would work with communities of practice to translate ni-oer components for language and cultural appropriateness. impact on development we are still assessing the impact of ni-oer on development. each person who downloads the nioer is asked to complete a simple user survey so that we can begin to assemble and stratify by basic demographic data and glean contact information for future research. preliminary statistics of the data captured from the survey reveal reviewers from 124 countries with a total of 1,427 downloads of nioer content by educators and students (255 downloads from educators and 1,172 from students). for now, we hypothesize very generally: because the population we work with directly is nurse educators, they, in turn, will each help thousands of students to build professional careers, which will support their families, and impact innumerable individual patients and communities during each nurse's working career. increasing the capacity of nurses at all levels is a strategic directive for the who (2020b). there are many specific beneficiaries of this initiative including novice nurse educators, specialist educators, and nursing education administrators. novice nurse educators will have support as they master the skills necessary to become effective educators. from professional work in various countries, we have observed that a lot of new nursing instructors start their teaching careers with limited formal training in education, heavy workloads and not enough supervisory support. standardized content has been recommended as a partial solution to this issue (globescan, 2018). specialist educators will have access to a larger pool of peers. through on-going partnership work among our volunteer experts and oer users, this initiative will help focus teams of specialist educators working collaboratively to adapt, update and supplement curriculum at both basic and post-graduate levels. instead of working in isolation, this network and community of practice will have the precious opportunity to be able to be more informed and effectively react to rapid changes in healthcare. the network will also be able to support colleagues through the sometimes-stressful 463 experience of quality assurance and accreditation activities, as there will be a foundation of mutual trust based on shared resource development. nursing education administrators will be able to make any desired changes to the ni-oer to meet the needs of their own institutions. using creative commons licensing arrangements, local adaptation will ensure the oer meet national regulatory standards and practice requirements, and aligns with cultural contexts for users. government officials responsible for higher education and health human resource planning will benefit from the focus on south-south collaboration in curriculum development. this will support national and local curriculum development within a framework of basic international standards. issues and challenges financial barriers have slowed ni’s progress in developing the ni-oer. considering the potential impact, this is not a costly initiative. the work timeline has been scaled to available resources, but volunteer efforts are most effective when supported by dedicated coordination and technical expertise. we need to attract resources (personnel and funds) in order to evaluate implementation issues such as effectiveness, professional acceptability and political commitment. human resource barriers are always a concern in any knowledge-based field. so far, we have had no problem recruiting north american volunteers. in health care, however, there is intense competition for experienced staff, especially in many lmic. therefore, as we expand program offerings, it will be important for ni to identify, induct, and retain a strong team of educators, information specialists, and technical staff particularly from the global south. technical challenges are numerous because until recently, even in north america, nursing has not been at the forefront of technology-enabled learning (schneider & good, 2018). knowledge management generally is a huge task, comprising the organization of diverse resources with appropriate search and linkage functions; tackling intellectual property, privacy and copyright issues; and addressing varied student skill levels with distinct oer components. repository management presents challenges such as user access, file management and version control procedures. most fundamental to our purpose, yet a major challenge, is finding varied, context-specific ways to support capacity development for both institutions and individual users. this includes skills in information and communications technology in the variable connectivity environment that is common in many parts of the world. in addition, although we have provided some advice within the educator’s guide, we are aware that hands-on support would be ideal to help users develop skills for use and adaptation of the ni-oer. plans for future work recognizing that this is an ambitious initiative, our plans for future work involve several phases. phase 1 is presently underway using volunteer resources. it focuses on the development of the nioer material, including forming and orienting teams of course developers; developing tools and templates to guide developers in creating a consistent product; linking each course’s objectives to nursing graduate competencies; updating the courses for all clinical practice subjects, and refining access to the ni-oer on the online platform. in addition, marketing to users and volunteers and preliminary data-gathering are part of all phases of the work. 464 in late 2020 we hope to begin phase 2, which focuses on classroom teaching resources and program resources: developing classroom teaching resources (e.g., teacher notes, case studies and exercises, assessment materials); developing program resources (e.g., background documentation for the entire bsn program, including sample philosophy, goals and policies, clinical assessment tools); enhancing the ni-oer with recorded lectures, demonstration videos and interactive materials; developing technical resources to support website management, and posting the classroom teaching and program resources on the ni website with registration to facilitate network development. in phase 3, we will consolidate progress and establish sustainability processes. this includes developing an evaluation plan to assess use of the ni-oer in various settings; developing a formal process for ongoing ni-oer updates and developing new material for evolving care delivery issues; developing a voluntary approach among participating higher education institutes for quality management and accreditation of the ni-oer delivery process, and developing a formal research program. based on formative evaluation techniques, we have already refined our approach to promote sustainability as well as impact. for example, in collaboration with another oer provider, nextgenu.org, we quickly developed training materials for frontline staff working with covid-19 responses. based on user feedback, we have expedited our production of the educator’s guide to amplify the effects of the ni-oer, especially for teaching critical thinking. most significantly, we have confronted the challenge of the complexity in managing distinct nursing topics, some of which are hospital-based, like medical surgical nursing, while others are communitybased, like public health nursing, and yet others, such as nursing research and professional issues, are more academically oriented. each focused area requires significant subject expertise with the goal of assisting students to integrate the content into their learning. in north america, nursing pedagogy has emphasized unifying “models” and concept-based approaches. our experience in bangladesh and other lmics suggest this may be challenging for some students (lund et al, 2013). therefore, the previously noted curriculum-tracking software may be a mechanism to link culturally-appropriate case studies across disparate topics. paradoxically, our volunteer-led model is the most important element of our sustainability. paradoxical because the oer is being developed by something money cannot buy, namely volunteer faculty who are implementers who are committed to social justice. with great effort and care they bring a “do-it-yourself” mindset and widely varied experience. the ni infrastructure and technology platforms, by contrast, are basic and require only modest financial inputs to provide academic direction and quality assurance processes. ni shares the belief expressed by sir john daniel, “good education for all is the key to enabling people to chart their own futures. ensuring equal access to education is the principal means for reducing inequality generally” (daniel, 2020, p. 14). however, oer is a relatively new concept in the teaching of nurses. our team has extensive experience in nursing and education of nurses but in oer development, we are “learning by doing”. therefore, we hope that this introductory description of our work will help us to engage with jl4d readers, especially those with more general experience in using technological and interpersonal solutions to support novice educators. we welcome 465 collaborators who share the ni vision, “improving the health of the world, one person, one nurse, one community at a time.” references bc campus. (2020). communities of practice. https://bccampus.ca/about-us/communities-of-practice/ berland a., richards j. r., & lund, k. d. (2010). a canada-bangladesh partnership for nurse education: case study. international nursing review, 57(3), 352-358. doi: 10.1111/j.14667657.2010.00813 berland a., capone, k., etcher, l., ewing, h., keating, s., & chickering, m. (2020). open education resources to support the who nurse educator core competencies. international nursing review, 00, 1-6. doi: 10.1111/inr.12583 boniol m., mcisaac m., xu l., wuliji t., diallo k., & campbell j. (2019). gender equity in the health workforce: analysis of 104 countries. working paper 1. geneva: world health organization. commonwealth of learning. (2015). guidelines for open educational resources (oer) in higher education. http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/resources/publications-andcommunication-materials/publications/full-list/guidelines-for-open-educational-resources-oer-in-highereducation/ daniel, j. (2020). is greater inequality inevitable? connections: learning for sustainable development, 5(1), 14. https://www.col.org/news/news/march-2020-issue-connections-now-available globescan. (2018). capacity building of frontline health workers: perspectives from the sdg 3 leadership forum. https://globescan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/globescan-jnj-sdg-leadership-forum-goal3-reportaug2018.pdf heimans, j., & timms, h. (2018). new power: how movements build, businesses thrive, and ideas catch fire in our hyper-connected world. doubleday. keating, s. a., berland, a., capone, k., & chickering, m. j. (2020). establishing global nursing education equity by developing open access resources. nurse educator, 45(2), 63–65. doi:10.1097/nne.0000000000000698 lund, k.d., berland a., & huda s.n. (2013). teaching nurses in bangladesh: lessons learned. american journal of nursing, 113(8). doi: 10.1111/j.1466-7657.2010.00813 schneider, m., & good, s. (2018). meeting the challenges of nursing staff education. nursing2018, 48(8), 16-18. doi: 10.1097/01.nurse.0000541402.97845.2f united nations. (2015). sustainable development goals. https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainabledevelopment-goals/ world health organization (who). (2011). transformative scale up of health professional education. https://www.who.int/hrh/resources/transformative_education/en/ world health organization (who). (2020a). state of the world’s nursing 2020: executive summary. https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/331673/9789240003293-eng.pdf world health organization (who). (2020b). nursing and midwifery who global strategic directions for strengthening nursing and midwifery 2016–2020. https://www.who.int/hrh/nursing_midwifery/nursingmidwifery/en/ 466 authors: helen ewing, dhsc, mn, rn, has experience in health profession education, academic administration, and healthcare leadership in north america, africa and asia. she has a passion for quality, student-centered education and advancing healthcare professions globally. email: hewing@ymail.com miriam chickering, bsn, ibclc, rn, is the founder and chief executive officer, nurses international. email: miriamchickering@nursesinternational.org lindsay burner, dnp, rn is a family nurse practitioner and graduate nurse educator. she serves as an advisor to nurses international and consults for various global and public health nonprofits email: lindsay.burner2@gmail.com stacen a. keating, phd, rn, is a clinical assistant professor at rory meyers college of nursing, new york university, focusing on public health science. dr. keating is actively engaged in the work of nurses international with a special interest in instructional design and technology use. email: sk3038@nyu.edu alex berland msc, rn (ret.), is co-founder of the bangladesh health project and an advisor to nurses international. as a consultant, he specializes in human resource development to improve population health globally. email: aberland@protonmail.com erica frank, md, mph, facpm, is a professor and canada research chair in preventive medicine and population health, university of british columbia, and founder and inventor, www.nextgenu.org. email: erica.frank@ubc.ca cite this paper as: ewing, h., chickering, m., burner, l., keating, s. a., berland, a. & frank, e. (2020). notes from the field: nurses international uses oer to support nurse educators. journal of learning for development, 7(3), 459-466. microsoft word pandaeditorial.docx issn: 2311-1550 2020, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 264-270 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. editorial covid-19 pandemic and innovations in institutional transformation, technology and pedagogy santosh panda the 2020 covid-19 pandemic has been among the worst nightmares in the past century. it brought in panic and despair, but also reflection, resilience, and hope; and adversely affected the economic and education sectors the most. teaching-learning and training in almost all countries were affected, with over 90% of students out of school including above 570 million in the commonwealth (kanwar & daniel, 2020), and above 1.37 billion students studying from home (unesco, 2020). most countries and educational institutions quickly delved into putting in place additional policies, systems, infrastructure, teaching-learning strategies, and capacity building of teachers and instructors; and some others followed suit gradually. the school and vocational sectors have been the worst-hit compared to higher education institutions (heis). suddenly, online teaching/learning became the buzz word. published reports and research during the pandemic indicated limitations (and constraints) in perceptions; and most were actually engaged in emergency remote teaching, rather than proper online/blended teaching-learning (hodges et al, 2020). research and professional advice from leading educators (bates, 2020; hodges et al, 2020; mccarty, 2020; weller, 2020; teachonline.ca, 2020) started pouring in; and a comprehensive guideline has been put in order by daniel (2020) based on an institutional case study in canada [this is in addition to some good practices on technology-enabled learning which already existed (contact north-contact nord, 2019; bates, 2019), and a recent critical study on the commonwealth (mishra & panda, 2020) that has been published]. there have also been reports and critical reflections on national strategies, the most visible being those by bao (2020), zhang et al (2020) and zhou et al (2020) on the people’s republic of china; brandt and thompson (2020) on the united states; kpmg (2020) and farooqui (2020) and many more on india. china embarked on a massive nation-wide campaign “school’s out, but class’s on” (zhou et al, 2020) for online education, enabling 270 million students to learn online (choice of cloud online classes, on-demand teaching, and television lectures, among others). this was possible largely due to forward planning for the past three decades or so, along with technological and resource supports. but, as elsewhere, questions have been raised about teachers’ poor perception of online courses and teaching, subject guidance, and interaction. this is not surprising, and this is not atypical in china alone. similarly, in the united states, there was a felt need to deal with the lack of preparedness for the new skills and inadequate resources for the new normal (brandt & thompson, 2020). there are many more blogs and short reports accounting for the pandemic and educational status in many countries. given the concern and the context, the editorial board of jl4d at the commonwealth of learning (col) took a considered decision to devote its november 2020 issue to ‘covid and learning for development’. the 18 papers and one book review in this volume include five invited papers from leading global educationists, and papers comprising research articles, case studies, and field reports 265 which, in one way or another, are related to covid-19 and/or innovative teaching-learning in difficult or underdeveloped contexts. the first ‘invited paper’ is by sir john daniel, who is a leading internationally recognised educationist and global leader, and has been president and ceo of col, assistant director general of unesco, vice chancellor of the uk open university, besides many other global positions and responsibilities. sir john shares a challenging but successful institutional action on dealing with the needs of international students at the time of covid-19 in one reputed institution in canada. though previous plans helped in dealing with the new normal, what mattered most were institutional management leadership, meticulous planning, a robust student information management system, faith in the strength of e-learning, staff and student competency in using technology (including open source web conferencing) for learning, aligning the curriculum to the new seamlessly interactive platform (including blending learning resources with synchronous conferencing), operating a 24 x 7 robust communication system (including personalised scaffolding), among others. the existing provision of 50% of credit hours by online also facilitated such a transition. what is coming up, and that other institutions could consider, is hybridisation of educational delivery with built-in flexibility for both faculty and students. the second paper, by sugata mitra, an internationally acclaimed educationist, deals with the pedagogic framework of technology and learning, especially for children. professor mitra predicts hybridised flexible classrooms post-covid, mostly with interaction and learning taking place through the internet —‘school in the cloud’. he offers two scenarios to choose from: i) ‘producing identical people for obsolete armies, factories, and offices’ and ii) ‘a hybrid system, partly physical, partly virtual, with assessments that are focused towards the ability to create things and solve problems’. the practical and experiential discussions on learning, teaching, curriculum, assessment, technology, and the school-home relationship shall be useful to those engaged in child learning, and nevertheless no less useful to those dealing with adults. writes the author: ‘learning – in the times to come will happen with relationships, trust, encouragement and freedom.’ the third invited paper by professor traxler and dr smith deals with ‘research methodology/tools’ for digital learning, post-covid. john traxler is one of the most renowned early educators pioneering mobile learning across the globe, and matt smith is known for his work on mobile learning in brazil and palestine. drawing lessons from many interdisciplinary perspectives, including development studies, inclusive education, human-computer interaction, and lifelong and community learning, the authors analyse the research methods and research instruments for digital learning in the context of covid-19 and from the points of view of language, power, educational status, infrastructure, security, and capacity; and in contexts of ‘mobilities’, personal constructs, soft systems methods, delphi, human-computer interaction; and in consideration of research ethics. the methodological paradox and the human-related and contextual methodological stances and processes analysed and suggested by them will certainly give a new dimension to digital learning research during and postpandemic. this augurs well with the understanding today about ‘social shaping of technology’ as against/or rather much ahead of the past ‘diffusion of technology’. we then go to the analysis of international higher education and new emerging models during and post-covid, scholarly analysed by professor asha kanwar and alexis carr. professor kanwar is an international authority in gender studies and women empowerment, sustainable development, open 266 education and open educational practices, and educational leadership. a global educational leader herself (and as the president and ceo of the commonwealth of learning), she has seen through the effective intervention of col and its international experts in effectively navigating covid-19 and strategising post-covid interventions toward a more just, equitable and sustainable world and constituent communities. in this well-articulated paper, which includes a thorough analysis of international higher education, while the authors critically reflect on the economic and personal constraints that the pandemic imposed, they also reflect on the impact on international higher education and the business models that sustained it so far. there is a need for governments and institutional leaders to reconsider/revisit their policies, programmes, models, and approaches to deal with the new normal. open, distance, online, and blended learning are the future strategies and disruptive innovations to take centre stage, and comparative qualifications frameworks need to be developed for cross-border credit transfer (ref. the recent national education policy 2020 of the indian government, which commits to cross-border education, credit-transfer and certification, though this requires formulation of additional regulations to effect this new commitment). in the next invited paper in this section, mawoyo and vally explore and analyse the economic/financial conditions affecting covidand post-covid schooling in, especially, the lowand middle-income countries. based on critical analysis of cross-sectional data and situational analysis on literacy outcomes and per capita educational expenditure, especially in the context of south africa, the authors plead for outcome-based contracting (rather than input-based), federal and provincial interventions, impact evaluations, among others, to address literacy challenges in times to come. in the next section on ‘research papers’, we have four significant contributions relating to: blended learning in teacher education, parental involvement in teaching effectiveness, multimodal microlearning, and the role of educational technology in the time of the pandemic. in an experimental study, ranjan explored the comparative effectiveness of blended learning and online learning in an undergraduate teacher education programme with a randomly selected sample (classroom-students, equally divided into control and experimental groups) in india. the researcher concluded that blended learning (combination of f2f and online delivery) was superior to online learning in terms of student-student and student-teacher interaction, motivation, and learning attainment. erdem and kaya, in the next paper, report the process and findings of meta-analysis of published papers (between 2010-2019) on the effect of parental involvement on academic achievement of school students. it is reported that school-based involvement had much higher impact than home-based parental involvement. the related variables influencing the impact included academic socialisation and parental expectations. in the case of in-service teacher education, allela, ogange, junaid and charles report, in the next research paper, the effectiveness of multimodal micro-learning (integration of offline resources via moodle mobile app, e-portfolio, f2f seminar, and interaction on whatsapp) in the freetown teachers’ college, sierra leone. while whatsapp had greater significant effect than both offline resources and the e-portfolio, the researchers suggest judicious decisions on learning design, technical support, and instructor capacity building. this is a valuable study contributing to our understanding of the integration of ict and micro-learning resources in teacher training, the constraints involved, and the cost considerations. in the last research paper in this section, katy jordan reports the findings of a qualitative content analysis of published literature (122 documents) during the pandemic (between february-april, 2020), based on grounded theory, in terms of access, 267 responses, support (including teachers and the community), educational quality, and futures, and their implications for educational technology in the lowand middle-income countries. the immediate covid-oriented responses included the use of radio, television and online communication; and the future planning needs to include ‘learners and learning’, and also that there are systemic and social issues which need to be addressed for educational technology to be effective in post-covid times. in the ‘case study’ section, we have included four papers relating to the covid-19 pandemic and: i) curriculum changes in the university of pikeville by werth, williams and werth, ii) e-learning status and constraints in the secondary schools in kenya by onesmus, iii) teaching-learning experiences in a medical university in tanzania by ibrahim, luzinge, and kapanda and iv) an exploratory case study on the use of oer during school lockdowns in uganda by kabugo. the lessons learned from these cases should be read in relation to the detailed analysis by sir john reported in the first invited paper, and should contribute to our understanding and preparations for effective post-covid educational and teaching-learning provisions and processes. there are five brief papers in the ‘notes from the field’ section, in which the researchers and practitioners have reported the critical contexts and operations of education and training at the time of covid-19: i) use of oer by nurse educators at the ‘nurses international’, a usa-based ngo by ewing, chickering, bruner, keating, berland and frank, ii) supporting university teachers for smooth movement toward distance education in quebec/canada by cathia papi, iii) use of finnish pedagogy in online education for primary schools in brazil by joshi, scheinin, miranda and piispa, iv) use of modern educational technology for remote learning in higher education in cameroon by gracemary moluayonge, and v) synthesis of emerging evidence on learning continuity during covid-19 by mcburnie, adam and kaye. these reports and findings, along with a critical review by professor don olcott of the book by mark nichols ‘transforming universities with digital education: future of formal learning’ (routledge, 2020) shall be significantly useful to our ongoing endeavours in dealing with covid-19 and rebuilding/reorienting our teaching-learning-training strategies. while col has been promoting and putting into practice the policy-capacity-technology as a theory of change model for technology-enabled learning (sankey & mishra, 2019), capacity building (of both teachers/trainers and learners) has emerged as the most prominent prerequisite to effective implementation and utilisation of tel, and this focus will become more prominent in the times to come (panda & mishra, 2020). as altbach and de wit (2020) visualised, the post-covid scenario of teaching-learning will bring in more pressure on the management and the faculty attitude toward online and blended learning; and therefore, capacity building (continuing professional development) and long-term teaching-learning plans are precursors to deal with the new normal. i am reminded of two of sir john’s authoritative discourses—‘independence versus interaction’ and ‘the iron triangle’ of access-cost-quality—which are going to come to centre-stage of reflection and renewed implementation during and post-covid. in the post-pandemic setting, it is visualised that the most desired strategy could be resource-based self-learning, collaborative engagement, with personalised scaffolding/mentoring in which organisational vision and technology are to be prominent players. more will depend on our collective understanding of ‘learning’, and how this will be facilitated within the broader contour of ‘education’. while we need to go beyond the strategic remote teaching to more organised blended teaching 268 learning, ‘pedagogy’ in one form or the other is going to take the centre stage. as against a teacher/content-focused pedagogy which is technologically deterministic, a leaner-focused pedagogy is pedagogically determined and aims at ‘developing’ the learner (kirkwood & price, 2013). during covid-19, many theoretical stances/frameworks for pedagogy of online learning have appeared—for instance, folk pedagogies of jerome bruner applied to synchronous online learning (henriksen, creely, & henderson, 2020); a ‘new pedagogy’ comprising blended learning and many related variables (teachonline.ca, 2020), among others. while ‘technology’ has been the prime concern at the time of covid-19, ‘pedagogy’ has resurfaced as the critical factor in self-direction, collaboration, resilience, and learning with confidence (panda, 2020). this involves a journey—a ‘shared journey’ between teachers and learners (young, 2020). such pedagogies need to consider the voice of the students, teachers’ knowledge and beliefs, learning outcomes, experiencing, scaffolding, eclecticism, meta-cognition, diversity-but-inclusivity (husbands & piarce, 2012). the pandemic has also motivated (and, at times, compelled) teachers and instructors to dismantle the fixed notion of delivery (like f2f which has traditionally been considered as superior) to a preferred and desirable ‘blended learning’ which involves, besides the traditional technologies and methods/processes, such newer developments like flipped classroom, moocs, game-based learning, augmented virtual reality, gesture-based learning, and educational robots (kinshuk et al, 2016), and many more. the new phase of blended learning would focus on a learner-centred teachinglearning approach and ‘development’ of the learner through active engagement in the context of learning application—construction and further reflection on the process will need personalised scaffolding. no food is good unless it is tasty, fully digested, maintains health, ensures mental peace, and derives positive energy to move further. while policies and institutional provisions are prerequisites, it is the actual process of doing it which is crucial—the actual awareness and understanding, positive attitude, confidence, involvement and engagement, and reciprocity (individual as well as social construction) within a situated context as also in the networked/connected world. however, a more critical and reflective discourse would suggest that edtech/tel needs to address some critical issues (selwyn et al, 2020) and to relook into the convergence of computational and social sciences (with specific reference to critical data studies, anticipatory studies, and critical design); and some significant policy, pedagogy, research, and practice issues raised by panda and mishra (2020). i must thank dr tony mays and dr sanjaya mishra, editors, and dr david porter (senior advisor and book review editor) for excellent work and support this year and for assembling this covid-19 issue of jl4d. we do hope that all the papers included in this issue shall arouse interest and motivate for further reflection and necessary action, which is crucial duringand post-covid ‘learning for development’. santosh panda chief editor, jl4d references bao, w. (2020). covid-19 and online teaching in higher education: a case study of peking university. human behaviour and emerging technology, 2(2), 113-115. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbe2.191 269 bates, t. (2020). advice to those about to teach online because of the corona-virus. tony bates blog. http://tonybates.ca/2020/03/09 bates, t. (2019). teaching in a digital age: guidelines for designing teaching and learning (2nd ed.). https://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/#:~:text=on%20october%2010%2c%202019%2c%20teaching,are %20teaching%2c%20are%20using%20technology. brandt, c., & thompson, c. b. (2020, april 30). carpe diem: evolving education after covid-19. https://www.nciea.org/blog/professional-development/carpe-diem-evolving-education-after-covid-19 contact north-contact nord (2019). 200 pockets of innovation in online learning. ontario. https://teachonline.ca/sites/default/files/pdfs/contact_north_i_contact_nord_220_pockets_of_innovation_in_ online_learning_-_2019_0.pdf daniel, j. (2020). education and the covid-19 pandemic. prospects. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11125-020-09464-3 farooqui, s. (2020). education in the time of covid-19: how institutions and students are coping. business standard, may 1. henriksen, d., creely, e., & henderson, m. (2020). folk pedagogies for teacher educator transitions: approaches to synchronous online learning in the wake of covid-19. journal of technology and teacher education, 28(2), 201-209. hodges, c., moore, s., lockee, b., trust, t., & bond, a. (2020). the difference between emergency remote teaching and online learning. https://er.educause.edu/articles/2020/3/the-difference-between-emergency-remote-teachingand-online-learning husbands, c., & pearce, j. (2012). what makes great pedagogy? nine claims from research. nottingham: national college of school leadership. kanwar, a., & daniel, j. (2020). report to commonwealth education ministers: from response to resilience. burnaby: the commonwealth of learning. http://oasis.col.org/handle/11599/3592 kinshuk, chen, n., cheng, i., & chew, s. w. (2016). evolution is not enough: revolutionalising current learning environment to smart learning environments. international journal of artificial intelligence in education, 26, 261-581. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40593-016-0108-x kirkwood, a., & price, l. (2013). missing: evidence of a scholarly approach to teaching and learning with technology in higher education. teaching in higher education, 18(3), 327-337. kpmg (2020). higher education in india and covid-19. bengaluru: kpmg. http://in.kpmg.com mccarty, s. (2020). post-pandemic pedagogy. https://japanned.hcommons.org mishra, s., & panda, s. (eds.). (2020). technology enabled learning: policy, pedagogy and practice. burnaby: the commonwealth of learning. panda, s. (2020, november). national education policy-2020, curriculum and pedagogy in higher education. staff training & research institute, indira gandhi national open university. (mimeo) panda, s., & mishra, s. (2020). towards mainstreaming technology-enabled learning. in s. mishra & s. panda (eds.), technology enabled learning: policy, pedagogy and practice (pp. 225-244). burnaby: the commonwealth of learning. sankey, m., & mishra, s. (2019). benchmarking toolkit for technology-enabled learning. burnaby: col. http://oasis.col.org/handle/11599/3217 selwyn, n., hillman, t., eynon, r., ferreira, g., knox, j., macgilchrist, f., & sancho-gil, j. m. (2020). editorial: what next for ed-tech? critical hopes and concerns for the 2020s. learning, media and technology, 45(1), 1-6. teachonline.ca (2020, august). a new pedagogy is emerging…and online learning is a key contributing factor. https://teachonline.ca/tools-trends 270 unesco (2020). 1.37 billion students now home as covid-19 school closures expand, ministers scale up multimedia approaches to ensure learning continuity. https://en.unesco.org/news/137-billion-students-nowhome-covid19-school-closures-expand-ministers-scale-multimedia weller, m. (2020). higher education’s covid-19 online pivot: institutions. https://www.socialsciencespace.com/2020/03/higher-educations-covid-19-online-pivot-institutions/ (social science space); the covid-19 online pivot: the student perspective. https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2020/03/13/the-covid-19-online-pivot-the-student-perspective/ (london school of economics & political science). young, t. (2020). pedagogy—walk the talk, don’t talk the walk. an opinion piece. higher education pedagogies, 5(1), 53-57. zhang, w., wang, y, yang, l., & wang, c. (2020). suspending classes without stopping learning: china’s education emergency management policy in the covid-19 outbreak. journal of risk and financial management, 13(3), 55, 2-6. https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm13030055 zhou, l., li, f., wu, s., & zhou, m. (2020). school’s out, but class’s on, the largest online education in the world today: taking china’s practical exploration during the covid-19 epidemic prevention and control as an example. best evidence in chinese education, 4(2), 501-519. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ed603937.pdf cite this paper as: panda, s. (2020). editorial — covid-19 pandemic and innovations in institutional transformation, technology and pedagogy. journal of learning for development, 7(3), 264-270. microsoft word kabugo.docx issn: 2311-1550 2020, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 447-458 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. utilizing open education resources to enhance students’ learning outcomes during the covid-19 schools lockdown: a case of using kolibri by selected government schools in uganda david kabugo makerere university, uganda abstract: a preview of the international dashboard of trends in education suggests that open education resources (oer) have and will continue to impact the provision of education during institutional closure owing to the global covid-19 pandemic. however, the toughest question that is often presented to oer promoters regards the pedagogical effectiveness of oer: if education resource users are not cognizant and do not pay for the production, distribution and utilization of the required resources, then, how can the production, distribution and utilization of such resources be effectively used? basing on data obtained from the system (kolibri) usage-logs and e-interviews (online conversational interviews) on zoom which were conducted with twenty five (25) purposively selected teachers, and one hundred (100) students invited from 10 government-aided secondary schools in uganda, this study presents a discourse analysis (da) of teachers’ use of oer on kolibri and draws on such insights gained to propose a potentially transformative model for efficient and effective utilization of oer to enhance students’ learning outcomes during the covid-19 schools lockdown. keywords: covid-19, learning outcomes, open education resources (oer), and kolibri. introduction the outbreak of the corona virus disease of 2019 (covid-19) and the consequential lockdown of education institutions across the globe is continuing to impact the education landscape in many unprecedented ways. according to unesco (2020), at least 165 countries have closed their education institutions and now, more than 516,000 million children are out of school (unesco, 2020). in an attempt to control the spread of covid-19 in uganda, the president directed that all schools and educational institutions in uganda be closed march 20, 2020 until further notice. as a result of this directive, 73,000 schools and institutions, 15,000,000 learners, and 548,000 teachers are now out of school. an estimated 600,000 out of school (oos) children are reported to be in refugee settlements (moes, 2020). unfortunately, most of the refugee settlements in uganda are located in high-risk towns that border countries that report an increasing number of covid-19 cases. in short, the covid-19 is such a serious threat that it puts the entire school system of uganda and the rest of the world at risk. in its response to the school closures, the ministry of education and sports (moes), through the national curriculum development center (ncdc), developed self-study materials (http://ncdc.go.ug/content/home-schooling-materials) and secured airtime on selected radio and 448 television stations to enable teachers to deliver essential lessons for pre-primary, primary, and secondary school students to continue learning while at home (http://ncdc.go.ug/sites/default/files/covid-19/circular.pdf). although the moes offered some practical interventions for the pre-primary, primary and secondary education sector, it directed the governing councils of universities and other tertiary institutions to put in place their own measures to foster deep and meaningful learning for all university and tertiary education students during the covid-19 institutions closure. this study emerges from an educational intervention by the college of education and external studies (cees) at makerere university to build the pedagogical capacities of teacher-educators in its collaborating pre-primary (early childhood development–ecd) teacher-training institutions to foster trainees’ learning during the covid-19 institutions closure in uganda. although there is a rising interest in the integration of open education resources (oer) into teaching to augment the provision of universal education at levels of education across the globe, there is still limited empirical evidence from countries of the global south, to indicate how this sprouting educational practice is enhancing students’ learning outcomes especially in science technology engineering mathematics (stem) and life skills subjects. on the other hand, anecdotal evidence indicates that there is a contrast between students’ interest in engaging with the oer that are available to them, versus teachers’ abilities to effectively use such oer to enhance students’ learning outcomes. this contrast presents a call for teachers to unlearn their prior padlocked didactics to adopt emerging open pedagogical practices. unfortunately, where robust frameworks for adoption of open pedagogical practices are missing, a number of teachers find it very challenging to effectively and efficiently integrate oer into their teaching. based on usage-logs, focus group discussions, and interview data that we collected from 25 teachers and 100 students from 10 government-aided secondary schools in uganda, this study assessed how teachers used kolibri oer in teaching, and proposes a potentially transformative pedagogical model for integration of such resources to enhance students’ learning outcomes. the rest of this paper is organized as follows. open education resources (oer) as downes (2007) observed, the term “resources” is generally ambiguous, and yet, no attempt at qualifying this term, to say, “open educational resources”, can significantly narrow it down. several definitions of oer have been given. this study adopted unesco’s definition of oer. according to unesco: open educational resources are defined as “technology-enabled, open provision of educational resources for consultation, use and adaptation by a community of users for non-commercial purposes” (unesco, 2002). this study assessed how teachers in selected government secondary schools in uganda used oer on kolibri in their teaching to enhance students’ learning outcomes during the covid-19 schools lock down. kolibri is an online learning platform (with an offline version) that was designed by learning equality (2020) for educators across the globe to have access to curated and openly licensed educational content libraries. kolibri oer are available in several languages and the kolibri libraries are designed in such a way to support an all-rounded curriculum, including both formal educational materials, such as lessons and assessments as well as exploratory materials, such as books, games, and 449 simulations for a number of subjects, especially science, technology, engineering and mathematics. in its efforts to foster students’ learning during schools closure owing to the covid19 pandemic, unicef-uganda and the government of uganda, through the national curriculum development center (ncdc), encouraged and supported teachers in selected government schools to utilize oer on kolibri. figure 1 below is a screenshot of the kolibri learning platform with a range of oer in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and life skills subjects. figure 1: kolibri as an oer platform (learning equality, 2020) figure 1: a remixed screenshot showing kolibri as an offline learning platform for education the platform was conceived by unicef-uganda and the government of uganda, through the national curriculum development center (ncdc), as a suitable space whose oer could be used by especially resource-constrained government secondary schools in uganda to enhance students’ learning outcomes, especially in mathematics and sciences. ncdc and unicef had also envisioned that utilization of the above platform would enhance digital and life skills of adolescents (10-19 years) in uganda, especially girls. the need to utilize kolibri oer was based on three key challenges in universal secondary schools (use) in uganda: inadequate teaching spaces, limited learning materials, and teacher shortages in the discipline of stem: while the government of uganda’s introduction of universal secondary education in 2007 was instrumental in increasing overall school enrollment rates, the educational standards have not improved, due in part to inadequate teaching space and materials, and teacher shortages. at the same time, the inclusion of items related to information and communications technology in the national development plan indicates the government of uganda is prioritizing the development of information and skills-based economy; to be competitive, young people, especially girls, must develop these skills. (unicef-uganda, 2017) in their attempt to address the above problem, ncdc and unicef sought to leverage computer laboratories established in government-aided secondary schools since 2013 and ict centers equipped with digital kiosks to install the kolibri e-learning platform where students and teachers can access open educational resources contextualized for the needs in uganda. the platform consists of two main software components. the kolibri content curation system, which is a central cloud server that aggregates content from many sources, organized into multiple content channels. the kolibri 450 application is installed onto a local device, and imports channels of content. users can interact with kolibri offline, directly from that device or from a nearby client device that is connected to it. once logged in onto the kolibri application, users (depending on their role) can view at least one if not all of the following features: learn, coach, and manage. a channel is a collection of content and metadata, organized into a “topic tree” structure (see figure 1 above). the above content channels were automatically created and updated through application programming interfaces (api) from external repositories such as phet (university of colorado, 2020). kolibri also has the youth center channel which was manually curated through the content curation server (see figure 2 below). figure 2: youth center oer channel on kolibri both the content and youth center channels (as shown in figures 1 and 2 above) were designed to support teachers in helping students to engage with stem and other life skills subjects at their own pace. the content is continuously being developed through identification, sourcing, curating, uploading, and reviewing readily available digital open educational resources. after a substantial amount of content was developed, ncdc, unicef and implementing partners deployed kolibri in government-aided secondary schools and ict centers equipped with digital kiosks. the deployment entailed installing the kolibri platform on the schools’ computers and solar-powered laptops. some teachers were trained on key features of the platform and were empowered with basic computer maintenance skills. by december 2017, over 140 teachers, 800 in-school students and 1,100 adolescents in refugee settlements could access the said contents on kolibri (unicef, 2017). although the integration of kolibri oer has and may continue to significantly impact the provision of education in government-aided secondary schools in uganda, there was a need to establish the extent to which such education resources are efficiently and effectively utilized to enhance students’ learning outcomes. thus, this study set to find answers to the following research question: 451 research question • in what ways have teachers in selected government schools in uganda (in)effectively utilized kolibri oer to enhance students’ learning outcomes during the covid-19 lockdown of schools? methods this was an exploratory case study, which followed an interpretive approach. in order to gain insights to this study’s question, data was obtained from 25 teachers and 100 students. sampling the 25 teachers and 100 students who participated in this study were purposively selected from 10 government-aided secondary schools in uganda. the selection of participants was based on their prior experiences of utilizing kolibri oer in a particular school. it should be noted that use of kolibri oer is part of a wider government effort to enhance the teaching of stem in uganda and, as such, the government of uganda, through the national curriculum development center (ncdc), with support from development partners such as unicef rolled out a project named “transforming computer labs into learning labs,” with the view of exploiting the underutilized computer labs in government secondary schools to enhance students learning outcomes, especially in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (stem) subjects. in order to address the challenge of inadequate stem laboratories in government secondary schools, the government opted to use oer on kolibri to maximize the use of extant computer labs in the schools. this case study set out to explore and interpret teachers’ use of oer on kolibri to enhance students’ learning outcomes during the institutions’ closure due to covid19. in order to ensure a broad geographic sample, schools were selected from each of the four regions of uganda namely the central (n = 4), eastern (n = 2), northern (n = 2), and western (n = 2) regions. online interviews and kolibri user-logs this study employed online interviews (also known as e-interviews). online interviews refer to indepth interviews conducted with ict-mediated communication (salmon, 2010; hewson, 2010). hewson states that e-interviews are used for primary internet-mediated research (imr) and are aimed at gathering original data via the internet with the intention of subjecting such data to analysis in order to provide new evidence in relation to a specific research question. while any ict can be used for online interviews, the e-interviews of this study were done via zoom (zoom.us). zoom is a webbased conferencing tool with a variety of real-time dialogue tools including scheduling and invitations to join an online meeting, wirelessly sharing your screen, waiting in a zoom room, instant messaging to individuals and groups through the chat room, demonstration tools via annotation, among other tools (zoom.us, 2020). in this study, an email invitation was sent to head teachers of 10 government secondary schools in the central, eastern, western and northern regions of uganda who then purposively selected 25 teachers and 100 students to participate in the e-interviews. the teachers and students were identified based on their experiences in utilizing kolibri in these schools. the purpose of e-interviews on zoom was shared with the participants before joining the meeting. the link and passcode to the zoom meeting were forwarded to the participants via their whatsapp and email contacts. during the meeting, participants were asked to share their experiences of teaching and learning using the kolibri oer. below is the screenshot of the zoom meeting with the participants. 452 figure 3: a screenshot of a zoom-mediated interview conducted with students figure 4: a screenshot of a zoom-mediated interview conducted with students ethical procedure several ethical issues were considered in this study. first, participation in this study was entirely voluntary. before joining the e-interviews on zoom, participants were required to sign a consent form indicating whether they consented or not to participate in the study. secondly, the researcher ensured respectful inquiry, and accurate collection of data relevant to the research purpose and question. furthermore, as a researcher, the interviewer placed the interview exchange within a scholarly context. participants were also encouraged to respond honestly to questions during the meeting. during the online meeting, the researcher provided ideas that offered insight into his or her perceptions, understandings, or experiences of the personal dimensions of integrating online and offline education resources into teaching and learning. the participants responded in both the audiovideo and text-based (chat room) interactions. interpretive framework the kolibri oer usage-logs and interview data, which were collected from the 25 teachers, were analyzed using discourse analysis. discourse theory (dt) states that discourse, i.e., spoken and written texts, as well as artifacts are shaped by, and recursively shape, people’s socio-structures and practices (fairclough & wodak, 1997; marianne & louise, 2002; ng’ambi, 2008). the oer usage-logs and interviews, which we collected were the teachers’ artifacts and recorded spoken texts, respectively. the strengths of dt lie in helping analysts to make connections between discourse properties on one hand, and people’s socio-structures and practices on the other hand (fairclough & wodak, 1997). given its potential to link texts to socio-structures and practices, dt has widely been utilized as a tool for analysing social practice. the social practice of interest in this study was the teachers’ utilization of kolibri oer to enhance students’ learning outcomes in stem and life skills subjects. 453 although several models have been suggested to guide researchers in utilizing dt as an analytic lens, this study adopted the model offered by fairclough (1992). according to fairclough (1992), every discourse instance has three distinct properties or dimensions and these are: a) the material text or artefact itself, b) interaction, i.e., production and consumption of the material text or artefact, and, c) context, i.e., socioenvironment in which the text or artefact is produced and consumed. secondly, fairclough (1992) suggested that each of the three properties or dimensions of discourse is analysable at three different levels namely: a) description, b) interpretation and, c) explanation. fairclough (1992)’s guidelines for utilizing discourse theory as an analytic tool can be represented in form of a three-dimensional framework as below: figure 5: a three-dimensional framework for analysing discourses in figure 4 above, each one of the stacked boxes on the left contains a distinct discourse property. the inner box on the left represents discourse as the material text or artefact itself. on the other hand, the middle and outer boxes of the left, respectively, represent discourse as a process of interaction, i.e., production and consumption of the material text and, the context, i.e., socio space, in which the material text or artefact is produced and consumed. on the right-hand side are the three levels at which each discourse dimension can be analysed, namely, description, interpretation, and explanation. it should be noted, however, that there is usually a subjective judgment in analysing discourse dimensions at each of the said levels (roode, speight, pollock, & webber, 2004). in order to compensate for such subjectivity in this evaluation, two discourse analysts were employed. the analyses of the two were then compared and a common (shared) language was established. in the subsections that follow, the key findings of this evaluation are presented. findings of the study four distinctive pedagogically effective ways of utilizing kolibri (oer) were established based on teachers’ kolibri data usage logs and data from e-interviews and these were; behaviorist, cognitivist, 454 constructivist, and social constructivist ways. a detailed discussion of each approach to integrating kolibri into teaching is presented in a tabular format below given a compelling opinion and or artefact from the stem teachers engaged. for each approach considered, the underlying teaching method, teaching strategy, cognitive strategy, and learner’s motivation scheme is considered. a discourse analysis of artefact/text #1 artefact/ text from teacher #1 “i encourage my students to go to kolibri in order to practice the things that i taught them in class. during this time, i give them questions whose answers they have to remember as they reread on kolibri. when they go to kolibri, they get the answers and tend to respond well. you see, kolibri is also a nice platform for them to practice the answering of different questions in physics. for example the multiple choice questions on the topic of heat. when students attempt the questions, they get instant feedback and this motivates them to practice. i know they will perform well when schools reopen.” description interpretation explanation teacher utilises kolibri oer as a stimulus in order to elicit response from students about what they covered in the class. the underlying cognitive strategy that is being used by students is remembering, i.e., when students see kolibri oer, they remember what they covered in class. this strategy of utilising kolibri resources promotes memorisation and rote learning of concepts. here, students’ view their access to kolibri resources as reinforcement / incentives to participating in class. this way of utilising kolibri oer is underpinned by behaviorism. see behaviorist learning principles in (skinner, 1974) and (reese, 1991) 455 a discourse analysis of artefact/text #2 artefact/ text from teacher #2 “i refer my students to kolibri especially to watch those videos concerning difficult concepts in mathematics such the concept of transforming vectors using matrices and the wiring of expressions using variables. by using these videos, students see for themselves and are able to derive mathematical rules and principles by themselves.” description interpretation explanation teacher uses on kolibri oer (videos) to scaffold and mediate learners’ understanding of difficult mathematical concepts. the underlying cognitive strategy here is derivation and application of principles/rules. this way of utilising kolibri’s oer is based / underpinned by cognitivist learning principles. see cognitivist theory in (tyler, 1978). 456 a discourse analysis of artefact/text #3 artefact/ text from teacher #3 “during this time of school lockdown due to covid19, i use kolibri videos to give an opportunity to students to discover the relationships between different topics such as these one (motion, sound, work, energy, heat, and light), which i hand not yet taught. when students see and follow these videos, they are able to do so many things for example creating or setting up their own light system. when students create their own experiments, this motivates them so much.” description interpretation explanation teacher uses physics oer on kolibri to engage students in personal discovery and experimentations. the underlying pedagogical principle here is problem solving in realistic and investigative situations. this type of learning makes students active and self-regulated learners. this type of teaching and learning is greatly informed by the constructivist theory. see constructivist learning principles in (bruner, 1990) (piaget, 1981). a discourse analysis of artefact/text #4 artifact/ text from teacher #4 “in biology, my technique is to give different learning tasks to different groups of students. at the end of each lesson, i ask students to form different groups of say 4-5 on zoom in order to do a particular exercise on kolibri. for example, i can ask them to watch a particular video on kolibri say about how digestion takes place or about blood circulation in the body. then, i ask them to note or write down in details via the chat room or the annotation board their own observations and then they screen share with the rest of the groups online.” description interpretation explanation teacher uses biology oer on kolibri to engage students in group/collaborative learning tasks. the main principle informing this teachers’ pedagogical use of kolibri is problem solving through collaborative. this approach to teaching promotes discovery learning, multiple perspectives and shared meanings. this teacher’s way of utilising oer on kolibri is greatly informed by social constructivist theory. see social constructivist learning principles in (bickhard, 1992), (vygotsky, 1978). 457 conclusion and recommendations a preview of the international dashboard of trends in education suggests that oer provide, and will continue to impact the provision of, universal education across the globe in the next decade. however, the toughest question that is often presented to oer promoters regards the pedagogical effectiveness of oer: if education resource users are not cognizant and do not pay for the production, distribution and utilization of the required resources, then, how can the production, distribution and utilisation of such resources be effectively used? based on data obtained from the system (kolibri) usage-logs and e-interviews (online conversational interviews) on zoom, which were conducted with twenty five (25) purposively selected teachers and one hundred (100) students invited from 10 government-aided secondary schools in uganda, this paper presents a discourse analysis (da) of teachers’ use of oer on kolibri and draws on such insights gained to propose a potentially transformative model for pedagogically effective utilisation of oer to enhance students’ learning outcomes during institutions lockdown due to pandemics like covid-19. this study established that pedagogically effective integration of kolibri oer into teaching has enormous potential to augment the provision of quality universal education in resource-constrained schools in uganda. effective integration of kolibri oer into teaching requires that teachers: a) unlearn their prior closed didactics so as to learn emerging open pedagogical practices (opps), b) capture and analyze students’ oer usage-logs as well as opinions on the role of oer in enhancing their learning outcomes, c) may use oer in a behaviorist, cognitivist, constructivist, and, even more so, in a social constructivist way, and d) be incentivized and motivated to continuously integrate oer into their teaching so as to enhance students’ learning outcomes. references bruner, j. (1990). acts of meaning. cambridge, ma: harvard university press. hewson, c. (2010). internet-mediated research and its potential role in facilitating mixed methods research. in s. n. hesse-biber & p. leavy (eds.), handbook of emergent methods (pp. 543–570). guilford. piaget, j. (1981). the psychology of intelligence. littlefield, adams. reese, h. (1991). contextualism and developmental psychology. in h. reese, advances in child development and behavior. academic press. salmons, j. e. (2010). online interviews in real time. sage. skinner, b. (1974). about behaviorism. penguin. tyler, s. (1978). the said and the unsaid: mind, meaning, and culture. academic press. unesco. (2020). what are open educational resources (oer)? http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communicationand-information/access-to-knowledge/open-educational-resources/what-are-open-educational-resourcesoer/ unicef uganda. (2017). unicef and government of uganda roll out kolibri platform to improve learning performance in hard to reach areas. https://www.unicef.org/uganda/stories/unicef-and-government-uganda-roll-outkolibri-platform university of colorado. (2020). phet simulations. phet.colorado.edu/en/offline-access 458 author: david kabugo is a lecturer, department of humanities and language education school of education, makerere university, uganda. email: kabugodavids@gmail.com cite this paper as: kabugo, d. (2020). utilizing open education resources to enhance students’ learning outcomes during the covid-19 schools lockdown: a case of using kolibri by selected government schools in uganda. journal of learning for development, 7(3), 447-458. microsoft word mwita.docx issn: 2311-1550 2021, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 162-170 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. developing multimedia programmes for out-of-school girls: the case of girls inspire in tanzania samwel gasuku institute of adult education, tanzania abstract: learning resources such as audio, video and online content are developed as supplementary learning resources to print-based materials. this study focuses on the development of multimedia learning in adult education programmes for out-of-school girls and young women in tanzania. it defines multimedia and adult education before showing the relationship between them. the study used a descriptive paradigm and adopted a qualitative case study design. it is informed by 25 in-depth interviews that were conducted with institute of adult education (iae) facilitators in april, 2018. participants were purposely selected based on their multimedia experience. the findings revealed that most facilitators have little experience in multimedia resource development. however, 13 self-instructional audio and audio-visual programmes were produced to elaborate and enhance the effectiveness of instructions. it will be argued that iae should include development and use of multimedia resources in its strategic rolling plan. learning material development policy should also include multimedia resources and create awareness. keywords: multimedia, adult education, out-of-school girls and young women. introduction the invention of technology such as the printing press, radio, photography, television, video tapes, cds and the internet has brought a revolution in the growth of recorded knowledge. with technological advancement and convergence of media, people use different forms of media such as text, sound, graphics, animation and video to send or receive information, interpret and understand messages. according to sconce (2000) media is any means by which messages can be transmitted. romiszowki (1988) adds that the media is a transporter of messages from the source to the receiver. although media can take different forms, the sole objective of all media is generally the same: a channel of communication. communicating in several ways by mixing different forms of media that use different content forms together create multimedia. mariki’s definition (2016) asserts that multimedia is a mixture of text, images, audio and video with the assistance of technology. moreover, wise (2000) explains multimedia as an audio-visual presentation that consists of slide presentations synchronized with sound. mukherjee (2018) affirms that there are five elements of multimedia: text, images, audio, animation and video. in multimedia, each element has a role to play. text is used to structure and present information, while images and video present information in visual form and are used to attract interest to the content. audio supports other media being present and animation simplifies complex ideas and concepts. in addition, mukherjee (2018) explains that multimedia should allow learners to control elements of the media that are required and obtain information. also, multimedia 163 should have features that allow users to explore and move from one page to another as well as be easy to use. when done correctly, multimedia has clear potential to enhance the learning process and facilitate better knowledge retention. girls inspire project to address illiteracy as a barrier to skills development, the institute of adult education secured funds from the commonwealth of learning (col) in 2015 to implement the girls inspire project in the dodoma and rukwa regions of tanzania. the girls inspire project was established to mobilise the power of open and distance learning (odl) and to provide schooling and skills training for out-ofschool girls and young women. the project had the following objectives: 1. to raise awareness of child, early and forced marriage. 2. to address barriers that prevent girls’ economic and social participation. 3. to promote girls’ empowerment through skills development. 4. to provide a platform for girls to tell their stories to a wider audience, hence, encouraging dialogue that will lead to positive action and inspire positive transformation in families and communities throughout tanzania. out–of-school girls and young women: who are they? out-of-school girls and young women are those who are unable to continue with their formal schooling due to various reasons such as child early and forced marriage (cefm), pregnancy, a preference for educating boys rather than girls, domestic responsibilities, poverty, and cultural beliefs. the girls and young women are grouped into five different categories, namely, never attended school, dropped out of primary school, stopped after completing primary education, dropped out of lower secondary school, or failed lower secondary school. according to agape aids control programme (aacp, 2014), in tanzania, two out of five girls are married before the age of 18. a report by research on poverty alleviation (repoa, 2017) indicates that cefm often results in girls being denied access to education and health care, leadership roles and economic opportunities. this implies that girls affected by cefm are more likely to lack the necessary skills to seek jobs and be competitive in the job market. as a result, they are likely to remain within a cycle of poverty that affects the development of their community. due to their low socio-economic status, out-of-school girls and young women have multiple responsibilities such as providing for their families, farming, fetching water and other domestic responsibilities. hence, the girls inspire project adopted the adult education approach as a way of learning. how do out-of-school girls and young women learn? as mushi (2010) describes, adult education is a means of learning whereby men and women seek to improve themselves or their community by increasing their knowledge and skills. this means that undertaking any type of learning activity to gain knowledge, skills and competence can be regarded as adult education. moreover, adult education programmes can last for a short period of time or over several years. additionally, mushi defines adult education as any organised educational activity outside the established formal education system. these adult education programmes are designed to target and meet the needs of specific people such as workers, women, youth and the aged. the girls inspire project is one such project. it enables girls and young women to acquire knowledge in basic 164 literacy, life skills and pre-vocational skills, such as food processing, soap production and batik making. according to mushi (2010), the modes of adult education are divided into three categories: 1) education which does not lead to any formal qualification. this includes literacy training and workshops on hiv/aids, agriculture, and health. 2) education which leads to a qualification, with the goal of attaining results equivalent to the formal education system. for example, evening classes and correspondence education. and 3) education offered purposely to adults within the formal education system that consists of adult education programmes organised by institutions. nyerere (1965) notes that adult education is a tool for liberation and development. this makes it a major approach to resolving challenges relating to political, socio-economic and cultural factors such as child early and forced marriages, illiteracy, poverty, health care, nutrition and skills development. knowles (1980) affirms that adult education’s main goal is to improve the quality of life of an individual, for example, by teaching skills that allow learners to participate in income generating activities and improve their livelihoods. consequently, this justifies adult education’s major role, which is to bring social change in a society. the most appropriate method of imparting knowledge and skills among adults is known as andragogy. knowles (1980) defines andragogy as the art and science of helping adult learning. it worth briefly considering that theory of andragogy is used to refer to characteristics of adult learners in relation to their learning needs. furthermore, it explains how adults measure their learning needs, set goals, work collaboratively and assess the value of their learning. as beqiri (2018) explains, when facilitating adults in their learning process, facilitators need to know the characteristics that affect their learning. these include life experience, self-directedness, goal orientation, motivation for learning and the expectations of respect and equal treatment while learning. because of this, facilitators should explain to adult learners reasons for learning specific skills. this allows out-of-school girls and young women’s performance to be tracked daily instead of having a standardised assessment, such as taking examinations, because their learning is focused on basic knowledge and skills. furthermore, it provides an opportunity for adult learners to share and relate their prior knowledge to what they learn. considering this, their learning activities should also be connected to their day-to-day needs. adults often learn by doing, therefore, the mode of instruction centres on tasks learners can perform instead of on rote memorisation. because the learning on the project is more participatory, the facilitator can monitor the learning process and take the role of guiding, motivating, and creating a learning environment, which encourages positive interaction among adult learners. another key feature of adult education programmes are open admission and flexible learning. these features aim to eliminate barriers to access education among marginalised individuals such as women. therefore, well designed multimedia can be a valuable source of learning for out-of-school girls and young women. further, they can take responsibility of their own learning because they learn with or without supervision of their facilitators. 165 why multimedia? to reach out-of-school girls and young women, and to enhance the quality of instruction during learning sessions, the iae adopted the use of cd-rom-based radio and video programmes as part of the teaching and learning materials for the project. to enable this, iae conducted an educational multimedia content development workshop to equip its facilitators with skills in multimedia script writing and content development. in the project, the use of multimedia resources allows the out-ofschool girls and young women to learn through technology with or without supervision from their facilitators. this shows the ability of the out-of-school girls and young women in using technology to access education. the use of graphics, text, and sound effects enriches learning content and makes it interactive. as explained by hede (2002), in the theory of integrated model of multimedia effects on learning, the correct use of images and sound inputs can attract a learner’s attention and increase retention of information. according to kim and bonk (2006), the use of multimedia technology to transmit information in learning has proved helpful and fruitful in education. this is because of its interactivity, flexibility and the combination of other media that can support learning. thus, through multimedia, learners are able to learn skills relevant to their daily activities, when they want and how they want it at their own pace. by using technology in accessing learning materials, the out-of-school girls and young women have enough learning time before moving forward. as willingham (2009) states, visual media help learners to retain ideas and concepts more easily. by listening or watching video programmes, learners can easily recall the content, encouraging high retention of information among learners in the process. furthermore, mansbach (2015) explains that technology has eased the way complex ideas are presented within a short period of time, hence, playing an important role in popularising learning through technology. additionally, yowell and rhoten (2009) note that using multimedia resources can promote active learning. this is because it provides a platform for the learner to interact with the learning material. as a result, it encourages interest in knowledge of the material being taught and assists learners in achieving expected learning outcomes. as mariki (2016) observes, more learners can be reached through technology due to the possibility for wider coverage. therefore, learners, such as out-of-school girls and young women who would have been denied educational opportunities, can access classes, courses or training. hegarty (2006) argues that multimedia resources assist learners to learn at their own pace, anytime, anywhere and independently as it is easy to access teaching and learning materials. this tends to increase opportunities for learners. furthermore, mariki (2016) adds that the materials are self-explanatory and require fewer facilitators, hence, it is considered as a cost-effective teaching method. methods the study used a qualitative approach to find out the views, opinions and experiences of participants. purposive sampling was used in identifying participants. the participants were selected due to their knowledge about content development, understanding of the audience, and ability to critique audio and audio-visual programmes. the participants consisted of 25 institute of adult education (iae) facilitators and studio personnel. data was collected through interviews and 25 in-depth interviews were conducted with facilitators, and a programme producer and editor at iae headquarters, dar es 166 salaam in april, 2018. data collected was analysed using a thematic content analysis method. similar information was then grouped into categories that reflected the several themes related to the participants’ views, experience, and challenges in multimedia development. results and discussion facilitators’ experiences in relation to developing educational multimedia content, two groups of participants emerged. the study observed that the first group, who were the 17 out of the 25 participants, had no experience in multimedia content development, while the second group had previously participated in several educational multimedia content development workshops conducted at iae and funded by col. the study noted that all the 25 participants had used multimedia such as the internet to search for information and powerpoint presentations during their teaching. however, it observed that eight participants in the workshop had limited skills in multimedia content development such as writing scripts and presentation skills. the study showed that skills limitations in multimedia hindered its use during teaching sessions. additionally, it indicated that using multimedia at an individual level is expensive due to ever changing trends in technology. this implies that users are left out and can fall behind if they do not keep up and adopt new trends. as col (2004) states, anfe programmes’ learning materials, such as odl, are mainly acquired through buying, making or adapting. it is evident from the study that the girls inspire project learning materials were adapted from other alternative learning programmes such as integrated post primary education. the adapted materials were produced into audio and audio-visual material and included mathematical operations, communicating in english and swahili, sexual and reproductive health, hiv/aids, gender, entrepreneurship and financial management skills, environmental and civic and human rights education. it was observed that the programmes cater for learners with different educational backgrounds such as primary school dropouts, adults and learners with special education needs. it is important to note that adult education teaching and learning materials need to be different from other types of learning materials due to the diverse characteristics of adult learners. hence, more training should be directed to preparing materials. this implies that planning and writing of adult education learning materials is a serious challenge, which requires technical competency and good management. development process of multimedia learning materials writing scripts the findings of the study revealed that, to enable academic and studio staff to develop multimedia resources, the iae conducted a workshop on multimedia. during the workshop, participants were taught about the context of adult learners, how to understand multimedia and basic principles of programme production such as researching, types of scripts, the purpose of scripts, script flow, writing scripts, content selection, language, recording and editing. the study shows that participants were also taught how to write radio and television scripts. it indicated that writing scripts for radio and television was a serious challenge, yet noteworthy because participants found it interesting because they had to master the skills to write for the “ear” (radio) and “ear and eye” (television). 167 the study highlights that a script is an important tool because it guides the entire programme production such as information flow, recording, location and time. furthermore, the study noted that the script helps the presenter to present precise and clear information. this makes the programmes short and unfold in a logical way that is easy for the learners to follow. as the associated press (2012) explains, it is important to know the characteristics of your audience. this allows content developers to know what type of information their audience wants. the study observed that participants did research on programme content to understand the nature of adult learners to enable them to write scripts, which ensured all essential information such as who, what, why, where, when and how is answered in the programme. the study noted that participants were taught the importance of having a powerful introduction popularly referred to as the “big bang” to attract the attention of learners. as a result, participants had to be creative in writing their scripts, for example, by starting the scripts with a short, interesting drama related to the content of the programme. col (2004) explains that learning materials replace facilitators and classrooms, therefore, they need to do much more than a textbook or handout. the study showed that written scripts provided learning content and divided it into learning sessions. moreover, the scripts had learning activities for learners to learn and apply. they created a learning environment for learners to develop their problem solving and critical thinking skills by connecting the drama to the rest of the programme content. as indicated in the study, participants formed working groups and were instrumental in identifying relevant teaching and learning content for production before writing a script for each subject. this participatory approach was used to ensure every need of learners is well captured, as per the goals of the project. a total of 13 scripts were written and presented during the workshop. seven video scripts were developed on gender; environment; basic arithmetic; hiv/aids; batik, bar and liquid soap making. similarly, six radio scripts were written on civic education, society and ethics, entrepreneurship, introduction and greeting in english, making fruit juice and producing nutritious flour. to evaluate the content, the findings show that each group presented their script before the participants during the workshop. this allowed participants to critique the scripts and suggest necessary valuable changes to improve the scripts to ensure they meet the required needs of learners. thereafter, a team comprising facilitators and studio staff were assigned the role of proofreading the scripts before submission for recording. this enables the producer to produce clear, concise and errorfree multimedia content. production of phases the study established that production was divided into three phases, namely pre-production, production and post-production. pre-production the pre-production phase is where all jobs are done before cameras start recording and include research, budget preparation, scripting, rehearsal and preparation of equipment. the findings highlighted that a budget was prepared, production was financed with funds secured from the commonwealth of learning through the girls inspire project, and research was done to identify learners’ needs before the writing of scripts. also, the studio crew prepared equipment for recording and acquired permission from the local authority council before recording at the various selected 168 locations. the findings show further that each member of the production crew was assigned a specific role, and the date and time for recording was set before the preparation of props and materials that complement programme content. this implies that the production team was well organised and understood the needs of learners to be able to produce effective programmes. production cameras come to life in the production stage. from the study, it is evident that shooting was done on location and scenes that required the same settings were all done together. most of the on-location scenes were shot in kibaha, a small town in the outskirts of dar es salaam, while some were recorded at iae studio. the findings show that 12 of the actors involved in casting were from the iae and had little or no experience in acting and presentation skills. the study observed that memorising and presenting the scripts during the recording sessions proved to be a major challenge. actors developed microphone or camera fright, resulting in them making errors. therefore, recording sessions would be stopped frequently. however, the programme producer would give the actors time to practice and master the script. the producer also directed them on how to speak and act in front of the microphone or camera. this enabled the actors to recompose themselves and regain their confidence. hence, the recording sessions went on without any hitches. post-production post-production is the final stage after shooting is complete. in this stage, the audio or audio-visual programmes come into being. the study established that the editor's main tasks included cutting and arranging recorded footage, editing and mixing of graphics, sound effects, music, adding titles and subtitles as well as credits, before coming up with the first draft of the programme. the findings show that persuasive language was used in production of the multimedia resources to appeal to learners. additionally, swahili was used as a means of communication as it is a common spoken language among learners. the study established that duration for audio programmes ranged between 7 to 10 minutes long, while audio-visual programmes were 15 to 20 minutes long, depending on the content of the programme. furthermore, images and sound effects were used in the programmes to enliven the learning experience and portray reality to learners. this helps create a forum of dialogue between different levels of interest and encourages interactive learning. the study noted that a team of facilitators, learners and media experts were invited to listen and watch recorded programmes and give their comments on whether the programmes met the needs of learners and would be understood with ease. it was established that valuable comments were suggested and incorporated before producing the final content onto a master file. finally, the study noted that the availability of radio and video programmes produced enabled the out-of-school girls and young women to have access to education through technology in the girls inspire project. conclusion in general, multimedia is key to increasing access to education. people learn and understand better when ideas are expressed in words and pictures rather than words alone, as explained by hede’s theory of integrated model of multimedia effects on learning. producing multimedia learning resources can be time consuming and costly in terms of content research and selection, script writing, acting, recording, editing and having the right equipment. although some iae facilitators have the 169 capability to develop multimedia learning resources, the majority of them still need more knowledge and skills concerning multimedia, content selection, script writing and presenting skills. production of multimedia teaching and learning materials can be successful if the necessary support such as training, financial support and equipment is provided. therefore, the study recommends the development of multimedia learning materials; that the use of multimedia resources be part of the institute of adult education’s rolling strategic plan; and that the iae’s learning material development policy should include multimedia learning resources and creation of awareness among staff on the types of multimedia developed and their importance. without including educational designers and facilitators, the use of multimedia in learning sessions will remain incomplete. acknowledgement: i am grateful to the commonwealth of learning for their support in the implementation of the girls inspire project in tanzania. references agape aids control programme. (2014). stop child marriages project, kishapu and shinyanga district. shinyanga: pe stationeries. associated press. (2012). the associated press stylebook and briefing on media law (46th ed.). the associated press. beriri, g. (2018). adult learners: effect of age on cognitive ability and memory retention. https://virtualspeech.com/blog/adult-learners-effects-age-cognitive-ability-memory retention. commonwealth of learning. (2004). planning and implementing open and distance learning systems: handbook for decision makers. burnaby, canada. hede, a. (2002). integrated model of multimedia effects on learning. journal of educational multimedia and hypermedia, 11(2), 177-191. hegarty, c. (2006). it’s not an exact science: teaching entrepreneurship in northern ireland. education training. special issue on entrepreneurship education, 48(5), 322-335. kim, k. j., & bonk, c. j. (2006). the future of online teaching and learning in higher education. educause quarterly, 22-30. knowles, m. s. (1980). the modern practice of adult education, from pedagogy to andragogy. follet publishers. nyerere, j. k . (1968). freedom and development. oxford university press. mansbach, j. (2015). using technology to develop students’ critical thinking skills. http://dl.sps.northwester.edu/blog/2015/09/using-technology-to-develop students-crotocal-thinking-skills mariki, b. (2016). educational multimedia content development workshop: script writing. institute of adult education, tanzania. mukherjee, s. (2018). role of multimedia in education. edelweiss applied science and technology 2, 245-247. mushi, p. a. k. (2010). principles and practices of adult education. dar es salaam university press. romiszowski, a. j. (1988). the selection and use of instructional media for improved classroom teaching and for interactive, individualised instruction. kogan page. sconce, j. (2000). haunted media. electronic presence from telegraphy to television. duke university press. willingham, d. t. (2009). why don’t students like school? jossey-bass. wise, r. (2000). multimedia: a critical introduction. routledge. 170 yowell, c., & rhoten, d. (2009). digital media and learning. forum for the future of higher education. 13-16. john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. author: samwel gasuku is an assistant lecturer at the institute of adult education and is currently pursuing his doctoral studies in journalism and mass communication at the university of dar es salaam. email: gasuku@hotmail.com cite this paper as: gasuku, s. (2021). developing multimedia programmes for out-of-school girls: the case of girls inspire in tanzania. journal of learning for development, 8(1), 162-170. osei increasing access to science oriented education programmes in tertiary institutions in ghana through distance education c.k. osei and j. a. mensah vol. 1, no. 1 abstract there is emphasis in the educational policy of ghana for the promotion of distance education programmes to widen access to education at all levels and facilitate human resource development.  this study examined the level of access and challenges faced by learners in science oriented programmes offered by distance in the kwame nkrumah university of science and technology, kumasi, ghana. the study used descriptive statistics for analysing data from 120 learners and 8 facilitators from three science based programmes. the findings indicated that the top-up initiative programmes by distance increased enrolment and participation of learners in 3 science oriented programmes in knust. we found evidence of high rates of learners’ persistence in the three science programmes which were linked to factors such as strong personal determination to succeed in achieving higher academic status, the availability of learning materials for the courses and support from family members (spouse, children, and friends). the study indicates that both learners and facilitators faced challenges that ranged from lack of time as a result of work activities to delays in receiving course materials among students and short contact hours with learners to low remuneration for facilitators. introduction tertiary education in ghana has provided the avenue for the training of technocrats and professionals for the private and public sectors of the economy.  it has been the backbone of the various sectors of the economy by providing avenues for the development of the required human capital for development (national council for tertiary education (ncte) policy, 1999). however, demand for tertiary education, nationally in the last few decades has outstretched the limited resources of educational institutions.  as a result, access has become critical and is available to only a few, especially in the science and technology related disciplines. access in this study emphasises enrolment, participation and completing a programme. the 2010-2020 education strategic plan (esp) of the ministry of education targets 60% enrolment in science and technology related disciplines for all universities in ghana (esp report, 2012). however, available statistics indicate that during the 2007/08 academic year the enrolment ratio stood at 38% for science and technology related disciplines and 62% for humanities at public universities, and 32% for science and technology and 68% for humanities for public polytechnics (esp report, 2010). the educational policy of ghana has emphasised the promotion of distance education programmes to increase access to education at all levels and facilitate human resource development (ncte, 2006).  distance education/learning is a method of delivering educational content to the adult learner in institutions of higher education. the structure of distance learning gives adults control over the time, place and pace of education. according to mitchell et al. (2005), distance learning involves a student-centered approach in which the instructor takes the role of the facilitator and students engage in peer learning. numerous advantages of distance learning (dl) have been cited by researchers. bruce (1999) indicated that students with disabilities and those who work full time or serve in the military may find that dl offers more opportunities than traditional education. specialized classes with low enrolments in a traditional classroom setting can be offered in dl (olszewski-kubilius and lee, 2004). according to anspaugh (2009), dl can potentially eliminate all biases toward race, age, and physical disability that might occur in the classroom. malik et al. (2005) noted that dl has the potential to impact all levels of education, especially at the tertiary education level, where the maximum benefits in terms of economic impact could be achieved. although the advantages of dl are obvious, there are also problems. kerka (1996) affirmed that distance learners need to be responsible, have self-discipline and have a certain amount of motivation to complete their course work. cereijo (2006) asserted that distance education works best for mature, motivated, well-organized, and already accomplished learners. moore and benbasat, (1991) emphasise that the physical separation leads to a psychological and communication gap. also, mallory (2007) opines that the opportunity for the student to make a cognitive connection within the course material may be lost because of time delay. some studies have highlighted the problem of high attrition rates with distance learning (kember, 1989; simonson et al., 2000).  berge and huang (2004) identified variables linked to attrition, such as a) age, gender, ethnicity, income, previous academic experience, and motivation; b) institutional variables, such as institutional attitude and learner support; and c) circumstantial variables, such as the nature and quality of the interaction between students and institution, course design, and facilitation. according to nigam and joshi (2007), the feasibility of offering non-science courses is an accepted entity but distance education in sciences/science and technology is still grappling with numerous implementation stages. in their study about teaching computer science courses in distance learning, huan et al. (2011) noted that besides the general problems associated with dl, certain challenges arise when teaching computer science courses to students who are not physically co-located and have individual learning schedules. the physical separation of the instructor and students in distance learning creates a significant barrier in teaching students basic skills in using new software or debugging a programme. however, they suggested that better demonstration and interactivity in science-based programmes can be achieved by using flash technologies and animated simulations, and employing synchronous communication technology which works as the collaborative platform allowing the instructor and students to have real time application sharing. in the light of the mixed reactions to the use of distance learning to provide access to tertiary programmes, especially in science and technology oriented programmes, there is a need to research the issues and challenges faced by distance learners and facilitators pursuing and teaching tertiary degrees in science oriented programmes. results of such studies can be used to strengthen the application of distance learning in increasing learners’ access to science oriented programmes. the kwame nkrumah university of science and technology (knust) top-up programme the kwame nkrumah university of science and technology is one of the four public universities in ghana offering higher education programmes in dual mode. knust corporate strategic plan (plan 2k14) includes an objective to provide manpower training, research and innovation in science and technology for national development. to meet the university’s expectation, the institute of distance learning (idl) was established in 2005 to deliver programmes of study both on-going and new ones from all colleges of the university in the distance learning mode. the mode of delivery of programmes offered by idl is predominantly by print medium and is supplemented by the electronic medium (virtual classroom and telephony) and occasional face-to-face tutorials. recruitment and registration procedures for distance learners in idl are the same procedures for the conventional students. the programmes are promoted through radio and newspaper advertisements. learners’ selection for a programme is based on the requirement of the department concerned. on admission, a student is required to register after payment of the appropriate fees which vary from one programme to the other. programmes are fee paying with no financial support from the university or the government of ghana. however, some learners obtain financial aid from their work places. fee levels for science based programmes range from $600 to $800 per semester depending on whether or not it is laboratory-based. first year learners are required to pay full or 70 percent of fees while continuing students pay full or 50 percent of the appropriate fees per semester. learner support services are provided by idl to motivate learners and facilitate learning to improve cohort completion rate. they include orientation, occasional face-to-face facilitation, provision of course materials, and access to on-campus facilities (e.g., the library and ict facility). course assessment of distance learners in knust is not different from that of the conventional students. assignments, quizzes and end-of-semester examinations are continually used to obtain information about student performance.   continuous assessment consists of mid-semester examinations and assignments constituting 30 percent of the total mark for undergraduates and 40 percent for postgraduates. the end-of-semester examination constitutes 70 percent for undergraduates and 60% for postgraduates respectively. in order to increase access to knust programmes by distance, idl introduced an initiative known as the top-up programme leading to the award of the bsc. degree in various science and technology disciplines. the top-up initiative was designed to help persons with good diplomas and in gainful employment to upgrade and improve themselves academically to enhance their output at work and ultimately to ensure national growth and development. the admission requirement to pursue a top–up programme is the hnd or other equivalent diploma with a minimum of a 2nd class lower division. in addition, admission requirements include english, mathematics, and integrated science with a total aggregate not exceeding 24 at the senior high school level plus at least two years work experience in the relevant field. the programmes are supported through a number of distance learning centres. these centres provide counseling facilities on pre-determined schedules and also act as information and examination centres. six undergraduate science oriented programmes including electrical and electronic engineering, and building technology have been offered as top–up programmes since the 2010/11 academic year (idl records, 2012). the bachelor degree programmes in science have a five semester duration. the first semester is used as a bridging period and the students’ entry into the following semester (third year) depends on grades obtained during the bridging. the 2010-2012 enrolment of top-up programmes is summarised in table 1. table 1. enrolment for top-up programmes at the idl, knust, 2010-2012 year programme student enrolment     male female total 2010-2012       bsc telecommunication engineering 73 8 81 2010-2012 bsc electrical and electronic engineering 313 6 319 2010-2012 bsc computer science           42 5 47 2011-2012 bsc construction technology and management 202 8 210 2011-2012 bsc quantity surveying and construction economic 242 12 254 2011-2012 bsc. mechanical engineering 253 1 256 2011-2012 bsc. statistics 57 13 70 2011-2012 bsc. business administration 433 160 593 source:  idl records, 2012 research problem concern has been expressed about lower enrolment rates for science and technology oriented programmes compared to humanities and business oriented programmes in tertiary institutions in ghana. according to the national council for tertiary education (ncte, 1999), enrolments in science/technology and humanities programmes in public tertiary education do not correspond to ncte standards and norms. for instance, in the 2007/2008 academic year, science students enrolled in public universities and polytechnics were 38% and 32% respectively, as compared to the 60% enrolment target specified for science programmes in universities and polytechnics (ghana moess, 2008). according to the nuffic report (2009), currently only one-third of applicants for the sciences (science, agriculture and engineering) are accepted for enrolment at the tertiary level. the reason for this is not that they do not meet the minimum requirements set by universities but due to insufficient training facilities (laboratory space, equipment, etc). the inability to enrol more science students could be partly due to the lack of innovative programmes and modes of delivery needed to serve the diverse needs of the different persons who want to access science oriented tertiary education. while the organisation of remedial programmes for prospective science students in the university of cape coast and the implementation of top-up undergraduate programmes by distance in knust has increased students access to science oriented programmes in ghana, many challenges still remain. according to nigam and joshi (2007), the development of programmes in science and technology areas is a complex and dynamic process with many typical problems, since they need more interaction and the cooperation of teachers, learners and institutions. the study examined the level of access and challenges faced by learners in science top-up programmes offered by distance in knust. specifically, the study sought to investigate: the level of access to bsc telecommunication engineering, bsc electrical and electronics engineering and bsc computer science programmes by distance mode the level of completion and attrition in the three programmes, and the challenges faced by students and facilitators of the three programmes. methodology the descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. this method was appropriate as it involved the collection of extensive and cross-sectional data for the purpose of describing and interpreting an existing situation under study. the survey population was drawn from the 2010 and 2011cohort of learners and facilitators from three science oriented top-up programmes in knust. these were bsc. electrical and electronic engineering, bsc. telecommunication engineering and bsc. computer science. the learner population comprised 447 students and the total number of facilitators was 12. proportional quota sampling was used to select 120 respondent with quotas based on the enrolment in the three science based programmes. eight facilitators from the three programmes, who were considered knowledgeable of the issues under study were purposively selected for in-depth interviews. data were collected with the use of a questionnaire, interview schedule and review of idl documents. the study therefore involved the use of multiple sources of information (triangulation) to provide exhaustive information on the topic under study. a questionnaire comprising closed and open-ended questions was developed and administered to the final year learners to solicit data on challenges they face as distance learners. departmental documents such as idl students’ database were analysed to gather information on learner enrolment, attrition, gender and age. according to merriam (1998), data found in documents can be used in the same manner as data from interviews or observations. the researchers used face-to-face and telephone interviews to elicit information from course facilitators and distance learners respectively. structured interview guides were used based on two major criteria, namely challenges faced by learners and facilitators and attrition (drop-out)/persistence in the programmes. data were analysed using descriptive statistics such as frequency counts and percentages. this was done with the aid of ms excel software. results and discussions level of access to science programmes document analysis indicated that two cohorts of students totaling 447 had enrolled in the three programmes in 2010 (228) and 2011 (219) respectively (table 2 below).  electrical and electronic engineering was the most heavily enrolled of the programmes (71%) followed by telecommunication engineering (18%). computer science was the least accessed programme (11%) in the two cohorts.  the table shows that males constituted the majority of the students (95 %) who enrolled and participated in the three top-up science oriented programmes in 2010 and 2011.  this indicates a low enrolment of females (4%) which implies a total male dominance of the programmes. the result is in consonance with the findings of researchers such as przymus (2004) and plummer (2000) who observed that women in distance learning are under-represented in science, technology, technical and mathematics oriented courses. table 2. enrolment in three science oriented programmes by learner cohorts and gender programme cohort 1 (2010/11) cohort 2 (2011/12)   male female total male female total bsc. telecommunication engineering 42 8 50 32 0 32 (18%) bsc. electrical and electronic engineering 150 1 151 160 7 167 (71%) bsc computer science 23 4 27 19 1 20 (11%) total 215 (94%) 13  (6%) 228 (100%) 211 (96%) 8 (4%) 219 (100%) source:  idl records, 2012 table 3 belowshows an analysis of learners’ record on attrition (drop-out) of the 2009/10 cohort.  a total of 228 students out of 235 enrolled in the bridging courses in the 3 programmes during the 2009/10 academic year proceeded to level 300 (3rd year) in 2010/11 academic year. this shows an attrition rate of about 3% for the 2009/10 bridging cohort. two hundred and twenty four out of the 228 students in level 300 proceeded and participated in the three programmes in the 2011/12 academic year showing an attrition rate of about 5 percent. the few learners who dropped out before the completion of the programmes did so because of poor academic performance (i.e. they obtained less than 40% of the weighted average marks) as they moved from one academic year to the next. attrition in the programmes table 3. student attrition in 2009/10 cohort programme 2009/10 (bridging) 2010/11 (3rd year)   2011/12 (4th year)         no. enrolled no. registered attrition rate (%) no. registered attrition rate (%) no. graduated graduation rate (%) bsc. telecommunication 50 50 0 48 4 45 93.7 bsc. electrical and electronic engineering 158 151 4.4 149 1.3 54 36.2 bsc computer science 27 27 0 27 0 23 85.2 total 235 228 2.97 224 5.3 122 54.5 fifty five percent of the registered learners graduated at the end of the fourth year. the bsc. electrical and electronic engineering programme comparatively had the least percentage (36%) of learners who graduated; the 45% of the learners who could not graduate are trailing in one or more courses and are still registered with the programmes. brindley (2001) indicated that some distance education/open learning courses sometimes have higher rates of retention than contact courses. however these findings are not consistent with the results of some studies that have highlighted the problem of high attrition rates with distance learning (kember, 1989; simonson et al., 2000; adewale and inegbedion 2008). interviews with persisting students have revealed several reasons for their continuation of the programmes despite some challenges. the main reasons are depicted in table 4 below. the findings in table 4 indicate that majority of students (80.6%) attributed their persistence (retention) in the programmes to strong personal determination to succeed in achieving higher academic status. parker (2003) found, in her study that the level of self-motivation is positively correlated with academic persistence of distance learners. other strong predictors that help enhance learners’ persistence were payment (commitment) of fees, the availability of learning materials for the courses and support from family members (spouse, children, and friends). according to ojokheta (2010), learners’ perception of the course materials is an important predictor for predicting persistence and success of distance learners in distance learning programme. table 4. major reasons for students’ continuation of programmes *reasons for persistence frequency % determination (urge) to succeed 97 80.6 the fee paying nature (money commitment) of the program 77 64.3 availability of learning materials for the courses 45 37.9 support from family members(spouse, children, friends ) 43 35.5 provision of face-to-face schedule 38 31.5 scheduling of  programs  facilitates coping with  courses involved 28 23.4 provision of student support system 19 16.1 facilitators’ views on student’s persistence (low attrition) interviews with facilitators revealed they perceived the very low attrition rate among distance learners in the three science programmes as the results of stability in the academic calendar of knust, and satisfactory academic learner support services (biweekly face-to-face facilitation, timely release of academic results). however, majority of the electrical engineering distance learners were unable to graduate at the end of the fourth year due to difficulty in completing their project on time. it has been noted (okyere, 2012) that bsc. electrical and electronic engineering students could not complete their project on time as a result of workplace activities. challenges faced by distance learners and facilitators challenges faced by learners learners were asked in the survey what challenges they faced in their programmes. table 5 below provides a statistic breakdown of their responses. the findings revealed that the major challenges (70%) faced by students in the science programmes were:  lack of time due to work (30%), poor cooperation between facilitators and students (21.1%), poor communication between students and idl (14.4%) and delays in getting course materials to students (4.4%). table 5. challenges faced by distance learners *challenges freq percent situational barriers     lack of time due to work 36 30.0 travelling problems 11 8.9 payment of fees 1 1.1 family responsibilities 1 1.1 institutional barriers poor cooperative between facilitators and students 25 21.1 poor communication between students and idl 17 4.4 support services difficult to access 9 7.8 delay in getting course materials 5 4.4 course materials not user friendly 4 3.3 practical work not enough 4 3.3 course content outmoded 3 2.2 delay for re-sit exams 1 1.1 access to supplementary reading materials on internet difficult 1 1.1 source:  field data, 2012 *multiple responses the challenges identified could be described as both situational and institutional barriers to distance learning. cross (1979) defined situational barriers as those barriers, which relate to a person’s life context at a particular time, including issues revolving around cost and lack of time, and geographic isolation while institutional barriers are those erected by learning institutions that exclude or discourage certain groups of learners because of such things as inconvenient schedules, full-time fees for part-time students, restrictive locations and the like. challenges faced by facilitators five major challenges to participation in distance education emerged from the interviews with the facilitators who were all full-time lecturers of the university. they were;  the quality of students, short  face-to-face contact period with students, little use of technology for teaching and learning and late distribution of learner materials and low remuneration for facilitation. these challenges can be grouped under access, faculty compensation and time and student support services. according to muilenburg and berge (2001) barriers to distance education can be clustered or grouped under technical expertise, administrative structure, access, faculty compensation and time, and legal issues among others. conclusion and recommendations this study indicates that that the top-up initiative programmes by distance increased enrolment and participation of learners in the 3 science oriented programmes thereby increasing access to the programmes in knust. males constituted the majority of the students who enrolled and participated in the 3 top-up science oriented programmes by the distance mode.  the study provided evidence of high rates of students’ persistence in the three science programmes before graduation which were linked to factors such as strong personal determination to succeed in achieving higher academic status, payment of fees, the availability of learning materials for the courses and support from friends and family members (spouse and children). the findings also reveal that bsc. electrical engineering had the least percentage of students who graduated as compared to the other programmes. it was also revealed in the findings that both learners and facilitators faced challenges despite the high persistent rate among students. the challenges ranged from lack of time as a result of work activities to delays in receiving course materials among students and short contact hours to low remuneration for facilitators. on the basis of the findings, it is recommended that: programme duration should be extended from the current five semesters to seven semesters to enable learners to have more contact hours to improve performance. however, cost issues should be considered. learner support services be improved. for instance, the delivery of course materials should be done on time and communication between learners and facilitators enhanced. other challenges, such as low use of technology, poor remuneration of facilitators and lack of grants for distance learners should be addressed. references adewale, o. a. & inegbedion, j. o. (2008). solving the problem of attrition in an open and distance learning institution, a paper presented in the acde conference available at this url. accessed 30th march 2013. anspaugh, h. (2009). understanding distance learning can it eliminate classroom bias? retrieved march 4, 2013, from: http://www.degrees.info/online/articles/can-distanceonline-learning-eliminate-bias.html berge, z. l. & huang, y. p. (2004).  a model for sustainable student retention: a holistic perspective on the student dropout problem with special attention to e-learning. [electronic version], deosnews. retrieved march 15th 2013 from: http://www.ed.psu.edu/acde/deos/deosnews/deosnews brindley, g. (2001). outcomes-based assessment in practice: some examples and emerging insights. language testing, 18(4), 393-407. bruce, b. (1999). education online: learning anywhere, anytime. journal of adolescent and adult literacy, 42(8), 662-665. cereijo, m. v. (2006). attitude as predictor of success in online training. international journal on elearning, 5(4), 623-640. cross, k. p. (1979). a critical review of state and national studies of the needs and interests of adult learners. the journal of continuing higher education, 27(3), 21-22. education sector performance report (espr). (2010). accra: ghana ministry of education. ghana moess (ministry of education, science and sports). (2008). preliminary education sector performance report (espr). accra: ghana ministry of education. huan, x., shehane, r., & ali, a. (2011). teaching computer science courses in distance learning. journal of instructional pedagogies, 6. kember, d. (1989).  a longitudinal-process model of drop out from distance education journal of higher education, 60(3). in m. knowle (ed.), the adult learner: a neglected species (3rd ed., pp. 278-301). houston, tx: gulf publishing. kerka, s. (1996). distance learning, the internet, and the world wide web. eric digest. malik, n. a., belawati, t., & baggaley, j. (2005). framework of collaborative research and development on distance learning technology for asia. paper presented at the 19th annual conference, association of asian open universities, jakarta, indonesia. retrieved june 9, 2007, from http://www.pandora-asia.org/downloads/05-aaou_malbelbag.pdf mallory, c. (2007). leading distance learning: possible differences in subjects enrolled in online and traditional instruction. ph.d thesis, university of the incarnate word. merriam, s.b (1998). qualitative research and case study applications in education. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. mitchell, t. j. f., chen, s. y., & macredie, r. d. (2005). the relationship between web enjoyment and student perceptions and learning using a web-based tutorial. learning, media and technology, 30(1), 27-40.4 moore, g. c., & benbasat, i. (1991). development of an instrument to measure the perceptions of adopting an information technology innovation. information systems research, 2(3), 192-222. muilenburg, l., & berge, z. l. (2001). barriers to distance education: a factor‐analytic study. american journal of distance education, 15(2), 7-22. national council for tertiary education (ghana). (1999).  annual report, 1999. ministry of education, accra. ncte (ghana). (2006). statistics on tertiary education in ghana. accra: ministry of education. nigam, a., & joshi, v. (2007). science education through open and distance learning at higher education level.  turkish online journal of distance education, 8(4). nuffic report. (2011). alignment of higher professional education with the needs of the local labour market: the case of ghana. nuffic, the hague. okyere, p.y. (2012, june 22). personal communication. ojokheta, k. o. (2010). a path-analytic study of some correlates predicting persistence and student’s success in distance education in nigeria. turkish online journal of distance education, 11(1). olszewski-kubilius, p., & lee, s. y. (2004). gifted adolescents’ talent development through distance learning. journal for the education of the gifted, 28(1), 7-35. parker, a. (2003). “identifying predictors of academic persistence in distance education”, in united states distance learning association (usdla) journal, 7(1). plummer, v. c. (2000). women and distance education. london: routledge. przymus (2004). a simple way to increase persistence in distance education. women in higher education, 13(1), 35. simononson, m., smaldino, s., albright, m., & zvacek s. (2000).  teaching and learning at distance: foundations of distance education. new jersey: prentice-hall. c. k. osei is a vice dean in the institute of distance learning and a lecturer in the department of agricultural economics, agribusiness and extension in kwame nkrumah university of science and technology, kumasi. he holds an m.sc. degree in agricultural extension and a phd in educational evaluation. e-mail: ckosei@yahoo.com j. a. mensah is a research fellow in the institute of distance learning and a lecturer in the department of applied and theoritical sciences at kwame nkrumah university of science and technology, kumasi. e-mail: adiajoe@yahoo.com microsoft word gomes.docx issn: 2311-1550 2022, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 137-144 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. virtual community mentoring models for middle school underachievers’ psychosocial development and well-being during covid-19 roseline florence gomes and lijo thomas christ (deemed to be university), bangalore, india abstract: recent studies highlight the outcomes of covid-19 on the psychosocial skills of early adolescents. it shows the unavailability of virtual community mentoring models for teenagers' individual and interpersonal growth in the virtual scenario. hence, there emerges a need to explore and apply the available virtual communication resources by facilitators, families, and other community professionals for teenagers’ self-development. this article reports the application of virtual resources like whatsapp, graphic design platforms (canva and adobe), graphic interchange formats (giphy app), all-in-one visual content editing forums (inshot app), and memes (meme generator app) in engaging and supporting community mentoring capacities leading to psychosocial development and well-being for teenagers during covid-19. through this article, contemporary virtual models are explored and executed with community guidance to integrate the personal developmental skills of middle school underachievers. there is also a need to work with community interventions by using virtual mentoring skillsets for positive youth development. keywords: covid-19, virtual community models, psychosocial development. introduction covid-19 was declared to be a pandemic by the world health organization in march 2020. it led to the closure of schools that chronically resulted in unprecedented psychosocial changes among children, teenagers, and adolescents. the outcomes were noticed in the downfall of early adolescents’ skills of self-exploration and experiential life skills (tyminski, 2021). the pandemic has resulted in the creation of ‘virtual schooling’ that poses a greater need to understand its working on adolescents’ thinking and actions (bueno, 2020). academic institutions were battling to recreate virtual resources in delivering to it learners despite the shortage of resources, unavailability of staff, and funding initiatives (malik, 2020). these consequences also opened up suggestions for schools to work towards a digitalised transition by blending virtual models, training facilitators in using social media platforms, customising virtual materials for smaller groups, training adolescents to deliver as ‘big brother’ or ‘big sister’, and recreating an ‘open schooling model’. early adolescents were given less opportunistic forums for their affective and social growth that further have depleted their psychosocial capacity building (tyminski, 2021). therefore, this pandemic extinguished the deterioration of psychosocial functioning among teenagers and created opportunities for them to learn life skills within their family systems (iyengar, 2021). these life skills need to be delivered through the community that intersects school, family, peer, and other societal partnerships in uplifting virtual novel instructions for the progression of teenagers' personal and social skills (hodges et al., 2020). 138 these associative networks primarily should mentor middle school teenagers with low interpersonal skills in coming out from their psychosocial traumas that became more stabilised after covid-19. middle school underachievers in this article belong to the age group 13-14 years. teenagers are defined as ‘middle school underachievers’ who emit disconnectedness, dysfunctional personal skills, and intrinsic motivational skills that go unrecognised by schools which urge the creation of experiential programs in guiding psychosocial development (muir, 2000). the psychosocial development of early adolescents has taken a steep decline in the time of the pandemic. there have been restrictions posed in peer interactions and co-curricular activities (wray-lake et al., 2020). it has been found that teenagers are faced with varied psychosocial distractions in the digital world that make virtual connections all the more difficult as they fail to express their personal and social concerns (ettekal & agans, 2020). the academic spaces have been unable to recognise and define these personal and social underachievements due to the inclination of academic development and recognition of grading. there is a noticeable affective alienation proposed by educational institutions that are unable to understand middle school underachievers’ psychosocial challenges (hira & anderson, 2021). this further impacts teenagers’ associative learning, relatedness and social skills of well-being. these well-being constructs encompassing personal and social trajectories are unpredictable, which further recognises the urgency of virtual instructional methods focusing on the personal development of these teenagers (murray, 2021). thus, the urge for virtual community mentoring programs for psychosocial development, encompassing the well-being constructs of these adolescents, which are needed in promoting self-development and peer interactions (guessoum et al., 2020). these community virtual models need to be driven by mastery of teenagers’ skillsets resulting in personal autonomy, self-worth, and social relationships. families, schools, peer groups, and other community organizational networks become part of this virtual association in guiding early adolescents to self-express their strengths and apply the same in coping with conflicting personal and social situations. the current pandemic affecting schools and family systems hence should be viewed as an opportunity to understand, value and associate with the community in handholding teenagers by developing their social skills in personal development (kapetanovic et al., 2021). this further also suggests that academic systems open up ‘psychosocial’ training methods in guiding early adolescents to associate with the community. virtual community mentoring models need to be attributed to co-partnering tendencies that involve teenagers, educators, caregivers, peers, school management, and the community at large. virtual community mentoring programs have been a failure in academic institutions due to the unpreparedness of the pandemic that led to building its facilitation through community networking (mahapatra & sharma, 2021). this would fill the gap of interrupted socialisation, application of digital tools, supportive interactions between middle school underachievers and the community (onyema et al., 2020). there is a dire need to reconstruct interventions to work virtually in mentoring adolescents about 21st-century skillsets, namely, social understanding, perspective taking, the value of community, and life skills (hadjeris, 2021). it also reiterated the goal of sustainability and inclusivity by blending life-skills education. 139 need for virtual community mentoring models towards psychosocial development and well-being during the pandemic, varied community institutions came forward in initiating virtual forums to handhold teenagers and guide them in experiential learning (iyengar, 2021). they worked towards developing a community associative network in enhancing academic achievement, and project-based learning with the involvement of the community and caregivers. they also recommended updating instructional materials to make them more context-specific, responsive to learners' needs, and supportive of independent learning and well-being (gul & khilji, 2021). educational systems need to be guided in assisting the learner's personal, social and academic needs (nur ullah et al., 2021). it also formulated a need for virtual mentoring after the identification of learners’ concerns. as a result, proper design is required for the transition between virtual scenarios and learning contexts in the interaction between adolescents and community in terms of the synergy relationship between learning in the real world and learning in the virtual world (setyowati, 2021). community partnerships between institutions pave their way towards collectivistic methods and inclusivity. some of the primary sorts of solutions that have evolved from self-regulatory research include challenging adolescents to analyse how they learn online, providing pacing support, monitoring engagement, and assisting families (carter jr et al., 2020). thus, every existent institution should reiterate the social responsibility of restoring the resources by co-partnering and learning from each other’s perspectives. covid-19 has crafted the societal working and has given the institutions time to rejuvenate their strategies by connecting with each other and developing virtual mentoring models with the help of schools, families and peers (hodges et al., 2020). these partnerships need to be developed based on each other’s personal strengths. the community networks play a major role in innovating service-based initiatives that integrate lifeskills education with holistic development (iyengar, 2021). there is a need to explore social capital and apply sensory-driven strategies like workshop-based sessions, environment education, parental monitoring through activities, and community virtual models that incorporate life skills and psychosocial development. community mentoring through the zoom application that promotes virtual discussions on restoring the environment would reinforce the psychosocial development of teenagers and strengthen volunteering skills (iyengar, 2021). these skillsets provided by college students towards middle school underachievers could result in the expansion of community ownership, peer-mentoring and leadership traits. educational systems need to associate real-life stories to the formal curriculum in further generating well-being among teenagers. it has been noticed that community institutions are absorbing renewed capacities, digital resources, renewed creative models of psychosocial reasoning, and are shifting to innovative virtual mentoring models (mose & kamina, 2020). virtual pedagogical tools need to be curated through community connections by using virtual forums like zoom and whatsapp in coming up with models for middle school underachievers’ psychosocial development and sustainable digital models (hodges et al., 2020). it necessitates the understanding of teenage concerns revolving around well-being and the deepening of mentoring grounded in nurturance (lasater et al., 2021). traditional face-to-face interactions have been abolished in the current pandemic. there is a need for digital growth. the roadblocks for virtual delivery with the unavailability of digital resources for educators and teenagers call for the imbibement of ‘blended learning’ into the school sessions (devi et 140 al., 2021). this would further ensure participatory experiential learning and also develop the attributes of co-learning within the groups. digital resources, virtual mentoring facilities, staff for training, virtual gadgets, and expensive digital packages in guiding virtual delivery have been unavailable in the educational system (nur ullah et al., 2021). this novel worldwide transition urges educators to become equipped with digital m-learning techniques to work with the learner’s psychosocial and academic needs. there is an urgency for a progressive instructional structure used by educators in association with the school and the local community. whatsapp driven models for personal development and well-being digital communication models like whatsapp and zoom stood out during the pandemic, which can be further explored for teenagers’ psychosocial development (iyengar, 2021). this application of the logical framework (whatsapp) is a guide in moving from a conventional model to a collaborative model of delivery from educators (budianto & arifani, 2021). this finding also suggested that these collaborative skills are similar to vygotsky's constructivist learning theory, which is appropriate for whatsapp. it was also found that teenagers were enthusiastic about the use of whatsapp to implement group projects. educators must observe, comprehend, and practice using available resources related to adolescent issues and flexibility (budianto & arifani, 2021). whatsapp-based facilitation and understanding have been localised as an innovative transitional model. incorporation of visual models, experiential stories and audio notes would give opportunities to teenagers in developing self-expressive skills, competence to share their ideas, and personal autonomy. virtual community models through canva virtual community models can be incorporated by applying the available digital tools that are costeffective and easily accessible and learned by the users. these symbolise the graphic design that follows a systematic approach as in the tool canva (farmoudehyamcheh, 2019). canva is a web-based graphic design application that aims to democratise graphic design and make it more accessible to the general public. melanie perkins, the inventor of canva, devised a technique for creating school yearbooks in 2007, and eventually expanded on the concept to establish canva as a platform. canva has created design programs for anyone who wants to make a variety of visual products (lehnen & artemchick, 2016). canva is available in 190 countries and 100 languages, and it is compatible with all operating systems (gehred, 2020). canva attempts to overcome the problem of graphic design by making graphic creation accessible to anyone. canva is a free tool that has simplified the design process by allowing users to drag and drop elements (farmoudehyamcheh, 2019). thus, through the website design tools are utilised without a fee. for all users (professional and non-professional), the canva site features a simple user flow and gives tools for making any visuals. it contains a large library of design templates, images, and other elements. users can select from a variety of templates in a variety of formats and sizes, and then personalise them to meet their specific needs. these templates can be used for both print and digital media and come in a variety of layouts. canva's basic subscription includes one gigabyte (gb) of photo and asset storage, two design folders, over 8,000 templates, personal image uploads, and access to millions of images (gehred, 2020). therefore, the canva app is an intuitive tool for sharing and collaborating on projects with others that can be explored as an integrated virtual model. 141 virtual community models through graphics interchange format graphics interchange format is a pedagogical strategy added to the dreams intervention program (thomas, 2014) in embedding concepts with humor and infographics that is reflected as a sensorydriven virtual model. infographics are visual representations of data information that are used to tell stories and communicate ideas. they implement varied patterns of visualisations (ferreira, 2014). thus, virtual understanding is determined by learning media that make an infographic, whether digital or printed, an appropriate medium for self-expression because it assists self-presentation (pertiwi & kusumaningrum, 2021). infographics are often simple to read and comprehend. therefore, infographics help teenagers to collaborate, while also honing their creativity, critical thinking, and communication skills, thereby expanding project-based understanding and self-confidence (pertiwi & kusumaningrum, 2021). infographics guide school pupils to emerge as active learners with the development of cognitive autonomy (kalimbetova & ilesbay, 2020). virtual models through all-in-one visual content editing forums and memes text or images can be found in memes (facial expressions, gestures, etc). the current fascination with memes, as well as the current understanding of the term, was proposed by geneticist richard dawkins in 1976. the interpersonal execution of virtually expanding digital ‘memes’ (pronounced ‘meems’) as a dimension of ethnic community proposition and delivery needs to be explored (knobel & lankshear, 2007). it also found that biological studies of memory permanence in creatures initially mentioned "memes" as “contagious or inheritable units of cultural knowledge over 80 years ago” (200). memes are photos or images that have been written for a specific purpose and are primarily used for entertainment (rekha & dianastiti, 2020). popular songs, catchy slogans, fashion trends, ‘architectural styles, ways of doing things, icons, jingles’, and other similar items are all examples of memes (knobel & lankshear, 2007). the increasing use of memes on social media has resulted in a plethora of meme variations. the ability to entertain the reader is due to the uniqueness of the sentences and the right imagery. internet memes are the most popular video and photo content on the internet, and they express or send a specific (often hilarious) message with well-established codes and meanings in worldwide society (faculty of philosophy niš & milosavljevic, 2020). cartoon memes include components of concept dimension, interaction, and ethnicity in their selection (rekha & dianastiti, 2020). these stand as experiential models in generating self-development through intuitive methods that convey a specific meaning or purpose. there is a need to examine the outcomes of digital models in developing community culture and guide facilitators to reconstruct newer contemporary methods of life-skills education through virtual ideas that render a transmission of culture. this article suggests the use of virtual models as a cultural virtual tool to imbibe self-developmental skills among teenagers through community stories in the form of memes that would further inspire these teenagers towards holistic growth. references budianto, l., & arifani, y. (2021). utilizing whatsapp-driven learning during covid-19 outbreak: efl users’ perceptions and practices. computer-assisted language learning electronic journal (call-ej), 22(1), 264-281. bueno, c. (2020). bricks and mortar vs. computers and modems: the impacts of enrollment in k-12 virtual schools. ssrn electronic journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3642969 142 carter jr, r. a., rice, m., yang, s., & jackson, h. a. (2020). self-regulated learning in online learning environments: strategies for remote learning. information and learning sciences, 121(5/6), 321-329. https://doi.org/10.1108/ils-04-2020-0114 devi, b., sharma, c., & lepcha, n. (2021). blended learning—a global solution in the age of covid-19. journal of pharmaceutical research international, 125-136. https://doi.org/10.9734/jpri/2021/v33i41b32351 ettekal, a. v., & agans, j. p. (2020). positive youth development through leisure: confronting the covid-19 pandemic. journal of youth development, 15(2), 1-20. https://doi.org/10.5195/jyd.2020.962 farmoudehyamcheh, p. (2019). a systems approach to graphic design practice [open access thesis, georgia southern university]. https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3177&context=etd ferreira, j. (2014). infographics: an introduction. academia. gehred, a. p. (2020). canva. journal of the medical library association, 108(2). https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2020.940 guessoum, s. b., lachal, j., radjack, r., carretier, e., minassian, s., benoit, l., & moro, m. r. (2020). adolescent psychiatric disorders during the covid-19 pandemic and lockdown. psychiatry research, 291, 113264. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2020.113264 gul, r., & khilji, g. (2021). exploring the need for a responsive school curriculum to cope with the covid-19 pandemic in pakistan. prospects. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11125-020-09540-8 hadjeris, f. (2021). revisiting sustainable development goal 4 in the context of covid-19 pandemic: a case study of online teaching in algerian higher education institutions. human behavior and emerging technologies, 3(1), 160-168. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbe2.245 hira, a., & anderson, e. (2021). motivating online learning through project-based learning during the 2020 covid-19 pandemic. iafor journal of education, 9(2), 93-110. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ej1291884 hodges, t., kerch, c., & fowler, m. (2020). teacher education in the time of covid-19: creating digital networks as university-school-family partnerships. middle grades review, 6(2). https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/mgreview/vol6/iss2/4 iyengar, r. (2021). rethinking community participation in education post covid-19. prospects. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11125-020-09538-2 kalimbetova, e. k., & ilesbay, a. b. (2020). infographics as a means for teaching younger school children. the journal of psychology and sociology, 72(1). https://doi.org/10.26577/jpss.2020.v72.i1.12 kapetanovic, s., gurdal, s., ander, b., & sorbring, e. (2021). reported changes in adolescent psychosocial functioning during the covid-19 outbreak. adolescents, 1(1), 10–20. https://doi.org/10.3390/adolescents1010002 knobel, m., & lankshear, c. (2007). online memes, affinities, and cultural production. in new literacies. a new literacies sampler, 29 (pp. 199–228). library of congress cataloging-in-publication data. http://dnb.ddb.de/. lasater, k., smith, c., pijanowski, j., & brady, k. p. (2021). redefining mentorship in an era of crisis: responding to covid-19 through compassionate relationships. international journal of mentoring and coaching in education, 10(2), 158-172. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmce-11-2020-0078 lehnen, c., & artemchik, t. (2016). tips and trends: graphic design tools. association of college and research libraries and america library association. https://acrl.ala.org/is/wp-content/uploads/summer2016.pdf 143 mahapatra, a., & sharma, p. (2021). education in times of covid-19 pandemic: academic stress and its psychosocial impact on children and adolescents in india. international journal of social psychiatry, 67(4), 397399. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020764020961801 malik, n. (2020). digital transformation of learning due to covid 19. international conference on digitalization and cyber security: challenges, opportunities and way forward. http://hdl.handle.net/11599/3649 milosavljevic, i. (2020). the phenomenon of the internet memes as a manifestation of communication of visual society — research of the most popular and the most common types. media studies and applied ethics, 1(1), 9-27. https://doi.org/10.46630/msae.1.2020.01 mose, p. o., & kamina, p. (2020). education during covid–19: reflections of kenyan scholars in the usa. kenya studies review, 8(2). https://kessa.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/mose-and-kamina.pdf muir, m. r. (2000). what underachieving middle school students believe motivates them to learn. proquest [dissertations publishing, university of maine]. murray, m. c. (2021). using the modern classrooms project instructional model to address post-covid challenges in the classroom [university of nebraska, lincoln]. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/teachlearnstudent/129?utm_source=digitalcommons.unl.edu%2fteachlearns tudent%2f129&utm_medium=pdf&utm_campaign=pdfcoverpages nur ullah, m., biswas, b., & mamun miah, md. (2021). assessing institutional support to online education at tertiary level in bangladesh coping with covid-19 pandemic: an empirical study [preprint]. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202104.0001.v1 onyema, e. m., eucheria, n. c., atonye, f. a., sen, s., sharma, a., & alsayed, a. o. (2020). impact of coronavirus pandemic on education. journal of education and practice, 11(13). https://genbase.iiep.unesco.org/workspace/applis/epidoc/fichiers/epidoc/38698_52821_56584_1_pb.pdf pertiwi, d. r., & kusumaningrum, m. a. d. (2021). the infographic projects in speaking activities. journal of english language and language teaching (jellt), 5(1). https://doi.org/10.36597/jellt.v5i1.10026 rekha, a., & dianastiti, f. e. (2020). cartoon memes as media for language skills learning based on character education. the international conference on innovations in social sciences and education (icoisse). http://conference.loupiasconference.org/index.php/icoisse/article/view/14 setyowati, l. (2021). utilization of seamless learning as a learning model during covid-19 pandemic in indonesia. scope: journal of english language teaching, 5(2), 79. https://doi.org/10.30998/scope.v5i2.3401 thomas, l. (2014). evaluation of the dreams program: an intervention model for the success of low performing middle school students. proquest dissertations publishing. tyminski, r. (2021). adolescents coping with the covid-19 pandemic: ‘every day is like another sunday.’ journal of analytical psychology, 66(3), 546-560. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-5922.12678 wray-lake, l., wilf, s., kwan, j. y., & oosterhoff, b. (2020). adolescence during a pandemic: examining us adolescents’ time use and family and peer relationships during covid-19 [pre-print]. psyarxiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/7vab6 authors: dr roseline florence gomes is a phd scholar from the department of psychology at christ (deemed to be university), bangalore, india. she is doing her research in community and positive psychology interventions. her research interests include experiential learning models, positive psychology programs, community-led models, life-skills wellness programs, and well-being approaches for adolescents. email: roseline.gomes@res.christuniversity.in 144 dr lijo thomas is a professor of psychology at christ (deemed to be university), bangalore, india. he pursued his phd from the university of louisiana, monroe, usa. his areas of interest include youth development, service-learning, university-community collaboration, educational interventions, organisational culture and development. he is also the founder/director of let us dream: a community-university collaborative service-learning project established in the usa and india. let us dream is a non-profit organisation with a local presence and a global presence. it was created with the goal of fostering globally evolved communities. dr. thomas formulated the dreams intervention program, a three-year life-skills program for underserved middle school students, and brought out a three-year training manual and workbook for adolescents. email: lijo.thomas@christuniversity.in cite this paper as: gomes, r., & thomas, l. (2022). virtual community mentoring models for middle school underachievers’ psychosocial development and well-being during covid-19. journal of learning for development, 9(1), 137-144. hyat al-khatib innovations in learning and development: a case from the arab world hyat al-khatib vol. 1, no. 1 abstract the twenty-first century is witnessing innovative practices in the advancement of learning in the developed world as a consequence of the technological revolution of the period and the increased demand for higher education (bax, 2011; barab, king and gray, 2004; roman, 2001). education is perceived as the cornerstone for development, sustainability and modernisation (fitzpatrick and davies, 2003). the boom in open, distance and e-learning has changed the quality of life for many people, since it offered additional venues to higher education to overcome problems of exclusivity and scarcity, especially at times of shrinking public funding (dhanarajan, 2011). the founding of the open university in britain in 1969 targeted an almost unlimited audience with innovative teaching and learning modes. since it was founded, more than 1.5 million students have taken ou courses. the open university was rated “top university in england and wales” for student satisfaction in 2005, 2006 and 2012.  the developing world sought to replicate the success afforded through innovative learning practices. the arab region engaged in extensive reformation to allow for new systems of learning that would provide for accessible and diversified opportunities to learners at an acceptable cost. however, concerns were voiced along the axis of equality and social justice (wilson, liber, johnson, beauvoir, sharples and milligan, 2007; dudeney, 2007). innovative learning modes have been associated with polarizing the developed and developing countries, the promotion of western thought, and the furthering of socioeconomic substrating. debates have emerged on the pedagogic fit of the newly promoted approaches for the region, allegations of social isolation, dropout rates, faculty strain, and urban concentration, in addition to a number of scholastic uncertainties. a survey was conducted on a random sample of learners studying through an innovative hybrid mode of learning to explore participants’ perception of the new system. two thousand and five hundred students took the survey from all faculties at the arab open university in lebanon. the survey was conducted for the periods of fall and spring, 2012-2013. it ensured anonymity of participants for validity of results.  the findings are as follows: innovative learning systems have had an impact on the societies in the developing world open learning has been a means for gaining academic qualifications and has provided a solution for mass education in the region it specifically helped develop learners from working backgrounds, underprivileged groups and females. efforts need to focus on: enhancing awareness campaigns on open education in the developing world customizing material to suit the developmental needs of learners in the region as well as their cultural context assuring quality of material used in non-traditional education in the region. التعليم العالي (باكس، 2011؛ ​​باراب، كنج وغراي ، 2004؛ رومان، 2001). وكان الهدف من التعليم المفتوح عدم التغيير أو الطعن في بنية التعليم العالي ولكن تقديم أماكن إضافية للتعليم العالي للتغلب على مشاكل التفرد والندرة في تقديم التعليم العالي، خاصة في أوقات تقلص التمويل العام (دهانارجان، 2011). تأسست الجامعة المفتوحة في بريطانيا في عام 1969 وقدمت التعليم العالي لعدد كبير من الراغبين ضمن منهجية جديدة جمعت وسائل الإعلام لدعم التعلم. وقد درس في الجامعة البريطانية المفتوحة منذ تأسيسها أكثر من 1.5 مليون طالب وتم تقييم الجامعة المفتوحة "الجامعة الأهم في إنجلترا وويلز" من حيث رضا الطلاب في عام 2005 و 2006 و 2012. وقد سعى العالم النامي لتكرار تجربة النجاح في الغرب للتعليم المفتوح. فعملت المنطقة العربية على الانخراط في اصلاحات واسعة للسماح لأنظمة جديدة للتعليم العالي من شأنها أن توفر الفرص للمتعلمين بتكلفة مقبولة. ومع ذلك، أثيرت ادعاءات متناقضة على محور المساواة والعدالة الاجتماعية (ويلسون، يبر، جونسون، بوفوار، شاربلز وميليغان، 2007؛ دودني، 2007) مثل الاستقطاب ، وتعزيز الفكر الغربي والفروقات الاجتماعية والاقتصادية ، عدم تناسب المفاهيم التربوية، العزلة الاجتماعية، انخفاض معدلات إتمام الدراسة، التركز المدني إضافة إلى عدد من الشكوك الدراسيه. أجري مسح على عينة عشوائية من المتعلمين الذين يدرسون عن طريق التعليم المفتوح، لاستكشاف تصورهم حول التعليم المفتوح والمدمج شارك فيه ألفين وخمسمائة تلميذ من جميع الكليات في الجامعة العربية المفتوحة في لبنان. وأجري الاستطلاع في خريف 2012-2013، وربيع 2013 وقد ضمن عدم الكشف عن هويته المشاركين لجمع آرائهم الصريحة. أما النتائج فهي التالية: 1. سيستمر التعليم المفتوح والمدمج لفترة طويلة في العقد المقبل في الدول النامية حيث ينظر إليه على أنه وسيلة لكسب المؤهلات الأكاديمية بكلفة مقبولة 2. يوفر التعليم المفتوح والمدمج حل للتعليم الشامل في المنطقة. 3.يحظي التعليم المفتوح والمدمج بالإهتمام والقبول لتوفيره المرونة في الحضور، وتحديدا للأشخاص الذين يعملون، سكان المناطق الريفية والإناث ذوي الالتزامات العائلية تحتاج الجهود إلى التركيز على: 1. تعزيز حملات التوعية حول التعليم المفتوح والمدمج في العالم النامي 2. تخصيص المواد لتتناسب مع السياق الثقافي للعالم النامي 3. ضمان جودة المواد المستخدمة في التعليم المفتوح والمدمج في المنطقة introduction the need for innovations in learning the twenty-first century is witnessing innovative practices in the advancement of learning in the developed world as a consequence of the technological revolution of the period and the increased demand for higher education (bax, 2011; barab, king and gray, 2004; roman, 2001). education is perceived as the cornerstone for development, sustainability and modernisation (fitzpatrick and davies, 2003). the boom in open, distance and e-learning has changed the quality of life for many people, since it offered additional venues to higher education to overcome problems of exclusivity and scarcity, especially at times of shrinking public funding (dhanarajan, 2011). the founding of the open university in britain in 1969 targeted an almost unlimited audience with innovative teaching and learning modes. since it was founded, more than 1.5 million students have taken ou courses. the open university was rated “top university in england and wales” for student satisfaction in 2005, 2006 and 2012.  the developing world sought to replicate the success afforded through innovations in learning specifically after declarations on its cost effectiveness and technologic advancement. in the arab world, the growing population in the region looked up to higher education in the period following its independence (1950-1960) to fulfill its aspirations of development, sustainability and equality. higher education providers multiplied from no more than ten universities in 1950 to more than 200 in the last decade (samoff, 2003). however, the growing public demand for access to higher education required governments to make available additional resources. the arab regional conference on higher education that convened in beirut in 1998 confirmed that, “higher education in the arab states is under considerable strain, due to higher rates of population growth and increasing social demand for higher education” (unesco, 1998, p. 44). the declaration called for “harnessing modern information and communication technologies … to make available programmes and courses that can cater for the needs of the region … through multiple and advanced means .. breaking through the traditional barriers of space and time” (unesco, 1998, p. 45).   in response to such a call, the arab region engaged in extensive reformation to allow for new systems of higher education that would provide for accessible and diversified opportunities to learners at an acceptable cost. the idea of offering innovative education outside the traditional classroom and to potentially unlimited numbers of learners held a great appeal. such systems had to rely heavily on modern information and communication technologies to alleviate pressure on governments and traditional higher education institutions in the region. innovative learning provisions in the arab world in the past two decades, efforts in the arab region have concentrated on establishing three main modes of education that incorporate innovative learning provisions and that offer flexibility of scheduling for learners, opportunities to study without the need to travel and learning at one’s own pace: 1. traditional universities with open learning centres such universities offered dual modes of education through distance learning as well as conventional ones. examples of such higher education providers in the arab world are the open learning centres in the universities of cairo, alexandria, assiut and ain-shams in egypt. open learning centres in these universities offer distance modes of education and award degrees at undergraduate and postgraduate levels in a variety of disciplines (egyptian universities network, 2013). another example is the distance education centre of joba university in sudan, with a branch in jordan. the centre offers bachelor’s level degrees and master degrees (majdalawi, 2005). the third example is the open learning centres in syria, which utilize distance education modes of teaching to award bachelor’s degree from damascus university, aleppo university and al-baath university in syria (al-baath open learning centre, 2013). 2. universities offering single distance education mode these offered distance education through correspondence as well as print, audio and television broadcasts. this category is represented by a number of centres in the arab world. tunisia has the higher institute for continuing education, offering teacher training programmes at secondary and primary levels through distance education. the open university in libya offers programmes leading to the award of a bachelor’s degree (libyan open university, 2004). the continuing education university in algeria offers distance education to students who failed the general secondary diploma, with the aim of helping them to gain employment or continue with higher education (jamlan, 1999). al-quds open university awards bachelors degrees in various specializations, equivalent to bachelor awards from conventional universities. it also offers non-degree courses and plans to offer master degrees (unesco, 2002). 3. virtual online universities the syrian virtual university established agreements with leading western online universities in canada, europe, australia and the usa to provide “world-class education without barriers” and to offer “requirements for enrollment and graduation, that foster academic quality” to students in their homeland (syrian virtual university home page, 2003; unesco, 2002a). the programmes that were offered were some of the most well-funded programmes in a region where, “only about 1% has the time, money and opportunity to attend top universities” (mccormick, 2000, p. 60). threats facing innovative learning provision in the arab world the global change in the digital age resulted in innovations in learning taking a technical guise and utilizing multiple learning modes in education. however, there were concerns that, “many third world countries have uncritically accepted positivistic claims .. despite the evidence which suggests that this is not always the case” (guy, 1999, p. 49). contradictory arguments were raised along the axis of equality and social justice (wilson, liber, johnson, beauvoir, sharples and milligan, 2007; samoff, 2003; unesco, 2002a): polarizing developed and developing countries in a report by the united nations development programme (undp) a cautious concern was voiced over whether the information and technical revolution is leading to the globalization, or the polarization of the world along the axis of haves and have nots (undp, 1999, p. 61). in addition to this, and in terms of cost, the pattern of developing education material suitable for open, distance and e-learning requires financial resources that are not available in the developing world. potashnik and capper (1998) report that the united kingdom, the open university spends “as much as 1 million gbp to produce one new course” (p. 44). the cost involves design teams, content specialists, production specialists and team managers. these work together for a period of up to three years to produce a single new course (potashnik and capper, 1998, p. 44). in most cases institutions wishing to offer innovative learning through open, distance and e-learning in the developing countries often rely on ready-made material imported through academic agreement from western universities. this brings forth another concern, that of the appropriateness of the imported material. as for learners, they must acquire computer hardware and software as well as internet connections to be able to benefit from open, distance and e-learning. according to a undp report 50 million households in the united states and about 50 million in europe have at least one computer (undp, 1999, p. 58). by contrast south asia, which has 20% of the world population, has less than 1% of the world's internet users (undp, 1999, p. 62). promotion of western thought heavy reliance on readymade foreign programmes have negatively impacted innovative learning modes in planning and use, a case in point is the open education centres in egypt (majdalawi, 2005). the same flaws have been identified in the tunisian, libyan and algerian experience. muthui and gachiengo (1999) observed that the process can be “an instrument for perpetuating and even deepening dependency relationship between developing and developed countries” (p. 26). the arguments that were put forth to defend the importing of western knowledge and ideology in readymade material is based on the notion of the objectivity of scientific material which makes them non-controversial. however, the same argument cannot be extended to social, literary and history studies. western approaches to philosophy, literature and social sciences may be controversial in some contexts in a developing region (al-khatib, 2011). socio-economic substrating communities in the developing world are divided across substrates of urban and rural, male and female, young and old, rich and poor. undp reports that in the resource-deprived developing world: “a new barrier has emerged, an invisible barrier that, true to its name, is like a world wide web, embracing the connected, and silently, almost imperceptibly, excluding the rest. the typical internet user worldwide is male, under 35 years old, with college education and high income, urban based and english speaking, a member of a very elite minority worldwide” (undp, 1999, p. 63). the same report notes the disparity between electronic haves and have nots in the developing countries with men “vastly outnumbering” women who account for 4% in the arab states, 7% in china and 25% in brazil (undp, 1999, p. 62). critics have proclaimed that open learning has not led to an improved quality of life for the marginalized and powerless in the developing countries. on the contrary, it served “betting on the stronger” through accentuating and reinforcing the worst problems of inequality, specifically in terms of access to resources and attainment of the required skills (wilson, liber, johnson, beauvoir, sharples, and milligan, 2007). pedagogic fit arab societies are still skeptical of innovative learning practices such as open, distance and e-learning. the region still struggles with the concept of non-traditional education and the majority do not believe that new learning modes offer innovative educational experience, but rather other facets of teaching through correspondence. (aldrich, 2003; barab and duffy, 2004; dudeney, 2007; hubbard, 2009; kimber, 2003). in many countries of the developing world, the pedagogy of education involves rote learning and memorization. innovative learning practices such as open, distance and e-learning involve different pedagogic approaches that are more learner-centred, investigation-based and autonomous. guy observed, “theories and practices in distance education have emanated from industrialized countries and the metaphors that are used signify the attitudes and values and the modes of thinking that are highly representative of those countries. terms such as individual learning, personal work… self pacing, evaluation and autonomy… represent much of the thinking about distance education in the developed world at present and contain specific ideologies which may not be consistent, or appropriate in third world cultures” (1999, p. 58). social isolation the loss of face-to-face interaction in some distance learning contexts is one of the serious drawbacks reported of new learning modes. resnick (2000) warns against isolation which undervalues the role of education in preparing students for civic engagement and citizenship participation. mathews (1999) observes that students like being on a university campus and interacting socially and intellectually with fellow students and teachers. drop rates potashnik and capper (1998, p. 43) argue that completion rates are generally much lower for distance education students as evident in the drop out statistics, with an overall rate of 40 percent. this raises concerns about whether traditional face-to-face instruction is a more effective way of working with and retaining students. faculty strain new learning modes require faculty to divide their efforts into teaching, administrative follow up and research, in addition to a high level of training in the use of technology. most of the part-time tutors employed in developing countries come from the pool of traditional universities and, hence, require extensive training. urban concentration most centres offering open and distance education are located in the major cities and have no geographic spread. this reduces efforts of outreach to rural and remote areas, where they are most needed. scholastic uncertainties in the developing countries open learning institutions generally seek global certification and review to attain full recognition. there are still uncertainties in relation to the admission criteria and the compatibility of the awards. two decades into the venture and the opportunities for traditional entry qualifications remain limited, with few or none catering to professional-level courses or needs. the survey having identified the above major concerns, a survey was conducted on a random sample of learners, to explore participants’ perceptions on whether the new hybrid learning method supported their developmental needs. the survey aimed at identifying learners’ views on the efficiency of the education system, the quality of education, resources, support, delivery methods, progress within it, and the development of the skills needed to meet market requirements.  the survey was administered to 2500 students studying through the open system of education. participants were chosen at random from all faculties at the arab open university in lebanon. the sample could be indicative of future trends as it provided the views of randomly selected participants at various levels of study. the survey was conducted electronically and ensured the anonymity of respondents. the data were maintained in the quality assurance records at the university, for the period of fall 2012-2013, and spring 2013.  the limitations relate to the study being carried out in one region. the arab open university is a pioneering educational enterprise in the arab world that was initiated following studies on the developmental needs of the region. it was founded on the ideological basis of equal education opportunity, accountability, transparency, tolerance, freedom of access to information and equality before the law. the arab open university makes use of modern information and communication technologies to offer innovative blended learning modes combining tutorials, audio, video, electronic mediums and printed material to overcome restrictive selections by traditional education institutions, in contexts where priorities have to be made within available budgets. the arab gulf fund headed by hrh prince talal bin abdel aziz, instituted seven branches so far for the arab open university in kuwait, saudi arabia, jordan, egypt, lebanon, bahrain and oman, to target marginalized sections of society and offer good quality education for learners on low income, women and working people. disjunction, rupture or continuity the arab open university incorporated innovative learning modes and targeted investment in technologic provision to provide higher education, and to increase opportunities for learners in the global market.  aou invested in computers, servers, and networks to offer an infrastructure that can serve online and networking requirements for the new initiative of blended learning. seventy-three percent (73%) of the total surveyed (1825 out of 2500 students) expressed their satisfaction with computer facilities, access to internet and online learning resources. lab assistants provided support and hands-on training to help new students acquire the computer literacy skills needed to use the system. seventy-two percent (72%) rated as good the technical support that they received and that aided their integration in the new technological environment. course information, material, assignments are made available on the university’s learning management system (lms) to support learners in pacing their studying. the university offers physical and virtual library resources. seventy percent (70%) of the participating students (1750 out of 2500 students) expressed satisfaction with library facilities, which helped develop in them a range of cognitive skills including critical thinking.  curriculum, however, required some grounding in the needs and problems of society to help students apply the learned skills to their immediate context. to help overcome socio-economic substrating, the arab open university targets female applicants as well as people on low income to integrate disparate social groups, increase economic productivity and support social cohesion in nation building. statistics confirm a forty-five percent (45%) female student body at aou – lebanon in the year 2012 – 2013. to overcome problems of social isolation as well as the skepticism associated with new learning modes, the arab open university adopted a blended learning model that has a minimum set of contact hours with students through tutorials and office hours. students expressed satisfaction (78%) with the study system, the quality of information provided by the tutor (80%) and the opportunities to participate in course discussions (76%). recruited academic staff are given full training on the characteristics of the open system before assuming their tutor role within the system to ensure the best scholarly and professional performance. survey results indicated that students were content with the amount of support they received from their tutor (77%) and guidance on their progress and development throughout the semester (77%). repurposing innovative learning modes for development and sustainability in the arab world innovative learning modes in the arab region need to invest more effort to impact development and become equivalent to its counterpart in the developed countries. there is a need to conduct awareness campaigns in the region to educate the population on innovative learning modes, in order to overcome the serious implications of negative beliefs that are hampering their development. the materials developed for a specific region need to be directly related to the developmental needs of learners in that region. arab universities offering open education need to start thinking about programmes that can advance their graduates and that are compatible with their cultural context, instead of relying wholly on programmes and materials developed by western universities. training workshops need to be offered to educational staff on innovative learning modes and their benefit and importance in offering access to wider sections of society. staff commitment, as well as training and support, are key to the success of this endeavour. there is a need to establish national standards that can assure the academic quality, cultural appropriateness and relevance of course material to the context of the arab world. this would redress the doubts surrounding innovative learning modes and channel appropriate educational policies. there are qualified organizations that can help establish a pan-arab accreditation agency to secure the quality of innovative modes of education and support an arab network for open and distance learning. these include the arab gulf program for united nations development organization (agfund), the arab fund for economic and social development (afesd), the islamic educational, scientific and cultural organization (isesco), the arab bureau of education for the gulf states (abegs) and the association of arab universities. the quality of learning is measured by the learning achievement and development of learners. there are good indicators that are provided from the stakeholders, the students, and the market. statistics provided by the student affairs record for the period of 2011 – 2012 confirm that half of the graduates found employment upon graduation. however, more efforts, resources, funds, collaboration and quality assurance means are needed to sustain this process in the arab region. conclusion the increase in demand for higher education, specifically in the developing world, has made resorting to innovative modes of education essential for development, and as a means to gaining academic qualifications specifically for people on limited incomes as well as for working and marginalized groups. the arab region is inconsistent in terms of population size, national income, literacy levels, resources, prosperity, etc. such factors need to be taken into account when planning a vision and mission, objectives and the values of new learning modes in the region. finding an alternative to traditional modes of education should be a priority for this part of the world, amidst the economic restrictions in the wake of the arab revolutions and the instability of the region. the cultural divide between rural and urban areas affects access to education. however, open and distance education in the arab world can solve some educational challenges of access and elitist provisions. education systems need to be able to help learners develop the cognitive, social and behavioural skills required in labour markets, with an eye to local and global needs. the experience of the arab open university favours exploring simultaneously hybrid teaching and learning modes that can satisfy local and wider contexts and serve different learning styles. the findings are as follows: innovative learning systems have had an impact on the societies in the developing world open learning has been a means for gaining academic qualifications and has provided a solution for mass education in the region it has specifically helped to develop learners from working backgrounds, underprivileged groups and females. efforts should focus on: enhancing awareness campaigns on open education in the developing world customizing material to suit the developmental needs of learners in the region as well as their cultural context assuring quality of material used in nontraditional education in the region. innovative modes of learning should continue to be the cornerstone for development in the region, well into the future because of pressing economic factors, globalization and the technical revolution. global changes will have their impact; some will contribute to advancing innovative learning practices, while others need to be addressed to prevent negative implications. sustainability will be related to the ability of providers to identify, at an early stage, the concerns of recipients, engage in two-way cultural exchange, incorporate culturally diverse themes and provide structured frameworks for innovative learning practice that can ensure quality and satisfy the concerns of the ministries of education regarding the standards of innovative learning modes in the developing world. recipients, on the other hand, need to engage in researching and evaluating the new learning approaches to identify emerging problems and propose working solutions. innovative learning modes will be indispensable to the development of the arab region. references al-baath university open learning centre. (2013). http://olc-albaath.com aldrich, c. (2003). simulations and the future of learning: an innovative (and perhaps revolutionary) approach to e-learning. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. al-khatib, h. (2011). “cross border education; a quest for social justice or a case for cultural imperialism?” cambridge international conference on internationalisation and social justice. cambridge university. cambridge, united kingdom 25-28 september. barab, s., & duffy, t. (2004). from practice fields to communities of practice. in jonassen, d.h. & land, s.l. (eds.)., theoretical foundations of learning environments. n.j: laurence erlbaum. pp. 25-56. barab, s. king, r., & gray, j. (eds.). (2004). designing for virtual communities in the service of learning. cambridge, england: cambridge university press. bax, s. (2011). normalization revisited: the effective use of technology in language education. international journal of computer-assisted language learning and teaching (i). callt, 1, 2: pp. 1-15. carty, w. (1999, summer). distance education in the developing world. the advising quarterly. dhanarajan, g. (2001). distance education: promise, performance and potential. open learning, 16(1). disessa, a. (2000). changing minds: computers, learning and literacy. cambridge, massachusettes: mit press. dudeney, g. (2007). the internet and the language classroom. cambridge. cambridge university press. egyptian universities network. (2013). www.eun.eg fadlallah, a. (2011), bridging the gap in digital divide. cambridge international conference on open, distance and e-learning. cambridge.  conference proceedings. fitzpatrick, a., & davies, g. (eds.) (2003). the impact of information and communication technologies on the teaching of foreign languages and the role of teachers of foreign languages.  ec directorate general of education and culture. guy, r. (1999). work related skills in primary and secondary schools. avetra conference proceedings. hubbard, p. (2009). computer assisted language learning, vol. i-iv. london, new york: routledge. kimber, k. (2003). technoliteracy, teacher agency and design: shaping a digital learning culture. queensland university of technology, australia. libyan open university. (2004). www.libopenuniv.edu.gov. majdalawi, a. (2005). distance higher education in the arab region. online journal of distance learning administration, 8(1). mathews, d. (1999, september). the origins of distance education. t.h.e. journal. mccormick, j. (2000, april 24). the new school. newsweek. muthui, w.,  & gachiengo, p. (1999, spring/summer). should the internet be a development priority in kenya? stanford journal of international relations, 1(2). noble, d. (1999, january). first monady, 3(1). potashnik, m., & capper, j. (1998, march). distance education: growth and diversity. finance and development, 35(1). resnick, d. (2000, august). the virtual university and college life. first monday, 5(8). richards, c. (2003). ict – supported learning environments: the challenge of reconciling technology and pedagogy. proceedings of the international conference on computers in education. roman, g. (2001, march). online learning report. branching out, 1(4). samoff, j. (2003). institutionalizing international influence. in arnove, r. f. (ed.), comparative education: the dialectic of the global and the local. lanham, maryland: rowman & littlefield. unesco (2002a). globalization and higher education, case study arab states. first global forum on international quality assurance, accreditation and the recognition of qualifications in higher education, october 17-18, 2002. paris: unesco. unesco (2002b). open and distance learning, trends, policy and strategy considerations. paris: unesco. undp development programme. (1999). undp human development report, 1999. wilson, s., liber, o., johnson, m., beauvoir, p., sharples, p., & milligan, c. (2007). personal learning environments: challenging the dominant design of educational systems. journal of e-learning and knowledge society. hayat al-khatib has several publications in the fields of applied linguistics, english language teaching, open distance and e-learning, pragmatics, discourse analysis and functional grammar. she serves as associate editor in the linguistic journal issn: 1718-2298, the european scientific journal (esj)  issn 1857 7431 and is the editor in chief of the centre of applied linguistics research (calr) journal issn 2073 1175. e-mail: hkhatib@aou.edu.lb microsoft word gaskelleditorial.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 1-4 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. editorial meeting sustainable development goal 4: some key contributions anne gaskell the united nation’s sustainable development goal 4: “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all” (sdg4i) sets an ambitious agenda that requires considerable efforts in all sectors and forms of education, and much remains to be done. for example, in 2017, although more children than ever were enrolled in school: … many do not acquire basic skills in reading and mathematics. recent learning assessment studies show that in 9 of 24 sub-saharan african countries and 6 of 15 latin american countries with data, fewer than half of the students at the end of primary education had attained minimum proficiency levels in mathematics. in 6 of 24 sub-saharan african countries with data, fewer than half of the students who finished their primary schooling had attained minimum proficiency levels in reading. (united nations, n.d.) the lack of trained teachers in some areas is also an issue. however, it is clear that enrolment in schools, or even some attendance, is not going to provide the only, or sometimes the best route to meeting sdg4. the challenges of travel, family requirements, assisting with domestic or other work, and infrastructure as well as cultural expectations, can often interrupt formal schooling. to achieve the sdgs, wider provision is required, which may include the use of open educational resources (oer). the articles in this issue all provide important contributions towards meeting sdg4. they highlight the role of informal learning (kidu), community development (pascevicius & hodgkins-williams), open educational resources (oer) and teacher professional development (haβler, hennessy & hofmann). the importance of appropriate policies and governance are highlighted (mukama); and, as always, all efforts will need strong leadership to guide developments (torres & rama). in this context, we are very pleased to include the final article in our current series of “world leaders in distance education”, which covers latin america. the series so far has included europe, the pacific, africa, asia, north america and the commonwealth caribbean and can be found in the three previous issues of jl4d published in 2017. our current authors are themselves distinguished distance educators, as were previous contributors. professor patricia lupion torres is currently coordinator of the postgraduate programme of education at the pontifical catholic university of paraná (pucpr), where she studied for her 2 first masters degree, and where she is also professor of the masters’ and phd programmes. she has authored and edited a large number of books relevant to her discussion in this article, for example, the handbook of research on collaborative learning using concept mapping (torres & marriott, 2009); and the handbook of research on e-learning methodologies for language acquisition (marriott & torres, 2011) which aims to promote students’ communication and language learning skills. patricia’s experience in the field and her background in educational technologies, distance and higher education, professional and teacher training, make her an ideal person to introduce us to the leaders in distance education in latin america. her co-author, professor claudio rama is also an ideal contributor to the series. he has very wide experience of higher and distance education across the whole of latin america: for example, from 2001-6 he was unesco’s director of the digital observatory of higher education in latin america and the caribbean (iesalc). he has worked extensively in uruguay where he has been at various times director of the faculty of business studies at the universidad de la empresa (ude), and director of the official transmission, radio and television and entertainment system (sodre). his many publications include recent articles and chapters on “university virtualisation in latin america “(rama, 2014) and “research as a new challenge for the latin american private university” (rama & gregorutti, 2015). we are also delighted to continue our occasional series on “learning for development in context” with an article by dame carol kidu, formerly representative for the pacific on the commonwealth of learning’s board of governors. dame carol discusses her involvement with the ginigoada foundation in papua new guinea and traces its development and success. “ginigoada” means “stand up strong” in the indigenous motu language, and the eponymous foundation has brought learning and skills to thousands of children, youth and adults. the foundation’s initial free courses in the capital, port moresby, were so popular that they managed to acquire funding for mobile buses to take learning and development to remoter regions. three courses are discussed: the young life program which introduces children to literacy, numeracy and social sciences; young skills for teenagers and young adults, which includes coverage of basic business awareness, conflict resolution and occupational health and safety; and a range of course for adults, such as financial literacy skills. “graduation” rates are impressive and the programmes have clearly brought learning and development to thousands of residents. this kind of informal learning will be essential to meet sdg4. community development organisations will also play a significant role, as they are often the main route for bringing education to impoverished areas. these provide the context for our first research article by pascevicius and hodgkinson-williams in which they examine student-tutors’ perceptions of the creation and re-use of digital educational resources in south africa. here, universities are encouraged to engage with the wider community through, in this case, student-run outreach programmes, which aim to improve the quality of life for under-resourced communities. 3 student volunteers act as tutors and mentors to young unemployed people and school children and use digital educational resources in their work. the focus of the research was the challenges faced in the reuse of these resources, using engeström’s activity system (1987) as the analytical framework. the authors conclude that challenges are quite substantial and hinder the full use of digital resources: for example, student-tutors did not have a clear idea about how copyright applies to online resources and had to spend time contextualising online materials. our second research article analyses the relationship between policies and the implementation of open and distance learning (odl) in rwanda. using a foucauldian framework, mukama examines policy aspirations and the challenges and gaps faced in providing odl, which is recognised as a potential means to increase access, inclusion and scalability in higher education in rwanda. he concludes that some policies are too aspirational and do not recognise the appropriate context; some are inherited from external providers which may have led to a lack of engagement and ownership in terms of implementation; and that the institutional frameworks do not match the governance of odl as expressed in policy documents. our commentary picks up the subject of open educational resources (oer) and is authored by hasßler, hennessy & hofmann who discuss sustainable and scalable teacher professional development in sub-saharan africa. drawing on their experience of developing and evaluating a school-based professional learning programme for primary school teachers, “oer4schools”, they identify nine key elements that should contribute to effective and sustainable professional learning in low-resourced contexts. the programme integrates interactive pedagogy, oer and the use of mobile devices and avoids top-down knowledge transmission models, which have previously been extensively used. the authors argue that their deliberately decentralised programme has encouraged the adoption of oer4schools in new contexts – for example, kenya, rwanda, sierra leone, ghana, zambia and zimbabwe. key characteristics identified include that teacher learning should be promoted, motivated, facilitated and also supported through oer to increase sustainability, scalability and equity. oer are also a key feature in our book review by pulist on the open movement, edited by jhangiani and robert biswas-diener. pulist argues that the open movement goes beyond oer, though these have an important part to play. all the papers in this issue provide important pointers towards ways of meeting sdg4 in the future. informal and community learning, teacher professional development, oer, strong leadership and appropriate policies and governance will be essential. papers in recent issues also illustrate leadership, initiatives and innovations across the world in learning for development, and provide an illustration of the reach of jl4d across continents. 4 download statistics support the international reach of jl4d. in 2017, article downloads came from 175 countries, including 49 commonwealth countries. jl4d also received about 303 article downloads per day; the top downloads by country coming from the us, philippines, israel, uk, canada, germany and india. authors are therefore ensured of a widely located readership and large numbers of downloads. please keep your contributions coming! finally, we are particularly pleased to include below a list of our reviewers over the last year. article referees provide a crucial role in supporting and guiding our authors through their constructive comments and also in maintaining the quality of jl4d. many thanks to all those who have found the time to make this essential contribution to our journal. we would be pleased to hear from other potential referees: this is another way of contributing to learning for development. anne gaskell chief editor, jl4d references marriott, r., & torres, p.l. (eds.). (2008). the handbook of research on e-learning methodologies for language acquisition. hershey information science reference. rama, c. (2014). university virtualisation in latin america. international journal of educational technology in higher education, 11(3), 32-41. rama, c., & gregorutti, g. (2015). research as a new challenge for the latin american private university. in gregorutti g., & delgado j.e. (eds.), private universities in latin america (pp. 9-26). new york: palgrave macmillan. torres, p.l., & marriott (eds.). (2009). handbook of research on collaborative learning using concept mapping. hershey: information science reference. united nations (n.d.). progress of goal 4 in 2017. retrieved from https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg4 acknowledgements: with thanks to the following reviewers in 2017 adnan qayyum, alice anne goodwin-davey, andy lane, anshu miglani, bjoern hasßler, charity akuadi okonkwo, curtis j. bonk, danielle dubien, elizabeth erling, emily dick-forde, ishan sudeera abeywardena, j n baliya, jack koumi, jenny pange, joel s. mtebe, jocelyn wishart, joyce mcknight, karen ferreira-meyers, keith williams, michael gallagher, mohamed abd-elhady ahmed, mpine makoe, nathaniel ostashewski, patrick d kihoza, paul g west, pvk sasidhar, s k pulist, sindile ngubane-mokiwa, and sutapa bose. i https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg4 microsoft word kidu.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 13-22 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. 13 informal lifelong learning for development in papua new guinea: a case study from the margins into the mainstream carol kidu papua new guinea abstract: this article traces the impact of the ginigoada foundation on the educational development of thousands of children and adults in papua new guinea (png). port moresby, capital city of papua new guinea (png), had been noted for the lack of educational opportunities for the majority of the population who lived in urban villages and squatter settlements. a “user-pay” policy resulted in children not attending school because the costs were too high. elsewhere in png, educational opportunities for children and adults were even lower. dame carol kidu was instrumental in the establishment of the ginigoada foundation, an ngo that provides learning and training assistance, and she reflects on past and current developments in this article. ginigoada’s initial programs for learning and development in port moresby were so popular that they led to the establishment of a fleet of buses to take programs out to local communities, initially in port moresby (png’s capital city), and now the model is expanding to other provinces of png. numbers of enrolments and graduation successes confirm that the ginigoada foundation has been very successful in terms of meeting learning needs. new developments include unicef-funded open learning networks and the provision of a mobile wifi library. keywords: mobile learning introduction my professional background was as a secondary school teacher in australia (two years) and in papua new guinea (20 years). after my husband’s sudden death, i successfully ran in the 1997 papua new guinea national elections and held various positions before retiring at the end of my third term in office in 2012. my political career focussed on my passion for genuine education for all (efa) and reaching the unreached through informal learning opportunities, often regarded as at the margins of education. many had assumed that i would prefer the education portfolio relating to more mainstream conventional formal educational systems. my constituency was in the capital city of papua new guinea, port moresby, which was notable for its poverty with the majority of the population living in urban villages and squatter settlements of people who had moved from the rural areas. a user-pay policy at the time resulted in many children not going to school because their parents could not afford the school fees and uniform costs. those who did go to primary school often did not continue to 14 secondary education because of the lack of space in high schools. education and poverty reduction became key electoral issues for me. after researching similar problems in other developing countries, i used the beupa (basic education for urban poverty areasi) model from uganda as a catalyst to move forward. with some limited funds from the australian agency for international development (ausaid) and support from the chairman of the port moresby chamber of commerce (also a teacher by profession), the ginigoada bisnis development foundation (gbdf) was established.ii. “ginigoada” means “stand up strong” in the motu language – one of the indigenous tribes of the city of port moresby and embraces the concept of “learning pathways” and “lifelong learning”. in practice “the ginigoada foundation is a “welfare” type of ngo that provides welfare in the form of training assistance, where the beneficiary is helped towards betterment of life through the personal empowerment of education and training” (field & kidu, 2017, p. 1) the desired outcomes are that each participant will be empowered and enabled to improve their personal life through further training, formal employment or income generation within the expanding informal economy. the program also aims to encourage participants in avoiding illegal, criminal or anti-social behaviour. for many of the participants, the program offers opportunities that would not otherwise be available, and the enrolment figures and graduation numbers provide ample evidence that these opportunities are valued. background gbdf initially sponsored marginalised out-of-school youth and women for short courses that taught skills for income generation in the informal economy. however, it was clear that many people were not confident enough to leave their communities and enter the short courses offered. our aim was also to take learning to the people in their communities to build up that needed confidence. in response to this need, and with the help of funds provided by asia foundationiii , gbdf started its first mobile learning unit – a bus which transported trainers and learning materials into the settlements and villages. as news of the mobile learning bus spread, requests for the service came in from all over the city and beyond. with help from the private sector, the bus fleet was increased to five buses in the city, two buses to serve the neighbouring central province and, later, two buses to serve lae city. from 2008 to 2011 it became apparent that the flow of ginigoada participants into employment had significantly increased “but the employment market began to level out in late 2011 and demand from employers decreased” (field & kidu, 2017, p. 2). from 2012, this resulted in a renewed focus for ginigoada on training activities and initiatives that develop participants’ interests and skills in the informal sector. the results included the expansion of the mobile training programs, and the increased emphasis on business skills and financial literacy. 15 meri seif increasing numbers of women and young girls were improving their income-generating skills but women were often reluctant to leave the safety of their communities and travel on public transport to work because of the high risk of theft and violence experienced in the public transport system. ginigoada responded to this problem by introducing female-only public transport in port moresby. in 2014 the ginigoada foundation launched its first meri seif (male-free) bus as a practical provision of support for girls and women in the community travelling to and from their workplace. the second bus was launched in february 2016, also with the support of un women and australian aid. the third bus in december 2016 was launched after support from the un women’s national committee in australia, which is currently raising money for a fourth meri seif bus. (field & kidu, 2017). fig 1: meri seif bus 4. photo by permission of the ginigoada foundation. sanap wantaim means stand up together in pidgin english and promotes male champions to support women in their advocacy for equality and against gender based violence. the ginigoada foundation also takes a leading role in the meri seif ples program http://www.endvawnow.org/en/articles/1407-emergency-safe-spaces.html, which provides emergency safe places for women within businesses and organisations. here girls and women can access refuge, shelter and support should they find themselves at risk, under threat, or being abused or assaulted. “although the meri seif bus and meri seif ples projects are not training programs, the foundation has embraced both as they are of practical support value to the female participants of the foundation, and the community at large” (kidu, 2015). 16 programs the mobile learning buses have become specialised in their learning content, for example, early childhood education, adult literacy, and a youth focused unit covering health and general life-skills, and also courses on financial literacy and basic skills. some examples illustrate the more specific aims of each program. the young life program aims to engage young people from around age five to the teen years with a positive learning experience so that they will consider entering, or re-entering, the formal education system. this is promoted by the use of simple training techniques and tools, such as phonics, to deliver some foundational education components upon which to build for the future. the adult training programs aim to provide a pathway for participants towards being ‘employable’. the intention is that through the programs, participants will increase their potential for generating income through formal employment, or through activities in the informal economy. the pathway for participants is illustrated in figure 2, which demonstrates how unemployed people can work through ginigoada mobile bus programs to achieve the potential for employment, self-employment and on-job training. fig 2: pathway from unemployed to employable through ginigoada programs (field & kidu, 2017). the adult training pathway provides participants with short term skills training courses and on-the-job training placements. in 2017 there were 23 program components, offered through three centres: port moresby, lae and central province. overall, these comprise essential learning opportunities for youth and adults. for example, young life, young skills, financial skills, health skills, and new adult literacy skills are offered at both port moresby and lae. new start adult literacy, is also offered at central province, as are skills for life and other programmes (field & kidu, 2017). all mobile learning programs constantly undergo “review and re-evaluation of content and delivery of material to provide ongoing development and relevance to a changing society” (kidu, 2015), and this can be illustrated by the introduction of new programs when they are relevant, such as the mobile wi-fi library and learning pilot in central province 2017 (field & kidu, 2017). 17 of particular importance to participants, all bus courses are provided free of charge. after successful completion, learners can use their certificates to get subsidies for further short courses provided by ngos and the non-formal education sector of the department for education for a nominal cost of k50 (about $20). outcomes data collected from participants in three programmes illustrate the substantial interest in the programs and the impact the programs have had on many of those who had previously had very few educational opportunities. 1. young life program this mobile training program has been developed for children under 16 and introduces them to literacy, numeracy and some social sciences. the program delivers a 20 day presentation at each location. phonics is incorporated to help accelerate the rate at which children are empowered to read basic material. the intent of this program is to assist and encourage children to enter into formal education by enabling them to read, write and interact in a manner that removes or reduces any obstacle, real or perceived, to them attending school. (field & kidu, 2017). fig 3: young life graduates. photo by permission of the ginigoada foundation. from 2014-15 the young life program was delivered at 17 centres and attracted 1,917 participants. up to 2015, 1,268 children had graduated from the program, that is, over 66%. this is an impressive result, particularly when considering the prior education level of the children involved, many of whom were between two and five years old. 18 fig 4: prior educational level of children on the young life program 2014. (ginigoada foundation, 2015). 2. young skills this program targets teenagers and young adults (from 15 onwards), delivering personal skills development training over an array of topics and subjects, which include occupational health and safety, basic business awareness, family budgeting and conflict resolution. from 2012 – 2015 the programs were delivered to over 50 centres and attracted 7,637 participants, of who 5,927 graduated (over 77%). again, this is very impressive, given the previous educational levels of the participants. fig 5. graduate from the young skills program. photo courtesy of ginigoada foundation. 0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 male female male female male female elemenatry grade 1 6 grade7 8 prior education level of children (2014 2015) 19 fig. 6: educational level of young skills program participants 2012-2015 (ginigoada foundation, 2015). the age and gender distribution of the program participants, with the largest cohort aged 2040 years, is also of interest. women clearly make up a smaller percentage of those enrolling but the largest numbers for both genders come from the age range 20-40. fig 7: gender distribution of young skills program participants 20122015. (ginigoada foundation, 2015). between 2012 – 2017, the program has been taken by 16,319 learners. (ginigoada foundation, 2017). 3. financial literacy skills program this program “aims to increase participants “financial literacy” so that they will have a basic working understanding about how to form and run a group income generating activity” (kidu, 2015). from 2012 to 2015, this program attracted 6,635 participants of whom 4,707 graduated (71%). this is particularly impressive when large number of participants had no education beyond primary level. 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 no formal education primary secondary tertiary education level of young skills program participants (2012 2015) male female 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 15 19 years 20 40 years 41 64 years 65+ age distribution of young skills program participants ( 2012 2015) female male 20 fig 8: educational level of financial literacy participants (2012 – 2015). (ginigoada foundation, 2015). from 2013 to 2017, this program has been taken by 13,635 participants. (ginigoada foundation, 2017). recent developments the ginigoada foundation continues to expand its programs for training, learning and development for those who have previously been denied educational opportunities. the multi-learning centre, founded in port moresby in 2015, delivers a range of training courses for both groups and individuals, which include small business, basic computing and customer care. from october 2014, the ginigoada foundation has also taken over the “on job training placement and employment desk” (formerly run by the port moresby chamber of commerce & industry pomcci) “and separated the two important functions to allow expansion of each” (field & kidu, 2017). the new employment desk connects ginigoada graduates with available local business and company vacancies. in 2017 ginigoada is pioneering an initial bridge school (bris skul) project in papua new guinea’s central province. these schools aim to provide early child development and out of school programs within areas that are not currently able to deliver support in these key areas. the bridge school programme, with financial assistance and expertise from unicef, trains interested community members to become volunteer “teachers” in community based preschools and learning centres. it also trains community members to establish boards of management to assist the volunteer “teachers”. two further new developments are the unicef funded open learning network that aims to bring together “organisations and groups who are providing informal, non-recognised or nonaccredited, training” (field & kidu, 2017). the overall intention is to develop greater cooperation and pathway options between organisations, and to promote greater recognition of informal learning and training within the government of png. a further new pilot project in 2017 is the provision of a mobile wifi library, through which “a selection of reading, educational and resource materials will be made available” on central bus 6/7 programs. these buses will have hub and file-sharing hardware (field & kidu, 2017). 0 200 400 600 800 1000 no formal education primary secondary tertiary education level of financial literacy participants (2012 2015) male female 21 conclusion over the past 15 years, thousands of learners of all ages and abilities have gone through ginigoada courses with many of them finding employment and transforming their lives. i have remained patron of the newly named ginigoada foundation inc. since leaving politics and it has been blessed with visionary leadership by pastor mike field who is developing a strong management team supported by a dedicated board (still chaired by its original chairman from the port moresby chamber of commerce). in my personal life i am renovating my home to become a library/learning centre to be part of the ginigoada network. so much has been achieved but challenges remain and ginigoada is now working with unicef funding and technical assistance to address the on-going challenge of defining pathways that learners can follow to move from informal learning into the formal education system if they so desire. the first stage of establishing a network of informal learning providers is in line with the aim to create an open learning network (oln) hub. the oln hub will seek recognition by the formal system but does not want to be formalised and lose its flexibility, which has been a key to its success. there are many technical and policy issues to be addressed to achieve our goal but it is not impossible. the journey of education for the marginalised has been long but the journey must continue until pathways from the margins into the mainstream are defined for those learners who want to follow such a pathway. only then can we claim to have achieved education for all in papua new guinea. references field, m., & kidu, c. (2017). ginigoada training program outline. ginigoada foundation, internal paper. ginigoada foundation. (2015). analysis of data 2012-15, ginigoada foundation, internal paper. ginigoada foundation. (2017). analysis of data 2012-17, ginigoada foundation, internal paper. kidu, c. (2015). ginigoada training program outline. ginigoada foundation, internal paper. author: dame dr. carol kidu, dbe, dr. (hons), was first elected to parliament in 1997 in papua new guinea as the member of port moresby south and retired from politics in the 2012 election after serving 15 years in png politics. dame carol kidu is a col fellow and served as the board member of commonwealth of learning representing pacific. email: carolkidu48@gmail.com i https://www.changemakers.com/educationafrica/entries/basic-education-urban-poverty-areas-beupa ii http://www.pomcci.com/ginigoada-bisnis-development-foundation/ iii https://asiafoundation.org/ microsoft word lobojic.docx issn: 2311-1550 2023, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 252-266 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. emotional support, academic resiliency, and school engagement in an online learning setting during covid-19 pandemic joseph lobo filamer christian university, roxas city, philippines abstract: in recent years, numerous published scholarly works have examined the association between academic resilience and school engagement, as well as the function of emotional support in bolstering the relationship between the two. however, these investigations have only been undertaken at the elementary and secondary levels. therefore, it can be concluded that there are only a few studies that were conducted in the context of higher education, especially in the philippines. in this regard, this study aimed to evaluate the relationship between academic resilience (ars) and school engagement (se) via teacher-emotional support (tes). using data from 910 students and partial least square-structural equation modeling (pls-sem), it was unraveled that (1) ars positively affects se, (2) ars leverages tes, (3) tes affects se, and (4) tes partially mediated the association between students' ars and se. according to the findings, instructors' emotional support promotes college students' resilience and engagement. the study underlined the need of strengthening personal and contextual resources to support student well-being in an online class setting. keywords: academic resiliency, college students, instructor emotional support, online learning, school engagement. introduction academics have studied resilience because of its link to academic success and adjustment (dwiastuti et al., 2022). resilient students may persevere through challenging educational settings, maintain a high level of desire, and succeed despite many obstacles (rao & krishnamurthy, 2018). numerous studies have shown that academic resiliency and school engagement are strongly and positively associated before, during, and after the pandemic (versteeg et al., 2022). academic resiliency motivates students to study more and perform better. despite the data, it's interesting to explore emotional forms like the instructor's emotional support and contextual personal resources. according to the theory of self-determination, a student's perception of instructor emotional support is the degree to which they feel their teacher cares about them as an individual, is understanding of their circumstances, and shows enthusiasm and positivity in response to their efforts (yang et al., 2021). in elementary and secondary education, this topic has been extensively researched. there is little literature on how higher education students in the philippines see their instructors' emotional support, which will help them overcome 253 academic problems, especially during the pandemic. therefore, a comprehensive enquiry should be conducted. this study investigated academic resilience and school engagement through the mediating effect of instructors' perceived emotional support. this study also sought to demonstrate how online instructors might provide emotional support to students in an online setting. by making students feel comfortable and connected to their teachers, these strategies can boost academic resilience and motivation in learning. literature review academic resilience and school engagement resilience can be defined as the extent to which a person can constructively adapt to adversity, adjust to new circumstances, and ultimately prevail in the face of potentially disastrous occurrences (wu et al., 2020). academic resilience, which is vital to a student's educational experience, is the ability to persevere in the face of adversity, whether short-term or long-term. some academics describe academic resiliency as the ability to overcome academic hurdles and flourish despite a high-risk background (serrano sarmiento et al., 2021). according to garcíacrespo et al. (2021), academic resilience is the ability to overcome classroom challenges and succeed. students who overcame major educational obstacles are resilient (gartland et al., 2019). resilient pupils participate in all steps and don't give up easily under academic pressure. this characteristic predicts high accomplishment motivation, academic performance, lowered dropout intentions, and students who are very happy with their lives (bittmann, 2021). aspects of students' cognitive abilities, affective, and behavioural all contribute to their level of engagement in school (benito mundet et al., 2021). there are three components: vigour, dedication, and absorption. vigour is the capacity to bounce back quickly from setbacks while maintaining one's enthusiasm, concentration, and drive for one's studies (jindo et al., 2020). dedication is characterised by an intense interest in one's academic pursuits and a willingness to go the extra mile to succeed (teuber et al., 2021). an absorbed learner is one who is totally engrossed in what he or she is learning (koob et al., 2021). academic resilience and other characteristics as drivers of student engagement have been the focus of such studies (mozammel et al., 2018). finally, the demand-resources model extended to education suggested that better personal resources like academic resiliency might boost aspirations and school engagement (fiorilli et al., 2020). with this in mind, the current study is aimed at delving deeper into the connection between academic resilience and educational engagement, on the assumption that academic resilience is a personal resource and antecedent to educational engagement. the mediating role of perceived teacher’s emotional support in the relationship between academic resilience and school engagement college students spend a great deal of time in classrooms (both physical and virtual), are subjected to constantly evolving academic requirements, and must balance a wide range of expectations and stresses (romano et al., 2021a). given the above, it's not unexpected that students are profoundly impacted by their teachers' and other significant adults' ability to provide emotional support as they navigate the emotional strain of excessive academic obligations (yang et al., 2021). fostering a safe and supportive classroom environment, being responsive to students' individual concerns, and encouraging positive peer interactions are all aspects of what we mean when we talk about teachers providing emotional support (pakarinen et al., 2020). positive climate (pc), teacher sensitivity (ts), and regards for the adolescent perspective 254 (rap) are the three pillars of tes, as stated by yang et al. (2022). the term positive climate (pc) is used to describe a classroom in which the teacher actively encourages constructive interactions between students, which can result in more chances for students to show academic improvement. additionally, the term teacher sensitivity (ts) refers to when a teacher keeps a close eye out for signs that their students might benefit from some extra help in class. last but not least, regard for adolescent perspective (rap) refers to how much teachers value students' points of view on issues including adaptability, relevance, autonomy, leadership, and quality peer relationships. each of these factors is seen as important in its own right but together they play a key role in fostering students' desire and engagement (ruzek et al., 2016). students who report receiving emotional support from teachers have been found to do better academically and adapt better to school settings, according to empirical studies (frenzel et al., 2021). consistent with these discoveries, previous research has demonstrated that students who are more capable of overcoming adversity have a more favorable view of their classroom environments and experience greater encouragement from their teachers (cassidy, 2015; yilmaz findik, 2016). similar research has found that students who are able to bounce back from setbacks are more likely to feel their teachers' support and encouragement, which, in turn, is strongly linked to better long-term adjustment (rodríguez-fernández et al., 2018). in addition, current research has linked students' degree of involvement in the classroom to their level of academic resilience and their perception of emotional support from teachers (ahmed et al., 2018). thus, it could be possible and hypothesised that highly resilient students who perceived higher levels of emotional support from their instructors could experience higher engagement in school. research questions 1. how may the respondents be described in terms of gender and current institute? 2. is there a significant relationship between: a. ars and tes; b. ars and eng; and, c. tes and eng; 3. does ars have a significant influence on eng? 4. does ars have a significant influence on tes? 5. does tes have a significant influence on eng? 6. does tes mediate the relationship between ars and eng? hypotheses in this light, the purpose of this study is to investigate and assess the following hypotheses: h1: academic resilience has a significant relationship and can positively affect school engagement h2: academic resilience has a significant relationship and can positively affect perceived instructor’s emotional support; 255 h3: perceived instructor’s emotional support is positively related and leverages school engagement h4: perceived instructor’s emotional support mediated the relationship between academic resilience and school engagement. figure 1 depicts the conceptual framework for the present investigation. figure 1: conceptual framework. methods participants and sampling technique respondents were firstto fourth-year city college of angeles’ students in the philippines during the covid-19 pandemic in the first semester of 2022-2023. participants were chosen using convenience sampling. this particular sampling selects respondents based on availability (frey, 2018). personal networks and proximity are both considered accessible. this investigation's sample size was determined by raosoft sample size calculator. sample size was 357 for 5,000 potential students. after data cleaning, 910 students completed the online survey. instruments the gathering of data was performed via an online survey using google forms. also, three instruments were adopted for this study. first, the 30-item academic resilience scale, or the ars30 by cassidy (2016), was used to measure students’ academic resilience based on specific cognitive-affective and behavioural responses to educational diversity. responses were recorded on a 5-point likert scale (1 = unlikely to 5 = likely); an example of an item is i would do my best to stop thinking negative thoughts. in this particular instrument, a composite score was obtained (i.e., summation of the retained items after extraction). from the original study of cassidy (2016), the cronbach’s alpha value was 0.90, and for this investigation, the value was 0.93, indicating high internal consistency. 256 second, the teacher’s emotional support scale by romano et al. (2020) was used to measure students’ perceptions of their teachers’ emotional support. the scale is composed of 15 items on a 5-point likert scale (1 = not at all true, 5 = very true). it measures three distinct and related features of teacher emotional support: positive climate (e.g., our instructors want students in this class to respect each other’s ideas), teacher’s sensitivity (e.g., our instructors are available to help students when we have questions), and regard for adolescent perspective (e.g., our instructors encourage us to help other students with their works). cronbach’s alpha is 0.86 for the total score in the current study and between 0.86 and 0.93 for its subscales. lastly, the utrecht work engagement scale for students (uwes-9s) which was adopted from carmona-halty et al. (2019) was used which measures the overall school engagement of students. uwes-9s is a nine-item self-report scale on a 6-point likert scale (0 = never, 6 = always) which is subdivided into three unique features: vigour [vi] (e.g., i feel energetic and capable when i'm studying or going to class), dedication [dn] (e.g., i am enthusiastic about my studies), and absorption [abs] (e.g., i get carried away when i am studying). the cronbach’s alpha is 0.91 for the entire score in the current study and between 0.77 and 0.86 for its subscales. data analysis factor analysis a factor analysis was performed using partial least squares-structural equation modelling (plssem) using smartpls 4. pls-sem as a statistical treatment for obtained data is highly suitable for this investigation. for the measurement model, scholars are advised to consider the outer loadings of the items and the average variance extracted (ave) to establish convergent validity (hair et al., 2021). additionally, scrutinisation of the fornell-larcker and heterotrait-monotrait criterion were also performed as per the suggestion of hair et al., in assessing and establishing discriminant validity. also, for the structural model, the path coefficients and the coefficient of determination (r2) were measured. finally, ibm spss version 27 was used for descriptive and correlational statistical analyses such as pearson r (r) frequency (f) and percentage (%) in order to determine the relationship between variables being measured and respondents’ demographic characteristics (e.g., gender and institute). concerning the model specification, ars was the predictor, while tes was the mediating variable, and eng was the outcome. for ars, a composite score was used to obtain global score. tes and eng were used as latent variables, with their respective three subscales’ composite scores as indicators. the conceptual model is shown in figure 1. specifically, as depicted in figure 1, (h1) represents the effect of ars on eng, (h2) represents the effect of ars on tes, (h3) represents the effect of tes to eng, and, lastly, (h4) represents the indirect effect tes in between ars and eng. to test the hypothesised mediation model, a pls-sem with 10,000 resamples of bootstrapped estimates with 95% confidence interval (ci) was performed following hair et al. (2021). ethical considerations the respondents were informed about the study's objectives, the instruments, and the constructs that would be measured. additionally, the researcher provided the benefits of the study for the college and the scientific community. the respondents were required to provide their consent by clicking the agreement attached in google forms. they were also given the 257 freedom to decide whether to participate or decline. participants were also informed that there might be minor risks in their participating in the study, such as the feeling of being uncomfortable in answering personal and sensitive survey questions. likewise, they were told that no monetary compensation would be provided for giving information. given these circumstances, participants were free to withdraw or to ask for a debriefing of the study anytime. findings descriptive statistics table 1: demographic characteristics. item values f percentage gender male 536 58.9 female 374 41.1 institute institute of education, arts, and sciences 393 43.2 institute of business and management 361 39.7 institute of computing studies and library information science 156 17.1 total 910 100 table 1 illustrates the demographic characteristics of the respondents who answered the online survey. the results revealed that most of the respondents were males (n = 536) who constitute 58.9% of the collected data compared to females (n = 374) with 41.1%. lastly, most of the respondents came from the institute of education, arts and sciences (n = 393) which represents 43.2% of the collected data, followed by the institute of business and management (n = 361) with 39.7% and the institute of computing studies and library information science (n = 156) with 17.1%. factor analysis table 2: measurement model results. construct items item loading ca cr ave academic resilience ars11 0.742 0.927 0.929 0.605 ars13 0.727 ars16 0.772 ars18 0.770 ars20 0.733 ars22 0.821 ars24 0.732 ars25 0.834 ars27 0.817 ars30 0.819 positive climate pc1 0.869 0.858 0.868 0.703 258 (teacher emotional support) pc2 0.756 pc3 0.896 pc5 0.828 regard for adolescent perspective (teacher emotional support) rap1 0.829 0.861 0.865 0.705 rap2 0.830 rap3 0.854 rap4 0.846 teacher sensitivity (teacher emotional support) ts1 0.865 0.911 0.913 0.738 ts2 0.864 ts3 0.900 ts5 0.858 ts6 0.807 vigor (school engagement) vr1 0.717 0.764 0.798 0.682 vr2 0.901 vr5 0.848 dedication (school engagement) dn3 0.854 0.857 0.864 0.778 dn4 0.914 dn7 0.876 absorption (school engagement) abs6 0.858 0.800 0.811 0.714 abs8 0.878 abs9 0.796 item loadings > 0.70, cronbach’s alpha value (ca) and composite reliability (cr) > 0.70, average variance extracted (ave) > 0.50 in order to measure the reliability of each item, a factor loading analysis was conducted. a threshold value of equal to or greater than 0.7 for each item’s loading is considered reliable. the cronbach’s alpha (ca) and composite reliability (cr) should also be equal to or greater than 0.7. additionally, the average variance extracted (ave) was also used to validate constructs. it is the grand mean value of the squared loadings of the items related to the construct and the standard measure for establishing convergent validity. the ave should be at least 0.5 or greater, and the corresponding p-value must be, at most, 0.5. after performing the factor loading analysis and extraction of items lower than the 0.7, and analysing the cr and ave, table 2 illustrates the result for academic resilience (ca 0.927; cr 0.929; ave 0.605), positive climate (teacher emotional support) [ca 0.858, cr 0.868, ave 0.703], regard for adolescent perspective (teacher emotional support) [ca 0.861; cr 0.865; ave 0.705], teacher sensitivity (teacher emotional support) [ca 0.911; cr 0.913; ave 0.738], vigour (school engagement) [ca 0.764; cr 0.798; ave 0.682], dedication (school engagement) [ca 0.857; cr 0.864; ave 0.778], and absorption (school engagement) [ca 0.800; cr 0.811; ave 0.714). hence, the convergent validity has been established. 259 to establish the discriminant validity, the fornell-larcker and heterotrait-monotrait criterion were inspected. for fornell-larcker, the square root of ave (diagonal value) in each variable should exceed the correlation of latent variables. lastly, the htmt value should be < 0.9. in this, the results are illustrated in table 3 and 4, respectively. therefore, discriminant validity has been established. table 3: fornell-larcker criterion. ab s ar s dn pc ra p ts vr a b s 0.8 45 a r s 0.4 97 0.7 78 d n 0.7 88 0.5 93 0.8 82 p c 0.3 68 0.6 37 0.4 46 0.7 66 r a p 0.4 50 0.5 63 0.4 64 0.6 51 0.8 40 ts 0.4 54 0.5 63 0.4 89 0.7 02 0.7 65 0.8 59 v r 0.7 71 0.5 17 0.7 98 0.3 95 0.4 60 0.5 06 0.8 26 table 4: heterotrait-monotrait ratio. ar s ab s dn pc ra p ts v r ar s ab s 0.5 12 dn 0.6 12 0.7 82 pc 0.6 50 0.3 63 0.4 42 ra p 0.5 76 0.4 45 0.4 54 0.6 33 ts 0.5 84 0.4 51 0.4 87 0.7 03 0.7 57 vr 0.5 29 0.7 63 0.7 85 0.3 93 0.4 55 0.4 98 heterotrait-monotrait ratio (htmt) < 0.90 260 correlation analysis before moving forward in performing path and mediation analysis, a correlation of the variables being studied was performed first. based on the correlation results, findings revealed that ars is related to eng (r = .576, p < 0.001) and tes (r = .642, p < 0.001). in this, it can be construed that the higher the resilience level of students, their perceived teacher’s emotional support and engagement is also increasing. lastly, it was found that tes is significantly related to eng (r = .541, p < 0.001). hence, it can be concluded that the higher the perceived teacher’s emotional support of students, also reports higher school engagement. structural model assessment, path and mediation analysis figure 2: path analysis results. the explanatory power of the model has been evaluated by measuring the discrepancy amount in the variables of the model. as hair et al. (2021) have stated, the r2 and the path coefficients are the essential measures for assessing the structural model. as seen in figure 2, the model has r2 value of tes is 43.4%, and eng 38.7%, respectively. table 5: hypotheses testing. hypothesis path path coefficient pvalue decision direct effect h1 ars → eng 0.429 0.000 supported h2 ars → tes 0.659 0.000 supported h3 tes → eng 0.251 0.000 supported indirect effect h4 ars → tes → eng 0.165 0.000 supported table 5 and figure 2 revealed the path coefficients and p-value for each hypothesis. based on the findings of this investigation, it can be noted that all hypothesis were supported. the direct paths show that academic resilience is significantly and positively related to school engagement (β = 0.764, p < .05) and teacher emotional support (β = 0.652, p < .05). the findings posited that 261 the higher the resilience level of students, the more they engaged in school. the same is true with the influence of academic resilience on teacher’s emotional support. meaning, the higher the resilience level of students, they can perceive a higher emotional support from their instructors. therefore, h1 and h2 were supported. furthermore, teacher’s emotional support is highly related to students’ engagement (β = 0.281, p < .05). thus, it can be postulated that the higher the teacher’s emotional support perceived by the students, the more it increases their school engagement. in this, h3 is supported. finally, the findings revealed, after the mediation analysis, that teacher’s emotional support mediates the relationship between students’ academic resilience and school engagement (β = 0.165, p < .05). the mediating effect of teacher’s emotional support partially strengthens the significant and positive relationship between academic resilience and school engagement. therefore, h4 is supported. discussion and conclusion the first hypothesis shows that academic resilience improves student engagement. highresilience students are more engaged in school (theron et al., 2022). these students are happier at school, have better relationships with teachers, and participate more in class (romano et al., 2021a). dyrbye et al. (2010) also discovered that resilient students are less sad, have a greater quality of life, report more social support, have a more optimistic perspective of their learning environment, and are less pressured and overworked. highly resilient students used cognitive and affective coping techniques simultaneously (lee et al., 2017). high-resilience students regard emotional responses as a strength rather than a drawback in schooling. academically resilient students use the right tools to enhance their grades and participate in class. additionally, academic resilience also affects students' perceptions of instructors' emotional support, as shown in the second hypothesis. previous research supports this conclusion (hu, 2022; romano et al., 2021b). yuan et al. (2018) also found that highly resilient people had a more favourable view of teachers' emotional support. downey (2008) also advocates considering the instructor-student interaction and classroom atmosphere to foster academic resilience. resilient adolescents are more likely to participate in school (tang et al., 2019). the findings support the notion that resilient students are more engaged in school and receive greater emotional support from teachers. the third hypothesis showed that instructors' emotional support greatly affects students' school engagement, which is supported by prior research (kelly & zhang, 2016; pérezsalas et al., 2021). teacher emotional support and students’ school engagement are also linked (pöysä et al., 2019). however, most of the studies described earlier were about elementary and secondary school pupils, and none were about higher education. lastly, the fourth hypothesis supports romano et al. (2021) by showing that instructors' emotional support somewhat mediates students' academic resilience and school engagement. previous research, however, has shown that instructor encouragement does not moderate the connection to students' interest (ansong et al., 2017). this study showed that emotionally resilient academic students benefit from instructors' emotional support, which boosts engagement. thus, emotionally supportive teachers have more engaged students. according to pedler et al. (2020), instructors' help affects students' engagement, therefore, they are vital to meaningful involvement. the study found that academically successful students are more likely to have supportive peers and teachers. after examining the relevant literature and past studies, only a few publications, such as romano et al. (2021b) explored the mediation impact of teacher emotional support between academic resilience and school engagement. therefore, h4 has been accepted. 262 this study examined city college of angeles students' academic resilience, perceived emotional support, and school engagement. the study seeks to link academic resilience and school engagement through students' evaluations of teachers' emotional support. correlation, path analysis, and mediation supported this idea. these findings shed light on what motivates students in heis in the philippines. this study expanded on earlier research to show that individual resources like resilience are as significant as contextual ones, like teacher emotional support, in enhancing student engagement. the following data illuminate the efficacy of various typical higher education strategies, which may be applicable to online class setup. to promote motivation and avoid behavioural issues, children must learn how to recover from setbacks. resilience-based programmes have been shown to improve students' well-being in several studies (morote et al., 2022). this study also found productive classroom interactions, notably teachers' emotional support. instructors should support students emotionally in a variety of ways. first, teachers must grasp their students' individual conditions and requirements. thus, instructors should address students' particular needs for classroom success. the covid-19 pandemic may be worsening some behaviours, especially in online learning environments. teachers should schedule breaks between synchronous class sessions. even though these are young adults, higher education instructors might discuss what they have observed with the students' families to help better accommodate them at home. teachers could also meet with each student online to assess their requirements and advise them on how to succeed in school. for example, labelling a nonverbal signal for students to use during online learning time to notify teachers that they are having problems (e.g., personal chat through various social media platforms) so that teachers can excuse them or help them in the moment (bhatti & teevno, 2021); stopping video when students need a break or are overstimulated (castelli & sarvary, 2021); and trying to help them relax. instructors could open a session with a check-in question like how are you feeling today? or what are you thankful for today? these questions encourage students to assess their mood and discuss any academic or personal issues with instructors. also, teachers could publish daily check-in questions on the school's lms to give students asynchronous check-in possibilities. no matter how difficult, teachers should prioritise this time with students so they can feel more connected, guided, and included in a comfortable routine. teachers should make sure these check-ins are informal and focused on students' feelings rather than their learning. finally, teachers might employ guided meditation in online synchronous sessions, or with their families, to promote mindfulness. based on these ideas, administrators should train teachers to demonstrate and support students during online sessions. policymakers and practitioners should also strengthen teachers' competence to prepare them for complicated classroom settings. it's well known that a digital classroom teacher's mood and job happiness can affect students. the study's shortcomings are important to take into consideration. this study exclusively included city college of angeles students only. this study cannot be applied to all hei students in the country or worldwide. thus, future researchers may want to duplicate this work using data from other public and private institutions to support or repudiate its claims. additional support for the claims made in this study can be found by comparing these factors across different types of educational environments (e.g., traditional, online, or blended). future research may also include sociodemographic profiles as moderators or mediators. teachers' 263 reports may provide more complex information about their students' emotional support, so future study should use a multi-informant approach. acknowledgements: the study's sole author appreciates the students' willingness to participate part in the investigation. the author would also like to express gratitude to dr. jean paolo g. lacap, vice president for research, extension, and quality assurance at city college of angeles; mrs. nickole z. pineda, research coordinator in vpreqa; dr. carolina a. sarmiento, vice president for academic affairs; and mrs. levita p. de guzman, dean of the institute of education, arts, and sciences. references ahmed, u., umrani, w.a., qureshi, m.a., & samad, a. (2018). examining the links between teachers support, academic efficacy, academic resilience, and student engagement in bahrain. international journal of advanced and applied sciences, 5(9), 39-46. https://doi.org/10.21833/ijaas.2018.09.008 ansong, d., okumu, m., bowen, g.l., walker, a. m., & eisensmith, s.r. (2017). the role of parent, classmate, and teacher support in student engagement: evidence from ghana. international journal of educational development, 54, 51-58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2017.03.010 benito mundet, h., llop escorihuela, e., verdaguer planas, m., comas matas, j., lleonart sitjar, a., orts alis, m., amadó codony, a., & rostan sánchez, c. (2021). multidimensional research on university engagement using a mixed method approach. educación xx1, 24(2), 65-96. https://doi.org/10.5944/educxx1.28561 bhatti, m.t., & teevno, r.a. (2021). nonverbal communication (nvc) and teacher presence in collaborative online learning. journal of contemporary issues in business and …, 27(06), 308-316. https://doi.org/10.47750/cibg.2021.27.06.027 bittmann, f. (2021). when problems just bounce back: about the relation between resilience and academic success in german tertiary education. sn social sciences, 1(2), 65. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-021-00060-6 carmona-halty, m.a., schaufeli, w.b., & salanova, m. (2019). the utrecht work engagement scale for students (uwes–9s): factorial validity, reliability, and measurement invariance in a chilean sample of undergraduate university students. frontiers in psychology, 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01017 cassidy, s. (2015). resilience building in students: the role of academic self-efficacy. frontiers in psychology, 6(nov), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01781 cassidy, s. (2016). the academic resilience scale (ars-30): a new multidimensional construct measure. frontiers in psychology, 7(nov), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01787 castelli, f.r., & sarvary, m.a. (2021). why students do not turn on their video cameras during online classes and an equitable and inclusive plan to encourage them to do so. ecology and evolution, 11(8), 3565–3576. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.7123 downey, j.a. (2008). recommendations for fostering educational resilience in the classroom. preventing school failure: alternative education for children and youth, 53(1), 56-64. https://doi.org/10.3200/psfl.53.1.56-64 dwiastuti, i., hendriani, w., & andriani, f. (2022). the impact of academic resilience on academic performance in college students during the covid-19 pandemic. kne social sciences, 2021(icopsy 2021), 25-41. https://doi.org/10.18502/kss.v7i1.10198 dyrbye, l.n., power, d.v., massie, f.s., eacker, a., harper, w., thomas, m.r., szydlo, d.w., sloan, j.a., & shanafelt, t.d. (2010). factors associated with resilience to and recovery from burnout: a prospective, multi-institutional study of us medical students. medical education, 44(10), 10161026. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2923.2010.03754.x 264 fiorilli, c., farina, e., buonomo, i., costa, s., romano, l., larcan, r., & petrides, k.v. (2020). trait emotional intelligence and school burnout: the mediating role of resilience and academic anxiety in high school. international journal of environmental research and public health, 17(9), 3058. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17093058 frenzel, a.c., daniels, l., & burić, i. (2021). teacher emotions in the classroom and their implications for students. educational psychologist, 56(4), 250-264. https://doi.org/10.1080/00461520.2021.1985501 frey, b.b. (2018). convenience sampling. in the sage encyclopedia of educational research, measurement, and evaluation. sage publications, inc. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781506326139.n155 garcía-crespo, f.j., fernández-alonso, r., & muñiz, j. (2021). academic resilience in european countries: the role of teachers, families, and student profiles. plos one, 16(7), e0253409. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0253409 gartland, d., riggs, e., muyeen, s., giallo, r., afifi, t. o., macmillan, h., herrman, h., bulford, e., & brown, s.j. (2019). what factors are associated with resilient outcomes in children exposed to social adversity? a systematic review. bmj open, 9(4), e024870. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-024870 hair, j.f., hult, g.t.m., ringle, c.m., sarstedt, m., danks, n.p., & ray, s. (2021). partial least squares structural equation modeling (pls-sem) using r. in sage. springer international publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80519-7 hu, y. (2022). academic resilience in chinese efl classrooms: relationship with teacher support activities. frontiers in educational research, 5(5), 31-42. https://doi.org/10.25236/fer.2022.050507 jindo, t., kai, y., kitano, n., tsunoda, k., nagamatsu, t., & arao, t. (2020). relationship of workplace exercise with work engagement and psychological distress in employees: a cross-sectional study from the myls study. preventive medicine reports, 17(october 2019), 101030. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2019.101030 kelly, s., & zhang, y. (2016). teacher support and engagement in math and science: evidence from the high school longitudinal study. the high school journal, 99(2), 141-165. https://doi.org/10.1353/hsj.2016.0005 koob, c., schröpfer, k., coenen, m., kus, s., & schmidt, n. (2021). factors influencing study engagement during the covid-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional study among health and social professions students. plos one, 16(7), e0255191. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0255191 lee, j.h., seo, m., lee, m., park, s.y., lee, j.h., & lee, s.m. (2017). profiles of coping strategies in resilient adolescents. psychological reports, 120(1), 49-69. https://doi.org/10.1177/0033294116677947 morote, r., las hayas, c., izco-basurko, i., anyan, f., fullaondo, a., donisi, v., zwiefka, a., gudmundsdottir, d.g., ledertoug, m.m., olafsdottir, a.s., gabrielli, s., carbone, s., mazur, i., królicka-deręgowska, a., knoop, h.h., tange, n., kaldalóns, i.v., jónsdóttir, b.j., gonzález pinto, a., & hjemdal, o. (2022). co-creation and regional adaptation of a resilience-based universal whole-school program in five european regions. european educational research journal, 21(1), 138–164. https://doi.org/10.1177/1474904120947890 mozammel, s., ahmed, u., slade, h., & zaman, f. (2018). digging deep in students’ engagement in bahrain: contributions from academic self-efficacy and academic resilience. international journal of management and business research, 8(1), 136-147. https://www.aou.org.bh/research/documents/research/bas/dr_umair/journals/2018b.pdf pakarinen, e., lerkkanen, m.-k., & von suchodoletz, a. (2020). teacher emotional support in relation to social competence in preschool classrooms. international journal of research & method in education, 43(4), 444-460. https://doi.org/10.1080/1743727x.2020.1791815 pedler, m., yeigh, t., & hudson, s. (2020). the teachers’ role in student engagement: a review. australian journal of teacher education, 45(3), 48-62. https://doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2020v45n3.4 pérez-salas, c.p., parra, v., sáez-delgado, f., & olivares, h. (2021). influence of teacher-student relationships and special educational needs on student engagement and disengagement: a correlational study. frontiers in psychology, 12(july). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.708157 pöysä, s., vasalampi, k., muotka, j., lerkkanen, m., poikkeus, a., & nurmi, j. (2019). teacher–student interaction and lower secondary school students’ situational engagement. british journal of educational psychology, 89(2), 374-392. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjep.12244 265 rao, p.s., & krishnamurthy, a.r. (2018). impact of academic resilience on the scholastic performance of high school students. indian journal of mental health, 5(4), 453. https://doi.org/10.30877/ijmh.5.4.2018.453-462 rodríguez-fernández, a., ramos-díaz, e., & axpe-saez, i. (2018). the role of resilience and psychological well-being in school engagement and perceived academic performance: an exploratory model to improve academic achievement. in health and academic achievement. intech. https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.73580 romano, l., angelini, g., consiglio, p., & fiorilli, c. (2021a). the effect of students’ perception of teachers’ emotional support on school burnout dimensions: longitudinal findings. international journal of environmental research and public health, 18(4), 1922. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18041922 romano, l., angelini, g., consiglio, p., & fiorilli, c. (2021b). academic resilience and engagement in high school students: the mediating role of perceived teacher emotional support. european journal of investigation in health, psychology and education, 11(2), 334-344. https://doi.org/10.3390/ejihpe11020025 romano, l., buonomo, i., callea, a., fiorilli, c., & schenke, k. (2020). teacher emotional support scale on italian high school students: a contribution to the validation. the open psychology journal, 13(1), 123-132. https://doi.org/10.2174/1874350102013010123 ruzek, e.a., hafen, c.a., allen, j.p., gregory, a., mikami, a.y., & pianta, r.c. (2016). how teacher emotional support motivates students: the mediating roles of perceived peer relatedness, autonomy support, and competence. learning and instruction, 42, 95-103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2016.01.004 serrano sarmiento, á., sanz ponce, r., & gonzález bertolín, a. (2021). resilience and covid-19. an analysis in university students during confinement. education sciences, 11(9), 533. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci11090533 tang, x., wang, m.-t., guo, j., & salmela-aro, k. (2019). building grit: the longitudinal pathways between mindset, commitment, grit, and academic outcomes. journal of youth and adolescence, 48(5), 850-863. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-019-00998-0 teuber, z., nussbeck, f.w., & wild, e. (2021). the bright side of grit in burnout-prevention: exploring grit in the context of demands-resources model among chinese high school students. child psychiatry & human development, 52(3), 464-476. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-020-01031-3 theron, l., ungar, m., & höltge, j. (2022). pathways of resilience: predicting school engagement trajectories for south african adolescents living in a stressed environment. contemporary educational psychology, 69, 102062. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2022.102062 versteeg, m., kappe, r.f., & knuiman, c. (2022). predicting student engagement: the role of academic belonging, social integration, and resilience during covid-19 emergency remote teaching. frontiers in public health, 10(march), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.849594 wu, y., sang, z., zhang, x.-c., & margraf, j. (2020). the relationship between resilience and mental health in chinese college students: a longitudinal cross-lagged analysis. frontiers in psychology, 11(february). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00108 yang, y., li, g., su, z., & yuan, y. (2021). teacher’s emotional support and math performance: the chain mediating effect of academic self-efficacy and math behavioral engagement. frontiers in psychology, 12(september), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.651608 yang, g., sun, w., & jiang, r. (2022). interrelationship amongst university student perceived learning burnout, academic self-efficacy, and teacher emotional support in china’s english online learning context. frontiers in psychology, 13(march), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.829193 yilmaz findik, l. (2016). what makes a difference for resilient students in turkey? eurasian journal of educational research, 16(64), 91-108. https://doi.org/10.14689/ejer.2016.64.5 yuan, g., xu, w., liu, z., & an, y. (2018). resilience, posttraumatic stress symptoms, and posttraumatic growth in chinese adolescents after a tornado. journal of nervous & mental disease, 206(2), 130135. https://doi.org/10.1097/nmd.0000000000000778 266 author: joseph lobo, lpt, mapes is a professional license teacher and graduated from holy angel university, philippines, with a bachelor’s of secondary education with a major in music, arts, physical education, and health, and a master of arts in physical education and sports. he is a doctor of education candidate in physical education at filamer christian university, roxas city, philippines. his research interests include educational leadership and management, educational technology, educational psychology, physical education, performing arts education, and culture and arts education. e-mail: josephlobo@cca.edu. cite this paper as: lobo, j. (2023). instructor emotional support, academic resiliency, and school engagement in an online learning setting during covid-19 pandemic. journal of learning for development, 10(2), 252-266. microsoft word cossa.docx issn: 2311-1550 2021, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 601-610 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. open and innovative schooling: an implementation experience in fifteen secondary schools across mozambique sérgio paulo cossa1, lurdes patrocínia matavela nakala1 and nilsa adelaide issufo enoque pondja cherinda2 1national institute of distance education, mozambique 2eduardo mondlane university, mozambique abstract: this case study explores the open and innovative schooling model piloted in fifteen secondary schools across all regions of mozambique in the period 2018 to 2020. the model involved provision of access to curriculum-based digital open educational resources (oer) using an aptus device to enable sharing offline. learning support centres offering access to some ict as well as opportunities for individual use or structured tutorials were established in fifteen schools around the country. a mixed methods tracer study was designed and implemented using quantitative analysis to ascertain student enrolment, retention and success and then used qualitative focus surveys and focus groups to gauge the satisfaction of students, teachers and managers with the ois model to inform future planning. while the pilot was generally considered successful in augmenting existing secondary schooling provision, access to devices, teacher development and support and expansion of curriculum coverage were all found to be in critical need of improvement if the model is to be scaled. keywords: open schooling, secondary schooling, open educational resources, aptus, learning support, tracer study. introduction according to the ministry of education and human development (minedh, 2020), in mozambique, gross rates of secondary schooling have remained below 40% in the last seven years and net rates have followed the same pattern, being around 20%. however, given that, for this level of education, the vision is for a massified, quality, secondary education system that guarantees essential skills for young people, and continuing studies for adults, insertion in the labour market and in society, and so the country has chosen to go beyond traditional solutions. as such, mozambique recognizes that open and distance education is an effective response to the growing demand for secondary education, both as an end in itself and as a path to entry into higher education (mays & singh, 2020; manyamba, et al, 2021). it is in the wake of this recognition that the minedh, through the national institute of distance education (ined), with the support of the commonwealth of learning (col), has been implementing, since 2018, the open innovative schooling (ois) model in fifteen (15) secondary schools across the country. the ois model aims to extend access to and improvement of school performance for secondary education, both through ois as well as the face-to-face model, using appropriate information and communication technologies (ict) in appropriate ways (fletcher, et al, 2020). 602 the ois model involves provision of access to curriculum-based digital content shared as open educational resources (oer) offline using an aptus device provided by col. ined wished to pilot the use of digital content due to the logistical challenges and costs associated with the provision of printed self-study materials for out-of-school youth. access to the content is provided for use by individuals and teachers working alone or in structured distance education tutorial sessions within a learning support center (caa) within a day school as well as being available also to day-school learners and teachers. for the implementation of the ois model, a monitoring and evaluation strategy is in place, which provides ongoing quantitative data on enrolled students, retention, pass rates and progression. however, there was a need to carry out a tracer study, to consolidate the lessons of experience from piloting the ois model to make decisions about whether or how to scale the pilot. it is in this context that the present tracer study emerges: the tracer studies can provide valuable information about what happened to a group of children who were exposed to an intervention. implementation agencies generally have a pretty good idea of what children are doing during the duration of the project, and by the time it ends. however, the real challenge is for interventions to produce lasting and long-term results. the final measure of the success of an intervention is that the desired changes in the lives of children and families are still present, in some way, after the project itself has been progressively eliminated. (international labour organization, 2011, p. 2) therefore, when we set out to undertake this study, we were interested in whether the students who participated in the ois pilot were still in school. moreover, we wanted to explore what changes had occurred in the lives of the ois beneficiaries and how this intervention contributed to these observed changes, and, finally, to seek information on whether the ois model could have been conceived differently to extend access to and improve school performance in secondary education provision, and to use this knowledge to improve decision-making and the design of future interventions/initiatives. methods methodology a mixed method approach was followed in which both quantitative and qualitative data were collected and analysed. this approach of a mixed nature is also advocated by gerhardt & silveira (2009, p. 36), who state that "[...] according to the characteristics of the research, different research modalities can be chosen, being possible to combine qualitative with quantitative". we chose this combination to gain a better understanding of the problems of this study as “mixed methods designs resided in the idea that all methods had biases and weaknesses, and the collection of both quantitative and qualitative data neutralized the weakness of each form of data” (creswell, 2014, p. 43). on the other hand, based on the idea of when we want to study something unique that has a value in itself, we must choose the case study (amado, 2014). in this case study, we intended to explore in a unique way the implementation of the ois model in mozambique, specifically in the fifteen secondary schools selected, at the national level, on the motivation for their involvement and levels of satisfaction of students, tutors and school managers. levels of satisfaction were to be gauged in 603 relation to what was offered to them, in terms of content, training, support and training for the implementation of the ois model. instruments and analysis for the scientific quality of the results and conclusions of this study, it was essential to determine the departure for the "what" and "how" of the data which would be collected and what instruments we would use (coutinho, 2015, p. 104). in terms of the timing of the mixed method approach, for data collection we had to make a mixture of the sequential and concomitant techniques, inspired by creswell (2009, 209-210). indeed, from june to july 2021, we collected and analysed indirect documentation linked to ois implementation, covering documentary research on the ois model in mozambique, as well as the literature review on the ois documentation existing in ined and in the fifteen pilot schools, such as memoranda of understanding and contracts between col and ined, and statistical maps of students' pedagogical achievement. similarly, based on coutinho (2015, p. 111), we determined as a sine qua non condition for the final quality of this study, the adequacy of the survey by questionnaire and the survey by interviews, already used by ined during the ois monitoring process, for gathering feedback from the participants of this study. therefore, supported by a script prepared for this purpose, we applied a semi-structured interview technique to complement the survey and document analysis. nevertheless, during the interaction we allowed great freedom of response to focus group interviews, composed of centre managers and teachers from the fifteen pilot schools, as well as enquiry by questionnaires, which were answered in writing by learners, teachers and managers. an external validation of the questionnaire was made, through the opinion of a panel of ois caa managers, on the quality and adequacy of the questionnaire to measure the desired construct. to ensure the reliability of the instrument, as well as the data collected, we opted for the reliability calculation of the questionnaire, and for this we used the stability indicators (test-re-test), equivalence (parallel forms), split-halt estimation for internal consistency and, finally, observation among observers in categorisation, coding and manual release in spreadsheets. the qualitative data was analysed by clustering related themes/issues that emerged from the survey and interview responses, allowing us to identify common recurring issues. in order to address all ethical issues, a consent form was included in questionnaire surveys and interviews (bogdan & biklen, 1994; creswell, 2007). population and sampling based on the idea that when intact groups are constituted one can choose to sample for convenience (schutt, 1999, as cited in coutinho, 2015, p. 95), but also in view of the purpose of this study, we used the criteria of criterial judgmental sampling, referred to by charles (1998), where the schools that were implementing the ois model were accessible, had school managers, as well as support staff, who were directly involved in the management of these schools in both distance and contact modes, and tutors and students who were an integral part of the teaching/learning process in using appropriate technology, in this case, aptus. 604 the quantitative analysis revealed that between 2018 and 2020, 15,675 learners (7,633 females) were supported through the ois model, with 6,895 learners (3,253, or 44%, females) passing one or more subjects. a total of 276 students (about 2% of the whole population), 123 teachers and 31 school managers and 15 caa managers participated in the study as summarised in table 1. table 1: number of survey respondents a focus group was made up of fifteen (15) centre managers from the fifteen (15) pilot schools. the moderation was done by four (4) members of the monitoring and evaluation/research group from ined, uem and ieda, as well as the three (3) ined technicians who collaborated in the data collection. their contributions are gathered in the same section of responses by the school managers, as they are an integral part of the school and ois management. analysis and discussion of results the results reported here, take into account the sequential order of the specific objectives proposed, and the discussion was constructed by issues addressed by the instruments. as noted, information was collected from 276 students, 123 tutors, 31 school managers and 15 caa managers. students as noted by jordan (2020) and onesmus (2020), technology comes to the fore when face-to-face provision is not possible but that, in turn, raises issues about access and support. this was confirmed by the findings of the tracer study. the results show that 69% of the students involved in the ois pilot had an electronic device but 31% did not have any electronic device that they can use. asked about the type of device they had, 39% had a basic mobile phone, 37% a mobile phone with advanced smartphone features, 9% a desktop computer, 9% a laptop and 6% a tablet. however, the students pointed out several benefits of the use of technologies in education, namely: better and more varied content media; help in research of the subject and of the work to be covered; total propotion total propotion total propotion total propotion sum propotion pemba secondary school 24 8,70% 10 8,13% 0 0,00% 1 6,67% 35 7,87% cuamba secondary school 16 5,80% 8 6,50% 4 12,90% 1 6,67% 29 6,52% nampula secondary school 17 6,16% 4 3,25% 3 9,68% 1 6,67% 25 5,62% namialo secondary school 19 6,88% 9 7,32% 3 9,68% 1 6,67% 32 7,19% mocuba secondary school 20 7,25% 5 4,07% 5 16,13% 1 6,67% 31 6,97% nicoadala secondary school 16 5,80% 6 4,88% 4 12,90% 1 6,67% 27 6,07% daússechangara secondary school 17 6,16% 12 9,76% 2 6,45% 1 6,67% 32 7,19% macombe secondary school 10 3,62% 7 5,69% 1 3,23% 1 6,67% 19 4,27% eduardo mondlane-gorongosa s.s 9 3,26% 6 4,88% 1 3,23% 1 6,67% 17 3,82% emilia daússeinhambane secondary school21 7,61% 3 2,44% 1 3,23% 1 6,67% 26 5,84% manjacaze secondary school 24 8,70% 12 9,76% 2 6,45% 1 6,67% 39 8,76% xaixai secondary school 24 8,70% 10 8,13% 2 6,45% 1 6,67% 37 8,31% manhiça secondary school 24 8,70% 12 9,76% 2 6,45% 1 6,67% 39 8,76% machava sede secondary school 11 3,99% 10 8,13% 0 0,00% 1 6,67% 22 4,94% noroeste 1 secondary school 24 8,70% 9 7,32% 1 3,23% 1 6,67% 35 7,87% total 276 100,00% 123 100,00% 31 100,00% 15 100,00% 445 100,00% propotion 62,02% 27,64% 6,97% 3,37% 100,00% school name respondents students tutors school managers learning support centre managers total 605 facilitates assessment preparation, study at any time and place and perception of the content matter; improves academic skills through use of multiple resources; facilitates in clarifying doubts; does not require presence at school every day; helps when there is a lack of printed materials; allows learners to study from where they are (home, work, etc.) as learning content can be downloaded to a digital device for those who have them; facilitates research and increases skills in reading, since once downloaded the learning content can be accessed any time in any place as often as needed. the fact that the results show that more than half of the students do not have an electronic device compatible with aptus technology, can be seen as a weakness for the effective implementation of the project, since the ois model implies that both students and teachers should have access to appropriate devices and skills which allow them to access, download and re-use the digital oer stored in aptus. according to balaji (2015), george maeltoka of the ministry of education in vanuatu recognises that the government in its new ict initiative for schools is embarking on the supply of tablets to schools and it is timely to have its new device to take the government's ict project to the next level of elearning materials for students from all over the archipelago. based on the experience of vanuatu, which is also implementing a similar project, we believe that the ministry of education could take responsibility for the allocation of compatible electronic devices for the use of aptus by students, tutors and centre managers for the successful implementation of the ois project. teachers/tutors access and support for teachers is also critical for the successful use of technology to support schooling provision (allela, et al, 2020). out of the 123 teachers/tutors who participated in the study, 71% had an electronic device that they could use in the teaching process, 13% did not have a device and 16% did not answer the question. asked about the type of device they had, 32% said they had a basic mobile phone, 26% a mobile phone with advanced smart phone features, 10% a desktop computer, 13% a laptop, 3% a tablet, 1% another device and 15% did not respond. this shows that nearly half of the teachers had devices that allowed them to access content stored in aptus. on the question of whether they had heard of aptus, the majority (89%) said yes, compared to those who said they were not aware of aptus (11%). in response to the question "where have you heard about aptus?", the school was the main source of information (77%), followed by those who did not respond (12%), and others indicated "elsewhere" (11%). the introduction of aptus technology as a teaching/learning tool in school was considered a good initiative by 66% of teachers; followed by excellent initiative (30%), no opinion (3%), makes no difference (1%) and bad initiative (1%). one fact that caught our attention in these results was that there were about 9% of students and 11% of tutors who said they had never heard of aptus technology, despite this being the main technology used in the ois model. this result may indicate that the sessions for the dissemination and training of the use of aptus by both students and tutors should be more comprehensive and regular. teachers were also questioned about their perceptions of the degree of student satisfaction with the learning supported by technologies and about half (48%) responded very satisfied, followed by perhaps (19%), certainly yes (15%), a little (13%), not satisfied (4%) and unresponsive (2%). 606 as for the question about the opportunities that the ois model brings to the provision of secondary education, the answers that stood out were: improved take-up and use of ict; facilitation of secondary education provision more generally; extension of access to education; improvement of the quality of education through the use of multi-media oer on the aptus device; emergence of opportunities for the young people who do not have time to be physically present in school to continue with their studies by enabling teaching using distance education methods; increased access in the educational system; creation of a future vision for students who want to continue their studies through alternative modalities; emergence of opportunities for all students who wish to continue studying and do not have access to face-to-face teaching; reduced demand for face-to-face teaching since there was availability of aptus content; and reduced dependence on the physically printed modules due to the availability of digital study material. in addition, through tutorial sessions using the digital content, it can increase interaction, create more opportunity for communication, and reduce school dropout. the use of digital and audiovisual material can enable more students to be enrolled, develop skills in the use of ict, decrease pressure on the mozambican education system, and provide quick access to knowledge content. also, facilitation of the interaction and exploitation of the digital subject matter in day school provision could alleviate challenges due to lack of books and printed study modules; enable more autonomous learning without much dependence on the teacher; increase use of electronic devices for learning (since aptus content can be downloaded and used on a variety of devices); improve communication and lower costs; increase participation of students in the classroom, since the teacher is no longer the only source of content; reduce writing time on the board; facilitate application of multiple choice tests; facilitate greater understanding of the subject matter and related communication (since content can be engaged with in multiple formats); motivate students and other actors in the learning process; and reduce costs for the acquisition of teaching materials. importantly for flexible provision, the student does not need to go to school every day, attending less frequent tutorial sessions to discuss content already engaged with and downloading new content. in this way, the model accommodates students who do not have daily availability for face-to-face classes and creates a broad and innovative vision for education provision, while also improving skills in the use of ict. although the results point to ois as being a good initiative, a considerable number of tutors resist the introduction of technology as a teaching/learning tool in school. this resistance may be related to a lack of training in the use and benefits of aptus and related technology. combing through the documents about the ois model in mozambique, as well as reports from the project managers, we saw that there was never a centrally organised cascade training for tutors on aptus technology. col’s training workshops focused on the managers and teachers involved in the piloting but the training was not subsequently cascaded to other teachers in the pilot schools, with two limited exceptions. this responsibility has always been entrusted to local management, that is, to the school managers and caa managers who have benefited from the different training offered by col but only two schools have cascaded the training and only to some teachers. the negative attitude of some tutors may also be influencing students' perception of the non-effective exploitation of aptus technology. 607 school managers and caa managers as wright et al (2014) observe, effective management of accessible support centres may be the key to success when using distance learning methods. therefore, it was important for us to interview our caa managers. there were thirty-one (31) school managers, comprised of school directors and their deputy school directors, as well as fifteen (15) caa managers, from the 15 piloting ois, from whom we collected information. when asked about the introduction of aptus in the ois model, the majority (65%) considered it a good initiative and 35% considered it excellent. in a question about student satisfaction in relation to e-learning, 52%, felt they were satisfied, 23% indicated some uncertainty, 19% thought they were somewhat satisfied and 3% thought they were not satisfied. all managers stated that they still had the aptus in use in their school, and 39% evaluated the state of aptus at that time as very good, 35% as having been in good condition, 19% as having been in a functional state and 6% as having been damaged. regarding the use of aptus in school, almost all managers (87%) stated there was regular use, 10% a little use and 3% very little use. almost all managers (81%) stated that students with compatible devices were able to access the learning resources hosted in aptus, although 6% answered that they did not have access. the managers posed as challenges the following: equipping the rooms with computer equipment; lack of training of the stakeholders (tutors, students and directors); lack of dissemination of the project; lack of availability of modules for the various curricular disciplines; lack of availability of the internet; too few students, tutors and managers with eletronic devices compatible with the requirements of the project; lack of awareness of pupils, tutors and managers about this teaching model; too few solutions for the maintenance/or recovery of aptus devices; and a lack of capacity for the number of simultaneous users of aptus, among other challenges directly affecting implementation with success of the ois model in schools. the measures taken by managers to solve the difficulties of some students unable to access aptus content were: photocopying and distribution of physically printed modules; training of students and tutors; sensitisation of students to the acquisition of compatible phones; acquisition of portable computers for the caa; mobilisation of students for collaborative learning; restriction of the number of simultaneous aptus users; reminders on how to access and activate the aptus signal; sharing the devices; observing the health protocol for prevention of covid-19; using a giant screen so multiple learners could access the same resource at the same time; use of mobile phones of students by tutors; training of students to access aptus content independently; downloading the materials and disconnecting from aptus in order to decongest the network and allow others to access aptus; division into workgroups and switch over. the managers pointed to several opportunities that the ois model brought to their schools, especially the following: migration to the use of digital platforms; reduction of the rate of withdrawal of students who for various reasons did not prosper in the traditional classroom; the abolition of the night course at school; reduction of energy expenses; promotion of inclusive education; and use of technology for the exploitation of curricular content. they also valued the training of some tutors in the implementation of the ois model; and stimulus to individual learning; advent of classes with video support; independent classes; improved facilitation of the learning process; increased provision of 608 learning resources for schools; better aiding of the ability to research; decongestion of classrooms; improved understanding of the subject in relation to certain difficult content; facilitated access of teaching material; ease of downloading modules; completing the 10th class in this modality and also properly tutored classes. conclusion the ois project in mozambique is an initiative that is being implemented, with the use of aptus technology, to provide offline access to curriculum-based digital oer and to complement secondary education provision. the project is in its pilot phase in fifteen (15) secondary schools in the country and covers students attending the 1st cycle secondary education programme (esdp1), which includes the 8th, 9th and 10th grades. the students, tutors and managers involved in the implementation of the ois pilot confirm the potential that aptus technology has in expanding the sources of access to study materials, namely texts, images, videos, self-assessment exercises of learning, among other materials that facilitate the learning process. however, the study also revealed that for its successful implementation, and to extend access and improve school performance, several aspects of the model need improvement. this points to the following recommendations. recommendations i. create an institutional capacity that is able to source, update and maintain aptus technology; ii. ensure that those involved have devices compatible with the requirements of accessing, downloading and using the digital oer saved on aptus; iii. increase the number of users who can access aptus simultaneously; iv. extend content coverage on aptus to cover more of the curriculum; and v. while drawn from the mozambique experience, these recommendations may resonate with other countries piloting the ois model or using aptus. other studies show that student motivation is fundamental to the success of learning and if all the operational conditions of a programme are created, extrinsic motivation can be created for students, which is key to the success of the programme (col & minedh, 2019). similarly, in the ois model, it is to be expected that the creation of support conditions that respond to the needs of those involved will lead to a better and proper implementation of the ois model in schools. acknowledgement: we would like to acknowledge the assistance of the following collaborators: • belmiro nhaduco —national institute of distance education, mozambique • nádia lourenço —national institute of distance education, mozambique • amadeu afonso —institute of open and distance education, mozambique 609 references allela, m. a., ogange, b. o., juanid, m. i., & charles, p. b. (2020). effectiveness of multimodal microlearning for in-service teacher training. journal of learning for development, 7(3), 384-398. amado, j. (2014). manual de investigação qualitativa em educação. imprensa da universidade de coimbra. https://doi.org/10.14195/978-989-26-0879-2 balaji, v., & cheng, r. (eds). (2016). do tablets and aptus contribute to improved learning outcome? results from an applied research project in swat region, pakistan. http://oasis.col.org/handle/11599/2391 balaji, v., cheng, r., & gruda, m. (2015). unesco mobile learning week. delivering oei in offgrid, off-line situations. col. http://oasis.col.org/handle/11599/2346 bogdan, r.c., & biklen, s. k. (1994). qualitative investigation in education: an introduction to theory and methods. porto: editoria porto editora. charles, c. m. (1998). introduction to education research (3rd ed.). longman. col & minedh. (2019). monitoring and evaluation of the innovative model of open schooling in 15 pilot schools of mozambique: draft discussion paper. minedh. coutinho, c. p. (2015). research methodology in social and human sciences: theory and practice. (s. ediçõs almedina, ed., almedina). creswell, j. w. (2014). research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (5th ed). sage publications inc. creswell, j. w. (2009). research design: qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches (3rd ed.). sage publications. fletcher, j. et al (2020). digital technologies and innovative learning environments in schooling: a new zealand experience. new zealand journal of educational studies, 55, 91-112. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40841-020-00156-2 gerhardt, t.e., & silveira, d.t. (2009). research methods. universidade alberta do brasil. https://www.lume.ufrgs.br/handle/10183/52806 international labour organization. (2011). tracer study – book 1 methodology manual. ilo. http://www.ilo.org/ipecinfo/product/download.do?type=document&id=19155 jordan, k. (2020). covid-19 school closures in low and middle-income countries: emergent perspectives on the role of educational technology. journal of learning for development, 7(3), 399-415. manyamba, c., morris, p., zahhedah, v., evans, m., & moosselson, m. (2021). social return on investment analysis of support from the commonwealth of learning for the open and innovative schooling model. commonwealth of learning. http://oasis.col.org/handle/11599/3934 mays, t. j., & singh, r. k. (eds.). (2020). addressing the learning needs of out-of-school children and youths through the expansion of open schooling. commonwealth of learning. http://oasis.col.org/handle/11599/3731 ministry of education and human development. (2020). education strategic plan (2020-2029). http://www.mined.gov.mz/pages/home.aspx onesmus, g. (2020). hindrance to technologically guided education in kenya secondary schools: a case study of embakasi girls’ school. journal of learning for development, 7(3), 423-432. wright, c. r., hoay, g. l. p., mukami, d., & priyadarshini, a. (2014). establishing learning centres anywhere: keys to success. https://teachonline.ca/sites/default/files/toolstrends/downloads/establishing_learning_centres_anywhere_keys_to_success_complete_jan_2014.pdf 610 authors: sérgio paulo cossa has a master's degree in planning and management from unesco institut international de planification de l'education, france; a postgraduate professional certificate in educational planning, economics and finance from the university of the witwatersrand, south africa; a postgraduate in educational management and administration from the university eduardo mondlane, mozambique, and a degree in physical education and sports teaching from the pedagogical university, mozambique. he is doing his phd in multimedia in education at the university of aveiro in portugal. he is head of department of planning, administration and finance in the ministry of education and human development, assigned to the national institute of distance education and focal point of col in mozambique. he focuses on social sciences with emphasis on education sciences, and particularly in innovative open schooling. email: sergiocossa@ua.pt lurdes patrocínia matavela nakala holds a phd in multimedia in education and is educational specialist senior officer in the national institute of distance education (ined) in mozambique. she has experience in open and distance learning (odl), since 1994 up to date, with leading roles on the definition of odl policies for quality assurance and accreditation; institutional audit and programme evaluation; as well as the development of the national odl quality assurance framework for all levels of education. she also played the role of alternate country representative member in the five-year southern african development community (sadc) odl project and southern african distance education association (deasa). additionally, she served as country col focal point. email: lurdesnakala@ua.pt nilsa adelaide issufo enoque pondja cherinda holds a phd in multimedia in education from the university of aveiro, and a masters in open and distance learning from the national university of distance education of spain. she holds a professional certificate in distance education from the commonwealth of learning and the (then) south african institute of distance education, as well as a university leadership course from the university of oldenburg, department of continuing education and education management. she has been assistant professor at the eduardo mondlane university since 2003. prof. cherinda has been an advisor and facilitator of workshops and training in subjects on the open and distance learning, use of different learning management systems, and working as a consultant to establish odl units, developing odl study programmes and materials. she is also the director of the distance learning center at uem, mozambique's representative at the southern africa distance education association, mozambique's vice-chair of deasa and representative at the african women's mathematics association. email: nilsa.cherinda@gmail.com cite this paper as: cossa, s. p., nakala, l. p. m., & cherinda, n. a. i. e. p. (2021). open and innovative schooling: an implementation experience in fifteen secondary schools across mozambique. journal of learning for development, 8(3), 601-610. microsoft word njiku.docx issn: 2311-1550 2022, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 279-290 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. exploring mathematics teachers’ technology integration self-efficacy and influencing factors joseph njiku,1 védaste mutarutinya2 and jean francois maniraho2 1university of dar es salaam 2university of rwanda abstract: this study explores the level of mathematics teachers' technology integration self-efficacy and the extent to which some background variables influence this self-efficacy. the study adopted a survey design and collected data from 125 mathematics teachers in dar es salaam, tanzania. data analysis was done using a t-test, effect size, and one-way between-groups anova. teachers were found to have a moderate level of self-efficacy. furthermore, findings suggest that gender and teacher training in technology integration both in college training and as part of professional development are important in influencing teachers’ self-efficacy in teaching with technology. the study recommends technology integration and gender to be mainstreamed in teacher education in order to develop self-efficacy in technology use. keywords: mathematics education, self-efficacy, teacher professional development, teacher education, technology integration. introduction technology integration in education has been considered to be the driving force to the realisation of effective teaching and learning in the 21st century (mtebe & raphael, 2018; wright & akgunduz, 2018). it has been thought to possess an educational potential that fosters the transformation of the teacher’s role from the traditional one as a knowledge source or provider to a facilitator of the classroom activities (kartal & çinar, 2018; li et al., 2018; paraskeva et al., 2008). in developing countries such as tanzania, policies have been put in place to guide and regulate the integration of technology in education (mtebe & raphael, 2018). this involves ways of enhancing investment and capacity building and ensuring effective and safe integration. in the report by the ministry of education, science and technology (moest) it is shown that facilities such as computers have been introduced in many schools (31.4%) throughout the country, ranging between one and 68 computers per school (moest 2017). access to the internet has also been increasing, for example, the report points out that 20% of the schools that have computers are connected to the internet. in mathematics, the development and availability of local content that match the tanzanian curriculum has also been increasing. programmes such as momath and halostudy, have been developed. other online applications such as o-level math pro, thl, shule direct, and many others are readily available. these increasing new technological devices, especially smartphones, applications, and programmes, and their increasing availability have transformed education provision (wright & akgunduz, 2018). in tanzania, these efforts have been invested especially in mathematics to improve the teaching and 280 learning of the subject. the subject has received considerable attention because students have been persistently performing poorly in their mathematics examinations for many years (education sector development committee, 2011). the increasing availability and access to technology resources opens opportunities for teachers to utilise them in their school practices. it has increased the demand for teachers to provide technologyintegrated education (wright & akgunduz, 2018). however, improving the provision of education through the use of technology is not only about enormous investment in facilities such as computers, the internet, smart boards, and other technological devices but it is about facilitating students’ learning through such technologies (wright & akgunduz, 2018). teachers are key in the realization of technology integration in teaching and learning (li et al., 2018). if policy, programmes, and investment in technology keep teachers out of the integration process, pedagogical use of technology will be hampered (akturk & ozturk, 2019). however, the use of technology in education remained very low for years even in developed countries (durak, 2019). nevertheless, the situation has changed following the covid-19 pandemic which necessitated the shift to online learning in many countries. factors such as the availability of technology devices and internet access are probable causes in developing countries where they appear to be scarce (mtebe & raphael, 2018). teacher factors including knowledge (koehler & mishra, 2009; wright & akgunduz, 2018) and attitudes (durak, 2019) are also inhibitors. in developing countries such as tanzania, teacher knowledge (kafyulilo et al., 2015; kafyulilo et al., 2013; mtebe & raphael, 2018) has been widely investigated. while there is substantial research on the knowledge for technology integration, the affective domain seems to have received little attention. when investigating factors that influence technology integration in teaching, consideration should be given not only to cognitive aspects but also to affective aspects (joo et al., 2018). whereas cognitive aspects explain what teachers know about technology and technology integration, their confidence and beliefs about their ability to apply such knowledge in various contexts are very important. this belief that they possess the ability to do is referred to as self-efficacy (njiku et al., 2019) and impacts their actual integration (njiku et al., 2020). however, teachers’ self-efficacy which has been widely discussed in the international literature to affect their use of technology in teaching (akturk & ozturk, 2019; deepika et al., 2017; durak, 2019; giles & kent, 2016; joo et al., 2018; njiku et al., 2019) has not been documented widely in developing countries such as tanzania. for teachers to effectively use technology in the classroom, their belief about their ability to use technology is important. expounding this view karolčík and čipková (2017) point out that successful integration of technology in teaching requires going beyond the building of technological infrastructure to strengthening teachers’ confidence in their ability to integrate modern technologies into their specific lessons. access to technological infrastructures and tools only helps to address the first-level barriers that provide environmental readiness (li et al., 2018). second-level barriers such as teachers' readiness are also important (durak, 2019) especially in the ever-increasing access to technology tools contexts (mtebe & raphael, 2018). this paper examines this readiness by exploring the level of mathematics teachers’ technology integration self-efficacy in dar es salaamtanzania, the factor that is important in determining the likelihood of integrating technology in their classroom. the paper intends to contribute to the literature on mathematics teachers’ level of technology integration self-efficacy and explore how such self-efficacy is related to teachers' professional training background and current practices. 281 conceptualising self-efficacy the concept of self-efficacy originates from social cognitive theory (akturk & ozturk, 2019), developed by albert bandura (1977) who defined self-efficacy as an individual judgment about their ability to arrange and perform tasks successfully. bandura suggests that self-efficacy determines the initiation of coping behaviour, the effort that may be employed, and the sustainability of such efforts, especially in case of challenges and hindrances. as such he explains self-efficacy as a two-dimensional construct involving efficacy expectations (having confidence that a particular behaviour will lead to particular results) and outcome expectations (having confidence that one can perform certain activities leading to a particular result). individuals' self-efficacy determines their thinking, feelings, behaviours, and motivations (akturk & ozturk, 2019). researchers such as joyce and kirakowski (2013), karolčík and čipková (2017), and li et al. (2018) use the concept of self-efficacy as synonymous to confidence which suggests they had a focus towards efficacy expectations rather than outcome expectations. for example, joyce and kirakowski (2013) use the "can-do" phrase in the psychometric scale, for example, i can learn to use mathematics software on my own. the review by njiku et al. (2019) highlights that the two concepts are used interchangeably in literature especially when measuring teachers’ attitudes towards technology integration. self-efficacy in technology integration teachers' self-efficacy refers to their personal beliefs about their abilities and skills as educational practitioners (joo et al., 2018), especially in planning and accomplishing instructional objectives (gavora, 2010). self-efficacy is a trait that defines teachers’ position in terms of what they believe about their ability and skills. with reference to technology use, schlebusch (2018) defines self-efficacy as people’s self-evaluation of their ability to use technology in order to reach their targeted objectives. self-efficacy as one of a teacher’s personality traits that is important to the integration and development of new technologies in education (paraskeva et al., 2008). the authors also emphasise individual factors that make up teachers' personalities, including self-efficacy in developing their potential regarding not only their professional prospects but also effective integration of technologies in their normal teaching practices. having the necessary cognitive knowledge and skills in technology integration is not a guarantee for its success. it is important that teachers feel competent and secure in technology integration so that they may work to use and integrate technologies in the teaching process effectively and efficiently (wright & akgunduz, 2018). oral (2008) points out that teachers’ self-efficacy in their ability to use computers affected their efforts to use technology in their teaching practices. in the study with pre-service teachers that examined the relationships between technological pedagogical and content knowledge (tpack), teacher selfefficacy, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and intention to use technology, joo et al., (2018) found that teachers’ self-efficacy positively influenced their intention to use technology. in the study about the relationship between (tpack), self-efficacy belief levels, and the usage of web 2.0 applications, wright and akgunduz (2018) found that tpack self-efficacy beliefs were positively related to the use of web 2.0 applications. in this case, self-efficacy beliefs were on more detailed teacher knowledge – tpack, that is the extent to which teachers believed that they had the knowledge required to teach with technology. they also contend that more exposure to the use of these applications by teachers positively affects their tpack self-efficacy. whereas access to technology may have a low influence on the technology integration of teachers, the influence of their 282 attitudes and self-efficacy beliefs in technology integration was high (farjon et al., 2019). technology integration self-efficacy has a high correlation with technological pedagogical content knowledge (durak, 2019). as such the author suggested that to achieve effective technology integration it may be important to encourage and develop teachers’ tpack, which influences the beliefs in practices for technology integration. another study by li et al., 2018) reported that self-efficacy was a predictor of teachers' general use of technology and integration of technology to facilitate either student-centred or traditional instruction. they contend that teachers’ confidence in technology use is directly related to their actual use of technology in teaching. teacher education, both pre-service and in-service may influence teachers’ self-efficacy in technology integration (durak, 2019; li et al., 2018). however, this depends on whether such programmes have technology integration elements and the intensity of such integration (durak, 2019). similarly, joo et al. (2018) contend that tpack mediated between training programmes and teachers’ self-efficacy. while the importance and role of self-efficacy in technology integration are widely discussed in the literature, the level of such self-efficacy among mathematics teachers is not widely discussed especially in developing countries such as tanzania. as such, focusing on technology integration capability beliefs, this paper is intended to answer the following research questions: 1) what is the level of mathematics teachers’ technology integration self-efficacy? 2) how do teacher demographic characteristics predict mathematics teachers’ self-efficacy in technology integration? 3) how do previous training experiences in technology integration relate to mathematics teachers’ self-efficacy in technology integration? methods the study investigated mathematics teachers’ technology integration self-efficacy. the survey design was used for the study. instrument the study investigated mathematics teachers’ technology integration self-efficacy. the survey design was used for the study. data was collected using a questionnaire that was designed by the researchers inspired by self-efficacy items developed by chou (1997), hsiao (2011), and lokken et al., (2003). however, as the items from this literature were more focused on computers in general, items with a focus on mathematics and mobile devices that are ubiquitously available and accessible to teachers in tanzania were also developed. the new questionnaire was made of closed-ended survey items. participants rated their perceived ability on a likert scale of one to five whereby 1 – strongly disagree, 2 – disagree, 3 – neutral, 4 – agree, 5 – strongly agreed. the questionnaire was piloted prior to the study and its calculated cronbach alpha reliability coefficient for internal consistency α = .864 was obtained. the think-aloud technique was used to establish item content validity. eleven items were dedicated to measuring teachers’ self-efficacy. background variables included gender, educational level, experiences in years, college training in technology, college training in technology integration, and professional development in technology integration. so, there were seventeen items in total. 283 participants the dar es salaam region was selected for the reason that it has more technology facilities in the country (mtebe et al., 2011). the study randomly selected 38 public secondary schools in the region. public schools were chosen because they enrol the majority of the students in the country (moevt 2012). the questionnaire was distributed to all mathematics teachers in the selected schools. a sample of 149 mathematics teachers received the questionnaire, of these 125 (84%) participants returned the questionnaire. of the 125, there were 80 male (64%) and 45 female (36%) mathematics teachers who participated in the study. the experience in teaching varied as 40 (32%) had 0-5 years, 48 (38.4%) had 6-10 years, 21 (16.8%) had 11-15 years, and 16 (12.8%) had more than 15 years. teachers’ education levels were as follows; 48 (38.4%) diploma, 74 (59.2%) bachelor’s degree, 2 (1.6%) master’s degree, and 1 (0.8%) who was not a teacher by profession. teachers also had different backgrounds concerning their teacher training and professional development. in teacher training, 79 teachers (63.2%) studied computer courses, and 62 (48.8%) studied a course in technology integration. at work, 25 teachers (20%) had attended at least one professional development programme in technology integration. data analysis in this study, data were analysed using the statistical packages for social science (spss) version 20. descriptive statistics, independent sample t-test, and one-way anova were used in analysing the data. where significant differences were detected, the effect size was also calculated. the descriptive statistics were dedicated to responding to our first research question where mean score ≤ 2 is low, between 2 and 4 is moderate, and ≥ 4 is high. the independent sample t-test was used to determine the difference between groups such as gender, and training in technology integration that teachers had received in relation to their self-efficacy. however, in determining the difference in teachers’ technology self-efficacy as a result of their education levels and experience in teaching, one-way anova was used since there were more than two groups for these variables. the analysis tested the following hypotheses: 1. male and female mathematics teachers have the same technology integration self-efficacy mean score. 2. mathematics teachers who studied computer courses have the same technology integration self-efficacy mean score as those who did not. 3. mathematics teachers who studied technology integration courses have the same technology integration self-efficacy score as those who did not. 4. mathematics teachers who have participated in professional development programmes in technology integration have the same technology integration self-efficacy score as those who have not. 5. there is no significant difference in technology integration self-efficacy mean score between mathematics teachers of different teaching experiences. 6. there is no significant difference in technology integration self-efficacy mean score between mathematics teachers of different education levels. 284 findings the study was designed to investigate the level of mathematics teachers' technology integration selfefficacy. also, it explored how teachers’ background characteristics such as their education level, experience in teaching, and various pieces of training affected their technology integration selfefficacy. to address the first research question, descriptive statistics were used. the mean scores for every item were obtained as detailed in table 1. the overall mean score was seen to be moderate (m = 3.58, sd = 0.80). table 1. descriptive statistics for mathematics teachers’ technology integration self-efficacy (n = 125) item mean sd i am confident that i can help my students to use mobile phones to learn mathematics 3.42 1.03 i am able to type mathematics notes/exams using a word processor 3.67 1.09 i am able to connect a computer to a projector for a lesson 3.34 1.21 i am able to use mobile technologies to study mathematics 3.72 1.08 i am able to use a computer to simplify tedious mathematical work 3.39 1.18 i am able to learn mathematics using my mobile devices 3.86 0.96 i can learn mathematics using computer software (e.g., geogebra and spreadsheet) 3.36 1.15 i can learn to use mathematics software on my own 3.42 1.12 i am confident that i can use the internet to find any mathematics resources 3.87 0.94 i can learn a lot of mathematical concepts using technology 3.73 0.97 i consider myself capable of correctly incorporating technology in my teaching 3.55 0.97 overall self-efficacy 3.58 0.80 to respond to our second and third research questions, we tested six hypotheses that were obtained after breaking down the research questions. the first hypothesis assumed there was no difference between male and female mathematics teachers in their technology integration self-efficacy mean scores. an independent sample t-test was used. it was found that there was a significant difference in mean scores on technology integration self-efficacy in favour of male teachers (m = 3.71, sd = .86) compared to female teachers (m = 3.34, sd = .62), t(123) = 2.80, p = .006. this total variance in scores was explained by a magnitude of eta squared = .06 which was moderate. the null hypothesis was rejected. the second hypothesis assumed that mathematics teachers who had studied computer courses in their teacher training have the same mean score as those who did not. an independent sample t-test was again used to test for any significant difference. there was a significant difference in technology integration self-efficacy mean scores of mathematics teachers where those who had studied computer literacy course had higher scores (m = 3.81, sd = .74) than those who did not (m = 3.17, sd = .74), t(123) = 4.58, p = .000. the effect size using eta squared was large = .15. the hypothesis was then rejected. the third hypothesis assumed that mathematics teachers who studied technology integration courses have the same technology integration self-efficacy scores as those who did not. the study found a significant difference between mean scores for teachers who had studied a technology integration 285 course (m = 3.85, sd = .67) and those who had not (m = 3.31, sd = .83), t(123) = 4.02, p = .000. the magnitude of the variance in scores was explained by the moderate effect size of eta squared =.12. the assumed hypothesis was rejected. the fourth hypothesis assumed that mathematics teachers who have participated in professional development programmes in technology integration have the same technology integration selfefficacy score as those who have not. once again, an independent samples t-test was seen as relevant to test for any significant differences. there was a significant difference in technology integration selfefficacy mean scores for teachers who had participated in professional development programme(s) (m = 4.00, sd = .66) and those who had not participated in such programmes (m = 3.47, sd = .80), t(123) = 3.09, p = .002, with moderate effect size of eta squared = .07. the hypothesis was rejected. the fifth hypothesis assumed that there was no significant difference in technology integration selfefficacy mean score between mathematics teachers of different teaching experiences. since there were more than two independent groups, a one-way between-groups anova with post-hoc tests was used. participants were grouped according to their teaching experience in years (group 1: 0-5, group 2: 610, group 3: 11-15, and group 4: more than 15). the four groups were statistically significantly different at p < .05 [f(3, 121) = 3.66, p = .014]. the effect size calculated using eta squared was moderate = .08. post-hoc comparisons were performed using the tukey hsd test to determine which of the four groups differed significantly. group 1 (m = 3.81, sd = .82) was significantly different (p = .02) from group 4 (m = 3.14, sd = 1.07). the other groups: group 2 (m = 3.46, sd = .63) and group 3 (m = 3.71, sd = .73) did not differ significantly (p = .62) from each other and from either group 1 (p = .13 and p = .94) or group 4 (p = .48 and p = .13). this led to the rejection of the null hypothesis. the sixth hypothesis assumed that there was no significant difference in technology integration selfefficacy mean score between mathematics teachers of different education levels. of the four levels: group 1: diploma, group 2: bachelor’s degree, group 3: master’s degree, and group 4 other qualifications that had at least one participant, the master’s degree group had two participants, and the other groups had only one participant. since post-hoc tests do not account for such groups because of the small number of participants, and it would not make sense to compare large groups to only two or one participant, one-way between-groups anova where planned comparisons were used. the four groups were statistically different at p < .05 where [f(3,121) = 2.98, p = .034]. the effect size calculated using the eta squared was moderate = .07. when a comparison was done between group 1 and group 2 using planned comparisons, group 1 (m = 3.34, sd = .87) was seen to be statistically different from group 2 (m = 3.72, sd = .72). the assumed null hypothesis was rejected. discussion this study was designed to investigate the level of mathematics teachers’ technology integration selfefficacy. it also investigated the effect of mathematics teachers' demographic characteristics such as gender, education level, experience in teaching, and training in technology on their self-efficacy. the self-efficacy level was seen to be moderate despite the increasing access to technology. moreover, the standard deviations were high, indicating a large spread of scores from the mean in some cases. this suggests that the variability of self-efficacy among teachers is high. whereas access to technology increases (mtebe & raphael, 2018), teachers’ self-efficacy has remained moderate. these findings are supported by hsiao (2011) where most items had scores above three and below four as is the case in 286 this study. working with pre-service teachers, in contrast to the finding of this study, giles and kent (2016) and kent and giles (2017) found a high self-efficacy level among pre-service teachers after they received training in technology integration. since teachers’ self-efficacy is believed to have an important influence on their technology integration (li et al., 2018), efforts in developing teachers' confidence in their ability to integrate technology in teaching through professional development programmes in technology integration may be important. the study found that male mathematics teachers had a higher mean score of self-efficacy in teaching with technology than their counterpart female mathematics teachers. these findings are contrasted with findings by scherer and siddiq (2015) who found that despite male teachers having higher selfefficacy in basic and advanced computer skills, there was no significant difference between males and females in using computers for instructional purposes. also, keser et al. (2015) found that despite males having a higher mean score in self-efficacy than females, the difference was not significant. evidence supporting gender differences in how people feel about using technology seems to remain conflicting (joyce & kirakowski, 2013). this not only suggests the need for further research but also the need to address gender parity. teacher training informs a lot about teaching practices at school. in this study, it was found that in mathematics teachers' training background, both courses that were taken at teacher colleges and professional development programmes may have had an influence on teachers’ technology integration self-efficacy. the role of teacher education in technology integration self-efficacy as seen in this study is echoed by deepika et al. (2017) and kent and giles (2017). the study by kent and giles (2017) that placed pre-service teachers in-field experience in classrooms found that the training in technology integration led to participants having a moderately high level of overall technology efficacy but moderate self-efficacy level for actual classroom implementation of technology integration. however, the study by paraskeva et al. (2008) found no correlation between teacher training and their technology integration self-efficacy. the authors attributed this lack of correlation to the improper training of teachers. therefore, teacher education both as initial training or as professional development may play an important role in increasing teachers’ beliefs that they can integrate technology in their teaching. experience in teaching may also account for teachers' self-efficacy in technology integration. surprising results were obtained in this study. though teachers with less experience — group 1 had the highest mean, group 3 with more experience in teaching had a higher mean than group 2. this suggests that self-efficacy neither increased nor decreased with experience. however, group 1 significantly scored higher than group 4. whereas clausen (2007) argues that novice teachers often find it difficult to integrate technology in teaching, this study found their self-efficacy being higher than the rest of the groups. this may be because novice teachers are also likely to be millennials. moore-hayes (2011) argued that teaching experience highly informs teachers' technology integration self-efficacy. comparing preservice teachers who had just completed courses in technology integration with in-service teachers, preservice teachers had lower self-efficacy than in-service teachers. however, the author pointed out that teachers with several numbers of teaching experiences may be challenged with rapid changes in technology in education. education level was also seen to influence mathematics teachers’ technology integration self-efficacy. only two groups of the four could be compared statistically since the other groups had too few 287 participants. teachers with bachelor's degree qualifications were seen to have higher self-efficacy in teaching with technology than those with diploma qualifications. nevertheless, the landscape of teacher education in tanzania is highly differentiated and this limits making conclusions simply based on the level of education. it is reported that the self-confidence experience while enrolled in college training may not authentically find utility beyond supervised contexts (moore-hayes, 2011). this may suggest, however, as argued by clausen (2007) that the school context and support play a great role in determining teachers’ technology integration self-efficacy. therefore, the finding of this study may not clearly explain the nature of the training programmes themselves. it only suggests that bachelor's degree holders felt more confident about technology integration than diploma holders. limitation and recommendation this study employed a survey design to obtain information for mathematics teachers in selected schools in dar es salaam. it involved a sample of 125 mathematics teachers which was enough for statistical manipulation. the studies did not collect qualitative data from teachers including observation of their practices of technology integration. this limited the kind of information and analysis that would inform on-the-ground practices. future studies may use a mixed methods approach to investigate teachers’ integration of technology and various factors affecting such integration. furthermore, the background information used, such as experience in years, was not grouped for differentiated analysis. this limited the range of statistical analyses techniques that would be used for the data especially in explaining how it relates to technology integration self-efficacy. the findings of this study imply that for effective technology integration multiple factors need to be considered. self-efficacy in technology integration mediated between various factors including teacher training, gender, level of education, and experience. as self-efficacy plays important role in ensuring teachers integrate technology, professional development programmes must be designed and implemented to develop technology integration self-efficacy across the identified background factors. conclusion technology integration self-efficacy is a characteristic that determines the extent to which teachers are likely to integrate technology in their teaching. in this survey study, it was found that teachers' demographic characteristics influence their teaching of mathematics with technology self-efficacy. since conflicting evidence can be found from the literature, particularly for gender and experience, further research may need to explore these factors in-depth. for practice, it may be concluded that there is a need to readdress gender issues and technology integration courses in teacher training so that all teacher trainees obtain an opportunity to develop confidence in technology integration especially in mathematics education. professional development programmes in technology integration may also influence teachers’ self-efficacy as they continue to work and integrate technology in mathematics instruction. as various teachers’ backgrounds and demographic characteristics seem to influence their self-efficacy which in turn may influence their actual use in teaching, seemingly it is important to harness these factors. acknowledgment: the authors acknowledge the financial and material support they received from the african centre of excellence for innovative teaching and learning science and mathematics (aceitlms) and the dar es salaam university college of education (duce). 288 references akturk, a. o., & ozturk, h. s. (2019). teachers’ tpack levels and students’ self-efficacy as predictors of students’ academic achievement. international journal of research in education and science (ijres), 5(1), 283294. https://www.ijres.net/index.php/ijres/article/view/543 bandura, a. (1977). self-efficacy: toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. psychological review, 84(2), 191215. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295x.84.2.191 chou, t.-c. r. (1997). the relationships among computer usage, experience with the computer, computer anxiety, and attitudes toward computers for secondary agricultural education teachers in the united states [doctoral dissertation, mississippi state university]. clausen, j. m. (2007). beginning teachers’ technology use: first-year teacher development and the institutional context’s effect on new teachers’ instructional technology use with students. journal of research on technology in education, 39(3), 245-261. https://doi.org/10.1080/15391523.2007.10782482 deepika, m., meera, c., dorina, k., & douglas, s. (2017). examining preservice elementary teachers' technology self-efficacy: impact of mobile technology-based physics curriculum. contemporary issues in technology and teacher education (cite journal), 17(3), 336-359. https://www.learntechlib.org/p/178190/ durak, h. y. (2019). modeling of relations between k-12 teachers’ tpack levels and their technology integration self-efficacy, technology literacy levels, attitudes toward technology and usage objectives of social networks. interactive learning environments, 1-27. https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2019.1619591 education sector development committee. (2011). education sector performance report 2010//11. http://www.moe.go.tz/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1635:education-sectorperformance-report-201011&catid=1:latest-news farjon, d., smits, a., & voogt, j. (2019). technology integration of pre-service teachers explained by attitudes and beliefs, competency, access, and experience. computers & education, 130, 81-93. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2018.11.010 gavora, p. (2010). slovak pre-service teacher self-efficacy: theoretical and research considerations. the new educational review, 21(2), 17-30. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/f284/be870680436674ae2c02038c595e43fded01.pdf giles, r. m., & kent, a. m. (2016). an investigation of preservice teachers’ self-efficacy for teaching with technology. asian education studies, 1(1), 32-40. https://doi.org/10.20849/aes.v1i1.19 hsiao, w. y. (2011). an analysis of in-service teachers' anxiety, attitude, and confidence toward using technology in teaching. e-learn: world conference on e-learning in corporate, government, healthcare, and higher education (pp. 2367-2372). association for the advancement of computing in education (aace). https://www.learntechlib.org/p/39083/ joo, y. j., park, s., & lim, e. (2018). factors influencing preservice teachers’ intention to use technology: tpack, teacher self-efficacy, and technology acceptance model. educational technology & society, 21(3), 48–59. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26458506?seq=1 joyce, m., & kirakowski, j. (2013). measuring confidence in internet use: the development of an internet selfefficacy scale. in a. marcus, design, user experience, and usability: design philosophy, methods, and tools (pp. 250–260). cham: springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07668-3_25 289 kafyulilo, a. c., fisser, p., & voogt, j. (2013). supporting teachers' collaboration in design teams to develop technological pedagogical content knowledge: the case of science teachers in tanzania. in r. mcbride, & m. searson (eds.), proceeding of society for information technology and teacher education international conference, 2013. (pp. 4692-4697). chesapeake: va: aace. https://www.learntechlib.org/p/48865/ kafyulilo, a., fisser, p., pieters, j., & voogt, j. (2015). ict use in science and mathematics teacher education in tanzania: developing technological pedagogical content knowledge. australasian journal of educational technology, 31(4), 381-399. https://doi.org/10.14742/ajet.1240 karolčík, š., & čipková, e. (2017). attitudes among chemistry teachers towards increasing personal competencies in applying ict. chemistry-didactics-ecology-metrology, 22(1-2), 99-121. https://doi.org/10.1515/cdem-2017-0006 kartal, b., & çinar, c. (2018). examining pre-service mathematics teachers’ beliefs of tpack during a method course and field experience. malaysian online journal of educational technology, 6(3), 11-37. https://doi.org/10.17220/mojet.2018.03.002 kent, a. m., & giles, r. m. (2017). preservice teachers’ technology self-efficacy. srate journal winter, 26(1), 9-10. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ej1134392 keser, h., karaoğlan yılmaz, f. g., & yılmaz, r. (2015). tpack competencies and technology integration selfefficacy perceptions of pre-service teachers. elementary education online, 14(4), 1193-1207. http://ilkogretimonline.org.tr/index.php/io/article/view/1234 koehler, m. j., & mishra, p. (2009). what is technological pedagogical content knowledge? contemporary issues in technology and teacher education, 9(1), 60-70. https://www.learntechlib.org/p/29544/ li, y., garza, v., keicher, a., & popov, v. (2018). predicting high school teacher use of technology: pedagogical beliefs, technological beliefs and attitudes, and teacher training. technology, knowledge and learning, 24, 501– 518. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10758-018-9355-2 lokken, s. l., cheek, w. k., & hastings, s. w. (2003). the impact of technology training on family and consumer sciences teacher attitudes toward using computers as an instructional medium. journal of family and consumer sciences education, 21(1), 18-32. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.499.940&rep=rep1&type=pdf moest. (2017). feasibility study exploring e-learning initiatives at secondary schools in tanzania mainland. dodoma. moevt. (2012). basic education statistics in tanzania (best), 2008 2012: national data. dar es salaam. moore-hayes, c. (2011). technology integration preparedness and its influence on teacher-efficacy. canadian journal of learning and technology, 37(3), 1-15. https://www.learntechlib.org/p/42748/ mtebe, j. s., & raphael, c. (2018). eliciting in-service teachers’ technological pedagogical content knowledge for 21st-century skills in tanzania. journal of learning for development, 5(3), 263-279. https://jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/article/view/288 mtebe, j. s., dachi, h., & raphael, c. (2011). integrating ict into teaching and learning at the university of dar es salaam. distance education, 32(2), 289-294. https://doi.org/10.1080/01587919.2011.584854 njiku, j., maniraho, j. f., & mutarutinya, v. (2019). understanding teachers’ attitude towards computer technology integration in education: a review of literature. education and information technologies, 24(5), 3041–3052. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-019-09917-z njiku, j., mutarutinya, v., & maniraho, j. f. (2020). mathematics teachers’ technology integration self-efficacy and technology use. international conference to review research in science, technology, and mathematics 290 education (pp. 283-289). homi bhabha centre for science education. https://episteme8.hbcse.tifr.res.in/proceedings/ oral, b. (2008). the evaluation of the student teachers’ attitudes toward internet and democracy. computers & education, 50(1), 437–445. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2006.07.006 paraskeva, f., bouta, h., & papagianni, a. (2008). individual characteristics and computer self-efficacy in secondary education teachers to integrate technology in educational practice. computers and education, 50(3), 1084-1091. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2006.10.006 scherer, r., & siddiq, f. (2015). revisiting teachers’ computer self-efficacy: a differentiated view on gender differences. computers in human behavior, 53, 48–57. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.06.038 schlebusch, c. l. (2018). computer anxiety, computer self-efficacy and attitudes towards the internet of first year students at a south african university of technology. africa education review, 15(3), 72-90. https://doi.org/10.1080/18146627.2017.1341291 wright, b., & akgunduz, d. (2018). the relationship between technological pedagogical content knowledge (tpack) self-efficacy belief levels and the usage of web 2.0 applications of pre-service science teachers. world journal on educational technology: current issues, 10(1), 52-69. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ej1196042 authors: joseph njiku is a lecturer at the dar es salaam university college of education — a constituent college of the university of dar es salaam. he specialises in mathematics education and technology integration. email: leunati@gmail.com védaste mutarutinya is a senior lecturer in the school of education of the university of rwanda, college of education and a board member of the rwanda higher education council. he specialises in mathematics research. email: vedastemuve@yahoo.fr jean francois maniraho is a lecturer in the school of education of the university of rwanda, college of education. his expertise is in mathematics research and mathematics education. email: maniraho2@gmail.com cite this paper as: njiku, j., mutarutinya, v. & maniraho, j. f. (2022). exploring mathematics teachers’ technology integration self-efficacy and influencing factors. journal of learning for development, 9(2), 279-290. microsoft word lingwandajic.docx issn: 2311-1550 2023, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 236-251 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. feasibility of work-based learning model for undergraduate engineering and technology programmes in tanzania mwajuma ibrahim lingwanda mbeya university of science and technology, tanzania abstract: this study proposes a new approach to teaching-learning in engineering and technology programmes at the undergraduate level in tanzania, and evaluates its feasibility. the rationale was to improve flexibility in learning by providing learners with alternative programmes to choose from. a conceptual model was introduced showing how the work-based approach can be implemented in training diploma holders to acquire bachelor’s degrees. a survey type of study with a mix of open and closed-ended questions issued to a sample of 150 finalist students was conducted. the sampled population was all finalyear diploma students pursuing engineering and technology programmes at mbeya university of science and technology in tanzania. a stratified random sampling approach was followed to obtain the sample. more than 93% of the respondents supported the establishment of work-based programmes. this study, therefore, recommends, amongst other things, that tanzanian learning institutions should set a pilot programme to test the effectiveness and practicability of this model. keywords: work-based learning, flexible learning, engineering and technology training, training model. introduction engineering and technology are separate but intimately related disciplines that are often mistakenly used in place of one another. both engineers and technologists require formal training to acquire specific attributes pertaining to their discipline. degree programmes prepare engineers to apply mathematical and scientific principles to find solutions to practical problems, and technologists to apply basic engineering principles and technical skills to support engineering and related projects. until very recently, most degree programmes in engineering and technology were offered through face-to-face classrooms. connor et al. (2015) termed this approach a “chalk and talk” (p. 38) pedagogy that has proven to be ineffective but is still applicable in most science, technology, engineering and mathematics (stem) learning. thanks to the technological advancement in information and communication, an impressive number of engineering courses are now offered online by reputable universities worldwide as part of blended programmes. the most common model for engineering and technology training embraced by universities in tanzania uses solidly established curricula that are implemented by traditional face-to-face teaching. a little flexibility is usually offered in the form of elective courses for students to choose from. to enhance practical learning, there is usually a provision of time for students to be attached to relevant firms/institutions for what is called field training or industrial practical 237 training. for the bachelor’s degree programmes of engineering and technology, the total training time varies between three to five years. within these training periods, students are expected to acquire approximately 8 to 10 weeks of practical industrial experience in every academic year in which the programme lasts. the prerequisites for enrolment in engineering and technology degrees are usually advanced level education in the sciences, and a relevant technology/engineering diploma or its equivalent. the less flexible nature of engineering training in tanzania and the cultural difference between engineering training and practice noted by macleod (2010), need to be fixed by introducing new teaching —learning models. the main concern of this paper is the non-flexible nature of engineering and technology training in tanzania, where everyone who is interested in pursuing a bachelor’s degree in engineering or technology is constrained to pass through the same route, irrespective of their previous educational background, experience or personal interests. for example, those who possess a diploma in engineering/technology and those with an advanced certificate in secondary education are treated equally by the university system; sitting in the same class, both pursuing a bachelor’s degree in engineering or technology for the duration specified by their curricula. meanwhile, training programmes are supposed to keep pace with the rapid changes in knowledge and practice that the world undergoes (baldwin & baumann, 2005). there is a need to strategise to make sure that flexible, up-to-date, industry relevant programmes are made available to professionals (ferguson, 1998). flexibility in learning the concept of flexibility in learning was well discussed by collis and moonen (2002), who also summarised it to mean learner choice. in that context, when the learner has a range of options to choose from then the kind of training received is flexible. some institutions may have different definitions of flexibility, such as the one adopted by palmer (2001) which emphasised the fulfilment of several dimensions for a programme to qualify as flexible. in this paper, the adopted definition of flexible learning is that by collis and moonen (2002) and does not necessarily have more than one dimension. more often, the tendency of many is to think of learning flexibility in terms of distance. however, this only narrows the scope of the definition for there are several dimensions of flexibility in learning other than distance (collis & moonen, 2002). the other dimensions may be programme flexibility to accommodate learners’ needs and interests, types of interactions during studying, time to accomplish the programme or study materials and many more as decided by the offering institution. recent scholars such as wanner and palmer (2015) have submitted that flexibility needs to be extended to incorporate students’ choices concerning assessment methods and formats. although not a new concept, flexibility in learning is less explored in the education system in tanzania than the distance dimension. one obvious advantage of flexibility is that of allowing a wide variety of learners to participate in a programme, as explained by pon-barry et al. (2019) hence, its inclusiveness. the technological advancement in the world brought about transformation in the world of work by, for example, the introduction of digital labour platforms where work is outsourced through an open call to geographically dispersed individuals. this is to say, a range of new skills are required for the future labour market. salmon (2019) ascertained the future for work to be more diverse, demanding and flexible. this should be reflected by the kind of training that is offered in academic institutions. on the other hand, the application and advocacy of flexible, online, technology-enhanced learning has gained more popularity after the outbreak of covid-19, when 238 many institutions had no choice but to rely on flexible approaches in offering their programmes despite being unprepared (mtebe et al., 2021). work-based learning work-based learning and similar approaches such as workplace learning, work-integrated learning, action learning and work-related training has found practice in several countries, including algeria, australia, singapore, fiji, turkey, morocco, germany, sweden, india, malaysia, the philippines and sri lanka (sweet, 2018). according to lester and costley (2010), work-based learning refers to all and any learning that is situated in the workplace or arises directly out of workplace concerns. this definition will also incorporate such learning structures as internships, practicums, field work and cooperative education (fleming & haigh, 2018). workbased learning may be structured or unstructured and offered in a systematic way or not (sweet, 2018). a great majority of work-based learning is not accredited or otherwise formally recognised. however, this study was concerned with a formal training taking place at least partially at the workplace and leading to the award of a bachelor’s degree. the variety in workplaces and the contextual differences in learning programmes make it impossible to have a generic model for work-based learning. the important aspect of any adopted model is the learners’ ability to integrate knowledge acquired in academic studies to make sense of workplace experiences (fleming & haigh, 2018). the model proposed in this study has objectively considered this attribute of learning by clearly indicating the requirement for learners to study and relate theory to what is learned through work. moreover, any curriculum developed out of the proposed model should clearly capture how knowledge will be acquired, applied and evaluated. studies by billett (1995) and billett (2000) emphasise the establishment of curricula to guide workplace learning for it to be successful. courses in a work–based learning programme may be designed by the academic institution, the learners or the industry as key stakeholders. engaging the learner or the employer creates a sense of ownership to the new course. however, the academic institution should retain the other two important roles of managing the learning process and evaluating the learning to determine its academic merit (linehan & sheridan, 2009). literature shows that work-based learning and related concepts can successfully be applied to train both undergraduate and postgraduate students (o'connor, 2004). the proposed model the proposed conceptual model presented in figure 1 is elaborated in the following subsections: 239 pass fai l pass fail figure 1: schematic diagram for the proposed work-based learning model registration and preliminary arrangements for practical attachment just like most curricula, a curriculum prepared to entail this model should prescribe minimum qualifications for joining into the particular programme. after applications are processed and selected candidates should first be registered in the programme as is commonly done in other programmes. it is strongly proposed in this paper that candidates for work-based learning should have acquired a relevant engineering/technology diploma prior to joining a bachelor’s degree programme. this is a crucial requirement because the candidate will need to have basic skills relevant to the workplace. during registration, the university should start the process of solicitating workplaces for attaching the students. this can be achieved by involving the students because some of them may already be working in the industry and may wish to proceed with their current employer. the process of communication and solicitation of learning places should involve assessment of the same to ensure the appropriateness of anticipated learning activities and availability of personnel who will act as industrial supervisors to the students. working and learning the theory during the learning period, the student attached to the industry will be required to perform duties as assigned by their supervisor and create a work record in a logbook indicating dates, tasks performed and their respective details. the industry supervisor will have to endorse what is written in the logbook upon the successful performance of each task listed. simultaneously, the student will be required to consult the university advisor for guidance on the theory part. upon 240 agreement with the advisor, the student will be required to gather theoretical information about the practical work that has just been learned. the student will be required to study the theory and be able to explain the link between the theory and practice. the university advisor will guide the student on the details of the theory including how wide and deep it should be. also. in this period, the university advisor will visit the student in the workplace to evaluate his/her progress. the frequency and interval of visits should be indicated in the respective curriculum. university assessment and award of degree students will be required to produce evidence to support their claims of learning. common tools considered for assessment are presentation, a reflective interview and a reflective portfolio (brodie & irving, 2007). it is proposed in this model that after a stated study period (say, a year or a semester), the student should submit the work logbook that comprises the detailed activities accomplished, and the respectively learned theory, to the university for assessment. the student will be required to present the report (preferably orally) with a focus on the link between theory and practice. the assessment should consider the fact that learning is a necessary condition for every experience (herman & mandell, 2015) and, thus, one does not get any credit from their experience unless there is something learned from it. after the presentation, the student will be awarded some units. the curricula should prescribe the minimum units that the students will have to acquire to qualify for a bachelor’s degree. objectives of the study this study had two main objectives: (i) to introduce a new model for training bachelor’s degree students, particularly in engineering and technology programmes, in tanzania. (ii) to determine the feasibility of the proposed model based on responses obtained from prospective learners. the rationale of introducing this model was to increase flexibility in learning so students would have several modes of learning to choose from, instead of the current situation where everyone has to fit into the traditional model. as pointed out by helyer, (2015) people who are likely to prefer work-based learning are those who don’t find off-the-shelf university courses useful and, thus, require more tailored learning experiences. the newly proposed model recognises that diploma holders have prior professional training and are, therefore, capable of offering professional services at a certain level. therefore, their training for a bachelor’s degree may be different from advanced secondary school certificate holders. sweet, (2018) has listed employers, learners, employees, public employment service, schools and colleges, and education/training administrators as the key stakeholders in work-based learning. this study has chosen to focus on learners’ information, opinions and perceptions about the model. however, it does not mean that other stakeholders’ opinions are of less importance. it is emphasised that other stakeholders’ opinions should be considered during development of respective curricula based on the model, which is what is normally done when establishing new university programmes or reviewing existing ones. methods the conceptual model in figure 1 was established to communicate the whole idea of work-based learning so that it can easily be understood by stakeholders. the model has captured essential features of the proposed work-based learning in a manner that can stimulate discussion about 241 applicability or improvement of any part of the system. fine details about any part of the model are supposed to be captured in specific curricula developed to implement the model. experience coupled with literature information was applied in the process of developing this model. after that, the main objective of the study became establishment of the feasibility of the model based on data from relevant stakeholders. the following sub sections describe the methods used in studying the feasibility of the model. research methodology the nature of this study required collection of both qualitative and quantitative information. the purpose of conducting a quantitative study was to discover quantities (how many) and the kind of particular characteristics that exist in the sample with the aim of making inferences to the population. conversely, in qualitative study, the concepts and categories of characteristics are what matters and not the inference and frequency (brannen & coram, 1992). the study wanted to establish the feasibility of the model by determining the proportion of respondents that support its applicability and, at the same time, get stakeholders’ opinions that support or oppose the model. in this case, a mixed research approach was applied in data collection. the methodology chosen for data collection involved a survey. tools a questionnaire was prepared that contained a few closed-ended questions for collection of quantitative data and a number of open-ended questions aimed for both qualitative and quantitative data. the questions intended to obtain respondents’ perception about the model, improvement suggestions, advantages and disadvantages of the model, anticipated challenges in operating the model, as well as getting general opinions about the model. to improve the reliability and validity of the tool, data collection started with a pilot study, where 12 questionnaires were distributed and collected back with improvement suggestions from stakeholders. the improved questionnaire was then issued to the whole sample. a second set of questionnaires was intended for trainers. this also had questions regarding trainers’ perception about the model, improvement suggestions for the model, advantages and disadvantages of the model, anticipated challenges in operating the model as well as getting general opinion about the model. population and sample the target population was all diploma holders in engineering and technology programmes all over tanzania. however, for convenience, the sampled population was diploma finalists from mbeya university of science and technology who were pursuing engineering and technology programmes in 2022. in that year, there were about 930 finalists from 14 different programmes. to determine the sample size, reference was made to the table suggested by bartlett et al. (2001) which provides sample sizes appropriate for many sampling problems. with a margin of error of 3% and an alpha value of 5%, a sample size of 106 was found to be suitable for this study. assuming a return rate of 60%, the sample size was rounded to 150. stratified random sampling was applied by first conveniently considering programmes where classes were attended on a particular day and at a particular time. then, the 150 questionnaires were distributed randomly to students that were in classes. in addition to students, five heads of departments that offer engineering and technology courses were issued the second set of questionnaires to provide information that could enrich the study. 242 results from the sample of 150 students, 122 questionnaires were successfully retrieved. responses received were grouped into the following key results: perception about the proposed model, anticipated advantages of the model, anticipated challenges to different stakeholders during implementation and general opinions about the model. frequencies and percentages were determined for each key result thereafter plotted in pie charts. the following sections summarise the findings from the respondents. respondents’ perception about the proposed model the results of the analysis indicate that only 3.3% of the respondents were sceptical about the functioning of the model and the remaining 93.7% think the proposed model will work. about 3.4% of respondents who think the model will work have indicated no interest in pursuing studies of this nature. the remaining 96.6% have indicated their readiness to enrol in a programme that runs in the proposed setup. those who were reserved about implementation of the model indicated the following reasons: (i) the awarded degree will have limited application; (ii) the cost of running the programme will be too high; (iii) they are worried about quality control for work-based programmes in general; (iv) not many enterprises will be ready to accept students for work-based training. respondents’ suggestions for improving the proposed model respondents were asked to give suggestions on how the proposed model could be improved. only 64 students (52.5%) that responded had something to say about improvements. because this was an open-ended question, there were a variety of responses. suggestions that were given are presented in figure 2, where “others” represent all suggestions given by a smaller percentage of respondents less than 3% of the total. the trainers’ response to model improvement suggest the following: (i) make the model more detailed to include such issues as competence expected at each stage of learning, monitoring and supervision of the training while at the industry, and (ii) make the curriculum very detailed to ensure that expected competencies are achieved. respondents’ opinion about advantages of the model trainers think that the model, when implemented, will bring the following advantages: (i) since it is learner centred, it will enhance competence-based learning; (ii) employees will have no fear of losing their jobs when seeking further studies; (iii) the model will help cut the training cost of respective training institutions. prospective students’ anticipated model advantages are summarised in figure 3 where a significant percentage of respondents think this form of learning will enhance practical skills, provide exposure to learners, enhance both practical and theoretical learning, save time, and reduce unemployment. anticipated challenges to students as indicated in figure 4, a significant percentage of responses from students listed two major challenges: achieving a work-study balance (time management), and financial difficulties in case 243 students will have to work without pay. trainers, on their side, anticipate the following major challenges of the model to students: (i) students undertaking such kinds of programmes will lack guidance and end up losing focus on their studies, and (ii) students are supposed to be independent, an attribute that many of them may lack. anticipated challenges to the implementing university the researcher wanted opinions about the kind of challenges that universities implementing work-based programmes may face. prospective students’ responses to this question are indicated in figure 5, where a large percentage of respondents seem to think that major issues will be high running costs of such programmes and finding right workplaces to attach the students. the trainers responded by indicating the following challenges: (i) quality control during implementation of the programmes; (ii) difficulty in forming partnership with the industry to assist in the training; (iii) willingness of the industry to offer such long-term training to students; (iv) getting reliable workplaces willing to take the training responsibility. anticipated challenges to the industry the responding trainers listed two major challenges on the side of the participating industry: (i) the model being new in the country, it will take time for the industry to comprehend about how it works; (ii) the industry will face extra load in arranging relevant activities for the students to learn from. prospective students think that the major concern should be the extra responsibility for the industry to train students. a summary of students’ responses is indicated in figure 6. general opinions about the model the respondents were asked to provide any comments with regard to the model. responses from the trainers were as follows: (i) that preparatory courses to be offered in stages rather than just at the beginning of the programme; (ii) the model is generally good and might offer competent graduates, however, it may need improvement after observations on its performance using a pilot programme. prospective students had a lot to say in general about the model. however, as indicated in figure 7, most of them think that the model is good and should be implemented immediately. 244 figure 2: prospective students’ suggestions on improving the model. figure 3: prospective students’ suggested model advantages. 31% 22%11% 8% 3% 3% 3% 3% 3% 13% 31% allocate more time at the work place than in class 22% the model is good as it is 11% introduce online courses/platform for the theory part 8% curriculum to allow specialisation 3% introduce more practical programmes at diploma level 3% the model to be specific about the study duration 3% assessment should base on practical activities 26% 17% 16% 14% 9% 3% 3% 3% 9% 26% enhance practical skills and creativity to learners 17% provides experience and exposure to students 16% enhance competence in both practical and theory 14% saves time, learning and work experience simultaneusly 9% reduce unemployment 3% flexibility to learn what one desires 245 figure 4: prospective students’ anticipated challenges. figure 5: anticipated challenges to the implementing university. 48% 26% 10% 6% 3%3%4% 48% difficult in achieving a workstudy balance 26% financial difficulties incase have to work without pay 10% lack of supporting facilities such as the internet at some work places 6% shortage of industries/work places 3% weak comunication with the university 3% graduates lacking some skills 31% 25% 15% 10% 5% 5% 4%5% 31% high running cost 25% securing work places and suitable work supervisors 15% quality control 10% shortage of university advisors 5% communication with the students while at the industry 5% poor link between university and industry 4% difficulty in managing such flexible programmes 5% others 246 figure 6: anticipated challenges to the industry. figure 7: prospective students’ general opinions about the proposed learning model. discussion of results the book by sweet (2018) contains information very relevant to this study because it focuses on lowand middle-income countries implementing different kinds of work-based learning programmes. together with other literature, information and experiences from these countries are, therefore, an important reference when discussing different issues that emerged during data collection. for easy reference, the discussion is presented in seven sections relating to the identified key issues as follows. 23% 19% 18% 17% 11% 5%4% 3% 23% new responsibility of training/supervision 19% lack of capacity to handle the training 18% reduced productivity 17% additional costs if the students have to be paid 11% to get full commitment from students 5% inconveniences if the students assigned willl terminate studies 4% employees to accept the students and responsibility to train 3% others 61%14% 7% 5% 3%3% 7% 61% the model is fantastic, its implementation should start immediately 14% it will produce the best graduates who are also innovative 7% duration of study should be minimal 5% students should be finaced 3% the model should be introduced to other areas of study 3% support from the government is required to start 7% others 247 (i) perception about the proposed model contrary to what respondents of this study worry about work-based learning having limited application and low quality, sweet (2018) reported that work-based programmes make study more interesting and connect students to the real world of jobs. since students are given more relevant work skills, work-based programmes expand employment opportunities to students. there is also a possibility of graduates being employed in the firm where they trained immediately after completing their studies, which is an added advantage. the prospective students’ concerns about the cost of work-based training should not be ignored, especially considering the current practice of cost sharing between the government and students. however, if industry is ready to share the cost, the government and public will have their burden eased and more students will probably be supported in their studies. it is fine for the respondents to be worried about the quality of training in the proposed model. this is because quality is of ultimate importance in any education system and work-based learning is a new concept in tanzania. however, people should be informed that some countries have been implementing similar concepts for years. brodie and irving (2007) reported that workbased learning has been implemented in the uk system of higher education for more than 30 years now. however key issues, such as assessment in work-based learning, are still discussed and improved. we should be reminded that the quest for quality improvement, especially in education, is endless. (ii) model improvement suggestions a significant number of respondents (prospective students) proposed more time be dedicated to actual work than classroom theory. supported by the literature, this model recommends for learning time between classes and work to be established for specific programmes and be clearly stated in the respective curricula. for example, sweet (2018) reported that, in algeria, trainees spend an initial short period in full-time training, followed by alternate times spent between work and training while, in egypt, trainees spend two years in full-time training followed by a year of alternating between the workplace and the classroom. (iii) model advantages engineering and technology programmes often require universities to possess equipment and machinery for training purposes. the equipment is usually very expensive, making it difficult for universities to keep up with technological changes. sweet (2018) has shown that work-based programmes can allow universities to offer training using employers’ equipment, therefore, reducing the need to purchase expensive equipment. work-based learning may not necessarily reduce training costs to universities but, rather, introduce a new form of cost sharing where universities use equipment in the industry to train students. respondents had opinions that work-based learning enhances practical skills, provides work experience, gives chances for exposure and enhances competence in theory and practice. all these attributes contribute to professionalism. as commented on by metso and kianto (2014), learning which takes place at work has the potency to train learners in acquiring professional skills and competence. another great advantage of work-based learning is that it strengthens the synergy between training institutions and industry and creates strong links between individuals as well as between institutions. 248 work-based learning is an opportunity for mature-age students in the workplace to upgrade their qualifications. many will agree that it is unrealistic to expect all organisations to release staff to attend full-time, on-campus studies (palmer, 2001). (iv) anticipated challenges to students during studies some trainers worried that students undertaking work-based programmes might end up being less confident because of the learning environment being mostly self-study with regard to theory. however, sweet (2018) indicated that work-based learning graduates are more likely to get jobs, as their skills are more relevant to employers’ needs, they possess better basic work habits, and their bonds with employers are stronger. students responding to this study questionnaire indicated their worries about achieving a good work-study balance. this is to say, the respondents thought there should be a separation between working and learning. however, the overall concept of work-based learning in the context of this study is that the actual learning experience is achieved through working. billett and choy (2013) greatly acknowledged the difficulty in managing how students learn at workplaces, because learning is directed towards the needs of the workplace. this area will definitely need to have strategies stipulated in the respective curricula to ensure that key stakeholders achieve their expectations. however, billett and choy (2013) warned that attempting to use concepts and practices from educational institutions alone will not provide a suitable solution. therefore, there is need to involve all relevant stakeholders during the curricula development phase. some trainers worried about the demanding nature of work-based training proposed in this study and the fact that the model needs students to be more self-reliant. this agrees with helyer’s (2011) comments about the nature of work-based learning that it is a different but not an easier or lesser way of obtaining a higher education qualification. work-based learning is generally more demanding for students. therefore, students are urged to be self-motivated and independent as they cannot wait for teachers to appear with fixed timetables and content. students’ self-drive was listed by metso and kianto (2014) as one of the factors impacting the development of professional competence. however, the work environment presents a great contribution to motivating learning, including positive evaluation, which the learners receive from co-workers and supervisors. (v) anticipated challenges to the implementing universities respondents had indicated their concern about the industry involvement in training, forming partnership with universities and willingness to take part in training students for such a long time. similarly, namjoshi (2020) identified the key challenge of running work-based programmes as ensuring the motivation and commitment of the actors involved. it is the view of this author that universities have a role to keep themselves and the rest of the stakeholders motivated and committed to implementing their programmes. sweet (2018) has advised making the employers aware of the programmes and their benefits before engaging them in training. the guidelines for establishing new programmes in tanzania require involvement of different stakeholders during the programme development phase. this implies that if the guidelines are strictly followed and the involvement of relevant stakeholders is massive, then universities are more likely to succeed in involving industry for work-based training. (vi) anticipated challenges to the industry industry has a major role to play in making work-based learning possible. other than providing a conducive working place, the policy and presence of enriching academic processes are necessary 249 for effective learning. namjoshi (2020) posited that exposure to new skills and interactions with mentors are all important for a rewarding learning experience. therefore, for the success of workbased learning programmes, the industry should be ready to accept the responsibility of training. employers are expected to be ready to assign some staff to support training which might lead to some additional operation costs. some of the challenges expected to face implementing enterprises, such as the lack of capacity to handle training, could be country specific. however, such issues as the implementing cost have been discussed by other researchers, too. those who are familiar with work-based training would agree that work in work-based learning is not necessarily paid work: it can be any form of work or purposive activity that gives rise to learning (lester & costley, 2010). it may be voluntary or community based. some respondents in this study showed concern for companies running up costs that may arise if they take in students and pay them for what they do while learning. this may or may not be true, depending on the setup or agreement between universities, training enterprises (industry) and the students. work-based learning may have more benefits to industry than anticipated challenges. for example, sweet (2018) has shown that enterprises participating in work-based training might use it as an opportunity to recruit skilled workers in the future. the training itself may be done in a cost-neutral way, or even to gain a financial benefit, if wages and financing arrangements are well constructed. (vii) general opinions about the model some of the issues pointed out by the respondents in this study such as where or when the preparatory courses are to be administered to students are issues of curricula development. the proposed model is intended to suggest the general framework for work-based learning without going too much into details, thus, leaving flexibility to accommodate other preferences during specific curriculum development. conclusion and recommendation a work-based learning model has been proposed for developing programmes to train diploma holders in engineering and technology to a bachelor’s degree level. the rationale of the model is to improve flexibility in learning by giving learners an alternative to the existing traditional oncampus mode. opinions from prospective students as well as trainers suggest feasibility of the model if applied. prospective advantages and challenges of work-based learning have been discussed in light of experiences reported in the literature. both prospective learners and trainers sampled from an academic institution support application of the model in tanzania. establishment of a pilot programme is recommended to ascertain the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed model while guided by the relatively rich literature on the topic. conclusively, the observations of the respondents, particularly on perceived issues associated with this study have been noted. thus, pilot studies and more research are needed by training experts to rightly position the model for effectiveness. references baldwin, r.g., & baumann, m.j. (2005). options for change: a flexible vehicle for curriculum evolution and reform. innovative higher education, 30(2), 89-98. bartlett, j.e., kotrlik, j.w. & higgins, c.c. (2001). organizational research: determining appropriate sample size in survey research. information technology, learning, and performance journal, 19, 43-50. 250 billett, s. (1995). workplace learning: its potential and limitations. education + training, 37(5), 20-27. billett, s. (2000). guided learning at work. journal of workplace learning, 12(7), 272-285. billett, s., & choy, s. (2013). learning through work: emerging perspectives and new challenges. journal of workplace learning, 25(4), 264-276. doi:10.1108/13665621311316447. brannen, j., & coram, t. (eds.). (1992). mixing methods: qualitative and quantitative research (vol. 5). avebury. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315248813. brodie, p., & irving, k. (2007). assessment in work-based learning: investigating a pedagogical approach to enhance student learning. assessment & evaluation in higher education, 32(1), 11-19. doi:10.1080/02602930600848218. collis, b., & moonen, j. (2002). flexible learning in a digital world. open learning: the journal of open, distance and e-learning, 17(3), 217-230. doi:10.1080/0268051022000048228. connor, a., karmokar, s., & whittington, c. (2015). from stem to steam: strategies for enhancing engineering & technology education. international journal of engineering pedagogy, 5(2), 37-47. http://dx.doi.org/10.3991/ijep.v5i2.4458. ferguson, c. (1998). the continuous professional development of engineers and flexible learning strategies. international journal of lifelong education, 17(3). 173-183. doi:10.1080/0260137980170303. fleming, j., & haigh, n.j. (2018). using sociocultural insights to enhance work-integrated learning. higher education, skills and work-based learning, 8(4), 395-407. herman, l., & mandell, a. (2015). experiential learnings revised. journal of learning for development, 2(1). https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej1106125.pdf helyer, r. (2011). aligning higher education with the world of work. higher education, skills and work-based learning, 1(2), 95-105. helyer, r. (2015). learning through reflection: the critical role of reflection in work-based learning (wbl). journal of work-applied management, 7(1), 15-27. lester, s., & costley, c. (2010). work-based learning at higher education level: value, practice and critique. studies in higher education, 35(5), 561-575. doi:10.1080/03075070903216635. linehan, m., & sheridan, i. (2009). workplace learning courses in irish third-level colleges. journal of workplace learning, 21(6), 496-504. doi:10.1108/13665620910976766. macleod, i.a. (2010). the education of innovative engineers. engineering, construction and architectural management, 17(1), 21-34. doi:10.1108/09699981011011294. metso, s., & kianto, a. (2014). vocational students' perspective on professional skills workplace learning. journal of workplace learning, 26(2), 128-148. mtebe, j.s., fulgence, k., & gallagher, m.s. (2021). covid-19 and technology enhanced teaching in higher education in sub-saharan africa: a case of the university of dar es salaam, tanzania. journal of learning for development, 8(2), 383-397. namjoshi, r. (2020). the role of industry in implementing work-based learning pedagogy. work based learning e-journal international, 9(1), 132-146. o'connor, b.n. (2004). the workplace learning cycle: a problem-based curriculum model for the preparation of workplace learning professionals. journal of workplace learning, 16(6), 341-349. doi:10.1108/13665620410550312. palmer, s. (2001). engineering flexible teaching and learning in engineering education. european journal of engineering education, 26(1), 1-13. doi:10.1080/03043790010009149. 251 pon-barry, h., st. john, a., packard, b.w.l., & rotundo, b. (2019, february). a flexible curriculum for promoting inclusion through peer mentorship. in proceedings of the 50th acm technical symposium on computer science education (pp. 1116-1122). salmon, g. (2019). may the fourth be with you: creating education 4.0. journal of learning for development, 6(2), 95-115. sweet, r. (2018). work-based learning: a handbook for policy makers and social partners in etf partner countries. european training foundation. doi:10.2816/018079. wanner, t., & palmer, e. (2015). personalising learning: exploring student and teacher perceptions about flexible learning and assessment in a flipped university course. computers & education, 88, 354-369. author: mwajuma ibrahim lingwanda is a lecturer and the principal of the college of architecture and construction technology, mbeya university of science and technology, tanzania. email: mwajumaling@gmail.com; wajuma.lingwanda@must.ac.tz cite this paper as: lingwanda, m.i. (2023). feasibility of work-based learning model for undergraduate engineering and technology programmes in tanzania. journal of learning for development, 10(2), 236-251. microsoft word thi thu ta.docx issn: 2311-1550 2023, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 91-108 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. students’ perception of quality assurance in higher education in vietnam: empirical evidence and implications for face-to-face and alternative modes of learning hien thi thu ta1,2, hung thai le1, cuong huu nguyen3,4.*, thanh quy nguyen1, nhung thi tuyet pham5, huong thi pham6, nhung thi trinh2 1vnu university of education, vietnam national university hanoi, vietnam 2center for education accreditation, vietnam national university hanoi, vietnam 3department of quality assurance, van lang university, vietnam 4education research group, van lang university, vietnam 5college of foreign languages, hue university, vietnam 6ho chi minh city university of education, vietnam *corresponding author abstract: students are considered the most essential internal stakeholders in the higher education sector. they play a significant role in quality assurance processes. this study aims to investigate students’ engagement with and perceptions of vietnamese higher education quality assurance. the study conducted an online survey questionnaire for undergraduate students in five major cities across vietnam. the researchers utilised convenience sampling method to draw a representative sample from the target population. the 1,323 valid responses were collected and analysed using ibm’s spss statistical tool. the results show that most of the vietnamese students were aware of quality policy and quality assurance models implemented at their institutions. the purposes of quality assurance and the focus level of quality assurance were also reported on by the majority of respondents. however, the positive change as to the results of quality assurance implementation was not clearly observed by the students. the paper concludes that vietnamese students were involved in several major quality assurance processes, and they were aware of only important quality assurance tools implemented at their university. keywords: quality management, student engagement, quality assurance processes, internal stakeholders, vietnam. introduction higher education institutions across the world rely on quality assurance processes and instruments to control, ensure and enhance the quality of their programmes. at the institutional level, quality assurance refers to all attempts to establish, monitor, and raise educational delivery standards so that students can get the best out of their learning experience (garwe, 2015). quality assurance includes all aspects of university life, including the quality of teaching, learning, research, management and support services. among various quality assurance activities, higher education institutions work closely with stakeholders who are government officials, employers, alumni, academic staff, support staff and students. these stakeholders provide feedback that substantially contributes to higher 92 education institutions’ policies and effectiveness (beerkens & udam, 2017; leisyte & westerheijden, 2014). the importance of student engagement in quality assurance and the enhancement of teaching and learning is widely recognised (charteris & smardon, 2019; mccann et al., 2021; zeybek, 2022). engaging students in quality assurance and improvement practices shows the fundamental characteristics of higher education, in which students are not only recipients of services from universities but also play a key role in deciding their effectiveness (qaa, 2018). moreover, students' participation in the quality assurance process has a positive impact on their learning and development, as well as increasing their motivation to learn (isaeva et al., 2020). in vietnam, a developing country in southeast asia, quality assurance in higher education was officially commenced in the early 2000s. initial results in both internal quality assurance and external quality assurance have been observed. however, quality assurance in vietnamese higher education is still regarded as being at the nascent stage (nguyen, 2021; nguyen, ta, et al., 2017). student involvement in quality assurance processes has been reported at several higher education institutions. nevertheless, the most common activity for this engagement is student participation in course evaluation (pham, 2019). given that the grassroots may have different views on vietnamese student engagement in quality assurance, this study investigates students’ perceptions of and experiences with quality assurance. specifically, the study measures the extent to which vietnamese students evaluate their understanding and awareness of quality policy, quality assurance models, purposes of quality assurance, quality assurance processes and instruments, and positive change as the result of quality assurance implementation. the research findings could help policymakers, institutional managers and quality assurance specialists make decisions on quality improvement for their programmes and institutions. literature review quality assurance in higher education quality assurance has been implemented in most of the higher education systems across the world. the concepts of quality assurance have become well-established and are widely used in the higher education sector (elassy, 2015; vlăsceanu et al., 2007). to begin, harvey (2004-22) defines quality assurance as a process of gaining stakeholder trust that the offering (inputs, processes, and outputs) meets or exceeds basic criteria. moreover, connecting quality assurance with achievement of standards, the quality assurance agency for higher education in the uk (qaa, 2010) points out that quality assurance is “the means through which an institution ensures and confirms that the conditions are in place for students to achieve the standards set by it or by another awarding body” (p. 83). the expansion of quality assurance was due to the increase in the demand for higher education and the establishment of a significant number of private higher education providers. although there are several quality assurance mechanisms, quality assurance serves three main purposes: quality control, accountability and continuous enhancement (colling & harvey, 1995; lemaitre & karakhanyan, 2018; morest, 2009). quality assurance is a comprehensive strategy that encompasses all procedures in a higher education institution to serve students and other stakeholders in accordance with expected quality standards. the success of a quality assurance system is dependent on management's cooperation. as a result, quality assurance should also include strategy management, process management, and a measuring 93 monitoring system that interact with one another to allow institutions to improve their operations (kahveci et al., 2012). the most common activities that quality assurance processes cover include teaching and learning, research, service to society, student support services, and governance and management of the institution (loukkola & zhang, 2010). similarly, according to martin (2018), the popularity of quality assurance processes and tools was ranked as teaching and learning, governance and management, research, graduate employability, international cooperation, community outreach, and income generation. key stakeholders in higher education stakeholder engagement has become an essential part of any university’s planning and improvement agenda. stakeholders are defined as “any group or individual who is affected by or can affect the achievement of an organisation’s objectives” (freeman, 1984, p. 46). in the higher education sector, lecturers, support staff, students, alumni, employers, professions and government are all stakeholders (leisyte & westerheijden, 2014; temmerman, 2018). they are expected to contribute to a more effective and all-inclusive quality assurance system (beerkens & udam, 2017). stakeholder involvement generally entails informing stakeholders about a university's policies and future intentions, as well as soliciting their feedback on both, particularly the latter. stakeholder comments can then be included into the change management process properly (temmerman, 2018). in many higher education institutions, stakeholders are invited to serve on the university board and other advisory bodies (stensaker & vabø, 2013). consequently, they play an important role in the institutional quality assurance processes. for example, their contributions could be for curriculum development and/or curriculum revision (beerkens & udam, 2017). stakeholders raise issues related to the quality of the university including: (1) the quality of the programmes being offered, (2) the quality of the facilities, technology and resources that support the operation of the programmes, (3) the quality of the academic staff who develop and run the programmes, (4) the quality of the students being admitted into the programmes, and (5) the quality of the graduates being produced (temmerman, 2018). normally, stakeholders are categorised as internal stakeholders (institutional leaders, staff, students) and external stakeholders (alumni, businesses, professions, government) (beerkens & udam, 2017; leisyte & westerheijden, 2014). student engagement in quality assurance students as internal stakeholders in higher education hold a place second only to academic staff. students have gained a bigger “stake” in higher education institutions. in many countries, they are given legitimacy and power by national regulations. they are considered valuable stakeholders, especially in relation to institutional quality assurance. as customers, students provide essential feedback on teaching and other academic and non-academic support services. moreover, students as stakeholders are expected to engage in subject and programme evaluation, and to be involved in quality assurance procedures at universities as equal partners (leisyte & westerheijden, 2014). students can provide early notice and insight into issues of concern, as well as helpful and innovative recommendations for resolving difficulties within a programme and give comments that might improve course material and sequencing in ways that programme instructors may not have considered (heath et al., 2021). 94 for evaluations of teachers, the quality of the academic staff and the teaching-learning experience were recognised as the most significant factors by students. they expected lecturers to be competent and up-to-date in their fields, as well as able to present entertaining and motivating information that was relevant to the real world (temmerman, 2018). student engagement in quality assurance can be through providing feedback on the subjects or programme they have taken, contributing to the development of the curricula, being involved in the institution decision-making processes, or representing student voices in a variety of ways like a student union or other representative bodies. obviously, students' voices are being heard loudly and clearly these days, and their opinions are increasingly being treated seriously (alaniska et al., 2006). research questions with the purposes of investigating vietnamese students’ perceptions of and experience with their engagement in higher education quality assurance activities, the research sought to answer the following questions: 1. what do vietnamese students understand about the purposes of quality assurance? 2. what are vietnamese students aware of in quality policy and quality assurance models implemented at their universities? 3. what do vietnamese students know about quality assurance processes and instruments that are being used in their universities? 4. how aware are vietnamese students of the positive change in their university activities as the result of quality assurance implementation? methods research methodology this study employed the quantitative research paradigm to examine vietnamese students’ engagement in and perception of quality assurance in vietnamese higher education institutions. the study utilised a cross-sectional, descriptive and comparative survey. according to cummings (2017), empirical researchers utilise cross-sectional designs to characterise a population of interest at a single point in time (universe). specifically, researchers use cross-sectional approaches to collect data but do not modify factors. a census study is a popular form of cross-sectional design in which a population is surveyed at one moment in time to identify characteristics such as age, gender, and geographic location, among others. cross-sectional studies can be descriptive. in descriptive studies, the data collected mostly aim to provide estimates of prevalence of traits such as behaviour, attitudes, or knowledge (kesmodel, 2018). consequently, the current study utilised a cross-sectional descriptive survey to collect data regarding students’ engagement in and perception of quality assurance implementation in higher education institutions in vietnam. population and sample the target population for this study was students studying in five major cities across vietnam — hanoi, vinh, hue, thai nguyen, and ho chi minh city— with a total population of around 1,500,000 students. convenience sampling was used to select students from universities located in these cities. 95 specifically, a google forms survey was sent to any students studying in universities in these cities. in total, the survey received 1,323 valid responses. the socio-demographic characteristics of the sample are summarised in table 1. table 1: participants' demography number percentage gender male 179 13.5% female 1138 86.0% i do not wish to say 6 0.5% grade first-year students 255 19.3% second-year students 155 11.7% third-year students 456 34.5% fourth-year students 443 33.5% fifth-year students 9 0.7% others 5 0.3% age 18 223 16.9 19 130 9.8 20 344 26.0 21 385 29.1 22 193 14.6 23 22 1.7 others 26 1.9 place of study hcmc 553 41.8 hanoi 263 19.9 hue 164 12.4 thai nguyen 181 13.7 vinh 162 12.2 instrument design the survey questionnaire was derived from an instrument developed for an international research project supported by the unesco international institute for educational planning (iiep) in 20152016. the main aim of this survey was to measure students' engagement in and perception of quality management activities at their higher education institution (hei) (martin, 2017). the questionnaire was translated into vietnamese and adapted for use in the vietnamese context. there were four main parts, and 60 close-ended questions, in the questionnaire: (1) personal information of respondents, (2) quality policy and quality assurance model, (3) processes and tools used for quality assurance, and (4) survey and evaluation. the scale applied in this questionnaire is described in table 2. 96 table 2: overview of the survey questionnaire category item structured response awareness of quality policies, quality assurance handbook, quality assurance processes and instruments, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, part 3 do not know, no, yes perception of importance level of quality assurance 2.1, 2.5 0 = do not know, 1 = not important, 2 = not really important, 3 = moderately important, 4 = important, 5 = very important focus level of quality assurance at the university 2.6 0 = do not know, 1 = not at all, 2 = not much, 3 = moderate, 4 = quite a lot, 5 = a lot frequency of participating in surveys 4.1 0 = do not know, 1 = never, 2 = rarely, 3 = sometimes, 4 = often, 5 = always positive changes from evaluation results 4.2 0 = do not know, 1 = no change, 2 = change a little, 3 = change some, 4 = change quite a lot, 5 = change a lot the reliability of the instrument was measured using cronbach's alpha value. the questionnaire finally consisted of 10 question groups with 60 items. the cronbach’s alpha value of each group is above 0.8, indicating a good level of reliability. data collection and analysis the questionnaire in google forms was sent to students via their official email. the return rate for the questionnaire was different among the regions. the response rate in hanoi was the highest while that in vinh was the lowest (table 1). the data were analysed using ibm’s spss statistical tool in three steps. firstly, an exploratory factor analysis (efa) was conducted to confirm the structure validity of the instrument. after eliminating bad items, descriptive statistical practices were applied to the data. finally, the results of students' perception in 10 aspects were analysed to answer the research question. results exploratory factor analysis (efa) the data were divided into two groups: using nominal scale and using interval scale. for interval items (2.5, 4.1, 4.2), efa was applied to confirm the validity of the questionnaire. a principal components analysis followed by a varimax rotation was conducted on the students' responses (table 3). after eliminating the destructive items, the final structure of the questionnaire was presented (table 1). the reliability of each part was over 0.8. the instrument had 87% content validity. 97 table 3: efa result component 1 2 3 2.5.1. evaluating the education quality of the university .900 2.5.2. improving teaching activities .945 2.5.3. improving learning activities .947 2.5.4. improving management activities .936 2.5.5. improving support services .927 2.5.6. complying with government regulations .939 2.5.7. providing accountability to the government and society .926 4.1.1. evaluation of teachers .822 4.1.2. evaluation of subjects .867 4.1.3. evaluation of courses .871 4.1.4. evaluation of programmes .826 4.1.5. evaluation of support services .783 4.1.6. evaluation of facilities .787 4.2.1. positive change in teaching performance .849 4.2.2. positive change in support services .875 4.2.3. positive change in testing and assessment .860 4.2.4. positive change in facilities .861 extraction method: principal component analysis. rotation method: varimax with kaiser normalisation. a. rotation converged in four iterations. descriptive analysis quality policy and quality assurance models firstly, more than 80% of students agreed that their institutional policy focuses on the importance of quality assurance activities. anova analysis was conducted, and the results showed no difference among students’ groups divided based on ages and institutions' location. the quality policy is a document setting out the objectives, principles, and regulations on the importance of current and future decisions related to quality assurance. first of all, 70-85% of students knew about their hei's quality policy for the survey results. students often have more accessibility to the issued documents than the developing policies. more than 80% of students thought that their hei's quality policy had been announced widely. however, there was still a section of the students who had never known of the existence of these policy documents (table 4). 98 table 4: institutional quality policy do not know no yes 2.2.1. my institution has an institutional quality policy 13.00% 2.34% 84.66% 2.2.2. our quality policy is clearly described in our institutional strategic plan (or equivalent documents) 16.63% 2.57% 80.80% 2.2.3. some of our faculties/departments have their own quality policy statement(s) 17.31% 2.80% 79.89% 2.2.4. quality policy is announced to every staff, lecturer and student 15.42% 2.95% 81.63% 2.2.5. we are developing an institutional quality policy statement 24.87% 5.22% 69.92% the quality assurance handbook was the second term used to ask students about their higher education institutions' quality policies identification. the number of sample universities with quality assurance handbooks was lower than those with quality policy. likewise, the percentage of students who thought that the hei/ faculty had a quality assurance handbook was 63% (figure 1). figure 1: quality assurance handbook thirdly, students were asked to share their familiarity with the quality committee or quality assurance staff at their higher education institutions. around 20% of respondents said that they did not know anything about people involved in quality management. only 60% of students had experience working with staff in the quality assurance unit (figure 2). 48.90% 51.93% 55.71% 62.96% 2.3.4. we are developing an institutional quality management handbook 2.3.2. my institution does not have an institutional quality management handbook, the practical activities of qm are clearly described in other institutional documents 2.3.3. some of our faculties/departments have their own quality management handbook(s) 2.3.1. my institution has an institutional quality management handbook 99 figure 2: awareness and experience of the quality assurance unit to measure students' perceptions on quality assurance purposes, participants were asked to assess the importance level of seven quality assurance purposes. mean rank with friedman test was analysed, and the results showed that students thought "improving teaching activities” and improving learning activities" were the most important goals of quality assurance while "improving support services" was less important (table 5). table 5: purposes of quality assurance mean rank 2.5.1. evaluating the education quality of the university 3.94 2.5.2. improving teaching activities 4.08 2.5.3. improving learning activities 4.12 2.5.4. improving management activities 3.93 2.5.5. improving support services 3.91 2.5.6. complying the government regulations 4.05 2.5.7. providing accountability to the government and society 3.97 similarly, respondents also pointed out that the teaching and learning areas were mainly focused on their higher education institutions' quality assurance (mr = 4.5). the attention for graduate employability is lower, at 4.11. international cooperation was listed as having the lowest concern (table 6). 16.70% 16.40% 18.90% 17.08% 17.69% 3.33% 3.63% 3.02% 22.52% 9.90% 79.97% 79.97% 78.08% 60.39% 72.41% 2.4.1. a quality committee that operates at the institutional level 2.4.2. a quality committees have roles in controlling, maintaning and improving quality 2.4.3 a quality committees that operate at the the faculty/department level 2.4.4. i have worked with specialized staffs for qm 2.4.5. my lecturers introduce me to qm activities % yes % no % do not know 100 table 6: the focus level of quality assurance mean rank 2.6.1.teaching and learning 4.50 2.6.2. graduate employability 4.11 2.6.3. research 3.97 2.6.4. governance and management 3.88 2.6.5. support services 3.82 2.6.6. facilities 3.99 2.6.7. international cooperation 3.73 processes and tools used for quality assurance in the next part, the survey continued asking students about the quality assurance processes in their higher education institutions, which was related to three main areas including teaching and learning, graduate employability, and community services. firstly, to manage quality in the teaching and learning process, student surveys were used chiefly with two main contents: satisfaction (87.3%) and courses evaluation (89%). the assessment results collected from academic staff were the least used (75%) (figure 3). figure 3: percentages of students' agreement on their teaching and learning management regarding support activities, students were asked to assess the learning infrastructure that their institutions provided for them. more than 90% of students agreed that their universities took care of them with learning resources, and organised advising activities related to academic learning and credit registration. the percentage of students who received other activities was higher than 70%. the results also implicated the teaching and learning quality in those samples (figure 4). 75.21% 76.27% 79.37% 80.12% 81.10% 87.30% 89.87% 65.00% 70.00% 75.00% 80.00% 85.00% 90.00% 95.00% 3.1.3. programme evaluation by academic staff 3.1.4. programme monitoring based on statistical indicators (e.g. student success rates) 3.1.6. students’ workload assessment 3.1.5. student progression studies (based on a panel of students) 3.1.2. programme evaluation by students 3.1.7.student satisfaction survey 3.1.1. course evaluation by students (either quantitatively or qualitatively) percentages of students' agreement on teaching and learning activities management 101 figure 4: percentages of students' agreement on their higher education institutions' support activities students also assessed the processes used for the enhancement of graduate employability. more than 70% of students agreed that their institutions had applied those activities (figure 5). figure 5: percentages of students' agreement on graduate employability support 3.2.8. housing advising 3.2.7. health advising 3.2.3. career advising 3.2.6. teaching laboratories (e.g. science/computer/language labs) 3.2.4. ict facilities (e.g. e-mail and internet for use by students, electronic learning management systems) 3.2.2. academic advising 3.2.1. admission/registration 3.2.5. libraries and documentary resources 74.53% 81.10% 84.43% 84.58% 88.66% 90.40% 91.31% 91.91% percentages of students' agreement 74.15% 74.30% 75.96% 75.96% 78.38% 84.58% 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 3.3.5. curriculum review involving alumni 3.3.4. curriculum review involving the relevant professions 3.3.2. employer surveys 3.3.3. curriculum development involving professions/employers 3.3.1. graduate tracer studies 3.3.6. monitoring the quality of internships percentages of students' agreement 102 information administration the survey is one of the most effective tools to collect stakeholders' feedback. in the current research, students were asked to assess the frequency of their institution in conducting surveys and the improvement level after implementing those tasks. the results are shown in table 7. table 7: the frequencies of surveys and their effectiveness mean rank 4.1.1. evaluation of teachers 3.63 4.1.2. evaluation of subjects 3.72 4.1.3. evaluation of courses 3.69 4.1.4. evaluation of programmes 3.45 4.1.5. evaluation of support services 3.20 4.1.6. evaluation of facilities 3.31 mean rank 4.2.1. positive change in teaching performance 2.53 4.2.2. positive change in support services 2.42 4.2.3. positive change in testing and assessment 2.55 4.2.4. positive change in facilities 2.50 although they were surveyed about most activities (mr = 3), the students assessed those activities as having improved moderately. however, the survey results also showed a significant correlation between survey activity and the level of improvement in those activities (table 8). table 8: bivariate correlation between survey frequencies and its effectiveness correlations 4.2.1. positive change in teaching performance 4.2.2. positive change in support services 4.2.4. positive change in facilities 4.2.3. positive change in testing and assessment 4.1.1.evaluation of teachers pearson correlation .486** sig. (2-tailed) 0 4.1.5. evaluation of support services pearson correlation .634** sig. (2-tailed) 0 4.1.6. evaluation of facilities pearson correlation .574** sig. (2-tailed) 0 4.1.4. evaluation of programmes pearson correlation .603** sig. (2-tailed) 0 discussion to have education quality, higher education institutions must have their institutional quality policy which is easily recognised by key stakeholders. the current study shows that the vast majority of respondents (85%) acknowledged the presence of their university’s quality policy, and 81% of the 103 responding students indicated that the quality policy was clearly described in the institutional strategic plan. these data are in line with those of martin (2018) who conducted an international survey to identify international trends and innovative practices for internal quality assurance. regarding the quality (or quality assurance) handbook, 63% of respondents in this research confirmed its existence in their institution. this percentage is a little bit higher than that of martin (2018) (58%). additionally, responding vietnamese students expressed their awareness of the quality assurance unit and/or quality assurance staff in their university. by law, all vietnamese higher education institutions must establish a body responsible for quality assurance (nguyen, evers, et al., 2017). the fact that 80% of the respondents observed the quality committee operating at the institutional level and 60% of them had chance to work with a quality assurance specialist shows that the quality assurance body plays an important role in vietnamese universities’ quality management activities. in fact, a quality assurance unit is in charge of conducting a variety of activities including developing guidelines for internal quality assurance, preparing the institutional self-evaluation report, reviewing the programme self-evaluation reports, evaluating teaching, training support and research activities, and collecting feedback from key stakeholders (students, graduates, employers) (nguyen, ta, et al., 2017). among seven purposes of quality assurance, vietnamese students ranked the three most important ones as the improvement of learning activities, improvement of teaching activities and compliance with the government regulations. meanwhile, the three least important purposes of quality assurance were evaluated as the improvement of support services, improvement of management activities and the institutional performance assessment. these findings are slightly different from those of martin (2018), in which the most significant purposes for quality assurance were the improvement of academic activities, institutional performance assessment and compliance with external standards. in a broader context, for example, the national or regional level, the main purposes of quality assurance could be quality control, accountability and promotion of continuing improvement (colling & harvey, 1995; lemaitre & karakhanyan, 2018; morest, 2009). furthermore, quality assurance activities can focus on different functional areas of universities. the current research shows that teaching and learning was the primary focus of quality assurance (4.5), followed by graduate employability (4.11) and facilities (3.99). this finding echoes lemaitre and karakhanyan's (2018) research that the first priority of quality assurance should be the content of teaching and learning. moreover, higher education institutions must develop and maintain an employability focus across teaching, learning, research and community services (greere, 2022). regarding quality assurance processes and instruments, respondents indicated that course evaluations by students, student satisfaction surveys and programme evaluations by students were the tools most frequently implemented in their institution. this study supports evidence from previous observations (e.g., charteris & smardon, 2019; ching, 2019; er et al., 2020; heath et al., 2021). specifically, students are often asked to give their views on a range of topics from teaching approaches to assessment methods in face-to-face learning (charteris & smardon, 2019; stroebe, 2020) and online/blended learning (harefa & sihombing, 2021; juraković et al., 2022), where they play an important role in providing feedback to the university as the quality of their training could consequently impact the quality of the services provided by the graduates (ching, 2019; er et al., 2020). in addition, quality assurance processes and instruments were witnessed in online and blended learning. in these modes of learning, students also participated in satisfaction surveys to provide their 104 feedback about learning materials, communication and teaching and assessment methods (juraković et al., 2022; liu et al., 2022). for student support services, the majority of responding students agreed that their universities provided services like library resources and learning materials (92%), admission or registration (91%) and academic counselling (90%). the lowest percentage was for accommodation counselling (74%) and health counselling (81%). student support services provided by higher education institutions should fulfill students’ emotional, academic and social needs. they are a precondition for increasing students’ welfare and academic success (julal, 2013; picton & kahu, 2021; sajiene & tamuliene, 2012). for graduate employability, over 84% of the respondents felt that their university monitored the quality of internships. this was followed by graduate tracer studies (78%), employer surveys (76%), and curriculum development involving the professions/employers (76%). these results slightly differ from martin’s (2018) research that curriculum development involving the professions/employers was the most popular instrument implemented by higher education institutions to enhance graduate employability. in addition, enhancing the employability of graduates can be conducted through work integrated learning (lyons & brown, 2003), a service-learning approach (mtawa et al., 2021), or providing soft skills to students (succi & canovi, 2020). regarding participation in evaluation surveys or student feedback, it refers to “the expressed opinions of students about the service they receive as students. this may include perceptions about the learning and teaching, course organisation, learning support and environment” (harvey, 2022, p. 1). in the current study, responding students showed that they frequently did not take part in such surveys. the highest average score was for the evaluation of subjects (3.72 out of 5.00), while the lowest average score was for the evaluation of support services (3.20 out of 5.00). the low response rates in student evaluation surveys in higher education were also reported by nair et al. (2008) in several australian universities in the early years of the twenty-first century. the current study also showed that vietnamese students did not see much positive change as a result of their evaluation. consequently, the average score was 2.50 out of 5.00 with the highest one for change in testing and assessment (2.55) and the lowest one for change in support services (2.42). as suggested by nair et al. (2008) the motivation for students’ participation in evaluation surveys was that they needed to feel that their feedback made a meaningful contribution and that it was acted upon by their university. similarly, harvey (2022) argues that student feedback is a major subject that serves as the foundation for a basic investigation of what works and does not work for students. student input is basically about improving the student experience at two levels: teaching and learning at the program level and general amenities at the institution level. because the feedback is formulaic and no adjustments are being made, students' disinterest merely serves to emphasise the futility of the process. conclusion and recommendations student participation in institutional quality assurance processes is formed and impacted by elements related to institutional culture, context, and resources, all of which are subject to influence and change. students are in a good position to express their opinions and expectations about the programme, and they may confirm whether these have been properly understood, created, and implemented (heath et al., 2021). using a survey questionnaire developed for an international project, the current study assessed vietnamese students’ perceptions of and experiences with quality assurance. the research findings show that the vast majority of the respondents were aware of quality policy, quality 105 handbooks, quality assurance processes and tools implemented in their institution. however, they did not frequently participate in evaluation surveys, especially students’ evaluation of support services. a possible explanation for this might be that students did not observe much positive change as a result of their feedback in the form of such evaluation surveys. the current research findings can be compared with those of previous studies, particularly martin (2017), who conducted a trilingual online survey on quality management practices, structures, processes, external drivers, and internal factors, and provided first-hand primary data on quality management in higher education drawn from the responses of 311 higher education institutions from all continents. however, the data of this research were collected from students studying at universities located in five major cities in vietnam. it is recommended that further research should employ different sampling strategies to get data from more participants. otherwise, the survey questionnaire can be adapted to be utilised in each university to get information on its students’ engagement in and perception of quality assurance in its institutional context. in addition, thanks to the industrial revolution 4.0 and the impact of the covid-19 pandemic, many traditional face-to-face courses and programmes have been shifted to online and blended teaching and learning. besides focusing on face-to-face training, quality assurance in higher education today also pays attention to online and distance education (pannen, 2021; tertiary education quality and standards agency, 2017; zuhairi et al., 2020). consequently, future research can adapt the instrument in this research to survey students learning in online/blended courses and programmes. it will be interesting to compare results of students’ engagement in and perception of quality assurance in faceto-face training with those in online and distance education. acknowledgement: this research was funded by the vietnam national foundation for science and technology development (nafosted) under grant number 503.01-2019.305. references alaniska, h., codina, e.a., bohrer, j., dearlove, r., eriksson, s., helle, e., & wiberg, l.k. (2006). student involvement in the processes of quality assurance agencies. https://www.enqa.eu/wp-content/uploads/studentinvolvement.pdf beerkens, m., & udam, m. (2017). stakeholders in higher education quality assurance: richness in diversity? higher education policy, 30(3), 341-359. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41307-016-0032-6 charteris, j., & smardon, d. (2019). student voice in learning: instrumentalism and tokenism or opportunity for altering the status and positioning of students? pedagogy, culture and society, 27(2), 305–323. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681366.2018.1489887 ching, g. (2019). a literature review on the student evaluation of teaching: an examination of the search, experience, and credence qualities of set. higher education evaluation and development, 12(2), 63-84. https://doi.org/10.1108/heed-04-2018-0009 colling, c., & harvey, l. (1995). quality control, assurance and assessment — the link to continuous improvement. quality assurance in education, 3(4), 30-34. https://doi.org/10.1108/09684889510098168 cummings, c.l. (2017). cross-sectional design. in m. allen (ed.), the sage encyclopedia of communication research methods (pp. 314-317). sage. elassy, n. (2015). the concepts of quality, quality assurance and quality enhancement. quality assurance in education, 23(3), 250-261. https://doi.org/10.1108/qae-11-2012-0046 106 er, h.m., nadarajah, v. d., ng, s.h., & wong, a.n. (2020). quality assurance in education: perception of undergraduate health professions students in a malaysian university. korean journal of medical education, 32(2), 185-195. https://doi.org/10.3946/kjme.2020.166 freeman, r.e. (1984). strategic management: a stakeholder approach. pitman. garwe, e.c. (2015). student voice and quality enhancement in higher education. journal of applied research in higher education, 7(2), 385-399. https://doi.org/10.1108/jarhe-05-2014-0055 greere, a. (2022). training for quality assurance in higher education: practical insights for effective design and successful delivery. quality in higher education, 0(0), 1-27. https://doi.org/10.1080/13538322.2021.2020978 harefa, s., & sihombing, g.l.a. (2021). students’ perception of online learning amidst the covid-19 pandemic: a study of junior, senior high school and college students in a remote area. f1000research, 10, 867. https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.52152.1 harvey, l. (2004). analytic quality glossary, quality research international. http://www.qualityresearchinternational.com/glossary/ harvey, l. (2022). back to basics for student satisfaction: improving learning rather than constructing fatuous rankings. quality in higher education, 0(0), 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1080/13538322.2022.2050477 heath, s., wilson, m., groen, j., & borin, p. (2021). engaging students in quality assurance processes. http://www.coedcfpo.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/engaging-students-in-quality-assurance-processesfinal-report.pdf isaeva, r., eisenschmidt, e., vanari, k., & kumpas-lenk, k. (2020). students’ views on dialogue: improving student engagement in the quality assurance process. quality in higher education, 26(1), 80-97. https://doi.org/10.1080/13538322.2020.1729307 julal, f.s. (2013). use of student support services among university students: associations with problem-focused coping, experience of personal difficulty and psychological distress. british journal of guidance and counselling, 41(4), 414-425. https://doi.org/10.1080/03069885.2012.741680 juraković, l., tatković, s., & radulović, p. (2022). students’ attitudes towards online teaching and communication during the coronavirus pandemic. journal of learning for development, 9(2), 253-266. https://doi.org/10.56059/jl4d.v9i2.619 kahveci, t.c., uygun, ö., yurtsever, u., & i̇lyas, s. (2012). quality assurance in higher education institutions using strategic information systems. procedia — social and behavioral sciences, 55, 161–167. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.09.490 kesmodel, u.s. (2018). cross-sectional studies — what are they good for? acta obstetricia et gynecologica scandinavica, 97(4), 388-393. https://doi.org/10.1111/aogs.13331 leisyte, l., & westerheijden, d. f. (2014). stakeholders and quality assurance in higher education. in h. eggins (ed.), drivers and barriers to achieving quality in higher education (pp. 83–97). sense publishers. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6209-494-9_7 lemaitre, m.j., & karakhanyan, s. (2018). quality assurance in higher education: a global perspective. in p.n. teixeira & j.-c. shin (eds.), encyclopedia of international higher education systems and institutions. springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9553-1_263-1 liu, h., zhu, j., duan, y., nie, y., deng, z., hong, x., haugen, m., baker, j.s., & liang, w. (2022). development and students’ evaluation of a blended online and offline pedagogy for physical education theory curriculum in china during the covid-19 pandemic. educational technology research and development. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-022-10131-x loukkola, t., & zhang, t. (2010). examining quality culture: part 1-quality assurance processes in higher education institutions. european university association publications. 107 lyons, k. d., & brown, p. (2003). enhancing the employability of leisure studies graduates through work integrated learning. annals of leisure research, 6(1), 54–67. https://doi.org/10.1080/11745398.2003.10600909 martin, m. (2017). quality management in higher education: developments and drivers. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000260226 martin, m. (2018). internal quality assurance: enhancing higher education quality and graduate employability. unesco. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000261356 mccann, l., hutchison, n., & adair, a. (2021). calibration of stakeholder influence in the uk higher education sector. studies in higher education, 0(0), 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2021.1916908 morest, v. s. (2009). accountability, accreditation, and continuous improvement: building a culture of evidence. new directions for institutional research, 143, 17–27. https://doi.org/10.1002/ir mtawa, n., fongwa, s., & wilson-strydom, m. (2021). enhancing graduate employability attributes and capabilities formation: a service-learning approach. teaching in higher education, 26(5), 679–695. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2019.1672150 nair, c. s., adams, p., & mertova, p. (2008). student engagement: the key to improving survey response rates. quality in higher education, 14(3), 225–232. https://doi.org/10.1080/13538320802507505 nguyen, c. h. (2021). exploring internal challenges for quality assurance staff in vietnam: voice of insiders. quality assurance in education, 29(2/3), 70–83. https://doi.org/10.1108/qae-07-2020-0080 nguyen, c. h., evers, c., & marshall, s. (2017). accreditation of viet nam’s higher education: achievements and challenges after a dozen years of development. quality assurance in education, 25(4), 475-488. https://doi.org/10.1108/qae-11-2016-0075 nguyen, c. h., ta, t. t. h., & nguyen, t. t. h. (2017). achievements and lessons learned from vietnam’s higher education quality assurance system after a decade of establishment. international journal of higher education, 6(2), 153–161. https://doi.org/10.5430/ijhe.v6n2p153 pannen, p. (2021). quality assurance in online learning at scale at the indonesia cyber education institute. in s. ra, s. jagannathan, & r. maclean (eds.), powering a learning society during an age of disruption. education in the asia-pacific region: issues, concerns and prospects (pp. 121–134). springer. pham, h. t. (2019). stakeholders’ engagement in quality assurance in vietnam. in c.h. nguyen & m. shah (eds.), quality assurance in vietnamese higher education: policy and practice in the 21st century (pp. 137–161). palgrave macmillan. picton, c., & kahu, e. r. (2021). ‘i knew i had the support from them’: understanding student support through a student engagement lens. higher education research & development. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2021.1968353 qaa. (2010). code of practice for the assurance of academic quality and standards in higher education. collaborative provision and flexible and distributed learning (including e-learning). http://www7.bbk.ac.uk/linkinglondon/resources/apel-creditresources/pub_nov2010_qaa_cop_section_2_he_guidance.pdf qaa. (2018). qaa briefing: student engagement in quality assurance and enhancement (issue july). https://www.qaa.ac.uk/docs/qaa/about-us/qaa-briefing-student-engagement-in-quality-assurance-andenhancement.pdf sajiene, l., & tamuliene, r. (2012). quality assessment parameters for student support at higher education institutions. the quality of higher education, 9, 120-139. https://doi.org/10.7720/1822-1645.9.5 stensaker, b., & vabø, a. (2013). re-inventing shared governance: implications for organisational culture and institutional leadership. higher education quarterly, 67(3), 256–274. https://doi.org/10.1111/hequ.12019 108 stroebe, w. (2020). student evaluations of teaching encourages poor teaching and contributes to grade inflation: a theoretical and empirical analysis. basic and applied social psychology, 42(4), 276–294. https://doi.org/10.1080/01973533.2020.1756817 succi, c., & canovi, m. (2020). soft skills to enhance graduate employability: comparing students and employers’ perceptions. studies in higher education, 45(9), 1834-1847. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2019.1585420 temmerman, n. (2018, april 13). the importance of listening to university stakeholders. university world news. https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20180410151237739 tertiary education quality and standards agency. (2017). apec quality assurance of online learning toolkit. https://tech.ed.gov/files/2018/11/apec-quality-assurance-of-online-learning-toolkit-aus-2.pdf vlăsceanu, l., grünberg, l., & pârlea, d. (2007). quality assurance and accreditation: a glossary of basic terms and definitions. zeybek, g. (2022). investigation of pre-service teachers’ readiness levels for online learning and engagement levels in the online environment. 9(2), 190-208. https://doi.org/10.56059/jl4d.v9i2.538 zuhairi, a., raymundo, m. r. d. r., & mir, k. (2020). implementing quality assurance system for open and distance learning in three asian open universities: philippines, indonesia and pakistan. asian association of open universities journal, 15(3), 297-320. https://doi.org/10.1108/aaouj-05-2020-0034 authors: dr. hien thi thu ta is the director of the center for education accreditation, vietnam national university hanoi, vietnam. she is also the deputy head of the department of accreditation and quality assurance, faculty of quality management, vnu university of education, vietnam national university hanoi, vietnam. email: tahien@vnu.edu.vn assoc. prof. dr. hung thai le is the dean of the faculty of quality management and director of the department of personnel, vnu university of education, vietnam national university hanoi, vietnam. email: lthung@vnu.edu.vn dr. cuong huu nguyen is the director of the department of quality assurance and head of the education research group, van lang university, ho chi minh city, vietnam. email: cuong.nguyenhuu@vlu.edu.vn prof. dr. thanh quy nguyen is the rector of vnu university of education, vietnam national university hanoi, vietnam. email: nqthanh@vnu.edu.vn dr. nhung thi tuyet pham is a lecturer at the college of foreign languages, hue university, vietnam. email: pttnhung.hufl@hueuni.edu.vn assoc. prof. dr. huong thi pham is a lecturer of the department of educational sciences, ho chi minh city university of education, ho chi minh city, vietnam. email: huongpt@hcmue.edu.vn ms. nhung thi trinh is a staff member of the center for education accreditation, vietnam national university hanoi, vietnam. email: nhungtt@vnu.edu.vn cite this paper as: ta, h.t.t. , le, h.t., nguyen, c.h., nguyen, t.q., pham, n.t.t., pham, h.t., & trinh, n.t. (2023). students’ perception of quality assurance in higher education in vietnam: empirical evidence and implications for face-to-face and alternative modes of learning. journal of learning for development, 10(1), 91-108. microsoft word gaskell.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 83-86 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. editorial open education, open educational practice and the concept of openness: issues and challenges anne gaskell many claims have been made about the potential of open education in its many forms to transform current barriers to education; for example: what is certain is that we are living in the midst of a vastly transformative time that is extremely difficult to describe and explain because it is so unusual, so enticing, and so filled with hope and brimming with potential (bonk, lee, reeves & reynolds, 2015, p. 338). however, how far is this potential being realised? how far is the rhetoric supported by the reality? lane (2016) argues that: many claims have been made as to the potential freedoms offered through open education and how these freedoms may change or democratize higher education… (p. 31). while, in principle, open education in its various guises can help people benefit from learning who may not have otherwise had the opportunity, in practice it may not be doing much more to emancipate people than closed education is doing. this is because prevailing social, cultural and economic norms still place greater value on education arising through the existing physical, political and legal infrastructures… in my view the rhetoric is way ahead of the reality and the reality will be less profound than the rhetoric suggests (p. 46). all the articles in this issue contribute to the debates surrounding open education, including open universities, open educational resources (oer) and massive open online courses (moocs). our first two papers continue our occasional series on “learning for development in context” (l4d). previously, emma kruse-vaai (2016) has written about l4d in the context of the use of oer in samoa and dame carol kidu (2018) has written about informal learning for development in papua new guinea. in this issue, professor narend baijnath, chief executive officer of the council on higher education, south africa and representing south africa on the commonwealth of learning’s (col’s) board of governors, analyses the potential of open educational resources (oer) and open education practice (oep) for meeting the challenges faced by higher education in south africa today. these include low participation and high attrition rates, in particular among rural black youth as one of the legacies of apartheid; this is recognised by the centrality of education in south africa’s national development plan 2030. baijnath draws on international examples of oer initiatives to demonstrate how oer can address development challenges in south africa through, for example, improving the preparedness of 84 students, widening access and improving success and retention through reduced costs. a conducive environment is also needed for their sustainable adoption, which includes supportive policies, sufficient connectivity and access to suitable and context-relevant oer. a different perspective on learning for development is taken by professor alan tait, editor emeritus of this journal, and professor emeritus of distance education and development, the open university, uk (ou uk). he sets l4d, the concept of “openness” and the role of technologies, in a historical context. he traces the origins of technologies for learning from the use of clay tablets in the then babylon in c. 2500 b.c.e, through the introduction of printing in the 15th century, to the role of open distance and e-learning (odel) today. the use of technology, therefore, is not new, even if it has transformed learning and teaching dramatically in the last three decades. case studies from the university of london and the ou uk illustrate the ways in which these institutions reduced the previous barriers of distance, social class, gender and disability in higher education (he) in the uk. yet there are still major challenges relating to inclusion, attrition and retention. the ou uk allows anyone without qualifications to enter at the undergraduate level and this can be challenged on two grounds. firstly, whether it is fair to the student who may not have the background, time and cultural capital to succeed; and to address this tait proposes an eight-point framework for student success. secondly, whether it is reasonable to expect the taxpayer to support such students. the latter argument has changed dramatically since the uk government increased student tuition fees for all heis fees, and which has led to a decline in ou uk enrolments. the underlying debate here is how far educational opportunity should be the individual’s responsibility, or how far it is socially constructed and should be the responsibility of the government. tait also examines the role of oers, moocs, youtube and other open-access resources in challenging the dominant commercial models of education. open educational initiatives and their challenges also form a major thread in our invited article by professor melinda dela peña bandalaria, chancellor of the university of the philippines open university. in a wide-ranging discussion, professor bandalaria covers the many open, distance and elearning initiatives taking place across asia and, in particular, among the member institutions of the asian association of open universities (aaou). higher education across asia faces many challenges, not least the ongoing population growth, increasing demand, and shortages in skills relevant to development. in asia, more than 70 institutions offer distance learning programmes and have developed an admirable model of collaboration and cooperation to, for example, provide curricular programmes of interest to all. in addition, many institutions provide moocs, some of which, for example in the university of philippines open university deliver certificate programmes. however, despite the potential of odel and open education to transform higher education in asia, challenges remain: certification across countries, the quality of moocs, sustainability and digital inclusion – as of december 2017, only 48.7% of the asian population in general had internet access. our research articles continue the focus on the potential and challenges of open education and elearning for learning for development. from the university of the west indies (uwi) in the caribbean, thurab-nkhosi discusses the key role of change management and communication in the implementation of the university’s blended and online learning policy in the face-to-face uwi st augustine campus (uwista). uwi has developed a policy to support blended learning but through an investigation of the perceptions of deans and administrators, it was clear that many of these key 85 personnel were either not aware of the policy, or not aware of their role in change management. challenges included a general lack of communication with key staff so that they did not understand the vision or their role, ignoring internal expertise and, more generally, a lack of clarity regarding aspects of institutional responsibility. some of the recommendations include the need to involve and support staff and provide them with appropriate development. challenges also faced the implementation in kenya of the commonwealth of learning’s (col) open resources for english language teaching (orelt), as illustrated in a discussion by orwenjo and erastus. the orelt materials are particularly important because they are provided online, by cdrom and in book format so making them especially flexible in countries like kenya, for example, where even recently as many as 30% of public primary schools were not connected to electricity. col provided support and training for the orelt materials for 50 key english teachers, and in general the materials were very much welcomed. issues were related to the incompatibility of some of the learning activities, syllabus and curriculum within the kenyan context: their adaptation took extra preparation time which was sometimes difficult for teachers. other issues related to a lack of awareness, as was observed in uwista and more basic infrastructural issues such as lack of electricity, computers or support. our final research article again concerns elearning and in this case explores research trends in terms of elearning implementation, and the barriers to its use, in tanzania. mtebe and raphael use a bibliomentric and content analysis method to review 74 articles on the subject, and discover that there is increasing interest in research about e-learning but that this is largely restricted to particular sectors, for example, higher education, is undertaken by only a few universities, is limited in terms of media used, and the samples studied (primarily students). the most important barrier to e-learning implementation was internet access; in tanzania only 20% of secondary schools have internet access. developments and research into the impact of oer is also the focus of our book review by perris of hodgkinson-williams & arinto (ed.) (2017) adoption and impact of oer in the global south which provides a fitting conclusion to this issue. chapters from sub-saharan africa, south america and south and south-east asia offer a comprehensive coverage of many current initiatives in these areas. education for development through open educational resources and practices thus has huge potential, though not all the authors in this issue are perhaps quite as optimistic as bonk et al (2015). several papers discuss important initiatives, such as south africa’s national development plan (baijnath), the use of col’s multi-media resources in kenya (orwenjo and erastus), and the collaboration and co-operation across asian countries (bandalaria). however, many challenges remain. perhaps one of the most critical in developing countries is the lack of adequate computer provision and internet access. baijnath argues that to address challenges for students in he, attention needs to be paid to basic education. yet in kenya, 30% of public primary schools were not connected to electricity (orwenjo & erastus); in tanzania, only 20% of secondary schools have internet access (mtebe & raphael); and in pakistan, only 22% of the whole population are accessing the internet. further challenges are also identified in our articles. these include sustainability; the need for rigorous quality assurance mechanisms (baijnath; tait; bandalaria); the essential requirement for staff support and development (thurab-nkosi; orwenjo & erastus); and the importance of appropriate 86 contextualisation of any oer (baijnath; orwenjo & erastus). underpinning all these developments is the need for targeted and appropriate research (mtebe & raphael; perris). on the basis of these articles, the open education movement has both the potential to increase access while reducing costs (at least for the student), but also faces many challenges. perhaps one of the most difficult questions here is how far open education can challenge the ways in which educational opportunities are socially and politically constructed: whether as a legacy of apartheid in south africa, where the quality of education is still skewed against black people (baijnath), or as the result of the long-standing assumption in the uk that educational privilege is the prerogative of social elites (tait). anne gaskell chief editor, jl4d references bonk, c.j., lee, m.m., reeves, t.c, & reynolds, t.h. (eds.). (2015). moocs and open education around the world. routledge, new york & london. kidu, c. (2018). informal lifelong learning for development in papua new guinea: a case study from the margins into the mainstream. journal of learning for development, 5(1), 13-22. retrieved from http://jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/article/view/275/299 lane, a. (2016). emancipation through open education: rhetoric or reality? in p. blessinger & t. j. bliss (2016). open education: perspectives in higher education. cambridge uk: open book publishers. retrieved from https://www.openbookpublishers.com/product/531/open-education--international-perspectives-in-highereducation vaai, e.k. (2016). learning for development from within and beyond the reef: early implementations of open distance learning and use of open educational resources (oer) for the teaching of english in a small island state. journal of learning for development, 3(3), 22-27. retrieved from http://jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/article/view/171/174 cite this paper as: gaskell, a. (2018). editorial ̶ open education, open educational practices and the concept of openness: issues and challenges. journal of learning for development, 5(2), 83-86. microsoft word owo.docx issn: 2311-1550 2021, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 312-326 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. perception of educational stakeholders on utilization of e-learning technology for quality instructional delivery in universities in nigeria offia tugwell owo1 and isaac c. n. udoka2 1rivers state university, port harcourt, nigeria 2federal college of education (technical), omoku, nigeria abstract: the study was conducted in rivers state, south-south, nigeria. descriptive survey design was adopted for the study, which comprised 168 subjects (44 lecturers and 124 students). two research questions were posed by the researchers to guide the study. the study used questionnaires to elicit information from respondents. mean and standard deviation were descriptive statistical tools used to answer the research questions. the findings of the study revealed, amongst others, that many universities in nigeria lacked digital facilities for quality e-teaching and learning and, again, university lecturers and students required core digital skills for effective e-learning. based on these findings, it was recommended, amongst others, that the nigerian government, in collaboration with university authorities, should ensure adequate provision of ict equipment and facilities in universities for quality e-teaching and learning. furthermore, adequate ict training programmes should be set up for the training of lecturers and students in digital technology in order to realise effective e-learning in the nigerian university system. keywords: ict facilities, e-teaching, e-learning, university education, digital skills development. introduction all over the world, education is regarded as the bedrock of meaningful development in any society. education is seen as an aspect of socialization which involves the acquisition of knowledge and learning of skills capable of shaping beliefs and moral values. according to castle (as cited in adiele et al, 2010), education is all that happens to us from the day we are born to the day we die. education, therefore, could be seen as the process by which every society attempts to preserve and upgrade the accumulated knowledge, skills and attitudes in its cultural setting and heritage in order to foster continuously the well-being of mankind and guarantee its survival against the unpredictable (owo, 2020). according to the national policy on education (npe) (federal republic of nigeria, 2013), formal education in nigeria is categorised as universal basic education, secondary education and tertiary education. all educational programmes administered in monotechnics, polytechnics, colleges of education and universities are referred to as tertiary education. this implies that all formal educational programmes beyond the basic and secondary education in nigeria, including university education, are referred to as tertiary education. 313 all over the world, universities are tertiary institutions established to offer quality educational training to citizens for their all-round development. thus, universities exist to teach, conduct research and engage in community services (ogbulogo, george & olukanni, 2014). a university is an educational institution established primarily to champion human capacity development through quality teaching, research and community services (owo & ajie, 2020). according to amadi and urho (2015), the major dream of any university is to become a pace-setting institution in learning, character building and service to humanity with a duty to produce competent, reliable and creative graduates of high moral standards in society as well as championing a complete development of men and women in an enabling environment through appropriate teaching, research and service to humanity. similarly, owo and ajie (2020) opined that a university is an educational institution established primarily to champion human capacity development through quality teaching, research and community services. hence, a university is a citadel of excellence in teaching, learning and research for human and societal development. universities contribute significantly to the development of society in all aspects and ramifications. universities are usually in the lead in the event of any social, economic and political challenges, by using the power of research to focus on capacities that will promote human development as well as solving existential problems (oyeniran et al, 2020). instruction in universities is delivered to students by university teachers (lecturers). a lecturer is someone who works in a tertiary institution as an academic staff member. a lecturer is an academic staff member within a programme with a minimum qualification of a first degree not below second class, lower division (bakare, 2014). a university lecturer is one who teaches and conducts research in universities and other research institutes as well as engaging in community services to foster societal development (owo & ajie, 2020). a lecturer, in the statement of encarta (2009), is a teacher in a college or university who teaches students and carries out research activities to solve identified problems in society. lecturers, as chief facilitators of the educational processes at tertiary educational level, are expected to employ measures that would impact students’ lives positively while engaging in their normal classroom activities (bakare, onah & okereke, 2018). due to the demanding nature of the job of university lecturers, it becomes necessary for them to be more flexible, intelligent, unassuming, resourceful and competent so as to render their services diligently. quality university teaching and learning controlled by competent lecturers leads to the production of competent graduates. furthermore, bakare, onah and okereke (2018) opined that the rate at which university students attain academic excellence therefore depends primarily on the mode of teaching, personality of lecturers and the teaching methods and strategies adopted by lecturers. it is worth noting, therefore, that when university teachers are well-grounded in their various areas of specialization, adopt appropriate modes of instruction, are knowledgeable in the usage of modern educational technology tools for instructional delivery as well as taking part in continuous professional development for career advancement and embarking on quality research, they will be well-positioned to deliver effective lessons to students capable of creating a positive impact using flexible modes of instruction, such as face-to face interactions, on-line teaching, and open-distance learning among others. a 21stcentury university teacher, therefore, is expected to be conversant with all modern instructional 314 delivery modes applicable to university education across the globe, so as to apply them appropriately when situations demand global best practices. statement of the problem due to rapid innovations in digital technology across the world, many universities adopt e-learning and e-teaching for instructional delivery in their institutions to complement face-to-face interactions. according to owo and ajie (2020), e-learning reduces travel time and the cost of infrastructural development in terms of buildings. similarly, arkorful and abaidoo (2014) posited that the cost benefit of e-learning in training students is lesser than that of physical (face-to-face) contact after carefully considering some factors, such as the number of students trained, distance to be travelled, and time of training among other factors. in the same vein, guragain (2016) posited that the value of face-to-face class contact content development, distribution and maintenance cost, are exclusively high as compared to e-learning which is of lower cost. thus, e-learning usage tends to solve educational challenges especially at a time such as the covid-19 pandemic era, when no physical contact is permitted among teachers (lecturers) and students (learners). despite the prospects of e-learning, some university teachers and students do no not possess the ict skills needed to achieve an effective online university education (alexander et al, 2017; wineburg et al, 2016). furthermore, owo and ajie (2020) posited that one major constraint to quality e-learning education in nigeria is lack of adequate ict skills acquisition by university lecturers and students. lecturers need ict skills to assist learners to develop proficiency in using e-learning platforms for quality learning. poor internet connectivity and the high cost of data subscription and the high cost of e-learning training facilities constitute some major barriers to e-learning usage in nigerian universities (owo & ajie, 2020; akpomie, et al, 2020). this missing link, therefore, informed the authors’ quest to carry out this study, entitled “perception of educational stakeholders on utilization of e-learning technology for quality instructional delivery in universities in nigeria”. purpose of the study in spite of the huge benefits derivable from using online education in university education, many universities in nigeria are yet to tap into the vast opportunities associated with it. the reasons may not be far-fetched, as most of the institutions may not have the e-learning facilities needed to kick-start such laudable educational programmes. additionally, the issue of poor ict-skills development by some lecturers and students in universities as well as poor power supply are considered major setbacks in the use of e-learning technologies for quality instructional delivery in nigerian universities. consequent upon the foregoing, this observed missing link informed the researchers’ desire to conduct this study entitled “perception of educational stakeholders on the utilization of elearning technology for quality instructional delivery in universities in nigeria”. objectives of the study specifically, the study sought to fulfill these two objectives: 1. determine the perception of lecturers and students of the ict facilities available for quality instructional delivery via e-learning in universities in nigeria. 315 2. determine the perception of lecturers and students of the adequacy of ict skills development among teachers and learners for the of utilization e-learning technology in universities in nigeria. research questions 1 what are the perceptions of lecturers and students of the adequacy of ict facilities available for quality instructional delivery via e-learning in universities in rivers state, nigeria? 2 what are the perceptions of lecturers and students of the adequacy of ict skills development among teachers and learners for the utilization e-learning technology in universities in nigeria? literature review traditional mode of teaching (face-to-face interactions) from its inception, the nigerian university system used face-to-face interactions as the chief mode of instructional delivery. here, both lecturers and students meet in the classroom where the former deliver educational instructions to the latter for a meaningful learning exercise. in any face-to-face interactive class, students are able to observe their teachers while teaching using words, actions and non-verbal clues (body language) when necessary to transmit information to them. sometimes, this mode stimulates easy understanding and quick accessibility to primary educational information. however, other researchers argue that face-to-face interaction causes students to depend solely on their teachers for every bit of information needed to progress academically, thereby, causing them to become academically lazy. in the words of benson and brack (2009), recent development in educational technologies provides diverse opportunities for students to collaborate, access information and interact with educational content and materials electronically for their individual empowerment. the emergence of information and communication technology (ict) and its application in education empowers teachers (lecturers) to advance from traditional face-to-face classroom interactions and activities to online classrooms, and also to bring in some aspects of online activities in the traditional classroom that encourage e-teaching and e-learning (mohammad, 2102). elearning, therefore, is seen by some educational technology experts as crucial since it plays complementary roles to face-to-face classroom interactions. corona virus pandemic and the need for e-learning application in universities in nigeria the swift appearance of an infectious disease known as corona virus (covid-19) has forced educational institutions, especially universities, around the world to adopt the use of e-teaching and elearning for instructional delivery. according to adeoye, adanikin and adanikin (2020), the fast advent of covid-19 posed some negative effects on many sectors of the nigerian economy including the education sector, as academic activities were paused by the nigerian federal ministry of education in order to restrict further spread of the virus in educational institutions in the country. the united nations education scientific and cultural organization (unesco) (2020) reported that the global closure of educational institutions has affected over 91% of the student population across the globe. the negative effects of coronavirus (covid-19) were felt by all educational stakeholders in nigeria including parents, teachers, students and administrators in primary, secondary and 316 universities as academic sessions and programmes were disrupted after the coronavirus was declared a global pandemic by the world health organization on march 11, 2020. universities around the world, including those in africa, agreed to seek better ways to cope and adapt to the academic changes occasioned by the pandemic (adeoye, adanikin & adanikin, 2020). meanwhile, as the pandemic affected the academic calendars of universities, all forms of face-to-face interactions in schools were prohibited by the nigerian government and, consequently, lecturers and students were compelled to seek an alternative means of carrying out teaching and learning activities that would not warrant physical contact. thus, the use of e-teaching and learning as an alternative mode of instruction was adopted by some universities in nigeria. thus, the arrival of corona virus has caused educational stakeholders in nigeria to embrace and appreciate electronic-teaching and learning also known as online education. consequently, the present development has contributed to the advancement of online learning in nigerian institutions mainly at tertiary level. e-teaching and e-learning technologies application in nigerian universities the use of information and communication devices, systems and tools by teachers for meaningful teaching is known as e-teaching. e-teaching encompasses the use of digital technology in presenting a concept, placing the concept in various contexts, creating links with existing knowledge and leading discussion that probes students’ understanding of the concept and its context (nakajima & hori, 2016). according to naidu (2006), e-teaching is commonly referred to as the use of networked information and communication technology for teaching by the teacher. similarly, carmona (2006) posited that e-teaching is the use of information and communication technologies (icts) to enhance the art of teaching. e-teaching is a platform enabling teachers and students to collaborate and interact in real time (synchronous) and asynchronous modes (economy, finance, technology, 2009). e-teaching simply involves the use of computers, the internet and other electronic devices and media to transfer knowledge and skills from a teacher to learner(s). e-teaching is basically fun and attention holding especially when used to teach young people. e-teaching in higher education covers multiple possibilities, including the interactions between the learners, teacher and a growing range of technologies available (donnelley & mcsweeney, 2009). e-teaching enables students to exercise full control of their own learning. bakare, onah and okereke (2018) reported that in e-teaching, the teacher serves as an interface between e-teaching facilities and the learners for meaningful academic instruction. some researchers are of the view that the integration of technology into instruction, if appropriately implemented, would bring about a positive impact on students’ academic achievements. computers, electronic white boards, internets, social media platforms, among others are vital tools and avenues adopted in the transmission of information in e-teaching. these devices are effective media in eteaching. similarly, glover and miller (2002) stated that one important feature of e-teaching is its similarity to the multi-media, sensory and faceted styles which makes it a standard for multi-literacy teaching and learning. furthermore, mccormick and scrimshaw (2001) remarked that e-teaching makes reliable teaching contents readily available everywhere and every time at an affordable rate. also, allen and seaman (2008) said that e-teaching enables a lecturer to repeat one lesson to different groups of students at 317 different times and locations. it also streamlines the delivery cycle for lecturers and lowers expenses incurred at each period of their service delivery. in the view of nagy (2008), e-teaching enables a teacher to reach students in different schools at their locations in his or her teaching and practice using relevant digital devices and platforms. the essence of e-teaching is to motivate and direct teachers to teach cheerfully and effectively (nakajima & hori, 2016). on their part, bakare, onah and okereke (2018) stipulated that the eteaching process and application include web-based teaching, computer-based teaching, video conferencing, teleconferencing and digital collaboration. diverse approaches and platforms could be used to deliver e-teaching instructions. for instance, e-teaching could be delivered through the internet, audio-tape, satellite television, cd-rom, youtube, video tapes, social media platforms, etc. most institutions of higher learning across the globe adopt e-technologies primarily to serve complementary purposes and not as substitutes for face-to-face interactions or for intensive webenhanced teaching (bates & sangra, 2011; guri-rosenblit, 2010; guri-rosenblit & gros, 2011). eteaching works simultaneously with e-learning. e-learning refers to the act of transmitting and receiving educational instructions by students for knowledge accumulation via electronic media aimed at providing a platform for quality educational contributions that can advance academic pursuits (owo & ajie, 2020). according to adeoye, adanikin and adanikin (2020), e-learning specifies an electronic method of learning associated with online learning in an interactive interface at the convenience of both the learners and lecturers. furthermore, oyeniran et al, (2020) view e-learning as the introduction of new communication technologies in higher education in nigeria for positive interactions between lecturers and students for progressive educational activities at different locations. according to akpomi, et al, (2020), e-learning encourages students’ knowledge upgrading without difficulty, since they can access educational materials online right in the comforts of their residence. thus, the global implementation of digital technologies in higher educational institutions are directed towards students’ active learning (alexander et al, 2017; andrews & haythornthwaite, 2009; bates & sangra, 2011; guri-rosenblit, 2009; harasim, 2000; johnson et al, 2016). although we cannot rule out the need for traditional education in higher education, e-learning has numerous benefits such as continuous learning outside the school campus, sharing of academic experiences from peers and colleagues, easy access to important educational information at any point in time, and quality research among others. according to eze, chinedu-eze and bello (2018), elearning education is concerned with the all-inclusive integration of modern telecommunication equipment and ict resources into the education system for quality teaching, learning and research. consequently, e-teaching and e-learning usage in nigerian universities are channeled towards the establishment of an educational digital framework, in which both teachers and students interact and communicate effectively for the purpose of continuous learning and research in the nigerian university system for quality human capacity development. while e-learning focuses on the students’ academic achievements through personal involvement and commitment, e-teaching is directly used by teachers to pass academic instructions to learners. 318 theoretical framework this study which is titled “perception of educational stakeholders on the utilization of e-learning technology for quality instructional delivery in universities in nigeria” was anchored in the theory of connectivism. connectivism theory is considered most appropriate to the present study as it involves the integration of digital technologies into educational pedagogy with a view to making teaching and learning more vibrant, accessible and cost-effective. connectivism theory is one that explains the utilization of technology in education. it is a pedagogical approach that afford learners the opportunity of connecting with one another via technologies, internet networks and teamwork tools. connectivism is an epistemological approach grounded in the interactions within networks (downes, 2012). thus, since connectivism theory sees learning as a process of connecting information sources or specialised nodes for knowledge acquisition and information sharing, it, therefore, has direct application to the present study. downes studied connective knowledge and characterised it as interactive knowledge of a connection within a network (downes, 2005). connectivism, therefore, is seen as a network theory for teaching and learning in a connected world (bell, 2009). siemens (2004) suggested connectivism as a learning theory for the digital age. siemens further posited that connectivism is a theory that succeeds the earlier learning theories of behaviourism, cognitivism and constructivism. the concept of network is prominent in the theory of connectivism that characterises knowledge as a flow through a network of humans and non-humans (artefacts). a network comprises connections between entities (nodes), where the nodes can be individuals, groups, systems, fields, ideas, resources or communities. online learning has a long history reaching back to the first online technologies such as electronic mail and computer conferencing systems, and this formed the basis of modern digital education also known as e-learning. siemens (2004:3) summarises the main principles of connectivism thus: • learning and knowledge rests in diversity of opinions. • learning is a process of connecting specialised nodes or information sources. • learning may reside in non-human appliances. • capacity to know more is more critical than what is currently known. • nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning. • ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts is a core skill. • currency (accurate, up-to-date knowledge) is the intent of all connectivist learning activities. • decision-making is itself a learning process. choosing what to learn and the meaning of incoming information is seen through the lens of a shifting reality. while there is a right answer now, it may be wrong tomorrow due to alterations in the information climate affecting the decision. consequently, siemens and downes further stated that connectivism proposes that knowledge is distributed across a network of connections, and, therefore, learning consists of the ability to construct and traverse those networks. the attractiveness and accessibility of the theory of connectivism makes it a good option for structuring innovation by educators in their practice. one implication of students 319 becoming connected learners is that learning will neither be confined to the physical classroom nor to the virtual classroom, within the institutional virtual learning environment (barnett, et al, 2013). this implies that students and teachers do not necessarily need to be in the same place for teaching and learning to take place. students can be engaged as they acquire the 21st-century learning skills that are needed to make effective use of technologies that are emerging for use within classrooms and the workplace (educause, 2008). another benefit of connectivism, according to cormier (2008), is that it permits a community of people (working with learning technologies) to legitimise what they are doing. educators wishing to extend the use of social media within their practice can refine and spread knowledge more quickly through membership of multiple online communities. another implication of connectivism is that educational resources are open and available to use, often with creative commons licenses that permit sharing, creating and remixing media (bell, 2009). according to bell (2009:7), the following six steps will help any educator/teacher who wishes to adopt connectivism theory to achieve effective results in any form of online education: • follow the blogs of those who innovate/advance with educational technologies. • experiment (within your comfort zone) with web services and tools that might enrich teaching and learning in your practice. • use, publish and share resources through blogs, wikis, photo and video sharing sites. • encourage students to use the web for scholarly resources — being critical and selective, and attributing sources. • assign students, activities that empower effective use of media to report process and, where appropriate, outcomes. • make explicit the concept of connectivism in student support activities so that they can exploit it in their own independent learning. thus, from the foregoing, we can truly see that the theory of connectivism had a direct bearing with the present study, which is anchored in the perception of educational stakeholders on the utilization of e-teaching and learning for university education in nigeria. thus, for lecturers and students to actively apply digital technology quality instruction and learning interactions in nigerian universities, the requisite ict (digital) facilities must be made available in the universities. also, both lecturers and students must possess adequate communication technology skills capable of enhancing their operational efficiency in digitalised learning for knowledge acquisition and transfer through interconnected systems. research framework in this research, the following ict facilities were considered: pc computers, laptop computers, internet accessories and services, printers, scanners, e-library, ict centres, overhead projectors, webcam, interactive board, video conferencing media, wireless technology, e-mailing platforms, computer laboratories, ipads, power supply plant, a-4 paper, light pen, and wireless microphones, among others. similarly, the ict skills considered to be vital in the utilisation of e-learning technologies in instructional delivery in nigerian universities include general computer appreciation skills, data analytical skills, e-conferencing skills, online seminar presentation skills, skills in the use of ms word, ms excel, ms powerpoint, ms access, browsing skills, photo shopping skills, e-library 320 skills, blog development skills, social media and networking skills, zoom and google scholar application skills, document scanning, conversion and resizing skills, among others. methods research design this study adopted descriptive survey design. in descriptive design, as in this study, there was no manipulation of the independent variables (akaninwor, 2014). sampling and sampling techniques purposive sampling was used to select a total of 34 lecturers and 138 final-year students of technology education from rivers state university, port harcourt and ignatius ajuru university of education, rumuolumeni, port harcourt, nigeria as the sample of the study. data collection instruments the research instrument for data collection was a 25–item, self-structured questionnaire designed by the authors and titled “perception of educational stakeholders on e-learning utilization in universities questionnaire (peseuuq)”, constructed on a 5-point mean rating scale of very adequate (va), adequate (a), undecided (u), inadequate (ia) and very inadequate (vi) with corresponding numerical values of 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1, respectively. the questionnaire was made up of two parts. part one elicits information on the personal data of respondents as well as their categories, while part two contains direct structured questions on ict facilities present in nigerian universities as well as ict skills possessed by lecturers and students in nigerian universities for quality e-learning. validity of the instruments the questionnaire was face and content validated by two experts in technology education from nnamdi azikiwe university, awka, anambra state and university of uyo, akwa ibom state, nigeria. reliability of the instrument the reliability of the instrument was ascertained via test re-test method. simple random sampling technique was used to select 12 technology education lecturers and 16 technology education students from the population which are not part of the sample. copies of the instrument were administered to the 12 lecturers and 16 students. after two weeks’ interval, the same instrument was re-administered to the same group. the initial test and re-test scores of the sample were correlated using cronbach’s alpha method. reliability coefficients of 0.94 and 0.78 respectively were established for the two sections of the instrument. thus, these figures proved that the instrument was reliable. data collection procedures a total of 172 copies of the research instrument (questionnaire) were distributed to the respondents by the researchers and two research assistants. out of the total questionnaires administered, 168 (44 lecturers and 124 students), representing 97.7%, were retrieved from the respondents after being duly filled out. the research assistants helped the researchers in distributing the questionnaire as well as retrieving same after being duly filled out by the respondents. 321 results data for answering the two research questions were analysed using the mean and standard deviation. the decision to accept or reject any item in the questionnaire was based on the mean rating of the item. analysing the research questions, any item in the questionnaire with a calculated mean value equal to or greater than 3.00 was accepted, while any item with a calculated mean value less than 3.00 was rejected. standard deviation values that were close or wide apart were used to determine homogeneity in the responses of the respondents. research question 1: what are the perceptions of lecturers and students of the adequacy of ict facilities available for quality instructional delivery via e-learning in universities in nigeria? table 1: perceptions of lecturers and students on the adequacy of ict facilities in universities s/n item statement lecturers students sd1 decision sd2 decision 1 universities in rivers state have wellequipped e-libraries. 3.76 0.58 agree 4.08 0.97 agree 2 universities in rivers state have functional ict centres. 4.21 0.91 agree 3.72 0.81 agree 3 universities in rivers state have steady internet services. 2.48 0.81 disagree 2.11 0.95 disagree 4 universities in rivers state have computer laboratories. 4.22 0.79 agree 3.94 0.83 agree 5 universities in rivers state have adequate video conferencing media. 3.04 0.63 agree 2.97 1.05 disagree 6 universities in rivers state have/do not have constant power supply 4.01 0.77 agree 3.26 0.91 agree 7 universities in rivers state have interactive board. 2.65 0.74 disagree 2.82 1.02 disagree 8 universities in rivers state have public address systems. 3.68 1.14 agree 3.96 1.05 agree 9 universities in rivers state have computer accessories such as power cords, scanners, printers, flash drives, etc. 3.53 0.88 agree 4.06 1.11 agree 10 universities in rivers state have an adequate number of overhead projectors. 2.32 1.30 disagree 2.88 0.63 disagree 11 universities in rivers state have functional e-mailing platforms. 4.74 1.08 agree 4.26 1.24 agree 12 universities in rivers state have a well-equipped computer studio. 2.41 1.35 disagree 2.24 1.03 disagree grand mean and standard deviation 4.11 1.10 4.03 1.16 source: researchers’ field survey, 2020. 1x 2x 322 table 1 shows that both lecturers and students believed that universities in nigeria have adequate computer laboratory, e-library, public address systems, and functional e-mailing platforms. this is seen from the mean responses of both categories of respondents which are above the cut-off mean of 3.00. similarly, both lecturers and students were of the view that universities lack a constant power supply, internet services, overhead-projectors, a computer studio, and interactive boards, among others. this was evidenced by the mean of these items, which fell below the cut-off mean of 3.00. on the other hand, the lecturers and students differ in their views about the availability of e-conferencing media in universities in nigeria. while lecturers responded positively with an average mean of 3.04, the students responded negatively with an average mean of 2.97. research question 2: what are the perceptions of lecturers and students on the adequacy of ict skills development among teachers and learners for the utilization e-learning technology in universities in nigeria? table 2: perceptions of lecturers and students on the adequacy of ict skills development among teachers and learners s/n item statement lecturers students sd1 decision sd2 decision 1 i present academic seminars online. 3.76 0.83 agree 2.74 0.67 disagree 2 i participate in e-conferencing. 4.21 0.98 agree 2.40 0.93 disagree 3 i use computers for file formatting and document preparations. 3.88 0.81 agree 4.06 0.89 agree 4 i use computers for mathematical computations and data presentations. 4.15 0.78 agree 4.65 0.71 agree 5 i use computers for browsing and information gathering. 3.94 0.89 agree 4.84 1.05 agree 6 i actively participate in online group discussions platforms like blogs. 3.32 0.77 agree 4.26 0.92 agree 7 i use interactive boards for information sharing and discussion. 2.65 0.98 disagree 2.82 1.22 disagree 8 i can do photo-shopping and file transfers as well as document sharing. 2.78 1.14 disagree 3.96 1.05 agree 9 i send mails electronically to people. 4.53 1.24 agree 4.46 1.23 agree 10 i use educational platforms like academia, research gate, google scholar, etc. 3.42 1.15 agree 2.73 1.08 disagree 11 i make good use of social media for learning and information sharing. 3.84 1.09 agree 4.66 1.24 agree 12 i use the internet for online education and skills acquisition. 3.41 1.35 agree 3.79 1.13 agree 13 i can perform window operations on personal computers and laptops. 3.92 0.88 agree 4.22 1.05 agree grand mean and standard deviation 4.78 1.23 4.96 1.32 source: researchers’ field survey, 2020. 1x 2x 323 table 2 reveals that both categories of respondents reported that they use computers for document preparation, mathematical computations, e-mailing, browsing and online discussions, and social media interactions, among others. this was seen in their mean scores, which were above the criterion mean of 3.00. both groups of respondents also stated that they never use interactive boards for teaching and learning as seen in their mean scores of 2.65 and 2.82, respectively. however, they share contrary views concerning online seminars, e-conferencing, photo-shopping, educational platforms such as google scholar, academia, research gate, mendeley, etc. discussion availability of information and communication technology facilities in nigerian universities the finding of the study, according to table 1, reveals that both lecturers and students agreed that universities in rivers state, nigeria have effective e-libraries, functional information and communication technology centres, computer laboratories, public address systems, and e-mailing platforms among other ict facilities. thus, the result in table 1 reveals that there is a bond between ict facilities availability and usage in nigerian universities. consequently, both the lecturers and students believed that digital facilities are needed for effective online education in nigerian universities. this finding agrees with adeoye et al (2020) who stated that e-teaching and learning processes and application include web-based teaching, computer-based teaching, video conferencing, teleconferencing and digital collaboration and, as such, would require that these digital facilities be available in universities for effective online education, which could be delivered via internet; audiotape; satellite television and cd-rom. on the other hand, the finding, according to table 1, was in contrast with adeoye, adanikin and adanikin (2020) who posited that nigerian universities lack an adequate power supply and other ict facilities, which adversely affect e-learning. thus, the nigerian government and universities management should ensure an adequate supply of ict facilities in universities as no effective e-learning (online education) activity can thrive without these facilities. information and communication technology skills development among university lecturers and students table 2 indicates that both lecturers and students lacked ict skills in universities in rivers state, nigeria. thus, the inadequate possession of ict skills by lecturers and students negatively affect the use of e-learning platforms for instructional delivery in nigerian universities. this finding agrees with adeoye et al (2020) who submitted that one major challenge facing e-learning in nigeria is the inability of lecturers to assist students to develop the requisite digital skills and training needed to make e-learning platforms effective, owing to their poor ict skills development. similarly, this finding corroborated the views of the institute of education, university of nigeria, nsukka (2013), which reported that the current trend of globalisation requires that university lecturers need to be ict-compliant so as to produce graduates with skills and competencies needed in a digital workplace. thus, since the theory of connectivism is preferred to other educational theories owing to its unrestricted accessibility to information and knowledge acquisition for manpower development, there is a great need for university lecturers and students to develop skills in ict as without these digital technology skills, electronic teaching and learning will not thrive in the nigerian university system. 324 conclusion and recommendations e-teaching and e-learning are effective avenues for achieving online instructional delivery and interactions among lecturers and students in universities across the globe, especially during long school closures. thus, it is important that universities in nigeria adopt e-learning to complement the face-to-face interaction mode for quality teaching and learning, since the former provides unrestricted access to vast educational resources available on the world wide web, and it can actually boost human capacity development among educational stakeholders including university teachers and students, as learning can take place anywhere so long as internet connectivity is established. based on the findings of the study, it was recommended that both the government and university authorities should provide adequate ict facilities as well as engage in continuous professional development of lecturers for quality e-learning in nigerian universities. references adeoye, i. a., adanikin, a. f. & adanikin, a. (2020). covid-19 and e-learning: nigeria tertiary education system experience. international journal of research and innovation in applied science, 5(5), 28-31. adiele, e. e., leigha, m. b. & abraham, l. n. (2010). introduction to teaching profession. harey publication company. akaninwor, g. i. k. (2014). research methods and statistics: paradigms in education, science and technology (3rd ed.). civincs publishers. akpomi, m. e., dambo, b. i., ikpesu, o. c., singer, s. a., wokocha, k. d., ben-george, i. & babalola, j. o. (2020). educational, scientific and technological innovations for sustainable development in nigeria. world journal of entrepreneurial development studies, 5(1), 50-63. alexander, b., adams-becker, s., cummins, m., & hall-giesinger, c. (2017, august). digital literacy in higher education, part ii: an nmc horizon project strategic brief, 3(4). the new media consortium. allen, i. e., & seaman, j. (2008). staying the course: on-line education in the united states. sloan consortium. amadi, e. c., & urho, p. (2015). educational management planners’ view of strike action and its effects on educational management in universities in rivers state. singaporean journal of business economics and management studies, 4(7), 45-55. andrews, r., & haythornthwaite, c. (eds.). (2009). handbook of e-learning research. sage. arkorful, v., & abaidoo, n. (2014). the role of e-learning, the advantages and disadvantages of its adoption in higher education. international journal of education and research, 2(12), 397-410. bakare, j. (2014). development and validation of cell phone maintenance training modules for national diploma students. (unpublished doctoral thesis.) department of vocational teacher education, university of nigeria, nsukka. bakare, j., onah, b. i. &. okereke, g. k. o. (2018). capacity building needs of lecturers in e-teaching for effective delivery of computer and electrical/electronic technology courses in tertiary institutions in southwestern nigeria. international journal of applied engineering research, 13(11), 8736-8750. http://www.ripublication.com barnett, j., mcpherson, v., & sandieson, r. m. (2013). connected teaching and learning: the uses and implications of connectivism in an online class. australasian journal of educational technology, 29(5), 685-698. 325 bates, a. w., & sangra, a. (2011). managing technology in higher education: strategies for transforming teaching and learning. jossey bass. bell, f. (2009). connectivism: a network theory for teaching and learning in a connected world. university of salford, manchester, united kingdom. http://usir.salford.ac.uk/2569/ benson, r., & brack, c. (2009). developing the scholarship of teaching: what is the role of e-teaching and learning? teaching in higher education, 14(1), 71-80. doi:10.1080/13562510802602590 cormier, d. (2008). rhizomatic education: community as curriculum. innovate, 4(5). http://davecormier.com/edblog/2008/06/03/rhizomatic-educationcommunity-as-curriculum/ donnelley, r., & mcsweeney, f. (2009). applied e-learning and e-teaching in education. information science reference. downes, s. (2012). connectivism and connective knowledge: essays on meaning and learning networks. national research council (canada). downes, s. (2005). an introduction to connective knowledge. http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=33034 economy, finance, technology (2009). teaching technologies. https://www.slideshare.net/antujose10/e-teaching educause (2008). 2008 horizon report. http://www.educause.edu/eli/2008horizonreport/162471 encarta (2009). online students’ dictionary. microsoft corporation. eze, s. c., chinedu-eze, v. c. & bello, a. o. (2018). the utilization of e-learning facilities in the educational delivery system of nigeria: a study of m-university. international journal of educational technology in higher education, 15(34), 1-20. federal republic of nigeria (2013). national policy on education. nerdc press. glover, d,. & miller, d. (2002). the introduction of interactive whiteboards into schools in the united kingdom: leaders, led, and the management of pedagogic and technological change. international electronic journal for leadership in learning, 6(24). guragain, n. (2016). e-learning benefits and applications. (unpublished thesis.) helsinki university of applied sciences. https://theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/105103/guragain_nischal.pdf?sequence=1 guri-rosenblit, s. (2010). digital technologies in higher education: sweeping expectations and actual effects. nova science. guri-rosenblit, s., & gros, b. (2011). e-learning: confusing terminology, research gaps and inherent challenges. journal of distance education, 25(1). harasim, l. (2000). shift happens: online education as a new paradigm in learning. internet and higher. http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=550 institute of education (2013). conference flyer. parity press. johnson, l. a., becker, s., cummins, m., extrada, v., freeman, a., & hall, c. (2016). nmc horizon report 2016: higher education edition. the new media consortium. mccormick, r., & scrimshaw, p. (2001). information and communication technology, knowledge and pedagogy. education, communication and information journal, 1(1). 326 mohammad, m. (2012). the impact of e-learning and e-teaching. international journal of social, behavioural, educational, economic, business and industrial engineering, 6(2), 229-234. nagy, a. (2005). the impact of e-teaching. in p. a. bruck, z. a. buchhol, z. karssen, & a. zerfas (eds.), econtent: technologies and perspectives for the european market. springer-verlag. 79-96. naidu, s. (2006). e-teaching. http://.www.naie-teaching.org nakajima, m., & hori, k. (2006). a shift of focus from e-learning to e-teaching. 6th merlot international conference, ottawa. nwankwo, o.c. (2016). a practical guide to research writing for students in education and social sciences (6th ed.). m & j grand orbit and communication ltd. ogbulogo, c. u., george, t. o., & olukanni, d. o. (2014). teaching aids, quality delivery, and effective learning outcomes in a nigerian private university. proceedings of edulearn14 conference, 7th-9th july 2014, barcelona, spain. pp. 61-68. owo, o. t. (2020). education and training of youths: a panacea for sustainable development of andoni (obolo) nation in niger delta, nigeria. the international journal of humanities and social studies, 8(2), 142-146. doi: 10.24940/theijhss/2020/v8/i2/hs2002-069 owo, o. t., & ajie, p. m. (2020). impediments to effective utilization of e-learning platforms for quality teaching and learning in universities in niger-delta, nigeria. international journal of innovative research and development, 9(7), 128-133. doi: 10.24940/ijird/2020/v9/i7/jul20021 oyeniran, o. a., oyeniran, s. t., oyeniyi, j. o., ogundele, r. a., & ojo, a. o. (2020). e-learning: advancement in nigerian pedagogy amid covid-19 pandemic. international journal of multidisciplinary sciences and advanced technology, 1, 85-94. siemens, g. (2004). connectivism: a learning theory for the digital age. http://www.elearnspace.org/articles/connectivism.htm united nations education scientific and cultural organization (2020). covid-19 educational disruption and response. https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse wineburg, s., mcgrew, s., breakstone, j., & ortega, t. (2016). evaluating information: the cornerstone of civic online reasoning. stanford digital repository. http://purl.stanford.edu/fv751yt5934 authors: offia tugwell owo is a phd candidate, department of vocational and technology education, rivers state university, port harcourt, nigeria. email: tugwellowo@yahoo.com isaac c. n. udoka is a lecturer, department of electrical/electronics technology, federal college of education (technical), omoku, nigeria. email: udoudondu@yahoo.com cite this paper as: owo, o. t., & udoka, i. c. n. (2021). perception of educational stakeholders on utilization of e-learning technology for quality instructional delivery in universities in nigeria. journal of learning for development, 8(2), 312-326. microsoft word kalinga.docx issn: 2311-1550 2021, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 74-92 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. learning software development through modeling using object oriented approach with unified modeling language: a case of an online interview system ellen a. kalinga university of dar es salaam, tanzania abstract: this paper demonstrates the learning of software engineering through modeling using object-oriented analysis and design approach with unified modeling language. an online interview management system case project to the whole class was used to develop the software requirement specification. through modelling, the processes to be considered in software development were also elaborated, where it starts with the identification of major or basic processes of the domain of application, followed by the identification of activities to be performed under each basic process and, finally, transforming the activities highlighted in the functional requirements presentation. modeling was practised by students through group case projects, and students were active, engaging and focusing on the learning process in such a way that more than 85.9% of students had the courage to attempt design questions during university examinations. keywords: learning through modeling, object-oriented analysis and design, unified modeling language, model-driven approach, software engineering, software development process. introduction many researchers encourage teaching techniques that engage students to actively participate in the learning process. mcglynn, (2005) and peck, ali, matchock, and levine, (2006) state that classroom engagement has been found to promote deeper levels of thinking and to better facilitate encoding, storage, and retrieval than traditional lectures, where lecturers are verbally communicating new information to students and students are passively listening and encoding in their memories. there are a number of ways of creating active and engaging teaching environments for learners, for example, learning by doing (lbd). kalinga (2018) presented a step-wise procedure on how a learning by doing approach can be applied in a teaching and learning ooad approach in software development to bachelor of science students studying computer science and computer engineering. a challenge based learning (cbl) approach, mainly used in science and engineering education, that focuses on helping students develop self-directed learning skills (kwame et al, 2017) and learning through modelling to hold students’ attention, is often difficult to sustain by talk alone (salisu & ransom, 2014). this paper is motivated to demonstrate learning through modelling in teaching a software engineering course using an ooad approach with uml. roussev and rousseva (2004) state that the information system (is) component is the core curriculum at their school of business and it includes a programming in javascript course, which is mandatory for all business students. it is a basic hands-on-experience course, where students develop web-based ecommerce applications. according to roussey et al (2004) business students lack the notion of layers 75 of virtual machines abstracting the programmer from the underlying hardware, hence, they employed active learning through modelling to make business students visualise the compiler’s mapping of the source code they write to raw machine instructions directing the system’s underlying hardware. likewise, object-oriented analysis and design (ooad) is among the core courses taught to students pursuing a bachelor of science in computer science and bachelor of science in computer engineering. the same has been extended even to those students in the business information technology and telecommunication engineering disciplines at the department of computer science and engineering (cse) of the university of dar es salaam (udsm) in tanzania. the ooad course is taught to students who do not have any of the necessary software development skills. the problem encountered was the slow conceptualization of the knowledge matter by many students, which, however, was reduced by applying a learning through modelling approach. within the scope of software engineering as stated by liu (2002) the models for a software development process have provided a much better understanding of the activities and have led to great improvements in productivity and the quality of software. clarke & pierantonio (2018) state that many computer science and software engineering curricula include some content on modeling software systems, which provide the basic building blocks for model-driven software development (mdsd), yet there is still lack of penetration to bring modeling to the forefront of software development. the modeling in this paper is being practised using a written online interview management system (oims). the learning through modelling intends to empower students with better understanding and practice in using an ooad approach in software development. the paper aims to demonstrate how the creation of software specifications using ooad with the support of uml can be practised and can enhance understanding of the learning process of software development. methods giesecke (2006) states that engineering research is about the study of methods, tools, and so on, that can be used to solve practical problems and may include the invention of new methods or tools, or the improvement of existing ones, but invention is neither necessary nor sufficient. a model-driven approach in software development enhances better visualization and understanding of the system under development, however, its application needs to be well understood by future software developers. this is an applied research paper which explains the ooad approach with the application of the uml notation language and how to make use of it in teaching by employing a learning through modelling approach to make students understand better the approach itself, and how to apply it well in software engineering. it is a participatory approach through which step-bystep activities were done by students with close supervision. ooad using uml guide suggests a suitable diagram or artifact to be used at each phase. using the guide given by ojo & estevez (2005) in preparing system requirement specifications, the following activities were customised and used in both class and group case projects. 1. system requirements analysis a) identify major or basic processes of the software system b) list main activities to be performed under each identified major process 76 c) represent main activities listed in (b) above in functional requirements. tabulate functional requirements showing cross references number, requirement description and the requirement category. we expect to see both evident and hidden functions. d) list relevant non-functional requirements of the concerned system e) identify actors of the system. identify use cases for the system. relate the actors to each of the use cases identified. f) create a use case model to show the relationships between actors and use cases for the system g) provide description of use cases 2. conceptual/class modeling a) identify objects/concepts which may be relevant to your system using the above created documents b) provide attributes for the identified objects/concepts c) group related objects/concepts and create associations (generalization, aggregation, composite, etc.) d) draw a conceptual diagram/model of your system with the help of the created objects’ associations and other remaining objects 3. system input events and system operation a) identify system input events for use cases. this can be well identified with the help of tracer diagrams and system sequence diagrams created for a single use case. input events are related to system operations. b) create contracts for system operations obtained in 4(a) above. the teaching of ooad using uml applies to two types of modeling: “task and performance modeling” and “modeling as a scaffolding technique”. ooad, as the model-driven approach, had a class software project, that is, oims and the teaching made use of this class project to model its software specification development using ooad and uml. • before the modeling exercise, an intensive theory was presented to make students understand the theoretical perspective views of an ooad approach and a uml notation language, that is, students were equipped with theoretical concepts and constructs • modeling followed theory sessions alternatively by brainstorming with students the kind of modeling they were going to do. this was done through the oims class project. • then students were allowed to do the modeling of their group projects. students were given a chance to practise the approach. • lastly, supervising students through monitoring their step-by-step activities so that they produced quality, group-project related software specifications 77 the study involved all 194 registered students from three bachelor degree programmes in the 2019/2020 academic year as shown in table 1. nineteen groups were formed, each having 9 10 students with a single problem to be solved through developing a software specification. for better sharing of experiences, students from all programmes were randomly mixed together. table 1: population sample size from three bachelor’s degrees s/n name of programme number of students 1. bsc. in computer engineering and information technology 44 2. bsc. in computer science 94 3. bsc. in telecommunications engineering 56 total 194 literature review modeling is a norm to the engineering discipline, a practice which allows the performance of analysis and design before implementation. according to nrc (2012), both scientists and engineers use models like sketches, diagrams, mathematical relationships, simulations, and physical models to make predictions about the likely behavior of a system, and they then collect data to evaluate their predictions and possibly revise the models as a result. the same approach has been used in software engineering in order to produce high-quality software systems. bandura (1986) states that modeling is one of the most efficient modes of learning for any new skill or knowledge. according to salisu and ransom (2014) modeling gains and holds attention, which is often difficult to sustain by talk alone. there are five types of modeling, as stated by salisu and ransom (2014), namely: a) disposition modeling: where teachers and students convey personal values or ways of thinking. this type of modeling is important for facilitating the development of character and community. b) task and performance modeling: which occurs when the teacher demonstrates a task students would be expected to do on their own. this strategy is used so that students can first observe what is expected of them, and so that they feel more comfortable in engaging in a new assignment. c) meta-cognitive modeling: in this, modeling demonstrates how to think, in lessons that focus on interpreting information and data, analyzing statements, and making conclusions about what has been learned. this type of modeling is particularly useful in a math class. d) modeling as a scaffolding technique: where teachers must consider students’ position in the learning process. teachers first model the task for students, and then students begin the assigned task and work through the task at their own pace e) student-centered modeling: where teachers can often call on students to model expected behaviors or thought processes. in this modeling, teachers engage students who have mastered specific concepts or learning outcomes in the task of modeling for their peers. 78 object-oriented analysis and design use with uml openlearn (2019) states that modeling techniques in software development are defined under the unified modeling language (uml). the uml presents the culmination of best practices in practical object-oriented modeling and has been designed to support object orientation and is the visual modeling language of choice for building object-oriented and component-based systems. dennis, wixom and tegarden (2015), explain that version 2.5 of the uml defines a set of fifteen diagramming techniques used to model a system. the diagrams are broken into two major groupings: one for modeling the structure of a system and another for modeling behavior. structure diagrams provide a way to represent the data and static relationships in an information system. the structure includes class, object, package, deployment, component, composite structure, and profile diagrams. behavior diagrams provide the analyst with a way to depict the dynamic relationships among the instances or objects that present the business information system. the behavior diagrams support the analyst in modeling the functional requirements of an evolving information system. the behavior modeling diagrams include activity, sequence, collaboration, communication, interaction overview, timing, behavior state machine, protocol state machine, and use-case diagrams. the reason uml has different diagrams is to make it possible for the system to be looked at from many different viewpoints. some diagrams used during requirement specification have been elaborated by kalinga (2010), liu (2002) and omg (2003) as follows: a) the use case is a description of the system’s behaviour from a user’s viewpoint. developing use cases helps in understanding the requirements. with a use case as a requirement, there is a user or actor who performs that functionality. an actor is identified in terms of their role or privilege to use that system. b) class diagram or conceptual diagram is an essential aspect of any oo method. class diagram can be used at the analysis as well as at the design stage. class diagram syntax is used to draw a plan of the major concepts for system stakeholders to understand. together with use cases, a conceptual model is a powerful technique in analyzing requirements. c) collaboration diagrams, in developing oo software, anything that software needs to do is going to be achieved when objects collaborate or interact with each other. collaboration diagrams are used to describe how the objects collaborate. d) the sequence diagram is, in fact, directly related to the collaboration diagram and displays the same information but in a slightly different form. a sequence diagram is a description of how the objects in a system interact over time. this diagram can be used in three different areas of the software development process: • during the software system analysis phase known as “system sequence diagram (ssd)” it is used to understand the system operations in response to system input events. • ssd can be preceded with the system event tracer diagram, showing both system input and system output events. • also, the sequence diagram is applied during the system design phase where its aim is to show the interaction of objects to perform a system operation. 79 the uml guide gives the categories of uml documents relating to software development phases as follows: (a) during the requirement gathering phase, apart from listing functional requirements, use case and actors of the system are identified and represented in a use case diagram. each use case is again described at high level use cases, famously known as the use case scenario. a use case scenario strengthens the understanding of a use case functionality in terms of the main steps to be used to achieve it. (b) during the requirement analysis phase: objects or classes are identified from the documented information at (a) above. with the help of standard relationships like generalisation, aggregation, composition, to mention but a few, a class diagram, also known as a domain model or conceptual model is created. this stage will also involve providing attributes to classes or concepts in a class diagram. however not all classes may have attributes. this stage will need to show multiplicity or cardinalities. a transition from the requirement analysis phase to the design phase involves understanding a use case in terms of events generated by an actor in a system, which are directly related to operations the system performs. liu (2001) states that a system’s operations are identified by identifying events that actors generate, while a system input event is an external input generated by an actor to a system. related works roussev and rousseva (2004) employed a model-based approach to teach an introduction to programming in javascript to business students. learning through modeling was used to introduce the basic programming constructs and their semantics applied in software development. higgs and mcmillan (2010) employed teaching through modeling to secondary schools in north america in modeling sustainability to their students. for schools, modeling sustainability appears to be one effective way to achieve the goals of sustainability education (se). according to higgs and mcmillan (2010) modeling is a valuable approach to sustainability education, promoting learning in schools. in the case of se, where educators hope that students will not only understand sustainability concepts but also incorporate them into their behaviors, modeling can play a particularly important role. demonstrating modeling of oims software requirement specification oims functional requirements looking into the context of the online interview system, students were tasked to identify major business processes performed to accomplish a written interview. four possible major functions of the system were identified as presented in figure 1, namely: preparation or management of interview questions and their answers, management of interviewees, management of interview and management of interview process and results. for each major process, a number of respective activities were listed, as presented in table 2. 80 figure 1: oims basic functional processes table 2: oims major processes and activities s/n major processes major business processes activities 1. preparation or management of interview questions and their answers i. register area of expertise to be interviewed ii. prepare the job/vacancy descriptions (e.g., job title, qualifications needed, etc.) iii. register expert area specialist who can create interview questions iv. create interview questions v. create answers for created questions vi. allocate marks to each question’s answer 2. management of interviewees i. publication of vacancy description ii. guests apply online, at this stage they are called applicants iii. applicants upload relevant supporting documents iv. filter applicants on qualification bases. remain with only qualified applicants who will be called interviewees v. register interviewees to the system vi. notify qualified interviewees for being selected, job type applied, time and location of interview vii. assign login credentials to interviewees 3. management of interview i. create an interview ii. allocate questions to an interview iii. create time schedule (time, venue, program) iv. link interview and interviewee online interview management system major business process or functions preparation or management of interview questions and their answers management of interview management of interviewee management of interview process and results 81 s/n major processes major business processes activities 4. management of interview process and results i. make interviewee provide login credentials ii. make interviewee view instructions iii. interviewee does questions (i.e., answer interview questions) iv. control time to do interview v. mark each completed question vi. calculate the total marks obtained for each interviewee vii. grade each total mark obtained by an interviewee viii. sort results based on performance: total marks, grading ix. pick only best interviewees based on the number of interviewees needed as per the job description functional requirements creation was an activity followed. this made use of the major functions and outlined activities in table 2 as the first consideration. however, more could be added to exhaust more functionalities needed to be performed by the system. any overlooked activities can be added at any current stage, while, as well, updating the preceding stages. according to agarwal, tayal & gupta (2010) functional requirements describe the relationship between the input and output of the system. table 3 shows a list of functional requirements students came out with for the oims. as a note, each software system has general functionalities, hence, they had to be included in table 3. functional requirements are categorised as evident functions as an indication of those which are being performed, and users are aware that there are performed and hidden functions indicating that a function is being performed but not visible to users. table 3: functional requirements of an oims ref. no. functional description category f1 preparation or management of interview questions and their answers f1.1 system should allow registration of area of expertise needed to be interviewed evident f1.2 system should allow creation of job or vacancy description/s based on the areas of expertise which will include job title, qualifications needed, number needed evident f1.3 system should allow registration of expert area specialist who can create interview questions evident f1.4 system should allow creation of many interview questions of different types (multiple question, fill in the blanks, essays, matching, etc.) evident f1.5 system should allow for creation of answers for questions evident f1.6 system should allow for allocation of marks to each answer for questions evident f2 management of interviewees f2.1 system should allow job/vacant descriptions to be published evident f2.2 system should allow applicants to sign-up evident 82 ref. no. functional description category f2.3 system should allow applicants to apply for the job published online and, who, at this stage, will be called applicants evident f2.4 system should allow uploading of necessary needed documents into the system like cvs, certificates evident f2.5 system should be able to filter applicants' applications based on the set qualifications needed and remain with only qualified applicants who will be called as interviewees hidden f2.6 system should register all interviewees (qualified applicants) into the database to separate them from unqualified applicants hidden f2.7 the system should send notifications to all interviewees on their being selected, job description selected, date and location or venue of interview evident f2.8 system should assign logins credentials to interviewees evident f3 management of interview f3.1 system should allow creation of interviews evident f3.2 system should allow allocation of questions to an interview created evident f3.3 system should allow creation of interview time scheduling, which would include: time, venue – a full program. evident f3.4 system should link an interview and interviewee evident f4 management of interview process and results f4.1 system should restrict an interviewee to provide login credentials evident f4.2 system should link interviewee with the interview concerned hidden f4.3 system should display interview instructions evident f4.4 system should allow an interviewee to do an interview by displaying interview questions evident f4.5 system should be able to control the time schedule for an interview hidden f4.6 system should mark each question and provide marks hidden f4.7 system should be able to calculate the total marks obtained for each interviewee and per each interview hidden f4.8 system should be able to grade (or allocate grade) for the total marks obtained hidden f4.9 system should be able to sort marks based on total marks in ascending or descending order, grading, etc. hidden f4.10 system should be able to pick only best interviewees based on the number needed per job description evident f5 general/basic functionalities f5.1 system should allow registration of system users (including system admin and interviewer) evident f5.2 system should allow system users to log in and get permission to use a system evident f5.3 system should allow searching of several different kinds of information using varieties of search criteria evident 83 ref. no. functional description category f5.4 system should be able to track users with activities completed hidden f5.5 system should be able to generate statistical reports evident f5.6 system should perform savings of all relevant information into the system hidden oims actors and use cases actors or users of the system are identified based on role. according to liu (2001) an actor is an entity external to the system who can use the system, rather than representing a particular individual. identified actors for an online interview system were: a) applicant: a user who reads job advertisements and shows interest in applying for the same b) interviewee: a user who will qualify to do an interview after being filtered. interviewees will be registered into the system and they will be required to login to be allowed to do an interview. c) interviewer: an actor responsible for preparing the whole online interview process d) subject expert: an actor responsible for preparing interview questions in relation to their respective area of expertise e) system admin: an actor who will manage the whole system, including management of users actors interact with the system though performing a certain functionality, presented as a use case. it is advisable to go through the whole documentation and identify use cases. it is also important to consider the concept of use case granularity when selecting use cases in a particular scenario. not all external interactions to the system qualify to be considered as a use case, otherwise the total use cases would be a big number. ariadne (2001) states that the best way to identify a use case is to use the ruleof-thumb that states, “a use case should satisfy a goal for the actor”. for example, “select a question” may not be a standalone use case but could be a step towards a “do/perform interview” use case. it is important to keep the use cases at a fairly “high level”. from the above functional requirements, the use cases were identified and respectively related to the identified actors and presented in use case diagrams as shown in figure 2 and figure 3 to demonstrate the use case diagram for interview and applicant and interviewer roles, respectively. 84 figure 2: use case diagram for the “interviewee and applicant” role figure 3: use case diagram for the “interviewer” role use case is a narrative representation of a functional requirement. to understand a use case which captures a single functionality, description of the same should be done on what is being referred to as “use case scenario” and is describing a single use case. there are a number of use case description templates, however, the one adopted in this development is taking the format as indicated by liu (2001). tables 4 to table 6 show descriptions of three selected use cases, namely: “create interview questions”, “create answers to questions” and “do/perform interview”, respectively. view vacancy description login for interview view interview instructions do/perform interview view interview results sign-up apply online upload supporting documents receive notification interviewee applicant register expertise area create vacancy description create interview questions create answers to questions allocate marks to answers publish vacancy register interviewees send/receive notification login logout search for information view reports create interview allocate questions to interview create interview time schedule interviewer <<extends>> <<extends>> <<extends>> <<extends>> <<extends>> 85 table 4: “create interview questions” use case description field description use case: create interview questions actors: interviewer short description: it allows an interviewer to create a bank of interview questions pre-condition: interviewer must be recognised by the system to have that privilege. post-condition: a good number of interview questions will be created and stored into a system main flow: 1. interviewer requests a provision to create questions 2. system displays a number of options, tools possible to create questions (tools could be for multiple choice, fill in the blanks, etc.) 3. interviewer selects a question tool needed 4. system displays a related selected tool template to an interviewer 5. interviewer creates a question and submits 6. system validates the submitted question and saves the question into the system 7. the process from 2 to 6 repeats till an interviewer clicks the “end” button 8. the system acknowledges successfully creation of questions to an interviewer alternative flow(s): exception flow(s) if the submitted question is not complete, the system should display an error and prompt an interviewer to recreate the question. table 5: “create answers to questions” use case description field description use case: create answers to questions actors: interviewer short description: it allows an interviewer to create answers to the already created interview questions pre-condition: a bank of interview questions stored into the system. post-condition: interview questions will have answers main flow: 1. interviewer requests a provision to create answers to questions 2. system displays a list of question and lets an interviewer select a question to answer 3. an interviewer selects a question 4. system displays question description and a form/means to provide an answer 5. interviewer creates an answer to a question and saves/submits 6. system validates the submitted answer and saves the answer into the system 7. system acknowledges the successful creation of an answer 8. the process from 3 to 6 repeats till an interviewer clicks the “end” button alternative flow(s): exception flow(s) if the submitted answer is not complete, the system should display an error and prompt an interviewer to recreate an answer 86 table 6: “do/perform interview” use case description field description use case: do/perform interview actors: interviewee short description: this is where an interviewee completes an interview by answering questions pre-condition: • interviewee registered into the system • interview already set and in place post-condition: interviewee will be recorded as already passed through interview process main flow: 1. system displays instructions for the interview and wants an interviewee to confirm that he/she has read and is ready to start the interview 2. interviewee clicks the ok button to confirm reading instructions 3. system displays all interview questions and clock timing starts counting 4. interviewee provides answers to questions, saves and submits answers after being done 5. system acknowledges successful sending of answers to an interviewee alternative flow(s): 1. system displays one question after the other and clock timing starts counting 2. interviewee provides answers to a question given and then will be given a chance to do the following question. saves and submits answers after completion (interviewee can go forward and backwards to navigate to questions) exception flow(s): if the interviewee selects to cancel the interview process then the interview will be recorded as canceled or undone oims conceptual model according to liu, (2001) a conceptual model illustrates abstract and meaningful concepts in the problem domain. the creation of concepts is the most essential object-oriented step in analysis or investigation of the problem domain. making use of all documented information from basis processes, activities of basic processes, functional requirement, use cases and use case descriptions, concepts related to the system to be developed are identified. as shown in figure 4, the identified concepts include: • interview: to hold indices to a set of questions allocated for a particular interview and link with other relevant information such as venue; • interviewquest: to hold a set of questions categorised in terms of job description and question type; • questanswers: to hold prepared answers for questions; • answermarks: to hold marks allocated for question answers; • jobdescription: to hold interview job descriptions for advertisement; • specialization: job description is based on different specialisation; 87 • interviewee: a person qualified and selected to do an interview; and • sysuser: to hold information of all other users who interact with a system, apart from an interviewee. identification of concepts was from texture descriptions as well as looking for nouns or noun phrases in the same texture descriptions. attributes of concepts were allocated plus assigning multiplicity or cardinalities between concepts. whatever kind of relation seen, then, were applied. figure 4 shows the conceptual model with a number of interrelated identified concepts for the oims class project. figure 4: oims conceptual model oims system operations and its contracts liu, (2001) states that during the interaction in any realization, the actors generate events to a system, requesting the system to perform some operations in response. events generated by actors are very tightly related to operations that the system can perform. this implies that the system’s operations are identified by identifying events generated by actors. the easy way of identifying operations that the system performs is through creating a system sequence diagram for a single use case; making use of the main flow part of the use case description, a use case tracer diagram, thereafter producing a system sequence diagram. figure 5 shows a sample tracer diagram for a “dointerview” use case with its system sequence diagram showing system operations. note that input events towards the system are the ones which trigger the system, hence, are related directly to system operations as responses to a system input event. for the “dointerview” use case, two system operations were established, namely: “confirmreadinginstructions()” and “submitanswer()” as in figure 5. interviewer sysadmin certificates cv sysuser fname mname sirname gender username password email phone interviewee fname mname sirname gender interviewno password email phone interview interviewno interviewdesrp createddate interviewcreator time interviewquest questno questdesc datecreated questioncreator questanswers answer datecreated answercreator answermarks marks datecreated questioncreat or interviewgrade grade rank location locationname venue venuename jobdescription jobid description specialization specializationid description questiontype typeid description suppdocs docid docdesc dateuploaded 1 1...* 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1...* 1...* 1...* 1...* upload * * has 1 88 figure 5: system operations for the “dointerview” use case a system sequence diagram does not describe the effect of the execution of an operation invoked. it is missing the details necessary to understand the system response — the system behaviour. part of understanding the system behaviour is to understand the system state changes carried out by system operations (liu, 2001). the execution of a system operation changes the system state into another state: old objects may be removed, new objects may be created, links between objects may be created, and values for attributes of objects may be modified. this can be presented in what is called a system operation contract, using the template as suggested by liu (2001). as an example, the “submitanswer()” system operation contract is shown in table 7. table 7: contract for “submitanswer()” system operation system operation name submitanswer(): responsibilities: allows submission of the answers by the interviewees type: system. cross references: system functions: f4.3, f4.4, f4.5, f4.6 use cases, do/perform interview: note: use superfast database access. exceptions: if submitting no answers indicate an error output: pre-conditions: questions registered by the system post-conditions: 1. if a new answer, a questanswers was created (instance creation). 2. if a new answer, the new questanswers was associated with the interviewquest (association formed). 3. a questanswers was associated with answermarks (association formed). 4. an interviewquest was associated with interview (association formed). 5. the questanswers.answer was set to a new answer (attribute modification). interviewee interview_ system confirmreading instructions() submitanswer() displayinstructions() displayquestions() clocktimerstarts() acknowledgesuccess submission() "dointerview" tracer diagram interviewee interview_ system confirmreading instructions() submitanswer() interview system confirmreadinginstructions() submitanswers() 89 results and evaluation of the approach according to kalinga, (2018) students in groups had their own group projects. each group demonstrated their software development skills using ooad with the support of the uml. the paper will only present basic processes of few selected students’ group projects as shown in table 8. however, the development proceeded up to the creation of contracts for system operation. table 8: identified basic processes of students’ group case projects students’ group projects title identifies core processes national health insurance fund (nhif) management information system a) management or registering of nhif services b) management of service providers c) management of nhif members d) management of employers e) management of service offered to nhif members f) management of billing process national voting (evoting) management system a) management of political parties b) management of competing candidates c) management of voting stations d) management of voters e) management of voting process tanzania football federation (tff) processes management system a) management of football teams b) management of playgrounds c) management of leagues d) management of matches e) management of match results and league standings library management system a) management of library resources (books , articles and journals) b) management of library members (students, staff, external members, etc.) c) management of library resources borrowing process d) management of library resources returning process single sign on solution a) management of user of systems b) management of software systems available c) management of security issues note that this is software development where the processes may differ from one person to another, however, all the useful or relevant activities will be appearing, though in different locations. evaluation of the success of the approach considered the students’ attempt trend of software design questions during university examinations (ue) for three consecutive academic years 2017/2018, 2018/2019 and 2019/2020. in section “b” three questions (question three – q3, question four – q4 and 90 question five – q5) are involved and students are required to attempt two of them. normally q4 and q5 are design questions and q3 is not. before, many students were attempting q3 compared to the design questions – q4 and q5. in evaluation, as shown in figure 6, attempts to q3 keeps on decreasing from 79 (84%) out of 94 students in the 2017/2018 academic year to 46 (26.6%) out of 184 students. attempts at design questions has increased from 59 (62.8%) out of 94 students for the 2017/2018 academic year to 161 (87.5%) out of 184 students in the 2019/2020 academic year for q4. attempts at q5 has increased as well, from 50 (53.2%) out of 94 students in the 2017/2018 academic year to 158 (85.9%) out of 184 in the 2019/2020 academic year. the courage for students to attempt design questions was contributed by the approach taken during teaching sessions, where learning through modeling was applied. the pass mark for q4 and q5 ranged from 6.2 to 7.8 out of 15% for each question. figure 6: students’ attempt trend to university examination design questions discussion learning through modeling in the context of software development is graphically done by employing an ooad approach with the support of uml. just as architectural modeling can portray a structure in different viewpoints, similarly, a model-driven approach using uml can model software development in the different perspectives of understanding: the problem domain, the software specification and the software design part. this paper demonstrates the software requirement specification part. the potential set of diagrams from uml has provided an opportunity for these different perspectives, however, out of the existing uml diagrams we expect to see some in the software requirement specification more than others that are optional depending on the complexity of the problem area. the expected diagrams and textual artifacts to be seen include functional and nonfunctional requirements, use case diagram, use cases descriptions, conceptual diagram, system sequence diagrams and system operation contracts. learning through modeling is an approach to be applied in teaching many courses or subjects to all academic levels of education (primary, secondary, tertiary and university). specifically, many of the science and engineering courses cannot be well comprehended and conceptualised when taught 79 8 4. 0 17 2 88 .7 49 26 .65 9 62 .8 12 7 65 .5 16 1 87 .5 50 5 3. 2 11 3 58 .2 15 8 85 .9 94 1 00 .0 19 4 10 0 18 4 10 0 s t u d e n t s % g e s t u d e n t s % g e s t u d e n t s % g e 2 0 1 7 / 2 0 1 8 2 0 1 8 / 2 0 1 9 2 0 1 9 / 2 0 2 0 q3 q4 q5 total students 91 theoretically; they need approaches which actively engage students’ participation in the learning process. learning through modelling in the context of this paper was graphically or diagrammatically done, hence, uml drawing tools were used, and, in this case, smartdraw, but any uml drawing tool can be applied. the observed experience when students were trying to establish functional requirements are that the majority of them were stating general functionalities only in the view of the user. for example: registration of system users, login/logout, searching for information, display of statistical report, etc. functionalities which really reflect the system setting-up were far from their (students’) thinking. the consequence of this was to have a conceptual diagram dominated by roles and maybe with only one or two concepts to reflect the problem domain. the contribution of this paper is not only in demonstrating the learning through modeling approach but also insisting on, first, identifying major or basic processes of the application or domain area; second, thinking about identifying the activities performed under each basic process; and third, transforming the activities highlighted in a standard way of presenting them in functional requirements. it can be seen that when this process is followed, the majority of the activities will focus on the application area and those which will set the system to provide the required expected functionalities required by users. general functionalities are almost always known by developers of software systems. when identifying concepts and if relying on only the general functional requirements, then the conceptual diagram will miss relevant concepts as per the context of the application. from the view of the author of this paper, the stage of identifying basic processes and identification of activities for each basic process is very crucial, as they are stages which will exhaust the needed requirements for the application area and, hence, the main contribution to the board of software developers. on the other hand, it causes the clustering of activities, hence, it is not easy for the functionality to be left behind. the approach reversed the notion of students to consider only the obvious general activities and, instead, made them think first about the important aspects of the problem domain and, later on, to add the general process. conclusion there are a number of approaches used to actively engage students in the learning process, learning through modeling being one of them. modeling in the context of this paper that was graphically done, made students observe and then engage themselves in practice in group case projects. learning through modeling motivates students and increases their involvement in class activities. a model to facilitate effective software development training was successfully developed, and when used by students proved that their performance was enhanced very significantly (i.e., by about 60%) through practise enabled by the model compared to those who were taught only theoretically. references agarwal, b. b., tayal, s. p., & gupta, m. (2010). software engineering & testing. computer science series, jones and bartlett publishers. ariadne (2001). uml applied object oriented analysis and design using uml. ariadne training limited. 92 clarke, p. j., & pierantonio, a. (2018) teaching modeling: a software perspective. computer science education, 28(1), 1-4. doi:10.1080/08993408.2018.1486535 dennis, a., wixom, b. h., & tegarden d. (2015). system analysis & design: an object oriented approach with uml (5th ed.). wiley & sons. giesecke, s. (2006). research methods in software engineering (vol. 1). gito mbh verlag. higgs, a. l., & mcmillan, v. m. (2010). teaching through modeling: four schools’ experiences in sustainability education. the journal of environmental education, 38(1), 39-53. doi:10.3200/joee.38.1.39-53. kalinga, e. a. (2010). development of an interactive e-learning management system (e-lms) for tanzanian secondary schools. blekinge institute of technology. kalinga, e. a. (2018). learning by doing in teaching and learning object-oriented analysis and design approach to software development. proceedings of the 12th international multi-conference on society, cybernetics and informatics (imsci 2018). mcglynn, a. p. (2005). teaching millennials, our newest cultural cohort. education digest, 71(4), 12. openlearn (2019). an introduction to software development, modeling and the uml. open university. https://www.open.edu/openlearn/science-maths-technology/introduction-software-development/contentsection-6 ojo a., & estevez e. (2005). object-oriented analysis and design with uml. training course, e-macao report 19, version 1.0, october. peck, a. c., ali, r. s., matchock, r. l., & levine, m. e. (2006). introductory psychology topics and student performance: where’s the challenge? teaching of psychology, 33(3), 167-170. roussev, b., & rousseva, y. (2004). active learning through modeling: introduction to software development in the business curriculum. decision sciences journal of innovative education, 2(2). salisu a., & ransom, e. n. (2014). the role of modeling towards impacting quality education. international letters of social and humanistic sciences, 32, 54-61. doi:10.18052/www.scipress.com/ilshs.32.54 author: ellen a. kalinga is a lecturer at the department of computer science and engineering, college of ict of the university of dar es salaam. she is involved in e-learning and software development research areas. email: ellenakchale@gmail.com cite this paper as: kalinga, e. a. (2021). learning software development through modeling using object oriented approach with unified modeling language: a case of an online interview system. journal of learning for development, 8(1), 74-92. microsoft word evans.docx issn: 2311-1550 2021, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 473-486 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. from modernisation, dependency and soft power toward a commonwealth of learning terry evans and viktor jakupec deakin university, australia abstract: this article reflects on some influential theories, concepts and institutions that have shaped the nature and substance of international development since the mid-20th century. in particular, theories of modernisation and dependency are deployed to reflect on the ways in which the international financial institutions, such as, the world bank and the asian development bank have adopted a ‘washington consensus’ concerning the social and economic development of ‘developing’ nations. ‘soft power’ national agencies, such as, the british council and usaid are brought into consideration, especially, for their interests and influences over matters of learning for development. the multi-national commonwealth of learning’s particular contribution to learning for development is discussed with suggestions made for developing member nations’ capacities to produce new local knowledge and to bring their existing local knowledge to the fore to share as part of a (lockean) ‘commonwealth of learning’. keywords: ‘commonwealth of learning’, learning for development, modernisation theory, dependency theory, soft power, the washington consensus. introduction arguably, learning and development are completely intertwined. whether the development is personal, social, economic, institutional, or national, learning—formal and/or informal—is always required. because the world’s population is in a continual state of renewal (people die, others are born) the need for teaching and learning is never-ending but it is ever-changing, too. the rising generations need to learn many of the things their parents and grandparents learned but not everything. they also need to learn the new things that comprise their part of the contemporary world. the so called ‘developed nations’ actually have ‘compulsive development cultures’ (evans, 2003), cultures which foster research and development to chase continually new ideas, inventions, products and services. the ‘developing nations’’ education systems are faced with the challenge of teaching to reproduce their contemporary knowledge, values and skills and striving to ‘close the gap’ with the (rapidly developing) developed nations. for decades, especially since world war ii (ww ii), many developed nations’ governments have ‘aided’ developing nations through the provision of forms of ‘technical assistance’, including to the education sector. this aid, however, has typically been significantly about the donor nations’ interests as much as the recipient nations’ needs. a well-known example is the british council. it originated in 1932 and was formally recognised, by royal charter, as the british council in 1940 (during ww ii). its mission was to promote “a wider knowledge of [the uk] and the english language abroad and developing closer cultural relations between [the uk] and other countries” 474 (https://www.britishcouncil.org/about-us/history). after ww ii, this became part of the uk’s resistance to communism and was also to improve “the uk’s international standing, prosperity and security” (https://www.britishcouncil.org/about-us/history). currently, we can see donor nations’ political, economic and cultural interests strengthening as their aid agencies are now more directly integrated into their national ‘foreign affairs’ departments. for example, ausaid (australian aid for international development) is now part of the australian department of foreign affairs and trade (dfat) as australian aid, cida (canadian international development agency) has been merged with foreign affairs, trade, and development canada as global affairs canada and the uk’s department for international development (dfid) has been integrated into the foreign, commonwealth and development office (fcdo). the aforementioned examples are all from (british) commonwealth nations, there are others from elsewhere, of course. the most powerful example is usaid (us agency for international development) which was established in 1960 under president kennedy. its history shows that there have been decadic shifts in focus which reflect the us’s political imperatives across the decades (https://www.usaid.gov/who-we-are/usaid-history). what is particularly significant here is that this journal (journal of learning for development) is an initiative of the commonwealth of learning (col). unlike usaid and the other national governmental agencies for development, col is a multinational agency. it was established at the commonwealth heads of government meeting (chogm) in 1987. pertinently, the phrase ‘commonwealth of learning’ was coined in the late 17th century by the philosopher john locke to describe the “body of knowledge developed over time by scientists and other thinkers, for the benefit of all people” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/commonwealth_of_learning, walmsley, 2003, pp. 17, 159). of course, the ‘commonwealth’ is not ‘all people’, but rather it refers to the association of nations and territories (the commonwealth of nations) which mostly were previously part of the british empire. this amounts to about one third of the global population. the commonwealth unfolded as a product of britain dismantling its empire, the most extensive in history, as its colonised nations increasingly gained independence after the mid-20th century. britain helped to establish democratic systems of governance in these nations, sometimes with the queen as head of state, though, most nations are now republics with their own president. it did so partly to make the commonwealth a western bulwark against communism’s growing influence, and also as an engine for capitalist economic development across the globe. the commonwealth was seen as vital for britain’s economic development from the 1960s on and as a means of sustaining its political influence and trade (see, hennessey, 2019, pp. 178-219). col emerged at a time when open and distance education had become a significant provider of education for adults in several commonwealth nations although distance education—in its previous forms of correspondence schooling and education—had already existed for many decades in some parts of the commonwealth, arguably it was the rise of the uk open university that had a catalytic effect on the field (see, evans & jakupec, 2021, in press). col’s aim was to spread the benefits across the commonwealth through “the development and sharing of open learning and distance education knowledge, resources and technologies” (https://www.col.org/about/what-commonwealth-learning). there were, however, other national and international agencies that entered the business of economic development and, like col, promulgated education for development. 475 development aid for education has over the last decades gained much attention from multilateral and bilateral development agencies. notwithstanding the donors’ increased interests in aid funding for the education sector, there remain valid questions concerning the success or otherwise of development aid for education at various levels (see world bank 2018; adb 2013). there is however one generally accepted agreement across a wide spectrum of academics, policy makers, practitioners, and other relevant stakeholders within the education sector and beyond, namely that education remains a decisive instrument for combatting poverty. yet despite the compelling arguments in favour of fostering aid for the enhancement of education in developing countries, and the good intentions pursued by international financial institutions (ifis), such as the world bank, the asian development bank, the european bank for reconstruction and development, the african bank, to name but a few, development aid for education remains wanting. one of the reasons for the lack of overall success of development aid for education is that neither development aid, nor education at systemic and institutional levels, are easy to comprehend and articulate from political, social, economic or cultural vantage points (jakupec, 2020). at any level, there is a lack of generally acceptable agreements as to what works in education settings through the intervention of western ideology-based aid. that is, in contrast to, for example, health, social services, infrastructure, finance, agriculture, business development and other sectors, education is a more abstract construct. for example, improvements in health, including mortality rates, life expectancies, and fertility rates are easy to observe, quantify, and project. however, to observe, quantify and to project learning and educational impact on the economic, social, and cultural well-being of individuals, communities and society is more difficult to measure. thus, it is not surprising that ifis and other aid agencies focus their aid on providing school infrastructure, equipment and consumables, curriculum, teacher training and continuing professional development with the education sector. these provisions and activities appear as outstanding achievements but are not convincing results culminating in a lasting impact on the aid recipient country. if these arguments stand to reason, there is a compelling claim to be made for discussing foreign aid for education in a broader context and to address the rationale for utilising education as a catalyst for development. however, for a better understanding of the aforesaid rationale, we assert that there is a need to articulate certain framings. these are the theoretical concepts underpinning the ‘education for development’ rationale and include the juxtaposition of two development theories and a discourse concerning the political-economic agenda of the ifis pursuing the hegemonic washington consensus (discussed later) and its realisation through the aid conditionalities. subsequently, we will show the potential of education as a soft-power instrument for enhancing development. this framing permits us to closely examine the multi-faceted and asymmetrical donor-recipient ideologies and rationalities to be found in the current ‘education for development’ arena. before we continue to examine these matters, we should explain our part in the field. we first worked together in the mid-1980s at the (then) institute of distance education at deakin university (where we currently hold honorary professorial positions). a major part of this early work included the development and teaching of the new master of distance education (mded) programme jointly offered by deakin university and the university of south australia (calvert, evans, & king, 1993). the programme was offered (only) by distance education and was designed for an international 476 audience. students were provided with a critical understanding of distance education’s foundations, theories and practices. the programme concluded with students learning about research methods and methodologies (evans & nunan, 1993) and then practising this in a small distance education research project conducted ethically (evans & jakupec, 1996). the programme aimed to strengthen research capacity in distance education by ensuring that graduates had the knowledge and skills to conduct applied research and evaluation and, for some, doctoral research in (and through) distance education (evans, 2008; evans & green, 2013). with the support of ausaid, the mded programme was offered to a group of staff at the university of the south pacific (usp) in the early 1990s. it was offered at a distance, but also with a one-week residential school each semester held at the main campus of the usp. we taught at these residential schools, which were attended by students from several of the participating nation’s usp campuses. the usp venture constituted our first engagement with educational aid. subsequently, we have (individually) been involved in international aid projects in bangladesh, cambodia, pr china, croatia, fiji, georgia, jordan, kyrgyz republic, maldives, mongolia, montenegro, serbia, sri lanka, tajikistan, papua new guinea, and vietnam. these have been funded by government aid agencies or multinational development banks. these experiences influence our reflections here on the nature, purposes and consequences of educational aid. we commence with some theoretical considerations of aid in terms of modernisation, dependency, and soft power. this leads us to some considerations of shaping forms of educational aid in ways that go beyond imposing external curricula and which value, respect and incorporate recipients’ knowledge into the curricula. we suggest this may even extend into research-based learning to increase the stock of local knowledge and to contribute to the commonwealth of learning more broadly. a rationale for education for development one of the many questions raised in the literature concerning foreign aid to support education in developing countries concerns the validity of the rationales offered by various aid agencies. we suggest that to consider such questions of validity it is necessary to view educational aid within the broader foreign aid context. the most common contrast in establishing a rationale for development or foreign aid generally is couched in the dialectics between the concepts of aid for trade and trade, not aid, or foreign aid as a value for money paradigm (jakupec, 2016). however, when it comes to education, it is generally recognised that these concepts are not necessarily applicable. for example, the world bank (2021) notes: education is a human right, a powerful driver of development and one of the strongest instruments for reducing poverty and improving health, gender equality, peace, and stability. it delivers large, consistent returns in terms of income and is the most important factor to ensure equality of opportunities. for individuals, education promotes employment, earnings, health, and poverty reduction (n.p.) furthermore, the world bank (2021) suggests that: for societies, it [education] drives long-term economic growth, spurs innovation, strengthens institutions, and fosters social cohesion. indeed, making smart and effective investments in people’s education is critical for developing the human capital that will end extreme poverty (n.p.). 477 this delineation rehearses a lockeian ‘commonwealth of learning’ socio-economic rationale for the provision of development aid through education. by receiving aid for education, a developing country may ‘advance’ its social and economic fabric—maybe even for the common good beyond its borders. however, under the provision of the loan or grant conditionalities, such advancements will likely mirror the social, economic, political, and cultural values of the donor. in accepting the aid with its conditionalities, a developing country may create a national mass education system which, in turn, may result in advancing to a modern nation state, one which is in the image of the hegemon world view. this may be achieved by using education for the purpose of developing modern human resources leading to modern economic growth and international and global recognition (green 2008; nhema & zinyama, 2016). such a general conceptualisation of underpinning notions of the rationale for the provision of education aid prevails amongst the western ideology-based ifis and bilateral aid agencies which share similar ideological positions with the washington consensus (jakupec & kelly, 2019). development aid: dependency and modernisation over the last few centuries development economists have articulated theoretical constructs to explain ‘underdevelopment’ of developing countries, more recently focusing on africa, asia, eastern europe, the middle east, and south america (see stiglitz, 2008; sachs, 2005; easterly, 2005; krugman, 2008). from a historical perspective, we have seen the ascent and decline of development theories and their proponents’ explanations of the economic, social, and political problems facing developing countries. unsurprisingly, there is a wide range of competing theories as epistemic constructs of development in the aid context (nhema & zinyama, 2016). these include among others, the world systems theory (wallerstein 1979, 2007; nölke, 2014), structural adjustment development theory (mohan et al, 2000), the modernisation theory (basset, 2017) and the dependency theory (herath, 2008). following a review of the development cum foreign aid literature and education project documents, especially from the world bank, asian development bank, african development bank, and others, we contend that the contemporary development aid for education is couched in the two last mentioned competing development theories (bull & bøás, 2012): modernisation theory and dependency theory. the former underpins the epistemological framework of donors, whereas the latter mainly reinforces the epistemological framework of the recipients in their respective perception of the development aid theory. we now describe briefly these two theories. modernisation theory modernisation theory may be traced back to the age of enlightenment and became increasingly prevalent following the bretton woods conference in 1944. it gained growing acceptance amongst development economists following the implementation of the marshall plan in the late 1940s. over time modernisation theory progressed further and is today linked to developments of industrialisation, urbanisation and the expansion of education. it is frequently seen by political scientists as a response to the emerging breakdown of the currently existing foreign aid strategies advocated by the prevailing neoliberal school of thought in development economics (rapley, 2002). 478 according to eisenstadt (1966): …. modernisation is the process of change towards those types of social, economic, and political systems that have developed in western europe and north america from the seventeenth century to the nineteenth and have then spread to other european countries and in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to the south american, asian, and african continents (p. 1). basset (2017) explains further, arguing that “…[d]espite its failings modernisation theory has been one of most influential theories in terms of impact on global affairs” (n.p.) and observes that “…there is of course debate over whether aid is an effective means to development” (n.p.). proponents of modernisation theory emphasise economic development, political stability and social and cultural change based on neoliberal norms and values. thus, one of the major contested points of modernisation theory is its substantive pursuit of neoliberal political and economic values. its main critique comes from the proponents of the dependency theory claiming that western nations impose their rules, values, norms and politics on developing countries (bull & bøás, 2012; nhema & zinyama, 2016). furthermore, contemporary modernisation theory proponents assert that western neoliberal economic values and norms—such as, market economy, globalisation, western democratisation and privatisation— are economically and technically superior to any other development aid theory. in short, modernisation theorists assume that development is a universal process, which leads to the same economic prosperity outcomes across all developing nations. dependency theory dependency theory emerged in the 1950s in opposition to the modernisation theory of development. the major criticism levelled at the latter is that it is built on classical darwinian evolutionary theory. in contrast, dependency theory is based on interpreting historical tendencies to rationalise the existing conditions in developing countries (santos, 1970; frank, 1966). that is, dependency is an outcome of historical development through power relations (cf. petras & veltmeyer, 2015) between the donor agency and the recipient country. thus, dependency analysis tends to be confined to the study of economic relations between the western ‘centre’ and the developing world as ‘periphery’ (simon, 2011). however, it could be argued that the centre-periphery theorem is equally applicable to the hegemonic ifis led by developed nations as the centre and the developing nations as the ‘periphery’ (simon, 2011; lind, 2018). dependency theory is defined in the academic literature as a development theory which goes beyond modernisation theory (see reyes, 2001; haque, 1999). notwithstanding some commonalities between dependency and modernisation theories of development, it can be argued that the former is an antagonist of the latter. dependency theory addresses the interaction between the developed and developing nations and identities. in contrast, modernisation theory focuses on the discourse concerning the advantages and the disadvantages of the transformation from agricultural to industrial and technology-based societies. proponents of dependency development theory hypothesise that the nexus between the western dominated homogenous ifis and other like-minded bi-lateral aid agencies on the one side and the aid seeking developing countries on the other, is based on a set of conditionalities externally imposed by the former. arguably, these conditionalities are economically exploitative, intellectually colonising, and socio-politically incompatible with development (jakupec & kelly, 2016). a more contemporary understanding of dependency theory is that ‘dependency’ is not simply an economic construct but also a socio-political process. in terms of educational aid, one can see that the western curricula 479 imposed constitutes a form of curricular colonisation; not only through the imported curriculum but also to the extent that it excludes, replaces or ignores local knowledge, culture and values. to summarise, dependency defines the development aid world as a multilateral cum international system consisting of two sets of actors, described as dominant vs. dependent, and centre vs. periphery (ettema, 1983). both sets of actors are characterised by the assertion that external social, economic, political, and cultural forces are of primary importance to the development enhancing activities with the dependent developing nation. in our case the external forces include ifi and other foreign aid institutions, which represent the economic interests of the developed industrialised countries (kiely, 2009). finally, definitions of dependency denote that the relationship between the two sets of actors are inclined to not only underpin but also strengthen the unequal relationships. furthermore, dependency through development aid is historically an entrenched process within the internationalisation of wealthy western countries and their institutions, such as the washington consensus ifis. the washington consensus and its impact on development aid the term washington consensus was coined by williamson (1990) to refer to the ten economic policy guidelines affirmed by the principal washington-based ifis as the benchmark for providing assistance to developing, as well as crisis-affected developed countries. these major washington agencies are the world bank, the international monetary fund (imf), and the united states department of the treasury. historically, the washington consensus was a reaction to the mid-1970s government debt crises (abiad et al, 2011; williams, 2000). in particular, it refuted keynesian economics’ ability to address the debt crisis and sought to impose neoliberal economic theories (see hayek, 2001; friedman, 2002; jones, 2012). these were advocated by the reagan (usa) and thatcher (uk) administrations, respectively. thus, neoliberalism came to the fore in western geopolitics and the associated ifis. according to williamson (1990; 2004), the washington consensus comprised ten strategies to achieve economic growth: (i) the imposition of fiscal discipline; (ii) the redirection of public expenditure priorities towards other fields; (iii) the introduction of tax reforms that would lower marginal rates and broaden the tax base; (iv) the liberalisation of interest rates; (v) a competitive exchange rate; (vi) the liberalisation of trade; (vii) the liberalisation of inflows of foreign direct investment; (viii) the privatisation of state-owned economic enterprises; (ix) the deregulation of economic activities and; (x) the creation of a secure environment for property rights. currently, the washington consensus prevails, although the economic damage caused by the covid19 pandemic has seen a neo-keynesian resurgence. one may expect this to influence development aid in the future but to what extent is difficult to tell. global foreign aid remains dominated by the washington ifis, such as the world bank and the imf. the important point to note is that as far as development aid is concerned, the washington consensus strategies mainly concentrate on their operational objectives of ensuring economic growth—through privatisation, deregulation, decentralisation, fiscal discipline. furthermore, the ifis also work backwards from their objectives. that is, in order for a recipient nation to receive aid in the form of a grant or loan, the necessary economic, social and political changes are required of the donor before aid is received. as the washington consensus ifis has grown their aid conditionalities have expanded. originally, the focus was on economic conditionalities but in the 1980s and 1990s the ifis’ realm extended to 480 incorporate political matters. in particular, governmental and social engineering conditionalities were added. the ifis, especially the world bank, significantly broadened their aid policy boundaries to include ‘good governance’ as a principal constituent and condition for funding (weiss, 2010) and are firmly couched in neoliberalism (babb, 2013; fine, 2009). in effect, these conditionalities underpinned the donors’, rather than recipients’, objectives. thus, the donor, as the principal, requires an aid recipient government, as the agent, (jakupec & kelly, 2019) to implement policies that may be against its wishes. in the education sector, for example, conditionalities may include requiring privatisation and fee-forservice provisions to enable private education provision or expansion. they may require the introduction of a neoliberal ideology-based curriculum or the advancement of learning methods which are socio-culturally alien in the aid recipient country. of course, there are other conditionalities which may lead to greater gender and social equity, inclusivity and mainstreaming in the education sector. however, research has shown that there is much scepticism in the developing world about the effectiveness of conditionalities, especially as there is evidence of recipients’ policy reversals (jakupec & kelly, 2016). on balance, it could be argued that the washington consensus-based conditionalities are authoritarian, enforcing donor’s economic and political priorities, even if these are not shared by the aid seeking country’s social, cultural, economic, or political values and norms. the conditionalities in the education sector often fail to address the great divide between culture, traditions, the social fabric, and the lifestyle which exists between the developing nations and the western world. some developing countries are reliant on fishery, agriculture and/or on horticulture for their sustenance. arguably, the education system needs to provide curricula relevant to the respective primary industry and its development. that is, not just schooling and technical education but also university teaching and research on the subject. typically, ifis use conditionalities to impose the western education system as a catalyst for developing countries’ modernisation. the rationale being that increased western education across the developing world will accelerate the pace of economic development and produce significant economic growth. there are also other benefits to these western donors in that it potentially strengthens the ‘soft power’ of the donor agencies and their governments. exercising soft power through educational aid the concept soft power was coined by nye (1990) and is characterised by three constituents, namely, culture, ideology, and political values. in particular, education can be deployed to change the social, cultural, political, and economic fabric of a nation state as much as it can be used to maintain and strengthen the status quo (jakupec & meier, 2019). nye (2004) argues that soft power is the ability to get “…others to want the outcomes that you want…” (p. 5) and is characterised by “…the ability to achieve goals through attraction rather than coercion” (p. x). in contrast, nye (2011) defines hard power as “…the ability to get others to act in ways that are contrary to their initial preferences and strategies…” (p. 11), through coercion, threats, and inducements. nye (2005) also suggests that there is smart power, which brings together soft and hard power (see also wilson 2008). nye’s basic proposition is that soft power is more important than hard power, especially in international politics, because it facilitates a behavioural change in others by employing persuasion and attraction, rather than competition or conflict. 481 soft power has become an important instrument of the multi-lateral and bi-lateral aid agencies enabling them to shape international rules, values, norms, and political agendas of the education sector in developing countries. if we focus specifically on multinational agencies providing educational aid (as distinct from the aforementioned washington consensus agencies, such as the imf) then col comes to the fore as a major soft-power player. as described previously, col is a product of the rise of the (british) commonwealth after the demise of the british empire—achieved through hard power, of course. in effect, british and ‘old’ (pre-1945) commonwealth nations— australia, canada, new zealand, and south africa—used their soft power to shape the new commonwealth members as parliamentary democracies, with due regard for individual liberties and using english as the language of communication for commonwealth governance. from 1961 on, racial equality was a formal requirement. the commonwealth’s soft power extended into sporting activities where several sports favoured in britain became popular in most of the commonwealth (cricket, netball, hockey, equestrian sports, rugby, etc.) all to be amplified and purveyed via the quadrennial commonwealth games hosted by one of the nations. perhaps the most influential and significant element is the commonwealth nations’ use of english, as this language grew to be the ‘global language’ (see crystal, 1997), that is, the language most people can use, whether as a first or subsequent language. this meant that col also used english for its formal communications and is the dominant language of its educational aid and development work, especially through open and distance education. education may be seen as one of (if not) the most successful soft-power instruments in international relations, especially in the multilateral development aid environment. col is arguably the most significant multinational educational aid organisation, as such, it wields considerable soft power within its geopolitical embrace. soft power leads an (educational) aid recipient country to (re-)create its political, social, economic, and cultural fabric, based on the conditionalities imposed by the donor (jakupec & kelly, 2016). in the case of col, however, the donor is its commonwealth membership of which the recipient nation(s) is/are a part. therefore, one may assume that there is already a symmetry between donor and recipient(s) and the conditionalities required of a given aid programme may well be a reiteration of what is already accepted and even actively sought by the recipient(s). this places col in a different position to those washington consensus agencies discussed previously that, effectively, impose the economic and fiscal neoliberal conditionalities. with col being focused on education and on serving its member states also distinguishes it from the national aid agencies, such as, australian aid, global affairs canada, or usaid. concluding comment: toward a commonwealth of learning it is beyond dispute that education is fundamental for ‘developed’ and ‘developing’ nations to develop and sustain their social and economic well-being. it is difficult to picture a future for any nation which ceased educating its citizens for a generation. case and deaton (2020) show that in the usa—the nation with the world’s largest, sophisticated economy—white people (males, in particular) without a university degree are suffering, since the 1990s, from increasing higher morbidity and mortality rates in comparison with those with such a degree. this suggests that continuous economic development may create societies which eventually require a university degree as the ‘basic’ educational standard for their citizens to engage successfully in the economy and, therefore, society. if so, then strategies and solutions will be required to assist those without a degree to participate 482 successfully. one may expect that forms of education—in particular, open and distance education— may be important contributors. this example indicates that ‘developed’ nations are performing and requiring so much ‘learning for (their) development’ that those, for whatever reasons, who are unable to keep pace with the learning required could be left in ‘despair ‘and need to be helped. that is, they need to be enabled to share in the broader ‘commonwealth of learning’; maybe col has something to offer here. we have shown that col has been, and continues to be, one of the most significant multi-national organisations addressing education for development. its membership states comprise some with the richest advanced economies, and also large and small strongly developing nations, and some which are relatively poor nations. its commonwealth of nations heritage provides it with a rich and bountiful array of human, cultural and natural resources on which to sustain education for development. the 2016 kuala lumpur declaration and the 2021–2027 strategic plan, learning for sustainable development, document col’s achievements and goals and its commitment to good governance, planning and monitoring. this plan states that: [i]n light of the consultations and recommendations, col will: i) build on its expertise in odl, oer and tel to play a more influential role in national policy development and implementation; ii) invest in innovations and research; iii) support the digital transformation of institutions and organisations; iv) promote gender equality; and v) implement a rigorous monitoring and evaluation plan (p. 9). it is worth noting that there are those who question the impact and intentions of educational aid, in general. recently, butanu (2021) reviewed some of the literature on this matter and found that educational aid is often focused on short-term, not enduring, solutions and funds outdated institutions. she also found that educational aid was criticised for maintaining outdated curricula stemming from old, colonial legacies. as an example, butanu cites the world bank as concluding that “that although there has been a dramatic increase in school attendance by girls in cambodia, there has been no proof of any influence on learning achievement.” (https://www.developmentaid.org/#!/donors/view/118363/wb). in contrast, col reports that a meta-evaluation of the impact of the strategic plan 2015-2021 concluded “…that col programming …was relevant, effective and efficient. col is having an impact in many dimensions and across several initiatives; and in many cases, where government has taken interest and is assuming more leadership, there are good reasons to believe some of the changes at the institutional and government levels are sustainable” (casely-hayford & branch, 2020, p. viii). this evaluation provides confidence in col’s educational aid efforts having sustainable effects. our previous discussion of dependency theory and soft power leads us to suggest that col, notwithstanding its aforementioned strengths due to its broad range of member states, may need to consider some future issues related to education and the commonwealth of learning. the latter, in locke’s conceptualisation, as we noted previously constituted “the body of knowledge developed over time by scientists and other thinkers, for the benefit of all people.” (walmsley, 2003, pp. 17, 159). locke’s thinking was rooted in the enlightenment, but it suggests still, that science and thinking is required to produce the ‘commonwealth’ of future knowledge. 483 our experience in australia leads us to conclude that british colonisation— largely through ignorance but sometimes maliciously—swept aside indigenous knowledge constructed over millennia and supplanted it with its own. in recent decades a gradual understanding of the damage done and of the value of this knowledge has emerged. we understand that similar understandings are evident in other col members states, such as canada and aotearoa new zealand. maybe col needs to reflect on whether its western curricular and learning activities through open and distance education as ‘soft power’ may be ignoring the importance of local knowledge, language and culture for the recipient member states. furthermore, maybe the commonwealth of learning within the commonwealth of nations might be enriched though the explicit recognition and sharing of member states’ knowledge. that is, courses developed in those nations from which others (especially, the old commonwealth nations) learn. a further related matter is that the col’s work in higher education and research, may also benefit from boosting the research capacity of developing nation member states so that they can produce new knowledge—some of which may be related to discovering their ‘lost’ indigenous knowledge(s)—for the benefit of humanity, that is, for the global commonwealth of learning. a useful step here would be for col to consider encouraging, developing, and supporting phd programmes through distance education (see evans, 2008; evans & green, 2013) based on local research topics where the candidates produce useful knowledge for their communities and nations, as well for the commonwealth of learning more generally. references abiad, a., mishra, p., & topalova, p. (2011). how does trade evolve in the aftermath of financial crises? international monetary fund. asian development bank (adb) (2013). learning lessons: education sector. adb. babb, s. (2013). the washington consensus as transnational policy paradigm: its origins, trajectory and likely successor. review of international political economy, 20(2), 268-297. basset, s. (2017). modernisation theory. https://revisesociology.com/2017/09/19/modernization-theory/ birdsall, n., & fukuyama, f. (2011). new ideas on development after the financial crisis. johns hopkins university press bull, b., & bøás, m. (2012). between ruptures and continuity: modernisation, dependency and the evolution of development theory. forum for development studies, 39(3), 319-336. butanu, v. (2021). does foreign aid in education enhance economic growth? https://www.developmentaid.org/#!/newsstream/post/91296/devel…campaign=newsalert&token=d95be8b7-06e8-11ea-8cc5-52540068df95 calvert, j., evans, t. d., & king, b. (1993). inter-institutional collaboration in australia: constructing a master of distance education course. in l. moran & i. mugridge (eds.), collaboration in distance education: international case-studies (pp. 37-63). routledge. case, a., & deaton, a. (2020). deaths of despair and the future of capitalism. princeton university press. casely-hayford, l., & branch, p. (2020). meta-evaluation report stage 2: strategic plan 2015-2021. commonwealth of learning. http://hdl.handle.net/11599/3738 crystal, d. (1997). english as a global language. cambridge university press. 484 easterly, w. (2005). national policies and economic growth: a reappraisal. in p. aghion, p. & s. durlauf (eds.), handbook of economic growth, vol. 1. north-holland, 1015-1059. eisenstadt, s. n. (1966). the basic characteristics of modernization. in modernization, protest and change. prenticehall, 1-19. ettema, w. (1983). the centre-periphery perspective in development geography. tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie, 74(2), 107-119. evans, t. d. (2008). transforming doctoral education through distance education. in t. d. evans, m. haughey & d. murphy (eds.), the international handbook of distance education (pp. 303-318). emerald publishing. evans, t. d. (2003). policy and planning in the developed countries: coping with compulsive development cultures. in s. panda (ed.), planning and management of open and flexible learning. kogan page, 13-19. evans t. d., & green, r. (2013). doctorates for professionals through distance education. in m. g. moore (ed.), handbook of distance education (3rd ed.) (pp. 654–669). routledge. evans, t. d., & jakupec, v. (in press). classic theories of distance education: context and interpretation. in o. zawicki-richter & i. jung (eds.), handbook of open, distance and digital education. springer. evans, t. d., & nunan, t. (1993). creating a course on research in distance education. in m. parer (ed.), developing open courses (pp. 145-158). churchill, monash university, centre for distance learning. fine, b. (2009). development as zombieconomics in the age of neoliberalism. third world quarterly, 30(5), 885904. frank, a. g. (1966). the development of underdevelopment. new england free press. friedman, m. (2002). capitalism and freedom (14th anniversary ed.). the university of chicago press. green, p. (2008). are development theories of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s still relevant today? university of east anglia. haque, m. s. (1999). restructuring development theories and policies, a critical study. state university of new york press. hayek, f. a. (2001). the road to serfdom. routledge. hennessey, p. (2019). winds of change: britain in the early sixties. alan lane. herath, d. (2008). development discourse of the globalists and dependency theorists: do the globalisation theorists rephrase and reward the central concepts of the dependency school? third world quarterly, 29(4), 819-834. jakupec, v. (2020). political economy analysis — development aid and education in an era of post-neoliberalism. university of giessen. jakupec, v. (2016). aid for trade: a critical analysis. in v. jakupec & m. kelly (eds.), assessing the impact of foreign aid: value for money and aid for trade. academic press, 44-60. jakupec, v., & kelly, m. (2019). foreign aid in the age of populism: political economy analysis from washington to beijing. routledge. jakupec, v., & kelly, m. (2016). development aid: regulatory impact assessment and conditionality. impact assessment and project appraisal, 34(4), 319-329. jakupec, v., & meier, b. (2019). education and political discomfort. in v. jakupec & b. meier (eds.), die auswirkungen des rechtspopulismus auf soziale, politische und wirtschaftliche entwicklungen des bildungswesens. trafo wissenschaftsverlag /leibniz sozietät der wissenschaften, 19-30. 485 jones, d. s. (2012). masters of the universe: hayek, friedman, and the birth of neoliberal politics. princeton university press. kiely, r. (2009). rethinking imperialism. palgrave. krugman, p. r. (2008). inequality and redistribution. in n. serra & j. e. stiglitz (eds.), the washington consensus reconsidered —towards a new global governance. oxford university press, 31-40. lind, j. (2018). devolution, shifting centre-periphery relationships and conflict in northern kenya. political geography, 63(march 2018), 135-147. mohan, g., brown, e., milward b., & zack-williams, a. b. (2000). structural adjustment: theory, practice and impacts. routledge. nhema, a. g., & zinyama, t. (2016). modernization, dependency and structural adjustment development theories and africa: a critical appraisal. international journal of social science research, 4(1), 151-166. nölke, a. (2014). world-system theory. in s. scheider & m. spindler (eds.), theories of international relations, (trans. a. skinner). routledge, 198-213. nye, j., 2011. the future of power. new york: public affairs. nye, j., (2005). on the rise and fall of american soft power. new perspectives quarterly, 22(3), 75-77. nye, j., (2004). soft power: the means to success in world politics. new york: public affairs. nye, j. (1990). soft power. foreign policy, 80, 153-171. petras, j., & veltmeyer, h. (2015). power and resistance: us imperialism in latin america. brill. rapley, j. (2002). understanding development: theory and practice in the third world. lynne rienner publishers. reyes, g. e. (2001). four main theories of development: modernization, dependency, world-systems, and globalization. nomadas, 4, 1-12. sachs, j. d. (2005). the end of poverty: how we can make it happen in our lifetime. penguin. santos, t. d. (1970). the structure of dependence. the american economic review, 60(2), 231-236. simon, w. o. (2011). centre-periphery relationship in the understanding of development of internal colonies. international journal of economic development and investment, 2(1), 147-156. spector, b. i., & wagner, l. m. (2010). negotiating international development. international negotiation: a journal of theory and practice, 15(3), 327-340. stiglitz, j. e. (2008). is there a post-washington consensus? in n. serra, & j. e. stiglitz (eds.), the washington consensus reconsidered—towards a new global governance. oxford university press, 41-56. weiss, t. g. (2010). governance, good governance and global governance: conceptual and actual challenges. third world quarterly, 21(5), 795-814. doi:10.1080/713701075 wallerstein, i. (2007). world-systems analyses: an introduction. duke university press. wallerstein, i. (1979). the capitalist world economy: essays. cambridge university press. walmsley, p. (2003). locke's essay and the rhetoric of science. bucknell university press. williams, m. (2000). the great moving right show: the crisis of the mid-1970s and the rise of thatcherism. in crisis and consensus in british politics. palgrave macmillan, 49-64. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230514676_5 williamson, j. (2004). a short history of the washington consensus. conference paper commissioned by fundación cidob, for a conference. from the washington consensus towards a new global governance. barcelona, september 24-25, 2004. https://www.piie.com/publications/papers/williamson0904-2.pdf 486 williamson, j. (1990). what washington means by policy reform. in j. williamson (ed.), latin american adjustment: how much has happened? institute for international economics, 7-20. wilson, e. (2008). hard power, soft power, smart power. the annals of the american academy of political and social science, 616, 110-124. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25097997 world bank (2021). understanding poverty: education. world bank. https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/education/overview world bank (2018). world bank education overview (english). world bank. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/821801540479977693/world-bank-education-overview authors: terry evans is an emeritus professor in the faculty of arts and education at deakin university. he has published widely on open and distance education and doctoral education, including twelve edited collections on the former and four on the latter. his teaching, research, consultancy and/or qa reviews have spanned australia, canada, hong kong, fiji, new zealand, png, taiwan, thailand, uk and usa. email: terry.evans@deakin.edu.au viktor jakupec is an honorary professor of education and development studies at university of potsdam, deakin university and the malawi university of science and technology. he has published extensively on development aid and held consultancy appointments with major international aid organisations in the field of development aid and education in 19 countries across asia, eastern europe, middle east north africa, and the balkans. email: viktor.jakupec@deakin.du.au cite this paper as: evans, t., & jakupec, v. (2021). from modernisation, dependency and soft power toward a commonwealth of learning. journal of learning for development, 8(3), 473-486. alam effect of community factors on primary school learners’ achievement  in rural bangladesh shafiqul alam vol. 2, no. 1 abstract community plays an important role in childhood education. this research has identified the community factors that affect learners’ achievement through the use of case studies. qualitative data were captured by semi-structured interview and data interpretation was underpinned by concepts derived from human capital and social capital theories. this research identified six community factors: financial position, environment, educational status, communication and support given to schools, community child care, and unity and cooperation among community people that affect learner’s achievement (i.e., quality of education). this research also suggests that the notion of “rural community roles” tend to be thought of as “doing something for the children”. there is also an ecological balance in the relations between the community and the school. this research suggests that the human capital and social capital of the community and children reinforce each other in a reproductive loop. this means the human and social capital of family and community play a role in the creation of the human and social capitals of the children (quality education), and vice-versa. these observations on education quality add a new horizon to the knowledge base of primary education, and one that may contribute to policy-making and also facilitate further research. 1. introduction bangladesh has a strong national commitment to primary education and has one of the largest centralized primary education systems in the world (gob, 2002). primary education is free for all children in bangladesh, from grades one through five. by law, children between the ages of six and ten must attend school. drop-out rates are unacceptably high, with only 47 per cent of enrolled students completing grade five. the literature confirms that bangladesh has achieved remarkable progress with respect to the goals of universal primary education and gender equality in education but it lags behind in ensuring the quality of primary education (m. ahmed, ahmed, khan, & ahmed, 2007; m. ahmed, et al., 2005; a. m. r. chowdhury, choudhury, nath, ahmed, & alam, 2001; latif, 2004; majumder, 2006; moe, 2004; mopme, 2003, 2007). according to unesco (2010) “the ultimate measure of any education system is not how many children are in school, but what – and how well – they learn.” (p. 7) and “expanding access to primary schooling doesn’t necessarily imply a trade-off with improving school quality and learning outcomes” (unesco, 2006). it is clear that both quality and access must receive attention, and one must not be sacrificed in “a trade-off” against the other (latif, 2004). quantity and quality in education should complement rather than replace each other (latif, 2004). therefore, the quality of primary education in bangladesh remains a big question. learning is a product not only of schooling but also of families, communities and peers (engin-demir, 2009). learning takes place in many environments – home, school and workplace (irbd/wb, 2006). therefore, education is the business of schools, family and community and ensuring quality is the joint effort of all these participants (bojuwoye, 2009; christenson, rounds, & gorney, 1992; j. epstein & connors, 1995). the literature also shows that there is no comprehensive research done on family and community factors with regard to education quality in bangladesh, although, these elements are recognized in the literature as key factors in enhancing quality primary education. therefore, it is pertinent to know about the factors related to family and community in the local culture of bangladesh in order to frame the agenda of ensuring quality primary education. in this regard, it is timely and appropriate to investigate the factors affecting the quality of primary education related to the community in the local context of bangladesh. 2. literature review the community and parents have important roles in ensuring  the quality of education in schools and such involvement makes a difference (aronson, 1996; beveridge, 2005; m. chowdhury, haq, & ahmed, 1997; ibrd/wb, 2006; wolfendale & bastiani, 2000). the community involvement in schools is, potentially, a rich area for innovation that has benefits far beyond access. due to some limitations of the government in providing quality education (remoteness, bureaucracy, corruption and inefficient management), bridging the values gap between government initiatives and community desires, and adjusting to the child’s familial obligations to family interest, would help shift towards ways to mobilize a sense of community through building relationships among governments, schools and communities (cummings & dall, 1995). in another study, chowdhury et al. (1997, p. 246) expresses the same view that, “ in the wake of the existing problems of failure of the ‘top down’ policy in educational management, community participation in educational  planning and management has been viewed as a key to success in developing countries in general”. parental and community involvement in school affairs has become another strategic drive of school improvement efforts in africa (verspoor, 2005). the literature states that there are school management committees and parents’ committees that involve parents, guardians and social elites, both in bangladesh and african countries but the experiences reveal that such initiatives weren’t succesfull in the most cases (m. ahmed, et al., 2005; carron & chau, 1996; m. chowdhury, et al., 1997; latif, 2004; verspoor, 2005). however, huq et al., (2004) found that the school management committee in high quality schools in bangladesh showed great concern for maintaining the quality of education, and contributed to the overall educational environment of the schools, whereas, the community of low quality schools is less concerned about the same issues and has no meaningful impact on the quality of education in schools. carron & chau (1996, p. 278) stated that, “it is necessary to break out of this vicious circle whereby parental discouragement is met with teacher defeatism”, and, “the most urgent task is probably simply to make the school more welcoming for its users”. similarly, “the community is likely to reciprocate by showing grater interest in the school with a partnership gradually forming” (cummings & dall, 1995, p.115). rahman and ali (2004) emphasize the role of community in ensuring the quality of education; stating that: the last entry point to consider here is to strengthen the accountability process within the system through innovating on community – relevant and community – validated outcome indices. a shared understanding of quality can serve to reinforce the sense of community ownership and create the ground for a fuller community engagement in primary education (p. 68) the community factors that have direct or indirect effects on ensuring the quality of primary education are: home environment, support for education, local relevance and ownership to schools, community’s lack of skills and confidence,  community’s lack of cohesion and experience in contributing to school management (verspoor, 2005);  a values gap between government initiatives and community desires, children’s familial obligations to family  (cummings & dall, 1995); urbanization, public facilities available in the community, industrial areas, use of modern technology, school location, community leaders, educational communities, conflicts of interest, donations from the community, a sense of belonging (chantavanich, et al., 1990); the cultural gap between parent and teacher (carron & chau, 1996); and economic and social status of the community (unesco, 2004). 3. conceptual framework a conceptual framework conceptualizes, frames, and focuses the study in which a researcher’s personal observations are transformed into a systematic inquiry by reviewing the work of other scholars and practitioners on the topic, and thereby building a theoretical rationale and a framework to guide the study. therefore, it focuses on the clear design of the study; on decisions about where to go, what to look for, and how to move to real-world observations and become more specific (marshall & rossman, 2006). according to this definition and scope of conceptual framework, a number of models of quality of primary education in different countries are reviewed. these are: model of the learning system: causes, consequences, and interaction (psacharopoulos & woodhall, 1985) framework for relationship among factors affecting students’ learning achievement (chantavanich et al.,1990) model of effective schooling (lockheed & verspoor, 1990) model of the educational process (cummings & dall, 1995) framework for functioning of school (carron & chau, 1996) input-process-output model (saxena et al., 1996) conceptual framework on factors that determine school effectiveness (heneveld & craig, 1996) analytical framework of quality of education (chowdhury et al. 2000) model of educational wastage (achola & pillai, 2000) input-process-outcome framework for assessing education quality (latif, 2004) framework for understanding  education quality (unesco, 2004) model of the transforming of inputs into outputs of schooling (verspoor,    2005) system approach of input, process and outcome (ahmed, et al., 2005) analytical framework of quality of education (unesco, 2007).  a conceptual framework of this research is therefore developed based on ‘the learning system: causes, consequences, and interaction model’ by psacharopoulos & woodhall (1985, 216), and the model of ‘the transformation of inputs into outputs of schooling’ developed by verspoor (2005, 48) uniting both social capital theory and human capital theory. the model of psacharopoulos and woodhall shows the relationship between inputs and outputs. like an education production function, many factors such as family, school variables and socioeconomic factors affect the educational outcomes. here, the term ‘education function’ refers to ‘the process by which inputs are converted to outputs’ (1985, 215). this transformation model emphasizes factors such as school, system, community and family, and all the factors, to an extent, are aligned (pulling in the same direction) and the system performance is to be improved (verspoor, 2005). the models of psacharopoulos & woodhall (1985) and verspoor (2005) are used to develop the conceptual framework of this study. social capital theory and human capital theory are intended as a lens to guide this research. here, the following arguments are presented as why these two models are chosen to delineate the research framework: the above theories and models fit comprehensively all issues of the research are reflected in these two models the intertwining of these two models covers all the strategies, directions and pathways of research both the models are based on the input-process-output framework and the means by which it neatly presumes the factors of quality and the meaning of educational quality. the conceptual framework guided the data analysis and interpretation of findings in this research. the synergy of all these issues (inputs, process, output, outcome, benefits) is portrayed in the framework as depicted below (fig. 1). in this research, the flow system as shown by dashes, was not studied or interpreted. according to the literature, there are two perspectives on educational process: from the education provider and from the education receiver. family and community are the key receivers of education; and school and the government are the key education providers. therefore, this study looks into the factors and issues of the education receiver side (community) that affects the quality of education. the community factors on achievements that are indicated in fig. 1 by bold lines are studied. the family, community, student, school and the system context are considered as “inputs”.  the schooling that took place in schools and outside the schools is considered as “process”. children’s achievement that is the result of quality education is denoted as “outcome”. then, “outcomes” are the sum of changes in attitude, behavior and status on the job and in society, and “benefits” are the positive changes occurring in productivity, employment, society, politics, and earnings. figure 1: conceptual framework in this framework, it can be seen that factors of family, community, school, student and system context affect the children’s achievement through the learning process in schools and outside the schools. students acquire human capital and virtual relations that are developed by students within the community, family and school is the social capital. then, this social capital and human capital is transformed into outcomes and brings benefits to individual students, families, communities and the nation. the study therefore unveils what are the factors of community and how it affects learners’ achievements. 4. research methodology the qualitative  method (case studies) is used in this research. the case study, which is ethnographic in nature, illuminated the insights related to the community factors. the aim of this research was to know rural parents’ perceptions of the community factors that affect learner achievement. therefore, it uncovers their views and the social interactions embedded in the rural community. the epistemological position of this research stands on the constructivism-interpretivism spectrum. this research used the general inductive approach (auerbach & silverstein, 2003) and the mechanics of coding were developed on the basis of the data analysis process of auerbach & silverstein (2003). 4.1 locality and schools the present research was conducted in two primary schools located in an upazila (administrative unit or sub-district) of bangladesh. the details about the schools and the locality are presented below. locality bangladesh is a densely populated country in south asia with a population of 158.66 million (in 2007). it has an area of 147,540 km2.  its adult literacy rate is 53% (2000-2007) and 84% of its population is living on an income of less than us$2 per day (unesco, 2010). the population comprises the following religious divisions: muslims (83%), hindus (16%), buddhists and christians (1%). in bangladesh, there are 496 upazilas. the research was conducted in an upazila called shibganj, located in the northern part of the country. this upazila occupies an area of 523.43 km2 and within this; the rural town covers an area of 26.81km2. the population of this upazila is 0.5 million, and 8.34% live in rural townships. its literacy rate was 32.5% and the school attendance rate stood at 41.8% in 2001. in this upazila, 59.25% of the dwelling households depend on agriculture. other sources of income are business (18.89%), non-agricultural labour (5.63%), industry (1.59%), employment (3.50%), construction (1.73%), religious service (0.12%) and others (9.29%) (bangladesh bureau of statistics, 2005). there are fifteen (15) union parishads (ups) in the upazila. up is the structural unit of an upazila. case schools primary education is catered through 11 types of primary schools in bangladesh. the proposed research was carried out in government primary schools in shibganj upazila. the government primary schools provide 75% of primary school education in the country. parents (village informants) are interviewed. both the perspectives of villages and schools were examined and critically analyzed. two government primary schools located in rural areas and rural townships in shibganj upazila have been investigated.  (1) rural school the rural school is situated in durlabhpur union parishad. a union parishad (up) is the sub-unit of an upazila. it is the poorest up in shibganj upazila. the literacy rate of this locality is 29.66% (bangladesh bureau of statistics, 2005) whereas the literacy rate of bangladesh is 53% (unesco, 2010). only 48.92% of its children (5-9 years old) attend primary school. according to the bangladesh bureau of statistics (2005) the total population (10 years old and above) of this up is 33,385. among them, 30.93% are jobless. others are involved in various occupations, including household work (32.36%), agriculture (25.65%), industry (0.19%), construction (1.03%), business (3.64), service (1.50%) and other (6.2%). this school is located in a poor community adjacent to a bazaar. the school has a building with separate classrooms. but the classrooms lack adequate facilities required for good study. figure 2: rural school some of the class-rooms do not even have benches or desks (fig. 2). there is no facility for drinking water in the school. this school has 10 teachers (6 male and 4 female) and the total number of students is 315 (in 2008). figure 3: rural town school the school has a two-story building. it has a sufficient number of class-rooms with benches, desks and other facilities (fig. 3). there is a tube-well on the school premises that is the source of drinking water. in 2008, the school had 374 students and 9 teachers (2 male and 7 female). (2) rural town school this school is situated in shibganj pourashava (rural town) adjacent to the upazila headquarters. it is the richest area of this upazila in terms of its population’s higher literacy rate and higher income. the literacy rate of this rural town is 41% and 45.63% of children (age 5-9 years) attend this school. the total population (10 years and above) of this paurashava is 26,707. among them, 34.50% are in the category of jobless and looking for a job. there are various activities in which people are engaged: household work (32.68%), agriculture (12.05%), industry (1.53%), construction (2.36%), business (7.59%), service (1.67%) and other (7.62%). 4.2 research method as mentioned earlier, all the entire research was conducted by qualitative method (case study). the research design was delineated in such a way that the objective, design and methodology of the study allowed us to bring out and highlight the local community and grass-roots level and  the functions of primary education, considering the viewpoints of parents. case study the case study was carried out by a multiple-case studies method. this study was ethnographic in characteristic. it was conducted in two schools in poor and rich localities. the logic behind selecting schools located both in poor and rich localities was to uncover the whole spectrum of quality dimensions within a rural context informants the semi-structured interviews were conducted with the parents (n = 10) of two case schools. the key characteristics of informants who participated in the interviews are described in the following section. 4.3 methods of data collection in this study, data were captured by semi-structured interview and participant observation.the methods of data collection are briefly described below. parent informants (pi) education profession gender age (years) pi 1 bachelor  secondary school teaching male 48 pi 2 masters college teaching male 43 pi3 illiterate shop keeper male 58 pi4 bachelor secondary school teaching male 35 pi5 grade 6 house wife female 32 pi6 illiterate office attendant male 49 pi7 illiterate business male 35 pi8 bachelor business male 36 pi9 secondary village doctor male 38 pi10 masters officer male 44 semi-structured interviewing in this study, semi-structured interviews were conducted because they are flexible, focused and time-effective. merriam (1994) suggests three ways to record interview data: (1) tape recording, (2) taking notes, and (3) recording interview data by writing down as much can be remembered as soon after the interview as possible – this is the least desirable way of recording data. in this study, the interview data were recorded by both audio tape and field notes. there are many strategies used in the interviewing process of this case study research. first, rapport was built with the informants by discussing some of their personal matters and by presenting token gifts. then, the researcher briefed the informant on the purpose of the interview. confirmation was given that anonymity and the confidentiality of the responses would be strictly protected. since the researcher has grown up in this community, he knows the culture and norms of the community population and the locality as well. it was an added advantage for him to be able to capture the data in an easy way. with the assistance of the head teachers of the respective schools, the schedule was made for interviewing parents according to their availability and convenience. the interviews were conducted in bengali., the researcher was conversant in the local language of that community, which helped a lot in understanding their thinking and views clearly and in depth, since the local language is somewhat different from pure bangla, both in utterance and style of speaking. with their permission, the interviews were audiotaped, although some of them asked that their voices not be recorded. in these cases, the researcher adopted a strategy, whereby the informants were humbly requested to give their consent to record the interview, after explaining that if they found anything wrong with it or felt it may harm them in any way, it would be deleted directly from the tape recorder in front of them. thankfully, however, no informant asked for this after their interview. 4.4 data analysis data analysis refers to three concurrent flows of activity: data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing. data reduction refers to the process of selecting, focusing, simplifying, abstracting and transforming the data; data display is an organized, abstract form of information that permits conclusion drawing and action; and conclusion drawing is the critical evaluation of the research findings (miles & huberman, 1994). the analysis of data is termed “coding”. according to auerbach & silverstein (2003) the main purpose of coding  data is to move from the raw text to research concerns. the steps of data analysis are: raw text, relevant text, repeating ideas, themes, theoretical constructs, theoretical narrative and finally research concerns. in this study, the framework of analysis (coding mechanics) was developed on the basis of the data analysis processes of auerbeach and silverstein (2003) data preparation the interviews were copied from the tape recorder to the computer. the interviews were conducted in bengali. the interviews were therefore transcribed in bengali and thereafter translated into english. data analysis data analysis follows a process which is borrowed and adapted from grounded theory. the qualitative study of this research was conducted in two schools in rural areas as a miniature representative (case) of schools in rural bangladesh, where the views of sample parents were analyzed. in this research, perceptions of parents on community factors were identified in their rural setting. the new concepts and knowledge base were built on the footing of prior knowledge in the field. the three steps used for data analysis are described in detail in the following: step one: exploring data and identifying relevant text the data analysis process started with the raw data: information collected from the informants by interview. the first step was to define clearly the research questions and theoretical framework, since it is important to identify the relevant text for coding. according to auerbach &silverstein (2003), research concern is what the researcher wants to learn about and why, and the theoretical framework is the set of beliefs about psychological processes with which the researcher approaches the study. in this process of analysis, the relevant text was selected from the interview transcripts, keeping in mind the research concerns. these were recorded when the researcher started reading transcripts to separate the relevant text from the raw text. the theoretical framework guides the researcher in choosing what to include or exclude from analysis and it helps the researcher read the text in a more focused way without any bias (auerbach & silverstein 2003).therefore, relevant texts were sorted out for coding. after reading the transcripts, the texts are selected and copied and placed in a separate file. each text is then marked. this helps in referring back to the original text when further review and change in the text is needed. similarly, other texts were selected for the remaining research concerns and then put in separate files. both individual sentences and whole paragraphs were selected and used as relevant texts. step 2: initial coding and categorizing this step belongs to the phase where repeating ideas are formed. the repeating idea is one expressed in relevant text by two or more research participants (auerbach & silverstein, 2003). they note that these ideas are the initial building units from which the researcher will move forward towards the theoretical narrative (auerbach & silverstein, 2003). these repeating ideas are referred to in this study as sub-themes. the researcher thought it appropriate to use sub-theme instead of repeating idea as these ideas are the building blocks of the theme.   the step for creating repeating ideas (sub-themes) starts with the first selection of relevant text. the first selection is called a starter text (auerbach & silverstein, 2003). all interview texts were used for discovering ideas. the entire relevant texts were read and ideas that seemed related to the starter idea were copied and placed into the file containing the sub-theme. memos were used to indicate how these selections were related. this process continued until the end of the relevant text portion. when all of the selections that were related to the first starter were completed, the second starter text was selected, highlighted and copied to the same file as in the case of the first starter. this procedure continued until the end of the selection of all relevant texts. after the ideas were all grouped, each group of ideas were read and coded according to the memos taken. actually, each group of ideas naturally contained the name that indicated to which group they should belong. that is, the group names were self generating. each group of ideas is collectively called a sub-theme. these sub-themes were named according to their hidden meanings. then, all sub-themes were put in a list for further coding. this is called the master list of sub-themes (repeating ideas) (auerbach & silverstein, 2003). the next step was to categorize the sub-themes into a common theme. the process of discovering themes is the same as the process of discovering sub-themes. in the same way, the starter sub-theme was selected first from the list of sub-themes. then, sub-themes that were congruent to the starter sub-themes were highlighted as being related to the first theme and placed together in a file, accompanied by a record of the reasons for the slection. this segregation process of sub-themes into different broad categories (theme) continued until the completion of the selection of all sub-themes in the list. the same sub-themes were also put under more than one category when the researcher felt that it contained more than two meanings. in this case, these sub-themes were marked and selected further for the next selection process. step 3: developing constructs and answering research questions by narration the ultimate aim of this step was to describe the research results by developing constructs, and weaving together the description through the process of logical and comprehensive narration. the construct is an abstract form of a group of themes. in the words of auerbach and silverstein (2003), a theoretical construct is “an abstract concept that organizes a group of themes by fitting them into a theoretical framework” (p. 67). the procedure for making constructs from themes is the same as that of constructing themes from sub-themes. the process of creating constructs was easier to carry out since there was a relatively small number. however, it was more difficult in a sense at this stage, since the researcher had to work through more abstract concepts. auerbach & silverstein (2003) advise that in the formation of a more abstract form of data, that is, theoretical constructs, the researcher will be able to use some theoretical literature to make sense of the findings. the final stage of the data analysis process, as used in this research, was the construction of a narration that led the study towards addressing the research concerns. the necessary literature and the informant’s quotations were presented to reflect on and understand the expressed views directly. all sub-themes, themes and constructs for each research concern were presented in a table.   the narration was placed under the umbrella of the theoretical framework and the research questions of the study. finally, each step of the data analysis is revisited for checking and coding and for the emergent process of relevant texts, sub-themes, themes, and constructs, as well as the narration process of research findings. therefore, these were revised according to any new objectives that were found to be important. 5. community factors of quality of education (learners’ achievement) the data analysis from parent informants produced a construct, themes and sub-themes in the framework of analysis as developed for data analysis. the coding of the parents’ data generated a construct called “characteristics of the community's frame of mind”. the construct has two themes, namely, basic characteristics and community support and cooperation. each theme consists of several sub-themes. the in-depth discussion on these themes and sub-themes exhibited a comprehensive account of parents’ perceptions on community factors related to education quality. the construct, themes and sub-themes are presented below in table 5). table 5. construct, themes and sub-themes construct: characteristics of the community's frame of mind theme a: community characteristics environment financial position education theme b: community support and cooperation communication and support to school caring of community children unity and cooperation 5.1 community environment parents perceived that the environment of the community, where the school was located, is largely influenced by the roles of community leaders and the availability of resources (financial, social and human) in the community. the environment of the community, in turn, provides social networks in the community that help schools in various ways to provide an achievement trajectory for children. there are some parents’ statements on the issues of community environment that are presented below: good environment both outside and inside the schools is necessary for ensuring quality education. i am not satisfied with the results of my son. he does not study well. the environment of the community is not good. his company with naughty and uneducated children in the community made him inattentive in the study. children learn from the community members (such as adults, peers, etc). the behaviour of inhabitants of a community reflects the climate of that community. therefore, the community environment is important for children’s better learning. environment of the community influences the children’s learning. as for example, a portion of our village is occupied by aware and educated people, and more children are attending the schools from that part of the community. they are comparatively doing well in their education. on the other hand, unaware and illiterate parents of the poor and uneducated community are sending their children to work instead of school. they are not aware of the value of education. but some of the children from this poor and unaware community get a stipend for attending school. many children do not come to school. they watch cinema or play video games in the shop near school. the community people should take care of these issues and take the necessary measures to eradicate these activities from the community as these have bad impacts on children’s earning. each of these bullet points communicates a specific message. the first indicates the importance of community environment for children’s learning. the second expresses the relation between community environment and children’s education through the eyes of poor rural parents. the third statement acknowledges the influence of the mental makeup of people in the community in the creation of the community environment that is suitable for children’s education. the last one relates to the role of community leaders in creating a good environment in the community for children’s quality education. these leaders sought the active school management committee (smc) for their children’s better learning. smc or the community leaders can build an environment in the community through active concern and support for improving the quality of education. parents emphasized the community’s involvement in children’s education and in creating an educational environment and awareness amongst the community’s population, explaining the value of education and in extending support to children of poor families. of course, this depends on the community where the school is located and functions. in this respect, functionality of the community varies according to the availability of human, social, cultural and material resources. the research confirms that the environment of a community is related to the availability of resources in the community, and the environment of the community is an important element of the community in helping to maintain quality of education in primary schools. 5.2  financial position community involvement in children’s education is seen in various ways (sanders, 2001) and parental involvement is one of the important concepts of community involvement. therefore, the financial position of families in the community also reflects the financial position of that community overall, as well as its effect on the children’s education. it is reported that poverty among guardians and the community population is the main cause of poor support in the community (haq, et al., 2004). the parents of the schools involved in this research were poor and with a high rate of illiteratcy and, therefore, they did not know how to account for the effect of the financial position of the community on children’s learning comprehensively. however, they felt that community involvement both in local and non-local schools are necessary for maintaining education quality. they realized that the financial position of families or communities is a matter of extending support and cooperation to the school or family for children’s educational development. according to some parents: many children of poor families do not come to school due to lack of note-books, pencils and other costs of schooling. they do not study well. in this case, the affluent people of the community can assist these poor children by providing pencils, note books or dresses to the children of poor families for ensuring their education. we need money for treatments if children become sick, they also need good clothes. if parents are not able to provide good clothing, then it has an impact on their mindsets. children need to pay various fees in schools and need to pay for their books, work books, and pencils needed for their studies. if they don’t get these materials in proper time then they are embarrassed in school. therefore, parents have to keep ready these materials for their children’s smooth study. that is why they need money for children’s education. if there is more children in a low income family, then, in that case, parents are not able to provide education to all children equally. this study suggests that financial crises of families keep many children away from attending school due to a lack of books, pencils, note-books, school dresses, and an inability to pay fees and other hidden costs. in these situations, parents suggested that the community’s population should assist economically disadvantaged families. the literature shows that although primary education in bangladesh is free, there are still some costs that families need to bear. this is an extra burden for poor rural families. it was found that many children came from the families who do not have proper dwellings and good environment for their studies. there is no one to guide them in their studies at home. this results in many children of poor families leaving their studies at an early age (cdrb, 2004). in an impact study of the school feeding programme (sfp), it was found that sfp improves academic achievement of children (a. u. ahmed, 2004). this study stated that most of the children in the sfp come from poor families—69 % of programme households in the rural area earn less than us$ 0.50 a day per capita. these families cannot afford adequate food, and both malnutrition and short-term hunger likely affect their learning. therefore, this study confirms that the financial status of both family and community affect children’s learning. the financial position of family directly affects the children’s achievement. a family’s economic factors are related to these issues of the community and vice-versa. 5.3 educational position of the community parent informants corroborated that, in addition to financial position and the environment of the community, educational status is another factor of the community which affects children’s learning. their statements connected to education in the community that are related to children’s learning were considered to fall under the “education position of the community” and are are quoted below: many children can’t study well. neighborhoods are uneducated. my child became inattentive in study by accompanying uneducated and naughty children of the community. uneducated people are not aware of their children’s education. they are not aware of the value of education. if parents have at least a grade nine or ten education, then, they have at least an understanding about their children’s education and well-being. usually, educated parents have a good intention to send their children to schools. educated guardians can provide the necessary support to their children. but many illiterate and unaware parents cannot. i do advise that illiterate parents not marry off their talented daughters at an early age. of course, the parents who are aware like me do not do this. the community are now more eager to send their children to schools than before. as for an example: my son read in class three. he can read books fluently. on the other hand, after completion of study in class four, one of my nephews had to stop his study due to his parents’ unawareness about education. however, i took him to school and he is now doing well in his study. i am taking care of his study. in fact, if the community is educated, then, each parent in the community becomes aware of their children’s education. they should send their children to schools regularly and help in the preparation of homework or arrange for private tuition. these statements illustrate the roles (positive and negative) of educational status in the community on children’s learning. the positive roles include educated guardians helping with their children’s learning, and providing additional support to their children’s education. the negative roles include children becoming inattentive in study in order to imitate their uneducated peers of the community. uneducated parents do not understand the value of education and the illiterate cannot provide the necessary supports to children for their learning. parents perceived that educated guardians are more aware of their children’s education and that they valued their children’s education. the rural community’s people extend support and cooperation to schools and the community’s children. they also acknowledged that the absence or lack of education in the community can have an adverse effect on children’s achievements. therefore, they saw the education of the community itself as an important factor for children’s learning. 5.4 communication and school support the analysis of the data reveals that community participation in the rural schools of bangladesh happens through participation in the school management committee (smc) and parent teacher association, although, support and contribution of the smc to schools for children’s better learning is limited.. parents expressed their views that the smc has a potential role in schools for helping children achieveme their goals.. parents added that the community population need to extend support and cooperation to schools in many ways. in this connection, the following parents’ statements are worthy of mention: smcs do not cooperate much with schools. if these are cooperative then it would be helpful for schools’ management. if the smc meetings were held four to five times in a year, then, it would be possible to identify school problems and their solutions. in fact, local support is important for children’s success. there should be a good communication between school and community. regular parent-teacher meetings are a good practice for children’s learning and development. through this, parents are able to know the performance of their children on a regular basis and if there is any shortfall, parents can take remedial action for improving their children’s education.  smc has important roles for school success in rural schools. as for example, in the winter, it is observed that many teachers sit at the outdoor patio of schools without taking class. teachers could not be absent from the classes just sitting lazily if members of smc visit schools regularly (1 or 2 days per week). smc can look after children’s attendance in schools. the above statements clearly reflect parent’s dissatisfaction with community support and cooperation as they are now practiced. they saw the community supports to schools only through the participation of the community in the smc. they put value on the community support in rural schools in bangladesh for achieving quality in education. how the smc can help schools in ensuring children’s success is also explained by parents. as a result, parents can take remedial measures for their children’s development. the community, acting through the smc, can bring any problems to the smc for solution. according to parents, the community communication with schools is very limited and this limited  invovlement through smc/pta has yet to bring fruitful results for children’s achievements. it is probably due to the negligence of community leaders, misuse of power and authority by persons in the community, and the selection of inappropriate people in the smc. however, parents admitted that community communication and support for schools has enormous potential to assist children’s success. 5.5 caring for children in the community parents feel that the community can extend support to the participants in the education process, such as schools, children, parents and community members to ensure quality of education. parent informants explained how the members of the community can extend support to children for their learning. they indicated that taking care of children’s learning both in schools and communities by community leaders or parents is an important element for education quality. according to parents informants: in fact, many guardians do not know in which class their children study. in reply to a question like “in which class does your child read”? they replied “i don’t know”. however, they are aware of their goats —whether these are coming back from the field after grazing or whether their poultry are laying eggs or not; but they are not  aware of their children’s education –  the most valuable wealth in the world. parents and community leaders should visit schools at least once a month. this would enable them to learn how students are progressing in their studies or how well they are studying in schools. it is often noted that many children of poor families do not attend school or don’t achieve good results due to lack of note-books, school dresses, pen-pencils or other hidden costs of their study — as noted before. the community leaders should consultat with one another to solve these problems, in order to ensure the attendance of poor children in schools. it would also help them  attain  quality learning at home. it is also observed in rural communities that many children play and otherwise move around during school hours. this creates a distracting environment and hampers children’s learning. if each parent was aware of this and took measures to discipline their children, the problem could be solved easily.  therefore, this research supports the idea that community support can contribute to elevate children’s educational achievements (epstein, 2001) and childen, parents, schools and other community participants) are mutually benefitted in various ways (bojuwoye, 2009). 5.6.  unity and cooperation parents also felt that the community should extend support to schools, children and the community’s population in general in order to benefit children’s achievement levels. the community should exhibit unity and cooperation in performing these duties as necessary. according to parent informants: there are some cd shops in the village that are being run by engaging school-going children. children play computer games and gamble in these shops. they are wasting their time and they are destroying their career early in life. their performance becomes worse in class. the community needs to become united to eradicate these bad elements from the community and to create an educational environment for children’s better achievement. the community leaders or members of smc can pay visits one or two times in a month to the families of those children who do not come to school regularly, or children who do not have proper attention in study. they can motivate the parents of these children by extending supports to them and by understanding the problems of these families for ensuring their children’s quality education. the people of our community need to be united and cooperative for promoting quality of education. if the villagers or smc members get involved and extend cooperation to schools, then this can contribute to enhancing the quality of education. there are two key messages to be distilled from these statements. first, the community has a pivotal role in creating a good educational environment. second, the community needs to be united and cooperative. they have to sacrifice their time, resources and to share their thoughts about how the education of children can be enhanced. 6. synthesis of parents’ perception the research suggests that parents feel some key community factors affect the quality of primary education. these includes the environment, financial position, educational status, communication and support available to the school, the care exhibited towards the children by the community, and the unity and cooperation evidenced amongst the community’s population. these characteristics and their association with other factors are  presented in table 6 below: table 6.  synthesis of parents’ perception factors characteristics association environment social capital, human capital, direct and indirect effect on children’s learning community involvement, financial position, education financial position financial capital, direct effects on children’s learning support to schools, education education human capital, direct support to  children’s learning economic status of the community, caring of community children, communication and support to school communication and support to school social capital, indirect support towards children’s learning values of the community, education and financial position caring of community children direct and indirect support to children’s education, social capital education and financial position, values and attitudes of the community unity and cooperation social capital, direct and indirect effects on children’s learning communication and support to school, values of the community 6. conclusion in this study, an attempt was made to hear the voices of parents in order to uncover their views about community factors affecting the quality of education. the research maintained transparency, communicability and coherence in the process of data collection, analysis and interpretation. as both an insider and outsider, the researcher was able to take advantage of both perspectives to display a heightened critical awareness. however, this study cannot claim to be totally free from subjectivity. this study attempted to enhance the generality of the research results by providing rich and thick description and using multiple cases. the research was carried out in two rural schools of one upazila (an administrative unit) in bangladesh (which has 496 upazilas). therefore, the conclusions of this research are confined to these specific cases in rural bangladesh. the applicability of specific research results is within the prerogative of the readers, who can decide as to what extent and in what context; they will be applicable. the research concludes that some basic characteristics of the community along with its support  and cooperation with schools are helpful for achieving the desired quality of primary education in rural areas of bangladesh. the impact of this support and cooperation depends on the characteristics of the particular community. the characteristics of a community prepare the mind of the population to do something to enhance children’s education. therefore, the research identified two kinds of community factors that affect the quality of education. they belong to the “characteristics of the community” and its “support and cooperation” themes.  the research identified the following factors as key: the financial position and the community environment, the educational status of the community, communication and support given to the school, the care for community children, and any unity and cooperation exhibited amongst the community’s population. the research suggests that the notion of “rural community roles” would be represented by the idea “doing something for community children”, and that there will be a “mutual understanding and sharing of resources and benefits”, much like a symbiotic relationship. however, the present research discovers that there is no such relationship, support, cooperation, or involvements that can play a significant role in achieving quality education. it is also observed that community members aren’t willing to communicate and cooperate with the schools for quality childrens’ education, and for their well-being. the research finds that the causes of this unwillingness may be lack of faith between the community population and teachers, a lack of awareness amongst the community’s population regarding their responsibilities to schools and also their inability to carry these out, due to their poverty and  illiteracy. another perception amongst parents is that schools are government organizations, which don’t require parental assistance to ensure the school’s success. despite parents’ dissatisfaction with community involvement in schools, the research suggests that community involvement in children’s education by extending support and cooperation to schools and families, would be an avenue to achieve quality education in rural primary schools in bangladesh. 7. recommendations this research suggests that there should be a symbiotic relation between the community and school for enhancing  children’s learning in rural primary schools. the community should extend support and cooperation to schools, and the schools, in turn, should welcome community participation.this means there should be an ecological balance between these two key participants in basic education. this study identified some factors of community that affect education quality. however, this study didn’t explore the interdependent affecting processes that link to education quality outcomes. it is therefore recommended that a rigorous analytical study be conducted to find out the complex effects on education quality of these processes, and to carry out a test of significance. this study was carried out in a rural town community of bangladesh. further study should be conducted to learn how the perceptions and perspectives of urban teachers and parents, by comparison, affect education quality and the factors related to family and community. references achola, p. p. w., & pillai, v. k. (2000). challenges of primary education in developing countries: insights from kenya. aldershot: ashgate. ahmed, a. u. (2004). impact of feeding children in school: evidence from bangladesh. washinton, d.c.: international food policy research institute. ahmed, m., ahmed, k. s., khan, n. i., & ahmed, r. (2007). access to education in bangladesh: country analytic review of primary and secondary education. dhaka: brac university institute of educational development (bu-ied). ahmed, m., nath, s. r., hossain, a., kabir, m. m., kalam, m. a., m.shajamal, m., et al. (2005). quality with equity: the primary education agenda. dhaka: campain for popular education (campe), bangladesh. aronson, j. z. (1996). how schools can recruit hard-to-reach parents. educational leadership, 53(7), 58-60. auerbach, c. f., & silverstein, l. b. (2003). qualitative data: an introduction to coding and analysis. new york: new york university press. beveridge, s. (2005). children, families and schools: developing partnerships for inclusive education. london: routledgefalmer. bojuwoye, o. (2009). home-school partnership–a study of opinions of selected parents and teachers in kwazulu natal province, south africa. research papers in education, 24(4), 461-475. carron, g., & chau, t. n. (1996). the quality of primary schools in different development contexts. paris: unesco publishing: international institute for educational planning. cdrb. (2004). a study on the status of public and private schools in bangladesh. bangladesh education journal, 2(2). chowdhury, a. m. r., choudhury, r. k., nath, s. r., ahmed, m., & alam, m. (eds.). (2001). a question of quality: state of primary education in bangladesh (vol. 1). dhaka: the unversity press limited. chowdhury, m., haq, m. n., & ahmed, z. (1997). quality of primary education in bangladesh. perspectives in education, 13(4). christenson, s. l., rounds, t., & gorney, d. (1992). family factors and student achievement: an avenue to increase students’ success. school psychology quarterly, 7(3), 178-206. cummings, w. k., & dall, f. p. (1995). implementing quality primary education for countries in transition. united nations children's fund, amman middle east north africa regional office. engin-demir, c. (2009). factors influencing the academic achievement of the turkish urban poor. international journal of educational development, 29(1), 17-29. epstein, j., & connors, l. (1995). school and family partnerships in the middle grades. creating school/family partnerships, 137-166. epstein, j. l. (2001). school, family, and community partnerships : preparing educators and improving schools. boulder, colo. ; oxford: westview press. gob. (2002). final plan: second primary education development programme ii of bangladesh. haq, m. n., ehsan, a., & jabbar, a. (2004). assessing quality of primary education in bangladesh. bangladesh education journal, 3(1). ibrd/wb. (2006). world development report 2007 washington, d.c. : world bank oxford university press. irbd/wb. (2006). world development report 2007. washington d.c.: world bank. latif, s. (2004). improvements in the quality of primary education in bangladesh 1990-2002. unpublished background paper for efa global monitoring report 2005. unesco. lockheed, m. e., & verspoor, a. (1990). improving primary education in developing countries: review of policy options. washington, d.c.: international bank for reconstruction and development/world bank. majumder, b. a. (2006, 17 january). mdgs: thoughts on ways to achieve them. the daily star. marshall, c., & rossman, g. b. (2006). designing qualitative research (4th ed.). thousands oaks, ca.: sage publications. moe. (2004). national education commission 2003 (commission report). dhaka: ministry of education, the government of the people's republic of bangladesh. mopme. (2003). education for all: national plan of action ii, bangladesh. mopme. (2007). final assessment report: national assessment of pupils of grades 3 and 5, 2006. dhaka: directorate of primary education, the government of the people's republic of bangladesh. psacharopoulos, g., & woodhall, m. (1985). education for developmnt: an analysis of investment choices. washington: the world bank, oxford unversity press. rahamn, h. z., & ali, k. s. (2004). quest for quality primary education: where are the entry points? bangladesh education journal, 3(2). sanders, m. (2001). the role of community in comprehensive school, family and community partnership programs. the elementary school journal, 102(1), 19-34. unesco. (2006). efa global monitoring report 2007: strong foundations-early childhood care and education: unesco. unesco. (2007). education for all by 2015: will we make it? paris: unesco publishing ; oxford university press. unesco. (2010). efa global monitoring repoty 2010: education for all. paris: unesco. verspoor, a. m. (ed.). (2005). the challenge of learning: improving the quality of basic education in sub-saharan africa. paris: association for the development of education in africa. wolfendale, s., & bastiani, j. (2000). the contribution of parents to school effectiveness. london: david fulton publishers. dr. md. shafiqul alam is the joint director (training and research division) bangladesh open university. he has published a number of articles in the field of education in national and international journals and conference proceedings. e-mail: shafiqul_bou@yahoo.com microsoft word dogan.docx issn: 2311-1550 2021, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 541-556 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. revisiting brainstorming within an educational context: a meta-thematic analysis yunus doğan1 and veli batdı2 1firat university, turkey 2gaziantep university, turkey abstract: an increase in research on the teaching of creativity in learning environments is being witnessed as more studies continue to reveal its effects on learning outcomes and academic achievement. thus, any investigative attempt to examine the relevant approaches to teaching of creative thinking skills is appreciated within the creativity literature. however, it is evident that the research on brainstorming as a creativity-promoting technique within an educational context has been overlooked for a while. therefore, this research synthesis tried to recombine and reinterpret the results of some qualitative studies on the impacts of brainstorming technique on learners’ achievement. to this end, 34 studies within the relevant literature were scanned; however, seven of them were found to be conducive to the meta-thematic analysis. the results of the meta-thematic analysis suggest that the brainstorming technique has positive effects on learners’ cognitive skills and affect. it is believed that designing instruction with brainstorming could foster students’ creativity by directing them to solving problems via critical thinking. the study further dwells on the reported drawbacks that are encountered during the implementation of this technique within the classroom and discusses some possible solutions as implications. keywords: academic achievement, brainstorming, creativity, meta-thematic analysis, thinking skills. introduction creativity is enunciated to be given high priority as one of the key competencies of the 21st century in every sphere of life, particularly in education (hernandez-torrano & ibrayeva, 2020; bonnardel & didier, 2020; nakano & wechsler, 2018; gajda et al, 2017; tsai, 2013; trilling & fadel, 2009; craft et al, 2007), replacing intelligence as the focus of interest (parkhurst, 1999). along with the paradigm shift in contemporary learning theory towards more constructivist and social cognitivist approaches, there has been an ever-increasing inclination to incorporate creativity and its required skills into many a school curriculum throughout the world (shaheen, 2010). the reality that the development level of any country is now determined with its level of information and technology within the context of globalisation acts as an incentive for many countries to try to reconsider their education systems in this respect (shute & ventura, 2013). the findings of this attempt encourage those countries to carry out research for improving individuals’ creativity. however, creativity alone cannot show its full impact. therefore, individuals are required to develop problem solving and divergent thinking skills together with creativity (i̇slim, 2011; scott et al, 2004). 542 although elusiveness is mentioned as regards the commonality of a standard definition of creativity by some researchers (runco & jaeger, 2012; cropley, 2001; parkhurst, 1999; ford & harris, 1992), parkhurst (1999) proposes a definition, which encompasses problem-solving but is not confined merely to it, as, “the ability or quality displayed when solving hitherto unsolved problems, when developing novel solutions to problems others have solved differently, or when developing original and novel (at least to the originator) products” (p. 18). no matter what other components creativity may contain depending on various theoretical definitions, learning and its targeted outcome, academic achievement is clearly correlated with creativity (gajda et al, 2017). therefore, any investigative attempt to reveal what teaching strategies could best foster creativity within classroom settings would be a significant contribution to the research on creativity in education. to this end, we tried to reconsider the brainstorming technique, which we believe has been neglected over a decade or so within the educational context. literature review instructional strategies and techniques occupy a significant part of the teaching process for educators as regards the quality of teaching. it is not always easy for teachers to identify the best methods of facilitating students’ active learning; thus, when considered in this context, brainstorming stands out as a thinking strategy that fosters creativity and that is utilised by individuals for solving problems easily (isaksen & gaulin, 2005; şahin, 2005). its first use appeared in the advertising sector with the aim of increasing product sales by generating many ideas and determining the best ones. since a great number of different and new ideas are brought forward, it is also known as a “questorm” (demirel, 2007). brainstorming renders learners’ minds active, thus, facilitating the reconstruction of knowledge. hence, one of the techniques enabling the retention of knowledge in this regard is brainstorming (alım & gül, 2011). apart from its semantic dimension obtained during the teaching-learning process, the positive change in learners’ behaviours is the most important aspect of this technique for teachers. brainstorming in this regard is a teaching technique which places learners in the centre and which is based on ready communication of any ideas without fear of being criticised (putman & paulus, 2009); it also makes learners experience a feeling of success and helps them develop skills of creativity and form positive attitudes towards the lesson (yaman & karaarsalan, 2012). one definition of brainstorming is enabling participants to deal with a problem or a subject matter and produce as many ideas as possible during an implementation process without bothering to compare their ideas (saban, 2004). when viewed from this aspect, the number of generated ideas is invaluable. the aim with an abundant number of produced ideas is to show that participants have to offer multiple solutions via their imagination about the existing problem. it is thought to be more effective to make use of the brainstorming technique for explicating a problem or a subject matter. students can improve their problem-solving skills by interacting with group members within groups at school to create novel ideas. the utilisation of this technique could contribute to the learning process as it helps the students in a group become active in an activity by prompting their creative thinking processes and rendering the learning environment more attractive (yalavuz, 2006). the longer students keep active with the brainstorming technique, the more their capacity for coping with any complex and difficult problem will be enhanced. any group directed to creative thinking is always the one that gives importance to inquiry learning. the group members search for solutions to a problem by way of idea generation (özerbaş, 2011). 543 the first task to be accomplished during the implementation stage of a brainstorming session is to identify the problem case. a recent meta-analysis shows in this respect that identification of problems is significantly correlated with creativity (abdulla et al, 2018). this case should be defined as a question to stir the participants’ reflective power. the instructor designates the group according to its characteristics. a chairperson and a secretary are chosen among volunteers. the chair of the participant group is to prompt the group by leading it with a statement about the problem. if it is implemented within a classroom, the instructor’s own positive introduction to the topic in the first place could encourage students. the students pursue the process later by articulating all the ideas which they come up with about the problem. the secretary student directly writes down all the ideas which are generated. an extension of time may be granted upon the expiry of the time given for notetaking. after the notetaking procedure is completed, within a specified period, an assessment of the ideas determined within the group will proceed. upon the consideration of the positive and negative aspects of every idea, a significance level ranking will be conducted accordingly. all qualified ideas originated at the end of the implementation of this technique are brought up for discussion with the orchestration of the instructor (özerbaş, 2011). the implementation during the activities carried out for brainstorming may vary between 15 and 45 minutes according to the kind of subject and the number of participants. an extension of time could happen for the duration of implementation of this activity, as the occasion requires. it is thought that selecting members as those knowing and those not knowing the problem compositely while determining a group will be more efficient; since the ideas produced by those who have knowledge about the problem vary from the ones produced by those who do not know the problem and could increase the impact of a solution (selvi, 1999). most educators think that creativity is a natural characteristic unique to every individual, and, thus, may vary from one person to another, as it is affected by experience and genetic factors (woolfolk, 2018; slavin, 2017). although it depends on individual traits, what exactly matters is how this characteristic of creativity could be discovered and developed (i̇slim, 2011). it was observed in some research studies that interactive groups compared to groups composed of the same number of individuals working individually produce quantitatively fewer ideas. the reason for this might be students’ fear of negative evaluation of one another (isaksen & gaulin, 2005). thus, none of students’ ideas should be interrupted during the activity (duru, 2009). the brainstorming technique helps participant individuals develop their skills of listening to, showing respect to and judging others’ thoughts within a group. indeed, mcmahon et al’s (2016) study reveals that group brainstorming provides us more than mere idea generation, in that it fosters creativity and some other aspects of idea development, like the possibility to combine resources and disseminate expert knowledge. however, some problems such as quick evaluation, fear of making mistakes, personality barriers, lack of knowledge, and obligation of thinking within a certain form may arise during the implementation of this technique. therefore, resolving these problems will facilitate reaching fruition (şahin, 2005). for individuals to discover their creativity, the classroom environment should be arranged in such a way as to let them easily share their ideas. nevertheless, in-class arguments of ideas are generally not welcomed by teachers. the reason for this is the fact that the ideas put forward by the students told to do so are unexpected ones (i̇slim, 2011). if the brainstorming technique is implemented efficiently from the first stages of schooling, it could make a positive impact on learners’ creative thinking and problem-solving behaviours (şahin, 2005). 544 purpose of the study the need for information is ever increasing in our constantly evolving lives. humanity’s curiosity for learning and the globalising world order has rendered the generation of novel ideas and technological innovation as two intertwined requirements. accordingly, what is expected from today’s educational approach is to be able to bring up creative individuals who have adopted the progressivist philosophy of education, and thus can think alternatively and critically and who are learning to learn. hence, such instructional techniques as brainstorming are of vital importance in order to achieve the aforementioned anticipated goal, which makes this study investigating the effect of brainstorming on academic achievement a significant contribution to the literature as it reports with a synthesis of the first-hand views from some relevant qualitative studies. moreover, brainstorming in an educational context is often taken for granted, and has recently been overlooked within creativity research. a study by williams, runco & berlow (2016) mapping the research on creativity in the past 25 years reveals a downward trend, with increasingly less research in terms of brainstorming. therefore, we strongly believe that revisiting brainstorming in educational settings will provide a small but important step to promote a revival of the empirical research on this topic. this study aimed to reveal the effect of brainstorming technique on academic achievement. to this end, three different themes were formed by use of the meta-thematic analysis method. the relevant sub-problems addressed within the analysis are as follows: 1. what are the effects of the brainstorming technique on cognitive skills? 2. what are the effects of the brainstorming technique on affective skills and behaviours? 3. what are the problems encountered during implementations? methods the qualitative research paradigm was preferred in order to conduct the present study. qualitative research is claimed to be necessary for accomplishing the purposes of evidence-based research, as it has a unique potential for reaching aspects of human experience which cannot be reached via quantitative methods (sandelowski, voils, & barroso 2006). thus, it was intended to obtain general results by examining the qualitative data within the framework of a meta-thematic analysis. the study adopted a meta-thematic analysis method, a kind of content analysis used within the qualitative research design. the meta-thematic analysis studies are the ones in which qualitative research studies on any specified subject-matter are examined under certain common themes with a critical perspective, and some comprehensive and qualified findings are reached as a result (batdı, 2019a, b). selection of studies within this context, we decided to make an overall re-examination of the effect of the brainstorming technique on learners’ academic achievement and, therefore, included relevant qualitative research studies containing participants’ views. content analysis is apprehensible in conveying similar data combined within the frame of specified themes (çalık & sözbilir, 2014). the reason for choosing metathematic analysis in the present study was the aim of identifying and examining the similarities and differences of the relevant studies on the targeted subject. in this context, to access national studies conducted with qualitative research methods during the period of 2008-2020, searches were carried out from the yök national thesis center and google scholar search engines with keywords, such as 545 "the effectiveness of the brainstorming technique, brainstorming, brainstorming and achievement/learning". within the literature search, 34 studies were reached. however, in order for the studies to be included in the meta-thematic analysis, they must comply with the criteria such as, "studies that examined the effectiveness of the brainstorming technique; that contain data based on participant views; that were carried out with a qualitative method; that can be scanned from specified databases; and that collected data with qualitative data techniques such as interview/observation". in line with these criteria, it was understood that only seven of the studies met the inclusion criteria, and thus were appropriate for meta-thematic analysis (i.e., gül, 2013; güven, 2013; karasu-avcı & kayabaşı, 2018; vural, 2008; yaman & karaaslan, 2012; yılmaz, 2017; yiğitalp, 2014). analysis of studies in the present research, the data collected through document analysis to determine the effectiveness of the brainstorming technique were analysed using the maxqda-11 qualitative data analysis programme. since the coding process of the data can be done both manually and with a computer programme (merriam, 2009), and since there are very comprehensive and powerful package programmes, the analyses of the current research were conducted with the help of the package programme. after scanning the studies from the relevant data bases, the theses were coded with their thesis number and the page number of the codes (i.e., kt1-p. 105); the articles with their journal article numbers and the page number of the codes (i.e., dm2-p. 65). the codes within this scope were collected under three themes (cognitive skills, affective skills and behaviours and problems encountered). within the scope of the meta-thematic analysis of the research, codes and themes were created by performing inductive analyses. for this, first of all, the qualitative data in the studies related to the brainstorming technique were determined based on participant perspectives. after the word-by-word analysis with open coding (khandkar, 2009), the concepts found to be appropriate with axial coding (strauss & corbin, 1998) were recorded separately to create the relevant theme. afterwards, all the concepts (codes) determined were examined in detail and the codes that were identified as being related and consistent with each other were clearly specified by the stage of 'selective coding' (charmaz, 2006). after the identified fixed codes were given their final form expressively, the reliability of the codes was also checked. validity and reliability to ensure the validity and reliability of the study, we made sure that the inter-consistency and meaningfulness of the codes and themes constituted an integrity for providing coherence of the findings. to this end, we calculated the cohen’s kappa statistic to measure the inter-rater reliability (yıldırım & şimşek, 2013). as a result, the agreement value intervals were found to be between .835 and .914 as “almost perfect agreement” (viera & garrett, 2005), (see appendix 1). in addition, to ensure the reliability of qualitative research, it is known that expert examination contributes to the credibility of the research in terms of interpreting the data correctly and obtaining sufficient results (cresswell, 2003), thus, we would like to state that, in the current study, an independent researcher, who has done qualitative research and thematic analysis in his studies, was asked to evaluate the process and we exchanged views with him to evaluate every stage of the research. necessary arrangements were made in the research within the framework of mutual opinions. in addition, in the meta-thematic analysis, direct quotations from the studies that were the source for forming the themes and codes contributed to the reliability of the research as well. in this sense, sutton and austin (2015) 546 state that all the conclusions drawn by researchers should be supported by the direct quotations of the participants. in this way, it should be clearly understood by the reader that the themes discussed were actually obtained from the interviews with the participants and not from the researcher's own perceptions. findings findings regarding the efficiency of brainstorming it was intended to obtain more in-depth and effective findings with the use of the meta-thematic analysis method within the present study. in this part, the findings that were obtained with the metathematic analysis method based on document analysis are presented and interpreted. the themes and codes which were formed as a result of some analyses are presented with models. it is seen that the codes are grouped under three themes and visualised in three models (figures 1, 2 and 3). these themes are, respectively, given below as, “the effects of the brainstorming technique on cognitive skills” (figure 1), “the effects of the brainstorming technique on affective skills and behaviours” (figure 2), and “the problems encountered during implementation” (figure 3). figure 1 presents the theme, “the effects of the brainstorming technique on cognitive skills”, and relevant codes that were formed under this theme from the participants’ views are given in the figure. 547 figure 1: effects of brainstorming on cognitive skills figure 1 models the codes related to the theme, “effects of the brainstorming technique on cognitive skills”. some of the codes are given as “making lessons attention-grabbing, developing critical thinking skills, providing meaningful learning, enabling one to look at things from different perspectives, reinforcing what’s been learnt, providing retention in learning, ensuring recall and repetition of learning, keeping learners active in class, increasing academic achievement, enabling the generation of ideas based on daily life experiences”. some statements taken as references while forming the codes are from kt1-p. 87, “some improvements that i have observed in my child at the end of the activity are as follow: asking different questions and making interesting comments, an increase in ‘i wonder..?’ expressions, driving us into a tight corner with ‘what if not..?’, ‘i wonder if it’s so?’ expressions”; and from dm3-p. 503, “the teacher started the lesson by asking questions related to pressure in solids, and then reinforced the subject-matter by using the brainstorming technique”; and from dm4-p. 38 “…the child becomes active in the process of reaching information and learning, 548 and enjoys this. thus, the learning becomes permanent.” when these statements are carefully considered, it could be suggested that the brainstorming technique is closely related with the intellectual skills and cognitive strategies domains of gagne’s conditions of learning model (gagné, 1985). cognitive strategies allow learners to gain higher-order skills. since brainstorming develops individuals’ higher-order thinking skills, it is highly advisable to make use of it from earlier stages of schooling. the utilisation of this creative thinking technique also contributes to the affective domain of learning as it is modelled in figure 2. figure 2: effects of brainstorming on affective skills and behaviours figure 2 presents the model which contains the codes related to the effects of the brainstorming technique on affective skills and behaviours. an activity based on brainstorming is a process involving not only cognitive but also affective elements; thus, the present study tried also to identify the emotional responses individuals showed as a result of the implementation of brainstorming. some 549 of the codes are determined as, “educating to respect different opinions, becoming courageous, developing empathy, increasing self-confidence, becoming responsive to social problems, orienting to social environment, and encouraging positive attitudes towards lessons”. some statements taken as references while forming the codes are from dm1-p. 10, “it can keep student participation high, it appeals to most students, it is suitable for students’ level and classroom time”; and from dm4p. 40, “… it motivates children and allows them to learn faster”, and from kt3-p. 67, “my geography course is better this year than previous years, i understand better and love geography more’’. when the relevant codes are considered in detail, it is observed that, after brainstorming activities, students develop positive attitudes towards lessons, they learn to respect each other, and they have increased self-confidence. however, some problems were witnessed during brainstorming activities as it is modelled in figure 3. figure 3: problems encountered during implementation of brainstorming figure 3 congregates the problems which were reported to have been encountered during brainstorming activities. some outstanding ones are, “difficulty in drawing attention, shortage of materials, causing confusion, believing it won’t work, lengthiness of implementation time, teacher inefficacy”. some statements taken as references while forming the codes are from dm4p. 41, coded study: “generally we get into trouble when the child does not want to talk or respond, and withdraws into himself”; and from kt1-s. 49, coded study: “one should know the stages very well while 550 preparing the questions to be asked during the activity, and there may not be questions from all stages in every activity”; and from the study coded dm4-p. 41: “i feel inadequate. it seems as if i don’t apply these techniques wholesomely…)”. when the relevant codes are examined carefully, it is understood that the primary concerns are lack of time and materials, teacher and student inefficacy, and limitation of students’ attention span. accordingly, it can be suggested that some of these problems may be overcome with planning and preliminary preparation. discussion the present study was designated as a qualitative attempt to revisit the brainstorming technique within an educational context by conducting a meta-thematic analysis of some research studies on its impacts on cognitive and affective domains of learning and problems experienced in practice. the impact of active learning on learning outcomes is well-established in the relevant literature (prince, 2004). thus, it is discernible that as an active learning technique, a well-planned and conducted brainstorming session ensures active student engagement while nourishing creative thinking at the same time. in this respect, the empirical evidence suggests that a brainstorming technique positively affects students’ academic achievement, confidence, motivation and engagement, and concept learning (goswami et al, 2017; unin & bearing, 2016; tsai, 2013; gül, 2013; duru, 2009). several codes related to the positive contributions of brainstorming to learners’ cognitive and affective skills were formed within the present study. creativity is thought to be stimulated or promoted with the use of this teaching strategy as it increases task focus, encourages but doesn’t impose novelty in idea generation, and pursues a problem-finding and solving cycle within meaningful learning contexts. brainstorming is reported to provide a student-centred learning focus in which students are able to learn according to their individual capacity, which makes lessons attention-grabbing, fun and comprehensible. in this sense, attention is said to be a determinant factor in learning outcomes since it eases processing of information and instant response (al omairi & al balushi, 2015). brainstorming could be suggested as a way of minimising some students’ dominance in classrooms as it encourages wider class participation (wiest & pop, 2018) by allowing non-dominant students to become courageous and eager to talk freely while others show empathy and respect their ideas. it is further purported that brainstorming sessions promote critical thinking skills by encouraging students to break down prejudices and develop flexibility of thinking. a study by villavicencio (2011) reveals in this regard that critical thinking is positively correlated with achievement, for engagement in critical thinking enables learners to utilise their cognitive resources properly for task accomplishment, rendering them less anxious, thus increasing achievement. enabling improved thought and developing imagination are also reported to be contributions that use of brainstorming may make to the cognitive domain of learning. according to vygotsky (2004), creative activity is closely associated with imagination, and thus creative imagination is the ability to compound already existing elements and present them in different ways. an increase in desire and determination to ponder over a presented problem case with the collaborative and cooperative power of group work or a brainstorming session is thought to vitalise the creative imagination. it is further thought that the rule proposed by alex osborn (1953), the mastermind of the brainstorming concept, about not criticising ideas while they are being generated prepares a convenient platform for unleashing imagination and good resulting ideas. this fact is reiterated by other researchers (tsai, 2013) as, “the brainstorming technique attempts to give free reign to imagination for the sake of 551 evoking ideas and to encourage participants to express their thoughts without judgment”. an outstanding code that was formed around the affective contributions of brainstorming interventions in an educational context is that it could create an activated positive mood, which is found to be associated with higher levels of creativity in a meta-analysis by baas et al (2008). the third theme of the present study revealed the problems which are faced while implementing the brainstorming technique in an activity. these problems may stand as barriers to effective brainstorming in the teaching-learning process. one point that is coded within the model demonstrating the problems theme is the existence of students who think that the brainstorming sessions will not work, and they cannot come up with original solutions to their learning tasks. this may result from fear of critical evaluation by other members of the brainstorming group (putman & paulus, 2009), among some other reasons, and thus could culminate in some individuals’ giving up on the group and a decline in the productivity of idea generation (isaksen & gaulin, 2005; napier & gershenfeld, 2004). another significant code that stands out as a problem militating against the functionality and productivity of a brainstorming group is teacher inefficacy. in the educational context, teachers play a critical role as designers and facilitators of brainstorming sessions. as brainstorming is a group activity, teachers can address the needs of groups, manage group interaction, collectively find out solutions to complicated problems and provide joint support for fulfilment of the generated ideas (isaksen & gaulin, 2005). teacher inefficacy may generally make its presence felt as difficulty in drawing students’ attention as it is purported by the participants of the relevant studies. the way a teacher poses a brainstorming prompt becomes more of an issue, since it is claimed to affect performance (goldenberg & wiley, 2019). the fact that some students tend to be unable to relate ideas that are not realistic is also reported to be a barrier to implementation of a healthy idea generation session. some students might mistakenly regard brainstorming as an activity in which they are supposed to create as many ideas as possible, thus, frequently coming up with sloppy, unmoulded ideas which go nowhere. in this regard, rietzschel et al (2014) highlights the fact that while earlier research studies put forward the possible correlation of idea quantity with the number of good ideas produced, the quantity has been shown to be unrelated to the idea of quality. the quality comes forth at this point as a more effective characteristic of any brainstorming activity if creativity is desired to be ensured. it is emphasised that although some research suggests that individuals could create more quality ideas than groups, yet as individuals are exposed to others’ ideas within a group, this can enhance both idea quality and quantity (goldenberg & wiley, 2019; mcmahon et al, 2016; stroebe et al, 2010). and when considered from their perspectives, students believe they can generate more ideas and, thus, they prefer interactive brainstorming in groups rather than individual brainstorming (park-gates, 2001). to assure the quality of ideas to be generated in a brainstorming activity, narrowing down the scope of the problem of an activity by clearly defining boundaries and identification of explicit creativity instructions are suggested as two efficient ways (rietzschel et al, 2014). the shortage of classroom materials conducive to learners’ needs and interests was also reported to hinder the flow of a group brainstorming session and the resulting productivity of idea generation. evidence from some studies in this regard suggests that supplying a variety of appropriate materials, devices and other resources could lead to an arousal in creativity (davies et al, 2013). moreover, limitation of time allocated for brainstorming activities due generally to obligation of alignment with 552 the curriculum is thought to be an obstacle to the proper conduct of brainstorming sessions. the research reveals that the fulfilment of creative outcomes in an activity is mostly possible through the flexible use of time and when learners are allowed to work at their own pace (davies et al, 2013). individual learner differences may seem to block the way to successful implementation of a brainstorming activity as well; however, increasing teacher awareness of students’ various learning styles, strategies and multiple intelligences can turn this situation into an advantage for stimulating such skills as divergent, lateral and critical thinking to foster creativity. conclusion and implications the research on creativity in educational contexts reveals that everybody has creativity and that it is possible to teach and develop creativity (hernandez-torrano & ibrayeva, 2020; tsai, 2013). thus, it falls to teachers to find and implement strategies conducive to unleashing students’ potential for creativity within the classroom. moreover, brainstorming may be considered as a process of searching, the target of which is innovative and useful ideas (nickerson, 1999). thus, it should be noted that innovative products and creations are sparked by ideas in the beginning. as a matter of fact, brainstorming is defined as, “the development of novel ideas that are useful” (paulus, 2000). at this very point, the brainstorming technique provides suitable premises for creative learning, which, in turn, has an impact on academic achievement as well. in this case, the utilisation of this creativity teaching technique will furnish the learning environment, whether virtual or face-to-face, with an active learning component. as mentioned earlier, the first use of the brainstorming technique for idea generation appeared in the advertising sector; this gives us a justified reason to predict that the use of this creativity technique in learning environments could not only foster individual learning development but it could also promote learning for social and economic development in that, it is stated in the literature that creativity is a key to development and global competitiveness (bobirca & draghici, 2011; sacchetti, sacchetti & sugden, 2009; rausch, 2007). therefore, it is believed that the deployment of brainstorming to stimulate creative thinking skills will contribute to learning for development. as the learning experiences provided for students differ, the methods for learning them may vary, too. instead of making use of one method or technique, it would be more appropriate to give place to a variety of techniques to improve thinking skills. hence, a combined use of more than one method or technique could yield better results in terms of achievement rather than merely focusing on brainstorming. in this regard, some research on the use of brainstorming within newer teachinglearning approaches, like flipped classrooms and game-based classrooms, might prove better in terms of its effect on learning outcomes. further research is also necessary in order to have a clear-cut framework for the efficiency of brainstorming in diverse educational contexts, as we mentioned earlier that there is negligence in this regard. unlike the propensity of mistaking it for merely idea generation, which, in fact, is only one stage within the process (park-gates, 2001), brainstorming is a creativity stimulating technique that can include the use of diverse creative thinking skills. thus, empirical studies experimenting on the use of different creative thinking skills such as divergent, convergent, lateral and critical thinking and problem-solving skills in various teaching contexts, can be suggested for future research. 553 references (*studies included in meta-thematic analysis) abdulla, a.m., paek, s.h., cramond, b., & runco, m.a. (2020). problem finding and creativity: a meta-analytic review. psychology of aesthetics, creativity, and the arts, 14(1), 3-14. https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000194 alım, m., & gül, m. (2011). beyin fırtınası tekniğinin coğrafi kavramların öğretimi ve kalıcılığı üzerindeki rolü. doğu coğrafya dergisi, 6, 357-368. al omairi, t., & al balushi, h. (2015). the influence of paying attention in classroom on students’ academic achievement in terms of their comprehension and recall ability. proceedings of intcess15-2nd international conference on education and social sciences, 2-4 february, i̇stanbul, turkey. baas, m., de dreu, c. w., & nijstad, b. a. (2008). a meta-analysis of 25 years of mood creativity research: hedonic tone, activation, or regulatory focus? psychological bulletin, 134(6), 779-806. doi:10.1037/a0012815 batdı, v. (2019a). yaratıcı dramanın mini meta-tematik analizi. çukurova üniversitesi. 30. uluslararası eğitimde yaratıcı drama kongresi, adana, ss. 74-75. batdı, v. (2019b). görsel i̇şitsel araçların mini meta-tematik analizi. 29 ekim bilimsel araştırmalar sempozyumu bildirileri, i̇zmir, ss. 513-519 bobirca, a., & draghici, a. (2011). creativity and economic development. world academy of science, engineering & technology, 59, 887-892. bonnardel, n., & didier, j. (2020). brainstorming variants to favor creative design. applied ergonomics, 83, 102987. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2019.102987 charmaz, k. (2006). constructing grounded theory: a practical guide through qualitative analysis. sage publications, inc. cohen, j. (1960). a coefficient of agreement for nominal scales. educational and psychological measurement, 20(1), 37-46. craft, a., jeffrey, b., & leibling, m. (2007). creativity in education. continuum, uk. creswell, j. w. (2003). research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (2nd ed.). sage. cropley, a. j. (2001). creativity in education and learning: a guide for teachers and educators. kogan page limited. çalık, m., ve sözbilir, m. (2014). i̇çerik analizinin parametreleri. eğitim ve bilim dergisi, 39(174), 33-38. doi: 10.15390/eb.2014.3412 davies, d., jindal-snape, d., collier, c., digby, r., hay, p., & howe, a. (2013). creative learning environments in education — a systematic literature review. thinking skills and creativity, 8, 80-91. doi: 10.1016/j.tsc.2012.07.004 demirel, ö. (2007). öğretim i̇lke ve yöntemleri öğretme sanatı. pegema yayınları. duru, m. k. (2009). i̇lköğretimde fen bilgisi dersinde beyin fırtınasıyla öğretimin başarıya, kavram öğrenmeye ve bilişüstü beceriye etkisi. doktora tezi. [marmara üniversitesi sosyal bilimler enstitüsü, i̇stanbul]. ford, d. y., & harris, j. j. (1992). the elusive definition of creativity. the journal of creative behavior, 26(3), 186198. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2162-6057.1992.tb01175.x gagné, r. m. (1985). the conditions of learning and theory of instruction, (4th ed.). holt, rinehart and winston. gajda, a., karwowski, m., & beghetto, r. a. (2017). creativity and academic achievement: a meta-analysis. journal of educational psychology, 109(2), 269-299. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000133 554 goldenberg, o., & wiley, j. (2019). individual and group brainstorming: does the question matter? creativity research journal, 31(3), 261-271. doi:10.1080/10400419.2019.1619399 goswami, b., jain, a., & koner, b. c. (2017). evaluation of brainstorming session as a teaching-learning tool among post-graduate medical biochemistry students. international journal of applied and basic medical research, 7:s15-8. doi:10.4103/ijabmr.ijabmr_191_17 *gül, m. (2013). beyin fırtınası tekniğinin coğrafi kavramların öğretimi ve kalıcılığı üzerindeki rolü. yüksek lisans tezi, atatürk üniversitesi eğitim bilimleri enstitüsü, erzurum. *güven, g. (2013). okul öncesi öğretmenlerinin kullandıkları öğretim yöntemleri hakkındaki görüşleri. erciyes sosyal bilimler enstitüsü dergisi, 34(1), 25-49. hernandez-torrano, d., & ibrayeva, l. (2020). creativity and education: a bibliometric mapping of the research literature (1975-2019). thinking skills and creativity, 35, 100625. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2019.100625 isaksen, s.g., & gaulin, j.p. (2005). a re-examination of brainstorming research: implications for research and practice. gifted child quarterly, 49(4), 315-329. i̇slim, ö. f. (2011). scamper (yönlendirilmiş beyin fırtınası tekniği). fırat üniversitesi sosyal bilimler enstitüsü. uluslararası bilgisayar ve öğretim teknolojileri sempozyumu bildirileri, elazığ, ss.48-51. *karasu avcı, m., kayabaşı, e. z. (2018). sınıf öğretmenlerinin derslerinde kullandıkları yöntem ve tekniklere i̇lişkin görüşleri: bir olgubilim araştırması. hacettepe üniversitesi eğitim fakültesi dergisi, 3(2), 1-18. khandkar, s. h. (2009). open coding. university of calgary. http://pages.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/~saul/wiki/uploads/cpsc681/opencoding.pdf mcmahon, k., ruggeri, a., kammer, j.e., & katsikopoulos, k.v. (2016). beyond idea generation: the power of groups in developing ideas. creativity research journal, 28(3), 247-257. doi:10.1080/10400419.2016.1195637 merriam, s. (2009). qualitative research: a guide to design and implementation (3rd ed). jossey bass. nakano, t. c., & wechsler, s. m. (2018). creativity and innovation: skills for the 21st century. estudos de psicologia (campinas), 35(3), 237-246. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/1982-02752018000300002 napier, r. w., & gershenfeld, m. k. (2004). groups: theory and experience. houghton mifflin. nickerson, r. s. (1999). enhancing creativity. in r. j. sternberg (ed.), handbook of creativity (pp. 392-430). cambridge university press. osborn, a. f. (1953). applied imagination: principles and procedures of creative thinking. scribner. özerbaş, m. a. (2011). yaratıcı düşünme öğrenme ortamının akademik başarı ve bilgilerin kalıcılığa etkisi. gazi eğitim fakültesi dergisi, 31(3), 675-705. park-gates, s. (2001). effects of group interactive brainstorming on creativity. [unpublished phd dissertation, virginia polytechnic institute and state university]. blacksburg-virginia. parkhurst, h. b. (1999). confusion, lack of consensus, and the definition of creativity as a construct. journal of creative behavior, 33(1), 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2162-6057.1999.tb01035.x paulus, p. b. (2000). groups, teams, and creativity: the creative potential of idea-generating groups. applied psychology: an international review, 49(2), 237-262. prince, m. (2004). does active learning work? a review of the research. journal of engineering education, 93(3), 223-231. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2168-9830.2004.tb00809.x putman, v. l., & paulus, p. b. (2009). brainstorming, brainstorming rules and decision making. journal of creative behaviour, 43(1), 23-39. 555 rausch, s. d. (2007). creativity and economic development: exploring the relationship between index rank, index components and economic development context. electronic theses and dissertations. paper 1186. https://doi.org/10.18297/etd/1186. rietzschel, e. f., nijstad, b. a., & stroebe, w. (2014). effects of problem scope and creativity instructions on idea generation and selection. creativity research journal, 26(2), 185-191. doi: 10.1080/10400419.2014.901084 runco, m. a., & jaeger, g. j. (2012). the standard definition of creativity. creativity research journal, 24(1), 92-96. doi:10.1080/10400419.2012.650092 saban, a. (2004). öğrenme öğretme süreci. nobel yayınları. sacchetti, f., sacchetti, s., & sugden, r. (2009). creativity and socioeconomic development: space for the interests of publics. international review of applied economics, 23(6), 653–672. şahin, ç. (2005). aktif öğretim yöntemlerinden beyin fırtınası yöntemi ve uygulaması. çukurova üniversitesi sosyal bilimler enstitüsü dergisi, 14(1), 441-450. sandelowski, m., voils, c. i. & barroso, j. (2006). defining and designing mixed research synthesis studies. research in the schools: a nationally refereed journal sponsored by the mid-south educational research association and the university of alabama, 13(1), 29-40. scott, g., leritz, l. e., & mumford, m. d. (2004). the effectiveness of creativity training: a quantitative review. creativity research journal, 16(4), 361-388. selvi, k. (1999). beyin fırtınası yöntemiyle i̇htiyaç analizi. kurgu dergisi, 16, 203-212. shaheen, r. (2010). creativity and education. creative education, 1(3), 166-169. doi:10.4236/ce.2010.13026 shute, v., & ventura, m. (2013). measuring and supporting learning in games: stealth assessment. the mit press. slavin, r. e. (2017). educational psychology: theory and practice, (12th ed.). pearson education. strauss, a., & corbin, j. (1998). basics of qualitative research techniques. sage publications. stroebe, w., nijstad, b. a., & rietzchel, e. f. (2010). beyond productivity loss in brainstorming groups: the evolution of a question. advances in experimental social psychology, 43(10), 157-203. sutton, j., ve austin, z. (2015). qualitative research: data collection, analysis, and management. the canadian journal of hospital pharmacy, 68(3), 226-231. doi:10.4212/cjhp.v68i3.1456 trilling, b., & fadel, c. (2009). 21st century skills: learning for life in our times. jossey-bass, john wiley & sons, inc. tsai, k. c. (2013). facilitating creativity in adult learners. [unpublished ph.d dissertation, university of incarnate word]. unin, n., & bearing, p. (2016). brainstorming as a way to approach student-centered learning in the esl classroom. 6th international research symposium in service management, 11-15 august 2015, procedia – social and behavioral sciences, 224, 605-612. villavicencio, f. t. (2011). critical thinking, negative academic emotions, and achievement: a mediational analysis. the asia-pacific education researcher, 20(1), 118-126. vygotsky, l. s. (2004). imagination and creativity in childhood. journal of russian and east european psychology, 42(1), 7-97. *vural, c. t. (2008). sosyal bilgiler eğitiminde yaratıcı düşünme: yeni i̇lköğretim programı beşinci sınıf sosyal bilgiler öğretiminde kullanılan etkinliklerin yaratıcılığı geliştirmesi açısından değerlendirilmesi. yüksek lisans tezi, çukurova üniversitesi sosyal bilimler enstitüsü, adana.*tk2(tez kullanılan 2) 556 wiest, l. r., & pop, k. j. (2018). guiding dominating students to more egalitarian classroom participation. transformative dialogues: teaching & learning journal, 11(1), 1-6. williams, r., runco, m. a., berlow, e. (2016). mapping the themes, impact and cohesion of creativity research over the last 25 years. creativity research journal, 28(4), 385-394. doi:10.1080/10400419.2016.1230358 woolfolk, a. h. (2018). educational psychology, (14th ed.). pearson education inc. yalavuz, g. (2006). türkiye’de tarih öğretiminde aktif yöntemin uygulanışı. yüksek lisans tezi, dokuz eylül üniversitesi sosyal bilimler enstitüsü, i̇zmir. *yaman, h., ve karaarsalan, f. (2012). konuşma becerisinin geliştirilmesinde beyin fırtınası tekniğinin etkisi: bir eylem araştırması. turkish studies international periodical for the languages, literature and history of turkish or turkic, 7(4), 545-563. *yılmaz, ö. (2017). fen öğretmenlerinin tercih ettikleri öğretim strateji, yöntem ve teknikler: fen öğretmen adaylarının düşünceleri. iğdır üniversitesi sosyal bilimler enstitüsü dergisi, 12, 593-410. *yiğitalp, n. (2014). yönlendirilmiş beyin fırtınası (scamper) tekniğine dayalı eğitimin beş yaş çocuklarının problem çözme becerilerine etkisinin i̇ncelenmesi. yüksek lisans tezi, hacettepe üniversitesi sosyal bilimler enstitüsü. authors: dr yunus doğan has taught english at various k-12 grades and works at a state university in eastern turkey. his research interests include technology-enhanced learning, individual differences in sla and virtual learning environments. email: jonah.saidson@gmail.com dr veli batdı works at gaziantep university, department of curriculum and instruction, gaziantep/turkey. his studies are related to teacher education, graduate education, english teaching/learning, curriculum evaluation, mixed method, meta-analysis, meta-thematic analysis. he uses statistical programmes such as metaanalysis, rasch measurement, nvivo, maxqda and spss, and has published many articles in national/international indexed and peer-reviewed journals. currently, he is focused on the concept of metathematic analysis and the multi-complementary approach developed by him. email: veb_27@hotmail.com cite this paper as: doğan, y., & batdı, v. (2021). revisiting brainstorming within an educational context: a meta-thematic analysis. journal of learning for development, 8(3), 541-556. appendix 1: cohen kappa values of the themes in the study cognitive (figure 1) affective (figure 2) problems (figure 3) k2 k2 k2 k 1 + σ k 1 + σ k 1 + σ + 31 3 34 + 24 1 25 + 18 1 19 2 25 27 2 17 19 0 8 8 σ 33 28 61 σ 26 18 44 σ 18 9 27 kappa: .835 p .000 kappa: .860 p:.000 kappa: .914 p:.000 microsoft word gaskelleditorial.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 241-244 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. editorial open and distance learning for development: how can new technologies and distance education leaders make an impact? anne gaskell this issue of jl4d continues our popular series on leaders in open and distance learning (odl) across the world, and it also includes major discussions of the sustainable development goalsi (sdgs), and how they can be realised in practice, particularly in the context of odl. our two articles on leaders in odl come from very different areas – asia and the english-speaking caribbean and are, again, written by authors who are leaders in distance education in their own right. professor santosh panda, of the staff training and research institute of distance education (stride), indira gandhi national open university of india (ignou) has taken on the challenging task of identifying and summarising the contributions of leading distance educators across the whole of asia. this is indeed a major undertaking and santosh has wisely approached it by organising his contribution under eleven asian countries which have played major roles in the development of odl. professor panda is of course very well known for his own major contributions to odl and these are comprehensive. he has placed particular emphasis on the importance of teacher education and staff development as a means to ensure that faculty are sufficiently well prepared to support their students both in person and online. his research on faculty motivation to use new technologies and the perceived barriers to the use of e-learning demonstrates that important factors are poor student internet access, the need for increased training in its use and improved instructional design (panda & mishra, 2007). more recently he has written of the perceptions of faculty in terms of sharing knowledge and ideas through new technologies, and their preference for following more formally recognised routes such as publication (santosh & panda, 2016). santosh quite frequently co-authors or edits publications and this is one illustration of his commitment to staff development and training; he has been a great example of collaboration around the world and mentorship of colleagues. santosh has also written and edited major works on planning and management (panda, 2003); and is one of the relatively few distance educators who has really engaged with the economics of odl. his work on economics of distance and online learning (bramble & panda, 2008) provides an extensive overview of management, decision-making and economic planning in odl. as a leading figure in distance education in india, with multiple international visiting professorships and consultancies across the world, santosh is an ideal person to provide our summary of distance education leaders in asia. dr olabisi kuboni, formerly of the university of the west indies (uwi) open campus is also a leading distance educator in her own right and we very much welcome her contribution on the 242 english speaking (commonwealth) caribbean. olabisi recognises that much of the early history of distance education in this context was delivered by external providers but she provides ample evidence of the growth of internally driven distance education initiatives and organisations in the last seven decades, which have culminated in uwi today. olabisi has been particularly involved in the development of relevant skills in distance and online education and the importance of learner support in this process. her many publications include an analysis of support strategies to facilitate students’ engagement with web-based learning in uwi (kuboni & martin, 2004), the preferred learning modes of online graduate students (kuboni, 2013), and an examination of how easily students find it to source, select and extract information from the web (kuboni, 2012). the aim of the latter was to identify the best instructional strategies to assist students in developing effective skills for identifying, gathering and using information from online sources. from 2014 she has been leading a project building learning skills which aims to design and develop online study materials to assist mature studentsii. much of olabisi’s work has centred on odl in the caribbean and the roles and experience of students, professionals and government. as early as 1988-89, she was a member of the cabinetappointed educational television task force in trinidad and tobago, and from 2005-07 was deputy programme co-ordinator in the development and delivery of the online certificate in local egovernance in the caribbean (unesco-uwidec initiative.) in 2012, she contributed a chapter on “a parliament for the people” in evolution of a nation: trinidad and tobago at fifty (2012) on behalf of the parliament of trinidad and tobago. her input to government initiatives and policies has therefore been significant. in recognition of her contribution to technology-mediated learning in the caribbean, olabisi was made an honorary fellow of the commonwealth of learning (col) in 2013. she is therefore particularly well placed to provide our article on leading distance educators in this area. it is also a great pleasure to include an invited article from professor andy lane, of the open university uk. lane discusses issues that are core to the central focus of this journal, that is the role of open education in meeting the sdgs, particularly goal 4 to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”. lane argues that while sdg ambitions are admirable, the means to achieve them are unclear; indeed, some have argued that little has happened since 2015. to address this lack of action, he proposes a new theory of change, based on systems thinking, power relationships and open education. this has the potential to make a real impact on meeting the sdgs, and lane provides an illustration of how this could work in a major project proposal based in myanmar. his model provides exciting possibilities for how change can occur in the future. the remaining articles in this issue support many of the themes raised above, particularly in terms of the importance of meeting sdgs through staff development, political and institutional support, and innovative technologies. all articles in this issue are relevant to meeting sdg goal 4, on education and learning, but ferreira and kamal focus particularly on sdg goal 5 “achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls”, in the context of child, early and forced marriages (cefm). their survey of 755 out-of-school girls affected by cefm in bangladesh, pakistan and india examines the role of community 243 engagement in this issue and the impact of the girls inspire programme.iii community engagement and family support are seen as important factors in breaking the cycle of cefm and the girls inspire programme provides enhanced opportunities for girls. the crucial role of teachers and academics in the use of new technologies is highlighted in two of our research papers. k12 teachers’ awareness and perception of open educational resources (oer) are discussed by ozdemir and bonk in the context of turkey, while academics’ willingness to engage in open educational practices (oep) are discussed by nkuyubwatsi in the context of rwanda. ozdemir and bonk found that turkish teachers are generally aware of oer, and positive about their potential to improve student performance, but they were less familiar with licensing mechanisms. they also found that the time required to select and adapt oer was the greatest challenge to using them effectively. the authors’ recommendations include greater involvement of the turkish ministry of education in forming policies and procedures to encourage the use of oer and staff and professional development in their existence and use. national and institutional policies were also found to be the most important enabling factors in the use of oer in nkuyubwatsi’s survey of 85 rwandan academics and their willingness to engage in oep. there has been some action in terms of the development of a national odel policy and strategic plans for the university of rwanda; however, some academics still face challenges such as poor equipment, infrastructure and access to the internet. three further articles discuss the use of innovative technologies in providing access and support to students. access to the internet is also noted as an issue in samoa in an article by chan mow et al. they evaluate the usefulness and ease of use of the col-developed aptusiv device, which allows access to digital and electronic resources in the absence of electricity or the internet — for both students and academics. the results were very positive and the aptus device is recommended. our final research article by bozkurt, karadeniz and kocdar examines how social networking sites (snss) can be used to support learning, communication and interaction. they surveyed 2065 students at anadolu university, turkey and confirmed the extensive use of snss among students, particularly through mobile phones. however, some students were doubtful about using them for learning rather than communication and interaction with their peers. our report from the field by abeywardena is also about the use of innovative technologies to support learners, in this case the development of a mobile app to embed multimedia in printed odl courses, using quick response codes to develop print2screen. this will be of particular value to those in developing countries whose main access to the internet is through their mobiles. so far, feedback has been very positive from selected learners in india and teachers in africa. the potential for supporting the sdgs is huge. our two book reviews complement the themes of this issue. senteni reviews the unesco-col joint publication, entitled using icts and blended learning in transforming tvet (technical and vocational education and training) which is concerned with how icts can contribute to the increased need for and development of tvet in a changing world. the second, by panda, reviews the book by jl4d associate editor dr sanjaya mishra, entitled promoting the use and contribution of oer, and this returns to some of the issues discussed in lane’s invited article and other research articles here. people are generally positive about contributing to oer but less willing to use them. why? and how can 244 positive perceptions about the potential of new technologies be translated into significant results? these could help ensure the ambitious aims of the sdgs really have a significant impact. lane’s model is one way forward and the innovative approaches included here will certainly have a role to play. anne gaskell chief editor, jl4d references bramble, w. j., & panda, s. (eds.). (2008). economics of distance and online learning: theory, practice and research. london: routledge. kuboni, o., & martin. a. (2004). an assessment of support strategies used to facilitate distance students’ participation in a web-based learning environment in the west indies. distance education, 25(1), 7-29. kuboni, o. (2012a). an analysis of the search skills of online graduate students as the basis for the development of appropriate instructional strategies. in j. l. moore & a.d. benson (eds.), international perspectives of distance learning in higher education. retrieved from: https://www.intechopen.com/books/internationalperspectives-of-distance-learning-in-higher-education/an-analysis-of-the-search-skills-of-online-graduatestudents-as-the-basis-for-the-development-of-app kuboni, o. (2012b). a parliament for the people: constitution reform and the role of the parliament. in parliament of trinidad and tobago, evolution of a nation: trinidad and tobago at fifty. uk: hansib publications. retrieved from http://www.ttparliament.org/documents/2183.pdf kuboni, o. (2013). the preferred learning modes of online graduate students. international review of research in open and distance learning, 14(3), 228-250. retrieved from: http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/1462 panda, s. (ed.). (2003). planning and management in distance education. london: kogan page. panda, s., & mishra, s. (2007). e-learning in a mega open university: faculty attitude, barriers and motivators. educational media international, 44(4), 323-338. santosh, s., & panda, s. (2016). sharing of knowledge among faculty in a mega open university. open praxis, 8(3), 247-264. retrieved from https://www.openpraxis.org/index.php/openpraxis/article/view/317/221 i https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/ ii http://www.buildinglearningskills.org iii http://girlsinspire.org/ iv https://www.col.org/services/knowledge-management/aptus microsoft word aynas.docx issn: 2311-1550 2021, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 146-161 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. the effects of authentic learning practices on problem-solving skills and attitude towards science courses naciye aynas1 and mecit aslan2 1hakkari university, turkey 2van yüzüncü yıl university, turkey abstract: this study aims to investigate the effects of authentic learning methods — applied in science courses — on the problem-solving skills and attitudes towards those courses. as a research design, a quasi-experimental design with pre-test and post-test control groups was used in the study. the data of the study were collected from 92 students at the level of 6th grade in van, turkey in the 2017-2018 academic year. as data collection tools, the problem-solving skills test and science attitude scale were used throughout the study. during the data analysis phase, descriptive statistics, one-factor analysis of variance for unrelated samples, t-test for related samples, kruskal wallis-h and wilcoxon signed rank test were used. as a result of the study, it was realised that there was a significant difference between the experimental group and control groups' problemsolving skills total scores in favour of the experimental group. furthermore, it was ascertained that authentic learning practices improved the problem-solving skills of the experimental group students to a significant extent. in terms of attitude points towards science, it was determined that the post-test scores of the experimental group were significantly higher than the control groups and authentic learning practices had a positive effect on attitude. keywords: authentic learning, authentic task, problem-solving skills, the curriculum of science courses, attitudes towards science courses. introduction the constructivist learning approach that has been put forward against the traditional education system in turkey since 2005 could be deemed as one of the crucial reforms of the turkish education system. the constructivist approach has brought about significant changes in the curriculum by placing students at the centre of the educational process. besides, it seems that new approaches complementing the constructivist approach in education continue to emerge and one such approach is the authentic learning that has gained importance in recent years. authentic literally means “the one with the features that have existed in the past, the original” (turkish language association, 2019). considering this concept in terms of learning, it is seen that real-life objects used for the teaching process in the class are meant. moreover, real-life cases and problems could be dealt with in this sense (cholewinski, 2009). in this regard, authentic learning is defined as a learning approach that involves students’ discovering, discussing and meaningfully structuring the concepts related to real-life problems and projects. (donovan, bransford & pellegrino, 1999). authentic learning allows teachers to bring the outside and class environments together. in this way, students can connect to real life so that their knowledge and, thus, their skills become more 147 permanent and meaningful (caseley, 2004). in this learning style, students try and use the information they construct rather than just memorise the knowledge (mehlinger, 1995). bektaş and horzum (2014) argue that it is possible for authentic learning to provide students with such learning qualified to prepare them for real life since it includes real-life problems, activities, experiences, and tasks. the main objective of authentic learning is not to learn subjects directly but to develop solutions to the problems they may encounter in real life. authentic problems should be given enough attention in a planned learning environment and students should be taught how to solve complex, open-ended and often real-life related problems (paavola & lakkala, 2004; tynjala, 1999). authentic learning is defined as meaningful learning that is perfectly integrated or transported into real-life situations (jonassen, howland, marra & crismond, 2008). each student combines real-life information with an existing knowledge base built on a social context (fry, ketteridge & marshall, 2009). for what is learned to be functional, what students learn must be true (aina, aboyeji & aboyeji, 2015). authentic learning has other characteristics in addition to involving real-life problems in the teaching-learning process. these main characteristics could be listed as follows (mims, 2003; rule, 2006): • it is task-based. • it has an interdisciplinary nature. • it requires students to share the outputs they acquire during the learning process with the audience outside the classroom. • students should conduct research and inquiry. • students should demonstrate high-level thinking skills such as analysis, synthesis, design, and evaluation in complex tasks. • it is conducted in a social environment with teachers, other students, experts, family, and the environment. • it ensures that students are responsible for their learning in project work. • its effect increases when resource use is adequate. • it enables students to receive structured support in this process. authentic learning activities are designed to provide students with real-life experiences. it is important to provide students with an authentic environment to bridge the gap between classroom learning experience and real-life complexity (hui & koplin, 2011). this learning approach, which allows students to enter realistic tasks using real-life resources and tools, also allows students to think and act like professionals when dealing with real problems (herrington, parker & boase-jelinek, 2014). it provides a research opportunity that allows them to improve their knowledge and skills. in the authentic learning process, students are active and learn by doing (aina et al, 2015). yeen-ju, mai and selvaretnam (2015) state that authentic learning strategies create learning environments that not only provide students with a connection to real life but also encourage the development of higherorder thinking skills. 148 creating learning environments suitable for authentic learning is possible by including some basic components. according to herrington and oliver (2000), authentic learning has nine components. these components are: (1) authentic context, (2) authentic activity (3) expert performance (4) multiple perspectives, (5) cooperation, (6) reflection, (7) explicit articulation, (8) one-to-one training and structured support, (9) authentic assessment. in an authentic context, it is possible to include real-life cases. the cases should be comprehensive and appropriate for the learning purpose and students. the authentic activity component includes all the practices in which students are active in solving the problems addressed in real life. in expert performance, students are expected to interact with experts from different occupational groups and to try to act in a similar way to those experts as an apprentice. in multiple perspectives, students can incorporate different perspectives into the process by making use of various sources. whereas students are asked to collaborate in the cooperation component; the reflection component requires them to reflect the information they have obtained from different sources to their friends and transfer this information to their own lives. in the explicit articulation component, it is aimed to share the information obtained as a result of authentic activities with other people and to increase their widespread effect. when it comes to the one-to-one training and structured support component, the role of the teacher is emphasised. in a sense of authentic learning, teachers are expected to raise students’ levels to the level of independent learners by providing guidance. finally, performance-based assessments mainly focused on students are a matter of the authentic assessment component. in this context, it is recommended to conduct a process evaluation and to use alternative assessment methods such as self-assessment, peer assessment, etc. (bektaş & horzum, 2014; gökdaş, 2003; herrington & oliver, 2000; herrington, 2006; lombardi, 2007). studies on authentic learning demonstrate that this approach is beneficial in terms of several features. according to these studies, authentic learning is effective in academic success (ayar & yalvaç, 2010; aydın, 2019; bruffy, 2012; dadlı, 2017; çakır, 2019; finch & jefferson, 2013; gençoğlan, 2017; gürgül, 2018; hürsen, 2016; i̇neç, 2017; karakoç, 2016; koçyiğit, 2011; maddox & saye, 2014) and motivation (aydın-aşk, 2016; grace & lee, 2014; güner, 2016; gürdoğan, 2014; lichtinger & kaplan, 2015; önger, 2019; zohoorian, 2015). looking at the literature on authentic learning, it is seen that problem solving is another issue that is emphasised in the updated curricula in turkey (ministry of national education [mone], 2005; 2013; 2017; 2018). therefore, one of the basic outputs of an authentic learning approach could be expected to be problem-solving skills. besides, since authentic learning provides direct contact with students' lives and allows them to solve their problems, it is possible to argue that students will have more optimistic attitudes towards their courses. as a matter of fact, it is possible to mention the existence of studies that conclude that authentic learning has a positive effect on problem solving skills (aydın-aşk, 2016; hamurcu, 2016; koçyiğit, 2011; loyens, rikers & schmidt, 2009; pullu, 2019; risko, osterman & schusster, 2002; rule & arthur, 2007; yeen-ju, mai & selvaretnam, 2015) and on attitude towards the courses (baştürk, 2019; dadlı, 2017; gündoğan, 2017; hamurcu, 2016; horzum & bektaş, 2012; i̇neç, 2017; karabulut, 2018; koçyiğit, 2011). however, no studies have examined the effect of authentic learning on students' problem-solving skills and their attitude towards science courses that are intertwined with real life. thus, it is of significance to conduct scientific studies in this regard. 149 the purpose and importance of the research this study is aimed to determine and analyse the effects of authentic learning practices on students’ problem-solving abilities and attitudes towards science courses. for this general objective, the following questions were used: 1. is there a significant difference between the experimental, control i and control ii groups’ pretest problem solving skills scores? 2. is there a significant difference between the experimental, control i and control ii groups’ post-test problem solving skills scores? 3. is there a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test problem solving skills scores of the experimental group? 4. is there a significant difference between the experimental, control i and control ii groups’ pretest attitudes towards science course scores? 5. is there a significant difference between the experimental, control i and control ii groups’ post-test attitudes towards science course scores? 6. is there a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test attitudes towards science course scores of the experimental group? it is one of the primary goals of education to give the learner the ability to deal with the problems he / she may encounter in his real life. indeed, one of the basic skills emphasised in the science curriculum is problem solving skills. however, it is observed that students' problem-solving skills are not sufficient (ünsal & moğol, 2008). one dimension of this study is to investigate the effect of authentic learning on problem solving skills. this is an important factor for the study. in addition, attitude towards science, which is one of the affective domains, is another important factor in the science curricula applied or being applied in turkey (mone, 2005; 2013; 2017; 2018). as it is valid for many courses, the development of properties, such as success and skill in science courses, is closely related to students' attitudes towards their course. in this context, this study is important in determining the effect of authentic learning on students' attitude towards science courses. methods research design a pre-test-post-test quasi-experimental design was performed in the study. the aim of the quasiexperimental design is the same as the experimental method. namely, in this pattern, any event, phenomenon, object, person, and factor are examined to determine cause-effect relationships between variables and to compare and measure the results. yet, the difference is that the experimental and control groups cannot be randomly selected in a quasi-experimental design (ekiz, 2003). since student distribution is conducted by school administrations in the schools where this study was carried out and the researchers do not have the chance to intervene in this application, this study requires the use of the abovementioned pattern. 150 study group the study group consisted of 92 sixth-grade students studying in two secondary schools affiliated to the directorate of national education of the i̇pekyolu district of van. in the process of determining the study group, the schools to be included in the study were first determined. in this context, it was taken into consideration that the students to be included in the study group should be similar in terms of academic success and socio-economic profile. besides, the physical infrastructures of the schools should be similar and to be suitable for authentic learning practices. in line with these criteria two schools in the city center were determined by obtaining information from the directorate of national education of i̇pekyolu. in addition, volunteering of the participants in the determined schools was also taken into consideration. experimental and control i groups were selected in one of these schools and the control ii group was selected in the other one. the reason for choosing the second control group in the study and the reason for choosing it from a different school was the possibility of the john henry effect (heinich, 1970; saretsky, 1972, cited in kocakaya, 2012), defined as the subconscious competition of the control group in the same school as the experimental group or of the teacher conducting the application in this control group. data collection tools in the research, the problem-solving skills test and science attitude scale were used as data collection tools. detailed information about data collection tools were given below. problem-solving skills test in this study, the problem-solving skills test developed by researchers was used as a data collection tool. in the process of developing the problem-solving skills test, the relevant literature was first examined. in this context, tests, scales and surveys related to problem solving skills were analysed. in line with the examinations, four problem situations (scenarios) related to the systems unit in our body where authentic learning practices are realised, were created. problem-solving stages were written under each scenario to measure problem-solving skills. subsequently, for the validity studies of the test, in terms of the suitability of problem situations and questions for objectives, the opinions of four curriculum and instruction field experts and two science field experts and four science teachers were gathered, and two turkish teachers were utilised to assess the appropriateness of the language level to the target audience. for the reliability studies of the test, pilot application was carried out for 15 sixth-grade students who had been taught the related unit before. after the practice, these students’ remarks and opinions about the test were noted. in the evaluation of the students’ responses for the problem-solving skills test finalised with the necessary corrections in line with the feedbacks, the graded scoring levels developed by aşiroğlu (2014) and adapted by the researchers were regarded as criteria. by considering the stages of problem-solving, the scoring key was classified as: (i) defining the problem, (ii) collecting data about the problem, (iii) proposing appropriate solutions to the problem, (iv) evaluating the possible solutions and (v) explaining the solutions. after the pilot application, the student responses were evaluated by two separate raters. the proximity of the scores given by different raters provides reliable and consistent scoring; the difference between the scores indicates an unreliable inconsistent scoring (kutlu, doğan & karakaya, 2010). in this regard, spearman-rho 151 analysis results were evaluated to determine for inter-rater reliability, and it was determined as 0.71. therefore, it could be argued that there is a consistency between the raters in this study. science attitude scale in this study, the science attitude scale developed by akınoğlu (2001) to determine target audience attitudes towards science courses was used. the scale is a likert type and consists of 20 items, 10 positive and 10 negative ones. each item includes five options in which students can express their opinions as “i fully agree”, “i agree”, “i am undecided”, “i do not agree” and “i do not agree at all”. the scale is one-dimensional, and its reliability coefficient (cronbach alpha) was determined as 0.89 (akınoğlu, 2001). data collection and analysis the science attitude scale has been applied to both experimental and control groups as a pre-test and post-test before and after the experimental procedure and the data were analyzed in spss 24 (statistical package for social sciences). in the same way, the problem-solving skills test was applied to the experimental and control groups as a pre-test before the experimental application and post-test after the experimental application. the data obtained from the problem-solving skills test were scored by two raters. to determine the level of agreement between the two raters, the pearson product moment correlation coefficient was examined, and it was determined that there was a 0.89 agreement between the two raters. then, the scores given by both raters were transferred to the spss 24 package program, averaged and analyses were performed on these average scores. to determine whether students' problem-solving skills tests and science attitude scale pre-test and post-test scores demonstrated normal distribution, skewness, kurtosis values, and distribution graphs were examined. these values are presented in table 1. table 1: problem-solving skills and science attitude scale pre-test and post-test normality analysis results investigated variable test skewness kurtosis problem-solving skills pre-test .219 -.255 post-test .365 .470 attitudes towards science pre-test -.511 -.282 post-test -1.549 2.908 as seen in table 1, skewness and kurtosis values related to problem-solving skills vary between -.255 and +.470. thus, it could be argued that the data obtained from the pre-test and post-test applications of problem-solving skills demonstrate normal distribution. for this reason, parametric tests were used in the analysis of the data obtained from the problem-solving skills test. it was also found that the values related to attitude scores towards science ranged between -1.549 and 2.908. these values indicate that the attitude test towards science is not normally disturbed. therefore, non-parametric tests were used in the analysis of post-test scores of the attitude towards science. in line with normality analyses, for comparing of the problem-solving skills pre-test and post-test scores and the attitude towards science pre-test scores of the experimental, control i and control ii groups, one way anova was used. the kruskal wallis-h test was used to determine the difference 152 between the groups' attitude towards science post-test scores. in order to compare the pre-test and post-test scores of the experimental group's problem-solving skills paired samples t test was used, and wilcoxon signed ranks test was used to compare pre-test and post-test attitude towards science scores. experimental procedure in this study, authentic learning-based activities were designed by the researchers for the “systems in our body” unit consisting of four subjects and 14 objectives to be applied in the experimental group. during the preparation process of these activities, the components of authentic learning were taken into consideration and the present literature was also utilised. the activities were presented to two experts who worked on authentic learning, three curriculum and instruction experts and two science experts. the activities were revised in line with the feedback and suggestions of these experts and they were finalised for the practices. first, the activities were framed under the authentic cases (a scenario, a newspaper article, etc.) to enable students to establish an authentic context, which is one of the key components of authentic learning. then, as a result of presenting these cases to students, it was ensured that the other components of authentic learning were put forward by the students. the practices included in the components of authentic learning in the activities are given below. within the scope of the study, cases involving real-life problems were created for each subject in the "systems in our body" unit. these were presented to the students in the form of a script, tv news broadcast or a news column, and students could connect with their own lives in the context of these problem situations (authentic context). several tasks were assigned for these problems presented to students (authentic activity) and they were asked to perform these tasks in groups (cooperation). in these tasks, regarded as authentic tasks, the students received the information they needed from the field experts, observed their performance and tried to perceive them as an apprentice (expert performance). besides the information they obtained from the experts, the students took advantage of various sources (internet, books, magazines, encyclopedias, etc.) to address the issue from different perspectives (multiple perspectives). all these activities were practiced in collaboration by groups. the group members shared the information they obtained with other groups in the class and their teachers and transferred the information to their own lives (reflection). then, they turned the written and visual information they collected about the subjects into designs such as posters and brochures. they posted these posters and brochures on school bulletin boards to share them with a wider audience. they also shared the flyers in areas where there are more people such as hospitals, parks and shopping malls (explicit articulation). during all these practices, the teacher guided the students on how to proceed and advised them when needed (one-to-one training and support). the fact that all the activities carried out throughout the study are based on authentic learning necessitated that the assessments be authentic, too. indeed, a significant component of authentic learning is authentic assessment. at this stage, authentic assessment methods were applied to the students at the end of each activity. these are authentic evaluation methods such as structured grids and worksheets which measure the outcomes of the course, peer assessment, self-assessment and group self-assessment (authentic evaluation). 153 results results of the problem-solving skills table 2 demonstrates the results of one-way anova of the experimental, control-i and control-ii groups' problem-solving skills pre-test scores. table 2: anova pre-test results on the problem-solving skills of experimental, control i and control ii groups group n mean sd sum of squares df mean square f p experimental 31 30.06 5.82 between groups 63.461 2 31.730 control-i 31 32.06 6.24 within groups 3126.409 89 35.128 .903 .409 control-ii 30 31.33 5.68 total 3189.870 91 according to table 2, there was no significant difference between the experimental, control i and control ii groups’ problem-solving skills pre-test scores (p > .05). this finding shows that all three groups are at similar levels in terms of problem-solving skills before starting the unit. one-way anova was used to determine whether there was a significant difference between the experimental, control i and control ii groups’ problem-solving skills test scores and table 3 indicates the relevant results. table 3: anova post-test results related to problem-solving skills test of experimental, control i and control ii groups group n m sd sum of squares df mean square f p significant difference experimental 31 47.41 8.57 between groups 596.395 2 298.198 control-i 31 41.87 8.76 within groups 5517.874 89 61.999 4.810 .010 1-2, 1-3 control-ii 30 42.21 5.88 total 6114.269 91 level of significance p < .05 1: experimental group 2: control i 3: control ii as seen in table 3, there is a significant difference between experimental, control i and control ii groups’ problem-solving skills post-test scores (p < .05). according to the results of the bonferroni test performed to determine the source of the difference, there is a significant difference between the experimental group (m = 47.41) and the control i (m = 41.87) and the control ii (m = 42.21) groups in favor of the experimental group. this finding shows that students in the experimental group have higher problem-solving skills than the control groups as a result of authentic learning activities. table 4 demonstrates paired samples t-test results to determine whether there is a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test scores of the experimental group’s problem-solving skills. 154 table 4. paired samples t-test results on the pre-test and post-test scores of the experimental group’s problem-solving skills measurement n m sd df t p cohen’s d pre-test 31 30.06 5.82 30 -10.572 .000 2.37 post-test 31 47.41 8.57 as seen in table 4, there is a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test scores of the experimental group’s problem-solving skills (p < .05). examining the average of the problem-solving skills pre-test score (m = 30.06) and post-test score (m = 47.41) of the experimental group, it is seen that the difference was in favor of the post-test. in addition, cohen’s d value was found as 2.37. this value shows that authentic learning practices have a large effect on problem solving skills. results on the attitude towards science table 5 highlights the results of a one-way anova of experimental, control i and control ii groups' attitude pre-test scores towards science. table 5: anova results of experimental, control i and control ii groups’ pre-test attitudes scores towards science group n mean sd sum of squares df mean square f p experimental 31 86.32 7.73 between groups 68.799 2 34.399 control-i 31 84.64 7.83 within groups 6113.071 89 68.686 .501 .608 control-ii 30 86.60 9.23 total 6181.870 91 level of significance p < .05 1: experimental group 2: control i 3: control ii as table 5 shows, there was no significant difference between the pre-test scores of attitude scale of experimental, control i and control ii groups (p > .05). according to this finding, it can be said that all three groups have a similar attitude towards science courses before application. table 6 indicates the results of the kruskal wallis-h test used to determine whether there was a significant difference between experimental, control i and control ii groups’ post-test attitude scores towards science. table 6: kruskal wallis-h test results of the experimental, control i and control ii groups’ post-test attitudes scores towards science groups n mean rank df x2 p significant difference experimental 31 63.90 control-i 31 47.84 2 29.13 .000 1-2, 1-3, 2-3 control-ii 30 27.13 level of significance p < .05 1: experimental group 2: control i 3: control ii 155 as seen in table 6, there is a significant difference between the pre-test scores of the attitude toward science scale of experimental, control i and control ii groups (p < .05). a non-parametric multiple comparison test was performed to determine the source of the difference. according to test results, in terms of attitude towards science, a significant difference was found between the experimental group and control groups in favor of the experimental group. in addition, it was determined that there was a significant difference between the control i and control ii groups in favor of the control i group. table 7 highlights the results of the wilcoxon signed ranks test applied to determine whether there is a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test scores of the attitude towards science of the experimental group. table 7: wilcoxon test results of experimental group’s pre-test and post-test scores on attitudes towards science test n post-test/ pre-test mean rank rank sum z p cohen’s d science negative rank 5 23.00 412.00 attitude 31 positive rank 24 4.20* .000 0.14 scale equal 2 level of significance p < .05 *based-on negative ranks as seen in table 7, there is a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test scores of the attitude towards science of the experimental group (p < .05). when the average and sum of the different points are taken into consideration, it is seen that this difference is in favour of positive rankings, in other words, the final test score. cohen's d value calculated to determine the effect level was found as 0.14. this value shows that authentic learning has a small effect on attitude towards science courses. conclusion conclusion and discussion on problem solving skills problem solving skills, which were emphasised in the definitions of authentic learning, has been determined as an important variable to be measured in this study. in the study, there was no significant difference found between the problem-solving skills pre-test results of the groups. when looking at the problem-solving skills post-test results, it was seen that the experimental group had higher scores than the control i and control ii groups. this result shows that, as a result of the application of the authentic learning approach the students in the experimental group where the activities based on authentic learning practices are applied in terms of problem-solving abilities displayed better performance than the students in the control groups where the current program was applied. considering that groups had similar problem-solving skills as seen in pre-test results, it could be argued that authentic learning improves problem-solving abilities more than the current formal curriculum. in the same way, pullu (2019), in his study examining the effect of authentic task-oriented practices in programming teaching, noted that the problem-solving skills of the experimental group was higher than that of the control group. hamurcu (2016) concluded that authentic learning practices in the seventh-grade turkish course increased the problem-solving skills of the students in the experimental group. in the study carried out by koçyiğit and zembat (2013), it was found that the 156 curriculum prepared in accordance with authentic tasks, made a positive and meaningful difference in the prospective teachers’ perceptions on problem-solving abilities. when the pre-test and post-test scores of the experimental group’s problem-solving abilities were compared, it was determined that the post-test scores were significantly higher than the pre-test scores. in other words, the authentic learning practices had a large and positive effect on students' problem-solving abilities. this result gained in the research is consistent with the results of various studies in the related literature. hamurcu (2016) concluded that authentic learning practices in the seventh-grade turkish course increased the problem-solving abilities of the students. aydın-aşk (2016), in her study, concluded that authentic task-oriented learning processes revealed that students’ motivation and self-confidence levels increased in the problem-solving phases. moreover, lee and goh (2012), in their research, revealed that authentic learning experiences allow the solving of real-life problems. it is emphasised in various studies (hamurcu, 2016; koçyiğit, 2011; loyens, rikers & schmidt, 2009; pullu, 2019; risko, osterman & schusster, 2002; rule et al, 2007) that authentic learning activities are directed towards real-life problems and contribute to problem solving skills. it can be said that this result, which is also supported by related research, proves that real-life cases and authentic learning practices applied in a science course are an indication that students improve their problem-solving skills. conclusion and discussion on the attitudes toward science considering that students' attitudes towards their course / program are effective in reaching the objectives of that course the attitude was another variable dealt with in this study. as a result of the research, a significant difference was found between post-test scores attitude towards science of the experimental and control groups in favor of the experimental group. in other words, as a result of authentic learning practices, the experimental group developed a more positive attitude towards science than the control group. considering that the groups have similar pre-test scores, it could be said that the authentic learning practices applied in the experimental group are more effective in developing positive attitudes towards the course compared to the current formal curriculum applied in the control groups. similarly, it has been revealed in various studies (baştürk, 2019; horzum & bektaş, 2012; i̇neç, 2017; karabulut, 2018; koçyiğit, 2011) that authentic learning practices are more effective in developing positive attitudes towards the course compared to current curricula. when the attitude post-test scores of the control groups were compared, it was found that the control i group had a significantly more positive attitude than the control ii group. whereas the experimental group's having a more positive attitude than the control groups is associated with authentic learning practices, the fact that control i group had a more positive attitude than the control ii group could be related to the john henry effect. when the pre-test and post-test attitude towards the science course scores of the experimental group were compared, it was seen that the post-test scores were significantly higher. this result shows that authentic learning practices are effective in students' positive attitude towards the course. besides, this result is in line with the results of various studies (dadlı, 2017; gündoğan, 2017; güner, 2016; hamurcu, 2016; horzum & bektaş, 2012; hürsen, 2016; i̇neç, 2017) in the literature. belaid and murray (2015) have concluded that the use of authentic materials in teaching english improved teachers’ attitudes towards their course. lee and goh (2012) concluded that authentic learning used in the starting primary school was effective in developing positive attitudes towards the school. in the 157 research in the context of an authentic learning approach, dabbaqh and blijd (2010) concluded that students’ perception of learning experiences was positive. as can be seen, the result of the study showing that authentic learning has a positive effect on attitude coincides with the results of the studies mentioned above. these results show that authentic learning practices contribute to the students’ affective domain and develop more positive feelings towards their course. despite the conclusion that authentic learning positively affects attitude, gençoğlan (2017) concluded that authentic learning does not affect attitude. similarly, williams (1999) has also concluded that authentic learning did not make a significant difference in students' attitudes towards their course. therefore, it could be claimed that the result of the current study is not consistent with the results of these two studies. this research is limited to the “systems in our body” unit included in the sixth-grade science curriculum. it can be suggested that similar applications be carried out in different units of a science course at different grade levels and in different courses. this study focused on the effect of authentic learning practices on problem solving and attitude towards science. determining the effect of authentic learning on different variables (motivation, self-confidence, etc.) other than these variables will make important contributions to the literature. in the experimental study that was performed and whose effectiveness was determined, it was seen that the education given to the teacher before the application of the authentic learning approach had a critical function. therefore, in order for the authentic learning approach whose effectiveness has been demonstrated to be applied in schools, teacher training must be provided. in this context, it would be beneficial to carry out applied in-service training activities for teachers who are on duty. in addition, it would be beneficial to provide pre-service teacher candidates with training about the authentic learning approach. references aina, j.k., aboyeji, o.o., & aboyeji, o.d. (2015). an investigation of authentic learning experience of pre-service teachers in a nigerian college of education. european journal of research and reflection in educational science, 3(4), 54-63. akınoğlu, o. (2001). eleştirel düşünme becerilerini temel alan fen bilgisi öğretiminin öğrenme ürünlerine etkisi (unpublished dissertation). hacettepe university. aşiroğlu, s. (2014). akif öğrenme temelli fen ve teknoloji dersi etkinliklerinin 5. sınıf öğrencilerin problem çözme becerileri ve başarıları üzerindeki etkisi (unpublished dissertation). i̇nönü university. aydın-aşk, z. (2016). matematik dersinde otantik görev odaklı öğrenme süreçlerinin incelenmesi: bir eylem araştırması (unpublished dissertation). gaziantep university, institute of educational science, gazintep. aydın, o. (2019). otantik öğrenme ortamlarının 4. sınıf matematik ders başarısı ve akademik özgüvenlerine etkisi (unpublished master’s thesis). burdur mehmet akif ersoy university. ayar, m. c., & yalvaç, b. (2010). a sociological standpoint to authentic scientific practices and its role in school science teaching. ahi evran üniversitesi kırşehir eğitim fakültesi dergisi, 11(4), 113-127. baştürk, g. (2019). otantik öğrenme uygulamalarının öğrencilerin eleştirel düşünme becerileri ve sosyal bilgiler dersine yönelik tutumlarına etkisi (unpublished master’s thesis). sakarya university. bektaş, m., & horzum, m. b. (2014). otantik öğrenme (3rd ed.). ankara: pegem akademi. 158 belaid, a. m., & murray, l. (2015). using authentic materials in the foreign language classrooms: teacher attitudes and perceptions in libyan universities. international journal of learning and development, 5(3), 25-37. bruffy, w. r. (2012). a teaching method for the inclusive classroom. (published doctor of education thesis.) northeastern university. caseley, p. m. (2004). towards an authentic pedagogy: an investigation of authentic learning ınstruction in a middle school (unpublished master’s thesis). pacific lutheran university. cholewinski, m. (2009). an introduction to constructivism and authentic activity. journal of the school of contemporary international studies nagoya university of foreign studies, 5, 283-316. çakır, h. (2019). ortaokul öğrencilerinin biyolojik çeşitlilik konusunda bilgi düzeylerini arttırmak için otantik öğrenme temelli materyal tasarımı ve değerlendirilmesi (unpublished master’s thesis). balıkesir university. dabbaqh, n., & blijd, c. w. (2010). students' perceptions of their learning experiences in an authentic instructional design context. the interdisciplinary journal of problem-based learning, 4(11), 6-29. dadlı, g. (2017). i̇nsan ve çevre ilişkileri ünitesinde otantik probleme dayalı öğrenme etkinliklerinin 7. sınıf öğrencilerinde yansıtıcı düşünme becerisi, akademik başarı, çevre tutum ve farkındalıkları üzerine etkisi (unpublished master’s thesis). kahramanmaraş sütçü i̇mam university. donovan, m. s., bransford, j. d., & pellegrino, j. w. (1999). how people learn: bridging research and practice. washington, dc: national academy press. ekiz, d. (2003). eğitimde araştırma yöntem ve metotlarına giriş. anakara: anı. finch, j. l., & jefferson, r. n. (2013). designing authentic learning tasks for online library instruction. the journal of academic librarianship, 39(2), 181-188. fry, h., ketteridge, s., & marshall, s. (2009). a handbook for teaching and learning in higher education: enhancing academic practice. routledge. gençoğlan, d. m. (2017). otantik örnek olay destekli argümantasyon tabanlı bilim öğrenme yaklaşımının 8. sınıf öğrencilerinin “asitler ve bazlar” konusundaki başarılarına, tutum ve bilimsel süreç becerilerine etkisi (unpublished master’s thesis). kahramanmaraş sütçü i̇mam university. gündoğan, a. (2017), hayat bilgisi dersinde otantik görev temelli öğrenme ortamlarının öğrencilerin derse yönelik tutumlarına ve öğrenme süreçlerine yansıması (unpublished dissertation). anadolu university. güner, m. (2016). türkçe dersinde otantik görev temelli otantik materyal kullanımının öğrencilerin okuduğunu anlama, yazman becerileri ve yazma motivasyonları üzerindeki etkisi (unpublished master’s thesis). anadolu university. gürdoğan, m. (2014). sınıf öğretmeni adaylarının otantik öğrenme yaklaşımının uygulanabilirliği ile ilgili görüşleri: fen ve teknoloji laboratuar uygulaması örneği (unpublished master’s thesis). akdeniz university. gürgül, f., (2018). the effect of authentic learning approach in social studies teaching on the academic success. universal journal of educational research, 6(10), 2061-2068. gökdaş, i̇. (2003). bilgisayar ve sınıf ortamına dayalı durumlu öğrenmenin öğrenci başarısı, tutum ve transfere etkisi (unpublished master's thesis). ankara university. grace, t. p. l., & lee, t. k. t. (2014). designing of authentic learning mediated by mobile technology for primary school learners. jiste, 18(1), 42-52. hamurcu, g. c. (2016). i̇lköğretim 7. sınıf türkçe dersinde otantik öğrenmenin öğrencilerin problem çözme ve okuduğunu anlama becerileri ile derse ilişkin tutumlarına etkisi (unpublished dissertation). i̇nönü university. 159 herrington, j. (2006). authentic e-learning in higher education: design principles for authentic learning environments and tasks. world conference on e-learning in corporate, government, healthcare, and higher education, chesepeake, va. http://ro.uow.edu.au/edupapers/29 23.03.2017. herrington, j., & oliver, r. (2000). an instructional design framework for authentic learning environments. educational technology research and development, 48(3), 23-48. herrington, j., parker, j., & boase-jelinek, d. (2014). connected authentic learning: reflection and intentional learning. australian journal of education, 58(1), 23-35. horzum, m. b., & bektaş, m. (2012). otantik öğrenmenin topluma hizmet uygulamaları dersini alan öğretmen adaylarının derse yönelik tutum ve memnuniyetine etkisi. kastamonu eğitim dergisi, 20(1), 341-360. hui, f., & koplin, m. (2011). the implementation of authentic activities for learning: a case study in finance education. e-journal of business education & scholarship of teaching, 5(1), 59-72. hürsen, ç. (2016). the impact of curriculum developed in line with authentic learning on the teacher candidates' success, attitude, and selfdirected learning skills. asia pacific education review 17, 73–86. doi:10.1007/s12564015-9409-2. i̇neç, z. f. (2017). sosyal bilgiler dersinde geo-medya destekli otantik öğrenme ortamının öğrenmeye etkisi. (unpublished dissertation). erzincan university. jonassen, d., howland, j., marra, r. m., & crismond, d. (2008). how does technology facilitate learning? meaningful learning with technology, 5-10. karabulut, h. (2019). teknoloji destekli otantik öğrenme aktivitelerinin öğrencilerin fen öğrenmelerine, fene yönelik tutumlarına ve bilgilerinin kalıcılığına etkisi (unpublished dissertation). gazi university. karakoç, b. (2016). otantik görev odaklı uygulamaların yabancı dil eğitimine etkisinin incelenmesi (unpublished dissertation). gaziantep university. kocakaya, s. (2012). deneysel çalışmalar ne kadar güvenilir? eğitim ve öğretim araştırmaları dergisi, 1(2), 225231. koçyiğit, s. (2011). otantik görev odaklı yapılandırmacı yaklaşımın öğretmen adaylarının başarılarına, derse karşı tutumlarına ve problem çözme becerilerine etkisi (unpublished dissertation). marmara university. koçyiğit, s., & zembat, r. (2013). otantik görevlerin öğretmen adaylarının derse karşı tutumlarına ve problem çözme becerilerine etkisi. kuram ve uygulamada eğitim bilimleri, 13(2), 1027-1051. kutlu, ö., doğan, c. d., & karakaya, g. (2010). öğrenci başarısının belirlenmesi performansa ve portfolyoya dayalı durum belirleme ölçme değerlendirme uygulamaları. ankara: pagem akademi. lee, s., & goh, g. (2012). action research to address the transition from kindergarten to primary school: children's authentic learning, construction play, and pretend play. early childhood research & practice, 14(1), 1-16. lichtinger, e., & kaplan, a. (2015). employing a case study approach to capture motivation and self-regulation of young students with learning disabilities in authentic educational contexts. metacognition learning, 10, 119–149. doi:10.1007/s11409-014-9131-1. lombardi, m. (2007). authentic learning for the 21st century: an overview. educause learning initiative. https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/eli3009.pdf 160 loyens, s. m. m., rikers, r. m. j. p., & schmidt, h.g. (2009). students' conception of constructivist learning in different program years and different learning environments, british journal of educational psychology, 79, 501-514. maddox, l. e., & saye, j. w. (2014). authentic pedagogy and the acquisition of lower-order knowledge in history. social studies research and practice, 9(1), 1-17. mehlinger, h. d. (1995). school reform in the information age. indiana university press. mims, c. (2003). authentic learning: a practical introduction and guide for ımplementation. meridian: a middle school computer technologies. journal of a service of nc state university, raleigh, nc, 6(1). http://www.ncsu.edu/meridian/win2003/authentic_learning.pdf. mone. (2005). i̇lköğretim fen ve teknoloji dersi (4 ve 5. sınıflar) öğretim programı. ankara: meb yayınevi. mone. (2005). i̇lköğretim fen ve teknoloji dersi (6, 7 ve 8. sınıflar) öğretim programı. ankara: meb yayınevi. mone. (2013). i̇lköğretim kurumları (ilkokullar ve ortaokullar) fen bilimleri dersi (3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ve 8. sınıflar) öğretim programı. ankara: meb yayınevi. mone. (2017). fen bilimleri dersi öğretim programı (ilkokul ve ortaokul 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ve 8. sınıflar). ankara: meb yayınevi. mone. (2018). fen bilimleri dersi öğretim programı (ilkokul ve ortaokul 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ve 8. sınıflar). ankara: meb yayınevi. önger, s. (2019). sosyal bilgiler öğretiminde otantik öğrenme yaklaşımı: bir eylem araştırması (unpublished dissertation). gazi university. paavola, s., & lakkala, m. (2004). what is good learning? https://www.academia.edu/1009075/what_is_good_learning 25.03.2017. pullu, e. k. (2019). programlama öğretiminde otantik görev odaklı uygulamaların öğrencilerin akademik başarısına, tutumlarına, problem çözme ve yaratıcı düşünme becerilerine etkisi (unpublished dissertation). fırat university. risko, v. j., osterman, j. c., & schusster, d. (2002). educating future teachers by inviting critical inquiry. the annual meeting of the american educational research, new orleans. eric document reproduction service ed466471. rule, a. c. (2006). editorial: the components of authentic learning. journal of authentic learning, 3(1), 1–10. rule, a. c., & arthur, s. c., (2007). preservice elementary teachers’ reflective ınsights from teaching mathematics. journal of authentic learning, 4(1), 43-64. rule, a.c., dunham, e., stoker, j., arthur, s.c., miller, r., & thibado, n. (2007). preservice elementary teachers’ reflective ınsights from teaching mathematics during an authentic early practicum experience. journal of authentic learning, 4(1), 43-64. turkish language association. (2019). türk dil kurumu büyük türkçe sözlük. http://www.tdk.gov.tr/ 12.02.2017. tynjala, p. (1999). towards expert knowledge? a comparison between a constructivist and a traditional learning environment in university. international journal of educational research, 31(5), 357-442. ünsal, y., & moğol, s. (2008). fen eğitiminde problem çözme ile ilgili açıklamalı kaynakça. dicle üniversitesi ziya gökalp eğitim fakültesi dergisi, 10, 70-81. williams, d. c. (1999). hypermedia-supported authentic learning environments (hale): an examination of tools and features which can support student learning (unpublished dissertation). university of texas. 161 yeen-ju, h. t., mai, n., & selvaretnam, b. (2015). enhancing problem-solving skills in an authentic blended learning environment: a malaysian context. international journal of information and education technology, 5(11), 841-846. zohoorian, z. (2015). motivation level: a study on the effect of an authentic context. procedia—social and behavioral sciences, 192, 15-25. authors: naciye aynas works as an assistant professor at the faculty of education, hakkari university. her research areas include curriculum development, teacher training, and authentic learning. email: aynasnaciye@gmail.com mecit aslan works as an associate professor at the faculty of education, van yüzüncü yıl university, turkey. his research areas include teacher education, curriculum development, curriculum evaluation and instruction. email: maslan4773@gmail.com cite this paper as: aynas, n., & aslan, m. (2021). the effects of authentic learning practices on problem-solving skills and attitude towards science courses. journal of learning for development, 8(1), 146-161. microsoft word mitra.docx issn: 2311-1550 2020, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 286-305 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. children and the internet: learning, in the times to come sugata mitra tataha kim laboratory, niit university, rajasthan, india abstract: it is proposed that the purpose of education is to enable people to live happy, healthy and useful lives — now and in the future. a curriculum and framework for children’s education is derived from the above purpose. using the results of over twenty years of research, the pedagogical and physical environments required that will enable children to learn are discussed in the postpandemic world. scenarios for schools and homes are presented with a special emphasis on the role of the internet in children’s learning. new methods for assessment and certification are described to complete a framework for children’s education that is fit for purpose for our times. keywords: children’s education, internet, curriculum, pedagogy, assessment, certification, selforganization, sole, learning environments, pandemic. introduction this article, an expanded and updated version of an earlier article on a web page for lay readers, describes a framework for children’s education. as a result, the article has a somewhat conversational tone that readers are requested to kindly excuse. this article, based on more than twenty years of research, is not directly related to the global pandemic caused by the covid 19 virus from november 2019 to the time of writing (august, 2020). the framework described is a consequence of the change of age from industrial to information that humanity is going through. the pandemic has accelerated the pace of that changeover. at this time, schools around the world are mostly closed and children are at home, as are their teachers. traditional education is at a standstill, with the hope that, one day, the pandemic will be over and we will all ‘go back to normal’. this is a desire to return to the past — a desire not uncommon in the design of children’s education. as for the virus, evolutionary processes, perhaps aided by a vaccine, will cause it to mutate into a benign steady-state, where it infects many but kills almost no one. this will ensure its survival and proliferation. this has happened before with viruses such as the common cold, or even influenza. we have adapted to living with these viruses. covid 19 will join this list of survivors. or, if it does not mutate quickly enough into a benign version, it will be eradicated like smallpox or polio. while this happens, schools will reopen. i will start this article with what the reopened schools should look like, before examining why they should be this way. that examination will lead us to a framework for education that is suitable for our times. i have tried to identify references to work that supports my thinking as far as possible. however, for some of the most recent developments, such references do not exist and so the thinking needs to be inferential. 287 an early 2021 scenario school does not look very different from the way it used to before the pandemic. it still has a front office, a staff room, the principal's office, corridors, spaces and classrooms. there are fewer people than there used to be. everyone wears a mask, at least for the time being. everyone stays a bit away from others. there are fewer children at any time, about a fourth as many as there used to be. they do not have to wear masks, but many do. they do not all arrive together in the morning as they used to. instead they come in four batches, through the day. the school day is about twice as long as it used to be. classes have between four and eight children, seated away from each other. a session, or ‘period’ as it is sometimes called, is 90 minutes long. these sessions sometimes have children who are physically present, sometimes mixed – with some children on the internet and others physically present. sometimes, a session is entirely virtual – only the teacher is present in the classroom, the children are on his screen. and sometimes, eerily, even the teacher is not present in the school, she is at home.... sessions usually start with a set of questions. in the pre-pandemic times, this would have been called a test. tests were usually given after the ‘teaching and learning’ were over. not so anymore. sessions can start with tests. the children have no idea what the answers might be, they haven’t been ‘taught’. but they can look up things on the internet and talk to each other. when the answers come in, the teacher begins a discussion. she encourages the children to talk about their answers, sometimes, very occasionally, she adds a bit. they arrive at a consensus by the end of the session about what the answers are and why. the session ends. sometimes the teacher encourages them to look further on their own – if they would like to and if they can. in the post-pandemic world, the ‘teaching-learning-testing' sequence from the past is turned over into ‘testing-learning-teaching'. each session is a complete cycle. a 90-minute semester. each teacher handles four groups of four children over four, 90-minute, sessions every day. the timetable looks very different from the way it used to. there is outdoor playtime with no more than eight children at a time. there are tests and examinations once a month, these can be answered from class or home. the internet is allowed during all tests, as is discussion – among children or between children and adults. each child predicts his or her score before a test. as time goes on, their predictions get better. they learn how to accurately estimate what they can do; with the resources and time they have. this ability will help them greatly in the times to come. the internet equalises learning at school or home. the school in the cloud extends across space from home or school. it works the same way in the school or at home, whether physically, mask-to-mask in the classroom, or virtually across homes. ‘lock-downs’ do nothing to the school in the cloud. __________________________________________________________________________________ education in the pre-pandemic world the education system came from the military-industry-doctrine driven age of empires that we emerged from only in the mid-twentieth century. an age that required millions of identical people to do the jobs that machines do now. an age that required people to memorise what we can now access instantly from the internet. an education system driven by examinations looking to see if children had been sufficiently ‘sanitised’ so that they know the same things and behave the same way. as the 288 world transitioned into the information age, it became evident that the existing education system was no longer fit for purpose. then, in 2020, a virus shut the world down. education and the pandemic when the sars-covid-19 virus spread through the world, schools were shut down and children sent home. the internet, so far resisted by schools, became our only ally during global lock-down. children and the internet are friends (mitra et al, 2005), so teachers finally began to gather children together into internet video conferences. but they made some mistakes. classrooms tend to have between 20 and 30 children because a room large enough to hold about 25 children packed in rows and columns is the maximum where a teacher can be heard clearly without any voice amplifying devices (ethicalpolitics.org, 2020). its design is from 2000 bce! a class ‘period’ of teaching is usually about 45 minutes because that is about the maximum time a human being can talk loudly and continuously without lapsing into nonsense or a coughing fit. children were to attend school until they were seventeen. because, in a military-industrial society, this is the age they are strong enough to work in factories, offices and armies. lecture followed by lecture with examinations in between. that was the model of the factory schools of the age of empires. during the pandemic, teachers started to create groups of 25 children to form virtual ‘classes’ over the internet. then they lectured them, or, worse still, played them recorded lectures. it didn’t work. in these virtual classes, it is not possible to tell who is attending. recently, a child changed his login display name to ‘reconnecting....’. even more difficult is to figure out who is paying attention. the face that you see on your screen may be a few seconds in the past, or a photograph, or just a made-up expression. you may remember, there were equivalent problems in the old system as well. even more tricky is the problem of whether parents will pay any fees for a lame, make-believe ‘class’ on the internet. we need a different kind of class, one that children like to attend and pay attention in. parents will pay for that. post-pandemic education when schools reopen, there is a distinct possibility that we will try to go back to school as it used to be —producing identical people for obsolete armies, factories, and offices. this will take the least effort and keep governments happy. on the other hand, if we focus on the future rather than the past, we can design a hybrid system, partly physical, partly virtual, with assessments that are focused towards the ability to create things and solve problems. whatever option we choose, there is a rather rare opportunity to design an education system suitable for our times. 289 some things we have come to know about learning there are existing theories about children and learning from thinkers such as piaget, vygotsky or erikson, among many others (see for example, cherry, 2020). this article is not about the application of those theories. what i will do is to highlight some findings from recent times that relate directly to children and the environments they are in today. we know, from john hattie’s work (hattie, 2012a), what affects children’s learning in positive and negative ways. we even know which influences count more than others (hattie, 2012b). at the top of the list of positive influencers for children’s learning is ‘collective teacher efficacy’. this means if all the teachers in a school believe that they can, together, enable children to learn better, then, the children do learn better. the collective, like a hive, can do what individuals cannot. another important influencer on hattie’s list is “self-reported grades”. here, a learner tells you how well she has understood a topic. you, the teacher, can then compare this with what you think her score should be. or you could test and see if the test score matches her estimate. if a student exceeds her own expectation, her confidence and interest will rise, or so we expect. a well-known education innovator, yaacov hecht, uses a method (hecht, 2017) that i find impressive. each learner has a red, yellow and green card. during a learning session, each learner puts one of the cards in front. it is a visual clue that tells you, ‘i’ve got it’ (green), ‘it's ok, i am getting it’ (yellow) or ‘sorry, i haven’t a clue’ (red). the teacher and, indeed, the learner’s peers now have an idea of the state of mind the learner is in. a learner with green is someone you could ask for advice. a learner with red needs a bit of help. the next important influencer is ‘micro teaching’. here, a lesson is either viewed or taken followed by a debriefing by the learners. what did they learn? what was the point? could it have been put more simply? this is a cathartic experience for both teachers and learners and would improve both teaching and learning. related to micro-teaching is an influencer in hattie’s list called “classroom discussion”. this is a general discussion about a topic by the whole group. this is powerful as it relates not just to comprehension but to communication as well. discussion increases interest in a topic, almost immediately. discussion among learners is a highly effective method of communicative learning that we will see later in the method called “self-organized learning”. in 2002, i met sir arthur c. clarke. he mentioned that the important thing he had observed while watching videos of my “hole in the wall” experiments (mitra & rana, 2001), was that the children were interested in exploring the internet. “when children have interest – education happens”, he said. close to the bottom of the list of negative influencers is one called “boredom”. boredom has a high negative influence on learning; it is more damaging to student learning than lack of sleep, low socioeconomic status, corporal punishment, and depression (weinberg & brumback, 1990). learners get bored if they don’t see the point of what they are learning. teachers get bored if they don’t believe what they are teaching is important. for example, why should you know about tectonic plates? if you are not aware of the big unknown things about the earth’s geology, you are unlikely to think tectonic plates are worth spending any time on. any topic needs to start with the big questions that started people thinking about it. 290 the environment in which learning happens affects the efficacy of learning. this is rather obvious but has been downplayed for centuries. the work of stephen heppell (heppell, 2020) is simple and important for a practical understanding of how to design learning environments. temperature, sound, light and several other factors contribute to learning efficacy, or otherwise. here is a summary of heppell’s work with a few additions of mine: • temperature: 18-21° centigrade (about 64-70° fahrenheit) is optimal, says heppell (2020). well, i think that may be so in the temperate climes but not in the tropics or near the equator. about 24°c is what children would find comfortable in the warmer climates. the temperature we find comfortable is often related to the ambient temperature. if it is 35°c ambient, then most children would find even 32°c to be quite comfortable. i once put an air conditioner in a village room in india, in summer. it was set to 24°c. in a few minutes, children started running out saying, “it's so nice and warm outside”. anyhow, it is important to have a comfortable temperature in your learning environment. • light: between 500-1000 lux is what is suggested by heppell (2020). he also cautions against fluorescent lights. bright led is possibly the best bet. learners go off-task in dim light and a bit hyper in really bright light. • movement: children need to move, every so often, to get the blood flowing. let them get up and do things. i often tell them to walk over to others to see what they are doing. they think this is funny advice. • colour: coloured walls can be distracting. cream or white is best, they also reflect and reduce the electricity bill. bits of colors with wall hangings or cushions will reduce monotony. • carbon dioxide: this gas can directly affect children’s attention and increase disengagement. keeping a few windows open, or a fresh air setting on an air conditioner will help. indoor plants, plenty of them, also bring down the levels of co2 in the daytime. • noise and music: external noise is obviously avoidable. properly designed doors and windows can help reduce noise. music will help if it is very soft and instrumental. no vocals. • smells: the right smells can actually help with memory and concentration! i know too little about this to be more helpful. what is important is to keep strong smells out. there are a few things i did not find in heppell’s work: • humidity: heppell does not mention this but i think it is important. too much and the sweat gets in the way of doing anything, too little and the children start to shrivel up and get headaches. about 60% is just right, i would guess but it is only a guess. • flooring: easy to clean flooring that does not throw up dust is important for cleanliness and also to keep insects and germs out. synthetic flooring is good and, if you choose right, will also have enough ‘give’ so that children don’t get hurt if they fall. carpets are not a good idea, no matter how nice they look. • wiring: all electrical wiring should be covered. ducts running a few inches off the floor and along the walls are easy for maintenance and also safe. below the floor, or up inside a false 291 ceiling is not a good idea, particularly in warmer places. i know a place where both snakes and mice find it exciting to move along underground ducts carrying wires. • computers: all-in-one pcs with screens of 19 inches or more (diagonal) are the best for children. laptops, if you must, should have large screens that everyone can see from a distance. smart phones are not at all a good idea in learning environments. • internet: broadband at 20 mbps or more is required for most video conferencing and multimedia browsing. direct connections from the modem are preferable as they are steadier than wifi for the computer used for videoconferencing. for other computers used just for browsing, wifi is preferable as it reduces the amount of wiring. both hattie and heppell seem to have left the internet out of their reckoning. i find this disappointing because i think the internet is the most important influencer of learning in the world today. my work for more than twenty years has been on children and the internet (mitra, 2020) the key findings (mitra, 2020) are summarised below: 1. groups of unsupervised children, given access to the internet in safe and publicly visible spaces, can figure out how to use the internet, irrespective of who or where they are. we call this minimally invasive education (mie). 2. groups of unsupervised children, given access to the internet in safe and publicly visible spaces, can learn anything by themselves. these are called self-organised learning environments (soles) (sole, 2020; start sole, 2020). 3. the presence, physically or virtually, of a friendly, encouraging adult, enhances self-organised learning as listed in #2. such intervention, when through the internet, is called “the granny cloud” (mitra, 2009; thegrannycloud.org, 2017). 4. minimally invasive education, implemented through self-organised learning environments and the granny cloud, is called a school in the cloud (mitra, 2020; theschoolinthecloud.org, 2020). you can set up a sole session with between four and 24 children. if you are planning to conduct one physically, you will need a room with the children and one computer connected to the internet for every four children. do not make too many computers available. let the children make their own groups. they may make groups of more or less than four — let them. tell them they can change groups whenever they want. now, frame whatever the learning objective is into a question. the question needs to be big and interesting. not necessarily complex. for example, “how does your phone know where you are?” as an introduction to gps and trigonometry. or, “how do we see with our eyes closed, when we dream?” as an introduction to psychology. once you have set up the question, ask the children to work on the answer by themselves for about 30 minutes. then get them to discuss the answers and come to a consensus on what they would present as the answer or answers. finally, summarise their findings, congratulate them and close the session. do not value add. if there are things missing, make another question for the next day. in a future that 292 is increasingly unimaginable, you can only encourage the children to explore things that you, many times, don’t know. ‘you go there, i will go with you’, is your new role. you can do soles over the internet, but with four or, at most, eight children. use a video conferencing facility like zoom or ms teams or google meet – there are more appearing every day. a sole over the internet will work just as well as one done in a classroom, if the group sizes are right. in a sole, the internet does not replace a teacher, it provides inputs that promote discussion and raises the interest of children in whatever they are looking for. when children have interest – education happens. in the language of physics, self-organising systems move from chaotic disorder to spontaneous order. sometimes, this is called emergent behaviour – it is not planned or programmed; it just happens. ‘learning’ and ‘knowing’ could just be examples of emergent behaviour in self-organising networks of the brains of children. using environment designs from heppell’s guidelines, using pedagogical influences from hattie, and using soles, we are ready for a new kind of learning that can work just as well from home, over the internet, as it can in school. the question is — what should the children be learning? attempting to answer that question will lead us into the very basis and purpose of education itself. what should children learn? it is difficult not to look back at your own childhood when trying to list what children should learn. this is perhaps the reason why curricula and the education system itself is outdated in most countries. children’s education is considered of great importance and its planning is left in the hands of senior, and often elderly, people. such planners look back at their own childhoods of many decades ago and think of the good things they learned and the good things that they should have learned but did not. another thing planners tend to do is to look at their grandchildren. as a result, many a country ends up with curricula and schools based on ideas of people with ancient experiences and angelic granddaughters. then there are the parents and they, too, want their children to be educated the way they were educated. in other words, we prepare children for our past rather than their future. it is in this environment that we need to find out what children should learn. it is difficult to find published evidence of all this, hence, i leave it as conjecture. what follows is an attempt to design a system that does not drag us back to the past. let me start by saying that we want children to live happy, healthy and useful lives. i hope there is nothing to argue against that wish. we might debate about what happiness, health and usefulness mean in different contexts, but we are not going to say we don’t want children to live happy, healthy and useful lives. if that is so, children must learn how to stay alive and be happy, healthy, and useful. that gives us a list of four things—living, happiness, health, and usefulness. all that follows in any education system —pedagogy, curricula, and assessment, must focus on these four things. whenever they do not, we are going off-track. 293 the four things that children need to learn can be expanded to include one more level of detail for each of the four: • to live, some understanding of safety, nature and technology are needed. we could add others, but i think it would be simpler if we work with these three and any additions can be included under one of the three. • to be happy, some understanding of the self, of others including non-humans, and of our senses, art and music are needed. if i have missed some areas, we can add them under these three. • to be healthy, some understanding of the body, disease, ageing, reproduction and exercise are needed. like before, any other topics or areas can be added under these five. • to be useful. this is the most complicated of the lot. but again, to avoid a combinatorial explosion, i decided on five areas— skills, behaviour, attitude, ethics, and knowledge. to live happy, healthy and useful lives, children need to engage with the 16 areas above. we could take these areas and build a curriculum with them. curriculum curriculum can be defined as everything that happens, in educational processes, to a child in the schooling years (wikipedia, 2020). it is usually a set of learning goals mapped across grades and time throughout the k-12 (that is, primary and secondary) school programme. these learning goals are, obviously, things children need to know, as in the section above. they need to know these things for living happy, healthy, and useful lives. but there is one strange problem with this way of describing things that children need to know. some things seem to get left out. for example, a child could live a happy, healthy and useful life without knowing that the square root of minus 1, is an imaginary number. or that sloths can hold their breaths longer than dolphins can. or even that we live in a solar system in a galaxy. many people do not know these things and live perfectly well. it is just that, for some strange reason, we like to know these strange, apparently useless, things. children seem to love them and will stop in their tracks and drop everything they are doing to learn these things. for some reason, evolution has wired our brains, and the brains of many living things, for curiosity. just in case, if someday these things become very important for some reason unknown. so, i am going to divide the learning objectives of a curriculum into two categories – things that we need to know and things that make us feel good to know. sometimes, different aspects of the same thing can fall into both categories. for example, we need to know that broken glass can be dangerous and that wine glasses can break if hit with a metal object. but it feels good to know that wine glasses filled with different levels of water can be played like a xylophone, with a metal spoon. what follows is a curriculum. it is in general terms and any additions can be made as details for one of the heads already mentioned. figure 1 shows the structure of the curriculum for the ‘need to know’ part. an identical structure will be used for the ‘good to know’ part of the curriculum. one more level of detail for both parts are included in the text that follows: 294 figure 1: structure of the ‘need to know’ part of the curriculum. there will be an identical structure for the ‘good to know’ part. 1. need to know: 1.1 for living – treat all subtopics from the point of view of life and living. 1.1.1 safety • walking, running, sitting, standing, jumping, sleeping, breathing. • defence, offence, hiding. • shouting, abusing, threatening. • eating, drinking. disease. teeth, gums, bones. • cuts, burns, bruises, aches and pains. • toys, switches, wires. • glass, metal, wood, plastic, rubber, bricks, concrete. • smoke, smells, sounds. • weather and clothing. • people, animals, birds, fish, insects, reptiles. • cars, cycles, airplanes, ships, boats. • computers, smartphones, internet, games. 295 1.1.2 nature • fire, water, earth, air. • plants, trees. animals, birds, insects, reptiles, fish. • weather and climate. 1.1.3 technology • cars, buses, trains, planes, ships, boats. • electricity. • computers, internet. • medicines, hospitals. • guns and weapons. • webcams, cctv. 1.2 for happiness – treat all subtopics from the point of view of happiness. 1.2.1 self • meditation, feelings, emotions. • illusions. • desire, anger, greed, ego, jealousy. 1.2.2 others • people, plants, animals, etc. • life, pain, death. • history. • friendship, love. • competition. 1.2.3 senses • sight, sound, smell, taste, touch. • music, art, dance, drama, literature, poetry. 296 1.3 for health – treat all subtopics from the point to view of health. 1.3.1 the body • biology, physiology. • brain, nervous system. • aesthetics and beauty. • other bodies, animals, etc. 1.3.2 disease • wear and tear, germs and infections. • causes, prevention, medicines, doctors, hospitals. 1.3.3 age • order, disorder, entropy. • maturity, death. 1.3.4 reproduction • gender, sex. birth. • other species. 1.3.5 exercise • calories, fat, muscle. • aerobics, yoga, intensity, stamina, sports. 1.4 for usefulness—treat all subtopics from the point of view of usefulness in life and society. 1.4.1 skills • comprehension, communication, computing. • making, fixing, repairing. • money, management. 1.4.2 behaviour • language, politeness, manners, expression. • kindness, helpfulness. pragmatism. respect. 1.4.3 ethics • right, wrong, truth, beliefs. 297 1.4.5 knowledge • science, technology, engineering, mathematics. • statistics, economics, psychology, arts, philosophy, politics. 1.4.6 attitude • positivism, patience, determination. • calmness. humour. 2. feels good to know: 2.1 for living – treat all subtopics from the point of view of cool, nice to know. 2.1.1 safety • dress, fashion, restaurants, shopping, gossip. 2.1.2 nature • the universe, biodiversity, oceans. 2.1.3 technology • games, robots, drones, remote controlled vehicles. • telescopes, microscopes. • vr, ar. 2.2 for happiness – treat all subtopics from the point of view of fun to know. 2.2.1 self • dating, drinking, smoking. 2.2.2 others • aggression, violence, vandalism. 2.2.3 senses • pornography, abusive language, substance abuse. • junk food. 2.3 for health – treat all subtopics from the point of view of alternatives, and fun things. 2.3.1 the body • evolution, anthropology, races. 2.3.2 disease • alternative medicine, superfoods. 2.3.3 age • rejuvenation, immortality. 298 2.3.4 reproduction • sex drive, testosterone, etc. 2.3.5 exercise • body sculpting, diets, adventure sports. 2.4 for usefulness – treat all subtopics from the point of view of quick money and street smartness. 2.4.1 skills • tricks, diy, cooking. violence. 2.4.2 behavior • poses, body language, non-verbal communication. 2.4.3 ethics • manipulation, lies, emotional blackmail. 2.4.4 knowledge • social media, ‘general knowledge’, the underworld, unusual facts. 2.4.5 attitude • smart, cool, street smart. this is a skeleton that you, or a committee, could flesh out with more detail. it can produce 21stcentury individuals capable of taking the decisions that will enable them to live happy, healthy and useful lives. whether you accept the curricular framework above, or build your own, or accept one from the government – you will need to know how children will learn (pedagogy), how you will know they have learned (assessment) and how you will let other people know that they have learned (certification). this is the process of education and, in view of the recent pandemic, it needs to continue in equivalent ways, whether children are physically in school or not. pedagogy self-organised learning environments (sole) soles are mentioned several times in the sections above. they are powerful methods for improving comprehension, communication, and computing skills in children in any subject area. in a sole, children in groups of about four, research a topic or a question using a shared internet connection. they can change groups anytime, walk around and see what other groups are doing and talk as much as they like. soles are conducted in safe, publicly visible spaces where all the activity is visible to everybody. in a sole, a topic is converted into a question, the answer to which should cover most of what is known on the topic. sometimes, these questions may have no answer, or have multiple answers. those are the best of the big questions that can drive soles. children, and most adults, love the unknown. you can take any topic from the curriculum above and make a big question out of it. 299 for example, from 1.4.1, ‘what was the world like before money was invented?’ or, from 2.1.1, ‘why does red go with black when dressing up?’ soles conducted over the internet are a little different from the ones conducted physically. in a physical sole, the ideal number of learners is 24, working on six computers. the ideal duration is 60 minutes. in an internet sole, the ideal number of learners is four, that is about as many as you can comfortably see in front of a camera. looking at the learners is important for soles. you can’t really see 24 postage-stamp-sized faces on a tiny screen and get any sense of presence. also, on the internet, you need to budget for some setup time and connectivity glitches. i would recommend the duration for a sole over the internet to be 90 minutes. soles were invented in gateshead, england in 2007. they started spreading into the schools of the uk, shortly afterwards. (ofsted, the uk government body on education, mentioned soles in 2012. (ofsted, 2012)). by 2015, soles had spread throughout the world (theschoolinthecloud.org/, 2020). fabrication labs these are often called “fablab”, although many countries have different names for them (fabfoundation.org, 2020). these are spaces where children can make things. not just paper and scissors kind of things, but electronic circuits, 3d-printed parts and so on. groups of children can collaborate to make even complex things like drones or robots or plant watering systems. soles coupled with fab labs can help children design and build really useful things. play it is well known that play is among the most powerful methods for children’s learning and development. it may be noticed that soles and fab labs are actually forms of play. use play for any part of the curriculum that you can design play for. talk the lecture is one of the oldest methods for learning. someone who knows tells others who don’t. the others listen and learn. this has worked for millennia and is effective when used correctly. we know now that lectures are not effective where learners can easily figure out the content by themselves. discussions, debates, and presentations are other forms of talk-based learning that are powerful tools for learning. a group of learners gathered around a teacher is the oldest symbol of education in the world. it is possible to create such groups over the internet. i would suggest not to exceed eight learners in any group. the duration of sessions needs to be about 25% more when on the internet. you need to speak slowly and clearly. repeating ideas a few times is also good practice on the internet as you have no way to gauge attention levels or bandwidth fluctuations. a judicious mixture of soles, fab lab, play and talk is the best of the pedagogy we have available today. of these, soles and talk are possible over the internet and will work just as well as in a physical school. play needs to be designed differently for home, as also construction projects. use whatever is available at home. use your imagination! 300 assessment did it all work? did learning happen? will it last? finding out if the learners gained from your efforts as a teacher, a parent or a principal is the most contentious, debated, criticised and even hated of all aspects of education. children can be, literally, driven out of their minds by assessment. to add insult to injury, examinations are notoriously ineffective at predicting the future achievements of learners. the only use of ‘end-of-school' examination results is mostly to determine if the learner is suitable for admission to a university. this can result in the educated disgruntled. the lawyer who wanted to be a chef, the nurse who wanted to be a pilot. every human being has a list of things they like to do, a list of things they are good at doing, and a list of things they actually do. try making the three lists for yourself and you will probably see that the lists often don’t match. many go through life doing the things that they neither like to do nor are good at doing. many others do the things they are good at doing but don’t really like to do. we end up with disgruntled bus drivers and irritable doctors. my indian school certificate, granted by the university of cambridge in 1968, lists only seven subjects – english language, english literature, hindi, maths, physics, chemistry and geometry. there is nothing in my school certificate that even hints at what i might be able to do well. most existing assessment systems are designed to fit people into slots in a social system, regardless of what they would like to do or become. we don’t have social systems like that anymore, fitting people where they don’t belong can be lethal in the world we are in. what should we assess and how? there is not much point in finding out how much a child knows in a world where ‘knowing’ is not quite what it used to be. ‘i don’t need to know everything, i just need to know where to find it when i need it’, einstein is supposed to have said. whether he did or not, the sentence is prophetic. no one really knows what ‘knowing’ means. if you listen to a song, do you now ‘know’ it? what about lectures, do you ‘know’ the contents once you have listened to them? can you explain to someone what ‘knowing’ how to ride a bicycle means? we do not know much about knowing—it’s just something a brain does, when it wants to. in a world where the internet is instantly available to most people, you don’t need to know things in advance. in our schooling system, children are expected to know a lot of things – just in case they ever need it. the children, quite rightly, feel that it is unlikely that they will ever be in dire need for, for example, a modal auxiliary verb. they disengage. now, what if that child did encounter a situation where it was vital to know what a modal auxiliary verb is? well, they could just look it up on google. i once described this process as ‘the end of knowing’. nicholas negroponte of mit said, ‘knowing is obsolete’, after listening to a lecture in 2012. we should assess whether children can solve problems and answer questions using the internet. taking away the internet from children and then asking them to answer questions and solve problems 301 is like asking someone to tell the time of day without looking at their watch. it’s pointless. we are not in the age of robinson crusoe, and we don’t need the education from that age. we all use the internet all the time, to do almost anything. our children should do the same. sometimes, these suggestions are interpreted as resulting in children with blank brains and a smartphone in their pockets. fortunately, the brain is not designed to remain blank. our brains remember what they want, understand what they consider important, and learn (even ‘know’) what they think is worth learning. we try to control these processes through education but have no control over what actually happens inside the trillions of connections that form the network we call the brain. it is a self-organising system that moves from one spontaneously ordered state to another – always at the edge of chaos (weinberg & brumback, 1990). in traditional education we try to load the brain with everything we know, just in case some of it is retained and used. when children learn continuously off the internet, the brain absorbs and retains what it considers important. when you google something once, you usually don’t google it again. this form of learning is just in time, instead of just in case. it is patchy and spread over time. it is incredibly useful in a rapidly changing world. wherever we get our information from – the internet, books, films, voice, gesture and so on, we need three basic skills to make use of it. comprehension, communication and computing. we should be able to comprehend the input (that is, make sense of it), communicate the idea to others (people, machines, animals, etc.) and we should be able to compute the solution to problems using information. i use the word ‘compute’ here in the sense of not just computers, but the english sense of ‘to reckon’. here is what we should assess about children’s abilities: comprehension • answering questions about a subject. • applying subject knowledge, acquired from anywhere at any time, to solve a problem. • applying subject knowledge to create something. communication • explaining a subject or topic to someone else. • describing what can be done with acquired knowledge or skill. • directing someone else to complete a task. • asking questions to acquire knowledge or skill. computing • searching for relevant content from the internet. • detecting different points of view. • detecting bias, misinformation or doctrine. 302 • using appropriate technology to solve a problem. • understanding advertisements, marketing hyperbole and lies. this list can be modified, expanded, reorganised, etc. however, as long as we have a measure of the three cs, comprehension, communication and computing, we would know how our learning process is progressing. there are tests to measure comprehension, communication and computing. i think they are useful to some extent. at the pinnacle of our education system is the ph.d. it is an attempt by a learner to answer a question (or questions) to which no one knows the answer. any method is allowed – all sources of information, discussion, intuition, analysis. a ph.d is a sole. while all other titles and degrees are awarded largely on the basis of examinations, the ph.d is not. a ph.d is awarded on the basis of written communication, a thesis. the worth of a thesis is judged through a conversation between the candidate and a couple of experts, to gauge the candidate’s comprehension of their own thesis. finally, the experts also gauge if the solution proposed by the candidate was arrived at using acceptable methods. in other words, the ph.d is granted on the basis of a subjective evaluation of comprehension, communication and computing. if the highest degree granted by the educational system is based on a sole and a measure of comprehension, communication and computing, it would be reasonable to apply similar methods to other levels of education. it would be expensive and time consuming, but it can be done. once you have measured learners’ capabilities using this method above instead of nerve-wracking tests of memory, you need to certify so that others can have a basis for understanding a learner. certification if the objective of education is to enable learners to live happy, healthy and useful lives, then certification should be a record of how far these objectives have been achieved. we need a certificate that tells us about: happiness • focus, facial expression • fear and fidgeting • humor, smiles, laughter health • height, weight, bmi • medical history • sports performance 303 usefulness • knowledge and skills • learning, problem solving and creative ability • comprehension, communication and computing • behavior, manners and empathy some of these parameters can be measured with numbers, but most would be evaluated by teachers using a ‘ph.d like’ method. i would trust the judgement of a trained teacher who has worked with a child for a year or more, just as an enlightened employer goes by reference letters from people who know a candidate, more than a numerical score. there would have to be checks and balances within the system to ensure that subjective methods are used correctly – these need to be worked out by individual institutions. the certificate should fit on a normal-sized page, it would be an invaluable guide to understanding a learner. schools and homes education systems cannot be changed overnight. neither can schools or homes in the post-pandemic world. the changes need to be made brick by brick and not by demolition and reconstruction. physical schools must remain where they are and look the same. only the number of children coming in at any time will be a lot smaller than before. inside the school, a space allocated for virtual attendance will enable children to ‘beam in’ from home. so will many teachers. the virtual component of a school will enroll children and teachers from all over the world. school will be open 24 x 7. each child will attend school, either physically or over the internet, for about four hours a day. ‘classes’ will have four children and a teacher and last for 90 minutes. the reasons for these numbers are in the discussion above. at home, a space needs to be allocated for remote schooling. a square of about fiur feet to each side should be enough, if you can afford it. try to match heppell’s conditions (above) as closely as you can. the space should contain a computer with a camera and speakers. here are some tips: the screen: this should be big enough so that faces can appear life size. a computer screen of about 20 inches diagonal is the minimum that will do this. a smart tv will work even better. the person whose face you are looking at should hold up a foot/metre scale next to their face. on your side, take a similar scale and put it against the one in the image. if the two matches, you’ve got life size. if you do not have a scale, use a standard bottle or something. in a school, you could use a projected screen if two classes are interacting. get the image to be life size, using the method described above. if you are projecting using a traditional projector, people’s heads will come in the way. use a ‘very short throw’ projector. these are so close to the screen that you can’t come in the way. they are a bit expensive, though. audio: use hifi speakers. bluetooth speakers are getting better all the time. use microphones that are tiny and invisible. don’t use headphones, they make you look as though you are speaking from the international space station. if you have to, use earbuds. 304 camera: this is tricky. most cameras are unobtrusive, but they are usually on top of the screen. so, the person you are talking to appears to be looking over the top of your head. this can’t be helped, but you can reduce the problem by looking at the camera instead of at the image of the face on the screen. to the other person, you will then look as though you are looking directly at them. it takes a bit of getting used to. if you are using a projected screen, you can try to fix a tiny camera in the centre of the screen. this will solve the problem. don’t wear clothes with checks or stripes, they produce what are called ‘jitters’ on the other screen. maybe you will get some of the vibe of a real conversation back into cyberspace! timing for sessions out of home can be tricky, it depends on what time zone the school you are connecting to is in. you are not used to this kind of school and neither is your child or children. if there are children of different ages, they may need separate spaces or time slots in the learning space. it can get confusing, but you will figure it out. learning – in the times to come will happen with relationships, trust, encouragement and freedom. there may not be any other way. acknowledgement: the ideas in this article were developed over twenty years. discussions with, amongst many others, the late sir arthur c. clarke, the late professor seymour papert and professor nicholas negroponte, are gratefully acknowledged. references cherry, k. (2020). child development theories and examples. https://www.verywellmind.com/child-developmenttheories-2795068 ethicalpolitics.org (2020). classroom design – pages from history. https://www.ethicalpolitics.org/ts/history.html fab foundation. (2020). https://fabfoundation.org/ granny cloud. (2017). http://thegrannycloud.org/ hattie, j. (2012a). visible learning for teachers – maximizing impact on learning. routledge. https://hozir.org/pars_docs/refs/26/25322/25322.pdf hattie, j. (2012b). hattie ranking. https://visible-learning.org/hattie-ranking-influences-effect-sizes-learningachievement/ hecht, y. (2017). from a pyramid paradigm to a network paradigm. edushifts – the future of education is now, 249267. http://www.socialinnovationacademy.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/edushifts_eng_virtual.pdf heppell, s. (2020). working at home, working from home: optimising the physical space to be your very best. http://www.heppell.net/home/default.html mitra, s. (2020). the school in the cloud the emerging future of learning. corwin publishers. https://us.corwin.com/en-us/nam/the-school-in-the-cloud/book257918 mitra, s. (2020). summary of work. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qljzoocikye mitra, s. (2009). remote presence: technologies for ‘beaming’ teachers where they cannot go. journal of emerging technology and web intelligence, 1(1), 55-59. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/c526/ec285eba2ef3a84009d074aaddd6e1556683.pdf mitra, s., dangwal, r., chatterjee, s., jha, s., bisht, r. s., & kapur, p. (2005). acquisition of computer literacy on shared public computers: children and the “hole in the wall”. australasian journal of educational technology, 21(3), 407-426. https://ajet.org.au/index.php/ajet/article/view/1328 mitra, s., & rana, v. (2001). children and the internet: experiments with minimally invasive education in india. the british journal of educational technology, 32(2), 221-232. 305 ofsted. (2012, december 11). innovative curriculum design to raise attainment: middlestone moor primary school. ofsted local authority. school in the cloud. (2020). school in the cloud. https://www.theschoolinthecloud.org/ sole. (2020). sole is self-organised learning environments. https://www.theschoolinthecloud.org/how-to/how-torun-a-sole-session/ start sole. (2020). let learning happen. https://startsole.org/ weinberg, w. a., & brumback, r. a. (1990). primary disorder of vigilance: a novel explanation of inattentiveness, daydreaming, boredom, restlessness, and sleepiness. the journal of pediatrics, 116(5), 720-725. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/s002234760582654x wikipedia. (2020). curriculum. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/curriculum author: sugata mitra is emeritus professor at niit university in rajasthan, india. he retired in 2019 after 13 years as professor of educational technology at newcastle university in the uk, during which time he spent a year as visiting professor at mit media lab in massachusetts, usa. among many awards, he received the ted milliondollar award in 2013 and the dewang mehta award for innovation in information technology from the government of india in 2003. email: sugata.mitra@gmail.com cite this paper as: mitra, s. (2020). children and the internet: learning, in the times to come. journal of learning for development, 7(3), 286-305. microsoft word loglo.docx issn: 2311-1550 2023, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 1-23 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. learning with digital media: a systematic review of students’ use in african higher education frank senyo loglo1,2 and olaf zawacki-richter1 1center for open education research (coer), faculty of education and social sciences, university of oldenburg, germany 2ghana communication technology university, ghana abstract: this study examined african higher education students' digital media use for learning. a total of 64 papers were selected for final synthesis from 1046 publications between 2010 and 2021. the review was dominated by campus-based undergraduate studies in the stem subjects. the synthesis confirmed a variety of digital media usage; however, learning management systems were mainly used for course delivery and primarily accessed by students through weak internet-enabled mobile devices. digital-media learning activities include communication, information search, instruction, knowledge management, exploration, assessment, collaboration, and simulation. subject areas were found to have no associations with type of learning activity. these findings suggest an emphasis on transmissive learning modes in digital environments, which may not promote active learning. although african countries have leapfrogged the development of tethered devices and internet applications, connectivity cost, reported incompatibility, technical issues, and low digital proficiency still prevent the upscaling of technologyenhanced learning via mobile devices. keywords: africa, higher education, digital education. introduction due to the covid-19 pandemic, higher education institutions (hei) are adopting remote teaching, which is driving the global adoption of digital teaching and learning methods (bozkurt & sharma, 2020; whittle et al., 2020; hodges et al, 2020; zawacki-richter, 2020). before this massive shift to online learning, bower (2017) noted that the objectives for incorporating technology into teaching and learning varied but were generally aimed at enhancing access to learning, student learning outcomes, and learner motivation. while media and technology integration in education has been highly touted, research has demonstrated that it can only be effective if pedagogy and technology are appropriately balanced (geist, 2011; hattie, 2009; kerres, 2013). otherwise, media may be employed for social, affective, or hedonistic goals rather than academic-related ones in the classroom (naidoo, 2016; parry & le roux 2018). this emphasises the importance of instructional design in teaching and learning, which involves careful planning and a strong pedagogical approach regardless of media tool. thus, to promote learning outcomes, media and technology must support and align with the learning task (berry & westfall, 2015; evans & matthew, 2013; kong & song, 2015). learning in a digitally challenged context africa continuously ranks low in major global information and communication technology indices (icti,ii ; ponelis & holmner, 2015). van dijk (2019) cites social and material resources as two major 2 reasons for digital inequality. the social context in which people live may stimulate or diminish interest in digital media use (selwyn, 2006), whereas material resources allow individuals and institutions to invest in digital media and its upkeep costs. the effects of the covid-19 pandemic further reinforced the trend of low technological infrastructure investments in african higher education (asamoah, 2019; asunka, 2008; mtebe, 2015). during this period, some african institutions in ghana and south africa initiated fundraising activitiesiii to buy computers and data plans for students, a clear incidence of a first-level digital divide or access problem, which is rare in the global north. material access to digital media (gonzales, 2016) continues to hinder african higher education's digitisation drive due to the continent's socio-economic issues. therefore, pineteh (2012) argues that traditional strategies for teaching and learning in africa are essential because they cater for “students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds with mediocre it skills or replace virtual activities in the event of technological failures” (p. 94). over the past four decades, tertiary enrolment in africa has increased, and the demand for higher education is expected to witness a further increase (effah & mensah-bonsu, 2001; naidoo, 2007; oecd, 2016). while educational technologies provide opportunities for widening access, they may also accommodate a deep divide (hill & lawton, 2018). one of the ways suggested to bridge the digital divide is to explore how new media could be leveraged for digital education in africa and related contexts (conole, 2014; guri-rosenblit, 2014; poushter, 2016). conole (2014) remarked that “developing countries are finding a makeshift solution, for example, the use of mobile devices rather than computers, as well as making materials available on smart devices rather than online, and the use of free resources such as open educational resources” (p. 230). the establishment of many recent open universities in the global south (zawacki-richter & qayyum, 2019) represents an opportunity to expand digital education in the region. however, africa’s well documented challenges of low availability and reliability of the internet and technological devices, low levels of digital skills, inadequate institutional support for technology-enhanced learning, and slow adoption rates by students and teachers (asamoah, 2017; mtebe, 2015) remain obstacles for the realisation of the benefits of digital education in africa. it is due to the often hackneyed but existential technology and infrastructural challenges in africa, and the prominence of the continent in the digital-divide discourse (giebel, 2013; pénard et al., 2015), that gives credence to label the context as digitally challenged. education is contextual in practice, and evidence from one cultural or geographical context may not necessarily be transferable to others. thus, adopting technologies for use without an analysis of the contextual factors for adaptation is a recipe for disaster (wagner, 2011). due to a myriad of structural and technological challenges encountered within the african higher education context, it would be useful to heed the call by oliver (2011) to carefully examine our understanding of the relationship between media and learning and acknowledge that social and contextual factors should be taken into consideration (koehler & mishra, 2009). therefore, it is important to examine the role of digital media for learning and teaching within the african higher education context. towards evidence mapping educational practice and policy should be based on evidence (slavin, 2020), and a systematic review provides a method to summarise the evidence within a field, identify gaps in the literature, and inform evidence-based practice (zawacki-richter et al., 2020). systematic review studies also provide 3 an important means to determine the effects in a particular sub-area of learning technology research (lai & bower, 2019). there have been some systematic reviews that have focused on different types of digital media used for learning in higher education. these include learning management systems (e.g., bervell & umar, 2017; mwalumbwe & mtebe, 2017), e-portfolios (e.g., beckers et al., 2016), social media (cheston et al., 2013), video conferencing (chipps et al., 2015) and the application of artificial intelligence in education (zawacki-richter et al., 2019). however, as bond et al. (2020) noted, there are few educational technology systematic reviews with an explicit regional focus. furthermore, bartolomé et al. (2018) observed that research on digital media for student learning largely ignores the pedagogical perspectives regarding their utilisation. this gap in the literature needs to be addressed, with the goal of informing the instructional design process and media selection for improving digital education through an authentic african lens. thus, this study uses a systematic review to explore the application of digital media for students’ learning within the african higher education context. purpose this review aims to provide a coherent synthesis of leaners’ use contexts regarding digital media and technologies for learning activities within the african higher education context. the goal is to inform policy, and to support research and practice in digital education design by addressing the following main review question: how do students use digital media for learning within the african higher education context? more specifically, this systematic review responds to the following sub-questions: 1. how have publications on student digital learning in african higher education developed over time in terms of (a) geographic distribution of studies, (b) authorship, and (c) publication patterns? 2. what characteristics can be found in studies conducted on students’ use of digital media for learning in african higher education regarding: a) theoretical frameworks and methods applied (study characteristics)? b) student type, field of study, mode of delivery, and type of digital media used (contextual characteristics)? 3. for what kind of learning activities were the digital tools utilised in those studies? methods the study applied a systematic review method to synthesise relevant evidence that fits pre-defined eligibility criteria to answer a specific question (moher et al., 2009). the strength of this methodological approach lies in its explicit, systematic, and replicable search strategy, which is transparent and clearly specifies the inclusion and exclusion criteria for identifying studies (gough et al., 2017; zawacki-richter et al., 2020). search strategy a search string (see table 1) was developed and applied in three databases: web of science, scopus, and ebsco education source (covering titles, abstracts, and keywords). the choice of these databases stems from their reputation and international acceptance for indexing high quality journals. the articles for this review were restricted to those published in peer-reviewed journals, which are 4 assumed to provide a certain measure of rigour (nicholas et al., 2015). at the beginning of the 2010s, digital media applications gained significant importance by permeating all facets of economic and social life including education. this led to mills’ (2010) characterisation of the period as the ‘digital turn’. thus, the year 2010 was selected as the starting point for this review. additionally, the corpus was limited to articles that addressed the application of digital media within a course setting in an african-based higher education context only. a database search on april 23, 2020, yielded 947 records. these were english-language peer-reviewed journal articles from 2010–2019. the search was broadened on march 25, 2022 to encompass 2020 and 2021 papers because of the covid-19 epidemic and the increased use of digital media in higher education. this yielded an additional 115 records. thus, a total of 1,062 records were finally screened on titles and abstracts. table 1: initial search string topic and cluster search terms student “learner” or “student* and digital media “educational technology*” or “ict” or “digital media” and educational context “higher education” or “university*“or “college*” and geographic context “africa” or “sub-saharan africa” or “global south” screening and selection after zotero reference management software deleted 138 duplicates from the 1,062 retrieved records, 924 documents remained (see figure 1). titles and abstracts were then screened on inclusion and exclusion criteria (see table 2), with sensitivity above specificity, so papers were included rather than excluded at the screening stage. after screening using rayyan software (ouzzani et al., 2016) and removing 725 publications for not fulfilling eligibility requirements, 199 articles remained. the 197 papers were fully screened after two papers were unrecoverable. after disqualifying 135 papers, 64 were selected for synthesisiv (see prisma diagram in figure 1). to ensure coding uniformity and obtaining a decision on paper inclusion or exclusion, authors met and emailed often. consistent with pigott and polanin’s (2020) suggested approach, one author screened the articles while a second person validated and signed off on the eligibility decision. 5 table 2: final inclusion and exclusion criteria inclusion criteria exclusion criteria § journal article and peer-reviewed § not a peer-reviewed journal article § published between january 2010 – december 2021 § published before january 2010 and after december 2021 § relates to student learning with digital media § not student learning with digital media § learning activity within a course setting § learning activity outside of a course setting § study context is higher education § not higher education § identifiable digital media as focus of study § generalised ict tools and not specific media § study’s geographic context is africa § study’s geographic context outside africa § study is primary research § not primary research § english language publication § publication not in english coding, data extraction and analysis all 64 publications were uploaded into rayyan, a web-based systematic review software, for coding (ouzzani et al., 2016). then a coding scheme was developed with codes for the review questions including, article information (year of publication, journal name, nation of study, countries of first author, authorship collaboration, student type, topic area, and delivery style), study approach, and theoretical framework. digital media and learning activities were also coded. limitations all necessary steps were taken to ensure validity and reliability of the study, however, the results should be interpreted with caution. although one author has substantial systematic review publication experience, computed inter-rater reliability was absent. second, this analysis only employed three highly ranked databases, where african educational technology research was underrepresented (bond et al., 2019; bozkurt et al., 2019). this may have excluded some relevant studies published outside these top-tier databases. thirdly, we acknowledge and follow gough et al.’s (2012) caution that “electronic searching is imprecise and captures many studies that employ the same terms without sharing the same focus or would lead to disregarding studies that analyse the construct but use different terms to describe it” (p. 13). 6 figure 1: systematic review prisma flow chart (modified after brunton et al., 2012, p. 86; moher et al., 2009, p. 8) results a summary of key results found in this review is presented in table 3. table 3: overview of results research question dimension key findings 1 publication and authorship patterns a. included articles 64 included articles; 2019 recorded the highest number (n = 11). b. key journals of included papers papers spread among 40 journals. 1. south african journal of higher education 2. british journal of educational technology 3. africa education review 4. international journal of educational technology in higher education 5. journal of education and information technologies c. study locations (rankings) a total of 8 african countries. top three include: 1. south africa 2. ghana 3. nigeria d. authorship and collaboration patterns south african authors (78.1%) 57.8% of collaborations were among authors within the same country 7 research question dimension key findings 2 study characteristics of included papers a. research approaches mixed-methods (39.1%); qualitative (34.4%); quantitative (26.6%) b. theories, frameworks, and models (tfm) applied social constructivism; tpck and tam 17 other tfms applied. 35 studies applied none. 3 contextual characteristics of included papers a. delivery formats/mode campus-based (76.6%), distance learning (12.5%), blended learning 1(0.9%) b. subject areas found in included studies stem (40.7%); arts and humanities (17.7%); business and economics (15.9%); medical and health science (15.1%), education and social sciences (10.6%). c. digital media tools and services (typology identified) e-learning tools and services; general web tools and services; hardware and devices; social networks; text media 4 learning activities undertaken with digital media a. classification of learning activities with digital media communication, information search, instruction, knowledge management, exploration, assessment, collaboration, simulation b. subject area vs learning activities stem subjects were highest or joint highest in all learning activities publication and authorship patterns figure 2 illustrates the incorporated article count over the review period (2010-2022). the peak was in 2019 (n = 11) was the peak, with 2020 (n = 4) witnessing a decline. the 64 included articles were published in 39 different journals. the south african journal of higher education ranked first (n = 8), followed by the british journal of educational technology (n = 6), and the africa education review, the international journal of educational technology in higher education, and the journal of education and information technologies (n = 3). a large number (n = 29) of single journal publications were also recorded. the full list of journals is provided in appendix 1. figure 2: number of included articles per year (n = 64) 8 the studies included in the review were conducted at african universities in eight different countries, with the overwhelming majority in the south african context (see table 4). table 4: geographical location of included studies (n = 64) rank country n % 1 south africa 49 76.6 2 ghana 5 7.8 3 nigeria 3 4.7 botswana 2 3.1 malawi 2 3.1 4 namibia 1 1.6 tanzania 1 1.6 zambia 1 1.6 total 64 100.00 taking the first author’s country location into consideration, most authors came from south africa (n = 50). overseas authors from the united states, australia, germany, and ireland contributed a total of five papers. additionally, more than half of the included papers involved collaborations within the same country (n = 37), however, collaborations between authors from different african countries were observed to be very low (n = 2). full author country details and collaboration patterns are listed in appendix 2 and appendix 3, respectively. study characteristics table 5 shows data for the included studies in terms of the research design employed. qualitative and quantitative methods followed mixed-methods designs in popularity. these findings support the idea that qualitative and quantitative research in educational technology are balanced (e.g., bailey, 2014; west & borup, 2014). table 5: research approaches employed in included articles (n = 64) approach n % mixed-methods 25 39.1 qualitative 22 34.4 quantitative 17 26.6 64 100.00 more than half of the included papers (n = 35) did not apply any theory, framework, or model in their research. this is consistent with previous observations and critique that theoretical underpinning of educational technology research has been often ignored (albirini, 2007; alper & gulbahar 2009; bond et al, 2020; el gamal, 2022; issroff & scanlon, 2002; oliver, 2013). in the studies that were found to have applied theoretical frameworks (n = 29), social constructivism had the highest count (n = 7), followed by the technological pedagogical content knowledge (tpack; n = 4) and technology 9 acceptance model (tam; n = 4). furthermore, 14 studies applied fourteen different types of theories, frameworks, or models. see the full list in appendix 4. contextual characteristics in terms of student types found in the review, more than 90% (n = 58) were enrolled in undergraduate programmes. only six of the studies were situated in a postgraduate course context. additionally, the studies were mainly conducted in campus-based settings (n = 49) as shown in table 6. table 6: delivery mode of included articles (n = 64) delivery format n % campus-based 49 76.6 distance learning 8 12.5 blended learning 7 10.9 64 100.00 stem (n = 46) had the most digital media applications (table 7). however, arts and humanities (20), business and economics (18), medical and health sciences (17), and education and social sciences (12) were well represented. some included studies incorporated more than one subject area. table 7: subject areas identified across included articles (n = 64) rank subject area n % 1 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (stem) 46 40.7 2 arts and humanities 20 17.7 3 business and economics 18 15.9 4 medical and health sciences 17 15.1 5 education and social sciences 12 10.6 113 100.0 digital media tools and services applied the classification of media tools and services was based on a slight modification of the media typologies by zawacki-richter et al. (2015) and grosch and gidion (2011) as follows: e-learning tools and services (e.g., moocs, learning management system, reference management software, lecture recordings, etherpads, etc.); general web tools and services (e.g., search engines, email, blogs); social networks (e.g., twitter, facebook, whatsapp, etc.); hardware and devices (e.g., laptops, smartphones, mp3 players, etc.); and text media (ebooks, pdfs, etc.). a total of 67 media tools and services were identified in the 64 included articles. e-learning tools and services ranked the highest (n = 29, 43.3%), with learning management systems (lms) being the focus of most studies. the possible reason for the higher numbers found for lmss may be their capability to host other media types and tools. the review found that single purpose media tools such as dvds (van der westhuizen et al., 2010), spreadsheet software (agyei & voogt, 2012), and videos were used more in the early years of the review (2010-2012). as the years went on, there was an increase in the use of media which were more reliant on the internet, such as social media networks (e.g., magogwe et al., 2015), student response 10 systems (e.g., basitere & ivala, 2017), e-portfolios, and lmss. with the proliferation of mobile devices in africa during the same period, their focus as a device for learning gained research attention (e.g., adedoja et al., 2013; mayisela, 2013). these tools were not one dimensional in terms of their technological functions, compared with those in the preceding period, but were built to combine multiple media types in their utilisation and application. this may perhaps explain why very few studies focused on text media, as they may have been subsumed under other media types, particularly e-learning tools and general webtools and services. the application of games and simulations (e.g., amevor & bayanga, 2021; khoza & biyela, 2019) and messenger bots (shmulian & coetzee, 2019) then began to emerge, which represents a new phase for integrating technology in higher education within the african context. the full list of digital media tools and services across the review period is reported in appendix 5. learning activities undertaken with digital media the review assessed how students used digital media to support their learning using a coding framework inspired by the ten virtual learning spaces framework by peters (2002). peters contended that learning with media should be conceptualised according to its technical and technological functions, and how they can be transformed into pedagogical functions. in essence, the focus should be on the pedagogical activities enabled by the digital learning environment; hence, our classifications of the learning activities focused on the relevant pedagogical activities found in the included studies and the technologies they were based on. the review identified eight classifications of learning activities regarding how students used digital media (see appendix 6 for full list). digital media use for learning was mainly through communication learning spaces (n = 22). simulation was the least common activity undertaken with digital media to support student learning (n = 9). an illustration of how the various learning activities compare across the identified subject areas is provided in appendix 7. overall, stem subjects had the greatest proportion across learning activities, particularly for simulation (66.7%), exploration (58.3%), assessment (50.0%), and communication (45.5%). however, there was no significant association between the subject areas and the type of learning activities, χ2 = 25.7, df = 28, p > .05. because the dominance of stem subjects has been noted in previous educational technology systematic reviews (bond et al., 2020; el gamal, 2022; zawacki-richter et al., 2019), further analysis was conducted to compare the stem subject area to non-stem areas. again, no significant associations were found between the dichotomised subject areas and learning activities, χ2 = 7.6, df = 7, p > .05. learning through communication studies in this group explored how digital media facilitated communication, both between students, and between students and teachers, to promote engagement even beyond the classroom. learning through communication included students sharing information and learning resources through the affordances of media including social networks, the lms, and other interactive web 2.0 tools and services, mainly through the use of mobile devices. for example, bere and rambe’s (2013) study described how whatsapp messenger was used by a lecturer in an undergraduate information technology course to boost participation and interaction through formal and informal learning. the use of the messenger also supplemented the university’s lms for both synchronous and asynchronous interactions, as the lecturer engaged students by posting topics and allowing student 11 interactions and feedback to each other. however, students reserved the more challenging aspects of the course for face-to-face discussions with the lecturer. in baron et al. (2015), undergraduate students in a chemical engineering class at a south african university used a digital backchannel to provide feedback to lecturers by posting anonymous questions, comments, and voting on ongoing discussions in class. further, discussion forums and blogs were found to facilitate learning by communication; where blogs were used for learning academic writing in a postgraduate setting in a study by rambe (2013) a general trend identified was that mobile phone connectivity was deemed to be a very important alternative to poor connectivity via the university network. while some students struggled to download the applications, others did not have access to mobile phones to aid their course participation in the digital environment. learning through information search students also learned through information search by using media as a tool to retrieve course content and information for their studies, primarily through the lms and other web-based learning platforms. in the study by asamoah and oheneba-sakyi (2017), students in a postgraduate course used an lms to download course-related materials. students also accessed electronic learning resources for a course from online library services (e.g., in tlakula & fombad, 2017). in another study (venter et al., 2012), the majority of final-year students in a strategic management course were described as occasional users of the lms, since they only visited the platform to download course materials and read postings from other students or lecturers but did not contribute to discussions. thus, the media’s primary function was to be a repository. mobile devices, which were the focus of some studies (e.g., adedoja et al., 2013; witts et al., 2016), were also used to access course information; although there were reported challenges regarding the small text sizes, which made information retrieval a tiring experience. in witts et al. (2016), medical students were provided with tablets pre-loaded with applications and materials to support their learning. once again, internet connectivity outside campus proved to be the major challenge, coupled with the delays in providing technical support for using the tablets. in addition, msomi and bansilal’s (2018) study makes it evident that students, particularly those from poor backgrounds, lacked the requisite skills and technical support to retrieve course materials from the lms at a south african university of technology. students without mobile devices resorted to the use of the often fully occupied university computer labs. learning through instruction in this category, digital media was mostly used to transmit learning content. thus, digital learning environments created an instructional space such as in a traditional classroom where students listen to a lecture and take notes. in a study of pre-service teachers at a malawian university, mp3 players were used to record lectures for subsequent review and learning (see carrier et al., 2012). similarly, a south african medical school used videos to demonstrate the conduct of clinical examinations on children (george et al., 2019). likewise, podcasts were used to supplement undergraduate course instruction at a south african campus-based university (gachago et al., 2016). mobile devices also created instructional spaces as seen in the study by adedoja et al. (2013) of students in a distance learning programme at a nigerian university. the study also highlighted the potential of short message services (sms) in providing academic support services. however, during the rainy season, some students reported problems with mobile internet connectivity. additionally, 12 another form of instructional space involved using a messenger bot for virtual tutoring in an accounting course (see shmulian & coetzee, 2019). learning through knowledge management students also used digital media to curate, organise, store, and manage information by working through documents, and piecing together information from different sources to support their learning. the learning activity through knowledge management was realised using media such as e-portfolios. for example, in van wyk’s (2017) study at an open, distance learning university in south africa, student teachers compiled artifacts for an e-portfolio that supported active and authentic learning through self-reflection. this was also the case in nudelman (2017), where engineering students used e-portolios to reflect on their developing identities as professional engineers. in another study, van wyk and van ryneveld (2018) found that undergraduate veterinary science students used mobile devices to take personalised notes, a "cognitively demanding task" (p. 1640) (which included recording audio and taking pictures). students organised and saved notes to suit their learning styles and make them easy to find later. learning by exploration if students used digital media to self-discover their learning path while exploring a sea of information, such studies were classified under the exploratory learning category. in makhura et al. (2021), ict students used an english word power programme to improve their language skills. this was also the case in in the study by stott and hattingh (2014) where pre-service teachers used tutoring software to experiment with learning tasks and assessments in a natural science course. the flexibility and adaptability of the e-portfolio as a learning tool once again came to the fore. mapundu and musara (2019) found that south african private tertiary students used an e-portfolio to develop their entrepreneurial skills. in another exploratory learning scenario, students used mobile devices to explore open educational resources and relate them to subject modules in van wyk and van ryneveld (2018). learning through assessment teachers used digital media to conduct assessments, principally through an lms and mobile devices. in padayachee et al. (2018), undergraduate students in a mathematics course engaged in a weekly online assessment via moodle to test their understanding of concepts taught during their week of face-to-face class. the weekly online tests formed part of the course’s formative assessment and were designed to support their learning through regular weekly feedback. in mtshali’s (2021) study, students were required to submit assignments using the plagiarism detection software turnitin, which was embedded in the institutional lms. turnitin provided students with feedback on their submitted work expeditiously to aid their learning. while the study reported that students felt exposed by the similarity index in their submissions, they acknowledged that turnitin aided them to be original in their assignments. learning through collaboration in some studies, students used digital media to create collaborative learning environments with their peers. in what was the most obvious collaborative space observed in the review, mostert and snowball (2013) described how moodle workshop enabled students in a macroeconomics course to 13 engage in online peer assessment and learn from peer feedback. a similar learning activity was noted with pre-service mathematics teachers in a ghanaian university who used the concept of design teams to collaboratively design a lesson on the representation of mathematical concepts using spreadsheet software (see agyei & voogt, 2015). students faced challenges, including lack of access to technological devices in the schools where they were expected to implement the lessons. learning through simulation learning through simulation was the least common pedagogical activity enabled by digital media. simulations were mainly used in stem-related disciplines, primarily for the creation of mathematical representations using software such as matlab, mindtap, and geogebra (see amevor & bayanga, 2021; delport, 2019). additionally, beukes et al. (2018) describe how students utilised an online audit simulator for engaging in virtual role playing in an accounting course. in another undergraduate research methodology course, minecraft was used as a tool for creating a game that involved developing concepts related to the course (see marnewick & chetty, 2021). conclusions and implications for further research this study synthesised (n = 64) studies to answer the question of how higher education students in africa use digital media for learning; by reviewing research publications and authorship trends, study and contextual characteristics of publications, and types of learning activities undertaken with digital media within their specific course contexts. the publication profile of the studies was dominated by south africa, both in terms of study locations and authorship. this affirms the high productivity of south african authors in educational technology research within africa (bond et al., 2019; bozkurt, et al., 2019); partly attributed to a deliberate home-grown policy that focuses on professional development and scholarship (n’gambi et al., 2016), and the development of communities of practice within the field of educational technology (czerniewicz & carr, 2005). it is not surprising that three south african-based journals (south african journal of higher education, african education review, and south african journal of education) were included in the top five ranked in terms of count for included journals for this review. valid questions could be raised whether the seeming south africanisation of educational technology scholarship in africa is representative of the african continent given south africa’s advancement in digital technologies compared to other african countries. it is also the case that related publications from authors in comparatively far less developed and digitalised african countries may have been ignored as a result of the strict database selection criteria used for this study. because of the generally low representation of african authors in mainstream databases, future studies may explore the inclusion of unorthodox or non-mainstream databases with heavy african author presence, which is likely to produce a larger corpus to better illustrate students’ use of digital media in africa. the review also observed a rather low level of collaboration between authors from different african countries. it is essential to foster strong crossafrican collaborations for the benefit of educational technology scholarship in africa. more than half of the included articles failed to incorporate any theory, framework, or model. more intriguing was the fact that the community of inquiry model, which is one of the most cited in educational technology research, was conspicuously missing. this finding reinforces the critique of a general lack of theoretical underpinning for educational technology research (bond et al., 2020; el gamal, 2022; zawacki-richter et al., 2019). on the other hand, the research designs adopted by the 14 included studies appeared balanced and reflected the standpoint of authors who believe there is a growing recognition of a balance in research approaches used in educational technology research (bailey, 2014; west & borup, 2014). however, the debate regarding the most effective design for educational technology interventions is far from settled (jou et al., 2016; mertala et al., 2022). the debate has to be elevated by developing a critical approach to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of various designs for effective interventions. stem emerged as the most applied subject area in the review; as were undergraduate studies, and campus-based delivery modes. this pattern has been observed in previous educational technology systematic reviews (bond et al., 2020; cheston et al., 2013; henrie et al., 2015; zawacki-richter et al., 2019). in the analysis of digital media types used by students, the review revealed that lmss, and web-based learning tools were in the majority. these tools have essentially replaced stand-alone media such as pdfs, dvds, and media players due to their capacity to host multiple media tools. these results mirror what has been described as the blurred lines between media types, long observed in the global north (dolch & zawacki-richter, 2018; zawacki-richter et al., 2015). however, these lmss remain underutilised as they largely serve as repositories for course materials, owing to an underappreciation of their potential; partly due to the low digital skills of both teachers and students, the absence of technical support, and poor technical internet infrastructure (mtebe, 2015; ssekakubo et al., 2011). it is thus understandable that the frustrations resulting from a combination of these factors may further contribute to disinterest and unwillingness on the part of users. the study highlighted the increasing importance and popularity of mobile devices for student learning in africa, given their flexibility and regular use as an alternative to the poor internet connectivity of institutional networks. as african countries leapfrog the development of "tethered" devices, it creates an opportunity for deepening technology-enhanced learning practices. however, the well-documented challenges of the african context, such as connectivity cost, reported compatibility challenges, low digital skills and technical infrastructure, remain obstacles to the upscaling of technology-enhanced learning via mobile devices. how digital media were used from a pedagogical standpoint was reviewed through the lenses of the ten virtual learning spaces model by peters (2002). the study established eight pedagogical spaces through which learning with digital media was achieved by students in the african higher education context. the most common were learning by communication, information search, and instruction which suggests an emphasis on transmissive modes of learning. these pedagogical spaces point to an extensive importation of traditional teaching and learning approaches into the digital environment; a problem underscored during the so-called emergency remote teaching during the covid-19 pandemic (hodges et al., 2020; lee et al., 2020; sharma et al., 2021). this may emphasise the fact that the high levels of traditional learning approaches observed are symptomatic of a general technological deficiency in terms of skills and facilitating conditions within the context. students and their teachers have had to rely on mobile devices, usually with a poor internet connection, to participate in digital learning. therefore, low threshold applications must be given high consideration when designing digital learning environments in such contexts. the fact that no significant associations were found between subject areas and learning activities with digital media portrays a rather uncritical use of the digital media and raises questions about the usefulness of the tools within the learning contexts. on a positive note, there are signs of incremental 15 progress in digital media use for more purposeful activities in pedagogical spaces such as knowledge management, exploration, collaboration, and simulation which are known to promote active learning. as such, further research is required on the use of media and how they align with student learning outcomes. such research could inform appropriate pedagogical approaches for technology use in a digitally challenged context and ensure that the quest to use media does not impede learning and promote disengagement (bond & bedenlier, 2019; howard et al., 2016; popenici, 2013). additionally, it would be useful to launch a scientific inquiry into finding what the most effective strategies are for incorporating digital media into higher education curricula in africa to enhance student learning. finally, because the challenges of digital education in the african context go beyond access to digital media, bridging the digital divide requires a conscious effort to upgrade the technical infrastructure and radically improve the facilitating conditions for technology-enhanced learning. leveraging the potentials of mobile devices, which are an abundant resource in africa, must be front and centre in the discussion on design and implementation of digital learning environments. furthermore, to achieve beneficial outcomes for technology-enhanced learning in africa, it is essential to pursue a deliberate and sustainable policy of developing the digital skills and competencies of students and teachers, in particular, for the effective use of digital media. the teaching practices of teachers in african higher education institutions could play a significant role in shaping students' attitudes towards use of digital media for learning. consequently, by incorporating technology into their lessons and supporting students in its use, teachers can help students to develop the digital literacy skills necessary for success in the 21st century. acknowledgement: we wish to specially recognise dr. john y. bai of the center for open education research, university of oldenburg, for proofreading this article. references albirini, a. (2007). the crisis of educational technology, and the prospect of reinventing education. educational technology & society, 10, 227–236. alper, a., & gulbahar, y. (2009). trends and issues in educational technologies: a review of recent research in tojet. turkish online journal of educational technology, 8. asamoah, m. k., & oheneba-sakyi, y. (2017). constructivist tenets applied in ict-mediated teaching and learning: higher education perspectives. africa education review, 14(3-4), 196-211. https://doi.org/10.1080/18146627.2017.1279956 asamoah, m. (2019). reflections and refractions on sakai/moodle learning management system in developing countries: a case of ghanaian universities’ demand and supply perspective analyses. african journal of science, technology, innovation and development, 12, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/20421338.2019.1634318 asunka, s. (2008). online learning in higher education in sub-saharan africa: ghanaian university students’ experiences and perceptions. international review of research in open and distance learning, 9. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v9i3.586 bartolomé, a., castañeda, l., & adell, j. (2018). personalisation in educational technology: the absence of underlying pedagogies. international journal of educational technology in higher education, 15(1), 14. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-018-0095-0 beckers, j., dolmans, d., & van merrienboer, j.j.g. (2016). e-portfolios enhancing students’ self-directed learning: a systematic review of influencing factors. australasian journal of educational technology, 32. https://doi.org/10.14742/ajet.2528 16 berry, m.j., & westfall, a. (2015). dial d for distraction: the making and breaking of cell phone policies in the college classroom. college teaching, 63(2), 62–71. https://doi.org/10.1080/87567555.2015.1005040 bervell, b., & umar, i. (2017). a decade of lms acceptance and adoption research in sub-sahara african higher education: a systematic review of models, methodologies, milestones and main challenges. eurasia journal of mathematics, science and technology education, 13. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/79444 bond, m., & bedenlier, s. (2019). facilitating student engagement through educational technology: towards a conceptual framework. journal of interactive media in education, 1, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.5334/jime.528 bond, m., buntins, k., bedenlier, s., zawacki-richter, o., & kerres, m. (2020). mapping research in student engagement and educational technology in higher education: a systematic evidence map. international journal of educational technology in higher education, 17(1), 2. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-019-0176-8 bond, m., zawacki-richter, o., & nichols, m. (2019). revisiting five decades of educational technology research: a content and authorship analysis of the british journal of educational technology. british journal of educational technology, 50(1), 12–63. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12730 bower, m. (2017). technology-enhanced learning — conclusions and future directions. in design of technologyenhanced learning (pp. 405-428). emerald publishing limited. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78714-182720171014 bozkurt, a., koseoglu, s., & singh, l. (2019). an analysis of peer reviewed publications on openness in education in half a century: trends and patterns in the open hemisphere. australasian journal of educational technology, 35, 78–97. https://doi.org/10.14742/ajet.4252 bozkurt, a., & sharma, r. (2020). emergency remote teaching in a time of global crisis due to coronavirus pandemic 15, i–vi. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3778083 cheston, c.c., flickinger, t.e., & chisolm, m.s. (2013). social media use in medical education: a systematic review. academic medicine, 88(6). https://journals.lww.com/academicmedicine/fulltext/2013/06000/social_media_use_in_medical_education_ _a.36.aspx chipps, j., brysiewicz, p. & mars, m. (2015). a systematic review of the effectiveness of videoconference-based teleeducation for medical and nursing. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22409341/ conole, g. (2014). the use of technology in distance education. in o. zawacki-richter & t. anderson (eds.), online distance education: towards a research agenda. au press, 217-236. czerniewicz, l., & carr, t. (2005). guest editorial—growing communities of practice among educational technology researchers and practitioners in development-oriented contexts: linking local and global debates. international journal of education and development using ict, 1(2), 3–24. dolch, c., & zawacki-richter, o. (2018). are students getting used to learning technology? changing media usage patterns of traditional and non-traditional students in higher education. research in learning technology, 26. https://doi.org/10.25304/rlt.v26.2038 effah, p. & mensah-bonsu, h. (2001). governance for tertiary education institutions in ghana — a manual. adwinsa publications. el gamal, h. (2022). is flipped approach a panacea? a systematic review of trends, conceptions, and practices of a decade of research. asian journal of distance education, 17(2), 153-180. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7245601 evans, r., & matthew, a. (2013). a new era: personal technology challenges educational technology. proceedings of ascilite — australian society for computers in learning in tertiary education annual conference 2013, 262– 266. https://www.learntechlib.org/p/171136 17 gonzales, a. (2015). the contemporary us digital divide: from initial access to technology maintenance. information, communication & society, 19, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118x.2015.1050438 gough, d., oliver, s., & thomas, j. (2017). an introduction to systematic reviews (2nd ed.). sage. grosch, m., & gidion, g. (2011). mediennutzungsgewohnheiten im wandel: ergebnisse einer befragung zur studiumsbezogenen mediennutzung. hattie, j. (2009). visible learning: a synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. in visible learning: a synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203887332 henrie, c.r., halverson, l.r., & graham, c.r. (2015). measuring student engagement in technology-mediated learning: a review. computers & education, 90(1), 36–53. hill, c., & lawton, w. (2018). universities, the digital divide and global inequality. journal of higher education policy and management, 40(6), 598–610. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360080x.2018.1531211 guri-rosenblit, s. (2014). distance education systems and institutions in the online era: an identity crisis. in o. zawacki-richter & t. anderson (eds.), online distance education: towards a research agenda (pp. 109–130). athabasca university press. hodges, c., moore, s., lockee, b., trust, t., & bond, a. (2020). the difference between emergency remote teaching and online learning. https://er.educause.edu/articles/2020/3/the-difference-between-emergency-remote-teachingand-online-learning howard, s.k., ma, j., & yang, j. (2016). student rules: exploring patterns of students’ computer-efficacy and engagement with digital technologies in learning. computers & education, 101, 29–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2016.05.008 issroff, k., & scanlon, e. (2002). educational technology: the influence of theory. journal of interactive media in education, 2002. https://doi.org/10.5334/2002-6 jou, m., lin, y.-t., & tsai, h.-c. (2016). mobile app for motivation to learning: an engineering case. interactive learning environments, 24(8), 2048–2057. https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2015.1075136 koehler, m.j., mishra, p., & cain, w. (2013). what is technological pedagogical content knowledge (tpack)? journal of education, 193(3), 13–19. https://doi.org/10.1177/002205741319300303 kong, s.c., & song, y. (2015). an experience of personalized learning hub initiative embedding byod for reflective engagement in higher education. computers & education, 88, 227–240. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2015.06.003 lai, j., & bower, m. (2019). how is the use of technology in education evaluated? a systematic review. computers & education, 133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2019.01.010 lee, k., fanguy, m., bligh, b., & lu, x. s. (2022). adoption of online teaching during the covid-19 pandemic: a systematic analysis of changes in university teaching activity. educational review, 74(3), 460–483. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2021.1978401 mertala, p., moens, e., & teräs, m. (2022). highly cited educational technology journal articles: a descriptive and critical analysis. learning, media and technology, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2022.2141253 mills, k.a. (2010). a review of the “digital turn” in the new literacy studies. review of educational research, 80(2), 246–271. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654310364401 moher, d., liberati, a., tetzlaff, j., & altman, d.g. (2009). preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses: the prisma statement. bmj, 339. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.b2535 mtebe, j. (2015). learning management system success: increasing learning management system usage in higher education in sub-saharan africa. international journal of education and development using information and communication technology (ijedict), 11, 51–64. 18 mwalumbwe, i., & mtebe, j. s. (2017). using learning analytics to predict students’ performance in moodle learning management system: a case of mbeya university of science and technology. the electronic journal of information systems in developing countries, 79(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1681-4835.2017.tb00577.x naidoo, r. (2007). higher education as a global commodity: the perils and promises for developing countries. the observatory on borderless higher education, london. ng’ambi, d., brown, c., bozalek, v., gachago, d., & wood, d. (2016). technology enhanced teaching and learning in south african higher education – a rearview of a 20 year journey. british journal of educational technology, 47(5), 843–858. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12485 nicholas, d., watkinson, a., jamali, h.r., herman, e., tenopir, c., volentine, r., allard, s., & levine, k. (2015). peer review: still king in the digital age. learned publishing, 28, 15–21. https://doi.org/10.1087/20150104 oecd (2016). education at a glance 2016: oecd indicators, oecd publishing. http://dx.doi.org/10.187/eag-2016-en oliver, m. (2011). technological determinism in educational technology research: some alternative ways of thinking about the relationship between learning and technology. journal of computer assisted learning, 27, 373–384. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2729.2011.00406.x oliver, m. (2013). learning technology: theorising the tools we study. british journal of educational technology, 44(1), 31–43. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8535.2011.01283.x ouzzani, m., hammady, h., fedorowicz, z., & elmagarmid, a. (2016). rayyan—a web and mobile app for systematic reviews. systematic reviews, 5(1), 210. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-016-0384-4 parry, d., & le roux, d. (2018). in-lecture media use and academic performance: investigating demographic and intentional moderators. south african computer journal, 30, 85–107. https://doi.org/10.18489/sacj.v30i1.434 pénard, t., poussing, n., mukoko, b., & piaptie, g. (2015). internet adoption and usage patterns in africa: evidence from cameroon. technology in society, 42, 71. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2015.03.004 peters, o. (2002). distance education in transition: new trends and challenges. studien und berichte der arbeitsstelle fernstudienforschung der carl von ossietzky universität oldenburg, band 5. bibliotheksund informationssytem der universität oldenburg: oldenburg. pigott, t.d., & polanin, j.r. (2020). methodological guidance paper: high-quality meta-analysis in a systematic review. review of educational research, 90(1), 24–46. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654319877153 pineteh, e.a. (2012). using virtual interactions to enhance the teaching of communication skills to information technology students. british journal of educational technology, 43(1), 85–96. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.14678535.2011.01193.x ponelis, s.r., & holmner, m.a. (2015). ict in africa: building a better life for all. information technology for development, 21(2), 163–177. https://doi.org/10.1080/02681102.2015.1010307 selwyn, n. (2006). digital division or digital decision? a study of non-users and low-users of computers. poetics, 34, 273–292. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.poetic.2006.05.003 slavin, r.e. (2020). how evidence-based reform will transform research and practice in education. educational psychologist, 55, 21–31. https://doi.org/10.1080/00461520.2019.1611432 ssekakubo, g., suleman, h., & marsden, g. (2011). issues of adoption: have e-learning management systems fulfilled their potential in developing countries? in acm international conference proceeding series (p. 238). https://doi.org/10.1145/2072221.2072248 van dijk, j.a.g.m. (2019). the digital divide. polity press. van wyk, m., & van ryneveld, l. (2018). affordances of mobile devices and note-taking apps to support cognitively demanding note-taking. education & information technologies, 23(4), 1639–1653. 19 whittle, c., tiwari, s., yan, s., & williams, j. (2020). emergency remote teaching environment: a conceptual framework for responsive online teaching in crises. information and learning sciences, 121(5/6), 311–319. https://doi.org/10.1108/ils-04-2020-0099 zawacki-richter, o., kerres, m., bedenlier, s., bond, m., & buntins, k. (eds.). (2020). systematic reviews in educational research methodology, perspectives and application. springer vs. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-65827602-7 zawacki-richter, o. (2020). the current state and impact of covid-19 on digital higher education in germany. human behavior and emerging technologies, 3. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbe2.238 zawacki-richter, o., marín, v.i., bond, m., & gouverneur, f. (2019). systematic review of research on artificial intelligence applications in higher education — where are the educators? international journal of educational technology in higher education, 16(1), 39. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-019-0171-0 zawacki-richter, o., & qayyum, a. (2019). open and distance education in asia, africa and the middle east. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-5787-9. authors: frank senyo loglo is a research associate and phd candidate at the center for open education research (coer) at the university of oldenburg in germany. his research focuses on the media usage behavior of students within a resource constrained higher education context he describes as “digitally challenged”. email: frank.senyo.loglo@uni-oldenburg.de olaf zawacki-richter is a professor of educational technology at the university of oldenburg, germany. he is the dean of the faculty of education and social sciences and director of the center for open education research (coer). olaf has over 25 years of professional experience in the field of open, distance, and digital education. he has also served as a consultant and advisor, including work for the united nations' international labor organization, the office of technology assessment at the german bundestag, and the german science and humanities council (wissenschaftsrat). email: olaf.zawacki.richter@uni-oldenburg.de cite this paper as: loglo, f.s., & zawacki-richter, o. (2023). learning with digital media: a systematic review of students’ use in african higher education. journal of learning for development, 10(1), 1-23. notes i https://www.itu.int/en/itu-d/statistics/documents/facts/factsfigures2021.pdf ii https://networkreadinessindex.org/ iii https://www.ug.edu.gh/vcsdi/initiatives/one-student-one-laptop iv a file with all included references is available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.13140/rg.2.2.30567.93607 (cc by 4.0) 20 appendix 1: full list of included journals (n = 64) no. journal n 1 south african journal of higher education 8 2 british journal of educational technology 6 3 africa education review 3 4 journal of education and information technologies 3 5 international journal of educational technology in higher education 3 6 accounting education 2 7 australasian journal of educational technology 2 8 journal of computing in higher education 2 9 journal of educational technology and society 2 10 south african journal of education 2 11 the african journal of information systems 2 12 african journal of health professionals education 1 13 african journal of research in mathematics, science and technology 1 14 african journal of science, technology, innovation and development 1 15 assessment & evaluation in higher education 1 16 bmj open 1 17 computers & education 1 18 contemporary educational technology 1 19 electronic journal of e-learning 1 20 electronic journal of information systems in developing countries 1 21 international journal of distance education technologies 1 22 international journal of education and development using information and communication technology 1 23 international journal of learning: annual review 1 24 international journal of medical informatics 1 25 international journal of science education 1 26 international journal of technology in mathematics education, 1 27 jmir mhealth and uhealth 1 28 journal of baltic science education 1 29 journal of geography in higher education 1 30 journal of information technology education research 1 31 literator journal of literary criticism, comparative linguistics and literary studies 1 32 social work/maatskaplike werk 1 33 perspectives in education 1 34 reading research quarterly 1 35 research in social sciences and technology 1 36 technology, pedagogy and education 1 37 the all ireland journal of teaching and learning in higher education 1 38 the electronic library 1 39 the turkish online journal of educational technology 1 40 turkish online journal of distance education 1 21 appendix 2: first author affiliations of included articles (n = 64) rank country n % 1 south africa 50 78.1 2 ghana 4 6.3 3 nigeria 2 3.1 united states 2 3.1 4 australia 1 1.6 botswana 1 1.6 germany 1 1.6 ireland 1 1.6 nigeria 1 1.6 tanzania 1 1.6 64 100.0 appendix 3: authorship collaboration pattern of included articles (n = 64) collaboration type n % african (within country) 37 57.8 single authorship 14 21.9 africa + overseas 10 15.6 african (inter-country) 2 3.1 overseas only 1 1.6 64 100.00 appendix 4: theories, frameworks, and models applied in included articles (n = 64) theories/framework/model applied n social constructivism (vygotsky, 1978; jonassen, 1999) 7 technological pedagogical content knowledge (mishra and koehler, 2006) 4 technology acceptance model (davies, 1989; venkatesh and davis, 2000) 4 activity theory (engestrom, 1987) 1 approaches to learning paradigms (biggs, 1987) 1 diffusion of innovation theory (rogers, 2003) 1 five-stage model of online interaction (salmon, 2004) 1 four components model of student engagement (appleton et al., 2006) 1 four parameter model of goal-linked practice (saxe, 1991) 1 framework for the rational analysis of mobile education (koole, 2009) 1 identity as performance (gee, 2014) 1 social cognitive theory (bandura, 1986) 1 the theory of register of semiotic representation (duval, 1995) 1 the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (venkatesh et al., 2003) 1 22 theory of multimedia learning (mayer, 2009) 1 theory of planned behavior (ajzen, 1991) 1 transformative learning theory (mezirow, 2000) 1 no theory/framework/model applied 35 appendix 5: distribution of digital media types across review period media typology year e-learning tools and services general web tools and services hardware and devices social networks text media 2010 dvd 2011 2012 simulation software podcast spreadsheet lms media player instant messaging (kommunicare) 2013 online peer assessment discussion forum (2) smart phone (2) whatsapp facebook 2014 tutoring software microsoft office dvd video lms 2015 geometry software digital storytelling spreadsheet student response system facebook 2016 podcast e-assessment tablet pc -whatsapp 2017 lms e-portfolio clickers padlet wikis tablet pc -facebook, -twitter 2018 lms (3) e-portfolio simulation software online assessment online library services mobile devices (2) tablet pc -ebook 2019 video demonstration e-portfolio simulation software mindtap lms (2) video sharing (flipgrid) messenger bots geogebra student response system -tablet pc moya youtube whatsapp (2) 23 2020 lms (3) mobile device 2021 lms english word power programme digital story telling (video) minecraftedu online assessment turnitin matlab appendix 6: classification of learning activities undertaken with digital media no. activity n % 1 learning through communication 22 19.5 2 learning through information search 19 16.8 3 learning through instruction 16 14.2 4 learning through knowledge management 15 13.3 5 learning by exploration 12 10.6 6 learning through assessment 10 8.8 7 learning through collaboration 10 8.8 8 learning through simulation 9 8.0 113 100.00 appendix 7: subject area / learning activity cross-tabulation subject area learning activity stem arts & humanities business & economics medical & health sciences education & social sciences total communication 10 (45.5%) 5 (22.7%) 1 (4.5%) 5 (22.7%) 1 (4.5%) 22 information 6 (31.6%) 3 (15.8%) 3 (15.8%) 5 (26.3%) 2 (10.5%) 19 instruction 5 (31.3%) 4 (25%) 3 (18.8%) 1 (6.3%) 3 (18.8%) 16 knowledge management 4 (26.7%) 4 (26.7%) 2 (13.3%) 2 (13.3%) 3 (20%) 15 exploration 7 (58.3%) 2 16.7%) 1 (8.3%) 2 (16.7%) 0 (0%) 12 assessment 5 (50%) 0 (0%) 3 (30%) 0 (0%) 2 (20%) 10 collaboration 3 (30%) 2 (20%) 3 (30%) 1 (10%) 1 (10%) 10 simulation 6 (66.7%) 0 (0%) 2 (22.2%) 1 (11.1%) 0 (0%) 9 total 46 20 18 17 12 113 okinda assessing e-learning readiness at the kenya technical teachers college robert alfred okinda vol. 1, no. 3 abstract the purpose of this survey was to assess the level of e-learning readiness at the kenya technical teachers college (kttc). this was part of an institution-wide strategy to guide the adoption and implementation of e-learning at kttc. the main objectives of the survey were, to:  assess the level of e-learning readiness by establishing a baseline aggregative index; and, recommend activities to improve the readiness that facilitate effective deployment of e-learning technologies in teaching, learning and research. various models used for measuring e-readiness within the addie model of instructional design were reviewed. engholms’ model for assessing e-learning readiness provided the conceptual foundation for the survey and informed its objectives and methodology. a survey was used to capture the respondents’ perception of the level of e-learning readiness along five dimensions adapted from engholm using a five-point likert scale. samples were collected based on quantitative and qualitative methods using self-administered questionnaires and interviews. introduction the expansion in the use of the internet in the mid-1990s has substantially changed the characteristics of distance education, initially in developed countries and increasingly in developing countries. the change involves updating or replacing earlier modes of distance education, such as correspondence courses, radio-based courses, video-taped lectures with internet and computer based modes of delivery (nces, 1999). recent studies (hussin, manap, amir, & krish, 2012; eslaminejad, masood & ngah, 2010) emphasize the importance of the readiness of e-learning enablers and learners for the successful implementation of e-learning. e-learning readiness is the assessment of certain organizational and individual factors that should be considered if organizations hope to be successful with the introduction of an e-learning strategy (chapnick 2000; redmon and salopek 2000; hall 2001:2; rosenberg 2001). the kenya technical teachers college (kttc), located in nairobi, kenya, has a mandate to train technically skilled personnel; not only to teach in technical and vocational institutions but also for employment in all sectors of the country’s economy. in its bid to transform its distance learning programmes to incorporate flexible and blended approaches as part of its development agenda, the college embarked on a process to initialize and operationalize its e-learning programme. the kttc (2013) e-readiness study was intended to provide data on readiness of users, enabling technology, institutional culture and the environment. to achieve the objectives of this study, engholm’s model of e-learning readiness was found to be suitable, as it focused on similar readiness factors at the institutional level, and, within each of these factors, there are several determinants of e-learning readiness used to generate an index. the main objective of the study was to establish a baseline aggregative e-learning readiness index for kttc and derive recommendations to improve e-learning readiness and facilitate effective deployment of e-learning technologies. literature review e-learning readiness assessment helps organizations to design e-learning strategies comprehensively and to implement its ict goals effectively (kaur & abas, 2004). learners must also be e-ready so that a coherent and achievable strategy, tailored to meet their needs, may be implemented (infodev, 2001). e-learning readiness assessments provide key information to organizations to supply solutions that can cater to the specific needs of each learning group (mcconnell international, 2000). reports from e-readiness surveys also help in the achievement of un millennium development goals (mdg) (un, 2000). in the context of kttc, the imperative to analyze the need for e-learning is contained in the performance contracting targets for 2012-2013. this represents the first step in the redesign of instruction at the college away from the predominant face-to-face model to the blended model and later to the pure e-learning model. as presented in figure 1, showing the addie model of instructional design, assessing e-learning readiness is a prerequisite to the design, development and implementation of a new instructional method.  figure 1: theoretical framework the literature on e-readiness is replete with models that may not capture the essence of e-learning as innovative instructional design. while some models assess e-readiness at the national level, some assess e-readiness of institutions, lea the literature on e-readiness is replete with models that may not capture the rners or teaching staff. no model is ideal and it is necessary to adopt a model that covers all possible challenges and delivers a complete set of required data (smith, 2005). no. elearning readiness models elearning readiness factors 1 bakry’s stope model (2007) strategy technology environment organization people development 2 fetaji and majlinda fetaji’s model (2009) learners’ education and cultural background, learners’ computing skills, learners’ learning preferences, the quality of e-learning content, viable learning environment and its e-learning logistics, learners’ motivation, students’ attitudes toward technology 3 chapnick’s model (2000) psychological sociological environmental human resources financial readiness technological skill (aptitude) equipment, content readiness 4 li-an ho’s model (2009) e-learning system quality technology readiness learning behaviour learning outcome 5 haney’s model human resources learning management system learners content information technology finance vendor 6 chai lee et al’s model (2009) organizational factors general factors  cognitive factors 7 rodgers’s diffusion model (2005) relative advantage compatibility image visibility ease of use results demonstrability trialability 8 engholm’s model (2001) organisation's culture individual learner technology content organisational and industry factors conceptual framework for e-learning engholm’s (2001) model provides factors considered appropriate for kttc, which has adopted a blended e-learning strategy that is commensurate with its level of integration of ict in training and management.  the model is simple to understand and useful as a tool in an organisation’s e-learning readiness assessment, but is also comprehensive in that it summarises a wide range of organizational and individual issues.  figure 2: e-learning readiness conceptual framework  methodology a survey design was used to capture the respondents’ perception of the level of e-learning readiness along five dimensions using a five-point likert scale. the population under study was 1724; 114 lecturers, 591 regular students and 1,019 holiday students. the sample included 172 respondents (102 holiday students, 59 regular students and 11 lecturers), representing 10% of the population. self-administered questionnaires and interview schedules were used to collect data from the respondents. the study was carried out in two phases starting with the holiday students, during the final week of the 2013 april holiday session, followed by the regular students in the last week of june 2013. analysis and findings e-learning readiness for each dimension of the five factors considered was measured by asking respondents to rate the extent to which they agreed with statements on the sub-factors considered in each category on a five-point likert scale, where 1 represented strongly disagree and 5 strongly agree. in determining the percentage of relative readiness, agree and strongly agree were aggregated as agree. an index of 56.2% readiness level was arrived at by aggregating the individual readiness levels of the five factors: readiness factors aggregate level of readiness individual learners 86.7 % content 62.8 % information and communication technologies 66.4 % organizational culture 33.0 % organization and industry 32.1 % kttc’s baseline e-learning readiness 56.2 % individual learners individual learners at kttc are ready for e-learning at an index of 86.7 %. given that that 94.6 % of the learners were willing to collaborate, share information and share knowledge, 92.5 % can take responsibility and manage time for own learning, 91.4 % are motivated and willing to use computers for learning, 91.4 % see the need for e-learning, 84.8 % see e-learning as a viable alternative to traditional methods and 66.3% of the learners are positive about themselves, kttc learners aspirations concur with constructivist, connectivist and andragogist theories and are thus ready for e-learning. e-learning requires that learners have basic literacy skills that would enable them to comfortably use ict for learning. given that 93.5 % have basic computer skills, 88.0 % have basic computer literacy skills and 78.0 % are comfortable using computers indicate that kttc learners are ready for e-learning. information and communication technologies kttc’s ict infrastructure is e-ready, at an index of 62.8 %. accessibility to internet while in college (78.6 %), on mobile phones (71.5 %) and when not in college (53.8 %) were pointed out. respondents also indicated that they have access to computers while in college (68.8 %) and when not in college (50.0 %).  wireless internet connectivity is also available within the college precincts through broadband connectivity. however, accessibility to the internet and computers when not in college is comparatively low. such learners access computers and the internet through cyber cafes that are available in virtually every market centre throughout the country, though at exorbitant cost. internet connectivity within the college is reliable (71.5 %), learners and teachers have easy and fast access to the network (66.3 %), learners have difficulty accessing reliable internet connectivity when they are not in college (48.4 %), and bandwidth issues do not hamper the e-learning effort (28.7 %). use of fibre optic cables enabled fast and reliable internet connectivity within the college precincts, though a challenge when they are not in college because fibre optic cables have only been laid in major cities. the findings also imply that over 70 % of the respondents were in agreement that bandwidth limitations hamper e-learning efforts. ict department is well resourced and used (67.4 %), communication with the ict department is strong (68.2 %) and, ict infrastructure can efficiently host its e-learning content (67.4 %). security issues are also resolved, as 71.5 % stated that network systems and components are compatible. requisition for ict equipment is done using the bottom-up approach. policies relating to use of ict equipment are available for all users through the institution’s website. content on aggregate, a 66.4 % readiness level was established for content development. kttc’s e-learning content that is taught is interactive (68.1 %), attracts and keeps learners using the system (67.4 %), appropriately targets learners (73.3 %) and accommodates different learning styles (70.8 %). the e-learning content is feasible enough to be taught over the computer, as the design is simple, user-friendly, flexible, intuitive and conducive (61.2 %), up-to-date, relevant, appealing and user-friendly (61.1 %), and, it is user-friendly, well structured, and interesting (65.2 %). kttc has initiated the development of content suitable for e-learning (61.0 %), which is easy to create and distribute over the network (62.5 %) and is easy to update and modify (73.6 %). management, teaching staff and technical staff have undergone capacity building programmes aimed at implementing flexible and blended approaches to teaching and learning. institutional policies for flexible and blended skills development are also being developed, as it is assumed that the four modes of delivery are identical, not just similar. organizational culture while a supporting culture is an important determinant of e-learning readiness, kttc’s readiness score on this factor stood at 33.0 %. top management support is evident from the practice in which each department conducts a skills gap analysis and, thereafter, prepares five-year and yearly training plans for building capacity of staff in various skill areas. e-learning is also included as the forerunner for increasing access to quality technical training at kttc in the 2012-2017 strategic plan. furthermore, the institution’s 2012-2013 performance contract sets out a target that by july 2013, its higher diploma in education management course will be digitized and hosted on its e-learning platform. results of the study point to a low level of 30 % of organizational culture readiness, and perhaps this may be attributed to lack of knowledge by staff and students owing to inadequate policy dissemination. results also show that 60.6 % of respondents agree that top management supports the use of the internet for learning purposes. this may be attributable to deliberate government efforts to embed ict infrastructure in all tivet institutions in the country, coupled with donor support. further, data shows that 52.4 % of the respondents agree that learners are given time and opportunities to learn, a reflection of the fact that the ict & open learning department allows time and opportunity to learn using internet at the kttc’s learning resource centre (lrc). results suggest that 45.9 % of respondents agree that learning using the internet is accepted and communicated at all levels. however, only 30.0 % of the teachers and trainees surveyed agree that the requirement to do some e-learning is explained to learners at orientation, yet only 25.1 % of learners have previous knowledge about e-learning. while 32.2 % agree that from the support for use of the internet, training and learning using the internet is seen as an investment and not as a cost. the conventional view at the institution is that e-learning is about continuous integration of ict into teaching and learning, yet e-learning involves more than use of ict. perhaps this explains why 42.1 % of the respondents were of the view that the right people for implementing e-learning were in place. indeed, the results point to the low level of exposure to an lms at kttc, with only 27.8 % agreeing that there is a learning management system that support learners in accessing e-learning content, such as lecture notes and powerpoint slides.  only 27.3 % of the respondents agreed that there is an e-learning initiative that enables employees and students to purchase computer equipment for a heavily subsidized price. perhaps these respondents did not distinguish between the current policy on acquisition of infrastructure and that envisioned in the study. the study envisions a project that will transfer ownership of equipment to users who acquire it through institutional credit facilities as they join the college. the current model of financing involves students paying a minimal amount to cover for the cost of internet connectivity and the use of the institution’s computers at the library, computer labs or the lrc. there was a further point of confusion by 23.4 % of the respondents who agreed that e-learning strategy is aligned to broader kttc goals and strategies, and 16.4 % who may have mistaken the existence of an ict policy for an e-learning strategy and concurred that e-learning processes and logistics are clearly articulated and followed.  organization and industry a readiness level of 32.1 % was determined for the organization and industry factor at kttc. the low readiness level suggests that the internal environment may hinder efforts to adopt e-learning as a mode of delivery. despite being the only institution that offers technical teacher training in the region, it is facing generic competition for students following the massification of university education in kenya. only 45.5 % of respondents agreed that kttc environment was dynamic enough, while 43.8 % acknowledged the high level of competition in the technical training industry and 31.0% felt that kttc operates in an environment where its e-learning solution needs to meet legal requirements such as licenses.  as a public institution, kttc has a need for quick delivery and access to knowledge and information (18.7 %), which is facilitated by its organizational structure (45.9 %) in a high risk, high compliance technical teacher training market requiring continuing skill development (32.0 %). only 41.8 % of the respondents agreed that kttc is mainly funded by the government and is relatively financially stable, with a budget for large short-term expenditures for e-learning and adequate resources for the introduction of e-learning (27.0 %). initially, the government used the kessp programme to embed ict infrastructure in tertiary institutions, as evidenced at kttc by the construction of the ict centre and the acquisition of computers and related accessories. currently, the directorate of e-government facilitates internet connectivity to tivet institutions through fibre optic cables, hosts the institution’s lms and provides institutional support. it is also a requirement from government that each tertiary institution allocates 10 % of its budget to development of ict, which is good enough to initialize and operationalize e-learning. conclusions these findings are significant for institutions in developing countries that aspire to introduce e-learning for increased access to quality education anywhere, anytime and at reasonable costs. inasmuch as the results point to an average readiness index of 56.2 %, there were high scores for what most organizations, managers and individuals perceive as essential for introduction of e-learning – readiness of learners (86.7 %), availability of ict infrastructure (66.4 %) and online content (62.8 %). concerted efforts should be geared towards enhancing organizational culture (33.0 %), and, organization and industry factors (32.1 %) that most people shun when introducing e-learning. assessment of e-learning readiness levels depends on models used and the context of the educational institution. recommendations the addie model should be considered when initializing and operationalizing e-learning. during the analysis stage of the model, surveys should be carried out to determine e-learning readiness of the organizations and individuals. learners should be e-ready by having basic ict literacy skills so that they focus on learning, not the technology. organizational culture conducive for e-learning is inherent when there is top management support and communication systems are clear. institutions should develop e-learning strategies that are in concord with overall organizational goals and strategies. leadership of e-learning initiatives should be entrusted to people who have the requisite technical and pedagogical skills. e-learning initiatives should consider an institution’s level of ict integration. technology used should be reliable and compatible. content used should be interactive, up-to-date, relevant and user friendly. where possible, open educational resources (oer) should be used. e-learning strategies, policies, workplans, work instructions and budgets should be prepared for successful implementation. it is also imperative to consider the readiness of teachers and technical staff. references bakry s. h. (2004). development of e-government: a stope view. international journal of network management, 14(5), pp. 339-350. bakry, a. h. (2005). enterprise resource planning: a review and a stope view. international journal of network management, 15(5), pp. 363-370. bakry, s. h., khalid a., & abdulmohsen, a. (2007). stope-based approach for e-readiness assessment case studies: department of electrical engineering, king saud university, riyad, saudi arabia. international journal of network management, 18: 65–75. published online 5 june 2007 in wiley interscience (http://www.interscience.wiley.com ) http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/nem.657  bernard, r. m., rojo de rubalcava, b., & st-pierre, d. (2000). collaborative online distance learning: issues for future practice and research. distance education, 21(2), pp. 260-277. bekim, f., & majlinda, f. (2009). south east european university, tetovo, macedonia. electronic journal of e-learning, 7, pp. 1-28. borotis, s., & poulymenakou, a. (2004). e-learning readiness components: key issues to consider before adopting e-learning interventions. retrieved from http://www.eltrun.gr/papers/elreadiness_elearn2004.pdf bui, t.x., sankaran, s., & sebastian, i.m. (2003). a framework for measuring national e-readiness. international journal of electronic business, 1(1), pp. 3-22. chai, l. g., & poh, y. n. (2009). e-learning in malaysia: success factors in implementing e-learning program, curtin university of technology. international journal of teaching and learning in higher education, 20(2), pp. 237246. retrieved from http://www.isetl.org/ijtlhe/ chapnick, s. (2000). are you ready for e-learning? retrieved from http://www.astd.org/astd/resources/dyor/article_archives.htm eslaminejad, t., masood, m., & ngah, n. a. (2010). assessment of instructors' readiness for implementing e-learning in continuing medical education in iran. medical teacher, 32(10), e407-e412. engholm, p. (2002). what determines an organisation's readiness for e-learning? e-business in australia: concepts and cases. pearson education australia guglielmino, p., & guglielmino, l. (2003) are your learners ready for e-learning? in g. piskurich (ed.), the ama handbook of e-learning. new york: american management association.  hall, b. (2001). e-learning guidebook. six steps to implementing e-learning. retrieved from http://www.brandonhall.com/public/forms/sixstepdb/ haney, d. (2002). assessing organizational readiness for e-learning: 70 questions to ask. performance improvement, 41(4), 8-13. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/pfi.4140410404 hussin, s., manap, m., amir, z., & krish, p. (2012). mobile learning readiness among malaysian students at higher learning institutes. asian social sciences, 8(12), pp. 276-283. doi: 10.5539/ass.v8n12p276 infodev. (2001). e-readiness as a tool for ict development. retrieved from http://www.infodev.org/library. kaur, k., & abas, z. (2004). an assessment of e-learning readiness. the open university malaysia. international conference on computers in education (icce2004), melbourne, australia.  li-an, ho. (2009, january). the antecedents of e-learning outcome: an examination of system quality, technology readiness and learning behaviour. department of educational technology, tamkang university, taiwan. adolescence, 44(175): 581-599. maruti j. s. (2010).  e-learning readiness among public primary teacher training colleges in kenya. unpublished master’s thesis. kenyatta university. mcconnell international. (2000). risk e-business: seizing the opportunity of global e-readiness. available at:  http://www.mcconnellinternational.com/ereadiness/ereadiness.pdf nces. (1999). distance education technologies. retrieved april 1, 2004, from http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/peqis/publications/ 2000013/6.asp olatokun, w. m., & opesade, o. a. (2008). an e-readiness assessment of nigeria’s premier university. international journal of education and development using ict, 4(2). ouma g. o., awuor f. m., & kyambo b. (2013). e‐learning readiness in public secondary schools in kenya. european journal of open, distance and e‐learning, 16(2). smith, p. j. (2005). learning preferences and readiness for online learning. educational psychology, 25(1), 3-12. redmon, j., & salopek, j.j. (2000). a year in the life of an e-learning project. training and development journal, 54(9), p. 36. rogers, e.m. (1995). diffusion of innovations (3rd ed.). new york: free press. rosenberg, m. j. (2001). e-learning: strategies for delivering knowledge in the digital age (vol. 9). new york: mcgraw-hill. schreurs, j., & al-huneidi, a. (2012, february). e-learning readiness in organizations – case kbc bank. hasselt university, diepenbeek, belgium. ijac, 5(1).  accessed from http://dx.doi.org/10.3991/ijac.v5i1.1885 shu, y., chen, i., kuei-feng, y., tze-fang, w., & lee-lan, y. (2006). a feasibility study on the adoption of e-learning for public health nurse continuing education in taiwan. nurse education today, 27(7), pp. 755-761. united nations. (2004). un global e-government readiness report 2004 towards access for opportunity unpan/2004/11. new york: united nations. van jaarsveldt, l. c. (2010, november). information technology skills for the south african public service. administratio publica, 18(4), pp. 174-192. watkins, r., leigh, d., & triner, d. (2004). assessing readiness for e-learning. performance improvement quarterly, 17(4) pp. 66-79. youssef, b. a., dahmani, m., & omrani, n. (2012). students' e-skills, organizational change and diversity of learning process: evidence from french universities in 2010. zew-centre for european economic research discussion paper, (12-031). robert alfred okinda is the coordinator, elearning and head, educational teachnology at the kenya technical teachers college. e-mail: raokinda@gmail.com microsoft word baijnath.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 87-100 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. learning for development in the context of south africa: considerations for open education resources in improving higher education outcomes narend baijnath council of higher education, south africa abstract: education is at the core of south africa’s national development. the national development plan recognizes the potential of education to transform individuals and drive attainment of other development goals. the country’s higher education system is characterized by low participation and high attrition. this presents challenges for the attainment of targets set by the ndp. a number of open education resources initiatives implemented around the world have shown that, when combined with open educational practices, such approaches have potential to address some of the challenges facing the south african higher education sector. this paper explores these initiatives and elements that would need to be considered to ensure an environment that is conducive to their sustainable adoption. keywords: oer, access, higher education, student success introduction whilst south africa has made great strides towards achieving universal access to basic education, this has not translated into improved educational outcomes in higher education. the country’s higher education sector is characterized by low participation and high attrition rates. open education resources (oer) are widely believed to have potential to widen access and promote student success although there is acknowledgement that this has yet to happen on a significant scale (cannell, 2015). this paper explores oer-related initiatives globally with a view to drawing lessons for south africa. the paper begins with a look at the socio-economic context of the country and its development aspirations as outlined in the national development plan (ndp), 2030. in particular, the positioning of education in the ndp and targets for the higher education sector are outlined. some challenges facing the higher education sector are also considered. the paper then goes on to consider advances in information and communication technology (ict) and oer. possibilities for using oer to address key challenges in higher education are also explored. the paper closes with a consideration of preconditions for success amongst various stakeholders. south africa’s socio-economic context the socio-economic context defines the parameters in large measure for the realistic growth and development possibilities of the country. south africa is classified as an upper middle-income country by the world bank and is also recognized as one of the fastest growing economies in africa (statssa, 2018). the gross domestic product (gdp) for 2016 was estimated at us$295,456 billion, down from us$426,878 billion in 2011 (world bank group, 2018). the slower growth recorded since 88 2011 has been ascribed to constraints on the supply side, mainly in the form of electricity shortages and falling commodity prices, among others. this has resulted in the stagnation of the gdp per capita compared to other fast-growing economies (oecd, 2017). another key feature of the socio-economic context is high levels of poverty along with low literacy levels, skewed towards rural black communities. this trend has its roots in the legacy of apartheid, which had the effect of embedding inequalities and poverty along race and gender lines. in addition to impacting the delivery of services, such as water and sanitation, these inequalities also impacted the country’s education system, resulting in poor quality education, especially amongst black rural communities; limited access to higher education opportunities for blacks; and led to general underdevelopment of blacks over a sustained period under apartheid rule. unemployment is high at about 27%, with youth being the most badly affected at 53% in 2016 (oecd, 2017). south africa’s development aspirations the main aspiration of the ndp is to eliminate poverty and reduce inequality by 2030. it aims to achieve this goal by drawing on the energies of the country’s people, growing an inclusive economy, enhancing capacities of people as well as the capability of the state (national planning commission, 2012). the ndp notes that too many of the country’s youth “feel that the odds are stacked against them” (national planning commission, 2012, p. 24). as a result, enhancing opportunities for young people, together with promoting gender equality, are common themes throughout the ndp. the ndp acknowledges education as a critical factor that underpins the attainment of other development goals outlined therein. chapter 9 on education, training and innovation identifies education as central to south africa’s long-term development. the chapter further suggests that education is a core element in the elimination of poverty and the reduction of inequality, while laying the foundations for an inclusive society (national planning commission, 2012). the transformational power of education, at both individual and societal levels, receives prominent recognition, with the principle of lifelong learning receiving emphasis. the positioning of education at the centre of south africa’s development agenda is noteworthy, given its recognition as a fundamental human right, and as a prerequisite for the exercise of all other human rights under the united nations. in the knowledge economy that south africa is striving to build, education is vital for the development of basic skills, development of new knowledge, and innovation, as well as being the engine for socio-economic development (butcher & hoosen, 2012). the ndp sets ambitious targets for the improvement of higher education by 2030. these include: 1) increasing university mathematics and science entrants to 450,000 and increasing the number of people entering careers in maths and science to three times the current levels 2) increasing graduation rates to 25% by 2030 3) increasing participation rates from 950,000 in 2010 to 1,620,000 by 2030, representing a 70% increase 4) producing more than 100 doctoral graduates per million per year by 2030. 89 key challenges in south africa’s higher education sector as of 2015, south africa’s higher education sector was comprised of 26 public universities and 120 private higher education institutions (heis), with 985,212 and 147,210 students enrolled in the public universities and private heis, respectively. of the students enrolled in private heis, 605,480 (representing 61.5%) were enrolled for contact education, while the remaining 379,732 (38.5%) were studying by distance. of the distance-learning students, females accounted for (65.2%) while males accounted for the remaining 34.8% (department of higher education and training, 2017a). like other developing countries, south africa’s higher education sector faces challenges in providing high-quality education that is also relevant to the demands of the 21st century world of work, while at the same time dealing with the consequences of under-development, and driving a transformation towards a knowledge society. this requires that education programmes, from basic to vocational and higher education, be updated continually in order to respond to global changes and local needs while also equipping students with the appropriate skills for participating in the knowledge economy. the central challenge is to achieve all these demanding goals when the numbers of students are increasing disproportionately in relation to the available teaching and learning infrastructure and other necessary resources. in short, the south african higher education system faces the challenge of maintaining quality and relevance against a backdrop of increasing demand for access (butcher & hoosen, 2012). the ndp characterises the south african higher-education system as one of low participation and high attrition. this is evidenced in cohort studies conducted by the department of higher education (dhet) for students entering higher education for the first time through public heis for the period 2000-2014. the study revealed that only 54.4% of the 2006 cohort had graduated after 10 years whilst 55.2% of the 2009 cohort graduated after seven years. while there was slight improvement over the period under analysis, it is still a huge concern that about 45% of young people who enter undergraduate degrees in both contact and distance education never graduate (department of higher education and training, 2017b). the country has made notable strides in universal access to basic education. primary and early secondary school are characterised by high progression rates but the quality of education in these segments is widely questioned by most of the populace. the final year of schooling presents a major obstacle as many learners drop out prior to the examination. there is also a relatively high failure rate among those who sit for the final examinations. the poor quality of education is particularly skewed towards blacks, translating into lower wages for this sector of the population (taylor & servaas van der berg, 2011). the evidence at hand suggests that instead of ameliorating inequality, the schooling system is reproducing it. a devastating consequence is that the basic education system does not sufficiently prepare school leavers for higher education. it follows therefore that addressing student success challenges in higher education requires improvements in basic education. this needs to be complemented by other interventions at the higher education level to ensure that students are better prepared. the council on higher education (che) (2013) previously proposed a flexible undergraduate curriculum that can be completed by students in four (4) years, and thus extending the normal study period of three (3) years for most undergraduate programmes (council on higher education, 2013; ramarathan, 2016). it is further argued that 90 achieving the ndp’s output targets for higher education, cited earlier, will require a multi-pronged strategy that combines cost effective use of the country’s heis while harnessing the potential of oer. icts and oer icts refer to technologies and applications used in communication and the electronic manipulation, storage, and conveyance of data. they have revolutionised distance learning by enabling the delivery of education to geographically marginalised regions and students, while allowing each to learn at a self-determined pace, and increasing support options for students in unprecedented ways. they have also empowered both educators and students by widening access to information (butcher & hoosen, 2012). within education, icts hold the promise of giving anyone with a suitable device and connectivity access to a huge range of educational material (cannell et al., 2015). icts also have the potential to enable learning to be more learner-centred (lane & van-dorp, 2011). oer are defined as “teaching, learning and research materials in any medium, digital or otherwise, that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions” (unesco, 2012, p. 1) or simply, “an educational resource that incorporates a licence that facilitates reuse, and potentially adaptation, without first requesting permission from the copyright holder” (butcher, 2015, p. 5). oer africa (2014, p 4) defines oer use as ‘technology-enabled, open provision of educational resources for consultation, use and adaptation by a community of users for non-commercial purposes”. notwithstanding the various definitions, oer include three core areas of activity, namely, “creation of open source software and development tools, the creation and provision of open course content, and the development of standards and licensing tools” (albright, 2005, p. 1). the value of oer as an educational resource lies in their potential for use as an integral method of communication of curriculum in educational courses (oer africa, 2014). oer go beyond just making access open but, as a principle, require users to modify the resources to suit their context, thus giving both students and educators freedom to access them as and when the need arises, to alter the resources for different purposes, and to leave them in control of how they use them in teaching or learning (lane & van-dorp, 2011). oer also have the potential to advance the principle of the right to education for all (lane, 2016) by making context-specific and relevant knowledge accessible (butcher, 2011; 2015; butcher & hoosen, 2012). they offer potential for enhancing the capacity of educators at all levels to develop and produce high-quality educational material that can enhance the quality of learning programmes at relatively low cost. existing material can also be adapted with ease to suit the context within which it will be used (butcher & hoosen, 2012). the rapidly growing number of oer globally bears witness to their potential to transform education (de hart et al., 2015). oer are widely advocated as a tool for addressing broad inequalities as well as for supporting the development needs of societies and nations globally. they also provide an opportunity to engage higher education faculties, academics, and teachers in structured processes that build capacity to design and deliver high-quality education programmes without increasing cost (butcher, 2011). 91 open educational practices in order to realise the full potential of oer, it is important to consider not just the resources but the practices that enable educators to share approaches, exchange ideas and promote novel pedagogies. the term ‘open educational practices’ (oeps) is used to refer to all of these (connell et al., 2015; shuttleworth foundation/ open society foundations; 2007). oeps are defined as “practices which support the production, use and reuse of high quality open educational resources (oer) through institutional policies which promote innovative pedagogical models, and respect and empower learners as co-producers on their lifelong learning path” (ehlers, 2011, p 3). another definition is “a broad descriptor of practices that include the creation, use, and reuse of open educational resources (oer) as well as open pedagogies and open sharing of teaching practices” (cronin, 2017). increasingly, academics are required to engage not only with the traditional classroom technologies but also with a wide array of digital, open and social practices (atenas et al., 2014). ways in which oer may assist in addressing key higher education development challenges oer, combined with oeps, can be leveraged to address, at least in part, some of the important challenges facing the higher education sector. these include improving preparedness of students for, and widening, access. another way is to improve success and retention through reduced costs. enhancing preparedness of students for higher education, widening access and increasing participation the poor preparedness of entrants into higher education in south africa is a matter of serious concern to all stakeholders in the sector. it is generally agreed that strategies to help students make the transition effectively need to be explored. so should ways of ensuring their success in their study programmes. only then will they realise their full potential and lead productive and fulfilled lives. oer offer opportunities for novel approaches to bridge the articulation gap between basic education and higher education. the bridge to success project jointly implemented by the open university (uk), massachusetts institute of technology (mit), anne arundel community college (aacc), and university of maryland university college (umuc) has demonstrated how oer can facilitate the transition into higher education. the project was conceptualised as a response strategy to the challenge that, despite 60% of new community college students being offered at least one developmental course, the great majority fail to successfully complete their studies within eight years. the project thus sought to address learning barriers faced by students. as part of the project, an iterative and collaborative process was used to rework existing courses to develop two courses namely, “learning to succeed”, and “learning to succeed with math” based on oer. these oer courses helped improve the preparedness of entrants into higher education and hence success rates (pitt et al., 2013). similar approaches can be adopted by targeting students who do not, based at matric resultsi, meet the requirements for entrance into higher education. these students may then require deeper thought into how they can be provided with additional support not only to cope with the material they would be working with but to also help them develop the skills for independent study required in higher education. 92 improving retention, progression and success rates a number of initiatives worldwide have reported improved completion rates with the adoption of oer. these initiatives have also reported significant improvement in financial benefits to students through introduction of oer. an example here is tidewater community college’s z-degree programme. the programme earned its name from “zero costs” for text books, as a result of the college adopting oer for its business administration programmes. the adoption of oer enabled faculty to enhance the effectiveness of their teaching by focusing on adapting learning materials to desired learning outcomes. the project resulted in the saving of as much as us$3679 per student within a year and improved performance by students (palmedo, 2014). of 303 students enrolled in zsection courses, eight (2.64%) students dropped out, while 468 (3.72%) of 12,574 non-z-section student dropped out (wiley et al. 2016). z-programmes are being piloted in other community colleges and have been described as a “growing national movement” (lerner, 2018). at the core of the z-project is the focus of educational material on the expected outcomes. another benefit is that from day one, students have access to the material they require. the benefits of adopting oer in education have been described as transforming teaching and learning in ways that can improve engagement for both staff and faculty through personalised learning (stout, 2016). other similar initiatives include the affordable learning georgia initiative supported through the university system of georgia initiative. an analysis of the results from 21 projects showed that at the very least, oer reduce costs of study without compromising learning outcomes. while slight improvements were observed in some attributes, declines in some were also reported (croteau, 2017). creating a conducive environment for development, sharing and meaningful use of oer in south africa in line with the goal of reducing inequality in higher education, and within the context of oer, the required environment for the use of oer to respond to the needs and contexts of previously disadvantaged learners from rural marginalised communities needs to be purposefully put in place. in developing interventions, the special needs of the less-advantaged sectors of the population must be taken into account to prevent entrenching inequalities further (prepelita-raileanu, 2008). a number of factors would need to be considered to enhance accessibility, as discussed below: policy the south african policy environment is generally supportive of oer. the white paper for post school education and training (pset) system (dhet, 2013) adopted open learning as a strategy to increase access to education and training opportunities, with a view to furthering the country’s transformation goals. it recognises the importance and need for all education providers to “construct quality learning environments which take account of learners’ context and use the most appropriate and cost-effective methods and technologies”. the white paper expressed the intent to forge networks of institutions and learner support centres, and to further promote innovation and opportunities for lifelong learning (dhet, 2013). the white paper thus created space for oer to complement the campus-based delivery of education throughout the pset system. in particular, the white paper sought to leverage the potential for development of well-researched and high-quality learning resources, as well as the inherent advantages of collaboration and enhancing efficiency of use of 93 existing infrastructure. another important consideration is the increasing emphasis on independent study as preparation for life-long learning (dhet, 2013). the dhet has also developed an open learning policy framework for post-school education and training (dhet, 2017c) which affirms the commitment of the government to open the doors of learning and remove unnecessary barriers to education and training for all, with particular emphasis on those who have been marginalised in the past, by using open-learning approaches in pset as one of the strategies. the view of open learning as an integral part of the pset system is significant given that one of the important conditions of success for oer is the positioning of open education in the education system as this influences the perception of society and potential end users on its value. other policy related considerations include the environment to promote sharing and use of oer including open licensing regimes and ensuring an understanding by all partners and stakeholders. linked to this are possibilities of establishing and/or leveraging strategic partnerships outside the country as appropriate, for both heis and government. at the institutional level, the range of policies that will need to be developed include, in addition to an ict strategy (which many institutions already have) a policy on e-learning. linked with this should also be consideration of how the curriculum will be developed, financial support for initiatives, and the institutional culture of sharing. others include intellectual property, assessment and accreditation, quality assurance, staff development and support, and student support (yuan, et al., n.d.). connectivity the international telecommunications union (2017) ranked south africa 92nd with an ict development index of 4.96. the world average for 2017 was 5.11. clearly enormous progress still needs to be made. a recent report suggests that there were 21 million internet users in south africa. this figure was projected to reach 22.5 million by the end of 2017. the report also indicated that the majority of internet users were using smartphones, which totalled 29 million. this led to the conclusion that one of the limitations is the considerable cost of data. this was confirmed by an observation of increased use coinciding with periods of data cost reduction. the report also noted that the priority for upper-end users was faster bandwidth, while lower-end users were more concerned with affordability (shapshak, 2017). to enhance the accessibility of oer, concerted efforts should be made to bridge “the digital divide” (lane & van-dorp, 2011; cannell, 2017) that exists between the privileged and the poor and marginalised rural students who are also the most vulnerable. one of the first considerations for this is to enhance access to the internet and affordable broadband, especially for previously disadvantaged learners from rural marginalized communities and other special needs groups (prepelita-raileanu, 2008; lane & von-dorp, 2011; cannell, 2017). another possibility is to consider providing learners from disadvantaged backgrounds with access to inexpensive and rapid network connections from educational institutions and other suitable infrastructure close to their places of residence (prepelitaraileanu, 2008) where possible and appropriate. another consideration for poor students is access to suitable technology which can also be an insurmountable barrier. although the majority of south africans now have access to mobile phones, these may not be suitable for downloading and viewing some of the educational resources. 94 access to suitable and context-relevant oer beyond the issues of bandwidth and technology, which are generally acknowledged and reflected in national policy documents and research, it is important to realize that the same social, cultural and material barriers to participation in learning that have been observed with traditional campus-based education may still be present (cannell et al., 2015) and may even, perhaps, entrench inequalities still deeper with the use of oer. there are three types of barriers to access: • situational barriers are linked with the learner and include educational experience and qualifications, disability, geographical location and socio-economic disadvantage • institutional barriers include support systems, curriculum design and processes that are not aligned to the needs of the learner • dispositional barriers, which are a result of prior experiences of the learner, and include lack of self-confidence, dropping out, etc. (cannell, 2017). specific barriers that post school education and training in south africa seeks to address are summarised in figure 1. figure 1: barriers to access in south africa's higher education sector addressing these challenges calls for innovative thinking in order to truly leverage the potential of oer to address the identified challenges effectively. the next consideration is that of development and access to a comprehensive supply of quality educational material (prepelita-raileanu, 2008). 95 development of ict-based teaching programmes and materials, which can support learning processes, would need to be done continuously in an iterative process allowing for feedback loops as lessons and best practice in each context emerge. availability of educators who are able and willing to engage with oer even if institutions are willing to embrace oer, the uptake and use is largely dependent on the availability of academics who are able and willing to engage (lane & van-dorp, 2011). as a result, the ict skills of academics must be updated to enable them to develop personal mastery of both the tools and the possibilities they present as an integrated teaching tool as well as other aspects of their work to free time to engage in the teaching and learning experience. academics also require new skills to enable them to develop digital resources and to understand the pedagogical opportunities afforded by oer (atenas et al., 2014; wiley et al., 2016). this implies a need for capacity building and support. it is also necessary to ensure an environment that facilitates sharing of materials and even encourages its adaptation and reuse in line with the core principles of oer. an understanding of the barriers to engagement in oer would need to be understood, both at the sectorand institutional-level, to enable development of suitable strategies to respond to them. work done through other oer initiatives in the country, including de hart (2015) and cox (2017), may provide some insights. ability and willingness of students to engage with oer the massive increase in the generation and development of knowledge globally, combined with the speed with which it can be transmitted through ict, means learners at all levels are exposed to massive and unprecedented volumes of content of variable quality and credibility. this impels the need for cultivating the ability of students to access, select, process and use the great amount of information made available by ict effectively and credibly. this is particularly important to enable learners to take more responsibility for their own learning as well as developing independent learning skills (prepelita-raileanu, 2008) in line with the demands of the digital 21st century. apart from access to affordable connectivity and suitable technology mentioned earlier, students need to be skilled in ict as well as in independent learning and information processing techniques. they must also be willing to engage in the processes of informing development and reshaping of material. quality assurance issues the proliferation of educational material and resources on the internet raises a need for bespoke quality assurance mechanisms (cannell et al., 2015) to ensure that standards are not compromised. cannell et al., 2015 suggest that these are best based on a mix of professional, peer and user reviews. these are student-centred quality frameworks. mechanisms to ensure quality must be addressed early on to ensure respect for and recognition of open learning. dhet and the quality councils may consider taking the same approach to quality learning as the commonwealth of learning (col), which is one of influencing policy at both national and institutional levels, development of resources and enhancing the capacity of institutions and individuals working with open learning qa (mishra & kanwar, 2015). there may be a need to reflect on quality assurance regimes to enable consideration of the environment within which interaction for the development of oer and learning take place. with the world and the higher education sector becoming increasingly globalised, there is also an increased 96 need and perhaps even urgency for strengthening regional and international partnerships for quality assurance. recognition of oer along with the quality assurance considerations, there is a need to consider mechanisms for recognition in some form of the knowledge gained through for example, for consideration towards gaining access into formal education in an institution, and for recognition of achievement by employers etc. (lane & van dorp, 2011; cannell et al., 2015). for this reason, lane & van dorp (2011) suggest that institutional policies need to reflect how institutions intend to bridge between non-formal and formal study. this is particularly important in oer that are aimed at opening access to students who do not meet standard entry requirements. sustaining oer and oeps consideration will need to be given to measures to ensure sustainability of both the resources and their adoption. the initial development of oer has some associated costs and, as such, institutions must be ready to find or mobilise the necessary resources. thereafter, there will be a need to promote their adoption and support the associated processes. wiley (et al., 2016) present the increased tuition revenue through oer (intro) model, in which increased revenue is generated from increased tuition which results from increasing numbers of students as one of the barriers—high costs of textbooks—is removed. figure 2 shows the role of various stakeholders in ensuring this supportive environment. conclusion a number of initiatives implemented in various countries have demonstrated that oer, combined with the promotion of oeps, have the potential to contribute towards widening access and success rates in south african higher education, in line with development targets as elaborated in the ndp. adoption and use of oer will, however, require some investments — primarily monetary and capacity development—by all stakeholders. it will also require closer collaboration between various stakeholders in the sector to optimise resources and capacities and create synergies. it will also be important to ensure that enabling policies are developed at all levels. collectively these efforts are anticipated to contribute to learning development objectives and the sustainability of both oer and oeps. acknowledgement the contributions of staff in the office of the ceo at the council on higher education, south africa, in sourcing some of the information that was used in preparing this paper are gratefully acknowledged. special thanks are due to dr phumzile dlamini and dr amani saidi. 97 figure 2: requirements for successful development and uptake of oer 98 references albright, p. (2005). educational resources open content for higher education. internet discussion forum 24 october 2 december 2005: final forum report. unesco-iiep. retrieved from https://www.ifap.ru/library/book064.pdf atenas, j., havemann, l.b., & priego, e. (2014). opening teaching landscapes: the importance of quality assurance in the delivery of open educational resources. open praxis, 6(1), 29–43. butcher, n., & hoosen, s. (2012). exploring the business case for open educational resources. commonwealth of learning. retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.684.8630&rep=rep1&type=pdf http://creativecommons.org/licences/by-sa/3.0 butcher n. (2015). a basic guide to open educational resources (oer). edited by kanwar a. and uvalic´-trumbić s (eds.). commonwealth of learning & unesco. vancouver & paris. retrieved from http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/resources/publications-andcommunication-materials/publications/full-list/a-basic-guide-to-open-educational-resources-oer/ cannell, p., macintyre r. & hewitt l. (2015). widening access and oer: developing new practice. widening participation and lifelong learning, 17(1), 64-71. cannell, p. (2017). breaking down barriers to widening participation using open online courses in lifelong learning. open educational practices scotland. retrieved from http://www.open.edu/openlearncreate/pluginfile.php/261946/mod_page/content/2/barriers%20formatted.pd f council on higher education (2013). a proposal for undergraduate curriculum reform in south africa: a case for a flexible curriculum structure. report of the task team on undergraduate curriculum structure. che, pretoria. cox, g. & trotter, h. (2017). factors shaping lecturers’ adoption of oer at three south african universities. in hodgkinson-williams, c. & arinto, p. b. (eds.), adoption and impact of oer in the global south (pp. 287–347). retrieved from http://roer4d.org/sp-4-sociocultural-acceptability-of-oer cronin, c. (2017). openness and praxis: exploring the use of open educational practices in higher education. international review of research in open and distributed learning, 18(5). retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/3096/4301. croteau, e. (2017). measures of student success with textbook transformations: the affordable learning gergia initiative. open praxis, 9(1), 93–108 retrieved from https://openpraxis.org/index.php/openpraxis/article/view/505/251 de hart, k., chetty, y., & archer, e. (2015). uptake of oer by staff in distance education in south africa. international review of research in open and distributed learning, 16(2), 18-43. retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej1061119.pdf department of higher education & training (2013). white paper for post-school education and training: building an expanded, effective and integrated post-school system. dhet, pretoria. department of higher education and training (2017a). statistics on post-school education and training in south africa. dhet, pretoria. department of higher education and training (2017b). 2000 to 2014 first time entering undergraduate cohort studies for public higher education institutions. dhet, pretoria. 99 department of higher education & training (2017c). open learning policy framework for post-school education and training. government gazette 40772. dhet, pretoria. ehlers, u.d. (2011). extending the territory: from open educational resources to open educational practices. journal of open, flexible and distance learning, 15(2), 1-10. retrieved from https://www.learntechlib.org/p/147891/ international communications union (2017). world telecommunication/ict indicators symposium (wtis) 2017. itu, hammamet, tunisia. retrieved from https://www.itu.int/en/itud/statistics/pages/publications/mis2017.aspx lane, a. (2016). emancipation through open education: rhetoric or reality? in p. blessinger & t. j. bliss (eds.). open education: international perspectives in higher education (pp. 31-50). open book publishers. retrieved from http://oro.open.ac.uk/48054/1/open-education-%20chapter%202.pdf lane, a. & van-dorp, k.j. (2011). open educational resources and widening participation in higher education: innovations and lessons from open universities. in: edulearn11, the 3rd annual international conference on education and new learning technologies, 04-05 jul 2011, barcelona. retrieved from http://oro.open.ac.uk/29201/1/open_educational_resources_and_widening_participation _andy.pdf lerner, m. (2018). ‘z-degree’ gives students textbooks for free. star tribune. last accessed on 9th june, 2018 from https://www.ecampusnews.com/online-learning/z-degree-gives-students-textbooks-free/ national planning commission (2012). national development plan 2030: our future: make it work. national planning commission, pretoria. retrieved from http://www.nationalplanningcommission.org.za/pages/downloads.aspx palmedo, m. (2014). tidewater community college associate degree using all oer curriculum – results after one year. retrieved from http://infojustice.org/archives/32374 pitt, r., ebrahimi, n., mcandrew, p. & coughlan, t. (2013). assessing oer impact across organisations and learners: experiences from the bridge to success project. journal of interactive media in education 3, art. 17 . doi: http://doi.org/10.5334/2013-17. retrieved from https://www-jime.open.ac.uk/articles/10.5334/2013-17/ prepelita-raileanu, b. (2008). learning and teaching in the digital age. proceedings of the 7th wseas international conference on education and educational technology (edu'08). retrieved from http://www.wseas.us/elibrary/conferences/2008/venice/edu/edu18.pdf oecd (2017). oecd economic surveys south africa july 2017 overview. retrieved from https://www.oecd.org/eco/surveys/2017-oecd-economic-survey-south-africa-overview-2017.pdf oer africa, aten. (2014). oer in teacher education: reflections from the oer africa teacher education network. nairobi: oer africa. rusc, 10(1), 327-344. ramarathan, l. (2016). beyond counting numbers: shifting higher education into curriculum spaces, 1(1): a6 http://dx. doi.org/10.4102/the.v1i1.6 shapshak, t. (2017). south africa has 21 million internet users, mostly on mobile. tech#allthingsmobile. retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/tobyshapshak/2017/07/19/south-africa-has-21m-internet-users-mostlyon-mobile/#431ab641b2d5 shuttleworth foundation/ open society foundation (2007). cape town open education declaration: unlocking the promise of open educational resources. retrieved from http://www.capetowndeclaration.org/read-thedeclaration. 100 statssa (2018). the economy of south africa. retrieved from http://www.statssa.gov.za stout, k.a. (2016). the role of open educational resources in the student success agenda: reflections on oer’s role in the student success agenda. retrieved from http://www.achievingthedream.org/blog/16081/the-role-of-openeducational-resources-in-the-student-success-agenda-huffington-post-blog taylor, s., servaas van der berg, r.b (2011). low education as a poverty trap in south africa. retrieved from http://www.psppd.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/5.-low-quality-education-as-a-poverty-trap-in-southafrica.pdf unesco (2012). paris oer declaration. unesco 2012 world open educational resources (oer) congress held at unesco, paris. june 20-22, 2012. retrieved from https://en.unesco.org/oer/paris-declaration wiley, d., williams, l., demarte, d., & hilton, j. (2016). the tidewater z-degree and the intro model for sustaining oer adoption. education policy analysis archives, 23(41). retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.14507/epaa.v23.1828requi world bank group (2018). world bank open data group: south africa. retrieved from https://data.worldbank.org/country/south-africa yuan, l., macneill, s., & kraan, w. (n.d.). open educational resourcesopportunities and challenges for higher education. retrieved from https://oerknowledgecloud.org/sites/oerknowledgecloud.org/files/oer_briefing_paper.pdf author narend baijnath is the chief executive officer of the council on higher education. e-mail: baijnath.n@che.ac.za cite this paper as: baijnath, n. (2018). learning for development in the context of south africa: considerations for open education resources in improving higher education outcomes. journal of learning for development, 5(2), 87-100. note i the matric examination is the ultimate examination in the basic education system, marking the end of schooling. microsoft word traxler.docx issn: 2311-1550 2020, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 306-325 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. data for development: shifting research methodologies for covid-19 john traxler and matt smith education observatory, university of wolverhampton, uk abstract: successful and appropriate informal digital learning can help individuals and communities build sustainable and meaningful livelihoods, strengthen social cohesion and resilience, preserve and enhance cultural traditions and engage constructively and robustly with the wider world. building digital learning that embodies participative and collaborative development and community ownership and control rests on the work of educators who understand these individuals and communities and their cultures, which may be very distant and different from global norms and the mainstream of their countries. these educators may, however, be reliant on research tools and techniques that are inappropriate or inadequate in these different settings and situations. this paper sets out a brief critique of these established tools and techniques as the prelude to reviewing a range of more innovative and eclectic ones drawn from a variety of disciplines. this is timely because covid-19 has increased the barriers that separate educators from would-be learners whilst also increasing the education that these people and communities need. keywords: marginalised communities, research methods, development, covid, digital research. introduction this paper addresses the methodological challenge on developing research tools and techniques better aligned to individuals, communities and cultures different and divergent from established mainstream global northern contexts in order to develop, deliver and determine better digital learning. the purposes of this paper are to set the development of co-designed autonomous and sustainable community digital learning spaces on secure methodological foundations that enhance the understanding of authentic community needs, situations, aspirations, experiences and expectations, and to encourage researchers to broaden their methodological approaches by adopting a ‘what-works’ attitude. the paper recognises that these outcomes rest on bringing together a substantial body of methods literature from across social sciences and beyond in order to adapt and evaluate it for a crosssection of the disadvantaged and development contexts that might benefit from such spaces. this paper confronts the assumption amongst digital learning researchers, developers and activists that, ‘it worked for us, so it’ll work for them’, whilst then avoiding the assumption, ‘just because it worked for some of them, doesn’t mean it’ll work for all of them’. also, however, a comparable slogan that we would embrace in relation to research governance and research project management would be, ‘nothing about us without out us’, to which we return in closing. 307 the paper looks at how to improve research with, amongst, or alongside communities disadvantaged by: • language (e.g., fragile mother tongues; non-literate or pre-literate; anglophone digital technologies, non-national language communities), • power (e.g., post-colonial or neo-colonial positions, ‘capacity building’ perpetuating existing hegemonies; the stigmatised, homeless, rural, marginal or nomadic; gender, generational), • education (by restrictive or centralised national primary education systems, school dropouts and non-attenders, highly didactic pedagogies), • infrastructure (poor roads, unreliable bandwidth, access, limited coverage, insecure buildings, limited mains) • security (crisis and emergency, conflict, migration and displacement) • capacity (e.g., poor data gathering or analysis practices, poor monitoring and evaluation, basic or limited local policymaking). but specifically addresses the methodological significance for research of: • the covid-19 pandemic and its aftermath (face masks, social distancing, lockdown, reduced public transport, self-isolation, hospitalisation, quarantine) these all represent barriers and this paper offers suggestions for practical research tools and methods derived from diverse disciplines that might, especially in the current circumstances, help overcome these barriers in order to help educators understand the needs and aspirations of communities but now in the context of delivering and supporting learning that addresses a changed community healthcare and community health education context. clearly, an exploratory paper cannot address these problems but seeks to add more substance to understanding them as contextualizing factors and to indicate ways forward. these issues are important for communities viewed by external agencies as ‘hard-to-reach’, because, firstly, they are hard to reach to understand their needs, secondly, they are hard to reach in order to meet those needs, and, thirdly, both of these are compounded and changed by the current covid-19 pandemic. initial research question how can digital learning development for distant and diverse communities, especially those very different from their national or global mainstream, be informed by the synthesis and evaluation of the methods literature from disciplines such as development studies specifically with a focus on indigeneity and decolonisation; ictd and mobiles-for-development; those disciplines that embrace disadvantage and inclusion; informal, lifelong and community learning; human-computer interaction and requirements engineering; the mobilities turn in sociology; psychology and anthropology? a subsidiary and implied research question is, in the context of these communities, how can research ethics and research project governance be adapted and integrated with improved, sensitive and appropriate research methods and tools? we argue that appropriate tools and techniques may be found across a range of disciplines and communities. first, we illustrate how some of the barriers 308 identified above can limit what we, as educators, think we understand about other people and their cultures. we use ‘cultures’ in a fairly inclusive sense, perhaps just, ‘how we do things around here’. even so, the term has been put on a more calibrated and comparative basis and should be used in a more systematic critique of established methods (using the cultural dimensions approaches pioneered by hofstede (2003) for example), those we might call the ‘usual suspects’. rounding up the usual suspects all too often social research including education and digital learning is based on deploying a handful of established formats, namely large-scale surveys, semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and questionnaires. these are often deployed without recognition of, or adaptation to, circumstances vastly different from the stable secure global northern research settings of their origin and without much sophisticated or rigorous analysis. we could systematically tabulate the methods above (large-scale surveys, semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and questionnaires) against the indicative barriers above (language, power, education, infrastructure, security and capacity) in order to set out the case that the barriers mean the methods do not always work. that is, however, self-evident; they will not always work. some examples might nevertheless help. if infrastructure is the challenge then there already accounts of the adaptation of digital technology including sms, email, im, web-based formats and social media (and hybrids that exploit other media, for example, using posters or radio to broadcast where to send sms responses to survey questions or online surveys to refine topics for face-to-face focus groups). these have supported interviews, focus groups, questionnaire and surveys, not necessarily in the standard, established or canonical forms but there are several factors to remember. firstly, we can use the research literature to show how our adaptations are derived logically and necessarily from existing validated formats, secondly, we can be candid and explicit about any limitations, thirdly, within our documented limitations, imperfect responses might be better than none at all and, lastly, as researchers we should grasp the chances to publish our methodological innovations, ones that other researchers might subsequently deploy. there may be some uncertainty about definitions, so, for example, is sending open email questions one-at-a-time, an email interview or a questionnaire? they may be synchronous or loosely or tightly asynchronous. whatever works. and in times of lockdown, reduced public transport, distancing, school closure, masking and the other side effects of covid-19, whatever works is doubly worthwhile. we could conduct a similar analysis for the other barriers we identify, conscious that many may overlap. in the case of language, the specifics might be participants with unofficial or unrecognised languages, dialects or argot, pre-literate cultures or ones without an orthography, with low literacy (or without the visual and manual capabilities to engage with text) and so pictorial or graphical techniques might be helpful. we mention some later. in the case of power, meaning, for example, differentials in power or gender, it might be possible to recruit and train local proxies or intermediaries, and recognise what might constitute ‘harm’ — and risk — in the context of ethics procedures for specific cultures and demographics. 309 one specific problem is the perceived prestige of western, european, american, quantitative, sophisticated or technological methods amongst officials in contexts where these may not be appropriate in connecting directly with those marginal communities battling covid-19. this is an insidious and deep-rooted problem and needs the rhetoric and methods of ‘capacity building’ to be dramatically reconsidered in ways that support officials in understanding and appreciating the values and mores of their own societies. in the case of capacity, meaning the ability and confidence to develop and deploy appropriate research techniques (and develop the skills and relationships to then work with policy-makers (traxler, 2016)), this, too, is a challenge for capacity building but, again, not a straightforward one. in the case of security, meaning situations of military action, civil unrest, natural disaster, forced migration and other physical, social or psychological threats, there is now growing and recognised expertise and resource in bodies such as red cross/crescent, unhcr and unrwa that could support researchers in understanding contexts and adapting tools, especially as such organisations are already engaged with covid-19 responses. of course from a methodological perspective, researchers need to reflect on the nature of the knowledge they are trying to elicit – and during covid-19 this will have changed dramatically – sometimes on some elementary quality assurance procedures derived from the methods of market research and sometimes on the cultural distance between the researcher and the researched. acre, drawn from software requirement engineering, provides a principled and systematic framework and critique for understanding how eliciting different types of knowledge from research participants requires different elicitation techniques; it draws attention to for example not-worthmentioning and taken-for-granted, to the differences between participants’ front-of-stage, back-stage and under-stage responses. acre also draws attention to the role of culture, within the limitations of the work’s original domain, and these should be recontextualised into the different communities and cultures represented in this paper. more generally, social science literature draws attention to performativity and self-report, to the need for triangulation and corroboration and to piloting and peer-review, and urgent fieldwork undertaken under the pressures of covid-19 cannot ignore these quality issues. the literature and methods of market research whilst not always highly theorised are tested in the struggle for commercial advantage with consumers and competitors (hague, hague & morgan, 2004; mcquarrie, 2015; jalil, 2013). they provide heuristics and guidelines worth investigating for researchers. lupton (2020) has pulled together a very useful document on fieldwork methods during covid-19, mentioning amongst other ideas, how wearable cameras (cf. pink, 2015; fors, berg & pink, 2016), online discussion platforms (chen & neo, 2019), digital mapping (martin & schuurman, 2020; muenchow, schäfer & krüger, 2019), live streaming apps, and much else may be worth experimenting with to support research at a distance or with the increasingly isolated and marginalised during the pandemic. there is also basic guidance on surveys (passmore, dobbie, parchman & tysinger, 2002), questionnaires (brace, 2018), interviews (bradburn, sudman & wansink, 2004) and focus groups (edmunds, 1999; kamberelis & dimitriadis, 2013). these would help covid researchers in the field 310 gain a basic competence with mainstream methods and also to critique the large volume of survey data emerging. a third dimension is that of cultural difference and distance and how these must be factored into research design, into data gathering and analysis, obviously when working with the marginal or disadvantaged cultures being discussed here but in the light of the constraints and pressures of covid-19. we are talking about the cultural distance and difference between the societies where methods are developed and the societies where they are to be deployed. this is the subject of cultural dimensions and the work of hofstede (2003) is the archetype for calibrated dimensions for societies around the world – there are alternatives, refinements and critiques. we should, however, treat any nation-level calibrations with caution since many marginal communities are quite different from the national norms. each indigenous — or otherwise marginalised — community is embedded within unique social and cultural circumstances, which can be characterised for example by “environmental differences, historic differences, community/cultural/traditional differences, cultural practices, linguistics, and world views” (traxler et al, 2020, p. 9). this presents a direct challenge to the transplantation and implementation of one-size-fits-all strategies from elsewhere, either political or research-oriented. the circumstances of refugees or those in similar crisis situations in particular are highly diverse and the interventions, and any research on these peoples and solutions, should be equally diverse. we also argue here for a recognition that specific circumstances and contexts create unique issues, for example of digital access and equity (see, e.g., humphry, 2014), and any imposed policy framework or practical solution needs to be responsive to the diversity and uniqueness of local contexts (park, freeman & middleton, 2019), specifically involving the community these seek to support. “the issue of context is most important for learners or communities with characteristics that differ most from national, established or mainstream norms” (traxler et al, 2020, p. 22). so, with these shortcomings in mind, we turn to the following examples of alternatives drawn from diverse disciplines that may complement adaptations to more conventional techniques. online research this is well established and our purpose here is merely to consider online equivalents to the established techniques, the ‘usual suspects’. these are the survey, interview, focus group and questionnaire but the media might be web, email, sms or social media. permutations of all these have been tried and documented. an obvious benefit is eliminating the need for transcription as participants enter the data themselves and it is saved by the application. another is that many of these websites provide rudimentary (and sometimes powerful) analyses of the responses, which can be used wholesale or, at the least, exported for further analysis. these methods do, however, depend on participants having a specific digital literacy and having access to the internet. in many respects online research is a category of research focused on, mainly, conventional methods deployed across some digital medium but reconsidered from the perspective of the barriers it might surmount. sms might seem rudimentary but it scales incredibly effectively, and bulk messaging is disproportionately cheap (or often free to projects as a donation from an mno, mobile network operator). the mno’s ‘value added services’ providers can provide functionality to run big short surveys retrieving both qualitative and quantitative data that can be easily exported for computer-based analysis. and, as we 311 explain shortly, rudimentary is both better than nothing, and easier to do during covid-straitened times. the mobilities turn mobilities (as described, for example, in urry, 2012) encompasses both the large-scale movements of people, objects, capital, and information across the world, as well as more local processes of daily transportation, movement through public space, and the travel of material things within everyday life. developments in transportation and communications infrastructures, along with new social and cultural practices of mobility have elicited new research initiatives for understanding the connections between these diverse mobilities. the mobilities turn draws on “work from anthropology, cultural studies, geography, migration studies, science and technology studies, tourism and transport studies, and sociology and enables the ‘social world’ to be theorised as a wide array of economic, social and political practices, infrastructures and ideologies that all involve, entail or curtail various kinds of movement of people, or ideas, or information or objects. this turn brings to the fore theories, methods and exemplars of research that so far have been mostly out of sight” (sheller & urry, 2016). ‘mobilities’ is about establishing a ‘movement-driven’ social science in which movement, potential movement and blocked movement, as well as voluntary/temporary immobility’s, practices of dwelling and ‘nomadic’ place-making are all conceptualised as constitutive of economic, social and political relations” (sheller, 2014). this world view characterised by mobility is not fundamentally challenged by the restrictions imposed as a consequence of covid-19; mobility is merely reconfigured and the tetherings transformed, so corporeal mobility has become virtual mobility at one level whilst more observably public transport has given way to private transport and people moving through spaces in different ways. the mobilities literature already documents how various nomadic, rural and marginalised communities and individuals produce and consume knowledge and make meaning, and it documents the techniques and methods to explore these activities (büscher & urry, 2009; hein, evans & jones, 2008). an underlying methodological message to researchers might be, ‘stay in-world’. if communities live by walking or driving, then conduct research walking or driving. in the current context, however, the research methods of the mobilities turn could help understand the transmission of covid-19 by various different communities as they travel, commute, migrate and work. to date these have included diaspora (blunt, 2007), counter diaspora (king & christou, 2011), cycling (spinney, 2009), walking (myers, 2011), railway travel (löfgren, 2008), cargo (birtchnell & urry, 2015), migrants (faist, 2013), urban homeless (smith & hall, 2016), migrant academics (morley et al, 2018), farmers (morris, 2004), tropical villagers (price & price, 2017) and lifestyles (cohen, duncan & thulemark, 2015). these, and other papers and projects, offer methodological insights. to be more specific, tourist mobilities were a key vector in the spread of the pandemic (see, for example, iaquinto, 2020). with the huge societal and individual impositions and lockdowns enforced by governments around the world, big data sets have helped researchers understand the impacts humans have had on their environments (an example here is ritchie, 2020). a question for us would be how we could replicate such useful data from communities at the margins. one answer that may be specifically useful in the straitened times and impositions of covid-19 is that of birtchnell, savitzky & urry (2015): tracking a series of individual elements of cargo (for which we could insert any other item under study, such as people) and extrapolating outwards via an analysis of the systems 312 and environments within which they operate and a theorisation of how these play out in the wider spheres of politics and economics. where access to data is scarce – and even more scarce at the moment – perhaps this is a way research and policymaking could continue to operate. gatsha (2010), for example, noted how a mixed methodology was most appropriate for collecting valid data from remote distance learners in botswana, in order that each would complement and overcome weaknesses in any of the others. mukharya (2020) describes some of the difficulties in collecting data during covid-19, detailing with evident regret the need to cut back on the numbers of fieldworkers employed, even in a ‘lean model’ of cost optimisation, and the concomitant need to rely on methods that are self-confessedly less effective at connecting with the most hardest to reach in india: adolescents, pregnant women and rural villagers. although in-depth telephone conversations and online methods are inappropriate in areas without the finances or infrastructure to support these, and where social conventions make it harder to reach anyone except the male heads of households, she notes that the use of big data, feedback surveys and simple opinion polls will continue to enable “governments and corporate bodies to… gain key data insights from those at the bottom of the pyramid for partners across the world”. pct personal construct theory suggests that people develop personal constructs, essentially their own theories, about how the world works, frameworks for structuring their experiences however mundane. people use these constructs to make sense of their observations and experiences and give order to them. the world we live in may be the same for all of us but the way we experience it will always differ (kelly, 1970; horley, 2012). these personal constructs have potential commonalities within cultures and potential differences between cultures (greyling & waitai, 2016). the significance of the underlying axiom is that the pct community has developed research tools and techniques that try as much as possible to elicit ideas and information based on the individual’s understanding of their world rather than questions that are derived from the questioner’s conception of it, or indeed from the questioner’s culture, based around the tacit norms and expectations of the questioner’s culture itself. these tools and techniques, sometimes called ‘constrained’, have been widely used in market research, product design and web-site development (and other professional and academic disciplines) because they are easy and robust to administer and analyse, with no sophisticated capacity prerequisites or significant technical or infrastructural overheads. they can be used across language barriers and literacy barriers. the classic example is the rep grid (schweinsberg, darcy & wearing, 2018.) (used for ecotourism) but for our work we intend to explore card-sorts, laddering (rugg & mcgeorge, 2005; miles & rowe, 2004) and q-methodology (hunter, 2014); early relevant work has already been done (butler, 2004; bicksler et al, 2012). our first recommendations would however be card-sorts and laddering, perhaps as preludes to identifying topics for interviewing or surveying or perhaps exploring the understanding or values that might explain survey or questionnaire responses. these would be valuable in uncovering the latent or tacit attitudes to face masks or hand washing in covid-19. card-sorts are a simple, often pictorial, technique that involves individual participants repeatedly sorting a handful of cards and the subsequent analysis reveals underlying mental constructs; laddering, a simple iterative question-and 313 answer technique, then homes in on the participants’ individual value system; these could then be compared across a community for similarity (rugg & mcgeorge, 2005). soft systems methods we feel that the rich pictures of soft systems methods have considerable potential for adaptation. as checkland and poulter (2010) noted, “soft systems methodology (ssm) is an approach for tackling problematical, messy situations of all kinds. it is an action-oriented process of inquiry into problematic situations in which users learn their way from finding out about the situation, to taking action to improve it.” (p. 191) they are visual, non-technical and informal. “the starting point for soft systems is the rich picture. a group is provided with a blank sheet of ‘flip chart’ paper and a set of coloured felt-tip pens, ideally of different colour. what goes into the picture, the form of diagrams, the linkages and colours are entirely up to the group. in effect it provides a tangible (albeit two-dimensional in physical terms) space for the group to discuss, negotiate, share, and hopefully to arrive at a consensus” (bell & morse, 2013, p. 331). this has, we feel, exciting potential in research work across cultures because, “the rich picture used in the soft system methodology, offers a way of global communication that far exceeds the limitations of text and speech. simple graphics can be rapidly communicated, processed and transmitted within a large and culturally diverse constituency” (berg & pooley, 2013, p. 361). practical ‘how-to’ guidance is available (walker, steinfort & maqsood, 2014), derived from use in the field. these simple pictorial techniques may help community members represent the interests, factions and transactions in their communities and have been value in surfacing different perspectives on contentious issues. they might, for example, help expose frictions between women and men in a community, or between subsistence farmers, cash crop farmers and eco-tourism activists especially in their differing attitudes to lockdown, school closure and reduced public transport during covid-19. a similar technique, albeit not derived from ssm, used mainly so far with children in the global north is the “write, draw, show, and tell” (wdst) method (see, e.g., noonan et al, 2016), which allows participants to engage with researchers and each other and the paper in a variety of ways, including drawing, writing or telling stories orally, or any combination thereof, which may lead to greater engagement and veracity, and perhaps deeper understanding for the research team. we see clear potential for this to be moved online during the pandemic, especially supported by video-calling technologies such as webex, zoom or ms teams, in order to keep researchers and participants socially distant and safe. likewise, mannay, lomax and fink (2015) drew together several perspectives on using visual images with remote cultures as, with several caveats, they are seen as having the potential to “evoke emphatic understanding of the ways in which other people experience their worlds” (2015, p. 1). drawing on different studies using sandboxing, collaging and film making in participatory research, they discuss some of the advantages to data collection employing these methods whilst acknowledging the power relations inherent in the processes of design, production and dissemination. whilst these might seem less feasible during a time when people are even more isolated than usual, perhaps there is scope for research into these methodologies as online tools. lupton’s (2020) list of appropriate tools for research in a time of covid-19 has these ideas and more, as we noted earlier. 314 delphi one technique that is extensively used in accessing opinions and views of domain experts (rather than data from research participants) is the delphi technique (brady, 2015; fish & busby, 2005; hasson, keeney & mckenna, 2003; okoli & pawlowski, 2004; rowe, wright & bolger, 1991; skulmoski, hartman & krahn, 2007). as the literature shows, there is considerable experience of online versions and it might be suitable to adaptation for diverse cultures and communities, around some local ‘expertise’, especially as complementary to adaptations of other techniques. delphi can also be combined with card sorts (paul, 2008). delphi sessions would be valuable for building the census amongst experts for local or national decision-making during covid-19. hci4d this branch of human-computer interaction (preece, et al, 1994) specifically addresses the problems and challenges of using digital technology amongst communities and individuals outside the digitally sophisticated global north. this discipline has not focused much on education. hci has focused on formal e-learning (dix, roselli & sutinen, 2008) and conventional “mobile learning” (kumar & mohite, 2018) and principally in the global north. hci4d has developed a range of tools and techniques and devoted some attention to the formats for participative development and co-design. these would be useful for developing apps, perhaps games-based mobile apps, for changing behaviour, for example social distancing at a community level during covid-19, and implicitly developing a more critical stance on external apps. one specific topic in hci4d is ‘indigenous knowledge’ — although its significance is wider than the name suggests and could be read as ‘informal community knowledge’. this is important because there is a distinct literature about research methods for eliciting it and any health education around covid-19 must align with it, must have practices and explanations that make sense within the framework of a community’s indigenous knowledge. there is already work that supports our concerns. the digital divide (see, e.g., beale et al, 2009) has been much discussed in the literature. what is of immediate concern to us when discussing context is that the ubiquity of mobile technologies and widespread connectivity can actually increase gaps in inequality (rasmussen & ihlen, 2017; billon, crespo, & lera-lópez, 2017) rather than the reverse. fuchs and horak (2008) made the case that simple transplanting of technology into marginalised contexts does not magically improve conditions nor encourage sustainable responses. constant advances in technological evolution mean that the disadvantaged remain at least one step behind, so technological infrastructure transferred from elsewhere in one form itself not only reproduces inequality (dimaggio et al, 2004) but imposes new forms of it on people — not just in terms of personally-owned hardware, as unwin (2020) notes, but geographically, too, as urban environments tend to have better connections than rural ones, and the wealthy will always get and use both hardware and network access first and more easily. chetty & grinter (2007a), describe further methodological challenges of working amongst these communities, highlighting some of the key differences between hci in the developed world on the one hand, and in the globalised south on the other. they believe that “recognising and working with these differences is essential for building useable and useful systems” in these regions (2007, p. 2332). as chelsky & kelly (2020) note, excluded communities — which in some areas and societies includes 315 women — almost by definition have less access to technology. this skews data and biases outcomes, and this may be exacerbated during covid-19. whilst discussing women, there is distressing evidence that violence against women and girls (vawg) increases during times such as ebola and now covid-19, with factors such as confinement, health and financial stress, and isolation all increasing the risks. un women and the who (2020,) note that data collection is still vital for understanding the risks and the results of vawg, and for supporting evidence-based policy responses but that it needs to follow some specific rules since digital privacy and confidentiality will be much harder to maintain in close quarters during quarantine or self-isolation with perpetrators of vawg. they conclude that data collection should not take place if there are perceived to be any risks, and that the safety of female participants has to be paramount in all data collection, digital or otherwise (un women, 2020; see also namy & dartnall, 2020). merritt & bardzell (2011) further challenge technology designers and researchers to “face assumptions, cultural communication, and the potential repercussions in cross-cultural design” (p. 1675), as decolonising the language used will enable them to create “responsible, successful designs and create awareness of inadvertent western language culture embedded in hci4d design” (p. 1675) wyche et al (2012) discuss the design of systems and technologies that are specifically aimed at people on the margins, and in emerging and developing economies, noting that, whilst good and proper, this is both insufficient in itself for overcoming problems such as illiteracy and poverty leading, and leading researchers “away from the various ways technology innovation is already happening in developing countries and from understanding how marginalised users appropriate technologies to solve local problems” (p. 28). chelsky and kelly state that, for research during covid-19, whilst technology-enabled tools are excellent at asset verification, they are less useful in other domains, concurring that messages “need to be culturally and linguistically appropriate” (chelsky & kelly, 2020). we have already noted the ubiquity and facility of mobile digital technology, and there is work underway to support illiterate and low-literate users in accessing these technologies (belay, mccrickard & besufekad, 2016). on a study monitoring the ebola crisis, which we see as extremely valid for the covid-19 pandemic, etang & himelein (2016) showed that the “proliferation of mobile phones enables the collection of high-quality data on an almost real-time basis” (p. 15). they concluded that mobile phone interviews are “valuable tools for crisis monitoring” and suggest that “the proactive creation of sampling frames of respondent characteristics and re-contact information would allow for a rapid response to unforeseen crises” (p. 15) such as the present covid-19 situation. soares & giesteira (2015) write of the need for the systematisation of guidelines as “intrinsic for the development of usable and intuitive solutions for developing countries and the aggregation of guidelines help researchers to design solutions faster and in a more efficient manner” (p. 1125). they note that, importantly, “the work derives from partnerships with institutions located in developing countries” and “equally as important as the documentation of guidelines is the generation of new ones, because culture is constantly changing and the guidelines must adapt to these changes” (p. 1125). 316 irani (2010) goes further, showing that hci methods are not culturally universal. she states that “design methods and models of human-computer interaction have been grounded in concepts like interface, efficiency, and psychology – concepts foreign to many of those they engage with. persuasion, evidence, and intervention vary widely globally” (p. 2939). researchers need to ensure that they create “innovative solutions…to monitor environmental, social and conflict-related risks” (chelsky & kelly, 2020) whilst researching during covid-19, and to remain culturally and linguistically sensitive. we return to this point later. moreover, and pertinent to the point we are making here, the changes that covid-19 has wrought and the methodological approaches we should consider adopting, and all of these observations, are borne out of practical researches in the field: in rural south africa where the nearest hci experts were 100 miles away (chetty & grinter, 2007b); in fieldwork with design practitioners in delhi, india (irani, 2010); and belay, mccrickard & besufekad (2016) pulled together disparate field researchers to discuss working with low-literate participants. wyche et al (2012) discuss a number of key innovations developed with and by users from these emerging communities, such as the development of a mobile phone application for microfinance institutions in rural india (parikh et al, 2006) and an evaluation of an interactive voice application that helps indian farmers find relevant agriculture information (patel et al, 2010). another key such development is that of mpesa, the mobile-based money transfer system developed in kenya and empowering changes in, for example, bureti sub county (gikunda, abura & njeru, 2014); women in the fishing industry on lake victoria (white, 2012); east africa breweries distributors in nairobi (thuo, 2014); and micro entrepreneurs in laikipia east sub county (mwangi et al, 2015). working with locals — in every context — and including the most marginalised in that work may prove to be the most powerful methodology of all for generating truly accurate pictures of the situations under study, be that ethiopian adolescents under covid-19 (jones et al, 2020) or a much wider study of young lives (tilford, 2020). as the world continues to combat covid-19 and its impacts, it is people like this — on the ground and able to work in their authentic situations — who can not only provide insight but may generate solutions. so, to conclude, there is potentially much of potential value to digital learning design, research and use in these diverse, marginalised and sometimes overlooked communities. it is also the case that the research may not be perfect – but it might be good enough. rana et al (2020), discussing flood resilience in nepal during covid-19, make the point that, in an ideal world, they would have liked to do things differently but “this is not an ideal world, we cannot meet in person and the urgent need for this information for governments and communities to take action, the time constraints for community members, and technological barriers meant we had to adapt and make the most of the solutions available to us” (online). whist remaining ethically sound, data collection may have to be done however it can be for policymakers to get early access to the facts they need. ict4d and m4d this community embraces researchers, developers and activists and embraces hard digital technology, information systems sciences, development studies, and human geography (unwin & unwin, 2009; 317 kleine & unwin, 2009; heeks, 2017). mobiles-for-development, m4d, is a younger sibling (donner, 2010). like many of the other disciplines here, it hardly embraces learning, seeing it as stuff that must be stored in digital repositories and travel through digital pipes. it is ostensibly culture-neutral in spite of so-called ‘localisation’ and does in reality favour specific, rather obvious, languages, countries, cultures, pedagogies and values (traxler, 2017). nor does it embrace education, except in responding to donors’, agencies’ and ministries’ calls for digital support with ‘system strengthening’, meaning technologies to enable more robust and efficient administration of existing school systems. it has understandably attracted critical attention (pieterse, 2010). of particular relevance and importance is the call for an ict4d 2.0 (heeks, 2008), replacing what might called the ict4d 1.0 of top-down, centre-out development, by analogy with the hierarchic web 1.0, with a focus on empowerment, collaboration and participation, on the flat peer-to-peer producer/consumers of web 2.0, of working not for the poor but with, alongside and amongst the poor (heeks’ word and although he is referring to the poor of the global south we can appropriate it to embrace those of the north, too, the refugees, the homeless for example). these communities and this specific idea of ict4d 2.0 add another richness to our quest for tools, techniques and the values that might underpin them. part of a case we are making for renewed interdisciplinarity is the relative ignorance of some research communities of the most imaginative and exciting research methods in others. this certainly seems true when we look at how education in general and digital learning in particular are understood within those research communities looking at digital technologies in international development. an examination of the outputs and proceedings of the ict4d and m4d conferences bear this out and in africa those of the ist-africa series make a similar point in an african context. this may in part be a reflection on the priorities of the agencies and funders. these seem to focus on initial formal education systems, and on concerns to make these systems function more effectively and efficiently; they focus on scale, sustainability and cost-effectiveness, avoiding the risk of innovating within largely conservative and under-trained post-colonial education management teams and ministries. digital learning if we look at the focus and concerns of the digital learning research community, for example alt_c, the annual conference of the uk association for learning technologyi, iste, the comparable body in the usa (see a recent blogii) and the stellar alpine rendezvous [7] community at the cutting edge of research in tel (technology enhanced learning) across western europe, we can also see clear trends, topics and positions. notwithstanding the obvious national and regional focus and responsibility, and the diversity across these examples, it would still be fair but understandable to discern a preoccupation with western formal education, its institutions, its professionals and its ethos, with technological sophistication and with an implicit consensus in how the western mainstream sees learning, training, schooling and studying. even their own minority communities and languages, for example digital learning for native americans, welsh-language speakers, sami or the roma, seldom feature. these are different from their ‘host’ national cultures and likely to suffer different or greater threats from covid-19. our aspiration is that the research tools and techniques identified here can be adapted and adopted to explore the learning needs of marginalised people and communities in order 318 to develop and deliver learning appropriate to their experiences and expectations of their culture. the potential pedagogies themselves come mostly with a western european cultural baggage and this in turn must be addressed before these pedagogies can exploited, in the current context, to address the change learning needs and affordances during and after covid-19. (traxler, 2019) decolonisation we recognise that there is already a strong and articulate movement for the decolonisation of research (prior, 2007; desai & potter, 2006; simonds & christopher, 2013; sumner, 2006) offering both positions and methods (lambert, 2014), whilst critiquing current practices and institutions (heleta, 2016). these come from different disciplines, not usually from digital learning — some come from ict4d (bidwell & winschiers-theophilus, 2015) and from pedagogy (langdon, 2013). we must not only identify, evaluate, apply and refine these but also analyse their wider relevance across the disadvantaged communities affected by covid-19. recent worked has addressed ‘decolonising the interview research’ in life-story interviews (following vannini & gladue, 2008). a key lesson from west africa is that responders’ unfamiliarity with a local culture can undermine pandemic response. “foreigners working for the un, the red cross and other international organizations were not necessarily the most effective communicators on ebola” (un, 2020). as chelsky & kelly (2020) note, this is because “when people’s lives are threatened, they want to hear from those closest to them—those who speak their language”. they further assert, quite rightly, that in order to help people and projects to adjust to the new covid-19 realities, “both tech-enabled and human data collection and evaluation efforts need to be culturally and linguistically sensitive” (chelsky & kelly, 2020). research ethics reconsidered research tools and techniques cannot be separated from the research ethics that govern how they are deployed but ethics are an intrinsic characteristic of culture; put simply, whilst researchers might strive to ‘do no harm’, the nature of ‘harm’ varies widely across cultures (traxler, 2012; traxler, 2013). a more critical stance might also to ask, ‘whose interests are being served?’ there are already discussions around research ethics (coram, 2011) — and recent work on decolonising research ethics (kruger, ndebele, & horn, 2014) — and on research project governance (bozalek, 2011; binns, 2006) that we see as integral parts of a coherent and principled foundation to decolonised research. so, for example brun & lund (2010) critically explore “the language of ‘participation’ and ‘empowerment’ to create an impression of including all stakeholders in their work.”(p. 813) there is an increasingly strident call for local voices to be heard in policy decisions — for governments to do ‘with them’ and not ‘to them’. this can be seen in the literature on, amongst many others, marginalised communities in india (malhotra et al, 2017); indigenous peoples in australia (robinson et al, 2016); refugees in syria (von bayeur, 2018); and on rural kenya (njagi, 2015). all of these recognise that locality and culture are crucial (traxler et al, 2020), and we reiterate this need for local contextual dynamics to be considered in any decision-making processes. the learning needed to fight covid-19 must be rooted in local epistemologies and knowledge systems but also owned, managed and controlled in a meaningful sense by the learners involved. this, it could be argued, is a moral imperative but is actually more sustainable and effective. 319 conclusions many of these ideas are both generic and speculative. they are generic in that they are not specific to a culture or community. our core axiom that ‘one size does not fit all’ means that each idea must be adapted to each new culture and community. this is of course a methodological paradox since the tools and techniques are intended to increase and improve the understanding of people and communities but the development of such tools and techniques needs exactly that understanding. they are however speculative, certainly not definitive, and represent the starting point for necessarily iterative and incremental development. the missing ingredient that powers the resolution of this paradox must be the people involved and the processes between them that build trust, patience and understanding. some of the barriers are merely physical or objective whilst others allow for intermediaries, increments and iterations and so the process will evolve. covid-19 is helping to unlock the resources and motivation in this process. we hope that researchers will be emboldened and empowered to experiment with some of the methods discussed here, and that they will take to heart the heart the key messages that even imperfect research is better than no research, and that continuing to research at the margins will help these communities and policymakers to make informed decisions. references bell, s., & morse, s. (2013). how people use rich pictures to help them think and act. systemic practice and action research, 26(4), 331-348. beale, r., dearden, a., dray, s., jackson, a., jones, m., kam, m., & winters, n. (2009). human-computer interaction for development (hci4d): who, what, where, when and how. in proceedings of the conference on computer human interaction (chi09). belay, e. g., mccrickard, d. s., & besufekad, s. a. (2016, november). designing mobile interaction for lowliteracy (d-mill). in proceedings of the first african conference on human computer interaction (pp. 251-255). berg, t., & pooley, r. (2013). rich pictures: collaborative communication through icons. systemic practice and action research, 26(4), 361-376. bicksler, a., bates, r., burnette, r., gill, t., meitzner yoder, l., ricciardi, v., & srigiofun, y. (2012). methodologies for strengthening informal indigenous vegetable seed systems in northern thailand and cambodia. acta horticulturae (958), 67. bidwell, n. j. ,& winschiers-theophilus, h., (eds.). (2015). at the intersection of indigenous and traditional knowledge and technology design. informing science press. billon, m., crespo, j., & lera-lópez, f. (2017). educational inequalities: do they affect the relationship between internet use and economic growth? information development, 34(5). https://doi.org/10.1177/0266666917720968 binns, t. (2006). doing fieldwork in developing countries: planning and logistics. in v. desai & r. b. potter (eds.), doing development research (pp. 13-24.). sage publications. birtchnell, t., & urry, j. (2015). the mobilities and post-mobilities of cargo. consumption markets and culture, 18(1), 25-38. doi: 10.1080/10253866.2014.899214 blunt, a. (2007). cultural geographies of migration: mobility, transnationality and diaspora. progress in human geography, 31(5), 684-694. bozalek, v. (2011) acknowledging privilege through encounters with difference: participatory learning and action techniques for decolonising methodologies in southern contexts. international journal of social research methodology, 14(6), 469-484. 320 brace, i. (2018). questionnaire design: how to plan, structure and write survey material for effective market research. kogan page publishers. bradburn, n. m., sudman, s., & wansink, b. (2004). asking questions: the definitive guide to questionnaire design— for market research, political polls, and social and health questionnaires. john wiley & sons. brady, s. r. (2015). utilizing and adapting the delphi method for use in qualitative research. international journal of qualitative methods, 14(5). doi: 1609406915621381 brun, c., & lund, r. (2010). real-time research: decolonising research practices–or just another spectacle of researcher–practitioner collaboration? development in practice, 20(7), 812-826. büscher, m., & urry, j. (2009) mobile methods and the empirical. european journal of social theory, 12(1), 99–116. butler, c. (2004). researching traditional ecological knowledge for multiple uses. canadian journal of native education, 28(1/2), 33-48. checkland, p., & poulter, j. (2010). soft systems methodology. in p. hoverstad & m. reynolds (2020). (eds.), systems approaches to managing change: a practical guide (pp. 191-242). springer. chelsky, j., & kelly, l. (2020). bowling in the dark: monitoring and evaluation during covid-19 (coronavirus). https://ieg.worldbankgroup.org/blog/mande-covid19 chen, j., & neo, p. (2019). texting the waters: an assessment of focus groups conducted via the whatsapp smartphone messaging application. methodological innovations, 12(3). https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2059799119884276 chetty, m., & grinter, r. e. (2007a). hci4d: how do we design for the global south? in user centered design and international development workshop at chi (vol. 28). chetty, m., & grinter, r. e. (2007b). hci4d: hci challenges in the global south. in chi'07 extended abstracts on human factors in computing systems (pp. 2327-2332). cohen, s. a., duncan, t., & thulemark, m. (2015). lifestyle mobilities: the crossroads of travel, leisure and migration. mobilities, 10(1), 155-172. coram, s. (2011). rethinking indigenous research approval: the perspective of a 'stranger'. qualitative research journal, 11(2), 38. https://doi.org/10.3316/qrj1102038 desai, v., & potter, r. (eds.). (2006). doing development research. sage publications. dimaggio, p., hargittai, e., celeste, c., & shafer, s. (2004). from unequal access to differentiated use: a literature review and agenda for research on digital inequality. social inequality, 1, 355-400. https://www.russellsage.org/research/reports/dimaggio dix, a., roselli, t., & sutinen, e. (2006). e-learning and human-computer interaction: exploring design synergies for more effective learning experiences. educational technology & society, 9(4), 1-2. donner, j. (2010). framing m4d: the utility of continuity and the dual heritage of “mobiles and development”. the electronic journal of information systems in developing countries, 44(1), 1-16. edmunds, h. (1999). the focus group research handbook. ntc. etang, a., & himelein, k. (2020) monitoring the ebola crisis using mobile phone surveys. in j. hoogeveen & u. pape (eds.), data collection in fragile states. palgrave macmillan, cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-03025120-8_2 faist, t. (2013). the mobility turn: a new paradigm for the social sciences? ethnic and racial studies, 36(11), 16371646. fish, l. s., & busby, d. m. (2005). the delphi method. in d. h. sprenkle & f. p. piercy (eds.), research methods in family therapy (pp. 238-253). 321 fors, v., berg, m., & pink, s. (2016). capturing the ordinary. imagining the user in designing and using automatic photographic lifelogging technologies. in s. selke (ed.), lifelogging: theoretical approaches and case studies about self-tracking. springer vs. fuchs, c., & horak, e. (2008). africa and the digital divide. telematics and informatics, 25(2), 99-116. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2006.06.004 gatsha, g. (2010). learning support: perceptions and experiences of remote distance learners from marginalised communities in botswana (doctoral dissertation, university of pretoria). gikunda, r. m., abura, g. o., & njeru, s. g. (2014). socio-economic effects of mpesa adoption on the livelihoods of people in bureti sub county, kenya. international journal of academic research in business and social sciences, 4(12), 348. greyling, w., & waitai, k. (2016). articulating a māori educator's pedagogical constructs: a co-constructed account. journal of personal construct theory and practice, 13, 50-56. hague, p. n., hague, n., & morgan, c. a. (2004). market research in practice: a guide to the basics. kogan page publishers. hasson, f., keeney, s., & mckenna, h. (2000). research guidelines for the delphi survey technique. journal of advanced nursing, 32(4), 1008-1015. heeks, r. (2017). information and communication technology for development (ict4d). routledge. heeks, r. (2008). ict4d 2.0: the next phase of applying ict for international development. computer, 41(6), 2633. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/2/4548155/04548169.pdf?casa_token=slh6aipm30aaaaa:ddd_1be_msbu-zl49nthpzhehnhea6n4fks5lds4w6jq9u3uyz7ccvjc7kwizghrxy_3tym5gxulw hein, j. r., evans, j., & jones, p. (2008). mobile methodologies: theory, technology and practice. geography compass, 2(5), 1266-1285. heleta, s. (2016). decolonisation of higher education: dismantling epistemic violence and eurocentrism in south africa. transformation in higher education 1(1), a9. hofstede, g. (2003). cultural dimensions. http://www. geert-hofstede. com, consulta, 13. horley, j. (2012). personal construct theory and human values. journal of human values, 18(2), 161-171. humphry, j. (2014). the importance of circumstance: digital access and affordability for people experiencing homelessness. journal of telecommunications and the digital economy, 2(3), 55.1-55.15. https://search.informit.org/documentsummary;dn=678510832001960;res=ielbus hunter, w. c. (2014). performing culture at indigenous culture parks in taiwan: using q method to identify the performers' subjectivities. tourism management, 42, 294-304. iaquinto, b. l. (2020). tourist as vector: viral mobilities of covid-19. dialogues in human geography 10(2), 174177. doi:10.1177/2043820620934250 irani, l. (2010). hci on the move: methods, culture, values. in chi'10 extended abstracts on human factors in computing systems (pp. 2939-2942). jalil, m. m. (2013). practical guidelines for conducting research. donor committee for enterprise development. jones, n., gebeyehu, y., gezahegne, k., iyasu, a., tilahun, k., workneh, f., & yadete, w. (2020). listening to young people’s voices under covid-19. exploring adolescents’ experiences and priorities in ethiopia under covid19. policy brief. gender and adolescence: global evidence. kelly, g. a. (1970). a brief introduction to personal construct theory. perspectives in personal construct theory, 1, 29. 322 king, r., & christou, a. (2011). of counter-diaspora and reverse transnationalism: return mobilities to and from the ancestral homeland. mobilities, 6(4), 451-466. kleine, d., & unwin, t. (2009). technological revolution, evolution and new dependencies: what's new about ict4d? third world quarterly, 30(5), 1045-1067. kruger, m., ndebele, p., & horn, l. (2014). research ethics in africa: a resource for research ethics committees. sun media. kumar, b. a., & mohite, p. (2018). usability of mobile learning applications: a systematic literature review. journal of computers in education, 5(1), 1-17. langdon, j. (2013). decolonising development studies: reflections on critical pedagogies in action. canadian journal of development studies/revue canadienne d'études du développement, 34(3), 384-399. löfgren, o. (2008). motion and emotion: learning to be a railway traveller. mobilities 3(3), 331-351. lupton, d. (ed.). (2020). doing fieldwork in a pandemic (crowd-sourced document). https://docs.google.com/document/d/1clgjgabb2h2qbdutgfqribhmog9b6p0nvmgvuihzcl8/edit?ts=5e88a e0a# malhotra, a., sharma, r., srinivasan, r., & mathew, n. (2018) widening the arc of indigenous communication: examining potential for use of ict in strengthening social and behavior change communication efforts with marginalized communities in india. electronic journal of information systems in developing countries, 84:e12032. https://doi.org/10.1002/isd2.12032 mannay, d., lomax, h., & fink, j. (2015). scissors, sand and the cutting room floor: employing visual and creative methods ethically with marginalised communities. presented at british sociological association annual conference, glasgow, uk, april 15-17, 2015. martin, m. e., & schuurman, n. (2020). social media big data acquisition and analysis for qualitative giscience: challenges and opportunities. annals of the american association of geographers, 110(5), 1335-1352. doi: 10.1080/24694452.2019.1696664 mcquarrie, e. f. (2015). the market research toolbox: a concise guide for beginners. sage publications. merritt, s., & bardzell, s. (2011). postcolonial language and culture theory for hci4d. in chi'11 extended abstracts on human factors in computing systems, pp. 1675-1680. miles, s., & rowe, g. (2004). the laddering technique. in g. m. breakwell (ed.), doing social psychology research (pp. 305-343). wiley-blackwell. morley, l., alexiadou, n., garaz, s., gonzález-monteagudo, j., & taba, m. (2018). internationalisation and migrant academics: the hidden narratives of mobility. higher education, 76(3), 537-554. morris, j. (2004). locals and experts: the new conservation paradigm in the manu biosphere reserve, peru and the yorkshire dales national park, england. (phd thesis, lancaster university). muenchow, j., schäfer, s., & krüger, e. (2019). reviewing qualitative gis research—toward a wider usage of open-source gis and reproducible research practices. geography compass, 13(6), 1-17. doi: 10.1111/gec3.12441 mukharya, p. (2020) data collection, research and evaluation services across india during covid-19. https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/southasia/2020/05/06/data-collection-research-and-evaluation-services-across-indiaduring-covid-19/ mwangi, g. h., & orwa, b. h. (2015). predictors of acceptance of ‘lipa na mpesa’ mobile payment by micro entrepreneurs: a case of micro entrepreneurs in laikipia east sub-county kenya. science journal of business and management, 3(6), 219. myers, m. (2011). walking again lively: towards an ambulant and conversive methodology of performance and research. mobilities 6(2), 183-201. 323 namy, s., & dartnall e. (2020). knowledge exchange: pivoting to remote research on violence against women during covid-19. the sexual violence research initiative (svri). njagi, k. (2015). how mobile schools are bringing education to girls in rural kenya. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/07/how-mobile-schools-are-bringing-education-to-girls-in-ruralkenya/ noonan, r. j., boddy, l. m., fairclough, s. j., & knowles, z. (2016). write, draw, show, and tell: a child-centred dual methodology to explore perceptions of out-of-school physical activity. bmc public health 16, 326. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-016-3005-1 okoli, c., & pawlowski, s. d. (2004). the delphi method as a research tool: an example, design considerations and applications. information & management, 42(1), 15-29. parikh, t. s., javid, p., ghosh, k., & toyama, k. (2006, april). mobile phones and paper documents: evaluating a new approach for capturing microfinance data in rural india. in proceedings of the sigchi conference on human factors in computing systems (pp. 551-560). park, s. freeman, j., & middleton, c. (2019). intersections between connectivity and digital inclusion in rural communities. communication research and practice, 5(2), 139-155. https://doi.org/10.1080/22041451.2019.1601493 passmore, c., dobbie, a. e., parchman, m., & tysinger, j. (2002). guidelines for constructing a survey. family medicine-kansas city, 34(4), 281-286. patel, n., chittamuru, d., jain, a., dave, p., & parikh, t. s. (2010). avaaj otalo: a field study of an interactive voice forum for small farmers in rural india. in proceedings of the sigchi conference on human factors in computing systems (pp. 733-742). paul, c. l. (2008). a modified delphi approach to a new card sorting methodology. journal of usability studies, 4(1), 7-30. pieterse, j. n. (2010). development theory. sage publications. pink, s. (2015). going forward through the world: thinking about first-person perspective digital ethnography between theoretical scholarship and applied practice. integrative psychological and behavioral science, 49(2), 239-252. preece, j., rogers, y., sharp, h., benyon, d., holland, s., & carey, t. (1994). human-computer interaction. addison-wesley longman ltd. price, r., & price, s. (2017). saamaka dreaming. duke university press. prior, d. (2007). decolonising research: a shift toward reconciliation. nursing inquiry, 14(2), 162-168. rana, b., okura, y., neupane, s., & svensson, a. (2020). carrying out research during lockdown: how to do remote surveys in rural communities. https://floodresilience.net/blogs/carrying-out-research-during-lockdown-howto-do-remote-surveys-in-rural-communities rasmussen, j., & ihlen, ø. (2017) risk, crisis, and social media: a systematic review of seven years’ research. nordicom review, 38(2), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1515/nor-2017-0393 ritchie, h. (2020) google mobility trends: how has the pandemic changed the movement of people around the world? https://ourworldindata.org/covid-mobility-trends robinson, c. j., renwick, a. r., may, t., gerrard, e., foley, r., battaglia, m., ... & walker, d. (2016). indigenous benefits and carbon offset schemes: an australian case study. environmental science & policy, 56, 129-134. rowe, g., wright, g., & bolger, f. (1991). delphi: a reevaluation of research and theory. technological forecasting and social change, 39(3), 235-251. 324 rugg, g., & mcgeorge, p. (2005). the sorting techniques: a tutorial paper on card sorts, picture sorts and item sorts. expert systems, 22(3), 94-107. schweinsberg, s., darcy, s., & wearing, s. l. (2018). repertory grids and the measurement of levels of community support for rural ecotourism development. journal of ecotourism, 17(3), 239-251. sheller, m. (2014). the new mobilities paradigm for a live sociology. current sociology, 62(6), 789-811. sheller, m., & urry, j. (2016). mobilizing the new mobilities paradigm. applied mobilities, 1(1), 10-25. simonds, v. w., & christopher, s. (2013). adapting western research methods to indigenous ways of knowing. american journal of public health, 103(12), 2185-2192. skulmoski, g. j., hartman, f. t., & krahn, j. (2007). the delphi method for graduate research. journal of information technology education: research, 6(1), 1-21. smith, r. j., & hall, t. (2016), pedestrian circulations: urban ethnography, the mobilities paradigm and outreach work. mobilities, 11(4), 497-507. soares, m., & giesteira, b. (2015). hci4d guideline systematization: creation, documentation and evaluation with partners from developing countries. international journal of multimedia and user design & user experience, 26(1), 1114-1128. spinney, j. (2009). cycling the city: movement, meaning and method. geography compass, 3(2), 817-835. sumner, a. (2006). what is development studies? development in practice, 16(6), 644-650. thuo, c. n. (2014). influence of mpesa cashless payments product on the operations of east africa breweries distributors in nairobi county. (doctoral dissertation, university of nairobi). tilford, j. (2020). young lives at work: a revised approach in response to the covid-19 pandemic. blog. young lives, oxford department of international development. traxler, j. (2017). learning with mobiles in developing countries—technology, language and literacy. international journal of mobile & blended learning, 9(2), 1-15. traxler, j. (2016). mobile learning research: the focus for policy-makers. journal of learning in development, 3(2), 7-25. traxler, j. (2013). ictd research – is it about right? observatory for responsible research and innovation in ict. http://www.orbit-rri.org/ethical-issues/ictd-research-is-it-about-right/ traxler, j. (2012). ethics and ictd research. in a. chib & r. harris (eds.), linking research to practice in asia: ict for development research, management and perspectives. idrc. traxler, j., smith, m., scott, h., & hayes, s. (2020). learning through the crisis. https://edtechhub.org/ un. (2020). ebola: some lessons. retrieved from: https://www.un.org/africarenewal/web-features/ebola-somelessons-west-africa un women. (2020). violence against women and girls: data collection during covid-19. https://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/library/publications/2020/vawgdata-collection-during-covid-19-compressed.pdf?la=en&vs=2339 unwin, p. t. h., & unwin, t. (eds.). (2009). ict4d: information and communication technology for development. cambridge university press. urry, j. (2012). sociology beyond societies: mobilities for the twenty-first century. abingdon, uk: routledge. vannini, a., & gladue, c. (2008). decolonised methodologies in cross-cultural research. in liamputtong, p. (ed.), doing cross-cultural research (pp. 137-159). springer. von bayeur, s. l. (2018) “thinking outside the camp”: education solutions for syrian refugees in jordan. ethnographic praxis in industry conference proceedings, issn 1559-8918. https://doi.org/10.1111/15598918.2017.01163 325 walker, d., steinfort, p., & maqsood, t. (2014). stakeholder voices through rich pictures. international journal of managing projects in business, 7(3), 342-361. white, d. (2012). the social and economic impact of mpesa on the lives of women in the fishing industry on lake victoria. independent study project (isp) collection. 1246. wyche, s. p., oreglia, e., ames, m. g., hoadley, c., johri, a., sengers, p., & steinfield, c. (2012, february). learning from marginalized users: reciprocity in hci4d. in proceedings of the acm 2012 conference on computer supported cooperative work companion (pp. 27-28). authors: john traxler frsa, mbcs, afima, miet, is professor of digital learning in the institute of education at the university of wolverhampton. he was founding director of the international association for mobile learning. he is co-editor of mobile learning: a handbook, critical mobile pedagogy, and many other books, keynotes, panels, papers, articles and chapters on all aspects of learning with mobiles. he has worked on many digital learning projects and missions, mostly in england, europe, the middle east and africa for a variety of national and international agencies. email: john.traxler@wlv.ac.uk dr. matt smith predominantly works on mobile and digital learning, particularly in the globalised south and with marginalised communities; digital literacy; and – currently – the use of social media for public health benefits. he co-authored a report for the department for international development's edtech hub on lessons learned to support governments' digital responses to the educational crisis brought on by the covid-19 pandemic. amongst other internationally-collaborative research efforts, matt works in palestine, focusing on developing mobile technologies for supporting the teaching of english; and in brazil, supporting school populations to influence virus control through mobile applications. email: matt.smith@wlv.ac.uk cite this paper as: traxler, j, & smith, m. (2020). data for development: shifting research methodologies for covid-19. journal of learning for development, 7(3), 306-325. i https://www.alt.ac.uk/events/past_events ii https://blog.edgenuity.com/iste-2018-conference/ microsoft word carr.docx issn: 2311-1550 2020, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 326-333 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. the impact of covid-19 on international higher education: new models for the new normal asha kanwar and alexis carr commonwealth of learning, canada abstract: covid-19 has had a major impact on international higher education with border closures, cancelled flights, and a shift to online teaching and learning. as a result, many international students have decided to either abandon or defer their plans to study abroad. if students stay in their home countries, many institutions that rely heavily on foreign students’ fees will suffer, with potential impacts on national economies. beyond the economic implications, it is also important to consider the personal impact of covid-19 on international students, who may face delays or obstacles to program completion, employment and/or immigration. though there are certainly risks and losses in the short term, the demand for international education, and the benefits it offers, are expected to grow. this presents an opportunity for higher education institutions (heis) and governments, not just to lessen the impact of covid-19 on their current business models, but to explore new models and opportunities. heis and governments must look at redefining international higher education for the new normal, which will entail a shift in policies and programmes. this paper outlines the implications of the covid-19 crisis for international higher education and presents potential opportunities for governments and higher education institutions to refresh and redefine their approaches for the new normal. keywords: international higher education, internationalisation, higher education and covid-19. introduction international higher education is only a small part of the higher education sector with just over 2% of students who are mobile. however, according to unesco institute for statistics, there were over 5.3 million international students in 2017 and the numbers continue to grow (uis, 2019). canada’s international student population has tripled over the past decade to 642,000 in 2019, moving the country into third place behind the us and australia (el-assal, 2019). global higher education is also a huge industry valued at usd 65.4 billion in 2019, and projected to reach usd 119.95 billion by 2027 (verified market research, 2020). in 2018 international students in canada spent about $21.6 billion in accommodation and fees, sustaining 170,000 jobs. foreign students also contribute approximately $6 billion a year in tuition to canadian universities and colleges, comprising half of all tuition revenue (global affairs canada, 2019). covid-19 has disrupted international higher education. as a result, an estimated four in 10 students will cancel or defer their plans to study overseas because of the pandemic (qs, 2019). if students stay in their home countries, institutions that rely heavily on foreign students’ fees will suffer. research and stem programmes will be particularly hard-hit, as they are often subsidised by international student fees, and many mid/low ranking universities may face insolvency and collapse (fazackerley, 2020). moreover, studies have shown that declines in student enrolment are associated with declines 327 in gdp in the uk (ahlburg, 2020). as such, despite the relatively small proportion of international students in higher education, covid-19 has the potential to negatively impact entire institutions and national economies. beyond the economic impact it is also important to consider the personal impact of covid-19 on international students. international students are not a homogenous group: they have distinct motivations for pursuing international credentials. wealthier students often seek an international cultural experience and the prestige of a top-class degree, while middle-class students’ priorities link more directly to livelihood opportunities. covid-19 may impact the timeline of academic completion, employment and/or immigration for international students who defer or cancel their studies. those who do continue their studies may be faced with challenges regarding access and the quality of their experience. according to the college crisis initiative at davidson college, less than a quarter of american universities will teach fully or mostly in person spring, 2021, while another quarter are still undecided (cci, 2019). as classes move online, international students will lose out on the cultural immersion and networking opportunities that study abroad offers. those that return home while studying online through a foreign institution may face high internet costs, and inconvenient schedules, all while paying the same tuition fees. given the importance of international higher education from an economic and personal perspective, and the uncertainty of the he landscape in the covid-19 era, it will be necessary to revisit existing definitions and models of international education. is this the time for universities to pivot their business models and look for innovative approaches? what measures can institutions take to not only address the immediate risks posed by covid-19 but to bolster international education and its benefits in the future? international education as a locus of soft power international education is recognised as a significant tool of soft power, which can generate a positive image and increase national influence abroad. colin powell said of higher education in america: “i can think of no more valuable asset to our country than the friendship of future world leaders who have been educated here” (2001). a report by the centre for international policy studies and the munk school of global education presented global education as an immediate and urgent need to strengthen canada’s international power, underlining the importance of an ambitious educational strategy to enhance the country’s influence in international affairs (the study group on global education, 2017) . this is even more pertinent in a polarised world, where international understanding is critical. cultural immersion and the exposure to the values and customs of a host country cannot be easily replicated in a virtual or online format. while travel and face-to-face learning have been limited by the pandemic in the short term, countries must develop innovative and strong policies that promote and facilitate international education, including scholarships, exchanges, and immigration pathways for future graduates. scholarships for international study not only generate lasting goodwill towards a host country but also facilitate intercultural understanding and networking, which are key in strengthening a country’s soft power. for example, the uk invests in commonwealth scholarships, which bring people from erstwhile colonies to study in britain—these become a powerful glue which binds the bloc of 54 countries, and can be a powerful force at international forums. while most of these scholarships are 328 for face-to-face programmes, there is also specific funding for select online programmes, which is particularly relevant for the short-term future in which distance education has become the norm for many (commonwealth scholarships uk, 2020). such programmes can facilitate international study, both in person and online. and these study-abroad opportunities should be encouraged both ways. sending students abroad can foster appreciation of the globalised world and develop the cultural intelligence and cultural quotient of future leaders to successfully navigate this landscape. universities that typically received international students should also consider how they can better integrate international travel opportunities or requirements into degree programmes for domestic students and strengthen mechanisms for sponsored study and exchanges with foreign institutions. more than 58,000 former international students have become canadian permanent residents, and research shows that international students who become residents have excellent economic outcomes; moreover, they often maintain connections with their home country, which has an implication for canada’s status and reputation globally (el-assal, 2019). since the onset of the pandemic, the minister of immigration, refugees and citizenship, canada has made several temporary policy changes to support and reassure international students and learning institutions. the canadian government recently announced a policy that international students who begin their studies online from abroad during the covid-19 pandemic will still be granted postgraduate work permits for an equivalent period (government of canada, 2020). this strengthens the likelihood of successful immigration applications down the road by boosting their canadian work experience. these kinds of immigration policies will be crucial for strengthening international higher education as a locus of soft power, especially in the covid-19 era. international education in flux more than half of international students enroll in six countries: the us, the uk, australia, france, germany and the russian federation (symonds, 2020). currently, more than 50% of canada’s international students come from only two countries: india and china (global affairs canada, 2019). of the 1.1 million foreign students in the us in 2018, 34% come from china alone, representing usd 11 billion in fees (symonds, 2020). however, covid-19 will disrupt these patterns, as more students opt to stay closer to home. a recent survey of high school counsellors in china reported that 87% of students and parents are reconsidering plans for studying in the us (wan, 2020). as a result of covid-19 the priorities of learners and their families have changed, and in fact, even prior to the pandemic they were starting to shift. geopolitical factors, along with increasingly restrictive immigration policies, unrest and gun violence may have taken away some of the shine from american institutions, where a growing number of international students are looking for alternative options. countries can leverage their reputations, amid shifting priorities, to emerge as preferred destinations for international students. a survey of indian students found that the three key factors that determined their choice of destination were safety, employability and reputation (qs-i gauge, 2020). similarly, a canadian bureau for international education study found that international students choose canada due to the high quality of education, as well as its reputation as a tolerant and safe country (2018). targeted campaigns that promote destination countries, based on these factors, could help to seize a market in flux. moreover, there is an opportunity for countries that were traditionally ‘senders’ of international students to become host destinations, though this requires strategic planning. for example, in india the new national education plan aims to transition the country from 329 being a ‘sender’, to becoming a retaining and, eventually, a destination country for students in the region, a prospect boosted by the covid-19 pandemic (ministry of human resource development, government of india, 2020). while shifting hierarchies present an opportunity for countries like canada and india to capture major markets, it will also be important for institutions to attract learners from diverse countries. between 2017-2019 the country with the largest increase in international students in canada was morocco (58%) followed by the philippines (54%) (canadian bureau of international education, 2019). these emerging markets will be key as heis look to attract more learners. students from africa, with a young population, a median age of 19, and a rapidly rising middle class, have preferred to go to europe and the us (schulman, 2017); they could be an important new constituency for countries like canada but this will require a proactive approach. governments and heis will need to develop more diverse student recruitment strategies to reduce their dependence on single countries and leverage a positive reputation to capture a shifting market. new models for the new normal though online learning has become mainstream as a response to the covid-19 pandemic, it is predicted that international students will continue to seek overseas experience at foreign campuses (qs, 2019). what kinds of models might emerge that can balance mobility restrictions and concerns with the demand for international experience? as heis were forced to shift to distance and online learning during covid-19 lockdowns, we have seen how important distance education is for the resilience of higher education. distance learning allows students to study without coming to campus. for international students this means that they could, ostensibly, earn a canadian credential from their own country — an option that may become more mainstream in the covid-19 and postcovid-19 periods. open universities (ous), like canada’s athabasca university, already offer countless online programmes and courses, from short continuing professional development courses, to full-fledged doctoral degrees. these ous, and other institutions offering online degrees, have a tremendous opportunity to attract international students who can complete a foreign degree online, from their home country. however, many international students enroll in foreign institutions because they want the international experience and the pathways to employment and immigration that this experience affords them, so it is unlikely that online education will replace campus-based instruction entirely. as such, universities should look at hybrid programmes that allow partial completion through distance education along with a period of on-campus study. overseas branch campuses could be an alternative model. by reducing market proximity, branch campuses could offer quality international education while reducing the need for travel. for example, rmit university, based in australia, has two branch campuses in vietnam, that cater to learners in asia who may not want or be able to relocate to australia for study. these branch campuses provide an opportunity for students to experience ‘internationalisation at home’. for face-to-face instruction, heis will also need to consider how they can accommodate more students to increase their revenues. by extending hours (i.e., more early morning, evening, and weekend classes) and offering blended options, heis will be able to cater to more students while maintaining small class sizes, often a quality marker for prospective learners and their families. in any of these models, flexibility and agility will be crucial as institutions must be able to adapt to changing realities and regulations. 330 facilitating mobility in the covid-19 era another important development in the wake of covid-19 will be the expansion and facilitation of credit transfer, so that learners can transfer credits from an institution in their home country towards a credential in another country. credit transfer, even within the same country, can be challenging due to overly complex processes, ambiguous policies, or a lack of clear guidelines. students may lose credits when they transfer from one institution to another, which may prevent them from transferring, or lead to increased costs or delayed graduation (logue, 2017). qualifications frameworks are important tools to facilitate mobility between countries with different education systems and qualifications. improved articulation agreements between universities and transnational qualifications frameworks will be required to promote mobility of students in the wake of covid-19. col’s initiative the virtual university for small states of the commonwealth, has developed a transnational qualifications framework (tqf) which facilitates international credit transfer. officially launched in 2010, the tqf allows millions of potential learners to access internationally recognised programmes through a simple process, helping learners and workers that move between countries. internationally, there have been efforts to enhance mobility and recognition of credentials through the unesco global convention on the recognition of qualifications concerning higher education 2019, which was adopted in november 2019, only a few months before covid-19 was declared a pandemic. the global convention will now be open to ratification by interested unesco member states, and if ratified, it will facilitate student mobility and support international cooperation for recognition of higher education qualifications (unesco, 2019). as new business models for higher education emerge, and as prospective students’ and their families’ priorities shift, it will be important to facilitate mobility. vocational training and informal learning universities have always had a ‘third mission’ to address societal needs and market demands but this mission has taken on renewed importance in the context of covid-19 and its economic fallout. the ilo has warned that globally 25 million jobs could be lost due to the covid-19 pandemic (2020). driven by the common understanding that education can lead to economic benefits, citizens often enol in education or training to boost their chances of finding employment or to enhance their income generating opportunities. the institute of fiscal studies has shown that 80% of students gain financially from attending university — so when the need for economic growth is the greatest (during recessions and economic downturns), we may see an even greater demand for education in order to improve livelihood prospects (drayton & waltman, 2020). moreover, as some occupations and industries lose relevance and others emerge as essential, there will be a need for extensive reskilling to meet labour market needs. even in occupations which are not affected by closures or mass layoffs, upskilling will be required. the economic recession caused by covid-19 presents an opportunity for heis to develop a new, complementary niche that fulfills the emerging demand for livelihood skills. through their experience and expertise heis can deliver both academic qualifications as well as more skills-based, vocational, or ‘practical’ learning to both domestic and international students. this provides an enhanced revenue stream, aided by the growth of blended and online learning, which captures different demographics, such as older adults. at the same time this approach increases access to desperately needed education and training for a changing labour market, which can aid national economic recovery. 331 heis will need to develop international partnerships and offer flexible pathways and approaches to address the needs of older adults. shorter, online, or blended courses will become important for flexible training, which can award micro-credentials that can be stacked towards larger credentials. australia is moving in this direction at a national level, offering funding for short online courses in areas deemed national priorities to “enable people, rather than bingeing on netflix, to binge on studying” (the economist, 2020, n.p.). online education providers, like coursera, have already carved out a niche for themselves in this area. in partnership coursera and the commonwealth of learning are offering free licenses to thousands of unemployed commonwealth citizens through the workforce recovery programme. the programme, designed to skill and reskill citizens of commonwealth member states for livelihoods, held its first ‘virtual convocation’ in august to celebrate the more than 3,000 learners in africa who earned certificates through the programme. tech companies, from microsoft to amazon, are also getting in on this model, offering online training in specific skill areas linked to labour market needs. not only do these kinds of short courses offer flexible options for skills development, they also help build necessary soft skills like resilience, self-directed learning, and time management, which are applicable to a range of economic and social activities. universities must look at ways of tapping into this opportunity as the demand for skills training increases in the economic aftermath of covid-19. conclusion covid-19 has disrupted international higher education. in a pre-pandemic world, international education offered important benefits to learners in terms of cultural experience and economic opportunities; to institutions, as a major source of revenue; and to governments as a locus of soft power. though there are certainly risks and losses in the short term, the demand for international education, and the benefits it offers will continue to grow. meeting this demand in the face of the complex challenges presented by covid-19 will require a new definition of international higher education, and innovative hybrid models. these new models could become disruptive innovations and gain market footholds beyond the pandemic. crises stimulate disruptive innovations, and during times of crisis, disruptive innovations move more rapidly from margin to mainstream. therefore, the covid-19 pandemic presents an opportunity for governments and heis to develop and fast-track the adoption of disruptive models of international education that offer creative and sustainable solutions for the post-pandemic world. there is an opportunity for governments to value and position higher education as a national asset. international students contribute to the economy in terms of fees to institutions and benefits to the services sector. the diverse body of students who decide to become residents help make the economy more dynamic and innovative, while those who return to their home countries become permanent ambassadors. governments can develop enabling policies and regulations to promote internationalisation, offer incentives to attract students from a wide range of countries and ensure that more of the home students have opportunities for studying and working abroad. canada’s international educational strategy 2019-2024 and interim provisions made during covid-19 are good examples. international education should be linked to national policies of foreign affairs and trade and governments must provide an enabling environment for immigration and employment. the covid-19 pandemic offers institutions the opportunity to revisit their business models. as more students now accept online learning, there is an opportunity to build hybrid models that can reduce 332 costs and provide more flexibility. reliance solely on the revenues generated by incoming foreign students may not work in the future. institutions need to take a much more proactive approach to establishing their presence in other countries and strengthening national and international partnerships. branch campuses, twinning arrangements and hybrid provision could be some of the ways forward for international education. student mobility should be facilitated through frameworks and agreements to recognise credentials internationally. covid-19 has also called into question whether threeor four-year degrees are essential pathways to livelihoods. shorter programmes, like those offered by private providers, present a more viable option for persons wishing to enter or reenter the work force. in addition to offering traditional qualifications, universities need to re-package, unbundle and think creatively about offering stackable micro-credentials. moreover, since the youth population is stagnating in many countries, it is important for universities to re-cast their mandate as a provider of lifelong learning, which is also well prepared to cater to the ‘third age’. the new normal will entail a re-definition of international education and the emergence of innovative models that can increase access and equity, lower costs, and enhance the quality of education for an interconnected and networked world. references ahlburg, d. a. (2020). covid-19 and uk universities. the political quarterly, 91(3), 649-654. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1467-923x.12867 the canadian bureau of international education. (2019). international students in canada. https://cbie.ca/infographic/ the college crisis initiative at davidson college. (2019). covid-19 data dashboard. https://collegecrisis.shinyapps.io/dashboard/ commonwealth scholarships uk. (2020). commonwealth distance education scholarships. http://cscuk.dfid.gov.uk/apply/distance-learning/ drayton, e., & waltman, b. (2020). will universities need a bailout to survive the covid-19 crisis? ifs briefing note bn300. institute for fiscal studies. https://www.ifs.org.uk/uploads/bn300-will-universities-needbailout-survive-covid-19-crisis-1.pdf the economist. (2020, august 8). the absent student: covid-19 will be painful for universities, but also bring change. el-assal, k. (2019). 642,000 international students: canada now ranks 3rd globally in foreign student attraction. cic news. https://www.cicnews.com/2020/02/642000-international-students-canada-now-ranks-3rd-globallyin-foreign-student-attraction-0213763.html#gs.fp4yvm fazackerley, a. (2020, april 24). loss of international student fees could decimate uk research. the guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/apr/24/loss-of-international-student-fees-could-decimate-ukresearch global affairs canada. (2019). building on success: international education strategy 2019-2024. https://www.international.gc.ca/education/strategy-2019-2024-strategie.aspx?lang=eng government of canada. (2020). measures to support international students during the covid-19 pandemic. https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/news/2020/07/measures-to-supportinternational-students-during-the-covid-19-pandemic.html international labour organization. (2020, march 18). covid-19 and the world of work: impact and policy responses. ilo monitor (1st ed.) https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/-dcomm/documents/briefingnote/wcms_738753.pdf 333 logue, a. w. (2017). pathways to reform: credits and conflict at the city university of new york. princeton university press. ministry of human resource development, government of india. (2020). new education policy. https://www.mhrd.gov.in/nep-new powell, c.l. (2001). statement on international education week 2001. us government archive. qs. (2019). the impact of the coronavirus on prospective international students. retrieved fromhttps://www.qs.com/portfolio-items/the-impact-of-the-coronavirus-on-prospective-internationalstudents/ qs i-gauge. (2020). indian students’ mobility report 2020: impact of covid-19 on higher education choices. https://www.igauge.in/news/2020/5/mobility-report-2020 schulman, p. (2017). african student mobility: regional trends and recommendations for u.s. heis. world education news and reviews. https://wenr.wes.org/2017/03/african-student-mobility-insights-andrecommendation-for-u-s-heis the study group on global education. (2017). global education for canadians: equipping young canadians to succeed at home and abroad. https://munkschool.utoronto.ca/a-global-education-report-urges-canada-to-send-morepost-secondary-students-to-learn-abroad/ symonds, m. (2020). can international higher education survive covid-19? forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattsymonds/2020/06/22/can-international-higher-education-survive-covid19/#510f08c6a6d0 unesco. (2019, november 25). global convention on the recognition of qualifications concerning higher education 2019. http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php url_id=49557&url_do=do_topic&url_section=201.html unesco institute of statistics. (2019). education: outbound internationally mobile students by host region. http://data.uis.unesco.org/index.aspx?queryid=172 verified market research. (2020). higher education market by user type (state universities, community colleges, private colleges), by type of courses (arts, economics, engineering, law, science, & others), geographic scope and forecast. https://www.verifiedmarketresearch.com/product/global-higher-education-market-size-and-forecast-to2025/ wan, x. (2020) chinese students wary of studying in the united states. international higher education, no. 1010, spring 2020, 26-27. retrieved from https://www.internationalhighereducation.net/apiv1/article/!/action/getpdfofarticle/arti cleid/2886/productid/29/filename/article-id-2886.pdf authors: professor asha kanwar, one of the world’s leading advocates of learning for sustainable development, is the president and ceo of the commonwealth of learning. throughout a career spanning over 40 years, she has made outstanding contributions in the areas of teaching, research and international development. email: akanwar@col.org alexis carr is the monitoring and evaluation manager for the commonwealth of learning. she supports col in the areas of project management, research, and monitoring and evaluation. she has authored or co-authored numerous publications and peer-reviewed articles based on col’s research. email: acarrr@col.org cite this paper as: kanwar, a., & carr, a. (2020). the impact of covid-19 on international higher education: new models for the new normal. journal of learning for development, 7(3), 326-333. msoka developing and piloting interactive physics experiments for secondary schools in tanzania vidate c. msoka, joel s. mtebe, mussa m. kissaka, and ellen c. kalinga vol. 2, no. 1 abstract students in secondary schools in tanzania have been facing difficulties in conducting laboratory experiments. this has been due to the acute shortage of laboratory facilities and poor teaching methodologies. consequently, students perceive science subjects as unattractive, difficult and irrelevant to understanding the world around them. an interactive physics experiment was developed and piloted in two schools with 157 students to investigate whether interactive experiments can be used as an alternative to physical experiments. results show that students found the interactive experiment was easier and more efficient, and, therefore, can be used as an alternative to physical experiments. introduction the current failure rate and lack of interest among students in science subjects in secondary schools is a serious problem in our society (siabeycius & poicin, 2012). students encounter numerous difficulties when learning science subjects. these subjects require students to engage in collaborative learning, problem solving, and to conduct intensive laboratory practical experiments. nonetheless, students tend to learn mechanically, memorizing facts without gaining true understanding (schauer, ožvoldová, & lustig, 2009). it becomes even more difficult when they are required to learn how to conduct practical experiments. at the moment, science experiments are conducted in laboratories with assistance from teachers and laboratory technicians. teachers perform experiments by following step-by-step instructions, and demonstrating physical principles with various apparatus while students passively observe (schauer et al., 2009). in schools where laboratories and/or apparatus are not available, teachers use chalk and blackboards to explain the laboratory work in the classrooms. in both cases, teachers tend to over-emphasize theoretical concepts that are not explicitly linked to practice (stutchbury & katabaro, 2011). due to an acute shortage of laboratories, poor teaching methodologies, and other challenges, students perceive science subjects as unattractive, very difficult, tedious, incomprehensible, boring, and irrelevant to understanding the world around them (siabeycius & poicin, 2012; wieman & perkins, 2005). consequently, students have lost interest in taking these subjects at the higher levels of education (speering & rennie, 1996). experiments play a key role in the teaching of science subjects as they allow students to observe phenomena, test hypotheses, and apply their understanding of the physical world (chiaverina & vollmer, 2005). it has been observed that the number of students dropping science subjects in secondary schools, especially physics, in tanzania has increased significantly. for instance, 74% of students dropped physics in 2010 compared to 54% who dropped biology and 60% who dropped chemistry (mabula, 2012). similarly, the pass rates in physics in secondary schools in tanzania remained very low. for example, the pass rate in physics was 26.3% in 2008 and dropped to 13.7% in 2011 (moevt, 2012). the poor performance in science subjects and continuing dropouts have triggered the government of tanzania and other stakeholders to find various alternatives to make these subjects more interesting and understandable while reducing the failure rates (beauchamp & parkinson, 2008). it is believed that information and communication technologies (icts) can play a crucial role in overcoming the problem (siabeycius & poicin, 2012). as a result, the government of tanzania has been improving ict infrastructure and establishing relevant policies that promote the integration of ict in education. the most notable efforts include the implementation of the national ict backbone, the development of national ict policy (urt, 2003), and ict policy for basic education (moevt, 2007). the national ict backbone has reduced telecommunication costs (swarts & wachira, 2010) and increased internet speed up to 155mbps (lwoga, 2012). the government also exempted all value added tax (vat) on ict facilities (sife, lwoga, & sanga, 2007) as well as cutting mobile phone interconnection charges by 69% (itu, 2013). despite these initiatives, the application of ict to enhance education, especially in secondary schools, is still limited. speaking at the conference for science and technology organized by tanzania commission for science and technology (costech) in 2010, the president of the united republic of tanzania emphasized the utilization of ict to develop and share quality teaching aids and textbooks (mabula, 2012). in line with this call, under this study an interactive experiment was developed that will be used by students to enhance their competencies in conducting physics experiments. experiments are very important in the teaching of science subjects as they give students an opportunity to have direct contact with natural phenomena. more specifically, experiments can motivate students, provide concrete examples of complex concepts, increase understanding of technical apparatus, and verify predictions, theories or models (chiaverina & vollmer, 2005). so far, studies to enhance science experiments in secondary education, especially in developing countries like tanzania, are limited. in this study, an interactive physics experiment was developed and piloted to 157 students from canossa secondary school and loyola high school in dar es salaam. out of 157 students, 57 had not performed a similar experiment in a laboratory before. the study aimed at investigating whether interactive experiments could be used as an alternative to physical experiments. the simple pendulum experiment was used as a case prototype, and was made available via the internet and compact discs (cd) for students to access. with this experiment, the students are expected to gain understanding of the concept of gravitational force and be able to determine acceleration due to gravity “g”. theoretical background the use of computer animations to develop educational resources, famously known as “interactive content”, is regarded as a promising instructional strategy for enhancing science education (beauchamp & parkinson, 2008; chien & chang, 2011). interactive content is a dynamic representation that can be used to make complex processes explicit to the learner (rosen, 2009). it can be used to present difficult concepts in the subject (peeraer & petegem, 2010), and enhance students’ understanding of basic and complex concepts (voogt, 2003). since interactive content is characterized by interaction (aloraini, 2012), it is well suited for demonstrations and simulations that can be used as an alternative to experiments conducted in face-to-face settings. this is because, interactive content presents information through visual and/or auditory channels via multiple formats, such as graphics, on-screen text and narrations (lin & atkinson, 2011). these experiments can support students with different learning styles, for example, those who prefer video or those who prefer audio (mtebe & twaakyondo, 2012). several studies have demonstrated the usefulness of interactive experiments in various contexts. for instance, rieber (1990) developed an interactive experiment to describe newton’s law of motion using both static and animated graphics. the author found that participants in the animated graphics scenario had a better understanding of the concepts and rules of newton’s law than those participating in the static graphics scenario. similarly, yang et al. (2003) found that participants demonstrated better understanding of chemistry concepts when using interactive experiments. schauer et al. (2009) developed a comprehensive interactive experiment—“the inte-l”—that consisted of electromagnetic induction, oscillations and photovoltaics. these three experiments demonstrated the usefulness of interactive experiments in enhancing students’ mastery of experiments. other studies that have demonstrated how interactive experiments can be used to enhance student learning include ones in cell biology (stith, 2004), histology (brisbourne, chin, melnyk, & begg, 2002), molecular chemistry (falvo, 2008), and mathematical concepts (taylor, pountneya, & malabara, 2007). students can repeat these experiments as much as they want at any time and thus maximize learning time. teachers in schools with an acute shortage of apparatus and laboratories can also use them to show and demonstrate experiments in classrooms that would not otherwise be possible in face-to-face settings. generally, appropriate use of interactive experiments can potentially reduce significantly the current students’ dropouts and failures in physics and other science subjects in secondary schools in tanzania. the interactive experiment a simple pendulum experiment was developed based on a 3-tier architecture to give the user full control over the experiment as well as to enable it to run in real time. the prototype of the experiment was developed using action script. two physics teachers and two students from two different schools reviewed and recommended some improvements before finalizing the prototype. coding was done to create the variables and buttons to be used, such as play, pause and reset buttons and to add an event listener to the buttons so that they could respond when clicked. the pause and reset buttons were made invisible while the play button is visible. the bob was then made and given a position at which it will appear on the screen. a stick was made for one of its ends to hold the bob while the other end is fixed. figure 1 shows the view of the developed pendulum experiment. figure 1: experiment to determine acceleration due to gravity, “g” at the beginning of the experiment, the student sets the parameters of the string length, angle, air friction and bob mass. thereafter, the play button is clicked and immediately the user starts the stopwatch while counting the oscillations. for this particular experiment, the student has to count up to 10 oscillations. after ten oscillations, he/she will immediately stop the stopwatch and record the time taken for the pendulum bob to swing at that particular length. the student have to repeat this procedure five times and calculate the average time for the same length and then repeat the same procedure for different lengths. the collected data will be filled in the sample table as shown in table 1. table 1. experimental data collection form string length l (cm) time t for 10 oscillations (sec) period t = (t/10) (sec) t2 (sec2) 10 30 50 70 the time t recorded on the table is the average time obtained after repeating the same procedure for the same length. the period t of one oscillation is thereafter calculated, after which t2 is determined. the values of l, t, t and t2 are recorded in a table. the above-mentioned procedure is replicated for different values of l, for example, 70 cm, 50 cm, 30 cm and 10 cm at a constant bob mass, angle and air friction. after that, the values of t2 (y-axis), against l (x-axis) are plotted on a graph to obtain its slope, as a result of which the gravitational acceleration, g, will be calculated with the si units of length being in metres. research methodology research design and data collection data was collected using both quantitative and qualitative research techniques from students. the schools were selected on the basis of convenience. the main criterion being the presence of computing facilities at a given school. the study adopted the questionnaires and semi-constructed interview data collection tools. students were given an e-experiment to test with sample data for two days. the experiment was left in the computer lab and, after some instructions, students were left to test and use it independently. the same copy of the experiment on cds was distributed to students. after two days, students were asked to fill in the questionnaire and return it to their teachers. out of 250 questionnaires distributed to students, 157 students completed and returned the questionnaire. the response rate was 62.8%. qualitative measures were considered to usefully supplement and extend the quantitative analysis. students were asked to provide their general comments and opinion about the interactive experiment and if such experiments could be used in the future. these were collected through semi-structured interviews with selected students. the data collection was undertaken between february 2014 and april 2014. data management and analysis was performed using statistical package for the social sciences (spss) version 20. demographic information the demographic information indicates that, there were 157 students who participated in the study with 55% being males and 45% females. nearly two thirds (66.9%) of students were from canossa secondary school and one-third (33.1%) of them were from loyola high school. moreover, 86 students were in form iii while 71 were in form iv of the ordinary level of education in tanzania. figure 2 shows respondents’ demographic information. figure 2: respondents’ demographic profile research results prior computer knowledge and skills the use of interactive experiment requires students to have some prior knowledge and skills of related technologies. therefore, respondents were asked to indicate whether they had used computer games, played music on computer and used a stopwatch before. they were also asked to indicate whether they had conducted the pendulum experiment before. the study revealed that the majority of students (97%) had played computer games, 96% had played music on a computer, and 85% had used a stopwatch before. furthermore, more than two-thirds (64%) of students indicated that they had conducted the pendulum experiment in the laboratory before. however, 36% of students had not conducted this experiment in the laboratory before. figure 3 shows the distribution of respondents based on prior computer experience. figure 3: prior computer knowledge and skills students had not conducted the experiment before as shown in figure 3, 36% of students who performed the interactive experiment had not conducted the same experiment in the laboratory before. we were interested to find out whether the explanations provided in the experiment were satisfactory and whether students were able to understand how to perform the experiment. the majority of respondents (89.5%) indicated the instructions were clear and that they were able to conduct the experiment without any guidance. however, 10.5% said the instructions were not adequate. finally, respondents were asked to rate the level of difficulty of the interactive experiment in a 5-point likert scale. the results revealed that the majority of students found the experiment easy (42.1%) or very easy (42.1%) as shown in figure 4. figure 4: level of difficulty of the interactive experiment ease of use of the interactive experiment developing an attractive, aesthetic and easy-to-use experiment is key to help students perceive an experiment as being effective. furthermore, if the interactive experiment is not easy to use, students will spend more time learning how to use it rather than learning how to conduct experiments (falvo, 2008; lanzilotti et al., 2006). therefore, respondents were asked to describe the level of ease of use of the interactive experiment on 5-point likert scale [1 = very difficult, 2 = difficult, 3 = no opinion, 4 = easy, 5 = very easy]. the overall response to this question was very positive. the majority of respondents (80%) indicated that the interactive experiment was easy to do, with 32% indicating it was easy and 48% indicating it as very easy (figure 5). figure 5: level of ease of use of the interactive experiment ability to use the interactive experiment independently after testing the interactive experiment for two days, respondents were asked to indicate if they could do it without help from the developer or the teachers. the majority of respondents (84%) said ‘yes’, while only 16% of the respondents said they could not use the experiment without help. general comments and suggestions finally, students were asked to provide their general comments and opinion about the interactive experiment and if such experiments could be used in the future. the majority of students commented that the interactive experiment was more accurate, easier, enjoyable and efficient than the laboratory experiment. moreover, they pointed out that doing interactive experiments give them another opportunity to learn computer skills. here are some of their comments: “it’s better than normal experiments because there is much time and you don't need very many apparatus as in the lab.” “doing the experiment online gives someone the capacity of understanding than just learning theoretically, so we should get use of that to increase our understanding capacity.” “online experiments are faster than laboratory experiments, so i would like to do more online experiments than in the laboratory.” “online experiments give more challenges than the one in the laboratory since students do it individually and practically.” “it is very interesting and makes me develop new different knowledge, skills in using computer and at the same time as doing experiment.” “it is easier and it requires less time compared to the real practical.” some students worried that one needs computer skills to be able to conduct such experiment. many students in secondary schools in tanzania do not have computer skills; therefore, it would be very difficult to deploy such kinds of experiments in many schools in the country. similarly, one student was skeptical about such experiments and stated “…they are not beneficial because no apparatus is seen by the student to understand and learn”. some students had specific comments related to the interactive experiment itself. for example, one individual stated “the stopwatch should be on the computer so as to avoid errors in recording time by manual stopwatch”. and another commented, “the pendulum experiment does not consider the deceleration factor of the bob. but online experiment is easier to do”. discussion this case study aimed at investigating whether interactive experiments can be used as an alternative to physical experiments and, therefore, overcome the existing shortage of laboratories and apparatus in secondary schools in tanzania. an interactive simple pendulum experiment was developed and piloted with 157 students. the findings from this study revealed that interactive experiments could be used as an alternative to physical experiments. students found the simple pendulum experiment was easier, more enjoyable, and more efficient than the laboratory experiments. the present findings seem to be consistent with other research conducted previously (brisbourne et al., 2002; falvo, 2008; mtebe & twaakyondo, 2012; stith, 2004; taylor et al., 2007). for example, mtebe and twaakyondo (2012) found courses developed using animations and simulations enabled students to grasp difficult concepts more easily in a study conducted with 108 students at the university of dar es salaam in tanzania. similarly, falvo (2008) reported that students found conducting biochemistry experiments using animations was easier and faster than physical experiments. the most interesting finding emerging from this study was that even students who had not done a similar experiment before in the laboratory were able to do it without guidance. more than 80% of students who had not conducted the same experiment previously described the experiment as easy and possible to do without guidance from teachers. this implies the possibility of conducting interactive experiments with new students, especially in schools with an acute shortage of laboratories, apparatus and teachers. this study has come at the time when the moevt has introduced ict curricula for secondary schools and teachers education, coupled with continued improvement of ict infrastructure in the country. many secondary schools continue to be equipped with computers and the internet. the price of ict equipment and mobile devices is becoming affordable to the majority of people in the country. therefore, students can easily access these experiments via mobile devices anywhere and any time. suggestions for future research despite these findings, our study is subject to at least three main limitations. first, our study used a single experiment, i.e., a simple pendulum experiment (due to time constraints). future research could include more than one experiment and compare the findings from multiple experiments to gain more understanding of the usefulness of interactive experiments in enhancing science subjects. second, our case study relied on students as respondents. although students are the key stakeholders in the use of interactive experiments, other important stakeholders, such as school management and teachers, were not considered. more research is needed to better understand the perceptions of these stakeholders to get a wider picture of the use and usefulness of these experiments. for instance, teachers might be asked if they could adopt and use these experiments in face-to-face classrooms. third, the schools involved in the study were selected from those with computer facilities. more research on this topic needs to be undertaken in schools without computer facilities, especially those located in remote areas in tanzania. such studies will enable researchers to find out if these experiments can be used with students who have not done similar experiments and who do not have computer skills. finally, another possible area of future research would be to compare the validity of data obtained from interactive experiments and physical experiments. in our case study we did not do such comparison due to time constraints, and the design considered the environmental wind condition to be zero so ther conclusions the failure rate of science subjects in secondary schools in tanzania is alarming. for many years now, the government of tanzania and other stakeholders have been finding various ways to alleviate this problem. studies have consistently described how the appropriate use of ict can overcome the challenges facing students to learn science subjects. as demonstrated in this case study, interactive experiments can be used in schools with a shortage of laboratories and/or apparatus. teachers can also use these experiments to demonstrate various experiments in the classrooms. however, it may be noted that interactive experiments cannot replace real laboratories. students need to have hands-on skills using real equipment. interactive experiments can be used as a substitute and/or a support in cases where there is inadequate laboratory equipment. though interactive laboratory experiments cannot fully replace physical experience, they are better for students than learning experiments only using theory. acknowledgements the authors would like to thank the students and teachers from canossa secondary school and loyola high school who willingly agreed to participate in this study. references aloraini, s. (2012). the impact of using multimedia on students’ academic achievement in the college of education at king saud university. journal of king saud university languages and translation, 24(2), 75–82. doi:10.1016/j.jksult.2012.05.002 beauchamp, g., & parkinson, j. (2008). pupils’ attitudes towards school science as they transfer from an ict-rich primary school to a secondary school with fewer ict resources: does ict matter? education and information technologies, 13(2), 103-118. doi:10.1007/s10639-007-9053-5 brisbourne, m. a., chin, s. s., melnyk, e., & begg, d. a. (2002). using web-based animations to teach histology. anat rec, 269(1), 11-19. chiaverina, c., & vollmer, m. (2005). learning physics from the experiments. retrieved from http://www.girep2005.fmf.uni-lj.si/dwreport/dwb.pdf chien, y.-t., & chang, c.-y. (2011). comparison of different instructional multimedia designs for improving student science-process skill learning. journal of science education and technology, 21(1), 106-113. doi:10.1007/s10956-011-9286-3 falvo, d. (2008). animations and simulations for teaching and learning molecular chemistry. international journal of technology in teaching and learning, 4(1), 68-77. itu. (2013). tanzanian govt may cut mobile fees by 69% to drive competition. retrieved from this url. lanzilotti, r., ardito, c., costabile, m. f., informatica, d., bari, u., & angeli, a. de. (2006). else methodology : a systematic approach to the e-learning systems evaluation. learning, 9, 42-53. lin, l., & atkinson, r. k. (2011). using animations and visual cueing to support learning of scientific concepts and processes. computers & education, 56(3), 650-658. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2010.10.007 lwoga, e. (2012). making learning and web 2.0 technologies work for higher learning institutions in africa. campus-wide information systems, 29(2), 90-107. doi:10.1108/10650741211212359 mabula, n. (2012). promoting science subjects choices for secondary school students in tanzania: challenges and opportunities. academic research international, 3(3), 234–245. moevt. (2007). ict policy for basic education. dar es salaam, tanzania. moevt. (2012). report and analysis of the results. dar es salaam, tanzania. mtebe, j. s., & twaakyondo, h. m. (2012). developing and using animations and simulations to teach computer science courses: the case of university of dar es salaam. in 2012 international conference on e-learning and e-technologies in education (iceee) (pp. 240-246). lodz, poland: ieee. doi:10.1109/icelete.2012.6333383 peeraer, j., & petegem, p. van. (2010). factors influencing integration of ict in higher education in vietnam. in proceedings of global learn asia pacific (pp. 916-924). penang, malaysia: aace. retrieved from http://www.editlib.org/p/34284. rieber, l. p. (1990). using computer animated graphics in science instruction with children. journal of educational psychology, 82(1), 135-140. rosen, y. (2009). the effects of an animation-based on-line learning environment on transfer of knowledge and on motivation for science and technology learning. journal of educational computing research, 40(4), 451-467. schauer, f., ožvoldová, m., & lustig, f. (2009). integrated e-learning – new strategy of cognition of real word in teaching physics. in innovations 2009 (usa), world innovations in engineering education and research ineer. retrieved from http://www.ises.info/old-site/clanky_pdf/schauer_intel_fin.pdf siabeycius, j., & poicin, d. (2012). how ict can enhance the attractiveness of mathematics and physics in primary school. problems of education in the 21st century, 50, 101-107. sife, a. s., lwoga, e. t., & sanga, c. (2007). new technologies for teaching and learning : challenges for higher learning institutions in developing countries. international journal of education and development using information and communication technology (ijedict), 3(2), 57-67. speering, w., & rennie, l. (1996). students’ perceptions about science: the impact of transition from primary to secondary school. research in science education, 26(3), 283-298. doi:10.1007/bf02356940 stith, b. j. (2004). use of animation in teaching cell biology. cell biol educ, 3(3), 181-188. doi:10.1187/cbe.03-10-0018 stutchbury, k., & katabaro, j. (2011). tessa secondary science : addressing the challenges facing science teacher-education in sub-saharan africa . conference item. in deta conference. maputo, mozambique. retrieved from http://oro.open.ac.uk/31541/2/61e1b686.pdf swarts, p., & wachira, e. (2010). tanzania: ict in education situational analysis. global e-schools and communities initiative. retrieved from http://www.gesci.org/assets/files/knowledge centre/situational analysis_tanzania.pdf taylor, m., pountneya, d., & malabara, i. (2007). animation as an aid for the teaching of mathematical concepts. journal of further and higher education, 31(3), 249-261. doi:10.1080/03098770701424975 urt. (2003). national ict policy. dar es salaam, tanzania. retrieved from http://www.mot.go.tz/images/uploads/national_ict_policy_2003.pdf voogt, j. (2003). consequences of ict for aims, contents, processes, and environments of learning. in curriculum landscapes and trends (pp. 217–236). springer netherlands. doi:10.1007/978-94-017-1205-7_13 wieman, c., & perkins, k. (2005). transforming physics education. physics today, 58(11), 26-41. doi:10.1063/1.2155756 yang, e., andre, t., greenbowe, t. j., & tibell, l. (2003). spatial ability and the impact of visualization / animation on learning electrochemistry. international journal of science education, 25(3), 329-349. vidate c. msoka department of computer science and engineering (cse), university of dar es salaam. e-mail: vidatem@yahoo.com joel s. mtebe department of computer science and engineering (cse), university of dar es salaam. e-mail: jmtebe@gmail.com mussa m. kissaka department of electronics and telecommunication engineering (ete), university of dar es salaam. e-mail: mkissaka@yahoo.com ellen c. kalinga department of computer science and engineering (cse), university of dar es salaam. e-mail: ellenakchale@yahoo.com microsoft word ferreira.docx issn: 2311-1550 2022, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 394-419 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. gender equality and women’s empowerment capacity building of organisations and individuals damodaram kuppuswami1 and frances ferreira2 1social development consultant 2acting director: skills, at col, burnaby, canada abstract: to ensure its partners have the capacity to implement gender responsive projects, col introduced an online training programme on gender equality and women’s empowerment. this paper reports the methodology and results in measuring the efficacy of this online training at individual and organisational levels. the ability of individuals and organisations to plan and implement transformative actions with a gender perspective require adequate knowledge, skills and a change in attitudes. given this need, the commonly used knowledge, attitude, skills (kas) model was used to measure the efficacy of this online training at individual and organisational levels by defining different dimensions of capacities with three learning domains — cognitive, affective, psychomotor (bloom’s taxonomy). the baseline and the end line of kas at the individual level on the six core gender capacities was established for comparison. two questionnaires were designed to assess the learning achievements of the participants and to measure the efficacy of the training. an analysis of the study registers a clear trend of positive outcomes at the individual level regarding improved knowledge, attitudes and skills on gender equality that could be applied in their work. furthermore, the paper reports that the organisations demonstrate an enabling environment for more gender equal policies, structures and practices and proposes ways to convert the success of this training by integrating it into the broader gender equality strategy of these organisations. keywords: learning outcomes, gender equality, women empowerment, training effectiveness, knowledge attitude and skills, synchronous and asynchronous, iterative process, communities of practice. introduction the commonwealth of learning (col) is an inter-governmental organisation that promotes ‘learning for sustainable development’ using open, distance and technology-based approaches. its programmes are guided by commitment to a quality education and lifelong learning for all, skills development for sustainable development, and gender equality and inclusion. capacity-building of partner organisations and individuals to deliver effective programmes has been one of col’s key roles. col designed an online capacity-building intervention on gender equality and women’s empowerment to impart the necessary knowledge, attitudes and skills to enable individuals and organisations to implement programmes effectively towards achieving gender equality (un women, 2016). the study on the efficacy of this online training assumes significance in informing col’s practice in any future gender training interventions designed to enable communities and partner organisations to effectively implement commitments towards gender equality and women’s empowerment (undp, 2007). 395 literature review pedagogic assumptions among the more popular theories of learning, the choice of constructivist theory for this capacity building on gender equality and women’s empowerment was informed by understanding its three core elements. first, constructivism is guided by the principle that learning occurs when learners are actively involved in interpreting and constructing their perspective of new knowledge gained based on their individual experience and previous knowledge. second, it considers that learners (partner organisations and their staff in this case) bring with them their reserves of experience. third, it believes that the mind has a vital role in learning in bridging environmental stimuli and learners’ responses (harasim, 2012). within this learning paradigm, cognitive constructivism fosters critical thinking and focuses on enabling learners to modify their existing knowledge to accommodate the new information. this requires following a pedagogy that allows learners to reflect on situations, encourages discovery, enables construction of meaning from their experience and requires demonstration of their learning (serhat, 2021). further, it emphasises behavioural and cognitive processes as critical learning elements and key to successful learning. most online learning theories have been derived from the major learning theories. there are important insights for online learning that are extensively used for adults in continuing education programmes. malcom knowles (1998) posited that courses designed for adults should tap into their social contexts and experiences. bransford, brown and cocking (1999) showed that effective learning environments are framed within the convergence of four overlapping lenses: community, knowledge, learner, and assessment. these lenses provided the foundational framework for building an online education theory based on the facilities that the internet offers about each of the four lenses. a carefully crafted and professionally researched online training design requires a methodology that improves the training return on investment (roi) and individual knowledge retention. blending with the pedagogical purpose model posits that instruction is not simply about learning content or skill but also supports students socially and emotionally. reflection can be incorporated as a powerful pedagogical strategy with activities that require learners to reflect on what they learn and to share their thoughts to extend and enrich reflection (picciano, 2017). the goal of all training programmes is to enhance performance. un women (2016) defines the importance of training in gender equality to the broader gender equality agenda as: a transformative process that aims to provide knowledge, techniques and tools to develop skills and bring changes in attitudes and behaviours. it is a tool and strategy to effect individual and collective transformation towards gender equality through acquiring knowledge and skills necessary for advancing gender equality in their daily lives and at the workplace. training effectiveness measures the impact of training on the trainees and their organisations in terms of knowledge, skills and performance. kirkpatrick’s (2006) four-level training evaluation model is one of the proven models for measuring training effectiveness. the four levels are reaction (participants’ satisfaction with the training), learning (knowledge and skills acquired during the training), behaviour (changes due to training or knowledge transfer back on the job) and impact (difference made in the performance or the results driven by the work). there is enough research to support the 396 intrinsic relationship between individual and institutional change. clearly defined objectives help both teachers and learners to measure training effectiveness, understand the progress, and identify recurring themes or patterns and potential to implement across the board. pedagogy and structure of the course the design of this course was informed by a capacity needs assessment (conducted in september 2020) that identified six gaps based on the previous knowledge and experience of individuals and organisations. a review of the gender capacity assessment and development guide (consultative group on international agricultural research — giar, trans international and international livestock research institute — ilri, 2015) and gender assessment framework and tools (international labour organisation — ilo and food and agriculture organisation — fao 2015) has further guided the structure of the course. it dealt with knowledge, attitude and skills/practices (kas/p) in those six core capacities. the curriculum, through six modules, aimed to address the structural aspects and power relations that perpetuate gender inequality. it contributed to knowledge advancement on concepts linked to gender equality, human rights and women’s empowerment. this was extended to examine public policies and budgets in addressing gender inequality and introduced a gender transformative development perspective to engage in broader processes of social change. gender equality concepts capacity refers to recognising the gender dynamics within a context, understanding gender and equality, acknowledging the barriers to gender equality and practicing gender-sensitive actions. this module included four elements: • key gender concepts. • concept of gender equality and global norms. • concept of women’s empowerment. • approach and perspective for action. women’s human rights capacity entails knowledge of women’s human rights and associated protocols, acknowledging the opportunities and barriers to equality of rights and harnessing the legal instruments to uphold advancement of women and girls. it dealt with three elements: • recognition of women’s rights as human rights. • international instruments on advancement of women – cedaw and beijing pfa. • accountability to provisions. the concept of power refers to understanding the intrinsic link between gender inequality and power and its adverse influence on social institutions, decision making and development outcomes. the capacity relates to the commitment to the transformation of gender relations and stimulating women’s leadership and women’s empowerment. this module looked at: • power and its forms of expression. • feminist approach to power. • women’s empowerment. 397 gender analysis and strategic planning refer to understanding the tools, the capacity to design and conduct gender analysis within a given context and the application of gender analytical tools and frameworks in strategic planning and networking to inform programmes and influence policies relevant to the context of gender equality. it focused on the following elements: • gender analysis and tools. • strategic planning for promoting gender equality: o gender mainstreaming strategy. o gender advocacy technique. o gender-responsive budgeting technique. gender concerns in humanitarian crises refers to knowledge of vulnerabilities and capacities in times of crises, understanding how gender roles, inequalities and identities shape and influence those vulnerabilities and capacities disproportionately with widening disparities. it also includes recognising the practices for gender-responsive recovery plans and the need to address their potential risks in further deepening gender inequality. this module included two elements: • vulnerabilities in humanitarian crises. • response and recovery measures for humanitarian crises. gender-responsive programming capacity contains understanding the realities of women’s inequalities, designing gender-responsive programmes to address those issues and mainstreaming gender in policies and structures. this capacity also refers to skills in fostering progressive changes in gender relations, engaging with various stakeholders for such social transformation, and tracking the progress of those changes with gender-sensitive monitoring. this module included the following elements: • analysing poverty with a gender lens. • designing rights-based approaches. • engaging men and boys in promoting gender equality. • determining development outcomes and impact. • tracking progress of gender equality with gender sensitive m&e. the pedagogical approach guided this online learning with an empowering methodology that provided opportunities for participants to experience the knowledge construction process and embed their learning in a realistic context. • course material with detailed lesson notes and powerpoint presentations of each module were shared with the participants before the session to encourage the first level of exposure to the new knowledge. • training content was supported by an instruction process that encouraged a critical reflection on power relations and existing inequalities. it included powerful messages on equality concepts and gender issues through video clips from the un ambassador, the champion of the 398 heforshe movement, un human rights functionaries and globally recognised gender professionals. further, the two global events on human rights day (december 10) and 16 days of activism against gender-based violence (november 25 –december 10) held during the training period were capitalised to reinforce the content. • exercises in the middle and at the end of each module allowed participants to reflect on their learning. often this was practised as group exercises paving the way for cross learning and any gaps in understanding were addressed. • assignments for each module provided hands-on application of concepts and strategies appropriate to the local context and which could be integrated in daily work. there was a total of ten (10) assignments that provided an opportunity for the participants to apply their new knowledge to their personal life and in their daily work. • structured mid-course feedback from participants in the training focussing on its value in their future work, the scope for improvement and the observed gaps, was valuable to monitor and continuously improve the delivery of training. this training was implemented for six (6) weeks between november 2020 and january 2021. it was followed up with nine (9) organisational workshops (january – february 2021) to review the participants’ work on the ten (10) assignments that formed an integral part of the course design. the entire course was conducted with the help of a subject matter expert. an interrupted or slow internet connection was a challenge in some countries. the online training was followed up with sharing the recording of zoom classes, so that those trainees, who have jobs that clash with the class, could catch up. research questions the study sought to answer the following questions about the course: • did the training on gender equality and women’s empowerment positively impact the participants’ knowledge, attitude and skills on core gender equality capacities? • did the effectiveness of this online training increase the scope for application of new knowledge and skills in the daily lives of participants and future work of the organisations? • what lessons could be drawn from this training experience for future training? methods the ability of individuals and organisations to plan and implement transformative actions with a gender perspective requires adequate knowledge, skills and a change in attitudes. given this need, the commonly used kas model was found to be most helpful in measuring the efficacy of this online training at individual and organisation levels by defining different dimensions of capacities within three learning domains — cognitive, affective, psychomotor (bloom’s taxonomy in paul, 1985). this has guided specifying — the knowledge dimension as a cognitive understanding of concepts and objectives relating to gender equality; the attitude dimension as internalising or believing the need for change, and the skills dimension as the application of knowledge into practice towards achieving gender equality. the baseline and the end line of knowledge, attitude, skills (kas) at the individual 399 level on the six core gender capacities was established for comparison. the questionnaire was the choice for collection of data due to two factors. first, it is the most common tool to assess gender training and second, it is simple, quick and easy to administer despite its weakness in response (un women, 2016). two questionnaires were designed to (a) assess the learning achievements of the participants and (b) measure efficacy of the training. the questionnaires, using survey monkey, were shared online with all training participants. description of the participants the training covered the col’s gender initiative partners across nine (9) countries from four (4) regions — africa, asia, caribbean, and pacific. a total of 110 staff (79 women and 31 men) have participated from eleven (11) organisations, including both frontline and management levels. in the baseline 56 women and 28 men, while 47 women (africa 12, asia 18, caribbean 3, pacific 14) and 27 men (africa 8, asia 18, caribbean 1) in end line participated in the survey. the same people who attended the training responded in baseline and endline surveys. given the pandemic situation, we considered this a reasonable representation of the trainees and so good enough to draw a generalisation of the findings. description of the instrument the questionnaire on learning achievements consisted of 66 kas/p statements spread across the six core capacities the training has imparted. the 66 statements were equally distributed to three dimensions — knowledge, attitude and skills/practices. these statements were constructed concerning the learning objectives that state “the participants will be able to define gender equality, recognise women’s rights as human rights, become aware of unequal gender power relations and its social dynamics, integrate gender perspective in development work and monitor progress with a gender lens using gender-sensitive indicators”. the questionnaire design on training efficacy included the four-level evaluation model – satisfaction, learning, behaviour, and impact. satisfaction was collected from the perceptions of participants on the relevance of the training curriculum (course content), quality of methodology (facilitation, tools and learning material) and the use of various means for review of learning. each of these three was measured on a 3-point scale and provided the impressions the training left on individuals. learning was measured from kap acquired by the participants, and the outcome of the first questionnaire was considered to reflect this aspect. behaviour was considered from changes in the ability of participants to apply the acquired kas in their work environment. this was measured from the confidence of individuals to transfer the new knowledge and skills in their work on a 3-point scale and from the scope of organisational support mechanisms (organisation culture or supervisor follow-up) to foster this knowledge transfer. the impact was considered from the effect that application of kas after the training has at individual and organisation levels. the scores of these four levels reflect the capacities and skills of individual staff in linking the learning in more explicit ways to broader processes of social change. given the timeframe, the focus was on the immediate impact regarding the difference training has made in their personal relations and workplace. description of analysis the post-training survey data was tabulated by each statement, and then averages for kas for the six core capacities were calculated. this took note of the ‘agree’ responses to negative statements and 400 ‘disagree’ responses to positive statements. the results were analysed and reported with both quantitative and qualitative dimensions. descriptive statistics with the measures of frequency was used for the analysis with simple frequencies and arithmetic percentages. the trends have been presented using a histogram (learning achievements) and pie charts (training effectiveness). pie charts show the aggregated data for all four regions. findings and discussion as per the research questions mentioned, the findings are presented in three sections: • achievement of learning outcomes. • efficacy of the online training. • lessons learnt. achievement of learning outcomes gender equality concepts the post-training score presents a clear progressive trend (at least two-fold) in kas levels of individuals across all four regions and among women and men. however, it records a gender disparity, with men’s scores registering lesser than women’s (table 1 and figure 1). there is now clarity in understanding gender equality as a human right and the difference between equality and equity in a gender context. the respondents can acknowledge the differential playing field between women and men and are positively disposed to affirmative actions for compensating those disparities. they believe that gender constructs are changeable and are willing to challenge unjust power relations and negative stereotypes to transform gender relations. however, understanding the building blocks of gender inequality and not equating authority and leadership to masculinity seems to remain divergent and suggests the need for a more focused input or critical reflection. these findings resonate with experiences of other training programmes on gender equality for teachers. the trained teachers showed an increase in their knowledge about gender issues, a decrease in their beliefs that gender differences are unchangeable and an increase in acknowledging diversity (kollmayer et al., 2020). the international professional learning programme recorded a powerful influence on the teachers by creating a new mindset among them for changing their professional practice toward a social issue and challenging their current beliefs, values and practices (klibthong & agbenyega, 2018). table 1: kap/s on gender equality concepts by region and sex region baseline/pre training score (%) post-training score (%) knowledge attitude practice knowledge attitude practice w men w men w men w men w men w men africa 44 33 31 22 25 11 89 86 89 71 78 71 asia 44 33 33 22 22 11 88 79 82 78 76 71 caribbean 35 nr 30 nr 20 nr 80 80 90 80 80 80 pacific 45 nr 39 nr 28 nr 85 nr 85 nr 77 nr nr = no respondents; w = women 401 figure 1: core competence – gender equality concepts – preand post-training women’s human rights there is a substantial increase in all three dimensions of women’s human rights among female and male participants. post-training, they demonstrate knowledge that women’s rights are an inalienable and indivisible part of human rights. there is now an understanding of cedaw and beijing pfa as international instruments for advancing womens’/girls’ rights. they have become aware of the specific provisions to eliminate gender discrimination and the government’s legal obligation to ensure equality of rights. this trend is noticed across all regions, with a relative difference and a noticeable gap between women and men (table 2 and figure 2). on the other hand, most of them recognise that neglect of women’s rights is a human rights violation, believe in women’s freedom of choice in all matters concerning them and show commitment to stand up against gender injustice. they are positive about actively accessing legal spaces to hold the state accountable for fulfilling cedaw provisions and undertaking public campaigns to challenge cultural practices that discriminate against women and girls. however, there is a significant gap in the overall practice dimension, including a divided response to shared responsibility for household chores and sexual and reproductive behaviour. nonetheless, research suggests higher ka levels indicate greater potential for an increase in practice, and these women and men register more than 70% in knowledge and attitude levels. these results are coherent with the evidence from the literature. after participating in a human rights education programme, the women reported that their husbands’ attitudes changed positively, physical abuse ended completely, and their influence on decisions within the family increased 402 (altinova et al., 2016). in the girls inspire initiative that addressed the root causes concerning the issues of gender equality, the vulnerable young women, who took part in the capacity development, have demonstrated confidence to challenge issues concerning their basic rights and gained abilities to make informed decisions concerning their health, marriage, education and other entitlements (mnubi, 2020). table 2: kap/s on women’s human rights by region and sex region baseline/pre-training score (%) post-training score (%) knowledge attitude practice knowledge attitude practice w men w men w men w men w men w men africa 37 22 31 22 25 11 89 71 89 71 89 57 asia 33 22 22 11 17 11 82 71 82 71 76 64 caribbean 25 nr 25 nr 20 nr 80 85 85 85 80 70 pacific 39 nr 33 nr 28 nr 85 nr 85 nr 77 nr nr = no respondents; w = women figure 2: core competence – women’s human rights – preand post-training concept of power the overall trend in kas on the role of power in gender inequality and on the scope of transforming such power relations registers a huge improvement among women and men across all regions. however, the skills dimension has recorded a lower response than knowledge and attitude (table 3 and figure 3). there is greater awareness at the individual level of the intrinsic link between gender inequality and power relations in society and its influence on decision-making and development 403 outcomes. most of them demonstrate an understanding of the role of social institutions in shaping gender and reproducing power relations between women and men and the intersectionality of gender with other forms of discrimination. the participants acknowledge that power is inherent in everyone and recognise the expression of ‘power with’ in fostering solidarity for gender equality. they express their commitment to challenging the illegitimate ‘power over.’ on the other hand, there is a positive disposition to practice women’s empowerment with a human rights-based approach and in the agency of people to challenge the unjust gender relations in society. there is a willingness to engage in strategic gender needs and to review class oppression and women’s subordination in modes of production for transforming power relations both in private and public realms. however, the response to the practice dimension is much more divided in the case of respondents from asia and the pacific and among african male members. the literature also acknowledged the potential discrepancy in responses between women and men and among both on transforming power relations due to their social acceptability bias (garrisondesany et al., 2021). a study of gender training in ngos that work at the grassroots examined its effectiveness in altering the equations of power, both within and in institutions, enabling women staff to discover the power within themselves and raising awareness among male staff (murthy, 1998). another study on the impact of gendered power relations in hrd indicated that the experiences of female and male respondents regarding the exercise of power reflected the gendered contexts of power (hanscome & cervero, 2003). table 3: kap/s on concept of power region baseline/pre-training score (%) post-training score (%) knowledge attitude practice knowledge attitude practice w men w men w men w men w men w men africa 31 22 25 11 19 11 89 86 89 71 78 57 asia 28 11 22 11 17 11 94 78 82 71 76 64 caribbean 25 nr 25 nr 20 nr 90 90 90 90 85 85 pacific 33 nr 28 nr 22 nr 92 nr 85 nr 77 nr nr = no respondents; w = women 404 figure 3: core competence – concept of power – preand post-training gender analysis and strategic planning the post-training scores present increased levels of kas, which assume a huge value given the critical role of gender analysis in achieving gender equality. this is a positive foundation since the baseline of knowledge and proficiency in this core capacity was extremely low (table 4 and figure 4). the participants show explicit knowledge of the scope of gender analysis tools to examine the underlying causes of gender inequality and plan actions to deal with them. there is increased awareness of gender mainstreaming as a strategy for gender equality and the need to integrate the concerns and experiences of women and men in policies, programmes and practices. further, they gained an understanding of gender advocacy to influence legislative reforms that provide the legal foundation for actions on gender equality. however, the awareness of gender budgeting as a technique for gender equality is lower compared to other aspects. the participants are committed to advocating key gender equality issues. they agree to equal participation of women and men in leadership and decision-making and recognise the contribution of women’s unpaid care work for economic advancement. however, some percentage of respondents still is apprehensive about valuing women’s unpaid care work. the participants are positive to practice designing and conducting gender analysis for strategising gender equality programmes and influencing policy processes with a gender perspective that integrates the real needs of women and men. they consider addressing gender strategic needs that challenge women’s subordinate position and advocate for gender-responsive budgeting to achieve gender equality. 405 the literature corroborates these findings on the learners’ achievement from training. an online course on gender-based analysis plus offered to civil servants has noticed their effectiveness and outcomes in programmes. the communities of practice shared and exchanged at their annual conferences also confirmed such outcomes (status of women canada, 2012). further, the results of moser’s framework present the implications of regular gender analyses for development effectiveness. it also acknowledged the crucial role that the learners’ understanding of the distribution of workload and gender power relations at the household level could play in targeting innovations and services, uncovering the intersectionality of gender with other axes of inequality and increasing their ability to reach out to target population that could contribute to poverty reduction (balgah et al., 2019; sally theobald, 2017). table 4: kap/s on gender analysis and strategic planning region baseline/pre-training score (%) post-training score (%) knowledge attitude practice knowledge attitude practice w men w men w men w men w men w men africa 25 11 19 11 13 10 89 71 89 71 89 57 asia 28 11 22 11 17 10 88 78 82 71 76 64 caribbean 25 nr 20 nr 10 nr 90 90 90 90 80 80 pacific 28 nr 22 nr 17 nr 85 nr 85 nr 76 nr nr = no respondents; w = women figure 4: core competence – gender analysis and strategic planning – preand post-training 406 gender concerns in humanitarian crises overall, kas scores present a two-fold increase in recognising the disproportionate impact of humanitarian crises on women, girls and other vulnerable groups and the priorities in response and recovery plans (table 5 and figure 5). there is an increased knowledge that the vulnerabilities and capacities of communities in humanitarian crises vary by context and intersectional identities. increased awareness of the consequences of humanitarian crises for women in restraining their economic independence and decision-making was also noticed among the participants. most of them consider capitalising on the positive opportunities arising from the crises to influence new policies for redistribution of unpaid care work within the household and public sphere. however, the response to ‘rights-based solutions’ and women’s economic independence as a core priority in recovery plans remain diffused across regions and sex. the literature confirms these learning objectives. the virtual gender in humanitarian action course states that the participants will be able to use their knowledge and skills in integrating gender into humanitarian action with improved targeting of the most vulnerable people (ocha, 2016). gender leadership training in the humanitarian sector can enable personal transformational changes among trainees to put gender equality and women’s rights at the heart of humanitarian action, positive practices to save more lives and livelihoods and attitudes to promote an equal balance of power between women and men (oxfam, 2017). studies by un women (2015 a, b) demonstrated the impact of gender equality programming on a wide range of humanitarian interventions. they found significant evidence of improving access to and use of services, increasing effectiveness and inclusiveness of humanitarian outcomes and reducing gender inequalities. table 5: kap/s on gender concerns in humanitarian crises region baseline/pre-training score (%) post-training score (%) knowledge attitude practice knowledge attitude practice w men w men w men w men w men w men africa 37 22 31 11 25 11 78 71 78 71 78 71 asia 39 22 33 11 28 11 76 71 76 64 76 64 caribbean 40 nr 25 nr 25 nr 80 80 80 80 70 80 pacific 44 nr 39 nr 28 nr 84 nr 77 nr 69 nr nr = no respondents; w = women 407 figure 5: core competence – gender concerns in humanitarian crises – preand post-training gender-responsive programming post-training kas scores on this core capacity indicate an upward movement (from an extremely low knowledge and proficiency) across all four regions and among women and men in integrating a gender perspective in development programmes (table 6 and figure 6). the respondents registered a substantial increase in their knowledge of feminisation of poverty and the human rights-based approach. there is an increased awareness of integrating the gender perspective to analyse and address the gendered violation of human rights, women’s strategic gender needs and challenging existing gender power relations. however, the latter two aspects of the knowledge dimension register a relative difference across regions. the participants acknowledge that denial of human rights is caused by structural factors and recognise men and boys as allies in achieving gender equality. most of them demonstrate commitment to empowering women against unjust gender relations and monitoring gender transformative changes. however, these changes in attitude are relative across the regions. on the other hand, the respondents are positive about practicing gender-transformative programming to address the underlying causes of gender inequality and foster progressive changes in power relations between women and men. they consider development work to address the capacity of people to assert their human rights and fundamental freedoms. the response to these practices is strong across regions and sex. however, there is a docile response to engaging men and boys to deconstruct gender roles and to act in gender-equitable ways. the above findings are consistent with the literature on evidence-based gender equality programme models successfully tested in at least 22 developing countries. this presents the transforming ways of 408 engaging men and boys on gender equality and encouraging them to challenge the negative gender stereotypes (usaid, 2021). such intervention holds promise to reconfigure gender roles, foster positive behaviour changes in caregiving and household labour and promote responsibility for the reduction in gender-based violence. the literature also revealed that gender blind extension services and training did not transform or challenge learners’ world views, including the perception of gender norms and roles. virtual capacity building on gender-transformative programming for canadian organisations articulates that the participants will be confident to use concepts related to gender equality, design and execute gender transformative approaches, and use accountability tools (canadian partnership for women’s and children’s health — canwach, 2020). another training on integrating gender into hiv/aids reveals that the participants will be able to reflect on unequal power relations, how gender inequalities increase vulnerability, identify institutional and personal barriers in addressing gender inequalities, link gender, sexuality and human rights, and engage men as partners (world health organisation — who, 2009). table 6: kap/s on gender responsive programming region baseline post-training score knowledge (%) attitude (%) practice (%) knowledge (%) attitude (%) practice (%) w men w men w men w men w men w men africa 31 22 25 11 19 11 89 86 89 71 78 71 asia 33 22 28 11 17 11 82 79 76 71 70 64 caribbean 25 nr 10 nr 10 nr 90 90 90 90 80 80 pacific 33 nr 28 nr 22 nr 84 nr 77 nr 69 nr nr = no respondents; w = women 409 figure 6: core competence – gender responsive programming – preand post-training efficacy of online training in gender equality satisfaction all the seventy-four respondents (74) have rated the training curriculum as either relevant (24%) or most relevant (76%). the reasons for this rating (from 67 respondents) were that the inputs were timely, met their capacity needs and addressed the knowledge gaps. the content was easy to understand, appropriate to the context and helpful in realising equal rights for women and men. they expressed that the training has widened their knowledge and provided a holistic understanding of gender issues and approaches to tackle them. they are able to link the concepts of gender equality and women’s empowerment to work at the community level and to work on the gaps in policies and practices. some respondents considered it a wake-up call to mainstream organisation’s work on gender issues. on the other hand, the quality of methodology was rated as either engaging (48%) or most engaging (52%). the reason for this rating (from 61 respondents) was that it was participatory and interactive, and guided by adult learning principles. it helped challenge their understanding and reinforced the learning from training. the feedback during and after each session encouraged the active participation of trainees and provided them with an opportunity to express their views. the material was learnerfriendly, and the powerpoint presentation was shared earlier to each session to introduce them to the topic. they acknowledged that the synthesis of inputs done by the trainer at the end of each session could improve their clarity and refresh their learning. the respondents considered using digital platforms for learning a great idea. 410 most respondents rated the efficacy of methods positive (only 2-8% rated low). the videos helped strengthen the inputs, while the exercises allowed reflection on critical elements of the topics taught. the respondents claimed that the assignments helped them gain greater clarity on gender issues, a deeper understanding of the current situation and gaps in government response (policies and programmes). it provided them with an opportunity to review official reports to the cedaw committee (mozambique 2007, malawi 2015, tanzania 2016, sri lanka and bangladesh 2017, guyana and pakistan 2018, png 1995), national policies (national education policy — 2015 malawi, 2019 pakistan, national gender policy – mozambique and tanzania, national plan of action to prevent violence against women and girls for 2017-22 tanzania, policy to prevent abuse against girls under sixteen — guyana, national girls’ education strategy 2014-18 malawi) and public budgets. in some cases, the report to the un cedaw committee was compared and contrasted with a study by oxfam (sparc) or an analysis by a local newspaper (cmes) and referred to the analysis of the national budget by a local budget advocacy group. the staff acknowledged becoming more aware of formal spaces available to promote gender equality and could reflect on the deprivation women in leadership positions face in exercising their autonomy and power. this exposure seems to have reinforced their commitment to reach out to communities and to apply the learning in the local context. “training was beyond theoretical constructs – assignments have provided an ability to think of the issues out of box – gained deeper insights and helpful for use in development programmes” — participants from yapo, africa “looked back at our work and gained greater insights at the individual as well as institutional level on gender equality and its linked challenges” — participants from cmes, asia. “comprehensive in nature and required research that contributed to more awareness and sharing and learning from each another” — participants from ycg, caribbean these satisfaction levels are coherent with other training experiences in the literature. in an empowerment-based training for gender equality in global health leadership, on average, women and men reported higher than moderate satisfaction with learning from the training (yount et al., 2019). the trainees in austria, finland, greece and sweden identified ‘the hands-on‘ element as a critical success factor in gender training programmes (eige, 2013). video lectures, readings, assignments and feedback significantly impacted participants’ learning on the course and in applying their learning to their professional practice. such activities aligned with task-based principles were helpful for a pedagogical construct and benefitted the participants (domingo et al., 2019). 411 table 7: level of satisfaction by gender and region region total relevance of training curriculum quality of methodology relevant most relevant engaging most engaging women men women men women men women men women men africa 12 8 3 (25) 1 (12) 9 (75) 7 (88) 8 (67) 2 (25) 4 (33) 6 (75) asia 18 18 2 (11) 9 (50) 16 (89) 9 (50) 8 (44) 11 (61) 10 (56) 7 (39) caribbean 3 1 1 (33) 0 2 (67) 1 (100) 2 (67) 1 (10) 1 (33) 0 pacific 14 0 2 (14) 0 12 (86) 0 4 (28) 0 10 (72) 0 47 27 8 (17) 10 (37) 39 (83) 17 (63) 22 (47) 14 (52) 25 (53) 13 (48) figures in parenthesis are percentages. no responses for least relevant and not engaging figure 7: level of satisfaction on curriculum and on methodology table 8: efficacy of methods in reinforcing the learning from training method low some extent large extent women men women men women men videos 4 (8) 1 (4) 16 (34) 8 (30) 26 (55) 17 (63) exercises 1 (2) 0 8 (16) 3 (12) 36 (76) 23 (85) assignments 2 (4) 0 10 (21) 5 (19) 35 (74) 22 (81) total 47 27 figure 8: efficacy of methods in reinforcing the learning 412 learning the participants across all four regions — women and men — demonstrate learning advancement from the training experience. there is an apparent increase in knowledge, attitude, and practice on the six core capacities linked to gender equality, recognising women’s rights as human rights, understanding unequal gender power relations and designing and monitoring gender-transformative programming. the achievement of learning outcomes presented in the previous section clarifies this learning advancement in detail. behaviour — knowledge transfer most respondents (70 out of 74) across regions and sex have expressed their level of confidence as either medium (34%) or high (61%) to transfer new knowledge. they attribute this confidence to the knowledge and skills acquired from training and to their ability to apply the newly learnt concepts and tools on the ground in their work with communities. they believe this can help transform gender relations and improve the lives of communities. some referred to their confidence in analysing poverty, policies, and budgets with a gender lens and understanding the gaps for action. some others referred to their ability to communicate on gender issues, deal with gender issues in communities independently, and engage with state actors. a few mentioned confidence in using the training curriculum and methodology in their community-level training and in writing development proposals that integrate a gender perspective. a few more relate this confidence to taking responsibility to challenge prejudices, being sensitive to women’s issues, targeting the most vulnerable sections of their communities and applying the new knowledge in their context to deepen their understanding of gender issues and making strategic choices for actions. a few have expressed keen interest in expanding their learning on gender by reading the additional material provided and accessing other available literature. it is a big challenge, given the male-dominated society. but actions for gender equality are truly relevant and urgently needed. a participant from servants of saint joseph (ssj) papua new guinea. this training on gender equality targeted staff in organisations as individuals. nonetheless, it is likely that the group (which participated in the training) from each organisation induced a collective dynamic that could influence their private lives, workplaces, and communities. the individual responses to confidence are testimony to this influence. however, it is important to recognise that translating this individual change into institutional change requires an organisation to be supportive in enabling staff to apply their new knowledge in work. this could entail encouraging staff to discuss and seek a gender-sensitive culture within the organisation while applying their new skills to programmes. other enabling measures could include (a) setting up a support group for discussion on issues relevant to gender equality; (b) using trained staff as mentors for other colleagues, and (c) a leadership team demonstrating the practical relevance of gender equality that encourage other staff to work on related issues. most respondents expressed the primary enabling factor as the supportive organisational leadership committed to transformation. staff are encouraged to avail opportunities for training and also access online resource material. periodic staff meetings are common that involve review and sharing of experiences. some organisations have gender policies, and a few have a 413 platform to mentor others in the organisation that could promote an enabling climate for this posttraining support. another dimension of this knowledge transfer was noticed in some cases, where it became a training of trainers (tot). youth aid education possible changes organisation (yapo), adpp and women development centre (wdc) reported having cascaded the acquired learning from training within their organisations to other colleagues. in yapo, at least ten staff were thus covered, while in adpp, there is a plan to train its national staff and the other ten (10) project staff. adpp also shared the training modules with the gender focal person of its usaid-funded project to roll it out to twelve (12) district managers and 750 community mobilisers. further, ssj and adpp have translated the curriculum into the local language despite the challenges due to multiple dialects. concerned youth organisation (cyo) used their staff meeting to brief other colleagues about the learning from training on gender equality and women’s empowerment. in the society for protection of the rights of the child (sparc) case, one of the participants debriefed its executive committee on gender equality training. the above perception of the transfer of their newly acquired knowledge is consistent with what has been reported in the literature. eige’s (2016) in-depth study on gender training in the eu found that improved individual gender competence leads to positive gender mainstreaming. in the case of ashas (grass-roots level health workers in india), training enabled them to envision taking a more active role and increased their confidence (garrison-desany et al., 2021). teachers who participated in training to promote gender equality in schools were less sexist and promoted autonomy to a greater extent (kollmayer et al., 2020). in another study, women were as likely as men to report higher career agency with respect to professional confidence, leadership ability and professional advancement (kathryn, 2019). the impact of leadership training on health professionals in bangladesh demonstrated that changing knowledge and attitude helps learners to motivate others and explore new possibilities (hossain et al. 2018). table 9: level of confidence to transfer knowledge in work by gender and region region total low medium high no response women men women men women men women men women men africa 12 8 2 (17) 1 (12) 8 (67) 7 (88) 2 (17) 0 asia 18 18 7 (39) 7 (39) 11 (61) 10 (55) 0 1 (6) caribbean 3 1 2 (67) 0 1 (33) 1(100) 0 0 pacific 14 0 1 (7) 0 6 (43) 0 7 (50) 0 0 0 47 27 1 (2) 0 17 (36) 8 (30) 27 (57) 18 (67) 2 (4) 1 (3) figures in parenthesis are percentages 414 figure 9: level of confidence to transfer the knowledge impact immediate impact relates to changes in practices as a result of attending this training programme. about three-fourths of the respondents reported the immediate impact at a personal level. only ten have shared the nature of actions resolved in gender-equitable ways. this included equal participation of both spouses in major decisions of the household, shared domestic responsibilities, and reaching out to a relative and discouraging him against a gender stereotype practice. it is essential to recognise that gender relations are dynamic and highly dependent on multiple identities and the complex realities of those who benefit from training. it is also imperative to acknowledge that establishing the attribution of those results to this training is difficult. nonetheless, the reported actions provide evidence that trainees learned from the training and applied that knowledge in practice. on the other hand, 50 out of the 74 respondents reported immediate impact at the workplace (reflection of roles and responsibilities and review of development proposals and m&e with a gender lens). only 16 out of them have shared the nature of actions for gender equality in the organisation and programme. this included a review of workplace policies and employment, creating womenfriendly work environment practices (notifying toilets, special provisions), commitment to ensure equal representation of women and men in all positions, promoting gender-sensitive language, adequate resource allocation for gender equality work, challenging gender stereotype in recruitment, and tracking changes with sex-disaggregated data. further, there were actions to mainstream gender in the programme. this included the inclusion of gender for all future programmes, equal participation of girls and boys in project implementation, including skill training, and involvement of men and boys as allies in the fight against gender-based violence. some participants claim that the training generated a quest for responding to gender inequality, challenging gender discrimination, and being a change agent. the literature corroborates the immediate impact that participants reported. the research evidence also confirms that such changes at the individual and organisation levels are interlinked and interdependent. the reflect training on gender equality led to an increased number of teachers reflecting on their gender stereotypes and their influence on their work. such teachers are believed to be capable of changing gender differences and promoting change as they work with hundreds of 415 students in their professional life (kollmayer, 2020). in another agency-based empowerment and leadership training, the women trainees expressed a strong sense of self and greater motivation in their work. it also acknowledged that investing in gender equality and women’s empowerment can unlock human potential on a transformative scale. moreover, this training observed that systematically implemented gender training in an organisation makes a significant difference in its work and facilitates positive change in the attitudes in a gender-sensitive working culture. two more studies have reported professional transformation from training and its positive relationship with job performance (klibthong, 2018; ofojebe and chukwuma, 2015; oguntimehin, 2001). table 10: individuals’ perception about the immediate impact of training by gender and region perception on immediate impact africa asia caribbean pacific women men women men women men women men personal reflection on roles/responsibilities. 9 (75) 6 (75) 18 (100) 16 (89) 1 (33) 1 (100) 6 (43) 0 act in gender equitable ways. 9 (75) 8 (100) 18 (100) 16 (89) 3 (100) 0 8 (57) total respondents 12 8 18 18 3 1 14 0 workplace reflection on roles/responsibilities. 7 (58) 6 (75) 16 (89) 16 (89) 2 (67) 1 (100) 6 (43) 0 gender perspective in development. 9 (75) 6 (75) 18 (100) 14 (78) 2 (67) 1 (100) 7 (50) 0 gender sensitivity in m&e. 7 (58) 7 (87) 18 (100) 15 (83) 0 1 (100) 7 (50) 0 total respondents 12 8 18 18 3 1 14 0 note: figures in the table are the number of respondents. figures in parentheses are percentages. lessons from the online training online training approach this online training reconfirmed its cost-effectiveness by reaching out to 100 people from different geographical locations. the blend of synchronous and asynchronous learning formats could add to the success of the training. a real-time login schedule allowed regular interactions and provided opportunities for feedback and for seeking clarification. the exercises and assignments of the course design could open up collaborative learning and enable the participants to engage in training fully. on the other hand, the assignments helped the participants to gain practical experience and identify areas for improvement. an integration mechanism that ensures those who have jobs that clash with class catch up with lessons becomes imperative and hence requires attention. training design and delivery the training focused on human rights, and social justice must encourage critical reflection on power relations and existing inequalities. this brings the desired social and political change at the individual and institutional levels. the powerful messages have a more appealing influence to deepen a sense of association among participants to the concepts and create an interest in the curriculum. a guiding 416 principle enables the design of courses supporting the participants to integrate their commitments to gender equality. curriculum development is an iterative process the curriculum development must be recognised as an iterative process with openness to upgrade it with additional insights at the time of implementation. this is relevant for such complex subjects as gender equality and women’s empowerment. this must be a principle. dealing with ambiguity and diversity some concepts may remain as ideas, and their practice may neither exist nor be available in the literature. despite this gap, those concepts hold true to the current context of issues and have critical importance. in this training experience, the concepts of such nature include recognising women’s unpaid care work as an economic contribution to the national economy, shared responsibilities within the household, freedom of choice in sexual and reproductive health, engaging men and boys as allies for gender equality, and not equating authority and leadership to masculinity. the training input was not adequate to generate internalisation and acceptance. this has created ambiguity and confusion among the participants. it was realised that there should be focused debate on such concepts that allows the participants to share their ambiguity or diversity, raise questions, and include experiences to rewire the thought process and reach a consensus. this indicated a need for a dedicated discussion forum in the course design. this could benefit from adequate research on the scope and practice of each of these concepts from grounded experimentation. the discussion could be facilitated with a key question. value and scope of continuing education on gender equality it is important to recognise that training by itself cannot bring change. effective learning is an ongoing and continuous process in which ‘learning’ is not a linear trajectory of acquisition of capacities. it is embedded in a broader set of measures to influence change. therefore, the reflection initiated on gender through this training requires further deeper analysis and firm conviction. this must be supported by harnessing the existing organisational processes (staff meetings, annual reviews), promoting peer-led learning circles and sharing the communities of practice. these measures must present challenges and lessons in applying gender concepts and integrating a gender perspective in the organisation. this enables individuals and organisations to adapt and become resilient in transforming the complex gender power relations (goel, 2017). conclusions this capacity-building initiative registers a clear trend of outcomes at the individual level regarding increased knowledge, attitude and skills on gender equality that could be applied in their work. on the other hand, these organisations demonstrate an enabling environment for more gender equal policies, structures and practices. although the actual impact is too early to measure at this point, the level of changes sparked by the training in gender equality at the individual and organisational level is perceptible. this conforms with eige’s research evidence on the effectiveness of gender equality training at the individual, organisational and societal levels. the post-training data and analysis demonstrate such potential and scope. further, the high reach of this online training (in terms of the number of participants and geographical spread) has established a return on investment in building 417 capacity on gender at a reduced cost. it is now essential to convert the power of this achievement and efficacy of training in linking to a broader gender equality agenda and communicating across the sector. moreover, gender competence development does not end with gender equality training. it should integrate into the broader gender equality strategy of these organisations. to make the best use of the new knowledge that staff acquired from training, follow-up processes must be set up that offer them opportunities to continue upgrading their gender equality competencies. this must consider distributing handouts on issues related to gender equality, online iterative learning material (quiz, question/answer), organising online workshops at regular intervals and even fostering networking among these organisations for shared knowledge and collaboration in tackling constraints for gender equality and women’s empowerment. we must recognise that the effectiveness of training is likely to be limited unless accompanied by sustained interventions to address discrimination (casey et al. 2018; williamson & foley, 2018). references altinova, h. a., duyan, v., & megahead, a. h. (2016). the impact of the human rights education program for women on gender perceptions of social work students. social work and social policy, 29(1), 113-121. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049731516679889 balgah, r. a., amungwa, f. a., & egwu, b. m. j. (2019). a gender analysis of intra-household division of labour in cameroon using moser’s triple roles framework. asian journal of agricultural extension, economics & sociology, 29(4), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.9734/ajaees/2019/v29i430095 casey, e., carlson, j., yager, a., & two bulls, s. (2018). gender transformative approaches to engaging men in gender-based violence prevention: a review and conceptual model. trauma, violence & abuse, 19(2), 231-246. https://doi.org/10.1177/1524838016650191 canwach (2020). building capacity and confidence in gender transformative programming – a virtual learning experience. https://canwach.ca/learning/building-capacity-and-confidence-in-gender-transformativeprogramming-a-virtual-experience/#:~:text=learning%20centre,building%20capacity%20and%20confidence%20in%20gender%20transformative%20programming%3a% 20a%20virtual,transformative%20change%20for%20gender%20equality. domingo, m., paran, a., révész, a., & palange, a. (2019). exploring factors that influence the impact of mooc learning on participants’ professional practice. ucl institute of education, university college london. https://www.london.ac.uk/sites/default/files/leaflets/exploringfactorsthatinfluencetheimpactofmoocs_fi nal.pdf eige. (2013). investing in gender competence – preliminary results of eige’s in-depth study on gender training in the eu. eige. (2016). gender equality training – gender mainstreaming toolkit. european institute for gender equality (eige). https://eige.europa.eu/publications/gender-equality-training-gender-mainstreaming-toolkit https://eige.europa.eu/sites/default/files/investing%20in%20gender%20competence.pdf garrison-desany, h. m., wilson, e., & munos, m. et al. (2021). the role of gender power relations on women’s health outcomes: evidence from a maternal health coverage survey in simiyu region, tanzania. bmc public health, 21(909). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-10972-w goel, s. (2017). evaluating the impact of gender sensitivity training on public officers’ attitude – an empirical study. international journal of indian culture and business management, 14(2), 198-213. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijicbm.2017.081973 418 hanscome, l., & cervero, r. (2003). the impact of gendered power relations in hrd. human resource development international, 6(4), 509-525. https://doi.org/10.1080/1367886022000016028 harasim, l. (2012). learning theory and online technologies. routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203846933 hossain k. m. a., nazim a. q., hossain m. s., haque, m. o., hossain, m. a., hossain, m. z., & ahmed, m. s. (2018). impact of continuous professional education on leadership for rehabilitation professionals in bangladesh: a pilot study. journal of medical research and innovation, 3(1), 1-6. https://doi.org/10.32892/jmri.158. klibthong, s., & agbenyega, j. s. (2018). exploring professional knowing, being and becoming through inclusive pedagogical approach in action (ipaa) framework. australian journal of teacher education, 43(3), 109-123. https://doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2018v43n3.7 kollmayer, m., schultes, m-t., lüftenegger, m., finsterwald, m., spiel, c., & schober, b. (2020). reflect – a teacher training program to promote gender equality in schools. frontiers in education, 5(136), 1-8. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2020.00136 mnubi, g. m. (2020). re-writing stories of child, early and forced marriages through vocational and entrepreneurship skills: experience from the “girls inspire project” in tanzania. journal of learning for development, 7(2), 246-260. https://doi.org/10.56059/jl4d.v7i2.368 murthy, r. k. (1998). power, institutions and gender relations: can gender training alter the equations? development in practice, 8(2), 203-211. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4029304 oxfam. (2017). training manual: gender leadership in humanitarian action – institutionalising gender in emergencies: bridging policy and practice in the humanitarian system, oxfam. https://policypractice.oxfam.org/resources/training-manual-gender-leadership-in-humanitarian-action-620215/ paul, r. w. (1985). bloom’s taxonomy and critical thinking instruction. education leadership, 42 (8), 36-39. https://files.ascd.org/staticfiles/ascd/pdf/journals/ed_lead/el_198505_paul.pdf picciano, a. g. (2017): theories and frameworks for online education: seeking an integrated model. online learning, 21(3), 166-190. https://doi.org/10.24059/olj.v21i3.1225 serhat, k. (2021). constructivist learning theory. blogpost, february 21, 2021. https://educationaltechnology.net/constructivist-learning-theory/ theobald, s., morgan, r., hawkins, k., ssali, s., george, a., & molyneux, s. (2017). the importance of gender analysis in research for health systems strengthening. health policy and planning, 32(5), 1-v3. https://doi.org/10.1093/heapol/czx163 un women. (2015a). training for gender equality: twenty years on – a review of how training for gender equality has evolved from beijing platform for action. un women. https://www.unwomen.org/en/digitallibrary/publications/2015/9/training-for-gender-equality-twenty-years-on un women. (2015b). the effect of gender equality programme on humanitarian outcomes — academic paper. humanitarian unit, un women and ids. https://www.unwomen.org/en/digitallibrary/publications/2015/7/the-effect-of-gender-equality-programming-on-humanitarian-outcomes un women. (2016). gender equality capacity assessment tool – tool for assessment of capacity in promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women for the un systems and other partners. un women training centre. https://trainingcentre.unwomen.org/resources_library/resources_centre/2_manual_gender_equality _capacity_en.pdf williamson, s., & foley, m. (2018). unconscious bias training – the ‘silver bullet’ for gender equity? australian journal of public administration, 77(3), 355-359. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8500.12313 419 who. (2009). integrating gender into hiv/aids programmes in the health sector: tool to improve responsiveness to women’s needs. who. https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/43980/9789241597197_eng.pdf yount, k. m., et al. (2019). gender equality in global health leadership: cross-sectional survey of global health graduates. global public health, 15(6), 1-13. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17441692.2019.1701057 authors: damodaram kuppuswami has a vast range of experience in development work and demonstrates diverse skills and deep insights of working with marginalised communities and on their issues of rights and justice. his core competencies include building rights-based development perspective and formulating empowering strategies with a strong passion for gender equality and women’s empowerment, monitoring and evaluation conducting results-based impact assessments of development projects guided by participatory approach, organisation development, and designing and conducting capacity building of human resources in development sector. since 2011, he has been providing professional consultancy services to international and national organisations with innovative development facilitation and professional expertise in monitoring and evaluation. prior to consultancy services, damodaram worked with actionaid, an international development organisation, playing various leadership roles (1993 2010) and with rural development trust, a grass-root level development organisation (1977-1993). damodaram has authored various publications on measuring social development using qualitative indicators, developing participatory methods to measure development interventions and on education. email: kuppuswami.damodaram@gmail.com ms frances ferreira has a vast range of experience in developing contexts and education management related to leadership, skills development, monitoring and evaluation, women’s empowerment, and gender equality. since joining col in 2007, frances has held the posts of education specialist: basic education and open schooling, senior adviser: women and girls, and education specialist: gender, before taking up the acting director: skills role. with her strong passion for women’s empowerment, ms. ferreira leads col’s girls inspire initiative and col’s commonwealth wise women project, which are contributing to improved livelihoods of women and girls in underserved communities. prior to joining col, ms. ferreira, was the first chief executive of the stateowned namibian college of open learning. previously, she served the namibian community as a teacher and school principal, and as the first female mayor of grootfontein in 1994. she has also served as chair of the namibian open learning network trust and chair of the distance education association of southern africa (deasa). ms ferreira’s contribution to the field of open and distance learning in namibia was recognised in 2002 at col’s 2nd pan-commonwealth forum on open learning, when she received the distance learning experience award from col. frances has co-authored and co-edited various publications including perspectives on distance education – open schooling in the 21st century (2009); open schooling with open educational resources: opening doors, creating opportunities (2013) and women and leadership in open and distance learning and development (2013). email: frances.ferreira90@gmail.com cite this paper as: kuppuswami, d., & ferreira, f. (2022). gender equality and women’s empowerment capacity building of organisations and individuals. journal of learning for development, 9(3), 394-419. microsoft word makhaya.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 64-75 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. the effects of institutional support factors on lecturer adoption of elearning at a conventional university barbara khavugwi makhaya1 and betty obura ogange2 1maseno university, kenya 2commonwealth of learning, canada abstract: conventional higher education institutions in kenya are in the process of implementing elearning projects. these initiatives are, however, fraught with challenges. at the maseno university ecampus, an evaluation of statistics on the institutional lms after two years of implementation revealed that many lecturers had minimal or no log-in statistics, an indication that there was a gap in the adoption of elearning. this study investigated factors explaining lecturer adoption of elearning. a sample of 55 lecturers was selected and a questionnaire administered on their personal and institutional support factors for elearning adoption. the findings revealed that the lecturers had a positive perception of the usefulness of elearning and high self-efficacy in the adoption of elearning. the gap in elearning adoption was perceived by respondents to be a result of inadequate institutional support. the results suggest that lecturers are likely to be better adopters of elearning not only when knowledge management processes and policies related to elearning are developed but also where the institution works towards building and supporting a community of elearning adopters. keywords: lecturer adoption, elearning, institutional support, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use. introduction the community of elearning practitioners in africa has grown exponentially in the last decade. this is evident from the growing number of participants attending the elearning africa conferences each year as well as the growing number of elearning programmes, research initiatives, partnerships and organizations in africa (elearning africa, 2012). adkins (2013) estimated the growth rate of elearning in africa at 15.2%, while revenue from elearning was estimated to have reached $250.9 million in 2011. the study further estimated that the revenues would double to $512.7 million by 2016. a number of studies project that with better access to quality higher education through elearning, africa is likely to see a significant impact not only on sustainable development goal 4, but also other sustainable development goals (sachs 2012). there is, therefore, growing interest among researchers about the factors promoting or inhibiting quality learning outcomes in higher education institutions (heis), particularly those affecting the adoption of elearning in these institutions. literature review previously, students in africa obtained various qualifications through distance learning from providers in europe and north america (d'antoni, 2006). the african virtual university (avu), established in 1997 with funding from the world bank, was envisioned as a means of using ict to 65 improve the quality of higher education. in its initial plan, the avu was to become a degree granting institution, utilizing the best multimedia teaching materials available in the world. eventually, avu would transition from a world bank project to a free-standing, self-financing, virtual education institution (wolff 2002). an evaluation of the avu at kenyatta university, kenya, was done to identify the challenges faced by african institutions as well as examine the experience gained in using technology. the key challenges identified were electricity interruptions, high cost of internet access, challenges in the bandwidth resulting in low internet speeds and management challenges associated with establishing a special center under the operating policies and procedures of a traditional university. another impediment to the avu mode of learning was the difficulty in attracting and retaining qualified computer scientists (juma, 2001, 2006). by 2001, it was clear that avu needed to rethink its vision, content, delivery modes and business plan (wolff 2002). although the role of educators in heis in africa have been expanded to include the use of ict for teaching and learning, there seems to be modest achievement in this area. nigerian heis, for instance, have been ranked higher compared to most of the heis on the african continent but have not been able to compete in the global scholastic arena due to quality challenges, revealing a gap which needs to be filled (bakare & olaniyi, 2017). a study conducted in some universities in tanzania established that the implementation of elearning was still very low despite the supportive policy environment created by the government through the enactment of the national ict policy and the tanzania communication regulatory authority act. among the ten universities studied, only the university of dar es salaam (udsm) had implemented an elearning platform. other universities, such as sokoine university of agriculture (sua), mzumbe university and open university of tanzania (out), had basic ict infrastructure with minimal implementation of elearning (sife et al., 2007). the challenges identified in the adoption of elearning in tanzanian universities included a negative perception towards elearning due to a lack of capacity analysis before implementation, frequent electricity interruptions and inadequate ict infrastructure for elearning (ndume et al. 2008). in zimbabwe, a study showed that the majority of the lecturers (97.5%) facilitating open, distance and elearning (odel) had no experience in distance education (mpofu et al., 2012). in a related study, kasse and balunywa (2013) assessed the implementation of elearning in ugandan institutions of higher learning. the study findings revealed that elearning was used mostly as a means of delivering learning material (80%), minimally used to conduct discussions (12%) and to conduct assessment (2%). the study revealed major infrastructural and technical challenges and a negative attitude by staff and students towards elearning as the limitations to full-scale adoption in these institutions. some of the infrastructural challenges included lack of electricity and unavailability of internet connectivity (kasse & balunywa 2013). new virtual universities are springing up across the african continent despite these challenges. the success of university of south africa (unisa), a leading provider of distance learning in africa, has clearly shown that elearning has the potential to influence the delivery of education in africa (wolff 2002). 66 evaluation of elearning projects in kenya indicates that its adoption in heis faces a wide range of challenges (nyagorme, 2014; tarus et al., 2015). an evaluation of the delivery of open, distance and elearning at nairobi university and kenyatta university by nyerere et al. (2012) revealed that provision of odel by kenyatta university and the university of nairobi is faced with various challenges such as non-optimal utilization of programme facilities, delays in production of study materials and inadequate funding. some odel providers in kenya were not guided by national policies, posing a challenge in resource mobilization and programme quality. dual-mode institutions were overwhelmed and were not able to meet the demand for university education (nyerere et al., 2012). another study (makokha & mutisya 2016) on the status of elearning in kenyan public educational institutions revealed that elearning is at its infant stage. the universities lacked senate-approved elearning policies to guide structured implementation of elearning. about 32% of lecturers and 35% of students used the elearning systems set up within the universities. the study also revealed that only 10% of the university programmes were offered online. of these programmes, 87% of the online modules were simply lecture notes that were not interactive. the study further indicated that universities in kenya lacked the requisite ict infrastructure and skills for effective elearning implementation (makokha & mutisya 2016). the ecampus of maseno university maseno university was established in 1990 as a constituent college of moi university. it was by then the outcome of the government emergent policy of locating public universities away from major towns. however, the timing was in direct response to the crisis of double intake arising out of the combined graduation of high school students of the old 7-4-2-3 and the new 8-4-4 systems of education (maseno university charter, 2013). the vision for the ecampus of maseno university began with a resolution by the university senate in september of 2004 to start open, distance and elearning programs (odel). it was resolved that the university would initially embark on production of printbased teaching and learning materials. the university began the process of creating awareness of odel and instituting mechanisms for the acquisition of skills among the lecturers, which was essential for developing appropriate print-based teaching and learning materials. a number of capacity building activities and policy development during the period between 2004 and 2006 were supported by the commonwealth of learning, an intergovernmental organization that works with governments and institutions of the commonwealth to improve the quality of education and training using open, distance learning and technology enabled methodologies. these initiatives led to the establishment of the elearning center in 2007 (maseno ecampus, 2011). early examples of contextualized elearning best practices would later be demonstrated by the school of mathematics, applied statistics and actuarial science in collaboration with reading university, uk. lessons on delivery of online programs were drawn from this partnership, and an institutional learning management system (lms) was set up. lecturers were trained in online content development and delivery by experts from reading university, open university (uk) and a team of consultants that had been contracted by the university to digitize the content and upload it on the institution’s learning management system. the first group of maseno university online learners was admitted in september of 2011. the elearning centre later evolved into the ecampus of maseno university in january, 2012. 67 the ecampus was established so as to mainstream elearning as a mode of delivery for the programmes offered by maseno university. through the ecampus, the university would be able to offer university programmes to learners who were unable to attend regular face-to-face classes owing to various constraints. due to the wider reach envisaged by maseno university programmes through elearning, the university expected an increase in revenue. elearning was also envisioned as a mode of delivery that would improve the lecturers’ productivity, efficiency and effectiveness especially in teaching high enrolment courses to on-campus students. the lms was expected to improve on teaching by providing avenues for dynamic feedback and score reporting to learners as well as presenting content to learners in a variety of formats (ogange et al., 2018; ladyshewsky, 2004). another key aim of the ecampus was to improve on learner-lecturer interaction in maseno university programmes and courses offered through elearning. the improved interaction was expected to result in higher student satisfaction. the team at the ecampus designed tools to monitor lecturer and learner participation within the courses on the lms. data from the user logs on the lms was analysed to track online participation by various lecturers and learners. in the second year of the rollout of online courses at the ecampus of maseno university, an evaluation of statistics on the institutional lms revealed that a number of lecturers had minimal or no log-in statistics. a further analysis of lecturer participation within the courses revealed that there was minimal interaction with the students enrolled in the online courses. this was an indication that there was a gap in the adoption of elearning among lecturers, leading to the conceptualization of this study to examine factors explaining lecturer adoption of elearning at the university as well as the effects of the institutional support factors. research design and methodology the study sought to evaluate lecturer adoption of elearning at the ecampus of maseno university, which is a virtual campus of maseno university. a mixed method approach involving descriptive statistics and case study research design was used. the sample size of lecturers who were issued with a questionnaire was 55 out of a population of 170 who were involved in the development and teaching of elearning courses at the time. a total of 48 responses were returned, representing an 87% response rate. discussion demographics of the respondents the lecturers sampled were from seven schools that have full programmes or are supporting online courses offered at the ecampus. a majority of the respondents (72.9%) were male, while 27.1% were female. with regard to the age of the respondents, 54.2% of them were between 35-44 years while only 8.3% were above 55 years old. respondents between 25 and 34 years represented 10% while those between 45 and 54 years were 16.7%. in relation to the teaching experience at the university, 43.8% of the respondents had less than five years while 33.3% had between 6 to 10 years teaching experience. about 22% of the respondents had between 11 to 25 years of teaching experience at the university. 68 lecturer personal factors in the adoption of elearning lecturer self-efficacy in using the elearning system the lecturer personal factors of perceived usefulness of elearning, perceived ease of adopting of elearning and their self-efficacy in using the institutional elearning system were the key indicators used to identify the lecturer factors that would explain their adoption of elearning. self-efficacy relates to the instructor’s control of the technology (webster & hackley, 1997), and is crucial for troubleshooting tasks including adding a student at the last minute, modifying students' passwords and changing the course settings (volery & lord, 2000). the instructor would also be able to experiment with the various tools available on the lms to improve on their courses as well as their instructional strategies. to establish the lecturer self-efficacy in using the elearning system, the participants were asked to rate their ability in using the system. a total of 64.5% ranked their abilities as good and another 18.7% considered their abilities as excellent. the remaining 14.6% ranked their skills as average and another 2.1% as fair. when presented with a set of statements to further examine the lecturers’ self-efficacy in using the elearning system, it was established that 50% of the lecturers were able to work with the system with minimal support, while about 23% had prior experience in using elearning systems and were, therefore, able to use the system with ease. another 23% were able to work with the elearning system due to the available technical support and only about 4% required a reference manual to work with the elearning system. as outlined in table 1 below, about 80% of the lecturers found the elearning system easy to work with, which is an indicator of high self-efficacy among the lecturers in adopting elearning. table 1. perceived ease of use of the elearning system among the lecturers. research has shown that lecturers require different skills and play different roles in order to be able to adopt the use of technology in teaching. according to bonk (2000), the lecturer needs to be skilled in using the elearning systems in order to be able to adopt such technology and enhance student learning experience. the author indicates that the lecturer needs to be not only adept at designing online courses, which would make students interact actively in the online course, but also to be effective in playing a social role to keep students motivated and increase their level of learning (bonk, 2000). general perceived ease of use of elearning technology frequency percentage i generally find the institutional elearning system easy to work with strongly agree 15 31.3% agree 24 50% neither agree nor disagree 4 8.3% disagree 4 8.3% strongly disagree 1 2.1% total 48 100% 69 perceived usefulness of elearning among the lecturers the research noted that 95.8% of the lecturers have a positive perception of elearning; 81% of the lecturers were of the opinion that elearning is useful in teaching by providing active learner participation opportunities; another 93.7% were of the opinion that elearning provides avenues for a variety of approaches of disseminating learning materials; and 91.7% were of the opinion that elearning is useful in providing dynamic learning content to learners. the study also found that 89.6% of the lecturers were of the opinion that elearning is useful in providing dynamic feedback and score reporting approaches to learners, and 72.9% were of the opinion that elearning enhances their productivity and job performance. about 18.8% of the lecturers were undecided about whether elearning is useful in enhancing productivity and improving performance. these findings concur with shee and wang (2008) who argue that an elearning system offers educators and students “possibilities”, instead of “ready to use” resources. in this regard, while the effectiveness of a general information system is based on the performance of individuals, an elearning system’s effectiveness largely depends on collaboration between individuals (both educators and students). the interaction between learners and lecturers is largely based on their perceived usefulness of elearning. the lecturers in the study who had a positive perception of elearning were, therefore, likely to use it to create a rich learning environment for the learners to interact with the content and each other. lecturer perspective on the institutional support for elearning adoption in order to establish the lecturer perception of the institutional support provided for elearning adoption, about 35.4% indicated that elearning had been embedded in the department’s normal teaching. this meant that the elearning courses were considered to be part of the teaching load in the planning for course allocation, examinations and all processes for semester preparations at the department. there, however, seemed to be a general consensus among the lecturers that funding allocated for elearning was not sufficient to facilitate adoption. heads of department and deans were perceived to be supportive of elearning, while most lecturers seemed not to be aware of the copyright and intellectual property issues that applied to them when developing content for elearning within the institution. about 37.6% of the lecturers were not satisfied with the institutional measures on copyright and intellectual property issues that touch on developing elearning content for the university, with some explaining that it was unclear who owned the copyright for the content developed for elearning. training and technical support for elearning in relation to training and technical support, only 25% were in agreement with the fact that they were provided with access to technical support and educational software. the lecturers indicated that they were supported through initial training by the technical and support team on the ecampus team but more training needed to be done since the training offered to staff was too short, thereby, inhibiting their mastery of the required skills. elgort (2005) indicated that making it trivial for a lecturer to upload course content of the lms and interact with learners online would result in a surface approach in adopting elearning. rogers (2003) identified re-invention as a vital part in the adoption of an innovation. this is the point at which the adopters customize an innovation to meet their unique 70 situation. in adopting elearning, continuous training enables lecturers to re-engineer and adopt it to effectively deliver their courses online. table 2. institutional support for elearning adoption. institutional support factors for elearning adoption sa a u d sd elearning is embedded in the department’s normal teaching 12.5% 22.9% 18.8% 25.0% 20.8% funding is available for elearning 4.2% 6.3% 16.7% 35.4% 37.5% head of department/school and the dean are supportive of elearning 20.8% 45.8% 16.7% 8.3% 8.3% copyright and intellectual property issues have been resolved 6.3% 4.2% 52.1% 18.8% 18.8% promotion and tenure policies recognize teaching developments using elearning systems 4.2% 6.3% 31.3% 35.4% 22.9% of the lecturers surveyed, 75% identified difficulty in accessing technical support at the schools and departments as an inhibiting factor to the adoption of elearning. some of the lecturers noted that the number of elearning technical and support staff was inadequate, and that they were stationed at the ecampus office located at the kisumu campus of maseno university, which was some 26 kilometers away from the main campus. this meant that the lecturers designing and facilitating online courses who required personal support had to travel a long distance to get access to the support staff. adequate support for elearning adoption in a conventional university includes hiring enough technical personnel in instructional design and systems support, and deploying them to the various campuses to ensure that the lecturers get support when needed. table 3. training and technical support. technical and training support for students and staff for elearning adoption sa a u d sd staff are supported through access to technical support and educational software development expertise 8.3 % 16.7 % 39.6 % 12.5 % 22.9 % students and staff have access to appropriate hardware and software 12.5 % 14.6 % 18.8 % 31.3 % 22.9 % 71 table 4. training and access to technical support. yes no is the training and support accorded to you sufficient for you to participate in adoption of elearning? 66.7% 33.3% do you find it difficult to access support for elearning? 75% 25% from the study, it emerged that the institutional support expected included capacity building, adequate access to the internet and all relevant ict infrastructure required for the adoption of elearning, support personnel at the ecampus, standardized remuneration for developing and facilitating learners in an online course and policy on elearning adoption. the relationship between institutional support and the perceived usefulness of elearning among lecturers to establish the relationship between the institutional support provided to the lecturers and their perception of the usefulness of elearning, a correlation analysis of the variables of institutional support and perceived usefulness of elearning among lecturers was done, given the findings in earlier studies that suggest that the perceived usefulness and ease of use of an elearning system has a significant effect on the behavioral intention to use the system. according to pituch and lee (2006), having a distance learning system within the educational institution setting would not automatically lead to its use. the lecturers’ perception on its usefulness and ease in adopting it will influence the widespread use of the system, either for elearning or blended learning practices. table 5. correlation analysis between institutional support factors and the lecturer’s perceived usefulness of elearning. is pu institutional support (is) pearson correlation 1 -.075 sig. (2-tailed) .612 n 48 48 perceived usefulness of elearning (pu) pearson correlation -.075 1 sig. (2-tailed) .612 n 48 48 table 5 suggests that the perceived usefulness of elearning and the institutional support have a strong negative correlation (r = -0.75). the relationships between perceived usefulness and institutional support was not significant (p = 0.612). it was observed that 95.8% of the lecturers have a positive perception of elearning despite the inadequate institutional support, as depicted in tables 2, 3 and 4. 72 the relationship between institutional support and the perceived ease of use of elearning among lecturers a correlation analysis was done between institutional support and the lecturer perceived ease of use of the elearning system to establish the influence of institutional support factors on the perceived usefulness of elearning as presented in table 6. the perceived ease of use and institutional support variables had a weak but positive relationship. the relationships between perceived ease of use and institutional support was significant (p = 0.02). table 6. correlation analysis between institutional support and the lecturer’s perceived ease of use. peu is support perceived ease of use pearson correlation 1 .335* sig. (2-tailed) .020 n 48 48 institutional support pearson correlation .335* 1 sig. (2-tailed) .020 n 48 48 * correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). challenges in the adoption of elearning among lecturers whereas lecturers had a positive perception on the usefulness of elearning, there were institutional factors that inhibited the effective and efficient adoption of elearning among the lecturers, which included inadequate bandwidth and the lack of computer laboratories on-campus, both of which made it difficult for lecturers without access to a computer or laptop to teach online courses. payment for designing and teaching online courses was inconsistent with the approved part-time teaching rates for face-to-face programmes, since the latter were better structured, predictable and often prompt. this led to reduced motivation among lecturers teaching online courses, which might explain the low log-in statistics in the online courses. the budgetary allocation for elearning was considered by some lecturers as insufficient for the most part, thereby inhibiting regular online engagement with learners. this was in contrast to other face-to-face part-time teaching, where lecturers tended not to skip classes and maintained class attendance lists. when asked to describe their expectations from the institution to enable them to adopt elearning, participants indicated that more support was needed for better access to the internet, technical support and working spaces for collaborative work with colleagues. some of the respondents noted that some departments were yet to take ownership of the elearning process, as online teaching was not considered as part of the regular teaching load, making it a major hindrance to elearning adoption. participants indicated that, whereas, learners’ response to online assessment was prompt, credible online assessment was demanding to develop compared to assessment in face-to-face learning. the need for lecturers to commit more time in designing online assessment has been emphasized in other studies, as learners have a positive perception of assessment forms that allow for quick feedback from the lecturers (ogange et al., 2018). some of the lecturers also expressed difficulty in work-load balancing between face-to-face teaching, elearning and other duties. 73 recommendations and conclusion the results of this study suggest that institutional support towards improved lecturer proficiency in elearning technology and pedagogy will impact on their perceived level of ease of use of elearning systems, improve self-efficacy in the use of elearning technologies and their perceived usefulness of elearning. this would lead to higher levels of adoption of elearning among lecturers. webster and hackley (1997) suggested that three instructor characteristics that influence their efficiency in teaching in an online environment are; the instructor’s attitude towards technology, his/her teaching style and the level of control of technology. whereas a number of lecturers may have been confident about their skills in using the elearning system, they were only able to adopt it in teaching their courses online with sustained capacity building to improve their skills in elearning and blended learning methodologies. it can be argued that the low adoption rates for elearning among lecturers in a conventional university may be a direct result of the tendency of the university systems to apply the same policies, structures and budgetary practices in face-to-face teaching and learning, to elearning. the perceived lack of administrative support for elearning can be attributed to the use, by lecturers and administrators, of face-to-face teaching as a benchmark for quality teaching, hence the limited premium attached to online teaching in such institutions, a finding that concurs with ladyshewsky (2004). better support systems, policies and structures are needed to encourage elearning adoption in a conventional university. this study also supports others that have found that lecturers are better adopters of elearning where there are efforts by the institution to build a community of elearning adopters as well as knowledge management processes and policies related to elearning (oecd, 2005; kirkland & sutch, 2009). with improved lecturer proficiency in elearning, good ict infrastructure and conducive elearning policies, the community of adopters is likely to innovatively deploy elearning and blended learning methodologies to improve the quality of learning outcomes both for on-campus and off-campus learners. disclaimer the views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not in any way reflect the views of maseno university or the commonwealth of learning. references adkins, s. s. (2013). the worldwide market for self-paced elearning products and services: 2011-2016 forecast and analysis. retrieved from at http://www.ambientinsight.com/resources/documents/ambientinsight-2011-2016worldwide-self-paced-elearning-market-premium-overview.pdf. bakare, a. a., & olaniyi, e. t. (2017). use and application of ict in teaching and learning for quality higher education in nigeria. a literature analysis. gjer 7(2), pp. 15–20. doi: 10.15580/gjer.2017.2.020617017. bonk, c. j. (2000). my hats on to the online instructor. e-education advisor. d'antoni, s. (ed.). (2006). the virtual university. models and messages, lessons from case studies, (2nd ed.). paris: unesco. retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001465/146558e.pdf. elearning africa (2012). icwe. elearning africa. retrieved 10/14/2017. 74 elgort, i. (ed.). (2005). e-learning adoption: bridging the chasm. ascilite 2005: balance, fidelity, mobility: maintaining the momentum? retrieved from http://www.ascilite.org/conferences/brisbane05/blogs/proceedings/20_elgort.pdf juma, m. n. (2001). african virtual university. the case of kenyatta university, kenya. case studies in education: a commonwealth view. london: commonwealth secretariat. juma, m. n. (2006). kenyatta university african virtual university, kenya. in susan d'antoni (ed.), the virtual university. models and messages, lessons from case studies. paris: unesco. kasse, j. p., & balunywa, w. (eds.). (2013). an assessment of e-learning utilization by a section of ugandan universities: challenges, success factors and way forward. international conference on ict for africa. harare, zimbabwe, 20-23 febuary. kirkland, k., & sutch, d. (2009). overcoming the barriers to educational innovation: a literature review. bristol, uk: futurelab. ladyshewsky, r. k. (2004). e-learning compared with face to face: differences in the academic achievement of postgraduate business students. australasian journal of educational technology, 20(3) 316-336. retrieved from https://ajet.org.au/index.php/ajet/article/download/1350/720 makokha, g. l., & mutisya, d. n. (2016). status of e-learning in public universities in kenya. international review of research in open and distributed learning, 17(3). retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/2235/3700. maseno ecampus (2011). the ecampus of maseno university. one year on. maseno university. maseno university (2013). maseno university charter. mpofu, v., samukange, t., kusure, l. m., zinyandu, t. m., denhere, c., huggins, n., et al. (2012). challenges of virtual and open distance science teacher education in zimbabwe. international review of research in open and distributed learning, 13(1). available at http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/968/2083. ndume, v., tilya, f. n., & twaakyondo, h. (2008). challenges of adaptive elearning at higher learning institutions: a case study in tanzania. international journal of computing and ict research, 2(1), pp. 47–59. retrieved from http:www.ijcir.org/volume1-number2/article6.pdf. nyagorme, p. (2014). e-learning adoption and utilisation. a comparative study of kenyatta university, kenya and university of cape coast, ghana. dissertation. kenyatta university, nairobi, kenya. nyerere, j. a., gravenir, f. q., mse, g. s. (2012). delivery of open, distance, and e-learning in kenya. irrodl, 13(3). retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/1120/2203. oecd (2005). e-learning in tertiary education. where do we stand? paris: oecd. ogange, o. b.,agak, j., okelo, o. k., kiprotich, p. (2018). student perceptions of the effectiveness of formative assessment in an online learning environment. open praxis, 10(1). retrieved from https://openpraxis.org/index.php/openpraxis/article/view/705 pituch, k. a., & lee, yao-kuei (2006). the influence of system characteristics on e-learning use. computer and education, 47, 222-244. retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/1816/3196 rogers, e. m. (2003). diffusion of innovations, (5th ed.). new york, n.y.: simon & schuster. sachs, j. d. (2012). from millennium development goals to sustainable development goals. the lancet, 379(9832), pp. 2206–2211. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(12)60685-0. 75 shee, d. y., & wang, yi-shun (2008). multi-criteria evaluation of the web-based e-learning system. a methodology based on learner satisfaction and its applications. computers & education, 50(3), 894–905. doi: 10.1016/j.compedu.2006.09.005. sife, a. s., lwoga, e. t., & sanga, c. (2007). new technologies for teaching and learning: challenges for higher learning institutions in developing countries. international journal of education and development using ict, 3(2). retrieved from http://ijedict.dec.uwi.edu/viewarticle.php?id=246. tarus, john k., gichoya, d., & muumbo, a. (2015). challenges of implementing e-learning in kenya. a case of kenyan public universities. irrodl, 16(1). retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/1816/3196 volery, t., & lord, d. (2000). critical success factors in online education. international journal of educational management, 14(5), 216–223. doi: 10.1108/09513540010344731. webster, j., & hackley, p. (1997). teaching effectiveness in technology-mediated distance learning. the academy of management journal, 40(6), pp. 1282–1309. retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/257034?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents. wolff, l. (2002). the african virtual university: the challenge of higher education development in sub-saharan africa. international journal of technologies for the advancement of knowledge and learning, 4(2). authors: barbara khavugwi makhaya is an e-learning systems support specialist at the ecampus of maseno university, kenya. email: bmakhaya@maseno.ac.ke betty obura ogange is an adviser in teacher education at the commonwealth of learning. email: bogange@col.org cite this paper as: makhaya, b.k., & ogange, b.o. (2019). the effects of institutional support factors on lecturer adoption of elearning at a conventional university. journal of learning for development, 6(1), 64-75. microsoft word kadhila.docx issn: 2311-1550 2021, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 204-220 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. rethinking a framework for contextualising and collaborating in moocs by higher education institutions in africa erkkie haipinge and ngepathimo kadhila university of namibia abstract: massive open online courses (moocs) are online courses that are open to anyone with internet access. pioneered in north america, they were developed for contexts with broader access to technology and wider access to the internet. as globally networked learning environments (gnles), moocs foster collaborative communities and learning in ways not conceived as feasible until recently. the affordances of moocs, such as the ability to access learning beyond one’s immediacy, exemplify their benefits for open and distance learning, especially in developing countries that continue to consume rather than produce online courses. however, the globality of moocs and their delivery mode pose a challenge of contextualising learning content to the local needs of educational institutions or individual students that choose to use the courses. this theoretical paper used a desk-research approach by revising literature to investigate and propose ways of contextualising moocs to the african higher education setting. it applied the principles of reuse and repurposing learning content, while suggesting the use of mobile learning as a technological delivery solution that is relevant to the local context. the paper also suggests a framework for inter-institutional collaboration for higher education institutions to guide future efforts in the creation and sharing of credit-bearing moocs. keywords: connectivism, contextualisation, higher education, moocs, sub-saharan africa, online learning. introduction massive open online courses (moocs) are “an evolving ecosystem of online learning environments featuring open enrolment, characterised by a spectrum of course designs ranging from networks of distributed online resources (cmoocs) to structured learning pathways centralised on digital platforms (xmoocs)” (veletsianos & shepherdson, 2016, p. 200). moocs are globally networked learning environments that represent an innovative way of delivering learning through online methods to a vast number of students (marsaglia, kemp, jefferson, bradley & silberman, 2014). according to educause (2013, p. 1), moocs are distinctly massive in that they have no enrolment limitations; are open by allowing anyone to participate for free; are online, with learning mediated through the web; and are courses in that they have structure with a defined scope for study and predetermined learning goals. most mooc providers are universities from the global north, resulting in a limitation of the relevance of learning content to the local contexts of countries in the global south, particularly in subsaharan africa. this status quo is also reflected in research publications as was found in the review of the literature by bozkurt, koseoglu and singh on concepts such as open education, open learning, open educational resources (oers), and open educational practices (oeps), whereby most research 205 conducted in addressing these areas is disproportionally from the global north, dominated by north america and europe (bozkurt, koseoglu & singh, 2019, p. 85). veletsianos and shepherdson (2016) similarly found that north america and europe represented 82% of the research carried out on moocs up until 2015. therefore, research on open education practices, such as moocs from the global south, is necessary to help to address this disproportion. moocs have a global reach irrespective of where they have been developed, as long as one has web access. the modular delivery format of moocs also poses a challenge for educators in prescribing them to their students or integrating moocs into their curricula. at the same time, the reliance of moocs on networked and distributed learning frameworks is a source of tension with the traditional teaching and assessment methods at educational institutions. with africa continuing to make strides in increasing access to the internet, there is potential for increased demand for moocs. this paper investigates the phenomenon of moocs from the standpoint of open and distance learning, and within the framework of open educational resources from an african perspective. the purpose of the paper is to suggest solutions to the challenges experienced by higher education institutions in contextualisation of moocs to meet the local learning needs, exploring pedagogical implications of moocs, identifying inter-institutional collaboration frameworks on moocs for higher education institutions in africa, and exploring methods of contextualising moocs for africa’s local learning contexts. methods this paper uses desk research by reviewing the literature on moocs, building a theoretical framework for conceptualising moocs in the context of open and distance learning, and to address the set objectives. literature for the study was exclusively obtained from online sources using the search terms “moocs”, mooc”, massive open online courses” and “open online courses”. various databases and search engines were used, namely google scholar, ebscohost, eric, scopus and the google search engine. as this was a thematic review of the literature, the sample of the literature material included in the study was not based on a specific timeline or progression but rather on the basis of relevance to the topic. literature material was not only limited to peer reviewed articles from online journals but it also included policy documents, ebooks and web publications. the study pursued the following key questions: 1. what are moocs? 2. how could moocs be modified or contextualised to suit african educational needs, both in terms of content and access? 3. how could african institutions of higher learning, whether in the same or different countries, collaborate on mooc creation? conceptual framework the main theoretical concepts that frame this paper are open education, online education, connectivism and digital pedagogies. in this section, these concepts are defined and discussed within the context of moocs. the theoretical framework can be summed up in the diagram below (fig. 1). 206 figure 1: relationship between moocs, open learning, learning theory and pedagogy source: authors’ own design the relationship between moocs to open educational practices, open learning, learning theory and pedagogy is discussed in more details next. open educational practices open educational practices are a complex term referring, but not limited to, “oer creation, use and adoption, open scholarship, open pedagogy, and learning” (bozkurt, koseoglu & singh, 2019, p. 79). koseoglu and bozkurt (as cited in zawacki-richter et al, 2020, p. 325) define open educational practices as “a broad range of practices that are informed by open education initiatives and movements and that embody the values and visions of openness”. open educational practices can also be viewed as “collaborative practices that include the creation, use, and reuse of oer, as well as pedagogical practices employing participatory technologies and social networks for interaction, peerlearning, knowledge creation, and empowerment of learners” (cronin as cited in bozkurt, koseoglu & singh, 2019, p. 81). based on this definition, it becomes apparent how moocs can be conceived as part of open educational practices as they involve the creation of open educational resources delivered through open pedagogical practices enabled by online technologies that support learner interaction and co-creation of knowledge. from a philosophical and policy perspective, it can be a challenge to envisage a situation where institutions of higher learning would embrace moocs if they do not accept or prescribe to open educational practices. institutions that are not receptive to collaboration, sharing and use of participatory technologies may not only be resistant to using moocs but may also struggle to share 207 their own learning resources through similar practices. open educational practices are therefore an important cog within the framework of moocs’ usage. open education open education is that which provides “access, flexibility, equity, collaboration, agency, democratization, social justice, transparency, and removing barriers” (zawacki-richter et al, 2020, p. 321). open education is also seen as a “philosophy about the way people should produce, share, and build on knowledge”, proponents of which promote the elimination of barriers such as cost, outdated materials and legal frameworks that hinder people to “access to high-quality educational experiences and resources” and “that prevent collaboration among scholars and educators” (opensource.com, 2016). open education as a construct is closely related to open learning which refers to “the removal of both administrative and educational constraints to learning and where restrictions placed on students are under constant review and removed wherever possible” (coffey as cited in bozkurt, koseoglu, & singh, 2019, p. 79). according to bozkurt, koseoglu and singh (2019), open education and open learning only differ in the sense that the former represents discipline and area of the study while the latter refers to a philosophical basis on which open institutions are found. according to the open education consortium, “open education encompasses resources, tools and practices that employ a framework of open sharing to improve educational access and effectiveness worldwide” (edx, 2016). it achieves this by taking advantage of emerging technologies to create and share educational resources “while harnessing today’s collaborative spirit to develop educational approaches that are more responsive to learner’s needs” (edx, 2016). the significance of the open education movement was illustrated through the cape town open education declaration of 2007 that affirmed that “everyone should have the freedom to use, customize, improve and redistribute educational resources without constraint” (ctoed, 2008). moocs are a phenomenon of open education whose aim is “to increase access to and successful participation in education by removing barriers and offering multiple ways of learning and sharing knowledge” (unesco & commonwealth of learning, 2016, p. 18). the nature of learning on moocs embodies the principles of open education such as open access, collaborative knowledge creation, continuous updating and sharing of information, freedom to use, remix and distribute learning resources, just to mention a few. online education due to the diversity of educational practices and technologies used to support online education, various definitions exist in this regard. online education in this paper is to be used interchangeably with online learning. the definition offered by mohamed ally (2008) is favoured in this paper for its comprehensiveness and wider application. he defines online education as the: … use of the internet to access learning materials; to interact with the content, instructor, and other learners; and to obtain support during the learning process, in order to acquire knowledge, to construct personal meaning, and to grow from the learning experience (ally, 2008, p. 17). 208 moocs by their very name as online courses fall within the field of online education. the pedagogy of moocs emphasises interaction and participation. learners are expected to interact with learning content, usually in the form of videos, slides and reading materials, participate in discussions with fellow learners and course leaders, through which they are expected to construct new knowledge and meaning. in fact, interaction with fellow learners is much more expected and enhanced in moocs as opposed to ordinary, teacher-led online courses. according to kuboni (as cited in thiessen and ambrock, 2008, p. 267): the online learning environment has several features: it encourages a reduction in the emphasis on the didactic role of the teacher, while emphasizing collaboration; it enables the development of process skills and knowledge building, rather than information and knowledge acquisition; and it supports collaborative group activities. therefore, there is a need to make an effort to distinguish between traditional contact teaching on the one hand where the teacher, educator or professor is the sage on the stage in charge of every aspect of the learning process, and the online learning environment on the other hand, where the educator’s role transforms into that of a true, not symbolic, facilitator and collaborator. to embrace online learning environments requires us to shed our habitual control-focused pedagogies and embrace the culture and habits of online interactions that are horizontal and node-oriented, as will be discussed further below under connectivism. this would also enable education to be best placed to promote the ever sought after 21st-century skills like problem solving, collaboration and innovation, skills that are stunted or discouraged by traditional teaching approaches. connectivism the digital age has given birth to the current learning landscape that is seen as “networked, social and technological” (dunaway as cited in ungerer, 2016, p. 2) where learners “create and share information by collecting, filtering, and customizing digital content” (mills as cited in ungerer, 2016, p. 2). these are not only new skills that demand more from educators, they are also a landscape that cannot be adequately explained using traditional learning theories. the inadequacy of traditional learning theories has led to george siemens to introduce the theory of connectivism that conceptualises the ubiquitous access to information. according to siemens (2004, p. 4), connectivist “learning is focused on connecting specialized information sets, and the connections that enable us to learn more are more important than our current state of knowing”. from a connectivist perspective, learning takes place through an interaction between the individual and the network that is made up of nodes of other sources of knowledge, namely other individuals and organisations, enabling “learners to remain current in their field through the connections they have formed” (siemens, 2004, p. 4). the principles of connectivism are as follows: • learning and knowledge rests in diversity of opinions. • learning is a process of connecting specialized nodes or information sources. • learning may reside in non-human appliances. • capacity to know more is more critical than what is currently known. 209 • nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning. • ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts is a core skill. • currency (accurate, up-to-date knowledge) is the intent of all connectivist learning activities. • decision-making is in itself a learning process. (siemens, 2004, p. 4). connectivism disrupts the existing models of different models for support learning by challenging the “notion that learning should be controlled by educators and educational institutions”, instead “information and ‘knowledgeable others’ are readily available on online networks through the press of a button for anyone interested in expanding his or her horizon” (kop, fournier & mak as cited in yeager, hurley-dasgupta & bliss, 2013, p. 135). connectivism also redefines the role of the educator, shifting it from that of a knowledge provider to that of facilitator of learners’ connections to knowledge networks which is a feature of web 2.0 that promotes the idea of user generated content. according to eggins and slade (as cited in anderson, 2008, p. 64) web 2.0 “supports the reuse and adaptation of content through support for the construction, distribution, and retrieval of digitized content that is formatted and formally described, using semantic web technologies”. this is a feature of both connectivism and moocs. in moocs, particularly cmoocs, connectivism is manifested in key activities that take place in the process of learning. according to yeager, hurley-dasgupta and bliss (2013), there are four of these activities, namely aggregation or curation, remixing, repurposing and feeding forward. yeager, hurley-dasgupta and bliss (2013) explain that aggregation involves the listing and sharing of resources with participants on the mooc through updates; remixing refers to the initial connections made by the learners such as through blogging, liking, favouring or bookmarking; repurposing is when learners make sense of the connections by creating their own internal connections, while feeding forward involves learners sharing their connections with others on their networks. digital pedagogies pedagogy that was appropriate for the time when access to knowledge was scarce is called “pedagogy of scarcity” (weller, 2011). according to weller (2011), the pedagogy of scarcity that is based on the “one to many” model was designed to take advantage of rare resources (learning content and experts). as such it adopts instructivist pedagogies such as lectures to convey scarce learning content. however, in the era of abundant access to learning content and knowledge experts through digital technologies, there is a need for a new pedagogy, the “pedagogy of abundance”. weller (2011) states that the pedagogy of abundance is based on the assumptions that content is free, abundant, varied and user generated; sharing is free and social-based, facilitated by light connections that do not require a lot to maintain. this pedagogy demands a different focus for education and requires the teaching of digital and learning skills rather than knowledge recall. one such is skill is meta-cognitive processing that learners need in processing digital content, what is called curating. this involves “synthesizing, analyzing, and prioritizing information” (ungerer, 2016, p. 6), using web tools such as social media, the same sort of skills typically used when learning in moocs. 210 however, is this the reality regarding moocs? using the teaching approach framework that categorises teaching approaches based on the epistemological dimensions of objectivism and constructivism, a study by toven-lindsey, rhoads and lozano (2015) found that the majority of moocs used an objectivist and individual approach focusing on the “transmission of knowledge, instructional sequence and individual mastery” (p. 5). this approach was reinforced through the use of “recorded lectures, textbooks, multiple-choice and single answer assessments” (toven-lindsey, rhoads & lozano, 2015, p. 6). this finding does not surprise as it is simply a mirror reflection of the traditional face-to-face and online approaches. given that moocs are developed by educators from the very institutions that tend to stick to traditions and familiar practices, this is to be expected. however, one must emphasise that there are moocs that are most likely to be objectivist and those that are less likely to be so, as the next section illustrates. discussion anatomy of moocs moocs have been variably defined reflecting the varying theoretical positions the authors assume in their view of the mooc phenomenon. kesim and altinpulluk (2015, p. 16) define moocs as “platforms that are open, free to enrol in, have open curriculums, and can integrate with social networks”. a more comprehensive definition that is preferred by this paper is offered by cormier and gillis (as cited in toven-lindsey, rhoads & lozano, 2015) who define a mooc as “an online course that engages students in the learning process, offers a way for students to connect and collaborate, and provides a platform where course materials are shared and negotiated among participants” (p. 2). another way to conceptualise the identity of moocs is through their key characteristics, namely that they are open, participatory and distributed. according to baturay (2015, p. 428), open refers to the fact that participation on moocs is virtually open to anyone person with internet access; participatory signifies the nature of learning in that it takes place through the creation and sharing as well as reciprocal interaction with others’ contributions; while distributed describes the social and networked nature of the learning environment where learners interact with both learning content and with each other. types of moocs the literature identifies three main categories of moocs, namely cmoocs, task-based moocs and xmoocs (lane, 2012). cmoocs (or network-based moocs) “are the original moocs” whose “goal is not so much content and skills acquisition, but conversation, socially constructed knowledge, and exposure to the milieu of learning on the open web using distributed means” using a connectivist pedagogy (lane, 2012). the original cmoocs aimed at widening access to higher education for increased participation. it was premised on the notion that knowledge is readily available on the web and learning occurs “through the connections made among learners and learning objects” (yeager, hurley-dasgupta & bliss, 2013, p. 134). the task-based moocs “emphasise skills in the sense that they ask the learner to complete certain types of work” (lane, 2012). learning is guided by a syllabus accompanied by prescribed materials, and the goal is task completion. because task-based moocs tend to attract a smaller number of participants who usually share a profession, they are sometimes called smoocs – “small-to 211 medium” instead of “massive”. both networked and task-based moocs are a challenge for the application of traditional assessment methods, rather than relying on forms of peer and selfassessment such as discussions, comments and reflections. the content-based or xmoocs are the most popular type “with huge enrolments, commercial prospects, big university professors, automated testing” focusing on content acquisition rather than networking or task completion (lane, 2012). the xmoocs tend to be instructivist using mainly video lectures accompanied by formative and summative assessment. this type of mooc is popular with universities as their pedagogy resonates with established behaviourist approaches that are traditionally used in universities. the instructivist pedagogy accompanied by automation is also necessitated by the need to meet the demands of massive enrolments of course participants. the benefits and limitations of moocs the benefits of moocs for educational institutions include enhancing institutional visibility and promoting student recruitment, enabling institutions to try out new innovations and offer crossdisciplinary courses, expanding access to higher education, and enabling educators to experiment with new pedagogies while creating communities of practice (chea, 2016). offering similar sentiments, unesco and the commonwealth of learning (2016) maintain that moocs widen participation in higher education by enabling “people anywhere in the world to acquire high-quality knowledge on demand” (p. 23). this supports the promotion of equality in and democratisation of education, supports the return of investment in tertiary education for societies and reduces educational cost (unesco & commonwealth of learning, 2016). in terms of limitations, chea (2016) suggests that there are two main ones, namely “non-completion rates … and the pressure on institutions to reduce costs” (p. 19) due to high cost of outsourcing the facilitation of courses resulting from the limitation in ict expertise of local academic staff. unesco and the commonwealth of learning (2016) add that the advantages of moocs are that they are not accessible to everyone, and as such, cannot be the only solution for enhancing access to quality education. one challenge from the perspective of educators is that the development of moocs is both energy and time consuming, while from the side of students, there is low completion rates as many participants enrol in moocs but only a small number complete their course. according to zhang (2016), recent evidence shows that only 7-10% of enroled participants actually finish their course. however, few educators are positive about the provision of formal course credits to students for completed moocs. contextualising moocs to african local needs in the information age and knowledge based global economy, the flow of information and knowledge production remains asymmetrical, reflecting the entrenched inequalities between the global north and the global south in various sectors, including education provision. unsurprisingly, due to the digital divide between these two regions of the world, the global north is predominantly the producer of knowledge while the global south is principally the consumer of such knowledge. this scenario has permeated the arena of online education and, therefore, moocs. as such, a lot of the moocs available online are created by education providers in western countries with learning content reflecting the contexts in which and for which it was created. apart from learning content, the 212 digital context of the countries where moocs originated from as well as where they have proliferated, i.e., the developed countries, is different from that of developing countries like namibia. access to moocs is mainly free but one requires internet access, which is a challenge in developing countries in africa. therefore, the question is, how does one modify moocs to suit the african context, both in terms of content and access? various options are available. some mooc providers declare the learning content generated by course participants as open educational resources (oers). an example of a mooc provider that applies this principle is iversity whose terms of use regarding user generated content includes its “right to distribute, reproduce, adapt, make available, broadcast and retransmit and to recite, perform and present in public” as well as the right to make avail generated content “in any form, and to undertake any adaptations and reproductions that are required and to permit reproductions to other users” (iversity, 2016). one way to contextualise mooc content is to harvest, adapt and customise it for local contexts, including curricula structures, learning outcomes and learner preferences. the design of most moocs enable easy repackaging of content by choosing bits and pieces that are relevant to educators’ local teaching needs. this can be referred to as course supplementation whereby the content of moocs is pooled, adapted and repurposed to add value to the course delivery of educators in higher education. topics of high demand among learners or of greater difficulty can be primed for this purpose. another way to repurpose mooc content is to use annotations on content generated by others on moocs. this involves educators adding personal insights into selected course content such as by providing local examples equivalent to foreign concepts used in the content or adding learning activities flavoured by local curricula. as far as curricula demands and local standards are concerned, the restructuring of mooc content to suit the design of local curricula or to meet the educators’ pedagogical approaches and learners’ learning styles is another example. the models of mooc contextualisation described above focused on content harvesting and adapting, otherwise called curating. if one shifts the content from content to delivery mechanisms, another challenge and opportunity for contextualisation presents itself, namely digital access and connectivity. unlike developed countries, most african countries have lower internet access levels as well as lower quality connectivity. liyanagunawardena, williams and adams (2013) describe the challenge of accessing learning content such as high-definition videos that suit developed countries’ participants well while disadvantaging developing countries’ participants, who may be unable to download videos or to use online video conferencing tools such as skype of google hangout. this picture is not dissimilar to most african countries where poor bandwidth presents similar problems. such a challenge requires educators using moocs to find alternative means of enabling learner access to learning content such as those discussed above. another challenge that distinguishes africa from developed countries is that access to the internet takes place mainly through mobile devices rather than computers. this scenario demands that contextualisation of moocs should involve both fostering access to mooc learning content offline as well as modifying content for mobile device access. the former is easier as it simply involves downloading content for offline access but the latter demands more as it requires content to be 213 adjusted for consumption through mobile devices. this can involve re-chunking of content and/or the delivery of such content through mobile applications rather than through browsers. notwithstanding the discussion so far, it is also noteworthy to indicate that the “open” in moocs does not always refer to oer, but rather to open registration for anyone with internet access. thus, unlike the open education movement spearheaded by mit with their opencourseware, moocs are considered to generally have strict copyright terms (liyanagunawardena, williams & adams, 2013). this particularly applies to content-based xmoocs given their massive reach and commercial orientation. to navigate the mooc landscape it is necessary to distinguish those with open accessibility from those that do not demand skill and time from educators and learners alike. inter-institutional collaboration on creation of moocs the idea of inter-institutional collaboration is a feature of the knowledge economy where educational institutions can respond to modern needs by transforming their roles and modus operandi regarding teaching, research and other key activities. with a shift from materials to services and knowledge in knowledge economies, educational institutions are restructuring themselves from generalist institutions into centres of specialized knowledge interconnected by communications technology, where “each knowledge centre develops its own skills in depth around its core competencies and broadcasts its needs and capabilities to others – combining with them to solve specific problems as required” (quinn, 2001, p. 32). according to quinn, institutional relationships in knowledge economies are characterised by collaboration instead of competition, borne out of “mutual need, common interest, and intellectual respect” (2001, p. 32). the need for collaboration is further necessitated by the proliferation of information communication technologies that have rendered universities as just one of the sources of knowledge rather than being the main source as it was in the past. quinn (2001) argues that universities have shifted from being centres of knowledge to being “access nodes on the knowledge network” (p. 35). therefore, quinn suggests the role of education in a web-based world should be redefined from that of providing students with knowledge to that of enhancing their ability to “develop their own valid mental models for analysing, across disciplines, situations no one has seen before” (2001, p. 35). this requires educational institutions to break down boundaries and promote openness to truly be nodes on a network that fosters student access to knowledge wherever it may be found. given the orientation towards and rationale for collaboration for educational institutions in knowledge economies, a status that most african countries are ambitiously aspiring to achieve, the pertinent question would be how could institutions of higher learning in africa, whether in the same or different countries, collaborate on moocs creation? this question and others, such as how institutions of higher learning can actually collaborate in the creation and use of moocs, have been addressed in the subsequent discussion. 214 models of inter-institutional collaboration inter-institutional collaboration in areas of teaching and learning “allows faculty members to specialize in topics they know and enjoy. as a result, students benefit by having a widely read and deeply experienced faculty member in every course they take” (dow, 2008, p. 176). according to dow (2008) collaboration in distance education takes place along a scale: … from instructional design among a team of faculty collaborating across institutional boundaries, class-to-class collaboration in which classes at different institutions work together, to institution-to-institution collaboration in which different institutions work together to offer complete degree or continuing education programs to students at distant sites (dow, 2008, p. 171). there are global examples of inter-institutional collaboration in offering online courses as well as moocs. the virtual university is one concept that embodies the notion of inter-institutional collaboration in the delivery of courses using information communication technologies to enhance access to higher education. supported by technology, such collaborations can be multi-institutional, multi-state and multi-national, where collaborating institutions can deliver modules, courses and degrees to individuals and groups of learners who interact with faculty using both synchronous and asynchronous modes of interaction (sejzi, aris & yahya, 2012). one good example of an inter-institutional virtual university is in finland where 21 universities created the finnish virtual university (fvu), a consortium and collaborative university network whose aim was to “offer flexible net-based educational services as a joint venture between universities, research institutes and business enterprises” kylama, 2005, p. 109). some of the roles of the fvu are that it “develops flexible study opportunities across university boundaries, promotes the shared use of online instruction and educational materials, produces ict training and support services for shared use” (fvu, 2006). according to the fvu, the finnish virtual university supports student mobility by allowing students who are enrolled at one university to take part of their degree’s courses at another university without additional cost to the student. furthermore, the fvu also promotes competence development through the sharing of expertise and research, sensible division of labour, expertise and collaboration (fvu, 2006). another example of inter-institutional collaboration is found in hong kong where the university grants committee (ugc), made up of eight hong kong universities, collaborates on the development of moocs. according to hong (2016), the objectives of the collaborative project were to: … establish a joint e-learning platform for the sharing of online courses, use the platform for piloting innovative pedagogies, foster collaboration among institutions by packaging related courses, provide a platform for collecting data on students’ learning patterns and perform learning analytics for enhancing the learning experience of students, and provide a platform for outreaching to post-secondary and secondary school sectors. the literature reviewed indicated that moocs have a widespread adoption in several universities as a virtual learning environment. however, each university has no connection with another, particularly in the african context where the use of moocs is relatively new. thus, it is difficult for students in one university to enrol in any readily available courses from another. therefore, there is a 215 need to suggest a framework for collaboration among african higher education institutions in moocs. a framework for collaboration of african higher education institutions in moocs there are various ways in which higher education institutions in africa could take better advantage of the promise of moocs through collaboration. examples from finland and hong kong discussed above offer a guideline on how course offerings and collaborations could be arranged. the finnish model requires higher education institutions to offer credit bearing online courses individually and open them up to students at sister institutions that are part of the collaboration. these courses would then be oocs (open online courses) that are not “massive” as they are not open to just anyone. for this to work, higher education institutions in africa would need to initiate a credit transfer system that would enable students to transfer credits obtained from a course at one institution to their home institution. a similar system is already in place in europe, where educational institutions from 46 signatory countries that have agreed to the bologna process and ascribe to the european qualification framework use the european credit transfer and accumulation system or ects to facilitate student “credit accumulation and transfer based on the transparency of learning outcomes and learning processes” (european communities, 2009, p. 11). ects basically describes the: … workload (time students typically need to complete all learning activities (such as lectures, seminars, projects, practical work, self-study and examinations) students need in order to achieve expected learning outcomes: what a learner is expected to know, understand and be able to do after successful completion of a process of learning (european communities, 2009, p. 11). given the fact that most higher education institutions in africa are governed by qualifications frameworks, it should be easier to formulate a credit transfer policy that could guide student credit accumulation and transfer through moocs. another collaboration framework option is to use the ugc model, whereby all institutions create a common course platform from which moocs would be administered. the ugc is more truly “moocish” as courses are opened up to learners not enrolled with universities, including post-secondary and secondary learners. for students’ learning to be credited, this model would still require a credit transfer system to be in place. it may also work best using blended approaches whereby students enrol for the moocs offered, while authenticated assessment would take place in individual/ home institutions’ controlled face-to-face environments. one advantage that africa has is the enabling environment that can facilitate this process. firstly, all higher education institutions ascribe to one qualification framework, which should make it easier to formulate a credit transfer system. at the continental level, the african quality assurance network (afriqan) has been established with the purpose of providing assistance to higher education institutions with regards to quality assurance and harmonisation of higher education in africa. there are also other initiatives such as the african union’s strategy for harmonisation of higher education in africa, launched with the objective to develop quality assurance mechanisms in africa (shabani, okebukola & oyewole 2014). the harmonisation of african higher education quality assurance and accreditation (haqaa) initiative, is one funded by the european union (eu) in partnership with the african union (au), and has been established to support the development of a harmonised quality assurance and accreditation system at the institutional, national, and regional levels. one of the primary activities of the harmonisation of african higher education quality assurance and 216 accreditation initiative (haqaa) was to develop african standards and guidelines for quality assurance (asg-qa). all these initiatives could be used as a platform for achieving collaboration in moocs between higher education institutions in africa as summarised in figure 2. figure 2: the poocai framework source: authors’ own design figure 2 above proposes the framework that would guide the operationalisation of moocs in african higher education institutions. essentially haqaa, with which all national quality assurance bodies would be aligned, would provide the overall standards and operational regulations for the mooc platform, namely the platform for open online courses for african institutions (poocai), which is just a working name. this platform will host the moocs that all affiliated institutions would be able to access. but how would these institutions integrate the moocs into their curricula? pérez-sanagustín, hilliger, alariohoyos, kloos and rayyan (2017) provide a framework for using moocs as part of hybrid education or blended learning. figure 3 represents that framework which institutions can make use of to guide their strategies for integrating moocs into their curricula. harmonisation of african higher education quality assurance and accreditation (haqaa) platform for open online courses for african institutions (poocai) institution institution institution institution institution 217 figure 3: framework for integrating moocs into the curriculum source: pérez-sanagustín et al (2017, p. 51) the curriculum integration framework by pérez-sanagustín et al (2017) makes provision for various ways in which moocs can be used depending on the preferences of the institution. according to pérez-sanagustín et al (2017, p. 51), these range from courses that require little or no institutional support such as “mooc as a service” which students may voluntarily enrol in without such courses being aligned with the curriculum; and “mooc as replacement” where the online course actually replaces the institutional course (complete alignment with the curriculum). the other two categories of courses require institutional support such as providing infrastructure. one is “mooc as an added value”, where an institution provides all necessary support but the course may not necessarily be aligned to the curriculum. the other, the “mooc as driver”, offers an option for a traditional course in the curriculum to be organised around the mooc. conclusion moocs are an emerging technology and approach to the delivery of online learning. the benefits offered by moocs such as fostering access to quality higher education and to quality learning materials for both educators and students are obvious. at the same time, challenges that exist within the nature of moocs are that they require technology and internet-oriented solutions, and they are predominantly of western origin and less open in terms of the reuse of learning resources, which we have highlighted. however, given the growing access to the internet in most african countries and the growing demand for quality higher education, lifelong learning and the challenge faced by educators at educational institutions to meet the learning demands of their nations, the time is ripe for educational institutions to take advantage of the wealth of opportunities offered by moocs. 218 this paper has unearthed interesting insights regarding moocs and their potential for use in africa. in terms of pedagogy, there are implications for higher education institutions such as the need to address issues like the digital divide within countries in order to promote equitable access to online learning for all. of particular importance is the need to develop african learners’ and educators’ 21st century digital literacies to enable them to take advantage of moocs. educators can curate only quality content and facilitate online learning if they have adequate digital skills. there is also a need to support the use of innovative pedagogies using connectivist learning that comes along with moocs. another issue that needs to be addressed is the perceptions towards moocs, which, if negative, can negatively affect the adoption of moocs by educational institutions in africa. a study in europe by gaebel, kupriyanova, morais and colucci (2014) found that a lot of educators (42%) had mixed feelings about moocs while one out of five had limited knowledge about moocs, which also influenced their decisions to adopt or ignore them. this indicates that attitudes towards moocs and knowledge about them needs to be a priority in any strategy to promote the use of moocs in africa. when it comes to inter-institutional collaboration, examples of models that could be useful in this regard are plentiful, while the local policy structures can be supportive of collaborative initiatives of this nature. the way forward would be to choose a collaboration model suitable to local needs and to put in place a specific operational framework in line with the selected model. at the same time, it is clear that educators have various ways in which they can contextualise moocs, including curating content and repurposing and restructuring it to fit their own purposes; using blended learning approaches to make use of learning content while designing their own learning and assessment activities, and to find ways of fostering access to moocs through the use of mobile devices. recommendations there is a need for both theory and practice-based research in the area of open education and related areas in general, and moocs in particular in the developing countries of the global south. the literature clearly shows that the research into and practice of moocs is unhealthily dominated by the global north, leaving developing countries, that arguably can benefit the most from open education practices, as receivers of research knowledge and moocs originating elsewhere, with contextrelevant challenges. the study shows that for moocs to be accepted in higher education, general open education practices need to be promoted to prepare the ground by enhancing changes in attitudes, pedagogical practices and overall openness to change. at the same time, practical interventions at the local, national or instructional level need to be considered to equip educators with skills on how they can appropriate moocs in their teaching, such as curating content and repurposing and restructuring courses to fit their own purposes. as for students, there is a need to promote self-directed learning and collaborative learning approaches that would enable them to take advantage of moocs. further research should focus on the practice of using moocs, using some of the models suggested in this paper by looking at aspects such as educator and student experiences, and the impact on learning achievement and usefulness of moocs during times of educational crises such as the covid-19 pandemic. references ally, m. (2008). foundations of educational theory for online learning. in anderson, t. (ed.), theory and practice of online learning (2nd ed.) (pp. 15-44). canada: athabasca university press. 219 anderson, t. (2008). the theory and practice of online learning (2nd ed.). athabasca university press. baturay, m. h. (2015). an overview of the world of moocs. procedia-social and behavioural sciences, 174, 427-433. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.01.685 bozkurt, a., koseoglu, s., & singh, l. (2019). an analysis of peer reviewed publications on openness in education in half a century: trends and patterns in the open hemisphere. australasian journal of educational technology, 35(4), 78-97. doi: https://doi.org/10.14742/ajet.4252 chea, c. c. (2016). benefits and challenges of massive open online courses. asean journal of open distance learning, 8(1), 16-23. ctoed. (2008). cape town open education declaration: unlocking the promise of open educational resources. http://www.capetowndeclaration.org/read-the-declaration dow, e. h. (2008). successful inter-institutional resource sharing in a niche educational market: formal collaboration without a contract. innovative high education, 33, 169-179. doi:10.1007/s10755-008-9076-x educause. (2013). moocs ii. http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/eli7097.pdf edx. (2016). about the open education consortium. http://www.oeconsortium.org/about-oec/ european communities. (2009). ects user guide. http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/education_culture/repository/education/library/publications/2015/ects-usersguide_en.pdf fvu. (2006). virtual university model in finland – from strategy to practice [powerpoint slides]. http://www.vopla.fi/tiedostot/english/eden_06.ppt.ppt gaebel, m., kupriyanova, v., morais, r., & colucci, e. (2014). e-learning in european higher education institutions: results of a mapping survey conducted in october-december 2013. european university association publications. http://www.eua.be/libraries/publication/e-learning_survey.pdf?sfvrsn=2 kesim, m., & altınpulluk, h. (2015). a theoretical analysis of moocs types from a perspective of learning theories. procedia-social and behavioural sciences, 186, 15-19. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.04.056 kylama, m. (2005). the finnish virtual university and finland’s path to a learning society. in m. i. christopher, & v. zeynep (eds.), perspectives on distance education: lifelong learning & distance higher education, commonwealth of learning, (pp. 107-120). unesco. lane, l. (2012, august 15). three kinds of moocs. http://lisahistory.net/wordpress/2012/08/three-kinds-of-moocs/ liyanagunawardena, t., williams, s., & adams, a. (2013). the impact and reach of moocs: a developing countries’ perspective. elearning papers, (33). marsaglia, m., kemp, w., jefferson, s., bradley, c., & silberman, e. (2014). cognitive science, a massive open online course: converting the cognitive science and ed tech ii curriculum into a mooc. https://wp.nyu.edu/evansilberman/wp-content/uploads/sites/287/2014/09/cogsciiiedtechgroupprojectoutline.pdf opensource.com. (2016). what is open education? https://opensource.com/resources/what-open-education pérez-sanagustín, m., hilliger, i., alario-hoyos, c., kloos, c. d., & rayyan, s. (2017). h-mooc framework: reusing moocs for hybrid education. journal of computing in higher education, 29(1), 47-64. doi:10.1007/s12528-017-9133-5 quinn, j. b. (2001). services and technology: revolutionizing higher education. educause, 36(4), 28-36. sejzi, a. a., aris, b., & yahya, n. (2012). the phenomenon of virtual university in new age: trends and changes. procedia-social and behavioural sciences, 56, 565-572. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.09.689 shabani, j., okebukola, p., & oyewole, o. (2014). quality assurance in africa: towards a continental higher education and research space. international journal of african higher education, 1(1), 139-171. 220 siemens, g. (2004). connectivism: a learning theory for the digital age. http://www.elearnspace.org/articles/connectivism.htm thiessen, j., & ambrock, v. (2008). value added—the editor in design and development of online courses. in t. anderson (ed.), theory and practice of online learning (2nd ed.) (pp. 265-275). canada: athabasca university press. https://biblioteca.pucv.cl/site/colecciones/manuales_u/99z_anderson_2008theory_and_practice_of_online_learning.pdf toven-lindsey, b., rhoads, r. a., & lozano, j. b. (2015). virtually unlimited classrooms: pedagogical practices in massive open online courses. the internet and higher education, 24, 1-12. veletsianos, g., & shepherdson, p. (2016). a systematic analysis and synthesis of the empirical mooc literature published in 2013-2015. the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 17(2), 198-221. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v17i2.2448 unesco and commonwealth of learning. (2016). making sense of moocs: a guide for policy makers in developing countries. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0024/002451/245122e.pdf ungerer, l. m. (2016). digital curation as a core competency in current learning and literacy: a higher education perspective. the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 17(5). weller, m. (2011). a pedagogy of abundance. spanish journal of pedagogy, 249, 223-236. yeager, c., hurley-dasgupta, b., & bliss, c. a. (2013). cmoocs and global learning: an authentic alternative. journal of asynchronous learning networks, 17(2), 133-147. zhang, j. (2016). can moocs be interesting to students? an experimental investigation from regulatory focus perspective. computers & education, 95, 340-351. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2016.02.003 zawacki-richter, o. et al (2020). elements of open education: an invitation to future research. the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 21(3), 319-334. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v21i3.4659 authors: erkkie haipinge is a deputy director for elearning at the centre for open, distance and elearning, university of namibia. he holds a master of arts in education and globalization from the university of oulu, finland and has specialised in educational technologies. he teaches technology integration in learning and teaching and is a proponent of project based learning. his research interests include social media integration in learning, new digital learning environments, mobile learning and application of innovations to learning and teaching. email: ehaipinge@unam.na ngepathimo kadhila is a director of quality assurance at the university of namibia. he holds a phd in higher education, with a focus on quality assurance, from the university of the free state, south africa, a master’s in education and a bachelor’s in education from the university of namibia, as well as a postgraduate diploma in higher education from rhodes university in south africa. his research interests include academic development, curriculum development in higher education, teaching and learning in higher education, and quality assurance. email: nkadhila@unam.na cite this paper as: haipinge, e., & kadhila, n. (2021). rethinking a framework for contextualising and collaborating in moocs by higher education institutions in africa. journal of learning for development, 8(1), 204220. microsoft word daniel.docx issn: 2311-1550 2020, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 271-285 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. covid-19 – a two-week transition from campus to online at the acsenda school of management, canada sir john daniel acsenda school of management, vancouver, canada abstract: in march 2020 the covid-19 pandemic obliged higher education institutions (heis) in many countries to vacate their campuses and operate at a distance. we narrate the experience of the acsenda school of management (asm) in making this sudden transition. asm is a private forprofit business school with some 1,200, mostly international, students based in vancouver, canada. drawing on interviews with asm staff the paper identifies why the transition was relatively successful. it concludes with reflections on the longer-term impact of covid-19 and how to integrate online and distance learning more effectively in heis around the world. keywords: covid-19, hei, online and distance learning. introduction in the early months of 2020, the covid-19 disease, caused by a novel coronavirus, spread rapidly around the world, causing thousands of deaths and severe economic disruption. most countries ordered the closure of their schools and colleges to slow the spread of the infection (daniel, 2020). by the end of march, 1.37 billion students — nearly 80% of the world student population — were at home, with governments and institutions scrambling to “scale up multimedia approaches to ensure learning continuity” (unesco, 2020). the acsenda school of management (asm) in vancouver, canada, shut down its campus and moved its activities online in march. as the institution’s chancellor (a figurehead role), i had the opportunity to observe its adaptation to this sudden upheaval without being personally involved in any of the many changes involved. my background is a 30-year career in higher education administration, notably in open and distance learning institutions, followed by ten years at senior levels in international intergovernmental organisations. by late april i concluded that asm had handled the move off campus competently and, with the agreement of the president, i decided to try to capture the elements of its approach. over a two-week period, i interviewed 12 asm staff members by phone and attended a drop-in meeting of faculty over zoom. i am grateful to these colleagues for talking to me and quotations from them are identified in the text. in mid-may i circulated a draft of this narrative to those i had interviewed, but i take full responsibility for any errors of fact or interpretation. the institution the acsenda school of management is a private, for-profit business school in vancouver, british columbia (bc). in 2004 the sprott-shaw community college (founded 1903) created the sprott-shaw degree college. it received consent from the bc government to offer a bachelor of business 272 administration (bba) degree and enrolled students in 2005. in 2008 the degree college was acquired by the cibt group before becoming part of the educo international group, an australian company. meanwhile the college had gained approval to offer a direct-entry four-year bachelor of hospitality management (bhm) degree and changed its name to the acsenda school of management. from its establishment in 2004, until its acquisition by the educo international group in 2016, asm struggled to enrol more than 200 students annually. under educo student recruitment increased sharply, necessitating moving to a larger campus. in the 2020 year, asm enrolled over 1,200 students, as illustrated in figure 1, the large majority from some 40 countries outside canada. figure 1: acsenda registrations all asm’s teaching occurred in the classrooms on its burrard campus until the covid-19 pandemic struck early in 2020. already in 2019, asm’s strategic planning committee had begun discussions about incorporating more blended learning into the curriculum, moves that were primarily motivated by considerations of pedagogy, lifelong learning and preparing students to use technology in the workplace. a local transit strike, campus closures due to extreme weather and the search for timetabling efficiencies were other incentives for integrating more technology into the curriculum. these discussions led to a three-year plan that proved helpful when asm had to vacate the campus quickly, even though it was not aimed at transforming asm into an online hei. covid-19 arrives: timelines although world leaders were slow to react to covid-19 and appreciate its infectiousness and lethality, british columbia acted more quickly than most jurisdictions. this was partly because in the us the first case (january 21) and the first death (february 26) occurred in neighbouring washington 273 state. bc has a well-integrated health-care system that includes long-term care homes. when its first outbreak occurred in one of these care homes on march 6, the alarm was raised immediately. the bc government had issued an advisory on january 27 and, although the risk was then considered “low”, asm’s president and the educo officer responsible for canada initiated discussions within educo and sought information from the bc council for international education on actions proposed in bc. on february 13, following a request from asm’s occupational health & safety committee, cleaning practices on campus were intensified with full sanitisation, cleaning three times a day and the placement of wipes and hand-sanitisers around the campus. asm was assured that the campus air filtration system was similar to those in hospitals. on march 5, asm held a first covid-19 meeting to explore putting the term’s final exams online — but still in the expectation that asm would be back on campus by march 30. discussions had been underway between educo, asm, arbutus college and other parts of the educo network about covid-19. corporate-level business travel was restricted and the senior leadership team initiated a scenario-planning process and the development of a campus response plan. staff and faculty were reminded to disclose all business and personal travel. on march 6, a message to asm students, faculty, staff and academic council indicated where to find more information about covid-19 and alerted the campus community that changes might be forthcoming. a public awareness campaign on campus provided information about the virus and the precautionary measures that people could take. asm established an askaboutcovid helpline, an online chat feature about health and safety and began development of a covid-19 webpage with information for current and future students, faculty, staff and other stakeholders. on march 7, university canada west (ucw), another local for-profit institution, had a case of covid-19 and shut down for three days. asm and ucw share some student accommodation, so asm realised it had to take the situation very seriously and ramped up its preparations, with scenario planning for a full or partial shutdown. some asm faculty teach at other heis and were able to gather intelligence about the gathering storm. starting on march 7, acting on his belief that communication channels are most important in a crisis, the president communicated regularly with the academic council and the students. checks were made on students coming from affected countries and discussions with educo intensified. classes continued on campus in the week of march 9 but ceased for the week of march 16, with the campus finally closing on april 3. march 7 heralded a period of intense preparation, under the guidance of the vice-president, academic (vpa), for moving all academic activities off campus. preparations were made to implement the technology framework for a shift to online learning and a virtual classroom software: big blue button, was added to the moodle learning management system. the original intention had been to introduce this in october 2020. an important executive meeting was held on march 10. final exams would be online, and no one would come on campus in finals week; faculty should set take-home exams where they counted for more than 20% of the marks and give additional assignments where they counted for less than 20%. implementation of these decisions was “a bit bumpy but 95% successful” (interviewee quotation). 274 asm began preparations of a student support strategy and the development of systems and information to help students. a two-week quarantine period was being introduced for persons entering canada, which raised concerns about student adjustment, feelings of isolation and access to essential needs. by march 16, asm realised that it could not soon return to campus. to operate online, it explored the use of zoom and integrated the bigbluebutton (bbb) open source web conferencing system with asm’s existing moodle system. moodle was already integrated with the student information system. on march 17, the leadership team decided to move all teaching online for the coming term. bbb would be the main platform with zoom as a backup, although zoom could have worked as the main platform, too, and, according to later surveys, was preferred by faculty and students. on march 19, a zoom meeting was held for all asm faculty and some from arbutus college (another educo affiliate). the vpa said this “was a good session with lots of energy and supportive participants. the tools were in place and the faculty enthusiastic”. from this point the vpa felt that asm was in good shape for the transition. march 23 saw orientation of the new student intake using a fully virtual system, including a new online payment system. in the period march 22-27, two it-skilled staff members were identified as bbb and moodle coaches. they contacted all faculty and supported them through the week march 22-27, doing an “amazing job” (interviewee quotation) in getting everyone online, despite steep learning curves. only a few faculty members had major difficulties. a stipend of $75 was paid to faculty for attending the first of a series of weekly training sessions on the use of zoom. there were also weekly drop-in meetings, hosted by the vpa, to share practice. having attended one such meeting on may 7, i can attest that they were popular and successful, pooling the remarkable collective knowledge of the faculty about technology-based teaching and learning systems. by march 30, everyone was ready, and, despite some outages, there was a successful test run. the tricky issues were server capacity, sharing webcams and creating videos. asm was identified by zoom as a special organisation (lifting the 40-minute meeting limit) and all asm staff and faculty were asked to sign up with zoom individually as a backup. in the first week of classes asm struggled a bit and 20% of courses encountered difficulties but by the end of the week problems with the server had been identified and dealt with through real-life testing. on april 10 arrangements were made with educo to record student presence and participation, which is now done more assiduously than it used to be in the classrooms. was any previous planning useful? some previous planning, both by asm as a corporate body and by some of its staff, did prove useful, although it had not been carried out in the expectation that a global pandemic would close down the institution’s normal operations almost overnight. one view was that asm benefited from not having detailed plans for this particular eventuality. addressing problems as they arose was a better approach. after years of complaints at the academic council about the ineffectiveness of the student record system, asm had introduced a new student information management system in 2018. this enabled a 275 wider range of online management of student records, registration, financial, and course/learning management. both the system and the processes underpinning it had recently been comprehensively reformed to make them simpler. as well as being a virtue in itself, the system’s simplicity makes it easier to transfer registrarial staff between tasks; an important consideration because asm-trained staff are attractive to other heis and turnover in the registry is high. an effective and accurate student information system, including records of faculty and staff attendance, proved to be even more important for online operations because only the system ‘knows’ who was present in courses. it is also the basis for the official reports to governments. training faculty on the new system had gone well, although some 15% still needed additional support with the new technology. technology was a greater challenge with students, many of whom have a limited command of english and needed the reassurance of talking to someone. e-mail traffic about administrative questions increased dramatically after operations went online. the registrar also deals with changes of schedule. this term, as a result of the covid-19 pandemic, asm enrolled significantly fewer students than expected, so the schedule had to be adapted and sessions cancelled in an equitable manner. also, at the corporate level, the academic council had been musing in a desultory way for some years about the implications of e-learning for asm’s future. the general view was that asm’s key strength, and the characteristic most valued by students, was the personal contact among students, faculty and staff, implying that online teaching and learning might be helpful at the margins but was not a mainstream concern. nevertheless, in 2017 the strategic planning committee had been asked to examine the potential of online methods, to assess the pedagogical, organisational and technological opportunities that they might afford, and to make recommendations. this led to the presentation of a strategic technology plan in november 2019. this plan aimed to achieve the following impacts between 2020 and 2022: • to use technologies that enable asm to achieve efficiencies in the deployment of institutional resources; • to use technologies that enhance the quality of programme curricula, improve flexible access to courses, and, enhance learning effectiveness; • to ensure asm graduates are able to demonstrate competencies related to using technologies that support continuing education activities throughout their lives. key outcomes of the plan are to: • use a three-hour block format for all courses; • render students and faculty competent in the use of common business technologies; • improve efficiencies of scheduling and facilities use. this was not a plan for converting asm into an online teaching institution. nevertheless, staff felt that the reflections stimulated by its formulation did prove useful as asm faced the very different challenge of taking the institution 100% online in a few days. although these previous discussions had assumed considerable use of asynchronous approaches, there simply was no time to prepare such materials, so most of the teaching had to be synchronous: “you do what you were doing in class, but online” (interviewee quotation). 276 making the transition: curriculum the whole bba curriculum was revamped in a week. the dean assessed which faculty members were most “online ready” and trained them first. focus groups of the faculty teaching each course had daily meetings to revise the curriculum. they also reviewed pedagogy and came up with a four-element structure, having decided that three hours was too long for an online lesson: 1. lay out a clear agenda for the session – posted previous day. 2. offer live synchronous session not more than 45 minutes. 3. use the platform for interaction online. 4. plan assessment and discussion to assess students using various teaching media. at first the dean visited each focus group daily to encourage co-operation between faculty. the meetings then moved to a weekly schedule. there was also a weekly meeting outside the focus groups. the vpa also had all faculty members check in weekly. the dean judged that asm’s earlier planning discussions about online teaching proved helpful, as did tips from other institutions (e.g., minimising time for open-book exams to give less time for consultation). asm instituted a dress code for students for online lessons (no pyjamas!) and insisted that students raise their hands frequently to ensure participation. during exams’ week a new faculty member with strong it experience did video training and one-onone sessions with faculty in the use of moodle. this was an example of relatively new staff members blossoming in this crisis. making the transition: technology the technology plan, developed over the previous three years for a different purpose, had to be reversioned for implementation in two weeks. some key technology updating (e.g., the plagiarism checker) had already been done, but other projects hanging fire (e.g., an online payments system and putting fillable forms online) were now carried out. this was done alongside the upgrade on march 29 of an old version of moodle that had been planned for october, which included integrating and configuring, on the fly, the open source web-conferencing system bigbluebutton, also used by the university of british columbia (ubc). this all had to be done at a time when it service providers were experiencing huge increases in systems usage, leading to many outages. zoom was offline for hours. the upgrade did not work perfectly because “we didn’t understand enough about the system” (interviewee quotation) but registration took place over the phone and on bbb. faculty quickly developed successful approaches to using zoom; such as the importance of starting sessions with short icebreakers to “warm people up and get better engagement among the students” (interviewee quotation). the bba has classes of around 25-35 students and its thirty faculty represent twenty-five nationalities. these sessions helped participants to appreciate asm’s diversity. e-learning works best when pre-prepared material, used by students asynchronously, is blended with synchronous class discussions in break-out rooms on zoom. although few faculty had asynchronous materials ready in advance, this blend worked well for those that did, and a later survey showed that students would like to have more asynchronous teaching. using ‘scramble’ for allocating students to 277 the break-out rooms, and asking students to leave their cameras turned on, broke down barriers and led to some good discussions. among the faculty, previous experience of online teaching and learning varied widely. one, who had been an early adopter of moodle and other distance learning tools, was already moving courses online and helped colleagues to put their exams online. the few who had already developed distance learning materials for asynchronous use found that know-how helpful. from their experience of teaching at other bc institutions some faculty were familiar with a variety of online tools (bigbluebutton, bluejeans, collaborate, zoom, moodle). as already noted, the readiness of faculty to share experience and know-how with each other was impressive. in the vital area of english for academic purposes, exploration of online teaching and learning had been going on at asm for over a year. the vpa circulated an important document about the privacy restrictions on recording students’ use of zoom. closing the campus after the decision to close it, the campus had to be shut down in a systematic way. fortunately, the staff member responsible had previous experience of closing down operations in another organisation and could do this in an orderly and recorded manner. this work involved: • ensuring that all regular services were advised (janitorial, vending machine servicing, phone communications message on voicemail); • contacting building management to advise on closure of elevators and the front door to the campus, advising building security, arranging for mail pick up; • cleaning out the fridges of any foods that could spoil, and arranging any outstanding deliveries that were still pending; • setting up cell phones for communication; making sure everyone had a laptop or computer at home to work from; getting everyone set up with vpn connection to access campus files through the server; getting to know how to hook up computer equipment at home, and the debit/credit machine; • learning how to explain to students on the phone how to make a payment via the website (which only became possible at the time the campus closed); • speaking with the student workers, and providing some emotional support because their work hours were reduced; • recommending strategies for the canada emergency response benefit (cerb) announcements for students’ income. a large amount of information had to be made available at the same time. communications from march 7, the president communicated regularly with staff, students and the academic council. the staff member responsible for communications keeps students informed and projects the persona of asm. prior to covid-19, this work focussed on text exchanges because students could interact 278 with each other and staff by coming to campus. the task now is to “get the word out and push content at them” (interviewee quotation), especially video content and infographics. he taught himself video production and graphic design and aimed to ensure a ‘cornucopia of student interaction’ (interviewee quotation) with more engaging content. the situation is in constant evolution, with something new every day. he relies on data and analytics to assess the impact of his work: e.g., attendance at group sessions; how many people open emails; weekly reports on social media. an educo affiliate also provides some useful material and the president hosts a live video meeting with students every week and posts a video update. most asm students have the equipment necessary for these communications, although media are chosen partly for their accessibility. asm tries to offer a balance of diverse material, some of potential interest to everyone as well as niche cultural nights. there is more development of unique communication material and heavy reliance on social media: facebook and instagram. before covid19 asm had no infrastructure for daily messages. initially, students were concerned about making friends and being able to talk to them but this worry has dissipated as they have acquired the habit of keeping in touch with each other. student affairs does frequent events and there are episodes each day of gatherings using zoom (e.g., trivia nights and meeting rooms). zoom has proved to be excellent because it can cope with large groups, it is versatile, and it works. as was noted in china, where students are notoriously reluctant to speak up in class, asm found that the online world encourages students who used not to participate in discussions to do so (lau et al, 2020). a wide range of additional events is under consideration going forward, including group movie nights. in this work, communications works closely with the registrar, for official and administrative information, with student affairs and with the student ambassadors. these are high-performing students who determine the agendas for student nights and keep their fingers on the pulse of the student body. how are the faculty coping? going into the covid-19 pandemic asm had the advantage of competent and motivated faculty and harmonious relations within the institution based on a learning culture. the vpa has given strong leadership by holding a faculty forum each week. it was not difficult to motivate faculty members to acquire new skills, although a stipend was given for the first bbb training session, attracting 60 people. subsequent ‘best-practice’ and drop-in sessions were also well attended. asm has a tradition of nurturing and team leadership at programme level. most faculty are also affiliated with other local universities and professional associations and draw on these connections for professional development. social get-togethers of the very diverse programme faculty members (25 nationalities) to share national music help to bond the group and encourage identification with asm as a good place to work. at the institutional level, while providing general professional development and training, asm has also provided individualised training and support, including several peer coaches. it has been important for faculty to become proficient in both bbb and zoom because of technical difficulties with both. ms teams is also under consideration since the times require flexibility. some faculty have 279 adapted to the new instructional environment very successfully, others have faced greater challenges adjusting from their traditional face-to-face delivery style. there is occasional resistance from those who are already heavily invested in a particular technology. but by now, most faculty know the broad strokes of the technology and want details – such as how to pre-record video. the current challenge is group presentations, because camera sharing is sometimes a problem. institutional guides and regular e-mail updates have been important. faculty drop-in sessions worked well because attendees could share their experiences and they also helped to break down the barriers between departments. a ‘moodle stars’ programme has been instituted by designating instructors who are available to teach this technology to colleagues. faculty, like many people during the pandemic, have work life and home life in the same place at the same time, which is difficult. in future, asm may need to help faculty to acquire equipment to help them deliver classes online more effectively. as one colleague remarked, quoting sir richard branson: “you should train them well so that they can leave, but you should treat them well so that they want to stay.” how are the students coping? the president holds a drop-in session with students every week, which have provided an opportunity for asm to receive feedback on student experiences and to respond quickly to any issues that may arise. students in countries such as india and the philippines have also participated regularly, joining in at night from their home countries. when covid-19 struck, most students were at first lost, nervous and scared. much effort was invested in loosening them up and embedding humour in scheduled group sessions. this increased the interaction between students and created a “sense of community and confidence” (interviewee quotation). students’ origins are highly diverse. some had never previously touched a computer and had no understanding of the concept of plagiarism. some do not have laptops and are using their phones. basic personal hygiene and attitudes to women are sometimes a problem. providing guidance and academic counselling is a challenge and helping students to become more independent takes time. but most students want to perform well because their futures are at stake. asm must show empathy for students in diverse situations and, in future, may have to help students acquire laptops. financial hardship was a special focus in response planning. students were worried about being able to afford to study. many had lost their jobs due to the pandemic. some, who depended on parents for funds, faced difficulties due to problems in their home countries, while others were anxious about being unable to support their families there. some qualified for a canadian federal support programme through unemployment insurance, or the cerb, but many did not qualify. in addition to its regular financial aid support budget, which is about $600,000/term, asm introduced additional measures to assist students that provided an additional ~$100,000 in this term in direct special covid-19 financial aid through: • waiving of some student fees; • establishing a special bursary to which students could apply for some additional financial support; 280 • distributing some scholarships early, which would normally be distributed over several terms; • expanding the payment plan programme for returning students; • extending the payment deadlines; • waiving penalties for late registration; • setting up a more convenient and cost-effective online payment system that absorbs the normal transaction fees. student affairs aimed for a holistic integration of academic, social, psychological, physical, and informational support to students, by continuing what was already being done. the reality was that students were offered more events than on campus, where the availability of rooms had been a constraint. zoom has proved good for live sessions; students take to it well and even engage in arguments. a combination of in-person and virtual events is called for after the covid-19 restrictions lift. live virtual events have been less successful than activities that students can do in their own time (e.g., quizzes and photo challenges). student affairs has been doing more one-on-one work with the students off campus, many of them new students referred by their mentors or by the (very helpful) student ambassadors. office hours for lower-level maths classes have been made mandatory and students are getting to like them. more students are asking for help with learning, so a learning support session is offered every week on topics like time management or exams. these sessions would have attracted four or five students on campus but bring in about double that number online. when the session is later posted, many watch it because they like asynchronous material. these students never had access to specialist advice on learning in their previous education. similarly, greater student participation was also found in the academic courses too. asm monitored student attendance closely throughout the term as an indicator of student engagement. the tracking reports have showed both a very high level of participation (higher than 90%) which has increased consistently each week. the current attendance rate is over 95% overall. faculty have been doing an exceptional job of monitoring student progress and engagement, following up personally with students who were showing difficulty. despite all the positive feedback, some students are struggling. some are not isolating and respecting physical distancing. they do not see online as social. considerable efforts have been made to communicate information through email and social media channels to promote safe practices. the student ambassadors, senior students who are part of a peer-advising programme, have played a strong role. asm initiated a mentorship programme for new students this term and found that, with support from student ambassadors, first-year students, who tend to have higher levels of attrition, are seeking help more often. it expects that this individually focussed initiative will have a positive impact on retention and is considering extending it to upper-year students. asm students, faculty and staff have a strong sense of community, compassion and care, as they demonstrated in their support to a new student who had just arrived in canada. the house in which she was living burned down and she not only lost all her belongings but also became homeless. the 281 asm community rallied around and raised $2,000 for her in days. “it is magical that people in this community are so eager to help” (interviewee quotation). conclusions: asm’s transition to operating remotely asm owed its relative success in closing the campus and moving operations online to a combination of factors: • good leadership at all levels of the organisation. the president and the vpa set clear directions while remaining open to new ideas and alternatives; • the senior team met daily and made decisions expeditiously; • there was active and extensive scenario planning; • there was effective communication across the organisation; • previous preparation and planning for future online operations had sensitised the institution to new possibilities and challenges without being too prescriptive; • the institution promoted a collegial, caring and collaborative work environment; • there was a strong focus on individual support and care for students; • the organisational culture promoted adaptability, creativity and innovation; • the strong professional staff are well-networked with other institutions in bc and beyond; • there are harmonious relations among staff, based on a culture of learning; • the owner, educo international group, has given consistent support and encouragement. what of the future? the big challenge for asm and for heis worldwide is preparing for tomorrow. various scenarios are under discussion in all countries and largely reflect forces and decisions beyond the control of higher education. high proportions of students in many heis — in asm’s case a majority — come from countries with little reliable data about the impact of covid-19. the timetable for recovery of the airline industry is unpredictable. governments are making policy in the dark. for example, will the government of canada continue its benign policies on student visas and immigration if unemployment remains high after the pandemic? what will be the policies, orders and guidelines issued by canada’s provinces, which have the main responsibility for education and health? closer to home for asm, what rules will the owner of the campus building apply and how might they constrain the use of classrooms? will students lose the ambition to study internationally? higher education newsletters are full of speculation on this topic. some argue that covid-19 is a game-changer for higher education because international student mobility will decrease dramatically and teaching will move online. altbach and de wit (2020), two well-respected scholars, comment on mobility: some institutions have become dependent on international student tuition fees as an important part of their financial survival. …the coronavirus crisis shows that this dependence is deeply problematic: it is likely that institutions dependent on this income will face significant problems. 282 and on changes of teaching methods following covid-19: but we are somewhat sceptical that what is being offered is of high quality or that students are very satisfied with the new situation. most faculty members worldwide are not trained to offer distance courses, do not have the sophisticated technology necessary for high-quality teaching and learning and have not adapted their curricula to the web. these challenges face heis both large and small. for example, “monash university, by far australia’s largest and most complex, is now facing a revenue shortfall this year of au$350 million (us$226 million)” (maslen, 2020). most heis are looking at variants of the three scenarios that are on the table at asm: return to ‘normal’ (i.e., fully on campus); stay online; or go to a blended ‘semi-normal’ format. none of these scenarios provide easy answers. the first, returning all students to fully face-to-face classes of their previous size is unlikely to be possible in most jurisdictions until at least 2021 because of physical distancing advice and restrictions issued by governments. as to the second, for most heis fully online learning will not be a long-term solution for several reasons. in asm’s case its mostly international students are looking for immersion in canadian life. elsewhere, heis have large investments in classrooms and campus facilities that are an important part of their image. crucially, students were mostly unimpressed by their online experience in the early months of 2020 and will need financial or other incentives to repeat it after the pandemic. moreover, converting a campus teaching hei into a distance teaching institution requires major transformations of its structures, facilities and faculty organisation. the third ‘blended’ option has its challenges too. small face-to-face classes could be financially unsustainable. a combination of larger online lectures with smaller face-to-face tutorial groups to decrease classroom numbers may be an option. for asm, the issue is not just the numbers in each class, but the overall number of students allowed on campus at the same time. to quote an interviewee: “opening the library could present challenges because students will want to congregate, meet and talk. things will never be what they were, although people will be more open to online education.” most expect that asm will use hybrid methods in future. online will still be needed in the autumn of 2020 because people will still be fearful and some students may have to self-isolate from time to time. there could be various approaches: e.g., two classes of 15 instead of a class of 30, and staggered timings. students will want both online and presence. a survey showed that asm students split 55%/45% on whether online teaching had a positive or negative impact on course outcomes or academic quality. going online with a new cohort of students will not be straightforward, because the current students knew each other from class, making online interaction easier. whatever the option chosen, with an enrolment that is 97% international, student recruitment is asm’s central challenge (icef monitor, 2020). in many countries prospective students (and their parents) are nervous about study abroad. educational agents face difficulties with their offices shut down and potential students difficult to reach. although there are students in the recruitment pipeline, the prospect of studying fully online makes them hesitate. in some countries, lockdowns 283 closed banks so students could not make payments. generally, it is not the restrictions imposed by canada, but those imposed in the students’ countries of origin, that pose problems — with the exception of possible changes to canadian policy on visas for online study. the prospect of enrolling in online courses in their home country might appeal to students as a more cost-effective way of starting their programme provided that, following announcements from canada immigration, it would not affect their eligibility for a post graduate work permit in canada. fees are a challenge, too. in bc some institutions are adjusting their fees and incentive structures to attract international students. some students expect a discount on fees for online programming, which is already allowed — if up to 50% of their programme can be taken online. in these circumstances being within the educo group is very helpful to asm, whose staff consider that australia is ten years ahead of canada in its expertise on international student recruitment. educo understands the recruitment cycles and sees trends before they happen, enabling it to plan far ahead. “it knows how to recruit while being serious about academic quality” (interviewee quotation). asm’s recruitment work has the advantage that selling ‘the dream of canada’ is still a good approach. there is an opportunity to divert students from the us as that country becomes less welcoming and struggles to deal with covid-19. some us heis are already in financial difficulties because losing one annual cohort of international students has a four-year impact on budgets. canada’s response to the covid-19 pandemic and its treatment of international students is well regarded in international education markets, making the country well positioned for recovery. in the post covid-19 era, the student affairs function envisages both on-campus and online events and will get input about the optimal balance from the student ambassadors who meet weekly. they have many ideas and some put on events themselves. the new normal must be super fluid and try to prevent students from getting bored. student leadership has become more prominent over the covid-19 weeks and the student ambassadors are now thought of as an extension of student affairs. the orientation class will be made compulsory. international implications we conclude with two questions and some advice to heis worldwide as they face the post-covid-19 era. the first question is whether the emergency pivot to online operations induced by covid-19 will have a durable effect on the way heis operate. bates (2020a), a veteran observer of distance learning, has reviewed the “recent flurry of research on emergency remote learning” and notes “a suggestion in at least one report that many faculty and administrators do not believe that major changes to teaching and learning will result in the long run from the covid-19 pivot”. he adds: “i don’t think i share that point of view.” my interviewees at asm do not share that view either. these are some of their comments: “this pandemic throws us 20 years into the future”; “things will never go back to normal”; “a lot of what we are doing will carry on”; “once consumer behaviour changes people don’t go back”; “covid-19 forced us to become modern”; “we have had to make compromises and it has brought out the best in many people”; “the experience of working the institution through the transition has been extremely overwhelming but also really rewarding”; “we just had to do it”. 284 assuming that the covid-19 pivot does leave a lasting trace, the second question is what form any additional deployment of online or distance learning in heis will — or should — take. in another blog bates (2020b) argues that: “half-measures are not going to work… just moving your lectures online will only work once. what do you do for the next semester, and more importantly long-term?” avoiding half measures starts with the understanding that the revolutionary contribution of online and distance learning technologies is to make it possible to increase the scale and quality of teaching while also cutting costs. i have called this breaking open the “iron triangle”, (daniel, 2010, p. 51). technologies do this by creating economies of scale in the use of learning materials and by enabling people to study where and when they choose for much of the time. they allow heis to offer an appropriate blend of independent and interactive study (daniel & marquis, 1979). the route to economies of scale in online learning for most heis is to assemble these courses in teams, drawing on the rapidly burgeoning pool of open educational resources (oer) (commonwealth of learning, 2020), or other external resources and directing students to short, freely available courses such as moocs (massive open online courses). this would ensure consistency and quality in the learning materials used and also allow for their asynchronous use by students independently. mckie (2020) reports on the huge take-up, by campus institutions, of online materials made available by distance-teaching organisations. for example, some 1,200 higher education institutions around the world are now using online courses from the french company open classrooms, reaching 120,000 students. in a similar vein, 30,000 people have enrolled in the futurelearn course “how to teach online”. by incorporating externally sourced asynchronous learning materials into their courses, heis give greater freedom and flexibility to both faculty and students. students need both the flexibility of independent study and the support of interaction with their hei and its teachers. a metaphor for online and distance education is a student sitting on a stool with three legs: learning materials; student support; and excellent logistics. if any leg is shaky the student will fall (fail). successful online education means devoting as much energy and thought to organising student support and logistics as to developing the online course material. finally, in an era of more widespread online and distance learning, heis must become more open to collaboration with each other, while governments must facilitate such partnerships instead of pitting the heis against each other to compete for their share of state support — which will likely continue declining anyway. ensuring fast broadband connectivity throughout its jurisdiction is clearly a task for the government, not individual heis. earmarking some state funds for collaborative ventures, especially those with potential to break open the iron triangle, is a proven means for encouraging cooperation in pursuit of quality and scale instead of diluting the impact of resources by needless duplication. references acsenda 19. (2019, november 27). strategic technology plan. acsenda school of management. altbach, p., & de wit, h. (2020, march 14). covid-19: the internationalisation revolution that isn’t. university world news. https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20200312143728370 285 bates, t. (2020a, july 27). research reports on covid-19 and emergency remote learning/online learning. online learning and distance education resources. https://www.tonybates.ca/2020/07/27/research-reports-on-covid19-and-emergency-remote-learning-online-learning/ bates, t. (2020b, april 26). crashing into online learning: a report from five continents and some conclusions. online learning and distance education resources. https://www.tonybates.ca/2020/04/26/crashing-into-onlinelearning-a-report-from-five-continents-and-some-conclusions/ commonwealth of learning. (2020). open educational resources. https://www.col.org/programmes/openeducational-resources daniel, j. s. (2010). mega-schools, technology and teachers: achieving education for all. routledge. daniel, j. s. (2020). education and the covid-19 pandemic. prospects. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11125-020-09464-3 daniel, j. s., & marquis, c. (1979). independence and interaction: getting the mixture right. teaching at a distance, 14, 29-44. icef monitor. (2020). new insights on how international students are planning for the coming academic year. https://monitor.icef.com/2020/05/new-insights-on-how-international-students-are-planning-for-the-comingacademic-year/ lau, j., yang, b., & dasgupta, r. (2020, march 12). will the coronavirus make online education go viral? the times higher education. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/features/will-coronavirus-make-onlineeducation-go-viral maslen, g. (2020, may 7). saving australia’s biggest university. university world news. https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20200507090424381 mckie, a. (2020, april 14). has the leap online changed higher education forever? the times higher education. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/has-leap-online-changed-higher-education-forever unesco (2020). 1.37 billion students now home as covid-19 school closures expand, ministers scale up multimedia approaches to ensure learning continuity. https://en.unesco.org/news/137-billion-students-now-home-covid19-school-closures-expand-ministers-scale-multimedia author: sir john daniel is the chancellor, acsenda school of management, vancouver, canada. his previous appointments include: president – laurentian university, canada; vice-chancellor – uk open university; assistant director-general – unesco; and president – the commonwealth of learning. his 400 publications include the books: mega-universities and knowledge media: technology strategies for higher education and mega-schools, technology and teachers: achieving education for all. email: sirjohnbapu@gmail.com cite this paper as: daniel, j. s. (2020). covid-19 – a two-week transition from campus to online at the acsenda school of management, canada. journal of learning for development, 7(3), 271-285. mitra feasibility of open schooling in disturbed societies: the case of afghanistan sushmita mitra vol. 1, no. 2 abstract most countries have enshrined the right to education in their constitution but, in reality, to fulfil this commitment, countries do face a number of challenges. and this is true with the islamic republic of afghanistan, which unlike other countries has a long history of war, conflicts, insurgency and hence insecurity. although there have been positive steps towards rehabilitation of the education system and signs of promise can be seen in its achievements, access to quality education remains inequitable, particularly across the provinces as a result of remoteness and geographical isolation, harsh climate, insecurity which impedes growth and sustainability of access points, high gender gap in all sectors of education, particularly from the lower secondary stage to the higher stages of education, poor infrastructure prevalent in most schools, untrained teachers and the low number of female teachers affecting participation, retention and continuity of studies. this paper highlights the current school educational status in afghanistan to reveal the daunting challenges still existing for the country to achieve its constitutional goals. it also points out how an open schooling system can take charge of the challenges in afghanistan to provide a channel of educational opportunities to those who cannot and do not go to school, particularly females. introduction education is central to development.  it is fundamental for the construction of democratic societies, being among the most powerful instruments known to reduce poverty and inequality.  therefore, governments around the world including afghanistan, whose citizens have suffered too long and none more so than its children, place considerable emphasis on investments in education and, in particular, on the provision of schooling. schooling has direct implications for individual outcomes, for national aggregate outcomes, and for the distribution of outcomes across society. in fact there is a direct economic relationship between government spending and the returns on investments in education. further, international committees established under human rights treaties have laid down the following five criteria with respect to the rights of children to education. education must be: available for all without discrimination; accessible, either within a safe physical environment or by correspondence or some other form of distance education; affordable—in fact primary education must be free and once a country has succeeded in providing a free secondary education, fees can only be re-imposed for very compelling reasons; acceptable culturally and in other ways, to both students and their parents; and adaptable, so that it meets the different circumstances and changing needs of each individual student. most countries have enshrined this right to education in their constitution but in reality to fulfil this commitment countries do face a number of challenges. and this is true with the islamic republic of afghanistan. unlike other countries afghanistan has a long history of war, conflicts, insurgency and hence insecurity. in spite of this there have been positive steps towards rehabilitation of the education system and achievements and signs of promise can be seen. according to the national educational strategic plan (nesp-ii), since 2001 there has been a seven-fold increase in demand for education in afghanistan, which has placed significant pressure on the existing system. the demand for education has continuously exceeded supply, leading to increased donor dependence. there are now nearly 7 million children enrolled in school, over 37 % of which are girls, compared to slightly more than 1 million enrolled just seven years ago. however, 42% of school age children, mostly girls, are out of school. by 2020, about 8.8 million children are likely to require access to primary education and even with drop outs the secondary attendance will also increase by 3 million. however, many studies have revealed that daunting challenges still exist in afghanistan for the country to face to achieve its constitutional goals, from which it is evident that the formal schooling system as a single delivery system will not be able to realize the cherished hopes and aspirations of afghanistan to universalise school education. the country has no choice but to look for an alternative system that compliments / supplements the formal school system and, in this context, open schooling finds a relevant place. many countries around the world, initiated the open and distance learning (odl) system to augment opportunities for education, particularly as an instrument for democratising education and making it a lifelong process.  many have strategically placed open schooling system, which evolved out of the odl system, to respond to challenging educational demand effectively, alternatively and as a complement/supplement to the formal school system.   according to the commonwealth of learning (col), open schooling involves "the physical separation of the school-level learner from the teacher, and the use of unconventional teaching methodologies, and information and communications technologies (icts) to bridge the separation and provide the education and training" (http://www.col.org/resources/publications/pages/detail.aspx?pid=322). the open schooling system, with its structural flexibilities related to place and time of learning, eligibility criteria, and the student’s choice in selecting a combination of subjects and scheme of examinations, has shown the potential for “reaching the unreached”, and “reaching all”. however, to meet country specific needs and demand, it is necessary to assess the viability of open schooling system in an attempt to answer one main question: can the concept become a reality and should one proceed with it? with this rationale the situational analysis of the current school educational status in afghanistan was undertaken to identify the challenges that are still there confronting the country. challenges in school education: current situation in afghanistan geography and demography afghanistan is a land-locked country in south central asia measuring 647,500 sq. km (250,001 sq. mi). it is bordered by pakistan in the south and the east, iran in the west, turkmenistan, uzbekistan and tajikistan in the north, and china in the far northeast. the topography of the country is a mix of central highlands and peripheral foothills and plains and it has an arid continental climate. summers are dry and hot, while winters are cold with heavy snowfall in the highlands. precipitation is low, although some areas in the east are affected by the monsoon. decades of conflict have taken its toll on the environment, triggering deforestation, soil degradation, and depletion of ground water. coupled with droughts and floods, there is a negative impact on the well-being and educational development of the country. there is an estimated settled population of about 25.5 million, making afghanistan the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world. there are 34 provinces in the country, which are further divided into districts and there are a total of 398 districts. figure 1 illustrates the distribution of the settled population in different provinces. it can be seen that the population concentration is highest in kabul, followed by herat, nangarhar, balkh, ghazni, and kandahar. a great majority (76.18%) of this population is rural.  fig. 1: distribution of settled population in different provinces fig. 2: ethnicity breakdown of the population the country is inhabited by different ethnic groups, such as the pashtun, hazara, uzbek, turkmen, baloch and hazara. the ethnicity breakdown of the  population is shown in figure 2. the official languages of the country are pashto and dari (persian), although persian is spoken by about half of the population and serves as the lingua franca for the majority. pashto is spoken widely in the south, east and south west of the country. the uzbek and turkmen languages are spoken in parts of the north. smaller groups throughout the country also speak more than 30 other languages and numerous dialects. afghanistan, therefore, has a multi-ethnic and multi-lingual society. the population pyramid shown in figure 3 illustrates the age and sex distribution for the year 2012. it is an expansive pyramid showing a broad base, indicating a high proportion of children, a rapid rate of population growth, and a low proportion of older people. the age structure is estimated as below: 0-14 years: 42.3% (male 6,464,070/female 6,149,468) 15-64 years: 55.3% (male 8,460,486/female 8,031,968) 65 years and over: 2.4% (male 349,349/female 380,051) (2011 est.) the age structure of a population is a factor in a nation's key socioeconomic issues. countries with young populations (a high percentage under age 15) need to invest more in schools, while countries with older populations (a high percentage aged 65 or over) need to invest more in the health sector. the age structure can also be used to help predict potential political issues. for example, the rapid growth of a young adult population unable to find employment can lead to unrest.  in the case of afghanistan the data shows that the country is young, with 64.8% of the population of both sexes being in the age range 0-24 years, and within this school-going age population the proportion in the age range 5-19 years is 39.2%. so afghanistan’s population pyramid has the classic appearance of a country with a significant youth bulge, i.e., the proportion of young people is significantly large in comparison to other, older age groups. fig. 3: the population pyramid (source url) thus, the geography and demography of afghanistan poses the following challenges, which are difficult to control: difficult terrain and geographical isolation leads to remoteness and diversity due to isolation.. harsh climate and an environment affected by decades of conflict stands in the way of educational development. multi-ethnic and multi-lingual character leads to cultural, societal and language diversity. youth bulges prompt the adoption of a purposeful approach towards seeking demographic dividends. educational scenario the structure of the education system in afghanistan, as illustrated in figure 4, is comprised of three sub-sectors: primary and secondary education, which includes general, islamic and technical/vocational education, from grades 1 to 14; higher education for all tertiary education; and skills development that encompasses literacy and technical vocational education / training. general education covers primary, lower secondary and upper secondary levels of education from grades 1 to 12 in state schools. the first six years of general education is for primary schooling and the next three years, grades 7-9, is for lower secondary. together, the first nine years of schooling is considered as a complete cycle of basic education. grades 10-12 constitute upper secondary education. fig. 4: structure of the education system in afghanistan to track progress on access, quality and equity indicators over time in afghanistan‘s schools, data from the following were considered: afghanistan statistical yearbook 2011-12 compiled by central statistics organisation (cso), emis, ministry of education (moe); data provided in afghanistan education sector analysis 2010: adam smith international report; 1389/2010 annual progress report. moe. to facilitate access to education, state schools are being established every year. in the last three years the growth of primary, lower secondary and secondary schools is shown in figure 5. it can be seen that more primary schools were established every year, compared to lower secondary and secondary schools. consequently, there has been an increase in enrolment in different levels as shown in figure 6. fig. 5: number of government schools fig. 6: total enrolment in general education in government schools the data shows that the total enrolment of girls increased by 1% every year, being 37% of the total enrolment in 2009-10, 38% in 2010-11 and 39 % in 2011-12, respectively. in 2011, the picture of enrolment of girls in some provinces, as shown in table 1, is rather dismal, being less than 30%.  the percentage of female teachers has been around 31%. in provinces with a low percentage of girls enrolled, the percentage of female teachers is also less than 30%, as shown in table 1. the student-teacher ratio in government general education schools has been 44:1. lack of female teachers is known to have an impact on the quality of education and school participation by girls. table 1. enrolment of girls and female teachers in general education in some provinces. sr no. province girls enrolment (%) female teachers (%) 1. paktika 20 0 2. paktya 26 6 3. khost 26 4 4. urozgan 13 3 5. zabul 20 15 6. kandahar 26 16 7. helmund 20 19 8. badghis 27 12 the grade and gender data for the year 2011-12 reveals that for the first three grades of primary school, enrolment numbers remain reasonably steady for both male and female students. thereafter, the system is unable to retain female students. compared to male students, there is a decline with attrition increasing at each grade.  in other words, the gender gap increases with increasing grades, which is illustrated in fig 7. fig. 7: grade-wise and sex-wise enrolment in government schools, 2011 in 2011, there were 451,467 girls in grade 1 and just 48,965 girls in grade 12, that is, about 10% of females reach grade 12. inefficiencies in transition and completion are more marked for girls than for boys. the gap in primary enrolment between boys and girls has remained more or less constant, as shown in figure 8, despite an overall increase in enrolment. at the secondary level, the numbers are far worse: older girls have particularly low rates of enrolment. fig. 8: grade and gender-specific enrolment, 2009-12 however, figures 7 and 8 also show that, in grade 10, there is a slight dip in the number of male students. up to grade 9, education is free and compulsory and is the transition stage from middle school to secondary level. many male students may decide to discontinue at this stage. it is known that isolation, poor facilities and insecurity combine to limit access to school for rural children, particularly the girls. it is known that when women typically have less access to and control over facilities, opportunities and resources, there is gender inequality. in terms of education this needs to be understood as the right to education [access and participation], as well as rights within education [gender-aware educational environments, processes, and outcomes], and rights through education [meaningful education outcomes that link education equality with wider processes of gender justice] (wilson, 2003). measuring meaningful progress towards the right to education is the first step in assessing progress towards gender equality. also essential is assessing both quantitative and qualitative information and phenomena that underpin the rights of both men and women (subrahmanian, 2003/04). in the human development index (hdi) of undp, adult literacy rates and combined primary, secondary and tertiary gross enrolment ratios (gers) are used as indicators. since the share of enrolment at school education level is an element of hdi, one of the indicators that can be considered here is called gender equality index (gei), which is a comparison index. if f = female and m = male, then gei is defined as, gei = 1 (m-f) / (m+f) if f = m, gei = 1 which indicates an absence of gaps. this is a situation of complete gender equality. if f = 0 or m = 0, then gei = 0 which indicates maximum gender inequality. in other words, the values of the gei lie in the range 0 = gei = 1. the gender equality index (gei) can be considered as an indicator of the relationship between males and females in terms of educational access and participation at a given moment in time. analysis of gender equality trends can then serve as an important signal of the probability that wider changes have taken place. fig. 9: grade-specific distribution of gender equality index, 2009-12 in the context of afghanistan, and considering the data for the last three years, fig. 9 shows the grade-specific distribution of the gender equality index for the enrolment of male and female students in general education. it is clear that for every grade the gei remains more or less the same over the period 2009-12, indicating that, in spite of more schools, there has been no extensive change in the enrolment situation nor in girls' participation in schools. although the number of boys and girls in a school is a key quantitative indicator of gender equality, there are also several other critical measures. as international research suggests, the chances of acquiring and retaining literacy and numeracy are very limited without four to five years of good primary education, and many children fail to reach even minimum standards. gaining access and staying in school is much more difficult for girls than it is for boys. the afghanistan educational sector analysis 2010 report provides insight into the following two factors: the progress that has been made since 2002 has to be set alongside the fact that an estimated five million school-aged children (42% in some reports 46% of the estimated total) are not in school. this figure is almost certainly an underestimate. these are children who have never been to school, have dropped out, or who may drop in and out of school on an irregular basis. understanding the underlying causes for these different aspects of school attendance and participation is central to defining policy and practice to achieve upe (p. 24). the ministry of education also categorizes its schools by climatic zone (15.3% are hot season schools; 79.5% are cold season schools (with 82% of students); and 4.5% are coldest season schools). there is no available data that relates enrolment to this grouping of schools. but it can be assumed that for those schools that experience extremes of weather, attendance and participation will fall (p. 25). another factor pointed out by this report is learning time, which has implications on the foundations of learning. the education law in afghanistan mandates the ministry of education (moe) to determine the beginning and the closing of the school year in different climatic zones and to set the number of weekly teaching hours.  the following three factors appear to suggest that afghanistan is at the lower end of the spectrum of learning time: first, between 101 and 175 days are designated as holiday periods, varying according to climate zone. second, 36% of all general schools operate more than one shift (2009 data). three hundred and forty six schools operate three shifts or more. third, absenteeism from the classroom, for a variety of reasons, by both teachers and students, necessarily interrupts and shortens learning time. even accepting that afghanistan has a six-day school week there is clearly inadequate classroom learning time in general education schools in afghanistan, which leads to a weak foundation for learning. as per nrva (2007-2008), the major reasons for school-age boys and girls not attending schools is geographic distance, which is an access issue. financial obstacles on the home front is another reason for boys not attending, indicating the existence of child labour. for girls cultural barriers are a major reason and reducing these would imply the need to build support in communities. according to the moe (annual report, 2010), the major challenges in general education are as follows: isolation, poor facilities and insecurity combine to limit access to school for rural children, particularly the girls. school attendance and participation is erratic and affects access and retention. untrained teachers affect the quality of teaching and learning. shortage of female teachers affects retention and continuation of girls’ education in secondary grades, evident from having no girls in the upper secondary grades in 159 districts. shortage of school buildings for general education. insecurity in some provinces, resulting in closing some of the schools and depriving a large number of students from education. in the year 2009-10, 450 schools in 68 districts of 10 provinces (farah, kandahar, zabul, uruzgan, paktika, helmand, khost, paktia, badghis and nimroz) were closed or remained closed, preventing 200,000 students from being able to continue their education. lack of dormitories to accommodate students from insecure areas fails to meet the demands of a large number of students to be enrolled in boarding schools in secure area. nevertheless, like any other country, afghanistan also remains active in attempting to educate its citizens and, hence, as per the policy document nesp-ii, the moe has decreed that by 2014: 10 million students will be enrolled in general education schools. the net enrolment rate for boys and girls in basic education will increase to 60% and 75% and gross enrolment to 72% and 90% respectively. the number of schools will reach 16500. there will be a total of 330,317 teachers, with a far better balance of gender and 80% of the teachers will have to successfully pass the teacher competency test. the issue is, therefore, one of coping with such educational challenges and meeting the set targets to accelerate the development of afghanistan. it is evident that to enrol the 10 million children into general education by 2014 will require an expansion of capacity, i.e., more schools, more and better teachers, more learning materials and better support,which will undoubtedly put an enormous strain on the prevailing system that is already struggling to implement existing programmes. the formal schooling system as a single delivery system will not be able to realize the cherished hopes and aspirations of afghanistan to universalise school education.  can open schooling confront the challenges of afghanistan? the challenges that the education sector in afghanistan has to confront to achieve the education goals and targets set for 2014 and 2020 are daunting and immense. the country has to meet its constitutional commitments so that a literate and educated population underpins development and stability. hence, exploration of strategies and new methods has become essential to cater to the multiplicity of learning needs beyond the formal system of education but parallel to it. many believe that it will be difficult, if not impossible, to meet the demand and need for school education, particularly secondary education, without resorting to open schooling approaches.  but why should a country have confidence in the open schooling system? can open schooling meet the challenges a country faces? openness and flexibility are the two important features in open schooling. withdrawing the barriers of space, place and pace of learning, open schooling has introduced a new dimension in education, which combines freedom to learn with functionality. it is apparent that the "open" in open schooling refers to the openness of the system; usually there are no rules dictating student ages, prerequisites, content of courses or number of courses in which learners must enrol. as a result, open schooling meets the needs of a broad range of learners: young people who missed out on schooling in their childhood can pursue a secondary education without having to attend classes with much younger children young mothers can learn at home and attend tutorials when necessary working adults can study while continuing to earn a living people of all ages can acquire new skills and knowledge to improve their livelihoods. considering the educational challenges in afghanistan and the unique features of open schooling system, table 2 following illustrates how to build confidence in establishing a new schooling system in the country. table 2. educational challenges versus the unique features of open schooling system. aspects challenges in afghanistan can open schooling cope with the challenges? how? topography difficult terrain leads to remoteness and geographical isolation. harsh climate and environment affected by decades of conflict stands in the way of educational development   p     p provides freedom of location study at one’s place, be it at home, workplace, etc. barriers of space, pace of study  and time withdrawn   demography socioculture multi ethnic and multi lingual character brings in cultural, societal and language diversity. youth bulges prompt the need to adopt purposeful approach to turning into demographic dividends.   p     p instructions can be provided in different languages through learning materials. provide relevant and diverse courses to accommodate as many youths as possible. limitations of number is minimised as there is no class system.  can serve large distributed population. gender isolation, poor facilities and insecurity combine to limit access to school for rural children particularly the girls. school attendance and participation is erratic to affect access with retention. gender gap is high in all programmes   p     p   p freedom of location. education goes to the doorstep of the learner no rigid physical presence is required in a classroom, control of place and pace lies with the learners. greater flexibility lies with learners for scheduling learning. can attempt to reduce the gap**. vulnerable groups excluded from the education system challenges in identifying and meeting the needs of populations vulnerable to exclusion marginalized groups often hidden and stigmatized formal schools do not understand the concept of inclusiveness and equal access p   p   p   p flexibility and choice can bring them in the system tailor made courses/programmes can be developed to assist in mainstreaming can study privately and not feel stigmatized no need to go to a formal school unless required for support in learning. infrastructure shortage of school buildings for general education. lack of dormitories to accommodate students from insecure areas fails to meet the demands of a large number of students. infrastructure has been unable to keep pace with demand.   p   p     use available infrastructure as and when required. learning happens mostly at learner’s location. infrastructure necessity is minimum resources untrained teachers: affecting the quality of teaching and learning. shortage of female teachers: affecting retention and continuation of girls’ education in secondary grades   p   p through the use of standardised, specially designed self-study learning materials developed by expert subject teachers. often such materials are known as teacher in print. tuition and support at a distance, usually by a qualified part-time tutor, who may also have a separate full-time job as a teacher using available structure and resources. **  in the case of nios, the largest open schooling open schooling system in the world, female students interest in general education is less than male students, in spite of flexibility and openness, while in vocational education, more female students take advantage of the system than male students. hence, even if the gender gap is reduced it still needs to be equalised. it is apparent that the inherent characteristics of an open schooling system, i.e., openness and flexibility, can deal with the educational challenges in afghanistan, if implemented in the right spirit, that is, to provide a channel of educational opportunities to those who cannot and do not go to school. the advantages of having open schooling system in afghanistan are as follows: the time required to prepare the conventional system adequately for increased student numbers is much more than the time needed to put in place the requirements for additional students in an odl system, i.e., in open schooling system. and time is not a luxury that most developing countries have when it comes to providing increased opportunities for education and keeping pace with development in fast changing world of the 21st century. studies have shown that costs are low compared to building new schools and training more teachers. outreach is possible to a large number of diverse students at the same time.   greater flexibility in the design and delivery of curriculum content than is normally associated with classroom teaching enables courses to adapt to specific students’ needs or work requirements, thereby enabling greater relevance. with all conviction it can therefore be said, that an open schooling system in afghanistan at the national level is feasible, and that it must be established with a vision, a mission and a set of objectives to meet challenges and provide educational opportunities to all. conclusion open schooling is not only concerned with increasing access to schooling, but also with equalizing educational opportunities for citizens regardless of their geographic location or socio-economic background. open schooling can be set up to reap the benefits of the economies of scale that distance education holds out as a possibility. if a country like afghanistan needs a population that is equipped to rise to the challenges that they it face in future, it will be difficult (if not impossible) for the country to meet the demand and need for school education on the scale envisaged without resorting to open schooling approaches.  open schooling is the most feasible alternative that afghanistan can have to address the challenges created by poverty, lack of social and educational infrastructures, cultural issues, insecurity and conflict, in order to fulfil its cherished educational goals. references adam smith international. (2010). education sector analysis: afghanistan. central statistics organisation. (2012). afghanistan statistical yearbook 2011-12. kabul. daniel j. (2009). open schooling in the 21st century.  commonwealth of learning. p. vi. http://ertv.edu.af/ertv/about-us/ ministry of education. (2010). afghanistan education curriculum. kabul. ministry of education. (2010). annual progress report. kabul. ministry of education. (2014). national education strategic plan (2010-2014). kabul. national risk and vulnerability assessment. (2008). (nrva) 2007/08: a profile of afghanistan. http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/where/asia/documents/afgh_nrva_2007-08_full_report_en.pdf rumble, g., & koul, b.n. (2007). open schooling for secondary & higher secondary education: costs and effectiveness in india and namibia. commonwealth of learning, vancouver, canada. subrahmanian, r. (2004). gender equality in education: definition and measurements. background paper for unesco global monitoring report 2003-04. unesco. (2009). needs and rights assessment: inclusive education in afghanistan. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0018/001890/189011e.pdf wilson, d. (2003). human rights: promoting gender equality in and through education. background paper for efa gmr2003/4. unesco. (2010/11). world data on education (7th ed.). http://www.ibe.unesco.org/fileadmin/user_upload/publications/wde/2010/pdf-versions/islamic_republic_of_afghanistan.pdf sushmita mitra is the ex-director (student support services) national institute of open schooling, india. e-mail: sushmitam@hotmail.com microsoft word kuboni.docx issn: 2311-1550 2021, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 42-57 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. rethinking problem-solving teaching strategies in the primary sector for both face-to-face and online delivery olabisi kuboni independent consultant, republic of trinidad and tobago abstract: this paper reports on a review of a series of video tutorials that were developed for offering at a distance to primary school students of trinidad and tobago during the pandemic. the materials selected for the review focused on the teaching of problem-solving skills based on topics drawn from the mathematics curriculum. the tutorials were developed and presented by primary school teachers with support from the ministry of education. the main purpose of this review was to assess the instructional strategies employed in the delivery of the video tutorials. an inductivedeductive approach was employed for this purpose. the review also sought to examine the effectiveness of video broadcast to support instructional delivery. the reviewer’s overall conclusion was that greater attention should be paid to formulating strategies specifically for the task of solving a given class of problems, rather than simply relying on the procedures derived from the underpinning mathematical operations. the reviewer made some brief recommendations about the development of a technology-use policy intended to deploy educationally-appropriate modern technology to support the learning of primary school students. keywords: primary mathematics, problem-solving teaching strategies, instructional evaluation, technology for learning. introduction beyond the statistics about increases in the number of positive covid-19 cases and deaths, global attention has focused on the disruption that the pandemic has caused in the lives and livelihoods of populations worldwide. in that latter context, education stands out as one of the sectors most seriously affected. in the words of the secretary-general of the united nations, “the covid-19 pandemic has created the largest disruption of education systems in history … affecting nearly 1.6 billion learners in more than 190 countries and all continents.” (un policy brief, august 2020, p. 2). while the immediate effect of the disruption was the rapid adjustments made to continue teaching and learning by distance methods, it also gave administrators and practitioners the opportunity to examine prevailing practices with a view to making overall long-term improvements. in this context, this paper seeks to examine practices in the area of curriculum delivery in primary education as observed in material made available publicly for students forced to continue their schooling at home. in april, 2020, the ministry of education (moe) of the government of the republic of trinidad and tobago (gortt) launched its online learning platform, named the school learning management system (slms), to provide students and teachers at the early childhood, primary and secondary levels with the means to continue teaching and learning remotely. (https://learn.moe.gov.tt) (loop 43 news, april 14, 2020). according to information provided by the ministry, about 50 teachers had volunteered to prepare and submit the learning resources that were made available on the slms. in addition, teachers, identified by school principals, served as presenters of videotaped lessons for broadcast. the ministry provided detailed guidelines on how to gain access to the online platform. parents were also invited to log in, given that, in many cases, they would be required to monitor their children’s online learning activities. (loop news, march 17, 2020; april 26, 2020) in the section of the slms devoted to primary students, which is the area of interest of this paper, there were sub-sections providing materials for each grade level beginning with infants (aged 5-6 years) and ending at standard 5 (aged 11+). standard 5 is the final grade level in the primary sector. students of this class sit the secondary entrance assessment (sea), which is the examination that facilitates placement in secondary schools. alongside the grade level materials, there was a special sub-section focusing specifically on the sea, given the fact that students were missing out on critical classroom preparation for the examination. this section comprised two components: one, a collection of past examination papers and two, a series of video-recorded tutorials, presented by selected teachers from the school system, and based on topics drawn from the curriculum on which the examination was developed. each tutorial provided instruction on a topic taken from the curriculum of each of the three subjects assessed in the examination, namely creative writing, english language and mathematics. in addition to being uploaded on the slms, the sea video tutorials were broadcast on the stateowned television station, ttt, which, for its part, also made them available on its facebook page, ttt live online. the materials were, therefore, more readily available through this route than via the slms and this author opted to take advantage of this additional access route. for the purposes of this paper, special attention is paid to the sea subsection and specifically to the video tutorials on mathematics. the reasons for this decision will be addressed more fully later. background to the study while students, teachers and parents constituted the primary target audience, members of the wider population, including this author, also saw themselves as having a vested interest in this novel undertaking and reserved the right to make comments about it not only privately but through various public fora (e.g., trinidad and tobago guardian, may 2, 2020; kuboni, facebook post, may 5, 2020). the ministry was therefore under intense scrutiny. consequently, a considerable amount of information about the roll out of the slms was made available through the mainstream media and a lot of it was directed to keeping the population as a whole up-to-date and, hopefully, supportive of the ministry’s efforts. (cnc3 editor, april 25, 2020). notwithstanding the obvious focus on the immediate goals of the slms, this author felt that the pandemic also presented an opportunity to examine prevailing practices in order to make improvements beyond the current emergency situation. this perspective finds support in the recommendations made in the un policy brief: education during covid-19 and beyond. one of the recommendations of this document calls for policymakers to “reimagine education and accelerate positive change in teaching and learning”. expanding on that 44 idea, it further states, “as we ‘build back resilient’, we need to ensure that education systems are more flexible, equitable, and inclusive (un policy brief, august 2020, p. 23). the concern for greater equity and inclusion in the education system has particular relevance for primary and secondary education in trinidad and tobago, with the sea occupying a very pivotal position across both sectors. this examination is critical in the life of every child 11 years and over as it is the vehicle that facilitates their transition from primary to secondary school. approximately 18,000 students take the exam every year. while there are enough places in the secondary sector to accommodate almost all the children sitting the exam, only a small proportion of them will enter schools that are deemed to be of a high quality. it is beyond the scope and purpose of this paper to examine the sea or even to explore the factors contributing to this disparity among secondary (and even primary) schools in the system. the only point of relevance in this context is that students with the highest scores in the examination are placed in the so-called ‘prestige’ secondary schools and those with the lowest scores are placed in schools that are deemed to be of a lower rank. what this situation brings into focus, is the generally held view that there is a relationship between academic achievement and socio-economic status and that low socio-economic status typically correlates with low academic achievement (devlin, 2013, rigaud, 2013, yelgun & karaman, 2015). it is reasonable to infer therefore that those who were most deprived in the pre-covid era would be the ones most challenged in these circumstances, and that the gap between high and low achievers in the primary school sector would widen even further. the study was therefore undertaken to review materials that were developed to provide instruction, at a distance, for all standard 5 students due to sit the sea in the current year. mathematics has been singled out as an area of low achievement in the primary school system of trinidad and tobago (alexander & maeda, 2015; khan, 2017). for this reason, the author identified the mathematics materials for special study. the mathematics component of the exam is based on four subject-matter strands, namely, number, measurement, geometry and statistics and entails the assessment of three types of thinking processes, namely, knowing, applying and reasoning in each strand. a closer look at the objectives associated with each of the thinking processes reveals that the task of problem solving is included, to some extent, in the process of applying, and definitely in relation to reasoning. examples are as follows: 45 strand sub-section of strand process objective numbers whole numbers applying solve one-step word problems involving any one of the four basic operations on whole numbers. reasoning solve multi-step word problems involving any combination of the four basic operations on whole numbers. fractions reasoning solve multi-step problems involving fractions. percent reasoning solve problems involving unequal sharing. measurement area and perimeter reasoning solve problems involving area and perimeter of plane shapes. solve problems in real-life contexts involving area. time reasoning solve computational and real-life problems involving hours and minutes. geometry symmetry reasoning solve problems involving line symmetry. statistics reasoning use analysed data to solve problems, draw conclusions and make decisions. reasoning solve problems involving mean/average. (https://www.moe.gov.tt/sea-2019-2023-framework/) almost all the video tutorials were based on problem-solving tasks using content derived from one or other of the strands identified. in this regard, the sea mathematics materials, and by extension the curriculum guides from which they were derived, are consistent with the practice in other jurisdictions that place a high priority on problem-solving skills in the primary school mathematics curriculum. this author regards the explanation provided by phonapichatt, wongwanich & sujiva (2014) to be a useful starting point for understanding the nature of the activity. they assert: a mathematical problem in this study means a mathematics-related question or situation that highly varies. it is a real situation seen in real life which requires a proper method and mathematical knowledge in order to be solved. (p. 3171). it is against the background of the details outlined above that this author embarked on a study to assess the problem-solving strategies employed by the instructors in the video tutorials. five video tutorials, on the topics ‘simple interest’, ‘perimeter and area’, ‘percent’, ‘division with fractions’ and ‘unequal shares’ were reviewed. these were accessed from the ‘s.e.a time’ segment of the facebook page ttt live online during the period july to mid-august, 2020. (https://www.facebook.com/watch/tttliveonline/) while the assessment focuses mainly on the problem-solving strategies that the video tutors utilised, attention is also paid to the broadcast medium used to deliver the instruction. purpose of the study the study seeks to assess the instructional strategies employed in the delivery of the video tutorials to facilitate the development of mathematical problem-solving skills in students preparing for the sea. the study also seeks to examine the effectiveness of the video broadcasts to support instructional delivery. finally, the study makes recommendations for rethinking this aspect of the mathematics curriculum and for formulating a policy for technology-enhanced curriculum delivery in the primary education 46 sector of trinidad and tobago, to support learning both during and beyond the period of the pandemic. methods an inductive-deductive approach (burney & saleem, 2008; soiferman, 2010) was used to conduct this study. in the first stage, the reviewer went through each of the selected tutorials at least twice taking note of areas of interest from an instructional perspective and observing similarities and differences between and among teaching methods employed in the respective tutorials. thereafter, based on further study of these specific methods, the reviewer categorized them into broader instructional strategies. ultimately, the strategies emerging from this study were used to do a closer, more in-depth assessment of the tutorials. procedures the five mathematics video tutorials that were downloaded were added to the author’s set of saved items on her facebook page and included in a special collection labelled, ‘covid and schooling’. as noted earlier, the reviewer browsed through each of the five videos, paying special attention to the methods used for instructional delivery, and thereafter categorizing these into broader instructional strategies. in order to ascertain whether the strategies identified in this study were consistent with those that feature in the wider field of study into mathematical problem-solving strategies, the reviewer conducted a brief examination of the relevant literature. each instructional strategy was then used to conduct a more in-depth analysis of the tutorials. the elements of the tutorial analysed were the oral presentation of the tutor, accompanying information provided on the whiteboard, and demonstrations using teaching aids. the most appropriate tutorial was selected for the analysis of a given instructional strategy. delimitations of the study the study focuses exclusively on the instructional strategies employed by the tutors in the delivery of the video tutorials. it does not seek to examine learning outcomes. neither is it intended as an evaluation of individual video tutorials. rather, it seeks to analyse some instructional strategies used within the tutorials with a view to highlighting their strengths and/or weaknesses in relation to the overall goal of facilitating the development of problem-solving skills. where appropriate, it offers suggestions for improvement. limitations of the study two limitations are to be noted. first, the video tutorials chosen for download were arbitrarily selected. no systematic procedure was employed. nonetheless, in the opinion of the author, the five selected represented a good cross-section of the available pool. secondly, the findings obtained by the author/reviewer were not validated by a second reviewer. while this key requirement cannot be downplayed, there are two other aspects of the study that, in some way, can partially compensate for its absence. the author is of the view that the decision to identify similar strategies in the broader literature can serve to show some consistency with similar work in the field. in addition, the author believes that her own experience as a teacher, teacher 47 educator and educational technologist has equipped her with the tools to conduct a reasonable assessment of the materials. findings video broadcasting: pros and cons the benefits of using this delivery mode are applicable both in terms of its reach as well as the standard of production that it makes possible. since a large number of students were unable to access the slms, delivering content in this mode and making it available via television, was a major advantage. moreover, trinidad and tobago television (ttt), the state-owned television network of trinidad and tobago, enjoys good reception across both islands, including in rural areas. all the tutorials were carefully prepared. most were divided into segments, with each successive segment building on the one preceding it. what this ensured was that the same standard of materials was available for all viewers. the production of the tutorials benefitted immensely from the professional input of the production staff of ttt. of special significance was the variation in camera angles employed. close-ups were used to good effect to allow students to zero in on some detail or some written material on the whiteboard, or some activity that the tutor was engaged in. wide angled shots allowed viewers to see all aspects of the teaching space in relation to one another. another feature to be noted was the simulated interactive style that the tutors adopted in delivering their presentations. they demonstrated that they were very aware of the need to enhance their delivery in order to connect with their distant viewing audience. judging from posts in the ‘chat’ linked to the face book presentations, some presenters were able to stimulate their viewers to respond and even initiate discussion points during their presentations. while these viewers may not necessarily have been students, the fact that the presentations were able to elicit these responses should be noted. notwithstanding these positive features of the broadcast mode, there were some limitations that should not be ignored. basically, delivery of this type mimics the one-to-many lecture style of the ‘live’ classroom. even though, in both cases, there are strategies to foster two-way communication, this is limited. in fact, in reality, there is no two-way communication when the material is prerecorded. another limitation is that the format, as a stand-alone vehicle, is incapable of adequately handling all facets of the instructional delivery required. notwithstanding the best efforts of the tutors, it was evident that some aspects of the content may not have been treated to the extent required. the point being made here is that while stand-alone video broadcasting, transmitted by television to a mass audience, can serve important school-related purposes in emergency situations, there are limitations that should also be acknowledged. examination of selected instructional strategies five strategies emerged from the preliminary analysis and were used to facilitate closer examination of the approach to instructional delivery. moreover, as stated earlier, efforts were made to ascertain 48 the extent to which these strategies were reflective of the wider pool used to facilitate the development of problem-solving skills. clarifying key concepts at the beginning of a tutorial, the tutor would identify and define the key concepts embedded in the problem-solving activity to be taught. in almost all instances, she would also remind the distance students about the importance of remembering the explanation as they embarked on the activity. the role of concept definition is examined in relation to two tutorial topics. the two terms in the topic ‘perimeter and area’, were identified as the concepts to be explained. (https://www.facebook.com/watch/?ref=saved&v=300611234289110) perimeter was described as “distance around a shape or an object” and area, as “surface covered”. applying the meaning of these two concepts to the shapes of a square and a rectangle, the tutor was able to generate formulae for calculating both the perimeter and the area, which could then be applied for problem solving. following are two of the problems worked on: • square a and rectangle b have the same perimeter. if the breadth of rectangle b is 8 cm, calculate the length of rectangle b. (accompanying this word problem were the drawings of a square, with a side of 10cm. and a rectangle with a breadth of 8 cm.) • mr. smith requires 350 metres of wire to fence all around a rectangular plot of land. the length of the plot is 100 metres. what is its breadth? (this problem was not accompanied by a drawing. however, the tutor drew one, which seemed to suggest that the students were being encouraged to take that route as well). what we have in both problems is a direct connection between what students were expected to know about the two key concepts and what the respective problems required them to do. however, when we examine a third problem based on this same topic, the connection is not so readily recognisable. that problem reads: • calculate the number of square tiles each measuring 20 cm. that can tile a floor measuring 5 m by 4 m. a few questions arise here. is this problem dealing with “surface covered” or “distance around”? is the student required to calculate area or perimeter? an important difference between this problem and the first two, is that this one does not clearly show a link to the two key concepts and this may turn out to be a stumbling block for many students. for the topic ‘simple interest’, four concepts were identified, namely simple interest, principal, rate, and time. (https://www.facebook.com/watch/?ref=saved&v=323968835647872) all four combine to yield the formula: • si = p x r x t prior to generating this formula, the tutor provided explanations for each of the four concepts. the first two were defined as follows: • simple interest is the fee paid on an amount of money whether it is loaned, borrowed or invested. 49 • the money that we loan, borrow or invest is called the principal. the definition of these two concepts is based on the assumption that students already have a clear understanding of the subsidiary terms, ‘fee’, ‘loan’, ‘borrow’ and ‘invest’. in addition, the tutor is also assuming that students would not conflate this new term ‘principal’ with the title used for the person who is the head of the school! ultimately, some students may resort to rote memorization, which is likely to impede understanding even further. in seeking to clarify key concepts, teachers may wish to consider expanding on the bare essential explanation in order to give students the best possible chance of grasping all relevant dimensions of the new term. this perspective seems to find support in a study conducted among elementary puerto rican students. based on an investigation of students’ ability to understand word problems involving ratio, that researcher concluded that the study provided “evidence that the meaning of concepts and relationships in a two-step word problem is a major source of difficulty in solving the problem”. (quintero, 1983, p. 111) dissecting the text the issue regarding the understanding of concepts is part of a wider concern about capacity to unpack the language through which the problem is conveyed. often, the typical expressions associated with mathematical operations are not always used in constructing the problem statement. as a result, students must rely on prior language competence to locate core mathematics-related information. the following problem taken from the tutorial ‘division with fractions’, poses such a challenge: • a school’s choir sold 15 frosted chocolate cakes at a cake sale. each cake was cut into 8 slices and 3 slices were packaged per box. how many boxes of cake were on sale? o ian says he can solve 15 ÷ 3/8 for the answer. li says he can solve 15 ÷ 8/3 for the answer. o which boy is correct? explain your reasoning. (https://www.facebook.com/watch/?ref=saved&v=3242415585801979) looking only at the first part of the problem, there is nothing that overtly indicates that it entails division by fractions. with careful reading, some students may be able to come to that conclusion, but others may not. including the second part was very likely intended to ensure that all students have the same basic information to undertake the task. students’ ability to dissect the text of a problem in order to extract the core information needed to initiate the problem-solving task is an area that requires its own focussed attention. of relevance in this regard is the conclusion arrived at in a 2008 study that “children’s text comprehension skills and mathematical word problem-solving performance were interrelated.” (vilenius-tuohimaa, aunola, & nurmi, 2008, p. 422). from the concrete to the abstract the use of manipulatives to facilitate learning transfer from the concrete to the abstract is welldocumented (e.g., kamina & iyer, 2009). manipulatives featured in several tutorials to introduce 50 students to mathematical operations at the level of the concrete and which they could eventually encounter in a more abstract form. these operations could, in turn, be applied in order to arrive at a solution for relevant word problems. based on observations made of tutors’ handling of the teaching aids, two recommendations are pertinent here. first, teachers must ensure that the objective(s) adopted for conducting the demonstration with the teaching aids are consistent with those of the related abstract operations and, by extension, with the class of problems to be solved. secondly, teachers must have a plan to take the students to a point where they (the students) can confidently make the transition from concrete operations to the realm of abstract thinking, not only in terms of doing abstract calculations but also in terms of applying those operations in order to generate solutions to the relevant problems. one tutorial in which extensive use was made of teaching aids was the one on percent (percentage). cuisenaire rods, flats, and a fraction board were the objects used to initiate the instruction. (https://www.facebook.com/watch/?ref=saved&v=1283760121827062) based on the tutorial objectives, students were expected to: • develop an understanding of percent • express quantities as percent of other quantities • calculate percent of quantities • solve problems involving percent however, immediately after these objectives were stated, the tutorial shifted focus to a problem involving fractions, which stated: • randy had $100.00 in his pocket. he spent $5.00 on a bottle of water. what fraction of his money did he spend on the bottle of water? for about the first twenty-five minutes of the tutorial, the focus of the activity being carried out with the teaching aids was fractions, and specifically fractions with a denominator of a hundred. the teaching aids were used to demonstrate a part of a whole as a fraction. it was only towards the end of the first half that percent was introduced. a grid, divided into one hundred parts, was introduced at this point and presented decimals and percent as equivalents of the fractions previously generated using the teaching aids. the segment then concluded with a conversion table showing selected fractions and their equivalents as decimals and percent. in the latter part of the tutorial, problems consistent with the original objectives were introduced. however, the content learned using the teaching aids was largely ignored during this segment. thus, there was no carryover from demonstration to problem-solving activity. one is not attempting to question the validity of the linear approach to calculating the percent, starting at the level of fractions. rather, the point being made here is that the objective and strategy that guided the use of the teaching aids were not consistent with the overall objectives of the tutorial. using line drawings to model more complex phenomena line drawings, like the teaching aids discussed above, provide an avenue for students to encounter abstract ideas in a form that is more concrete and, as such, more readily understood. one author uses the expression ‘diagramming the problem’ to refer to this activity (zambo, 1992, p. 153). however, it 51 should also be noted that line drawings are ‘less concrete’ than the typical teaching aids and function at a higher level of abstraction than the more concrete objects. two ways in which they were used are noted here. in one instance, a line drawing was used to provide a simplified representation of a more complex real-world phenomenon, in order to highlight features that students were required to pay attention to. in another instance, simplified line drawings served as an explanatory tool to clarify and make more accessible the core meaning of mathematical expressions. examples of both are shown below. with regard to the first, a simple diagram, drawn on the whiteboard in the tutorial on perimeter and area, served to illustrate the word problem below it. (https://www.facebook.com/watch/?ref=saved&v=300611234289110) • in the backyard above, the flower plot has a one-metre path around it. calculate the area of the path. (note: the four dotted lines seen in this diagram were not included in the original in the tutorial). whether consciously acknowledged or not, this problem is making certain assumptions about the students. for example, • they can make a mental connection between this two-dimensional image and a real-world backyard, with flowers planted in the centre of it. in so doing, they accept this drawing as a scaled-down representation of the real-world phenomenon. • they understand the convention that, in a scaled-down model, accurate measurements are not used and that instead, the lengths of the lines used in constructing the model are, as far as possible, proportionately equivalent to the actual lengths of the measurements given. • looking more closely at this scaled-down model, they recognise that, while one can see a clear single rectangular shape enclosing the backyard, and another enclosing the flower plot, that is not the case with the path. they will need to come up with a different mental model for visualizing the path. 52 overall, this type of problem is based on the assumption that even before students undertake the required mathematical operations, they must draw on some underlying prior knowledge in order to set the stage for carrying them out. line drawings were also used to render abstract operations in a more concrete form and, as a result, more readily understood by students. in the tutorial dealing with the topic ‘division with fractions’, line drawings were used extensively to bring greater clarity to operations that, in their abstract form, may not have been readily understood. (https://www.facebook.com/watch/?ref=saved&v=3242415585801979) the statement below applies to the set of mathematical operations that follow it. note the line drawings accompanying each example of a division by a unit fraction. for each whole divided by a unit fraction, the result is the total number of unit fractions that form the whole. 1 ÷ ½ = 2 1 2 1 ÷ ¼ = 4 1 2 3 4 1 ÷ 1/5 = 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 ÷ 1/12 = 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 this set of diagrams formed part of an instructional sequence in the first segment of the tutorial, the purpose of which was to reinforce the statement that: dividing any number by a unit fraction is the same as multiplying the number by the reciprocal of the unit fraction. when using line drawings as an explanatory tool, it is important to ensure that each successive drawing (or set of drawings) builds on its predecessor, with appropriate additional information, so as to provide a logical, well-ordered path to the ultimate content to be learned. reducing and/or removing them prematurely may compromise the student’s ability to reach the intended learning target, as was probably the case in this tutorial. formulating a specific strategy for problem solving in the final analysis, what students require from the instruction provided by the tutor is a complete well-integrated strategy to guide the problem-solving activity. all the elements must blend together in 53 order to efficiently support them in carrying out the task of generating a solution to the given problem. such a strategy must meet three essential criteria. first, it must be directly applicable to a particular category of problems. second, it must be robust enough to hold together over several applications. third, even as it holds together, it must still be flexible enough so that it may be adapted in instances where a given problem, though belonging to a particular category, varies from the typical. while it is the tutor (teacher) who initiates the formulation of the strategy, it is the student who eventually must put it to use. consequently, the student must come to know the strategy and take control of it in order to use it. two issues are to be noted in this regard. in some tutorials, the strategy for solving the problem was more clearly articulated than others. two examples of the former were ‘perimeter/area’ and ‘simple interest’1. a closer examination of these two revealed that the related problems were closely tied to the mathematical operations on which they were based. further, for each, actual written formulae were provided as a follow-up to the explanation of the operation. this was even more clearly done in the case of the ‘perimeter/area’ tutorial. thus, even when the problem veered slightly away from the mathematical operation, one could expect that the same strategy, based on the mathematical operation, would provide adequate support for working out the solution. two others that did not fit into this mould were ‘division with fractions’ and ‘unequal shares’. in the case of the former, a substantial portion of the tutorial was dedicated to an explanation of various division by fraction operations, with accompanying formulae to reinforce the calculations. the latter part of the tutorial featured word problems based on the preceding operations. however, the close link detected between mathematical operations and problems in the ‘perimeter/area’ and ‘simple interest’ tutorials was not always evident in the problems on ‘division with fractions’. the following problem brings this issue to the fore: • pat studies 4 hours daily, from monday to friday. she studies 2/3 of an hour during each session. if she studies 6 subjects, how many sessions does she spend per week on each subject? even though it is expected that procedures related to the mathematical operation, ‘division with fractions’ would play a part in the solution of this problem, there was clearly need for some intermediary guidelines, specific to this category of problems, to link the problem with the procedures related to that mathematical operation. such guidelines could be expected to assist students in their interpretation of the problem and put them on the path to working out its solution. however, this was not done. what was provided, though, were four broad steps, broken down into sub-steps, that could, in fact, apply to any problem-type. the four were: • understand the problem • devise a plan • carry out the plan • check the solution. 1 the issues regarding inadequate clarification of concepts in these two tutorials, that were discussed earlier, have been temporarily set aside for the purpose of the current discussion. 54 it is very unlikely that students, working on their own, would be able to make any meaningful use of these steps. unlike ‘division with fractions’, the problems on ‘unequal sharing’ were not linked to a formal set of mathematical operations. however, similar to the former, there were a set of general steps. these were, “read, plan, do, check”, with additional “things to remember when you read a problem”, namely: • identify the whole • identify the number of parts • identify different characteristics of unequal shares (https://www.facebook.com/tttliveonline/videos/261474185017089) in delivering the instruction for this latter group of problems, the tutor did, in fact, use strategies that were based on the broad guidelines provided. there was frequent use of diagrams to support her oral explanation of the procedures being applied. overall, though, the combination of diagrams and explanations did not seem to be grounded in a formalised set of rules that could apply over a whole group of problems. nonetheless, one got a sense that the tutor was drawing on an internal knowledge base, even though it was not conveyed in a very well organised way. one should not underestimate the value of clear problem-specific instructions to guide the solution of particular categories of problems. this perspective is being proposed even in instances where the procedures developed for the calculation of the base operations appear to offer good support for the related problem-solving exercise. the question that emerges in such cases is whether the same will hold true when the problems become more complex. one should not assume that the instruction provided to support the learning of the base operations, would automatically transfer to the task of solving related word problems, even though the transition that the tutor makes may appear to be seamless. for the average student, knowing how to divide by fractions, or even calculating the perimeter and area of plane shapes, may not necessarily provide him or her with all the tools for solving problems based on those operations. the point being emphasized here is that problem-solving tasks require their own procedures in their own right. a useful starting point for formulating appropriate strategies may lie in the oral communication of teachers themselves. such communication is drawing on an internal knowledge base that may be more substantial than what is openly shared with the students. unpacking that spoken text, inclusive of teacher-student interactions (whether simulated or real), while simultaneously tapping into the internal knowledge base, should be a critical part of the exercise of formulating well-constructed strategies that students can take ownership of. even as one acknowledges the need for strategy formulation geared to satisfy the requirements of a specific problem type, one needs to be wary of conveying the impression that there is a single strategy that will apply to all possible problems that fall within the same topic area. consequently, an important aspect of building capacity for problem solving is for teachers to be aware that they are assisting students to build a strategy that can, not only work in its own right, but which they (the students) will be required to adjust from time to time given variations in the problems to be solved. 55 students’ ability to vary existing strategies to meet the requirements of slightly different problems, or alternatively to generate a new strategy, will be dependent on the extent to which they have a substantial body of already developed strategies that they can draw on to construct something (almost) new. conclusions and recommendations while this review was conducted on video tutorials developed to facilitate remote teaching during the pandemic, it is the intention of the reviewer that the actual assessment would apply to any teaching mode, whether at a distance or face-to-face. at the same time, given the way the pandemic has thrust matters regarding the role of technology in education to the fore, the reviewer recognises the need to address this issue not only in relation to the teaching of problem-solving skills, but to primary education as a whole. with regard to problem-solving skills, there was a need for improvement in specific aspects of the instruction, namely: • concept clarification, to allow students to get an understanding of key terms beyond surface definitions and explanations. • interpretation of the text (language) of the problem, so that students would be able to unpack the meanings of non-mathematical words and phrases used in the problem and make appropriate linkages with core mathematics-related terms and principles. • transitioning from concrete operations to abstract thinking, to give students the opportunity to manipulate objects themselves to give them the confidence to make the crossover to more abstract modes of thinking. • facilitating students’ ability to recognise and also create diagrams and other line drawings as representations of more complex real-world phenomena. • maintaining consistency between overall problem objectives and those for subsidiary, enabling components of the instruction. • building robust well-integrated strategy(ies) for a given class of problems, which students can take ownership of and use for their own problem-solving tasks, and further, which can serve as a foundation from which they can develop higher level strategies as required. one acknowledges that not all of the strategies could or should be accommodated under a single umbrella. consequently, what is also required is a broad-based appraisal of the curriculum both within and across content areas to make the necessary adjustments. the approach described above is consistent with the fundamentals of pedagogical content knowledge (pck), described as “the knowledge that teachers develop over time, and through experience, about how to teach particular content in particular ways in order to lead to enhanced student understanding” (loughran, berry & mulhall, 2012, p. 7) in terms of technology use, given the emergency situation that continues to prevail, the heavy reliance on broadcast (as well as remote teaching via videoconferencing) was necessary. however, 56 notwithstanding the advantages of video broadcast discussed earlier, its limitations cannot be ignored. this reviewer is of the view that there is a need to develop a technology-use policy for the primary sector (and in fact for the entire education system) that leads it out of the reactive, unsustainable situation it now finds itself in, and which is widening an already big gap between low and high performers. such a policy would aim to provide all students with access to educationally-appropriate modern technology. for this to happen, there is a need for a shift in thinking away from a laptop for every child, to one that places the emphasis on outfitting all schools with the necessary hardware and software as well as internet connectivity for communal use. the intention here is to re-establish the school compound as a significant centre of learning in the life of the child, and by extension, to make it the main location for student use of the technologies for purposes of learning. some may argue that such a position does not take into account the possibility that the country can be plunged into another phase of increased virus spread. this author would respond with the counterargument that it is not in the interest of a large proportion of the school population for them to be subjected to ongoing remote lecture-type teaching. there is a need to re-orient thinking on the relationship between technology and learning. norton and wiburg (1998) appear to be addressing that issue when they assert: when educators design learning opportunities for students, they must choose the tool or combination of tools consistent with the intellectual challenges at hand. (p. 38) whether the content to be learnt relates to the solving of word problems in mathematics or any other area of learning, the positions articulated above are provided as a useful starting point for contemplating the design and development of the learning experience. references alexander, v., & maeda, y. (2015). understanding student achievement in mathematics and science: the case of trinidad and tobago. prospects, 45, 577-591. burney, s. m. a., & saleem, h. (2008). inductive and deductive research approach. monograph for lecture presentation. university of karachi, pakistan. cnc3 editor (april 25, 2020). education ministry: online platforms a success. https://www.cnc3.co.tt/educationministry-online-platforms-a-success/ devlin, m. (2013). bridging socio-cultural incongruity: conceptualising the success of students from low socioeconomic status backgrounds in australian higher education. studies in higher education, 38(6), 939-949. kamina, p., & iyer, n. (2009). from concrete to abstract: teaching for transfer of learning when using manipulatives. university of connecticut: nera conference proceedings. khan, s. a. (february 8, 2017). mathematics proficiency of primary school students in trinidad and tobago. (submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of doctor of education.) teachers’ college, columbia university. kuboni, o. (may 5, 2020). schooling in the time of covid-19 and beyond in t&t. https://www.facebook.com/notes/olabisi-kuboni/schooling-in-the-time-of-covid-19-and-beyond-intt/2944993535590453 57 loop news (march 17, 2020). covid-19: moe seeks teachers to volunteer, submit content. http://www.looptt.com/content/covid-19-moe-seeks-teachers-volunteer-sumbit-content loop news (april 14, 2020). how to access the education ministry’s online learning platform. http://www.looptt.com/content/how-access-education-ministrys-online-learning-platform loop news (april 26, 2020). ministry arranging internet access, devices for vulnerable students. http://www.looptt.com/content/ministry-arranging-internet-access-devices-vulnerable-students loughran, j., berry a., & mulhall, p. (2012). pedagogical content knowledge. in j. loughran, a. berry & p. mulhall (eds.), understanding and developing science teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge, 7-14. norton, p., & wiburg, k. (1998). teaching with technology. harcourt brace college publishers. phonapichatt, p., wongwanich, s., & sujiva, s. (2014). an analysis of elementary school students’ difficulties in mathematical problem solving. procedia – social and behavioral sciences, 116, 3169-3174. quintero, a. h. (1983). conceptual understanding in solving two-step word problems with a ratio. journal for research in mathematics education, 14(2), 102-112. rigaud, p. (2013). investigating school performance in the primary sector of trinidad and tobago: an embedded case study. biennial conference of the university of the west indies school of education, st. augustine campus. soiferman, l. k. (2010). compare and contrast inductive and deductive research approaches. university of manitoba. trinidad and tobago guardian (may 2, 2020). 60,000 students suffering. https://www.guardian.co.tt/news/60000students-suffering-6.2.1109261.6ee28d9d13 ttt live online (2021). s.e.a. time. https://www.facebook.com/watch/tttliveonline/ united nations (2020, august). policy brief: education during covid-19 and beyond. https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/sg_policy_brief_covid-19_and_education_august_2020.pdf vilenius-tuohimaa, p., aunola, k., & nurmi, j. (2008). the association between mathematical word problems and reading comprehension. educational psychology, 28(4), 409-426. yelgun, a., & karaman, i. (2015). what are the factors reducing the academic achievement in a primary school located in a neighbourhood with a low socio-economic status? education and science, 40(178), 251-268. zambo, r. (1992). word problem solving in middle grades mathematics. research in middle level education, 16(1), 143-157. author: dr olabisi kuboni is an independent consultant in open and distributed learning based in trinidad and tobago. she retired as senior lecturer and head of graduate programmes at the university of west indies open campus in 2012. her research and development interests include support systems for the online learner, the analysis of online teaching-learning strategies and the design and development of management systems to support online learning. dr kuboni was a recipient of the col fellow award in 2013. email: olabisikuboni99@gmail.com cite this paper as: kuboni, o. (2021). rethinking problem-solving teaching strategies in the primary sector for both face-to-face and online delivery. journal of learning for development, 8(1), 42-57. microsoft word lambert.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 225-244 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. changing our (dis)course: a distinctive social justice aligned definition of open education sarah r. lambert deakin university, australia abstract: this paper investigates the degree to which recent digital open education literature is aligned to social justice principles, starting with the first unesco definition of open educational resources (oer). a critical analysis of 19 texts was undertaken to track dominant and alternative ideas shaping the development of open education since 2002 as it broadened and developed from oer to open educational practices (oep). the paper begins by outlining the method of texts selection, including defining the three principles of social justice (redistributive, recognitive and representational justice) used as an analytical lens. next the paper sets out findings which show where and how the principles of social justice became lost within the details of texts, or in other digital agendas and technological determinist debates. finally, a new social justice aligned definition for open education is offered. the aim of the new definition is to provide new language and a strong theoretical framework for equitable education, as well as to clearly distinguish the field of open education from mainstream constructivist elearning. keywords: social justice, open education, open educational resources, open educational practices, oep, critical theory, definition introduction ten years have passed since the cape town open education declaration (the cape town open education declaration, 2007), so it is timely to review the progress towards the objectives laid out for open education. however, this is made difficult by the fact that the declaration describes multiple possibilities, and open education continues to mean many different things to many different people. the cape town declaration avoided setting out a definition for open education, suggesting that this would leave what it termed an “emerging” movement free to develop and take advantage of technologies and innovations as yet unknown. in fact, open education has a long history of providing education to non-privileged learners via open universities. however, the rise of digital and internet-based learning made open education seem new – it brought many new people, ideas and institutions to the field with different backgrounds. scholars of the modern open education movement worked almost without reference to the early corpus of open education literature (weller, jordan, devries, & rolfe, 2018). therefore, this paper starts from the position that the literature from the 2002 unesco declaration (unesco, 2002) can be considered a new chapter of open education literature for the digital era. since 2002, open education research and practice has expanded outwards from open educational resources (oer) to an interest in a broader set of open educational practices (oep). researchers have debated the definition of “openness” common to both areas of practice (peter & deimann, 2013). 226 definitions of openness are variable, but tend to highlight a sharing of effort and/or resources with all teachers and all learners, often positioned against closed practices as negative or lacking innovation (wiley, bliss, & mcewan, 2014). yet, while conference keynotes, panels and debates have discussed open education initiatives with regard to their alignment with social justice aspirations, it was surprisingly difficult to find and therefore cite published open education literature focused on social justice and the enablement of excluded or disadvantaged learners. the 2002 unesco declaration certainly is clear about its intended benefit for excluded learners in developing countries (unesco, 2002). however, the recently published statement on the 10th anniversary of the cape town open education declaration talks about collaboration, innovation and quality more than ideas of redistributing educational resources and opportunities to those who need them the most (cape town open education declaration 10th anniversary: ten directions to move open education forward, 2017). meanwhile, a consensus on a definition or purpose for open education remains elusive. this brings us to critical questions which lie at the heart of current unresolved definitional debates and which are the motivation for this research: where is social justice in the contemporary open education literature? and similarly, is open education an innovation for everybody, or is it primarily about removing barriers to the marginalised and excluded? the problem that this paper addresses is two-fold. firstly, a lack of definitional clarity is a problem for those that consider open education as a valid field of endeavour. when there are easily shifting goalposts, we never really know if we have contributed or made substantive progress. as influential practitioner and commentator wiley notes, “without clarity about our foundational commitments, it can be easy to wander” (wiley, 2017b). secondly, for those open education practitioners and researchers who consider social justice important aims, particularly in times of increasing not decreasing inequality, the problem is more than definitional. it means that the field’s efforts towards reducing educational and societal inequalities are dispersed, inefficient and ineffective. without a critical mass of social justice orientated views of what open education is capable of, we are unlikely to direct our energies where it is most needed, and, as a result, achieve less equitable educational outcomes. this purpose of this research, therefore, is to investigate the degree to which the discourse of contemporary open education literature is concerned with social justice principles and the ideal of fairness or equality of educational provision. the method of investigation is a critical analysis of a sample of contemporary open education texts. this paper begins by outlining the method of choosing and analysing the key texts including the definition of social justice used as a critical analytical lens. next, findings are outlined showing where and how the principles of social justice became lost within the details of texts, or in other digital agendas and technological determinist debates. the paper concludes by offering a new definition for open education which is aligned to the principles of social justice, and some observations about how it may be applied. gaps in the existing literature open education papers discussing social justice issues are hard to find. a search of the irrodl journal found only two that had “social justice” in either the title or abstract, and the australian journal of educational technology (ajet) had none. while there is some work focussed on social inclusion and the digital divides (dimaggio & hargittai, 2001; lane, 2013; warschauer, 2003; willems & bossu, 2012) 227 these are similar but somewhat narrower constructs than social justice. similarly, related works about widening participation of formal education continues to emerge from the open and distance education institutions, including some scoped to bridge informal and formal learning (farrow, arcos, pitt, & weller, 2015; lane, 2016). however, as recent citation analysis has shown, the connection between the field of widening participation in formal education and the oer and oep literature is extremely tenuous (weller et al., 2018). while open education researchers have used textual analysis methods to critically appraise the social-justice alignment of open education policy documents in different global contexts (cox & trotter, 2016; mukama, 2018) or institutional mission statements (tait, 2013), however, to date no research exists which interrogates texts and definitions in an attempt to shed light on how assumptions might have constrained progress towards social justice. therefore, this research contributes a new understanding or explanation for a perceived lack of open education progress, an alternative account beyond the dominant discourse that if we could only improve awareness and uptake of open education policy or practice, we would be able to make it both “more accessible and more effective” (cape town open education declaration 10th anniversary: ten directions to move open education forward, 2017)." instead it argues that social justice outcomes for open education do not flow from the affordances of our technologies, nor any view of our “openness”, but flow from our commitment to design explicitly for it via the application of one, two or three of the principles of social justice. theoretical lens for the research: social justice definition making a judgement on the degree to which open education key texts align with social justice relies on a good working definition of social justice. for this research, the following definition of social justice was developed from the work of keddie (2012), fraser (1995), and young (1997) as: a process and also a goal to achieve a fairer society which involves actions guided by the principles of redistributive justice, recognitive justice or representational justice. redistributive justice is the most long-standing principle of social justice and involves allocation of material or human resources towards those who by circumstance have less (rawls, 1971). recognitive justice involves recognition and respect for cultural and gender difference, and representational justice involves equitable representation and political voice (fraser, 1995; keddie, 2012; young, 1997). the example of an open textbook can be used to show how these principles can be applied to open education. providing a free textbook to learners of colour in the american two-year college system, is redistributive justice in action. it reduces the costs and increases the chances of success for learners who “by circumstance have less” – they are marginalised in education, workplaces and more broadly in society. but how “open” is the textbook for marginalised learners if indigenous, hispanic and learners of colour are invisible inside the textbook and perhaps invisible in the whole curriculum? the editing of such a textbook to include images and cases featuring more diverse communities, businesses and people will be an act of recognitive justice. but what if the textbook features people of colour, but does not value their perspectives, knowledges or histories? what if the textbook takes a white colonial view of black lives, if black stories are told solely by white voices? the development or selection of a new version of a textbook (or perhaps a new resource altogether) written by people of colour where they are free to represent their own views, histories and knowledges would be an act of representational 228 justice, to give voice to those who are often not heard. table 1 summarises the three principles and provides some examples as applied to open education. table 1: three principles of social justice applied to open education social justice principle open education example redistributive justice free educational resources, textbooks or courses to learners who by circumstance of socio-cultural position cannot afford them, particularly learners who could be excluded from education or be more likely to fail due to lack of access to learning materials. recognitive justice socio-cultural diversity in the open curriculum. inclusion of images, case studies, and knowledges of women, first nations people and whomever is marginalised in any particular national, regional or learning context. recognition of diverse views and experiences as legitimate within open assignments and feedback. representational justice self-determination of marginalised people and groups to speak for themselves, and not have their stories told by others. co-construction of oer texts and resources about learners of colour by learners of colour, about women’s experiences by women, about gay experiences by gay identifying people. facilitation to ensure quiet and minority views have equal air-time in open online discussions. from these examples, we can see that an open course or textbook might meet the principles of social justice, in three quite different ways. for the most socially just outcome, it would ideally meet all three principles. most importantly, the example also shows that providing an open textbook to all learners, particularly if they are predominantly already educationally privileged, may not be social justice at all. depending on the cohort and their needs, it may enable a range of outcomes for a range of learners. for elite cohorts, it may in fact give a further leg-up to those whom by circumstance typically have more. research method selection of texts nineteen key texts were selected for analysis on the basis of the author’s focussed searching and reading to locate social justice influences during a concurrent process of phd research in open education. the aim was to locate a sample of influential texts which shaped the modern open education period, and could then be analysed for their major interests, social justice or otherwise. selection of texts started with the highly cited “declarations” and authors such as wiley and weller who are associated with social-justice aligned organisations or projects in the open university or american college sector. selection then shifted to texts discussing what open education was, or was not — that influenced definitional debates in the literature and at international conferences. couros was selected for completeness with regard to tracking the development and values of “the open movement”. additional texts were selected relating to definitions and representational/graphic models of oep, which were often used in lieu of definitions. another set were chosen as responses to moocs, where the definitional debates about what open education was and wasn’t intensified again. 229 these texts, when arranged chronologically, roughly fit into three somewhat overlapping time periods with common concerns: 1. foundational digital texts 2002-2012 2. broadening phase texts 2009 – 2017 3. appropriation phase texts 2012-2015 five to eight sample texts in each phase suggest a reasonably similar sample size to adequately represent the periods. the first published literature review of oer — while published in 2014 is included in the foundational digital texts phase as it covers literature from 2002-2013 and acts as a consolidation of the definitional issues of that period. table 2 lists the sample texts in each phase. while any sample of texts cannot be exhaustive, and invariably omits more than it includes, nevertheless they have been chosen because of their influence on the definitional debates about what is distinctive or valuable about the field of open education. it is important to acknowledge that none of the texts set out to write specifically about social justice as currently defined, nor may the authors have awareness of the three principles used in the social justice definition of the term. while each of the authors had their own purposes for their work, nevertheless these texts were picked up and discussed by others, and in the absence of a definition, often used as de facto definitions or discourse to shape, explain and justify the work and the purposes for the work that followed. therefore, the extent to which these texts align with social justice ideas is indicative of the extent to which recent, digitally enabled open education aligns with social justice ideals. “openness determinism” and the iterative analysis and development of themes the analysis involved multiple readings and note-taking alongside excerpts from each text. the early re-readings identified relevant segment/s of the longer texts where social-justice ideas were addressed, partially addressed or implied. where social justice ideas were found to be absent, notes were made on the alternative interests or themes. early emerging themes included benefits to it workers, potential/barriers, educational innovation and quality improvement. the “openness as good” theme emerged as a major alternative (non-social justice) theme in which the idea of what “openness” could achieve was fetishized as if it had some kind of inherent power, reminiscent of the technical determinist literature. technological determinism is a problematic and ultimately ineffective approach to technology implementations, which assumes that the particular capabilities of new technologies will always improve the situations into which they are brought. such over optimism tends to understate the influence of people and the social context for the success – and also the failure — of particular technologies. the technological determinist literature was consulted for a definition, and the “affordance account” was a match for the theme emerging in the analysis. the “affordance” account of technological determinism is the overemphasising or attributing of the power for improvements in education (or society) to the general decontextualized properties or “affordance” of technology, particularly to promote the uptake by others (oliver, 2011; selwyn, 2011). therefore, within the subsequent analysis, the theme was labelled “openness determinism” and a final reading was made consolidating and finalising themes. the findings of the analysis are outlined then discussed in the sections following table 2. 230 table 2: nineteen key texts included in the research short title of text (reference) foundational digital texts 2002-2012 1. 2002 unesco oer announcement and definition (unesco, 2002) 2. alec couros’ thesis on open source communities clarifying beliefs of ‘the open movement’ (couros, 2006) 3. david wiley’s 4rs definition of open content -later to become 5rs (wiley, 2007) 4. the cape town open education declaration (the cape town open education declaration, 2007) 5. 2012 paris oer declaration (unesco, 2012) 6. first literature review of oer (wiley et al., 2014) broadening phase texts 2009 – 2017 7. first continuum of openness hodgkinson-williams, c., & gray, e. (hodgkinson-williams & gray, 2009) 8. ehlers’ oep definition, an outcome of the opal report beyond oer: shifting focus from resources to practices (ehlers, 2011) 9. open practices jisc briefing paper (beetham, falconer, mcgill, & littlejohn, 2012) 10. siemens’ chapter contribution in the book moocs and open education around the world (siemens, 2015) 11. butcher’s report for the commonwealth of learning a basic guide to open educational resources (oer) (butcher, 2015) 12. 10 dimensions of open education (part of eu science project report) (dos santos, punie, & muñoz, 2016) 13. wiley adopts new term ‘oer-enabled pedagogy’(wiley, 2017a) 14. cronin’s “interpretations of open” continuum and revised oep definition (cronin, 2017) appropriation phase texts 2012-2015 15. wiley’s blog post on commercial appropriation (wiley, 2012) 16. lamb’s blog post bold innovations in openwashing (lamb, 2013) 17. weller’s book the battle for open: how openness won and why it doesn’t feel like victory (weller, 2014) 18. watters’ blog post from “open” to justice (watters, 2014) 19. rohs and ganz’ paper moocs and the claim of education for all: a disillusion by empirical data (rohs & ganz, 2015) 231 findings and discussion foundational digital phase findings the 2002 and 2012 unesco oer declarations stand out for their clear social justice alignment, whereas social justice principles are absent or only weakly implied in the other key texts of this period. the 2002 unesco proposal to pursue oer is framed as an action of redistributive justice from those with greater resources to those with fewer, i.e., developing countries. the addition of the phrase with the “full participation” of those countries – is an action of representational justice. other sections imply a degree of recognitive justice. the 2012 version acknowledges the limits of progress and is a renewed call to ten oer-based social justice actions. however, similar to the problem of the 2002 declaration and also wiley’s “4/5rs” specification text, the social justice intentions are lost if only the headings are cited as a de facto summary of the whole text. we are left with the purposeless and deterministic “foster awareness and use of oer” — as if it is an end to itself — which assumes that justice or equality will naturally follow from access to oer. the shorter versions or summaries as well as the more technical key texts from this phase, tend to read as technologically deterministic “affordance” accounts. within this deterministic account, access to resources for all is paramount – oer adoption potential is promoted in terms of free resources online, highlighting new technology as a key enabler. as table 3 below summarises, the key texts from the foundational digital period 2002-2012 either do not address social justice principles as currently defined, imply them weakly or are present in the context or purposes for the work but absent from the often-cited shorter texts and definitions. the dominant discourses in these texts are not social justice ideas but rather that openness and oer is good, access is good, and that re-using oer have potential to change education for the better. a later variation on this dominant discourse continues to assert the potential value of increasing access and re-using oer, if only barriers to adoption (i.e., challenges related to people) could be overcome. the sample texts often frame openness, oer, open-software community and/or the open movement as good because they are based on collaboration, sharing, and democratisation of knowledge. however, none of these are necessarily good in terms of social justice if the sharing and collaboration is primarily between relatively highly privileged global north it workers. because of this, the term democratisation of knowledge (or of education) raised in these texts (and in many other subsequent papers) cannot be conflated with social justice even though the term may sound like a synonym for social justice. similarly, while for some readers the term “access” may imply ideas of social justice, however, as currently defined, access is not a synonym for social justice. the wiley et all literature review (2014) reports there is more oer traction for speeding up mainstream course development: benefits of oer are primarily institutional, relating to reputation and efficiency — prescient views that would be echoed and amplified in the mooc or appropriation phase. 232 table 3: data summary of social justice alignment of six foundational digital texts 2002-2012 reference findings (data summary) with themes in bold 1. 2002 unesco oer announcement and definition (2002) social justice hidden in context. alternative theme – access to free materials online for everybody: while the whole text is strongly aligned with redistributive and representational justice, with a lesser emphasis on recognitive justice, the often-cited shorter definition sentence contains none of the context and social justice principles for improving educational access in developing countries, but are about putting free materials online for everybody. 2. couros’ thesis on open source communities clarifying beliefs of ‘the open movement’ (2006) social justice principles absent: principles of redistributive, recognitive or representational justice for learners are not discussed. alternative themes empowerment/choice for educators/technicians; access to free materials online for everybody: the text discusses empowering technical workers to choose open-source as an action against commercial control of work and tools. such tools then could enable access to free materials for everybody. 3. wiley’s “4rs” definition of open content later to become “5rs” (2007) social justice hidden in context: at this level of granularity regarding legal and technical features of a digital resource, the “4/5rs framework” or definition lacks any of the keywords or principles of social justice. social justice is not present as either a goal or a process/action in the texts, even though redistributive justice regarding text-book costs for marginalised learners was a significant part of wiley’s application of the work in the american college sector. alternative theme – openness determinism (affordance); access to free materials online for everybody: the text discusses overcoming technical and legal hurdles; three of the “4rs” (rework, remix, redistribute) are relevant only if you have technical skills and infrastructure; the text can be read as a conversation between it workers promoting re-use affordance. increasing educator re-use of openly licenced materials is assumed to lead to improved/changed educational access. 4. the cape town open education declaration. (2007) social justice principles weakly implied: the principles of redistributive, recognitive and representational justice are only implied, are extremely watered down. alternative themes – openness determinism (affordance); access to free materials online for everybody: the text discusses the potential of open education in terms of innovation and quality improvement in education for all; asserts that “we are on the cusp of a revolution”, i.e., change afforded by improved access to materials and various forms of openness. this text is representative of many others like it, and by this stage it represents a dominant account around potential, re-use, access and education for all. 5. paris oer declaration (2012) social justice present but hidden in context: taken in its entirety, this declaration is not a definition, but a call to action, and in particular a call to social justice actions. the text shows influence of the widening participation field in higher education (itself a social justice/inclusion process). the full texts of the first, second and seventh actions taken together call for oer as distributive, recognitive and representational justice actions. these details are easily lost when citing only the ten actions heading texts. 6. first literature review of oer (wiley, bliss and mcewan, 2014). social justice principles absent: oer as social justice actions for students are not discussed, and where the three types of social justice are mentioned or implied, they are framed as unrealised potential of oer. alternative themes – openness determinism (affordance); institutional benefits: the potential of open education dominant discourse is re-stated even while noting the reported reality that 12 years after oer was launched, using free digital materials for global north education is still the majority practice. re-use via technical editing and open licencing has not gained traction. oer noted as providing institutional reputational benefit. more equitable forms of education are framed as a “potential” or unrealised benefit of re-purposing oer — if barriers to adoption could be overcome. 233 broadening phase findings in these texts, open education is re-framed by some authors as broader than the dominant oer or “4/5rs” account from the previous phase. for example, the hodgkin-williams et al first “continuum” of open education indicates that more than legal and technical solutions are required, re-asserting the complex people and social side of both learning and academic development around oer. an alternative view was developed of oep as a set of innovative collaborative teaching and learning practices available to all and for all. however, in this account the notion of “all” still does not distinguish between those who by circumstance have more, or less. the benefit of a broadened oep view is that researcher/practitioners in the field excluded by a narrow “4/5rs” definition of openness were invited “into the tent”. with more participants shaping the field, a dominant conversation developed around what kind of openness (resources/oer vs practices/oep) would expedite a path towards a common good — without defining how such a “good” could be measured or whom the resources/practices actually enable. what is not questioned in these broadening phase key texts is the idea that openness can effect change for the better. this variation of determinism is known in the technological literature as the “normative” account, which is problematic as it constrains other alternative views (oliver, 2011; selwyn, 2011). dominant discourse leaves alternative ideas – such as those relating to social justice — at the periphery of a field. a common alternative idea left marginalised was the utility of free materials (but not openly licenced so not “open”) for direct benefit of learners – marginalised or otherwise. despite their redistributive justice potential free resources were criticised for not being open to modification by other educators, seen as more efficient and hence costeffective. further, the analysis identifies the problem of “reification” where normative accounts are further promoted by the use of shared visualisations, which tend to calcify a dominant understanding during a process of simplification to aid sharing and uptake by others (wenger, 1998). such reification may be an unfortunate unintended consequence of some of the “continuums” visual diagrams published during this period. the oep literature also introduce another term, “empowerment”, that may have been read as a synonym or idea related to social justice. the use of the term may have created an impression that social justice was still being discussed and pursued. however, the term “empowerment” in the sample texts align with only half of the concept of recognitive justice where they are described as an innovation for everyone, because they leave open the very real possibility of further empowering the already privileged (who continue to dominate most universities) so they may take their place as future leaders, thus further propping up current societal inequality. 234 table 4: data summary of findings from eight broadening phase texts 2009 – 2017 reference findings (data summary) with themes in bold 7. first continuum of openness hodgkinson-williams, c., & gray, e. (2009). social justice assumed not stated. this continuum puts the social context on the map as impacting outcomes as much as the technical and legal domains. however, the social justice aims underpinning why such work is undertaken – particularly in south africa is somewhat assumed and hidden from view. alternative theme – teaching and learning as a social practice: works against more technological determinist approaches to the oer work. 8. ehlers’ oep definition (2011), an outcome of the opal report beyond oer: shifting focus from resources to practices. social justice is absent: social justice is largely absent in any form, and where it is – it is with regard to a broad policy agenda. alternative theme – elearning innovation for everyone: this report and particularly the oep definition sentence (perhaps inadvertently) promotes the broadening education innovation and quality agenda. 9. beetham et al (2012) open practices jisc briefing paper. social justice is absent: social justice principles are not mentioned in this paper. alternative theme – elearning innovation for everyone; staff and institutional benefits: definition shows the broadening of the field towards mainstream higher education, benefits are noted as towards institutions first, higher education staff second, with student benefits noted third. 10. siemens’ chapter contribution in book moocs and open education around the world (2015) social justice is absent: social justice principles are not mentioned in this paper. alternative theme – elearning innovation for everyone: reflects the ideas in oep regarding digital literacy and lifelong learning are the alpha trend in digital learning and the more important phenomena than moocs. can be read as blurring the boundaries between openeducation and elearning or online learning. 11. butcher’s report for the commonwealth of learning (2015) a basic guide to open educational resources (oer). limited, partial redistributive justice approach. provides a new definition for open education, which is about removing barriers to learning and addressing assessment and accreditation — these can be viewed as parts of redistributive justice. alternative theme – widening participation: access, supported progress, and success of disadvantaged learners. works against the discourse that “access” alone will produce fairer education. 12. 10 dimensions of open education in eu science project report from dos santos, a. i., punie, y., & muñoz, j. c. (2016). social justice limited and hidden: there is a very limited version of social justice via the principle of redistributive justice in the report. also, social justice principles are absent from the simpler and easierto-reference definition and infographic which reads like a checklist for any elearning innovation. alternative theme – elearning innovation for everyone. part of a broadening agenda that blurs boundaries with mainstream education. 13. wiley’s adoption of the new term ‘oerenabled pedagogy’ (2017). social justice is absent or hidden. alternative theme – openness determinism (normative view): wiley adopts a new term as a response to the way oep had broadened the field towards constructivist online learning. “oep enabled pedagogy” reifies the technologically deterministic account of technical re-use as central to change. an alternate view would be that organisational culture and investment in people wrapped around oer technical systems are the cause of the change. such “people power” seems to be present in the actual collaborative work wiley and his projects engage in but is absent from the cited and discussed blog posting texts. 235 14. cronin’s ‘interpretations of open’ continuum and oep definition (2017) social justice partially implied (empowerment synonym). alternative theme – elearning innovation for everyone: oep definition: starts to imply the possibility of some form of recognitive justice through the use of the term empowerment – but like definitions of oep that came before – does not discuss the importance of doing so to remediate differential opportunity between learner groups. the benefits of collaborative co-construction are framed as educational innovations for everyone. standing somewhat apart from the technological determinist discourses discussed, the butcher (2015) and the dos santos et al (2016) texts go beyond notions of access (dominant theme from foundational texts) to discuss the supported progress and success of learners. access, progress, and success are three key terms from the field of widening participation in higher education. the use of these terms denotes an attempt to change the demographics of higher education learners and graduates to resemble the multi-cultural, gender, dis/ability, indigenous, and socio-economic mix that occur in wider society. such definitions suggest different approaches to future research — beyond measuring self-reported learner satisfaction, to investigating the progress and graduation rates of more advantaged as compared to less advantaged learners in any particular context. however, the most common themes in this set of literature is not social justice but oep becoming an elearning innovation for everyone. this broadening agenda blurred boundaries with mainstream education and its concerns of digitising curriculum, technology innovation and improving the quality of educational provision. these ideas were already being discussed in the earlier phase, and the cape town declaration spoke in terms of the innovation and quality of education agenda (the cape town open education declaration, 2007). however, in this broadening phase, the notion of oer/oep as an elearning innovation applicable to everyone becomes the dominant discourse. recently, the genesis and assumptions of oep are tracked back to recent trends in the broader educational literature, namely social constructivist, student-centred learning (cronin & maclaren, 2018). i would suggest that oep can alternatively be considered a contemporary online iteration of social constructivist learning, positioned against oer as a more positivist resource and teacherfocussed paradigm. the risk then, at this point in time, is open education broadening so far as to lose its distinctiveness and point of differentiation between mainstream elearning or higher education. in other words, open education could wither as a separate field and become subsumed into the field of elearning and/or social constructivist learning. appropriation phase texts the analysis of the appropriation phase texts (see table 5 below) revealed a crisis point in the field where the term “openness” was overlaid with commercial meanings such that any sense of “open as common good” was lost and authors moved between wanting to abandon the term, to redefining and re-claiming what was “truly open.” however, as previously discussed, the fetishization of openness is a problematic form of determinism, which reduces the effectiveness of open education by not attending to the complex socio-cultural context of learning and technology use. table 5 summarises the findings and themes. 236 table 5: data summary of findings from 6 appropriation phase texts 2012-2015 reference findings (data summary) with themes in bold 15. wiley’s blog post (2012) on commercial appropriation social justice is absent or weakly implied: the use of oer for social justice is not discussed – perhaps not considered, or is it just assumed that oer are social justice actions and commercial resources are not? alternative theme – commercial threat to practitioners and field: the threat from commercial appropriation is discussed in terms of the superior appeal of the multimedia-based educational resources used. the threat/crisis of oer being dead by 2017 is raised, if the movement cannot respond. 16. lamb’s blog post (2013) bold innovations in openwashing social justice principles absent. alternative theme – commercial threat to practitioners and field: this post describes a crisis point of appropriation or “openwashing” by commmercial textbook and mooc providers such that practitioners question if they can continue to use the term open education. professional identity as open educators are questioned. 17. weller’s book (2014) the battle for open: how openness won and why it doesn’t feel like victory social justice principles absent. alternative theme – commercial threat to practitioners and field: the “battle”, in the context of commercialism of openness, is the battle for control of higher education and the fight between the idea of education as a greater good vs education as a saleable commodity. it’s not the battle for reducing inequality in education and society, however, there may be an assumed view that student benefit flows from staff control over learning. 18. watters’s blog post (2014) from “open” to justice clear social justice aim: watters returns us to a social justice aspiration for open education and uses the term social justice explicitly. 19. rohs and ganz (2015) moocs and the claim of education for all: a disillusion by empirical data redistributive justice aims: this paper is one of the many emerging empirical and demographic studies showing the failure of online “access” to provide for fairer education. blog posts and comments from this period demonstrate anger towards commercial appropriation of open education as practitioners are seen to be “systematically forced out of the movement they started by their new slick corporate overlords." there is also recognition of “the damage…done” to the field by limiting the work of the field to only that which is profitable (lamb, 2013). the kinds of justice called for in these texts relate to practitioners/educators and their ability to make ethical choices. there is a possible implication or assumption that such ethical choices on behalf of educators would benefit all learners but this connection is not made explicit in the texts analysed. the 2014-15 texts from watters and rohs and ganz signal a major shift in discourse as more empirical studies came to light identifying a lack of improvement in educational inequality from open education initiatives. both texts signal a growing discomfort with dominant “access and openness as good” discourses, and identify a widening digital divide as likely outcomes should similar approaches continue. watters’ text provides a powerful rejoinder to the determinist discourse that had been building over previous phases and which assumes “openness” can and will do the work of social justice. while 237 rohs and ganz’s texts frame their argument within the digital divide debate, watters uses the term social justice explicitly. she draws attention to the relationship between normative openness determinist views of open education – “all the right nods from all the right powerful players within ‘open’” and the failure of open education to enact or provide for more equitable education. what watters describes is the outcome of openness determinism: what happens when something is “open" in all the ways that open education and open source and open data advocates would approve. all the right open licenses... all the right nods from all the right powerful players within “open.” and yet, the project is still not equitable. what if, in fact, it’s making it worse? what are we going to do when we recognize that “open" is not enough? i hope, that we recognize that what we need is social justice. we need politics, not simply a license. we need politics, not simply technology solutions. we need an ethics of care, of justice, not simply assume that “open” does the work of those for us (watters, 2014). summary of themes across the three phases social justice principles were present in 2002 at the start of the digital foundation phase but eroded over time as numerous alternative ideas and discourses developed. while the principles were sometimes implied or hidden in the detail of the digital foundation phase, in the broadening phase they were mostly absent. throughout the 2002-2017 period multiple major alternative discourses were present and in flux, and some rose to dominate the literature and conversations, notably openness determinism, elearning innovation and commercial threats to institutions and practitioners. synonyms for social justice such as “access”, “democratisation of education” and “empowerment” seemed to appear as red-herrings, potentially providing an impression that social justice ideas were being pursued. as a theme in the literature, social justice faded, particularly as the field broadened and came to more closely resemble mainstream elearning. however, it was subsequently re-asserted by influential authors – unesco and watters, the latter in the light of the failure of dominant discourses to provide for more equitable learning. towards the end of the period of analysis it was too late to be still claiming “potential” of oer, a number of more critical views had coalesced in the light of published evidence of learner outcomes, notably demographic inequality of mooc access. comparison with recent published views recently, prominent researchers working with a long-term viewpoint from within regional distance or open universities have also begun to note the way the advances in digital openness coincided with a move away from a more inclusive and widening participation stance (tait, 2018; weller et al., 2018). while weller and colleague’s 2018 citation analysis does not discuss the technical deterministic bent of current literature, it does, however, note the way that recent research occurred without recourse to the rich body of earlier research that emerged from open and distance learning. for example, they note with regard to emerging shortcomings of moocs, that the literature on “supporting students at a distance (e.g., tait, 2004), e-learning costs (e.g., bates, 1995; weller, 2004), or student retention (e.g., tinto, 1975) may well have provided useful contributions to this development, but was largely ignored.” rolfe’s work also showed the tendency for positive, uncritical bias in recent work and very limited drawing on foundational theorising from the open education research of the 1970s (rolfe, 2016). the present data and analysis backs-up and extends these observations to suggest that the 238 dominant themes of contemporary literature not only missed out on the earlier insights but also took the discourse down a technological determinist pathway that requires a concerted changing of course to avoid a recurring lack of impact for diverse learners. of the 20 papers used to seed weller et al’s citation analysis, there are eight papers that fall within the “broadening” and “appropriation” phases of the current analysis, i.e., 2009-2017 (weller et al., 2018). a brief review of the themes of these papers was conducted as a comparison with the current findings and found to align to the dominant/alternative types of literature identified here. in the weller et al sample, two of the three thematic clusters within those eight papers covered similar terrain (broadening towards elearning, and focus on educator rather than student freedom or justice) while the third theme presents a somewhat different but sympathetic type of alternative narrative. for example, three of the eight papers that cover similar ground argue for a broadening to reconsider the definition of openness within the context of “web 2.0” (friesen & murray, 2013), the rise of informal learning in “a connected world” (mcandrew, 2010) alternatively described as learning “beyond the course” (dalsgaard & thestrup, 2015). two texts also look at the freedoms of educators and the value of higher education (weller, 2014) alternatively expressed as the impact of openness on “positive liberty in the enactment of academic practices” (oliver, 2015). while the present analysis has made the point that such broadening accounts tend to unintentionally downplay social justice for diverse learners while focussing on other important commercial and institutional moves in the field, there were also four alternative historical overviews which sought to bring learner-centred approaches to open and distance learning back to the fore. these can be read as offering longer view historical accounts of open education as reduction of barriers for disadvantaged learners (friesen & murray, 2013; longstaff, 2014; peter & deimann, 2013; weller, 2014). longstaff’s (2014) account has an interesting “take” on the fluxes and flows noted in this paper between dominant and alternative narratives. through investigating the development of universities over time, including throughout the first few years of moocs, she finds, “a cyclical model of change, one in which waves of inclusivity alternate with bouts of exclusivity” in line with complex influences within education and society. perhaps the 2002-2017 more technically influenced open education literature will be viewed with the further passing of time as a more commercially-focussed period in between more learner and socialjustice focussed educational phases. the social-justice focussed new definition for open education offered in the next section aims to provide practitioner-researchers with a clearer research pathway towards a more social-justice-oriented future. certainly the field of open and distance education continues to develop and currently research is pursuing both humanist and post-humanist approaches to the integration of “bots” and innovative semantic technologies to increase support for students without sacrificing quality of experience (bozkurt, kilgore, & crosslin, 2017; knox, 2015; santamaría lancho, hernández, sánchez-elvira paniagua, luzón encabo, & de jorge-botana, 2018). interestingly, in the last few years issues of recognitive justice and representational justice have also been debated publically with regard to who has a right to be included and to speak at open education conferences. there has been criticism and rejection of “manels” (male only panels) and the underrepresentation of experts of colour as keynote speakers, particularly those from the global south who 239 are highly active open education participants. it seems timely, then, to also apply these social justice principles to the experience of our students and their learning environments. recentering a social-justice purpose and definition of open education to enable interested practitioner/researchers of open education to work more effectively towards more equitable forms of education, adoption of a definition of open education that is centred on social-justice principles is proposed. a more narrowly focussed and distinctive definition would also guard against further broadening, to ensure open education remains distinctive from elearning. a social-justice oriented definition would be useful then to shift the debate from what openness might look like, to whom we want our openness to ultimately serve and how our openness might achieve greater educational and societal equality. as edwards notes, "an important question therefore becomes not simply whether education is more or less open, but what forms of openness are worthwhile and for whom; openness alone is not an educational virtue” (edwards, 2015, p. 253). following this, there needs to be intention for reducing inequality – both in program design and research. successful designs are more likely to be founded on an understanding of which communities and cohorts in our contexts are more and less privileged, and of ensuring that access, support and services are provided to them and that their progress as compared to their more privileged peers is always tracked. such work could take an affirmative action approach, where organisations put in place additional resources to help minority groups overcome historical injustice and reach their full potential as learners. considering the success of affirmative action policies in both the labour market and for university admissions (the effect on the latter being more for the more elite schools,) (holzer & neumark, 2006) this seems fruitful areas for future research and practice. proposed definition the following definition of open education is proposed as primarily about social justice, while still allowing space for secondary benefits by other learners: open education is the development of free digitally enabled learning materials and experiences primarily by and for the benefit and empowerment of non-privileged learners who may be under-represented in education systems or marginalised in their global context. success of social justice aligned programs can be measured not by any particular technical feature or format, but instead by the extent to which they enact redistributive justice, recognitive justice and/or representational justice. the inclusion of the phrase “by and for… non-privileged learners” maintains the original intention of the 2002 oer definition regarding active participation by developing countries and the marginalised — rather than neo-colonial practices of the global north doing things to and for those they consider disadvantaged. with such a definition in place, other related definitions such as oer may remain unchanged to denote different foci within the field. for example, the definition of oep could remain more broadly about the processes of collaboration and sharing in a wide range of educational practices to improve pedagogy for all learners. the term “critical open pedagogy” could continue to be used to identify the 240 set of intentionally empowering oep which seek to shift the power balance between learner and teacher as a particular strategy to reduce inequality (derosa & robinson, 2017). conclusion this paper has tracked a sample of texts which shaped the definitions and practice of open education since 2002 through a series of broadening moves from oer to oep and through various “continuums” and “dimensions.” it has shown the points at which claims for the importance of social justice purposes became hidden in the larger documents but were absent from the most regularly used definitions. it has shown how a broadening of scope overlapped with more mainstream educational, elearning/and distance education debates about quality and pedagogy, at the expense of discourse on social justice purpose. a major discourse in the debates about the power of openness has been labelled “openness determinism” for the way it has inadvertently reinforced technological determinist ideas – that somehow openness will democratise education, as technology itself was expected to do previously. this paper has argued for a viable alternative account of how open education can begin to shift educational inequality by focussing on one or more of the three principles of social justice — redistributive, recognitive and representational — which, via the 2002 unesco oer declaration, launched the modern, digital oer movement in the first place. the social-justice aligned definition of open education proposed here offers new opportunities for designs to be shaped as explicit social justice actions aligned to one or more of the three principles. it also offers the opportunity for new empirical research to measure the social justice impact of initiatives in terms of the way that learners who, by circumstance, have less are able to be provided with more resources, recognition or representation. it also suggests empirical research approaches attuned to demographics of privilege, so that access, progress and success rates can be investigated in both the more and less privileged cohorts in our educational systems. acknowledgement i wish to thank my phd supervisory team for their continued interest in my work as well as their enthusiasm and honest feedback: prof. david boud; assoc. prof. phillip dawson; and dr. joanna tai all from deakin university’s centre for research in assessment and digital learning (cradle) as well as dr. nadine zacharias from the national centre for student equity in higher education. i would also like to thank peers and facilitators of the graduate oer global network (auspiced by the open university, uk) for providing detailed feedback on early drafts and encouraging me to continue taking risks and asking critical questions of our open education practice. references beetham, h., falconer, i., mcgill, l., & littlejohn, a. (2012). open practices: a briefing paper. jisc briefing paper. retrieved from https://oersynth.pbworks.com/w/page/51668352/openpracticesbriefing bozkurt, a., kilgore, w., & crosslin, m. (2017). bot-teachers in hybrid massive open online courses (moocs): a post-humanist experience. australasian journal of educational technology, 34(3). https://doi.org/10.14742/ajet.3273 241 butcher, n. (2015). a basic guide to open educational resources (oer). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11576-012-0326-2 cape town open education declaration 10th anniversary: ten directions to move open education forward. (2017). retrieved from http://www.capetowndeclaration.org/cpt10/img/cpt10-booklet.pdf couros, a. v. (2006). examining the open movement: possibilities and implications for education. university of regina. retrieved from http://educationaltechnology.ca/publication_files/research/dissertation-courosfinal-06-webversion.pdf cox, g., & trotter, h. (2016). institutional culture and oer policy: how structure, culture, and agency mediate oer policy potential in south african universities. the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 17(5). https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v17i5.2523 cronin, c. (2017). openness and praxis: using oep in higher education. retrieved april 2, 2018, from https://www.slideshare.net/cicronin/choosing-open-oeglobal-openness-and-praxis-using-oep-in-he cronin, c., & maclaren, i. (2018). conceptualising oep: a review of theoretical and empirical literature in open educational practices. open praxis, 10(2), 127. https://doi.org/10.5944/openpraxis.10.2.825 dalsgaard, c., & thestrup, k. (2015). dimensions of openness: beyond the course as an open format in online education. the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 16(6). https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v16i6.2146 derosa, r., & robinson, s. (2017). from oer to open pedagogy: harnessing the power of open. in r. biswasdiener & r. s. jhangiani (eds.), open: the philosophy and practices that are revolutionizing education and science. london: ubiquity press. retrieved from https://www.ubiquitypress.com/site/books/10.5334/bbc/read/#epubcfi(/6/2[id001]!/4/1:0) dimaggio, p., & hargittai, e. (2001). from the “digital divide” to “digital inequality”: studying internet use as penetration increases. center for arts and cultural policy studies, princeton university, 15, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1002/bem.20484 dos santos, a. i., punie, y., & muñoz, j. c. (2016). opening up education: a support framework for higher education institutions (eur 27938). seville, spain: european union. https://doi.org/10.2791/293408 edwards, r. (2015). knowledge infrastructures and the inscrutability of openness in education. learning, media and technology, 40(3), 251–264. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2015.1006131 ehlers, u.-d. (2011). extending the territory: from open educational resources to open educational practices. journal of open, flexible and distance learning, 15(2), 1–10. retrieved from http://journals.akoaotearoa.ac.nz/index.php/jofdl/article/view/64 farrow, r., arcos, b. d. l., pitt, r., & weller, m. (2015). who are the open learners? a comparative study profiling non-formal users of open educational resources. european journal of open, distance and elearning, 18(2), 50–74. retrieved from http://www.eurodl.org/?p=current&article=707 fraser, f. (1995). from redistribution to recognition? dilemmas of justice in a “post-socialist” age. new left review, 1(212). retrieved from https://newleftreview.org/i/212/nancy-fraser-from-redistribution-torecognition-dilemmas-of-justice-in-a-post-socialist-age friesen, n., & murray, j. (2013). open learning 2.0? aligning student, teacher and content for openness in education. e-learning and digital media, 10(2). https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.2304/elea.2013.10.2.200 hodgkinson-williams, c., & gray, e. (2009). degrees of openness: the emergence of open educational resources at the university of cape town. international journal of education and development using ict, 5(5), 101–116. retrieved from http://ijedict.dec.uwi.edu//viewarticle.php?id=864 242 holzer, h. j., & neumark, d. (2006). affirmative action: what do we know? journal of policy analysis and management, 25(2), 463–490. https://doi.org/10.1002/pam.20181 keddie, a. (2012). schooling and social justice through the lenses of nancy fraser. critical studies in education, 53(3), 263–279. knox, j. (2015). posthumanism and the massive open online course. routledge. lamb, b. (2013). bold innovations in openwashing. retrieved april 3, 2018, from https://abject.ca/open-for-business/ lane, a. (2013). the potential of moocs to widen access to, and success in, higher education study. the open and flexible higher education conference 2013 (pp. 189–203). european association of distance teaching universities. retrieved from http://oro.open.ac.uk/38881/1/andy lane eadtu 2013 paper.pdf lane, a. (2016). emancipation through open education: rhetoric or reality? in p. blessinger & t. bliss (eds.), open education: international perspectives in higher education (pp. 31–50). open book publishers. https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0103.02 longstaff, e. (2014). the prehistory of moocs: inclusive and exclusive access in the cyclical evolution of higher education. journal of organisational transformation & social change, 11(3), 164–184. https://doi.org/10.1179/1477963314z.00000000028 mcandrew, p. (2010). defining openness: updating the concept of “open” for a connected world. journal of interactive media in education, (2), 10. https://doi.org/10.5334/2010-10 mukama, e. (2018). from policies to implementation of open distance learning in rwanda: a genealogical and governmentality analysis. journal of learning for development, 5(1). retrieved from http://jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/article/view/237/291 oliver, m. (2011). technological determinism in educational technology research: some alternative ways of thinking about the relationship between learning and technology. journal of computer assisted learning, 27(5), 373–384. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2729.2011.00406.x oliver, m. (2015). from openness to permeability: reframing open education in terms of positive liberty in the enactment of academic practices. learning, media and technology, 40(3), 365–384. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2015.1029940 peter, s., & deimann, m. (2013). on the role of openness in education: a historical reconstruction. open praxis, 5(1), 7–14. https://doi.org/10.5944/openpraxis.5.1.23 rawls, j. (1971). a theory of justice. oxford: oxford university press. rohs, m., & ganz, m. (2015). moocs and the claim of education for all: a disillusion by empirical data. the international review of research in open and distributed learning. https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v16i6.2033 rolfe, v. (2016). open. but not for criticism? opened16 conference presentation. retrieved from https://www.slideshare.net/viv_rolfe/opened16-conference-presentation santamaría lancho, m., hernández, m., sánchez-elvira paniagua, á., luzón encabo, j. m., & de jorge-botana, g. (2018). using semantic technologies for formative assessment and scoring in large courses and moocs. journal of interactive media in education, 2018(1). https://doi.org/10.5334/jime.468 selwyn, n. (2011). does technology make education fairer? in education and technology key issues and debates (pp. 92–115). new york: continuum international pub. group. 243 siemens, g. (2015). the role of moocs in the future of education. in c. j. bonk, m. m. lee, t. c. reeves, & t. h. reynolds (eds.), moocs and open education around the world (pp. xiii–xvii). new york: routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315751108 tait, a. (2013). distance and e-learning, social justice, and development: the relevance of capability approaches to the mission of open universities. the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 14(4). https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v14i4.1526 tait, a. (2018). education for development: from distance to open education. journal of learning for development, 5(2). retrieved from http://www.jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/article/view/294/313 the cape town open education declaration. (2007). retrieved from http://www.capetowndeclaration.org/read-thedeclaration unesco. (2002). forum on the impact of open courseware for higher education in developing countries: final report. paris. retrieved from http://www.unesco.org:80/iiep/eng/focus/opensrc/pdf/oerforumfinalreport.pdf unesco. (2012). 2012 paris oer declaration. retrieved from http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/multimedia/hq/ci/wpfd2009/english_declaration.html warschauer, m. (2003). technology and social inclusion: rethinking the digital divide. the mit press. https://doi.org/10.1086/381987 watters, a. (2014). from “open” to justice. retrieved march 28, 2017, from http://hackeducation.com/2014/11/16/from-open-to-justice weller, m. (2014). the battle for open: how openness won and why it doesn’t feel like victory. london: ubiquity press. https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/bam weller, m., jordan, k., devries, i., & rolfe, v. (2018). mapping the open education landscape: citation network analysis of historical open and distance education research. open praxis, 10(2), 109. https://doi.org/10.5944/openpraxis.10.2.822 wenger, e. (1998). communities of practice: learning as a social system. systems thinker. https://doi.org/10.2277/0521663636 wiley, d. (2007). open education license draft. retrieved april 1, 2018, from https://opencontent.org/blog/archives/355 wiley, d. (2012). 2017: rip, oer? retrieved april 3, 2018, from https://opencontent.org/blog/archives/2177 wiley, d. (2017a). oer-enabled pedagogy. retrieved july 4, 2017, from https://opencontent.org/blog/archives/5009 wiley, d. (2017b). when opens collide. retrieved december 18, 2017, from https://opencontent.org/blog/archives/4990 wiley, d., bliss, t. j., & mcewan, m. (2014). open educational resources: a review of the literature. in m. j. spector, j.m., merrill, m.d., elen, j., bishop (ed.), handbook of research on educational communications and technology (4th ed., pp. 583–590). springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3185-5 willems, j., & bossu, c. (2012). equity considerations for open educational resources in the glocalization of education. distance education, 33(2), 185–199. https://doi.org/10.1080/01587919.2012.692051 young, i. m. (1997). unruly categories: a critique of nancy fraser’s dual systems theory. new left review, 1(222), 147–160. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470756119.ch54 244 author sarah r. lambert is a phd candidate and researcher, centre for research in assessment and digital learning, deakin university. email: slamb@deakin.edu.au cite this paper as: lambert, s. r. (2018). changing our (dis)course: a distinctive social justice aligned definition of open education. journal of learning for development, 5(3), 225-244. mokiwa lecturers’ experiences of teaching stem to students with disabilities sindile a. ngubane-mokiwa and simon bheki khoza vol. 3, no. 1 abstract innovative teaching is a concept based on student-centred teaching strategies. access to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (stem) subjects has not been equitable due to use of traditional teaching strategies. these strategies tend to exclude students with disabilities who can effectively learn in environments that appropriately and innovatively integrate technology. better use of technology in teaching also requires teachers to have the relevant skills to take advantage of the devices in their disposal. this article provides an overview of the literature and experiences of lecturers on the use of technology to facilitate access to stem subjects at technical and vocational education and training (tvet) institutions. using two tvet colleges as case studies, it seeks to clarify how technology is currently used in vocational training. data gathering was done through in-depth e-interviews and observation of classes. purposive convenience sampling was used to select the most accessible teachers that teach students with disabilities for this study. understanding of prior practices and current teacher technological competency are the initial points in the development of tvet technology integration model. in this article, the experiences of teachers were used to guide the development of an inclusive and equitable technology integration model. keywords: access, disability, post-schooling, teacher development, technology integration, tvet. introduction the teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (stem) subjects has always been designed based on methods that require both the teacher and the student to have similar physical abilities (khoza, 2015d). these abilities would enable the students to write formulas, equations, draw diagrams and even handle scientific apparatus and physically perform scientific experiments (bansilal, 2015). during the apartheid era, teacher training was divided according to race and also according to learner profile. there were teacher training colleges for whites, blacks, indians and those of mixed race; the three non-white groups could mix depending on the regional arrangements. this also meant that there were teachers who were trained to teach learners with disabilities (called special needs education) and teachers trained to teach learners with no disabilities. this historical legacy poses a challenge in higher education where teaching is not separate. it means lecturers have no or limited skills on how to design innovatively to allow those with different abilities to actively participate in learning (lumadi & maguvhe, 2012). this challenge is greater in the technical vocational education and training (tvet) context where the teachers have to find ways of delivering practical components of their course in formats that can be accessible to students with disabilities. an example one can use is that of a mechanical engineering student using a wheelchair who has to find ways of inspecting a vehicle. how can this be done? the advent of technology provides possible solutions to this problem but the question is how competent are tvet teachers in technology integration? this suggests a need for a study that explores the question of technology integration competency amongst tvet teachers. tvet institutions have been highlighted in the white paper for post-schooling and training that was prepared by dr blade nzimande, the minister of higher education in 2014. the resulting policy stipulates that: the dhet’s highest priority is to strengthen and expand the public tvet colleges and turn them into attractive institutions of choice for school leavers. … key objectives in strengthening colleges include improving their management and governance, developing the quality of teaching and learning, increasing their responsiveness to local labour markets, improving student support services, and developing their infrastructure (republic of south africa, 2013). according to finch and crunkilton (1999) tvet institutions offer education and training that is meant to prepare students to provide practical services for a productive economy. berkvens, van den akker, and brugman (2014) state that the seoul congress called for tvet education that is accessible to all, which addresses the notions of sustainable development and provides opportunity for lifelong learning. similarly, the international council of associations for science education (2013) announced the kuching declaration on science and technology education redirecting researchers, policy developers and teachers towards the promotion of stem subjects (kennedy & odell, 2014). the kuching declaration states: access to high quality education is a fundamental right to all. in times of global vulnerability, issues such as sustainability, health, peace, poverty alleviation, gender equity, and biodiversity conservation need to be at the forefront of thinking, planning and actions related to strengthening stem education. while the relative balance and emphasis of these disciplines varies around the world, it is the interrelatedness and combination of these that will propel progress (international council of associations for science education, 2013, p. 1). the above-mentioned policies and declarations indicate the importance to all citizens of the world, including people with disabilities, in getting full access to stem subjects so that they participate in the design of the world they live in. research problem recently, the higher education sector has turned its focus to enhancing access to tvet institutions but the introduced initiatives rarely focus on how access can be enhanced for students with disabilities. fichten, asuncion, and scapin (2014) highlight the scarcity of empirical research on the postsecondary experiences of students with disabilities. the research problem that this article addresses is how tvet teachers experience teaching stem subjects to students with disabilities in south africa. south africa, as one of the countries that work with united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization (unesco), has to respond to the call for addressing quality challenges beyond 2015. according to berkvens et al. (2014), this call from unesco emphasises access to quality and relevant education through technology integration. the integration of technology needs relevant theory or theories to guide the process. as a result this study uses the technological, pedagogical and content knowledge (tpack) framework to frame the lecturers’ experiences. theoretical framework studies have indicated that the integration of technology in education needs relevant theories because learning is not about technology (hardware/software) but it is about ideology (pedagogical approaches select relevant technology for the course content) (amory, 2010; khoza, 2015b; mishra & koehler, 2006). these studies on technology integration agree that teachers should have pedagogical knowledge that is relevant to their subject content in order to select relevant technology. according to mishra and koehler (2006) tpack is divided into technological knowledge (knowledge of selecting relevant technology based on the course content and pedagogy), pedagogical knowledge (knowledge of pedagogical approaches based on the course content) and content knowledge (knowledge of specific subject content). among theories from these studies tpack proves to be the most important framework because it presents the components of knowledge that are specific to teachers of learners with disabilities. as a result of the pedagogical component of tpack, sreedevi and sudhir (2011) propose the approach of innovative science teaching, which they postulate is grounded in the constructivist pedagogical/ learning approaches. innovative science teaching involves the use of teaching strategies like discovery or inquiry based learning, peer tutoring, simulation, experiential learning, team activities and cognitive apprenticeship (sreedevi & sudhir, 2011). each of these approaches offers an opportunity for the teacher and the learner to engage better with the learning material. amongst them, simulations would work well in the technical and vocational education and training environment, where the students with disabilities tend to be limited. currently, the tvet facilities within which we have worked and conducted research do have computer laboratories which can easily be equipped with assistive technologies. the cost of assistive technologies would be affordable compared to converting the available physical laboratory facilities and making them accessible. simulations would work well as a safe and feasible approach to teach science using inclusive approaches. simulative lessons should be based on real stem concepts that the students with disabilities can relate to, hence leading to authentic learning. student-centred tvet education ngubane-mokiwa (2014) proposes the development of a responsive tvet education that is student centred and responds to the labour market. as with south africa, goldney, murphy, fien, and kent (2007) report that, in australia, the significant barriers to the success of tvet institutions impede national future visions; inadequate resources; inadequate tvet skills at different levels of the sector and lack of innovative pedagogy. the concerns they raise are also applicable in the south african context where the teaching staffs lack ideas on how to move from standard teaching strategies to innovative teaching and assessment strategies (ngubane-mokiwa, 2013). felder, woods, stice, and rugarcia (2000) point out that innovation in teaching has not been formulated in ways that make vocational and technical fields more accessible. however, they stress that innovation should not dilute content knowledge as stem field is not based on opinions. felder et al. (2000) propose that innovative teaching of science subjects should be guided by modern theories of learning, problem-based learning, applicable technology integration techniques and the maintenance of a balance between abstract and concrete concepts. exclusion of students with disabilities in stem street et al. (2012) conducted an investigation on stem barriers that confront postsecondary students with learning disabilities. their research results revealed that students with disabilities did not actively engage in the stem subjects due to “systemic barriers to participation” (street et al., 2012, p. 363). this study further reveals that the systemic challenges begin at the school level where “teachers do not prepare them to have problem-solving skills” (street et al., 2012, p. 364). this is in line with the assertion of lumadi and maguvhe (2012) and jensen, mccrary, krampe, and cooper (2004) that teachers do not realize the importance of developing their inclusive teaching strategies. role of tvet education in sustainable living powell (2012a) conducted a study questioning the role of vocational education and training in alleviating poverty. this qualitative study revealed that vocational education has an important role in poverty alleviation but there was a need to employ innovative and dynamic techniques that adopt capability approaches in order to reduce dependency. powell (2012b) postulates that tvets should see themselves training people to be employable, and training people to be innovative and self-sustaining. powell (2012b) also points out that tvets should also be seen as formations that promote social justice by opening access to education and employment. king (2011) also questions the relevance of tvets, highlighting that tvet have been in existence for a long time with very little significant effect on skills acquisition and job creation. mcgrath (2012) agrees with the notion of tvets’ perceived insignificance in skills development in africa and suggests “reimagining the purpose” (mcgrath, 2012, p. 36) as the remedy to the situation. views from the research field suggest that reconfiguring the teaching approaches could contribute towards making tvets more accessible and relevant. mcgrath (2012) also calls for a shift from a production focus to capability approach. capability approach adopts flexible and innovative approaches so as to enable all people to live life to the fullest. this means that people with disabilities would not have limited career and life choices, they would have an opportunity to be creative and to experiment. according to mcgrath (2012) and bonvin and galster (2010) opening opportunities for people makes them more content and happy. we contend that students can be more open to learning and experimenting when teaching approaches are more innovative and student-centred. figgis (2009) conducted 24 case studies with an aim of understanding teaching excellence. the results of this study revealed that teaching excellence was perceived as the use of learner-centred approaches, forming partnerships and providing pastoral care to the learners. looking at the reviewed literature demonstrates several gaps which are; paucity of research on the teaching and learning of students with disabilities at tvet institutions, lack of clear techniques on how to teach stem subjects innovatively and methodologies for creating sustainable education development. research purpose and research questions this article explores tvet lecturers’ experiences in teaching students with disabilities. the data generation was organised to respond to the following research question related to tvet teachers of students with disabilities: what are the experiences of tvet teachers of teaching stem subjects to students with disabilities? research design and methodology this article is based on a study that was located within the interpretive paradigm. qualitative data were generated over a period of one year from six lecturers in two tvet colleges in durban. the lecturers were teaching students with disabilities. the choice of approach was the result of a need to understand the challenges facing lecturers of students with disabilities. the unit of analysis was thus lecturers of students with disabilities at two tvet colleges. holistically, the study sought to unpack the experiences of tvet lecturers of teaching stem subjects to students with disabilities. in studying lecturers’ experiences, this study is aligned with what polzer (2007) explains as comprising of research ‘from below’, namely gaining insights into understanding the experiences from the participants’ perspectives. purposive convenience sampling was used to generate the data. lecturers of students with disabilities were given two options either to email back the reflective activities or submit them in person to us. the data generation methods included reflective activity in the form of questionnaires with open ended questions which was administered three times. the observation with lesson analysis was done twice at about one hour each. the semi-structured interview was also conducted twice about one hour each. multiple sources of data were also used for the purpose of enhancing the authenticity of data and achieving measures of trustworthiness. the sample size consisted of six teachers of students with disabilities in total. issues of ethics were observed according to the rand afrikaans university (2002) guidelines. as a result, participants’ real names were not used (table 1). in terms of data analysis, this study used framework analysis where the themes were generated from the data through tpack and the relevant literature. the findings are presented thematically, largely by means of using direct quotations to give value to the voices of lecturers of students with disabilities and the corresponding discussions to provide ‘thick description’ (creswell, 2014). table 1 indicates that the six participants were from two tvet colleges (4 from college a and 2 from college b). two participants had advanced certificates in education (ace), one had a national professional diploma in education (npde), one had a national technical diploma (n 6) and the other two had bachelor of education honours. the subjects were engineering science, mathematics (n3, n4 & ncv nqf level 3) and civil technology. there were three males and three females. table 1: participants’ profiles name college qualification subject experience gender participant a1 tvet a npde engineering science 10 years female participant a2 tvet a ace mathematics n 3 08 years male participant a3 tvet a ace civil technology 16 years male participant a4 tvet a b.ed hons mathematics ncv nqf 3 11 years female participant b1 tvet b b.ed hons mathematics ncv nqf 3 12 years female participant b2 tvet b ntc 6 mathematics n 4 09 years male findings and discussions the findings in table 2 are presented according to the three themes and categories. table 2: findings (themes and categories) themes categories technological knowledge hardware and software learning approaches pedagogical knowledge teaching reasons goals assessment content knowledge algebra trigonometry geometry forces structures technological knowledge technological knowledge is the first competency that we engaged the lecturers about; the research results revealed that lecturers experienced challenges with regards to hardware, software and resources on learning theories and approaches that can be used to enhance the learning of students with disabilities. hardware and software the participants (teachers) agreed that they lack relevant technological knowledge of hardware and software resources used in the teaching of students with disabilities: i always combine my students when i teach without designing any separate or special resources for students with disabilities… i do not have any training in teaching students with disabilities but i have been teaching them… i work better with blind students because they use tape recorders to record my presentations and use their technology called braille and jaws to type their notes from the presentations… (participant a1). this response is in line with hutchison, beschorner, and schmidt-crawford (2012) who also reveal that their research indicated that teachers struggle to integrate technology (hardware/ software) into their teaching. though their research was not focused on students with disabilities, we assert that finding it difficult to integrate mainstream technology is indicative that one would find it more difficult to incorporate assistive technologies and innovative teaching. furthermore, assuming that a tape recorder would be an effective technological tool to teach vocational skills to blind students is indicative of lack of knowledge of appropriate technologies for a specific learning goal. the second research participant indicated that he was comfortable with teaching students with a hearing impairment. he stated that: while i find it difficult to use technology to make easier for the students with disabilities because i do not have special training but i have started to enjoy working with deaf students because i use common technology like powerpoint, word and internet resources to communicate learning with them… (participant a2). participants a3, b1 and b2 appeared to be confident in their mainstream technological knowledge but expressed unease when it came to assistive technologies. in explaining their limited knowledge they mentioned that they were never trained to teach students with disabilities. according to bansilal (2015), most teachers use technologies for learning but not for teaching. this point is further emphasized by lumadi and maguvhe (2012) who argue that most lecturers have limited knowledge and skills on how to teach science subjects to students with disabilities. when i have students with disabilities i really do not feel comfortable because i always know that i will not do justice in teaching them because they deserve special treatment which i do not have as i was not trained to teach them in a way that take them to the main stream… (participant a3). unfortunately, none of us has any training in teaching students with disabilities we are just trying… (participant b1). even the common digital technology is difficult for me it is worse if i have to master or adjust it to be in line with students with disabilities… (participant b2). teaching approaches the participants were not aware of teaching approaches or methods used in the teaching of students with disabilities. according to khoza (2015d) any person or object that communicates teaching/ learning, identifies teaching approaches, experiences, competences, ideas, research findings can be identified as learning approaches based on theoretical underpinnings of different types (see amory, 2010; khoza, 2015b; percival & ellington, 1988). these are most importance resources because they “permit the individual to self-manage a number of operations on their bodies” (khoza, 2015d, p. 125). khoza (2015d) concludes that teaching/ learning works only if teachers/students are in possession of relevant resources of learning approaches that identify relevant hardware/software. in this study participants a1 and a2 and b2 indicated that they did not have knowledge of any particular approach to teaching students with disabilities. they further revealed that they did not possess any knowledge of learning theories that could guide their inclusive teaching: i teach all my students in the same way as before i have the students with disabilities and i do not have a specific teaching or learning theory… (participant a1). specific approaches or theories are used by those who were trained to teach students with disabilities… i do not know them but i did read somewhere that there are teachers somewhere who were trained to teach students with disabilities but i am not one of them… (participant a2). i do not have any special approach for the students with disabilities… (participant b2). however, participants a3, a4 and b1 indicated that they used constructivism, demonstration and drilling methods to enhance their students’ understanding of what they are teaching. it must be noted though that they did not give any specific details on how they demonstrate concepts for a student with a specific disability like blindness or a learning disability: i sometimes use constructivism learning theory in order to allow students with disabilities to show me their challenges that need to be addressed… (participant a3). in my teaching i use demonstration and drilling methods to allow all my students to understand what i am teaching…this has been helping me to support students with disabilities… (participant a4). i use telling methods and drilling sometimes… (participant b1). pedagogical knowledge (reasons, goals and assessment) according to berkvens et al. (2014), teaching reasons are divided into pedagogical (personal interest), content (metacognition development) and societal preparation (social skills development) reasons. however, the participants’ responses only address pedagogical reasons and societal preparation reasons. none of them indicated content reasons (metacognition development): i enjoy teaching science because it is practical and help us to produce engineers although the practical component is difficult for students with disabilities … (participant a1). i teach mathematics because it is very important in south africa as it is compulsory even to students with disabilities… (participant a2). i teach civil technology because it helps students with basic issues of civil engineering…students with disabilities find it difficult because civil trades (bricklaying, carpentry and plumbing) need strong people as they work outside… (participant a3). …people respect you if you teach mathematics… (participant a4). …the college has few mathematics teachers but many students especially with disabilities who need more attention… (participant b1). ‘i was encouraged by my lecturer to come back and teach mathematics because i was good in mathematics in my n6… (participant b2). goals are divided into aims, objectives and outcomes (hyland, kennedy, & ryan, 2006). aims are broad statements that indicate long term goals according to lecturers’ intentions. objectives are specific statements that are smaller than the aims. on the other hand outcomes are specific statements that are smaller than the objectives and they are achieved by students. participants a1 and a2 were not aware of the difference between aims, objectives and outcomes. they, however, stated that they do recognize them when they are stated in the learning syllabus. participant a2 goes a step further by incorporating assessment in order to see if the students have become competent in the specified goals. i always achieve aims with my students. aims, objectives and outcomes are the same for me. students with disabilities have to achieve the same objectives as other general students… (participant a1). i use the aims or objectives to measure my students’ success but it takes time for the students with disabilities to achieve the aims or objectives of my subjects… (participant a2). i am not sure about aims or objectives because our books have some specified learning outcomes to be achieved by all of us in the subject… (participant a3). i do not concentrate on goals because i just teach my students… (participant a4). i do not think that i have to specify aims or objectives… (participant b1). …students with disabilities achieve simpler objectives… (participant b2). assessment is divided into formative assessment and summative assessment. formative assessment is also called assessment for learning because it is not for grading students but for assessing how they are learning. summative assessment is known as assessment of learning because it is for grading students. all the participants were aware of the purpose of both formative assessment and summative assessment: others students with disabilities use technology when they write test or examinations… (participant a1). most of my students use weblogs or facebook if they want to have some discussions before they write tests or examinations… (participant a2). i use both formal and informal assessment… (participant a3). students with disabilities need more support in order to pass the test and examinations… (participant a4). even students with disabilities write all the specified tests and examinations but they are slower than the general students… (participant b1). students with disabilities are struggling but we are unable to help because we do not have relevant technology to help them, as a result they are treated like any other general students… (participant b2). content knowledge mathematics teachers (participants) believed that they have strong content knowledge of algebra, trigonometry and geometry. however, they pointed out that students with disabilities have challenges with geometry and trigonometry due to lack of a basic foundation from earlier schooling: students with disabilities have a problem with geometry because they do not have strong foundation of algebra… (participant a2). we were given a cd to use in order to help students with algebra to build a strong foundation of geometry and trigonometry but the cd was not effective because the foundation should be facilitated at the school level… (participant a4). other participants also highlighted that it does not help for a teacher to have the content knowledge when they do not have the relevant technology which they can use to facilitate their inclusive teaching. participant b2 stated that the high cost of assistive technologies and the learners’ specific needs for them makes it difficult for the tvet colleges to purchase all the relevant technologies. students with disabilities should be given more time and relevant technology should be used to support them but our colleges do not have relevant technology systems that support them… (participant b1). technology that support students with disabilities should start at school level so that by the time they come to us they are used to their relevant technology and demand it when they come to colleges because we do not know what can work effectively for them… and colleges cannot buy technologies that are not in demand… (participant b2). participant 1 believes that ‘if colleges wish to support students with disabilities they should avail technologies that help students to learn different types of forces… such technology should help them with both theoretical and practical components…’ participant 3 believes that ‘if investment has to be made by colleges they should have a strong system for students with disabilities that build a strong foundation of structures (slabs, beams and others)…’ conclusion the findings on the lecturers’ technological knowledge indicate that there was a serious lack of technological knowledge from the lecturers’ side, especially regarding teaching approaches resources. this suggests that the teachers cannot teach across the three main approaches teacher-centred, content-centred and learner-centred. understanding whether the curriculum is driven by teacher-centred, learner-centred or a content-centred approach increases chances of achieving a positive attained curriculum because of good alignment between the intended and implemented curriculum (hoadley & jansen, 2014). as result of this lecturers’ lack of specific teaching approaches and resources in teaching, it appears that learners with disabilities are not technologically supported in terms of their learning. the same challenge is evident when one looks at the findings of the pedagogical knowledge (rationale, goals and assessment). the findings on rationale indicate that the teachers were not aware of the rationale of their teaching (whether personal, societal or content reason). personal reason for teaching is to create an environment that helps learners to construct their own unique individual identities (khoza, 2015b). when teachers create this supportive environment they include experiential and subjective activities that support the learners in order to construct and reconstruct knowledge repeatedly and, hence, take the form of personal meaning (identity). according to schiro (2013) personal meanings make up the knowledge that is unique to each individual that possesses it and holds personal significance to each person, since the particular environmental context in which it is assimilated or constructed is a result of experiences in a particular teaching/ learning environment at a particular time. as a result, knowledge is viewed as a fundamental or basic part of learning because it is not a separate entity that has to be learned from outside the individual learner. personal reasons influence societal reasons. societal reasons are about the achievement of observable/ measurable outcomes which is the major practice in this type of curriculum rationale. levels of outcomes (lower, middle or higher order) are not important but the most important element is the achievement of outcomes which becomes an end in itself. as a result, it is mostly influenced by opinions, local every day or general knowledge and oral conversation. in this type of curriculum, knowledge is mostly generated horizontally from simple sources or local known sources (bernstein, 1999). on the other hand content reasons also known as performance curriculum rationale is about the cognitive domain. in the performance curriculum recorded facts, school knowledge and international standards are used in making decisions. while performance curriculum may assess what students/ learners have learned, it mostly concentrates on what students should have achieved. in other words it looks for what is still cognitively missing because students are expected to learn from the lowest content (knowledge) to the highest content (knowledge) of the subject. sometimes teaching rationale/ reasons are confused with goals. the findings on goals indicate that the teachers did not understand the difference between aims, objectives and outcomes of their subjects. this suggests that the teachers were unable to measure their own performance, which is measured through the learners’ achievement of observable/ measurable learning outcomes (khoza, 2015c). however, they tried to use certain types of commonly used assessment. the findings on assessment indicate that the teachers used formative assessment and summative assessment, although they were not aware of their reasons for using these types of assessments (a habit of doing assessment without being aware of what they are capable of producing). if teachers are not aware of their assessment rationale, learners do not learn through the assessment process which is capable of helping the learners to learn and in turn becomes assessment as learning (khoza, 2015a). most importantly, all these curriculum concepts involve the subject content which suggests the importance of content subject knowledge. the findings on subject content knowledge indicate that while they had their subject content knowledge, they were unable to use this knowledge to identify the most suitable goals, assessment and teaching/learning resources (technologies). what appeared to be confusing to the teachers was that tvet colleges use two different types of curricula competence curriculum and performance curriculum simultaneously. it is always a problem for teachers if they work with these two curricula because competence curriculum follows a horizontal approach (driven by learning outcomes) while performance curriculum follows a vertical approach (driven by subject content) (bernstein, 1999). therefore, it will always be difficult for tvet college teachers to support learners with disabilities if they do not have technological knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and content knowledge because the two curricula (competence and performance) demand these three types of knowledge (khoza, 2015c). references amory, a. (2010). education technology and hidden ideological contradictions. educational technology & society, 13(1), 69-79. bansilal, s. (2015). exploring student lecturers’ perceptions of the influence of technology in learning and teaching mathematics. south african journal of education, 35(4), 1-8. berkvens, j., van den akker, j., & brugman, m. (2014). addressing the quality challenge: reflections on the post-2015 unesco education agenda. enschede: netherlands national commission for unesco. bernstein, b. (1999). vertical and horizontal discourse: an essay. british journal of sociology of education, 20(2), 157-173. bonvin, j., & galster, d. (2010). making them employable or capable? social integration policies at a crossroads. farmington hills: barbara budrich publishers. creswell, j.w. (2014). qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among five approaches (3rd ed.). california: sage publications, inc. felder, r. m, woods, d. r., stice, j. e., & rugarcia, a. (2000). the future of engineering education ii. teaching methods that work. chemical engineering education, 34(1), 26-39. fichten, c.s., asuncion, j., & scapin, r. (2014). digital technology, learning, and postsecondary students with disabilities: where we’ve been and where we’re going. journal of postsecondary education and disability, 27(4), 369-379. figgis, j. (2009). regenerating the australian landscape of professional vet practice: practitioner-driven changes to teaching and learning. a national vocational education and training research and evaluation program report. adelaide: eric. finch, c. r., & crunkilton, j.r. (1999). curriculum development in vocational and technical education. planning, content, and implementation. needham heights: allyn and bacon. goldney, d., murphy, t., fien, j., & kent, j. (2007). finding the common ground: is there a place for sustainability education in vet? a national vocational education and training research and evaluation program report. adelaide: ncver. hoadley, u., & jansen, j. . (2014). curriculum: organizing knowledge for the classroom (3 ed.). cape town: oxford university press southern africa. hutchison, a., beschorner, b., & schmidt-crawford, d. (2012). exploring the use of the ipad for literacy learning. reading teacher, 66(1). hyland, a., kennedy, d., & ryan, n. (2006). writing and using learning outcomes: a practical guide. bologna: european higher education area (ehea). international-council-of-associations-for-science-education. (2013, june 21-24). the kuching declaration. paper presented at the world conference on science and technology education (worldste2013), kuching, malaysia. jensen, j.m., mccrary, n., krampe, k., & cooper, j. (2004). trying to do the right thing: faculty attitudes toward accommodating students with learning disabilities. journal of postsecondary education and disability, 17(2), 81-90. kennedy, t.j., & odell, m.r.l. (2014). engaging students in stem education. science education international, 25(3), 246-258. khoza, s.b. (2015a). can the interface between endnote, discussion forum and turnitin come to the rescue: students’ reflections? paper presented at the south africa international conference on educational technologies. khoza, s.b. (2015b). can turnitin come to the rescue?: from lecturers’ reflections. south african journal of education, 35(4), 1-9. khoza, s.b. (2015c). student lecturers’ reflections on their practices of curriculum and assessment policy statement. south african journal of higher education, 29(4), 101-119. khoza, s.b. (2015d). using curricular spider web to explore a research facilitator’s and students’ experiences. south african journal of higher education, 29(2), 122-143. king, k. (2011). towards a new global world of skills development? tvet’sturn to make its mark. norrag news, 46(2011), 1-11. lumadi, m.w., & maguvhe, m.o. (2012). teaching life sciences to blind and visually impaired learners: issues to consider for effective learning mediation practice. anthropologist, 14(5), 375-381. mcgrath, s. (2012). vocational education and training for development: a policy in need of a theory? international journal of educational development, 32(5), 623-631. mishra, p., & koehler, m.j. (2006). technological pedagogical content knowledge: a new framework for teacher knowledge. teachers college record, 108(6), 1017-1054. ngubane-mokiwa, s.a. (2013). information and communication technology as a learning tool: experiences of students with blindness. (ph.d dissertation). university of south africa. ngubane-mokiwa, s.a. (2014). critiquing unisa’s open access policy through the harry frankfurt’s bullshit lens. pensee journal, 76(9), 333-345. percival, f, & ellington, h. (1988). a handbook of educational technology (2 ed.). london: kogen page. polzer, t. (2007). adapting to changing legal frameworks: mozambican refugees in south africa. internal journal of refugee law, 19(2007), 22-50. powell, l. (2012a). reimagining the purpose of vet—expanding the capability to aspire in south african further education and training students. international journal of educational development, 32(2012), 643-653. powell, l. (2012b). reimagining the purpose of vet—expanding the capability to aspire in south african further education and training students. international journal of educational development, 32(5), 643-653. rand afrikaans university. (2002). guideline on academics ethics. johannesburg: rau. republic of south africa. (2013). white paper for post-school education and training — building an expanded, effective and integrated post-school system. department of higher education and training. retrieved 22 june, 2015, from: http://www.che.ac.za/sites/default/files/publications/white%20paper%20-%20final%20for%20web.pdf schiro, m.s. (2013). curriculum theory: conflicting visions and enduring concerns (2 ed.). thousand oaks: sage. sreedevi, p.s., & sudhir, m.a. (2011). innovative strategies for science teaching. international journal of educational science and research, 1(1), 1-10. street, c. d., koff, r., fields, h., kuehne, l., handlin, l., getty, m., & parker, d.r. (2012). expanding access to stem for at-risk learners: a new application of universal design for instruction. journal of postsecondary education and disability, 25(4), 363-375. authors sindile ngubane-mokiwa is a senior researcher, institute for open distance learning, university of south africa. e-mail: mokiwsa@unisa.ac.za simon bheki khoza is a senior lecturer, curriculum studies/educational technology and academic leader for research and higher degrees, university of kwazulu-natal. e-mail: khozas@ukzn.ac.za kabugo tracking students’ eye-movements when reading learning objects on mobile phones: a discourse analysis of luganda language teacher-trainees’ reflective observations david kabugo, paul b. muyinda, fred masagazi masaazi, anthony muwagga mugagga and mathias. b. mulumba vol. 3, no. 1 abstract although eye-tracking technologies such as tobii-t120/tx and eye-tribe are steadily becoming ubiquitous, and while their appropriation in education can aid teachers to collect robust information on how students move their eyes when reading and engaging with different learning objects, many teachers of luganda language are yet to gain experiences of utilizing these technologies in their teaching. this paper emerges from a semester-long (17 weeks) study which followed a design based research (dbr) approach and deployed qualitative techniques to cultivate the experiences of 68 luganda language teacher-trainees in utilizing different emerging educational technologies (ets) in their teaching. the study was guided by kolb's (1984) experiential learning theory (elt) and reeves' (2006) model of conducting research in authentic e-learning contexts. during the study, trainees concretely experienced, abstractly conceptualized and made observational reflections about their own active experimentations of different ets in teaching luganda language. in this paper, we describe how we supported the trainees in conducting an active experimentation of tobii-t120 to track how students moved their eyes when reading and engaging with learning objects on an emulated smartphone. following the observational reflections, which the trainees made about their active experimentation, this paper also presents a discourse analysis thereof. introduction most pedagogical opportunities, which are afforded by the mobile devices which educators and students use, especially for communication and information purposes, remain underexploited. although some educators are now attempting to exploit such opportunities by deploying learning objects on mobile devices (muyinda, 2010), studies on how students are reading and engaging with mobile (m-) learning objects remain scanty. investigating how students read and engage with m-learning objects could inform educators making decisions about students’ information processing and cognitive development via mobile devices. whereas emerging educational technologies (ets) such tobii-t120/tx and eye-tribe can be valuable instruments in collecting robust data about how students read and engage with m-learning objects, many teachers of luganda language are yet to gain experience of utilizing such ets in their teaching (kabugo, 2015). in order to respond to this challenge, we conducted a semester-long (17 weeks) study which followed a design based research (dbr) approach and deployed qualitative techniques to cultivate the experiences of 68 luganda language teacher-trainees in utilizing different emerging educational technologies (ets) in their teaching. the study was guided by kolb's (1984) experiential learning theory (elt) and reeves' (2006) model of conducting research in authentic e-learning contexts. during the study, trainees concretely experienced, abstractly conceptualized and made observational reflections about their own active experimentations of different ets in teaching luganda language. in this paper, we describe how we supported the trainees in conducting an active experimentation of tobii-t120 to track how students moved their eyes when reading and engaging with learning objects on an emulated smartphone. following the observational reflections, which the trainees made about their active experimentation, this paper also presents a discourse analysis thereof. the rest of this paper is organized as follows: eye-tracking technologies, problem statement, theoretical underpinning, objective, research question, approach, analytic tool, presentation, analysis and discussion of findings, conclusion and reflections. eye-tracking technologies the foremost notion behind eye tracking-technologies is that eye operations shape and are recursively shaped by information processing and cognitive functioning (bartels, 2008; rayner, 1998). emerging eye-tracking technologies such as tobii-t60/t120/tx and eye-tribe work in such a way that they capture eye movements by reflecting infrared light into the user’s eyes and apply a mathematical model to determine the exact gaze point of the eye (tobii, 2010; 2015, (the eyetribe, 2016). figure 1 demonstrates how eye-tracking technologies generally work. the use of emerging eye-tracking technologies is on the rise especially in the business sector (tobii, 2010). many eye-tracking studies in the business sector aim at analyzing patterns of consumer’s visual attention on given products (russell, 2005; isomursu, kuutti, & väinämö, 2004). patterns of consumers’ visual attention on given products are analyzed in terms of fixations and saccades (tobii, 2010). fixations refer to pauses of the eye movement on particular segments of information that interest the eye (tobii, 2010). on the other hand, saccades refer to the rapid movements of the eye between fixations (tobii, 2010). fixations and saccades serve three main functions during reading: i) they place information of interest onto the reader’s fovea, ii) they post the image stationary onto the retina in spite of movements of the head, and iii) they prevent stationary objects from fading perceptually (rayner, 1998). figure 1: how eye-tracking technologies generally work (rajtechnews, 2015) problem statement although eye-tracking technologies are steadily becoming ubiquitous, and while their appropriation in education can aid teachers to collect robust information on how students move their eyes when reading and engaging with different learning objects, many teachers are yet to gain the experience of utilizing these technologies in their teaching to transform students’ learning practices. objectives of the study to explain how we cultivated the experiences of luganda language teacher-trainees at makerere university in conducting an active experimentation of tobii-t120 to track students’ eye-movement when reading and engaging with learning objects on a mobile device (smartphone). to do a discourse analysis of the reflective observations, which the teacher-trainees made about their active experimentation. theoretical underpinning in considering how to cultivate the experiences of luganda language teacher-trainees in utilizing different ets in teaching, we drew on kolb's (1984) experiential learning theory (elt). according to kolb (1984), individuals gain experiences with their objects or subjects of interest at four different sequential stages in the form of a cycle. kolb’s four sequential stages of experience are: abstract conceptualization (ac), concrete experience (ce), reflective observations (ro), and active experimentation (ae). each one of these sequential stages of experience is explained below, beginning with ae. active experimentation (ae): active experimentation (ae) is a scientific procedure undertaken to make a discovery, test a hypothesis, or demonstrate a known fact (kolb, 1984). sometimes, ae can be undertaken without being sure of what the outcome would be. ae also involves performing a scientific procedure, especially in a laboratory to determine something, or try out new ideas or methods (collins english dictionary, 2014). ae is crucial not only because it demonstrates someone’s understanding, but also because it influences his/her ac, ce, as well as or about an object or subject of interest (kolb, 1984). abstract conceptualization (ac): this is a cognitive activity of forming and theorizing ideas about an object or subject of interest (kolb, 1984). ac involves keen identification, description, definition, and the making of connections (models or frameworks) about an object or subject in question (collins english dictionary, 2014). concrete experience (ce): this refers to a direct (physical) activity of interacting (engaging) with an object or subject of interest. much of how learning takes place at this stage is directly interacting with and feeling an object or subject of interest (kolb, 1984). observational reflection (or): this is a mental activity in which an individual steps back from directly (physically) interacting with the object or subject of interest, so as to ponder about it (kolb, 1984). much of how learning takes place at this stage of experiential learning is through observation, memorization, imagination, dialogue, and critical discussions. figure 2 below illustrates the relationship between ac, ae, ce, and or in form of a cycle. figure 2: adapted version of kolb's (1984) experiential learning cycle (elc) figure 2 above is an adapted version of kolb's (1984) experiential learning cycle (elc). the figure illuminates learning as a product of experiences acquired at four different stages: ac, ae, ce and or. put together in a multidirectional style, ac, ae, ce, and or form a spiral. drawing on the above cycle, we describe in this paper, how we cultivated the experiences of luganda language teacher-trainees in conducting an active experimentation (ae) of tobii-t120 to track students’ eye-movement when reading and engaging with learning objects on a mobile device (smart phone). we also do a discourse analysis of the reflective observations (ros), which the teacher-trainees made about their active experimentation. research questions how did luganda language teacher-trainees at makerere university actively experiment (ae) an emerging eye-tracking technology (tobii-t120) to track how students move their eyes when reading and engaging with learning objects on mobile phones? what reflective observations did luganda language teacher-trainees at makerere university make about their active experimentation (ae) of an emerging eye-tracking technology (tobii-t120) to track how students move their eyes when reading and engaging with learning objects on mobile phones? research design this paper emerges from a semester-long (17 weeks) study which followed a design based research (dbr) approach and deployed qualitative techniques to cultivate the experiences of 68 luganda language teacher-trainees in utilizing different emerging educational technologies (ets) in their teaching. the subsections that follow illuminate how a dbr approach was followed in the study. design based research (dbr) approach educational design based research (dbr) has its origins in educators’ pragmatic desire to improve pedagogical practices not only in a practical sense, but also from an informed theoretical perspective (johannesson & perjons, 2012; herrington, reeves & oliver, 2010). “[dbr is] is grounded in the practical reality of the teacher, from identification of significant educational problems, to the iterative nature of the proposed pedagogical solutions” (herrington, reeves, & oliver, 2010). in line with herrington, reeves, & oliver (2010), figure 3 below illustrates the focus of dbr: figure 3: focus design based research (adapted from johannesson & perjons, 2012) figure 3 above indicates that in design based research, the researcher and participants collaboratively work to design innovative artifacts, which are utilized in addressing an existing or perceived problem. studies which have followed a dbr approach to explore educational problems in uganda in general and at makerere university in particular, have yielded transformative results (muyinda, 2010). while undertaking educational research using a dbr approach can be such a lengthy iterative process (herrington, reeves, & oliver, 2010), the larger study was guided by reeves' (2006) four-phase model (figure 4) for conducting dbr in authentic e-learning contexts. figure 4: reeves’ (2006) model for conducting dbr in authentic e-learning contexts analysis of a practical problem by researchers and practitioners in collaboration identification and analysis of a significant educational problem is the foremost step in educational dbr (herrington, reeves, & oliver, 2010). this stage begins with an observation or assumption that an existing teaching or learning practice is bad, and that such a problem can be addressed by exploiting some untapped educational opportunity through the design of an innovative pedagogical solution (edelson, 2002). as a requirement in dbr, practitioners (participants) should be involved right from this first phase of the study so that the full extent of the problem is known by all, rather than the problem being interpreted and addressed solely by the researchers (herrington, et. al, 2010). the participants of this study were education practitioners in the making. these were third-year luganda language and education (lle) teacher-trainees (2012/2013) of makerere university. before commencement of the larger study, a call was made inviting them to participate in a semester-long (17 weeks) blended learning course aimed at cultivating their experiences of utilizing ets in teaching. out of the target group of 78 trainees, 68 responded to the call. all the 68 who responded to the call were accepted to participate in the study. none of the participants had prior experiences of utilizing eye-tracking technologies for teaching and learning purposes. development of solution informed by existing pedagogical principles after analyzing a practical educational challenge, the next step in dbr is to use the most affording educational technology to design a solution informed by existing pedagogical principles (reeves, 2006). in response to the challenge stated before, this study cultivated the experiences of 68 teacher-trainees in utilizing more than fifty (50) different ets in their teaching. in this paper we report on how we supported the teacher-trainees in conducting an active experimentation of tobii-t120 to track how students moved their eyes and engaged with m-learning objects on a smartphone. a number of other eye-tracking technologies such as tobii-t60/tx and eye-tribe are steadily becoming ubiquitous. in this study, tobii-t120 was utilized because it was the only eye-tracking technology the researchers had access to at the time they commenced the study. in this study, we were guided by the theoretical principles of kolb's (1984) experiential learning cycle. trainees concretely experienced, abstractly conceptualized and made observational reflections about their own active experimentations of tobii-t120 in tracking the eye-movement of students of reading and engaging with e-learning objects on an emulated mobile device (smartphone). emulated devices look and work more or less like real physical devices. emulated devices serve as test-beds for new applications that are to be installed on real physical devices (modelica association project, 2014). it is economically important to test the functionality of an application on an emulated device before such an application is actually installed as a stand alone application on a physical device (modelica association project, 2014). a number of web-based application development platforms now exist, providing options for software developers to test the functionality of their software via emulated devices. in this study, participants were guided to utilize http://mob.is.it to develop e-learning objects for deployment on different smartphones. each one of the 11 groups of teacher-trainees chose an excerpt of a chapter in a luganda language literary text called zinunula omunaku. zinunula omunaku is one of the most widely read novels in luganda language. “zinunula omunaku…” is a proverbial name in luganda language, which is completed as “…lugaba azitunga kiro”. this luganda proverb is loosely translated as: “the [money]) which rescues the poor is stitched (made) by god at night”. as a pre-colonial novel, zinunula omunaku recounts the life of an orphaned boy who, through all sorts of trials in life, triumphs, becomes famous and marries mirembe, one beautiful daughter of a great village chief (kawere, 1982). after selecting different excerpts from zinunula omunaku, each of the eleven (11) groups of teacher-trainees was guided to use http://mo.is.it to convert its excerpt into an e-learning object for deployment on different smartphones. figure 5 below is a sample of e-learning object that was deployed on a samsung galaxy sii. figure 5: excerpt of an e-learning object deployed on an emulated samsung galaxy sii after converting different excerpts of zinunula omunaku into e-learning objects deployable on an emulated smartphone, the emulated smartphone was displayed on an interactive whiteboard (see figure 6). after displaying the emulated smartphone and the e-learning objects thereof on an interactive whiteboard, trainees selected nine (9) students (five females, and four males) to read and engage with the e-learning content that was being displayed. as the students read and engaged with the e-learning content that was being displayed on the interactive whiteboard, their eye-movements were tracked using tobii-t120 eye-tracker. although each one of the nine students was alerted to the fact that s/he was being recorded as s/he read and engaged with the content on the interactive screen, no one was informed that the teacher-trainees were specifically interested in tracking their eye-movements. after tracking students’ eye-movements, trainees then viewed the video-recordings using tobii studio 2.0.x. the video recordings indicated the gaze plots, i.e., the fixations and saccades in students’ eye-movements (see figure 6 above). after viewing the gaze plots, i.e., the fixations and saccades in students’ eye-movements, trainees were asked to make observational reflections about their active experimentations. trainees posted their observational reflections on both youtube, and diigo (diigo is a social bookmarking and discussion platform), where the video-recordings of students’ eye-movements were posted as closed / protected online learning artifacts. figure 6: gaze plots of the recordings of students’ eye-movements testing and refinement of solution after development of the solution informed by existing design principles, the next stage of dbr is to test and refine the solution. at this phase of dbr, the researcher analyses the appropriateness of the designed solution for addressing the challenge identified (reeves, 2006). since the solution is usually in the form of a defined technology-mediated learning artifact, it becomes important for the researcher to analyze such learning artifacts, which are a product of participants’ direct experiences (reeves, 2006). in the next subsection, we explain how we analyzed the observational reflections, which the trainees made about their active experimentation. a discourse analysis of teacher-trainees’ observation reflections in this study, the observational reflections, which the trainees made about their active experimentations, were analyzed using discourse analysis (da). discourse theory (dt) states that spoken or written discourses (texts and artifacts) embody and serve to perpetuate the experiences of their designers (fairclough, 1992). a number of frameworks have been suggested to guide researchers utilizing discourse analyses to analyze the discourses (text and artifacts) of their participants. this study utilized fairclough’s (1992) framework for analyzing discourses. according to fairclough (1992), every discourse instance has three dimension: a) the spoken or written text (artifact) itself, b) the process of interaction, i.e., re-production and consumption of such text / artifact and c) the context, i.e., the socio-cultural, political and economic environment of a) and b). fairclough (1992) contends that these three discourse instances are analyzable at three levels namely: a) description, interpretation and explanation. fairclough’s (1992) framework for analyzing discourses is illustrated in figure 7. figure 7: fairclough’s (1992) three-dimensional framework for analyzing discourses when deploying da, genres and their discursive types (interpretations and explanations) are generated from texts or artifacts provided (roode, speight, pollock, & webber, 2004). in his work, ng’ambi (2008) provided a demonstrable example of how to utilize da to analyze students’ online learning artifacts. according to ng’ambi (2008): the analysis of text genres and discursive types of online postings has potential to enhance teaching and learning experiences of students...[in addition], [c] da of anonymous postings provide[s] insight into social practices of students and, in particular, highlight[s] the tension between perceptions of inflexibility of traditional teaching practices and student demands for flexible learning…[c] da, as described in this article, could be useful in analyzing e-mail communications, short message service (sms) interactions, web blogs, and podcasts. there is however, usually a subjective judgment in generating genres and discursive types from texts / artifacts (roode, et. al, 2004). accordingly, in this study, we noted that the genres and the discursive types, which we unraveled from trainees’ learning artifacts, are not independent of our own subjectivity. in order to compensate for such subjectivity, we present our analysis in a tabular format. such a format can help readers of our work to construct independent genres and discursive types (columns; 1 and 2) by referring back to the source texts / artifacts in each table. it should be noted that the source texts that are presented in each one of the tables were translations of the original responses (observational reflections), which the trainees posted on either diigo or youtube in luganda language. although the trainees made more than 68 postings, for the purposes of brevity, we in this paper, translate, present, describe, interpret, explain and discuss seven of the most compelling artifacts. table 1: translation and analysis of reflective observation 1 we observed that students spent varying times (an average of 2.5 minutes) until they scrolled down to view and read the rest of the contents on the screen. however, all of them tended to fixate at the segments of the first than the subsequent paragraphs of the excerpt. description interpretation explanation and implication trainees observed that students gave unequal reading and processing time for different segments of the excerpt. they also noted that students fixated more at the first than the subsequent segments of the excerpt. when cognitive load increases as a result of reading and engaging with additional segments of a text, individual attention and fixation at subsequent segments of the text / excerpt diminishes. it presents the need for educators to regulate both amount of quality of information they require of students to read and engage with. it should be interesting to carry forward a search on how rapid information access over ubiquitous and emerging mobile devices is qualitatively affecting cognitive processing in different learning disciplines. such studies would inform debates in the emerging field of technology, learning and cognition (cognition and technology group, 1990). table 2: translation and analysis of reflective observation 2 in the excerpt, students fixated more at the image than at the words. probably, this is what helped them to valiantly interpret the image, and to answer questions, which followed the text. description interpretation explanation / implication trainees observed that students fixated more at the image than at the words. they assumed that fixations were important in helping students to extract “practical and meaningful information” needed for further cognitive processing. when students fixated at the image, it helped them to intrepidly interpret the image and to answer questions that followed the text.  trainees’ observation confirms that objects can be identified more easily than words (walker, findiay, young, & lincoln, 1996; walker & young,1996). however, some studies such as nelson and loftus’ (1980) suggest that there is a limit as to how far from objects, a reader / viewer can extract useful information. useful information” is to be interpreted as that information which invokes further cognitive processing. it may be difficult to extract useful information from objects that are located far away from 2.6° of fixation (nelson & loftus, 1980). educators wishing to utilize emerging eye-tracking technologies such as tobii t120 to track students’ eye-movements should be mindful of both the nature, and the usefulness of the information that they want their students to engage with. both the nature (images, texts, multimedia), and the usefulness of the information significantly affect readers’ eye-movements. eye-movements have an effect on a reader’s further processing of cognitive tasks (rayner, 1997). table 3: translation and analysis of reflective observation 3 when asked to talk about the image in the excerpt, before touching the interactive screen to scroll down, the student did not have as much to say. when the student touched the interactive screen and scrolled down to view the entire image and its corresponding text, he said much more). description interpretation explanation / implication trainees observed that students invariably moved their eyes whenever the excerpt / text was wiggled.  wiggling of objects and texts prompts readers / viewers to dynamically and purposefully move their eyes (rayner, 1998). dynamic and purposeful movement of eyes helps readers / viewers to intrepidly describe objects and texts in motion (rayner, 1997). however, other studies have noted that if an object rapidly wiggles, it can negatively affect an individual’s perceptual span and cognitive functioning (chincotta, hytina, & underwood, 1997). educators need to make careful balance between designing static and wiggling objects for instruction. static or wiggling, objects and texts can negatively affect students’ perceptual span and cognitive functioning (chincotta, hytina, & underwood, 1997; walker, findiay, young, & lincoln, 1996). table 4: translation and analysis of reflective observation 4 we did not only aim at understanding how our students viewed the information on the interactive screen but we also wanted to guide them to actively read, engage, and interpret such information. in order to achieve this, we provided them with an audio narration of what they were viewing. as evidenced latter in the playbacks of our viderecordings, the narration guided our students to view the excerpt in fairly systematic manner. description interpretation explanation / implication trainees observed that when the students were provided with an audio narration, they viewed and read the excerpt in a fairly systematic manner. when individuals view objects as they listen to their corresponding audio narrations, they quickly move their eyes to specific elements of objects with the most closely related meanings. educators may not only need to design supportive strategies for guiding students to view and engage with learning objects in a fairly systematic manner, but also investigate how such strategies affect students’ cognitive processing. it can also be pedagogically edifying to establish whether systematic view of learning objects necessarily leads to increased engagement and higher order cognitive processing. table 5: translation and analysis of reflective observation 5 we tasked students to respond to two different questions. the first question required students to mention the author of the literary text they were reading, while the second question required students to explain how the object in the excerpt summarized and conveyed the meaning of the entire literary text with which they were engaging. we observed that students fixated much longer at the object (image) in the excerpt when answering the latter than the former question.  description interpretation explanation / implication trainees observed that students fixated more at complex than at simple learning challenges. as expected, complex learning challenges invoke more and longer fixations than simple learning challenges. this observation aligns with that of chincotta, hytina, & underwood (1997). in their study on how students read words of varying lengths, chincotta, et, al noted that students tended to fixate on longer and complex than shorter and monosyllabic words. educators need to intrepidly vary the complexity of the learning tasks that they assign to students. table 6: translation and analysis of reflective observation 6 although the students we selected did not appear to have visual impairments, we noticed that some of them were moving their eyes and indeed heads in saccadic (somewhat still) manner. description interpretation explanation / implication trainees suspected that some of their student had behavioral challenges in reading. both behavioral challenges and visual disorders / impairments significantly affect reading and cognitive processing. individuals with such deficits tend to view and engage with objects as they move their heads in saccadic manner (walker & findlay, 1996; findlay & gilchrist (1997). educators need to be mindful of the characteristics of movement of students with both behavioral challenges and visual disorders / impairments. with progression in technology and cognitive neuroscience, it should become easy for educators to support students with such behavioral, physical and cognitive deficits (rayner & morris, 1990; walker, findlay, young, & lincoln, 1996; walker & young,1996). table 7: translation and analysis of reflective observation 7 one of the limitations of our experimentation was that we did not give an opportunity to our students to directly read and engage with the excerpt on physical mobile phones. instead of using a physical mobile phone, we utilized an emulated phone. this was in part, because we had not yet fully developed our learning content into a stand-alone m-learning application that could be installed directly on physical mobile phones. description interpretation explanation / implication trainees observed that the experimentation they conducted could not provide them with feedback on how their students would move their eyes if they had read and engaged with the information provided on physical (three-dimensional) mobile phones. although conducting several different experimentations could have been difficult and costly, they could probably have yielded slightly different results. other possible experimentations that trainees could conduct include: mounting the mobile device in a bracket on a stand under the table so as to film both the device and the students’ interactions with it. in this type of experimentation, students would not see the device directly, but would instead be presented with the streamed video on the screen of a tobii t‐series eye tracker (tobii, 2010). reflections and conclusion according to reeves (2006), the last phase of dbr is that of making reflections and conclusions purposed at producing instructional design or pedagogical principles and implications. in this section, we make a recap of reflective observations, which the teacher-trainees made about their active experimentation of tobii-t120 to track the eye-movements of students who were reading and engaging with learning objects on mobile phones: students spent unequal reading and processing time for different segments of the excerpt. students fixated more at the first than the subsequent segments of the excerpt. when cognitive load increased as a result of reading and engaging with additional segments of a text, students’ attention and fixation at subsequent segments of the text / excerpt diminished. students fixated more on the image than on the words. fixations helped students to extract “practical and meaningful information” needed for further cognitive processing. when students fixated on the image, it helped them to interpret the image and to answer questions that followed the text. there is a limit as to how far from objects, a reader / viewer can extract useful information. useful information” is to be interpreted as that information which invokes further cognitive processing. it may be difficult to extract useful information from objects that are located far away from 2.6° of fixation. students invariably moved their eyes whenever the excerpt / text was wiggled. wiggling of objects and texts prompted students to dynamically and purposefully move their eyes. dynamic and purposeful movement of eyes helped students to intrepidly describe objects and texts in motion. however, previous studies noted that if an object rapidly wiggles, it could negatively affect an individual’s perceptual span and cognitive functioning. when students were provided with an audio narration, they viewed and read the excerpt in a fairly systematic manner. students fixated more on complex than on simple learning challenges. some students were suspected to have behavioral challenges in reading. both behavioral challenges and visual disorders / impairments significantly affect reading and cognitive processing. finally, although it may not be appropriate to make generalizations based on the small data sets that we collected in this study, our analysis of teacher-trainees’ reflective observations about their active experimentation of tobii-t120 to track the eye-movements of students who were reading and engaging with learning objects on mobile phones suggest a very strong relationship between eye-movements, information processing and cognitive development. this observation aligns with that of bartels (2008) and rayner (1998) who assert that eye movements shape and are recursively shaped by information processing and cognitive functioning. acknowledgement this paper emerged from a larger phd study that was funded by the swedish international development agency (sida) through the embassy of sweden in kampala (uganda), and the directorate of research and graduate training (drgt) at makerere university. references bartels, m. (2008). the objective interview: using eye movement to capture pre‐cognitive reactions. qualitative research consultants views, 58‐61. cognition and technology group. (1990). anchored instruction and its relationship to situated cognition. educational researcher, 19(3), 2-10. chincotta, d., hytina, j., & underwood, g. (1997). eye fixations, speech rate and bilingual digit-span: numeral reading indexes fluency not word length. acta psychologica, 97, 253-275. collins english dictionary. (2014, december 15). dictionary.com. retrieved december 15, 2014, from dictionary.com: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/literacy fairclough, n. (1992). discourse and social change. cambridge: polity press. findlay, j., & gilchrist, i. d. (1997). spatial scale and saccadic programming. perception, 26, 1159-1167. herrington, j., reeves, t. c., & oliver, r. (2010). a guide to authentic e-learning. london and new york: routledge. isomursu, m., kuutti, k., & väinämö, s. (2004). experience clip: method for user participation and evaluation of mobile concepts. eighth conference on participatory design: artful integration, interweaving media, materials and practices. (pp. 83-92). toronto, ontario, canada: acm. johannesson, p., & perjons, e. (2012). a design science primer. createspace: independent publishing platform. kabugo, d. (2015). cultivating teacher-trainees’ experiences of utilizing emerging technologies in teaching to foster multiliteracies among learners. kampala: makerere university. kawere, e. (1982). zinunula omunaku. kampala: uganda literature bureau. kolb, d. a. (1984). experiential learning: experience as the source of learning and development. englewood cliffs: prentice-hall. modelica association project. (2014, july). functional mock-up interface. retrieved november 30, 2015, from modelica: https://modelica.org muyinda, b. p. (2010). deploying and utilizing learning objects on mobile phones. kampala: makerere university. nelson, w. w., & loftus, g. (1980). the functional visual field during picture viewing. journal of experimental psychology: human learning & memory, 6, 391-399. ng’ambi, d. (2008). a critical discourse analysis of students’ anonymous online postings. international journal of information and communication technology education, 4(3). rajtechnews. (2015). eye tribe eye tracking technology to be introduced in smartphones in 2015. retrieved january 13, 2016, from rajtechnews: http://wiregadget.com/2015/06/04/eye-tribe-eye-tracking-technology-to-be-introduced-in-smartphones-in-2015/ rayner, k., & morris, r. k. (1990). do eye movements reflect higher order processes in reading? in g. d. groner, & r. parnham, from eye to mind: information acquisition in perception, search, and reading (pp. 170-190). amsterdam: north holland. reeves, t. c. (2006). design research from a technology perspective. in k. j. van den akker, s. gravemeijer, mckenney, & n. nieveen, educational design research (pp. 52-66). london: routledge. roode, d., speight, h., pollock, m., & webber, r. (2004). it's not the digital divide it's the socio-techno divide! european conference on information systems (ecis) (pp. 1-14). ais electronic library (aisel). russell, m. (2005). using eye‐tracking to understand first impressions of a website. usability news, 7(1), 1-14. the eyetribe. (2016, january 13). what is eye tracking? retrieved january 13, 2016, from the eye tribe tracker: https://theeyetribe.com/ tobii technology. (2010). using eye tracking to test mobile devices. stockholm, sweden: tobii ab. tobii. (2015, august 2). what is eye‐tracking? retrieved from http://www.tobii.com/corporate/eye_tracking/what_is_eye_tracking.aspx walker, r., & young, a. w. (1996). object-based neglect: an investigation of the contributions of eye movements and perceptual completion. cortex, 32, 279-295. walker, r., findlay, j. m., young, a. w., & lincoln, n. b. (1996). saccadic eye movements in object-based neglect. cognitive neuropsychology, 13, 569-615. authors: david kabugo is a lecturer, department of humanities and language education school of education, makerere university. e-mail: kabugodavids@gmail.com paul birevu muyinda is a senior lecturer in the department of open distance and e-learning at makerere university. e-mail: mpbirevu2013@gmail.com fred masagazi masaazi is an associate professor, department of humanities and language education, school of education, makerere university. e-mail: principal@cees.mak.ac.ug anthony muwagga mugagga is an associate professor, department of educational foundations and curriculum studies, school of education makerere university. e-mail: amugagga@gmail.com mathias bwanika mulumba is a senior lecturer in the department of humanities and language education at makerere university. e-mail: mbwanika@cees.mak.ac.ug microsoft word kaushik.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 245-262 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. governance of open universities — a few observations on trends in asia madhulika kaushik1 and g. dhanarajan2 1usha martin university, india 2formerly at wawasan open university, penang, malaysia abstract: like all organisations, good governance is a fundamental requirement for the responsible and accountable management of universities in general and open universities in particular. this is to ensure that these (open) universities remain relevant to their mission of facilitating unfettered access to higher education for citizens and at the same time continue being reliable contributors to personal and institutional developments, the vital ingredients to maintaining sustained national development. while several studies have, in the past, been conducted on governance of universities, almost all of them have centred around conventional, face-to-face institutions. not much published literature is in evidence on the governance of open universities. this paper, drawing from a study on the governance of a few open universities in asia, tries to discuss the nature of their challenges, and the lessons that can be drawn from their practices and experience. the study focused on aspects relating to institutional autonomies such as curriculum, budgeting and financial management, admission standards, conferment of qualifications, academic staff appointments, development and promotions and research policies. our findings indicate that, similar to conventional systems, the state plays a crucial role in many aspects of governance both in publicly funded and privately supported institutions. recent attempts at governance transformation towards greater institutional autonomies is beginning to show limited changes in some but not all jurisdictions studied. keywords: open universities; governance; asia introduction among the drivers of sustainable development, many would consider the role of higher education as critical to success. recognising this, and as a judicious response, investments in higher education in asia have witnessed a dramatic growth resulting in increased participation of the appropriate age cohort over the last thirty years (table 1). the last thirty years has also witnessed improvement in the socio-economic conditions and well-being of asians, especially in heavily populated countries like china and india, supporting the findings of international institutions such as the world bank and the asian development bank that “no nation that has not expanded reasonably well its higher education system could achieve [a] high level of economic development” (tilak, 2003). many governments see universities, besides being centres of scholarship, research and innovation, also as production centres of much needed human talent to populate the nation’s governmental, industrial, business and academic institutions, leading to yielding positive economic returns. this is especially so with expanding graduate education, which is seen as a means of increasing the economic 246 competitiveness of the country and a sustainable supportive tool for national development. growth, however, has not been uniform across the continent. gross enrolment ratios in higher education varies from under 10% of the relevant segment (cambodia, nepal, sri lanka) to over 50% (south korea). to a large extent the financing of higher education, besides the paucity of academic talent, has been among the major deterrents preventing uniform growth across the continent. to overcome especially the former, governments have adopted a number of strategies to increase access and participation. these have included expanding the existing public university systems (singapore, malaysia, indonesia, india), inviting private participation in higher education (malaysia, indonesia, philippines, thailand, bangladesh, pakistan) and applying innovative pedagogical techniques like open learning (india, sri lanka and pakistan, among others) and using technologies such as distance education. there are well over 20,000 face-to-face universities in asia, catering to between 100-110 million students. the vast majority of these institutions and students are in india and china. in addition, asia is also home to approximately 42 open universities, which host a total of 11 million, mostly adult, part-time learners (table 2). table 1: total enrolment [‘000] in higher education and gross enrollment ratio (after adb, 2012) country 1990 2000 2007 enr ger enr ger enr ger cambodia 5.5 1 22 2 131 5 china [prc] 3,925 3 7,364 8 25, 346 22 india 4,780 6 9,404 10 12, 853 12 indonesia 1,516 8 3,018 14 3,755 21 ro korea 1,630 37 3003 78 3,209 96 p r lao 4.7 1 14 3 ... 12 malaysia 121 7 549 26 1,299 32 philippines 6,181 25 7,975 30 ... 28 sri lanka 75 4 ... ... 390a 21 thailand 952 7.2 1,900 35 2,470 45 vietnam 186 3 732 9 1,590 ... ... = no data available, enr= enrollment, ger = gross enrollment ratio, lao pdr = lao people’s democratic republic, prc = people’s republic of china.
a-world bank (2008) quoting multiple sources.
 source: unesco (2009: pp. 231–236). one of the major influences leading to the establishment of the first open university, the ukou, was to widen participation in higher education as a means of social and economic advancement in an emerging technological age. their over-riding purpose, expressed through their mission statement, is to provide greater educational opportunity for all, for purposes of personal and national development (tait, 2008). successive generations of open universities have consistently availed themselves of available communication and information technologies to operationalise that principle and have evolved “their organisations (to support): course creation, production and distribution, student services, management of tutors and counsellors, and quality control” alongside the more traditional university function of organising research and teaching (peters, 2008). 247 table 2: list of open universities in asia. (after adb, 2011) size location institution enrollment big mega ous above 500,000 students china open university china [n] 2,663,500 india indra gandhi national ou [n] 2,468,208 pakistan allam iqbal open u[ n] 1,565,783 indonesia universitas terbuka indonesia [n] 646,647 big ous 100,000 – 499,000 students china jiangsu open university 157,088 guangdong open university 158,271 zhejiang open university 139,974 beijing open university 110,084 sichuan open university 102,917 hunan open university 100,421 anhui open university 100,277 s. korea knou 182,000 india ycmou 342,862 braou 176,048 thailand stou ~400,000 ramkhamkeng u ~400,000 bangladesh bangladesh open university [n] 271,630 medium ous 50,000 to 99,000 students china henan open university 96,144 shaanxi open university 96,267 hebei open university 95,130 shandong open university 93,317 experimental schools of the open university of china 85,724 hubei open university 79,477 fujian open university 71,088 shanxi open university 70,256 guangxi open university 67,880 chongqing open university 66,840 guizhou open university 64,146 guangzhou open university 62,247 jiangxi open university 60,484 tianjin open university 58,761 gansu open university 57,794 liaoning open university 52,052 india vmou 94102 nou 60174 mpbou 88613 baou 74839 ksou 55961 nsou 90350 uprtou 76293 vietnam hcm city ou 65,000 hanoi ou 67,000 small ous below 50,000 students malaysia wawasan ou 4,000 china (hong kong) hong kong ou 17,813 india pssou 9029 uou 1,439 philippines upou 2,834 sri lanka sri lanka ou 27,000 248 the vast majority of asian open universities, following the successful establishment of the ukou have been established by national or regional governments to provide an alternative route into tertiary education; in some countries, such as malaysia and india, private or charitable enterprises have also begun to play an active role in establishing distance teaching institutions. for a number of reasons, including demand from education consumers, governments began to take a serious interest in the structure, governance, management and quality of open universities, especially fearing the creation of huge ‘degree mills’ if they were left unsupervised. invariably, just as in conventional systems, governments gave themselves wide ranging powers to exercise oversight of the governance and management of these universities through legislative instruments. such powers often challenge the practices of open institutions, since their educational delivery systems and planning — to support big, widely dispersed student populations over large geographical regions — require industrial production and service approaches. this often runs counter to generally accepted notions of good teaching and learning environments as found in campus-based institutions. open universities have, over the years, developed managerial approaches in response to the challenges faced by them in a given country’s context. the regulatory and technological environment as well as a desire to deliver educational outcomes comparable to their conventional counterparts meant combining seamlessly academic and industrial cultures. open universities that represent academic systems catering to large populations of mature learners, widely dispersed and highly diversified, present a different governance arrangement compared to conventional universities. studies on good governance of these institutions, which determines how effectively they are managed contribute to the developmental goals, fundamental to their creation, in the first place and could provide valuable insights on the functioning of all academic institutions, in support of sustainable development of their communities. while a large number of studies on governance of universities have been conducted in the last decade, little evidence of such studies exists for open universities. this paper, based on a study conducted by the authors on the governance trends in open universities in asia reflects upon the implications of these trends on management of open universities in the asian context. there are different descriptors of ‘governance’ found in the literature but for the purpose of this study a very broad description used by the world bank in 2008 is being adopted, namely, “the term ‘governance’ is used to describe all those structures, processes and activities that are involved in the planning and direction of the institutions and people working in tertiary education”. another useful reference to the term university governance is one that is shared by the committee of university chairs (2014): governance means effective stewardship of the university to secure its future, safeguarding the university’s mission and the public services it provides, securing the proper and effective use of public funds and accounting to stakeholders and society for institutional performance. over the last three decades a number of studies on university governance have been undertaken by scholars such as becher and kogan (1992); bleiklie (1998; 2005); clark (1998); dill and sporn (1995); etzkowitz and leydesdorf, (1997); keller, (1980), neave, (1998), neave and van vught, (1991; 1994), olsen (2005); slaughter and leslie (1997), and teichler (1988). these studies, mostly conducted on 249 conventional universities, largely comment on two sets of ideas which bleiklie and kogan (2007) refer to as, universities either being a “republic of scholars” or as “stakeholder organizations”. the interests of other stakeholders circumscribe academic freedom, and decision-making takes place within more hierarchical structures designed to provide leaders the authority to make and enforce strategic decisions within the organization. the last decade has also witnessed a strong move away from the republic model to the stakeholder one. recent studies on governance, such as asiimwe (2013), citing baldwin (2009), emphasise the primacy of governance in fostering academic freedom, good governance and the distinction between the democratic university and the managerial university academics working in the area of governance research also feel that the last two decades have seen the successive managerialisation of the university governance. there is also considerable evidence to suggest that university governance has shifted from “the professoriate” to managers – who are, in turn, subject to the external market and state regulations (terry, 2008). recent studies in southeast asia, by the asian development bank (2012), also tend to show similar trends, especially among public funded universities. this study, by the bank, clustered levels of autonomy, in selected countries, in key aspects of governance into three groups (table 3). it noted considerable variation in the governance systems across the region, identifying three trends in governance and administration. these include a move to “consolidate national oversight of higher education; increasing decentralisation of responsibility and authority from central to institutional level administrators; and increased autonomy of campus level administrators in the management of institutions” (adb, 2011). the last of the three was especially considered to be the most “pressing and controversial” issue. the levels of autonomy enjoyed by the institutions is not uniform across all jurisdictions. it varies considerably, with mature systems (such as singapore) having considerable freedom on matters of freedom, quality assurance and personnel management, while others (such as cambodia) still continue with traditional practices where ministries of education exert enormous influence on matters of finance, personnel management and even curriculum. the adb study did not cover the governance and management of the region’s open universities. the study presented in this paper was conducted in 2016 and included six open universities/institutions in asia. this study was designed as an exploratory study, aimed at collecting information from select asian open universities, using a stratified, purposive sample to ensure representation from megaand medium-sized open universities, from south asia and southeast asia, as well as a representation from publicly funded and privately sponsored universities so as to enable a study of variation across different types of entities. the institutions that were studied were: i. uniiversitas terbuka: indonesia ii. indira gandhi national open university iii. symbiosis centre for distance learning (private) iv. sukhothai thamathirat open university v. korea open university vi. wawasan open university (private) 250 table 3: levels of institutional autonomy in key aspects of governance (adb, 2011) institutional autonomy dimension cluster 1 cluster 2 cluster 3 indonesia (public) malaysia indonesia (sole heis) philippines thailand cambodia lao pdr mongolia viet nam set academic structure and course content ** ** *** *** *** *** ** ** ** decision on student numbers *** * *** *** *** *** ** n/a * set salaries * * ** ** *** ** n/a n/a * set tuition fees * * *** *** *** ** ** *** * reliance on government funding * * *** ** *** ** ** * * staff employment and dismissal * ** * * ** ** ** n/a ** principal agent problem * *** *** *** *** *** *** n/a *** career paths of university administrators ** ** ** *** *** *** *** n/a *** * = limited autonomy, ** = semi autonomy, *** = full autonomy, hei = higher education institution, lao pdr = lao people’s democratic republic, n/a = not applicable, sole = state-owned legal entity. source: dhirathiti (2011). how an institution is governed is generally reflected in the arrangements made through its charter or act, the degree of empowerment that various levels of governance enjoy, the transparency and openness of behaviour, the layers of governance and the separation of their powers, the channels of communication, etc. some criteria that have been frequently applied as indicators of governance, and which this study also used as a guide, include: • respecting autonomy as the best guarantee of quality and international reputation. • value accorded to academic freedom and high-quality research, scholarship and teaching. • protection of the collective student interest. • the publication of accurate and transparent information that is publicly accessible. • a recognition that accountability for funding derived directly from stakeholders requires heis to be clear that they are in a contract with stakeholders who pay for their service and expect clarity about what is received. • the promotion of equality of opportunity and diversity throughout the institution. • openness on key aspects of practice such as admissions [access], curriculum, assessment, progressions and promotions, appointments, etc. • full and transparent accountability for public funding. 251 besides these descriptors, the study also looked at some aspects of the external influences on governance of institutions, especially the role of governments and private owners of some open universities and the extent of their involvement. in the quest to fill the gap in our knowledge in the governance of open universities , we explored a number of aspects, including instruments, patterns and practices which are currently in place in these universities, the alignment of governance arrangements to the fundamental ideology of openness, practices and arrangements to resolve conflicting interests between academic autonomies and stakeholder interests, and problems that detract from productive engagement amongst competing stakeholder interests. the study collected information through a detailed survey instrument which served as the guide to conduct focus group discussions and in-depth, face-to-face interviews with various stakeholders including the members of the governing board/council, the president/ceo, the vice presidents/deputy vice chancellors, members of the governance bodies like senate, academic councils; school boards/faculty boards and representatives of faculty or student associations wherever applicable. in this paper we present our reflections on select findings in tables 4, 5 and 6 as well as in appendix 1 in this paper on the following aspects: • overall governance arrangements and structures • role and decision spheres of academic faculty, academic autonomy • selection appointment and promotion of faculty • financial autonomy • patterns of communication and information sharing • executive power and accountability. overall governance arrangements and structures all of the institutions studied, including the two ‘private’ ones, have in place a formal governance structure as reflected by their respective acts, statutes or constitutions. by and large respective governments have tended to use acts and statuettes that are identical or almost similar to those used by their conventional university systems, with appropriate provisions in the acts to recognize the special needs of open systems. the regulatory bodies responsible for open universities, are mostly agencies of the ministries of education or higher education. open universities/institutions in the study were found to be often subjected by the regulatory agencies to special treatment, recognizing on the one hand the need to handle them differently but on the other hand expecting them to behave as per the norms designed for conventional universities. while significant autonomy has been provided to the institutions through their acts, there were fairly common instances of the government using its regulatory power to exercise limits on the choices that the universities can make. in india, for example, under the odl guidelines issued by the university grants commission, technical programmes at degree levels like engineering can no longer be offered by the country’s open universities, even though the act empowers these universities to offer programmes approved through its statutory bodies. likewise, act 44 in thailand permits that government to limit the powers of institutions in times of civil strife or other national emergencies. the powers of autonomy in such instances does not seem to be a sufficient condition in the operationalisation and exercise of autonomy in practice. 252 fairly similar bior tri-cameral governance structures were found to exist in all universities studied, with the board of governors /board of management / governing council functioning as the highest statutory body with policy oversight and the senate/academic council at the second level with overall responsibility on all matters academic. the private institutions studied had an additional layer in the form of board of directors/trustees, responsible for ensuring ownership interests. the governing councils/board of management were found to have wide ranging powers as per the respective acts, design and frame policies on organizational structures, finance, staff management, infrastructure management and capital investments. indonesia presented a different arrangement in that there is no governing council and the senate is the highest decision-making body. the government in this case was found to have a heavier influence on non-academic matters. the third level in the governance structure was comprised of the faculty or the school boards with powers relating to decisions on academic programmes, curriculum design and delivery as well as assessment structures. the decisions of the faculty boards, however, need senate approvals in most cases. membership of the governing bodies were as per the provisions made in the respective acts. the governing council, in the cases of india, indonesia and malaysia, had external members representing academic experts, industry or professional bodies. the private universities also include representatives of their board of directors /board of trustees sitting in councils. in india and indonesia, the membership also included representatives from the federal government. in at least 50% of the cases studied the vice chancellors chaired the governing council to which he/she was expected to be accountable. the membership of the senate, following statutory provisions had both ex officio and nominated members. the deans, all professors in some open universities, registrars and heads of units, like the library, bursary and education technology, represented the ex officio members. the nominated members could represent academics or other cadres like media or it. the president or vc acts as chair of the senate in all universities studied. in the case of faculty / school boards, the membership was almost automatic in that all faculty in a given school had membership on the boards, and these boards were chaired by the dean, which was a rotational position in some public universities (india, indonesia) and by appointment in others (malaysia). the membership of the governing bodies is not found to be differentiated as voting or non-voting members; all members had a voting right. our findings on other aspects of governance structures and arrangements in the institutions studied were: • open universities in the region present very different institutional management situations on account of their widely dispersed and distributed and very large learner populations, and the infrastructure, both human and technological, that is required to be created for maintaining responsive learner support. the regulatory acts and charters, while being developed, were so closely based on the existing frameworks for conventional universities that the opportunity to provide for a different nature of academic responsibility and academic delivery, using tutors and technology, learner support models, continuous assessment and provisions for learner flexibility, was not taken advantage of. again, the acts and charters have not evolved to incorporate the new realities of technology supporting learning, blended learning approaches, oer and mooc-based learning. opportunities for providing for the participation of regional and learning center heads in governance structures also seem to have been missed. 253 • the acts also provide overriding powers to the vice chancellors, which could create a centralization of power situation detrimental to good governance. the personality and leadership style of the chief executive could, in such a situation, very strongly influence governance descriptors like transparency, accountability, academic autonomy of faculty and open discussion. • while significant autonomies have been provided through their acts and statutes to the open universities, governments/boards of trustees have tended to exercise influence over decision making, often in the name of public or stakeholder interest or parity with other higher education systems. a number of respondents, especially in the focus group sessions, indicated that the powers and authority of the universities over time has been eroding simply because of leadership at the institutional level and/or increasing interference from ministries of education (public universities) or board of directors (private institutions). the role of leadership is again a critical determinant of the way academic autonomy is defended. role and decision spheres of academic faculty, academic autonomy the role and areas of influencing decisions by the faculty as well as the levels of academic autonomy were assessed by surveying the faculty members’ own perception about their academic autonomy and role in various issues (table 4). the major areas of conflict seem to arise out of the semi-industrial nature of operations and the deadline driven delivery metrices required to achieve for reasonably good quality learner support and timely delivery of academic resources and services. the system efficiency and financial effectiveness requirements at times put operational managers in a more influential role than academics, especially for operational issues. faculty members agreed that they had significant latitude in matters related to curriculum matters, other than those regulated for purposes either of quality and programme standards (malaysia through the malaysian qualification agency) or in ensuring a respect for national ideology and efforts at nation building (indonesia, thailand, malaysia). faculty autonomy was found to be high in all decisions regarding undergraduate and graduate education policy, choice of programmes and courses to offer, course design and development processes, course delivery and learner support, choice of pedagogy and the geographic regions where a programme would be offered, standards for the evaluation of programme quality, personal development of faculty and their professional enhancements (promotions). their influence, as per their own perception, was seen as being low in decisions on deadlines for course presentations and those for assessments and results, tenure-track policies, post-tenure review, faculty related personnel policies, standards for evaluating teaching or evaluating the president’s performance, selection of the president or vice president, choice of collaborating partners, policies regarding intellectual property and investment choices. except in the cases of korea and thailand they were found to have a modest influence on institutional choice of technology and investment decisions. 254 table 4: faculty perception of their role in decision making * no role; ** some modest role; *** active role while institutional administrations seemed to value and welcome open debate and discussion, faculty participation, even in their own forums such as the senate, faculty and departmental boards and on standing and ad hoc committees was found to be, at best, modest. at higher level forums, even departmental heads and deans were not enthusiastic contributors to dialogues and decision making. this may be attributed to the strong sense of hierarchy reflected in the deference exhibited in the presence of the senior academics present, or to the chair or prevailing national /institutional culture (thailand, malaysia). the incidence of open debate at faculty boards was found to be at a much higher level than that at the level of senate or governing council. the incidence of academic apathy towards an active participation in good governance seems to be a trend largely due to workloads and the deadline driven nature of work at the open universities, besides the hierarchical nature of institutional cultures amongst many asian cultures. the ‘cog in the wheel in a large system’ kind of syndrome also seems to prevail, especially among younger faculty. the involvement or lack of it needs to be addressed to identify ways of ensuring that it doesn’t escalate, as this could become a serious concern at the time of initiating institutional changes or developing policies. perceptions of faculty role india malaysia indonesia thailand s. korea public private appointments of full-time faculty ** * ** ** ** *** tenure promotions for faculty * * * *** *** *** decisions about the content of the curriculum *** *** *** *** *** *** setting degree requirements *** * * *** *** *** types of degrees offered ** * *** *** *** *** relative sizes of the faculty of various disciplines ** ** ** *** *** ** construction programs for buildings and other facilities * * * ** *** ** setting of the average teaching loads ** ** * *** *** *** appointing the academic dean *** * * *** *** * appointing department chairs or heads ** * * *** *** *** setting faculty salary scales * * * * * * decisions about individual faculty salaries (refer to dept. chairs in glossary) * * * * * short range budgetary planning ** ** ** ** ** ** decisions that establish the authority of faculty in campus governance ** * ** ** ** *** selecting members for institution-wide committees, senate and similar agencies ** * ** *** *** *** 255 table 5: faculty perception of autonomy perceptions of faculty role india malaysia indonesia thailand s. korea perceptions of faculty role public private undergraduate educational policy (e.g. admission standards *** *** *** ** *** *** graduate education policy *** *** *** ** *** *** undergraduate curriculum (e.g., general education *** ** ** ** *** *** deadlines for course presentation *** * * ** *** * deadlines for course assessment and results * * * ** *** * instructional design ** ** ** ** *** *** choices of technology for delivery ** * ** ** ** *** regions where the programme would be offered *** * * ** ** * choice of collaborating partners/overseas alliances * * * ** ** *** general standards and issues concerning promotion and tenure (e.g., tenure clock policies * * ** * ** ** standards for post-tenure review * * * * ** ** standards for evaluating teaching * * ** ** ** ** evaluation of the performance of the president * * * * ** * evaluation of the performance of the academic vice president * n/a * * * * evaluation of the quality of academic programs *** ** *** *** *** *** selection of the president * * * ** *** *** selection of the academic vice president * n/a * ** * * institutional choice of mode of learning ** ** *** ** *** *** institutional use/choice of technology ** * ** ** *** *** policies pertaining to intellectual property * * ** * * * faculty-related personnel policies (e.g., merit pay, health care, retirement benefits, grievance policies * * * * * ** policies related to learner support *** *** *** ** *** ** policies related to lll for faculty *** * *** ** *** *** faculty mobility *** n/a *** ** ** ** investment priorities and choices * n/a * * * ** allocation of budgets ** * *** * * ** * ** strong; ** modest; * weak 256 appointment, promotion and remuneration of academic staff while there are differences among the countries, in their recruitment and appointment policies, the more significant differences were actually seen between the public and private institutions. the private institutions, with their less formalized procedures and greater degrees of freedom in recruitment, seemed to have a shorter process for appointments while the public institutions had greater rigour in the appointment of their staff, with almost all four public institutions having their conditions of service similar to, and in some aspects, identical to the civil services /conventional public universities. except in the case of india’s public open university, no staff unions are permitted and, generally, remuneration schemes are rarely negotiated at the institutional levels. in other words, ‘collective bargaining’ is not part and parcel of the institutional cultures studied. in the case of two of the public institutions studied (thailand, indonesia), faculty upon appointment are considered to be civil servants and governed by the service conditions of the civil service. in all the other cases, they were considered employees of the university as an autonomous body. in all the open universities studied, faculty remuneration and benefits were as per the regulations for civil servants (thailand, indonesia and south korea) or norms governing all universities (ugc in india). private institutions in the sample were found to exercise discretion over the salaries determined for individual faculty members within the pay band approved by the staffing policy at the university. in these institutions while there was transparency regarding the different pay bands and faculty benefits, the actual salary determined for each faculty member was not expected to be publicly shared. discretionary powers of the ceo/top management to allocate remuneration/benefits were found to exist in some cases (indonesia, malaysia, private institution in india). salaries at the lower level were also found to be a factor in faculty turnover in private institutions in the highly competitive markets in malaysia and india. likewise, promotion of faculty, was required to follow prescribed regulations in terms of eligibility and due process in the case of public universities, while the private institutions studied had more latitude in framing their institutional policies on promotion and rewarding performance. role of students the direct participation of students in decision making or governance bodies was not found to exist in any of the open universities studied except in the case of korea, where student representation on the fee committee ensures their voice in decisions on tuition fees. the student unions were not found to exist in any of the institutions studied, which could be on account of the distributed learner populations who may not meet frequently enough to make union activity practical. indirect influence through institutionalized feedback from learners is a fairly well entrenched practice in most of the institutions in this study. open universities may have to reassess, given the maturity of their learners, if learner participation in their governance systems would add significant value, since there may be a strong case for such inclusion given the philosophies of openness of open universities. 257 table 6: student engagement in decision making elements of influence india malaysia indonesia thailand s. korea public private inputs from the student councils x x x x x x* student representation on university senate / councils x x x x x x feedback collated year wise by schools y y y y y y** invited comments y y y x occasionally x student demands through union activity x x x x x x x= no; y= yes; * only on matters concerning fees; ** course evaluation financial autonomy the freedoms to fully control and allocate its budget internally are important aspects of university autonomy. none of the universities in the region studied were found to enjoy this privilege to its full extent. all the public open universities studied receive their grants as ‘block’ grants or plan-wise budget grants, through negotiations with their respective ministry of education. in the study, both the private institutions were found to have a strict budget control exercised by the owners; the public universities, upon receiving their grants, were found to have a greater degree of freedom to internally allocate and distribute the funds in accordance with the approved budget heads. all the institutions studied levied tuition fees. the private institutions exercised discretion in setting up fees to manage revenue targets but were obliged to keep fee levels within the limits prescribed by the regulatory agencies. the public universities in the study enjoyed funding support and fee levels were designed to enable access to large sections of the population, in some cases (e.g., india), these were kept at very low levels for non-laboratory programmes. almost all public open universities are permitted to retain their surplus tuition fees, over which they have a great degree of autonomy of use. the external investment of surpluses was, however, found to be highly regulated. in most asian countries — though public university constitutions permit them to own land, buildings and other assets—rarely have total freedom to buy additional assets or sell owned assets without government oversight or control. private institutions are always subject to the control of their boards to either add to or dispose of their assets without the consent of their boards. the four public open universities in this study own their properties in their own name but their right to dispose them is highly regulated. patterns of communication and sharing the universities in the study were found to utilize a variety of mechanisms and processes for sharing information and important governance communication ranging from intranets and shared drives to sharable archives for minutes and papers of governance bodies. such information, however, was not available in the public domain. 258 despite a wealth of channels for effective communication, conversations with focal groups (indonesia, thailand, malaysia) gave the impression that these channels mostly serve for administration to transmit information one way, and mechanisms to receive feedback and engage faculty in open discussions on issues that matter to them is often poorly developed or not there at all. this may be a reflection of cultural norms, work pressures or a generic apathy on the part of faculty to respond back on all matters of institutional governance, especially those that may not directly concern their own interests. timely flow of complete information to the highest bodies like the board of governors was sometimes an issue. likewise, flow of information on decisions taken by governance bodies to the regional centers and learning centers sometimes was found to be an irritant in very large public systems. checks on executive power and public accountability the trior bicameral nature of governance in all the universities studied, with their committee structures and reporting protocols do provide an effective check on any unfettered exercise of power by senior executives of the institutions. the incidence of decisions by chair action and its post facto ratification by the senate/academic council was found to exist in almost all institutions, followed as a practice in the interest if expediency. some universities addressed this issue through the creation of standing committees of the academic council or the research council. for institutional decisions, especially those with financial implications, a strong element of internal audit (thailand, indonesia, malaysia) coupled with a statutory annual external audit (malaysia, india) is in place to exercise checks on executive power. in institutions where faculty unions exist (only in india), issues impacting academic freedom or accountabilities are often challenged through collective bargaining. the union action may have at times successfully prevented institutional initiatives like annual performance appraisal of faculty from being implemented except as a prerequisite at the time of promotion. concluding remarks like their counterparts, open universities, whether publicly or privately funded, require a supportive legislative environment in which the institutions have sufficient autonomies to achieve both the institutional objectives as well as a national developmental agenda. a series of recent studies in asia (raza, 2009) seems to suggest that a number of countries, especially those in the upper-middle and higher-income categories have been adjusting their system-wide governance arrangements to devolve the management and oversight of their universities, to a certain extent, and also as a response to greater participation of the private sector in higher education. fielden (2008) drew attention to systems that are shifting from being state controlled to state supervised. this study, the first one on governance trends in open universities in the asian context, was an exploratory one aimed at understanding the patterns and processes of governance followed. invariably, governance arrangements of institutions reflect the societies in which they are situated. further, they also reflect their ownership. publicly owned institutions tend to be more transparent (especially on financial matters) than privately owned ones. in highly developed and liberal 259 democratic societies governments are more willing to share governance arrangements than less liberal societies. almost all of the six institutions in this study are located in more or less liberal democratic environments and enjoy modest levels of governance arrangements, with the state playing a mostly supervisory role, e.g., the selection and appointment of university presidents in south korea, indonesia and thailand. the study highlighted the various strains on autonomy, either on account of external influences or the operational managerialisation required by the semi-industrial nature of the process required for efficient management of open universities. however, the study also confirmed that in almost all of the six institutions studied the basic tools, such as independent governing councils, faculty boards, budget practices, faculty appointment, quality assurance arrangements and curriculum design and transformation for achieving good governance, is present in one form or another, at least on paper. however, in practice, some aspects of autonomies (curriculum design) are much more easily achieved than others (finance, especially in private enterprises). also, where there is an informed and strong leadership both at the institutional and governmental level more autonomous arrangements are achievable than in institutions where leadership is weak. privately owned enterprises are especially vulnerable to greater control by owners despite the provisions for wide-ranging autonomies in the acts and charters of these institutions. university governance, which ensures that institutions remain true to their chosen mission and accountable to their multiple stakeholders, including the societies where they are located, presents a clear mirror of whether the open universities are effectively fulfilling their developmental role and mission. it also provides an insight into the processes in place to ensure accountability, transparency and autonomy. this study gives us hope that as asian open universities progress further into the 21st century, they and their governments will see the value of greater autonomies on most aspects of university governance than currently prevails. this study was based on a very limited sample but it attempted more than a cursory examination of governance processes. it is hoped that there will be more follow-up research on the core issue of governance will motivate larger scale studies on the subject in asia. acknowledgements this study was carried out during a period when both authors were associated with the wawasan open university, penang malaysia. it was supported by a modest grant from the university’s institute of research and innovation. we gratefully acknowledge the support of the university and its many staff for their assistance during the tenure of the study. references asian development bank (adb) (2011). higher education across asia: an overview of strategies. mandaluyong city, philippines: asian development bank. adb (2012). access without equity: finding a better balance in higher education. mandaluyong city, philippines: asian development bank. asiimwe, s., & steyn, g. m. (2013). obstacles hindering the effective governance of universities in uganda. journal of social sciences, 34(1), 17-27. becher, t., & kogan, m. (1992). process and structure in higher education. milton keynes: open university press. 260 bleiklie, i. (1998). justifying the evaluative state. new public management ideals in higher education. european journal of education, 33(3): 299–316. bleiklie, i., & kogan, m. (2007). organization and governance of universities. higher education policy, 20(4), 477493. clark, b.r. (1998). creating entrepreneurial universities: organizational pathways to transformation. oxford, new york, tokyo: iau press/pergamon. committee of university chairs (2014). the higher education code of governance. ouuk. retrieved from https://www.universitychairs.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/he-code-of-governance-updated2018.pdf dhirathiti, n. s. (2011). governance and administration in higher education. a background study paper for the regional technical assistance project on higher education in dynamic asia. asian development bank. manila. dill, d., & sporn, b. (1995). emerging patterns of social demand and university reform: through a glass darkly. oxford: iau press/pergamon. etzkowitz, h., & leydesdorff, l. (eds.) (1997). universities and the global knowledge economy: a triple helix of university-industry-government relations. london: cassell. fielden, j. (2008). global trends in university governance. world bank education paper series, world bank, washington dc. retrieved from http://siteresources.worldbank.org/education/resources/278200 1099079877269/5476641099079956815/global_trends_university_governance_webversion.pdf keller, g. (1983). academic strategy the management revolution in american higher education. baltimore: johns hopkins university press. kerr, c. (1995). the uses of the university. cambridge: harvard university press. neave, g. (1998). the evaluative state reconsidered. european journal of education, 33(3), 265–284. neave, g., van vught, f. a., & editor bsk, n. n. (1991). prometheus bound: the changing relationship between government and higher education in europe. oxford: pergamon. neave, g., van vught, f. a., & editor bsk, n. n. (1994). government and higher education relationships across three continents. winds of change. oxford: pergamon. olsen, j.p. (2005). the institutional dynamics of the (european) university. arena working paper no. 15. university of oslo: arena. peters, o. (2008) transformation through open universities. in t. evans, m. haughey, & d. murphy (eds.), international handbook of distance education, (pp. 279-302). bingley: emerald group publishing. raza, r. (2009). examining autonomy and accountability in public and private tertiary institutions (english). washington, dc: world bank. retrieved from http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/267671468158063464/examining-autonomy-and-accountabilityin-public-and-private-tertiary-institutions slaughter, s., & leslie, l. (1997). academic capitalism. baltimore: johns hopkins university press. tait, a. (2008). what are open universities for? open learning: the journal of open and distance learning, 23(2), 85-93. teichler, u. (1988). changing patterns of the higher education system. the experience of three decades. london: jessica kingsley. tilak, j. b.g. (2003). higher education and development in asia. journal of educational planning and administration, xvii(2), 151-173. unesco (2009). global education digest: comparing education statistics across the world. montreal, canada: unesco institute of statistics. world bank (2008). global trends in university governance. education working paper series no. 9. 261 authors prof. madhulika kaushik is the pro vice chancellor of the usha martin university, india, and former deputy vice chancellor of wawasan open university; former education specialist, higher education, commonwealth of learning, and former professor of management studies, indira gandhi national open university, india. email: pvc.ushamartin@gmail.com prof. g. dhanarajan is the former ceo and director of the open learning institute hk (now the ouhk); former president of the col; former founding vc of wawasan open university un, as well as the former director of the iri-wou. email: gajaraj.dhanarajan@gmail.com cite this paper as: kaushik, m., & dhanarajan, g. (2018). governance of open universities — a few observations on trends in asia. journal of learning for development, 5(3), 245-262. appendix 1 — survey responses: features of governance in the universities studied traits india malaysia (private) indonesia (public) thailand (public) s. korea (public) private public levels of control by external authority high [bod] moderate high [bod] low low moderate highest level of authority bod board of management bod/bog senate [=council] council [external] council [internal] laws and regulations of governance act of provincial government and m&a university act • university and university colleges act • malaysian qualificatio n act • university constitutio n national education system law [modified to suit uti] • national education act • autonomous university act • national education act • autonomous university act funding sole proprietors federal government charitable foundation and university mohe and university mohe and university mohe and university strategic objectives developed internally derived from act and endorsed by mhrd developed internally and approved by bod/bog developed internally and endorsed by mone developed internally & approved by moe developed internally and endorsed by moe selection of ceo bod search committee appointed by mhrd with 2 members nominated by university board bog/bod appointed by mone following search and short-listing of candidates by the university’ s selection board. appointed by mone following search and short-listing of candidates by the university’ s selection board. appointed by mone following search and shortlisting of candidates by the university’ s selection board. selection of governors bod bom bod university staff both faculty and administrative mohe faculty employment status contract with the institution university employment safeguarded by ugc terms of contract (tenure university employment contract • civil service • uni. contract • civil service • uni. contract • civil service • uni. contract 262 appointment) staff remuneration institution management decision ugc scales valid for all public universities bod civil service conditions civil service conditions civil service conditions tuition fees and institution decides but maximum limit regulated university decides university decides and approved by mohe mone mohe university proposes, and ministry decides revenue surpluses institution retains university retains, can be applied for prescribed uses university retains university retains university retains university retains microsoft word orwenjo.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 148-162 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. challenges of adopting open educational resources (oer) in kenyan secondary schools: the case of open resources for english language teaching (orelt) daniel ochieng orwenjo1 and fridah kanana erastus2 1the technical university of kenya 2kenyatta university, kenya abstract: kenya, like many african countries, has faced enormous challenges in the production of and access to quality relevant teaching and learning materials and resources in primary and secondary school classrooms. this has been occasioned by a plethora of factors which include, but are not limited to, lack of finances, tradition, competence, and the experience to develop such resources. such a situation has persisted despite the existence and availability of many open educational resources (oers) that have been developed by education stakeholders at enormous cost. such freely available resources could potentially improve the quality of existing resources or help to develop new courses. yet, their uptake and reuse in secondary and primary schools in kenya continues to be very low. this paper reports the findings of a study in which open resources for english language teaching (orelt) developed by the commonwealth of learning (col), canada, were piloted in a sample of fifty (50) kenyan secondary schools. the study applied the model 1 – distance and dependence (zhao et al 2002) model to investigate the challenges that instructors face in adopting and using orelt materials. the study reported that poor infrastructure, negative attitudes, lack of ict competencies, and other skill gaps among teachers, as well as lack of administrative support, are some of the challenges experienced in the adoption and use of oers in kenyan schools. the findings of the present study will provide useful insights to developers of oers and kenyan education stakeholders in devising strategies to optimise utilisation of oers in the kenyan school system. keywords: open education resources, open resources for english teaching, kenya, distancedependence model introduction over the last decade, the government of kenya, through the communications commission of kenya, (cck) has initiated deliberate measures aimed at improving the standards of ict infrastructure and access to ict facilities in the country. this has been manifested in many ways including, but not limited to, the easing of import duties on computer and computer accessories and other it hardware; the liberalization of internet provision services that were hitherto the monopoly of telkom kenya, and the laying of an underwater fiber optic cable that has subsequently seen increased internet connectivity and speed to 15mbps throughout the country. nowhere has the emphasis on improved ict services and internet connectivity been so prominent than in the kenyan school system, right 149 from primary school to university. for instance, within the last two years alone, the government has ensured that nearly 70% of kenyan public primary schools, up from about 20%, are connected to electricity, thereby, facilitating the laying and use of ict networks and other infrastructure. additionally, the government, under an international competitive bidding process, recently invited tenders from consortia of both local and international service providers for the design, production and distribution of digital learning platforms to all primary schools in kenya. in the secondary schools, the government has intensified the supply of computers to many rural schools that previously did not have any. it has also set up ict hubs in selected rural secondary schools. in the universities, the focus has been on the supplying bandwidth and the establishment of hotspots to enable students easily access the internet. the kenya institute of curriculum development, (kicd) has also embraced the use of open and digital content as an alternative to the traditional textbooks. one prominent international stakeholder that advocates for development and use of open content across the commonwealth member states, including kenya, is the commonwealth of learning (col). one of col’s pioneering interventions is the open resources for english language teaching (orelt). col, on their website, state that the open resources for english language teaching (orelt), is a project aimed at supporting the classroom activities of teachers in junior secondary schools (jss) across the commonwealth. the aims of orelt are to provide a bank of ‘open content’ multi-media resources in online, offline and traditional text formats that will support school-based education and training for jss teachers; provide ‘open content’ support resources for teacher educators who train teachers for jss; and to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas and experiences and sharing of elt resources among teachers and teacher educators across the commonwealth. the materials also aim at supporting learners by providing learner centered activities and resources both in online and in the traditional book formats. but what, in theory and practice, are oers under which orelt falls? oecd (2007) defines them as freely and openly available digitized learning resources that can be adapted, modified, and re-used for teaching, learning, and research. one aspect of this definition calls for further scrutiny with regard to orelt: their being digitized. orelt resources go beyond being merely digitized, since the digitized versions that are freely available online through the orelt portal are complemented with cd-roms and traditional book formats, thereby, making them quite versatile in terms of form and usability. the orelt pilot project by the commonwealth of learning and the introduction of the digital learning platforms (also known as tablets for schools) in lower primary schools in kenya represent the first real attempts at embracing oers. besides, mit ocw statistics indicate that only two percent of mit ocw traffic since 2004 has come from users in sub-saharan africa (mit, 2013). this apparent lack of interest in oers is not merely confined to pedagogical classroom practice but also extends to research. for instance, percy & belle, (2012) report that there has been little research around the use of oer in the african context, while andrad et al., (2011), on the other hand argue that a majority of existing oer studies focus on the development and publication of oer repositories as well as on the integration of policies in various institutions at the expense of their adoption and use. this is the context that informed the current study’s focus on the challenges of adopting oers in the kenyan secondary school system. 150 the orelt project activity-based learning modules relevant to learners in jss were developed by experts drawn from several african and asian countries, who had either taught at the jss level or were trainers of jss teachers. the six modules covered the core language areas of listening, speaking, reading, writing and grammar, as follows: a) module 1: better listening b) module 2: speaking for better communication c) module 3: success in reading d) module 4: effective writing e) module 5: language through literature f) module 6: communicative grammar each module had five units containing a range of case studies, activities and resources which teachers can easily adapt and use in their classrooms. appropriate audio, video and graphic materials aimed at making the content more comprehensible were built into the modules. col collaborated with teachers in schools and teacher educators in teacher education institutions to: build an orelt consortium, in order to maximize take-up and utilization by schools and teacher education institutions; provide support to schools and teacher education institutions to adapt and use orelt; and support and encourage teacher educators and teacher training institutions to integrate orelt into a wide range of other support resources (online, text, radio) for use by teacher educators as school-based elt teacher resources. theoretical issues the present study adopts the view of innovation put forward by thompson (1965) as the generation, acceptance, and implementation of new processes, products, or services within an organizational setting. thompson’s definition emphasises the implementation of the innovative items. innovation is, thus, assumed to take place only with actual use. researchers such as zhao et al. (2002), and groff and mouza (2008) have theorized on the requisite conditions that must obtain in any educational innovation to succeed, as well as the possible challenges. they argue that three factors are critical to the success of any educational innovation within the school system. these are the innovation itself, the innovator, and the context (environment) of the innovation. the relationship between each of these areas is unique to each school and each innovation. these three factors are interdependent and create a triadic relationship as illustrated in figure 1 below: 151 figure 1: a conceptual framework of innovation (source: zhao et al 2002) the present study views the introduction of the orelt materials in the teaching and learning of english in kenyan secondary schools as an aspect of innovation in the school system. the study adopts thomson’s (1965) view that innovation is considered to have taken place only when there is actual use, hence, focusing on the adoption challenges exclusively. taking this into consideration, the present study adopts the distance and dependence model of innovation as propagated by zhao et. al (2002). this theoretical model aims to make explicit the context-specific factors that affect an innovation and help identify the likely success of an innovation by depicting its difference from existing practice and resources. zhao et al. (2002) argue that a twoaxis scale can be used to understand the potential success of an innovation through the capacity of an organisation or individual to engage with change. on the vertical axis is the distance of the innovation from existing practice. they suggest that the closer the innovation is to existing practice, the easier it will be to adopt. here, practice can relate to classroom practice, pedagogy, school culture or structures within the school, depending on the nature of the innovation. indeed, the definition of the ‘change to practice’ is context-bound by those who use this model. 152 figure 2: distance and dependence model (source: zhao et al 2002) the horizontal axis indicates the extent of dependence of the innovation on resources for success. this relates to the resources needed for the innovation and the extent to which they differ from existing school resources. in this study, resources for innovation were considered to be computer software and hardware, electricity connectivity, physical classroom space, and audiovisual learning aids. these were considered critical in supporting learning activities and planning time. as demonstrated in this model, the less demand the innovation puts on extra school resource levels, the less challenges there are in its implementation and the more likely it is to succeed. as such, if an innovation requires a significant change in teaching practice and a significant increase in resources, then it will need a greater amount of support to succeed than an innovation which requires fewer resources and demands little change from the teacher’s existing practice. a key function of the model is to support an understanding of educational innovations in context by depicting how an innovation can be understood as a function of its distance from current practice and dependence on available resources. this model was used in this study to gauge the propensity for success of the orelt materials in the teaching of english in kenyan junior secondary schools. the likelihood of success was operationalized in terms of the level of challenges posed to this innovation and the mitigating factors in place that could help surmount such obstacles. as such, implementing a ‘single’ innovation in a school may involve a school undergoing multiple innovations to cater for the resource and pedagogical demands of the innovation. this variance in the received complexity of an innovation is mirrored at a school level. as zhao and frank (2003:27) observe: 153 for one school which already has in place strong infrastructure and technical support and positive formal and informal staff structures, it may be a relatively minor disruption to buy in and incorporate necessary technical equipment. for another school, which has none of these factors in place, an innovation may require transformation across the school to be effectively implemented. the success of an innovation then depends on the extent to which the scale of change is understood and appropriately resourced. this model, therefore, predicts that large-scale innovations which are not supplemented with resources from outside of the environment are unlikely to succeed. in applying this model, the present study particularly took due cognizance of resource environments in the schools where the orelt materials were piloted by considering the resources each of the schools were endowed with. thus, the 50 schools were stratified into urban/rural; private/government sponsored and national/county. method fifty (50) jss teachers were invited for a five-day orelt induction workshop at the kenyatta university conference centre, march 18-23, 2013. the teachers were drawn from a mix of urban/periurban and rural schools (30 each) and were also balanced in terms of gender. they were purposively sampled as teachers of english at the jss level (form one and two). where two or more teachers were teaching at this level, one was randomly selected. the schools were also purposively selected from the five counties where the project was being piloted, namely, machakos, kiambu, nairobi, meru and tharaka-nithi. the participants were initially introduced to the concepts of open educational resources (oers), their history, use and justification in educational settings, especially in developing countries, and specifically the history, rationale and development of orelt materials. additionally, the participants were inducted to the principles, theories and practices of task-based and learnercentered approaches to learning, upon which the orelt materials are based. they were then introduced to the six orelt modules and the orelt online platform by three workshop facilitators over a period of five residential workshop days. for each module, the facilitators took the participants through its content, learning activities and learning resources. the participants were then assigned discussion tasks on each module which they performed in breakaway groups and later presented in plenary. the teachers were then expected to pilot the modules in their classes in their respective schools. before the workshops, each of the teachers filled in a pre-workshop evaluation questionnaire. this questionnaire sought to elicit the responses of the teachers with respect to their pedagogical knowledge of, and interest and skills in, the content of the orelt materials, which were broken down into five modules; their knowledge of, and skills in, activity based learner centered approaches; their frequency of using activity-based, learner-centered approaches in their classrooms before the workshop; and the frequency of using collaborative, team-teaching approaches before the workshop. a post-workshop evaluation questionnaire issued to them at the end of the workshop was aimed at capturing any changes in each of these indices as a result of the workshop. having ascertained the preparedness of the teachers to pilot the materials based on an end-line evaluation after the five-day residential workshop, the teachers returned to their respective stations where they immediately began piloting the materials. each teacher was given a set of six hardcover orelt modules and an online training manual depending on the self-declared enrollment in their classrooms, a dvd version of the same, and password-secured access to the orelt online platform where they could, in addition to accessing the modules, have interactive sessions with other teachers 154 using the same materials in the entire commonwealth. after eight weeks of piloting, the researchers began making field visits to the various stations where the teachers were working with the aim of providing post-workshop support to the teachers on how to adapt and use the orelt modules in their classrooms. during the field visits, the researchers provided a range of technical support to the teachers who were meant to be the master trainers. such support included, but was not limited to, the following: a) providing technical support on the use of orelt dvds and navigation of the orelt website b) guiding the teachers on effective use of audio-visual resources (in schools where these were present) such as overhead projectors, cd players and desktop computers c) answering any technical and content questions that the teachers had with regard to the orelt modules d) visiting selected classrooms and observing real-time lessons where the orelt materials were in use and providing appropriate feedback e) assisting in creating networks with other teachers in the neighboring schools who may not have already been exposed to the orelt materials during the workshops, with a view to making them candidates for future training by the master trainers. each of the teachers was given a set of ten orelt materials for this purpose in order to create a multiplier effect. apart from providing technical support and assistance to the teachers as outlined above, the field visits also provided the opportunity to find out the challenges the teachers were facing in implementing the orelt materials within their various schools. guided by the conceptual framework for innovation and the distance–dependency model, the researcher conducted structured interviews based on questions relating to costs of implementing the orelt in their classrooms, the pedagogical current practice within the school, and the availability of resources for implementing the innovation. interviews were also conducted with teachers and a few of the students on the challenges they were facing in implementing the orelt materials in their classrooms. findings in the following section, we present the findings of the study with regard to the challenges faced in the implementation of the orelt materials in the selected secondary schools. in line with the chosen conceptual model and theoretical framework, these findings are organized under the thematic areas of innovators’ capacity and disposition for the innovation, the innovation, and the environment for innovation. challenges related to the nature of innovation with regard to challenges related to the innovation, we looked at factors inherent in the modules themselves that would make their implementation either difficult or feasible. it was noted that the fact that the materials existed in three alternate formats, namely, traditional text format, dvd and online digital content made the materials versatile and flexible for use even in schools where there was neither electricity connection nor computers. however, the print documents had certain factors which hindered their smooth adoption as an innovation in the english classrooms. 155 incompatibility of learning activities a number of the teachers interviewed had serious concerns with the nature of the learning activities and tasks in some of the modules. this arose from the fact that the materials had been developed by language experts and practitioners drawn from the entire commonwealth, for use within the commonwealth countries. thus, some examples and learning activities had no direct socio-cultural and pedagogical relevance to the local situations in the kenyan schools. for instance, there were passages dealing with elephants that are domesticated, high-speed trains, or activities that required the learners to appreciate traditions and practices that were alien to them. the learners were, therefore, unable to directly relate such tasks and content with their immediate environment and daily experiences. to remedy the problem, therefore, the teachers, had to spend extra preparation time as they went through the materials in a bid to adapt and customize them to the local environment. all the teachers interviewed reported unusually longer preparation times as one of the most serious challenges to the successful implementation of this innovation. this has been reported in the literature (see taylor, 2002, for instance) as an inherent weakness of nearly all massively produced and massively consumed oers. incompatibility with syllabus compatibility of the orelt materials with the kenyan secondary school english syllabus was cited as another challenge in implementing the innovation. the orelt materials certainly met the curriculum and syllabus demands and were vetted by kicd and passed. however, while all the language skills taught in the kenyan schools were catered for in the modules, the curriculum design and the syllabus in the kenyan school system was different and not in tandem with the structure of the modules. some content in the modules was taught at higher levels in the kenyan syllabus and certain language skills were given more prominence and emphasis, and, thus, allocated more teaching time. for instance, the oral skills and oral literature in general were allocated only one lesson per week, yet in the modules it was given as much emphasis as other language skills. therefore, striking a balance between curriculum and syllabus demands and the development of language skills was a challenge to some teachers. in a number of the schools in the study, existing policies with regard to the curriculum, the syllabus and assessment became an impediment to the implementation of the orelt programme. such impediments included, but were not limited to, a requirement by the school administrators that the teachers stick to the official school syllabus with the stated learning activities and resources as well as the requirements for a strict schedule of assessments. most of the schools had a tradition of giving standardized joint-assessment tests, usually with other neighbouring schools. it was, therefore, difficult and sometimes impractical to evaluate the learners based on the orelt materials in a number of such schools. in certain cases where only one stream was selected in the same school, it became even more difficult to assess the students based on orelt materials. in a number of schools included in the study, there was a requirement that teachers prepare and use common schemes of work and lesson plans. these schemes of work and lesson plans were derived directly and logically from the syllabus as handed down by the ministry of education. in most cases, the school administration, as stated earlier, expected teachers to strictly adhere to these documents. 156 since it was a requirement that teachers use schemes of work and lesson plans, the implication was that teachers who were part of the study had to prepare these two documents on the basis of the orelt materials before they could use them in the classrooms. this caused serious challenges in using the orelt materials in some selected classrooms while the rest were using the regular schemes of work and lesson plans. the prescriptive curriculum, therefore, ensured that teachers were bound by the lesson plans and schemes of work. however, some teachers would use the orelt materials as a supplementary teaching aid, from which they would draw the remedial assignments and homework for the learners. inadequate content a number of teachers interviewed during the field visits opined that some of the orelt modules had content that they considered inadequate and insufficient. a case in point was module 5, “language through literature”. this was a unit that sought to integrate language learning within literature learning such that learners, while reading and explicating literary texts, were supposed to learn language structures and forms such as grammar and vocabulary. ideally, this should have blended well with the kenyan curriculum which provides for an integrated approach to language learning. this was, however, not the case as teachers reported that certain aspects of the content were inadequate and inaccurate. nearly all the teachers pointed out that the distinction between “simile” and “metaphor” was inaccurate. it was also observed that a number of the materials needed for the successful execution of some of the learning activities were not readily available in the local schools. some activities were also considered inappropriate with the typically large classes in the kenyan schools. finally, the materials were not adapted for use by visually impaired learners, unlike the standard learning resources produced by the kenya institute for curriculum development (kicd). they could, therefore, not be used effectively in special schools meant for such visually impaired students. challenges related to innovators’ capacity and disposition for innovation for the purposes of the current study, innovators were considered to be the teachers that had been inducted on the orelt materials and were expected to introduce the resources in their english language classrooms, together with the school administration and any other staff that would have had a direct influence on the success or otherwise of the innovation. negative attitudes one of the overriding and serious obstacles faced in the implementation of the orelt materials in the selected schools was the negative attitude towards the materials. a number of the teachers reported that most of their colleagues who were teaching english in other classes, especially those who were not part of the training workshop were not cooperative and had a negative attitude towards the whole project. in some cases, this attitude was also exhibited by the administration, such as the principal and the heads of department. this hindered the effective implementation of the project, especially in administering the standard tests which had been developed during the workshop. some teachers and heads of department preferred to administer the usual common exams to the students and refused to adopt the orelt tests. 157 lack of awareness of oers another important finding was that some instructors were still unaware of the existence of oer. this was evident from their responses and interactions with the researcher during the field visits. a number of teachers preferred the traditional textbook teaching materials and strictly followed the prescribed textbooks. most of the teachers were unaware of the existence of oers, and the few that had an idea about them lacked knowledge on how to access them. it was felt that this was due to a carryover from their training, since most of the college lecturers who trained them also lacked awareness of oers. such lack of awareness of the existence and advantages of oers was a major implementation challenge because it contributed to negative attitudes towards, and mistrust of, the orelt materials. additionally, this lack of awareness contributed to a lack of administrative support from the school administrators towards the implementation of the orelt project. lack of adequate ict competencies all practicing teachers develop some sort of self-supporting practical knowledge that enables them to prepare and conduct their classes (feiman-nemser & floden, 1986). a number of the teachers that we interviewed and observed did, indeed, know how to go about their jobs, albeit with a variety of approaches. they, however, demonstrated less skill when addressing new objectives and methodologies or facing the realities of their changing classrooms brought about by the introduction of the orelt materials. a number of such teachers were supportive of the use of technology in their classrooms but did not know how to maximise their educational possibilities. this was due to limited ict skills and proficiencies in some of the teachers, especially in the rural areas. overall, such teachers did not have the necessary skills or knowledge to bring about change. in some instances, they did not even have a clear idea of what changes to expect in spite of the fact that they had taken part in the training workshops. it would seem that their existing practical knowledge was not a sufficient basis for the implementation of new teaching approaches and they also needed (and perceived the need) of more inductive and intensive training in ict skills. skill gaps teaching several language skills poses a significant problem to teachers of english in kenya. in the study, it was noted that teachers had difficulties teaching specific language skills, namely, writing, speaking and reading. these skills were a challenge to most language teachers in both better performing and poorly performing schools. a recent report by uwezo kenya (2014), indicated that many children in kenya cannot read materials for beginners. it was established in the course of the study that most teacher training institutions in kenya do not systematically train teachers on how to teach these important language skills. therefore, there were skill gaps in training teachers in language pedagogy. the immediate consquence was a mismatch between the language curriculum offered to teacher trainees at university, and the school curriculum and syllabus that the teachers were actually expected to handle after their training period. while the teachers graduated with a degree in education, they were ill-prepared to teach language skills in secondary schools. challenges related to the environment for innovation a number of challenges relating both to the formal and informal environments were reported. 158 inadequate ict infrastructure inadequate ict infrastructure was an obstacle to the implementation of the orelt materials in certain schools. although the government of kenya, through the ministry of education, had launched a programme aimed at improving ict infrastructure and access in all schools, this was yet to impact all schools, especially those in the rural areas where electricity was not easily accessible. particularly lacking in such schools was hardware like computers, overhead projectors, video and audio players, and cassettes. in cases where the school administration had purchased this equipment, lack of electric power made it impossible for the teachers to use them. teachers hardly accessed online materials because most rural schools in kenya had no access to the internet. those that used their private modems found it too expensive as the schools did not refund the cost of the bundles used. they also had problems using the dvds in schools that had no electricity. where there was electricity, it was not easy to view video files in class since the student numbers were high and the teachers depended on only their private laptop computers to show the video or play the audio files. some schools had lcds but the teachers had no access to them. in schools that had electricity, teachers had no speakers to project the audio files and, in some instances, no sockets in the classrooms. lack of computers was, therefore, a major challenge in most schools. where there were some, they were only meant for office work. besides, some teachers had no private computers and, therefore, could not use the dvd. lack of administrative support the administration in most of the schools that we visited welcomed the orelt initiative. head teachers in some schools promised to provide the necessary infrastructure to ensure that the learners could use the orelt materials. nonetheless, there were certain obstacles which hindered full utilization of these materials. in a few of the selected schools, a lack of administrative support hindered the utilization of the orelt materials. in such schools, the administration did not sufficiently empower the teachers to use the resources in line with the guidelines given during the training workshops. for instance, in one school, the administration did not allow the teacher to administer the pre-test, using the argument that the school had a specific number of tests that the students could be given and that the orelt pre-test was going to be an extra load on the students. in another school, the head of department and the deputy principal insisted that learning resources to be used in the classrooms had to be uniform in all the streams, while other teachers of english in these other streams would not use the orelt resources because they had not attended the workshops. in some schools, teachers were not granted permission to network and consult with other teachers in the neighbouring schools who underwent the same orelt training workshops. discussion of findings from the foregoing findings about the pilot introduction of orelt materials in kenyan secondary schools, it is evident that kenya has yet to realise the full potential of the oers in increasing access to quality education, reducing the cost of education through cost-effective educational materials available through the creative commons copyright licenses, and improving classroom interaction between teachers and learners. 159 in schools where teachers had overcome some of the barriers described above, they evidently appreciated the benefits of the orelt project in improving language skills, particularly the modules on better listening, success in reading, writing, language through literature and speaking for better communication. for instance, teachers were introduced to different tasks to demonstrate that listening need not be done by teaching the sounds of words or sentences in isolation but by exposing students to natural language in communicative situations. they also brainstormed various ways of improving attitudes to reading culture, since the modules were very explicit on that topic. writing skill, which was the most unpopular with the learners and the teachers, was identified as one that teachers and students of english could not ignore. despite the challenges, all the teachers interviewed reported that the modules were very helpful. they made the teaching and learning of english exciting, easier and lively. most students that were interviewed explained that the orelt materials gave them a rare opportunity to learn english in a more practical way. they explained that the resources, especially the audio and video files, made learning practical and interesting. the materials gave them the opportunity to practice pronunciation, learn how to review each other’s written work in a peer-review exercise and formulate debate topics on their own. the teachers were, however, reluctant to ask the learners to review each other’s work, citing administrative challenges, since such an approach would be misconstrued as laziness and abrogation of the teachers’ responsibilities of feedback provision to the learners. the learners were particularly happy to have their colleagues review their work and identify typos, spelling mistakes, punctuation errors before submitting their work to the teachers. the learners and the teachers reported improved performance in the writing exercises. needless to say, the debating sessions among learners helped to build their self-confidence and also improve their language skills. the learners also explained that in instances where some teachers had difficulties pronouncing certain sounds due to first language (l1) influence, the teacher would play the dvd and ask them to attempt the correct pronunciation. the findings of the present study have highlighted the importance of engaging teachers in developing, sharing and reusing oers, as evidenced by their experiences with orelt. as stated earlier, the teachers were involved at the early stages of this pilot study and later on engaged during follow-up visits as they used the materials in their classrooms. as fitzgerald (2013:21) observes: empowering users through early involvement in projects that deal with oer, whether through a design-based approach (as in toetoe) or by employing them to assist with project tasks (as in loro), is an effective way of allowing them time to begin to reconstruct their identity as teaching practitioners. the journey from acquiring new knowledge and skills to fully understanding the transformation that results from applying these to one’s practice can be a lengthy one, as the learning curve for many practitioners is rather steep. early input through teacher education and sustained engagement and support for practising teachers through the incorporation of open practices into professional development activities are key. in the present study, it is evident that the positive reception of the orelt materials by the teachers was largely attributable to the early involvement of the teachers from the conceptualization of this innovation. the views by fitzgerald above, coupled with the findings, underscore the need to involve 160 teachers early in any innovation in the classroom. this is even more pertinent when the innovation involves a significant departure from the traditional modes of learning, and requires extra skills, as is the case with the orelt materials. early and sustained user involvement in an innovation can take different forms. in the case study by quinn et al (2011), early and sustained user involvement in the project was by way of a number of language teachers from the institution being employed to carry out project tasks as research assistants, project assistants, technical testers, resource ‘uploaders’, trainers and champions. several of them went on to disseminate loro at internal and external events. in the present study, it took the form of a baseline survey, conducted for one month (from feb 2 – mar 1, 2013) involving the teachers, two induction training workshops, field visits to observe and provide technical support to the teachers as they utilized the materials in their respective classrooms, and the active engagement of a select cohort of teachers as trainers of trainers to train other teachers on the implementation of the innovation. whatever form it takes, early and sustained involvement in any innovation in the classroom is critical for its success because it makes the environment conducive for innovation. the audio-visual component provided by the dvd-facilitated retention of the content by students. the teachers averred that students grasped the varied concepts and content better if the content was illustrated with video recordings. thus, the audio and visual aspect of the orelt modules made learning more interesting. this shows that if the environment is conducive to innovation, the orelt materials can improve learning and increase learner participation in the learning process. this can be achieved by developing oer models of learning and providing training to understand the 21st century, virtual classrooms and new pedagogical methods. the innovator, who in our context is the teacher, may understand the importance of new pedagogical methods but without relevant support, the innovator and the innovation itself (learning) is bound to face challenges. in thompson’s (1965) model where innovation is assumed to take place only with actual use, the orelt project can be said to be slowly gaining ground in kenya. however, its success and the success of other oers in kenyan schools will be dependent on the stakeholders’ good will, their understanding of the advantages of the oers in the learning process, and, thus, are able to see the need to address the implementation challenges in infrastructure, policy, attitude, administrative support, pedagogy and logistics. downes (2009) argues that oer uptake necessitates less emphasis on providing resources, and more on removing barriers and restrictions. ict has been identified as one of the enduring challenges to the implementation of oers in many educational settings. mackinnon and pasfield-neofitou, (2016), in a study on the “produsage” model to support oer in english language teaching in higher education made a distinction between it-related and ip-related barriers to implementation of oers as innovations in language teaching. they point out that internal it policies of any organization, whether it is the producers and right holders of the oer, or whether it is the intended final consumer of the innovation (such as a school) play a largely overlooked role in determining the extent to which oer implementation becomes a practical reality. additionally, they identified copyright restrictions as an obstacle to the richness of the media available in language teaching and learning. the findings of the present study serve to buttress these sentiments by pointing out the need to take into account not only it software but also the hardware. this is because, as reported in the findings of this study, the availability of adequate it infrastructure, coupled with the requisite skills among the target teachers, proved to be a major challenge to the introduction of orelt materials in the selected schools. 161 accordingly, there is a need to ensure that all it considerations are taken into account if oer innovations are to be successful. conclusions in concluding the study, the researchers suggest that the oer implementation in kenya can go a long way to reducing the cost of education in the country without compromising on the quality of learning, the myriad of challenges not withstanding. in the orelt project in kenya, for instance, the researchers established that the rural, poor schools with limited resources adopted the materials because they had limited or no teaching resources. the well-established schools, sponsored by the church or government, hardly utilised the resources because they had more resources than they needed in their libraries. the flexibility with which the materials were developed, i.e., the texto-book format, dvd, online and offline models of access, made the materials available to all categories of schools, despite the ict infrastructural challenges. what can be seen to be lacking in kenya is sensitization to what oers are, their implementation approach, and their benefits among the key stakeholders. a government that is comitting so much to developing ict infrastracture in kenyan institutions of learning cannot afford to ignore the changing trends in modes of content delivery, including virtual classrooms. the teachers in kenya, therefore, require regular in-service training to build their capacity on new pedagogical skills in order to keep abreast with the changing trends from the traditional classroom to the 21st century virtual classroom and digital teaching and learning. in addition, what also emerged in our study is the impact of the prescriptive curriculum in kenyan classrooms. the pre-set and the fixed syllabus and examination schedules are all an indication of a system that is dominated by examination-oriented approaches to learning. the immediate outcome is a lack of creativity on the part of the teachers and the learners, who learn for the sake of passing examinations and not for the sake of gaining knowledge and competence in language skills. it is hoped that in the on-going restructuring of the education system in kenya, learners and teachers will have more room to try out new teaching and learning experiences and make learning more innovative and interesting. references downes, s. (2009). downes-wiley: a conversation on open educational resources. canada: national research centre. retrieved from http://www.downes.ca/me/mybooks.htm feiman-nemser, s., & floden, r. (1986). the cultures of teaching. in m. c. wittrock (ed.), handbook of research on teaching (3rd ed., pp. 505-526). new york, ny: macmillan. fitzgerald, a. (2013). openness in english for academic purposes. open educational resources case study: pedagogical development from oer practice. commissioned by the higher education academy (hea) and the joint information systems committee (jisc), united kingdom. groff, j., & mouza, c. (2008). a framework for addressing challenges to classroom technology use. aace journal, 16(1), 21-46. mackinnon, t., & pasfield-neofitou, s. (2016). oer “produsage” as a model to support language teaching and learning. education policy analysis archives, 24(40). oecd (2007). education at a glance: oecd indicators – 2004 edition. paris: oecd. thompson, v. a. (1965). bureaucracy and innovation. administrative science quarterly, 10(1), 1-20. 162 uwezo kenya (2014). are our children learning? annual learning assessment report. uwezo publications. zhao, y., byers, j. l., mishra, p., topper, a. cheng, h. j., enfield, m., pugh, k., tan, s., & ferdig, r. (2002). what do they know: a comprehensive portrait of exemplary technology using teachers. journal of computing in teacher education, 17(2), 24-36. authors daniel ochieng orwenjo is a senior lecturer, department of language and communication studies at the technical university of kenya. email: orwenjo@gmail.com fridah kanana erastus is a senior lecturer, department of english and linguistics at kenyatta university. email: erastusfk@gmail.com cite this paper as: orwenjo, d.o., & erastus, f.k. (2018). challenges of adopting open educational resources (oer) in kenyan secondary school: the case of open resources for english language teaching (orelt). journal of learning for development, 5(2), 148-162. microsoft word mtebe.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 263-279 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. eliciting in-service teachers’ technological pedagogical content knowledge for 21st-century skills in tanzania joel s. mtebe and christina raphael university of dar es salaam, tanzania abstract: the tanzania vision 2025 articulates the country's aspiration of becoming an industrialized and middle-income country by 2025. the education sector, which is the main driving force towards realizing this goal, is expected to bring about the right mix of high-quality skills for the rapid development of quality and adequate human resources. the kind of revolution needed is nevertheless impossible if teachers are not equipped with the necessary skills to bring in the desirable changes. this study adapted technological pedagogical content knowledge (tpack) for 21st-century skills to investigate teachers’ competence levels of 21st-century skills using selfreported survey and classroom observations from a sample of 132 teachers in 20 schools in pwani and morogoro regions. the study found out that many teachers have moderate self-reported confidence in all tpack elements with technology. conversely, teachers self-reported confidence levels in content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and pedagogical content knowledge was found to be high. the findings from this study provides valuable insights on how teachers use ict to prepare students for 21-century skills capable of supporting the country’s efforts towards developing an industrial economy. keywords: elearning, capacity development, education, training, professional development, ict, educational technology, higher education, non-formal education introduction the government of tanzania is striving towards an industrial economy and aiming at becoming a middle-income country by 2025 (urt, 2014). according to the national development vision of 2025 and the national long-term development plan 2011/12 uphill 2024/25, the education and training sector is expected to bring about a rapid development of human resources by preparing an adequate number of the workforce to enable the country to become a competitive medium-income economy country by 2025 (urt 2014). however, for tanzania to achieve its vision 2025 of becoming an industrialized and middle-income country, it will need to develop the right mix of high quality skills to drive continued growth (ndalichako, 2017); both job related technical skills and 21st-century skills. one of the main problems that is likely going to hinder the progress to fully fledged semi-industrial economy is a massive shortage of the workforce with the necessary 21st-century skills to contribute actively to economic development under a system where the main asset is knowledge (sawahel, 2011; sumra & katabaro, 2016). the problem of skilled labor shortages is repeatedly reported in the mismatch between the skills produced in local universities and the needs of the skills industries (bezy, 2013; mccowan, 2014). in other words, many students graduate with irrelevant skills to be absorbed in industrial markets. the problem of the skills gap becomes more critical when the prospective employees have the requisite job 264 skills but lack 21st-century skills. the 21st-century skills which are said to be scarce include communication skills, commitment to work, pro-activeness, time management, personal initiatives, coordination, and team working spirit (sabarwal, 2013; sumra & katabaro, 2016; unido, 2012). other skills identified in the literature include problem solving, analytical skills, behavioral skills, and interpersonal skills (sabarwal, 2013; unido, 2012). obviously, in order to prepare a future workforce with the required skills for the new industrial economy there is a need to equip teachers with 21stcentury competencies and become competent in supporting 21st-century learning (voogt, erstad, dede, & mishra, 2013). in other words, the teachers’ competence with technology integration is the basis for effective change (hooker, mwiyeria, & verma, 2011). in recognizing the role of teachers in ict integration, the government and its partners have continued to improve ict infrastructure in schools and colleges, increasing ict awareness among teachers and learners, and increase in the use of ict to facilitate administrative functions in schools. a recent report by the ministry of education, science and technology (moest) indicates that approximately 31.4% of government secondary schools (out of 3,601) have been equipped with computers, ranging from 1 to 68 computers (moest, 2017). the report further states that nearly 20% of these schools are connected to the internet. similarly, the government equipped 34 teacher training colleges with computers and internet connections through the swedish international development agency (hooker et al., 2011). the main aim was to ensure that pre-service teachers are trained in the use of ict for teaching and learning so that they can use these skills in secondary schools once they graduate (kafyulilo, fisser, & voogt, 2016). similarly, there are many initiatives in developing digital content and making them available for students to access via the internet. for instance, the college of information and communication technologies (coict) in collaboration with halotel tanzania developed the halostudy system with digital content for all science and mathematics subjects for form 1 to form iv (mwakisole, kissaka, & mtebe, 2018). the content was enhanced with multimedia elements to facilitate self-learning and was deployed in 426 secondary schools connected with halotel internet. christian social services commission (cssc) developed an elearning platform with content for secondary schools in tanzania (cssc, 2014). other initiatives that have developed content for secondary schools in tanzania include shuledirect (mtebe & kissaka, 2015), and the retooling project (mtebe, mbwilo, & kissaka, 2016). with improvement of ict in schools, colleges and universities, the government has been implementing various initiatives to equip teachers with relevant skills for ict integration in the classroom and the 21st-century competences and skills. for instance, the ministry of education and vocational training (moevt) in collaboration with the world bank and global e-schools and communities initiative (gesci) developed the ict competency framework for teachers in tanzania (hooker et al., 2011). this initiative aimed to equip teachers in teachers’ colleges with competencies and skills to be able to support students in 21st-century skills. the initiative focused on science, mathematics, and english subjects. despite these efforts, studies have shown that teaching strategies for 21st-century competencies are often not well implemented in actual educational settings (voogt et al., 2013). similarly, studies show that pedagogical integration of ict in teaching and learning in secondary schools is still low (kafyulilo, fisser, pieters, & voogt, 2015; kayombo & mlyakado, 2016; mwalongo, 2011; unesco, 2015). moreover, the majority of studies that have investigated how teachers use ict in teaching and 265 learning have focused on pre-service teachers. consequently, this study aimed at investigating inservice teachers’ competence levels of 21st-century skills and how they apply in the classroom environment. the study adopted technological pedagogical content knowledge for the 21st-century skills (tpack-21) instrument developed by valtonen et al. (2017) which have incorporated tpack domain and 21st century skills. a sample of 132 teachers in 20 schools in pwani and morogoro regions were studied using a selfreported survey followed by classroom observations using a pre-defined observation rubric tool. understanding teachers’ competence levels of 21st-century skills and how they apply in the classroom environment provides valuable insights into the development of teacher preparation activities that would lead to more efficient use of technologies in preparing students with the requisite skills to boost an industrial economy. despite some consensus about what 21st-century competencies are and how they can be acquired, results from international studies indicate that teaching strategies for 21st-century competencies are often not well implemented in actual educational practice. literature review rapid changes in economies brought about by the emergence of ict in the 21st century, makes the demands for skills in the labor market in this century different from the 20th-century (ananiadou & claro, 2009; dede, 2009). the current demand for skills and competencies are more related to the needs of the emerging models of knowledge economies than with those of the past century, which were suited to an industrial mode of production (ananiadou & claro, 2009). technological and economic changes mean that companies have changed how they are organized and the way they do business (kay & greenhill, 2011). the changes also mean that the industries or employers need employees who have the ability to communicate, collaborate, mediate information, and solve problems with people worldwide given the existing interconnectedness of the global economy, ecosystem, and political networks (dede, 2010; saavendra & opfer, 2012). with the ict and changes in the 21st century, technology in education is no longer an option or a choice, but an inevitable reality. therefore, in order to prepare future employees with these 21stcentury skills, teachers must have the necessary pedagogical skills to teach students in the new environment. recently, technological pedagogical content knowledge (tpack) framework for teacher knowledge has received a significant level of scholarly attention as a model that addresses the specialized set of knowledge needed to effectively integrate technology into the classroom. koehler and mishra (2005) argued that the heart of good teaching with technology requires three core components: content, pedagogy, and technology, plus the relationships among and between them. figure 1 shows the tpack framework and its knowledge components. 266 figure 1. the tpack framework and its knowledge components (koehler & mishra, 2013). the description of each element in the tpack domain as described by koehler and mishra is presented hereunder: • technology knowledge (tk) is the teachers’ understanding of the possibilities and constraints of a certain technology and the skills to utilize such technology efficiently in the classroom. • content knowledge (ck) is teachers’ knowledge about the subject matter to be learned or taught which includes knowledge of concepts, theories, ideas, knowledge of evidence and the means of inquiry in the field (e.g., biology, mathematics, etc.). • pedagogical knowledge (pk) is teachers’ knowledge about the processes and practices or methods of teaching and learning. it is a generic form of knowledge about the cognitive, social and developmental theories of learning as well as classroom management skills (valtonen et al., 2017). • pedagogical content knowledge (pck) is the knowledge of pedagogy applicable to the teaching of specific content covering the core business of teaching, learning, curriculum, assessment and reporting. • technological content knowledge (tck) refers to teachers’ knowledge about the technologies used within the content area (e.g., biology, mathematics, etc.). teachers need to know not just the subject matter they teach but also the manner in which the subject matter can be changed by the application of technology. • technological pedagogical knowledge (tpk) is an understanding of the nature of teaching and learning with technology and of the benefits and disadvantages of various technologies for particular pedagogical practices. • technological pedagogical content knowledge (tpack) is an understanding that emerges from interactions among content, pedagogy, and technology knowledge. the tpack framework has been used extensively to measure knowledge needed to effectively integrate technology into the classroom. however, the framework faces certain difficulties, especially 267 in combining with 21st skills domains (valtonen et al., 2017). in order to use tpack in 21st-century skills, valtonen et al. (2017) developed an instrument by aligning with the tpack instrument suggested by chai et al. (2011). the instrument included 21st-century skills namely ict, collaboration, critical thinking, communication, and reflective thinking. these are important skills to support an industrial economy especially in the current knowledge-based economy described in many frameworks. these frameworks include the partnership for 21st-century skills (2006), the metiri group and ncrel (2003), the american association of colleges and universities (2007), and the organization for economic cooperation and development (2005) (dede, 2009). therefore, valtonen et al. (2017) combined these 21st-century skills domains with tpack elements to develop a tool that helps to understand in-service teachers’ competence levels of 21st-century skills and their application in the classroom environment. methodology the research design employed both qualitative and quantitative approaches. the quantitative design involved the self-administered questionnaire using the tpack-21 instrument. the study adapted tpack-21 instrument proposed by valtonen et al. (2017) with some items being re-worded to suit the context of the study. the instrument combines tpack elements with 21st-century skills domains. the instrument was validated using confirmatory factor analysis with a total of 267 teachers from three universities in finland. the instrument consists of 39-items across teachers’ knowledge on ck, tck, pk, tpk, pck, and tpack. in addition to tpack-21 instrument, this study used observation to complement data collected via self-administered questionnaire. once the selected teachers filled out the self-administered questionnaire, they proceeded to teach a topic of their choice in the classroom. using an observation rubric, teachers were observed in how they implemented 21st-century skills in actual teaching. the rubric instrument consisted of a four-point likert scale: 1 = beginning, 2 = developing, 3 = approaching and 4 = ideal/target. schools the study targeted 20 schools in the pwani and morogoro regions. the schools selected for the study were those with computers connected to the internet (10 schools in each region). the idea behind this study was to investigate in-service teachers’ competence levels of 21st-century skills and how they apply in the classroom environment in schools where schools are already equipped with ict facilities. therefore, it was necessary to target schools with computers and the internet. the selection of schools was on the basis of convenience. data collection and analysis the data collection instrument consisted of 39 tpack-21 items. participants were required to answer each question using five-level likert scales (1 = strongly disagree 2 = disagree 3 = neither agree nor disagree 4 = agree 5 = strongly agree). prior to data collection, enumerators were trained on both tpack-21 self-administered instrument and how they could use the rubric to conduct classroom observations. data collection was conducted between october 2017 and february 2018. data from questionnaires was analyzed using statistical package for the social sciences (spss). analysis was undertaken by computing the necessary statistics such as means, frequencies and percentages. these were then presented in descriptive formats such as tables, graphs or narrations. 268 participants the participants in the study were 132 in-service teachers from 20 secondary schools in the pwani and morogoro regions. out of 132 teachers who participated in the study, 59% were females while 41% were males. in terms teaching experience, 44% of teachers had teaching experience of 0-5 years, and 48% of teachers had teaching experience of 6-19 years. a minority of teachers (8%) had teaching experience of over 20 years. moreover, the majority of teachers had a bachelor’s degree (78%) while a few of them had a doctoral degree and a certificate of secondary education (1.1% each). it was also found that 11% of teachers had diplomas and 8.8% had master’s degrees from various institutions within and outside the country. as shown in figure 2, the majority of teachers were english language teachers (26.4%) followed by both mathematics and chemistry (19.8%) while a few teachers (1.1%) were teaching information and computer science subjects. figure 2: distribution of teachers per teaching subject (n = 132). findings teachers’ use of computers in schools although the study targeted schools with computer connected to the internet, the availability of computers in schools does not guarantee that the computers are going to be used in teaching and learning. therefore, it was necessary to find out the frequency of teachers using computers in schools visited. as shown in figure 3, the study found that more than two thirds of teachers use computers more often. 19.80 8.80 15.40 26.40 19.80 1.10 8.80 0.00 5.00 10.00 15.00 20.00 25.00 30.00 ch em ist ry ph ys ics bio log y en gli sh ma the ma tic s inf orm ati on an d c om pu ter sc ien ce ot he r ( ple as e s pe cif y) 269 figure 3: the distribution of the frequency of using computers (n = 132) then teachers were given tpack-21 instrument to elicit teachers’ self-reported confidence knowledge base needed to effectively teach with technology in the 21st century on ck, tck, pk, tpk, pck, and tpack. the mean score was used to determine teachers’ levels of confidence on technology usage based on tpack-21 elements, whereby if the mean scores of tests are between 1 and 2.33, the level of confidence is considered as “low”. if mean scores of tests are between 2.34 and 3.67, the level of confidence is considered as “moderate”. finally, if mean scores of tests are between 3.68 and 5.00, the level of confidence is considered as “high” (kabakci yurdakul et al., 2012). the findings of each element in the tpack domain are explained next. content knowledge core content knowledge such as english, mathematics, science, history, and economics are considered to be the foundations upon which other 21st-century skills are to be developed (mishra & kereluik, 2011). teachers must know about the content they are going to teach and how the nature of knowledge is different in different content areas (schmidt et al., 2009). this knowledge is as important as ever and will continue to be so into the foreseeable future (kereluik, mishra, fahnoe, terry, & karr, 2013). therefore, teachers’ self-reported confidence in their content knowledge of the subject they teach was investigated. as indicated in table 1, the results indicated that teachers’ perceptions levels on their content knowledge of the subjects they teach was high (m = 4.11, sd = 2.54). 7.6 21.7 20.7 28.3 21.7 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 never seldom quite often very often always 270 table 1: descriptive statistics of teachers’ responses on ck (n = 132) m sd i have sufficient knowledge in developing contents of the subjects i teach 4.27 0.83 i know the basic theories and concepts of the subjects i teach 4.42 0.689 i know the history and development of important theories in the subjects i teach 4.16 0.719 i am familiar with recent research in the subjects i teach 3.57 0.959 overall ck (m = 4.11, sd = 2.54) pedagogical knowledge the pedagogical knowledge is the form of knowledge applied to understand how students learn, general classroom management skills, lesson planning, and student assessment (koehler & mishra, 2013). given the emergence of ict, teachers need to be prepared for new pedagogical approaches that suit the 21st century (voogt et al., 2013). they should have skills to be able to improvise answers and facilitate dialogue in the unpredictable, chaotic flow of classroom discussion in the new 21st-century learning environment (dede, 2009). therefore, it was important to investigate teachers’ perceived levels of confidence on pk. the results show that teachers’ self-reported pedagogical knowledge was found to be high (m = 4.23, sd = 3.50). table 2 shows the descriptive statistics of teachers’ responses on pk. table 2: descriptive statistics of teachers’ responses on pk (n = 132) m sd i can guide students’ discussions during group work (2-5 students) 4.38 0.648 i can support students’ critical thinking during teaching process 4.33 0.673 i can guide students in planning their own learning 4.17 0.786 i can support students’ reflective thinking during teaching process 4.15 0.726 i can guide students to make use of each other’s thoughts and ideas during group work (2-5 students) 4.16 0.75 i can support students’ problem-solving skills during teaching process 4.28 0.755 i can support students’ creative thinking during teaching process 4.23 0.64 overall tk (m = 4.23, sd = 3.50) pedagogical content knowledge pedagogical content knowledge is the knowledge that deals with the teaching process (shulman, 1986). in the majority of existing environment, little time is normally spent on building skills related to 21st-century skills such as capabilities in group interpretation, negotiation of shared meaning, and co 271 construction of problem resolutions (dede, 2009). therefore, teachers were investigated on their perceptions on pck in teaching content in 21st-ccentury skills environment. the findings indicated that teachers’ self-reported confidence on pck was high (m = 4.21, sd = 3.38) as shown in table 3. table 3: descriptive statistics of teachers’ responses on pck (n = 132) m sd i know how to guide students’ content-related problem solving in groups (2-5 students) in the subjects i teach, 4.28 0.734 i know how to guide students’ critical thinking in the subjects i teach, 4.23 0.616 i know how to guide students to make use of each other’s thoughts and ideas in group work (2-5 students) in the subjects i teach, 4.15 0.693 i know how to guide students’ reflective thinking in the subjects i teach, 4.2 0.639 i know how to guide students in planning their own learning in the subjects i teach, 4.2 0.746 i know how to guide students’ creative thinking in the subjects i teach, 4.2 0.659 overall tk (m = 4.21, sd = 3.38) technology knowledge teachers need to have ict skills and competences if they have to teach with ict in the classroom. although many teachers have been found to use computers more often (see figure 1), we were interested to elicit their self-reported levels of confidence in the use of computers and ict to enhance teaching and learning. the study found that teachers’ self-reported confidence in their knowledge in the use of ict in teaching and learning was moderate (m = 3.38, sd = 3.49) as shown in figure 4. table 4: descriptive statistics of teachers’ responses on tk (n = 132) m sd i can solve ict related problems when using them for teaching and learning 3.3 1.118 i am familiar with many new technologies and their features 3.3 1.018 i can use new technologies for teaching and learning 3.52 1.03 i know several websites and social media platforms about new technology 3.39 1.046 overall tk (m = 3.38, sd = 3.49) technological pedagogical knowledge teachers were also asked about their understanding of ict efficacy and how using ict may change the way they teach various subjects. therefore, teachers need to understand how ict and pedagogy 272 interact in order to be able to facilitate the development of 21st-century competencies in their students (voogt et al., 2013). the findings show that the overall teachers’ perceptions on tpk was moderate (m = 3.17, sd = 2.54). table 5 shows descriptive statistics of teachers’ responses on tpk. table 5: descriptive statistics of teachers’ responses on tpk (n = 132) m sd i know how to use ict in teaching as a tool for students’ reflective thinking 3.35 1.119 i know how to use ict in teaching as a tool for students to plan their own learning 3.26 1.116 i know how to use ict in teaching as a tool for sharing ideas and thinking together 3.36 1.093 i know how to use ict in teaching as a tool for students’ creative thinking 3.33 1.059 i know how to use ict in teaching as a tool for students’ problem solving in groups (2-5 students) 3.34 1.069 i know how to use ict in teaching as a tool for students’ critical thinking interaction 3.14 1.051 overall tpk (m = 3.33, sd = 6.18) technology content knowledge in the 21st-century era, tck stresses the idea of how ict can be used within different disciplines outside schools in working life and how professionals are taking advantage of ict in their work (valtonen, sointu, mäkitalo-siegl, & kukkonen, 2015). therefore, in order to facilitate students’ learning in 21st-century environment, teachers need to know not just the subject matter they teach but also the manner in which the subject matter can be changed by the application of technology (mishra & koehler, 2006). in this study, teachers’ self-reported confidence in their knowledge on tck was found to be moderate (m = 3.37; sd = 4.18). (see table 12) as shown in figure 6. table 6: descriptive statistics of teachers’ responses on tck (n = 132) m sd i know websites with online materials for studying the subjects i teach 3.61 1.097 i know ict-applications which are used by professionals in the subjects i teach 3.19 1.211 i know ict-applications which i can use to better understand the contents of the subjects i teach 3.36 1.167 i know technologies which i can use to illustrate difficult contents in the subjects i teach 3.33 1.207 overall tck (m = 3.37; sd = 4.18) 273 technological pedagogical content knowledge technological pedagogical content knowledge is the knowledge required by teachers for integrating technology into their teaching of content areas (schmidt et al., 2009). to effectively teach with technology, teachers need an understanding of interactions of content, pedagogy, and technology knowledge (koehler, mishra, & cain, 2013). therefore, the study investigated teachers’ self-reported confidence levels on tpack. the findings revealed that teachers’ self-reported confidence levels on tpack was moderate (m = 3.28, sd = 7.12). table 7 shows the descriptive statistics of the responses on tpack. table 7: descriptive statistics of teachers’ responses on tpack (n = 132) m sd i know how to use ict as a tool for sharing ideas and thinking together, in the subjects i teach 3.33 1.144 i know how to use ict as a tool for students’ reflective thinking, in the subjects i teach 3.34 1.151 i know how to use ict as a tool for students to plan their own learning, in the subjects i teach 3.32 1.168 i know how to use ict as a tool for students’ problem solving in groups (2-5 students), in the subjects i teach 3.3 1.152 i know how to use ict as a tool for students’ creative thinking 3.24 1.12 i know how to use ict as a tool in group work (2-5 students), in the subjects i teach 3.23 1.152 i know how to use ict in teaching as a tool for students’ critical thinking, in the subjects i teach 3.2 1.157 overall tpack (m = 3.28, sd = 7.12) overall results overall teachers’ self-reported confidence in their knowledge in all elements of the tpack domain was compared (see figure 4). interestingly, teachers’ self-reported confidence on their knowledge on ck, pk, and pck was high. nevertheless, the teachers’ self-reported confidence on tpack elements that were combined with technology was moderate (i.e., tk, tpk, tck, and tpack). 274 figure 4: descriptive statistics of teachers responses on the tpack domains (n = 132). classroom observation on teachers’ 21st-century competencies the study used observation to complement data collected via a self-administered questionnaire. once all sampled teachers completed the questionnaire, two teachers were randomly selected to proceed to teach one of the topics in the classroom while the research team was observing. the enumerators observed how teachers applied the core elements of 21st-century skills domains in the classroom environment. these key elements included critical thinking, communication, collaboration, creativity and innovation, and use of technology. using an observation rubric, tpack-21 evidence was assessed in observed instructions. the rubric instrument consisted of a four-point likert scale: 1 = beginning, 2 = developing, 3 = approaching and 4 = ideal/target. it should be noted that if mean scores of tests are between 1 and 2.33, the level of perception is considered as “low”. if mean scores of tests are between 2.34 and 3.67, the level of perception is considered as “moderate”. if mean scores of tests are between 3.68 and 5.00, the level of perception is considered as “high” (kabakci yurdakul et al., 2012). the study found that teachers had low levels of ict integration in the classroom of the 21st-century skills in the lessons observed. the mean score in all 21st-century elements in tpack domain are below 2.0. table 8 shows the scores on 21st-century skills from classroom observation. table 8: distribution of scores on 21st-century skills from lessons observed (n = 40) item m sd beginning (%) developing (%) approaching (%) ideal/ target (%) critical thinking 1.68 0.749 60.00 20.00 20.00 0.00 collaboration 1.79 0.713 20.00 80.00 0.00 0.00 communication 2 0.943 25.00 75.00 0.00 0.00 creativity & innovation 1.53 0.905 100.00 0.00 0.00 0.0 technology use as learning tool 1.63 0.895 100.00 0.00 0.00 0.0 4.11 4.23 4.21 3.38 3.33 3.37 3.28 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 ck pk pck tk tpk tck tpack 275 discussion this study aimed to investigate in-service teachers’ competence levels of 21st-century skills and how they apply those skills in classrooms. the study made use of tpack-21 instrument. the study found that more than two thirds of teachers use computers more often in their school environment. this means that the frequency of ict usage is an important indicator that the goals of installing ict facilities in schools will be realized (delone & mclean, 2003). nonetheless, simply saying that more usage will yield more benefits is insufficient (delone & mclean, 2003). teachers must observe pedagogical approaches in using ict facilities to teach in a 21st-century environment. therefore, despite teachers indicating that they are using various ict installed in their school environment, it was necessary to measure their perceived levels of confidence in applying ict into the classroom environment. the main finding from this study was that many teachers have moderate self-reported confidence to effectively integrate classrooms and 21st-century skills. this was evident from the fact that all tpack elements (i.e., tk, tpk, tck, and tpack) had a moderate mean score. this shows that despite teachers having access to computers and using them for various activities, their levels of knowledge on integrating them to facilitate learning in the 21st century is moderate. this was further evident from classroom observations where the mean score of all elements in tpack domain were below 2.0. one possible explanation for this finding could be the fact that many universities and teachers’ colleges treat ict as a discrete stand-alone subject (hennessy, harrison, & wamakote, 2010) with less focus on imparting competencies that allow teachers to pedagogically apply ict to enhance students learning while paying attention to 21st-century skills (hooker et al., 2011; niess, 2005). teaching ict skills alone does not adequately prepare teachers to integrate ict into the classroom (koehler & mishra, 2013). therefore, there is a need to develop professional teachers’ development programs in order to equip teachers with the competence and skills to enable them to use technology effectively to equip students with 21st-century skills. another unanticipated finding was that teachers’ self-reported confidence in ck, pk, and pck was found to be high. this findings contradicts previous studies such as those of mtebe, mbwilo, and kissaka (2016) who found that many in-service teachers had low content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge especially in science and mathematics. a possible explanation for this finding might be that there is a significant improvement in the quality of teachers’ programs in teachers’ colleges and universities. another possible explanation for this finding is the fact that more than half of surveyed teachers had teaching experience of more than five years. they had gained enough competence in content, having taught the same content for some years. it should be noted that the adopted tpack-21 proposed by valtonen et al. (2017) was developed for pre-service teachers. this study adopted the same instrument for in-service teachers. the main advantage of using the tpack-21 for in-service teachers is that the majority of teachers have good teaching experience and, therefore, they can easily understand and separate tpack elements compared to pre-service teachers. for instance, studies conducted by valtonen et al. (2017) and chai et al. (2011) found that pre-service teachers faced difficulties in separating out areas of tpack from each other because of their limited teaching and study experience at that point. therefore, this study 276 has demonstrated that tpack can be appropriately applied in understanding how in-service teachers apply technology in the classroom. suggestion for future research the current study investigated in-service teachers’ competence levels of 21st-century skills and how they apply them in the classroom environment through adapting tpack-21 instrument. however, the study was conducted in only 20 schools located in two regions in tanzania with a sample of 132 teachers. despite the findings obtained from this study, the major limitation is its small sample of teachers who participated in the study. the country has more than 40,000 secondary teachers while the findings from this study are based on 132 teachers from two out of 25 regions in tanzania. future studies could involve more teachers across several more regions in a bid to verify the current findings. another limitation could be the number of teachers who participated in the classroom observation. only two teachers from each school participated in classroom observation due to time and budgetary constraints. the small sample size did not allow the researchers to critically observe all teachers who participated in perceived self-reported confidence evaluation. notwithstanding these limitations, the study provides a good baseline study for understanding teachers’ competence and skills in integrating ict into classrooms to facilitate the teaching of 21st-century skills alongside content-specific subjects. conclusion in recent years 21st-century skills have attracted significant attention among researchers. the skills are thought to be necessary to work in the current knowledge economy. the recipients of current education are future employees who will support tanzania in achieving the intended goals of becoming a middle-income country by 2025. the need to equip the teachers with skills to better facilitate students’ learning in the 21st-century skills environment is paramount. while the government has continued to equip secondary schools with computers and other facilities, it is increasingly becoming clear that merely introducing technology into the classroom is not enough to ensure technology integration, since technology alone does not lead to change (koehler & mishra, 2005). based on the findings from this study, the following are recommended: there is an urgent need for the government and its partners to develop a comprehensive framework for professional development that will assist teachers to develop knowledge and skills about ict integration, considering the skills needed for students in the 21st century. the government and partners should put emphasis on equipping teachers with competencies and skills to be able to teach students in a 21st-century environment through various teachers’ professional development training. references ananiadou, k., & claro, m. (2009). 21st century skills and competences for new millennium learners in oecd countries. oecd education working papers, 41. https://doi.org/10.1787/218525261154 bezy, m. (2013). africa oye: raising the bar in africa’s higher education quality the impact on the ict industry and the danger for africa. retrieved june 16, 2018, from http://brel54.blogspot.com/2013/09/raising-bar-in-africashigher-education.html 277 chai, c. s., koh, l., & tsai, c. (2011). exploring the factor structure of the constructs of technological, pedagogical, content knowledge (tpack). the asia-pacific education researcher, 3(3), 595–603. retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10497/4790 cssc. (2014). the performance enhancement by e-learning for secondary schools. dede, c. (2009). comparing frameworks for 21st century skills. in j. brand & r. brandt (eds.), 21st century skills: rethinking how students learn (pp. 51–76). solution tree press. retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.475.3846 dede, c. (2010). technological supports for acquiring 21st century skills. in b. baker, mcgaw, & p. peterson (eds.), international encyclopedia of education (3rd ed., p. 23). oxford, uk: elsevier. retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.632.1213&rep=rep1&type=pdf delone, w. h., & mclean, e. r. (2003). the delone and mclean model of information systems success: a tentear update. management information systems, 19(4), 9–30. hennessy, s., harrison, d., & wamakote, l. (2010). teacher factors influencing classroom use of ict in subsaharan africa. itupale online journal of african studies, 2, 67–95. hooker, m., mwiyeria, e., & verma, a. (2011). teacher development for the 21st century (tdev21) pilot: ict competency framework for teachers in tanzania. retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/54cf/59f840568981303dc65526d5b5bb44587682.pdf kabakci yurdakul, i., odabasi, h. f., kilicer, k., coklar, a. n., birinci, g., & kurt, a. a. (2012). the development, validity and reliability of tpack-deep: a technological pedagogical content knowledge scale. computers and education, 58(3), 964–977. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2011.10.012 kafyulilo, a., fisser, p., pieters, j., & voogt, j. (2015). ict use in science and mathematics teacher education in tanzania: developing technological pedagogical content knowledge. australasian journal of educational technology, 31(4), 381–399. kafyulilo, a., fisser, p., & voogt, j. (2016). factors affecting teachers’ continuation of technology use in teaching. education and information technologies, 21(1535). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-015-9398-0 kay, k., & greenhill, v. (2011). bringing schools into the 21st century. in g. d. wan g. (ed.), bringing schools into the 21st century. explorations of educational purpose (pp. 41–65). springer, dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0268-4 kayombo, j., & mlyakado, p. (2016). the paradox of ict integration in secondary education in tanzania: assessment of teachers’ ict knowledge and skills in tanga and mwanza regions. international journal of research studies in educational technology, 5(1), 17–27. https://doi.org/10.5861/ijrset.2015.1299 kereluik, k., mishra, p., fahnoe, c., terry, l., & karr, j. a. (2013). what knowledge is of most worth: teacher knowledge for 21. journal of digital learning in teacher education, 29(4), 127. https://doi.org/10.1080/21532974.2013.10784716 koehler, m. j., & mishra, p. (2005). what happens when teachers design educational technology? the development of technological pedagogical content knowledge. journal of educational computing research, 32(2), 131–152. https://doi.org/10.2190/0ew7-01wb-bkhl-qdyv koehler, m. j., & mishra, p. (2013). what is technological pedagogical content knowledge (tpack)? contemporary issues in technology and teacher education, 9(1), 60–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2010.07.009 278 koehler, m. j., mishra, p., & cain, w. (2013). what is technological pedagogical content knowledge (tpack)? the journal of education, 193(3), 13–19. retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/24636917 mccowan, t. (2014). can higher education solve africa’s job crisis? understanding graduate employability in subsaharan africa. british council 2014. retrieved from https://www.britishcouncil.org/sites/default/files/graduate_employability_in_ssa_final-web.pdf mishra, p., & kereluik, k. (2011). what 21st century learning? a review and a synthesis. in m. koehler & p. mishra (eds.), site 2011—society for information technology & teacher education international conference (pp. 3301–3312). association for the advancement of computing in education (aace). retrieved from https://www.learntechlib.org/p/36828/ mishra, p., & koehler, m. j. (2006). technological pedagogical content knowledge: a framework for teacher knowledge. the teachers college record, 108(6), 1017–1054. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9620.2006.00684.x moest. (2017). feasibility study exploring e-learning initiatives at secondary schools in tanzania mainland. dodoma, tanzania. mtebe, j. s., & kissaka, m. m. (2015). heuristics for evaluating usability of learning management systems in africa. in p. cunningham & m. cunningham (eds.), ist-africa 2015 conference proceedings (pp. 1–13). malawi: lilongwe. mtebe, j. s., mbwilo, b., & kissaka, m. m. (2016). factors influencing teachers’ use of multimedia enhanced content in secondary schools in tanzania. international review of research in open and distributed learning, 17(2), 65–84. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v17i2.2280 mwakisole, k. f., kissaka, m. m., & mtebe, j. s. (2018). feasibility of cloud computing implementation for elearning in secondary schools in tanzania. international journal of education and development using information and communication technology (ijedict), 14(1), 91–102. retrieved from http://ijedict.dec.uwi.edu/viewarticle.php?id=2396 mwalongo, a. (2011). teachers’ perceptions about ict for teaching, professional development, administration and personal use. international journal of education and development using information and communication technology, 7(3), 36–49. ndalichako, j. l. (2017). the role of education for industrial development in tanzania. niess, m. l. (2005). preparing teachers to teach science and mathematics with technology: developing a technology pedagogical content knowledge. teaching and teacher education, 21(5), 509–523. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2005.03.006 saavendra, a. r., & opfer, v. d. (2012). learning 21st century-skills requires 21st century teaching. phi delta kappa, 94(1), 41–44. https://doi.org/10.2307/41763587 sabarwal, s. (2013). tanzania skills for competitiveness in the small and medium enterprise sector. retrieved from https://www.openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/20127 sawahel, w. (2011). africa: serious mismatch between skills and needs. retrieved may 26, 2014, from http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20110520184126297 schmidt, d. a., baran, e., thompson, a. d., mishra, p., koehler, m. j., & shin, t. s. (2009). technological pedagogical content knowledge (tpack). journal of research on technology in education, 42(2), 123–149. https://doi.org/10.1080/15391523.2009.10782544 shulman, l. s. (1986). knowledge and teaching: foundations of the new reform. harvard education review, 57(1), 1–21. 279 sumra, s., & katabaro, j. (2016). education foundations of the development of skills and productive capabilities. retrieved from http://www.thdr.or.tz/docs/thdr2017bp-10.pdf%5cnhttp://esrf.or.tz/docs/thdr2017bp10.pdf unesco. (2015). ict competency standards for teachers in tanzania. dar es salaam, tanzania. https://doi.org/10.1177/1527154411404243 unido. (2012). tanzania industrial competitiveness report 2012. united nations industrial development organization (unido. retrieved from https://www.unido.org/sites/default/files/201308/tanzaniaindustrialcompetitivenessreport2012-ebook_0.pdf urt. (2014). education and training policy. dar es salaam, tanzania. valtonen, t., sointu, e., kukkonen, j., kontkanen, s., lambert, m. c., & mäkitalo-siegl, k. (2017). tpack updated to measure pre-service teachers’ twenty-first century skills. australasian journal of educational technology, 33(3), 15–31. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.14742/ajet.3518 valtonen, t., sointu, e. t., mäkitalo-siegl, k., & kukkonen, j. (2015). developing a tpack measurement instrument for 21st century pre-service teachers. international journal of media, technology and lifelong learning, 11(2). retrieved from https://journals.hioa.no/index.php/seminar/article/view/2353/2183 voogt, j., erstad, o., dede, c., & mishra, p. (2013). challenges to learning and schooling in the digital networked world of the 21st century. journal of computer assisted learning, 29(5), 403–413. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcal.12029 authors joel s. mtebe is is a senior lecturer in computer science at the department of computer science and engineering of the university of dar es salaam. dr mtebe has supervised and examined a number of masters, and phd students. and currently coordinates an elearning research group with more than 20 master’s students and 8 phd students, conducting various aspects of computer science and elearning research. he has published more than 25 scientific articles in international journals and has presented at several national and international conferences. email: jmtebe@gmail.com christina raphael is a lecturer in the department of educational foundations, management and life long learning at the dar es salaam university college of education (duce), a constituent college of the university of dar es salaam. she is also a coordinator of chang’ombe pre, primary and secondary demonstration school. currently, dr. raphael is involved in various country wise training and consultancy activities. she is also interested in educational policy making and analysis issues. email: christin.raphael@gmail.com cite this paper as: mtebe, j. s., & raphael, c. (2018). eliciting in-service teachers’ technological pedagogical content knowledge for 21st-century skills in tanzania. journal of learning for development, 5(3), 263-279. microsoft word kuboni.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 260-274 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. leaders in distance education in the english-speaking caribbean olabisi kuboni independent consultant, trinidad and tobago introduction in examining the provision of distance education in the english-speaking (commonwealth) caribbean, it must be acknowledged that, historically, the main providers have been external institutions: the university of london international programmes and the city and guilds of london institute are two institutions that have performed that function dating back to the early 20th century. in more contemporary times, newer institutions have not only replicated that conventional model but have introduced different modalities for teaching from a distance. for example there are franchising arrangements with locally-based organisations as well as offshore schools (marshall, et al, 2008). notwithstanding the continued presence of these external interests, there is an internally driven operation that has been evolving over the last seven decades that warrants attention. it is in this regard, that distance education in the university of the west indies (uwi), and its predecessor, the university college of the west indies (ucwi), needs to be acknowledged. more specifically, this paper will examine the activities of key individuals who have emerged as leaders in this area of educational provision within the institution. outreach through extra-mural activity in 1947, the ucwi was established in jamaica as an affiliate of the university of london, with a single residential campus on that island. however, as its name implied, it was intended to serve the people of all the west indian islands that were colonies of england. in that regard, it would function not only as a campus-based residential higher education institution but also as the base for reaching out to adults not attending the institution. this outreach function would be carried out through the college’s department of extra-mural studies which was modelled on similar operations emerging out of higher education institutions in england. like its antecedents, its role was to offer adult education to the wider population. the activities of an extra-mural department cannot really be considered as distance education. the separation of the teaching function from the learners to whom it is directed does not apply here. nonetheless, its activities are included in this discussion for two reasons. first, while the teaching does not originate from the centre, there is a connection between the core institution and satellite units (university centres) set up to carry out that teaching function in the different islands across the caribbean. the head of the centre, known as the resident tutor, was responsible for the planning and implementation of the teaching programme locally. secondly, this outreach operation would ultimately provide the foundation for the building of the more standard distance education operations in the ensuing years. it is therefore appropriate to start at this point. 261 setting the boundaries there are two distinct features about the provision of distance education in the english-speaking caribbean. first, it is confined to a single institution.i secondly, its target population resides in a specific geo-political space, with special emphasis on the population residing in the countries without campuses, otherwise referred to as the non-campus countries (nccs). consequently, for the individuals who emerge as leaders in this context, their role is circumscribed by this reality; the activities that they engage in are either defined by the policy directives set out by the institution or are intended to shape those directives. this paper therefore examines the contributions of individuals from the mid-twentieth century to the present, functioning in the various structures set up within the university of the west indies to make educational opportunities available to adults residing in the chain of islands and mainland territory that constitute the english-speaking caribbean.ii those structures are: • the extra-mural department (later known as the school of continuing studies) • the university of the west indies distance teaching enterprise (uwidite) • the university of the west indies distance education centre (uwidec) • the university of the west indies open campus (uwioc) the paper will also look at the work of individuals belonging to the institute of distance and continuing education (idce) of the university of guyana (ug). the extra-mural department/school of continuing studies the setting up of the extra-mural department (emd) coincided with the launch of the university college itself. this department would satisfy three goals. first, it would introduce the element of adult education as an important dimension of the work of the college, following on the british higher education tradition. secondly, it would pay special attention to its role as a regional organisation. according to fergus, bernard and soares (2007), it was “the unit dedicated to bringing the university college to its scattered constituents who could not come to it.” in that regard, this unit would “provide adult education in a systematic way to all classes and conditions of persons across the region” (pp. 1-2). thirdly, it would serve as a vehicle for ‘nation-building’, that is the building of the west indian nation. sir phillip sherlock, its first director, is credited with infusing this spirit of ‘west indianness’ into its work. he is recorded as saying that, in an emergent nation, one of the important tasks of adult education was to sustain the spirit of patriotism (gordon, 1979/80, p. 55). we examine the contributions of the last two of the department’s directors. directors emeritus vice chancellor professor the honourable rex nettleford (1967 – 1996) and emeritus professor lawrence carrington (1996 – 2007) were the last two directors. along with sir phillip sherlock (1947 – 1958), they were the longest serving of the nine. emeritus vice chancellor professor the hon. rex nettleford prior to taking up the position of director, rex nettleford was resident tutor in two countries beginning in 1956 (soares, 2011). he therefore had a long association with the department. his main 262 contribution during that extended period was in the public articulation of his strongly held views about the role and function of the department both within the university and in the wider community. three are presented here: nation-building; the tyranny of distance; and the role of resident tutors. he would constantly reinforce the position established by the earlier pioneers about the commitment of the department to nation building. indeed, in the face of the collapse of the west indian federation in 1962, nettleford’s position was that “the task is still to educate for nationhood” (nettleford, cited in gordon, 1979/80, p. 52). another issue that constantly occupied his mind was what he referred to as “the tyranny of distance”. he was very conscious that the department was spread across several islands. the task at hand therefore was to identify the most effective tools (or weapons) to confront this challenge. referring to the university as a whole, he laid out the task in this way: the vision of the university as an instrument of growth and an institution of development is itself a challenge to the tyranny of distance; and the urgent search over the past two decades to find appropriate weapons of struggle and modalities of action to defeat the tyranny of distance … is partly what has been driving the university to relevance and greater usefulness … (nettleford, cited in jayawardena, 2002, p. 5). in a retrospective piece, built on the theme engaging the tyranny of distance, he hailed the name change from extra-mural department to the school of continuing studies (scs) as a ‘significant milestone’ in part because, “it broke down the ‘wall’ between internal and external programmes and staff of the university” (nettleford in fergus et al., 2007, pp. 248-49). in more specific terms, he highlighted the capacity of the department/school to generate weapons to defeat the tyranny of distance in four areas of outreach. these four, which he referred to as ‘pillars of action’, were: • the social welfare training centre, (swtc) • the radio education unit • the trade union education institute • the creative arts centre all four spawned other initiatives that, in many instances, extended beyond the territorial borders of their origin into other parts of the region and at times even further afield. as far as nettleford was concerned, these outreach units served as effective weapons in the fight against the tyranny of distance (nettleford in fergus et al., 2007, pp. 248-49). a third area was his unwavering defence of the significance of the work that resident tutors (rts) and other staff did. to many of them his public articulation of their worth was important, given the perception that they were not on par with staff within the campus walls. he referred to the rts as “‘intellectual guerillas’ engaged not in pitched battles on manicured fields of combat but in reconnoitring the untamed terrain of a rugged and underdeveloped landscape” (nettleford, cited in soares, 2011, p. 83). the veiled contempt for the on-campus academic in those remarks would not have gone unnoticed by his own staff. 263 emeritus professor lawrence carrington when professor carrington became director, the emd had already been renamed the school of continuing studies (scs). almost immediately after assuming office, he initiated a plan to expand and heighten the impact of the school’s outreach thrust within the non-campus countries (nccs), as a means, no doubt, to redress the imbalance between them and the campus countries. the overall aim of the plan was to broaden the scope of public education within each of these countries to the benefit of their respective citizens who were not able to access education within the walls of the university. in this regard, in 1999-2000, the school launched two programmes – the country conference series and the scholars and artists project. the stated objectives of the conference series were, inter alia, to increase research on matters of relevance to non-campus countries; and enhance the quality of public discourse on matters relevant to local development. the series sought to attract presenters not only from the host country but from the wider uwi community as well as from other institutions. the theme for each conference generally mirrored issues and concerns relevant to the host country. over time, the responsibility for hosting the conferences was gradually taken over by the in-country staff. (school of continuing studies handbook, 2002-2003). the sir phillip sherlock programme for scholars and artists in residence in non-campus countries, named in honour of the first director, was set up to afford residents of the nccs the opportunity of interacting with prominent scholars and artists from throughout the region. some of the goals of the programme were to, • provide residents, students, artists and scholars in non-campus countries with access to mentors, counterparts and possible collaborators who would not otherwise be readily available to them. • stimulate intellectual, creative and artistic activity in non-campus countries. these caribbean professionals, with expertise in fields such as carnival development, dance, writing, story-telling, art, poetry, textiles and fabric art, and ethnic studies, spent short periods with selected groups in the host country. (school of continuing studies handbook, 2002-2003) this intervention from the level of the director was significant in that, even as it sought to enhance the scope and quality of public education within the respective countries, it was able to achieve this objective without significantly alienating the in-country leadership. rather, it would appear that the resident tutors embraced and adopted the new initiatives. a few years into his tenure as director, professor carrington also assumed the role of pro vice chancellor and chair of the board for non-campus countries and distance education (bnccde). we will discuss the role of this board later. university of the west indies distance teaching enterprise (uwidite)iii when uwidite came on stream, the final ‘e’ in the acronym represented ‘experiment’ as its creators, with the support of external funding bodies, spent time assessing its feasibility as a distance education vehicle for the university. when the experiment was deemed successful, there was a change to ‘enterprise’. 264 uwidite represented a significant shift in the implementation of the university’s outreach programme. while the existing extra-mural/scs model used local resources to “bring the university to the people”, the uwidite approach was based on the principle that the expertise of qualified professionals should be made available to the entire caribbean community. this shift in thinking was influenced in no small measure by the emergence of audioconferencing technology that allowed the knowledge of a single subject matter specialist to be made available to a wide audience across the region. in addition, the interactive capability of the technology was an added feature that could enhance the quality of the teaching-learning exchange. uwidite, which originated from the mona, jamaica campus, was able to draw on the resources of the two other campuses as well as extra-mural/scs centres in the nccs for ground level support. in the case of the latter, the resident tutor and the centre staff played an important intermediary role between the mona-based coordinators and the students/clients in the respective countries. the uwidite project was formally launched in 1982. overall leadership for its implementation lay primarily in the hands of a project director and two project officers, based at mona. the project director – pro vice chancellor professor gerald c. lalor pro vice chancellor lalor was the primary driving force behind the decision to install an audioconferencing system to facilitate distance teaching in the university. in 1978, he spearheaded a two-month preliminary investigation to determine whether a telecommunications system could be of any benefit to the regional institution. on the basis of that initial undertaking, he sought, and was able to obtain, funding from the united states agency for international development (usaid) to conduct a more thorough study to assess the usefulness of a university telecommunications network for education, outreach and public service. that study, the caribbean regional communications study (carcost), entailed members of staff of the university observing other distance teaching projects and conducting small scale studies to identify the caribbean issues that could best benefit from the deployment of the technology. pvc lalor sought and received the support of regional governments, in particular, ministries of agriculture, education and health, as well as regional professional bodies. he recognised the importance of not restricting the use of the technology to conventional university offerings but to expand its use to incorporate professional development and public education programmes, drawing on expertise outside of the walls of the university. the overall conclusion of the carcost report was that, given the nature of the problems confronting the region, one could not rely on ‘conventional methods’ to address them. against that background, the report suggested that “the appropriate use of telecommunications, coupled with the willingness of the countries to share, so that needs could be aggregated and met in a more economical manner, might be the way forward”. in may 1982, after much deliberation within the university and with usaid, the decision was taken to adopt the recommendations of the carcost report and put the project on a firmer footing within the university, hence, the change from ‘experiment’ to ‘enterprise’. an agreement was signed with usaid for a grant to cover salaries and the cost of some equipment for a three-year period. pvc 265 lalor was also able to negotiate funding from the european development fund, the commonwealth foundation, as well as the governments of st. lucia and dominica. some are of the view that uwidite coming on stream was due in no small measure to the vision of pvc lalor and his commitment to overcoming hurdles at every juncture. the project officers – ms. (now dr.) christine marrett and ms. vilma mc clenan the task of actually implementing the project was the responsibility of the two project officers, dr. christine marrett and ms. vilma mc clenan. the multi-dimensional nature of this undertaking should not be understated. audio-conferencing was an innovation both in terms of its hardware and software and also in terms of the nature of the interpersonal exchange that it supported. for persons used to the didactic exchanges in the conventional classroom setting, this would have been a novel experience. dr. marrett and ms. mc clenan were therefore change agents seeking to alter the attitudes and behaviours of the new users of the technology. this group comprised administrative/technical support staff at the local centres, subject matter specialists and students. the project officers also had to interact with the telecommunications providers in the respective countries. as noted earlier, the uwidite project facilitated programmes that originated both internally and externally to the university. with regard to the former, it assumed responsibility for the challenge examination scheme. this scheme was started in 1978 by the faculty of social sciences to provide a route for residents of the nccs to pursue the first part of a degree programme without having to relocate to a campus country. the faculty provided these individuals with a syllabus, booklists and access to libraries at the extra-mural centre in their country but no tuition. basically these individuals were ‘challenged’ to study on their own and sit the relevant examinations without direct support from the university. under the leadership of the project officers, uwidite enhanced the initiative by including a teaching component via audioconferencing. the unit had now assumed the responsibility for retaining and supporting teaching staff from the three campuses and managing the conduct of examinations across all ncc centres. in addition to the courses in the challenge programme, other uwidite offerings were the first year of the bachelor of law degree as well as the certificate in public administration and the certificate in education. managing the delivery of these courses also entailed persuading the teaching staff to adjust their teaching styles to take advantage of the interactive features of the technology. even more challenging were their efforts to convince the staff of the need to develop supplementary print materials for their students. notwithstanding some resistance, dr. marrett and ms. mc clenan were able to negotiate terms and conditions with the lecturers to get them to agree to undertake this additional activity. uwidite also mounted professional development programmes for specific special interest groups. for example, at the request of the commonwealth association of science, mathematics and technology educators (castme), the unit mounted a programme to train science technicians. the programme, which had the support of the commonwealth foundation, was developed and coordinated by ms. mc clenan. 266 no doubt as a result of her work in the university, ms. mc clenan served as president of the jamaican association of open and distance learning (jadol) during the period 2005-2008. it was under her presidency that jadol was co-organiser, with uwidec, of the fourth pan commonwealth forum (pcf4) held in jamaica in 2006. she is also a founding member of the caribbean association of distance and open learning (caradol). university of the west indies distance education centre (uwidec) notwithstanding the strides made with uwidite, it was clear that the uwi was still a long way from meeting the needs of prospective students unable to enrol in one of the three physical campuses. consequently, as outlined in its 1997-2002 strategic plan, the university set about to “enlarge, and put on a systematic basis, its programmes of distance education, in order to widen the catchment area for students …” (p. 3). to this end, the plan stated that both the print and electronic media would be used for instruction as a means of increasing student enrolment in the distance mode. the plan further emphasized that the academic content of the programmes to be delivered “will be under the firm control of the faculties so that there will be no deviation from the high academic standards” of the uwi. (pp. 21-22). the position taken by the university in its 1997 2002 strategic plan was no doubt influenced by the recommendation of the team appointed by the commonwealth of learning (col) some five years earlier to examine the possibilities of introducing distance education into the uwi. that team recommended that the university should transform itself from a single to a dual-mode institution, offering its programmes to both on-campus and distance students. in coming to a decision about how the dual-mode institution should be organised, renwick, shale and rao (1992) had given some thought to the establishment of a campus-based open college “whose teaching responsibilities would be directed solely to the university’s distance students”. they did not follow through on that idea and concluded that “the right policy for uwi as a dual mode university will be to conceive, organise and manage its policies for distance education so that they are a regular part of the work of each teaching faculty assisted by a centre for distance education, by the university centres in the noncampus countries, and by part-time tutors of off-campus students.” (p. 35) it is against this background that uwidec was set up in 1997. the contributions of its three directors are highlighted here: dr. claudia harvey (1996-1997), professor badri n. koul (1998-2003) and professor stewart marshall (2004-2007). also highlighted is the overarching role of the board of noncampus countries and distance education (bnccde) to which uwidec, along with two other outreach units had a direct reporting relationship. dr. claudia harvey dr. harvey assumed office as director of uwidec in 1996, one year ahead of its launch date. since the university was transitioning into a dual mode institution, dr harvey was acutely aware that uwidec could only carry out its core functions in conjunction with other agencies and individuals within the wider institution. a large part of her role therefore entailed managing (and even massaging) the relationships between uwidec and other stakeholders both internally and external to the institution. 267 in some instances that task involved facilitating a working relationship, to ensure that intended outcomes were achieved. in other cases, it was to build understanding and goodwill among managers to ensure that they facilitated and did not hinder academic staff participation in distance education related activity. in yet other cases, it was to ensure that senior management was kept abreast of the centre’s operations, and that it was aware of how existing policy directives were being implemented. in cases where there was no policy, or where it was weak, she would need to approach management for advice on how to proceed in a given situation. a key set of stakeholders that as director she had to persuade to participate were members of academic staff and, in particular, those required to serve as course developers. these lecturers were required to work with curriculum development specialists of uwidec to develop materials for the respective courses. she had to overcome their scepticism about this different approach to teaching and learning and their fears that the process of materials development ‘mechanizes knowledge’, that distance education itself does not allow for the “contestation of ideas and the engagement with different world views”. reflecting on those concerns, harvey and her co-author wrote: firstly, the inevitable expansion in student numbers had already diluted the unique studentacademic staff relationship … secondly, international trends in tertiary education illustrate that frequently ‘packaging’, by paying closer attention to student needs and other curricular issues, results in an improved way of imparting knowledge. … thirdly, the process of joint course planning and peer review of curriculum materials presents the opportunity to assure quality in the determination and maintenance of standards. (harvey & williams, 1996, p. 23) dr. harvey’s approach to engaging with management is also to be noted. aware of how management’s actions or non-actions could impact day-to-day operations, she ensured that all matters requiring attention were clearly articulated, that the history of action already taken on these matters was spelt out and that the ‘next-steps’ to be undertaken and by whom were specified. this approach was very evident in the way she dealt with what she referred to as the five critical issues for early resolution. these were payment to faculty (academic staff) for work done in distance education; copyright for distance education materials; financing distance education; student fees; and videoconferencing. as she herself pointed out, “determining policy at the uwi is at best a complex matter requiring decisions from various bodies. the final decision maker is not always clear…”. (final report, july 1997). dr. harvey’s concern for building bridges did not only apply to relationships between uwidec and partners in the wider institution. within the newly formed organisation itself, there was what she referred to as the ‘old pioneers’ and the ‘new pioneers’, the former transitioning from uwidite and the latter recent appointees, in particular curriculum development specialists. in the quest for internal cohesiveness, she mounted “a series of strategic planning and team building exercises, intended to have both groups forge the same mission …” (harvey & williams, 1996, p. 22). professor badri n. koul professor koul inherited all the issues that were evident during dr. harvey’s tenure. the adjustments needed to accommodate the newly introduced distance programme within the longstanding face-to-face modalities of the three fairly autonomous physical campuses were still not 268 done. for example, no adjustments were made by the three campuses in their registration procedures to accommodate the registration of distance students. there was no clear effort to address the reluctance of academic staff to assume the added responsibility for the development and delivery of distance courses. later he was to describe the uwidec operations as ‘crisis management’. not convinced that the university administration was going to address any of the matters affecting the management of uwidec, he laid out his ideas on the way forward in two papers, the first the new management of distance education centre/operations (may, 2001) and the second, the new management for uwidec: governance, budget and implementation schedule (june, 2002). some of the proposals were: • the establishment of a separate registry for handling admissions, registration and examinations issues for the university’s distance students • the creation of a board of studies (later renamed academic programmes committee) through which matters related to the development and delivery of distance programmes could be addressed. • the appointment of a programme coordinator for each distance programme. in addition to these higher level proposals, prof. koul also made interventions aimed at improving the day-to-day operations of the various uwidec subunits. during his tenure, a large portion of the courses for the programmes on offer were developed. many of his interventions were therefore directed to the development/delivery aspect of uwidec’s work. for example, he introduced the practice of randomly surveying courses at the end of delivery, assigning that task to the research officer. increased focus was also placed on the review of course materials by other content specialists in a given discipline. one important aspect of his contribution in the development/delivery area were the guidelines provided to transition thinking away from the notion of contact hours linked to a three-credit course, as understood in the face-to-face context, to study time for a distance context. thus, completion of a three-credit undergraduate distance course required 100 study hours over a semester, divided among time spent studying the course materials inclusive of doing self-assessment exercises, tutorial time and teleconferencing. main assignments and examinations were not included. in 2004, prof. koul was conferred the title of honorary fellow of col in recognition of his contribution to open and distance learning. professor stewart marshall professor stewart marshall was appointed the third uwidec director in 2004. he assumed office at a time when the university’s senior management was becoming more vocal in its dissatisfaction with uwidec’s performance in the first five years of its existence. in the 2002-2007 strategic plan, distance education was identified as one of the “several discernible weaknesses that, if left unheeded, would seriously impair competitiveness and effectiveness”. specifically, the plan noted that the university’s distance education programmes “are not efficient and competitive” (p. 20). consequently, one of the nine strategic objectives to be attained was the “restructuring of distance education and deepening the impact of outreach programmes in the nccs” (p. 24). three of the specific initiatives emerging from that objective were to: 269 • ensure that the university’s distance education programmes are responsive, learner-centred and cost-effective. • implement a shift to asynchronous delivery of distance education programmes. • adopt web-based delivery of programmes as the preferred mode of delivery of these programmes. (p. 31) professor marshall came in with a mandate to effect major changes in order to improve the standard of uwidec’s offerings. in a background paper laying out his approach to the task, he asserted that the use of information and communication technologies (icts) offered the university the best possible route for attaining long-term sustainability in its distance education undertaking. (marshall, n.d.). against that background, in 2004, he launched uwidec’s blended learning/asynchronous delivery project, assuming the role of project director and appointing a project coordinator to manage its implementation. the overall goal was to introduce a delivery mode that was both scaleable and flexible, capable of accommodating groups ranging from 40 to 400. it would also allow students to study anytime and anywhere, employing any mixture of modes. according to professor marshall, one important advantage of the new approach was that it would significantly reduce the reliance on face-to-face tutorials and audio-conferencing. moodle was adopted as the learning management system and the project would be based on a standard model of online teaching. it would make significant use of the icts, thereby shifting the teaching-learning transaction into the online space. (uwidec-apc, p. 4, october, 2004). it should be noted however that preceding this major initiative, there was a smaller pilot project to introduce web-based technologies into the uwidec delivery mix (kuboni, thurab-nkhosi & chen, 2002) and in fact the blended learning/asynchronous project built on this earlier effort. the new project was designed to meet some clear objectives, including to: • provide a structure to support student and tutor behaviour in the online environment. • bring greater clarity to the roles and responsibilities of the key stakeholders in course delivery. • ensure that students acquire all necessary skills to function as online learners. (uwidecapc, p. 11, may, 2006). professor marshall successfully bid for the uwi to host the fourth pan commonwealth forum (pcf4) which was held in ocho rios, jamaica in 2006. he served as co-chair of the forum along with sir john daniel of col. during his tenure, he launched the international journal of education and development using information and communication technology (ijedict) and continues to be its chief editor. finally, while serving as director, he held the unesco chair in educational technology at the uwi. the board of non-campus countries and distance education (bnccde) earlier, we mentioned that prof. carrington assumed the chairmanship of the bnccde while also serving as director of the scs. as we examine the more recent contributions of key individuals in the development of distance education in uwi, the role and function of the bnccde need to be 270 highlighted. the bnccde was the vehicle responsible for monitoring the university’s outreach work and specifically, managing the operations of the three outreach units, namely uwidec, the scs and the tertiary level institutions unit (tliu). consequently, under the chairmanship of prof. carrington, it would play a lead role in the discussion and debate surrounding the proposed changes to uwidec operations, as outlined in the 2002-2007 strategic plan. eventually these discussions would lead to the creation of a new vehicle for advancing the open and online agenda of the uwi, namely the open campus. prof. carrington therefore played a pivotal role in the setting up of the open campus. the uwi open campus the open campus started operations in 2008, subsuming the three outreach units mentioned above.iv it became the fourth campus of the uwi. when it came on stream, the bnccde was dissolved. three possible factors could be said to have influenced the decision to create the new vehicle. in terms of the scs, over the years there had been considerable discontent among staff members regarding the status of the department within the university and the perceived neglect of the nccs. (fergus et al., 2007). in fact, as far back as 1976, one resident tutor, in his presentation at an international conference, called for “an additional campus or cross-campus faculty – an open campus or open faculty” to “serve the non-campus territories as well as off-campus areas in the campus territories”. (ramesar, 1976, p. 20). secondly, there was the continued dissatisfaction with the performance of uwidec, in particular at the senior management level. as noted earlier, this dissatisfaction was clearly evident in the 20022007 strategic plan. at the same time, some held the view that the problems with uwidec’s performance emanated from the conflicting proposals for the governance of the university, as contained in the 1994 report of the chancellor’s commission on governance. even as the report recommended the setting up of a single distance education centre to implement the development and delivery of the university’s distance programmes, it was making the case for the devolution of power from the university centre to the individual campuses. (harvey and williams, 1996, p. 27). an unpublished bnccde document describes the new structure in part as follows: the open campus will have a physical presence in each contributing country … the campus will function as a network of real and virtual nodes to deliver education and training to anyone with access to internet facilities. … the open campus will be headed by a principal at the level of pro-vice chancellor and governed by a campus council in keeping with the statutes and ordinances of the uwi, adjusted to accommodate its virtual component. … students of the open campus will enjoy the same quality of instruction and receive the same qualifications as students in other parts of the university even though the nature of instructional practice might entail differences in the management of their scholarly experience. (bnccde – work in progress, may, 2007) emerita professor hazel simmons-mcdonald professor hazel simmons-mcdonald was the first principal of the open campus. in addition to putting in place the systems required of a uwi campus, professor simmons-mcdonald had to face 271 the challenge of merging the three outreach units into a single organisational entity. in the case of the scs, what was being brought into the merger was not only the university centres in the respective countries but also a set of specialised units, covering such areas as child development, social welfare, trade unionism and women’s issues. following are two key areas of activity undertaken during her tenure. accreditation given the distributed nature of the campus, spread across 17 countries, the experience of seeking institutional accreditation was going to be different from that of the three physical campuses, each located in a single country. in the absence of a single accreditation body for the region, campus leadership had to get support for a mechanism to facilitate the process in light of the unique character of the open campus. in this regard, the principal and her management team were able to get agreement for an arrangement whereby the campus would seek accreditation through the barbados accreditation council only, with other bodies accepting the decision of the barbados agency. following the accreditation exercise, in july 2013, the bac awarded the open campus institutional accreditation for a period of six years.v one year later, it received the certificate of mutual recognition from the accreditation council of trinidad and tobago (actt). financing when the open campus was set up there was the general expectation that, unlike the other three, it would be self-financing. in the campus’ 2012-2013 annual report, the principal made the following sobering remarks: the open campus would need an injection of funds over and above income generated from fees to achieve expected expansion and redevelopment objectives in all areas. (p. 6). in light of this situation, a significant portion of professor simmons-mcdonald’s tenure as principal was taken up in seeking funding from various agencies both regionally and internationally. some of the successful efforts included a 2011 grant from the jamaican agency, united services fund to upgrade the technological infrastructure of all local sites in that country. she was also able to obtain a soft loan from the caribbean development bank for the upgrade of sites in st. lucia and st. vincent and the grenadines. the most significant of these efforts was the grant of 20 million dollars (canadian) by the department of foreign trade and development (dftad) for a project to strengthen distance education in the caribbean (sdec). (uwi open campus annual report, 20122013). professor simmons-mcdonald represented the open campus on the international council for distance education (icde) and was a member of the standing conference of presidents. in 2014, she received an award for outstanding contribution to education from the global distance learning congress. pioneers of the university of guyana institute of distance and continuing education (idce) british guiana, being a part of the british west indies, was one of the participating countries of the ucwi and its successor the uwi. however, in 1962, its government withdrew the mainland country as one of the supporting countries of the regional institution and set up the university of guyana 272 (ug) in 1963. in 1976, ug set up an extra-mural department within its faculty of education, with mr. samuel small being appointed coordinator. grounded in the principles of adult education the emd, under mr. small, set itself the goal of developing outreach programmes that were responsive to the stated needs of the population groupings it set out to serve. it therefore surveyed various interest groups and on the basis of the data gathered, developed the programmes to be offered. in 1981, the emd set about to establish centres throughout the country. the first to be set up in that year was the new amsterdam extra mural centre. later there would be a second in linden and another in anna regina. eventually, there would be a physical presence of the department in all ten regions of the country. in a newspaper interview several years later, mr. small would note that one of his greatest achievements was to take university education into the communities to persons who could not travel to attend the institution at the turkeyen campus. (eleazar, 2011). what this meant was that educational opportunities were now available to the population of remote sections of the country, in the riverine areas and the hinterland. in 1983, the emd was expanded and renamed the institute of adult and continuing education (iace). mr. small became the director, and ms. lynette anderson deputy director. after further expansion and upgrade, the iace became the institute of distance and adult education (idce) in 1996. this further expansion also established the idce as the distance education arm of the university and the university itself as “a dual-mixed mode institution”.vi idce was expected to work in collaboration with the faculties, as well as government and non-government agencies.vii the institute’s major thrust into distance education occurred in 1992 when it launched its preuniversity english course, first in region 10 and in three other regions over the ensuing year (mangar, 2009). the delivery mode combined self-instructional print materials with face-to-face tutorials. over time, teleconferencing and audio cassettes were added to the mix. anderson and two colleagues, in their assessment of the overall initiative, were open about the challenges that it entailed. two are noted here. first, they noted that efforts to introduce other media, like teleconferencing, were hampered by “a poor or non-existent communication infrastructure, including an unreliable electricity supply in remote areas”. there was also an absence of telephone links and a shortage of qualified personnel to produce audio cassettes. a second major challenge was that of implementing an efficient learner support system in remote and not easily accessible areas of the country. they describe the scenario as follows: learners are scattered over vast forested areas, some accessible only by aircraft, where few qualified tutors may reside. sharing of expertise is difficult even in cases in which only a few miles may have to be covered (anderson, marcus & thomas, 2000). the fact that iace and subsequently the idce were able to implement a distance programme under those conditions speaks to a large extent to the quality of the leadership provided by the director and deputy director during that period. also of interest is the way the organisation is still able to maintain focus on the two principles underpinning its approach to programming from its inception. while the range of programmes offered has widened, two types have persisted: the idce still offers remedial courses (basic english 273 and basic mathematics) as well as courses geared towards meeting the stated needs of specific population groupings, a key goal of the emd under mr. small. current programmes in this category that are still offered are the certificate course in workplace health and safety, industrial hygiene and care for the elderly.viii it is to be noted that the idce continues to function as an arm of a dual-mode institution, working with staff of other sectors of the university. in closing …. in outlining the contributions of these leaders, there was no intention to critique or to ascribe notions of success and/or failure to any of the activities or proposals described. rather, the aim was to highlight the efforts of these individuals in advancing distance education in the english-speaking caribbean. references commonwealth of learning. (2000). distance education through policy development – case study: guyana – university of guyana, institute of distance and continuing education. prepared by lynette anderson, fitzroy marcus and elaine thomas. eleazar, g. (2011, january 1). educating educators for decades … samuel small is a special person. kaiteur news. fergus, h., bernard, l., & soares, j. (2007). breaking down the walls: an evolution of the extra-mural department, the university of the west indies, 1947-2000. jamaica: school of continuing studies, uwi. gordon, h. (1979/1980). university adult education: a caribbean focus. caribbean studies, 19(3/4) 47-67. harvey, c. (1997, july). distance education at the university of the west indies – final report. harvey, c., & williams, g. (1996). using a stakeholders’ analysis to plan for quality assurance: a case study of the expansion of distance education at the university of the west indies. caribbean curriculum, 6(2) 1-33. jayawardena, c. (ed.). (2002). tourism and hospitality education and training in the caribbean. kingston, jamaica: university of the west indies press. kuboni, o., thurab-nkhosi, d., & chen, t. (2002). incorporating web-based learning into a mixed-mode distance education delivery format: challenges and possibilities. paper presented at the second pancommonwealth form, durban, south africa. lalor, g.c., & marrett, c. (1986). report on the university of the west indies distance teaching enterprise. mangar, t. (2009, june 4). history this week, no. 22/2009. stabroek news. marshall, s. (undated paper). the challenges and opportunities created by advances in information and communications technology in higher education in a globally competitive environment, with special reference to the university of the west indies. marshall, s., brandon, e., thomas, m. kanwar, a., & lyngra, t. (2008). foreign providers in the caribbean: pillagers or preceptors. vancouver: commonwealth of learning (col). ramesar, e. (1976). present trends and future possibilities for university adult education in the commonwealth caribbean. paper presented at icuae third quinquennial conference on widening access to adult education. university of ghana, july 5-9, 1976. renwick, w., shale, d., & rao, c. (1992). distance education at the university of the west indies: report of an appraisal carried out on behalf of the commonwealth of learning. vancouver: col. school of continuing studies handbook 2002-2003 (2003). opportunities for lifelong study. 274 soares, j. (2011). “guerrillas in the trenches”: nettleford on extra-mural studies at the uwi. caribbean quarterly, 57(3/4) 79-88. university of the west indies, academic programme committee of uwidec (2002-2003) p. 4. genesis, composition and functions. paper presented by badri koul. university of the west indies, academic programme committee of uwidec (2004). blended learning/asynchronous delivery: a uwidec project 2004/5. uwidec apc p.4 2004/2005. presented by stewart marshall, october 2004. university of the west indies, academic programme committee of uwidec (2006). building a system for implementing blended learning in the uwi’s distance education programme. uwidec apc p. 11. presented by olabisi kuboni, may, 2006. university of the west indies, bnccde. (2007, may). the open campus of the university of the west indies, a work in progress. unpublished board document. university of the west indies, office of the vice chancellery. (1997). strategic plan, 1997-2002. mona, kingston 7, uwi: canoe press. university of the west indies, office of planning. strategic plan ii 2002-2007. updated march, 2003. university of the west indies open campus. (2014). annual report 2012/2013. uwidec. (2001, may). new management of distance education centre/operations. unpublished paper by badri n. koul. uwidec. (2002, june). the new management for uwidec: governance, budget and implementation schedule. unpublished paper by badri n. koul. author: dr. olabisi kuboni is an independent consultant in open, distance and online learning based in trinidad and tobago. she retired as senior lecturer and head of graduate programmes at the university of west indies, open campus in 2012. dr kuboni is a recipient of col fellow award in 2013. i the institution now comprises three physical campuses. in addition to mona, jamaica, there is one in st. augustine, trinidad and a third in cave hill, barbados. ii there are currently 17 contributing countries of the uwi. they are anguilla, antigua and barbuda, bahamas, barbados, belize, bermuda, the british virgin islands, the cayman islands, dominica, grenada, jamaica, montserrat, st. kitts and nevis, st. lucia, st. vincent and the grenadines, trinidad and tobago, turks and caicos. iii most of the material for this segment was obtained from the uwidite report compiled by pvc lalor and dr. marrett. iv the tliu, renamed the office of external relations, interand intra-institutional collaboration (eriic), was subsequently removed from the open campus. v http://www.open.uwi.edu/accreditation v i http://idce.uog.edu.gy/ v ii http://wikieducator.org/institute_of_distance_and_continuing_education, university_of_guyana v iii http://idce.uog.edu.gy/ microsoft word tanyaniwa.docx issn: 2311-1550 2021, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 364-382 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. challenges to the effective teaching and learning of geography and environmental studies through odel at the zimbabwe open university vincent itai tanyanyiwa and rejoice madobi zimbabwe open university abstract: this qualitative case study examines the challenges that influence the effective teaching and learning of geography and environmental studies through open and distance e-learning (odel) at the zimbabwe open university (zou). semi-structured interviews and documentary analysis were employed to solicit information from twenty students and four tutors in the geography and environmental studies department (dges). the selected research participants were chosen through convenience and purposive sampling. the dges students’ lack of computer skills and full use of elearning, as students continue to rely on the printed module and face-to-face tutorials. the study recommends that the dges offer an introductory course in computer use for first-year students and continuous ict skills workshops to equip them with ict skills. keywords: barriers, blended learning, challenges, learning, odel, teaching. introduction rapid changes and advances in information communication technologies (icts) have allowed for the integration of e-learning in odel (gasva et al, 2017). these changes in technology, according to arinto (2016), have seen a shift in the odel mode of delivery, from being print-based to the incorporation of e-learning or online methodologies. odel aims at bridging the time, geographical, economic, social, and educational and communication distance between the student and institution, teachers, courseware, and peers (tafesse & mphahlele, 2014). e-learning refers to the use of icts in learning (mesrar & m’rabet, 2018). odel, therefore, expands odl to include the use of various contemporary technologies for synchronous and asynchronous learning and communication (arinto, 2016). such technologies offer flexibility in teaching and learning by enabling multiple forms of communication and interaction between the learner and the teacher (arinto, 2016). odel provides flexible teaching strategies and the sharing of free learning resources and icts, which lower the cost of producing learning material (alfonso & garcia, 2015). odel offers flexible time and place learning opportunities (ghosh et al, 2012). the use of icts offers many opportunities, hence, various studies have focused on the issue. chitanana et al (2008) and letseka et al (2018), for example, focused on the state of e-learning in zimbabwean universities and the challenges of e-learning in south africa. studies done at the zou explored students’ preparedness to adopt e-learning, factors that influence the use of icts by students and the extent to which students utilised ict facilities in their assignments and research projects 365 (gasva et al, 2017; ranga & mhaka 2016; mafa & mpofu 2013). in thailand, ngampornchai and adams (2016), focussed on rural students’ acceptance and readiness for e-learning. the studies show odel opportunities and challenges. despite the challenges, technological advancement, policy shift and the recent covid-19 pandemic provide a mix of factors that have pushed the use of icts in teaching and learning further even in developing countries such as zimbabwe. zimbabwe’s higher education sector faces challenges related to the socio-economic outlook. odel has more advantages to the marginalised learner, hence, it thrives despite zimbabwe’s adverse circumstances. since the introduction of the e-learning platform, zous myvista, the use of icts in teaching and learning at the university has become mandatory. odel enables access to dedicated and professional tutors and staff from other universities in zimbabwe and elsewhere the study sought to examine the challenges that influence the effective teaching and learning of geography and environmental studies through odel at the zous harare/chitungwiza regional campus. knowing and understanding the challenges that students face is of utmost importance if the dges is to enhance the quality of teaching and learning. odel service quality is positively related to e-learning student satisfaction and also influences student loyalty (pham et al, 2019). background of the study zou, a state university, opened its doors in 1999 with a mandate is to provide higher education through open and distance electronic learning (odel) as per its charter through an act of parliament, zou act (chapter 25:20). the zou started as a print and face-to-face tutorial-based university. the zou operates on a regional scale with established campuses in all the ten geopolitical provinces of zimbabwe and a virtual regional campus. in some provinces, there are district centres whose aim is to take higher education to peoples’ doorstep. each regional campus serves as the hub for all the learning activities in that province. zou offers an e-learning facility through a learning management system (lms) called "myvista" that enables students to apply, register, pay fees and carry out studies from any part of the world. advances in icts prompted the zou to add e-learning tools to traditional teaching/learning strategies. zous delivery mode is a blended approach, hence, the use of the term odel in this study. the dges started offering the degree of bachelor of science honours in geography and environmental studies (bsc. hges) since january 1999, using the printed module and face-to-face tutorials. the dges intends to introduce more programmes at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, hence, the need to know and understand the challenges students face. research questions the study was guided by the following research questions (rq): rq1: who are the main players in the teaching and learning of geography and environmental studies at zou? rq2: what challenges impact on the teaching/learning of undergraduate geography and environmental studies through odel at the harare/chitungwiza regional campus? rq3: how can the challenges faced by undergraduate geography and environmental studies in the dges be redressed? 366 the community of inquiry (coi) framework and zou blended learning design the qualitative-based study was on the co-creation of knowledge between the teacher and the learners. the community of inquiry (coi) is a model of inquiry-based teaching and learning to structure the process of learning in an online or blended environment (garrison et al, 2000). the coi is based on the work of john dewey and constructivist views of experiential learning that create deep and meaningful learning. the coi framework creates opportunities for active cognitive processing, interaction and peer-teaching and self-reflection. guidance from teachers at the right time encourages engagement and shared application activities, signifying the importance of the creative communities of inquiry in the classroom, whether face-to-face, online or blended. blended learning is an educational approach, which integrates face-to-face classroom practices with online and mobile delivery methods. it aims to provide the learner with a well-planned, managed, and well-structured teacher-facilitated interactive learning environment, where high-quality content, activities, and experiences can be customised to learner needs and preferences, unrestricted by time and location (hrastinski, 2019). blended learning refers to combining different instructional methods, pedagogical approaches or technologies, although these non-aligned methods are the most influential in blended learning definitions. blended learning facilitates multimodal learning and more specifically it: 1) incorporates flexibility; 2) stimulates interaction; (3) facilitates students' learning processes; and (4) fosters an affective learning climate. the application of a blended coi ensures that students have time to reflect on meaning and engage in discourse to share understanding. a bricoleur is a facilitator who crafts from various materials and tools which happen to be available. the teacher, as bricoleur, makes a series of professional judgments about what and how to teach (honan, 2004). the blended teacher, as a bricoleur, makes a series of professional judgments about what and how to teach using the diverse range of material and tools available. an effective teacher is faithful to the learning objectives and subject matter at hand, while also attending to the variety of characteristics students bring to the experience. effective teachers bridge content and student needs through appropriate student engagement. the zou employs blended learning; an approach that combines face-to-face learning and technologymediated learning. in blended learning (bl), students learn online through a learning management system (lms). they access emails, e-books, e-journals, complete online assignments and collaborate using discussion forums and chatrooms. blended learning is the “new traditional model” of learning (graham, woodfield & harrison, 2013). blended learning is complicated, e.g., what is blended learning? what fits within the blended learning realm? what is blended? how do we blend? and finally, why do we blend? (hrastinski, 2019). zou embraced the blended learning strategy six years ago to facilitate multimodal learning because it: 1) incorporates flexibility; 2) stimulates interaction; (3) facilitates students'learning processes; (4) fosters an affective learning climate; (5) continuous information access; (6) cost-effectiveness; and (7) pedagogy provided by synchronous and asynchronous communication. 367 the application of a blended coi is to ensure that students have time to reflect on meaning and engage in discourse to share understanding. zous blended learning teaching principles are premised on the need to : • produce a campus-wide environment that embeds blended learning as a means of enhancing the learning outcomes of students, • develop an environment that permits enhanced interaction and collaboration between faculty and students, • integrate technology and face-to-face teaching to support student learning experiences and outcomes, • provide supportive technical infrastructure for the effective and competent delivery of instruction, • reduce the economic impact on the delivery costs of education at the zou, • craft a quality assurance framework and consistent instruction. the zou adopted and implemented blended learning through face-to-face teaching, multimedia technologies and online materials. the intention is to meet the diverse needs of learners. barriers exist, e.g., lack of policy to guide implementation; a lack of faculty support to ensure effective implementation of newly introduced approaches; a low level of technological and computer skills among both learners and lecturers; and inadequate technological resources, such as computers. the zou promotes blended learning; integrity and freedom of the learner are primary. teaching and learning process provides flexible sequences of study, negotiated objectives, content, learning methods, negotiated methods of assessment and a choice of support mechanisms such as medium or media, whether print, online, television or video and a place of study at home, at the workplace or on campus. the dges learning approach is problem-based and process-oriented. in the core courses, learners have responsibilities for developing the assignment. besides, learners find information and decide on the form of how to present their work. problem-based learning is done through group work. the initiation of collaborative and communicative skills is a central topic in the programme, and problembased learning within groups is an effective means of learning. there is also the use of teaching/learning approaches such as seminars, tutorials, digital and visual methods and individual work. the benefits of blended learning include enhanced learning skills, improved access to information, increased satisfaction and learning deliverables, and opportunities both to learn and teach others. the design rationale is essential for: • better communication — it is easy to update learners' new announcements, assignments and test results, especially for remote learners. • boosting learners’ efficiency — learning materials are accessible online, with easy access, learners learn at their own pace and acquire knowledge and skills in the way that best fits their learning styles. 368 • building engagement — help the engagement process and provide opportunities for assessment, consultation sessions about shared goals and projects with learners and course moderators, in-person or virtually. • the enhancement of teaching efforts — learner's needs are different, and every learner follows a unique learning style, it is essential to try to meet learners needs for the course to be useful. some learners benefit more from reading text accompanied with presentations while others understand the topics better; different learning styles become possible, e.g., use of powerpoints, images, audio files and video files. • improved collaboration — blended learning enables the course participants to work together, engage in discussions, and provide useful feedback to one another. online discussions and peer feedback significantly improve learners' knowledge and skills. • keeping track of learners’ progress — tracking the progress of learners is important but the traditional methods of learning do not make it easy to see how the course participants are performing before assessment. blended learning tracks learners' progress through understanding their strengths and weaknesses. learning/teaching pedagogy methods have been evolving from teacher-centred to student-centred learning. the teacher is no longer the only knowledgeable authority but a facilitator of learning. the teachers' role in building relationships ensures students develop autonomy following constructivist theories of education, which demand that students take more responsibility for their learning. the learning is self-directed with the promotion of problem-based learning strategies. technology provides opportunities for teacher-to-student and student-to-student interfaces. coi is inquiry-based teaching, describing meaningful learning through collaborative engagement in critical discourse and reflection in order to construct personal meaning and confirm mutual understanding (cleveland-innes & wilton, 2018). coi represents the creation of a deep and meaningful (collaborative-constructivist) learning experience through the development of three interdependent elements — a social, cognitive and teaching presence with emotional presence as a potential fourth component (cleveland-innes & wilton, 2018). coi guides in developing blended learning content and processes to support active, lifelong learners. coi framework creates a chance for self-reflection, active cognitive processing, interaction and peer-teaching. also, expert guidance from teachers at the right time encourages engagement and shared application activities, highlighting the importance of creating communities of inquiry in the classroom, whether face-to-face, online or blended. 369 the community of inquiry model figure 1: community of inquiry model source: (cleveland-innes & wilton, 2018) inquiry-based learning from dewey (1938), highlights the role of experience to construct one’s knowledge — students take control of how they develop the knowledge base itself as a higher-order skill in bloom’s taxonomy. the ideal situation from a social constructivist perspective of experiential learning is one whereby questions, problems, methods and answers about a topic come from learners; the role of the facilitator/teacher is to direct and guide learning. presence is a state of mindful awareness, receptivity and connectedness to the social, cognitive, emotional and physical workings of both the individual and the group in the context of their learning environments (cleveland-innes & wilton, 2018). social presence — the ability of participants to identify with the community (e.g., course of study), communicate purposefully in a trusting environment and develop inter-personal relationships by way of protecting their personalities. social presence is the level of connectedness among instructors and students that determines how motivated participants are to take an active role in their own and their peers' meaning-making processes. social negotiation of meaning that involves reification (making meaning from abstract information) and participation (active involvement in the social process) (hrastinski, 2019). cognitive presence — the extent to which learners can construct and confirm meaning through sustained reflection and discourse in a critical community of inquiry. cognitive presence emerges out of four distinct but overlapping components of practical inquiry: triggering events, exploration, integration and resolution. establishing deep and meaningful learning requires activity in all four components. however, akyol and garrison (2011) report evidence that cognitive presence requires a balance among cognitive, social and teaching presence. direct instruction and facilitation of cognitive activity, beyond the content, is a crucial role for teachers using this framework. the reasoning 370 corroborates archibald’s (2010) evidence that teaching presence and social presence explain 69% of the variance in cognitive presence. teaching presence — the design, facilitation, and direction of cognitive and social processes to realise personally meaningful and educationally worthwhile learning outcomes. teaching presence, rather than "teacher presence," is named to allow for a teaching function for both teachers and students in a coi. while the teacher, or instructor of record, plays a leadership role, teaching presence allows for and fosters peer-teaching among students. the importance of teaching presence is in the generation of satisfying learning experiences among students (chakraborty & nafukho, 2015; morgan, 2011; shea et al, 2010). it is, however, linked to other presences in a significant way. for example, shea and bidjerano (2009) report evidence that the student experience of teaching presence affects the emergence of social presence. emotional presence — in addition to these three presences, the fourth is emotional presence (cleveland-innes & campbell, 2012; stenbom et al, 2016). emotional presence is the outward expression of emotion, affect and feeling, by individuals and among individuals in a community of inquiry, as they relate to and interact with the learning technology, course content, students and instructor. item indicators for analysis of emotional presence are with the instrument for measuring the original three presences (arbaugh et al, 2008). exploratory factor analysis suggests emotional presence may stand alone as a separate element in the framework (cleveland-innes et al, 2013). literature review odel is a multi-dimensional concept aimed at bridging the time, geographical, economic, social, and educational and communication distance between student and institution, student and academics, student and courseware and student and peers (tafesse & mphahlele, 2014). odel focuses on removing barriers to access learning, the flexibility of learning provision and student-centeredness (joubert & snyman, 2017). the separation of teacher and learner characterises odel in time or place, or both time and place and the use of a variety of both print and electronic resources (commonwealth of learning, 2004). the growth of icts has changed the odl platform. this growth in icts led to an escalation in e-learning and increased the popularity of odel (wakahiu & kangethe, 2014). icts and odel are a means through which equity, access and quality of education is attained (wakahiu & kangethe, 2014). odel expands the term odl to include the use of e-learning or online learning methodologies both synchronous (occurring at the same time) and non-synchronous (occurring at different times), to increase various types of interaction and dialogue and to bridge the distance between teachers and learners (arinto, 2016; wakahiu & kangethe, 2014). the use of e-learning increased the flexibility and accessibility of odl. e-learning is “a field that emerges at the confluence of educational psychology and instructional design, of educational technology and distance education, and of recent technological developments related to the internet and the web” (friesen, 2009, p. 6). odl institutions shifted from print-based to use of virtual learning environments and web-based technologies (arinto, 2016). in odel the teacher is a facilitator whose role is hampered by resources challenges. odel can isolate a student, hence the need for social, cognitive, emotional and teaching presence in the lms. regular support and contact is essential to motivate students. odel enables students, teachers, and support staff to build relationships, collaborate and communicate regularly through chat, email forums and 371 online virtual classes. however, in zimbabwe, infrastructure and resources to support these technological developments are limited due to narrow bandwidth. the integration of icts in odel offers promising opportunities for the marginalised communities in africa in terms of access to education and flexibility in teaching and learning (wakahiu & kangethe, 2014). odel students face several challenges (musingafi et al, 2015). odel challenges could be solved by the use of icts in teaching and learning but as ngubane-mokiwa and letseka (2015) aver, odel assumes that all learners can access and use the electronic learning gadgets optimally. learners in the developing world have limited access to computers and electronic devices as well as the digital skills required for optimal learning (njihia et al, 2016; ranga & mhaka, 2016). buying and maintaining modern computers and the appropriate software is a challenge for institutions of higher learning and so is the cost of acquiring ict gadgets by students (mafa & mpofu, 2013; mafa & gasva, 2015; ranga & mhaka, 2016). at the zou students lack ict skills and access to computers and they need assistance with basic computer applications such as ms word (ranga & mhaka, 2016). while wakahiu and kangethe (2014) claimed that the use of cellular signals provides internet access in rural areas, mafa and gasva (2015) noted that in zimbabwe’s remote areas, where most zou students are based, had unreliable internet network coverage. learners from urban areas have better access to the internet than those in rural areas. in uganda, ouma (2019) noted that a lack of ict skills and facilities was high among students from rural and marginalised places. despite the noticeable improvements in cellular network coverage in developing countries, the digital divide is evident. this digital divide means that learners from rural areas lag behind their urban peers in learning as they cannot access e-learning. learners travel long distances to access the computer facilities, and, consequently, ict facilities that are provided by odel institution are underutilised (ranga & mhaka, 2016). gasva, moyo and dzama (2017) observed that most rural students have limited access to the internet and prefer printed learning materials. availability, adequacy and functioning ict infrastructure and reliable power supply remains a pipe dream for governments in developing countries (ranga & mhaka, 2016). limited ict infrastructure promotes the digital divide and hampers the effective integration of icts in teaching and learning (mallinson & krull, 2013). the geographical location, limited knowledge and skills to use ict, and financial constraints, are significant considerations in deciding the type and combinations of icts (pena-bandalaria, 2007). methods research design the study employed a case-study approach, a qualitative design. a case study “is an in-depth description and analysis of a bounded system” (merriam & tisdell, 2016, p. 37). using a case study enabled the understanding of social aspects (barriers to effective teaching/learning in odel) in natural settings by emphasising the meaning, experiences, and views of students from a january to june 2018 semester, from twenty students, two part-time tutors and two full-time tutors from the zou harare regional campus who were selected using a combination of purposive and convenience sampling. the target was final year ges students at the harare/chitungwiza regional campus with more experience with the operations of the university and who thus understood and articulated the challenges. 372 data collection interviews and documentary analysis were the two main data collection methods. two interview guides targeted the tutors and students. both the interview guides consisted of seven questions each. a pilot study was done to pretest the interview guides. the pilot study focused on five third-year students and two tutors. a combination of face-to-face, semi-structured interviews and telephone interviews gathered data from the students. some interviewed part-time tutors teach in conventional universities, and it was interesting to note how they compared the two learning platforms. the documentary analysis generated data for the study, including written documents from students registering their grievances to the dges and the centre for student management. the focus was on quality of assignment submissions, adherence to assignment submission deadlines, tutorial attendance, as well as the quality of assignments. data analysis thematic analysis analysed the gathered data. braun and clarke (2006) mention that thematic analysis is a method for identifying, analysing, and reporting patterns (themes) within data. the following steps, as suggested by braun and clarke (2006), were followed. the first data analysis stage was manual development and applying codes, which meant data categorisation into themes such as an infrastructure. the codes were assigned titles such as computer literacy and use of the elearning platform. open coding made sense of the data, followed by code interconnections and linkages. the story then began to emerge, i.e., the challenges faced by dges students through selective coding. in the second stage noting, patterns, relationships, and themes about codes stated in the preceding stage, i.e., the words and phrase repetitions, primary and secondary data comparisons, findings of literature review, and aspects that participants did not mention. the final stage involved linking research findings to research the research aim and objectives, including notable quotations used from transcripts to highlight significant themes within findings and possible contradictions. findings demographic characteristics of the students a total of 12 students (60%) were male, and eight (40%) were female. the average age of the students was 24. use of the e-learning platform all twenty students (100%) indicated that they could not access hard copy modules after registration. zou students are entitled to receive a printed module for each registered course but, over the years, the modules have not been availed on time though students would have paid. one student said, "i rarely get all modules after registration. i sometimes get just two modules instead of four and as a student the university is really letting me down". though soft copy modules and other e-resources are available on myvista, most students do not have computers and smartphones to access them or the financial capacity to print them. one student noted that the library was inadequate in terms of hardcopy and electronic resources. some e-resources were no longer accessible due to expired subscriptions. the university is facing severe financial challenges due to students dropping out as well as the severe socio-economic and political challenges that zimbabwe has faced in the last two decades. there is limited knowledge and exposure to online collaborative teaching and learning technologies by lecturers. training in collaborative technologies should be mandatory for all teaching 373 staff, and refresher courses to cater for technological changes. also, teaching staff have limited knowledge and experience of technology integration frameworks or theories like the community of inquiry. turning lecturers to blended learning facilitators and collaborators, without training, poses challenges. there is a desire to resist change, and a postgraduate diploma in higher education raises educational pedagogy awareness . part-time tutor absenteeism a total of 10 students (50%) highlighted the challenge of low attendance at tutorial sessions by the part-time tutors. the students exposed that some tutors had the habit of not attending all the tutorial sessions, thereby wasting resources for students who would have travelled to the tutorial venues. one student said, "zou should find ways of employing dedicated and committed tutors because some of the tutors do not care about the quality of tutorials they offer". the tutors bemoaned the meagre financial rewards, and one tutor said, “the university should consider revising its payment rates considering inflation. part-time lecturers are poorly motivated because of the low financial rewards, such that many of them do tutorials for professional development. tutor absenteeism indicates that the e-learning platform is not being fully utilised by both the tutors and the learners to improve teaching and learning flexibility in the dges. field trips and practicums for the teaching and learning of geography all the 20 students (100%) interviewed were concerned with the issue of field trips, and practicums that are not being organised by the dges through a set of fieldwork-based assignment questions. students also highlighted that some courses lacked the adequate practical component, for example, the geographic information systems (gis) course, which lacked the essential practical aspect. fulltime lecturers pointed out the absence of field trips and practicums due to logistical and, more importantly, financial challenges. the challenges are made more complicated because of the odel delivery model. due to financial challenges, the zou dges is yet to set up a gis laboratory. delayed feedback on assignments delayed feedback on assignments is a challenge for the zou dges, as indicated by all 20 students. one of the students observed that "before the introduction of myvista we used to receive our marked assignments on time but now we rarely get the feedback on time". another student said, “we are supposed to get our marked assignments well before the beginning of the examination session but we sometimes get the feedback a day or so before we start writing”. lecturers, however, indicated that while the causes of delayed assignment feedback were many, the primary cause was the extension of registration periods. with the adoption of the e-learning portal, lecturers pointed out that it was challenging to provide feedback while some students are yet to register, in worst-case scenarios assignment deadlines run into the scheduled examination period, thus, the continuous submission of assignments coincides with the marking of examinations. information dissemination students bemoaned poor information dissemination within the dges. students indicated that communication relating to assignment submission dates were not early enough and that the dates for the research project proposal presentation were not communicated on time. as a result, most students would do half-baked presentations. in contrast, others would shun the research project workshops. however, interviews with the lecturers revealed that the students were made aware of the need to 374 prepare their proposals in time, and that it was not the presentation date that was more important but the presentation’s preparation. lecturers in the dges noted with concern that most students usually delayed starting to work on their research proposals, avoided research proposal presentations, and this influenced the general quality of the research project. ict infrastructure at zou from an administrative position, zou continues to face challenges in the use of the internet. a total of 12 students (60%) indicated that they faced challenges in intermittent internet connections. one student said, " the administrators pointed out that in recent years zou has increased its bandwidth. however, the price of the bandwidth is relatively high in zimbabwe. the administrators mentioned the overuse of undesired applications, copyright violations due to peer-to-peer (p2p) file sharing and poor application performance and quality of experience (qoe) during bandwidth congestion. apart from the high cost of the internet, the administrators identified that too many users on the network, viruses, uncontrolled downloads, unreliable internet service provider(s), high demand compared to available bandwidth, different user bandwidth requirements, technical breakdowns and lack of administrative support impacted the performance and use of the zou’s bandwidth. financial resources to acquire ict gadgets zou students in the dges indicated that they face financial challenges. the financial problems ultimately cause delays in registration, limited tutorial attendance and access to the physical library, as well as in the purchasing of electronic gadgets such as computers. one student said, "owning a personal laptop would lessen challenges relating to the typing of assignments and accessing learning material, but i cannot afford one". the financial problems lie in the country's economic performance. zimbabwe has been facing severe socio-economic and political challenges over the last 20 years, and this impacts the students' financial capacity. most students are adults with multiple responsibilities and competing demands for their finances, and this ultimately affects access to ict at home. computer literacy lecturers’ technological background is limited and more than 50% fail to use myvista competently. lecturers complained that bl was cumbersome due to the redesign of the modules, the uploading of materials on myvista and the grading and providing feedback online. students within the dges noted that they lack computer skills to type and upload their assignments as well as download all kinds of feedback from their tutors on myvista. one student noted "a lot is required of me in computer use but i have never owned or used one prior to my enrolling at the zou". most students submitted poorly typed assignments as they failed to adhere to some basic guidelines such as using the prescribed font type and size or assignment length. all students at the zou are required to be computer literate but owing to the diverse socio-economic and more importantly educational backgrounds most of the students join the university with hardly any computer literacy or technical competence to operate ict hardware and software. computer literacy is also a necessity for the effective use of online library resources. the module, introduction to computer applications in geography and environmental studies is a third-year course in the bachelor of science honours in geography and environmental studies degree programme, yet it is supposed to offer computer skills throughout the four-year programme. 375 time management since adult students face multiple responsibilities, this study indicated that they have limited time to study or to balance their studies and other responsibilities, such as employment and family. all students cited social problems. odel students have to divide their financial and non-financial resources between their various family, work and social demands, and this ultimately affects their studies due to competing interests. other challenges the zou aims to be the university of choice in odel through its mission of empowering the world through high-quality odel, and its shared values of accountability, being client-driven, innovation, integrity and teamwork. lack of appropriate technology infrastructure and gadgets retards its vision. some students have malfunctioning laptops, and their cellphones cannot connect to the internet. related challenges include negative attitudes towards blended learning among staff, designing courses using the pedagogic principals of coi, and integrating technology in a way that supports meaningful learning. at the dges academics acknowledge the importance of blended learning but perceive barriers that prevent its implementation. lack of clear blended learning policy in the university, and among faculty and departments, is a challenge that needs urgent attention . discussion the challenges in the teaching and learning of geography at the dges are mainly institutional and student-related. the specific challenges that were common to all students relate to computer literacy and facilities, financial resources, assignments, practicums and field trips and tutor attendance. studies, for example, kadziya and mashatise (2012) and chemhuru et al (2015), point to the unavailability of the printed modules and the inadequacy of face-to-face tutorial sessions at the zou. these studies were, however, done before the full use of myvista. with the full implementation of myvista, students and lecturers should be able to supplement the face-to-face tutorials and the printed modules. thus, it is possible that myvista is not being used effectively and efficiently by both learners and educators. these findings concur with mafa and gasva (2015), who noted that, despite the availability of soft copy modules on myvista, rural zou students preferred printed modules. the dges should consider other ways that can be applied to improve teaching and learning. though assignment feedback is essential in all teaching and learning programmes, delayed feedback remains a challenge. ngara et al (2012) aver that in most zou departments, students rarely receive timely feedback on assignments. this study by ngara et al (2012) was done before the submission of assignments on myvista, but it gives a glimpse into the nature of assignment administration. students disliked delayed assignment feedback due to lack of computer literacy and myvista usage. despite the alleged cause of delayed assignment feedback, the challenge has continued unabated. the issue of delayed assignment feedback is in conjunction with other challenges, such as lack of time to study and limited financial resources. odel students are adults who not only shoulder family responsibilities but are also part-time or full-time job employees/employers (zinyama & ndudzo, 2015). while lack of time to study or poor time management is typical of odel students, it influences the quality of submitted assignments as well as the timely submission and feedback provision. 376 the availability of financial resources influences the effectiveness of teaching and learning of geography through odel. financial challenges hamper many things but, more importantly, the acquisition of human capital, computers, and other related technology such as bandwidth. the felt consequences of financial challenges on the purchasing of ict facilities impact both the university and the students (mafa & mpofu, 2013; mafa & gasva 2015). the low tutorial attendance by part part-time tutors is due to poor remuneration; the tutors may fail to balance multiple employee roles and hence become less dedicated to zou. the challenges are rooted in the socio-economic environment from which both the students and the university are operating. the challenges are a mirror of odel challenges. students usually take longer to graduate because of these challenges, in itself a financial challenge. odel institutions thrive on efficient and effective communication. the observations made by this study about poor dissemination of information are similar to musingafi et al (2015) who note that odel in developing countries presents challenges in information dissemination. communication between a zou regional campus and the students was not significant. however, while studies show that odl presents communication challenges, the focus was more on the institution as a whole and not necessarily on specific departments, therefore, despite the general institutional communication, the dges should find ways of improving its communication with students. today's teaching and learning requires access to reliable and adequate ict infrastructure and geographic applications such as gis and remote sensing. moreover, remote sensing requires more bandwidth and specialised hardware and software. students lack ict skills and access to computers. the importance of computer literacy in odel is paramount (ngubane-mokiwa & letseka, 2015). indeed, computer literate students should be able to interact with their lecturers and peers, access library resources and other learning material, but geography students need to advance their computer skills so that they not only submit well-typed assignments but can work with gis and remote sensing equipment. fieldwork and practicums are vital to geography teaching and learning. geography is a lively subject which involves students doing practical work. practical work introduces, reinforces and develops both general and subject-specific skills such as graphicacy. practical work provides the opportunity for first-hand and experiential learning: to respond to the challenges of different environments; to allow textbook derived knowledge to be sorted, confirmed and clarified; to allow fragmented or compartmentalised integrated knowledge into a coherent whole, and to facilitate the development of tacit knowledge. geography-specific objectives of fieldwork include the teaching of specialist field techniques and research methods. also, the use of experimental data to solve specific problems and thus illuminate areas of theory and practice are vital transferable/enterprise skills such as to provoke students to ask questions, identify problems and stimulate independent thinking, socialisation and personal development (the 'hidden agenda' of field work), such as stimulation and enhancement of enthusiasm for study and respect for the environment as well as encouraging and developing social integration of the student cohort. lecturers are not keen to conduct fieldwork with their students because of their previous inadequate training. for lecturers who do carry out fieldwork, it tends to be unstructured and not well organised; what is often labelled as field teaching is simply a 'cook's tour' where sightseeing is to take place in 377 the open. hence, the sprucing-up of fieldwork, especially in secondary schools, where the point of entry is for training zou graduates so that they become competent organisers of fieldwork. conclusion and recommendations open and distance e-learning (odel) is important for zimbabwe now and in the future because it bridges the communication, distance, economic, educational, geographical, social, and time barriers between the learner and the university, learner and facilitators, learner and courseware and the learner and peers. zou should invest in infrastructure and human resources to attract learners and thus reduce challenges associated with odel. the following are the recommendations of the study: • specific reflective research needs on odel planning and implementation is of paramount importance for the success of odel implementation and the systems for odel delivery are in place and working before admission of students. a well-developed student support system is a guarantee for success in odel teaching and learning (segobye, 2007). studies in the area of student support and management need to focus on transactional, interactional and social contexts that enhance opportunities for students’ retention so that they graduate within the stipulated minimum of four years and a maximum of eight years for undergraduate studies. zou also needs to take the issues of the printed module seriously by making provisions for the modules before the beginning of each semester, since some students live in remote areas where they cannot access the internet. • internet connectivity is becoming a strategic resource for university education. the use of the internet enhances the efficiency and capacity of zou to provide quality education, especially concerning the conduct of high-quality research. internet connectivity provides a gateway to information from the information highway. zou has made a considerable investment in bandwidth in line with its vision: to be the university of choice in open and distance electronic learning. the institution is under pressure to provide its students and staff with reliable internet access, but the internet remains unreliable. the current bandwidth and computers at zou are not adequate to cater to all. lack of appropriate bandwidth management is preventing the productive use of the internet at the zou. unreliability in internet access is due to many factors, which include increased student enrolment, increased use of electronic resources for teaching and learning, and the spread of desktop applications that can use any amount of bandwidth given to users. low bandwidth, in turn, yields low quality academic and research work. zous bandwidth management strategy should be to optimise the use of shared resources among users. all stakeholders at the zou should agree on the services that need high priority, those that are low priority, and those that can be discontinued, through university committee systems comprising of students, faculty members, it staff and university administrators. • the dges needs to offer an introductory course in computer use and communication skills during the first semester of the first year of study to prepare and equip students with ict skills. workshops on ict usage could help the students during their first year of study. also, in the interim, the zou dges should collaborate with other universities locally for gis practicums, while ways of purchasing gis software and compatible hardware are receiving 378 consideration. to improve the use of e-resources in teaching and learning, the zou should partner with electronic retailers and other relevant partners for the provision of electronic gadgets, especially laptops for the students. • despite the importance of fieldwork, the problems and difficulties of organising and running a practical field course are increasing in the dges due to logistical and financial challenges. initially, students were engaged in fieldwork activities organised by the university each semester in each of the ten regional campuses. however, as the economy took a nosedive around 2006, the fieldwork component was removed. liquidity challenges in the country tend to impact university operations. the dges should seriously consider recommending a levy of between usd20 and usd50 to enable pupils to undertake properly and sequentially organised fieldwork activities. the best-case scenario is whereby the department organises fieldwork. the dges arranges a place to visit/tour. the university authorities and owners of the location to be visited grant permission. before the fieldwork day, lecturers visit the concerned areas. after the visit, the lecturers design questions, which students should be able to answer either individually or in groups. for ease of implementing fieldwork activities, standardised questions are set so all students answer similar or the same questions. there could be some variations whereby, in one semester, students could answer questions in groups and in the next semester; individual assignments could be the preferred option. the structure of the designed fieldwork is such that, for all the four courses that students enroll in per semester, four fieldwork set exercises are covered by the arranged trip. students should be allowed to submit their work about a week after fieldwork. during the fieldwork exercises, they should take down notes and observe as they answer preset questions. if arranged in this way, fieldwork’s vertical and lateral progression of students should be easy to monitor. • advocacy and regulation of odel in zimbabwe safeguards both practice and quality assurance principles. the focus should be the expansion of skills, competency, technology, entrepreneurial-based education, capacity-building and resource development for odel. the perceptual challenges of odel with hard facts should deconstruct the perception that odel is inferior. lecturers and students alike should contribute to the global politics of education through networks and collaboration to overcome the political barriers to odel education in zimbabwe, especially in areas such as gis and remote sensing. • the stiff competition with conventional universities offering block release programmes allows students to access and utilise e-learning resources. block release programmes reduce the gap between the regional campus, the tutor and the student. references akyol, z., & garrison, r.d. (2011) understanding cognitive presence in an online and blended community of inquiry: assessing outcomes and processes for deep approaches to learning. british journal of educational technology, 42(2), 33–250. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8535.2009.01029.x alfonso, g.j., & garcia, p.g. (2015). open and distance elearning: new dimensions in teaching, learning, research, and extension for higher education institutions. ijodel, 1(1 & 2), 1-13. https://ijodel.com/wpcontent/uploads/2016/03/001_alfonso_garcia.pdf 379 arbaugh, j.b., cleveland-innes, m., diaz, s.r., garrison, d.r., ice, p., richardson, j.c., & swan, k.p. (2008). developing a community of inquiry instrument: testing a measure of the community of inquiry framework using a multi-institutional sample. the internet and higher education, 11(3-4), 133-136. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2008.06.003 archibald, d. (2010). fostering the development of cognitive presence: initial findings using the community of inquiry survey instrument. the internet and higher education, 13(1–2), 73-74. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2009.10.001 arinto, p. (2016). issues and challenges in open and distance e-learning: perspectives from the philippines. international review of research in open and distributed learning, 17(2), 162-180. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v17i2.1913 braun, v., & clarke, v. (2006). using thematic analysis in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), 77101. http://dx.doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa chakraborty, m., & nafukho, f.m. (2015). strategies for virtual learning environments: focusing on teaching presence and teaching immediacy. internet learning, 4(1), 8-37. https://doi.org/10.18278/il.4.1.1 chemhuru, n., mangizvo, r.v., & nyamande, w.s. (2015). perceptions of students on the conduct of tutorials in zimbabwe open university: a case study of the midlands region. international journal for innovation education and research, 3(1), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.31686/ijier.vol3.iss1.295 chitanana, l., makaza, d., & madzima, k. (2008). the current state of e-learning at universities in zimbabwe: opportunities and challenges. international journal of education and development using information and communication technology (ijedict), 4(2), 5-15. https://www.learntechlib.org/p/42289/ cleveland-innes, m., ally, m., wark, n., & fung, t. (2013). emotional presence and mobile learning: learnerdriven responses in a wireless world. european journal of open and distance e learning, (special issue), 1-8. http://www.eurodl.org/materials/special/2013/cleveland-innes_et_al.pdf cleveland-innes, m., & campbell, p. (2012). emotional presence, learning, and the online learning environment. the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 13(4), 269-292. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v13i4.1234 cleveland-innes, m., & wilton, d. (2018). guide to blended learning. the commonwealth of learning. http://oasis.col.org/handle/11599/3095 commonwealth of learning (col). (2004). planning and implementing open and distance learning systems: a handbook for decision-makers. the commonwealth of learning. http://dspace.col.org/bitstream/handle/11599/85/odlplanninghb.pdf?se dewey, j. (1938). experience and education. macmillan. friesen, n. (2009). rethinking e-learning research: foundations, methods and practices. peter lang. gasva, d., moyo, w., & dzama, t. (2017). students’ views on the appropriate mode of teaching and learning in open and distance learning: case of matabeleland north regional campus of zimbabwe open university. scholars journal of arts, humanities and social sciences, 5(5), 448-454. http://saspjournals.com/wpcontent/uploads/2017/06/sjahss-55448-454.pdf ghosh, s., joyshree, n.j., agarwal, s., & nath, a. (2012). open and distance learning (odl) education system: past, present and future – a systematic study of an alternative education system. journal of global research in computer science, 3(4), 53-57. www.jgrcs.info 380 graham, c.r., woodfield, w., & harrison, j.b. (2013). a framework for institutional adoption and implementation of blended learning in higher education. the internet and higher education, 18, 4-14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2012.09.003 honan, e. (2004) teachers as bricoleurs: producing plausible readings of curriculum documents. english teaching: practice and critique, 3(2), 99-112. http://education.waikato.ac.nz/research/files/2004v3n2art6.pdf joubert, y.t., & snyman, a.m. (2017). challenges experienced with online tutoring in an odl institution. progressio: south african journal for open and distance learning practice, 39(1), 126-144. https://doi.org/10.25159/0256-8853/2139 kadziya, l., & mashatise, j. (2012). students' views on the quality of service offered by programme coordinators in regional centres of the zimbabwe open university: a case of mashonaland central, zimbabwe. international journal of open and distance learning international research conference-special edition, 111-115. http://www.iodlj.zou.ac.zw/ejournal/index.php/journal/article/download/40/39 letseka, m., letseka, m.m., & pitsoe, v. (2018). in sinecen, m. (2018). the challenges of e-learning in south africa. trends in e-learning, 121–138. https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.74843 mafa, o., & gasva, d. (2015). increasing access to and quality of open and distance learning programmes through technology-driven pedagogy: the case of zimbabwe open university. iosr journal of research & method in education, 5(5), 74-80. https://doi.org/10.9790/7388-05527480 mafa, o., & mpofu, j. (2013). the extent to which open and distance learning students utilise information and communication technology in their assignments and research projects. iosr journal of research & method in education, 1(4), 33-39. http://iosrjournals.org/iosr-jrme/papers/vol-1%20issue-4/f0143339.pdf mallinson, b.j., & krull, g.e. (2013). an investigation of the deployment of the moodle virtual learning environment at eight african universities. in mhlanga, e. & withers, j. (2013). unlocking the potential of ict in higher education: case studies of the educational technology initiatives at african universities (pp. 20-45). south african institute for distance education (saide). merriam, s.b., & tisdell, e.j. (2016). qualitative research. a guide to design and implementation (4th ed.). john wiley. mesrar, s., & m’rabet, r. (2018). e-learning definition dilemma: a literature analysis of e-learning definitions. international journal of management and applied science, 4(2), 83-88. http://www.iraj.in/journal/journal_file/journal_pdf/14-440-152301318283-88.pdf morgan, t. (2011). online classroom or community-in-the making? instructor conceptualizations and teaching presence in international online contexts, international journal of e-learning and distance education, 5(1), 1-13. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/84873815.pdf musingafi, m.c.c., mapuranga, b., chiwanza, k., & zebron, s. (2015). challenges for open and distance learning (odl) students: experiences from students of the zimbabwe open university. journal of education and practice, 6(18), 59-66. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej1079750.pdf ngara, r., ngwarai, r., & mhute, i. (2012). assessment in odl: practices, opportunities and challenges. international journal of social science & education, 3(1), 166-177. http://ijsse.com/sites/default/files/issues/2012/volume%203%20issue%201/papers/paper-18.pdf ngampornchai, a., & adams, j. (2016). students’ acceptance and readiness for e-learning in north-eastern thailand. international journal of educational technology in higher education, 13(34). https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-016-0034-x ngubane-mokiwa, s., & letseka, m. (2015). shift from open distance learning to open distance e-learning in m. letseka (ed.), open distance learning (odl) in south africa. nova science publishers. 381 njihia, m.s. mwaniki, e.w. ireri, a.m., & chege, f.n. (2016). uptake of open distance and e-learning (odel) programmes: a case of kenyatta university, kenya. commonwealth of learning (col) and open university malaysia (oum). http://oasis.col.org/bitstream/handle/11599/2598/pdf?sequence=4&isallowed=y pham, l., limbu, y.b., & bui, t.k. (2019). does e-learning service quality influence e-learning student satisfaction and loyalty? evidence from vietnam. international journal in educational technology in higher education, 16(7), 1-26. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-019-0136-3 pena-bandalaria, m. (2007). impact of icts on open and distance learning in a developing country setting: the philippine experience. international review of research in open and distance learning, 8(1), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v8i1.334 ranga, d., & mhaka, s. (2016). role of information and communication technology (ict) in open and distance learning (odl): an analysis based on zimbabwe open university. open and distance learning journal (special edition), 102-117. http://www.iodlj.zou.ac.zw/ejournal/index.php/journal/article/download/123/127 segobye, a. k. (2007). reflections on the university in africa: the role of the past in education. social dynamics, 33(1), 224-231. https://doi.org/10.1080/02533950708628754 shea, p., & bidjerano, t. (2009). community of inquiry as a theoretical framework to foster ‘‘epistemic engagement” and ‘‘cognitive presence” in online education. journal of computing in higher education, 21(3), 199-217. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12528-009-9024-5 shea, p., hayes, s., & vickers, j. (2010). online instructional effort measured through the lens of teaching presence in the community of inquiry framework: a re-examination of measures and approach. the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 11(3), 127-154. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v11i3.915 stenbom, s., cleveland-innes, m., & hrastinski, s. (2016). emotional presence in a relationship of inquiry: the case of one-to-one online math coaching. online learning 20(1). https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej1096376.pdf tafesse, f., & mphahlele, m.j. (2014). opportunities and challenges in open distance postgraduate student training in chemistry: unisa’s experience. ajce, 4(3), 95-109. https://www.ajol.info/index.php/ajce/article/view/104098 wakahiu, j., & kangethe s. (2014). efficacy of online distance learning: lessons from the higher education for sisters in africa program. european journal of research and reflection in educational sciences, 2(1), 1-25. http://asec-sldi.org/docs/published-work/efficacy_online_distance_learning_wakahiu_kangethe.pdf zinyama, t., & ndudzo, d. (2015). an analysis of factors that contribute to low student success and retention in odl institutions. iosr journal of business and management, 17(11), 94-102. https://doi.org/10.9790/487x1711194102 authors: vincent itai tanyanyiwa is a socio-ecologist pracademic with broad research interests in environment and development. his research engages with discussions on ecosystem services and human-environmental relationships, including environmental change and implication on risk and vulnerability of communities and ecosystems to these changes, water issues and urban sustainability. vincent is a lecturer in the department of geography and environmental studies at the zimbabwe open university. email: tanyanyiwavi@yahoo.com rejoice madobi is an environmentalist with broad research interests in climate change, gender and water resources management. she has been involved in university education for ten years and is a lecturer in the 382 department of geography and environmental studies at the zimbabwe open university. email: joymadobi@yahoo.com cite this paper as: tanyanyiwa, v. i., & madobi, r. (2021). challenges to the effective teaching and learning of geography and environmental studies through odel at the zimbabwe open university. journal of learning for development, 8(2), 364-382. chaudhury towards inclusive education: a case study of ignou s.v.s. chaudhury, pankaj khare, sanjay gupta and suresh garg vol. 3, no. 3 abstract towards the end of the eleventh five year plan (2007-2012), india catered to about 20 per cent of those in the age group 17 to 24 years. however, to achieve the threshold level of about 30 per cent by 2020, and address concerns that perpetuate inequalities in opportunities to higher education, the government of india (goi) formulated positive discrimination policies. establishment of open universities in general and indira gandhi national open university (ignou) in particular was one such positive step in this direction. since 1987, ignou has been striving for inclusive education and reach to all groups to meet their educational needs. as a result of its dedicated efforts, at the end of 2012, it had reached 639 out of 659 districts in the country, including those in the red corridor (with a large concentration of naxalite and maoist extremists) passing through the states of andhra pradesh, chhattisgarh, jharkhand, maharashtra, odisha, and west bengal. ignou has been successfully imparting education and training to the socially, economically, physically and/or geographically disadvantaged, in addition to women, minorities and jail inmates. our results show that participation of rural women is particularly encouraging in all programmes but the dropout rate of these groups is rather high and the success rate comparatively low. introduction with about 17 million students, 634 universities and 33,023 colleges, the higher education (he) system in india catered to about 19.4 per cent of the eligible youth in the age group 17 to 24 years towards the end of eleventh five year plan period (2007-2011) (ugc, 2012). another 10 million students were attending polytechnics and other certificate/diploma level programmes (mhrd, 2012). (the number of universities and colleges increased subsequently to 700 and 35,539 (mhrd, 2013), respectively, with similar growth in the number of students.) according to the international labor organization (ilo), india will have 116 million workers in the age group 20-24 years by 2020, as compared to china’s 94 million. and the average age in india at that time is expected to be 29 years as against 40 years in usa, 46 years in japan and 47 years in europe (mhrd, 2013; p. xiii). to be able to reap the benefits of demographic dividend, initiatives such as inclusive education is important since age structure rather than the size of the population should play a more pivotal role.. in india, democratisation of higher education is quite challenging due to a complex milieu characterised by multiple identities: social status (caste), gender (female), geographical location (rural, remote, slum), religion (minorities), region (north-east, tribal, economically and educationally backward) and disability. these groups have historically remained on the periphery of educational development even in free india. they comprise large numbers in absolute terms and there is a need now more than ever before to bring all marginalized groups within the fold of higher education. as such, ‘inclusion’ is not a new concept.  social inclusion has been deliberated on in many debates around injustice and inequality prevalent in various societies. for integration of physically challenged students with their non-challenged peers, expressions such as special education, mainstreaming, integration and flexible education have evolved in a more value-oriented nomenclature of ‘inclusive education’ (erwin, 1993) as it is ‘responsive to diverse needs and circumstances of learners and gives appropriate weight to the abilities, skills and knowledge they bring to the teaching-learning process’ (mhrd, 2008, p. 10). however, confining the domain of inclusiveness to the particular group of physical disability is in our view not quite justified because disadvantage in any form limits the scope of growth and sustainable development of an individual. it is therefore important to create an inclusive environment for all, irrespective of the nature of disadvantage. in india, hierarchies of castes, economic status, gender relations and cultural diversities deeply influence issues related to access and equity in education (mhrd, 2008, p. 9). inclusive education is an engine of social cohesion (fefc, 1997, pp. 8-9) as widespread alienation poses a threat to the stability of society (fryer, 1997). through inclusive education, one strives to bring learners from under-represented communities into the fold of higher education. to this end, every institution needs to review its processes and structures. our findings show that learners coming from disadvantaged and underprivileged sections of society can be served more effectively provided they have easy and equitable access to open and distance learning (odl) environments because availability is not necessarily availability. our findings are based on the analysis of institutional learners’ data. the open and distance learning system the odl system in india, in its initial incarnation as correspondence education, was pioneered by the university of delhi ‘as a second opportunity’ provision. enthused by its success, the education commission (1964-66) recommended that the provision of part-time and own-time education should be extended as widely as possible without being unnecessarily concerned about quality. it was appreciated by everyone, since opportunities to get higher education at a low cost were extended to all without spatial and temporal barriers. however, this educational innovation failed to realise its true potential for varied reasons and serious concerns were raised about the quality of processes and products, as well as the effectiveness and efficiency of training methods and techniques (panda, venkaiah, garg, & puranik, 2006). by 1980, the second opportunity motivated learners were relegated as ‘poor cousins’ of their full-time peers and distance educators began search for a way out. this heralded the beginning of the open era in the country in 1982 (prasad & venkaiah, 2005). indira gandhi national open university (ignou), established in 1985 with jurisdiction over the entire country, began by offering a diploma in distance education and diploma in management in 1987 to 4,528 working professionals. the spread, scope and offer of programmes evolved with time and so has the learner demography. starting from a predominantly working population, now about 50 per cent of fresh school pass outs enrol in ignou’s programmes. one of the basic reasons for the success of ignou has been that it practiced the ethos of collaboration, sharing and partnership in all operations all along. from curriculum design, planning and development of study materials (in print and e-media) to delivery of education and learner support, ignou continues to utilise existing infrastructure and the services of acknowledged experts in conventional higher education and research institutions, industry, the corporate world and civil society on a part-time basis to provide face-to-face (f2f) contact. (some aberrations crept into the system with time due to politico-bureaucratic interference for activating very ordinary institutions as student support centres, lack of enthusiasm in the university faculty for revising and upgrading learning materials, misplaced priorities, lack of quality and lack of direction from the management.) ignou’s march towards inclusive education following recommendations of the new education policy–1986 and programme of action–1992, ignou led the way towards inclusive education (swamy, 2011). in the 10th plan period (2001–2006), ignou’s collaboration with regional, national and international developmental agencies reached an enviable height, and it began to practice public-private partnership. in the 11th plan period (2007-2011); controversial initiatives, such as on-campus teaching, were taken and the university could not see the forest for the trees. india has 29 states and six union territories (uts), in addition to the national capital region (ncr), delhi. these are spread over 659 districts. of these, about 60 per cent were declared educationally backward by the university grants commission in 2007-2008 (ugc, 2007). therefore, a serious challenge confronting ignou in promoting inclusive education was to reach out to people living in such areas. obviously f2f institutions could not be established there for lack of resources (financial and trained human capital.) in this paper, we have discussed the efforts made, strategies evolved and techniques used by ignou towards inclusive higher education. the institutional data has been analysed in two parts: 2007–2012 (end of the eleventh plan period) and 2013–2015. while the former part captures efforts and facilitates comparison with reliable national data and statistics available in the public domain, the latter part helps us to know the latest status of reach at ignou. the cumulative enrolments, certifications made and number of programmes on offer for the years 2007–2015 are shown in figure 1. as may be noted, enrolments as well as certifications made have grown with time. however, the number of programmes grew exponentially in the period 2007–2012 but there was drastic reduction subsequently, because f2f teaching on campus and programmes offered by private as well as public partners under mous were discontinued in 2012–2015 after a considerable debate about openness in and mandate of the university (basu, 2011; panda, 2011; ignou, 2012). (the university has recently revived some of the programmes under mous with publically funded institutions.) from this discussion, we can say with some degree of confidence that ignou has succeeded in its mandate to provide inclusive higher education to the deprived and isolated groups. however, its outreach can improve further following the value added approach advocated by garg, ghosh, & khare (2013). figure 1: cumulative enrolments, certifications made and number of programmes on offer by ignou by december 2012, ignou had ensured its presence in all but 20 districts in five states (chhattisgarh:  7 out of 27 districts; punjab: 2 out of 22 districts; rajasthan:  2 out of 33 districts; tripura: 4 out of 8 districts, and uttar pradesh: 4 out of 75 districts) and one ut (dadra and nagar haveli through study centres/programme centres/ skill development centres functioning under any one of its 58 regional centres (s.k. mohapatra, personal communication, july 12, 2012). it is important to mention that:  even in areas like gadchirolli (maharashtra), baster (chhattisgarh) and koraput (odisha), which come under maoist dominated tribal belts, ignou has been offering skill-oriented programmes and the learners got regular jobs soon after certification (p. sivaswaroop, personal communication, october 16, 2014). many of our students, including jail inmates, have completed their programmes of study in the minimum time and have been offered assured placements in government jobs (p. sivaswaroop, personal communication, october 16, 2014). in addition to the north-eastern states, which have predominantly scheduled tribe (st) population, ignou has significant presence in districts with large scheduled caste (sc) population. ignou increased its presence in the insurgency-hit state of jammu and kashmir as well. to support these global conclusions, it would be worthwhile to compare ignou’s reach based on microscopic data with national statistics. according to the census – 2011: the rural population in india was 68.85 per cent (census, 2011a). females formed 48.5 per cent of our population. minorities accounted for about 20 per cent of total population and about 15 per cent of them were muslims. scs, sts and other backward castes (obcs) respectively formed 16.2 per cent, 8.2 per cent (census, 2011b) and around 40.94 per cent of our population (times of india, 2007). about 2.2 per cent of our population was challenged with different disabilities (census, 2011c). though visual disability was most prevalent in every state, loco-motor problems and autism were fast emerging as leading disabilities (times of india, june 30, 2014). in some states, these accounted for up to 50 per cent of the challenged population and some experts attributed these to development and the fast pace of life. the national averages of gross enrolment ratio (ger) for various groups towards the end of eleventh plan were as given below: the participation of scs, sts and obcs in higher education was respectively 12.5 per cent, 4.2 per cent and 31.7 per cent (aishe, 2012, p. 10), which was less than the respective proportions of their population in the country. as per the national knowledge commission report, the gross enrolment ratio for scheduled tribes (sts), scheduled castes (scs) and other backward classes (obcs) was 6.57, 6.52 and 8.77 respectively, much lower than the all india figure of 11 (national knowledge commission, 2006). the overall enrolment was 18.8 per cent (male 20.9, female 16.5) (aishe, 2012, p. 1). there was vast rural-urban disparity rural: 7 per cent against 68 per cent population and urban: 23 per cent against 32 per cent (konwar & chakraborty, 2013). women’s enrolment in higher education, which was less than 10% of the total enrolment on the eve of independence, rose to 41.5% in the academic year 2010-11. out of 16.75 million students enrolled in higher education in 2010-11, almost 7.049 million were women (nair, 2012). differently-abled group: less than 0.5 per cent (research report by ncpepd (2003): status of mainstream education of differently-abled students in india is available at http://ncpedp.org/education). minorities: 4.5 per cent from muslim minorities and 2.1 per cent from other minorities (aishe, 2012, p. 10). out of the total enrolment reported, enrolment under distance mode of education was about 17 per cent. (mhrd, 2012, p. 69). ignou has been playing a pro-active role in providing higher education opportunities for all with considerable success. we here present details for the socially marginalized, females, differently-abled and minority groups. socially marginalized groups in table 1, we have shown the data for scs, sts and obcs enrolled in ignou in the period under reference (2007-15). we note that: average enrolment of scs, sts and obcs in the 11th five year plan were 9.09 per cent, 10.41 per cent and 20.59 per cent, respectively. the growth rate dropped marginally for sts but increased for obcs after 2012. table 1: admission data for marginalized groups in all programmes of ignou year total data not available category   sc % sc st % st obc % obc  2007-2012 2187214 92700 190440 9.09 218087 10.41 431332 20.59 2013 379348 3148 33916 9.02 38513 10.24 85809 22.81 2014 407820 1405 39674 9.76 40552 9.98 91561 22.53 2015 476405 822 48684 10.24 43962 9.24 105841 22.26 total 1263573 5375 122274 9.72 123027 9.78 283211 22.51 as such, participation of scs and obcs as a whole in ignou programmes is below their respective national average. it is partly because of increased provisions for higher education in f2f mode for these groups. also it seems that they are yet not fully convinced about the acceptability of the odl system. though ignou follows government of india reservation policy wherever the number of seats is limited by national regulating agencies, more affirmative action in the form of seeking relaxation of numbers would be advisable over and above the fee waiver to reach out to these groups and contribute to national priorities of “development for all”. moreover, to facilitate learning, ignou will do better by relaxing conditions on study centre infrastructure and educational qualifications of academic counsellors in educationally backward districts, while appointing them even for conventional programmes for about five years after the activation of a programme (agarwal & ghosh, 2014). a closer examination of the data for sts shows that their enrolment in ignou is almost double the national average. this is a very positive indicator of the acceptability of ignou and its inclusive approach as a viable option for higher education. in fact, the educational mode and techniques used by ignou are better suited for learners in the north-east because of its geography and sparse population. moreover, being a national university gives confidence to learners. a differential analysis of the marginalised group was made keeping in view their marital status, rural-urban settings, religious affiliations and employment. these are given in tables 2(a) to 2(d). table 2(a): distribution by marital status year marital status total sc married sc % married sc total st married st % married st total obc married obc % married obc 2007-2012 190440 107962 56.69 218087 114673 52.58 431332 250904 58.17 2013 33916 21502 63.40 38513 24191 62.81 85809 50171 58.47 2014 39674 22985 57.93 40552 25833 63.70 91561 49273 53.81 2105 48684 26288 54.00 43962 27894 63.45 105841 55688 52.61 total 122274 70775 57.88 123027 77918 63.33 283211 155132 54.78 table 2(b): distribution by area year distribution by area total sc rural scs % rural scs tribal scs % tribal scs total sts rural sts % rural sts tribal sts % tribal sts total obcs rural obcs % rural obcs tribal obcs % tribal obcs 2007-2012 190440 66167 45.48 2852 2.31 218087 52939 47.53 46577 25.35 431332 196216 53.39 4350 1.05 2013 33916 15527 45.78 563 1.66 38513 15088 39.18 14182 36.82 85809 48919 57.01 1038 1.21 2014 39674 18674 47.07 650 1.64 40552 17738 43.74 12252 30.21 91561 52058 56.86 1155 1.26 2015 48684 21821 44.82 618 1.27 43962 19803 45.05 11465 26.08 105841 57678 54.49 965 0.91 total/avr 122274 56022 45.89 1831 1.52 123027 52629 42.65 37899 31.04 283211 158655 56.12 3158 1.13 note: available around 2.07% sc, 27.75% st & 0.89% obc data not and not considered while calculating percentages.  table 2(c): distribution by religion year distribution by religion % muslim scs % muslim sts % muslim obcs % christian scs % christian sts % christian obcs % sikh scs % sikh sts % sikh obcs average (2007-2012) 1.84 10.05 11.56 1.35 40.11 3.03 2.54 0.31 0.86 2013 2.32 15.11 15.79 0.83 0.83 1.45 1.20 0.03 0.59 2014 2.49 3.40 12.43 1.32 1.32 4.11 1.30 0.05 0.57 2015 2.27 3.56 12.01 1.32 1.32 3.56 1.07 0.05 0.57 average 2.36 7.35 13.41 1.16 1.16 3.04 1.19 0.04 0.58 table 2(d): employment status year employment status total sc no. of employed sc employed sc (%) total st employed st employed st (%) total obc employed obc employed obc (%) 2007-2012 190440 46864 30.30 218087 25902 18.70 431332 119429 33.02 2013 33916 8568 25.26 38513 9721 25.24 85809 21277 24.80 2014 39674 11310 28.51 40552 10783 26.59 91561 33156 36.21 2015 48684 12760 26.21 43962 9937 22.60 105841 34009 32.13 total/avr 122274 32638 26.66 123027 30441 24.81 283211 88442 31.05 note: around 1.72% sc, st and obc data not available. on closely examining the data, we note that: every alternate learner in the socially deprived group is married, implying that mature learners opt for the odl system. however, except sts, the percentage of married learners has gone down successively in the period 2013-2015, implying positive correlation of education with mature decision making. almost half of the learners from the groups under reference come from the rural areas but the percentages of tribal sc and tribal obc students in ignou are fairly low. moreover, the average percentage has changed from 2.31 and 1.05 to 1.52 and 1.13, respectively, before and after 2012. however, the situation in respect of tribal sts is significantly different: more than 40% of all sts are rural and 25 31% are tribal. it means that unlike tribal sts, ignou has not created good impact among tribal scs and obcs in rural areas and the significance of education for sustainable development by these groups is yet to be realized. a spin-off effect of these efforts could be a literacy induced drop in maoist insurgency areas, leading to societal development and saving precious human lives as well as resources. in terms of religion, the average percentages of scs, sts and obcs that had enrolled in ignou till 2012 were respectively 1.84, 10.05 and 11.56 among muslims, 1.35, 40.11 and 3.03 among christians and 2.54, 0.31 and 0.86 among sikhs. in the period 2013 2015, these changed respectively to 2.36, 7.35 and 13.41 among muslims, 1.16, 1.16 and 3.04 among christians and 1.19, 0.04 and 0.58 among sikhs. the high enrollment of christian sts is essentially from the north-eastern states and signifies that ignou has made inroads in the region. however, in respect of other groups, the success is rather limited and needs greater thrust. as far as number of employed learners is concerned, the trend is fluctuating for every category. however, one out of four employed scs and sts and one out of three employed obcs join ignou. proceeding further, we now examine the success of the university in the inclusion of marginalized groups through its academic programmes at different levels. analysis of socially marginalised groups by programmes the programmes offered by ignou have been put in four categories depending on their levels: certificate (cert), diploma (dip), undergraduate (gd), and postgraduate (pgd). in tables 3(a) to 3(d), we have presented the number of students who joined ignou in the period 2007 – 2015 from marginalised groups. table 3(a): certificate level programmes year total data not available category sc %sc st %st obc % obc 2007-2012 162819 9400 13984 9.19 12622 7.94 27239 18.44 2013 17315 32 1404 8.12 602 3.48 4000 23.14 2014 23986 163 2618 10.99 956 4.01 6412 26.92 2015 25530 38 2718 10.66 1176 4.61 7238 28.39 total/avr 66831 233 6740 9.93% 2734 4.04% 17650 26.15 table 3(b): diploma programmes year total data not available category sc %sc st %st obc % obc 2007-2012 367184 53582 30727 9.63 63977 19.17 62150 19.84 2013 26424 249 1797 6.87 6205 23.71 4794 18.32 2014 30087 14 2305 7.66 6032 20.06 6436 21.40 2015 30575 171 2375 7.81 3083 10.14 6615 21.76 total/avr 87086 434 6477 7.45 15320 17.97 17845 20.49 table 3(c): undergraduate programmes year total data not available category sc %sc st %st obc % obc 2007-2012 831519 16672 79250 9.64 68689 8.40 192987 23.11 2013 174636 1190 17988 10.37 15500 8.94 46423 26.77 2014 186642 712 20165 10.85 16143 8.68 46162 24.83 2015 221160 562 24767 11.23 20022 9.08 52984 24.02 total/avr 582438 2464 62920 10.81 51665 8.90 145569 25.20 table 3(d): post-graduate programmes year total data not available category sc % sc st % st obc % obc 2007-2012  586870 10785 42510 7.63 39824 6.74 104765 17.94 2013 127937 1336 9115 7.20 10813 8.54 24292 19.19 2014 135950 409 10981 8.10 13017 9.60 25971 19.16 2015 172900 54 15375 8.90 15992 9.25 33156 19.18 total/avr 436787 1799 35471 8.07 39822 9.13 83419 19.18 we note that: the average percentage of learners from sc, st and obc groups in certificate programmes were respectively 9.19, 7.94 and 18.44 at the end of 11th plan and 9.93, 4.04 and 26.15 for the period 2013 2015. on comparing this data with that given in table 1 for respective groups, we note that for scs and obcs, the percentage level of enrolment is almost the same as their overall average in ignou. it shows that the programmes offered by ignou cater to their interest. however, in the case of sts, the enrolment is almost half of their overall average. it implies that sts are less interested in pursuing enabling/non-employment generating programmes. on average, 9.63% scs, 19.17% sts and 19.84% obcs enrolled diploma programmes in the 11th five year plan, whereas the corresponding figures for the period 2013-2015 are 7.45%, 17.97% and 20.49%, respectively. it may be seen from table 3(b) that, in absolute terms, more learners enrol in diploma programmes than certificate programmes. however, the percentage of scs and obcs enrolled in the period 2013 – 2015 in diploma programmes was less than that in certificate programmes. this is somewhat anomalous. the total number of learners enrolled from sc, st and obc groups in undergraduate programmes in the period 2013-2015 were 79,250 (9.64 per cent), 68,689 (8.40%) and 192,987 (23.11%), respectively. as may be noted, for the period 2013 – 2015, the increase in enrolment of ug programmes in absolute terms was fivefold in certificate and 2.4 times in diploma programmes. this is quite expected because in india, the first degree is the minimum eligibility for getting a job anywhere. in post-graduate programmes, 42,510 (7.63%), 39,824 (6.74%) and 104,765 (17.94%) students enrolled from sc, st and obc groups, respectively in the period 2007-12. in the period 2013-2015, there is a slight increase in sc and obc enrolment. however, a quantum jump is witnessed for sts. this signifies significant development in the growth trajectory of ignou towards inclusive education. a detailed analysis of all pg enrolments shows that, notwithstanding dwindling numbers in mba, mca and teacher education programmes, the growth has become possible essentially due to increase in numbers in and acceptability of pg programmes in the humanities and social sciences. differently-abled learners the distribution of differently-abled learners across various academic programmes is shown in table 4. as may be noted, this group also exhibits a pattern similar to that of socially marginalized groups insofar as enrolment in certificate and diploma vis-à-vis first degree and post-graduation degree is concerned. moreover, the overall numbers as well as the percentage is dismally low compared to their national average in the population. it means that in spite of establishing a national centre for disability studies, ignou has not been able to penetrate the physically-challenged group. it would, therefore, be advisable to involve the rehabilitation council of india to renew collaborative efforts and approach national/international agencies to augment teaching-learning tools so that more effective training can be imparted. it is unfortunate that in 2013, the university discontinued ug programmes in sign language sponsored by the ministry of social justice, goi. it is time to proactively retrieve sign language and add programmes in braille using emerging technologies, because the odl mode is most suited for this group.   table 4: distribution of differently-abled by programmes year   total admissions differently-abled total ph students % ph students awr/ foud prep cert dip gd pgd 2007-2012 2187214 11819 0.54 742 394 695 5353 4635 2013 379348 1646 0.43 71 34 51 1159 331 2014 407820 2006 0.49 70 33 56 1533 314 2015 476405 1323 0.28 37 31 69 848 338 total/avr 1263573 4975 0.40 178 98 176 3540 983 awr: awareness programmes; foud: foundation courses; prep: preparatory programme; cert: certificate programmes; dip: diplomas; gd: graduate degrees; pgd: postgraduate degrees  jail inmates a very innovative initiative was taken by ignou when it began to enrol jail inmates all over the country in its liberal education programmes. the guiding principle was to provide them an opportunity to reform through education rather than by bringing them to justice. the distribution of jail inmates by level is shown in table 5. table 5: distribution of jail inmates by programmes year total admissions jail inmates total inmates % jail inmates awr/ foud prep cert dip gd pgd 2007-2012 2187214 7772 0.33 4954 1171 152 1237 258 2013 379348 11251 2.97 6722 3157 103 1143 126 2014 407820 11224 2.75 7636 2237 152 966 233 2015 476405 10822 2.27 7209 1869 120 1406 218 total/avr 1263573 33297 2.66 21567 7263 375 3515 577 awr: awareness programmes; foud: foundation courses; prep: preparatory programme;  cert: certificate programmes; dip: diplomas; gd: graduate degrees; pgd: postgraduate degrees  as may be noted: the absolute number of learners enrolled at different levels from this category is comparatively low. this is in spite of the fact that many of ignou regional centres have pursued it with vigour. comparatively enrolment is more evident  in awareness/preparatory, certificate and undergraduate degree programmes.  moreover, the experiences are reported to be extremely encouraging. the nagpur regional centre has reported vast success; nine of its learners, one of whom has been given the death penalty, enrolled from nagpur central jail and amravati central jail have received their masters degrees on the first attempt. better still, some of them also got job offers, strengthening the resolve of the university to promote inclusive education with greater enthusiasm. this initiative will begin to contribute significantly if the university starts offering skill-oriented programmes, so that when they come out after completing their jail sentences they can earn their livelihood honorably using the skills so acquired. minorities in india, every fifth indian belongs to one of the minority communities. while christians, sikhs and jains are fairly well placed in educational statistics, the situation is alarming in the case of muslims. the number of total learners in different programmes of ignou from the minorities was 202,631 (8.59 per cent) at the end of the 11th plan. moreover, the majority of them preferred the degree programmes of ignou; about 73 per cent of them were pursuing either ug or pg degree programmes: graduate (73,860; 36.4 per cent) and post-graduate (74,383; 36.74 per cent), as shown in table 6. a similar trend is observed in the period 2013-15. to make this analysis more interesting and suggest concrete measures suited for specific categories falling under the broad group of minorities, we tried to obtain differential data for this group. however, researchers discovered that the university did not ask learners to specify their religion and, thus, the required data for different sub-categories of minorities could not be obtained. nevertheless, ignou will do better by devising special provisions to reach out to the muslim community with customized programmes suited to their skill sets/regional requirements. it would therefore be worthwhile to open special study centres in muslim majority regions to offer awareness/vocational programmes. table 6: distribution of minorities by programmes year total admissions minority status total minority % minority students awr/ foud prep cert dip gd pgd 2007-12 2187214 202631 8.59 24279 13347 16762 73860 74383 2013 379348 59985 15.81 5473 1973 3791 22956 25792 2014 407820 62862 15.41 4199 2961 5404 23890 26408 2015 476405 65283 13.70 3480 3367 4678 26571 27187 total/avr 1263573 188130 14.98 13152 8301 13873 73417 79387 women according to census 2011, females constituted 48.5 per cent of our population but their enrolment in higher education was about 41.5 per cent. as such, the odl system is most suited to educate them since learning materials become available at their doorstep and attending counselling is optional. to know how far this expectation has been fulfilled by ignou, in table 7(a) we have presented women enrollment according to their marital, employment, geographical and religious status in various programmes of ignou. we note that: in the period 2007-12, 38.65 per cent women enrolled in all programmes of ignou. this was less than their proportion in the national population but compared favourably with that in higher education. almost every alternate enrolled woman is married, one-out-of-six are employed and one-out-of-three are from rural areas. however, the enrolment of tribal women and religious minorities is proportional to their average in national population. in the period 2013-15, their total enrolment increased to 45.47 per cent. the fact that a large proportion of employed and rural women are enrolling in ignou programmes is a positive indicator of ignou’s inclusive reach. we expect this trend to continue in future for all odl institutions as well, with minor variations. table 7(a): enrollment of women by marital, employment, area and religious status year total females % married % employed distribution by area distribution by religion total % % rural women % tribal women % muslim women % christian women % sikh women 2007-2012 2187214 855111 38.65 59.44 16.82 33.27 3.46 8.11 1.49 1.38 2013 379348 168952 44.54 63.48 22.01 35.80 4.89 14.95 1.19 1.57 2014 407820 185477 45.48 59.43 24.84 36.79 4.03 10.55 1.09 1.49 2015 476405 221051 46.40 56.01 22.34 34.80 3.19 10.65 0.91 1.50 total/avr 1263573 575480 45.47 59.64 23.06 35.80 4.04 12.05 1.06 1.52 table 7(b): enrollment of women by programmes year total women level of academic programme awr/ foud prep % certif % diplom % gd % pgd % 2007-2012 855111 85932 10.23 71275 8.85 124760 14.87 305893 35.45 267251 30.59 2013 168952 10878 6.44 7197 4.26 11935 7.06 69916 41.38 69026 40.86 2014 185477 9318 5.02 12845 6.93 13962 7.53 74752 40.30 74600 40.22 2015 221051 7566 3.42 13918 6.30 15289 6.92 86183 38.99 98095 44.38 total/avr 575480 27762 4.96 33960 5.83 41186 7.17 230851 40.22 241721 41.82 the enrolment of women according to programme for the period under consideration is shown in table 7(b). as may be seen, while enrolment decreased in the awareness, certificate and diploma programmes after 2012, there was significant increase in undergraduate and post-graduate programmes. (the increase in pg has been comparatively more than that at the ug level.) it shows that ignou is seen by married, employed and rural mature women desirous of pursuing higher education as a credible option.   performance analysis just as fire is the test of gold so retention, success rate and employability of learners are the surest tests of effectiveness of the inclusive reach of an institution. in the context of ignou, performance of learners in different programmes has been reported in the past (khare et al, 2004; panda et al, 2004; sadhwani et al, 2007; sanghai and garg, 2009; mishra et al, 2009). the findings of these researchers show that success rates depend on the motivation of learners for joining a programme and vary from 15–95 per cent. however, no study has so far been reported on the retention (and success) rates, specifically with regard to inclusivity considerations. we now present our findings on the performance of various disadvantaged groups under consideration (table 8(a) to (e)). we note that success rates of: socially marginalised learners in the period 2007-2012 were in the range 24-29 per cent. the corresponding data for 2013 onwards shows a steep fall, which is quite surprising. differently-abled learners were particularly high for the ug programme. moreover, they registered an increase in all programmes, except ug, after 2012. jail inmates were fairly low but their rate should be viewed as a positive step in the right direction. minorities and females in the period 2007-2012 were in the range 2-14 per cent for different programmes. though these are below the average success rates, it may be likened to ice-breaking, as far as these groups are concerned. table 8(a): socially marginalized groups year total sc awarded % total st awarded % total obc awarded % 2007-2012 190440 47944 25.64 218087 68011 28.88 431332 106881 23.97 2013 33916 5787 17.06 38513 5977 15.52 85809 18786 21.89 2014 39674 934 2.35 40552 407 1.00 91561 2432 2.66 2015 48684 379 0.78 43962 107 0.24 105841 755 0.71 total/avr 122274 7100 6.73 123027 6491 5.59 283211 21973 8.42 table 8(b): differently-abled students year differently-abled students total students total awarded cert % age dipl % age grad % age mast % age 2007-2012 11819 3284 172 5.17 230 6.08 2502 76.19 412 12.56 2013 1646 663 13 1.96 13 1.96 596 89.89 41 6.18 2014 2006 21 8 38.10 11 52.38 2 9.52 2015 1323 total/avr 7797 684 21 20.03 24 27.17 598 49.71 41 3.09% table 8(c): jail inmates year jail inmates total students total awarded % age 2007-2012 7772 199 2.56 2013 11251 324 2.88 2014 11224 317 2.82 2015 10822 113 1.04 total/avr 33297 754 2.25 table 8(d): minorities year programme   total learners cert % age dip % age gd % age pgd % age 2007-2012 202631 3217 2.11 6013 2.74 15478 14.18 26858 12.09 2013 59985 571 0.95 1260 2.10 4310 7.19 4365 7.28 2014 62862 792 1.26 316 0.50 44 0.07 13 0.02 2015 65283 288 0.44 --data not available -- total/avr 188130 1651 0.88 1576 0.87 4354 2.42 4378 2.43 table 8(e): females year female learners in programmes   total cert % age dip % age gd % age pgd % age 2007-2012 855111 20794 2.68 29019 7.65 56335 10.93 58367 10.01 2013 168952 2353 1.39 3388 2.01 15205 9.00 11338 6.71 2014 185477 3702 2.00 1358 0.73 353 0.19 58 0.03 2015 221051 2001 0.91 0.00 0.00 0.00 total/avr 575480 8056 1.43 4746 0.91 15558 3.06 11396 2.25 conclusion ignou has succeeded in its mandate to democratize higher education and is on the verge of reaching the last mile. it is hoped that with multimedia instructional technology, ignou should increase its presence to almost all districts in the country. our analysis shows that more learners enrolled in diploma and ug degree programmes. however, pg programmes have witnessed spectacular growth in recent years. the participation of rural women is particularly encouraging, highlighting the suitability of the odl system for inclusion of this group. with more judicious use of icts and customised programmes suited to the skills/requirements of different groups, ignou can reach a larger cross section of the indian population. while one may be justifiably optimistic about the reach of ignou, the same cannot be said about the success and retentivity of learners. the studies reported so far suggest that the motivation of learners for joining a programme determines their performance rate. low success rates in a programme suggest that the university should pay greater attention to the quality of learning materials through internal audits, learner support services and uniformity in evaluation. references agarwal, s. r., & ghosh, c. k. (2014). inculcation of values for best practices in student support services in open and distance learning the ignou experience. journal of human values, 20(1), 95-111. aishe. (2012). all india survey on higher education provisional report 2011-12. government of india, retrieved from http://mhrd.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/aishe2011-12p_1.pdf basu., s. (2011). thinking openness. university news, 49(30), 21-24. census. (2011a). profiles. retrieved from http://censusindia.gov.in/2011census/censusinfodashboard/stock/profiles/en/ind_india.pdf census. (2011b). scst population at glance. retrieved from http://censusindia.gov.in/census_data_2001/india_at_glance/scst.aspx census. (2011c). disability data, table c-20. retrieved from http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/disability_data/india/c_20-india.xls erwin, e. j. (1993). the philosophy and status of inclusion. envision: a publication of the lighthouse national centre for vision and child development, 1. fefc. (1997). annual report 1996-97. london: further education funding council. fryer, r.h. (1997). learning for twenty-first century. london: national advisory group for continuing education and lifelong learning. garg, s., ghosh, c. k., & khare, p. (2013). on adding value to learning experiences through support services: a case study of ignou. asian journal of distance education, 11(1), 19-37. retrieved from http://www.asianjde.org /2013v11.1.garg.pdf ignou. (2012). report of high power committee on review of programmes, their organization and modes of delivery in terms of its mandate. new delhi: ignou (unpublished). ignou. (2014). profile. new delhi: ignou. khare, p., saxena, a., & garg, s. (2004). performance analysis of ignou science students in theory courses through data mining, indian journal of open learning, 13, 29-49. konwar, n., & chakraborty, s. (2013). status of higher education in rural areas of india. journal of radix international educational and research consortium, 2(1). retrieved from http://rierc.org/social/ paper143.pdf mhrd. (2008). status of education in india: national report. new delhi: ministry of human resource development, government of india. mhrd. (2012). annual report 2011-12. new delhi: ministry of human resource development, govt. of india. mhrd. (2013). rashtriya uchchatar shiksha abhiyan: national higher education mission report. new delhi: mhrd. mishra, a., vijayshri, & garg, s. (2009). evaluation of undergraduate physics programme of indira gandhi national open university – a case study. the international review of research in distance and open learning, 10(6), 106-123. retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php /irrodl/ article/view/753/1456. mohapatra, s. k. (2012, july 12). personal communication. nair, p. v. (2012, september 4). enrolment of women in higher education increases. times of india. retrieved from http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/education/news/enrolment-of-women-in-higher-education-increases/articleshow/16244028.cms national knowledge commission. (2006). report to the nation 2006-2009. new delhi: nkc, government of india, pp. 185-186. available online at http://knowledgecommissionarchive.nic.in/downloads/report2009/eng/report09.pdf panda, s. (2011). distance education in international contexts: planning and management imperatives. indian journal of open learning, 20(10), 3-14. panda, s., raza, r., garg, s., khan, a. r., & gaba, a. (2004). programme completion, and learner persistence and dropout in distance education: a preliminary study. paper presented at pan commonwealth forum, new zealand, july 2-8, 2004. panda, s., venkaiah, v., garg, s., & puranik, c. (2006). tracing the historical developments in open and distance education. in suresh garg, v. venkaiah, c. puranik, & s. panda (eds.), four decades of distance education in india: reflection on policy and practice. viva books: new delhi. prasad, v. s., & venkaiah, v. (2005). india’s first open university: experience of two decades. hyderabad: grade, braou, 4-8. sadhwani, a., gaba, a., & panda, s. (2007). tracer studies in distance education: a case study of ignou graduates. new delhi: dec (ignou). (unpublished) sanghai, s., & garg, s. (2009). evaluation of bachelor of education programme of ignou: an appraisal by the beneficiaries. indian journal of open learning, 18(3), 149-165. sivaswaroop, p. (2014, october 16). personal communication. swamy, r. n. (2011). towards an inclusive educational system: role of distance education in india. university news, 49(42), 17-23. times of india. (2007, september 1). obc population. retrieved on july 1, 2014 from http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/ obcs-form-41-of-population-survey/articleshow/2328117.cms. ugc. (2007). report of the ugc committee to prepare detailed project report (dpr) for establishing the proposed model colleges in low gross enrolment ratio (ger) districts in india. http://mhrd.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/document-reports/report-ugcdpr_0.pdf, 1 ugc. (2012, february). higher education in india at a glance. authors prof. s.v.s. chaudhury is senior professor at the school of education, ignou. email: svschaudhary@ignou.ac.in dr. pankaj khare is senior academician with planning and development division, ignou. email: pankajkhare@gmail.com dr. sanjay gupta is associate professor at school of sciences, ignou. email: drsgupta@ignou.ac.in prof. suresh garg is pro-vice chancellor with himalayan university, arunachal pradesh.  email: prof1951@gmail.com microsoft word hodgkinson-williams.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 204-224 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. a social justice framework for understanding open educational resources and practices in the global south cheryl ann hodgkinson-williams and henry trotter centre for innovation in learning and teaching, the university of cape town, south africa abstract: at the heart of the open educational resources (oer) movement is the intention to provide affordable access to culturally relevant education to all. this imperative could be described as a desire to provide education in a manner consistent with social justice which, according to fraser (2005), is understood as “parity of participation”. drawing on her concept of social justice, we suggest a slight modification of fraser’s framework for critically analysing ways in which the adoption and impact of oer and their undergirding open educational practices (oep) might be considered socially just. we then provide illustrative examples from the cross-regional research on open educational resources for development (roer4d) project (2014-2017) to show how this framework can assist in determining in what ways, if at all, the adoption of oer and enactment of oep have responded to economic inequalities, cultural inequities and political exclusions in education. furthermore, we employ fraser’s (2005) concepts to identify whether these social changes are either “affirmative” (i.e., ameliorative) or “transformative” in their economic, cultural and political effects in the global south education context. key words: open educational resources, open educational practices, social justice, global south introduction many countries in the global south face similar educational challenges, including but not limited to: “unequal access to education; variable quality of educational resources, teaching and performance; and increasing cost and concern about the sustainability of education (arinto, hodgkinson-williams, king, cartmill & willmers, 2017, p. 6). the need for education in global south countries is continuing to grow, propelled by high population growth (world bank, 2017) and the burgeoning demand for post-secondary education. in some countries, such as south africa, there are additional challenges, such as low participation and high attrition rates in higher education (baijnath, 2018). the oer movement has been seen as a “means of contributing to the challenge of expansion of scale and opportunity and lowering cost in particular in post-secondary education” (tait, 2018, p. 111). a few studies in countries in the global south have indeed reported cost reductions as a result of oer adoption (arumugam, 2016), including reduction of costs associated with course development (pande, 2018). however, a recent study in the united states (us) raises a caution about the cost reduction argument for oer and suggests that “touting the financial value of an oer might not solely be a convincing argument for students or instructors independent of their educational use” (abramovich & mcbride, 2018, p. 37). a number of studies, mostly conducted in the global north, have garnered evidence for cost savings of oer for students (hilton, 2016; pina & moran, 2018), though some suggest that these student savings were not accompanied by any real change in their 205 learning outcomes (hendricks, reinsberg & riger, 2017) or student course satisfaction (lawrence & lester, 2018). thus, the economic value proposition for oer may not be connected to any pedagogical, cultural, or political improvements, which would certainly be the hope for the oer community. moreover, while oer are “often espoused as enabling educational equity, the reality is not always the case” (willems & bossu, 2012, p. 185). for example, in kenyan schools, orwenjo and erastus (2018, p. 148) report that “poor infrastructure, negative attitudes, lack of ict competencies, and other skill gaps among teachers and lack of administrative support are some of the implementation challenges that have continued to dog the implementation, adoption and use of oers”. crissinger (2015) suggests that the perceived relationship between openness and social justice be interrogated as, “in our excitement about the new opportunities afforded by open movements, we might overlook structural inequalities present within these movements”. these perceptions are in line with the findings by the research on open educational resources for development (roer4d) project which investigated the adoption and impact of oer in 21 countries in south america, sub-saharan africa and asia. roer4d project the roer4d project, funded by canada’s international development research centre (idrc), the united kingdom’s department for international development (dfid) and the open society foundations, commenced in 2013 and included 18 independent sub-projects. hosted by the university of cape town, south africa and wawasan open university, malaysia, a total of 103 research team members from 19 countries worked on these sub-projects. in the roer4d project oer was seen as a component of open education and referred to “teaching, learning and research resources that reside in the public domain or which have been released under an intellectual property licence that permits activities enabled by different degrees of openness” (hodgkinson-williams, arinto, cartmill & king, 2017, p. 31). the open educational practices (oep) that undergird the oer referred to are: individual or collaborative conceptualisation; creation, curation (retention), circulation (distribution) of oer through practices such as open pedagogies; crowdsourcing; and open peer review using open technologies so that they can be easily located to encourage copying (re-use “as-is”), adaptation, re-curation and re-circulation. in other words, “for oer to exist, there must of necessity be prior oep” (hodgkinson-williams et al., 2017, p. 31). in the roer4d meta-synthesis, an “optimal” open education cycle (figure 1) was used to identify the key oep that underlie the phases of oer creation, use and adaptation (hodgkinson-williams et al., 2017, p. 32). 206 figure 1: an “optimal” open education cycle (hodgkinson-williams et al., 2017, p. 32). image cc by in the main output of the roer4d project, an edited volume comprising 16 chapters (hodgkinsonwilliams & arinto, 2017), there are two meta-synthesis chapters, chapter 2 and chapter 16. chapter 2 (hodgkinson-williams, arinto, cartmill & king, 2017) adopts the key components of archer’s (2003) social realist model of social change to identify the key factors influencing oep and oer across the sub-projects. chapter 16 (arinto, hodgkinson-williams & trotter, 2017) employs the social inclusion framework of gidley, hampson, wheeler and bereded-samuel (2010) to uncover the factors that might account for the extent of oer use, adaptation and creation observed in the roer4d studies to draw insights into how social inclusion through oer and oep can be achieved in the global south. in this paper, we endeavour to move beyond social change and social inclusion to develop a framework to make apparent the relationship between social justice and the adoption of oer and oep. drawing on examples from the roer4d project, we propose a slightly adapted version of fraser’s (2005) social justice framework as a way to map how and under what circumstances the adoption of oer and oep by students and/or educators may counter economic inequalities, cultural inequities and political exclusions in education. in addition, we highlight the extent to which these resources and practices can be construed as being what fraser (2005) terms affirmative or transformative interventions. social justice following rawls, fraser endorses the notion that “justice is the first virtue in the following sense: it is only by overcoming institutionalized injustice that we can create the ground on which other virtues, both societal and individual, can flourish” (2012, p. 42). by extension fraser conceives of social justice as “parity of participation” (2005, p. 73), as both an outcome where “all the relevant social actors […] 207 participate as peers in social life” and a process in which procedural standards are followed “in fair and open processes of deliberation” (fraser, 2005, p. 87). however, both these outcomes and processes can be socially unjust in three ways, which fraser terms: (1) economic maldistribution; (2) cultural misrecognition; and (3) political misframing. in relation to economic injustice or maldistribution, fraser explains that “people can be impeded from full participation by economic structures that deny them the resources they need in order to interact with others as peers” (2005, p. 73). with respect to oer and oep, this implies that educators and students in the global south may be impeded from full participation by the lack of access to necessary educational infrastructure and materials, such as adequate buildings for instruction, uninterrupted power supply, functional technological equipment, affordable and stable connectivity and access to requisite educational materials. because of these challenges, they may then lack the digital literacy necessary for engaging with oer and oep. these types of obstacles, following fraser, indicate “distributive injustice or maldistribution” (2005, p. 73) and need to be addressed through economic redistribution or economic restructuring. economic redistribution is what fraser refers to as an “affirmative” change, where attention is paid to the inequitable outcomes by ameliorative adjustments. an example of oer as an affirmative response, or what we prefer to call an ameliorative intervention, would be direct cost savings for government for the schooling sector (wiley, hilton, ellington & hall, 2012), higher education students (hilton, 2016; pina & moran, 2018), and educators and institutions (arumugam, 2017). by contrast, economic restructuring is a “transformative” shift that addresses the root causes of the maldistribution. an example of oer as a “transformative remedy” (nilsson, 2008, p. 35) would be a change in the manner in which educational materials such as textbooks and academic journals are created, adapted, used and disseminated and how their production is funded by governments, institutions, donors foundations, etc. with respect to cultural inequality, or “misrecognition”, fraser points out that “people can also be prevented from interacting on terms of [participatory] parity by institutionalized hierarchies of cultural value that deny them the requisite standing” (2005, p. 73). in relation to oer and oep this means that educators and students in the global south may be deprived of participatory parity due to the current domination of western-oriented epistemic perspectives and proliferation of hegemonic english-language oer, a condition that can only be countered through the creation, localisation and/or redistribution of oer in preferred languages and from alternative epistemic stances. countering cultural inequality or misrecognition with ameliorative modifications or symbolic change would assist in valuing local languages and esteeming various cultural interpretations; the process and outcome that fraser refers to as “recognition”. by contrast, a transformative advance would involve what we have termed “re-acculturation” (fraser does not specify a particular term for a transformative response to misrecognition) which would respect alternative epistemic positions and acknowledge alternative authorities on what is considered to be worthwhile knowledge and dispositions. with respect to education transformation, and therefore directly to oer and oep, luckett and shay suggest that a “transformative approach would involve dismantling the power relations, social hierarchies and cultural hegemonies that currently underpin the canons, the assumed norms and values of inherited curricula and setting up processes to reimagine more inclusive ways of participating in curriculum and pedagogic practices” (2017, p. 3). 208 referring to political inequality, or “misframing”, fraser explains that this “tells us who is included in, and who is excluded from, the circle of those entitled to a just distribution and reciprocal recognition” (2005, p. 75). in other words, political misframing surfaces “asymmetries of political power” (fraser, 2009, p. 103) between those who have, and do not have, rights of membership in a decision-making community. in relation to oer, the question is: who has the right to decide on what counts as worthwhile knowledge, who decides on school and university curricula and who publishes and disseminates textbooks, journals, etc.? an ameliorative response to political misframing is, according to fraser, the provision of representation for under-represented people which creates the opportunity for participatory decision-making. however, as luckett and shay point out, this “affirmative approach works for justice within a given framing or ‘grammar’ it accepts the social structures and institutions that have framed the social practices that need changing” (2017, p. 2). for a truly transformative response what is needed instead is a “reframing” so that people excluded from the authorised contexts are given a chance to “democratis[e] the process of frame-setting itself” (luckett & shay, 2017, p. 12). in other words, to have what arendt refers to as the “right to have rights” (1951). with respect to oer and oep, it refers to the opportunity for all the relevant stakeholders to decide on what is really important educationally in order to avoid becoming “objects of charity or benevolence […] or non-persons with respect to justice” (fraser, 2005, p. 77). for just as national or provincial ministries of education and institutional agencies might be prescribing what counts as valuable knowledge, appropriate skills and desirable dispositions, so, perhaps unwittingly, do creators of oer. our conceptualisation of fraser’s social justice dimensions, injustices, affirmative (or ameliorative) and transformative responses is summarised in table 1. table 1: conceptualisation of fraser’s social justice framework dimension injustices affirmative response: addresses injustice with ameliorative reforms transformative response: addresses the root causes of inequality economic maldistribution of resources: economic inequality redistribution: of resources restructuring of economic model cultural misrecognition: attributes of people and practices accorded less respect, status inequality recognition: valued, respected, esteemed re-acculturation: plurality of perspectives, but always fallible political misrepresentation: lacking right to frame discourse, norms and policies representation: social belonging re-framing: parity of rights 209 in her conceptualisation fraser (2005) does not use the term “re-acculturation”; this is our suggestion for a transformative response to cultural misrecognition. we currently conceive of “re-acculturation” as a valuing of a plurality of perspectives, with the condition that all these perspectives are fallible and open to deliberation (following the tenets of social realism held by scholars such as archer [2003]). methodology theoretical and conceptual framing as this paper is a conceptual piece proposing a way in which to better understand how oer and oep could be judged as promoting social justice, and whether these are ameliorative or transformative interventions (fraser, 2005), the main theoretical assumptions and conceptual framing are drawn from fraser (2005; 2009; 2012), our underlying critical realist position draws on bhaskar (1997 [1975]) and our social realist position on archer (2003). the main method is conceptual research and specifically a critical analysis (epstein, 2001) to illustrate the presence or absence of ameliorative and/or transformative adoption of oer and enactment of oep. where an oer or oep example was not immediately identifiable in the roer4d studies, we have drawn on examples from other oer initiatives. data analysis the data which this paper primarily draws upon is the open data set compiled for the two metasyntheses of the roer4d project (arinto et al., 2017; hodgkinson-williams et al., 2017). in this paper, we re-engaged with the meta-synthesis open data and chose examples to illustrate our slightly reworked version of fraser’s social justice framework which we have tabularised (table 1) for conceptual clarity and comprehensiveness. insights with fraser’s social justice framework in mind, we draw upon the data and insights gained from the roer4d project in assessing how oer and oep may or may not promote social justice – in an ameliorative or transformational way – according to their economic, cultural and political dimensions. in each section we focus on various injustices that affect students and educators, assessing how certain oer and oep strategies represent an affirmative or transformative intervention in different circumstances. economic dimension some of the most powerful arguments made by the open education community regarding oer is that they can improve access to educational materials for students and educators in comparably poorer contexts. they can lower the cost of: (1) learning for students who may need to buy materials (such as textbooks); (2) funding by governments, bursars and philanthropic foundations who sponsor textbooks; and (3) teaching for educators, or their institutions, who must pay licensing fees to incorporate portions of copyrighted materials into their classroom teaching materials. to this end oer is being implemented by policymakers in a number of global south countries (e.g., colombia [toledo, 2017]; nigeria), states (e.g., karnataka, india), institutions (e.g., uct) and inter-governmental agencies (e.g., unesco, commonwealth of learning). 210 here we discuss some of the ways in which oer and oep deal with the challenges associated with educational costs and copyright restrictions from the standpoint of students and educators, seeking to better understand the limits and opportunities provided by oer and oep, and whether an intervention has neutral, ameliorative or transformative potential. oer in contexts of severe infrastructural constraint: a neutral or negative intervention the broadest and most obvious type of economic maldistribution in the education system can be seen in the comparison between the levels of technological infrastructure available to students and educators in highly developed countries versus those in less developed ones. it can also be seen within many countries, with well-resourced educational institutions catering to an elite urban strata and poorly resourced institutions serving those in poorer or rural areas. this divergence is often characterised by institutions’ comparably different levels of access to stable electricity provision, functional computer hardware and affordable broadband connectivity – key technological foundations upon which oer adoption is often premised. a number of roer4d studies focused on educational environments characterised by mild or severe technological constraints in africa (adala, 2017; cox & trotter, 2017; wolfenden et al., 2017), india (kasinathan & ranganathan, 2017) and afghanistan (oates et al., 2017). considering that oer is often promoted as a pedagogical innovation that helps partially overcome economic maldistribution (or “access”) issues, roer4d researchers were keen to understand how oer interventions might impact education in these situations. what they found is that, in contexts of irregular power supply, inadequate computer access and/or low levels of internet connectivity, most particularly in rural areas (kasinathan & ranganathan, 2017), digitally mediated oer (the type that is most commonly meant when discussing them) are not appropriate to the needs of all students, although less so for educators. what students require most are printed educational materials that do not rely on continuous access to technological platforms for their use. of course, oer need not be digitally mediated – as printed textbooks, for instance, can also be oer (goodier, 2017) – but the most comprehensive elaboration of oers’ value proposition does rely on them being digitally shareable. thus, in cases where oer are produced in non-digital formats (i.e., printed and physically distributed like traditional educational resources such as the siyavula textbooks in south africa), they may reduce government expenditure if the production costs are sponsored (goodier, 2017), but it is unlikely that they would do much to reduce any economic imbalances faced by the students and educators per se. such an oer intervention would be neutral from a student and educator perspective regarding social justice. more worryingly, the continued proliferation of digitally mediated oer may, in some ways, unintentionally contribute to a “digital education divide” and inadvertently reinforce economic inequality. it appears that, for students and educators to truly enjoy the benefits of oer, they require a certain minimum standard of technological infrastructure which would allow them to engage with oer in a meaningful way (de oliveira neto et al., 2017). this minimum standard need not require great national or institutional wealth, but at least a level of provision where there is no question as to the stability of the power supply, hardware accessibility and internet availability. hence, for students and educators, the full value proposition of oer requires that institutions receive the necessary infrastructural and technological inputs to be able to leverage oer. moreover, creators of oer need to 211 be mindful of technologically impoverished contexts and make resources available in a variety of formats, including the use of open source software that can be quickly downloaded and inexpensively reused (kasinathan & ranganathan, 2017). oer for reducing the cost of education: an ameliorative intervention with the cost of higher education being borne more and more by students and their families – and less and less by the state – the use of oer has been proposed as part of a broader strategy to bring down education costs (hilton, 2016). as shown above, this outcome has indeed been noted in us community colleges (chae & jenkins, 2015), as the nominally free price of oer reduces the overall education cost burden that students bear. this type of intervention is inherently ameliorative because it reduces costs but does not change the economic foundations of the costly system. for example, in the roer4d project czerniewicz et al (2017) describe the value of moocs that are made available as oer for nondegree purposes. for many students seeking immediate relief from educational costs, this is the best that can be hoped for. in this sense, in students’ discrete moments of engagement with educational materials, oer can overcome key inequalities produced by otherwise commercialised, expensive educational resources. a more transformative approach to this challenge, not reported in any of the roer4d studies, would be for governments and institutions to make the successful completion of quality-assured moocs or oer count as micro-credentials towards a qualification, as recently announced by new zealand’s regulated education and training system. another transformative approach would be for the relevant government agencies to prioritise educational spending to the point that it is free for all students. oer could contribute to this, especially if entire course materials (not just single textbooks) were openly licensed for extensive public use. but fully free education is typically only possible through massive state intervention (such as in sweden, where even tertiary education is free). thus, with regard to dealing with economic inequality borne by high education costs, an oer intervention is an affirmative response, and a worthwhile effort given the challenges that most governments face in pursuing the more transformative approach. oer for abolishing the cost of teaching resources for educators: a transformative intervention for educators, materials can be expensive to source for using as teaching materials due to the commercial nature of how materials are accessed, coupled with copyright restrictions, which ensure that materials remain bound by commercial constraints. in many parts of the world, higher education instructors cope with this by leveraging national fair use (or fair dealing) legislation which allows instructors to use portions of copyrighted works for educational purposes. this offers educators and students limited access to a specific resource but without requiring its purchase. this is a useful, ameliorative intervention which seeks to balance the need of educators to provide high quality materials to their students while protecting the commercial interests of the copyright owners. yet because the proliferation of digital technologies has made the sourcing and sharing of educational materials so easy, piracy has become a common strategy for students and instructors to overcome copyright restrictions (on a range of materials), allowing them full, yet “illegal”, access to some educational resources (czerniewicz, 2016). in the roer4d project a few of the studies pointed out that students and even educators were not sure about the difference between materials available on the internet and oer per se (cox & trotter, 2017; kasinathan & ranganathan, 2017) and so may have 212 unwittingly contravened copyright regulations. while this “illegal” approach is certainly transformative in dealing with the cost and access issues associated with copyrighted materials, it also opens up users to potential legal scrutiny, which limits the extent of usability of materials. it is a hazard that few worry about in their own private use of materials but which they would fear for any public sharing of the same. in this situation, oer represents the more transformative intervention than both fair dealing and piracy as open materials overcome the cost challenges associated with copyright restriction, and it does so in a completely legal manner. as oer are free for educators to source and use, whether partially or in their totality, they are potentially transformative financially and legally. this section on the economic dimension of social justice has focused primarily on a particular oep, which is oer “use” (as opposed to oer adaptation or oer creation). this is because, in the economically deprived contexts we’re concerned with here, it is the greater use of oer (whether derived locally or, quite often, from the global north) that appears to offer the most relevant oep response to the issues raised by educational economic injustice. as we will see in the next section, however, while oer use may be a fitting response to the economic inequities faced by many students and educators, it may also inadvertently lead to greater cultural imbalances if oer is used uncritically. cultural dimension while the initial promotion of oer largely centred on ensuring broader access to educational materials faced by those in economically deprived circumstances (daniel, kanwar & uvalić-trumbić, 2006), scholars have begun to be more critical about the cultural impact that oer — much of it produced in the global north — might have on users, especially those in the global south (cannell, macintyre & hewitt, 2015; willems & bossu, 2012). the question is: might the proliferation of oer from culturally privileged regions lead to even greater inequalities in the global cultural sphere, as students and educators in low-resource environments become inundated with (and/or reliant upon) “free” oer from more highly resourced contexts? for oer advocates, this is a difficult question because the economic value proposition of oer discussed above seems to be so virtuous as to make other considerations potentially less important. but according to roer4d’s research, one of the key desires that educators from the global south have for the educational materials they use is that they be locally relevant with respect to content (kasinathan & ranganathan, 2017), language (oates et al., 2017; sáenz et al., 2017) and pedagogy (karunanayaka & naidu, 2017; wolfenden et al., 2017). indeed, because educators are typically as concerned about the pedagogical import of their materials as they would be about their costs (or even more so), the question of a material’s relevance — its meaningfulness and utility in a given cultural context — is often the ultimate one when deciding whether to use it or not (cox & trotter, 2017). as we will argue below, oer should not be viewed as culturally neutral materials that can be used without attendant cultural ramifications. in this section we assess how three forms of oep — oer use “as is”, oer adaptation through translation, and oer adaptation through content remixing — address the cultural dimension of social justice. throughout, we will pay close attention to now the notion of pedagogical suitability can inflect the outcomes of these three types of oep. 213 using oer “as is”: reproducing cultural inequality? the use of an oer “as is”, without modification, is the quickest and easiest way to engage with oer pedagogically. in the open education cycle (figure 1), this oep use is referred to as “copying”. in some instances, such as when the oer is an image or short video that succinctly captures an intended educational lesson, then this copy-and-paste form of oep makes sense. the unmodified oer would hopefully be the best possible example of the knowledge that the educator is hoping for the students to engage with. in the cross-regional study undertaken by de oliveira neto et al (2017), among 295 randomly selected educators at 28 higher education institutions in nine countries in the global south, 51% of respondents reported that they had used oer at least once; 25% stated that they had never used oer; and 24% were uncertain whether they had used oer or not. of the 4784 students surveyed in the same study, 39% said that they had used oer at least once; 26% reported that they had never before used oer; and 35% were unsure whether they had used oer or not (de oliveira neto & cartmill, 2017). some of the other qualitative roer4d studies confirmed that copying originals seemed to be a common practice. in mongolia, for example educators confirmed that they were more likely to use oer “as is”, if at all (zagdragchaa & trotter, 2017). as oer come in a variety of shapes and formats (courses, modules, lesson plans, etc.), the use of oer without alteration can be problematic if it ends up propagating hegemonic forms of knowledge and values, reinforcing the cultural power and prestige of the knowledge domain in which the oer was created rather than that in which it is used. this can reproduce a neo-colonial form of so-called “knowledge transfer”, privileging dominant discourses over local ones and external frames of reference over internally relevant ones. this is not to say that all such use of oer “as is” is necessarily culturally problematic but just that this particular type of oep is often the least pedagogically critical as it relies heavily on the distant oer creator to develop the terms by which the knowledge embedded in the oer can be understood and applied locally. to guard against this possibility, a more critical approach is necessary to ensure that oer use does not inadvertently lead to increased cultural injustice. in this case, criticality means situating the knowledge claims of an oer within a broader epistemological and cultural context, allowing learners to grasp the provisionality and locatedness of those claims. it encourages students to engage with the oer but in a way that allows them to understand that the knowledge offered through it is likely not “universal” and that it exists within a complex space of competing knowledge claims, some of which are more or less relevant and compelling for their circumstances. translating oer: culturally ambivalent oer adaptation in cases where educators are able to find relevant oer to use in their classrooms, these oer may not be in the languages most suited for their students. there might be a range of useful resources in english or some other widely-spoken language but these may be insufficient in contexts where students learn better in other languages which are not well-represented in oer. a practical measure that educators can employ to ensure that an oer is more linguistically accessible is to translate the oer (if they have the linguistic capacity to do so). 214 in the roer4d afghanistan study, teachers specifically requested oer in pashto (oates et al., 2017) which the darakht-e danesh library in afghanistan, supported by the canadian women for woman in afghanistan, addressed by translating existing english oer into dari and pashto with a team of bilingual afghan volunteers. sri lankan teachers reported translating oer into sinhala and tamil (karunanayaka & naidu, 2017). interestingly in mongolia, educators were ambivalent about translating english oer into mongolian because, even though it was a preferred language of engagement for students, those same students were reasonably proficient in english already, which meant that the time educators spent translating english oer into mongolian might not yield as much educationally than if they spent that time doing other activities (zagdragchaa & trotter, 2017). as an oep, the adaptation of oer through translation has the virtue of being able to make a broader range of information and knowledge locally comprehensible. this by itself is educationally valuable, an affirmative intervention. however, translation does not necessarily make foreign language resources more locally “meaningful” or “relevant”. while translation may change the linguistic interface through which students engage with this knowledge, it may not do much to alter the underlying frames of reference upon which that knowledge is built. in contexts where the translation of foreign language oer might contribute to a broader erosion of locally derived ways of knowing, this otherwise pedagogically practical form of oep might also inadvertently reinforce or deepen prevailing cultural inequalities. as suggested above, the key to guarding against this would be ensure that the translated oer is treated critically. students would be encouraged to engage the oer with care, keeping in mind that despite the linguistic comprehensibility of the oer, it derives from a non-local cultural context, one that might have a history in suppressing local knowledge traditions (e.g., the common use of british educational materials in south africa, etc.). this recognition does not invalidate the potential educational utility of the oer in this particular context, but suggests that educators and students must remain mindful of the cultural consequences of this linguistically facile interaction with foreign materials. oer remixing: affirmative and/or transformative, critical pedagogy the two oep discussed above do not inherently demand a critical pedagogical approach, however, another type of oep — oer adaptation through content remixing — inherently calls for a more complex, and hopefully more critical form of pedagogical engagement, as the educator integrates multiple materials into a new coherent educational resource appropriate for a local context. remixing educational materials — whether partially or completely oer — allows educators to develop the most locally relevant educational experience for students as each of the resources included is done so on the basis that they are the best materials for their particular element of a broader teaching mission. they have not been simply copied in “as is” but revised and integrated into a larger content mix that is pedagogically deliberate. this invites a pedagogically critical approach that enhances the likelihood that the mixed variety of educational sources would not exacerbate cultural inequalities but reduce or challenge them. we argue that this is a transformative intervention. of course, critical engagement is necessary for any type of pedagogy to battle against cultural inequality, but oer remixing as a type of oep is inherently more likely to push educators to do so than simple oer use “as is” or oer translation. 215 thus, as we have suggested here, different types of oep are, by their nature, more or less likely to promote the kind of critical engagement with oer that is required for promoting cultural justice, at least with regards to this quite specific element of course materials preparation. however, the crossregional roer4d survey revealed that only 18% of the 295 educators and 6% of the 4784 students reported some kind of adaptation of oer (de oliveira neto et al., 2017). but therein lies a conundrum: although oer can be licenced with a share-alike licence, which means that they have to be recirculated, this is not the case for licenses such as attribution only (i.e., cc-by). by implication this means that oer can be adapted without the necessity of sharing these revised or re-mixed materials publicly. the roer4d studies show some examples of where educators are adapting oer, but then sharing these localised materials within a restricted password protected learning management system (karunanayaka & naidu, 2017). more problematically, educators did not always know where to reshare these adapted materials (adala, 2017). fortunately, a number of the roer4d studies also included workshops for educators (cox & trotter, 2017; kasinathan & ranganathan, 2017; mishra & singh, 2017; sáenz et al., 2017) to model oer adaptation. for instance, the in-service teachers in all nine provinces in sri lanka systematically documented their oer adaptation process (karunanayaka & naidu, 2016). this suggests that, for the most part, oer have been valued more for their ease and practicality of use (“as is”) rather than their ability to be remixed into a critically engaged set of resources. this does not mean that educators in the global south are not using critically engaged materials in their teaching, but just that they are yet to formally share the re-mixed oer on a public platform. going forward, open advocates need to consider the cultural dynamics of varying oep and thus focus less on promoting the use of oer as is and push for the more critical form of oer remixing which has the greater likelihood of promoting social justice. however, there is one major oep that would have far more profound transformative consequences for cultural justice: the creation and sharing of oer by educators themselves. this, along with other oep, will be discussed below under the political dimension. political dimension while much of the oer research has been focused on the economic and cultural dimensions, so far only a small number of studies have taken the political issues of power (farrow, 2017), asymmetries of power (olakulehin & singh, 2013; phelan, 2012) and intellectual property rights (mcandrew & cropper, 2011) into account. the question is: might intellectual property rights restrictions and the predominance of educational publishing in the global north unwittingly entrench current asymmetries of power for educators and students in the global south? formally allowing educators to publicly share their teaching materials: affirmative oep intervention in most countries studied in roer4d, educators do not possess copyright of the teaching materials that they develop. national copyright laws typically state that any works produced during the course of employment belong to the employer. in educational settings, this employer may be the national government, a state or provincial government, or an educator’s institution. in the higher education sector, many institutions are also guided by their own intellectual property (ip) policies that reinforce 216 this principle of employer ownership of employees’ work products. this usually includes the teaching lessons, tests and examinations that educators create. the problem with this is that educators are then only legally allowed to share their teaching and assessment materials with the students in their classroom, not the world beyond. an ameliorative intervention would be to alter the institutional ip policy to allow educators to possess copyright of their own teaching materials, thus allowing them to openly license them and share them publicly. this is the approach taken at uct (cox & trotter, 2017) where the institution automatically assigns copyright to authors. uct has also engaged in other ameliorative interventions by releasing so-called “open” moocs, which have deliberately created and/or use oer, allowing educators to share their teaching materials with a broad and interested public (czerniewicz et al., 2017). but a more transformative intervention would be for a national or provincial/state government — or more typically an institution or multi-institution education system — to collate its mass of ip (teaching materials) and share them as oer on a mass scale. mit’s opencourseware initiative paved the way in this regard, sharing many of the course materials used in the classroom with the public. in the global south, some countries such as colombia adopted a higher education initiative via their national strategy for digital open educational resources (recursos educativos digitales abiertos) (sáenz et al, 2017; roer4d, 2017). in india, the karnataka state partnered with a non-governmental organisation, it for change, to create the karnataka open educational resources (koer) project to share locally developed and/or adapted oer (kasinathan & ranganathan, 2017). however, in most cases in the global south, few governments or institutions have the awareness, resources or volition to mobilise a country, state or institution-wide effort to share their ip as oer. the more feasible option in most cases — which is affirmative, not transformative — would be to allow individual educators to share their own teaching materials as oer. this is a very low-cost alternative to the high-cost efforts required for full-scale institutional mobilization. allowing educators to re-circulate each other’s materials openly: transformative oep intervention while intellectual property policies reduce the opportunities that educators have to share their own materials publicly, copyright legislation also makes it virtually impossible for them to share any of that content if it includes portions of others’ fully copyrighted teaching materials, which may have been included (re-mixed) in the new teaching output. while fair-use policies might allow educators to legally use small portions of copyrighted material without formal permission in their classrooms, the limits on fair-use practices is vague in many jurisdictions, thus, many educators would not want to take a risk of running afoul of copyright legislation by sharing their teaching materials openly if it included material by others. a few roer4d project researchers report that educators do re-circulate others’ educational materials on an informal basis, usually via email, which is not technically legal but does serve an important community of practice among educators (kasinathan & ranganathan, 2017). a transformative response would be to alter the current ip legislation to allow for educational resources, properly attributed to the authors, to be copied and shared without formal permission or obligatory fee. this view is in line with the recent joint conclusions reached by the european trade union committee for education (etuce) — european federation of education employers (efee) — communia conference on copyright in higher education and research in the eu in april 2018. 217 creating oer: transformative oep intervention economically, culturally and politically the most transformative form of oep that educators can engage in is oer creation. assuming they have the legal right to create and share their coursework as oer, this oep has broad ramifications for social justice — economically, culturally and politically — in the educational field. economically, the creation and sharing of oer by an educator overcomes many of the challenges associated with the strictures of the publishing industry, especially concerning its need for revenue (including profits) and its use of copyright as the mechanism to create artificial scarcity and commercial value for a resource. by creating oer, an educator can overcome the cost challenges that users face by offering the resource for free, and the legal restrictions of full copyright by making the resource open, while still retaining attribution of the original author/s. culturally, the creation of oer allows educators to contribute to the global production of knowledge without regard for various gatekeepers (publishers, peers, etc.) who might otherwise — intentionally or not — stifle their voices. this is especially true for educators in the global south whose knowledge has often been “mis-recognised” or unacknowledged vis-à-vis that from the global north. by creating their own oer, southern educators can play a greater role in the globally competitive production of knowledge, insisting on their own epistemic stance. this is true not only for producing information and data but theory as well (comaroff & comaroff, 2016; connell, 2007). indeed, because of the massively transformative potential of oer creation in the cultural sphere — in which educators can create and distribute resources of local relevance without catering to the biases or preferences of (often foreign) publishers — this potential provides the most persuasive rationale for engaging in oer creation for many educators in the global south. roer4d researchers highlighted the belief that “all education should be free” (cox & trotter, 2017, p. 335) and called for the inclusion of other stakeholders in education. for example, the educators of uct’s education for all: disability, diversity and inclusion mooc, specifically mentioned the need for building partnerships between “schools, parents, community members and disabled people’s organisations” (czerniewicz et al., 2017, p. 367). oer creation also raises the prominence of local languages. for example, in the roer4d projects chilean teachers created a wikibook in spanish (westermann juárez & venegas muggli, 2017) and indian educators contributed resources in kannada to the karnataka open educational resources (koer) repository. politically, oer creation allows educators to participate directly in knowledge production, thereby disrupting traditional power relations between publishers, knowledge producers in the global north and knowledge producers in the global south. it bypasses the (mis-) framing mechanisms of publishing enterprises that often privilege the knowledge and theory of educators from the north. it also goes beyond a more ameliorative approach, which would simply include more participation and content production from educators from the global south in already established publishing ventures (such as putting them on editorial boards of northern publishing companies, and publishing a greater percentage of content from the south). this would mildly alter the current mis-framing that animates the north-south knowledge divide, but it would not challenge or overturn it. the creation and publication of materials by educators in the global south (and often “for” other educators in the region) can do that in a more transformative way, as it bypasses, and therefore challenges, the current knowledge production regime, at least as it concerns educational materials. in 218 the roer4d projects a number of educators produced original oer to be shared publicly, for example, contributions of mathematics and science oer in both kannada and english on to the koer mediawiki platform (kasinathan & ranganathan, 2017), as part of the uct moocs project (czerniewicz et al., 2017) and the teacher development project in colombia (sáenz et al, 2017). framework for analysing oer, oep and social justice fraser’s tripartite theory of social justice has provided a lens for analytically disaggregating the intertwined dimensions of how oer and oep can be said to offer “parity of participation” in education (fraser, 2005), economically, culturally and politically. in summarising the relationship between economic injustice and a proposed oer intervention, the “use” of oer (by students and educators) offers varying advantages depending on the context. for those in contexts of severe infrastructural constraint, oer do not appear capable of overcoming the challenges of those constraints. in many instances, they may reinforce them. however, in situations where students seek relief from the costs imposed by an expensive education, oer provision can serve to lower their total costs as they minimise the fees associated with certain materials. this is not a comprehensive or transformative intervention but an ameliorative and practical one, given the complexity of providing a completely free education for students. for educators who also must deal with the expenses involved in sourcing and using materials, they can of course overcome this challenge partially through fair-use practices or piracy but these are less transformative (and in piracy’s case, less legally sustainable) than simply using oer, which are financially and legally free to the user. a transformative response would also ensure that students and educators have a stable power supply, adequate access to functional computing devices and affordable and stable connectivity (in rural environments in particular); government funding for oer creation, adaptation and dissemination; and a mechanism for acceptance of oer or moocs as micro-credentials to lower the cost of formal education. with respect to the cultural influences of oer, it is important to be aware that using oer “as is” (copying) may reduce immediate costs, but may unintentionally reinforce epistemological and linguistic inequalities. likewise translation, unless undertaken critically, may perpetuate cultural “misrecognition” (fraser, 2005) by reinforcing dominant viewpoints. an ameliorative remedy would locate and incorporate oer used “as is” within local epistemological and cultural contexts thoughtfully and prudently and then re-distribute to accentuate different interpretations. transformative “re-acculturation” would include re-mixing oer critically to engage with and challenge hegemonic perspectives; creating original oer and sharing these and/or remixed teaching and learning materials publicly. moreover, educators in the global north can play their part in reducing the social injustices of the global education system — especially the cultural side of it — through engaging with more oer from the global south and incorporating them into their teaching. political misrepresentation can be ameliorated by more favourable ip regulations within countries, states or institutions that provide permission to educators to create and share oer on publicly accessible platforms, unless the institution itself takes on this role. transforming political injustices would require a more extensive international revision of current ip rights that allow for properly attributed educational resources to be created, adapted and shared without formal permission as the default practice. 219 comprehensively, or treating these three dimensions at the same time, oer creation by educators from the global south goes the farthest as an oep in transforming educational justice economically, culturally and politically. as an activity, it offers the broadest transformative potential. in table 2, the economic, cultural and political social injustices are summarised along with their associated ameliorative responses (redistribution, recognition and representation) as well as their possible transformative responses (re-structuring, re-acculturation and re-framing). table 2: oer, oep and social justice framework dimension injustices ameliorative (affirmative) response: • addresses injustice with remedial reforms transformative response: • addresses the root causes of inequality economic maldistribution: • intermittent power supply • inadequate access to computing devices • expensive and/or poor connectivity • only digital oer redistribution: • printed oer • oer available in various formats, including open source software • moocs where the resources are oer restructuring: • stable power supply, adequate access to functional computing devices and affordable and stable connectivity in rural environments in particular • government and/or institutional funding for oer creation, adaptation and dissemination • mechanism for acceptance of oers or moocs as microcredentials cultural misrecognition: • using oer “as is” (copying) • translating oer uncritically recognition: • locating and incorporating • oer used “as is” within local epistemological and cultural contexts • translating oer into local languages prudently re-acculturation: • re-mixing oer critically to engage with and challenge hegemonic perspectives • sharing their remixed teaching and learning materials publicly • creation of oer political misrepresentation: • ip legislation inhibiting educators from sharing materials created in the course of educators’ work representation: • permission by employer to create and share oer created in the course of educators’ work • creating and sharing oer on a publicly accessible platform re-framing: • internationally alter current ip rights to allow for properly attributed educational resources to be created, adapted and shared without formal permission • creation of oer and engagement of oep that balances power on educational materials and authorities conclusion in this paper we have proposed the use of fraser’s (2005) concept of social justice to critically engage with how oer, and their implicit oep, might promote social justice in a global south education 220 context. we employed a slightly modified version of fraser’s tripartite theory to assist in distinguishing how the adoption of oer and enactment of oep have responded to economic inequalities, cultural inequities and political exclusions in education and which of these could be construed as being ameliorative or transformative responses. in short, the use of oer “as is” can be a relatively straightforward ameliorative response to lowering development costs as well as direct costs to the student, educator, institution or funder, but can be seen as an “assimilationist” response (luckett, personal communication, september 11, 2018). transformative remedies will require longer term financial and organisational (i.e., accreditation of micro-credentials) restructuring to optimise the value proposition of oer. on a more positive note, oer and their underlying oep are already providing some ameliorative cultural changes as educators and even institutions incorporate oer within local contexts which includes translating oer into local languages. however, these localised oer are not always redisseminated on public platforms thereby unintentionally lowering the potential value of these localised resources. the longer-term transformative challenge is to re-acculturate (our newly coined term) educational materials and pedagogical practices, to create or remix oer that critically engage with and challenge hegemonic perspectives, to deliberately encourage a more deliberately “pluralist” perspective (luckett, personal communication, september, 11, 2018) and make these new or adapted oer available publicly. challenges still remain at the political level where national and/or institutional ip legislation and/or regulations often restrict educators from sharing their teaching and learning materials. fortunately, there are governments and institutions that are leading the way in providing more favourable ip rights, but to be truly transformative an overhaul of current ip legislation and agreements would be required. with all the good intentions of the open education movement, unless the economic, cultural and political dimensions of social justice are adequately addressed, amelioratively in the short term and transformatively in the longer term, the value proposition of oer, and their underlying oep, will most likely not be fulfilled in the global south. acknowledgements we wish to thank kathy luckett and roer4d colleagues tess cartmill and thomas king for contributing to our initial thinking about social justice and oer, assistance with the meta-synthesis coding and thoughtful comments on the paper. we would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers of this paper and the opportunity to publish in jl4d. references abramovich, s., & mcbride, m. (2018). open education resources and perceptions of financial value. the internet and higher education, 39, 33–38. retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2018.06.002 adala, a. (2017). assessing the impact of access to and availability of oer on the emergence and extent of open education practices in sub-saharan africa: the case of an ict-integrated multinational teacher education program in math and science. presented at oeglobal 2017, 8-10 march 2017. cape town, south africa. retrieved from https://conference.oeconsortium.org/2017/presentation/assessing-the-impact-of-accessto-and-availability-of-oer-on-the-emergence-and-extent-of-open-education-practices-in-sub-saharan-africathe-case-of-an-ict-integrated-multinational-teacher-education-p/ 221 arendt, h. (1951). the origins of totalitarianism. orlando, fl: harcourt inc. arinto, p. b., hodgkinson-williams, c., king, t., cartmill, t., & willmers, m. (2017). research on open educational resources for development in the global south: project landscape. in c. hodgkinson-williams & p. b. arinto (eds.), adoption and impact of oer in the global south (pp. 3–26). retrieved from https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1038980 arinto, p. b., hodgkinson-williams, c., & trotter, h. (2017). oer and oep in the global south: implications and recommendations for social inclusion. in c. hodgkinson-williams & p. b. arinto (eds.), adoption and impact of oer in the global south (pp. 577–592). retrieved from https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1043829 arumugam, p. v. (2016). open educational resources and cost savings efforts: lessons from wou. international journal on open and distance e-learning, 2(2), 49–60. retrieved from http://www.ijodel.com/wpcontent/uploads/2017/02/005_arumugam.pdf baijnath, n. (2018). learning for development in the context of south africa: considerations for open education resources in improving higher education outcomes. journal of learning for development, 5(2), 87– 100. retrieved from http://www.jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/article/view/299 bhaskar, r.a. (1997 [1975]). a realist theory of science. london: verso. cannell, p., macintyre, r., & hewitt, l. (2015). widening access and oer: developing new practice. widening participation and lifelong learning, 17(1), 64–72. retrieved from https://doi.org/10.5456/wpll.17.1.64 chae, b., & jenkins, m. (2015). a qualitative investigation of faculty open educational resource usage in the washington community and technical college system: models for support and implementation. washington, d.c.: washington state board for community & technical colleges. retrieved from https://oerknowledgecloud.org/sites/oerknowledgecloud.org/files/final_oer_use_wa_ctc.pdf comaroff, j., & comaroff, j. l. (2016). theory from the south: or, how euro-america is evolving toward africa. new york: routledge. connell, r. (2007). southern theory: the global dynamics of knowledge in social science. cambridge: polity press. cox, g., & trotter, h. (2017). factors shaping lecturers' adoption of oer at three south african universities. in c. hodgkinson-williams & p. b. arinto (eds.), adoption and impact of oer in the global south (pp. 287–347). retrieved from https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.601935 crissinger, s. (2015, october 21). a critical take on oer practices: interrogating commercialisation, colonialism and content. the library with the lead pipe. retrieved from http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2015/a-critical-take-on-oer-practices-interrogatingcommercialization-colonialism-and-content/ czerniewicz, l. (2016). student practices in copyright culture: accessing learning resources. learning, media and technology, 42(2), 171–184. czerniewicz, l., deacon, a., walji, s., & glover, m. (2017). oer in and as moocs. in c. hodgkinson-williams & p. b. arinto (eds.), adoption and impact of oer in the global south (pp. 349–386). retrieved from https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.604414 de oliveira neto, j. d., pete, j., daryono & cartmill, t. (2017). oer use in the global south: a baseline survey of higher education instructors. in c. hodgkinson-williams & p. b. arinto (eds.), adoption and impact of oer in the global south (pp. 69–118). retrieved from https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.599535 epstein, w. (2001). critical analyses. in thyer, b. a. the handbook of social work research methods (pp. 413–424). thousand oaks, ca: sage publications ltd. doi: 10.4135/9781412986182 222 etuce-efee-communia (2018, april, 11). joint conclusions from the etuce-efee-communia conference on copyright in higher education and research in the eu. retrieved from https://www.cseeetuce.org/images/attachments/joint-conclusions-etuce-efee-communia_copyright-conference.pdf farrow, r. (2017). open education and critical pedagogy. learning, media and technology, 42(2), 130–146. retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2016.1113991 fraser, n. (2005). reframing justice in a globalizing world. new left review, 36, 69–88. retrieved from https://newleftreview.org/ii/36/nancy-fraser-reframing-justice-in-a-globalizing-world fraser, n. (2009). feminism, capitalism and the cunning of history. new left review, 56, 97–117. retrieved from https://newleftreview.org/ii/56/nancy-fraser-feminism-capitalism-and-the-cunning-of-history fraser, n. (2012). on justice. new left review, 74, 41–51. retrieved from https://newleftreview.org/ii/74/nancyfraser-on-justice goodier, s. (2017). tracking the money for open educational resources in south african basic education: what we don’t know. the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 18(4). retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v18i4.2990 hendricks, c., reinsberg, s., & rieger, g. (2017). the adoption of an open textbook in a large physics course: an analysis of cost, outcomes, use, and perceptions. the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 18(4), 78–99. retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/3006 hilton iii, j. (2016). open educational resources and college textbook choices: a review of research on efficacy and perceptions. educational technology research and development, 64(4), 573–590. retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2fs11423-016-9434-9 hodgkinson-williams, c., & arinto, p. b. (eds.) (2017). adoption and impact of oer in the global south. cape town & ottawa: african minds, international development research centre & research on open educational resources. retrieved from https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1038980 hodgkinson-williams, c., arinto, p. b., cartmill, t., & king, t. (2017). factors influencing open educational practices and oer in the global south: meta-synthesis of the roer4d project. in c. hodgkinson-williams & p. b. arinto (eds.), adoption and impact of oer in the global south (pp. 27–67). retrieved from https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1037088 karunanayaka, s. p., & naidu, s. (2017). impact of integrating oer in teacher education at the open university of sri lanka. in c. hodgkinson-williams & p. b. arinto (eds.), adoption and impact of oer in the global south (pp. 459–498). retrieved from https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.600398 kasinathan, g., & ranganathan, s. (2017). teacher professional learning communities: a collaborative oer adoption approach in karnataka, india. in c. hodgkinson-williams & p. b. arinto (eds.), adoption and impact of oer in the global south (pp. 499–548). retrieved from https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.601180 lawrence, c. n., & lester, j. a. (2018). evaluating the effectiveness of adopting open educational resources in an introductory american government course. journal of political science education, 1-12. doi: 10.1080/15512169.2017.1422739 mcandrew, p., & cropper, k. (2011). open educational resources and intellectual property rights. moscow: unesco institute for information technologies in education. mishra, s., & singh, a. (2017). higher education faculty attitude, motivation and perception of quality and barriers towards oer in india. in c. hodgkinson-williams & p. b. arinto (eds.), adoption and impact of oer in the global south (pp. 425–458). retrieved from https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.602784 223 nilsson, m. (2008). rethinking redistribution and recognition: class, identity, and the conditions for radical politics in the “postsocialist” age. new proposals: journal of marxism and interdisciplinary inquiry, 2(1), 31-44. retrieved from https://ojs.library.ubc.ca/index.php/newproposals/article/view/119/235 oates, l., goger, l. k., hashimi, j., & farahmand, m. (2017). an early stage impact study of localised oer in afghanistan. in c. hodgkinson-williams & p. b. arinto (eds.), adoption and impact of oer in the global south (pp. 549–573). retrieved from https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.600441 olakulehin, f., & singh, g. (2013). widening access through openness in higher education in the developing world: a bourdieusian field analysis of experiences from the national open university of nigeria. open praxis, 5(1), 31-40. retrieved from https://www.learntechlib.org/p/130656/ orwenjo, d. o. & erastus, f. k. (2018). challenges of adopting open educational resources (oer) in kenyan secondary schools: the case of open resources for english language teaching (orelt). journal of learning for development, 5(2), 148-162. retrieved from http://www.jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/article/view/282/317 pande, j. (2018). opportunities and challenges in the adoption of open educational resources for course development: a case study of uttarakhand open university. international journal of information technology, 10(3), 339-347. retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2fs41870-018-0126-z pina, a. a., & moran, k. a. (2018). effects of an open educational resource initiative on students, faculty and instructional designers. online journal of distance learning administration, 11(2). retrieved from https://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/summer212/pina_moran212.html phelan, l. (2012). politics, practices, and possibilities of open educational resources. distance education, 33(2), 279-282. retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1080/01587919.2012.692070 roer4d (research on open educational resources for development). (2017). spotlight on oer policy in the global south: case studies from the research on open educational resources for development (roer4d) project. cape town. research on open educational resources for development. retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.844695 sáenz, m. p., hernandez, u., & hernández, y. m. (2017). collaborative co-creation of oer by teachers and teacher educators in colombia. in c. hodgkinson-williams & p. b. arinto (eds.), adoption and impact of oer in the global south (pp. 143–185). retrieved from https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.604384 tait, a. w. (2018). education for development: from distance to open education. journal of learning for development, 5(2), 101–115. retrieved from http://www.jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/article/view/294 toledo, a. (2017). open access and oer in latin america: a survey of the policy landscape in chile, colombia and uruguay. in c. hodgkinson-williams & p. b. arinto (eds.), adoption and impact of oer in the global south (pp. 121–141). retrieved from https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.602781 westermann juárez, w., & venegas muggli, j. i. (2017). effectiveness of oer use in first-year higher education students' mathematical course performance: a case study. in c. hodgkinson-williams & p. b. arinto (eds.), adoption and impact of oer in the global south (pp. 187–229). retrieved from https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.601203 willems, j., & bossu, c. (2012). equity considerations for open educational resources in the glocalization of education. distance education, 33(2), 185–199. retrieved from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01587919.2012.692051 wolfenden, f., auckloo, p., buckler, a., & cullen, j. (2017). teacher educators and oer in east africa: interrogating pedagogic change. in c. hodgkinson-williams & p. b. arinto (eds.), adoption and impact of oer in the global south (pp. 251–286). retrieved from https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.600424 224 world bank. (2017). world development indicators 2017. washington, d.c.: world bank. retrieved from https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/26447 zagdragchaa, b., & trotter, h. (2017). cultural-historical factors influencing oer adoption in mongolia's higher education sector. in c. hodgkinson-williams & p. b. arinto (eds.), adoption and impact of oer in the global south (pp. 389–424). retrieved from https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.599609 authors dr. cheryl hodgkinson-williams is an associate professor in the centre for innovation in learning and teaching (cilt) at the university of cape town (uct), south africa. she was the principal investigator of the idrc-funded international research on oer for development (roer4d) project (2013-2017). email: cheryl.hodgkinson-williams@uct.ac.za henry trotter is a researcher at the centre for innovation in learning and teaching (cilt) at the university of cape town (uct), south africa, and worked for the research on oer for development (roer4d) project. email: trotterhenry@hotmail.com cite this paper as: hodgkinson-williams, c. a., & trotter, h. (2018). a social justice framework for understanding open educational resources and practices in the global south. journal of learning for development, 5(3), 204-224. microsoft word passos.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 83-86 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. book review assignments as controversies: digital literacy and writing in classroom practice ibrar bhatt new york: routledge, 2017, pp. 160, isbn: 9781138185456 assignments as controversies tells a multifaceted story about academic assignments and how they are completed in the classroom. it looks at the complex task of assignment writing from a perspective of the different practices the task entails and the actors that enact them. acknowledging the social aspect of literacy, informed by literacy studies theory, the author explores the impact of ‘the social’ on meaning making, the disconnect between personal and curricular literacies and ponders how the practices of assignment writing should contribute to the improvement of assignments as assessment tools. the author begins by presenting the theoretical constructs that ground his research to help situate the reader in the context of digital literacies. approaching his research questions from the lens of sociomateriality theory, which posits that “all practices emerge from entanglements between people and things” (p. 30) he puts forward the actor network theory (ant) as a set of approaches and techniques to guide his observations as he explores the impact of digital literacies in the assignment writing activity, especially as institutionally mandated literacies may not necessarily correlate with the actual practices of students. the theoretical frameworks introduced by the author to frame his research espouse that there are many aspects to literacies, and that one cannot look at literacies and individualised events in time and space. looking at literacies not only as a set of individualised skills but rather as a series of relationships between actors, the author investigates assignment writing and the use of digital literacies to gain insight into how student work gets done with the support of technology in the classroom, exploring to which degree technology enables or constrains the task. the study adopted a phased ethnographic approach carried out at three different colleges in the north of england involving one student at each site in a specific program of study. it included three phases of data collection: direct observations with a focus on ethnographic observations of institutional culture and classroom activities; tracing and video recording of student behaviour during class time; and student interviews which included the drawing of a venn diagram to map each student’s practices of digital literacy, the tools they chose to use for personal and work-related tasks and the intersections between them. the book is organised in three parts. in part i the author focuses on the background of the study and the theoretical approaches that frame it, as summarised above. 84 in part ii, the author recounts the assignment writing part of each classroom observation. he begins by providing background information on the individual college, including information on information and communication technologies (ict) policies and existing infrastructure. all colleges have virtual learning environments (vle). one college requires its use as part of an extensive ict policy and another college forbids the use of mobile devices and social media for personal use. he then provides specific information about the program of study and the respective course that each student is working on. he describes the requirements for each assignment and the classroom setting in which it occurs. he presents the qualitative findings from his investigation as vignettes and interprets them for context. in the account of the first assignment, previous assignment work done by the student becomes a crucial part of the process of assignment writing, supported by the students’ digital literacy practices of data organisation and easy retrieval from an external drive. the author introduces the notion of collateral realities, realities that are constructed serendipitously, to show how the student unpacks all the different tasks contained within the task of assignment writing: from web searches, to synthesizing information. he observes the tension between the student’s normal digital practices of using mobile devices to look up information using a variety of tools, including chats on social media, and the institutionally sanctioned practice of not allowing the use of personal devices in the classroom. these tensions link vernacular literacies with vernacular practices and demonstrate that personal and course activities and the realities in which they exist, cannot be separated in student practice. the richness of outside college literacy practices plays a critical role in the success of the assignment writing task. in the account of the second assignment, the author observes a variety of assemblage identities developing as the student creates a digital portfolio that includes blog entries, tweets and web link curation. these identities are validated by the student’s own set of digital practices and the tools they choose to use. an unclear delineation of personal/work activity is also present in this account of assignment writing, as the student links personal and college work activity through blogging and other social media tools. jumping from one task to another to develop the portfolio is facilitated by technology, in spite of the student’s having to negotiate technical challenges to get the task done. in the account of the third assignment, the author observes how the student must jump through a few hoops to get the task done, such as having to access assignment instructions in multiple places, accessing the computer lab, logging in to the vle to get the information needed to complete the assignment, installing plugins and submitting the assignment through the vle. this student experience was purposely designed by the teacher as the course included a component about using ict, more specifically, about using social media tools for education. the assignment design required the application of a set of digital practices that were not necessarily aligned with the student’s vernacular digital practices, hindering the completion of the task. further observations also indicated that the student had a clear delineation of social media tools that would be used for college work and for personal use. although some aspects of the student’s digital practices were incorporated in the assignment writing task in terms of knowing how to use some of the tool, the use of specific social media tools showed a clear separation between the personal and work realms. part iii of the book includes three chapters that explore the concepts of task interconnectedness and contextualized digital practices, curation as a digital literacy practice and irruption. 85 in chapter 6, the author uses matryushka dolls to illustrate his observation of student practices during the assignment writing in part ii which showed that several actors are involved in resolving nested tasks that require contextualized literacy practices across a multitude of events as part of assignment writing. these observations supported the theoretical frameworks discussed in part i that espoused that digital literacies cannot be understood in isolation, by what happens inside the classroom alone. digital literacies emerge as practices that originate from different domains and are collectively mobilised into assembling the task at hand, as students jump through hoops, face resistance and overcome challenges. chapter 7 explores curation as a digital literacy practice and the perception of assessment events that include curation as a central component for assessment. by differentiating between content creation, content aggregation and content curation while using the classroom cases described in part ii of the book to theorise curation practices, the author concludes that curation is a digital literacy practice that impacts assignment writing because it requires higher levels of independence and self-regulation from students. it encourages self-directed and autonomous learning and fuels creativity and student engagement as they develop an enhanced sense of ownership of their work as they craft their assignments. looking at assignment design, the author argues that curation could be incorporated as a value-added element to facilitate and foster learning. chapter 8 advances the concept of irruption, contrasting it with disruption. much is talked about disruptive technologies and innovation in in the field of educational technology, and although many disruptors such as new tools and equipment can be introduced into the classroom, it does not reflect disruption for the students who are prolific in the use of digital media, as these tools and equipment, such as mobile phones, social media apps, etc., are part of their daily lives. the concept of irruption emerges from the flow of practices into a different arena, such as education, which may have disallowed them in the past. it is about digital literacy practices which originated elsewhere, but were mobilised into different events in the classroom, such as assignment writing. the digital literacy practices that emerge through assignment writing may not be aligned with the expected practices that framed the design of an assignment. to better understand assignment writing and enhance assignment design for learning, it is important to harness the irruption of emerging digital literary practices. in summary, this book proposes a novel approach to the study of digital literacies to better understand curricular activities, including assignment writing. it puts forward the notion that digital literacy is not an individualised act and that to better understand assignment writing it is important to consider all the actors, events and practices that interplay to enable its completion. the author underlines that studying learner practices and how they engage with digital media in curricular activities is fundamental to understand the efficacy of assignment design, technological investments and how new digital literacies emerge from the practices of students. digital literacy practices are not a set of skills that can be applied in the same way across the board. the localised practices that emerge from students as they negotiate educational transactions should inform digital literacy frameworks and taxonomies to support educational design, as opposed to conventional notions of ‘what works’. 86 reviewed by: rosario passos, an instructional designer and instructional development consultant, the british columbia institute of technology, canada. email: rosario@cascadia.bc.ca cite this paper as: passos, r. (2019). book review: assignments as controversies: digital literacy and writing in classroom practice by i. bhatt. journal of learning for development, 6(1), 83-86. microsoft word balasubramanian.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 313-314 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. book review learning as development: rethinking international education in a changing world daniel a. wagener new york, ny: routledge, 2018, xv, 324 pages, isbn: 9781848726079 daniel wagner’s learning as development is an important contribution in this area and, as marlaine lockheed of the world bank points out, the volume “humanizes and broadens the discussion of education and development”. wagner’s book calls for rethinking education and defining its relationship with international development. it calls for moving towards “an agenda that puts human development closer to the center of global ambitions and prioritises learning as the thread that binds each phase of human life into a coherent whole”. the world has come together and has agreed to achieve the sustainable development goals (sdgs) to be realised by 2030. according to wagner, the shift from the “economic growth” models to a human and sustainable development approach has necessitated a need to rethink education in the context of international development, particularly with reference to equity vis-à-vis poor and marginalised communities. while lamenting the siloed approach in education, wagner offers a four interconnected and overlapping quadrant learning framework vis-à-vis learning contexts and learning practices. this framework covers the entire gamut of learning: structured non-formal education, less structured nonformal learning, structured formal education, less structured in-school learning. the conventional educational policies and programmes offered at educational institutions in many developing countries are sectoral and focus exclusively on structured formal education. while reading wagner’s book, one cannot avoid relating his arguments with that of stiglitz and greenwald’s (2014) “creating a learning society” where they write that a learning society can be created not just by developing sound educational policies and programmes alone but also by trade, industry and agriculture policies and programmes. the investments by firms, industries and markets in promoting learning, such as on-the-job training, probably falls into the category of structured nonformal education. though wagner has given limited focus to this type of learning, he describes the learning taking place in sectors such as agriculture and health, and has given attention to non-formal education and learning, which is usually missed in large number of works on education. the book carefully avoids romanticising education and learning. the western “banking” pedagogy criticised by paulo freire and “the world educational crisis” of coombs are referred to readers, calling upon them to introspect their own educational system. the book is well-written, engaging the readers with perspectives, stories, research and data. its structure, with four parts and twelve chapters, follows the essential theme of the book: rethinking 314 education and learning in the context of international development. educational researchers will be particularly interested in the chapter on “measurement of learning” where wagner mentions the three principles, “if you cannot measure it, you cannot manage it”, “if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail” and “looking only where there is a light”. in particular, his elaboration of the third principle, “individuals and international professionals and agencies typically look for solutions that are convenient, within their competencies … poses development challenges “is a warning that educational policy-makers, researchers and agencies need to understand and respond to. sdg 4 aims at lifelong learning while most of its targets and indicators are oriented towards formal education. the book could have given more emphasis to lifelong learning even though it refers to learning in and out of school. the four-quadrant learning framework in essence is a framework for lifelong learning. however, the theoretical perspectives of blending pedagogy, andragogy and heutagogy for such a framework is still at an early stage and the education system is yet to evolve a clear approach in operationalising of lifelong learning. sdgs can end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity, only when there is an effective linkage between the 17 goals. thus, the value of each sdg depends not only on the achievement of its own targets, but also on its ability to add value to the other 16 sdgs. even if sdg4 achieves all its targets, it cannot be construed as development unless it is able to influence other sdgs such as sdg 5 (gender equality and empowerment) and sdg 1 (poverty reduction), etc. education should lead to other development outcomes, including an increase in gender equality and empowerment, as well as a decrease in poverty. wagner’s learning as development is a highly significant addition to the debate on the role of education and learning in development and has the potential to guide stakeholders such as policy makers and practitioners. reviewed by: dr. k. balasubramanian, vice president, commonwealth of learning, canada. email: kbala@col.org reference stiglitz, j. e., & greenwald, b. c. (2014). creating a learning society: a new approach to growth, development, and social progress. columbia university press. cite this paper as: balasubramanian, k. (2018). book review: learning as development: rethinking international education in a changing world by daniel a. wagener. journal of learning for development, 5(3), 313-314 microsoft word pandaeditorial.docx issn: 2311-1550 2020, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 1-4 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. editorial furthering research and development in technology-enabled learning santosh panda considerable attention has been paid, in the recent past, to technology-enabled learning (tel) and how digital technologies have been facilitating teachers, learners and trainers in transforming the ways they approach teaching-learning and development (kirkwood & price, 2016; sankey & mishra, 2019). institutions across the globe use tel to ‘enhance’ the quality of learning and teaching with the use of technology (browne et al, 2010) and invest considerably in technologies that could have an impact as such. but, the very ‘enhancement’ vis-à-vis ‘impact’ issue was subsequently contested to visualise an ‘enabling’ stance in the use of technology. professional development initiatives based on the enhancement proposition had to struggle as to how to enhance quality in teaching-learning. concurrent articulation on the scholarship of teaching and learning (fanghanel et al, 2016; kirkwood & price, 2013; mckinney, 2007; perry & smart, 2007; trigwell, martin & prosser, 2000) provided impetus to ‘facilitating and enabling’ stances over technology-managed and/or technology-enhanced stances. the focus of the commonwealth of learning (col), as a global catalyst of transformations in teaching, learning and professional development, has been to judiciously and effectively integrate and use technologies to enable the practitioners to engage towards quality outcomes. tel at col, therefore, was consciously designed as enabling, rather than enhancing (mishra & panda, 2020; ferguson, 2019). contemporary research evidence suggests that while digital technologies practically facilitate student engagement in a number of ways, including study logistics, flexibility, and visual learning, there is a need to go deeper into aspects relating to ‘deep learning’ – collaborative, participatory, connected, and creative learning (henderson, selwyn & aston, 2017). it is also imperative to be mindful of what selwyn (2016) contended as being extra careful in using the oversimplified and deterministic use of the term ‘educational technology’ and what biesta (2013) discussed as reductive learnification of education. studies on both success stories of technologies facilitating meaningful learning, and also the rhetoric of overstating the effect of technology have been reviewed and reported (henderson et al, 2017, 2015; jones, 2012). as much as the authors reported “the disparities between the educational potential of technology in comparison to what takes place in practice” (henderson et al, 2015, p. 122) identifying thirteen conditions for success, there is much need to collect and collate further researches on the experiences of practitioners, researchers and educational managers dealing directly with ‘enabling’ tel and online learning. the collection of papers in this first issue of jl4d 2020 reports some recent works of researchers and practitioners of tel across the globe. most of these were presented at the col’s 9th pan-commonwealth forum on open learning held in edinburgh, scotland in september 2019. 2 in the first invited paper, lani gunawardena critically analyses and reflects on cultural inclusion in online learning through examining two capacity development projects (in ghana and sri lanka) which she has led – a mobile and blended learning solution for capacity development of physician assistants in ghana, and a distance education modernisation project in sri lanka. cultural inclusion was guided by her and colleagues’ framework of online wisdom communities (wiscom), which envisages “attainment of transformative learning through collaboration, reflection, and exploration in a wisdom community”. this paper should be a significant contribution to design frameworks guiding community practitioners, teachers, researchers and professional developers in the development and implementation of accessible and inclusive online learning. this should also trigger further critical research in this area. our first research paper, by meina zhu and curtis bonk, is on student self-monitoring and selfdirected learning through moocs, and the required technology, tools and instructional strategies. the authors have examined various instructional strategies, including tutorials, progress bars, internal and external feedback, reflective questions, as also fostering learning communities. many of these are reported to be significant in facilitating self-monitoring of learners and assisting self-directed learning. this paper is expected to provide further impetus to continuing research on moocs. in the third paper, whitelock, edwards and okada report the research findings of a large-scale international survey on e-authentication, implemented through a european union project — adaptive trust-based e-assessment system for learning (tesla). over half of the surveyed students were highly satisfied with various e-authentication instruments like face recognition, voice recognition, keystroke dynamics, forensic analysis, and plagiarism detection; and even more teachers than students reported higher satisfaction with the e-authentication system/suite for online assessment. this is an area which needs further research and probing, since most institutions (especially in the low and middle income countries) are struggling to introduce and sustain an authentic e-assessment system for their teachers and students. shironica karunanayaka and w. m. s. weerakoon report the results of a research study on the impact of a specific tel project — the commonwealth digital education leadership training in action (cdelta) — on the process of teaching-learning in sri lankan schools. they report that while the use of the c-delta platform enhanced digital education leadership skills of teachers, the students also significantly gained in digital behaviour and critical thinking as a result of increased digital literacy and application of newer teaching-learning strategies. this and their related published works should be very useful to school managers, school teachers and educational researchers working for tel in the school sector. in recent research at the national open university of nigeria, clifford amini and oluwaseun oluyide investigated the ict competencies among distance learning students as reported in the next paper. the researchers reported a high level of digital literacy amongst the learners, though most had to struggle to effectively use ict for knowledge creation, and they recommended that courses on computers and technology should be made compulsory for all learners to make the best use of technology for learning. in this issue, we present also the findings of two case studies. our first case study is by joel mtebe, mussa kissaca, christina raphael and josephine steven on promotion of youth employment through 3 ict in vocational education, and the second case study explores open digital badges in teacher education in india by freda wolfenden, lina adinolfi and simon cross — both should be of interest to researchers and practitioners of tel, and contribute to their teaching-learning practices. the two book reviews by terry anderson and paul west, respectively, (two celebrated tel specialists) should be of interest to readers as well as practitioners of tel. it is a privilege for me to have joined jl4d as its chief editor. both alan tait and anne gaskell, as chief editors at different spells of jl4d, have established the quality of the journal and have made it truly international; and i hope to maintain its quality and take it forward. special thanks to prof. asha kanwar, president and ceo of col, for inviting me to serve as the chief editor, and specifically to dr tony mays, dr sanjaya mishra and prof romeela mohee for facilitating the first issue of 2020 to take off well. we also thank all the peer reviewers who have been supporting jl4d. a list of peer reviewers who supported the journals in 2019 is included at the end of this editorial as an acknowledgement of their contributions. i hope, the contributions to this issue are valued, reflected upon and utilised by scholars across the globe. we shall be glad to receive suggestions and critical reflections from the readers to further strengthen the quality of the journal. santosh panda chief editor, jl4d references biesta, g. (2013). interrupting the politics of learning. power and education, 5(1), 4-15. browne, t. et al (2010). 2010 survey of technology enhanced learning for higher education in the uk. oxford: universities and colleges information systems association. fanghanel, j., pritchard, j., potter, j., & wisker, g. (2016). defining and supporting the scholarship of teaching and learning (sotl): a sector-wise study. york: the higher education academy. ferguson, r. (2019). pedagogical innovations for technology-enabled learning. vancouver: the commonwealth of learning. jones, c. (2012). networked learning, stepping beyond the net generation and digital natives. in l. dirckinckholmfeld, et al (eds.), exploring the theory, pedagogy and practice of networked learning. new york: springer. kirkwood, a., & price, l. (2016). technology-enabled learning implementation handbook. vancouver: the commonwealth of learning. kirkwood, a., & price, l. (2013). missing: evidence of a scholarly approach to teaching and learning with technology in higher education. teaching in higher education, 18(3), 327-337. henderson, m., selwyn, n., & aston, r. (2017). what works and why? student perceptions of ‘useful’ digital technology in university teaching and learning. studies in higher education, 42(8), 1567-1579. henderson, m., finger, g., larkin, k., smart, v., aston, r., & chao, s. h. (2015). conditions for successful technology enabled learning. in t. reiners et al (eds.), globally connected, digitally enabled. proceedings ascilite 2015, perth, pp.122-130. 4 mckinney, k. (2007). enhancing learning through the scholarship of teaching and learning: the challenges and joys of juggling. san francisco: anker publishing. mishra, s., & panda, s. (2020). prologue: setting the stage for technology-enabled learning. in s. mishra & s. panda (eds.), technology-enabled learning: policy, pedagogy, and practice. vancouver: the commonwealth of learning. (forthcoming) perry, r. p., & smart, j. c. (2007). the scholarship of teaching and learning in higher education: an evidence-based perspective. dordrecht: springer. sankey, m., & mishra, s. (2019). benchmarking toolkit for technology-enabled learning. vancouver: the commonwealth of learning. selwyn, n. (2016). minding our language: why education and technology is full of bullshit… and what might be done about it. learning, media and technology, 41(3), 437-443. trigwell, k.e., martin, j. b., & prosser, m. (2000). scholarship of teaching: a model. higher education research & development, 19(2), 155-168. acknowledgement to peer reviewers in 2019 • alan w tait • aras bozkurt • cheryl ann hodgkinson-williams • curtis j. bonk • john domingue • karen aline françoise ferreira-meyers • mohamed ally • pankaj khare • rhoda karimi gitonga • stephen john murgatroyd cite this paper as: panda, s. (2020). editorial— furthering research and development in technology-enabled learning. journal of learning for development, 7(1), 1-4. microsoft word ferreira-meyers.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 187-190 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. book review guide to blended learning m. cleveland-innes with d. wilton burnaby: col, 2018, vii, 79 p., isbn 978-1-894975-94-0 available for download at http://oasis.col.org/handle/11599/3095 this compact yet complete guide to blended learning is a welcome addition to the arsenal of useful resources published every year by the commonwealth of learning. eight chapters, a reference list and two appendices (one is entitled community of inquiry blended learning evaluation and the second one is col's blended learning design template) open up the world of blended learning to both newcomers in the field, researchers and other private and public stakeholders such as teachers and lecturers who have already been implementing blended learning in their respective professional fields (first and foremost in the field of teaching and learning), but want to improve their skills. teamwork is at the basis of this blended learning resource: sanjaya mishra was in charge of concept development, planning and editing, while martha cleveland-innes is the book’s principal author. she received support from dan wilton in the writing of the resource. two critical readers, d. randy garrison and heather kanuka, went through the work with a fine-tooth comb before it was published. col president, professor asha kanwar, drafted the foreword. in it, she restates col’s mandate, namely that of promoting the development of odl resources and technologies. thus, in line with this mandate, the present publication looks at blended learning. why blended learning? one of the reasons is that blended learning environments have resulted in better learner performance, mainly because of improved support given to learners and increased interaction between the various role-players. this guide to blended learning was designed based on feedback received from col partner institutions. the main idea behind it was to make available a series of best practices regarding blended learning. the present guide is, on its own, a kind of example of blended learning as all chapters are accompanied by a video introduction accessible through a qr code and direct link, used to attract readers’ attention and help them to focus on specific activities. this outstanding resource contains eight well-written chapters with a variety of activities and many examples that can be used when blending. chapter 1 is entitled blended learning. in this chapter readers are introduced to blended learning: how it is defined, how it emerged, how it is being used and what it has to offer, as well as challenges 188 they may encounter when implementing a blended learning approach. the following subsections develop the main ideas of the chapter: the growth of blended learning; what is blended learning?; blended learning uses; benefits of blended learning, and making blended learning work. blended learning refers to “the combination of face-to-face classroom instruction with online learning within a course or programme” (p. 6). models of blended learning, such as the flipped classroom, the blended block model and fully online approaches are also introduced in this chapter. the advantages of blended learning for students, over and above the fact that it gives the learners an opportunity to become virtual citizens, include increased learning skills, greater access to information, improved satisfaction and learning outcomes, flexibility and opportunities both to learn with others and to teach others. a conclusion precedes the more practical sections of each chapter, namely a scenario, some reflection questions and resources for further reading. this format is found in almost every chapter; keeping a similar format in the different chapters is an example of a good practice in learning materials’ development as it accustoms the reader/learner to a certain structure (the reader/learner knows what to expect). in chapter 2: theories supporting blended learning, special attention is given to the following topics: using theory to support blended learning practice; the complex adaptive blended learning system (cabls network); the community of inquiry (coi) theoretical framework in blended learning; creating a community of inquiry: what the research tells us; seven blended learning structures in education, and blended learning as technology-enabled learning in the classroom. on page 10 the authors refer to the detailed work done by wang, han and yang (2015), who provide an important overview of all major, blended learning theoretical frameworks available. the diagram and table on pages 11 and 12 show the different elements of the cabls framework (learners, teachers, content, technology, learner support and institution) and explain how they interact. research indicates that the theoretical coi framework, which is organized around concepts of teaching, social and cognitive presence, is especially useful when it comes to the development of higher order thinking skills, which are often the ‘forgotten orphans’ of educational programmes. the sarm (substitution, augmentation, modification and redefinition stages) model is explained towards the end of this chapter: the authors included brubaker’s 2013 visualisation of the model and the list of descriptors for the four stages of the model. the starting point of chapter 3: successful blended learning, is the fact that “the most effective blended learning design offers a learner-centred approach that is personalisable and accessible (baldwin-evans, 2006), with the best designs integrating a range of learning opportunities that allow learners more control over their formal and informal learning actions” (p. 20). especially noteworthy in this chapter are the sections related to ensuring that learners are ready and happy to actively participate in blended learning environments. teachers need to design for open communication and trust, design for critical reflection and discourse, create and sustain a sense of community, support purposeful inquiry, ensure students sustain collaboration, ensure that inquiry moves to resolution, and ensure assessment is congruent with intended learning outcomes. this chapter highlights the fact that introducing technology for technology’s sake is useless, and that there is need to orient teachers on how to use technology and how to create the right blend of meaningful learning activities. according to beams (2017) teachers should use a design process which notes the importance of 189 defining a particular learning situation when selecting the appropriate blended model with its accompanying activities and technologies. chapter 4: designing for blended learning, begins by analyzing the ways institutions have restructured to include blended learning, then goes on to present concrete instructional design examples for guidance when actually creating blended courses. the reflection questions at the end of this chapter are particularly useful when it comes to the conception and development of blended learning programmes. indeed, answering questions such as the following assist any curriculum or instructional designer and/or teacher: when you consider your institution and blended learning activities, are you able to identify enticers for and barriers to blended learning?; how will you use learning objectives and learning outcomes when designing blended learning?, and, what learning assessment strategies do you currently use, and how will they change when you create a blended learning environment? chapter 5: technologies for blended learning, includes an expanded definition of ‘technology in education’, and a section on technological change and obsolescence. because technologies change rapidly and move through what panetta (2017) calls a “hype cycle”, the chapter looks at those technologies that have stood the test of time: learning management systems, web conferencing, digital textbooks, blog and wikis, in addition to social bookmarking, mashups and digital storytelling. before proposing some concluding remarks, the authors explain what e-portfolios are and how they can be used when blending learning. in the next chapter, chapter 6: development of blended learning, the role and common features of a learning management system (lms) are described, building on the introduction given in the previous chapter, before the authors describe how to create learning activities based on blended learning best practices, how to customise as needed for context and learners, how to find, use and create open educational resources (oer) and how to assess learning in blended learning. of utmost importance when blending is the customisation (which includes a form of localisation) of blended learning environments, based on student needs, subject matter, the type of lms and the blend of faceto-face and online activities. chapter 7: synchronous and asynchronous activities and examples, is all about activities, both synchronous (where participants are doing the same activity at the same time) and asynchronous (where the same activity is done at different times by the learners). this chapter has lots of practical examples of the use of a variety of technologies to provide synchronous interaction (such as videoconferencing, audioconferencing, live web-casting, online chat or instant messaging, proprietary applications such as skype, zoom, blue jeans or adobe connect, offer video, audio and chat, and bigbluebutton which is an open-source alternative designed for online learning that can be integrated directly into most learning management systems) and asynchronous activities (undertaken on asynchronous learning networks (alns)) with a common conference space (for example, a virtual blackboard, email, or a chat room) where all participants can post, read or respond to a message. in chapter 7, the authors also indicate how to effectively design for learning through activities. as an institution or a teacher implementing blended learning, it is useful to keep the following questions in mind when designing (a)synchronous activities: “1. what are the costs to learners of being required to engage synchronously?; 2. do the benefits of increased immediate support and dialogue outweigh the costs of being required to engage synchronously?, and 3. are the costs of travel and time to be present 190 in person greater than the costs of having to ensure the necessary bandwidth and the skill development to participate synchronously online?” (p. 55). a list of possible advantages of both learning options (and how to design for them) is given on pages 56 and 57 of this oer. chapter 8: evaluating successful blended learning, the final chapter, deals with evaluation. how can we evaluate the design and delivery of blended learning? this chapters proposes models, checklists and indicators to assess various aspects of blended learning since it has been noted that “quality assessment rubrics for blended learning have yet to be well-researched and implemented, and a significant, widely accepted instrument to evaluate blended learning quality is still unavailable” (p. 61). cleveland-innes cites smythe (2017, p. 854) who states that “the means to evaluate its effectiveness is frequently lacking since there are a relatively limited range of tools and methods that support staff in designing blended learning curricula”. in conclusion, this open educational resource, while designed with teachers in mind, is extremely useful for a variety of stakeholders. all references are oer, too, which means that the whole package of content, activities and reflection questions can be shared and adapted freely. a high-quality resource providing text and images (diagrams, tables but also videos accessible by scanning the qr codes at the beginning of each chapter) which gives a concise and precise overview of all main aspects of blended learning, while keeping readers/users actively involved through questions and thoughtprovoking scenarios. the reflection question at the end of chapter 8 brings everything together: in it, readers/users of this particular oer are asked to write a reflective essay in which they describe and examine what they have learnt. a full list of references is featured after chapter 8; this combines all further reading and all in-text references of the whole guide. the two previously published resources known as the community of inquiry blended learning evaluation and col’s blended learning design template are included as appendices to the oer. note: all citations in the review are from the book reviewed. reviewed by: dr. karen ferreira-meyers, coordinator linguistics/modern languages of the institute of distance education (ide), university of eswatini, private bag 4, kwaluseni, eswatini. email: karenferreirameyers@gmail.com cite this paper as: ferreira-meyers, k. (2019). book review: guide to blended learning by m. cleveland-innes with d. wilton. journal of learning for development, 6(2), 187-190. bullen selwyn, neil (2013). education in a digital world: global perspectives on technology and education. new york: routledge. mark bullen vol. 1, no. 1 i have been following neil selwyn’s career since 2007 when i reviewed adult learning in a digital age: information technology and the learning society which he co-authored with stephen gorard and john furlong. at the time i remarked that this book provided a “refreshing counterbalance to the prevailing discourses of techno-utopianism and techno-zealotry” (bullen, 2008). five years later it seems not a lot has changed in terms of the dominant educational technology discourse. in fact, i would argue, that with the advent of the ipad and tablet computing more generally, followed more recently by the mooc phenomenon, that the hyperbole surrounding educational technology as a solution to a host of educational, social and economic problems has become even more over-bearing. we now see the uncritical acceptance of many of the underlying neo-liberal and globalist assumptions in educational policy agendas of developed and developing countries around the world. so once again it is up to neil selwyn to prick the bubble and open the door to the educational technology echo chamber by asking critical and awkward questions and developing “analyses of educational technology that are more socially attuned” (p. viii). as he says in introducing the book, “despite the best efforts of a few critically-minded scholars, there is still a distinct reluctance amongst educational technology writers and researchers to think about the connections between digital technology use and the wider world – i.e.,  what takes place beyond the immediate context of the technological artifact and the individual user” (p. viii). this is a relatively short book but in its 164 pages and eight chapters, selwyn manages to present a penetrating analysis of the role of educational technology in international development and the often hidden ideologies driving their use. in the first chapter, education and technology: developing a global perspective, he argues that educational technology needs to be viewed in the broader political, economic, social, cultural and historical contexts of the countries in which it is being implemented. he poses a number of critical questions that are all tied to questions of power “i.e., matters of who stands to gain most from educational technologies and in whose interests they serve” (p. 21). he concludes by suggesting that educational technology be approached as a “problem-changer” rather than a “problem-solver” since it is just as likely to “reproduce, perpetuate, strengthen and deepen existing patterns of social relations and structures” (p. 21) as it is to change them. in chapter 2, making sense of education and technology: theoretical approaches, selwyn discusses how social theory can help us develop a deeper and more nuanced understanding of the “structures, actions, processes and relations” (p. 25) that underpin the use of educational technology in international development. more specifically, he examines three theoretical perspectives: a comparative education, a political economy approach and post-colonialism. in reading this chapter it is easy and tempting to interpret it as a defeatist rejection of technology in education, to conclude that educational technology is doomed from the start because of how it is being appropriated in support of certain ideologies. however, selwyn cautions against this and urges us to take a constructive rather than destructive perspective. “the post-colonial  approach in particular”, he argues “highlights the need to not simply decry the unsatisfactory state of the present, but also to consider opportunities and spaces for future critical action as well as critical scholarship” (p. 40). in the remaining six chapters selwyn uses the theoretical perspectives discussed in chapter 2 to examine educational technology and international development from a number of different perspectives. in chapter 3, education, technology and international organisations he looks at the role played by organisations whose mandates and activities are not restricted to a single country. this includes multi-national corporations, non-governmental organisations, and inter-governmental and supranational political and economic groupings. he argues that, while these organisations may all have different aims and agendas, they are not acting independently of each other and there is a considerable amount of collaboration and interplay between the various organisations which shapes the nature and form of educational technology and how it is implemented around the world. he illustrates this interplay between international organizations to shape the educational agenda with the example of the “21st century skills” movement which he portrays as neo-liberal in orientation because of the way it connects technology use, the knowledge economy and the need for human capital. he concludes that the agendas of international organisations “tend to coalesce around sets of common values and assumptions…and position educational technology as a central component of the neo-liberal framing of education” (p. 61). chapter 4, education, technology and national policymaking examines national policy development in the uk, the us, japan, chile and singapore. in doing so, he explores the connections between educational technology policymaking and the “economic, social and cultural fortune of individual nations” (p. 63). while he finds important similarities between the policies of these five diverse countries, he argues that it would be a mistake to interpret their implementation and use of digital technology as simply “national interpretations of global economic agendas” (p. 83). instead he suggests we focus on the differences and discontinuities and recognize the importance of the local context in policy development and implementation. he also points out that, while the policies of different countries may be similar their effects will not be predictable and consistent. there may be a number of intended consequences but also unintended and unexpected consequences. chapter 5, local variations in educational technology provision and practice, continues where chapter 4 left off and explores how similar policies informed by a common global discourse of educational technology are interpreted and adapted to meet the local realities of different countries. digital technologies are shaped by the social contexts in which they are implemented, he says, and this suggests we need to consider the influence of issues such as language and religion. while he stresses the importance of local culture and the localised realities, selwyn cautions us not to ignore the power of individual agency within local contexts. matters of local context need to be added to any account of education and technology”, he emphasises (p. 102). as selwyn points out in the opening to chapter 6, much of the book up to that point deals with educational technology in developed country contexts. so chapter 6, the role of educational technology in international development and chapter 7, “one laptop per child” a critical analysis are particularly pertinent to readers of the journal of learning for development. both chapters make for somewhat uncomfortable reading by those engaged in ict for development (ict4d) initiatives because selwyn suggests that, despite their good intentions, many of these initiatives are misguided and may not be having the impact they are intended to have. the unbalanced relationships between the developing countries receiving the technology assistance and those who are doing the ‘developing’ is an issue that selwyn highlights. he argues that too many of these initiatives are ‘pro-poor’: the innovation is conceived and developed outside of the communities but on their behalf. not enough are ‘para-poor’, that is, use a participative approach in which the communities being supported are involved in the design process. this technical approach to development and the “false promise of potential transformation” he says has the potential to distract attention from deeper issues that affect the provision of education in developing countries. in chapter 7 he pursues this issue in greater detail in his critical analysis of the one laptop per child initiative. he takes issue with the largely acritical enthusiasm that surrounded this initiative and the fact that it was promoted as a “transformatory example of educational technology” that would “create educational opportunities for the world’s poorest children” (p. 128). yet, he says, much of the focus of the olpc has been on the devices and their technical specifications, not on their educational use. there is a sense that by simply putting this technology in the hands of students, educational access issues will be resolved and educational transformation will occur. in concluding this book, selwyn suggests that we need to fundamentally rethink how we conceive of educational technology and its role, particularly in development. decisions about the use of educational technology need to be much more inclusive and, in development contexts, driven much more by those who are the intended recipients of the technology to ensure that local realities and contextual factors are accounted for. this would mean a “reorientation of the field of educational technology away from the logics of neoliberalism and the self-interested actions of dominant actors in the global knowledge economy…a fundamental reorientation of social relations as well as educational technology arrangements” (p. 164). reference bullen, m. (2008). review of adult learning in a digital age: information technology and the learning society. in journal of distance education, 22(2). mark bullen is the elearning educational specialist at the commonwealth of learning. e-mail: mbullen@col.org ferreira-meyers dron, jon and terry anderson (2014). teaching crowds learning and social media, edmonton: au press. karen ferreira-meyers vol. 2, no. 1 this volume written by dron and anderson consists of ten chapters and is completed by a reference section and a useful index. the preface details the book’s objectives, after briefly explaining the ambiguous nature of its title (the book is about how to teach crowds, but also about how crowds teach): to describe and discuss the theoretical foundations of the use of social software for learning and to explore ways that such software is used to support and enable learners to learn. in brief, the book is mainly about the use of social software for teaching and learning. in the opening chapter, aptly entitled on the nature and value of social software for learning, an overview of social software and its many advantages is given. when learners search on google, visit a page on wikipedia or a how-to site they are making acts of intentional learning. in addition, a huge amount of intentional and unintentional learning is facilitated every day through posts on twitter, facebook, youtube, linkedin, pinterest, etc. smartphones are increasingly used more as information-finding devices than as simple communication tools. large-scale courses and tutorials moocs (massive open online courses) – are bringing together millions of learners. citing several researchers the authors explain what social software is and how it has changed the way we view teaching and learning, before defining educational social software as “networked tools that support and encourage individuals to learn together while retaining individual control over their time, space, presence, activity, identity and relationship” ( anderson, 2005, p. 4). social software has become one of the most central means of enabling life-long learning: google search and wikipedia are often the first port of call for many learners seeking knowledge. a vast number of social software systems are aggregations of different forms, offering one-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-many, many-to one, asynchronous, synchronous, direct and indirect interaction. a comprehensive table (pp. 11-15) gives an interesting overview of different types of social media by providing a description and examples, and also stating the types of interaction involved. dron and anderson give useful data regarding the number of users and applications of social software that exploded during the first decade of the twenty-first century. the site go2web20 provides links to over 3,000 unique web 2.0 applications, most of which could also be classified as social software. these networked applications have user numbers that range in size from very small to large-country or even continent-sized populations. the successful mega social software sites, including facebook, twitter, google+, youtube, tumblr, pinterest, myspace, secondlife, blogger, and flickr, number their user accounts in the tens of millions, and tabulations of monthly unique visitors in the millions or even billions. dron and anderson cite mejias (2005) who argues that social software serves two main purposes: to manage sets of social relationships, such that meaningful and functional social relationships can be built and effective communications can be maintained despite the numbers, distances, or time barriers that separate them, and to afford users of social software the opportunity to create and support more intimate and authentic relationships between friends, families and colleagues. in addition, dron and anderson identify the following: from an educational perspective, social software can, for instance, enable users to provide helpful resources, help them move into the next zone of proximal development, solve problems, create more complex artifacts, present multiple perspectives and enrich connections, model different ways of thinking, explore ethical problems, learn to work with others and connect ideas. chapter two offers a theoretical background on social learning theories, and it is also within this chapter that dron and anderson use their own three-generation model of distance learning pedagogies, which describes the shift from early behaviourist and cognitivist models (pedagogies of instruction) to social constructivism (pedagogies of construction) and today’s emerging connectivist distance learning model (pedagogies of connection). even though in this chapter the connectivist models are more tentatively described than the others, a larger section is given to them, since they are the current ones and also the ones that are mostly found in today’s social learning environments. one important feature of this chapter is the inclusion of the underlying theories of the different models. in particular, the authors specify the following theories for connectivist models: heutagogy (related to self-determination), distributed cognition and activity theory. in the third chapter, a typology of social forms for learning, starting from concepts such as groups, networks (or nets) and sets, the authors go on to talk about collectives, a notion they explain as emergent entities that result from social engagement. social engagement underscores the role of collective intelligence which is very prominent in contemporary learning environments. the following chapters look at each of these notions (dyads, groups, networks, sets, collectives) in detail by providing valuable methods, tools, pedagogies and approaches. chapter four highlights that the vast majority of research into social learning in formal education has focused on the group form because that has, until recently, been the only social option available to most face-to-face and distance institutional learners. in this chapter the authors analyze the strengths and weaknesses of groups, and discuss how educational groups typically form, perform and dissolve. dron and anderson demonstrate tuckman and jensen’s five-stage model of group development — forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning in this chapter. gilly salmon’s five-stage model of developing learning communities is also discussed. in addition, this chapter gives interesting comparative data on traditional and virtual groups. the latter, because they include less proximal clues, tend to need more explicit external direction (teaching presence), and more structured forms of organization. they further rely on more self-direction among learners. all these characteristics can be put in place through learning management systems, synchronous group tools and immersive online worlds. the advantages and disadvantages of group environments are discussed at length, before the authors move on to the next chapter. in chapter five, the focus is on networked learning contexts, in which the teacher role is distributed among an indefinitely large number of teaching presences, from blogs to peers, from key network nodes to comments on discussion posts. an individual may be both teacher and learner simultaneously. it is the sixth chapter that brings new ideas to the forefront. concentrating on learning in a set (a simple aggregate of people and the artifacts they produce) as opposed to learning in a group or a network, the chapter is organized just like the previous two: it looks at place, content, pace, method, relationship, technology, medium, time, delegation and disclosure, to discuss the peculiarities of online sets. of particular interest in this chapter is the discussion regarding tools for learning in sets. the authors distinguish between listservs, usenet news, open forums, mailing lists, socially-augmented publications, tags, categories and tag clouds, social interest sites and content curation, shared media, locative systems, augmented reality, crowdsourcing and crowdfunding. the chapter concludes by outlining of some of the disadvantages and problems related to learning in sets. also innovative is chapter seven, entitled learning in collectives. a collective is defined as a different kind of entity, composed not of people but an amalgamation of their actions and products. examples of collectives include rating systems like slashdot karma points and categories, facebook likes, google+ plus-ones, and countless systems that provide likert scale-style ratings, such as amazon and youtube; collaborative filters (for example, amazon recommends, netflix, and movielens); data mining and analytic tools; swarm-based systems and ant colony optimization systems; social navigation systems and social network discovery engines; crowdsourcing tools and tools to assess reputation. there are, as with any system, some dangers involved. dron and anderson discuss the matthew effect (pp. 225-226), filter bubbles and echo chambers, sub-optimal algorithms, deliberate manipulation, loss of teacher and learner control, lack of pedagogical intent, and shifting contents. concrete examples of all the above are given in the chapter eight entitled stories from the field. this chapter is mainly concerned with the development and uses of athabasca landing, an elgg-based system that dron and anderson have been working on for the past three years – it details the evolution of the software program while also pointing out the challenges of the previous versions, such as lack of ownership and lack of champions. diversity, sociability and community-led design seem to be the main drivers of a successful athabasca landing. chapter nine, issues and challenges in educational uses of social software, presents a series of overarching issues of privacy, disclosure and trust, cross-cultural dissonances, technological problems and those related to the digital divide, unpredictable systemic effects, and other risks. this chapter provides possible solutions and ways of mitigating the risks. one of the important proposals of this chapter is related to potential niches. indeed, according to dron and anderson, the following will be important if we are to make effective use of networks, sets and collectives within an institutional setting for the greatest impact by supporting needs and interests not already catered to by a well-evolved and entrenched set of tools: inter-/cross-disciplinary learning (e.g., support for using common research tools, cross-course projects, etc.); learner-driven (as opposed to syllabus-driven) pedagogies; beyond-the-campus learning (incorporating others beyond the institution, whether formally or informally); beyond-the-course learning, supporting disciplinary activity and interest across cohorts; self-guided research; self-organizing groups (e.g., study groups); just-in-time learning; enduring committees, clubs, and student organizations; and peer support (e.g., for learning to use research tools, computers, etc.) (p. 277). the final chapter looks at the future and is thus entitled the shape of things and of things to come. dron and anderson predict that teaching and learning will become more situated, just-in-time, personalized, disaggregated and re-aggregated, distributed, disciplinarily agnostic and research-oriented. they also note that there are many technologies on the horizon whose growth is influenced by increased communication and connectivity and whose repercussions are difficult to imagine. in conclusion, it is safe to say that this book shows how complex learning and teaching is, since it combines technologies, pedagogies, organizational structures, social bonds and individual needs, with many interdependencies and systemic consequences. dron and anderson demonstrate how changing one part of a learning system needs to go hand in hand with the conscious knowledge that each part in a system affects, and is affected by, all the other parts. we should not forget, however, that communication and learning (whether face-to-face or at a distance) are very complicated—influenced by a host of variables, including context, skill, attitudes and the form of mediation used to convey that communication. dron and anderson take a successful shot at explaining some of the variables involved in these complicated processes. all the chapters give sound overviews of existing theories, practices and experiences, but the sixth and seventh chapters in particular offer readers new insights. according to dron and anderson: we have solutions to some of the risks of a networked learning environment, but many risks and uncertainties still remain. the greatest risks all come back to difficulties in understanding the nature of social engagement in social media. excessive content is often a direct consequence of superimposing a network or set form on that of the group, without adjusting the processes and methods used by the group. privacy concerns often occur as a result of misplaced assumptions in a closed group, when in fact the social environment is net-like, or worse, set-like. alienation and separation occur when people mistake net-enabled interaction for relationships in meat-space (i.e., the non-cyberspace “real world”). shifting contexts become hidden in simplistic, one-dimensional models of identity provided by many networked social environments. collectives, used uncritically, are as likely to lead to stupid mobs as they are to wise crowds, perhaps more so, and the dangers of filter bubbles creating echo chambers where vision becomes narrow are great. (p. 298) despite the fact that the book is very biased towards the american/western world (there is very little information about africa or asia (china? wechat, qq), the authors give their readers good overview tables summarizing several pages of continuous text and informative insights on historical evolutions and recent trends in the field of social media, teaching and learning. even though it is published in book form, it should be pointed out that the book also exists in e-pub format, and is not only available for purchase, but also as a standard pdf that can be downloaded for free at http://www.aupress.ca. this is in line with the vision and mission of athabasca university press to be a fully open access publisher that wants to disseminate knowledge as widely as possible. references anderson, t. (2005). distance learning: social software’s killer app? paper presented at the odlaa, adelaide, australia. retrieved from http://auspace.athabascau.ca/bitstream/2149/2328/1/distance_learning.pdf mejias, u. (2005, november 1). a nomad’s guide tolearning and social software. [web log post]. retrieved from http://blog.ulisesmejias.com/2005/11/01/a-nomads-guide-to-learning-and-social-software/ karen ferreira-meyers, phd. is senior lecturer at the institute of distance education, university of swaziland. e-mail: kmeyers@uniswa.sz baggaley bridging fields at a critical time jon baggaley vol. 1, no. 1 abstract the launch of the journal of learning for development occurs at a critical time for the education and development field. the ‘massive open online course’ concept  currently being implemented by western educators is considered as a potential cost-saver in developing nations also. moocs based on reliable pedagogical principles can be useful vehicles for education and training.  others follow less orthodox guidelines: e.g., solving the problems of teaching and grading massive student numbers by dispensing with teachers and having the students grade each others’ work. evaluation studies of mooc impact do not confirm that these methods are universally viable, and indicate that mooc courses and evaluations have not yet taken developing-country needs into account. in the debate about this new trend, a division has formed between the principles of online pedagogy in mainstream education and those developed over four decades in the distance education literature. disciplinary sub-divisions are similarly noted in the learning and development literature as a whole. the new journal, with its intended emphasis on the education and training needs of developing as well as developed regions, can provide assistance in the integration of knowledge about technological innovations, and advice about the educational directions that developing nations should take. introduction the learning and development publishing field the journal of learning for development is a new arrival in the education and development literature, joining numerous existing journals with overlapping goals. a useful source of information in this respect has been the journal rankings provided by the excellence of research for australia (era) project. from 2008-2010, the project rated the impact of 20,712 academic journals, including 1,371 with “education” in their titles, “educational” (105), “development” (293) and “learning” (132). after removing topics such as cognitive and child development from the list, 15 journals remain, covering: international development (7); global development (2); community development (2); educational development (1); learning and development (1); and open learning (2). the common denominatorof these fields – educational technologies and techniques – is also discussed in 150 other journals in the era list, with titles including  “communication/ communications technology/ technologies” (67) “information technology/ technologies” (51); “instruction/ instructional” (16); “distance education/ learning” (10); and “educational technology/ media” (6). meanwhile, the scimago project (2011) has rated a similar number of journals (19,708), including 573 classified under “education”. naturally, discussion of these topics is not limited to journals in which they are specified in the title. for example, educational technology abstracts (2011) lists 786 journals in which educational technology topics are reported. from all of these journal titles, one leaps out as expressing perfectly the current state of affairs in journal publishing: babel!  how do readers cope with this overload?  solutions include focusing on journals in their own regions (e.g., the canadian journal of education & technology, or the turkish journal of online distance education), or on journals with specific sub-interests (e.g., applied instructional design, or information technology and disabilities) or in specific disciplines (e.g., journal of pharmacy practice and research, or computers in music research). readers may also select their journals based on the impact ratings produced by projects such as era and scimago, although this solution does not as yet appear too reliable. in 2010, for example, the annual ranking of journals by the era project was abandoned after it was noted that an individual journal had been inconsistently rated a, c, and b in successive reports, and that journals with high ratings were not necessarily those highly respected in specialised fields (howard, 2011). the latter problem had been particularly apparent in the distance education (de) field, whose ten listed journals received relatively low era ratings owing to lack of interest in or regard for de among mainstream academics. the inconsistent approach to evaluation issues in the education and development literature in the last three decades has been indicated by successive content analyses of conference and journal output. latchem et al. (1999, 2006) showed a general neglect of instructional design and evaluation issues between 1995 and 2004. baggaley (2012) confirmed this finding in an analysis of keywords used by journal authors from 1985 to 2009 (figure 1). the figure suggests that the number of educational technology-related articles featuring “evaluation” and “instructional effectiveness/ design” as keywords dropped steadily during this period, and that “quality” has not been a common keyword in educational technology journals for at least 25 years. figure 1. declining research use of instructional design and evaluation keywords. source. baggaley, 2012 (p. 29) on the other hand, theoretical and practical guidelines regarding instructional design and evaluation, learner support, teacher-student interaction, and global education approaches have been a common focus of educational media textbooks (e.g., laurillard, 2002, 2012; tait, 2003; carr-chellman, 2005; koumi, 2006); and principles for using the media in each of these areas were generated in community development ninety years ago (james, 1996 a, b). so design and evaluation issues cannot be said to have been ignored in the learning and development literature. the perceived quality of that specialised literature, already challenged by the era rankings, is currently being called into question by influential educational leaders. hunter r. rawlings iii, president of the association of american universities, states this explicitly in supporting the creation of a new global learning council (glc) to establish reliable guidelines for online education: (e)ven as online education expands rapidly and on an enormous scale, there is very little good research on the best forms of online learning, and, i might add, there are no good studies on what constitutes bad online pedagogy, of which there is a fair amount. (o’neil, 2013) the new glc’s chair, president subra suresh of carnegie mellon university, confirms this perception in stating that the council’s role will be to rectify the educational media literature’s alleged inadequacies: “(o)ur goal is to create guidelines and best practices that ensure academic rigor and successful learning for students worldwide” (walters, 2013). it is to be hoped that the glc will rapidly take note of the numerous ‘best practices’ guidelines developed for online learning by professional organisations in asia, australia, europe, and the usa since the 1990s (belawati, 2010). otherwise, the new global learning council will encourage a schism between de specialists and mainstream educators as to future learning and development directions. a critical time the gulf in understanding between mainstream educators and de specialists has come to the fore as a result of the emergence of the ‘massive open online course’ (mooc). since 2012, a worldwide marketing campaign has led to the development of moocs by many of the world’s most prestigious universities and colleges, with individual courses attended online by hundreds of thousands of online students (daniel, 2012; baggaley, 2013). such educational tipping-points have occurred before – in the 1960s, for example, when the problem of over-crowded lecture theatres was handled by adding closed-circuit tv so that lectures could be watched in adjoining rooms, and in the 1970s when the broadcast media were harnessed so that lectures could also be received by the general public. the profusion of design and evaluation principles emerged in part from the lessons of these initiatives; and if mooc designers apply the lessons of earlier de research, their massive courses may prove successful. so far, however, this does not appear to be happening on a wide scale. many early moocs have handled the inability of teachers to interact with and grade massive student numbers by dismissing the teacher from the process, and having the students teach and grade each other. a review of 45 early mooc evaluations by liyanagunawardena et al. (2013) stresses that this experience “can be challenging or even overwhelming” for the students, and that the absence of supervision by teachers can lead to problems all too common in online education: e.g., unacceptable behaviour such as “forceful intellectual debates, feelings of participation being demanded, and rude behaviour”. either the early mooc advocates believe that instructional design, learner support, and teacher-student interaction principles are no longer relevant in the online era, or, coming primarily from academic areas other than education (e.g., electrical engineering and computing sciences), they may simply be unaware of the educational literature. in view of the separation of the specialised and mainstream literatures discussed above, the latter explanation seems reasonable. the need for mooc designers to take account of the previous literature is thus critical. as holton (2012) has observed, however: especially disturbing is that none of the major mooc providers have hired anyone trained in instructional design, the learning sciences, educational technology, course design, or other educational specialties to help with the design of their courses. they are hiring a lot of programmers and recruiting a lot of faculty, who may have various motivations for participating in these open education experiments. to their credit though, edx, backed by $60 million from mit and harvard, is hiring one person to help with course development … while holton’s suggestion that mooc providers are not hiring course development specialists might clearly be disputed, the comments of influential educators such as rawlings and suresh (o’neil, 2013; walters, 2013) make it plain that previous educational media design principles are not currently held in high regard by leading mainstream educators. bates (2013) asks: why are major educational institutions ignoring 25 years of experience and research as to how moocs could be designed effectively? similarly, daniel (2013) has stressed the disregard of mooc designers for experience gained in the development of massive open courses over 40 years. this lack of concern for conventional de principles is particularly critical with reference to the adoption of much-needed online learning methods in developing nations, in many of which de already has a public image as a second-rate form of education (laaser, 2006; doung vuth et al., 2007; chen li & wang nan, 2010; wikramanayake et al., 2010). this negative image and the reasons for it have been summarised with particular force by gulati (2008):  (a)lthough these developments aim for equitable and extended educational opportunities that extend to disadvantaged and poor populations, the lack of educational and technology infrastructures, lack of trained teachers, negative attitudes towards distance learning, social and cultural restrictions imposed on girls and women, and inappropriate policy and funding decisions, have all resulted in furthering the gap between the rich and poor, rural and urban, and between genders. it is therefore important for educators in developing regions to take these issues into account in developing moocs; for the uncritical adoption of moocs with design problems could deepen the negative perception of de in those countries. liyanagunawardena et al. (2013), however, report that very few early moocs and evaluations of them have been based outside north america and europe. even public statements by western providers of moocs are confirming their common pedagogical problems: e.g., 5-10% student interaction in online discussions, and 75% dropout rates (norvig, 2013). despite these problems, and the lack of evidence for the universal viability of moocs, developing-nations educators may well be tempted to develop them, nonetheless, hoping that they will somehow avoid the problems of previous forms of online education in their regions. they should consider whether the negative outcomes of massive online courses being reported elsewhere are acceptable to them, and they are well advised to base mooc developments on careful local research and evaluation. conclusions in the emerging world, unquestioning adoption of novel practices lacking a reliable pedagogical basis may jeopardise de developments achieved to date. online practices involving massive student numbers and no teachers may not provide a solid pedagogical framework; and without careful design and evaluation the current mooc trend is unlikely to extend educational opportunities in poor and disadvantaged societies that lack online infrastructure. currently, however, existing design and evaluation principles are being challenged by mainstream educators, and a division is intensifying between principles promoted in the de literature and those being applied in the development of massive student-taught courses. this schism might not have occurred if the educational literature had not become sub-divided into regional, disciplinary and interest areas, and had maintained a more constant focus on evaluation and quality issues. even within the de field specifically, how many of today’s practitioners are aware of the continuing legacy of the community development literature, notably in australia and canada?  how many are familiar with the identical de approaches produced under different labels in the community development and international development fields?  how many overlook the shared lessons of the (formal) education and (non-formal) training fields, in concentrating exclusively on one or the other?  and how many ignore the educational needs of the developing world by focusing exclusively on developed world issues (baggaley, 2012)?  the shared legacy of educational principles in these areas is little recognised today, as research foci grow narrower. the need for integration of the international development, community development and global de literatures is thus critical. despite the profusion of journals covering learning, development, and their underlying issues, there are clear niches for a new journal to fill. the distinct fields of international development, community development, and de – discussed separately in numerous publications – need to be recognised within a single focus; and the mission statement of the new journal of learning for development (jl4d) acknowledges this need explicitly in stating that the journal will focus on socio-economic aspects of learning in diverse global forms. the attention paid to developing-nations issues in the de literature has increased during the last ten years in journals such as distance education and the international review of research in open & distance learning. occasional theme editions, however, are insufficient to impress the educational problems of the emerging nations upon a worldwide audience, and by bridging boundaries within the ‘learning for development’ field, jl4d can draw attention to these problems. it would be regrettable if the steady evolution of the technology-based ‘mega-universities’ (daniel, 1996) and their dominance by asian institutions (wikipedia, 2013) were now to be reversed by the adoption of western practices that may in time come to be described as “un-developing”. the new jl4d can anticipate the problems of current and future educational trends via its applied focus on the access and equity problems of learning and development in the developed and developing nations – problems to which the developers of massive open online courses have evidently given little or no attention to date. the journal can verify whether these problems are consistent across disciplines and cultures, and whether conditions can be designed in which students can ever learn reliably from support materials and from each other without access to a teacher. the journal can apply these lessons in numerous international and community development areas, and can help to improve the intra-disciplinary integrity of the learning and development field by creating bridges between educational sub-areas that should never have grown apart. references babel (2013). international journal of translation. amsterdam: john benjamins. retrieved from: http://benjamins.com/#catalog/journals/babel/main baggaley, j. (2012). harmonizing global education. new york: routledge. baggaley, j. (2013). mooc rampant. distance education, 34(3), pp. 253-263. bates, t. (2013, june 26). moocs, mit and magic. online learning and distance education resources. retrieved from: http://www.tonybates.ca/2013/06/26/moocs-mit-and-magic/ belawati, t. (2010). quality assurance. in t. belawati & j. baggaley (eds.), policy and practice in asian distance education. delhi: sage india. carr-chellman, a. (ed.) (2005). global perspectives on e-learning: rhetoric and reality. thousand oaks, ca.: sage. chen li, & wang nan. (2010). attitudes to distance education in china. in j. baggaley & t. belawati (eds.), distance education technologies in asia. delhi: sage india. daniel, j. (1996). mega-universities and knowledge media: technology strategies for higher education. london: kogan page. daniel, j. (2012). making sense of moocs: musings in a maze of myth, paradox and possibility. seoul: korean national open university. retrieved from http://sirjohn.ca/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/120925moocspaper2.pdf daniel, j. (2013). moocs: what lies beyond the trough of disillusionment? linc 2013 conference. boston: mit. doung vuth, chhuon chanthan, somphone phanousith, phonpasit phissamay, & tran thi tai. (2007). distance education policy and public awareness in cambodia, laos, and viet nam. distance education, 28(2), 163-177. educational technology abstracts. (1985–2011). abingdon, uk: taylor & francis. excellence in research for australia (era). (2010). ranked journals list. australian research council. retrieved from: http://www.arc.gov.au/xls/era2010_journal_title_list.xls gulati, s. (2008). technology-enhanced learning in developing nations: a review. international review of research in open & distance learning, 9(1). retrieved from: http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/477/1012 holton, d. (2012). what’s the “problem” with moocs? edtechdev (4 may). retrieved from: http://edtechdev.wordpress.com/2012/05/04/whats-the-problem-with-moocs/ howard, j. (2011). journal-ranking system gets dumped after scholars complain. chronicle of higher education (1 june). retrieved from: http://chronicle.com/article/journal-ranking-system-gets/127737/ james, s. (1996a). educational media and ‘agit prop’: i. the legacy of vertov. journal of educational media, 22(2), pp. 111-123. james, s. (1996b). educational media and ‘agit prop’: ii. the vertov process repatriated. journal of educational media, 22(3), pp. 161-173. koumi, j. (2006). designing video and multimedia for open and flexible learning. london: routledge falmer. laaser, w. (2006). virtual universities for african and arab countries. turkish online journal of distance education, 7(4), retrieved from: http://tojde.anadolu.edu.tr/tojde24/articles/article_13.htm latchem, c. (2006). editorial: a content analysis of the british journal of educational technology. british journal of educational technology, 37(4), pp. 503-511. latchem, c., abdullah, z., & ding, x. (1999). open and dual-mode universities in east and south asia. performance improvement quarterly, 12(2), pp. 3-28. laurillard, d. (2002). rethinking university teaching (2nd ed.). london: routledgefalmer. laurillard, d. (2012). teaching as a design science: building pedagogical patterns for learning and technology. new york: routledge. liyanagunawardena, t., adams, a., & williams,s. (2013). moocs: a systematic study of the published literature 2008-2012. international review of research in open & distance learning 14(3). retrieved from: http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/1455/2531 norvig, p. (2013). how to make online courses massively personal. scientific american (july 18). retrieved from: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-to-make-online-courses-massively-personal-peter-norvig o’neil, m. (2013, november 11). new council to develop standards, best practices for online learning. the chronicle of higher education. retrieved from:  http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/new-council-to-develop-standards-best-practices-for-online-learning/48171 scimago. (2011). journal rankings on education. retrieved from: http://www.scimagojr.com/journalrank.php?category=3304 tait, a. (2003). rethinking learner support in distance education. london: routledgefalmer. walters, k. (2013). carnegie mellon creates simon initiative to drive better understanding of student learning using emerging educational technology platforms. carnegie mellon news (11 november). retrieved from: http://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2013/november/nov11_simoninitiative.html wikipedia (2013). list of largest universities by enrolment. retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/list_of_largest_universities_by_enrollment wikramanayake, g., et al (2010). accessibility, acceptance and effects of distance education in south asia. in j. baggaley & t. belawati (eds.). distance education technologies in asia. new delhi: sage india / ottawa: international development research centre. dr. jon baggaley, emeritus professor at athabasca university, alberta, taught previously at universities in liverpool, newfoundland and montreal. books include harmonizing global education (2012) and distance education technologies in asia (with tian belawati, 2011). baggaley was a founding editor of the journal of educational television (now learning, media and technology). e-mail: jon@baggaley.com butcher harnessing oer to develop teachers: the guyana experience neil butcher, andrew moore and sarah hoosen vol. 1, no. 2 abstract the ministry of education in guyana has prioritised increasing the number of qualified teachers by providing opportunities to both preand in-service teachers to gain relevant qualifications. this paper describes the process used to redesign the teacher training curriculum in guyana to achieve the goals of a newly-developed ict professional development strategy. the unesco ict competency framework for teachers (cft) was central to the redesign process, and was used to review and reorganize the national teacher education curriculum aimed at pre-service teachers. the framework also influenced plans to provide professional development for in-service teachers, and influenced the selection of open education resources (oer) used to develop a new learning environment and the accompanying learning materials for the teaching of ict in education. one of the significant lessons learned during this process is that people rather than technology are crucial to transformation. it is essential to have leadership support at the highest levels but also committed champions at all other levels. the process called for the inclusion of local stakeholders who understood and knew how to respond to contextual constraints. moreover, the process benefited from the use of existing frameworks and the use of cost effective oer to develop the course materials. introduction guyana, located on the northern coast of south america, has a predominantly rural population (71% of the population). functional literacy is of concern, and the government is thus actively tackling the quality of both primary and secondary education in guyana. a key challenge facing the country’s education system is the low retention of qualified teachers and subsequent employment of untrained and unqualified teachers. the ministry of education has therefore prioritised increasing the number of qualified teachers by providing opportunities to both preand in-service teachers to gain relevant qualifications. one way of tackling ineffective teaching and low-quality learning in classrooms is by focusing on the use of ict in teacher education and training. against this background, the ministry developed an ict operational plan, which recognizes that integrating ict into education means tackling issues of content, access, and competency, as well as incorporation of ict into the processes of teaching and learning. this requires both teachers and students to be competent users of the available technologies. however, there was a significant gap in the plan regarding teacher development in ict integration. therefore, the ict professional development strategy for teachers was developed. this paper reports on the process used to redesign the teacher training curriculum in guyana to achieve the goals of a newly-developed ict professional development strategy and outlines key lessons learned. the unesco ict competency framework for teachers (cft) was central to the redesign process, and was used to review and reorganize the national teacher education curriculum aimed at pre-service teachers. the framework also influenced plans to provide professional development for in-service teachers, and influenced the selection of open education resources (oer) used to develop a new learning environment and the accompanying learning materials for the teaching of ict in education. ict professional development strategy for teachers and the unesco ict cft the ict professional development strategy for teachers is a comprehensive framework and learning pathway for guyana managers, teacher educators, teachers, student teachers, and administrators to become competent in using ict to support high-quality teaching and learning.1 the various strands of capacity building identified within the strategy have been heavily influenced by the unesco ict cft. as the unesco ict cft is pivotal to understanding the strategy, it is important to appreciate its structure. the ict cft provides a framework from which a national ict in education curriculum can be created. the framework identifies three sets of ict competencies, each set growing in sophistication. the competencies, when assimilated into teacher practice, enhance a teacher’s ability to perform in the following education settings: education policy curriculum and assessment pedagogy ict school organization and administration teacher professional development. significantly, instead of encouraging learning ict applications for their own sake, the framework provides a solid educational context to develop ict skills and competencies. the framework is structured so that teachers revisit each theme as they progress from one set of competencies to the next and as their proficiencies improve. the first set, technology literacy, encourages skills and understanding at a basic level, specifically awareness of how ict can add value in the education setting. the second set of competencies, knowledge deepening, encourages application of ict skills and know-how into the education process. the third and final set, knowledge creation, calls teachers to become innovators and users of ict in new and novel ways. the diagram below illustrates how the ict strategy for teacher development sees the unesco ict cft informing various training options offered by the principal teacher training institutions in guyana: the cyril potter college of education (cpce) and the faculty of education, university of guyana (ug). the college’s advanced diploma incorporates courses that cover competencies at the technology literacy level, while courses within the university degree addresses competencies at the knowledge deepening levels of the unesco framework. the framework is also pivotal to the services offered to in-service teachers as coordinated by national centre for educational resource development (ncerd). here, continuing professional development short courses offer training within all three bands, with only teachers who have had a number of years teaching experience and exposure to ict studying at the knowledge creation level. fig. 1: ict integration curriculum roadmap for guyana curriculum review and redevelopment one of the activities required within the strategy was to review existing local ict in education curricula. both the college of education and the university had curricula, but an evaluation showed that they worked in isolation and had very different approaches to the subject. as a consequence of the requirements of the professional development strategy document, it was instead decided to draw extensively on the unesco ict cft so that both colleges and universities could build teacher ict competencies in a coherent and sequential manner, allowing them to master ever more sophisticated ict skills and know-how. a new four-year ict in the education curriculum that pre-service teachers study at both the college and later at the university level (associate and bachelor of education degrees) has been devised and is shaping teacher education. while adapted to suit local needs and contexts, the curriculum document explicitly indicates where it addresses competencies identified within the unesco ict cft. table 1. an excerpt from the guyana ict in education curriculum document topic objectives content activities/ materials evaluation areas of integration skills knowledge understanding attitude year 2 associates degree technology literacy – pedagogy unit 8 integrating ict into didactic teaching methodologies integrate ict into didactic teaching methodologies know how to use technology to enhance teacher centered lessons understand differences between didactic and constructivist methodologies wants to exploit technology to make teaching materials more appealing to students brief introduction to didactic methodology and then some consideration on how ict can enhance this methodology. examples of ict use to suit various objectives. see: 1. tl module 3 unit 1 of ict in education for teachers course cd rom. potential to assess mastery of the skill through the setting of portfolio tasks can be broadened to include the teacher’s subject or learning area. unesco ict cft objective: describe how didactic teaching and ict can be used to support students’ acquisition of school subject matter knowledge. (tl.3.a) materials development process: harnessing oer another innovation of the strategy’s implementation was the development of ict in education teachers course and materials. the process of compiling the course of 60 hours for technology literacy and 90 hours for knowledge deepening competencies encouraged a new approach, which involved intensive use of oer. this is discussed below. selecting oer guided by the curriculum, a four-person, part-time development team conducted an internet search for potential resources, but particularly oer. generally, openly licensed teacher education resources are readily available, but the development team found that at that time few were created specifically with the unesco ict cft in mind. in addition to identifying oer, the developers also determined the quality and suitability of each resource, as well as the amount of repurposing required to adapt it for the guyana context. as far as possible, resources that required little repurposing were selected. an additional complication was that some open licences limited how and to what extent a resource could be used. for example, some resources had a licence prohibiting any repurposing, on occasion making it unusable. in the few instances where a copyrighted work was deemed indispensable, copyright permission was secured to reproduce the work, and all copyright conditions were honoured. responding to local context and needs a rich set of open and/or free resources was identified. facilitation guides were then developed to outline suggested use of the oer in order to achieve each of the ict competencies as expressed in the curriculum. initially, these guides were designed for distribution as paper-based materials because initial research had suggested connectivity and access to ict could not be guaranteed in rural areas. the course was piloted with stakeholders in guyana to test the assumptions of the development team. initial feedback from cpce staff, as well as comments and suggestions from ug staff, were collected and collated to inform revisions to the course materials. for example, during the first round, the reviewers immediately called for a version of the course that could be accessed from a cd-rom, with all the oer stored on the disk, eliminating the need for connectivity. consequently, both paper and electronic versions were developed. the cd version was aimed directly at the students rather than at the lecturing staff, and, hence, became teaching materials rather than guides. in the second review, a suggested assessment strategy incorporating the development of a portfolio of digital artefacts and a mock examination was requested and added. development model the ease with which changes and modifications could be made was facilitated in part by using a quick and cheap development cycle that took advantage of the available electronic materials, user friendly digital tools, and oer. the nature of any ict in education courses means that digital tools and content are constantly evolving and changing. consequently, they also demand repeated evaluation and updating. the course development model in this project came to approximate what some open source software designers use for the development of software: “release early, release often” (rero)2. the rationale for this is that, only once the product is deployed and developers receive user feedback, can it truly be customized to suit user needs. in this model, more reviewer or user feedback makes it easier to eliminate problems. regular cycles of testing and revision align the product quickly and cost-effectively with user needs. there are additional advantages to this approach. besides responding rapidly to user feedback and creating a course aligned with student expectations, this model also enables designers to quickly improve the course as new oer or open courseware become available. the digital nature of materials allows for quick and cost-effective changes to content. course components can be replaced easily without affecting those components that are still required. additionally, as new tools such as social networking, productivity or utility tools, become available, these can be accommodated in the existing design with minimal disruption. as a consequence of this development model, it was easy to customize the pre-service ict in education modules and repurpose them for in-service teachers. the in-service version of the course is available for ncerd’s continuing professional development programme. it was also easy to develop the materials for distribution in different modes: paper and digital. deployment the associate and bachelor of education degrees, offered by cpce and ug, have two complete professional development modules (influenced by the ict cft), one focused on ‘technology literacy’ and another on ‘knowledge deepening’. through several workshops, selected staff in those institutions were trained to support deployment of the course. these modules were successfully integrated into pre-service teacher education programmes at cpce and ug, as part of the wider guyana improving teacher education project (gitep). at cpce, the modules were deployed in 2011 and 2012, to groups of around 200 students in each year. the first module was delivered to approximately 350 students in 2013. in addition, cpce is offering a foundational ict literacy module for students with no prior exposure to ict, teaching them the basics of using ict. at ug, the modules were implemented through science and technology subjects, and were delivered to approximately 125 students during 2012. encouragingly, approximately 25 students completed ict integration projects, demonstrating leadership as potential ict champions within their schools. at ncerd, the module on technology literacy was delivered to in-service teachers during holiday workshops. lessons learned many lessons were learned during implementation of the guyana ict professional development strategy for teachers and the materials development process. the most noteworthy are highlighted below. the importance of people despite a national context where technology and connectivity were not ubiquitous, the guyana ministry of education was farsighted in its realization that, at the core of this transformation, was not the technology itself but rather the people who would be expected to use it. these people can be found at all levels within the education sector: the ministry of education, agencies, teacher training institutions, and the schools themselves. consequently, the strategy was developed around advocacy and the need to build human capacity rather than an exclusive focus on technology. importance of leadership support high-level support of the initiatives is key for success, and there would also be merit in establishing a committee to bring key stakeholders and their interests together for successful implementation. understanding the context despite current advances in e-learning that see ict being used in increasingly sophisticated ways, the most appropriate use of ict should be assessed within the context in which it will be used and, in particular, considering infrastructural issues and human capacity. an ict infrastructure is necessary if a professional development initiative like this one is to succeed. however, in this particular instance, paper-based materials were regarded as possibly more useful than an electronic version because both access to ict and familiarity with the tools are still limited for many students and teachers. importance of an inclusive design process consulting as many stakeholders as possible was valuable, particularly in the design process. for example, the process of consultation around evaluation of the materials and course design with representatives from cpce and ug was particularly beneficial. the use of oer was promoted through discussions about interpretations of ‘open’ in lesson design, and stakeholders were encouraged to present derivatives of the lessons presented on the cd in order to facilitate deeper understandings of oer and the ict competency being developed within the lesson. such approaches empowered stakeholders to understand how oer works and to undertake similar steps in their own course design. using existing frameworks the unesco ict cft provides an excellent point of reference for the creation or refinement of course development strategies. however, it cannot be assumed that teacher education providers have the necessary skills to develop, adapt, and implement courses aligned with it. thus, some seed funding is likely needed to initiate activities to support technical assistance and capacity building to integrate the strategy into existing processes. additionally, communication, advocacy, and a defined monitoring and evaluation strategy are important to support the process. cost benefits of using oer oer can offer a cost-effective route to acquiring quality teaching and learning materials, especially in environments where resources are in short supply. it is not, however, a simple shortcut to the normal materials development process. time, skill, and creativity are required to rework the materials to satisfy a specific set of objectives identified by a curriculum committee or body. nevertheless, a significant lesson learned during the guyana implementation is the cost benefit of adopting an open model. table 2 provides a breakdown of the costs of developing the technology literacy module. table 2. time and costs of developing the technology literacy module development team time (days) costs (us$) educational consultant/instructional designer/graphic and web designer/editor 32 16,624 instructional designer 2 17 6,684 instructional designer 3 19 7,290 graphic and web designer 7 1,453 total 76 32,051 the technology literacy module lasts approximately 70 hours, whilst the knowledge deepening module lasts approximately ninety hours. it took 76 days (or 608 hours) to produce 160 hours of learning (of which 80 are effectively textor print-based and eighty are computer-based instruction). table 3 shows the time estimates provided by swift (1996; cited in butcher & roberts, 2004) for the design of courses at first-year university level. table 3. time taken to design one notional hour of student learning time3 media hours print 20–100 audio 20–100 video 50–200 computer-based instruction 200–300 experiments 200–300 table 4 shows the average design times — provided by bryan chapman of brandon-hall — to create one hour of training. table 4. average design times for one hour of training4 material type average hours instructor-led training (ilt), including design, lesson plans, handouts, powerpoint slides, etc. 34 powerpoint to elearning conversion 33 standard elearning, which includes presentation, audio, some video, test questions, and twenty per cent interactivity 22 third-party courseware. time it takes for online learning publishers to design, create, test, and package third-party courseware 345 simulations from scratch; creating highly interactive content 750 table 5 compares swift’s (1996; cited in butcher & roberts, 2004) estimates of time to design one notional student hour of learning with the actual time taken to develop the guyana materials. table 5. comparing guyana design with swift’s notional estimates media swift’s notional estimate of time required to produce material equivalent to one notional learning hour actual hours taken to develop one notional learning hour of material print 20–100 hours 3.8 hours computer-based instruction 200–300 hours 3.8 hours however, as these are estimates for distance education course development and the guyana courses are a blended learning design, it is possibly more useful to compare the costs with the notional estimates from bryan chapman (in clark, 2010). as shown in table 6, the result is no less significant. table 6. comparing guyana design with chapman’s notional estimates media chapman’s notional estimate of time required to produce material equivalent to one notional learning hour actual hours taken to develop one notional learning hour of material instructor-led training (ilt), including design, lesson plans, handouts, powerpoint slides, etc. 34 hours 3.8 hours standard elearning, including presentations, audio, some video, test questions, and 20% interactivity 22 hours 3.8 hours these figures do not reflect another even greater cost saving, as the time reflected also includes the development of content based on international examples (i.e., not guyana specific and containing more generic content). thus, the outcomes of the project generated eight versions of content: guyana pre-service information literacy module (print version and cd version) guyana in-service information literacy module (print version and cd version) guyana pre-service knowledge deepening module (print version and cd version) guyana in-service knowledge deepening module (print version and cd version) international pre-service information literacy module (print version and cd version) international in-service information literacy module (print version and cd version) international pre-service knowledge deepening module (print version and cd version) international in-service knowledge deepening module (print version and cd version) as all of this content is being shared under an open licence, the potential for achieving economies of scale grows further as and where it is used by other institutions. already, the material is being adapted for use in countries as diverse as dominica, indonesia, kenya, and oman, where it is being redeployed with marginal redevelopment time required to contextualize the materials effectively. however, it is important to note that, in this case, a key contributor to cost reduction was that the leader of the team was multi-skilled and thus able to serve several functions. the education consultant in this instance served multiple roles: as an instructional designer, graphic and web designer, workshop facilitator, and general editor. traditionally, such functions have tended to be spread across multiple people, raising costs. this kind of multitasking has been facilitated by the growing access to content development tools provided by ict, but also suggests that effective economic use of oer for course design and development requires highly skilled designers. transferability all the tools used to develop the professional development strategy, devise the unesco ict cft influenced ict in education curriculum, and build the ict in education course and its materials have been released as an open licence ict in education teacher’s professional development toolkit.5 the guyana ict in education teacher’s course in all its different manifestations and versions can be accessed online and repurposed for other contexts.6 the ict in education course has already shown evidence of being co-opted and adapted for new purposes. in 2014, the guyana materials were accessed separately by kenyan and omani educators tasked with developing ict in education courses for in-service teachers. they, too, are using the unesco ict cft as their guiding framework and are looking to adapt oer for this purpose. both teams are customizing the guyana materials and reworking them so that they have many more interactive elements and can be distributed online using a learner management system. the open licensing of the guyana materials provides scope for repurposing. the latest manifestation of the ict in education course will also be offered back to the open education community with its additional enhancements. conclusion the guyana ict professional development strategy for teachers initiative has had many positive benefits. the creation of an ict-friendly component for the teacher education curriculum in guyana was achieved at a relatively low cost by using an existing curriculum framework (the unesco ict cft) and repurposing oer. feedback from stakeholders indicated that the project went some way towards achieving the ict vision articulated by the government by encouraging the next generation of teachers to improve ict competencies by using ict for educational purposes. it also encouraged teachers to adopt new teaching strategies, and has opened opportunities to consider the important role of adapting oer to promote a learner-centric approach in the future. the initiatives designed to build educators’ capacity illustrate that digital resources, such as the unesco ict cft and oer, as well as many of the ict tools available, add value rather than simply adding to existing responsibilities. after an initial investment of time and resources, ict will lead to improved productivity, enhanced teaching and learning, and more effective administration and communication channels. the guyana ict professional development strategy for teachers illustrates a potential pathway to achieving a transformation. footnotes the guyana ict strategy for teacher development can be accessed in full online at http://www.ccti.colfinder.org/toolkit/ict-toolkit/pages/06.html see wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/release_early,_release_often butcher, n., & roberts, n. (2004). costs, effectiveness, efficiency: a guide for sound investment. in h. perraton & h. lentell (eds.), policy for open and distance learning (pp. 224–245). london: routledge. clark, donald. (2010). estimating costs and time in instructional design. retrieved from http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/costs.html see the ict in education teachers’ professional development toolkit at http://ccti.colfinder.org/toolkit/ict-toolkit/ see the pre-service guyana ict in education teacher’s course at http://colccti.colfinder.org/sites/default/files/preservice_international/index.html references butcher, n. & roberts, n. (2004). costs, effectiveness, efficiency: a guide for sound investment. in h perraton & h. lentell (eds.), policy for open and distance learning (pp. 224-245). london: routledge. central intelligence agency (2014). guyana. retrieved from   https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/gy.html clark, donald. (2010). estimating costs and time in instructional design. retrieved from  http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/costs.html wikipedia. (2014). release early, release often. retrieved from   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/release_early,_release_often neil butcher is based in south africa, from where he provides policy, technical advice and support to national and international clients in educational planning, use of educational technology and distance education, both as a full-time employee at the south african institute for distance education (saide) from 1993 to 2001 and as director of neil butcher & associates. he has assisted educational institutions with transformation efforts that focus on effectively harnessing the potential of distance education methods, educational technology, and oer. e-mail: neilshel@nba.co.za andrew moore works at neil butcher and associates as an author, materials developer, instructional designer, web interface designer and educational technology trainer. he manages projects designed to provide capacity to staff at african higher education institutions in designing, developing and deploying e-learning solutions, as well as projects providing capacity to courseware developers across the continent in identifying, adapting, and sharing open education resources (oer). andrew has an med from the university of pretoria (2002). e-mail: andryn@iafrica.com sarah hoosen is a researcher and project manager at neil butcher and associates in johannesburg, where she works on projects in the higher education area, including institutional strategy development and the evaluation of education and technology. sarah has has published widely on distance education and oer and has a master's in counselling psychology. e-mail: sarahhoosen@nba.co.za bose policies regulating the assignments of the bachelor of education programme of indira gandhi national open university: a case study sutapa bose vol. 3, no. 2 abstract this case study examines the policies formulated by the indira gandhi national open university (ignou), an open and distance learning university of india for regulating the practices related to the assignments of its bachelor of education programme. following the examination it argues that some policies are formulated in the context of the pedagogic significance of assignments in distance education and aim to support learning, while others seem to have been formulated for coping with the financial and administrative limitations imposed by the high enrolment in the programme. it infers that the dichotomy in the policy objectives reflects the diverging perspectives of the policies that have not been reconciled during policy formulation. it also suggests the way the policies that subordinate quality to quantity can be revised. introduction in india for the past several years the annual growth rate in enrolment in distance education has been over 10 per cent (government of india, 2013). the steep rise in enrolment is particularly evident in distance teacher education programmes and the soaring enrolment in the teacher education programmes offered by the indira gandhi national open university (ignou), an open and distance learning (odl) university of india is a testimony to this. the bachelor of education (b.ed.) programme offered by the school of education (soe) of ignou to untrained secondary level teachers is one such programme with high enrolment that has exceeded 30,000 during the last several years. as a programme study center (psc) has been admitting 100 students,   the number of pscs, activated at the conventional secondary level teacher education institutions for delivering the programme has also been on the rise. the b.ed. prospectus (ignou, 2015) lists 347 such pscs.  further, the theoretical component of the programme comprises a number of courses of 4 credits each (one credit at ignou requires 30 hours of relevant academic work) and for every course assignment submission is compulsory. therefore, millions of assignments are submitted at the pscs. a huge work force of academic counselors is required for assessing assignments and they are recruited from the institutions housing the pscs.  high enrolment therefore helps in clearing the backlog of untrained teachers but it is also likely to pose administrative and financial challenges to odl operations, such as the management of assignments. the scale of operation of the activities pertaining to assignments is thus challenging when the enrolment is high but assignments are essential in the odl teaching learning process. this is mainly because assignments are one of the potent means for supporting distance learners (commonwealth of learning, 2005) and enable formative assessment (koh, 2008). further, the feedback on the assignment work introduces the dialogue needed for supporting learning and keeping learners motivated, especially in distance education (chetwynd & dobbyn, 2011; chokwe, 2015; court, 2014; perera, nguyen & watty, 2014; segoe, 2013; tait, 2004; wilson, 2015).  therefore, ignou has retained tutor-marked assignments as a compulsory component of the b.ed. programme and has formulated policies to regulate the practices pertaining to assignments. this article examines these policies and determines the perspectives guiding the policy formulation.  it also suggests ways in which the policies that contradict those assuring the quality of assignments can be revised. the policies related to assignments the policies regulating the b.ed. assignments of ignou are as follows: policy on development of assignment questions for every course there is only one assignment but as per this policy, a set of three questions is developed for it. to discourage the sale and purchase of readymade answers, the questions of the previous academic year are excluded from the set. further, it is mandatory that the set of questions includes at least one question that requires learners to apply their knowledge for finding the solution of a problem. this ensures that learners apply the knowledge they gain from the self learning material (slm).  hence, the policy objective is to challenge learning, induce critical thinking and promote deep learning, and the resulting practice introduces in the predominantly behaviouristic instructional system, a pedagogy that situates the learner in a real world scenario and nurtures problem solving skills. policy of using multiple media for making assignments accessible this policy requires the use of print for dispatch through the postal service the assignment questions and the programme guide that includes information about the date and place for submitting assignments and other such aspects. the policy also requires that assignment questions of the previous several years along with those for the current year are available on ignou’s website so that those who had registered in the programme but have not completed it can access the current assignment questions, which they are expected to answer. policy for integrating assignments into the instructional design of the programme for integrating assignments into the instructional design of the b.ed. programme, there is a policy that makes assignment submission not just compulsory but a precondition for taking the term end examination (tee). the ensuing practices not only integrate assignments into the instructional system but also ensure that learners are serious about assignments and their submission. further, by fixing the deadline for assignment submission, two months prior to the tee, the policy ensures that learning is not delayed till tee but is a continuous process.  integration of assignments into the instructional design is also secured through a policy that weights the tee 70% and assignments 30% in the overall scheme of assessment, thereby making assignments a weighted component. it also requires only those getting a failing grade to resubmit assignments. the policy is therefore likely to elicit serious efforts at writing assignments but there is a likelihood that this derives from anxieties over grades rather than from the urge to learn and, in such cases, the slm becomes the source of answers for assignments rather than learning material.  policy regulating the number of assignments earlier, there were three assignments for a course and an assignment would comprise one or more questions but students submitted assignments thrice, but this policy requires only one assignment and makes assignment submission a one-time activity. although a set of three questions is included within the single assignment, there is a threefold decline in the frequency of establishing the tutor-student linkage through assignments. regular assignments and comprehensive feedback is, however, central to distance education and there is a need to capture students’ time and effort through assignments and distribute them across topics and weeks (gibbs & simpson, 2004-05) but this policy impedes the distribution of assignments across weeks and topics. further, it allows the assessment for only a small part of the instructions. therefore, this policy makes assignments a tool for one-time assessment and counters the claim made in the b.ed. prospectus about assignment being a tool for continuous assessment. policies regulating assessment of assignments several policies have been formulated for regulating the assessment of assignments.  in keeping with one such policy, the bio-data of the prospective academic counselors are scrutinized first at the regional center of ignou and, thereafter, it is cross checked at headquarters at multiple levels to ensure that those engaged as tutor counselors possess the necessary academic qualifications.   there is also a policy for orienting academic counselors to assess  assignments and this requires that academic counselors are oriented to the systemic issues of odl and the academic aspects of the programme. during the orientation programme tutoring skills, including skills for writing tutor comments, are developed. this policy takes cognizance of the fact that academic counselors are from the conventional system and their association with the programme begins usually after it has been designed and developed and, hence, they need to be oriented before they begin to function as academic counselors. however, this policy makes orientation programmes a one-time event, organized after the programme is launched. hence, orientation programmes do not keep pace with the continuous recruitment of new academic counselors. the policy therefore overlooks the dynamic nature of the workforce of academic counselors, caused by transfer, superannuation and other reasons. these reasons lead to the exit of academic counselors who have been oriented and the entry of those who have not been oriented.  moreover, unlike in old study centers, at the new ones that are activated later to accommodate the growing enrolment, the scope for workplace learning from peers who had been oriented earlier is also unlikely.  although orienting the academic counselors who continuously trickle into study centers that are numerous and spread across india requires huge investments in terms of financial resources and time, nevertheless, over the years the workforce becomes populated with those lacking the understanding required for supporting distance learners.  further, the quality of feedback on student essays is important and the provision of appropriate feedback is a topic of concern (chokwe, 2015; wilson, 2015) but the duration of the orientation progammes is only 2-3 days, which is inadequate for orienting academic counselors (srivastava & reddy, 2002). the policy determining the duration thus allows little time for mastering the skills required for assessing the gap in learning, and bridging the zone of proximal distance through tutor comments that are concise but explicit enough to be meaningful to the distance learner, and powerful enough to guide learning and support future learning efforts but are not authoritative  and the evaluator does not provide the final word. policy for monitoring assessment of assignments this policy requires the study centers to send 2% of the total assignments submitted for a course during an academic session to the soe. the sample offers to the faculty members who have designed and developed the programme an idea of students’ learning, the effectiveness of the course design, the adequacy of instructional inputs and the pedagogic efficacy of the self-learning material. besides, it reveals the way assignments are assessed and feedback is provided. however, the policy dictating the sample size for monitoring assignments requires a sample of only 2% of the 100 assignments to be submitted for each theory course from each study center during an academic session. hence, the monitoring is effectively of only two assignments sampled purposively by the study center.  the sample size and its nature are not fit for drawing credible inferences about the feedback but since the study centers and the courses are numerous, increasing the sample size will only increase the workload pertaining to monitoring. therefore, as chetwynd and dobbyn (2011) say, tutors receive initial training in how to give feedback and samples of their subsequent work are regularly monitored but no explicit checks are carried out on the efficacy of feedback.  policy regulating mode of assignment submission this policy disallows online submission of assignments although it is hard to check for plagiarism with handwritten assignments. the policy also does not clarify the institution’s stand on plagiarism. since questions are set usually from the slm and only one question compulsorily requires knowledge application, the chances for the rest of reproducing content from the slm cannot be ruled out and, in such cases, a major part of the learners’ response may provide poor evidence of learning and learning gaps. however, in the absence of explicit instructions for preventing plagiarism, an answer comprising content copied from the slm can be construed only as a poor quality answer but not as content with a copyright violation.  the policy allowing such leniency, coupled with the practice of including two questions that usually require straight answers, may limit deep learning but can shore up the pass percentage even as learner support gets stretched due to high enrolment. policy regulating dispatch of assignments following evaluation feedback on assignments should be timely (gibbs & simpson, 2004-05; weaver, 2006) but this policy does not stipulate the deadline for the dispatch of evaluated assignments to learners. it has also not generated the mechanism that allows learners to track the assignment. therefore, learners may remain unaware for a long time not only about their grades and feedback but even about the assignments submitted. inferences from the examination of the policies the policies can be divided into two distinct categories on the basis of their objectives. there are policies that aim to support learning and lead to practices that ensure quality in aspects like access to assignments, recruitment of academic counselors and their capacity building. the objectives of the other set of policies are, however, to accommodate a large enrolment and help the institution to cope with the administrative and financial limitations this imposes. therefore, these policies aim at keeping in check aspects like resubmission of assignments, the number of assignments, the duration and frequency of orientation programmes and the sample size of the assignments to be monitored. high enrolment, therefore, does not increase the workload on these aspects and the investment in resources also remains low. there is thus a dichotomy in the objectives of the two sets of policies that apparently emerge from different perspectives that do not seem to have been reconciled during policy formulation. while the policies seeking quality emerge from the perspective of the pedagogic utility of assignments in bridging the transactional distance between the teacher and the learner in distance education, the rest sidestep the pedagogic concerns and emerge from a perspective that takes a pragmatic view on using assignments as a tool for initiating and sustaining dialogue between the tutors and learners when the numbers are large. it foresees that an iterative process of learning, receiving feedback and relearning will require large-scale submission and resubmission of assignments, their dispatch, and data processing. this effectively prevents the scaling up of these processes and, thus, the rising cost.  therefore, the concern expressed by gibbs & simpson (2002) that when class sizes increase, economies of scale are difficult to achieve as assessment costs go up in direct proportion to the number of students, is addressed by these policies. conclusion in india the enrolment in distance education has been contributing heavily towards the attainment of national targets like enhancing the gross enrolment ratio in higher education and clearing the backlog of untrained teachers. it also helps odl institutions in bringing down the unit cost of education and mobilizing resources. however, supporting learners may be challenging when the number to be supported is high, as deployment and scaling up of resources, especially developing qualified persons to match the growing enrolment is difficult. this results in policies that support the accommodation of large numbers but restrict the obligation of odl to teaching and certification and diminish its role in supporting learning. further, such policies may contradict some of the policies that consider assignments as interventions for supporting learning. for instance, the policy making assignments a tool for continuous evaluation is contradicted by that curtailing the number of assignments. similarly the policy requiring the orientation of academic counselors is weakened by the policy dictating the duration and frequency of the orientation. policies with such contradictory objectives indicate that the policy formulation has been carried out without efforts to converge the demands of diverging perspectives. the perspective of quantity is, however, likely to weaken, since, from 2016, in keeping with india’s new norms for teacher education, a study center will include only 50 students, which is half of that presently accommodated, while the net enrolment will be capped at 2,500. the new norms are apparently an admission of the difficulty in balancing the perspectives of quantity and quality. nevertheless, it is unrealistic to expect that with declining enrolment, assignments will automatically cease to be a tool for measuring and grading learning and become an intervention that measures as well as supports learning.  unless the policies that subordinate quality to quantity are revised, the status quo on assignments may continue.  for creating some of the conditions under which assessment supports learning (gibbs & simpson, 2004-05) these policies should be suitably revised. accordingly, there may be a policy for increasing the number of assignments so that from the present one-time event, they become more frequent events but to ensure that learners do not indulge in long hours of surface learning, the questions should be suitably designed. the implementation of this policy will, however, require two more policies. one, for curtailing the time lost through postal dispatches by allowing and supporting online submission and assessment of assignments and enabling the soe faculty members to access and monitor the digital repository of evaluated assignments; and two, for ensuring that when face-to-face orientation programmes cannot be organized, academic counselors are oriented at least through slm, in print and video media and online sessions for developing tutoring skills, so that they can provide feedback that actually supports learning. further, in order to ensure that learners act on the feedback, there may be a policy of awarding grades only after the student does act on it. for creating these conditions technology will be useful and given that b.ed. study centers as well as many learners have access to it, it may not present a barrier. references chetwynd, f., & dobbyn, c. (2011).  assessment, feedback and marking guides in distance education. open learning: the journal of open, distance and elearning, 26(1), 67-78. chokwe, j.m. (2015). students’ and tutors’ perceptions of feedback on academic essays in an open and distance learning context. open praxis, 7(1). retrieved from http://www.openpraxis.org/index.php/openpraxis/article/view/154 commonwealth of learning. (2005). creating learning materials for open and distance learning: a handbook for authors and instructional designers. vancouver: col. court, k. (2014). tutor feedback on draft essays: developing students’ academic writing and subject knowledge. journal of further and higher education, 38(3), 327-345. gibbs, g., & simpson, c. (2002). does your assessment support your students’ learning? retrieved from http://www.open.ac.uk/science/fdtl/documents/lit­review.pdf gibbs, g., & simpson, c.(2004-05). conditions under which assessment supports students’ learning. learning and teaching in higher education, 1(2). retrieved from https://www.open.ac.uk/fast/pdfs/gibbs%20and%20simpson%202004-05.pdf government of india. (2013). twelfth five year plan, 2012–2017, social sectors, vol. 3. new delhi: sage publications of india. ignou. (2015). b.ed. prospectus. retrieved from http://ignou.ac.ins/ignou/aboutignou/school/soe/prospectus koh, l. c. (2008). refocusing formative feedback to enhance learning in pre-registration nurse education.  nurse education in practice, 8(4), 223-230. perera, l., nguyen, h., & watty, k. (2014). formative feedback through summative tutorial-based assessments: the relationship to student performance. accounting education, 23(5), 424-442. segoe, b. (2013). feedback measures as a strategy for student support in open distance learning: can it come to the aid of weary student teachers? mediterranean journal of social sciences, 4(14), 705-710. srivastava, m., & reddy, v.v. (2002). academic counseling at the indira gandhi national open university (ignou): counsellors’ perceptions. malaysian journal of distance education, 5(1), 15-30. tait, j. (2004). the tutor/facilitator role in student retention. open learning: the journal of open, distance and e-learning, 19(1), 97-109. weaver, m.r. (2006). do students value feedback? student perceptions of tutors’ written responses.  assessment & evaluation in higher education, 31(3), 379-394. wilson, a. (2015). an exploration of tutor feedback on essays and the development of a feedback guide. the european journal of open, distance and e-learning, retrieved from http://www.eurodl.org/?p=special&sp=articles&inum=6&article=672 author: dr. sutapa bose is associate professor at the school of education, indira gandhi national open university, new delhi, india. email: sbose@ignou.ac.in weller the open flip – a digital economic model for education martin weller vol. 3, no. 2 abstract the advent of the internet and digital technologies has given rise to a number of new economic models. these have often been applied to education, but either through faults in the initial models or differences in the characteristics of the education sector, they have not proven to be widely applicable. the use of digital, network technologies combined with open licences is one area that has seen particular success in educational application. this field offers an economic model that has particular application to education, through the reallocation of finances to the production of openly licensed resources instead of the purchase of copyrighted ones. this has potential significant impact across a range of educational practices and beyond. models of the digital economy the digital, networked revolution has seen a number of different economic models proposed that seek to deal with new opportunities and reality. the new issues that digital economic models need to incorporate include a shift from scarcity to abundance, the non-rivalrous nature of digital goods, distributed creation, different sets of values, a shift in what consumers will pay for, instant delivery and access, and social media and online communities as distribution channels. this creates a very different context for many industries than one based around the creation, distribution and marketing of scarce physical goods. anderson (2007) highlighted the long tail underlying many online businesses, which the internet made more viable. in this model a business, such as amazon, generates a significant amount of its turnover by selling small quantities of a wide distribution of goods, not relying solely on ‘blockbusters’. anderson (2009) also proposed that many online businesses move to a freemium model, whereby some content is given away for free, but other, premium services are paid for. castells (1996) sees networks as the most significant unit in society, and by extension, in economics. how the network deals with information flows is key to understanding economic models. benkler (2006) extends this model by looking at the economics of social production. he stresses the non-rivalrous nature of digital goods (i.e., they can be copied perfectly without any reduction to the original) and the distributed nature of production in peer communities. in such a model he suggests that ‘human capacity becomes [a] primary scarce resource’. the open source software community can be seen as an example of this initial phase of digital economics. in open source the source code of software is made accessible to anyone under licences that specifically allow modification and reuse. open source software can be limited to a single or small set of developers, or be the product of a large community. while it is not the only way to produce software, and works alongside more proprietary approaches, the open source approach has proven itself to be viable. this is because the distributed model is an effective model for producing high quality software, the mantra of raymond (1999) captures it in ‘given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow’. the peer production model is well established, with participants undertaking different tasks such as writing code, debugging, testing, and integrating software, as well as broader services such as suggestions for product features, distribution, answering queries, and helping new members having problems with the software, etc. (meiszner, glott & sowe 2008) this model demonstrates how openly licensed resources can be produced by distributed communities, along the lines suggested by benkler and castells. this can be seen as a first wave of digital economics, and remains successful in many areas. however, the model of interest-driven, peer community production is not always applicable to more financially motivated markets. the learning object movement can be seen as an example of an attempt to apply this open source model to higher education. learning objects are reusable digital artefacts, and there was considerable interest in a community driven approach and a learning object economy in the late 1990s and early 2000s, e.g., larsen & vincent-lancrin (2005). however people were soon querying why the promise of learning objects had not been realised, for example campbell (2003) stated, ‘for some time now there has been a growing awareness that even the most accessible resources have failed to be widely adopted by the educational community and as a result have also failed to fulfil their considerable educational potential.’ similarly, gunn, woodgate, & o’grady (2005) noted that, ‘uptake of these resources is happening at a slower than desirable pace, despite the unquestionable quality of design and production, high levels of investment in professional development and the rationally anticipated outcome of this investment’. the community driven, open source model had failed to transfer successfully to education, and focus instead shifted to open education resources (oer). downes (2007) proposed several models for sustainability including endowment, membership, institution and government funding models for oer. the model proposed here can be seen as revisiting some of these in light of recent practice. christensen’s (1997) theory of disruption has gained a lot of interest in digital economics. christensen differentiated between sustaining and disruptive technologies, arguing that the former improve existing products, while the latter create new markets. many companies, he claimed, focus on sustaining technology because that is what they know about and hear from the customers. new entrants to a market will often develop the disruptive technology, which although often inferior initially, eventually replaces the existing model, usually due to the extinction of the older companies and technology. the digital camera, personal computer and smart phones are all prime examples.  a related concept is that of unbundling, proposed by, amongst others, evans and wurster (2000). unbundling occurs when a business can be seen as being composed of many different separate products and services. in an analogue world these are grouped together for convenience. but when services move online they become unbundled because transaction costs are significantly reduced and those services can be obtained from a range of different providers by the consumer. an example given by evans and wurster is car sales in a pre-internet age, which used to combine used and new car sales, car financing, servicing and repairs. now each of those elements can be sourced online and the initial ‘glue’ that held them together is weakened. both unbundling and disruption have been applied to education by numerous observers. for example craig (2015) links the pressure created by the rising cost of higher education and the free offerings of moocs to argue that the different components of an education offering could be supplied by companies.  christensen, horn & johnson (2008) have suggested that education is primed for disruption through technology, stating that ‘disruption is a necessary and overdue chapter in our public schools.’ a report into higher education (barber, donnelly, & rizv: 2013) claimed that all the key ‘elements of the traditional university are threatened by the coming avalanche. in clayton christensen’s terms, universities are ripe for disruption.’ these concepts have often been over-applied and have shown themselves to be less than robust. lepore (2014) examined christensen’s case studies of disruption in detail, and found the methodology fundamentally flawed, and the model lacking in any predictive power. dvorak (2004) complains that disruption is essentially meaningless, stating that, ‘there is no such thing as a disruptive technology. there are inventions and new ideas, many of which fail while others succeed. that's it.’  similarly unbundling is often touted, but the glue that holds services together proves to be stronger than anticipated. more recently new businesses driven in part by the proliferation of smart phones and apps, have been grouped under the heading of ‘the sharing economy’. uber and airbnb are the most commonly cited examples for this model. hamari et al (2015) define the sharing economy as, ‘the peer-to-peer-based activity of obtaining, giving, or sharing the access to goods and services, coordinated through community-based online services)’. for airbnb this is realised through people letting out a room in their house, and for uber drivers it entails operating as a taxi driver in their spare time. what underlies these businesses is a reduction in transaction costs (it is easy to register and operate as an uber driver or airbnb host) and effective use of the network to find services, rate providers, and compete on price. the sharing economy has quickly shifted to professional providers, e.g., full time uber drivers, rather than a model that made use of existing resources. there is also concern about the manner in which such models undermine employee rights, and the global monopolisation of services by a few providers. with all of these models there is a tendency to over-apply them to all sectors. for example, the freemium model was widely praised at the time, but few businesses have managed to make it successful, and even the often quoted example of flickr is in difficulty. similarly there have been a number of examples of the uber model applied to different sectors. inevitably education is one of these, for example nassim taleb (2015) argues that learners will bypass institutions and go direct to instructors; rogers (2014) excitedly claims that a start-up, instaedu, will transform education; and burke (2015) revisits the idea of unbundling education with uber as an analogy. a common theme for such economic models applied to education is that universities will be made redundant because individual learners will go direct to a marketplace of private educators. however, in the desire to seek new markets for a successful model, it is rarely considered how that sector differsfrom the existing model. taking uber as an example, the key points of the successful uber offering can be summarised as: a taxi ride is a brief interaction. it may be pleasurable to have a conversation with the driver, but it is a short interaction, with relatively little social investment. a taxi ride may vary in some local colour in terms of car, environment, etc. but it is essentially the same product every day and anywhere in the world. it is something that a lot of people possess the equipment for (a car) and the capability (driving). the customer has a clear understanding of what they wish to attain from the transaction, e.g., to get to their destination safely and at low cost. it is largely a solitary pursuit. it utilises mobile technology and pervasive connectivity to overcome some of the limitations of the previous model, that of locating a cab, or booking via the phone. in comparison, very few of these conditions apply to education, which has the following characteristics: it requires a long time frame, certainly longer than a typical taxi ride, to gain the required outcome. it is very diverse, both geographically and by discipline, so any model would need to accommodate such diversity and thus be difficult to use, compared with the simplicity of uber while there are a lot of people who can act as tutors, the ability to construct a curriculum or design a learning activity that can be effectively delivered online is quite rare. also while gaining a driving licence is fairly easy, being licensed to offer formal credit for learning is very difficult. meno’s paradox stresses that if a learner knows what they’re looking for, inquiry is unnecessary. if they don’t know what they’re looking for, inquiry is impossible. a learner in a new discipline, therefore, is often in the position of not knowing what it is they need to know. it is more problematic in education then to bypass institutions and processes that are constructed to help overcome this very problem. learning is often a social activity that is undertaken with a cohort of people with similar interests and goals. education is already engaging with online learning and mobile delivery, so the problem that an uber for education is solving is less immediately obvious. there will be aspects of what might be termed the uberization of education and many are already in place, and are just part of the changing approach to workforce. for instance, it is often difficult for an institution to compete with an individual consultant on price for research that doesn’t require large resources. for example writing a review or conducting interviews, often has prohibitive overheads for a university compared to a private researcher working out of a home office. similarly the online tutoring model is already underway with many part time online tutors employed by universities. models of the digital economy then have had varying degrees of success, and while they are often applied to education, they have not caused a significant shift in practice. this is partly a result of flaws in the theories themselves, for instance that disruption is largely a rhetoric tool, but also because the models are often focused on consumer behaviour. while students are often referred to as consumers, and with rising student fees in many countries, they perceive themselves this way to an extent (cuthbert 2010), higher education is not a straightforward consumer model, as the comparison with uber illustrates. what this paper sets out is a digital economy model that is focused not at the consumer level, but directed at large scale investment, and as such suits many of the characteristics of education, which operates at scale. the open flip this model originates similarly with the new demands of digital, networked society but also builds on the benkler work on open licences. open licences, typically those of creative commons, allow for the reuse and adaptation of content, while protecting the originator’s right to be acknowledged (and possibly further restrictions depending on the particular licence). the intersection of these three elements has led to significant movements in education around openness. notably the mainstream adoption of open access models in publishing, the release of open education resources (oers), and more recently large scale open courses, known as moocs (massive open online courses). weller (2014) argues that to an extent openness has ‘won’ as an approach, in that it has been accepted as a viable model of operation in higher education. arising from these movements, which are centred around content production, is a new model of allocating resources, which can be termed the ‘open flip’. briefly stated, the open flip is a reallocation of finances away from purchasing copyrighted resources to the production of openly licensed ones. one example of the open flip in operation is the open textbook movement in north america. the price of textbooks has become an increasing issue for north american students, with the average cost per student in excess of $900 (hilton iii et al 2014). this has caused the oer movement in the united states to focus on creating openly licensed textbooks. projects such as openstax, the open textbook library, bc campus (in canada), and lumen learning are all developing or promoting open textbooks. the findings from these projects has been positive, with research demonstrating the efficacy and quality of such textbooks is as good if not better than existing ones (fisher et al 2015). in terms of savings to students, it is difficult to quantify as usage is not always reported and is thus difficult to track and, additionally, estimates can assume all students who downloaded a book would have purchased a new one or may have opted for cheaper versions, loaned ones or decided the textbook was not essential. both openstax and bccampus attempt to accommodate some of this variation by using the average figure of $100 per textbook per student. with this value openstax estimates it has saved students $66 million in book purchases (https://openstax.org/impact) and bccampus $1.5 million (https://open.bccampus.ca/open-textbook-stats/). just a single college (de anza college) estimated savings of $1 million based on previous purchasing patterns (de los arcos et al 2014). similarly the k12 oer collaborative, sets out to relieve states in the us from the burden of having to replace costly textbooks for k12 schools by paying publishers to produce open ones (http://k12oercollaborative.org/). there is a strong financial argument for this model. taking just one state (washington) their budget allows them to update two books a year across the whole k12 age range and curriculum. this means many set books are out of date before it’s their turn to be updated, which usually takes place on an eight year cycle. for the same money to update two books a year, using the open approach, they could create open textbooks for all subjects. and these would, of course, be usable across the whole of the us, not just in one state, as since they are openly licensed. in the us, the project estimates the figure for purchasing k12 textbooks is $8 billion nationwide, and estimates that this could be realised for approximately $30 million (green, 2015). for open access journals, there is a similar argument to shift financial resources from the purchase of journals to their production within universities. this model has been promoted by the open library humanities (olh) project (https://www.openlibhums.org/). this operates a range of open access journals in the humanities, with no author facing charges. it is funded by subscriptions from university libraries, which covers the article processing charges (apcs). these are kept low as the journals are hosted by the open access publisher ubiquity press, which charges £300 per article for copyediting and processing. according to olh, with just 200 libraries in the consortium the contribution from each drops to $925 per year, (olh 2015) a relatively small sum compared with the subscription fees for accessing many journals from the larger publishers. knowledge unlatched operates a similar model by sharing costs between libraries to make books available under an open licence (http://www.knowledgeunlatched.org/). as with olh, if scale is achieved then the costs quickly fall for each individual library. in terms of teaching, the open flip offers the potential to create a wide pool of teaching content. for example, the blended learning consortium (http://www.elearningdepot.org/blended_learning_consortium.html) in the uk is a network of further education colleges, which charges an annual membership fee of £5,000. this money is used to pay staff members in member colleges to develop e-learning content which is suggested by the community, and which all member colleges then have access to. in order to gain continued funds, this content is not currently openly available, but a more nationwide consortium with government input could reduce costs further and make content open to all. the open flip can also be realised by simply removing barriers to sharing, and encouraging open licensing from existing practice. for instance, in leicester blanket permission was given across 84 schools for teachers to share the learning materials they created under an open licence (fraser 2016). this is activity that is largely occurring already, funded by the state, but by making sharing the default option, it makes that content available for all. similarly, the us department of labor launched a $2 billion programme, trade adjustment assistance community college and career training (taaccct), aimed at improving workforce and employability training. all new material produced through these grants were mandated to be released under a creative commons licence (allen 2016).   discussion many of the digital economic models have been poorly applied to the education sector, because they either do not recognise the differences in this sector from conventional retail, or they require the complete dismantling of universities and colleges. the open flip is a model that is more directly suited to both the financial structure of education spending, and in alignment with the aims of educators. it seeks to allow a more practical allocation of resources, and enriches the pool of openly licensed material that can be adapted for use by educators. aside from financial benefits there are a number of pedagogic ones also. for example, weller et al (2015) found some evidence that use of oer can improve student performance, and leads to reflection on practice by educators. derosa (2016) reports how the use of open textbooks caused her to change her practice by engaging students in the process of co-creation and editing the textbook. the use of open textbooks at tidewater college led to an improvement in student retention and performance (demarte and williams 2015). these findings demonstrate that even at this early stage of an open flip approach, there is evidence that the benefits go beyond just financial savings. this model should not be overused, the fate that has befallen many digital economic models. it is suited to very particular circumstances. for the open flip to be a favourable model then the following should apply: there is large scale spending on the purchasing of resources that can be practically refocused through single channels. this does not apply to standard consumer purchases, for instance. the resources are largely digital in nature, or production can be cheap. the main component in the purchase price relates not to the physical aspect but to the intellectual property. for instance, the wide range in prices for academic textbooks is not related to any physical characteristics of their production, which varies only by a small degree. the initial production of the content is a task that can be financed. with open source software and many community driven approaches, it has been found that money is not an effective incentive. these community driven, peer based models are more adequately explained by benkler’s model. open licencing offers a particular benefit beyond just cost. while cost savings may be the initial driver, it is the advantages offered by openly licensed material that often sustains a movement. for example, the pedagogic advantages of adapting open textbooks. considering these factors there are other areas where the open flip might be applicable also, beyond education. for instance, currently governments and individuals spend billions on purchasing drugs from large pharmaceutical companies. there is often no incentive for such companies to develop drugs for illnesses which will not reach a wide market. an open flip approach would invest government money in the production of drugs that are then openly licensed, so production is inexpensive. this would meet the criteria set out above as there is large scale investment from bodies such as governments, charities and international organisations; the production of drugs themselves is often cheap, but the ownership of the rights creates a high price to repay the development investment; there is an increase in drug development and innovation from openly licensed drugs that can be adapted and used in other contexts. the digital, networked infrastructure is the substratum that allows this to happen, but it is open licensing that adds the final ingredient. existing models of practice can become ingrained and have an inbuilt inertia but as the examples above illustrate, with appropriate funding and targeting, a more effective allocation of resources is possible, which better suits the needs of education. references allen, n. (2016). u.s. labor department adopts open licensing policy. retrieved from  http://sparcopen.org/news/2016/dol-open-licensing-policy/ anderson, c. (2007). the long tail: how endless choice is creating unlimited demand. london: random house. anderson, c. (2009). free: the future of a radical price. london: random house. barber, m., donnelly, k., & rizv s (2103). ‘an avalanche is coming: higher education and the revolution ahead’. the institute of public policy research. retrieved from http://www.ippr.org/images/media/files/publication/2013/03/avalanche-is-coming_mar2013_10432.pdf benkler, y. (2006). the wealth of networks: how social production transforms markets and freedom. new haven: yale university press. burke, l. (2015). wanted: uber-ized education. retrieved from http://www.heritage.org/research/commentary/2015/2/wanted-uberized-education campbell, l. (2003). engaging with the learning object economy. in a. littlejohn (ed.), reusing online resources: a sustainable approach to e-learning (pp. 35-45). london & sterling, va: kogan page. castells, m. (1996). the rise of the network society, the information age: economy, society and culture, vol. i. cambridge, ma & oxford: blackwell. christensen, c. (1997). the innovator's dilemma. new york: harpers business. christensen, c. m., horn, m. b., & johnson, c. w. (2008). disrupting class: how disruptive innovation will change the way the world learns (vol. 98). new york, ny: mcgraw-hill. craig, r. (2015). college disrupted: the great unbundling of higher education. new york: macmillan. cuthbert, r. (2010). students as customers. higher education review, 42(3), 3-25. de los arcos, b., farrow, r., perryman, l.-a., pitt, r., & weller, m. (2014). oer evidence report 2013-2014. oer research hub. retrieved from http://oerresearchhub.org/about-2/reports/ downes, s. (2007). models for sustainable open educational resources. interdisciplinary journal of knowledge and learning objects, 3. http://www.ijklo.org/volume3/ijklov3p029-044downes.pdf dvorak, j. (2004). the myth of disruptive technology. pc mag. retrieved from http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,1628049,00.asp evans, p., & wurster, t. s. (2000). blown to bits: how the new economics of information transforms strategy. boston: harvard business press. fischer, l., hilton iii, j., robinson, t. j., & wiley, d. a. (2015). a multi-institutional study of the impact of open textbook adoption on the learning outcomes of post-secondary students. journal of computing in higher education, 27(3), 159-172. fraser, j. (2016). open education for schools – policy & practice. retrieved from http://www.josiefraser.com/2016/03/oer-resources/ green, c. (2016). k-12 oer collaborative. paper presented at oeglobal conference, krakow, april 2016, retrieved from http://conference.oeconsortium.org/2015/presentation/k12-oer-collaborative/ gunn, c., woodgate, s., & o’grady, w. (2005). repurposing learning objects: a sustainable alternative? research in learning technology, 13(3), 189-200. hamari, j., sjöklint, m., & ukkonen, a. (2015). the sharing economy: why people participate in collaborative consumption. journal of the association for information science and technology. doi: 10.1002/asi.23552 hilton iii, j., robinson, t., wiley, d., & ackerman, j. (2014). cost-savings achieved in two semesters through the adoption of open educational resources. the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 15(2). retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/1700/2833 larsen, k. & vincent-lancrin, s. (2005). the impact of ict on tertiary education: advances and promises. paper presented at the oecd/nsf/u michigan conference advancing knowledge and the knowledge economy, 10-11 january 2005, washington, dc. lepore, j. (2014, june 23). the disruption machine what the gospel of innovation gets wrong. the new yorke. retrieved from http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/06/23/the-disruption-machine meiszner, a., glott, r., & sowe, s. k. (2008). free/libre open source software (floss) communities as an example of successful open participatorylearning ecosystems. upgrade, the european journal for the informatics professional, 9(3), 62-68. open library humanities. (2015). summary of olh. retrieved from https://about.openlibhums.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/2015-summary-of-olh.pdf raymond, e. (1999). the cathedral and the bazaar. knowledge, technology & policy, 12(3), 23-49. rogers, g, (2014). the uberization of education. retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140603135511-20348008-the-uberization-of-education taleb, n. (2015).  ‘an uberized education is when…’. retrieved from http://www.blackswanreport.com/blog/2015/09/an-uberized-education-is-when/ weller, m. (2014). battle for open: how openness won and why it doesn't feel like victory. london: ubiquity press. author: martin weller is a professor at the institute of educational technology, the open university, milton keynes, uk. email: martin.weller@open.ac.uk microsoft word gow.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 296-307 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. enhancing ict adoption and use through change leadership: technology stewardship training for caribbean agricultural communities of practice gordon gow,1 ataharul chowdhury,2 wayne ganpat,3 and jeet ramjattan3 1university of alberta, canada 2university of guelph, canada, 3the university of the west indies, trinidad and tobago abstract: beginning in 2012, the university of alberta in partnership with others has been undertaking participatory action research in sri lanka and, since 2017, in the caribbean to foster inclusive innovation through a joint education and training initiative (jeti). the jeti is developing and testing a set of open educational resources on “technology stewardship” for resource-constrained organizations and communities in developing countries. the approach is a unique combination of social learning centred on communities of practice with action research methods intended to foster self-determination through improved “informational capabilities” as the primary outcome of development. in this article, we describe the learning objectives, design, observations, and initial outcomes of a pilot technology stewardship training course offered at the university of the west indies in march 2018. future plans and considerations for expanding technology stewardship training are discussed in the summary. keywords: ict4d, communities of practice, technology stewardship, professional development, action research, caribbean introduction a persistent challenge for researchers and educators working in information and communications technologies for development (ict4d) has been the question of how to improve local impact through sustainable projects and initiatives. despite ongoing efforts to enhance the socioeconomic impact of ict4d research, harris’ (2016) survey of 272 researchers in the field, concludes that “ict4d research falls short of its potential to benefit the recipients of development programs” (p. 187), and that greater efforts in engagement are necessary to build closer relationships between researchers and users if these initiatives are to realize significant benefits for the communities involved. meyer & marais (2015) discuss the importance of clearly defining the intended outcome of community engaged research in ict4d, and introduce the concept of sustained benefit to focus on “what [are] the benefits the project needs to deliver, what should be sustained and by whom.” their model describes a tiered structure for this type of engagement, starting at a strategic level, where a governance structure must be in place to ensure alignment of goals and interests among parties through joint planning and coordinated decision making. at a tactical level, the project needs to take steps to build local capacity and ensure effective transfer of ownership of the project to the recipient community. at the 297 operational level, communication processes need to be in place to sustain the ongoing benefits of the project through day-to-day operational support and training. these ideas converge in the ict4d literature under the term inclusive innovation. inclusive innovation refers to “the means by which new goods and services are developed for and/or by those who have been excluded from the development mainstream” (foster & heeks 2013). it encompasses multiple facets of development, starting with access to affordable technology and extending outward to more ambitious engagement strategies that seek to enable excluded groups and communities to innovate for themselves through inclusive processes, structures, and policies. beginning in 2012, the university of alberta in partnership with others has been undertaking participatory action research in sri lanka and, since 2017, in the caribbean to foster inclusive innovation through a joint education and training initiative (jeti). the jeti is developing and testing a set of open educational resources on “technology stewardship” for resource-constrained organizations and communities. the approach is a unique combination of social learning centred on communities of practice (wenger, 1998) with action research methods intended to foster selfdetermination through improved “informational capabilities” as the primary outcome of development (gigler, 2011). in this article, we describe the learning objectives, design, observations, and initial outcomes of a pilot technology stewardship training course offered at the university of west indies in march 2018 as part of an ongoing action research collaboration. technology stewardship technology stewardship is a multifaceted social practice described in the communities of practice literature: technology stewards are people with enough experience of the working of a community to understand its technology needs, and enough experience with or interest in technology to take leadership in addressing those needs. stewarding typically includes selecting and configuring technology, as well as supporting its use in the practice of the community. (wenger, et al., 2009, p. 25) in other words, technology stewards are not simply it support staff; they fulfill a vital community role in leading change through social learning. the role demands a range of competencies including effective community engagement, digital awareness/literacy, planning and coordination, as well as impact assessment and evaluation. change leadership and the choice framework the technology steward is a leadership role that facilitates social learning to support ict adoption and use in relation to the various activities and aspirations of a community of practice. seen through the lens of kleine’s choice framework (kleine, 2013), the technology steward serves four primary responsibilities with regard to the adoption and use of icts in their community: • they make the community aware of the existence of choice; • they help the community to develop a clear sense of choice; 298 • they facilitate and support the effective use of choice; • they recognize and sustain the achievement of choice. figure 1: technology steward training mapped to kotter’s change leadership model and kleine’s choice framework in other words, technology stewards facilitate transformational social practice to help their communities be more self-determined in choosing how and when to use ict in response to local needs and aspirations. as a form of change leadership, the technology steward’s responsibilities correspond with kotter’s (2007) widely-cited management model (see figure 1). the open educational resources that we have been pioneering with partners in sri lanka and in the caribbean are intended to introduce agricultural practitioners to the concept of technology stewardship and to provide accessible training and mentorship in a set of simplified action research competencies, including community engagement; ict prototyping and testing; assessment and reporting methods. initial findings from pilot studies suggest that technology stewardship can build local capacity for change leadership, while instilling confidence and skills needed to promote inclusive innovation with ict more broadly (gow, 2018; jayathilake, et. al., 2017). testing the training material in trinidad and tobago in march 2018 the jeti research team tested its latest version of the technology stewardship course with a group of agricultural and fisheries extension officers in trinidad and tobago. designed as a two-day, short course, training took place at the university of the west indies (uwi) st. augustine campus in collaboration with the faculty of food and agriculture (ffa) and the department of agricultural economics and extension. 299 as part of its overall strategy to encourage ict adoption among agricultural practitioners and rural communities, the ffa is now taking steps to develop a graduate diploma program in icts that will include technology stewardship training. the target population of the program is agriculture and rural development professionals, such as extension workers, community development agents, and field officers of private and nonprofit sectors who need to expand their knowledge and skills of new techniques and tools for community engagement and knowledge mobilization (ganpat, et. al., 2016; ganpat, et. al., 2014). two months prior to the course, the research team circulated a letter of interest to public and private sector extension organizations, regional development institutes, producer organizations, and community-based organizations. in the letter, we provided a link asking applicants to complete a precourse survey online that provided the team with information about their professional roles, ict experience and use, and interest in taking the course. we received 45 responses of interest and offered places to 20 applicants. in selecting participants, we considered representation of different organizations, professional roles, sectors and experience in using ict tools and availability to participate in the full two days of course activities (figure 2). figure 2: course participants by organizational type based on findings from the pre-course survey about social media use, the team created a whatsapp group to coordinate communication with participants before, during, and after the course. participants were assigned to one of four affinity groups for the course, which was structured in three 300 hour sessions, and ran from 09:00-4:30 each day with breaks. with the exception of one individual, all participants completed all two days of the course (with the second day falling on a weekend). participants were introduced to the concept of technology stewardship and, working in groups, were guided through a set of activities for identifying community needs, selecting appropriate icts, conducting pilot tests with the community, and evaluating results. at the end of the course, participants were awarded a certificate of completion. follow-up interviews were conducted by phone/skype several weeks after the course. design of the stewardship course the course is designed around four sessions (modules), each building on the other toward a final capstone project. the first session provides an introduction to the overall approach using case-based learning to present basic concepts and examples to participants. participants were provided with a case study booklet that has been localized with examples set in trinidad (figure 3). figure 3: participants working in groups, with case study booklets and course workbooks. in the second session, participants continue to work in small groups and are asked to consider and choose a community of practice as a point of focus for the remaining activities. using the workbook, participants conduct a problem-tree activity to identify priorities, issues or concerns for the community of practice. they then follow a set of procedures that help them to articulate a clear objective for conducting an ict-based pilot study with the community of practice—referred to in the course material as a campaign (see figure 4). 301 following the principles of action research (stringer, 2014) the campaign is a limited duration, exploratory intervention that stewards use to introduce and assess new (or unfamiliar) ict-related social practices with their community members. figure 4: results of community engagement exercise using a problem tree analysis (left) to develop a campaign objective (right); the objective informs the choice of ict for the campaign. having articulated a campaign objective, participants are introduced to a series of activities that help them to identify ict requirements, leading to a selection of an ict tool or platform suitable for the campaign (see figure 5). participants are encouraged to consider various social media platforms, as well as more specialized apps, depending on the need. in the language of change leadership, community engagement is essential to create and communicate a vision for the community. this engagement process is important for the steward to help the community develop a clear sense of choice in how things are done, and how they might be done differently with respect to ict use. the course workbook includes a procedure for conducting “rapid prototyping and testing” of the ict to test functionality and suitability with the community. from a change-leadership perspective, rapid and provisional deployment of the ict platform creates an opportunity for a “short term win” by involving the community in the process of experimentation and maintains momentum. it supports the use of choice by offering community members an opportunity to test and comment on a new ict application without having to make a long-term commitment to it. 302 as befits action research, the course material emphasizes the provisional nature of the campaign as a form of community learning, pointing out that the exercise of choice within an inclusive innovation context includes the decision not to adopt a particular ict application, and to choose to continue to investigate other options (including those that are not ict-based). figure 5: diagram adapted from wenger, et al., (2009) used as part of the activity to guide participants through an ict readiness exercise for their community. the final session leads participants through a campaign planning exercise that includes provision for collecting data at various stages that will contribute evidence to an evaluation of the pilot (see figure 6). evaluation is critically important to assess both formative and summative outcomes of the campaign and to be able to report results back to the community and organizational sponsors (e.g., government departments) that may be vital to providing support for ict on an ongoing basis. campaign evaluation is an essential competency for the tech steward to be able to recognize the achievement of good choices with respect to ict practices and to report those back to the community members. from a change leadership perspective, this step leads to the “consolidation of improvements” and can help facilitate the embedding of new practices, either through formal institutional policies or informal social conventions. 303 figure 6: campaign planning tool designed like a board game. participants complete the final session by drafting an individual action plan (iap) in which they select an activity that they will complete outside the classroom as a final capstone project. the iap provides a number of options for participants based on the four training sessions, ranging from conducting a community engagement activity, completing a rapid prototyping exercise, or designing a campaign and evaluation plan. some participants may choose to carry out more than one activity if they choose to do so. the capstone project is intended to be completed within two to three weeks following the classroom component of the course. participants then report back to the instructor and the rest of the cohort on their experience. outcomes and impact of the pilot participants completed an evaluation form following the course, which indicated positive results overall. the course material was well received with 18 of 19 participants agreeing or strongly agreeing with the statement “the quality of the course content was excellent.” most responded by indicating that it increased their knowledge in the subject area, that they were motivated to learn more about it, and would take additional courses in future if offered. most also indicated they would recommend the course to others. with respect to intended outcomes and the course material, we made several observations: ● working in groups participants were able to identify and describe a relevant community of practice for their subsequent activities; ● participants were able to successfully complete a simulated engagement activity that generated a set of issues, challenges for the community of practice; 304 ● participants were able to successfully select a priority issue from the problem-tree activity and translate it into a campaign objective using the guidelines in the course workbook with assistance from the instructors; ● participants were able to successfully identify the ict tool(s) that aligned with their campaign objective, and then apply course guidelines to choose a suitable ict platform hosting those tools. with respect to areas in need of further attention and improvement, the following observations were made by the research facilitators: ● additional classroom time is required to adequately present and carry out the campaign planning activities; ● additional classroom time is required to adequately present and carry out campaign evaluation methods and procedures; ● additional classroom time is required for participants to create an individual action plan for their final capstone project. with respect to the individual action plans (iaps) submitted at the end of the course, 13 participants (76.5%) indicated they intended to undertake some type of post-course activity: • five participants indicated they would attempt a full campaign with their community of practice; • two participants indicated they would undertake a community engagement activity with their community of practice to identify ict opportunities; • two participants indicated they would choose and prototype an ict application with their community of practice; • three participants indicated they would develop an evaluation plan based on a real or hypothetical campaign scenario; • one student indicated they would “like to do something else” related to the training course where they would “implement some of the practices” that were introduced in the course. some of the types of activities that participants indicated they would undertake included a range of ict-related priorities: • “form a facebook page and messenger group. organize and schedule meetings” • “develop a network with north coast fishers to introduce fisheries applications” • “rural development project involving a market scheme to identify key persons, needs and functionings within one or more community of practice” • “form a whatsapp group with farmers in orange grove district for use in plant disease diagnostic in collaboration with uwi plant pathology support”. during follow-up interviews carried out four weeks after the course about half of the participants stated they were “making progress” toward their goal in the iap. in a number of cases, the participants were waiting for internal approval from their organizations before being able to proceed. 305 those that were not making progress in the iap mentioned “time constraints and staffing shortage” or “heavy workload” as contributing factors. in terms of fostering a community of practice of technology stewards among the cohort, all of the 12 participants contacted during the follow-up interviews indicated they intended to stay in contact with other members of the class. the whatsapp group established for the course remained active as of july 2018 with occasional postings from participants, ranging from information about ict apps to questions about crop diseases. plans for future work results from the course suggest that the material is well received by participants and effective in achieving most of the intended learning outcomes. in-class observations and follow-up interviews with participants have highlighted a number of areas for further refinement with some notable areas for improvement: ● make better use of classroom time by introducing more blended elements, including a selfdirected online quiz for the introduction session of the course. we are now testing a version of this quiz using google forms. ● further integrate experiential learning opportunities for post-secondary participants on the instructional team by having support participants in completing the post-course iaps (individual action plans). ● introduce and test various methods, including photovoice, for participants to report the postcourse iap results, and provide ongoing training opportunities through specialized online modules. these changes will be introduced into the course when we offer it at the university of peradeniya postgraduate institute of agriculture in fall 2018, and hopefully again in the caribbean with uwi in 2019. the team is also actively looking for other countries in which to offer the course through partnerships with other educational and training organizations. we anticipate the material will be made available more widely as an open educational resource sometime in the near future after we have completed our testing phase. moreover, we believe that technology stewardship training can be applied beyond the agricultural context to serve other communities of practice, including those in health, education, rural development, and government. references foster, c. & r. heeks (2013). conceptualising inclusive innovation: modifying systems of innovation frameworks to understand diffusion of new technology to low-income consumers. eur j dev res, 25(3): 333-355. ganpat, w. g., ramjattan, j., & strong, r. (2016). factors influencing self-efficacy and adoption of ict dissemination tools by new extension officers. journal of international agricultural and extension education, 23(1). doi:10.5191/jiaee.2016.23106 gigler, b.-s. (2011). informational capabilities: the missing link for the impact of ict on development. retrieved from ssrn website: http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2191594 306 gow, g. (2018). introducing a technology stewardship model to encourage ict adoption in agricultural communities of practice: reflections on a canada/sri lanka partnership project. in r. duncombe (ed.), digital technologies for agricultural and rural development in the global south (pp. 43-53). boston: cabi. harris, r. w. (2016). how ict4d research fails the poor. information technology for development, 22(1), 177-192. jayathilake, h. a. c. k., jayasinghe-mudalige, u. k., perera, l. d. r. d., gow, g. a., & waidyanatha, n. (2017). fostering technology stewardship approach to promote knowledge sharing among farming communities in sri lanka. tropical agricultural research, 28(3), 238–246. kleine, d. (2013). technologies of choice? icts, development, and the capabilities approach. cambridge, massachusetts, mit press. kotter, j. p. (2007, january). leading change: why transformation efforts fail. harvard business review, 96-103. meyer, i., & marais, m. (2015). design for sustainability: countering the drivers of unsustainability in development projects. the journal of community informatics, 11(3). stringer, e. t. (2014). action research (4th ed.). london: sage. strong, r., ganpat, w., harder, a., irby, t. l., & lindner, j. r. (2014). exploring the use of information communication technologies by selected caribbean extension officers. the journal of agricultural education and extension, 20(5), 485-495. doi:10.1080/1389224x.2014.927373 wenger, e., white, n., & smith, j. d. (2009). digital habitats: stewarding technology for communities. portland, cpsquare. wenger, e., mcdermott, r., & snyder, w. (2002). cultivating communities of practice. boston: harvard business school press. wenger, e. (1998). communities of practice: learning, meaning, identity. cambridge, ma: cambridge university press. authors gordon a. gow is associate professor and academic director of the master of arts in communications and technology (mact) program at the university of alberta. he has been involved in international action research projects for over a decade, with an interest in building local capacity for innovation with digital icts. email: ggow@ualberta.ca ataharul chowdhury is assistant professor of the capacity development and extension program at the university of guelph. over the last decade, he has contributed to international and regional collaborative initiatives in thematic areas, such as advisory and outreach services, ict and new media, participatory action research, and video for development. email: ataharul.chowdhury@uoguelph.ca wayne ganpat is dean of the faculty of food and agriculture at the university of the west indies, trinidad. dr. ganpat’s specialty is agricultural extension and communications. he previously served as director of extension services in the government of trinidad for 30 years. email: wayne.ganpat@sta.uwi.edu jeet ramjattan is an agricultural extension officer and phd student in agricultural extension at the university of the west indies. he has worked in collaboration with research and ngo partnering institutions such as gef, fao, cabi, cardi, and iica in sustainable development and community-based projects, such as farmer field schools, plant clinics and ipm over the past 20 years. jeetramjattan@gmail.com 307 cite this paper as: gow, g. a., chowdury, a., ganpat, w., & ramjattan, j. (2018). enhancing ict adoption and use through change leadership: technology stewardship training for caribbean agricultural communities of practice. journal of learning for development, 5(3), 296-307. microsoft word wambugu.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 76-82 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. challenges and opportunities in the implementation of school-based teacher professional development: a case from kenya patriciah wanjiku wambugu1, kris stutchbury2 and joan dickie2 1egerton university, kenya 2open university, uk abstract: this study investigated how a school-based professional development programme, designed by the headteacher and staff of a kenyan primary school, and delivered by a teacher education in sub-saharan africa (tessa) team, supported teacher learning and growth. the tessa team observed teaching in the classroom before the implementation of the school-based teacher professional programme. this was followed by the training of the teachers in the school. the tessa team did an evaluation of the school-based training programme through classroom observation, an interview schedule and a teacher questionnaire. the evaluations were done three months and one year, respectively, after the school-based training. the findings indicate that teachers experienced professional growth through collaborative learning with colleagues, used a greater range of approaches and learned to self-reflect on their classes with more use of active learning. teachers made productive use of textbooks as well as accessing and using tessa oer in teaching. keywords: school-based teacher professional development, open educational resources, tessa. introduction education and training policy addresses quality and efficiency as major issues in the development of a country’s educational system. the objective of any education system is to provide quality education and training that would give learners opportunities for lifelong learning and meaningful participation in society as productive citizens. teacher development, advancement in a teaching career and the availability of quality resources, among others, are essential factors in achieving this objective (plessis, 2013; park & so, 2014). highly effective teachers improve students’ academic learning in the short-term and long-term quality of life. in addition, the quality of teachers in any school setting is claimed to be the most critical component for improving student achievement (gichuru & ongus, 2016; fenster, 2014). in sub-saharan africa and especially in kenya, academic achievement in primary schools has been low (bold, et al, 2017; government of kenya, 2014). this low achievement has been confounded by overcrowded classrooms and a shortage of qualified teachers. furthermore, teaching and learning is changing to keep up with the rapid developments and changes in education and digital technologies. teachers are therefore expected to continuously develop and improve their professional 77 qualifications. to address the professional teacher qualification some countries have embarked on traditional teacher professional development. (shohel & banks, 2012). traditional teacher professional development can be provided in various ways such as pre-service training and orientation for new staff, in-service training, work-based training, seminars, and mentoring programmes, among others. however, traditional professional development courses are not addressing the needs and interests of the learner as well as those of society (darling-hammond et al, 2017). it is also taking a long time for opportunities afforded by ict and oer to make an impact. this study describes and evaluates a bespoke, school-based, professional development programme, designed by the headteacher and staff of a kenyan primary school, and delivered by the tessa team. this school-based, professional development programme may help in retooling teachers to support the implementation of the new kenyan competence-based curriculum. the curriculum is said to provide flexible education pathways for identifying and nurturing the talents and interests of learners to prepare them for the world of work. the curriculum ensures that all learning is contextually relevant for the learner’s holistic growth and development (republic of kenya, 2017). kenyan teachers need to revitalize their professional growth to ensure they are flexible in adapting to this curriculum. school-based professional development is, therefore, a timely intervention. tessa is a programme of activities designed to support teachers and teacher educators in developing more participatory approaches to teaching (anamuah-mensah et al., 2013; moon, 2010; wolfenden et al., 2010). tessa has a resource bank of 75 units of work, published in 2008 as open educational resources (oer) based on the primary school curriculum, and versioned for different african countries. through the provision of contextualized examples of classroom practice tessa oer provide support for teachers in developing more active approaches to learning and provide a basis for collaboration. through discussion and reflection, teachers can adapt the examples to suit their context. the tessa units and ideas in them underpinned this school-based professional development programme. this study focused on a public primary school in kenya with a population of 868 pupils and 20 teachers. the tessa oer were introduced in the school in the year 2011 by teachers who were trained using tessa activities in the in-service teacher training programme in egerton university. before the introduction of tessa in the primary school, teachers mainly used strategies which made learner interactions with one another and the teacher minimal. the leaners sat in rows facing the chalk board with the teacher in front. this encouraged passivity, low motivation to learn and absenteeism among learners was common. however, the introduction of tessa oer encouraged working in groups, which offered an opportunity for discussions and more use of local resources to support learning. the school performance in the kenyan certificate of primary examinations improved, as shown in figure 1. five years on however, the paper copies of the tessa oer the teachers were using had disintegrated and some of the impetus was lost. teachers who had subsequently joined the school, were not aware of the advantages that tessa oer could bring and some of the original advocates had left. working with the head teacher and her staff, a school-based professional development programme was conceived, with the aim of running a training which would not disrupt normal teaching. 78 figure 1. performance in kenya certificate of primary examinations. five years on, however, the paper copies of the tessa oer the teachers were using had disintegrated and some of the impetus was lost. teachers who had subsequently joined the school were not aware of the advantages that tessa oer could bring and some of the original advocates had left. working with the headteacher and her staff, a school-based, professional development programme was conceived, with the aim of running a training programme which would not disrupt normal teaching. objectives of the study the purpose of this study was to identify the achievements and challenges observed during the implementation of school-based, professional development programmes in a kenyan primary school. the specific objectives were to: • identify school teacher perceptions of the new school-based teacher professional development programme • find out how teachers engaged with tessa oer and what challenges were encountered. methodology this is a small-scale, qualitative study that describes an intervention in a primary school where tessa was known but was no longer being used. the focus was to design a sustainable school based professional development, which would help teachers to develop more participatory approaches to learning and teaching and learn how to use the tessa oer to support their work in the future. the 13 teachers in the school who participated in the intervention were grouped according to broad subject areas, namely, science and mathematics, languages and social studies. over two days the tessa team facilitators ran two-hour sessions focusing on pair and group work. these sessions took place after school. teachers were encouraged to work in pairs and try out tessa activities for a month. 50.16 51.34 51.95 51.74 52.84 50.00 50.50 51.00 51.50 52.00 52.50 53.00 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 yearly % score % score linear (% score) 79 the facilitators returned for another two days during which teachers reported on their progress and were further supported in planning, in particular, on how to make use of the textbooks and tessa oer in pair and group work. teachers were encouraged to continue using their acquired skills and support each other in their respective groups and reflect on their teaching. the tessa team visited the school after three months to assess how the teachers were implementing their acquired skills. this was followed by another visit after one year. data were collected during the visits, using questionnaires, classroom observations, an interview schedule, a school walk-around and document analysis on school attendance, and continuous assessment tests performance. data was analyzed as per the objectives that underpinned the study. results and discussion there were 13 of the 20 teachers who attended the training and continued to use the acquired skills and tessa oer. classroom observation indicated that even the teachers who did not attend the training were using tessa oer and learner centered approaches. this is an indicator that the content of the training was shared through collaboration and guiding each other in their subject areas towards appropriate tessa units. an interview with the headteacher was in agreement with what was observed. to enhance teamwork the teachers of specific subjects prepared schemes of work during the school break and embedded tessa oer then shared with all the teachers. furthermore, the teachers used the tessa subject resources to support teachers in planning lessons. many teachers had come across tessa oer but were daunted by the volume of material and had not really been able to make sense of them. however, the training held after school helped them to appreciate the benefits and provided an opportunity to work together. the headteacher supported the work by creating a noticeboard in the staffroom for teachers to share ideas, and encouraged the teachers to concentrate on helping each other to use tessa sections which are relevant to their subject. perceptions of teachers on school-based teacher professional development programme the 13 participating teachers, as they reflected on their practice, found the school-based teacher professional development programme to be very helpful. the teachers were able to work out problems and dilemmas encountered in classroom through collaborating with each other. this was evidenced by the fact that they opened up their classroom for observation and had a candid discussion with their peers. the programme helped to build positive engagement with learners, discover the environment and make use of materials that are beneficial in enhancing learning, thereby, making teaching easier. a classroom observation of a grade two class showed the teacher encouraging her pupils to work and talk together. she made a start with pair work by giving instructions for pupils to work together when doing a small multiplication task using sticks as concrete resources. these pupils effectively carried out their pair tasks. other observations indicated pupils actively participated in discussions and all pupils were engaged with feedback. in addition, teachers were able to find tessa units that fitted in well with the text book syllabus and were using ideas from both the tessa unit and the text book. this eventually helped learners develop interest, attend class and be willing to assist each other, resulting in improved performance. the tessa approach helped learners to think critically. as one of the respondents (teacher a) said: 80 use of varied teaching approaches in tessa resources has developed critical thinking and problem solving in learners and teachers’ educational activities leading to improved performance. teachers perceived that use of tessa resources and learner centered methods encouraged learner participation in class, and motivated and improved self-esteem as the respondent teacher b indicated: group activities ensure that everybody participates in the learning process thus encouraging all to contribute. tessa resources help the teacher and the learner to explore the local community and together they discover new ideas that enhance learning. teachers felt that their pedagogical skills improved as indicated by this respondent (teacher c): tessa materials have encouraged collaboration in class and as a teacher i have improved pedagogies. a case was observed where a class had moved to the ‘activities room’ and the groups were seated on the floor. this made the groups immediately more cohesive and not separated by large desks. several children had brought in artefacts and tribal dress to illustrate the lives of their ancestors/tribes. pupils listened with great interest to each other and genuinely shared ideas in groups. this use of school-based training may be an intervention strategy to consider for teachers’ professional development in kenya. especially in the implementation of a competency-based curriculum. teachers engagement with tessa oer and challenges encountered since becoming involved with tess, the whole school adopted round-table seating arrangements that made it possible for the learners to talk to each other during discussions, as opposed to the practice of learners sitting and facing the chalk board with the teacher in front of the class. in addition, the school started a library project focusing on gathering resources to support literacy and improve on the reading levels of children. the school-based, professional development programme helped teachers to develop interactive and more interesting lessons and is now enhanced by the use of tessa oer. a walk around the school provided indications on the use of knowledge and skills acquired through tessa oer, which were enhanced during the school-based programme. there was now a full noticeboard in the staff room for tessa materials. the school’s workplan placed on the notice board had information on the use of tessa and learner centered approaches. the school resource center had been improved and the teachers were using it. furthermore, the school population had increased from 717 in 2011 to 868 pupils, with double-streamed classes of 55-60 pupils from grades one to eight. the learners’ performance of continuous assessment tests had also improved. the teachers agreed that their experiences with tessa had enhanced the quality of their teaching, mutual communication and understanding of teaching practices. this learning opportunity enabled them to use tessa approaches, challenge their own way of thinking and create a culture of peer learning. when asked whether they were still willing to support their schools in the development of this learning opportunity their answers were positive. challenges observed in implementing the programme the perception of limited time was a major constraint for quality preparations. in addition, limited accessibility and network connections and a lack of effective training on use of ict were a challenge. 81 however, these challenges could be addressed through continued retooling of teachers in schoolbased, professional development programmes and initial provision of hard copies of tessa oer and also pro-active support of the headteacher. conclusion the results indicate that teachers were using a greater range of approaches, there was more active student involvement, and improved pupil achievement in continuous assessment tests. there was also collaborative planning among teachers taking place after school for all subjects. the teachers felt that tessa oer presented in subject packs were more adaptable for upper primary than for lower primary. school-based professional development with mentoring and peer-support evidenced from this study has potential to improve the quality of teaching. this is possibly because of the availability tessa oer, a supportive headteacher, collaboration among teachers and more time allocated for planning and reflection. this study confirmed that school-based professional development has the potential to deliver significant improvements in teaching and learning. it has provided a model that worked for this school and could be extended to other schools. references anamuah-mensah, j., banks, f., moon, b., & wolfenden, f. (2013). new modes of teacher and pre-service training and professional development. in moon, b. (ed.), teacher education and the challenge of development: a global analysis. pp. 201–211. bold, t., filmer, d., martin, g., molina, e., christophe, r., stacy, b., svensson, j., & wane, w. (2017, january). what do teachers know and do? does it matter? evidence from primary schools in africa. policy research working paper, 7956. world bank group, education global practice group development research group, africa region. darling-hammond, l., hyler, e.m., & gardner, m. (2017, june). effective teacher professional development. learning policy institute: palo alto, ca. retrieved from: https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/effective-teacherprofessional-development-report fenster, e.d. (2014). implications of teacher tenure on teacher quality and student performance. unpublished thesis, duke university, durham, north carolina. government of kenya (2014). ministry of education, science and technology national education sector plan basic education programme rationale and approach 2013 – 2018. gichuru, l. m., & ongus r. w. (2016). effect of teacher quality on student performance in mathematics in primary 6 national examination: a survey of private primary schools in gasabo district, kigali city, rwanda. international journal of education and research, 4(2), 237-259. moon, b. (2010). creating new forms of teacher education: oer and the tessa programme. in danaher, p., & umar, a. (eds.), teacher education through open and distance learning. commonwealth of learning: toronto, 121–142. plessis, p.d. (2013). legislation and policies: progress towards the right to inclusive education. de jure pretoria, 46(1) 1-17 park m., & so k. (2014). opportunities and challenges for teacher professional development: a case of collaborative learning community in south korea. international education studies, 7(7) 1-13. republic of kenya (2017). basic education curriculum framework. kenya institute of curriculum development. 82 shohel, m. m. c., & banks, f. (2012). school-based teachers’ professional development through technology enhanced learning in bangladesh. teacher development: an international journal of teachers’ professional development, 16(1), 25–42. wolfenden, f., buckler, a.s.h., & keraro, f. (2012). oer adaptation and reuse across cultural contexts in sub saharan africa: lessons from tessa (teacher education in sub saharan africa). journal of interactive media in education, (1). doi: http://doi.org/10.5334/2012-03 authors: patriciah wanjiku wambugu is a senior lecturer and director of quality assurance at egerton university, kenya. patriciah is a science teacher educator who joined the tessa secondary science team, working with the open university. she is a tessa ambassador in kenya and has published research articles in the field of education. email: patriwa2010@gmail.com kris stutchbury is a senior lecturer in teacher education and academic director of tessa, with 20 years of experience as a secondary science teacher in the uk and eight years as a teacher educator. she ran the ou pgce course and works on ou international development projects in india and africa. email: kris.stutchbury@open.ac.uk joan dickie has over 20 years of experience in uk primary classrooms, was a primary curriculum advisor in norfolk and now works as an independent consultant in the uk and kenya, specializing in the development of languages and literacy teaching, and is a primary phase consultant and teacher educator for tessa and ou. email: joandickie1@gmail.com cite this paper as: wambugu, p.w., stutchbury, k. & dickie, j. (2019). challenges and opportunities in the implementation of school-based teacher professional development: a case from kenya. journal of learning for development, 6(1), 76-82. microsoft word mayanja.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 177-186 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. promoting student support in open and distance learning using information and communication technologies jamiah mayanja1, anthony tibaingana 2 and paul muyinda birevu1 1 institute of open distance and e-learning, makerere university, uganda. 2 school of business and management sciences, makerere university, uganda. abstract: the study investigated the use of icts in student support in open and distance learning (odl) at makerere university. the study adopted a survey design with 327 odl students, and the data from participants was collected using self-administered questionnaires and individual interviews. the results showed that makerere university has enhanced student support through the introduction of the learning management systems, web-based applications, registration and accessing results to ensure students’ satisfaction and retention in odl system. however, limited electronic support is extended to odl students through e-mails, mobile phones, social media applications, radio and television. the study concludes with recommendations to policy makers at makerere university. although this study was based in uganda, the findings may be of relevance to institutions in other developing countries. keywords: information and communication technologies, student support, open and distance learning. introduction information and communication technologies (icts) play a significant supporting role in the delivery modes of distance learning (rahman, 2014). open and distance learning (odl) students are physically separated from the educational institution, which makes tutor to student, student to student, and student to study material interactions challenging (arinto, 2016). yet these interactions are a key determinant for student learning and success (baloyi, 2012). students depend on their tutors as key resource persons and on their peers for required and voluntary interaction to reinforce their learning (ambe-uva, 2006). students also interact with study material to clarify their understanding of the subject matter and generate knowledge (crosling, heagney & thomas, 2009). students who experience difficulties in their interactions may feel threatened and isolated, leading to reduced motivation levels, and eventually may drop out (nsamba & makoe, 2017). open and distance learning institutions provide academic and administrative support services to students to reinforce students’ sense of confidence and to reduce drop-out rate, (murangi, 2016). since odl students do not report to the institution daily to get service/support, as is available in a conventional system, and, at same time, the institution cannot provide services due to the limited human resources available, the use of icts becomes inevitable (vasudevaiah, 2016). information and communication technologies such as computers, emails, mobile phones, social media applications, radio and television can create the possibility of bridging the distance between students, students and facilitators, and students and content (vasudevaiah, 2016; aguti & fraser, 2006). this, therefore, suggests that the success of odl students depends on the various support services available to them 178 (de la pena-bandalaria, 2007). integration of icts in student support in odl at makerere university is therefore essential to ensuring students’ completion. literature review open and distance learning at makerere university makerere university distance learning programs started in 1991, turning the university into a dual mode university (aguti, 2009; muyinda, 2012). at makerere university, distance education is not offered as a discipline, but as an alternative mode of delivery to the on-campus delivery mode (muyinda, 2012). currently, the university’s target is to have most of the programs offered through odl. therefore, the institute of open distance and e-learning was established to support all colleges offering academic programs through odl. presently, the institute of open distance and e-learning is running odl programs, referred to as external programs, but it does not have its own staff to run these programs. it relies on other university staff already offering similar programs in the internal mode. thus, odl programs are currently run on a collaborative arrangement with other units within the university offering similar programs (muyinda, 2012), with the institute responsible for the administrative component of the programs. many of these external programs have not fully utilised a variety of technologies but have largely depended on print-based study materials accompanied by a tutor, and four (4) weeks of residential face-to-face sessions at the main campus throughout the semester of 17 weeks. each face-to-face session is held consecutively for two weeks, and there are tutor-marked assignments and tests at the end of the classes. these face-to-face sessions assist students to overcome feeling isolated when studying alone. two (2) weeks are used for course assessment, while in the remaining eleven (11) weeks students do independent study through self-study materials and group discussions (muyinda, 2012). in recent times, there has been some effort to introduce ict into traditional distance student support at makerere university. icts and student support in odl at makerere university information and communication technologies refer to a diverse set of technological tools and resources used to communicate, and to create, disseminate, store and manage information (daniels, 2002). makerere university introduced icts in students’ learning and support at different phases of the students’ life cycle to improve distance education to a more flexible mode of delivery. these include the learning management system (muele/moodle), web-based application, registration and accessing results, and free internet connectivity on campus, among others (matovu, 2009; gwamba, mayende, isabwe, & muyinda, 2017). however, there has been little corresponding improvement in odl provision. most of the university processes, operations and policies are still tuned towards the internal mode of study (muyinda, 2012). for instance, while the university developed an e-learning infrastructure to offer university programs to students who were unable to attend regular face-to-face classes, staff do not develop online courses. even for the few that are developed there is minimal online interaction with the students enrolled in those particular courses because the mental attitude of most staff still favours on-campus based learning and teaching (muyinda 2012; kasse & balunywa 2013). 179 in addition, the online library collection is not accessible to most of the odl students up-country (mayende & obura, 2013), and there are no off-campus library services in regional centers (nabushawo, aguti, & winterbottom, 2016). students struggle to get relevant resources for their study which, consequently, affects their performance. student research supervision is done via face-to-face meetings, which require students to travel long and costly distances to come and meet their supervisors at the university, and, sometimes, these meetings fail to take place (muyinda, lubega & lynch, 2010). the web-based registration and result systems are available but only with restricted access (matovu, 2009), causing odl students to travel to the university to visit different offices or line up for services in person that they could access using various online technologies. in addition, some students do not know who to see regarding their problem and how long it will take to have them resolved. just like in many dual mode institutions, odl students at makerere university have often been given a lower priority than conventional students. this is an indication that limited electronic support is extended to students through e-mails, mobile phones, internet and radio, leading to the conceptualization of this study to investigate the use of icts in student support in odl at makerere university methodology this study employed a mixed method approach involving descriptive statistics and case study research design. the aim was to investigate the use of icts in student support in odl at makerere university. the study population consisted of 2,210 distance education students from the institute of open, distance and e-learning at makerere university. these were selected because they are using the odl mode of study and thus have knowledge of the variable under study. the sample chosen for this study was 327. the selection was guided by krejcie and morgan’s (1970) recommendation that, in a population of 2,200, a sample size (s) of 327 is ideal. student leaders and three staff members were purposively selected from the institute of open, distance and e-learning for interview sessions. the rationale for selecting them was that they directly deal with students’ issues. qualitative data was collected using interviews while quantitative data was collected using self-administered questionnaires. the questions were based on the activities that take place at the various phases of the student learning life cycle. these were developed from insights obtained from existing literature and odl experts evaluated them to assess whether they captured the topic under investigation. the results in table 1 show that the majority of the respondents (57%) were male while 43% were female. with regards to age, more than half (53%) of the respondents were 20-24 years. the age categories of 25-30 and over 30 years were 23% and 20%, respectively. only 4% of the respondents were 19 years or younger. in relation to year of study, 53% of the respondents were in second year, 24% in third year, while those in first and fourth year accounted for 14% and 9%, respectively. 180 findings and discussions demographics of the respondents table 1: demographics of the respondents n = 327 demographics categories frequency percentage gender male 188 57 female 139 43 age 19 or younger 12 4 20 24 173 53 25 30 76 23 over 30 66 20 year of study first 47 14 second 172 53 third 78 24 fourth 30 9 source: primary data access and usage of icts by odl students students were asked to indicate the level of access and usage of the various icts. the findings are presented in table 2 below. table 2: icts accessed and used by odl students (n = 327) technologies accessibility rate of usage accessible not accessible always sometimes never n % n % n % n % n % mobile phones 316 96.6 11 3.4 310 94.8 11 3.4 6 1.8 computers 196 59.9 131 40.1 197 60.2 126 38.5 4 1.2 televisions 290 88.7 37 11.3 305 93.3 14 4.3 8 2.4 radios 299 91.4 28 8.6 201 61.5 106 32.4 20 6.1 source: primary data the results in table 2, indicate that more than half of the odl students surveyed have access to mobile phones (96.6%), radios (91.4%), televisions (88.7%) and computers (59.9%). with regard to rate of usage, more than half of the students always use mobile phones (94.8%), televisions (93.3%), radios (61.5%) and computers (60.2%). generally, the findings clearly demonstrate that odl students have access to a variety of icts and use them regularly, though mobile phones are most popular. the statistics of mobile phone accessibility in this study (96.6%) are comparable with kajumbula’s (2006) statistics (97%) and muyinda, lubega and lynch’s (2010) statistics (96%) of mobile phone ownership among odl students at makerere university. bozkurt, karadeniz and koçdar (2017), in their study, found that distance educations students use their mobile phones daily. 181 student leaders were asked why a mobile phone is the most popular technology used by students. one student responded that: … mobile phones are cheaper than computers and smart phones can be used to download study materials from the learning management system. another student said that: … we use mobile a lot to interact and share experiences with peers through whatsapp and facebook. for instance, most university communications are on the notice boards which are not regularly accessed by us distance students. we obtain most of the information through fellow students who take photos of the communication and post on whatsapp and face book. these findings are similar with the existing literature. for instance, bozkurt, karadeniz and koçdar (2017) noted that odl students use mobile phones and social media to share information and experiences with friends. similarly, in a study conducted by muyinda, lubega and lynch (2010), odl students at makerere university use mobile phone and social media for collaborative learning. this provides a fertile ground for using mobile phones in student learning and support at makerere university. however, one student commented that “using mobile technology for study purposes is expensive. we have access to free internet while at the university, but outside camps we have to pay an excise duty on over the top ("ott") services and it is charged at rate of ugx 200 per user of social media per day of access.” icts used in student support services students were asked to indicate the icts used during interactions with university processes at each phase of the student learning life cycle (application, admission, registration, teaching and learning). the data were analyzed using means on a 5-point scale, where means close to 5 represented strong agreement, while the means close to 1 represented strong disagreement. the findings are presented in table 3 below. table 3 shows the variable’s aggregate mean score is 3.065. ten statements have a mean score of 4 or 4 when the means are rounded off to their nearest decimal place, indicating that the students agree that application for admission is done online, receipt of application is acknowledged via email, instructions for registration are provided online, there is free internet connectivity while at the university, students interact with each other on social media, the orientation program is communicated via website and sent on sms, students are provided log-ins to access the student portal, registration for all students is done online, there is an online library for students, students access results online, and tuition payment process is provided online. one statement scored a mean value rated at the level of 3, implying that students were impartial on whether the website provide detailed information about the course of study. 182 table 3: icts used to support students at the various phases of the student learning lifecycle (n = 327) lifecycle stage expected interactions at each stage of the student lifecycle mean application and admission university website provide detailed information about course of study 3.30 television and radio adverts are used to invite applicants for admissions 1.02 application for admission is done online 4.00 acknowledgement of receipts of application is via email 4.20 admission enquiries are responded to via mobile phones 2.20 feedback on admission status is given via sms 2.48 congratulatory and welcome message are sent on mobile phones 2.41 orientation program is communicated on website and sent on sms 3.87 registration tuition payment process is provided online 3.52 instructions for registration are provided online 4.02 registration for all students is done online 3.82 teaching and learning processes students are provided log-ins to access student portal 3.65 course materials are available on the learning management system 2.67 students access results online 3.59 there is an online library for students 3.68 timetables for lecturers and exams are displayed online 2.10 projectors and microphone are used during lectures 2.46 students interact with lecturers/tutors via e-mail and sms 2.19 computer labs are adequately equipped 2.37 there is free internet connectivity while at the university 4.01 students receive learning support through e-mail, sms and forums 3.02 social media is used to communicate with students 2.32 students complaints are received and handled online and via phone 2.36 students interact with each on social media 4.32 average 3.06 source: primary data the remaining 11 statements scored a mean value rated at the level of two (2), implying that students disagreed that television and radio commercials are used to invite applicants for admission, feedback on admission status is given via sms, admission enquiries are responded to via mobile phones, congratulatory and welcome message are sent on mobile phones, course materials are available on the learning management system, computer labs are adequately equipped, timetables for lecturers and exams are displayed online, projectors and microphone are used during lectures, students interact with lecturers/tutors via e-mail and sms, social media is used to communicate with students, and 183 students complaints are received and handled online and on phone. this implies that, to a certain extent, icts are used to support students at the different phases of the student learning lifecycle. student leaders were asked about the effectiveness of the result management system and handling of students’ complaints. one student acknowledged that: … the results management system keeps deactivating marks and has restricted access, no student can view results outside the university. when you have a problem with your results you have to physical see the administrator in charge of results because complaints are not handled online. however resolving students complaint also take long which is burden to us distance learners, we have to keep checking to find out whether the complaint was resolved. this finding corresponds with musingafi, mapuranga, chiwanza and zebron’s (2015) finding, that delayed and ineffective feedback can add a burden to students who are struggling with the isolation and the remote nature of distance learning. student leaders were also asked about the availability of course materials on the learning management system and the use of technologies during lectures. one student responded that: “few courses are on the learning management systems. we get material during face to face classes. but during classes, lectures do not project or use microphones. it’s a challenge for us to see and hear what the lecture is saying especially with big classes”. musingafi, et al., (2015) noted that lack of study materials may affect students economically as they waste resources in terms of money and time travelling to regional centers for study materials. in an interview with information technology (it) staff, they acknowledged some challenges faced while using icts in student learning and support. they mentioned limited it skills by both the students and the lecturers and inadequate computer laboratories, both of which inhibit students’ and lecturers’ access to engage in online courses. when asked to describe their expectations from the institution to enable them to use icts effectively in student support, they indicated that staff need more sensitization and training on using automated ways to serve odl students. on various occasions they do not receive information on deadlines for submission of assignments, timetables for face-to-face tests and examinations from lecturers and administrators to pass on to students online or via phone. they indicated that, whereas, students register for log-ins to access the learning management system, data from the user logs show limited presence of lecturers online. conclusion and recommendations integrating icts at the different phases of the students’ learning life cycle can improve students’ satisfaction with university programs. the results showed that makerere university has enhanced student learning and support through the introduction of the learning management systems, webbased applications, registration, and results viewing to ensure students’ satisfaction and retention in the odl system. however, limited electronic support is extended to odl students through e-mails, mobile phones, internet, radio and television. it can be argued that the limited electronic support in the odl system may be because of the tendency of the university systems to apply the same policies, process and operations of internal mode of delivery to the odl mode of delivery. while this study was based in uganda, the findings may be of relevance to institutions in other developing countries. 184 from the study, it can be seen that makerere university odl students have a high level of access to mobile phones, however, the university does not respond to admission enquiries via mobile phones, send congratulatory and welcome message on mobile phones, regularly interact with students via email and sms, use social media to communicate with students and receive and handle students complaints online and via phone, use television commercials to invite applicants, upload course materials to the learning management system, display lecture and examination timetables online, or use projectors and microphones during lectures. based on the above findings, the study recommends that: • makerere university management continuously sensitize odl stakeholders about their roles in order to increase efficiency and effectiveness in supporting odl students. • online support service systems should be used along with other electronic media in the handling of students’ complaints. • the university should revise its strategies for extensive use of mobile phones in supporting odl students, since students are already using mobile phones to support their own study. • lecturers should commit more time to designing online courses and uploading them in the learning management system. these courses should be provided in common file formats, like pdf, to enable students to download materials on their mobile phones. • television and radio should be used to provide academic support to students since they reach a large audience across the country. • projectors and microphones should be used during lecturers, especially for big classes. this study has some limitations, which also provide opportunities for further research. firstly, the analysis was done on odl students. it would be valuable to analyze how icts are applied to support students in regular programs. secondly, the study focused on one public university in uganda, namely, makerere university. it is recommended that future studies look at other public and private universities. acknowledgement the directorate of research and graduate training makerere university is acknowledged for all the support provided in data collection. references aguti, j.n. (2009). university education for national development: makerere university’s dual mode experience. in s. marshall, w. kinuthia, & w. taylor (eds.), bridging the knowledge divide. educational technology for development (pp. 215–229). charlotte, nc: information age publishing. aguti, n. j., & fraser, j. w. (2006). integration of information communication technologies (icts) in the distance education bachelor of education program, makerere university, uganda. turkish online journal of distance education, 7(3), article: 7. ambe-uva, t. n. (2006). interactivity in distance education: the national open university of nigeria (noun) experience. retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ed494376.pdf arinto, p. b. (2016). issues and challenges in open and distance e-learning: perspectives from the philippines. the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 17(2). baloyi, g. p. (2012). learner support in open and distance learning context: a case study of abet programs at the university of south africa. (doctoral dissertation). 185 bozkurt, a., karadeniz, a., & koçdar, s. (2017). social networking sites as communication, interaction, and learning environments: perceptions and preferences of distance education students. journal of learning for development, 4(3). retrieved from https://jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/article/view/215 crosling, g., heagney, m., & thomas, l. (2009). improving student retention in higher education: improving teaching and learning. australian universities' review, the, 51(2), 9. daniels j.s. (2002). foreword. in information and communication technology in education–a curriculum for schools and program for teacher development. paris: unesco. de la pena-bandalaria, m. (2007). impact of icts on open and distance learning in a developing country setting: the philippine experience. international review of research in open and distance learning, 8(1), 1-15. gwamba, g., mayende, g., isabwe, g. m. n., & muyinda, p. b. (2017, september). conceptualising design of learning management systems to address institutional realities. in international conference on interactive collaborative learning (pp. 43-50). springer, cham. kajumbula, r. (2006). the effectiveness of mobile short messaging service (sms) technologies in the support of selected distance education students of makerere university, uganda. paper presented at the fourth pancommonwealth forum on open learning, ocho rios, jamaica. kasse, j. p., & balunywa, w. (eds.). (2013). an assessment of e-learning utilization by a section of ugandan universities: challenges, success factors and way forward. international conference on ict for africa. harare, zimbabwe, 20-23 february. krejcie, r.v., & morgan, d.w. (1970). determining sample size for research activities. educational and psychological measurement, 30: 607-610. matovu, m. (2009). availability, accessibility and use of information and communication technology in management of students’ academic affairs in makerere university. retrieved from http://makir.mak.ac.ug/handle/10570/1681 mayende, j., & obura, c.o. (2013). distance learning library services in ugandan universities. journal of library and information services in distance learning, 7(4), 372-382. murangi, h. v. (2016). effectiveness of learner support services at the namibian college of open learning. retrieved from http://dspace.col.org/handle/11599/2645 musingafi, m. c., mapuranga, b., chiwanza, k., & zebron, s. (2015). challenges for open and distance learning (odl) students: experiences from students of the zimbabwe open university. journal of education and practice, 6(18), 59-66. muyinda, p. b. (2012). open and distance learning in dual mode universities: a treasure unexploited. in international perspectives of distance learning in higher education. intech open. muyinda, p. b., lubega, j. t., & lynch, k. (2010). unleashing mobile phones for research supervision support at makerere university, uganda: the lessons learned. international journal of innovation and organizational learning, 7(1), 14. nabushawo, h. m., aguti, j. n., & winterbottom, m. (2016). unlocking the potential of public libraries in supporting distance learning. journal of learning for development, 3(1). nsamba, a., & makoe, m. (2017). evaluating quality of students' support services in open distance learning. turkish online journal of distance education, 18(4), 91-103. rahman, h. (2014). the role of ict in open and distance education. turkish online journal of distance education, 15(4), 162-169. vasudevaiah, g. (2016). promoting usage of ict in open and distance education programs. the international journal of indian psychology, 3(3), 77-79. authors: jamiah mayanja is a lecturer at the institute of institute of open distance and e-learning, college of education and external studies, makerere university, kampala, uganda. email: jmayanja@cees.mak.ac.ug 186 anthony tibaingana is a lecturer in the school of business, college of business and management sciences, makerere university, kampala, uganda. email: tibainganaanthony@gmail.com paul muyinda birevu is an associate professor and deputy principal of the college of education and external studies, makerere university, kampala, uganda. email: mpbirevu@cees.mak.ac.ug cite this paper as: mayanja, j., tibaingana, a., & birevu, p.m. (2019). promoting student support in open and distance learning using information and communication technologies. journal of learning for development, 6(2), 177-186. microsoft word torres.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 5-12 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. distance education leaders in latin america and the caribbean patrícia lupion torres1 and claudio rama2 1pontifical catholic university of paraná, brazil 2university of business, uruguay distance higher education has only relatively recently been established in some latin american and caribbean countries, as part of wider higher education reforms. it has steadily boosted enrollment since the 1970s but despite its growth and significance, the overall contribution and coverage of distance education are still marginal. however, the existence of distance education systems contributes to the increased complexity of higher level education in this region, allowing greater diversity in the use of technologies. distance education is a method for increasing access to higher education but it was initially characterised in latin america by simple and predominantly low-quality education systems and learning resources, offering very limited institutional care for students. to policymakers, in general, distance education was regarded as a second-class education for citizens excluded from traditional higher education systems. however, over recent decades, distance education has undergone significant transformation, with the addition of virtual processes as well as greater innovation, standardisation, complexity, and differentiating processes within university systems. at a regional level, these new realities have resulted in increased public policy focus and the gradual growth of distance education as a more important sub-sector. distance education in latin america and the caribbean struggles against traditional instructional paradigms and strongly consolidated views regarding its low quality. it also faces many challenges that include scarce resources, limited teacher capacities and low social recognition. the absence of a comprehensive quality assurance system focused on learning outcomes has resulted in perceptions of its low quality. it is a sector with low cultural capital and less political weight. in the first decade of the twenty-first century, with the virtualization of educational processes and increased regulation, distance education started to improve its quality standards while expanding its coverage. in 2008, all distance education, especially blended learning programmes, accounted for only 1.3% of total education coverage, with about 164,000 students. increasingly, there has been a process of blending distance education with traditional methods to create mixed models, especially since 2010, as more countries have started to offer online programmes. several countries have started to allow completely online courses, and institutions have begun focusing increasingly on distance higher education. consequently, dynamic multi-models have been created in which blended online offerings are presented to differing extents, along with traditional classroom courses. 6 growth in the provision of distance education has been evident in not only the private sector, but also the public sector. its popularity has increased due to an increase in low-income family resources, professional job market demands, private sector participation in distance programmes, and due to a decrease in the costs of communication and digital information infrastructure. although it remains a sector controlled and limited by strong laws and regulations that engender lower levels of coverage in some countries such as peru and uruguay, distance education in larger countries such as brazil, mexico, argentina, colombia, and ecuador have expanded to attain coverage of between 10% and 20%. this was the result of the sheer prevalence of the private sector, and an increased offering of technical and graduate programmes. initially, unimodal blended learning models were established in latin america and the caribbean, with the mandatory requirement for some classroom attendance, especially for assessment (mena, 2008). however, with digitisation, online courses have become widespread. current legislation on distance education in latin america, shows little difference between the different models. this has led to the creation of multi-modal university offerings in distance education because of the availability of 100% online courses, as well as a break with traditional rigidity, which is leading to the emergence of new forms of assessment and accreditation. they transcend the traditional document review procedures, inputs, and processes with numerical indicators relating to the assessment of students' learning outcomes. latin america is formed of 20 countries and 11 territories. (as the latter are not independent, they cannot be considered countries, despite being part of latin america). the developments of distance education have been the result of sustained efforts of leading thinkers and practitioners in the region. in this article, several leading distance education professionals coming from some of these countries are presented as recognition of their contribution to the development of distance education in the region. argentina marta mena professor marta mena has had a long career in distance education in latin america. she started working in this modality in the national university of luján in the 70s. she was president of the argentine association of distance education (aaed) when she also served at the national council for scientific research and technique (conicet) on the curricular project of distance learning for science teachers. she directed the teacher training and support program (procad) of the city of buenos aires. she served at the faculty of economic sciences of the university of buenos aires (uba) from 1984 to 2006 as a consultant, prosecutor, undersecretary, and finally pedagogical secretary. in these positions, she created distance learning programmes for the four undergraduate courses in the faculty and in the continuing teacher training programme. this last programme became a career for virtual teachers in the faculty and was adopted by different universities in argentina. between 2006 and 2012, she was a consultant to the world bank, and led electronic training (procae) for the virtual training of public officials of argentina and neighboring countries. since 2012, she has 7 managed the virtual training programme for researchers (proforvin) at the secretariat of science, technology and post-graduation from the national technological university (utn) in spain and throughout latin america. beatriz fainholc professor beatriz fainholc obtained a doctorate in education (interactivity in distance education) from the national university of la plata, argentina and undertook post-doctoral studies in virtual pedagogy from the university of illinois, urbana-champaign, usa. she held a fellowship with the ministry of foreign affairs of the government of canada (twice) to study, investigate, and report on open and distance education universities. she is a founding member of the argentine association of distance education and an academic member of the mexican academy of distance education. she is a professor and researcher in argentine and foreign universities in both undergraduate and graduate courses in educational technology, and ict in distance education within the fields of science, society, and digital culture. brazil fredric litto professor fredric litto has been founding-president of the brazilian association of distance education (abed) since july 1995. he was professor of communications of the university of são paulo from 1971 until 2005, when he retired from full-time activities. he is now professor emeritus of that institution, brazil's leading public research university. in the usa, he worked on radio production (pacifica foundation and indiana university) and began working with computers in 1964, which led to the organisation and publishing of one of the first reference books in the humanities in the usa using a mainframe computer for content organization. professor litto has held various post-doctoral research positions. in 2008 and 2011, he coauthored the books distance learning-state of the art: vols 1 & 2 (litto & formiga, 2008 & 2011) which received the award for best book in education from the brazilian publishers association; and the association for educational communications and technology (usa) awarded him the "de kieffer prize" for "international educator of the year ". in 2011, his second book, learning at a distance (litto, 2010) was awarded the prize for best book in informatics and technology by the brazilian publisher's association. in 2013, the syndicate of engineers of the state of são paulo conferred on him title of "personality of the year in technology, entrepreneurship and innovation in education" for his work in the development of engineering and technology in brazil. in 2014, the opencourseware consortium (mit) selected him to be recipient of its "prize for lifetime achievements," "in recognition of his efforts to expand access to learning”. professor litto’s contribution to strengthening distance education in the region has been substantial. chile daniel farkas daniel farkas is a public administrator of the university of chile and did post-graduate studies in spain. he has been director of several organisations including the department of social services linked to the ministry general secretariat of the government of chile and the 8 national training service of the ministry of labor and social planning of chile. he is the author of several publications on elearning and has received distinguished recognition for his outstanding career related to innovation and the development of training and qualifications through icts. he is a recognised authority in distance education and elearning and is currently president of the corporation of private universities. costa rica henry rodriguez serrano as dean of the university of san marcos (usam), he was a pioneer in offering the first 100% online teaching degree programs in business management and accounting. although undergraduate distance education programs and some graduate programs provided via a virtual modality had already been offered for several years, the usam was the first to enter the higher education sector using this new learning modality. professor rodriguez has also contributed to distance education in costa rica by generating debates in the media about the advantages of this form of study. the construction of online programs has been a cornerstone of the university of san marcos, allowing it to focus on improving content quality indicators and learning objectives, as this institution is a national pioneer and leads in training “virtual” professors, so that they can understand their new role in university education ecuador mary elizabeth morocho quezada professor mary elizabeth morocho, from the technical university of loja-utpl, is the vicedirector of the latin america and caribbean institute for quality in distance higher education (caled). this institution has contributed to developing and improving higher distance and online education by designing guidelines and tools for the evaluation, accreditation, and certification of distance and online undergraduate programs, as well as providing accessible online training. she has provided expert quality training at distance superior education (esad) and the development of global-level cooperation projects. she currently works as coordinator of the focal point of quality for latin america and the caribbean regions with a two-year mandate (2016–2018), having been appointed by the international council for distance education (icde). this allows her to develop strategies to improve the quality of distance education in latin america, along with six other regions: europe, north america, asia, africa, oceania, and the middle east. her contributions to distance learning have therefore been considerable. mexico judith zubieta garcía as secretary of educational innovation (2004–2009) in the “coordination of open and distance education” (cuaed) at the national autonomous university of mexico (unam), judith carcia has contributed to implementing formal distance education programs and also participated in the design and establishment of the regulatory framework governing distance education at unam. as director of cuaed between 2012 and 2015, she focused on training and updating professors, expanding the institution’s graduate programs, and improving the 9 quality of these programs. from a broader perspective, she contributed to unam’s reflection on and discussion of new pedagogical models; the use of technology in teaching and learning processes; the design and development of open educational resources, and the establishment of methodologies and evaluation criteria. as president of the common space for distance higher education (ecoesad, 2012–2014), she placed special emphasis on offering continuing education courses and made a major contribution to a project, led by the federal secretariat of higher education, to define the legal framework for a national system of distance education and its evaluation schemes. fernando gamboa professor gamboa obtained a master’s and a ph.d. degree in computer science from paris-sud university, france. since 1999, he has been working at the apollo science and technological development center of unam, where he coordinates the project entitled “el aula del futuro” (the class of the future). he has held several positions, including: coordinator of the spaces and interactive systems group for education of the centre for applied science and technology (ccadet) from 1999 to 2012; scientific director of virtual educa, a multilateral initiative administered by the organisation of american states (oas) from 2005 to 2016; and secretary of educational innovation in the coordination of the open university and distance education of unam from 2009 to 2014. in this last position, he contributed to the increase of unam’s student enrollments in open and distance modalities from 15,000 to 28,0000 students. teacher training programs for students were also redesigned. he also participated in meetings and negotiations that allowed unam to be the first university in latin america to offer massive open online courses (moocs) in spanish, in partnership with coursera. his contributions to distance education and online learning in mexico have therefore been significant. ricardo mercado as general director of the virtual university of veracruz from 2003 to 2009, professor ricardo mercado created the first free online courses and degrees at the institution. subsequently, between 2009 and 2014, he worked as academic director of the clavijero consortium institute, a public higher education institution that is fully online. in 2007, he was invited by the national council of science and technology to participate in a focus group responsible for formulating evaluation criteria for graduate distance programs. recently, he has worked as consultant for the inter-institutional committees for the evaluation of higher education (ciee in institutions) in the revision of the self-evaluation guide for higher education programs. he participated in the formulation of policies that guided all distance education in his country. his latest publications address the following topics: online collaborative learning, mass online courses, and the influence of ict on access and quality of education in mexico in response to the incheon declaration (world education forum, 2015). his publications are essential reading for all those who wish to start their work in distance education. 10 peru henry a. chero valdivieso dr. henry is a post-graduate professor and director of international cooperation at the catholic university of los angeles in chimbote. he graduated in mathematics education from the national university of trujillo unt, gained a master’s degree in education with specialization in research, curriculum and university teaching and a phd in education administration. his greatest influence in the area of distance education is the fact that he is the creator and promoter of the latin american and caribbean teacher network (www.reddolac.org reddolac). this network contributes to the training of thousands of teachers who are essential to the future development of the region. puerto rico juan tito melendez alicea juan melendez alicea is a professor in the department of art, technology, and innovation at the school of education, río piedras campus, and a member of the institutional council of distance education in the university system of puerto rico. he started working with technology in education in 1975, and with distance education in 1985, in a project with the university of the virgin islands. since 1990, he has been conducting research and publishing studies on distance education and has presented his work in many countries. he obtained a degree in political economics and then continued his graduate studies in information science in albany, new york. he received his doctorate in education from the inter-american university of puerto rico and undertook advanced studies at the university of cambridge, england. his online work has influenced and guided many teachers in their distance education careers. he is a respected authority in latin america for themes related to distance education. uruguay cristina contera in 2006, as coordinator of the academic unit of the pro-rectorate of education of the university of the republic of uruguay (udelar), professor contera started investigating the educational use of ict in education with a small interdisciplinary team. she participated in the development of a project submitted to the spanish agency for international development cooperation (aecid) and obtained funding to implement a virtual platform (eva) at udelar. today, this initiative includes more than 200,000 users (professors, students, and researchers) and has enabled the implementation of powerful virtual environments. currently working at the ministry of education and culture (mec), she has implemented a virtual observatory for higher education composed of a pool of experts from all public and private higher education institutions in the country. it is the first time that a space with these characteristics has been created, and its potential for future development is very powerful. this group contributed significantly to defining regulatory frameworks for distance and online education that did not previously exist. 11 irama f. garcia irama garcia is an associate professor at the faculty of dentistry of the central university of venezuela, and has worked with distance education and elearning for many years. she was the head of the course introduction to the study of dentistry and coordinator of distance education at the dental school. she was president of the venezuelan association for distance education for two terms, from 2006 to 2008 and from 2008 to 2010. she was also vice-president of the same association from 2010 to 2012. she has been honoured by various awards for her work in the area of education and distance education. by holding these positions in the most important national associations of distance education, she has become a noted authority for all who work with distance education in the country. brief concluding remarks the rapid spread of the internet, development of computer systems, and digital convergence, along with the flexibility of authorization requirements for distance programs, are all leading to greater democratization of education in most latin american and caribbean countries. distance education has the potential to be one of the most important future levers in the growth of higher education, due to its lower costs, quality, wider access, ability to individualize learning, and scalability. these are still the first steps in an ongoing process that will require more research, innovation, investment, and resource training. policies that do not limit education to rigid protocols and standards will also be required. future developments in distance and online learning in latin america will also need the strong leadership that has been illustrated in this article. references litto, f. m. (1969). american dissertations on the drama and the theatre: a bibliography (1865-1965). kent, ohio: kent state university press. litto, f. m., & formiga, m. (eds.) (2008). educação a distância – o estado da arte. são paulo: editora pearson/prentice hall. litto, f. m. (2010). aprendizagem a distância. são paulo: imprensa oficial, retrieved from https://www.imprensaoficial.com.br/downloads/pdf/12.0.813.730.pdf litto, f. m., & formiga, m. (eds.). (2011). educação a distância – o estado da arte. vol. 2. são paulo: pearson. mena, m., et.al (2008). la legislacion de la educacion a distancia en america latina. icde, unad, virtual educa. bogota. world education forum (2015). incheon declaration. retrieved from http://en.unesco.org/worldeducation-forum-2015/incheon-declaration authors: dr. patrícia lupion torres holds a degree in pedagogy from the pontifical catholic university of paraná (1981), a master’s degree in education from the pontifical catholic university of paraná (1994, a phd in production engineering from the federal university of santa catarina (2002) and a post-doctoral qualification from port university in portugal. she is currently coordinator of the stricto sensu postgraduate program in education at pucpr, titular professor at the pontifical catholic university of paraná and permanent professor of the master’s and phd programmes in education at pucpr. she was 12 also: member of the board of directors of the brazilian distance education association (2012-2015; director of distance education of the pro-rectory of extension and community in the period from 2005 to 2009; coordinator responsible for the evaluation and research sector of the distance education center of puc-pr from 2002 to 2003; professor of ufsc in master’s programs in media and knowledge from 1999 to 2002; director of education at pucpr from 2003 to 2005; member of the board of directors of pucweb from 2003 to 200; coordinator of the pedagogy course from 2010 to 2014. she has books and chapters of books published in the dominican republic, peru, england, the united states, colombia, mexico, portugal, and brazil. she has experience in education, working mainly in the following subjects: educational technologies, distance education, professional training, teacher training and higher education. email: patorres@terra.com.br dr. claudio rama is a professor and researcher specialising in higher education with a master’s degree in education, phd in education and law and four post-doctoral qualifications. he was director of the international institute of higher education of unesco in latin america and the caribbean (iesalc), rector of the institute of national higher studies (iaen) in ecuador and director of the faculty of business studies at ude in uruguay. in uruguay, he was director of the national book institute, director of the national television system and vice-president of the official transmission, radio and television and entertainment system (sodre). he has more than 26 books published on issues of education and society. he has received six honorary doctorates from universities in latin america. email: claudiorama@gmail.com microsoft word de silva.docx issn: 2311-1550 2021, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 398-411 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. achieving community development through an agricultural extension programme: technology dissemination for mushroom farmers nilantha de silva and mahinda wijeratne university of ruhuna, sri lanka abstract: mushroom production is a small-scale business unit in rural areas. the life long learning for farmers (l3f) programme aims to enhance the socio-economic conditions for them, increasing their access to and use of knowledge and technology. this study evaluates the outcomes of the l3f programme at the community level. data were collected through a pre-tested questionnaire survey. the sample consisted of 30 l3f farmers. farmers’ achievement was assessed by the farmer performance index (fpi). results indicate that mushroom farmers have scaled up their production; have improved their productivity; designed new experiments to minimise the impact of pests and diseases; focused on environmental sustainability and scientific mushroom production; and improved the quality of packaging. the mobile app bimmal govi, blended with information and communication technology, helped them to move with the latest technological advancements. the l3f programme has increased the standards of mushroom production, helping the farmers become promising entrepreneurs. keywords: agricultural extension, l3f programme, mushroom, community development. introduction sri lanka needs to increase its food production by 50% during the next few decades to meet the food demand of the rapidly increasing population (marambe, 2018). therefore, it is vital to increase both agricultural and labour productivity in sri lanka following various methods such as increasing the population involved in agriculture, minimizing the labour drainage from the agriculture sector into the service sector, increasing the availability of productive lands within the country, etc. (collier & dercon, 2014). furthermore, it is important to develop strategies to empower small-scale farmers by providing sufficient resources and opening different ventures regarding commercialised agriculture. then, the small-scale farmers would receive the opportunity to interact with large-scale farmers and develop hybrid enterprises creating important value chains (collier & dercon, 2014). the main challenge in this regard is reducing the imbalance between small-scale and large-scale farmers, whose main focus is to enhance agricultural productivity, while the small-scale farmers’ focus is on sustainable livelihoods in the rural community (pretty et al, 2011). many of the small-scale farmers lack knowledge of modern technologies, efficient and effective use of inputs and proper management practices (piesse & thirtle, 2010). therefore, it is important to educate the farmers about improved farming practices, effective and efficient land utilization, improved pest and disease management, best management practices, methods of increasing harvest, etc., through well-established agricultural research and extension networks in collaboration with respective governments and non-governmental institutions (bozeman, 2000). 399 transferring technology to the small-scale farmers in developing countries is vital since agriculture is the livelihood of the majority of the rural community; and the growth of the agriculture sector marks the social and economic development of developing countries in achieving national goals, including food security, employment and poverty eradication (chebbi, 2010). agricultural extension has three dimensions: improving the production and profitability of farmers and empowering the rural community through improving agricultural development tasks providing formal and non-formal agriculture-related education (zwane, 2012). empowering the local farming community is the most appropriate strategy to attain rural development. in this regard, agricultural extension can play a tremendous role through strengthening the human resource capacity of farmer organizations and enhancing their access to useful extension services, savings or credit (thabet et al, 2015). further, agricultural extension can develop farmers’ capacity for innovation and link them with research institutions, private institutions, product markets, and non-governmental organizations, etc. (poncet et al, 2010). if the national funds allocated for agricultural extension are inadequate, farmers could be introduced to regional and global donor agencies who are interested in delivering farmer-centred, demand-driven, performance-oriented, and participatory extension services (nairobi declaration on agriculture extension and advisory services, 2011). more than 70% of the sri lankan population resides in rural areas of the country whose main source of income is agriculture-related activities (thilakaratna & pathirana, 2018). among the agricultural products in sri lanka, mushrooms have been considered as a food source to meet the human protein requirement, and so mushroom farming has become popular as an agribusiness (ferdousi et al, 2019). however, it has been revealed that many of the mushroom farmers restrict their cultivation mainly to oyster (pleurotus ostreatus) and abalone (pleurotus cystidiosus) mushrooms, while some of them left mushroom cultivation due to various circumstances related to production and marketing (thilakaratna & pathirana, 2018). realizing that mushroom farming largely comprised scattered units of small-scale production, the life long learning for farmers (l3f) programme was commenced with the prime objective of empowering the small-scale mushroom farmers in the southern province in collaboration with the department of agricultural economics, faculty of agriculture, university of ruhuna, sri lanka and commonwealth of learning, canada (wijeratne & de silva, 2014). this is an agricultural extension programme to enhance the socio-economic conditions of the clientele via the dissemination of knowledge/technology generated in universities and elsewhere. furthermore, it accumulates the existing local knowledge and outcomes of the farmers’ experimentation. the l3f programme has utilised an array of agricultural extension techniques such as farmer discussions, demonstrations, participatory farmer training/ workshops, field visits, printed educational materials, best farmer award competitions, and an interactive voice mail system (wijeratne & de silva, 2010; wijeratne & de silva, 2014). therefore, it is important to assess the impact of the l3f programme to identify the progress attained by the mushroom farmers through the extension efforts provided by the programme. hence, this study was conducted to evaluate the outcomes of the l3f programme at the community level. methods the data were collected through a field survey which was executed during august-september in 2019. two enumerators were employed in the field survey. the target population of the study was the mushroom farmers cultivating more than 500 mushroom culture bags who were registered in the l3f 400 programme. there were 300 such farmers. out of the target population, initially, 30 mushroom farmers were selected as the sample of the study however, one farmer had abandoned the cultivation at the time of the investigation. the enumerators visited the farmers individually and made observations on the mushroom shed and surroundings. the data were collected via a pre-structured questionnaire to investigate the components, including the construction of a mushroom shed, media preparation, daily maintenance, management of pests and disease, waste management, use of sustainable management practices, cost of production, harvesting and marketing, etc. the collected data were analyzed following the scoring method to evaluate the level of mushroom production managed by every farmer who participated in the field survey. furthermore, the farmer performance index (fpi) was developed to assess their performances in productivity. this technique was applied to assess the yield performance of the rice sector (wijeratne & de silva, 2002; wijeratne & de silva, 2003). results scale of production the production cycle of american oyster mushrooms is confined to four months, including one month for mycelium development and a three-month harvesting period. during that period, one mushroom culture bag produces approximately 300-400 grams of fresh mushrooms. therefore, the daily income of the mushroom farmers depends on the number of bags producing mushrooms on any particular day (because not all the bags produce mushrooms every day) and also the quantity of fresh mushrooms produced by each bag. at the beginning of the l3f programme, a baseline survey was conducted and the results revealed that the scale of production was restricted to less than 500 mushroom culture bags (wijeratne & de silva 2014). therefore, it was expected to expand the scale of production at least up to 2000 mushroom culture bags with the intervention of the l3f programme. hence, at the inception, it was revealed that a farmer could earn a monthly profit of slr (sri lankan rupees) 20,000-25,000 (usd 100) which has been considered a reasonable economic gain to sustain a family. table 1 depicts the scale of production of mushroom bags and 70% of the farmers have achieved the expected target of cultivating 2000 mushroom bags. table 1: scale of american oyster production number of mushroom culture bags number of farmers percentage of farmers cumulative percentage of farmers 500-1000 11 38 38 1001-2000 9 32 70 2001-3000 1 3 73 3001-4000 2 7 80 4001-5000 2 7 87 5001-6000 3 10 97 >10000 1 3 100 total 29 100 100 401 achievement distribution the achievement distribution of the farmers was evaluated by the farmer performance index (fpi). the location-specific yield was considered as 300g/per culture bag and this can be regarded as the average production of the area (wijeratne & de silva, 2014). the fpi is calculated as the farmer's actual yield/location-specific yield x 100. the optimal level is considered as 100%, meaning that a farmer has achieved a location-specific yield of 300g per mushroom bag. application of this procedure locates every farmer on an achievement distribution curve (figure 1). the level of achievement distribution of each farmer on the fpi provides a comparative measure to determine the ability of the farmers to accomplish the optimal economic level which plays an important role in identifying the target mushroom farmers for agricultural extension programmes in future. therefore, agricultural extension programmes should be designed and executed in favour of the mushroom farmers who locate below the optimal economic level, in order to uplift their production and economic achievements. figure 1 implies that 42% of the mushroom farmers locate below the optimum line of the achievement distribution. hence, though they have reached the optimal scale of production, not all have obtained optimal productivity. hence, it is essential to target the 42% of the farmers in the future agricultural extension programmes more intensively indeed. figure 1: achievement distribution of the mushroom farmers 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1011121314151617181920212223242526272829 f p i number of farmers achievement distribution optimal yield 402 mushroom seed production while moving towards sustainable mushroom production, the major problem encountered by the mushroom farmers was finding good quality seeds. having identified this obstacle, the l3f programme trained ten mushroom farmers on mushroom seed production. the farmers were provided with both theoretical and practical knowledge including the use of laminar flow. having obtained knowledge from the training programme, the “ekamuthu” mushroom farmers’ association in kamburupitiya commenced the production of american oyster mushroom seeds at vidatha center, mapalana, which has been noted as a successful endeavour. the “ekamuthu” mushroom farmers’ association sells the mushroom seeds to its members as well as to outsiders and earns a considerable monthly income. later they scaled up the seed production business by producing mushroom seeds of other varieties such as makandura white. cost of production the unit cost of a mushroom bag is vital for the calculation of income and profit as well as for increasing the scale of production. according to the farmers' records, the unit cost of a mushroom culture bag up to sterilization with the inclusion of maintenance cost was calculated as slr 30. also, it was recorded that the cost of labelling, packaging and marketing was slr 10, so the total cost of a mushroom bag was slr 40. generally, the farm gate price of a mushroom packet weighted 150 grams is slr 50. as mentioned earlier, one mushroom bag produces 300 grams of fresh mushroom which indicates that two mushroom packets can be produced from one mushroom bag. hence, the total income received from one mushroom bag is slr 100 (slr 50 x 2). therefore, the profit obtained from one mushroom bag was calculated as slr 60. accordingly, if a mushroom farmer produces 2,000 mushroom bags during the production cycle of four months, the profit will be slr 120,000 (slr 60 x 2000). therefore, the monthly profit earned by a mushroom farmer will be slr 30,000 (slr 120,000/4) (usd 150-200)1 which can be considered as a reasonable monthly income to sustain a family. figure 2 reflects the cost, income and profit earned by a mushroom farmer by varying the number of mushroom bags. it implies that farmers could earn slr 120,000 for the cultivation of 2,000 mushroom bags for the entire cropping period. 403 figure 2: variation of cost, income and profit according to the scale of production farmer experimentation successful agricultural extension programmes accelerate farmers’ strengths in innovative capacities and sharing innovative knowledge among farmers (hagmann et al, 1999). but agricultural research and extension has generally failed to recognise the capacities and improve the participation of the farmers (chambers et al, 1993). furthermore, there is often reluctance to appropriate the richness and validity of the indigenous knowledge of rural people (chambers, 1983). the farmer-to-farmer extension keeps farmers at the central point of the knowledge creation and dissemination process. furthermore, comprehensive local knowledge encourages the innovative farmers to communicate with fellow farmers to spread the innovations rapidly at a lower cost (tripp et al, 2005). in this scenario, the l3f programme contributed to enhancing farmers' application of local knowledge to combat their problems. another sri lankan study reported that farmers have obtained higher yields by growing mushrooms on both sides of the culture bag (wijeratne & de silva, 2014). after obtaining the basic hands-on experience about mushroom production from the l3f programme, farmers undertook their experimentation in the aspects of minimizing pest attacks, increasing yield and increasing seed germination, etc. which has been able to attain successful outcomes. the summary of the experimentations undertaken by the farmers is mentioned in table 2. 0 50,000 100,000 150,000 200,000 250,000 300,000 350,000 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 c os t/ in co m e/ p ro fit (s lr s) number of mushroom bags cost income profit 404 table 2: use of local knowledge in experimentation farmer experimentation using local knowledge number of farmers outcome vaporise kohomba (azadirachta indica) oil + thinner and use sulfur fume as a mite repellent 6 controlled mite attacks spray chopped garlic (allium sativum) + kochchi (capsicum frutescens) mixture 2 reduced pest attacks increase the amount of rice bran and reduce the amount of green gram in the preparation of culture media 1 increased yield spray sulfur liquid 1 reduced pest attacks use thriposha/samaposha for the media instead of green gram 7 increased yield use gandapana (lantana camara) leaves 3 controlled pest attacks use ipli ipli (leucaena leucocephala) 1 controlled pest attacks add additional 100 grams of gypsum per 10 kgs of sawdust 1 increased yield use whit-in instead of calcium carbonate 1 increased yield use dolomite instead of calcium carbonate 1 increased yield open holes around the bag and open a small hole after taking the first harvest 1 increased yield sterilise chamber and rack system 1 controlled pest attacks use automated water spray 1 reduced heat inside the shed use a gas flame around the opening of the bag 1 prevented pest attacks spray a blended mixture of garlic (allium sativum) + soap + kohomba (azadirachta indica) 2 controlled pest attacks paste grease on yellow colour sheets and hang in the shed 1 controlled pest attacks as mentioned above, innovative farmers engaged in experimentation to find feasible practical solutions for the problems encountered. this showed that farmers are rich in local knowledge and applied such knowledge without outside intervention. the l3f programme tends to disseminate such local knowledge through the participatory interactive sessions. technological advancements earlier, almost all the activities related to mushroom production had to be done by the farmers themselves. some activities demanded a very high labour input (e.g., filling the bags). however, with the interventions and rapid advancements in technology during the last decade, many private companies entered the mushroom industry to provide materials, equipment, and services. as a result, mushroom farmers obtained the opportunity to save labour and time. table 3 depicts the materials and services available for the mushroom farmers which make their work much more convenient. 405 table 3: technological advancements in the mushroom industry material/service implications for the farmers polypropylene bags (250 gauge) farmers can purchase the bags at a cost of slr 4 per each that saves their time and labour caps to seal the culture bags farmers can seal the mushroom bags properly sprinklers control the amount of water sprayed to mushroom bags that save their time and labour humidity fires maintain the humidity within the shed appropriately machine for bag filling farmers can reduce the labour cost and the time spent for manual filling electric sterilising (steam) the large quantity of bags can be sterilised at once that saves their labour and time production of quality seeds farmers can cultivate good quality mushrooms high-quality printing, packaging, and labelling farmers could obtain such services to attract consumers, and also include relevant information. environment sustainability disposal of mushroom bags after the production period of four months has created an array of environmental problems as the polypropylene bags are non-degradable. realizing the environmental problems encountered by mushroom production, the l3f programme executed interactive awareness sessions to provide knowledge to the mushroom farmers on proper methods of disposing of mushroom bags, such as separating the polythene cover from the media, disposing the media away from the mushroom shed, using the media to make compost, using media as a fertiliser for other crops, burying the media and polythene covers, etc. interestingly, almost all the farmers have started to practise such methods of disposal of mushroom bags and continue mushroom production in an environmentally-friendly manner. scientific mushroom production intending to enhance farmers' existing knowledge on scientific mushroom production, the l3f programme executed an array of extension activities including demonstrations, visiting sessions, participatory training workshops, cross visits, an interactive voice mail system (mobitel sim 8820), cyber extension, cd-roms, print media, etc. all such efforts were focused on providing knowledge on aspects of mushroom shed construction, media preparation, daily maintenance, control of pests and diseases, and harvesting and marketing. the extent of applying the knowledge on scientific mushroom production by the farmers was assessed and analysed using the scoring procedure. the results are mentioned in table 4. 406 table 4: application of knowledge on scientific mushroom production knowledge element category of score number of farmers percentage cumulative percentage construction of mushroom shed 0-3 3 10 10 4-7 8 28 38 8-12 18 62 100 preparation of the culture media 0-2 1 3 3 3-5 1 3 6 6-8 27 94 100 seed inoculation 0-2 0 0 0 3-5 2 7 7 6-9 27 93 100 pest control 0-4 1 3 3 5-9 22 76 79 10-13 6 21 100 use of ict 0-2 8 28 28 3-5 20 69 97 6-7 1 3 100 risk management 0-4 18 62 62 5-9 11 38 100 10-13 0 0 100 according to table 4, 62% of the farmers have achieved a maximum score for construction of a scientific mushroom shed, while 94% exhibited correct preparation of mushroom culture media. in the production process, seed inoculation is a significant task. ninety-three percent of the farmers are regarded as good practitioners in this regard. the mushroom farmers frequently encounter pest and disease problems and, in many instances, they abandoned cultivation. even though the l3f programme focused on these aspects, still farmers have not adopted the correct pest control measures satisfactorily. to increase the extension coverage, the l3f programme, in collaboration with mobitel plc, developed the interactive voice response (ivr) system. this facilitated incorporation of ict and enhanced open and distance learning (odl) for the extension programme. the ivr system embedded a two-minute voice recording on mushroom cultivation. there are about 100 such messages, and farmers can access the system through mobitel sim 8820. first, this facility was restricted to the registered farmers of l3f programme but, by popular request, it was extended nationwide. there were more than 5,000 clients distributed throughout the country (wijeratne & de silva, 2014). the outcomes are documented in wijeratne & de silva (2011). however, even though ict was encouraged with the mobile phone intervention, farmers showed only moderate usability. non 407 accessibility and reluctance to use smartphones could be stated as limitations. the applications of risk management practices are not apparent. market information although there is a significant demand for fresh mushrooms in both urban markets and supermarkets, most of the farmers restrict their sales only to the surrounding retail markets because the mushroom farmers do not follow standard methods of packaging and labelling to meet the requirements demanded by customers. thilakaratna and pathirana (2018) mentioned that the main challenge faced by the mushroom farmers was the problems encountered in marketing. realizing this fact, the l3f programme organised training programmes to educate mushroom farmers regarding the use of proper packaging materials with adequate quality, preparation of attractive labels, size of the packet, and durability of the packet. furthermore, farmers were educated about the information that should be mentioned on the label such as trade name, weight, price, date of manufacture and date of expiry to meet the legal requirements. acquiring knowledge from the training programmes, mushroom farmers have started to use high-quality packaging materials, with attractive and eyecatching labels which state the necessary information on them. sustainable management practices and risk management the study investigated the application of sustainable management practices during the production cycle, and the risk management procedure applied to combat fluctuating climatic factors and price. the investigated sustainable management practices included the environmentally friendly activities practised by the mushroom farmers such as the use of integrated pest management practices, control of the use of raw materials, use of culture media as manure, use of sprinkler irrigation systems, etc. it was revealed that the mushroom farmers did not show much concern about following sustainable management practices throughout the process of mushroom production. hence, any future extension agenda should focus on those aspects. the application of prevention techniques as remedial measures to climate change and price sensitivity was also investigated. the sustainable management practices applied to minimise the impact of high temperature were spraying water manually or sprinkling water two to three times per day inside the mushroom shed, keeping a thin layer of water on the floor of the mushroom shed, and laying wet gunny bags on the floor. during the two years prior to writing, farmers did not encounter a significant price fluctuation. therefore, no significant action was taken to change the daily mushroom production or the preparation of value-added mushroom products. the farm-gate price remained as slr 50 per a 150g packet of american oyster mushrooms and the retail price of some varied from slr 60 to slr 70. recent innovations of the l3f programme technology dissemination centres the l3f programme, in collaboration with the ministry of telecommunication and digital infrastructure, established cyber extension centres in eleven locations across the southern province intending to provide extension input through open and distance learning (odl). the cyber dissemination centres were established at agricultural service centers (ascs) where the agriculture 408 instructors (ais) perform their official duties. there are three centres in galle district, located in labuduwa, walahanduwa and koggala. the centres in matara district are located in akuressa, kamburupitiya, mapalana, godagama, kekanadura, hakmana, while the centres in hambantota district are located in katuwana and weeraketiya. mobile app development the l3f programme has developed a mobile app, namely, “bimmal govipola app”, which can be installed on smartphones through google play store. this app provides benefits to mushroom farmers, consumers and input suppliers of the mushroom industry. through this mobile app, the mushroom farmers get the opportunity to mention and update information about their daily mushroom production including type and quantity, location of the farm/mushroom shed, type and quantity of inputs used. therefore, the buyers receive the opportunity to contact the mushroom farmers directly without any intermediaries. also, the input suppliers receive the opportunity to contact the relevant mushroom farmers directly and sell the inputs to them without exerting much effort. business planning many of the farmers involved in the mushroom industry do not possess adequate knowledge about financial literacy, and business planning which has become the main barrier for them in obtaining credit. therefore, the l3f programme organised workshops for mushroom farmers scattered in the galle, matara and hambantota districts to educate them on the preparation of business plans from which they were able to gain adequate knowledge. the l3f programme linked the mushroom farmers with several banks including bank of ceylon, peoples bank and ruhuna development bank. the farmers obtained loans to improve their mushroom production after providing the business plans prepared for their enterprise. furthermore, several books such as mushroom cultivation as an enterprise (wijeratne & de silva, 2012) and business planning for small scale entrepreneurs (de silva et al, 2019) were designed for farmers and distributed to enhance farmers’ knowledge on entrepreneurship. best farmer award the l3f programme made awards to the best mushroom entrepreneurs to empower small-scale mushroom farmers and to encourage them to become successful entrepreneurs in the mushroom industry. the best mushroom entrepreneur award ceremony has been held twice so far. in the first award competition (2011), only the mushroom farmers from “ekamuthu mushroom society” in kamburupitiya, matara were considered. later, as the activities of the l3f programme were expanded to all three districts in southern province, mushroom farmers from the entire southern province were selected for the second best farmers award competition (2019). the assessment of the mushroom farmers, and their mushroom production process were evaluated systematically using a pre-structured questionnaire. the most highlighted feature of the second best mushroom entrepreneur award was that the three winners were awarded the technology of automating the mushroom shed that was provided with the collaboration of dialog axiata plc and the l3f programme. this technology is a new intervention which automatically controls the humidity within the shed and also minimises the spread of pests and diseases. 409 conclusion through the extension activities implemented by the l3f programme, the mushroom farmers have been able to increase both the scale and productivity of mushroom production and achieve the expected outcomes. seventy per cent of the farmers were able to increase the scale of production up to 2,000 bags. however, according to the farmer performance index (fpi), 42 per cent of the farmers were still below optimal productivity. hence, it is clearly important to include such farmers as the target clientele for future extension programmes. furthermore, mushroom farmers were able to invent their experiments to minimise the impact of pests and diseases as well as increasing the yield using the local knowledge. the farmers also benefited from the technological advancements of the mushroom industry. as a result, they were able to reduce the cost of production through labourand time-saving. the farmers have made efforts to comply with scientific mushroom production and environmental sustainability. the mobile phone intervention, through the interactive voice response (ivr) system, has shown a moderate success as the farmers are not much geared toward this intervention. the mushroom farmers were also able to increase the quality of packaging and label preparation which let them enhance the capacity of marketing. the l3f programme introduced a new intervention, the bimmal goiv app, to the mushroom farmers, blended with information and communication technology, which helped them to move with the latest technological advancements. in all, it can be concluded that through the knowledge/technology transfer endeavours of the l3f programme, the mushroom farming community benefitted to a significant extent, and established reasonable social-economic standards. acknowledgement: the authors wish to thank the commonwealth of learning (col) of canada for providing financial assistance to the l3f programme of university of ruhuna, sri lanka. this agricultural extension programme won the commonwealth award for outreach and community relations. references bozeman, b. (2000). technology transfer and public policy: a review of research and theory. research policy, 29, 627-655. chambers, r. (1983). rural development: putting the last first. longman scientific and technical, longman group. 246. chambers, r., pacey, a., & thrupp, l. a. (1993). farmer first, farmer innovation and agricultural research. interactive technology publications. chebbi, h. e. (2010). agriculture and economic growth in tunisia. china agricultural economic review, 2, 63-78. collier, p., & dercon, s. (2014). african agriculture in 50 years: smallholders in a rapidly changing world? world development, 63, 92-101. de silva, n., wijeratne, m., & hasini, k.k.l. (2019). business planning for small scale entrepreneurs. neat graphics. ferdousi, j., riyadh, z. a., hossain, m. i., saha, s. r., & zakaria, m. (2019). mushroom production benefits, status, challenges and opportunities in bangladesh: a review. annual research and review in biology, 34(6), 113. hagmann, j., chuma, e., murwira, k., & connolly, m. (1999). putting the process into practice: operationalizing participatory extension. agricultural research and extension, network paper no. 94. 410 marambe, b. (2018). future of sri lanka and food security. http://gamanicoreafoundation.lk/future%20of%20agriculture%20and%20food%20security%20sri%20lank a%201.pdf nairobi declaration on agricultural extension and advisory services (2011). innovations in extension and advisory services. http://extensionconference2011.cta.int/sites/default/files/nairobideclaration30112011.pdf piesse, j., & thirtle, c. (2010). agricultural r&d, technology and productivity. philosophical transactions of the royal society b, 365, 3035-3047. poncet, j., kuper, m., & chiche, j. (2010). wandering off the paths of planned innovation: the role of formal and informal intermediaries in a large-scale irrigation scheme in morocco. agricultural systems, 103(4), 171-179. pretty, j., toulmin, c., & williams, s. (2011). sustainable intensification in african agriculture. international journal of agricultural sustainability, 9, 5-24. thabet, b., dhehibi, b., kassam, s., & aw-hassan, a. (2015). good intentions and hard realities: achievements and challenges in agricultural extension systems in tunisia. international journal of agricultural extension, 3, 209-216. thilakaratna, w. s., & pathirana, p. b. m. (2018). prospects and challenges of mushroom production in kuruwita, sri lanka: comparative report on two consecutive years. journal of dry zone agriculture, 4(1), 1-7. tripp, r., wijeratne, m., & piyadasa, v.h. (2005). what should we expect from farm field school? a sri lanka case study. world development, 33(10), 1705-1720. wijeratne, m., & de silva, n. (2002). differences in farmer performance in two rice-growing areas in sri lanka. international rice research notes, 27(2), 42-43. wijeratne, m., & de silva, n. (2003). farmer categorization based on farmer performance index: identifying the targets of agricultural extension. international rice research notes, 28(1), 72. wijeratne, m., & de silva, n. (2010). implications of intervention: sri lanka experience on lifelong learning for farmers. the sixth plan — commonwealth forum for open learning, access and success in learning. indira gandhi national open university. wijeratne, m., & de silva, n. (2011). focus on marginalized groups: a sri lankan experience on empowering small scale mushroom producers. book of abstracts, annual conference of 25th asian association of open universities, wawasan university. wijeratne, m., & de silva, n. (2012). mushroom production as an enterprise. neat graphics. wijeratne, m., & de silva, n. (2014). agricultural extension in practice: a contribution to enhance small scale mushroom production. in m. wijeratne & r. p. mahaliyanaarachchi (eds.), agricultural extension, recent interventions for development in sri lanka, sri lanka agricultural extension association, 159-171. zwane, e. m. (2012). does extension have a role to play in rural development? south african journal in agricultural extension, 40, 16-24. authors: nilantha de silva is a senior academic attached to the department of agricultural economics, faculty of agriculture, university of ruhuna, sri lanka. she works as the deputy project coordinator/project coordinator of life-long learning for farmers project since 2008. the l3f project is one of the main outreach research projects of ruhuna university, and mainly focuses on uplifting the living standard of mushroom farmers and scaling up the activities of organic farming. she has introduced many new initiatives to the farming community, especially to improve the knowledge of mushroom farmers. email: nilanthade@agecon.ruh.ac.lk 411 mahinda wijeratne is an emeritus professor attached to the department of agricultural economics, faculty of agriculture, university of ruhuna, sri lanka. he was the key person to get this project to ruhuna university and worked as the project coordinator from 2008 to 2017. during his tenure, he scaled up the project activities to the southern province and worked to enhance the living standard of mushroom farmers. email: mahindaw@agecon.ruh.ac.lk cite this paper as: de silva, n., & wijeratne, m. (2021). achieving community development through an agricultural extension programme: technology dissemination for mushroom farmers. journal of learning for development, 8(2), 398-411. __________ 1usd = slr 160 180 murgatroyd the two solitudes of educational policy and the challenge of development stephen murgatroyd, pasi sahlberg vol. 3, no. 3 abstract policy makers are challenged to improve educational outcomes, manage scarce resources and secure public acceptance of their initiatives to provide quality, relevant and effective education. in making decisions they are pulled between competing ideologies about the process and purposes of schooling. this paper explores these ideologies and suggests tensions between them. the paper also suggests a way forward for those seeking to established evidence based, context sensitive policies and practices. introduction as educational policy makers seek to deliver to the development goals of their country they are challenged to do so by competing and conflicting views about the very nature and purpose of primary and secondary education and the underlying rationale for public policy. should they pursue the policy framework associated with the global educational reform movement (germ) or should they focus on an educational policy driven by a strong commitment to public control, equity and teacher empowered schools? there is a fierce debate between these competing ideologies (and the respective social and economic costs of each position) and the way in which policy makers choose their options could settle the nature of education in a jurisdiction for several generations to come. some see the choice between these competing ideologies as that between a capitalist-marketization system (germ) and a professional community driven system (equity). others have suggested it is a choice between established, traditional views of public education (equity) and a “shock-doctrine” approach to education (klein, 2007; sanchez, 2010, tikly, 2016). this debate is fueled by the lack of resources, the growing hegemony of the world bank education agenda and the commitment to education as a major domain within the 2030 sustainable development goals. in this paper the two distinct policy positions are explored and explained and reference is made to recent critical evidence based reviews. this analysis is then connected to the challenge of achieving the educational goals of development and the idea that education is the key to economic development. the paper ends with a set of challenging questions for educational policy makers and some suggestions for action. two contrasting policy frameworks the policy context all who shape educational policy purport to advocate for the same outcomes: quality, accessible and affordable education for all, which is overseen by sound policy, clear lines of responsibilities and purposeful management of scarce resources. education is seen as a means for enabling social and economic development and a reduction of inequality (little & green, 2009). the term “quality” here is used to refer not just to the process of teaching and (engaged and productive) learning but also to quality learning outcomes. quality is usually determined by reference to measurable learning outcomes, such as scores on internationally acceptable measures or key performance indicators (e.g., the oecd’s program for international student assessment (pisa) measures, the progress in international reading literacy study (pirls) or the trends in international mathematics and science study (timss). access is usually determined in terms of the proportion of an age cohort who attends and completes a level of schooling. affordability is usually ill-defined, but frequently measured in terms of the number of individuals excluded from a school system because of the cost of attending that system. resource management and accountability are practiced very differently from one jurisdiction to another, but the underlying principle appears to the business principle of value added per unit of expenditure, with some systems being more systematic than others in measuring value added. some systems, e.g., denmark, germany and finland, seek to differentiate investment and routes to learning by intended outcome and practice streaming. for example, academic routes versus vocational routes for students through the school systems with the opportunity for cross-over between these two routes at key stages in the student journey has become common in many education systems. high performing education systems provide vocational education differently from academic education in their secondary school system while other jurisdictions, such as canada, integrate these in community schools or “comprehensive” schools. which of these routes might a developing economy choose, if choice is indeed an option? some systems also blend private education – both in terms of governance and financing with public education. this is the case in many developing commonwealth countries, with private schools ranging from mainly publicly funded community based schools run by family groups, entrepreneurs and ngos to privately-funded elite schools privatization of public education gets to the heart of the ideological questions associated with the policy space for education for development. as nancy birdsall (1999) from the carnegie endowment for international peace has noted: the risks of privatization arise because developing and transitional economies, almost by definition, are handicapped by relatively weak institutions, less well-established rules of transparency, and often, not only high concentrations of economic and political power but a high correlation between those two areas of power. these conditions combine to make it difficult indeed to manage the privatization process in a manner that is not disequalizing. (our emphasis). in a more recent work, abrams (2016) has looked at the growing transfer of assets from the public sector to the private sector in the united states and europe and concludes that “asset stripping” and asset transfers come with increasing private control of public policy. the rise of private academy chains in england is one example of these transfers, but there are others (ball & youdell, 2007). seeking to connect educational development to the economic growth potential for a transitioning economy is at the heart of all development programs – economic growth depends on the capacity of human capital and its innovativeness. accelerating the growth of human capital capacity is the implicit goal of most educational policies in the developing world. the global educational reform movement (germ) global educational reform movement (germ) is a common name to a set of education policies that aim at governing education systems using commercial and market principles. it is often characterized by increased competition between schools over student enrolment, standardization of teaching and learning, reliance on standardized assessments for accountability purposes, de-professionalization of the teaching and leadership professions, and, as a consequence, privatization of public schools (abrams, 2016; sahlberg, 2016). germ has emerged in the mid-1980s from so-called “third way” social policy (giddins, 1998; hargreaves & shirley, 2009) and has increasingly become adopted as an educational reform orthodoxy within many education systems throughout the world, including in the u.s., england, australia and some developing countries. tellingly, germ is often promoted through the interests of international development agencies and private enterprises through their interventions in national education reforms and policy formulation. as a framework, it has strong corporate support, most especially from global players such as pearson, mcgraw hill, google and the gates foundation, together with other private corporate foundations. since the 1980s, a number of common features of education policies and reform principles have been employed to try to improve the quality of education and fix the apparent problems in public education systems in the developed world. some are now seeking to implement these in the developing world. at its heart, germ involves these basic ideas: learning can be broken down into distinct competencies and learning standards which can be tested for using external standardized measurements. curriculum therefore needs to be standardized and modularized so that it is fair to all and we can test progress in standardized ways. learning not tied to competencies or skills needed for the economy is not worth substantial investment – creative arts, fine arts and sports are marginalized by a strong focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics – the so called stem subjects. teachers are not part of the solution because ineffective teachers are seen as part of the problem. teachers are therefore not designers and creators of learning, but deliverers of agreed upon curriculum. the idea that teachers need to be highly skilled and trained “professionals” gets in the way of efficiency, productivity and cost control, especially in developing countries. teachers need to be trained, managed and paid by the value they add to learning as measured by analytics. learning can and should be “personalized” – technology enables this (especially adaptive technology), made easier when the curriculum is standardized—this also makes testing and getting to scale easier. teachers should make more use of technology so that they can better monitor student progress, mastery of competence, and intervene when a student is seen (from analytic data) to be struggling. institutions should be accountable for their learning outcomes and cost management – value added auditing should be undertaken. market forces should drive quality and investment “winners” and “losers” can be quickly found and investments made to support and enforce effective learning models from “winning” schools in the rest of the system. social enterprise in free markets is the best way to manage education. governments, like those in england, many parts of australia and the us, are systematically pursuing germ in their compulsory school systems (abrams, 2016; adamson, astrand & darling-hammond, 2016; ball & youdell, 2007; mansell, 2013; graham, 2013) and this is also having an impact on teacher training, and college and university education world-wide. underlying this is the use of business models to manage and run institutions, as if private business knew how to deliver efficient and effective public education. institutions that adopt germ tend to have a high manager-to-teacher ratio, high technology costs and at the end of the day, very little evidence of real improvements in learning outcomes. germ is also a vendor driven strategy which governments find attractive. this is at the heart of the idea that the management of education as a social enterprise supported by public and private capital should be managed as a business rather than a public good. diane ravitch (2013) has reviewed germ and described it more fully in her most recent book. she outlines the historiography of germ and the evidence, which is used to justify the policy positions. her conclusion is that germ is based on policy driven evidence that is evidence carefully selected so as to support the policy as opposed to evidence-based decision-making. she points out that charter and private schools in the us – the test bed for many germ developments – range from excellent to awful and are, on average, no more innovative or successful than public schools (buchheit, 2015); virtual schools are cash cows for their owners, but poor substitutes for real teachers and real schools in terms of educational outcomes; and that poverty is strongly correlated with levels of educational attainment (berliner, 2009, 2011, 2012). more to the point, there is little or no evidence to support the core components of germ as ways of building an effective educational system in a developed country, never mind a developing one. a part of the thinking about germ, which is now beginning to be emphasized, especially in positioning germ with developing countries, is the idea that this is a necessary stage of development – a kind of platform or base – from which subsequent innovation can occur (adamson, astrand & darling-hammond, 2016). for a developing or low performing system, germ is an essential requirement to secure control of the system so as to enable a “starting point” for more innovative policies. this thinking seeks to excuse the excesses of germ (e.g., high managerial control, standardization, testing, substantial investment in technology) on the grounds of establishing the baseline of performance for a country or system. there is no evidence that the subsequent required reforms to promote creativity, innovation and a more “liberal” school regime can overcome the embedded interests or culture, which germ creates and inspires. equity as an alternative to germ an alternative policy framework is for educational policy to be driven by a commitment to create a great school experience for all learners through a focus on equity (darling-hammond, 2010; sahlberg, 2015; murgatroyd & couture, 2013). a common definition here for equity is that it is the strength (or actually the weakness) of the relationship between a student’s family background and her measured learning in school. the weaker that relationship is, the more equitable the education system is. this alternative framework, also competing for a major slice of the future, sees the work schools do very differently. rather than focusing on the “products” of schooling in terms of the workplace competencies and skills, this approach sees education as an opportunity to enable and encourage the pursuit of bold, big ideas and to develop the person as a citizen, imaginer and lifelong learner. it is also seen as a way of creating real opportunities to promote and support the public good and well-being of society and community through enhancing the ability of learners to think critically and develop a life-long passion for learning for learning’s sake. as r. h. tawney (see goldman, 2013) observed, the purpose of education is “not to make society richer or better run, but to make it more human and fully just”. it also seeks to contribute to economic development not by focusing on a narrow range of skills (e.g., science, technology, engineering and mathematics) but by identifying for each learner the potential they have for contributing to society. rather than being competency driven and focused on globally standardized competitive skills, the equity based approach sees learning as a fundamental process in support of finding the passion and interests of each child and then fostering their development so as to create a more equitable, informed and empowered community / society in which informed and engaged citizens have a quality of life which has meaning for them. rather than being driven by short-term needs of the economy, the work of schools should be driven by a commitment to the development of people as individuals and as citizens. the key ingredients of this approach are: a focus on the learner as a whole person, not just as a potential employee or “contributing citizen”. a focus on understanding, engagement, knowledge and skills – balancing these different aspects of the task of learning and understanding. an understanding that the key to such learning is the teacher (or team of teachers) who must be empowered to align available resources to the needs of the learner. rather than having a strong focus on accountability, this approach favours social responsibility and human judgment informed by variety of assessments focused on helping the teacher to improve her work and the learners improve their learning. the teacher and the communities of practice to which she belongs are central to this approach to learning. rather than “follow” the script of a master course, here teachers as professionals tailor their learning designs and activities to the needs of the individual students in their class. working with a curriculum framework, the teacher as professional is enabled and empowered as a designer of learning. in the name of equity, there is a strong focus on inclusion and accessibility – rather than continuously increasing the gpa needed to “get in” to college or university, as institutions and programs look more to commitment, determination and engagement. attention is paid to the support needs of learners – additional help is available for those struggling with concepts or skills or who need additional help because of a learning, or other, disability. compassion, mindfulness, values and empathy and support are seen as core to learning as outcomes. technology can be used to support these overall activities but is not seen as a driver or “the answer”. this provides a very different philosophical base for the work of schools – leading to very different designs for learning, assessment and curriculum and very different measures of learning outcomes. many attempts are being made to focus on equity not just in terms of access but also in terms of success in education – it as at the heart of the unesco’s work on rethinking education, for example as well as being at the core of delors’ commission four pillars of education (unesco, 1996). it is also the basis of the success of the school system in finland, long regarded as amongst the highest performing systems in the world (sahlberg, 2011, 2015, 2016). it competes with germ for the ideological standing as the base for strategic policy and investment decisions by governments around the world and is built on a strong and compelling evidence base. the oecd (2012) suggests that there are ten steps to achieve equity in education. these are: in designing an education system focused on equity: limit early tracking and streaming and postpone academic selection. manage and limit school choice so as to contain the risks to equity. in upper secondary (high school), provide attractive alternatives, remove dead ends and prevent drop-out by creating personalized curriculum. offer second chances to gain from education. for education practice: identify and provide systematic help to those who fall behind at school and reduce year repetition or “remediation” by repetition. strengthen the links between school and home so as to help disadvantaged parents to help their children to learn. respond to diversity and provide for the successful inclusion of migrants and minorities within mainstream education. resourcing: provide strong education for all, giving priority to early childhood provision and basic schooling. direct resources to the students with the greatest need. set concrete targets for more equity, particularly related to low school attainment and dropouts. the challenge is to see how a focus on equity, politically and socially important in the developed world, translates into meaningful policy directions and decisions in the transitioning and developing economies of the world. however, there are constraints. david berliner’s findings that socioeconomic conditions account for some sixty percent of the variance in student performance in the us, with a further twenty percent due to schools and half of that due to teacher practice (berliner, 2009, 2011, 2012) and the oecd’s most recent finding that 46% of the variance in scores on its pisa tests of mathematics, science and reading competence were related to social factors, especially poverty (ash, 2014; oecd 2013). quality teaching can enhance the impact of schools significantly (hanushek & wößmann, 2010), which speaks to the critical importance of a focus on teacher quality and the professional development of teachers. education systems, wherever they are, need to be instruments for inter-generational poverty reduction as well as places where resilience can develop in response to social conditions. we contrast germ and equity as two “solitudes” for educational policy, but in reality there are many other policy frameworks that could be adopted (oecd, 2015). a focus on innovative educational systems in which governments create a framework but then encourage regional and local innovative approaches to meeting framework expectations; a focus on differentiation, with each school finding a unique way in which to offer learning and development (science schools, arts schools, dance schools, ict schools, etc.) – all offering a core curriculum, but then adding a specialism (murgatroyd & morgan, 1993); or schools which are driven not by specialism but by wicked problem solving (murgatroyd, 2010). the germ versus equity debate, however, puts the policy framework at the heart of education at the forefront and provides a basis for an evidence based, rational discussion about significantly contrasting approaches. germ, equity and development for many years the orthodox view among classical economists has been that the state should take the major responsibility for both financing and supplying educational services. over the past three decades, however, a new group of “neoliberal” organizations and critics have argued that education systems in developing countries should be financed more directly by private households or employers, particularly under the sharply constrained financial circumstances facing many governments in transitional economies. the argument has also been made that a policy focus on equity may be appropriate for developed economies, but that developing economies have to “race to secure the basics” in education so as to enable economic growth, which in turn provides the basis for public finance. given these constraints, germ is said to offer more promise to support developing and transitional economies (microsoft, 2006) than “pure” public education systems driven by equity.     the core neoliberal argument is rooted in the economics of results based management. a neoliberal approach assumes market reforms will improve the quality of education by freeing schools from the restrictive control of government, and creating incentives to innovate through market competition. importantly, creating market-like institutions in education requires both the devolution of control over budgets and decentralization of control over instruction to allow schools to innovate. supply-side competition rewards schools that can innovate to improve quality with more students and greater funding. in theory, inefficient schools will lose students and be forced to improve or shut down. these potential cost savings and quality improvements are attractive to developing countries that need to expand education rapidly with limited public resources (abrams, 2016). the fact that germ is practiced in major donor countries – england, the us, australia, new zealand and several nordic countries (notably sweden) provide impetus and ideological support for this position (ravitch, 2013). using markets to distribute education limits the government’s capacity to use education as a tool to promote opportunities for social mobility, enable equity and challenge gender discrimination. critics of the neoliberal education policies argue that these costs in terms of equity outweigh benefits from gains in efficiency (vandenberghe, 1999). because neoliberal policies reward schools for providing education at the lowest cost, it is argued that this creates a perverse incentive to attract low-cost students (e.g., highly able) and no incentive to provide high quality services for students who are more costly to educate (e.g., students with disabilities, students with learning challenges). developing countries continue to use private schools primarily to increase supply rather than choice, but there is variation in the degree to which private markets are believed to be a solution to problems of low supply. many developing countries are reluctant to cede control of education to “pure” markets – insisting on setting curriculum objectives, controlling the supply and wages of teachers and, in many cases, offering subsidies to ensure access to basic education, especially for girls. the result is a constant tension between the neoliberal market-based policies and a relentless focus on equity in the shaping of educational policy. this becomes evident in reviews of the work of the world bank in education, which, despite its overall support for the general direction of germ, also sponsors projects that have a strong focus on equity. indeed, several reviews (e.g., lincove, 2009) suggest that the world bank is more liberal than neoliberal at the level of its projects but more neo-liberal at the level of policy (tikly, 2016). however, for many of the projects it finances in developing countries, there are no equity safeguards in place to ensure the education of girls or access to quality education for those who have learning challenges (so called “special needs” students). markets change the dynamics of an education system. while some market driven changes can be helpful – they can, for example, lead to a stronger focus on outcomes for the system overall, encourage differentiation and lead to new investment in the professional development of teachers – they can also be damaging. much depends on the conditions under which markets operate – the regulatory, quality assurance and investment regimes and the system “rules” with respect to students who are disadvantaged or disabled. balancing equity and performance the world bank education strategy 2020 (world bank, 2011) is predominantly a strategy that seeks to balance germ with a focused approach to equity, hence, its promise of “learning for all”. we will use this important strategy document to demonstrate the tension between germ and equity as policy frameworks. the proposed strategy framework for education to 2020 has these key elements: a strong focus on governance, results based management and accountability – moving to results based financing, public accountability and intervention for “failing” schools. a focus on benchmarking performance of education systems and transferring “best practices” between systems so that performance can be improved. the use of public-private partnerships to enhance capacity. leveraging technology, especially technologies associated with core skills and literacy and learning analytics. narrowing the curriculum to competencies, knowledge and skills needed for economic growth and development. recognizing the critical importance of early childhood education. seeing learning as “life-long”, not just related to formal schooling. developing strategies for learning to ensure equity – especially gender equity, equity for those from different income groups / regions and for those who have disabilities or learning challenges. the bank is clear that “no one size fits all” in terms of national strategies and that the key to equity as a focus in a system is flexibility through systematic approaches to planning and remediation coupled with the rigorous use of evidence in the making of decisions. as it rolls out its strategy it is seeking to secure value for money and equity of access and outcomes for learners in its projects. the challenge that the bank has in implementing its ambitious education strategy is that its implementation operations are primarily controlled by economists and other non-education experts. educationalists in charge of lending operations in education are not a guarantee of success but lack of them is an invitation to failure. this agenda is responding to some stark facts.  in some countries, recent studies show that a quarter to a half of youth who have graduated from primary school cannot read a single sentence (collins & wiseman, 2012). using results based management (rbm) and a focus on equity in terms of assessing the impact of learning on targeted groups, the world bank is seeking to make smart ideas work and be both scalable within a country and transferable to other countries. but its underlying strategy is strongly germ focused. key to the strategy is an understanding of the role of the teacher as both educator and decision maker. the oecd is very clear in its analysis of systems performance – those closest to the learner have by far the greatest impact on learning outcomes but are not able to overcome the powerful impact of social conditions, culture and community (duncan & murnane, 2011), though exceptional teachers make more of an impact than poor quality teachers (hanushek & wößmann, 2010). the world bank strategy for teachers and how they are to be supported tells us a great deal about the true nature of this work. the question to ask is simple: “is the strategy of the world bank focused on management and systems or on empowering and enabling high quality professional teachers to make decisions?” verger and altinyelken (2013) point to the development of system assessment and benchmarking for education results (saber) – a key world bank value adding assessment system – as an indicator of the new managerialism, especially is it affects teachers. the world bank makes clear that teachers are a clear focus for systems capacity assessment. the critique of this work includes these key observations: germ and the world bank do not take sufficient account of the teacher’s voice and experience when designing systems interventions, especially those that involve teachers and teacher assessment. if we are to learn about capacity building, teachers need to feel ownership of and engagement with their own work. germ and the world bank treat teachers as objects for intervention rather than as the primary agents of educational change and development. the world bank strategy sees teachers as “human resources” and “employees” rather than the major agents of change. there are no references in the world bank strategy to teachers as members of professional bodies or unions or to teachers as learners, researchers and change agents. teachers are disempowered in many systems reforms by the development of a standardized curriculum, high stakes testing, target setting and competitive funding as well as value added teaching assessments. in some reforms, parents are deemed more influential than teachers, especially when community councils and parental choice enables parents to determine a great many functional features of school systems. many managerial reforms seek to increase the reporting and accountability functions for teachers while at the same time de-professionalizing them (sahlberg, 2006). teacher preparation and the requirements for high standards for professional entry are being “traded” against the need to massively increase access so as to meet the call for universal primary education. rather than looking to intensify and invest in teacher preparation and continuing professional development, many germ proponents are seeking to lower these investments and reduce the costs of teachers. many teachers are being asked to adopt new ways of working and new practices in the developing world whether or not they have access to appropriate infrastructure and resources. the rabid promotion of ict is an example of this in action, especially when the focus for these ict investments is in learning analytics rather than in learning for basic skills. many of the reforms guided by germ and its advocates are based on weak or selected evidence. rarely are the practices of high performing systems like finland, canada or cuba used as the basis for system change and practice recommendations. the us and england – both of whose systems are poorly performing and declining – are used as role models for reform and development. the world bank’s rhetoric needs to be unpacked and assessed against the known experience of high performing systems in the world if social justice, equity and genuine development are the intentions. a path forward policy makers face difficult choices. what practical steps can they take to make these choices in a professional, evidence-supported way that would also lead to sustainable change? there are four developments which could assist developing nations in the development of both an appropriate strategic focus and operational plan for their school systems, and would help them make choices between germ and equity frameworks for policy and practice. these four developments would permit the appropriate “mix” of strategies, methodologies and actions based on clear and substantial evidence of current performance and future potential, perhaps involving a mix of approaches designed with the specific national conditions, context and culture in mind. these are: an expert assessment of the current state and future potential of a national or regional educational system. alongside with the oecd pisa evaluation framework which does not look at curriculum, pedagogy, well-being, values or inclusion1, take a broader and more inclusive approach to system review using a panel of international experts, new approaches to data collection focused on engagement, health, equity and performance, new methods of curriculum review and an analysis of special needs and new frameworks for understanding school performance which are informed by equity, four decades of research on school design to overcome the challenges of poverty and inequity and on a view of teachers as professionals. as an example, scotland has a ten-person panel advising the first minister on educational change and development (whitaker, 2016). linking the educational system of a region or nation with that of others striving for similar outcomes. building communities of practice for policy makers and system leaders, for school teachers and their students and for school leaders can produce significant outcomes which impact teaching, classroom activities, school based leadership and system development. rather than encouraging educational tourism, building communities of system practice can make a difference to both the quality and speed of system change (johnson, 2007). linking schools with schools to form professional communities and teachers with teachers to form national communities of practice. within a country, linking schools with each other in professional exchange and communities of practice is a significant route to transformation and change. developing new approaches to school leadership development and school capacity building, which leverage technology, new approaches to leadership and new methods of peer-to-peer support. leadership throughout a school and school system is clearly a vital component of any strategy for effective schooling. a strong focus on developing leadership appropriate to the context of schooling in a jurisdiction is required so as to enhance school performance, strengthen professional practice and enable student success. such leaders need a variety of practical skills and a depth of understanding of the work of leadership (hargreaves & fink, 2005; hargreaves, boyle & harris, 2014; murgatroyd, 2011). they also need to build and support the work of professionals and support staff within the school.  focused professional development of teachers and strong teacher-led organizations are also a key requirement for effective school systems. a practical approach to education development, based on equity and evidence and focused on enhancing collaborative professional practice and capacities are the core requirements for effective schooling in a jurisdiction. conclusion finding a path to equity and high performance is a difficult journey for any nation, as any finnish or canadian educator would attest. the challenge for developing countries is not to be seduced by “shiny objects” or “silver bullets” but to painstakingly build capacity and performance through focused investments which empower and enable professionals, working with their communities to deliver meaningful education that meets local and community needs. shortcuts and quick fixes are less likely to produce sustainable results than the gradual progress towards the goals of equity in education and the development of great schools for all. fn 1 these are not within the mandate of the oecd. references abrams, s. (2016). education and the commercial mindset. boston: harvard university press. adamson, f., astrand, b., & darling-hammond, l. (2016). global education reform: how privatization and public investment influence education outcomes. london: routledge. ash, p.bz. (2014). oecd – poverty explains 46% of pisa scores. education week, march 28th retrieved from this url  (accessed july 10th 2014). ball, s.j., & youdell, d. (2007). the hidden privatization of public education. brussels: education international. available at this url (accessed september 5th, 2016). berliner, d. c. (2009). poverty and potential: out-of-school factors and school success. boulder, co and tempe, az: education and the public interest center, university of colorado & education policy research unit, arizona state university. available at: http://epicpolicy.org/ publication/poverty-and-potential berliner, d. (2011, july 19). why giving standardized tests to young children is really dumb. washington post. available at https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/why-giving-standardized-tests-to-young-children-is-really-dumb/2011/07/18/giqab7onmi_blog.html berliner, d. (2012, october 17). on inequality, poverty and the widening education gap. schools matter. available at http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2012/10/david-berliner-on-inequality-poverty.html birdsall, n. (1999). globalization and the developing countries: the inequality risk. remarks at overseas development council conference, making globalization work, international trade center. washington, d.c., march 18 available at http://www.econ.yale.edu/alumni/reunion99/birdsall.htm (accessed 26th october 2013). buchheit, p. (2015, july 6). growing evidence that charter schools are failing. common dreams. available at http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/07/06/growing-evidence-charter-schools-are-failing (accessed, september 10th, 2016). collins, c.s., & wiseman, a.w. (2012). educational strategy in the developing world – revising the world bank’s education policy. bingley, yorkshire: emerald group. darling-hammond, l. (2010). the flat world and education – how america’s commitment to equity will determine our future. new york: teachers college press. duncan, g., & murnane, r. (2011). whither opportunity? rising inequality and the uncertain life chances of low-income children. new york city: russell sage. giddins, a. (1998). the third way. london: polity. goldman, l. (2013). the life of r h tawney. london: bloomsbury. graham, j. (2013). educational reform and its antidotes. professional voice, 9(3), pp. 5-10. available at http://www.aeuvic.asn.au/2631_pv_9_3_issuu.pdf (accessed september 7th, 2016). hargreaves, a. & biond, n. (2014). the power of teacher leaders: their roles, influence, and impact. london: routledge. hargreaves, a., & shirley, d. (2009). the fourth way – the inspiring future for educational change. thousand oaks, ca: corwin. hargreaves, a., & fink, d. (2005). sustainable leadership. new york: wiley. hargreaves, a., boyle, a., & harris, a. (2014). uplifting leadership: how organizations, teams, and communities raise performance. san francisco: jossey bass. hanushek, e., & wößmann, l. (2010). education and economic growth. in paterson, p., baker, e. mcgaw, b. (eds.). international encyclopaedia of education (volume ii). oxford: elsevier at pp. 245-252. available at http://hanushek.stanford.edu/publications/education-and-economic-growth (retrieved august 25th 2014). johnson, h. (2007). communities of practice and international development. progress in development studies, 7(4) pp. 277–290. available at http://oro.open.ac.uk/8844/1/copspaperpidsfinal2__2_.pdf (accessed 12th september, 2016). klein, n. (2007). the shock doctrine. new york: metropolitan press. lincove, j. a. (2009, winter/spring). are markets good for girls? the world bank and neoliberal reforms in developing countries. whitehead journal of diplomacy and international relations. pp. 59-75. little, a. w., & green, a. (2009). successful globalization, education, and sustainable development. international journal of educational development, 29(2), pp. 166-174. mansell, w. (2013). the english model of educational reform. professional voice, 9(3), pp. 27-30. available at http://www.aeuvic.asn.au/2631_pv_9_3_issuu.pdf (accessed 7th september, 2016). microsoft. (2006). strategies for learning and skills development in emerging markets. redmond, wa: microsoft corporation. murgatroyd, s., & couture, j-c. (2013). rethinking equity – creating a great school for all. new york: lulu press. murgatroyd, s. (2010). wicked problems and the work of the school. journal of educational change, 45(2), pp. 259-279. murgatroyd, s. (2011). rethinking education – learning and the new renaissance. new york: lulu press. murgatroyd, s., & morgan, c. (1993). total quality management and the school. milton keynes: open university press. oecd. (2012). equity and quality in education – supporting disadvantaged students and schools. paris: oecd oecd. (2013). oecd guidelines on measuring subjective well being. paris: oecd. oecd. (2015). education policy outlook 2015  making reforms happen. paris: oecd. ravitch, d. (2013). reign of error: the hoax of the privatization movement and the danger to america’s public schools. new york: knopf. sahlberg, p. (2006). educational reform for raising economic competitiveness. journal of educational change, 7, pp. 259-287. sahlberg, p. (2011). paradoxes of educational improvement – the finnish experience. scottish education review, 43(1), pp. 3-23. sahlberg, p. (2015). finnish lessons – what can the world learn from educational change in finland? (2nd ed.). new york: teachers college press. sahlberg, p. (2016). finnish schools and the global education reform movement. in evers, j. & kneyber, r. (eds.), flip the system – changing education from the ground up. london: routledge. sanchez, a. (2010). the education shock doctrine – disaster schooling. international socialist review, 71. available at http://isreview.org/issue/71/education-shock-doctrine (retrieved 10th august 2014). tikly, l.p. (2016). education for all as a global regime of educational governance: issues and tensions. in shoko yamada (eds.), post-education-for-all and sustainable development paradigm: structural changes with diversifying actors and norms. chanai: emerald group publishing ltd. unesco. (1996). learning – the treasures within. report to unesco from the commission on education for the twenty first century (delors commission report). paris: unesco. vandenberghe, v. (1999). combining market and bureaucratic control in education: an answer to market and bureaucratic failure? comparative education, 35, pp. 277-8. verger, a., & altinyelken, h.k. (2013). global education reforms and the management of teachers – a critical introduction. in verger, a., altinyelken, h. and de koning, m. (eds.). (2013). global managerial reforms and teachers – emerging policies, controversies and issues in developing contexts. amsterdam: education international research institute. whitaker, a. (2016).  nicola sturgeon announces expert panel on education. holyrood, 24th may, 2016. available at https://www.holyrood.com/articles/news/nicola-sturgeon-announces-expert-panel-education (accessed 11th september, 2016) world bank. (2011). learning for all – investing in peoples knowledge and skills for development. washington, dc: world bank. authors stephen murgatroyd, ph.d, worked at the open university, athabasca university and axia netmedia as an researcher, writer, innovator, consultant and entrepreneur. he now runs a technology and consulting company, based in edmonton alberta. he is also chief innovation officer for contact north|contact nord. email: stephen.murgatroyd@shaw.ca pasi sahlberg, ph.d is a finnish educator, author and scholar. he has worked as a school teacher, teacher educator, researcher and policy advisor in finland and has studied education systems and reforms around the world. he is a former director general of cimo (centre for international mobility and cooperation) at the finland’s ministry of education and culture in helsinki, former officer of the world bank and the european training foundation and is currently at the university of helsinki, finland. email: pasi_sahlberg@gse.harvard.edu microsoft word lyonga.docx issn: 2311-1550 2022, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 317-330 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. exploring students’ self-assessment to increase learning outcomes in teachers’ training colleges in cameroon ngemunang agnes ngale lyonga higher technical teacher's training college of the university of buea, cameroon abstract: the main objective of this study is to explore students’ self-assessment to increase students’ learning outcomes in teacher training colleges in meme and fako divisions. in-depth interviews and group discussions were used as instruments for data collection. purposive sampling technique was employed in selecting the teacher training colleges used in the study and the participants. the sample size of the study constituted of 37 student-teachers for in-depth interviews and four group discussions made up of ten student-teachers each. the interviews and group discussions were analysed through content analysis, while focus group discussions were analysed following the procedure for analysing and reporting focus group results by krueger (1998). the findings revealed that self-directed learning can be used to increase students’ learning outcomes; self-designed project influences students’ learning outcomes; self-reported assessment is linked with students’ learning outcomes; and that knowledge of self is related with students’ learning outcomes. keywords: self-assessment, self-directed learning, self-designed project, self-reported assessment, knowledge of self, learning outcomes; and group discussions. introduction education in general can hardly be successful without assessment. from informal to formal education, at some point there is always a need to assess how far the objectives have been attained. more often than not, assessment is done by professionals — mainly teachers — in the formal curriculum (crawford, 2013), who measure the level at which the taught curriculum has been learnt. however, most schools have neglected self-assessment in favour of teacher-made-assessment. according to baumeister et al (2003) self-assessment is a case of assessment where learners are allowed to measure the level where they have met up with their pre-defined objectives of the learning programme. the notion of self-assessment goes with the fact that everyone increasingly has a goal for their life and with or without formal goals of the curriculum, learners have a reason why they go to school other than just scoring high grades and earning certificates of excellence. nowadays, school should make a greater contribution to the cultivation of skills rather than focus mostly on knowledge acquisition. in this context, self-assessment of students is a very important goal for schools. mcnamara and deane (1995) state that “although self-assessment may seem inappropriate at first sight and is highly neglected, it can yield accurate judgment of students’ linguistic abilities, weaknesses, strengths, and improvement”. self-assessment is a great factor towards self-efficacy, which involves the learners’ estimate of their capabilities and their likely success in a particular task. 318 students with high expectations of their capabilities will tend to persist with tasks and put in greater effort than those with low self-perceptions (deakin-crick et al, 2007). achieving the outcomes of learning is one of the major educational motivators to learners at all levels of learning. adam (2007) views learning outcomes as statements of what a learner is expected to know, understand and/or be able to demonstrate at the end of a period of learning. adam (2007) stressed that in 21st-century education, learning outcomes are concerned with the achievements of the learner rather than the intentions of the teacher (expressed in the aims of a module or course). the curriculum may require that the outcome of learning is that students obtain a certain certificate but behind the certificate individual students have different goals. the different individual goals of students can best be assessed through self-assessment. different students want to attain different levels of skills so no unified assessment method can effectively assess their attainment. contrarily, most assessment methods in education today do not focus on assessing the development abilities in the learners which best fulfil their learning outcomes. the learners most often pay attention to the tested curriculum so as to score high grades and end up with little progress in terms of individual attainment of skills. the outcomes of learning are reduced to the certificate obtained and not the actual development of transformative competencies and skills. it could be argued that this accounts for many of the unemployed graduates today. objectives of the study 1) to explore the relationship between self-directed learning and learning outcomes in teachers’ training colleges in meme and fako divisions. 2) to find the influence of a self-designed project on learning outcomes in teacher training colleges in meme and fako divisions. 3) to explore the link between self-reported assessment and learning outcomes in teacher training colleges in meme and fako divisions. 4) to explore the relationship between knowledge of self and students’ learning outcomes in meme and fako divisions. the concept of self-assessment boud (1995) argues that the way in which self-assessment is implemented is critical to its acceptance by students. to boud, the implementation process needs to include: • a clear rationale: what are the purposes of this particular activity? • explicit procedures: students need to know what is expected of them. • reassurance of a safe environment in which they can be honest about their own performance without the fear that they will expose information which can be used against them. • confidence that other students will do likewise, and that cheating or collusion will be detected and discouraged. according to andrade and du (2007), self-assessment is a process of formative assessment during which students reflect on and evaluate the quality of their work and their learning, judge the degree to which they reflect explicitly on stated goals or criteria, identify strengths and weaknesses in their 319 work, and revise accordingly. mcmillan and hearn (2008) considered self-assessment to mean that students simply check off answers on a multiple-choice test and grade themselves but it involves much more than that. self-assessment is more accurately defined as a process by which students monitor and evaluate the quality of their thinking and behaviour when learning and identify strategies that improve their understanding and skills. that is, self-assessment occurs when students judge their own work to improve their performance as they identify discrepancies between current and desired performance. harris and brown (2018) emphasise that there are two main reasons that teachers should promote selfassessment within classes. firstly, self-assessment is an integral part of self-regulated learning, and, secondly, student assessment without proper guidance and training varies considerably and may be poorly aligned with the curriculum’s external standards. student self-assessment in education includes a wide variety of mechanisms and techniques through which students describe and evaluate the quality of learning processes and its products (panadero, brown & strijbos, 2016). therefore, the various dimensions of self-assessment this study will focus on include self-directed learning assessment, self-designed project assessment, self-reported assessment and knowledge of selfassessment. self-directed learning: knowles (1975) defined self-directed learning as students getting the initiative, with or without the help of others, in diagnosing their learning needs, formulating learning goals, identifying the source, learning from someone and from learning materials, choosing and implementing appropriate learning strategies and evaluating learning outcomes. tillema (2000) stated that, to be a self-directed learner is to have the ability to identify and achieve learning goals through the effective use of learning strategies and to understand, monitor, manage, evaluate, and reflect on one's own learning. self-directed learning focuses on the process by which learners take control of their own learning, set their own learning goals to locate appropriate resources, decide on learning methods to use, and evaluate their own progress (findley, 2009). it is essential for students to be selfdirected learners in order to experience university, as well as lifelong learning, effectively (lunykchild et al, 2001). brockett and hiemstra (1991) stated that students who exhibit more self-directed learning behaviours tend to perform better academically than students who do not. project-based learning (pbl): pbl is a model that organises learning around projects. according to the definitions found in pbl handbooks for teachers, projects are complex tasks, based on challenging questions or problems that involve students in design, problem-solving, decision making, or investigative activities; give students the opportunity to work relatively autonomously over extended periods of time; and culminate in realistic products or presentations (thomas, mergendoller, & michaelson, 1999). stewart (2007) argued that, modern learning approaches increasingly have fewer structured learning activities and more self-directed learning tasks guided through consultation with academics. such tasks are predominately project/problem based, where the student is required to follow a freely guided road map to self-discovery while simultaneously achieving desired learning outcomes for a particular course. self-reported assessment (sra): sra is any test, measure, or survey that relies on the individuals’ own report of their own symptoms, behaviours, beliefs, or attitudes. according to azevedo (2015), selfreported assessment, in addition to classroom discourse, is the only proven approach that can be used for the measurement of cognitive, meta-cognitive, affective, and motivational constructs of student 320 engagement. this provides the rationale for making use of existing self-reporting instruments to interpret and triangulate findings obtained through the use of trace data. many large-scale assessments, like the national survey of student engagement, use self-reported gains to measure learning outcomes on the part of university students. the challenge is that many researchers believe that self-reported gains are not valid measures of learning outcomes. they claim that self-reported gains lack convergent validity (bowman, 2009). self-knowledge: self-knowledge may be understood as a perception every human has of themself. it is a component of personality development that indicates who we are and how we fit into the world. machargo (1991) perceives self-knowledge as a set of perceptions or reference points that subjects have about themselves; a set of characteristics, attributes, qualities and deficiencies, capacities and limits, values and relationships that individuals know to be descriptive of themselves and which they perceive as data concerning their identity. the above definition embraces issues including the set of knowledge and attitudes that we have about ourselves; the perceptions that individuals assign to themselves and characteristics or attributes that we use to describe ourselves (manning, bear & minke, 2006). self-knowledge, like any psychological construct, is relative and depends on some frame of reference. when students perceive themselves as the best in class, they tend to hold a positive selfknowledge of themselves (acosta, 2007). methods study context cameroon maintains significant control over teacher education by running national examinations for entry into initial teacher education (ite) programmes and for graduation from the programme as a qualified and certified teacher (lyonga, 2015). presently, there are state-owned teacher training colleges in all divisions in cameroon and also a few private teacher training colleges owned by the catholic, presbyterian and baptist missions (minesup, 1995, 1998; tchombe, 2001; dembele, 2003 and fonkeng, 2007). three teacher training colleges in meme and fako divisions of the south west region were purposefully selected for this study. the colleges were: government technical teacher training college (gtttc), kumba, government bilingual teacher training college (gbttc), kumba and government teacher training college (gttc), buea. due to the prevailing (on-going) socio-political crisis in the anglophone regions of cameroon, the above purposefully selected teacher training colleges were the only few operational in the study area. table 1: sampled participant per case study institution instruments ttc a ttc b ttc c total interview 16 students 15 students 6 students 37 students group discussion 2 groups 2 groups __ 4 groups key: ttc a = gtttc, kumba; ttc b = gbttc, kumba and ttc c = gttc, buea. 321 a combined total of 37 student-teachers were interviewed from the three case study institutions while two groups made up of ten student-teachers each were sampled through focus group discussion in government technical teachers’ training college (gtttc), kumba and government bilingual teachers training college (gbttc), kumba, respectively. through this sample size, critical participant characteristics were covered in order to promote representativeness of the population under study. instruments for data collection the study made use of in-depth interviews and group discussions.the interview questions were formulated along the following four themes: self-directed learning and learning outcomes; selfdesigned project and learning outcomes; self-reported project and learning outcomes; and knowledge of self and students’ learning outcomes. theme ‘a’ included questions exploring the link between self-directed learning and students’ learning outcomes. it further looked at whether self-directed learning improves learning outcomes. theme ‘b’ included questions exploring the relationship between self-designed project and students’ learning outcomes. it also focused on how self-designed projects improve students’ learning outcomes. theme ‘c’ included questions on the relationship between self-reported assessment and students’ learning outcomes. theme ‘d’ involved questions that allowed the participants to give information about knowledge of self and students’ learning outcomes. the interview guide was drafted based on the objectives of the study. thirty seven (37) semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted at ttc a (gtttc, kumba), ttc b (gbttc, kumba) and ttc c (gttc, buea). it was estimated that each interview should take approximately thirty (30) minutes. although the duration depended on the respondent’s willingness and the volume and depth of responses they wanted to provide. questions to guide the group discussions were developed by the researcher to solicit insights and data on students’ self-assessment and learning outcomes. the group discussion questions were focused on the same students’ self-assessments strategies that might improve learning outcomes. the interviews and group discussions were administered by taking them to the institutions and explaining them to the participants. each instrument was accompanied by a cover letter assuring the respondents that the information needed from them would be treated confidentially and for research purposes only. notes were taken during interviews while the group discussions were recorded. the interviews were done via the face-to-face technique and were then transcribed, and the process of content analysis (patton, 1990) was utilised to examine the data. meanwhile, the group discussions recorded were transformed to a text and were analysed following the procedure for analysing and reporting focus group results by krueger (1998). characteristics of study participants participants of this study were student-teachers from the three selected teacher-training colleges in meme and fako divisions of the south west region of cameroon, who voluntarily accepted to participate in the interview and group discussion sessions. 322 table 2: demographic characteristics of study participants demographic characteristics category frequency percentage schools gtttc, kumba 16 interviewees and two discussion groups with 10 members each (36 respondents) 46.7 gbttc, kumba 15 interviewees and two discussion groups with 10 members each (35 respondents) 45.5 gttc, buea 6 interviewees 7.7 sex male 23 29.8 female 54 70.2 age 1722 26 33.7 2328 33 42.8 2934 18 23.4 class level three 37 (interviewees) four group discussions with 10 members each entry qualification o/l (probatoire) 32 41.6 a/l(baccalaureat) 45 58.4 table 2 above shows that 37 interviewees and four group discussions with 10 members each, giving a total of 77 participants, were drawn from the sampled institutions. that is, 46.7% of the respondents came from gtttc, kumba, 45.5% of them from gbttc, kumba and 7.7% from gttc, buea; 70.2% of the respondents were female while 29.8% of them were male; 33.7% of the respondents were within the age range of 17-22 years, 42.7% of them were within the age range of 23-28 years, while 23.4% were within the age range of 29-34 years. all the student-teachers who took part in the study were final-year students, that is, level three students preparing for graduation. for entry qualification, 41.6% of the respondents used o/l (probatoire) while 58.4% of them used a/l (baccaluareat) to enter the school. findings self-directed learning and students learning outcomes to explore the relationship between self-directed learning and students’ learning outcomes in teacher training colleges in meme and fako divisions, participants were asked to explain how self-directed learning related with students’ learning outcomes and the following responses (table 3) were produced. 323 table 3: relationship between self-directed learning and students learning outcome according to respondents from gtttc, kumba, gbttc, kumba and gttc, buea relationship between self-directed learning and students’ learning outcomes responses gtttc, kumba gbttc, kumba gttc, buea through self-directed learning your learning outcome is improve efficiently and effectively ttc a = 3, 8, 9,12,13 ttc b = 8, 13, 14, 11, 4 ttc c = 2, 4 self-directed learning enhance understanding and makes the learner improve in the field of study ttc a = 5, 7, 11, ttc b = 2, 10 ttc c = 2 self-directed learning makes the learners more focus in their studies ttc a 2, 3, 4, 6 ttc b = 1, 3, 7 ttc c = 5, 6 self-directed learning makes the learner more conscious in his field of studies ttc a = 4, 10 ttc b = 5, 6 ttc c = 3 self-directed learning makes one to prepare and gain quality learning outcome ttc a = 1 ttc b = 9, 12, 13 none (0) self-directed learning leads to proper organization of your studies none (0) none (0) ttc c = 1 self-directed learning promotes the ability to do research in order to succeed in school. none (0) ttc b = 3 none (0) key: ttc a = gtttc, kumba; ttc b = gbttc, kumba and ttc c = gttc, buea. ttc a = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16 are the sixteen respondents in gtttc, kumba. ttc b = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 are the fifteen respondents in gbttc, kumba and ttc c = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 are the six respondents in gttc, buea. according to respondents from gtttc, kumba, gbttc, kumba and gttc, buea the most apparent relationships between self-directed learning and students’ learning outcomes, as in table 3 above, are: through self-directed learning your learning outcome is improved efficiently and effectively; selfdirected learning makes learners focus more on their studies; self-directed learning enhances understanding and makes learners improve in their field of study; and self-directed learning makes learners more conscious of their field of studies; self-directed learning makes one prepare and gain quality learning outcomes; and self-directed learning promotes the ability to do research in order to succeed in school. when asked through focus group discussion how self-directed learning relates to students’ learning outcomes, participants came up with a number of ways through which this was done. the major frequent categories on how self-directed learning relates to students’ learning outcomes as they emerged from the discussions were, self-directed learning (a) enhances goal achievement, (b) helps learners to set rules and regulations about their studies, (c) leads to proper organisation of studies, and (d) makes learners better plan and prepare for their studies. infrequent 324 but important categories on how self-directed learning relates to students’ learning outcomes as they emerged from the discussions were, self-directed learning: (a) helps students to manage their studies, (b) broadens students’ understanding, and (c) promotes the ability to do research. self-designed project and students learning outcomes to find out the influence of the self-designed project on students’ learning outcomes in teacher training colleges in meme and fako divisions, participants were asked to explain how the selfdesigned projects relate to students learning outcomes and the following responses (table 4) were produced. table 4: the influences of self-designed project on students learning outcomes according to respondents from gtttc, kumba, gbttc, kumba and gttc, buea the influences of self-designed project on students’ learning outcomes responses gtttc, kumba gbttc, kumba gttc, buea self-designed projects improves grade and performance in school ttc a = 2, 6, 10, 11, none (0) ttc c = 2, 3, 4, 5 self-designed projects improve skills and lead to discovering of new knowledge ttc a = 10, 6, 7 ttc b = 1, 8, 11, 13 none (0) it improves self-motivation and ownership of knowledge ttc a = 1, 3 ttc b = 4, 6, 3 none (0) self-designed projects makes the learners creative none (0) ttc b = 2, 5, 7, 9, 10, 3, 15 none (0) self-designed project makes learners to discover their talents none (0) ttc b = 14 none (0) self-designed project provokes the ability to do research in learners ttc a = 4, 5 ttc b = 12 none (0) key: ttc a = gtttc, kumba; ttc b = gbttc, kumba and ttc c = gttc, buea. ttc a = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16 are the sixteen respondents in gtttc, kumba. ttc b = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 ,14 and 15 are the fifteen respondents in gbttc, kumba and ttc c = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 are the six respondents in gttc, buea. according to respondents from gtttc, kumba, gbttc, kumba and gttc, buea the most evident influences of self-designed projects on students’ learning outcomes were, self-designed projects improve grade and performance in school; make the learners creative; improve skills and lead to the discovering of new knowledge; and improve self-motivation and ownership of knowledge. selfdesigned projects help learners to discover their talents and provoke the ability to do research in learners. participants came up with a number of ways through which the self-designed project is related to students’ learning outcomes. the major frequent categories on how self-designed projects influence students’ learning outcomes as they emerged from the discussions were, self-designed projects: (a) enhance efficiency and effectiveness; (b) increase students’ thinking capacity; (c) promote creativity in learners; and (d) improves critical thinking skills. infrequent but important categories on how self-designed projects influence students’ learning outcomes as emerged from the discussions 325 were, self-designed projects: (a) develop the ability to do research on learners; and (b) improve learners’ performance in school. self-reported assessment and students’ learning outcomes to explore the link between self-reported assessment and students’ learning outcomes in teacher training colleges in meme and fako divisions, participants were asked to explain how self-reported assessment relates to students’ learning outcomes and the following responses (table 5) were produced. table 5: the links of self-reported assessment on students learning outcome according to respondents from gtttc, kumba, gbttc, kumba and gttc, buea the link of self-reported assessment on students’ learning outcomes responses gtttc, kumba gbttc, kumba gttc, buea with self-reported assessment one can know her strength and weaknesses and also the level of understanding ttc a = 6, 12, 13, ttc b = 6 ttc c = 3 it helps the students to study more after assessing themselves ttc a = 6, 11, 16 ttc b = 14 none (0) it enhance efficiency and improve skills of learning in students ttc a = 4 ttc b = 1, 3, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 ttc c = 2 it makes us to know if the learning objectives are attained ttc a = 1, 2 ttc b = 1, 3 none (0) it helps to develop problem solving skills in learners ttc a = 7 ttc b = 5, 11, 15 none (0) self-reported assessment helps students to organise themselves none (0) none (0) ttc c = 4 key: ttc a = gtttc, kumba; ttc b = gbttc, kumba and ttc c = gttc, buea. ttc a = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16 are the sixteen respondents in gtttc, kumba. ttc b = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 are the fifteen respondents in gbttc, kumba and ttc c = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 are the six respondents in gttc, buea. according to respondents from gtttc, kumba, gbttc, kumba and gttc, buea the most obvious link to self-reported assessment on students’ learning outcomes are, self-reported assessment: enhances efficiency and improves skills of learning in students; one can know their strength and weaknesses and also their level of understanding; helps students to study more after assessing themselves; and helps to develop problem solving skills in learners. when asked through the group discussions how self-reported assessment relates to students’ learning outcomes, participants came up with a number of ways through which self-reported assessment was related to students’ learning outcomes. the major frequent categories on how self-reported assessment was linked to students’ learning outcomes as they emerged from the discussions were, self-reported assessment: (a) helps students to know their strengths and weaknesses; (b) increases problem-solving skills; (c) promotes mastery of subject matter; and (d) makes students aware their 326 lapses. infrequent but important categories on how self-reported assessment is linked to students’ learning outcomes as they emerged from the discussions were, self-reported assessment: (a) helps learners to set rules for themselves; (b) encourages research; and (c) encourages self-evaluation in order to improve skills and ability. knowledge of self and students learning outcomes to explore the relationship between knowledge of self and students’ learning outcomes in meme and fako divisions, participants were asked to explain how knowledge of self relates to students’ learning outcomes and the following responses (table 6) were generated. table 6: the relationship of knowledge of self with students learning outcome according to respondents from gtttc, kumba, gbttc, kumba and gttc, buea the relationship of knowledge of self with students’ learning outcomes responses gtttc, kumba gbttc, kumba gttc, buea knowledge of self helps students to identify their skills and develop them ttc a = 11, 12, 15 ttc b = 7, 13 ttc c = 1 knowledge of self makes students to know their strength and weaknesses ttc a = 1, 4, 6 ttc b = 1, 5, 8, 10, 12, 14, ttc c = 2, 3, 6 knowledge of self builds positive selfesteem in learners ttc a = 2, ttc b = 4, 9 none (0) it help learners to make choices in the field of studies ttc a = 5, ttc b = 6, 11 none (0) it help learners to know their competencies ttc a = 7 none (0) ttc c = 4 key: ttc a = gtttc, kumba; ttc b = gbttc, kumba and ttc c = gttc, buea. ttc a = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16 are the sixteen respondents in gtttc, kumba. ttc b = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 are the fifteen respondents in gbttc, kumba and ttc c = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 are the six respondents in gttc, buea. according to respondents from gtttc, kumba, gbttc, kumba and gttc, buea the most apparent relationship between knowledge of self and students’ learning outcomes were, knowledge of self: helping students know their strengths and weaknesses; helping students to identify their skills and develop them; building positive self-esteem in learners; helping learners to make choices in their field of studies and helping learners to know their competencies. when asked through the group discussions how knowledge of self relates to students’ learning outcomes, participants suggested a number of ways this might take place. the major frequent categories on how knowledge of self relates to students learning outcomes as they emerged from the discussions were, knowledge of self: (a) encourages learners to work harder; (b) helps learners to know their position in class and maintain it; (c) helps learners to know whether they are slow or fast learners; and (d) also helps students to make academic choices. infrequent but important categories on how knowledge of self is related with students’ learning outcome as they emerged from the discussions were, knowledge of self: (a) helping learners know what they are capable of doing; and (b) helping learners to discover their skills. 327 discussion, conclusion and recommendations the findings of this study depict that self-directed learning influences students’ learning outcomes. this relationship was illustrated through a number of ways; through self-directed learning your learning outcome is improved efficiently and effectively; self-directed learning makes learners more focused in their studies; self-directed learning enhances understanding and makes learners improve in their field of study; and self-directed learning makes learners more conscious in their field of studies; self-directed learning makes one prepare and gain quality learning outcomes; and self-directed learning promotes the ability to do research in order to succeed in school. there is convincing evidence that people who take the initiative to learn themselves tend to learn more and better than those who fail to do so. according to surry & robinson (2001), the development of basic skills such as self-directed learning is the foremost priority of experts in educational technology. the findings of this objective portray that a self-designed project influences students’ learning outcomes. this influence is seen through the following ways — self-designed projects: improve grade and performance in school; make learners creative; improve skills, lead to discovering new knowledge; and improve self-motivation and ownership of knowledge. a self-designed project helps learners to: discover their talents; provokes ability to do research in learners; and increases students’ thinking capacity. this result is in accordance with stewart (2007) who argued that modern learning approaches increasingly have fewer structured learning activities and more self-directed learning tasks guided through consultation with academics. such tasks are predominately project/problem based, where the student is required to follow a freely guided road map to self-discovery while simultaneously achieving the desired learning outcomes for a particular course. project-based learning (pbl) is a model that organises learning around projects. projects are complex tasks, based on challenging questions or problems that involve students in design, problem-solving, decision making, or investigative activities, give students the opportunity to work relatively autonomously over extended periods of time and culminate in realistic products or presentations (thomas, mergendoller, & michaelson, 1999). during our explorations our findings indicated that self-reported assessment is linked with students’ learning outcomes. the link between self-reported assessment and students’ learning outcomes is explained in a number of ways: it enhances efficiency and improves skills of learning in students; it allows one to know one’s strength and weaknesses and also one’s level of understanding; it helps students to study more after assessing themselves; and it helps to develop problem-solving skills in learners. self-reported assessment helps students to know if the learning objectives were attained and helps them to be organised. these findings are in agreement with boud (1995) who emphasised that self-assessment, with its emphasis on student responsibility and making judgments, is a necessary skill for lifelong learning. engaging students in the formulation of criteria for self-assessment tasks helps them to deepen their understanding of what constitutes quality outcomes in a specified area. our findings also indicate that knowledge of self is related with students’ learning outcomes. this relationship is demonstrated through the following ways — knowledge of self: helps students to know their strengths and weaknesses; helps students to identify their skills and develop them; builds positive self-esteem in learners; helps learners to make choices in their field of studies; helps learners to know their competencies; and helps learners to know their position in class and maintain it. 328 these findings are in congruence with crawford (2013) who found that students’ self-knowledge influences their academic performance. to become effective learners, young people need to develop a strong sense of self-worth and confidence in their abilities. they need to learn to take responsibility for their own learning and performance and demonstrate persistence and resilience in the face of obstacles or setbacks. with regard to academic self-knowledge, manning et al (2006) posit that it has two levels which relate to how well we do in school or how well we learn. while the first level deals with the general academic self-knowledge of how good one is in all subjects, the other has to do with a set of specific content related to self-knowledge that describes how good one is in mathematics, science, social studies and the english language. self-knowledge like any psychological construct is relative and depends on some frame of reference. nowadays, school should make a greater contribution to the cultivation of skills rather than focus only on knowledge so that learners can make progress and improve. in this context, the selfassessment of students is a very important goal for school (papanthymou & darra, 2019). there is need for a progressive assessment of the learning process to determine the extent to which instructional objectives are being attained. this is contingent on the different assessment strategies selected by educators for this purpose that can enhance the achievement of the goals of education. self-assessment techniques will allow the learners to assess and conclude by themselves that they are either achieving much or less according to the expected outcomes they had for themselves. based on the findings of the study, the following recommendations were envisaged. the ministry of secondary education (in-charge of teachers’ training colleges in cameroon) should provide adequate educational technologies that will enable learners to study on their own. this should be done by providing multi-media centres and well equipped libraries that will enable learners to self-direct their learning, design projects on their own and do self-assessments. principals of teacher training colleges should give priority to the provision of basic resources such as teaching staff and libraries, as well as science and computer laboratories. the availability of these resources in school will enable learners to cultivate the habit of working on their own and assessing the progress of their studies. strategies should also be designed to encourage learners to direct their own learning, design projects and do self-assessment. this could be achieved through take-home assignments and exercises given in class. the competence-based approach of teaching, which places the learner at the centre of the teachinglearning process, should be rigorously encouraged. references acosta, e. s. (2007). the relationship between school climate academic self-concept and academic achievement. humanities and social sciences, 62(5), 17-27. adam, s. (2007). learning outcomes current developments in europe: update on the issues and applications of learning outcomes associated with the bologna process. citeseer. andrade, h., & du, y. (2007). student responses to criteria-referenced self-assessment. assessment and evaluation in higher education, 32(2), 159-181. azevedo, r. (2015). defining and measuring engagement and learning in science: conceptual, theoretical, methodological, and analytical issues. educational psychologist, 50(1), 84-94. 329 baumeister, r., campbell, j. d., krueger, j., & vohs, k. (2003). does high self-esteem cause better performance, interpersonal success, happiness, or healthier lifestyles? psychological science in the public interest, 4(1), 1-44. boud, d. (1995). enhancing learning through self-assessment. kogan page. bowman, n. a. (2009). assessing learning and development among diverse college students. new directions for instructional research, 145(1), 53-71. brockett, r. g., & hiemstra, r. (1991). self-direction in adult learning: perspectives on theory, research, and practice. routledge. crawford, w. r. (2013). the relationship of self-concept and academic achievement. [unpublished master’s thesis, glass bobo states college, nigeria]. dembele, m. (2003). pedagogical renewal and teacher development in sub-saharan africa. a thematic synthesis paper presented during adea biennial meeting in grand baie. mauritius, december 3-6, mauritius, adea. deakin-crick, r., huang, s., ahmed s., a., & goldspink, c. (2015). developing resilient agency in learning: the internal structure of learning power. british journal of educational studies, 63(2), 121-160. findley, b. w. (2009). the relationship of self-directed learning readiness to knowledge-based and performance-based measures of success in third-year medical students. atlantic university. harris, l. r., & brown, g. t. (2018). using self-assessment to improve student learning. routledge. knowles, m. s. (1975). self-directed learning. the adult education comp. lunyk-child, o. i., crooks, d., ellis, p. j., ofosu, c., o'mara, l., & rideout, e. (2001). self-directed learning: faculty and student perceptions. the journal of nursing education, 40(3), 116. lyonga, n. a. (2020). assessment and the attainment of students’ learning outcomes in teacher training colleges in fako and meme divisions, cameroon. european journal of education studies. https://oapub.org/edu/index.php/ejes/article/view/3007 lyonga, n. a. (2015). student teachers’ attitudes and perceptions towards assessment during an initial teacher’s education programme in cameroon. journal of educational and social research, 5(1), 11-15. machargo, j. (1991). the teacher and self-concept in his or her students: theory and practice. escuela español. manning, m. a., bear, g. g., & minke, k. m. (2006). self-concept and self-esteem. in g. g. bear & k. m. minke (eds.), children's needs iii: development, prevention, and intervention. national association of school psychologists. mcmillan, j. h., & hearn, j. (2008). student self-assessment: the key to stronger student motivation and higher achievement. educational horizons, 87(1), 40-49. mcnamara, m., j., & deane, d. (1995). self-assessment activities: toward language autonomy in language learning. teaching english to speakers of other languages (tesol) journal, 5(1), 17-21. minesup (1998). law no. 98/004 of april 14 1998 to lay down guidelines for education in cameroon. ministry of national education, cameroon. minesup (1995). national forum on education: final report. ministry of national education, cameroon. panadero, e., brown, g. t., & strijbos, j. w. (2016). the future of student self-assessment: a review of known unknowns and potential directions. educational psychology review, 28(4), 803-830. papanthymou, a., & darra, a. (2019). student self-assessment in primary and secondary education in greece and internationally. world journal of education research, 6(1), 50-75. 330 stewart, r. a. (2007). investigating the link between self directed learning readiness and project based learning outcomes: the case of international masters students in an engineering management course. european journal of engineering education, 1-21. surry, d. w., & robinson, m. a. (2001). a taxonomy of instructional technology service positions in higher education. innovations in education and teaching international, 38(3), 231-238. thomas, j. w., mergendoller, j. r., & michaelson, a. (1999). project-based learning: a handbook for middle and high school teachers. the buck institute for education. tillema, h. h. (2000). belief change towards self-directed learning in student teachers: immersion in practice or reflection on action. teaching and teacher education, 16(5), 575-591. author: ngemunang agnes ngale lyonga is associate professor of educational administration and planning. currently she is the head of division of programs at the postgraduate school of university of buea, cameroon. she has been director of studies at the higher teachers’ technical college (htttc) of the university of buea and the pioneer head of department of the department of science of education at the same college, htttcub, cameroon. email: agie.lyonga@gmail.com cite this paper as: lyonga, n. a. n. (2022). exploring students’ self-assessment to increase learning outcomes in teachers’ training colleges in cameroon. journal of learning for development, 9(1), 317-330. microsoft word thurab-nkhosi.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 133-147 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. implementing a blended/online learning policy on a face-to-face campus: perspectives of administrators and implications for change dianne thurab-nkhosi faculty development specialist, centre for excellence in teaching and learning (cetl), the university of the west indies, st augustine abstract: many universities are currently exploring the factors that impact implementation of blended learning policies and institutions. in the caribbean this is particularly important as financial support by governments in the region has dwindled in the context of a global recession, and universities are seeking ways to reduce costs and increase access. the vision for blended learning on one campus of a multicampus, higher education institution in the caribbean, was to enhance teaching and learning by offering students and staff greater flexibility, more opportunities for engagement and wider choices consistent with varying teaching and learning styles and needs. as this multi-campus university moves toward a reengineered online policy and greater collaboration among the campuses, some administrators have expressed the view that they have been left out of the implementation strategies and are not clear on the status of the blended learning policy on their campus, nor their roles and responsibilities. this is a qualitative case study, focusing on the stage of blended learning implementation and the perceptions of deans and administrative officers at a specific higher education institution. the methods used were review of the use of the learning management system, and interviews conducted with deans and administrative officers. thick descriptions of perceptions of administrators are provided. the implications of their perceptions for implementation are discussed and recommendations to close gaps where they exist are made. findings confirm that change management strategies are required, such as establishing a sense of urgency, forming a powerful guiding coalition and creating a vision. administrators need to provide clear direction on who should lead the initiative and senior management has a role in ensuring there is additional team support to increase programme development. findings also indicate that while blended learning has the potential to reduce costs to higher education institutions, initial investments in software, hardware, appropriate staff and training require additional financial investments. administrators have a role to play in sourcing funds for the implementation of blended learning and also in performing audits, which can help in providing information on the existing technical skills, hardware and software available on the campus and how they are being used. keywords: blended learning implementation, online learning, change management for administrators introduction blended learning has been a point of focus for administrators and faculty at traditional, or brick and mortar, universities for some time. academic journals are replete with articles that seek to define blended learning, and that interrogate the capacity of blended learning to enhance teaching and learning, and to reduce operating costs for tertiary institutions. researchers such as twigg (2003) and benson and anderson (2010) hold the view that universities have not begun to realise the power of information communication technologies (icts) in higher education and that the right blended 134 learning model can improve teaching and learning and reduce costs. in this regard, many universities are exploring the implementation of blended learning models and institutions in the caribbean are no exception. as financial support by governments in the region has continued to dwindle in the context of a global recession, universities have been seeking ways to reduce costs and increase access. the university of the west indies, a regional tertiary level institution in the caribbean with four campuses catering to 17 countries, has been engaged in open and distance learning for more than three decades. moreover, one of the strategies identified in the university of the west indies’s (uwis) strategic plan 2007-2012 was to “promote the use of icts to enhance teaching” (uwi n.d., p 14). more recently, the uwis 2017-2022 strategic plan has placed emphasis on the potential of open and distance learning, including online and blended learning via the goal of increased access to uwi programmes, which is identified as part of the university’s “triple a” strategy of access, alignment and agility. (the university office of planning, 2017). notwithstanding this, while the institution boasts three traditional, brick and mortar campuses, namely, the st. augustine campus in trinidad and tobago; mona in jamaica; and cave hill campus in barbados; and one virtual campus, the open campus, the implementation of blended learning has faced varying challenges on each of the traditional, face-toface campuses, and has not met the level of success anticipated by the university. with the birth of the uwi open campus in 2007, movement away from the faculty-driven model to one driven by adjunct staff, impacted the nature of the relationship between the open campus and the traditional campuses. in may 2008, the university’s finance and general purposes committee approved a policy for online, distance and multimode learning intended “to facilitate a coordinated, university-wide approach to the expansion of on-line and distance education and the access of all uwi students to the opportunity to learn via multiple learning modalities.” https://bit.ly/2kfxaji although the 2008 policy was intended to encourage coordination and collaboration, the traditional campuses continued to independently work towards the development of blended programmes. the uwi pro-vice chancellors have been discussing a re-engineered online policy and greater collaboration among the four campuses. as the uwi moves toward greater collaboration and more focus on multimode programmes, which the uwi considers blended programmes, administrators at the levels of deans, heads of departments and senior administrative officers on the st augustine campus, have expressed the view informally, at various campus level meetings, that they have been left out of the implementation strategies. they felt they were not part of the decision-making process for the move towards blended learning and they are not clear on their roles and responsibilities. it is also noteworthy that while the blended learning initiative was supported by the campus principal at st augustine, reports from the blended learning team at the centre for excellence in teaching and learning (cetl) indicate that there was only moderate awareness and adoption. (zephyrine, 2015; thurab-nkhosi& zephyrine, 2017) the purpose of this study is to better understand the issues related to implementation of a blended learning policy at the uwi’s st augustine campus (uwista) and by extension the wider university. usually in blended learning policy implementation, the focus is on implementation by teaching staff. from a change management perspective, however, it is critical to understand the perspectives of administrators, who have a responsibility for advocacy, resource management and effectiveness of policy implementation. this study has delimited “administrators” to deans and administrative officers in the faculties and the university of the west indies st augustine (uwista) is the focus of 135 this study, since this was the first traditional campus to approve a blended learning policy (ab p. 27 extract minutes of a meeting of academic board held on thursday 19th january 2012 at 13.00 hours in the conference room, new student administration building 2012). the author was also involved in the process as a member of the blended learning team of the cetl. background blended learning at uwista the uwi’s teaching and learning environment is being transformed, as there is increasing demand for programmes and courses, complicated by a lack of resources regionally. along with the increasing demand for higher education, there is more aggressive competition from universities outside the region, students are becoming more discerning in their higher education choices and the university has become more aware of the need to focus on quality assurance. the university has recognized the potential of information and communication technologies (icts) to meet the needs for programme expansion, and to enhance teaching and learning. in this regard in 2007 the uwi arrived at a consensus on a policy for online, distance and multi-mode education (the university of the west indies, 2007). between 2005 and 2011, enthusiastic and innovative members of teaching staff at uwista engaged in several blended learning projects and online courses, which for the most part were not initiated, coordinated or monitored by the campus. (edwards-henry, thurab-nkhosi & wood jackson, 2005). efforts to provide a framework for the implementation of blended learning activities, in keeping with the university’s strategic plan 2007-2012 to “promote the use of icts to enhance teaching” (uwi n.d., p 14), resulted in a blended learning policy being drafted by a small committee, comprising representatives of the centre for excellence in teaching and learning (cetl), faculties, the library and the bursary, on the st augustine campus. the uwista’s academic board, approved the blended learning policy in 2012 and an action plan was developed by the blended learning committee, chaired by the campus principal. this action plan along with the policy framework, was termed the blended learning initiative. the blended learning team of the centre for excellence in teaching and learning (cetl) comprising a faculty development specialist and an elearning support specialist had a lead role in the implementation of the blended learning policy of the st. augustine campus. the main goal of the initiative in the 2012 action plan was that by september 2015, each faculty must offer at least one blended programme, in keeping with the definition of blended learning provided in the policy. a review of the achievements of the initiative in 2015 revealed that three out of the seven faculties did not develop blended programmes within the implementation time frame. the blended learning context at st augustine, therefore, was one in which there were pockets of responses to the blended learning initiative and some level of compliance with the policy, however, there was still room for improvement. the blended learning support specialist at the centre for excellence in teaching and learning, in the uwi bl needs and impact assessment report 2016: assessment of faculty training initiatives in teaching and learning, found that some staff and students were averse to changing traditional ways of teaching and learning; they did not feel confident in the use of web-based tools or icts, and they saw the change as an add-on to their already overwhelming workload (zephyrine, 2016). this resulted in resistance to change for use of technology. one of the conclusions of the report was that ensuring a shared philosophy and buy-in by staff and students would help in avoiding resistance and an appropriate change management 136 strategy was needed. while zephyrine’s report highlighted the perceptions of teaching staff and served to validate challenges highlighted in the existing literature, to date there has been no exploration of the perceptions of administrators, and in particular with regard to the conclusion related to change management. administrators in this higher education context refer to persons “engaged in leading and administering activities, programmes, human, physical or financial resources, student services, academic or infrastructural support services within the university” (the association of higher education administrators, 2016, http://www.acheacaribbean.org/membership). they are, therefore, key in driving policy implementation through advocacy, resource allocation, monitoring and sustaining. for the purposes of this study this group has been delimited to those directly involved in implementation of the blended learning policy at the level of the faculties, namely, deans, and administrative officers and/or administrative assistants in the faculties. deans are specifically responsible for providing academic leadership, advocacy, financial management and representation on campus and university boards and committees. administrative officers work with the deans to operationalize policy. while they are not responsible for academic leadership, they have a role in communicating policy to all levels of staff, financial management, representation on campus committees as required, and advocacy. literature review writers such as bates (2017), poon (2013), and twigg (2003), to name a few, provide definitions of blended learning that range from a combination of learning experiences that integrate some use of educational technology, to approaches that focus on a specific percentage combination of online instruction and face-to-face experiences. the st augustine campus of the uwi has documented its own definition of blended learning as: … an integrated and planned approach to teaching and learning that appropriately combines face-toface and online strategies and technologies to advance student-centered learning. (blended learning committee, july 2011 p. 1). this definition specifically emphasizes the role of online strategies and technologies to advance teaching and learning to remove the focus from using technology to cater to increasing numbers. blended learning on the st augustine campus therefore pays attention to access as well as alignment with teaching and learning goals and agility in responding to needs of society, as reflected in the triple a strategy of the current strategic plan. with regard to implementation of blended learning, researchers such as duarte (2016) and graham et al (2013) are of the view that implementation strategies require clear institutional direction and policy, since this ultimately provides the framework within which teaching staff must operate. several factors have been identified in the literature as influencing or impacting the adoption and implementation of blended learning. graham et. al (2013) identify pedagogical and technological support, advocacy, definitions, and incentives. other factors identified are strong advocacy by administrators, faculty and other institutional personnel (porter, 2014). with regard to structure and governance issues, porter (2014) points out that institutions seeking to implement blended learning must provide the core technological infrastructure required including appropriate learning management systems, web conferencing systems, if required, and sufficient bandwidth to enable the increased online activity that accompanies blended learning coursework. 137 there are also considerations of governance, i.e., who will be responsible for monitoring the implementation and assuring quality, as well as pedagogical issues. although recognition of the critical factors that impact blended learning and planning to address these factors are key to success, it is also important for institutions to be cognizant of the need for change management strategies. more importantly, organisations need to be clear on the type of change being sought and the related requirements. uwista is seeking transformational change, which crew & crew (2018) describe as “a change that is deep in that it has the capacity to profoundly alter one or more of the hep’s mission, values, culture, and ingrained practices” (p. 2). this transformational change already has the support at the level of campus principal and the university council through the approval of the most recent strategic plan. while administrators at the highest level are supporting the vision, for change to take place there must be administrators who can ensure implementation (boone, 2015). with regard to blended learning policy implementation, therefore, institutions should consider what factors can result in change that is deep. since administrators on the campus, in particular deans and administrative officers in the faculties, play a major role in driving policy implementation “on the ground”, through advocacy, resource allocation, monitoring and sustaining, it is critical to solicit their views and support. these are the individuals who operate between the teaching staff and students, key stakeholders in the implementation and their role in providing input and feedback, clarifying, supporting, monitoring and sustaining any policies impacting these stakeholders is critical. graham, woodfield and harrison, (2013) looked at six us institutions of higher education at various stages of blended learning adoption. porter (2014), building on the work of graham et al in her study, provides a lucid description of the framework as follows: • stage 1, awareness/exploration, is characterized by no institutional strategy regarding blended learning, but an institutional awareness of and limited support for individual faculty exploring ways in which they may employ blended learning techniques in their classes. • stage 2, adoption/early implementation, is characterized by institutional adoption of blended learning strategy and experimentation with new policies and practices to support its implementation. • stage 3, mature implementation/growth, is characterized by well-established blended learning strategies, structure, and support that are integral to university operations “. (p. 14). based on this framework, porter summarized three broad implementation categories, namely, strategy, structure and support. strategy encompasses sub-themes, such as definition adopted, forms of advocacy, and policy. structure and support address issues related to governance models, technical, pedagogical and administrative issues. the uwi st augustine has a blended learning policy with an action plan but it is not clear the extent to which the associated practices are well established. this suggests the st augustine campus is currently in stage 2 of its blended learning implementation, i.e., adoption/early implementation, and, thus, it is important to determine what is required to move to stage 3, mature implementation and growth. conclusions in the uwi blended learning needs and impact assessment report 2016: assessment of faculty training initiatives in teaching and learning highlight change management as key for 138 implementation and growth. kotter’s 8-step change model (1996, p. 99), which proposes i) establishing a sense of urgency; ii) forming a powerful guiding coalition, iii) creating a vision; iv) communicating the vision; v) empowering others to act on the vision; vi) planning for and creating short-term wins; vii) consolidating improvements and producing still more change; and viii) institutionalizing new approaches. the higher education context in the region is complex. crew & crew (2018) suggest that institutions may need to build change capability by fostering a culture that embraces change and which can create a more flexible, responsive organizational mind-set. research purpose it is apparent that blended learning has not been presented to the university community at the uwista with a sufficient sense of urgency. the uwista has attempted to stretch existing resources to meet the needs of a changing environment. thus, as noted by zephyrine (2016), few lecturers are even aware of a blended learning policy, thus suggesting that the vision was not sufficiently communicated but, not being able to ascertain where the communication gaps lie, many feel that it is a burden or add-on to their already heavy workload. the establishment of a sense of urgency and clear communication of institutional vision requires the support of administrators such as deans who can act as advocators, communicators and leaders to drive the sense of urgency for implementation. the role of the administrators also extend to working with teaching staff to remove the barriers they have identified at the institutional level, with regard to infrastructural, workload, and pedagogical issues impacted by professional development. there is also a key role in ensuring that implementation is monitored and supported. drawing on the work of graham et al (2013) and kotter (1996), this study sought to answer the following questions: 1) what is the stage of development of the blended learning initiative on the st augustine campus? 2) what is the perception of administrative staff (deans and administrative officers) on their role in the implementation of a blended learning approach on the st augustine campus? 3) what are the implications of the perceptions of deans and administrative officers for change management and ultimately moving blended learning to stage 3 of mature implementation? methodology the study was a qualitative one, focusing on the stage of blended learning implementation and the perceptions of deans and administrative officers. the methods adopted were: 1) review of the use of the learning management system, which is the virtual classroom that allowed making resources, online communication and collaborative and other online activities for engaging students and lecturers. the learning management system in use at uwista is moodle, which has been branded myelearning at uwista. the review was done by obtaining reports generated from the moodle software by campus information and technology services (cits). this allowed for identification of the number of courses in moodle that were actively used by lecturers and students per year; and 139 2) interviews conducted with deans and administrative officers representing the faculties of humanities and education, law, medical sciences, science and technology, social sciences, engineering and food and agriculture. a total of 11 interviews were conducted. these interviews were guided by an interview protocol based on the framework proposed by graham et al (2013) and sought feedback on areas identified as factors impacting the implementation of blended learning, namely strategy, structure and support (see appendix 1). analysis of interview data interviews were recorded, and transcribed. line-by-line analysis of the transcripts was done and themes and patterns were identified regarding the various issues. three main themes, namely strategy, structure and support, drawn from the framework developed by graham et al (2013) were used and several subthemes were generated based on these themes indicated in table 1: table 1: themes and sub-themes based on interviews with administrators theme sub-themes strategy awareness, definition and advocacy; structure governance, infrastructure support pedagogical, technical findings and discussion status of blended learning on the st augustine campus there has been an increase in the overall use of moodle since the implementation of the blended learning initiative in 2012. as indicated in table 2, there was an increase in the percentage of courses with content and activities in myelearning from 25% in the 2011/2012 academic year to 34% in the 2016/17 academic year. lecturers were encouraged to use the learning management system (myelearning) to provide resources for their students, such as course outlines and readings at uwista, as part of the initiative. this included encouraging lecturers to use resources to supplement face-to-face classes (the supplementary model as opposed to the replacement model). 140 table 2: percentage of courses in myelearning with content and activities (2011-2017) acad. year total myel courses courses without content and activities courses with content and activities percentage of courses with content and activities 2016/2017** 4131** 2732** 1399** 34% 2015/2016 5078 3500 1578 31% 2014/2015 5032 3576 1456 29% 2013/2014 4680 3306 1374 29% 2012/2013 4652 3390 1262 27% 2011/2012 4303 3210 1093 25% ** figures to date 8-feb-2017 (moodle 3) what the administrators say/perceive awareness only one respondent, an administrative officer, indicated a complete lack of awareness about the blended learning initiative on the st augustine campus. however, while there was some level of awareness among the other respondents, there was a distinct vagueness about the details among all administrators. one respondent indicated that he was aware but was focused on other priorities so he did not give it much attention. another respondent felt that there was currently no interest at all. in most instances there was a perception that the initiative did not directly impact members of the administrative staff but was rather the concern of teaching staff. there was no recognition by administrative staff that they had a key role to play in creating a sense of urgency, communicating a vision or removing barriers. this was never communicated to them through the usual channels for such information, namely meetings of the academic board in the case of deans and faculty board meetings in the case of administrative officers: my understanding is that bl is really an academic exercise, so was i supposed to have been directly informed? or was this communicated to deans/hods so that they can disseminate accordingly? perhaps that could be one reason that i was unaware of this formal initiative. (respondent 03) the whole discussion of blended learning is dead in the faculty. it is a dead topic. people were interested but i am no longer hearing anything about it. i am not seeing new things coming out. here they are doing it in pockets based on their own efforts. there is no coordinated efforts. (respondent 08) there is a perception by most respondents that the blended learning initiative was not sufficiently communicated. one dean expressed the view it was sufficiently communicated but that his priority was not blended learning at the time and so it was not given full attention. 141 three deans felt that there was need for some level of mandatory involvement for faculties and the need for the campus to provide more incentives or awareness about the benefits for staff to get their involvement. we have to get heads to make sure it happens …unless a mandate comes with time lines it does not happen. would be up to the heads to push it. (respondent 05) blended learning should be a mandate of the university. it is not happening. (respondent 05) definition the persons interviewed all defined blended learning as a mix of online learning and face-to-face learning. none were aware that the st augustine campus had a definition of blended learning that was part of a campus policy. most in fact associated or equated blended learning with myelearning (st augustine campus’s branding for moodle). this could be due to a lack of strategic marketing and communication of the blended learning initiative and a dependence on information on the policy and strategies being communicated through academic board meetings and faculty board meetings. i imagine there is a definition but i don’t know what it is. we use myelearning but i imagine it is more than that. (respondent 09) advocacy only one dean admitted actively advocating for blended learning. this respondent admitted having prior experience and training in open and distance learning and stated that this experience provided inspiration and motivation. other deans and administrative officers admitted they had not actively advocated for blended learning, with one dean emphasizing the need for more involvement by senior members of the wider university community, rather than the campus only: … (the drive) has to come from centre...people who are championing the initiative and even if it is coming from here we need centre involved. you are dealing regionally... (respondent 02) access there is general agreement that blended learning can widen access and enrich the student experience but there are reservations: absolutely … it can widen access … but getting to that point it hinges on a lot of things … you have to be given time off to convert your course into a blended course. will the university allow us to do that? why should i spend time doing that? (respondent 08) again, the simple answer here could be ‘yes’, indeed it can. but access for whom/for what? is this access with respect to enrolment (i.e. as an incentive for persons applying to come into uwi and this could be part of marketing that applicants may not have to come to campus say e.g. each week); or access in terms of ‘class time’ (i.e., online activities for current students to engage in)? (respondent 03) 142 structure governance (responsibility for implementation) most of the respondents felt that the centre for excellence in teaching and learning (cetl) should have some role but two deans felt that the responsibility lay squarely with the deans or deputy deans to drive implementation at the faculty level: i don’t think the initiative is being driven now. cetl was driving but i have not been hearing anything. cetl should be the ones driving it...giving the rationale for it. cetl would be able to explain it. (respondent 08) i will be champion for that process… what you need is a person to report to me and i would give instruction as to what would happen. let’s say we take a phased approach. we take 1 programme and that individual will work with the distance people to take it through. i am not sure how the payment part operates and work through coming up with the modules. we may have to determine some of the modules. (respondent 06) others felt that the school of education or deputy principal should have responsibility or some role. the original intent of the blended learning initiative envisaged the centre for excellence in teaching and learning as leading the initiative but with the support of the deans. this, perhaps, was not communicated explicitly enough to administrators. there was general agreement that the administrative role was one of advocacy and support for students and staff. there was a responsibility to share information and to make persons in the faculty more aware. this required information trickling down or up as the case may be. my role as with all other policies to ensure they are disseminated support ad hoc committees, routing of information with bl though...in particular because it is a student policy i feel i must keep my ears to the ground with the students. (respondent 01) to ensure that it works. to educate our students and let them know this is where the university is going. to be involved in a test period to show it can really work…to make sure that when it is in the environment the administrative part would be to make sure we have support e.g. technicians can fix immediately. i have a student support role for students (respondent 07) well actually i do not see it as my role to get involved it is to share the information we have in terms of policy and if there is any information to make available... (respondent 02) support pedagogical there was a general feeling that there was buy-in by some members of the teaching staff, however, it was recognized that there was a need to provide more awareness on the benefits of blended learning for staff. there was also a need for more incentives. this was recognized by cetl early on and the department has been advocating for a policy to have a blended course considered as a peer-reviewed academic paper, for assessment and promotion, which has not yet been approved. three deans were aware of this policy. 143 we need to value teaching and then see the importance of buying into a blended class. if they think it can help them. teaching is valued for a& p. 2. the benefit of having a blended class. right now it is just yet another burden… (respondent 08) i got no resistance from lecturers … (respondent 02) technological generally, the feeling was that there is not enough technical support for faculties. this was unanimous and is supported by the cetl. conclusion and recommendations the interviews with administrators, and review of courses in myelearning confirm several issues both internal to cetl, and to the wider uwi context, which militate against the successful implementation of blended/online learning on the campus. these issues were identified in the report, blended learning at the uwi st augustine (2012-2016) prepared by the cetl blended learning team (2017). here, i will highlight the issues relevant to the role of administrators and to support change. it is apparent, however, that while the literature points to the key role of administrative staff in implementation of blended learning, this was not sufficiently communicated at uwista. the responsibility for communication of the blended learning policy and its accompanying strategies fall within several areas. from an academic perspective, the cetl has a role in ensuring the big picture is disseminated. deans have a key role to play in filtering information down to heads of departments and administrative officers. administrative officers have a responsibility for sharing information impacting resources and student support issues. role of the administrators strategy – providing clear direction, ensuring a shared philosophy, alignment with regard to findings related to strategy, the st augustine campus developed a policy, with accompanying strategies, and a definition of blended learning, however, this was not clearly communicated to all deans and administrative officers, nor has their specific roles in implementing the policy been clarified. porter (2014) notes that all stakeholders’ objectives should be identified and addressed. ensuring a shared philosophy and buy-in by all categories of staff and students will help in avoiding a lack of awareness as well as in facilitating the development of an appropriate change management strategy. this speaks directly to steps 1, 2 and 3 of kotter’s (1995) change management strategy, namely, establishing a sense of urgency, forming a powerful guiding coalition and creating a vision. deans in particular have suggested a mandate for action from the campus principal, representing senior management. this suggests, perhaps, the need for clearer directives or guidance from the principal and deputy principal with regard to expectations aligned with goals. this aligns with kotter’s suggested step of developing a sense of urgency. to avoid resistance, however, a model that involves on-going engagement from all levels is suggested as a transformational approach. this would be in keeping with efforts to foster a culture that embraces change and which can lead to a more flexible organizational mind-set. 144 structure administrators as champions, advocating for blended learning, sharing information with regard to structure it is clear that deans and administrative officers perceive their roles as advocating for blended learning, sharing information, and ensuring that the faculties are ready and able to implement blended learning, albeit with differing areas of focus. in the case of the deans, academic leadership and operational strategy and in the case of administrative officers, more focus on operational strategies. there is a lack of clarity with regard to institutional responsibility for blended learning. administrators see a role for the centre for excellence in teaching and learning. the centre for excellence in teaching and learning has a responsibility based on the initial blended learning initiative, but this is not clearly understood by all. there is definitely a need to provide clear direction on who will lead the initiative and how deans and administrative officers within the faculties are expected to work with the relevant champions or leaders. this relates to kotter’s suggestions for forming a powerful coalition and empowering others to act. support resource mobilization, skills and equipment auditing, encouraging teaching staff and students implementing a blended learning strategy requires the necessary technical support for all categories of staff and students. this means not only the availability of hardware and software but also their ease of use, the maintenance of these and on-going guidance in their use, troubleshooting and maintenance (zephyrine, 2016). while blended learning has the potential to reduce costs to higher education institutions, initial investments in software, hardware, appropriate staff and training require financial resources. financial support will be required and as such deans have a role to play in sourcing funds for implementation of blended learning and also in performing audits, which can help in providing information on existing technical skills, hardware and software available on the campus and how they are being used. knowledge of existing skills and technology could result in cost savings. deans and heads of departments have a key role in encouraging staff. at the st augustine campus for example, teaching staff who graduate with the certificate in university teaching and learning (cutl), a mandatory professional development programme for all newly appointed teaching staff intended to enhance the quality of teaching, could be supported as blended learning leaders. from the faculty level, each cutl graduate could be supported to actually implement courses, which he/she convert to blended courses as part of the cutl assessment process. the current faculty driven model at st augustine requires additional support and encouragement for academic staff. the ratio of course development teams to programme development at the university of the south pacific, for example, is one team of at least three persons, to five programmes per year, working full time on course development. currently cetl has one team of two persons, partially assigned to course development for the entire campus, where the expectation was at least one programme to be completed for each of seven faculties. the uwi open campus currently has departments, which are dedicated to the design, development and delivery of programmes and courses. greater collaboration between the open campus and the traditional campus would allow for access to required resources. in an effort to intensify the blended programme, campus principal, deputy principal, campus registrar and campus bursar have a role, as the senior management team, 145 in ensuring there is additional support to increase programme development, and consideration should be given to how the re-engineered online policy of the university can support this. this study examined perceptions of administrators at the level of deans and administrative officers of the blended learning initiative at the st augustine campus of the university of the west indies, a multi-campus university in the caribbean. views expressed by the administrators interviewed suggest that there is more need for greater recognition of and clarification of their role in blended learning information. more specifically in alignment with change management strategies, they have a key role in advocacy, information sharing and developing, monitoring and sustaining systems for greater awareness, more alignment with goals and more incentives for adoption. references ab p. 27 extract minutes of a meeting of academic board held on thursday 19th january 2012 at 13.00 hours in the conference room, new student administration building 2012. bates, t. (2017, june 10). online learning and distance education resources. https://www.tonybates.ca/tag/blendedlearning/ benson, v., & anderson, d. (2010). colloquium: towards a strategic approach to the introduction of blended learning: challenges faced and lessons learned. british journal of educational technology, 41(6), e129-e131. blended learning committee (2011). blended learning policy of the st. augustine campus. uwi st augustine. boone, j. (2015). leading learning organizations through transformational change: making the case for blended learning. international journal of educational management, 29(3) pp. 275-283, doi: 10.1108/ijem-062013-0096. permanent link to this document: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/ijem-06-2013-0096 cetl blended learning team (2017). blended learning at the uwi st augustine (2012-2016). crew, s., & crew, v. (2018). models of change in higher education. in shin, j.c & p. teixeira (eds.). encyclopedia of international higher education systems and institutions. dordretcht: springer science and business. duarte, a. (2016). blended learning: institutional frameworks for adoption and implementation. university of the incarnate word, proquest dissertations publishing, 2016. 10241315. edwards-henry, a., thurab-nkhosi, d., & wood-jackson, a. (2005). quality assurance in online learning at the university of the west indies: a baseline survey of online courses. fourth pan commonwealth forum on open learning. retrieved november 30, 2017 from http://pcf4.dec.uwi.edu/viewpaper.php?id=160 graham, c. r., woodfield, w., & harrison, j. b. (2013). a framework for institutional adoption and implementation of blended learning in higher education. the internet and higher education, 18, 4-14. doi: 10.1016/j.iheduc.2012.09.00 kotter, p. (1995). leading change: why transformation efforts fail. harvard business review, january 2007. pp. 96-103. poon, j. (2013). blended learning: an institutional approach for enhancing students' learning experiences. journal of online learning and teaching, 9(2). http://jolt.merlot.org/vol9no2/poon_0613.htm porter, w. (2014). institutional adoption of blended learning in higher education. brigham young university byu scholars archive. retrieved june 17, 2017 http://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6761&context=etd 146 the university office of planning (2017). the uwi triple a strategic plan 2017-2022: revitalizing caribbean development. approved at the annual business meeting of university council april 27, 2017, the uwi, cave hill campus. the university of the west indies (n.d.). strategic transformation for relevance, impact, distinctiveness and excellence. st augustine, trinidad: uwi st augustine. the university of the west indies (2007). consensus on policy for online, distance and multimode learning. (working group report 30 july 2007). the university of the west indies (2010). statistical review academic year 2008/9. mona, jamaica: uwi. twigg, c. a. (2003. september/october). improving learning and reducing costs: new models for online learning. educause. 28-38. zephyrine, j. (2016). the uwi blended learning needs and impact assessment report 2016: assessment of faculty training initiatives in teaching and learning. internal report. author dianne thurab-nkhosi is a faculty development specialist, centre for excellence in teaching and learning, the university of the west indies, st augustine. email: dianne.thurab-nkhosi@sta.uwi.edu cite this paper as: thurab-nkhosi, d. (2018). implementing a blended/online learning policy on a face-to-face campus: perspectives of administrators and implications for change. journal of learning for development, 5(2), 133-147. 147 appendix 1 questions strategy (vision/policy/definition) 1. before my request for this interview were you aware that there was a blended learning initiative on the st augustine campus? if yes, how were you made aware? 2. are you aware that there is a definition of blended learning specific to the st augustine campus? 3. do you know what the definition is? 4. are you aware there is a blended learning policy document? 5. if yes, were you asked to comment on this document? 6. from your perspective, who is driving, promoting the blended learning initiative on the campus? 7. do you think that the campus’s blended learning initiative is sufficiently communicated? 8. do you think that blended learning if done effectively can widen access? 9. what do you see as your role in advocating for blended learning on the campus? structure 10. where do you think responsibility for implementing a blended learning approach should lie? 11. what specific technical support or student support in place in your faculty or the wider university for blended learning? 12. what should be in place? 13. what do you see as your role in having adequate support for blended learning? 14. do you feel there is lecturer buy in/or will be or can be? 15. what is /was required for lecturer buy in? 16. do you have lecturers reporting on blended learning initiatives at faculty board? do you think this would be useful? support 17. do you know of any support/technical or otherwise for lecturers who decide to teach in a blended format? 18. how do you treat with contact hours in a blended environment? any faculty policy? is there need for one? 19. what do you see as your role in providing support for blended learning? 20. any other issues? microsoft word mtebe.docx issn: 2311-1550 2021, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 383-397 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. covid-19 and technology enhanced teaching in higher education in sub-saharan africa: a case of the university of dar es salaam, tanzania joel s. mtebe,1 katherine fulgence1 and michael s. gallagher2 1university of dar es salaam, tanzania 2university of edinburgh, scotland abstract: this article aims to share an experience on the process taken by the university of dar es salaam to adopt and deliver technology-enhanced teaching and learning during the covid-19 crisis. the university started by forming a team which conducted an audit to identify existing ict infrastructure, skills gaps amongst instructors, and information systems that could be quickly adopted to deliver various courses during the covid-19 crisis. the moodle system, zoom video conferencing system, and postgraduate information management system were identified and recommended. after the audit, 340 instructors were trained on identified systems and 369 new courses were developed. although face-toface classes resumed a few months after the training and preparations, postgraduate courses continued to be offered via the blended mode with the zoom and moodle systems being used. the experience gathered from this study contributes towards knowledge of ict integration in teaching and learning and can be integrated into teaching during the covid-19 crisis in resource-constrained universities in sub-saharan africa and beyond. keywords: covid-19, educational technology, education in emergencies, education systems, sub-saharan africa. introduction the outbreak of corona virus disease of 2019 (covid-19) pandemic has brought unprecedented disruption to universities in africa as many of them were closed as the mitigation step against the risk posed by the virus (faraj, 2020; unesco & iesalc, 2020). many governments directed colleges and universities to shift to technology-enhanced delivery mode to continue teaching and learning while keeping their staff and students safe (ray & srivastava, 2020). several universities across africa, including the ones in countries such as egypt, ghana, south africa and rwanda, among others, moved some of their programmes online (adotey, 2020). similarly, on march 19, 2020, the tanzanian government ordered all colleges and universities to cancel all face-to-face classes, including laboratories and other teaching and learning activities, to prevent the spreading of the virus. consequently, all students were sent home, apart from some international students who could not travel and had to stay at the main campus. like many universities in africa, the universities in tanzania were caught unprepared and could not easily switch to technology-enhanced teaching and learning immediately. 384 the university of dar es salaam (udsm), one of africa’s oldest universities, appointed a task force to lead the process of rolling out the mandatory and university-wide technology-enhanced teaching during and after covid-19. the task force was required to conduct a small audit on existing ict infrastructure and information systems that could support the delivery of various courses in technology-enhanced mode. the team was also required to review and recommend policies and guidelines to be adopted to smooth technology-enhanced teaching and learning implementation. although the timing of this move was influenced by the coronavirus pandemic, the move by the university towards greater use of technology in its teaching and learning processes was already envisioned in the university vision 2061 and the five years strategic rolling plan (fysrp) 2020/2021– 2024/2025. for instance, the university vision 2061 indicates the university needs to harness the full potential of ict to transform udsm into an e-university in terms of it infrastructure and services. the five years strategic rolling plan identifies technology-enhanced learning as one of the delivery strategies and incentives to be strengthened by june 2023. therefore, the covid-19 pandemic just accelerated already existing strategies and plans to make use of ict in enhancing the quality of teaching and learning as well as increasing access to university programmes. to introduce technology-enhanced teaching and learning during this pandemic, the team started by conducting an audit to identify existing ict infrastructure, the skills gaps amongst instructors, and possible information systems that could be quickly adopted. through this audit, three information systems: the moodle system, zoom video conferencing system, and postgraduate information management system (pgmis) were identified and recommended. similarly, the skills gap analysis amongst instructors was conducted on the identified information systems. this article aims to share an experience on the process taken by the university to adopt and deliver technology-enhanced teaching and learning during the covid-19 crisis. few studies have documented steps taken by universities in sub-saharan africa in introducing technology-enhanced learning during the covid-19 crisis (crawford et al, 2020; mhlanga & moloi, 2020). therefore, experience from the actions taken by udsm in embracing technology in teaching activities during the covid-19 crisis will contribute to the body of knowledge around online learning, especially in resource-constrained universities in sub-saharan africa and beyond. the audit through the appointed task force, the university started by conducting a small audit to assess existing ict infrastructure and information systems to identify additional ict infrastructure and information systems required to introduce technology enhanced teaching for both the short term and long term. to achieve this, interviews were conducted with the ict manager, four staff from the center for virtual learning, and 24 selected ict technicians in all colleges to assess the availability of ict infrastructures, such as computer labs, servers, speed of internet connectivity, and information systems that will support the delivery of online teaching and learning at the university. the nonparticipatory observation was also conducted to verify servers' capacity, the speed of internet connectivity, and other relevant ict infrastructure. based on the collected data from non-participatory observation, the physical conditions and usage of the available ict facilities in various colleges and schools were established. similarly, skills gap analysis amongst instructors was conducted on the identified information systems. the task force further identified programmes and courses that could 385 be delivered with minimal technological and investment support. finally, the team interviewed quality assurance staff to assess the existence of policies and guidelines that support the delivery of these programmes. the audit was conducted for four weeks starting from june 15, 2020. some of the issues identified during a small audit are explained next. internet connectivity the availability of reliable and speedy internet connectivity is mandatory for the introduction of technology-enhanced learning. therefore, the assessment of the source and speed of the internet at all campuses was investigated. it was found that the university is connected to seacom optic fibre cable with an internet speed of 155mbps. therefore, the internet at all campuses had a good speed and was reliable to deliver technology-enhanced teaching. at the same time, the team was working with mobile firms to find ways of offsetting the cost of internet to students who were at home during the crisis. information systems the audit identified and recommended three information systems that could be used to deliver technology-enhanced learning. the identified information systems are the moodle learning management system, postgraduate information management system (pgmis), and zoom video conferencing system. the description of each system is explained next. moodle system it was found that the university had already started using the moodle system in 2008. the moodle system is a web-based system with features that enable instructors to manage courses over the internet (islam & azad, 2015). the system has features, such as chat rooms, whiteboards, discussion forums, polls, quizzes, and surveys, which allow instructors and students to share course content and communicate online synchronously and asynchronously (naveh et al, 2010). at udsm, this system is used to complement face-to-face classrooms and to offer blended learning programmes with nearly 400 instructors. this number of instructors accounted for around 40% of the instructors at the university, and, therefore, training was needed for the remaining 60% to be able to deliver courses online under the current environment. besides, it was found that the university developed a mobile version of the moodle system in 2016 to enable users to access the system via mobile devices. the moodle mobile app has features that allow students to view course notes, announcements, and discussion threads. the mobile moodle enables students to view their course grades and to check for their fellow students. postgraduate information management system another important information system identified that could support the delivery of technologyenhanced teaching at the university during the covid-19 crisis was the postgraduate management information system (pgmis). the pgmis enables the university to manage students’ supervision from supervisor allocation to dissertation/thesis examination processes. at the time of the audit, only two out of 15 colleges were using the systems. these colleges were the college of information and communication technologies (coict) and college of natural and applied science (conas), with 261 instructors and 1,283 postgraduate students. the rollout of the system to the remaining colleges was needed. 386 zoom video conferencing system the team surveyed various video conferencing applications to identify the system that would be relevant to udsm during the pandemic period. the team reviewed zoom, skype, hangout, gotomeeting, adobe connect and big blue button. the task force also recommended zoom as the video conferencing system as it was the most popular system at the time of assessment, and many instructors had been using it. zoom offers video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars across mobile, and desktop and was suitable for the proposed delivery. identification of priority courses during the covid-19 crisis, the university further identified courses that could be quickly delivered with minimum effort and investment. first, the university decided those courses offered in blended mode before covid-19 should be given priority. these courses include a postgraduate diploma in education (pgde), a postgraduate diploma in engineering management (pgdem), and a master's degree in engineering management (mem). the second priority was given to postgraduate courses. the decision was based on the fact that many postgraduate students had access to equipment such as computers, laptops, and the internet compared to undergraduate students. therefore, prioritising postgraduate courses would require minimum investment from the university in terms of providing access to devices and internet access to learners. it would also give time for instructors to practice the new mode of delivery and gain experience with a small group of learners before rolling out undergraduate students. with the exception of existing blended courses, most of the courses were designed for face-to-face instruction, which meant that instructors needed to adapt them to make them suitable for technologyenhanced delivery. this meant that training was required to equip instructors with relevant skills to redesign their courses for the technology-enhanced mode. before redesigning those courses, the customised blended mode was proposed to ensure uniformity among courses across the university. the customised blended learning model is explained next. customised blended learning model a customised blended delivery model for the university was proposed to guide instructors in preparing and delivering technology-enhanced teaching courses. having the blended teaching model ensured that the developed courses across the university are consistent, especially when instructors transition into a technology-enhanced environment without having enough time to work critically on the courses. however, some flexibility was allowed to ensure different learning outcomes could be achieved in different courses. figure 1 shows the blended model design that was adopted to deliver technology-enhanced learning at the university. 387 figure 1: the study blended learning model learning resources the first component of the proposed blended model was the development of learning resources. students rely on learning resources as their major source of information during the learning process (keats, 2003). therefore, it was essential to ensure that instructors develop and upload into the moodle system quality learning resources to foster students’ learning. however, during the audit, it was found that the majority of instructors had not prepared their learning resources for technologyenhanced learning, except for instructors that were teaching in blended learning. generally, preparing such learning resources could take time. therefore, it was decided that instructors should start by uploading the teaching notes they have been using to teach in the face-to-face environment. consequently, they should improve existing learning resources by using existing open educational resources (oer) and massive open online courses (moocs) to enhance the quality of learning resources. instructors adopted and used moocs as additional learning resources to enhance students’ learning experience. in this case, moocs were treated as a piece of content, much like any other oer. mooc resources were selected from various platforms that match various topics within a single course. this approach enabled instructors to select the best topics from various moocs to enhance the quality of their courses. teaching the second component of the proposed blended model involved adopting zoom video conferencing systems for conducting synchronous online teaching. it was suggested that instructors use this system to facilitate online teaching, replacing face-to-face delivery. simultaneously, the moodle system would be used for conducting asynchronous instruction where instructors were going to use discussion forums and quizzes to facilitate students’ learning. the use of discussion forums is beneficial and useful to elearning students in terms of improving their learning skills and quality (hadullo et al, 2018). supervision the pgmis was recommended for managing students’ supervision process. the system allows the university to address students’ supervision from supervisor allocation to dissertation/thesis examination processes. it also allows students to present their work without having to come physically to the university campus. 388 the development of the blended model enabled the university to develop relevant training for instructors and ict staff to deliver technology-enhanced teaching and learning at the university. therefore, university-wide training was conducted for ict technicians and instructors on aspects of various elements of the proposed blended model. the details of each type of training are explained next. ict technicians’ training it was clear that the number of instructors who were going to use technologies to facilitate teaching and learning during and after covid-19 was going to be more than double, with most of them using these technologies for the first time. staff at the center for virtual learning (cvl) were not going to offer the same level of support to all instructors in such a narrow preparation window. cvl was established in 2005 to facilitate the development and delivery of blended learning programmes by providing pedagogical support to instructors for effective facilitation of the courses (mtebe & raphael, 2013). it was identified, therefore, that cvl should take the lead in establishing technology enhanced learning at udsm. as pointed out by hodges et al (2020), support personnel are usually available to help instructors learn about and implement online learning, these staff have been supporting a small pool of instructors interested in using ict in complementing face-to-face delivery. in the situation at the time of writing, these staff were not able to offer the same level of support to all instructors and learners in such a narrow preparation window. to ensure that instructors receive reliable, timely, and effective support services, cvl organised training for 30 ict technicians (two technicians from each college), equipping them with skills and competencies for administering and managing the moodle system, zoom video conferencing system, and the pgmis. other topics included in the training were creating and managing users and courses, adjusting permissions, and setting up assignments and quizzes. the idea was to equip ict staff at each college so that they could help cvl in providing reliable technical and pedagogical support to instructors and learners in each college. instructor training a total of 340 instructors received training in 15 colleges and directorates across the university. the coict had the highest number of instructors who participated in the training, with 43 participants, followed by coss with 38 participants, while coaf had the least number of participants. table 1 shows the number of instructors who attended the training. 389 table 1: the distribution of instructors who attended the training no. college/directorate no. of instructors 1 college of information and communication technologies (coict) 43 2 college of engineering and technology (coet) 22 3 college of natural and applied sciences (conas) 28 4 college of humanities (cohu) 29 5 college of social sciences (coss) 38 6 mkwawa university college of education (muce) 34 7 university of dar es salaam business school (udbs) 12 8 school of education (soed) 32 9 school of journalism and mass communication (sjmc) 8 10 library 18 11 institute of resource assessment (ira) 13 12 institute of kiswahili studies (iks) 15 13 institute of development studies (ids) 10 14 dar es salaam university college of education (duce) 34 15 college of agricultural sciences and fisheries technology (coaf) 4 total 340 the training was organised for three days for each college, focusing on teaching postgraduate courses. the training covered three topics—the first topic aimed at equipping instructors with the necessary skills to develop quality learning resources. to ensure that instructors develop these resources with minimum effort, a course template was designed and shared with instructors. instructors were required to follow the template while organizing their learning resources in ms word before uploading it into the moodle system. the template consisted of course information, learning objectives, lesson topic and format, and activities and assessment. simultaneously, instructors were introduced to open educational resources (oer), massive open online courses (moocs), and other available digital resources so that they can use them to enhance the quality of learning resources. a list of possible oer and mooc repositories were prepared and shared with instructors during the training. 390 the second topic focused on training on skills and competencies related to using various features of the moodle system. each instructor was required to upload at least three modules/topics of the course during the three days of training. moreover, instructors were equipped with skills to use discussion forums, emails, wiki, and portfolios to facilitate students' learning. for instance, instructors prepared reflection questions which learners were able to discuss asynchronously via discussion forums. an example of learning resources uploaded into the moodle system is shown in figure 2. figure 2: example of learning resources uploaded into moodle system during the training, a total of 369 new courses were developed and uploaded into the system for eight weeks. coss had the highest number of courses uploaded into the system with 610 courses, followed by conas with 55 courses and cohu with 53 courses. coaf has the least number of developed courses with three courses followed by ids with seven courses. the distribution of courses per college is shown in table 2. 391 table 2: the distribution of new courses developed during the training no. college/directorate number of courses 1 college of information and communication technologies (coict) 29 2 college of engineering and technology (coet) 10 3 college of natural and applied sciences (conas) 55 4 college of humanities (cohu) 53 5 college of social sciences (coss) 61 6 mkwawa university college of education (muce) 28 7 university of dar es salaam business school (udbs) 14 8 school of education (soed) 29 9 school of journalism and mass communication (sjmc) 13 10 library 13 11 institute of resource assessment (ira) 13 12 institute of kiswahili studies (iks) 15 13 institute of development studies (ids) 7 14 dar es salaam university college of education (duce) 26 15 college of agricultural sciences and fisheries technology (coaf) 3 total 369 finally, instructors were equipped with the necessary skills to use the pgmis and zoom conferencing system. instructors used the training session to upload documents for students’ presentations, schedule presentations, and upload students’ verdicts. figure 3 shows a screenshot of pgmis showing a schedule of students’ presentations. 392 figure 3: a screenshot of a schedule for students’ presentation in the pgmis a total of 551 instructors and 845 postgraduate students were uploaded into the system. table 3 shows the distribution of new students and instructors who were uploaded into the system per unit. 393 table 3: the distribution of new students and instructors uploaded into the system no. college/directorate students staff 1 college of engineering and technology (coet) 54 45 2 school of education (soed) 32 37 3 college of information and communication technologies (coict) 6 9 4 dar es salaam university college of education (duce) 30 40 5 college of natural and applied sciences (conas) 33 24 6 university of dar es salaam business school (udbs) 2 16 7 library 4 7 8 institute of resource assessment (ira) 14 24 9 college of social sciences (coss) 426 56 10 college of agricultural sciences and fisheries technology (coaf) 2 2 11 institute of development studies (ids) 104 35 12 school of journalism and mass communication (sjmc) 36 8 13 college of humanities (cohu) 28 32 14 mkwawa university college of education (muce) 15 178 15 institute of kiswahili studies (iks) 59 38 total 845 551 on the other hand, the university purchased 60 zoom accounts, which were distributed to all academic units. the course coordinators for each college were responsible for managing zoom accounts. they were required to assign zoom account to instructors during the delivery of the courses. each instructor was required to record the zoom lecture delivered so that learners who could not attend live zoom class would have an opportunity to do so. challenges internet connectivity the availability of reliable internet to learners and instructors remained a challenge to implementing technology-enhanced teaching at the university. at the main campus, internet connectivity was found to be reliable and had a good speed. however, during the covid-19, the majority of instructors were working from home and, therefore, they had to use their internet bundles to facilitate students’ learning. the practice was not the same for students, as many did not have access to reliable internet access and/or technology outside the main campus. according to unesco, 89% of students in subsaharan africa do not have access to household computers, and 82% lack internet access (unesco, 2020). this means that ensuring students have access to reliable internet and devices is critical for technology-enhanced teaching success (adotey, 2020). the university decided to negotiate with three mobile firms to overcome the challenge of internet connectivity. out of three mobile firms, vodacom tanzania agreed to provide zero-rated access to the three systems identified for the blended mode. therefore, the university provided ip addresses of all websites related to teaching and learning to vodacom so that they could be zero-rated. in this case, users using vodacom would not be charged when accessing these websites. yet, some courses redirected to oer and mooc platforms, which were not zero-rated by vodacom tanzania, posing another challenge to learners. 394 development of multimedia-enhanced courses it was found that not all courses could be quickly redesigned and be offered via technology-enhanced teaching. some courses required laboratory experiments or practical exercises and, therefore, required integration of multimedia elements. the development and integration of multimedia elements into courses takes time and, therefore, could not be done during the covid-19 crisis. typical planning and preparation for a quality online course with multimedia elements for university courses takes six to nine months before the course is delivered (hodges et al, 2020). therefore, most of the courses that required laboratory experiments or practical exercises were not fully developed. the team advised instructors to look for possible animations and simulations in the oer depositories that could be used to enhance areas that need experiments or practical exercises. pedagogical content knowledge the inadequate skills for facilitating courses that are offered in a technology-enhanced environment were found to be a significant challenge. in addition to technical skills to use identified information systems to facilitate teaching and learning, instructors’ skills on how using identified information systems may change the way they teach various courses is essential. they need to understand how ict and pedagogy interact to facilitate the development of 21st-century competencies in their students (voogt et al, 2013). due to time constraints, the pedagogical content knowledge was not covered in the designed training during the covid-19 crisis. what is next? in june 2020, the government announced reopening universities and other higher learning institutions as there was a decline in covid-19 cases in the country. the face-to-face classes resumed at the university of dar es salaam from june 1, with most classes offered in traditional face-to-face. however, postgraduate courses continued to be offered via the blended mode of delivery with the zoom and moodle systems being used. however, the university recognises that life after covid-19 will not be the same again. plans were underway for preparing the university for a long-term strategy to ensure that educational technologies are widely used for both undergraduate and postgraduate courses. discussion the covid-19 pandemic has exposed the unpreparedness of many higher education institutions in africa in making use of ict to widen access to education and improve the quality of on-campus delivery. the university of dar es salaam, for instance, started using technology-enhanced teaching and learning since 1999 when the blackboard system was introduced (mtebe & raphael, 2017) before switching to moodle in 2008 due to an increased annual license fee (mtebe, dachi & raphael, 2011). since then, many developments have occurred, including improving ict infrastructure by equipping colleges with computer labs with reliable internet connectivity and installing various information systems for supporting teaching and learning. similarly, the university developed a long-term vision for 2061 to use the full potential of ict to transform the university to an e-university. despite these developments the university could not continue offering its programmes during the covid-19 pandemic period. the number of instructors who were using the moodle system before the covid-19 pandemic was small. specifically, only one-third of instructors (nearly 500 out of 2,000) 395 were active users of the moodle system. the majority of them used the system to share learning resources with learners while teaching in face-to-face mode. similarly, only two out of 15 colleges were using pgmis, while relatively few instructors used video conferencing facilities to facilitate teaching and learning. therefore, covid-19 has forced the university to make greater use of technologies in teaching and learning activities long overdue by existing magnifying challenges. the number of instructors using technologies has increased from 500 to nearly 900, while more than 500 instructors are now using the pgmis. besides, almost 350 new courses were developed and uploaded into the system. the majority of the courses were partially developed given the time constraints, and it was expected that instructors would continue developing the remaining modules after the training. now the university has been reopened since june 2020, and regular face-to-face classes have resumed. during the first semester, it was observed that there is increased usage of the moodle system compared to the situation before. although students attend classes, many instructors have uploaded learning resources into the moodle system and allow students to submit assignments online. moreover, most courses were taught via zoom instead of face-to-face delivery, with most learning resources being shared through the moodle platform. a detailed evaluation is required at the end of the academic year to compare the adoption and use of various technologies before and after the covid-19 pandemic. evaluation should be more focused on the context, input, and process elements than the product (learning), as suggested by (hodges et al, 2020). hopefully, the covid-19 threat will soon be a memory, but the university activities will not be the same again after the covid-19 pandemic. it is time for university management to take advantage of the current situation to reform academic activities towards greater use of ict to enhance the quality of on-campus delivery and widen access to education. one crucial aspect is to review existing policies that limit the integration of ict in teaching and learning. for instance, the udsm intellectual property policy of 2008 identifies learning content created for technology-enhanced courses as protected under ipr (udsm, 2008). therefore, instructors are not allowed to share learning resources in the public domain. in this case, this policy is against the current trend of openness, which emphasises sharing content in the various repositories as oer. other policies that could be reviewed include ict policy, staff development policy, elearning policy and oer policy. one of the significant impediments to student engagement is the lack of high-quality learning resources for learners, even though students rely on learning resources as their primary source of information during the learning process in a technology-enhanced environment. most of the courses were designed for face-to-face delivery, and instructors were adapting, making them suitable for a technology-enhanced environment. instructors need to be equipped with the necessary skills to redesign courses to be relevant in technology-enhanced teaching rather than adapting existing courses. the university can also consider the adoption and use of virtual labs that provide a simulated replica of real-life laboratories that can provide learners' practical skills for science and engineering courses (ray & srivastava, 2020). conclusion the covid-19 crisis has exposed many universities' unpreparedness in sub-saharan africa in delivering teaching and learning during the crisis. the university of dar es salaam, for instance, was 396 unable to resume studies immediately after the pandemic despite investing in ict infrastructure since 1999. with the covid-19 outbreak, the university of dar es salaam conducted an audit of the infrastructure and information systems and analysed instructors’ skills gap needed for appropriate use of ict. the audit recommended moodle, pgmis, and zoom conferencing information systems, with these forming the basis for offering training to instructors. with the training of 340 instructors on these systems, a percentage increase was observed in the number of courses developed and uploaded in moodle and the number of instructors and students using the pgmis and zoom conferencing for teaching and learning purposes. the study further highlights that university units are lagging, making it possible to develop a tailored mechanism to ensure that they align the needs of the university to realise online teaching and learning as stipulated in its vision and mission statements. challenges such as unreliable internet connectivity and appropriate integration of practical courses into online mode have continued to demand further improvement. instructors need as well to learn about online facilitation and develop related pedagogical competencies. therefore, the covid-19 crisis has presented a good opportunity for the university to appropriately assess the application of ict in enhancing teaching and learning. references adotey, s. k. (2020, june). what will higher education in africa look like after covid-19? world economic forum. https://europeansting.com/2020/06/08/what-will-higher-education-in-africa-look-like-after-covid-19/ crawford, j., rudolph, j., malkawi, b., glowatz, m., burton, r., magni, p. a., & lam, s. (2020). covid-19: 20 countries’ higher education intra-period digital pedagogy responses. journal of applied learning & teaching, 3(1). https://doi.org/10.37074/jalt.2020.3.1.7 faraj, g. (2020, october). the impact of covid-19 on universities in africa. accord. https://www.accord.org.za/analysis/the-impact-of-covid-19-on-universities-in-africa/ hodges, c., moore, s., lockee, b., trust, t., & bond, a. (2020, march). the difference between emergency remote teaching and online learning. educause review. https://er.educause.edu/articles/2020/3/the-differencebetween-emergency-remote-teaching-and-onlinelearning?fbclid=iwar2p0nk63n06rsznc9uhy1_scecc_cfmnm24q0cgzaes_78gscps5zjx8uq#fn1 islam, n., & azad, n. (2015). satisfaction and continuance with a learning management system. the international journal of information and learning technology, 32(2), 109-123. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijilt-09-2014-0020 keats, d. (2003). collaborative development of open content: a process model to unlock the potential for african universities. first monday, 8(2). https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v0i0.1782 mhlanga, d., & moloi, t. (2020). covid-19 and the digital transformation of education: what are we learning on air in south africa? education sciences, 10(7), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci10070180 mtebe, j. s., & raphael, c. (2017). a decade of technology enhanced learning at the university of dar es salaam, tanzania: challenges, achievements, and opportunities. international journal of education and development using information and communication technology (ijedict), 13(2), 103-115. http://repository.udsm.ac.tz:8080/xmlui/handle/20.500.11810/4571 naveh, g., tubin, d., & pliskin, n. (2010). student lms use and satisfaction in academic institutions: the organizational perspective. the internet and higher education, 13(3), 127-133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2010.02.004 397 ray, s., & srivastava, s. (2020). virtualization of science education: a lesson from the covid-19 pandemic. journal of proteins and proteomics, 11(2), 77-80. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42485-020-00038-7 udsm. (2008). udsm intellectual property policy. https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/36140534/udsmintellectual-property-policy-2008-university-of-dar-es-salaam unesco. (2020). startling digital divides in distance learning emerge. https://en.unesco.org/news/startling-digitaldivides-distance-learning-emerge unesco & iesalc. (2020). covid-19 and higher education: today and tomorrow. impact analysis, policy responses and recommendations. iesalc, april(9), 1-46. voogt, j., erstad, o., dede, c., & mishra, p. (2013). challenges to learning and schooling in the digital networked world of the 21st century. journal of computer assisted learning, 29(5), 403-413. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcal.12029 authors: prof. joel s. mtebe is an associate professor of informatics at the department of computer science and engineering of the university of dar es salaam. he also works as the director of the center for virtual learning and coordinator of the elearning research group, which has more than 20 masters and eight phd students. his research interests include elearning, human computer interaction, and information systems implementation in the public sector. email: jmtebe@gmail.com dr. katherine fulgence specializes in entrepreneurship education and employability of graduates through skills development programmes. as a teacher educator, she conducts training and mentorship programmes, research and consultancies in the areas of digital fluency, teacher education, professional development and career transition. she heads the department of education foundations, management and lifelong learning at dar es salaam university college of education, a constituent college of the university of dar es salaam. before joining the university college in 2008, she worked as a project manager at the university of dar es salaam innovation and entrepreneurship centre. email: katherine.fulgence@outlook.com dr michael gallagher is a lecturer in digital education, a member of the centre for research in digital education, and the programme director of the msc in digital education, all at the university of edinburgh. his research interests include the mobilities of digital education in development contexts and the implications of such thinking for educational mobility overall. his published work includes critical perspectives on educational technologies, the mobilities of digital education, and futures educational research. email: gallagher.michaelsean@gmail.com cite this paper as: mtebe, j. s., fulgence, k., & gallagher, m. s. (2021). covid-19 and technology enhanced teaching in higher education in sub-saharan africa: a case of the university of dar es salaam, tanzania. journal of learning for development, 8(2), 383-397. microsoft word anderson.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 6-19 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. challenges and opportunities for use of social media in higher education terry anderson professor emeritus, athabasca university, canada abstract: likely the most significant and life changing technologies of the 21st century is the adoption of social media as major components of commercial, entertainment and educational activities. in this article, i overview the supposed benefits of the application of these tools within formal higher education programs. i then discuss the disadvantages and challenges, with a focus on the paradox that accompanies convenience and value in use, with loss of data control. it is likely that we will continue to see both authorized and unauthorized use of data that we have created for both personal and institutional use. i conclude by examining some of the solutions proposed and tested to resolve this challenge. i then overview two possible solutions the first focused on institutions creating and managing their own social media and the second an emergent technical solution whereby users keep control of their data, while sharing and growing in multiple social contexts. keywords: social media, higher education. introduction education does not exist outside of the social or technological contexts in which it is located. thus, it is little surprise that both users and developers are proposing and exposing teachers and students to new affordances of social networking tools. in addition, researchers are beginning to understand and appreciate the learning designs and value that integrating informal social media tools adds to formal education (czerkawski, 2016). as a long-time advocate for technologically based innovation in education, i am pleased, but apprehensive, about the pervasive and increasing use of these tools in education. as with the introduction of any tool in education, we need to examine the evidence for both its effectiveness and the challenges and problems associated with its use. i hope to add to the discussion by drawing upon both formal educational research and the wisdom acquired through reflective use by myself and others in campus and online classrooms. educational affordances of social media i use the term social media to describe the use of networked tools by individuals, groups and sets of people to consume, produce and share content. thus, it includes large platforms such as facebook, skype, wiebo, wechat, and whatsapp as well as individual web and blog sites. during these last two decades of the “social media era”, researchers have discovered and, in many cases, argued for the advantage that social media can or could bring to higher education. the research also shows continuing and expanding use in campus based, distance and blended learning contexts and, at least, preliminary results suggesting significant educational benefit including: • opportunities and support for collaborative and cooperative learning (bilandzic & foth, 2013) 7 • awareness of and potential interaction with others, especially affording multicultural exposure and learning opportunities (hu, gu, liu, & huang, 2017) • enhanced media/digital literacy, including development of critical literacy (pangrazio, 2016) • motivational increases (de-marcos, garcia-lopez, & garcia-cabot, 2016) • increased informal participation in institutional, social and political activities (ranieri, rosa, & manca, 2016) • academic and personal identity growth and social capital acquisition (davis iii, deil-amen, rios-aguilar, & gonzález canché, 2015) • training in attention management and self-organization (kimmerle, moskaliuk, oeberst, & cress, 2015) • increase in course participation enabled by push and mobile features of social media (pimmer, mateescu, & gröhbiel, 2016) • integration of formal with informal learning (greenhow & lewin, 2016) • potential creation of ‘generative learning communities’ (lewis, pea, & rosen, 2010) • opportunity for multimedia communication skill development (brown, czerniewicz, & noakes, 2016) • resource discovery, annotation and curation (antonio & tuffley, 2015) • research study dissemination and collaborator recruitment (khatri et al., 2015) • support for continuing relationship between institutions and graduates in support of life-long learning and alumni support (carter, 2018). this list of benefits is long and growing, thus providing evidence of increasing use and the benefits to teaching and learning and also showing benefit to the teachers and the educational institutions themselves. it is important to note that social media add more than just “going online” to formal education. adding blended or online components to a programme through the use of an lms certainly adds time and place mobility to a course. such use also results in modest opportunities for gains in digital literacy. however, adding social media components increases the potential value by enabling “the personalization of their learning experiences to their own interests, their own learning goals, and their own preferences in terms of participation, online communities, and social media platforms”(gruzd, paulin, & haythornthwaite, 2016). beyond their role in teaching and learning, social media may also have a number of positive attributes related to the professional development and network literacy of teachers and researchers. for example, in a study of benefits of social media for health care professionals moorhead et al. (2013) list six overarching benefits: (1) increased interactions with others, (2) more available, shared, and tailored information, (3) increased accessibility and widening access to health information, (4) peer/social/emotional support, (5) public health surveillance, and (6) potential to influence health policy. these same benefits are potentially and indeed likely to transfer to other professions – 8 including those in education. an interesting italian study (n = 6139) found that frequency of use of social media by higher education teachers was associated more with personal use than with their use in their teaching. this likely indicates both a greater reluctance to ‘share’ with students than with colleagues (manca & ranieri, 2016b) and lack of knowledge of the value and designs to integrate social media in their formal teaching programs. nonetheless, widespread use of social media indicates that exposure to the technology itself is high, while awareness of how and, as importantly, why to use social media in formal education is much lower. a common idiom amongst education technology advocates is that, “it ain’t what you got it’s what you do with it”. the onslaught of social media provides many tools that have inspired a host of innovative educational activities and models. as these tools are emergent and regularly adding new capacities it is nearly impossible to generalize effects across multiple tools and contexts in which they are used. however, it is easily seen that social media affords continuing opportunity for teachers to experiment both within and outside of the pedagogy that inspired the tools’ developers. the learning activities that teachers choose, design and implement are also varied and emergent. these choices reflect and support the teachers’ institutional and discipline language and culture. for example, a science teacher will likely design different ways to use social media tools than those chosen by a history teacher. however, designing and building online takes time and energy. it further relies on the technical expertise of teachers. research tends to show that the expertise the teacher brings to the tool inspires different applications (chen & bryer, 2012). complex technological innovations in education are always accompanied by challenges and problems. not all technical innovations turn out to be useful in either the short or the long term. indeed, there are examples of technology that was at first used and adopted and later found to be ineffective or even dangerous. in the next section i discuss these potential and existing challenges. challenges of social media use in higher education just as variation in tools and their application makes it challenging to assess the general effectiveness and value of social media, so, too, is identifying and assessing the problems that use brings. there are many types of social media and many ways in which they are used. notwithstanding this variance, researchers find much to be concerned about (regan, jesse, & talatkhwaja, 2018). critical thinkers have long suspected that the inherent commercial bias of social media, with a business model based upon promoting the consumption of advertised goods and services, is anathema to educational use. this claim is perhaps unfairly attributed to social media, given the predominance of advertising revenue in all mass media used in education — from many academic journals to newspapers and television. however, no one wants to see the data trails created by ourselves and our students exploited in ways that lack informed consent and in addition are little understood by teachers or students. on the other hand, we may find the exchange of our time and our data is a small cost for an obvious educational benefit. users consciously or unconsciously engage in an exchange when consuming commercial media. we give our attention to promoted goods or services and in return we receive some value – perhaps a social or educational connection or access to desired entertainment, news or learning opportunity. as researcher yuwei lin summarizes, the terabytes of data we generate in our interactions on these 9 platforms allows companies to “datafy”, quantify, track, monitor, profile us and sell target adverts to haunt us. “(lin, 2018). as a personal example, i am tempted to eliminate my use of both facebook and twitter. however, i value the insights from others that are shared on particular facebook groups and the resources and ideas shared by those i follow on twitter. as a student, i appreciate the notifications that prompt my participation and engagement in learning. thus, value is created at the cost of my attention. what value can be extracted from the resulting data in the future is currently unknown and of concern both for civil discourse and personal and institutional privacy. some critical reviewers suggest that social media is not conducive to education as it contains an explicit bias towards conviviality and homogeneity and lacks the critical components of disagreement and discourse. the phenomena of social media filtering out opposing views (living in a filter bubble (pariser, 2011)) has been documented in many applications of social media. critics point out that social media use and information flow is self-segregated into interaction amongst sets of people with similar political and social views (friesen & lowe, 2012). nagle (2018) argues “the social media sites are inherently designed for conviviality. to stay in these spaces in this way is to inhabit a space devoid of the abuse witnessed and experienced by others outside of that community, and one that is at risk of understanding itself as a cyber utopia”. these views seem to be both true and false at once. the effects of living in a filter bubble of like minds is well documented but equally notorious are the often heated and occasionally abusive disagreements aired in these media. the large, centralized social media companies use proprietary algorithms to select content to which individual users are uniquely exposed. it is not possible for a user to understand, much less directly control how the algorithm works to create their unique feed of information. the content served to me is selected by the algorithm. previous to the development of large centralized social media, i was presented with a host of personal and independent blogs, feeds and emails from which to choose my own web presence. we are now reduced to both consuming and creating content that is then owned by the media companies and served to myself and those who follow the topic in order to influence your purchasing or political activities. blogger ryan pelton (2018) notes that “the cemetery of neglected blogs is growing and growing with every new social media platform”. instead of picking our news feed, the algorithm mysteriously and perhaps nefariously picks yours for you. in 2019 new year’s reflections many commentators noted the increasing number of privacy breaches, thefts, and commercial misuse and associated calls for social media to get its act together or see drastic new government control (see, for example, (bullock, 2018) it seems that internet media firms are not only not protecting our data as well as they could but they are using the data created about me for purposes that even they seem unaware. among these headlines are studies and media exposure of inappropriate release (or even sale) of personal and private data, excessive promotion of commercial products, and use of techniques designed to addict users to the medium. the biggest reason that persons stay active users of social media is not because they feel secure and comfortable but, rather, they appreciate the value or service that the media provides. as a personal example, i continue to toy with the idea of dumping facebook. yet i know of no other current way to learn from and with members of the hammer dulcimer community or my local neighbourhood community association. thus, the value created justifies (for now at least) the cost and risk of 10 commercial exploitation and/or misuse of data. of course, this model only succeeds because i have no other alternative. the value created to me, doesn’t depend on my own contribution, but rather more so on the contribution of others – each of whom is, as well, constrained by the data ownership model. in an earlier review of the literature on social media use, nadkarni & hofmann, (2012) conclude that use and continuing use is driven by two primary needs – the need to belong and the need for selfpresentation. in recent years however, social media has also become a primary source for local and international news and a way to “stay in touch” with political, social, and economic issues. these are all compelling reasons that are fanned by the design features of the software itself contributing to addictive use of social media (andersson, 2018). marshall mcluhan (1964) amongst others, noted that media are first used to replicate tasks previously undertaken with older media. this is readily seen in the predominate use of lms systems for traditional tasks of content dissemination and assignment control. this rather old-time use of the tool does little to exploit the potential pedagogical value noted earlier. social media is designed first to make money for its investors but secondly to enhance social connectivity, sharing and collaborative interest. it is interesting to note that collaborative tools such as blogs and wikis have been incorporated into many lms systems, yet are little used (cantabella, lópez, caballero, & muñoz, 2018). some students and teachers argue that social media has a place in informal learning, but that formal learning (with both its institutional constraints and its benefits) is best left to media that can be more effectively monitored and controlled by the formal learning institution. however both czerkawski (2016) and greenhow & lewin (2016) show that learning is not strictly divided into formal and informal learning camps but, rather, that learning in formal contexts often and usually flows into informal activity. further greenhow and lewin theorize that “students may practise learning with formal, informal, and non-formal attributes across a wide range of contexts and exercise considerable authority over how they learn, when they learn and with whom”. thus, the case is made for developing tools that work to expand formal learning into these more public domains. actual social media use in formal education despite the many potential advantages of incorporating social media into higher education and the amount of use by both teachers and students for non-formal education use, there is a large “disparity between the extent of positive perceptions of social media and the amount of practical usage” (keenan, slater, & matthan, 2018). a large-scale (n = 6139) italian study of university teachers found that “social media use is still rather limited and restricted and that academics are not much inclined to integrate these devices into their practices for several reasons. these include cultural resistance, pedagogical issues, privacy concerns and institutional constraints.” (manca & ranieri, 2016a). in a small uk study of medical faculty (keenan et al., 2018), used a survey (n = 67) to discover that the largest barriers to use included instructors’ concerns for “student professionalism”, social media being a distraction, changes to student-teacher relationships and a lack of time for instructors to learn to use social media effectively. they also report little knowledge of the potential benefits of social media that 11 are not met using existing online and institutionally controlled media. thus, the barriers to adoption seem as large as the potential benefits. as one would expect most of the research on social media use in education has focussed on campusbased education. but what of the special application and needs of distance education teachers and learners? distance education has long been associated with the “loneliness of the long-distance learner”. in addition, most distance education teachers are part-time workers who are geographically distributed with large potential for professional isolation and a reduced chance for collegial support. thus, one might assume that despite barriers, potential benefit to distance education institutions, learners and teachers would propel more social media use than in campus-based organisations. though there is little evidence to support differential use among institutions using various modes of delivery, my own experience building and assisting faculty in adopting social media in a single-mode distance education university was not without significant challenges. since use is often an individual choice by teachers, it is likely conditioned by the disposition of the teacher towards social media use in general and especially as a learning tool in education. welch, napoleon, hill and rommell (2014) suggest that certain teaching dispositions instigate and maintain effective teaching in a virtual environment. dispositions are “those principles, commitments, values and professional ethics that influence the attitudes and behaviour of educators” (martins & ungerer, 2015). welch et al note that dispositions are slightly different from attitudes or preferences and argue that “one’s disposition is manifested in one’s behaviour. it is behaviour that is used to quantify the disposition.” dispositions are changeable based on experiences and environment – thus different from learning styles or personalities, which are usually considered to be more or less permanent. after scouring the literature and a validation t sort, welch et al, (2014) developed a 25-item virtual teaching dispositions scale (vtds) assuming that there were three major dispositions that were important for successful online teaching. these included pedagogical presence – related to competence and effectiveness of the teacher in the normal acts of presenting, organizing and assessing; expert/cognitive presence related to knowledge of and competence in the subject domain being taught, and social presence – interest in being a visible, active and a caring member of the class. factor analysis of the first study (n = 165) of online teachers revealed a fourth factor. this disposition, labelled as virtual tech, assessed the degree to which the teachers were personally interested in and actively exploring the tools of the online educational context. martins & ungerer (2015) used this virtual teaching dispositions scale with distance education teachers (n = 314) in south africa (unisa) and found that the lowest scores were found at the virtual/tech disposition, leading them to argue that the focus of professional development and policy should be on exposure and competence development using online tools. many distance education teachers are not disposed to making extensive use of social media in education, partially due to lack of exposure to the technology, the learning activities afforded and the benefits of use. in addition, some are drawn to the teaching profession in order to engage with students face-to-face, or at least in real time and do not experience this same connection when the interaction is mediated. table 1 from martins & ungerer (2015) lists indicators for each disposition and makes the unsubstantiated claim (at least in the 2015 article) that some dispositions are easier to change than others. 12 table 1. indicators of teachers’ dispositions towards online teaching (martins & ungerer, (2015). easily changed difficult to change expert/cognitive presence social presence pedagogical presence virtual/tech. presence • passion for education • commitment to profession • exhibits humour • shares personal information and experience • communicates care and interest towards others • acknowledges individual participants • expresses agreement • punctuality • creates meaningful assessments • organisation • incorporates a variety of technologies • maintains a meaningful online presence • seeks out opportunities for continual improvement these findings lead me to consider the complexity of the adoption process but also provide a pathway for professional development activities that are designed to enhance the disposition of distance education teachers towards effective use of the media. privacy and ownership concerns harari (2018) in his third book in a series on homo sapiens evolution describes the increasing value of data collected from social media tools and the use of artificial intelligence (ai) based tools to analyze and act upon this data. harari contends that the day is fast approaching when algorithms will know more about the factors that guide our decision making (our health, our wealth, our aspirations and our limitations) than we know ourselves. the increasing complexity of these algorithms coupled with the aggregation of data into large central repositories places us as both beneficiaries and victims of decision-making by forces outside of individual control – a challenge that strikes at the very foundation of our liberal democracies. in addition, harari shows the increasing value of this data collection, which seems especially relevant to “free use” of educational tools. he writes, “a popular app may lack a business model and may even lose money in the short term, but as long as it sucks data, it could be worth billions” (harari, 2018, p. 78). we see today the emergence of a large networked applications (i.e., facebook, wechat, twitter, google, etc.) that are providing free services to us, at the cost of sharing our data with them. this data can and is used for multiple purposes — none of which are transparent to those who have contributed the data and who are used to owning their personal data. verborgh (2019) notes that giving informed consent for the use of our data (either to institutions or to platforms) is becoming increasingly irrelevant as nobody can say with certainty in what ways and by whom this data will be used. in her 2015 article and especially in her 2019 book, the age of surveillance capitalism: the fight for a human future at the new frontier of power, shoshana zuboff, helps us to understand the economic value of this data in the era of ‘attention economy’. she points out that some of this collected data is used to 13 improve the product and the user experience, but large amounts are gathered and stored to a create a ‘behavioural surplus’. this surplus data is aggregated and analyzed, then sold to a host of purchasers wishing to influence our behavior – and especially our purchasing, consumption and political decision-making. it is easy to become outraged at this “theft” of our data, but we do well to remember that we are not the product being sold but rather we are the raw material. as canadians well know from natural resource extraction, we are not very successful at retaining the value of “our raw materials”. in this attention economy, we are once again selling our resources to early capitalist firms at a very low return to the public good. as the efficacy of the algorithms working on this data increases through machine learning and artificial intelligence, we become more and more accustomed to the benefits of the service and, through use, contribute yet more data to these companies. the value of this data increases as it is aggregated with other data – both personal and network generated, such that decision-making by individuals is increasingly influenced or even usurped by the algorithms. but at what cost? reining in social media for educational use we’ve seen a series of scandals emerge in the past year related to both hacking breeches and commercial abuse of privacy of social media users (wall, 2018; yar, 2018). can we honestly say that we trust these companies to act in our best interest (as users) especially if these interests compete with the company’s own interest – as business operators? during 2018, i led a qualitative research study on online use in complex k-12 classrooms for the alberta teachers’ association (anderson & mcpherson, 2018). the results were not unexpected, with many innovative teachers using online tools in a wide variety of classroom, distance and hybrid educational contexts. for me, the most challenging result was observation of the ‘google-ization’ of alberta classrooms. google chromebooks, google classroom and google analytics, google productivity tools and google professional development seminars for teachers are ubiquitous and in use in well over 90% of alberta school districts. and why this overwhelming use? these tools are reliable, highly functional and most importantly are provided free of charge by google. to what end is this gift giving? at one level, both teachers and a continuing flow of students learn to become competent users of google cloud-based services – this alone may create a lucrative business model for google. but perhaps even more compelling is the data that is generated by students. though google has (with most other major suppliers) pledged not to sell personal information from k-12 schools to others (see the student privacy pledge https://studentprivacypledge.org/privacypledge/), there is little protection from authorized or unauthorized use in higher education or control of the use of aggregated data. we see that the large potential benefit to social media use is coupled with deep threats to our privacy and control over our own activity and thought. obviously, using these commercial products, with their questionable ethical practices, are not the type of learning product or environment that public higher education institutions have traditionally used. is the pedagogical and motivational value sufficient to allow institutions to hold their collective noses and use the product anyway? despite these justifiable concerns, is the benefit to the higher education institution of such value that they are willing to give away the control over their data as well as that generated by their staff and 14 students? are there any alternatives? i conclude this article with a brief discussion of two possible solutions. the first being the operation of social media services owned by the institution itself, thus retaining control and ensuring educational (and not commercial or political) use of data. the second, looks more to the future and the development of tools that allow a user to retain control over the data that they generate as they use select, modify and enhance their learning experiences. institutionally-owned social media in 2012 jon dron and i created an “in-house” media suite running on the open source elgg environment. the tool set is described at length elsewhere (anderson & dron, 2017; dron & anderson, 2014). in summary, the athabasca landing featured a variety of social and productivity tools including blogging, micro blogging, groups and network creation and support tools, curation, recommendations, likes and a variety of communication tools. this system has the obvious advantage of securing data from exploitation by commercial or political interests. however, though “full featured” this platform could hardly compete with the small army of programmers and user interface designers employed by organizations such as facebook and google. though still operating today, the system has never earned institutional support such that it became an integrated component of the institutional delivery platform and perhaps more importantly was not incorporated by teachers or designers into the learning designs of most courses and programs. it seems that the added value of security and network features was not of sufficient value over and above the institutional lms system for a critical mass of either students or teachers to utilize the system. our system, like other social media, only becomes useful when it is used and is only used when it becomes useful. in education data becomes more useful when it is linked with other personal and institutional data to create learning profiles that guide the development of individualized learning scenarios and plans (the holy grail of learning analytics!). we were not allowed, nor did we wish to link to other external feeds of personal data, thus simplifying, but at the same time limiting the capability of our in-house social media system. thus, the challenges of adoption, both by faculty and by the institution, coupled with the challenges of building and supporting in-house systems, have relegated the athabasca landing to a boutique research product, rather than a competitive social media enhancement to the institution, its staff and most importantly for its students. decentralized social media applications one of the few proposed solutions to this challenge was made by tim berners-lee, (2018) the inventor of the world wide web. he now oversees the development of the solid platform to provide individual control and ownership of data. with individual ownership, data remains capable of distribution and aggregation with other data, however the user (and generator) retains control of how the data is to be used, sold or traded by any number of applications. verborgh (2019) shows how this individual ownership of data, stored in personal owned data pods is differentiated from the current model (fig. 1). 15 figure 1. centralized versus decentralized models for web-based services (verborgh, 2019). obviously the two solutions i outline above, are far from a solution to the challenges posed by social media use in higher education. harari (2018) notes we have thousands of years’ experience in owning and selling land, hundreds of years owning and selling companies, but are only a few years into figuring out how to own and sell data. are we therefore willing to exchange school-generated data – both personal and collective, in exchange for cool apps and no fees! problems and opportunities in social media research given the large number of unknowns that mark the use of social media that are described above, what can we expect from formal educational research? when one critically examines the research literature on social media, we come to a number of unfortunate and somewhat discouraging results. far too much of the research literature is based on case studies and descriptions of use — with a paucity of empirical data — especially as regards to educational outcomes. in a 2017 systematic review of ten years of social media use in k-12 education greenhow & askari (2017) found “the most prevalent type of study conducted related to our focal topic was research on common uses. the least common type of study conducted was research that established the technology’s effectiveness at improving student learning”. research relating to “common use” has some exposure value when new tools are being introduced into classrooms but provides very little evidence related to cost or learning effectiveness. during my ten years as editor of irrodl, i continued to be disappointed at how many (usually unsuccessful) submissions could be described “here is what i’ve done, isn’t it wonderful?” there are many reasons for this paucity of evidence-based research and these inadequacies are shared with many other interventions in formal education systems. over ten years ago i compared the funding available for canadian research in health (with a goal of 3% of funding allocated to research) compared to .01% currently allocated for educational research as compared to expenditure. there seems little public or private faith in the efficacy and cost return of education research. 16 i also note the over-representation of research in which the samples are drawn from education students generally and especially those enrolled in graduate educational technology programs. can we honestly assume that the early adopters drawn to education technology studies are representative of all students or teachers? finally, as i detail above, the data generated by students and teachers using social media is owned (and zealously guarded) by the social media companies. researchers are constrained or not allowed to examine and analyse this data – such analysis is left to the media company, always hidden and most often used for commercial advantage and external sales. despite the challenges of low funding, lack of data availability and extensive convenience sampling, i have hope that the continuing increase in power and capability of research tools themselves (notably social network analysis tools and automated data collection and analysis tools), will continue to provide us with at least a trickle of openly accessible research results. conclusion the creation of this paper has focused my attention on both the challenges and the opportunities provided by social media and likely to continue to develop in the near and long-term future. education has unparalleled opportunity to monitor and improve its own practices. teachers have new ways to connect with students and, as importantly, means to monitor and intervene in student learning so as to increase the efficacy of both teaching and learning. students have new ways to find, retrieve and share their learning products and opportunities. however, the cost of these benefits currently is reduction in privacy and user control. continuous monitoring, research and surveillance of the surveillers is of critical importance to the development of educational quality and opportunity. references anderson, t., & dron, j. (2017). integrating learning management and social networking systems. italian journal of educational technology, 25(3). http://ijet.itd.cnr.it/article/view/950. anderson, t., & mcpherson, d. (2018). online learning initiatives. in alberta schools. edmonton: alberta teachers' association. https://www.teachers.ab.ca/sitecollectiondocuments/ata/publications/research/coor-101-19 online learning initiatives.pdf andersson, h. (2018). social media apps are 'deliberately' addictive to users. bbc. retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-44640959 antonio, a. b., & tuffley, d. (2015). promoting information literacy in higher education through digital curation. m/c journal, 18(4). berners-lee, t. (2018). one small step for the web…. medium. https://medium.com/@timberners_lee/one-smallstep-for-the-web-87f92217d085 bilandzic, m., & foth, m. (2013). libraries as coworking spaces: understanding user motivations and perceived barriers to social learning. library hi tech, 31(2), 254-273. brown, c., czerniewicz, l., & noakes, t. (2016). online content creation: looking at students’ social media practices through a connected learning lens. learning, media and technology, 41(1), 140-159. bullock, l. (2018). the biggest social media fails of 2018. forbes. cantabella, m., lópez, b., caballero, a., & muñoz, a. (2018). analysis and evaluation of lecturers’ activity in learning management systems: subjective and objective perceptions. interactive learning environments, 1-13. 17 carter, w. (2018). media marketing strategies university leaders use to increase alumni financial support. walden university. chen, b., & bryer, t. (2012). investigating instructional strategies for using social media in formal and informal learning. the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 13(1), 87-104. czerkawski, b. (2016). blending formal and informal learning networks for online learning. the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 17(3). davis iii, c. h., deil-amen, r., rios-aguilar, c., & gonzález canché, m. s. (2015). social media, higher education, and community colleges: a research synthesis and implications for the study of two-year institutions. community college journal of research and practice, 39(5), 409-422. de-marcos, l., garcia-lopez, e., & garcia-cabot, a. (2016). on the effectiveness of game-like and social approaches in learning: comparing educational gaming, gamification & social networking. computers & education, 95, 99-113. dron, j., & anderson, t. (2014). teaching crowds: learning and social media. edmonton, canada: athabasca university press. http://www.aupress.ca/index.php/books/120235 friesen, n., & lowe, s. (2012). the questionable promise of social media for education: connective learning and the commercial imperative. journal of computer assisted learning, 28(3), 183-194. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2729.2011.00426.x greenhow, c., & askari, e. (2017). learning and teaching with social network sites: a decade of research in k-12 related education. education and information technologies, 22(2), 623-645. greenhow, c., & lewin, c. (2016). social media and education: reconceptualizing the boundaries of formal and informal learning. learning, media and technology, 41(1), 6-30. gruzd, a., paulin, d., & haythornthwaite, c. (2016). analyzing social media and learning through content and social network analysis: a faceted methodological approach. journal of learning analytics, 3(3), 46-71. harari, y. n. (2018). 21 lessons for the 21st century. toronto: random house. hu, s., gu, j., liu, h., & huang, q. (2017). the moderating role of social media usage in the relationship among multicultural experiences, cultural intelligence, and individual creativity. information technology & people, 30(2), 265-281. keenan, i. d., slater, j. d., & matthan, j. (2018). social media: insights for medical education from instructor perceptions and usage. mededpublish, 7. khatri, c., et al (2015). social media and internet driven study recruitment: evaluating a new model for promoting collaborator engagement and participation. plos one, 10(3), e0118899. kimmerle, j., moskaliuk, j., oeberst, a., & cress, u. (2015). learning and collective knowledge construction with social media: a process-oriented perspective. educational psychologist, 50(2), 120-137. lewis, s., pea, r., & rosen, j. (2010). beyond participation to co-creation of meaning: mobile social media in generative learning communities. social science information, 49(3), 351-369. lin, y.-w. (2018). # deletefacebook is still feeding the beast–but there are ways to overcome surveillance capitalism. https://dspace.stir.ac.uk/bitstream/1893/26880/1/lin-conversation-2018.pdf manca, s., & ranieri, m. (2016a). facebook and the others. potentials and obstacles of social media for teaching in higher education. computers & education, 95, 216-230. manca, s., & ranieri, m. (2016b). “yes for sharing, no for teaching!”: social media in academic practices. the internet and higher education, 29, 63-74. martins, n., & ungerer, l. m. (2015). virtual teaching dispositions at a south african open distance learning university. procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 171, 929-936. 18 mcluhan, m. (1964). understanding media: the extensions of man. toronto: mcgraw-hill. moorhead, s. a., hazlett, d. e., harrison, l., carroll, j. k., irwin, a., & hoving, c. (2013). a new dimension of health care: systematic review of the uses, benefits, and limitations of social media for health communication. journal of medical internet research, 15(4). nadkarni, a., & hofmann, s. g. (2012). why do people use facebook? personality and individual differences, 52(3), 243-249. nagle, j. (2018). twitter, cyber-violence, and the need for a critical social media literacy in teacher education: a review of the literature. teaching and teacher education, 76, 86-94. pangrazio, l. (2016). reconceptualising critical digital literacy. discourse: studies in the cultural politics of education, 37(2), 163-174. pariser, e. (2011). the filter bubble. what the internet is hiding from you. new york: penguin group. pelton, r. (2018). say no to the algorithm gods. medium. https://medium.com/@ryanjpelton/say-no-to-thealgorithm-gods-747b5a8cebd0 pimmer, c., mateescu, m., & gröhbiel, u. (2016). mobile and ubiquitous learning in higher education settings. a systematic review of empirical studies. computers in human behavior, 63, 490-501. ranieri, m., rosa, a., & manca, s. (2016). unlocking the potential of social media for participation, content creation and e-engagement. students’ perspectives and empowerment. in e. brown, a. krastiva & m. ranieri (eds.), e-learning and social media: education and citizenship for the digital 21st century pp. 223-248). charlotte, nc usa: iap. regan, p., jesse, j., & talatkhwaja, e. (2018). big data in education: developing policy or ethical implementation in the us and canada. ottawa: equality project. http://www.equalityproject.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/9-bigdata-in-education-developing-policy-for-ethical-implementation-in-the-us-and-canada.pdf verborgh, r. (2019). re-centralizing the web, for good this time. in o. seneviratne & j. hendler (eds.), linking the world’s information: tim berners-lee’s invention of the world wide web): acm. retrieved from https://ruben.verborgh.org/articles/redecentralizing-the-web/ wall, d. s. (2018). how big data feeds big crime. current history, 117(795), 29-34. welch, a. g., napoleon, l., hill, b., & roumell, e. (2014). virtual teaching dispositions scale (vtds): a multidimensional instrument to assess teaching dispositions in virtual classrooms. journal of online learning and teaching, 10(3), 446. yar, m. (2018). a failure to regulate? the demands and dilemmas of tackling illegal content and behaviour on social media. international journal of cybersecurity intelligence & cybercrime, 1(1), 5-20. zuboff, s. (2015). big other: surveillance capitalism and the prospects of an information civilization. journal of information technology, 30(1), 75-89. zuboff, s. (2019). the age of surveillance capitalism: the fight for a human future at the new frontier of power. new york: publicaffairs. author: terry anderson is professor emeritus at the athabasca university, canada. he is the former editor of the international review of research in open and distributed learning and formerly canada research chair in distance education. email: terrydanderson2@gmail.com 19 cite this paper as: anderson, t. (2019). challenges and opportunities for use of social media in higher education. journal of learning for development, 6(1), 6-19. microsoft word coughlan.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 143-159 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. creating open online courses with learner representative partners to widen participation in higher education tim coughlan and jenny goff the open university, united kingdom abstract: open online courses could provide stepping stones for audiences that are underrepresented in higher education (he). however, there are concerns that these instead proliferate forms of exclusion and do not address known difficulties for widening participation. we explore how organisations that represent the perspectives of particular underserved audiences for he can act as ‘learner representative partners’ to support the creation of appropriate courses and to highlight practices that exclude. six course development processes where a university worked with different partners are analysed using interviews, documentation of resource use, and data on learner behaviour. the analysis utilises previously identified challenges to widening participation and collaborative course creation. getting partners to directly engage in authoring the course was particularly beneficial but all partners prompted critical thought and greater understanding of the intended audiences. we suggest principles to support such partnerships effectively. these include adapting to a variable capacity of partners to contribute, to encourage reuse or creation of resources by partners, and to facilitate partners to feel confident in expressing their views. keywords: open educational resources, widening participation, non-formal education, higher education; collaboration, elearning. introduction widening participation in higher education (he) from under-represented groups, such as those with social or economic disadvantages, is a complex yet important challenge (butcher, corfield, & roseadams, 2012). the nature and norms of higher education institutions (heis) lead to a lack of connections with, understanding of, or fit to, the needs of non-traditional audiences (mampaey, 2017; devas, 2011; jones & lau, 2010). in principle, open online courses provide a flexible route to study for all people and reduce financial and geographical constraints. there is, however, a lack of evidence that open courses or resources have delivered a substantial widening of participation in he (falconer, mcgill, littlejohn, boursinou, & punie, 2013). without attention, they may instead proliferate existing barriers (lane 2012; cannell & macintyre, 2017). the development of partnerships with organisations that work with these audiences could provide a means to change this. collaborations between heis and various types of organisations have been argued for in widening participation literature (reed, king, & whiteford, 2015; hatt, baxter, & tate, 2008). here, we focus on engaging organisations that have knowledge and connections with specific audiences in the creation of open online courses that relate he study to the current employment or aspirations of these audiences, and therefore tackle known barriers to widening participation. the organisations that could fulfil this role as a ‘learner representative partner’ (lrp) are broad, and could include sector bodies, charities, or trade unions. 144 in this paper, we analyse six course creation processes, each with different partners. the intended audiences for these courses include people in lower-paid roles in the healthcare, teaching, and voluntary sectors, and those wanting to understand how to run an enterprise with little to no background in business. the lrp organisations were selected for their connections with target audiences but also helped to shape the perceptions of these audiences. the courses combine practical career-relevant skills with academic elements, offer the opportunity to receive soft accreditation through badging, and suggest next steps into further study. we analyse these course production processes and related data to identify ways in which the lrp influenced the outcomes towards tackling known challenges for widening participation, and the challenges and benefits of collaboration. through this, we provide principles for partnerships to create appropriate open online courses for under-represented audiences. as challenges to widening participation and collaborative course authoring appear to be common around the world, these recommendations are created with the intention that they will be relevant to all heis and potential partners. opportunities and challenges in using open education to widen participation widening participation in he from under-represented groups is a focus for many heis and governments around the world. however, it is argued that there are common and persistent teaching and learning practices that are unsuitable for these audiences (jones & lau, 2010). mampaey (2017) argues that forms of ‘decoupling’ arise between public commitments by heis to widen participation, and the realities of their practices. by this they mean that while heis often create admirable objectives to be inclusive, these can be disconnected from their processes and their teaching due to a variety of reasons. one set of challenges exists around the expectations of students. in this regard, o’shea, lysaght, roberts, and harwood (2016) describe a ‘deficit mind-set’ amongst hei staff, where students are expected to learn to overcome disadvantages that they have when compared to traditional students. while additional support could be beneficial in this development, staff often report that they did not have the time or awareness required to provide this. devas (2011) argues that he alienates working-class students in the uk by drawing implicitly on middle-class capital in language, pedagogy, and expectations for independent learning. at the same time, they are expected to take responsibility to develop towards becoming more like the traditional students with limited support. there can also be resistance to the implementation of any approach developed to widen participation. mampaey (2017) highlights that there are uncertainties about how heis can really widen participation due to a lack of knowledge and evidence for the right strategies to take. they also find that these strategies may be perceived by staff to be an imposition on academic freedoms. a further challenge arises when targeting diverse groups. terms such as ‘under-represented’ conflate people from different backgrounds (crozier, reay, & clayton, 2009). awareness of diversity within these populations could be achieved through student-centred strategies where learning reflects the interests and identities of the audience, and so becomes more relevant and meaningful to the learners (hockings, cooke, & bowl, 2009). causes of under-representation, such as lower achievement in school, require provision for adults to re-engage with education later in life (chowdry, crawford, dearden, goodman, & vignoles, 2013). 145 however, these adults often feel peripheral to he, and have diverse situations when compared to recent school or college leavers (o’donnell & tobbell, 2007). osborne, marks, and turner (2004) identify categories of persons who consider becoming a mature student, including ‘careerists’ who seek qualifications to progress, and ‘escapees’ wanting to leave their current area of employment. student-centred strategies for adults could, therefore, draw links with current employment and career goals. developing courses for particular career and life situations could reduce the conflation of diverse audiences. open educational resources (oer) could widen the availability of education by removing limits to the number of places, and improving affordability, but could also entrench existing divides if resources are not suited to audiences (lane, 2012). indeed, evidence of impact of oer on widening participation in adult education is limited (falconer et al., 2013). instead, oer and massive open online courses (moocs), have mostly served well-educated audiences (farrow, de los arcos, pitt, & weller, 2015). arguably, this could be caused by the decoupling mampaey (2017) describes in heis, with moocs and oer embodying traditional norms of tuition. while reuse of resources is fundamental to open educational practices (coughlan, pitt & mcandrew, 2013), it could be problematic if these resources retain traditional norms of teaching that exclude wider audiences. alternatively, non-hei resources could be particularly appropriate to wider audiences, and provide a counterpoint to decoupling. the potential and challenges of collaboration innovative forms of social partnership may support oer to reach wider audiences (cannell, macintyre, & hewitt, 2015), and various partnerships have also been devised to widen participation in he. for example, hatt et al. (2008) describe partnerships between schools, colleges and heis in an initiative to raise confidence and aspirations. collaboration supported the project to target college and school students with no family background in he, who were considered to lack the cultural capital that supported others. reed et al. (2015) describe university-industry mentorship programs as a key strategy for widening participation, but find challenges including the potential for misaligned expectations, and the need to establish a sustainable rationale for the collaboration and effective relationships with very different types of organisations. collaboration within heis is relatively commonplace when creating online courses, due to the differing technological and pedagogical demands of online course production when compared to faceto-face teaching (xu & morris, 2007). teams may feature distinct roles such as instructional designer or subject expert. again, challenges are reported: hixon (2008) found that even with standardised roles, variable forms of collaboration occurred between production processes. a common language and vision needed to be developed and misunderstandings were problematic. xu and morris (2007) identified that collaboration caused an increase in workload but did help educators to rethink their practices. collaborations between educators to produce oer can realise efficiencies around a shared goal. coughlan et al. (2013) describe a collaboration in which foundation-level courses from an hei were released openly, adapted, and used in diverse ways across a range of colleges, universities, and charities. collaborative development of oer has also emerged in open textbook initiatives where 146 authors from multiple heis produce course texts together (ochôa, silveira, & sprock, 2011). this can reduce the costs of study and support customisation (ozdemir & hendricks 2017). however, a focus on massive scale in open online learning comes into tension with the need to engage and support diverse learners. new relationships between providers and other organisations could deliver this support (cannell & macintyre, 2017). questions and key concepts we frame this paper with two questions, and use key concepts from the literature related to each of these to structure the analysis. 1) how can collaborations with lrps support the creation of open online courses that are appropriate to widen participation in education? we focus first on the ways in which collaborations with lrps could lead to courses that effectively engage non-traditional audiences, drawing on concepts from widening participation literature: • student-centred strategies: widening participation audiences are diverse but often conflated (crozier et al., 2009). we identify how the lrps’ knowledge of audiences was used to make courses relevant to them (hockings et al., 2009). • tackling decoupling: practices of heis in areas such as pedagogy and language may be disconnected from their aims of widening participation (devas 2011; o’shea et al., 2016; mampaey, 2017). we analysed whether lrps could highlight these issues and advocate for audiences. • generating engagement with he: the aim of widening participation is to engage nontraditional learners from diverse backgrounds with he (butcher et al., 2012). we explore if and how collaboration with lrps could lead to engagement of these audiences. 2) what opportunities and challenges arise through collaboration with lrps in course creation processes? processes of collaboration raise challenges and opportunities. we, therefore, include the following concepts in our analysis: • alignment of goals and expectations: different types of organisations, such as an hei and lrp, are likely to differ in the aims and expectations of a collaboration (reed et al., 2015; coughlan et al., 2013). we analyse identified tensions and the development of shared understanding. • work and benefits of collaborations: it is argued that collaboration creates overheads, but these efforts can be beneficial in supporting learning from each other (xu & morris 2007; coughlan et al., 2013). we analyse perceptions of workload and benefits achieved. • structuring collaborations: course production collaborations tend to be structured around particular roles (xu & morris 2007; hixon, 2008) and relationship development is important to inter-organisational collaborations (reed et al., 2015). we analyse how collaborations were planned and the varied practices that occurred (hixon, 2008). 147 course creation processes this research analyses a national networks for collaborative outreach project which collaboratively developed a set of six open online courses as pathways towards he study (open university, 2016). partners for each course were drawn from the social partnership network, which brings together organisations with a commitment to social inclusion (hereafter referred to as partners), and the open university uk (hereafter referred to as the hei). decisions on partnerships were made based on relevance to the intended audience, and each course had a different partner. courses follow a standard structure with approximately 15 hours of learning split into three to five sections. each section includes a quiz. digital badges are awarded for successful completion of each section and its quiz. in this way, learners can focus on sections of relevance to them, or follow a whole course. the courses are self-paced to support flexible use, and do not require interaction with other learners, but could be taken in a social context. courses were designed to introduce he-level material in the contexts of careers in sectors such as healthcare or teaching, or general skills such as entrepreneurship. to support active learning, activities in which learners create open text responses are interspersed with the material. to draw connections between he study and the intended audience, activities commonly highlight links between the knowledge being learnt and the learner’s own experiences. the authoring process for each course took three to four months and was followed by a handover to production staff, and pilots with learners before public launch. as course creation was staggered, some lessons learnt from earlier processes were applied to those that followed. however, each course had a unique authoring team and mix of roles for partners. methodology this research uses a mixed-methods approach as a pragmatic means to analyse the process and outcomes of a novel activity based in complex, real life settings. interviews are used to provide multiple perspectives from the hei and partner on the course creation processes and expectations of how the courses will be used. data on the reuse of existing resources in these courses provides complementary insights into the construction of the courses. data from learners provides initial insights into engagement. data collection interviews were conducted with an author from the hei, the main individual from the partner organisation, and the project manager (pm) for each of the course creation processes. as three courses shared one pm, they were interviewed once, but were asked to talk through their experiences for each course. therefore, a total of 16 interviews were performed. to support reflection on experiences, interviews were conducted at the end of the course authoring processes but before the courses were published. interviews were semi-structured and followed a rubric with prompts on the background of the interviewee, their conceptions of the audience for the courses, the benefits for audiences, the benefits for the authors and their organisation, the process of collaboration and course authoring, and 148 expectations as to how the course would be used and promoted. approval for this was received from the human research ethics committee of the open university. to complement the interviews, we drew on course production documentation. this includes an analysis of logs of the existing resources that were reused or adapted in each course, which allows us to identify the origin of resources and the extent of reuse achieved. we also reviewed ‘challenge logs’ in which pms recorded issues that arose. these provide further evidence and understanding of issues discussed in the interviews. to provide an indication of the use of these courses, we include activity data from enrolled learners during an initial eight-month period and data from an optional survey. analysis a thematic analysis (boyatzis, 1998) of the interviews was conducted by two researchers using a shared nvivo file. an initial set of codes related to the project goals was used by both researchers. these covered themes related to the interviewee background, the target audience, the benefits that their course was expected to have, and plans for the future. this was supplemented by inductive coding according to emergent themes identified from the data. the coded data were summarised to describe key characteristics of each of the course production processes. tables 1-6 present summaries based on this and further analysis for this paper relates the themes to the research questions and concepts from literature. the process documentation and challenge logs were used to triangulate understanding gained from the interviews. this included comparing a quantified analysis of the provenance of reused resources (table 7) to interview comments around reuse, checking that logged challenges were covered by the themes arising from the interview analysis, and reviewing elements of the courses and reused source materials that were discussed in the interviews, in order to check the validity of interviewee statements and to add further understanding of the outcomes produced. findings in this section we provide summaries of each course creation process and describe the reuse of existing resources and learner activity data. summary of course creation processes to provide context to the findings, we summarise each of the six course creation processes in tables 16. 149 table 1: caring for adults (cfa) theme summary course aim developing understanding of key issues that relate to being a carer, whether in a paid or unpaid role. lrp disability charity that employs formal carers and works with informal carers. main individual involved supervises a team that delivers training. course creation and uses simple language was argued to be appropriate. there was reuse of lrp training materials and a mix of case studies from hei and lrp. course promotion on the lrp’s public website and staff intranet. course to become part of staff induction and promoted to informal carers. collaboration partner involved in extensive authoring, input on direction and feedback. hei and partner author’s writing styles and pedagogical approach differed. partner’s style was considered very appropriate for the audience. revisions made to balance this. table 2: introducing practical healthcare (iph) theme summary course aim developing knowledge and skills for a deeper understanding of healthcare practice. lrp trade union serving public sector workers including in healthcare. main individual developed learning initiatives for members. course creation and uses audience included workers in any role in healthcare settings (including porters or administrators), but later focus on healthcare assistants. lrp pushed to focus on those with basic skills and no qualifications. reused resources were adapted to achieve consistent language. lrp promotes the course to their ‘learning reps’ who work with the audiences and plan study groups to take the course together. collaboration partner did minor authoring, gave feedback on drafts, and provided case studies. main individual had limited availability, other staff provided policy information and additional feedback. table 3: planning a better future (pbf) theme summary course aim an introduction for anyone considering changing jobs, returning to work, or aspiring to better things. lrp organisation providing educational support to trade union members. main individual worked with data on member’s learning activities and communicating routes into he study, and so provided insights from these roles. course creation and uses specific audiences such as people in low-paid retail occupations were kept in mind. creating confidence to change careers was emphasised. partner pushed for a simplification of the language in reused hei materials. lrp to promote the course through their events, publications and social media. collaboration content drafted by a hei-based author, with suggestions and feedback given to them from the lrp. 150 table 4: supporting children’s development (scd) theme summary course aim developing understanding of children’s development for teaching assistants, support staff and parents. lrp trade union. main individual involved is a teaching assistant, so part of the target audience, but relatively advanced. their experiences became a focus. course creation and uses learners could have different levels of experience and authors agreed to assume no experience. lrp resources were mainly used for inspiration and to understand the existing landscape. recent policy changes restricted reuse of older resources, but case studies were reused. lrp will promote it widely to members. individual involved will promote it in their own school. collaboration the main individual from the lrp worked in an advisory role with two hei-based authors. a section on professional development included interviews with them. table 5: starting your small business (sysb) theme summary course aim an introduction for anyone who has set up a business recently, is thinking about doing so, or is self-employed. lrp a charity offering skills-based adult education classes. main individual has a chair role in the lrp and runs a small business. course creation and uses course considered to have a very broad potential audience. partners pushed to lower the language level and reduce jargon. many existing resources included in the first draft but feedback led to significant changes to these. lrps expected to use their various social enterprise and business-related networks to promote the course. collaboration challenging to identify available partner capacity. main partner was supplemented with two individuals from other partners to provide feedback on drafts. hei-based author appreciated the multiple perspectives at different stages but these were not always compatible. 151 table 6: taking part in the voluntary sector (tpvs) theme summary course aim introducing the sector for people supporting or managing aspects of voluntary organisations, or considering volunteering. lrp national umbrella organisation for the voluntary sector. the main individual involved runs training programmes on course-related topics. course creation and uses wide potential audience from those thinking of volunteering to those running a charity. lrp provided resources which were felt to make the course distinctive. the course will also complement their existing face-to-face training programme. collaboration co-authored with partner and hei taking responsibility for specific units, then providing feedback to each other. hei authored more overall. some underestimation of workload and different work practices. to summarise, partners engaged in substantial amounts of course authoring in the tpvs and cfa courses, and a smaller amount of authoring in iph. further partner roles across the courses included activities to define the audience and course structure, suggesting resources for reuse, and providing feedback on drafts. reuse of existing resources reusing and adapting existing resources into the courses was encouraged, including sources from lrps, such as videos originally produced for staff training and infographics from their websites. one example is an image from the partners’ training materials on different ways of promoting independence, which was incorporated into course materials on ‘promoting independence’ (open university / social partnership network, 2016a). this was incorporated into the cfa course and reflects the style of communication that the partner considered appropriate to the audience. in another example, text explaining the ways in which charities involve volunteers was adapted from lrp training material into the tpvs course. resources from existing hei courses and from third parties were also used. lists of reused resources produced during course production were analysed to assess sources (table 7), giving another perspective on the influence of partners. this analysis shows that the courses in which lrps engaged most substantially as authors (tpvs and cfa) also had the highest proportions and counts of reused resources attributed to the partner. while this does not capture the importance of these resources or the way it was adapted for the course, it suggests that where partners were engaged as authors, more partner content was included. but even where partners did not directly author, resources were adapted from partners in all but one course, and lrps were prompted to suggest resources for consideration. 152 table 7: existing resources reused in each course and their attribution (proportions in brackets) course total resources reused resources attributed to the hei resources attributed to the partner resources attributed to other parties cfa 40 5 (13%) 7 (18%) 28 (70%) iph 35 21 (60%) 2 (6%) 12 (34%) pbf 16 5 (31%) 2 (13%) 9 (56%) sysb 18 3 (17%) 0 (0%) 15 (83%) tpvs 31 8 (26%) 10 (32%) 13 (42%) scd 23 8 (35%) 1 (4%) 14 (61%) learner demographics to minimise barriers to engagement, learners were not required to complete surveys to enrol but an optional survey provides some demographics: 76% of respondents were over the age of 25 (n = 37), 70% were currently employed (n = 33), and 72% were not currently he students (n = 32). fifty-three percent of respondents to this had not achieved an he qualification (n = 34). for comparison, 46% of respondents had not achieved an he qualification in responses to the same previous qualification question across all courses on the same platform in 2015 (n = 1362) (law & perryman, 2017). this provides some indication that the courses are mainly reaching an adult audience that is working and has often not engaged with he previously. learner activity data on learners who enrolled in the courses in an initial eight-month period provides initial insights into the response to the courses. this includes the proportions receiving badges for completing sections or whole courses, and click-through actions by enrolled learners that suggest further engagement. a total of 1,729 learners enrolled in the courses in this period. across courses, a median of 24.1% of enrolled learners have received one or more badges, and 14.9% completed the whole course to date. as learners might be interested in specific sections or the whole course, both measures are important. comparison between courses is of interest, and completion rates vary from 26.6% (iph) to 4.3% (sysb). badging rates vary from 44% (iph), to 19.1% (sysb). sysb has the lowest completion and badging rates but the largest enrolment. the courses with the highest completion and badging rates, iph, cfa and tpvs, are those that featured directing authoring from partners. a further measure of engagement with he is click through from the course web pages to information about further courses. across all courses, a median of 6.8% of learners clicked through to information about courses offered by the hei, and 15.9% clicked through to further free courses. pbf and scd performed well in these measures, perhaps reflecting topics that link well to further engagement in education. 153 table 8: data from learners enrolled in the courses after eight months of publication course # enrolled in period % completing all badges % receiving 1+ badges % click through to hei courses information cfa 197 20.3% 20.3% 6.9% iph 109 26.6% 44.0% 3.9% pbf 99 13.1% 21.2% 11.9% scd 203 11.8% 27.1% 12.0% sysb 1085 4.3% 19.2% 6.5% tpvs 36 16.7% 41.7% 6.6% interview analysis and discussion this presentation of the interview analysis is structured according to the research questions. for each quote the interviewee is stated with the course acronym and role, where -pm is project manager, -hei is the hei-based author, and -lrp is the partner. how can collaborations with lrps support the creation of open online courses that are appropriate to widen participation in education? student-centred strategies a key theme was the role of partners to contribute understanding of the audience, including challenges they may face. for example, one noted that: we meet people who are very disadvantaged, so i suggested that we should also think about people who are running businesses but who have absolutely no qualifications … people in prison, … people who would never see themselves as traditional entrepreneurs (sysb-lrp). this emphasis on considering non-traditional audiences was a consistent theme. for example, one noted that the use of reflective activities would be really useful in the workplace, but needed support as “it might be the first time they have asked to be reflective on their practice” (cfa-lrp). another theme was the working lives of the audience members. lrps supported understanding of “dealing with people with different experiences in work. how they work, where they work... it is a look at… other parts of the world.” (pbf-pm). engagement in authoring supported partners to add topics that were felt to be important for the audience but weren’t on the agenda of hei authors. for example, positive risk-taking was raised as important to care workers by the lrp: the one section that came in later was on … positive risk-taking … that was quite an interesting section … it came out of fairly early discussions amongst the authors, but i think it was cfa-lrp that suggested that, and then cfa-hei agreed (cfa-pm). a further benefit was the ability to draw on partner experiences and contexts in making new resources. for example, scd included a video in which the partner discusses their own career and education (open university / social partnership network, 2016b), followed by activities that ask the learner to reflect on their motivations, experiences and career route. iph used audio pieces made with 154 the partner on themes such as the day-to-day tasks that a job entails, and what motivated their career choices. these resources were grounded in situations familiar to intended audiences and would have been difficult for the hei to produce independently. tackling decoupling as observers to the collaborative authoring process, pms were well placed to assess the value of lrps to tackle decoupling. one noted that: what we suffer a lot from (at the hei) is a kind of groupthink … especially if you are thinking about all these different audience members, that you can serve all these audiences with just an academic (scd, tpvs & sysb-pm). the lrps prompted hei authors to examine ways in which they might unintentionally exclude the audience. learners were engaged with the course production at the piloting stage, but lrps offered broader understanding of the audience, and expert suggestions. partners advocated for and suggested appropriate language for the audience across all processes. one noted that they “spent a lot of time commenting on terms, (saying) ‘this looks too difficult, try and simplify it’ and getting rid of jargon and acronyms” (sysb-lrp). the tpvs partner highlighted sector terminology that would require careful introduction. by authoring or suggesting resources for reuse, partners prompted comparison with resources from the hei and further discussions of appropriate language: what we found was that (cfa-lrps) content, because it was coming from fairly basic training material, was pitched very much at the level. but (the content authored by the hei) was coming from a more academic standpoint … (and) read as more challenging (cfa-pm). if existing hei resources dominate it raises concerns that practices unsuited to the audiences are maintained. lrp authoring was associated with greater reuse of lrp resources in table 7. where lrp authoring was not practicable, their feedback provided on drafts written by the hei author could provide important perspectives on language use. for example, in the pbf course, it was noted that the academic author had previously “written courses to a higher level… (but the lrp) was very good at marking us down on that” (pbf-pm). generating engagement with he partners identified various pathways to promote the courses, including events, public-facing websites, intranets, and social media, inductions or other staff training. the initial quantitative findings suggest that the courses have had some impact in generating engagement amongst the intended populations. a broad challenge to the effectiveness of open online courses for widening participation is the lack of personal tutoring or peer support (falconer et al., 2013; cannell & macintyre, 2017). while the courses themselves were designed for independent study, there are a variety of ways in which lrps could provide personal support: i know we’ve got ‘next steps’ (information in the course) but… (learners) will probably have different kinds of questions or different routes in mind…our aim with it would be to get our learning reps supporting people with it…to help them or signpost them, and maybe getting study groups together (iph-lrp) 155 lrps had strong connections with sub-groups of the intended audience (their members or clients), and were most capable of serving these. the extent of these connections was important to review. for example, the cfa partner employed professional carers but also identified staff working with informal carers as a link to another important audience. what opportunities and challenges arise through collaboration with lrps in course creation processes? alignment of goals and expectations a key theme for alignment between team members were their conceptions of the audience. this was discussed in initial meetings, but evolved over time. for example, the iph course intended to include all those working in healthcare settings but later agreed that healthcare assistants were the core focus. where parts of the course were authored separately, or drew on sources of different provenance, inconsistencies required remedial action. in cfa where authoring was shared, the partner’s style — drawn from delivering work-based training — was in contrast to that of the hei author, leading to: … work around taking some activities out of the (partner-led) section and building in … activities in the more academic sections to bring them in line … you wouldn’t get that challenge so much obviously if it is one author, coming from a particular standpoint (cfa-pm). achieving a consistent style added work. however, the visible inconsistencies in drafts could be seen as a positive indication that both lrp and hei perspectives were included. work and benefits of collaborations a key reflection was a need to understand and plan for achievable contributions from each lrp. authoring partners could “share the load” (cfa-pm) to reduce pressure on academics. however, creating an open online course was not business as usual for lrps, so they had to identify staff and capacity for unfamiliar work. for some courses, particularly sysb, there were difficulties in finding partner capacity in the available time. a pm noted that with hindsight it was important: “…to recognise the different types of buy-in from different social partner organisations. it won’t be consistent” (cfa-pm). partners stated that a key benefit was learning from the process of creating a course with the hei. this fed into their own capacity to teach and produce materials. these organisations are often involved in training and education, but rarely to the extent of a hei, so collaborations were an attractive learning opportunity: it was good experience to see how a course develops from that initial idea, all the way through … (now) i would definitely feel more confident at how to get my ideas out there … to start with it is quite a daunting task (scd-lrp). we have the resources and we have the knowledge. but, actually, the processes… to turn that into something that would be good for online learning – i learnt a lot (tpvs-lrp). the sections on student-centred strategies and decoupling suggest ways that hei staff learnt from these collaborations. insights from partners could become knowledge used in future teaching, and hei authors appreciated how the processes connected them to current practices on the ground. for 156 example, as a “refresher on health today… it’s a while since i’ve been working in actual hospitals and nursing homes. so it has brought me up to date on what is out there” (iph-hei) structuring collaborations in addition to capacity issues, collaborations needed to account for the limited experience of lrps with open online courses and hei processes. a pm noted that partner engagement “doesn’t just depend on their capacity, it will depend on how comfortable they feel.” (cfa-pm). there was a need to ensure that partners developed confidence in unfamiliar roles. concern was expressed by cfa-pm that some partners felt their input to be “basic” when compared to hei academics, and they needed to be confident enough to provide it. while partners saw gaining experience of course production as a benefit, the pms considered it desirable to shield them from the complexities of this to allow them to concentrate on direction and course content. however, this led to challenges when engagement in other areas was required. for example, processes to address rights to sources were raised as problematic by several partners who were not used to publishing, and the creation of quizzes to assess whether learners should receive badges was identified as a challenge in hca and scd. principles for collaboration with learner representative partners this research has found that collaborating with partners who can represent and advocate for specific under-represented audiences can address fundamental issues raised in the literature on widening participation, and oer. drawing on this and our findings, we suggest the following principles for developing open courses through these collaborations. 1. aim to engage lrps in authoring but be aware that capacity to engage will vary. input could also be through guidance on the audience, ideas on direction, feedback on drafts, and resources for reuse. 2. agree on a description of the audience and identify areas of uncertainty in understanding them. 3. support the lrp to advocate for the learners where hei staff follow practices that they consider inappropriate. 4. emphasise the value of partner perspectives such that they feel comfortable challenging hei staff. 5. explore potential resources for reuse together to prompt dialogue around appropriate language and pedagogy. plan for work to align this into a consistent style. 6. support the lrp to evaluate the appropriateness of language in existing hei content and to provide examples of how they communicate with the audience. 7. employ the lrp to create authentic student-centred course content, such as case studies or reflective interviews, grounded in experiences similar to those of the intended audience. 8. design courses for flexible use and to become a useful resource for the lrp in their work. 9. develop reflective activities within the hei on lessons learnt, to highlight areas of decoupling where practices create barriers. 157 10. support the lrp to understand hei practices, both to inform their contribution and so that they maximise learning from the experience of creating the course. conclusion this paper has identified and explored the concept of learner representative partners – collaborators who work together with heis to create open online courses in response to recognised challenges of engaging under-represented audiences. we find that lrps provided beneficial input from alternative perspectives to that of the hei. these can tackle decoupling of academic practices from aims to widen participation in areas such as language, and provide opportunities for student-centred strategies by providing appropriate topics and authentic course content. the introduction of diverse perspectives brings with it challenges, including in producing a consistent course. at the same time, our analysis suggests that greater involvement of the partner, through directly authoring the course, creates a basis for greater contribution and impact. in considering the wider applicability of the lrp approach, it is important to note that these collaborations can be adapted towards making the process and outcomes most useful to the student audiences, hei, and partners. in this study, the collaborations were adapted to fit the capacity of the lrps to contribute, while the hei managed the processes and led on the authoring and publishing. however, further models would be possible and should be explored where appropriate. for instance, a partner could lead the process of course creation, with the hei taking a supporting role. or heis at an earlier stage in developing their use of oer could partner with organisations who have valuable expertise and processes for communicating and training key audiences at scale. these findings and principles will hopefully encourage greater exploration of the possibilities to collaborate with partners in order to widen participation. acknowledgement: this research was supported by a grant from the higher education funding council for england (hefce) as part of the national networks for collaborative outreach programme. this research would not have been possible without the support of the partners, authors, technical and management teams who worked together to devise the project and create the courses. references boyatzis, r. e. (1998). transforming qualitative information: thematic analysis and code development. london, uk: sage. butcher, j., corfield, r., & rose-adams, j. (2012). contextualised approaches to widening participation: a comparative case study of two uk universities. widening participation and lifelong learning, 13(1), 51-70. doi:10.5456/wpll.13.s.51 cannell, p., & macintyre, r. (2017). free open online resources in workplace and community settings–a case study on overcoming barriers. widening participation and lifelong learning, 19(1), 111-122. doi:10.5456/wpll.19.1.111 cannell, p., macintyre, r., & hewitt, l. (2015). widening access and oer: developing new practice. widening participation and lifelong learning, 17(1), 64-72. doi:10.5456/wpll.17.1.64 chowdry, h., crawford, c., dearden, l., goodman, a., & vignoles, a. (2013). widening participation in higher education: analysis using linked administrative data. journal of the royal statistical society: statistics in society, 176, 431-457. doi:10.1111/j.1467-985x.2012.01043.x 158 coughlan, t., pitt, r., & mcandrew, p. (2013). building open bridges: collaborative remixing and reuse of open educational resources across organisations. in proceedings of the sigchi conference on human factors in computing systems (pp. 991-1000). acm. crozier, g., reay, d., & clayton, j. (2010). access, participation and diversity questions in relation to different forms of post-compulsory further and higher education. in m. david (ed.), improving learning by widening participation in higher education. (pp. 62-74). london: routledge. devas, a. (2011). widening participation and the media student experience. higher education, 62(6). 815-828. doi:10.1007/s10734-011-9421-3 falconer, i., mcgill, l., littlejohn, a., boursinou, e., & punie, y. (2013). overview and analysis of practices with open educational resources in adult education in europe. jrc scientific and policy reports. doi:10.2791/34193 farrow, r., de los arcos, b., pitt, r., & weller, m. (2015). who are the open learners? a comparative study profiling non-formal users of open educational resources. european journal of open, distance and e-learning, 18, 49-73. doi:10.1515/eurodl-2015-0013 hatt, s., baxter, a., & tate, j. (2008). ‘the best government initiative in recent years’. teachers' perceptions of the aimhigher programme in the south west of england. journal of further and higher education, 32, 129-138. doi:10.1080/03098770801911079 hixon, e. (2008). team-based online course development: a case study of collaboration models. online journal of distance learning administration, 11. 1-8. hockings, c., cooke, s., & bowl, m. (2009). pedagogies for social diversity and difference. in m. david (ed.), improving learning by widening participation in higher education (pp. 95-108). london: routledge. jones, n., & lau, a. (2010). blending learning: widening participation in higher education. innovations in education and teaching international, 47, 405-416. doi:10.1080/14703297.2010.518424 lane, a. (2012). widening participation in higher education through open educational resources. in a. l. p. okada, t. connolly & p. j. scott (eds.), collaborative learning 2.0. hershey: information science reference. 115. law, p., & perryman, l. a. (2017). how openlearn supports a business model for oer. distance education, 38(1), 5-22. mampaey, j. (2017). an organisational perspective on social exclusion in higher education: a case study. education as change, 19(3). doi:10.17159/1947-9417/2017/1492 ochôa, x., silveira, i.f., & sprock, a.s. (2011). collaborative open textbooks for latin america: the latin project. proceedings of the information society international conference. 398-403. o'donnell, v.l., & tobbell, j. (2007). the transition of adult students to higher education: legitimate peripheral participation in a community of practice? adult education quarterly, 57, 312-328. doi:10.1177%2f0741713607302686 open university (2016, august), free badged courses from the social partnership network. retrieved from https://www.open.edu/openlearn/spn-courses open university / social partnership network (2016a, july). promoting independence. in caring for adults. retrieved from https://www.open.edu/openlearncreate/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=81115&section=2 open university / social partnership network (2016b, july). panel discussion. in supporting children’s development. retrieved from https://www.open.edu/openlearncreate/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=79864&section=1 o'shea, s., lysaght, p., roberts, j., & harwood, v. (2016). shifting the blame in higher education–social inclusion and deficit discourses. higher education research & development, 35, 322-336. doi:10.1080/07294360.2015.1087388 159 osborne, m., marks, a., & turner, e. (2004). becoming a mature student: how adult applicants weigh the advantages and disadvantages of higher education. higher education, 48(3), 291-315. doi:10.1023/b:high.0000035541.40952.ab ozdemir, o., & hendricks, c. (2017). instructor and student experiences with open textbooks, from the california open online library for education (cool4ed). journal of computing in higher education, 29, 98-113. doi:10.1007/s12528-017-9138-0 reed, r., king, a., & whiteford, g. (2015). re-conceptualising sustainable widening participation: evaluation, collaboration and evolution. higher education research & development, 34(2), 383-396. doi:10.1080/07294360.2014.956692 xu, h., & morris, l.v. (2007). collaborative course development for online courses. innovative higher education, 32. 35-47. doi:10.1007/s10755-006-9033-5 authors: tim coughlan is a lecturer in the institute of educational technology, faculty of wellbeing, education and language studies at the open university, uk. email: tim.coughlan@open.ac.uk jenny goff is a senior manager for student policy and regulations, academic services at the open university, uk. email: jenny.goff@open.ac.uk cite this paper as: coughlan, t., & goff, j. (2019). creating open online courses with learner representative partners to widen participation in higher education. journal of learning for development, 6(2), 142-159. microsoft word mawoyo.docx issn: 2311-1550 2020, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 334-348 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. improving education outcomes in lowand middle-income countries: outcomes-based contracting and early grade literacy monica mawoyo and zaahedah vally jet education services, johannesburg, south africa abstract: fifty-three percent of grade 4 learners cannot read for meaning in lowand middleincome countries despite an investment of between 33-49% of education expenditure on primary education. teaching children to read in the early grades is fundamental to building resilient education systems, as the ability to read early in life is a great predictor for education success, and will minimise learning loss during education emergencies similar to covid-19 school closures, for children who can read for meaning can carry on learning outside of school buildings. further, the predicted financing gaps in the next few years, as a result of covid-19, will require governments to utilise limited financial resources effectively and efficiently by implementing literacy programmes proven to be impactful, using financial instruments like outcomes-based contracting that can mobilise and coordinate non-traditional educational finance and incentivise service providers to improve results by paying for achievement of agreed outcomes. keywords: education outcomes, early grade literacy, outcomes-based contracting. introduction covid-19 has further exacerbated already existing education inequalities globally as financial demands for health and safety are imposing pressures on education budgets. moreover, lowand middle-income countries reliant mostly on the fiscus as well as official development assistance (oda) will experience greater pressure as these sources of funding will contract due to the effects of covid19. as such, governments need to review their financing mechanisms as well as utilisation of available funding by improving effectiveness and efficiency (world bank, 2019a). this paper advocates for the adoption of outcomes-based contracting to address poor early grade literacy in lowand middle-income countries by arguing that poor literacy is resulting in ineffective and inefficient education systems. we explore early grade literacy outcomes among selected countries where data is available, juxtaposing this with per learner education expenditure at the primary level for each country to show how expenditure is not commensurate with outcomes. the paper moves from a broad mapping of literacy outcomes and expenditure data among selected countries and zooms in on south africa, where a historical overview of south africa’s performance in international and regional benchmark tests is provided, followed by a discussion of interventions to improve early grade literacy and their effects. the paper concludes with a consideration of the potential of outcomes-based contracting (obc) in improving early grade literacy to unlock children’s potential to succeed in school, not only in south africa but also among resource-constrained lowand middleincome countries. 335 situation analysis: education expenditure and literacy outcomes the world bank reports that there are still 260 million children out of school and of those who are in school, many do not develop the fundamental skills which should lay the foundation of all future learning, affecting the trajectory of their future lives. without the necessary human capital they cannot forge ahead and build successful livelihoods (world bank, 2019b). the world bank cites the poor quality of education and resultant poor educational outcomes as the root causes for the deficit in human capital.1 a fundamental skill that learners should develop early in school is literacy, as it unlocks learning in all subject areas (spaull & pretorius, 2019; spaull, 2019a; spaull, van der berg, wills, gustafsson & kotzé, 2016; world bank, 2019b) and is critical for the attainment of future educational or social benefits (cunha et al, 2006; heckman & masterov, 2007). yet, staggering percentages of children are not learning to read proficiently by the age of 10, a phenomenon which the world bank and the united nations education, scientific and cultural organisation (unesco) institute for statistics have termed “learning poverty” (world bank, 2019a). the world bank (2019a) postulates that children who cannot read are likely to drop out of school and equal opportunity to access better socioeconomic possibilities is diminished for them. the most recent data2 from the progress in international reading literacy study (pirls), an international comparative assessment that measures student learning in reading every five years since 2001, reveals that fewer than 40% of learners in participating african countries achieved the low international benchmark and barely any achieved the advanced international benchmark (howie et al, 2017). whilst it is easy to assume that a higher expenditure on education will result in improved learning outcomes, this is not always the case as shown by boateng (2014). there is limited evidence to support the notion that increased expenditure will result in higher educational outcomes. mlachila and moeletsi (2019) as well as jansen and amsterdam (2006) emphasise spending the given allocations in an efficient manner, rather than increasing levels of expenditure. in addition, as indicated in table 1, some countries spend less per child, but attain better outcomes than countries spending more per learner. 1 it is found that in high-income oecd countries, 60% of wealth is composed of human capital (world bank, 2019b). 2 the pirls was last conducted in 2016 across 50 countries. 336 table 1: reading proficiency and primary education expenditure country % children who cannot read for meaning at age 103 % children below minimum proficiency level primary school expenditure per child usd)4 botswana 48% 44%*5 1,620 cameroon 77% 76%* 196 mauritius 40% 38%**6 3,480 south africa 80% 78%***7 2,416 uganda 83% 81%* 99 bangladesh 57% 55%** 249 india 55% 54%** 481 malaysia 13% 12%* 4,842 pakistan 75% 65%*** 372 singapore 3% 3%*** 16,021 sri lanka 15% 14%*** 915 finland 3% 2% 9,485 ireland 2% 2% 8,334 cameroon spends 196usd per learner at the primary level, and 77% of learners cannot read for meaning by age 10. south africa on the other hand spends over 12 times the amount that cameroon does (2,416usd per learner), and yet 80% of learners in south africa cannot read for meaning by age 10, thus, learning poverty is higher in south africa compared to cameroon. conversely, botswana’s per learner expenditure is 1,620usd, lower than that of south africa’s, yet only 44% of learners in botswana cannot read for meaning by age 10. in other developing countries like india and bangladesh, the expenditure per learner at the primary school level is 481usd and 249usd, respectively, yet their learning poverty rates are lower than south africa’s, with only 55% of indian learners and 57% of bangladeshi learners aged 10 unable to read for meaning by age 10. table 1 also shows that singapore spends the most per primary school learner (16,021usd) and has very low learning poverty rates — only three percent of learners cannot read for meaning at 10, and only three percent of learners read below the minimum proficiency level. however, finland and ireland are able to achieve similar results with lower expenditure — ireland spends 8,334usd per primary school learner and learning poverty rates are lower than in singapore. the analysis above suggests that there is some inefficiency in education systems among both high and low-expenditure countries based on the results they are getting from their inputs, relative to expenditures by other countries. given this backdrop, the rest of this paper will focus on south africa, 3 referred to as learning poverty (world bank, 2019b). 4 source: http://data.uis.unesco.org/index.aspx (initial government funding per primary student, ppp$. most recent data available between 2013-2019 was cited). 5 * based on grade 6 data: 2011 for botswana, 2014 for malaysia, cameroon and uganda. 6 ** based grade 5 data: 2006 for mauritius, 2015 for bangladesh, 2017 for india. 7 *** based on grade 4 data: 2016 for south africa, 2014 for pakistan, 2015 for sri lanka and 2016 for singapore. 337 and explore what has been done in the south african literacy context, as well as consider why it has not been that successful in addressing the literacy challenges and what can be done to increase the impact of these interventions. the literacy challenge in south africa despite the education function in south africa receiving sizable investments of resources (23.4% of the total national budget), the country suffers with significantly poor educational outcomes (mlachila & moeletsi, 2019; black & steenekamp, 2015; boateng, 2014; imf, 2020). according to boateng (2014), it was thought that poor educational outcomes are linked to underspending by governments but as can be seen from south africa’s case, the high investment in education does not translate into improved outcomes and should not be seen as a solution for the poor quality of education in the country (boateng, 2014; mlachila & moeletsi, 2019). as highlighted in table 1, in 2016, 78% of south africa’s grade 4 learners were reading below the minimum proficiency level. south africa’s poor performance in literacy in international and regional benchmark tests has been cause for concern for over a decade. in pirls 2006 learners from south africa achieved the lowest scores of the 40 countries, with about 80% failing to reach the low international benchmark, compared with only six percent of children internationally who did not reach this benchmark (howie, van staden, tshele, dowse, & zimmerman, 2012). pirls 2011 not only showed how south african learners have low proficiency levels but also highlighted the social achievement gap in this test. in pirls 2011 south african grade 4 learners, particularly those tested in african languages, achieved well below the international centre point even though they had written an easier assessment compared to their counterparts internationally. learners who were tested in afrikaans and english performed relatively well and above the international centre point. this is a significant finding as learners who write the test in english and afrikaans are most likely to be at better resourced schools while those who write in african languages are most likely to be at resource challenged schools where learners do not pay fees. a perpetuation of results like pirls 2011 will only reproduce inequality and lock some groups of learners in a vicious cycle of poverty (moses, van der berg & rich, 2017). the results of pilrs 2016 showed that only 22% of grade 5 and 13% of grade 4 learners in the country could achieve the “low international benchmark”, which indicated the ability to identify basic information in a text and retrieve this from the text exactly as it was (howie et al, 2017). south african learners performed the worst in a pre-pirls study in 2011 that included grade 4 learners of three countries (van staden, bosker & bergbauer, 2016). regionally, south africa’s performance in the southern and eastern africa consortium for monitoring educational quality (sacmeq) in 2000 and 2007 (sacmeq ii and iii respectively) showed that in 2000, almost 66% of south african learners in grade 6 were not competent in reading at levels 1 to 48, and in 2007, almost 63% of grade 6 learners were not competent in the same levels 8 level 1 encompasses pre-reading and is about matching words and pictures involving concrete concepts and everyday objects; level 2 is emergent reading, focusing on matching words and pictures involving prepositions and abstract concepts; level 3 is basic reading, with a focus on interprets meaning (by matching words and phrases, completing sentences) and level 4 is about reading for meaning, which is evaluated by the indicator “reads to link and interpret information located in various parts of the text”. 338 although the percentage of learners who were competent at interpretive and inferential reading had improved in 2007 compared to 2000 (moloi & chetty, 2011). interventions to address the reading challenge in south africa interventions to address the literacy challenge have been driven at national government and provincial government. national government interventions the department of basic education (dbe) has promulgated policies and provided strategic direction through national strategies that have been translated to provincial strategies. in recognition of the globally-acknowledged importance of home language in schooling, for promoting inclusivity and for providing children with a strong foundation for literacy and later successful learning (unesco, 2008) to prevent and reduce dropout (ball, 2014) and for promoting multilingualism and developing better thinking skills (bialystok, 2001; cummins, 2000), the national education policy act (1996), the south african schools act (1996), language in education policy act (1997), curriculum and assessment policy statement (2010) and the incremental implementation of african languages (“iial”) policy (2013) all make provision for home language teaching and learning where this is practical to improve the reading abilities of children. however, despite this broad supportive policy landscape, the ideal of home language instruction to improve literacy has not been realised, partly because of resistance by parents in preference to english which they perceive as the language of commerce (rudwick, 2008; de klerk, 2000) and partly because of the mismatch between teacher and learner home languages (wced, 2017). however, whether reading is taught in english or home language, if it is not taught effectively, children’s future learning will be jeopardised. the dbe also developed a national reading strategy in 2008, aimed at increasing access to books and providing support to teachers through resources and techniques to promote a love of reading so as to improve learners’ reading competencies. interventions supporting the strategy include the piloting of the early grade reading study (egrs) in 230 schools (50 intervention schools each for each intervention model and 80 control schools) in the north west (nw) (dbe, 2019a; dbe, 2019b) and 180 schools in mpumalanga provinces where cohorts of grade 1 learners in nw received the intervention for three years from 2015 (egrsi), and those in mpumalanga received it over two years in 2017 and 2018 (egrsii). in both cohorts, outcomes and other data were collected from learners in the interventions and control groups. in the nw province, the egrsi had three interventions over three years, each with 50 schools: 1. in the first intervention teachers were provided with lesson plans aligned to the national curriculum, quality reading materials and training of teachers was provided at centralised workshops twice a year. 2. the second intervention included the lesson plans, reading materials, on-site coaching of teachers and small cluster training sessions. 3. in the third intervention, also assigned to 50 schools included weekly parental meetings to discuss the significance of early grade reading ability and to capacitate them with tools to become more involved in their children’s literacy development. 339 the egrsi in the nw supported teachers in the teaching of setswana as a home language while egrsii in mpumalanga supported the teaching of english as a first additional language (dbe, 2020). drawing on lessons from egrsi, egrsii which also provided scripted lesson plans and reading resources as well as coaching and training utilised two different strategies to training and coaching: 1. traditional face-to-face training augmented with regular on-site coaching. 2. traditional face-to-face training complemented by virtual coaching, which provided continual support through cell phone messaging and phone calls to the teacher. more recently, the read to lead campaign (2015 – 2019) was concretised with the formation of a national reading coalition, which was launched in february 2019 to improve the coordination of various reading interventions among stakeholders “to reduce inefficient overlaps and gaps” (national education collaboration trust (nect) website, 2019). the coalition will focus on multiple areas for the holistic development of reading — “initial teacher preparation; access to relevant resources; continuing professional development; community support; policy, research and evaluation” (nect website). in fulfilling its role as a coordinating body for maximising collaboration among stakeholders to reduce duplication and overlaps, the nect, in collaboration with dbe and the education training and development practices (etdp) sector education training authority (seta), is involved in the implementation of the primary school reading improvement programme (psrip) implemented in 2016 and 2017, focusing on teacher training, resource provision and classroom support across all nine provinces in 1,670 schools in 51 districts (nect, 2017). provincial interventions the national reading strategy resulted in provincial strategies including the gauteng primary literacy strategy, 2010-2014, western cape education literacy and numeracy strategy (2006 – 2016) and western cape reading strategy 2020 – 2025, all aimed at improving reading in the provinces. these strategies have been accompanied by implementation of interventions by various organisations, some of which are mapped in table 2, which presents only a selective number of interventions that have achieved relative success in improving learning outcomes. 340 table 2: early grade literacy providers and their interventions name of organisation description province(s) evidence of impact funda wande eastern cape started in 2015 not-for-profit organisation that aims to ensure that all learners in south africa can read for meaning in their home language by the age of 10 through video and print materials and teacher training on effective techniques to teach reading. the intervention is being implemented in three districts in the eastern cape with 10 schools per district. eastern cape isixhosa saldru at the university of cape town is conducting an rct external impact evaluation. class act develops materials in both african languages and english first additional language (efal) in the foundation phase, primarily focusing on lesson plans and rollout of programmes such as egrs for dbe and psrip for nect. countrywide the psrip has been evaluated and found to have positive effects. read educational trust a teacher development agency in language, literacy and communication and is a leader in educational assessment, materials development and resource provision. read has experience in both rural and urban school-project delivery. read is currently implementing the roger federer foundation school readiness initiative together with other service providers. national read’s programmes have been evaluated in zambia and found to be effective. room to read (rtr) started in sa in 2006 works in collaboration with local communities, partner organizations and governments to offer a comprehensive literacy program that combines homelanguage classroom instruction with highfunctioning libraries and teacher training. dbe appointed room to read as an implementing partner for its read to lead campaign, aimed at establishing or refurbishing 1,000 school libraries annually. eastern cape limpopo mpumalanga gauteng worked in a total of 469 schools, 1,021 teachers and 362,180 students by the end of grade 2, children in room to read's literacy program read two to three times as fast and read with 87% greater comprehension than their peers in nonroom to read program schools. wordworks started in 2005 focuses on early language and literacy development in the first eight years of children’s lives. focuses on parents and caregivers, family and community members, early childhood development practitioners and grade r to grade 3 teachers. partnered with the wced from 2015 – 2018 to roll out a maths and literacy programme for subject advisors and grade r-teachers which included provision of materials and a three-level cascade model that commences with the training of subject advisors, uses lead teachers as intermediate trainers, and ends with teacher training. eastern cape gauteng kwazulu-natal western cape an external evaluation concluded that the interventions had an initial positive effect on the language and literacy achievement of targeted learners. however, the initial gains in the first half of grade r diminished by the end of grade r and had been lost by the end of grade 1. 341 source: jet education services, dna economics & bertha centre, 2020 numerous interventions, limited impact despite multiple interventions over the years to improve early grade literacy, persistent challenges exist as partly evidenced by the pirls results. several complex factors can be attributed to the relatively limited success, in turning the system to improve early grade literacy, of the interventions that have been implemented so far. a few key factors are discussed in turn as a precursor to the value proposition of obc. the scale of most interventions is too small according to the dbe, in 2016, south africa had 25,574 ordinary schools enrolling 12,932,565 learners (dbe, 2018). for any universal impact to be achieved, interventions would have to be focused on all the schools or at least all quintiles 1-3 schools9 serving 77% of the learners through the government’s no-fee policy (unicef, 2018). as we have seen in the description of the egrs and some of the interventions in table 2, the interventions are scratching the surface in terms of reach, with the widest reach of the discussed interventions having been 1,670 schools across all nine provinces through the psrip, followed by 469 schools in four provinces by the rtr intervention. the two egrs pilots that 9 schools in quintiles 1 to 3 are non-fee-paying schools and receive more funding per learner from the government than schools in quintiles 4 and 5, which are better resourced. save the children the school capacity innovation project (scip) was initially piloted in rural districts in mpumalanga and fs. in 2016 the project was extended for a three-year period to work in all five districts in the fs. the overall goal is to support the free state department of education to rapidly achieve improved learning outcomes in african home language (ahl), as well as efal for all learners in grades 1 to 3. • free state sepedi preand post-tests with teachers in the project showed improvements in knowledge and skills. learner outcomes, measured using the egra assessments administered to intervention and control schools, showed appreciable improvements in the intervention group compared to the control group. molteno institute for language and learning started in 1974 developing literacy through teaching and learning materials, as well as providing institutional training and classroom mentoring to developing communities in africa. developed the first set of graded reading materials in all 11 official south african languages, being utilised by four provinces in the country. gauteng, eastern cape, limpopo, free state the impact of the use of these materials have been documented by independent evaluators. more than 20 external evaluations have been commissioned by foreign aid agencies like usaid, dfid, unesco and the hsrc – all of them positive. 342 were implemented in two provinces reached less than 200 schools and they have not been scaled despite showing positive effects on literacy and learning. there are limited rigorous evaluations to establish impact most interventions do not include evaluation of impact. a meta-evaluation by besharati and tsotsotso (2015) which utilised a standardised and comparative framework to evaluate the results of impact evaluations of interventions to improve learning outcomes in south african public schools in the democratic dispensation, identified 28 evaluations of 30 varied interventions aimed at teachers and learners, management and whole school development. from these 28 evaluations, only six, five implemented by private providers (the reading catch-up programme (rcup); two read primary school programmes in the eastern cape, the learning for living project (lfl), another read intervention; and the mother tongue literacy programme) and one initiated by government, gauteng provincial literacy and mathematics strategy (gplms) program were considered to be rigorously evaluated. in their analysis, besharati and tsotsotso concluded that the majority of education interventions in south africa had very small effect sizes and some had negative learning outcomes, and there was no indication that simple, less costly interventions, like provision of quality teaching and learning resources, were less effective than more complex and more expensive interventions like whole school evaluation. importantly, the meta-evaluation found that interventions implemented in the early grades had greater learning impact than those implemented in the higher grades. the egrs, which came after besharati and tsotsotso’s meta evaluation was evaluated for impact using randomised control trial (rct). the evaluation of egrs1 found that the coaching intervention, which was about 40% more expensive than the centralised training model (r557 per learner per year compared to r397), was about twice as effective on learner reading. in the intervention groups where lesson plans and reading materials were augmented with coaching, between 10% and 20% more children surpassed specific reading fluency benchmarks at the end of grade 2 compared to children in control groups. home language reading and english achievement also improved, and it also helped boys catch up to girls. the egrsi evaluation also concluded that learners in intervention schools were 40% of a year of learning ahead of the learners in the schools that did not receive the intervention (taylor, cilliers, prinsloo, fleisch & reddy, 2018). following the positive results of egrsi, various projects providing lesson plans, coaching and reading materials have been initiated in different provinces, including the funda wande project10 (funda wande, 2019), (ardington & meiring, 2019), and a sesotho version intended for limpopo. however, as indicated earlier, the scale of the initiatives is very small compared to the need. funding constraints have restricted scale and sustainability a major constraint to rolling out the interventions to a majority of the schools and learners that would benefit from them is cost. egrsi, which has produced positive results, has not been rolled out to scale in the north west province or to other provinces. if the egrs is to be implemented in all quintile 1 – 3 schools, this would mean a roll out in ~12,347 schools11 (dbe, 2019b). the cost of implementing egrsi 10 see table 2. 11 based on 2018 dbe master list data so quintile rankings may have changed. the list does not include combined schools, which also have primary schools. 343 over three years was ~r15 million, all of which came from donors — unicef, anglo-american, zenex. the impact evaluation costs of ~r6 million came from 3ie. egrsii, which has entirely been funded by the usaid cost about r35 million over three years for implementation in 100 schools.12 the cost of implementing the egrs in grades 1-3 currently for 50% (7,500) of south african schools would be ~r1.3 billion a year (spaull, 2019b). it is not impossible to raise this funding internally from dbe as well as corporate social investment (csi). csi to the education sector has been on an upward trend and in 2019 amounted to about r5.1 billion, constituting 50% of the r10.2 billion csi funding that year (trialogue, 2019). however, the csi funding is dispersed directly to many discreet interventions and not to large-scale impactful interventions. there are also multiple discrete early-grade literacy interventions being funded by private company and corporate foundations like the zenex foundation, grant managers like tshikululu social investments, and charitable trusts like the dg murray trust and apexhi charitable trust. if all the discrete interventions redirected their efforts and funding to an intervention like egrs that has shown positive outcomes literacy outcomes could improve. another implication of lack of funding is the limited length of interventions — change takes time and egrsi was implemented over three years and egrsii over two years as they were financially wellbacked. some projects with limited financial backing may not last that long. sustainability of learning effects is also important and has to be factored into the design of interventions, which will also cost money to continue supporting interventions and measuring effects over time. intervention contracts to date have been input based to date, all the known interventions to improve early grade literacy and numeracy are input based, where service providers are paid for work done and not for the results that they achieve. consequently, the designs of these interventions have not held service providers accountable for outcomes as long as activities agreed contractually are fulfilled. another limitation of input-based contracts is that addressing the literacy challenge would be narrowly focused and not holistically to address all challenges that may impede effective teaching of reading like teacher absenteeism. in an obc, the design of the intervention would address all risks to the achievement of outcomes. improving literacy outcomes using outcomes-based contracting what is outcomes based contracting? outcomes based contracting, an instrument of the results-based financing (rbf) mechanism, is “a program financing arrangement in which payments are contingent upon the achievement of predefined results (outcomes), which are usually verified by an independent evaluator” (bertha centre, n.d.). there are different types of obcs based on the proportion of payment dependent on agreed results. performance linked payment that constitutes a small proportion of the contract could be adequately funded by donors but larger ones may require socially motivated investors who can provide risk finance (development impact bond — dib). if government pays for all or some of the performance payment it is referred to as a social impact bond (sib). figure 1 provides a process flow of an obc. 12 communication with dbe senior official. 344 figure 1: process flow of outcomes-based contract source: bertha centre, obc primer the underlying theory of change for obc is that the offer of a financial incentive to an implementer (service provider) for meeting agreed outcomes motivates better monitoring for learning and use of data to innovate and adapt implementation for better results. if applied to literacy interventions, the incentive for achieving or surpassing outcomes will most likely lead to a holistic approach to improving literacy outcomes that will result in system strengthening and more sustainable results. this would entail tailoring implementation to specific contexts and not adopting a one size fits all approach. in this regard, multiple ngos offering different solutions may need to pool together to provide a comprehensive solution to a single problem. figure 2 provides an overview of the key obc elements. figure 2: key components of obc source: eof fundraising prospectus, 2019 345 how obc can be utilised to improve early grade reading drawing on the main challenges that could be leading to low literacy outcomes in south africa and the inability to scale the egrs, table 3 juxtaposes the challenges against an obc value proposition. table 3: how obc can address poor literacy challenges challenge how obc could address this challenge there are too many discrete interventions at small scale which result in a thin spread of donor funding. better funding: only interventions that work like egrs and those with potential to improve outcomes like psrip will be funded. bids from multiple providers will enable government to understand the cost per outcome of various interventions leading to contracting of best value interventions. in other countries obc would also promote funding of projects were there is evidence of impact. egrs i and ii funding came from donors and there is lack of funding to implement egrs to scale. more funding: advocating for funding only interventions that work has the potential to attract more funding from donors. more funding is required as covid-19 will contract education budgets ngos are implementing discreet interventions that are hyper localised and are not evaluated. better alignment: there is potential to attract more funding from csi towards systemic interventions that have been proven to work. more csi funding can be channelled to dbe and nect to fund impactful interventions. ngos can be mobilised to collaborate and deliver services that complement each other towards improvement of learning outcomes. service providers who implement interventions are not accountable for results knowledge and data: rigorous evaluation will improve transparency, accountability and improve an outcomes orientation. south africa is planning to pilot an obc egrs in kwazulu natal starting in 2020, which will provide valuable lessons for the efficacy of obc and the extent to which incentivizing service providers results in better outcomes (dna economics, 2020). the challenges highlighted in table 3 may not be exclusive to south africa, and the degree to which obc can address issues of limited funding and solve inefficiencies could work in other countries that want to increase the effectiveness of literacy programmes to ensure that learning improves and their education systems are prepared to prevent learning loss, should emergencies similar to covid-19 happen again. learners who can read limit learning losses as they can continue learning at home if they have access to learning resources and the space to learn at home. the ability to read will result in more sustainable education systems where learners can learn from anywhere and persist in school because they can decode their school work in all subjects better. conclusion development of literacy in the early grades is foundational for all learning in school, and with 53% of grade 4 learners in lowand middle-income countries who cannot read for meaning, education systems in these countries will remain inefficient. our analysis of per learner investment in primary school suggests that most countries, even those with lower levels of grade 4 learners below the minimum proficiency level, seem inefficient. using south africa as an example, we have suggested 346 that the causes of low literacy skills among learners could be caused by the implementation of many small and uncoordinated interventions which do not have any evidence of impact, short implementation timeframes, funding constraints to implement to scale, and input based contracting models which do not hold service providers accountable for outcomes of interventions. to improve efficiency of education systems in resource challenged lowand middle-income countries, consideration should be given to the use of outcomes-based contracting to scale interventions that work and improve their likelihood of success by paying service providers for the number of children who are able to read at agreed proficiency levels at certain points in the intervention. this will ensure that governments, if they are paying for some outcomes, investors and funders, and service providers all carry equal risk and work diligently and creatively to achieve agreed-upon results. carrying on with the way early grade literacy interventions have been implemented in the past defeats the objectives of creating sustainable education systems and reducing socio-economic inequalities through education. south africa’s piloting of an egrs pilot will provide important lessons on the feasibility of this approach. acknowledgement: we are grateful to colleagues whose guidance and inputs through discussions and review of our other work has shaped our development in the area of innovative finance and have contributed to this paper. we are particularly grateful to dr susan de witt of the bertha centre for planting the seed and nurturing our interest in innovative financing mechanisms in education, particularly outcomes-based education. we would also like to acknowledge dr james keevey for encouraging us to write this paper, dr nick taylor, and fouche venter of dna economics, for discussions and ideas in other work on obc. contributions by jarred lee and alina lipcan of the education outcomes fund in the eof south africa scoping study also influenced our work. we take full responsibility for the ideas expressed in this paper. references ardington, c., & meiring, t. (2019). update on the impact evaluation of the funda wande eastern cape pilot. https://fundawande.org/news/update-on-the-impact-evaluation-of-the-funda-wande-eastern-cape-pilot-cally-ardington--tiaan-meiring-7 ball, j. (2014). children learn better in their mother tongue: advancing research on mother tongue-based multilingual education. global partnership for education. https://www.globalpartnership.org/blog/children-learn-bettertheir-mother-tongue bertha centre. (n.d.). contracting for results: obc primer. bertha centre besharati n. a., & tsotsotso, k. (2015). in search for the education panacea: a systematic review and comparative meta-analysis of interventions to improve learner achievement in south africa. university of the witwatersrand. bialystok, e. (2001). bilingualism in development: language, literacy and cognition. cambridge university press. black, p. a., calitz, e., & steenekamp, t. j. (2015). public economics (6th ed.). oxford university press southern africa. boateng, n. a. (2014). technical efficiency and primary education in south africa: evidence from sub-national level analyses. south african journal of education, 34(2), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.15700/201412071117 cummins, j. (2000). language, power and pedagogy: bilingual children in the crossfire (bilingual education and bilingualism, 23). multilingual matters. cunha, f., heckman, j. j., lochner, l. j., & masterov, d. v. (2006). interpreting the evidence on life cycle skill formation. in e. a. hanushek & f. welch (eds.). handbook of the economics of education. elsevier. 697-812. 347 dbe. (2018). education statistics in south africa 2016. pretoria, south africa: department of basic education. dbe. (2019a). the early grade reading study: results of year 2 impact evaluation. summary report. department of basic education. https://www.education.gov.za/programmes/earlygradereadingstudy.aspx dbe. (2019b). the early grade reading study sustainability evaluation: technical report. department of basic education. https://www.education.gov.za/portals/0/documents/reports/egrs/egrs%20i%20wave%204%20report%2 02019.pdf?ver=2019-05-31-111638-587 dbe. (2020). the second early grade reading study: early perspectives – the situation at the start of grade 1. pretoria, south africa: dbe. de klerk, v. (2000). to be xhosa or not to be xhosa … that is the question. journal of multilingual and multicultural development, 21(3), 198-215. doi: 10.1080/01434630008666401 dna economics. (2020). outcomes based contract for an early grade literacy intervention: feasibility and design report. pretoria, south africa: dna economics. eof. (2019). a game changing way to finance results in education: fundraising prospectus. london: eof. funda wande. (2019). limpopo proposal. unpublished mimeo. heckman, j. j., & masterov, d. v. (2007). the productivity argument for investing in young children. review of agricultural economics, 29(3), 446-493. howie, s. j., combrinck, c., roux, k., tshele, m., mokoena, g. m., & mcleod palane, n. (2017). pirls literacy 2016 progress in international reading literacy study 2016: south african children’s reading literacy achievement. centre for evaluation and assessment. international monetary fund. (2020). imf country report no. 20/33: south africa. international monetary fund. jansen, j., & amsterdam, c. (2006). the status of education finance research in south africa. perspectives in education, 24, 11. jet education services, dna economics & bertha centre. (2020). education outcomes fund south africa scoping study: scoping report. jet. mlachila, m., & moeletsi, t. (2019). struggling to make the grade: a review of the causes and consequences of the weak outcomes of south africa’s education system. imf working papers, 19(47), 1. https://doi.org/10.5089/9781498301374.001 moloi, m. q., & chetty, m. (2011). southern and eastern africa consortium for monitoring educational quality: trends in achievement levels of grade 6 pupils in south africa. policy brief: sacmeq. moses, e., van der berg, s., & rich, k. (2017). a society divided: how unequal education quality limits social mobility in south africa — synthesis report for the programme to support pro-poor policy development (psppd). research on socio-economic policy. stellenbosch, south africa: university of stellenbosch. national education collaboration trust. (2017). primary school reading improvement programme booklet. nect. national education collaboration trust. (2019). what is the national reading coalition? https://nect.org.za/in-themedia/nect-news/what-is-the-national-reading-coalition rudwick, s. (2008). “coconuts” and “oreos”: english-speaking zulu people in a south african township. world englishes, 27(1), 101-116. spaull, n. (2019a). learning to read and write for meaning and pleasure. in n. spaull & j. comings (eds.), improving early literacy outcomes. brill sense publishers. spaull, n. (2019b). equity: a price too high to pay? in n. spaull & j. jansen (eds.), south african schooling: the enigma of inequality. springer. 348 spaull, n., & pretorius, e. (2019). still falling at the first hurdle: examining early grade reading in south africa. in n. spaull & j. jansen (eds.), south african schooling: the enigma of inequality. springer, cham. spaull, n., van der berg, s., wills, g., gustafsson, m., & kotzé, j. (2016). laying firm foundations: getting reading right — final report to the zenex foundation on poor student performance in foundation phase literacy and numeracy. http://resep.sun.ac.za/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/zenex_lff-email.pdf taylor, s., cilliers, j., prinsloo, c. fleisch, b., & reddy, v. (2018). the early grade reading study: impact evaluation after two years of interventions. technical report. unpublished. trialogue. (2019). business in society handbook 2019. trialogue. unesco. (2008). mother tongue matters: local language as a key to effective learning. unesco. unicef. (2018). education brief budget south africa 2018/19. unicef. van staden, s., bosker, r., & bergbauer, a. (2016). differences in achievement between home language and language of learning in south africa: evidence from pre-pirls 2011. south african journal of childhood education, 6(1), article 441. wced. (2017). curriculum get minute: dcg 0012/2017. https://wcedonline.westerncape.gov.za/circulars/minutes17/cmminutes/edcg12_17.html world bank. (2019a). global partnership for education finance. http://pubdocs.worldbank.org/en/656401571859221743/final-edu-finance-platform-booklet.pdf world bank. (2019b). learning poverty. https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/education/brief/learning-poverty authors: monica mawoyo is a research associate at jet education services. she has a phd in education from the university of cape town and has been an independent researcher for the last 21 years. monica’s research interests are initial teacher training, icts in education, student access and success, student funding, early grade literacy and numeracy, innovative financing in education and skills development. email: monica@jet.org.za zaahedah vally is a researcher at jet education services, working across research and implementation projects. she received her bachelor's degree in international relations with the university of south africa (unisa) and a postgraduate diploma in management (monitoring and evaluation). currently completing her master's degree in management (development and economics), zaahedah is passionate about driving socio-economic change in south africa by improving the quality of education in the country. email: zaahedah@jet.org.za cite this paper as: mawoyo, m., & vally, z. (2020). improving education outcomes in lowand middle-income countries: outcomes-based contracting and early grade literacy. journal of learning for development, 7(3), 334-348. nkuyubwatsi positioning extension massive open online courses (xmoocs) within the open access and the lifelong learning agendas in a developing setting bernard nkuyubwatsi vol. 3, no. 1 abstract recent reports on xmoocs indicate that underprivileged learners in need of higher education have minimally been reached by these courses. while the open access agenda is needed to reach such learners, most moocs have been developed in societies that have shifted toward the lifelong learning agenda. in this paper, xmoocs are positioned in both the open access and the lifelong learning agendas in a developing country context. findings from ten xmoocs are presented and discussed. the findings suggest that two of the ten xmoocs may be adapted for direct use in opening up higher education within the open access agenda, and two xmoocs may contribute indirectly to the same agenda. nine xmoocs were found to have the potential to contribute to the lifelong learning agenda. these findings may inform policies and practices that underpin opening up higher education and open education in general. introduction moocs, which evolved from oer and the broader open education movement, rapidly developed to attract global attention. the potential reach, impact and benefit of these courses have raised controversies in academic literature and diverse media. different mooc players had advanced bringing high quality education to learners in the least developed countries as their main agenda. in her presentation that displays the slogan “the online evolution: education for everyone”, koller (2012, 3:40-3:48) states that coursera’s goal is “to take the best courses from the best instructors at the best universities and provide it [sic] to everyone around the world for free”. she argued that providing top quality education to everyone around the world for free would enable the establishment of access to education as a fundamental human right, where everyone in the world who is motivated would get skills they need for their own, their family’s and community’s well-being. similarly, thrun (2012) argues that if education is made free everywhere, people in the developing world may become much better and much stronger. despite the proffered philanthropic contribution to opening access to education in developing countries, these countries benefited least from xmoocs. recent reports have tended to agree on that moocs have been benefiting well-educated learners in developed countries (alcorn, christensen & emanuel, 2014; eadtu, 2014; guo & reinecke, 2014; grainger, 2013; ostrow, 2013). liyanagunawardena, williams, and adams (2013) outline challenges that inhibit learners in developing countries from benefiting from xmoocs: unreliable electric power, difficulties in accessing computers and internet connectivity, language barriers and digital illiteracy. the authors note that the quality of internet access in many developing countries cannot enable streaming and downloading the video materials used in most xmoocs. with adaptation of mooc content and creation of derivative learning materials that can be disseminated across alternative media, the mooc impact may be expanded to underprivileged settings. the content in these courses may be adapted to fit with technologies most learners in the least resourced settings have access to or can afford. nevertheless, the “all-right-reserved” copyright which prevails in most xmooc content inhibits this adaptation. according to liyanagunawardena et al. (2013), this copyright restricts the benefit of moocs to learners in developed societies and already-privileged learners in developing countries. restrictive copyright also inhibits adaptation of the content to make it relevant across settings (nkuyubwatsi, 2014a). these restrictions catalysed suspicion of hidden agendas in mooc practices. weller (2011, p. 96) identifies two main agendas that have been promoted in open education: the open access agenda and the lifelong learning agenda. according to weller (2011), the open access agenda, which is relevant in countries where access to higher education is low, may be no longer relevant in developed societies. as the access to higher education increased in these societies, priority shifted from the open access agenda to the lifelong learning agenda. recent discussions in open education tended to distinguish the lifelong learning/ flexible learning agenda from the open access/ opening up education agenda. opening up education moves beyond access to and use of the openly licensed content for continuing professional development. it values services that enable assessment of open learning accomplished using open content for credit. ouwehand (2012) notes the emergence of open educational services also referred to as “open learning services” (mulder & janssen, 2013, p. 36). these services may include, but are not limited to, assessment of open learning accomplishment, open certification and provision of credit to open learners who successfully demonstrate that they have developed competencies required for specific qualifications (nkuyubwatsi, 2014b). therefore, opening up higher education may use open education strategies with an agenda to achieve socioeconomic inclusion of underprivileged learners in higher education. through opening up education, open learners who develop and show evidence of required competencies may enjoy privileges traditionally associated with formal higher education, such as credible qualification, job opportunities, further education opportunities, etc. mulder (2015) developed a framework (5coe model) for opening up education. this framework (figure 1) consists of five components: 1) open educational resources (oer), 2) openness to learners’ needs, 3) open learning services, 4) open teaching efforts and 5) openness to employability and capability development. in this paper, ten xmoocs are mapped across the open access/ opening up education and the lifelong learning/ flexible learning agendas. mapping the xmoocs across the two agendas was based on findings that emerged within six analytical themes. these findings were placed in a specific developing setting. rwanda was the focus context. in this country, access to electric power, computers and the internet is 18 percent, 2 percent and 7 percent, respectively (national institute of statistics of rwanda, 2014, pp. 87-100). according to the same source, the most ubiquitous technologies in rwanda are radio, which is owned by 64 percent of households, and mobile phones, owned by 54 percent of households (p. 97). conditions under which xmoocs would contribute to opening up higher education in this country are also discussed. figure 1: five components of open education: the 5coe model (mulder, 2015) research methods the study was conducted on 10 xmoocs which were offered via coursera (nine moocs) and futurelearn (one mooc) platforms. they were offered by universities from different countries: united states of america (five), united kingdom (two), australia (two) and germany (one). these xmoocs were sampled purposively (bouma & ling, 2004) in that the researcher selected the moocs in the fields where he had the necessary prerequisites to engage meaningfully with the courses. in this study, the researcher played the role of participant investigator. he took various responsibilities as other mooc students and was involved as an all-rounder (anderson et al., 2014, p. 688) mooc participant. such a participant has a good balance between watching videos and submitting assignments and fully engages in moocs to get the most from them. table 1 illustrates moocs that were used in the study. name courses and offering institutions discussed in this study have been kept anonymous. table 1: xmoocs used in the study mooc subject area university location platform duration cs business germany coursera 6 weeks oglnmn humanities usa coursera 7 weeks le entrepreneurship usa coursera 6 weeks edc technology-enhanced learning uk coursera 5 weeks isrmc information and communication technology usa coursera 10 weeks ssy sustainable development uk futurelearn 8 weeks ggsgpb i business usa coursera 5 weeks g interdisciplinary usa coursera 10 weeks at21cs education australia coursera 6 weeks lto technology-enhanced learning australia coursera 8 weeks moocs were evaluated for their potential to be adapted for use in opening up higher education and open education in a developing context using a rubric the researcher had developed for this purpose (appendix 1). the mooc rubric was developed in the light of achieve’s (2011) rubrics for oer content evaluation and the prevailing challenges in rwanda discussed earlier. along with this rubric, the researcher also collected data using the mooc participation logs in which he maintained a regular record of his engagement with these courses (see a template in appendix 2). prior to using the rubric, the researcher piloted it on five moocs from the coursera platform. the rubric was also sent to experts to have their perspective on its validity. having this research instrument checked by experts added face validity (bryman, 2012, p. 171) to the research. bryman (2012) argues that face validity can be achieved by asking people who are experienced or have expertise in the field to judge if the measure appears to reflect the concept concerned or the focus of attention. one of the experts who made such judgment on the rubric had extended experience in open education across different generations of technologies: print-based, radio, tv and online. he also had experience in open and distance learning in developed and developing settings. the collected data were organised, presented and analysis by research question and by themes (cohen, manion, and morrison, 2011, pp. 551-552). creswell’s (2014, pp. 197-201) analytical framework that consists of six different stages also informed the analysis: the researcher read through collected data that were recorded in the mooc rubric and the mooc participation logs. then, he wrote a comprehensive summary for each mooc. he reread the comprehensive summaries, highlighted and commented on mooc features that can enable adaptation for use in opening up education or contribute to opening up higher education or open education in the specific developing setting of focus (rwanda). then, he grouped the features in themes that emerged from the data. after this categorisation, the researcher developed a storyline on mooc attributes that would enable or inhibit the contribution of these courses to opening up higher education in the focus context. finally, he discussed the findings in the light of the literature on moocs and open education in general. results although the xmoocs had common features, they were also different in some respects. the mooc contents could be based on video materials and assigned readings. the video materials hosted on the coursera platform were interactive. the students could adjust the speech rate, repeat the videos as much as they wanted and add captions in english. in some moocs, these captions were also available in many other languages. discussion of the learning materials was mainly enabled by the course forum in all the nine moocs that were offered via the coursera platform, and the web comments in ssy that was offered via the futurelearn platform. in addition to the forum discussion or web comments, google hangouts were hosted in some moocs. equally, twitter hashtags were created and shared with the course community in many moocs. in some moocs, assessment was only based on multiple-choice quizzes and final exams that could be attempted multiple times. assessment in other moocs could include peer-reviewed projects, peer-reviewed essays, production and submission of digital artifacts for peer review, and this could be in addition to quizzes and final exams. participation in the forum discussion contributed to the final grade in some moocs. four to seven hours per week were needed to engage with all learning activities and materials. the researcher’s participation varied between 15 and 57 hours per mooc. analysis the investigation of moocs that could potentially be adapted for use in opening up higher education or contribute to opening up higher education or the open access agenda (weller, 2011, p. 96) in rwanda was guided by the research question “which moocs can be adapted for use in opening up higher education in rwanda?” six analytical categories were identified: 1) learning materials, 2) learning activities, 3) learning assessment, 4) convertibility into formal higher education credit system, 5) scalability, and 6) licensing and the legal framework. learning materials the nature of learning materials could vary across moocs. in oglnmn, mooc students learned along with formal students enrolled at the offering university, using same reading materials and meeting in the forum and online game environment. in isrmc and ggsgpb i, peer-reviewed learning materials and policy documents used by organisations, including governmental institutions, were assigned. peer-reviewed journal articles, reports and policy documents were also suggested and provided in edc, ssy, at21cs and lto. a diversity of learning materials increased the content-base (lane, 2012) aspect of these moocs. in cs and g, similar materials were suggested but they were to be purchased by learners who wanted to have access to them. peer-reviewed learning materials and policy documents used by governmental institutions were also assigned in le. unlike in other moocs, however, the relevance of the materials assigned in this mooc was limited to the usa and mostly the state of illinois in which the offering university is based. this limitation could have been mitigated by assigning learners from other settings to find related materials that are relevant to their respective settings. materials that are specifically relevant to each country exist and this is an opportunity that could have been exploited to make the course more relevant to learners across settings (nkuyubwatsi, 2014a). learning activities there was also a cross-mooc variety in learning activities. activities in some moocs, mainly, cs, le and isrmc consisted of watching lecture videos, reading assigned materials and participation in the forum. ssy and ggsgpb i also included self-assessment and reflection on practices related to the course and sharing these reflections on the course website as comments, or in the forum, respectively. reflection was also a critical component in oglnmn, at21cs and lto. in oglnmn, reflection was based on the students’ experience in a virtual game environment. in at21cs, students were given recordings of learners who were involved in a collaborative project. then, they evaluated the level of development of collaborative problem solving competencies using the rubric provided by instructors. finally, they could reflect on the evaluation process and share this reflection with their peers. as for lto, reflection was embedded in the course assignment, which required designing projects based on the concepts covered in the course. in these projects, the designer’s and other stakeholders’ roles had to be explicit. in short, oglnmn, ssy, g, at21cs and lto were richer in the task-based aspect (lane, 2012) thanks to the diversity of activities assigned in these courses. in some moocs, social media played a significant role in learning and supporting learning practices. twitter hashtags were created and shared with participants in edc, ssy, g, at21cs and lto. in addition, facebook communities were created in edc, at21cs and lto. these social media are often not formally controlled by instructors, which arguably contributed to the learning autonomy (conole, 2013, 2014) and flexibility. these social media also increased the network-based (lane, 2012) aspect of these xmoocs. learning assessment in moocs with the exception of isrmc in which assessment consisted only of in-video quizzes, assessment in other moocs was broadly classified in two categories. in the first category, learning could be assessed via automated quizzes or exams. in this study, this type of assessment is referred to as retention assessment. this category of assessment also includes forum posts (with exception of elaborate posts written in the light of specific guidelines) or votes and computer-graded work that contributed to the final grade. in the second category, assessment was based on work submitted by students for peer grading. this type of assessment is referred to as product assessment in this study. it includes forum entries that were elaborate and written in the light of specified guidelines and posted for constructive feedback, projects, essays, digital artefacts and any other work submitted for peer-review. learning assessment in three coursera moocs exclusively fell in the retention assessment category: cs, ggsgpb i and le. assessment in oglnmn, g, at21cs and lto overlapped between retention assessment and product assessment. it consisted of automated quizzes and final exams as well as peer-graded work. as for assessment in edc, it exclusively fell in the product assessment category. learning in this mooc was only assessed via a digital artefact submitted for peer grading. convertibility into a formal higher education credit a credit in rwandan higher education institutions is equivalent to “ten hours of notional student learning effort” (the university of rwanda, 2014, p. 13). a module weight normally varies between 5 and 20 credits. however, a module may be longer in some circumstances. most modules consist of several units that may have different credit points, mostly three or four credits per unit. with exception of le whose materials had limited cross-setting relevance, all the other moocs could be convertible into the credit system used in rwandan higher education. based on the time invested in these moocs as regularly recorded in the researcher’s participation logs, cs, edc and ggsgpb i were found to be convertible into three credit units in a module. at21cs was convertible into a four-credit unit. g and oglnmn were found to be equivalent to five credit units or stand-alone modules of five credits. lto and ssy were found to be convertible into a six-credit unit and an eight-credit unit respectively. as for isrmc, it was estimated to be equivalent to a ten-credit unit in a module of 20 or 30 credits or an independent ten-credit module. table 2 illustrates the basis on which this convertibility was estimated. table 2: the convertibility of xmoocs into rwandan higher education credit system mooc hours the researcher invested  estimated number of credits cs 29 3 oglnmn 46 5 le 15 na edc 27 3 isrmc 44 (readings in week 1 required more than 6 hours per week. reading in other weeks were skipped ) estimate of 10 credits (with readings) ssy 53 (on 70% of activities) 8 ggsgpb i 26 3 g 44 5 at21cs 38 4 lto 57 6 the scalability of moocs the number of course participants was shared in six of the ten xmoocs: cs, oglnmn, edc, g, at21cs and lto. as indicated in table 3, the number of participants who enrolled in the six moocs varied from about 16,000 to over 70,000 students. it is worth noting that these figures included all individuals who enrolled in the courses regardless of their intentions: viewers, all-rounders, collectors, bystanders, etc. (anderson et al., 2014). the exact numbers of all-rounders who invested seriously in learning activities and assessment and their completion rates were not available. table 3: gross enrollment in six xmoocs mooc enrollment cs about 70,000 oglnmn over 44,000 edc 20,232 g over 70,000 at21cs about 16,000 lto about 16,000 licensing and the legal framework the content in eight moocs was copyrighted under all rights reserved. the reuse of this content requires written permission from coursera, which apparently held the copyright for the content of moocs provided via this platform. in this way, the use of the content beyond the individual level is as restricted as any other materials copyrighted under all rights reserved. in lto, 85 of 93 videos were copyrighted under creative commons licences. these included 63 videos, 67.74 percent of all videos, copyrighted under creative commons attribution non-commercial (cc by-nc) and 22 videos, 23.65 percent of all videos, copyrighted under creative commons attribution non-commercial no derivative cc by-nc-nd. that makes a proportion of more than 91 percent of open licensing on the course lecture videos. in addition to these video materials, the learning content presented in textual format, either as web materials or powerpoint slides saved in pdf files was copyrighted under cc by-nc as highlighted on the course design and faqs course web page. learning materials in ssy were also openly licensed: they were released under the creative commons attribution non-commercial share alike licence (cc by-nc-sa uk 2.0). table 4 summarises results across the six analytical categories. table 4: summary of results analytical category findings learning materials lecture videos: all moocs reading materials (free of charge): oglnmn, isrmc, ggsgpb i, edc, ssy, at21cs and lto.  optional reading materials (to be purchased): cs and g. reading materials with limited cross-setting relevance: le.  learning activities watching lecture videos, reading assigned materials and participation in the forum: all moocs self-assessment: ssy and ggsgpb i.  reflection: ssy, ggsgpb i, oglnmn, at21cs and lto.  participation in learning communities mediated via social media: edc, ssy, g, at21cs and lto.  learning assessment retention assessment: cs, ggsgpb i and le.  product assessment: edc hybrid assessment (both retention assessment and product assessment): oglnmn, g, at21cs and lto.   convertibility into credit system 3 to 10 credits scalability 16,000-70,000 students licensing and legal framework open licence: ssy (100%) and lto (over 90%) all rights reserved: cs, isrmc, g, ggsgpb i, oglnmn, at21cs, edc, le  conditions for xmoocs to contribute to opening up higher education in rwanda the study moved beyond the identification of xmoocs that could potentially contribute to opening up higher education to the discussion of conditions for this contribution to occur. in the light of the research question “how can these courses be used in rwanda to open up higher education?”, findings in the six analytical categories were contrasted to the technological challenges in rwanda earlier discussed. the discussion overlaps between two themes: policy environment and open scholarship (weller, 2014; veletsianos & kimmons, 2012; nkuyubwatsi et al., 2015). an extensive investigation on policy environment and the willingness to engage in open scholarship in rwanda has already been conducted, and some of the results were published in nkuyubwatsi et al. (2015). however, in the current study, it was also worth exploring briefly the enabling policy environment and open scholarship practices that would enable moocs’ contribution to opening up higher education (the open access agenda) and open education (the lifelong learning agenda) in under-resourced settings. on policy environment, the open access agenda may need to be championed, with the explicit goal of cutting down the cost of higher education and reaching underprivileged learners. accessibility of openly licensed content may not contribute to opening up education if there is no strategy to use those resources to offer cost-effective education. this open access agenda may be coupled with open education policies that spur innovations in using limited resources available in rwanda to scale up higher education opportunities. a participatory approach that engages all stakeholders concerned, including potential open learners, academics, institutional leaders and policy makers is most preferred. to trigger academics’ engagement in adaptation and enhancement of the mooc content and mooc-based open learning assessment, the policy would recognise and validate these open educational practices. equally, the policy would need to envisage strategies for assessing open learning for credit to catalyse open learners’ engagement in open learning practices based on the xmooc content. with regard to open scholarship, learners and academics would need to embrace practices that revolve around open learning and supporting open learning based on openly licensed content. for their part, learners would need to develop self-determined open learning practices and attitudes. nkuyubwatsi (2015) outlines such practices and attitudes. self-determined open learning practices may include independent use of openly licensed content in personal learning, decision making on personal learning, setting learning goals, planning personal learning processes, focusing, managing and controlling personal learning, prioritising as well as continuing assessment of personal learning progress. self-determined open learning attitudes include independence, passion, dedication, perseverance and management of failure as a learning tool that does not inhibit moving on. learners may also need to engage in open learning networks supported by social media, especially the ones that are enabled by mobile applications. as for academics, they would engage in finding and adaptation of open learning materials and using these materials to enhance mooc content. they would also engage in lifelong learning that would take place in different moocs that relate to open, digital, virtual and distance education as well as local and global networks that may be created and run via social media. academics may also use social media to support open learning practices. discussion moocs offer access to learning opportunities and a plethora of learning resources to students who are enrolled in these courses. this access is offered for free, which would constitute an opportunity for learners in under-resourced settings such as rwanda. oglnmn was also taught to students at the offering university and mooc students were assigned the same materials as students at the university. in this case, self-determined learners (hase & kanyon, 2001; anderson, 2010; canning, 2010; canning & callan, 2010; blaschke, 2012) could possibly benefit from these resources in a similar or comparable way as on-campus students. materials assigned in many moocs include peer-reviewed academic articles, policy documents used by high profile organisations, book chapters and other credible resources. access to these resources may be a privilege which most learners in under-resourced settings do not have. the use of social media in moocs challenges common knowledge and assumptions about these courses. in this regard, the most familiar classification that compares xmoocs to cmoocs (rodriguez, 2012) does not seem to delineate accurately the boundaries between the two types of moocs. this classification has already been criticised as simplistic (conole, 2013, 2014). edc harnesses features of both xmoocs and cmoocs and learning in lto was significantly enabled by social media. blom et al. (2013) argue that moocs can enable both individual and social learning. this diversity in learning was especially enabled by the use of social media in many moocs. assessment in some moocs moved beyond the automated multiple-choice questions (mcqs). oglnmn, edc, g, at21cs and lto assessed more complex skills beyond the basic knowledge assessed via mcq quizzes, which may have dominated early xmoocs (daniel, 2012). in these moocs, assessment included projects, assignments or digital artefacts that were submitted for constructive feedback. provision of constructive feedback to peers, and receiving constructive feedback from peers, are important practices in a professional world. oglnmn, edc, g, at21cs and lto offered learners an opportunity to develop related competences. this improvement in mooc assessment may, however, still not be enough to catalyse recognition and credit to learning accomplished via these courses. invigilated examination for assessing learning accomplished via moocs has been recommended as a precondition for awarding credit to successful learners (cisel, n.d.; kopp, ebner, & dofer-novak, 2014; verstelle, schreuder & jelgerhuis, 2014; iversity, 2013). for administration of this examination, learners who are not formally enrolled in higher education institutions may be required to pay an examination processing fee (iversity, 2013) or certification fee (harishankar, 2012). with an agenda to open up higher education, this fee may be a fraction of the tuition fee in institutions located in the context of application. such a trusted assessment could possibly be used to recognise accomplishment from open learning practices. many authors argue that such recognition can lead to learners’ engagement in open learning practices (lane & van dorp, 2011; yuan & powell, 2013; kopp et al., 2014; mulder, 2015). recognition of learning accomplished via moocs can be challenging to mooc providers who champion attracting mooc students to campus-based fee-bearing courses as their main agenda. however, those whose achievement of equity, inclusion, social justice, quality, diversity and social mobility (eadtu, 2014; home, 2014) may see value in the recognition of learning accomplished via moocs and other open learning practices. equally, recognition of accomplishment from open learning via moocs can create value for stakeholders who have a tradition of offering higher education free of charge (heller & rogers, 2006; kopp et al., 2014; andrei, 2014) or at a low price (spinu, 2013). credit on learning accomplished via moocs and measures to ensure quality learning from these courses have already been recommended in different countries (kopp et al., 2014; kjeldstad et al., 2014). some institutions have also started exploring this opportunity (blom, et al., 2013; iversity, 2013; university of nicosia, 2014). for moocs and their model to be adopted into mainstream education, their fit within the existing system may need to be established. in this study, the fit of moocs within the higher education credit system in rwanda could be estimated based on the amount of time spent on course activities, which was recorded in the researcher’s mooc participation logs. moocs are highly scalable and their model has the potential to contribute to opening up education to more people. the scalability in moocs is seemingly enabled by the electronic nature of the resources in these courses. according to weller (2011), learning resources that are available in electronic format are non-rivalrous in that access to them and their use do not happen at the expense of other users. the non-rivalrousness of electronic resources is increased by open licences (nkuyubwatsi, 2015). in this study, only ssy and lto had learning materials that were openly licensed. in addition to the permission to download the resources for personal use granted in other moocs, ssy and lto offered the permission to reuse, revise, remix and redistribute the content. the potential direct contribution of xmoocs to opening up higher education in rwanda: the open access agenda two xmoocs, ssy and lto, were found to have the potential to be adapted for direct use in opening up higher education in rwanda. the content in ssy and lto was openly licensed, which enables legal adaptation, revision, and enhancement in a way that is responsive to the learning setting circumstances. for instance, audio files can be created from the video contents that allow derivative work. the derivative audio files can be redistributed to reach learners who do not have access to the good quality internet access needed to stream and download video mooc materials, and those who do not have access to the internet at all. rwanda has a low level of internet access (matherly, 2014; national institute of statistics of rwanda, 2014). audio recordings can be stored on memory cards, and exchanged from memory card to memory card to be played via learners’ mobile phones. audio recording can also be played via radio devices that have audio recording players. such devices are affordable in rwanda. as for textual content, it can be legally printed out and duplicated to reach similar learners. tutorial support around the content could possibly be organised with a combination of technologies: broadcasting, mobile phones and social media. such support would be responding to students/ learners’ needs rather than presenting the content through lectures. in addition to tutorial support, learners would need to be assessed to determine whether they meet standards required for credit. such an assessment is one of the open educational services (jacobi & woert, 2012; woert, 2012; ouwehand, 2012; valkenburg, 2012). these services may be critical to enhancing learners’ engagement with the open content from ssy and lto. the potential indirect contribution of xmoocs to opening up higher education in rwanda: the open access agenda edc can contribute indirectly to opening up higher education in rwanda which would still serve the open access agenda (weller, 2011). this mooc can be beneficial to stakeholders in rwandan higher education who want to develop their familiarity with concepts and practices related to opening up higher education. lto is also well suited for such contribution, which is additional to its possible direct contribution enabled by open licences on most of its content. for such contribution to occur, those who want to hone their competencies in practices that contribute to opening up higher education would enrol in the courses and participate as all-rounders (anderson et al., 2014) who want to take most from the courses. the potential direct contribution of xmoocs to open education in rwanda: the lifelong learning agenda with the exception of le in which the relevance of most content was limited to the state and country of the offering university, other moocs may be beneficial to rwandan lifelong learners. these learners may participate in these courses and related global learning communities and/or create and participate in local learning networks (nkuyubwatsi, 2014a). it is worth noting that the contribution of moocs to the lifelong learning agenda is more likely to be directly beneficial to those who are already educated or have means for further education or professional development. moocs have already been reaching such learners (alcorn, christensen & emanuel, 2014; eadtu, 2014; guo & reinecke, 2014; grainger, 2013; ostrow, 2013). this should not be surprising, since most moocs were designed in societies that may have shifted attention from the open access agenda to the lifelong learning agenda (weller, 2011). if rwandan lifelong learners who would benefit from moocs enhance their professionalism and improve service delivery thanks to mooc participation, underprivileged people they serve may also benefit indirectly. conclusion the low level of reach and impact of xmoocs in developing settings is mainly associated with the nature of these courses, which is not compatible with the technological infrastructure available in those settings. this challenge may possibly be overcome if the mooc content is openly licensed to enable the creation of derivative work that can be disseminated in a way that is responsive to contextual challenges. in this study, only two out of ten xmoocs had content that was openly licensed and most of this content legally allowed derivative work. innovations in reuse, remix, repurposing and redistribution of the openly licensed xmooc content that allow derivative work in a way that responds to challenges in under-resourced context may increase the reach and impact of these courses. moocs that have openly licensed content may be adapted for direct use in opening up higher education in underprivileged settings, within the open access agenda. for this to occur, this agenda many need to be established among priorities in those settings. using openly licensed mooc content in opening up higher education in underprivileged settings may also depend on effective policies that encourage open scholarship. by adopting open scholarship, learners would engage in self-determined open learning practices. as for academics, they may participate in adaptation and enhancement of mooc content, assessment of open learning accomplishment for credit and continuing professional development via local and global networks. educators and other lifelong learners in underprivileged settings may also directly benefit from xmoocs that are not openly licensed within the lifelong learning agenda. nine of the ten moocs investigated were found to have the potential to offer that benefit. these moocs would mainly be beneficial to those who are already privileged, as it has been argued in a diversity of mooc literature. yet, taking some moocs within the lifelong learning agenda may indirectly contribute to the open access agenda if the moocs taken help the lifelong learners develop competencies needed for opening up higher education. in the current study, two moocs were found to have the potential to make such an indirect contribution. acknowledgement the researcher is deeply indebted to professor gráinne conole and professor david hawkridge for a review of versions of the rubric used in this study and the constructive comments they provided. the researcher would also like to express his gratitude to dr. evode mukama, dr. pamela rogerson-revell and the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on drafts of this article. references achieve. (2011). rubrics for evaluating open educational resource (oer) objects. retrieved january 11, 2015, from http://www.achieve.org/files/achieveoerrubrics.pdf alcorn, b., christensen, g., & emanuel, j.e. (2014, january 4). who takes moocs?: for higher education, the devil is in the data. new republic. retrieved may 6, 2015, from http://www.newrepublic.com/article/116013/mooc-student-survey-who-enrolls-online-education anderson, t. (2010). theories for learning with emerging technologies. in g. veletsianos (ed.), emerging technologies in distance education (pp. 23-39). edmonton: athabasca university press. retrieved may 13, 2015, from http://www.aupress.ca/books/120177/ebook/02_veletsianos_2010-emerging_technologies_in_distance_education.pdf anderson, a., huttenlocher, d., kleinberg, j., & lescovec, j. (2014). engaging with massive open online courses. proceedings of the 23rd international conference on world wide web (pp. 687-698). retrieved may 10, 2015, from http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2568042 andrei, m. (2014, october 1). germany removes university fees: what we should learn from that. zme science. retrieved may 8, 2015, from http://www.zmescience.com/other/germany-education-fees-01102014/ blaschke, l. m. (2012). heutagogy and lifelong learning: a review of heutagogical practice and self-determined learning. the international review of research in open and distance learning, 13(1), 56-71. retrieved may 1, 2015, from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/1076/2113 blom, j., verma, h., li, n., skevi, a., & dillenbourg, p. (2013). moocs are more social than you believe. elearning papers. retrieved may 5, 2015, from https://oerknowledgecloud.org/sites/oerknowledgecloud.org/files/from-field_33_1.pdf bouma, d.g., & ling, r. (2004). the research process (5th ed.). victoria: oxford university press. bryman, a. (2012). social research methods (4th ed.). oxford: oxford university press. canning, n. (2010). playing with heutagogy: exploring strategies to empower mature learners in higher education. journal of further and higher education, 34(1), 59-71. canning, n., & callan, s. (2010). heutagogy: spirals of reflection to empower learners in higher education. reflective practice, 11(1), 71-82. cisel, m. (n.d). guide du mooc. retrieved may 4, 2015, from http://www.france-universite-numerique.fr/img/pdf/guide_mooc_complet_vf.pdf cohen, l., manion, l., & morrison, k. (2011). research methods in education (7th ed.). oxon: routledge. conole, g. (2013). moocs as disruptive technologies: strategies for enhancing the learner experience and quality of moocs. revista de educación a distancia. retrieved may 3, 2015, from http://www.um.es/ead/red/39/conole.pdf conole, g. (2014). a new classification for moocs. international journal for innovation and quality in learning. retrieved may 3, 2015, from http://papers.efquel.org/index.php/innoqual/article/view/164 creswell, w.j. (2014). research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (4th ed.). los angeles: sage. daniel, j.s. (2012). making sense of moocs: musing in a maze of myth, paradox and possibility. journal of interactive media in education. retrieved may 4, 2015, from http://jime.open.ac.uk/articles/10.5334/2012-18/ eadtu. (2014). porto declaration on european moocs: europe must seize this moment to grab the opportunities offered by moocs. retrieved may 3, 2015, from http://home.eadtu.eu/images/news/porto_declaration_on_european_moocs_final.pdf grainger, b. (2013). massive open online course (mooc) report. retrieved may 4, 2015, from http://www.londoninternational.ac.uk/sites/default/files/documents/mooc_report-2013.pdf guo, j.p., & reinecke, k. (2014). demographic differences in how students navigate through moocs. proceedings of the first acm conference on learning (pp. 21-30). retrieved may 5, 2015, from https://groups.csail.mit.edu/uid/other-pubs/las2014-pguo-demographic.pdf harishankar, v.b. (2012). tracing the trajectory of oer in india: reflection on three initiatives. in j. glennie, k. harley, n. butcher, & t.v. wyk (eds), open educational resources and changes in higher education: reflection from practice (pp. 41-56). vancouver: commonwealth of learning. hase, s., & kenyon, c. (2001). from andragogy to heutagogy. retrieved may 4, 2015, from http://www.psy.gla.ac.uk/~steve/pr/heutagogy.html heller, e.d., & roger, r. k. (2006). shifting the burden: public and private financing of higher education in the united states and implications for europe. tertiary education and management, 12(2), 91-117. retrieved may 4, 2015, from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/13583883.2006.9967162 home. (2014). open call for position papers on moocs. retrieved may 4, 2015, from http://www.home.eadtu.eu/images/news/open_call_position_paper_moocs_update_8sept.pdf iversity. (2013, september 23). ects credits for moocs on iversity. retrieved may 4, 2015, from https://iversity.org/blog/ects-credits-moocs-iversity/ jacobi, r., & woert, n.v.d. (2012). trend report: open educational resources 2012. retrieved may 14, 2015, from https://www.surfspace.nl/media/bijlagen/artikel-697-ee18ac0f1441bb158e6122818f5f589e.pdf kjeldstad, b., alvestrand, h., elvestad, o.e., ingebretsen, t., melve, i., bongo, m. et al. (2014). moocs for norway: new digital learning methods in higher education. retrieved may 1, 2015, from http://www.regjeringen.no/pages/38804804/pdfs/nou201420140005000en_pdfs.pdf koller, d. (2012). what we’re learning from online education. ted. retrieved may 4, 2015, from http://www.ted.com/talks/daphne_koller_what_we_re_learning_from_online_ education.html kopp, m., ebner, m., & dofer-novak, a. (2014). introducing moocs to austrian universities: is it worth it to accept the challenge? the international journal of innovation and quality in learning, 46-52. retrieved may 12, 2015, from http://papers.efquel.org/index.php/innoqual/article/view/154/41 lane, l. m. (2012). three kinds of moocs [web log post]. retrieved april 29, 2015, from http://www.lisahistory.net/wordpress/2012/08/three-kinds-of-moocs/ lane, a., & van dorp, k.j. (2011). open educational resources and widening participation in higher education: innovations and lessons from open universities. edulearn11, the 3rd annual international conference on education and new learning technologies. retrieved april 16, 2015, from http://oro.open.ac.uk/29201/1/open_educational_resources_and_widening_participation_andy.pdf liyanagunawardena, t., williams, s., & adams, a. (2013). the impact and reach of moocs: a developing countries’ perspective. elearning papers (33). retrieved may 13, 2015, from http://www.openeducationeuropa.eu/en/article/the-impact-and-reach-of-moocs%3a-a-developing-countries%e2%80%99-perspective?paper=124335 matherly, j. (2014). all devices connected to the internet. retrieved may 12, 2015, from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2737627/now-s-world-wide-web-map-reveals-globe-looks-like-internet-device-lit-up.html mulder, f. (2015). open(ing up) education for all…boosted by moocs?. in c. j. bonk, m.m. lee, t.c. reeves, & t.h. reynolds (eds.), moocs and open education around the world (pp. xviiixxvii). london: routledge. mulder, f., & janssen, b. (2013) opening up education. in r. jacobi, h. jelgerhuis, & v.d. n. woert (eds.), trend report: open educational resources 2013 (pp. 36-42). retrieved may 11, 2015, from this url. national institute of statistics of rwanda. (2014). characteristics of households and housing: fourth population and housing census, rwanda, 2012. retrieved may 14, 2015, from http://statistics.gov.rw/publications/rphc4-thematic-report-characteristics-households-and-housing nkuyubwatsi, b. (2014a). cultural translation in massive open online courses (moocs). elearning papers (37), 23-32. retrieved may 13, 2015, from http://www.openeducationeuropa.eu/en/paper/experiences-and-best-practices-and-around-moocs nkuyubwatsi, b. (2014b). mapping five os for reaping benefits from massive open online courses (moocs). journal of global literacies, technologies and emerging pedagogies, 2(3), 189-206. retrieved may 13, 2015, from http://joglep.com/index.php/archives/voulme-2-issue/ nkuyubwatsi, b. (2015). fostering collaborative investment in massive open online courses (moocs). in d. jansen & a. teixeira (eds), position papers for european cooperation on moocs: overview of position papers on the opportunities and characteristics for european cooperation as presented during the home conference in porto november 2014 (pp. 44-57). retrieved may 14, 2015, from http://home.eadtu.eu/images/position_papers_for_european_cooperation_on_moocs.p nkuyubwatsi, b., ndayishimiye, v., ntirenganya, b.j., & umwungerimwiza, d.y. (2015). towards innovation in digital and open scholarship for non-rivalrous lifelong learning and supporting open learning: the case of the open scholars network. elearning papers (44), 53-59. retrieved november 17, 2015, from http://openeducationeuropa.eu/en/paper/teacher-s-role-educational-innovation ouwehand, m. (2012). oer platform. in r. jacobi, & n.v.d. woert (eds.), trend report: open educational resources 2012 (pp. 47-53). retrieved may 14, 2015, from https://www.surfspace.nl/media/bijlagen/artikel-697-ee18ac0f1441bb158e6122818f5f589e.pdf ostrow, n. (2013, november 20). online courses fail to reach poor students as richest benefit. bloomsberg technology. retrieved may 13, 2015, from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-20/online-courses-fail-to-reach-poor-students-as-richest-benefit.html rodriguez, c. o. (2012). moocs and the ai-stanford like courses: two successful and distinct course formats for massive open online courses. european journal of open, distance and elearning. retrieved may 10, 2015 from http://www.eric.ed.gov/pdfs/ej982976.pdf spinu, g. (2013). tuition fees and living costs in france. retrieved may 7, 2015, from http://www.mastersportal.eu/articles/355/tuition-fees-and-living-costs-in-france.html the university of rwanda. (2014). general academic regulations for open and distance learning programmes. retrieved november 18, 2015, from this url. thrun, s. (2012). higher education 2.0. retrieved may 14, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skneonrfadk university of nicosia. (2014). msc. in digital currency. retrieved may 12, 2015, from http://digitalcurrency.unic.ac.cy/admissions-registration/admissions-criteria valkenburg, w.v. (2012). an international perspective on ocw. in r. jacobi, & n.v.d. woert (eds), trend report: open educational resources 2012 (pp. 77-81). retrieved may 14, 2015, from https://www.surfspace.nl/media/bijlagen/artikel-697-ee18ac0f1441bb158e6122818f5f589e.pdf veletsianos, g., & kimmons, r. (2012). assumptions and challenges of open scholarship. the international review of research in open and distance learning, 13(4), 166–189. retrieved november 17, 2015, from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/1313 verstelle, m., schreuder, m., & jelgerhuis, h. (2014). recognition of moocs in the higher education sector. in r. jacobi, n.v.d. woert, & h. jelgerhuis (eds.), trend report: open educational resources 2014 (pp. 24-32). retrieved may 12, 2015, from http://www.surf.nl/binaries/content/assets/surf/en/2014/trendrapport-open-education-2014-eng.pdf weller, m. (2011). the digital scholar: how technology is transforming the scholarly practice. new york: bloomsbery. weller, m. (2014). the battle for open: how openness won and why it doesn’t feel like victory. london: ubiquity press. retrieved may 10, 2015, from http://www.ubiquitypress.com/site/books/detail/11/battle-for-open/ woert, n.v.d. (2012). access, accessibility and use of open educational resources. in r. jacobi, & n.v.d. woert (eds.), trend report: open educational resources 2012 (pp. 35-39). retrieved may 14, 2015, from https://www.surfspace.nl/media/bijlagen/artikel-697-ee18ac0f1441bb158e6122818f5f589e.pdf yuan, l., & powell, s. (2013). moocs and open education: implications for higher education. retrieved may 10, 2015, from http://publications.cetis.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/moocs-and-open-education.pdf author: bernard nkuyubwatsi is a commonwealth scholar funded by the uk government in his phd study at the university of leicester and a go-gn member. he holds an maode (open university) and an matesol (eastern michigan university). his research interests include opening up education, moocs, oer, open scholarship, digital scholarship and heutagogy. e-mail: bn30@le.ac.uk appendix 1: mooc evaluation rubric this rubric was adopted from achieve (2011). it is used to evaluate moocs in their nine facets: learner orientation, the quality of explanation, the utility of the material to support learning and teaching, the degree of openness and accessibility, the form of assessment, the level of interactivity, the type of instructional and practical exercises, the opportunities for deeper learning and a cross-cultural relevance (appropriateness within rwandan higher education in this study). it can be adapted for reuse in different settings or to evaluate online courses of different type. prior to the use of the rubric, it was reviewed by experts in online education. then it was tested on five moocs from the coursera platform. mooc: the delivery period: 5 = positive (the statement very much reflects the reality) 1 = negative (the statement does not at all reflect the reality) major areas  aspects evaluated 1 2 3 4 5 na comments student orientation  the mooc provides accurate (heuristic) information about the scope it covers and the workload to enable students to make the right choice. the mooc provides information about recommended prerequisite for maximizing benefits from it the mooc includes a study guide quality of explanation of the subject matter the mooc provides comprehensive information so effectively that the target audience should be able to understand the subject matter  the mooc connects important associated concepts within the subject matter the mooc does not need to be augmented with additional explanation or materials  the main ideas of the subject matter addressed in the mooc are clearly identified for the learner.  utility of materials designed to support learning and teaching the mooc provides materials that are comprehensive and easy to understand and use.  the mooc includes suggestions for ways to use the materials with a variety of learners.  the mooc and all its components are provided and function as intended and described. for example, materials lists are complete, and explanations make sense.  the materials in the mooc facilitate the use of a mix of instructional approaches (direct instruction, group work, investigations, etc.).  type of moocs based on lane (2012) and conole (2013) the mooc is content-based the mooc is task-based the mooc is network-based the mooc is quality assured the mooc encourages reflection on learning the mooc enable learning autonomy the mooc is part of formal learning (credit offered) certificate of accomplishment is offered the mooc align with the concept of diversity openness and accessibility  the mooc materials are copyrighted under an open license the mooc provides alternative for access to materials for people with low internet access moocs are accessible to students with disabilities quality of assessments all of the skills and knowledge assessed align clearly to the content and performance expectations intended, as stated or implied in the mooc.  the most important aspects of the expectations are targeted and are given appropriate weight/attention in the assessment.  the assessment modes used in the mooc, such as multiple choice questions (mcqs), true/false format questions, questions that demand short and long constructed response, or group work require the student to demonstrate proficiency in the intended concept/skill.  the level of difficulty is a result of the complexity of the subject-area content and performance expectations and of the degree of cognitive demand, rather than a result of unrelated issues (e.g. the lack of cultural translation enablers).  quality of technological interactivity the mooc is responsive to student input in a way that creates an individualized learning experience. this means the mooc adapts to the user based on what s/he does, or the mooc allows the user some flexibility or individual control during the learning experience.  the interactive element is purposeful and directly related to learning.  the mooc is well-designed and easy to use/learn, encouraging learner use and engagement.  the mooc appears to function flawlessly on the intended platform.  quality of instructional and practice exercises the mooc offers more exercises than needed for the average student to facilitate mastery of the targeted skills, as stated or implied in the course syllabus. for complex tasks, one or two rich practice exercises may be considered more than enough.  the exercises are clearly written and supported by accurate answer keys or scoring guidelines as applicable.  there are a variety of exercise types and/or the exercises are available in a variety of formats, as appropriate to the targeted concepts and skills. for more complex practice exercises the formats used provide an opportunity for the learner to integrate a variety of skills.  opportunities for deeper learning at least three of the deeper learning skills from the list identified at the bottom of this rubric are required in the mooc.  the mooc offers a range of cognitive demand that is appropriate and supportive of the material.  appropriate scaffolding and direction are provided.  the mooc includes appropriate and timely formative feedback fit in the rwandan higher education system the mooc would fit within levels of higher education in rwanda the mooc would fit within the credit system in rwandan higher education the mooc would fit within the fields of study ranked as priority in rwanda deeper learning skills: • think critically and solve complex problems. • work collaboratively. • communicate effectively. • learn how to learn. • reason abstractly. • construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others. • apply discrete knowledge and skills to real-world situations. • construct, use, or analyze models. adapted from achieve (2011) rubrics for evaluating open educational resource (oer) objects, available from http://www.achieve.org/files/achieveoerrubrics.pdf (accessed 26 december 2012). appendix 2: mooc participation log week date activities time total observation 1 2 3 4 microsoft word mutisya.docx issn: 2311-1550 2020, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 174-189 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. integration of information communication technology in teaching: the underpinning factors among kenya’s primary school teachers sammy muteti mutisya maasai mara university, kenya abstract: this study was carried out with 86 primary school teachers in kenya’s narok county and explored factors affecting integration of ict in teaching and learning. multiple regression was used for data analysis. the results revealed that 32.5% of the variance was explained by the independent and extraneous variables (r2 = 0.325, p = 0.001) and was statistically significant. attitude was found to be a significant predictor of teachers’ behavioural intention to use ict in teaching and learning (β = 0.259, p < 0.05) while performance expectancy (β = 0.148, p > 0.05), effort expectancy (β = -0.185, p > 0.05), social influence (β = 0.029, p > 0.05), facilitating condition (β = 0.194, p > 0.05), self-efficacy (β = 0.195, p > 0.05) and anxiety (β = 0.074, p > 0.05) were not significant predictors. the study recommends training of teachers on subject-specific ict technologies, that laptops and computers be availed for use by teachers and pupils, that school heads be trained on how to monitor and support integration of ict by teachers and that governments provide schools with requisite ict infrastructure. keywords: performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating condition, selfefficacy, attitude, anxiety and intention to use information communication technology. introduction the role of information communication technologies (ict) in education cannot be overemphasised. ict refers to technologies that provide access to information through telecommunication (ratheeswari, 2018). in modern societies, the economy is driven by information and knowledge and, hence, the need for a workforce with competencies in ict. in education, qualter (2011) opines that ict has transformed the teaching landscape significantly where the teachers’ roles have changed from what had always been assumed. qualter notes that learners should embrace ict as part of the digital age and use it to enhance their learning. ict is associated with increasing learners’ creativity, ability to reflect on what is learned and development of problem-solving skills. according to higgins (2003), research studies have shown that ict can facilitate pupils’ learning and effective teaching. the elimu yetu coalition (2013) further observes that icts provide opportunities for teachers to improve their teaching practices through improved educational content and better pedagogies and can improve learning processes by providing interactive educational materials. the role of information communication technologies (ict) in education cannot be overemphasised. ict refers to technologies that provide access to information through telecommunication (ratheeswari, 2018). in modern societies, the economy is driven by information and knowledge and, hence, the need for a workforce with competencies in ict. in education, qualter (2011) opines that ict has transformed the teaching landscape significantly where the teachers’ roles have changed from 175 what had always been assumed. qualter notes that learners should embrace ict as part of the digital age and use it to enhance their learning. ict is associated with increasing learners’ creativity, ability to reflect on what is learned and development of problem-solving skills. according to higgins (2003), research studies have shown that ict can facilitate pupils’ learning and effective teaching. the elimu yetu coalition (2013) further observes that icts provide opportunities for teachers to improve their teaching practices through improved educational content and better pedagogies and can improve learning processes by providing interactive educational materials. teachers should embrace ict in their teaching to take advantage of the gains associated with the effective use of ict. qualter (2011) concludes that integration of ict provides learners with opportunities to explore ideas using ict tools, and to relate their personal experiences with the world’s big ideas enhancing their conceptualisation of ideas. hence, ict breaks learning barriers associated with the traditional classroom practices since abstract concepts can be simplified through simulation. despite the fact that use of ict in teaching has been associated with some benefits, chigona and chigona (2010) argue that the benefits of using ict in teaching are yet to be realised in developing countries. the study by chigona and chigona concluded that insufficient training on the use of ict in teaching, inadequate ict tools and inadequate technical support for teachers were some of the factors that limited teachers’ integration of ict in teaching and learning in south africa. another study, also conducted in south africa (balume, edmor & simbabrashe, 2018), found that poor training, negative attitudes, lack of physical education (pe) ict training and lack of pe ict software affected integration of ict in the teaching of pe. in kenya, a government project that provided ict tablets to primary schools for teaching and learning failed at its infancy stage (nyaundi, 2019). some of the reasons that were given for the project failure include: poor training of teachers, lack of electrical power and power disconnections due to non-payment of electricity bills. hence, teachers lacked ict skills and ict infrastructure to support the use of ict tablets. however, chigona and chigona (2010) argue that it is incorrect to link lack of ict infrastructure and access to technologies with the limited use of ict in pedagogy since, even in situations where the infrastructure was available, use of icts was still low. balume, edmor and simbabrashe (2018) also indicate that in south africa, teachers had adequate ict hardware but there were other factors that affected teachers’ integration of ict. a study by fumei, rong-jou, hann-jang and hui-mei (2018) found that teachers’ intention to utilise multimedia teaching material was significantly influenced by teachers’ attitude. these findings underscore the importance of teachers’ attitude in integration of ict in teaching and learning. palagolla and wickramarachchi (2019) observe that in kenya, even the schools that had ict infrastructure were also not using the ict tablets. these observations clearly show there are other underlying factors that underpin integration of ict in teaching and learning that need to be investigated. leveraging the pedagogical benefits associated with use of ict in teaching and learning, the government of kenya acknowledges that ict is a driver for knowledge, innovation and skills development and for solving educational challenges related to access, quality, relevance and equity (ministry of education, 2019). the republic of kenya [rok], (2018) indicates that kenya requires ict 176 literate teachers who can integrate ict in teaching to enhance the quality of teaching and to enrich students’ learning experiences, as well as equipping students with 21st-century skills. despite the potential presented by integration of ict in teaching and learning, ofsted (2011) indicated that use of ict across the curriculum was in its infancy stage. rok (2018) observes that teachers should have ict competencies and pedagogical abilities to integrate ict effectively in teaching and learning, while unesco (2011) concludes that successful integration of ict in teaching and learning depends on teachers’ ability to structure the learning environment in new ways, blend new technology with new pedagogy, develop socially active classrooms, and encourage co-operative interaction, collaborative learning and group work. in kenya, a government initiative provided schools with ict tablets and teachers were trained on how to use them for teaching. to ensure schools are using ict in teaching, efforts to create an enabling environment for ict integration in schools has been ongoing and appropriate policies have been formulated, notably: sessional paper no. 1 (2019), the basic education act (2013), sessional paper no.14 (2012), the national ict strategy for education and training (2006), the teachers service commission act (2012), the kenya institute of curriculum development act (2012), the kenya national examination council act (2012) and the national education sector support programme (nessp), 2013 (elimu yetu coalition, 2013). despite these efforts by the government towards integration of ict, anecdotal evidence shows that uptake of ict in teaching and learning by teachers has been at an all-time low. nyaundi (2019) reports that despite the kenya government supplying 95% of learners in standard one with tablets, the tablets were not being used and remained locked in storage rooms. it is not clear why teachers were not using the tablets in teaching. therefore, using the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (utaut) model, empirical data from teachers on factors that underpinned integration of ict in teaching and learning was used to determine primary school teachers’ behavioural intention to use ict. statement of the problem integration of ict in many economic sectors came with effectiveness and efficiency in service delivery. research reports have shown that ict has pedagogical benefits that teachers should explore. the republic of kenya [rok] (2018) asserts that ict has the capacity to deal with the challenges of access, quality and relevance faced by kenya’s education system. towards this end, the kenya basic education curriculum framework (becf) has identified ict to be a key delivery tool for subject contents. this implies that teachers are expected to using ict in curriculum delivery. according to the rok (2018), all teachers were required to be ict literate by 2015 to implement the policy, while preservice teacher trainees were also expected to acquire ict competencies within the same period. despite the government directive that teachers should use ict in teaching and learning, primary school teachers were slow to embrace ict in their teaching, raising questions about teachers’ acceptability of ict for teaching. adoption of any technology depends on its acceptability by the users (teachers). this study investigated factors that determined teachers’ behavioural intention to use ict in teaching and learning. 177 objectives of the study specifically, the study sought to identify factors that influenced primary school teachers’ behavioral intension (bi) to integrate ict in teaching and learning in kenya’s primary schools. specifically, the study addressed the following two objectives: 1. to determine how primary school teachers were using the ict tablets provided by the government. 2. to evaluate influence of performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, attitude, self-efficacy and anxiety on teachers’ behavioral intentions to integrate ict in teaching. research hypotheses the following hypotheses informed the research. ho1: performance expectancy has no statistically significant influence on teachers’ behavioural intention to integrate ict in teaching. ho2: effort expectancy has no statistically significant influence on teachers’ behavioural intention to integrate ict in teaching. ho3: social influence has no statistically significant influence on teachers’ behavioural intention to integrate ict in teaching. ho4: facilitating conditions have no statistically significant influence on teachers’ behavioural intention to integrate ict in teaching. ho5: attitude has no statistically significant influence on teachers’ behavioural intention to integrate ict in teaching. ho6: self-efficacy has no statistically significant influence on teachers’ behavioural intention to integrate ict in teaching. ho7: anxiety has no statistically significant influence on teachers’ behavioural intention to integrate ict in teaching. literature review integration of ict in education, training and research research findings indicate that ict can facilitate teaching and learning in diverse ways. unesco (2011) asserts that teachers should use ict to help students become collaborative problem-solvers and creative learners so that they can become effective citizens and members of the workforce. hence the benefits of integrating ict in teaching and learning transcend academic performance in school examinations. unesco has gone further to identify three stages for teacher development relating to the use of ict, which are technology literacy geared towards enabling students to use ict in learning, knowledge deepening for enabling students to acquire in-depth knowledge of their school subjects and applying it in complex real-world situations; and knowledge creation which focuses on students’ creation of new knowledge required for a more harmonious, fulfilling and prosperous life. 178 the three stages of teacher development aim at building teachers’ capacity so that they can use ict in teaching and learning. unesco (2011) observe that teachers should go beyond acquisition of ict competencies to being able to use ict to enable students to become collaborative, creative and critical thinkers. it is mooted that such learners would become responsible members of society and an effective workforce for the country’s national development later in life. in the same vein, the national research council (2000) observes that use of ict in teaching and learning processes is necessary in refocusing teaching towards meaningful learning which is needed in current knowledge-based society. qualter (2011) argues that both teachers and learners can use ict for communication, learning, information seeking and retrieval. to achieve these, both teachers and the learners should be grounded with ict knowledge, skills and information literacy so that they can conceptualise and interrogate the veracity of the huge amount of information availed by ict. additionally, they should have language skills, critical thinking skills and be able to communicate both face-to-face and virtually. qualter (2011) has identified the role of teachers as ict users to include: modeling effective use of ict, accessing information, making use of information, communicating with others, preparing teaching and expanding their knowledge and skills on use of ict. these are critical skills for effective utilisation of ict in teaching and learning. needham (2011) provides examples of ict tools that could be used for teaching and learning and identified audios, websites, location and google earth, wikis, weblogs (blogs) podcasting, video clips and social media among others. it is evident that the long list of ict technologies is ever-growing, demonstrating the dynamic nature of ict technologies. teachers should, therefore, update themselves frequently on the emerging ict tools for teaching and learning and acquaint themselves with their uses. this implies frequent professional development for teachers. qualter (2011) reiterates that despite the fact that ict has huge potential in providing varied learning experiences to the learners, the role of the teacher as a facilitator of learning is still very critical. morris (2018) asserts that the hype surrounding the use of ict in teaching and learning should not be mistaken to imply replacement of teachers with ict. the role of the teacher as a facilitator of learning still remains and, hence, teachers should align pedagogies with ict technologies. kenya has singled out information and communication technology (ict) as a foundation for socioeconomic transformation. the ministry of education (moe) (2019) acknowledges that ict is important in transforming education and addressing significant challenges of access, quality, relevance and equity in education. kenya’s ministry of education has leveraged government support to integrate ict in curriculum delivery. hence, teachers should have the capacity to integrate ict in education provision. to ensure successful integration of ict in education by the teachers, the kenya government has committed itself to expanding ict infrastructure, building teachers capacity, enhancing availability and utilisation of digital learning materials and open educational resource, and strengthening ict-based curriculum delivery and assessment approaches. the impact of ict in teaching and learning the 21st century has seen a proliferation of the use of ict with many countries (australia, new zealand, usa, england [and hong kong], for example) availing ict tools in classroom settings 179 (eadie, 2011). according to ofsted (2008), the united kingdom had the highest number of classrooms embedded with ict among the european union countries. the technological changes in the classrooms are being driven by the anticipation that ict would positively transform education. the 21st-century knowledge-based society has been associated with increased academic content openly and freely available for students, which is transforming the role of the teacher from that of content delivery to a supporter of learners in helping them to make sense of the openly and freely available content (bates, 2016). in a knowledge-based society, greater focus is, therefore, more on teaching skills for a digital generation and less on subject content mastery. hence, teachers need to be keen to use the existing ict technologies that could make them meet the demands of the 21st-century classrooms. to this end, the 21st-century curriculum has emphasised changing from content-based to skill-based approaches, with many countries adopting competency-based curricula. the kenya institute of curriculum development [kicd] (2017) recommends that ict should be the main content delivery tool in all the subjects under the new basic education curriculum framework. palagolla and wickramarachchi (2019) opine that teachers’ ict competency, ict infrastructure, leadership support and school planning are critical elements for effective integration of ict in classrooms. cleaves and toplis (2012) further observe that teachers should be aware of the role of ict in facilitating and motivating students’ learning. according to cleaves and toplis, ict can inspire students’ conceptualisation, communication of ideas, information gathering and analysis. crook, farrington-fleet, tomacs and underwood (2010) observe that video and mobile phones can be used for recording practical activities and field trips, photography for capturing important events for future discussions, blogs for student-student and teacher-student interactions, internet for searching information, “clickers” for responding to questions in real time and wikis for collaborative learning. integration of ict in teaching and learning, therefore, provides teachers with opportunities for practising innovative learner-centered pedagogies in authentic learning environments. embedding ict in teaching and learning the technological pedagogical content knowledge (tpack) model (tpack.org, 2012) has explained the process of successful embedding of technology in teaching and learning. the framework guides teachers on how to effectively engage learners with technology (koehler & mishra, 2009). tpack.org assert that for teachers to effectively embed technology in their teaching, they should possess technological content knowledge (tck) and technological pedagogical knowledge (tpk). tck represents how technology is used in a specific subject area to facilitate deeper and lasting learning while tpk is about choosing and managing technology to facilitate learning. tpack is therefore a framework to identify the knowledge that teachers should possess in order to teach with technology effectively. the framework acknowledges the fact that learners operate in different contexts in terms of grade-level, school-specific factors, demographics, culture, and other factors and, hence, no single combination of content, technology, and pedagogy can fit all the teaching and learning contexts. hence, integration of ict in teaching and learning should also focus on the learners’ context in addition to technological and pedagogical knowledge. 180 teachers should, therefore, use the tpack model to structure and plan learning experiences in their subject areas based on the knowledge and skills they need to share with their learners, how learners would gain the knowledge and skills and the ideal technological tools that would enable effective learning and sharing of the knowledge and skills. morris (2018) concludes that effective digital pedagogy goes beyond selecting tools and improving students’ performance in examinations. theoretical framework the current study was guided by the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology [utaut] model (venkatesh, morris, davis & davis, 2003). venkatesh and team evaluated eight of the most common technology acceptance models and frameworks and used their salient features to form the utaut model. utaut is a more versatile technology acceptance model, which unifies all the existing theories regarding adoption of technology by users and it is postulated that utaut models can explain 70% of the variance in user intention. empirical studies have demonstrated that the utaut model is the most effective model for analysing technology acceptance. the utaut model consists of four main determinants, namely, performance expectancy (pe), effort expectancy (ee), social influence (si), and facilitating conditions (fc). the four determinants influence the behavioural intention (bi) to use technology, which, in turn, influences the actual usage behaviour. utaut also has four moderators (gender, age, experience, and willingness to use). venkatesh et al, (2003) conclude that the four moderators affect usage of technology. the utaut model is represented diagrammatically in figure 1. figure 1: the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (utaut) model. source: chao (2019) 181 evans (2009) explains the four determinants/predictors of technology acceptance as follows: • performance expectancy is the degree to which an individual believes that using a specific technology will help in achieving gains in job performance such as job improvement, enhanced productivity, positive impact on performance and usefulness of the technology to the organisation and employees. the argument by evans (2009) alludes to perceived usefulness of a technology by users (educenter, 2019) and, hence, perceptions of teachers towards the usefulness of integrating ict in teaching to determine its adoption or non-adoption. • on the other hand, evans (2009) and venkatesh et al, (2003) observe that ee has to do with the perceived ease of use linked with the use of a given technology. according to educenter (2019), these perceptions can be gauged by evaluating the level of training that would be required before people can comfortably use a given technology. a technology that is perceived to be “hard to use” stands a higher chance of being rejected than one that is easy to use. educenter suggest that ease of use influences perceived usefulness because something that is hard to use influences people’s understanding of its utility. • teachers should be assisted by school management to appreciate the fact that integration of ict in teaching is both possible and useful. therefore, training teachers on integration of ict in their teaching would go a long way in changing their perception of the effort expectancy required to integrate ict in teaching. • social influence is concerned with the people championing the adoption of a given technology (venkatesh et al, 2003) and is defined as the degree to which one believes there are other players who think that an individual should use the new technology. evans (2009) asserts that this will depend on whether the technology is useful for teamwork in the organisation, whether there are coworkers using the technology and whether there is encouragement by management to use the technology. educenter (2019) concludes that use of technology is given a boost when there are famous people encouraging people to use a given technology, leveraging its positive aspects as opposed to when someone popular is trashing the use of the technology. towards this end, education managers should play a leading role in supporting teachers to use ict technology in teaching. • the fourth predictor of acceptance of technology is facilitating conditions. according to venkatesh et al, (2003), the antecedents of fc are the existence of organisation and technical infrastructure for supporting the use of a given technology. this has to do with the availability of the technology, knowledge to operate the technology and alignment of the technology within the institutional culture (evans, 2009). it is imperative that this role is acknowledged by governments and to some extent the school administrators who are expected to provide the facilitating conditions for integration of ict. this will include provision of ict resources, electricity, internet infrastructure and training of teachers. 182 evans (2009) explains how the four moderating influences work as follows: gender affects pe, ee and si, while age affects pe, ee, si and fc. experience influences ee, si and fc and voluntary (selfefficacy) use affect si. the present study hypothesised that pe, ee, si, fc, self-efficacy, attitude and anxiety all influence teachers’ behavioural intentions (bi) to integrate ict in their teaching. evans (2009) asserts that bi measures the intention to use the technology and assumes people can access the technology. educenter (2019) observes that bi as an attitude can either be positive or negative. a study by mwunda and ogutu, (2018) found that teachers’ ict competency was a significant determinant of behavioural intention to integrate icts in teaching and learning. teachers with a positive attitude, who are competent in use of ict and perceive technology as useful are more likely to use ict in teaching and learning. based on the extensive literature undertaken by the researcher, it can, therefore, be concluded that the potential of ict in transforming education by supporting teaching and learning is not in doubt. teachers should use ict to help students become collaborative, problem-solvers and creative learners. ict enables learners to communicate, learn, seek and retrieve information more effectively. in all these processes, the role of the teacher as a facilitator of learning is critical. kenya acknowledges that ict is a crucial driver for transforming education and providing solutions to challenges of access, quality, relevance and equity in education. it also concludes that effective embedding of ict in teaching and learning requires teachers’ technology content knowledge (tck) and technological pedagogical knowledge (tpk). the literature review finally, concludes that studies have shown that even in situations where ict infrastructure exists, integration of ict in teaching and learning was still limited. hence, this study used the utaut framework to investigate the factors that influence teachers’ behavioural intention to use ict in teaching and learning. research framework in this research ict integration factors include: attitude, effort expectancy, performance expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, self-efficacy and anxiety. these factors are conceptualised to influence behavioural intention to use ict as shown in figure 2. 183 figure 2: research framework. source: researcher the research framework postulates that teachers form attitudes and intensions towards using ict based on their perceptions of the ict technology in regard to performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating condition, self-efficacy and anxiety. the perceptions influence directly teachers’ bahavioural intention to use ict or indirectly by influencing teachers’ attitudes towards the ict technology which, in turn, influences their cognitive decision on whether to use the ict technology or not. hence, favourable teachers’ perceptions of a given ict technology based on the independent variables would predict if teachers would use a given ict technology or not. methods research design descriptive survey research design, which does not manipulate variables or arrange for events to happen was used in this study, using both qualitative and quantitative methods (orodho, 2003). the design was used to determine how primary school teachers were using ict tablets provided by the government and factors that influenced teachers’ behavioural intention to use ict. sampling and sampling techniques simple random sampling procedure was used to select 86 (40 from rural schools and 46 from urban schools) primary school teachers and 10 primary school head teachers in kenya’s narok county. according to mugenda and mugenda (2012), simple random sampling is a procedure for selecting representative subjects from a given population, especially when the researcher is dealing with a small sampling frame and the population is well defined as was the case with the current study. data collection instruments an interview schedule for head teachers that collected qualitative data and a teachers’ technology acceptance questionnaire (ttaq) that collected quantitative data was used to collect data from head 184 teachers and primary school teachers, respectively. according to mungenada and mugenda (2012), an interview schedule is a research tool for collecting qualitative data using open-ended questions while a questionnaire uses either open-ended or closed questions. in this study the interview schedule was used to ask questions on how primary school teachers were using tablets that were provided by the government for teaching and learning in standard one. ttaq used closed questions and was based on the venkatesh, et al (2003) utaut model that was adopted and used for data collection. ttaq was a 7-point matrix likert scale questionnaire that measured teachers’ performance expectancy, effort expectancy, attitude, social influence, facilitating conditions, self-efficacy, anxiety and behavioural intention to use ict. a likert scale is a procedure used to measure concepts like attitudes, perceptions and satisfaction (mugenda & mugenada, 2012). data collection procedures the researcher visited the sampled schools and interviewed head teachers in their school settings and self-administered the questionnaires to the sampled teachers in the same schools. this increased the return rate of the completed research instruments and the researcher was able to compare information given and, at the same time, make observations on ict infrastructure within the school. data analysis and results multiple regression was used for data analysis. according to mugenda and mugenda (2012), regression analysis is a statistical procedure for predicting a dependent variable using one or more independent variables. in the current study, primary school teachers’ behavioural intention to use ict in teaching and learning (dependent variable) was predicted using performance expectancy, effort expectancy, attitude, social influence, facilitating condition, self-efficacy and anxiety (independent variable). multiple regression, therefore, enables one to predict and weigh the relationship between two or more explanatory variables (independent variable) and an explained (dependent) variable (louis, lawrence & keith, 2007). use of government sponsored tablets for teaching by teachers primary school head teachers were requested to give their views on whether teachers were using the tablets provided by the government. the qualitative data given by the head teachers revealed that, despite the schools nominating champion teachers to be trained on the use of the tablets so that they could also train their colleagues, the champion teachers did not train their colleagues upon returning. the reasons cited by the head teachers as to why teachers were not using the tablets include inadequate training, teachers’ negative attitude, lack of self-initiative and lack of source of power to charge the tablets. factors influencing primary school teachers behavioural intention to integrate ict in teaching a multiple regression analysis was carried out to investigate whether performance expectancy, effort expectancy, attitude, social influence, facilitating conditions, self-efficacy and anxiety significantly influenced primary school teachers’ behavioural intention to integrate ict in teaching and learning. the results of the regression are presented in table 1. 185 table 1: model summary multiple regression beta coefficient on factors influencing teachers’ intension to use determinants of intension to use technology unstandardised coefficient standardised coefficient t-ratio p values b std. error beta (constant) 2.397 1.815 1.320 .191 performance expectancy .090 .078 .148 1.154 .252 effort expectancy -.098 .080 -.185 -1.213 .229 attitude .299 .147 .259 2.034 .045 social influence .068 .071 .129 .950 .345 facilitating condition .070 .055 .184 1.268 .208 self-efficacy .074 .055 .194 1.341 .184 anxiety .038 .053 .074 .728 .469 r2 = .325 f-ratio = 5.358 p < 0.001 n = 86 a) dependent variable b) predictors: performance expectancy, effort expectancy, attitude, social influence, facilitating condition, self-efficacy and anxiety results indicated that the seven variables explained 32.5% of the variance and that the variables were significant predictors of primary school teachers’ behavioural intention to integrate ict in teaching and learning, f(7, 78) = 5,36, p = .001). the test of the hypotheses revealed the following: ho1: performance expectancy has no statistically significant influence on primary school teachers’ bi to integrate ict in teaching. regression analysis for this hypothesis (table 1) shows β = 0.148, p > 0.05, hence, the ho1 was retained, i.e., performance expectancy has no significant influence on primary school teachers’ bi to integrate ict in teaching. ho2: effort expectancy has no statistically significant influence on primary school teachers’ bi to integrate ict in teaching. regression analysis for this hypothesis (table 1) shows β = -0.185, p > 0.05 hence the ho2 was retained, i.e., effort expectancy has no significant influence on primary school teachers’ bi to integrate ict in teaching. ho3: social influence has no statistically significant influence on primary school teachers’ bi to integrate ict in teaching. regression analysis for this hypothesis (table 1) shows β = β = 0.029, p > 186 0.05, hence, the ho3 was retained, i.e., social influence has no significant influence on primary school teachers’ bi to integrate ict in teaching. ho4: facilitating conditions have no statistically significant influence on primary school teachers’ bi to integrate ict in teaching. regression analysis for this hypothesis (table 1) shows β = 0.194, p > 0.05, hence, the ho4 was retained, i.e., facilitating conditions has no significant influence on primary school teachers’ bi to integrate ict in teaching. ho5: attitude has no statistically significant influence on primary school teachers’ bi to integrate ict in teaching. regression analysis for this hypothesis (table 1) shows β = 0.259, p < 0.05, hence, the ho5 was rejected, i.e., attitude has significant influence on primary school teachers’ bi to integrate ict in teaching. ho6: self-efficacy has no statistically significant influence on primary school teachers’ bi to integrate ict in teaching. regression analysis for this hypothesis (table 1) shows β = 0.194, p > 0.05, hence, the ho6 was retained, i.e., self-efficacy has no significant influence on primary school teachers’ bi to integrate ict in teaching. ho7: anxiety has no statistically significant influence on primary school teachers’ bi to integrate ict in teaching. regression analysis for this hypothesis (table 1) shows β = 0.074, p > 0.05 hence the ho7 was retained, i.e., attitude has significant influence on primary school teachers’ bi to integrate ict in teaching. discussion of results the results collected from primary school headteachers in narok county of kenya shows that teachers were not using the tablet provided by the government in teaching. the reasons advanced for the non-use of the tablets were: • inadequate training • teachers had negative attitude towards use of ict • lack of source of power to charge the tablets. the result of hypotheses (ho1, ho2, ho3, ho4, ho6 and ho7) further shows that performance expectancy (β = 0.148, p > 0.05), effort expectancy (β = -0.185, p > 0.05), social influence (β = 0.029, p > 0.05), facilitating condition (β = 0.194, p > 0.05), self-efficacy (β = 0.195, p > 0.05) and anxiety (β = 0.074, p > 0.05) were not statistically significant and hence the null hypotheses were retained. on the other hand, the results of hypothesis 5 (ho5) was statistically significant and ho5 was not retained. hence, of the seven variables, teachers’ attitude was a significant predictor of teachers’ behavioral intention to integrate ict in teaching and learning. these finding are in agreement with head teachers’ views that identified teachers’ attitude as one of the reasons for teachers’ failure to use the ict tablets provided by the government. the results posted here re-emphasise the need to empower primary school teachers to adopt ict in teaching and learning as a driver for a modern economy. qualter (2011) observed that use of ict by teachers would significantly transform the teaching landscape. qualter notes that teachers should embrace use of ict as part of the digital age and use it to enhance their teaching. kenya’s basic education framework has identified ict as a tool for curriculum delivery (kicd, 2017). this demands 187 that teachers embrace the use of ict for successful teaching and learning. as noted earlier, globally, teachers are expected to start using ict as a way of increasing collaboration through student-student and student-teacher engagements (tomacs & underwood, 2010). similarly, a study carried out by balume, edmor and simbabrashe (2018) indicated that teachers’ negative attitudes affected integration of ict in the teaching of pe. these findings are also resonating with findings by fumei, rong-jou, hann-jang and hui-mei (2018), which indicated that teachers’ intention to utilise multimedia teaching material was significantly influenced by teachers’ attitude towards the multimedia teaching material. this implies teachers’ attitude towards use of ict in teaching and learning plays a critical role in determining teachers’ behavioural intention to use ict. to this end, elaborate and regular training of teachers on the use of ict in teaching and learning would go a long way in improving teachers’ attitudes. conclusion and recommendations based on the literature review and the findings of this study, it is concluded that use of ict in teaching and learning can transform education by supporting teaching and learning and helping students to become collaborative problem-solvers and creative learners. ict can further enable learners to communicate, learn, seek and retrieve information more effectively. however, the current study has revealed that the negative attitude of some teachers is an impediment to the gains associated with use of ict in teaching, and attitude predicted teachers’ behavioural intention to integrate ict in teaching and learning. in light of the findings, the study recommends training and ongoing support of teachers on subjectspecific ict technologies and their use in teaching and learning in order to influence their attitude to use them more positively. secondly, laptops and computers should be availed for use by both teachers and pupils. thirdly, school heads should be trained on how to monitor and support integration of ict in teaching and learning and, finally, the government should provide schools with requisite ict infrastructures. references bates, a. w. (2016). teaching in a digital age: guidelines for designing teaching and learning. retrieved from https//teachonline.ca/sites/default/files/pdfs/teaching-in-a-digital-age_2016.pdf balume, a., edmor, n., & simbabrashe, m. (2018). teaching and learning of physical education in south africa: a case of johannesburg east cluster primary schools in gauteng province. international journal of sports, exercise and health research, 2(1), 88-92. retrieved from http://www.sportscienceresearch.com/ijsehr_201821_03.pdf cleaves, a., & toplis, r. (2012). teaching in ict-rich environments. in ase guide to research in science education (eds.), (pp. 148-155). hampshire: ashford colour press ltd. chao, c-m. (2019). factors determining the behavioral intention to use mobile learning: an application and extension of the utaut model. front. psychol. 10:1652. retrieved from https://doi.10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01652. chigona, a., & chigona, w. (2010). an investigation of factors affecting the use of ict for teaching in the western cape schools. 18th european conference on information systems, ecis 2010. retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/131a/bdf5dc3f41cde28d8361ccb07d0286ada8cc.pdf crook c., farrington-fleet, l., tomacs, c., & underwood, j. (2010). the impact of technology: value-added classroom practice. final report. becta. retrieved from https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/30681896.pdf 188 eadie, g. m. (2011). the impact of ict on schools: classroom design and curriculum delivery. a report for the winston churchill memorial fellowship, 2000. new zealand. retrieved from http://www.cetpo.upol.cz/files/lib/28/818/eadie2001churchillreport[1].pdf educenter. (producer). (2019, september 23). technology acceptance model overview and use for evaluation [video file]. retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_fnlzeyhao elimu yetu coalition. (2013). gains and challenges in the implementation of efa in kenya and its implication for the improving education and quality through integration of ict in education and training. ict equalizing education for all in kenya, 2, 10-13. retrieved from http://www.elimuyetu.net/2015-09-16-12-1334/downloads?download=15:eyc-newsletter evans, t. s. (2009). understanding technology adoption: theory and future direction for informal learning. review of evaluation research, 79(2), 625-649. retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/6214/0a124e5ef6b04746b64d9428822d18192486.pdf?_ga=2.74654106.9823820 56.1588444493-934417806.1551710944 fumei, w., rong-jou, y., hann-jang, h., & hui-mei, s. (2018). a tam-based study of the attitude towards use intention of multimedia among school teachers. retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327610979_a_tambased_study_of_the_attitude_towards_use_intention_of_multimedia_among_school_teachers higgins, s. (2003). does ict improve learning and teaching in schools? nottingham: british educational research association. koehler, m. j., & mishra, p. (2009). what is technological pedagogical content knowledge? contemporary issues in technology and teacher education, 9(1), 60-70. retrieved from https://tecfalabs.unige.ch/mitic/articles/koehler_mishra_2009_what_is_technological_pedagogical_content_k nowledge.pdf louis, c., lawrence, m., & keith, m. (2007). research methods in education (6th ed.). london and new york: routledge, taylor & francis group. ministry of education (moe). (2019). a policy framework for reforming education and training for sustainable development in kenya. towards realizing quality, relevant and inclusive education and training for sustainable development. nairobi: government printers. morris, s. (2018). critical instructional design. in s. morris & j. stommel (eds.), an urgency of teachers: the work of critical digital pedagogy [online]. pressbooks. retrieved from https://criticaldigitalpedagogy.pressbooks.com/chapter/critical-pedagogy-and-learning-online/ mugenda, a. & mugenda, o. (2012). research methods dictionary. nairobi: kijabe printing press. mwunda, n., & ogutu, j. (2018). an investigation of the factors influencing the integration of ict in teaching and learning process in public secondary schools in machakos county, kenya. international journal of economics, commerce and management, vi(4), 418-441. retrieved from http://ijecm.co.uk/wpcontent/uploads/2018/04/6429.pdf national research council. (2000). how people learn: brain, mind, experience, and school (expanded ed.). washington, dc: the national academies press. retrieved from https://doi.org/10.17226/9853 needham, r. (2011). enhancing science learning with ict. in m. hollins (ed.), association of science education: ase guide to secondary science education (pp. 66-77). hampshire: ashford colour press ltd. nyaundi, l. (2019, march 22). why uhuru’s flagship laptop project crashed. retrieved from https://www.thestar.co.ke/news/2019-03-22-why-uhurus-flagship-laptop-project-crashed/ office of standards in education (ofsted) (2011). successful science: an evaluation of science education in england 2007-2019. retrieved from http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/successful-science 189 orodho, a. j. (2003). essentials of education and social science research methods. nairobi. kenya: pauline publishers. palagolla, w., & wickramarachchi, r. (2019). effective integration of ict to facilitate the secondary education in sri lanka. retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330101963_effective_integration_of_ict_to_facilitate_the_second ary_education_in_sri_lanka qualter, a. (2011). using ict in teaching and learning science. in w. harlan (ed.), association of science education: ase guide to primary science education. (pp. 61-68). hampshire: ashford colour press ltd. ratheeswari, k. (2018). information communication technology in education. journal of applied and advanced research, 3, 45-47. retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/ 10.21839/jaar.2018.v3is1.169. republic of kenya (2019). ministry of education: sessional paper of 2019, no. 1. nairobi: government press. republic of kenya (2018). ministry of education: sessional paper of 2018 on reforming education and training for sustainable development. nairobi: government press. republic of kenya (2012). ministry of education and ministry of higher education, science and technology: sessional paper no. 14 of 2012 on reforming education and training sectors in kenya. nairobi: government press. tpack.org. (2012). tpack explained. retrieved from http://matt-koehler.com/tpack2/tpack-explained/ united nations educational, scientific and cultural organisation (unesco) (2011). unesco ict competency framework for teachers. paris: unesco. venkatesh, v., morris, m. g., davis, g. b., & davis, f. d. (2003). user acceptance of information technology: toward a unified view. mis quarterly, 27, 425-478. author: sammy muteti mutisya is a senior lecturer in the department of curriculum instruction and education management, maasai mara university, kenya. his specialization is education communication and technology. email: muteti@mmarau.ac.ke cite this paper as: mutisya, s. m. (2020). integration of information communication technology in teaching: the underpinning factors among kenya’s primary school teachers. journal of learning for development, 7(2), 174-189. nkuyubwatsi a critical look at the policy environment for opening up public higher education in rwanda bernard nkuyubwatsi vol. 3, no. 2 abstract policies play a critical role in the implementation of open, distance education and opening up higher education. to encourage participation of different stakeholders in related practices, policies may need to embody values and benefits for those stakeholders. it is in this perspective that this study was conducted to investigate the policy environment for opening up public higher education in rwanda. an interview was conducted with a leader/policy maker at the university of rwanda and three policy documents were analyzed. results indicated that existing policies were unlikely to inform practices that contribute to opening up higher education. related policy documents were decontextualized in some aspects. different ways in which these policies may be contextualized to inform opening up higher education were recommended. the findings and recommendations are particularly important to policy makers and institutional leaders who are interested in opening up higher education in rwanda and other settings. introduction despite article 26 of the united nations’ (1948) universal declaration of human rights that champions equally accessible and merit-based higher education, this level of education tends to be an exclusive privilege in many countries. the growing demand for higher education access (commonwealth of learning & unesco, 2011) does not match the rate of the development of the physical infrastructure needed to accommodate all people who wish to attend higher education institutions. sir john daniel observes that to respond to the rising demand for higher education access, three or four universities with a capacity of at least 30,000 students each needed to be built on a weekly basis between 2011 and 2025 (mandell & travers, 2012). in the context of rwanda, the situation evolved in the opposite direction: seven public higher education institutions that existed in 2010 were merged into the university of rwanda, which was established in september 2013 as the only public higher education institution in the country. the combination of all public higher education institutions in rwanda paralleled the decrease of funds for student loans and government sponsorship. the shortage of funds for public higher education, student loans and government sponsorship exacerbated inequalities in terms of access to higher education. in june 2015, a senior official at the university of rwanda was cited in a local online magazine announcing that only about half of 11,788 students who had been admitted at the university of rwanda were able to register and attend classes, and others did not register due to financial difficulties (igihe, 2015, para 3). the university of rwanda’s (2015a) statistics indicate that 6756 students (57.3 percent of the 11,788 students who had been admitted, according to igihe, 2015) registered and attended classes in 2014/2015. students who were unable to register and attend classes had been denied student loans and could not afford higher education without them. these underprivileged learners had been admitted at the university based on their high performance in national examinations at the end of their secondary education. despite the inability to include a huge number of underprivileged learners in the higher education system, political rhetoric has been advancing open, distance education and elearning among key priorities. the education sector strategic plan 2010-2015 (ministry of education, 2010) and the executive summary of the seven year government programme (7ygp) (government of rwanda, no date) contain typical examples of such rhetoric. in the latter document, the projection was to provide 50 percent of higher education and 30 percent of secondary education via open, distance education and elearning (odel) by 2017 (government of rwanda, ibid, p. 166). related projects and initiatives have been progressing slowly, despite the growing need. in 2012/2013, rwanda’s ministry of education appointed a task force and working group on a project that was expected to contribute to opening up higher education in the country (mukama et al., 2013). despite a handover of the project to the university of rwanda, there has been no indicator of its implementation. in september 2014, the higher education council (hec) launched a call for consultancy to develop a strategy to deliver academic programmes via odel (higher education council, 2014). in this consultancy, the hec outlines the intention in three points: adopt odel at the rate of 50 percent in conventional tertiary education provide an opportunity for potential students who have not been included in conventional higher education due to family and professional commitments find an alternative cost-effective academic pathway for students who cannot afford expensive conventional academic programmes. the rhetoric on open and distance learning that permeates some official documents at the ministerial and government levels did not seem to be matched by related enabling policies and, more importantly, practices, at the institutional level. it is in this context that an extensive investigation on opening up higher education in rwanda was conducted as part of a ph.d study. the study had a transformative design and consisted of two major components: 1) a research component and 2) a parallel development component (the latter is beyond the scope of the current paper). the research component investigated potential enablers to opening up higher education in five sub-components: 1) massive open online courses (moocs), 2) open educational resources (oer), 3) open learning practices (olp), 4) open educational practices (oep), and 5) policies that are developed to enable olp and oep. while the data related to moocs were already published in nkuyubwatsi (2016a), data related to oer, olp and oep will be published in the future. in the current paper, only research and findings related to enabling policies are reported and discussed. open education according to mulder & jansen (2015), open education emerged in the nineteenth century but it widely developed in the second half of the twentieth century with the start of open universities. open education is defined differently across settings depending on the agendas behind the use of the concept of openness. weller (2011, p. 96) discusses two main agendas promoted in open higher education: the open access agenda which is relevant in countries where access to higher education is low and the lifelong learning agenda which became the focus of attention in developed countries as access to higher education increased. agbu et al. (2016, pp. 112-113) distinguish classical openness used in the long-standing tradition of open universities from digital openness reflected in open educational resources (oer) and massive open online courses (moocs). according to the authors, the concept of “open” as used in “open universities” may refer to a diversity of aspects: 1) open entry (no formal requirements), 2) freedom of time, 3) freedom of place, 4) freedom of pace, 5) open programming, and 6) open to all people and target groups. agbu et al. (ibid) argue that no single open university around the world is open in all these aspects. given the diversity of societal issues (from country to country) that open, distance education and elearning (odel) and open education may help address, it is inappropriate to impose a universal frame within which the two concepts are defined. instead, flexibility that enables institutions to position themselves in a unique way vis-à-vis openness may help them respond to issues that prevail in their respective societies. it may be difficult to find a fully open odel course/programme/ institution that is independent from open access (openly licensed content and open courses) and does not embrace the many aspects of openness discussed earlier. in many cases, “open” in the odl acronym is interchangeable with “online”, as in “online and distance education”. however, online programmes and courses are not necessarily open in many aspects of openness as open and distance learning programmes would be. the national open university of nigeria (noun) may be a good example of an institution that recently decided to fully incorporate open access in its odel practices. this university combined classical openness and digital openness to position itself as the first “all-inclusive oer-based open university” (agbu et al., 2016, p. 111). fourteen years after its start (the university was founded in 2002), the noun enrolls 455,837 students (agbu et al. ibid, p. 112). opposite to the noun’s fast growth, some incumbent open universities have recently been in crisis (bates, 2015) or experienced decline in student enrollment (parr, 2015). the most successful initiative that may enable open(ing up) higher education may have been publishing research articles or books under an open licence. through open licences, permissions to legally access, download, store, use, reuse, redistribute, and often, adapt full texts of the articles or books are granted. these permissions enable a cost-free reuse of the content in education across settings. yet, some of the routes through which this publication is made are questionable as discussed in the following section. mulder & jansen (2015) argue that the concept of openness has been interpreted in a diversity of justified and questionable ways, which may be why some of the routes through which publishing under an open licence occurs can be disputed. publishing research articles and books under an open licence weller (2014, p. 7) distinguishes three routes to publish under an open licence: the platinum route, the gold route and the green route. in the platinum route, an article is published with an open licence and the author or her/his institution is not required to pay article processing charges (apcs). the platinum route is open to both the author and the users of the content. it distributes power and benefits between institutions, authors and publishers (nkuyubwatsi et al., 2015), which makes this route more collaborative and widely beneficial. this route is particularly beneficial to authors who do not have access to research funds for covering apcs, especially those in under-resourced settings. these authors only contribute the content for free and apcs come from other contributors/collaborators. institutions also benefit most from this route in that they can access and use the open content from the day of publication without any cost, neither on their part nor on the part of any other member of their respective communities. in the gold route, an article is published under an open licence, but the author or her/his institution is required to pay apcs. this makes this route open only to the end users; the partial openness that is often achieved by penalizing authors. from the author’s perspective, this route may be the least beneficial. by default, the gold route shifts the financial burden from other players to the author who also contributes the content for free (nkuyubwatsi et al., 2015). if the author does not work for an institution that pays apcs and does not have access to research funds that cover these charges, the gold route may be prohibitive. on the other hand, if the author’s institution pays apcs, the cost may be recovered by charging more fees from learners and, therefore, tuition fee may increase. high cost of educational resources was indeed one of the key justifications for the tuition fee increase advanced by the vice chancellor of the university of free state (jansen, 2015) when south africa was stirred by the october 2015 #feemustfall student protest that ended with a zero increase on tuition fees. raising tuition fees to recover either the cost of educational content published under all-rights-reserved or apcs constitutes a barrier to opening up higher education. as for the green route, an article is published under all-rights-reserved, but its earlier version, which was edited in the light of feedback from reviewers is uploaded to author’s websites, or her/his institution’s repository, with an open licence. publishers may impose an embargo for a specific period before the author can release the version under an open licence. in this way, the green route still offers excessive power to publishers. there has recently been an attempt to increase the embargo period in some publishing companies, which led to a boycott and dissatisfaction in academic communities in some countries (wild, 2015; wijkhuijs, 2015; ramaker & wijkhuijs, 2015). from the perspective of end users, the green route may be the least open of the three routes through which publishing under an open licence occurs. although this route does not charge institutions and authors to publish their content, the embargo imposed by publishers inhibits the authors and institutions from openly sharing, accessing and using the content without cost for a specific period. the increase of openly licensed resources and lack of evidence of their impact despite an increase of academic journal articles and books published under an open licence, their use has been far below expectations (conole, 2013; ouwehand, 2012; glennie, harley & butcher, 2012; ehlers, 2011). the low level of use of oer seems to have been caused by institutions’ openness in limited aspects that are not enough to create value for intended users. findings in nkuyubwatsi (2016b) indicate that when value is created, some learners hunt and engage with learning resources and transformative outcomes accrue. the related literature emphasized that barriers to oer adoption and engagement in open courses by learners include the lack of recognition of related learning accomplishment (lane & van dorp, 2011; yuan & powell, 2013; kopp, ebner, & dofer-novak, 2014; mulder, 2015). on their part, academics have been discouraged by the lack of formal recognition of oer and related oep as standard academic practices (oecd, 2007) and the lack of incentives or rewards for oer production, use and sharing (hylén, no date; oecd, 2007; mcandrew et al., 2012; woert, 2012; wolfenden, 2012). from open education to opening up education limited openness and the consequent failure to use oer for making higher education accessible to more learners who have not been serviced (especially those in under-resourced settings), led to a move from open education to opening up education. opening up education values not only oer, but also other enablers, such as assessment of open learning for credit, open educational services, policies that encourage olp and oep, etc. it moves beyond access to, and use of, openly licensed content for the benefit of only those who already have or have had access to education (formal students and lifelong learners who have university qualifications). opening up education considers services that may enable assessment of accomplishment from open learning based on openly licensed content for credit. such services would enable accommodation of dedicated open learners who work hard to meet requirements for credit and different qualifications. awarding such open learners credit and qualifications would end the discrimination they encounter when they are denied opportunities, such as employment and funds for further education, not least because, in most cases, formal qualifications are posed as a precondition to access these opportunities in rwanda. services related to assessment of open learning for credit and supporting open learning are often referred to as open educational services (ouwehand, 2012) or open learning services (mulder & janssen, 2013, p. 36). unlike open education that seems to only focus on openly licensed content, opening up education may be informed by an agenda to use the openly licensed content and open educational services to create value for open learners. in an attempt to move beyond the status-quo of open education, mulder (2015) developed a framework of five components for opening up education (5coe model) that consists of 1) oer, 2) openness to learners’ needs, 3) open learning services, 4) open teaching efforts and 5) openness to employability and capabilities development (figure 1). the 5coe model may not comprehensively cover all ingredients needed for opening up higher education, but it provides a better starting point than limiting attention to openly licensed content. figure 1: five components of open(ing up) education: 5coe model (mulder, 2015). the current study focused on the willingness of leaders and policy makers to develop policies that embody values that would catalyze academics’ contribution to openly licensed content and open educational services as well as learners’ engagement in open learning. such value creation would help move from the good intentions expressed in various official documents to a real open education system in which any learner who is willing to engage in open learning, regardless of her/his social, economic, ethnic and regional background, becomes empowered on the basis of the limited resources s/he can access. at the heart of the study, there was a problem of an increasing number of potential learners who are denied student loans in rwanda and are therefore not included in the higher education system. research methods research on the enabling policy sub-component was conducted in the light of the research question, “to what extent are the university of rwanda’s leaders/policy makers willing to develop an institutional open education policy and strategy that recognizes academics’ open educational practices/roles and credibly certify competencies developed via self-determined open learning?”. the university of rwanda was the focus of the study because it constitutes the entire public higher education system in rwanda. moreover, a project on open and opening up higher education had been transferred, and responsibilities to coordinate the development of a national policy on open, distance education and elearning were delegated, to this institution. an interview with a leader/policy maker at the university of rwanda was conducted. the informant was in a unique position in that she was a critical decision maker on publications that lead to academics’ promotions. her influence and decisions may motivate or discourage publishing under an open licence. this positioned her as a key informant for the relevance of data on oep related to publishing academic content under an open licence. for this reason, the informant was sampled purposively (bryman, 2012, p. 418) or purposefully (creswell, 2014, p. 189). an interview protocol was used to guide the researcher. prior to the use of this instrument, it was sent to experts for critical feedback. the experts confirmed that the data that could be gathered using the protocol could help answer the research question. having this research instrument checked by experts added face validity (bryman, 2012, p. 171) to the research. bryman (ibid) argues that face validity, which is the apparent reflection of the content in the data collection questions, can be achieved by asking people who are experienced or have expertise in the field to judge if the measure appears to reflect the concept concerned or the focus of attention. one of the experts who made such judgment had experience in researching the field of open education. the participant’s information sheet and informed consent form were emailed to the informant one day before the interview date. in the interview session, the researcher followed cohen, manion, & morrison’s (2011) guidelines: before the interview, the researcher informed the informant of the purpose, the nature and the likely duration of the interview session. then, the researcher sought a written and signed informed consent from the informant before switching on the recording device. during the session, the researcher took notes on the interview protocol. at the end of the session, further notes on how the interview went were taken and initial reflection on information collected was recorded. the interview recording was transcribed and the transcript was used for analysis. validity and reliability of the interview data were ensured by comparing and contrasting data collected in the enabling policy sub-component to data from other sources. these sources were mainly participants in other sub-components of the research component mentioned earlier. denscombe (2010) recommends checking whether the interview information is corroborated by other people or other sources—a practice he also refers to as triangulation (p. 189). cohen et al. (2011, p. 204) refer to this triangulation as concurrent validity. denscombe (ibid) went further and cautioned against taking interview data at face value if it is possible to confirm or dispute statements using other sources. it is in this perspective that interview data were contrasted to the data from three policy documents that the informant highlighted during the session and data from other sources that were collected for the broader ph.d study. extracts of the interview data report and discussion were shared with the informant. the researcher requested the informant to check if the extracts were accurate and point out anything that needed to be amended. the informant was given a period of one month for amendment suggestions. no issue was raised and no suggestions for amendment were made. data were also collected from four published policy documents the informant highlighted. the policy documents were selected on the basis of their potential to have been drafted, or to be reviewed, to include values and benefits that would activate interest in different olp and oep that are critical for opening up higher education. in other words, the documents selected were perceived to have the most potential to convey relevant policies for enabling opening up higher education. hence, the relevance of data, rather than the number of data sources, was critical and informed the selection of policy documents that were analyzed. results at the beginning of the interview session, the informant highlighted a list of existing policy documents, which the researcher subsequently analyzed for identification of any intention to recognize academics’ oep and credibly certify accomplishment from self-determined open learning practices. while data from the interview session may only reflect the perspectives of a single informant, policy documents were expected to have been published after different leaders/policy makers had contributed their input and endorsed the published versions. on the basis of their relevance, three of the four policy documents analyzed are featured in the current paper: 1) the open access policy and procedures, 2) the general academic regulations for open and distance learning programmes, and 3) the policy and procedures on academic staff appointments and promotions. the open access policy and procedures (the university of rwanda, 2015b) this policy document was analyzed with the intention of identifying any willingness to formally recognize academics’ contribution to openly licensed resources and assess accomplishment from self-determined open learning practices for credit. in this document, a commitment to the promotion of open access publishing for the sake of providing and improving wider access to the scholarly and research output of the university of rwanda is expressed. the policy and procedures are inspired by the 2003 berlin declaration on open access to knowledge in the sciences and humanities. the university of rwanda became a signatory of this declaration on 24 november 2014. a commitment to make research output freely available and accessible in ways that permit its use for the benefit of a wider society is also expressed in this policy document (p. 2). moreover, the university of rwanda expresses its commitment to encourage researchers to publish in open access journals in this policy document. preference for the green route is highlighted, but the university also expresses its intention to support the gold route if it is appropriate and resources are available. the platinum route is not referred to in this policy document, but it is conflated with the gold route. according to this policy document, an article published within the gold route “can be published in an open access journal free of charge or after payment of article processing charges (apc), depending on conditions of the publisher” (p. 1). therefore, the gold route in the university of rwanda’s context means both the platinum and the gold routes (weller, 2014, p. 7). the general academic regulations for open and distance learning programmes (the university of rwanda, 2014a) these regulations were supposedly produced to guide open and distance learning practices at the university of rwanda. the related policy document was analyzed with the intention of identifying any willingness to assess accomplishment from self-determined open learning practices for credit. recognition of academics’ open educational services related to assessment of accomplishment from self-determined open learning for credit may also be reflected in this policy document. article 31 stipulates that registration will occur at the beginning of each module rather than per academic year as is done in the conventional education system. nevertheless, article 48 states that readmission is on a semesterly basis. in article 88, the guidelines require 85 percent attendance at seminars, practical sessions, tutorials and face-to-face sessions in order to pass a module (p. 15). the regulations do not address assessment of open learning accomplishment for credit, open educational services and other oep as well as the use of openly licensed learning resources and open courses. the policy and procedures on academic staff appointments and promotions (the university of rwanda, 2014b) recognition of academics’ engagement in oep may also be reflected in their appointment and promotion, which justifies why the related policy document was of interest in the current study. the policy and procedures classify accomplishments that lead to academic promotions (and appointments) in five clusters: 1) research, 2) teaching in higher education, 3) knowledge transfer/income generation, 4) academic administration or management and 5) outreach to business and community (p. 3). they also mention that accelerated promotion may be possible when applicants exceed the performance criteria of the level they wish to be promoted to (p. 5). yet, criteria for accelerated promotion are highlighted only on the promotion to a senior lecturer level (p. 23). on promotion to different academic grades, a minimum of three years from the previous promotion is required. the policy and procedures also mention the contribution of curation in academic promotion (p. 16). nevertheless, no more clarifications on the kind of curation and conditions under which this practice contributes to promotion are provided. equally, the policy and procedures highlight the contribution of pedagogic innovation (p. 33) without specifying such innovation. neither are criteria for judging pedagogic innovations that contribute to academic promotion clarified. in this policy document, it was stated that inventions, innovation and participation in activities that have impact on social and economic development are considered for promotion. however, a related note highlighted that these activities should contribute to economic and/or civic development of scotland (rather than that of rwanda): note: these activities would normally be expected to lead to the production of a variety of types of published work (including monographs, cd roms, textbooks, refereed and other articles, seminar papers, practice protocol, consultancy reports, etc.), and/or artefacts, patents, spin out companies and licensing agreements and/or national/internal invitations to make presentations, lead workshops and/or act as an advisor and/or successful strategic partnership projects with industry and/or the community which contribute towards the economic and/or civic development of scotland and beyond. the university of rwanda (2014b, p. 37) beyond policy documents similar to the analysis of policy documents, the interview analysis focused on any indicator of the willingness to recognize academics’ engagement in oep. different themes emerged in the analysis of the interview recording. the current article focuses on two themes: 1) raising awareness and encouraging open access publishing and 2) a monopoly on access to “open” electronic resources. 1. raising awareness and encouraging open access publishing despite an explicit expression of commitment to promote open access publishing and encourage researchers to publish their research articles in open access journals, the interview with a university of rwanda official revealed a different attitude. when asked about her position vis-à-vis raising awareness of an open access publishing route that does not charge a publication fee, the informant responded as follow: “we do not focus really on open access or not… we would like our staff to publish in credible journals… whether they are open access or not, it doesn’t matter as far as we are concerned”. the researcher probed by asking if there are open access academic journals that are credible and the informant admitted that some of the open access journals are highly credible. the researcher shared with the informant the issue raised by an academic at the university of rwanda who had an article published in an academic journal after giving away the copyright. the academic was lamenting that his students and he could not access, use and share the article without paying a fee. the informant insisted that it was the authors’ choice to publish under such conditions because they believe such journals are prestigious. this was the same response as when the informant was asked if charging academics money to publish in open access journals discourages authors from openly sharing the outcome of their work. to publish one article in an open access journal, an academic at the university of rwanda may be required to pay as much as the sum of his/her six-month salary. this was the case of one journal that had accepted a manuscript of the academic who was unhappy for not being able to access, use and share his published article. this academic had invited the researcher to co-author that article, but the invitation was declined after the researcher noticed that the journal publisher exhibited a predatory attitude: it charged exorbitant apcs. in the interview, the researcher went further and highlighted that academics at the university of rwanda may be making decisions to publish with such journals because they do not have information on an alternative open access publishing route that does not require the payment of apcs. the informant’s response was, “you know, we have not really taken trouble ourselves to teach them about that”. however, the informant acknowledged that such awareness can be raised. 2. monopoly on access to “open” electronic resources the informant argued that the issue of main concern at the university of rwanda is not access to the content, but the lack of a culture of reading. she revealed that the university has access to more than 33,000 electronic resources, which are not used beyond the rate of two percent. these resources are paid by the swedish international development cooperation agency (sida), according to the informant. a probe revealed that those resources are only accessible to learners who are affiliated with the university of rwanda and 58 other institutions, or the national library, which accesses the resources through the university. discussion the literature on oer and moocs highlighted the importance of assessment of accomplishment from open learning for credit among potential enablers of learners’ adoption of the resources, and for their engagement in the courses (lane & van dorp, 2011; yuan & powell, 2013; kopp et al., 2014). intention to support such assessment was, however, not identified in the current study. neither could the recognition of academics’ engagement in oep be identified. according to oecd (2007), the lack of formal recognition of oer related practices inhibits adoption of these resources. other inhibitors to the adoption of oer and related practices are the lack of motivation due to low salaries (badarch, knyazeva & lane, 2012) and the lack of incentives or rewards for oer production, use and sharing (hylén, no date; oecd, 2007; mcandrew et al., 2012; woert, 2012; wolfenden, 2012). different university of rwanda policy documents do not clearly envisage how academics would be motivated and incentivized to engage in such practices. while having the open access policy and procedures is a starting point for raising awareness of open and opening up higher education, the platinum route—that is of financial benefit to academics at the university of rwanda and the university in general—is not included in the related policy document. the lack of awareness of the platinum route that is open to both authors and users of the published content exposes the university of rwanda and its academics to vanity and predatory publishers. such publishers find a safe haven in the gold route (nkuyubwatsi et al., 2015). some academics at the university of rwanda have already been targeted by predatory publishers, as highlighted earlier. therefore, the university of rwanda’s open access policy and procedures (the university of rwanda, 2015b) may need to be contextualized in order to catalyze safe and cost-free oep among academics. this contextualization may be achieved by replacing the gold route, that exposes the university and its academics to predatory and vanity publishers and penalizes them for their open sharing practices, with the platinum route that is safe and requires no publication fee. for its part, the general academic regulations for open and distance learning programmes policy document seems to have been inspired by practices in conventional education. this policy document lacks critical ingredients that may enable opening up higher education: 1) the use of openly licensed content in open learning and supporting this type of learning, 2) assessment of accomplishment from open learning for credit (lane & van dorp, 2011; yuan & powell, 2013; kopp et al., 2014; mulder, 2015) and 3) recognition of academics’ oep that could counter the issue of low level of adoption of these resources in academia (conole, 2013; ouwehand, 2012; glennie et al., 2012; ehlers, 2011). relevant oep may include the contribution and use of openly licensed content in supporting learning (hylén, no date; oecd, 2007; mcandrew et al., 2012; woert, 2012; wolfenden, 2012) and assessment of accomplishment from open learning for credit, as discussed earlier. hence, the inclusion of these three ingredients may contextualize the regulations to enable accommodation of the underprivileged learners, discussed in the introduction, who are willing to engage in open learning practices. as for the policy and procedures on academic staff appointments and promotions, it still contained a statement that is relevant to academics in scotland rather than those in rwanda (the university of rwanda, 2014b, p. 37). the decontextualized statement hints at the copy and paste practice in the production of this policy document. contextualization of this policy may need to identify specific issues in rwandan higher education and design a policy that aims at enabling academics’ engagement in addressing these issues. academics in rwanda should be promoted because they have contributed to civic and economic development of rwanda, not that of scotland. avoiding financial losses incurred by predatory and vanity publishers to rwandan academics and institutions may contribute to economic and civic development of rwanda. this economic/civic development may also result from adoption of oep for the inclusion and empowerment of more underprivileged rwandan learners in the higher education system. these learners constitute an important component of the workforce and human capital in rwanda, to which value needs to be added: empowerment through education. the interview informant’s argument that the issue of main concern is not access to the learning content but a low level of the use of the electronic resources the university of rwanda has access to can be challenged in many ways. access to those resources requires affiliation with a higher education institution. this affiliation may be considered as a threshold for accessing knowledge (weller, 2011, p. 7) conveyed in the content. according to weller (ibid), the digitization and online availability of the content removes the threshold to access knowledge. this has, however, not been the case at the university of rwanda. as discussed in introduction, 42.7 percent of learners admitted at this university based on their high performance in national exams were unable to register and attend higher education in 2014/2015, because they had been denied student loans. therefore, affiliation with this university, which is established as a threshold to access the electronic resources, was denied to these underprivileged learners. if the cost to access the resources is paid by sida on behalf of the university of rwanda, as the interview informant highlighted, it is inappropriate to refer to those resources as open. referring to such resources as open may be one of the questionable ways the concept of openness has been used (mulder & jansen, 2015). in the context of open education, open resources often refer to openly licensed materials (unesco, 2012). if the electronic resources at the university of rwanda were openly licensed in a way that allows derivative work, the knowledge they convey could possibly be disseminated to underprivileged open learners using media accessible or affordable to those learners. the lack of a reading culture advanced to justify why the resources are not used may be a trivial factor to successful learning when compared to the value learners perceive in the way their accomplishment is acknowledged. learners are more likely to engage in open learning when their related accomplishment responds to their needs such as employability and capabilities development (mulder, 2015). in the context of rwanda, non-formal learners hunted learning resources, learned on their own, took national exams in attempt to get formal qualifications or score above cut-off points for student loans (nkuyubwatsi, 2016b). some of these non-formal learners did not surrender after failing on first and/or second attempts and retook national exams up to three times to meet the performance requirements for the award of the qualification or student loan they were after. the value that catalyzed learners’ engagement in non-formal learning was the potential award of formal qualifications and student loans under same conditions as formal students. in a similar way, the underprivileged learners who are excluded from the higher education system but are willing to engage in open learning based on openly licensed resources would be assessed and those who have developed competencies needed for qualifications would be awarded credit and qualifications as formal students are (nkuyubwatsi, 2014 and 2016a). a lower fee for open educational services (ouwehand; 2012; mulder & janssen, 2013; nkuyubwatsi, 2014; mulder, 2015) solicited and received by learners may be charged. this practice would, however, require an agenda to open up higher education (nkuyubwatsi, 2016a), contextualized policies designed to enable related practices and open competency-based curricula. conclusion the growing number of learners in need of higher education in rwanda has not been serviced despite political rhetoric on the use of odel in the country. real practices that open up higher education in this setting have been lacking, and existing policies seem not to have been developed to catalyze those practices. the different policy documents analyzed indicate a lack of critical ingredients for opening up higher education. decontextualized in some of their components, these policies may discourage, rather than encourage, open learning practices (olp) and open educational practices (oep). the open access policy and procedures may be contextualized by replacing the gold route, that exposes academics and institutions in rwanda to vanity and predatory publishers, with the platinum route, that is safe and is sensitive and responsive to financial difficulties in the country. the general academic regulations for open and distance learning programmes may be contextualized by adding critical enablers of opening up higher education: 1) the use of openly licensed content in open learning and supporting this type of learning, 2) assessment of accomplishment from open learning for credit and 3) recognition of academics’ oep. as for the policy and procedures on academic staff appointments and promotions, they may be contextualized by tailoring them to specific issues in rwandan higher education, with an agenda to address them. references agbu, o.j., mulder, f., de vries, f., tenebe, a.v., & cane, a. (2016). the best of two open worlds at the national open university of nigeria. open praxis, 8(2), 111-121. retrieved june 26, 2016, from http://www.openpraxis.org/index.php/openpraxis/article/view/279 badarch, d., knyazeva, s., & lane, a. (2012). introducing the opportunities and challenges of oer: the case of the commonwealth of independent states and the baltic states. in j. glennie, k. harley, n. butcher, & t.v. wyk, (eds). open educational resources and changes in higher education: reflection from practice. vancouver: commonwealth of learning, pp. 27-39. bates, t. (2015). athabasca university’s troubles grow. retrieved may 17, 2016, from http://www.tonybates.ca/2015/06/09/athabasca-universitys-troubles-grow/ bryman, a. (2012). social research methods (4th ed.). oxford: oxford university press. cohen, l., manion, l., & morrison, k. (2011). research methods in education (7th ed.). oxon: routledge. commonwealth of learning & unesco. (2011). guidelines for open educational resources (oer) in higher education. retrieved january 26, 2016, from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002136/213605e.pdf conole, g. (2013). designing for learning in an open world. new york: springer. creswell, w.j. (2014). research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (4th ed.). los angeles: sage. denscombe, m. (2010). the good research guide for small-scale social research projects (4th ed). maidenhead: mcgraw-hill. ehlers, u. (2011). from open educational resources to open educational practices. elearning papers (21). retrieved january 26, 2016, from http://www.oerup.eu/fileadmin/_oerup/dokumente/media25161__2_.pdf glennie, j., harley, k., & butcher, n. (2012). introduction: discourses in the development of oer practices and policies. in j. glennie, k. harley, n. butcher, & t.v. wyk (eds). open educational resources and changes in higher education: reflection from practice. vancouver: commonwealth of learning, pp. 1-12. government of rwanda. (no date). executive summary of 7 year government program assessment. retrieved january 26, 2016, from http://www.huye.gov.rw/uploads/media/7_years_gvment_programs.pdf higher education council. (2014, november 11). consultancy to develop a strategy of enhancing academic programmes delivery through open distance and elearning in all tertiary education institutions in rwanda. new times, 3471. hylén, j. (no date). open educational resources: opportunities and challenges. retrieved january 26, 2016, from http://www.oecd.org/edu/ceri/37351085.pdf igihe. (2015, june 18). urutonde rw’abemerewe kwiga muri kaminuza y’u rwanda muri 2015-2016. retrieved january 26, 2016, from http://igihe.com/amakuru/u-rwanda/article/urutonde-rw-abemerewe-kwiga-muri jansen, j. (2015, october 15). ufs responds to concerns around high costs of higher education. retrieved january 26, 2016, from http://www.ufs.ac.za/template/news-archive-item?news=6526 kopp, m., ebner, m., & dofer-novak, a. (2014). introducing moocs to austrian universities: is it worth it to accept the challenge?. the international journal of innovation and quality in learning, 46-52. retrieved may 12, 2015, from http://papers.efquel.org/index.php/innoqual/article/view/154/41 lane, a., & van dorp, k.j. (2011). open educational resources and widening participation in higher education: innovations and lessons from open universities. edulearn11, the 3rd annual international conference on education and new learning technologies. retrieved april 16, 2015, from http://oro.open.ac.uk/29201/1/open_educational_resources_and_widening_participation_andy.pdf mandell, a., & travers, n. (2012). imagine what is open: an interview with sir john daniel. prior learning assessment inside out, 1(1). retrieved january 26, 2016, from www.plaio.org/index.php/home/article/download/16/22 mcandrew, p., farrow, r., law, p., & elliott-cirigottis, g. (2012). learning the lesson of openness. journal of interactive media in education. retrieved january 26, 2016, from http://www-jime.open.ac.uk/articles/10.5334/2012-10/ ministry of education. (2010). education sector strategic plan 2010-2015. retrieved january 26, 2016, from http://planipolis.iiep.unesco.org/upload/rwanda/rwandaessp20102015.pdf mukama, e., sapsford, r., bahati, b., munyemana, g., ndayambaje, i., nkuyubwatsi, b., lavin, b., hughes, m., karamaga, l., & brannelly, l. (2013). college of open and distance learning in rwanda: proposed operational approach and costs. a report to the ministry of education, republic of rwanda. mulder, f. (2015). open(ing up) education for all…boosted by moocs? in c. j. bonk, m.m. lee, t.c. reeves, & t.h. reynolds (eds.). moocs and open education around the world (pp. xviiixxvii). london: routledge. mulder, f., & janssen, b. (2013) opening up education. in r. jacobi, h. jelgerhuis, & v.d.n. woert (eds). trend report: open educational resources 2013 (pp. 36-42). retrieved may 11, 2015, from this url. nkuyubwatsi, b. (2014). mapping five os for reaping benefits from massive open online courses (moocs). journal of global literacies, technologies and emerging pedagogies, 2(3), 189‑206. retrieved april 18, 2016, from http://joglep.com/index.php/archives/voulme-2-issue-3/ nkuyubwatsi, b. (2016a).positioning extension massive open online courses (xmoocs) within the open access and the lifelong learning agendas in a developing setting. the journal of learning for development, 3(1), 14-36. retrieved april 17, 2016, from http://jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d nkuyubwatsi, b. (2016b). the outcome of constructive alignment between open educational services and learners' needs, employability and capabilities development: heutagogy and transformative migration among underprivileged learners in rwanda. cogent education, 3(1). doi:10.1080/2331186x.2016.1198522. retrieved june, 28, 2016, from http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/2331186x.2016.1198522 nkuyubwatsi, b., ndayishimiye, v., ntirenganya, b.j., & umwungerimwiza, d.y. (2015). towards innovation in digital and open scholarship for non-rivalrous lifelong learning and supporting open learning: the case of the open scholars network. elearning papers (44), 53-59. retrieved april 17, 2016, from http://openeducationeuropa.eu/en/paper/teacher-s-role-educational-innovation oecd. (2007). giving knowledge for free: the emergence of open educational resources. retrieved january 26, 2016, from http://www.oecd.org/edu/ceri/38654317.pdf ouwehand, m. (2012). oer platform. in r. jacobi, & n.v.d. woert (eds). trend report: open educational resources 2012 (pp. 47-53). retrieved february 2, 2016, from https://www.surfspace.nl/media/bijlagen/artikel-697-ee18ac0f1441bb158e6122818f5f589e.pdf parr, c. (2015, february 19). open university’s numbers dive 28% as pool of part-timers dries up. times higher education. retrieved may 17, 2016, from https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/open-universitys-numbers-dive-28-as-pool-of-part-timers-dries-up/2018593.article ramaker, r., & wijkhuijs, j. (2015, january 29). the fight for open access. univers. retrieved january 26, 2016, from https://universonline.nl/2015/01/29/the-fight-for-open-access the university of rwanda. (2014a). general academic regulations for open and distance learning programmes. retrieved november 18, 2015, from this url. the university of rwanda. (2014b). policy and procedures on academic staff appointments and promotions. retrieved january 26, 2016, from this url. the university of rwanda. (2015a). facts and figures <january> 2015>. retrieved january 26, 2016, from http://www.cbe.ur.ac.rw/images/pdf/ur/ur%20facts%20&%20figures%202015.pdf the university of rwanda. (2015b). university of rwanda open access policy and procedures. retrieved february 2, 2016, from http://www.cbe.ur.ac.rw/images/pdf/open_access_policy_and_procedures.pdf. unesco. (2012). 2012 paris oer declaration. retrieved february 5, 2016, from http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/multimedia/hq/ci/ci/pdf/events/paris%20oer%20declaration_01.pdf united nations. (1948). universal declaration of human rights. retrieved february 1, 2016, from http://www.ohchr.org/en/udhr/documents/udhr_translations/eng.pdf weller, m. (2011). the digital scholar: how technology is transforming the scholarly practice. new york: bloomsbery. weller, m. (2014). the battle for open: how openness won and why it doesn’t feel like victory. london: ubiquity press. retrieved may 10, 2015, from http://www.ubiquitypress.com/site/books/detail/11/battle-for-open/ wijkhuijs, j. (2015, july 2). dutch universities start their elsevier boycott plan. univers. retrieved january 26, 2016, from https://universonline.nl/2015/07/02/dutch-universities-start-their-elsevier-boycott-plan wild, s. (2015, june 26). door 'slammed on open access' to academic work. mail guardian. retrieved january 26, 2016, from http://mg.co.za/article/2015-06-25-door-slammed-on-open-access-to-academic-work woert, n.v.d. (2012). access, accessibility and use of open educational resources. in r. jacobi, & n.v.d. woert. (eds). trend report: open educational resources 2012 (pp. 35-39). retrieved february 2, 2016, from https://www.surfspace.nl/media/bijlagen/artikel-697-ee18ac0f1441bb158e6122818f5f589e.pdf wolfenden, f. (2012). oer production and adaptation through networking across sub-saharan africa: learning from tessa. in j. glennie, k. harley, n. butcher, & t.v. wyk (eds). open educational resources and changes in higher education: reflection from practice. vancouver: commonwealth of learning. pp. 91-105. yuan, l., & powell, s. (2013). moocs and open education: implications for higher education. retrieved may 10, 2015, from http://publications.cetis.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/moocs-and-open-education.pdf author: bernard nkuyubwatsi is a commonwealth scholar funded by the uk government in his ph.d study at the university of leicester and a go-gn member. he holds an maode (open university) and an matesol (eastern michigan university). his research interests include opening up education, moocs, oer, open scholarship, digital scholarship and heutagogy. email: bn30@le.ac.uk microsoft word mtebe.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 163-178 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. a critical review of elearning research trends in tanzania joel s. mtebe and christina raphael university of dar es salaam, tanzania abstract: this study adopted bibliometric and content analysis methods to explore research trends on elearning implementation in tanzania between 2007 and 2017. a total of 74 articles from electronic databases, conference proceedings, and selected electronic journals were reviewed. the study found out that there is an increasing interest in elearning research with the majority of studies conducted by researchers from three universities. quantitative research design was found to be the most preferred research design by elearning researchers in tanzania mostly engaging students' population. despite the proliferation of mobile telephony in tanzania, this study revealed that mobile and game-based learning were the least investigated elearning technologies. the study also shows that internet access and lack of support were the most ranked challenges hindering elearning implementation in tanzania. the research gaps identified in this study are crucial for decision makers in both looking for better ways to stimulate further research in more strategic ways and in setting strategies to overcome barriers that hinder elearning implementation in tanzania. keywords: elearning, tanzania, elearning tanzania, elearning trends, elearning publications introduction over the past few years, there has been a dramatic advance in information and communication technologies (ict) infrastructure in tanzania. the cost of internet across the country has gone down by more than 50% due to the roll out of two submarine cables: the eastern africa submarine cable system and the southern and eastern africa communication network (mwtc, 2016). the country has also witnessed a significant decrease in the price of mobile devices to as low as us$30, allowing many users able to access the internet via mobile devices (mtebe & kondoro, 2016). additionally, internet users have increased from 29% in 2014 to 40% in 2016 while mobile penetration has increased to 80% of the total population by 2017 (tcra, 2017). given these developments, educational initiatives directed towards ict integration in teaching and learning at all levels of education have grown exponentially. increasingly, ict integration in education is now being described as a mode of teaching and learning that not only increases students’ motivation and deepens understanding of the subject matter but also promotes collaborative and lifelong learning; as well as helping students to think and communicate creatively (webb, 2005). studies have also revealed that integrating ict in education could lead to significant educational and pedagogical outcomes beneficial for both students and teachers (jimoyiannis, 2008). with these benefits in mind, the government of tanzania and other stakeholders have taken giant steps in equipping schools with computers, supporting initiatives in installing elearning platforms, as well as supporting teachers with technological, pedagogical and content knowledge and skills for 164 ict integration. for instance, the shuledirect initiative-developed elearning platform, consisting of eight subjects, benefiting more than 10,000 learners countrywide (shuledirect, 2018). halostudy, the latest initiative in tanzania, has developed multimedia enhanced content for science and mathematics subjects (halostudy, 2018). the developed content has been deployed in 426 secondary schools connected with halotel internet in tanzania (mwakisole, kissaka, & mtebe, 2018). a recent report by the ministry of education, science and technology (moest) indicates that approximately 31.4% of 3,601 government secondary schools are equipped with computers, of which 20.1% have internet services (moest, 2017). at the higher education level, universities such as the university of dar es salaam (udsm), open university of tanzania (out), and mzumbe university have taken advantage of ict to widen access to education via ict-mediated distance education and to complement campus-based courses with online instructions. the university of dar es salaam, for instance, offers three blended distance programs: a postgraduate diploma in education (pgde), a postgraduate diploma in engineering management (pgdem) and a master’s degree in engineering management (mem) via regional centres in mbeya, mwanza, dar es salaam, and arusha (mtebe & raphael, 2013). these courses are delivered via moodle, with some face-to-face meetings in the middle of each semester. the open university of tanzania also uses moodle to offer its programs via 28 regional centres in tanzania (bhalalusesa, lukwaro, & clemence, 2013a). likewise, mzumbe university have been offering a master’s of business administration, master’s of science in accountancy and finance, master’s of science in procurement, and master’s of science in project planning and management in a blended mode of delivery through mwanza centre. in addition to these elearning initiatives, there are already researchers conducting elearning research at various levels of education in tanzania. this is evident from the number of published articles in international and local journals as well as a number of local conferences dedicated to ict in education. nevertheless, there has been relatively little study conducted to systematically review research trends and barriers to elearning implementation in tanzania over the past ten years. therefore, little is known about research gaps existing in the current trends in elearning research in tanzania. this study adopted bibliometric and content analysis to investigate research trends in elearning implementation in tanzania between 2007 and 2017, through systematically reviewing articles published in journals, conference proceedings, and selected electronic journals. the findings from this study are expected to promote further research in areas where the research gaps have been identified. furthermore, the findings will serve as a base for fruitful discussions and dialogues on possible interventions to overcome the most intriguing barriers that hinder elearning implementation among stakeholders and decision makers in tanzania. methodology the study used bibliometric and content analysis designs in reviewing the research done in tanzania between 2007 and 2017. bibliometric analysis provides quantitative statistics related to regarding growth of papers by year and citations, rankings of most prolific contributors, authorship patterns, rankings of geographical distribution of authors, rankings of most productive institutions, collaboration among institutions, range and percentage of references per paper, and frequency distribution of subject descriptors (ellegaard & wallin, 2015; keshava, gireesh, ganjihal, & gowda, 165 2008). to obtain bibliometric indicators relevant to this study, recent studies conducted on elearning in various contexts were examined. table 1 shows a summary of articles reviewing elearning research trends in various contexts, and their bibliometric indicators. table 1: selected studies with their bibliometric indicators no. researcher bibliometric indicators 1. (cheng et al., 2014) elearning for continuing education and professional development, elearning in healthcare, use of social media for elearning, and the integration of knowledge management with elearning 2. (hung, 2012) publication tie trends, subject area, prolific universities, prolific journals 3. (hsu et al., 2009) research topic, research sample group, and learning domain 4. (shih, feng, & tsai, 2008) motivation, information processing, instructional approaches, learning environment, prior experience, metacognition, and cognitive psychology characteristics 5. (tsai, shen, & chiang, 2013) sample groups, major contributing countries, subject domains and the research methods involved (qualitative, quantitative or mixed) the content analysis was used to group bibliometric indicators that were found to be relevant to the study. these indicators were sample groups, subject domains, research methods involved, educational levels, and technology investigated. these proposed bibliometric indicators led to the formulation of six research questions as a basis of investigation: • what has been a common subject domain for elearning research in tanzania between 2007 and 2017? • what have been the preferred sample groups for investigations? • what has been a most commonly preferred sample group? • what types of research designs have been preferred in their investigation? • which education level (primary, secondary, vocational, teachers’ education, higher education) has been more researched? • which elearning technologies have been most investigated in tanzania? thus, to answer these questions, a systematic review of the existing literature was conducted in order to collect empirical data about elearning implementation in tanzania. data search studies relevant to elearning implementation were searched using a combination of agreed-upon keywords. the keywords used included “elearning in tanzania”, “learning management system tanzania”, “elearning system tanzania”, “technology enhance learning, tanzania”, “blended learning tanzania”, “online learning, tanzania”, online education, tanzania”, “technology learning, 166 tanzania”, “mobile learning, tanzania”, “game-based learning, tanzania”, “open learning, tanzania”, distributed learning, tanzania”, open educational resources, tanzania”, “digital content, tanzania”. these keywords were used to search relevant articles in prominent electronic databases that are relevant to technology enhanced learning. these searched databases include google scholar, sciencedirect, ebsco, education resources information center (eric), taylor & francis, ingentaconnect, emerald, institute of electrical and electronics engineers (ieee), computer society digital library (csdl), association for computing machinery (acm), and springer. moreover, some specific journals and conference proceedings (see table 1) were examined. the choice of these journals and conference proceedings was based on the following criteria: • refereed journals are indexed by prominent databases • refereed journals have a publication history of five years or more • peer reviewed journals or peer reviewed conference proceedings. table 2: selected journals and conference proceedings used to search articles no. name of the journal url 1. the journal of learning for development (jl4d) http://jl4d.org 2. the international review of research in open and distributed learning http://www.irrodl.org 3. the electronic journal of information systems in developing countries http://www.is.cityu.edu.hk/staff/isrobert/ejisdc.htm 4. international journal of education and development using information and communication technology (ijedict) http://ijedict.dec.uwi.edu 5. the australasian journal of educational technology https://ajet.org.au/index.php/ajet 6. ist-africa http://www.ist-africa.org/home/ sample a total of 74 articles were selected out of 81 articles identified based on a thorough review of articles published between 2007 and 2017. a detailed analysis of these articles found that seven articles were opinion articles, conceptual articles, or technical notes. these articles were excluded from further process in critical analysis. data analysis a checklist of bibliographic indicators was prepared using microsoft excel before detailed analysis was conducted. six researchers—three instructional designers and three information system experts—were involved. these researchers were given a seminar on the purpose of the study which explained in detail how categories were defined before the review process began. each article was 167 reviewed by three researchers independently. after completion of the review process, researchers met and discussed how they arrived at their conclusions. a summary of bibliometric indicators on elearning implementation was generated from the aggregate records and these findings are explained next. findings publication time trends the number of articles published between 2007 and 2017 is shown in figure 1. the result shows that the interest of researchers in elearning has been increasing as the number of articles published from 2007 has been increasing rapidly. however, there are few articles published in 2017 compared to those published in 2016. this anomaly can be accounted for by the timing of this study, since it was conducted between july and august 2017. therefore, some articles published after august 2007 may have been omitted. figure 1: frequency of publications by year. prolific universities the contribution of each university in elearning research was investigated. based on author affiliations, the study identified universities that produced the most publications. the result shows that, of 74 reviewed articles, 27 were published by researchers from the university of dar es salaam (udsm), followed by 10 articles from sokoine university of agriculture (sua), and nine articles from the university of dodoma (udom). the nelson mandela institute of science and technology (nmist) was found to have five articles published by its researchers followed by three articles from the muhimbili university of health and allied sciences (muhas). the institute of finance management (ifm), dar es salaam institute of technology (dit), and mzumbe university (mu) were found to have a least number of published articles as shown in figure 2. 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 # of articles 168 figure 2: contribution of articles from various universities in tanzania. research designs similar to many other fields, elearning research tends to employ a quantitative, qualitative, or mixed research design, depending on the nature of the research. out of 74 reviewed articles, more than half of the articles (42) employed quantitative design, followed by 15 articles employing qualitative research design. seven articles did not specify which research method was adopted (see figure 3). figure 3: employed research design in reviewed articles. 7 27 1 2 10 9 5 3 4 6 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 out udsm ifm dit sua udom nmist mu muhas others 42 15 10 7 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 quantitative research qualitaive research design mixed unspecified 169 data collection tools the distribution of data collection instruments used in the reviewed articles is indicated in figure 4. the result shows that questionnaire was the most preferred data collection tool with a total number of 42 articles followed by a combination of questionnaire and interviews with 10 articles. seven articles did not specify data collection tools employed especially those focused on proposed frameworks and models. the distribution of articles with research instruments used in the reviewed articles is shown in figure 4. figure 4: research instruments used in the reviewed articles. educational levels the reviewed articles were categorized at an educational level based on the focus of the research. it was revealed that nearly two-thirds (53 articles) were conducted in higher education, followed by 16 articles in secondary education. there were relatively few articles in vocational education, primary education, and teachers’ education as is shown in figure 5. 42 8 10 7 7 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 questionaire interview both interview and questionaire document review unspecified 170 figure 5: number of published articles per educational levels. elearning technologies the adoption and use of elearning has attracted researchers from education, computer science, engineering and many other fields of study. similarly, various elearning technologies have been adopted in various levels of education. accordingly, research on the effectiveness of various technologies have been conducted. in this study, elearning technologies adopted and used in various research were investigated. it was revealed that 31 articles investigated various aspect of learning management systems (lmss). furthermore, a good number of articles (21) did not specify any technology but, rather, conducted research on general elearning. interestingly, 12 articles focused on various aspects of digital content as shown in figure 6. figure 6: the type of elearning technologies investigated. population groups as for the distribution percentages of the sample population groups involved in the selected articles, many of the studied population were students, with 31 articles followed by instructors/teachers with 2 16 1 2 53 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 primary education scondary education vocational education teachers education higher learning institutions 12 1 21 9 31 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 content games for learning general elearning mobile learning lms 171 19. the study further found out that pupils and administrators were the least studied population groups in elearning research in tanzania as shown in figure 7. figure 7: the distribution of population groups involved in the reviewed articles. challenges out of 74 reviewed articles, 45 of them investigated challenges hindering elearning implementation in tanzania. lack of internet connectivity (30%) is the most highly ranked barrier that inhibits elearning implementation in tanzania, followed by lack of support (25%) and lack of awareness and negative attitude towards ict (21.7%). however, lack of policies, lack of facilities, and inadequate funds were the least-ranked barriers to elearning implementation in tanzania (see figure 8). figure 8: challenges facing elearning implementation in tanzania. 3 31 19 4 8 9 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 pu pil s st ud en ts ins tru cto rs/ tea ch ers ad mi nis tro rs/ te ch nic al sta ff ins tru cto rs an d s tud en ts un sp ec ifie d 18 7 15 4 13 3 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 internet connectivity lack of facilities lack of support inadequate funds awareness and attitude towards ict lack of policies 172 discussion and research gaps this article systematically reviewed articles published from 2007 to 2017 to establish elearning research trends and barriers to elearning implementation in tanzania. the study showed that elearning research has been growing rapidly in tanzania, the same way as global elearning research trends. for instance, hung (2012) reviewed 689 articles from the ssci database published from 2000 to 2008 and found that from 2001 to 2005, elearning publications increased from 15 to 101—a 154.7% compound growth rate, while publications of elearning grew from 107 in 2007 to 121 in 2008 (hung, 2012). likewise, cheng et al. (2014) reviewed elearning research trends in the workplace environment from 2000 to 2012 and found that elearning publications dedicated to elearning in the workplace have been growing rapidly since 2000. other interesting studies are those of (zawacki-richter, bäcker, & vogt, 2009) and (zawacki-richter, bozkurt, alturki, & aldraiweesh, 2018) which reviewed research trends in distance education research and moocs, respectively. these articles used frameworks to critically analyze the trends of distance education and moocs published in the literature. the two frameworks presented in these articles are useful and could be adopted in this study. however, the small sample size did not allow the applicability of these frameworks in this study. therefore, as ict infrastructure continues to improve, the number of elearning initiatives will continue to be implemented in various levels of education in tanzania. consequently, the research on the elearning effectiveness of elearning solutions will continue to grow, both in academia and in the workplace. despite the increased number of articles focusing on various aspects of elearning, this study has clearly shown that few researchers have been involved in elearning research. the study has shown that of 74 reviewed articles, more than 50% (37), were published from two universities, with 27 articles from udsm and 10 articles from sua. given the advancement of ict infrastructure and continued penetration of mobile telephony in tanzania, the integration of ict to enhance teaching and learning at every level of education cannot be underestimated. there is a need for more researchers to get involved in elearning research in order to inform decision makers and other stakeholders on the effectiveness of ict integration in education in tanzania. another clear research gap shown in this study is that, there have been relatively few studies done on elearning effectiveness in various contexts in tanzania. furthermore, the scope of studies that have tried to investigate elearning effectiveness have been limited to case studies testing only small user groups. for instance, ongoro and mwangoka (2014) developed a game-based solution to enhance literacy skills for preschoolers and it was tested for its effectiveness in 12 preschools across three regions in tanzania. the game-based learning solution was found to improve preschoolers’ alphabetical skills compared to other means of delivery. moreover, mwalumbwe and mtebe (2017) developed a learning analytics tool and used the tool to determine the causation between lms usage and students’ performance. using data from the lms log of two courses delivered at mbeya university of science and technology (must), the study found that some lms features, such as discussion posts, peer interaction, and exercises, had a significant effect on students’ academic achievement using the elearning system. msoka, mtebe, kissaka, and kalinga (2015) developed an interactive physics experiment and piloted it in two schools with 157 students to investigate whether interactive experiments can be used as an 173 alternative to physical experiments. the findings from this study indicated that interactive physics experiments can be used as a substitute and/or a support in cases where there is inadequate laboratory equipment. shimba, mahenge, and sanga (2017) conducted a study to determine the effectiveness of a simulation approach (virtual labs) versus a hands-on-lab approach for teaching and learning computer networking skills in universities in tanzania, using sua as a case study. using the method involving a control group and an experimental group, the hands-on lab-approach was found to be more effective for imparting practical and problem-solving skills, and knowledge and competency to students compared to the simulation approach. other studies that investigated the effectiveness of various elearning interventions include animations and simulations that can enable students to learn difficult concepts (mtebe & twaakyondo, 2012), sms-based quizzes as a tool for conducting assessment in secondary schools (mtebe, kondoro, kissaka, & kibga, 2015), and mobile moodle (mtebe & kondoro, 2016). as indicated previously, the majority of existing studies are case studies tested in small user groups. this implies that there is a need for more rigorous methods encompassing larger samples that still need to be done in tanzania in order to gain a true picture of the impact of various elearning intervention across different sectors. moreover, some non-intrusive tools such as learning analytics and data mining techniques, are recommended. these tools can provide educators with informed decisions about how learners use elearning solutions without relying on learners or instructors’ opinions through questionnaires and interviews. another interesting research gap identified in this study is that students have been the most researched population group compared to other key stakeholders. the study recommends research be extended to other key areas, such as management and administration, policy issues, and to other stakeholders such as communities at work places and parents. additionally, the study found out that most research reviewed (57%) adopted quantitative research design. thus, the finding implies a paucity of researchers using other research methods such as analytics, data mining, and experimental designs methods and even qualitative and mixed designs. the use of diverse research designs is instrumental in determining the impacts of elearning implementation in improving learning performance. moreover, the study revealed that despite the proliferation of mobile technology in tanzania, there have been few research articles on mobile learning and game-based learning. for instance, out of 74 reviewed articles, only nine conducted research on some aspect of mobile learning while one article explored game-based learning. a detailed investigation of these articles revealed that the majority of them focused on users’ attitude and perceptions of mobile phones (e.g., kafyulilo, 2014; kihwele & bali, 2013; mtebe & raisamo, 2014b; mtega, bernard, msungu, & sanare, 2012) while few studies (e.g., mtebe et al., 2015; ongoro & mwangoka, 2014) focused on the effectiveness of these technologies in enhancing teaching and learning. these findings imply the need for more research on the impact of mobile phones on elearning in tanzania. the study also found that most of the research done on elearning implementation in tanzania is concentrated in higher education. nearly two-thirds (53) of the reviewed articles represent research conducted at the university level, followed by 16 articles on secondary education. this implies that there is room for more studies to be done at other education levels such as primary, vocational, and teachers’ education in tanzania. more specifically, research is needed in the lower levels of education, 174 given the presence of many initiatives equipping schools with ict facilities and sharing digital content for enhancing teaching and learning. finally, the study found that only 12 reviewed articles investigated the development and use of digital content at various levels of education in tanzania. even existing research (e.g., mtebe & raisamo, 2014a; muganda, samzugi, & mallinson, 2016; nihuka & voogt, 2012; samzugi & mwinyimbegu, 2013) has shown that there is lack of enough digital local content in the public domain. partly, the reason can be explained by the fact that most of the currently existing content is from western countries and tends to describe learning as it happens in those countries, which normally mismatches with the understandings of children in developing counties (kam, mathur, kumar, & canny, 2009). this implies that there is a need for more efforts to be directed not only to research in digital content but to enabling the availability of quality locally developed content. therefore, more research is needed on the development and use of local digital content in tanzania. challenges facing elearning implementation out of 74 reviewed articles, 45 investigated barriers that hinder elearning implementation at various levels of education in tanzania. lack of internet access and lack of support were the most ranked challenges, appearing in 30% (18 articles) and 25% (15 articles), respectively. more specifically, studies have described cost and low internet speed being the main challenges to elearning implementation in tanzania. for example, studies have shown that one university was paying 104 million tshs (tanzanian shillings) (lwoga, 2012) while another university was paying approximately us$ 3100 per month (tedre, ngumbuke, & kemppainen, 2010) for internet connectivity. even the cost of mobile internet provided by many mobile companies is still high. the subscription of 10gb of internet cost around us$ 20 per month, which is expensive to the majority of tanzanians. some researchers have investigated alternative solutions for delivering elearning in a cost-effective way in order to overcome the cost of internet connectivity. for instance, mahenge, mwangoka, and simba (2014) proposed a cost-effective mobile learning approach for resource and network constrained environments. the proposed solution was said to have the potential to reduce the cost of bandwidth usage and cut down the server’s workload. the proposed solution was piloted in some schools and found to enable use of elearning content in an offline environment to overcome internet connectivity problems. similarly, mselle and kondo (2013) studied the use of an offline personal learning environment for learning mathematics in secondary schools in tanzania. students and teachers perceived the solution was effective and helped to overcome internet connectivity problems. another challenge ranked as the second highest factor hindering elearning implementation in tanzania was identified in the reviewed articles as lack of support. the support services pointed out in many studies lacked training, lacked pedagogical support, and lacked technical and managerial support (bhalalusesa, lukwaro, & clemence, 2013b; kisanga & ireson, 2015; lwoga, 2012; mtebe & raphael, 2013; munguatosha, muyinda, & lubega, 2011; sife, lwoga, & sanga, 2007). these studies have shown that many users are still insufficiently trained in the appropriate integration of elearning into the classroom. there is a need to continue conducting research on the most effective way of providing both technical and pedagogical support services to the users. 175 conclusion this study set out to determine elearning research trends and barriers to elearning implementation in tanzania by reviewing articles published from 2007 to 2017 in journals, conference proceedings, and selected electronic journals. a total of 74 articles met the specified criteria and were critically reviewed out of 81 articles that were found to deal with some aspect of elearning implementation in tanzania. it was clear from this study that the number of researchers involved in elearning research has been increasing every year showing that elearning research is also growing. however, many of reviewed articles were found to have been conducted by researchers from three universities indicating a lack of researchers from other universities in tanzania being involved in elearning research. the study also found that the most commonly used research methods were quantitative, qualitative, mixed method, and unspecified, in that order. the most commonly preferred sample type was the purposive sample, and students were the most commonly chosen sample group. references bhalalusesa, r., lukwaro, e. e., & clemence, m. (2013a). challenges of using e-learning management systems faced by the academic staff in distance based institutions from developing countries: a case study of the open university of tanzania. huria: journal of the open university of tanzania, 14, 89–110. retrieved from https://www.ajol.info/index.php/huria/article/view/110783 bhalalusesa, r., lukwaro, e. e., & clemence, m. (2013b). challenges of using e-learning management systems faced by the academic staff in distance based institutions from developing countries: a case study of the open university of tanzania. huria: journal of the open university of tanzania, 14, 89–110. retrieved from https://www.ajol.info/index.php/huria/article/view/110783 cheng, b., wang, m., mørch, a. i., chen, n. s., kinshuk, & j. michael, s. (2014). research on e-learning in the workplace 2000-2012: a bibliometric analysis of the literature. educational research review, 11, 56–72. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2014.01.001 ellegaard, o., & wallin, j. a. (2015). the bibliometric analysis of scholarly production: how great is the impact? scientometrics, 105(3), 1809–1831. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-015-1645-z halostudy. (2018). halostudy elearning system. retrieved may 3, 2018, from https://halostudy.ac.tz/login/index.php hsu, y.-c., ho, sin n. j., tsai, c.-c., hwang, g.-j., wang, c.-y., chu, h.-c., & chen, n.-s. (2009). research trends in science education from 2003 to 2007: a content analysis of publications in selected journals. international journal of science education, 31(15), 1999–2020. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500690802314876 hung, j. l. (2012). trends of e-learning research from 2000 to 2008: use of text mining and bibliometrics. british journal of educational technology, 43(1), 5–16. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8535.2010.01144.x jimoyiannis, a. (2008). factors determining teachers ’ beliefs and perceptions of ict in education. in a. cartelli & m. palma (ed.), encyclopedia of information communication technology (pp. 321–323). hershey, pa: igi globa. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-59904-845-1.ch043 kafyulilo, a. (2014). access, use and perceptions of teachers and students towards mobile phones as a tool for teaching and learning in tanzania. education and information technologies, 19(1), 115–127. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-012-9207-y 176 kalinga, a e., bagile, r. b. b., & trojer, l. (2006). an interactive e-learning management system ( e-lms ): a solution to tanzanian secondary schools ’ education. international journal of human and social sciences, 1(4), 252–255. kam, m., mathur, a., kumar, a., & canny, j. (2009). designing digital games for rural children: a study of traditional village games in india. in human-computer interaction (pp. 31–40). boston, massachusetts: acm new york, ny, usa. https://doi.org/10.1145/1518701.1518707 keshava, gireesh, ganjihal, a., & gowda, m. p. (2008). acm transactions on information systems ( 1989-2006 ): a bibliometric study. information studies, 14(4), 223–234. retrieved from https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=j779 kihwele, j. e., & bali, t. a. l. (2013). the perceptions of teachers, parents and students on the effects of mobile phone use on student learning in tanzania. journal of education and practice, 4(25), 101–107. retrieved from http://www.iiste.org/journals/index.php/jep/article/view/9050/9277 kisanga, d., & ireson, g. (2015). barriers and strategies on adoption of e-learning in tanzanian higher learning institutions : lessons for adopters. international journal of education and development using information and communication technology, 11(2), 126–137. retrieved from https://www.learntechlib.org/p/151845/ lwoga, e. t. (2012). making learning and web 2.0 technologies work for higher learning institutions in africa. campus-wide information systems, 29(2), 90–107. https://doi.org/10.1108/10650741211212359 mahenge, m. p. j., mwangoka, j., & simba, f. (2014). cost-effective mobile based learning content delivery in resources and network constrained environments. proceedings of the 2nd pan african international conference on science, computing and telecommunications, pact 2014, 165–170. https://doi.org/10.1109/scat.2014.7055153 moest. (2017). feasibility study exploring e-learning initiatives at secondary schools in tanzania mainland. dodoma, tanzania. mselle, l. j., & kondo, t. s. (2013). results on implementing personal learning environments in tanzanian secondary schools. in 8th international conference for internet technology and secured transactions, icitst 2013 (pp. 417–421). https://doi.org/10.1109/icitst.2013.6750234 msoka, v. c., mtebe, j. s., kissaka, m. m., & kalinga, e. c. (2015). developing and piloting interactive physics experiments for secondary schools in tanzania. journal of learning for development jl4d, 2(2). retrieved from http://jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/article/view/121 mtebe, j. s., kondoro, a., kissaka, m. m., & kibga, e. (2015). using sms mobile technology to assess the mastery of subject content knowledge of science and mathematics teachers of secondary schools in tanzania. world academy of science, engineering and technology, 9(11), 3498–3506. retrieved from http://waset.org/publications/10002939/using-sms-mobile-technology-to-assess-the-mastery-of-subjectcontent-knowledge-of-science-and-mathematics-teachers-of-secondary-schools-in-tanzania mtebe, j. s., & kondoro, a. w. (2016). using mobile moodle to enhance moodle lms accessibility and usage at the university of dar es salaam. in ist-africa 2016 conference proceedings (pp. 1–11). durban, south africa: paul cunningham and miriam cunningham (eds). https://doi.org/10.1109/istafrica.2016.7530649 mtebe, j. s., & raisamo, r. (2014a). investigating perceived barriers to the use of open educational resources in higher education in tanzania. international review of research in open and distance learning, 15(2), 43–65. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v15i2.1803 177 mtebe, j. s., & raisamo, r. (2014b). investigating students’ behavioural intention to adopt and use mobile learning in higher education in east africa. international journal of education and development using information and communication technology (ijedict), 10(3), 4–20. retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej1059061.pdf mtebe, j. s., & raphael, c. (2013). students’ experiences and challenges of blended learning at the university of dar es salaam, tanzania. international journal of education and development using information and communication technology (ijedict), 9(3), 124–136. retrieved from http://ijedict.dec.uwi.edu/viewarticle.php?id=1690 mtebe, j. s., & twaakyondo, h. m. (2012). developing and using animations and simulations to teach computer science courses: the case of university of dar es salaam. in 2012 international conference on elearning and e-technologies in education (iceee) (pp. 240–246). lodz, poland: ieee. https://doi.org/10.1109/icelete.2012.6333383 mtega, w. p., bernard, r., msungu, a. c., & sanare, r. (2012). using mobile phones for teaching and learning purposes in higher learning institutions : the case of sokoine university of agriculture in tanzania. in 5th ubuntunet alliance annual conference (pp. 118–129). retrieved from http://www.ubuntunet.net/sites/ubuntunet.net/files/mtegaw.pdf muganda, c. k., samzugi, a. s., & mallinson, b. j. (2016). analytical insights on the position, challenges, and potential for promoting oer in odel institutions in africa. international review of research in open and distance learning, 17(4), 36–49. munguatosha, g. m., muyinda, p. b., & lubega, j. t. (2011). a social networked learning adoption model for higher education institutions in developing countries. on the horizon, 19(4), 307–320. https://doi.org/10.1108/10748121111179439 mwakisole, k. f. , kissaka, m. m., & mtebe, j. s. (2018). feasibility of cloud computing implementation for elearning in secondary schools in tanzania. international journal of education and development using information and communication technology (ijedict), 14(1), 91–102. retrieved from http://ijedict.dec.uwi.edu/viewarticle.php?id=2396 mwalumbwe, i., & mtebe, j. s. (2017). using learning analytics to predict students’ performance in moodle learning management systems: a case of mbeya university of science and technology. the electronic journal of information systems in developing countries, 79(1), 1–13. retrieved from http://www.is.cityu.edu.hk/staff/isrobert/ejisdc/79-1.pdf mwtc. (2016). national information and communication technology (ict) policy. dar es salaam, tanzania. retrieved from https://tanzict.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/national-ict-policy-proofed-final-nic-review2.pdf nihuka, k. a., & voogt, j. (2012). collaborative e-learning course design: impacts on instructors in the open university of tanzania. australasian journal of educational technology, 28(2), 232–248. https://doi.org/10.14742/ajet.871 ongoro, c. a., & mwangoka, j. (2014). using game-based approach to enhance language learning for preschoolers in tanzania. in pan african international conference on science, computing and telecommunications (pp. 121–126). https://doi.org/10.1109/scat.2014.7055145 samzugi, a. s., & mwinyimbegu, c. m. (2013). accessibility of open educational resources for distance education learners: the case of the open university of tanzania. huria journal of out, 14(76–88). retrieved from https://www.ajol.info/index.php/huria/article/view/110779 178 shih, m., feng, j., & tsai, c. c. (2008). research and trends in the field of e-learning from 2001 to 2005: a content analysis of cognitive studies in selected journals. computers and education, 51(2), 955–967. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2007.10.004 shimba, m., mahenge, m. p. j., & sanga, c. a. (2017). virtual labs versus hands-on labs for teaching and learning computer networking : a comparison study. international journal of research studies in educational technology, 6(1), 43–58. shuledirect. (2018). shuledirect elearning system. sife, a., lwoga, e. ., & sanga, c. (2007). new technologies for teaching and learning : challenges for higher learning institutions in developing countries. international journal of education and development using information and communication technology (ijedict), 3(2), 57–67. retrieved from http://ijedict.dec.uwi.edu/viewarticle.php?id=246 tcra. (2017). quarterly communications statistics report: april june 2017. dar es salaam, tanzania. retrieved from https://www.tcra.go.tz/images/documents/telecommunication/telcom-statistics-june-2017.pdf tedre, m., ngumbuke, f., & kemppainen, j. (2010). infrastructure, human capacity, and high hopes : a decade of development of e-learning in a tanzanian hei. redefining the digital divide in higher education, 7(1), 7–20. retrieved from http://www.redalyc.org/html/780/78012953009/ tsai, c. w., shen, p. di, & chiang, y. c. (2013). research trends in meaningful learning research on e-learning and online education environments: a review of studies published in ssci-indexed journals from 2003 to 2012. british journal of educational technology, 44(6), 179–184. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12035 webb, m. e. (2005). affordances of ict in science learning: implications for an integrated pedagogy. international journal of science education, 27(6), 705–735. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500690500038520 zawacki-richter, o., bäcker, e. m., & vogt, s. (2009). review of distance education research (2000 to 2008): analysis of research areas, methods, and authorship patterns. international review of research in open and distance learning, 10(6), 21–50. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v10i6.741 zawacki-richter, o., bozkurt, a., alturki, u., & aldraiweesh, a. (2018). what research says about moocs an explorative content analysis. international review of research in open and distance learning, 19(1), 242–259. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v19i1.3356 authors joel s. mtebe is a lecturer of computer science and elearning at the university of dar es salaam, tanzania. email: jmtebe@gmail.com christina raphael is a lecturer of computer science and elearning at the university of dar es salaam, tanzania. email: christin.raphael@gmail.com cite this paper as: mtebe, j.s., & raphael, c. (2018). a critical review of elearning research trends in tanzania. journal of learning for development, 5(2), 163-178. microsoft word tait.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 101 -115 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. education for development: from distance to open education alan tait emeritus professor, open university, united kingdom abstract: this paper sets out the ways in which technologies for learning have been at the heart of education for development for millennia, not as is sometimes thought only in the last 30 years of the digital revolution. short case studies of the university of london external system and the open university uk set out the development outcomes of these major distance education innovations. the context of widening access to higher education is acknowledged, in particular from the perspectives of student success and dropout. the major dimensions of open education enabled by digital affordances are elaborated, and their contribution to development acknowledged. finally, the article suggests that the move to mass higher education systems in an overall majority of countries over the period of the un sustainable development goals will see the distinctions between online and campus-based modes diminished. keywords: development, education, distance education, open educational resources introduction this paper tells the story of the term ‘open’ in the field of education, in particular post-secondary and higher education, and aims to set out a trajectory that has moved from distance learning, to online learning, to open education, informed by the fields of mass communications, education for development, and the radical impact of the digital revolution. a core issue concerns the extent to which this trajectory represents continuity or discontinuity, or indeed both. we need first to reflect on the deployment of technology for learning, not as is sometimes thought a phenomenon of the 20th and 21st centuries but one that goes back millennia and does not begin in europe. the early records of babylon, present-day iraq, inscribed on clay tablets in about 2500 bce contain stories, names of significant individuals and accounts of harvest amongst other things. this technology of writing on clay, then baking it for permanence, opened up learning on two dimensions. firstly, the clay tablets provided data for the first time in known history which supplemented and in due course supplanted memory as the sole source of information. secondly, the records provided a means for organised and systematic learning based on more than the oral tradition. this crucial contribution to development laid the basis in the middle east and europe at least for the development of science, humanities, agriculture, economics, etc., and for organised learning in support of development as we understand it today. many working in the field of education presently, especially in richer countries, do not use the framework and terminology of development in which they could understand their work. but in many ways we stand on the shoulders of those early scribes and practitioners more than 4000 years ago. 102 the evolution from cuneiform script and egyptian hieroglyphics to the alphabet in europe made text as we know it today possible. the text was for thousands of years a handmade artefact, important for the practice of both private and public reading, as well as being portable, both essential elements in the opening up of education. initially, as for example in the great library of alexandria from the third century bce, one copy of all the world's known texts was collected for reference on the spot. later in the medieval period the texts were sometimes beautifully and richly illustrated, and they were certainly expensive, belonging principally to religious and royal houses. however, literacy remained an elite practice, and formal education in the few universities was conducted through faceto-face teaching in groups. it was not until the fifteenth century in europe that printing began to change the parameters of learning and teaching in radical ways. while literacy remained an elite practice, and printed books luxury items, there was an expansion in the cities in particular outside the church and the court bureaucracy. gutenberg's pioneering of the movable type printing press massified text production, providing access to knowledge on a far wider basis that hitherto, and accelerating economic, political and cultural development. termed by eisenstein as ‘the preservative power of print’, the text advanced the academic disciplines, their dissemination and that of private study in radical ways (eisenstein 1996). we can imagine how this might have disrupted accepted notions of teaching, when students could read the thoughts of others independently of their teachers, in other words through more independent learning, escaping the worldview of their teachers in ways that may have been very unsettling, for the teachers at least. we can see, therefore, in this brief account how technologies have been core to the nature and organisation of learning and teaching for millennia, and thus of education for development. while printed books, the library, and the lecture and seminar on campus were the natural landscape for learning and teaching for 500 years or so, they too in their time derived from revolutionary change, just as did the digital revolution starting in about 1990. as with digital resources over the last 25 years or so, they were far from universally available. it is into this landscape that we need to consider the first experience in the usa with shorthand courses provided by caleb phillips in 1728 in boston through correspondence education, and very similar courses in london from 1840 by isaac pitman. these first courses in learning and teaching where learner and teacher were separated by distance were made possible by postal systems, at the time innovative clusters of technology. pitman’s courses in particular were significantly enabled by the use of the new railway which made possible a national postal system with regular and dependable collections and deliveries, expanding reach and speed in ways that remained largely stable until electronic communications nearly 150 years later. pitman’s courses also provided timely student feedback on their shorthand exercises, making them innovators in providing student feedback at a distance, a practise now universal in online and distance learning. the railway altered important elements of the human experience, making it possible to live and work in different places and to commute for daily work from country to town, as well as to take day trips or holidays. the speed of the letter in transit with the modern postal service also changed how human beings were able to relate to people living elsewhere in both business and family contexts. all this serves to demonstrate that while the digital revolution over the last 25 years or more has changed a wide range of sectors beyond recognition, it is not the first time that technology has changed the organisation of learning and teaching. it also makes clear how the framing of all experience in a local context began to be diminished. distance and e-learning has played a significant role in the evolution of development in richer and poorer countries alike. 103 university of london external programmes it was from the nineteenth-century assemblage of technologies in the uk that the most important innovation of the period was made possible, the opening up of post-secondary education in the uk with the university of london external studies system. from 1858 this new system made a radical intervention to provide educational opportunity: it separated place from study. in other words it published curriculum for its degrees, and set examination papers for those students who lived outside london in the same way as it did for students registered on campus. the students could stay where they lived and sit examinations in any approved examination centre near them. students studied either with the support of a fast, developing network of tutorial colleges, or completely independently, a pattern that continues to this day. this extraordinary disaggregation of the learning and teaching process meant that geography was diminished as a barrier, as was exclusion from the elite universities in the uk on the grounds of social class or finance. further, the university of london removed exclusion on the grounds of gender, being the first to admit women, in 1878. to complete the range of innovative practices the university of london admitted students on an international basis, and this served the far-flung cohorts of british citizens serving the british empire in all parts of the world. this opening up of education was soon seized upon by those indigenous peoples in the empire who had the english language and money to support themselves, a small number initially, but demonstrating nonetheless that university education could in principle be taken up by all. in the first decades after independence from the former british empire, many of the new cohorts of political and professional leaders gained their university education from the university of london without ever having visited the uk. this system opened up university education across the barriers of geography, social class, gender and race, and is a remarkable story of education for development (bell & tight, 1993). the period 1850-1950 in europe saw the newspaper, telegram, telephone, radio, and television all becoming mainstream communications channels, diminishing distance and moving from marginal technologies for the elite to media for the majority. it is worth considering how the telephone in particular changed human experience, allowing synchronous conversation one to one, and subsequently one to many, irrespective of distance. it impacted enormously on both personal and organisational life and was operating internationally in europe by the 1920s. equally, newspapers, radio and television brought national and international perspectives on life, diminishing the local sense of identity or at least supplementing it very substantially (briggs & burke, 2010). it was out of this range of technologies that the first open university was conceived in 1969, driven by explicit notions of the expansion of educational opportunity. the term ‘open university’ was invented by the social entrepreneur michael, later lord, young. his work with the national extension college in cambridge, england saw experiments primarily in support of university of london external students with tutorials, residential schools, correspondence teaching and course materials. michael young was an activist in the labour party, whose 1945 political programme he had drafted, and his idea was picked up by the labour prime minister harold wilson who announced that a university of the air would be established, to increase the knowledge and skills in the adult population necessary for economic growth, democratic citizenship and individual opportunity. this was in reaction to a very elite higher education system that still admitted no more than six percent of school leavers (perry, 1976; weinbren, 2015). by 1969, the year of the foundation of the new institution, following the 104 work of jennie lee, minister of education to whom the task was entrusted, the university of the air had been retitled the open university, and soon became an international phenomenon attracting interest all around the world. its watchword soon became well known: “open as to people, places, methods and ideas” it had to struggle nonetheless with scepticism if not downright hostility on a number of fronts. the first was familiar to those who had witnessed the struggle for universal primary and secondary education. the open university in offering its places on a first-come, first-served basis at low cost made study in higher education a right of citizenship rather than being associated with social and/or intellectual privilege. this can be framed in the context of social, political and economic development. it came as a shock at least to some for whom that privilege, if extended to all, seemed to diminish their own privilege at the same time. secondly, on the educational front, there was widespread scepticism about the use of the technologies of tv and radio, and the absence of a campus experience. the university of london external programme had experienced this too, one hundred years or so earlier with the criticism that its graduates could not be of the same character as ‘the cambridge man’, who rowed with his [sic] fellow students in the college boat (de salvo, 2002). open universities have ever since had to suffer to a greater or lesser extent from the misleading confusion as to their quality being inferior simply because they were different from oxbridge or other elite institutions. all too often the elision of social and educational elites is assumed to be a natural rather than a constructed phenomenon. there is no doubt, however, that the new open university in the uk made radical history with regard to place, making the home the site of university study anywhere in the uk, and also changing the social expectations of who could study at university. the balance of women and men was more or less 50:50 from the beginning, which was also very different from most universities recruiting school leavers, where boys outnumbered girls still at that period (very different from 2018, the time of writing), and represented a significant contribution to gender and development. the most challenging proposition for openness for the open university uk was the notion of open access, that is to say that no entry qualifications were asked for. advice and guidance were given to applicants, and those who had less than the normal minimum school leaving qualifications for university entry, ‘a’ levels for england, wales, and northern ireland, and highers for scotland, were usually selected for advice and support pre-study. nonetheless the decision was that of the intending student, not that of the university, thus making the ou unique in that the student chose the university, not the university the student. in the first 10 years or so the number of school teachers with higher education diplomas rather than full bachelors’ degrees meant that as much as 40% of the student body was made up of this well qualified and highly motivated student subgroup. this was very positive for student success, and for the reputation of the ou in its first decade. in addition to the extension of openness to place, we can see social class and gender being eroded as barriers to university study. of great importance from the beginning was also the admission and support of students with a disability, and it can be fairly said that the ou pioneered study support for those with dimensions of disability that affected mobility, sight mental health and hearing. such notions of openness always had their critics, especially those who found it hard to see that if ‘quality’ was not controlled at entry it could not be an outcome of study. indeed, the open university uk initiated a debate about what quality in higher education is that has continued for 50 years, as 105 access to higher education has been extended by new cohorts of universities as well as new policies that have seen the growth of a mass rather than an elite higher education system. the open university was unique, however, in not making the campus the core site of study, thus, breaking the stereotype of what it means to be at university. just as critics earlier argued against universal secondary schooling in the 1930s in england, on the grounds that there was no point in educating working-class children for unskilled jobs, so there has been and, indeed, still is a stubborn stream of criticism that higher education should never have been reconstructed to move from some six percent of school leavers in the late 1960s to around 45% of school leavers in england proceeding to university today. these same issues – a mixture of perceived social eligibility and economic usefulness – are faced by many middle-income countries as they seek to fulfil their commitment to the un sustainable development goals by 2030. from an elite to a mass higher education system there are, however, many challenging factors in making the move from an elite to a mass higher education system. these do not make the move less necessary or important but cannot be ignored. first and foremost young people or adults who do not come from families with higher education experience often find the social and intellectual conventions of higher education more challenging than those who have had the privilege of growing up with these expectations at home, as well as going to schools where this is regarded as the norm. such a collection of experience and skills can be termed cultural capital, and underpins more concrete study skills, the appropriate use of language, including english as an additional language, and above all, in important ways, confidence. however, despite the recognition of and attention paid to this range of issues over the last 50 or so years, there is no doubt that student success is achieved to a significantly varied extent both at institutional and intra-institutional levels. so, if we look at the most exclusive universities in the uk or indeed in most countries, those universities who define excellence by the difficulty of applicants gaining a place, student dropout or failure is limited to perhaps one per cent per year. by contrast, for those universities whose mission is to include rather than to exclude, and who, therefore, define excellence very differently, drop out and failure can be as high as 50% per year, as it is after the first year at the open university uk. we have to remember what is being measured here, and it is not the same thing. while oxford and cambridge are, for example, taking as many as 50% of their incoming first-year students from private schools, with extraordinarily high achievements at school leaving at the age of 18 years old or so, and with selective screening as to their potential on top of that, with the open university we have an open entry system, with more than one third of incoming first-year students having below the minimum normal qualifications for university, and one third having the minimum. it is legitimate to discuss whether this degree of openness to higher education is worthwhile, but not legitimate to criticize the outcomes of study for the open university and some others whose mission is so very different. the first point to be debated is whether quality of outcomes is more important than quality of input, if indeed such a setting of terms is accepted. it is certainly true that in terms of prior qualifications these are normally much higher in the elite universities than for the rest, and in particular for the unique avenue that an open-entry institution, such as the open university, represents. but the open university has pioneered the line of argument that outcomes are more important than inputs of this sort. the open university as one university amongst many in the uk is part of the mainstream 106 quality assurance systems, including the external examiner system. there has never in fact been any serious criticism that the academic standards of the open university are not as secure as those of the higher education sector as a whole. indeed, the drift towards a far higher proportion of first-class and upper second-class degrees awarded in significant parts of the sector, including the elite, is not shared by the open university to anything like the same extent. so, the discussion has to move from where the academic standards are different, as it is nearly universally accepted that they are not, but whether it is worthwhile to offer opportunity to students who may not achieve success by as many as one in two of the entry cohort, and as few as 12% of any first year of entry achieving a bachelor's degree on a part-time basis some six or so years later. the argument could proceed along two lines. firstly, whether it is worthwhile to use public money to support higher education in such ways, and secondly, whether it is responsible to engage the morale, time and money of such students when success is far from guaranteed. that argument has shifted in nature over the 50 or so years of the open university's life, moving from a time when tuition fees were very low and subsidised to a considerable extent by government through taxation, to the system introduced in 2010 in england, with 80% of students in the uk, where fees more than cover the costs and are born entirely by loans taken by the individual student. indeed, the extraordinary rise in university financial reserves in universities across england suggests that fees paid to universities are not being spent by any means entirely on teaching and learning or other services to students. the open university uk, which has, during this same period, seen its students decline in numbers by as much as a third, and has also seen the near complete loss of its over-50-year-olds, has nonetheless retained its commitment to open entry. this is based on the social and political commitment of 50 years earlier, which saw university study as a social good that had for too long been denied the great majority, but which could be extended through open entry as a social good for all with the conviction that they were capable of benefiting from it. it is certainly the case that the new tuition fees policy in england has triggered discussion inside the ou uk as to whether open entry continues to be a responsible policy: primarily because individual students are making themselves liable to considerable tuition fee obligations and exiting by as many as one in two students with no credit. however, so deeply is the concept of open entry embedded in the open university ethos that while significant attention has been paid to the guidance and information stage, together with pre-study courses for those with low prior qualifications, the principle of the student making the decision to study rather than the university making the decision to admit on the basis of perceived merit has not been seriously challenged. this significant reversal of the norm that a university chooses its students to be replaced by the student registering for study as a right, derived only from being an adult citizen, remains a radical commitment to social development through ‘open’ values in the world of higher education. the continuing decline of open university uk student numbers in england, where fees are at the time of writing approximately £18,000 for a bachelor's degree, raises the question as to whether equitable access to lifelong learning is possible outside a social democratic policy framework of low fees subsidised by taxation. the neo-liberal philosophy of ‘if you want it, pay for it’ appears to offer a mortal challenge. student success and drop-out having said all that, the issue of student success, dropout, retention and progression has necessarily and naturally had attention paid to it from the beginning, and a literature search will find many 107 articles, conference papers and book chapters on the subject over the last half century. while the focus of this paper is on open, distance and e-learning, as other campus-based universities have increased the access and widening participation strategies over the last 30 or so years, and included part-time modes alongside full time, the issue has been raised across the whole sector. there are a number of obvious points to make. firstly, the more risk an institution takes with opening access the greater the impact on outcomes in terms of student success. so, lower prior educational achievement makes retention and progression more vulnerable. secondly, learners on part-time and distance modes are more vulnerable than full-time students. they have to manage the conflicts for time and energy that family and the workplace demand alongside study. since, by definition, these students are not taking their educational opportunity at 18 years old as regular school leavers the majority, though not all, will have lower prior educational achievement than the full-time cohorts of school leavers, or will have dropped out of higher education for one reason or another and return later in life. lastly, prior educational achievement combined with conflicts with time and energy all combine with social class and ethnicity, with students coming from lower socio-economic cohorts lacking the cultural capital and confidence that comes with students from families whose parents had higher education as part of their background. street (2010) well summarises the major factors in student drop-out from online programmes as: time pressure for part-time students; the skills of self-management; the support of family, who are losing time the student has hitherto dedicated to its members; logistics and support from the institution, provided in timely and high quality ways that actively intervene to support the learner in her or his progress; and curriculum relevance, where the course of study including its assessment strategies provide a compelling and engaging experience for the learner. a report on student success from the international council for open and distance education summarises a framework for optimising student success in open, distance and online programmes with an eight-point agenda (tait, 2015). it is as relevant to campus-based institutions as to distance and online programmes of study and represents a contribution to the management practice for education for development for inclusion. 1. learning design as a framework: by this is meant that the fragmented approach of pre-digital distance education where student support and curriculum design were separated, and had few links is replaced by a total view of a course or module. there are a range of programmatic approaches to learning design that can be easily adopted and adapted. the core principle, however, is to build a holistic and integrated approach where the boundaries of a range of professional disciplines are lowered and their working methods coordinated in particular by the affordances of digital technologies. 2. pre-study information, advice, guidance and admission: the phase ‘learner support before study’ has been long recognised as a crucial contributor to learner success. there are challenging relationships with marketing and sales, and the extent to which demand is illegitimately created on the basis of over-promising student outcomes especially with regard to career and earning potential. while understanding who represent potential market sectors in a society is essential, the values and ethics of the admission process in a responsible educational institution are not those of commercial sales, where in principle at least the customer is regarded as having enough knowledge to manage the decision to study as an equal. while the potential student must be the decision maker, as in the health sector she or he must be transparently supported by experts, not regarded as a primary 108 source of income for the advisor. an ethical process must allow for a decision not to study to be a good outcome if it seems the right one. so, in summary, student success will be optimally supported where the admission process and the activities of advice and guidance that support it are framed in an educational context of values and practice, not in a context of sales. they are learner centred not commercially driven, and represent the value-laden character of education for development rather than the profit motive of commerce. the major recent scandals of online-for-profit colleges in the usa and elsewhere, who chose to overlook this distinction, are the inheritors of a long tradition of profitfocused rather than learner-centred correspondence and distance education colleges, and their practices are as damaging to the field of online and open education as to the individuals who are exploited. 3. curriculum or programme for student success: the quality of curriculum is crucial to learner success. one of the most frequent causes of failure given by students is that the course ‘did not seem to be what i thought it would be and did not interest me’. while the term curriculum has been discussed in school level education for decades it has only been in the last 25 years or so that what is taught in universities has been conceived in a framework of curriculum theory: that is, to acknowledge that how fields of knowledge and practice are defined and how paths organised through them represent choices that are open to contestation. in curriculum design the worlds collide of academics, adult learners in all their heterogeneity, employers inasmuch as they are able to articulate what is needed by the world of work in the future, professional bodies where relevant, and big issues as promoted by government, ngos, and the media, such as sustainability, gender equity, and health. managing this range of conflicting demands as well as admitting learners as co-constructors of knowledge with a wealth of learning resources outside the university is a complex challenge. managing it well is crucial to student success. 4. assessment: in lockstep with curriculum design is the contribution that assessment can make to student success. it is still not universally the case that assessment is conceived as important to student learning as it is to the judgement of student performance in gaining knowledge and skills, and the award of qualification. where learning outcomes are integral to curriculum design then it is easier to frame assessment as the rational response to supporting students to achieve those outcomes and to judge whether or not they have done so. this approach drives both continuous and final assessment in an integrated way, as well as formative and summative assessment, and overall makes an essential and central contribution to the opening up of educational opportunity. 5. intervention at key points and in response to student need: central to the practice of student support is the long-established notion in distance learning contexts of intervention. this identifies the importance not only of waiting to hear from students but making contact both routinely at recognised points that create barriers to progress, such as the submission of the first assignment, and in response to signals that indicate a need for support, such as the failure to submit an assignment on time. opening channels of communication in this way supports the opening up of pathways to success. the recent developments in collecting, analysing and using data that make up learning analytics support the collection at scale of the signals that trigger interventions, and in patterns much closer to real time than were available in the pre-digital distance education systems. in online systems the absence of a student’s log in to a learning management system can trigger a response as to the student's progress or lack of it. however, significant concerns about the ethics of learning analytics have been raised, in 109 particular about data privacy and the use of learning analytics to police or effectively discipline learners (slade & prinsloo, 2013). while these legitimate concerns are still to be fully worked through in terms of the boundaries for intervention, the long-established practice of teachers observing their students’ progress and seeking to support them when they seem to hesitate or falter is surely in its core a supportive and caring practice, of great importance in mass higher education systems that bring students in from outside the elites. 6. personalised support: in related ways to the principle of intervention, it is supportive of students in distance and online systems that they feel recognized as individuals, despite the remoteness, size and complexity that such systems often represent in part or in full. it is to be noted that students’ feelings are highlighted here, which are as important to opening up opportunity as the cognitive challenge of learning in a field of study, and the organisational challenges of time management, amongst other things. this, however, advanced the practices of automation, ai, and online quizzes and games, and human interaction delivered through tutors and study advisors remains a core framework of activity to assure the delivery of personalised support at a distance. 7. information and logistical systems: in the contexts of technology supported learning systems the management of effective information and logistics is crucial to student success. educational logistics – the management of complex services for learners at scale in timely and efficient ways – represents a field of innovative practice that is not yet adequately recognised and respected in educational contexts. the quality of work done in this field can make enormous difference to opportunity being real, and to student success. 8. managing for student success: the final dimension of an institutional strategy for student success lies in its recognition as a core institutional objective, from the senior team through the range of units and subunits. its existence as a whole institutional objective should lead to regular review of what student success is, how it is being achieved, and to the elaboration of strategies for its improvement across a range of dimensions. rather than lurching from one student retention crisis to another, the institution has to focus on the recognition of who its students are and how they need to be supported, and to create a systemic practice that continuously seeks improvement. a practice that aims for student success therefore is a multidimensional and multi-professional one, not the responsibility of student support workers or tutors alone. while the opening up of education brings serious accountabilities for developing such practice, it is not going to remove in some magical way the challenges of including those who have been excluded in the past. the converse of student success, that is to say student dropout and failure, does not represent the inferior status of the university, nor of its students. it does not represent the inadequacy of distance and online modes of learning and teaching. it does, however, represent the risks and challenges of openness and inclusion. pushing at the boundaries of social geography, social class, gender, ethnicity and disability in a spirit of openness is not going to produce the rates of student success that the leading and well-established research universities can demonstrate through their highly competitive admissions policies, that seek to diminish rather than take on the risk of widening participation. it is important in the world of competing narratives about excellence and quality in university education that those institutions committed to inclusion rather than exclusion advocate proudly for their mission and articulate their excellence in terms of added value for students starting from further back than those who proceed from backgrounds of privilege to the elite institutions, as is so often the case. 110 opening up higher education as the open universities have done all around the world has made a huge contribution to education for development, and this movement can be situated in the context of resistance to the elitism that has gone before. it represents a political statement about the value and rights of all citizens rather than a few. the wealthy countries have over the last 50 years moved from an elite to mass higher education systems, and over the next 15 years the world’s middle-income countries will do the same, framed by their commitment to the un sustainable development goals. the need for a wider range of part-time, distance and online modes of study as a complement to predominantly campus-based modes will be an essential component of such expansion, as it will not be possible let alone desirable to meet such ambitious plans for development solely through the expansion of existing campus or the building of new ones. in order to deliver a strategy for student success the assumptions of the elite system will need to be challenged, in particular the need to support students who enter higher education without necessarily having the cultural capital that will make study natural and build confidence that they have the right to be present and are not ‘imposters’ in a world of privilege to which they do not belong. one of the strengths of distance and online programmes is that they must re-examine strategies for learning and teaching, rather than simply rolling forward in an unexamined way longestablished practices. equally, in a mass higher education system the pressures on graduate employment, already acute in many poorer countries, will become even more exacerbated, and the need to re-examine curriculum to support one of the key outcomes, namely support of graduate livelihood, will be pressing. curriculum development should in part at least be an outcome of the sociological examination of which social cohorts are looking for personal and professional advancement, and which occupations need graduate education for the first time at scale. examples of education for development at the open university uk over the last decade or more have included early years studies, sports studies and retail management degrees, all of which seek to build on occupational engagement derived from employment sectors of considerable scale, rather than discipline-based study. the nature of quality in such expanded systems cannot be assumed but must be re-examined and energetically advocated for in the face of inevitable dismissal that ‘these sorts of people’ should not be in higher education. other contemporary ‘opens’ the digital revolution has brought a range of innovations of conflicting, surprising and challenging nature. firstly, we can say that education more broadly but higher education in particular has been fundamentally changed along two axes, namely resources and communications. the development of the internet has delivered an infinity of resources to the home, the workplace and to the mobile learner. it has, or better said, it should change the nature of pedagogy, to recognise that the learner can, and should, be encouraged to find resources for her or himself. it might be argued that the tradition of independent learning with the student in the library is little different. it is certainly true that there are of course continuities, including the need for pathways through learning to be teacher supported. but open access to so many resources, including virtual access to libraries, archives, journals and e-books, provides a qualitatively different potential for independent learning. 111 as well as resources the potential for communication through digital means has changed radically the possibilities for the development and management of relationships. there are many challenges here, and important critiques of the extent to which human relationships are being nourished or diminished by the remoteness and anonymity of digitally supported communication. however, despite such challenges the possibilities for opening up communication to teachers and to fellow students remotely and asynchronously, by text or by audio and video, are very great and are changing practice not only in online and distance systems but also on campus and in the more recent development of so-called blended systems, where elements of campus and online can be very effectively combined. the very substantial contemporary creep of technology supported learning into campus-based programmes has also meant that the sharper distinctions between campus based and online are less and less to do with learning and teaching and more to do with student cohorts and life stages, where campus deals mostly with full-time, high-school leavers and distance, online and blended programmes provide opportunity for lifelong, part-time and adult learners. out of the two axes of resources and communications have developed a number of important trends in education for development. while the digital revolution has stimulated a huge amount of commercial activity based on commodification and created huge wealth for those early into the markets, such as microsoft, facebook, blackboard etc., not to speak of for-profit online colleges, there has been a contrary anti-commodification movement as seen in open educational resources and open source learning management systems. open education there are a range of other ‘opens’ that support the opening up of education, and that now accompany, and sometimes challenge, open learning, to use a phrase that covers distance, online and flexible learning. these include, firstly, open educational resources (oers), a movement now more than 15 years old that seeks to share digital learning resources, including textbooks and online courseware on a non-commercial basis. the foundation stone of the oer movement has been the extraordinary innovation in 2001 of the creative commons license. as well as a range of oer repositories, there is even a now well-established oer university that seeks to support low cost learning opportunity. clearly oers derive from one of the affordances of digitally held text, video, etc., namely, the ease in sharing and adapting them as compared with print. the oer movement, as it can be called is supported by major international governmental organisations, such as unesco and oecd, as a means of contributing to the challenge of expansion of scale and opportunity and lowering cost in particular in post-secondary education. the pioneering spade work has also been supported by major foundations and a range of academics, mostly, but not exclusively, from open universities around the world. there is evidence that costs for learners using oer textbooks have been reduced, for example, in british columbia, but much less evidence that educational institutions are using externally produced oers to lower cost, with exceptions such as wawasan open university, malaysia. of course, oers cost money to produce, so they are free to other users, not free in the sense of being without cost. however, the economic basis of the concept lies first in reciprocal sharing, and secondly in supporting institutions in the ‘south’ by those of the ‘north’. while the production of oers has developed strongly, their adaptation and use is much slower to develop, due to a range of reasons 112 including the academic culture of producing your own curriculum (weller, 2014). the sustainability of such a model, if in due course sharing does not deliver economies, must be questioned. perhaps more important in the field, however, are what are effectively open resources such as youtube and itunes. these provide free at the point of use a range of multimedia resources that can be integrated into learning resources and are increasingly used on campus as well as in online modes. they also support learner engagement in their use of video and audio and drive professional development for academics in the introduction of multimedia on and off campus. these resources also drive and support informal learning, which as a domain of learning is of course far larger than formal institutional programmes but is as yet little acknowledged by them. there are some significant challenges at this stage of development with this range of open resources for learning, firstly, in the dominance of english as a language, and, secondly, in the dominance of the knowledge and understanding of the global north being promoted as universal. this cultural domination is in a process of change as other major language groups, such as chinese and spanish, develop their own resources, and poorer countries begin to participate, as they legitimately should, as producers rather than only consumers of knowledge produced elsewhere. oers are not the only domain where the open principle has developed to challenge dominant commercial and commoditizing models. the open access principles for academic publication have deeply concerned major publishers, who have seen an increasing number of journals move out of publishers’ hands to be produced under the roof of an academic institution on a free-to-view basis. in most cases, this is managed by founding a new journal which academics have learned to trust, as against the model, which now seems an extraordinarily unequal transaction, where the taxpayer pays for the academic to produce research, she or he gives it free to a commercial journal, and then the taxpayer pays again for the university to pay a subscription to that journal. many research funding bodies have joined this movement by insisting as a condition that published research is available on an open basis in repositories, and commercial journals have had to adjust their models to allow free access after a period, say, of one year. books are increasingly published in open mode online as well as in hard copy for a commercial price. thus, for students as well as academics access to academic resources from wherever you are with online access has opened up study and research in radical ways. we should also not overlook open software, which in dating from 1998 or so, in fact, has the longest life of the range of open products and services identified here. once again, we see a push back against the commercial model for software development to a model of sharing and adaptation on a cooperative basis. this has been particularly important in our field with the development of learning management systems based on moodle. the open university uk took the strategic decision to use a moodle platform for the lms primarily on the grounds that it would be lower cost than a proprietary product, and not have the risk of being locked in by the vendor in ways that make exit very difficult. moodle is based on cooperative development with other users and should allow solutions that are tailored by the users for their own needs, rather than have solutions which are developed generically by a commercial platform. it may also be true that the costs of adapting moodle for the institution's own purposes are greater than were anticipated, but this has not impacted on the success of the moodle model with more than a million users. 113 thus, we see in these streams in open education a still struggling realisation that the ease of sharing resources made possible in the digital world provides a basis for resisting the dominant commercial models that have driven the digital revolution. nowhere is this more true than with the phenomenon of moocs. the motivation included the progressive desire to provide learning opportunity at low or nil cost in the ‘south’ as well as in the ‘north’; the wish to boost institutional profile and recruit students; to find a way to develop income streams; and to accelerate the use of multimedia and technology-supported pedagogies in on-campus programmes. motivation has also, it must be admitted, included the wish not to miss the train, even if the destination is not clear. however, universities in producing and running moocs from the beginning lacked entirely and indeed still substantially lack a sustainable business model. the critique of these free, online, short courses has been severe, and has included in particular the inadequacy of pedagogy and poor student completion. nonetheless the number of learners continues to rise, albeit at a slower rate, and in 2017 stood at some 78 million around the world, including many in middle income countries, on 9,500 courses created by more than 800 universities. however, almost all moocs have hitherto been produced in the global north. what is indisputable is the extraordinary level of demand for online learning at low or nil cost. the discussion about poor completion, which in general stands at around 7-12%, is challenged by the assertion that many learners join not in order to compete for credit, where it is even possible, but feel free to stop without the stigma of dropping out of a formal course. it is also true that, for example, in the university of london moocs, the top 10 moocs in terms of completion have rates of some 50%. there is increasing evidence that those academics who develop moocs with major platforms such as coursera or futurelearn develop an interest in technology supported learning on campus, and in research into learning and teaching. while this is a secondary outcome, and may well be unintended, it is significant as a change agent in learning and teaching in higher education. the increasing inclusion of moocs as elements in formal, on-campus programmes also introduces learners to multimedia online learning, and to some of the skills for lifelong learning for personal or professional purposes. conclusion in conclusion, we can observe that while the speed and reach of the digital revolution over the last 25 years or so has been extraordinary, and is far from over, there is also a continuity over millennia in the reorganisation of learning and teaching as a result of the introduction of technologies into education, there is also long continuity in the democratisation of educational opportunity, from the still to be achieved goals of universal primary schooling on a global basis to the construction of mass higher education systems in middle income countries over the next 15 years. however, there is arguably a discontinuity in the structures of education, as technology supported learning becomes universal and comprehensive at all levels from school through to university and college. while 25 years ago distance learning still claimed with some justice firstly to be at the forefront of using newer technologies in systems for learning and teaching, with the open universities in prime position around the world, and, secondly, unusual if not unique in having a serious interest in rethinking pedagogy at tertiary levels, this near monopoly of focus is no longer the case. the lives of university and college students on campus in many countries include engaging with learning and teaching through learning management systems; access to learning resources through the institution's lms; submission of assignments electronically; and chat forums with fellow students and teachers. campus students are 114 learning off campus at home, in cafés and in bus stations through the de facto if not explicit affordances of mobile learning that digital networks support. while in many countries we still have a significant specialization of interest in terms of cohort, with most universities still catering primarily for full-time, high-school leavers, this is by no means as clear cut as it was when open universities were established some 50 years ago. many campus-based universities have online programmes, and especially at the masters level. indeed, postgraduate study for professional purposes has broadened the social reach of online study to be much wider than the educationally disadvantaged who represented the majority at the undergraduate level. as ict for learning and teaching becomes universally adopted the specialised niche occupied by open universities is increasingly vulnerable (tait, 2018). indeed, the mantle of innovation in the phenomenon of moocs is not worn by open universities, who did not lead that wave of change. the fast-developing adoption of oers and the far wider range of learning resources available through the web is as relevant for campus-based as online programmes. the new pedagogies under development to support learners through the discovery and evaluation of learning resources are equally universally relevant. so, the professional field is less likely in the future, and even now, to be organised across structures to do with the use of technologies, digital or otherwise, or be confidently divided into campus-based or distance online programmes to support learning, and will be more to do with the life stage — high-school leavers or part-time lifelong options, and purposes — personal, social and vocational/professional or some combination thereof. while the technologies of mass communication and the digital revolution will continue to drive the opening up of education, so, too, will the third stream, introduced at the head of this paper, namely education for development. we may conclude that while the sector known as distance and online learning, and the institutions dedicated to this mode, has played a real and valuable role in the period 1970-2020, there will not in the future be anything remarkable about learning online that retains this segment descriptor as valid. we will surely continue to have political debate about who should go to university and what for, and about who should bear the costs, all elements in the great discussion in development of how opportunity is understood as primarily an individual responsibility or one that must be understood as socially constructed and to which governments acting for the majority must pay attention. acknowledgement this paper is a revised and updated version of a keynote address given at the open university of hong kong in october 2017. references bell, r., & tight, m. (1993). open universities: a british tradition? milton keynes: open university press. briggs, a., & burke, p. (2010). a social history of the media, from gutenberg to the internet. cambridge: polity press. de salvo, a. (2002). the rise and fall of the university correspondence college. cambridge: national extension college. eisenstein, e. (1996). the printing revolution in early modern europe. cambridge: cambridge university press. perry, w. (1976). open university, a personal account. milton keynes: the open university press. slade, s., & prinsloo, p. (2013). learning analytics: ethical issues and dilemmas. american behavioral scientist, 57(10), 1509-1528. 115 tait, a. (2015). student success in open, distance and e-learning. oslo: international council for open and distance learning. retrieved from https://www.icde.org/assets/what_we_do/studentsuccess.pdf tait, a. (2018). open universities: the next stage. journal of the asian association of open universities. retrieved from https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full/10.1108/aaouj-12-2017-0040 weinbren, d. (2015). the open university, a history. manchester: manchester university press in association with the open university. weller, m. (2014). the battle for open. ubiquity press. retrieved from https://www.ubiquitypress.com/site/books/10.5334/bam/ author alan tait is emeritus professor at open university, uk and is the founding editor and current editor emeritus of journal of learning for development. email: alan.tait@open.ac.uk cite this paper as: tait, a. (2018). education for development: from distance to open education. journal of learning for development, 5(2), 101-115. microsoft word newman.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 87-90 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. book review open and distance non-formal education in developing countries colin latchem springer: singapore, 2018, pp. xx, 178, isbn: 978-981-10-6741-9 in compiling over 180 cases of successful open and distance non-formal education (odl nfe) interventions from across the developing world, the late colin latchem, author of open and distance non-formal education in developing countries, has broken new ground. although a few authors have taken a comparable approach (e.g., hanemann, & scarpino, 2016; siaciwena, 2000), none has come close to providing such a comprehensive overview, detailing not only with the scope and quality of work being done but also the variety of providers who work in disparate cultures and societies under the banner of odl nfe. readers will be impressed with the wide-ranging examples of rich and often innovative ways in which odl nfe is being used. the cases span areas such as adult literacy, gender equity, sanitation, agriculture and entrepreneurship; they address the needs of out-of-school children, the community of persons with disabilities, illiterate farmers, persons in crisis affected contexts, and prisoners; and they describe solutions which use ‘no tech’, ‘low tech’ and ‘high tech’ tools. it is in this respect that the book serves as both an inspiration and practical guide for those working in the non-formal education sector, especially in developing countries, be they practitioners or policy makers. the book is arranged in four major parts divided into 16 chapters. part 1 describes the current state of play. to help orient the reader, latchem distinguishes between the terms informal, non-formal and book review editor’s note: colin latchem contacted me last year, before he passed away, to review his book on open and distance non-formal education in developing countries. that was his 15th book and he mentioned that this was a book “very close to his heart”. colin latchem had been involved in many projects at the col in developing guidelines and publications in the areas of higher education, open schooling, technology enabled learning and others. his expertise was well-known in the world of educational development. he had been advocating the use of informal learning for years and his article on “informal learning and non-formal education for development” in the first edition of the journal of learning for development (jl4d, 1, 2014) resonates with the views expressed in his latest book. this book is a good guide for the policy-makers and practitioners in the field in the developing world. he will be deeply missed by us all. professor romeela mohee, education specialist, higher education, col. 88 formal education and reviews earlier research in the field. he also introduces his premise: in the context of the sustainable development goals (sdgs) and the global recognition that formal education on its own cannot address the challenges of modern society, odl nfe is key to attaining inclusivity, equitable quality education and lifelong learning. part 2 identifies a range of digital technologies currently being used in odl nfe, including radio, television, telecentres, mobile learning, oers and moocs as well as more traditional modes of delivery, such as puppetry and the performing arts. each chapter in this section focuses on a specific mode of delivery, the principles behind its use and examples of application. while latchem is clear about the benefits and potential power of these modes of delivery, he is equally clear that there exist challenges and issues surrounding their use. in particular, he argues for careful attention to the selection of resources, technologies and materials to ensure they are culturally appropriate and tailored to the learners’ needs. part 3 comprises the eight chapters that detail the cases and description of how odl is applied within the nfe sector. while the interventions share a common purpose — that of reducing inequality and poverty through access to lifelong learning — they differ in their focus and learning design. from interactive radio instruction for out-of -school youth in somalia, to blended learning programmes in literacy, ict and entrepreneurship for colombian women; and to mobile technology and apps for farmers in the african, asia-pacific and caribbean regions, these chapters offer a rich array of informative, real-world examples of how some of the poorest, most marginalized communities across the world are engaged in meaningful learning opportunities through odl nfe. the central argument throughout this section is that odl nfe is having an impact; the cases are the evidence that social equality, employment and individual and community development are increasing. it comes as no surprise that the final chapter is forward looking. following his discussion of achievements and promising areas of development, latchem identifies several challenges, which if left unattended, will hamper social and economic advancement and ultimately the attainment of the sdgs. the most pertinent ones among the challenges are issues of sustainability and continuity, specifically: • failure to integrate non-formal education at a national or system level. while governments have committed to the sdgs and policy documents may advocate for the integration of nonformal education into the formal system, this has not translated into implementation. if the non-formal sector is to truly complement the formal sector then there need to be clear structures and well-defined learning pathways supported by qualifications frameworks that encourage lifelong learning and facilitate learners moving seamlessly from non-formal to formal learning. • inadequate and inconsistent funding combined with an overreliance on ngos and other donor bodies. this has led to a preponderance of small-scale, pilot-like, ad hoc interventions. one of the best examples of how the absence of funding (beyond initial seed funding) can lead to failure is outlined in chapter 6 in the discussion of telecentres. • a dearth of studies and evaluation data that provide evidence of the impact of non-formal education and training. latchem‘s call for more research and empirical data that support the role of odl nfe was central to his earlier work (latchem, 2014). that almost five years later, he describes odl nfe as, “a fledgling field in need of better documentation, more empirical 89 evidence and a stronger theoretical basis” (p. 176) and repeats the call for a more robust body of research, is an indictment of the community of odl nfe providers and researchers. this disconnect is possibly the result of stakeholders’ reluctance to collaborate around mutual priorities such as action research, knowledge sharing and knowledge creation. • technical issues. unreliable connectivity and/or associated costs continue to be a challenge. ironically, this challenge surfaces precisely in those locations where odl nfe is most needed. • lack of specialised training for trainers and unavailability of content and course materials in local languages. professional development and culturally relevant curricula are key ingredients to improving the quality of teaching and learning in the odl nfe sector. taken together, the challenges that latchem discusses in this final chapter suggest that odl nfe will remain a non-priority — a marginal sector serving the marginalised — unless each is deliberately and systematically addressed. to this end, he concludes the chapter by recommending nine action steps which he believes will assign status and prominence to the odl nfe sector. among the many strengths of this book are three that stand out. firstly, the author should be applauded for his selection of a wide cross-section of cases drawn from several sectors and representing a diversity of communities and focus areas. indeed, the value of this book lies not only in the provision of cases, examples and illustrations of real world odl nfe in action but also in the mix of traditional and new media that frame the interventions. whether one is reading about the use of puppetry in rural kenya to sensitize citizens to issues around corruption, or the use of mobile learning to improve literacy among female police officers in afghanistan, one is prompted to consider cultural appropriateness and assess their application to these and other contexts. another strength of this book is the impressive array of statistics used to highlight the important role that non-formal learning plays in developing countries. several of the figures are alarming in their magnitude — for example, 758 million adults aged 15 years and older remain illiterate, and, of these, two-thirds are women. others, such as the fact that only seven percent of schools in south africa have functioning libraries, are curious, but all highlight the urgent need to fill the gap and the ways non-formal education can do this. one unique feature of this book is the author’s inclusion of video links that demonstrate the application of odl nfe. these resources complement the more traditional references, and together they ground the cases in both research and practice. at the heart of this book is a well-reasoned appeal to raise the status and profile of odl nfe through attention to research and evaluation. latchem puts it thus: “for odl nfe to be highly regarded, widely adopted and well resourced, there is a need for comprehensive quantitative and qualitative data on the quality of the outputs and outcomes and their impact on individuals, communities and economies” (p. 173). in writing this book and sharing his experience and wisdom, colin latchem has taken another significant step towards increasing the visibility of odl nfe and improving general awareness and understanding of the issues that compromise systemic integration of non-formal education. once again, the odl nfe community owes him a debt of gratitude. reviewed by: dr. mairette newman, education specialist, vussc, commonwealth of learning, canada. email: mnewman@col.org 90 references hanemann, i., & scarpino, c. (2016). harnessing the potential of icts: literacy and numeracy programmes using radio, tv, mobile phones, tablets and computers. unesco institute for lifelong learning. retrieved from https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000243981 latchem, c. (2014). informal learning and non-formal education for development. journal of learning for development, 1(1). retrieved from: http://jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/article/view/6/6 siaciwena, r. (2000). case studies of non-formal education by distance and open learning. commonwealth of learning: vancouver. retrieved from: http://oasis.col.org/handle/11599/38 cite this paper as: newman, m. (2019). book review: open and distance non-formal education in developing countries by colin latchem. journal of learning for development, 6(1), 87-90. microsoft word gaskell.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 183-186 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. editorial the open education movement: how can we realize its full potential? anne gaskell great claims have been made about the potential of the open education movement to extend accessible and relevant educational opportunities to all. but how far does the reality of open educational practice match these claims? who is served by the current models of openness? and – more importantly – who is not gaining from new developments and how can any issues be addressed? all the contributions to this issue of jl4d provide new insights into these critical questions and highlight areas to be addressed to ensure that we can meet sustainable development goal 4 (sdg) “ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning” (see https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/goal-4.pdf) our first invited article from conole and brown analyses the impact of open educational practices (oep) on learning, teaching and research. a key point is that open educational resources (oer), despite much hype, are not inherently good in themselves: it depends on how these are used and for what purposes. for example, the availability of oer, etextbooks and massive open online courses (moocs) does not necessarily mean that these are being used extensively, or that these are reaching target audiences; there is evidence that moocs are mainly being studied by those who are already well educated. the impact of open practices on teaching is examined through three frameworks, which include the 7cs of learning design (conceptualise, create, communicate, collaborate, consider, combine, consolidate), which aim to harness the potential of digital technologies. conole and brown conclude in an important section by examining barriers and enablers to the potential of open education to open up education for all. barriers include institutional inertia, a lack of accreditation, and a paucity of critical conceptions of digital literacy. enablers could include incentives and rewards to celebrate open practice, professional development opportunities that challenge existing pedagogical practices and the engagement of senior management to put in place appropriate policies and strategies. digital technologies and oer have enabled new open practices; but how far are these promoting social justice for all? our second invited article focuses on this subject. hodgkinson-williams and trotter examine to what extent oer and oep promote social justice and counter inequalities through the discussion of three dimensions: economic, cultural and political. drawing on examples from the cross-regional research on open educational resources for development (roer4d) project (20142017) (see http://roer4d.org/) the authors use a social justice framework to provide examples of interventions that may be neutral, ameliorative or transformative. in many cases the use of oer can 184 be problematical: they may unintentionally reinforce inequality for those without strong technical infrastructures; they are not culturally neutral and so can reinforce the knowledge domain of the creator. transformative challenges include to “re-acculturate” (the authors’ term) educational materials and pedagogy and shift the locus of power: the authors conclude that while there is much potential for oer and oep, the economic, cultural and political dimensions of social justice need to be addressed before open education can reach its potential in providing affordable access to culturally relevant education for all. our first research paper is also concerned with the extent to which the open education movement is aligned to social justice principles. lambert argues that there is a lack of definitional clarity for the term “open education” and examines the extent to which recent open education literature is aligned with social justice principles of redistributive, recognitive and representational justice. through an analysis of nineteen key texts from 2002 – 2017 she argues that the early focus on social justice has been overlaid by other themes. for example, the dominant discourse from the early texts (2002-12) is that access, openness and oer are inherently good and have the potential to improve education (cf conole and brown). later texts (2009-2017) extend discussion to widening participation and oep as innovation for all, while commercial interests also intervene. lambert concludes by proposing a new definition of open education that is centred on social justice principles. both the papers from conole and brown, and lambert note that the open education movement has a long history which includes the development of open universities. our second research paper by kaushik and dhanarajan focuses explicitly on these universities and how far their governance and management support their open ideologies and developmental role. the authors provide the first analysis in this context of six of the approximately 42 open universities in asian countries, which serve about 11 million students. their sample includes both public and private universities of different sizes and from different countries (india, indonesia, thailand, korea and malaysia). unsurprisingly there are varieties across asia in a number of key areas: for example, arrangements in place to resolve conflicts between academic and stakeholder interests, degrees of financial autonomy and alignment with open ideologies. interestingly the acts and charters of these universities are largely based on those of campus-based institutions and have not evolved to include the potential of new technologies. the authors conclude that the potential for achieving good governance is there, but progress is still needed to ensure open universities fulfil their developmental role and mission. open universities in asia were established to meet increasing demand for higher education due to population growth but also to meet the need for a highly trained population to lead economic development. tanzania faces similar demands, as is recognized in the tanzania vision 2025 (see http://www.mof.go.tz/mofdocs/overarch/vision2025.pdf). however, as mtebe and raphael discuss in our third research paper, there is a mismatch between the skills of current graduates and the “21st century” skills needed to support economic development. students need teachers who are well able to use these skills and integrate them into their teaching and so support their development but teachers need their own development and support. mtebe and raphael use the technological pedagogical content knowledge framework (tpack) to analyse the self-reported confidence of teachers in integrating technology within their teaching to support students in developing 21st century skills. overall the teachers were reasonably confident in their content and pedagogical knowledge but 185 less so in their understanding of embedding technology in their teaching. the authors conclude that more professional development is needed. unlike the asian universities studied by kaushik and dhanarajan, which had not realized the potential of new technologies in their governance structures, the university of the south pacific (usp) has been actively involved in developing policies to “future-proof” the university in the context of potential technological advances. our case study by naidu and roberts traces the early development and challenges faced by usp, including those of ownership and governance by 12 island nations, and examines in detail the development of two major new policies: the flexible learning policy and the open educational resources policy. naidu and roberts describe the essential requirements for such policies to future-proof higher education and this will be of great interest to other countries seeking similar future-proofing. it is also a great pleasure to celebrate the 50th anniversary of usp in 2018. our final article is a report from the field by gow, chaudhury, ganpat and ramjattan and also concerns the use of information and communication technologies (ict) for development (ict4d). these have not always produced effective initiatives or helped the intended recipients in sustainable ways. the authors discuss a joint education and training initiative (jeti) which is developing and testing a set of oer on “technology stewardship”, a leadership role that supports communities to choose when and how to use technology for their own goals and purposes, and build a community of practice. agricultural practitioners in sri lanka and the caribbean have been introduced to the concept of technology stewardship and gow et al discuss initial findings from a pilot study in trinidad and tobago, which includes course design, identifying ict requirements for participants’ chosen communities and a campaign planning exercise. over three-quarters of the students involved in the pilot intended to undertake follow-up activities. our book reviews complement the articles above. higher education and open and distance learning (odl) in india are the focus of a book by prasad which is reviewed by pulist. prasad has been one of the key figures in open and distance education in india since 1982 and this volume, subtitled reflections of an insider provides us with a valuable insight into the development of odl in india, including various aspects of governance (cf kaushik and dhanarajan). our second book review, by balasubramanian, explores the important relationship between learning and development as discussed in wagener’s book learning and development: rethinking international education in a changing world (2018). wagener argues the need to rethink current educational models in the context of international development. he proposes a quadrant learning framework related to learning contexts and learning practices which covers formal and informal learning. while the book is an important contribution to the subject, balasubramanian comments that more could have been made of the role of education in influencing all 17 development goals (sdgs). all the articles in this issue assess the huge potential of the open education movement towards meeting goals for social justice and universal education for all. some of these are related to concepts of social justice (hodgkinson-williams & trotter, lambert). there are many positives: open universities have provided essential institutional structures for developments (kaushik and dhanarajan); oer are currently providing crucial technology stewardship training (gow et al); and new policies are being developed (naidu & roberts). however, they all provide examples of where the use of digital technologies is failing to meet their potential in opening up education for all. 186 what is particularly encouraging is that all articles provide important recommendations for the future: the need for continuing professional development of teachers (conole & brown; mtebe & raphael; gow et al); the essential need for supportive leadership and governance (conole & brown; kaushik & dhanarajan; naidu & roberts; hodgkinson-williams & trotter); and a core engagement with principles of social justice (lambert; hodgkinson-williams & trotter). the cape town open education declaration 2007 (https://www.capetowndeclaration.org/read-thedeclaration) noted many barriers to “creating a world where each and every person on earth can access and contribute to the sum of all human knowledge”: most educators remain unaware of the growing pool of open educational resources. many governments and educational institutions are either unaware or unconvinced of the benefits of open education. differences among licensing schemes for open resources create confusion and incompatibility. and, of course, the majority of the world does not yet have access to the computers and networks that are integral to most current open education efforts. the articles in this issue demonstrate some of the progress made since 2007 and some important directions for the future. anne gaskell chief editor, jl4d cite this paper as: gaskell, a. (2018). editorial—the open education movement: how can we realize its full potential? journal of learning for development, 5(3), 183-186. microsoft word jordan.docx issn: 2311-1550 2020, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 399-415 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. covid-19 school closures in lowand middle-income countries: emergent perspectives on the role of educational technology katy jordan university of cambridge, uk abstract: the covid-19 pandemic ushered in school closures at an unprecedented scale and prompted educational systems to find alternative teaching models at short notice. the role for educational technology in lowand middle-income countries (lmics) has recently become the focus of much discussion. while prompted by the pandemic, the discussions surface latent issues in educational systems, and the perspectives and ambitions of organisations in relation to educational technology and lmics. the influence of the discussions during this period is likely to extend beyond the initial crisis, and warrants investigation. this paper presents a thematic analysis, using a grounded theory approach, of documents published online between february and april 2020. five themes emerge, in relation to access, responses, support from carers, teachers and communities, educational quality and the future. keywords: covid-19, digital divide, educational technology, education in emergencies, education systems. introduction as covid-19 spread rapidly, from initial infections at the start of 2020 to pandemic status by march 11 (who, 2020), school closures were implemented with short notice at national levels across the globe and education systems were subject to an unprecedented level of disruption. by the end of april, closures were in place in 182 countries, affecting 73.5% of the total enrolled learners, which equates to more than 1.2 billion learners worldwide (unesco, 2020a). while some countries have cautiously begun to reopen schools at the time of writing, there is considerable uncertainty, as further outbreaks are likely to prompt closures. clearly, school closures have a detrimental effect upon educational progress, and the closures experienced so far equate to enormous learning losses (azevedo et al, 2020). there is a risk that many children will not return to formal schooling following emergency closures (kastelic & kastelic, 2015), which may be more pronounced for girls (bandiera et al, 2020). lost learning is likely to have negative economic impacts in the future, from individual earnings to gross domestic product (hanushek & woessmann, 2020). it will be some time before the full social and economic impact of school closures is known (viner et al, 2020). a shift to online learning has been a feature of many responses to school closures. in lowand middleincome countries (lmics), pre-existing lower levels of access to online technology may present a challenge for enacting an ‘online pivot’. however, even in the context of high-income countries, concerns have emerged in terms of technology and connectivity, and how to ensure that continued 400 access to education is equitable (reich et al, 2020). widespread school closures have provided an impetus for discussion and closer consideration of educational systems and practice, and the role that technology could play, in the context of lmics, which is the focus for this study. although the changes being implemented in the immediate term are in response to an emergency, the discourse prompted by the current situation is surfacing underlying issues around educational technology (edtech) in lmics which are relevant for supporting education during the pandemic and in its aftermath. for example, the concept of ‘edtech readiness’ has been discussed as a way of gauging whether countries are in a position yet to implement educational technologies at scale (trucano & cobo, 2019). responses to the current crisis, and their impacts in practice, potentially provide a practical dimension to this framework. many discussions around broader issues in relation to the potential role for edtech in lmics in the crisis have taken place through online reports and commentary. there is value in examining the discourse relating to these less-formal publications, for three main reasons. firstly, they lend themselves to immediate publishing. this is of particular benefit in a rapidly changing situation like covid-19; while some academic literature is emerging, the time taken to publish a paper may be longer than the duration of school closures. secondly, influential organisations that are likely affecting decisions made in lmics may not publish academic journal articles but blogs and organisational reports can give insight into an otherwise hidden discourse. thirdly, it is possible that discussions and decisions made now during the pandemic will have considerable influence on education in lmics in the future, particularly in relation to edtech. some have identified the formation of new ‘edtech power networks’ (including partnerships between influential international organisations such as the oecd and unesco, technology giants such as facebook, google, and microsoft, and a host of other smaller scale organisations which are part of the edtech industry (williamson, 2020)), which seek to exert influence on educational systems via the pandemic. to understand how the present situation may lead to longer term changes, it is important to capture themes in the discourse through systematic analysis of this material. even if possible, an ‘online pivot’ brings political and pedagogical assumptions (williamson, eynon & potter, 2020). the aim of this study was to explore the key themes and arguments made in the online commentary around the potential use of edtech in place of school closures in lmics. analysis of this discourse helps to identify key issues for developing longer term edtech support in lmics. examining the examples cited in the articles will provide practical insights in terms of identifying practices which could be deployed in other countries and contexts where support has been missing, in this or future emergencies. the purpose of the study is to explore the main themes which featured in the online discourse around edtech and school closures in lmics between february and april 2020. methods research methodology as the study is focused upon understanding online commentary around an event, qualitative content analysis of a sample of online documents was the methodology used for the study (jensen, 2013). this approach was used in part for pragmatic reasons. while the aim and research questions focus specifically on online commentary surrounding edtech and school closures in lmics, similar issues could have been explored through interviews, for example, to reveal the experiences of using edtech 401 in response to closures. however, the context in focus here is upon the immediate discussions around emergency school closures, early in a global pandemic unprecedented in modern times. there would have been ethical questions about conducting active research under these circumstances, when participants may be under high levels of stress and anxiety, and researchers have a responsibility not to increase this burden (townsend et al, 2020). the type of online documents included is also important; the study focuses on sources where there is a reasonable expectation that the authors intended their documents to be a form of fully public publication, and suitable for independent analysis without the authors’ consent (bera, 2018; davies et al, 2016). sampling to build the sample of documents, a combination of approaches was used, as it is challenging to systematically search for content such as blog posts (hookway, 2008). the search strategy included web and social media searches, recommendations from colleagues and mailing lists, and snowball sampling for related articles linked from other documents. the sampling frame was based on the following criteria: (i) articles must have been written in response to school closures and refer to edtech (broadly defined; see below) specifically within lmics (those with a higher education focus, or schools within high-income countries, were excluded); (ii) articles must have been published between february 1 and april 30, 2020; and (iii) curated lists of resources or links were not included, as articles which simply listed tools or links were popular but did not contain enough new information to be analysed. in instances where articles had been cross-posted, the original publication source was selected for inclusion. ‘edtech’ is a wide-ranging term. the search strategy was intended to be inclusive rather than restrictive, and include perspectives from across all levels of education systems, so a broad definition of edtech was applied. this includes any use of information and communication technologies at any point within the education system, from homes, to schools, to ministries. this definition was purposefully not restricted to digital technologies, and included radio and television, even when they were non-digital. procedure of data collection the resulting sample comprised 122 documents. the full-text articles were imported into qualitative analysis software (dedoose) for tagging and to facilitate searching across full texts (salmona, lieber & kaczynski, 2020). the majority (90) were organisational blog posts or opinion pieces, which were often multi-authored. two personal blog posts were included. the other 30 articles were more substantive pieces, available as files to download, which included briefing reports or rapid literature reviews. the sample spanned 31 unique organisations, and 136 unique contributing authors. the main organisational contributors are shown in figure 1. based on information in author biographies, the majority of authors were based in either the usa (44%) or the uk (30%), while 12% were based in lmics. additionally, the collection of documents is available as a searchable online library, with links to all sources, openly available for any follow-up work at http://www.katyjordan.com/covid19. 402 figure 1: number of documents from each of the main publishers within the sample. note that only those with a frequency of three or more are labelled. data analysis once assembled, qualitative analysis was undertaken using a grounded theory-based approach (charmaz, 2014). in this model of research, the analyst is central to data collection and analysis and represents the research instrument (roller, 2019). as such, there is subjectivity in this type of analysis; to mitigate against risks to validity, data analysis was carried out following the steps required in a grounded theory analysis. as the study is exploratory in nature and required themes to be identified from within the data rather than being pre-defined, open coding was applied in the first instance. constant comparison was made during coding, and memoing was done to note articles of particular detail in relation to the emerging themes (strauss & corbin, 1998). while open coding was applied to the whole sample, a sense of theoretical saturation emerged after approximately 40 articles (morse, 2007). open coding generated 85 unique codes; merging synonyms and closely-related terms yielded 57 unique codes, which were grouped into 13 categories. axial coding identified links between categories. finally, the categories were arranged into five over-arching emergent themes. findings and discussion the 13 categories, and the five emergent themes which they contribute to, are shown in figure 2. the number of articles included in each category is indicated in brackets. note that individual articles were coded within multiple categories; the extent to which different categories appeared together is shown by the co-occurrence network depicted in figure 3. there is a high degree of overlap between the categories; that is, there are not areas of the network which are distinctly unconnected from others. most of the categories have been discussed together to some extent. however, there are some categories which are more frequently discussed together, as shown by closer proximity in the network, and more heavily weighted connections between them (such as ‘connectivity’ and ‘digital divide and inequality’, for example). 403 figure 2: main coding categories (left), grouped into emergent themes (right) 404 figure 3: network to illustrate co-occurrence between categories. edges (connections) are weighted to reflect frequency of articles being tagged with each pair. nodes are colour-coded to match the colour-coding of themes as shown in figure 2. in this section, each of the main emergent themes, and the categories within them, will be discussed in turn. access the theme of ‘access’ was one of the most prevalent, being explicitly addressed in approximately two thirds of the sampled documents (76), and underpins the other themes. the theme includes two categories: ● ‘connectivity’: the infrastructural aspects of access to technology, hardware and the internet. ● ‘digital divide and inequality’: the socio-economic limitations that persist in relation to access and use of technology, even if the infrastructure is there. both are linked to the risk that unequal access will exacerbate and amplify inequalities. connectivity represents a starting point for much of the discourse – for example, a range of types of response is necessary because assumptions about access cannot be made. connectivity includes a 405 range of obstacles to being online, such as having the required hardware at home in sufficient numbers, and having reliable internet infrastructure. the latter can also be highly variable within countries, contrasting between urban and rural settings. the close link between ‘connectivity’ and ‘digital divide and inequality’ (figure 3) underscores the importance of looking beyond providing hardware; for example, whether carers’ level of digital literacies enables them to support childrens’ learning effectively. the theme also contributes to arguments for longer term improvement and systems change (e.g., diop, 2020). trucano (2020) provides a practical example about ways to improve connectivity in the immediate term, drawing on world bank experiences working in south africa, kenya, turkey, oman, egypt, the usa, ecuador and the kyrgyz republic. trucano presents nine tips to lower the financial and technical barriers to online access, through co-operation between education ministries and telecom providers, which also relates to questions of future sustainability and public-private partnerships (see also ‘futures’). it is also important to caution that while connectivity is a major theme, the extent and nature of this varies greatly according to context. for example, smartphone use may be widespread despite poor infrastructure overall, and television or radio access may not be ubiquitous. if access is usually shared across households, for instance, this may not be feasible due to social distancing measures. responses ‘responses’ takes its lead from the immediate challenges regarding access, and was addressed by approximately half of the sampled documents (57). it includes: • ‘covid19 responses’: includes reports of measures implemented in immediate response to school closures. • ‘education in emergencies’: provides the rationale for responses and recommendations, drawing principally upon ebola-related closures. ‘covid-19 responses’ focuses primarily on the types of technology deployed in the immediate response. while the majority of articles in this category cite individual examples of countries’ responses or present a general recommendation of low-tech approaches, vegas (2020) presents a comprehensive overview of types of responses, drawing upon a database maintained by the center for global development (2020). at that point (april 14), fewer than 25% of low-income countries had adopted any form of remote learning, rising to over 70% in middle-income countries. in both groups, a combination of broadcast (tv and radio), and broadcast plus online provision, accounted for a majority of the responses. approximately 25% of lower-middle and upper-middle income countries’ responses were solely based online. additionally, there were regional differences in the prevalence of different strategies, with the lowest response levels seen in sub-saharan africa (vegas, 2020). considering broadcast media in detail, the world bank (2020) provides practical advice for designing programmes, linking to examples from a range of countries (zacharia & twinomugisha, 2020). mexico-based telesecundaria is provided as evidence of efficacy. as a well-documented and recent example of school closures, the example of the ebola crisis in west africa (2014-16) is the key link between covid-19 responses and education in emergencies. hallgarten (2020) presents a comprehensive review of the research and evidence. in this instance, it is notable that radio instruction 406 was found to be effective, while other forms of technology were not. richmond (2020) also draws upon ebola responses to provide practical guidance for television and radio programming. minetti (2020) draws upon experiences supporting education in conflict-affected areas to describe strategies for engaging interactive radio instruction. although not a prevalent strategy, the ‘online’ category (vegas, 2020) may warrant further examination. for example, simply broadcasting tv programming through youtube, or hosting interactive discussion forums through whatsapp, would both be termed ‘online’ but represent contrasting pedagogical models and interactivity. carer, teacher and community support this theme extends the immediate responses beyond a focus on technology, to strategies for its use and support, particularly to reach the most marginalised learners. approximately two thirds of the documents were associated with this theme (75). categories here include: • ‘role of carers and community’: focuses upon the ways in which caregivers and the community can support childrens’ learning and provide support in the absence of formal schooling. • ‘role of teachers’: how teachers’ practices can be adapted to support learners during closures. • ‘marginalised learners’: includes instances where it is acknowledged that marginalised learners are those whose education and prospects are likely to be negatively impacted to a greater extent, and ways in which their needs particularly can be supported. the ‘role of carers and community’ category relates to the need for parents to fulfil the role of educators at home, and the assumption that parents are in a position to do so underpins the immediate switch to remote learning. the role of carers is particularly important in relation to early years and primary education; devercelli and humphry (2020) outline fifteen recommendations for how to support parents and carers in this respect. the recommendations range from practical steps to ensure that childrens’ basic needs are met, to low-cost, low-connectivity educational materials. distribution of books and play materials is also recommended. the role of the carer is key, and establishing support networks through social media or phones is also recommended. the ‘role of teachers’ is linked to the caregivers’ category, as both are concerned with how to actively support childrens’ learning, have converged to an extent in the crisis. whereas caregivers may be assuming the role of teacher, both may find the switch to technology-mediated teaching challenging, and teachers need to adapt to ways of supporting carers. in terms of how governments have supported teachers in the shift to remote learning, there has been a greater emphasis on training for communication rather than for remote teaching, and this provision varies (vegas, 2020). unesco (2020a) present a thorough and practical discussion of the role of teachers, including how they can support learning during the pandemic, and considerations around their own positions and developmental needs. while not explicitly focused upon lmics, the education endowment foundation (2020) published a rapid systematic review of research evidence in relation to remote learning, with implications for the role of teachers. the main findings align with the discussions in this theme (particularly 407 foregrounding pedagogy over technology; ‘teaching quality is more important than how lessons are delivered’, and ‘peer interactions can provide motivation and improve learning outcomes’). mcaleavy and gorgen (2020) consider pedagogy for remote teaching in lmics. while considering context is important, this also suggests that there is more that can be usefully done in terms of edtech research sharing and collaboration (which also links to categories within ‘educational quality’). communication and interaction are recurrent suggestions in terms of how carers and teachers can provide support. in this respect, notwithstanding questions about data and connectivity, this is an area where digital technologies can play a useful role. peer support, feedback and the potential for social media and text messages may be effective strategies as a compliment for broadcast media (king, 2020; mundy & hares, 2020). as introduced in the ‘access’ theme, the digital divide and socio-economic factors surrounding edtech are likely to be most pronounced for already marginalised and vulnerable learners. these have been considered in the ‘marginalised learners’ category, which is included here within the ‘carer, teacher and community support’ theme as it moves beyond simply access to questions of support and educational design. the link is made to the role of carers and teachers, through the need for teaching activities to be designed with supporting the most marginalised in mind. save the children (2020) drew upon humanitarian experiences to highlight that girls are most likely not to return to school following closures, and that online provision must include safeguarding; also, that inclusive design needs to be applied to learning materials so as not to exclude learners with disabilities. rafaeli (2020) presents a review of tv and radio interventions which can support gender equity and girls’ life skills. a range of programmes are reviewed and could be repurposed quickly (rafaeli, 2020). refugees also require particular support (unhcr, 2020a; unesco, 2020b), although barriers and responses vary according to local contexts (unhcr, 2020b). educational quality the final two themes are distinct in that the focus is looking beyond emergency responses to the immediate crisis, and to the longer-term role for edtech in lmics. this is reflected in figure 3 through their location at the periphery of the network; that is, this group of categories are not part of the immediate, core issues discussed so far. the focus shifts from immediate questions of continuing educational provision, to considering the efficacy and quality of education mediated by edtech. the ‘educational quality’ (46) theme includes three categories: ● ‘quality’: questions of how to ensure that technology-mediated alternatives to in-person educational provision are of sufficient quality. ● ‘learning design and pedagogy’: moving beyond technology provision, to considering activities and pedagogic affordances of the tools. ● ‘edtech research’: research evidence would help to inform decisions about what would constitute quality educational interventions. the category of ‘edtech research’ is also included within this theme, as it is used in the discourse to highlight the need for more robust and rigorous research in order to make informed decisions about what will achieve quality education using technology. 408 while the need to support at-risk learners has been discussed in the previous section, the distinction between those and issues here are looking toward the role of edtech in the longer term. learning design and pedagogy are included here in terms of a need to understand and evaluate what works and why in relation to the use of edtech. related issues include the need for teacher education, and broadening conceptions of learning to include social and emotional learning (holla & cobo, 2020). as moreno and gortazar (2020) note, the digital divide is also manifest at the level of different schools. discussing educational quality is underpinned by a question of how we know what represents quality education. this is a gap which could be addressed by the research literature; however, there is a need for further high-quality, contextualised research in edtech in lmics (outhred & lipcan, 2020a). this is also reflected by the sample of documents analysed here; examples cited in the documents are more likely to point to tools or anecdotal evidence than research. outhred and lipcan (2020b) suggest that one of the reasons why edtech research is problematic is the need for concerted efforts between stakeholders across all levels of educational systems, citing sustainability science as a field with similar challenges. in the immediate term, there is greater scope for collaboration and sharing knowledge across different regions and countries (azzi-huck, blom, & bend, 2020; lwamba, 2020). as an example of how to foster scalable initiatives, hannahan (2020) describes the model of the real-time scaling labs, currently active in botswana, côte d’ivoire, iraq, jordan, lebanon, the philippines, and tanzania. some view the current crisis as an opportunity to test new approaches; however, this is controversial, due to concerns around potential exploitation and safeguarding. while it would be sensible for any developments to be well-documented (e.g., writing up a case study as a final step of an initiative; unicef, 2020), research standards for crisis-affected areas must be upheld (inee, 2020). futures the ‘futures’ theme is also concerned with longer term educational transformation and technology in lmics (44), at a broader, systems-level. categories include: • ‘longer term planning and change’: plans for return to schools, and ways of strengthening systems in the longer term to improve resilience. • ‘funding’: discussions of potential and actual funding models for supporting change, frequently involving non-governmental organisational donors. • ‘private sector’: instances where a role for for-profit organisations (of varying size) is discussed. as shown in figure 3, the categories of ‘funding’ and ‘private sector’ were closely linked within the theme, via the potential role for public-private partnerships. informed by experiences with conflictaffected and vulnerable populations, unesco (2020c) recommended a focus on catch-up and recovery in the immediate aftermath, followed by looking toward building preparedness for the future. as the extent of learning loss during the closures will be unequal, an initial imperative is to gauge this loss and provide extra support as required (destefano, piper & stern, 2020). the phrase ‘build back better’ appears several times, and the crisis is linked to an opportunity to improve educational systems and their resilience (whizz education, 2020). for example: 409 this is a challenge but also an opportunity. thought is required now on how to reboot education systems, to build back better, stronger integration between services, real local ownership, smart use of technology and with a recognition that we ignore our environment at our peril. (bangay, 2020) even at this early stage of the response, examples are given of new private sector partnerships. diop (2020) calls for investment in infrastructure to improve connectivity; amaglo-mensah (2020) outlines the partnership between unesco and corporate partners to improve digital infrastructure in ghana in the wake of the pandemic. gem report (2020) draws upon the example of bridge academies, in discussing balancing the ethics and risks associated with the dilemma of enacting strategies which may exacerbate inequalities. supporting education during the pandemic has been a key area for donor funding, and partnerships with private companies are taking root (carvalho, hares & mundy, 2020). however, the authors caution that for-profit partnerships may prove unsustainable; menashy (2020) reflects upon the issue of business involvement through the example of recent research in the context of syrian refugee education (menashy & zakharia, 2017). colenso (2020) notes that the private education sector model may be unprofitable during the crisis, and suggests ways in which the private and state sector may work together. conclusions the advent of the covid-19 pandemic prompted school closures across the globe, and much of the discussion about how to ensure continuity of educational provision turned to the potential role for edtech. the intense focus of discussion has shone a light on the benefits and constraints of edtech in lmics, in the immediate term and future. the discussions surrounding school closures in immediate response to the covid-19 pandemic have focused voices from a range of organisations in relation to education and issues per edtech readiness in lmics. this study has provided a rigorous analysis of the themes underpinning this phenomenon. by doing so, it has identified focal areas for further research into the role that edtech has played in practice in response to the current crisis, and important issues to be considered for further development in the longer-term response to the pandemic and future provision. the discourse takes issues of lack of connectivity as a central theme, preventing an ‘online pivot’. connectivity is not simply an infrastructural issue, and is closely linked to socio-economic aspects of the digital divide and inequality. the risks associated with exacerbating inequalities through technology-mediated education in light of school closures are also prominent, with the poorest students, girls and other marginalised learners at greatest risk. it is therefore critical that responses are planned in a way which does not deepen inequalities and makes best use of the access and infrastructure that currently exists, which may differ substantially according to context and will need careful consideration of local circumstances. in the immediate responses, multimodal provision (principally radio, television and online) and methods for supporting continuation of education take their lead from the literature on education in emergencies, particularly recent experiences of ebola outbreaks in west africa. this aligns with the characterisation of the immediate responses as ‘emergency remote education’ (bozkurt et al, 2020). as a short-term response, this is a useful framework. however, the role for edtech is also linked within the discourse to longer term change, so drawing upon emergency responses will be insufficient. to be 410 able to deploy remote teaching at short notice in the future, for instance in response to localised school closures, developing educational materials in a range of formats would be useful. it is also important to note that improved research and reporting would be helpful; anderson (2020) points to examples of a range of other crises in recent years where edtech or distance education was deployed but not well documented. although research may not be a priority in the current emergency context, it may be possible for informal network building to take place, to allow practitioners to share accounts of emergent practices. this is an area in which technology could usefully play a role. overall, the discussion in the sampled articles focused on broad, systems-level and social issues. although the risks of exacerbating inequalities through edtech were a major focus, and the need for caregivers and teachers to adapt their roles was highlighted, there was relatively little discussion around learners, and the actual process of learning was not foregrounded. this may reflect the short time period being studied, that is, immediate responses, at which point there was not a clear picture of how responses would be implemented, in policy or on a practical level. furthermore, a more detailed examination of the impact upon learners and the role for technology would need to be much more nuanced, to account for educational level and context. this is an area which would be valuable to explore in further depth. the focus on connectivity carries an implication that, if it were achieved, such a pivot would be unproblematic. this is not the case and would also call for a critical reflection on pedagogy, improving teacher and carer support, and caution in developing commercial relationships. if calls to ‘build back better’ are to be successful, all aspects must be addressed, not technology alone. while education in emergencies provides a useful, evidence-based framework to an extent in guiding the immediate responses, looking beyond this evidence base and towards wider edtech research will be necessary in the future. furthermore, there may be negative effects in the future if edtech is implemented at reduced cost in response to the immediate crisis but proves to be unsustainable in the longer term. commercial partnerships initiated under these circumstances must also consider the future relationship and implications. there are three main limitations to the study. first, while the best efforts were made to search widely for documents for inclusion, the sample is unlikely to be exhaustive, and will exhibit an english language bias. nonetheless, the themes surfaced in this paper provide a snapshot of the discourse during this period and the critical issues brought to the fore regarding the role of edtech in lmics. the articles included in the study are unlikely to have undergone peer review, although this is an inherent limitation of considering this medium as an object of study. second, the analysis is exploratory and subject to the researchers’ interpretation. the analysis does draw upon a large sample of articles; to ensure that the emergent themes are well supported by the data, however, the themes identified are quite broad. there would be value in follow-up work to examine each of the main themes in further detail. third, the present study is also limited in that it focuses upon a narrow period of time, and by focusing on broader themes within the discourse, detail may be lost. making the collection of links to articles available may be useful for others to follow up on any areas of more specific interests. although this time period was chosen because of its unusual levels of activity and discussion around the topic at hand, discussions have continued to evolve beyond the date selected as a cut-off point. in terms of future work, all of the areas discussed would be valuable starting points for 411 further detail and exploration in practice, as the impacts of the pandemic and school closures are likely to be felt for some time. references amaglo-mensah, t.d. (2020) possible ramifications of covid-19 on the future of education delivery in ghana. return ghana. https://www.returnghana.com/2020/04/possible-ramifications-of-covid-19-on-the-future-ofeducation-delivery-in-ghana-timothy-dziedzom-amaglo-mensah/ anderson, a. (2020) covid-19 outbreak highlights critical gaps in school emergency preparedness. brookings. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/education-plus-development/2020/03/11/covid-19-outbreak-highlightscritical-gaps-in-school-emergency-preparedness/ azevedo, j. p., hasan, a., goldemberg, d., aroob iqbal, s. & geven, k. (2020) simulating the potential impacts of covid-19 school closures on schooling and learning outcomes: a set of global estimates. world bank. http://pubdocs.worldbank.org/en/798061592482682799/covid-and-education-june17-r6.pdf azzi-huck, k., blom, a. & bend, m. (2020) innovation in responding to coronavirus could pave the way for better learning outcomes in mena. world bank. https://blogs.worldbank.org/arabvoices/innovation-respondingcoronavirus-could-pave-way-better-learning-outcomes-mena bandiera, o., buehren, n., goldstein, m., rasul, i. & smurra, a. (2020). do school closures during an epidemic have persistent effects? evidence from sierra leone in the time of ebola. working paper. http://www.homepages.ucl.ac.uk/~uctpimr/research/ela_sl.pdf bangay, c. (2020) how can sierra leone’s education response after ebola help with the covid-19 response? global partnership for education. https://www.globalpartnership.org/blog/how-can-sierra-leones-educationresponse-after-ebola-help-covid-19-response bera. (2018). ethical guidelines for educational research (4th ed.). british educational research association. https://www.bera.ac.uk/publication/ethical-guidelines-for-educational-research-2018-online bozkurt, a., jung, i., xiao, j., vladimirschi, v., schuwer, r., egorov, g., lambert, s. r. et al. (2020) a global outlook to the interruption of education due to covid-19 pandemic: navigating in a time of uncertainty and crisis. asian journal of distance education, 15(1), 1-126. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3878571 carvalho, s., hares, s. & mundy, k. (2020) how are international donors responding to education needs during the covid pandemic? center for global development. https://www.cgdev.org/blog/how-are-internationaldonors-responding-education-needs-during-covid-pandemic center for global development. (2020). cgd covid education policy tracking. center for global development. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ndhgp53atj5jetxgwcpsfyg8ldzhpusnb6mwyberyg/edit?ts=5e6f893e#gid=0 charmaz, k. (2014) constructing grounded theory (2nd ed.). sage. colenso, p. (2020). covid-19 and the non-state education sector: recommendations and opportunities. global schools forum. https://www.globalschoolsforum.org/page/gsfresponsetocovid-19 davies, h., halford, s., hine, c., hotz, c., martin, w. & sugiura, l. (2016). ethics guidelines and collated resources for digital research. british sociological association. https://www.britsoc.co.uk/media/24309/bsa_statement_of_ethical_practice_annexe.pdf 412 destefano, j., piper, b., & stern, j. (2020) calculating the educational impact of covid-19: closed schools, lost learning, unequal impact. shared website. https://shared.rti.org/content/calculating-educational-impact-covid19%c2%a0-closed-schools-lost-learning-unequal-impact devercelli, a. e., & humphry, e. v. (2020). 15 ways to support young children and their families in the covd-19 response. world bank. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/963051586986115651/15-ways-tosupport-young-children-and-their-families-in-the-covd-19-response diop, m. (2020). covid-19 reinforces the need for connectivity. world bank. https://blogs.worldbank.org/voices/covid-19-reinforces-need-connectivity education endowment foundation. (2020). remote learning, rapid evidence assessment. the edtech hub. https://edtechhub.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/remote_learning_rapid_evidence_assessment.pdf gem report. (2020). “doing no harm” in and through education. world education blog. https://gemreportunesco.wordpress.com/2020/04/06/doing-no-harm-in-and-through-education/ hallgarten, j. (2020). evidence on efforts to mitigate the negative educational impact of past disease outbreaks. institute of development studies. https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/793_mitigating_education_effects_of_disease_outbrea ks.pdf hannahan, p. (2020). adapting approaches to deliver quality education in response to covid-19. brookings. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/education-plus-development/2020/04/23/adapting-approaches-to-deliverquality-education-in-response-to-covid-19/ hanushek, e. a., & woessmann, l. (2020). the economic impacts of learning losses. oecd. http://www.oecd.org/education/the-economic-impacts-of-coronavirus-covid-19-learning-losses.pdf holla, a. & cobo, c. (2020). calling on researchers to help tackle the ongoing global education emergency. world bank. https://blogs.worldbank.org/education/calling-researchers-help-tackle-ongoing-global-education-emergency hookway, n. (2008). ‘entering the blogosphere’: some strategies for using blogs in social research. qualitative research, 8(1), 91-113. jensen, k. b. (2013). new media, old methods – internet methodologies and the online/offline divide. in m. consalvo, & c. ess (eds.), the handbook of internet studies (1st ed.). wiley-blackwell, 43-58. inee. (2020). technical note: education during the covid-19 pandemic. inter-agency network for education in emergencies. https://inee.org/system/files/resources/inee%20technical%20note%20on%20covid19%20en%202020-04-23.pdf kastelic, k. h., & kastelic, j. (2015). the socio-economic impacts of ebola in liberia: results from a high frequency cell phone survey round five. world bank. http://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/162381468179333776/pdf/96196-wp-p152547-publicbox391443b-liberia-apr-13.pdf king, r. (2020). prevent a lost learning generation: nine recommendations to policymakers in response to covid-19. education development trust. https://www.educationdevelopmenttrust.com/our-research-andinsights/commentary/prevent-a-lost-learning-generation-nine-recommenda lwamba, e. (2020). francophone countries and covid-19 edtech response. the edtech hub. https://edtechhub.org/2020/04/29/francophone-countries-and-covid-19-edtech-response/ mcaleavy, t., & gorgen, k. (2020). what does the research suggest is best practice in pedagogy for remote teaching? education development trust. https://edtechhub.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/remote-teaching.pdf 413 menashy, f. (2020). business engagement in education in emergencies: lessons for the covid-19 response. world education blog. https://gemreportunesco.wordpress.com/2020/04/08/business-engagement-in-education-inemergencies-lessons-for-the-covid-19-response/ menashy, f., & zakharia, z. (2017). investing in the crisis: private participation in the education of syrian refugees. education international. https://download.ei-ie.org/docs/webdepot/ei_research_syria_final.pdf minetti, e. (2020). radio education: physical distance but social solidarity. inter-agency network for education in emergencies. https://inee.org/blog/radio-education-physical-distance-social-solidarity moreno, j. m., & gortazar, l. (2020). schools’ readiness for digital learning in the eyes of principals. an analysis from pisa 2018 and its implications for the covid19 (coronavirus) crisis response. world bank. https://blogs.worldbank.org/education/schools-readiness-digital-learning-eyes-principals-analysis-pisa2018-and-its morse, j. (2007). theoretical saturation. in m. s. lewis-beck, a. bryman & t. f. liao (eds.), the sage encyclopedia of social science research methods. sage, 1122-1123. mundy, k., & hares, s. (2020). managing education systems during covid-19: an open letter to a minister of education. center for global development. https://www.cgdev.org/blog/managing-education-systemsduring-covid-19-open-letter-minister-education outhred, r., & lipcan, a. (2020a). edtech in the time of covid-19: getting ready for evidence production during and after covid-19 to contribute to the emerging academic field of edtech. ukfiet. https://www.ukfiet.org/2020/edtech-in-the-time-of-covid-19-we-need-more-than-evidence-to-harness-thepotential-of-edtech-to-deliver-on-its-promise/ outhred, r., & lipcan, a. (2020b). edtech in the time of covid-19: we need more than evidence to harness the potential of edtech to deliver on its promise. ukfiet. https://www.ukfiet.org/2020/edtech-in-the-time-of-covid19-we-need-more-than-evidence-to-harness-the-potential-of-edtech-to-deliver-on-its-promise/ rafaeli, t. (2020). girl focused life skills interventions at a distance. institute of development studies. https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/20.500.12413/15274 reich, j., buttimer, c. j., fang, a., hillaire, g., hirsch, k., larke, l., littenberg-tobias, j., moussapour, r., napier, a., thompson, m., & slama, r. (2020). remote learning guidance from state education agencies during the covid-19 pandemic: a first look. edarxiv preprints. doi: 10.35542/osf.io/437e2 richmond, s. (2020). repurposing established radio and audio series to address the covid-19 educational crises. education development center. https://www.edc.org/sites/default/files/repurposing-established-radioaudio-series.pdf roller, m.r. (2019). a quality approach to qualitative content analysis: similarities and differences compared to other qualitative methods. forum: qualitative social research sozialforschung, 20(3), article 31. http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/3385/4485 salmona, m., lieber, e., & kaczynski, d. (2020). qualitative and mixed methods data analysis using dedoose: a practical approach for research across the social sciences. sage. save the children. (2020). learning must go on: recommendations for keeping children safe and learning, during and after the covid-19 crisis. save the children. https://resourcecentre.savethechildren.net/node/17331/pdf/learning_must_go_on_advocacy_briefing_april_2 020.pdf 414 strauss a. l., & corbin j. (1998). basics of qualitative research: techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory. sage. townsend, e., nielsen, e., allister, r., & cassidy, s.a. (2020). key ethical questions for research during the covid-19 pandemic. the lancet psychiatry, 7(5), 381-383. trucano, m. (2020). how ministries of education work with mobile operators, telecom providers, isps and others to increase access to digital resources during covid19-driven school closures (coronavirus). world bank. https://blogs.worldbank.org/education/how-ministries-education-work-mobile-operators-telecomproviders-isps-and-others-increase?cid=wbw_al_blognotification_en_ext trucano, m., & cobo, c. (2019). what might a new global edtech readiness index look like? world bank. https://blogs.worldbank.org/edutech/what-might-new-global-edtech-readiness-index-look unesco. (2020a). supporting teachers and education personnel during times of crisis. unesco. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000373338 unesco. (2020b). unesco covid-19 education response education sector issue notes conflict-affected, displaced and vulnerable populations. unesco. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000373330 unesco. (2020c.) conflict-affected, displaced and vulnerable populations. unesco. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000373330 unhcr. (2020a). considerations & options for connected education: covid-19 response. unhcr. https://inee.org/system/files/resources/5e81cf1d7.pdf unhcr. (2020b). supporting continued access to education during covid-19. unhcr. https://www.unhcr.org/uk/getinvolved/teachingtools/5ea7eb134/supporting-continued-acess-educationduring-covid-19.html?query=schools vegas, e. (2020). school closures, government responses, and learning inequality around the world during covid-19. brookings. https://www.brookings.edu/research/school-closures-government-responses-and-learninginequality-around-the-world-during-covid-19/ viner, r. m., russell, s. j., croker, h., packer, j., ward, j., & stansfield, c. (2020). school closure and management practices during coronavirus outbreaks including covid-19: a rapid systematic review. the lancet, 4(5), 397-404. whizz education. (2020). building resilient education systems in the wake of a global pandemic. whizz education. https://www.whizzeducation.com/news/building-resilient-education-systems-in-the-wake-of-a-globalpandemic/ who. (2020). who director-general's opening remarks at the media briefing on covid-19 11 march 2020. world health organization. https://www.who.int/dg/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-atthe-media-briefing-on-covid-19---11-march-2020 williamson, b. (2020). new pandemic edtech power networks. code acts in education blog. https://codeactsineducation.wordpress.com/2020/04/01/new-pandemic-edtech-power-networks/ williamson, b., eynon, r., & potter, j. (2020) pandemic politics, pedagogies and practices: digital technologies and distance education during the coronavirus emergency. learning, media & technology, 45(2), 107-114. world bank. (2020). rapid response guidance note: educational television & covid-19. world bank. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/659411587145759242/rapid-response-guidance-noteeducational-television-covid-19 415 zacharia, s., & twinomugisha, a. (2020). educational television during covid-19: how to start and what to consider. world bank. https://blogs.worldbank.org/education/educational-television-during-covid-19-how-start-andwhat-consider author: dr katy jordan is a research associate in the faculty of education at the university of cambridge. her current research is part of the edtech hub, which focuses on the potential for educational technology to support learners at scale in lmics. previously, she was a visiting fellow in the institute of educational technology at the open university, uk, where she also received her doctorate. email: klj33@cam.ac.uk cite this paper as: jordan, k. (2020). covid-19 school closures in lowand middle-income countries: emergent perspectives on the role of educational technology. journal of learning for development, 7(3), 399-415. microsoft word kukulsa-hulme.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 116-129 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. mobile language learning innovation inspired by migrants agnes kukulska-hulme institute of educational technology, the open university, united kingdom abstract: migrants arriving in a country are not always welcome. similarly, the arrival of new technologies can be perceived as a blot on the familiar landscape of established educational practices. this paper seeks a productive synergy between migrants’ educational requirements with respect to learning the language of their host society; their valuable and unique human experiences and talents; and innovative learning designs that harness the ubiquity of smartphones and other mobile technologies. the present-day mass mobility and migration of individuals and groups of people sows the seeds of new ideas, generating novel approaches to language teaching and learning supported by personal technologies. there is a substantial body of evidence from research and practice for the effectiveness and appeal of mobile language learning in various educational settings, however, a specific focus on migrant learners is a more recent development. the paper provides an analysis of innovative mobile language learning projects and applications designed for migrants. it is argued that innovations resulting from a concern with supporting migrant learners can also benefit other mobile populations, such as students and business people, through the introduction of more adaptable ways of fostering and organizing learning. keywords: mobile learning, language learning, migrants. introduction language learning is a necessary and popular pursuit for billions of people around the world, with surges in demand being reported for certain languages, such as spanish and mandarin chinese (el pais 2017; zhao 2017), alongside the continuing global demand for learning english. in addition to learners participating in formal language classes and tuition, there are countless others who make efforts to learn languages informally, increasingly using digital resources, such as online courses, social platforms and mobile apps (jones 2015; martín-monje & bárcena, 2015; viberg & grönlund 2017). methods and processes of language teaching, learning and assessment are evolving, partly prompted by the omnipresence of personal technologies and social media as channels of communication that afford opportunities to learn, observe and practise languages (e.g., lai & zheng, 2018; lam, 2019; reinhardt, 2019). according to the british council’s (2018) report on the future of english in the european union, where there is considerable movement and influx of people seeking a new life and employment, notable language trends include a demand for employees who have high-level language skills, and a requirement for ‘top-up’ tuition throughout adults’ working lives. the report forecasts a decrease in demand for evening or weekend courses that run over many months and a corresponding need for “flexible, personalised, purpose specific and time efficient learning” (british council, 2018, p. 12). these realities call for reappraisals of language provision and effective ways of learning languages, in alignment with evolving circumstances and needs. 117 in recent years mobile learning has been highlighted by various organisations as a continuing major trend in education and training. the annual horizon advisory reports (nmc/educause 2004-19) signaled early trends towards the use of mobile phones/devices, later followed by mobile apps, tablet computing and ‘bring your own device’. their 2019 preview report (educause horizon 2019) observes that the increased use of augmented, virtual and mixed reality has enabled mobile learning “to become more active and collaborative” (p. 8), while noting that the creation of such learning experiences is time-consuming. the elearning industry (2019) community predicts the prominence of mobile micro-assessment, mobile coaching, and ar (augmented reality) performance support in mobile learning. technological advancements in mobile devices and applications create a fast-moving and challenging landscape but this also fosters a spirit of continuous innovation and renewal in terms of how learning is organized, who participates in it, and where and how they participate. people who have been forced to leave their homes and move to another country or region are a growing, educationally underserved population on a global scale. those who migrate voluntarily can also experience difficulties obtaining necessary education or training for their specific needs. millions of migrants, both those who have chosen to move and those who are displaced from their country of origin, find themselves having to learn the languages of their host societies within a short space of time, for work, everyday life, education or training. if their stay is deemed temporary, they may not be eligible to attend government-funded language classes, and if they need specific language skills, basic language classes are unlikely to meet their needs (e.g., linc, 2019). informal language learning, increasingly facilitated by access to free online resources and social networks available on smartphones, is known to be taking place alongside participation in more established forms of language learning located in classrooms, community centres or at work (godwin-jones, 2018). over the past decade, numerous research and development projects as well as initiatives by individuals and companies have generated an expanding range of online and mobile applications, tools and services aiming to serve the language learning needs of migrants. migrants have sometimes led, and have usually been involved in, these developments, contributing with their insights, experiences and expertise. the developments point to a growing need for flexible, individualised, accessible language learning provision, leading to questions around how such provision should be offered and how it relates to existing educational structures and practices. in reaction to proposals for different kinds of learning provision, there will be those who say: not only do we have the problem of migrants, apparently, we now also have to deal with unwelcome changes to how we teach and learn languages. there will be others who say that an influx of migrants is a fortuitous opportunity to rethink teaching and learning, aided by the many talents of new arrivals and the generative potential of their extraordinary lives. these antithetical perspectives can cohere in potentially productive ways when the pressing requirements of mobile populations, such as migrants and refugees, confront educational systems with unexpected opportunities alongside the inevitable challenges. thus, a fresh perspective, proposed and explored in this paper, suggests that the presentday mobility of certain groups or populations can be seen as sowing the seeds of new ideas around learning, generating innovative options through the active involvement of migrants in learning designs that harness the ubiquity of smartphones and other mobile devices. the overall argument put forward in this paper is that the global phenomenon of increased migration is an important impetus 118 for valuable innovations that can benefit mobile populations more widely through the introduction and trialing of different ways of fostering and organizing learning. in the next section we note that mobile learning may be considered disruptive and may be unwelcome as a form of innovation. nonetheless, language learning providers, teachers and learners across the world have recognised its value. analysis presented in this paper can serve to show the wide range of applications and the variety of mobile learners who are benefitting. following on from this, we consider ways in which migrants have inspired and helped to advance new developments in education, and more specifically in mobile language learning. finally, implications are distilled from the reviewed projects and experiences to suggest directions for future research and development, as well as pointers for those who have responsibilities for planning and providing language learning opportunities to migrants and other groups or populations for whom mobility of learning is an important issue. migrants, mobile populations and mobile phones unsettling the status quo populations benefitting from mobile learning have included children, young people and adults in a wide variety of educational settings, yet a few years ago an analysis of a decade of conference papers on mobile learning revealed that certain groups had been the focus of a great deal of attention while others had been neglected – amongst the latter, there were: older people, talented young adults, people in hard-to-reach families and communities, those living in poverty, learners with disabilities, and those unable to use the prevailing language (kukulska-hulme, 2013). the work of unesco and its publications for policy makers (unesco, 2013) has established the relevance of mobile learning to advancing global progress towards education for all through expansion of the reach and equity of education across the world. unesco recognised that mobile learning offered many unique benefits; for example, providing the means to build new communities of learners, supporting situated learning, and bridging formal and informal learning. the education for all scheme did not meet its ambitious education targets within the envisaged time frame, but mobile learning has continued to be an important means of extending the reach of educational opportunity to those who have been overlooked and underserved. migrants’ movements and settlements can be seen as an instantiation of the increased mobility that is observed in the lives of various populations across the world, including students and business people who travel and face challenges around foreign language communication as well as needing to fill gaps in their skills and knowledge. in many contexts, mobile learning has been embraced with great enthusiasm (dunkerly-bean & crompton, 2016; pulla, 2017). nevertheless, we have to recognise that the notion of transnational mobility, especially that which results in settling in another territory, intrinsically challenges deep-rooted ideas about borders and belonging. equally, it challenges dearlyheld cultural values and allegiances, and education systems rooted in local cultures and traditions. mobile learning, especially when associated with mobile populations and their needs, can provoke feelings of opposition or enthusiastic approval, perhaps in equal measure. innovation often springs from authentic needs to make creative changes or develop new products and offerings in response to arising circumstances or events. innovation in contemporary education is often synonymous with ‘change’ and associated with the idea of new technology being used as a means of bringing about or imposing change. ellis, souto 119 manning and turvey (2019) offer a critique of innovation in the context of teacher education, cautioning against “de-humanizing effects of technical-rational solutions to educational and societal challenges even when… they are articulated as having ‘moral purpose’” (p. 3). innovation is unsettling and may have unintended or harmful consequences for people involved in it or affected by it. one forward-thinking teacher has defined innovation in education by emphasizing creative action and leadership, stressing that it can move people out of their comfort zones: the ability to create that which is not yet created, to lead a new path beyond the norm, to stretch past what is comfortable to discover knowledge and inspire others. (tucker, 2010) mobile learning can be seen as a disruptive and transformative force in education, creating new opportunities that go beyond the norms of conventional practice. yet outside of institutional settings it can also be seen as an increasingly taken-for-granted, everyday activity based on easy access to information via smartphone browsers and an abundance of clever apps, which has little bearing on how education is conducted most of the time. among many existing definitions of mobile learning (crompton, 2013; el-hussein and cronje, 2010), those that emphasize learning beyond the classroom, in and across mobile contexts, capture the true spirit of mobile learning. yet that conception is also perhaps the most challenging and disruptive because it requires consideration of what it means to organise and sustain educationally valuable activities across everyday environments that are not designed or arranged for learning. mobile devices can cause disruption that raises both opportunities and challenges for education (sharples, 2002). some people still dismiss mobile learning as merely an easy way to access information (not ‘proper’ learning), or an intolerable distraction from learning. smartphones being brought into school and college environments by students are undoubtedly a great challenge for teachers and institutions, yet they are also a potential resource for learning. ott and colleagues (2018) have addressed the issue of mobile phones being often banned or confiscated in schools in sweden; they showed that most of the students who were part of the research believed that despite their teachers’ attitudes and a range of problems that occurred in and beyond the classroom, “their education had mostly benefitted from the use of mobile phones” and the phones were a valued resource for learning. mobile language learning achievements this section offers a succinct overview of diverse ways in which mobile learning has supported language learning to date, with illustrative examples emphasizing innovations, new environments for learning and specific benefits that have been identified. language learning supported by smartphones and other mobile devices has been the subject of extensive research as well as a field of innovative practice since its beginning (see chinnery, 2006), and it continues to be recognized as an important means of innovating language learning (chong, 2018). teachers appreciate the motivational aspects of mobile devices and researchers draw attention to features such as mobility and portability; social connectivity/interaction; context sensitivity; and individuality (sung, chang & yang, 2015). language learners appreciate the increased opportunities for memorization, revision and practice, easy access to translation, and the social contact and peer support they can draw on for motivation and help. they use their mobile devices for reviewing and strengthening what was learned in class, for expanding exposure to the target language, and to add variety and enjoyment to their learning (demouy et al., 2016; lai and zheng, 2018). 120 applications and systems for vocabulary and grammar learning have long been popular among language learners, as well as being a focus for innovation. stockwell’s (2007) intelligent tutor system created a profile of each learner and delivered vocabulary activities according to the areas they found most difficult. learner-generated vocabulary content in the form of shared notes, photos and audio recordings, was the basis for the cloudbank and lingobee apps described by petersen, procter-legg and cacchione (2014). games have been used to motivate students and sustain their engagement; for example, castañeda and cho (2016) noted significant improvements in students’ verb conjugation knowledge after they used a game-like app. listening is another popular activity in everyday use of smartphones as well as in research projects. demouy and kukulska-hulme (2010) reported that target language listening activities on a mobile phone or mp3 player could be carried out successfully while waiting, walking or traveling. the audio news trainer app, which was well received by adults preparing in their own time for an english examination, provided audio recordings of news items to motivate listening comprehension practice on mobile phones, with additional social media-based interaction to enable sharing and commenting on summaries of news (read & kukulska-hulme, 2015). research by rahimi and soleymani (2015) comparing listening on desktop computers and on mobile devices found beneficial effects of mobile listening on both listening comprehension and on learner anxiety. mobile learning has also been used to relate language learning to a person’s physical context, primarily to provide access to location-specific language material, for example, phrases that may be immediately useful in a specific setting. photos, maps, drawings, audio and video content can be associated with a physical place for subsequent mobile access by people who visit that place. one early system of this type provided learners of japanese with appropriate polite expressions for their current context (ogata & yano, 2004). beaudin and colleagues (2007) explored the use of sensors in the home which detected learners’ interactions with objects, triggering audio presentations of english and spanish phrases associated with those objects. another innovative system was able to detect physical objects around the learner and assign questions related to these objects, to improve vocabulary knowledge; the environment also allowed the learners to share their knowledge (ogata et al., 2010). collaborative language learning supported by mobile devices has been developing more slowly than applications and systems for individual learning but considerable progress has been made in recent years (kukulska-hulme & viberg, 2018). collaborative learning designs can support more active learning. kirsch (2016) studied children’s collaborative storytelling with the ipad, using an app that enabled recording, editing and playback of oral language; the activity promoted exploratory talk and reflection on language. liu, chen and hwang (2018) designed and trialled a system for collaborative listening activities in a fitness center; language learners watched preparatory videos on their phones and then qr codes at the fitness center were used as a mechanism for accessing a quiz, getting information about specific items of fitness equipment and enabling collaboration on tasks. mobile language learning has generated many small-scale research projects but it is also a scalable approach that seeks to addresses the language learning needs of whole communities or sectors. over a period of ten years the english in action project in bangladesh, which addressed much needed language teacher development in an approach that included learning resources on mobile phones, achieved significant improvements in english language competence, helping 25 million bangladeshis improve their english as a route into work and out of poverty (eia, 2019). 121 mobile language learning literature is dominated by studies relating to learning the english language. a review of empirical research on mobile english language learning (elaish et al., 2019) revealed that close to three-quarters of studies published in 2010-15 were conducted with participants from asian countries, the majority from taiwan. this suggests that despite the global nature of mobile learning research and practice, published academic literature is not representative of mobile learning experiences across the world. in particular, informal language learning has received relatively little attention from researchers despite a rising tide of mobile device use for both learning and language practice, outside of formal education in everyday life and work. informal mobile language learning publications in mobile language learning have tended to focus on classroom-based learning or on learning during day trips organized by a teacher, however, there have been some exceptions (e.g., kukulska-hulme & de los arcos, 2011; jones, 2015; viberg & grönlund, 2017). in 2014 the international research foundation for english language education published a set of papers on design and practice in mobile language learning that covered both in-class and out-of-class settings (tirf, 2014), thereby, recognizing that these settings had very different affordances and requirements. out-of-class language learning can be formal, with tasks set and overseen by a teacher, or it can be informal, entirely learner-initiated and led by the learners themselves. informal learning is frequently unplanned, which means that it occurs spontaneously during other activities being carried out on a mobile device, or it can be more deliberate. chan, walker and gleaves (2015) explored malaysian students’ lived experiences of using smartphones in diverse learning contexts and found evidence of both serendipitous and purposive learning, including for language learning; purposive learning involved using smartphones to search for information to do homework or projects, exploring hobbies or communicating with others in communities of practice. the young people “moved fluidly and easily between serendipitous and purposive learning in their daily practices suggesting a continuum of use rather than marked by strong boundaries between the two approaches” (p. 9). learning from online sources (e.g., youtube) was applied in the real world and the young people often received immediate feedback from their friends and families. in research investigating how use of mobile technology facilitates learning languages among students in higher education in sweden, bradley (2015) mentions students used “a combination of text, audio and video files, movies as well as short film clips” in their self-initiated learning. their mobile learning strategies were diverse and included using online translation tools, dictionaries when reading, and being in contact with target language speakers. the research showed that the learners were brushing up on previously learnt languages as well as attempting to learn new languages. other researchers have noted that language learners use their mobile devices to join online communities where language skills may be practised with other members (niesner, 2010), instead of, or in addition to, attending their language classes. in his reflections on learner autonomy in informal language learning, godwinjones (2019) remarks on the smartphone’s “power to provide a full immersive experience (while sitting comfortably at home) or a 5-minute vocab learning session (while waiting in line at starbucks), as well as many experiences in between, representing a range of time, energy, and attention commitments” (p. 16). while learners can make good use of such variety and opportunity, some report feeling tired and having difficulties concentrating when learning on a mobile device (lai & zheng, 2018). jarvis and achilleos (2013) suggested the new acronym malu (mobile assisted 122 language use) to complement mall (mobile assisted language learning), since learners have many opportunities to pick up a language through daily use of mobile devices for a range of purposes. taking photographs and making videos and audio recordings can be ways to capture language in use or observations about a setting in which it is used. this captured information can become a tangible, personally meaningful link between different settings; for example, a learner’s record of a language issue encountered at work can be taken into a language class where the issue is discussed with others. informal learning might be entirely learner-driven but it might also need to be encouraged and supported with different types of assistance. shao, crook and koleva (2007) proposed an informal mobile group blog to support students spending time at a foreign university; the students were encouraged to share informal observations about local language use and customs. similarly, pemberton, winter, and fallahkhair’s (2010) mobile knowledge-sharing system for language learners included learner-generated content and a social network to help international students advance their knowledge and understanding of local language and culture. language translation is also popular with learners and can support them in unpredictable contexts; it can now be accessed not only on smartphones but also via wearable ear buds that look like earphones (gibbs, 2017). in the dawning era of intelligent assistants on smartphones and other smart devices, it is reasonable to assume that various forms of mobile and smart assistance will be incorporated into informal language learning practices (kukulska-hulme, 2016). informal language learning reminds us of the importance of authentic experiences in the context of real-world communication challenges and opportunities to have contact with target language speakers in other parts of the world. in a review of research on mobile language learning in ‘authentic environments’ where learning activities have real-world relevance, shadiev, hwang and huang (2017) suggest that a unified online learning platform for authentic learning should be created that can be shared across institutions. they also propose that learning in authentic environments should not be limited to one particular subject: “students may practice how to order food and drinks in the target language and at the same time, learn fractions and practice their calculation skills for mathematics class using the technology” (p. 298). the idea has echoes of clil — content and language integrated learning — which refers to teaching various subjects (biology, geography, etc.) through a foreign language and was first coined in europe in 1994 (martínez, 2011), or it may imply using mobile technology for a number of loosely related activities outside of class. innovating pedagogy for, with, and by migrants innovations in both formal and informal learning contexts have relevance for populations such as migrants, who are likely to straddle both settings. migrants are people who have moved to live and work in other countries, voluntarily or out of necessity, either on their own or with others. being ‘newcomers’, migrants are welcome in some quarters and unwelcome in others, but a shared concern in the host societies is how the new arrivals will be supported to learn the local language or languages. additional languages may be necessary to enable them to continue their education, including participation in online courses offered only in certain languages. language teaching approaches based on established materials and classrooms cannot fully meet the requirements of the newcomers in terms of language learning related to their personal situation, and in terms of the practicalities of accessing language learning classes in the midst of complex life circumstances and limited means. 123 kluzer, ferrari and centeno (2009) were possibly the first to describe the potential of flexible language learning provision for adult migrants in europe through personalised content and methods to address specific skills and needs using mobile phones. in the same year, bar and colleagues (2009) presented a prototype mobile storytelling platform to give voice to immigrants in the us; although not focused on language learning, it offered the users opportunities to use the target language to tell stories about their lives and communities. mobile learning has opened the doors to many possibilities for extending the reach of education and self-expression to underserved and sometimes disadvantaged groups of migrants and refugees. it offers an alternative that can complement existing options, or a way to engage with learning where no alternatives are available. in popular media, news stories about migrants and refugees often focus on difficulties and problems, but other sources of information may paint a different picture (lynch & pfohman, 2013). in australia, the employment platform refugee talent enables companies to hire diverse talent from across australia and internationally by matching refugees with employers (https://refugeetalent.com/). in finland, the website of the organisation startup refugees draws attention to the arrival of new talents and skills that finland did not have before, so that refugees can be seen as “a brain gain instead of just a social and financial challenge. these refugees could bring new business ideas into finland” (this is finland, 2019). the startup refugees project, which matches the new arrivals' skills and experience to the offerings of partner organisations, has reportedly been enthusiastically received by government ministries and departments, ngos, private individuals and companies. one of the newcomers in finland has stated: “if i receive some useful knowledge, i have to share it with others” (this is finland, 2019). this is a simple sentiment, yet it also represents a positive attitude that underpins effective ways of learning and knowledge building. such an attitude is well aligned with the affordances of digital media and mobile devices, which can facilitate knowledge sharing. a special collection of papers in the journal of interactive media in education (jones, kukulska-hulme & brasher, 2017) sought to assess the challenges that migrants face in education and what outcomes had been achieved through the application of digital technology, particularly mobile devices. in gaved and peasgood’s salsa study (2017) reported in that collection, twenty-seven beacons were placed in multiple locations in the town of milton keynes in the uk, triggering different learning activity scenarios when learners approached each of the beacons. the participants in the study were learning the english language at local adult continuing education classes and used the salsa app on their smartphones, thus, complementing their formal learning with informal learning in their daily lives. all the participants successfully used the provided system (beacons and app) and the triggered placerelevant language learning activities, which were deemed motivating and were highly valued; they developed not only the learners’ language skills but also their knowledge about the town. learning in urban settings was also the focus of the european maseltov project (gaved, peasgood & kukulskahulme, 2018; jones et al., 2018) which developed and trialled a range of mobile tools, services and recommendations integrated in a single app, to support immigrants to europe in language learning and social inclusion through their daily activities. the project drew on the concept of incidental learning, “unintentional or unplanned learning that results from other activities” (kerka, 2000: 1), recognizing the motivational power of authentic situations and personally relevant contexts. the prototype app was well received and evaluations pointed to increased language confidence among 124 the migrant users. in bradley, berbyuk lindström and sofkova hashemi’s (2017) study, the researchers aimed to understand newly arrived arabic-speaking migrants’ everyday practices in using their mobile phones, and found that they used them mostly for communication with their family and friends rather than for communication with swedes and learning swedish. one group of migrants was asked to use the sound-to-speak app to support their pronunciation skills while also taking part in the formal programme for learning swedish; the outcome for this group was better speech flow and intonation compared to the control group, although it was suggested that more motivating material was needed to increase use of the app. in her study with a diverse group of migrants who were using a variety of tools and resources informally to support their communication and language learning in canada, demmans epp (2017) discovered a wide range of experiences that provide valuable insights into informal language learners’ perspectives and study habits. for example, the migrants focused almost exclusively on learning vocabulary, and she found that “parroting audio materials, whether they originated from a video, song, language-learning tape, or the text-to-speech engine of a smartphone were all perceived as beneficial” (p. 6). she reports many interesting examples of individuals’ learning strategies and the outcomes they were seeking. this type of study raises important questions about factors influencing learning choices and habits, among them migrants’ cultural backgrounds and their level of proficiency in the target language. demmans epp suggested that the migrants needed different tools and additional support if they were to take full advantage of mobile learning. they required help with self-regulation and noticing; they needed “tools that help them to overcome language barriers that are the result of people using a variety of forms of english” (p. 10); and they needed tools that enable rehearsal for communication and receipt of helpful feedback. there are growing numbers of free digital and mobile resources aimed at supporting language learning among newcomers. castaño-muñoz, colucci and smidt (2018) point out that the use of free digital learning for migrant and refugee education is a new field but some design principles can be gleaned from the literature, such as the need for guided instruction, personalized learning, and blended learning. their research was among refugees and migrants from many different countries who had come to europe. research findings included the realization that specific initiatives for language learning “often co-target civic integration and vice-versa”. free resources for language learning used by the migrants included translation apps, commercial mobile apps such as duolingo and babbel, and educational videos on youtube. the researchers identified innovative approaches in welcomm! (welcomm-project.com/) which aims to encourage migrant children and families to learn by creating materials linked to their own world and by promoting non-formal learning; and meet (http://migranthealth.eu/index.php/en/) which provides digital resources to teach health vocabulary. many other resources and mobile apps supporting migrants’ language learning can be found on the web, not all of which have been evaluated or published in journal articles. for example, in the “uugot.it” app (http://www.uugot.it/), developed by a team from different cultural backgrounds, tv channels are streamed to a smartphone or tablet and interactive subtitles are added; whenever the user does not understand a word, he/she can click on it and it is translated into the user’s mother tongue. apps for refugees (http://appsforrefugees.com/) lists large numbers of apps covering language and translation as well as topics such as culture and health. apps related to subjects like health can provide an incidental means of learning vocabulary and useful language; for instance, the 125 immigrants app (https://www.migrantaid.eu/) launched by the european centre for disaster medicine aims to support migrants in accessing health facilities and uses cartoons to convey meaning alongside the use of language. implications of innovations in the migrant language learning space there is a substantial body of evidence from research and practice for the effectiveness and appeal of mobile language learning in various educational settings. a focus on migrant learners is a more recent development but a fertile ground for innovation. based on the trends, projects and experiences considered in this paper, some implications can be identified. as observed earlier, methods and processes of language teaching and learning are evolving partly in response to the widespread use of personal technologies and social media. at the same time, challenges and opportunities arising from the influx of migrants and refugees result in surges of ingenuity to provide solutions to urgent language learning needs, while also catering to requirements for education related to topics such as health and citizenship. as has been outlined, mobile language learning achievements in research and practice encompass more authentic and life-relevant learning; harnessing mobile social interactions and collaboration; incorporating rich media and augmented reality; bolstering learners’ motivation and confidence; encouraging learning in a wider range of environments and settings; and supporting language learning at scale. issues to beware of include dangers of disruption and tensions that are likely to arise from learners’ preferences for tools that make learning and life easier (e.g., automatic translation, smart assistance) and educators’ natural inclination to stretch learners and provide challenge. designers of future mobile language learning activities, experiences and applications should not lose sight of these important achievements and identified issues, and should continue to learn a great deal from learners’ informal practices, the resources and apps that learners are choosing to use and what they value or dislike about them. policy makers, educators, technology developers and others can all learn from the experiences of migrants and the new technology-supported learning opportunities that migrants are embracing, creating and trialing. language learning requires continued input and guidance from teachers but it will now also require greater collective efforts to define, describe and provide resources for the learning and language practice which can take place out of class. any changes in how learning is organized, who participates in it, where and how it happens, will depend on such factors as the willingness and ability of education providers to adapt to the newcomers and their needs. motivation for this might come from the realization that innovations resulting from a concern with supporting migrant learners can also benefit other mobile populations, such as students and business people, who share similar needs for more adaptable and individualized language learning. directions for future research and development should therefore include a specific focus on identifying differences and common ground. there is also enormous scope for more extensive research and sharing of practice on informal language learning and the ways in which formal and informal learning can be combined. emerging technologies and approaches, for example, in the form of augmented reality and intelligent assistance, will provide further research challenges. in the meantime, working collaboratively with migrants to facilitate a voice and a role in ongoing developments will be key to ensuring that innovations are fit for purpose and support not only language learning but also wider ambitions of equity, participation and social inclusion. 126 conclusion we live in a world characterised by increasing ‘mobility’ in many senses of the word: social mobility, international travel, and greater mobility of ideas across some former borders and restricted terrains. mobile learners include many different kinds of people whose work or lifestyle involves moving around locations or substantial travel, and who have a need to improve their language skills quickly on their way to a destination, once they have arrived, and sometimes for many years after that. mobile learning developments are generating potentially transformative perspectives on fundamental assumptions about what learning is, who it is for, and how and where it is supposed to take place, and mobile language learning is proving its potential to address personal and authentic learner needs, and to deliver more flexible models of language learning. learners’ and teachers’ expectations, skills and habits will doubtless evolve and adapt to match the potential of mobile technologies and new learning designs. migrant learners are bound to continue inspiring innovations, as well as creating and contributing to innovation through their ideas, experiences and work. references bar, f., brough, m., costanza-chock, s., gonzalez, c., wallis, c., & garces, a. (2009). mobile voices: a mobile, open source, popular communication platform for first-generation immigrants in los angeles. in preconference workshop at the international communication association (ica) conference, chicago, illinois. beaudin, j. s., intille, s. s., tapia, e. m., rockinson, r., & morris, m. e. (2007). context-sensitive microlearning of foreign language vocabulary on a mobile device. in b. schiele, a. k. dey, & h. gellersen et al. (eds.), lecture notes in computer science: ambient intelligence (vol. 4794/2007, pp. 55–72). berlin, germany: springer. bradley, l. (2015). the mobile language learner-use of technology in language learning. journal of universal computer science, 21(10), 1269-1282. british council (2018). the future demand for english in europe: 2025 and beyond. retrieved from https://www.britishcouncil.org/sites/default/files/future_demand_for_english_in_europe_2025_and_beyond _british_council_2018.pdf castañeda, d. a., & cho, m. h. (2016). use of a game-like application on a mobile device to improve accuracy in conjugating spanish verbs. computer assisted language learning, 29(7), 1195-1204. castaño-muñoz, j., colucci, e., & smidt, h. (2018). free digital learning for inclusion of migrants and refugees in europe: a qualitative analysis of three types of learning purposes. international review of research in open and distributed learning, 19(2). doi: https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v19i2.3382 chan, n. n., walker, c., & gleaves, a. (2015). an exploration of students' lived experiences of using smartphones in diverse learning contexts using a hermeneutic phenomenological approach. computers & education, 82, 96-106. chinnery, g. m. (2006). emerging technologies going to the mall: mobile assisted language learning. language learning & technology, 10(1), 9-16. chong, c.s. (2018). ten trends and innovations in english language teaching for 2018. retrieved from https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/ten-trends-innovations-english-language-teaching-2018 crompton, h. (2013). a historical overview of m-learning: toward learner-centered education. in z. l. berge & l. y. muilenburg (eds.), handbook of mobile learning. abingdon: routledge. demmans epp, c. (2017). migrants and mobile technology use: gaps in the support provided by current tools. journal of interactive media in education, 2017(1). 127 demouy, v., jones, a., kan, q., kukulska-hulme, a., & eardley, a. (2016). why and how do distance learners use mobile devices for language learning? the eurocall review, 24(1), 10-24. demouy, v., & kukulska-hulme, a. (2010). on the spot: using mobile devices for listening and speaking practice on a french language programme. open learning, 25(3), 217–32. dunkerly-bean, j. m., & crompton, h. (2016). the role of mobile learning in promoting literacy and human rights for women and girls. in handbook of research on the societal impact of digital media (pp. 581-608). igi global. educause (2019, february 19). horizon report preview, 2019 higher education edition. https://library.educause.edu/resources/2019/2/horizon-report-preview-2019 eia (2019). english in action: about eia. retrieved from http://www.eiabd.com/ elaish, m. m., shuib, l., ghani, n. a., & yadegaridehkordi, e. (2019). mobile english language learning (mell): a literature review. educational review, 71(2), 257-276. el-hussein, m. o. m., & cronje, j. c. (2010). defining mobile learning in the higher education landscape. journal of educational technology & society, 13(3), 12-21. elearning industry (2019). the biggest mobile learning trends for 2019. retrieved from https://elearningindustry.com/mobile-learning-trends-for-2019-biggest el pais (2017, november 29). number of spanish speakers worldwide soars to 572 million. retrieved from https://elpais.com/elpais/2017/11/29/inenglish/1511950198_079424.html ellis, v., souto-manning, m., & turvey, k. (2019). innovation in teacher education: towards a critical reexamination. journal of education for teaching, 45(1), 2-14. gaved, m., & peasgood, a. (2017). fitting in versus learning: a challenge for migrants learning languages using smartphones. journal of interactive media in education, 2017(1), article no. 1. gaved, m., peasgood, a., & kukulska-hulme, a. (2018). learning when out and about. in r. luckin (ed.), enhancing learning and teaching with technology: what the research says. london: ucl institute of education press, pp. 76–80. gibbs, s. (2017, october 5). google pixel buds: is babel fish dream of in-ear translation now a reality? the guardian. retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/oct/05/google-pixel-buds-babelfish-translation-in-ear-ai-wireless-language godwin-jones, r. (2018). chasing the butterfly effect: informal language learning online as a complex system. language learning & technology, 22(2), 8-27. godwin-jones, r. (2019). riding the digital wilds: learner autonomy and informal language learning. language learning & technology, 23(1), 8–25. jarvis, h., & achilleos, m. (2013). from computer assisted language learning (call) to mobile assisted language use (malu). tesl-ej, 16(4). jones, a. (2015). mobile informal language learning: exploring welsh learners’ practices. elearning papers, 45, article no. 6. jones, a., kukulska-hulme, a., & brasher, a. (2017). editorial: special collection on migrants, education and technologies. journal of interactive media in education, 1(5), 1–3. jones, a., kukulska-hulme, a., norris, l., gaved, m., scanlon, e., jones, j., & brasher, a. (2018). supporting immigrant language learning on smartphones: a field trial. studies in the education of adults, 49(2) pp. 228– 252. kerka, s. (2000). incidental learning. trends and issues alert no. 18. retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ed446234.pdf 128 kirsch, c. (2016). developing language skills through collaborative storytelling in iteo. literacy information and computer education journal, 6(2), 2254–2262. kluzer, s., ferrari, a., & centeno, c. (2009). ict for learning the host country's language by adult migrants in the eu. sevilla, spain. jrc institute for prospective technological studies, european commission de communication, 12. retrieved from ftp://139.191.159.82/pub/eurdoc/jrc57387.pdf kukulska-hulme, a, & viberg, o. (2018). mobile collaborative language learning: state of the art. british journal of educational technology, 49(2), 207–218. kukulska-hulme, a. (2013). mobile learners: who are they and who will they become? in z. l. berge & l. y. muilenburg (eds.), handbook of mobile learning (pp. 145–154). new york: routledge. kukulska-hulme, a. (2016). mobile assistance in language learning: a critical appraisal. in a. palalas & m. ally (eds.), the international handbook of mobile-assisted language learning (pp. 138–160). beijing: china central radio & tv university press co., ltd. kukulska-hulme, a., & de los arcos, b. (2011). researching emergent practice among mobile language learners. in: mlearn2011 conference proceedings, pp. 74–77. lai, c., & zheng, d. (2018). self-directed use of mobile devices for language learning beyond the classroom. recall, 30(3), 299-318. lam, m. (2019). language education for newcomers in rural canada: needs, opportunities, and innovations. journal of rural and community development, 14(1). linc (2019). what is the language instruction for newcomers to canada (linc) program? retrieved from https://settlement.org/ontario/education/english-as-a-second-language-esl/linc-program/what-is-thelanguage-instruction-for-newcomers-to-canada-linc-program/ lynch, c., & pfohman, s. (2013). hidden talents, wasted talents? the real cost of neglecting the positive contribution of migrants and ethnic minorities. european network against racism. retrieved from http://cms.horus.be/files/99935/mediaarchive/publications/20068_publication_hiddentalents_web.pdf martín-monje, e., & bárcena, e. (eds.). (2015). language moocs: providing learning, transcending boundaries. walter de gruyter gmbh & co kg. martínez a. m. (2011). an overview of content and language integrated learning: origins, features and research outcomes. huarte de san juan: filología y didáctica de la lengua, 11, 103-114. nmc/educause (2004-19). horizon reports. educause online library. retrieved from https://www.educause.edu/ ott, t., magnusson, a. g., weilenmann, a., & af segerstad, y. h. (2018). “it must not disturb, it’s as simple as that”: students’ voices on mobile phones in the infrastructure for learning in swedish upper secondary school. education and information technologies, 23(1), 517-536. pemberton, l., winter, m., & fallahkhair, s. (2010). cloudbank: mobile knowledge sharing. presentation at future learningscapes: a 21st century challenge. london, england: university of greenwich. petersen, s. a., procter-legg, e., & cacchione, a. (2014). lingobee: engaging mobile language learners through crowd-sourcing. international journal of mobile and blended learning, 6(2), 58-73. pulla, s. (2017). mobile learning and indigenous education in canada: a synthesis of new ways of learning. international journal of mobile and blended learning, 9(2), 39-60. rahimi, m., & soleymani, e. (2015). the impact of mobile learning on listening anxiety and listening comprehension. english language teaching, 8(10), 152-161. read, t., & kukulska-hulme, a. (2015). the role of a mobile app for listening comprehension training in distance learning to sustain student motivation. journal of universal computer science, 21(10), 1327–1338. 129 reinhardt, j. (2019). social media in second and foreign language teaching and learning: blogs, wikis, and social networking. language teaching, 52(1), 1-39. shadiev, r., hwang, w-y., & huang, y-m. (2017). review of research on mobile language learning in authentic environments, computer assisted language learning, 30:3-4, 284-303, doi: 10.1080/09588221.2017.1308383 shao, y., crook, c., & koleva, b. (2007). designing a mobile group blog to support cultural learning. proceedings of mlearn 2007 (pp. 224–7). melbourne, australia: university of melbourne. retrieved from http://www.iamlearn.org/public/mlearn2007/ files/mlearn_2007_conference_proceedings.pdf sharples, m. (2002). disruptive devices: mobile technology for conversational learning. international journal of continuing engineering education and life long learning, 12(5-6), 504-520. stockwell, g. (2007). vocabulary on the move: investigating an intelligent mobile phone-based vocabulary tutor. computer assisted language learning, 20(4), 365-383. sung, y. t., chang, k. e., & yang, j. m. (2015). how effective are mobile devices for language learning? a metaanalysis. educational research review, 16, 68-84. this is finland (2019). startup refugees innovate and integrate in finland. retrieved from https://finland.fi/businessinnovation/startup-refugees-innovate-integrate-finland/ tirf (2014). mobile-assisted language learning. retrieved from https://www.tirfonline.org/publications/mobileassisted-language-learning/ tucker, c. (2010). how do you define innovation? retrieved from https://catlintucker.com/2010/11/how-do-youdefine-innovation/ unesco (2013). unesco policy guidelines for mobile learning. retrieved from https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000219641 viberg, o., & grönlund, å. (2017). understanding students’ learning practices: challenges for design and integration of mobile technology into distance education. learning, media and technology, 42(3), 357-377. zhou, m. (2017, april 8). demand surges for mandarin lessons. china daily. retrieved from http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2017xivisitsfinlandandus/2017-04/08/content_28841389.htm author: dr. agnes kukulska-hulme is professor of learning technology & communication at the institute of educational technology, the open university, milton keynes, united kingdom. email: agnes.kukulskahulme@open.ac.uk cite this paper as: kukulska-hulme, a. (2019). mobile language learning innovation inspired by migrants. journal of learning for development, 6(2), 116-129. kabugo book review education and international development: theory, practice and issues clive harber symposium press, oxford, uk, 2014, pp. 272, isbn 978-1-873927-47-2 (pub) s. k. pulist vol. 2, no. 3 education has been a driving force for developmental activities in all spheres associated with human development. development as a phenomenon can acquire many forms, depending upon nature, cause and purpose. however, the relation of education to development is manyfold. it can be construed, in other words, that the role and contribution of education in development is crucial and immense. the current book, education and international development, by clive harber, tries to define the concept of development from an international perspective and links it with educational interventions at different levels in the developing world. the volume is divided into 17 different chapters, focusing primarily on four broad themes, i.e., an overview of the field; theories of education and development — explaining the relationships between education and development; ideological goals for education and development; and, lastly, issues of education and development. the list of further readings has been consolidated by theme at the end of each of the chapters. the author presents a special section for “discussion and activities" which provides food for thought to readers and could stimulate their thinking. the author has deliberately chosen topics for the book that are relevant to the curricula of education and international development. however, development is a broad subject to cover in a single volume. the author could have given an overview of the topics covered in the book and a methodology to approach the book in the preface itself, for the benefit of readers. nonetheless, the book is a rich source of knowledge on the subject. individual chapters focus on special topics of importance, presenting an in-depth analysis. the opening chapter tries to introduce the theme of education and development to readers. the nature of education, access, quality and outcome, in relation to development in developing countries, are areas of focus in this chapter, in order to establish a relationship between education and development leading to economic growth. however, the author presents a word of caution that it cannot be automatically assumed that “education directly or necessarily leads to benefit” to individuals and society in a straightforward manner, and indicates that such a connotation may be problematic. chapter 2 presents an overview of the nature of education in relation to developing countries and tries to differentiate between developed and developing economies. the ground is prepared for discussing further issues in the later chapters more intensely. the author has chosen to study the educational conditions in some developing countries. the factors affecting access, quality and effective implementation of education, with equality in developing countries, are discussed. chapter 3 starts by building a connection between education and economic development, and different areas of development theory that depend highly on education are brought into focus. the author explores the relationships and the general theories and practices of education and development from a global perspective. therefore, he never loses sight of the importance of “local culture” and “global pattern and trends” affecting the local context. some of the key issues common at the global level flow throughout the discourse and the most prominent ones are: gender equality, health, vocational education and employment, corruption, disaster and emergencies, and literacy and language, among others. the human capital theory and socio-economic reproduction theory are the focal point in chapter 3. here, discussion of marx becomes inevitable for the author, in the light of education inequality. chapter 4 follows the western-based modernization theory, which evolved during the post-colonial period in the name of formal schooling. here, the author does not forget to quote the driving force behind the “modernization theory”, where the “achievement motive” would lead to “economic and technological development”. chapter 5 discusses the process of democratization through the phases of political development. the role of education in the political development of nations leading to the democratization process in the developing world has been crucial. however, this type of education has encouraged the act of “disparity” and gave way to “banking of education”, which is considered as oppressive in nature. though, this type of education is inversely related to the process of democratization. some other dimensions of the theoretical framework of education and development are examined in chapter 6. education is reckoned as a “paradoxical social institution”, since many bad things occur during the course of good things happening due to the spread of education. to cite some examples: violence in schools, bullying, harassment, corporal punishment and racist activities taking place on the premises of educational institutions. the ways and means of acquiring education play an important role in establishing the worth of education. socialism and capitalism have been instrumental in influencing educational provisions and the “content and processes” of acquiring education, which are the discussion topics for chapter 7, which discusses how the capitalist model tended to become more dominant. unchecked expansion of such a model could prove to be disastrous for the planet in the event of excessive exploitation of our natural resources. however, the emphasis now is on green or sustainable development at the international level. therefore, education is crucial for the promotion of sustainable development. the author raises certain fundamental issues connected with education and sustainable development in chapter 8. the case studies involve three countries from the developing world. the role of religion is crucial in education for sustainable development. chapter 9 examines the role of education in development, using religion as a kaleidoscope. the author considers that the role of religion cannot be underestimated for holistic development. however, more in-depth studies need to be conducted in the areas of education, religion and development with reference to developing world. the author initiates a debate on the point of whether single-faith schools and their process of indoctrination would lead to an international social development against pluralistic religion schools. chapter 10 deals with role of masculinity in light of the dimensions of gender, education and development. the gender disparity may lead to the substantive loss of potential for men and women in development. the author tries to differentiate between the biological constructs responsible for the evolution of men and women. the gender-based classification is further associated with social and cultural construction, which specify the expected role and behaviour of people belonging to different cultures. thus, the chapter raises discussion on gender equality as a crucial social issue facing education at the global level. the role of education in situations of crisis arising out of natural phenomenon, such as earthquakes, tsunamis or manmade conflicts, is discussed by the author in chapter 11, as a developmental issue impacting poorer people. some instances of such situations coming from developing countries are cited in the book. the important issues in preand post-conflict situations could be: how much educational development would be possible and the impact of such change in restoring a “peaceful attitude and behaviour of people in the long run”. some of the studies conducted by other scholars are quoted in the book. the provision of education through non-state functionaries is discussed in chapter 12. the institutions involved could be community-financed, run by missionaries or religious establishments which may not necessarily be profit driven. this could be due to various key factors and a few of them as quoted by the author are: inability of the state in affording education for all; existence of neo-liberalism and preference for private provisions; and, above all, the unacceptable quality of education put in place by the state. the focus of chapter 13 is especially on education that is supposed to provide the necessary skills for the enhancement of employability. however, in developing countries, formal education is not able to generate much employment and the uncontrolled spread of informal education further leads to unemployment. vocational education could solve the problem to some extent, however, what should be an acceptable level of entry is still debatable. the chapter highlights the problems contributing to the unpopularity of vocational education in developing countries and suggests a three-pronged approach to resolve skill related issues. the abuse of entrusted power has been seen as a serious issue in developing countries, and this is the theme of chapter 14. this misuse is largely focused on private gains. the 10 countries perceived to be “most corrupt” by transparency international largely belong to the developing world. individualism and “power distance” play a crucial role in developing resistance to corruption in individuals. the corruption in education forces the system to lose its “impartiality, quality and fairness”. the author has tried to discuss specific factors contributing to corruption in the case of certain developing countries, e.g.: lebanon: cheating in examinations; nepal, ghana, cameroon and ethiopia: teacher absenteeism and lack of professionalism; bangladesh: red-tapeism; iran: teacher recruitment, promotion, deployment and remuneration; and egypt: private tutoring, among others. education also plays an important role in improving the health and life expectancy of a people. chapter15 critically examines the role of education in improving public health. it presents a direct relation between education and health. the author puts forth the issues leading to a slow effect on education in the area of health and lays stress on more curriculum-based programmes leading to health education at different levels, including the secondary and tertiary levels. education has played a crucial role in combating the spread of hiv/aids in developing countries, especially in the african region. training and re-training of teachers in teaching about hiv/aids would be crucial for development. chapter 16 focuses on the financial assistance available for educational pursuits from richer countries to poorer ones. here, the flow is mainly from the developed countries to the developing ones. different international agencies, like the world bank, international monitory fund, undp, unicef, and unesco, amongst others, are playing important and constructive roles in the funding of an educational project. the author discusses the issue from both the pro and con side of financial assistance and the flow of resources. literacy and language are the pace setters of development at the initial stage. unesco defines literacy as, “the ability to read and write, with understanding, a short simple statement related to one’s daily life”. however, language is the mainstay for achieving the stage of literacy. the author, in chapter 17, tries to re-define the concept of literacy and language along with what level it occupies in the light of development, especiall, in the third world. the chapter examines issues such as literacy and language, and, with a deeper insight, the stages of education. the book touches different crucial areas which immensely influence the process of development. the author has presented this book, keeping in view the requirement of students pursuing a course on education and international development. while the book broadly covers all important aspects falling under this theme, there could have been more examples and case studies from developing countries, juxtaposed with those from developed countries. on the whole, the book would be useful for the intended students, in addition to the people working for education and development across national boundaries and with international development organisations. it will provide to novice readers an overview of the role of education in international development, covering different dimensions of education and development with special reference to the developing world. dr. s. k. pulist is the deputy director, indira gandhi national open university, new delhi, india. e-mail: skpulist@ignou.ac.in microsoft word niari.docx issn: 2311-1550 2021, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 93-110 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. to use or not use collaborative learning techniques in teleconference teaching? a case study from the hellenic open university maria niari hellenic open university abstract: the purpose of this small-scale qualitative research study was to examine the use and perceived value of integrating collaborative learning techniques at teleconferences at the hellenic open university (hou). qualitative semi-structure interviews with tutors from the school of humanities at the hou were conducted in order for the research plan to be fundamentally heuristic and generate original results. purposeful sampling was chosen for the data collection process, cross-sectional organization for the data classification and thematic analysis for the data analysis. the results of the present research study indicate the parameters needed to be taken into account in order for the tutors to use collaborative learning techniques at teleconference teaching at hou. an adequate teleconference platform, tutors’ training on distance collaborative learning and group dynamics, and a common understanding regarding distance learning and group dynamics in e-learning environments are some of the most significant findings derived from this research study. the role of students, as well as the role of the distance-learning provider, in integrating and adopting distance collaborative learning strategies, are also highlighted by the results. keywords: distance collaborative learning, collaborative learning techniques, teleconference, group dynamics, qualitative research, distance education. introduction educational literature and practice place great emphasis on collaborative learning as a means of knowledge building and a way to enhance learning (jonassen, davidson, collins, campbell, & haag, 1995). at the same time, the social and interactive elements of teleconference facilitate the use of collaborative learning pedagogy in distance education, thus, enhancing the connectivity and socioemotional involvement of the student in the learning process (kalir, 2020; faulkner et al, 2019; rodriguez et al, 2019; umaña, 2019; harasim, 1990). however, the characteristics of computer communication (asynchronous communication, text-based communication, computer interaction) create a unique social climate that influences the interactions and dynamics of a group collaborating online (gunawardena, 1995). recent studies have shown the importance of examining social factors in computer collaboration and their impact on communication and learning (kali, 2020; niari, 2020; walther & parks, 2002). one form of communication and teaching method used in distance education is the teleconference (e.g., open university, eap). the choice of presentation and theoretical investigation of this medium serve the need to bridge the communication between tutor and students and students as a group. the term ‘teleconference’ describes — from a technological and methodological point of view — the 94 possibility of communication and interaction between geographically remote learners and tutors. according to taylor (2001, as cited in koustourakis, panagiotakopoulos & vergidis, 2008) teleconference is included as a means of distance learning in the five models used from open universities to provide distance education, as it allows remote geographical students to communicate in real-time using multimedia data. anastasiadis adds: "interactive teleconferencing allows trainees and trainers located in two or more different remote locations to not just communicate by exchanging views or sharing data with each other but to actively participate in a potential interaction environment, the main feature of which is the collaborative construction of knowledge from a distance in real time" (anastasiades, 2009). moore (1993, p. 32, as cited in keegan, 2001, p. 101) also states that teleconference allows the creation of a new form of dialogue between learners, whether or not the teacher is present at the same time. with all forms of teleconference, both groups can learn by interacting with other groups and each individual learner can learn within their own group (moore, 1993, p. 32, as cited in keegan, 2001, p. 101). harasim (1990), referring to the role of teleconference in education, compares and points out the common elements of teleconference with both distance education and face-to-face training. it is noted that computer conferencing creates a new learning environment irrespective of time and space, which is more social, has more in common with face-to-face training and offers more opportunities for multiperson interaction and multi-person teaching (e.g., teamwork). the literature review also highlights the value of teleconference both as a teaching tool and as a means of effective learning. the interactive virtual environment of the teleconference creates the appropriate stimuli for active learning, while the diversity enables adaptation to the teaching process according to the respective educational needs. according to miaoulis, skourlas & halaris (2005), the support of educational and research activities of e-learning and teleconferencing systems creates the conditions for the development of high quality and custom-made training programs. in addition, it ensures the participation of a significantly larger number of learners and allows the relatively quick updating of the content of the subject. regarding distance collaborative learning, teleconference technology provides a rich communication environment where its various individual tasks can be successfully performed remotely through collaboration. through the wide range of interaction between the participants and the possibility of contemporary and asynchronous communication, the feeling of learners’ isolation is reduced (lionarakis, panagiotakopoulos & xenos, 2005). the same conclusions are reached by a study by the british educational communications and technology agency (becta, 2003, as cited in smith, 2001), where it is stated that teleconference in teaching facilitates collaboration and enriches the experience of distance education by reducing the feeling of isolation, the stimulation of encouragement for interaction but also the motivation of the learners. an important advantage of the use of teleconference arises from the dynamics of the method in information sharing. with the continuous improvement of technology, the training in the necessary equipment, as well as the continuous familiarization of adult students in the new media, the role of video conferencing is changing. the foundations are being laid for the creation and development of learning communities, as the possibility of connecting with experts and peers from all over the world 95 opens up. at the same time, this results in the cultivation of multiculturalism, while providing the opportunity to experience national, linguistic and socio-economic diversity. in addition, teleconference as a means of communication affects the integrated support services where learning takes place (dearnley, 2003), as it is directly related to social development in the knowledge society. in this context, teleconference can be used to provide the (psychological) support and encouragement that students need in distance education (milioritsas & georgiadis, 2010; dearnley, 2003; carnwell, 2000). with appropriate design, it can cover the needs and expectations of the group by using techniques and methods of active involvement of the participants, by exploring their needs and covering the young people who emerge in the learning process. specifically, for the hellenic open university (hou), the research of milioritsas & georgiadi (2010) highlighted the benefit of utilizing teleconference as a tool of communication and learning in the educational process. research findings show that teleconference can make a significant contribution to strengthen the support and guidance of hou students. note that this communication certainly presupposes the existence of an organized infrastructure and an operational network for the provision of services (milioritsas & georgiadi, 2010). the finding that teleconference, under specific pedagogical conditions, contributes to improving the environment of communication and interaction between teachers and learners is widely accepted by researchers (latchem, 2002; kerrey & isakson, 2001). at all levels of education, teleconference is an important technological tool which, under certain pedagogical and social conditions, can make a significant contribution to: the opening of the educational organization to wider social and learning environments; the encouraging of social negotiation and critical viewing of contemporary local biographies of the microcosm; and cultivating the spirit of cooperation, the necessity of empathy and the culture of daily consultation with other mentalities, attitudes, and perceptions (anastasiades, 2007). therefore, teleconference can be used as an educational tool that allows learners and trainers (locally and/or temporally) remotely, to communicate, share data and educational resources, and to actively participate in a dynamic interaction environment whose main feature is the collaborative building of knowledge at a distance, in real time. at the same time, teleconference can be used to: • satisfy multiple intelligences and learning styles (gardner, 1993), • promote individualized support at the same time as collaborative and experiential learning, • contribute to the creation of an academic climate, and • support multiculturalism. according to laurillard (1993), though, teleconference while a presentable means of transmitting lectures and promoting distance education, is at the same time "inconsistent" (p. 167). apart from the technical problems (access, time, sound) that the participants may face, the cost of equipment and connections, as well as the incompatibilities in the media used are additional difficulties in its widespread use. at the same time, training of both teachers and students is necessary for the successful use of teleconferencing. in addition, despite the fact that teleconference supports the two-way transmission of audio, video and data in real time, it does not seem to create the sense of interpersonal relationship and contact that 96 is observed in face-to-face teaching environments (schweizer et al, 2003 ; bonk et al, 1998; collins, 1991), as participants do not share a common three-dimensional space, they see only what the camera is projecting, and the non-verbal cues are blurred (bruce, 1996). as angiolillo et al note (1997), participants cannot utilize the "gaze awareness" as, while there is eye contact, one cannot see the others’ eyes. for this reason, the emphasis nowadays is on the construction of teleconference systems that are able to provide a high-definition, live image (anastasiades, 2007). another point of criticism about teleconference, despite its practical advantages, is the lack of focus on the quality of teaching and learning. bollom et al (1989) found that the opportunity for interaction and discussion with students was rare. their study found students reluctant to use the possibility of teleconference to discuss individual issues and ask questions. on the contrary, teleconference seemed to be used more in the form of lectures/presentations. similarly, freeman’s (1998) study showed no improvement in student-teacher interaction and collaboration. instead, time was lost in technical difficulties and the likelihood of distraction was increased in remote areas. moreover, in the study of dallat et al (1992), although advantages were found from the use of teleconferencing for both students (mainly in terms of time and cost) and for the university itself (strengthening its public image through the new approach to education), tutors noted that teleconference did not allow students to enjoy a fully effective learning experience (dallat et al, 1992, p. 17). in addition, the same study notes that students were not given the opportunity to interact with each other or with the teacher. we could argue that the opportunities for interaction depend on the educational planning and the respective activity. this observation brings us closer to another point that is crucial for the use not only of teleconference but also of any other technological means or method—the educational planning. teleconference is a challenge for teachers not to manipulate its technological equipment but to exploit its potential to improve and enrich teaching and learning. teleconference is a teaching and learning tool; it needs creative instructors, training and appropriate educational planning, in order to benefit most from using it. in the same vein, there are various approaches and models, which combine well-known learning theories and teaching practice on computer supported collaborative learning (cscl). the main teaching models are: knowledge building (scardamalia & bereiter, 1994), progressive inquiry (hakkarainen & sintonen, 2002; muukkonen, hakkarainen & lakkala, 1999; lehtinen, 2003), knowledge integration (hoadley & linn, 2000; bell & linn, 2000; linn, bell & hsi, 1998), knowledge creation (lipponen, hakkarainen & paavola, 2004), and social theory of cscl (stahl, 2002; 2004). these models are technological applications that support the implementation of collaborative learning activities. in other words, they serve the concept of cooperation more than collaboration, while it is found that none of the existing models is sufficient by itself to support distance collaborative learning during teleconference teaching. meanwhile, many collaborative learning techniques could be used in a teleconference. the most common practices and techniques are the following: collaborative writing, technology-mediated discourse, group exploration, problem-based learning, project-based learning, think-pair-share, jigsaw. 97 in this context, ‘group dynamics’ is a critical component of collaborative distance learning, however, no research effort has been attempted to date to clarify its role in learning from a theoretical point of view, other than niari's doctoral dissertation (2020). special emphasis has been given to the technological dimension of distance collaboration and communication and not to the pedagogical exploitation of collaborative learning activities. the finding of the gap and the difference between the evolution of information and technological possibilities on the one hand, and the pedagogical and didactic view on the other confirms the importance of the present research and emphasises its contribution to the field. purpose of the research study the purpose of the small-scale qualitative research study was to examine the use and the perceived value of using collaborative learning techniques at a teleconference at the school of humanities of the hellenic open university (hou). the aforementioned purpose was divided into objectives, in order to be addressed properly. the objectives were the following: • to investigate the reasons why tutors use or intend to use collaborative learning techniques in distance teaching. • to investigate the reasons why tutors do not use or hesitate to use collaborative learning techniques in distance teaching. • to record the perceived benefits from the use of collaborative learning activities in distance learning. • to investigate under which conditions tutors can integrate collaborative learning techniques in their teaching. • to explore the concept of ‘group dynamics’ through the prism/lens of tutors in a teleconference class. research questions that defined the research study were: 1. why tutors use or hesitate to use collaborative learning techniques in distance teaching? 2. what is the perceived value of using collaborative learning techniques in distance learning? 3. under which conditions tutors may use collaborative learning techniques? 4. how do tutors understand the concept of ‘group” in distance learning process? methods the research study used qualitative semi-structure interviews with tutors from the school of humanities at the hou. the semi-structured type of interview was chosen in order to encourage the participants to develop with their own personal and unique way of thinking and views to the issues investigated (bird et al, 1999). moreover, the investigative format of interviews was adopted as this kind of interview is designed to be fundamentally heuristic and tries to develop hypotheses rather than collect facts and figures (cohen, manion & morrison, 2008; oppenheim, 1992). 98 the stages of the research process were as follows (see also table1): i. preparation of interviews in this phase, the preparation and organization of the interviews took place (creswell, 2016; robson, 2010; cohen, manion & morrison, 2008), i.e., the interview type was chosen, the question axes were designed, the interview protocol was decided upon (creswell, 2016; robson, 2010), and the sample was selected. in addition, the first communication was made with the interviewees. ii. data collection the data for the research were derived from the answers to the interview questions. the interviews were conducted by telephone, were recorded with the consent of the participants and were crosschecked/validated by the research subjects. iii. data analysis in this phase, the data were coded and analysed based on the research objectives. the results from the analysis were discussed with the literature review findings and conclusions were drawn. table 1: stages of research process time phase stage procedure july 2018 1 1 preparation of interviews august – september 2018 2 1 data collection 2 transcription of interviews september – october 2018 3 1 data analysis 2 conclusions participants purposeful sampling was chosen for this research study. according to creswell (2016), purposeful sampling is synonymous with qualitative research, data collection and analysis. as the objectives were to investigate the use of collaborative learning techniques in teleconferences at the hou, rather than replicate a model, the choice of expert sampling seemed more adequate. the tutors were chosen according to the following characteristics: • to have taught via teleconference during the previous academic year. during the academic year 2017-18, teleconference teaching was introduced for the first time in several modules at the school of humanities, whereas for the rest of the modules a blended type of distance education continued. the selected tutors had taught only via teleconference and had only remote contact and communication with the students (instead of four face-to-face meetings like the rest of the tutors). • to be aware of the principles of distance education and adult education. the aim was to find tutors who knew the principles of group dynamics and collaborative learning. (in fact, this was not entirely possible, as the tutors did not seem to have a clear picture of what group dynamics are, while appearing more confident about collaborative learning.) 99 only four tutors responded to the aforementioned criteria and were willing to participate in the research study. all of them were tutors at the post-graduate program ‘educational sciences’. as for their demographic characteristics and in order to preserve anonymity, it should be mentioned that they are three women and one man. all of them had some relevant experience in teaching at hou, and it was their first time teaching via teleconference. data collection open-ended questions were used in the interviews. open-ended questions were preferred because they allow a relatively high degree of flexibility in the answers, enable participants to better express their experiences without being biased by the researcher's views or previous findings, allow the researcher to intervene for clarifications and highlight issues and information not predicted by the researcher (robson, 2010; creswell, 2016; faulkner et al, 1999). however, the interviews last longer and the analysis is time consuming; for this reason, the axes and the basic questions of the interviews were designed with the research purpose and the research questions as a guide. regarding the process, the interview protocol was designed with five basic questions (creswell, 2016), guided by the research questions of the research study. each category of questions corresponds to a research question and is divided into axes and sub-axes. both the axes and the questions of the interviews arose from the coupling of the research purpose and the questions with the previous literature review. table 2 indicates how interview plan was created: table 2: interview protocol interview protocol interview with tutors who taught via teleconference at the hou during the academic year 2017-2018 question axes: a. use of collaborative learning techniques in the teleconferences b. perceived value of using collaborative learning activities c. concept of group dynamics structure: a. information for purpose and guarantees for confidentiality b. interview questions (axes and clarification questions) 1) have you used collaborative learning techniques in your teaching? • if yes: would you like to give me more information about the techniques / methods you used and the process of organizing and implementing them? • if no: what prevented you from using collaborative / group techniques in your teaching? 2) for what reasons would you use collaborative / group techniques in your teaching? 3) what opportunities and benefits do you find in utilizing group / collaborative activities in your teaching? 4) what do you think you may need in order to apply some collaborative techniques in your teaching? 5) how do you understand the concept of team in your teaching and department? c. closure and thanks 100 regarding the conduct of the interviews, after guarantees were given for the confidentiality of the information, the respondents were informed about the purpose of the research study. permission to record the interview was also requested and assurances were given as to the protection of personal data. at the end of each interview, the researcher thanked each participant for participating in the interview and his/her contribution to the implementation of the research study and promised to inform them about the progress of the research. each interview was recorded on the researcher's computer and then was transcribed. at the end of the recording, the text of each interview was sent to each respondent separately, in order to be checked. the subjects of the investigation responded immediately by giving their approval to use the information as it is. in one case, small corrections were made to the transcribed text and the data were analysed based on them. thus, an attempt was made to ensure the reliability of the data collected from the interviews (lincoln & cuba, 1985, as cited in woods, 1999, p. 177). data analysis in qualitative research, there are many and varied ways of approaching and analysing research data, depending on the research material available to the researcher but also based on the research planning that has been followed to conduct the research. in the face of dense, voluminous and/or chaotic research data collected in semi-structured (or unstructured) ways, what the researcher is called upon to do is to organise and classify this material, to analyse it and to examine whether it is possible to generalise these research products to a broader reality or whole (mason, 2009). it is noted that both the actions of organization and classification, as well as the analysis of data, are not conceptually neutral; they are based on epistemological, methodological assumptions and involve the ethical and political choices of the researcher. for this reason, it requires a high degree of honesty, accuracy, systematicity and reflection on the part of the researcher, during all phases of the research process, i.e., the collection, analysis, interpretation and presentation of the research data and findings. for the classification and analysis of the data collected in each phase of the research process, we decided — based on the purpose and the research plan — to use the cross-sectional or categorical organisation of the material. according to the interdepartmental or categorical approach, the texts of the different cases are divided into sub-sections or excerpts and the researcher organises the data based on a gradually formed common system of codes or classification categories. this process is called coding or categorisation and includes the detailed and usually the line-by-line rendering of meaning or properties in the research material, with the aim of its gradual coding (iosifidis, 2008). the different categories and subcategories that are formed give a brief description of the content of the individual parts of the text. codes/categories are derived mainly from the text and are not imposed in advance by the researcher, as the qualitative approach is usually inductive (patton, 1990). thematic analysis came up as the ideal method for the research study purpose. thematic analysis is a user-friendly method that is widely used in the analysis of data derived from qualitative research. it is a method of identifying, describing, referencing and 'schematizing' repetitive semantic motifs, i.e., 'topics' arising from research data, and is a key tool for all researchers in qualitative research (braun & clark, 2006; holloway & tondres, 2003; roulston, 2001). one of its advantages is that it is characterised by theoretical freedom and flexibility, as its choice as a method of analysis does not in itself presuppose the commitment of researchers to specific ontological or epistemological positions, as is the case with other qualitative analyses (e.g., interpretive phenomenological analysis is bound to 101 a phenomenological orientation) (braun & clarke, 2006). it is the task of the researcher, therefore, to determine his/her analysis epistemologically and theoretically, mainly on the basis of his/her research questions. findings this section (and figure 1) describe and list the findings from the coding of interview responses. regarding the use of collaborative learning techniques in teleconference (research question 1), the answers of tutors vary. two of them had not used collaborative learning techniques, although they would have liked to. the reasons for not using collaborative learning techniques are mainly technical, as the software/platform used was not appropriate nor did it support collaborative learning techniques. hou uses skype for business, which is mainly suitable for corporate teleconferences and does not support collaborative learning techniques. in addition, tutors were informed too late about the assignment of their group of students; hence, they did not have enough time to be prepared properly nor they had been trained in using collaborative learning techniques in distance learning. another inhibitory factor was the educational framework itself and the inadequate educational material, which was designed for individualised learning and did not support collaborative learning at a distance. however, these tutors attempted to incorporate collaborative learning techniques, such as group discussion, in the forum and peer review, though, unsuccessfully. the response of students to these attempts at first was very positive. however, in the end, the activities were not completed and the students did not engage in distance collaborative learning. a possible explanation attempted by tutors was that students did not have enough time to spend on those activities (due to their busy schedule) or, as those activities were not mandatory in the syllabus, they ignored them (lack of motivation). the other two tutors claim to have used collaborative learning techniques, although the teleconference platform did not favor it. they mainly used the following techniques: brainstorming, group work, questions-answers, case study. the forum discussion, although suggested by tutors as a technique, did not meet students’ preference. it should be noted that students’ collaboration, as well as the completion of collaborative activities, was not conducted through the official platform but mostly thanks to the use of other means and tools, such as private chat on social media and viber. hence, tutors did not have the chance to monitor nor assess the process. 102 figure 1: reasons for not using collaborative learning techniques at teleconference regarding the perceived value of using collaborative learning techniques in distance learning (research question 2), all tutors agreed that collaborative learning techniques are particularly important in teleconference, as they enhance students' social presence and sense of belonging in a learning community. in addition, they said that using collaborative learning techniques in distance learning can reduce the sense of isolation that students may feel and encourage the expression of introverted persons. at the same time, it makes teaching more interesting, while enhancing the active participation of students. this is especially important as it cultivates rich interactions between students and the tutor, as well as between students themselves, helps all participants to better understand concepts or carry out assigned tasks, and facilitates the enrichment of cognitive content with different points of view, illuminating the issues from different angles and perspectives. relevant quotations: t_1: "in my opinion, collaborative learning techniques are especially important in teleconference, as they enhance the social presence and the sense of belonging to the team. in addition to that, students could enrich the cognitive content of syllabus with their views and opinions." t_3: "well, they are necessary for more effective learning. in my opinion, through collaborative teaching, all participants are facilitated to better understand concepts or to carry out activities assigned to them. the ‘strongest’ in a group can effectively help his/her classmates but he/she also learns through teaching; because, as we all know, through teaching we always learn. that’s one reason." t_4: "in order to involve in the educational process as many students as i can, to give them reasons and motivation to cooperate with others and because i firmly believe in the strength of the team in relation to the strength of the individual, i try to use collaborative learning inadequate teleconference platform lack of preparation and training inadequate educational material tutors lack of motives lack of time students 103 techniques. moreover, i try to make my teaching more interesting, because i do not want students to act like passive recipients of knowledge, rather than to actively participate in learning process, gaining the greater possible benefits through participation." more specifically, regarding the benefits from the use of collaborative learning techniques in teleconference, tutors point out the following (see also figure 2): • it creates a sense of ‘class’ (absent from teleconference), gives more opportunities to students to meet their colleagues and cultivates a positive climate for learning. • the isolation felt by a distance learning student is greatly alleviated and the chances of dropping out are reduced. • the exchange of educational experiences, the interaction, the sense of "belonging" to a learning community, as well as peer evaluation and peer learning are encouraged. • as long as there is proper management of group dynamics and monitoring of the process by the tutor, everyone finds the role they wish to have, gradually enters an activation rhythm and may perform better compared to an individual activity, without losing the individual rhythm of study. figure 2: reasons for using collaborative learning techniques at teleconference when tutors were asked what they would need in order to apply collaborative learning techniques in teleconference (research question 3), they stated the following (see also figure 3): • appropriate tool / software to support teamwork • training on the tool • training on collaborative learning techniques in an e-learning environment • training on group dynamics concepts 104 • support on distance collaborative learning (concept, process, planning, organizing, monitoring, etc.), in order to encourage students to participate more actively. in addition, t_1 notes the following: t_1: "i would like to underline the following point. as the educational material used in the course as not been updates for years, we (the tutors) are obliged to dedicate a part of the teleconference to lecturing. this is necessary, because we have to introduce students to concepts that, although not in the books and not required in the exams, are useful to the learning process itself. it has to do with contemporary concepts, such as moocs, forms of digital material, platforms, and more generally contemporary concepts of space of which they should be aware. this prevents us from using collaborative learning techniques during the teleconference. so, the solution could be – in my opinion – to update the material, so as the tutor can reduce or completely eliminate the lecture from the teleconference." figure 3: tutors’ expressed needs for integrating collaborative learning techniques at teleconference regarding the fourth research question "how do tutors understand the concept of ‘group’ in distance learning?", tutors do not seem to have had a common understanding regarding the concept nor the levels of structure of the groups (see figure 4). thus, there is the perspective that wants the group as motivation: t_1: "the group gives a strong motivation to the weak student to continue studying. the same seems to happen to the tired one. to the strongest student, to find more interest and not just to complete the module. in the learning process itself, creates a climate where many poles are created and corresponding triggers that inevitably lead the dialogue to deeper levels. it's a win-win situation, where everyone can benefit from." in addition, there is a distinction between group work and group activities. each student section is a group in itself; however, students also participate in sub-groups depending on the activities and tasks assigned to them. t_2: "well, there are groups with duration and groups for shorter activities. the members of the class participate in more than one group." 105 t_3: "well, the whole group could be divided into smaller sub-groups, which could be people with different skills. […] meanwhile, each class is an independent group in itself." moreover, the understanding of the stages of group development is pointed out in relation to the tutor’s role and the goal setting. this perception is more concise and touches on many of the dimensions of group dynamics. t_4: "as a constant effort of the tutor to manage different people and to contribute to development of a dynamic that may not seem how important it is at first glance. it is a huge challenge, but at the same time a great satisfaction to see people who did not know each other before the x training program, to disagree, to agree, to produce results, to bond and finally to be upset that the program ends. in other words, to see how the individual goals transform into group goals." figure 4: different options of group as a concept discussion regarding the collaborative learning techniques used in teleconference at the school of humanities of the hou, the research findings do not support the idea that they have been used at all or at least in a proper way. obstacles mentioned by hou tutors were the inadequacy of the teleconference tool, the insufficient preparation and training of tutors, the inadequacy of the educational material, the lack of time and the reluctance of the students. we do not have data in the literature to confirm or reject these assumptions, so these findings pave the way for new research studies and work. however, two tutors attempted to use brainstorming, working in groups, questions-answers, and case study as collaborative learning techniques during their performance at teleconferences. these are common adult education techniques (courau, 2000; kokkos, 1998), which are widely used in face-toface teaching. the reasons for using these collaborative learning techniques at teleconferences at hou are — according to tutors — the strengthening of the social presence and the active participation of the students, the limitation of the sense of isolation and the facilitation of multiple interactions through dialogue. these goals are in line with the goals of mezirow’s transformative learning theory, where the development of communicative learning, i.e., enhancing the ability of the individual to understand 106 and share ideas, thoughts and feelings with others through rational discourse, prevails over instrumental learning (mezirow et al, 2006; mezirow, 1991, as cited in tsiboukli, 2008). however, it is not confirmed by the interviews that the conditions mentioned by mezirow (mezirow et al, 2006) are essentially met as necessary for effective participation in the discourse. after all, there are no examples of critical educational science that considers educational reform participatory and collaborative, according to carr and kemmis (2002, p. 208), as they lack features such as interaction, collaboration, experiential approach or learning, or skills such as critical thinking, creativity, and reflection. hence, while tutors recognise the benefits and positive contribution of using collaborative learning techniques at a teleconference, in practice they do not take full advantage of them. the forum discussion did not proceed at any stage of the educational program, confirming the literature on the inaction of the hou forum (niari, 2013; niari & mavroidis, 2015). the tutors’ answers regarding the concept of ‘group’ are rather interesting, because as it emerged from the findings there is no common understanding. no research was found in the literature review that focuses on the definition of the concept ‘group’ in general and in ‘group in distance learning’ in particular. what is interesting here is the emergence of the definition of the concept group in distance learning on one hand, and the different levels of group structure on the other hand. as the research points out, there are several perspectives: • the pedagogical perspective, which sees the group as an incentive/motive in order for students to participate and engage to the learning process, • the instrumental perspective, which distinguishes the group as a means of implementing collaborative activities, and • the organizational perspective which sees the group as a form to monitor and organise the educational process. conclusion concluding the elaboration of the findings from the empirical research with regard to the relevant literature and the research questions, the following conclusions were drawn: the use of collaborative learning techniques at a teleconference at hou is not mandatory nor is it included (although it is not prohibited) in the course syllabus. this fact often discourages tutors from integrating them in teleconference teaching. in fact, there is no suitable teleconference tool or software that supports and facilitates the use of collaborative learning activities during a teleconference at the hou (at least for now). in addition, tutors need training on the distance collaborative learning techniques and strategies they could use, the role they are called upon to take during their implementation, and the value and aspects of group dynamics. in connection with this finding is the need to create a common understanding regarding distance learning and group dynamics in an e-learning environment. as already mentioned before, distance collaborative learning has various dimensions and techniques, from which tutors could benefit in many ways. a very important issue is the distinction between the concepts ‘group dynamics’ in general and ‘training group’ in particular. a set of students can be seen as a group with distinct goals and roles at three interrelated levels (micro-, medium-, macro-level). the role of the tutor varies 107 depending on the activity, and the level or the stage that a group goes through. in addition, the interactions of the groups with each other and the dynamics that are developed can equally affect the learning process and students’ experience. the distinction between the concepts and, consequently, between the processes is an important element for the successful integration and utilisation of collaborative learning techniques at a distance learning program. students, for their part, at least theoretically, are encouraged to participate in group activities, nevertheless, they often refrain from collaborative activities due to lack of time, infrastructure and support mechanisms. this conclusion highlights the importance of choosing the appropriate collaboration technique, and its connection with the educational goals of the program, the educational needs of the students, the structure of each program and the general philosophy of the educational institution. the distance-learning provider — in this case, hou — seen as the broader context in which distance collaborative learning takes place, needs to be able to support distance collaborative learning activities. this means practically using platforms and software that support collaboration at a distance, training tutors on the possibilities, benefits and techniques of distance collaboration and motivating them to incorporate them in teaching. it should be noted that we are not necessarily talking about the use of the most modern and expensive digital tools (the issue of benefit / cost has already occupied us), but about the use of existing — often free — applications/software, which both tutors and students are familiar with. references anastasiades, p. (2007). interactive videoconferencing (ivc) as a crucial factor in distance education: towards a constructivism ivc pedagogy model under a cross curricular thematic approach. in e. bailey (ed.), focus on distance education developments. nova science publishers, inc. anastasiades, p. (2009). interactive videoconferencing and collaborative distance learning for κ-12 students and teachers: theory and practice. nova science publishers, inc. angiolillo, j. s., blanchard, h. e., israelski, e. w., & mané, a. (1997). technology constraints of video-mediated communication. in k. e. finn, a. j. sellen & s. b. wilbur (eds.), video-mediated communication (pp. 51-74). lawrence erlbaum associates bell, p., & linn, m. c. (2000). scientific arguments as learning artifacts: designing for learning on the web in kie. international journal of science education, 22(8), 797-817. bird, m., hammersley, m., gomm, r., & woods, p. (1999). educational research in practice. study manual. hellenic open university. bollom, c. e., emerson, p. a., fleming, p. r. & williams, a. r. (1989). the charing cross and westminster interactive television network. journal of educational television, 15(1), 5-15. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/0260741890150102. bonk, c. j., & cunningham, d. j. (1998). searching for learner-centered, constructivist, & sociocultural components of collab educ lrng tools. in c. j. bonk, & k. s. king (eds.), elec collaborators: learner-centered tech’s for literacy, apprenticeship, & discourse (pp. 25-50). erlbaum. braun, v., & clarke, v. (2006). using thematic analysis in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), 77101. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa 108 bruce, v. (1996). the role of the face in communication: implications for videophone design. interacting with computers, 8, 166-176. carnwell, r. (2000). pedagogical implications of approaches to study in distance learning: developing models through qualitative and quantitative analysis. jan, 31(5), 1018-1028. doi:https://doi.org/10.1046/j.13652648.2000.01394.x cohen, l., manion, l. & morrison, k. (2008). educational research methodology. metaichmio. [in greek] collins, a. (1991). cognitive apprenticeship and instructional technology technical report. in b.f. jones & l. idol (eds.), dimensions of thinking and cognitive instruction. lawrence eribaum associates. courau, s. (2000). the basic tools of the adult educator. metaichmio. [in greek] creswell, j. (2016). research in education. design, conduct and evaluate quantitative and qualitative research. (2nd ed.). ion publications. dallat, j., frazer, g., livingston, r., & robinson, a. (1992). videoconferencing and the adult learner. university of ulster. dearnley, c. (2003). student support in open learning: sustaining the process, international review of research in open and distance learning, 4, 1. faulkner, j. t., rodriguez, j., baker, c., arora, s., welsh, c., & morrison, k. d. (2019). interactive timeline for a teleconference session. united states patent, patent no.: us10,171,256 b2. date of patent: jan. 1, 2019. https://patents.google.com/patent/us10171256b2/en. faulkner, d., swann, j., baker, s., bird, m., & carty, j. (1999). child development in the social environment, methodology manual. hellenic open university. [in greek] freeman, m. (1998). video conferencing: a solution to the multi-campus large classes problem? british journal of educational technology, 29(3), 197-210. gardner, h. (1993). multiple intelligence. basic books. gunawardena, c. n. (1995). social presence theory and implications for interaction and collaborative learning in computer conferences. international journal of educational telecommunications, 1(2/3), 147-166. harasim, l. (1990). comparative adult education, practice purpose and theory. longman. hakkarainen, k., & sintonen, m. (2002). the interrogative model of inquiry and computer-supported collaborative learning. science & education, 11, 25–43. doi:https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1013076706416. hoadley, c. m., & linn, m. c. (2000). teaching science through online, peer discussions: speakeasy in the knowledge integration environment. international journal of science education, 22(8), 839-857. holloway, i., & todres, l. (2003). the status of method: flexibility, consistency and coherence. qualitative research, 3, 345-357. iosifidis, t. (2008). qualitative research methods in the social sciences (2nd ed.). kritiki. jonassen, d., davidson, m., collins, m., campbell, j., & haag, b. (1995). constructivism and computer-mediated communication in distance education. american journal of distance education, 9(2), 7-26. kalir, j. (2020). social annotation enabling collaboration for open learning. distance education, 41(2). keegan, d. (2001). the foundations of distance education. metaichmio. [in greek] 109 kerrey, b., & isakson, j. (2001). the power of the internet for learning: moving from promise to practice. report of the web-based training educational commission. washington dc. kokkos, a. (1998). communication elements. in a. kokkos & a. lionarakis (eds.), open and distance education: teacher-student relations (vol. b, pp. 53-102). hellenic open university. koustourakis, g., panagiotakopoulos c., & vergidis, d. (2008). a contribution to the hellenic open university: evaluation of the pedagogical practices and the use of ict on distance education. international review of research in open and distance learning, 9(2). doi: https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v9i2.424 latchem, c. (2002). ict-based learning networks and communities of practice. media and education, 8, national institute of multimedia education (nime), 1-13. laurillard, d. (1993). rethinking university teaching: a framework for the effective use of educational technology. routledge. linn, m. c., bell, p., & hsi, s. (1998). using the internet to enhance student learning in science: the knowledge integration environment. interactive learning environments, 6(1-2), 4-38. lionarakis, a., panagiotakopoulos, c., & xenos, m. (2005). open and distance learning: tools of information and communication technologies for effective learning. in a. lionarakis (ed.), open and distance education. pedagogical and technological applications, vol. d. hellenic open university. lipponen, l., hakkarainen, k., & paavola, s. (2004). practices and orientations of cscl. in j-w. strijbos, p.a. kirschner & r.l. martens. (eds.), what we know about cscl and implementing it in higher education (pp. 3150). kluwer academic publishers. mason, r. (1998). models of online courses. aln magazine, 2(2). http://universidadabierta.org/descargas/mason.pdf. mezirow, j. et al. (2006). transformational learning. metaichmio. [in greek] miaoulis, g., scourlas, c.., & chalaris, ι. (2000). collaboration of heterogeneous video conferencing infrastructures to support highly interactive educational processes: contribution from the experimental operation of distance learning networks abl, av & aw. in 2nd panhellenic etpe conference with international participation: “information and communication technologies in education”, 2000. http://www.etpe.gr/files/proceedings/uploads1/paper111.pdf. [in greek] milioritsas, ε., & georgiadi, ε. (2010). effect of teleconferencing on the learning process of hou. opinions of students and tutors of the modules ekp65-eke50. open education – the journal for open and distance education and educational technology, 6, 152-167. [in greek] muukkonen, h., hakkarainen, k., & lakkala, m. (1999). collaborative technology for facilitating progressive inquiry: future learning environment tools. in c. hoadley & j. roschelle, (eds.), the proceedings of the cscl ’99 conference (pp. 406-415). lea. niari, m. (2020). integrating group dynamics in distance collaborative learning. (doctoral dissertation). hellenic open university. https://www.didaktorika.gr/eadd/handle/10442/47547 niari, μ. (2013). the pygmalion effect in distance education. case study: the program "studies in education" of hou. (master's dissertation.) hellenic open university. [in greek] niari, μ., & mavroeidis, i. (2015). development of the three dimensions of the community of inquiry framework at the hellenic open university: examples and suggestions. in a. lionarakis, s. ioakimidou, g. manousou, m. niari, t. hartofylaka, & s. papadimitriou (eds.), 8th international conference in open and distance learning icodl 2015, vol. 3a, (16-28). doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.12681/icodl.49 110 oppenheim, a. (1992). questionnaire design, interviewing and attitude measurement. pinter. patton, m. (1990). qualitative evaluation and research methods (pp. 169-186). sage. robson, c. (2010). real world research. gutenberg. [in greek] rodriguez, j. a., thomas, j., faulkner, j. t., baker, c., arora, s., welsh, c., & morrison, k. d. (2020). adding recorded content to an interactive timeline of a teleconference session. united states patent. patent no.: us10,630,740 b2. date of patent: apr. 21, 2020. https://patents.google.com/patent/us10630740b2/en. roulston, k. (2001). data analysis and ‘theorizing as ideology’. qualitative research, 1(3), 279-302. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/146879410100100302. scardamalia, m., & bereiter, c. (1994). computer support for knowledge building communities. the journal of the learning sciences, 3(3), 265-283. schweizer, k., paechter, m., & weidenmann, b. (2003). blended learning as a strategy to improve collaborative task performance. journal of educational media, 28, 211–224. smith, m. k. (2001). kurt lewin: groups, experiential learning and action research. the encyclopedia of informal education. http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-lewin.htm. stahl, g. (2004). building collaborative knowing. in j-w. strijbos, p.a. kirschner & r.l. martens. (eds.), what we know about cscl and implementing it in higher education (pp. 53-85). kluwer academic publishers. stahl, g. (2002). contributions to a theoretical framework for cscl. in g. stahl, (ed.), proceedings of cscl 2002 (pp. 62-71). lea. tsiboukli, α. (2008). transformational learning: exploring and transforming group learners' perceptions of the role of the adult educator. in proceedings, 3rd international conference of the scientific association of adult education, 2008, (σελ. 1-17). scientific association of adult education. [in greek] umaña, a. m. m. (2019). challenges of university teaching in the construction of collaborative learning spaces in distance education (pp. 73-81). in g. ubachs & f. joosten-adriaanse (eds.), blended and online education within european university networks, proceedings, eadtu, october, 2019. walther, j. b., & parks, m. r. (2002). cues filtered out, cues filtered in. in m. l. knapp & j. a. daly (eds.), handbook of interpersonal communication (pp. 529-563). sage. woods, p. (1999). qualitative research. in m. bird, m. hammersley, r. gomm, & p. woods (eds.), educational research in practice. study manual, vol. 2 (pp. 147-230). hellenic open university. [in greek] author: maria niari is a tutor at the hellenic open university. she holds a phd in open and distance learning. she has conducted research and published work on collaborative learning, group dynamics, educational design, online education and support, and adult training. she has been involved with the management and coordination of research projects in greece and europe. her research work has been published in international scientific journals, conferences, and meetings (blind, peer reviewed). she has recently co-authored the book open badges as recognition and assessment tools in learning frameworks: perspectives and case studies from their use in greece and europe. email: niarimaria@gmail.com cite this paper as: niari, m. (2021). to use or not use collaborative learning techniques in teleconference teaching? a case study from the hellenic open university. journal of learning for development, 8(1), 93-110. microsoft word conole.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 187 -203 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. reflecting on the impact of the open education movement gráinne conole and mark brown dublin city university, ireland abstract: this paper critiques the rise and impact of the open education movement, focusing in particular on higher education. it considers the impact of adopting more open practices on learning, teaching and research. in terms of the impact on learning it describes three aspects: open educational resources, e-textbooks and massive open online courses. in terms of the impact on teaching it describes three frameworks which can guide the design process: the 7cs of learning design framework, the samr model and the icap framework. finally, it considers the impact on research. the paper concludes by considering the barriers and enablers associated with adopting more open practices. keywords: open education movement, open educational resources, e-textbooks, massive open online course, 7cs of learning design framework, samr model, icap framework introduction digital technologies offer a rich variety of ways in which learners, teachers and researchers can interact with multimedia resources and numerous channels for them to communicate and collaborate with their peers and the broader global community. although the concept of affordances is subject to differing interpretations (aagaard, 2018), one of the key and most commonly accepted affordances (gibson, 1977; gibson, 1979) of digital technologies is that they enable more open practices. this paper will consider the impact of adopting more open practices on learning, teaching and research. it aims to provide a reflection on the current status and impact of the open education movement. it is now 16 years since the emergence of the open education movement and the promotion of open educational resources (oer) by organisations such as unesco and the william and flora hewlett foundation. the open education movement sits within a broader spectrum of open initiatives; such as open universities, the open source movement and practices associated with web 2.0 technologies (weller, jordan, de vries & rolfe, 2018). weller et al. (2018) suggest there are a number of principles associated with open practices, including: freedom to reuse, open access, free cost, easy use, digital/networked content, social/community-based approaches, ethical arguments for openness, and openness as an efficient model. consistent with these principles open education can be defined as: resources, tools and practices that employ a framework of open sharing to improve educational access and effectiveness worldwide (open education consortium, n.d.) 188 weller, jordan, devries and rolfe (2018) state that open education is an evolving term that covers a range of philosophies and practices aimed at widening access to education for those wishing to learn, with the current focus predominantly on practices based around reuse and sharing. open practices have many facets and are complex, they are not new but are having an increasing impact in education as a result of new digital technologies and in particular social media. there is a lot of rhetoric around the potential of open practices and naïve assumptions about their impact, but it is important to caution against this; they are not inherently good in themselves but more so with how they are appropriated. in other words, the nature of and benefits of open practices depends on the context, i.e., how they are applied and implemented. cronin (2017) argues that the use of open practices by learners and educators is complex, personal, and contextual; it is also continually negotiated. higher education institutions require collaborative and critical approaches to openness in order to support academics, students, and learning in an increasingly complex higher education environment. olcott (2013) argues that openness and open education needs to be viewed along a continuum with varying degrees of openness and access to knowledge as the guiding core principle. the openedoz project identified a number of benefits of open education (openedoz, 2016). firstly, there are economies of scale through collaborative co-production of learning resources. secondly, there are opportunities to raise the quality of learning at decreased time and financial cost. thirdly, they enable provision of learning materials that are richer and more appropriate to the contexts and styles of learning of an increasingly diverse student community. fourthly, there are opportunities to provide learning to disadvantaged communities globally and to remote and regional areas. fifthly, they can promote greater collaboration between universities in fostering peer review and collegial development of learning materials. sixthly, when used appropriately, they facilitate greater levels of transparency into the teaching process. the impact on learning to date the open education movement has had an impact on learning in three main ways: the creation and use of oer by teachers and learners, the use of e-textbooks, and engagement in massive open online courses (moocs). open educational resources open educational resources can be defined as: teaching, learning or research materials that are in the public domain or released with an intellectual property license that allows for free use, adaptation, and distribution (unesco, 2011). knox (2013) traces key oer initiatives starting with the original mit opencourseware project in 2001, along with relevant policy initiatives and guidelines. he suggests that these high-profile initiatives are representative of an apparent commitment and enthusiasm towards technology within the open education movement. however, he goes on to argue that despite the centrality of networks, systems and software, the technologies associated with open education appear to be rarely subjected to in-depth consideration, beyond the analysis of user interpretations. 189 wiley (2007) developed the 4rs framework for thinking about the bundle of permissions around use of oer; namely reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute. these 4rs are the ways in which oer can be used: • reuse – use the work verbatim, just exactly as you found it • revise – alter or transform the work so that it better meets your needs • remix – combine the (verbatim or altered) work with other works to better meet your needs • redistribute – share the verbatim work, the reworked work, or the remixed work with others. he argues that there are two criteria associated with oer: firstly, free and unfettered access to the resource, and, secondly, whatever copyright permissions are necessary for users to engage in the 4r activities. he later added a 5th r: retain – the right to make, own, and control copies of the content (wiley, 2014). oer were believed to provide economies of scale as the same resource could be reused in a variety of different teaching contexts and provide exemplars of good practice to help academics improve their teaching. baranuik (2008) lists the following as the principles underpinning the open education movement: that knowledge should be free and open to use and reuse, that collaboration should be easier, that individuals should receive kudos and credit for contributing to education and research, and that concepts and ideas are linked in unusual and surprising ways and not in the simple linear forms that today’s textbooks present. there was a naïve assumption that simply making oer available in repositories would mean that they would be used by teachers and learners; however, evaluation of early oer initiatives such as the open university uk’s openlearn repository showed that this was not the case as take-up by teachers and learners was low (mcandrew, 2006; mcandrew, inamorato dos santos, lane, godwin, okada, wilson, connolly, ferreira, buckingham shum, bretts & webb, 2009; lane and mcandrew, 2010). some years on this is still the case but there is now a better understanding of the barriers to using oer (ehlers & conole, 2010; de hart, chetty & archer, 2015). to address this the opal initiative looked at how oer were being produced, managed and reused and introduced the concept of open practice (conole, ehlers, mundin, inamorato dos santos, connelly, koskinen, kairamo, nozes & carneiro, 2010). ehlers and conole (2010) defined open educational practices (oep) as: the use of open educational resources for teaching and learning in order to innovate the learning process. this definition includes the creation, use and repurposing of oer and their adaptation to the contextual setting. oep can also include the open sharing of teaching practices and aims to raise the quality of education and training and innovate educational practices on an institutional, professional and individual level. cronin and maclaren (2018) provide an up-to-date authoritative account of the different definitions of oep. they state that conceptualisations of oeps vary widely, ranging from those centred primarily on the creation and use of oer to broader definitions of oep, inclusive of but not necessarily focused on oer. the latter encompasses open content but also allow for multiple entry points to, and avenues of, openness. 190 e-textbooks uptake and use of ipads, tablets, e-book readers and smart phones has rapidly increased in recent years, which is having an impact on how learners learn. e-textbooks or open digital textbooks (odts) are a specific type of oer. many courses, particularly in the united states (us), have a dedicated textbook. increasingly paper-based textbooks are being replaced by e-textbooks, as evidenced by allen and seaman (2016). e-textbooks are more flexible than paper-based textbooks in a number of respects: the learner can search for keywords, highlight and annotate text, interact with multimedia resources and bookmark pages. a number of authors argue that odt are beneficial because of their flexibility, accessibility, interactivity, and extensibility (see, for example, daniel & woody, 2013; murray & perez, 2011). however, gu, wu and xu (2015) argue that the promise of the potential of e-textbooks has not yet been realised; issues around screen resolution and licensing restrictions are barriers. there is a bewildering array of e-textbook formats, but the most common are text, html, chm, pdf, and epub. denoyelles, raible and seilhamer (2015) undertook a two-year study of students’ use and perception of e-textbooks. they confirm that the use of e-textbooks is on the increase. lower cost and convenience are the top reasons students purchase an e-textbook, not the interactive features designed to enhance learning. they also found that the teacher’s role over the two yeas of the study had not fundamentally changed; suggesting a need for further continuing professional development (cpd), including increased awareness, instruction and active modelling. to give a flavour of some of the current e-textbook research and initiatives a number of case studies are described. one of the earliest e-textbook initiatives was bccampus, which began in 2012 (burgess, 2017). it aimed to create a collection of open textbooks aligned with the top 40 highest-enrolled subject areas in british columbia. currently there are over 230 odt associated with bccampus. burgess argues that in addition to the financial savings the project has contributed to the wider acceptance of oer across the institution. the ohio e-textbook pilot project enabled schools to pilot digital texts and electronic educational content in the classroom, as well as providing professional development for teachers on how best to utilize digital content and mechanisms to share lessons learned with other schools across the state (kasich & carey, 2015). the project found that the benefits of using digital content include: • greater student engagement in learning • improved technology skills for students • access to updated curriculum • opportunity to be more innovative in the classroom • improved technology integration skills for teachers • improved quality of instructional materials • opportunity to differentiate and personalise learning. the project found that the challenges of using digital content include: • not all students have access to computers and the internet at home • balancing instructional time constraints with the time to use the digital content • concern about the reliability of the technology 191 • not enough time to implement adequately and not being able to provide enough computers/devices with internet access for students to use • instructional time constraints • lack of teacher interest and buy-in • access to devices • students with limited access to the internet at home. the uk open textbooks project is investigating the viability for uk higher education institutions to publish open textbooks by testing two models — the openstax and the opentextbook network models (kernohan & rolfe, 2017: marques, 2017). kernohan and rolfe argue that the increased interest in the use of e-textbooks is in part related to the spiralling cost of textbooks; this is particularly problematic in the us where courses typically have a recommended textbook, which essentially is a required purchase or is incorporated into students’ fees. brown, costello and nic giolla mhichill (2018) report on research in progress investigating the current and intended future use of odt in irish higher education. early findings suggest that e-textbooks have not featured predominately in irish higher education policy texts. they argue that there is a significant gap in understanding of the adoption patterns of use and perceived advantages and disadvantages of odt in irish higher education. the latin american open textbook initiative (latin) aimed to help solve the problem of the high cost of textbooks for higher education. the main goal was the creation of a supporting architecture, methodologies and policies for the dissemination of cooperative open textbooks for higher education, customized specifically for the region (ochoa, silveira & sprock, 2011). a key issue in south america is access to books. two factors deter students from having access to printed textbooks: price and content relevance. in addition, many families cannot afford to spend money on textbooks so students resort to photocopies (darnalt, 2014). furthermore, literacy levels are low and books are considered a luxury item. inamorato dos santos, nascimbeni, bacsich, atenas, aceto, burgos and punie (2017) report on an euwide overview of open education. they state that open educational policies in europe aim to stimulate open and flexible learning in order to provide european citizens with the skills needed in the 21st-century economy and society, and to raise the profile of innovative ways of learning and teaching through ict. they stress that embedding ict and oer in education will increase both the efficiency and fairness of education and training in europe. their report identified four types of policies in relation to open education: • policies focusing specifically on opening up education through the promotion of open educational resources (oer) and open educational practices (oep) • policies relating to general ict (information and communication technologies) for learning with some open education component • comprehensive strategic educational policies with some open education component • polices designed as national open government plans with some open education component. inamorato dos santos et al. (2017) cite the openedu framework (inamorato dos santos, 2016), which consists of six core dimensions of open education (access, content, pedagogy, recognition, 192 collaboration and research) and four transversal dimensions (strategy, technology, quality, leadership). massive open online courses the first massive open online course (mooc) (connectivism and connective knowledge) was developed and delivered in 2008 in canada. the aspiration behind the course was to enable networked learning adopting siemens (2005) connectivist learning principles. since then there has been a proliferation of moocs most of which arguably reflect a more didactic, individualist approach centred around content and quizzes. jansen (2018) argues that moocs are offered online only, providing massive and open learning opportunities for all, promoting engagement in the knowledge society. he goes on to state that moocs, and open education in general, are providing new learning opportunities for millions of people. for example, class central (2018) estimates that in 2017 almost 80 million people worldwide registered for a mooc. although still the subject of considerable debate moocs are a significant innovation in education, and increasingly a lever for innovation in mainstream degree education (brown, 2018a). it is expected that moocs will have an impact on the further development of formal higher education and cpd, as well as in opening up education more generally. in the initial phase of development, yuan and powell (2013) speculated that moocs offer the opportunity for massification of courses, which in turn generated significant interest from governments, institutions and commercial organisations. they argued that the promise of moocs is that they provide free access to cutting-edge courses that could drive down the cost of university-level education and potentially disrupt existing models of higher education. since this time a wealth of literature has been published offering insights into the motivations for learners, which include: supporting lifelong learning or gaining an understanding of a particular subject, with no particular expectations for completion or achievement; fun, entertainment, social experience and intellectual stimulation; convenience, often in conjunction with barriers to traditional education options; and to experience or simply explore online education. brown (2018a) argues that moocs are a complex and multi-faceted phenomenon. he identifies three phases of mooc development: moocs for marketing, moocs for lifelong learning and moocs for credit and cpd pathways. brown argues that, at least in europe, institutions committed to innovating with and harnessing the potential of moocs are increasingly: • looking at ways of integrating moocs into the learning experiences of campus-based students • experimenting with moocs to push the boundaries and design features of more common virtual learning environments (vles) • seeing moocs as a means of increasing the level of choice and variety of course offerings for all students • taking advantage of moocs to help promote readiness and the academic capital of prospective students • integrating moocs as part of a strategy to internationalise the curriculum • exploring ways of offering scholarships for mooc completion to international students living in developing countries 193 • using data collected through moocs to build institutional capacity and capability in the area of learning analytics • adopting moocs as part of a wider dissemination plan for major research projects • using moocs as a resource and opportunity to promote effective online learners as an important outcome in itself • exploring the advantages of closer collaboration with other institutions offering moocs on the same platform, including conjoint degree programmes. the impact on teaching conole (2013) has argued that designing for learning in the context of the openness movement is the key challenge facing education today. to harness the potential of digital technologies for learning, teachers need to adopt new approaches to design. learning design as a research field has emerged in recent years and aims to help teachers make more pedagogically informed design decisions that make appropriate use of digital technologies. there are three aspects of learning design: guiding the design process, providing visualisations of the design, and providing mechanisms for teachers to share and discuss their designs (dalziel, 2015). a number of frameworks for learning design have emerged in recent years; three of these relevant to fostering open practices are described here. conole (in press) provides a more detailed account of learning design frameworks. the 7cs of learning design framework the 7cs of learning design framework emerged from empirical data on how academics design learning interventions. interviews were held and academics were asked how they went about designing learning interventions, where they got inspiration and guidance, and how they represented and shared their designs. the data informed the development of the 7cs of learning design framework. figure 1 shows the 7cs framework, each c has associated with it a set of resources and activities to guide the design process (conole, 2015). figure 1: the 7cs of learning design 194 the icap framework icap stands for interactive, constructive, active, and passive. it defines cognitive engagement activities on the basis of students’ overt behaviours and proposes that engagement behaviours can be categorised and differentiated into one of four modes: interactive, constructive, active, and passive (chi & wylie, 2014). the icap hypothesis predicts that as students become more engaged with the learning materials, from passive to active to constructive to interactive, their learning will increase. student engagement refers to whether students are: • motivationally engaged (interested in content domain, pursue degree) • behaviourally engaged (attend classes, do homework: broad behaviour) • cognitively engaged (refers to use of strategies or to motivational constructs). the samr model the samr model consists of four levels of technology integration (puentedura, 2013): • substitution: the technology provides a substitute for other learning activities without functional change • augmentation: the technology provides a substitute for other learning activities but with functional improvements • modification: the technology allows the learning activity to be redesigned • redefinition: the technology allows for the creation of tasks that could not have been done without the use of the technology. it provides a framework for designers to create optimal learning experiences. learning activities that fall within the substitution and augmentation classifications are said to enhance learning, while learning activities that fall within the modification and redefinition classifications are said to transform learning. the particular value of the samr model is that it helps to make explicit the educational outcomes and level of transformation (or not) teachers aim to achieve as a result of the learning design process. impact on research borgeman argues that the internet can facilitate distributed, data-and information-intensive collaborative research (borgeman, 2007a; borgeman, 2007b). the open movement now provides researchers with access to literature in their field, a growing body of research data, and sophisticated research tools and services. they can collaborate with others around the world. social and participatory media offer new mechanisms for researchers to communicate and disseminate their research and to engage in peer review and reflection. borgeman argues that communication is the essence of scholarship, which is inherently a social activity, involving a wide range of public and private interactions within a research community (borgeman, 2007a, borgeman, 2007b). she argues that publication is part of a continuous cycle of reading, writing, discussing, searching, investigating, presenting, submitting and reviewing research. today, digital technologies mean that researchers can communicate in a variety of more open ways with others and at a much larger scale than was possible before. 195 weller (2011: 31-32) refers to boyer’s definition of scholarship (boyer, 1990) in terms of: • discovery – this is the creation of new knowledge in a specific area or discipline. this is often taken to be synonymous with research. this is probably closest to the public conception of scholarship, as universities are often the sites of significant breakthroughs. • integration – this is focused on interpretation and interdisciplinary work. it is moving away from the pure, ‘genesis’ research of discovery. boyer states that it is ‘making connections across the disciplines, placing the specialties in a larger context, illuminating data in a revealing way and often educating non-specialists’. • application – this is related to the concept of service and can be seen as engagement with the wider world outside academia, which might include public engagement activities as well as input into policy and general media discussions. this can also include the time spent peerreviewing journal articles, grant applications and sitting on various committees. • teaching – much of the interpretation of boyer can be seen as an attempt to raise the profile of teaching. he argues that ‘the work of the professor becomes consequential only as it is understood by others. yet, today, teaching is often viewed as a routine function, tacked on’. he lists three characteristics of digital scholarship: (i) openness and sharing as a default, (ii) digital and (iii) networked, a global network of peers to generate and share ideas (weller, 2011). he considers what these mean for digital scholarship and argues that new digital technologies enable researchers to do things differently. he cites the way in which twitter, for example, can enable researchers to have access to immediate expertise. cronin and maclaren (2018), drawing on anderson (2009) and weller (2011), argue that open scholarship is characterised as a ‘new type of education and scholarship context’, which seeks to maximise social learning, media richness, participatory and connectivist pedagogies, ubiquity and persistence, open data and research, and connections. they quote weller’s argument that a definition of the open scholar encompasses open digital identity, open networking practices, use of open tools, and open publishing. blogging, in combination with social media sites such as twitter and facebook, enable research findings to be shared with a far greater audience. furthermore, there are opportunities for community engagement, for example, peers can comment on blog posts, make suggestions for improvement or point to related research. sites such as twitter and facebook enable researchers to be part of a community of peers, sharing ideas, asking questions, or posting research findings. tools like twitter provide a valuable back channel to face-to-face conferences where participants can comment on and reflect on conference presentations and link to related research. open practices are challenging traditional publishing models; i.e., the tradition of publishing in closed, peer reviewed journals. we are now seeing a spectrum of publishing models from closed to completely open. just recently the 'plan s' and 'coalition s' has been launched. this is a coalition of national research funders, with the support of the european commission, which have committed to accelerate the transition to open access (european commission, 2018). our own institution, dublin city university (dcu), recently launched ireland’s first open university press in partnership with university college london (ucl). increasingly there is anecdotal evidence that some academics are choosing to publish their research openly and refusing to review papers for closed journals. an 196 interesting approach is hybrid open access, which is a publishing model where some articles are made openly available, against the payment of an article processing charge (apc), while other articles remain closed access, and the journal as a whole subscription-based. matthias (2018) states that several funders have introduced open access mandates, requiring beneficiaries to make their research outputs openly available within a certain time frame. barriers and enablers open educational resources (oer) and massive open online courses (moocs) continue to offer significant opportunities for opening up education and to potentially support social inclusion and widening participation (conole, 2012). unesco (n.d.) argues that education is a fundamental human right and therefore should be freely available. despite the potential, in reality oer are not being used extensively by students or teachers, and there is still a concern that moocs are predominantly being taken by those who are already educated. more critical conceptions of digital literacies are needed to better harness the potential of oer and moocs to achieve the goal of education for all (brown, 2018b). oer and moocs are examples of disruptive innovations (bower & christensen, 1995), which are challenging existing educational provision. arguably, this is good in that institutional leaders need to think hard about what a student will gain by attending their institution and what the unique student experience will be. finally, the longer-term transformative impact of oer and moocs will be limited unless they are more deeply embedded in institutional strategies, promoting open educational practices (oep). the current reality is that inertia still exists in many traditional educational structures and a hesitance to engage in new open practices is more common than we typically like to admit. for researchintensive institutions teaching is the poor sister, with research practices still being privileged and rewarded. furthermore, there is a lack of understanding and clarity of how to recognise learning through oer and moocs. models are emerging, such as: digital badges, certificates of participation or achievement, and recognition through organisations like the oeru,i but despite early lighthouse projects these are still in their infancy. an ipts commissioned report, opencred (witthaus, inamorato dos santos, childs, tannhauser, conole, nkuyubwatsi and punie 2016), looked at models for recognition of non-formal learning through moocs. however, this work is still on the fringe of mainstream higher education. another significant barrier is around pedagogies. firstly, most oer and moocs do not make the underlying pedagogy explicit. the key point is that content is not neutral. secondly, it is not clear what pedagogies are most appropriate for specific types of learners in particular educational contexts to support open learning. in terms of oer the following remain barriers to uptake: (i) the pedagogies of oer are not clear, (ii) the difficulty of repurposing, (iii) the lack of clarity of perceived benefits for specific disciplines, and (iv) a culture of academics wanting the create their own resources and reluctance to share more widely. for moocs we need to go beyond the two common extremes that continue to be widely cited—namely, xmoocs – which are usually described as be linear, individually focused and didactic and cmoocs – which are about learning in a networked, social context, promoting connectivist learning. conole (2016) argues that this dichotomy is too simplistic and puts forward a 12-dimensional scale to describe moocs, to help better understand the many facets of this rapidly evolving subset of the openness movement. finally, many academics remain 197 skeptical of the benefits of engaging with oer and moocs and more is needed in terms of engaging them in the pros and cons of wider implementation in their own disciplines. a number of strategies can help embed open education through new digital technologies into practice. firstly, incentives and rewards can be put in place both nationally and institutionally to celebrate the development of open practice innovations and technology-enhanced learning interventions. secondly, appropriate cpd opportunities and support can be provided. this can include: workshops, learning and teaching conferences, show and tell sessions, informal brown bag lunchtime sessions to share practice (where academics discuss their teaching in an informal setting over lunch), learn about fairs (displaying learning and teaching innovations), and learn about guides on using different digital technologies, to name but a few. a key point is that such cpd needs to challenge the existing pedagogical beliefs underlying current educational practices. thirdly, given the increasing importance of digital technologies in education, it is important to have senior management fully engaged, and those who have a good understanding of the potential of open practices and the implications for their institutions. the recent uk teaching excellence framework (tef) despite being criticized (times higher education, 2018), is clearly an important driver for promoting and rewarding teaching. fourthly, in the context of such external and institutional measures of teaching excellence open practices should be an integral part of the metrics. fifthly, a pragmatic approach to promoting open practices should be adopted. starting with helping academics make better use of oer within the core features and tools of the institutional learning management system (lms) or virtual learning environment (vle). evaluation of vles consistently shows that they are primarily used as content repositories (farrelly, raftery & harding, 2018); relatively little use is made of the tools to promote open communication and collaboration, or more innovative assessment approaches. for campus-based institutions more needs to be done to ensure the seamlessness between virtual and physical spaces. the spaces for knowledge generation project (2011) has developed a set of seven principles for designing technology-enhanced learning spaces. institutions also need to have in place policies on students bringing their own devices and should recognize the increasing importance of mobile devices for supporting learning anywhere and anytime. this also means approaches such as the flipped classroom (reich, 2012) can be adopted, where students engage with content in advance, freeing up the classroom sessions for more active learning. also, there is the increasing importance of social media to enable students to interact with their peers, their tutors and the wider community. finally, one of the key benefits of involving students in promoting open practices is that they can provide a fresh perspective. furthermore, as they are actively engaged with learning they can often provide novel insights into what is needed to open up the curriculum. conclusion this paper has critiqued the emergence and development of the open education movement and considered the implications for, and impact on, learning, teaching and research. despite early naïve optimism surrounding the potential of oer and moocs, the new reality of today’s educational landscape is that digital technology has enabled new open practices; we are seeing a blurring of boundaries: formal/informal learning, learner/teacher roles, and virtual/face-to-face educational contexts. open practices, particularly when framed in wider national and institutional policy initiatives, enable learners, teachers and researchers to be part of a global community of peers. 198 however, the question remains whether open practices will replace traditional educational offerings. in reality, it is more likely that there will be a spectrum of offerings from free oer and moocs right through to the oxbridge one-to-one tutorial model. this spectrum means that students will be offered a rich range of educational experiences and they can make their choices based on the ways in which they perceive how they prefer to learn. in many respects this point recognises that despite our best efforts the learner is the one who ultimately chooses their own learning design or pathway. building on this point we are also likely to see further unbundling of educational provision, where in the future learners may choose to pay or at least select specific components of learning such as: resources, support, guided learning pathways or accreditation (mccowen, 2017). importantly, the language of openness and open practices can be used to conceal and/or promote laissez faire neo-liberal agendas related to promoting an open and global market for higher education (brown, 2017). the point is that the openness movement is not entirely benign and some of the powerful change forces from a neoliberal perspective may see students in the future choosing not to complete a full degree; instead, for better or worse, they may pay for: high quality resources, a guided learning pathway, support or accreditation. while olcott (2013) describes open education as a continuum, and cronin (2017) suggests four different levels of open practices from nano to macro, we would argue that openness is fluid, constantly evolving and better understood using the metaphor of a kaleidoscope where different shapes, colours and patterns come together as visually attractive images but often unpredictable ways as a result of competing and co-existing perspectives. in order to critically read these perspectives and the images they produce when mixed together a type of double vision is required combining both a political and pedagogical lens. this bifocal lens endeavours to strike a balance between the language of opportunity, firmly anchored in the mission of equity and opening access, set against a deeper level of critique. on the one hand open education provides a real opportunity to reduce costs, enhance quality and address increasing global demand for higher education. on the other hand, arguably, the openness movement inhabits and traverses the contested terrain of globalisation, fast capitalism and neo-liberalism (brown, 2016). in terms of our three case studies in the section on the impact of openness on learning, this kaleidoscope metaphor can be used to interpret: • oer being seen as free resources through to oer as more of a new form of open educational practice • moocs as a marketing device through to moocs being a vehicle for transformation and innovation • e-text books as a mechanism to reduce costs through to e-text books enabling new forms of pedagogy and innovative use of digital technology. the important point is that from this multi-dimensional view of openness the movement can be seen as anchored in the principles outlined earlier in this paper but also a vehicle for promoting competing laissez-faire principles of individual freedom and the ultimate goal for some of an unrestricted global market for higher education. these competing worldviews raise some important questions: who is telling the openness story and why? how are they telling the openness story? whose story is not being told? 199 finally, we have shown in this paper that oer and moocs are important as they get us to think more about the learner experience and they challenge traditional educational offerings. however, more needs to be done to increase the uptake and use of oer and moocs anchored within sound pedagogical models. we need to more deeply understand what new digital literacies are needed to harness the open practice affordances of new digital technologies, particularly in terms of achieving the goal of education for all. there remains a distinct lack of discourse on oer and moocs at the policy and strategy level and this urgently needs to be addressed if we are to truly promote the openness agenda. we also need to focus more on the development of senior educational leaders with an understanding of digital technologies and a vision for oep. there are also financial implications; institutions need to understand why they are investing in oer and moocs and how to evaluate their efforts. importantly, we are teaching students for an uncertain future, to do jobs that in many cases do not even exist today. therefore, we need to go beyond knowledge recall to develop the skills and competencies they need for life-long learning in the 21st century to be critical thinkers, critical consumers and critical citizens. references aagaard, j. (2018). magnetics and multi-stable: reinterpreting the affordances of educational technology. international journal of educational technology in higher education, 15: 4, 1-10. allen, e., & seaman, j. (2016). opening the textbook: educational resources in us higher education 2015-16. babson survey research group. retrieved from https://www.onlinelearningsurvey.com/reports/openingthetextbook2016.pdf anderson, t. (2009). open scholarship. presented at open access week 2009, athabasca university. retrieved from http://auspace.athabascau.ca/bitstream/2149/2320/7/oas.pdf baranuik, r.g. (2008). challenges and opportunities for the open education movement: a connexions case study. in t. iiyoshi and m.s.v. kumar (eds.), opening up education – the collective advancement of education through open technology, open content and open knowledge. mit press: cambridge. retrieved from http://www.akgul.web.tr/akgul/egitim/mit/oue-book.pdf#page=251 borgeman, c. (2007a). the continuity of scholarly communication scholarship in the digital age: information, infrastructure and the internet. hong kong: snp best-set typersetter ltd. borgeman, c. (2007b). scholarship in the digital age: information, infrastructure and the internet. hong kong: snp best-set typesetter ltd. bower, j.l., & christensen, c.m. (1995). disruptive technologies: catching the wave. harvard business review. retrieved from https://hbr.org/1995/01/disruptive-technologies-catching-the-wave boyer, e. l. (1990). scholarship reconsidered: priorities of the professoriate. princeton, nj: carnegie foundation for the advancement of teaching. brown, m. (2018a). why invest in moocs? strategic institutional drivers. the 2018 openuped trends report on moocs. retrieved from http://www.openuped.eu/images/publications/the_2018_openuped_trend_report_on_moocs.pdf brown, m. (2018b). the challenge of digital literacy: beyond narrow skills to critical mindsets (junhong xiao trans.). distance education in china, 4: 42-53. brown, m. (2017). a critical guide for policy-makers on the great unbundling of higher education. in g. ubachs, l. konings, & m. brown (eds.), the envisioning report for empowering universities (pp. 10-12). maastricht: european association for distance teaching universities. 200 brown, m. (2016). moocs as social practice: a kaleidoscope of perspectives. in e. de corte, l. enwall, & u. teichler (eds.), from books to moocs? emerging models of learning and teaching in higher education (pp. 3141). wenner-gren international series, 88. london: portland press. brown, m., costello, e., & nic giolla mhichill, m. (2018). from books to moocs and back again: an irish case study of open digital textbooks. proceedings of the eden 2018 genoa conference. retrieved from http://www.eden-online.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/annual_2018_genova_boa.pdf burgess, m. (2017). the bc open textbook project. in r.s. jhangiani and r. bisware-diener (eds.), open: the philosophy and practices that are revolutionizing education and science, (pp. 222-236). london: ubiquity press. chi, m.t.h., & wylie, r. (2014). the icap framework: linking cognitive engagement to active learning outcomes. educational psychologist, 49(4), 219-243. class central. (2018). a product at every price: a review of mooc stats and trends in 2017. retrieved from https://www.class-central.com/report/moocs-stats-and-trends-2017/ conole, g. ehlers,u.-d. mundin, p., inamorato santos, a, connelly, t., koskinen, t., kairamo, a.-k., nozes, j., & carneio, r. (2010). quality and innovation in open educational practice. in proceedings of the eden conference, valencia. conole, g. (2012). fostering social inclusion through open educational resources (oer), editorial. distance education, 33, 131-134, retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01587919.2012.700563?journalcode=cdie20 conole, g. (2013). designing for learning in an open world, new york: springer. conole, g. (2015). the 7cs of learning design. in j. dalziel (ed.), learning design – state of the art of the field, london: routledge. conole, g. (2016). designing effective moocs. educational multimedia international, 54(4), 239 – 252. conole, g. (in press). frameworks for learning design. in h. beetham and r. sharpe (eds.), rethinking pedagogy for a digital age, (3rd ed.) london: routledge. cronin, c. (2017). open education, open questions. educause review. retrieved from https://er.educause.edu/articles/2017/10/open-education-open-questions cronin, c., & maclaren, i. (2018). conceptualising oep: a review of theoretical and empirical literature in open educational practices. open praxis, 10(2). retrieved from https://openpraxis.org/index.php/openpraxis/article/view/825/436 dalziel, j., (2015). learning design: conceptualizing a framework for teaching. routledge: oxford. daniel, d. b., & woody, w. d. (2013). e-textbooks at what cost? performance and use of electronic v. print texts. computers & education, 62, 18–23. darnalt, a.d. (2014). latin: south america’s open education publishing project. retrieved from https://publishingperspectives.com/2014/01/latin-south-americas-open-education-publishing-project/ de hart, k., chetty, y., & archer, e. (2015). uptake of oer by staff in distance education in south africa. the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 16(2), retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/2047/3272 denoyelles, a., raible, j., & seilhamer, r. (2015). exploring students’ e-textbook practices in higher education. educause review. retrieved from https://er.educause.edu/articles/2015/7/exploring-students-etextbookpractices-in-higher-education ehlers, u. d., & conole, g. c. (2010). open educational practices: unleashing the power of oer. retrieved from https://oerknowledgecloud.org/sites/oerknowledgecloud.org/files/oep_unleashing-the-power-of-oer.pdf 201 european commission (2018). ‘plan s’ and ‘coalition s’ – accelerating the transition to full and immediate open access to scientific publications. retrieved from https://ec.europa.eu/commission/commissioners/20142019/moedas/announcements/plan-s-and-coalition-s-accelerating-transition-full-and-immediate-openaccess-scientific_en farrelly, t., raferty, d., & harding, n. (2018). exploring lecturer engagement with the vle: findings from a multi-college staff survey. irish journal of technology enhanced learning, 3(2). retrieved from http://journal.ilta.ie/index.php/telji/article/view/41 gibson, j.j. (1977). the theory of affordances. in r. shaw and j. bransford (eds.), perceiving, acting, and knowing (pp. 67-82), hillsdale, nj: lawrence erlbaum. gibson, j. j. (1979). the ecological approach to visual perception. hillsdale, new jersey: lawrence erlbaum associated. gu, x., wu, b., & xu, x. (2015). design, development and learning in e-textbooks: what we learned and where we are going. journal of computers in education, 2(1), 25-41. retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40692-014-0023-9 inamorato dos santos. (2016). opening up education: the openedu framework. retrieved from https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/sites/jrcsh/files/20170328_openeduframework_centred_video_support.pdf inamorato dos santos, a., nascimbeni, f., bacsich, p., atenas, j., aceto, s., burgos, d., & punie, y. (2017). policy approaches to open education: case studies from 28 eu member states. retrieved from https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/publication/policy-approaches-open-education-case-studies-28-eu-memberstates-openedu-policies jansen, d. (2018). forward, the 2018 openuped trends report on moocs. retrieved from http://www.openuped.eu/images/publications/the_2018_openuped_trend_report_on_moocs.pdf kasich, j., & carey, j. (2015). ohio etextbook pilot project, final report. retrieved from https://www.ohiohighered.org/sites/ohiohighered.org/files/uploads/etextbooks/etextbook-pilot-projectfinal-report_dec2015.pdf kernohan, d., & rolfe, v. (2017). opening textbooks. blog post, 8th december 2017. retrieved from https://wonkhe.com/blogs/textbooks-a-tipping-point/ knox, j. (2013). the limitations of access alone: moving towards open processes in education technology. open praxis, 5(1), 21-29. retrieved from https://openpraxis.org/index.php/openpraxis/article/view/36/13 lane, a., & mcandrew, p. (2010). are open educational resources systematic or systemic change agents for teaching practice? british journal of educational technology, 41, 952–962. retrieved from https://oro.open.ac.uk/23808/1/bjet-lane-mcandrew-published.pdf marques, m. (2017). the uk opentextbook project. jisc publication. retrieved from https://etextbook.jiscinvolve.org/wp/2017/12/11/the-%ef%bb%bfuk-open-textbooks-project/ mcandrew, p. (2006). motivations for openlearn: the open university’s open content initiative. commissioned report for oecd. retrieved from http://kn.open.ac.uk/public/document.cfm?docid=8816 mcandrew, p., inamorato dos santos, a.i., lane, a., godwin, s., okada, a. wilson, t., connolly, t., ferreira, g., buckingham shum, s., bretts, j., & webb, r. (2009). openlearn: research report (2006-2008). retrieved from http://oro.open.ac.uk/17513/ mccowen, t. (2017). higher education, unbundling and the end of the university as we know it. oxford review of education, 43(6). retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03054985.2017.1343712?journalcode=core20 matthias, l. (2018). the worst of both worlds: hybrid open access. retrieved from https://blogs.openaire.eu/?p=3431 202 murray, m. c., & perez, j. (2011). e-textbooks are coming: are we ready? issues in informing science and information technology, 8, 49–60. ochoa, x., silveira, i.f., & sprock, a.s. (2011). collaborative open textbooks for latin america. the latin project. international conference on information society. retrieved from https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/5978479/ olcott, d. (2013). access under siege: are the gains of open education keeping pace with the growing barriers to university access? open praxis, 5(1), 15-20. retrieved from https://openpraxis.org/index.php/openpraxis/article/view/14/3 open education consortium (n.d.). what is open education? retrieved from http://www.oeconsortium.org/aboutoec/ openedoz (2016). students, universities and open education, final report. retrieved from http://openedoz.org/wpcontent/uploads/2017/02/id14-3972_csu_wills_final-report_2016.pdf puentedura, r.r. (2013). samr and tpck: an introduction. retrieved from http://www.hippasus.com/rrpweblog/archives/2013/03/28/samrandtpck_anintroduction.pdf reich, j. (2012). rethinking teaching and time with the flipped classroom, edtech researcher education week. retrieved from https://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/edtechresearcher/2012/06/rethinking_teaching_and_time_with_the_flippe d_classroom.html spaces for knowledge generation (2011). spaces for knowledge generation – final report. retrieved from http://documents.skgproject.com/skg-final-report.pdf siemens, g. (2005). connectivism: a learning theory for the digital age. international journal of instructional technology and distance learning, 2(1), 3-10. retrieved from http://202.116.45.236/mediawiki/resources/2/2005_siemens_connectivism_a_learningtheoryforthedigital age.pdf times higher education (2018). subject-level teaching excellent framework plans flawed. posted on 23rd may 2018, retrieved from https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/subject-level-teaching-excellence-frameworkplans-flawed unesco (n.d.). right to education. retrieved from https://en.unesco.org/themes/right-to-education unesco (2011). wsis knowledge commons. retrieved from http://www.wsiscommunity.org/pg/groups/14358/open-educational-resources-oer/ weller, m. (2011). the digital scholar: how technology is transforming scholarly practice. bloomsbury academic. retrieved from http://oro.open.ac.uk/29664/ weller, m., jordan, k., devries, i., & rolfe, v. (2018). mapping the open education landscape: citation network analysis of historical open and distance education research. open praxis, 10(2). retrieved from https://openpraxis.org/index.php/openpraxis/article/view/822/435 wiley, d. (2007). open education license draft. retrieved from https://opencontent.org/blog/archives/355 wiley, d. (2014). the access compromise and the 5th r. retrieved from https://opencontent.org/blog/archives/3221 witthaus, g., inamorato dos santos, childs, m., tannhauser, a-c., conole, g., nkuyubwatsi, & punie, y. (2016). validation of non-formal mooc-based learning: an analysis of assessment and recognition practices in europe (opencred). a jrc science for policy report. retrieved from http://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/bitstream/jrc96968/lfna27660enn.pdf yuan, l., & powell, s. (2013). moocs and open education: implications for higher education: a white paper. retrieved from https://publications.cetis.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/moocs-and-openeducation.pdf 203 authors professor gráinne conole is head of the open education unit, national institute for digital learning, dublin city university, ireland. email: grainne.conole@dcu.ie professor mark brown is director, national institute for digital learning, dublin city university, ireland. email: mark.brown@dcu.ie cite this paper as: conole, g., & brown, m. (2018). reflecting on the impact of the open education movement. journal of learning for development, 5(3), 187-203. note i https://oeru.org/ baijnath curricular innovation and digitisation at a mega university in the developing world – the unisa ‘signature course’ project narend baijnath vol. 1, no. 1 abstract as part of the endeavor to reposition itself in the open distance and e-learning arena, the university of south africa (unisa) has designed and developed six modular courses (one module per college) referred to as ‘signature courses’. the focus of these modules is on a student-centred online teaching and learning approach; extensive student online mentoring and support; and alternative online assessment practices, while also developing prototypes for fully online courses as the university advances in its digitisation objectives. this paper presents a case study of the achievements of the project thus far. it reports challenges the project has been facing and anticipates the trajectory the university will be following in the future as it moves decisively towards online teaching and learning. introduction background the forces impacting on higher education curricula have multiplied and gathered momentum in recent years, with diverse socioeconomic, technological, academic, geopolitical and cultural forces all making their mark on higher education. where higher education previously managed to stay aloof from and largely untouched by the forces of change in society, while enjoying  greater autonomy in determining what was offered and how it was offered, currently the sector is facing intensified demands to contribute directly towards innovation, economic development, and competitiveness, and to produce graduates and research relevant as well as responsive to the contemporary knowledge economy. while this reality relates to universities worldwide, it has very specific implications for universities on the african continent, which need to fulfil their mandate against the background of huge inequalities in terms of student income and development levels. yet, these universities need to produce graduates who can compete internationally while also addressing the developmental needs of the african continent. the challenges referred to above relate very pertinently to the university of south africa (unisa), which has been the first dedicated distance education institution on the african continent, with a history spanning 140 years. due to its rich history and the relatively good standing of the qualifications it offers, the university boasts a student population of approximately 400,000 per annum. its size and aggregated resources at its disposal, place it in a position to make a vital contribution to development in southern africa, while its geographical reach enables it to support high-level capacity development on the entire african continent. in this light, unisa aspires to position itself among the top mega universities in the world. its vision is to differentiate itself from other top universities through its commitment to promoting social justice, development, and  service to humanity. much of the work of giving substance and form to the unisa vision: the african university in the service of humanity, centres around the very core of a university itself – its curriculum. in this regard, there is substantial consensus within the institution about its identity as a comprehensive university and leading african provider of quality open distance learning (odl) that produces excellent scholarship and research, provides excellent educational value, and fosters active community engagement. yet as the institution gradually started to respond to the need to produce graduates who can function efficiently in the digital age, a need has been identified for academics to develop a united vision of a new brand of distance learning:  namely, open distance e-learning (odel). in pursuance of this goal, , unisa resolved to include in its curriculum a number of ‘signature’ courses or modules as part of a cohesive pathway towards inculcating africanness, relevance, social responsibility and multi-, inter-, and trans-discipinarity  into in its curricula. the ‘signature’ course project is predicated upon the following key characteristics: the identification of a pedagogy and course design approach to develop and monitor quality online learning experiences in a distance education environment the design and development of six signature courses (one each per unisa college) to be included in all undergraduate qualifications at unisa. the design and development of innovative, authentic and sustainable online learning assessment strategies the establishment of a staff development programme to effectively facilitate learning in a distance learning online environment. an overview of the project and preliminary outcomes are discussed below. the aim is to support the sharing of ideas and experience in innovation in learning for development. the unisa signature course project as a first step towards implementation of the signature course project, each of the six unisa colleges had to identify one module (or course) to serve as their ‘signature’ course. the requirements for such modules were that they needed to be aimed at improving the undergraduate academic culture at unisa; elevating the level of intellectual engagement; promoting social cohesion; and increasing student commitment to their own education. of particular importance in this regard, has been a consideration of the development of metaliteracy. “metaliteracy is a comprehensive open learning model that reimagines information literacy for social media environments and online communities in the 21st century. metaliteracy offers a unified framework that promotes critical thinking, participatory learning, and metacognitive reflection as interrelated and ongoing collaborative practices” (mackey and jacobson, 2011:1). after consultation with partners at institutions with a proven record of successful online teaching and learning, it was decided to adopt a heutagogical approach to teaching in the signature courses. it is an approach which ideally aligns itself with the development of metaliteracy as it recognises the need for flexibility, with the teacher designing the broad course framework, while the learner designs the curriculum, not just the learning process, by co-negotiating the learning with fellow students in the online environment through various forms of social media. thus learners might read around critical issues or questions and determine what is of interest and relevance to them, discuss these topics with co-learners, thereby negotiating further reading and assessment tasks. with respect to the latter, assessment becomes more of a learning experience rather than a means to measure attainment. self-direction in the way learning is applied above is not new and has been an important humanistic theme that can be followed through the philosopher heider.  tenets of it has also been reported in phenomenology (rogers, 1951), systems thinking (emery and trist, 1965), double loop and organizational learning (argyris & schon, 1996), learner managed learning (graves, 1993) and knowledge management (davenport & prusak, 1998). the thrust that underscores these approaches is a desire to go beyond the simple acquisition of skills and knowledge as a learning experience, instead they emphasize a more holistic development in the learner of an independent capability (stephenson & weil, 1992). the second step towards the design and development of the signature courses was the identification of a theme for each of the individual college’s signature courses. in this regard, the requirement was to identify a college-related theme that addresses a topic of grave importance to the college, while also encouraging students to become caring, ethical and responsible leaders with a commitment to service and appreciation for the vision and values of a broader society. while college agreement on such themes posed to be quite a challenge, the following themes were ultimately decided upon: college of agriculture and environmental sciences: environmental awareness and responsibility college of economic and management sciences: sustainability and greed college of education: being a professional teacher college of human sciences: language through an african lens college of law: social dimensions of justice college of science engineering and technology: ethical icts for development solutions the third step in the process was to identify an academic in each of the colleges to design, develop and teach the course. such willing champions were supported by a design team consisting of a project coordinator, curriculum specialists, graphic artists, systems-administrators and ict staff. during the process of designing and developing the course, the design team resolved that in order to reap the optimum benefits of the heutagogical model that had been decided upon, it was necessary to appoint knowledgeable co-workers or ‘teaching assistants’ to support academics with the facilitation of learning and the grading of student work.  such teaching assistants would then work under the guidance of the academic, who designed the course and devised the assessment strategies.  within the context of the unisa mass access environment (with class sizes ranging between 100 and 22,000 students), students would upon registration be divided into groups of 30. a teaching assistant would then be assigned responsibility for six groups of 30 students (a total of 180 students per teaching assistant). in order to uphold standards of teaching, the unisa centre for professional development was engaged to design and develop a dedicated staff development programme to train academics as well as teaching assistants to effectively facilitate learning in an online environment. the training programme for academics consists of a two day contact session followed by a three week online course. seeing that it was envisaged that teaching assistants would be recruited from around the globe, the programme for teaching assistants consists of a six week online course, whereby teaching assistants incrementally learn to navigate unisa's sakai-based learning management system (lms) through which the signature courses are delivered.   it was envisaged that disadvantaged students who have little or no access to the internet would experience particular challenges in taking and successfully completing the signature courses online. consequently, the signature course team resolved to make the courses available on unisa digi-bands. such digi-bands consist of a rubber wrist band with a memory stick uploaded with sophisticated software. these digi-bands hold all of the needed course materials that are used online (application software for document and multimedia programs as well as email and web browsers).  it includes the full spectrum of learning materials that are the basis of the signature course — syllabi, written assignments, tests, quizzes, discussion forums, resources, etc. the central feature  of the digibands technology is to enable the student to work offline. once a digi-band is plugged into a computer, students can undertake the necessary work in the learning programme, and are only required  to go online periodically at an internet destination of their convenience (e.g., unisa regional computer labs) in order to  synchronise their work with the institution’s lms and to interact with peers and teachers. the acquisition of this technology was crucial to circumvent the particular challenge of limited internet access for large numbers of rural and semi-rural students, and urban students not served by broadband access. although the technology is not without its problems, it presents an opportunity for our students to take a mighty leap into the digital future by undertaking a fully online course, and being impelled to familiarise themselves with icts, which support and enhance their learning. by november 2012 the scene was set for unisa to launch its signature courses. seeing that the initiative was also aimed at ultimately transforming the institution’s print-based odl teaching model into an online odel model of teaching and learning, various initiatives were launched to notify prospective unisa students of the online nature of the courses. such initiatives also alerted students to the increased need to have access to a computer to be able to successfully participate in the learning process on hand through the signature courses. preliminary outcomes it was with much trepidation that the signature course design teams entered the 2013 registration period. while the teams were convinced that they could not have done more in terms of conceptual planning, academic design and systems changes, they were acutely aware that the success of the project depended on the number of students who enrolled for and participated successfully in the courses. table 1 below reflects registrations per college during the first semester of 2013. table 1: signature course registrations: 1st semester 2013 signature course registrations: 1st semester 2013 module code and title registration numbers  afl1501: language through an african lens 4900 bpt1501: being a professional teacher 4648 eup1501: ethical icts for development solutions 20133 ggh3708: environmental awareness and responsibility 91 sjd1501: social dimensions of justice 809 sus1501: sustainability and greed 3024 total 33,605 as can be seen in table 1, a total of 33,605 students registered for the fully online signature courses. student responses were mostly positive. feedback acquired from students has indicated that they find the courses ‘amazing’, ‘interesting’, ‘stimulating’, ‘fresh’ and ‘innovative’.  based on the student numbers, a total of 336 teaching assistant contracts were entered into. more than satisfactory work was done by the majority of the teaching assistants (98%) who were evaluated.   the most illuminating observation by students was about the effect of the signature courses in removing the distance from distance education, since they have a readily available personal online mentor. there were some complaints, too. student complaints centred on insufficient numbers of computers at the unisa learning centres, given the exponential demand triggered by the signature courses. some of the digibands, the copying of which was outsourced, were corrupted, causing frustrations for students. at crucial times, due to the exponential demand for capacity on the ict systems of the university, system overload was experienced, leading to slowdown of connectivity and upload and download times. teaching assistants also experienced the project as highly successful. their remarks include the following:  “having gone through all my groups i think technologically there can be no looking back, this project is incredible”. “to think that thousands of students, mostly south africans, are going to get to grips with this thought process, mostly successfully, gives me hope for the future!” “i am sometimes described as a cynical person but i have to say that when i sit back and think about what is happening here i just feel like this is the silver lining to what could have been a terribly dark cloud.” “this is so exactly what our country needs rather than more people shouting unintelligibly at each other”. one of the unexpected benefits of the signature courses is that plagiarism is easily detected. in the light of students working in groups of 30, fellow students, teaching assistants and lecturers respond immediately to plagiarised work. one student has captured the impact of this practice by saying: ‘i have to think for myself instead of repeating what other students say’. in spite of the online character of the signature courses, and the particular difficulty that students without their own devices or access to the internet had, the majority of students remained online and active throughout the 1st semester of 2013. student performance (expressed as a percentage of those who passed of those who had written) is shown in table 2 below. it is believed that such results could be vastly improved as students, teaching assistants and academics master the art of online teaching and learning.  table 2. signature course student performance: 1st semester 2013 signature course student performance: 1st semester 2013 module code and title % passed afl1501: language through and african lens 58.22% bpt1501: being a professional teacher 48.33% eup1501: ethical icts for development solutions 56.49% ggh3708: environmental awareness and responsibility 52.10% sjd1501: social dimensions of justice 47.99% sus1501: sustainability and greed 58.22% about 7,500 students have relied on the digi-bands to do their courses. these are largely students in rural areas and students who have been incarcerated. while such students would normally have been excluded from online learning initiatives, the digi-bands allow them to access to their course material and activities without need for continuous internet connectivity. lessons learnt the signature course project has not only been a massive learning journey for the project team but also a genuine paradigm shift for many of unisa’s key portfolios.  the institution could not have anticipated three years ago, when the signature course project was in its infancy, the scope and scale of the change the institution was about to experience. since the six courses are designed for full online delivery and according to heutagogical principles, they may be regarded as a portent, paving a new pathway for unisa’s teaching and learning in the future.  as fully online modules, they are may be regarded as a significant innovation for unisa’s teaching and learning and mode of delivery in the following manner:  academics have become aware of the pedagogical implications of open distance e-learning (odel). there is a decisive shift towards truly student-centred teaching and learning as etutors become gradually accepted as adjunct lecturers, academics are experiencing a discernible shift in their work responsibilities and tasks. assessment is changing radically from one or two assignments per semester to weekly learning tasks which are fully interactive and graded by teaching assistants. students are adjusting to become self-organized and participatory learners, engaging in weekly online tasks in order to accumulate credits towards their final mark. as the signature courses will be compulsory for all undergraduate students registering at unisa for the first time as from 2013, it is estimated that about 200,000 students will have acquired the digital competencies promoted in these courses when they obtain their first certificate, diploma or degree during the period 2013-2020. conclusion the first year of the implementation of the signature courses has demonstrated unequivocally that innovative online courses can be developed, and implemented within an eighteen month period – the time span from initial conception to design, capacity development, compliance with internal regulatory prescripts, mobilisation of the necessary ict capacity, recruitment and training of teaching assistants, to completion by the students. aside from the clear benefits of helping marginalised students leapfrog into the digital age, for the future, it has been demonstrated that unisa has the necessary capabilities and infrastructure to develop high calibre online courses and develop and present these in an acceptable period of time.  the experience has also helped identify problems and challenges of broadband infrastructure, accessibility to devices, and cost effective internet access, which are the fundamental pre-requisites for the university to go fully online over the next decade, as it has signalled in key strategy documents. [author’s note: the assistance of the signature course coordinator, dr gerda mischke, with this paper is gratefully acknowledged.] references argyris, c., & schon, d. (1996). organisational learning ii. reading: addison-wesley. davenport, t.h., & prusak, l. (1998). working knowledge: how organisations manage what theyknow. boston: harvard business school press. emery, f., & trist, e. (1965). the causal texture of organizations. human relations, 18, 21-32. graves, n. (ed.) (1993). learner managed learning: practice, theory and policy. leeds: wef and hec. mackey, t. p., & jacobson, t.a. (2011). reframing information literacy as a metaliteracy. rogers, c.r. (1951). client centred therapy. boston: houghton mifflin. stephenson, j. (1994). capability and competence: are they the same and does it matter? capability, 1(1), 3-4. stephenson, j., & weil, s. (1992). quality in learning: a capability approach in higher education. london: kogan page. narend baijnath is the pro vice chancellor of unisa. e-mail: baijnan@unisa.ac.za microsoft word salmon.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 95-115 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. may the fourth be with you: creating education 4.0 gilly salmon online education services, united kingdom abstract: the paper looks back across dominant ways of delivering higher education until the present day and then looks forward. there is an approximate continuum described from education 1.0 through 2.0 to 3.0. education is mapped onto the emergence and development of the web and the revolutions known as ‘industrial’ over the last 250 years. then some foresight is deployed with the particular lens of graduates’ employment prospects and contributions to the future – dubbed ‘education 4.0’. the paper hopes to stimulate dialogue and promote preparedness and innovation for more changes arriving fast over higher education’s wider horizons. keywords: education 1.0., education 2.0., education 3.0., education 4.0., fourth industrial revolution, artificial intelligence, industry 4.0, skills of the future, hindsight, insight, foresight, higher education transformation. introduction from 2019 on, tectonic forces continue to reshape life, economies, industries and jobs around the world. the constantly changing and reshaped future world is where higher education students wish to benefit from and contribute to. most of our current and future students ask – what will the future hold for me? how will my university education be relevant? do we have foresight for them? we know that major transformations in education are slow. so drawn-out, that some great people at all levels and in different roles, sigh and give up. others are genuinely concerned that things will go in a way they insist are truly wrong, and they can prove it. i do not see this as ‘resistance’ by those who don’t ‘get it’, accused by those who do. instead, i believe we must enable the dialogue and understanding to address the obvious stasis, the genuine confounding fears and the out-of-control feelings. we need to work together within the incredibly complex adaptive system that contours our existence, and then steer the sector towards our preferred and viable futures. it is a massive collaborative design task. i hope this paper will provide pointers towards shaping the future for our students and graduates, led by those of us to whom this mission now falls, in these extraordinary times. it’s a funny thing writing papers about the future – the actual ‘evidence’, carefully refereed and referenced is a little hard to come by! so, i’ve started with a few stories from the past. then, i have deployed much ‘grey’ literature, including blogs, analysis from public and commercial sources, recent reviews and informed speculation as well. visioning the future requires imaging and thinking in systems, too, so i’ve included references to my favourite infographics. and some personal reflection and commentary. 96 my career has been spent in the higher education sector so that’s what i write about. but foresight about the coming era of education 4.0 may also be of interest to those in research, schools, skills training and corporate learning. this paper is in two main parts. the first is a ‘quick’ review of the last 1000 years, deconstructed into three ‘eras’. of course, i can’t do it justice in a few pages, but i hope it will provide the start of a framework that may be helpful for you and that you can add to, challenge, explore and make your own. you can look back with hindsight and also consider the present and future with new insights. perhaps explore your own megatrends (naisbitt, 1982) to better understand concepts of uncertainty (klein, 2017). the second part explores what will and might be happening next. i make a start in exploring the notion that the next generation, the 4.0 students, will wish to be equipped to tackle the world’s biggest challenges in addition to their personal careers, and need to be considering their preparation for the new world of work, using all means at their disposal. we have a responsibility to them now. my suggestion is to start to apply strategic foresight to plan and design desired futures. it is most important to have distinctive visions and ways of achieving them. the technologies that underpin the internet as we head into the third decade of the 21st century are powering the fourth industrial revolution (fourth ir and industry 4.0). so here i begin to infer education 4.0; what it might look like, how we can learn and partner with each other, and most importantly how we might positively reconstruct higher education to meet and create the future. i investigate education 4.0 in terms of technology and curriculum in particular, but acknowledge that ideas need to be placed and understood within the wider waves of rapid change—digitalisation, globalisation, demographics, the environment, political uncertainties (salmon & asgari, 2019; bakhshi et al., 2017) and indeed life on earth (see tegmark, 2018 – which has some visionary scenarios about life and artificial intelligence). i’ve risked a little personal commentary as a spark to start this dialogue. but i also get a bit serious here. well, we might as well have ambitions – visions, passion and goals that fuel our achievement agendas. part 1: tracking change one way of looking back for higher education is to consider the developments of the world wide web. the web started off as transmissive (1.0), then social (2.0), and 3.0 (semantic). the big change from web 1.0 to 2.0 was not the technology but in the way that it was used. i’ve used these ideas as a rough timeline for hindsight in higher education. you might like to keep the overall timeline sketch by you as you work your way through the ideas. 97 figure 1: moving towards the 4th era education 1: transmission the first modern university in europe was established in bologna in 1088, followed by paris, oxford and cambridge. from the beginning of modern universities, students were expected to go to a place to attend classes; generally, in a central and pleasant location where they could also live. they received knowledge from academics or their helpers, who supplied them with information by reading to them; in the form of a stand-up routine. the roots of the word ‘lecture’ mean to gather, choose and to read out (www.etymonline.com/word/lecture). there may have been follow-ups such as books, notes and handouts, places to visit, experiments to undertake and authentic resources and experiences – such as cadavers for anatomy and placements for trainee doctors and lawyers. the role of the visual and performing arts played a key part in promoting creativity, transmitting ideas and perpetuating cultures. assessment was based on a test of the acolytes’ acquisition of knowledge, originally through oral means and then written exams. hence in higher education 1.0 students were largely consumers of information resources that were delivered to them for absorption. typically, however, because they were co-located, they participated in activities based around those resources. sometimes they engaged in lots of personal reading and discovery study, if they were so inclined, using the locally provided library. they also deliberated, discussed, debated, challenged and learnt with each other. only when some students became researchers, did they develop hypotheses of their own, maybe leading to undertaking and publishing more formal research, and contributing back to the knowledge corpus. you may wonder why i’ve explained all this—it’s so ‘normal’ and expected isn’t it? it’s what’s brought nearly all of us to this point in our lives – as university-educated people. that’s why it’s embedded in our psyche and shocks our identity to surface, address challenge and change it. 98 so, the model of education 1.0 – ‘going to university’ and the transmissive way of learning served well for centuries. but only to a tiny percentage of the population. from around 60 years ago, in many countries, there was a trend towards considerable growth of the numbers of students entering (‘going to’) university. as basic schooling improved, more and more young people became eligible for higher education. lectures became even more important to reach large numbers on an industrial scale. efficiency and the drive for lowering costs of teaching developed significance and the lectures got ever bigger. so did the exams. textbook publishers flourished. access to physical libraries and archives was even more important. the model was essentially still the same but massively scaled up (altbach et al., 2009). many new buildings were constructed on university campuses, (and they still are) to accommodate the model. universities had always attracted scholars from around the world to their campuses but now ‘international students’ began to be counted in the thousands and the viability of mobility across countries (for some lucky students) improved. education 1.25 had arrived. around this time, mass technology had a hand in the greatest education innovation of the 20th century – the (uk) open university (ou). it was originally inspired by the huge reach of tv broadcasting (francis, 2013). the ou bucked the trend that rationed access to higher education to those with prior qualifications – offering true ‘open entry’. it also hugely challenged the idea that most of a student’s time had to be spent on campus. instead provision was made for ‘distance and flexibility’, for working and domestic responsibilities to be continued during study. early on, the ou struggled to establish its credibility in the taken-for-granted campus world, but it soon did, by demonstrating quality education and its students’ successes. its graduates became its most significant and vociferous ambassadors and champions, and they still are. other countries sought to emulate the ou model through distance learning (daniel, 2018). enter here the first tracings of a student-centred view of learning. also, the radical idea that spending rare and precious time co-located could be used for guided peer engagement rather than sitting in serried ranks. the ou used regular campus universities’ facilities to provide spaces for otherwise remote learners to get together — during evenings, weekends and summertime residentials. taking this approach enabled a wide range of curricula to be offered at a distance, from science to arts. it worked! thousands (now around two million) studied, graduated and benefitted by their ‘second chance’ and a little later in life than was traditional. i was one of those. however, the main model was nevertheless the provision of transmission – through broadcasts, (later videos), wonderfully produced printed booklets sent by post, and home kits for personal study. students were tested mainly by location-based exams. but still, mobility and flexibility rather than hallowed halls and dreaming spires started to be valued. and distance learning in campus-based universities also gradually grew; usually not in a highly strategic manner but typically first driven by passionate academics wishing to spread their knowledge further. the spirit of online learning floated in and a little understanding of designing once, delivering many times. let’s call it education 1.5! from around 20 years ago, education 1.75 landed. virtual learning environments/ learning management systems, (lms/vle) came into being and educators started attempting to enhance faceto-face learning with the web. libraries became more and more digital and gradually morphed into study and group spaces rather than book repositories. mostly though, this reflected the education 1 model and continued the ‘knowledge transmission’ paradigm of teaching. vles/lmss dominated the 99 digital part of what is now called blended learning, with the system typically provided by vendors external to the university. vles/lmss are now used by millions of students and academic staff across the world. there was a similar continuum for distance and remote learning from print and videos to digital and mobile. education 2: social from around, 2005 web sites increasingly allowed and enabled people to interact and collaborate, also to create and contribute ideas and photos. it was called the ‘read-write’ web or web 2.0. it began with what has been called the great democratization of the web, reflecting the power to express opinion and to add to rather than just receive. new platforms of all kinds emerged — enter blogs, wikis, sharing sites, music, images, video. initially, social media was quite separate from the careful safe, ‘true’ and enclosed university and professional knowledge world. only very brave lecturers experimented with facebook groups for their students. podcasts became quite important, borrowed from the media world – transmission again but done a bit differently. the lms/vle providers caught on after a while and offered functionality that went beyond the original, rather bland, repositories and discussion groups on their systems. they added journals, e-portfolios, blogs and wikis to their offerings. meanwhile, some academics started to subvert and adapt web 2.0 technologies in the service of learning to enhance traditional approaches to education. open education resources and crowd-contributed content enabled different approaches to more accessible and/or free information and knowledge. even at that time, though, we did not really see the key processes of education being transformed significantly, although some groundwork was done, some cracks and fractures occurred in long held assumptions of learning and teaching. the hugely dominant and previously largely unconscious models of education 1.0 were occasionally called into question, usually at ground level. the debate and aspirations about the openness of knowledge began to gather force (boulton, 2017). education 2.5 started to be seen. talking about ‘blended learning’ became popular (khe foon & kwan, 2018). there was some challenge to ‘transmission’ of information. an example was the ‘flipped classroom’ (cheng et al., 2018). this means moving information transfer out of the lecture room – often for students to access and work on themselves – and shifting information assimilation, application and learning together to times when they are co-located. as mobile technologies and better integration became possible, flipping attracted interest. new platforms to try and solve the challenge of volume also came about, such as academic integrity and plagiarism — a small nod to replacing lecturers’ work through digital means. moocs arrived and stirred up many higher education traditions. by the way, moocs didn’t invent online learning, but they did raise the potential and profile of large-scale entirely online learning and reach, and got the sector talking about ‘digital’. education 3: digital lives and mobility semantics is the science of machine comprehension of text. the world wide web inventor sir tim berners-lee uses the term semantic web, to describe a complex system of data and information that can be processed by machines. many claim that this was tim berners-lee’s original intention (berners-lee et al., 2001). the term semantic or web 3.0 has been coined as a result of the evolution, maturing and integration of the web to describe applications which are capable of ‘talking to’ and 100 exchanging data automatically between each other. typically, this makes applications ‘smarter’, faster and more focussed for the user. the importance of connectivity also looks ahead to making meaning and some notions of ‘intelligence’. the huge development and adoption of mobile devices and ubiquitous internet access have made the web 3.0 experience available anywhere at any time. the web became omnipotent and super-integrated. as a result, the internet has become the defining thread of most societies and a huge ‘picture window’ onto and integrated with the physical world. the web influences many people’s ways of thinking, doing and being, for good and bad, often much more than more formal, safer and truer sources, and to the annoyance of many. universities are no longer the only source of ‘truth’ and learning, and therefore ‘transmission’ alone is insufficient. most undergraduates entering universities now, (i write in 2019), have grown up in a world that has always had the internet. the students and the employees of education 3.0, ‘live online’ for their everyday lives 24 x 7 with the vast majority carrying one or more highly personalised smart mobile devices, with constant interaction with others. most ‘content’ is visual and mobile, sometimes immersive. in 2019, 68% of internet traffic is via mobile devices, more of the world’s population has a mobile device than a telephone or a desktop, and of those more than half are ‘on’ four hours a day or more. these statistics are rising and the percentages shifting rapidly towards mobility, especially in asia and africa. in many countries, people own several mobile devices. however, the potential for mobile learning – immersive, personalised—had not been realised (traxler, 2016). strange. there was a rise in interest in educational design (dobozy & cameron, 2018), some small growth in the recognition that creating excellence in higher education is best done in teams, rather than by a lone academic (daniel, 2018), hence some challenge to ‘unconscious’ and ‘taken for granted’ modes of learning and teaching began. many drivers for and questions about the traditional models of higher education have come to the fore during the gradual move towards education 3.0, including access and diversity for staff and students and the interest in ‘relevance’ of university curricula for employability. students have become more conscious of the ways they are learning, and being taught, how these turn into an outcome on graduation and prepare them for the future. students are frequently surprised about the limitations on what’s on offer, especially in terms of digitalisation of their education. meanwhile the long-term, embedded nature of the way universities go about doing everything, based on education 1.0 with a bit of 2.0, has made it extremely challenging to accommodate change in university business processes and especially in modes of learning and teaching. for an excellent roadmap to incorporate valuable digital learning across the campus and curriculum see jisc (2019a). perhaps as we move towards education 3.5, educational characteristics might include rich, crossinstitutional, cross-cultural, educational opportunities within which the learners themselves play a key role. they could become creators of knowledge artefacts that are shared. social networking and social benefits for learning may play a strong role, on and offline. the distinction between artefacts, people and process may become blurred and many traditional boundaries could start to break down. maybe, too, institutional arrangements, including policies and strategies, preferred and often ’unconscious’ approaches to learning, will finally change to meet the challenges of the immense opportunities presented. 101 i recall that, in 2004, when i was awarded the title of professor of e-learning and learning technologies’, (at the university of leicester in the uk), many people were surprised that professors could be appointed with that kind of corpus of knowledge. there is now a much higher level of awareness and recognition of the need to transform amongst university leaders. appointments such as ‘digital learning professor,’ ‘digital directors’ and ‘pro-vice-chancellors for innovative learning’ and the like are becoming more common. this arena is also attracting research and new research centres for emerging futures (e.g., https://www.swinburne.edu.au/new-workforce/). there are some signs that university leadership is exploring digitising beyond the small-scale efficiency improvements and into core business (salmon & asgari, 2019). it also appears that education 3.5 is bringing with it the rise of students, not just in receipt of knowledge, but as informed consumers. in 2019, there are students-led calls for increased personalisation, adaption, transformed assessment and increased mobility (kernohan, 2019). there is a rise of the exploration and interest in ways of achieving transformation within institutions and of the potential for working with private companies to share risk and benefits and attract investments (salmon, 2019). the power of inertia within established institutions is still very real, though, for many (salmon & asgari, 2019). adding and tracking industrial revolutions as i’m now moving on to considering employability, i briefly recap here the revolutions impacting on economics and working lives over the last 250 years or so. on a longer-time frame compared to web developments, there have been three previous industrial revolutions. there has always been a recognition by governments and businesses that higher education has a major contribution to make to the economy, and more recently to sustainability (mendoza et al., 2019). so, i here briefly add another 1.0-3.0 continuum to the mix so that we can reinforce the important link from higher education to industry and employability. again, i’m sure you know about the industrial revolutions, but i invite you to consider the impact for your context with hindsight and insight, in your university. the first industrial revolution (first ir), from around 1760, used water and steam power to mechanize production — the impact was mass transportation, mobility of populations, urbanization and factories, and a boost to economies. this first ir demonstrated that machines can do some things better than people. in the industrial nations, publicly available compulsory schooling slowly began, and there was some appreciation that higher education was not just for the nobility. the second ir used electric power to create mass production—fertilizers, engines, cars, planes and the rise of consumerism. there was growth in education, but strong gender and class differences, to prepare people for designed roles in their future working lives. in many countries, new locationbased universities were established, often with government and philanthropic funding and with high aspirations. the impact of mass industrial processes also began to show up in education— such as standardization, rote learning and very large classes—mass education for the industrialised system. the ou came into being towards the end of this time (see my paragraph about it under education 2). the term ‘knowledge economy’, built on the innovation of the ‘information age’ (first coined by drucker in 1969) focussed on and reinforced the links between research, higher education and a country’s success (thelen, 2019). a key concept of the knowledge economy is that knowledge and education are often referred to as human capital—a recognition that advancement and value at every level begins with greater reliance on intellectual capacities and capabilities. 102 the third ir used electronics and information technology to automate production and create global supply chains. beginning in the 1950s, the third ir brought semiconductors, mainframe computing, personal computing, and, ultimately, the internet and the web—the digital revolution. the move from analogue electronic and mechanical devices to pervasive digital technology dramatically disrupted nearly all industries and sectors. i’ve already noted the concurrent scaling up of universities (see education 2). also, these technological advances have shrunk the world—no element of information or news needs more than a few milli-seconds to traverse the globe. that ability has exposed and made very public many of the serious challenges confronting the graduates of tomorrow. for a wider visual look back see yesterday’s future and industry 1.0 to 4.0 (ramge & schwochow, 2018). by 2010 onwards, most universities started to look differently at their recruitment and delivery of learning, and employability became the key watch word. with the rise of rankings, and metrics around ‘onward destinations’, as well as access, opportunity and diversity of the student body also became very important. some voices continued to assert the importance of wider arts, culture and social science education both as disciplines and as ways of learning (connor et al., 2015; gunn, 2017). some universities started considering their curriculum and modes of learning. here, we’ve just caught up caught up with education 3.0! but the biggest one of all perhaps for universities was the shift to huge emphases on employment skills and employability and also on student-centredness and experience—and so we come to education 4.0. part 2: education 4 here i assume that current and future students will expect, perhaps demand, learning experiences that reflect and enhance the way live in the world (davies, 2019; feldman, 2018; hussin, 2018). but back to my web metaphor first. the next web—web 4.0—is the ‘symbiotic web’. the symbiosis is between artificial and human intelligences and how they interact and gain experiences from each other. they become a team— learning from each other. here i am using the term ‘intelligence’ to mean the ability to accomplish complex goals (tegmark, 2018). it is this development (which was preceded by and builds upon web 1, 2 and 3) that takes web 4.0 into the unknown, and points to an awakening of education 4.0. the technologies that underpin further developments and applications of the internet in the third decade of the 21st century, are powering the fourth industrial revolution (fourth ir). whilst over quite a few years computers have been completing ever more complex tasks more speedily, artificial intelligence (ai) represents technological applications now becoming competent in aspects that we previously thought only human brains could undertake (heaven, 2017). if you are interested in the philosophical and ethical pros and cons aspects of ai, including the turing test, see heaven, (2017), for a great place to start. see particularly the timeline on pp. 22-23. there are barriers, as usual, to ai adoption (mit, 2019). but now a fourth industrial revolution (fourth ir) is building on the third ir. first, to note that education 4.0 and industry 4.0 should be placed in an even wider adaptive system—globalization 4.0 (feldman, 2018; schwab, 2018) —is out of scope for me in this paper but please read about the call for much wider engagement and dialogue (samans, 2019). 103 and there is more. “economies, businesses, societies and politics are being transformed by technological advances in such areas as artificial intelligence and machine learning, the internet of things, autonomous vehicles, drones, precision medicine and genomics, advanced materials, smart grids, robotics and big data” (samans, 2019). the fourth ir is a complex notion based on the fusion of cyber and physical systems where machines are interconnected and able to independently communicate and cooperate throughout the manufacturing and production processes. at present, most of the interest is around manufacturing and ‘end-to-end’ transformation of industrial processes and the importance of embracing this change for the future of business and economies. but there is so much long-term change predicted and well outside the obvious deployment. but along with that, come the inevitable ‘calls for action’ and noting of the wide range of stakeholders, including research and educational institutions that need to transform and embrace 4.0 for the changes to be productive and constructive (pwc, 2019a). here is the big prediction about it: we stand on the brink of a technological revolution that will fundamentally alter the way we live, work, and relate to one another. in its scale, scope, and complexity, the transformation will be unlike anything humankind has experienced before. we do not yet know just how it will unfold, but one thing is clear: the response to it must be integrated and comprehensive, involving all stakeholders of the global polity, from the public and private sectors to academia and civil society (schwab, 2016, p. 1). most of the predictions that i can find are related to industry 4.0 although the changes in demographics, life expectancy and the economics of retirement are also having a strong impact on personal, social and professional development. implications for education may involve quite dramatic variations in the demand for knowledge and skills as well as expanding possibilities for teaching and learning (oecd, 2018). babies born today not only will never know a world without the internet, but one in three may live to be over 100, some to 120 or more (taylor, 2017; office for national statistics, 2019; roser, 2019). so, there is also a very strong case for a sustainable life-long love for learning and personal transformation (john, 2019). the idea of machines that think and act like humans has inspired imaginations since the enlightenment (ramge & schwochow, 2018). hao (2019) provides us with an interesting look back at the history of ai, from machine learning through knowledge-based systems and all kinds of experiments, and then to a pivotal moment in 2015 when deepmind’s alphago, trained with reinforcement learning, defeated the human world champion in the ancient game of go. there are two kinds of ai. strong machines that think creatively and develop ‘self-consciousness’ and deploy ‘deep learning‘ using neural networks with multiple layers (heaven, 2017). ‘weak’ ai means taking on human activities, typically, automation of complex but routine tasks. (ramge & schwochow, 2018). there is a fair bit of weak ai around already but lots of research and experiments on strong ai, including machines that can understand their environment, learn and have the potential to create change (heaven, 2017). we are only just at the very beginning. a further shift is on the horizon, where new devices will offer less intrusive, more intuitive ways to amplify human intelligence. because intelligent amplification builds upon existing human intelligence and all that it encompasses, it is more powerful than ai alone, and may even be an antidote to the 104 ‘robots are coming’ fears (golembiewski, 2019). on the fears and concerns, heaven (2017) undertakes an exploration of moral and ethical issues, privacy and the role of prediction (see particularly chapter 4). governments are also starting to take an interest (see, for example, jisc, 2019b). and, for education, the possibilities of billions of people connected by mobile devices, with unprecedented processing power, storage capacity, and access to knowledge, seem to me to be a critical domain for knowledge creation and learning. i would also add machine visioning and facial recognition; by 2022 there will be four billion embedded cameras in the world (thompson, 2019). and these prospects will be multiplied by emerging technology breakthroughs in fields such as robotics, the internet of things, autonomous vehicles, 3-d printing, nanotechnology, biotechnology, materials science, energy storage, and quantum computing and much more (heaven, 2017). and not to forget ‘big data’ addressing much more than ever before—volume, variety, velocity and variability (ramge & schwochow, 2018). data will become more and more important (lewrick et al., 2018) —at present in higher education, deployment is in its infancy. these breakthroughs extend beyond our world into the rest of the universe. recently astronomers used their technologies to create an “event horizon telescope” to capture the first images of a black hole in the m87 galaxy 53 million light years from earth. whenever you see a long list of technologies like that, there are always tentative qualifying words— ‘such as’ or ‘including’. this suggests to me that there is much more to come but we’re not sure what it is. but we are truly just at the beginning of bigger transformations—many commentators claim a wide impact ‘revolution’ and decisions we make now will both prepare for and have a big influence on directions that are chosen. the key concepts of education 4.0 and the differences in impact from education 3.0 are the massive ubiquitous connectivity and the symbiosis between humans and machines and consequently our inability to understand or predict what this might mean in the longterm. with the massive turmoil going on in the educational environment—around fees, funding and fairness, accessibility, diversity and experience—it is difficult to lift your head above the parapet and take a longer, deeper look to education 4.0, but in my view we can, and we should. and it goes on. like web 1, 2 and 3, industry 4.0 builds on the previous transformations but the claim is that there is no historical precedent for the speed or complexity of developments nor of the huge and wide influences on every industry and sector. there are already numerous examples of companies restructuring themselves and needing smaller, more agile workforces with different skills (gallagher, 2019). so, it seems to me, that in higher education we need to move rapidly to education 4.0, too. and so, i move onto the foresights for higher education in order to help us to create it in the kind of ways that we prefer (jisc, 2018; luckin, 2019; mcgregor & hamilton, 2019), not just to ‘respond’ but to contribute. as is noted by xing (2019), higher education has always been a wider investment in the future, as a system, and gateway to valued careers for its graduates. so, for this paper, i’ve chosen to focus mainly on our responsibilities and the implications for the ongoing destinations of our students—particularly their employability. 105 employability 4.0 first let’s check we understand what industry 4.0 might mean for the future employment of our students. in this section, i focus on foresight that might be of greatest interest to higher education, particularly science, technology, engineering, arts and maths (steam) and all the professions (fisk, 2018). my interest is in curricula and skills, (especially those that could be scattered throughout the whole learning portfolio) and also the importance of the modes of learning that are most likely to prepare graduates regardless of discipline or profession. ehlers and kellermann, (2019) tell us that change is happening quickly and that there will be significant differences by 2022; so, we need to start now. if you would like a quick idea of what jobs your students might be doing by 2030 look at these: http://careers2030.cst.org/jobs/. more lists come in here. they include deeper relationship building, flexible and innovative thinking, social and emotional intelligence, collaborating virtually, design mind-sets, new media competencies, ‘thinking like a data-scientist’ and interdisciplinarity (ramge & schwochow, 2018). currently machines are unable to replicate judgement, empathy, persuasion, the ability to collaborate and communicate, and be flexible, adaptable and resilient (letellier, 2018), though more ai change is coming (heaven, 2017). some creative arts, such as text and movies, generate possibilities from science facts. science fiction often extrapolates from a known base and explores imagined scenarios (for example, take a look at mcewan, 2019). if you’d like to look back for looking forward, take a good peep at heather mcgowans’ work (www.heathermcgowan.com/writing). you can also explore the future skills report (ehlers & kellermann, 2019, see, particularly, pp. 23, 27, 28). to note, a key suggestion is students’ ability to deal with uncertainty and act in unknown, complex futures. in 2018, jisc in the uk surveyed 22,000 university students and, while 81.5% of them felt that digital skills will be important for their chosen career, only half believed that their courses were preparing them well for the digital workplace. what impact do these all of these predictions have for your ‘graduate attributes’ and middle-term curriculum plans? the nesta research report (bakhshi et al., 2017) tells us that around one-tenth of the current workforce are in occupations that are likely to increase as a result of industry 4.0. areas mentioned include healthcare, sports and fitness and therapy. around one-fifth of jobs will reduce since they will no longer be required. so that leaves the rest, i.e., around 70% of the current jobs where the research is unsure! however, they point to the likelihood of production occupations requiring a combination of electrical, mechanical, hydraulic, pneumatic and computer technologies. a first reminder for the absolute necessity of saying goodbye to disciplinary silos in universities. other areas suggested are some professional occupations and some jobs in service industries. they also favour creative, digital, design and engineering occupations that are likely to be complemented by digital technology. and they point to architectural occupations with the increasing expansion of cities and greater interest in environmental sustainability. there must be some clues in there for education 4.0 curriculum planners! in addition, they have anticipated new occupations. fellow educators may be delighted to know that education and training professionals are in one of the growth areas. my guess is there’ll be plenty of education and development in the future, but not as we know it now. 106 this report (bakhshi et al., 2017) is one of the few pieces i have discovered that at least nods towards the importance of changes to the modes of learning as well as listing skills of the future. it suggests interpersonal skills, higher order cognitive development and preparing to work in globalised contexts. they also note the important role of ‘active learning’ in order for students to be able to rapidly assimilate and work with change, problem solving, judgement and decision making. my interpretation is that they mean not just ‘active’ but also ‘authentic’. they also use the term ‘fluency of ideas’, i.e., to enabling learning creatively and across traditional boundaries. and there are many mentions of design concepts and systems thinking. my view is these may even be the supreme skills for higher education— to appreciate and work with intersections—between infrastructures and human behaviour, humans and technology and to undertake complex measurements and analyses. these are all aspects that have a dependency on how students learn. they apply to all of the predicted employments and to creating those that are yet undefined. from my work with futures and programme design, called carpe diem, (salmon, 2013), i am aware that many university staff are keen to embrace these ideas, but their actionable uptake and wider diffusion is disappointingly slow (ehlers & kellermann, 2019). another report (navitas, 2017) surveyed 10,000 people across the world, 70% of whom want to work for organisations with ‘social consciousness’. that’s an interesting one for curriculum development and preparation. but their respondents’ views of their own skills vary widely: 54% of the individuals surveyed felt that they ‘have all the skills they need for the rest of their career’. just over half of people globally believe they already have stem skills (science, technology, engineering and maths). people from india and china, and millennials, have a higher level of confidence in their skills. are they right? will that view continue as industry 4.0 takes a hold? (williams, 2017). fortunately, the thousands of respondents surveyed were willing to ‘retrain’. three-quarters of people said they were ‘ready to learn new skills or completely re-train in order to remain employable in the future’. older workers with less years left in the workforce, were not quite so ready to think about a whole new set of skills—but 59% of baby boomers globally (aged between 53 and 71 at the time of the study) said they would do so ‘if necessary’. it will be necessary! it seems that the dominance of young people entering university is about to end, with multiple employments during a lifetime and the need to constantly re-educate. when presented with a range of emerging technologies, the survey respondents considered ai to have the greatest potential impact on higher education. this was followed by the internet of things and virtual/augmented reality, with chatbots and blockchain having less impact. it is not clear to me how the people they surveyed could know this. sixty-five percent of people believed that technology developments would improve their job prospects. three-quarters of people— with a strong consensus around the world and across demographics—believe that ‘technology will never replace the human mind’ in a work context. and eight in ten agree that ‘human skills will always be in demand’ (navitas, 2017). of course, that may be what they wish for. what does your foresight tell you? university leaders were also surveyed. they prioritised digital transformation, above all, as a means of improving the student experience with 94% citing this as a key outcome. one of the top transformation priorities for university leaders was digitising marketing and admissions to drive enrolment growth, with 72% saying this is very important. us universities rated this item as the highest priority in their digital transformation efforts (navitas, 2017). in my view, whilst i can see that 107 efficiency objectives are worthwhile, i strongly feel the main investment should go towards curriculum and mode of learning transformation to make the biggest difference to graduates’ employability. responses from students in the survey echoed the need to improve some of the ‘basics’ of their experience, with digitisation of administrative processes, improved ‘user experiences’ and digital curriculum featuring high on their ‘wishlist’. students called on their universities to adopt an integrated digital approach, and to involve them in technology decisions. i would answer we must improve experience and efficiency. but the change does need to be much more radical to prepare students for what they don’t yet know they will encounter. most universities said that that they’re ‘looking’ at what others are doing without any clear solutions yet for full transformation of their own. i think we need some heroes and leaders in that scenario. only, 17% of university leaders were planning to launch at least one digital business outside their core operations, to experiment with new business models. this approach could help to protect and support breakthrough ideas (navitas, 2017). it does not feel sufficient, soon enough or fast enough for education 4.0, to me. as gallagher says, “simply adding digital skills to a traditional education is not enough to succeed in the digital economy. learning has to be re-imagined for the emerging futures of work” (2019). a deeper dive into the survey findings identifies some interesting trends and differences between countries and demographic groups in people’s attitudes to the future of work and how it will impact them, and some scenarios which are worth exploring before deciding on new curricula (pwc, 2019b). best to look at your region in the report and then undertake a long, hard review of your curriculum. achieving constructive digitalization artificial intelligence and machine learning are fundamentally about making decisions based on data—and that describes much of education. at present there are experiments going on across higher education’s value chain. these are mainly boutique and crafted. they include search tools for scientific research, powering chatbots, connecting learners with appropriate universities, matching students with career coaches and optimising student health and fitness facilities. they typically exploit improving connectivity of student devices to campus infrastructure and cloud services and often aim to enable personalised experiences. with wider-spread adoption, significantly more data would be available for analysis (see a few examples at jisc, 2019c). there is work going on to bring emerging technologies into educational experiences. we can point to experiments, pilots and prototypes but on the whole, they are small scale, with no guarantee, or often funding, for scaling up. virtual reality is being used to bring science to life, transport classes on virtual trips, and market universities to potential future students (see, for example, the 2019 ieee conference: transactions on visualization and computer graphics; iftf, 2019a). these build on the earlier stages of research in immersive technologies for education (salmon, 2009). augmented reality (ar) is a bit more accessible and it has already appeared on campus to support wayfinding and orientation and in the classroom to enhance knowledge in the medical, engineering and science disciplines (see, for example, barrow et al., 2019). there are also chatbots (software programs that simulate conversing with a human) that are making some progress to answer students queries online to deal with 108 admissions or for online tutoring. efforts continue to make the bot more responsive to humans (see, for example, ciechanowski et al., 2019). robotics are becoming more widespread in engineering teaching but less so in other disciplines (bakhshi, 2017; ameen, 2019). but these are minor compared to the needs, and many universities are struggling with the challenges to achieve effective upgrades to education 2.0 technologies such as vles, and the associated education transformations. very few yet have education 3.0 policies, such as mobile-first or data analytics reports for students. the 2019 horizon report lists more technologies, such as, mixed reality, blockchain and virtual assistants with time scales, but also usefully confronts issues of adoption and implementation (alexander, et al., 2019). there is simultaneously a growth in working with commercial companies, particularly for student recruitment, technology platforms or for achieving online learning at scale to future-proof, and provide access to new data and ways of operating (salmon, 2019). to summarise, the future for work will be more diverse, demanding, flexible and in many ways. there will be more entrepreneurs and more people working in small and medium size enterprises. and people will work longer in life, change their jobs more often and have less security. the half-life of skills acquired is getting shorter while working lives are lengthening (gallagher, 2019). there will be increased numbers of knowledge workers, service workers and specialists. just looking at that list surely makes us think differently about how we prepare people through higher education? much discussion about industry 4.0 is around employability and stem. however, there’s a growing movement suggesting that the most valuable skills of all will be in strong systems and design thinking, humancreativity, critical thought, effective communication, collaboration and problem solving (mcgregor & hamilton, 2019). achieving higher education 4.0 it takes a while to map a university’s strengths to accommodate the future, and then at least three years for graduates to appear 4.0-ready. i suggest one way of looking at it would be to ensure that the next generation of students throughout the higher education system will wish to be equipped to tackle the world’s biggest challenges, and alongside that, to ensure their personal employability and contribution in the new industry 4.0 world. so, we should start today. • curricula: we can use data and extrapolate where students are likely to sign up in large numbers, using jobs and skills of the future information. as a start, note that working entirely digitally means that potential students do not have to be enticed to come to campus and hence their numbers could be hundreds of times larger than now. second, we can focus on the ‘flagship’ aspects of our university and its research and specialness but deliver this in a way that our reputation is enhanced. and third, we must ‘future-proof’ as far as we can, by identifying brand new programmes that are likely to prepare students preparing for industry 4.0 to have worthwhile sustainable, multiple careers and to become contributing citizens of globalization 4.0, during their long lives. by building curriculum portfolios, we can share resources across faculties and programmes and promote the essential ‘medici effect’ that the future requires (johansson, 2017). every student will need to become a systems and design thinker and achiever; that’s the least of our responsibility. we need to engage students, too, in understanding the important impact of 109 their focusing on studying for the future (bates et al., 2019). it should be a win-win-win; better student recruitment, reputation enhancing, happier and more successful onwards destinations. • modes of learning: we need to rethink how we deliver to optimise students’ experience for the future, within limited funding. this will involve building into our teaching and learning the very best of threshold concepts (land et al., 2016) enabling students to understand how they are learning and preparing for the future. we need to optimise the use of digital technology for what it has to offer, for efficiency, effectiveness, engagement and communication but most of all for authentic and valued educational experiences (admiraal et al., 2019). there are many prototypes and plenty of new models of learning to choose from. we need to mirror symbiosis—the best of technology with the best of human teaching. of course, we know that in education major changes take a very long time. many discussions around industry and education 4.0 are couched around the technologies themselves. we already know there’s a little paradox here—that the most valuable skills of all in the future will be those intrinsically blatantly human: creativity, critical thinking, responsive communication and out-and-out human collaboration. therein lie our clues. the way we are teaching students needs to be collaboratively designed (not assumed) with a strong future vision (dobozy & cameron, 2018). assessment and credentialing must be changed to be fully authentic, meaningful and reflective of the new goals of education 4.0 (alexander et al., 2019). • rethinking ways of achieving: the ways in which universities conduct their business has grown up throughout centuries based on education 1, 2 and a bit of 3.0. most universities are cautious of disruption, suspicious of transformation, and risk-averse—pointing to reputation worries and looking for certainty. a way of confronting this challenge is to understand universities as ‘hybrid’ organisations in systems terms (jongbloed, 2015). although universities are influenced by their complex external environments and buffeted by constant changes in country and global trends, government policy and funding regimes, internally they are subject to isolation and insulation engineered by their many layers of institutional autonomy and stratified governance (salmon & asgari, 2019). universities need to open their doors, their visions and their ways of education to embrace 4.0. to be clear, the core mission of universities does not need to change (usually, research, teaching and civic and societal responsibilities) and each individual institution can and should keep their longrehearsed values. but to achieve long-lasting constructive transformation, universities first need to disrupt themselves and allow themselves to think very differently about how new educational futures can be constructed. looking back for looking forward is one way. but increasingly, to break the isolation, many universities are working across sectors—with commercial companies or employers so that no one organization bears a full burden of risk and benefits can be shared. it is the moment in the long history of higher education to think differently and embrace rapid reactors and the permanent pace setters (milligan, 2019). milligan tells us to focus on building a ‘brand’ and then get it out there, not just to your external environment, but internally, too, and use that intelligent researched evidence base for new insights then build it into foresight. brands are a shorthand for what your university stands for. aspiring to be global and local, so common a mission for universities, just isn’t enough for the future. then, don’t worry about time management (an 110 oxymoron anyway isn’t it?) but focus on surrounding your institution with positive, challenging, constructive, critical friends and partners. if you want to be there creating education 4.0 forget smart goals use fast instead: frequently discussed, ambitious, specific and transparent. it’s important to do things quickly and be open to challenge and change. this is how we create education 4.0, rather than risk see it pass us by (scharmer, 2018; epstein, 2019). conclusions—and a call to action looking back over education 1.0 to 3.0 it is a strong reminder to us that we must invest in change and focus on the most appropriate transitions to curriculum and education for our students and their future. just as web 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 builds exponentially to web 4.0, just as each industrial revolution created the conditions for the next, so we now need to take the best of the past and move to education 4.0. in doing so we do not for one moment deny the value of education 1.0 to 3.0 but embrace them and then build them into the opportunities for education 4.0. this means that industry 4.0 should be at the very centre of our strategies. as the nesta report concludes (2017), we need to give absolute emphasis to the opportunities and innovations afforded to universities for education 4.0. now is the time to be willing to embrace risk and enable our higher education system to respond effectively and quickly. despite political turmoil, there is recognition from politicians, in the uk at least, of the need for strong collaborations (mcvitty, 2019). my suggestion is to start to apply strategic foresight to plan and design desired futures. it is essential to have a clear and distinctive vision and a way of achieving it without waiting for absolute ‘truth’. through viewing higher education as a complex adaptive system of which time and the interaction with other systems is a major driver, i have a brought perspective on this. it is best to look back with understanding; to ‘hold a mirror’ up to the past in order to actively shape the future. knowing is not the same as implementing. we need to identify much of the current growth opportunities and then extrapolate them to our students’ rather changed needs and expectations and find a way forward. universities do not need to change their core values and missions, but they do need to be very clear what their vision is, within an easy articulated and distinctive ‘brand’, for delivering them in the future. transformation is of course not easy. transformation cannot be achieved by small-scale experimentation or ‘change management’. i hope the more complex looking back with understanding with a complex view of higher education as an adaptive system will help. my approach to this is to combine foresight with design thinking, focussed on action to shape preferred and viable futures (lewrick, et al., 2018, 212; salmon, 2017; vlachopoulos, 2018). when systems thinking addresses wickedly complex problems there is a good chance they can be solved, agility heightened, and constructive scaling achieved. it is my view that those who grasp this will be those surviving into the later decades of the 21st century. for me, the institute for the future sums it up: for the past century, we have thought of learning…to build an efficient workforce while affording learners the opportunity to grow their earning power…. now we’re shifting to a new kind of workforce focused less on predefined job categories and skill requirements and more on tapping the unique potential of billions of worker-learners for a rapidly evolving labor landscape. 111 the next decade will not only challenge us to reinvent learning for this new kind of distributed, dynamic, and ultimately more creative workforce. it will also inspire us to re-envision the tools, practices, and standards of assessment for the infinity of pathways that tomorrow’s learners and workers will pioneer to create their uniquely meaningful lives. (iftf, 2019b, p. 1). yes. there we have it. may the fourth be with you. references admiraal, w., post, l., guo, p., saab, n., makinen, s., rainio, o., vuori, j., bourgeois, j., kortuem, g., & danford, g. (2019). students as future workers: cross-border multidisciplinary learning labs in higher education. international journal of technology in education and science, 3(2), 85-94. retrieved from https://www.learntechlib.org/p/207262/ alexander, b., ashford-rowe, k., barajas-murph, n., dobbin, g., knott, j., mccormack, m., pomerantz, j., seilhamer, r., & weber, n. (2019). horizon report 2019 higher education edition. edu19. retrieved from https://www.learntechlib.org/p/208644/. altbach, p. g., reisberg, l., & rumbley, l. e. (2009). trends in global higher education: tracking an academic revolution in global perspectives on higher education. unesco report, from the world conference on higher education. retrieved from http://www.cep.edu.rs/public/altbach,_reisberg,_rumbley_tracking_an_academic_revolution,_unesco _2009.pdf ameen, n. (2019). what robots and ai may mean for university lecturers and students? retrieved from http://theconversation.com/what-robots-and-ai-may-mean-for-university-lecturers-and-students-114383. bakhshi, h., downing, j., osborne, m., & schneider, p. (2017). the future of skills: employment in 2030. london: pearson & nesta. retrieved from https://media.nesta.org.uk/documents/the_future_of_skills_employment_in_2030_0.pdf barrow, j., forker, c., sands, a., o'hare, d., & hurst, w. (2019). augmented reality for enhancing life science education. paper presented at visual 2019—the fourth international conference on applications and systems of visual paradigms, rome, italy. bates, g., rixon, a., carbone, a., & pilgrim, c. (2019). beyond employability skills: developing professional purpose. journal of teaching and learning for graduate employability, 10(1). retrieved from https://ojs.deakin.edu.au/index.php/jtlge/article/view/794 berners-lee, t., hendler, j., & lassila, o. (2001). the semantic web. scientific american, 284(5), 34-43. boulton, g. (2017). the digital revolution and the future of science. retrieved from https://www.timeshighereducation.com/hub/p/jisc-futures-digital-revolution-and-future-science cheng, l., ritzhaupt, a.d., & antonenko, p. (2018.) effects of the flipped classroom instructional strategy on students’ learning outcomes: a meta-analysis. education technology research and development, 67(4). retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-018-9633-7 ciechanowski, l., przegalinska, a., magnuski, m., & gloor, p. (2019). in the shades of the uncanny valley: an experimental study of human–chatbot interaction. future generation computer systems, 92, 539-548. retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.future.2018.01.055 connor, a. karmokar, s. & whittington, c. (2015). from stem to steam: strategies for enhancing engineering & technology education. international journal of engineering pedagogy, 5(2), 37-47. retrieved from https://online-journals.org/index.php/i-jep/article/view/4458 112 daniel, j. s. (2018). open universities: old concepts and contemporary challenges. irrodl special issue on the future of open universities. retrieved from http://sirjohn.ca/wpcontent/uploads/2018/11/20180718_irrodl_revnov.pdf davies, s. (2019). moving towards education 4.0. blog. retrieved from https://www.jisc.ac.uk/blog/memberstories-towards-higher-education-40-15-jan-2019 dobozy, e., & cameron, l. (2018). editorial: special issue on learning design research: mapping the terrain. australasian journal of educational technology, 34(2), i-v retrieved from https://ajet.org.au/index.php/ajet/article/view/4390 drucker, p., (1969). the age of discontinuity: guidelines to our changing society. new york: harper and row. ehlers, u.d., & kellermann, s. a. (2019). future skills—the future of learning and higher education. results of the international future skills delphi survey. karlsruhe. retrieved from https://nextskills.files.wordpress.com/2019/03/2019-02-23-delphi-report-final.pdf epstein, d. (2019). the peculiar blindness of experts. the atlantic. retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/06/how-to-predict-the-future/588040/ feldman, p. (2018). the potential of 4.0 is huge—uk must take the lead. blog. retrieved from https://www.jisc.ac.uk/blog/the-potential-of-education-4-is-huge-the-uk-must-take-the-lead-now-12-sep2018 fisk, p. (2017). education 4.0 … the future of learning will be dramatically different, in school and throughout life. retrieved from https://www.thegeniusworks.com/2017/01/future-education-young-everyone-taughttogether (also see video ‘the future of learning’ on this site.) francis, m. (2013). harold wilson's 'white heat of technology' speech 50 years on. retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/science/political-science/2013/sep/19/harold-wilson-white-heat-technologyspeech gallagher, m. (2019). learning for the future of work. retrieved from https://www.swinburne.edu.au/newworkforce (see website and video.) golembiewski, l. (2019, april 30). how wearable ai will amplify human intelligence. harvard business review. retrieved from https://hbr.org/2019/04/how-wearable-ai-will-amplify-human-intelligence gunn, j. (2017). why the a in steam education is just as important as every other letter. retrieved from https://education.cu-portland.edu/blog/leaders-link/importance-of-arts-in-steam-education/ hao, k. (2019). artificial intelligence. mit technology review. retrieved from https://www.technologyreview.com/s/612768/we-analyzed-16625-papers-to-figure-out-where-ai-is-headednext/ heaven, d. (ed). (2017). machines that think. boston: nicholas barley publishing. hussin, a. (2018). education 4.0 made simple: ideas for teaching. international journal of education and literacy studies, 6(3), 92-98. retrieved from http://www.journals.aiac.org.au/index.php/ijels/article/view/4616 ieee conference (2019). transactions on visualization and computer graphics. ieee 2019 conference on visualization. retrieved from https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/recentissue.jsp?punumber=2945 iftf (2019a). embodied learning. blog. retrieved from http://www.iftf.org/future-now/article-detail/embodiedlearning/ iftf (2019b). signaling work and learning readiness in 2030: the future of assessment. blog. retrieved from http://www.iftf.org/future-now/article-detail/signaling-work-readiness-in-2030-the-future-of-assessment/ jisc (2018). digital skills crucial to the success of fourth industrial revolution. retrieved from https://www.jisc.ac.uk/news/digital-skills-crucial-to-the-success-of-fourth-industrial-revolution-28-jun-2018 113 jisc (2019a). jisc nus roadmap for supporting students to improve their digital experience at university and college. retrieved from http://repository.jisc.ac.uk/7390/1/31897h2_jisc_dei_nus_roadmap_v4.pdf jisc (2019b). mps urge ethical use of data to benefit society. retrieved from https://www.jisc.ac.uk/news/mps-urgeethical-use-of-data-to-benefit-society-21-may-2019 jisc (2019c). preparing for education 4.0. retrieved from https://www.timeshighereducation.com/hub/jisc/p/preparing-education-40 johansson, f. (2017). the medici effect. boston: harvard business review press. john, j. (2019). how to create: a broader, fairer and smarter education system. retrieved from https://www.jisc.ac.uk/blog/how-to-create-a-broader-fairer-and-smarter-education-system-08-mar-2019 jongbloed, b. (2015). universities as hybrid organizations: trends, drivers, and challenges for the european university. international studies of management & organization, 45(3), 207–225. kernohan, d. (2019). what happened at the secret life of students? blog. retrieved from https://wonkhe.com/blogs/the-secret-life-of-students-live/ khe foon, h.e.w., & chung kwan, l.o. (2018). flipped classroom improves student learning in health professions education: a meta-analysis. bmc medical education, 18, retrieved from https://bmcmededuc.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12909-018-1144-z lewrick, m., link, p., & leifer, l. (2018). the design thinking play book: mindful digital transformation of team, products, services and ecosystems. hoboken: wiley. letellier, r. (2018). making stem education relevant in the fourth industrial revolution. retrieved from https://rmresults.com/blog/making-stem-education-relevant-in-the-fourth-industrial-revolution land, r., meyer, j.h.f., & flanagan, m.t. (2016). threshold concepts in practice. in education futures rethinking theory and practice, 68. rotterdam/boston/taipei: sense publishers. luckin, r. (2019). ai and education: the reality and the potential. the knowledge illusion. retrieved from https://knowledgeillusion.blog/2019/04/30/ai-and-education-the-reality-and-the-potential/ mcewan, i. (2019). machines like me. london: jonathan cape. mcgregor, a., & hamilton, m. (2019). shaping education for a hyper connected world. digifest magazine. mcvitty, d. (2019). the more universities are thinking about value for money, the better the sector looks. wonkhe blog. retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/y5bxhwmz. mendoza, j.n., gallego-schmid, a., & azapagic, a. (2019). building a business case for implementation of a circular economy in higher education institutions. journal of cleaner production, 220, 553-567. milligan, a. (2019). speed awareness. business life magazine. december 2018/january 2019. mit (2019). digital challenges: overcoming barriers to ai adoption. retrieved from https://www.technologyreview.com/s/613501/digital-challenges-overcoming-barriers-to-ai-adoption/ naisbitt, j. (1982). megatrends: ten new directions transforming our lives. (6th ed.). warner books, london: warner books. navitas ventures (2017). digital transformation in higher education, report. retrieved from http://www.navitasventures.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/he-digital-transformation_navitas_ventures_-en.pdf oecd (2018). a brave new world: technology & education. trends shaping education. retrieved from https://www.oecd.org/education/ceri/spotlight-15-a-brave-new-world-technology-and-education.pdf office for national statistics (2016). what is my life expectancy? retrieved from https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/lifeexpectancies/article s/whatareyourchancesoflivingto100/2016-01-14 114 pwc (2019a). transforming australian manufacturing: preparing businesses and workplaces for industry 4.0. retrieved from https://www.pwc.com.au/education/industry-proposal-13may2019.pdf pwc (2019b). workforce of the future: the competing forces shaping 2030. retrieved from https://www.pwc.com/futureworkforce ramge, t., & schwochow, j. (2018). the global economy as you’ve never seen it: 99 ingenious infographics that put it all together. new york: the experiment. roser, m. (2019). hindsight, world comparisons and interactive maps about life expectancy. retrieved from https://ourworldindata.org/life-expectancy. salmon, g. (2009). the future for (second) life and learning. british journal of educational technology, 40(3), 526538. salmon, g. (2013). e-tivities: the key to active online learning (2nd ed.). london and new york: routledge. salmon, g. (2019). from partnership to fusion: future educational landscapes. blog. retrieved from https://wonkhe.com/blogs/from-partnership-to-fusion-future-educational-landscapes/ salmon, g., & asgari, s. (2019). higher education—the last bastion? european journal of open, distance and e learning. retrieved from http://www.eurodl.org/?p=current&sp=brief&article=792 samans, r. (2019). globalization 4.0 shaping a new global architecture in the age of the fourth industrial revolution: a call for engagement. world economic forum report. retrieved from http://www3.weforum.org/docs/wef_globalization_4.0_call_for_engagement.pdf scharmer, c.o. (2018). the essentials of theory u. oakland, ca: berrett-koehler publishers. schwab, k. (2016). the fourth industrial revolution: what it means, how to respond. retrieved from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-what-it-means-and-how-torespond/ schwab, k. (2018). grappling with globalization 4.0. retrieved from https://www.projectsyndicate.org/commentary/globalization-4-0-by-klaus-schwab-2018-11?barrier=accesspaylog taylor, g. (2017). scientist thinks the world’s first 200-year-old person has already been born. retrieved from https://norwaytoday.info/everyday/scientist-thinks-worlds-first-200-year-old-person-already-born/ tegmark, m. (2018). life 3.0: being human in the age of artificial intelligence. new york: alfred a. knopf. thelen, k. (2019). transitions to the knowledge economy in germany, sweden, and the netherlands. comparative politics, 51(2), 295-315. thompson, h. (2019). trends. business life. december 2018/january 2019. retrieved from https://magictorch.com/british-airways-business-life-magazine-2019-where-next. traxler, j., (2016). what killed the mobile learning dream? jisc inform. retrieved from https://www.jisc.ac.uk/news/what-killed-the-mobile-learning-dream-26-feb-2016-inform# vlachopoulos, p. (2018). curriculum digital transformation through learning design: the design, develop, implement methodology. in k. ntalianis, a. andreatos, & c. sgouropoulou (eds.), proceedings of the 17th european conference on e-learning (pp. 585-591). reading, uk: academic conferences and publishing international. williams, j. (2017). workforce of the future: the views of 10,000 workers. retrieved from https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/services/people-organisation/workforce-of-the-future/workforce-of-futureappendix.pdf xing, b. (2019). towards a magic cube framework in understanding higher education 4.0 for the fourth industrial revolution. in d.b.a. khosrow-pou (ed.), handbook of research on challenges and opportunities in launching a technology driven international university (pp. 107-130). hershey: igi global. 115 author: gilly salmon is an adjunct professor at swinburne university of technology in melbourne, australia, and academic director of online education services (oes) uk, based in london. email: gsalmon@oes.com cite this paper as: salmon, g. (2019). may the fourth be with you: creating education 4.0. journal of learning for development, 6(1), 95-115. microsoft word gaskell.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 91-94 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. editorial how can we maximise the potential of new technologies to meet the sustainable development goals (sdgs)? anne gaskell the united nations’ plan of action for sustainable development notes the immense challenges that we face, but recognizes that “the spread of information and communications technology [ict] and global interconnectedness has great potential to accelerate human progress, to bridge the digital divide and to develop knowledge societies” (united nations, 2015, p. 5 pars 14 and 15). this issue of jl4d reviews this great potential for ict to assist in meeting the sustainable development goals (sdgs) by 2030. the future roles of ict provide the focus of our first article by professor gilly salmon, academic director of online services uk (https://www.oes.com/) in her contribution to our new series in which leaders in online and flexible learning reflect on past, current and future developments in the use of new technologies. (for terry anderson’s contribution to our previous issue, please see https://jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/article/view/327.) gilly invites us to vision the future so that we can take action now to shape learning for students to come, in the context of the huge changes that face the world in terms of economies, employment, the environment and education. gilly maps the developments of web 1.0 to 3.0 against educational and industrial revolutions and then looks forward to education 4.0, web 4.0 and industrial revolution 4.0. the future is, of course, uncertain; but she draws on available trends and data to recommend ways in which universities should be thinking now about their curricula, modes of learning and methods of assisting student success within the context of futures that will be very different. gilly salmon is of course extremely well known as one of the pioneers of elearning and as a leading innovator in the field of digital and blended learning. her first seminal work was e-moderating: the key to teaching and learning online (2000 – third edition, 2011), in which she developed the much cited and employed five-stage model of structured support in online learning, from ‘access and motivation’ through ‘knowledge construction’ to ‘development’ (see www.gillysalmon.com/five-stage-model). the model was further developed in e-tivities: the key to active online learning (2002 – second edition, 2013), which launched a new term of ‘e-tivities’ – now ubiquitous – and provided frameworks to enable individuals and groups to participate actively online (see www.gillysalmon.com/e-tivities). these and subsequent works, as well as the paper we are delighted to include here, illustrate gilly’s convictions and practice that learning is constructed between participants who are increasingly able to play significant contributory roles through new technologies, and that collaborative design (see carpe diem, www.gillysalmon.com/carpe-diem) is the secret to our students’ success and will be for their futures. in the last ten years, since she has held senior and executive roles in universities, she has developed a stream of work around strategy, partnership and transformation for higher education 92 institutions, and in doing so has become what she calls an ardent ‘amateur futurist’. gilly has made substantial contributions to our understanding of the potentials afforded by flexible learning; her practical approach towards how we can develop both our own and our students’ interactive learning engagement online and her informed vision of future possibilities and challenges make her an ideal contributor to our series. professor salmon notes that “in 2019, 68% of internet traffic is via mobile devices, more of the world has a mobile device than a telephone or a desktop... [and] these statistics are rising and the percentages shifting rapidly towards mobility, especially in asia and africa”. our two invited articles explore the huge potential for mobile devices to support language learning and the ways in which they can assist those who have had fewer opportunities to access learning for development. professor agnes kukulska-hulme, from the open university uk (ou), explores the vital role mobile technologies can play in assisting local language learning for migrants entering a new country. as she notes, both the arrival of migrants, and the arrival of new technologies are not always welcome, but that there can be productive synergy between them. she argues that the mobility of groups or populations should not be seen as a challenge but as an opportunity which provides us with a wealth of new ideas in our rethinking of learning designs, use of smartphones and specifically mobile language learning. kukulska-hulme analyses a range of innovative projects which demonstrate the potential of mobile technologies and concludes that the urgent language learning needs of increasing numbers of migrants can be well served by mobile devices. policy makers and educationalists also have a great deal to learn from migrants and their learning of relevant languages; indeed, insights from migrants can also benefit other mobile populations. she thus provides strong evidence and examples to support the un recognition of the “positive contribution of migrants for inclusive growth and sustainable development [and] that international migration is a multi-dimensional reality of major relevance for the development of countries of origin, transit and destination, which requires coherent and comprehensive responses” (united nations, 2015, p. 35 par 29). kukulska-hulme notes that there are a number of resources available for mobile devices, including those that promote more active collaborative language learning, but that more research is needed. we are therefore particularly pleased that our second invited article provides an example of such research from professor mpine makoe and dr shandu-phetla from the university of south africa (unisa). they discuss the use of whatsapp groups to support english language learners at unisa, using the framework of ubuntu – a south african concept that emphasises relationships with others and the community and analyse a range of discussions that demonstrate ubuntu values and the importance the participants placed on the support from their groups. the examples are all the more impressive in that the students were able to use their own languages – south africa has eleven official languages to explore concepts and arrive at a general understanding of english terminology. makoe and shandu-phetla’s students were studying a module that would prepare them for university study and was thus aimed at supporting those students who have previously had fewer opportunities to engage with higher education. our first research article provides another example of the potential for online and flexible learning to widen participation in higher education. coughlan and goff, from the open university uk (ou), discuss the creation of six open online courses, developed by the ou in collaboration with learner representative partners (lrps); that is, organisations that have knowledge and connections with particular groups of people who are under-represented in further and higher 93 education. the open online courses were targeted at lower-paid workers in the healthcare, teaching and voluntary sectors, as well as those wanting to start up a business with little experience. collaborative involvement in the creation of the courses varied but both partners learnt from the experience; for example, the ou needed to reduce jargon and acronyms, while partners welcomed learning about the process of developing a course. coughlan and goff conclude with key principles for collaboration between learning partners which will be of great relevance to others seeking such collaborations. the principles also demonstrate the great possibilities for supporting those who have previously had restricted opportunities for educational development. learning for development is of course at the heart of this journal, and we are delighted to include a bibliometric analysis by dr sanjaya mishra, associate editor, of the contributions made to jl4d volumes 1-5 (2014-2018). jl4d was founded with the aim of showcasing “the practical dimension of how learning for development works” (kanwar, 2014), and this is one of the key areas under discussion in our article, for example in relation to authorship, citation patterns and topics covered. mishra demonstrates that the number and quality of articles published in jl4d has been comparable with more established journals and that jl4d has also attracted relatively more articles from commonwealth countries and sub-saharan africa. while there are points to note, for example the relative preponderance of descriptive and qualitative articles compared with other journals, jl4d is providing a valuable input to the literature on learning for development, especially on educational issues. our case study illustrates some of these points in that it provides an example from sub-saharan africa of how a particular institution in uganda is grappling with the potential of new technologies to support students. mayanja, tibaingana and birevu examine the introduction of a range of flexible and online resources provided by the institute of open, distance and e-learning at makerere university, and uncover some good practice but also a number of issues and provide recommendations. for example, mobile phones, as in our invited articles, provide much the most frequently used and easily accessible form of technology (96% of the sample), but the university is not taking advantage of this to respond to enquiries, use sms or interact with students via e-mail. the book review by ferreira-myers of col’s guide to blended learning (cleveland-innes & wilton, 2018) confirms that “quality assessment rubrics for blended learning” are only in the initial stages. the book/resource itself is also concerned with the potential for online resources and technologies to promote learning for development. the guide http://oasis.col.org/handle/11599/3095 provides a valuable, free, online resource for all those developing and using blended learning strategies. the united nations declaration 2015 looks forward to “a world with universal literacy. a world with equitable and universal access to quality education at all levels, to health care and social protection, where physical, mental and social well-being are assured (united nations, 2015, declaration 7 https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld). this issue of jl4d has looked forward to the potential for new technologies to contribute to these goals. we can vision the future and take action to meet our students’ needs (salmon); maximise the potential of mobile learning devices (kukulska-hulme; makoe & shandu-phetla; mayanja et al.); and work towards ensuring educational opportunities are available to all (kukulska-hulme, makoe & shandu-phetla; coughlan & goff; mayanja et al; ferreira-myers). further research and scholarship in all these areas 94 will be vital and we are very pleased to have evidence from mishra that jl4d is making a small contribution in this area towards meeting some of these ambitious educational goals. some general themes emerge from the papers in this issue. we need far greater awareness of the huge changes we are facing and then adapt our practices in this light (salmon; kukulska-hulme); we need to recognise and acknowledge the great value of collaboration with partners (coughlan & goff; ferreira-myers); and perhaps above all, we need to act on the potential of new technologies, especially mobile technologies, to widen participation and ensure the involvement of all those who have previously been excluded or marginalised from learning for development (kukulska-hulme; makoe & shandu-phetla; coughlan & goff; mayanja et al.). it is therefore all the more important to take action as soon as possible to maximise the potential for icts to contribute to meeting the sdgs, and supporting those previously excluded, especially as we read (june 2019) that the numbers of people forcibly displaced worldwide has risen to 7.8 million (unhcr, 2019). anne gaskell chief editor, jl4d references kanwar, a. (2014). foreword. journal of learning for development, 1(1). retrieved from https://jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/article/view/37/14 salmon, g. (2000, 3rd ed., 2011). e-moderating: the key to online teaching and learning. london and new york, routledge. salmon, g. (2002, 2nd ed., 2013). e-tivities: the key to active online learning. london and new york, routledge. unhcr (2019). united nations high commission for refugees. figures at a glance. retrieved from https://www.unhcr.org/figures-at-a-glance.html united nations (2015). transforming our world: the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. a/res/70/1. retrieved from https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld united nations (2015). sustainable development goals. retrieved from https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/ cite this paper as: gaskell, a. (2019). editorial— how can we maximise the potential of new technologies to meet the sustainable development goals (sdgs)? journal of learning for development, 6(2), 91 – 94. pulist book review mobile learning: transforming the delivery of education and training mohamed ally (ed) athabasca university press, athabasca, 2011, pp. i-xx, 1-297, issn 1919-4382, hb. s. k. pulist vol. 3, no. 2 the use of mobile devices in education and training is a new phenomenon.  there have been positive developments in the area with regard to use of mobile technologies. mobile learning further enhances the flexibility to access learning material and other sources of knowledge. while giving control of learning, mobile devices allow learners to continue their learning anytime and anywhere. the volume in hand was initially published in 2009 and the second printing came out in 2011. the book came at an appropriate time when uses of mobile devices are being explored by educational institutions, commercial organisations and public governance agencies.  the penetration of mobile devices among people across the globe is exponentially increasing. the smart mobile devices are the latest attraction.  keeping in view mobile usage, it has been encouraging for educational institutions to tap into this technology to push their boundaries. it is an expectation as well as an opportunity for educational institutions to enrich their educational and training experiences by way of integrating mobile technologies and transforming delivery of education and training. the book primarily covers different mobile devices and technology being used; design and development of learning material compatible with the smart devices; and strategies for delivery of learning and training through these hand-held devices. the book also examines the range of uses of mobile devices in learning and presents a canvas of theoretical and practical aspects of formal and informal uses of these devices. the book has three main parts and all the parts contribute to the progression of the main theme one by one.  the first part sets the stage for the second part by providing a theoretical framework of mobile learning and discussing an ideal model of use of the technology, while presenting the current status of the technology in different settings. the second part discusses the research framework of mobile learning and makes suggestions for the development and implementation of mobile learning and training initiatives in times to come. the third part focuses on case studies in mobile learning and presents some of the successful models of implementation of mobile learning projects. the best practices of mobile learning are discussed throughout these case studies. part one on ‘advances in mobile learning’ contains two chapters. chapter 1, by john traxler, defines mobile learning from different perspectives. it explores the issues connected with mobile learning and propagates its sustainable development through resolution of these issues. the author opens the discussion on the scope of integration of mobile learning in distance learning. the in-depth discussion on techniques and principles for development of appropriate evaluation methodologies for mobile learning also finds a place in the presentation.   in chapter 2, marguerite l. koole describes mobile learning as a process – a product of “convergence of mobile technologies, human learning capacities and social interaction”.  the author contextualises the frame model (framework for the rational analysis of mobile education) for addressing different contemporary issues. it is argued that the model can be used for development of different components of mobile-mediated virtual environments. it could help the stakeholders in understanding mobile learning and augmenting its benefits. part two on ‘research on mobile learning’ contains chapters 3 to 6. chapter 3, by torstein rekkedal and aleksander dye, discusses the basic pedagogical philosophies focusing on the lessons learned during the integration of mobile learning at the norwegian knowledge institute. the reflections from these mobile learning projects raise many pragmatic issues which would usually form part of such a project on mobile learning.  however, the solutions put forth by the authors may need to be contextualised as per the prevailing local conditions. in order to overcome the issues of cost, the learning material should be developed and presented in such a manner so as to facilitate both mobile and distance learning environments at the same time. richard f. kenny, caroline park, jocelyne k. c. van neste-kenny, pamela a. burton, and jan meiers examine the applicability and usability of mobile learning in nursing education in chapter 4. the authors base their analysis on the frame model by koole, as discussed in chapter 2. the authors have found that the use of mobile learning in nursing education is feasible, subject to certain issues to be addressed appropriately for enhancing the effectiveness of the pedagogical transitions.  the implications of such a usage in the instructional context also find a place in the discussion. even though not clearly specified, formal learning is often juxtaposed with informal learning. students, it is invariably claimed, are spending long hours in informal learning activities. it may sometimes outweigh the time spent by them on formal learning. this is the very topic of chapter 5 by gill clough, ann c. jones, patrick mcandrew, and eileen scanlon.  the authors build their plot justifiably to study the ‘informal learning practices of enthusiastic mobile device owners’. the results suggest that mobile users make use of their devices to support their learning by performing informal learning activities. it may happen intentionally or unintentionally. some of the participants of the study even adapted their devices to fulfill different learning needs. this adaptation was far more complex than the simple appropriation process. chapter 6, by kristine peters, presents findings of a research study on the use of mobile technologies for commerce and learning. the author argues that the use of mobile technologies was common in the commercial sector, though their use in learning was not common.  however, their use in learning can pave the way for new methods of education delivery on a ‘just enough, just in time, and just for me’ basis. they can be best suited to the demand of the learners in the 21st century. the mobile technologies can provide tailor-made training and learning, satisfying the individual needs of the learners. the learning could be situated and contextualised with the help of peers and teachers. part three focuses on the ‘application of mobile learning’ in chapters 7 to 13. while the use of mobile devices has become common, not many studies are available as to how the users are making use of these devices in teaching and learning or for that matter, at work or during their leisure time. chapter 7, by agnes kukulska-hulme and john pettit, focuses on this very aspect of mobile usage. the authors have made an in-depth investigation on the use of personal mobile devices by the students of an online and distance education master’s degree programme offered by the uk open university’s institute of educational technology.  the findings may help those involved with mobile learning in identifying the devices which could be beneficial for a section of learners and also ensuring better use of these devices. the authors found that mobiles have become a common tool in the hands of the users, which serves different purposes in the formal and informal contexts. the mobile devices are creating new contexts in learning environments. claire bradley, richard haynes, john cook, tom boyle, and carl smith in chapter 8 discuss design and development issues in mobile learning with the help of ‘prototypes of multimedia learning objects’. the authors also analyse various design and development issues in the process while focusing on the principles of design and development of ‘multimedia learning objects’.  the developers need to address all the issues arising out of the new situation. the key issue has been how to integrate multimedia learning objects with mobile phones in a campus-based teaching environment. chapter 9 shares the experiences of a training programme of managers of technology transfer following a blended learning approach. these managers work for an italian scientific technological park. michelle pieri and davide diamantini found that the mobile-based training method suited the managers, since it allowed them to put to good use their extra time spent travelling on the bus or just waiting, in other cases.  however, there was a need to develop pedagogical strategies for using the experiential element to strengthen the learning process and enriching the learning experiences of the trainees. merryl ford and teemu leinonen present a case study on the  mobileed project in chapter 10. the project is a south african initiative focusing on mobile tools and services platform for formal and informal learning.  the authors examine the place of mobile devices in this educational scenario. similar projects are being replicated in other countries such as finland, india, and brazil. the project introduces the concept of ‘audio wikipedia’ in a south african context, which is considered vital for african oral tradition. the authors see the institutionalisation of mobile device use in an african context as a major challenge, keeping in mind the alleged illicit use of these devices in the schools. in chapter 11, jon gregson and dolf jordaan, present a case study based on a mobile learning project. the study focuses on the post-graduate students of a distance learning programme in the southern african development community (sadc) region. the authors make a detailed analysis of challenges emerging out of the context and suggest the ways these challenges could be overcome, and how mobile tools could be used in a beneficial way. they propagate innovation in design, development and delivery of distance learning programmes. the study puts forth salient findings as to how mobile learning can help achieve the objectives of odl programmes. mobile technologies can be used to provide customised services to individual learners and to enhance their learning. the authors feel that the real challenge is how to integrate mobile learning into the holistic learning modes in the institution for the benefit of the learners. as the theme of the book indicates, mobile technologies can be used to enrich pedagogical processes in formal and informal learning situations. these technologies can be contextualised to deliver flexible learning support services to learners, in accordance with a learner-centered approach. chapter 12, by laura naismith and m. paul smith, carries forward in the same spirit but for delivering ‘learner centered experiences’ in a traditional museum setting. the authors present a study focusing on two flash-based multimedia tours which were designed and developed for hypertag magus guide system. these multimedia tours were tried with visitors to the lapworth museum of geology, university of birmingham. the results revealed that mobile technologies have a great potential for use in a museum setting. the authors believe that the use of mobile has the ‘ability to respond quickly to global geological events, such as volcanic eruptions or earthquakes’. some of the challenges identified by the authors are: technical reliability of mobile devices; keeping the device interaction simple; keeping the system compatible to user-owned devices; work load; cost of use; training and support of staff members; and designing and developing new mobile learning objects. jocelyn wishart in chapter 13 deals with a uk teacher development agency funded small-scale project. the focus of the project is on use of mobile technology for teacher training. the mobile devices used primarily for the experiments were personal digital assistants (pdas) and smart phones.  the author found that management of information in an efficient manner is pre-requisite in order to enable the users to reap the benefit of mobile technology use, though the teachers and trainees both realized the potential of pda for pedagogical support. in order to enhance the effectiveness of the experiment, the institutions need to recognize the mobile devices as part of an ict system for the institution holistically. mobile technologies have the potential to make teaching and training happen in a manner like never before. the book reviewed here justifies the need as well as the potential of these technologies. the chronological order of the chapters bring maturity to the discussion of the theme step by step, where the initial chapters set the stage for the principles and theoretical framework of mobile learning, the subsequent chapters help grow the theme and the last chapters present mobile learning practices within case studies.  the use of mobile technologies in education and training are indispensable since their uses in the commercial world have already proved beneficial. thus, educators and trainers need to examine these technologies thoughtfully. the individual authors have tried to focus on the main theme of the book, while discussing their individual projects.  i am sure the book might have created a niche for itself by now in the world of mobile learning. the book is a must read for researchers and educational technologists working in the area of use of mobile technologies for pedagogical purposes with a flexible learner-centric approach for formal and informal settings. reviewed by: dr. s. k. pulist, deputy director, indira gandhi national open university, new delhi, india. email: skpulist@ignou.ac.in microsoft word law.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 262-272 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. 262 how directing formal students to institutionally-delivered oer supports their success patrina law the open university, united kingdom abstract: the openlearn platform was launched in 2006 with the aim of delivering excerpts of the open university’s (uk) (ou) curriculum as open educational resources (oer). now reaching over 9m learners a year, the platform delivers free courses, educational interactives, videos and articles across a broad range of subjects reflecting what is delivered formally to students and through topical, engaging content. the ou is the uk’s largest university for undergraduate education with around 170,000 enrolled students primarily engaged in online, distance education. whilst previous studies on openlearn had revealed the demographics of learners using the platform (law et al., 2013; perryman et al., 2013; law & jelfs, 2016), platform-derived analytics showed that a high proportion of ou students were also using openlearn, despite it not performing any formally directed role in the delivery of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees. this paper discusses research undertaken with ou students in 2017 to examine their experience and motivations for using openlearn and the potential impact on their learning. surveys were issued to 10,000 students with the resulting data informing university strategy around the function of oer as a means to motivate, prepare and retain students. data showed that students are using openlearn for module choice, as a taster of ou study before signing up, for study preparedness, time-management planning, confidence-building, assessment support and professional development. in addition, ou students who use openlearn are more likely to be retained and to progress to their next course. this paper will also discuss recommendations and actions taken from this research that were realised in 2018 and early results from this, ostensibly the impact of a project to integrate oer into the student induction process. the data revealed in this paper will be of interest to the wider academic community, he policymakers, those involved in delivering non-accredited learning and in the impact of oer. keywords: oer, open educational resources, higher education, policy, retention, moocs, distance learning, online learning. introduction the open educational resources (oer) movement over the past ten years has described many benefits of releasing learning for free, including business remunerations to institutions as well as a means to altruistically reach underserved groups. through its mission to provide oer at scale, openlearn was launched in 2006 by the open university (ou) (uk), and while not a unique presence on the global stage in providing free adult learning content, it was the only site of its kind based in the uk. other oer sites, such as the saylor foundation platform and free course materials issued through opencourseware (massachusetts institute of technology’s [mit] free course extract website) were 263 established in the early to mid-2000s as non-profit-making entities with a mission to provide free learning under a creative commons licence. like mit’s opencourseware, openlearn helped to lift the lid on formal university teaching material, giving learners a taster of study and access to content they might not otherwise have been able to afford to use. when openlearn was launched as the result of a two-year project funded by the william and flora hewlett foundation, the ou attempted to release approximately 5% of its taught courses as oer. the university continued to undertake this activity after funding ended in 2008 as it complemented the ou’s royal charter, which states that it should “promote the educational well-being of the community generally” (the open university, 1969, p. iv) and was already doing this in part through its broadcast relationship with the british broadcasting corporation (bbc). the number of learners using openlearn grows each year, with over 9m learners visiting the platform between august 2018 and july 2019. it now supports almost a thousand free courses and tens of thousands of educational interactives (short online activities), articles and videos, derived from formal module learning material or developed with faculties reflecting the taught curriculum and current research outputs. much work has been undertaken by the author from 2013 onwards, to refine the oer offering on openlearn to more effectively impact learner satisfaction, skills development and social need (law & perryman, 2015; law & jelfs, 2016; and law, 2016). this refinement has the dual function of also delivering a business impact to the university through the recruitment of new students (perryman et al., 2013; law, 2015; and law & perryman, 2017). previous openlearn research with a significant hike in university fees in england in 2010 (browne, 2010) the higher education academy predicted in 2012 that higher fees may lead to a negative impact on retention (thomas, 2012). in 2016, law and jelfs (2016) embarked on a study to investigate the impact of the use of oer by the university’s student body and whether oer had a role in formal student retention. the study provided empirical data to support thomas’ suggestion revealing results of a survey of formal ou students’ motivations for using openlearn. of the 1,127 student respondents from those who had used openlearn, 48% declared increased confidence in their studies as a result of using the platform. qualitative data provided an enriched understanding of, and concurrence with, that which had been gleaned from the general openlearn platform surveys. it revealed that openlearn provides formal students with the opportunity: • to help choose the right module through the provision of module excerpts (particularly important in light of raised tuition fees). • to improve confidence and re-assure they have the ability to study at he level. • to see what study at the ou is like before making a commitment. • to use openlearn materials as an additional resource for study. • to provide references for key topic areas. however, the study also revealed: • a dissatisfaction with website usability. 264 • a lack of connection with the university’s online prospectus, i.e., links from module descriptions to adapted samples of the content on openlearn. • a desire to see more study-support content. • a desire for ou-branded recognition of study undertaken on openlearn, i.e., certificates. critically, data also showed that ou students using openlearn were 5% more likely to pass their current module and progress to their next one, than those who did not. by comparing data collected from openlearn surveys issued in 2013 and 2015, law (2015) reports an increase in positive perception of the impact of oer on learners’ studies. the author revealed that over a two-year period, formal learners (all students, not just ou students) using openlearn, had reported: • increased participation in class discussions, • increased satisfaction with the learning experience, • improvement in grades, • increased independence and self-reliance, • increased experimentation with new ways of learning, • increased enthusiasm for future study, and • new interest in a wider range of subjects. the possible interpretations for this data are: • that formal learners overall may be becoming more skilled at self-directed learning with oer. • the increased cost of paid-for higher education may be leading formal students to more determinedly seek out support for their studies, to increase their chances of success. • educators may be getting more skilled at using oer in their teaching and/or directing learners to oer for self-study. (law, 2015, p. 303) these two studies – openlearn surveys in 2013 and 2015 and the ou student survey – led to a large body of development work undertaken in 2015-16 which led to the complete redesign and relaunch of the platform in january 2017. learners declared that it was not easy to find study skills and careers-related content and so, along with a full relaunch, two new sections were introduced to specifically support ou students: skills for study and skills for work, a curation of existing and newly-commissioned content. disabled learners (through the main openlearn surveys) had also identified a need for alternative formats for openlearn courses to enable offline study. these were developed for all free courses in 2016. recognition for study was introduced through the issuing of free statements of participation on all openlearn courses (a free, ou-branded pdf) and digital badges were piloted and became a business-as-usual approach to commissioning bespoke high-impact introductory and professional development-related courses (law, 2015). 265 in addition, the layout of openlearn courses was redesigned to mimic that of the formal student vle in order to provide a more seamless online learning experience for students moving between their formal module website (vle) and openlearn (figure 1). figure 1. example of a course layout on openlearn. following this drive to understand learners’ and students’ motivations for using openlearn, the subsequent relaunch of the platform and complete redevelopment of functionality to better serve their needs, further work was undertaken in 2017 to examine the impact of this work on the ou student body, and is discussed below. 266 methods in 2017, a mixed method survey was issued to ou students across undergraduate and postgraduate qualifications to learn about their usage of openlearn, their motivations for use and perceived outcomes and issues with the platform’s provision. the study complied with the human research ethics committee (hrec) guidelines and was led by the university’s central statistics team for sampling. the survey was sent to 9,485 undergraduate students, returning 939 responses (a 10% response rate). key findings from this student survey concurred with previous data in terms of students’ motivations for using openlearn to augment their studies. in addition, the following was found: • promotional activity by academic services (the university’s student support body) has been successful in raising awareness of openlearn (table 1). • students are increasingly using openlearn for module choice. • openlearn is increasingly providing more confidence in students’ formal studies. • students feel increasingly better prepared to study after using openlearn. table 1. response to the question ‘are you aware of, or have you ever visited, openlearn the ou’s free learning website?’ comparing the 2015 student survey with the 2017 student survey. yes 2015 48% (n = 468) 2017 61% (n = 551) tables 2-5 shows comparisons between the 2015 and 2017 surveys and focus on data gathered around awareness of, and motivations to use, the platform overall. it reveals little change in the types of content being used by students, i.e., mostly courses, that an increasing number were using the platform for module choice, and that proportionately more were feeling more confident and better prepared for their studies having used openlearn. table 2. what did you look at on openlearn? (respondents could select more than one answer.) 2015 2017 one or more free courses 72% 72% video or audio content 23% 24% interactive game 9% 7% article or reference material 30% 23% ou on tv / radio [not asked] 6% other 7% 7% table 3. did you use openlearn as a taster for ou study or to help with module choice? (2015) did you use a free course on openlearn to prepare for ou study or to help with module choice? (2017) yes 2015 31% (n = 145) 2017 47% (n = 211) table 4. has using these free learning materials given you more confidence in your studies? yes 267 2015 46% (n = 216) 2017 60% (n = 266) table 5. did anything on openlearn help you feel better prepared to study? (2015) do you feel better prepared for study with the ou because you used openlearn? (2017) yes 2015 42% (n = 197) 2017 53% (n = 252) the following comments given by students to explain their answers to the above, illustrate these findings. to improve confidence and/or re-assure they have the ability to study in he / preparedness as i had been out of formal education for over 20 years i used openlearn to test if i was capable of doing ou study ... i then went on to sign up for a degree course. i am starting level 3 in october so feel i need to be more prepared. completed the open maths course to help me brush up prior to starting module. i was unsure whether i would be able to study at degree level as it had been so long since i left formal education … i have used open learn courses as a taster and before signing up for each module. preparation for content, time management and discipline. to see what study at the ou is like before making a commitment openlearn gives a good overview of what to expect from the full course model this open learn course i’m undertaking at the moment will give me a better understanding of the course i am undertaking in october this year. i completed the excerpts from level 2 french that i accessed through the website, to check that my level was compatible with its demands. to help choose the right module through the provision of taster courses it was interested to use free course to help my module that i chose. i was not sure if i would like the subject and the openlearn course made the decision easier, have discovered lots of other course i have enjoyed since. to use openlearn materials used as additional resource for study skills for study. i also sent the url to work colleagues recommending the site. in 2017, an additional question was asked about whether students’ value free ou certificates and badges that are provided; this question was not asked in 2015. there was an equal split of responses y/n to this question; a range of comments were given to “please tell us why”: it provides evidence to employers that you are able to study independently. i have put it with my other certificates that make up my study qualifications and show i have continued to learn on cv. 268 i value the free certificates as they are from a reputable university and they are free of charge. being on an extremely tight personal budget this is very much appreciated. i know that some of the courses on openlearn can be over 15 hours which makes for a valuable certificate. … this could be part of a discussion at an interview. employers value them so it helped me with employment no good for employment so not really worthwhile. like a gold star sticker. i'm not sure what i would use them for or whether they would be recognised as significant by anyone. they are not formal qualifications. e-qualifications are useless to an employer. proportionately more students felt better prepared for study with the ou because of using openlearn. this positive change may be attributable to the complete change in design, easier access to free courses and improvements to course navigation. impact on formal studies: 2017 the ou student survey and statistics team undertook a follow-up analysis of those students who had answered that they had used openlearn, as they did in 2017. students identified as having used openlearn were evaluated to determine (as in the 2015 study, by extracting the module results for these students) whether there was an association between their reported experience of openlearn and whether they achieved a pass for the module they were studying at the time they were surveyed. results again show a positive difference in the success achieved by people who were aware of openlearn compared to those who were not. of all the students surveyed, who had passed their module, 60% had used openlearn. of all the students surveyed who progressed to their next module, 61% had used openlearn. follow-up survey 2017 a follow-up survey was issued to those students who had said that they would be willing to participate in additional research and who had declared that they were aware of openlearn. this was to learn more of students’ use of free certificates and badges particularly given the desire (across formal students and informal learners) in 2015 to see openlearn learning achievements recognised by the ou. the survey was sent to 159 undergraduate students in november 2017. there were 51 complete responses out of 61 responses in total (32% response rate). results are given in tables 6 and 7. whilst actual numbers of responses are low, qualitative data concurs with that given in the initial 2017 survey in terms of the value of openlearn to students overall. table 6. will you be showing your certificate or digital badge that you earned on openlearn to an employer or prospective employer? yes no undecided 2017 48% (n = 25) 29% (n = 15) 23% (n = 12) optional comments given in response to “please explain your answer”: it shows that i have taken time out of my personal life to enhance my knowledge which i think can only benefit any application. 269 i will show this as proof of self-development and improvement. this will also show my ability to manage my time around other commitments while developing myself. my employer is always interested in achievements internal and external. table 7. will you include your certificate or digital badge as part of your ongoing cv? yes no undecided 2017 69% (n = 36) 12% (n = 6) 19% (n = 10) optional comments given in response to “please explain your answer” include: it will enhance my career prospects. being able to show that you enjoy learning for the sake of learning is a good point. studying any subject shows the skill of time management. opportunities for improvement in terms of areas for improvement comments showed that there was little/no dissatisfaction with: • website navigation since the site had been redesigned, • provision for disabled learners, and • recognition for study (the site now offers free statements of participation and digital badges on courses). key areas of improvement remained: • needing better links from the university’s central student home and online prospectus web pages to openlearn, and • wanting more free courses in every topic/covering all modules (there are still gaps). students also noted a dissatisfaction with the lack of mobile optimisation of the site. summary of impact on ou students using openlearn in summary, the 2017 data from both the main and follow-up surveys have provided these additional insights: • certificates can be valuable to students who are using openlearn oer for career enhancement, • students want to have more materials earlier, options to study ou courses in between modules and to prepare for studying, • the majority of students surveyed in 2017 who passed their module and who progressed to their next module had used openlearn, and • students value the opportunity to get a feel for online learning and time management via openlearn. outcomes and recommendations from the study table 8 shows some of the recommendations and outcomes that emerged from the study and their status at time of writing. 270 table 8. recommendations, outcomes and their status emerging from openlearn student study recommendation outcome status 1 development of an openlearn-based undergraduate induction course in february 2018, a pilot to deliver a generic ou undergraduate induction course was delivered on openlearn; the course issued an ou digital badge on completion. following evaluation, the pilot was considered successful given the overwhelming support by tutors and by students. in september 2018 a full ou induction course was delivered on openlearn and promoted to new undergraduate students (see figure 2). data shows that there were 13,905 enrolments in the 18/19 academic year, with over 5,000 badges issued. ninety three percent of students who completed the openlearn course were still enrolled on their module after the 50% fee liability point, compared to 85.7% of those who did not engage at all with the induction course. further, during the same period, 6,000 informal learners had seen the course on openlearn and clicked-through to the main ou website to find out more about becoming an ou student, i.e., the course itself is acting as a recruitment mechanism for the ou. 2 non-formal learning achievements gained on openlearn should be recognised on the formal student record while successfully issuing digital badges and statements of participations on openlearn courses, it remained the case that ou students could not demonstrate extra curricula, ouendorsed and assessed learning achieved on openlearn to employers that was aligned with their formal studies. these achievements could not be viewed by their tutors, other students, faculty nor administrative staff in a single, central and meaningful repository. hence, an it project to link the non-formal openlearn record with the formal ou student record was instigated. the project successfully delivered a link for ou students between their openlearn achievements and their formal student record in june 2019. students are now able to share their achievements (formal and non-formal) prior to graduation to support their employment goals, an important development for part-time, distance learning students. tutors and faculty staff are also now able to see their students’ badged openlearn achievements, particularly the completion of the ou’s openlearn induction course, with the potential to flag the importance of non-completion to at-risk students. 3 mobile optimisation of openlearn must be a development priority the openlearn platform had been relaunched in desktop-view only mode in 2017, leaving the experience poor on mobile devices. hence, a mobile responsive design was scoped to cater for all devices, not just desktop computers. mobile optimisation of openlearn is almost entirely complete at time of writing. this is an important development for website discovery given that from july 2018, google’s search engine began to rank websites according to their mobile loading speed. 5 modules that do not have an associated openlearn course are developed the openlearn team continues to work with faculties to encourage the development of an oer for openlearn for every module. a more streamlined resourcing approach to developing openlearn courses was introduced in 2017-18 and is depleting the backlog of courses. 271 figure 2. session 1 of being an ou student, the undergraduate induction course on openlearn. conclusions this study has in part, helped to dispel an institutional myth that ou students do not have the time nor desire to engage with the ou’s informal oer provision. it has shown the variety of ways in which formal students are using the openlearn platform, their motivations and ongoing issues with this engagement. more needs to be done to communicate to staff the positive impact of informal learning on the student journey and the lack of signposting therein. the study and associated developments demonstrate that distance learning institutions delivering induction could benefit from using an open learning experience that serves to improve retention by setting expectations, captures the flavour of online study and introduces the many aspects of selfdirected learning. it also highlights that doing this via oer showcases the approach taken by the institution and can therefore in itself, support the business of the university by attracting new learners. more work is needed to evaluate the ongoing motivation of, and impact to, formal students of using oer as technology develops. however, the study clearly demonstrates the broader benefits of delivering undergraduate induction through oer that extend beyond outreach or attracting new learners. 272 references browne, j. (2010). securing a sustainable future for higher education: an independent review of higher education funding and student finance [browne report]. department for business, innovation & skills, uk government. retrieved from https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-browne-report-higher-education-funding-andstudent-finance. law, p. (2015). recognising informal elearning with digital badging: evidence for a sustainable business model. open praxis, 7(4). law, p. (2016). the identified informal learner: recognizing assessed learning in the open. in p. blessinger, & t.j. bliss (eds.), open education: international perspectives in higher education. cambridge, uk: open book publishers. law, p., & jelfs, a. (2016). ten years of open practice: a reflection on the impact of openlearn. open praxis, 8(2), 143–149. law, p., & perryman, l.a. (2015). internal responses to informal learning data: testing a rapid commissioning approach. european journal of open, distance and e-learning. 76–84. law, p., & perryman, l.a. (2017). how openlearn supports a business model for oer. distance education, 38(1), 5-22. the open university (1969). the open university charter and statutes. updated 2005. retrieved from http://www.open.ac.uk/about/documents/about-university-charter.pdf perryman, l.a., law, p., & law, a. (2013). developing sustainable business models for institutions’ provision of open educational resources: learning from openlearn users’ motivations and experiences. in open and flexible higher education conference 2013, 23-25 october 2013, paris, european association of distance teaching universities (eadtu). 270–286. thomas, l. (2012). building student engagement and belonging in higher education at a time of change: the final report from the what works? student retention & success programme. higher education academy, uk. retrieved from https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/system/files/what_works_final_report.pdf. author: dr patrina law is the head of openlearn for the open university (uk) and is responsible for the commissioning and strategic oversight of the openlearn platform. her roles in he over the past 20 years have had an emphasis on coordinating projects and research with a particular emphasis on open educational resources (oer) and educational technology. her research interests are understanding non-formal learners, developing a framework for good open educational practice and more recently, the phenomenon of microcredentialising and digital badges. email: patrina.law@open.ac.uk cite this paper as: law, p. (2019). how directing formal students to institutionally-delivered oer supports their success. journal of learning for development 6(3), 262-272. carr from learning to empowerment: a study of smallholder farmers in south west uganda alexis m. carr, moses tenywa, and k. balasubramanian vol. 2, no. 3 abstract the relationship between education and empowerment has been widely debated in development literature. in recent times, social capital and community-centric learning have been increasingly recognized as important variables in the empowerment process. this paper outlines the development of a ‘three-dimensional empowerment framework’, and looks at the relationship between a community-centric learning process and empowerment in selected villages in uganda. based on a study of two villages, the paper evaluates the role of the lifelong learning for farmers (l3f) programme, developed and supported by the commonwealth of learning (col), in empowering farming communities. the purpose of the study was to gain a better understanding of empowerment in the selected farming communities and to identify factors that may contribute to empowerment, including the l3f programme. two sample villages with similar demographics were used for comparison, one l3f village and one non-l3f village, with 62 respondents from the l3f village and 78 from the non-l3f village, selected randomly. a survey, which included demographic questions as well as an empowerment scale, was administered to respondents from both groups. the responses were analysed and a regression model showing the factors that influenced empowerment was developed. the study shows that the integration of human capital (viewed purely from learning, knowledge acquisition, reflective practices, skills and competencies), social capital and financial capital, has a positive impact on development outcomes such as empowerment. introduction the relationship between education and empowerment has been widely debated in development literature, to the extent of raising doubts about the universality of the theory that education leads to empowerment (jayaweera, 1999). the attempts to perceive education as a proxy for empowerment have been challenged and arguments have been put forward to view it as an “enabling factor” (malhotra, schuler, & boender, 2002; mason, 1998). one study equating education with years of schooling or literacy found that there is no positive linear relationship between education and the economic, social and political empowerment of women in asia (jayaweera, 1997). this study used literacy and enrolment in primary, secondary and tertiary education as the indicators for education. while looking at the role of education in empowerment, murphy-graham (2008) argued that “when the intervention involves education, once again we rarely see an examination of the content of the educational intervention, or the process by which it triggers changes in women’s lives. education is treated as a ‘black box’” (p. 33). paulo freire was critical of conventional education and argued for “mutually supported learning for empowerment” (heaney, 1995). according to stacki and monkman (2003), “education usually reproduces the status quo, perpetuating social and gender relations as they exist in society. yet, education focused on social justice and equity attempts to change institutions and the distribution of power, promoting new behaviours, relations, and ways of viewing the world” (p.173). they pointed out that formal education has limitations in addressing changes at a societal level. quoting friedmann (1992), stacki and monkman (2003) argued that, to effect social and cultural change, a programme must look beyond transmission of knowledge to individuals and incorporate social action that challenges social and cultural norms and transforms institutions’ social relations. thus, networking, organising and social mobilisation are central to goals of political, psychological and social empowerment (p. 182). while elaborating on freire’s notion of education for empowerment, mclaren (2005) emphasised that empowerment is distinct from building skills and competencies, which are derived from formal education. he pointed out that “education for empowerment further differs from schooling both in its emphasis on groups (rather than individuals) and in its focus on cultural transformation (rather than social adaptation)” (mclaren, 2005, p. 26). while conflict theorists have emphasised the issues of collectivities and groups, in recent times, functionalists and modern economists have started looking at the role of social capital in education. the empowerment of students of lower socio-economic statuses while transitioning from high school to higher education has been viewed from the social capital theory by martinez (2007). the need for developing social capital among students for better educational outcomes and empowerment has been stressed by daily, eugene and prewitt (2007). educational theory has started looking beyond the conventional pedagogy, focusing on andragogy (self-directed learning) and heutagogy (self-determined learning) in strengthening empowerment. canning and callan (2010) have looked into students taking control of their own learning and engaging in reflective practice through heutagogy, resulting in “competency and capability through self-awareness, articulation of feelings, experiences, and ideas, engagement in group discussion, self-directed investigation in developing independent ideas, and self-confidence” (blaschke, 2012, p. 64). the non-formal learning and the informal learning promoted by agricultural and health extension systems for farming, rural and poorer communities used to follow didactic pedagogies. roling (1988) challenged this perspective and provided a three-dimensional model to take agricultural extension beyond the conventional top-down, jug and mug, one-way flow of ‘educating the farmers’ approaches. in roling’s model, structure, institutions and the process are the three dimensions that form the basic premise for extension, which can lead to empowerment. the structure consists of two systems: an agricultural knowledge system, and an agricultural information system. according to roling (1998), an agricultural knowledge system is “a system of beliefs, cognition, models, theories, concepts, and other products of the mind in which the (vicarious) experience of a person or group with respect to agricultural production is accumulated” (p. 33). he defines an agricultural information system as “a system in which agricultural information is generated, transformed, transferred, consolidated, received, and fed back in such a manner that these processes function synergically to underpin knowledge utilization by agricultural producers” (roling, 1988, p. 33). roling (1998) defines the process in terms of five crucial elements; mobilisation, organisation, training, technical support and systems management. additionally, he stresses the need for an institution to have an ‘active utiliser constituency’ which “makes demands upon the system and can exert leverage” (p. 146). such an active constituency can force the knowledge and information system to serve the needs of the members of the constituency. with such a structure, institution and process, the transformation of information into farmers’ behaviours or behavioural objects is possible through horizontal transfer of knowledge (between and within the farming communities) and vertical flow of information (between experts and farmers). thus, he perceived community-based collective and interactive learning and farmer-centric knowledge management as the core of agricultural extension, which empowers farming communities. this paper looks at the relationship between such a community-centric learning process and empowerment in selected villages in uganda. based on a study of two villages, an effort has been made to look at the role of a programme called lifelong learning for farmers (l3f) developed and supported by the commonwealth of learning (col) in empowering farming communities. the study shows that the integration of human capital (viewed purely from learning, knowledge acquisition, reflective practices, skills and competencies) social capital and financial capital, has a positive impact on development outcomes such as empowerment. empowerment and its measurement the enigmatic relationship between education and empowerment is in part due to the diversities and contradictions in defining empowerment. this study uses the definition of empowerment by kabeer (1999), which puts empowerment as “the expansion in people’s ability to make strategic life choices in a context where this ability was previously denied to them” (p. 437). this definition provides a logical, concise and comprehensive iteration of empowerment that fits in with the authors’ understanding of the concept based both on a review of the salient literature as well as field experience. kabeer’s definition of empowerment focuses on the ability to make choices as the central concept. in preparing to undertake this study, it was decided that a framework for measuring empowerment (three-dimensional empowerment framework) should be developed, based on kabeer’s definition, in order to guide the survey creation, and the data analysis. other similar frameworks such as the women’s empowerment in agriculture index (ifpri, 2012), the women’s empowerment matrix (charmes, & wieringa, 2010) and the women empowerment index of care international (njuki, kruger, & starr, 2013) helped in developing this three-dimensional framework. however, as this study looks at the empowerment process among women as well as men, the three-dimensional empowerment framework is not specifically designed to assess female empowerment, as is the case for the other examples given. as silberschmidt (2001) argued, “patriarchal structures and stereotyped notions of gender hide the increasing disempowerment of many men in rural and urban east africa” (p. 657). she further pointed out that the discontent and powerlessness they feel, as a result of their subordinate economic status, heightens their disempowerment. thus, it was important to develop the framework and study to assess both male and female empowerment. the three-dimensional empowerment framework (figure 1) takes into consideration degrees, realms and aspects of empowerment. the mechanism of choice is captured in the degrees which include: knowledge, resources, desire and action. it is important to note that the degrees do not reflect a linear process or a hierarchical ranking. knowledge and resources represent the existence of the pre-requisites for choice, while desire and action represent the nature and mechanism of choice. knowledge is often seen as a resource akin to human capital: however, in this framework it is conceptualised as the awareness of options. it is an important part of choice, as alternative ways of being or doing must be within one’s realm of perceived possibilities before they can be pursued. desire captures the nature of choice, and whether it is freely made or coerced. means encompasses the resources and conditions that enable or facilitate choice. finally, action captures the act of making a choice. further parsing kabeer’s definition of empowerment, it captures other nuances of the “ability to choose” including the significance of choices. kabeer (1999) cautions that “evidence that women played a role in making decisions which were of little consequence … tell us far less about their power to choose than evidence on decisions that relate to strategic life choices” (p. 447). the framework uses the dimension of aspects to guide researchers in choosing indicators of significance. the aspect categories include: psychological / emotional, social / cultural, economic / entrepreneurial and political / legal. these categories were chosen because they encompass areas that would likely have a significant impact on the lives of respondents and are generally accepted in the literature on empowerment. additionally, the role of opportunity structures and other actors is highlighted in kabeer’s definition of empowerment. the idea of choices being “denied” to an individual suggests the role of external forces in impeding or facilitating empowerment; as such, empowerment is not only a measure of increased individual agency, but the increased acceptance of this agency within the realms in which the individual exists and functions. the pilot framework includes the realms of household, enterprise and community. these realms are appropriate for the nature, scope and scale of the initiative in question, but could be expanded by other users to include additional mesoor macro-level realms, if desired. figure 1: three-dimensional empowerment framework thus, the three-dimensional empowerment framework consists of realm (at household, community and enterprise levels), aspect (addressing psychological / emotional, social / cultural, economic / entrepreneurial and political legal aspects) and degree (acquiring knowledge, having the desire, accessing the means and translating into action). using 7-point likert items, an attitudinal questionnaire was developed based on the framework. the 7-point scale was chosen as it offers a more reliable measure for items used to calculate a cumulative scale, and also offers the opportunity for a more nuanced assessment of empowerment. the items were selected from previously tested empowerment survey instruments and adjusted or refined where necessary. a neutral option was included so as not to compel respondents to express an opinion. the cronbach’s coefficient alpha for the overall 100 item empowerment scale was .915, confirming the scale’s very high reliability. the survey resulted in an index which helped to assess empowerment in this study. lifelong learning for farmers (l3f) programme the l3f approach is based on roling’s (1988) framework with the following premises: extension is a facilitation process through which a community is empowered to manage agricultural knowledge systems and agricultural information systems. extension takes place in the context of already established social capital, such as cooperatives, self-help groups, associations, etc., which form a strong active utiliser constituency. cognitive social capital is a precondition for lifelong learning. the community is not a mere consumer of information but a partner in knowledge management and dissemination. facilitating self-directed learning (sdl) and horizontal transfer of knowledge using open and distance learning (odl) methodologies among the active utiliser constituency is an important dimension of l3f. l3f focuses on linking three types of capital; social capital, human capital and financial capital. an effective linkage of these three capitals will help in accelerating the development process. l3f is based on the belief that: unexploitative, mutually reinforcing contractual relationships between rural producers and the formal public and private sector will promote rural entrepreneurship and the development process. learning and extension can be a self-sustaining process with secondary stakeholders supporting l3f within a win-win framework. for instance, by blending it with appropriate capacity building, rural credit can perform much better in terms of productivity, returns and non-performing assets (npa) levels. these gains would lead the financial institutions to support l3f. capacity building will also enlarge the market for bank credit among small and marginal farmers and among other marginalised sections of the rural poor, particularly women. odl will be able to strengthen the capacity building process by reaching a large number of people at a reduced cost. it will also help to reduce the opportunity costs of the farmers, particularly women, in learning. modern information and communication technologies (icts) such as rural internet kiosks, rural tele-centres, mobile phones, community radio, etc. can facilitate the capacity building process in a spatial-temporal context which is financially viable, economically feasible and socially acceptable. the secondary stakeholders like financial institutions, ict companies and markets, as well as the rural poor as the primary stakeholder, stand to gain with the above premises, which are based on a win-win framework. these stakeholders can use this strategy to enhance their business. a win-win framework for secondary stakeholders can help to build a process of self-sustainability and self-replicability. the initiative is based on a participatory approach in which everyone is a “learner” and interactive learning is the crucial aspect of the programme. the initiative integrates the concepts of andragogy and heutagogy in a blended learning format. such blended learning takes place in the context of vertical flow of knowledge (from universities, research institutions, secondary stakeholders to the primary stakeholders) and horizontal flow of knowledge (between the primary stakeholders in the context of community knowledge management). the horizontal flow of knowledge is encouraged through group and community based learning to strengthen self-directed and self-determined learning among the learners. semi-structured asynchronous learning is given emphasis in the context of the vertical flow of knowledge, whereas, structured group-based learning as well informal learning are encouraged in the horizontal flow of knowledge. learning materials are developed at the local level with the participating community playing a major role. the process of developing, using, reusing (and, in some cases, abandoning) learning materials is highly dynamic and spatial-temporal in nature. however, the quality of the learning is under constant monitoring both by the community as well as by the experts. most l3f participants are illiterate or semi-literate, and, therefore, the learning takes place in a multi-media context using audio-visual interaction. hence, icts play a vital role in l3f. however, the technology is placed in the socio-cultural context keeping in view the financial feasibility, infrastructural viability and social acceptability. since mobile phones have penetrated the rural areas, they are used in strengthening learning wherever it is relevant. other self-learning technologies such as cds/dvds and mass media, such as community radios, are also exploited to strengthen learning. l3f in uganda col and makerere university agricultural research institute, kabanyolo (muarik) came together as partners and launched a programme during 2009-2010 to test the efficacy of the l3f model in the kabale district of uganda. it focused on sorghum and potato growers belonging to bakiga communities in selected villages and on the batwa community, whose predominant economic activity is honey collection from the wild forest. following the framework of roling (1988), muarik went through the phases of mobilisation, organisation, capacity building, technical support and systems management. the communities and the various stakeholders came together for ‘mutual conscientisation’ so that the agenda of each stakeholder was well understood by others. once the communities understood that the l3f programme fit with their felt needs, muarik facilitated the communities to organise themselves into self-help groups (shgs) and associations. initially, men played the main role in these groups. however, muarik encouraged women to join the programme and currently, after a period of five years, more than 50% of the participants are women. one of the major challenges in agriculture in this region is low capital formation and inaccessibility to agricultural credit. muarik introduced “table banking” as a form of community banking, in which the shgs come together and participate in saving as well as intra-group and inter-group lending. over a period of time, the shgs were federated into two savings and credit cooperatives (saccos) with more than 1,200 members. a blended learning format promoting vertical and horizontal learning helped to strengthen the capacity building process. the community and experts identified the normative needs as well as the felt needs vis-à-vis learning. financial literacy, shg and sacco management, agricultural productivity in crops like potato, sorghum and maize, seed management, pests and disease management, post-harvest handling and marketing were identified as the key areas of learning by both women and men. courses were developed in consultation with experts in muarik, marketing agencies, the government extension system and the communities. the process of developing, using, reusing learning materials was highly dynamic and spatial-temporal in nature. since most of the participants were illiterate or semi-literate, it was felt that the courses should be simple and precise. using the principles of odl, modules were deconstructed into chunks and granules in audio and multi-media format in the local languages and dialects with specific learning outcomes. the granules and chunks were received by the participants through radios and mobile phones. content was also sent in “short message services” (sms) for the literate farmers through a sms question and answer platform established by the initiative. the platform enables them to ask questions and receive feedback from extension officers and researchers in the farmers’ own local languages. text messages are sent three times a week and audio messages once a week in two different local languages — runyakitara and luganda. for illiterate participants, the questions and feedback are collected on phone memory cards and sent to muarik for review and response. muarik and the other extension agencies conducted face-to-face training programmes for the resource persons from the communities who, in turn, trained the members in their respective shgs and saccos during their weekly/monthly meetings. these meetings also became the platform for horizontal learning through which the participants shared their experiences vis-à-vis their learning. the methodology a study was conducted during 2015 to assess levels of empowerment and the role of l3f in the empowerment process. the study addressed the following questions: how do the empowerment scores of l3f and non-l3f participants compare? are there differences in scores between men and women within and between these two groups? how does empowerment vary across different realms? are there differences in empowerment levels between the two groups within these different realms? are there certain realms in which either group has particularly high or low levels of empowerment? how does empowerment vary across different degrees? are there differences between the two groups across these different degrees? are there certain degrees in which either group has particularly high or low levels of empowerment? does l3f effect empowerment? due to the paucity of data on empowerment before the intervention of l3f, time-series analysis was not taken. hence it was decided to conduct a cross-sectional study to get a picture of the role of l3f in empowerment. a survey was conducted to address the research questions. demographic questions covered topics like education, household composition, income, crops, etc., whereas empowerment was addressed through attitudinal questions, covering the areas of the three-dimensional empowerment framework. two villages were randomly selected; one with the l3f programme (kadarama) and the other without any l3f intervention (nyambugu). both the villages had more or less similar agro-ecological and socio-economic characteristics. they are located in the highlands of south western uganda with characteristics such as smallholder farming, land degradation, inadequate market access and poor road infrastructure. the villages also share similar cultural traits in terms of ethnicity and language. the “farmer” includes both male and females in the two villages. women are actively involved in food crop production in this region with a substantial number of female-headed households; hence, the survey respondents were stratified in terms of gender. the stratification in the sample was mainly to get a differential perspective on empowerment from females and males. in the l3f village, all the households were involved in l3f and, hence, an attempt was made to cover all the households. out of 65 l3f households, 62 households responded to the questionnaire. in the non-l3f village, all of the 78 households were covered during the survey. the questionnaires were canvassed by trained investigators. results household characteristics the l3f and non-l3f villages exhibit more or less similar characteristics in terms of age, gender, household size and cropping patterns. both the villages have similar access to government extension services, except that the l3f village has access to additional learning opportunities through the programme. however, in terms of formal education and access to credit, some differences exist between the two villages. the l3f village has a larger proportion of respondents with at least secondary level education completed. while the two villages differ in obtaining credit, a very high standard deviation indicates inequality in accessing credit across both groups. table 1: household characteristics in l3f and non-l3f villages l3f village non-l3f village sample size (n) 62 78 average or percent standard deviation average or percent standard deviation women (percent) 48.0% 45.0% average age in years 45.5 12.3 43.0 13.7 household size 6.4 2.3 5.9 2.8 gross cropped area in acres 2.6 1.8 1.8 1.7 years of experience in farming 24.8 13.1 21.1 13.6 respondents with more than primary education (percent) 41.9 % 20.5% total credit accessed during 2012-14 (1000 ugandan shillings) 761.7 1277.3 329.7 1099.6 l3f, empowerment scores and gender a care international study of four african countries and two south asian countries has estimated the country-level women empowerment index (wei) scores on a 0 to 1 range and has argued that “a woman who achieves an empowerment score of 0.80 or greater on this index is considered to be ‘empowered’” (njuki et al. 2013, p. 10). its study found that the four african countries had an average wei score between 0.32 and 0.66. an ifpri study assessed the baseline empowerment conditions of multiple countries for the initiative ‘feed the future’ and the baseline score for uganda on the women’s empowerment in agriculture index was 0.86. the ‘feed the future’ study considered a score above 0.85 as highly empowered (ifpri, 2014). unlike the care international method and the ‘feed the future’ approach, the present study has assessed the empowerment of both women and men and it has not made any effort to adjust the indicator thresholds or ‘normalise’ the scores; hence, mean scores range from 0.69 to 0.79. the study also did not attempt to fix a threshold score for defining empowerment. its emphasis is on the relative status of men and women in l3f and non-l3f. empowerment by degree and realm in l3f and non-l3f villages an analysis of the empowerment scores by degree and realm reveals some interesting insights about the process of empowerment in both the villages (table 2). the degree has been analysed in terms of knowledge, desire, means and action, whereas, realm looks into the context in which empowerment operates; household, community and enterprise. the difference in the empowerment scores of the l3f and non-l3f groups at the enterprise level is much larger than the difference in scores at community and household levels, indicating that l3f is providing more opportunities to gain knowledge, identify choices, access resources and translate this into action at the enterprise level than at the household or community levels. it also shows that l3f has not made significant differences in the desire and means at the community and household levels. table 2: empowerment score by degree and realm degree realm knowledge desire means action total l3f non-l3f % differ-ence l3f non-l3f % differ-ence l3f non-l3f % differ-ence l3f non-l3f % differ-ence l3f non-l3f % differ-ence household 0.63 0.60 3% 0.82 0.79 3%* 0.75 0.72 3%* 0.74 0.71 3% 0.73 0.70 3% community 0.82 0.72 10% 0.81 0.78 3%* 0.64 0.64 0%* 0.79 0.70 9% 0.77 0.71 6% enterprise 0.84 0.70 14% 0.87 0.82 5% 0.75 0.60 15% 0.81 0.67 14% 0.82 0.69 13% total 0.75 0.67 8% 0.83 0.79 4% 0.71 0.65 6% 0.78 0.69 9% *not statistically significant; p > 0.05 l3f’s role in empowerment the differences in the levels of empowerment between the l3f and non-l3f villages are emerging very clearly. however, it is difficult to argue that l3f has influenced the empowerment process without appropriate statistical evidence. for this purpose, a series of regression analyses were run in order to assess the role of various independent variables, including the dummy variable of programme participation (l3f), on the dependent variable of empowerment index score. variables such as sex, age, education, involvement in agriculture (years in farming), and ratio of adult women to children in the household (reproductive role) were included as independent variables. age, level of formal education and years of involvement in agriculture have been previously hypothesised to play a role in empowerment as well as in disempowerment, and were thus included in the model (beales, 2012; burgess, 2014). similarly, it has been suggested that the reproductive role of women influences and is affected by empowerment (d’souza, karkada, somayaji, & venkatesaperumal, 2013). the ratio of children to adult women indicates the reproductive role, which has bearing on the ability to earn income, mobility, social network participation, etc., thereby influencing or affecting the empowerment of not only women but also that of men. three multiple regression models were run to identify the determining variables that influence empowerment (table 3). as evident in table 3, the independent variables in the first two models are able to explain 28.4% to 28.6% of the variation in the empowerment scores, while 30.8% of the variation in empowerment scores can be explained when assessed by the third model in terms of l3f, sex and the interaction variable of sexl3f. the full model, which includes all hypothesised explanatory variables, shows that only l3f and sex are statistically significant predictors at the p < .05 level. in the reduced model both these variables emerged again as highly significant. the interaction model consists of the reduced model plus an interaction between sex and programme participation (sexl3f). based on exploratory descriptive statistics, it was hypothesised that an interaction would exist as the disparity in empowerment scores between l3f males and females was less than within the non-l3f group. the interaction model is statistically significant at p < .001 (f = 21.577 3, 136).this regression model shows that l3f and sex, as well as the sexl3f interaction are statistically significant at p < .05. the low vif values (< 10) rule out the problem of multicollinearity in the interaction model and supports the relationship between the explanatory and dependent variables. the negative β value (-0.044) for the interaction term indicates that l3f participation reduces the difference between men’s and women’s empowerment scores. the relatively low r2 of the regressions requires an explanation. generally, a high r2 reflects the goodness of model fit, and a low r2 implies that there is high variability affecting the accuracy of predictions. however, as newman and newman (2000) suggest, the social sciences tend to produce studies with lower r2 values, as the predictor variables are likely to have smaller effects, and because it can be very difficult to fully measure complex social constructs. since the objective of this study is to reveal whether relationships exist rather than accurately predicting the extent of the relationship, a low r2 is acceptable. table 3: empowerment score regression models full model reduced model interaction model* n = 102, adjusted r squared = .286, error of estimate = .05980 n = 102, adjusted r squared = .284,  error of estimate = .05989 n = 102, adjusted r squared = .308,  error of estimate = .06430   coefficient standard error t-statistic p-value coefficient standard error t-statistic p-value coefficient standard error t-statistic p-value (constant) 0.673 0.024 28.16 0.000 0.698 0.011 63.304 0.000 0.675 0.011 62.118 0.000 age 0.001 0.001 1.249 0.215 years in farming -0.001 0.001 -0.845 0.400 l3f village 0.067 0.013 5.266 0.000 0.071 0.012 5.921 0.000 0.096 0.016 6.029 0.000 sex 0.032 0.013 2.57 0.012 0.036 0.012 3.004 0.003 0.065 0.015 4.471 0.000 education  0.02 0.013 1.496 0.138 reproductive role  -0.004 0.011 -0.378 0.706 sex / l3f interaction   -0.044 0.022 -1.984 0.049 * the collinearity statistics for the interaction modelvif : l3f = 2.138; sex = 1.805 and sex / l3f interaction = 2.874 in all the regressions, programme participation (l3f) emerges as the most significant factor influencing empowerment scores (p < .05). the dummy variable gender (sex) also appears to contribute significantly in strengthening empowerment as being male appears to have a positive effect on empowerment. moreover, the interaction between gender and programme participation (sexl3f) also contributes to empowerment. the other variables entered in the initial model including years in farming, age and reproductive role were not significant. the dummy variable of education (secondary and above and below secondary) did not come out as a significant variable compared to l3f participation and sex. the l3f village has more secondary educated respondents compared to the non-l3f village; however, education has not emerged as an influential variable in empowerment according to our regression analysis, which combines the data from both the villages. a comparison of means supports the regression analyses. table 4 indicates that men have significantly higher empowerment scores than women in both the groups. however, an interesting finding is that the women in l3f have a significantly higher average score than women in non-l3f, and l3f men also have a significantly higher average score than their non-l3f counterparts. another significant finding is that l3f women have a higher average empowerment score than non-l3f men. table 4: gender and empowerment scores in l3f and non-l3f villages sex programme mean std. deviation n males l3f .7935 .05387 32 non-l3f .7406 .05274 43 females l3f .7716 .06119 30 non-l3f .6751 .08521 35 total l3f .8139 .04981 62 non-l3f .7525 .06526 78 total .7797 .06623 140 significant difference in the scores for l3f females and nonl3f female; t (63) = 5.29, p = 0.000. significant difference in the scores for l3f males and nonl3f males; t (73) = 4.25, p = 0.000. these results are plotted in figure 2 and demonstrate the important differences in this analysis. it is clear that the empowerment scores are higher for the l3f group than the non-l3f one. also, the female empowerment scores are lower than the male scores, especially for the non-l3f village. the significance of the sexl3f interaction is shown by the fact that the l3f and non-l3f lines are not parallel, indicating larger gender empowerment differences in the non-l3f village than in the l3f one. figure 2: gender and empowerment scores in l3f and non-l3f villages. conclusion l3f is a holistic package blending learning with financial and social capital. such a package offers scope for participants to gain knowledge, be inspired by desire, access means and translate them into action, leading to empowerment. in the present study the effect of this package has been examined by comparing both men and women from a l3f village with men and women from a non-l3f village in south west uganda. interesting patterns emerge from this examination, which shows that the holistic package is capable of influencing the empowerment process. the patriarchal oriented, marginalised farming communities in this fragile ecological region are facing challenges such as a globalised economy, poor financial and infrastructural resources, a constricted human development process, macro political and economic structures, and social stratification, which can accelerate the disempowerment process. empowerment being a relative concept, analysing women’s empowerment alone cannot give a holistic picture. the l3f intervention addressed both men and women while keeping in view the comparatively disadvantaged position of women. the study shows that men have higher empowerment scores in l3f and non-l3f villages. ambunda and de klerk (2008), in their study on namibian women, argue that “the empowerment of men entails a corresponding disempowerment of women, who are deprived of their rights and the capacities necessary to deal with the world at large” (p. 52). however, this argument assumes that dominance is equivalent to empowerment. in contrast, silberschmidt’s (2001) study of men in tanzania clearly shows that the disempowerment of men can lead to dominance over women through violence and sexually aggressive behavior. she points out that, to focus only on dismantling men's advantages over women through a politics of equal rights would be to abandon our knowledge of how those advantages are produced and defended. ironically, empowering women may also free men from taking responsibility… furthermore, efforts to empower women may have unintended and negative consequences for women…unless they are balanced against efforts to deal with men's increasingly marginalized situation (p. 669). the data from the present study illustrates that an appropriate intervention in the form of improved human, social and financial capitals is capable of narrowing the gap in empowerment between men and women. this is evident in the fact that women in the l3f village have a higher mean empowerment score than men in the non-l3f village. unpacking empowerment in terms of degree and realm reveals some interesting insights. the data points out that the process of empowerment need not be uniform in different realms. thus, a woman can have a higher empowerment score at the community level and enterprise level but still can be submissive to the dominance of men at the household level. ifad (2014) points out that, many efforts to support women’s empowerment focus on strengthening women’s economic opportunities and decision-making capacities in groups or organisations. however, the same women often remain disempowered at the household level. they lack a voice in determining household priorities and spending patterns and in addressing their own health care needs (p. 2). similar trends are visible in the present study. the knowledge acquisition and action for empowerment in community and enterprise are higher in comparison to the household realm within the l3f village, indicating that the intervention is making more of a difference at the community and enterprise level than at the household level. the multivariate regressions reflect the influence of l3f on the empowerment of learners through its holistic focus on linking social, financial and human capital. though the l3f village seems to have had the advantage of a greater number of participants with above primary education, the influence of education on empowerment is secondary to the role of l3f and is not significant in our model. the relationship between education and empowerment needs further investigation but our analysis still validates the premises of freire (cited in mclaren 2005), stacki and monkman (2003) who argued that education and learning should not be perceived in isolation from other processes. the study clearly points out that an integrated holistic approach can make education and learning more effective in promoting empowerment. acknowledgements the authors wish to acknowledge the support of the commonwealth of learning (col); makerere university, uganda; department of foreign affairs, trade and development (dfatd), canada; department for international development (dfid),uk; various commonwealth governments; and, the farming communities in the district of kabale, uganda. references ambunda, l., & de klerk, s. (2008). women and custom in namibia: a research overview. in, women and custom in namibia: cultural practice versus gender equality? windhoek: konrad adenauer foundation. retrieved from http://www.kas.de/upload/auslandshomepages/namibia/women_custom/ambunda.pdf beales, s. (2012). empowerment and older people: enhancing capabilities in an ageing world. in, expert group meeting on “promoting people’s empowerment in achieving poverty eradication, social integration and productive and decent work for all”. new york, ny: un. retrieved from: http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/egms/docs/2012/sylviabeales.pdf blaschke, l. m. (2012). heutagogy and lifelong learning: a review of heutagogical practice and self-determined learning. international review of research in open and distance learning, 13(1). retrieved from: http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/1076/2113 burgess, r.e. (2014). a correlational analysis of empowerment and experience with resistance to change (doctoral dissertation). retrieved from: http://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1175&context=dissertations canning, n., & callan, s. (2010). heutagogy: spirals of reflection to empower learners in higher education. reflective practice, 11(1), 71-82. charmes, j., & wieringa, s. (2003). measuring women’s empowerment: an assessment of the gender-related development index and the gender empowerment measure. journal of human development, 4:3, 419-35. daily, s. b., eugene, w., & prewitt, a.d. (2007). the development of social capital in engineering education to improve student retention. asee southeast section conference. retrieved from: http://affect.media.mit.edu/pdfs/07.daily-aseese.pdf d’souza, m.s., karkada, s.n., somayaji, g., & venkatesaperumal, r. (2013). women’s well-being and reproductive health in indian mining community: need for empowerment. reproductive health, 10:24. retrieved from: http://www.reproductive-health-journal.com/content/10/1/24 friedmann, j. (1992). empowerment: the politics of alternative development. cambridge, ma & oxford, uk: blackwell publishers. heaney, t. (1995). issues in freirian pedagogy. retrieved from: http://www.paulofreire.ufpb.br/paulofreire/files/outros/issues_in_freirean_pedagogy.pdf ifad. (2014). household methodologiesharnessing the family’s potential for change: gender, targeting and social inclusion. retrieved from: http://www.ifad.org/knotes/household/hh_teaser.pdf ifpri. (2012). women's empowerment in agriculture index. retrieved from: http://www.ifpri.org/sites/default/files/publications/weai_brochure.pdf ifpri. (2014). measuring progress towards empowermentwomen’s empowerment in agriculture index: baseline report. retrieved from: http://feedthefuture.gov/sites/default/files/resource/files/ftf_progress_weai_baselinereport_may2014.pdf jayaweera, s. (1999). gender, education and development: sri lanka. in, c. heward and s. bunwaree (eds.), gender, education and development: beyond access to empowerment (pp. 173-188). london: uk: zed books ltd. jayaweera, s. (1997). women, education and empowerment in asia. gender and education, 9:4, 411-424. doi: 10.1080/09540259721169 kabeer, n. (1999). resources, agency, achievement: reflections on the measurement of women's empowerment. development and change, 30(3), 435-464. malhotra, a., schuler, s.r., & boender, c. (2002). measuring women’s empowerment as a variable in international development (background paper). workshop on poverty and gender: new perspectives. washington, dc: world bank. retrieved from: http://siteresources.worldbank.org/intgender/resources/malhotraschulerboender.pdf martinez, d.a. (2007). the manifestation of social capital within the mathematics, engineering, and science achievement (mesa) program. (doctoral dissertation). retrieved from this url. mason, k. (1998). wives’ economic decision-making power in the family: five asian countries. in, the changing family in comparative perspective: asia and the united states, 105-133. karen oppenheim mason, ed. honolulu, hi: east-west center. mclaren, p. (2005). critical theory in education: power, politics and liberation. (core course for students in urban schooling). los angeles, ca: university of california. retrieved from this url. murphy-graham, e. (2008). opening the black box: women’s empowerment and innovative secondary education in honduras. gender and education, 20:1, 31-50. newman, i., & newman, c. (2000). a discussion of low r-squares: concerns and uses. educational research quarterly, 24:2, 3-9. njuki, j., kruger, e., & starr, l. (2013). increasing the productivity and empowerment of women smallholder farmers: results of a baseline assessment from six countries in africa and asia. care international. retrieved from: http://www.care.org/sites/default/files/documents/pathways-global-baseline-report-2013.pdf roling, n. (1988). extension science: information systems in agricultural development. cambridge: cambridge university press. stacki, s., & monkman, k. (2003). change through empowerment processes: women's stories from south asia and latin america. compare: a journal of comparative and international education, 33:2, 173-189. doi: 10.1080/0305792032000070057 silberschmidt, m. (2001). disempowerment of men in rural and urban east africa: implications for male identity and sexual behaviour. world development, 29:4, 657–671. authors: alexis m. carr served as a project assistant at col at the time of the research, and is currently a consultant with col in the dfatd supported l3f project. email: alexis_m_carr@yahoo.ca moses tenywa is working as a professor in makerere university, kampala. his specialization is in the area of soil physics and conservation. he has been implementing the l3f programme in uganda. email: tenywamakooma@yahoo.com k. balasubramanian is vice president at the commonwealth of learning. email: kbala@col.org awadhiya mobile learning: challenges for teachers of indian open universities ashish kumar awadhiya and anshu miglani vol. 3, no. 2 abstract “mobile learning” (m-learning) has emerged as a trend in the field of open and distance learning (odl). it is removing the time and geographical barriers for learning by placing learning opportunities at the fingertips of learners. odl institutes in india are also adopting m-learning in different forms; however, it is not fully implemented due to various reasons. this paper aims to explore possible challenges faced by teachers of open universities of india in implementation of m-learning. in this context the teachers of indian open universities were surveyed to identify and rate the intensity of various challenges in the successful implementation of m-learning in the odl system.  the findings from respondents (n =  72) revealed that out of thirteen (13) challenges presented to them, the three most important challenges were: (a) lack of support for instructional design for m-learning; (b) lack of institutional policy for m-learning and (c) lack of infrastructure/technological support.  these barriers were extrinsic in nature as they were institution dependent. the least important challenges were found to be: (a) intrusion on personal time due to 24 x 7 access; (b) reluctance to adopt technology and (c) difficulty of use.  these barriers were intrinsic in nature as they were person-driven. challenges of m-learning were found to be the same irrespective of gender. institutions need to provide adequate institutional support in terms of policy, infrastructure and instructional design for the successful implementation of m-learning. introduction “mobile learning” has emerged as a trend in the field of open and distance learning (odl) and is being accepted by the teaching and learning community (bozkurt et al., 2015; ally and prieto-blázquez, 2014). m-learning refers to the activity of imparting knowledge to the learning community through hand-held devices connected via a wireless network, independent of place and time (wang et al., 2009; peters, 2007; bhat  and al saleh, 2015). it provides unique educational environments, which include connectivity despite being mobile, and personalized learning along with peer-to-peer interaction (peters, 2007). the odl system is adopting mobile technology for providing quality educational opportunities to its learners in order to achieve its mission of equity, access and democratization of education more effectively. many open universities in the world have introduced mobile applications (mobile apps) for their learners (ally and prieto-blázquez, 2014).  these apps are being used for disseminating university related information, confirmation of admission, announcements about important dates, results to the learners, etc. the more advanced usage of these apps include delivering course content, assignments, quizzes, providing support services, organizing events, delivering podcasts and video lectures, etc.  india is a geographically vast, culturally diverse and has a high percentage (69%) of rural population (census, 2011). in such a scenario, an odl system can play a vital role using mobile technology to reach those who are difficult to reach. india has 960 million mobile phone subscribers with a 77.5% rate of penetration (trai, 2015); out of which 200 million are smart phone users (moea, 2015). therefore, m-learning is a more relevant and promising tool in the odl system of india (awadhiya et al., 2014). currently there are fourteen (14) open universities in india that are single mode distance education universities. these were established with a view to cater to people who cannot be aligned with the conventional education system. these universities are funded either by central/state governments. during 2013-14 the total number of learners in these universities was around 2.1 million (srivastava and rao, 2015).  these universities are applying mobile technology in their various activities in order to increase their reach to learners and provide them uninterrupted support at their own place. however, implementation of m-learning is still in progress and not fully materialized (ally and prieto-blázquez, 2014; sharples, 2013) due to various reasons and barriers faced by the organization, teachers and the learners. successful implementation of m-learning is possible through properly coordinated efforts of the institution, teachers and the learners. through this paper our aim is to explore the possible challenges faced by teachers of indian open universities. the study also seeks to explore if there is any significant difference in the opinion between males and females on the challenges of m-learning. review of literature mobile technology has penetrated the education world more pervasively in the past two decades. technological advancements have revolutionized the educational sector, especially odl, where the learner and tutor are separated and the teaching-learning takes place through various types of information and communication tools. today, the odl system is embracing mobile technology (fozdar and kumar, 2007) which is a versatile tool to connect, communicate, collaborate and learn (c3l). motiwalla (2007) and wang et al. (2009), suggest that m-learning is an extension of e-learning and if implemented strategically, it may complement and add value to the existing e-learning models and theories. research shows that m-learning helps to enhance learners’ retention and assists them in completing their course, addressing individual learning needs with flexibility and reaching to unreached (fozdar and kumar, 2007; hashemi et al., 2011; cobcroft et al., 2006). moreover, it can also be used to offer independent and collaborative learning experiences to learners and making learning informal (gikas and grant, 2013). in odl, m-learning can be used to access course content, notes and assignments; perform various activities like quizzes; participate in discussions forums; communicate with learners and teachers, provide support services to learners, etc. (hashemi et al., 2011; cheon et al., 2012). mobile phones are one of the less expensive, most accessible and popular media among students of all ages (fozdar and kumar, 2007). due to its affordability, m-learning may contribute to combat the ‘digital-divide’ (hashemi et al., 2011, brown et al., 2011). in india the cost of a laptop or a computer falls between twenty to fifty thousand rupees, whereas a smart phone with the basic capabilities required for m-learning, costs less than eight thousand rupees. however, due to rapid advancements in technology, mobile phones become obsolete very quickly (hashemi et al., 2011). learners today are ‘digital natives’ who comprehend and analyze information fundamentally differently from ‘digital immigrants’. they are socially more interactive and engaged in team-based activities. they prefer informal learning communications such as e-mail, text messages, instant messages, etc. (looi et al., 2010; cobcroft et al., 2006). m-learning has the potential to address these learning needs of the new generation of learners. despite the proven potential and readiness of the learners to adopt m-learning (hussin et al., 2012; abas et al., 2009), it is not yet exploited to its fullest due to various reasons. one of the most critical driving forces is teachers; who have the capability to effectively facilitate and promote learning through technology (blackwell et al., 2014; wang et al., 2009). even though m-learning is learner driven, the role of the teacher is to facilitate the learner in their learning environment. in fact, teachers who were reluctant to integrate technology in their courses were termed as ‘anti-technology instructors’, and were found to be more frustrating and unresponsive to the learners’ needs (gikas and grant, 2013). it is the need of the hour for the teachers to be trained so that m-learning can be implemented successfully (ally and tsinakos, 2014; kukulska-hulme et al., 2009).  unfortunately very few teachers are able to adopt m-learning for teaching learning purposes, indicating the presence of barriers for them (blackwell et al., 2014).   therefore, it is of paramount importance to understand and evaluate the challenges faced by the teachers. our review suggests that the challenges faced by the teachers to implement m-learning vary from personal to institutional, intrinsic to extrinsic and psychological to attitudinal (panda and mishra 2007; blackwell et al., 2014; ertmer et al., 2012; ottenbreit-leftwich et al., 2010). although m-learning has many advantages and is being adopted by higher education institutes, it has its own set of challenges (looi et al., 2010; gikas and grant, 2013). one of the most important challenges which odl institutions face is inadequate research prior to adoption of the mobile technologies (fozdar and kumar, 2007).  however, not much literature is available on the barriers faced by the teachers using m-learning, especially in an indian odl context.  mitigating/ minimizing these barriers will unearth the huge potential of m-learning in developing countries, which needs to be further explored. method and sample this paper aims to explore possible challenges in the implementation of m-learning in open universities of india. in this context the teachers of indian open universities were surveyed to identify and rate the intensity of various challenges in the successful implementation of m-learning in the odl system.  a survey method was adopted in order to collect the data required for the study. based on the existing literature (ally and prieto-blázquez, 2014; sharples, 2013; panda and mishra 2007; blackwell et al., 2014; ertmer et al., 2012; ottenbreit-leftwich et al., 2010), and suggestions from the experts during development of the questionnaire, the possible challenges were identified. the questionnaire was then reviewed for content validity by experts in the field of education, distance education, e-learning, m-learning and psychology. it was further tested for its reliability through the test-retest method. the final questionnaire consisted of twenty one (21) items to study the respondents’ demographic profile, and to identify and rate the intensity of various challenges in the successful implementation of m-learning in the odl system.  a five-point likert scale from ‘strongly disagree’ (1) to ‘strongly agree’ (5) was developed to measure challenges of m-learning. an online survey was conducted to collect necessary data. the survey link was sent to 350 teachers from open universities in india (table 1) through e-mail. out of 350 surveys administered, a total of 85 responses (response rate of 24%) were received, out of which 72 were used for analysis. table 1. list of the indian open universities (in alphabetical order) # university web address  1. dr. b.r.ambedkar open university (braou) http://www.braou.ac.in/  2. dr. babasaheb ambedkar open university (baou) http://www.baou.edu.in/  3. indira gandhi national open university (ignou) http://www.ignou.ac.in/  4. karnataka state open university (ksou) http://karnatakastateopenuniversity.in  5. krishana kanta handiqui state open university (kkhsou) http://www.kkhsou.in/  6. m.p. bhoj (open) university (mpbou) http://www.bhojvirtualuniversity.com/  7. nalanda open university (nou) htttp://www.nou.ac.in/  8. netaji subhas open university (nsou) http://www.wbnsou.ac.in/  9. pt. sunderlal sharma (open) university (pssou) http://pssou.ac.in/  10. tamil nadu open university (tnou) http://www.tnou.ac.in/  11. u. p. rajarshi tandon open university (uprtou) http://www.uprtou.ac.in/  12. uttarakhand open university (uou) http://www.uou.ac.in/  13. vardhman mahaveer open university (vmou) http://www.vmou.ac.in/  14. yashwantrao chavan maharashtra open university (ycmou) http://www.ycmou.ac.in/ the data was analyzed based on the mean values of each barrier derived statistically. z-test was applied in order to identify, if there was any significant difference in the mean values for males and females. results and discussion demographic profile of respondents table 2 indicates the gender profile of the respondents. out of 72 respondents, 47% were male, while 53% were female. table 2. gender profile gender number of responses percentage male 34 47% female 38 53% total 72 100% the age profile of the respondents is presented in table 3. the greatest number of respondents (43%) was found in the age group 31-40 years. the smallest number of respondents (8%) was from the age group under 30 years, while no respondents belonged to the age group 61 years and above. the average age of the respondents was found to be 41 years. table 3. age profile age (in years) number of responses percentage < 30 6 8% 31 40 31 43% 41 50 22 31% 51 60 13 18% 61 & above 0 0% total 72 100% table 4 indicates the subject domain of the respondents. most of the respondents were in science (22%), followed by education (21%), distance education (19%), social sciences (18%) and commerce and management (10%). few responses were received from respondents in humanities (7%), computers and information science (7%), agriculture (6%), health science (6%), engineering and technology (4%) and gender/ interdisciplinary/ trans-disciplinary studies (3%). table 4. subject domain subject domain number of responses percentage* science 16 22% humanities 5 7% commerce and management 7 10% social sciences 13 18% education 15 21% distance education 14 19% engineering & technology 3 4% computers & information science 5 7% health science 4 6% agriculture 4 6% gender/ interdisciplinary/ trans-disciplinary studies 2 3% any other (please specify) 10 14% * people may select more than one option, so percentages may add up to more than 100%. table 5 presents the professional experience of the respondents in years. the greatest number of respondents (29%) had 5-10 years of professional experience.  the smallest number of respondents (3%) had professional experience of 30 years or more. the average experience of the respondents was found to be 15 years. table 5. professional experience experience (in years) number of responses percentage < 5  9 13% 5 10  21 29% 11 15 13 18% 16 20 11 15% 21 25 5 7% 26 30 11 15% > 30 2 3% total 72 100% challenges of mobile learning the challenges of m-learning as rated by the respondents are presented in table 6. these challenges have been measured on five-point likert scales, ranging from ‘strongly disagree’ to ‘strongly agree’.  mean scores (m) greater than three (m > 3) reflects agreement, a score of less than three (m < 3) represents disagreement, and a score equal to three (m = 3) represents a neutral opinion towards the corresponding challenge of m-learning. the findings from respondents (n = 72) revealed that the m score of all the challenges exceeded the agreement level greater than three, thus indicating the significance of all the listed challenges.  six out of thirteen challenges showed a mean score greater than four (m > 4). this indicates that these are the strongest challenges among teachers at open universities, which prevents them from adopting m-learning in their teaching and learning. out of thirteen challenges presented to them, the three most important challenges were (a) lack of support for instructional design for m-learning (m = 4.38); (b) lack of institutional policy for m-learning (m = 4.30) and (c) lack of infrastructure/ technological support (m = 4.23). on further examination, it was found that the top three challenges were extrinsic in nature as they were institution dependent, whereas, the three least important challenges were found to be (a) intrusion on personal time due to 24 x 7 access (m = 3.83); (b) reluctance to adopt technology (m = 3.73) and (c) difficulty in using technology (m = 3.51). these barriers were intrinsic in nature as they were person driven. this shows that it is more difficult for teachers to get institutional support than to adopt m-learning and devote time to it. table 6. challenges of mobile learning s. no. statements sd d n a sa m lack of support for instructional design for mobile learning 0 0 4 38 30 4.38 lack of institutional policy for mobile learning 0 2 8 30 32 4.30 lack of infrastructure/ technological support 1 3 4 36 28 4.23 concerns about effectiveness of course delivery 0 2 8 37 25 4.18 cost of internet usages through mobile 1 8 4 25 34 4.15 lack of awareness about mobile learning 0 3 10 34 25 4.13 affordability of mobile phones to the learners 3 9 5 28 27 3.93 concern about faculty workload 1 9 12 25 25 3.91 lack of required training 1 7 7 40 17 3.90 lack of incentives to use mobile learning 2 5 14 30 21 3.88 intrusion on personal time due to 24/7 access 2 9 12 26 23 3.83 reluctance to adopt technology 2 11 9 33 17 3.73 difficult to use technology 0 13 20 28 11 3.51 other challenges 0 1 2 4 5 4.08 our findings were consistent with previous studies (ertmer et al., 2012; ottenbreit-leftwich et al., 2010; blackwell et al., 2014), which have reported that inadequate training, knowledge and skills; a time, inflexible attitude, and reluctance to use technology are the common challenges among teachers in influencing their use of technology. panda and mishra, (2007) also reported the lack of instructional design, institutional policy and infrastructure for e-learning as important challenges for teachers at an open university. this shows that the indian odl system is still lagging behind in streamlining its institutional efforts in technological intervention (be it e-learning or m-learning) in its pedagogy. cobcraft et al., (2006) and tossell et al., (2014) also emphasized that there is a need to develop an explicit policy framework and guidelines on m-learning for its successful implementation. the literature suggests that previously the predominant barriers for the teachers, such as attitude, reluctance to use technology, unavailability of time and workload, were intrinsic in nature. however, over time, there has been paradigm shift in the attitude and perception indicating that teachers are ready to adopt the technology in their teaching and learning if provided with adequate support from the institution. besides the challenges presented above, respondents also identified additional barriers to m-learning. these challenges were found to be (a) the small screen size of the mobile device, (b) the concern about the operating system and language compatibility of mobile devices (c) concern about safety and misuse and (d) the sustainability of the mobile technology. gender differences the mean values of male and female respondents for each challenge were analyzed to identify if there was any significant difference in their perception for that challenge. figure 1 shows the mean values of male and female respondents and their respective z scores. the values of all the z scores indicate that there is no significant difference in the mean score of the two groups at a 0.05 level of significance. therefore, we may conclude that the challenges of m-learning are the same, irrespective of the gender they belong to. figure 1: z-test analysis of mean values of challenges on the basis of gender however, there is little difference (also statistically insignificant) in the opinions about faculty workload between males and females. female respondents were found to be more concerned (m = 4.14) about the faculty workload as compared to their male counterparts (m = 3.64). conclusion open universities of india need to effectively implement m-learning in their teaching-learning process to sustain themselves in the globally competitive community and to retain their learners. mobile learning will become pedagogically more structured and ubiquitous in the future (ally and prieto-blázquez, 2014). however, the odl system in india is still in the early stages of m-learning and still has a long way to go. this study identifies the institutional driven (extrinsic) and personally-driven (intrinsic) challenges for the teachers to adopt m-learning and reveals that these challenges are gender independent. as per the findings the most important challenges were institutionally driven, also supported by sharples, 2013. therefore, the impetus to implement m-learning should come from the institution, followed by the teachers. it is critical that institutions identify, analyze and respond to the challenges of m-learning faced by teachers. institutions need to provide adequate institutional support in terms of policy, infrastructure and instructional design for m-learning. ally and tsinakos (2014) have indicated that “it is important that standards for mobile learning be set, so that high-quality mobile learning materials are developed and learning materials can be shared among educational organisations”. the institutional policy has to encourage the adoption of m-learning by creating a supportive environment for all. the policy should provide the framework for instructional design and the development of pedagogically appropriate content for m-learning and its delivery.  an effective policy on m-learning will not only help to mitigate the extrinsic barriers but may also prove beneficial to address intrinsic challenges. institutions also need to address other challenges identified in this study, such as inadequate infrastructure/technological support, the need for training and the lack of incentives to use m-learning. future research should endeavour to identify the ways to remove/ mitigate these challenges.  e-learning is already implemented by the institutions with well-established policies. since m-learning is an offshoot of e-learning (motiwalla, 2007 and wang et al., 2009), there is a need to research if the existing e-learning policies can be adopted as such or if they need to be looked at again as per the requirement of m-learning. also, due to rapid change in the technology, new challenges will appear which need to be tracked and dealt with. references abas, z. w., chng, l. p., & mansor, n. (2009). a study on learner readiness for mobile learning at open university malaysia. in proceedings of iadis international conference mobile learning (pp. 151–157). ally, m., & prieto-blázquez, j. (2014). what is the future of mobile learning in education? rusc. universities and knowledge society journal, 11(1), 142-151. ally, m., & tsinakos, a. (eds.). (2014). increasing access through mobile learning. vancouver, bc: commonwealth of learning awadhiya, a. k., miglani, a., & gowthaman, k. (2014). ict usage by distance learners in india. turkish online journal of distance education, 15(3), 242-253. bhat, s. a., & al saleh, s. (2015). mobile learning: a systematic review. international journal of computer applications, 114(11), 1-5, retrieved from http://research.ijcaonline.org/volume114/number11/pxc3901406.pdf blackwell, c. k., lauricella, a. r., & wartella, e. (2014). factors influencing digital technology use in early childhood education. computers & education, 77, 82-90. bozkurt, a., akgun-ozbek, e., yilmazel, s., erdogdu, e., ucar, h., guler, e., & aydin, c. h. (2015). trends in distance education research: a content analysis of journals 2009-2013. the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 16(1), 330-363. brown, k., campbell, s. w., & ling, r. (2011). mobile phones bridging the digital divide for teens in the us. future internet, 3(2), 144-158. census of india. (2011). census of india, new delhi: office of the registrar general & census commissioner, govt. of india. cheon, j., lee, s., crooks, s. m., & song, j. (2012). an investigation of mobile learning readiness in higher education based on the theory of planned behavior. computers & education, 59(3), 1054-1064. cobcroft, r. s., towers, s. j., smith, j. e., & bruns, a. (2006). mobile learning in review: opportunities and challenges for learners, teachers, and institutions. in proceedings online learning and teaching (olt) conference 2006,  pp. 21-30, queensland university of technology, brisbane. ertmer, p. a., ottenbreit-leftwich, a. t., sadik, o., sendurur, e., & sendurur, p. (2012). teacher beliefs and technology integration practices: a critical relationship. computers & education, 59(2), 423-435. fozdar, b. i., & kumar, l. s. (2007). mobile learning and student retention. international review of research in open and distance learning, 8(2), 1-18. gikas, j., & grant, m. m. (2013). mobile computing devices in higher education: student perspectives on learning with cellphones, smartphones & social media. the internet and higher education, 19, 18-26. hashemi, m., azizinezhad, m., najafi, v., & nesari, a. j. (2011). what is mobile learning? challenges and capabilities. procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 30, 2477-2481. hussin, s., manap, m. r., amir, z., & krish, p. (2012). mobile learning readiness among malaysian students at higher learning institutes. asian social science, 8(12), 276. kukulska-hulme, a., sharples, m., milrad, m., arnedillo-sánchez, i., & vavoula, g. (2009). innovation in mobile learning: a european perspective. international journal of mobile and blended learning, 1(1), 13-35. looi, c. k., seow, p., zhang, b., so, h. j., chen, w., & wong, l. h. (2010). leveraging mobile technology for sustainable seamless learning: a research agenda. british journal of educational technology, 41(2), 154-169. moea. (2015). india to overtake us in smartphones by 2016. retrieved from http://indiainbusiness.nic.in/newdesign/index.php?param=newsdetail/10367 motiwalla, l. f. (2007). mobile learning: a framework and evaluation. computers & education, 49(3), 581-596. ottenbreit-leftwich, a. t., glazewski, k. d., newby, t. j., & ertmer, p. a. (2010). teacher value beliefs associated with using technology: addressing professional and student needs. computers & education,55(3), 1321-1335. panda, s., & mishra, s. (2007). e‐learning in a mega open university: faculty attitude, barriers and motivators. educational media international, 44(4), 323-338. peters, k. (2007). m-learning: positioning educators for a mobile, connected future. the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 8(2), 1-17. sharples, m. (2013). mobile learning: research, practice and challenges. distance education in china, 3(5), 5-11. srivastava, m., & rao, d. (2015). restructuring of indian open universities: need of the hour! university news, 53(2), 13-22. tossell, c. c., kortum, p., shepard, c., rahmati, a., & zhong, l. (2014). you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make him learn: smartphone use in higher education. british journal of educational technology, 46(4),713-724. trai. (2015). highlights of telecom subscription data as on 28th february, 2015. retrieved from http://www.trai.gov.in/writereaddata/pressrealease/document/pr-tsd-feb-10042015.pdf wang, y. s., wu, m. c., & wang, h. y. (2009). investigating the determinants and age and gender differences in the acceptance of mobile learning. british journal of educational technology, 40(1), 92-118. authors: mr. ashish k awadhiya is currently working as asst. director (training and development), at inter university consortium for technology-enabled flexible education and development (iuc-tefed), indira gandhi national open university, india. email: akawadhiya@ignou.ac.in dr. anshu miglani is currently working as assistant director (r&d), inter university consortium for technology-enabled flexible education and development (iuc-tefed), indira gandhi national open university, india. email: anshu.miglani@ignou.ac.in microsoft word oluyide_galley.docx issn: 2311-1550 2020, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 78-89 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. analysis of ict competencies among distance learning students in selected study centres of the national open university of nigeria clifford m. amini and oluwaseun p. oluyide regional training and research institute for distance and open learning (retridol), national open university of nigeria abstract: this research evaluated the ict competencies of distance learning students of the national open university of nigeria (noun), as a pre-requisite for their effectiveness in a computer-based learning environment. 186 students (66 males and 120 females) responded to the questionnaire — learners’ competency in the use of ict (lc in ct) — which was adopted from the unesco competency standard (2008). results showed that distance learning students of the national open university of nigeria revealed competencies in the use of ict to deepen knowledge. however, only a few can use technology and ict to create knowledge. this is despite many of the students showing a high level of literacy in computers and technology. further, the results showed that students’ qualification influences their competency in ict, but their gender never affects ict competency. the research recommends the strengthening of the general studies (gst) course in computers and technology. keywords: competency, information and communication technology, distance learning, gender effect. introduction most operations in the national open university of nigeria (noun), i.e., application for admission, course registration, course management, e-examinations, checking results, payment of fees, etc., are technology (ict) driven. this presupposes that noun students can apply technology for learning. they need to develop digital skills which are important for them to live, work and contribute to communities. among others, such digital skills will include creativity, innovation, communication, collaboration, interactivity, information fluency, decision making, critical thinking, problem solving, digital citizenship and technology operations. several efforts to provide an enabling digital environment to help students and lecturers in the nigerian tertiary education sector have been recorded. for example, in a country report based on the main survey of ict and education in africa, agyeman (2007) reports that the national universities commission (nuc), (the government agency responsible for registering and regulating universities), has prescribed personal computer (pc) ownership for universities as follows: one to every four students, one pc for every two lecturers below the grade of lecturer 1, one pc per senior lecturer and one notebook per professor/reader. while some universities, like the nnamdi azikiwe university, have achieved a better ratio for their faculty, the same cannot be said for the student ratio (agyeman, 2007). noun, which was reactivated in 2002, has created 78 study centres across the length and breadth of the country, in states, local government headquarters, and communities. each of these centres is 79 equipped with a computer laboratory/cyber café. the minimum requirement is 25 computers, but noun has so far surpassed this minimum in most of its study centres. however, noun is yet to connect the centre to noun’s repository, reproduction, distribution and administrative headquarters (reprodahq) through a wide area network (wan). when this is done, it will enable the mainstreaming of: • training and learning • assessment and testing • interactive sessions • synchronous communications (e-mail, chats, forums), and • access to the virtual library. in the meantime, noun uses the wan to deliver distance learning activities to all the study centres, including its online application, admission, registration, and examination procedures, learning management system (e-learning) communication and delivery of human resources. noun currently employs the blended mode in which appointed facilitators engage the student groups in face-to-face (f2f) facilitation after online application, admission and registration. there are now established directorates that deal specifically with issues that border solely on ict application in noun. these include the mis (management information system), ict (information and communication technology) and the lcms (learning content management system). all these ict-based activities in the national open university of nigeria presuppose that for students to acquire learning and character, deserving of graduation, they must acquire ict competencies to help them navigate the ict-driven environment of noun. the problem in this study, therefore, was to find out the different competencies necessary for students of noun and to ascertain if students had such competencies to operate in such an environment heavily dependent on ict. competency refers to the ability resulting from an individual’s knowledge, skills, characteristics and attitudes to carry out work to achieve success (kopaiboon, reungtrakul & wongwanich, 2014). competency is made up of knowledge, skills, and attitudes. knowledge connotes what a student has learned in class or in a workshop as an apprentice. this learning is subject to experience and understanding of a particular subject. skill means to derive from knowledge the ability to perform work, in an appropriate and accurate manner, meeting a pre-determined standard. attitude, on the other hand, refers to stance, feeling, or internal characteristics of individuals that express a sense of realizing the benefit and value of a particular thing. according to unesco (2008), ict competency refers to knowledge, skills, and ability to take advantage of ict for the purpose of gathering, processing and presenting information in support of activities among different groups of peoples for working purposes. nics (2010) and albirini (2006) also see ict competence as knowledge, skills and ability to take advantage of ict for gathering, processing and presenting the information. the european commission in 2004, added communication and relaxation as part of the application of ict knowledge, skills and ability. kopaiboon et al (2014), also stated that individuals who are regarded as ict competent or having ict competency must be able to: • reproduce necessary documents 80 • find out solutions to problems • choose proper ict tools for problem-solving and effective work • collect and share information in an ethical way • process data, and • possess fundamental ict knowledge as well as use ict tools. to measure competency, it is imperative to have a set standard. ict competencies also have set standards called the ict competency standard. the main categories for teachers are listed by fong, ch’ng and por (2013) as: • european computer driving licence (ecdl) • european pedagogical ict licence (epict) • computer proficiency for teachers (cpt) developed by the ministerial advisory council on quality of teaching (macot) • minimum standard for teachers-learning technology (mstlt) • queensland ict continua • international society for technology in education (iste) • national educational technology standards for teachers (iste-nets-t), and • unesco ict competency for teachers. in summary, ict competency is composed of three major dimensions: knowledge, skill and attitude (belgium, 2005; unesco, 2008). knowledge refers to the experiences that users have in terms of ict and the value that users realise with regards to ict on a daily basis. it also involves the understanding of technology and the benefits of using technology in day-to-day life. according to kopaiboon et al (2014), skill means the ability to capitalise on ict knowledge and skills to perform work in the form of: 1. information access and processing 2. information evaluation 3. information production 4. information management 5. information communication 6. the use of the internet network. attitude refers to the understanding of the benefits and consequences of the use of ict and the understanding of the use ict in developing societies as well as the realization of the value and responsibility for communication and other purposes (belgium, 2005). this can also involve critically evaluative skills that lead to social and ethical competencies. belgium (2005) also states that social and ethical competencies can enhance attitudes to such an extent that it encompasses honesty and responsibility for the use of novel technology. this study also adopts the national ict competency standard framework (nics) for teachers. the nics defines the competency outcomes and the supporting knowledge and skills that are needed to 81 utilise ict in performing the job roles related to teaching (unesco, 2008). it provides the performance indicators to evaluate the level of knowledge and competence of teachers to apply ict in the educational setting. this is very important in today’s learning environment, where ict dominates as “king” and is viewed as a change agent for education. the nics structure is a wealth of information presented in a very compact form, comprising the following elements: • the standard title • the standard descriptor • the statements which are described in outcome terms, and • the indicators that measure the level of competence. the nics framework also includes different domains, which are listed as: • domain a: technology operations and concept competency descriptors • domain b: social and ethical competency descriptors • domain c: professional competency descriptor. literature is replete with empirical research, which has investigated students’ or teachers’ ict competencies, a few of which are cited here. every university (noun inclusive), focuses on developing a set of competencies which their students must acquire for them to be worthy in learning and character to be admitted into their degrees. these competencies (aypay, 2010) are described as generic and specific competencies. ict competencies are within the preferred generic competencies that apply in most of the university educational programmes on the international level. unesco, using its various international educational programmes like millennium development objectives, education for all, united nations literacy decade, and a decade of education for sustainable development has identified ict competencies which are universal. in line with the foregoing discussion, fuents (2007) noted competency is a set of knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values that are needed to perform an occupation or a productive role effectively. yáñez-galecio (2005) opined that competency could be seen as an attribute of a person: specifically, it could be related to his/her success in the performance of work, meaning that if he/she fails, it can be interpreted to mean low or no competency. ict competencies are being taken into consideration in the educational standards that various countries have developed in the form of profiles such as nets (national educational technology standards) of iste (nets, 2007) for students in the united states of america, the official certificate in computing and the internet (b2i) in france, and the incorporation of icts in the national curriculum in england (aypay, 2010). nigeria also formulated a national ict policy development agency (nitda) in 2001 (fgn, 2012). among the well-documented applications of computers in education are the ict competencies of public-school teachers. according to caluza, verecio, function, quisumbing, gotardo, lauente, cinco and marmite, (2017), one force generating attention to ict in education is the growing need for lifelong learning, driven by the rationale of the rapid rise in the amount of information and the need for more frequent career changes. caluza et al (2017) also reasoned that ict could help implement lifelong learning by such activities as “on-demand” learning and project-based learning. in the 21st century, universities are pressured to add ict to the skills and knowledge that students need to work 82 and live with (buabeng-abbah, 2012). a lot of other factors, apart from the demand of the century, may also influence teachers’ and students’ decisions to use ict in the classroom, and these may include: • access to resources • quantity of software and hardware • ease of use • incentives to change • support and collegiality in the school • school and national policies • commitment to professional learning, and • background to formal computer training (mumtaz, 2000). buabeng-abbah (2012) also notes that the rise of technologies has complicated its adoption and integration in the classroom by teachers. demetriadis et al (2003) also studied teachers’ attitude towards the innovation of ict in the curriculum. they concluded that consistent support and extensive training are necessary for teachers’ integration of ict in their teaching methodologies. studies on students use of ict and their cognitive gains and achievements are commonplace, and mostly in the conventional system. the present study looks at the ict competencies needed by distance learning students to enable them to operate successfully in their particular ict environment. methodology the research is essentially an evaluative study in which the researchers tried to survey the ict competencies of distance learning students of the national open university of nigeria. the learners’ competency in the use of ict (lc in ict) was the instrument used to gather data from one hundred and eighty-six (186) students in study centres in abuja-nigeria. the instrument, which is derived from the unesco ict competency standard, is a likert-type questionnaire with a 4-point rating. it is divided into four sections, labelled a-d. section a captures the demographic characteristics of the respondents, while sections b, c and d deal with ict competency standards (unesco, 2008), with ratings ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree. the instrument was piloted with 50 students who were not among the participants of the formal study and a split-half reliability coefficient of international consistency of 0.67 was obtained. to that extent, the instrument is considered reliable. being a unesco standard derivative, the instrument is considered content valid. two hundred and fifty copies of the instrument were distributed in study centres in abuja city. of these, 186 copies were retrieved and constituted the sample for the study. this sample is made up of 77 msc and med students, 15 pgd students and 94 b.a. and b.sc. students in different degree programmes. 83 research questions the following questions guided the study: 1. what is the technology literacy level of distance learning students of the national open university of nigeria? 2. are distance learning students of the noun competent in using ict to deepen knowledge? 3. what is the ict knowledge creation competency level of distance learning students of the noun? 4. does qualification affect the ict competency level of distance learning students of the noun? 5. does gender have any influence on the ict competency level of distance learning students of the noun? two hypotheses were formulated to guide the resolution of questions 4 and 5: ho1: there is no significant influence of qualification on the level of ict competence of distance learning students in noun. ho2: there is no significant gender influence on the ict competency level of distance learning students of the noun. results the results of the analysis of data are presented in the tables below. table 1: frequency distribution (gender) of participants valid frequency percent valid % cumulative percent 1 male 66 35.5 35.5 35.5 2 female 120 64.5 64.5 100.0 total 186 100.0 100.0 table 1 shows the number of participants by gender. total male = 66, representing 35.5%. total female = 120, representing 64.5%. total participants = 186. table 2: frequency distribution (qualifications) of participants valid frequency percent valid % cumulative percent 3 degree 92 48.9 48.9 48.9 4 no degree 94 50.1 50.1 100.0 total 186 100.0 100.0 table 2 shows the distribution of participants with degrees. number of participants with degree = 92 (48.9%) and those without degrees = 94 (51.1%) 84 question 1: what is the technology literacy level of distance learning students of the national open university of nigeria? the mean and standard deviation of students’ responses to learners’ proficiency in ict (technology literacy) was used to determine students’ level of technology literacy. the results are presented in table 3. table 3: learners technology literacy level in noun s/n item mean (x̄) standard deviation 1 i can create documents of various types. 3.13* .74 2 i can save documents in the desired location. 3.30* .78 3 i can retrieve existing documents from the saved location. 3.28* .73 4 i can access my online portal and check information on academic activities. 3.58* .63 5 i can access and complete my tmas by myself. 3.68* .60 6 i usually print course materials that are not available by myself. 3.57* .73 7 i can use word processors like ms word, etc. 3.24* .95 8 my e-examination does not pose a serious problem for me. 3.26* .90 9 i can use pdf reader. 3.31* .87 10 i can use ict to present data. 2.91 .96 11 i can use ict for professional development. 3.34* .91 a decision mean of 3.00 is used to determine literacy in technology; table 3 shows that most noun students are technology literate (*). question 2: are distance learning students of the noun competent in using ict to deepen knowledge? table 4 summarises students’ responses on knowledge deepening. the mean and the standard deviation are used in the analysis. 85 table 4: mean (x̄) and standard deviations of analysis of students’ application of ict in knowledge deepening s/n item mean (x̄) standard deviation 1 i use ict to teach fellow students. 2.72 1.12 2 i can use ict to help other students evaluate their progress. 2.76 1.10 3 i can use ict to evaluate my academic progress. 3.00* 1.11 4 i can use ict to undertake independent learning. 3.00* 1.16 5 i can use ict to keep track of my academic activities. 3.10* 1.14 6 i can use ict to search for information. 3.28* 1.03 7 i can use ict to process data. 3.03* 1.14 8 i can use ict to present data. 2.93 1.22 9 i can use ict for my professional development. 3.03* 1.15 table 4 shows that many students use ict to deepen knowledge and other academic activities. question 3: what are the ict knowledge creation competency levels of noun and standard deviation of students’ responses on using ict to create knowledge? table 5: mean (x̄) and standard deviation of analysis of students’ ability to use ict to create knowledge at noun s/n item mean (x̄) standard deviation 1 i can use ict for blended learning. 2.73 1.13 2 i use ict for teamwork with fellow students. 2.94 1.04 3 i use ict to co-operate with fellow students. 2.93 1.12 4 i can explore diverse learning styles with ict. 2.91 1.11 5 i can use ict to develop skills. 3.02* 1.10 6 i can use ict to visit websites safely. 3.11* 1.08 7 i can teach my fellow students with ict. 2.86 1.14 8 i can create learning groups with ict. 2.78 1.13 9 i can use ict to socialise with fellow students. 3.06* 1.15 the results (table 5) show that only a few students believe they can use ict to create knowledge. ho1: there is no significant influence of qualification on the level of ict competence of distance learning students of the national open university of nigeria (noun). for this hypothesis, regression analysis was used in testing this hypothesis and the results are presented in the following tables. 86 table 6: model summary model r r-square adjusted r-square t std. error of est. 1 .031a .001 -.004 8.576 21.65699 predictors (qualifications, degree and non-degree [constants]). table 7: anovaa for regression model sum of squares df mean square f sig. regression 80.541 1 80.541 .172 .679b residual 86300.604 184 469.02 total 86381.145 185 a) dependent variable: ict competency b) predictor (constant): qualification, degree, non-degree. results show that qualification affects ict competency. ho1: not retained. (f. 172 < and at 0.5 = .679). ho2: there is no significant gender influence on the ict competency level of distance learning students of noun. regression analysis for this hypothesis is presented in tables 7 and 8. table 8: model summary model r r-square adj. r-square t std. error of est. 1 .136 .019 .013 17.732 21.46441 predictors (constant) gender 1 = male; 2 = female) table 9: anova model sum of squares df mean square f sig. 1 regression 1608.523 1 1008.523 3.491 0.063 residual 84772.622 188 460.721 total 86381.145 185 a) dependent variable: ict competence b) predictors (constant) gender. with f (3.491 and p of .013 at .05 level, hypothesis 2 is retained, i.e., gender had no influence on noun students’ ict competence. 87 discussion of results results from the analysis of data collected from distance learning students of the national open university of nigeria show that: 1. most noun distance learning students were technology literate. 2. a majority of the distance learning students can use ict to deepen knowledge including search information, process data and for professional development — scoring means above 3.0. 3. only a very few believe they can use technology and ict to create knowledge. the results posted above re-emphasise generating attention on ict in education, and the growing need for life-long learning, which is driven by the rationale of the rapid rise in the amount of information and the need for more frequent career changes. it is thus apt to align with caluza et al (2017), who reasoned that ict can help implement life-long learning by such activities as ’on-demand’ learning and ‘project-based’ learning. most activities in the national open university are technologydriven. this places responsibility on the students to embrace the use of ict skills to succeed in the pursuit of their programme at the university. as noted previously, globally, universities are under pressure to add ict to the skills and knowledge that students need to work and live with (buabengabbah, 2012). consistent support and extensive training are necessary for students so that they will master the use of ict to create knowledge and for their integration of ict in their after-school life. demetraidis et al (2003) also held this view in studying teachers’ attitude towards ict innovation in the curriculum. the result of hypothesis 1 (ho1) indicated that the influence of students’ qualification on distance learning students’ ict competency is significant [(f(.172) < and 0.05 = 0.679)]. this led to ho1 not being retained. it can be argued that this result may reflect the background academic profile of the students studied, some of whom may be familiar with various programmes at the national open university of nigeria. further research is recommended to evaluate the effect of student’s qualifications on their ict competency. the present study was limited to the analysis of degree holders and non-degree holding students. some of the students investigated may be ict students. the results also show that gender had no significant influence on students’ ict competency. hypothesis 2, (ho2) was retained. the resolution of hypothesis 2 is in tandem with the findings of tondeur, van de velde, vermeersch & van houtte (2016) who found no gender differences in the ict profile of university students. in a related study, tondeur et al (2016) argued that computer attitudes are context-dependent constructs and that, when dealing with differences, it is essential to take into account the context-specific nature of computer attitudes and uses. the authors of this research agree no less. similarly, azeta & van der merwe (2018), in a study on gender differences and technology usage among postgraduate students in a christian university, concluded that there is no specific gender relationship in technology usage. 88 conclusions/recommendation based on the findings, it is concluded that: 1. distance learning students of the national open university of nigeria: a) showed competency in their level of technology literacy b) showed competence in using technology to deepen knowledge, and c) needed additional help on how to use ict to create knowledge. 2. the qualifications of distance learning students had a significant influence on their competency in the use of technology and ict. 3. the students' gender did not affect their competency in the application of technology and ict in their learning community. the study, therefore, recommends further research on age relationship in technology usage among students. references agyeman, o. t. (2007). survey of ict and education in africa: nigeria country report. retrieved from http://www.infodev.org alirim, a. (2006). teachers’ attitudes toward information and communication technologies: the case of syrian etl teachers. computers & education, 47, 373-398. aypay, a. (2010). information and communication technology (ict) usage and achievement of turkish students in pisa 2006. turkish online journal of educational technology-tojet, 9(2), 116-124. azeta, a. a., & van der merwe, m. d. (2018). gender differences and technology usage amongst postgraduate students in a christian university. international conference on e-learning. retrieved from http://eprints.covenantuniversity.edu.ng/id/eprint/12483 buabeng-abbah, c. (2012). an exploration of teachers’ skills, perceptions and practices of ict in teaching and learning in the ghananian second-cycle schools. contemporary educational technology, 3(1), 36-49. caluza, j. b., verecio, r. l., function, d. g. d., quisumbing, l. a., gotardo, m. a., laurente, m. l., cinco, j. c., & marmite, v. (2017). an assessment of ict competencies of public scholl teachers: basis for community extension program. iosr journal of humanities and social science, 22(3), 1-13. retrieved from http://www.iosrjournals.org demetriadis, s., barbas, a., molohides, a., palaigeorgiou, g., psillos, d., vlahavas, i., & pombortsis, a. (2003). cultures in negotiation: teachers’ acceptance/resistance attitudes considering the infusion of technology into schools. computers & education, 41(1), 19-37. european commission. (2004). key competences for life-long learning: european reference framework. retrieved from http://hdl.voced.edu.au/10707/285153 european schoolnet. (2005). country reports. retrieved from http://www.eun.org/resources/country-reports fgn. (2012). nigerian national policy for information technology (it). national information technology agency. retrieved from http://www.nitda.gov.ng/document/nigeriaitpolicy.pdf fong, s. f., ch’ng, p. e., & por, f. p. (2013). development of ict competency standard using the delphi technique. procedia – social and behavioural science, 103(2013), 299-314. fuents, m. (2007). academic competencies from an inter-behavioural perspective. acta colombiana de psicologia, 10(2), 51-58. retrieved from http://portalwebucatolica.edu.co/easyweb2/acta/pafa/art-05-51-58:pdf 89 kopaiboon, w., reungtrakul, a., & wongwanich, s. (2014). developing the quality of ict competency instrument for lower secondary school students. procedia-social and behavioural sciences, 116(2014) 18021809. retrieved from http://www.sciemedirect.com mumtaz, s. (2000). factors affecting teachers’ used of information and communication technology: a review of the literature. journal of information technology for teacher education, 9(3), 319-342. nets. (2007). national educational technology standards for students. retrieved from http//:www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-students nics. (2010). national ict competency standard (nics) for teachers. retrieved from http://www.ncc.gov.ph/nics/files/nics_techers.pdf tondeur, j., van de velde, s., vermeersch, h., & van houtte, m. (2016). gender differences in the ict profile of university students: a quantitative analysis. digest. journal of diversity and gender studies, 3(1), 57-77. unesco. (2008). strategy framework for promoting ict literacy in the asia-pacific region. publication of unesco bangkok communication and information unit. asia and pacific regional bureau for education, bangkok, 10110. yáñez-galecio, j. (2005). competenci as professionales del psicologo clinico: un analysis preliminar. terapia psicologica, 23(2), 85-93. retrieved from http://www.redalyc.org/articula.oa?id=78523209 authors: clifford moses amini, is an associate professor at the regional training and research institute for distance and open learning (retrid0l), national open university of nigeria. he carries out research in educational assessment. his current project is “analysis of technology and ict competencies of distance learning students of the national open university of nigeria.” email amini.clifford@gmail.com oluwaseun philip oluyide, is an assistant research fellow/assistant lecturer at the regional training and research institute for distance and open learning (retridol) / computer science department at the national open university of nigeria. email: ooluyide@noun.edu.ng cite this paper as: amini, c.m., & oluyide, o. (2020). analysis of ict competencies among distance learning students in selected study centres of the national open university of nigeria. journal of learning for development, 7(1), 78-89. george book review: skills development for inclusive and sustainable growth in developing asia-pacific rupert maclean, shanti jagannathan, jouko sarvi, eds. springer, london, 2013, pp. 380, isbn 978-94-007-5937-4 (available in open access at http://goo.gl/7dg56f) vol. 3, no. 1 in the foreword to this publication, bindu lohani, asian development bank vice president for knowledge management and sustainable development asserts, “adb attaches great importance to education and skills training, not just for their own merit, but also as enablers to fully realize gains from other key developmental areas, including infrastructure, environment, and finance sector.” this assertion sets the tone for the articles included in the publication, skills development for inclusive and sustainable growth in developing asia-pacific. this publication is a collection of articles compiled from papers presented at a forum convened by the asia development bank in manila in december 2011. the forum brought together a diverse group of international experts, ceos of companies and institutions engaged in skills and workforce development, and representatives of multilateral agencies, government, and the private sector to address the challenges of skills development in south asian and pacific countries. the targets of the publication include educators, employers and policy makers in the developing asia-pacific countries. the strength of the collection lies in the diversity of perspectives. however, it should be noted that much of the information contained in the articles relies mostly on data from 2009 to 2010 or earlier, and needs to be updated. from a historical perspective many of the articles may be of interest to the target audiences, but skills requirements and countries’ attitudes toward training provision in some skills areas change quickly; therefore, data that are five years old are not compelling – and certainly should not be the basis for government decision making in isolation. the publication comprises 20 articles that cover a plethora of topics from theoretical and historical articles on the current status of, and issues related to, tvet in asia-pacific countries, to projected directions for tvet in “greening” economies. the organisation of the articles, divides the publication into four sections. the first section provides an introduction to major trends and concerns relating to skills development and tvet. the second section addresses significant issues and strategies that are emerging in the tvet and the skills development sector. the third section examines the link between tvet and the imperatives of greening economies and how education and training are responding to “green” growth. the fourth and final section draws together prominent trends to articulate an emerging framework for policy and action in the skills and training sector and suggests how development partners might organise their future activities and investments. while there are certain articles that could be extremely useful to tvet policy makers and educational administrators, in general, the articles present approaches and challenges faced by tvet educators and policy makers in countries across the world, not just in the asia-pacific region. articles address various issues such as: the rationale for the “vocationalisation” of secondary and higher education the comparatively higher cost of offering tvet programmes over academic courses with little evidence of resultant economic growth justifying the additional cost the relative lack of student interest in pursuing tvet programmes the necessity for government policy to encourage students to pursue tvet and provide the rationale and support for increased tvet offerings in formal education the importance of providing quality instructor training to enhance tvet programmes the importance of “soft skills” or “employability skills” in functional education for workplace success and employer interest in graduates the importance of employer/private sector engagement in tvet programmes – design, curriculum, training and assessment of learning and public-private partnerships tvet as a strategy for addressing poverty and addressing rural-urban migration comparisons of tvet programme success in differing economies in the asia-pacific region in comparison with countries in other parts of the world. the most compelling chapters of the publication are those that link tvet and “greening” economies. unep defines a green economy as “... one that results in improved human well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities... a green economy can be thought of as one which is low carbon, resource efficient and socially inclusive .” (unep, 2011) fien and guevara in chapter 14 describe the concept of “greening economy,” which they claim has replaced sustainable development, as reflecting four interconnected and mutually dependent goals: “...increasing economic growth, alleviating poverty by reducing unemployment, increasing social inclusion and equity, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.” they emphasise that reaching these goals will demand strengthening existing tvet systems so that they can “... [equip] all individuals with the requisite breadth of competencies needed to take full advantage of the opportunities being generated by the ‘green economy’.” whilst the case studies by fien and guevara outline the general requirements to “green” an economy, the case studies reflect that, the implementation of skills is still at a conceptual level. moving from theory to practice will require financial investment and a policy support framework. shanti jagannathan in chapter 15 observes that, “the transition to green economy will require new indicators that go beyond income poverty and gdp to a broader way of tracking economic, social, and environment progress and well-being.” (p. 266) and anticipates that the new millennium development goals introduced in 2015 will establish these new indicators. jagannathan asserts that, “developing countries need to increase their enrolment in technical tertiary education and improve the quality and relevance of such education. such an increase would accelerate growth and help with skill limitations created by green policies” (p. 277). namchul lee (chapter 16, “redesigning of curriculum and training for skills for green jobs in the republic of korea”) focuses on key initiatives and the financing of activities that have been undertaken to re-engineer government policy and, subsequently, tvet curriculum and training, to support the government’s espoused policies for a greener economy. lee, asserts that the republic of korea has been “...presenting low-carbon green growth as a new paradigm of national development” (p. 282), and observes that after the government had developed a policy framework for green growth, it was necessary to stimulate the redesign of tvet. this chapter provides considerable detail about the breadth and scope of the republic of korea’s policy framework and plans for developing the country into a green economy. there is less detail about the changes necessary to curriculum and skills training, unfortunately, although the system for making the changes is presented in diagrammatic form. most importantly, this chapter is the connection the author makes between government policy, the provision of financing, restructured planning and systems design to achieve the intended changes and overall training modification, including the revision of tvet standards to meet the demands of the green jobs. it is clear that the republic of korea’s success is a result of the firm foundation of government policy supplemented by sufficient financing and its implementation and collaboration with the employment sector in carrying out the policies. maclean, tsang, and fien in chapter 17 present an analysis of interviews conducted with employers in various sectors of the hong kong business environment with a focus on where the future lies in greening economies. the authors note that: ...current efforts to reduce firms’ carbon footprint are focused largely on energy reduction and waste minimisation, which may stem from a ‘business-as-usual’ approach that makes a few concessions to sustainability through the use of energy-saving technologies. there is little to be seen that is radical, with the arguable exception of the engineering sector in which designers, who are not specifically trained in environmental management, are actively designing buildings to maximise energy efficiency and using these designs as a selling point” (p. 323). they further note that, employers did not seem to be concerned about the “green” knowledge of new recruits, because few green jobs exists at the present time, and the employers were willing to train their employees when the need arose. while some of the interview material was interesting, this chapter did not seem to contribute much to the overall premise of the publication, except to point out that employers are rather naive about what the greening of the economy may mean for their workforce. pavlova and chun (chandler) in chapter 18 explore the “green” skills they perceive as necessary to support future greening economies. with the exception of one, “environmental awareness and attitude and willingness to learn about sustainable development, [and] the issues and challenges of sustainable development,” the skills listed reflect those defined at present in the various lists of employability skills. this chapter, echoes the content of earlier chapters that discuss “soft skills.” the authors make a connection between core chinese values and the values they assert will be necessary in future educational directions. they offer a case study of the zhejiang technical institute of economics, which is known for the incorporation of chinese cultural values into their curriculum. the authors argue that “...the ways moral values are addressed in tvet in the people’s republic of china ...provide a mechanism to incorporate values associated with generic green skills in technical education and training” (p. 340). in the final section of the publication, “going forward: possible next steps for a skills framework,” jagannathan lists a number of strategies that will enable developing asia-pacific economies to prepare for the future and strengthen the skills of their human resources for sustainable growth and these include: aligning skills training policies with economic and industrial policies ensuring industry-led systems for skills training with a conducive regulatory framework supporting qualification frameworks and quality assurance increasing the prestige of skills training and rebranding tvet strengthening foundational skills and direct measurement of skills mainstreaming soft skills into tvet, and integrating career guidance and placement into skills training. the above list is not exclusive to the developing asia-pacific region; it applies to all countries, no matter their level of development. in summary, the publication is a useful document of the adb manila forum (2011), but much of the content is already dated. it is a useful record of proceedings, but it is a struggle to read from cover to cover because of the repetition in some chapters, and the uneven editing of the publication. the case studies offer the most useful signs for the future of inclusive and sustainable development. reference unep. (2011). green economy pathways to sustainable development and poverty eradication: a synthesis for policy makers. nairobi: unep. reviewed by: nancy george, ceo of nancy george and associates, kingston 6, jamaica. e-mail: nancygeorge144@gmail.com microsoft word perris.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 179-182 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. book review adoption and impact of oer in the global south c. hodgkinson-williams and p. b. arinto (eds.) african minds, 2018, xiv, 608 pp, isbn: 978-1-928331-48-3 adoption and impact of oer in the global south takes the reader around the world to learn about developments in open educational resources (oer) from a range of emerging world perspectives. contributions emanate from south america, sub-saharan africa, and south and southeast asia, offering the reader coverage of more than half the world’s population. to readers of this review, the promise of oer is well understood, yet not fully realized. cost benefits, ease of contextualization, professional empowerment and efficiencies gained for users and creators of oer, posit tremendous potential for use in education systems in the global south beset by resource constraints. yet, herein lies an important conundrum. how do you create a vision for oer use that relies on capacity building, investment, and expertise in contexts where resources are scarce, infrastructure is poor, and technological access is uneven? the book’s main thesis is that wider adoption of oer will lower inequalities and improve access to education. this is framed in the broader context of adopting open educational practices (oep) (p. 31), which expands on wiley’s 5rs of re-use, re-purpose, re-mix, re-distribute and re-work, as it relates to oer (2014), to include the adoption of open pedagogies, open mechanisms of collaboration, and open technologies. the proposition of oer or oep adoption, however, encounters challenges in each chapter, with authors drawing one or several of the following conclusions: use of oer is sporadic and superficial (limited largely to re-use), policy on oer lacks teeth, infrastructure is inadequate (i.e., bandwidth, electricity), teachers lack training (e.g., copyright, sourcing oer), english oer dominates, translation is laborious, and initiatives are driven by the global north. challenges notwithstanding, the editors, and the compilation of authors deserve tremendous credit for pulling this edited volume together. at 592 pages and 16 chapters, readers will find a diverse and detailed collection of initiatives enabled by dedicated researchers and motivated research participants. twelve of the chapters are oriented as case studies, with each including impressive reference lists from scholars who have co-published across cultural and national contexts, a point that is noteworthy, given that a cornerstone of oer is to create, share and re-distribute knowledge for public consumption. absent is coverage of other countries of the global south located in pacific asia, the middle east and north africa, and caribbean regions. one can infer, however, that some of the 180 findings and challenges found in the current volume will resonate with these other regions of the global south. the section on south america covers chile, uruguay, and colombia and examines oer policy, teacher education and learner outcomes. chapter 4 presents the results of a survey on oer policies in the aforementioned three countries. it provides an overview of major oer initiatives in the region, including scielo (scientific electronic company online), redalyc (red de revistas cientifcas de america latina y el caribe, espana y portugal), and la referencia (federate network of institutional repositories of scientific publications)i (p.127), all of which focus on using open access journal articles. there is also columbia’s reda (the national strategy for digital open educational resources or recursos educativos digitales abiertosii), aimed at creating a national oer system that will be comprised of courses and other learning materials (p. 128). although these resources have been initiated, the authors identify the need for greater adoption of oer, cost-benefit analyses, and capacity building among educational institutions. chapter 5 presents findings from interviews of nearly 50 teacher participants who worked in teams to create oer for use in the colombian schools where they were employed. a major finding was that the merits of oer as a pedagogical tool were realized more from the production of resources, particularly in collaboration with other teachers, rather than from using oer as a free resource only. chapter 6 examines students’ performance in a mathematics course using an experimental method in chile. using the basic question, "what is the effect of oer use on first-year he students' mathematics course performance?” the authors tested a control group that used conventional materials against a test group using oer. the findings were inconclusive, and the sample was small at 65 students. the research design, however, is laudable. if statistically significant findings on positive learning outcomes from using oer can be demonstrated, officials and policymakers will have justifiable reason to take action. the section on sub-saharan africa covers south africa, mauritius, tanzania, and uganda. the topics examined on oer are cost-benefits, teacher engagement, institutional adoption, and curricular adaptation in moocs. chapter 7 is on cost-effectiveness, guided by the central question, “do oer represent a cost reduction with regards to educational resource acquisition in basic education in south africa?” (p. 233). using secondary resources, the findings reveal that, "insufficient information is currently available to track any oer spend or to ascertain any possible costs savings that the adoption of oer might bring,” (p. 245). the authors conclude that more work is needed, emphasizing the need to overcome “data-shortage challenges.” (p. 246). chapter 8 presents findings from a study involving 36 teachers (20 male; 16 female) who were interviewed to ascertain their perceptions of using oer in uganda, tanzania and mauritius. while there were a few champions of oer, the authors concluded that most teachers lacked confidence to fully engage with using oer (p. 278). chapter 9 aims to uncover cultural barriers that may persist in the adoption of oer among faculty at three universities in south africa (p. 291). the authors conclude that in the participating institutions, “we found culture to be an agnostic element in oer activity” (p. 333) with oer strategies not being fully “operational.” (p. 331). given the variance in lecturers’ interests, abilities, and resources, the authors argue that institutional guidance is imperative for larger adoption of oer, framed around adequate support, planning, and sustainability. in chapter 10 the authors look at the design of four moocs at the university of cape town probing the designers’ perceptions on three dimensions of open educational practices: legal, pedagogical and financial. the legal dimension considers how well designers of 181 moocs understand copyright. the pedagogical dimension raises issues of diversity and how well designers consider differentiating pedagogical approaches to cater to large learning populations. the financial dimension of oep addresses cost-recovery. from interviews with the designers, the authors found that openness or use of oer was not a major consideration in the design of a mooc. of the three oep dimensions, it was found that educators exuded the most enthusiasm for open pedagogies with a focus on learner-centred approaches. the section on south and southeast asia covers mongolia, india, sri lanka and afghanistan. it should be noted that mongolia belongs to the east asian region, but as the lone representative from the region in the book, it has been located in the section on south and southeast asia. this final collection of case studies examines national challenges to using oer, teacher engagement, pedagogical implications, and collaborative adoption of oer. chapter 11 focuses on the strategies and practices in using oer among teachers working in higher education institutions, government and nongovernment organizations in mongolia. the chapter is distinctive in the book in that it highlights how broader socio-cultural and political realities shape the uptake of oer practices in a particular country. if donor funding diminishes, for example, there is little prospect for growth of oer, let alone sustainability. part of the problem in mongolia, the authors acknowledge, is that “a culture of oer engagement has not yet emerged,” (p. 417), emphasized with the point that the free use of oer, “may not mean much when educators are already obtaining and using desired materials for free” (p. 419). one of the more salient findings was from respondents noting that, “they would be far more responsive to national and/or institutional-level incentive policies that reward and recognize engagement with oer.” (p. 418). the authors conclude that large-scale research is needed, rather that solely conducting research assessing a small collection of educators’ experiences using oer, which reoccurs in this edited volume. chapter 12 focuses on teacher attitudes and motivations in their engagement with oer relative to teaching and learning, quality issues and barriers. the study employs a mixed methods design and uses educator participants located in four distinct institutional settings (i.e., large private, open, dualmode, and semi-urban). the main finding is that educators had a stronger affinity towards using oer rather than creating oer (p. 437). the authors posit that this stems from inexperience, and an institutional culture of indifference toward using oer (pp. 452-453). chapter 13 focuses on the impact of oer on pedagogy among student-teachers in sri lanka. using a design-based research approach, the authors ran surveys and interviews with 230 participants using an iterative approach to understand and manipulate oer. findings revealed that 10 percent of participants were aware of oer at the pre-intervention stage of the research. at the latter stages of the intervention, however, participants were creating dozens of oer and organizing workshops. while the authors conclude that “careful design of oer integration is crucial for its adoption by teachers,” (p. 491), the larger issue is sustainability. the number of active participants tapered off as the intervention progressed, demonstrating the challenges of using oer, particularly when the motivations are exclusively intrinsic. it would be of value to gauge the research participants’ ongoing use of oer to ascertain the long-term impact of the initiative. in summary, the book offers a comprehensive guide to research implementations of oer from a range of perspectives in the global south. the predominant research method is qualitative, with several chapters using mixed or quantitative methods. where quantitative methods are used, only a few 182 chapters offer inferential statistics but the sample sizes are too small to make generalizations. herein lies the book’s main shortcoming, and, in fact, a larger shortcoming among proponents of oer and the research they pursue generalizability. the book presents no definitive studies on widespread adoption. does oer improve learning outcomes? is oer cost-effective? have sound national and institutional policies been crafted that have demonstrated significant uptake by institutions of learning? while oer has the promise to be cost-effective, adaptable, contextualizable, open, and so on (see bc campus, for example: https://open.bccampus.ca/), evidence is lacking that oer has scalable impact. how many more small sample studies on teacher attitudes towards oer, particularly when such participants have previously had limited exposure, are needed? a fair point is that the studies in this volume have merit in the sense that they demonstrate an interest in oer while building support locally from which policymakers can draw on empirical evidence to expand, or test, on a larger scale. this raises another cross-cutting theme in the book, which is a lack of institutional or national support, despite the existence of policies or guidelines. without a comprehensive approach organized around policy, resources, capacity building, sustainability and goal setting, much of the future work will lack tangible outcomes and impact. the editors emphasize that oer is a mechanism to achieve social inclusion but need to consider how this will be achieved through widespread adoption, with the potential to have far reaching outcomes and impact. their recommendations are summarized under the headings of advocacy, policy, practice, and future research. the editors conclude by stating, “it is in the realms of individual and community participation and empowerment that future oer interventions hold their greatest promise and will yield their largest gains.” (p. 589). in fact, it is more probable that the promise and gains of future oer interventions lie with policymakers supported with financial backing, sound planning, and a vision for sustainability. reviewed by: kirk perris, adviser, education, commonwealth of learning. email: kperris@col.org reference wiley, d. (2014). the access compromise and the 5th r. iterating toward openness. accessed june 30, 2018 at https://opencontent.org/blog/archives/3221 cite this paper as: perris, k. (2018). book review: adoption and impact of oer in the global south by c. hodgkinson-williams and p.b. arinto. journal of learning for development, 5(2), 179-182. notes i http://scielo.org; www.redalyc.org; http://www.lareferencia.info/joomla/en/ ii http://www.unitecnologica.edu.co/newsletter/educacionadistancia/2014/boletin004/noti_apliaciones/001-reda/index.html microsoft word pulist.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 78-82 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. book review open: the philosophy and practices that are revolutionizing education and science rajiv s. jhangiani and robert biswas-diener (eds.) ubiquity press, london, 2017, pp. i-viii, and 1-294, isbn 978-1-911529-00-2 (pb) democratisation of education is the need of the hour across the globe. before it is done, education needs to be liberated from the cost circumference in addition to removing other barriers. the “open” movement is one such initiative that reduces the cost concerns while reaching the masses with quality educational resources. the present volume provides a broad spectrum of different dimensions of the “open” movement, especially open educational resources, be they open access journals or open textbooks. the book is divided into four sections spread over 22 chapters. while the first section, “introduction”, acquaints the reader with the concepts of “open” especially inclined to oer, the second section, “open practices”, elaborates different “open practices” in the area of discipline of psychology. the third section, “case studies”, presents the current scenario of “open” initiatives from the glimpses and experiences of the personal journey of the authors. the last section, “conclusion”, closes the theme of the book. in the very opening chapter, the editors — biswas-diener and jhangiani — introduce the theme of the volume to the reader and build a plot for the next chapters to take over one by one. they find the “open” movement as one possible partial remedy to unequal educational opportunities. though many of the experiences and illustrations provided in this book are drawn from the disciplines of social sciences, especially the field of psychology, they give ample scope to readers to fit their own experiences into them. the chapter by bliss and smith tries to trace the history of oer since as early as 1994 when the national science foundation provided some grant money to california state university for developing the world-renowned platform merlot to provide online access to content almost free. the authors discuss the journey of oer development and see oer as a powerful tool in the hands of educationists to reach quality content with almost no cost to the aspirants. the authors find the concept of freedom to be at the core of oer that is “freedom of access to the content, freedom from cost, and freedom to use in any way”. cable green, in his chapter on open licensing, discusses the genesis of the creative commons open licensing policy. the policy provides a standard framework of licenses, which can be used to deal with different copyright situations. as the author notes, the open licenses have already been attached to over 1.2 billion intellectual works on nine million websites. the use of open license on the content has created categories of works with varied restrictions on their usage. the author claims that when the default on all publicly funded educational resources is “open” and not “closed” we will live in a world where everyone can attain all the education they desire. huitt and monetti, in their chapter on openness and the transformation of education and schooling, set an agenda to transform the traditional model of education to open education. the main aspects worth considering in this 79 transformation are: “purpose, focus, desired outcomes, assessments, processes, transparency, resources, work environment, and organisational structure” among others. the authors share their experiences in the area of psychology, which can be scaled to any other field suitably. the chapter by weller et al. focuses on the activities of the oer research hub at uk open university. the authors discuss the potential of oer use and promotion in terms of improvement in student performance, saving on cost, and development of new methodologies and approaches to teaching and learning. the chapter adds knowledge to the investigation of the role of research in oer in the wake of emerging areas of genre. the authors present the important findings related to oer research from the perspectives of “informal learners, former learners, and educators” at large vis-à-vis use of oer for different purposes. gurung, in his chapter, deals with a topic that is close to the heart of almost all the oer users, that is, “are oe resources high quality?” the author compares the big publisher books (bpbs) to open textbooks and other oer in terms of quality and other aspects such as cost, liking, and purpose among others. the study compares the perception of students towards both types of materials. the author keeps on addressing the concern over how to assess the quality of both the resources, especially oer, throughout the discussion in the chapter. the next section, “open practices”, opens with the chapter “open science” by nosek. this chapter discusses a number of strategies with the help of which different professional societies are using open content the concept of “open” as such to make research more quality oriented. the author presents a road map to enhance the “openness, transparency, and rigor of science” with the systematic process of evaluating empirical evidence, enhancing capacity-building opportunities and extending normal incentives. the author further discusses the approaches adopted by centre for open science (cos) in order to enhance “openness, integrity, and reproducibility of scientific research”. the oeru an international network of institutions has been engaged in developing a mooc programme for global learners. mackintosh, in his chapter, narrates the journey of the development of the programme and discusses different processes of course design and development in “open” environment. the programme is expected to meet the objective of providing “free, open, flexible, learner-centered, credit bearing, online education”. the programme is a testament to “open” philosophy adopted by oeru supporting “open design and development practices”. derosa and robinson, in their chapter, redefine “open” and its possible benefits accrued in terms of “open” pedagogy. they provide illustration to explain the potential of the model of pedagogy and support the active role of learners in a collaborative effort of knowledge building. the different constructs used as exhibits are: wikipedia assignments, nova project student video awards, classrelated textbooks, and crowd-sourced syllabus. the chapter further elucidates the challenges faced in working for and in public while explaining the lessons learnt in that context through the realisation of “power of open”. different tools and techniques are made part of the development of econtent conforming to the philosophy of openness. miller and zhao, in their chapter, advocate the use of screencasts for the opening up of higher education. they emphasize opening the four walls of the classroom beyond use and repurposing of the educational resources. they see the videos created through screencasting as an effective means of content delivery. the issues connected with multimedia design find a prominent place in the discussion. 80 west, in the chapter, “librarians in the pursuit of open practice”, speaks about the role of librarian in the “open” movement. she easily connects the “open practices” with the “mission of libraries”. to her, it is the core value of a library to develop the domain of knowledge in an open and free environment, and develop into a larger community with sharing of resources. thus, librarians can help the students in assimilating change that could enhance access to resources by “sharing expertise in curating resources” and “building information competency”. the next chapter, by walz, takes the involvement of libraries in the pursuit of “open” movement to the next level. she invites the reader to explore “open” in the unique context provided by the academic libraries. she shares her personal experiences and insights in the wake of open education. her chapter discusses the issues connected with oer adoption by faculty, costing of learning resources, and potential and promises offered by the “open” pedagogy. dastur, in the chapter “how to open an academic department”, discusses the old notion of resistance to change. through his argument, he advocates winning over the resistors and unleashing the potential of acceptance of the philosophy of “open”. he presents three main recommendations to organise and regulate this resistance and change it at the same time, viz. “encourage a departmental culture of openness, focus on quality of open educational resources, and encourage departmental control over open educational resources”. while discussing the justification for change, the author elaborates on the theory of departmental resistance to change. the third section, “case studies”, offers seven different case studies. the section opens up with a case study by weijers and jarden in the international journal of wellbeing — an open access journal. the authors advocate the unparalleled access to resources provided by the open access journals, which promote “open scholarship”. the authors elaborate on the concept of “gold open access” and “platinum open access” throughout this chapter. they claim that the creative commons licensing policy can be applied to the journals in order to enhance their access in the open domain. wiley, in the next chapter, sails the reader through his personal journey in the open education movement. the author elaborates on his idea of “open” and implementing this idea by attaching the open license to econtent. he seeks a change in oer treatment to realise the potential of the idea of “open”. he also advocates for redefining the quality of oer to make them more effective and enable them to address issues in specific contexts. he starts his discussion with “finding open”, and traverses through “making open”, “reusing open”, “comparing open”, “following open”, “designing open”, “defining open”, and then “growing open”. the author refers to the concept of “open education infrastructure” which includes “open competencies”, “open educational resources”, open assessments”, and “open credentials”. ed diener, carol diener and biswas-diener focus the attention of the next chapter on making textbooks cheaper and better. the authors are affiliated with the noba project an open platform providing quality textbooks and educational material and study the success story of the project and the challenges faced by them in their journey. to the authors, “new additions”, “non-traditional economic model”, and “size” keep the prices of a textbook high. the textbooks produced by the project have an edge over conventional textbooks in terms of price, ease of environment, remote access, individualization, use of alternate forms, active learning, and accessibility. the authors see the promotion of open source textbooks as the solution to costly conventional textbooks in future. 81 the next chapter, “free is not enough”, by baraniuk et al. presents a case study on openstax an open textbook publisher. through their discussion, the authors bring home to the reader that being free is not enough to boost the “open” movement, rather there are other key elements that need to be considered in order to enhance the effectiveness of the open education. the key elements considered important and crucial by the authors are: high quality, course relevance, and instructor support. the economic sustainability of oer at openstax as a model is at the core of the discussion in the chapter. the bc open textbook is another project promoting open education by producing quality textbooks and educational material. burgess presents the case study of this project, which holds a repository of over 150 open textbooks and promotes adoption of open textbooks at public institutions. the project works to raise awareness, maintain an academic focus, build capacity within institutions and specific disciplines, connect people with resources and experts, and draw from the knowledge of people in the area. the study discusses some of the challenges faced during the course of project implementation. the chapter by strohmetz, ciarocco, and lewandowski presents a case study of a website developed to share the strategies for teaching research methods and statistical applications. the website is dedicated to the field of psychology, though, this model can be replicated in other areas as well. the authors feel that an open access source is valuable only if potential recipients know of it and are able to use it. the authors highlight the challenges faced by them in making the initiative successful. hartnett, in her chapter, presents her experiences in the development and maintenance of her blog, which she considers “not awful and boring” and also as the editor of teaching of psychology idea exchange. the blog is dedicated to the teaching of research methods and statistics in the discipline of psychology. the author feels that there are other ways of contributing to pedagogical processes than by publishing open textbooks. she considers that publications are not always necessary for sharing small teaching ideas. she advocates sustaining a “teaching blog” by presenting to people exactly what they want. in the concluding section, and as part of one of the concluding chapters, biswas-diener discusses other peculiar challenges in the promotion of oer. he finds it hard to convince the instructors of psychology to switch over to open textbooks when they are more comfortable with their existing system. he addresses three issues in the chapter: problems with the basic narrative, common misconceptions concerning open resources, and problems concerning the best advocates for “open”. he tries to suggest how to fix them all during the discourse. jhangiani, in his concluding chapter, advocates some of the prerequisites needed to boost the “open” movement. he discusses the constructs; “open access”, “open science”, “open educational resources”, and “open pedagogy” as defaults. in doing so he tries to make a reference to the relevant points from the chapters in the book. to bring the reader home, he uses the “pencil” metaphor adopted from roger’s theory of diffusion of innovation, and relates it with the “open” practitioner. the “open” movement is a desirable phenomenon of the modern era. it goes beyond the creation and use of open educational resources. the authors of different chapters in this book touch upon various aspects falling on a broad spectrum from digital educational resources to different processes for the users. they introduce many new concepts through their discussions. however, the editors have avoided chapter numbers, which makes it difficult to identify the individual chapters. the case studies included in the volume belong to the field of psychology in many of the cases, however, they are adaptable to other disciplines as well. in some of the chapters, discussion emanates from the 82 personal experiences of the authors, which go beyond being merely case studies. some more empirical studies could be added to the book in order to give readers more first-hand information on the use and sharing of digital educational resources. on the whole, the book catches up on not only the issues and concerns but also provides practical solutions, which could help the novice in the field to tackle such situations. the book is worth reading and should prove helpful for “open” practitioners including policy makers and instructors. reviewed by: dr. s. k. pulist is a deputy director at the indira gandhi national open university, india. email: skpulist@ignou.ac.in microsoft word gaskell.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 1-5 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. editorial new technologies: what are the opportunities and challenges? anne gaskell the united nations secretary general’s strategy on new technologies emphasises the huge potential of new technologies “to accelerate the achievement of the 2030 sustainable development agenda and to facilitate their alignment with the values enshrined in the un charter, the universal declaration of human rights and the norms and standards of international law” (united nations, 2018, p. 3). but while new technologies can “offer us powerful new ways to achieve our shared commitments to each and every one of the sustainable development goals (sdgs)…. they are not risk-free, and some inspire anxiety and even fear. they can be used to malicious ends or have unintended negative consequences” (united nations, 2018, p. 8). this issue of jl4d focusses on the benefits and challenges of new technologies, in the context of sdgs, and in particular sdg4, the provision of quality education for all (see https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/education/). these opportunities and challenges provide the focus for our first article which launches a new series; in this, leaders in online learning from across the world reflect on past, current and future developments and issues in the use of new technologies. we are delighted that terry anderson, emeritus professor at athabasca university, provides the first article in the series in an important discussion of the use and abuse of social media in higher education. in this he explores the paradox between the convenience and acceptability of social media, as against the loss of control of our personal data; for example, information is delivered to us by social media companies through an algorithm which we cannot influence. the article also considers how these dilemmas can be addressed. terry anderson is of course extremely well known in the field of online learning, having been among the earliest to embrace both its potential and the accompanying challenges. among his many seminal works have been those applying the community of inquiry (coi) framework to online learning (garrison, d.r, anderson, t., & archer, w., 2000), in which the authors argue that appropriate online teaching and social presence can support critical and practical enquiry. terry also edited, and contributed three chapters, to the theory and practice of online learning, 2nd ed. (anderson, 2008) which won the charles e. wedemeyer award for the outstanding book of 2008, awarded by the university continuing education association. he also organised the first virtual conference ever held on the internet (anderson & mason, 2 1993). more recently, his research has focussed on new research methods and tools and social media (see his google scholar profile: http://tinyurl.com/terrydanderson). these contributions exemplify another of terry’s major achievements, which has been championing research into online learning. his long-term editorship of the international review of research in open and distributed learning has been central to the development of our discipline, and his ongoing involvement has more recently been demonstrated in his coedited volume online distance education: towards a research agenda, co-edited with olaf zawacki-richter (2014). the potential of new and emerging technologies is highlighted in our two invited articles, though in very different ways. our first invited article has particular relevance to current progress in sdg4, where, “an estimated 617 million children and adolescents of primary and lower secondary school age worldwide—58 per cent of that age group—are not achieving minimum proficiency in reading and mathematics” (see https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg4 ). professor sugata mitra, from newcastle university, has been investigating ways of increasing reading comprehension through the use of new technologies and this is the subject of our first invited article. mitra discusses two studies that investigate whether and how collaborative work among groups of children using the internet can boost reading comprehension: one study is based on children in two very different schools in new delhi; the other larger study on five indian and two english schools. the “school in the cloud” project brought together two concepts: the self organised learning environment (sole) and the “granny cloud” in which interested adults support children in their learning. both studies discussed in this article shared some similar and striking results; for example, children who research the internet in groups show an increase in reading comprehension over those taught traditionally or any individual in the group when studying alone. this could have major implications for helping children to read and work collaboratively in many other fields. distance learning institutions were often the first institutions to explore the use of new technologies but their use is now widespread among campus-based universities, leading to increased competition for traditional single-mode distance teaching institutions. our second invited article, by dr caroline seelig, alan cadwallader and doug standring, of the open polytechnic, new zealand (opnz), examines the challenges faced by single-mode, distance education institutions in this context, as well as reduced funding and the need to increase flexibility. for opnz this has involved a re-examination of fundamental aspects of open and distance learning and a major transformation change programme (tcp). the first step was to develop their own digital learning platform and transfer print to online delivery; the second to redesign all aspects of teaching and learning to create greater flexibility, such as assessment-ondemand. the tcp has involved disaggregating functions and unbundling roles and services and has led, among other things, to repurposing the role of academics. the programme is at an early 3 stage but has already provided many learning points, which are discussed, and will be very valuable to others embarking on such change programmes; it also suggests a new role for specialist open and distance learning institutions in the future. progress data for sdg4 indicates that, “in 2016, an estimated 85 per cent of primary school teachers worldwide were trained; the proportion was only 71 per cent for southern asia and 61 per cent for sub-saharan africa” (see https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg4 ). one of the key factors in meeting sdg4 will be the increasing use of new technologies, where relevant, to train and support teachers as well as students and children. our first research article by makhaya and ogange discusses this very subject. the ecampus at maseno university was originally launched with high expectations that it would increase revenue, student satisfaction, staff and student interaction and lead to greater productivity. however, many of these ambitions have not been realised, at least partly because many lecturers have not engaged with the online systems. makhaya and ogange examine the reasons for this and find that while staff are enthusiastic about the potential of elearning, they face difficulties in terms of inadequate bandwidth, lack of facilities on campus and lack of institutional support, something that was highlighted as crucially important by seelig et al. at opnz. increasing flexible assessment routes was also considered important at opnz and our second research article looks at a different route to flexible assessment through open badges. papadimitriou and niari from the hellenic open university, greece, examine the role of digital badges as a virtual cv of experience and qualifications. they survey some of the major providers, such as mozilla open badges and moodlebadges free, to show how they provide digital records of learning and achievements, and then consider some linked to greece or european projects such as erasmus. in greece, for example, the national “photodentro” repository of oer can provide “quality stamps” in the brand name of the producer. the authors conclude that open badges are a way to record performance and progress and share one’s achievements; they also recommend a common framework for credentials to take open badges into the future. collaborative learning was found to increase children’s reading competence in india and england in our first invited article by mitra; collaborative learning with colleagues in a professional development programme in kenya has also been found important in promoting more interactive work among children in kenya. our report from the field by wambugu, stutchbury and dickie discusses the impact of a renewed programme of school-based professional development in a primary school in kenya, ten years after the open university uk’s initial introduction of tessa (teacher education in sub-saharan africa). the new progamme was well received by teachers who reported that their teaching styles had changed to increase more interactive learning and engage students in discussion with each other. subsaharan africa has the lowest percentage of trained primary school teachers in the world (61%) and this kind of professional development will make a significant contribution to meeting sdg4. 4 our first book review is of ibrar bhatt’s assignments as controversies: digital literacy and writing in classroom practice (2017) by rosario passos. this discusses the nature of learner practices and how they engage with digital media, in order to understand the efficacy of assignment design, a subject highly relevant to the development of the open badge movement and other online assessment discussed above. our second book review provides us with an opportunity to recognise and celebrate the huge contribution that the late colin latchem (1933-2018) made to the study of open and distance learning. his last book open and distance non-formal education in developing countries (2018) is reviewed by mairette newman, who applauds the comprehensive overview of over 180 cases of non-formal education. her conclusion that “the book serves as both an inspiration and practical guide” for those working in the non-formal education sector is a fitting tribute to one of the leading distance educators in our field. this issue of jl4d, then, provides much valuable material about the ways in which the use of new technologies can be both challenging — when we do not have control of our own data (anderson) and when infrastructure and institutional support is limited (makhaya & ogange) — but also has great potential in supporting collaborative reading and teacher development (mitra; wambugu et al) and in providing new forms of assessment (seelig et al; papadimitriou & niari). it can be hoped that identifying and addressing these challenges and opportunities will help us meet the sdg targets by 2030. finally, i should like to thank all the peer reviewers whose names are included below and who have provided us with such valuable assistance in maintaining the quality of jl4d and supporting the authors and editorial team during 2018. anne gaskell chief editor, jl4d references anderson, t., & mason, r. (1993). the bangkok project: new tool for professional development. american journal of distance education, 7(2), 5-18. anderson, t. (ed.). (2nd ed., 2008). the theory and practice of online learning. http://aupress.ca/index.php/books/120146 garrison, d. r., anderson, t., & archer, w. (2000). critical inquiry in a text-based environment: computer conferencing in higher education. the internet and higher education, 2(2-3), 87-105. united nations (2018). strategy on new technologies. http://www.un.org/en/newtechnologies/images/pdf/sgs-strategy-on-newtechnologies.pdf zawacki-richter, o. & anderson, t. (eds). (2014). online distance education: towards a research agenda. athabasca university press. http://www.aupress.ca/index.php/books/120233 5 acknowledgements to reviewers for 2018 we sincerely acknowledge the support of the following peer reviewers for items published in 2018 issues of journal of learning for development: adnan qayyum, alastair creelman, alice anne goodwin-davey, andy lane, anshu miglani, betty obura ogange, bjoern hassler, carina bossu, charity akuadi okonkwo, curtis j. bonk, gurumurthy kasinathan, ishan sudeera abeywardena, jane cullen, joel s. mtebe, keith williams, mpine makoe, nathaniel ostashewski, paul g. west, sanjaya mishra, sutapa bose and tian belawati. cite this paper as: gaskell, a. (2019). editorial—new technologies: what are the opportunities and challenges? journal of learning for development, 6(1), 1-5. microsoft word pulist.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 308-312 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. book review higher education and open distance learning trajectory in india: reflections of an insider v. s. prasad dr. b. r. ambedkar open university, hyderabad (india), 2018, pp. i-xi, & 1-127, isbn 978-18-938160-0-4 (pb) the open and distance learning system in india has passed through different phases of development. it has experienced ups and downs in terms of growth, recognition, and programmes on offer. the programmes offered by the open and distance learning (odl) institutions have a set life cycle and shelf life of their own. with an infusion of technology and extensive use of ict in education, the shelflife of programmes has shortened substantially. over the years, the system has been able to expand its reach and use multiple models of instructional design and multiple channels of programme delivery. as a result, the contribution of the system has been immense in elevating the lives of people from the disadvantaged and marginalised sections of society to the mainstream. in pursuit of keeping itself relevant to the requirements of individuals and society at large, the odl system has designed, developed and experimented with different strategies – some of which succeeded while others failed. in this journey of success and failure, the institutions have witnessed all-round growth from within and without. these experiences, if documented at an appropriate time, could provide important lessons not only to policy makers but to practitioners as well, who could then capitalise on these experiences without having to reinvent the wheel. however, we see a complete dearth of such literature in the area of open and distance learning. the volume in hand is one such valuable repository that looks in detail into the odl system through the pragmatic eyes of a legend who has experienced the system since he was part of it. the book is divided into three sections – section-a: higher education, section-b: open and distance learning, and section-c: quality assurance. each of the sections contains four chapters carrying forward the theme of that section. these chapters are collections of chronicle writings of the author in the form of lectures and research articles. the writings have been customised and updated appropriately so as to fit into the overall framework of the book for logical presentation and comprehension. chapter 1 presents the framework of the odl system in the indian context and the philosophy behind its promotion. the author initiates discussion with the primitive structure of the higher education system in the country as far back as 700 bc, when “takshashila” was established and is acclaimed as the world’s first university. the chapter focuses on developing a transparent regulatory mechanism for a higher education system so as to ensure “flexibility, autonomy and accountability” in the system. the system should insist on clear directions and the execution of policies. the contradictions between the 309 institutional objectives and practices need to be resolved to enhance the proficiency of the system. the author has rightly raised the concerns of limited and unequal access, questions of relevance, uneven quality and lack of excellence, privatisation of higher education, commercialisation of open and distance learning, low public spending on higher education, and ineffective regulations and monitoring systems. chapter 2 deals with aspects of institution building and leadership issues in indian universities. as the author claims, leadership plays an important role in the building of an institution. however, universities in india are facing a crisis of leadership. on the one hand the leaders in these universities are “characterized by unfulfilled greatness”, on the other, the challenge of dealing with changing contexts makes their selection tougher. in order the cope with the situation, the leader needs to have “three forms of understanding: critique of the way things are; vision of how they should be; and theory of change about how to move from one to the other”. the “tempered-radicals”, who have the ability to face the challenges and opportunities inherent in these positions with pragmatic intelligence, are the ones who need to be placed in leadership positions in the universities. chapter 3 presents the extent of incremental change that has occurred in the higher education scenario, i.e., starting from “gurukula” to the modern “global village”. the system in both eras has demonstrated distinct features, of course, commensurate with contemporary societal needs. however, the system has become more sophisticated in view of the challenges it faces and the opportunities it enjoys in the contemporary era. the author tries to identify all of these and presents a holistic scenario characterised by size and diversity, entry of private partners, questions of relevance, intervention of ict, and governance issues in addition to regulatory framework and quality concerns. in chapter 4, the author claims that the system of higher education is passing through a deep crisis of “uneven, disorderly and direction-less growth”. he elaborates on the framework of “dharma” that the universities should be professing but have, unfortunately, transgressed the path. he presents the social “dharma” of the universities from two different perspectives, i.e., individual development and national development. the higher education system is expected to produce “intellectually competent”, “socially sensitive”, “morally upright”, and “spiritually oriented” graduates who could contribute to national development. they should be “public intellectuals”, “autonomous thinkers”, and “advocates of social justice”. the system should crucially focus on inclusiveness of education, quality of programmes and governance with accountability and transparency. being in a new state, the universities functioning in telangana (formed on june 2, 2014 as the 29th state of india) should pioneer the production of graduates who could play an active role in the all-round development of the state. chapter 5 discusses the policy perspective of distance education in the indian context. the author takes us far back in the past when the kothari committee was constituted in 1961 to formulate a plan for the commencement of correspondence education in india. it was perhaps the first serious effort after independence for the creation of educational opportunities for the masses. subsequently, the national policy on education 1968 further enhanced the scope of correspondence education, highlighting the success of a pilot project at the university of delhi. the scenario changed completely with the establishment of the first open university (andhra pradesh open university) in 1982 at hyderabad. this experiment further aroused the need to establish an open university at the national level to promote distance education in the country. the national education policy (1986) and 310 programme of action (1992) further recognised the important role of distance education for the democratisation of higher education and, thus, paved the way for its expansion. the author is apprehensive that in the process, though, the number of institutions practicing odl has gone up while the quality and credibility of the system have gone down substantially. while discussing the steps taken by the government in the form of the national knowledge commission (2007), draft national odl policy (2009), distance education reforms committee (2011), draft national education policy (2016), and ugc odl regulations (2017), the author rightly feels a need to put a national odl policy in place to promote, standardise and regulate distance higher education in the country. in chapter 6, the author focuses on the salient features on which the open university system functions such as multi-point entry and exit, economies of scale, optimum use of resources available, well defined goals, participatory governance, global standards, quality assurance and accreditation, recognition of prior learning, enhancement of learning opportunities, focus on skill enhancement and professional development, guided use and generation of open educational resources, use of web 2.0 tools for pedagogy, extensive use of ict in all student related services, and formative and summative assessment, among others. the author has divided all the elements in academic and administrative sub-systems, and advocates for them “to be understood in specific context of intersecting imperatives of the national educational system”. he invites policy makers to improvise the system for 21stcentury educational needs in such a way as to meet the local requirements without losing focus on the global agenda. chapter 7 sets the stage for deciding a future agenda founded on current realities while presenting the framework for developing such an understanding. the author poses some of the prominent but very basic questions faced by the current odl system that would set the tone of future courses of action to keep the system still relevant to the changing requirements of society. he envisions the great potential of the system, though small, in meeting the sustainable development goal (goal 4) to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all by 2030”. while contending with the achievement of the system over a short span of three decades in india, the author expresses his concern over the credibility of the odl system and it being the second choice. a robust quality assurance and accreditation mechanism would help the system reach its full potential and get due credit. the author suggests a set of seven steps to ensure yielding the desired results. the integration of ict in all the systems and sub-systems is an imperative in order to manage number (learners, programmes, courses, counselling sessions, study material packets, etc.) in odl institutions. the regulatory agencies also reinforce this integration from time to time. in order to implement ict systematically and in an organised manner, universities need to put an enabling policy in place that not only encourages the users but also provides an ambit and guiding principles within which ict can be implemented. the author provides a broad policy framework in chapter 8 for implementation of ict in institutions, though policy development should be a “consultative process”. the policy could focus on different aspects such as access, cost-effectiveness, efficiency and effectiveness, relevance, transparency, privacy, and accountability, among others. chapter 9 defines the aspects of quality assessment as a process for “evaluating the institution’s performance against the goals and set standards”. the author relates quality assessment in the indian context with the establishment of the national assessment and accreditation council (naac) in 1994. the methodology and process of accreditation adopted by the naac is narrated in this chapter 311 with a focus on a revised assessment and accreditation framework. the challenges faced by the naac in the course of gaining acceptance of its assessment and accreditation system have been prominently highlighted in the chapter, along with the need for development of “the future model of external assessment by drawing proper lessons from this experience”, and the establishment of more external assessment and accreditation agencies for institutional and programme-based assessment and accreditation. throughout chapter 10, the author is vehemently hopeful that open and distance learning will be ubiquitous “as an important philosophy and form of education in the 21st century”. he emphatically claims that “fitness for purpose” is the rule of thumb for the system to stay relevant to the changing knowledge needs of society. however, the author seems to be concerned more about the sustainability of efforts to bring an acceptable level of quality in all aspects of odl system. more research needs to be carried out in the area of quality assurance to establish the credibility of the system by example. such studies could function as input for improving the quality in different domains of the system. the biggest challenge would be to imbibe quality as “habit of mind and habit of action” to make it sustainable. chapter 11 presents the framework of quality assurance for open educational resources (oer) at the institutional level. the author revisits the goals of oer as set out in the paris declaration such as: “promotion of lifelong learning, contribute to social inclusion, promotion of gender equity, education for special needs, improving cost efficiency, and improving quality of teaching learning”. he discusses the quality of oer from the perspectives of “quality as fitness of purpose” and “quality as fitness for purpose”. in order for oer to play their crucial role in the promotion of education in general and distance education in particular through the open university system, the gap between the oer policies and practices needs to be bridged. the roles of management, staff, and learner need to be aligned with the techno-structure of the institution in order to achieve oer quality at the level of acceptance. the author advocates for external assessment as an objective and effective mechanism for quality assurance of oer. chapter 12 opens with a quotation “none of us is as smart as all of us” by warren bennis, setting the tone of the discussion that focuses on the synergy of the odl system for attainment of total quality. elaborating on the nature of a quality deficit in the odl system, the author extends the scope of systemic synergy that includes the multiple goals of higher education, roles of multiple agencies, and external and internal quality assurance systems. this synergy may lead to development of a higher education institution into a world class institution with specific attributes as listed by the author. the volume provides a critique on the functionalities of the odl system, especially the open universities, with plausible arguments, and touches upon all the crucial aspects of the system broadly. the author takes advantage of being a witness of the system as an insider, which not only lets him analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the system minutely but also to present issue-based solutions with a futuristic approach focusing on the important aspects of relevance and quality. the aspect of quality flows as an under-current throughout the discussion by the author in the volume. the arguments framed by him are convincing and bring the readers on to the same page as the author. though some typos can be noticed in the text here and there, the effort of the author in writing down the current and future scenario of the distance higher education system in india, with a focus on larger issues confronting the system, deserves appreciation. i do hope that the book will give food for 312 thought to all – the policy makers, the practitioners and the novice users of the odl system, i.e., the learners at large. reviewed by: dr. s. k. pulist, indira gandhi national open university, new delhi, india. email: skpulist@ignou.ac.in cite this paper as: pulist, s. k. (2018). book review: higher education and open distance learning trajectory in india: reflections of an insider by v. s. prasad. journal of learning for development, 5(3), 308-312. microsoft word naidu.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 280-295 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. future proofing higher education in the pacific with open and flexible learning som naidu1 and keith j. roberts2 1center for flexible learning, the university of the south pacific, fiji 2international higher education capacity building specialist (fulbright, usa) abstract: affordable access to higher education is a major challenge for small pacific island nations. the university of the south pacific which is owned and governed by twelve island nations in this region plays a special role in meeting this challenge. in its fiftieth year, a few recent developments at usp provide a useful case study for how this challenge can be addressed to provide affordable access to educational opportunity for residents of twelve pacific island nations in various stages of development. the island nations served by the university of the south pacific are spread over 33 million square kilometers of the pacific, with several official languages and many more indigenous languages, and use seven distinct currencies. as usp celebrates its fiftieth year in 2018, it has embarked upon two specific initiatives that will enable the university to map out a pathway for the future of education for the next generation and within the context of current and new strategies for the design and implementation of meaningful education throughout the member nations. these initiatives are the development of a flexible learning policy and an open education resources policy. taking pages from the fields of technology, education (learning and teaching), and design, these two usp policies seek to “future proof” the university for the next generation and others after that. being future proofed means being able to stand the test of time in the face of changing contexts and challenges. university policies are most effective when they are designed to withstand and accommodate prospective changes in the educational landscape. these policies reflect agreed-upon principles that will withstand social and political changes. this paper is a commentary on the content of these policy initiatives around flexible learning and open education practices, their values and principles. keywords: open educational resources; flexible learning; policy; pacific; fiji background and context the context of this case study is the south west pacific, which is home to small island nations ranging from coral atolls to small volcanic islands that one could drive around in a day. till lately, none of these island nations could justifiably afford to set up a tertiary education institution of international strength. the university of the south pacific was set up in the late 1960s to fill this gap. it is owned and funded by twelve countries of the south west pacific. this was then, and still is, a unique operation (latchem, 2018). when it was established in 1968, a fully-fledged university was not viable in any one of these countries. so, it is not surprising that the authors of the morris report that 281 established the university saw the need for usp to be a regional university (morris, aitken, collins, hughes, & christie, 1966). as such, the idea of the university of the south pacific was visionary. it was visionary not only in its form and structure, but in how learning and teaching would take place at the new university. and from the beginning, it was obvious a single mode of campus-based learning and teaching experience would be inadequate. the new university would need to engage in extra-mural studies although at that time not much was known about teaching extramurally beyond the physical campuses of any university. in the uk there were musings around the labor government’s aspirations for setting up a university of the air to take advantage of broadcast television. but television would not arrive in the pacific islands till much later. the challenges for the new university of the south pacific were enormous. for starters, it had to be a respectable university—one that would be comparable in form and function to those in neighboring countries such as australia and new zealand—and at the same time be different in several ways in order to meet the needs and aspirations of a people who were not accustomed to higher education, let alone formal learning and teaching arrangements in many areas such as science, medicine and engineering. some form of extramural studies had to be part of the academic plan. such a plan would enable students in the countries of the region to study without having to set foot on a physical campus, especially in coming to the largest usp campus in laucala bay in the republic of fiji. however, this was easier said than done. faculty who knew how to teach students who were not physically present on campus, or had any experience with teaching such students were few and hard to recruit. so, from the start, it was business as usual. the majority of the faculty who were appointed had a very conventional campus-based education themselves, and no experience in teaching students who were not present on campus and in the classrooms where the staff were located. thus, the new usp looked like other traditional universities (latchem, 2018). it was revolutionary in its aspirations but not radical enough in terms of its form and functions. and after fifty years of teaching and learning at a distance, it may seem at times that the predominant model of teaching and learning at usp is still campus-based and face-to-face. many students and their teachers want it and believe that it is a superior form of learning and teaching. furthermore, many see the use of technology, especially online learning technology, as an economic-rationalist argument to save money on staffing and physical infrastructure. this cost-saving rationale—if there is one—should not be the driving force for innovations in developing institutions because they short-change the importance of pedagogy in flexible learning and open education practices (weller, 2014). the challenge then for the new university to provide affordable access to higher education was enormous. business as usual would be inadequate. teaching and learning needed rethinking and recalibration and needed to include the use of technology and non-traditional approaches to teaching students without a tradition of formal learning, including basic literacy skills in literacy and numeracy. getting the balance right how then, could this university serve out its mandate—as was captured by the morris report on the founding of the university—to “carry university studies to towns and villages through the region, 282 and to promote understanding of and affection for the university in people of distant areas” (morris, aitken, collins, hughes, & christie, 1966, p. 5)? getting the balance right between a respectable on and off-campus-based learning and teaching experience was a huge challenge for the new university administrators and its academic leaders. so, along with its on-campus classrooms and face-to-face teaching, an extension services unit was set up to “open” up access to learning opportunities and take learning and teaching out to students where they were, in their homes and villages throughout the usp region. the use of the term “extension”, therefore, was very intentional. it suggested an effort by the university to “extend” its learning and teaching operations beyond the physical campuses (naidu, 2016a). the concept of “openness” comprises several key dimensions (naidu, 2016b, p. 1). firstly, it evokes the idea of open access. this is about inclusive and equal access to educational opportunity for all without barriers such as entry qualifications and ability to pay. there would be many such prospective students throughout the pacific region. its value principle is that all lives regardless of their social, economic and political conditions, have equal value and that everyone should have access to educational opportunity. secondly, the concept promotes the idea of open learning, which refers to the facility of being able to study at anytime, anywhere and at any pace regardless of one’s conditions. and its value principle is that one should have the freedom and the flexibility to choose the mode, medium, time, place and pace of study. the third dimension of the concept of openness involves the practice of open scholarship. this has to do with the release of educational resources under an open license which permits access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others at no cost to the user. and its value principle is that education is a basic need—some might argue it is a right—that should be accessible to all, without barriers such as prerequisite entry qualifications and ability to pay. engagement in these kinds of open educational practices is crucial, not just for pacific islanders but for all such communities, if we were to achieve freedom, justice and equality for all as suggested by nobel laureate amartya sen (sen, 1999). for the new university of the south pacific a serious and systemic engagement with open and flexible approaches to learning and teaching, both on and off the campuses was not an option but a necessity. this involved the adoption of non-traditional approaches, including the use of technology to support the educational transaction, which would be an important and defining characteristic and driven by a need to reach the learner who was traditionally considered “unreachable” (roberts, 2018, p. 100). after 50 years of this kind of effort, usp has morphed into a respectable comprehensive institution that is widely known and highly regarded for its leadership in open, flexible and distance learning (chandra, 2018). open, flexible and distance learning at usp building on this track record and reputation, and on its 50th year of operation, usp embarked on a progressive agenda designed to map out the future of learning and teaching for the next generation of pacific islanders. this has comprised the development of two new policies to drive this agenda. the first of these policies is around the university’s engagement with flexible learning, and the second one is around its adoption of open educational resources in learning and teaching. 283 part of the imperative for the development of the flexible learning policy arose out of usp’s search for institutional accreditation by wscuc (western association senior college and university commission in the unites states), a regional accrediting agency that was set up for the purposes of accrediting senior colleges and universities throughout california, hawaii, and the pacific. wscuc is recognized by the u.s. department of education, and by the council for higher education accreditation as a reliable authority concerning the quality of education provided by member institutions of higher education offering the associate degree, baccalaureate degree and postbaccalaureate degrees. the development of the flexible learning policy was needed to demonstrate to wscuc that the university of the south pacific approaches open, flexible and distance learning very rigorously and systematically. an initial draft of this policy was developed based on the commission’s criteria for best practices in open, flexible and distance learning and work shopped with key stakeholders across the university, including teaching staff, administrators and students. subsequent drafts of the policy were then progressed through the teaching quality committee and the academic senate for their approval. these are academic governance committees of the university with representation from the academic and student communities. after further revisions based on feedback from these committees, the document was revised and submitted for formatting by the secretariat before it was formally adopted by the university council which is the highest governing body of the university. the open educational resources (oer) policy was not directly tied to the wscuc accreditation process, although it helped it. the university of the south pacific had been exploring the opportunities presented by oer for some time and the development of the oer policy was a result of that effort. a draft of this policy was developed through the agency of the commonwealth of learning in vancouver. a draft of this policy was developed in workshops with key stakeholders at the university and then progressed through the teaching quality committee and the academic senate for their approval. following further revisions based on feedback from these committees the document was revised and submitted for formatting by the council secretariat and legal vetting before formal adoption by the university council. while the development of these policies comprises a significant step towards future proofing learning and teaching at the university, their adoption and integration requires buy-in by stakeholders. and since their adoption, workshops and consultations have been held with students and staff across the breadth of the university to educate the university community on the implications of these polices for their work. this is an ongoing effort and one that is critical to the success of the adoption and integration of these policies into existing institutional choreographies. adoption of these two policies have the potential to “future proof” learning and teaching at the university and set it on a path to even greater excellence unmatched by its competitors because they have been developed within the scope of the value principles shared among the twelve nations. the purpose of this paper is not to discuss in depth the developing of these policies, but rather to focus on the content of these policy directions and how they are being directed at “future proofing” both flexible learning and the integration of open educational resources in learning and teaching at the university. 284 open and flexible learning is not a binary construct (nascimbeni, burgos, campbell, & tabacco, in press). they are best seen as learning experiences, and environments that exist on a continuum with varying degrees of openness and flexibility embedded in them depending upon their educational and legislative contexts, as well as the perceptions and practices of staff towards these concepts (cronin, 2017). not all learning experiences and environments will need the same level of openness and flexibility. in some educational contexts a much greater degree of openness and flexibility is possible, while in others, such as areas where access to equipment and related infrastructure is required, this will not be the case. the rest of this paper describes these two new initiatives in detail to show how these have been conceptualized, developed and implemented to address the challenge posed by the lack of affordable access to higher educational opportunities in the pacific region. lessons learned from this effort should be of use to regions facing similar societal challenges. the flexible learning policy this policy provides the parameters for the adoption and integration of flexible learning and teaching strategies at the university of the south pacific that are suitably aligned with its mission and its regional and distributed nature. (see: https://policylib.usp.ac.fj/form.categorydetails.php?id=1.) definitions of flexible learning flexible learning is a state of being in which learning and teaching is increasingly freed from the limitations of the time, place and pace of study (see naidu, 2017, p. 1). but this kind of flexibility does not end there. for learners, flexibility in learning may include choices in relation to entry and exit points, selection of learning activities, assessment tasks and educational resources in return for different kinds of credit and costs. and for the teachers it can involve choices in relation to the allocation of their time and the mode and methods of communication with learners as well as the educational institution. as such flexible learning, in itself, is not a mode of study. flexibility in learning and teaching is a value principle, much like diversity or equality is in education and society more generally. flexibility in learning and teaching is relevant in any mode of study including campus-based face-to-face educational transactions. the adoption of flexible learning is central to the ethos and culture of usp. its distributed nature required the university to engage in flexible learning which it has done since its establishment, with the need for flexible approaches to learning and teaching at usp growing in order to open up access to further enrich the educational experience of students beyond its conventional campus-based educational operations. in the early days of this initiative, flexible learning opportunities at the university went by the name of extension studies, suggesting an effort by the university to extend credit bearing learning and teaching opportunities beyond the boundaries of its physical campuses. in the early days of this operation, the printed technology and the postal mail service formed the backbone of this educational transaction. and as information and communications technologies including electronic mail began to supersede the use of print and postal mail, the concept of written correspondence via the postal service was no longer an adequate descriptor of this educational transaction that was taking place. 285 around the dawn of the 1980s, distance education emerged as a term that better captured the nature of this learning and teaching transaction away from the physical campuses. but that term had issues as well, as an accurate descriptor of this activity, as the concept of distance implied a physical separation, when that was not always the case. there were learners who were living in situ and on campuses but, for various reasons, opted to study in flexible ways. some of the reasons for this had to do with being able to take up courses which might not have been offered at the time students needed or wanted to take them. other reasons included the opportunity to take on additional courses and in doing so speeding up the duration of their study programs. and then there was also the opportunity to take advantage of a far better set of study materials that was becoming symptomatic of distance learning, due to its adoption of instructional design principles and rigorous course team processes. so as many more options for engaging in the flexible learning experience became available to learners and teachers, and as students chose to take advantage of the opportunities that these choices afforded, the nature of this nontraditional educational transaction changed as well. and depending on its emphasis, this form of learning and teaching activity was labeled variously as online learning, elearning, blended learning, distributed learning, and disaggregated learning. • online and e-learning are characterized as such because of the technology they adopt as part of the learning and teaching transaction. online learning is learning while being connected synchronously and/or asynchronously, while e-learning is learning with the use of electronic tools. • blended learning, also referred to as hybrid learning is about blending modes of study such as online learning with periods of face-to-face residential learning and teaching or printed study packages as is the case at usp. • distributed learning is when learners and teachers are operating while distributed over a virtual and/or physical network of resources, and learning and teaching opportunities. • disaggregated learning reflects the changing role of the teacher in this new and evolving learning and teaching space with various aspects of the learning and teaching transaction devolved to various parts and parties, and not confined to the form and function of subject matter expert(s). the determination of the nature and levels of flexibility in learning and teaching in a given context depends on several interacting variables, such as the nature of the subject matter, the level of study, location of students and teachers, their readiness for flexible learning including their access to technologies and the necessary infrastructure. one size or approach to flexible learning does not, and will not, fit all learners, teachers or disciplines. there will be a need for different approaches to learning and teaching, with different levels of flexibility, structure and guidance for different cohorts and learning contexts. role of the center for flexible learning the center for flexible learning (cfl) plays a critical role in all of these activities. (see: https://www.usp.ac.fj/index.php?id=19192). the role of the cfl in providing leadership and direction to the university in these areas is pivotal and it involves: • development of institutional policies in flexible and technology-enhanced learning, and in the development and adoption and integration of oer in learning and teaching at the university; 286 • hosting a plethora of technologies to support the adoption and integration of flexible and technology-enhanced learning and teaching, and open educational resources at the university; • orientation and onboarding of staff and students in these technologies for effective and efficient use; • leadership and direction in the conversion and revision of courses and programs for online and flexible learning to meet usp strategic plan kpis; • nurturing of awareness in the university community about flexible and technology-enhanced learning and teaching, and open educational resources and their imperatives for teaching and learning; • working with staff initially on the adoption of open textbooks and other oer in their courses; • collection and analysis of data on the behaviors and perceptions of students and staff of digital technologies in order to inform and promote excellent practices in a technologically enhanced educational environment. • leading and promoting research and scholarship in learning and teaching generally, and more specifically into flexible and technology-enhanced learning and teaching, and open educational practices towards meeting the relevant usp strategic plan kpis. dimensions of flexibility a useful approach to embedding flexibility is to see it in relation to how, and to what extent flexibility is being integrated in leveraging key dimensions of learning and teaching, and these are as follows: 1. learning experience design: this is about the design and development of productive learning experiences so that each learner is able to make the most of the learning opportunities they afford. 2. learner-content engagement: this is about learners’ engagement and interaction with the subject matter in ways that suit individuals, their styles and approaches to studying and its time, place and pace. 3. learner-teacher engagement: this is about choices learners have in relation to the mode and method of their engagement and interaction with their teachers and tutors. 4. learner-learner engagement: this is about choices learners have in relation to the mode and method of their engagement and interaction with their peers in small and large groups, and in offline and online educational settings. 5. learner engagement with the learning environment: this is about adaptable access, interaction and engagement with the learning environment (such as with mobile devices, wi-fi access and innovative use of study space). 6. learner engagement with assessment activities: this is about choices learners have in relation to the fulfillment of their assessment requirements. 7. learner engagement with feedback: this is about choices learners have in relation to access to feedback on their learning and assessment activities. 8. learner engagement with the institution: this is about choices learners have in relation to their engagement with the services of the educational institution. 287 parameters of flexible learning the flexible learning policy offers guidelines for the adoption and integration of flexible learning and teaching strategies at usp that are suitably aligned with its learning and teaching policy and its regional and distributed nature. nothing in the policy implies that teaching and learning exists in a binary form (i.e., face-to-face or flexible forms), or that any model of educational transaction at the university is in any way less adequate than another. the goal is about getting the balance right between the degree of structure and guidance on the one hand, and openness and flexibility on the other, in order to promote and achieve effective, efficient and engaging learning and teaching. the aim is to move from a position of baseline adoption of flexibility in learning and teaching, to aspirational goals and targets along the following parameters. fit with mission the multi-national nature of usp requires that flexible learning is central to its mission, goals, operations and administrative structure. as such flexible learning is the core business of the university of the south pacific. it is something that the university engages in as an integral part of its teaching and learning activities, and not in addition to its campus-based operations. flexible learning is in fact, very much a part of its campus-based activities. in this regard, then, the planning and scheduling of flexible learning rests squarely with the colleges (faculties) and schools of the university as part of their normal operations. flexible learning and teaching are, therefore, the responsibility of the core faculty and not adjunct faculty. as such, the teaching staff in the colleges and schools are required to integrate flexibility in their core teaching and learning activities. colleges and schools are required to progressively adopt digital technologies, such as online learning management systems and lecture capture tools, to carry the educational content and engage with learners. and as part of this, online learning should be increasingly rolled out to promote appropriate levels of flexibility in relation to the time, place and pace of student learning activities and experiences across all modes of education at the university, including residential face-to-face education on campus. connection to the institution the policy enables and encourages usp’s plans for developing, sustaining, and expanding online learning to be integrated into its regular planning process. as such, learning and teaching transactions at the university shall be designed to offer students, regardless of their physical location, appropriate levels of flexibility in relation to the time, pace and place of their studies. students of the university, will be able to make choices in relation to their studies regardless of their physical location and circumstances. and students choosing to study in a manner, time and place that suits them best will have access to all the usual support services afforded by the campuses of the university. these services will include, apart from library services, places for private study and face-to-face teaching that might be offered or necessary. the integration of flexible learning will be closely aligned with school and faculty plans for teaching and learning in its various disciplines. and their design and development will be carried out through a rigorous course-team process that is adopted by all university programs and courses with the support of the staff and resources of the center for flexible learning. 288 quality of the infrastructure the policy assures the integrity of usp’s engagement with flexible learning, with the provision of appropriate infrastructure. while flexible learning is not synonymous with online education, online learning tools and technologies will increasingly serve to provide the infrastructure for flexible learning as the adoption of online learning expands at the university. currently, the backbone of this infrastructure is moodle (which is an open source online learning management system) that supports this form of learning and teaching transaction. any additional teaching support is provided to the students from their local campus within the country using a wide variety of strategies, including face-to-face teaching, and satellite-based, audio-conferencing with staff from the laucala campus (usp’s main campus in suva). usp has been a pioneer in the use of many of these methods, especially in the use of satellite-based, audio-teleconferencing in teaching and learning as part of its flexible learning operations, as well as in the design and development of print-based course packages to support this. the goal of increasing flexible learning opportunities is to offer students in the usp region, who are unable to attend a physical campus in their own country or elsewhere, opportunities to continue to pursue their studies. academic integrity in all of these matters is governed by a single set of policies for teaching and learning at the university. and the role of the regional campuses and the campus directors is crucial in their execution at the local level to ensure that the integrity of the operation is assured. support services for flexible learning the policy assures that usp provides effective student and academic services to support students enrolled in on-line learning offerings. because of the practice of flexible learning as a mainstream learning and teaching activity at the university, all students who are studying in any mode have full access to all the all core student support services of the university. the local campus and its resources provide any additional support required by those not at the laucala campus and may include face-toface teaching, academic advisement, study space and library support services. orientation and onboarding programs for students on learning how to learn online, are developed and strengthened as the adoption of online education expands in educational programs in the colleges and schools. these initiatives include, among other things, the skilling of students in the promotion of learner interaction with the educational organization and its services, using a wide range of ways irrespective of their location or physical capabilities. flexible learning faculty the policy gives the appropriately qualified faculty the responsibility and support for implementing the on-line learning curricula and assessing students’ success in achieving the on-line learning goals. flexible learning is, unequivocally, the responsibility of the core faculty members in the colleges and schools at the university of the south pacific. faculty in the colleges and schools are selected and appointed from the outset on the premise that they will engage in flexible learning and teaching at the university. and upon their appointment, all faculty have access to a wide range of support services in relation to flexible learning, such as orientation and onboarding programs on learning how to teach online, from within the colleges and schools, and from central support services such as the university library and the center for flexible learning. a post-graduate certificate in tertiary teaching (which 289 covers contemporary issues in teaching and learning in higher education contexts) is offered by the university as a mandatory requirement for continuing employment for all faculty at the university. flexible learning curriculum the policy gives appropriately qualified faculty the responsibility and support for the design and development of the online learning curricula and assessing students’ success in achieving the learning goals. the flexible learning curriculum at the university is developed from the same syllabi that is used to develop courses and programs that are offered in the face-to-face mode on campus. the delivery of these courses and programs in flexible modes is orchestrated by the schools responsible with the help of the university infrastructure and its support services. these include the center for flexible learning, the university library and it services, and the regional campus network. as such, the curriculum of flexible learning and teaching in the colleges and schools have undergone a level of rigor using a course team approach in its design and development, as a result of which its quality will be equal to, or better than, that of exemplary practices in comparable courses and programs offered f2f on campus and in situ. orientation and onboarding programs for staff on learning how to teach online is developed and strengthened to support this kind of activity as the adoption of flexible and online learning expands across programs in colleges and schools. these initiatives include skilling of staff in the: 1. promotion of learner interaction with their teachers using a wide variety of modes and methods of communication, both offline and online. 2. promotion of learner interaction with the subject matter using a wide variety of active learning strategies. 3. promotion of student peer interaction with the adoption of a wide variety of strategies in small and large groups, and in both offline and online educational settings. 4. use of synchronous as well as asynchronous technologies to support effective, efficient and engaging learning and teaching. 5. design and adoption of flexible approaches to the assessment of learning outcomes. 6. design and use of flexible approaches in the provision of feedback to learners on their learning and assessment activities. learning analytics as flexible learning forms part of mainstream educational processes at the university, the collection of a wide variety of data on student retention, their progression and graduation, is embedded in the university’s core planning, development and quality assurance processes. this kind of analytics includes monitoring of learner and learning behaviors, data warehousing, and working with big data, building models and predicting trends, and reporting to improve learning and teaching at the university as well as its business processes. usp students, many of whom are part-time students with families and jobs to sustain, may have a higher tendency to withdraw, or fail to persist with their course of study for very personal reasons, which are not related to their educational programs. for this reason alone, the university takes very seriously the gathering of intelligence on all of its learners 290 in order to ensure that the educational opportunities it affords, more than adequately meets their needs. valid assessment of student learning the policy assures that that assessment is valid by demanding: (1) a secure login and password code, (2) proctored examinations, (3) implementation of any new technologies or practices that are effective in verifying student identification. assessment of learning outcomes regardless of the mode of learning and teaching at usp follow the requirements and standards that have been developed by the core faculty in the colleges and schools and adopted at the university. these requirements and standards shall be uniform and not vary across different courses regardless of the degree of flexibility they may integrate as part of the learning and teaching transaction in any mode of study. all formal course examinations taken by students, as part of any mode of study, are proctored and taken in person at the local campus. course work and assessment undertaken and/or submitted online should be authenticated with a variety of strategies, procedures and processes, including tools such as turnitin, to ensure that all online learning activities are valid and undertaken by a legitimately registered student. supporting flexible learning the policy demands that all support arrangements with outside vendors conform to existing usp policy. the university may enter into formal agreements with providers of it and related technologies, as well as other educational resources in order to support a high-quality educational experience for all its students and faculty. these contracts are negotiated and entered into, through existing offices of the university, including its legal services. quality assurance for flexible learning the policy demands that usp evaluates the effectiveness of its flexible learning programs and uses the results to improve its effectiveness and efficiency. the evaluation of the student flexible learning experience (of which distance education is a part) comprises an integral component of the university’s quality assurance processes and procedures. this comprises a wide range of strategies using both online and off-line tools for routinely collecting data on all aspects of the student study experience and its reporting and use in the review and revision of courses, and learning and teaching at the university. any discrepancies in the findings for different cohorts and courses is dealt with and addressed as part of routine reporting on quality assurance procedures and processes at the university and in its colleges and schools. the open educational resources policy the purpose of the open educational resources policy is to provide direction in the adoption of open educational resources in order to increase affordable access to high quality teaching and learning at the university. (see: https://policylib.usp.ac.fj/form.readdoc.php?id=736). definitions and principles open educational resources are teaching, learning and research materials that are available in the public domain or offered with an open license (mishra, 2017). as such they are free for reuse, revision, remixing and redistribution without further permissions from its copyright holder. its value 291 proposition is that education is a basic need (and some might argue a human right), that should be accessible to all. these values are congruent with pacific islander beliefs in relationship, reciprocity and respect as vehicles for strengthening communities in the region with the sharing of knowledge and resources equitably. their adoption strengthens usp’s commitment to open and flexible learning broadly. objectives of the policy the objectives of this policy are foremost, to increase access to learning and teaching resources as widely and openly as possible. increased access to open educational resources has the potential to empower learners, transform pedagogical practices, optimize cost efficiencies, and foster collaboration and partnership in the creation and adoption of oer nationally and regionally. the oer policy provides guidelines for the selection, adaptation as well as the development of new educational resources to be released as oer. this includes capacity-building of staff engaged in the activity, including recognition and rewards for staff for the development, acquisition and adaptation of oer. oer policy guidelines policy directions the oer policy stipulates, at the outset, that oer are to be preferred in the design and development of teaching and learning materials at usp. and that in recognition of the potential of oer to widen access to, and improve the quality of, learning and teaching at all levels, the production and use of oer is a matter of priority at usp. copyright and licensing all teaching and learning resources developed by usp staff members, therefore, are shared with an open license to permit their reuse, revision, remix, and redistribution by others. the university adopts the most current creative commons license for its resources. (see this url). and a detailed guide to open licensing is made available to assist and determine how staff wish to share their teaching and learning resources. the licensing of material developed in collaboration with others beyond usp, is in accordance with the terms and conditions stated in the agreement of the collaboration. retrospective release of teaching and learning materials already published by the university takes place in a phased manner following the review of copyright on each item. exceptions to open licensing rests with the vicechancellor and president. the university reserves the rights not to share resources that may be commercially viable. technology and support the university will set up a mechanism for the creation of oer with open source software and also setup an open repository for sharing of oer developed by the university. this repository will be developed using an appropriate open source software, and it is managed by the university library which will also develop an appropriate workflow mechanism as well as metadata structure for this purpose. capacity building and professional development 292 the center for flexible learning is the focal point for providing support to staff and students including capacity building and their professional development in the integration of oer in teaching and learning. staff engaged in the adoption and creation of oer will be suitably recognized as part of the quality of teaching and quality of research criteria and policies at the university. research on the production, use and re-contextualization of oer and its impacts will be encouraged across the university. students will also be encouraged to use oer and become producers of oer. and all student work should follow accepted guidelines for scholarly work. quality assurance to ensure high standards and quality, all courses developed using oer will follow usp’s standard qa processes. individual learning resources created by staff should not require further review prior to uploading to the oer repository. however, the quality of all such contributions will be the responsibility of its creator(s). the university library should develop guidelines for formats, metadata, etc., to facilitate the sharing of resources with, and protect the university brand and identity. liability and disclaimers the oer policy applies to all staff and students of the usp and is applicable to all types of educational resources released in physical or electronic format. the policy does not override governance related to documents such as policies, trademarks, logo, patents, and personal information. license declaration the license declaration on the oer should follow this format: ©year of publication, university of south pacific. except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under the terms of the creative commons. every resource in the open repository will carry a disclaimer indicating that the material is for educational purposes only, and that usp absolves itself of any practical misuse of the materials or their content. oer materials created and published by staff of usp do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the university. the disclaimer will have the following format: the publication is released for educational purposes, and all information provided are in ‘as is’ basis. although the author and publisher have made every effort to ensure that the information in this publication was correct at the time of going to press, the author and publisher do not assume and hereby disclaim any liability to any party for any loss, damage, or disruption caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident, or any other cause. any views expressed in the publication are that of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the university of the south pacific. all products and services mentioned are owned by their respective copyright holders, and mere presentation in the publication does not mean endorsement by the university of the south pacific. derivatives of this work are not authorized to use the logo of the university of the south pacific. implications of this case study institutions in developing contexts are continuously being challenged to rethink and reform their learning and teaching operations in order to provide affordable access to higher education to a larger percentage of their nation’s population. these institutions often tend to look at western models and 293 their systems and processes for guidance in areas where they are being challenged. at usp these challenges include affordable access to learning opportunities. although open, online and flexible learning has been touted as the classic disruptive innovation (christensen, & eyring, 2012), usp has seen it not as a disruption, but as an accommodation and resulting strategy for its unique regional operation. this case study illustrates how with the development of innovative policies and procedures around the themes of “openness” and “flexibility”, usp is “future proofing” learning and teaching at the university to be able to address expectations and competing demands for its resources and services in a complex socio-political regional context. these policies are deeply grounded in universal values of access, equity, and openness which are consistent with pacific islander values of relationship, reciprocity, and respect. in the same manner, higher education institutions in other developing nations must be driven by universal values that are consistent with local and national values. finding these universal values and agreeing upon them is a necessary prerequisite to “future proofing” a next-generation university. failure to rethink and reform the learning and teaching operation and fashion it in ways to meet the challenge of affordable access to educational opportunity in the pacific will run the risk of labelling usp as an elitist institution that is not fit for its purpose. this fitness for purpose is the goal of all higher institutions and should be especially important in developing nations. this case study also illustrates how a policy can be developed and implemented that assures that the learning materials developed by and for the institution are made available at a minimal cost. the open educational resources policy is proactive in assuring that students have the best instructional materials at little or no cost to them. this is a critical component of affordable access to higher education. additionally, this case study also acknowledges the importance of both administrative support as well as technical support in the success of “future proofing” the university. although usp was not deliberately founded as an open university, it has been thrust into that role over the years as a response to meeting the needs of the region it serves. because of the acknowledgement of the innovative spirit within the design, development and implementation of its curriculum, usp has been able to organize itself to champion innovation with the support of both its management and technical teams. at usp, a critical component of this support is provided by the center for flexible learning which provides infrastructure support as well as conceptual leadership and direction in open, flexible and technology-enhanced learning as there are strong arguments in favor of centers of excellence such as these to support teaching and learning in higher education institutions (roberts, 2013). however, the successful “future proofing” of a developing institution will involve more than the necessary prerequisite administrative infrastructure. for higher education institutions in developing contexts, there must be monetary support for the development of a cohort of expertise that will support the technology and the pedagogy similar to that provided by the center for flexible learning at usp. as a result of this support, flexible learning is now the main game at usp as opposed to being a side show (naidu, 2016a). usp offers a wide range of courses and programs that students from anywhere in the world can take. these courses and programs can be tailored to meet specific government 294 requests that include the use of cohort-based learning, blended and online learning to ensure that students and those who are already in the workforce, such as teachers and others, can take them without leaving their jobs, as has been done in countries such as samoa and tonga. usp is developing substantial expertise in the design, development, adoption and integration of open educational resources in its teaching and learning and is able to help others. notable initiatives comprise the conversion of courses using open educational resources, and for online and flexible learning as a key performance indicator in the university’s strategic plan. this has required reengineering of workloads in the centre for flexible learning to champion and provide direction to this work which has included the development of open textbooks, adoption and integration of open educational resources, development of an oer repository, and the development of moocs in areas of usp’s strength, such as climate change, marine sciences, and pacific studies. the adoption of open educational resources has the potential to significantly mitigate the exorbitant costs of textbooks and related reference material in the region and therefore make education affordable for pacific islanders. this, along with the integration of flexible approaches to learning and teaching, the next generation of usp students can expect improved access to learning opportunities that will suit not only their local needs but also their aspirations to reach beyond the boundaries of their region. the university is taking strong steps to signal its role in future-proofing learning and teaching in the region. these policy directions help map out this strategy and they can be adopted not only among the twelve member-nations of usp, but also among collaborating institutions worldwide. acknowledgment: this paper draws substantially on the two policy documents (i.e., the flexible learning policy and the open education resources policy) which are accessible from the university’s policy library. the oer policy was developed in consultation with the commonwealth of learning. references chandra, r. (2018). foreword. in c. latchem, fifty years of flexible learning at the university of the south pacific, (p. na). the university of the south pacific press. christensen, c., & eyring. h. j. (2012). the innovative university: changing the dna of higher education. paper presented at the forum’s 2011 aspen symposium. forum futures, 47-53, https://net.educaus.edu/ir/library/pdf/ff1207s.pdf cronin, c. (2017). openness and praxis: exploring the use of open educational practices in higher education. the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 18(5). doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v18i5.3096. latchem, c. (2018). fifty years of flexible learning at the university of the south pacific. the university of the south pacific press. mishra, s. (2017). open educational resources: removing barriers from within. distance education, 38:3, 369380, https://doi.org/10.1080/01587919.2017.1369350 morris c., aitken, f. r. g., collins, h. m., hughes, p. w., & christie, d. h. (1966). report of the higher education mission to the south pacific. london: her majesty’s stationery office. naidu, s. (2016a). mainstreaming open, flexible, and distance learning. in k.-w. lai, s. stein, p. field, & k. pratt (eds.), our world in your place: 30 years of distance learning and teaching at the university of otago (pp. 92– 108). otago: university of otago, distance learning office. 295 naidu, s. (2016b). the case for open educational practice. distance education, 37. 1-3, https://doi.org/10.1080/01587919.2016.1157010 naidu, s. (2017). how flexible is flexible learning, who is to decide and what are its implications? distance education, 38, https://doi.org/10.1080/01587919.2017.137183. nascimbeni, f., burgos, d., campbell, l. m., & tabacco, a. (in press). institutional mapping of open educational practices beyond use of open educational resources. distance education 39(4), pages na. roberts, k. (2013). a model for a center for teaching and learning excellence: a catalyst for program improvement in developing institutions. excellence in higher education, 4, 108-118. roberts, k. (2018). community engagement in indian higher education: financial and partnership trends. international journal of educational development, 58, 95-105. sen, a. (1999). development as freedom. oxford: oxford university press. weller, m. (2014). the battle for open: how openness won and why it doesn’t feel like victory. london: ubiquity press. authors dr. som naidu is pro-vice chancellor flexible learning and director, center for flexible learning at the university of the south pacific, laucala campus, suva, the republic of fiji. email: email: sommnaidu@gmail.com; som.naidu@usp.ac.fj keith j. roberts is an independent higher education capacity building scholar and fulbright specialist at university of south pacific. email: robertsk42@gmail.com cite this paper as: naidu, s., & roberts, k. j. (2018). future proofing higher education in the pacific with open and flexible learning. journal of learning for development, 5(3), 280-295. microsoft word neal.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 287-290 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. book review handbook of distance education, (4th ed.) m. g. moore & w.c. diehl, (eds.) new york: routledge, 2019, pp. 579, isbn: 978-1-315-29613-5 the self-identified purpose of the handbook of distance education, (4th ed.) is the same as that of the three earlier editions, i.e., to provide access to a broad selection of the scholarly and research literature, organized in a way that will enable students and practitioners to identify sources relevant to their particular needs, as the first step leading to their personal, in-depth, follow-up literature research. the first edition was produced in 2003 and this fourth edition was produced six years after the third edition. readers of earlier editions will note a similar thematic structure, but in this edition the sections on learning and teaching have been combined. in many chapters, authors reference earlier versions, briefly summarising how they have built upon the previous work to include more recent research, and in some cases referring readers to specific aspects of previous reviews which they do not repeat. part 1 looks at the historical and theoretical foundations of distance education. the section begins with an introduction to early research and the evolution of research institutions focused on distance education, and professional associations of distance education practitioners, followed by a deeper look into the work of several pioneer theorists. the next three chapters each address a theoretical framework: moore’s theory of transactional distance, dron’s discussion of independent learning by contrasting independent learning with what it means to be a dependent learner, and the community of inquiry. a chapter on why gender still matters in distance education follows. finally, a discussion of meta-analyses and qualitative and systematic reviews concludes that the time for comparisons between the effectiveness of distance education compared to traditional methods of delivery is over. research now needs to focus on understanding how to do distance education, online learning and blended learning well. part 2, the largest section, summarises research on teaching and learning. the section starts by reviewing research on cognitive information processing, student satisfaction, student persistence, motivation, and how to work with these learner characteristics when the learner and the educator are not in the same physical space. this is followed by a look at how academic libraries support distance learning, recognising the blurring boundaries between serving distance learners and on-campus students. there is a review of the ethics of the student-teacher relationship and the responsibilities of each, particularly in response to changing institutional priorities and an increasingly global, cross 288 cultural teaching-learning context. other chapters look at blended learning, mobile learning and use of social media, concluding that the research is still young and inconclusive about these relatively recent options for distance educators. this section also presents four different instructional design frameworks. part 2 ends with reflections on diversity, specifically whether or not technology is enabling or disabling for learners with disabling conditions, and culture inclusivity within collaborative inquiry-based learning. part 3 on management, policy and administration touches on topics relevant to distance education that do not fit under teaching and learning, i.e., leadership, needs assessment and strategic planning, quality assurance, copyright and evaluation. other topics covered include us federal policy on distance education, the future of work in a globalised world with an emphasis on the relevance of moocs for continuous learning, and factors influencing the participation and motivation of faculty in mainstreaming online learning in us higher education institutions. the final section is titled “audiences and providers”. without expressly saying so, this section recognises the over-representation throughout the rest of the book of research related to north america, particularly the united states, and to higher education. six chapters each cover one of six non-higher education sectors: community colleges, continuing professional development, the us armed forces, private and for-profit higher education institutions in the us, the corporate sector and the k-12 or compulsory sector. a separate chapter discusses research into teaching university science online. the last two chapters of the book are devoted to distance education in two other regions, latin america and asia. how well does the handbook achieve its stated aim of giving readers a broad base of scholarly literature so that they can then springboard from this to “identify sources relevant to their particular needs”? it depends. if one’s interest is in the north american, particularly the united states, higher education system, the answer would be a definite yes. ninety percent of the contributing authors are north american, and all but seven of the 69 authors work as academics in universities. of course, as researchers, it is possible to work in one sphere and know about research in other spheres, but the overwhelming sense throughout the first three parts of the handbook is a focus on scholarly literature related to higher education in the united states. if, as in my case, one’s interest is in distance education related to technical and vocational education and training (tvet) in the developing world, sources are much less “relevant to my particular needs”. is this because higher education in the united states is the focus of the world’s scholarly research into distance education, or is the handbook’s emphasis the result of its authors’ bias? i suspect it is a bit of both. barbour’s review of k-12 distance education grapples with this reality. although based in the united states, unlike most other contributors he includes reviews of literature from other developed countries (canada, new zealand, australia and those in europe). he then notes the predominance of k-12-relevant published research as being united states focused. however, he does not make mention of the published research, such as that in the commonwealth of learning’s journal of learning for development, on open schooling in asia and africa. while this is also distance education, it tends to be 289 a different model to that being discussed under “virtual schooling” for developed countries, and so is of less interest to those researching in developed world contexts. if aware, he also may view this as “published literature in the field”, as opposed to “literature that is actually based upon research”. when considering my own literature base and why it is not represented in the handbook, i realise that much of it is not published in peer-reviewed journals. therefore, it does not meet the criteria used for “scholarly research” used in the handbook, thus, limiting the relevance of the handbook for me. also, relevant papers may not emphasise distance education, because they are more concerned with workplace learning, or flexibility, or labour market needs. the chapter on corporate education acknowledges this challenge, outlining three different key sources of research for distance education in the workplace. they clarify that they have primarily reported findings from peer reviewed publications; have included some findings from applied research done by professional and trade associations, think tanks and trade publications; and have excluded research by private analysts for investment purposes. having said all this, the handbook brings together a significant body of research from which every distance education practitioner can benefit. the theoretical frameworks and instructional design strategy sections are universally helpful. while they tend to have been derived from western higher education cultural contexts, they offer frameworks and strategies which have been proven somewhere. these theoretical frameworks provide a base from which to apply theory in practice, generate hypotheses for research, and test their relevance and reliability in other cultural settings — both in different countries and in different education sectors. similarly, the topics in the section on teaching and learning offer useful starting points for researchers and practitioners in other regions of the world, and for other education sectors. this is a rich section which offers an interesting range of things that others have deemed worthy of research, as well as their conclusions, thus far, and references for deeper understanding. it seems reasonable to assume that factors such as cognitive load, motivation, persistence, scaffolding, and how to develop social, cognitive and teaching presence will be relevant across contexts, even though the specifics of how to do this well are likely to be different depending on culture and education setting. part 3 acknowledges that the research is limited, even in the north american higher education sector, for topics related to management and administration. however, again, what is there gives useful frameworks for thinking about such topics as leadership or strategic planning. again, in part 4, the individual chapters are a once-over, light inspection for the specific education and training sector or region under discussion but they do provide a good starting point for those who see themselves there. so, in conclusion, the handbook does an excellent job of sharing the united states’ higher education case study. like any case study, there is much to learn from it. it provides a solid starting point for distance educators working with the 92% of the world’s population living outside north america and the growing number of educators using distance learning with the 93% of the world’s population not attending university. distance education is crucial in solving the education challenges facing these populations. my hope is that distance education researchers can increasingly work within diverse contexts to build a broader body of scholarly literature, so that in the fifth edition of the handbook, 290 readers from across the world in k-12, tvet, and corporate settings, as well as higher education, can identify sources relevant to their particular needs. reviewed by: ms terry neal, education specialist, technical, vocational and skills development ( tvsd), commonwealth of learning, burnaby, canada. email: tneal@col.org cite this paper as: neal, t. (2019). book review: handbook of distance education, (4th ed.). edited by m. g. moore & w. c. diehl. journal of learning for development 6(3), 287-290. microsoft word morgan.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 245-261 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. getting to openness at a closed institution: a case study of evolving and sustaining open education practices tannis morgan bccampus and justice institute of british columbia, vancouver, canada abstract: this study examined a canadian post-secondary institution in the period between 2010 and 2014, with a follow-up assessment in 2018 in order to understand its evolution with open educational resources (oer) and open educational practices (oep). in the first timeline, the study looked at drivers that contributed to the uptake of oer in relation to the type of oer and factors contributing to the diffusion of oer. in the second timeline, the study looked at whether oeps are being sustained and how they evolved at the institution. results show that within the institution there are both benefits and tensions to being open, and an institutional approach that considers openness on a case-by-case basis is appropriate. in looking at these two time periods, the study fills a gap in oer research by providing a more longitudinal view of an institutional shift towards initiating and sustaining openness. keywords: open education practices, open education resources, sustainability. introduction there is no shortage of open initiatives centred around the idea of sharing of open educational resources (oer), defined by the william and flora hewlett foundation (2015) as "teaching, learning and research materials in any medium – digital or otherwise – that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions”. in the last ten years, a growing body of research has investigated faculty and student perceptions of oer (e.g., bliss et al., 2013), faculty use of oer (e.g., jhangiani et al., 2016) learning outcomes of oer (e.g., delimont et al., 2016; hilton, 2016), open education practices (e.g., ehlers, 2011; cronin, 2017), oer in the global south (hodgkinsonwilliams & arinto, 2017) and alignment with social justice frameworks (hodgkinson-williams & trotter, 2017; lambert, 2018), among other topics. in an analysis of 970 publications on open, bozkurt et al. (2018) point to three dominant themes: oer barriers; oer as a vision for higher education; and the relationship between oer and oeps (p. 90). they conclude that: “new strategies and policies need to be developed to eliminate barriers in oer and oeps, which is crucial for fully benefiting from openness in education and reaching wider populations. this issue is also important for sustainability and adoption of openness at different levels (e.g., individual, institutional or international)” (p. 91). this study was initiated in 2014 following an observation that at my institution (justice institute of british columbia [jibc]) there were a wide range of oer types — curriculum, courses, textbooks, learning resources — being created and adapted. however, it was observed that the motivations or drivers for this acceptance of oer in the absence of a formal institutional oer initiative varied depending on the type of oer, the programme area, and how the oer activity was being funded. i also observed a gap in the research in recognising the range of stakeholders within an institution 246 (beyond faculty and students) and the convergence of drivers, programme business models, and stakeholders in facilitating or inhibiting oer uptake. i therefore conducted institutional case-study research that sought to answer two questions: 1) how did jibc evolve towards openness between 2010 and 2014?; 2) how did jibc sustain openness between 2014 and 2018? research questions pertaining to how jibc evolved towards openness were: 1. globally, what are the key drivers at jibc for oer? 2. are the drivers different depending on type of oer? 3. what has contributed to the diffusion of oer at jibc? in 2018 i compared some of the 2014 data to current data in order to answer two questions about how jibc is sustaining openness: 4. are open education practices (oeps) being sustained at jibc? 5. how have oeps evolved between 2014 and 2018? this article presents some of the results and key findings of the 2014 study and provides a 2018 assessment on how the institution has continued to evolve with open. in looking at these two time periods, the article fills a gap in oer research by providing a more longitudinal view of an institutional shift towards initiating and sustaining openness. literature review as early as 2007, participants in the oer movement had begun outlining the arguments for why higher education institutions would want to be involved in oer while recognising that there were significant barriers (oecd, 2007; caswell et al., 2007). in 2019, this enthusiasm for the benefits is still very much present, while tempered somewhat by the growing realities of invisible labour in open education (watters, 2018) and in academia more broadly (ssfn-rig, 2017) as well as the ongoing concern for the sustainability of openness (wiley, 2007; friesen, 2009; rolfe, 2012). naidu (2019) reminds us that openness is more than just free access to open resources, and includes the open educational opportunity of “being able to engage in formal learning arrangements despite barriers such as lack of entry qualifications and inability to pay” (p. 1) as well as open learning teaching and learning strategies that can enable flexibility for the learner in terms of time and pace (p. 2). a shift from a focus on oer to oep extends this discourse further while acknowledging that, “the use of oep by educators is complex, personal, and contextual; it is also continually negotiated” (cronin, 2017, p. 15). finally, applications of social justice frameworks to discussions about the open movement (hodgkinson-williams & trotter, 2018; lambert 2018) draw attention to a need for critical discourse around who— in addition to where, and under what conditions — benefits from openness. while oep – whose participants include faculty, educational developers, students, librarians, and administrators—are located in higher education institutions, to date there have been very few case institutional case studies on organisational change to openness. specifically, there is little case-study research that examines openness from the perspective of the whole institution and from a range of stakeholders within the institution. how do institutions get to openness if it’s not part of their mandate? what are the drivers and barriers to uptake? 247 drivers and barriers drivers and barriers with respect to oer uptake is a fairly well researched topic and are examined together or separately. as rolfe (2012) has suggested, “it is vital to understand the drivers and motivational forces behind adopting oer and to identify barriers and challenges” (p. 10). in her study, rolfe looked at oer sharing and borrowing and noted the strongest drivers for participating were “a belief in open education, as a reputation enhancer both for the institution and the individual, and economic factors” (p. 10), while barriers included “copyright confusion and a lack of it support” (p. 10). nikoi and armellini (2012) turn their attention to the drivers and barriers of different staff at different levels of the organisation, noting they may have different views on drivers for oer development (p. 170). in a study of educators in the british columbian (canada) post-secondary sector, jhangiani et al. (2016) noted barriers to using oer were primarily discoverability, time, and a lack of support. finally, cox and trotter (2017) compare oer variables for not adopting oer between global north and global south contexts, noting differences in technical capacity and infrastructure as a variable and barrier in addition to other social and pedagogical challenges (p. 152). this comparison is useful in underlining that drivers and barriers may be context dependent depending on geopolitical location and institutional culture, among other things. in the context of this study, a driver can be a facilitator or a barrier depending on how it is acted on in the institutional context. sustainability sustainability has been signaled as both a concern and a barrier. the concern lies in how oer initiatives are funded, and whether oer advocates have a good strategy for sustaining them. at an oer stakeholder meeting in 2007, the sustainability of oer projects was identified as one of the most important priorities for the open movement to take action on, specifically for higher education institutions, international organisations, national governments and academics (d’antoni, 2007). more recently, murphy (2013), citing the opal report (andrade et al., 2011) comments: “the barriers to open practices have moved beyond accessibility and availability and are now more related to the lack of supporting components, particularly the commitment of resources (p. 215).” the commitment of resources — as tied to the sustainability of oer initiatives and the underlying ‘business’ models required to support these initiatives — is described in various ways. for example, caswell et al. (2007) outline the costs of open courseware development (software, hardware, hosting, and human resources) and note the sustainability of efforts were relying primarily on a sponsorship model from government agencies and donors. for farisi (2013), asian mega universities engage in various sustainability models for oer, which include institutional, governmental, workflow, user-centred community model, wiki-model, and a social software model. although not directly tied to sustainability, farisi also underlines the importance of cooperation and partnerships at regional and international levels as a key enabler of oer creation and publication. mcgowan (2019) claims institutional sponsorship in the us is coming largely from teaching and learning centres and libraries. there is also some suggestion that oer adoption benefits the institution and institutional financial sustainability through increased student retention (wiley, williams, demarte, & hilton, 2017). as the oer movement evolves, research on sustainability does not provide a clear picture at an institutional level as to how oer efforts are being sustained as they become part of institutional strategy and practices. longitudinal case studies may provide some insight into how institutions evolve with open practices, how they are sustained over time, and how the benefits are considered 248 and measured against the costs or efforts. for example, kezar and eckel (2002) conducted case study research of six institutions undertaking institutional transformation over a period of five years, and this approach may translate well to institutions who adopt openness as a means of academic or institutional transformation. research design i adopted a qualitative case-study research design (yin, 2002) to undertake a case of openness at jibc, a public post-secondary institution located in vancouver, canada. the first timeline that was examined was the period between 2010 and 2014. the follow up timeline looked at what had changed between september 2014 and september 2018. procedures jibc’s mandate is to provide justice and public safety education to the province of bc. unlike most public post-secondaries in bc, the majority of jibc students are older than 25, constituting an adult learner population that comes to jibc for highly specialised continuing education. approximately 50% of jibc graduates return to the jibc for further education at some point in their careers, and jibc programmes maintain strong connections with the communities that they serve. at the time of this study, jibc programme areas were clustered under three schools. the different schools and their programme areas traditionally operated quite independently, in conjunction with their respective business or funding models. in other words, programme areas operated with one or more combinations of funding streams: 1. funding from the ministry of advanced education 2. core client funding – funding that is earmarked for jibc by other bc ministries (e.g., justice; health; children and families) 3. contract and fee for service – funding that results from responding to requests for proposals or direct awarded contracts for jibc course and programme development 4. tuition from cost recovery programmes 5. research or grant funding. the attention of this study towards the funding/business model emerged from the observation that jibc had traditionally viewed content as something that needed to be guarded and protected or the institution would suffer financially. however, by 2014 this had shifted considerably, and led to us to conduct an inventory of known oer projects as of august 2014. i compiled the projects into a matrix and identified and confirmed the key leads on these projects. a purposive sample of key leads – based on whether they were a leader on a project that resulted in the creation, adoption, or adaption of an oer – was selected for a questionnaire and follow-up interview. this sample included every known oer project at jibc in 2014 and their key leads. once consent to participate was confirmed, i distributed a short online questionnaire to the identified leads (19 stakeholders). the main purpose of the questionnaire was to gather information on what were the important drivers for the oer project they were leading. the questionnaire listed 16 drivers and asked them to select on 4-point likert scale of not at all important, somewhat important, important 249 and extremely important. the drivers were identified from previous research as well as contextual knowledge of jibc. upon completion of the questionnaire, 30-60 minute structured interviews with the same 19 jibc stakeholders were scheduled. these stakeholders included: a director (1), associate directors (3), a programme director (1), programme managers (3), a programme coordinator (1), librarians (3), instructors (4), researchers (2), and an instructional designer (1). audio-recorded interviews were conducted by the director of the teaching and learning centre (myself) and a colleague in september 2014. responses to interview questions were collected into a data matrix organised by respondent and were analysed in conjunction with the questionnaire (miles, huberman & saldana, 2013). notes and memos that were created as part of the research process were also used in building out the data matrix. data analysis was both inductive and deductive (patton, 2001). data analysis involved theme analysis for each of the interviews in conjunction with individual questionnaire data. it also involved clustering of data by roles and type of oer project. questionnaire data was tabulated numerically, with not at all important assigned a 1 and extremely important assigned a 4. the numerical data was used to calculate which drivers were the most important overall and by type of oer. the two questions pertaining to knowledge of oer before and after the project were also treated in this way. the open-ended question was analysed along with the interviews as part of the theme analysis. for the period between 2014 and 2018, data included institutional document analysis, an updated inventory of oer projects, and an analysis of the evolution of the oer projects from 2014-2018 that looked at growth, funding, infrastructure, and number of institutional champions. the data collected was used to inform research questions number 4 and 5. definitions for the purposes of this study i used the following definitions: • drivers: project drivers are defined as key influences in the decision to undertake or participate in an oer project. they can be facilitators or barriers to openness. • oer: free or creative commons licensed textbooks, curriculum, courses, resources, apps, and simulations. while it is acknowledged that free and open are not synonymous, i included free resources such as apps whose license selection is constrained by the distribution platform (e.g., apple app store). • business model: funding streams that support the programme. results due to article length restrictions, this section does not include quotes from interviews with participants. creation and adoption of oer at jibc the analysis of the inventory of oer in 2014 demonstrates that jibc was creating and adopting a range of types of oer that extended beyond open textbooks. research on oer use in bc postsecondaries suggests that oer creation is occurring less frequently than oer adoption and adaption 250 at institutes (jhangiani et al., 2016). the inventory data confirms that in the case of open textbooks, jibc was adopting more than creating, but with respect to open courseware and learning resources, it was the reverse. therefore, examining oer by type in terms of creation and adoption may provide different insights into oer activities. table 1: number of oer in 2014 by type and creation or adoption type of oer number creations* number adoptions** total by type of oer learning resource 9 3 12 open courseware 4 3 7 open curriculum 2 0 2 open textbook 1 2 3 total by type of use 15 9 24 *creation also includes projects where existing (closed) jibc materials were repurposed and rebundled for open release as a new bundle **adoption includes remixing and reusing research question 1: globally, what are the key drivers at jibc for oer? we looked at both the questionnaire data and the interview data to understand this question. the questionnaire listed 16 drivers, five of which were classified as external, and the remainder internal. questions about the external drivers included: 1. how important was the ministry of advanced education (aved) as a driver for your project? 2. how important were the funding opportunities as a driver for your project? 3. how important were government policies or guidelines as a driver for your project? 4. how important were funding requirements as a driver for your project? 5. how important were external stakeholder/s as a driver for your project? this may include core clients. these questions acknowledged that the context for oer at jibc was both externally and internally driven and emerged from an observation that the reasons for engaging with oer extended beyond any particular institutional champion. to begin with, the questionnaire data shows that the top four drivers for oer identified by jibc stakeholders for all types of oer are internal. these drivers pertained to the following questions: 1. how important were students as a driver for your project? 2. how important was the belief that oer are the right thing to do as a driver for your project? 3. how important was the technology available to support your project as a driver for your project? 251 4. how important was the fact that there were supportive people at jibc as a driver for your project? as table 2 shows, having the technology available to support the project was the top driver across all oer projects, followed by having supportive people at the institution to help with the project. this is followed by the consideration of students and a belief that using oer is the right thing to do. table 2: top four drivers across all categories of oer driver total technology 68 supportive people 64 students 61 belief 60 research question 2: are the drivers different depending on type of oer? when separated by type of oer there is slightly more variability in the top two drivers, and in some cases, multiple drivers occupy the top spots: table 3: drivers by type of resource type of resource driver 1 driver 2 open textbooks students technology support oer belief learning resources technology oer belief external stakeholders open courses/courseware technology support open curriculum aved funding requirements funding availability librarian support library resources librarian support technology students for the most part the drivers that influenced the uptake of the oer were similar across all categories of oer with the exception of curriculum. in the case of the curriculum, the most important drivers 252 were externally driven — funding requirements, funding availability, and a directive from the ministry of advanced education, who were providing the money to develop the curriculum under the condition that it be released under a creative commons license, created the context for the development of open curriculum. it is also important to examine how both internal and external drivers are important in the uptake of oer. in addition to the curriculum oer, three of the learning resources were produced as a deliverable for a federally funded research project. in fact, the very first oer produced fell into this category and was seen as an opportunity to do something different and open up content under the guise of it being a funding requirement. in this sense, external drivers and funding can serve as a catalyst for helping an institution shift its culture but, as noted in the next section, it can also serve as a barrier or a challenge. research question 3: what has contributed to the diffusion of oer at jibc? the study assumed that knowledge of oer was a pre-requisite for diffusion. therefore, one of the questionnaire questions asked participants to rank their knowledge of oer before and after the project. of the 19 participants, eight identified that they had the same knowledge as when they started the project, and 11 indicated that their knowledge has increased. this suggests that being involved in an oer project may be a good way to increase oer knowledge at the institution, which is important to consider if an institutional cultural shift towards openness is a goal. as the drivers indicate, available technology and support was a major factor in contributing to the diffusion of oer at jibc. available technology in this case was enabled by institutionally hosted wordpress, as well as a pressbooks service provided by bccampus. both technologies allowed for content to be more easily created and shared openly. this suggests that enabling a culture of open is dependent upon the availability of a technological infrastructure that facilitates the creation and sharing of oer. we also looked to the interviews to get a better understanding of what contributed to the diffusion of oer between 2010 and 2014. specifically, how did participants describe the challenges and benefits of their respective oer projects, and how did it “fit” or not fit into their programmes. since our research questions emerged from an observation that the type of funding model of a particular programme or project that resulted in an oer would be important to investigate, it’s unsurprising that thematic analysis pointed to several factors tied to the question of business models or funding. fit in relation to business model of the programme oer uptake was considered a good “fit” with existing programme business models when: 1. creating or adopting oer saved on development costs 2. creating or adopting oer presented an easier solution (technologically or administratively) 3. the business model (e.g., core client funded training) had a goal of a broader reach for the same amount of resources. in other words, if the oer reached a larger audience through openness, it was seen as a win-win-win for the institution, the client, and the student. 4. the funder required the deliverable to be open. 253 however, it in at least one case (curriculum), oer presented a direct challenge to the business model. the ministry of advanced education funded a curriculum renewal in two health programmes for which the only other institutions to offer the programmes were private sector providers. creating curriculum that could potentially be used by the private providers created two notable problems. first, unlike the public institutions, private institutions have flexibility in the fees that they can charge students, and there was a concern that the private institutions would take away students if they were given the competitive advantage of not having development costs. secondly, using public resources to fund curriculum for a private institution contradicted the perceived ethos of open of keeping public funds in the public system for the benefit of students. the tension with respect to business model can be summarised as one in which new models or new ways of doing things may be in conflict with current ways of doing. in the case of the early oer projects, the participants noted the considerable negotiation with supervisors, leadership, the finance department in carving out a new way of doing. one early adopter said “it felt rogue” and battled questions from superiors about potential loss of revenue if content was made open. another tension emerged with respect to the initial workload required with oer. two of the three librarians that were interviewed and two instructors underlined workload in creating resources as an important consideration. however, it is important to note that while the librarians were creating and assembling oer as part of their existing workload, the instructors were given a course release to develop their open textbooks. in both cases, the workload exceeded the time given, suggesting that how oer labour is absorbed into the activities of the institution needs to be calculated and managed carefully. the importance of (open) technology one of the important findings to emerge was the extent to which the stakeholder participants perceived the availability of technology to support their project as an important driver. in the period between 2010 and 2014, jibc had introduced wordpress into the institutional educational technology ecosystem, where previously there was only a learning management system (lms – blackboard). the majority of the learning resources and open courses were created in wordpress which, by default, resulted in open resources. building in wordpress provided a less resource intensive and easier-tomaintain environment than the lms. the open textbooks were created using a bccampus hosted pressbooks service for creating and hosting textbooks, which was a recognised benefit to getting open textbooks off the ground at jibc. openness as a means to increase visibility and access, and, therefore, enrollments four programme areas observed that being open with content increased the visibility of the programme and this visibility had several positive outcomes. first, there was a perception that putting jibc content into the open conveyed a message about the quality of jibc work and communicated that jibc was the desired quality standard for that topic. in this way, it also made jibc standards more visible and transparent. secondly, there was a recognition that there were adult learners who didn’t necessarily want to go through a student registration process to take a course, and our open courses allowed them to learn without having to do that. interestingly, three programme areas reported having an increase in enrollments of as much as 30% that they attributed to the increased visibility that the open courses brought by this new model. 254 the value of remixing and adapting contributing to the diffusion of oer were the remixing and adaptation advantages of oer in a context where many jibc programmes were highly specialised (and therefore content options were sometimes scarce) and required a canadian focus. for example, in three of our programmes, the practice standards and terminology were different than the american materials, yet the available textbooks or materials were us-based. in these cases, creating oer for the canadian context positioned jibc as the first to offer a canadian version, which brought some positive attention to our programmes. new models interestingly, one of the lowest ranking drivers was the desire for a better business model, yet the interview data revealed that this is what resulted in some cases. specifically, new learning designs have provided new ways of attracting and retaining students. these new models can be summarised as follows: 1. two programme areas introduced open, introductory courses that were freely accessible without going through the student registration process. the programme areas attributed an increase in students paying for additional courses in the programme to the increased visibility provided by opening up the introductory courses. 2. one programme area retired its paid, online course and redesigned it as a free app and a free ibook. students wanting to get credit for the course could pay for an exam at a rate that was much cheaper than the online course would have been. despite the lower cost, the increase in students taking the exam resulted in a revenue increase for that course and brought attention to the programme as a provider of that training. 3. two programme areas opened up resource sites that were previously invisible to the broader community. the programmes reported that this step seemed to bring attention to the programme itself, communicated the programme as a leader of quality education, and provided a way of ensuring that learners would not only have excellent resources available to them while they were jibc students, but they could also take these tools with them into their workplaces upon graduation and be tools in those environments. research question 4: are open education practices being sustained at jibc? to observe whether open education practices were being sustained at jibc the analysis assessed the growth or reduction in open activities and the evolution of open education practices since 2014. open education practices have continued to grow in several areas and there is evidence to suggest that they are being sustained. from open textbooks to zed creds in 2014, there were three open textbooks in use across two jibc programmes; there are now eight. in the law enforcement studies programme, the initial open textbook kicked off a goal of having the entire two-year diploma programme become a zero cost textbook programme, or ztc. this declaration constituted bc’s first ztc (alternatively referred to as zed cred), and in 2017 jibc received support to complete the development of this ztc programme. 255 openness as part of learning design and an ‘open first’ development process in 2014, jibc saw the emergence of new models that resulted in a shift in business model. in other words, openness has opened up new types of learning designs. jibc has continued to experiment with openness as part of a learning design process led by the teaching and learning centre that considers open first as the default in the course design process. adopting an open first guideline was also identified by mckerlich et al. (2014) as a recommended mechanism for getting beyond an overreliance on intrinsic motivation in enabling oer use and reuse. in 2014 jibc had three open courses across two programme areas, and now we have more than ten across a range of disciplines. all of these courses were developed in wordpress, which has continued to be a key technology in enabling a shift towards openness, since developing and maintaining oer in wordpress is easier, less resource intensive, and results in more appealing course sites. funding openness as early as 2008, caswell et al. (2008) pointed to the funding and sustainability considerations of oer and noted that they included: “sponsorship model, support from governmental agencies, donations, endowments, and other potential models” and that “ensuring the sustainability of these projects moving forward is of critical importance” (p. 9). in 2014, jibc’s funding for oer were largely through government and research funding, core client funding, and through existing funds set aside for curriculum development. in the period between 2014 and 2018 open development funds had been mainstreamed into the teaching and learning centre budget. the diversity of funding sources has ensured that openness can continue to happen at jibc in the event that one source ceases to exist. in this respect, jibc’s approach responds to the questions that olcott (2012) noted: “does the educational value of oer justify university investment of reoccurring budget allocations to the development and management of oer? will faculty members, department chairpersons, and senior leadership support this (p. 287)?” in jibc’s case, the answer is yes but there are two instances where this has required some reflection. these two instances are examples where externally funded oer projects have been both a blessing and a curse. in one case, a considerable amount of money was provided to develop a pan-canadian guide and tool as part of an extensive research project. this resource requires additional resources to maintain beyond the project, a cost which jibc absorbs, but the institution is reluctant to cease support due to the positive impact that it appears to be having on communities that are using it. in another case, jibc received funding to develop an open resource to address a local public health and safety crisis that has since extended across north america. the cc-by license has allowed it to be picked up and re-used across the continent and has resulted in very positive publicity for the institution. however, no additional money has been provided to continue to support it. as others have identified (e.g., olcott, 2012) oer may be free to use but there is a cost to the organisations that create and maintain them. jibc has responded to this situation by identifying these kinds of projects as “open for the public good” and at this point in time continues to support them. 256 research question 5: how have open education practices evolved between 2014 and 2018? there are two notable areas where open education practices have evolved since 2014. institutional integration one of the more significant signals of a shift towards greater institutional acceptance of openness at jibc is that the 2016-2020 academic plan includes two references to open education resources (jibc 2016-2020 education plan, 2016). 1. accessible through technology-enabled learning and teaching environments: “greater access to our programming is made possible through the thoughtful application of technologyenabled learning and teaching environments, which include online simulations, open digital resources, and online courses and programmes.” (p. 15) 2. strategies for success: “explore and support the use of innovative educational technologies and open resources that meet student and client needs.” (p. 10) additionally, in 2018 a cross-institutional open working group was formed to distribute open education leadership beyond the teaching and learning centre, suggesting that while there are no institutional policies pertaining to openness, there is a recognition that continued coordination and growth of openness is desired. engaging in the broader community of openness jibc’s activities in openness have resulted in opportunities and engagement in the broader, international community of open education. three members of the teaching and learning centre have had separate secondments or fellowships to bccampus for their work in open education. in 2017 jibc was also the recipient of an open education consortium award for open faculty development for a co-developed project with the university of guadalajara and a subsequent programme on innovation and open education was created and delivered in 2018. lastly, the number of jibc staff who continue to regularly present at conferences and conduct research on open education has grown from one to five. this suggests that there is more than one institutional champion, while underlining that there is still more effort needed to grow this number. from an institutional perspective, jibc’s involvement and recognition by the broader community has provided legitimacy and a certain amount of leverage with internal skeptics. discussion the story of openness at jibc is one that has evolved considerably from its beginnings in 2010. prior to 2010 the institution relied on a closed course, closed materials model and the conventional understanding was that content needed to be protected. by 2014 the oer landscape at jibc included more than 20 learning resources, open courses and open textbooks and included two programme curricula that were openly licensed. in the period between 2014 and 2018 the number of open courses, learning resources and open textbooks continued to grow. importantly, jibc has had sustained success with openness because it has helped us solve some fairly practical problems (pertaining to a scarcity or specificity of content; visibility; course development processes; and resources for course development), it’s good for students and there is the belief that it’s the right thing to do. additionally, jibc has also witnessed some of the benefits of oer projects outlined by friesen (2009) “student 257 recruitment, the potential for improving teaching and for better supporting learning, and a kind of viral marketing of the quality of teaching and learning in areas of strategic institutional interest” (p. 9). of course, jibc does not exist in a vacuum and the larger sector-wide ecosystem of momentum and support is important to consider in looking at how jibc continued to evolve between 2014 and 2018. in 2010, the university of british columbia (ubc) was leading the sector in opening up oer and jibc was an early adopter of some of their resources. importantly, as bc’s largest university, ubc’s efforts provided useful leverage and modeled a practice that institutions such as jibc could follow. since 2013, bccampus has generated considerable momentum and influence in the sector through its government supported open textbook initiative. more recently, bccampus launched a zed cred funding initiative of which jibc was one of three recipients. e-campus ontario was formed and launched its own sector-wide oer funding and professional development activities, from which bc can also benefit. additionally, a body of bc research on openness has emerged, government support for open textbooks continues to grow as do the number of institutions in the bc sector who are doing open education. nikoi and armellini (2012) remind us that “oer are not simply learning content; they are also software tools and implementation resources (oecd, 2007, p. 30).” the extent to which participants indicated the importance of appropriate technology as a driver for their projects in 2014, and the extent to which wordpress continues to be used for oer in 2018 suggests that technology is an important enabler to consider in oer. as yuan et al. (2008) have stated: “it is important to provide flexible, extendable platforms and easily adaptable open tools to access, use, reuse, create and post content to the web. for that reason, much of the oer motive is about evolving infrastructure for enhanced content creation and use of infrastructure for accessing digital content” (p. 21). interestingly, there is relatively little research on oer technology infrastructure beyond repositories, suggesting the need for further investigation. limitations of the study there are several limitations to consider. first, the study is a careful, albeit limited investigation of one public post-secondary institution. second, the 2014 phase of the research was conducted by two jibc colleagues, and some of the participants may have been reluctant to share all of their challenges or may have been compelled to exaggerate their successes. however, it is proposed that the longitudinal nature of the study and the multiple sources of data, as well as the deep knowledge of the institutional context by the author adds to the trustworthiness of the study. recommendations despite the limitations of the study, there are some recommendations. first, as friesen (2009) noted in examining the sustainability performance of several well-known oer initiatives, “cultures, policy, and procedure are not designed and implemented; they evolve — often with excruciating slowness.” (p. 9). a longitudinal view of an institutional oer initiative provides a way of examining this evolution over time and could provide insights into indicators of sustainability. it also constitutes one area where further studies are needed and will be increasingly important as the open movement matures. 258 second, this study showed that different institutional stakeholders have different views of the benefits of oer and reasons to participate in open. similar to nikoi and armellini (2012), jibc stakeholders see the benefits of oer in relation to their particular context or problem they are trying to solve. there may be some value in taking this into consideration in both research and advocacy. third, having the (open) technology infrastructure to engage in open education practices was a major driver for getting to openness at jibc. it is therefore recommended that institutions consider this as part of an oer initiative. our study also illuminated several tension points that may be worth considering in institutional open learning initiatives. first, and unsurprisingly, early adopters face several challenges and may be confronted with institutional gaps in process and roadblocks that result from those gaps, while also feeling ‘rogue’ in their activities. our study demonstrated that having an area of the institution (in this case the teaching and learning centre) or key people to support early adopters was a key driver for our success. second, in the case of jibc, not all types of oer were equal in their fit and value to the institution. this may be an important consideration in designing an oer initiative relevant to a particular institution. finally, there may be value in looking to the body of literature on institutional blended learning initiatives (taylor & newton, 2013; garrison & vaughan, 2013; lim & wang, 2017) and institutional transformation (kezar & eckel, 2002) as a way of identifying success factors for institutional open initiatives. for example, could an institutional self-assessment framework for blended learning (lim & wang, 2017), be adapted for open initiatives as way of measuring success and impact? this is an area for further exploration. conclusion within jibc, there are both benefits and tensions to openness, and an institutional approach that considers openness on a case-by-case basis is appropriate. the significance of an institutional case study lies in its ability to provide a more nuanced discussion of when and where open is beneficial within a particular context. as this paper has underlined, while most of jibc’s open efforts have resulted in benefits to the institution, open curriculum presents some challenges. as jones (2015) has stated: “openness is an outcome afforded by the interaction of a variety of contending factors organised into a dynamic assemblage” (p. 342), and this assemblage in jibc’s case is social, political, technological, and economic. however, despite the tensions, openness continued to grow as part of the fabric of jibc between 2014-2018, suggesting that an institutional shift has occurred and is being sustained. acknowledgement: the author would like to acknowledge the contributions of dr. stu ruttan for the data collection part of the study in 2014. references andrade, a., ehlers, u.-d., caine, a., carneiro, r., conole, g., kairamo, a.-k., … holmberg, c. (2011). beyond oer: shifting focus to open educational practices (opal report 2011). retrieved from http://duepublico.uniduisburg-essen.de/servlets/derivateservlet/derivate-25907/opalreport2011-beyond-oer.pdf 259 d’antoni, s. (2007). open educational resources: the way forward. deliberations of an international community of interest. paris: unesco-iiep. retrieved from http://oerwiki.iiep unesco.org/images/4/46/oer_way_forward.pdf. bliss, t., robinson, t.j., hilton, j., & wiley, d.a. (2013). an oer coup: college teacher and student perceptions of open educational resources. journal of interactive media in education, 2013(1), p.art. 4. http://doi.org/10.5334/2013-04 bozkurt, a., koseoglu, s., & singh, l. (2018). an analysis of peer reviewed publications on openness in education in half a century: trends and patterns in the open hemisphere. australasian journal of educational technology, 35(4). https://doi.org/10.14742/ajet.4252 caswell, t., henson, s., jensen, m., & wiley, d. (2008). open content and open educational resources: enabling universal education. the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 9(1). https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v9i1.469 cox, g., & trotter, h. (2016). institutional culture and oer policy: how structure, culture, and agency mediate oer policy potential in south african universities. the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 17(5). https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v17i5.2523 cronin, c. (2017). openness and praxis: exploring the use of open educational practices in higher education. the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 18(5). https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v18i5.3096 delimont, n., turtle, e. c., bennett, a., adhikari, k., & lindshield, b. l. (2016). university students and faculty have positive perceptions of open/ alternative resources and their utilization in a textbook replacement initiative. research in learning technology, 24. https://doi.org/10.3402/rlt.v24.29920 ehlers, u.d. (2011). extending the territory: from open educational resources to open educational practices. journal of open, flexible, and distance learning, 15(2), 1-10. distance education association of new zealand. retrieved from https://www.learntechlib.org/p/147891/. farisi, m. i. (2013). oer on the asian mega universities: developments, motives, openness, and sustainability. turkish online journal of distance education, 14(1), 273-289. friesen, n. (2009). open educational resources: new possibilities for change and sustainability. the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 10(5). https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v10i5.664 garrison, d. r., & vaughan, n. d. (2013). institutional change and leadership associated with blended learning innovation: two case studies. the internet and higher education, 18, 24–28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2012.09.001 hilton, j. (2016). open educational resources and college textbook choices: a review of research on efficacy and perceptions. educational technology research and development, 64(4), 573-590. hodgkinson-williams, c., & arinto, p. b. (2017). adoption and impact of oer in the global south. cape town & ottawa: african minds, international development research centre & research on open educational resources. doi: 10.5281/zenodo.1005330 hodgkinson-williams, c. a., & trotter, h. (2018). a social justice framework for understanding open educational resources and practices in the global south. journal of learning for development jl4d, 5(3). retrieved from https://jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/article/view/312 jhangiani, r. s., pitt, r., hendricks, c., key, j., & lalonde, c. (2016). exploring faculty use of open educational resources at british columbia post-secondary institutions. victoria, bc: bccampus. jibc 2016-2020 education plan (2016). retrieved from https://www.jibc.ca/sites/default/files/main/pdf/20162020-education-plan.pdf 260 jones, c. (2015) openness, technologies, business models and austerity. learning, media and technology, 40(3), 328-349, doi: 10.1080/17439884.2015.1051307 kezar, a., & eckel, p. d. (2002). the effect of institutional culture on change strategies in higher education: universal principles or culturally responsive concepts? the journal of higher education, 73(4), 435–460. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221546.2002.11777159 lambert, s. r. (2018). changing our (dis)course: a distinctive social justice aligned definition of open education. journal of learning for development jl4d, 5(3). retrieved from http://jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/article/view/290 lim, c. p., & wang, l. (2017). blended learning for quality higher education: selected case studies on implementation from asia-pacific. bangkok: unesco. retrieved from https://bangkok.unesco.org/content/blended-learningquality-higher-education-selected-case-studies-implementation-asia-pacific mcgowan, v. (2019). institution initiatives and support related to faculty development of open educational resources and alternative textbooks. open learning: the journal of open, distance and e-learning. doi: 10.1080/02680513.2018.1562328 mckerlich, r., ives, c., & mcgreal, r. (2013). measuring use and creation of open educational resources in higher education. the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 14(4). https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v14i4.1573 miles, m. b., huberman, a. m., & saldana, j. (2013). qualitative data analysis, a methods sourcebook, (3rd ed.). thousand oaks, ca: sage publications, inc. murphy, a. (2013). open educational practices in higher education: institutional adoption and challenges. distance education, 34(2), 201–217. https://doi.org/10.1080/01587919.2013.793641 naidu, s. (2019). the idea of open education. distance education, 40(1), 1–4. https://doi.org/10.1080/01587919.2018.1564622 nikoi, s., & armellini, a. (2012). the oer mix in higher education: purpose, process, product, and policy. distance education, 33(2), 165–184. https://doi.org/10.1080/01587919.2012.697439 olcott, d. (2012). oer perspectives: emerging issues for universities. distance education, 33(2), 283-290, doi: 10.1080/01587919.2012.700561 patton, m.q. (2001). qualitative research and evaluation methods (2nd ed.). thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. rolfe, v. (2012). open educational resources: staff attitudes and awareness. research in learning technology, 20. http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/rlt.v20i0.14395 social sciences feminist network research interest group (ssfn-rig). (2017). the burden of invisible work in academia: social inequalities and time use in five university departments. humboldt journal of social relations, 1(39), 18. taylor, j. a., & newton, d. (2013). beyond blended learning: a case study of institutional change at an australian regional university. the internet and higher education, 18, 54–60. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2012.10.003 watters, a. (2018, may 4). invisible labor and digital utopias [blog post]. retrieved from http://hackeducation.com/2018/05/04/cuny-labor-open wiley, d. (2007). on the sustainability of open educational resource initiatives in higher education. oecd. wiley, d., williams, l., demarte, d., & hilton, j. (2016). the tidewater z-degree and the intro model for sustaining oer adoption. education policy analysis archives, 24(0), 41. https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.24.1828 william and flora hewlett foundation. (2015). open educational resources: advancing widespread adoption to improve instruction and learning. retrieved from https://hewlett.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/oerstrategy-memo.pdf 261 yin, r. k. (2002). case study research: design and methods. thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. yuan, li, macneill, s., & kraan, w. (2008). open educational resources opportunities and challenges for higher education. jisc cetis. retrieved from http://wiki.cetis.ac.uk/images/0/0b/oer\_briefing\_paper.pdf author: tannis morgan is a researcher, open education practices – bccampus; director, centre for teaching, learning & innovation jibc. email: tannis_morgan@yahoo.com cite this paper as: morgan, t. (2019). getting to openness at a closed institution: a case study of evolving and sustaining open education practices. journal of learning for development 6(3), 245-261. microsoft word werth.docx issn: 2311-1550 2020, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 416-422 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. fostering rapid institution-wide curricular change in response to covid-19 eric werth, katherine williams and lori werth university of pikeville, pikeville, kentucky, usa abstract: to aid students during covid-19, the university of pikeville transitioned all undergraduate classes to no-cost alternatives for course textbooks. additionally, the academic calendar was modified for the first time in the institution’s 130-year history from a traditional 16week semester to 8-week block scheduling. this case study explores strategies, approaches to corresponding with constituents, and lessons learned in leading an institution through two major curricular changes in under six months in response to a global pandemic. keywords: open educational resources, calendar changes, coronavirus. overview of initiatives and context concern continually surrounds enrollment at small, tuition-driven institutions. loss of even a few students can negatively affect the campus community. with predictions of up to a 20% drop in enrollment at four-year colleges in fall 2020 amid coronavirus uncertainties (jaschik, 2020) institutions around the world began contingency planning. at the university of pikeville (upike), a liberal arts-based school of opportunity in the united states, conversations in the spring of 2020 centered upon two key factors for institutional health: enrollment and retention. the university community recognised that while cost has always been a major driver of student choice, the situation was exacerbated by job loss and the uncertainties of covid-19. amid this backdrop, and with the goals of addressing student financial need and academic success in a flexible and sustainable approach, the university embarked on two significant changes prior to fall 2020: transition to no-cost alternatives for all course texts and conversion from a 16to an eight-week course format. initiatives using oer to reduce student costs are not uncommon. conversion of all courses within a highly compressed timeframe, as done here in under six months, is atypical. additionally, although many colleges offer options for eight-week courses, institutional conversion from 16to eight-week scheduling is uncommon, particularly at liberal arts institutions. our approach, and what we have learned from these initiatives, told here from the point of view of the provost and professional development specialists, may be valuable to others considering similar strategies. 417 phases of innovation: phase i-planning and approval (march-april) in mid-march, the university provost convened a task force composed of the provost, assistant provost, dean of student success, dean of the college of arts and sciences (cas) and the office of professional development to evaluate eliminating textbook costs as well as moving from 16to eightweek courses. the task force was charged with reviewing research, communicating with the campus community, and preparing a formal recommendation. this report, including budgetary needs, personnel implications, and an implementation timeline was to be ready for consideration by the cabinet the first week of april. prior to engaging the community at large, task force members systematically reviewed the literature. research on the use of open educational resources (oer) or other free textbook options suggested that they positively impact students. oer were found not only to save money (griffiths et al, 2018; hilton et al, 2013) but also to improve student outcomes such as access to learning materials, pass rates, satisfaction with a course, and the number of credits taken (martin et al, 2017; murphy & rose, 2018; pina, & moran, 2018; wiley et al, 2016). primary literature related to accelerated/compressed courses was also compelling. accelerated courses were found to be equal to or improve overall student success compared to traditional-length courses (tatum, 2010). these findings were consistent regardless of the class delivery modality (anastasi, 2007; boeding, 2016) or student demographics (austin & gustafson, 2006). compressed courses were found to lead to higher student grades and lower withdrawal rates compared to longer courses (gamboa, 2013; sheldon & durdella, 2010). following assessment of the literature, conversations began with key academic leaders. task force members were each assigned contacts. the purpose of this dialogue was to share findings related to potential changes and gather feedback for writing recommendations. in addition to discourse with faculty, discussions took place with the following offices: registrar, offices of admissions and financial aid, tutoring/academic excellence, student affairs, and public relations. focus groups with key student leaders were organised to present the idea of a no-cost text initiative and calendar modifications, and solicit feedback. the dean of cas led these focus groups, took copious notes, and shared findings with the task force. ultimately, the task force presented the president with a synthesis of research findings, campus feedback, and a formal recommendation. after reviewing this, the president supported the proposal and discussed it with the board of trustees, who similarly voiced support. phase ii: implementation (april-august 2020) with leadership approval, the provost engaged in strategic planning and drafted a marketing plan with public relations that announced the change. internally, the changes were introduced first by the president via a campus-wide email. the announcement detailed the initiatives, impact on student success, and feedback from campus constituents. in addition, virtual luncheons, college-level meetings facilitated by deans, one-on-one discussions with faculty and staff, and continued dialogue with the admissions, financial aid, and business offices took place. externally, announcements were made via email and various social media platforms. the greatest impact came from a short video released on twitter. 418 a calling campaign was launched to speak individually to all current students and their families in the two months following the public announcement. twenty-five leaders contacted families to discuss planned changes, answer questions, and build relationships. students and their families relayed annual textbook costs of over $2,000. summer employment, we learned, is typically when students save for books. during covid-19 saving money was not possible. students were living at home and unemployed, not by choice but due to job loss. many families were aware of the initiatives from pr releases; for others the phone call was the first they had heard of the changes. parents and students saw free textbooks as a transformational initiative that would alleviate a significant financial burden. the situation was different in relation to student and family views of the transition from 16to eightweek courses. while the move to no-cost texts immediately connected, there were many questions about accelerated classes, due in large part to their unfamiliarity with this approach. the literature review was invaluable in discussing the benefit to students. this minimised concerns about taking fewer concurrent courses in a compressed format. the task force identified instructor support as vital. in response, a number of part-time, temporary employees were added to the office of professional development. seven faculty were selected based on their success during the spring 2020 online transition in teaching students and mentoring colleagues. these individuals were offered a stipend to serve as “learning designers” (lds) during the summer. each ld was assigned faculty outside their department, and served as a point of contact and mentor for those restructuring courses. in addition, an instructional designer (id) and instructional technology trainer (itt) were temporarily hired to work with instructors on course design and provide weekly virtual training. faculty were apprehensive about situations where no-cost alternatives were not available. this was of particular concern in specialised subjects such as nursing, teacher education, and some upper-division courses. to ameliorate anxiety, the provost redirected $50,000 in savings for purchasing items where no oer existed. an application process was developed wherein an instructor wishing to have their course materials purchased for students would submit a form requesting funding. instructors were encouraged to search oer and library databases but could also seek assistance. a completed application for funding included a statement from either the office of professional development or a librarian indicating what oer or ebook resources were found during the search process, a statement of support from the college dean, and the cost of the material. applications were reviewed by a faculty committee to determine which would be approved, with preference given to ebooks that could be added to our library collection for ongoing use. impact of innovation: lessons learned in today’s turbulent environment, collaboration is more important than ever. the ability to execute strategic initiatives depends on combining peoples’ potential and willingness to share knowledge. university leadership discovered that in times of emergent crisis, innovation is triggered by three major factors. 1. substantial research-based support must underlie initiatives: questioning significant changes should be welcomed if a trusting and open culture exists. challenging decisions and demanding rationale are healthy for institutions. supporting research helps articulate benefits and alleviate concern when planning innovation. in our case, the dean of student success has 419 extensive experience in student retention and persistence theories. he was tasked with collecting over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles, textbooks, and other primary resources to discuss the migration from 16-week semesters to eight-week block scheduling and elimination of textbook costs. this literature review provided a foundation that was critical to subsequent decisions. 2. focused dialogue and cross-pollination with onand off-campus constituents must occur: without support by onand off-campus constituents, truly innovative initiatives will falter. face-to-face and virtual discussions gave institutional leaders the opportunity to relay research-based findings for proposed initiatives. when issues were raised, campus leaders were able to assist with targeted problem-solving and amend strategies. for example, when the registrar’s office indicated concern about the ability to shift already-registered students from 16to eight-week courses, an approach was found where a roadblock was initially perceived. 3. create an inclusive marketing and dissemination plan: public relations involvement and marketing are often forgotten when executing innovative plans. this may be due to the impression that pr and marketing are not as important for on-campus constituents, including students. good pr and marketing is one strategy that drives innovation and helps meet target goals. collaboration with experts on campus who understand these principles and the decisionmaking process for our multi-generational students from varied backgrounds helps avoid confusion, miscommunication, and barriers to implementation. as the department spearheading implementation of these innovations, the office of professional development identified several lessons to be learned valuable to our future plans and those considering similar initiatives. 1. availability of 1-on-1 assistance is critical: personalised help is key in finding suitable oer or free materials. a number of studies have indicated that barriers to oer use by faculty include difficulty locating appropriate resources and time to search (see jhangiani, et al, 2016). one-onone assistance mitigated these barriers and dispelled the belief held by some that no quality oer existed for their subject. as the primary goal was to eliminate text expense for students, library subscriptions and material available on the web provided an avenue for resource selection. while we provided training on searching these repositories, much time was spent on personalised support for those navigating library collections. this approach aided in negating faculty dissatisfaction with restructuring content to meet their needs, particularly since materials were being organised digitally. 2. developed dependency on costly publisher material is troubling: lack of “supplementary” course resources is known to be a barrier to oer adoption (lieberman, 2018). slide decks, test banks, and videos are often used to supplement instruction. many publishers now advertise platforms which both supplement and deliver instruction. some publishers provide complete courses including text material for purchase of an all-in-one access code. these are used to assess student deficits, provide remediation including feedback, and structure future learning experiences. 420 faculty selecting this content may be well-intentioned. the result, however, is a sometimes gradual (sometimes not) evolving dependence on publishers. no longer does finding an alternate resource involve replacing only texts but large portions of the course itself. if developing and facilitating learning experiences are major elements of being an instructor, we are voluntarily becoming indebted to publishers for course design. we are passing along this cost to students in addition to what they already pay in tuition. 3. in some disciplines, oer or other free material are lacking: although increasing in availability, lab materials can be difficult to locate, particularly for upper-division science courses. in fields like nursing and education, publisher textbooks may be aligned to external standards. if oer are not aligned as well this complicates assessment of the material. there are initiatives that are building oer in these fields, like the openrn project, but more focus is needed. 4. purchasing ebooks to supplement existing library collections can be cost effective: often, we found that for a relatively low-cost, ongoing access to an ebook could be purchased. for example, a textbook that would cost each student approximately $80 could be added to our library for under $200. with a class of 25, this represents a savings of $2,000 per class for a $200 institutional investment. however, sometimes while everyone in class could read the ebook online, only a limited number of these could be checked out concurrently. in relation to the move from 16to eight-week classes, several dynamics became evident that are relevant to any planned schedule shift. 1. pre-existing beliefs are difficult to alter: significant research exists demonstrating student success in condensed course formats. however, instructors who believe that their content cannot be condensed do not quickly change their opinion even when presented with research from their field. this potentially represents a significant barrier. those who have taught in shorter blocks have less difficulty envisioning their course in a condensed format and frequently assess content based on its importance to achieving objectives, as outlined by kops (2014). when all course content is viewed as critical, even though knowledge is lost quickly following a final exam (bacon & stuart, 2006), restructuring a class appears impossible. 2. students are not identical but we teach as if they are: students come to us with varying backgrounds, educational experiences, and learning needs. instructors often take an input approach to teaching where the focus is what students do and not what they demonstrate about mastery of objectives. those with this mentality have difficulty compressing courses as it appears unfeasible to have students complete the same work in less time. 3. training is important but so are expectations for attendance: the office of professional development held multiple training sessions per week during summer 2020. topics encompassed overcoming mental roadblocks, using course design rubrics and templates for course transitions, and use of instructional technologies. attendees benefited from dialogue and brainstorming with design experts and fellow instructors. recordings were made for those who could not be present but some individuals did not attend any training. time constraints and lack of incentives as described in mascher (2016) were the main reasons provided. some 421 indicated they did not attend as they chafed at expectations being placed on them over the summer. conclusion as a result of covid-19, in under six months upike changed the academic structure of courses through two significant initiatives both directed at improving student success. in doing so, we reasserted our commitment to student-centered and sustainable practice at all institutional levels. these efforts addressed the immediate needs of students for fall 2020, and have been reaffirmed as priorities for spring 2021. these classes are also being converted to eight-week blocks and another $50,000 has been allocated for special material funding. our journey was not seamless. success required investing both time and money: time to listen to diverse voices; time in supporting those impacted by the initiatives; money for hiring mentors and experts who could effectively guide others. furthermore, communities of practice where faculty could work within a trusted environment proved to be a vital part of this transition, particularly in addressing mental barriers to change. this investment, in conjunction with the efforts put forth by non-academic units, made this re-investment in our students possible. acknowledgement: the authors would like to thank the task force, particularly dr. mathys meyer, for their work in the efforts described herein. references anastasi, j. (2007). methods and techniques: full-semester and abbreviated summer courses. teaching psychology, 34(1), 19–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/00986280709336643 austin, a., & gustafson, l. (2006). impact of course length on student learning. journal of economics and finance education, 5(1), 26-37. http://www.afa-srjc.org/senate_austingustafson.pdf bacon, d., & stewart, k. (2006). how fast do students forget what they learn in consumer behavior? a longitudinal study. journal of marketing education, 28, 181-192. https://doi.org/10.1177/0273475306291463 boeding, a. (2016). academic performance in compressed courses: a phenomenological study of community college student success. [dissertation, northeastern university]. https://repository.library.northeastern.edu/files/neu:cj82nq52z/fulltext.pdf gamboa, b. (2013). impact of course length on and subsequent use as a predictor of course success [institutional effectiveness report]. http://www.craftonhills.edu/~/media/files/sbccd/chc/about%20chc/research%20a124nd%20planning/rese arch%20briefs/academic%20success%20studies/compressed%20course%20study.pdf griffiths, r., gardner, s., lundh, p., shear, l., ball, a., mislevy, j., wang, s., desrochers, d. & staisloff, r. (2018). participant experiences and financial impacts: findings from year 2 of achieving the dream’s oer degree initiative. sri international. sri international. https://www.achievingthedream.org/sites/default/files/resources/participant_experiences_and_financial_impact s_oer_2018.pdf hilton, j., bliss, t., robinson, j., & wiley, d. (2013). an oer coup: college teacher and student perceptions of open educational resources. all faculty publications. 1355. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/facpub/1355 jaschik, s. (2020, april 29). colleges could lose up to 20% of students. inside higher ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2020/04/29/colleges-could-lose-20-percent-studentsanalysis-says 422 jhangiani, r. s., pitt, r., hendricks, c., key, j., & lalonde, c. (2016). exploring faculty use of open educational resources at british columbia post-secondary institutions. bccampus research report. bccampus. https://bccampus.ca/2016/01/27/exploring-faculty-use-of-open-educational-resources-in-b-c-post-secondaryinstitutions/ kops, w. j. (2014). teaching compressed-format courses: teacher-based best practices. canadian journal of university continuing education, 40(1), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.21225/d5fg7m lieberman, m. (2018, 10 january). the truth (about oer) is out there. https://www.insidehighered.com/digitallearning/article/2018/01/10/finding-oer-remains-challenging-solutions-abound martin, m., belikov, o., hilton iii, j., wiley, d., & fischer, l. (2017). analysis of student and faculty perceptions of textbook costs in higher education. open praxis, 9(1), 79-91. http://dx.doi.org/10.5944/openpraxis.9.1.432 mascher, e. a. (2016). factors influencing participation in professional development to promote online course excellence and the impact on faculty confidence and teaching (1626). [dissertation, university of alabama]. http://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/1626 murphy, l., & rose, d. (2018). are private universities exempt from student concerns about textbook costs? a survey of students at american university. open praxis, 10(3), 289-303. http://dx.doi.org/10.5944/openpraxis.10.3.866 pina, a., & moran, k. (2018). effects of an open educational resource initiative on students, faculty and instructional designers. online journal of distance learning administration, 11(2). https://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/summer212/pina_moran212.html sheldon, c. & durdella, n. (2010). success rates for students taking compressed and regular length developmental courses in the community college. community college journal of research and practice, 34, 39-54. https://doi.org/10.1080/10668920903385806 tatum, b. (2010). accelerated education: learning on the fast track. journal of research in innovative teaching, 3(1), 34-50. https://assets.nu.edu/assets/resources/pageresources/journal-of-research-in-innovative-teaching-volume3.pdf wiley, d., williams, l., demarte, d., & hilton, j. (2016). the tidewater z-degree and the intro model for sustaining oer adoption. education policy analysis archives, 23(41). http://dx.doi.org/10.14507/epaa.v23.1828 authors: dr. eric werth is the professional development manager at the university of pikeville. he works with faculty on improving student learning through the use of technology, online instruction, and open practices. his research interests relate to the use of open pedagogy in higher education. email: ericwerth@upike.edu katherine williams is the professional development educator at the university of pikeville. she works with faculty on improving student learning through the use of technology, online instruction, and open practices. her research interests include post-colonial and open pedagogies and disrupting neoliberalism in the academy. email: katherinewilliams@upike.edu dr. lori werth is the provost at the university of pikeville. as a fulbright scholar and researcher, she led an initiative in collaboration with khan academy bringing support to over 10,000 students. having taught face-toface and online, dr. werth understands the value of technology in supporting teaching and learning. email: loriwerth@upike.edu cite this paper as: werth, e., williams, k., & werth, l. (2020). reports fostering rapid institution-wide curricular change in response to covid-19. journal of learning for development, 7(3), 416-422. microsoft word bandalaria.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 116-132 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. open and distance elearning in asia: country initiatives and institutional cooperation for the transformation of higher education in the region melinda dela peña bandalaria university of the philippines open university, philippines abstract: this paper is an attempt to describe the situation of higher education in asia including the challenges it faced as well as the open and distance elearning initiatives by different countries and universities. data gathering was done through review of online documents and websites as well as documentation of the different initiatives especially by the member institutions of the asian association of open universities (aaou). descriptions of open education practices on moocs, oers, and open access publications were presented and their potential to transform higher education in the region was discussed. challenges encountered in the implementation of odel programs were articulated as well as some suggestions on how to address them. keywords: open distance elearning (odel); asia; higher education; moocs; open universities; open education practices introduction asia consists of 48 countries, 36 of which had been specifically classified as developing countries based on world bank country classificationsi. the region is home to about 60% of the world’s population and ranks first among the regions of the world in terms of population. the population medianii age is 30.7. during the last 10 years, enrolment in higher education in asia has been observed to increase by over 50% (mok, 2016). dunrong (2015), on the other hand, also observed that “ongoing population growth in many developing countries of the region leads to a steady increase in the number of young people. at the same time, the demand for higher education continues to expand” (p. 14). this growth in the population and the demand for higher education in asia is coupled with the projection that “… the 21st century will be the asian century” (mahbubani and chye (2015) as cited by icef monitor, 2015) which, as these authors also said “is overdue and inevitable”. unesco (unesco, 1988 as cited by songkaeo, and yeong, 2016) defines higher education as: …all types of education (academic, professional, technical, artistic, pedagogical, long distance learning, etc.) provided by universities, technological institutes, teacher training colleges, etc., which are normally intended for students having completed a secondary education, and whose educational objective is the acquisition of a title, a grade, certificate, or diploma of higher education. (p. 3) 117 this definition mirrors how the different cultures in asia see higher education, which can also explain the surge in the demand for access accompanying the increase in the age group who should be availing themselves of higher education: a goal and the means to success. this is very much reflected in the statements below by breitenstein (2013): … the difference between asian and american education systems is cultural. throughout much of asia, education is seen as the only path to success. parental demands, fear of failure, competition, and pride are fueling asia’s academic ascension. simply put, children in asia study with a purpose. elaborating on the role of education, breitenstein (2013), further said that education is the “driver of social mobility” which implies economic success as well. the role of higher education in national development has been widely recognized, especially in terms of teacher training to improve the quality of education and graduates who will man and run the industries, govern the nation, and push forward innovations through research and creative thinking (asian development bank, 2011). this paper aims to 1) describe the challenges faced by higher education in asia; 2) discuss the different open distance elearning (odel) initiatives by the different countries and universities; and 3. draw insights on how the odel initiatives can pave the way for higher education transformation in the region. data and information presented in this paper were gathered though a combination of the following methodologies: content review of relevant documents, resources and previous studies made available online including websites of organizations; and process documentation of the various initiatives by the members of the asian association of open universities (aaou). discussion higher education in asia in the 21st century higher education in asia faces a lot of challenges especially in the 21st century. some of these challenges are as follows: 1. projected education needs worldwide and in the region in addition to what has already been observed during the last 10 years or so, there has been and there will continue to be a tremendous increase in the demand for higher education in the coming years. in 2018, 9.4% of the asian population are in the age range of 15-24, the age profile who are and who should be in higher or tertiary education. the number is projected to increase steadily over the next years to 14.4% of the total population by 2030 iii this projection implies the population sector which should be provided higher education opportunities in the region. this was further emphasized by the international council on open and distance education (icde) (2015) which highlighted the need to respond to the recognized education needs globally, of which, asia, as the biggest region in terms of population needs to consider as well in addition to its responsibility to contribute to the global agenda. icde noted the need to shape the post-2015 agenda and address the issues of “access, equity and quality learning outcomes” and respond to the burgeoning number of students enrolling in higher education, which is projected to be more than 400 million by 118 2030.iv this implies a projection of almost 58 million to be catered to by asian higher education institutions, which number about 6580. v there is, therefore, this question of whether these higher education institutions will be able to accommodate the projected increase in enrollment following the current system of delivering instructional content, especially in brick and mortar settings. 2. rapidly changing work environment, the rapidly changing skills requirements by the industry and the need for strong academia-industry partnership it is often said that we are now at the 4th industrial revolution or a technological revolution whose “scale, scope and complexity will result in transformation that will be unlike anything humankind has experienced before” (schwab, 2016). schwab (2015) described the 4th industrial revolution as follows: neither technology nor the disruption that comes with it is an exogenous force over which humans have no control. all of us are responsible for guiding its evolution, in the decisions we make on a daily basis as citizens, consumers, and investors. we should thus grasp the opportunity and power we have to shape the fourth industrial revolution and direct it toward a future that reflects our common objectives and values. to do this, however, we must develop a comprehensive and globally shared view of how technology is affecting our lives and reshaping our economic, social, cultural, and human environments. there has never been a time of greater promise, or one of greater potential peril. today’s decision-makers, however, are too often trapped in traditional, linear thinking, or too absorbed by the multiple crises demanding their attention, to think strategically about the forces of disruption and innovation shaping our future. in the end, it all comes down to people and values. we need to shape a future that works for all of us by putting people first and empowering them. this characterization of the 4th industrial revolution has implications on how higher education should respond in terms of the skills and talent of graduates it will produce and how the higher education system should work with other stakeholders. specific for asia, it has been projected that by 2050, “the world will see a dramatic shift in global economic power away from advanced countries and toward asia” (icef monitor, 2015). bhandari (2015 as cited by icef monitor (2015)) further argues that the dynamics in economic growth is “reflected in the landscape of higher education…. especially at a time when economic growth in many rapidly developing asian economies is linked to knowledge production, advanced skills, and the rising demand for higher education.” one aspect of higher education transformation is in terms of the relevance of curriculum and instruction (adb, 2011) to the current context of industry which further implies the need for a strong academia-industry partnership. higher education institutions cannot isolate themselves from the real world of work which will be the destination of their graduates. 3. student mobility it is no longer unusual to hear of tertiary students needing to relocate or change home base, especially in asia where the workforce can easily transfer from one country to the other. yung chi hou et al. (2017), observed that “student mobility within asia has been driven and encouraged due to economic growth, national competitiveness, and regional development in the early 119 twenty-first century. one manifestation of the trend is a significant increase in the number of students moving within and amongst asian campuses, such as china, japan, south korea, and association of southeast asian nations (asean) countries” (p. 12). higher-education institutions should be able to address the concern of students transferring from one country to the other, usually as a result of their parents transferring residences as a result of the demand for work. 4. redefining 21st century skills skills for the 21st century skills has become a buzz phrase, especially among academic institutions, in their efforts to respond to the fast-changing needs of life and work environments. however, a deeper look into these skills and what exactly are needed in the 21st century points to the need to include ethical values, digital citizenship, independent learning, a sense of responsibility, effective time management and an integrated way of learning. 5. massification of higher education impacting on the quality of instruction with the belief that increasing higher education enrolment would “improve the quality of the population and enhance national competitiveness in the globalizing world” massification of higher education in asia has been observed from the 1980s onwards (mok & jiang, 2016). this massification, however, impacts on the quality of education, given the limited funding and resources allotted to education especially among the developing nations. this limited funding affects school facilities and learning materials, as well as teachers’ qualifications and credentials which should be continuously improved through continuing professional development. 6. equity of access and learning outcomes together with the concern of making higher education accessible, the equity of learning outcomes should also be ensured. every learner should have an equal opportunity to learn what is being taught and achieve the learning goals set for each of the courses that he/she has enrolled in. this can be a function of access to quality learning materials and relevant resources and activities associated with learning and the applications of such learnings even after the completion of formal education. 7. social responsibility the role of higher education institutions is not confined within its bricks and mortar structure. they have and should practice social responsibility not only to their direct stakeholders (students and parents) but also to the community where they are operating and society in general or what is now known as university social responsibility (usr), an adaptation of corporate social responsibility (csr). reiser (2008 as cited by vasilescu, et. al., 2010) defines the usr concept as “a policy of ethical quality of the performance of the university community (students, faculty and administrative employees) via the responsible management of the educational, cognitive, labour and environmental impacts produced by the university, in an interactive dialogue with society to promote a sustainable human development” (p. 4178). 8. contribution to sustainable development goals (sdgs) education should not operate in silos. while there is a specific mission attached to educational institutions, they should also function with consideration of what is happening with the rest of the 120 world. the role of education in achieving the sdgs should be recognized given that education, especially open education, should be at the core of each sdg. results of a survey conducted by unesco (2017) show that: … universities increasingly collaborate on sustainable development issues, engage with sustainable development networks and look for examples on how [they] can integrate the different sdgs into the curriculum, research, campus management, etc. this action has become part of the expectation for universities to which they should also respond. open and distance elearning (odel) in asia most open and distance elearning initiatives in asia are undertaken by open universities operating in the region. jones, et. al. (2009), in an attempt to define or describe an open university, offered the following: …open universities are political institutions concerned with broad issues that the higher education system cannot or will not deal with; such as building capacity, individual opportunity and social justice; encouraging change in the higher education system and nation-building. if these are the broad aims then each particular open university also has its own mission related to the local political and social context in which it works. (p. 2) most open universities offer their programmes and courses in the distance education mode, which is characterised by the geographical separation of learners from the teachers and the university. this mode of instructional delivery further enhanced the capability of open universities to practice open learning and be more inclusive and accessible compared to conventional or residential universities. the geographical separation is bridged by using technology in the delivery of instructional services as well as learner support. in asia, more than 70 institutions offer programs in the distance education mode of instruction. these institutions are present in about 20 countries and are either operating as stand-alone universities or as part of a conventional academic institution. further, these institutions/universities operate at a wide range of scales/levels. likewise, their systems of operations vary in terms of how instruction is delivered to the students from residential open university to fully online or distance elearning operations. indira gandhi open university (ignou) in india which is considered to be the world’s largest university, for instance, boasts of over three million students as of 2017 (noronha, 2017). the university of the philippines open university (upou) has only just over 4,000 students enrolled in its degree programmes but is operating in a full distance elearning mode. in addition to ignou, seven other mega open universities are operating in asia. table 1 shows the mega open universities in the region and their respective enrollment figures. 121 table 1. mega open universities in asia and their enrollment figuresvi institution country founded enrollment indira gandhi national open university delhi, india 1985 4,000,000+ anadolu university eskisehir, turkey 1958 1,974,343 allama iqbal open university islamabad, ict, pakistan 1974 1,326,948 payame noor university tehran, iran 1987 800,000 bangladesh open university gazipur, bangladesh 1992 650,000 dr. b r ambedkar open university telangana, india 1982 450,000 universitas terbuka jakarta, indonesia 1984 300,000 korea national open university south korea 1972 210,978 all these open universities are members of the asian association of open universities (aaou) and are part of this big network with members collaborating to push the frontier of distance education and open learning in the region. regional cooperation among open universities in asia 1. aaou inter-university staff exchange fellowship programme. established in 1997, this programme aims to foster the exchange of knowledge and experience in open and distance education and to enhance the capacities of member institutions through mutual assistance and partnership. any aaou member institution (the donor) may contribute to the programme by offering one or more short-term fellowship(s) to staff from other member institutions (the recipients) to spend up to one month at the donor institution in order to receive training, carry out an academic exchange or undertake a collaborative research project. this programme also allows staff of participating institutions to observe and be immersed with the operations of other open universities, view their facilities, and see how they are operating and being managed. all member institutions are welcome to participate in this capacity-building initiativevii . some member institutions participating in this programme are: sukhothai thammathirat open university (stou), korea national open university (knou), shanghai open university (sou), university of the philippines open university (upou), universitas terbuka (ut), open university of sri lanka (ousl), and wawasan open university (wou). this programme often results in research collaborations, joint publications, and seminar series, among other benefits. 2. curricular program/course development. five open universities in asia worked together and provided a model of collaboration for the purpose of developing a curricular program that is of interest to all participating universities. the five open universities, who adopted the name ou5, are upou, ut, stou, open university malaysia (oum), and hanoi open university (hou). they worked together to develop the curriculum and learning modules for 122 the asean studies programme. this collaboration resulted in the development and offering of the graduate certificate in asean studies and master in asean studies by upou. 3. research collaborations. in addition to the usual research collaboration being undertaken under the aaou inter-university staff exchange fellowship programme, other research collaborations among aaou member institutions include asean studies like labor migration and institutional research focusing on the various aspects of distance education implementation and open-learning initiatives. some of the collaborative research undertaken include a de learners’ importance-satisfaction survey, which looked into what de components are considered important by de learners and how satisfied those learners are with how these factors are being implemented by the academic institution where they are enrolled, employers’ satisfaction with the performance of de graduates in their companies, attrition in de, and assessment practices in de. cross-country comparisons were done in these studies to come up with regional perspectives on these various aspects of implementing distance education programs. current research collaborations tackle perception of quality and the credit transfer of moocs and a feasibility study on the implementation of accreditation system for open universities in the region. 4. knowledge exchange through academic conferences. exchange of research results and best practices among open universities in the region is facilitated through the holding of academic conferences, as a group of open universities, through the aaou annual conferences. many open universities also hold international conferences which are supported by, or participated in, by other open universities, e.g. the international conference on open and innovative education organized annually by hong kong open university, and the international conference on open and distance elearning by the up open university or jointly, like the international conference on scientific research: human resource development, which was organized by hou and stou in 2015 and which was supported by other open universities in the region. open education initiatives in asia the cape town declaration on open educationviii in 2007 described open education as “not limited to just open educational resources. it also draws upon open technologies that facilitate collaborative, flexible learning and the open sharing of teaching practices that empower educators to benefit from the best ideas of their colleagues. it may also grow to include new approaches to assessment, accreditation and collaborative learning”. opensource.comix added that “proponents of open education believe everyone in the world should have access to high quality educational experiences and resources”. open universities, the way most of them are operating in asia, unfortunately, are not totally open in the sense of the definition of open education. many still require payment of tuition fees from the students themselves or through some form of scholarship, and have admission requirements, qualifications, or some schedules to follow in an academic or school year which serve as barriers to education and learning for many. in recent years, many open universities in asia adopted various forms of open education: 123 1. offering of massive open online courses (moocs). the offering of moocs also found its way into many asian countries with the involvement of both residential and open universities. many initiatives started as far back as 2013, the year considered to be “anti-mooc” with what watters (2013) described as “sliding down that gartner hype cycle from the “peak of inflated expectations” and into the “trough of disillusionment”. this indicates that in the region, moocs present much potential in terms of what they can offer to address the various challenges faced by education systems in asia. the early initiatives witnessed some countries developing national mooc platforms where their universities could offer their moocs, while other universities started by offering their moocs through the major providers like coursera, edx and openlearn. among the national platforms developed were: k-mooc in korea; jmooc in japan, thaimooc in thailand; openlearning.com for malaysia; university joint alliance platform in china; swayam in india; and the model for the philippines. these national platforms also provide venues for universities to collaborate in the offering of open online courses that will serve the learners in their respective countries; facilitate monitoring of quality of this open learning mechanism, and to push for national policies on the recognition of learnings obtained from completion of these open online courses. some of these mooc initiatives in the region are as follows: • malaysia moocsx: malaysia made the initial steps towards the formulation of national policies for the awarding of credits to moocs towards completion of a degree. malaysia moocs was launched in september 2014 with four pilot moocs and the involvement of four public universities as content developers. these four moocs were based on the four compulsory core courses that undergraduate students should take (ibrahim and rahim, 2018). shahar (2016) described the initiative in malaysia as follows: … the malaysian qualifications agency (mqa) has been given the mandate to implement the 'moocs plus credit recognition and transfer' initiative, which would enable all moocs courses from malaysia and abroad to be registered into the malaysia's mooc platform and be given credit”. the purpose is to “encourage flexible learning among students, reduce the duplication of learning and recogni[z]e the lessons and experiences gained outside the conventional classroom”. • india moocxi. india mooc was also launched in 2014. as mentioned, the national platform is swayam (study webs of active-learning for young aspiring minds) which also implies self-learning (pushpanadham, 2015). india’s recognition of learning through moocs is implied in one of the recommendations contained in the proposed national policy on education 2016xii that provides direct reference to moocs as follows: open direct learning through dual mode universities and through moocs should be accorded appropriate priority because of india’s existing and latent strength in terms of it capability, probability of near-term expansion of it connectivity and enormous interest evinced by leading universities and institutions in promoting odl education. 124 • china mooc. liangyu (2018) described moocs in china as follows: moocs started to become popular in china in 2013, and the courses often benefit those living in remote areas. the ministry of education said there are more than 10 mooc platforms in china, and over 460 universities and colleges have introduced more than 3,200 online courses through those platforms, with more than 55 million viewers. the china college mooc, which was established in 2014 by china's higher education press and internet giant netease became one of the largest platforms for moocs in china together with www.icourse163.org, which hosts more than 120 universities and colleges and offers 1,822 courses ranging from professional curricula in higher education, vocational education, innovation and entrepreneurship (linagyu, 2018). xuetangxxiii, on the other hand, china’s first and biggest mooc platform, was founded in 2013 by the tsinghua university under the supervision of the china ministry of education research. it is considered to be the fastest growing mooc platform with 11 million users (shah, 2017), more than 500 partners, and hosting more than 1400 courses. according to ying (2015), moocs in china “can be looked upon as a technological innovation useful in solving problems related to education and higher education [in china], and that the value of moocs to open universities comes mainly in the form of educational equality and resource sharing”. • japan moocxiv. mooc in japan started in 2013 with two major initiatives as described by yamada (2015). the first initiative was when top-class universities of the country joined international consortia, such as coursera and edx, for their mooc projects. the second initiative was the launch of the japan massive open online course (jmooc) consortium in november 2013 as a regional mooc consortium. it should be noted that jmooc hosts not only moocs offered by universities but also by companies. jmooc has 92 members offers 140 courses and lists more than 500,000 students. jmooc also has three official platforms described by yamada (2015) as follows: jmooc had three official platforms, “gacco”, “open learning japan”, and “ouj mooc”. “gacco” (http://gacco.org/) is an open edx-based platform managed by ntt docomo and ntt knowledge square. “ouj mooc” is a multimedia etextbook taste platform developed by ccc-ties consortium and managed by ouj. “open learning japan” (http://open.netlearning. co.jp/) is a domestic integrated learning support platform managed by netlearning, inc. the member institution which plans to launch a mooc from jmooc can choose one of the official mooc platforms in considering the compatibility between course content and course management platform. they consider multiple platform strategy induces diversified learning strategies and pedagogies to cope with a wider range of potential learners. • korea moocxv. k-mooc was initiated by nile (national institute for lifelong education) with 10 korean universities in october 2015 (lee, 2015). it lists 342 courses and 34 partners and working on a vision of “a balance of practical opportunities in higher education and innovation of university education through open higher education system”. 125 • indonesia mooc. indonesia has its indonesiaxxvi, an open edx mooc platform, which hosts the moocs initiatives from seven partner universities. after its launch in 2015, it has attracted more than 45,000 course registrations. • philippines mooc. the phmoocxvii was initiated by the university of the philippines open university (upou) in 2013 through the university’s ulearn project (dela pena-bandalaria & alfonso, 2015). it started with the offering of one course, “developing mobile apps using the android platform”, which was developed in partnership with the leading telecommunications company in the country. phmooc was envisioned as addressing the following: providing free learning opportunities to those who want to upgrade their knowledge and skills for employment and/or career advancement; addressing the manpower needs of major industries in the country by offering moocs that would develop the skills and knowledge required; and helping improve the country’s quality of education through free training of teachers and making available the moocs as oers which can be used in a blended mode of instruction. in 2018, five mooc certification programmes were started through the model platform: child rights protection and promotion; efilipiniana; eservice management program; teaching in open distance elearning; and technology for teaching and learning. the mooc certification program requires the learner to take a set of moocs (3-4) and pass an assessment. as of 2018, the model platform lists 47 courses. in addition to upou, other mooc providers in the philippines include seameo-innotech and the technical education and skills development authority (tesda). • thailand mooc. thaimooc is the official mooc platform for thailand, which was launched on 2 march 2017 during the 1st asia-pacific moocs stakeholders summit held in thailand (shah, 2017). the ministry of education provided funds amounting to 195 million baht to members of the thai university network who were willing to create and develop the open content needed. the thaimooc also uses you tube for its video materials (nasongkhia, et. al., 2015). • asian moocsxviii. asian moocs is an initiative of the asian association of open universities (aaou) in 2014 which started with the formation of a task force that will work for the promotion of open licensing and the development of moocs in the region (unesco, 2014). the task force consolidated the mooc initiatives of all aaou member institutions and created the landing page (asian moocs portal) to increase the visibility of these moocs . the task force also developed the official platform for the asian moocs, the asian moocs learning portalxix , which can host the moocs by member universities who do not have their own mooc platform. through a meta data harvester app, information about the moocs offerings by aaou member universities are automatically reflected in the asian mooc portal. 2. open educational (oer) repositories. another initiative in open and distance elearning is the development of oer repositories. wawasan open university (wou) has its “online collection of university’s oers, learning objects metadata and other learning materials output”. the repository holds the wou’s contribution to the wealth of open educational 126 resources and is powered by weko, a homegrown repository software developed by the national institute of informatics (nii), japan. the upou also has a repository of the oers it developed — the upou networksxx. 3. open access publications. open access publications are “freely available online to all at no cost and with limited restrictions with regard reuse. the unrestricted distribution of research is especially important for authors (as their work gets seen by more people), readers (as they can access and build on the most recent work in their field) and funders (as the work they fund has broader impact by being able to reach a wider audiencexxi. some examples of open access publications include: the aaou journalxxii; the asean journal of open and distance learningxxiii; the ejournals of universitas terbukaxxiv; and the international journal on open and distance elearningxxv. transforming higher education in asia through odel the challenges faced by higher education in asia necessitate not just surface changes but transformation or “radical change that orients the organization to new direction and an entirely different level of effectiveness”. odel initiatives in asia could spearhead or spur the transformation of higher education in the region through the following: 1. making available open learning opportunities. barriers to education and learning come in various forms. they include lack of: funds to finance education or pay fees associated with education; access to educational facilities and programs because of geographical and physical challenges; and abilities and skills to access educational and learning opportunities. in some cases, lack of peace and order or certain cultural practices and beliefs also present barriers to mobility of individuals wanting to access learning opportunities. odel initiatives in the region relaxed and, in some cases, totally removed many of these barriers. moocs, for instance, have open admission and do not charge any course fees, which, in a way, facilitates equity of access to education and learning. as such, education and learning have become ubiquitous – that is, available to anyone, anywhere, anytime, using any type of interconnectivity and appropriate device. this system of learning also caters to the needs of mobile learners. open universities, as indicated in the previous discussion, are in a position to vigorously pursue open and ubiquitous education since they are not constrained by physical resources like classrooms. moreover, university resources can be expanded and distributed through the creative use of modern information and communication technologies. the role of open universities in transforming higher education can be summed up in the following excerpt from the specific call for action of the paris message (icde, 2015) for: … higher education to be transformed in order to be able to deliver change in scale and speed of response, realising the potential of the digital technologies within a humanistic framework. online, open and flexible programmes represent an essential component of the global response, recognising the systemic and cultural diversity in higher education systems. it should be noted, however, that equity of access is not enough. open universities can also ensure equity of learning outcomes by facilitating the learning process for all learners. this 127 can be done through the use of open educational resources (oers) which removes the restriction of cost to accessing learning materials. likewise, through the universal design of learning resources, learning management systems and other collaterals for learning; inclusivity, likewise, should be put in place to take into consideration not only learners who are economically deprived but also those who are physically challenged. technology or digital exclusion can also be addressed through the accessibility and inclusivity programs of open universities by making instructional content, learning resources, and learner support accessible using any device. the odel system also makes it easier to customize learning programs well-suited to the psyche of asian learners. as discussed, “asian learners study with a purpose” and with social mobility and financial rewards as motivations, many of these learners will seize open learning opportunities, implying the potential success of these initiatives in the region – success in terms of enrollment and completion. 2. promoting the culture of sharing and “coopetition”. higher education institutions should adhere to the practice of sharing through open data, open research, open journals, open textbooks, and other open educational resources. this culture can hasten the building or construction of knowledge, with research building upon previous research. the culture of “coopetition” or cooperation integrated into the conventional relationship of competition can likewise be a transformative mechanism in higher education. while competition is still present in terms of knowledge artifacts production and student enrollment and graduation, the culture of openness and sharing can be the gauge of an institution’s accomplishments. the collaboration happening among the members of aaou is one example of sharing and coopetition — in this case, among open universities in the region. this presence implies a potential influence of aaou on the role of open universities in transforming higher education in the respective countries where they operate. likewise, aaou serves as a platform for higher education collaboration for research, institutionalizing the acceptable quality assurance framework for education, as well as harmonizing standards to facilitate a credit transfer mechanism. 3. making the work and living environments the learning spaces. since students of open universities study where they are, there is immediate integration or application of learnings to work and everyday life. higher education should aspire to this kind of setting, wherein learners are not alienated from everyday life and living and working. further, the immediate application of learning in the workplace can spur action research to address current industry concerns. this mechanism of converging theory and practice, or “praxis”, can facilitate theory grounding, which can also spur knowledge construction and production which is a major role of higher education. industry partnership is essential in this mechanism as learners also bring industry context into the learning environment and, likewise, take the university context into the work environment, which provides an opportunity for higher education to shape the direction and the nature of the industry. 128 the shaping of the values of the people who will shape the future of industry rests upon higher education, which produces the workforce for industry and can also be responsible for their continuous capability-building programmes and research developments. 4. facilitating change. the odel system can facilitate the discharge of higher education’s social responsibilities which include the following: a. training and continuing professional development not only for teachers but for other professions as well. open courses like massive open online courses (moocs) can be a mechanism to ensure that cost is not a hindrance, especially for teachers, to undertake continuing professional development and doing this while working. b. improvement in the overall quality of education, which, in addition to teacher professional development, can also be done through the development of contextualized open educational resources (oer) as a component of open education practice. c. making education the core of all sustainable development goals however, implementing these mechanisms to transform higher education in the region are not without challenges as well. these challenges include: 1. recognition of certification of learning through moocs. implementation of moocs had progressed from simple open online courses offered starting in 2008 to nano degrees/mini masters/certification programs offered by major mooc providers and universities. however, more efforts should be exerted for wider recognition of certificates of mooc completion by universities/academic institutions for credit towards a degree, and by industries as credentials for employment or job promotion. the model set by malaysia and india could serve as a prototype to guide other asian countries but what would provide greater impact is mooc certificate recognition across asian countries. this concern about mooc certificate recognition, however, has proven to be a function of other factors, such as the quality of moocs and an acceptable framework for the quality of this instruction mechanism; standardization of mooc credits to align with the university credit schemes for formal courses; and appropriate assessment mechanisms to validate learning. 2. quality of moocs and other open learning initiatives. while moocs and other open education practices, such as oers and open access publications, hold much promise to realize the vision of opening up access to quality education and promoting equity of learning outcomes, doubt with regard to the quality of these materials and courses is not without basis. there are questions such as: who controls the quality of oers uploaded in websites? who controls the quality of the instructional content in moocs? what are the credentials of “teachers” handling moocs and developing instructional content under the oer framework? the construct of quality and openness is such that the moment material is made public, the author or developer is already subjecting the work to public and peer evaluation. with the speed at which information is disseminated at present, the results of such public and peer evaluation can be made known in a short period of time. likewise, major mooc providers, and these include universities/academic institutions, subscribe to a generally accepted pillars of mooc quality which include the credential of the teacher or mooc facilitator and the 129 quality of materials used in the courses. for open access publications, it is recognized that the publisher has this responsibility of ensuring the quality of the materials included in the publication. 3. increase in the level of regional cooperation. the seeds of regional collaboration have been documented, especially among open universities in the region and these proved to be a milestone by themselves, considering that the nature of open universities’ operations is such that one can technically disregard geographical boundaries. the challenge, however, is to have more areas of collaboration and more universities who are collaborating with one another. this move can strengthen odel programs as well as recognize learning acquired through the odel mode of instructional delivery. likewise, regional collaboration, especially in research, will put the asian context in the global scheme of odel and thus contribute to the level of understanding of the odel phenomenon. 4. sustainability of odel. because of the nature of many open educational practices like moocs and oers – that is, no direct income is derived from them — the major concern is the sustainability of the initiative. universities, therefore, should explore various models such as instituting policies that would provide work credit to university personnel involved in developing moocs and oers and teaching moocs, securing funding related to open education programs and initiatives which can include government funding, and partnering with industries that have stakes in the massive training of potential personnel. 5. digital inclusion to facilitate learning. one mechanism to ensure equity of access to learning is through open online courses and oers. however, it is a common knowledge that there are still many countries in asia where internet access is a major concern. as of december 2017, only 48.7% of the population in the region have access to the internetxxvi. pakistan, for instance, has only 22.2% of its population using the internet while countries like turkmenistan and afghanistan have below 20% internet penetrationxxvii. creative strategies will have to be found to make these learning opportunities accessible even offline. conclusion asia is faced with opportunities for tremendous economic and industrial growth in the next 10 or 20 years. these opportunities, however, will have to be supported by an education and learning construct or framework that will not only respond to the needs of progressing industry but also by improving the overall welfare of the people and their environment. higher education is thus seen as having to undertake this responsibility as well as consider projected higher education needs in the coming years. open and distance elearning, as practiced by both open and residential universities in the region can play a major role in transforming higher education. opening learning opportunities can impact tremendously in preparing workers to achieve the potential of the region, especially, in economic and regional development. likewise, regional cooperation such as the asian association of open universities (aaou) can promote collaboration and open sharing, and standardization and harmonization to institutionalize a quality assurance system and thus facilitate a transfer credit mechanism which is also aligned with lifelong learning initiatives recognition and accreditation. 130 while opportunities to transform higher education abound through odel, pursuing this also implies addressing some concerns for the full realization of odel’s potential. references asian development bank. (2011). higher education across asia. an overview of issues and strategies. retrieved from https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/publication/29931/regional-cooperation-higher-education-asia.pdf breitenstein, d. (2013). asian students carry high expectations for success. usa today. retrieved from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/08/04/asian-students-carry-high-expectations-forsuccess/2615483/ dela peña bandalaria, m., & alfonos, g. (2015). situation moocs in the developing world context: the philippines case study. moocs and open education around the world, (pp. 243-254). in c. j. bonk, m. m. lee, t. c. reeves, &, t. h. reynolds (eds.). (2015). moocs and open education around the world. london: routledge. dunrong, b. (2015). shifting demographics in higher education in asia. international higher education, (47). retrieved from https://ejournals.bc.edu/ojs/index.php/ihe/article/download/7957/7108 jones, c., aoki, k., russman, e., & schlusmans, k. (2009). a comparison of three open universities and their acceptance of technology enhanced learning. retrieved from http://libeprints.open.ac.uk/20657/1/final_paper_081jones.pdf ibrahim, m. m., & rahim, m. k. i. a. (2018). moocs continuance intention in malaysia: the role of interactivity and enjoyment. journal of global business and social entrepreneurship (gbse), 4(11). retrieved from http://gbse.com.my/v4no10january2018/paper-158-.pdf icef monitor. (2015). is asia ready to be the next higher education superpower? retrieved from http://monitor.icef.com/2015/06/is-asia-ready-to-be-the-next-higher-education-superpower/ lee, t. (2015). a case study of mooc at knou: knou mooc for knowledge sharing. in bowon, k. (ed). moocs and educational challenges around asia and europe. knou press. retrieved from http://asemlllhub.org/fileadmin/www.asem.au.dk/publications/moocs_and_educational_challenges_arou nd_asia_and_europe_final.pdf liangyu. (2018). across china: massive open online courses make waves in chinese education. xinhuanet. retrieved from http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-01/19/c_136907421.htm mok, k.h., & jiang, j. (2016). massification of higher education: challenges for admissions and graduate employment in china. centre for global higher education. retrieved from http://www.researchcghe.org/perch/resources/publications/wp5.pdf ka-ho, j.m. (2016). massive expansion of universities in asia raises tough questions on social mobility. in the conversation. retrieved from http://theconversation.com/massive-expansion-of-universities-in-asia-raisestough-questions-on-social-mobility-54680. nasongkhia, j., thammetar, t., chen, s., & photipussa, p. (2015). presentation: asem learning forum on lifelong learning; bali, indonesia; 12-15 march 2015. noronha, r. (2017). indira gandhi national open university: world's largest university open to all. india today. retrieved from https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/cover-story/story/20170821-ignou-educationcourses-enrolment-number-world-largest-university-1029050-2017-08-11. pushpanadham, k. (2015). moocs initiatives in india: a path towards universalizing university education. in bowon, k. (ed.). moocs and educational challenges around asia and europe. knou press. retrieved from 131 http://asemlllhub.org/fileadmin/www.asem.au.dk/publications/moocs_and_educational_challenges_arou nd_asia_and_europe_final.pdf schwab, k. (2016). the fourth industrial revolution: what it means, how to respond. world economic forum. retrieved from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-what-it-meansand-how-to-respond/. shah, d. (2017). the 1st asia-pacific moocs stakeholders summit takes place in thailand. class central. retrieved from https://www.class-central.com/report/1st-asia-pacific-moocs-stakeholders-summit/. shah, d. (2017). a massive list of free online university course providers from around the world. freecodecamp. retrieved from https://medium.freecodecamp.org/a-massive-list-of-free-online-courseproviders-from-around-the-world-925766226f46 shahar, f.m. (2016). malaysia to become first country to develop credit recognition policy for online courses. retrieved from https://www.nst.com.my/news/2016/01/122766/malaysia-become-first-country-develop-creditrecognition-policy-online-courses songkaeo, t., & yeong, l. h. (2016). defining higher education issues and challenges in southeast asia/asean within the international context. retrieved from http://www.headfoundation.org/papers/2016__2)_defining_higher_education_issues_and_challenges_in_southeast_asiaasean_within_the_internatio nal_context.pdf unesco. (2017). how does higher education contribute to achieving the sdgs? retrieved from https://en.unesco.org/news/how-does-higher-education-contribute-achieving-sdgs. unesco. (2014). five asian open universities adopt open licensing and moocs. retrieved from http://www.unesco.org/new/en/media-services/singleview/news/five_asian_open_universities_adopt_open_licensing_and_moocs/ vasilescu, r., barna, c., epure, m., & baicu, c. (2010). developing university social responsibility: a model for the challenges of the new civil society. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 2(2), 4177–4182. retrieved from https://ac.els-cdn.com/s1877042810007007/1-s2.0-s1877042810007007-main.pdf?_tid=1d0d6802-a8df472f-9baa-6b896e0524c5&acdnat=1529887490_59fb86ca1ccbf9c118dc2f43d7b2df58 watters, a. (2013). top ed-tech trends of 2013: moocs and anti-moocs. retrieved from http://hackeducation.com/2013/11/29/top-ed-tech-trends-2013-moocs yamada, t. (2015). mooc phenomena in japan: jmooc and ouj-mooc. in bowon, k. (ed.). moocs and educational challenges around asia and europe. knou press. retrieved from http://asemlllhub.org/fileadmin/www.asem.au.dk/publications/moocs_and_educational_challenges_arou nd_asia_and_europe_final.pdf ying, w. (2015). a case study: the development of moocs in china. in bowon, k. (ed.). moocs and educational challenges around asia and europe. knou press. retrieved from http://asemlllhub.org/fileadmin/www.asem.au.dk/publications/moocs_and_educational_challenges_arou nd_asia_and_europe_final.pdf yung chi hou, a. hill, c., hui-jung chen, k., tsai, sandy, & che, v. (2017). a comparative study of student mobility programs in seameo-rihed, umap, and campus asia: regulation, challenges, and impacts on higher education regionalization. higher education evaluation and development, 11(1), 12-24. retrieved from https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full/10.1108/heed-08-2017-003 author dr. melinda dela peña bandalaria is the chancellor of up open university (upou) and the president of the asian association of open universities (aaou). she is a staunch advocate of democratizing access to quality 132 education for the vulnerable sectors of the society, which has led to numerous public service works and research to serve lifelong learners by enabling their socio-economic transformation, has contributed to the country’s progress and to the sustainable development goals. email: mbandalaria@upou.edu.ph cite this paper as: bandalaria, m. d.p. (2018). open and distance elearning in asia: country initiatives and instructional cooperation for the transformation of higher education in the region. journal of learning for development, 5(2), 116-132. notes i https://www.justlanded.com/english/cyprus/cyprus-guide/education/higher-education ii http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/asia-population/ iii https://www.populationpyramid.net/asia/2018/ iv https://www.icde.org/paris-message v consolidated data from http://whed.net/search_by_region.php?region=asia; https://www.justlanded.com/english/cyprus/cyprus-guide/education/higher-education; http://www.mfa.am/en/study/; https://ballotpedia.org/higher_education_in_georgia; https://www.unipage.net/en/universities_azerbaijan; and https://wenr.wes.org/2017/04/education-in-turkey vi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/list_of_largest_universities_by_enrollment vii http://aaou.upou.edu.ph/aim-and-template/ viii http://www.capetowndeclaration.org/read-the-declaration ix https://opensource.com/resources/what-open-education x https://www.openlearning.com/malaysiamoocs xi https://swayam.gov.in xii http://www.nuepa.org/new/download/nep2016/reportnep.pdf xiii http://www.xuetangx.com/global xiv http://www.jmooc.jp/en/ xv http://www.kmooc.kr/schools xvi https://open.edx.org/blog/highlighted-site-indonesiax xvii https://model.upou.edu.ph xviii http://asiamoocs.org xix http://asianlearningportal.upou.edu.ph/ xx http://networks.upou.edu.ph xxi https://www.springer.com/gp/authors-editors/authorandreviewertutorials/open-access/what-is-open-access/10286522 xxii http://aaou.upou.edu.ph/about-the-journal/ xxiii http://ajodl.oum.edu.my xxiv http://jurnal.ut.ac.id xxv http://ijodel.com xxvi https://www.internetworldstats.com/stats3.htm xxvii https://www.internetworldstats.com/stats3.htm microsoft word seelig.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 37-48 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. transformational change in delivery at open polytechnic, new zealand caroline seelig, alan cadwallader and doug standring open polytechnic, new zealand abstract: as long ago as 1992, greville rumble was writing about the “competitive vulnerabilities” of single-mode distance teaching institutions [universities]. in the intervening years the challenges he described have only intensified, especially so as advancing information and communication technologies have enabled increasing numbers of campus-based tertiary institutions to enter distance learning, usually targeting the part-time adult learner market that was formerly the preserve of single-mode distance learning providers. there are also wider and larger pressures at play. disruptive digital technologies, globalisation of education, constrained government funding, shifting student expectations, and changes in demand for future skills, are all driving the need both to re-examine fundamental aspects of the odfl (open, distance and flexible learning) model (as indeed they are for tertiary education more generally), and to re-consider the core odfl principle of “learner-centricity” and what it might mean within this changing context. the open polytechnic of new zealand has recently undertaken a major programme of digital and organisational transformation to meet the changing needs of its distinctive learner constituency, and to enhance the organisation’s flexibility in responding to changing external factors. this institutional reengineering that disaggregates functions and unbundles processes and services, holds potential for both improved performance and enhanced partnering opportunities within a network of provision. keywords: transformation, change, open and flexible learning, technical and vocational training. introduction in today’s changing tertiary education landscape, the message for single-mode odfl institutions seems clear: they cannot rest on the (significant) achievements of the past but must continue to innovate by themselves, leveraging the affordances of advancing technology in order to enhance the learner experience and outcomes, to increase productivity, and to drive responsiveness (garrett et al, 2018). drawing lessons from the challenges faced by single-mode odfl providers in canada, bates puts it thus: no unique/non-conventional institution can survive without: • being clear about what makes it unique, and continuously identifying its uniqueness in changing circumstances; • having a clear strategy and plans to meet that unique mandate; 38 • being nimble enough to adapt rapidly to changing external factors, without losing its unique advantages (bates, 2015). bates’ formulation also answers the immediate and obvious question of why, if a multitude of pressures and forces might be held to suggest otherwise, should single-mode odfl organisations be preserved beyond their own desire for institutional self-preservation? as bates suggests, such providers will earn their ongoing place within their particular system context if they continue to demonstrate their unique contribution and relevance; and to do this, more than ever they will need a high degree of flexibility to adapt and respond to continuous change in their external environment. at a general level, when managed well, odfl provides wider access to cost-efficient and educationally effective flexible learning for people who cannot or (now more commonly in many countries) who do not wish to attend campus-based study. single-mode odfl institutions establish a fully integrated distance-teaching system with subsystems for developing course materials and providing student support and instruction. when optimised, the single-mode odfl model breaks the ‘iron triangle’ of cost, quality & access, and cost-efficiencies increase with scale (daniels, 1998, 2010, 2018; keegan, 1994). there are multiple variables that impact on whether odfl provision is optimized, whatever its institutional setting. these range across jurisdictional issues, policies and history; pedagogy, mission, delivery mode (print vs online or combinations thereof), management practice, academic culture, technology and multi-media investment, student base and size and so on. the open polytechnic of new zealand transformation experience the following describes the experience of one single-mode odfl institution, open polytechnic of new zealand (opnz), as it embarked on and continues to implement a major transformation programme designed to maximise its contribution to the future new zealand tertiary education system within the broader context described above. this process is additionally taking place against a background of increasingly intense financial pressures on new zealand’s institutes of technology & polytechnics (itp) sector, which in 2018 saw the government initiate a large-scale sector-wide review (opnz is one of a small number of itps that continues to perform strongly). at the core of open polytechnic's transformation strategy is a focus on making the best use of emerging digital technologies both to service the changing needs of its distinctive learner constituency, and to increase the organisation’s flexibility in responding to changing external factors, whether of demand, funding, specific government priorities or industry need. this broad programme has two main parts, either of which on their own could justly have been described as “transformational.” the first part involved the monumental task of converting the organisation’s entire legacy portfolio of print-based qualifications to online delivery on the polytechnic’s own custom-built digital learning platform (now complete). the second and ongoing phase, called the transformation change programme (tcp), involves an equally significant and fundamental re-design of the organisation’s teaching, learning, delivery and assessment model and practice, along with parallel supporting work streams focusing on the organisational culture and working environment. 39 in overview, the open polytechnic of new zealand is its country’s only specialist distance provider of higher education. established over 70 years ago to provide post-war technical education by correspondence, today it is new zealand’s preeminent provider of vocational education and training in the odfl modality. open polytechnic offers over 100 programmes leading to recognised and approved qualifications from certificate to bachelor degree level. annually 30,000 learners enrol with the polytechnic (a significant level of penetration in a national population of 4.8 million). they are mostly employed and studying to upskill, generally aged over 25 years (although a sizeable cohort – 21% are younger) and juggling many life commitments. their distribution mirrors the new zealand population and demographics, with the majority residing in the largest urban centres where a full set of campusbased study options is available. in other words, open polytechnic’s mainly working learners proactively choose the organisation above traditional face-to-face study because the flexibility it offers enables them to fit learning into their time-poor lifestyles. a key strategic driver for open polytechnic is the recognition that the need for flexibility in learning will only increase for its core group of working learners and their employers, as well as for the organisation itself in terms of its agility in an environment of constant change. the beginning of the current transformation programme traces back to 2014 when opnz, which had been an early adopter and promoter of moodle in new zealand, resolved to invest in building its own digital learning platform; this becoming key to the polytechnic’s future strategy. the platform was specifically designed to support learner-centric online learning, both as a full distance learning experience and as the online component of blended delivery for partner organisations (the platform is also being marketed as a commercial product). owning and controlling its own digital technology and designing a platform with learner-as-user first principles, aimed to (and has) strategically repositioned opnz as a fully digital odfl organisation. fairly quickly after the initial deployment (and validation) of the platform, the decision was made to accelerate digital conversion of opnz’s entire, mainly print-based portfolio of content and programmes. embarking on such a process is regularly cited as one of the major strategic and financial challenges facing established single-mode odfl organisations (teixeira, bates & mota, 2019). in opnz’s case the resource and financial pressures were intense, but the conversion process is now complete. open polytechnic is now moving into the next phase of the transformation programme, the objectives of which include breaking with the trimesters, cohort-based format currently used for diploma and degree programmes and moving to a fully flexible enrol and assessment-on-demand model. to this end, a key element of the transformation change programme is the enhancement of the component parts of the odfl disaggregated value chain. a significant feature of this enhancement has been a form-follows-function approach to reorganising opnz’s business units, including faculty, and repurposing the work of academic staff members. this has established the design and commitment to unbundle the academic staff role. 40 the over-arching framework for the tcp is opnz’s 2016-2020 strategic plan, which sets out four key goals to be achieved: • innovating the odfl experience to meet the needs of future learners and markets • leveraging world class infrastructure • securing and developing an industry leading work force • growing the business. in addition to the framework provided by strategic plan, opnz’s governing body, it’s council, mandated a vision for the organisation’s future. this is a vision that reflects international best practice in odfl and the polytechnic’s values of: true, fast, bold and best. open polytechnic’s future state vision is described by identifying 4 essential components of the learning experience. these are: • convenient – with greater choice for learners about: when to enrol; what courses and programmes to enrol in; how to access digital learning; when to learn, where learning support is available 24/7; and, the pace at which to progress through their learning • relevant – with personalised learning that: self-directed; uses assessment when the learner is ready to be assessed, and rich learner analytics to tailor programmes and support • connected – through learners engaging with: contemporary interactive courseware; peers, academic staff, facilitators, workplace mentors, and assessors and international experts, all connected to the learner through a learning community; and, a tiered system of support, where technology is utilised to track learners’ progress and support their engagement and success • smart – continuously improving experiences for learners through: using data about learners’ progress and achievements to inform the ongoing design of resources and support; seeking and responding to learners’ feedback. transformational change the kind of change that results in the transformation of an organisation is deep and pervasive; it is intentional change that will occur over time and have an effect on the culture of the institution (eckel and kezar, 2003). opnz’s transformational change aligns with understood definitions of this type of organisational change. the polytechnic does expect there to be change to its institutional culture (with a specific work stream to further this end), and that deep and permanent change will be achieved as the programme progresses and matures. the drivers for transforming opnz are those described earlier in this article. in responding to these predominant influences, the essence of the change programme lies in the polytechnic’s ability to offer learners a future-focused, personalised and highly flexible way of engaging with vocational tertiary education and training. the benefits of the change will be experienced by opnz’s own learners, and through potential cross-sector collaborations, learners who are enrolled with other tertiary education organisations, both nationally and internationally. 41 much of the change being driven by the tcp is still either under implementation or is at the early stages of being institutionalised, while some of the elements of the tcp are planned but yet to be implemented. so, opnz is at a relatively immature stage in this phase of its change journey. just the same, there are already a significant number of valuable points of learning arising out of this programme. these include: the support and commitment of governance; identifying, registering and managing risk; accepting the messiness of change and navigating the clean-up; securing expertise, advice and input to the change programme; and what the change programme means for organisational leadership and the leadership team. design phase in what is the most significant change initiative undertaken in the history of the polytechnic, implementation of the transformation change programme (tcp) was preceded by a rigorous design activity. cross-functional teams of staff, working in facilitated groups, contributed to three design work streams: learning support; assessment; and all-of-organisation systems and processes. the work streams considered new ways of engaging with learners and working across the organisation, with the aim of achieving a more flexible and future-proof organisation better able to respond to the current and future needs of learners and industry. at key stages in the design process input was sourced from a learner reference group (comprising current opnz learners), an assembled panel of international odfl experts, and site unions. consultation was also undertaken with key external stakeholders, including relevant new zealand government agencies and regulatory entities. the output from the work stream groups, along with the advice received from the reference and consultation processes was consolidated into a single blueprint document. the blueprint is a key reference document in the subsequent implementation of transformational change in the organisation. it guides thinking and decision making and informs the actions and initiatives that result in the changes being sought. form follows function the output from the design phase of the change programme, the blueprint, has been formally adopted as opnz’s future state odfl operating model. it is this model that has informed subsequent changes to opnz’s organisation structure. this is a key feature, and perceived strength, of the approach taken by the polytechnic to transformational change. the resulting organisation structure, implementation of which commenced in the second quarter of 2018, creates teams of specialist staff identifiable by their function, where that function is clearly linked to the odfl operating model. the intent of making changes to the polytechnic’s organisation structure has been to create teams of specialist staff, and adjuncts, where the function of each is clearly identifiable to the extent that they work together in a seamless whole to give effect to the described odfl operating model. 42 an example of form based on function is the establishment of a new assessment centre. the odfl operating model describes the future state of educational delivery in which learners participate in summative assessment, and have access to recognition of prior learning services, independently of their engagement in formal learning activities. this is a critical feature of open polytechnic’s future operating model which provides for the level of flexibility and learner-driven decision making that characterises the odfl online, digital learning experience. uncoupling access to assessment from learning achieves the desired state of flexibility and learnerdriven choice that is anticipated in the future state odfl operating model and speaks to the expectations of the future state vision described above. the organisation and its stakeholders can find assurance of the achievability of this through the realisation that the structure of the organisation, and the allocation of resources to that structure, provides the appropriate organisational form to deliver on the described function. unbundling faculty as the preceding example of the establishment of the assessment centre demonstrates, to achieve the extent of flexibility in delivery, learner-driven choice, and personalised learning and support that the odfl operating model requires, it is vital that each of the key components of the value chain be disaggregated in a way that they can be offered as a standalone, independent service or feature to the learner. this has necessarily meant that as open polytechnic has embarked on its journey of transformational change that the role of faculty – as an organisational entity, and the work of the academic staff members in the faculty, be subjected to close scrutiny. the consequence of this scrutiny and the organisation’s drive to implement change that ensures the achievement of the vision of the future state odfl operating model, has been the development of a model that explains how unbundling of faculty has occurred. in this section of the article we set out the how the polytechnic has modelled its unbundling of faculty and the alignment of this unbundling with the organisation’s future state structure, an organisational structure that has been established and staffed during 2018. the unbundling model is presented as three graphically depictions. the first of these describes a faculty-centric view of the role of the academic staff member (figure 1). this is followed by a depiction of how the tcp worked to group the traditional activities of faculty into logical activity groupings. in the third and final graphic, the activity groupings are associated with organisational structure, the structure that the open polytechnic has in place now. 43 figure 1: a faculty-centric view of the role of the academic staff member. in this view of the academic staff member’s role, all aspects of the value chain that support the delivery of education and learning interact in some way with the work that the academic staff member does. where an odfl organisation, such as opnz, harnesses a value chain where specialist parts of the delivery ‘system’ are separately organised, i.e. a “disaggregated” value chain, there is an obvious misalignment between the way the organisation goes about delivering education and the holistic view of the role of the academic staff member and faculty. a significant impact of the tcp has been to re-envisage how the holistically arranged, traditional functions of faculty are to be aligned with a learning and teaching model that will realise the expectations of the future state odfl operating model. to an extent, the disaggregated components of the odfl value chain have already informed unbundling of the role of the academic staff member prior to the adoption of the tcp. two examples of this are: content creation, where learner resources have been designed, and written independently of faculty; and assessment marking, where historically adjunct faculty have supplemented the job of marking learners’ assessment. however, the tcp has resulted in the adoption of a whole-of-organisation approach to a change in the structure of the organisation that more closely aligns organisational activity with the learning and teaching model. identifying activity groupings the activities that are seen in the graphical depiction of the academic staff member’s role (as above) can be logically grouped into areas of activity that align with the learning and teaching model and the learner’s journey. this following figure 2 shows how that grouping has been conceptualised. 44 figure 2: logically arranged activity groupings. by comparing the activities shown in the first of the graphs, that is those associated with a holistic view of faculty and the academic staff member’s role, with the groupings shown in this second graph (as above), it is apparent that these subsequent groups of activities are quite simple logical assemblies of like activities all of which have been previously identifiable as those that may have been undertaken by academic staff members in part, or in whole. the approach taken by open polytechnic when unbundling faculty activity in this way, and reconceptualising the grouping of like activities, has resulted in establishing a role for the polytechnic’s academic staff that speaks directly to the key contributions that they are able to make to the experience that a learner has when engaged in odfl delivery. this is illustrated in the graph shown below. by reference to this graph, along with the activities shown in the preceding depiction, the role of the academic staff member now has direct association with the activities of: teaching, [maintaining and enhancing] subject matter expertise, and research (applicable to academic staff who teach on degree level programmes). similarly, the identification of alternative groupings of activities has resulted in the assignment of these to other roles in the organisation. the activity groupings shown here have been used in the tcp as the building blocks for conceptualising and creating an organisational structure that facilitates the work of the polytechnic’s specialised staff in a task-related whole. unbundled — a transformed way of organising our work in figure 3 shown below the activity groupings shown in the preceding section are attached to roles and functions in the newly transformed organisation. by referring to the two graphical depictions together it is possible to associate the activity groupings with the roles and functions in the new organisation structure. 45 figure 3: logically arranged activity groupings. the reorganisation of the open polytechnic based on the model that is described here has resulted in the creation of an entirely non-traditional organisational structure. in the achievement of this reorganisation all of the component activities found in any traditional tertiary education provider are also present in the polytechnic. the critical difference being that the component activities are now aligned with what is the distinctly different model of educational delivery characterised in the odfl model. assessment a key foundation stone in building a flexible learning experience for odfl learners is the provision of summative assessment that is independent of their engagement with learning and teaching. the pedagogical approach adopted in opnz’s tcp acknowledges that formative assessment is to be integrated with the learner’s learning and teaching experience. summative assessment is to be available to the learner in a way that provides them with greater control of their own assessment decisions. deciding when they are ready to be assessed and choosing assessment formats most suited to their learning style and the outcomes to be achieved, are examples of how the assessment environment is able to be structured to be more learner-driven. in opnz’s tcp the establishment of an assessment centre is a critical shift in organisational thinking that is expected to realise the aspirations of the tcp in this regard. 46 towards the next phase of our transformation as our transformation programme progresses, we seek to embed an educational model and ethos that promotes enhanced learner agency, flexibility and mobility. the learner journey will support significantly greater student choice over enrolment, study progress and volume, and assessment. our education design must lead development of stackable, modular courses of study. our strategic insight unit must develop our analytic capability (both quantitative and qualitative) to generate the data and feedback that will drive quality improvement and inform our learner interventions. we need to enable 365 admissions; and the assessment centre must adopt the on-demand, challenge assessment policy. alongside this transformation effort, we are maintaining continuous iterative development of our digital learning platform, alongside ongoing enhancement of our education technology more generally. a role for specialist odfl organisations within a network of providers beyond innovating to meet the changing needs of its core constituency of learners, open polytechnic’s digital and organisational transformation opens the way to expanded collaboration with other education providers. in terms of organisational strategy and positioning, teixeira, bates & mota argue that as part of ensuring their future role it is critical that specialist odfl providers partner with traditional higher education institutions with the aim of building system capability (teixeira, bates & mota, 2019). in a new zealand context, there is potential for networked institutions to share learning products and services to enhance overall system efficiency and responsiveness, a view strongly reflected in the government review of the itp sector noted above. in his cabinet paper launching the review, the new zealand minister of education, hon chris hipkins, said: “to help us achieve a world-class skills system, i believe there is value in exploring how the network of tertiary education providers can operate more as a system – so that we can use the resources of the network as a whole to achieve high quality provision across the country.” it is within this context that a transformed odfl specialist can contribute a unique capability within a network of conventional institutions. in their article “openness, dynamic specialization, and the disaggregated future of higher education”, wiley & hilton (2009), suggest that higher education providers respond to changes in technological innovation by increasing connectedness, personalisation, participation and openness. within their five critical functional areas of institutional organisation, both “structuring and access to content” and “tutoring and learning support services” domains provide opportunities for specialist odfl institutions to contribute to collaborative networks. the digital capability and “unbundled” organisational flexibility opnz is developing, significantly enhances its ability to support other organisations in these domains, and within the wider national network of vocational education and training in new zealand. conclusion the need for enhanced learner centricity, increased scalability, improved flexibility and interoperability is driving the transformation of odfl in higher education. technology enhanced 47 learning and more open educational practices are becoming mainstream in both higher education organisations and non-formal providers. consequently, specialist odfl organisations must identify and deepen the unique contribution they make both for their constituency of learners and to the wider system of tertiary education provision. open polytechnic of new zealand has undertaken a major programme of digital and organisational transformation that further differentiates its delivery and enhances its flexibility as an online learning organisation. this institutional reengineering that disaggregates functions and unbundles processes and services, holds potential for both improved performance and enhanced partnering opportunities within a network of provision. references bates, t. (2015, june 30). what can past history tell us about the athabasca university ‘crisis’? retrieved from https://www.tonybates.ca/2015/06/30/what-can-past-history-tell-us-about-the-athabasca-university-crisis/ daniel, j. s. (1998). mega-universities and knowledge media: technology strategies for higher education. london, england: kogan page. daniel, j. s. (2010). mega-schools, technology, and teachers: achieving education for all. new york, ny: routledge. daniel, j. s. (2018). open universities: applying old concepts to contemporary challenges. retrieved from http://sirjohn.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/20180630_irrodl_paper.pdf eckel, p. d., & kezar, a. j. (2003). taking the reins: institutional transformation in higher education. phoenix, az: ace/oryx press. garrett, r. (2018). whatever happened to the promise of online learning? the state of global online higher education. retrieved from http://www.obhe.ac.uk/documents/view_details?id=1091 keegan, d. (1994). the competitive advantages of distance teaching universities. open learning: the journal of open, distance and e-learning, 9(2), 36–39. https://doi.org/10.1080/0268051940090206 office of the minister of education (2018). approach to reforms of the institutes of technology and polytechnic subsector. retrieved from http://education.govt.nz/assets/documents/ministry/information-releases/2018releases/final-redacted-itp-cabinet-paper.pdf rumble, g. (1992). the competitive vulnerability of distance teaching universities. open learning: the journal of open, distance and e-learning, 7(2), 31–45. https://doi.org/10.1080/0268051920070205 teixeira, a. m., bates, t., & mota, j. (2019). what future(s) for distance education universities? towards an open network-based approach. ried: revista iberoamericana de educación a distancia, 22(1), 107–236. https://doi.org/10.5944/ried.22.1.22288 wiley, d., & hilton, j., iii. (2009). openness, dynamic specialization, and the disaggregated future of higher education. international review of research in open and distance learning, 10(5), 1–7. retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/768/1415 authors: dr caroline seelig is chief executive of open polytechnic, new zealand. dr caroline seelig has over 25 years’ experience as a senior manager in new zealand’s tertiary education sector. caroline is an honorary fellow of the commonwealth of learning. email: caroline.seelig@openpolytechnic.ac.nz alan cadwallader is executive director, learning delivery, open polytechnic of new zealand. commencing with open polytechnic at the beginning of 2015, alan has brought to his role a significant depth of experience in the new zealand vocational tertiary education sector. he has an mba from otago university and a researchbased masters in management from massey university. he also holds certification in adult teaching and learning. email: alan.cadwallader@openpolytechnic.ac.nz 48 doug standring is executive director marketing and communications at open polytechnic, new zealand. doug specialises in marketing and communications in the international odl environment, and distance learning strategy, management and business models. doug’s 20-year career in tertiary education in new zealand and the united kingdom spans strategic planning, brand, digital and search marketing, corporate communications, business development and partnerships, product and service innovation, and transnational education. email: doug.standring@openpolytechnic.ac.nz cite this paper as: seelig, c., cadwallader, a., & standring, d. (2019). transformational change in delivery at open polytechnic, new zealand. journal of learning for development, 6(1), 37-48. microsoft word kuba.docx issn: 2311-1550 2021, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 298-311 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. technology enabled delivery of medical programmes through odl: a study of training medical doctors in geriatric medicine ruchika kuba indira gandhi national open university, india abstract: covid-19 provided an opportunity to experiment with alternative delivery mechanisms for a medical education programme offered through open and distance learning with face-to-face training as an essential component of the programme. non-availability of hard copies of the course material (92%) and lack of communication from the university (32%) as well as training centres (42%) were some of the challenges faced by students of the geriatric medicine programme of the indira gandhi national open university (ignou) during the covid pandemic. around 90% were willing to attend online classes and 65% to 77% were willing to present cases online for discussion. a programme-specific web portal containing all resource material and information was visited by 85% of students. most students attended the online classes and 68% attempted the formative assessments based on the online classes. online classes were recorded and uploaded and were found useful by 90% of students. the experiment successfully demonstrated the feasibility and acceptance of delivering practical skills using online technological tools. further integrating technology to complement some of the face-to-face component could be used as a permanent and effective delivery strategy, which could also reduce resource requirements. keywords: open and distance learning, geriatric medicine, online, covid. introduction the sweep of the covid-19 pandemic brought with it a paradigm change in medical education. many hospitals in countries across the world were converted into dedicated covid hospitals resulting in non-availability of regular patients for teaching-learning. the shortages of personal protective equipment (ppe) and the high infectivity of the virus forced medical faculty to avoid including medical students in the clinical teams and rotations (dedeilia, sotiropoulos, hanrahan et al, 2020). there was an apprehension that asymptomatic, infected students might spread the virus. there was also a possibility that they might contact the virus in the course of their training. all these factors, coupled with the guidelines for social distancing by organisations like the centre for disease control (cdc) and world health organisation (who) experts, concluded that small group discussions and demonstrations to medical faculty would not be possible (newman & lattouf, 2020). medical programmes were thus bound to be severely affected. since the virus showed no signs of abating, alternative strategies needed to be worked out to ensure that the quality of medical education and training did not suffer. with the coming of covid-19, institutions across the world, debated, experimented, shared ideas and put in practice various ict tools for delivering lectures, student interactions, clinical discussions, presentations and assessment strategies. didactic lectures were replaced by webinars, electronic 299 conferences also called e-conferences, small and large group meetings (dedeilia, sotiropoulos, hanrahan et al, 2020; rose 2020; ish, sakthivel, gupta, et al, 2020). practical skill demonstrations were carried out by simulated patients and technology, videos, augmented and virtual reality. researchers suggested that counselling and communication skills as well as history-taking skills and systemic examination could be developed with simulated patients, which could then be demonstrated on patients. problem-specific patient interviewing, disease presentations, and team training are a few other strategies that could be explored and adopted (centre for disease control and prevention, 2020). studies even before the covid era have also shown that simple online platforms, like websites and blogs, can be used to host videos for demonstrating essential skills, such as procedural clinical skills and communication (dong & goh, 2015). online programmes can also help health professionals from multiple countries to connect and its flexibility ensures better control over learning (barteit, guzek, jahn et al, 2020). students were also worried as to how the medical school would be able to make up for the lost practical classes and how they would be prepared to handle emergencies without adequate exposure (chinelatto, costa, medeiros, et al, 2020). other challenges that the students faced were related to their online assessment and grading, access to computer hardware or software, technical barriers and phobias, little or no experience of online education and pandemic-related anxiety (rajab, gazal & alkattan, 2020; chinelatto, costa, medeiros et al, 2020). other challenges identified were lack of technical skills, time management, resources available and poor communication at various levels (nimavat, singh, fichadiya et al, 2021). similar challenges were experienced by students in the transition to online education in non-emergency situations (rajab et al, 2020; rosen & weil, 1995). despite these challenges, the covid-19 pandemic also ushered in new opportunities for teaching and learning. web-based activities and new teaching technologies were introduced (rasmussen, sperling, poulsen et al, 2020) and for many became the only way of teaching due to isolation protocols (rose, 2020). many studies have reported e-learning to be easier and more effective, since it allows access to large quantities of a variety of information and the students can have more control of the educational content since there is a possibility of a personalised approach to learning (mooney & bligh, 1997; ghanizadeh, mosallaei, dorche et al, 2018; chu & chan, 1998). post graduate diploma in geriatric medicine (pgdgm) programme of ignou this study was undertaken on the geriatric medicine programme of the indira gandhi national open university (ignou), india. ignou offers continuing medical education programmes through open and distance learning, though an undergraduate first degree is not allowed to be offered at a distance by the respective regulator in the country. these programmes also have a significant portion of the credit load devoted to practical courses, wherein hands-on training in identified medical colleges and hospitals is an essential component of the programme. one such programme is the one-year post graduate diploma in geriatric medicine programme (pgdgm) for in-service mbbs doctors. customised printed course material along with course specific videos, teleconferencing and hands-on, face-to-face training are part of the programme package. part of this training is conducted at identified and notified training centres called programme study centres (pscs), situated in tertiary level hospitals and medical colleges, which is followed by practice 300 at district level hospitals designated as skill development centres (sdcs). the framework of implementation is depicted in figure 1. the students are required to clear both internal assessments and term end assessments to successfully complete the programme. figure 1: a framework for implementation of the pgdgm programme the coming in of covid-19 brought about various challenges for the students of the january 2020 session to pursue the programme. these were identified as: • maintaining effective communication for academic and administrative issues • obtaining hard copies of course material • undergoing face-to-face practical training • undertaking assessments. alternate strategies had to be worked out and put in place to deal with these challenges. however, before the implementation of the revised strategy could be put in place, it was important to get feedback from the students regarding the feasibility of implementing the strategy. it was found that although many studies have been carried out to assess the impact of covid-19 and devise alternative mechanisms for medical education courses offered through the face-to-face mode, there are not many studies conducted on students admitted in open and distance learning courses for medical education. the present study was undertaken against this backdrop and the objectives of the study were set out as follows. 301 objectives of the study the present research study was undertaken with the following objectives: • study the challenges faced by ignou’s geriatric medicine students at the time of covid-19 for completion of their distance education diploma. • study student perception and satisfaction relating to alternative/additional distance and online strategies adopted during covid-19. • suggest effectives modes of training for continuing medical education programmes following a blended approach of delivery, based on the findings of the study. this programme presents a strong case for a research study of this kind since ignou is one of the few universities in the world offering certified post graduate medical programmes through odl mode with a significant face-to-face component. methods students enrolling in the medical programmes being offered by ignou through odl mode are a heterogenous group with respect to their age, qualification, experience and employment status, besides differences in other demographic characteristics. it was decided to include the entire batch, since this would enable feedback from all categories of students. thematic framework based on the review of the literature a thematic framework was prepared as in figure 2. based on the review of the literature, we constructed a survey comprising a three-part research framework as shown in figure 2 and used it to find the challenges, enablers and the acceptability of technology enabled delivery of medical programmes. figure 2: technologyenabled delivery of medical programmes’ research framework 302 both qualitative as well as quantitative data was required to achieve the objectives set out for the research. it was decided to adopt the survey method for data collection. this ensured a quick and cost-effective way of gathering information. sample emails were sent to all the students admitted in january 2020 to identify the different challenges faced by the students and enablers for a revised implementation strategy. students whose email addresses were found to be incorrect were contacted by phone and their email information corrected. all students who had filled out the registration form for admission to the programme were contacted and, based on the feedback of the students and discussions with the programme managers in charge of the programme study centres, a revised implementation strategy was worked out and put in place. the managers in charge of the programme study centres where the programme had been activated were involved in the discussions. these included centres like maulana azad medical college delhi, sn medical college jodhpur, mgm medical college wardha, b j medical college pune, ms ramaiah medical college and hospitals bangalore, banaras hindu university varanasi, medical college & hospital kolkata, and cmc ludhiana. after implementing the revised strategy, feedback was again taken from the students to assess the acceptance of the revised strategy. in the second review, 73 students were contacted (those who had responded in the first review). out of these 57 responded in the second review. the entire population of students who had registered for admission in the programme in january 2020 session were taken as the sample. this amounted to 82 students. the questionnaire was sent to all the students. however only 73 responded. for the second review, the questionnaire was sent to the 73 students who had responded in the first review, since the rest of the students (nine) had not responded despite repeated requests. fifty-seven out of the 73 students who were sent the questionnaire responded. instrument a questionnaire was developed for taking all the feedback using google forms because of the ease of filling and collecting responses. the questions included both structured and open-ended question. the questionnaire was reviewed and validated by the subject experts and distance education experts. the reliability of the questionnaire was checked by asking a sample of the students to fill out the questionnaire and repeating with the same set of students after 15 days. after the questionnaires were checked for validity and reliability they were administered to the students. the students were sent two reminders on two consecutive weekends through mail and regular follow up on the whatsapp group over a 15-day period for getting maximum responses. results i. sample characteristics the sample characteristics of the entire population was taken from the registration data obtained from the student registration division of ignou. 303 *information obtained from the registration data of the university for the january 2020 admission of pgdgm programme **information obtained from the first questionnaire was sent to all the 82 admitted students *** information obtained from the second questionnaire was sent to the 73 students who responded to the first questionnaire table 1: characteristics of the students and respondents of the survey — january 2020 batch characteristic sub type of characteristic admission data 2020* % of admission data 2020 response to questionnaire for enablers** response to questionnaire for enablers (%) response to questionnaire for acceptance of revised implementation strategy*** percentage questionnaire for acceptance of revised implementation strategy 1955-1959 2 2 2 3 2 4 1960-1964 4 5 4 5 3 5 1965-1969 5 6 4 5 5 9 1970-1974 4 5 4 5 4 7 1975-1979 7 9 6 8 6 9 1980-1984 9 11 7 10 6 11 1985-1989 23 28 21 29 17 29 1990-1994 24 29 21 29 12 22 1995-1999 4 5 4 5 2 4 gender male 52 63 46 63 31 53 female 30 37 27 37 26 47 year of completion of internship 1975-1979 1 1 1 1 1 2 1980-1984 1 1 1 1 1 2 1985-1989 3 4 3 4 3 5 1990-1994 5 6 4 5 5 9 1995-1999 3 4 3 4 3 5 2000-2004 10 12 9 12 8 13 2005-2009 5 6 4 5 3 5 2010-2014 20 24 17 23 15 25 2015-2019 34 41 31 42 18 33 marital status married 57 69 50 68 41 74 unmarried 25 31 23 32 15 26 employment status employed 56 68 52 71 36 64 unemployed 26 32 21 29 21 36 total 82 100 73 100 57 100 304 eighty-two students enrolled for the january 2020 batch and 73 (69.5%) students filled in the first feedback form sent in june 2020. fifty-seven (69% of the admitted students and 78% of the students who responded to the first questionnaire) responded to the second feedback form sent in august 2020. the characteristics of the admitted students, students who filled in the questionnaire in june and those who filled in the form in august is presented in table 1. about 66% of the enrolled students were more than 20 years of age, the maximum being in the range of 20 to 25 years. sixty-three percent of the admitted students were males. about 40 percent of the students had completed their internship within the last five years. around 60% of the students were married and 60% were employed. a chi-square test of the category-wise responses revealed that there was no notable difference between normal frequencies and observed frequencies in both cases of responses. (enabler response χ = 0.07, df = 4, p = 9.49 at 0.05 significance level and acceptance response χ = 0.67s, df = 4, p = 9.49 at 0.05 significance level). thus, this data can be used for further analysis as random data. ii. challenges faced by the students 1. disruption of effective means of communication a. only about 32% of the students received communication from the regional centres b. only 42% received communication from their programme about charges for counselling and other matters. 2. non-availability of hard copies of the course material about 92% of students had not received hard copies of the course material. 3. organising practical contact sessions a. three of the programme study centres, maulana azad medical college delhi, b j medical college pune and mgsg wardha were converted into dedicated covid hospitals and admitted only covid positive patients b. the non-covid centres admitted regular patients, however, many of these also became covid-positive in the course of their stay in hospital. c. six out of the 13 programme managers and counsellors felt that the face-to-face counselling sessions could be replaced by online counselling sessions, while seven felt that only some skills could be taught through the online mode. all the pics/counsellors stated that the delivery of skills through online platforms needed to be carefully planned. 4. internal assessment of students for the contact sessions almost all the programme in charges felt that a disruption in the face-to-face sessions would also affect the assessments. iii. feasibility of alternate implementation strategy for delivery of the programme the feasibility of an alternate strategy was assessed by enquiring about a few enablers through the questionnaire. the enablers and responses of the students to these enablers is presented in table 2. a programme-specific web portal had been created for the students in july 2020 and soft copies of the material, resource material and programme guide were made available to the students. the access for the web portal by the students for accessing various resource was considered as an enabler. 305 a majority of the students (83.8%) were able to access the web portal. a good number (77%) could download the soft copy of the course material and about 30% attempted the assignments. the reference videos posted were viewed by 29.7% of the students. table 2: the enablers and responses of the students for revised implementation strategy enablers response to enablers number of students percentage access to web portal yes 62 85 did not try 7 10 no 4 5 downloaded the course material from the web portal yes 57 78 did not try 11 15 no 5 7 read the course material both theory courses 13 18 only one theory course (basic geriatrics) 27 37 only one theory course (clinical geriatrics geriatrics) 1 1 did not get time 19 26 neither received the hard copies, nor could access soft copies 13 18 viewing of reference videos in web portal yes 38 52 no 35 48 attempted theory assignments yes 22 30 no 51 70 workload in service and access to patients attending to their duty in the hospital every day 48 66 employed in covid hospitals 11 15 were attending work few days a week 6 8 were not going for work at all 5 7 qualifications no post-graduation 23 32 community medicine 7 10 medicine 6 8 family medicine 4 5 other clinical specialisations 4 5 pre/paraclinical 5 7 readiness to attend the online classes would be able to attend all the web conferencing classes 44 60 would try to attend most of them 29 40 was busy and would not be able to attend the classes 1 1 availability of elderly to take cases for case presentation could examine elderly in the hospitals visited 55 75 have elderly at home 48 66 preferred timing for the classes 3 pm to 7 pm 62 85 weekdays were not suitable for them 6 8 after 5 pm 18 25 ready to take online exam for theory yes 60 82 no 13 18 ready to take online exam for practical yes 49 67 no 24 33 total students 73 100% 306 analysis of the enablers revealed that most of the students (60%) were eager to attend all the classes and another 40% mentioned that they would try to attend most of them. the timing of the classes preferred by majority of them was between 3 and 7 pm, especially after 5 pm. a large number of the students (66%) were attending the hospital every day and 15% were posted in covid hospitals. about 75% mentioned that they would have access to elderly patients for examining and case presentation and 66% had elderly at home who could also be taken for case presentation. implementation of the modified implementation strategy after receiving a positive feedback from the students, it was decided to implement the modified strategy. the demonstrations in the bed side teachings were replaced by online classes through web conferencing using google meet platform. all the live web conferencing classes were recorded and videos of the recorded classes shared with the students. few of the skills like patient examination and demonstration of signs by the students for which face to face counselling sessions could not be replaced by online methods were reserved for the hand on training to be scheduled in the end of the year, when situation was expected to improve. a vigorous formative assessment component was put in place. iv. acceptance of changed strategy by students the acceptance of the modified strategy by students was assessed through a feedback form in the month of august 2020 and the results are placed in table 3. table 3: acceptance of the implementation strategy components of the programme responses by students regarding acceptance number of responses percentage downloading study material soft copy all could download 57 100 requirement of hard copy expressed that hard copy of the material is essential for studying 54 95 they could manage only with the soft copy 2 4 preferred mode of communication whatsapp 31 54 email 9 16 web support portal 7 12 accessing web support portal regularly visited 50 88 accessed only when they got time 3 5 could not, due to lack of time 3 5 did not feel the need. 1 2 access the course material from the web portal 46 81 by email 6 11 from whatsapp 1 2 did not try 3 5 not able to 1 2 access the log books from the web portal 38 67 by email 6 11 from whatsapp 5 9 did not try 8 14 web conferencing classes videos from the web portal 47 82 by email 6 11 from whatsapp (two also accessed from email) 4 7 did not try 1 2 not able to 3 5 307 internal assessment for videos from the web portal 45 79 by email 5 9 from whatsapp (two also accessed from email) 3 5 did not try 3 5 not able to 3 5 assignments from the web portal 45 79 by email 4 7 from whatsapp (one also accessed from email) 3 5 did not try 2 4 not able to 4 7 reference material from the web portal 31 54 by email 2 4 from whatsapp (two also accessed from email) 1 2 did not try 16 28 not able to 6 11 did not know of its existence 1 2 reference audio video from the web portal 37 65 by email 4 7 from whatsapp (one also accessed from email) 3 5 did not try 10 18 not able to 3 5 did not know of its existence 1 2 attempting theory assignments attempted 28 49 attending classes attended all the classes 21 37 attended some and viewed recorded videos of the missed classes. 33 58 attended few classes but had no time to see the videos. 2 4 was not attending any class. 1 2 submitted formative assessments yes 40 70 few 12 21 none 5 9 reasons for not submitting formative assessment did not get time to do assessments 9 16 could not study for them 7 12 not able to access 1 2 feedback on formative assessments *more than one choice could be opted for they were from the subject taught in the class 35 61 they helped understand and remember the subject 33 58 some were ambiguous 13 23 easy 3 5 difficult 5 9 recorded videos of web conferencing classes *more than one choice could be opted for very useful resource 55 96 did not get time to go through 4 7 total 57 100 308 a good number of students (88%) could access the web portal and used it for downloading the course material, logbooks, web conferencing classes videos and assessments. most of them preferred whatsapp for communication. the videos were found to be very useful by 96% of students. more than 90% tried to attend most of the classes and 70% submitted the assignments for practical classes. delivery of medical education through a blended approach – a proposed model a proposed model for delivery of the medical education programmes through the blended approach is shown in figure 3. the skills to be imparted for any medical programme include all the three domains — cognitive, affective and psychomotor. figure 3: a proposed model for delivery of medical education programmes through the blended approach the skills related to the cognitive domain can be imparted through course material which is developed in a self-instructional or self-learning style. the content is presented in a simple and conversational style for enhancing the understanding of the learner and contains access devices in the form of in-text questions with readily available answers, glossaries or key words and a summary at the end to help reinforce the concepts. a few of the skills related to the affective domain can also be covered through these self-instructional materials. web conferencing classes and discussion forums at dedicated websites can be resorted to in order to supplement the course materials and bridge the gap between the students and their teacher. this not only allows for synchronous and asynchronous interactions between the teacher and students but also an interaction between peers. few psychomotor skills, that need to be demonstrated by the counsellors, can be taken up through the web conferencing mode. those requiring the manipulation and replication of skills related to physical 309 contact or handling of the patient and requiring face-to-face interactions by the students, can be undertaken under the supervision of teachers or counsellors in the designated programme study centres housed in medical colleges and big teaching hospitals. to ensure adequate practice and proficiency in the development of skills without displacing the learners too much from their place or work, the learners are required to practise their skills acquired at the psc in the district hospitals (sdcs). thus, making use of technology and integrating it with the essential face-to-face hands-on training of skills would provide an effective, low-cost model for training a large number of medical graduates, without displacing them from their workplace for long periods of time. conclusions and recommendations this study brings to light many important findings that can be used to plan a blended approach for medical education. it highlights the advantages of delivery of part of the practical training through online-mode demonstrations of skills by counsellors, case discussion by students, and reading of investigations like ecg, x-ray, etc. inputs in the form of videos which can be viewed by the students at their own pace and within their own time frame, any number of times as required, make the learning more permanent and effective. this is also a very useful resource for slower learners and also those who tend to fall back into a conventional system. this study has demonstrated that videos are a much-visited resource by the students in an e-learning environment. the repeated reinforcements subjected to volunteering by the students can help boost the confidence of students and build a very strong base which will help them when they come for hands-on training in a face-to-face environment for practice of the skills demonstrated in the online classes. the regular formative assessments also play an important role in reinforcing learning. they not only provide motivation but also are a means of self-assessment and monitoring of students’ understanding of and the progress in the course. a blended approach can thus integrate the advantages of face-to-face hands-on training of the skills, which is an essential component of all medical education training programmes, with an online component that can serve to reinforce learning and provide a strong supplement to the practical component. medical educators would need to reorient their strategies of teaching learning and design their programmes accordingly. based on the findings of this study, we would proffer the following practical recommendations that should be of use to any institution considering medical education through the blended approach as a teaching–learning strategy. • draw out an implementation model by integrating the various components, like face-to-face teaching, hands-on training, online classes, videos, etc. • supplement with various components for better effectivity and reinforcement, for example, the online classes were supplemented with recordings in the form of videos, which were readily available to the students. this would help remove the barriers of technology, like poor internet connectivity and time constraints due to the duty hours of the in-service students. • establish active communication channels with the students for providing information using multiple synchronous and asynchronous means, which are accessible and acceptable to the students, like social media, websites, email, etc. • create an environment of sustainable e-learning by harnessing the motivating factors. 310 the study also leads us to think (and rethink) about the role strategic planning of medical training plays in the acceptance of modes of training. ignou is a technology leader in education and also the largest open university in the world. it is thus natural for the university to progress in the direction of virtualisation and provide access to its huge academic resources to clients across the globe. this is an area for all distance teaching institutions to consider further reflection and collaborative r&d for creating common resources and platforms for learning. references centers for disease control and prevention. (2020). standard operating procedure (sop) for triage of suspected covid-19 patients in non-us healthcare settings: early identification and prevention of transmission during triage. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/non-us-settings/sop-triage-prevent-transmission.html chinelatto, l. a., costa, t. r. d., medeiros, v. m. b., boog, g. h. p., hojaij, f. c., tempski, p. z., & martins, m. d. a. (2020). what you gain and what you lose in covid-19: perception of medical students on their education. clinics, 75. chu, l. f., & chan, b. k. (1998). evolution of web site design: implications for medical education on the internet. computers in biology and medicine, 28(5), 459-472. dedeilia, a., sotiropoulos, m. g., hanrahan, j. g., janga, d., dedeilias, p., & sideris, m. (2020). medical and surgical education challenges and innovations in the covid-19 era: a systematic review. in vivo, 34(3 suppl), 1603-1611. dong, c., & goh, p. s. (2015). twelve tips for the effective use of videos in medical education. medical teacher, 37(2), 140-145. ghanizadeh, a., mosallaei, s., dorche, m. s., sahraian, a., & yazdanshenas, p. (2018). attitude and use of elearning, education by medical students in shiraz, iran. internal medicine and medical investigation journal, 3(3), 108-111. mooney, g. a., & bligh, j. g. (1997). information technology in medical education: current and future applications. postgraduate medical journal, 73(865), 701-704. newman, n. a., & lattouf, o. m. (2020). coalition for medical education—a call to action: a proposition to adapt clinical medical education to meet the needs of students and other healthcare learners during covid-19. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jocs.14590 nimavat, n., singh, s., fichadiya, n., sharma, p., patel, n., kumar, m., ... & pandit, n. (2021). online medical education in india—different challenges and probable solutions in the age of covid-19. advances in medical education and practice, 12, 237. rajab, m. h., gazal, a. m., & alkattan, k. (2020). challenges to online medical education during the covid-19 pandemic. cureus, 12(7). rajab, m. h., gazal, a. m., alkawi, m., kuhail, k., jabri, f., & alshehri, f. a. (2020). eligibility of medical students to serve as principal investigator: an evidence-based approach. cureus, 12(2). rasmussen, s., sperling, p., poulsen, m. s., emmersen, j., & andersen, s. (2020). medical students for health-care staff shortages during the covid-19 pandemic. the lancet, 395(10234), e79-e80. rose, s. (2020). medical student education in the time of covid-19. jama, 323(21), 2131-2132. rosen, l. d., & weil, m. m. (1995). computer availability, computer experience and technophobia among public school teachers. computers in human behavior, 11(1), 9-31. 311 author: ruchika kuba, mbbs, md in preventive and social medicine, is a professor in the school of health sciences, ignou. ruchika coordinated the planning development and implementation of many programmes for doctors, dentists and other health functionaries in the areas of health offered through open and distance learning mode. the programmes cover subjects of public health importance like geriatrics, maternal and child health, medical education, waste management, dentistry, patient safety, etc. she initiated and coordinated many national and international projects, training programmes conferences and workshops. member of expert panel for syllabus of md geriatric medicine by mci. she is also a member of the standing committee of social justice and empowerment, govt. of india for examining “the maintenance and welfare of parents and senior citizens bill, 2007”, a phd examiner for the university of delhi and an expert faculty examiner and member of the expert review group for various courses offered by other institutions, such as the certificate and post graduate certificate of gerontology courses developed by national institute of social defence, ministry of social justice and empowerment, goi, and the post graduate diploma in health and social gerontology course at the institute of home economics, university of delhi. ruchika has published articles in books and journals, presented papers and chaired sessions in geriatric conferences. email: kubaruchika@gmail.com cite this paper as: kuba, r. (2021). technology enabled delivery of medical programmes through odl: a study of training medical doctors in geriatric medicine. journal of learning for development, 8(2), 298-311. kabugo a discourse analysis of teacher-trainees’ abstract conceptualizations of emerging technologies in teaching to revitalise luganda language david kabugo, fred masagazi masaazi, and anthony muwagga mugagga vol. 2, no. 3 abstract while many young learners of the 21st century have grown up with, and generally prefer to learn using emerging technologies (ets), few teachers of luganda language graduate with learning experiences of integrating ets in their teaching. one of the most crucial stages of gaining experiences in any subject or object of interest is making abstract conceptualizations (acs) about it (kolb, 1984). whereas, scaffolding acs has potential to expand a teacher’s knowledge of integrating ets in teaching, it is difficult to enact in a pedagogically sound manner. this paper emerges from a design based research in which 68 luganda language teacher-trainees at makerere university were enrolled in a semester-long (17 weeks) blended learning course aimed at cultivating their experiences of integrating ets in teaching. the study was informed by kolb’s (1984) experiential learning theory (elt) and reeves’ (2006) model of conducting research in authentic e-learning contexts. six distinct abstract conceptualisations of ets emerged from trainees’ responses. this paper discusses the implications of such abstract conceptualization in the revitalisation of luganda language. introduction luganda language is one of the indigenous languages spoken by people of uganda. out of the 45+ indigenous languages of uganda, luganda is the most widely spoken, with more than eight million speakers (namyalo, 2013). although luganda is a fairly well documented language, and while it is being taught as a subject of study at some education institutions in uganda, many young learners of this generation are slowly detaching themselves from its study (kizza-mukasa, 2014). the need to address this challenge is urgent. otherwise, many young learners of this generation will continue to detach themselves from the study of luganda. when this challenge is not addressed, luganda language will lose its continuity and be at risk of extinction. the larger study from which this paper emerges aimed at cultivating teacher-trainees’ experiences of utilising emerging technologies (ets) in teaching to revitalize luganda language. the concept of emerging technologies according to ng’ambi, gachago, ivala, and watters (2012), ets are often discussed at academic forums, such as conferences, without making any abstract conceptualizations of it. indeed, existing reviews of seminal studies on the use of ets in education have not come up with a specific definition of this concept as yet. for instance, instead of providing a specific definition, siemens and tittenberger (2009) opted to give examples of ets, citing skype, blogs, facebook, wikis, second life, and google reader, as well as many others. siemens and tittenberger (2009) observed that ets embody philosophies and ideologies that reflect particular world views. siemens and tittenberger (2009) also noted that ets have several affordances. by this, they meant that the different features of ets provide much potential for learning. for example, many social networking technologies such as facebook, whatsapp, and viber can provide networked teaching and learning pathways for educators and students. in a related (broader) perspective, veletsianos (2010) did not define but opted to characterize ets as context dependent, evolving, dynamic, under researched technological tools, concepts, and innovations with a lot of potential to transform pedagogical practices in higher education. although many young learners of this generation generally prefer to learn using et (prensky, 2001), and while the practice of integrating ets in teaching is increasingly common in other learning disciplines (carlson & gooden,1999; pope, hare, & howard, 2002; brown & warschauer, 2006; koehler, & mishra, 2009; muyinda, 2010; stobaugh & tassell, 2011; ottenbreit-leftwich, brush, strycker, gronseth, roman, & abaci, 2012; global digital citizen foundation, 2015), ets remain under-utilized in the teaching of luganda language (kabugo, muyinda, masagazi, mugagga, & mulumba, 2015). one of the main reasons why ets remain under-utilized in the teaching of luganda language is the fact that many teachers of luganda language graduate from their teacher-training institutions with little or no learning experience of integrating ets in their teaching (kabugo, et al, 2015). the need to cultivate teachers’ experience of utilizing ets in teaching luganda language to young learners of this generation is critical. otherwise, many young learners of this generation will continue to detach themselves from the study of luganda language. when this challenge is not addressed, luganda language will lose its continuity and be at risk of extinction (kabugo, 2015). theoretical underpinning the design of the larger study was informed by kolb's (1984) experiential learning theory (elt). kolb’s elt premises that individuals learn best by gaining experience with their objects or subjects of interest. according to kolb, experience is attained at four different cyclic stages. figure 1 below illustrates kolb’s (1984) stages of experiences in form of a cycle. figure 1: kolb's (1984) experiential learning cycle (elc) each of these stages are explained below: concrete experience (ce): at this stage, a learner directly engages with his or her subject or object of interest. much of how learning takes place at this stage is by doing (kolb, 1984). teaching tools and activities that may support learning at this stage include: authentic examples, samples, demonstrations, trigger films, as well as case studies (mobbs, 2005). observational reflection (or): at this stage, a learner steps back from doing or directly engaging with the object or subject in question, so as to reflect on what s/he has already experienced (kolb, 1984). the quality of reflections is usually dependent on the type of observations the learner makes about the objects or subjects s/he has engaged with (mobbs, 2005). teaching tools and activities that may support learning at this stage of experiential learning in, especially, e-learning contexts include: blogs, journal entries, and chats rooms (kabugo, 2015). abstract conceptualization (ac): at this stage of experiential learning, a learner tries to make sense of what s/he has concretely experienced (kolb, 1984). sense making happens through interpretation and involves the making of connections, discussion of consequences and implications of the form, structure, operations, and dynamics of the subject or object of engagement (kolb, 1984). teaching tools that may support this stage of experiential learning in e-learning contexts include: concept maps, argument maps, debate graphs, analogies, models, frameworks, and theories (kabugo, 2015). active experimentation (ae): at this stage of experiential learning, a learner tries to test what s/he has already experienced (kolb, 1984). for technology-related experimentations to be useful, they must be done from authentic e-learning contexts / environments (herrington, reeves, & oliver, 2010). teaching tools that may support this stage of experiential learning in authentic e-learning contexts include: simulations, project works, laboratory tests, case studies, and field work (kabugo, 2015). although kolb's (1984) experiential learning cycle (elc) is frequently used as a pedagogical tool in university settings, and while it has recently found its way into the corporate world with a number of organizations using it as a concept to analyse workplace behaviour and facilitate workplace learning (hailstone, 2008), it has been criticised for certain reasons. smith (2010) argues that kolb’s idea of stages or steps does not sit well with the reality of thinking.  smith’s main concern is about kolb’s presentation of experience in terms of sequence. as dewey (1897) earlier stated with regard to reflection, a number of such “experiential stages” can occur at once, while some of them can be jumped. for that reason, smith (2010) contends that kolb’s way of presenting experiences in terms of sequential stages is both simplistic and unrealistic. other experiential learning researchers have criticised kolb’s elc for paying insufficient attention to the process of reflection, for taking very little account of different cultural experiences/conditions, and for building from such a weak empirical base (jarvis, 1981). whereas some of the criticism against kolb’s elc may hold, accepting such criticisms in totality is no better than accepting kolb’s elc in full. this is because, kolb (1984) has, since the publication of his seminal work, “experiential learning: experience as the source of learning and development”, responded quite well to some of his critics. for instance, kolb has argued that teaching by focusing on particular experiential learning stages may not be so flawed a strategy as teaching to no experiential stage at all (kolb & kolb, 2005, 2006). besides, kolb has acknowledged the view that experience can begin from any of his proposed four stages (kolb & kolb, 2005, 2006). mindful of kolb’s responses to his critics, this study adapted and utilized kolb’s initial elc as follows: figure 2: adapted version of kolb’s (1984) experiential learning cycle (elc) in the modified version of kolb's (1984) elc above, the stages of experiential learning have not been numbered so as to capture the view that experience can begin from any stage. likewise, a second layer of arrows (in an anticlockwise direction) has been added to consider the multidirectional nature of experiential learning. this paper draws on the revised version of kolb’s elc (fig. 2) and aims at analysing teacher-trainees’ abstract conceptualization of ets in their teaching of luganda language. objective, research question and approach this paper aims at analysing teacher-trainees’ abstract conceptualisation of ets in teaching to revitalize luganda language in the contemporary generation. the study was guided by the following key question: how do teacher-trainees at makerere university abstractly conceptualize ets in their teaching to revitalize luganda language? the larger study from which this paper emerged followed a design based research (dbr) approach. dbr has its origins in educators’ pragmatic desire to improve learning, not in a purely practical sense, but also from an informed theoretical perspective. herrington et al (2010) put it succinctly: [dbr] is grounded in the practical reality of the teacher, from the identification of significant educational problems to the iterative nature of the proposed pedagogical solutions” (herrington et al, 2010:5). figure 3 below illustrates the focus of dbr. figure 3: dbr as researcher and participants, artefacts, and problems (adapted from johannesson & perjons, 2012) studies that have followed a dbr approach to explore educational problems in uganda in general and at makerere university in particular have yielded transformative results (muyinda, 2010). while conducting research using a dbr approach can be a lengthy iterative activity (herrington et al, 2010), this study drew on a precise, four-phase model proposed by reeves (2006): figure 4: reeves' (2006) four-phase model for conducting dbr in authentic e-learning contexts in section two above, the practical problem of this study was illuminated. the other three phases of reeves’ (2006) model are explained in the sections that follow. design and development of solution the second phase of dbr, is to design and develop a solution / intervention for addressing the problem identified (reeves, 2006). in order to design an informative solution, “…literature is consulted to find a relevant theory that can guide the design thinking, as well as to locate existing design principles that may have addressed a similar problem” (herrington, at. al, 2010:7). in this study, a blended learning course was designed for the purposes of cultivating teacher-trainees’ experiences of using ets to effectively teach luganda language to the net-generation. there is substantial evidence in the literature to suggest that blended learning courses are an effective approach to cultivating teachers’ experiences of using ets in teaching (kabugo, 2015; ertmer & ottenbreit-leftwich, 2010; herrington, et. al, 2010; koehler & mishra, 2009; brown & warschauer, 2006; pope, hare, & howard, 2002; carlson & gooden, 1999). the course was organized as follows: call for participants at the beginning of the study, a call was made inviting third-year, bachelor of education, luganda language teacher-trainees at makerere university to participate in a semester-long (17 weeks) study. the purpose of the study was explained to them: “to cultivate their experiences of utilizing emerging technologies for effectively teaching luganda language to the net-generation”. out of the target group of 78 trainees, 68 trainees responded to the call. following their response to the call, all the 68 applicants were accepted to participate in the intervention. the study was designed as a blended learning course. the online component of the course was designed as a closed course using edmodo as its platform (kabugo, 2015). in addition to the online course, face-to-face sessions were organised every saturday from 10:00 am 2:00 pm throughout the semester in the school of education (soe) computer laboratory. the soe’s computer laboratory was used as a space in which the trainees freely explored and practiced more than 50 educational technologies (global digital citizen foundation, 2015). these technologies include: web-based documentation tools like google docs; blogging applications like blogspot; wikis such as pbwiki and wikispaces; social media tools such as facebook and twitter; instant messaging applications such as whatsapp; podcasting and vodcasting tools such as youtube, soundcloud and audioboo; concept and argument mapping tools such as debate graph, c-map and rationale; audience response systems such as socrative; mobile learning application tools such as winkisite and mob.is.it, among others. trainees were guided to utilize a number of the above ets to innovatively create their own solutions for their pedagogical challenges. design of the online task towards the end of the intervention (thirteenth week), a task was designed to seek trainees’ personal experience and understanding of ets at the level of abstract conceptualization (acs). trainees were required to make sense of the technologies they had concretely experienced, by interpreting, the making of connections and discussing the consequences and implications of using such technologies in the teaching of luganda language to digital natives. this was designed as a closed online learning task on diigo. figure 5: diigo screenshot showing the ets abstract conceptualization task given to trainees as seen in the screenshot (fig. 5), diigo was used as a discussion forum in the intervention. different topical themes and assignments were given in the form of threads to which the trainees responded. all the topics, themes, tags, assignments, and responses were made in luganda language. the first discussion thread on the screen is the online task that was posted to seek trainees’ abstract conceptualization of ets. by 09 march 2015, this task attracted three hundred and sixty seven (367) views from the trainees. the “follow ups” under this discussion thread indicate that all sixty-eight (68) trainees responded to the task by the said date. trainees’ responses to the online task formed the primary data that was tested and analysed in this paper. iterative cycles of testing the principle of iteration of testing in dbr maintains that a single test is not sufficient to gather enough evidence about the success or failure of the intervention and its effect on the problem situation being addressed (herrington et al, 2010). for this matter, standard dbr takes a robust approach to testing, where changes are made to the learning design after the first implementation for the purposes of enhancing its capacity to address the problem (herrington et. al, 2010). this principle aligns with reeves’ suggestion that dbr should primarily be developmental in nature, and that its purpose is to improve and not just to prove situations (reeves, 1999). in this study, participants were allowed to submit, refine and share as many responses as possible with regard to their abstract conceptualization of ets, based on their personal experiences in the intervention. data analysis this study utilized fairclough’s (1992) three-dimensional framework for analyzing discourses as its analytic tool. discourses refer to dialogues or conversations. discourse theory holds that dialogues or conversations, including their dimensions, shape and are recursively shaped by their constructors (fairclough & wodak, 1997). according to fairclough (1992), every discourse has three dimensions: a) the micro dimension, which is the spoken or written text (artifact), b) the meso dimension which deals with the processes of interaction, i.e., production and consumption of that text (artifact), and c) the macro dimension, which deals with the context, i.e., larger socio-cultural, political and economic environment of dimensions a) and b). fairclough (1992) contends that discourses, including their dimensions, can be analysed at three levels, which include: i) description, ii) interpretation and iii) explanation. at the first level, the analyst focuses on a discourse dimension and describes its genre, type, category or quality. at the second level, the analyst directs his or her attention at interpreting and making meanings and inferences from the genres, types, categories or qualities of a discourse dimension. at the third level, attention is directed at explaining and making connections and understanding implications of a discourse dimension for social practice. fairclough’s (1992) framework for analysing discourses and discourse instances is illustrated in figure 6. figure 6: fairclough’s (1992) three-dimensional framework for analyzing discourses inferring from discourse theory, this study held that trainees’ responses (written discourses, including discourse dimensions) to the online task concerning abstract conceptualization of ets (see fig. 5), were shaped and recursively shaped by trainees’ experiences of utilizing a number of ets for teaching of luganda language during the intervention. in this paper, trainees’ responses are analyzed from micro dimension at three levels. however, there is usually a subjective judgment in analysing discourses and discourse dimensions from a micro dimension at all levels (roode, speight, pollock, & webber, 2004). mindful of such subjectivity in our analysis, we present our findings in a tabular format. as roode et al, (2004) advise, such a format can help the readers of this paper to construct a comparative or “independent” analysis by easily referring to the source text that precedes the analytic table, the translation of the source text (row 1), and its description, interpretation and explanation (columns; 1, 2 and 3) in the analytic table. presentation and discussion of findings in this section, trainees’ responses (written discourses) to the online task regarding abstract conceptualization of ets (see fig. 5), are analysed in a tabular format. trainees made their responses in luganda language. the main text in each screenshot is translated into english for analysis. the first row of the analytic table contains the translated version of the text. the translated version of the text / artifact is analysed from a micro dimension at three levels, namely description, interpretation and explanation. for the purposes of brevity, seven compelling screenshots are selected, translated and analysed. table 1: translation and analysis of text / artifact #1 i look at emerging technologies as a language or technical thoughts used in creating, manipulating and storing different knowledge: scientific and non-scientific. i no longer look at technology as just machines. for example; whatsapp and facebook are not machines. rather, they are systems of thoughts designed by specific people. description (text analysis) interpretation explanation / implication trainee cites social networking applications as examples of ets. he also observes that ets are systems of thoughts, and constitute a certain kind of language. systems of thoughts are also known as ideologies or philosophies. therefore, the allusion being made is that ets are, and perpetuate certain forms of ideologies / philosophies.  in addition, viewing ets as a certain form of language, where language is to be understood as a socio-cultural and psychological tool that mediates people’s interactions, is to argue that ets are serve same purpose. teachers of luganda and other indigenous languages seeking to utilize ets in their teaching should be mindful of the explicit and implicit pedagogical ideologies (beliefs) that are embodied therein, and perpetuated by different ets. they should also utilize ets in manner that mediates students learning. table 2: translation and analysis of text / artifact #2 emerging technologies vary from one individual to another. what is emerging to me may be old to another individual. for example, although students of other courses especially science courses have been using muele http://muele.mak.ac.ug for their learning for quite a long time now, this technology is emerging to us as luganda language students because we have just been introduced to it this semester. description interpretation explanation / implication trainee illuminates how an institutional learning management system<http://muele.mak.ac.ug>(moodle) is still emerging to him as luganda language student, but old to other students in science disciplines. ets are not necessarily new technologies. old technologies may also be emerging depending on who, where, how, and why they are utilized. thus, ets are individual, discipline, context and application (methodological)-dependent.  it is important for teachers of luganda and other indigenous languages to place disciplinary, context and methodological requirements of their teaching before technologies. table 3: text / artifact #3 ets encompass innovative, scientific and technical ways of doing things. the use of intelligent technological devices such as those that communicate with human senses (sensory devices) can help explore the needs, and cultivate the potentials of individuals. one of the examples is google glass. description interpretation explanation / implication trainee describes ets more broadly as technological tools and artifacts that influence and are influenced by people’s lives and practices. tools and artifacts, including their ways of use and meanings, embody people’s socio-cultural practices, collective of which, is technically called discourses (fairclough, 1992).  here, ets are viewed as forming or mediating certain forms of discourses.  luganda language teachers should not use ets for their own sake. they should utilize ets in a manner that mediates and transforms students’ discourses (lives and practices). they should be able to contribute to the transformation of ets. table 4: text / artifact #4 these ets keep evolving and developing through different stages. after a while, there arises a new version of a given technology and every version that emerges is usually better than the older one. for example, there are different versions of ms office applications such as the ms word 98, 2000, 2011, and 2013 versions. description (text analysis) interpretation explanation / implication trainee describes ets as evolving and dynamic technology tools or applications that are in a constant state development or refinement. the evolving and dynamic nature of ets has potential to increasingly transform pedagogies. teachers of luganda and other indigenous languages ought to update their pedagogical, content and technological knowledge as a function of their engagement with ets. table 5: text / artifact #5 since these technologies are just emerging, we cannot claim to fully understand them. these technologies keep changing in so many different ways. as such, an individual cannot claim to fully understand them, before undertaking empirical research and trajectories about them. description (text analysis) interpretation explanation / implication trainee submits that ets are not yet fully understand and not fully researched.  limited understanding and research about ets can greatly impact integration in pedagogy. teachers of indigenous languages using ets in teaching should seek full understanding of, and research the use of ets so as to maximize the potential of such technologies especially in transforming pedagogy. table 6: text / artifact #6 ets can bring transformation into teaching although we have not yet fully exploited their potential. for example, the use of technologies allows a teacher to talk less and to give students opportunities to engage in their learning. in the traditional teaching, the teacher spends over 90% of his/her time talking, while learners are just listening. description (text analysis) interpretation explanation / implication trainee posts on how the potential of ets to transform pedagogical practices has not yet fully been exploited.  limited research about ets impacts its use in, and potential to transform pedagogical practices. indigenous language teachers using ets in teaching should seek full understanding of, and research the use of ets so as to transform pedagogical practice. table 7: translation and analysis of text / artifact #7 most technologies are made from developed countries. these technologies come in foreign languages such as english, arabic, french and so many others. this gives an upper hand to people who know such languages to quickly understand, utilize and benefit from these technologies compared to people who do not know such languages. description (text analysis) interpretation explanation / implication trainee describes the imbalance that exist between developed and developing worlds in regard to production and consumption of emerging technologies. ets are not only connected with technological but also social divides! (roode, speight, pollock, & webber, 2004). teachers of luganda and other indigenous languages, seeking to understand, utilize, and benefit from ets should draw on best practices from across the globe. conclusion and reflections this paper emerged from a larger study, which set out to cultivate teacher-trainees’ experiences of integrating emerging technologies in teaching to revitalize luganda language. the study was undertaken in the school of education at makerere university. sixty-eight third-year luganda language teacher-trainees were enrolled into a semester-long blended course, in which they experimented with more than 50 different emerging technologies in their teaching. towards the end of the course, trainees were tasked to share their evolving understanding of the concept of emerging technologies. the task was designed on and completed using diigo (a learning social and personal knowledge management platform). this paper has analysed trainees’ online learning responses using discourse analysis. six distinct abstract conceptualizations of ets emerged from trainees’ responses: i) ets perpetuate certain forms teaching and learning ideologies (philosophies), ii) ets are individual, discipline, context-dependent, iii) ets form and mediate specific forms of discourses (ways of saying, acting and interacting), iv) ets are dynamic and have potential to transform teaching and learning practices, v) ets are not fully understood and are scantily researched at different educational levels, and lastly, vi) ets can perpetuate a socio-techno divide. this paper comprehends the need to continually reconceptualise and utilise ets in the teaching of luganda language. the need for continuation of this activity rests in its potential to revitalise and preserve luganda language. as evidenced in this study, conducting this activity helped to capture learners’ attention and interest in learning luganda language. when students’ interest in learning any subject is captured and sustained, the subject of interest is preserved. secondly, this activity propelled participants to reengineer and modernise their language as they attempted to incorporate and build new technological expressions and concepts into their language. lastly, being a pedagogical task, this activity customarily engaged trainees in production, publication and consumption of educational resources for teaching and learning of luganda language. production, publication and consumption of educational resources for any language, ensures preservation and revitalization of such a language. acknowledgements this paper emerged from a larger ph.d study that was funded by the swedish international development agency (sida) through the embassy of sweden in kampala (uganda), and the directorate of research and graduate training (drgt) at makerere university. references brown, d., & warschauer, m. (2006). from the university to the elementary classroom: students’ experiences in learning to integrate technology in instruction. journal of technology and teacher education, 14, 599–621. carlson, r. d., & gooden, j. s. (1999). mentoring pre-service teachers for technology skills acquisition. technology and teacher education annual, 2, 1313-1318. dewey, j. (1897). my pedagogic creed. the school journal , liv (3), 77-80. ertmer, p., & ottenbreit-leftwich, a. (2010). teacher technology change: how knowledge, confidence, beliefs, and culture intersect. journal of research in technology in education, 42(3), 255-284. fairclough, n. (1992). discourse and social change. cambridge: polity press. fairclough, n., & wodak, r. (1997). critical discourse analysis. in t. a. van dijk, discourse as social interaction (pp. 259-284 ). london: sage publications. global digital citizen foundation. (2015). 50 education technology tools every teacher should know about. retrieved 2015, from http://globaldigitalcitizen.org/50-education-technology-tools-every-teacher-should-know-about hailstone, p. (2008). how to write a kolb paper. retrieved 2015, from http://www.researcheditwrite.com.au herrington, j., reeves, t. c., & oliver, r. (2010). a guide to authentic e-learning. london and new york: routledge. jarvis, p. (1981). adults as learners. san francisco: jossey–boss. johannesson, p., & perjons, e. (2012). a design science primer. createspace : independent publishing platform. kabugo, d. (2015). cultivating teacher-trainees’ experiences of utilizing emerging technologies to effectively teach luganda language to the net-generation. kampala: makerere university. kabugo, d., muyinda, p. b., masagazi, f. m., mugagga, a. m., & mulumba, m. b. (2015). tracking students’ eye movements when reading educational information on mobile phones: a case of a luganda literary text. in m. dichaba, & d. nwaozuzu, (eds.), educational technologies in the 21st century (pp. 37-51). pretoria, south africa: african academic research forum. kizza-mukasa, j. (2014). sirabaasi y’oluganda ku dala lya “a” n’enkyukakyuka ezizzeewo mu mpapula zonsatule. olulimi ly’eggwanga , 6-10. koehler, m., & mishra, p. (2009). what is technological pedagogical content knowledge? contemporary issues in technology and teacher education, 60-70. kolb, d. a. (1984). experiential learning: experience as the source of learning and development. englewood cliffs: prentice-hall. kolb, a. y., & kolb, d. a. (2005). learning styles and learning spaces: enhancing experiential learning in higher education. academy of management learning and education , 4(2), 193-212. kolb, a. y., & kolb, d. a. (2006). learning styles and learning: a key to meeting the accountability demands in education. in r. sims, & s. sims (eds.), a review of multidisciplinary application of experiential learning theory in higher education. hauppauge: nova publishers. mobbs, r. (2005). e-tutoring. retrieved from: http://www.le.ac.uk/users/rjm1/etutor/etutor/etutorwhatmakes.html muyinda, b. p. (2010). deploying and utilizing learning objects on mobile phones. kampala: makerere university. namyalo, s. (2013). the documentation of bark-cloth making: an endangered cultural activity among the baganda. retrieved june 15, 2015, from endangered languages archive: http://elar.soas.ac.uk/deposit/0170 ng’ambi, d., gachago, d., ivala, e. b., & watters, k. (2012). emerging technologies in south african higher education institutions: towards ateaching and learning practice framework. 7th international conference on e-learning. hong kong, china. ottenbreit-leftwich, a. t., brush, t. a., strycker, j., gronseth, s., roman, t., abaci, s., et al. (2012). preparation versus practice: how do teacher education programs and practicing teachers align in their use of technology to support teaching and learning? computers & education, 399-411. pope, m., hare, d., & howard, e. (2002). technology integration: closing the gap between what preserivce teacher are taught to do and what they can do. journal of technology and teacher education, 10(2), 191-203. prensky, m. (2001). digital natives, digital immigrants. on the horizon, 9(5), 1-6. reeves, t. c. (2006). design research from a technology perspective. in k. j. van den akker, s. gravemeijer, mckenney, & n. nieveen, educational design research (pp. 52-66). london: routledge. roode, d., speight, h., pollock, m., & webber, r. (2004). it's not the digital divide it's the socio-techno divide! european conference on information systems (ecis) (pp. 1-14). ais electronic library (aisel). siemens, g., & tittenberger, p. (2009). handbook of emerging technologies for learning. retrieved from the web at: http://elearnspace.org/articles/hetl.pdf smith, m. k. (2010). david a. kolb on experiential learning. retrieved from david a. kolb on experiential learning, retreived from the web at: http://infed.org/mobi/david-a-kolb-on-experiential-learning/ stobaugh, r. r., & tassell, j. l. (2011). analyzing the degree of technology use occurring in preservice teacher education. educational assessment, evaluation, and accountability, 23, 144-157. veletsianos, g. (2010). emerging technologies in distance education. theory and practice. retrieved june 15, 2015, from: http://www.aupress.ca/books/120177/ebook/99z_veletsianos_2010emerging_technologies_in_distance_education.pdf david kabugo is a lecturer, department of humanities and language education school of education, makerere university. e-mail: kabugodavids@gmail.com fred masagazi masaazi is an associate professor, department of humanities and language education, school of education, makerere university. e-mail: weskyol1@gmail.com anthony muwagga mugagga is an associate professor, department of educational foundations and curriculum studies, school of education makerere university. e-mail: amugagga@gmail.com huelsmann depover, c., orivel, f. (2012). developing countries in the e-learning era (vol. 96). paris: unesco iipe. thomas huelsmann vol. 1, no. 1 introduction this review will depart from the standard format of a review, which usually starts by giving a brief summary of the reviewed item. given that the book is readily available online at this url and includes a good advance organizer in its introduction (pp. 17-18) we will skip this task and directly turn to discuss the book. i will further depart from usual practice by shortly introducing my own conceptual framework since it may help to understand better my comments on the book. conceptual framework traditional distance education has developed around a deficit: the lack of responsive interaction. at the time responsive interaction at a distance was not a technologically available option1. there was telephony but, not allowing the exchange of text or graphics; it obviously could not carry the full load of the usually required instructional transactions. as a consequence of this deficit traditional distance education developed an instructional approach sui generis (peters, 1994) which shifted the principal locus of teaching and learning away from student-teacher interaction to content development. in this model the interaction was to be designed into the material in the form of (for instance) in-text questions or in-text activities (both cases of student-content interaction), whereas student-teacher interaction was left to tutors who played a subsidiary (albeit important) role2. this instructional approach led to the organizational consequences, which peters so succinctly captured in his industrialization formula (peters, 1994). this industrial mode of distance education translated into a cost-structure3 lending itself to economies of scale. this point got considerable publicity through various publications by daniel (e.g., 1996, 1998) who saw the mega-universities as proof that distance education could break ‘the iron triangle’ of cost, quality and access:  through investment in sophisticated course material distance education would safeguard quality while, at the same time, the quality material could be replicated at low costs to make it accessible to many students. in this construction, expanding access would lead to lower average costs per student because it allowed spreading the possibly substantial costs of development of course material over a larger student base. the british open university, especially, served as a reference that this model could work. however, in more traditional educational quarters the lack of responsive interaction at a distance continued to be seen as the achilles heel of distance education. the digital technologies emerging rapidly in the nineties made (for the first time in the history of education!) responsive interaction at a distance possible. however, it soon became clear that, while largely addressing the deficit of student-teacher interaction, it challenged the whole rationale of traditional distance education4 and, most importantly, seemed to drive horses through its cost-structure and, in consequence, to the claim that traditional distance education would be the most cost-effective form of educational provision. it is helpful at this point to revisit the relation between instructional approach and cost-structure. according to holmberg there are two constituent elements of distance education “subject-matter presentation (usually in print), which represents one-way traffic, but, if developed well, simulates communication, and “student-tutor interaction (in writing, on the telephone, by e-mail, fax, etc.).” (holmberg in bernath et al. eds., 1999, p. 101) any instructional approach is characterized by how these two constituent elements are configured, i.e., which emphasis is given to ‘subject matter presentation” (development of course material) as compared to student-teacher interaction. since the two constituent elements of distance education translate into the two ‘constituent cost parameters of the principal cost equation’ (f and v), the instructional approach defines the cost-structure, i.e., the relative weight in f and v in the total cost equation tc.5 digital technologies offer new ‘affordances’ for both, course development and interaction. based on a distinction earlier made by rumble (2004), hülsmann suggested distinguishing between various ways of using the affordances of information and communication technologies (ict)6: exploiting the power of information-processing and programming today allows levels of student-content interaction, out of reach to earlier distance educators. such applications (which include multiple choice questions, computer marked assignments, simulated interaction) were called type-i applications. where digital technologies are rather used for providing and sustaining a communication bridge between student and teacher (or among students) they were referred to as type-c applications. both ways of using ict, use the internet as a platform for instructional transactions and hence would qualify as e-learning.7 malleability of e-learning cost-structures depover & orivel define e-learning as “online learning via the internet” (p. 22).8 assuming that this is meant as interpreting e-learning as making good use of responsive interaction at a distance, in the above terminology this translates into identifying e-learning with type-c applications: e-learning type-c. however, the authors themselves observe elsewhere that “the industrial and mass media models … may perfectly well be compatible with dissemination over the internet” (p. 32) using the above developed terminology this may be interpreted as conceding that e-learning type-i is an option: in this case the course materials are provided in digital formats (with built-in student content interaction), while the level of student-tutor interaction (though conducted over the internet) can remain basically the same. we could nickname such a version of e-learning a ‘digital correspondence model’. it is very different from the ‘virtual seminar model’, which would use the same technology but a rather different instructional scenario (bernath & rubin, 1999). it may, indeed, be surmised that the ease by which e-learning has been absorbed by leading distance teaching universities has to do with exactly this option of digital correspondence.9 even where the capabilities of digital technologies for responsive interactions at a distance are not fully exploited, there are a number of advantages afforded by ict other than those directly related to student-teacher interaction. the point here is, that using the internet as a platform for teaching/learning transactions allows very different scenarios, including some of a very distinct cost-structure. depover & orivel themselves admonished the reader to “avoid thinking that a model that is no longer in fashion has no educational value. … the worst approach would be to make choices based on slavish devotion to a particular model or technological solution. … the fact that in this booklet we have chosen to emphasize learning via the internet does not mean that we regard this as the obligatory path for de in developing countries.” (p. 32)  neither is e-learning the obligatory path for distance education in developing countries, e-learning itself is highly malleable and leaves considerable room for choices and showing a considerable malleability of cost-structure. table 1 compares the cost-structures of de and f2f education with various forms of e-learning: table 1. instructional scenarios and cost-structures   student content interaction student-teacher interaction student-student interaction f v tc=f+v*n traditional/ industrial de course quality vested in content development; ideally high quality; but can vary considerably. low level none fde high vde low scale economies face-to face teaching (f2f) course quality vested in interaction between student and teacher (and among peers). high level high ff2f low vf2f high no scale economies e-learning type-c course quality vested in interaction; often low level of sophistication in course development; initially dearth of media diversity; mainly text based.  high level high ftype-c low vtype-c high no scale economies e-learning type-i course quality vested in content development; ideally high quality; but can vary considerably. low level depends on design ftype-i high vtype-i low scale economies e-learning type-i/c e.g. e-learning with cost-control: moderate level moderate level ftype-i/c varies vtype-i/c varies may allow moderate scale economies xmoocs course quality vested in content development; ideally high quality; but can vary considerably. zero level organized by students very low very low scalable without scale economies notes: for discussion of xmoocs cf. below comparing the rows for de and f2f one sees the different cost-structures of the two instructional approaches: where cost parameters are high for de they are low for f2f and vice versa; similarly, type-c applications and f2f share the same cost-structure, as also de and type-i. according to depover & orivel ftype-i may even be smaller than fde, due to falling costs of hardand software and falling costs of programming.10 (on the other hand insisting on quality standards also may raise and keep fixed costs of development high.) figure 1 illustrates some of these points: there are forms of e-learning which have a similar structure than traditional (industrial) distance education (e.g. e-learning type-i). this is reflected especially in the parallel lines depicting the industrial mode of de and e-learning type-i (that the graph of e-learning type-i is lower than that of industrial de reflects the falling costs of programming assumption) or the parallel lines of as face-to-face education and e-learning type-c. depover & orivel’s e-learning with cost control would combine type-i features (low fixed costs of development due to massive drop in it costs) and type-c features keeping variable cost per student below the level of face-to-face education (reflected in the lower gradient of e-learning with cost control as compared to face-to-face education.11) figure 1: graphing different cost-structures to summarize: there is a rhetoric of linking e-learning to responsive interaction at a distance (i.e., interpreting e-learning as e-learning type-c) while in practice implementing e-learning may happen more along as e-learning type-i. e-learning, convergence and the diminishing role of scale economies related to the above discussion is a point the authors make about scale economies: “we are witnessing the end of scale economies, and the hope that de would increase provision without raising budgets is fading.”12 (pp. 81/82) let’s start with some hair-splitting to put the relevance of scale economies in perspective: essentially, scale economies are based on a significantly different level of fixed costs as compared to variable cost per student. an index for scale economies would be the ratio f/v. since depover & orivel for instance indicate that fixed costs of development come down, then, other things being equal, the index for scale economies also would decrease. so what? this characteristic of declining scale economies would merely mean that the threshold when distance education out-competes the face-to-face mode is achieved earlier. hence: scale economies should be seen as a means to achieve affordable education, not as an aim in itself. if we should aim at tuning down a specific cost-parameter at all it would be average cost per student (ac). technically ac does not necessarily depend on scale economies (f/v) but on low variable cost per student (v). equally, it is not decreasing scale economies which lead to a convergence with face-to-face education but the rising level of v. admittedly, there is a bit of hair splitting in this. by and large it is true that exploiting more fully responsive interaction at a distance leads to raising v, and thus would nudge the cost-structure of e-learning towards that of face-to face education and would lead to higher marginal costs (and to higher average costs per student). but still, low marginal costs depend less on scale economies than on (in comparison) low variable cost per student.13 however, there is a further reason to question the preoccupation with scale economies prevalent among distance educators: it invites the fallacy of mistaking the average cost per student for total costs. the popularity of daniel’s mantra that distance education would break the linkage between cost, quality and access intentionally blurs the distinction between these two types of costs. as neil butcher has pointed out: "when financial analysis is undertaken it often focuses narrowly on unit costs (that is, the cost per individual student). such analysis depends for its persuasiveness on demonstrating declining student costs as economies of scale is achieved. … in many instances, income analysis will reveal that there is simply no way to accommodate this increase in total expenditure." (butcher, pp. 242-3)14 simply put: the idée fixe of bringing down average costs per student may lead to design systems too big and costly to run on full capacity which may, especially in developing countries, lead to unsustainable high total costs and may even result in an unexpectedly high average cost per student (e.g., if the system cannot run to full capacity). hence, the promise that one could arrive at acceptable levels of ac without having to rely on scale economies may not be altogether bad news. a further drawback of being tied to scale economies is that it conflicts with program diversification. ideally mega-institutions achieve lowest average costs per student by running a comparatively small number of programs. program diversification generally has cannibalizing side effects on the enrollment numbers of individual programs (e.g., rumble, 1997). however, given the increasing demand for an ever broader range of specialized professional skill-profiles, not being tied up to scale economies for achieving reasonable average costs per student per program may be a good thing. but what does it mean for the mega-providers? one could revisit the ‘vulnerability debate’ under the auspices of the new digital technologies. rumble argued already earlier that conventional universities were discovering the adult education market and offering part time education to students nearby. the resulting market fragmentation would especially render the traditional mega-universities increasingly vulnerable insofar as they depend on scale economies (rumble, 2004). today, (almost) all universities have a reasonable ict infrastructure and can technically teach at a distance. they can draw from a large variety of programs that can – ever more easily – be given a distance teaching format. if a fragmenting market was ever a threat for mega-institutions, one would think the threat must have increased since. it may, however, be argued that not being so tied to scale economies to achieve a reasonable average cost per student level shields even mega-universities from part of the impact of market fragmentation: market fragmentation may lead to a diversified demand structure of the programs an institution offers— declining enrollment numbers in some programs while other programs may still attract large enrollments. often e-learning type-c (with all the measures of cost control) may be a more cost-effective option for the former, while e-learning type-i is still an option for the latter. the new digital affordances allow handling both types of programs. moreover, e-learning may even allow coping with large numbers without relying on scale economies. scalability doesn't necessarily depend on scale economies. depover & orivel illustrate ways to control the impact of the costs of interaction (their e-learning with cost control). however, tutors may not always like the ways in which such cost-control is achieved, since much of the cost-efficiency gains would come from increasing their workload, from decreasing their remuneration or from offering them more precarious employment conditions.15 umuc may be a case in point for the compatibility of e-learning type-c with scalability. in addition there are still considerable advantages for the mega institutions, especially outside the realm of direct teaching costs, e.g., with respect to administration, hardware and software acquisition or the digital library.   to summarize: distance educators should look at scale economies as means rather than goals. the mission of distance education was (and – for many – still is) to make affordable education available to more people, many of them previously excluded by the traditional system of higher education. depover & orivel show that this aim may depend less on exploiting scale economies and less on the existence of mega-institutions. this may be considered good news and even mega-institutions may be less negatively affected than the authors suggest: where appropriate, institutions can use e–learning type-i (e.g., the digital correspondence model) thus reducing their dependency on scale economies to achieve an appropriate cost level. the overall decreasing cost level may buffer the impact of fragmenting markets. reception costs: the digital divide within even in developing countries, there is no doubt that at least all higher education requires a robust ict infrastructure and easy access to the internet and its resources. this applies both for conventional universities and for distance teaching universities. the big question for a traditional distance education institution in a developing country is, if it should make access to ict infrastructure a requirement for the learners, thereby substantially increasing the reception costs of students. the problem poses a dilemma difficult to escape: whatever the choice an institution might take, it leads to losing part of its audience. if it would stick to its traditional mission to serve especially the less privileged groups and accordingly cling to the traditional correspondence (or mass media) model, the institution is likely to lose the richer, ambitious, urban clientele which has all the necessary it equipment and want to put it to use. depending on the level of pervasiveness of ict infrastructure in the respective country and the level of disposable income of potential students, ratcheting up reception costs by devolving the ict costs to the students is likely to split the target group right through. trying to serve both groups would result in additional costs due to the redundancies and duplication this would entail. possibly, the dilemma of losing a big part of one’s audience or of losing the efficiency gains which would come with a more consequential change-over to e-learning could be processed by ‘delayed gradual change’. if depover & orivel are right and the internet infrastructure will increase16 (uneco-itu) and reception costs will decrease reasonably soon, one could expect that a staggered delayed change process could partially defuse the problem. in fact, the authors see reception costs of computer ownership dropping dramatically to even below the $180 of the olpc. according to the authors, indian producers already offer laptops for $35 and have announced plans for launching a $10 computer. if, in addition, we could expect internet flat rates to drop equally dramatically then, indeed, reception costs may not be a problem any more, even though $35 still amounts to about 50% of the monthly income of a middle class household in a country like madagascar. moreover, as haythornthwaite (2007) pointed out, the digital divide gap does not simply refer to the lack of computers and would not be dealt with even if an internet capable machine is in the hands of all. it reproduces itself on higher levels as a difference of capabilities. the $10 computer needs to be equipped with the necessary software to allow access to all the relevant products. but while it may well be that it infrastructure would reach a high level of pervasiveness, would that herald the eradication of poverty (or ‘e-readication of poverty’ suggesting ict as a cause of it17 )? it may well be it rather means that we should abandon our perception of poverty, which presently suggests that the presence of computers means the absence of poverty. there is good reason to assume that we need to re-configure our image of poverty: you may have a computer and still not have enough to eat (chen, 2012). you may even have a degree. but if indeed the reception costs drop so significantly, would that bring back the mass audiences envisaged for traditional mega-distance teaching institutions or would they try other paths of access to education? the stark contrast between the claim of “the end of scale economies, and the hope that de would increase provision without raising budgets is fading” (pp. 81-82) and the hype about moocs (ignored by the authors18) does merit a short comment. moocs: scale economies reloaded distance education has always been accompanied by the rhetoric of social justice. education, including higher education (he), should be made accessible for all who wanted it and had the respective talents. daniel’s marketing of breaking the iron triangle of cost quality and access was in line with this rhetoric. the zero transaction costs of digital knowledge products made it appear particularly malign not to share these resources. as a consequence opening existing digital content to the public was a good publicity coup for major institutions (like the mit and then the ou). it led to a movement in favor of open educational resources (oer) eventually coordinated by unesco. the oer movement can be considered a precursor of moocs since it treated the cost of development as ‘sunk costs’, i.e., costs that could — for all practical purposes – be treated as zero. if f could be regarded as zero, what about v? in order to arrive at zero tc (thus being able to offer the moocs for free), not only f has to be zero but also v. two ways to achieve this objective have been realized by what was later labelled as xmoocs and cmoocs. xmoocs did not use any student-teacher interaction while cmoocs used a crowd sourcing strategy to bring down v to zero. xmoocs can be considered a resurrection of the traditional de cost-structure shifting the locus of teaching to content development and exploiting type-i instructional scenarios hence substituting student-content interaction for student-teacher interaction. we have to recall that moocs typically use forms of content presentation different from those of traditional (largely print-based) distance education. the preferred mode of presentation is recorded lectures (audio or video podcasts) interrupted by frequently inserted multiple-choice questions, which had to be successfully completed before the next podcast sequence could be viewed (or listened to). like the old in-text questions these inserted activities served as ‘sleeping policemen’ to keep the learner engaged and prevent them from lapsing into ‘couch potato’ passivity. moreover, xmoocs also allow complementing this format of presentation with new forms of learning analytics, which allows the evaluation of learner performance. automated evaluation formats allow immediate identification of error clusters allowing intervention by the course designers (koller, 2012). this form of interactivity would not re-introduce student-teacher interaction through the backdoor; rather, it would short circuit the design cycle of course maintenance. cmoocs work differently; instead of taking the human element out of the loop they introduce the human element on mass scale. they eliminate the teacher (tutor) as a cost driver but heavily rely on peer interaction. students are encouraged to form for instance, facebook groups, and support each other in the learning process. this links back to the web 2.0 preference for the wisdom of the crowd: having thousands of students, say, in a statistics class, makes it likely there will be quite a number of students advanced students who are happy to help others. in fact, other web 2.0 strategies could be marshalled towards this aim. some of the mooc providers have adopted a web 2.0 business model: they offer moocs for free but arrange with commercial companies to view large numbers of students in action. a triple win situation, it seems: the mooc provider gets money for opening its teaching arena for the head hunting resource managers of the commercial clients, and the high-performing students may hope for an invitation by a big multi-national company. informing students that they get kudos for mutual support and including peer reviews as evaluation instrument may well motivate learners to get a move on. hence, both models of moocs show the following cost structure: f is regarded as zero because it is treated as sunk costs. v is zero because either human interaction is completely eliminated or, at least, the costly student teacher interaction is substituted by peer interaction.  if f = 0 and v = 0 then tc(n) = 0 whatever the number of students. obviously this account is slightly stylized. when mit or the ou made their resources available to the public they had a triple motive: first, there was a genuine commitment to sharing resources; second, doing so could be considered as an excellent publicity coup; thirdly, in spite of all the rhetoric of sunk costs there was a considerable amount of money in the pipeline from the hewlet, soros or gates foundations.  costs would further increase when moocs providers compete for ‘adding value’ to their services by improving assessments leading to educational badges which possibly could be traded in for credits at serious institutions. from the vantage point of a distance educator moocs seem to be a resurrection of traditional distance education under the conditions of the digital era. it seemed to deliver daniel's dream of breaking free of the iron triangle and making accessible elite education for all at zero cost. it did so by applying the same instructional design strategies of shifting the locus of teaching to course presentation and away from student teacher interaction. the affordance of digital technologies, however, allowed more sophisticated levels of student-content interaction and added peer interaction as an additional feature. however, with inheriting the virtues of de (such as being able to cope with large numbers, flexibility and affordability) moocs also inherited the vices of de: high drop out rates and the need for a high level of learner autonomy in prospective students. even more than de, moocs seem to work better as screening devices than devices for skills formation, let alone critical thinking. conclusion the central claim in the paper under discussion is the thesis about the diminishing role of scale economies in the recent transition of de to e-learning. the challenge implied in the thesis is due to the fact that the claim of de and e-learning to be the most cost-efficient form of educational provision is very much based on scale economies: it is due to scale economies that de escapes the constraints of the iron triangle which ties costs, quality and numbers together in a lock-step manner. we found that depover & orivel’s claim hinges on the relatively narrow definition of e-learning as a format of teaching and learning fully exploiting the affordances of responsive interaction at a distance. this narrow definition of e-learning would mean more student-teacher interaction and, as a consequence, a cost-structure closer to that of traditional face-to-face teaching. however, as depover & orivel themselves conceded, digital technologies could be used in different ways, including scenarios fully compatible with scale economies. that the new digital technologies did not prove disruptive to the mega-universities demonstrates the considerable malleability of e-learning. this largely takes the sting out of the argument of the diminishing role of scale economies. a further important insight delivered in the paper is the focus on reception costs especially for de and e-learning institutions in developing countries: the digital divide is replicated within the audience of de and e-learning institutions. depover & orivel have no solution for the problem but offer some rationales for expecting that reception costs of de and e-learning will drop dramatically in the future. as an addendum to the discussion of the role of scale economies in de and e-learning we added a discussion of moocs since the attention they have received recently seems to fly in the face of any thesis attesting scale economies have a diminishing role. moocs, it seems, are ‘scale economies reloaded’: they can be considered as a radicalized version of de both with respect to its virtues and to its vices. notes for the concept of ‘responsive interaction at a distance’ cf. hülsmann, 2009, pp. 451-2 while generally teaching is seen as a form of interaction between students and teacher, mills, former regional director of the ou, explicitly identifies academic teaching with course development: “to be absolutely clear, where learning materials are produced for numbers of students..., this is regarded as the academic teaching and is considered to be outside the framework of learner support." (mills, 2003, p. 104) the term cost-structure relates to the respective weight of fixed costs and variable costs per student in the total and average cost equation. the total cost equation, in its simplest form, is written as tc(n) = f+v*n, where f are the fixed costs and f*n the variable costs; hence it simply reads: total costs are composed of fixed costs plus variable costs. note that the variable costs v*n are the product of variable cost per student (v) times the number of students (n), the latter being the independent variable of this function. for what follows it is helpful to remember that tc is a linear function, i.e., its graph is a straight line where f identifies its intersection with the y-axis and v signals its angle of inclination. the larger the angle of inclination the quicker the total costs rise with student numbers. the importance of v becomes clear if we analyze average costs per student: ac(n) = tc(n)/n = f/n+v. for big n average costs per student (ac) approach v. the graph of ac drops asymptotically to the level of v.  hence v determines the level, below which ac cannot fall. the terminology applied to v is slightly confusing to the novice since v is referred not only to as variable cost per student but also as unit costs or, as in this context where it is the limit of the average cost equation, as marginal cost. why should you design your content with a clarity pre-empting most students’ questions once the tutor is at the students’ fingertips? the discussion here looks at direct teaching costs incurred by the institution. depover & orivel also generally focus on direct teaching costs but include a discussion of reception costs, i.e. costs generally incurred by the student. hülsmann simply relabeled rumble’s distinctions type a and type b to render them more intuitive by linking them to the acronym ict. it often goes unnoticed that digital technologies comprise two distinct sets (technologies of information processing and technologies for communication). for our discussion it is important that, depending from which set you take your application, it contributes more to the fixed costs or more to the variable cost per student. this relation between type of technology used and cost-structure led to choosing the labels connected to the acronym ict. type-c applications include student-teacher interaction as well as peer interaction. it is the first form of interaction that drives up variable costs per student. one way of making use of the communication sustaining affordances of the new technologies, while at the same time avoiding raising v, is making (hopefully) productive use of student-student communication rather than student-teacher communication. moocs (massive open online classrooms) avoid the latter but may encourage the former to the extent of, for instance, experimenting with peer grading. it is somewhat unfortunate to define the neologism e-learning by reference to a further neologism, i.e., online learning, which is taken as well-known. especially in bimodal institutions (such as the mushrooming centers for lifelong learning), formats of blended learning are preferred which tend to make sub-optimal use of the interactive capabilities of e-learning: students quickly realize that the professors in charge of the course focus on the face-to-face part leaving the online part to the tutors who, by design, play a mainly supportive rather than a teaching role. while technically the virtual learning environments (vles) would allow seminar style approaches, both instructional design and the division of labor often lead to low level of student-teacher (and even peer) interaction. the authors (in p. 64) even refer to a previous paper by orivel arguing that due to the massive drop in itc costs the earlier analysis in orivel (2000) would no longer be tenable. the argument then saw little chances that ict-based teaching solution could be affordable in developing countries. note that the affordances of the new technologies also would allow ratcheting up both fixed costs and variable costs per student: to bring down f e-learning with cost control below fde and ve-leaning with cost control below vf2f-c is not a consequence imposed by the nature of technology; it is result of an instructional design choice to limit both fixed and variable costs to a level considered appropriate from an instructional point of view. especially keeping variable costs per student low may not bode well to tutors. already rumble (2004) demonstrated that much of the efficiency advantages of distance education are due to labor practices such as employment conditions and level of remuneration, i.e., putting it more bluntly: more precarious employment conditions and lower wages. however, similar strategies were employed by traditional universities in order to cope with the challenges of massification. much of the teaching load was shifted to students (some times doctoral students) who worked on contract for a fraction of the professorial salary. this in itself is a remarkable statement in a year where moocs (massive open online classrooms) are the talk of the town. we will come back to that below. mace (1978) made this point earlier on when he recommended to the ou to abandon its cooperation with the bbc. this would lead to lower average costs in spite of decreasing scale economies. the ou did no do that possibly for good reasons: the bbc cooperation was essential to establish the public perception of the ou as a provider of quality education. it may have been better to refer here to average costs per student rather than unit costs. but given that ac for large number of students converges to the marginal costs and these being identical with the average cost per student the point is still clear. cf. rumble on the ‘effect of employment practices on the costs of flexible and distance education’, in rumble, 2004 (pp.53-65). depover & orivel cite the uneco-itu estimate that “every 10% in the spread of high-speed internet access will bring an annual increase of 1.3% in gdp”. (p. 81) the insinuation here seems that given such carrots governments would do their best to assure such an infrastructure expansion in order to harvest the growth. again it is not certain if rapid growth allows expanding high speed internet (or provides a context in which it makes sense to expand it) or if expanding high speed internet is a lever to obtain such growth. lavin, b., zhen-wei, q. c. (2004). this is essentially due to the fact that the time for drafting the booklet was done before moocs received the public attention they received a year later. references bernath, u., rubin, e. (ed.). (1999). final report and documentation of the virtual seminar for professional development in distance education: a project within the at&t global distance learning initiative sponsored by the at&t foundation and the international council for open and distance education (icde). oldenburg: bis-verlag der carl von ossietzky universität oldenburg. chen, w. (writer). (2012, november 28). chinas bildungsdschungel, from http://videos.arte.tv/de/videos/chinas-bildungsdschungel--7078946.html daniel, j. (1996). mega-universities and knowledge media technology strategies for higher education. london: kogan page. daniel, j. (1998). can you get my hard nose in focus? universities, mass education and appropriate technology. in m. eisenstadt & t. vincent (eds.), the knowledge web learning and collaborating on the net (pp. 21-29). london: kogan page. do, p. (2013). die achillesferse chinas: geistige arbeit und arbeitskämpfe im reich der mitte. in g. egger, fuchs, d., immervoll, t., steinmassl, l. (ed.), arbeitskämpfe in china (pp. 67-77). wien: promedia. haythornthwaite, c. (2007). digital dvide and e-learning. in r. andrews, haythornthwaite, c. (ed.), the sage handbook of e-learning research. los angeles, london, new dehli, singapore: sage. hülsmann, t. (2004). the two-pronged attack on learner support: costs and the centrifugal forces of convergence. in j. brindley, walti, c., zawacki-richter, o. (ed.), learner support in open, distance, and online learning environments (vol. 9). oldenburg: bibliotheksund informationssystem der universität oldenburg. hülsmann, t. (2009). book review of "salmon, g., edirisingha, p. (ed.). (2008). podcasting for learning in universities.". distance education, 30(3). koller, d. (2012). what we are learning from online education, from this url. lavin, b., zhen-wei, q. c. (2004). poverty "e-readication": using ict to meet mdg: direct and indirect roles of e-maturity. in s. dutta, lavin, b., paua, f (ed.), global information technology report 2003-2004: insead, world economic forum, infodev. mace, j. (1978). mythology in the making: is the open university really cost-effective? higher education, 7(3), 275-308. mills, r. (2003). the centrality of learner support in open and distance learning: a paradigm shift in thinking. in a. tait, mills, r. (ed.), rethinking learner support in distance education: change and continuity in an international context (pp. 102 113). london, new york: routledgefalmer. ngai, p., chan, j. (2013). globales kapital, der staat und die chinesischen arbeiterinnen: das foxconn modell. in f. g. egger, d., immervoll, t., steinmassl, l. (ed.), arbeitskämpfe in china (pp. 106-129). wien: promedia. peters, o. (1994). distance education and industrial production: a comparative outline (1967). in d. keegan (ed.), otto peters on distance education. the industrialisation of teaching and learning (pp. 107-127). london and new york: routledge. rumble, g. (2004a). technology, distance education, and cost (1999). in g. rumble (ed.), papers and debates on the costs and economics of distance education and online learning (vol. 7, pp. 4152). oldenburg: bibliotheksund informationssystem der carl von ossietzky universität oldenburg. rumble, g. (2004b). the costs of providing student support services (2001). in g. rumble (ed.), papers and debates on the costs and economics of distance education and online learning (vol. 7, pp. 163-174). oldenburg: bibliotheksund informationssystem der carl von ossietzky universität oldenburg. young, j. r. (2013, january 9). coursera announces details for selling certificates and verifying identities. chronicle of higher education. thomas huelsmann is the managing director of the centre for lifelong learning at the university of oldenburg. e-mail: thomas.huelsmann@uni-oldenburg.de traxler mobile learning research: the focus for policy-makers john traxler vol. 3, no. 2 abstract mobile learning has moved in the last decade from being a small, scattered research interest to being viewed by many international agencies as a way of delivering their humanitarian missions to the developing contexts of the global south. this paper explores and documents fundamental concepts and concerns that characterize or perhaps jeopardise the relationships between the ‘old’ research communities and ‘new’ policy maker communities working to improve the nature and scope of learning in the developing contexts of the global south using personal mobile digital technologies. as becomes apparent, these concepts and concerns are relevant and interesting across a broader range of domains, touching perhaps under-privilege and access to education and technology in both the global north and the global south, the uses of technology to extend, enhance and transform learning and the various pressures and determinants of policy-making and of the public funding of research. introduction this piece grows out of personal experience and reflection and is consequently partial and subjective; it is however an area that is difficult for researchers to explore objectively, analytically and comprehensively, for two main reasons. the first is that the area is necessarily subjective for researchers because researchers as a community themselves are part of it not separate from it, they are players and stakeholders in the relations and transactions being explored and discussed. the second is that the methodological tools do not really exist to explore and analyse these relations naturalistically; these relations and the transactions that comprise them are verbal, fluid, informal, privileged and political. policy-makers are improbable research subjects. this piece is an attempt to explain and explore what seems to be going on as these two communities and those alongside them try to build better and more productive relationships. it is partly exposition and explanation, partly exhortation and partly critique. as some context for the development of this piece, i should mention briefly the process that catalysed it. annually unesco in paris holds a mobile learning week. leading up to the week in 2015, unesco proposed a symposium that explored the interface between research and policy, assuming that both parties understood the other only poorly. this was a worthwhile exercise in itself but also a source of research data that might lead to findings that were useful to the two communities. this document draws on two sets of qualitative data. in both cases, these are drawn from small self-selected samples, namely people who attended the symposium, more than 80 of them, and who chose to speak, and people who subsequently offered responses to an online survey. these people were a cross-section of experienced researchers, programme managers and policy makers, from both the global north and the global south. there was a sequence and development in that responses from the symposium informed the questions subsequently posed in the survey, seeking to probe for examples, counter examples and opinions. the aim was not to produce outcomes or findings that were objective or representative but to illustrate the breadth of experience, ideas and practices. this aim underpinned how the data as gathered and how it was analysed, and how subsequently presented. no formal research method or theory was used or assumed. the moderators for each segment of the symposium were provided with scripts, in effect a focus group protocol, and used it to even-handedly move through their respective panels, seeking responses in turn and then throwing the topic open to the other participants. the vast majority of all the segments was audio recorded and transcribed, and notes taken independently verbatim.   participants were emailed to participate in an online survey that consisted of a series of open-ended questions directly related to one or other of the themes from the symposium. there were twenty-eight respondents and most made substantial free-text answers to most of the twenty questions. we must recognise that the vast majority of these respondents identified themselves as researchers. their responses must be seen in this context but are valuable nevertheless and in most instances draw on experience in the field and on experience of engaging with policy makers. these represent the deeply flawed attempts to use recognised methods to capture qualitative data objectively. they were however also informed by comparable contacts and collaborations with dfid, usaid, world bank and world economic forum. what is mobile learning? we must start by introducing the fundamental concepts. the ideas and practices of what has come to be called ‘mobile learning’ date back to the turn of the century, to a small number of universities and organisations and to a handful of researchers, developers, activists and practitioners. several years later the increasing power, functionality, coverage and ownership of mobile phones made them incredibly attractive to policy makers, programme managers, international agencies and humanitarian foundations working in the global south, wanting to provide educational opportunities and resources to people, communities and regions. there is a list of free and accessible resources in the end section, including those specifically relevant to the global south. the growth of mobile learning research, the growth of researchers working on mobile learning and the apparently attractive and benign possibilities of mobile learning suggest the need for much research to underpin any subsequent investment, and to underpin policy, capacity building and awareness raising. the current paper is intended to help the funders of research understand and optimize the research that they fund and the research findings that they use. mobile learning research this paper starts by giving policy makers and other people funding research a practical analysis of different types of mobile learning research in order to articulate more realistically the nature of the insights and findings that they should expect from the mobile learning research community. it also looks briefly at the changes and trends in mobile learning research in order to give a better sense of what to expect in future. the nature of research the word ‘research’ can be used to refer to finding information, for example from google or wikipedia, or to refer to market research, from people in the street. we, however, are talking about the activities of experienced professional researchers, typically based in a university or institute environment, who gather data in the field or in the laboratory. the purpose of their work is typically to test, endorse, refine or refute some theory or hypothesis. at the highest level of research, for example, for an academic journal or a research conference, we are looking at work that should be: original – it makes a unique and novel contribution, however small, to what we know, meaning some aspect of the research has not been done before applicable – it solves or answers an existing or anticipated problem or question, and is worthwhile  generalisable or transferable – it has some wider significance, it can be transferred into other contexts or locations repeatable – it is sufficiently documented that it can in theory be repeated and checked, ensuring its rigour, trustworthiness and soundness ethical – it ‘does no harm’ either in its outcomes and consequences or its methods. these claims or attributes must each be substantiated by a comprehensive review of the existing academic literature, and at this highest level, research findings should be guaranteed by various kinds of peer review, iterative revision, impact ratings and community scrutiny. these do perhaps represent a gold standard, most explicitly adopted in the universities of western europe. standards differ and in many parts of the world, for instance the middle east and the post-soviet republics, phd research can largely focus on un-critical accounts of existing literature, and in east asia respect for tradition or authority can hamper original thought. with an emergent discipline such as mobile learning, there will always be differences in expectations and interpretations from the diverse constituent disciplines, from education (or pedagogy or didactics), mobile technology (or computer engineering), development studies and others. in this respect, however, mobile learning research is maturing and the past decade has seen an international professional body emerge, the international association for mobile learning, along with a recognized scholarly journal, the international journal of mobile and blended learning, and annual international research conferences, such as mlearn. there are also regional conferences, such as iadis mobile learning in europe or mlearncon in us. there are fewer in the global south, perhaps only conferences where the commercial aspect competes with the scientific aspect, such as elearning africa. this in itself imposes a pervasive bias onto which research is presented, who presents it and who hears about it. processes and standards are in place to ensure and enhance the rigour and thus the trustworthiness of research findings. these research findings constitute the traffic from researchers to policy makers, their funders and any other stakeholders, including the wider public. they are however detailed, structured and highly contextualized, and by their nature, difficult for non-specialists to read with the necessary scrutiny, scepticism and criticality. this discussion of research may seem to have little significance to programme managers and policy makers. it does however articulate the standards, practices, drivers and culture that researchers inhabit, and helps us understand some of the causes of misunderstanding and miscommunication. furthermore, research may have a number of roles or functions for policy-makers, donors and officials, and it is important to distinguish these and nurture appropriate expectations. the types of research there is a history of deploying new mobile technologies on a small scale for a fixed term to test technological or pedagogic concepts or to act as exemplars. the technologies are however often ahead of what the market, especially the disadvantaged and underprivileged parts of the market, can afford. these small-scale fixed-term projects may thus have only limited significance for policy makers and may present unacknowledged challenges when policy makers seek to transfer the procedures, technologies and formats from their original context. with these new technologies, there is a history of researchers undertaking research projects that exploit each new hardware, software or network technology as it comes to market, sometimes losing sight of the longer-term impact or conceptual significance of such projects. these projects can represent a distraction for policy makers as, not only might there be questions of sustainability, reliability and affordability, but they are also ahead of the curve in terms of wider acceptance and understanding. there can also be a problem of churn. this is the phenomenon of continually going back to the start and can distract from research that focuses on affordable sustainable innovation around existing robust and ubiquitous technologies; policy makers have a role and have a responsibility in directing researchers towards activities with the most socially useful outcomes. research projects promoted as exemplars are problematic since they may exemplify ideas that are unaffordable or unsustainable. research projects that seem to succeed but on the basis of devices supplied – lent or given – to learners are also likely to be promoting ideas that are unaffordable or unsustainable. the same is true for projects that depend on one-off donations, for example, message bundles from mobile network operators. these problems may not arise where the underlying assumption is of specific devices becoming cheaper or network coverage improving. there are occasionally research projects that propose to take a concept to scale. they are often but not always, preceded by smaller pilots. these larger projects should be designed to answer questions about wider community, organisational and institutional issues, not about pedagogy or technology, and should only proceed with robust, resilient and proven technologies and systems, adequate training and testing, and a clear understanding of the objectives and methods for gathering evaluation data. these are perhaps the most interesting and important research projects for policy makers, ministry officials and programme managers since they align most closely to their own work, interests and responsibilities. large-scale deployments and evaluations do not however only measure reactions and test responses, they also have the capacity to create or destroy the expectations, attitudes and goodwill around specific technologies and programmes and so must be planned and presented carefully. they should not be used to test untried technologies; these can be tested by simulation or in labs or with researchers, students or officials rather than the general public or vulnerable learners. these are only a few of the possible types of research. we could enumerate others, for example, blue-skies, developing theory, testing new pedagogy, implementing new technology, importing approaches or theories tried elsewhere and so on. with each of these types of research comes a particular kind of outcome, a particular kind of finding, and our point here for both researchers and policymakers is to be clear, sceptical and explicit about the expectations, relevance and nature of any particular research idea and approach. the trends in research having looked at research in general, it makes sense to move onto the specifics of mobile learning research and how it is evolving, especially in relation to the global south. one undeniable observation is that the relatively upbeat global economic climate that supported the early mobile learning research community at the turn of the century is now downbeat, considerably reducing both the public sector and private sector support for research anywhere in the world. over the same time, interest and understanding of mobile learning to support educational and humanitarian missions in the global south has increased, opening up the possibilities of research funding from international agencies, donors and foundations, and the mobile network operators have seen education as part of their business with a vast market in the global south. at same time we have seen mobile technology change from expensive, difficult, scarce and fragile to cheap, universal, robust, pervasive and ubiquitous, having the effect that whilst previously mobile learning needed research and researchers, now mobile learning has become easy, obvious, common-sense, apparently needing no further research. technological research will always be the domain of technology corporations; they have the money and expertise to get ideas to market. what are constantly changing and always varied are the attitudes, expectations, abilities and experiences of learners as they engage with mobile technology, as it transforms the learning they need and the world around them. whilst technology research, or rather technology development, is universal and not negotiable or culturally specific, research with learners is highly specific to their context and their circumstances and local to the responsibilities of regional and national policy makers and ministry officials. what is still not well understood is the larger context for technology and pedagogic change, specifically issues of scale and sustainability. research is still needed but this research by its nature implies a greater commitment of resources than earlier short-term, small-scale research and requires continued scrutiny of context in the search for transferable, durable or generalised findings. this is partly because the issue of culture in mobile learning is so poorly researched and because most research has taken place against the un-remarked backdrop of english or western culture, pedagogy and assumptions using global technologies and systems and so thus the issue of other cultural contexts seems to have seldom arisen. successful research sadly, the professional and financial environment in which researchers work can mean that failure or the appearance of failure is not an option and from the start of the research process, the bidding, to its conclusion, the reports and publications, failure seldom makes an appearance.  our experiences showed that the community was aware of the need to learn from mistakes and failures. researchers do have the responsibility to publish their findings in order to extend our knowledge of mobile learning. however, this can conflict with perceptions that journal editors prefer positive results and so undocumented mistakes are perpetuated. the ethics of research we said earlier that a characteristic of research, or research that would be viewed as acceptable by universities, professional bodies, research journals, the press and the wider world, was that it should be ethical, that it should do no harm. for researchers from the universities of the global north, research on communities in the global south and mobile technologies can pose several sorts of ethical challenge, ones that address whether harm might be done. these include the adequacy of any institutional ethical processes, the novelty, complexity and abstractness of mobile technologies and the difference and distance of any target or host communities, especially poor, marginal or rural ones, from their own experiences, expectations and values. this connects with the golden rule vs. the platinum rule, the former telling us to treat others as we wish to be treated, superseded by the latter as people realized that how one might wish to be treated might not be the same as others would want to be treated. this difference can be connected to culture, religion, and societal values and norms—this was understood by many in the research community. the research community at the symposium revealed a number of ethical practices that should be considered while working with community groups or marginalized people, these include: ensure participants understand their rights as subjects of research ensure participants understand the power limitations associated with funders, especially corporate funders follow the ethical clearance procedures from reputable institutions translate ethics documentation into local languages empathize with participants respecting local culture, time and practices. these are only some operational hints. there are undoubtedly many more that are relevant. organisational practices some organisations have explicit ethical clearance procedures (irbs in usa); these may or may not be adequate for research with distant and different cultures using mobile technologies. other organisations, sometimes ministries, corporations, ngos, consortia, funders and consultants, do not have such procedures. policy makers and others funding research should bear in mind that recipient organisations may have no ethics procedures or practices in place and consider their own role in creating appropriate expectations of the project lifecycle, from building in requirements for an ethical evaluation in proposals through to expecting to see ethics documented in publications and reports. the majority of the participants in this study believed that ethical procedures should be different depending on the country; that target populations should be able to provide insights about their own ethics and that ethical procedures should have some flexibility and not merely represent the powerful. these procedures, even within the participants’ own country, may be perceived as bureaucratic and paternalistic, producing only documentation and tokenism, and can be dominated by specific disciplines, for example, psychology or clinical medicine, and are thus unsuited to emerging areas of research of an interdisciplinary nature, ones where the nature of harm may be subtle and complex. it is possible to work within these procedures whilst also pressing for their improvement. perhaps regrettably, organisational ethics procedures often prioritise a public relations dimension to their work and are keen to make decisions that protect and promote the image of their organisation. the well-documented media panics about education and mobiles, especially with younger children, may be in their minds. they can also be methodologically conservative or biased, and not open to research methods that are aligned to online research with mobiles or culturally sensitive research with indigenous or remote communities. researching with mobiles there has been a variety of initiatives and technologies that use mobiles in the conduct of research in order to capture data, and these could be used to explore learners and learning with mobiles. this would be an authentic alternative to more traditional face-to-face or paper-based methods. one research participant at the symposium described visionary educators as the catalyst for many mobile learning initiatives in schools. a concern raised at the symposium was how national guidelines were often developed from very little evidence. there are also projects to get greater insights into how people including learners use their mobiles. these are intended to give educators a greater understanding of how learning content and learning interactions can be designed for people on the move in a wide variety of situations. this research is highly contextualized and highly specific to individual groups and communities. the primary role of mobile learning researchers was a topic that provided the greatest variety of responses from the symposium participants. these included: disseminate authoritative information to support content and best practice test or apply theoretical frameworks inform decision making explore affordances for the benefits of learner identify local contextual factors conduct grass-roots needs analysis establish models and frameworks encourage wider debate study the application of technology demonstrate the unique value of mobile learning. again, this is only an indicative list but it illustrates the diversity of positions and possibilities. researching with different communities any society, community or culture is uniquely characterised by a specific balance between the formal, the established and the institutional on the one hand and the informal, the indigenous, the local, the vernacular on the other hand, and perhaps the counter-cultural, the subversive and the disruptive, too, amongst peer groups, communities, families, kinship groups and elders. this balance can correlate or explain differences in ethics across different communities, ethics in the shared sense of what is approved, acceptable, appropriate, allowable or permissible in terms of interaction, relationship, manners, exchange, humour, posture, language, discourse, fashion and behaviour in any community, in what constitutes harmful and what constitutes harmless. individuals of course often belong to more than one community and probably aspire to be accepted by several others. looking at the basis of the ethics in any community exposes the challenge confronting the procedures, practices and documents that attempt to regulate research interventions from a distant institutional culture and community. countries and regions are also characterised by a multiplicity of religions existing side-by-side. these religions form the foundation of their communities' ideas about ethics and morality but differentiate each from the other. furthermore, the rapidity of technological, specifically ict, adoption, change and appropriation leads to generational differences, not always based on chronological age, overlaying other cultural or communal differences. any of these norms and characteristics is very different from those of research institutions in the global north and may be unfamiliar to local officials and policy makers. from the perspective of outsiders, of researchers coming from outside, there is much potentially that might be not worth mentioning or be taken for granted and many areas where harm might be inadvertently perpetrated. this is with varying granularity and relevance to communities from nations and religions down to villages and families. also researchers coming from outside may have an inappropriate perspective on ends and means. an example might help; a pilot in east africa involved in issuing mobile phones to children in rural areas finished after six months. the researchers retrieved the mobile phones and the children were distraught, having become attached to the phones. the researchers’ response was that they ‘couldn’t make omelettes without breaking eggs’, in effect that the scientific ends justified the scientific means. institutions with traditions and culture derived from the north and the west, because of their academic pre-eminence in the global south have been in a position to define research ethics globally and thus define harm on the basis of their own heritage and perspective. we should be aware of western bias – confusing the responsibility to educate others with the right to educate them and we should see mobile learning research in this more balanced way. perhaps when, in bygone days, delivering and supporting education was challenging and difficult then the moral imperative to educate was a useful spur. now however pervasive and intrusive mobile technologies make it much easier to deliver and support education and the moral imperative to reflect first should come into play. also, researchers from the global north can often assume that other cultures subscribe to the notion that informed consent need only come from the individual not from their community, or from elected representatives. this is a largely western and individualistic notion. community understanding of sophisticated and abstract mobile technology systems may grow slowly as research interventions progress. these are arguments for continued community involvement in ethics procedures, for continual communal consent rather than one-off individual consent. this is however further complicated by talk amongst the development community of unexpected consequences – how is the potential harm of interventions to be judged when outcomes seem to be so unpredictable? commercial support for research commercial companies and corporations in the mobile learning space, for example handset manufacturers, mobile network operators, broadcasters and content publishers, have sponsored research, either directly, through their corporate social responsibility divisions or through their foundations. they may do this in cash or in kind, and the latter is likely to be their own products or services. they may insist on timescales that researchers find too short for meaningful results, and they may have no formal ethics procedures. our research suggested that researchers are conscious of several issues. a concern was that the research conducted on mobile learning was connected with specific corporations providing that funding. concerns were echoed in the symposium, of course, in all the academic papers the record for research is behind the pay wall, it’s difficult to reach out the evidence. a symposium participant from the business sector described how many vendors are looking for “proof of concept”, in that they need evidence that will justify the investments they were making in the education sector. the symposium participant described the need to have new products for the market tested with pilot studies. summing up research so in conclusion, most research formats have some relevance to policy makers, ministry officials and programme managers but the diversity of research formats that they might either fund or might review means that considerable judgment and discretion are needed when looking for the policy implications. relevance of data  this section looks at data, specifically at the different types and sources of data that the mobile learning research community can produce, in order to assist policy makers in the judgements they must make about the impact and relevance of data to policy formulation and implementation. research by its nature produces data. data is however usually less trustworthy and relevant than policy makers and the public might like to think. there is a trade-off between relevance and trustworthiness. this is because trustworthiness will naturally increase if researchers minimize extraneous, confusing or confounding influences and factors. this however produces an increasingly artificial or simplistic research environment, like a laboratory, unlike most real situations. a specific example is the tendency in mobile learning research to issue learners with the same mobile device for the duration of the project. this was logistically straightforward, technically attractive and methodologically more rigorous since it reduced the confusion of getting outcomes from diverse devices. unfortunately, the likelihood of sustainable mobile learning based on learners being given devices is remote and instead we see the byod, bring-your-own-device, policy as the way forward. unfortunately, all our earlier evidence based on consistent supplied devices is not relevant to such situations. furthermore, constraints on time, effort and resources will always mean that there is less data than necessary. this means that researchers must always exercise judgment and skill in order to maximize interest, relevance and impact within these constraints. sometimes this may mean trade-offs between the duration, spread, intensity and methods being deployed since research budgets are always finite. various factors compete to consume resources so, for example, longer research must mean shallower research because intense research uses resources more quickly; likewise more sites cost more than fewer sites. so, whatever research formulation is chosen, it imposes limitations on the trustworthiness, relevance and generality of the findings. in particular, qualitative data will cost more to gather and more to analyse than quantitative data – quantitative data will tell you what people do but qualitative data will tell you why they do it. we should perhaps say something about qualitative data and quantitative data since these are fundamental to research methods and research findings. put simply, quantitative is usually structured, numerical and objective whilst qualitative is textual and subjective. this means that quantitative data can reveal much about learners’ behaviour but qualitative data is needed to explain it. typical methods for gathering quantitative data include statistical methods, checklists, structured interviews, system logs and likert scales whilst qualitative methods include semi-structured interviews, free-text surveys and focus groups but we should point out that these are conventionally face-to-face and not clearly aligned to mobile learners with mobile technologies. this means there are differences in how the data is obtained and thus in the cost of obtaining it. as expected, within the research community, there was no individual research method that was preferred for researching mobile learning. good researchers let the research questions determine the methodology used. the research participants also describe a shift to include qualitative methods that can capture other less quantifiable evidence. a mixed methods approach was suggested by many of the participants – mixed methods describes research that collects both quantitative and qualitative data: i understand the taxpayer’s wish or pressure again to see how money is spent. there should be a balance to be showed somewhere between, okay, results that can be quantified, also we have all these beautiful dimensions about, dimensions such as engagement, motivation, but also change, the cultural change in teaching practice, all the small elements that constitute what you say, the learning or teaching culture, the mind-set. this is something we cannot fully identify in quantitative thesis. the research suggests that quantitative methods may be the choice for political gain but do not form the research agenda that can serve the policymakers and practitioners. policy makers might need research on: the benefits of mobile learning how technologies can support different forms of learning the development of mobile learning curricula for all ages and subjects scalability of existing versus potential solutions appropriate use and policies how to provide access to mobile learning for all learners how mobile devices are for learning and not just a distraction. many of these are policy-related rather curiosity-driven. in assessing the relative costs and outcomes of different proposed ways of gathering research data (or evaluation data) in the field, policy makers and programme managers must recognize various trade-offs and reservations.   we have ethical and methodological reservations about power differentials between the researchers and their subjects. it does not feel right and the data is not worth having. we have experienced evaluation exercises in east africa where senior representatives of the ministry of education and of the overseas department of international development, in a convoy of very expensive vehicles, went into poor rural schools to ask primary school teachers what they thought of the programme in question. clearly the differentials of power and authority made any responses and reactions worthless. in looking at the options for gathering research data in the field, there is a tendency to round up the usual suspects – that is, interviews, focus groups, questionnaires – and to avoid options that might be more imaginative and possibly more appropriate to mobiles, to people on the move, to people on the move learning informally and learning together, and to people who are not the usual categories of research subjects or correspondents. it is always sensible for funders to ask researchers not only about the choice of individual research techniques but to also ask about their sequence and their relationships. was one technique used to refine or corroborate another one? did system logs check users’ recollections? did a questionnaire or survey that gave objective data about behaviour lead to semi-structured interviews that provided data about reasons and motives? did a broad survey identify areas for deep investigation? did interviews identify topics for subsequent surveys? and so on. policy makers reading researcher outputs should be asking questions about individual research techniques. was it piloted? is the documentation available? did it use a recognized method? settings for data collection this section also looks at data, specifically how the process of selecting, siting and sampling locations for mobile learning pilots and trials can constrain its value and impact in policy formulation, particularly at a regional and national level. where trials, evaluations and pilots or samples and test sites get located usually heavily influences the findings, outcomes and conclusions, and certainly does not usually give the kinds of national or regional validity that policy makers and ministry officials might like it to, especially when resources, personnel and time are under pressure. it is tempting, for example, to think that locating a trial or collecting data from every province or district gives findings that are nationally relevant. locating a trial or collecting data from each tribal or ethnic community or from each type of agricultural community, for example, pastoral, nomadic, subsistence arable and peri-urban market gardening, also seems to provide an equally convincing evidence base so we must ask what is going on when we site trials or sample different groups. what is going on is that we build in the assumption that the variable, for example, tribal group or administrative region, is important and must be accounted for, must be neutralized, by spreading the sampling across its range. this may be true but ignores other variables, perhaps age, income or gender as having a possibly larger impact on our findings. the message to policy makers is that findings that seem to have a national significance may be less trustworthy than they seem at first and that extrapolation, moving from the data gathered in the field to some more general conclusions, may be unreliable however desirable and attractive it may be.  how to choose a sample (group of participants) and a setting (the location) for data collection is an issue that all researchers have to face. the majority of the participants who chose to answer this question said that it was dependent on the research methods that have been chosen. for example, if qualitative methods are selected there may only be a few people in the study, perhaps two or three and this research may take place in a small village. if quantitative methods are selected, the numbers may be in thousands or more, however, this could take place in a city or with multiple villages depending on the criteria being used. the site chosen should be as similar as possible to the proposed generalized area; therefore, if the research is to better understand how high school students use mobile devices to learn about science, the study participants should be high school students. the evolution of mobile learning as an idea and a subject of research this section explores the various interpretations and definitions of the concept of 'mobile learning' in order to articulate the practical implications for mobile learning policy, and indeed mobile learning funding and implementation. experience over the last decade has shown that this seemingly academic issue has considerable practical implications especially for the financing and regulation of mobile learning. unesco articulated a definition in its policy guidelines that could be used as a starting point. this section will place this definition in a wider context. there have been a variety of interpretations of what mobile learning might mean but here we attempt to draw the attention of policy makers, programme managers and officials to the implications of this variety. mobile learning as technology the earliest definitions focused on mobile technology as the defining characteristic, for example saying that mobile learning "...was any learning where mobile or portable or handheld technology was the main or sole delivery mechanism."  these definitions were problematic because technology, its ownership and its use always moved on, leaving earlier definitions looking out-of-date and underpowered.  there can also be problems with policy-making that rests on techno-centric definitions, e.g., as the basis for funding priorities or regulatory frameworks. one example is the uk molenet programme for the tvet sector, amounting to some 14m gbp over three years and devoted to hardware and infrastructure. this defined mobile learning in terms of mobile technologies and then encountered problems adjudicating on exactly which maximum screen size constituted a mobile device, and also fighting the then-fashion for the umpc, the so-called ultra-mobile pc of 2006. mobile learning as learners moving subsequent perceptions and definitions have shifted on to focus on the mobility of the learning and the learners, especially when they move across contexts, settings and situations.  the focus has shifted to initiatives within education systems and their institutions to enrich and extend the existing ideas and practices of learning. the former has often sought to deploy high-end and emergent technologies within small research contexts using technology supplied to the learners. this has produced interesting and rigorous results but ones that are only trustworthy in situations where learners can be supplied with the necessary technology.  the latter has used mobile technology to reach people and communities for whom other educational interventions would be too costly, difficult or dangerous. this obviously includes rural areas, sparsely populated areas, areas of poor infrastructure and challenging environment, and areas with no secure buildings and human resources to support any other technology or delivery. it also includes reaching marginal, sometimes stigmatized, communities, people from communities without the money, confidence or familiarity to exploit any other technology or delivery of education, and people unable to access other interventions because of cognitive or physiological disadvantages or disabilities. this perspective has one set of policy implications, and continues to be the dominant paradigm. it works with the existing institutions, professions, curriculum and ministries. it is however problematic in the context of fixed, stable, static institutions and professions in mobile, moving societies. mobile learning in mobile societies there is however also a cluster of definitions that emphasis the centrality of mobility and connectedness as a defining characteristic of modern societies and cultures anywhere; these definitions place learning with mobiles outside formal education; they see learning with mobiles as only a small part of people’s mobile lives and their lives with mobiles; they focus on the capacity of people and their mobiles to generate, share, transform, discuss ideas, information and images, that is, the capacity of people to shape their own mobile learning. these different perceptions and definitions have very different implications for research methods, and for policy priorities; and for relationships between policy-makers, researchers and types of learners, their motivations, goals, attitudes and styles. many ministries and institutions are addressing the sustainability of mobile learning by considering byod (bring-your-own-devices) policies for learners, thereby displacing the expense of handsets and connectivity onto learners themselves but introducing learner agency, control and expectations into the equation. given that most schools in most countries have out-right prohibitions of mobile devices still in place, the current policy environment is something of a muddle. research into attitudes, expectations and pedagogies should all be on the policy makers’ agenda if they want effective policy and sustainable deployment and implementation of learning with mobiles. some schools, usually acting on their own initiative rather than responding to national or regional prompting, have engaged in discussions with their learners designed to devise a new consensus about bringing mobile phones to and using them in schools, recognising that older children may be the head of a family deprived of parents and perhaps recognising the futility of on-going prohibition. increasingly, there is software in use capable of enforcing a more nuanced policy for mobiles on school premises. there is also vast amount of what we might call user-generated learning, that is, content, conversations and communities produced by learners or users themselves rather than by institutions, agencies and ministries. this represents a vast resource and opportunity for policy makers to exploit once they have used research to scope and map it, and to develop processes to monitor, endorse and publicise it. it consists, for example, of podcasts, facebook groups, smartphone apps, web sites and social networks but is constantly changing and sometimes of dubious quality and doubtful provenance. researching mobile learning this section looks at the challenges and pitfalls inherent in different kinds of mobile learning research and how these different kinds are evolving, in order to calibrate expectations for policy makers. the nature of the ethical dimension of mobile learning and mobile learning research are explored in order to help policy makers develop more robust, consensual, appropriate and transparent mechanisms designed to reduce the risk of harm, especially in programmes and interventions with the disadvantaged and the marginal. the following sections address briefly a succession of questions, how is education researched? how is mobility researched? how is mobile learning researched? why is mobile learning research different and difficult? researching education educational research is difficult. this is because education is complex, situated and life long, making it difficult to attribute educational (or personal, social, economic or political) success in later life to specific educational interventions. these successes are in fact always multi-causal and they are often, to use a phrase popular in international development, ‘unexpected consequences’. caution amongst educational policy-makers has perhaps led to preference for overly ’scientific’ or empirical methods, ones that treated education as a laboratory experiment, and for a predominance of short-term pre-test/post-test perspectives. policy makers need to be aware of the complexity of the phenomena that they commission researchers to explore. there is furthermore a global outbreak of over-testing and this sadly might seem to offer masses of free data for researchers to explore on behalf of policy makers. in general, there is always a risk of measuring what is easy, cheap or quick to measure and avoiding measuring what is difficult, expensive or sustained.  this can mean that simple, numerical and quantitative data and surveys are preferred to complex, qualitative and textual data. technological systems and online methods, for example mobile phone network infrastructure and users’ handsets, can produce masses of ‘cheap’ and apparently independent data whilst semi-structured interviews are skilled and expensive. this can lead to a focus on objective outcomes and behaviours at the expense any understanding of the motivations and values that lay beneath them, and can lead to attributing effects to the causes that were measured rather than the ones that were not. it is easier to measure formal learning than informal learning since the inputs, objectives, outcomes and environment can be documented and controlled. it is easier to measure the impact of training than of education, easier to measure skills acquired and knowledge acquired than it is to measure confidence gained and attitudes changed. it is easier to measure lower order skills than higher order ones. these remarks take on increased significance when we think of the potential of mobiles for informal learning, adult learning and community learning, and when we think of the potential in accessing the wealth of online resources, communities and ideas through the portal of the mobile. employers globally talk of the economic importance of increasing entrepreneurship and building ‘soft’ skills, both areas where research and measurement are more difficult than similar work on traditional ‘hard’ skills, and experts globally talk of the need for lifelong learning. mobiles are a universal, sustainable and effective technology for supporting, enhancing and delivering them all but policy makers need specific research to identify the best interventions, priorities and resources to deploy. researching mobility mobility research, meaning research on the social and economic impact of mobile technologies and the mere fact of moving, is difficult. mobility is a commonplace part of everyday life, not unusual, separate and isolated like using computers. outcomes, changes and impacts are yet again multi-causal, long term and diffuse; they are social and affective, not just cognitive and objective; whilst researchers talk of unexpected consequences, people do not talk about undocumented causes. credible, authentic and naturalistic research is difficult – researchers are still struggling to observe and measure social interactions and social practices without inhibiting and distorting what they are trying to observe. more powerful and more compact and portable technologies make this increasingly easier but never as easy as research on stationary people in static situations. in general, researchers know very little about contemporary mobile digital habits, especially in marginal or remote communities. the rapidity of technical change, the rapidity with which different cultures adapt and adopt the technology and the diversity and fluidity of these different cultures means that educators and policy makers have little idea about the ways in which mobiles fit into the lives of people, especially the lives of people least like themselves. one participant at the symposium echoed this sentiment, saying, i think it is also important to note that the research agenda for mobile learning is going to be much different, the devices are different, the scale is much larger, but also the contextual use is different. so whereas i may have approached e learning as part of a formal course, there can be social and informal learning which is one of the hallmarks of mobile learning. fortunately, there is a growing body of research, under the banner of m4d, mobiles-for-development, looking at the social and economic impact of mobiles on people in the developing regions of the world, the impact on fisher-folk, subsistence farmers, small traders and the sick. there is for mobile learning researchers and policy makers the need and the challenge to reach across to these other research communities; working with farmers, fishers or the sick represents an opportunity to develop and deliver mobile learning that is meaningful and integrated within the needs and aspirations of specific communities. policy makers need to be aware of the breadth of inter-related disciplines from which they could commission research. there is also a wealth of technical data available from networks and from devices that might for example give all of the sms traffic through a dedicated support system or details of context, that is, time and location, of selected user activity. this kind of research may be cost-effective in terms of coverage and scale but is highly technical, in terms of accessing the data and storing it and analysing it, and ethically probably problematic, because of perceptions of surveillance and risks to confidentiality and anonymity but nevertheless has lots of potential. mobile technology is pervasive, ubiquitous, nearly universal and potentially intrusive. as the vehicle for educational interventions, it has infinitely greater capacity to reach into people's lives than computers or televisions and to reach beyond the traditional systems, institutions and buildings of education and into families and communities; consequently the ethical dimension of mobile learning research and mobile learning policy must be an integral component of research, policy and practice. research funding and incentives this section gives policy makers an overview of the context and background in which the mobile learning research community operates in order to understand how these contextual factors shape the capacity of the research community to contribute to policy. we look briefly at how research is managed, funded, reviewed, staffed and resourced, how researchers’ careers, opportunities and incentives are structured. these issues have a bearing on what research gets done or not done, and how it gets done, but also on how policy makers should view their relationships and interactions with researchers. researchers most researchers work in universities or institutes, though whether these are in the global north or the global south makes a vast difference. researchers are always under pressure to bring in extra funds and will bid for external projects and programmes. to build a research career they must be successful in bidding and in the global north their institute or university will have a sophisticated infrastructure to help them win bids. compared to researchers in the global south, however, those in the north are much more highly paid and have travel and subsistence costs that are higher than their competitors in the universities and institutes of the global south. we see here the outlines of a cycle whereby successful researchers, most likely in the global north, become more successful, because of their track records, and other researchers, more likely in the global south, have trouble breaking into this cycle. the strengthening information society research capacity alliance (sirca) programme  of idrc, the international development research centre, is one example trying to build capacity in the global south to break into this cycle. for a research career in the global north, publications in respected journals are recognized steps in professional development and advancement and are part of developing a professional portfolio. publication in research journals is sometimes rewarded in developing countries but usually not, especially not for novel and emergent disciplines. there must also be an open question about whether peer review (usually of the researchers in the global north by the researchers in the global north) reinforces certain perspectives and positions and ignores others.  many developing countries have capacity problems in relation to academic writing, research supervision, proposal writing and in managing projects and consortia so that the development of any research domain and research culture is skewed in favour of the voices, the players and the opinions of the global north and consequently the impact on policy making is skewed too. conference attendance and conference presentation are often seen as stepping-stones to publication, as well as networking opportunities for subsequent writing, consortia and bidding. lack of expertise and experience in hosting and managing research conferences means that relatively few take place in developing countries. furthermore, these countries have limited budgets for academic travel so attendance at overseas research conferences is limited. these are part of the wider concerns for research in the global south. building local researcher capacity the academic career structure in many developing countries does not incentivize, promote or reward research (as opposed to teaching or management). this means that local research capacity and expertise develop very slowly, perhaps producing a reliance or dependency on external and foreign researchers (or less qualified consultants acting as researchers). this might be acceptable for technology projects but perhaps not for social science projects, those that involve engaging with local users, officials, managers and other stakeholders. many foreign or external researchers need to use or choose to use local research assistants or local institutional partners. this is one way in which local capacity can be built. it does however raise questions about whether foreign or external researchers should be required as a condition of their funding to work with local people and local partners, and additional questions about whether they should earmark part of their time and budget to training and mentoring activities. other ways in which local capacity can be built are research exchanges, bursaries and scholarships at universities and institutes in the global north. these are valuable but only if there are mechanisms to embed the experience and expertise afterwards and only if there is a critical and on-going exploration about which knowledge, values, perspectives and techniques from the global north are transferable and relevant and which are not. many experts believe that bringing in local researchers is important. the research community had plenty to describe the positives gained from having local researchers involved in a study, saying: it is absolutely important to employ/involve local researchers in addition to external researchers because local researchers will be able to bring local socio-cultural contexts in research data collection and analysis process which will be valuable to produce credible research evidence on what works and what doesn’t work. moreover, local researchers can improve their skills and build their confidence in conducting similar research in the future, they can play a critical role in influencing policies by reaching out to decision makers and sharing research findings. other benefits include the local researcher having the ability to: provide in-depth knowledge of the learning ecosystem address, recognize and understand local sociocultural issues develop locally relevant research practices and activities provide insight into commercial competitiveness provide perspectives of the consumers of technologies and educators provide insight into security or conflict issues in the area. these are issues that policy-makers can help with throughout the research project life-cycle. summing up researchers for policy makers working in developing countries, these very general remarks have a range of implications. the first is merely the need for heightened awareness of the factors at work when they deal with researchers and research, the second may be a call to review how research is funded and how research calls are constructed, selected, monitored and integrated into longer-term strategic planning and policy making. these implications do not probably have any extra relevance to learning with mobiles in developing countries except insofar as this is relatively suddenly a popular topic with perhaps less cumulative critical experience and expertise, and with considerable popular, political and media interest. concluding remarks this has been a largely personal and informal attempt to make sense of the relations and interactions between researchers and policy-makers, both of them working with mobile technologies in the global south to support and deliver learning. the two communities both seek in their different ways and with differing emphasis to increase what we know and to use what we know for the benefit of the disadvantaged and the marginal so any attempt to improve this work must be worthwhile and a valuable foundation to more detailed follow up. there is clearly work that can be done at various levels. at the highest level, this work should build on the symposium described here, bringing together more researchers and more policy-makers and exploring the observations and impressions that we document here, perhaps as a community of practice, under the aegis of the commonwealth of learning or unesco, or national agencies (and funders) such as dfid, usaid or idrc. this would trickle down to lower levels and specialist communities. acknowledgements the author would like to thank unesco, specifically mark west, for supporting the symposium and making notes and recordings available, and to dr helen crompton of old dominion university for providing transcription and feedback. references  and further relevant reading adl. mobile learning handbook. retrieved from https://sites.google.com/a/adlnet.gov/mobile-learning-guide/home ally, m. (ed.) (2009). mobile learning: transforming the delivery of education and training. athbasca: au press. retrieved from http://www.aupress.ca/index.php/books/120155 ally, m., & tsinakos, a. (eds.). (2013). global mobile learning implementations and trends. beijing: china central radio & tv university press, beijing. retrieved from http://en.crtvu.edu.cn/images/stories/globalmobilelearning.pdf  ally, m., & tsinakos, a. (eds.). (2014). increasing access through mobile learning.vancouver: commonwealth of learning. retrieved from http://oasis.col.org/handle/11599/558 berge, z., & muilenburg, l.y. (eds.). (2013). handbook of mobile learning. new york: routledge brown, e. (ed.). (2010). education in the wild: contextual and location-based mobile learning in action. a report from the stellar alpine rendez-vous workshop series. nottingham, uk: learning sciences research institute. university of nottingham. retrieved from http://www.lsri.nottingham.ac.uk/ejb/preprints/arv_education_in_the_wild.pdf crompton, h., & traxler, j. (eds.). (2015). mobilizing mathematics: case studies of mobile learning being used in mathematics education. new york: routledge. danaher, p., moriarty, b., & danaher, g. (2009). mobile learning communities creating new educational futures. london: routledge. herrington, j., herrington, a., mantei, j., olney, i., & ferry, b. (eds). (2009). new technologies, new pedagogies: mobile learning in higher education. faculty of education, university of wollongong. retrieved from http://ro.uow.edu.au/newtech/ jisc. (2005). innovative practice with e-learning guide. retrieved from http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/publications/innovativepe.pdf  jisc. (2009). emerging practice in a digital age. retrieved from http://jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/programmes/elearning/digiemerge/emergingpracticeaccessible.pdf jisc. (n.d.). jiscinfo kit. retrieved from http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/infokits/mobile-learning/ keegan, d. (n.d.). mobile learning: a practical guide. retrieved from this url. kinshuk, huang, r., & spector, m.  (eds). (2013). reshaping learning — the frontiers of learning technologies in a global context. berlin: springer. kukulska-hulme, a., & traxler, j. (eds). (2005). mobile learning: a handbook for educators and trainers. london: routledge. marshall, s., & kinuthia, w. (eds.). (2013). on the move: mobile learning for development. hershey, pa: igi global. mcconatha, d., penny, c., shugar, j., & bolton, d. (2013). mobile pedagogy and perspectives on teaching and learning. hershey, pa: igi global. metcalf, d., & de marco, j. m. (2006). mlearning: mobile learning and performance in the palm of your hand. amherst: hrd press. naismith, l., lonsdale, p., vavoula, g., & sharples, m. (2005). literature review in mobile technologies and learning. report 11, nesta futurelab. bristol: nesta futurelab. retrieved from http://www2.futurelab.org.uk/resources/documents/lit_reviews/mobile_review.pdf needham, g., & ally, m. (eds.). (2008). m-libraries: libraries on the move to provide virtual access. london: facet books. pachler, n., cook, j., & traxler, j. (2015). key issues in mobile learning: research and practice. london: continuum. pachler, n., pimmer, c., & seipold, j. (2011). work-based mobile learning: concepts and cases. a handbook for academics and practitioners. peter lang: london. parsons, d.(ed.). (2011). combining e-learning and m-learning: new applications of blended educational resources. hershey, pa: igi global. parsons, d. (ed.). (2012). refining current practices in mobile and blended learning: new applications. hershey, pa: igi global. parsons, d. (ed.). (2013). innovations in mobile educational technologies and applications. hershey, pa: igi global. quinn, c. (2012). the mobile academy: mlearning for higher education.  san francisco, ca, usa: jossey-bass.  retta, g. (ed.). (2009). the evolution of mobile teaching and learning. santa rosa, ca: informing science press. retta, g. (ed.). (2010). mobile learning: pilot projects and initiative. santa rosa, ca: informing science press. ryu, h., & parsons, d. (eds.). (2009). innovative mobile learning: techniques and technologies. hershey, pa: igi global. traxler, j., & kukulska-hulme, a. (eds.) (2015). mobile learning: the next generation. new york: routledge. traxler, j., & wishart, j. (2011). making mobile learning work: case studies of practice. bristol: escalate (hea education subject centre). retrieved from http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/14768/1/8250.pdf vavoula, g., pachler, n., & kukulska-hulme, a. (2009). researching mobile learning: frameworks, methods and research designs. london: peter lang. wexler, s., brown, j., metcalf, d., rogers, d., & wagner, e. (2008). mobile learning: what is it, why it matters, and how to incorporate it into your learning strategy. retrieved from http://www.elearningguild.com/research/archives/index.cfm?id=132&action=viewonly author: john traxler is professor of digital learning at the institute of education, university of wolverhampton, uk. he is a founding director of the international association for mobile learning, associate editor of the international journal of mobile and blended learning and of interactive learning environments. he is on the research board of the association of learning technology, the editorial board of research in learning technology and it in international development. john has co-written a guide to mobile learning in developing countries and is co-editor of the definitive book, mobile learning: a handbook for educators and trainers, with professor agnes kukulska-hulme. e-mail: john.traxler@wlv.ac.uk simui distance learner’s perspective on user-friendly instructional materials at the university of zambia f. simui, l.c. thompson, k. mundende, g. mwewa, f. kakana, a. chishiba and b. namangala vol. 4, no. 1 abstract this case study focuses on print-based instructional materials available to distance education learners at the university of zambia. using the visual paradigm software, we model distance education learners’ voices into sociograms to make a contribution to the ongoing discourse on quality distance learning in poorly resourced communities. emerging from this study are the ten elements that instructional designers will need to re-consider, some of which are: (i) presentation and layout of content; (ii) use of interactive language; and (iii) inclusion of real life situations. in view of the foregoing, it is recommended that the university adheres to odl instructional design fundamentals in all its instructional materials as a means to improved quality distance learning. introduction in this case study we focus on print-based instructional materials available to distance students at the university of zambia. specifically, the students are drawn from a second-year cohort in a bachelor of teacher education programme. the choice of the programme is motivated by the active engagement of the principal author as one of the learning facilitators in teacher education. a second-year cluster of 44 students were engaged in the study and focused on the four (4) modules namely: (i) pem 2061 (innovation in teacher education), (ii) pem 2071(organisational skills in teaching), (iii) pem 2082 (special education needs) and (iv) pem 3122 (assessment and evaluation). this programme, of three years’ duration, has been in existence for the past six years within the university. the bachelor of teacher education is a modular programme available exclusively to in-service teacher educators. predominantly, students are drawn from among school managers, senior teachers, resource centre coordinators, teacher educators at colleges of education, and teacher educator administrators at district, provincial and national levels. the theoretical framework guiding the study is situated within moore’s theory of interactions. according to moore (1989), there exist three forms of interactions in distance education. these are (i) interaction between students and teacher, (ii) interaction among students and (iii) interaction of students with content. this particular study, is restricted to the interaction of students with the instructional materials. the choice of the focus area is motivated by the bernard, abrami, lou, borokhovski, wade, tamin & bethel (2009) meta-analysis, as highlighted by gaskell and mills (2014), whose major finding indicates that increasing student-content interaction had the greatest effect compared to the other two typologies of moore’s interactions. context the demand for teachers in sub-sahara africa in general and zambia in particular has contributed to the wholesale adoption of open and distance learning approaches. teacher educators are at the centre of increasing the numbers of teachers in schools. hence the introduction of a tailor-made programme dubbed ‘bachelor of teacher education’ at the university of zambia. however, there are calls among stakeholders that while odl does significantly contribute to increased numbers of teachers in schools, there are concerns that distance education could be increasing the quantity of teachers at the expense of their quality (chakwera & saiti, 2005). at the university of zambia, print-based instructional materials are still dominant, so it becomes paramount to appraise their quality in view of the scarcity of research studies in this area. study objectives the specific objectives of this study were: to identify the user-friendly instructional materials from the learners’ perspective; to discuss the factors contributing  to user-friendly instructional materials; and to suggest ways in which the quality of instructional materials could be improved from the end-user perspective. literature review the commonwealth of learning (2005) as well as freeman (2004) identify the following elements as critical indicators for improved quality of instructional materials: (i) learner profiles; (ii) context; (iii) aims and objectives; (iv) activities; (v) examples and illustrations; (vi) assessments; (vii) access devices; (ix) time allocation; and (x) language writing styles and layout. freeman’s odl instructional design quality elements highlighted above are consistent with the observations of peat and helland (2002), who argue that the design and development of quality instructional materials should reflect all the tenets of open and distance learning. rahman (2015) observes that assessment in instructional materials is critical as it upholds and engenders credibility and quality of the distance learning system in use.  one of the ways through which instructional materials available to distance students could be crafted into user-friendly materials is through embedding interactive learning activities that are flexible and responsive to individual needs (commonwealth of learning, 2005). this links well with what coleman and anderson (2002) advocated when they argued that the type of information given to distance learners must be fit for the purpose, relevant to the moment, adequate and accessible for the development of the individual. the success of any distance education programme is heavily dependent upon its quality of instructional materials (padhi 2004). a well-designed interactive instructional material is the hallmark for successful teaching and learning in all the flexible learning modes (kuruba, 2004). however, it should be noted that ease and interest do not guarantee that students perform well. according to kühl, & eitel (2016), desirable difficulty has a tendency to force students to invest more mental effort and hence to learn more. in addition, murphy (2000) argues that instructional materials for distance education are most effective if they are written with precise objectives and learning activities are woven within the learning unit. learning activities are critical in chunking content into suitable learning segments. murphy’s observation is vital considering that a distance student is likely to be studying in isolation and so the instructional materials have to be complete. the approach to include learning activities in the instructional materials resonates well with the constructivist approach, which emphasises the learner’s own activities as the mechanism for learning (elen and clarebout, 2001). furthermore, there is need for instructional designers to craft the interactional situation in a friendly tone. for instance, freeman (2004) alludes to the use of an active voice such as ‘we’ and ‘you’ and the use of short sentences as being helpful in maintaining a friendly tone. research design in order to explore ‘user-friendly instructional materials’ through the lenses of learners within a distance education context, this study adopted an interpretive research paradigm (halling et al. 2006). the central endeavour in the context of the interpretive research paradigm was to understand the subjective world of the learners while studying through the distance-learning mode (creswell (2014). in an interpretative study such as this one, theory (grand ideas) is emergent and must arise from particular situations and ‘it should be ‘grounded’ on data generated by the research (denscombe 2002). research procedure a total of 44 second-year students doing a bachelor of teacher education (bted), were all purposively sampled based on their interaction with the modules as well as their easy accessibility by the researchers. the programme at the second-year level had four modules, namely: (i) pem 2061, (ii) pem 2071, (iii) pem 2082 and (iv) pem 3122. the participants were all invited to voluntarily participate in this study and were requested to supply the following details: full names, course codes of perceived user-friendly and user-unfriendly modules, as well as justification for their choices. once the details were received, these were further processed as shown in table 1 below. table 1: data capturing model  sn name pseudonym  user-friendly modules use-unfriendly modules justification 01 cain pan cp01 e.g., pem 2061 pem 2071 reasons note: sn = serial number, code, e.g., cp01 = first and second letters ‘c’ and ‘p’ represent surname and first names of the participating students and ‘01’ represents the serial number on the alphabetically ordered initial list of all students in class. the coded pseudonyms of students were then clustered around their preferred user-friendly modules using the visual paradigm professional software (vp 12.0).   the elicited information was cross checked by inside informants who happen to be the 44 purposively sampled students, to avoid the usual emic/etic related challenges. this means that interpretation of phenomena may be from the point of view of the stranger, or outsider (etic) and, therefore, may fail to grasp important in-group meanings (emic). findings and discussion emerging from the vp 12.0 modelling were four sociograms as clustered and displayed in figure 1 below.  respondents identified the four modules, namely (i) pem 2061, (ii) pem 2071, (iii) pem 2082 and (iv) pem 3122, as modules they were interacting with in their bted programme of study in year two. figure 1: concentration of user-friendly instructional materials the most user-friendly instructional material was pem 2082, represented by 29 out of the 44 respondents (65.9%), followed by pem 2061 with 11 out of the 44 respondents (25.0%). however, the least user-friendly instructional materials were pem 2071 with 3 out of the 44 (6.8%) and pem 3122 with 1 out of the 44 respondents (2.3%). table 2: rating of user-friendly modules by the 44 students sn # instructional materials rating (% of 44) 1 pem 2061: innovation in teacher education 25.0% 2 pem 2071: organisational skills in teaching 6.8% 3 pem 2082: special education needs 65.9% 4 pem 3122: assessment and evaluation 2.3% as shown in figure 2, pem 2082 was rated by students as the most user-friendly module, compared to pem 3122 which ranked least among the four instructional materials. the 44 respondents were further engaged to share their reasoning behind their respective choices for designating some courses as user-friendly or user-unfriendly. the responses were then thematically summarised as reflected below. critically reflecting on the various reasons advanced by the respondents for classifying instructional materials either as friendlly or user-unfriendly, the following ten (10) themes emerge: (i) general presentation and layout of content; (ii) inclusion of objectives; (iii) use of interactive language; (iv) size of font and module; (v) coherence of ideas used; (vi) use of illustrations; (vii) presence of instructional design and inclusion of activities; (viii) explanation of technical terms; (ix) inclusion of real-life situations; (x) assessment. (i) general presentation and layout according to ch07, a non user-friendly instructional material is one with “very faint printing, no page numbering, no clear headings and no subheadings to mark the end of the topic.”  this is supported by ca06 who argues that a non user-unfriendly module has “disorganised units which are not sequentially arranged.” others contributing to this discourse observed that some of the factors responsible for having non user-friendly instructional materials with disorganised presentations and layout could be what nh41 terms as “a collection of photocopies from books”, which ma35 attributes to “just copy and paste from the internet.” therefore, for the instructional materials to be user-friendly, mm21 advocates for having some critical segments within the modules “highlighted to mark the important information.” further, hm11 supports the inclusion of unit summaries to enable learners to understand the content with ease. this is consistent with freeman (2004) on instructional material design and development tenets.  one remedy to the challenge of user-unfriendly instructional materials is what nk42 alludes to as the need for quality peer-review mechanism. (ii) use of clear concise language an equally critical aspect that determines the level of user-friendliness is the use of clear and concise language. for instance cp04 and mj34 term a module user-unfriendly when it “cannot flow well with ideas with language difficult to understand.” in addition, cp08 observes that the use of “unfamiliar language” and use of “unfamiliar or unknown concepts,” all render the instructional materials user-unfriendly. consequently, mw31 observes that modules written in an uninteractive manner tend to force learners to solicit explanations from other people in order to grasp the content presented. this is in line with commonwealth of learning (2005), advocating for the use of active voice, such as ‘we’ and ‘you’ as well as short sentences to maintain a user-friendly tone.  further, mi30’s advice on language used is that instructional designers get “straight to the point” when developing study materials. the self-study materials essentially should be “simplified” for an easy grasp of content. further, ym45 advises instructional designers to avoid the use of ambiguous language if their modules are to be classified as user-friendly by the learners. the observations made by the respondents link well with coleman and anderson (2002)’s views. they argue that the type of information given to distance learners must be fit for the purpose, relevant to the moment, adequate and accessible for the development of the individual. (iii) inclusion of objectives the inclusion of module and unit objectives is critical for effective learning to take place. for instance kk13 argues that “lacking specific objectives” could be a recipe for rendering a module user-unfriendly. this thought is supported by km14 who observes that some modules on offer were “without objectives.” further, mg36 observes that some modules had no defined objectives. in agreement with the above, celikoz (2010) observes that objectives should be clearly stated in the instructional materials as they aid in testing and evaluating student success. (iv) size of font type and module cm09 observes that user-friendly instructional materials have “large prints to cater for everyone including those with poor sight.” this is in line with ma 25 who posits that “words written in big fonts” render the module user-friendly and is further supported by mi29 who argues that instructional materials “written in very small fonts” prevent learners from understanding the contents effectively. in addition, cm09 argues that non user-friendly instructional materials are written with “small prints” yet whose “volume is too big.” as for cb05, a user-friendly module has “manageable content.”  in addition, a number of learners observe that modules that are too bulky are unpopular among their end users. this aspect was further highlighted by mm21, who noted that some non user-friendly modules were “bulky” with small font size “irritating” learners. as for ma25, “a module that is too thick, brings laziness” towards studying among learners. related to this is what cp04 and kv18 term as “very big volume (module), threatens the reader.” below is a summary of the researcher’s observations regarding descriptions of the four modules. table 3: modules’ descriptions   pem 2061 pem 2071 pem 2082 pem 3122 page numbers 81 107 58 156 font size 11 11 11 9, 10 & 11 line spaces 1.15 1.5 1.5 1 unit numbers 7 7 5 0 activities 7 26 10 0 module introduction available available available missing unit objectives available available available missing addresses the learner yes yes yes no unit summaries  available available available missing while pem 2061, pem 2071 and pem 2082 had a number of common areas such as font type and font size accompanied by engaging activities, to the contrary  pem 3122 had serious disparities when compared to the other modules. the purported module had no units, no activities, used multiple font sizes and font types, with faded content in most sections due to the effect of photocopying over time. this made pem 3122 not user-friendly to the learners, since a document analysis revealed that the module was a compilation of batches of chapters extracted from assorted textbooks. clearly, the purported module did not meet the minimum standard of a module; hence it was given a low ranking by students above. (v) coherence of ideas coherence of ideas appears to be a major factor determining the user-friendliness of given instructional material, as advocated by freeman (2004). for instance, cp04 observes that user-friendly modules have “connected ideas. one way in which this could be achieved is through what cp08 views as writing from the “known to the unknown” in the absence of content cohesion; hl12 argues that learners have difficulties understanding concepts. hl12 further adds that it is important that ideas are connected sequentially and written neatly and clearly. however, ll19 highlighted that some modules were user-unfriendly because their content did not “relate to the existing knowledge of a student.” la20 observes that some modules do not bring out intended content as they are “unable to communicate clearly with the reader.” (vi) use of illustrations use of illustrations within the learning units was identified as one of the features that enable instructional material to become user-friendly. for instance, ch07 argued that modules with illustrations and examples empower learners to appreciate the content without challenges. in addition, cp08 observes that modules crafted with appropriate illustrations like case studies, aids learners to understand even challenging content with ease. (vii) inclusion of activities the inclusion of activities within the instructional materials was listed as one of the features of a user-friendly module. for example, mj34 observed that where “unit activities for the learners” were incorporated in the modules empowered learners to master the content with ease. this thought on unit activities was shared by mk32 as well as mg36 as paramount to effective user-friendly instructional material for distance education learners. this is in line with the commonwealth of learning (2005) who advocates for interactive learning experiences that are flexible, equitable and responsive to individual needs within the study guides. further, sa44 is of the view that instructional designers needed to have their contact details reflected on the cover page for ease of access during moments when learners were seeking clarity in understanding difficult concepts.  (viii) technical terms explained a user-friendly instructional material is one with technical and scientific terms well explained, as observed by cb05, mm23 and mm37. for instance, cb05 argued that user-unfriendly instructional material is “a module with many scientific terms which are not easy to understand as well as a module with many psychological terms.” the challenge of technical concepts was made worse by the absence of instructional designers during residential sessions to fully clarify the implied meanings behind certain difficult concepts. (ix) inclusion of real-life situations   inclusion of real life situations in the instructional materials was considered a tenet of a user-friendly module by kp15. for kp15, real life situations enabled learners to easily understand content in the instructional materials. according to palmer (2007), the use of real life situations in the instructional materials increases students’ motivation. this is supported by frey and fisher (2010).  (x) assessment finally, assessment was identified as one of the key aspects of user-friendly instructional material by a number of respondents. for instance, mc22 bemoaned the absence of “proper guidance on how exam questions are formulated.” this is consistent with the commonwealth of learning (2005) who posit that a good quality self-instructional should contain self-tests as a means to self-evaluate the extent to which the instructional material objectives were achieved. further, freeman (2004) posits that, in an effective module, summative assessment assesses a learner’s learning outcomes after interacting with the given content area. conclusion the findings of this study have brought to the fore a number of challenges that practitioners in instructional design could consider, especially in poorly resourced communities where print is the dominant medium of instruction. it has been highlighted in this paper that print-based instructional materials could be considered user-friendly if the materials conform to the ten elements discussed above. these elements are: (i) general presentation and layout of content; (ii) inclusion of objectives; (iii) use of interactive language; (iv) size of font and module; (v) coherence of ideas used; (vi) use of illustrations; (vii) inclusion of activities; (viii) the explanation of technical terms; (ix) inclusion of real life situations; (x) assessment items. it is envisaged that once the listed elements are incorporated during the design and development of instructional materials, the quality of distance learning would consequently improve. recommendations in view of the foregoing discourse, it is recommended that: the university revisits its instructional designers with refresher courses in instructional designing to ensure that modules are user-friendly to the learners and crafted with the learners’ concerns in mind. in addition, a university-wide study is recommended to understand the user-friendliness phenomenon in instructional materials across all the disciplines and levels of learners. other practitioners and academicians are encouraged to venture into this area to ascertain the extent of user-friendliness of instructional materials in their local settings and to further illuminate the discourse. references bernard, r. m., abrami, p. c., lou, y., borokhovski, e., wade, a., tamin, r., & bethel, e. c. (2009). a meta-analysis of three types of interaction treatments in distance education. review of educational research, 79, 1243–1289. retrieved from https://www.zotero.org/groups/distance_education/items/itemkey/q595pput celikoz, n. (2010). basic factors that affect general academic motivation levels of candidate preschool teachers. education, 131(1), 113-127. retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/s1877042809002432 chakwera, e., & saiti, f. (2005). training teachers through the distance mode: the experience of domasi college of education in malawi. domasi college of education. malawi. retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.482.6658&rep=rep1&type=pdf coleman, m., & anderson, l. (2000). managing resources and finance in education. sage publications incorporated, thousand oaks, california. commonwealth of learning (2005), planning open and distance learning systems: a handbook for decision makers. vancouver: commonwealth of learning. retrieved from http://www.saide.org.za/sites/default/files/course_design/odlinstdesignhb.pdf creswell, j. (2014). research design: qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches. sage publications, inc. retrieved from https://www.google.co.zm/#q=research+design:+qualitative%2c+quantitative+and+mixed+methods+approaches.pdf denscombe, m. (2003). ground rules for good research: a 10 points for social researchers. maidenhead: open university press. elen, j., & clarebout, g. (2001, october). instructional design, towards consolidation and validation. interactive educational multimedia: 1–11. freeman, r. (2004). planning open and distance learning systems: a handbook for decision makers. vancouver: commonwealth of learning. retrieved from http://dspace.col.org/bitstream/handle/11599/85/odlplanninghb.pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y frey, n,. & fisher, d. (2010). motivation requires a meaningful task. english journal, 100(1), 30-36. gaskell, a., & mills, r. (2014). the quality and reputation of open, distance and e-learning: what are the challenges? open learning: the journal of open, distance and e-learning, 29(3), 190-205, doi: 10.1080/02680513.2014.993603. retrieved from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02680513.2014.993603?journalcode=copl20 halling, s., leifer, m., & rowe, j.o. (2006). emergence of the dialogal approach: forgiving another. in c. t. fischer (ed.), qualitative research methods for psychology: introduction through empirical studies. new york: academic press. kühl, t., & eitel, a. (2016). metacognition learning 11: 1. doi:10.1007/s11409-016-9154-x retrieved from http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11409-016-9154-x kuruba, g. (2004). course material development and delivery in distance education in botswana. pancommonwealth forum on open learning. retrieved from http://www.col.org/pcf3/papers/pdfs/kwa n_angela.pdf   moore, m.g. (1989). editorial: three types of interaction. the american journal of distance education, 3(2), 1–6. retrieved from http://aris.teluq.uquebec.ca/portals/598/t3_moore1989.pdf murphy, d. (2000). instructional design for self-learning for distance education. vancouver, bc: commonwealth of learning. retrieved from http://oasis.col.org/handle/11599/64 padhi, n. (2004). developing a model for iso9000:2000 certification of course material development in open and distance learning: an indian study. pancommonwealth forum on open learning. retrieved from http://www.col.org/pcf3/papers/pdfs/padhi _n.pdf.   palmer, d. (2007). what is the best way to motivate students in science? teaching science. the journal of the australian science teachers association, 53(1), 38-42. peat, j., & helland, k. (2002). perceptions of distance learning and the effects on selection decisions, (unpublished).  rahman, m.h. (2015). learning assessment in a self-learning material. international journal on new trends in education and their implications, 6(3) 10. retrieved from http://www.ijonte.org/fileupload/ks63207/file/10.rahman.pdf authors simui francis is the head of quality assurance and research department, institute of distance education, university of zambia. e-mail: simuifrancis@gmail.com / francis.simui@unza.zm lukali chiwama thompson is lecturer in micro biological, institute of distance education, university of zambia. e-mail: lukalichiwama@yahoo.com.ph kasonde mundende is the head of programme dev & production, institute of distance education, university of zambia. e-mail: kasonde.mundende@unza.zm godfrey mwewa is the head of learner support services, institute of distance education, university of zambia. e-mail: gcmwewa08@gmail.com albert chishiba is lecturer of mathematics at the institute of distance education, university of zambia. e-mail: achishib@unza.zm prof. boniface namangala is the director of the institute of distance education, university of zambia. e-mail: b.namangala@unza.zm microsoft word ferreira.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 287-306 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. community engagement to end child early forced marriage – experiences in selected south asian countries frances j. ferreira1 and mostafa azad kamal2 1 commonwealth of learning, canada 2 bangladesh open university, gazipur, bangladesh abstract: sustainable development goal (sdg) 5, “achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls”, emphasises the need for “providing women and girls with equal access to education, health care, decent work, and representation in political and economic decision-making processes [which] will fuel sustainable economies and benefit societies and humanity at large” (un, 2015). millions of girls are forced into early marriage for economic and cultural reasons and denied the opportunity for education. within the context of sustainable development, it is critical to raise awareness among communities that child marriage has wide ranging negative consequences for development and that allowing girls to have education and training can add enormous value to their society as well as their personal and family lives. this study aims to identify the role of community engagement and local community organisations in contributing towards ending child, early and forced marriage (cefm) through ensuring equitable access of marginalised and out-of-school girls to education and training. the study was based on data collected from surveys that had been administered to 755 out-of-school girls, affected by cefm in both urban and rural areas of three selected south asian association for regional co-operation (saarc) countries, that is, bangladesh, pakistan, and india. keywords: women and girls, community engagements, south asia; child marriage, forced marriage. introduction and overview a growing number of young adolescents are out of school, with the global total reaching almost 65 million in 2013. adolescents of lower secondary school age (typically 12 to 15 years) are almost twice as likely to be out of school as primary school-age children, with one out of six (17%) not enrolled. (unesco institute for statistics [uis], 2015). the hardest to reach children are still out of school. they are poor, rural and, often, girls (uis & unicef, 2015). sustainable development goal (sdg) 5, “achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls”, emphasises the need for “providing women and girls with equal access to education, health care, decent work, and representation in political and economic decision-making processes [which] will fuel sustainable economies and benefit societies and humanity at large” (un, 2015). gender equality is not only a fundamental human right, but it is also an imperative, for peace and sustainable development. with sustainable development goal (sdg 4), the international community has pledged to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for 288 all.” (unesco, 2015a) the onus is on all stakeholders to make a contribution in realising the sdgs in their entirety. the following factors are raised in the literature as some of the significant causes for girls not attending school in the countries of this study: • early marriages: according to the indian national family health survey (nfhs-3) 2005-2006 (international institute for population sciences and macro international 2007), 47% of women aged 20 to 24 were married before they were 18 years of age. (icrw, 2013). the bangladesh bureau of statistics reports (bbs, 2013) that nearly 50% of adolescent girls are married by the age of 15 and that 60% of them become mothers by the age of 20. • distance to school and security concerns: distance from schools has been a security issue for many countries. it is a real and relevant barrier to girls in pakistan, india and bangladesh according to various studies. a recent population council study in pakistan suggested that if a middle school is within one kilometre of the student, the predicted attendance is 65%; however, if it is more than four kilometres away, the probability of attendance falls to 54% (sathar & zafar, 2012). girls living at a distance of 500 metres or more from a school are 15% less likely to attend school compared to those living next door to a school. • cultural values: culturally, it is not desirable that girls travel unaccompanied for long distances. the issue of distance from school is not only linked to security, but also to cultural and social values (siddhu, 2011). • cost of schooling: this involves both direct cost and opportunity cost. in most cases parents cannot afford to send girls to school and prefer that they find a job to contribute to the family’s income. for the purpose of this study the authors only focused on one of the causes, early marriage, for girls not attending school. while being in school is not enough to prevent child marriage, being out of school certainly increases the likelihood of it. child marriage is not only a painful reality but is also a grave violation of the rights of children. globally, 720 million women alive today were married before their 18th birthday, and every year, they are joined by another 15 million child brides – the equivalent to the entire population of mali or zimbabwe (unicef, 2016). the picture of child marriage is more alarming in sub-saharan africa and in south east asian countries. although there are slight variations in the reasons, child marriage impacts negatively on the socio-economic progress of these countries. “child marriage denies a girl her childhood, disrupts her education, limits her opportunities…” (government of canada – unicef, 2015). millions of girls are forced into early marriage for economic and cultural reasons and denied the opportunity for education. if resource-poor families are to invest in the education of their children, boys receive priority. however, if education is both affordable and flexible, girls, too, can have the opportunity to participate without disrupting their responsibilities in the home and the family. furthermore, if girls are taught the skills necessary for gaining a livelihood, they can be a major source for supplementing the family income. 289 “child marriage is rooted in gender inequality; and can be sustained through entrenched discriminatory social norms, poverty, and lack of education or even due to misplaced perceptions of providing protection for girls during a time of increased instability when girls are at a higher risk of physical or sexual abuse” (world vision uk, 2016). within the context of sustainable development, it is critical to raise awareness among communities that child marriage has wide ranging negative consequences for development and that allowing girls to have education and training can add enormous value to their society as well as their personal and family lives. girls inspire girls inspire is a commonwealth of learning (col) project to provide schooling and skills development to some of the world’s most vulnerable and hard-to reach girls. community organisations in bangladesh, india, pakistan, mozambique and tanzania are mobilised to leverage the power of open and distance learning (odl) to end the cycle of child, early and forced marriage (cefm) and to address other barriers that prevent girls’ economic participation (col, 2016). the girls inspire project believes that labour market, employment friendly and community oriented, open schooling will lead to a better livelihood, changes in life-cycle behaviour and postponement of girls' early marriage. the catalysing strategy, therefore, integrates education and learning within the whole community, with its traditions and practices, to support girls' education and learning. the project has the following outcomes: • enhanced economic leadership role in the family and community for 45,000 girls and women who could take and exercise greater control over decisions that influence their lives, including getting married and having children at a time of their choice; • increased equitable participation in quality open and distance learning (odl) to girls and women in disadvantaged communities; and • increased access to safe, quality and gender-sensitive open, distance and technologybased learning opportunities for girls and women in rural communities of the selected countries. to achieve the outcomes, partners, with support from the community, trained approximately 25,000 women and girls in vocational and life skills. the vocational skills are context specific and based on the needs of the girls and the labour and employment market. the vocational skills (29 courses in total) vary in the different countries and include the following: tailoring, being a beautician, goat rearing; fashion designing; cloth and bag making; candle making; mobile phone repairs; carpentry, flood resistant crop raising; poultry rearing; curtain making; cooking, and tie and dye making. the training took place at safe learning environments using a blended approach that involved one or more of the following: print, computers, the aptus, videos, radio and television. partners also used mobile training units for hard to reach communities, including bus and the boat schools. the life skills component, as in the case of vocational skills, was contextualised based on the needs of the girls. however, the content for the 35 life skills courses were developed around the following themes: financial literacy, health and hygiene and social rights. furthermore, partners facilitated girls’ access to employment, microfinancing, entrepreneurship, internship and the opening of bank accounts. 290 context of the study causes of child marriage bangladesh and india feature among the top 10 countries where the highest rates of child marriage prevail. in south asia approximately one in two girls is married off before the age of 18, making south asia the region with the highest prevalence of child marriage in the world. bangladesh has the highest rate of child marriage in the region (52%), followed by india (47%), nepal (37%) and afghanistan (33%). according to the study “asia child marriage initiative: summary of research in bangladesh, india and nepal” conducted by international center for research on women (icrw plan, 2013, p. 17) the causes of child marriage include normative and structural factors as listed below: • tradition and the role of the family in child marriage; • poverty and child marriage; • education and child marriage; • role of children in child marriage; • engagement in paid work and child marriage; and • context-specific factors: demographic shifts. the same report reflects on community leaders’ response to child marriage as follows: community leaders and government officers felt that there has been positive changes in the situation regarding child marriage, and that there are fewer child marriages. they credited the work of the government and ngos in increasing awareness about the issue. they also mentioned the availability of education, which makes it easier for girls to stay in school longer. some also mentioned the need to eradicate poverty as a means of eliminating child marriage. however, they felt that there was a need for greater awareness about the negative consequences of child marriage and better implementation of legislation. they also mentioned the need for cooperation between the government and ngos and the critical role of parents and families. (icrw plan, 2013, p. 22) brief country profiles the survey countries resemble each other in their profiles. however, there are significant variations in terms of poverty levels and female literacy rates. table 1 depicts the basic country profiles of the participating three countries. it is noted that the illiteracy rate among females is still a big challenge. although other indicators are encouraging, pakistan seems to lag behind in terms of female literacy, compared to india and bangladesh. 291 table 1: country profiles country population gni per capita (us$) poverty head count literacy rate all female male bangladesh 160 million 1,190 31.5 (2010) 61.5% 58.5% 64.6% india 1.311 billion 1,590 21.9 (2011) 72.1% 62.8% 80.9% pakistan 189 million 1,440 29.5 (2013) 56.4% 42.7% 69.6% sources: world bank, 2015; unesco, 2015b child marriage scenarios table 2 shows that child marriage is much higher in bangladesh, followed by india and pakistan, respectively. table 2: country and child marriage statistics country legal marriage age child marriage (female) among 20-24 years old who married before 18 years male female bangladesh 21 18 52% india 21 18 47% pakistan 18 16 (18 in sindh and punjab) 21% sources: unicef, 2016 objectives the study aims at identifying the role of community engagement and local community organisations to contribute to ending cefm through ensuring equitable access of marginalised and out-of-school girls to education and training. the study explored the following: • the cross-country variation in the causes, such as cefm, that leads to girls’ dropout of school; • the role of community engagement to ensure equitable participation and access of the girls to learning; • the role of local organisations to decrease girls’ vulnerability to cefm and improve their equitable access to relevant and quality education and learning is also scrutinised in the study; and • the status of family support to girls for school. methodology the study is based on the data collected from surveys, which were administered to 755 out-of-school girls,affected by cefm in both urban and rural areas of bangladesh, pakistan, and india. a structured questionnaire was used for data collection. the data used in this research are baseline and endline data. baseline surveys were conducted immediately following girls’ registration into the project, and endline surveys were conducted after the completion of project activities. the time gap 292 varied among the three countries because the training model was contextualised and was not necessarily the same time period. the time between a baseline and endline survey could be five to six months. while the study is aimed at identifying the existing status of the girls who dropped out of school and the structure of the community engagement in favour of their learning, the impact of col’s intervention for mainstreaming girls’ education and skill training can be investigated at endline, compared with the baseline findings. standardisation procedures were taken at baseline and endline points to ensure the validity and reliability of data. a web-based data collection platform was used for standardisation and efficiency. fluidsurvey was at first procured but due to the company shutting down its operations, survey gizmo was used for the last quarter of the data collection. both platforms were chosen due to their capabilities for offline data collection, mobile device compatibility and multiple-language hosting. as a result, survey questions were structured to provide restrictions and guidance. all survey tools require the assigned data collector to provide their name at the beginning of each response, which allows administrators to query specific survey responses as needed. responses were then streamlined into one hub, regardless of the remoteness of project locations and the language used. monitoring and evaluation focal points (fps) were also appointed in each country to act as champions and to create a data-driven culture within their organisations. they received monthly and on-demand training from girls inspire on m&e concepts and data collection procedures. resources were also provided to clarify and define terms used in the survey tools (e.g., gender-sensitive, social rights, etc,). thereafter, they were responsible for using standardised training resources to cascade the skills acquired to appointed field data collectors. field data collectors were recruited based on their ability to speak the local language and to establish connections with the survey respondents. when male data collectors were in the field, they were often accompanied by female data collectors, so that women and girls could feel at ease, and parents would allow their daughters to speak to men. training was also provided to ensure the data was collected in an ethical way. to ensure girls’ safety and to minimise social desirability bias, field data collectors were instructed to emphasise the anonymity and confidentiality of the survey, and to conduct the surveys in safe environments for the respondent. each baseline and endline tool opened with the purpose of the study and with the explanation that participation is voluntary and responses will remain confidential. consent forms for guardians of girls under the age of 18 were also provided. sampling across the three countries, communities and villages were selected for project operations, according to the prevalence of school dropout amongst girls and incidences of child marriage. in bangladesh, 64 villages in the pabna and natore districts of the rajshahi division were selected due to their vulnerability to the monsoon season, which limits road access. in india, the satara district of maharashtra has a high incidence of school dropout among girls for reasons such as migration, poverty, and long distances to school. in response, mann deshi foundation focused on reaching women and girls in 150 villages across satara through community negotiated, safe learning environments and mobile business schools. 293 in pakistan, 37 communities were identified in hyderabad, multan, rawalpindi and peshawar, where female labour participation is low. the overall target was to reach 20,000 women and girls in these areas within the one-year project. the baseline-endline study was designed to capture the perspectives of not only the women and girls but also the community as a whole. the study collected data among a random sample of women and girls in the intervention who resided within the selected areas. with an acceptable margin of error of 5% amongst the target population of 20,000 girls, the recommended sample size of 377 girlsi was increased in order to account for possible attrition. an effort was made to survey the same group of respondents at baseline and endline. in the end, 755 women and girls were able to complete the study and were matched at both baseline and endline points. the data collected in the study was analysed with the use of spss software. sampling for the qualitative research was purposive (rather than random). table 3 below shows the distribution of the respondents in the study. a total of 755 girls of different age groups in three neighbouring countries were interviewed using a structured questionnaire. similarly, 166 community leaders were also interviewed at baseline and 146 at endline to investigate their existing engagement in girls’ education. as for organisational staff, 24 project staff were surveyed at baseline. table 3: girls’ age range by country (n = 753) girls’ age range total 10-14 15-17 18-24 25-34 35-44 country bangladesh count 8 77 211 39 1 336 22.2% 39.1% 46.5% 61.9% 33.3% 44.6% india count 20 57 115 16 1 209 55.6% 28.9% 25.3% 25.4% 33.3% 27.8% pakistan count 8 63 128 8 1 208 22.2% 32.0% 28.2% 12.7% 33.3% 27.6% total count 36 197 454 63 3 753 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% source: girls inspire – reaching the unreached baseline study, 2016 findings and analysis findings from surveys on women and girls marital status table 4 shows that bangladesh has the highest percentage of married girls among the three countries, followed by india and pakistan. of the total girls sampled in bangladesh 63.7 % were married compared to 47.8% and 22.9% for india and pakistan, respectively. 294 table 4: marital status by country country total bangladesh india pakistan married no count 121 98 162 381 % within country 36.0% 46.9% 77.1% 50.5% yes count 214 100 48 362 % within country 63.7% 47.8% 22.9% 47.9% de facto union count 1 0 0 1 % within country 0.3% 0.0% 0.0% 0.1% prefer not to answer count 0 11 0 11 % within country 0.0% 5.3% 0.0% 1.5% total count 336 209 210 755 % within country 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% source: girls inspire – reaching the unreached baseline study, 2016 dropout grade level figure 1 shows the dropout rates against the grade levels. while there is a variation of the dropout grade levels in the three countries the data shows that there are two periods where the dropout is high: one before completion of primary and one before completion of secondary school. figure 1 also shows that the respondent girls mostly didn’t continue their study up to the secondary grades. among the girls who continued their study at post-primary levels, most of them dropped out before completion of their secondary education. the data shows that, overall, the highest dropout rate happens in grade 8. however, in bangladesh and india the highest dropout rate happens in grade 5, where 7.1% of the respondent girls didn’t attend school. although the rates vary from one country to another, girls’ dropout is a big problem in the participating countries. figure 1: final level of schooling by country source: girls inspire – reaching the unreached baseline study, 2016 295 reasons for dropout from education although there are several reasons for the girls to dropout at an early stage of their education, figure 2 shows that overall poverty is the main reason for the respondent girls to dropout from education, followed by marriage. other reasons for girls’ dropout include family crisis, distance between school and home, culture and domestic responsibilities. in pakistan and india lack of family support is the second highest reason for dropout, compared to marriage in bangladesh. limited economic opportunities for the girls access to economic opportunities for the respondent girls seems to be very limited before they participated in the training. their skill or freedom to work was not enough for them to be engaged in economic activities. they were mostly engaged in household activities to support their parents. figure 3 shows that the majority of the respondent girls during the baseline rated their access to economic opportunities to be poor or very poor. they either didn’t find any opportunity to work or they were not even aware of the economic opportunities they could exploit. figure 2: reasons for dropping out of or not attending school source: girls inspire – reaching the unreached baseline study, 2016 296 figure 3: access to economic opportunities by country source: girls inspire – reaching the unreached baseline study, 2016 figure 4: training impact on access to economic opportunities source: girls inspire – reaching the unreached baseline-endline study, 2016 the same respondents showed (figure 4) a significant shift in how they rated their access to economic opportunities after the training. the majority indicated that the training had some significant impact on their access to economic opportunities. a very small number (24) indicated negative to no impact. girls’ perception about their qualities the study also explored girls’ perceptions about their own qualities. it seems that the girls were fully aware of their qualities. figure 5 summarises the perceptions of the respondent girls about their qualities. overall, the top three qualities girls’ rated them in order from high to low were hardworking, confident and motivated. 297 ability to contribute family decision making girls and women’s participation in family decision-making is a challenge, however, it is important for gender equality and empowerment. the respondents were asked before and after the training on how they rated their ability to contribute to family decision-making. figure 6 summarises the perceptions of the respondent girls and women regarding their contribution in family decision-making process before the training, and figure 7 summarises it after the training. figure 7 shows that the majority indicated that they are somewhat disempowered in the family decision-making process. a bigger portion of the respondents remained neutral, as they may not have had an opinion on any role they have in the family decision-making process. in the endline study, figure 7 also indicates a significant shift, where they indicated that the training had somewhat to significant impact on their decisionmaking. figure 5: baseline – what quality best describes you source: girls inspire – reaching the unreached baseline study, 2016 figure 6: ability to participate in family decision-making? source: girls inspire – reaching the unreached baseline study, 2016 298 figure 7: training impact to participate in family decision-making source: girls inspire – reaching the unreached baseline-endline study, 2016-2017 desire to have education the majority of the girls indicated their desire to have an education. figure 8 shows that most of the girls from the participating countries showed a strong desire to continue with their tertiary education during the baseline study with a slight overall increase of the same at the endline. according to figure 8 the biggest group who indicated that they did not want to continue tertiary education are from india. figure 8: interest to continue to tertiary education source: girls inspire – reaching the unreached baseline-endline study, 2016-2017 organisational readiness for girls education organisational arrangement is important for girls’ equitable access to education. table 5 summarises the organisational arrangement for girls’ education in the survey countries. it shows that organisational/institutional arrangements for girls’ education were not promising at its current stage. 299 most of the surveyed organizations in bangladesh and pakistan had a gender policy whereas the organisations in india did not have one. in terms of quality assurance policy, bangladesh and pakistan were well ahead, whereas the organisations in india did not have any quality assurance policy. in all three countries, the organisations seemed to be lagging behind in using technologies in their learning support and resource sharing. they were also behind in terms of odl. the training programmes they provide were limited to face-to-face mode of delivery. table 5: organisational perspectives gender policy qa policy protection by tutors flexibility in learning access don’t know yes no don’t know yes no yes no f2f odl pakistan (%) 0 90 10 20 40 40 90 10 100 0 india (%) 8.33 0 91.67 8.33 0 91.67 100 0 91.66 8.33 bangladesh (%) 0 100 0 0 100 0 100 0 100 0 source: girls inspire reaching the unreached baseline survey 2016 community engagement in girls’ education this section reflects on the responses from community leaders. community support is always considered as an important enabler for girls’ education. traditional and cultural norms are rooted within the community and therefore it is important to engage the community in the education of the girls. in most of the cases, lack of community engagement makes girls education more difficult. community concern about cefm from figures 9 and 10, it can be seen that community leaders of all three participating countries were significantly concerned about cefm and its impact on their society. in india and bangladesh, community leaders seemed to be more concerned about the consequence of cefm as compared to the same in pakistan. figure 10 summarises the endline data that indicates that the community leaders in all countries became more aware regarding cefm and its impact, after the girls inspire initiatives. now, most of them are significantly or very significantly concerned, compared to a very low proportion who are not concerned in pakistan. 300 figure 9: child, early and forced marriage as an issue in the community source: girls inspire – reaching the unreached baseline study, 2016 figure 10: child, early and forced marriage as a concern after this project started source: girls inspire – reaching the unreached baseline-endline study, 2016-2017 employment opportunities according to community leaders, the girls are in a disadvantaged position in terms of employment opportunities. figure 11 (baseline data) shows that, employment opportunities for the girls in the communities are poor in all the survey countries. it is interesting to note that few of the community leaders remained neutral in sharing their views about the girls’ employment scope in the communities in india and pakistan. it indirectly supported their reluctance about securing girls’ employment opportunities in the communities. however, the response of the community leaders in bangladesh was significant regarding employment opportunities for girls, and most of them, too, acknowledged that employment opportunities for girls in bangladesh were poor, except for a few who mentioned that the employment opportunity for girls were good. according to the endline data (figure 12), the picture has changed significantly after the girls inspire intervention. the endline 301 data in figure 12 shows that the community leaders endorsed good employment opportunities for the girls in the communities. the scenario has been improved for all the survey countries, though the response of the community leaders in bangladesh showed a very changed rating about the girls’ employability. an overall change in rating from poor to good and very good happened due to girls inspire intervention. figure 11: employment opportunities for girls and women in the community source: girls inspire – reaching the unreached baseline study, 2016 figure 12: employment opportunities for girls and women in your community (endline data) source: girls inspire – reaching the unreached baseline-endline study, 2016-2017 community support toward girls education community support toward girls’ education seems to be very weak in pakistan and bangladesh as compared to india. again, a significant number of respondent community leaders were reluctant to speak about the essentiality of the community support for girls’ education. figure 13 (baseline data) shows the comparative figures on community support for girls’ education in india, pakistan and 302 bangladesh. figure 13 shows that the community support was poor towards women’s and girls’ education in bangladesh, whereas, in india and pakistan, it was relatively better. after the girls inspire intervention, as figure 14 shows, community support for women’s and girls’ education has significantly improved. most of the respondents specified that the community support in the survey area had improved to good or very good. figure 13: community's support to women and girls' education source: girls inspire – reaching the unreached baseline study, 2016 figure 14: community's support to women and girls' education after the project started source: girls inspire – reaching the unreached baseline-endline study, 2016-2017 family support for schools or skills training marital status by family support for schools or skills training figure 15 shows that family support for school or skills training to women and girls was low in the case of married women or girls, compared to that of the unmarried women and girls. table 6 shows that family support for schooling is, in general, low for married women or girls. table 6 shows that unmarried girls received a higher level of family support for schooling. married women and girls who got little family support for schooling were aged between 15 and 18. most of them mentioned that their families were somewhat unsupportive for schooling after their marriage. 303 figure 15: marital status by family support for school or skills training source: girls inspire – reaching the unreached baseline study, 2016 age at marriage and family support for school table 6: age at marriage by family support for school or skills training family support for school total age at marriage very unsupportive somewhat unsupportive somewhat supportive very supportive not married 18 (34.0%) 89 (35.5%) 172 (57.7%) 93 (76.9%) 372 (52%) 3 1 (0.3%) 1 (0.1%) 11 2 (0.7%) 2 (0.3%) 12 1 (0.3%) 1 (0.1%) 13 2 (3.8%) 3 (1.2%) 6 (2%) 11 (1.5%) 14 2 (3.8%) 9 (3.7%) 6 (2%) 1 (0.8%) 18 (2.5%) 15 7 (13.2%) 24 (9.8%) 15 (5%) 1 (0.8%) 47 (6.6%) 16 3 (5.7%) 39 (16%) 26 (8.7%) 5 (4.1%) 73 (10.2%) 17 12 (22.6%) 52 (21.3%) 29 (9.7%) 5 (4.1%) 98 (13.7%) 18 8 (15.1%) 19 (7.8%) 28 (9.4%) 7 (5.8%) 62 (8.7%) 19 1 (1.9%) 6 (2.5%) 5 (1.7%) 3 (2.5%) 15 (2.1%) 20 2 (0.8%) 2 (0.7%) 2 (1.7%) 6 (0.8%) 21 2 (0.7%) 1 (0.8%) 3 (0.4%) 22 1 (0.3%) 2 (1.7%) 3 (0.4%) 23 1 (0.3%) 1 (0.1%) 24 1 (0.3%) 1 (0.8%) 2 (0.3%) 28 1 (0.4%) 1 (0.1%) total 53 (100%) 244 (100%) 298 (100%) 121 (100%) 716 (100%) 304 discussion although girls’ education has multiple impacts on the socio-economic development of a nation, there are still a number of structural and economic reasons that blocks the girls’ education from becoming mainstreamed. based on the data from col’s girls inspire baseline survey 2016 and endline survey 2017, this paper addresses a triangular focus on the reasons of the girls’ dropout from education and recommends ways to improve it as follows: i. cross-country variation in the causes, such as poverty and cefm, that leads to girls dropping out of school. it has been observed that girls’ dropout was caused mostly by widespread poverty in the survey countries. the reasons behind the girls’ dropout were similar in all three countries where the project was implemented. ii. organisational/institutional arrangements for girls’ education in the participating countries were not very promising. most of the surveyed organizations did not have any gender policy though most of them had a quality assurance policy of their own. interestingly, the learning support by the tutors/teachers to the girls was satisfactory. the organizations seemed to be lagging behind in using technologies in their learning supports and resource sharing. however, some of them meaningfully use the technologies in monitoring and evaluating their girls’ skill development projects. iii. the role of community engagement to ensure equitable participation and access of the girls to learning. in terms of community concerns and support for girls’ education, the surveyed community leaders were found to be less concerned, on average, about the barriers to girls’ education. also, the employment opportunities for the girls in the communities were poor and the existing community support seemed to be weak for girls’ education. however, after the girls inspire intervention, the scenario has improved significantly. the community leaders became more concerned about girls’ education and they also became aware of the girls’ employment opportunities within the communities, and this increased the employment opportunities for the girls in the communities. iv. the family support to women and girls for schools and skills training was found to be poor in the case of married women and girls; however, the support was much better in the case of unmarried women and girls. conclusion and recommendations the findings in the survey suggest that the interventions of girls inspire enhanced the opportunities for girls’ education and empowerment to ensure sustainable livelihoods. this study recommends the following steps for girls’ education to contribute towards ending the cycle of cefm and improving girls’ participation in education through the engagement of the community and local organisations in the overall process: • community engagement in the campaign for girls’ education: community leaders are most powerful local agents who have influence on the communities’ decision-making process. therefore, community engagement has an important role in promoting girls’ education, which includes awareness-raising programs on the benefits of education and training using odl conducted with the whole community (parents and community leaders and women and girls), 305 the establishment of safe learning environments for teaching and learning of the women and girls, and agreements to support women and girls’ education between the community and the project teams in their respective countries. • data matters: measuring achievement for women and girls is critical for advocacy and progress. concerted efforts should be made to involve community leaders in monitoring progress. • equal employment opportunities for the girls at community levels: local governments or community groups should create equal employment opportunities for the girls at community levels and work with educational institutions to engage the girls more effectively. • positions in community leadership structure: there should be assigned positions for the women in the leadership structures of the communities. it would encourage the girls/women to come forward and take control of their livelihood and lifestyle. • awareness for family support to girls and women for school: family support is critical for safe, free and meaningful engagement of girls and women in educational activities. there should be sufficient awareness campaigns for the parents, guardians or family heads so that they realise the benefits of girls’ and women’s education and support their education wholeheartedly. acknowledgements this paper is a revised and updated version of a paper presented at the 8th pan commonwealth forum held at malaysia in december 2016. the authors thank the anonymous reviewers for providing comments for revising the paper. references bbs. (2013). gender statistics of bangladesh 2012 . dhaka. bangladesh bureau of statistics. statistics and information division (sid). ministry of planning. col. (2016). theory-of-change. retrieved from http://girlsinspire.org/explore-our-theory-of-change/#our-vision government of canada and unicef. (2015). accelerating the movement to end child early and forced marriage initiative – consolidated annual progress and utilization report for the period of 1 april 31 december 2014. unicef canada (unpublished report) icrw plan. (2013). asia child marriage initiative: summary of research in bangladesh, india and nepal. retrieved from http://www.icrw.org/files/publications/plan%20asia%20child%20marriage-3%20country%20study.pdf international institute for population sciences (iips) and macro international. (2007). national family health survey (nfhs-3), 2005–06: india: volume i. mumbai: iips. retrieved from http://dhsprogram.com/pubs/pdf/frind3/frind3-vol1andvol2.pdf siddhu, g. (2011). who makes it to secondary school? determinants of transition to secondary schools in rural india. international journal of educational development, 31(4), 394-401. unesco institute for statistics (uis). (2015). a growing number of children and adolescents are out of school as aid fails to meet the mark, policy paper 22 / fact sheet 31. retrieved from http://www.uis.unesco.org/education/documents/fs-31-out-of-school-children-en.pdf uis & unicef. (2015). fixing the broken promise of education for all: findings from the global initiative on out-ofschool children. montreal: uis. retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.15220/978-92-9189-161-0-en 306 unesco. (2015a). uis sustainable development data digest: leading the agenda for the production of data to monitor education 2030. retrieved from http://www.uis.unesco.org/education/pages/uis-sustainable-developmentdata-digest.aspx unesco. (2015b). unesco data. paris: unesco. unicef. (2016). state of the world’s children. retrieved from https://www.unicef.org/sowc2016/ united nations (un). (2015). sustainable development goals. retrieved from http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/gender-equality/ world bank. (2015). world bank data. washington dc: world bank. world vision uk. (2016). policy paper: ending child marriage by 2030 tracking progress and identifying gaps. retrieved form http://www.girlsnotbrides.org/wpcontent/uploads/2016/07/ending_child_marriage_by_2030.pdf zaidi, b., sathar, z., & zafar, f. (2012). the power of girls schooling for young women’s empowerment and reproductive health. new york. population council. authors: frances j. ferreira is senior advisor, women and girls at commonwealth of learning, canada. email: fferreira@col.org mostafa azad kamal is professor of development economics, and dean, school of business, bangladesh open university, gazipur, dhaka, bangladesh. email: mostafa_azad@yahoo.com i http://www.raosoft.com/samplesize.html microsoft word mishra.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 160-176 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. early years of the journal of learning for development: a combination of bibliometrics and thematic analysis sanjaya mishra commonwealth of learning, canada abstract: the paper analyses the contributions to journal of learning for development (jl4d) from volume one to five using bibliometrics and content analysis techniques. analysing the 91 papers in various categories of jl4d, the paper identifies authorship pattern, topics covered, research methods used, types of documents used in citations, core journals and the median age of citations to jl4d. the finding of the study reveals that jl4d has created a niche for itself as a specialised research journal focusing on innovations in learning contributing to development. keywords: bibliometrics; citation analysis; journal analysis. introduction the journal of learning for development (jl4d) was conceived in 2013 as an open access journal to be published on a rolling basis (tait, 2014) and the first issue was published in 2014. in the last five years, jl4d has published three issues regularly in march, july and november. while introducing the journal, president and ceo of commonwealth of learning (col) ̶ publisher of the journal ̶ emphasised that there is a growing recognition that learning must lead to development, and there is a need to share the “vast body of knowledge and experience” in this field. therefore, jl4d was started with an explicit aim to “showcase the practical dimension of how learning for development works” (kanwar, 2014). the journal website states that it is a “forum for the publication of research with a focus on innovation in learning, in particular but not exclusively open and distance learning, and its contribution to development. content includes interventions that change social and/or economic relations, especially in terms of improving equity” (jl4d, n.d). so, jl4d was not envisaged to be another journal of distance and online learning but intended to provide a platform for “all innovation in learning that had as an aim to contribute to social and economic development” (tait, 2016). it also intended to be a vehicle for engaging “a broad audience of researchers, scholars and practitioners” – early careers as well as established scholars from the commonwealth and beyond (kanwar, 2014). latchem (2014), appreciating the launch of jl4d, stated that: • it affirms col’s commitment to learning for development; • the scope of the journal covers sectors other than formal education; • the journal provides the opportunity to apply the “broader principles of educational technology” and provides evidence of success; and • the journal provides a blank slate to practitioners and researchers to express their thoughts, ideas, experiences and findings to support lifelong learning. 161 baggaley (2014) while analysing the paucity of journals covering ‘learning’ and ‘development’ emphasised that “jl4d can anticipate the problems of current and future educational trends via its applied focus on the access and equity problems of learning and development in the developed and developing nations”. journals are the life blood of research in any discipline, disseminating new ideas and reporting the latest developments in the field (mishra, 1997). those, being ‘peer reviewed’ publications, enjoyed a higher reputation (royal society, 1981), but the process eventually delayed publication of research findings (cronin, 1984). the emergence of electronic publishing and subsequently open access journals made it possible to reduce the time-lag in publication of results. jl4d adopted both an online mode and open access principle to publish the journal. as it completed five years of its existence, it is important to analyse and reflect how the journal is progressing and trying to create a niche in its identified field. the objectives of the study were to examine: • authorship pattern, including contribution segregated by gender and region; • topics covered, and research methods used; and • citation pattern, including types of documents cited, age of citations, core journals cited, etc. methods considering the objectives of the study, a combination of bibliometrics method and content analysis was used in the study to analyse the articles published in jl4d and the citation appended to them as references. since the term bibliometrics was coined by pritchard (1969), it has been used for analysing research trends in a variety of fields: the history of science, social sciences, library and documentation studies and science policy (okubu, 1997). in the field of educational technology and distance education a number of single journal studies have been reported in the literature. some of these include: british journal of educational technology (bond, zawacki-richter & nichols, 2019), computers & education (zawacki-richter, & latchem, 2018); distance education (zawacki-richter, & naidu, 2016); indian journal of open learning (mishra, 2002; tripathi, & kanungo, 2010); the international review of research in open and distributed learning (zawacki-richter, alturki, & aldraiweesh, 2017). a series of bibliometric studies were published in the educational technology magazine from 2011 to 2015 covering 22 journals (west, 2016). bibliometrics methods have emerged as an important field to study the properties and behaviour of recorded knowledge. various statistical methods are applied to “measure authorship, citation and publication pattern, and the relationship within scientific domains” (patra, bhattacharya, & verma, 2006). data about the research papers in jl4d was collected from the journal website and manually coded in microsoft excel to create tables and charts for analysis. amongst the bibliometrics tools, study of citations is a common practice since the emergence of citation indexes (garfield, 1970). the earliest study to use citation data to evaluate the importance of scientific journals was by gross and gross (1927) for the study of the journal of the american chemical society. the premise is “bibliographic citation is an expression of a relationship between two documents, the citing and the cited” (cronin, 1984). the jl4d is indexed in google scholar, directory of open access journals (doaj), education resources information centre (eric), worldcat and bielefeld academic search engine (base). while the jl4d has so far avoided being listed in citation indexes due to the proprietary nature of the indexes, zawacki-richter, anderson and tuncay (2010) 162 stated that the proprietary owner of the citation indexes, such as the social science citation index, has “little interest in indexing and calculating impact factors for journals in relatively small disciplines and especially those that compete with it as open access publications.” it may be noted that the citation analysis also has limitations due to the underlaying motive of the authors while citing a document, which may be serious or frivolous (cronin, 1984), questioning the validity and reliability of citation data (rice et al, 1989). despite its inherent limitations, zawacki-richter and anderson (2011) consider citation data as “the best objective measure describing the relationships between journals and the flow of information in a research discipline” (p. 445). references from all the papers in the jl4d were collected and added to a microsoft excel sheet for further analysis. for the citation of articles published in jl4d in other journals, publish or perish software (harzing, 2007) was used with google scholar as the source. this is an acceptable method (zaugg et al., 2011) to analyse citations, particularly when the journal is not indexed in major commercial indexing sources. while analysis of a citation network built around publications allows us to have a better grasp of how a scholarly community has evolved in a field (jo, jeung, park, & yoon, 2009), content analysis provides understanding of the trends and issues covered in the discipline. according to lee, driscoll, and nelson (2004) “understanding trends and issues in terms of topics and methods is pivotal in the advancement of research on distance education” (p. 225). content analysis of journal articles has been done by several researches (mishra, 1997, 1998; bond, zawacki-richter & mark nichols, 2019; lee et al., 2004; marín, duart, galvis, & zawacki-richter, 2018; zawacki-richter, bäcker, & vogt, 2009; zawacki-richter et al., 2017; zawacki-richter & naidu, 2016; zawacki-richter & latchem, 2018). most of these studies used computer-assisted content analysis as an appropriate method for content analysis. as in the study by bond et al. (2019), in this study leximancertm was used to analyse the title and abstract of the papers published to identify significant concepts and themes covered in the journal. data source jl4d publishes items under different sections: (i) editorial/ foreword, (ii) invited articles, (iii) research articles, (iv) special feature, (v) report from the field, (vi) case study, (vii) commentary, and (viii) book reviews. except the editorial and book reviews all other sections in the journal are peer reviewed. the invited articles are normally solicited papers form senior experts in the field but still undergo the review process. the special feature section is used to cover topics of special interest such as sustainable development, and a whole series on leaders in open and distance learning was published under this section in 2017 and 2018. from 2014 to 2018, jl4d published 118 items under different categories (table 1). for analysis in this paper, editorial and book reviews were not used, and thus, 91 items were taken for coding and analysis. a publication count of the international review of research in open and distributed learning, a peer reviewed journal, revealed that it published 81 research articles in the issues of the initial five years. similarly, the only comparable published data is from indian journal of open learning that published 68 items in its initial five years (mishra, 1997). 163 table 1: types of publications in journal of learning for development 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 total editorial/foreword 2 3 3 3 11 special feature 6 3 9 invited articles 6 4 3 4 17 research articles 6 7 6 12 8 39 case studies 1 2 1 4 1 9 reports from the field 5 3 1 1 1 11 commentary 1 1 2 1 1 6 book reviews 4 2 4 2 4 16 total 25 15 21 32 25 118 results and discussion authorship pattern collaboration authorship pattern is a measure of research collaboration in any field of study (subramanyam, 1983). it is also widely assumed that collaboration in research is a ‘good thing’ and “for decades multipleauthor publication, frequently referred to as a co-authored publication, has been used as a basic counting unit to measure collaborative activity” (katz & martin, 1997). research also shows that collaboration is associated with increased scientific productivity (parish, boyack & ioannidis, 2018). the average number of co-authors per paper published by individual scientists has steadily increased in all fields over the past century (fanelli & larivière, 2016). in the case of jl4d, except in the first volume, the number of multiple author papers were more than single author papers. in the five-year period, multiple author papers counted for over 55% of papers (table 2). using a formula suggested by subramanyam (1983), the calculated score (0.56) shows a higher degree of collaboration. in the field of distance education, which is related to the scope of jl4d, mishra (1997) reported that only 38.5% were multiple authored while zawacki-richter et al. (2009) reported 55.8% multiple authored papers showing an increase in collaborative research between 1997 and 2009. authorship pattern analysis in single journal analysis indicated that in the initial ten years of indian journal of open learning only 30.55% were multiple authored, while a study in 2010 indicated an increase in multi-authored papers (47.54%). in british journal of educational technology from 2001 to 2010, mott et al. (2012) found that 69% of papers were co-authored. similarly, in interactive learning environments (2004-2013), the percentage of co-authored papers was 84% (christensen et al., 2015) and in journal of computing in higher education (2003-2012), the percentage of co-authored paper was 68% (langton et al., 2015). therefore, though the multi-authored publications are not high in jl4d as in the case of many major educational technology journals, the current degree of collaboration (0.56) could be seen as good for a relatively young journal. 164 table 2: single vs multiple author contributions 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 total percentage single author 13 4 6 10 7 40 43.96 two authors 4 3 5 8 9 29 31.87 more than 2 authors 2 6 3 9 2 22 24.18 total authors 27 31 28 68 32 186 degree of collaboration 0.32 0.69 0.57 0.63 0.61 0.56 gender not much information is available on gender of the authors contributing to research in the focus area of jl4d. however, it is an important consideration for col to encourage women researchers to support learning for development. of the authors, whose gender could be identified (through appropriate searches), we found that 61.20% were men (table 3). the study on distance education research by zawacki-richter et al. (2009) found that 55.4% of first authors were male. in comparison the study of indian journal of open learning showed the male contributors at 72.83%. while the available data is not sufficient to make any generalisation on gender of researchers in the field covered by jl4d, there is a need to target female researchers to encourage contributions from them. table 3: gender distribution of authors 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 total percentage male 17 21 19 39 18 114 61.29 female 10 10 9 29 14 72 38.71 regional distribution of contributors as indicated before one of the objectives of jl4d is to encourage research contributions from the commonwealth and beyond (kanwar, 2014). a regional analysis (table 4) of the 186 contributors to jl4d revealed that the highest percentage of contributors were from africa (34.41%) followed by asia and the americas with 18.28% and 16.67% respectively. there is variation in distribution of contributions across the regions, but more contributions from africa shows that the journal has been able to provide researchers in africa with a good platform to contribute. however, of the 37 countries of the contributors to jl4d, canada and the united kingdom came out on top (table 5), with over 50% coming from only five countries (canada, the united kingdom, india, south africa and tanzania). interestingly, looking beyond the commonwealth, jl4d has also reached to non-commonwealth countries (37.84%) indicating that the majority of contributions came from the commonwealth with 86% of the contributors (table 6). table 4: regional distribution of authors regions frequency percentage africa 64 34.41 americas 31 16.67 arab states 2 1.08 asia 34 18.28 caribbean 6 3,.23 europe 28 15.05 pacific 21 11.29 total 186 100.00 165 table 5: country-wise contribution analysis country frequency percentage cumulative percentage canada 14 12.84 12.84 united kingdom 14 12.84 25.68 india 11 10.09 35.78 south africa 8 7.34 43.12 tanzania 7 6.42 49.54 usa 5 4.59 54.12 uganda 4 3.67 57.79 australia 3 2.75 60.55 kenya 3 2.75 63.30 mauritius 3 2.75 66.05 trinidad and tobago 3 2.75 68.80 bangladesh 2 1.83 70.64 fiji 2 1.83 72.47 france 2 1.83 74.31 jamaica 2 1.83 76.14 malaysia 2 1.83 77.98 new zealand 2 1.83 79.81 rwanda 2 1.83 81.65 samoa 2 1.83 83.48 brazil 1 0.92 84.40 finland 1 0.92 85.32 ghana 1 0.92 86.23 indonesia 1 0.92 87.15 ireland 1 0.92 88.07 japan 1 0.92 88.99 lebanon 1 0.92 89.90 namibia 1 0.92 90.82 nepal 1 0.92 91.74 papua new guinea 1 0.92 92.66 philippines 1 0.92 93.57 qatar 1 0.92 94.49 singapore 1 0.92 95.41 sri lanka 1 0.92 96.33 turkey 1 0.92 97.24 uruguay 1 0.92 98.16 zambia 1 0.92 99.08 zimbabwe 1 0.92 100.00 note: several papers amongst the 91 had authors from multiple countries, and such papers were counted multiple times for analysis in this table. 166 table 6: authors from commonwealth vs non-commonwealth countries country authors commonwealth 23 (62.16) 160 (86.02) non-commonwealth 14 (37.84) 26 (13.97) total countries 37 186 figures in brackets indicate percentage leading contributors of the 186 authors within the period of five years, sixteen authors contributed at least two papers. however, there were only three who contributed more than three papers (table 7) – all three of them from africa, indicating the space created by jl4d to support researchers in the region. table 7: leading contributors author country frequency joel s. mtebe tanzania 6 bernard nkuyubwatsi rwanda/uk 3 christina raphael tanzania 3 research methods to analyse the research methods used in the papers published in jl4d, we broadly used the categorisation followed by zawacki-richter et al. (2009) covering quantitative, qualitative, triangulation/mixed method, or others (grant, ward & rong, 1987). while the first three categories are self-explanatory, the category ‘others’ included papers that were either conceptual, descriptive or opinion/commentary in nature. table 8 indicates that the highest percentage (48.35%) of contributions in jl4d were in the category of ‘others’ followed by qualitative (23.08%), quantitative (15.38%) and mixed method (13.19%). the percentage of ‘others’ category or descriptive papers in jl4d are similar to an analysis of papers published between 1991 to 1996 in four key journals of distance education by mishra (1997) who reported the percentage of descriptive papers as 47.6. however, berge and mrozowski (2001) classified 75.9% of the articles published in four key journals of distance education as descriptive between 1990 and 1999. interestingly, the zawacki-richter et al. (2009) study reported 38.1% of all articles as descriptive, with 12.9% in the category of mixed-method design (triangulation), which is similar to this study with 13.19% for papers with mixed method research design. in contrast, bozkurt et al. (2015) analysed seven key journals of distance education between 2009-2013 and reported that de researchers adopted mostly qualitative (47%) and quantitative (37%) studies, and just a few employed mixed-method (16%) designs. the second highest category of research methods used in jl4d is aligned towards the findings of this study, though it is far behind as a comparison nevertheless, it indicates that so far jl4d has attracted more descriptive and qualitative studies. it may also be noted that the findings are not in line with the majority of bibliometrics studies conducted on journals in the field of educational technology, as west (2016) reported that “the field skews strongly towards quantitative methods. also, most mixed method studies were not balanced in how they honored the different research paradigms” (p. 44). 167 table 8: research methods used research methods 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 total percentage quantitative 2 2 2 7 1 14 15.38 qualitative 5 3 4 3 6 21 23.08 mixed method 2 2 1 6 1 12 13.19 others (e.g., descriptive, conceptual, commentary) 10 6 7 11 10 44 48.35 total 19 13 14 27 18 91 100.00 content analysis jl4d has a clear focus on innovations in learning leading to development—change in social and/or economic relations, especially in terms of improving equity as a result of learning. however, the historical focus of col as the sponsoring agency of the journal may influence its content largely towards open education and distance learning. as indicated before, content analysis of the abstracts and the title of the articles were carried out using leximancertm software to understand the coverage and focus of the journal. the thematic summary reveals that education has the most direct mentions within the text with 113 (100% relative count), followed by learning (88% connectivity), teachers (35%), need (34%) and research (31%). the concept map (figure 1) shows linkages of key terms within the five clusters of themes. the longest links can be traced amongst three sub-themes spanning education-need-teachers (see education-policy-quality-access-need-challenges-online-educational-teachersschool). the number of papers covered in this analysis was only 85 (six papers had no abstract). therefore, the thematic clustering is not very strong, though it indicates that the papers published were not just focused on open and distance learning, and the editors and peer reviewers have done the right level of gatekeeping to focus on the journal’s core area of innovations in learning. thus, while the focus of the papers was by and large on issues related to policy, quality, access, openness, learners and support in specific contexts, learning was the second core issue discussed with a focus on impact, courses, and factors. this was followed by a focus on teachers and teaching, learning and open educational resources. the other foci were on need (focusing purpose and appropriateness to the context) and research. the latter may be attributed to the importance attributed to research methods in any peer-reviewed publication. citation analysis citation characteristics bibliographic references in a publication symbolises a metaphoric relation between the cited document and the citing document (mcinnis, 1982). references are also indicators of the scholarliness of a journal (cline, 1982). table 9 shows that there were only four items without references in jl4d, and the average references per article in the journal was 27.67 (excluding the items without references). this is similar to the mean score of 29 references for the journals covered in the study by zawacki-richter et al. (2009). while references appended to articles may not be treated as a criterion for quality articles, price (1970) and avramescu (1980) suggest that an article with 16±6 reference indicate scholarliness. according to price (1970) articles providing fewer than 10 references imply that “scholarship does not exist but is irrelevant or exists relevantly but is unknown” (p. 8). in the light of emphasis placed on review of previous research as indicator of quality (moore, 1985), we can assume 168 that jl4d has maintained standards from the beginning by ensuring authors’ focus on previous research in their works. figure 1: concept map of themes in jl4d table 9: average number of citations 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 total avg. citations no. of items 19 13 14 27 18 91 no. of references 378 299 466 723 542 2408 27.67 items with no references 3 0 0 1 0 4 169 types of citation table 10 shows the types of documents cited in the papers published in jl4d: 36.54% of the citations were from journal sources, followed by 32.77% in the ‘others’ category, which included government reports, weblinks, blogs, personal communication, etc. references to books, including chapters in books were 23.8% and conference papers accounted for only 6.27%. this information use pattern by contributors of jl4d indicates that they are highly dependent on journals and grey literature. out of the total of 2,408 references in all the articles, 1,093 (45.39%) had a uniform resource locator (url) attached to it indicating increased use of electronic resources by scholars publishing in jl4d. this trend is comparable to the analysis of types of document cited in indian journal of open leaning (tripathi & kanungo, 2010) which showed 34.07% journal citations. table 10: type of citations 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 frequency percentage books 88 86 112 164 123 573 23.80 journals 116 98 174 277 215 880 36.54 conferences 18 14 28 67 24 151 6.27 dissertations 6 2 3 3 1 15 0.62 others 150 99 149 212 179 789 32.77 core journals cited of the 880 citations from journal articles, analysis was carried out to study scattering of journals in the field of learning for development. there were 406 journals cited, of which 289 (32.84%) were with only one citation and 25 journals accounted for over 40% of the citations (table 11). while the international review of research in open and distributed learning is the leading journal cited with 8.41% of citations, the dispersion of journals cited by scholars contributing to jl4d indicates that the field draws from several fields of studies and is not necessarily influenced by open and distance learning alone. most cited authors most cited authors indicate their significant impact to the field. however, in the case of jl4d, the current analysis does not indicate high citation of any single individual or a group of researchers. however, table 12 indicates that the top cited authors in the articles published in jl4d. interestingly, most of the authors listed in this table are from the field of open and distance learning. in other words, this shows that jl4d contributors are largely influenced by scholars in open and distance learning, though the thematic analysis and scattering of journals do not support this assertion strongly. most cited works an author could write many works, but not all of his/her works will receive similar attention from peer researchers. while the dispersal of references in jl4d was large, covering a variety of areas, table 13 shows the list of documents cited more than four times. martin weller, whose name appears in the most cited author list also has two publications in the list of most cited works. 170 table 11: core journals cited in jl4d journal name frequency cumulative frequency percen tage cumulative percentage the international review of research in open and distributed learning 74 74 8.41 8.41 distance education 23 97 2.61 11.02 open learning: the journal of open, distance and e-learning 23 120 2.61 13.64 computers & education 20 140 2.27 15.91 british journal of educational technology 17 157 1.93 17.84 international journal of educational development 16 173 1.82 19.66 elearning papers 15 188 1.70 21.36 journal of learning for development 15 203 1.70 23.07 open praxis 15 218 1.70 24.77 international journal of education and development using information and communication technology 14 232 1.59 26.36 journal of interactive media in education 14 246 1.59 27.96 turkish online journal of distance education 11 257 1.25 29.21 australasian journal of educational technology 9 266 1.02 30.23 computers in human behavior 9 275 1.02 31.25 educational technology & society 9 284 1.02 32.27 internet & higher education 9 293 1.02 33.30 educational researcher 8 301 0.91 34.21 educause review 8 309 0.91 35.11 procedia social and behavioral sciences 8 317 0.91 36.02 harvard business review 7 324 0.80 36.82 journal of computer assisted learning 7 331 0.80 37.61 learning, media and technology 7 338 0.80 38.41 european journal of open, distance and elearning 6 344 0.68 39.09 journal of online learning and teaching 6 350 0.68 39.77 online journal of distance learning administration 6 356 0.68 40.46 table 12: most cited authors most frequently cited authors frequency alan w. tait, united kingdom 12 martin weller, united kingdom 12 john daniel, canada 11 michael g. moore, usa 11 andy lane, united kingdom 10 david wiley, usa 10 grainne conole, united kingdom 9 joel s. mtebe, tanzania 9 stephen downes, canada 8 som naidu, fiji 8 171 table 13: most cited works in jl4d citations frequency weller, m. (2014). battle for open: how openness won and why it doesn't feel like victory. london: ubiquity press. 8 liyanagunawardena, t., williams, s., & adams, a. (2013). the impact and reach of moocs: a developing countries’ perspective. elearning papers (33). retrieved may 13, 2015, from http://www.openeducationeuropa.eu/en/article/the-impact-and-reach-of-moocs%3a-a-developingcountries%e2%80%99-perspective?paper=124335 5 cohen, l., manion, l., & morrison, k. (2011). research methods in education (7th ed.). oxford: routledge. 4 daniel, j. (1996). mega-universities and knowledge media: technology strategies for higher education. london: kogan page. 4 moore, m. (1993). theory of transactional distance. in d. keegan (ed.), theoretical principles of distance education. new york: routledge. 4 mtebe, j. s., & raisamo, r. (2014). investigating perceived barriers to the use of open educational resources in higher education in tanzania. international review of research in open and distance learning, 15(2), 43-65. 4 weller, m. (2011). the digital scholar: how technology is transforming scholarly practice. bloomsbury academic. retrieved from http://oro.open.ac.uk/29664/ 4 age of citations calculating the age of citations appended to journal articles is called ‘half-life’ or ‘obsolescence’. halflife of a literature is defined as the median age of 50% of all citations received in a particular year. this means 50% of references are below the half-life age and the other half beyond that age. cited half-life is a good measure to find out if older or newer material is receiving attention (minnick, 2017) in jl4d. of the 2,408 references, there were 54 (2.24%) references without date. these were deleted form the age analysis. half-life for the references of jl4d, was calculated using the median age method described by arao, da costa santos and guedes (2017), which was eight years (table 14). using a mean age calculation approach, the average age of references in jl4d was calculated as 8.37. this means the scholars contributing to jl4d use 50% of their literature from the last 8 years. most cited papers of jl4d google scholar uses h-index to measure the citation received by an individual or a journal profile. the h-index is measured by h where, a scientist has index h, if h (number) of his or her papers have at least h citations each (hirsch, 2005). this can be applied to journals as well to indicate that h papers published in a journal have each been cited at least h times by other articles. the h-index of jl4d is 6 (google scholar, n.d.). use of publish and perish software using google scholar lookup too resulted in the same findings. the most cited papers of jl4d are listed in table 15. 172 table 14: half-life of references in jl4d year frequency cumulative frequency percentage cumulative percentage 2018 (1) 41 41 1.74 0.00 2017 (2) 82 123 3.48 5.22 2016 (3) 135 258 5.73 10.94 2015 (4) 205 463 8.69 19.64 2014 (5) 189 652 8.02 27.65 2013 (6) 231 883 9.80 37.45 2012 (7) 208 1091 8.82 46.27 2011 (8) (median) 150 1241 6.36 52.63 2010 132 1373 5.60 58.23 2009 120 1493 5.09 63.32 2008 81 1574 3.44 66.75 2007 91 1665 3.86 70.61 2006 67 1732 2.84 73.45 2005 79 1811 3.35 76.80 2004 67 1878 2.84 79.64 2003 56 1934 2.37 82.02 2002 38 1972 1.61 83.63 2001 42 2014 1.78 85.41 2000 52 2066 2.21 87.62 1999 33 2099 1.40 89.02 1998 21 2120 0.89 89.91 1997 28 2148 1.19 91.09 1996 23 2171 0.98 92.07 1995 20 2191 0.85 92.92 1994 16 2207 0.68 93.60 1993 16 2223 0.68 94.27 1992 17 2240 0.72 95.00 1991 6 2246 0.25 95.25 1990 11 2257 0.47 95.72 1989 11 2268 0.47 96.18 1988 7 2275 0.30 96.48 1987 5 2280 0.21 96.69 1986 5 2285 0.21 96.90 1985 7 2292 0.30 97.20 1984 5 2297 0.21 97.41 1983 8 2305 0.34 97.75 1982 2 2307 0.08 97.84 1981 3 2310 0.13 97.96 1980 3 2313 0.13 98.09 1979 2 2315 0.08 98.18 1978 2 2317 0.08 98.26 1977 5 2322 0.21 98.47 1976 5 2327 0.21 98.69 1975 1 2328 0.04 98.73 1974 1 2329 0.04 98.77 1973 2 2331 0.08 98.85 1972 0 2331 0.00 98.85 1971 3 2334 0.13 98.98 1970 1 2335 0.04 99.02 1969 3 2338 0.13 99.15 1968 1 2339 0.04 99.19 1967 0 2339 0.00 99.19 1966 2 2341 0.08 99.28 1965 3 2344 0.13 99.41 1964 0 2344 0.00 99.41 1963 0 2344 0.00 99.41 1962 1 2345 0.04 99.45 1961-1889 13 2358 0.55 100.00 2358 100.00 173 table 15: most cited papers of jl4d papers no. of citations latchem, c. (2014). informal learning and non-formal education for development. 44 mwawasi, f. m. (2014). technology leadership and ict use: strategies for capacity building for ict integration. 11 darojat, o., nilson, m., & kauffman, d. (2015). quality assurance in asian open and distance learning: policies and implementation. 10 nkuyubwatsi, b. (2016). positioning extension massive open online courses (xmoocs) within the open access and the lifelong learning agendas in a developing setting. 9 bonk, c. j., & lee, m. m. (2017). motivations, achievements, and challenges of self-directed informal learners in open educational environments and moocs. 7 awadhiya, a. k., &miglani, a. (2016). mobile learning: challenges for teachers of indian open universities. 6 weller, m. (2016). the open flip—a digital economic model for education. 6 ngubane-mokiwa, s. a., & khoza, s. b. (2016). lecturers’ experiences of teaching stem to students with disabilities. 6 baijnath, n. (2014). curricular innovation and digitisation at a mega university in the developing world–the unisa ‘signature course’ project. 6 note: as of february 10, 2019. conclusion the bibliometric and thematic analysis of the contributions published in jl4d from volume one to five revealed the early years of an open access journal in the field of social science. especially considering the focus and scope to the journal, the number of items published is more than similar to comparable journals in their early days. jl4d has maintained the balance of different types of contributions from both commonwealth and non-commonwealth countries. it has been publishing relatively more items form africa, which indicates that the jl4d has found a niche amongst researchers there. while only about 40% of the contributors were female during the period, there is a satisfactory degree of collaboration amongst authors. in future studies it may be useful to analyse the relationship between gender and collaboration and types of research methods used (zawacki-richter & von prümmer, 2010). the content analysis of the abstracts and titles revealed that jl4d is focusing on educational issues in general, with a major focus on ‘student learning’, ‘teachers and teaching’ and ‘contextual needs’. the sample covered in this study was too small to make a more critical analysis on the linkages of the themes covered, but the use of the computer assisted content analysis could be used in future to gain a deeper understanding of how jl4d is contributing to various sub-domains within the ‘learning for development’ field as a unique journal. contrary to the thematic content analysis, the citation analysis revealed that the contributions are by and large influenced from the field of educational technology in general and experts in the field of open and distance learning. however, these researchers extensively used literature from a variety of journals and fields indicating that the journal’s focus was still on innovations in learning, and not open and distance learning per se. the halflife of the references to the papers published shows that contributors of jl4d use information within eight years, which is more than the 6.5 years estimated by davis and cochran (2015), indicating that the field needs to use more of the latest research to reflect on innovations in learning. five years is a small period in the life of an academic journal, but the study provides a bird’s eye view of the journal’s progress and contribution to the literature. 174 acknowledgement the author would like to thank melissa bond, centre for open education research, university of oldenburg for producing the concept map using leximancer. references arao, l. h., da costa santos, m. j. v., & guedes, v. l. s. (2017). the half-life and obsolescence of the literature science area: a contribution to the understanding the chronology of citations in academic activity. qualitative and quantitative methods in libraries, 4(3), 603-610. avramescu, a. (1980). coherent information energy and entropy. journal of documentation, 36(4), 293-312. baggaley, j. (2014). bridging fields at a critical time. journal of learning for development, 1(1). retrieved from http://jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/article/view/12/16 berge, z., & mrozowski, s. (2001). review of research in distance education. american journal of distance education, 15(3). 5-19. bond, m., zawacki-richter, o., &nichols, m. (2019). revisiting five decades of educational technology research: a content and authorship analysis of the british journal of educational technology. british journal of educational technology, 50(1), 12–63. bozkurt, a., akgun-ozbek, e., yilmazel, s., erdogdu, e., ucar, h., guler, e., ... & dincer, g. d. (2015). trends in distance education research: a content analysis of journals 2009-2013. the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 16(1). retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/1953 christensen, s., andrews, c., harris, s., lloyd, a., turley, c., & west, r. (2015). interactive learning environments, 2004-2013. educational technology, 55(5), 43-48. cline. g. s. (1982). college and research libraries: its first forty years. college and research libraries, 43(3): 208-32. cronin, b. (1984). the citation process: the role and significance of citations in scientific communications. london: taylor graham. davis, p., & cochran, a. (2015). cited half-life of the journal literature. retrieved from https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1504/1504.07479.pdf fanelli, d., & larivière, v. (2016). researchers’ individual publication rate has not increased in a century. plos one, 11(3): e0149504. retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0149504 garfield, e. (1970). citation indexing for studying science. nature, 227, 669-671. google scholar (n.d.). journal of learning for development. retrieved from https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=aksssbkaaaaj&hl=en gross, p.l.k., & gross, e.m. (1927). college libraries and chemical education. science, 66(1713), 385–389. harzing, a. (2007). publish or perish. retrieved from http://www.harzing.com/pop.htm hirsch, j. e. (2005). an index to quantify an individual's scientific research output. proceedings of the national academy of sciences, 102(46), 16569-16572. retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc1283832/pdf/pnas-0507655102.pdf jo, s. j., jeung, c.-w., park, s., & yoon, h. j. (2009). who is citing whom: citation network analysis among hrd publications from 1990 to 2007. human resource development quarterly, 20(4), 503–537. journal of learning for development (jl4d) (n.d.). website. retrieved from http://jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/about/editorialpolicies#focusandscope 175 kanwar, a. (2014). foreword. journal of learning for development, 1(1). retrieved from http://jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/article/view/37/14 katz, j. s., & martin, b. r. (1997). what is research collaboration? research policy, 26(1), 1-18. langton, m., manwaring, k., fry, l., & west, r. (2015). journal of computing in higher education, 2003-2012. educational technology, 55(1), 44-48. latchem, c. (2014). informal learning and non-formal education for development. journal of learning for development, 1(1). retrieved from http://jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/article/view/6/6 lee, y., driscoll, m. p., & nelson, d. w. (2004). the past, present, and future of research in distance education: results of a content analysis. american journal of distance education, 18, 225–241. marín, v. i., duart, j. m., galvis, a. h., & zawacki-richter, o. (2018). thematic analysis of the international journal of educational technology in higher education (ethe) between 2004 and 2017. international journal of educational technology in higher education, 15(8). retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s41239-018-0089-y mcinnis, r. (1982). 'do metaphors make good sense in teaching strategy?' in c. oberman & k. strach (eds.), theories of bibliographic education: designs for teaching, (pp. 47-74). new york: bowker. minnick, j. (2017). a closer look at cited and citing half-lives. retrieved from https://clarivate.com/blog/scienceresearch-connect/research-management/a-closer-look-at-cited-and-citing-half-lives/ mishra, s. (1997). a critical analysis of periodical literature in distance education. indian journal of open learning, 6(1), 39-53. mishra, s. (1998). distance education research: a review of its structure, methodological issues and priority areas. indian journal of open learning, 7(3), 267-82. mishra, s. (2002). ten years of indian journal of open learning. indian journal of open learning, 11(2), 279-290. mott, s., ward, c., miller, b., price, j., & west, r. (2012). british journal of educational technology, 2001–2010. educational technology, 52(6), 31–35. okubu, y. (1997). bibliometric indicators and analysis of research systems: methods and examples (sti working paper series). paris: oecd. parish, a. j., boyack, k. w., & ioannidis, j. p. (2018). dynamics of co-authorship and productivity across different fields of scientific research. plos one, 13(1), e0189742. retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0189742 patra, s.k., bhattacharya, p., & verma, n. (2006). bibliometric study of literature on bibliometrics. desidoc bulletin of information technology, 26(1), 27-32. price, d.j. de solla (1970). citation measures of hard science, soft science, technology and nonscience. in c.e. nelson & d. pollack (eds.), communication among scientists and engineers, (pp. 3-32). lexington: lexington books. pritchard, a. (1969). statistical-bibliography or bibliometrics? journal of documentation, 25(4), 348-349. rice, r.e., borgman, c.l., bednarski, d., & hart, p.j. (1989). journal-to-journal citation data: issues of validity and reliability. scientometrics, 15(3–4), 257–282. royal society (1981). a study of the scientific information system in the united kingdom. london: royal society. subramanyam, k. (1983). bibliometric studies of research collaboration: a review. journal of information science, 6(1), 33-38. tait, a. (2014). editorial. journal of learning for development, 1(1). retrieved from http://jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/article/view/39/20 176 tait, a. (2016). from the emeritus editor… journal of learning for development, 3(2), 3-6. retrieved from http://jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/article/view/151/133 tripathi, m., & kanungo, n. (2010). information use pattern of researchers in open and distance education: an analysis of citations of indian journal of open learning. indian journal of open learning, 19(3), 183-198. west, r. (2016). insights from the journal analysis series: what we have learned about educational technology research. educational technology, 56(1), 41-45. retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/44430441 zaugg, h., amado, m., small, t. r. & west, r. e. (2011). educational technology research journals: etr&d2001– 2010. educational technology, 51(5), 43–47. zawacki-richter, o., & anderson, t. (2011). the geography of distance education bibliographic characteristics of a journal network. distance education, 32:3, 441-456 zawacki-richter, o., & latchem, c. (2018). exploring four decades of research in computers & education. computers & education, 122, 136–152. retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2018.04.001 zawacki-richter, o., & naidu, s. (2016). mapping research trends from 35 years of publications in distance education. distance education, 37(3), 245–269. retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1080/01587919.2016.1185079 zawacki-richter, o., & von prümmer, c. (2010). gender and collaboration patterns in distance education research. open learning, 25(2), 95-114. zawacki-richter, o., alturki, u., & aldraiweesh, a. (2017). review and content analysis of the international review of research in open and distance/distributed learning (2000–2015). the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 18(2), 1–26. retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/2806 zawacki-richter, o., anderson, t., & tuncay, n. (2010). the growing impact of open access distance education journals: a bibliometric analysis. international journal of e-learning & distance education, 24(3). retrieved from http://www.ijede.ca/index.php/jde/article/view/661/1210 zawacki-richter, o., bäcker, e. m., & vogt, s. (2009). review of distance education research (2000 to 2008): analysis of research areas, methods, and authorship patterns. the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 10(6), 21-50. retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/741 author: dr. sanjaya mishra is education specialist, elearning at commonwealth of learning, canada. he is also the associate editor of journal of learning for development. email: smishrs@col.org cite this paper as: mishra, s. (2019). early years of the journal of learning for development: a combination of bibliometrics and thematic analysis. journal of learning for development, 6(2), 160-176. microsoft word bose.docx issn: 2311-1550 2021, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 269-282 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. a learning design for deep learning for a distance teacher education programme sutapa bose indira gandhi national open university, india abstract: self-learning materials (slm) generally lack the mechanisms for ensuring deep learning but help address the learning needs of large number of learners. hence, it was retained as the key instructional component for a distance in-service teacher education programme offered by the indira gandhi national open university (ignou), india. however, for the programme’s personal contact programme, a learning design was developed with the aim of addressing the slm’s pedagogic limitations. this study aimed to determine how learners were using the slm for learning while the design was being implemented at multiple units of analysis. it used the case-study method, and the findings suggested that the learning design encouraged deep learning processes that included the use of workplace learning as a context for interrogating the slm and evaluating their relevance. findings of qualitative studies are not generally generalisable. nevertheless, this study will help in making informed decisions favouring ‘learning designs’ instead of instructional designs for ignou’s future teacher education programmes. keywords: distance teacher education, self-learning material, pedagogy, learning design, deep learning. introduction the school of education (soe) of the indira gandhi national open university (ignou), india offers various teacher education programmes through the distance mode. one such programme was the certificate programme for professional development of primary teachers (cppdpt). it was an inservice programme of six months duration, with a target group comprising 11,068 primary teachers of the kendriya vidyalaya sangathan (kvs), the apex organization of central schools. the kvs, an organisation under the union government of india, runs 1,068 schools across india. like other teacher education programmes of ignou, for the cppdpt, too, self learning materials (slm) were the key instructional component. slm are designed for imparting text-based instructions and involve instructional design. use of slm, therefore, involves the transmission mode of delivering instructions but it helps to train large numbers within a short duration, makes management of instructions easy, and ensures quality of theoretical content (bates, 2015). during the past few decades, delivering instructions in this way helped in clearing a backlog of untrained teachers. however, slm lead to individualised, teacher dominated learning with an absence of social presence (anderson & dron, 2011; bates, 2015). activities built into the slm attempted to shift the pedagogy from behaviourism towards cognitive-behaviourism (carr, fung & chan, 2002). nevertheless, behaviourism primarily guided slm development (kasworm & yao, 1992). behaviourism, however, conflicts with the more recent cognitive and constructivist approaches to learning (murtonen, gruber 270 & lehtinen, 2017). there is no empirical evidence about the superiority of face-to-face teacher education over distance teacher education; however, the latter is generally associated with packaged instructions and behaviouristic pedagogies. in view of the thousands of teacher trainees comprising the cppdpt’s target group and the slm’s utility for training large numbers, the instructional strategy with slm as the key instructional component was retained. the other instructional component of the cppdpt was the personal contact programme (pcp) of 15 days duration in the entire programme cycle. the pcp involving face-to-face meeting is an essential part of distance teacher education programmes (daniel, 1979, as cited in keegan, 1986; sampson, 2003). however, a major part of the pcps of ignou’s teacher education programmes offered prior to the cppdpt used to be reserved for expository instructions, making it an additional channel for delivering instructions. therefore, a ‘learning design’ was developed for the pcp to ensure that slmbased learning involves deep learning processes. the pcps began in 2014, when the cppdpt was started. the cppdpt was offered for the next few years till its closure in 2019. during this phase, this study was carried out when several institutions hosting the pcp were visited. this article describes the learning design, followed by a description of the research method and the findings. the study being qualitative in nature, its findings are not generalisable. notwithstanding this limitation, the study has implications for ignou’s future teacher education programmes, and these have been discussed toward the end of this paper. description of the learning design the learning design is described below in terms of its theoretical underpinning and its framework. theoretical underpinning of the learning design the learning design was developed with the aim of addressing slm’s behaviouristic attributes. hence, it was developed with cognitive and constructivist underpinnings. cognitivists view learning as an active process of information processing that connects new information with existing knowledge. because of the emphasis on mental structures and information processing, cognitivism explains complex processes like reasoning, problem-solving and metacognition (schunk, 1991). hence, the learning design was developed for ensuring learners’ active engagement in problem solving, debates and critical discussions. further, to facilitate information processing the design used cognitive strategies involving logically sequenced learning tasks, designed for stimulating reflection and revision. constructivism considers learning not only as an active process of information processing but also interpretation of information for constructing knowledge (duffy & jonassen, 1991). social constructivists underline the significance of social setting for knowledge construction. hence, the learning design required learners to interpret the slm collectively. furthermore, it visualised classroom talk as the means for drawing in multiple perspectives and negotiated meaning making within a social setting. talk, however, becomes an academic discourse when it is orchestrated (michaels, o’connor, hall & resnick, 2002) for knowledge construction through guidance and scaffolding (chapin, o’connor & anderson, 2003; mercer, 1995). the design, therefore, required instructors to carry out these roles. 271 as the design was developed with cognitivist and constructivist underpinning, the activities were designed for reflective thinking; interactive processes involving collaborative learning, peer-learning, meaningful engagement with the content of slm; and application of learning. these processes, according to authors like biggs and tang (2003); drew and mackie (2011) and marton and saljo (1976) lead to deep learning. framework of the learning design unlike an instructional design, a learning design focuses on learning. its framework describes ‘learning processes’ and, hence, activity structures in terms of learning tasks, resources, and support for learning (dalziel, 2009; donald et al, 2009; koper, 2006). moreover, being a generic device, it is reusable at different times and places for more or less similar units of learning (koper, 2006). the cppdpt’s learning design too was reused temporally, during successive admission sessions, as well as spatially, across india. while developing the design’s framework, 36 themes, which could be learnt better with reflection and discourses, were selected from the cppdpt’s theory courses. since learner centered pedagogies support deep learning (pedersen & liu, 2003), brain storming, debates, and collaborative problem solving were selected for the themes — ‘professional ethics for teachers’, ‘folk songs and folk tales as repertoires of traditional knowledge regarding environmental science’ , ‘linking mathematics with children’s daily life’, and so on. role play was the pedagogy for themes like stress management, while the pedagogy for inclusive education was introspection for identifying teachers’ own biases that restrict inclusion. for teaching these themes the learning design included activities and structured these in terms of learning tasks; resources for learning; learning outputs; and support (see table 1 for an example of an activity structure). the first learning task was reading ‘resources’ listed for learning. resources for learning included the slm unit(s) from which a theme had been selected, and documents supplementing it such as, india’s right of children to free and compulsory education act, india’s national curriculum framework for schools, and so on. it was presumed that the understanding gained through individualised interaction with the slm units would inform interaction with peers and guide collective interpretation of the slm. the second task was discussing the content with team members. the third task involved application of the shared understanding gained through group discussions for collaborative development of the ‘learning output’ specified for an activity. the outputs included audio/video programmes, action research proposals, blueprints for achievement test, assessment tools for scholastic and co-scholastic domains, and teaching aids like games, puzzles, crosswords, activity reports, and other such artefacts. the fourth task required teams to present the learning outputs to the class and revise them using peer feedback before submitting them to instructors for summative assessment. an example of the tasks of an activity for the theme ‘child rights’ is as follows: task 1: studying the resources listed (literature on child rights including slm units); task 2: discussion within teams on factors leading to child rights violation at schools; task 3: collaboratively listing measures for protecting children’s rights in schools; and task 4: presenting the measures and strengthening these using peer feedback. 272 apart from these tasks, the design included instructions for learners to read the slm unit titled ‘teacher as a reflective practitioner’ and write a reflective journal every day during the contact programme. this task was included to encourage reflection. the design also included mechanisms to provide ‘support’ to learners. for this it required instructors to supervise and scaffold learning and assess learning outputs using the assessment criteria mentioned for an activity. the learning design thus required assessment ‘for’ learning besides assessment ‘of’ learning. this integrated and iterated assessment and learning. furthermore, as the design scheduled the activities, it fixed the duration of the tasks comprising them. table 1: an example of an activity structure day and session activity pedagogy resources learning tasks instructor’s role learning outcome assessment criteria 4th day, 2nd session development of action research proposal group discussion unit 6 (course 053) identification of problem scaffold learning proposal for action research rationale of research; objectives; research design; tools for data collection 5th day; 3rd and 4th sessions group work development of research proposal scaffold learning 4th day, 2nd session group work presentation of proposal; improvement using feedback scaffold learning; encourage feedback; grade proposal research questions research questions are drawn out of the theoretical propositions guiding a case study and provide a framework for investigation (cho & lee, 2014). the design was based on the theoretical propositions about deep learning. hence, for answering the overarching question of how learners were using the slm for learning, the investigation sought data that answered the following research questions: • does the design lead to interactions during the conduct of learning tasks? • is the design leading to reflective learning ? • how are learners applying their slm-based learning? methods a manual describing the learning design had been developed but it was being translated into practice by those who had no role in crafting it and were possibly used to programmes based on instructional designs. therefore, the need to examine the design’s effectiveness, rather than the related literature, led to this study. hence, research questions were drawn out of theoretical propositions about deep learning processes, underlying the design. 273 the study adopted a qualitative approach. like a case study that can answer ‘how' questions about contemporary events (yin, 2018), this study, too, examined how learners used the slm for learning while the learning design was being implemented. furthermore, research questions bounded the study (creswell, 2007) and theoretical propositions (underpinning the learning design) provided the logic and criteria for interpreting the findings. furthermore, the study was replicated at various units of analysis (personal contact programmes) in different parts of india. the study thus included the elements defining a case study (yin, 2018). moreover, like a descriptive case study, this study also yielded contextualised description of the phenomenon studied (yin, 2018). the descriptions were based on qualitative data collected from the units of analysis. hence, multiple units illustrated the findings (yin, 2018). sample study centres are established across india by ignou within conventional educational institutions to support learners through tutoring and counselling. these centers hosted the cppdpt’s personal contact programmes (pcps). a batch of a few thousand learners were admitted to the cppdpt in an academic session, and about 50 learners were admitted to one study centre. the study was carried out at a few of these study centres when these organised the pcp. at these centres it was found that out of 50, only 30-35 learners attended the pcp. all these learners attending a pcp were the participants of the study. the sample was thus purposive. the study centres where this study was carried out were located in different parts of india: delhi, haryana, west bengal, assam, kerala and rajasthan. the pcp at the study centre of each of these places was treated as a unit of analysis. multiple such units and, hence, cases were therefore studied. these units of analysis were, however, not selected randomly but qualitative studies allow such non-random sampling procedures (cohen, mannion & morrison, 2007). tools for data collection data collection for a case study involves gathering evidence (yin, 2018) relating to several variables (woods & calanzaro, 1980, as cited in heale & twycross, 2017). discussions with colleagues monitoring the implementation of the pcps helped to validate the variables to be examined. observation was the main tool for gathering evidence for the research questions (rqs). focus-group discussions were also held and this enriched the data collected through observation. however, observations instead of a predetermined interview schedule elicited questions for focus-group discussions. this helped to ensure the congruence of the variables examined. variables examined for rq 1 (interaction with slm, peers and instructors) were: a) citing from slm during discussion with peers; b) adherence to process described in the slm while developing artefacts; c) reading the slm during activities, and d) interactions with peers and instructors during activities. variables examined for rq 2 (reflection on slm) were: a) maintenance of reflective diaries; b) peer review of artefacts; and c) validation of slm by learners. variables examined for rq 3 (application of learning) were: a) use of concepts explained in slm during discussions; b) of rq 1; and c) of rq 2. 274 procedure of data collection there was informed consent from participants for data collection (cohen, mannion & morrison, 2007). research questions guided data collection and organisation. hence, observations were made while learners engaged in various learning tasks, like discussing and debating concepts; creating artefacts using the concept; and presenting and improving artefacts on the basis of the feedback received from peers. observations led to focus-group discussions and learners were asked questions to understand their viewpoints about an ongoing activity. data analysis qualitative data analysis involves data interpretation and meaning making. search for meaning is essentially a search for patterns in the data (stake, 1995). thematic analysis (braun & clarke, 2006) searches data for recurring themes. data analysis for this study, however, involved searches for patterns formed by instances (stake, 1995). theoretical propositions underpinning the design provided the perspective for interpreting instances. extraction of instances from the data, their interpretation and categorical aggregation (as per research questions) helped to identify patterns in the data (stake, 1995). however, the instances were not discrete events but often answered more than one research question. categorical aggregation as per research questions, hence included several overlapping instances. patterns emerging from repetitive instances were interpreted and described in the light of research questions. meaning made from the data collected at each unit of analysis inductively led to the overall findings for the study. there were thus multiple sources of evidence for the findings (zainal, 2007). findings trends emerging from data have been stated as findings. for stating the finding for a research question, first the trends have to be described, and, after that, data excerpts have to be used to substantiate these. the findings and the data excerpts underlying these are as follows. findings about interactions (research question1) three types of interactions were observed. learners were found to be interacting with the slm, peers and instructors in the following ways. interactions with slm instances evidencing learners’ interaction with slm were of three types. these instances, bedsides evidencing the interaction, also clarify the process of interaction. first, discussions within teams were found to be informed by the content of the slm, as learners cited content from slm for supporting their views. such instances indicated interaction with the slm. the second type of instances were of learners following the steps described in the slm for developing artefacts. these two types of instances indicated learners’ interaction with the slm before the activity. the third type of instance was of learners suspending a task for reading and re-reading the slm individually, reading them aloud to team members and interpreting them. on being asked whether they read the slm, most of the learners said that they started reading after the pcp began. they also said that kvs teachers were posting (on social media) that they were opening slm packets because of the pcp. a post said, “can no longer put off unpacking the packet (of slm) ignou had sent. not opening it now means an e grade (in the contact programme).” 275 hence, the trend emerging from the data was that the learning design initiated and sustained learners’ interaction with the content (slm). there were, however, a few instances when learners did not seem to have read the slm. they appeared to be unfamiliar with the structure of the slm and this was obvious while they navigated them. participation of such learners in teamwork was relatively less and their inputs during discussions were general ideas about the theme rather than the content explained in the slm. interactions with peers two types of instances indicated learners’ interaction with peers. these were instances of interactions within teams and interactions across teams. interactions within teams usually pertained to the content of the slm, development of learning outputs and ways to improve the learning output in the light of peer feedback. instances of discussions on the content turning into debates within teams and other teams joining in were also common. learners across study centres said that themes, like measures for ensuring quality in primary education, implementing constructivist pedagogies, addressing ethical dilemmas, professional ethics for teachers, and codes of conduct for teachers made arguments inevitable. interviews revealed that learners welcomed the scope for interaction with peers, and there were views expressed, such as, “discussions make learning informal and it is easier to understand.” “in our classrooms we discourage talking, but it is helping us to understand the content.” apart from interaction within teams, there were also instances of interaction across the teams of a study centre. this was a trend that showed that learners also preferred help from other teams rather than the instructor. a learner at kerala said, “our colleagues being kvs teachers, they think in terms of kvs classrooms. their language is simpler and informal unlike ignou’s books (slm). their suggestions are also more practical than the instructors’ suggestions.” interaction among teams was also observed when an output presented by a team was critiqued by others. for instance, at a study centre, some of the comments after watching a video presented by a team, were: “technically good but does not explain much.” “good but too long, trim the introduction.” similarly, for a language game that required children (representing alphabets) to form meaningful words, one of the comments was, “children will surely not walk, but run to join others and you will have 50 children running around and some running away.” learners used such peer feedback for revising learning outputs before submitting them for grading. for instance, the team working on the language game altered it to engage five children in the game and the rest in assessing the words formed by the players. interactions with instructors it was found that learners carried out learning tasks on their own. their interaction with instructors was infrequent. learners said that clearly articulated learning tasks eliminated the need for instructions from instructors. the design’s role in facilitating self-regulated learning was summed up by a learner from assam, who said, “our need for completing activities on time and getting good grades keeps us working. we don’t need teachers to keep us on track.” regarding the content, learners said that the slm explained most of the concepts, and solutions from peers were better than those from instructors. a learner at the study centre in west bengal said, “for a few topics, the slm is not really slm. otherwise, when it explains well there is no need for teacher’s help.” however, while supervising activities, instructors asked questions and sometimes explained the concepts concerned. 276 few instructors however provided detailed explanations. these instructors were of the view that learners who had not read the slm required the explanation. an instructor said in this regard: it is difficult to implement the design when learners have not studied the slm. some of them say that they received slms late while some say that they didn’t have time to study. how can they apply the concepts when they have not studied these? findings about reflections (research question 2) it was found that learners across study centres had taken a collective decision against reflective journal writing. a learner’s view captured the reason for this. he said, “no point in working for reflective diaries, these won’t be graded”. however, the design’s mechanisms, to encourage discussion on the content and to critique outputs, encouraged reflection. instances like learners critiquing peers’ learning outputs, questioning the applicability of the slm in school situations, validating their assertions, and pointing out inadequacies in the content indicated reflection. learners critiqued videos, language games and other outputs while their peers presented these. for example, appreciation for the strengths of a video, like its technical soundness, and attempts to draw attention to its inability to explain the concept projected reflective thinking. furthermore, learners across study centres where the implementation of the design was examined, were unanimous that many content areas of the slm had been authored without factoring in problems that restricted transfer of learning to school situations. for instance, learners at assam and new delhi said that a barrier to the implementation of the policy for mainstreaming children with special needs was the lack of adequate teacher preparation for teaching mixed groups of children. consequently, schools, instead of integrating them, begin their marginalisation. during interviews, too, the general view of learners was that not everything the slm taught was doable. a learner from kerala said, “for some topics slm writers don’t seem to be in touch with the realities of classrooms and uphold impractical propositions. one example is the suggestion on managing classrooms. we have better solutions.” such instances that questioned the slm’s relevance were evidence of reflection and described how learners were reflecting on the content. learners, although, questioned the relevance of content of some topics, and they were in agreement with some of the assertions made by the slm. for instance, many learners, agreed with the slm’s idea about folk songs and folk tales being resources having pedagogic potential for teaching environmental science. similarly, for the content on counselling, a learner from haryana said: while counselling we are quick to judge and label children as talkative, undisciplined and so on and children retort by becoming totally uncommunicative, but while carrying out the activity (pertaining to counselling), we felt that the slm is right about being non-judgmental while counselling. during interviews learners said that the activities they were carrying out helped them to understand the content but these also helped to verify its relevance in school situations. there were views expressed like, “the slm seems more convincing after the activity, like after the role play we feel the slm is right about strained relation being a major reason for stress.” an actor in the role play said that the slm seemed “so true” after the role play. activities thus helped to elicit reflection required for validating the slm’s content. 277 instances of learners identifying the slm’s inadequacies also indicated reflection on the content. for instance, a team in rajasthan said that children’s habit of using the subject-object-verb (s-o-v) order for sentence construction in most indian languages interfered with their sentence construction in english, which requires the s-v-o order but the slm does not suggest the need to address this linguistic barrier. similarly, for making math learning fun, learners suggested techniques that seemed to be more appropriate than those suggested by the slm. reflection on the content was also obvious when learners interpreted the slm differently. some agreed with the views of the slm, while some opposed them. for example, at a study centre, after initially agreeing with the code of conduct that restricts teachers’ engagement in political activities, a few learners re-read the code, and opposed the slm. however, most of the time learning outcomes indicated the resolution of differences within teams. the design’s mechanism for assessment of the collective performance of teams rather than that of individual team members seemed to catalyse collective reflection and reconciliation of differences while finalising learning outcomes. however, there were a few instances when teams agreed to disagree and learning outcomes in such cases accommodated multiple realities. for instance, a team leader while presenting an activity report said: some of our group members feel that the right to elementary education (rte) (2009) promotes every student to the next higher grade. consequently, not even parents realise that children are not learning till it’s too late. the rest of us however feel that grade repetition does not enhance learning achievement. findings about application of concepts (research question 3) learners used concepts explained in the slm for building narratives, arguments and counter arguments during debates and discussions. they also applied learning for developing learning outputs and while reviewing learning outcomes presented by their peers. these three types of instances trending in the data furnished evidence of application of learning, and also described the way in which learners applied learning. for example, while deliberating on the dimensions of quality elementary education, learners used the quality parameters mentioned in the slm for assessing the quality of teaching and assessment practices of their schools. this indicated application of learning about quality dimensions. similarly, they applied the parameters of quality while developing a report about the quality measures their school adopted. instances of application were also evident, when learners critiqued the measures suggested by their peers for improving the quality of elementary education. there were many instances across study centres when learners said during deliberations on child rights that practices that teachers considered as normal could be actually leading to violation of child rights. they cited instances of resorting to light beating for disciplining children, subjecting children to punishments like asking them to quit the class and stand outside the classroom and reprimanding them in the presence of their peers. learners said that these were common practices in schools but, since such practices hurt and humiliate children, they violate child rights. instances like these indicated the application of understanding child rights and their violation. learners exhibited their ability to apply their understanding of educational policies, for instance, when they debated the feasibility of implementation of these policies at schools. criticism of the right to education act’s no detention policy, and the policy for mainstreaming children with disabilities are 278 also instances reflecting application of learning for building arguments against these policies. similarly, language games, action research proposals, blueprints for assessment, plans for providing customised interventions for remedial teaching and the like, projected the ability to apply learning for developing artefacts. during interviews learners were asked whether the activities requiring application of concepts were helpful for learning. there were responses such as, “explanations in the slm become meaningful after the activities.” “we skip the activities suggested in the slm but here we enjoy activities as we carry out these with our team members and this is definitely helping us to learn.” findings not guided by the investigation framework research questions framed at the beginning of the study guided data collection but some instances that emerged from data were not sought by research questions and, hence, did not fit into the investigation framework. nevertheless, these offered insights about the design and led to the following findings. the design nurtured creativity there were several instances of learners using diverse art forms like skits, songs and poems while presenting learning outcomes, even though the design did not suggest this. for example, at a study center in rajasthan, a skit communicated the similarities of parents of first-generation learners and educated parents with demanding jobs. both were portrayed as having unrealistic expectations from teachers and reluctance for attending parent-teacher meetings. similarly, a few teams at new delhi used poems to communicate that those regulating teachers and teaching were obsessed with constructivism and considered it as a solution for all learning problems. the poem also underlined policy makers’ silence about ways to practice constructivism and joyful learning in classrooms crowded with more than 50 students. exclusion of technology many learners wanted to ‘see’ the implementation of constructivist approaches and universal learning designs in classrooms. a learner at haryana summed this up by saying, “we are still at a loss about using constructivist pedagogy in our classrooms with 50-55 children, with none having any intention to learn. managing classroom is far more important.” since the design’s framework integrated content and pedagogy but not technology, videos demonstrating such practices within classroom settings had not been included in the resources. discussion interaction at pcps of ignou’s teacher education programme revealed learners’ tendency to postpone study (of slm) till the term end examination (tee). the learning design described in this study checked the procrastination by necessitating interaction with the slm. by ensuring interaction with the slm, the design enabled application of learning, and by creating the need for application, it facilitated learners’ meaningful engagement with the content and constructive engagement with peers and instructors. thus, the design promoted interactions envisioned for deep learning. the design also promoted reflection. even though learners did not write reflective journals, reflection was evident from peer feedback, learners’ agreement with some of the assertions of the slm, and disagreement with some. agreement with the slm validated its content. on the other hand, critical discourses 279 resulting from disagreements culminated in powerful narratives that challenged the slm’s assertions about issues like: constructivism as an ideal approach to learning; schools being the first step towards inclusiveness; no detention policy of the right to education; restriction on teachers’ participation in political activities. the design, therefore, engaged learners in learning as a community of inquiry through collaborative engagement in purposeful critical discourse and reflection, for constructing personal meaning and confirming mutual understanding (garrison, 2011; vaughan, 2016). such discourses involving reflection and reasoning enriched the content, contextualised the theoretical slm, and converted the static instructional package (the slm) into a dynamic and evolving entity. furthermore, by structuring activities into tasks and clarifying roles and resources, the learning design promoted self-regulated learning with low dependence on instructors. nevertheless, the activity structures had the elasticity for accommodating learner-driven initiatives like the use of performing arts for enriching oral presentations. the design made learning and assessment iterative. learners were keen for assessment by peers and instructors as this improved the learning outputs. a learner from new delhi said in this regard, “ignou should replace its exams with such stress free assessment mechanisms.” the design thus engaged learners in processes, which, as per the theoretical propositions of the study, were appropriate for deep learning. the design also encouraged participatory learning and demanded a leadership role. at the study centre in assam, a learner said, “there are many women like me who gained confidence because of the opportunity for presenting, critiquing and defending learning outcomes.” the design also encouraged interrogation of the slm, leading to diverse interpretations, critiques regarding its relevance and validity and even challenges to its authority. the design thus generated a liberal learning environment that empowered learners. however, the design lacked the mechanisms for grading reflective journals. hence, learners carried out activities and delayed submission of outputs for grading till these had been improved on the basis of peer feedback but ignored reflective journal writing. the design also did not integrate technology. therefore, learners did not benefit from video-based demonstrations facilitating transfer of learning to school situations, and technologymediated collaborative activities. moreover, kvs teachers are transferred to different regions of india. the learning outputs, therefore, comprised content that was not bound by the context of one school but had wider applicability. however, the need to create mechanisms to preserve such content as a repertoire of valuable learning experiences had not been foreseen. implications of the study findings of case studies are not generalisable. however, the study has implications for ignou’s distance teacher education programmes. first, it underlines that a deep learning design can restrict the dominance of traditional pedagogies. second, it shows that pedagogies that encourage discourses create a liberal and democratic learning environment that facilitates co-construction of knowledge and accommodates multiple realities. third, the study underlines the potential of workplace learning, and in-service teacher trainees’ capacity to use it as a reference point for validating and enriching the content developed by teacher educators. fourth, it shows that learner centered approaches nurture creativity. fifth, it highlights the potential of the performing arts for powerful delivery of messages. sixth, it underlines that grades motivate learners more than the intrinsic value of a learning process and learners calculate the incentives for a learning process and the disincentives for ignoring it. 280 hence, the general implication of this study is that for ignou’s future programmes, designing learning rather than instructions would be preferable. this is also true for ignou’s online programmes because technology can introduce an epistemological shift, only when the teachinglearning process has been designed suitably. conclusion like music notation, a design (dalziel, et al, 2016) needs to be interpreted in the same way by different users. the cppdpt’s learning design was interpreted in the same way and across study centres it stimulated interactions, reflection, application of learning and critique of the slm in the context of its applicability in schools. the design thus introduced learning processes that the slm on its own could not. even though the design’s impact on teachers’ performance at schools has not been studied, it underlines the need for shifting the focus of india’s distance teacher education from instructions to learning. the shift will be essential as distance teacher education has been used in india for clearing backlogs of untrained teachers. this raised enrolment and lessened distance learning institutions’ dependence on government grants. nevertheless, it entrenched pedagogies suitable for training large number of trainees. however, factors like increasing access to technology and the covid-19 pandemic are challenging the continuation of a model that uses printed slm and face-to-face contact programmes. hence, online teacher education programmes are being encouraged. however, the experience of satellite-mediated teleconferencing for ignou’s teacher education programmes prove that the potential of advanced technology to support a pedagogic shift does not necessarily lead to a shift. hence, online teacher education programmes could change the medium but retain the pedagogy unless teaching-learning processes are designed for learning. references anderson, t., & dron, j. (2011). three generations of distance education pedagogy. the international review of research in open and distance learning, 12(3). http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/890/1663 bates, t. (2015). teaching in a digital age: guidelines for designing teaching and learning. tony bates associates ltd. https://www.tonybates.ca/teaching-in-a-digital-age/ biggs, j., & tang, c. (2003). teaching for quality learning at university. society for research into higher education and open university press. braun, v., & clarke, v. (2006). using thematic analysis in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), 77101. doi:10.1191/1478088706qp063oa carr, r., fung, y., & chan, s. k. (2002). distance education for teacher education: hong kong experience. journal of in-service education, 28(1), 163-178 doi:10.1080/13674580200200176 chapin, s., o’connor, c., & anderson, n. (2003). classroom discussions: using math talk in elementary classrooms. online newsletter issue, number 11. http://www.mathsolutions.com/documents/0-941355-535_l.pdf cho, j. y., & lee, e. (2014). reducing confusion about grounded theory and qualitative content analysis: similarities and differences. the qualitative report, 19(32), 1-20. https://nsuworks.nova.edu/tqr/vol19/iss32/2 cohen, l., manion, l., & morrison, k. (2007). research methods in education. routledge. 281 creswell, j. w. (2007). qualitative enquiry and research design: choosing among five approaches. sage publications. dalziel, j. (2009). prospects for learning design research and lams. teaching english with technology – special issue on lams and learning design, 9(2), 1-4. bwmeta1.element.desklight-1a61fafc-b30a-4285-84abdbabd6268a95 dalziel, j., conole, g., wills, s., walker, s., bennett, s., dobozy, e., cameron, l., badilecu buga, e., & bower, m. (2016). the larnaca declaration on learning design. journal of interactive media in education, (7), 1-24. https://doi.org/10.5334/jime.407 donald, c., blake, a., girault, i., datt, a., & ramsay, e. (2009). approaches to learning design: past the head and the hands to the heart of the matter. distance education, 30(2), 179-199. https://www.learntechlib.org/p/106163/ drew, v., & mackie, l. (2011). extending the constructs of active learning: implications for teachers' pedagogy and practice. the curriculum journal, 22(4), 451-467. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585176.2011.627204 duffy, t. m., & jonassen, d. (1991). constructivism: new implications for instructional technology? educational technology, 31(5), 3-12. http://homepages.gac.edu/~mkoomen/edu241/constructivism.pdf garrison, r. d. (2011). e-learning in the 21st century: a framework for research and practice. routledge/falmer. heale, r., & twycross, a. (2017). what is a case study? evidence based nursing, 21(1), 7-8. doi.10.1136/eb-2017102845. 10.1136/eb-2017-102845. kasworm, c. e., & yao, b. (1992, november). the development of adult learner autonomy and selfdirectedness in distance education [paper presentation]. 16th world conference: international council on distance education. bangkok, thailand. http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ed355453.pdf keegan, d. (1986). interaction and communication. in d. keegan (ed.), the foundations of distance education (pp. 89-107). croom helm. koper, r. (2006). current research in learning design. educational technology & society, 9(1), 13-22. https://www.jstor.org/stable/jeductechsoci.9.1.13?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents marton, f., & saljo, r. (1976). on qualitative differences in learning ii: outcome as a function of the learner’s conception of the task. british journal of educational psychology, 46(2), 115-127. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.20448279.1976.tb02304 mercer, n. (1995). the guided construction of knowledge: talk amongst teachers and learners. multilingual matters. michaels, s., o’connor, c., hall, m. w., & resnick, l. b. (2002). accountable talk: classroom conversation that works. university of pittsburgh. ifl.pitt.edu/index.php/download/index/ats ministry of education, government of india. (2009). the right of children to free and compulsory education act. http:// mhrd.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/upload_document/rti1.pdf murtonen, m., gruber, h., & lehtinen, e. (2017). the return of behaviourist epistemology: a review of learning outcomes studies. educational research review, 22, 114–128. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2017.08.00 pedersen, s., & liu, m. (2003). teachers’ beliefs about issues in the implementation of a student centered learning environment. educational technology research and development, 51(2), 57-76. doi:10.1007/bf02504526 sampson, n. (2003). meeting the needs of distance learners. language learning & technology, 7(3), 103-118. https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10125/25216/1/07_03_sampson.pdf schunk, d. h. (1991). learning theories: an educational perspective. macmillan. 282 stake, r. e. (1995). the art of case study research. sage publications. vaughan, n. (2016). an inquiry-based approach to blended and online learning in k-12 education. in n. ostashewski, j. howell & m. cleveland-innes (eds.), optimizing k-12 education through online and blended learning (pp. 138-155). information science reference (igi global). yin, r. k. (2018). case study research and applications: design and methods (6th ed.). sage publications. zainal, z. (2007). case study as a research method. jurnal kemanusiaan, 9, 1-6. author: sutapa bose is a professor at the school of education, indira gandhi national open university, india. email: sbose@ignou.ac.in. cite this paper as: bose, s. (2021). a learning design for deep learning for a distance teacher education programme. journal of learning for development, 8(2), 269-282. microsoft word naidu.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 197-207 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. recalibrating institutional choreographies for a future focused education som naidu the university of the south pacific, the republic of fiji abstract: contemporary educational institutions are experiencing disruptions to their modus operandi from a variety of sources. a changing student demographic across the higher education sector, along with their changing educational needs is driving much of this disruption. other drivers are the need for different kinds of skill sets required in the contemporary workplace, the need for alternative methods of credentialing and a demand for flexibility in the education space. however, if you examine how prepared our contemporary educational institutions are for leading learning for the future, you are likely to be disappointed. this is not because our current educational system is broken en masse. in fact, there are plenty of examples of excellent practices all around us, but these are not enough. our universities and educational systems continue to operate on outdated principles and practices. while they are willing to experiment with new models on the peripheries of their core business, most are not bold enough to rethink and reconfigure their mainstream processes. it is rare to find large-scale and enterprise-wide operations that are appropriately aligned to lead learning and teaching for the near and the long-term future. why is this so? what can, and must be done about it? this paper examines potential areas of disruption, their key drivers, and where and how to begin a rethink and recalibration of how universities can create, capture and deliver value. keywords: disruption, higher education, flexible learning, technology. introduction a recent ernst young report on the university of the future asked the question, “can the universities of today lead learning for tomorrow?” to find that, “australia’s universities are monolithic institutions that control all aspects of their teaching and research activities, anchored by physical spaces and timebound schedule” (halloran & friday, 2019, p. 5). a rather harsh indictment one might think, but when seen from a global perspective, this is not such an incorrect reflection of the contemporary higher education scene (www.ey.com/au/futureuniversity). while the generation and dissemination of knowledge remains the core business of universities, transformations in the digital space are challenging and disrupting conventional models and practices, and contemporary educational institutions have not been able to adapt to this changing environment. the report suggests that such disruptions are likely to accelerate and intensify, and unless contemporary educational institutions learn to adapt, they will be doomed for failure leaving global aspirations such as education for all and sustainable development unrealised. 198 the observations of this report, although focused on the australian higher education sector, have implications for tertiary education broadly and especially, universities of the future. this paper offers a window into the target of some of these disruptions along the dimensions suggested in the ernst young report. these are how universities create, capture and deliver value. potential areas of disruption in higher education a core business of universities is preparing the next generation of learners for a meaningful life. this is how universities create and add value. traditionally, these learners across the higher education sector have comprised a mixture of domestic and international students, who are funded either privately or sponsored from government and industry sources. the majority of these learners are high school leavers seeking their first qualification in anticipation of a lifetime of work and gainful employment. as such, their primary goal is the acquisition of formal qualifications, new knowledge and ideas, as well as hard and soft skills enabling them to transfer that new knowledge to novel situations. this is also about coming of age for adolescent high school leavers, as they seek their first formal qualification and their first employment opportunities. to these first-time, tertiary students, universities offer new learning opportunities and with that, opportunities for research and scholarship. these opportunities are uniformly bundled across institutions in the form of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in which teaching and learning activities are organised in the form of lectures, small group tutorials, laboratory and field work. in the context of a globalised economy and workforce, a greater proportion of these learners will be returning for reskilling and upskilling while remaining in gainful employment. these returning learners will be asking for increasingly flexible learning opportunities so that they are able to combine work, their private lives and further education. they will also be asking for unbundled learning opportunities in the form of short courses and micro credentials alongside full-length study programmes. in order to meet these new demands, universities of the future will need to engage with a wider variety of learning and teaching opportunities including nontraditional, online, and flexible learning approaches. a notable major component of this is the conventional campus-based physical infrastructure, which includes teaching, learning and research facilities. the revenue model for the maintenance of this infrastructure is the public purse in the form of government grants. in the near future, student fees, commercial interests and philanthropy will need to subsidise this heavily, as the next generation of educational institutions seek to engage with an increasing digital and distributed infrastructure, industry engagement and talent development in an open and flexible learning space. these disruptions will invariably affect how universities deliver and disseminate value. typically, this comprises engagement in a wide range of teaching activities that includes the creation and development of subject matter content, helping students engage with this content, assessment of their learning outcomes and credentialing. the widely adopted model universally, for the delivery of this service, comprises campus-based faculties, schools and libraries. it involves the provision of a wide range of services including learning and teaching and research services, technology support services, and student administrative services. universities of the future will be seeing widespread disruptions to this model of operation as they fight to remain relevant in a contested learning and teaching space where they are no longer the sole providers of learning and educational opportunities. 199 key drivers of disruption and their opportunities this paper maps out a pathway and opportunities for a rethink and recalibration of conventional institutional choreographies in relation to key functional dimensions. these dimensions are how universities create, capture and offer value to individuals, societies and nations, for without such a rethink and recalibration, universities of the future are unlikely to be able to lead learning for tomorrow, leaving global aspirations of education for all and sustainable development as pipe dreams. in looking forward to the nature of universities of the future, their pedagogical models and the qualifications they will offer, it is appropriate that we reflect upon key drivers of this disruption, and explore the opportunities that lie ahead for policy development and how best to spend our resources now, and in the future. predominantly cited among these key drivers are: (1) ubiquitous access to technology; (2) demand for flexibility in learning and teaching; 3) need for connectivity and communication; (4) distribution and disaggregation of teaching functions and roles; and (5) growth of alternative digital credentialing. ubiquitous access to technology a growing access to technology and affordable connectivity is empowering larger numbers of students to engage with increasingly open, flexible, and technology enhanced learning and teaching (hereafter oftel). this is a global trend and a characteristic of both, institutions with an oftel pedigree as well as those without. in institutions with an oftel pedigree, these methods are moving from the periphery to the centre, alongside a growing mixture of modes including some face-to-face teaching as well. while in institutions without an oftel tradition, these methods are increasingly appearing alongside their predominately face-to-face mode. there is, because of this convergence, an explosion of interest in open, flexible, and technologyenhanced learning across the higher education sector (gallagher, & garrett, 2013). a wide range and variety of organisations are venturing onto the educational scene to offer learning opportunities wherever needed, on demand, and in ways that meet the needs of students wherever they might be located. as a result, the form and function of the conventional educational institution is under stress, as it is no longer the sole provider of educational opportunities. these are now accessible from a variety of sources including individuals, consortia and commercial organisations. a changing student demographic across the sector is demanding these learning opportunities, and organisations are rising up to the occasion and the challenge it poses, as failure to do so will lead to declining enrolments, revenue loss and diminishing rankings. although for the moment, in many of these institutions open, flexible and technology-enhanced learning continues to sit on the periphery of their core business, as an opportunity to promote its existing brand and tap into new markets for new students and additional revenue streams. many of these institutions find the affordances of open, flexible and technology-enhanced learning attractive and are willing to experiment with it in parallel to their conventional learning and teaching practices but not at their expense. classic examples of this are stanford university, the massachusetts institute of technology, and carnegie mellon in the us (glc, 2016). this is the most potent challenge facing enterprise-wide adoption of open, flexible and technology-enhanced learning, and especially in institutions without a strong pedigree in the field. 200 a rethink and recalibration of conventional institutional choreographies is required across the sector for successful adoption and integration of oftel. such a rethink will have to involve reimagining conventional academic and administrative structures as well as influencing the behavior of academics, their belief systems about learning and teaching and their instructional methods. it will require careful scaffolding and orchestration of newer learning and teaching experiences including alternative pathways for different kinds of learners. this will need to include opportunities for high school leavers seeking their first tertiary qualification, as well as adults who are already in the workforce and seeking to upskill and reskill. some of these kinds of learning opportunities will require alternative approaches to accreditation and credentialing. for without such a rethink and recalibration, oftel will remain on the periphery of mainstream processes and an unrealised potential, and universities will have missed an attractive opportunity to lead learning for the future. demand for flexibility in learning and teaching a hallmark feature of such a rethink and recalibration is the integration of flexible learning opportunities in mainstream educational processes. teaching is a consequence of mediation between the teacher, the learner and the learning resources. this is either self-paced or group-based and may take one or more of four principal forms, namely, self-paced learning online; self-paced learning offline, group-based learning synchronously, and group-based learning asynchronously (naidu, 2008). in the selfpaced learning mode, learners could be working by themselves either offline as in the case of private study, or online as is the case in online learning. in the group-based mode, learners could be studying in a group while in synchronous communication with the group, as is the case in audio or video conferencing, or asynchronous communication as is the case in an online discussion forum. open, flexible and technology-enhanced learning affords much greater flexibility than is possible in conventional approaches to teaching in all of these scenarios. for learners, this kind of flexibility may include choices in relation to entry and exit points, selection of learning activities, assessment tasks and educational resources in return for different kinds of credits and costs. and for teachers it can involve choices in relation to the allocation of their time and the mode and methods of communication with learners as well as the educational institution (naidu, 2017a). this kind of flexibility in learning and teaching is relevant in any mode of study. moreover, the determination of its nature and level in a given context will depend on several interacting variables, such as the nature of the subject matter, the level of study, the location of students and teachers, and their readiness as well as the readiness of institutional infrastructure for supporting such flexibility. in this manner, one size or approach does not, and will not, fit all learners, teachers or discipline areas. there is a need for different approaches to learning and teaching, with different levels of flexibility, structure and guidance for different cohorts and learning contexts (naidu, 2017a). a useful approach is to consider how flexibility can be integrated to leverage key dimensions of the learning and teaching transaction regardless of the mode of this transaction. these dimensions are as follows (see also naidu, & roberts, 2018): 1. learner-content engagement: this is about learners’ engagement and interaction with the subject matter content in ways that suit individuals, their learning styles and approaches to studying and its time, place and pace. 201 2. learner-teacher engagement: this is about choices learners have in relation to the mode and method of their engagement and interaction with their teachers and tutors. 3. learner-learner engagement: this is about choices learners have in relation to the mode and method of their engagement and interaction with their peers in small and large groups, and in offline and online educational settings. 4. learner engagement with the learning environment: this is about adaptable access, interaction and engagement with the learning environment (such as with mobile devices, wi-fi access and innovative use of study space). 5. learner engagement with assessment activities: this is about choices learners have in relation to the fulfillment of their assessment requirements. 6. learner engagement with feedback: this is about choices learners have in relation to access to feedback on their learning and assessment activities. 7. learner engagement with the institution: this is about choices learners have in relation to their engagement with the services of the educational institution. the greater the flexibility along these dimensions, the more personalised is the learning experience for the student. although, personalisation of the learning experience for students has its costs. primarily, this includes increased pressure on teaching and teaching support staff as well as other institutional resources such as the library and technical infrastructure. for this reason alone, teaching staff are not too keen on too much personalising of the learning experiences of students, and instead prefer groupbased approaches. increasing access to technology however, is enabling greater personalisation of the learning experience without a commensurate increase in teaching and support staff workloads. along with greater personalisation of learning also comes alternative opportunities for learning, teaching and assessment activities for a wider variety of learners including those with different levels of competencies, disabilities and disadvantages, so that not everyone is painted with the same brush as is the case in a group-based educational setting. the adoption of more personalised learning and teaching opportunities will require upskilling and professional development of university teachers and tutors. most tertiary educators are not trained teachers, let alone trained in the use of oftel. this will need to include, not only a reconsideration of the standard professional development programmes for tertiary teachers, but the development of a whole suite of strategies for all kinds of teaching staff taking on tertiary teaching. too much flexibility without adequate continuing professional development and support can in fact do more harm than good to learners and teachers alike. getting the mixture and the balance right in the integration of flexibility and oftel more generally across the sector is the key, and a critical function of teaching. this means a rethink and reconsideration of how tertiary teachers are recruited, remunerated, and supported in their work in the contemporary education space. need for connectivity and communication for effective and efficient mediation of the learning and teaching transaction in an increasingly flexible learning space connectivity is essential. with reliable connectivity, expertise and learning resources can be sourced from anywhere, and by anyone with access to the facilities. universities of the future will no longer need to invest in physical libraries to support learning and teaching in the 202 future. fortunately, connectivity is becoming increasingly accessible and affordable but it is far from universal. besides, connection and communication comes at a cost. educational institutions, throughout the developing world, which needs it most, are struggling with unfavourably high costs of reliable and robust connectivity. these costs are just as prohibitive for students and teachers alike, and are especially potent for those who are studying or teaching from home and remote locations. in an information dense educational environment and with growing availability of open educational resources, the best that universities of the future can do is provide reliable access to robust connectivity. this will need to include not only the provision of adequate connectivity and bandwidth at all times of the day but the reconfiguring of physical learning and teaching spaces such as lecture and tutorial rooms for lecture capture, and desktop audio and video conferencing. it will also need capacity building for staff and students in the integration of open educational resources that will become accessible as a result of increased connectivity (naidu, 2016a). disaggregation and distribution of teaching functions a product of ubiquitous connectivity is distributed learning where learning and teaching activities are feasible from any place, any time and indeed at any pace. in the contemporary higher education sector, this kind of an educational experience is seen as somewhat idealistic, and by some, in fact, an unwise proposition. the argument against this proposition is that students, and especially freshmen, are ill equipped to handle too much independence and flexibility in their learning space. they claim that flexibility in the hands of the novice learner can do more harm than good. as such, many educators argue that direct instruction in group-based learning contexts is much better suited for this category of students. many students themselves, have been noted to agree with this suggestion. many prefer direct instruction where someone tells them what needs to be known, rather than being expected to learn by doing, and exploring for themselves in a flexible learning environment. it is unclear how much of this negativity of tertiary teachers towards disaggregation and distribution of teaching functions is due to their own techno-phobia, or to a fear of losing control and leaving their own comfort zone. in a distributed learning context, the learning and teaching transaction is not in anyone’s control, nor confined to a particular location (see saltzberg, & polyson, 1995). in these educational settings, any such control is distributed among various stakeholders. this is a truly democratic and liberated learning and teaching architecture, in which learners and teachers can be located anywhere and be able to access educational resources from anywhere, and at any time, via web-enabled tools and services. for this kind of a learning and teaching architecture to work effectively and efficiently, reliable access to networked communications technologies is essential (dede, 2004). and as this kind of technological infrastructure becomes more widely available and accessible, the typical roles and responsibilities of teachers will undergo change (see vrasidas, & glass, 2002). in the conventional campus-based educational environment, the teaching academic is the aggregate of all teaching functions. this includes selection of the subject matter content, design of the learning and teaching activities, facilitation of these activities, assessment of the learning outcomes and provision of feedback. in a distributed learning and teaching scenario, these teaching functions are disaggregated and shared among a team with specialist skills (rosenbloom, 2011). the selection of the subject matter 203 content for instance, could be a product of a team of content specialists, while the design and development of the learning activities, feedback and assessment strategies could be a product of collaboration with learning experience designers and media producers. disaggregating traditional teaching roles and functions in this manner and allocating these to specialist groups requires a different operational model of learning and teaching in universities. it also requires a shift in perceptions of what it means to teach and who is responsible for what aspects in the full spectrum of the learning and teaching transaction. it requires a shift in the mindsets of academics about expertise, as tertiary teachers are often hired to their roles for their discipline-based knowledge. and negotiating the form and function of this knowledge with others, especially those without this knowledge base, is fraught with problems. tertiary teachers will have knowledge of their discipline but given their current recruitment practices, they cannot be assumed to possess comparable pedagogical and technological knowledge (see mishra, & koehler, 2006; chai, koh, & tsai, 2013). this is becoming increasingly obvious with the increasing adoption of technology in the contemporary learning and teaching space. so, relinquishing some of these teaching functions to specialist learning experience design and development staff in fact, has advantages for tertiary teachers. it means more time for other scholarly activities such as research and scholarship, which are also part of their role (gallagher, & garrett, 2013). there are many advantages for disaggregating teaching functions and having it carried out by dedicated and specialist staff. foremost, it releases the subject matter experts from carrying out functions that they are not skilled at performing. these functions include the design of productive learning experiences, and effective use of information and communications technology to capture and support these learning experiences. the majority of tertiary teachers are not skilled enough in all of these areas, and they will lack the technological and pedagogical knowledge that is required to carry out these functions effectively and efficiently. another advantage of disaggregating some of these teaching functions to specialist staff is the opportunity to rationalise teaching tasks such that those who are best skilled are carrying out a task in the most efficient manner, and, therefore, not everyone needs to know everything about a learning and teaching transaction. furthermore, course materials developed once by teams of people can be used a number of times before they reach a point where they need to be revised. this is advisable not only from the point of ensuring rigour in the design of the study materials but also to guard against undue influences of individual teacher bias in the selection of a body of subject matter content, and in its teaching to students, which can be problematic in some discipline areas (naidu, 2016a). a conventional teacher and a content-centric focus to teaching and learning poses the most serious obstacle to the adoption of disaggregated teaching and learning practices by universities today. academic staff at these universities see research as their primary motivation. many of them, if they had a choice would rather not teach despite the fact that universities are not research institutes with research and scholarship as their sole purpose. teaching is a large part of what a university does and the face-to-face campus-based experience is a significant part of that function. however, it is arguable that teaching and learning almost universally, are increasingly shifting towards a more flexible approach that allows for learning anytime, anywhere and at any pace. in support of this agenda, a growing number of universities have put in place a wide range of professional development plans 204 and initiatives for the integration of oftel including policies around flexible learning, open educational resources, and the integration of technology in teaching and learning (naidu, & roberts, 2018). however, more than a few times, and across the sector, it has become apparent that academic staff are not engaging with these resources as much as they should. many teaching staff are blissfully unaware of developments in this regard, and going on with their business as they have always done. examples of this state of affairs are too many and in both, conventional campus-based contexts, as well as in open, flexible and distance learning environments. academic staff (unless they are classified, as research intensive) cannot see themselves as researchers only, although that is a large part of their role. another large part of that role is teaching, and that too needs equal attention and care. there is a chasm in many universities today between their aspirations for a future-focused learning and teaching, and what is rolled out at the coalface. for effective implementation of a distributed and disaggregated learning scenario, a fundamental rethink is required of how tertiary teachers are recruited, remunerated and supported across the sector. growth of alternative digital credentials (adcs) these disruptive forces on conventional institutional practices are gradually affecting how universities capture and add value. this includes approaches to credentialing and certification, other than what universities are used to. interest in alternative methods of credentialing in universities has been on the rise for some time (see https://bit.ly/2onyuxv). the key drivers of this interest is the proliferation of short courses in the sector, as well as a demand from employers for more and different kinds of information about learning achievement on the usual qualifications, certification and transcripts. the basic idea of adcs is not new. we have known of this idea in the form of journals and portfolios, provided alongside one’s formal academic certificate and transcript. what is new about adcs, as we know them now, is their digital nature and what is possible to capture in this format, and enable it to be shared widely. adcs enable credentialing of smaller chunks of work, unlike a certificate or transcript, which is awarded only after completion of a larger programme of study, and they may take the form of a digital passport, an e-portfolio or a 3d cv. any of these will contain a lot more information on a person’s skills and competencies than what is often available on a graduation diploma or a transcript. this kind of information will include such things as products of one’s activities, critical reflections on their learning experiences, and testimonials which might be more informative about a person’s competencies than a diploma or certificate. adcs provide a useful way of capturing these learning opportunities and submitting them as part of formal learning arrangements. adcs also offer possibilities for recognizing and rewarding learning from a wider variety of sources, and in so doing helping to achieve the goals and aspirations of the education for all, and education for sustainable development agenda promoted by organisations such as the united nations and the commonwealth of learning (see naidu, 2019). getting disruption ready in sum then, methods of teaching and learning that were pioneered as a part of open, flexible and distance learning are increasingly creeping into conventional forms of educational practices. some of this is due to the proliferation of various kinds of technologies such as the internet and the world wide web for mediating the teaching and learning transaction. other reasons are related to the appeal 205 of open and flexible learning methods for a changing student demographic, which includes a wide variety of learners other than the typical high school leaver. notions of openness, which were once focused on open access to learning, are being extended to include the adoption of open educational resources and the practice of open scholarship (naidu, 2016b; naidu, 2017b). the traditional lecture, once the mainstay of conventional campus-based experience is fast becoming an accompaniment and increasingly more interactive with the lecture time being spent on more active learning and studentteacher and student-student interaction (baggaley, 2015; sams, 2010). there is much to be optimistic about the future of universities and higher education. the path of universities for leading learning for tomorrow looks promising. however, i fear that many of us are not on this path, or indeed moving in the right direction. there is still a lot to do, and much to be concerned about. primarily, this includes a lack of a systemic and enterprise-wide rethink and a recalibration of existing learning and teaching choreographies so that they are appropriately aligned with the opportunities and promises of openness and flexibility. a serious rethink and reconfiguration of contemporary institutional choreographies is required. how should universities of the future begin to rethink and recalibrate their conventional choreographies so that they are able to meet the demands of the next generation, and the ones after that? the ten questions below from the ernst young report, can the universities of today lead learning for tomorrow? the university of the future, (halloran, & friday, 2018, p. 31) will offer a quick assessment of your situation and suggest where to start: 1. are you willing to challenge or change your core business model? 2. have you cultivated a culture of “yes, we can” that enables agile decision-making? 3. how well does the leadership team and council understand the dynamics of disruption both inside and adjacent to higher education? 4. is your university’s strategy fit for a digital world? 5. have you assessed your disruption readiness gaps? how do you compare to your competitors, locally and globally? how do you compare to leading corporates, locally and globally? 6. as incumbent business models shatter, can you build the capabilities you need to succeed or will you need to buy them? 7. does your strategy address the need to both achieve near-term objectives and lay the groundwork for future disruption? does it drive transformation? 8. how does university purpose inform your disruption readiness agenda? 9. how secure are your funding commitments against disruption initiatives over the medium to long term? 10. have you assessed your funders’ views on disruption in higher education? is your funder base aligned to your ambitions? go ahead. take this test. if your answers to these questions cause you concern, then a rethink and recalibration of your institutional choreographies is required. 206 acknowledgment these reflections draw from a keynote i offered at the university of otago that was later published as naidu, s. (2016). mainstreaming open, flexible, and distance learning. in k-w. lai, s. stein, p. field, & k. pratt (eds.), our world in your place: 30 years of distance learning and teaching at the university of otago. (pp. 92-108). dunedin, nz: distance learning office, university of otago. references baggaley, j. (2015). flips and flops. distance education, 36, 437–447. doi: 10.1080/01587919.2015.1041677. chai, c.-s., koh, j. h.-l., & tsai, c.-c. (2013). a review of technological pedagogical content knowledge. educational technology & society, 16(2), 31–51. dede, c. (2004). enabling distributed-learning communities via emerging technologies. proceedings of the 2004 conference of the society for information technology in teacher education (site), pp. 3-12. charlottesville, va: american association for computers in education. gallagher, s., & garrett, g. (2013). disruptive education: technology-enabled universities. sydney: united states studies centre at the university of sydney. retrieved from http://bit.ly/1cftfwh. global learning council. (2016). technology-enhanced learning: best practices and data sharing in higher education. retrieved from http://www.globallearningcouncil.org/documents/; http://50.87.249.73/~loballe7/globallearningcouncil.pdf. halloran, l., & friday, c. (2018). can the universities of today lead learning for tomorrow? the university of the future. retrieved from https://assets.ey.com/content/dam/ey-sites/ey-com/en_au/topics/government-and-publicsector/ey-university-of-the-future-2030.pdf (see www.ey.com/au/futureuniversity). mishra, p., & koehler, m. (2006). technological pedagogical content knowledge: a framework for teacher knowledge. the teachers college record, 108, 1017–1054. retrieved from http://www.tcrecord.org/ naidu, s. (2008). enabling time, pace and place independence. in j. m. spector, m. d. merrill, j. j. g. van merriënboer, & m. p. driscoll (eds.), handbook of research on educational communications and technology (3rd ed.), (259-268), new york: erlbaum. naidu, s. (2016a). mainstreaming open, flexible, and distance learning. in k-w. lai, s. stein, p. field, & k. pratt (eds.), our world in your place: 30 years of distance learning and teaching at the university of otago. (pp. 92-108). dunedin, nz: distance learning office, university of otago. naidu, s. (2016b). the case for open educational practice, distance education, 37(1), 1-3. doi: 10.1080/01587919.2016.1157010. naidu, s. (2017a). how flexible is flexible learning, who is to decide and what are its implications? distance education, 38(3), https://doi.org/10.1080/01587919.2017.137183. naidu, s. (2017b). open educational practice: caveat emptor. in d. singh & c. stückelberger (eds.), ethics in higher education: values-driven leaders for the future (pp. 287-305). geneva: globethics.net, isbn 978-2-88931164-4 (online version) isbn 978-2-88931-165-1 (print version). naidu, s. (2019). alternative digital credentials: don’t reinvent the wheel, fix it if it’s broken! connections. retrieved from https://bit.ly/2nmue8v. naidu, s., & roberts, k. j. (2018). future proofing higher education in the pacific with open and flexible learning. journal of learning for development, 5(3), 280-295. rosenbloom, b. (2011). the disaggregated professor. retrieved from http://bit.ly/1hm99as. saltzberg, s., & polyson, s. (1995, september). distributed learning on the world wide web. syllabus, 9(1), 10. 207 sams, a. (2010, december 16). the flipped classroom [video file]. retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h4rkudfzlc vrasidas, c., & glass, g. v. (2002). distance education and distributed learning. greenwich, ct: information age. and distributed learning, 10(6), 21-50. retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/741 author: dr. som naidu is pro-vice chancellor and director of center for flexible learning, the university of the south pacific, laucala campus, suva, the republic of fiji. email: sommnaidu@gmail.com; som.naidu@usp.ac.fj cite this paper as: naidu, s. (2019). recalibrating institutional choreographies for a future focused education. journal of learning for development, 6(3), 197-207. microsoft word mtebe_galley.docx issn: 2311-1550 2020, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 90-107 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. promoting youth employment through information and communication technologies in vocational education in tanzania joel mtebe, mussa m. kissaka, christina raphael and josephine k. stephen university of dar es salaam, tanzania abstract: africa is the most youthful continent in the world with approximately 20% of the global youth population, which is expected to increase by 42% by the end of 2030. this great number of youths, which could be used as a huge asset for the continent’s economic growth and development, is largely unemployed. as a result, governments have introduced vocational education and training (vet) by providing occupation-oriented training in a bid to reduce unemployment amongst youth. despite these efforts, the majority of vet graduates remain unemployed due to the inadequate employability skills needed in the current job market. this study reports on the implementation of a project aiming at enhancing employability skills through ict in four centres in tanzania: nangwa vtc, manyara vtc, arusha vtc, and mto wa mbu fdc, as well as ketumbeine secondary school with a total of 100 students and 20 teachers. through participating in the project, it was expected that students would gain the ict skills as well as the 21st-century skills required in their current workplaces. at the end of the project, an evaluation was conducted using a self-administered survey, where a total of 80 students were involved in the four centres. moreover, focus group discussions (fgds), non-participatory observation, and documentary review were adopted as qualitative data instruments. it was found that students’ perceived competence and level of skills on technology knowledge of multimedia was moderate (m = 3.63), while that of cisco was found to be high, with 76 students having graduated and obtained a cisco certification. in terms of the 21st-century skills, it was found that students’ self-reported confidence levels in all four 21st-century skills domains were found to be high, with collaboration skills (m = 4.5) being the highest, followed by communication skills (m = 4.26), leadership (m = 4.20) and creativity and innovation (m = 4.06). nonetheless, the lowest 21st-century skills element was critical thinking skills (m = 3.9). the findings from this study show that with some planned activities within colleges, students can easily acquire the needed employability skills. the implication of these findings are discussed at the end of the paper. keywords: technical and vocational education and training (tvet), vocational education, 21stcentury skills, youth employment, employment in africa, school-industry collaboration, workplace training. introduction africa is the most youthful continent in the world with approximately 20% of the global youth population and is expected to increase by 42% by the end of 2030 (include, 2017). similarly, tanzania’s youth population is estimated to be 35% of the total population (gaddis, wane & morisset, 2013). unfortunately, this great number of youth, which can be used as a huge asset and resource for the country’s economic growth and development, is largely unemployed (haji, 2015). according to the african union report, nearly 60% of africa’s youth are unemployed and a significant number of them are graduates (aau, 2013). the youth unemployment rate in tanzania, for instance, has 91 averaged 14% from 2006 until 2014, reaching a high for that period of 15% in 2006 (haji, 2015; trading economics, 2019). in order to address the unemployment problem, many african countries have introduced vocational education and training (vet) to develop competencies in the relevant technical and vocational subjects for the world of work (sarfo, 2016; unesco & ilo, 2002). most of the courses offered under vet provide training that lead to skilled occupations, whereby learners are pursuing competencebased training to become skilled workers for meeting the specific requirements of occupations (sumra & katabaro, 2016). in tanzania, vet is offered through folk development colleges (fdcs) and vocational education centres (vtcs). as of 2011, there were more than 100,000 students enrolled in over 800 centres pursuing various courses such as agriculture, food processing, automotive repairing, and business administration (nkirina, 2010). other courses include clothing and textiles, plumbing, carpentry, electrical, hospitality and tourism, laboratory technology, and mechanical and printing. despite the progress made by various african governments to skill youth through vet, the majority of them still remain unemployed (nkirina, 2010). according to the world bank report, the unemployment rate among vet graduates was reported to be 86% in 2014 (world bank, 2014). studies show that increased unemployment rates amongst vet graduates is due to the mismatch between the skills acquired in colleges and the skills required by the labour market (bezy, 2013; haji, 2015; hobson & goldin, 2016). in most of the sub-saharan african countries, about two-thirds of all graduates in the labour market—95 million people—lack the basic skills that industries seek (or the skills necessary for self-employment) (garcia & fares, 2008). the current labour market requires graduates with high academic qualifications but also the so-called employability skills like the ability to communicate, collaborate, mediate information, and solve problems with people worldwide (ananiadou & claro, 2009; saavendra & opfer, 2012; suarta, suwintana, sudhana, kadek & hariyanti, 2017). most of these skills are missing in the majority of the graduates in sub-saharan africa, and tanzania in particular. the survey by unido amongst employees in selected firms in tanzania ascertained that most of the employees lacked employability skills such as communication and teamwork skills, problem-solving, and analytical skills (unido, 2012). research conducted by sabarwal (2013) disclosed further that 34% of surveyed firms cited behavioural skills and interpersonal skills (30%) as skills that are extremely hard to find in tanzania. similarly, in its report on formal sector employment and earnings survey of 2014, the government of tanzania reported that despite good educational qualifications, many employees in the government sector lacked employability skills such as communication skills, problem-solving, teamwork, leadership skills, and time management (urt, 2014). it is clear that the current vet curriculum does not prepare learners in responding to the changing nature of economies and societies and the impact of globalization (bourn, 2018; suarta et al, 2017). it is acknowledged that the current labor market requires graduates with both job specific skills and the employability skills known as 21st-century skills, facilitated by the emergence of information and communications technologies (ict) (dede, 2009; voogt & knezek, 2013). nonetheless, the 21stcentury skills are rarely taught in the tanzanian education system as teachers have continued to adopt a transmission model of education while relying too much on theories (dede, 2009; saavendra 92 & opfer, 2012). the challenge, therefore, is how vet training can produce graduates with skills that can respond to the needs of a highly competitive and dynamic global market and industry. in a bid to address this problem, world vision tanzania (wvt) implemented a cycle of transformation (cot) project for four years (2015 to 2019) aiming at enhancing employability skills for vet and in secondary school students through ict. the project was implemented at nangwa vtc, manyara vtc, arusha vtc, and mto wa mbu fdc, as well as ketumbeine secondary school involving 100 students and 20 teachers. students and teachers were trained in ict courses and the 21st-century skills, while practicing them through school-based student-run enterprises (sbsres). the ict courses that were taught were intel learn curriculum, cisco it essentials, and multimedia skills (digital video, web design). similarly, the tanzania small industry development organization (sido) equipped students with entrepreneurship skills, such as preparing business plans, business registration and financial management, which, in turn, helped students in forming sbsres. armed with technology, 21st-century skills, and business skills, students were then required to use these skills to run their sbsres, while creating valuable technology products and services needed by the nearest communities. a total of five sbsres were formed, one in each centre with a total of 20 students. through this process, it was expected that the students would gain work-based learning skills in technology, and employability skills through participating in the sbsres. each school was provided with 20 workstations, a server, a printer, a multimedia projector and internet connectivity. this study aimed to assess changes resulting from the cot project through equipping students with relevant skills needed for employment and self-employment. literature review vet is concerned with acquisition of knowledge and skills for the world of work (reeve, 2016). however, the knowledge and skills needed in the current labor market are different from that of the 20th century due to the emergence of ict (ananiadou & claro, 2009; dede, 2009). the current labor market requires employees to have educational qualifications plus 21st-century skills. the 21stcentury skills are described as important skills to support the current knowledge-based economy (reeve, 2016). several frameworks have been developed to explain various skills that are needed in the 21st century. these frameworks include the partnership for 21st-century skills, the metiri group and ncrel, the american association of colleges and universities, and the organization for economic cooperation and development (dede, 2009). across these frameworks, it is generally agreed that collaboration, communication, critical thinking, creativity and innovation, and leadership skills are essential key competencies needed in the 21st-century skills (hixson, ravitz & whisman, 2012; voogt, erstad, dede & mishra, 2013). critical thinking refers to students’ ability to analyze complex problems, investigate questions for which there are no clear-cut answers, evaluate different points of view or sources of information, and draw appropriate conclusions based on evidence and reasoning (hixson et al, 2012). they require higher levels of concentration, deeper analytical abilities, and improved thought processing (nea, 2014). these skills are needed in the current job market as they enable employees to better serve customers, develop better products, and continuously improve themselves within an ever-changing 93 global economy (scott, 2015). employees with higher critical thinking skills will be able to compare evidence, evaluate competing proposals and make responsible decisions (scott, 2015). communication skills refers to students being able to organise their thoughts, data, and findings; and share these effectively through a variety of media, as well as, orally and in writing (hixson et al, 2012). despite their technical abilities, students’ future career success may have as much to do with their ability to communicate with co-workers, sell ideas, and manage their time (goldberg, 2006). these skills need to be taught in school in order to prepare students to be members of a larger community with a voice and a sense of responsibility to others (ananiadou & claro, 2009). similarly, with the availability and advancement of ict, much of the work is accomplished in teams, across geographic and language boundaries (nea, 2014). as a result, employees are required to have the ability to collaborate with people across the world whom they may never meet face-to-face (dede, 2009; kay & greenhill, 2011). these skills should be gained in schools when working collaboratively in groups during various class projects. in today’s world of global competition and task automation, innovative capacity and creative spirit are becoming requirements for today’s job market (nea, 2014; scott, 2015). this is because emerging industries rely on employees’ ability to think unconventionally, imagine new scenarios, and produce astonishing work. in the context of this study, creativity and innovation skills referred to students’ ability to generate and refine solutions to complex problems and then combine what they have learned in developing products and services via established sbsres. finally, leadership skills are important in the new workplace as they will enable employees to pick the best work opportunities for an existing or new organization (goldberg, 2006). the development of leadership skills is not part of the academic curriculum in most schools (omatsu, 2012). in this study, students were equipped with leadership skills necessary to take responsibility of their own learning as well as manage various activities in the established sbsres. after four years of project implementation, it was important to find out if students acquired these 21st-century skills needed for the current workplace environment. methodology the study was carried out in five centres involved in the cot project, namely nangwa vtc, manyara vtc, arusha vtc, and mto wa mbu fdc, as well as ketumbeine secondary school in tanzania. concurrent triangulation design was deployed where quantitative and qualitative data were collected and analyzed at the same time. in this type of design, priority is equally given to both forms of data while data analysis is usually separate, and integration usually occurs at the data interpretation stage (hanson, creswell, clark, petska & creswell, 2005). the quantitative approach involved data collection through a self-administered survey while the qualitative approach involved focus group discussions (fgds), non-participatory observation, and documentary review as the main data collection instruments. questionnaires the questionnaire was distributed to students in order to investigate their competence levels in the courses they were taught. the assessment of technology competence and skills was achieved through the application of technological skills (tk), and technological content knowledge (tck) elements of 94 the technological pedagogical content knowledge (tpack) domain. the 21st-century skills were included in the data collection instrument through adopting a validated tool developed by hixson et al (2012). the 21st-century skills elements included collaboration skills, critical thinking, communication skills, creativity and innovation skills, and leadership (self-direction) skills. the study instrument items were re-worded to suit the context of the study. participants were required to answer each question using a five-level likert scale (1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = neither agree nor disagree, 4 = agree, 5 = strongly agree). focus group discussions the focus group discussions (fgds) were conducted with a group of 6 8 students in each of the five centres. krueger (1994) suggested that a group of 5 7 participants is more appropriate for an in-depth conversation. the fgds aimed to validate data obtained from the questionnaire but also to get a broad range of viewpoints about the issues raised in the questionnaires. non-participatory observation the non-participatory observation aimed to investigate the accessibility and usage of facilities to students and teachers. additionally, the quality of developed products such as websites, brochures, business cards, and videos were assessed. document review important documents were reviewed, such as cisco certification records, business plans, and financial statements, to investigate the evidence on entrepreneurship tendencies as a result of project activities. participants a total of 80 students out of 100 students from five established sbsres participated in the study. the majority of them were from nangwa vtc (25%) followed by manyara vtc (22.5%), ketumbeine secondary (22.5%) and arusha vtc (21.5%). the smallest number of students were from mto wa mbu fdc with 8.8 % as shown in figure 1. figure 1: the percentage of respondents sampled for different schools. 95 of the 80 students, 62.5% were males, while 37.5% of them were females. in terms of year of study, many students were in the second year of the study (65%), followed by third year with 23.8%. few students (3.8%) were in the first year of the study. findings students’ use of computers a total of 20 computers, 1 printer, 1 camera, 2 routers, 1 multimedia projector and 1 server computer were provided to each centre. it was important to assess the extent to which the installed facilities for each centre were used. this is because the increased ict facilities usage is an important indicator that they are producing the expected benefits (delone & mclean, 2003). using a self-assessment questionnaire, it was revealed that nearly half of the students (47.5%) indicated that they access the computer laboratory infrequently, while 21.3% of them indicated that they access the computer laboratory quite often. the percentage distribution of students’ access to the computer laboratory is summarised in figure 2. figure 2: percentage distribution of the students’ access to computer laboratories. this finding implies that students did not have enough time to use computers installed in their centres. during fgds with students, several reasons were provided by them. in some centres, such as manyara vtc, the computers were kept in an office and were made available to students only during the project activities. as a result, students were not able to access the computer lab during normal timetable routines, even if they had time to work on their projects. it was also revealed that project activities were not included in the normal school timetable in almost all centres. most of the time the project activities were scheduled outside normal timetable routines and therefore students had very few hours to use the computers. in arusha vtc, for instance, students agreed to meet after classes for two hours. nevertheless, due to varied subject specializations, this happened to be very challenging, since students were not studying the same courses, thus, some students came very late. 96 technology knowledge in terms of competence and skills levels in the courses they attended, students’ competence and skills levels on cisco were found to be high. out of 100 students who attended the cisco course, 76 graduated and passed the cisco examination. nangwa vtc led, with 40 students, followed by manyara (19), mto wa mbu fdc (10) and arusha vtc (7). ketumbeine secondary school had no students who could manage to obtain the cisco certification. the competence and skills levels of multimedia were assessed using self-assessment of technology knowledge (tk). it should be noted that if mean scores of tests are between 1 and 2.33, the level of perception is considered as “low”; if between 2.34 and 3.67, the level of perception is considered as “moderate”; if between 3.68 and 5.00, the level of perception is considered as “high” (yurdakul et al, 2012). based on table 1, overall students’ competence and skills levels in multimedia technologies, were found to be moderate (m = 3.63). table 1: descriptive statistics of students’ responses on tk (n = 80) item mean std. dev. i have the technical skills to use multimedia tools to create various products (e.g., videos, brochures, websites) effectively 3.37 0.917 i can learn how to use multimedia tools (e.g., ms publisher, web development tools, video creation and editing tools, etc.) effectively easily. 3.92 0.878 i know how to solve my own technical problems when using multimedia tools (e.g., ms publisher, web development tools, video creation and editing tools, etc.). 3.30 0.982 i keep up with important new multimedia software tools (e.g., ms publisher, web development tools, video creation and editing tools, etc.) made available in the market 3.53 1.042 i have the technical skills i need to use multimedia software and tools (e.g., ms publisher, web development tools, video creation and editing tools, etc.) 3.67 0.898 overall mean: 3.63 with technical competence and skills acquired from this project, students were able to produce various products such as websites, business cards, brochures, and record videos. for instance, with web design and developments skills, students at nangwa and manyara vtcs were able to develop websites for their centres. some students testified that they acquired skills necessary to develop websites which they consider very crucial for their future world of work: i can now develop my own website now and put in its products that i will be producing. i am taking the electrical installation course here. i will use the skills i got here to advertise my services to the community, and i know i will get customers. student, nangwa vtc. we developed a college website with our teacher. it is now ready for launching. the skills i got is very useful for me as i plan to employ myself after i graduate here. a website is a powerful tool for advertising my products. student, manyara vtc. 97 technology content knowledge technological content knowledge (tck) is students’ knowledge about the technologies used within the courses they were studying in their programmes. this is to say, the knowledge about how to use training technologies in different ways to enhance their learning activities, and gain further knowledge and skills about those technologies. as indicated in table 2, students’ perceived competence in tck was found to be moderate (m = 3.51). table 2: descriptive statistics of students’ responses on tck (n = 73) item mean std. dev. i know websites with online materials for studying multimedia software and tools (e.g., ms publisher,, web development tools, video creation and editing tools, etc.) 3.58 0.971 i know ict-applications which are used by professionals in the multimedia industry 3.36 1.046 i know ict-applications which i can use to better understand the contents of multimedia software (e.g., ms publisher, web development tools, video creation and editing tools, etc.) 3.51 1.029 i have various ways and strategies of developing my understanding of multimedia software (e.g., ms publisher, web development tools, video creation and editing tools, etc.) 3.62 1.150 overall mean 3.51 during fgd, many of the students, especially those who were in their first year, revealed that it improved their performance in ict courses offered in the existing curriculum. students in almost all schools had comments like the following: i can now search various samples of products developed elsewhere and learn how others have designed their brochures and other products before deigning mine. sometimes i can find a very nice sample and i just edit it for my cuctomers. student, arusha vtc. internet have a lot of thing that i can easily learn. there are many documentatins of software, samples of business cards, brochures, photos etc. it is just a matter of time and know what exactly you want to learn. student, nangwa vtc. moreover, students at mto wa mbu fdc indicated that the skills from intel learn curriculum enabled them to learn how to search online resources from the internet about various agricultural courses. for instance, one student at mto wa mbu indicated: i can now use internet searching skills to identify any symptoms of any animal desease i read in class. initially, i had to depend on books which are not available or wait for notes from the teachers. having learnt how to search notes via the internet it now easier for me to read a lot of notes about animals, their disseses, sympolts and suggested dosses. student, mto wa mbu fdc. the 21st-century skills one of the main components of the project was to equip students with 21st-century skills as employability skills. by being members in the sbsres developing products and services and other related activities, it was expected students would gain the needed 21st-century skills. therefore, students’ perceived competence and skills levels on 21st-century skills were assessed using the self 98 administered questionnaire adapted from (hixson et al, 2012). the instrument consists of collaboration skills, critical thinking, communication skills, creativity and innovation skills, and student leadership (self-direction) skills as 21st-century skills domains. the findings of each 21stcentury skills domain is explained next. critical thinking skills students were asked to indicate their perceived competence on critical thinking skills using a fivepoint likert scale (1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree). the findings showed that students’ perceived competence and skills on critical thinking was found to be high (m = 3.90) based on the scale proposed by yurdakul et al (2012). table 3 shows students’ responses to critical thinking skills. table 3: students responses to critical thinking skills (n = 80) item mean std. dev. i can compare information from different sources before completing a task on an assignment 3.78 1.031 i can draw a conclusion based on the analysis of numbers, facts or relevant information 3.84 0.961 i can summarise and interpret what i have been taught and read 4.25 0.684 i can analyze competing arguments, perspectives or solutions to a problem 3.80 0.818 i can develop a persuasive argument based on supportive evidence or reasoning 4.03 0.763 i can try to solve complex problems or answer questions that have no single correct solution or answer 3.73 0.914 overall mean: 3.90 collaboration skills in the sbsres, students worked collaboratively with each other in designing and developing products and services. it was expected that through working together as a team, students will gain the needed collaborative skills. therefore, students were asked to indicate their perceived competence and skills levels on collaboration skills using a five-point likert scale (1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree). the findings show that students’ perceived competence and skills on collaboration was found to be high (m = 4.50) based on the scale proposed by yurdakul et al (2012). table 4 shows students’ responses to collaboration skills. 99 table 4: students’ responses on collaboration skills (n = 80) item mean std. dev. i am able to work in pairs or small groups to complete a task together 4.59 0.650 i am able to work with other students to set goals and create a plan for a team 4.67 0.497 i am able to create joint products using contributions from each team member 4.40 0.686 i am able to present my group work to the class, teacher or others 4.50 0.656 i have skills to work as a team to incorporate feedback or group tasks or products 4.41 0.706 i have skills to give feedback to peers or assess other students' work 4.45 0.727 overall mean: 4.50 communication skills as they were working in a group, students developed products and services before presenting them to school management for comments. once the products were refined, students were supposed to market and sell them to the nearest communities. through this process, it was expected that students would gain needed communication skills in the current workplace environment. to assess if students acquired these skills, students were asked to indicate their perceived competence and skills levels on communication skills using a five-point likert scale (1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree). it was found that students’ perceived competence and skills on communication skills was found to be high (m = 4.26) based on the scale proposed by yurdakul et al (2012). table 5 shows students’ responses on their competence levels on communication skills. table 5: students’ responses on communication skills (n = 80) item mean std. dev. i can create charts, tables and graphs of my products for presenting them in written or oral presentations 4.10 0.805 i can convey ideas of the product i want to produced using posters, video, etc. other than a written paper 4.20 0.604 i can prepare and deliver an oral presentation of the products and services we have developed to the teacher, clients or others people 4.26 0.707 i can answer questions in front of an audience (e.g., class, others) 4.34 0.594 i can discuss how i will present my work or demonstrate what i have learnt during the process of developing my products 4.41 0.688 overall mean: 4.26 using skills attained from this project students managed to open social media accounts where they were able to sell products and services. for instance, we found that one student at arusha vtc, who studied the certificate in electrical installation, was found to have opened an instagram account where 100 he could market his products. during fgds, it was evident that students gained various communication skills through participating in various project activities. for instance, students claimed: i was very shy to stand before people and present, but when i joined cot, i got skills on how to present what i am doing before people. the skill enables me to present other things before my classmates out of the project activities. student, ketumbeine secondary school. i have been the one selling all products we produce in our group. once i graduate, i believe it will be very easy for me to open up my own business and attract a lot of customers as i have negotiation skills. student, arusha vtc. creativity and innovation skills creativity and innovation involved the ability of students to evaluate the effectiveness of their ideas and products, and refine ideas and products in pursuit of specific end goals (mishra & kereluik, 2011). in this project, it was expected that students would acquire creativity and innovations skills in the cause of developing products and services during the implementation of the project. therefore, students were asked to indicate their perceived competence on creativity and innovation skills using a five-point likert scale (1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree). in this study, students’ perceived competence and skills in creativity and innovation were found to be high (m = 4.06) based on the scale proposed by yurdakul et al (2012). table 6 shows students’ responses on their competence levels on creativity and innovation. table 6: students’ responses to creativity and innovation skills (n = 80) item mean std. dev. i can use brainstorming or concept mapping technques when i have an idea about a product or service 4.05 0.710 i can generate ideas about how to confront a problem or question 4.08 0.671 i can test out different ideas of a product or service and work to improve them 4.08 0.776 i can invent a solution to complex, open-ended question or problem 4.00 0.763 i can create an original product or performance to express my ideas 4.09 0.715 overall mean: 4.06 during fgds, it was evident that students gained creativity and innovation skills during through participating in various project activities. for instance, students claimed: i had an idea of designing brochure that will help truck company at manyara town to market their products, then design how the brochure will look like in a paper with sample items, then i used publsiher to design it. when i preseted the sample brochure to the customer, they like it. with few comments i was able to finalise it. student, nangwa vtc. 101 another student claimed: i used to sell soaps without putting any lables on it. after learning publisher i was able pack my soaps printed with designed lables with contacts and the name of my firm, surprisingly my customers loved the packed soaps and i was able to sell more than unpacked one. student, nangwa vtc. leadership skills in acquiring leadership skills it is important for students to be able to set goals and work as a team to achieve those goals collaboratively. whether students are going to be self-employed or are planning to be employed, leadership skills are important. in the established sbsres, each student was given a specific role to play in the group and interchanged for a certain period of time. the roles included being a chairperson, secretary, and treasurer. therefore, it was important to assess if the expected skills were achieved using a five-point likert scale (1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree). in this study, students’ perceived competence and skills on leadership skills were found to be high (m = 4.20) based on the scale proposed by yurdakul et al (2012). table 7 shows students’ responses on their competence levels on student leadership. table 7: students’ responses on leadership skills (n = 80) item mean std. dev. i can take initiative when confronted with a difficult problem or question 3.98 0.826 i can choose topics of learning or questions to pursue 4.34 0.594 i can plan the steps to take in accomplishing a complex task 4.04 0.645 i can choose for myself what examples to study or resources to use 4.19 0.658 i can monitor my own progress towards the completion of a complex task and modify my work accordingly 4.16 0.645 i can use specific criteria to assess the quality of my work before it is completed 4.11 0.683 i can use peer, teacher or expert feedback to revise my work 4.30 0.604 i am sensitive to others’ emotions and feelings and an understanding of the effects that they can have to work and relations 4.15 0.765 i have ability to respond positively to changing circumstances and new challenges 4.29 0.640 i have ability to manage own learning, invest time and effort to learn new skills in any setting 4.40 0.608 overall mean: 4.20 during fgds, it was evident that students gained leadership skills through participating in various project activities. for instance, manyara, nangwa, and arusha vtcs went as far as registering their sbsres, had a constitution, and opened bank accounts. through sbsre, it was found that students were conducting formal meetings, which showed that leadership skills had been gained. for instance, students claimed: 102 i can prepare minutes of the meeting and also act as a secretary in any meeting. in the meetings i have been taking minutes and filing them for our group. student, ketumbeine secondary school. through participating in the sbsre, i can now plan in advance what time i should learn and what subject on which day. but also, i can plan time for relaxing and time for studies. it is important to have timetable as they are so many activities i have to accomplish. all my plans have been document in the notebook. student, mto wa mbu, fdc. overall results overall, the students’ self-reported confidence and skills levels in all four domains of 21st-century skills were found to be high. the highest students’ self-reported confidence and skills levels in 21stcentury skills domains were collaboration skills (m = 4.5), followed by communication skills (m = 4.26). nonetheless, the lowest 21st-century skills element was critical thinking skills (m = 3.9). figure 5 summarises the overall students’ responses on the 21st-century skills domains. figure 3: overall students’ responses on the 21st-century skills elements (n = 80) generally, it was evident that the project managed to equip students with skills and knowledge on ict courses, and with employability skills that are needed in the current labor market. as part of practicing business and entrepreneurial activities, each sbsre managed to sell some products and the amount of money collected was deposited into the bank for those centres with bank accounts. through selling these products, students learnt marketing skills, as they were required to visit the nearest communities to market and sell developed products and services. discussion the vocational education sector has been contributing significantly in reducing unemployment by providing occupation oriented training. some students join vet aiming at securing an initial occupation, while others join to develop their skills further or shift from one occupation to another (billett, 2011). despite the increased number of vet graduates in tanzania, the majority of them remained unemployed. many vet graduates have good technical skills, as represented by the subject they studied but have inadequate employability skills, termed as 21st-century skills (suarta et al, 2017). to address this problem, the cycle of transformation project was implemented in four vet 103 centres: nangwa vtc, manyara vtc, arusha vtc, and mto wa mbu fdc, as well as ketumbeine secondary school, aiming at enhancing employability skills through ict. a total of 20 teachers and 100 students were trained in ict courses and the 21st-century skills while practicing these through sbsres. through participating in the project, as noted earlier, it was expected that students would gain the ict skills in the courses they were taught and use the skills to develop products and services. moreover, it was expected that students would gain the needed 21st-century skills by being active members in the sbsres. at the end of the project, an evaluation was conducted using a selfadministered survey where a total of 80 students were involved in the four centres. moreover, focus group discussions (fgds), non-participatory observation, and documentary review were adopted as qualitative data instruments. the study found that students’ perceived competence and skills levels on technology knowledge of multimedia was moderate (m = 3.63). one reason contributing to this was that students were not given enough time to use ict facilities and software installed in their centres. most of the project activities were conducted outside the normal timetable. the installed ict facilities cannot improve users’ performance if they are not used (davis, bagozzi & warshaw, 1989). interestingly, the competence and skills levels of cisco were high amongst students. out of 100 students who were enrolled in the cisco course, 76 students graduated and obtained a cisco certification. a possible explanation for this might be that the cisco it essential module suited the nature of vet students who normally rely on hands-on labs in the majority of their courses. in terms of the 21st-century skills, it was found that students’ self-reported confidence levels in all four 21st-century skills domains were found to be high, with collaboration skills (m = 4.5) being the highest followed by communication skills (m = 4.26). the finding implies the level and intensity of interaction amongst students in the sbsre activities enabled them to gain the much-needed collaboration skills. students worked together from the planning of project activities, developing products and services, and marketing them to the nearest communities. they gained collaboration skills which will enable them to work effectively in the current environment where many of the activities are accomplished in teams and, in many cases, global teams scattered across various geographical areas (nea, 2014). similarly, in the sbsre activities, students were required to present the developed products and services to the centre management as well as marketing them to the nearest communities. by doing so, students improved their communication skills in terms of their ability to write and present their products and services to an audience. the study also found that students’ self-reported confidence levels of leadership skills were high (m = 4.2). in the established sbsres, each student was given a specific role in the group and interchanged for a certain period of time. the roles included being a chairperson, secretary, and treasurer. the idea was to ensure that each student had an opportunity to practise some leadership skills during the lifetime of the project. therefore, students gained the needed leadership skills being able to review their own work, lead a team of individuals with different backgrounds as well as responding to feedback from the team. the critical thinking skills (m = 3.9), and creativity and innovation (m = 4.06) were found to be the lowest students’ self-reported confidence levels in the four 21st-century skills domains. a possible 104 explanation of this finding is that these two 21st-century skills domains require higher levels of concentration and deeper analytical abilities which, due to the nature of students who participated in the project, were difficult to attain. many students who participated in the project were standard vii, form ii (e.g., mto wa mbu fdc) while at ketumbeine there were secondary school pupils (form i to form iv). the variability of levels of students made it a little bit difficult for the project to design activities that could foster critical thinking skills, and creativity and innovation. notwithstanding these limitations, students gained the needed creativity and innovation skills which included the ability to plan for the products to be developed and refine them based on comments from school management and customers. these skills are important in the current workplace where industries rely on workers’ creative capacity—the ability to innovate new product lines, acquire new customers, adopt new technology, and implement better business practises (goldberg, 2006; kay & greenhill, 2011). another interesting finding that emerged from this study was that not only students, but also teachers, needed to acquire 21st-century competencies — in order to support students learning in the new environment. the range of skills required of a vet graduate of the 21st-century implies that teachers’ roles need to change (power, 1999). the project trained 20 teachers, two teachers from each centre, who were involved in training students and supporting project activities. an important lesson learnt from this project was that teachers need to be prepared for new pedagogical approaches that fit the 21st century in order to be able to facilitate the development of 21st-century competencies in their students. for this reason, there is a need to incorporate 21st-century skills in teachers’ preparation programmes and during their professional development programmes. conclusion the main barriers to vet graduates in entering the world of work are the mismatch between the skills acquired in colleges and the skills needed in the workplace. the current labor market requires vet graduates with high technical skills as represented by the subject they studied in the colleges and the 21st-century skills. in fact, countries with well-established vet systems have lower youth unemployment as vet is coupled with the acquisition of employability skills to address issues such as skills mismatch amongst graduates. this project has shown that with some planned activities within colleges, students can easily acquire the needed employability skills. however, this implies that teachers’ roles need to change. the range of skills required by vet graduates of the 21st century implies that teachers need also to be equipped with the necessary skills to be able to facilitate learning in the new knowledge domain. there is a need for equipping teachers with extensive knowledge and the skills needed for the 21st century through professional development programmes. references aau. (2013). transforming african higher education for graduate employability and socio-economic development. in 13th general conference. libreville, gabon. retrieved from https://events.aau.org/gencon14/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/10/13th-general-conferencetransforming-african-higher-education-for-graduate-employability-and-socio-economicdevelopment.pdf ananiadou, k., & claro, m. (2009). 21st century skills and competences for new millennium learners in oecd countries. oecd education working papers, 41 (33). https://doi.org/10.1787/218525261154 105 bezy, m. (2013). africa oyé: raising the bar in africa’s higher education quality the impact on the ict industry and the danger for africa. retrieved from http://brel54.blogspot.com/2013/09/raising-bar-in-africas-highereducation.html billett, s. (2011). vocational education: purposes, traditions and prospects. netherlands: springer https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1954-5 bourn, d. (2018). understanding global skills for 21st century professions. london: palgrave macmillan. davis, f. d., bagozzi, r. p., & warshaw, p. r. (1989). user acceptance of computer technology: a comparison of two theoretical models. management science, 35(8). dede, c. (2009). comparing frameworks for 21st century skills. in j. brand & r. brandt (eds.), 21st century skills: rethinking how students learn (pp. 51–76). solution tree press. retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.475.3846 delone, w. h., & mclean, e. r. (2003). the delone and mclean model of information systems success: a tenyear update. management information systems, 19(4), 9–30. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0914199107 gaddis, i., wane, w., & morisset, j. (2013). youth in tanzania: a growing uneducated labor force. washington, d.c. retrieved from http://blogs.worldbank.org/africacan/youth-in-tanzania-a-growing-uneducated-laborforce garcia, m., & fares, j. (2008). youth in africa’s labor market. https://doi.org/10.1596/978-0-8213-6884-8 goldberg, d. e. (2006). entrepreneurial engineer : ready for the 21st century. in the entrepreneurial engineer: personal, interpersonal, and organizational skills for engineers in a world of opportunity (pp. 1–9). john wiley & sons, inc. https://doi.org/10.1002/0470038969.ch1 haji, m. (2015). youth employment in tanzania: taking stock of the evidence and knowledge gaps. retrieved from https://www.idrc.ca/sites/default/files/sp/documents en/youth_employment_tanzania_report_web-final.pdf hanson, w. e., creswell, j. w., clark, v. l. p., petska, k. s., & creswell, j. d. (2005). mixed methods research designs in counseling psychology mixed methods research designs in counseling psychology. mixed methods research designs in counseling psychology, 373. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0167.52.2.224 hixson, n. k., ravitz, j., & whisman, a. (2012). extended professional development in project-based learning: impacts on 21st century teaching and student achievement. charleston, wv: west virginia. retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ed565466.pdf hobson, m., & goldin, n. (2016). advancing a 21st century skills agenda for today’s youth. washington, dc. retrieved from https://blogs.worldbank.org/jobs/advancing-21st-century-skills-agenda-todays-youth include (2017). africa boosting youth employment in africa: what works and why? in knowledge platform on inclusive evelopment policies. the hague, netherlands. kay, k., & greenhill, v. (2011). bringing schools into the 21st century. in g. wan (ed.), bringing schools into the 21st century. explorations of educational purpose (pp. 41–65). springer, dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0268-4 krueger, r. a. (1994). focus groups: a practical guide for applied research. thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. mishra, p., & kereluik, k. (2011). what 21st century learning? a review and a synthesis. in m. koehler & p. mishra (eds.), site 2011—society for information technology & teacher education international conference (pp. 3301–3312). association for the advancement of computing in education (aace). retrieved from https://www.learntechlib.org/p/36828/ nea. (2014). preparing 21st century students for a global society: an educator's guide to the “four cs.” retrieved from http://www.nea.org/assets/docs/a-guide-to-four-cs.pdf nkirina, s. p. (2010). the challenges of integrating entrepreneurship education in the vocational training system: an insight from tanzania’s vocational. journal of european industrial training, 34(2), 153–166. https://doi.org/10.1108/03090591011023998 omatsu, g. (2012). student leadership training booklet. california: california state university. power, c. n. (1999). technical and vocational education for the 21st-century. prospects, 29(1), 29–36. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02736823 reeve, e. m. (2016). 21st century skills needed by students in technical and vocational education and training (tvet). asian international journal of social sciences, 16(4), 62–74. https://doi.org/10.29139/aijss.20160404 106 saavendra, a. r., & opfer, v. darleen. (2012). learning 21st century-skills requires 21st century teaching. phi delta kappan, 94(1), 41–44. https://doi.org/10.2307/41763587 sabarwal, s. (2013). tanzania skills for competitiveness in the small and medium enterprise sector. retrieved from https://www.openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/20127 sarfo, f. k. (2016). psychological framework for quality technical and vocational education and training in the 21st-century. in c. m. spector, & b. lockee (eds.), learning, design, and technology (pp. 1–26). springer, cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17727-4_65-1 scott, c. l. (2015). education research and foresight what kind of learning. retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0024/002429/242996e.pdf suarta, i. m., suwintana, i. k., sudhana, i. g. p. f. p., kadek, n., & hariyanti, d. (2017). employability skills required by the 21st-century workplace: a literature review of labour market demand. advances in social science, education and humanities research, 102, 337–342. sumra, s., & katabaro, j. (2016). education foundations of the development of skills and productive capabilities. retrieved from http://www.thdr.or.tz/docs/thdr2017bp10.pdf%5cnhttp://esrf.or.tz/docs/thdr2017bp-10.pdf trading economics. (2019). tanzania unemployment rate. retrieved from https://tradingeconomics.com/tanzania/unemployment-rate unesco & ilo. (2002). technical and vocational education and training for the 21st-century. retrieved from http://s3.amazonaws.com/ineeassets/resources/technical_and_vocational_education_and_training_for_the_twenty-first_century.pdf unido. (2012). tanzania industrial competitiveness report 2012. united nations industrial development organization (unido). retrieved from https://www.unido.org/sites/default/files/201308/tanzaniaindustrialcompetitivenessreport2012-ebook_0.pdf urt. (2014). formal sector employment and earnings survey 2014: tanzania mainland. dar es salaam: tanzania. retrieved from https://www.nbs.go.tz/nbstz/index.php/english/statistics-by-subject/labourstatistics/239-formal-sector-employment-and-earnings-survey-2014-tanzania-mainland voogt, j., erstad, o., dede, c., & mishra, p. (2013). challenges to learning and schooling in the digital networked world of the 21st century. journal of computer assisted learning, 29(5), 403–413. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcal.12029 voogt, j., & knezek, g. (2013). building a global community of policymakers, researchers and educators to move education systems into the digital age. journal of computer assisted learning, 29(5), 399–402. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcal.12028 world bank. (2014). productive jobs necessary for tanzania’s fast-growing workforce. retrieved from https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/tanzania/publication/tanzania-country-economicmemorandum-productive-jobs-wanted yurdakul, i., odabasi, h. f., kilicer, k., coklar, a. n., birinci, g., & kurt, a. a. (2012). the development, validity and reliability of tpack-deep: a technological pedagogical content knowledge scale. computers and education, 58(3), 964–977. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2011.10.012 authors: dr. joel s. mtebe is a senior lecturer in computer science at the department of computer science and engineering of the university of dar es salaam. he has supervised and examined a number of masters, and phd students, and currently coordinates an elearning research group with more than 20 master’s students and 8 phd students, conducting various aspects of computer science and elearning research. he has published more than 25 scientific articles in international journals and has presented at several national and international conferences.. email: jmtebe@gmail.com mussa m. kissaka. eng. dr. m.m. kissaka received a b.sc. degree in electrical engineering from the university of dar es salaam (udsm), dar es salaam, tanzania in 1989, and a ph.d. in telecommunications engineering from the university of manchester, united kingdom in 1994. he is a senior lecturer in the department of electronics and telecommunications engineering, college of information and communication technologies (coict), university of dar es salaam. his is involved in teaching and supervising undergraduate and postgraduate students and carrying out research and consultancy activities in the field of ict. his research interests include wireless communication and e-learning. dr. kissaka is also an external examiner to local and 107 abroad international academic institutions. currently he is a member of wireless communication research groups (wcrg) and e-learning research group (elrg) at the university of dar es salaam, college of information and communication technologies (coct). email: mkissaka@yahoo.com christina raphael raphael is a lecturer in the department of educational foundations, management and life long learning at the dar es salaam university college of education (duce), a constituent college of the university of dar es salaam. she is also a coordinator of chang’ombe pre-, primary and secondary demonstration school. currently, dr. raphael is involved in various country-wide training and consultancy activities. she is also interested in educational policy making and analysis issues. email: christin.raphael@gmail.com josephine kalekwa stephen is a registered telecom engineer with more than 10 years of experience in the telecommunication industry in tanzania. she received a b.sc. degree in telecommunications engineering from the university of dar es salaam (udsm), dar es salaam, tanzania in 2008 and an m.sc. degree in telecommunications engineering from the same university in 2015. currently, she is an assistant lecturer in the department of electronics and telecommunications engineering, college of information and communication technologies (coict), university of dar es salaam. she is also currently pursuing ph.d. studies in the area of digital signal processing. her research interests are on signal processing, digital communication and wireless communication. she is a trainer and a coach at the university of dar es salaam ict incubator (udicti) where she grooms youth to develop ict products and solutions using human centreed design approach. email: josfn2010@gmail.com cite this paper as: mtebe, j. s., kissaka, m. m., raphael, c., & steven, j. (2020). promoting youth employment through information and communication technologies in vocational education in tanzania. journal of learning for development, 7(1), 90-107. microsoft word makoe.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 130-142 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. using mobile-based social media to facilitate interaction and build communities through the lens of ubuntu in distance education mpine makoe and thulile p. shandu-phetla university of south africa (unisa), south africa abstract: this paper examines how whatsapp can be used to build learning communities and facilitate interaction, through the lens of ubuntu – an african concept of humanness, which means that an individual person owes his or her existence to the existence of others. the afrocentric concept of ubuntu and interaction work concomitantly towards the realisation of vocabulary teaching and learning within distance education. through this study, students were encouraged to work together through a mobile-based social network to learn english vocabulary. ubuntu was used as a framework to analyse the whatsapp chats to find salient themes relating to building communities and enhancing interaction. the key elements of ubuntu grounded the findings and demonstrated how technology can be used to bridge the interaction distance and how ubuntu principles are articulated in the communities of learning. this paper illustrates how ubuntu is manifested in a local context, with principles that can be applied globally to enhance collaboration. keywords: ubuntu, interaction, mobile learning, vocabulary, whatsapp. introduction interaction is central to any educational experience, irrespective of whether the students are studying through distance or not (garrison & archer, 2000), and it has a positive effect on academic performance (amry, 2014; shishah, hopkins, fitzgerald & higgins, 2013). the problem arises when face-to-face interaction is missing as in the case of distance education. this distance, according to moore (1993), is a “psychological and communications space to be crossed, a space of potential misunderstandings” (p. 22) between instructors and students who are physically separated. this is further aggravated by the fact that many students in south africa struggle to meet the academic demands of higher education because they do not study through the medium of their mother tongue. their success is hampered by lack of proficiency in english, the language in which they are expected to be fluent for them to adequately cope with academic work. for language teaching and learning at a distance, mediated interaction is crucial. studies have shown that mobile-based social media have been used successfully to enhance social interaction through collaborative learning (amry, 2014; shisha et al., 2013). while mobile phones have been used extensively as social communication contraptions, they are now being utilised as tools that nourish collaborative learning (lave & wenger, 1991; shandu, 2017). the ubiquitous nature of mobile technologies offers a space to make social interaction possible in distance learning, since it is not the technologies that possess inherent pedagogical qualities that are successful in distance education, according to keegan (2005), “but technologies that are generally available to citizens” (p. 14). more than 95 percent of students at the university of south africa (unisa) own mobile phones and it 131 stands to reason to harness the affordances of mobile phones to enhance language learning at a distance. mobile phones have transformed the education landscape by offering students opportunities to use varied forms of interaction, thereby, enabling learning collaboratively through communities of practice (lave & wenger, 1991; makoe, 2012). community, which plays a crucial role in meaning making (vygotsky, 1978), is described as “having mutual interdependence among members, connectedness, interactivity, overlapping histories and shared values and beliefs” (rovai, 2002, p. 42). these community attributes exist within contexts, which should be invariably acknowledged as part of interaction, include the people involved, the location, the function, purpose and topic of such interaction (garrison & archer, 2000; lave & wenger, 1991). people learn through their cultural lens by communicating with each other as they follow rules and values shaped by their culture (vygotsky, 1978). in this study, communication and interaction took place through whatsapp, which brought together students from different parts of south africa as they learned english vocabulary. whatsapp provided a nurturing social atmosphere where students formed groups for creating and sharing knowledge. previous studies have illustrated how whatsapp can be used to support collaborative teaching and learning strategies (hamad, 2017; hani, 2014; justina, 2016). the benefits of collaborative learning include increased higher order thinking, greater engagement, higher self-esteem and higher test scores (garrison & arbaugh, 2007; hani, 2014; hamad, 2017; jacobs, renandya & power, 2016). in such contexts, students are responsible for each other’s learning as well as their own (la hanisi, risdiany & sulisworo, 2018). this is more important in distance education where students often feel isolated from and neglected by their peers. therefore, using mobile phones for teaching and learning is most suitable in places of limited resources, such as south africa, because of their ability to connect less privileged people to information at affordable costs. the aim of this paper, thus, is to examine how whatsapp can be used to build communities and enhance interaction in language learning. this is done through drawing on the principles of ubuntu, which encapsulate the mutually beneficial interaction within and between human beings in communities. conceptual framework in african cultures, working together is prominent and learning is inherently a collective social process whereby a student feels the need to interact with fellow students and teachers. this deeply social view of education is embodied in ubuntu, which is linked to the concept of communalism (venter, 2004). ubuntu is difficult to define (tutu, 1997), because there is no one direct english translation and, thus, “a plethora of definitions exists, each emphasizing different elements of the concept” (mabovula, 2011, p. 39). definitions range from those where ubuntu is a moral quality of a person and those where it is a phenomenon according to which persons are interconnected (gade, 2012), but what is key is that “there is no ubuntu without the community” (letseka, 2014, p. 544). the legitimacy of ubuntu as a theory has been previously questioned, with some calling it an invented tradition (marx, 2002). however, ubuntu has been widely theorised (letseka, 2012; metz, 2011), with ramose (1999) arguing that ubuntu represents the epistemology informing cultural and legal practice. 132 while ubuntu is referred to as a theory (letseka, 2012; metz, 2011; ramose, 1999), in this paper, ubuntu is a concept which “speaks of the fact that my humanity is caught up and is inextricably bound up in yours. i am human because i belong.” (tutu, 1997, p. 78). central to ubuntu is one’s relation to others, that is, umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu – “i am what i am because of others”. ubuntu does not negate the rights of the individual and one does not lose his or her identity (du toit, 2004), but it emphasises that the individual becomes through and together with others. thus, individual learning is not learning in isolation, but an individual develops through and with others. it has been argued that ubuntu is unique to africa, even though some of its principles can be shared with other asian and european philosophies (kamwangamalu, 1999). an example is the philosophy of humanism, which espouses shared humanity (gaylard, 2004) and “affirmation of our ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfilment that aspire to the greater good” (american humanist association). what makes ubuntu stand out, though is how it “articulates social interdependence and a deep rootedness in community” (letseka, 2012, p. 48). ubuntu relates to communities, which, whether poor or thriving, cannot survive on individual efforts. in times past, people had to live together in large families and clans and shared basic needs such as shelter, food and water (broodryk, 2002). ubuntu, thus, insists that the good of all determines the good of each as adonisi (1994, p. 311) observes, "traditional african values foster a communalistic world-view towards life". the essence of ubuntu is that an individual owes his or her existence to the existence of others. “’i am because 'you are' and ‘we are’ because ‘you are’ and 'i am’” (mbigi & maree, 1995, p. 2). this interpersonal character of ubuntu is the source of many of its distinctive features that have been highlighted in literature, such as patience, hospitality, loyalty, respect, conviviality, sociability, vitality, endurance, sympathy, obedience and sharing, to list but a few (adonisi, 1994; broodryk, 2002, mbigi & maree, 1995). ubuntu finds its roots and meaning in humanity and, therefore, espouses values that emphasise sharing, co-operation, compassion, caring (letseka, 2013); “being humble, thoughtful, considerate, understanding, wise, generous, hospitable, socially mature, socially sensitive, virtuous and blessed” (le roux, 2000, p. 43); as well as survival, solidarity spirit, compassion, respect and dignity (mbigi & maree, 1995, poovan, 2005). the concept of ubuntu “offers an understanding of ourselves in relation with the world, focusing on people’s allegiances and relations with one another” (karsten & illa, 2005). therefore, ubuntu is in direct contrast with individualism, which is espoused in most western cultures. although african culture promotes communality and collectivism, individualism was bound to seep in to the education system due to the western colonial powers from which it was inherited (poovan, 2005). despite the colonial influence on the african way of life, african cultures discourage the view that the individual takes precedence over the community. what this means in an educational context is that “traditional educational thought and practice should be directed at encouraging cooperative skills” (venter, 2004, p. 157). since the process of learning is a dynamic interaction between the individual and her physical, cultural, social and political environment within which they interact, peers become the most influential group in the learning environment (makoe, 2012). in these cultures, according to sawadogo (1995), dependency relationships are nurtured and strengthened amongst peers. in short, a student feels very dependent on others for survival. vygotsky (1978) argues that learning is a social concept where socio-cultural practices such as beliefs, values, customs, norms and attitudes tend to influence individual behaviour. 133 the context in which learning takes place provides the setting for examining experience while the environment and the community shape learning (makoe, 2012; cole, 2003). it seems prudent, therefore, for distance education institutions to embrace socio-cultural realities in order that they deliver educational programmes that are responsive to student needs. that’s why many students at unisa, the largest distance education institution in the continent, prefer to belong to informal study groups. to these students, learning is a collective social process, which is characterised by the need to interact with fellow students, making group interaction central to the way they learn. in such a context, students feel a heightened sense of communalism which is a “strong and binding network of relationships" (mthembu, 1996, p. 220). hence, most students find the study groups helpful because they are sources of motivation and support. this support within groups is highlighted by garrison and arbaugh (2007), who argue that open interaction, which is indicated by risk-free expression and group cohesion, encourages collaboration. the dynamic nature of social media tools, thus, has the potential to support collaborative learning because it allows students to become active participants and co-producers of knowledge as they learn together in technologymediated groups. therefore, this paper demonstrates how the principles of ubuntu are used to explore the utilisation of social media in building communities of students who are interacting and helping each other as they learn english vocabulary. methodology data was collected from students who were studying a first-year english module which is aimed at equipping students with the necessary academic literacy skills to prepare them for university studies. invitations were sent out to more than a thousand students, however, only 29 returned the consent forms and these were the first group that showed interest in participating. perhaps, it is worth mentioning that the number of students who responded is not unique to this study. past experience of inviting students to participate in studies and informal observations, seems to point to lower responses to invitations for participation in research studies. this could be due to the scarcity of time that distance students face. although empirical research is needed in this regard, it seems distance students barely have time to complete activities for their studies and they are wary to take on what is perceived as extra work. in this study, even though the vocabulary activities pointed to learning benefits, the activities were not part of the assignments for their module, so they could have been perceived as additional work. it should be mentioned that although some students had expressed interest in the study, they could not participate because they had not submitted the study consent forms on time. the participants were then randomly allocated into five whatsapp groups. the groups were named vocabnation 1 through to vocabnation 5. a discussion was initiated within these groups outlining ground rules for group behaviour, placing emphasis on respect, focusing on the learning as well as encouragement to participate in discussions. whatsapp was used both as a vocabulary learning tool as well as a data collection instrument. the whatsapp chats did not need transcription as whatsapp saves chats, which were emailed and saved in word for analysis. every morning, the instructor sent a word of the day, the part of speech, the definition and example sentences. this was later followed by prompting questions and messages encouraging the participants to engage and discuss the word of the day in groups. some discussions 134 were prompted by the participants who would ask other group members for further explanations or translations of the assigned word. at the end of each day, the researcher sent exercises which tested understanding and use of the new word. as the study progressed, the participants had to write their own sentences and paragraphs where they could recycle the past words to demonstrate understanding. these sentences were shared in the groups for the benefit of others. thematic analysis was used to analyse the series of message threads, which included over a thousand whatsapp posts, through deductive coding, based on the ubuntu principles. the whatsapp messages were emailed to the researchers and saved as word documents. the researchers then read and reread the discussion threads and used different coloured highlights to underline phrases that were related to the ubuntu principles. the phrases were categorized into various ubuntu principles in a table. two raters completed this activity and compared the categories. areas of deviation were discussed until there was an agreement. in short, ubuntu principles were utilised as a theoretical foundation and a framework for grounding and validating the themes emanating from data. for the purposes of the analysis, we clustered the principles of ubuntu as identified by adonisi (1994); broodryk, (2002), le roux, (2000), letseka (2013), mbigi and maree (1995) into four key values: 1. interdependence (solidarity, survival, respect, interconnectedness) 2. caring (compassion, thoughtfulness, understanding) 3. respect (human dignity, being considerate, socially mature, socially sensitive, wise) 4. sharing (communalism, being hospitable, being considerate, being generous). findings and discussion while some of the discussions below might be similar to some online forums, they are presented in this paper to illustrate how ubiquitous and accessible mobile spaces facilitate interaction, where ubuntu is facilitated and demonstrated. interdependence the ubiquitous nature of mobile devices has the ability to facilitate the formation of virtual learning communities so that students can interact and learn from each other. it also helps students to collaborate with each other as they learn the english language in communities that value interdependence. these communities rely on trust and loyalty to advance the well-being of others in the group (mbaya, 2011). because the participants were interacting openly, they were able to encourage each other. 5/22/16: 12:58 – p24: i encourage everyone to participate in this group so that we can help each other. virtual group members were also able to admonish each other when it was felt that the others were not contributing enough. there is a marked understanding that it is in working together that they will all achieve much. 135 8/5/16: 08:12 p3: can i be candid? what happened to the other students as i see no comments? p4? p6? 08:17 – p3: we have to show an instructor that we appreciate her efforts. while the group was engaged in learning english vocabulary, they used their own languages to clarify some of the concepts. nelson mandela valorously stated that, “if you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head, but if you talk to him in his language, it goes to his heart” (cited by ginsburgh & weber, 2011). therefore, meaning can only be understandable in the plane of inner speech, according to vygotsky (1978). these words resonated throughout the study as participants repeatedly lauded the fact that they were able to express themselves and exchange ideas in their language of choice. while language choice is espoused in south africa’s constitution, the reality is that english usually takes centre stage leaving little room for indigenous languages to be used at universities. when the participants found learning vocabulary too difficult, they felt that they could understand the english concepts much easier in their languages. using their first language to understand a word was an advantage, as indicated in the following excerpt. 5/29/16, 18:45 – p19: otlasi kgatello,ya maikutlo kapa ya jwala [under personal or alcoholic pressure] (defining the word of the day, stupor, in sesotho) 5/19/16, 21:43 – p6: mutsho ,ufhisa na u oma [hot and dry weather] (defining the word of the day, torrid, in tshivenda) 5/19/16, 18:26 – p24: torrid means xesha linzima [times are tough] (defining the word of the day, torrid, in isixhosa) 5/23/16, 07:43 – p3: welwillendheid of liefdadigheid [goodwill or charity] (defining benevolence in afrikaans) although participants came from different language backgrounds, they still understood each other and were able to work as a community to assist each other in learning english vocabulary. south africa has eleven official languages and participants in this group reassured each other, arrived at understanding the word of the day and generally communicated with each other in their own languages. to this end, second-language students tend to rely on their native languages to analyse and provide order to their meaning and thought (rublik, 2017). this was similar to other studies that have shown that “several languages promoted overall mental development, and a better understanding of one’s native language,” (rublik, 2017, p. 338). participants used their indigenous languages and corrected each other as they interacted towards building understanding. because the group was heterogeneous, it also demonstrated the multilingualism, which is the tapestry of south africa. in this ‘virtual social space’, according to garrison and arbaugh (2007), people are socialised purposefully towards cognitive development. in this instance, the social interaction reflected the development of the negotiation from a mere exchange of ideas to a meaningful building and confirmation of knowledge within the community. the whatsapp group provided a sense of belonging which created personal and purposeful relationships. working with other people is especially important in this context because most distance education students often feel isolated from their peers, as sources of motivation. 136 6/6/16, 17:05 – p16: andiqinisekanga ingathi kukuqubisana, [i am not sure, it might be a competition] p14 will help me 6/6/16, 17:10 – p15: what are u asking? 6/6/16, 17:13 – p16: if ukuqubisana [competition] is the right word in isixhosa? 6/6/16, 17:13 – p15: are u sure abt your spelling? 6/6/16, 17:16 – p16: yes 6/6/16, 17:18 – p15: ukuqubisana [competition], means conflict 6/6/16, 17:20 – p16: no you are wrong some times kuthiwa [they say] orlando pirates izakuqubisana ne kaizer chiefs kulempelaveki [will compete against…this weekend] and that is not a fight 6/6/16, 17:21 – p15: it's a clash sharing the concept of communality lies in the principle of sharing. it is therefore expected that every person in these communities should be hospitable. african hospitality is grounded on the fact that no one is an island to himself or herself, rather, each one is part of the whole community, including those who have passed on (mbaya, 2011). such is the magnitude and depth of the concept of sharing. as such, it is customary to even pour a few drops of traditional beer on the ground for the ancestors before drinking it (mbaya, 2011), evincing sharing what one has with one’s ancestors. in an african culture, the community comes first and as a result, “the individual has a social commitment to share with others what he has” (teffo, 1996, p. 103). sharing in this society includes sharing resources, food, space, wisdom, to name a few. people who do not share with others are considered outcasts. the elements of sharing enhance human interaction in relation to working collaboratively and having a shared destiny of a defined group (mbaya, 2011). in these whatsapp chats, sharing was manifested in how the participants shared knowledge and information, as illustrated in the following excerpts. 8/12/16, 08:30 – p10: thanks instructor for everything, i would also like to thank the members of the group for their participation. i learn a lot from you guys. good luck with your studies. 7/12/16, 09:15 – p8: yes i got mine (referring to examination results) 7/12/16, 09:18 – p7: mna [as for me] not yet 7/12/16, 09:19 – p8: log in to my unisa zozbona [you will see the results] through sharing, the participants were providing each other with various types of support that is helpful in distance education. in addition to sharing information, the participants used the space provided to share a piece of their own culture as they applied the new acquired vocabulary. closely linked to sharing cultural information, personal vulnerabilities were also shared and the group empathised. they were even beginning to use the new words in their interaction as illustrated in the excerpt below. 8/9/16, 23:05 – p21: i really cannot wait for the big day, one that would turn sour days to euphoric moments. my graduation day. my favourite word. 8/10/16, 11:43 – p24: euphoric moment indeed … , i will also cherish that moment forever. 137 in this way, sharing solidified the group’s solidarity. it seemed as though sharing showed the participants that even though they were separated by distance, they were united in their experiences. while the participants lauded whatsapp for the opportunity to exchange ideas and learn from others, sometimes group work presented challenges to learning. in the beginning of the study, some participants felt that some answers were shared before they participated in the exercises. some also felt apprehensive about sharing their answers, not knowing if they were correct or not. as the study progressed, the participants felt more like a community and they were more open to sharing. in one of the later exercises, participants were asked to write a paragraph and send it to the instructor who shared some of the answers with the group if the original author agreed. this was done in order to bolster the confidence of the participants, so the activity was completed without anyone feeling selfconscious. it was interesting to note that the participants were amenable to sharing, as none of the participants declined to have their work shared with the other group members. respect over and above sharing, another key value of ubuntu is respect, which includes human dignity, social maturity, social sensitivity, wisdom and compassion, all of which are exploited to enforce group solidarity (gathogo, 2008). respect, in this paper, was evident in two ways: respect for diversity and respect for hierarchy. respect for diversity was portrayed in how the various languages were respected, accommodated and encouraged. even religious diversity was acknowledged in a nondiscriminatory manner. when discussions were around blasphemy as the word of the day, the facilitator had to steer discussions so diversity was acknowledged without being discriminatory. although this group was heterogeneous in terms of gender and age, respect for hierarchy and for age and gender is particularly a very important component in african culture. people tend to be more comfortable amongst people of the same age range and gender. from a young age, according to sawadogo (1995), children from the same gender and age are raised together and, therefore, age differences bind people together in specific social relationships. interaction between different age groups in an african tradition is based on respect for the elders. this emanates from a common understanding that elders are custodians of knowledge. although participants interacted openly in their groups, they sometimes inboxed the instructor on the side with other issues. in this study, the instructor was perceived as an elder and a knowledgeable person. the response of the lecturer is even more appreciated and valued in distance education because it gives students an opportunity to interact with the lecturer. 5/31/16, 08:41 – p18: hello instructor. thank your for writing straight to me about the app. to be honest i never tried it, l just appreciate the fact that you choose to use whatsapp to accommodate everyone after it did not worked out. i still think that whatsapp is the great idea, because some of us do not have money to download while whatsapp is affordable. even though participants did not see each other, they still wanted to portray themselves in a positive light. social presence in online learning, according to gunawardena & zittle, (1997) is also related to how students want to be perceived, socially and emotionally. it made sense that participants would want to filter their openness when they were in the group or when they were interacting with the 138 facilitator, individually. whether seen in person or virtually, people often alter how they act amongst peers or in one-on-one interaction with the instructor. 7/7/16, 18:22 p3: hi instructor, i was wondering if you could not send a voice note with the word for us to hear the proper pronunciation? that is often a problem. 8/18/16, 11:44 – p13: it was easy for us on whatsapp than the app.the only thing you could change is exemple sentences should come from us not from you, we should work harder and you help us where we struggling. the above excerpts, which were taken from side chats outside the group, illustrate that the participant did not want to be perceived as someone who operates outside the group norms. participants appreciated the side chats because they felt that they communicated freely on matters they deemed sensitive and were meant for the instructor’s attention. in a face-to-face context, such an event would be cumbersome. firstly, it would mean the student waiting until class is over to get time alone with the teacher. it would also mean the student might get suspicious glances as the others see her or him chatting alone with the teacher. in the mobile learning realm, however, all it took was for the individuals to inbox the instructor, maybe while they were also actively engaging in their groups. caring while collaborative learning facilitated interaction, it is also manifested in affective expression. the participants used the forum to tackle socio-emotional issues as they interacted (shandu, 2017). one participant expressed the usefulness of the group in mitigating the loneliness inherent in distance education. this statement was especially telling, particularly in the mostly isolated distance education context. 6/18/16, 10:03 – p24: sometimes distant learning is very lonely and boring but when we have whtsap groups to share ideas it become easy and motivating what is distinctly imperative about virtual collaborative learning is the shift from it being viewed as a social space for making friends to facilitating learning. while it has been shown that, over time, affective and open communication decrease as group cohesion increases (vaughan & garrison, 2006), the distance education setting allows participants to interpose between personal posts relating to personal wellness, personal achievements and personal concerns examples of the most advanced stages of group cohesion. 7/12/16, 09:50 p13: you have no idea how many times i wrote this module 7/12/16, 09:51 p24: dont give up, i failed this module last year 2nd semester. i was writting supplementary exam now. the extract above highlights two of the most prominent challenges for the distance student, which are isolation (shandu, 2017; birch & volkov, 2007) and motivation (garrison & arbaugh, 2007). the participants congratulated each other as well as providing an emotional anchor and steered each other on. 139 7/12/16, 09:47 – p24: thanks n u how did u do 7/12/16, 09:49 – p13: bad and i'm about to give up now 7/12/16, 09:49 – p24: please don't! it is interesting how p24 reassures p13 by putting himself out there to say, they are in the same boat as he also failed the module, but persevered and now he passed. in his encouragement, he is closing the gap of isolation while he motivates. the participants also demonstrated elation when they felt it. 5/23/16, 06:31 – p10 i m inspired by these new words l am very excited to be in this group though at times l miss opportunity to answer 8/12/16, 19:32 – p13: i am so glad that i was part of this group.thank you to you all. inasmuch as the participants in this group did portray themselves as real people, since they used the group as a socio-emotional outlet, group cohesion was evident because the participants mostly interacted for learning purposes as they built knowledge and understanding. however, some students have noted how university life somewhat removes students from their traditional values, where the south african university learning environment has been claimed to be usually individualistic and competitive (costandus, 2009). this goes against the student’s traditions and their value systems of ubuntu where people are encouraged to work collaboratively and share their learning experiences. implications for practice the principles of ubuntu are rooted in interaction within communities and they are enshrined in values of interdependence, respect, caring and sharing. learning, according to vygotsky, (1978) occurs in social contexts and is actuated through social interaction in collaboration with teachers and peers. social interaction in teaching and learning, as well as for assessment purposes, could be employed to accommodate communal orientations (costandus, 2009). it is therefore important that students who comes from interdependent cultures should be encouraged to put their individual self forward and be encouraged to rely on those values for successful learning. while interaction might be presumed as the norm in face-to-face education contexts, the same cannot be taken for granted in distance education where the distance is marked and felt. as a result, it is difficult to facilitate social interaction when teaching and learning occurs at a distance. however, the affordances of mobile technologies and other modes of flexible learning have proven to be effective in facilitating interaction and building learning communities. it should be borne in mind that learning communities benefit from working collaboratively. institutions, therefore, should realise that students are resources to themselves and could provide cognitive and affective support to each other. this means that institutions should create flexible spaces for interaction; place high value on students as resources to each other; invest in mediated learning and offer content that will allow for collaboration (shandu, 2017). because distance education principles are grounded in accessibility, openness, student-centredness and flexibility, it stands to reason that distance institutions should invest in creating spaces for interaction that will foster the 140 principles of ubuntu. the answer to how such interaction is mediated comes in the form of mobile technologies. while other technologies, such as computers, can also mediate interaction, mobile technologies provide the personalised, flexible and ubiquitous qualities which are congruent with the distance education context, especially in developing countries such as south africa. in essence, mobile devices allow for students to be connected. this points to a shift in education where learning is not merely transmitted from lecturer to students but co-developed through interaction in learning communities. learning, thus, is “most successful when people interact with each other through interrogating and sharing their description of the world” (makoe, 2012, p. 2). there is a need therefore, to revisit our perception of supporting students from a top-down approach, to providing support that enables students to be a community that supports one another. this does not preclude the involvement of the lecturer as a facilitator to guide and to show direction when needed. conclusion this study demonstrates that when language and culture are interlinked, positive results emanate. in vygotsky’s (1978), sociocultural perspective, learning is viewed as an enculturation process which is influenced by social interaction. in the distance education context, the crucial role of technologies for mediated interaction cannot be overemphasised. however, in the south african context, interaction should be grounded in ubuntu principles of interdependence, sharing, respect and caring, if learning is to be successful. institutions of learning, especially distance education, would do well in providing spaces that can be appropriated for meaningful interaction through communities of learning. references adonisi, m. (1994), conclusion: african management–the career in community. in p. christie, r. lessem & l. mbigi (eds.), african management. philosophies, concepts and applications (pp. 309-314). pretoria: sigma press. american humanist association. (2019). definition of humanism. retrieved from https://americanhumanist.org/ amry, a. b. (2014). the impact of whatsapp mobile social learning on the achievement and attitudes of female students compared with face to face learning in the classroom. european scientific journal, 10(22), 116-136. birch, d., & volkov, m. (2007). assessment of online reflections: engaging english second language (esl) students. australasian journal of educational technology, 23(3), 291–306. broodryk, j. (2002). ubuntu: life lessons from africa. pretoria: ubuntu school of philosophy. cole, m. (2003). vygotsky and context. where did the connection come from and what difference does it make? paper presented for the biennial conferences of the international theoretical psychology, istanbul, turkey, june 22-27. costandus, e. (2009), independent and interdependent concepts of self: a meeting of worlds. acta academica, 41(2), 158-179. du toit, c. w. (2004). technoscience and the integrity of personhood in africa and the west: facing our technoscientific environment. in du toit, c. w. (ed.), the integrity of the human person in an african context: perspectives from science and religion, 1-46. gade, c. b. (2012). what is ubuntu? different interpretations among south africans of african descent. south african journal of philosophy, 31(3), 484-503. garrison, d.r., & arbaugh, j.b. (2007). researching the community of inquiry framework: review, issues, and future directions. the internet and higher education, 10(3), 157-172. 141 garrison, d. r., & archer, w. (2000). a transactional perspective on teaching and learning: a framework for adult and higher education. new york: elsevier science, inc. gathogo, j. (2008). african philosophy as expressed in the concepts of hospitality and ubuntu. journal of theology for southern africa, 130, 39-53. gaylard, r. (2004). welcome to the world of our humanity: (african) humanism, ubuntu and black south african writing. journal of literary studies, 20(3-4), 265-282. ginsburgh, v. a., & weber, s. (2014). culture, linguistic diversity, and economics. in handbook of the economics of art and culture, 2, (507-543). elsevier. gunawardena, c. n., & zittle, f. j. (1997) social presence as a predictor of satisfaction within a computermediated conferencing environment, american journal of distance education, 11(3), 8–26. hamad, m. m. (2017). using whatsapp to enhance students' learning of english language "experience to share". higher education studies, 7(4), 74-87. hani, n. a. b. (2014). the impact of whatsapp group's utilization on efl students' vocabulary writing amelioration. international journal of university teaching and faculty development, 5(2), 73-87. jacobs, g. m., renandya, w. a., & power, m. (2016). simple, powerful strategies for student centered learning. new york: springer. justina, m. (2016). use of whatsapp to enhance reading and writing skills at undergraduate college level. language in india, 16(11), 47-60. kamwangamalu, n. m. (1999). ubuntu in south africa: a sociolinguistic perspective to a pan-african concept. critical arts, 13(2), 24-41. karsten, l., & illa, h. (2005). ubuntu as a key african management concept: contextual background and practical insights for knowledge application. journal of managerial psychology, 20(7), 607-620. keegan, d. (2005). the incorporation of mobile learning into mainstream education and training. proceedings of the 4th world conference on m-learning. cape town, 25-28 october, 2005, 1-17. la hanisi, a., risdiany, r., & sulisworo, d. (2018). the use of whatsapp in collaborative learning to improve english teaching and learning process. international journal of research, 7(1), 29-35. lave, j., & wenger, e. (1991). situated learning: legitimate peripheral participation. new york: cambridge university press. le roux, j. (2000). the concept of ubuntu: africa's most important contribution to multicultural education? mct, 18(2), 43-46. letseka, m. (2012). in defence of ubuntu. studies in philosophy and education, 31(1), 47-60. letseka, m. (2013). educating for ubuntu/botho: lessons from basotho indigenous education. open journal of philosophy, 3(02), 337-344. letseka, m. (2014). ubuntu and justice as fairness. mediterranean journal of social sciences, 5(9), 544. makoe, m. (2012). bridging the distance: the pedagogy of mobile learning in supporting distance learners. distance education, intech: open science, open minds. retrieved from http://cdn.intechopen.com/pdfs/39191/intechbridging_the_distance_the_pedagogy_of_mobile_learning_in_supporting_distance_learners.pdf mabovula, n. n. (2011). the erosion of african communal values: a reappraisal of the african ubuntu philosophy. inkanyiso: journal of humanities and social sciences, 3(1), 38-47. marx, c. (2002). ubu and ubuntu: on the dialectics of apartheid and nation building. politikon: south african journal of political studies, 29(1), 49-69. metz, t. (2011). ubuntu as a moral theory and human rights in south africa. african human rights law journal, 11(2), 532-559. moore, m.g. (1993). theory of transactional distance. in keegan, d. (ed.), theoretical principles of distance education, (pp. 22–38). routledge: london. mbaya, h. (2011). social capital and the imperatives of the concept and life of ubuntu in the south african context. scriptura, 106:1-8. 142 mbigi, l., & maree, j. (1995). ubuntu: the spirit of african transformation management. randburg, knowledge resources. mthembu, d. (1996). african values: discovering the indigenous roots of management. in r. lessem & b. nassbaum (eds.), sawubona africa: embracing four worlds in south african management (pp. 215-226). sandton: zebra. poovan, n. (2005). the impact of social values of ubuntu and team effectiveness. thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of masters of arts. stellenbosch: university of stellenbosch. ramose, m. b. (1999). african philosophy through ubuntu. harare: mond books publishers. rovai, a. p. (2002). development of an instrument to measure classroom community. the internet and higher education, 5, 197-211. rublik, n. (2017). language acquisition and cultural mediation: vygotskian theory. asia pacific journal of contemporary education and communication technology, 3(1), 334-345. sawadogo, g. (1995). training for the african mind. international journal of intercultural relations, 19(2), 281-293. shandu, t. p. (2017). a glimpse into mobile learning in open distance learning (south africa). in h. crompton & j. traxler (eds.), mobile learning and higher education: challenges in context. new york: routledge. shishah, w., hopkins, g., fitzgerald, e., & higgins, c. (2013). supporting interaction in learning activities using mobile devices in higher education. 12th world conference on mobile and contextual learning. qscience proceedings. teffo, l. j. (1996). the other in african experience. south african journal of philosophy, 15, 101–104. tutu, d. (1997). the essential desmond tutu. compiled by j. allen. claremont: new africa books. vaughan, n., & garrison, d. r. (2006). how blended learning can support a faculty development community of inquiry. journal of asynchronous learning networks, 10(4), 139-152. venter, e. (2004). the notion of ubuntu and communalism in african educational discourse. studies in philosophy and education, 23(2-3), 149-160. vygotsky, l. s. (1978). mind in society: the development of higher mental processes. cambridge: harvard university press. authors: prof. mpine makoe is the commonwealth of learning chair in open education practices/resources at the university of south africa (unisa). she is also a director of the african council for distance education. she holds a phd in educational technology. email: qakisme@unisa.ac.za dr. thulile p. shandu-phetla is a lecturer in english studies and a senior researcher in the institute for open distance learning at the university of south africa (unisa). she holds a doctorate in english studies focusing on mobile learning, distance education and applied english language. email: shandtp@unisa.ac.za cite this paper as: makoe, m., & shandu-phetla, t.p. (2019). using mobile-based social media to facilitate interaction and build communities through the lens of ubuntu in distance education. journal of learning for development, 6(2), 130-142. tait from the emeritus editor… alan tait vol. 3, no. 2 the journal of learning for development (jl4d) was conceived in january 2013, in discussion with professor asha kanwar and colleagues at the commonwealth of learning, vancouver. our aim was to create a new space in the journal field, dedicated to the intersection of learning for development, in other words how learning could support and bring about development.  so this was not envisaged to be another journal of distance and online learning, although it aims to provide a focus for that field amongst others in terms of the educational dimension, but for all innovation in learning that had as an aim to contribute to social and economic development.  as the website notes, ‘jl4d publishes research articles, book reviews and reports from the field from researchers, scholars and practitioners, and seeks to engage a broad audience across that spectrum. it aims to encourage contributors starting their careers, as well as to publish the work of established and senior scholars from the commonwealth and beyond.’ i spent 2013 with dr mark bullen, then education specialist for elearning at col, patricia schlicht, programme assistant at col, and dr godson gatsha, education specialist (higher education) at col, designing and planning the journal, and we launched with a call for papers in the autumn of that year, with the first issue appearing early in 2014. so now, three years later, as i step down from the position of founding editor in chief, i would like to review with readers the extent to which we have succeeded, and how the character of the journal is developing. while we wanted to create this new space, we could not know in advance whether there would be contributors or readers.  so how have we done? we have produced 6 issues in the years 2014-2015, and in total 20 research articles, including some invited articles from senior leaders in our field in the first issues; 10 case studies and reports from the field; 8 book reviews and 4 other items including commentaries, editorials, etc. we have published 42 items from 65 authors from major world regions (fig. 1). we can say at this stage that we have certainly elicited a response from countries in development, if we can distinguish in this way from those richer countries or from the ‘global north’.  it is gratifying to see such strong scholarly response from these regions and from africa in particular, in the light of concerns about knowledge being produced and defined by the global north for consumption in the south: this journal is contributing to the instruments that seek to reverse that imbalance. figure 1: jl4d papers from around the world in terms of the major themes addressed in the journal across all categories of writing, while it is difficult to classify, i can summarise in the following way. the two largest areas of contribution have been: the digital revolution, technologies for learning and online and e-learning methodologies of distance and e-learning. while this is not differentiated from many journals engaged with innovation with technologies for education, the fields of application reveal thematic settings that are specific to countries in development, or the global south.  these include: the schools sector and open schooling community development teacher education and development agriculture tvet teaching of science community radio health countries in conflict offender education non formal education research. so it is clear that both the provenance and the thematic priorities that have emerged in the first two years of the journal’s record of publishing speak to the developing world. i would hope, however, that the framing of innovation in learning for development would also be taken up by the richer countries, who are of course also themselves in development, that is to say, are equally concerned with social and economic interventions to improve the lives of their citizens, albeit from a different base than the rest of the world. it remains true that over and above the universality of relevance for development thinking, there are severe and increasing inequalities in the richer countries, with the re-emergence of social marginalisation at levels that have not been seen for 30 years in many developed parts of the world. the aspiration therefore is not only that the jl4d continues to provide a platform for knowledge to be produced in the global south, but also that colleagues in the north accept the invitation to frame and analyse their educational innovation for development purposes also. what have we learned about learning for development? we should review, finally, the extent to which the articles published have helped the field understand more deeply how education can contribute to development.  i set out in my first editorial in early 2014 how policy makers have for the most part moved beyond believing that education is solely to be understood as human capital development for economic growth, accepting that it is one of the most important elements for providing the context in which individual, families and communities can be better equipped, following sen (2001), to make choices about their lives. this thinking underlay the un decade of education for sustainability 2005-2014, where a set of tasks was allocated to unesco in support of this broad goal, to (unesco, 2012, p. 11): promote and improve the quality of education reorient the existing education programmes raise public awareness and understanding of the concept of sustainable development train the workforce. the unesco review of the decade in 2012 makes clear that in addition to curriculum focus or refocus on issues of sustainability, climate change, environmental protection etc., there is awareness of a need to focus on pedagogic innovation.  learners skilled and knowledgeable about sustainability need learning competencies that have been realised in pedagogic innovation in methods such as discovery learning, critical thinking, interdisciplinary learning, systems approaches and so on, as well as a range of progressive education practices that support student-centred flexibility (tait, 2016). this journal’s focus has been envisaged as lying exactly at that convergence of innovation in learning for development purposes. the 2015 agreement on sustainable development goals, with its commitment to goal 4 for innovation at all levels including post-secondary and lifelong learning, makes this focus all the more central to the tasks of those concerned with education for development. we should, however, add that the traditions of distance learning, reconceived through the digital revolution as e-learning or online learning, now also add very powerful tools both to the potential of scale and pedagogy.  there remains, however, a very considerable task ahead of all of us, to rethink how education for sustainable development demands change across all subject areas, building and exploiting digital capabilities, and embedding skills and understanding that will equip our citizens and workforces to provide better lives for themselves now and for the future. it is difficult for educators to immerse themselves in development thinking and recognise how education contributes as more than a ‘thing in itself’, but as one of an array of crucial streams of activity for human and social development.  we have been able to publish articles addressing major focus areas for development, e.g., health, schooling, teacher development, agriculture, and community development that are purposefully constructed with such explicit goals. taking that dimension of analysis into all programme areas, in partnership with the new thinking needed about sustainability, represents an agenda as ambitious as it is essential. this journal represents one important space where this work can focus. so, in conclusion, i wish the new chief editor anne gaskell all strength and success in taking the journal forward, in partnership with dr sanjaya mishra at col. i continue in the role of emeritus editor and will take a close interest in the field as a whole as well as offer support to the journal. references sen, a. (2001). development as freedom. oxford university press. tait, a. (2016). the lifelong learning university of the future. in e. cendon, a. mörth, & a. pellert, (eds.), theorie und praxis verzahnen lebenslanges lernen an hochschulen. (in german). (pp. 273-274). münster: waxmann. unesco. (2012). shaping the education of tomorrow. report on the un decade of education for sustainable development. (abridged). paris: unesco. wolfenden chinedu i. o. okeke & comfort b.s. mndebele (2013) education reform in the sadc region: challenges and responses in the 21st century. scientific & academic publishing, usa. freda wolfenden vol. 1, no. 1 this book promised  much; a series of vignettes and critical studies of innovations, initiatives and debates across different education sectors in southern africa from local academics  with a variety of discipline backgrounds  and deeply familiar with the contexts in which they are teaching and researching.  the scope of the book is huge, ranging from reports of small-scale enquiries to broader overviews of shifts and developments at the national level. i hoped this would be something to celebrate, an invitation to engage with insights from the south.  but the reality was a little disappointing. most problematic for me is the lack of a sense of a coherent whole in the book, an absence of intellectual threads through the narratives and signposts to help the reader link the empirical studies and the more theoretical or rhetorical pieces.  the variety of styles, subjects and multiple perspectives sharing a common geographical location are the book’s strengths but i had no sense of why these particular subjects and articles had been included.  in some chapters the abstract made reference to the broader picture but this was often not followed through in the body of the piece.  taken as a whole the book portrays a context with interesting developments but there is no sense of how these complex issues interrelate across the landscape, and the dominant theoretical ideas or debates are only implicit, never openly discussed.  perhaps this is not the intention?   the editors’ introduction gives little indication of the motivations behind the book, origins of the contributions or criteria for inclusion. these would have been helpful in framing the contributions and making the book work as a coherent whole.  the contributions are highly variable in quality, a few read as if they started life as assignments or internal policy / review papers, some appeared to be extremely recent, and others more dated. there is nothing wrong with this. but for inclusion in an international book a much clearer focus on the intended positioning and audience, together with more consistent editing might be expected. there is a need to eliminate repetition across chapters, omissions and typing errors – was the population of swaziland previously estimated at 1126 million people (p. 43)!  all the references are gathered together at the end of the book implying the editors see this as a coherent narrative rather than a collection of discrete pieces – for me this was frustrating and i would have preferred references to be located with each individual chapter. the book is divided into five parts, each with a number of chapters.  the first section explores ‘programme reforms and implementations’ and begins with a damning critique of national policies which inhibit participation of international students in work integrated learning placements associated with higher education programmes.   whilst taylor anticipates some of the recurring themes of the book it seems a curious choice for a first chapter – a considerable proportion of the narrative is concerned with local policy detail.  chapter 2 explores teachers’ professional identity and is, by contrast, curiously uncontextualised.  lombard asks key questions about how teachers respond to changes, not merely in policy but also shifts in views of knowledge and learning. however, through neglecting an exploration of how professional identity is negotiated and emerges in the context of southern africa she offers little new to the field, merely synthesising the existing knowledge base.  the chapter closes with suggestions for further research and i wanted to encourage her to develop one or two of these in their own context. much of chapter 3 is then similarly disappointing with little sense of the local in its description of the introduction of a new high school leaving certificate (the higcse) in swaziland.  the reader is left wanting to know how the curriculum has been localised, what training the teachers undertook and how they adapted and reacted to the change?  instead there was a lengthy piece on supervision of schools, forms of assessment and even a digression to reforms in west africa, all of which appeared rather disconnected from the general argument of the chapter.  in many ways the following chapter provides the core of this book.  mago maila situates his discourse in higher education and begins with a critical perspective on prevailing hierarchies of knowledge which accord priority to ‘scientific’ knowledge and inhibit exploring how the local might be linked with the global.  this is developed into a passionate advocacy for transformative learning strategies to be harnessed to education for sustainable development and movement towards a theory/ practice duality where one continually informs the other as students move deeper into their practice.  these key ideas frame many of the pieces in the book and might have benefited from being developed more fully throughout the book.  chapter 5 is concerned with tertiary learning opportunities in horticulture and could have provided an interesting case to illustrate these arguments but the account lacks analysis and is somewhat inward looking towards the particular institution. section two consists of two chapters looking at the impact of hiv/ aids on education.  chapter 6 takes society’s response to the public health challenges associated with hiv / aids as its focus and munachitombwe muyabala argues passionately for embracing the ‘healthlife’ concept, a holistic framework of physical, financial and spiritual health.  whilst his focus on ‘transformation’ and change is refreshing, the lack of theoretical depth to his argument and the absence of any detailed analysis of current approaches make it difficult to see how this idea might be of benefit to learners and be applied within education systems.  the following chapter zooms in on a small-scale interpretivist study exploring teenage pupils’ views on a christian god in the context of hiv/aids.  i found this insightful and fascinating, the voices of the pupils were genuine and engaging and i was left wanting to know more – where was the study carried out?  what was the environment of the school? what are the views of their teachers?   the third section explores parental involvement in education and its three chapters are possibly the most coherent section of the book, although i wondered at the rationale for the inclusion of the first commentary, a case study of parental engagement and activity at a primary school in a very different environment, the uk’s capital city, london.  the abstract recognises the dissimilar context and suggests there may be lessons from this case for colleagues within the sadc region. however, there is no discussion of this within the main body of the article and the immense differences in policy, institutional structures, lifestyles and histories of participation in formal education make the process of transposing ideas and strategies difficult for readers unfamiliar with london primary schools.  by contrast the following chapter is firmly situated in the sadc region, although i had to work hard to establish the exact location of the study.  this empirical study is tiny in scale but masango highlights policy tensions in support for school community interactions and shares examples of how these relationships are understood by parents and school staff. the final chapter in this section delves deeper, with a detailed and thoughtful ethnographic study of the literacy trajectory of four young children across both home and school environments.  rich with children’s voices and behaviour together with vivid descriptions of their surroundings, the article clearly illustrates how these young children’s agency is limited and how,  across both domains, adults don't view them as knowledgeable. but freed from an adult presence the children experiment and negotiate with multiple early literacy practices.  these observations are highly pertinent; frequently children’s lack of progress with literacy is partly attributed to a lack of suitable resources but when unsupervised these children were seen to be creatively using any available material as a literacy tool.  section four looks at open and distance learning in two countries of the region.  reaching learners in marginalised and nomadic communities is critical to achieving education for all goals and the challenges of engaging these learners in secondary education through odl in botswana are explored in the first chapter.   gatsha draws on data from a remote learning centre to highlight tensions in the design and delivery of the programme, in particular the limitations of the curriculum as experienced by learners.  these issues — different forms of knowledge, language of instruction and so on — are relevant to colleagues in other contexts and it will be interesting to know if his recommendations are acted upon and the resulting impact.  the companion chapter adopts an institutional perspective to analyse the challenges associated with offering odl within a conventional university (university of swaziland) where staff work across both modes.   following the adoption of a vle (moodle) the author describes pilot and implementation activity. much of this journey will be familiar to the reader from other contexts but less frequently  discussed is the author’s observation that  the explicit structure in the vle led to an increased focus on teaching approaches by academic staff  — a  ‘rediscovering pedagogy’.  as the author comments this offers the possibility of these odl staff acting as ‘agents of change’ across the institution. the  book finishes  with a section  labelled  ’education policy issues’ but the chapters continue their focus on specific issues in particular environments;  private schools in swaziland,  the expansion of primary schooling in zimbabwe and the development of teacher education in botswana.  the immense growth of low-cost private schooling in countries such as nigeria and india is currently a much discussed topic with controversy over the quality and equity of the education provided within these schools. the chapter here, the weakest in this section, could have added a valuable small-country perspective to this debate but i found it difficult to get a sense of scale and participation in the private schooling sector in swaziland. data was generated only from newspaper reports so, inevitably, the investigation focusses on ‘bad practises’ seen in illegal private schools, whereas, it would have been useful to understand the wider picture and to include views of parents as users of these schools. chapter 14 offers a comprehensive description of zimbabwe’s trajectory towards upe since independence and includes a welcome discussion of female education, the only reference i noted to gender issues within the collection.  shortage of qualified teachers is identified as a factor limiting educational achievements in zimbabwe, as in many neighbouring countries, and the final chapter focusses on strategic development of teacher training in botswana.  monyatsi points out that this has been predominately undertaken within a traditional academic framework with its emphasis on abstract subject knowledge. this analysis offers a useful addition to our understandings of the genesis of the ‘theorypractice’ divide in teacher education; many commentators currently argue this division is restricting improvements in teacher quality across the region. i ended this book wanting to know more about some of the initiatives and to draw together the key ideas.  for the reader who makes a judicious selection there are some interesting pieces to stimulate further investigation; the chapter summaries in the preface are useful in pointing the reader to particular areas of interest, although disappointingly lacking in detail on the location and context of the studies, a considerable flaw in a book whose value rests so heavily on offering a platform for local interpretations and expertise.  this may be unintended but the book does illuminate an encouraging emerging participation in research communities.  as mantyi-neube observes in chapter 3, there is a need to encourage colleagues in sub saharan africa to look both inward and outward in their contributions, exploring how their local knowledge can be linked to global knowledge, to shift and broaden the discourse. freda wolfenden works at the open university (uk), faculty of education and language studies. e-mail: freda.wolfenden@open.ac.uk microsoft word gaskell.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 191-196 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. editorial the sustainable development report 2019: what can we do to address the challenges? anne gaskell the united nations sustainable development report 2019 makes sobering reading. not only are there “shockingly low proficiency rates in reading and mathematics [which] signal a global learning crisis”, but “750 million adults still cannot read and write a simple statement; two thirds of those adults are women” (united nations, 2019, goal 4, pp. 30-31). united nations secretary-general antónio guterres comments that “it is abundantly clear that a much deeper, faster and more ambitious response is needed to unleash the social and economic transformation needed to achieve our 2030 goals.”i but why has there been so little progress? what can be done to address some of the concerns identified? this issue of jl4d looks at some of the challenges and some of positive developments towards solutions. some of the challenges facing educational institutions are discussed in our special feature by professor som naidu, pro vice-chancellor, flexible learning and director, center for flexible learning at the university of the south pacific. we are delighted that som is providing the third in our series of reflections by leading figures in the area of open, distance and online learning. previous contributions from terry andersonii and gilly salmoniii have challenged us to think about the uses and abuses of social media and the need to vision the future to provide the most appropriate learning experience for our students. som provides an equally challenging article in his consideration of current drivers for change in higher education (he) and how, and indeed if, these are being considered and addressed. som is, of course, extremely well known for his championship of “open, flexible and technologyenhanced learning and teaching” (oftel) over many decades and in many roles in australia and the south pacific. these include the critical academic leadership roles he has held at the university of southern queensland, the university of melbourne, and charles sturt university, and currently back at the university of the south pacific where he began his career in oftel. a phd graduate of the famed educational technology program of concordia university in montreal, som is widely known for his role as executive editor (since 1997), of distance education, the journal of the open and distance learning association of australia. in this role, som has consistently written thought-provoking editorials that challenge us to reconsider and review our assumptions about the meaning of “distance education” (naidu, 2014), how it can best support learners, and its core concepts, arguing that: “the threshold principles at the heart of all models of distance education remain openness and flexibility which we see as value principles, much like we see diversity, equity or equality in education and society more broadly” (naidu, 2017). indeed, his appreciation and interrogation of new developments and directions in areas previously termed “open learning” and 192 “e-learning” (see e.g., naidu, 2003) has led to the much more nuanced and inclusive terminology of oftel that recognizes the rapidly changing field in which we work. he has also encouraged debate and interrogation of new developments, such as moocs (see for example, baggaley, 2013) through the journal’s section on “reviews and reflections.” oftel must be underpinned by appropriate research and som is a leading figure in championing such research, both through his own work (e.g., zawacki-richter & naidu, 2016), and perhaps even more importantly through his mentoring of authors and contributors to distance education, and his extensive leadership, involvement and support of capacity building projects in course and curriculum design and development, online learning and e-learning in many developing countries throughout the world but especially in south asia and the pacific. his 2003 guidebook on the principles, procedures and practices of e-learning provided key advice and guidance to readers and enabled them to “tell a story” about their experiences in relation to the issue or subject under discussion (naidu, 2003/2006). he has since been involved in numerous research and development projects across the world, for example one of his projects with karunanayaka and abeywardena focusses on the adoption and integration of open educational resources and open educational practicesiv for student teachers. som is a leading figure in learning for development, and his engagement with current projects, discussions and research into oftel make him an ideal contributor to our series of reflections from leaders in the field. in our article som addresses some of the issues identified in the sustainable development report 2019, in relation to the need for high level commitment to meeting major current changes that threaten to make the achievement of sdgs even more problematical. he challenges educational institutions, particularly higher education institutions (heis), to consider how and whether they can lead learning for the future in the context of current disruptive forces; these require educational institutions to rethink, reconfigure and recalibrate their pedagogies and processes in order to meet the needs of changing student oftel. drivers for disruption include access to technology, demand for flexibility, need for connectivity, disaggregation of teaching roles and the growth of alternative digital credentialing. universities of the future will need to address these changes: are they ready? som argues that many educational institutions are not responding in systemic ways and are operating on outdated principles. he identifies pathways to address these challenges; but these will include rethinking pedagogies for learning and teaching, and providing more support and professional development for staff if there is any hope for the sdgs to be realized. professional development for teachers will be especially important in sub-saharan africa. the sustainable development report 2019 notes that this area accounts for most of the achievement gap in the provision of quality education, although parts of central and southern asia also lag behind. “southern asia alone is home to nearly half (49 per cent) of the global population who are illiterate”. however, in sub-saharan africa, “88 percent of children (202 million) of primary and lower secondary school age were not proficient in reading and 84 percent (193 million) were not proficient in mathematics”. one of the most important factors for the future will be “getting enough trained teachers into classrooms. here again, sub-saharan africa lags behind. in 2017, that region had the lowest percentages of trained teachers in pre-primary (48 per cent), primary (64 per cent) and secondary (50 per cent) education”. (united nations, 2019, p. 31). 193 our first research article by stutchbury, gallestegi & woodward from the open university uk (ou uk) addresses some of these challenges in their discussion of a new programme which aims to provide school-based professional development for teachers in zambia. zest (zambian education school-based training) provides resources and activities for teachers but does not prescribe particular practices; it rather aims to empower teachers to choose their own practices, best suited to their own contexts. working with key stakeholders, the programme developers use open learning principles to develop open learning practices through the use of open educational resources (oer), and by so doing support a shift towards more learner-centred pedagogies. through workshops, monitoring visits and a small-scale evaluation, the authors are able to demonstrate some important outcomes from the programme which indicate its potential when scaled up. for example, teachers seemed to gain confidence, a sense of community with their colleagues and improve their skills and practice; there are also signs that learners’ literacy improved, slow/shy learners became more engaged and absenteeism was reduced. hierarchical educational structures and the need to demonstrate impact are still issues to be addressed, but the programme has great potential to make some difference and, if scaled up, assist in improving the alarming literacy rates indicated in the sdg report 2019. the use of oer and information and communication technologies (icts) is growing across subsaharan africa. however, in 2015, a unesco report noted that this growth had tended toward “a techno-centric approach to ict in education. clearly, a strategy that prioritises sound pedagogy, training teachers to use ict effectively to support instruction and building overall capacity is more appropriate” (unesco institute of statistics, 2015, p. 20). our first research article was concerned with professional development of teachers; our second research article, also from sub-saharan africa, identifies some further concerns. tanzania is making considerable investment in e-learning systems in secondary schools; but are these being used? this provides the subject for our article by mtebe and kondoro from the university of dar es salaam, tanzania. a project to increase teachers’ subject knowledge of science subjects and mathematics through the use of digital resources was successful, so the materials were adapted and made available to students. using data mining tools on 68,827 records, mtebe and kondoro demonstrate that usage of these resources has been moderate and has been declining every month. mobile phones are banned in tanzanian schools and so the potential benefits of these resources are limited, despite the fact that 75 percent of tanzanian adults reported owning a mobile phone in 2017 (pew research centre, 2017). another issue is the high costs of, and limited rural access to, connectivity, illustrating naidu’s point that connectivity is far from universal. the authors conclude that more action needs to be taken to ensure that the benefits from the resources can be realized. our first three articles support the use of oer and digital resources as ways of meeting some of the challenges mentioned in the 2019 sdg report. this approach is endorsed by col president and ceo prof asha kanwar in her introduction to unesco and col’s guidelines on the development of open educational resources policies where she notes that “oer have tremendous potential for promoting equitable and inclusive quality education and lifelong learning for all. oer emerged as a technologydriven solution to address issues of cost and quality. but oer are also based on values: equity, inclusion, collaboration and respect for diversity” (kanwar, 2019, p. 4). our remaining articles provide further examples of the potential of oer to meet sdgs and address some of the drivers for change discussed by naidu. 194 one of the questions naidu asks is: how are heis responding to the use of more open, flexible and technology-enhance learning (oftel)? how far are they prepared for institutional change? our third research article by morgan, from the justice institute of british columbia (jibc), canada, examines the use of open educational resources (oer) and open educational practices (oep) at jibc through an important and rare longitudinal study of evolutionary organizational change in terms of institutional response to “openness”. the need for institutional change is one of naidu’s calls for action in our first article and morgan provides a very useful example in her study of the approach to “openness” at jibc from 2010-1014 and in a follow-up study in 2018. in the earlier study she found that new models for teaching and learning could be in conflict with current practices of, for example, protecting content to preserve funding, and so there could be complications with business models and workload. by 2018, there is greater institutional acceptance of “openness” – for example oer are included in jibc’s academic plan 2016-2020, but there are no institutional policies to support their development. while there has been a significant shift from closed courses, materials and models to a greater recognition of the value oer and open textbooks, there are concerns about models of sustainability and tensions arising from some externally funded projects. some of the changes morgan observes at jibc between 2014-18 are the development of free introductory courses to some programmes, and the conversion of a paid course to free access with the only (and much cheaper) payment being for taking an exam. our final two articles provide additional discussion of these subjects and also illustrate some of naidu’s drivers for change in relation to the demand for alternative digital credentials. the ou uk’s openlearnv platform was launched in 2006 to provide extracts from ou courses as oer available to anyone. previous institutional research had demonstrated that a large number of current ou students were using the resources and, in her article, law, from the ou uk, focuses on these current ou students, the ways in which they use openlearn, their motivations and the impact on their learning. she traces institutional research from 2016 onwards which resulted in a major relaunch of the website in 2017, incidentally providing a good example of how institutional research can drive practical change. surveys in 2016 and 2017 found that the resources on openlearn improved student confidence and aided future course choice, as well as having an impact on student success and retention. in response to feedback, some of the most recent developments have been the piloting and launch of an induction course and the provision of digital badges to provide formal ou branded recognition of study for employers or curriculum vitae. digital badges and blockchain as new means of recognizing achievement are the subject of our final article by downes. blockchain is a way of encoding and managing digital records, and has the potential to link together and verify educational achievements. it thus can provide proof of digital educational qualifications, such as badges awarded for the completion of particular tasks – in this case a connectivist massive open online course (cmooc). downes’ report from the field explores the development of an application that uses open badges and blockchain within a cmooc. while some aspects of course design could not be implemented, the study provides an example of the workflow from content to storage and “proof of concept” in that the development of a distributed badging infrastructure was feasible. our book review contributes to the discussions raised in the rest of this issue. the fourth edition of the handbook of distance education, ed., moore & diehl, may focus on the north american, and 195 particularly united states, higher education experience but neal notes that the section on theoretical frameworks and instructional design are universally helpful, and discussions of teaching and learning are useful starting points for others. the united nations sdg report 2019 notes that “high level political commitment to the sdgs is falling short of historic promises…. the gap between rhetoric and action must be closed” (united nations, 2019, p. 2). have our articles been able to provide any smaller but positive responses to the call for action? i think they have. we have valuable articles providing evidence of new developments in education at the primary (stutchbury et al.), secondary (mtebe & kondoro), and tertiary level (morgan; law; downes) all of which will support changes necessary to meet the sdgs, through professional development (stutchbury et al.), institutional change (morgan; law), increasing use of oer and digital resources (stuchbury et al.; mtebe & kondoro), and willingness to use new approaches, for example, in providing digital badges to recognize achievement (law; downes). all of these developments are exactly those that naidu identified in his opening article as needing urgent attention in a changing environment. so, there are some positive signs for the future. and this makes it a good note on which to end my editorship of jl4d. it has been an enormous privilege and a great pleasure to edit jl4d for the last four years. jl4d is a very important journal, particularly through its combination of commitment to learning for development, inclusive content and open access policies, which reflect some of the key principles of the commonwealth of learning. i am delighted to confirm that professor santosh panda, from the staff training and research institute of distance education (stride), indira gandhi national open university of india (ignou) has agreed to take on the role of chief editor in the future. prof panda has already contributed several articles to jl4d, for example identifying leaders in distance education in asiavi , and is ideally placed to take the journal into the future. i should like to thank two of my colleagues who have provided exceptional support throughout the four years of my editorship: dr sanjaya mishra, associate editor, without whose substantial contributions and assistance the journal would not have appeared at all; and copy editor alan doree who smooths all our writings into much more elegant prose. and finally, and most important of all: especial thanks to you all as our contributors and readers. please keep your articles coming! anne gaskell chief editor, jl4d references baggaley, j. (2013). mooc rampant. distance education, 34(3), 368-378. kanwar, a. (2019). foreword. in f. miao, s. mishra, d. orr, & b. janssen, guidelines on the development of open educational resources policies. paris: unesco & col. retrieved from https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000371129 196 naidu, s. (2003, updated 2006). e-learning: a guidebook of principles, procedures and practice. new delhi: cemca. retrieved from http://oasis.col.org/handle/11599/53 naidu, s. (2014). looking back, looking forward: the invention and reinvention of distance education. distance education, 35(3), 263-270. retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01587919.2014.961671 naidu, s. (2017). openness and flexibility are the norm, but what are the challenges?. distance education, 38(1), 1-4. retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01587919.2017.1297185 pew research centre (2017). global attitudes and trends. retrieved from https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2018/10/09/majorities-in-sub-saharan-africa-own-mobile-phones-butsmartphone-adoption-is-modest/ unesco institute of statistics (2015). information and communication technology (ict) in education in sub-saharan africa. montreal: unesco institute of statistics. retrieved from http://uis.unesco.org/sites/default/files/documents/information-and-communication-technology-ict-ineducation-in-sub-saharan-africa-2015-en.pdf united nations (2019). sustainable development goals report. retrieved from https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/progress-report/ zawacki-richter, o., & naidu, s. (2016). mapping research trends from 35 years of publications in distance education. distance education, 37(3), 245-269, doi: 10.1080/01587919.2016.1185079 cite this paper as: gaskell, a. (2019). editorial— the sustainable development report 2019: what can we do 
to address the challenges? journal of learning for development, 6(3), 191-196. i https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/progress-report/ ii https://jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/article/view/327 iii https://jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/article/view/352 iv https://www.researchgate.net/project/open-educational-resources-oer-open-educational-practices-oep v https://www.open.edu/openlearn/ vi https://jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/article/view/263/253 microsoft word downes.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 273-286 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. 273 recognising achievement with badges and blockchain in a connectivist mooc stephen downes digital technologies research centre, national research council, canada abstract: while previous work has recognised the potential for open badges and blockchain to play a role in online courses, this potential has yet to be realised in a fully descentralised cmooc. this paper describes the design objectives of an application that integrates open badges and blockchain with a cmooc. the work described was undertaken during the offering of an online course, and, thus, development took place in an actual course context with interaction with course participants. the full workflow from course content to storage on the blockchain is described, and some concluding comments are offered on the results of this course, and the potential for future applications. keywords: mooc, cmooc, badge, blockchain, webmention, rss, decentralised. introduction the ‘open badge’ is the name for a technical infrastructure and set of specifications for recognising learning achievements with a digital icon, or ‘badge’. open badges were introduced by the mozilla foundation with a working document in 2012. (mozilla, 2012) open badges became an ims technical specification with version 2.0 being released in 2018. (ims global, 2018) the specification “describes a method for packaging information about accomplishments, embedding it into portable image files as digital badges, and establishing resources for its validation.” open badges constitute a part of a wider set of practices called ‘open pedagogy’ (conole, 2013, p. 210). they offer support for reflective practice and peer review. along with other aspects of open pedagogy, and in particular the massive open online course (mooc), open badges help address the issues of demand, affordability and accessible to technology in learning in the developing world. this is seen in such work as iit kanpur’s mookit, launched in 2012, and in the commonwealth of learning’s mooc4d project, launched in 2015. open badges play a role in promoting lifelong learning, credible credentials, and, for their recipients, employment opportunities. created around the same time, ‘blockchain’ is the name for a set of technologies commonly associated with creating and managing a descentralised digital currency ledger such as bitcoin. blockchain was first proposed by a person or entity named satoshi nakamoto in a white paper published in 2009. (nakamoto, 2009) this paper contained elements common to most subsequent work in the field: a mechanism of linking or ‘chaining’ sets of data entries (called ‘blocks’) using cryptographic ‘hashing’ functions; and a mechanism for distributing the creation and management of blockchain data in a descentralised network using a ‘proof of work’ mechanism. the potential for the use of blockchain to encode educational records was quickly realised. moocs and similar non-traditional models face the widely reported problem of academic fraud and 274 corruption. efforts have been made to combat the problem with legal mechanisms but, ultimately, agencies and institutions are demanding digital solutions (børresen & skjerven, 2018). hence, for example, sharples and domingue discuss using blockchain to provide proof of intellectual work or as a form of intellectual reputation management (sharples & domingue, 2016, p. 492). mit researchers proposed a ‘blockcerts’ infrastructure in 2016 (lab, 2016). grigore albeanu discusses the application of blockchain to various educational applications ranging from authentication to certification. (albeanu, 2017, p. 271). gräther et al. (2018) propose blockchain “as a practical solution for issuing, validating and sharing of certificates.” the massive open online course (mooc) was created in 2008 as a means of creating a distributed open access online course (mcauley, stewart, siemens, & cormier, 2010). “mooc integrates the connectivity of social networking, the facilitation of an acknowledged expert in a field of study, and a collection of freely accessible online resources. perhaps most importantly, however, a mooc builds on the active engagement of several hundred to several thousand “students” who self-organize their participation according to learning goals, prior knowledge and skills, and common interests (p. 4).” with the launch of the artificial intelligence mooc by norvig and thrun in 2011, moocs diverged into two paths: on the one hand, the ‘extended’ mooc, or xmooc, characterised by the online course offerings from major educational institutions in a traditional course-package format as offered by agencies such as coursera, udacity or edx, and on the other hand the ‘connectivist’ mooc, or cmooc, based on a network of associated websites and resources, as described by mcauley, stewart, siemens, & cormier (2010) (bates, 2014). the use of blockchain to encode open badges for coursera xmoocs was proposed by melanie swan (swan, 2015; albeanu, 2017) and the application of blockchain for certification in moocs is suggested by hood and littlejohn: “a blockchain system records each transaction so that the student has a verified set of qualifications associated with him or her” (hood & littlejohn, 2016, p. 13). design and methodology the work described in this paper has the objective of developing an open credentialing system for a cmooc based on badges and blockchain. this work was undertaken in the context of the design and delivery of e-learning 3.0 (el30), a connectivist mooc offered by the national research council in october-december, 2019. (https://el30.mooc.ca) the purpose of this work, and hence the research design methodology employed, is to establish a proof of concept for the employment of badges and blockchain in a connectivist mooc, that is, to show whether it is feasible at all, and how it might be done. this is distinct from what would be a separate exercise of advocating this solution by, say, showing the benefits, or of an exercise whereby a methodology of badges and blockchain are embedded in a theoretical context beyond that assumed in the employment of a connectivist mooc. this course was advertised (via twitter and in email newsletters) as a design experiment both developing the concepts of current and emerging distributed learning technology, and implementing those concepts in a course management system called grsshopper. the implementation was described in a series of blog posts made available to course participants, and grsshopper source code was made available on github (https://github.com/downes/grsshopper). as a cmooc the course did not require formal registration. however, participation statistics were collected through the grsshopper aggregator as follows: newsletter subscriptions (177), harvested 275 feeds (15), with the number of unique visitors to the e-learning 3.0 course website reaching 3000. a total of 39 participants completed an associated research survey (fournier, molyneaux & kop, 2019, p. 232). as has been the case with other moocs, participants were well-educated with previous experience in online learning. the course consisted of two weeks of preparation, and nine weeks of instruction. course modules were as follows: • data – developing the use of dynamic and descentralised data instead of documents • cloud – employing ubiquitous internet data storage and services • graph – identifying connections between data elements to create new knowledge • identity – distributed and graph-based models of authentication and individuation • recognition – distributed recognition networks, open badges, and blockchain records • community – exploring decision-making and the concept of community as consensus • experience – integration of content and creativity in cooperative networks • agency – defined as security, identity, opportunity and voice. as a cmooc, the course was designed in the form of a network, with participants expected to use their own websites and blogs (some participants also used their own instances of grsshopper as personal learning environments (ples). each week was structured around a video introduction, a live webinar with a guest, a daily email newsletter, contributions (in the form of posts or videos) from course participants, and a summary article authored by the course instructor. this paper describes one aspect of the course, the design of a distributed data-based system for recognition of completion of tasks with open badges, with the recognition encoded in a blockchain. tasks were disseminated by means of the course newsletter, were completed by course participants in their own personal learning environment, and aggregated by grsshopper to begin the process of review and recognition. much of the development of the software enabling this process was developed during the course in the context of course delivery and interaction with course participants. data on course participation was collected in accordance with the national research council research ethics board (reb) regulations and under reb review. participants were informed of all aspects of data collection and gave their consent prior to taking the course. participation in data collection was not a requirement for participation in the course. all course content, activities and results were freely accessible without charge. in the next few sections of this paper we will describe the achievement recognition system developed during the course. this technology was actually deployed during the course (or in the base of blockchain, shortly after the course). it should be understood that the software developed consists of prototypes only, and was not designed for a production environment, or indeed any environment outside the context of this particular investigation. the result of this work should be understood as a proof of concept demonstrating the feasibility of a distributed blockchain-based badge network. a note on typology: in order to distinguish elements that are defined as objects, and therefore have a distinct record in the grsshopper mooc management system, we capitalise the name of the element 276 when we refer to it. examples of objects identified in this way include course, module, task, link and badge. modules and tasks a course module is a section of a course associated with a specific set of skills or competencies. the definition of skills or competencies is out of scope for this paper, however, this definition will typically include at a minimum a required mechanism whereby course participants can demonstrate their achievement of the skill or competency. in the cmooc this requirement is defined as a task. modules are associated with courses (university of sussex, 2012) (free-standing modules may also be defined as learning objects, but in the context of a cmooc modules are not free-standing). courses can be extensively defined but for the purposes of a cmooc the course requires only limited metadata: course title, and course description. other metadata about the course is defined by associating or linking the course object with other objects, and in particular, objects such as the course author, the offering institution, a course section (referring to a specific offering of the course), and relevant to the current context, course modules. figure 1: course definition. lines depict associations between entities as defined in the course graph. note that all associations are many-to-many unless otherwise indicated. similarly, a module can be defined with minimal metadata consisting of a title and description, with the remainder of the module definition created by means of association with additional objects. these objects include the course (as described above), skills and competencies, links and resources, activities, and, as relevant to the current discussion, tasks. 277 figure 2: module definition. lines depict associations between entities as defined in the course graph. in a cmooc management system, course designers are presented with an interface to a database allowing them to create the objects in question by entering text in the form, upload files that may be associated with the object, and to associate the current object with any other object. figure 3 shows a sample course with all modules defined and associated. figure 3: course defined and associated with modules. screenshot from grsshopper. a task may be defined however desired by the course author. students completing the task use their own online environment to record the outcome – they may, for example, create a blog post, or upload a presentation to slideshare, or create a photo montage in flickr, amongst numerous other options. completing and submitting tasks in order to make the outcome of the task available to the instructor, the student could send the location of the web artifact (that is, the url) directly to the instructor, either by means of a direct email or via an online form. this is less than ideal, however, because it is a labor-intensive task. 278 most online services such as blogger, flickr or slideshare allow users to share an rss feed for that service. this publishes a machine-readable summary of recent website contents authored by the user. (rss stands for either ‘rich site summary’ or ‘really simple syndication’). these summaries are available to content-consuming applications, known as ‘readers’, ‘aggregators’ or ‘harvesters’, in a variety of formats, including rss, atom, or javascript object notation (json). figure 4: sample simplified rss feed. elements of this electronic document are read by a harvester and saved as links and associated with a feed and author. grsshopper includes an rss reader (hence the ‘rss’ in its name) which can aggregate several versions of rss, atom, and json. these files, once harvested, are analysed and an entry created for each post or item listed in the feed. internally, these are depicted by grsshopper as ‘link’ entities. a user makes their entries available to grsshopper by submitting the url of their rss feed, which is depicted internally by grsshopper as a ‘feed’ entity, and associated with the contributing ‘author’ entity, where the author is the student submitting the contents. figure 5: link, feed and author, associated with course, module or task by means of a hashtag. lines depict associations between entities as defined in the course graph. 279 when the harvester reads the feed, it extracts one or more link. it analyses the link and associates it with a task, and optionally, with a module and a feed. there are numerous ways this association may be made. in the current case, the association was completed manually. in previous moocs, the mechanism of a ‘hashtag’ was used, whereby a distinct string, preceded by a ‘#’, was inserted into the content or title of the blog post; this allowed grsshopper to automatically create the association. in the future, a more intelligent analytics system may recognise the topic or skill demonstrated in the link, as associate the link with the most relevant task. reviewing submissions and awarding badges in the current course, for any task, an associated badge is created (future courses could associate badges with groups of tasks, or modules, or entire courses). in the current course, we worked with a third-party badge issuer, badgr, though the standard open web badges protocol and specification was used. (https://www.badgr.com) this is a multipart protocol, and we used entities previously defined to satisfy the protocol. the workflow was as follows: 1. create a badgr account. you need to go to the badgr website and register with an account (that is, create a userid and a password). this only needs to be done once. 2. obtain an access token. to make a request using an api you need to create an access code and put it into the header of your request. so, your first api request will be to create an access token. this also only needs to be done once. 3. create an issuer. an 'issuer' is the person who actually creates and awards badges. you would think it's the same person who just created the access token, but no. this is done once per issuer. 4. create a badge class – this is the badge itself, and is defined (in our case) as being associated with the completion of a task. the badge name, description and criteria are defined by the associated task entity, and the badge url is the task url. this is done once for each badge. 5. award a badge. information about the person being awarded the badge (being in our case the author) is submitted to badgr, which returns an instance of the badge class, and specifically: the ‘evidence’ url (i.e., the url of the author’s link associated with the task), an image of the badge with badge information embedded in the image file (i.e., ‘baked’), json data associated with the badge, and a verification process. to be clear, although each badge class is created only once, a new copy of a badge is created for each person who receives the badge. that is because the information about the recipient is ‘baked’ into the badge. this can be seen in the ims global open badges baking specification example of a “well baked svg with a hosted assertion” which includes the recipient as identified by email address (ims, 2018a). by analogy, we might think of the ‘badge class’ as the master copy of a printed certificate, with the ‘badge’ being the printed certificate with the recipient’s name written on it. 280 figure 6: three stages of badge creation in badgr: create an issuer, create a badge class, award a badge. three screen shots from badgr. in grsshopper, each badge is depicted internally with a ‘badge’ entity. the badge entity contains data created by badgr about the badge, including the badge identifier on badgr, and the url on badgr where the badge information is located. figure 7: grsshopper rss reader with option to award a badge. screen shot from grsshopper. to award the badge, the student’s submission is reviewed, and if appropriate, the badge is awarded. a course instructor does this by means of a grsshopper tool called the ‘viewer’ or ‘reader’, which displays the contents of recently harvested rss feeds. links, recall, are associated with feeds and authors, as well as with the task associated with a badge. by clocking the ‘badge’ icon (right next to the star in the image) the instructor awards the badge to the author. when the badge is awarded, 281 grsshopper employs the badgr api to issue the badge to the author. the author is identified by email, the badge by the previously defined badge identifier, and the evidence in the form or the url in the link submitted by the author. notification and recording awarded badges to a blockchain finally, the badge recipient (designated here as the author) is notified that the badge has been awarded. badgr automatically sends an email when the badge is awarded. additionally, grsshopper may also send an email. a more direct mechanism also employed by grsshopper is to use a specification called webmention. webmention is a w3c specification use to allow individual websites to notify each other automatically when they cite each other (world wide web consortium, 2017). webmention works completely behind the scenes in grsshopper and doesn’t require an additional human step to operate. web pages that support webmention specify a webmention link in the http header or document head. a publishing service such as grsshopper can send a notification by sending a ‘ping’ to that url in the form of a simple http request with the url of the published document. the recipient of the ping may request the page; when it does so it looks for metadata in the page text describing the reference; in the ‘indieweb’ response post that is marked up with microformats that describe the response and what it is in response to. grsshopper, when it publishes a badge, sends a ping to the url specified in the link submitted for that badge. the badge recipient may respond to the notification however they wish; a typical use case would be to post the badge image to the page being awarded the badge. figure 8: badge award and notification workflow. 282 after notification, badge awards are recorded to a data store. one mechanism employed elsewhere is to record such activity to a learning record store (lrs) using the experience api (xapi). in the current case, however, we constructed a blockchain, and recorded it there (note that most online course services would deploy a third-party blockchain service; we created our own for testing purposes only). a blockchain is essentially a series of records; in our case, the records consist of information about awarded badges. the data may be digitally signed, though for the present purpose we skipped this step. a collection of records may then be grouped together to form a ‘block’. this block is then given a unique identifying key by means of an algorithm that encrypts the block and generates a fixed-length ‘hash’ of the block. blocks are chained together by means of this hash. when one block is created, the hash from the previous block is included with the record data, along with a ‘nonce’, which is a one-time value created specifically for the purposes of creating a new hash. all of these – the previous hash, the data and the nonce – are used to create the hash for the current block, which will then be used to create the next block. in this way, the blocks are chained together. the purpose of a blockchain is to enable multiple institutions to share and add to the same data record. each of them has a copy of the full blockchain, and may add data to it. when new data is created (for example, a new badge is awarded), all institutions are notified, and each of them adds the information to the newest block they are creating. when the block reaches a certain size (in the case of grsshopper, it is five records, though this would obviously be much larger in production) then the institutions race to create a hash using a nonce to satisfy a certain condition; the resulting nonce is called the ‘proof of work’ required to create the hash. the idea is that the nonce is difficult to produce but easy to verify. in the base of grsshopper, it was necessary to produce a nonce such that the resulting hash would begin with ‘0000’. the first institution to produce such a hash distributes the newly formed block to other institutions, who check the block, verify that it is acceptable, and they all begin to produce the next block. 283 figure 9: sample blockchain output from grsshopper badge blockchain recording. it should be noted that the information stored in the blockchain, as noted in figure 9, is the same as the information stored in the badge itself, and as such, records the name and email of the badge recipient. it is arguable that this could violate the ‘right to be forgotten’ provision of the general data protection regulation (gdpr). in application, it is likely the blockchain record would contain an encrypted hash of the data, the key to which could be forgotten, and the content of which would be unknowable without already knowing the content of the data in the first place. it may reasonably be asked why a blockchain was constructed for this trial, since many public blockchains already exist. part of the reason was complexity. libraries for accessing and using these public blockchains need to be installed and configured. this introduces a range of issues peripheral to the main line of enquiry. by creating a minimum viable blockchain that could be accessed from the mooc application these issues were elided, and did not distract from the proof of concept. 284 results and discussion course evaluators reported that “general statistics were also collected through the grsshopper aggregator as follows: newsletter subscriptions (177), harvested feeds (15), with the number of unique visitors to the e-learning 3.0 course website reaching 3000” (fournier, molyneaux, & kop, 2019). the evaluators found that all modalities of the distributed architecture were used by course participants. figure 10: preferred mode of interaction in the e-learning 3.0 mooc (fournier, kop and molyneaux, 2019). course data showed that 290 posts were created as part of the course. more than half of these were either external resources added to the course by the instructor or articles authored by the instructor. twenty-eight active student feeds were harvested. sixty-three posts were authored on participants’ personal learning environments and harvested by the course aggregator using the #el30 tags. another 30 posts (approximately) were authored on participants’ personal learning environments and added manually by the instructor. obviously, a larger participation rate would have provided for more robust results and a better test of the software. that said, since the software was being developed during the course, a larger participation rate might actually have slowed down development, since some elements still needed manual input before the software was complete. in the original design of the course, the intention was that students would submit their own proposals for tasks, emulating the model of the ds106 assignment bank (levine, 2014). unfortunately, because of the low number of participants, tasks were not submitted, and, hence, all tasks were created by the instructor. nonetheless, the tasks were undertaken with enthusiasm by the participants. 285 similarly, the low number of students (and the newness of the technology) made testing of the webmention impractical. though pings were sent to badge recipients, none of the participants appeared to be using webmentions, and so the link back to the badge was not enabled (the webmention functionality was also turned on for the inclusion of any post in the newsletter, and not only for badges; later testing of the same software on another site confirmed its functionality). it was not expected that all aspects of the course design could be implemented during the actual offering of the course, and this turned out to be the case. although the blockchain software had been authored in the sprint, integration took longer than expected, and so it was not functioning until after the course. as a result, course participants did not have the opportunity to experience being awarded badges. similarly, the publishing of course resources, such as posts, to a distributed content network was accomplished only in test cases, and not in the course software itself. nonetheless, the successful development of the distributed badging infrastructure in a cmooc offers the possibility of even more experiments in the future. for example, since the contents created by course participants are openly accessible, and since the badge infrastructure is descentralised, anyone with the appropriate technology (currently, grsshopper only) could award badges for course contents, and save them to the same blockchain as the ‘official’ badge, thus enabling descentralised recognition for course achievements with no central criteria. additionally, again because course, content and assessment are distributed, parts of one course could be merged with parts of another course to create descentralised hybrid courses, which could in turn support their own assessment system, again recording the results to the same blockchain. the distributed badging infrastructure described in this paper offers a range of potential applications for learning and development. the employment of blockchain-based certificates provides the measure of security and verifiability needed worldwide. combining this approach with a model of open online education makes such certification more widely accessible. the digital content and badge-based recognition create portable credentials easily shared with potential employers. and the descentralised design of the badge infrastructure enables institutions in all parts of the world to participate as equal partners in the education infrastructure. future work will investigate some of these possibilities, as well as with integration of this model with (for example) ims learning tool interoperability and the experience api (xapi), as well as with distributed content networks such as ipfs or github. a fully-functioning trial will be conducted in a future version of the mooc. with a functioning model in place, so we know what a solution would look like from beginning to end, we can now ask in an informed way whether the combination of badges and blockchain are the best, or even an appropriate, way to recognise achievement in moocs. references albeanu, g. (2017). blockchain technology and education. in m. vlada (ed.), the 12th international conference on virtual learning icvl 2017 (pp. 271-275). bucharest university press. retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/snejana_dineva/publication/327557908_the_benefits_of_combini ng_social_media_and_elearning_for_training_improving_in_ftt_yambol/links/5b966f34a6fdccfd543a4e6d/the-benefits-ofcombining-social-media-and-e-learning-for-training-improving-in-ftt-yambol.pdf#page=271 bates, t. (2014, 10 13). comparing xmoocs and cmoocs: philosophy and practice. retrieved from https://www.tonybates.ca/2014/10/13/comparing-xmoocs-and-cmoocs-philosophy-and-practice/ 286 børresen, l.j. & skjerven, s.a. (2018). detecting fake university degrees in a digital world. university world news, 14 september 2018. retrieved from https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20180911120249317 conole, g. (2013). designing for learning in an open world. springer: new york. world wide web consortium (2017, 1 12). webmention. retrieved from https://www.w3.org/tr/2017/recwebmention-20170112/#respecheader fournier h., molyneaux h., kop r. (2019) human factors in new personal learning ecosystems: challenges, ethical issues, and opportunities. in c. stephanidis (eds.), hci international 2019 posters. hcii 2019. communications in computer and information science, 1034, (pp. 230-238). springer, cham. gräther, w., et al. (2018). blockchain for education: lifelong learning passport. proceedings of 1st ercim blockchain workshop 2018. retrieved from https://dspace.wineme.fb5.unisiegen.de/bitstream/20.500.12015/3163/1/blockchain2018_07.pdf hood, n., & littlejohn, a. (2016). quality in moocs: surveying the terrain. commonwealth of learning. retrieved from http://oro.open.ac.uk/50931/1/2015_qualityinmoocs-surveying-the-terrain.pdf ims global. (2018). open badges v2.0 ims final release. retrieved from https://www.imsglobal.org/sites/default/files/badges/obv2p0final/index.html ims global. (2018a). open badges baking specification ims final release. retrieved from https://www.imsglobal.org/sites/default/files/badges/obv2p0final/baking/index.html lab, m. m. (2016, 10 24). blockcerts — an open infrastructure for academic credentials on the blockchain. medium. retrieved from: https://medium.com/mit-media-lab/blockcerts-an-open-infrastructure-for-academiccredentials-on-the-blockchain-899a6b880b2f levine, a. (2014). a mooc or not a mooc: ds106 questions the form. in s. d. krause, & c. lowe, invasion of the moocs: the promises and perils of massive open online courses (pp. 29-38). anderson, south carolina: parlor press. retrieved from https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/33176016/invasion_of_the_moocs.pdf?awsaccessk eyid=akiaiwowyygz2y53ul3a&expires=1558035008&signature=7aulgzdyikfcpucclrbj3foyzuy%3 d&response-content-disposition=inline%3b%20filename%3danother_colonialist_tool mcauley, a., stewart, b., siemens, g., & cormier, d. (2010). the mooc model for digital practice. university of prince edward island. retrieved from https://oerknowledgecloud.org/sites/oerknowledgecloud.org/files/mooc_final.pdf mozilla. (2012, august 27). open badges for lifelong learning. the mozilla foundation and peer 2 peer university, in collaboration with the macarthur foundation. mozilla foundation. retrieved from https://wiki.mozilla.org/images/5/59/openbadges-working-paper_012312.pdf nakamoto, s. (2009). bitcoin: a peer-to-peer electronic cash system. retrieved from https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf sharples, m., & domingue, j. (2016). the blockchain and kudos: a distributed system for educational record, reputation and reward. in k. verbert, m. sharples, & t. klobučar (eds.), adaptive and adaptable learning. ectel 2016. lecture notes in computer science, 9891, (pp. 490-496). springer, cham. retrieved from https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-45153-4_48 swan, m. (2015). blockchain: blueprint for a new economy. o'reilly. university of sussex. (2012, 8 29). improving moodle import. part 1: the database schema. retrieved from http://blogs.sussex.ac.uk/elearningteam/2012/08/29/improving-moodle-import-part-1-the-databaseschema/. author: stephen downes is a researcher, digital technologies research centre, national research council of canada. email: stephen@downes.ca cite this paper as: downes, s. (2019). recognising achievement with badges and blockchain in a connectivist mooc. journal of learning for development 6(3), 273-286. microsoft word alkema.docx issn: 2311-1550 2020, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 218-232 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. foundation level workplace training programmes anne alkema industry training federation, new zealand abstract: this paper outlines the scale of the adult literacy and numeracy issue in new zealand and describes a policy intervention designed to upskill employees in workplaces to help resolve the issue for them. this is the workplace literacy and numeracy (wln) fund, which enables around 7000 employees a year to complete a 25to 80-hour learning programme, usually in their workplace and during work time. the paper also describes what happens in workplaces while programmes are underway, and the short-term wellbeing, social, and economic outcomes that occur for individual employees. in this context, literacy and numeracy relates to the way in which adults use skills that involve reading, writing, speaking, listening, and mathematics in everyday life. it also includes digital skills in relation to how adults engage and interact with information and communication technologies (ict). these skills are those that individuals need for learning, life, and work in the 21st century. keywords: adult literacy and numeracy, workplace-based learning, wellbeing, social and economic outcomes. policy issue: skills in new zealand in the 2014 survey of adult skills, part of the programme for the international assessment of adult competencies (piaac), new zealand, ranks relatively highly. we are fourth in literacy; 13th in numeracy; and fifth in problem solving in technology-rich environments (ministry of education & ministry of business, innovation & employment, 2016). however, these rankings hide the fact that around a third of our working-age population (approximately 1.5 million people) has only skill levels 1 and 2, as measured in this survey. this means these people are able to, for example: read and understand short texts and make some inferences; conduct basic mathematical processes and interpret simple graphs; and are either not able to use computers or, where they can, they can cope with simple tasks and use minimal functions in generic computer programmes (ministry of education & ministry of business, innovation & employment, 2016). this is problematic for employment given that analysis of skills profiles conducted in canada shows most jobs require level 3 or higher skills, with virtually no jobs requiring only level 1 skills. this is coupled with the fact that most of the new jobs created in the last 20 years require level 3 skills (lane & murray, 2018). low literacy and numeracy skills impact people’s work and life opportunities. research shows those with lower skills: are less likely to be in employment and when employed to have lower wages; are less likely to own their own home; have poorer mental and physical health; and are less likely than their higher-skilled counterparts to participate in their communities and wider society (bynner & parsons, 2006; schagen & lawes, 2009; murray & shillington, 2012). in addition to poor outcomes for 219 individuals the bynner and parsons (2006) study also found intergenerational impacts, whereby, children whose parents were at the equivalent of level 1 in oecd’s international surveys were, “quite seriously disadvantaged and likely to fall behind their peers” (p. 31). policy solution: the workplace literacy and numeracy fund new zealand’s tertiary education commission (tec) provides and administers the wln fund, the purposes of which are to increase the literacy and numeracy skills of lower-skilled employees and to contribute to productivity through the provision of programmes in a workplace context.1 2 the fund is divided into two strands. one strand (provider-led) directly funds tertiary education providers to market and deliver programmes in workplaces. the other (employer-led) is contestable funding that is applied for by employers who then generally contract an education provider to run programmes for their employees. employees are eligible for funding if they have low or no qualifications, or low literacy and numeracy skills as measured against the adult learning progressions.3 the ethos of the wln fund is that programmes should focus on people development, where the approach aims to lead to the transformation of both employees and their workplaces. this happens through taking an expansive view of learning approaches that are, in the main, contextualised to the workplace and to the wider needs and interests of the employees. albeit that the programmes are short courses, the approach is aligned to fuller and unwin’s (2004) expansive/restrictive continuum, which is further explored in ahlgren and tett (n.d.) and bryson, pajo, ward and mallon (2006). policy interventions that reach lower-skilled employees in workplaces are important for reasons that include: • the need to upskill workers throughout their working lives, particularly as the age of the working population increases • the need to bring equity to training delivery so that lower-skilled workers have access to training in the way their counterparts with higher skills do • the need to mitigate against the barriers (financial, time, opportunity cost) that lower-skilled workers face in accessing education outside of work (martin, 2018). new zealand research (benseman, 2014; kerehoma, alkema, murray & ripley, 2019) concurs with the above findings, especially in relation to māori and pacific people. it is difficult for many of these people to undertake learning programmes outside of work, given the access, time and cost implications. they are also often unlikely to want to participate, given the lack of confidence and the possible whakamā (shame) they feel in relation to attending programmes with people they don’t know. kerehoma et al, (2019) also identify that the whānau-like (family) environment of workplaces suits these employees: the learning environment’s pretty good. it's quite enjoyable. it's laid back. everybody feels at ease to be able to talk in front of people. when we first came, everybody didn't really talk much, but now we're all jovial and just telling jokes and stuff like that. that's probably the main thing for the class. …we joke about things, but it’s good, because you're learning something. you’re just continuously learning something… (employee)4 workplace training has advantages. [company] is unique –there is huge support wrapped around the programme. the learning content is already there ... time sheets, workbook, survey 220 forms. it’s hugely satisfying for them [employees] as they know that what they are doing is beneficial for their work. (facilitator) evidence of the reach and impact of the wln fund has been gathered since 2014 (alkema, 2015a; alkema, 2016; alkema, 2017; skills highway, 2018; alkema & murray, 2019). over time, data have been gathered from a variety of sources outlined in table 1 below. it includes data on just under 29,000 employees and from around 119 employers who have been funded through the employer-led strand. data have also been taken from a research project completed late in 2019 (kerehoma, et al, 2019). this project, co-funded by ako aotearoa, focused on how literacy and numeracy programmes in workplaces empower māori and pacific employees. table 1: data sources report quantitative demographic data document analysis other data alkema, 2015 2425 10 employer reports 5 survey with 15 education providers; interviews with eight stakeholders and eight employers; literature review; seven site case studies alkema, 2016 2099 30 employer reports literature review alkema, 2017 11,000 18 employer reports literature review skills highway, 2018 6983 29 employer reports five site case studies alkema and murray, 2019 6382 32 employer reports literature review; seven site case studies reach of the wln fund reports from the organisation of economic cooperation and development’s (oecd) survey of adult skills, part of the programme for the international assessment of adult competencies (piaac) show data from several perspectives, including ethnicity, gender, qualifications, and industry. these data are important for the new zealand context as they indicate who the target audiences should be for funded programmes. the figure below shows new zealand scores by ethnicity in 2014 and highlights that the average scores for māori, pasifika, and asian populations sit at level 2 and below for literacy and numeracy and level 1 for problem-solving in technology rich environments (ministry of education & ministry of business, innovation & employment, 2016). 221 figure 1: new zealand adult skills results by ethnicity. source: ministry of education & ministry of business, innovation & employment, 2016. p. 20. the intent of the wln fund is to reach those who have lower skills, and data collected from just under 29,000 employees show 60 percent of the fund is getting to the demographic groups with the lowest skills as shown in figure 2 below. that around 40 percent of the fund reaches māori and pacific people is important in the new zealand context. both of these populations are set to grow considerably by 2038 and as workers they are “being pigeonholed into lower skilled occupations… [and this] presents socio-economic problems, with ethnic inequalities being perpetuated and exacerbated” (kiernan, 2018). figure 2: wln fund reach by ethnicity. 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% nz/european pasifika asian māori other/unknown 222 while the figure above shows the reach of both strands of the wln fund, the impact is shown, in the main, by reports from 119 employers who have run programmes funded through the employer-led strand for over 6000 employees since 2014. these programmes have been run for 20 or more employees in workplaces. impact of the employer-led strand of the wln fund skills are a vital ingredient for economic success and individual and social well-being, now more than ever before as the fourth industrial revolution gets into its stride and ageing populations and workforces become the new norm (martin, 2018). the analysis framework used for this paper is based on the alkema and murray (2019) report that built from alkema and mcdonald’s (2018) work describing the wellbeing, social and economic outcomes that can accrue to adults who undertake foundation level learning, including in workplaces. here, the former determined that working and learning is an iterative process that impacts on individuals and their workplaces as shown in figure 3. however, there is a caveat in relation to these outcomes. rather than being naturally occurring, they have dependencies. at the macro level these include government policy and resourcing along with the labour market demand for skills. at the meso level it is about families, communities, and workplaces providing the conditions and opportunities for continued skill development. at the micro level it is about individuals’ awareness, motivation, and disposition to take up learning opportunities (alkema & mcdonald, 2018). figure 3: iterative learning and outcomes in the workplace. source: alkema and murray, 2019, p. 10. including wellbeing, social, and economic outcomes is important for gaining a wider understanding about what happens as a result of literacy and numeracy tuition. expanding outcomes thinking is also timely in new zealand given the new zealand treasury’s (2018) approach in relation to the four capitals that includes social and human capital, which incorporate aspects of wellbeing.6 alkema and murray (2019, p. 8) cite the treasury (2017) in relation to the importance of social capital which, ... has a large and well-evidenced impact on economic performance, democratic functioning, public safety, educational outcomes, labour market outcomes, and individual health and employee learning: knowledge skills attitudes workplace outcomes: efficiencies productivity profitability employee outcomes: wellbeing social economic 223 wellbeing. the particular risk is that government agencies take it for granted because it is rarely measured. potentially detrimental effects include increased income inequality, poverty, housing mobility and ownership rates, family and whānau wellbeing, institutional quality, educational outcomes and individual health and wellbeing. the connection between literacy and numeracy and these outcomes is made in a number of research reports. alkema and murray (2019) cite analysis of the adult skills survey data in canada (council of ministers of education, 2018) that reports on the connection between literacy and numeracy skills and social and civic outcomes. they also cite other research in the literacy and numeracy field that shows the links between literacy and numeracy and wider outcomes that improve the ways individuals participate at home, in their communities, and at work (balatti, black & falk, 2007, 2009; leach, zepke, haworth, isaacs, & nepia, 2009; vorhaus, litster, frearson, & johnson, 2011). what employees learn programmes are bespoke and tailored to the needs of companies and employees and the knowledge and skills they require to do their jobs and to participate more in their families and communities. this provides employees with the opportunity to engage in authentic learning experiences that have literacy and numeracy integrated into them. examples of workplace content include health and safety policies and practices; problem-solving techniques; understanding standard operation procedures (sops); and form filling. over the last two to three years there has been an increase in the number of programmes with a digital literacy focus as firms digitise communication and reporting, for example, payslips, timesheets, job reporting, and health and safety reporting: making it relatable is so important. most of the programmes we deliver are tailored to the needs of the company. so using their resources, like the take five or their health and safety reports or the forms they use, the health and safety vocab that's used on site. i think that's the difference, is that it's really tailored to what they do. it's relevant. (programme facilitator) given that this is a workplace literacy and numeracy fund there is an expectation that employees’ literacy and numeracy proficiency will improve. this is tested at the start and end of programmes using the literacy and numeracy for adults assessment tool (lnaat). collated data from the tool are not publicly available and not all employers report the results. of those who do, the results show very few employees make a statistically significant gain. this is in keeping with reder’s (2009) findings where he found little connection between participation in adult education programmes and literacy and numeracy proficiency gain. however, what reder found was an increase in engagement with literacy and numeracy practices and suggests that programmes would be better to measure practices than proficiency, … program participation is directly related to changes in engagement in literacy practices. with many statistical controls in place, there were direct relationships between participation in adult education programs and increased engagement with literacy practices (e.g., reading). the sequence of observed changes makes it clear that programme participation influences practices … programs generate increased levels of engagement in literacy practices in the short term that lead to increased proficiency in the long term (reder, 2013, pp. 19-20). further confirmation of reder’s work comes from the oecd (2013) who found that adults who practise their literacy skills nearly every day tend to score more highly than their counterparts regardless of education levels. however, one of the challenges is finding ways to measure practices 224 given they are dependent on, for example, purpose, context, complexity and frequency. in new zealand, whitton (2018) has developed a practice measures’ tool and indicators. as there is no national data collation, it will not be possible to ascertain the extent of the tool’s use but where it is used by individual education providers and/or employers there will be the opportunity for insight into practice engagement and growth. workplaces provide the context for literacy and numeracy practice as the learning is authentic and meaningful and can subsequently be used in a meaningful way (coben & alkema, 2017). engagement with literacy practices is clearly seen in the reports where employers note, for example, an increase in employees speaking up at meetings, proactively participating in solving workplace problems, completing forms, and communicating within and between teams. it is also seen when employees talk about using their new practices in their home and community lives: many employees also expressed an understanding of the communication process …this has helped change the workplace culture and created positive communications up and down the hierarchy. (employer) i’m struggling with the numbers and stuff like that. but when they start teaching us dividing stuff … i start realising that’s the reason they put me on this course … i learn from the numbers and even like reading plans. (employee) yeah, my reading and writing went up and i got a lot more confidence out of it. then yeah, i was able to help at home too, with my daughter. … i got a lot of satisfaction out of helping my daughter. (employee) wellbeing outcomes alkema and mcdonald (2018) describe wellbeing as how people think and feel about themselves and their lives. they aligned this with the new zealand treasury’s thinking on “subjective wellbeing” (king, huseynli, & macgibbon, 2018). included in their list of wellbeing outcomes, alkema and mcdonald (2018) built from eldred, ward, dutton and snowden (2004) and started with confidence and self-esteem. then working from other literature, including, (tett, maclachlan, hall, edwards & garside, 2006; literacy aotearoa, 2013; gyarmati, leckie, dowie, palameta, hui, dunn & hébert, 2014; ace aotearoa, 2014; alkema; 2015b; schueler, stanwick & loveder, 2017) they developed seven wellbeing outcomes that can accrue to foundation level learners. these are: confidence, self-efficacy, independence, belonging, resilience, cultural identity, and self-determination. in terms of wellbeing, over time employers have most often reported on increases in employees’ confidence and self-esteem. alkema and murray (2019) state that while confidence is important in its own right in terms of the contribution it makes to how people feel about themselves, it is also important because of the connection between confidence and learning and between confidence and the actions and behaviours that occur when employees feel confident. this translates to employees feeling able to, for example, speak up at meetings, complete paperwork, and solve problems. here they show they are willing to “give things a go” and to use skills they have not had the confidence to use previously: there is improved confidence at toolbox meetings. …staff take time to listen to each other hear each other out before speaking. the outcome has been increased respect for each other. (employer) 225 in a word, confidence. this is what my people have taken from the course and with new-found confidence they are finding everything else coming easier. like communication and even the way they articulate with one another. (employer) once employees start to participate more in their workplaces and become more engaged, they start to feel more valued and listened to and in turn develop a more positive attitude to learning and work. this transformational process occurs as employees recover from the learning trauma inflicted by their schooling experiences, recognise they are not "dumb", and lose their anxiety around learning environments. this is especially the case for māori and pacific employees (kerehoma et al, 2019). here the thinking aligns with jarvis, (2010) who takes learning beyond the cognitive and incorporates elements of affective domains, experience, and social practice: the combination of processes whereby the whole person – body (genetic, physical and biological) and mind (knowledge, skills, attitudes, values, emotions, beliefs, and senses) – is in a social situation and constructs an experience which is then transformed cognitively, emotively or practically (or through any combination) and integrated into the individual person’s own biography resulting in a continually changing (or more experienced) person (2010, p. 39). an employee in kerehoma et al, (2019) talks about how he changed his thinking about learning and work and how the programme has made him more open and motivated to learn and develop new skills. it is a seemingly virtuous cycle of confidence building and practice as hearts and minds work together in social situations. social outcomes as can be seen from the wellbeing outcomes described above, social outcomes occur in the form of increased work, community, and family participation and engagement. these outcomes are also found in other research. here, alkema and mcdonald (2018) cite the work of grotlüschen, mallows, reder, and sabatine, (2016); schueler et al, (2017); tett et al, (2006); vorhaus et al, (2011); and windisch (2015), who report evidence of social impact. these researchers found evidence of, …better communication; wider social networks that are linked with improved involvement and relationships with others (including family); higher levels of trust; participation in voluntary work and higher levels of civic engagement and political efficacy; reduction in social isolation; and improved behaviour at work. the researchers also acknowledge that it takes time for these outcomes to emerge (alkema & mcdonald, 2018, p. 21). across the years employers consistently report on the ways in which employees change the ways they think about their work and business once they have more understanding about how it operates. when employees are afforded opportunities, this can lead to greater engagement and participation. in workplaces this translates into ways of working that are more collaborative, involve more communication along with an openness to new ways of working. alkema and murray (2019, p. 12) report that employers say their employees, for example, “tolerate others better and are willing to be more collaborative; communicate better with others and are open to changed ways of working; speak up at team meetings, tool box meetings, health and safety meetings; and give better instructions.” suddenly they’re speaking up at meetings or putting their hands up and providing suggestions. because these guys are finally understanding that their contribution to how we do things is really valuable. (employer) 226 important here is that employees need to be afforded the chance to use their skills. such affordances, described by vaughan, o’neil and cameron (2011), are the opportunities workplaces provide for employees to engage with learning and develop their skills. here they follow billett (2001) who sees affordances as key to allowing employees to develop as problem-solvers and active participants in their workplaces. programmes help with this when they use authentic improvement problem-solving projects as a focus for teaching. this allows employees to undertake research and present cases for solving real workplace problems. an example here, cited in alkema and murray (2019), is the development of a “visual management system” for a building site: this helped us with time management and planning …it stops everyone coming and asking me questions all the time. … it allows people to see what’s going on, as it provides a written record of what’s happening and increases communication. (employee) social outcomes also spill over into family and community lives, whereby some employees’ engagement and participation grows: i’ve taken away the communication, the solving of problems at home, which i wasn’t too great at. things are at a point where it’s acceptable now. (employee) things were good, but now they’re great. we’ve now got more understanding of each other. what i mean is now me and him can actually sit down and have a conversation, and work things out together. before he would always just let me do it and i would just do it by myself. (whānau) most definitely it’s been beneficial for my mother. yeah, she’s very happy to have done the course … she gives me full paragraphs about her day instead of saying just ‘good’. yeah, i can tell by that that she has taken a lot from this opportunity that she’s been given. (whānau) where programmes have included connections to local libraries there has been an uptake of use in employees’ own time for them and their families. in a few cases there are also examples of employees taking up volunteer activities: [he] has become a young man who will ask about anything. he is now living independently. his confidence is up and he engages well in community activities, chatting easily and teaching others karate. he joined the local volunteer fire brigade and with support has successfully completed the paper-work side of things. (employer) what comes through from employers, and employees and their family members is the transformation that has taken place during the time programmes have been underway. change has happened and the data available for this work does not allow for examination of the processes such as critical thinking and self-reflection by employees that have led to have led to this. economic outcomes the survey of adult skills (piaac) highlights the lower employment rates and income returns that those with lower literacy and numeracy skills have compared to their higher-skilled counterparts (ministry of education & ministry of business, innovation & employment, 2016). however, alkema and mcdonald (2018) report that while there is evidence of social and wellbeing outcomes from programmes such as those funded through the wln fund, economic outcomes are more contested. here, they report that vorhaus et al, (2011), reder, (2014), and cerqua and unwin, (2017) concluded that over time there were economic returns. these were more likely to accrue when learners were in longer programmes and were labour market dependent. 227 given that wln programmes run for between 25-80 hours, limited economic outcomes are expected for individuals. but employers do report that some employees take on increased responsibilities which has the potential to increase their wages. some also progress to further study for qualifications which can also lead to higher pay rates. turning up for work more often also leads to increased economic returns, especially for those working in contracted roles: seventy-five percent of the first group went on to health and wellbeing level 2 … [and] the good news is that some are discussing going on to level 3 when we run it next year. it is a fantastic win for folk that were very reluctant to study to start with. (employer) since the programme melissa has been promoted. “i don’t think i would have been a supervisor without the course. my old habits were, ‘don’t ask, just do the bloody job’. i didn’t know any other way.” (employee) what also shows through in the data is the increase in employees’ agency where they feel able to take control of their learning and determine pathways for themselves that they had not previously thought about. while they start with needing support to do this, their ability to make choices about what they do grows: … and then halfway in the course then i see there’s something in there that’s really good for me … from now on, i’m on other courses now. so next monday i’m starting my level 2 of construction. yeah, i look forward to learn more and see what the other things is good for me on that course. (employee) participants have been taught how to use the [company] online learning site. this site houses additional training modules … the programme has given the staff the confidence to continue to upskill through independent learning on site. (employer) in addition, when financial literacy has been included in programmes there have been changes in employees’ financial behaviours. the context for teaching this in programmes is often driven by getting employees to understand their payslips and associated budgeting. this then turns to supporting employees to do some longer-term planning so they have less anxiety around money and debt: the outcomes mean staff are not asking for payday loans from the company as they are managing their income and know how to access support to better manage personal debt. it also means better outcomes for the family… (employer) by knowing the value of money, they understand the importance, not only to their personal lives, but also for the greater good of the company. having their financial situations in order makes them feel more confident… they are happy to work, knowing the money they receive will pay bills and be used for saving. (employer) workplace outcomes while funding is provided for training there are costs incurred by employers as they free up staff from production lines and service delivery to attend programmes. the logistics of this, along with lost production are openly acknowledge by employers, most of whom, in spite of the challenges, see the value for companies of running programmes of this kind: the programme is funded, but there are costs in terms of on-the-job productivity, managers’ time, and resources like computers and meeting rooms. however, offering this opportunity also 228 shows people they are valued. i believe that we have a responsibility to support the holistic development of our people. and when we do we also benefit. not only from more engaged and confident employees, but also from more actively contributing members of our community. (employer) as shown above, wellbeing, social, and economic outcomes accrue to individuals who, in turn, contribute to outcomes for workplaces in terms of efficiencies, productivity, and profitability. over the time period of the reports for this paper, there has been an increase in the number of employers who are using “hard metrics” to report improvements that have happened while programmes have been underway. these metrics have included, for example, absenteeism, wastage, improved service delivery times, and increases in production. but, it is worth noting that companies often have other initiatives underway, for example, lean manufacturing, that will also contribute to business improvements, so workplace outcomes cannot solely be attributed to workplace literacy and numeracy programmes. however, in saying that, employers report several changes that happen during the time of these programmes. they have talked about how changes in employees’ knowledge, skills, and behaviours have led to improved outcomes for business. these include, for example: an increase in problemsolving skills that led to a decrease in production bottlenecks; the application of numeracy skills that results in higher accuracy counts and a reduction in dispatch errors; an increase in form filling by shop-floor staff, rather than leaving forms to be filled out by supervisors; the use of oral literacy skills that result in better communication with customers and a reduction in customer complaints. all of these contribute to increased efficiencies in the workplace: a reduction in double handling by office staff shows a 25 percent drop in on-hand work volumes – so clients get a faster service. equipment for clients with complex needs is being supplied 8-10 days faster. (employer) we had metrics for productivity and there has been an increase in batches right the first time by six percent; an increase in documents right the first time by 32 percent; a decrease in wastage by 34.1 percent; and an increase in the reporting of hazards by 16 percent. (employer) conclusion policy interventions that provide opportunities for learning in workplaces and access to training for lower-skilled workers are important for a number of reasons related to labour market skill needs, social equity, and productivity. five years of evidence collected from programmes funded through the wln fund shows outcomes for employees and their firms accrue during the time of these programmes. these outcomes are not linear, rather they are iterative and interconnected, and emerge over time. the evidence shows that at the time of programmes employees start by learning new knowledge and skills, and when afforded opportunities to try them out, develop in confidence, which in turn leads to further skills development. getting programmes underway can be challenging as employers work through the logistics of scheduling, but the value for them comes when they see the impact it has on individual employees and the ways in which they work. they appreciate the greater levels of engagement and participation in work activities, which can lead to an improved culture in workplaces. they also appreciate the 229 increased efficiencies that occur when new skills are utilised in the workplace, which in turn has the potential to lead to increased profitability and productivity: it’s pretty dear to my heart our staff’s welfare and it’s been great to be able to give them an opportunity to lift their standards a little bit …with confidence comes their ability to engage probably more effectively with either staff that they’re giving directions to or staff they’re taking directions from… now they can engage with things [including] their partners at home… they can do things together … which is pretty cool. (employer) notes 1. from determination of design of funding mechanism: literacy and numeracy provision. retrieved from http://www.tec.govt.nz/assets/funding-mechanisms/2017-literacy-and-numeracy-fundingmechanism.pdf 2. further information can be found at https://www.tec.govt.nz/funding/funding-andperformance/funding/fund-finder/employer-led-workplace-literacy-and-numeracy-fund/ 3. these progressions provide a six-step framework of progress showing what adults “know and can do”. steps on the framework are measured by the literacy and numeracy for adults assessment tool (lnaat). further information on the progressions can be found at https://ako.ac.nz/knowledgecentre/learning-progressions-for-adult-literacy/ ; on lnaat at http://assessforadults.nzcer.org.nz/support/solutions/articles/4000121824-what-is-the-assessment-toollnaat-what-was-it-designed-to-do; on lnaat comparisons to piaac at https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/80898/comparing-literacy-and-numeracy-scales-inthe-assessment-tool-and-survey-of-adult-skills 4. note: quotes from programme participants (employers, employees, faclitators, whānau (family) are not referenced. they come from a number of reports that have been written to inform this article, inlcuding, (alkema, 2015a; alkema, 2016; alkema, 2017; skills highway, 2018; alkema & murray, 2019; kerehoma et al, 2019). 5. the employer data dominate these findings as they are the sole providers of outcome data to the tertiary education commission. new zealand had a learning representatives programme from 20052013. this funded the new zealand council of trade unions to advocate for and support lower-skilled workers in their industry training or workplace learning. 6. as this work takes place in the new zealand context it uses the new zealand treasury's living standards framework at https://treasury.govt.nz/information-and-services/nz-economy/higher-livingstandards/measuring-wellbeing-lsf-dashboard rather than the united nations human development index. references ace aotearoa. (2014). pasifika success as pasifika. wellington: author. ahlgren, l., & tett, l. (n.d.) work-based learning, identity and organisational culture. edinburgh: university of edinburgh. retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233332354_workbased_learning_identity_and_organisational_culture alkema, a. (2015a). maximising the benefits of the workplace literacy fund. wellington: tertiary education commission. alkema, a. (2015b). the path to settlement: the contribution of esol home tutors and english language groups. wellington: english language partners new zealand. 230 alkema, a. (2016). workplace literacy fund: employer-led outcomes report 2013-2015. wellington: industry training federation. alkema, a. (2017). reach and impact of the workplace literacy and numeracy fund 2015/2016. wellington: industry training federation. (unpublished report) alkema, a., & murray, n. (2019). reach of workplace literacy and numeracy fund 2018 and impact of the employer-led strand. wellington: industry training federation. alkema, a. & mcdonald, h. (2018). outcomes for foundation level learners: a report to the tertiary education commission on outcomes, indicators and measures for adult literacy and numeracy learners. unpublished report to the tertiary education commission. balatti, j., black, s., & falk, i. (2007). teaching for social capital outcomes: the case of adult literacy and numeracy courses in vet. conference paper. balatti, j., black, s., & falk, i. (2009). a new social capital paradigm for adult literacy: partnerships, policy and pedagogy. adelaide: ncver. benseman, j. (2014). responding to pasifika adults’ literacy needs through workplace programs: an evaluation. auckland: unitec. billett, s. (2001). learning through work: workplace affordances and individual engagement. journal of workplace learning, 13(5), 209-214. bryson, j., pajo, k., ward, r., & mallon, m. (2006). learning at work: organisational affordances and individual engagement. journal of workplace learning, 18(5), 279-297. bynner, j., & parsons, s. (2006). new light on literacy and numeracy summary report. london: nrdc. cerqua, a., & unwin, p. (2017). identifying variation in learner outcomes by further education provider: research report july 2017. university of westminster: department for education. coben, d., & alkema, a. (2017). the case for measuring adults’ numeracy practices. journal of research and practice for adult literacy, secondary, and basic education, 6(1), 20-32. council of ministers of education. (2018). the health and social dimensions of adult skills in canada: findings from the programme for the international assessment of adult competencies (piaac). toronto: author. eldred, j., wards, j., dutton, y., & snowden, k. (2004). catching confidence. united kingdom: national institute of adult continuing education. fuller, a., & unwin, l. (2004). expansive learning environments: integrating personal and organisational development. in h. rainbird, a. fuller & a. munro (eds.), workplace learning in context. london: routledge. grotlüschen, a., mallows, d., reder, s., & sabatine, j. (2016). adults with low proficiency in literacy or numeracy: education working papers no. 131. paris: oecd. gyarmati, d., leckie, n., dowie, m., palameta, b., hui, t., dunn, e., & hébert, s. (2014). upskill: a credible test of workplace literacy and essential skills training. ottawa: social research and demonstration corporation. jarvis, p. (2010). adult education and lifelong learning: theory and practice. london and new york: routledge. kiernan, g. (2018). megatrends affecting the working environment in nz. wellington: infometrics. kerehoma, c., alkema, a., murray, n., & ripley l. (2019). hīnātore: empowering māori and pacific people through workplace learning. wellington: ako aotearoa. king, a., huseynli, g., & macgibbon, n. (2018). wellbeing frameworks for the treasury. office of the chief economic adviser living standards series discussion paper 18/01. lane, j., & murray, t.s. (2018). literacy lost: canada’s basic skills shortfall. calgary: canada west foundation. 231 leach, l., zepke, n., haworth, p., isaacs, p., & nepia, w. (2009). organisational factors that affect delivery of adult literacy, language and numeracy provision: a review of international literature. nz: massey university college of education. literacy aotearoa. (2013). literacy, language and numeracy for māori adults and their whānau for literacy aotearoa & te puni kōkiri. auckland: author; literacy aotearoa. (n.d.) tec literacy and numeracy implementation strategy – literacy aotearoa: submission to tec. retrieved from http://www.literacy.org.nz/sites/default/files/documents/research/second-submission-tec-refreshstrategy_literacyaotearoa-july2015.pdf martin, j. (2018). skills for the 21st century: findings and policy lessons from the oecd survey of adult skills. oecd education working paper no.166. organisation for economic co-operation and development. retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/officialdocuments/publicdisplaydocumentpdf/?cote=edu/wkp(2018)2&doclanguage =en ministry of education & ministry of business, innovation & employment. (2016). skills in new zealand and around the world. wellington: author. murray. t.s., & shillington, r. (2012). investing in upskilling: gains for individuals, employers and government. ottawa: canadian literacy and learning. oecd. (2013). oecd skills outlook 2013: first results from the survey of adult skills. paris: oecd publishing. reder, s. (2009). scaling up and moving in: connecting social practices views to policies and programs in adult education. literacy and numeracy studies, 16/17(2/1), 35-50. reder, s. (2013). lifelong and life-wide adult literacy development. perspectives on language and literacy, 39(2). reder, s. (2014). the impact of abs program participation on long-term economic outcomes. washington dc: u.s. department of education, office of career, technical, and adult education. schagen, i., & lawes, e. (2009). wellbeing and education level: fact sheet. wellington: ministry of education. schueler, j., stanwick, j., & loveder, p. (2017). a framework to better measure the return on investment from tvet: occasional paper. adelaide: national center for vocational education research. skills highway. (2018). reach of workplace literacy and numeracy fund 2017 and impact of the employer-led strand. wellington: author. tett, l., maclachlan, k., hall, s., edwards, v., & garside, l. (2006). evaluation of the scottish adult literacy and numeracy (aln) strategy: final report. glasgow: scottish executive. the new zealand treasury. (2018). our living standards framework. retrieved from https://treasury.govt.nz/information-and-services/nz-economy/living-standards/our-living-standardsframework the new zealand treasury. (2017). the living standards framework. retrieved from https://treasury.govt.nz/sites/default/files/2017-12/lsf-pres-13dec17.pdf vaughan, k., o’neil, p., & cameron, m. (2011). successful workplace learning: how learning happens at work. wellington: nzcer. vorhaus, j., litster, j., frearson, m., & johnson, s. (2011). review of research and evaluation on improving adult literacy and numeracy skills: research paper number 61. london: department for business, innovation and skills. retrieved from https://ako.ac.nz/assets/alnacc/ce1d83b95f/report-enhancing-and-measuringadult-literacy-and-numeracy-progress.pdf whitton, d. (2018). enhancing and measuring adult literacy and numeracy progress: exploring practices, outcomes measures, and quality indicators. wellington: ako aotearoa. 232 windisch, h. (2015). adults with low literacy and numeracy skills: a literature review on policy intervention: education working paper no. 123. paris: oecd. author: anne alkema is an independent researcher who undertook the research that forms the evidence for this article when working for the industry training federation in new zealand. email: anne.alkema3@gmail.com cite this paper as: alkema, a. (2020). foundation level workplace training programmes. journal of learning for development, 7(2), 218-232. herman experiential learnings revised lee herman and alan mandell vol. 2, no. 1 but first, are you experienced? have you ever been experienced? well, i have                  jimi hendrix, “are you experienced?” abstract the proposition is challenged that experience and learning are separate. it is argued that all experience is necessarily learning, and that any object of experience may disclose unlimited learnings in both extent and profundity. the implications of these claims are examined for teaching and learning, for the openness of the academy and for social justice. introduction experience is often contrasted with learning. the distinction roughly means that the former is passive and the latter, active: “experience” has to do with the receptivity of the senses and the recording capability of perception.  “learning,” on the other hand, includes activities, such as concept formation, intellection, and reasoning.  experience may be the raw material of learning, but it is the active capabilities of mind that make experience understandable. the distinction between experience and learning often indicates a hierarchy, with precedence generally given to the latter.  true enough, sometimes experience is privileged, as when we refer to the foolishness of youth having been wizened by experience.  but certainly in the academic world, learning is the superior thing and is sharply distinguished from mere experience. even in those rarer situations in which experience is seen as academically important, relevant and rich, it is still assumed that one needs to do something intellectual to it for experience to attain the status of learning.  thus, at colleges such as ours, which prides itself on taking experience seriously and provides the opportunity for students to have their experiential learning assessed for college credit, we nonetheless insist to our students, as we help them to prepare for those assessments, that:  “you do not get any credit at all for your experience but for what you learned from it.”  indeed, the history of prior learning assessment (pla) or recognition of prior learning (rpl) in the modern university can be described as an effort to protect learning from experience by criteria and means of assessment that translate experience into learning.  in other words, in the very process of academically recognizing experiential learning, experience becomes official learning by ceasing to be experience. the thesis of this essay is that the phrase “experiential learning” is redundant.  that is, we assert that every experience, no matter how humble, is a cognitive achievement: learning is a necessary condition of every experience.  we do not mean to say that every experience is college level learning.  however, we do believe that some important understandings about learning itself and education follow from appreciating the intellectual abundance inherent in the simplest experience of anything at all.  one of those understandings has to do with the relationship between experience, social justice, and the conditions of human flourishing. at the end of this essay, we will explain that relationship.   this is a time when pla is a growing activity and topic of discussion in many colleges and universities.  the venues of discussion have not only extended to literally thousands of academic institutions around the globe, but to state, provincial and national governments, and to international policy bodies that are working on educational, economic and human resource development. (mandell and travers, 2012).  the contemporary world holds an international “alphabet soup of acronyms for pla” (michelson and mandell, 2004: 3-4).  all of these important planning activities and decisions rest on assumptions about what learning really is, and what it is not.  therefore, we believe that it is worthwhile to carefully consider at a most basic level what these things are that we call “learning” and “experience.”  the separation of experience and learning we teach at a college where, from its origins, “experience” was seen as a legitimate source of learning.  empire state college was one of the original members of a consortium of institutions, eventually called the council for adult and experiential learning that, in 1973, not only recognized the academic significance of experience but put in place procedures and policies to assess it as part of a university curriculum (gamson, 1989: 29-30). it was assumed that adults seeking a college degree came to us with rich and important learning acquired outside the classroom.  they were not regarded as empty vessels, but as having acquired knowledge at home, in their communities and in workplaces – through “learning projects” — every bit as sophisticated as the learning acquired from books and professors (tough, 1971).  thus, the university took on a new role: not only to help students acquire new knowledge but to recognize what they tacitly or explicitly already knew. (on tacit knowledge, see polanyi, 1966/2009.)  the recognition of prior learning became pla/rpl, a distinct, legitimate way of defining learning.  eventually, pla/rpl policies, procedures and programs that originated with just a few colleges now extend worldwide.  but even with such legitimating recognition of experiential learning, great pains were taken from the start to distinguish between experience and learning.  indeed, cael’s first “standard” says: “credit or its equivalent should awarded only for learning, and not for experience” (fiddler, et al., 2006: xi). that first principle is then emphasized: this standard is both the most important and the most frequently violated quality assurance rule in the assessment field. it is easier to quantify experience than it is to measure learning. but experience is an input and learning is an outcome; credit awards must be based on the latter (fiddler et al., p. 14).  there was real fear, personal and institutional, that unless this distinction were strongly made, the legitimacy of these non-traditional colleges and programs would be destroyed. much effort was made to find ways of evaluation that dissected out the learning from the experience — not to mention the equally strenuous task of precisely distinguishing college level learning from its inferior forms. these efforts were often very complex: for example, were there certain kinds of experience, such as profound but very personal experiences, that ought to have no standing as sources of college level learning? the questioning is of course completely legitimate.  but we could also ask if the same intense scrutiny were applied to every course in a college catalog, would they all pass muster? thus, for example, if a focus on “theory” is held, as it often, to be a necessary condition of any learning that attains college level, what is to be said about such common practice-centered courses as “college chorus,” “introduction to conversational spanish,” “physical education,” “student teaching,” “human service field work,” “dance technique 1 and 2,” “internship in accounting practices,” “field course in technology ventures,”  “political campaigning internship,” and “basket weaving”?  we end the list with basket weaving because that subject was once mocked as the quintessential example of a sometime college course that self-evidently deserved no such status. in effect, the solidity of pla/rpl policy statements separating experience and learning is deceptive.  the intellectual precision and coherence underlying such statements is weak and unsettled.  after more than 40 years of discussion, practice and expansion, the grounding of experiential learning in sharp distinction between learning and experience persists even while there is turbulent debate about what sorts of learning occurring outside the traditional classroom get counted as truly “academic.”  despite the intellectual messiness of sustaining a sharp distinction between experience and learning, pla/rpl policies and procedures try to hold on to it in constructing ways of academically accommodating this type of learning.  they range on a continuum from most closed to most open. there are four standard positions on college creditable pla/rpl. the most conventional version is an institutionally administered and completely standardized exam of content.  that is, a student claims to have somehow learned outside a classroom, the content of a particular course: introduction to psychology, survey of american history, calculus ii.  the student is given a standardized exam; if a passing score is achieved, the student gets the credit for the course.  a second version is a “course match” model.  the students are required to match what they believe they have learned outside the classroom to the official description of a pre-existing course.  they are then given the opportunity to demonstrate by a variety of means that they have acquired at least a minimal threshold of learning about each of the topics covered in that course.  a third version of pla /rpl focuses on pre-identified rubrics, outcomes or competencies that are supposed to be fulfilled or achieved beyond the detailed content of any particular course. students can demonstrate their learning about those things by writing essays, being interviewed and/or taking exams. the final version of pla/rpl evaluation is the portfolio model.  it claims that individual learning is possible outside the classroom but its contours and content cannot be preset.  in other words, the academically creditable learning achieved need not correspond to a pre-existing course title or description. these approaches to evaluating learning acquired outside the classroom are long-standing even if they are still debated. today, colleges and students encounter a vast sea of free or nearly for-free learning opportunities, which despite the exuberance and technological sophistication of these learning “objects” raise all the customary questions:  what’s learning, is it college level, how should be assessed, and into what curriculum might fit?  the poster child for these is the massive open online course or “mooc.”   moocs began in the spirit of people forming their own intellectual communities around things they wanted to learn. stephen downes and george siemens are early mooc developers and theorists of what they call “connectivism.”  downes clearly describes the heart of all this open learning activity as follows: … the course is free and open. there are no fees, no barriers of any kind, to participation. we encourage people to register so they receive the course newsletter, but it's not required. everything is freely available online and people can browse to their heart's content. participants contribute as much or as little as they like.   (downes’ blog description of his mooc on “connectivism”  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stephen-downes/connectivism-and-connecti_b_804653.html) moocs are a contemporary example of tough’s “learning projects” in the age of the world wide web.  tough, downes, siemens and others see a world of extra-curricular learnings happening everywhere, about anything, and in all kinds of ways.  clearly, they embrace it with zest, including its anarchic spirit. the possibilities of these experiential earnings—moocs and plas—are endless and almost literally beyond comprehension. how is an academic to make sense of them?  it’s no wonder that if such learning is to be taken as academically creditable in and of itself, order must be imposed. as shakespeare’s ulysses wisely observed: o, when degree is shaked, which is the ladder to all high designs, then enterprise is sick! how could communities, degrees in schools and brotherhoods in cities, peaceful commerce from dividable shores, the primogenitive and due of birth, prerogative of age, crowns, sceptres, laurels, but by degree, stand in authentic place? troilus and cressida, act i, scene 3 http://shakespeare.mit.edu/troilus_cressida/troilus_cressida.1.3.html of course, there are always good and bad motivations for imposing such order. we would all go insane if there were no order whatsoever. but we need to be cautious. ulysses, after all, is a ruthless schemer, a truly cold-blooded pragmatist. organization is never an end in itself.  we, therefore, should not assume that the terms of reference we use to impose academic order, such as “course” and “credit hour,” have a kind of final authority. they do not represent some measurable “atom” of knowledge – the real and not further divisible thing in itself. (on the credit hour as a historical construction, see laitinen, 2012.) we want to argue that the core of any learning experience, whether it happens in or outside of school, by reading a book, managing a food bank, or carefully looking at a farmyard scene, is always the same. the reason why the effort to make a sharp, hard distinction between experience and learning always has messy results is that it is not true.  we assert that all learning is experience, and the converse as well, that all experience, even at its most humble level, is learning.  therefore, we say that the phrase “experiential learning” is redundant. the experience of everyday objects as learning when we assert that “experiential learning” is redundant, we do not intend to remove it from english usage.  rather, we are trying to point to the idea that any experience of anything inherently involves significant cognitive activity. every conscious experience of a discrete, coherent entity is a recognition.  and, that recognition is a cognitive achievement — in other words, it is learning.  keep in mind, we are not only referring to college level learning.  rather, wanting to get down to basics, we include even the experience of the most everyday objects. we recognize the hand we see as our own or the face of a new friend. we hear a siren and know there is an emergency. through the open window of a swiftly passing car, we hear a brief second or two of music: it is neil young’s “helpless.”  we unerringly recognize the smell of a flower; it was yellow, though we do not know its name.  the same is true of the working understandings we have of everyday ideas:  even without knowing the technically precise definitions, we have learned what a “body” or a “triangle” is, and learn easily enough their diverse instances and usages. and, thus, we recognize bodies of water, bodies of work and thought, the bodies of humans and other animals.  a slice of pizza we know to be triangular despite its rounded edge, as is an anatomically molded bicycle seat; and we know as well that when we see a triangle on an organizational chart, we are seeing a hierarchy. simple objects of everyday experience are not confined to physical things or ideas associated with them.  they also include matters of considerable emotional and moral weight.  for example, we recognize courage and cowardice, generosity and meanness, joy and sorrow, serenity and anxiety, respect and contempt.  these recognitions represent learning.  these include even the apprehension of our own ideas. those mental objects of experience, which we often take for granted, having become the stuff of our assumptions and habitual ways of organizing the world — they, too, are cognitive achievements. and we recognize that they are achievements when we are confronted with problems, questions, and criticism. then, we find ourselves in a situation where what we take for granted doesn’t hold. we find ourselves thrown back, trying to understand what we had thought self-evident, namely, what it is we really mean and why we think it so.  when we go back to reconsider or revise an idea, we therefore re-discover that the original version must have been a learning in the first place, namely something intellectually achieved.  our ideas are not received or given; they are learned. thus, objects of experience range from our consciousness of the simplest things to the apprehension of our feelings and ideas. at every moment along this continuum of experiences, there is learning. from ordinary to exalted objects of experience experiencing something in particular, means paying attention.  we look up into the night sky; we note points of light called stars.  we continue to look and we notice that as our eyes become more accustomed to the darkness, that the number of stars increases. if we are lucky enough to be somewhere with little light pollution, we get the sense that the longer we look, the more stars continue to appear, and, this sense also contains the feeling that this multiplicity is without end. we are filled with awe at the grandeur of the heavens.  we also can experience an overwhelming curiosity to find out what is out there.  at the simplest level, our experiential learning is little more than paying attention.  at its most sophisticated, these complex but coherent experiences are the beginnings of science, worship, and art. the scientist gazes at the night sky and, impelled by curiosity, seeks physical and mathematical explanations for what is there. the believer, viewing the same sky, glimpses signs of a divine presence that animates the cosmos. the artist holds and savors the beauty of that same starry night, and creates a new object to behold. it is essential to remember that all of these experiences depend ultimately on paying attention to something in particular. prolonged attention and curiosity yields whole fields of learning and creation. we can imagine an astronomer staring intently at the data comprising an x-ray photograph sequence suggesting the wobble of an impossibly distant star.  and we can imagine her wondering if the mathematical variations indicating that wobble can be explained by the presence a planet, possibly an earth-like planet that neither she nor any of her descendants are ever likely to see. nonetheless, she is learning and increasing our understanding of the physical universe. maybe her professional curiosity began decades before when she looked into the night sky and wondered if we were alone in the universe and if somewhere among all those stars some inhabited planet existed out there.  a spiritually inclined person, attending as carefully and sensitively to the starry night as a scientist or artist, may well experience dread, reverence and wonder at the immensity of the heavens, and so be inspired to evoke a supreme deity who far exceeds our understanding yet assures us that the otherwise incomprehensible immensity out there is a cosmos — coherent, sound and benevolent: the heavens declare the glory of god, and the firmament showeth his handiwork; day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night revealeth knowledge; there is not speech, there are no words, neither is there voice heard. the law of the lord is perfect, restoring the soul (psalm of david, psalm 19) and what did van gogh see when he looked to the heavens from his room in the asylum at saint remy in 1889?   did he see the swirls of magnificent blues?  did he see the night sky in motion?  did the colors of the stars and moon really blaze that intensely to his eyes?  and how many of us have experienced in its immediacy the night sky as he might have?  whatever van gogh actually saw in the night sky when he painted starry night, we do know, at least, that his rendering of that experience beckons us to learn to see the night sky in a way we could not have imagined ourselves. our purpose in offering these examples of ordinary and exalted experiences is to demonstrate that in the mundane and seemingly simple act of attending to what is before us we achieve the recognitions we call experience. in those moments reside the possibilities of science, of religious belief, of art. what are the grounds of these possibilities? apprehending a particular object of experience immanuel kant provides an epistemological basis for appreciating the cognitive achievement in any experience, whether of an ordinary or an exalted object.  in the critique of pure reason, kant demonstrates what’s involved in the merest conscious apprehension of any individual object of experience. it could the whole night sky. but it could also be the slimmest childhood memory of a single distant star, a memory that for some reason then evokes some sweet melancholy. even those small, fleeting moments necessarily depend, kant demonstrates, upon complex cognitive operations.  from them issue perceptions (both internal and external), which are unified in a well-defined consciousness of something in particular.  in other words, the product of this cognitive work is experience (kant, a66/b91-a226/b274).  moreover, kant summarizes the results of his analysis thus: the basic principles at play in the construction of experience are absolutely necessary conditions for human beings to be conscious of both their own individual existence and also of the existence of any particular thing in a world external to themselves (kant, a226/b274-a234/b287).  even with an inner experience intense with sensation and emotion, our conscious discrete attention to something in particular requires cognitive activity. this, at its most basic level, is how we know what we perceive and what we feel. when we make the simplest identifying assertion – “this is a cup.  that is a leaf.  the sun is warm today. i feel happy.” – our minds are at work. these very simple identifications are intellectual achievements.  usually we don’t feel them as that.  these simple experiences of things and inner states often seem to come us passively.  we often feel as though such objects were given. the cup, the leaf, the sun’s warmth, our happiness emerge in our consciousness as if we were mere recipients and observers of the objects of our experience. this is not the case. far from being passive, our barest observations involve our immediate but complex awareness of ourselves (so-called apperception) apprehending something other than our own otherwise empty subjectivity.  “i see a barn,” includes at once the recognition of the thing we see and the recognition of the “i” that sees it.  in our consciousness of anything, we are also and always aware of ourselves as the cartesian “thing that thinks” (meditation 2).  the importance of human attention to the particular cannot be overestimated.  absent the capacity to attend to the particular, there is no human experience.  simply to be conscious that "this is" and "i am" is an intellectual acquisition. simply to know something as distinct at that moment from all other things and selves is learning. in other words, we make our experience, and in doing so, we construct a world populated by intelligible objects, including other things, other people, and ourselves. savoring the particular one may or may not follow or agree with kant’s complex analysis of the composition of any experience. no matter, a similar view of the intelligible wonderment of any particular object is evoked by the william carlos williams poem, the red wheel barrow (1923).  it is remarkable in this context that this poem is a simple, compelling evocation of a completely ordinary object of experience. so much depends upon a red wheel barrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens. (http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmmid/15537) williams divides the poem into discrete ordinary objects: a red wheelbarrow, rain, water, white chickens.  the poem is laid out on the page so as to atomize and fix our attention to these things one at a time, separately and in combination.  indeed, just as kant would have it, we integrate an array of details in a simple, coherent barnyard scene.  thus, the poem stimulates us to compose in our visual imagination a wet red wheelbarrow with chickens standing nearby. no experience could be more ordinary; yet, williams forcefully asserts, none could be more important. what williams evokes as a precious imaginative moment, kant demonstrates to be an essential cognitive achievement.  the two are one and the same. kant and williams are helping us appreciate paying attention to anything (and thus everything) in particular. this is experience. when we use the phrase, “an experience” or “an object of experience,” our meaning includes, of course, the experience of discrete physical objects in the world: a red wheel barrow, a white chicken, a coffee cup, a tree, a star. but we also mean other kinds of objects. as we described above, some of these can be internal, such as emotions, and they can be complex but coherent external occurrences. for example, we overhear two acquaintances conversing in an amiable or perhaps an angry way. that’s an experience of “an object.” the experience of an object can also include complex physical and social phenomena; for example, a traffic jam, a football play, a painting we love, such as “starry night.” but an object of experience can also be internal; for example, the consciousness of desire, savoring a drink of water or a piece of fruit, a moment of sadness.  as we have described above, a fully coherent experience can be formed from any complex realization, both cognitive and emotional, internal and social.  every moment in the whole vast repertoire of human experiences is a moment of learning. to return now to the red wheelbarrow, we can offer a response to the claim made by the poem.  what is the “so much” that depends upon the red wheelbarrow?  our response is this: the experience of any particular, however humble, is learning.  the possibility of understanding anything more depends on achieving those particular learnings. in this way, every small learning moment is precious.  every particular is precious.  imagine the contrary.  what would we be, what would the world be, if this were not true?  remove “red”; remove color.  remove chickens; remove animals.  remove rain and water.  remove wheelbarrow; remove tools. remove the possibility of multiple objects standing in some relationship to each other in space and time. our consciousness would be inchoate, “a blooming buzzing confusion” as william james described the raw stream of an infant’s consciousness (p. 488, 1890/1981). indeed, it is doubtful we would even have a faint awareness of self that persisted, the same self, from one moment to the next. in other words, we would not recognize ourselves. the explanation of williams’ assertion that “so much depends” on this or that, is that indeed everything and everyone, the very intelligibility of the world, depends on our being able to pay attention to a wet red wheelbarrow, white chickens standing alongside.  william carlos williams has invited us into a world in which there are infinite, precious particulars to draw our attention – a world of endless wonders.  how is this possible?  how is such a multitudinous world possible?  how is it possible for human beings to pay sufficient attention to and understand what’s in this world? particulars without end we can try to respond to these hard to grasp abstract questions at a common sense level, by using the red wheelbarrow poem.  it’s obvious there is much more to be said and asked of the red wheelbarrow.  put back all the particulars about it we removed just above. regarding the red wheelbarrow, we might ask: why is it red? just how red is it?  why is it left standing, apparently after a recent rain, among the farm animals?  how did such tools come to be in the first place? why, in our day of automated agriculture, is it still used?  the questions and the topics pertinent to the red wheelbarrow could go on and on in williams’ world of precious particulars without end. potentially, all the questions and topics of learning matter all of the time.  the specific topic of learning that becomes important at any particular time depends on what one’s interests and purposes happen to be, as dewey explained more than a century ago. (see democracy and education, chapter eight “aims in education” and elsewhere.)  those interests will vary with each person. considering williams’ barnyard scene, one person might be interested in the history of tools and technology, while another might wonder about the particular breed of white chickens feeding by the wheelbarrow. an artist involved in the controversy over whether moderns have lost visual access to a “true red” might be musing on just what shade of red the poet had in mind when he was writing his poem. but an anthropologist thinking about the set of symbols and associations clustered around the color red in american culture, might ask, “does the red of the wheelbarrow represent in traditional american farm life something like prosperity, when in so many other contexts red warns of danger?” indeed, an entirely urban school child might be puzzled that an implement that has something to do with growing food should be colored ambulance or stoplight red. but of course, these different kinds of curiosity are not idiosyncratic. each individual is situated with others in multiple historical, social and cultural contexts. this is what bourdieu means by habitus, our “matrix of perceptions, appreciations, and actions,” our “durable dispositions” (1977, p. 83, 85).  each of these contexts is historically contingent, a powerful yet provisional construction. we have no godlike vantage point from which one could say that there is any end to their extent and variety.  had william carlos williams lived long enough and traveled far enough, he could never have used up the material available for what would be an infinite series of barnyard poems. there are always other contexts and particulars, which will beckon our attention and curiosity. in the critique of pure reason, kant helps us understand why, fundamentally and necessarily, our learning goes on and on, and our knowledge is never complete.  to claim to know the whole of something is an ambition beyond human capacity to fulfill. kant’s argument implies that doing so would mean to know, for any object of experience, an endless amount of information: the object’s  beginnings, ends, boundaries, and its totality of parts and relations with all other things, however remote, through all time, in every possible detail and from every possible perspective. to know everything about anything requires that we learn literally everything about everything. “everything” is commonly called “the world” or “the universe.”  if we imagine that we could experience the universe as a whole, we would then have to concede that it, too, contains an endless multiplicity of objects of experience. the supply of possible things to experience is inexhaustible. therefore, to know all about something amounts to a claim of omniscience. our reason ineluctably drives us to conceive and seek to fill this totality with a corresponding object of experience. but, bounded by our mortality and inevitable accidents of birth and circumstance, and dependent on the sustenance of data limited in space, time, memory and imagination, we cannot experience such a complete totality and know it to be so. we can have intimations but not the thing itself.  indeed, as kant demonstrates, should we happen to come upon such an absolute entity, we could not realize that we had done so (kant, a293/b249 ff.; a405/b432-a443/b471; a516/b544-a567).  by prudent custom and belief, we reserve omniscience to divinity, whose perceivable presence in our world we must take on faith rather than know through the necessarily limited powers of human understanding and reason (a615/b643-a619/b647). kant leaves us a world in which we cannot sate our desire to know, even the things we most yearn to know, such as our ultimate origins and fate, and whether or not the universe might be animated with some supreme intelligent and beneficent spirit. he helps us see that we experience nothing that is not further divisible and cannot be added to. we experience nothing either in its absolute simplicity or in the totality of its connections to other things. perhaps then, the endless delight and curiosity we can take in the innumerable particulars offered us by william carlos williams is a good enough compensation. indeed, as we have been arguing in this essay, the recognition of anything in particular is not only a cognitive achievement, it is also deeply precious. when we give due attention to anything in particular, we learn and also we wonder: we achieve some knowledge; moreover, we achieve the delighted understanding that we do not yet know all about the thing of which we know something, and that we have so much more to learn. we go back to the red wheelbarrow in this essay because “so much depends…” opens up two crucial meanings of experiential learning. our appreciation of apprehending a red wheelbarrow or any other object of experience is just that: we can cognize particular things for what they are.  but it also means that along with this firm, true grasp of something in particular, there is more to discover and learn, always. this endlessly incomplete state of our learning denies us godlike knowledge. nonetheless, our frustration is endlessly tempted by the yearning for the absolute, the true “theory of everything.” we are always afforded wonder. in other words, every experience not only contains learning achieved but also points toward learning still to come. experience overflows — a useful and joyful kind of redundancy. teaching and learning what does all this have to do with academic teaching and learning?  what implications follow from understanding that the amount and depth of learning that can pulled out of any experienced object is unlimited? any educator who asks a student a question is asking at bare minimum for a report on that person’s experience.  the experience could be the familiar academic one of reading a book, or any of the experiences typically evaluated for pla/rpl: a student’s dozen years managing a business, working as a human services caseworker, or playing trombone in a professional jazz ensemble. whatever we ask will call for the student to report on his/her experience. the pedagogical implication of our effort to explain that every experience is a cognitive achievement means that way down deep there is no essential difference between experiences commonly labeled “academic” and those that are not. therefore, there should be no object of experience presumptively excluded from consideration as a source of significant learning.  moreover, because of the unlimited extent and depth of learning available from anything, every object of experience can therefore become a potential source of college level learning. from this point of view, it makes sense that the standard curriculum is never finished or fixed: the faculty in any given discipline are always adjusting the contents of curricula.  they are always creating new topics or courses, and shelving old ones no longer deemed important.  that is, in the sense of the phrase we have been developing, they are always creating new “objects of experiential learning” (i.e., new topics of study) and discarding other ones.  in other words, the faculty have been learning from their own experiences, learning that will never be completed. because of the unlimited nature of the cognitive possibilities any experience and because the supply of possible experiences is, for the same reason, unlimited, the possibilities for the academic assessment of non-academic or “extra-curricular” experiences are also endless. of course, the academy will necessarily limit what gets counted as learning and what does not.  that is, each institution will make its own curricular policies. the alternative, after all, is chaos.  nonetheless, it is equally necessary to remember that these order-making decisions, including decisions about pla/rpl, are simply pragmatic. in other words, they are necessarily partial and provisional attempts to temporarily organize knowledge and learning (herman and mandell, 2004: 26-27).  to put it bluntly, it is critical that we not confuse a curriculum with the whole truth about the matter.  realizing that every experience is a cognitive achievement can help us appreciate this provisionality and also help us academically accommodate the potency of our students’ experiences. once pla/rpl policies are opened to discovering all possible sources of college level learning, three virtues come to life in the academy: the academy’s repertoire of learning is increased by the experiences of students who offer topics (i.e., experiential objects) the faculty had not previously known very well or even at all. the students’ experiences actually increase the academy’s fund of knowledge. second, students necessarily have a voice in selecting, describing and naming the learning to be considered for assessment.  and third, the faculty must collaborate with students in discovering and explicating their learning experiences.  in this process, both students and faculty become learners together.  thus, the academy becomes wiser, more accessible and fairer. learning and justice why is it that the academy becomes fairer if students and faculty become learners together?  collaborative learning implies a developing equality between two or more people – all the more so when student and professor begin with the assumption that they are far apart in a hierarchy of intellect.  this converging equality has a political resonance. it reminds us that the academy is not merely a tool; it is also a polity. it exists as a community dedicated to developing the capabilities of all the learners within. moreover, if any object of experience is potent with learning, surely those who nurture learning are therefore obliged to recognize that potency. indeed, as nussbaum and sen argue, every human capability is susceptible to greater or less development (nussbaum, 2000, 70 ff.; sen, 2005).  furthermore, many, if not all, the capabilities they identify (their lists are slightly different) explicitly require or imply the engagement of a conscious human mind. in other words, the development of human capability requires the learning we have argued is necessarily present in any experience. thus, the more welcoming the academy is to people diverse in their experiences, the more will the capabilities of those students develop, and the more will the academy itself flourish. in this way, the open university becomes a model for an open society. the epistemology of experiential learning calls for a democratic and reciprocally respectful spirit among all learners – students, faculty, citizens. it also expects something more: we have argued, with some help from philosophy and poetry, that every experiential object is worthy of attention and that the more lavish the attention, the more wonder will be afforded the person who shows such care. in this way, everything in the world becomes cherishable.  if a rain glazed red wheelbarrow is worthy of this intellectual respect, then can any less be expected of the regard a teacher gives to a student? references bourdieu, p. (1977). outline of a theory of practice. cambridge, uk: cambridge university press. descartes, r. meditations, meditation 2, http://www.earlymoderntexts.com/pdfbits/dm1.pdf dewey, j. (1916/1966). democracy and education: an introduction to the philosophy of education. new york: the free press. downes, s. (2011). “ 'connectivism' and connective knowledge" (blog post 1-05-11, 3:36 pm) (retrieved on 01 august 2013) (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stephen-downes/connectivism-and-connecti_b_804653.html) fiddler, m., c. marineau, & whitaker, u.  (2006).  assessing learning: standards, principles and procedures (2nd edition). chicago: kendall hunt. gamson, z. f. (1989). higher education and the real world: the story of cael. wolfeboro, nh: longwood academic. pp. 29-30. herman, l., & mandell, a. (2004). from teaching to mentoring: principle and practice, dialogue and life in adult education. london and new york: routledge. james, w. (1890/1981).  the principles of psychology.  cambridge, mass: harvard university press. kant, i. critique of pure reason (1999).  trans. & ed. paul guyer, allen w. wood, cambridge: cambridge university press. (original publication 1781-1787) laitinen, a. (september, 2012). cracking the credit hour. new america foundation and education sector. retrieved at: this url mandell, a., & travers, n. (2012). a second chance for qualification: an interview with patrick werquin. plaio, 1(2) (www.plaio.org) retrieved 06 august 2013. michelson, e., & mandell, a. (eds.) (2004). portfolio development and the assessment of prior learning: perspectives, models, and practices. stylus: sterling, virginia. nussbaum, m.c. (2000). women and human development: the capabilities approach. cambridge: cambridge university press. polanyi, m. (1966/2009). the tacit dimension. chicago: the university of chicago press. psalms, 19, translation jewish publication society of america, 1917. sen, a. (2005). human rights and capabilities. journal of human development, 6 (2). shakespeare, w. troilus and cressida http://shakespeare.mit.edu/troilus_cressida/troilus_cressida.1.3.html tough, a. (1971). the adult's learning projects: a fresh approach to theory and practice in adult learning.  toronto: ontario institute for studies in education (the university of toronto). van gogh, v. (1889). starry night. http://www.vangoghgallery.com/catalog/image/0612/starry-night.jpg williams, w.c. (1923). xxii aka “the red wheel barrow.” spring and all. compact publishing. http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmmid/15537 lee herman works at empire state college/state university of new york. e-mail: lee.herman@esc.edu alan mandell works at empire state college/state university of new york. e-mail: alan.mandell@esc.edu microsoft word stutchbury.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 208-227 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. supporting open practices with teachers in zambia kris stutchbury, lore gallastegi and clare woodward the open university, united kingdom abstract: this paper demonstrates how the features and affordances of open learning have been developed in new and productive ways to provide school-based continuing professional development for teachers in zambia. it presents and critically reviews data from 200 teachers who have taken part in phase 1 of the zambian education school-based training (zest) – a project which, over the next three years, will be scaled-up across zambia. the project is underpinned by the belief that knowledge about teaching is co-constructed through participation in, and reflection on, practice. thus, the emphasis is on empowering teachers to work together to develop practices appropriate to their context – open practices. in the study, we describe an on-going process of realist evaluation which enables us to establish at an early stage what works in which contexts and informs on-going project planning. it concludes that this approach to evaluation has the potential to be helpful in understanding open practices and how they can be developed. keywords: school-based professional development; learner-centred education; capacity development. introduction this paper demonstrates how the features and affordances of open learning have been developed in new and productive ways to provide school-based continuing professional development (sbcpd) for teachers in zambia. it sets out the zambian context and introduces the zambian education schoolbased training (zest) programme (2017-2022), funded by the scottish government. it draws on key literature to explain the thinking behind zest and explore the challenge of evaluating work in the context of open learning and practices. in some ways zest can be considered an intervention. it provides resources and a set of activities for teachers, to be used and undertaken as part of the existing sbcpd system but does not prescribe specific practices or ways of teaching. the emphasis is on developing the professionalism and expertise of teachers and empowering them to make decisions about how best to support their learners. a process of ‘flexible co-design’ alongside on-going evaluation ensures that the resources ‘speak’ to teachers and provide the support required to meet the aspirations of the revised school curriculum. in the context of this approach, a challenge for the project is how to evaluate impact. teachers interpret the resources in different ways and it is therefore difficult to identify aspects of teaching to ‘measure’. this paper describes how a ‘realistic evaluation’ (pawson & tilley, 1997) was used in order to try and identify what works for whom in which circumstances and why. the aim was to find out what structural factors need to be in place in order to enable teachers to exercise agency and to learn how to work in new ways. 209 the zambian context education has been a priority in zambia since independence in 1964. yet, despite significant gains in access, educational outcomes remain low: there exist “low learning achievement levels across all the subsectors with average learning achievement scores at grade 5 being below 40 percent across most subjects” (zanex, 2018, p. 26). this is despite two significant developments and support from the international community: a revised school curriculum which calls for learner-centred approaches and places more emphasis on inclusivity, teaching values and skills alongside knowledge (moge, 2014), and an embedded programme of school-based continuing professional development (sbcpd) (jung et al., 2016). the current sbcpd system is based on the japanese version of ‘lesson study’ where, through collaborative planning and observing model lessons, a series of effective lesson plans will emerge, which all teachers can use. the zambian ministry of general education (moge) received £85 million from the department for international development (dfid, uk) (administered by the global partnership for education) between 2013 and 2018. the emphasis was on financial management of the education sector and improving access, rather than on teacher development. a report (gpe, 2016) cites the need for more educational resources and an increased focus on building teacher capacity. training materials have been produced as part of a cascade training model but these have not reached the teachers in schools (gpe, 2016). it should be noted that 20% of the school-aged population in zambia are outside the mainstream system in so-called ‘community schools’. the geography of zambia is such that there are often significant distances between schools, with the result that communities support their own schools, paying teachers and providing resources. these schools (more than 3000 ) receive limited (if any) support from the central government. they cater for the poorest and most marginalised children but their results are often as good as, or better than, government schools (usaid, n.d.). teachers often work with the local community to do the best they can for children – perhaps demonstrating the potential of open practices. by the end of 2017, improved access left government schools over-crowded and under-resourced. the revised primary curriculum, and the realisation that teachers needed more help, created an interest in the moge in the teacher education in sub-saharan africa (tessa) open educational resources (oer)i. discussions between the open university uk, world vision zambia and the teacher education specialised service (tess) division of the moge led to the zambian education schoolbased training programme (zest), funded by the scottish government. it is zest which is the subject of this paper. zambian education school-based training zest is designed to support the pedagogic change required to deliver the new curriculum. it is based on the notion that knowledge about teaching is co-constructed through participation in, and reflection on, practice in a particular socio-cultural context. it encourages teachers to explore possibilities within their own classroom and to develop practices that will involve, challenge and support learners. rather than provide prescriptive lesson plans, zest aims to support teachers in developing new attitudes towards learners, consistent with the aspirations of the revised school curriculum, and new practices 210 within their own context. thus, the emphasis is on open learning and open practices supported by the use of open educational resources. zest preserves the aspects of current practice which work well (collaborative planning in regular teacher group meetings), and operationalises the moge’s revised zambian school curriculum, supporting teachers and stakeholders in making a pedagogic shift to a more learner-centred approach to learning and teaching. zest strengthens the existing system of lesson study through the provision of oer made available to all stakeholders and adapts, what is essentially a japanese model of continuous professional development (cpd), for the african context. the resources draw on a wide evidence-base about the nature of teacher learning and learner-centred education. they include the tessa oer, alongside bespoke training guides and audio-visual materials. since 2017, the zest team has been working with provincial and district officials, head teachers and 400 teachers in central province to refine and develop resources. ultimately these resources will be available across zambia. they are designed to enhance the existing structures and processes for sbcpd by transforming what was proving to be a largely passive process for most teachers into a programme of active participation and engagement. the challenges in the current system were explored at an early collaborative planning workshop with key stakeholders including head teachers and teachers. during this workshop a number of issues were identified, which zest sets out to improve upon. these are set out in table 1. zest uses the same structures and processes as the existing programme with two significant innovations: the ‘problem’ is mastering a progressive set of teaching approaches (e.g., questioning, pair work, using local resources) that will help teachers deliver the new curriculum, and the ‘model lesson’ is replaced by the expectation that all teachers will try out the planned activities in their own classroom and reflect on how this went, providing a more equitable and inclusive experience for all teachers. the strengths of the current system — regular meetings, collaborative planning and reflection — are preserved in a year-long programme which focuses on active teaching and learning. one year was felt to be long enough to establish new ways of working and ensured that resources are available for multiple cohorts, providing the opportunity to develop and refine the materials, based on feedback from zambian teachers. cohort 1, ran from may 2018 to april 2019; and cohort 2 from january 2019 to dec 2019. each cohort involves 200 teachers. further cohorts are planned and, in 2021, the programme will be rolled out across central province. all the materials will be available as oer so the programme will be available to all teachers in zambia. it is cohort 1 which is the subject of this initial evaluation. zest draws on what is known about teacher-learning and the principles of learnercentred education (lce). 211 table 1: lesson study issues and zest responses (evidence from a workshop, february 2018) lesson study issue zest response identification of a teaching problem the problems are often subjectbased and not relevant to all teachers. working with 34 teachers and head teachers, nine teaching approaches were identified (3 per term) to support the delivery of the new curriculum that would form the basis of the teacher group meetings (tgms). the approaches form the ‘teaching problem’ to be addressed during the school year, and are applicable to all ages and subjects. regular teacher group meetings in which model lessons were planned tgms often involved administration rather than discussions of teaching and learning. the lack of resources made it difficult to think of new ideas. a training handbook provides activities for teachers to do together in tgms assisting them in understanding the nine teaching approaches. teachers work in small groups to plan activities to try in their lessons using the approaches. tessa oer are available to provide ideas. a model lesson given by one teacher and observed by the others the same few teachers volunteer for the model lessons and the topic is not always relevant to all teachers. the lesson is sometimes staged with a group of children gathered for a ‘once-off’ lesson. all teachers try the planned activities in their own classroom. critique of the lesson and re-planning for most teachers, lesson study is a passive process. receiving critique from a group sometimes deters teachers from volunteering. teachers discuss how the activities went and reflect on the experience. they plan another activity, using the same approach, but on a different topic. the ‘trying’ and ‘reflecting’ become part of normal teaching. a repeat of the model lesson taking into account the changes teaching the same lesson again is not authentic for the children involved. in the absence of resources it is difficult for teachers to think of new ideas. teachers try out the new activity and, if possible, observe each other for short periods of time. again, they reflect on how it went. the theoretical underpinning of zest teacher learning zest is based on the idea that knowledge about teaching can be considered to involve ‘knowledge for practice’ (theoretical understandings), ‘knowledge in practice’ (reflection on what happens in classrooms) and ‘knowledge of practice’ (socially constructed understandings of practice which are constantly challenged and re-evaluated) (cochran-smith & lytle, 1999). the zest resources draw on established theoretical understandings about teacher learning and student learning (e.g., hattie, 2012; korthagen, 2017; shulman & shulman, 2007; vygotsky, 1978). they provide examples of activities for teachers to try in their classrooms through the tessa oer (open university, 2008) and they establish a process in which teachers meet to discuss learning and teaching in their school. a key component of teachers’ knowledge is ‘pedagogical content knowledge’ (pck) (shulman, 1986), which teachers hold about how to represent their subject to learners, taking into account the learners’ interests and abilities; it is a blend of content (subject) and pedagogical knowledge, and describes the ‘special’ knowledge that good teachers hold but subject experts might not, and is often missing from teacher 212 preparation courses in africa (dembele & miaro-ii, 2013; vavrus, 2011). the tessa oer support pck by providing examples of how teachers in africa have taught different topics. teacher-learning is a complex process, but there is a consensus in the literature that learning to teach is much more than acquiring knowledge. it involves developing a vision for effective teaching (shulman & shulman, 2007), developing a professional identity (malderez et al., 2007) and challenging existing values and beliefs (borko et al., 2000; shulman & shulman, 2007). the process advocated in zest — regular teacher group meetings which focus on discussing learning and teaching — is designed to help the development of a ‘community of practice’ (wenger, 1998) of teachers, working towards the common goal of improving children’s classroom experiences, while the tessa oer and the revised school curriculum provide a vision for good practice. the vision set out in the revised curriculum is based on ‘learner-centred education’ (lce) although how that is being interpreted is not explained. learner-centred education lce is a popular policy choice across sub-saharan africa, yet in a review of 72 papers (from a range of global contexts) about promoting active classroom pedagogy, schweisfurth (2011) concludes that ‘the stories of unequivocal success in implementation are few and far between’ (p. 430). the reasons for this are complex and context dependent (barrett, 2007; o’sullivan, 2004; vavrus, 2009), but often seem to stem from a misunderstanding about what lce means and a contradiction between prevailing attitudes to learning and learners and those that underpin lce (schweisfurth, 2011). in a study of teachers involved in an in-service programme in south africa, designed to promote learner-centred practices, brodie et al. (2002) found that many teachers adopted some of the practices (the ‘form’) without necessarily adopting the underlying attitudes (the ‘substance’). these authors suggest that, for sustainable change, the ‘substance’ of lce needs to be adopted – underlying beliefs and attitudes need to be challenged. this distinction between the ‘form’ and ‘substance’ of lce manifests itself through a focus on classroom approaches, with a common misconception that a lesson is learner-centred if students are working in groups, for example, with little regard for what they are doing and whether learning is taking place. conceptualising lce in terms of attitudes and beliefs rather than particular practices is helpful and underpins schweisfurth’s (2015) ‘minimum criteria’ for lce. she presents the standards in terms of what makes a good lesson, but these can be applied at multiple levels within the system and provide a practical definition of lce. they are: • lessons are engaging and motivate pupils to learn. • classroom relationships are based on mutual respect. • learning challenges pupils and builds on existing knowledge. • dialogue is used in teaching and learning. • the curriculum is relevant to learners’ lives and values a range of skills including critical thinking and creativity. • assessment tests a range of skills and gives credit for more than recall of knowledge. (adapted from schweisfurth, 2013, p. 146) these criteria provide both a definition of a learner-centred teacher and a framework for the analysis of teaching, and form the basis of our work in zest. the nine classroom approaches in zest (see 213 figure 1) have been chosen on the basis that if teachers master them then their lessons are more likely to meet the criteria set out above. 1. using questioning to promote thinking 2. using pair work 3. using the local community/environment as a resource 4. using group work in your classroom 5. storytelling, songs, games and role-play 6. involving all learners 7. monitoring and giving feedback 8. eliciting prior knowledge 9. assessing learning figure 1: the zest teaching approaches. realist evaluation programmes which set out to make specific improvements such as in reading or english language can evaluate progress by measuring achievement. in the context of open practices, in which teachers are being offered resources and support but left to interpret the ideas for themselves, measuring achievement is more difficult. pawson and tilley (1997) advocate for ‘realist evaluation’ which attempts to answer the question of ‘why a program works, for whom and in what circumstances’ (p. xvi). a realist evaluation starts with the articulation of theories — or propositions — about how the programme is expected to work. these are sometimes referred to as ‘programme theories’. a programme theory sets out the ‘underlying assumptions about how an intervention is meant to work and what impacts it is expected to have’ (pawson et al., 2005, p. 21) – ‘if we do this then this will happen, because…’. empirical evidence is gathered in order to judge the extent to which the programme theory describes what is happening. through a process of inference to explain the relationship between the context and the factors at work which might affect the outcomes, the success (or otherwise) of the programme can be explained, leading to new theories which in turn can be tested. the aim is to understand how the programme can be made to work most effectively. through this process of reflexive monitoring (may & finch, 2009) evaluation becomes part of the programme and drives the design as the programme proceeds. in the case of zest the ‘programme theories’ draw on previous experience of working with oer in africa, discussions held between moge officials, world vision and the open university in may 2017, and activities (including focus group discussions) with teachers, head teachers and district officials at a co-design workshop in february 2018. the initial programme theories for zest cover three key areas and are: 1. teachers’ classroom practice and professional skills • by giving teachers help and resources in the form of classroom examples, classroom practice and teachers’ professional skills will improve. 214 • through an organised progressive programme of schools-based continuous professional development (sbcpd), teachers will become more confident practitioners. 2. impact on learners’ behaviour and outcomes • if teachers improve their professional kills, this will have an impact on learners’ behaviours such as attendance and engagement in lessons. • if teachers improve their professional skills, learners’ outcomes will improve. 3. teachers’ participation and collaboration in sbcpd • through the provision of contextualised resources teacher group meetings (tgm) will become more purposeful and more engaging for teachers. • by providing a progressive programme of activities and teaching approaches to use and develop in tutor group meeting (tgms), a community of practice will develop which will encourage teachers to collaborate with each other. finally, the programme is underpinned by the assumption that: achieving ‘buy in’ from the moge, provincial and district officials will create the circumstances in which the activities of zest can take place and become embedded in the zambian education system. these theories have driven the design of the programme, of the training resources and the workshops that have been co-designed (with our partners) and carried out in zambia. in the evaluation study this paper draws from, we have collected and analysed evidence from working with cohort 1 (200 teachers) which will enable us to explore these theories and gain insights that we can take forward to cohort 2. the study this study draws on evidence gathered during workshops and monitoring visits undertaken by the open university/world vision zambia project team between may 2018 and march 2019, and a smallscale evaluation exercise undertaken in 8 (out of 17) of the cohort 1 schools in march 2019, using classroom observation and structured interviews. the data sources are summarised in table 2. table 2: data sources aspect of the programme district head teachers (hts) school inservice coordinators (sics) teachers tgms school activities challenges data source cohort 1 evaluation (march 2019) x x x x august 2018 workshops x x x x x sept 2018 school presentations x x x x dec 2018 head teacher responses to activities x x x dec 2018 sic responses to activities x x x 215 each data source was analysed and evidenced against each of the three zest purposes. the data included: cohort 1 evaluation the cohort 1 evaluation exercise was conducted as a mixed method study. eight independent enumerators collected data in eight of the 17 cohort 1 schools (randomly selected, but representing each of the three zones), from 15 teachers, over a period of five days. it was designed to establish current classroom practices with respect to active teaching and learning approaches, teachers’ engagement with sbcpd, and the extent of collaboration amongst teachers. three tools were used: • continuing professional development (cpd) interview: to gather a picture of frequency and nature of sbcpd taking place and the extent of participation by teachers. this involved interview questions for the school in-service coordinator (sic) about the tgms and photographs of pages of the school in-service record (sir), in order to establish the number of tgms taking place and the topics that were discussed. • teacher interview: one or two teachers were interviewed in each school. the purpose of the interview was to gather information about their practice, their confidence in active teaching approaches and their involvement in cpd. • teacher lesson observation: one or two teachers in each school were observed teaching a lesson. this was arranged on the day and with teacher’s consent. there were a few questions to be completed before the lesson about the classroom environment; a tick sheet to complete every two minutes during the lesson, and some questions for enumerators to answer after the observed lesson. all participants were volunteers (in accordance with ou ethical research guidelines) and had the right to withdraw until the end of the data collection period. each participant was provided with information about the study and how the data would be used. the lesson observations were undertaken using a ‘time sampling’ method in which the enumerator employed an 'instantaneous time sampling' technique to record what the teacher and the learners were doing every two minutes (i.e., at minutes 1, 3, 5, 7, and so forth). table 3 shows the pre-coded activities which enumerators could select from, plus an ‘other’ option where they could add notes for activities that did not fit within the given categories. the observers could note any further details that would complete the account of the lesson. the evaluation team was led, supervised and supported by a wvz m&e staff member and accompanied by district officials from the ministry of general education district office. only the enumerators were involved in collecting data. teams spent on average four hours in each school and, where practical, interviews (with two teachers) and observations (one teacher) were carried out simultaneously. 216 table 3: categories of activities for lesson observations the teacher is: the learners are: 1. presenting or explaining 2. organising learning tasks or activities 3. asking learners open questions 4. giving feedback 5. walking around the classroom 6. observing or listening to learners 7. writing on the blackboard 8. other 1. one is giving answers 2. chorusing replies 3. working or talking in pairs 4. working or talking in groups 5. reading 6. writing (not copying) 7. listening 8. copying 9. working individually 10. presenting 11. organising a task 12. other the data collected were anonymised, so that the reported responses could not be identified. data collection was completed using the kobo toolbox system (https://www.kobotoolbox.org/) and input on tablets. august 2018 workshops in august 2018, three workshops took place on consecutive days. day 1 was designed specifically for district officials. on day 2, these were joined by head teachers and zonal in-service coordinators, and on day 3 these were joined by school in-service coordinators. activities were tailored to the particular groups and the plan for the third workshop (in which all the ‘layers’ were present) emerged during the first two. the aim was that by day 3, district officials would be able to take the lead, thus emphasising that the programme is about sustainable new ways of working. the data collected includes the outputs of group activities, field notes, and contributions from participants. september 2018 school presentations in september 2018, workshops took place in the three zonal schools. all the teachers in the 17 participating schools were invited and each school made a short presentation about how zest is working in their school. the workshop leaders took detailed notes during the presentations and subsequent discussions. december 2018 head teachers in december (the end of the second term of zest), there was a workshop for district officials, head teachers and school in-service coordinators. the aim was to gather information about how zest is working and to prepare them for the introduction of the third term approaches to their teachers when the new term started in january. at the end of the workshop, head teachers were asked two or three reflective questions about their experiences over the two terms of zest. december 2018 school in-service coordinators in the same workshop, in-service coordinators were given slightly different questions so that the impact of zest could be analysed from different perspectives. 217 findings overall the picture that emerges from the data is mixed. perhaps not surprisingly some teachers are more confident in using the approaches than others. however, after just three terms of activity, there are encouraging signs and lessons learned. we present the findings with reference to each of the ‘programme theories’ set out above. teachers’ classroom practice and professional skills by giving teachers help and resources in the form of classroom examples, classroom practice and teachers professional skills will improve. the observation of lessons indicated that most cohort 1 teachers used a range of activities in their lessons and learners were involved in different tasks. teachers mainly ‘asked questions’ and ‘presented or explained information to learners’. the first teaching approach teachers practiced as part of zest centred on questioning so this was encouraging. however, learners were mainly involved in listening passively to the teacher. in relation to the use of questioning in the september 2018 workshops, some teachers indicated that: • it had helped them assess themselves and learners, which later helps them take appropriate interventions (september 2018, school presentations, school1), • ‘teachers are starting to target their questions according to attainment levels more effectively’ (september 2018, school presentations, school 2), and • ‘teachers become innovative in the phrasing and sequencing of questions’ (september 2018, school presentations; school 3). when teachers were interviewed, most of them indicated they used pair and group work more than two or three times per week. likewise, in the september and december 2018 workshops, teachers talked about doing more pair and group work. however, the data collected in the observations suggested that the use of this was limited. the observation schedule focused on how much opportunity students have to talk to each other and their teacher about their learning. no significant improvement was noted. workshop data suggested that many teachers see the approaches as discrete and exclusive rather than understanding that an effective lesson consists of several linked activities. cohort 1 teachers were introduced to ‘pair work’ (teaching approach 2) in the may to july 2018 term and to ‘group work’ (teaching approach 4) in the september to december 2018 term. the evaluation took place the following school year in march 2019, by which time the approaches they were working on were all related to formative assessment. in the teacher interview, teachers were asked about how often they use collaborative classroom practices. the reported frequency was more than suggested by the lesson observations, casting doubt on the reliability of the responses. even so, the reported use of collaborative practices in the evaluation of cohort 1 was 11% greater than that reported in the baseline study. 218 despite the classroom observation data there is evidence that the teaching approaches set out in the zest training handbook are useful to teachers. there is some evidence that: by giving teachers help and resources in the form of classroom examples, classroom practice and teachers professional skills will improve. the evidence from the workshops is not yet reflected convincingly in the observation data. when they were asked about the use of tessa resources teachers and school in-service coordinators reported challenges in navigating the tessa library. through an organised progressive programme of school based continuous professional development (sbcpd), teachers will become more confident practitioners. in the evaluation exercise, teachers were asked about their level of confidence in using a number of active teaching approaches included in the zest training resources, i.e., asking open questions, using pair and group work and roleplay. over 80% of the 15 teachers declared themselves to be ‘confident’ or ‘very confident’ in ‘asking open questions’ and ‘pair work or discussions’. over 70% are ‘confident’ or ‘very confident’ in using ‘group work and discussions’, with 54% being ‘confident’ or ‘very confident’ in using ‘roleplay’. compared to the baseline, confidence in using pair work has increased. however, confidence in using group work has declined. this lower level of confidence reflects the experience of the open university in other international projects that confidence levels are likely to drop as teachers come to understand what is meant by active learning in practice. as they take a more critical stance, they become aware of how difficult it is to organise effective group work. as well as an impact on their confidence, after one or two terms of working on lce and collaboratively with peers, teachers, including school in-service coordinators (sic), started to see an improvement in their professional skills and practice as the following quotes from different workshops illustrate: • “it helped revise skills developed at university/college, but maybe forgotten” (september 2018, school presentations; school 4) • “it encourages lesson reflection and evaluation by teachers” (september 2018; school presentations; school 5) • [pair work] “allowed teachers to identify different abilities in pupils” (september 2018, school presentations, school 3) • “i have learned how to handle large classes using approaches that i previously thought could not be applied” (december 2018, sic school 2) • “i feel more prepared to teach because i have learned more approaches and better ways of employing them to m learners when delivering lessons” (december 2018; sic school 2) • “i have learned that using different approaches helps the learner. different learners learn from different approaches eg some do better when they learn with peers, others when they explain it themselves” (december 2018; sic school 2) 219 • “i feel proud of myself. the content has really empowered me as a sic and it has changed the way i view teaching, e.g. involving all as well as planning collaboratively.” (december 2018; sic school 2) • “i have learned to have an unbiased perspective; to be sensitive to the feelings of learners and to have an ability to listen” (december 2018, zic). in the cohort 1 evaluation exercise, cpd coordinators were also asked about any improvements they had perceived among teachers since the implementation of zest. responses are given in table 4. table 4: perceived improvements in teaching improvements for teachers • improved relationship between teachers and learners through use of approaches • accountability for teachers by teachers to ensure that teaching approaches are used in the classroom • the teaching approaches have made teaching multi-grade classes easier. • more participating by teachers • lesson preparations have improved. • there has been an improvement in record keeping • the teachers now plan their lessons. • teachers work extra hard in fear of remaining behind • teachers commitment to planning and achieving goals set the data and teachers, sics and zics testimony indicate that teachers are becoming more confident and supporting the hypothesis that: through an organised progressive programme of school based continuous professional development (sbcpd), teachers will become more confident practitioners. however, this is not yet evident in the classroom observations which could reflect the fact that this sort of change takes time. they understand the issues more clearly but need time to practice and develop their skills. impact on learners’ behaviours and outcomes if teachers improve their professional skills, learners’ outcomes and behaviour will improve. it is difficult to identify improvement in learners’ outcomes in one school year, however, data from the evaluation exercise and from comments shared by teachers, sics and/or head teachers in the different workshops held between may and december 2018, shows a number of changes in learners’ behaviours and outcomes. the 15 cpd coordinators interviewed as part of the cohort 1 evaluation exercise identified the following aspects as improvements, which also reflect statements shared by teachers and head teachers in the september and december 2018 workshops. these are presented in table 5. 220 table 5: perceived improvements for learners improvements affecting learners* relationships in the school • improved relationship between teachers and learners through use of approaches pupil attendance, participation and motivation • reduced absenteeism because pupils are excited about learning as a result of use of approaches • learner participation has improved • pupils are free to express themselves • learner response has improved greatly. • the learners are able to participate in class due to the approaches used. learner performance • learner performance has improved • children are able to write on their own • learners who could not read are now able to do so • learners are now able to read in english and other zambian languages • results are better than before *these are direct quotes from teachers and head teachers concerned, hence the reference to both ‘pupils’ and ‘learners’. two recurrent themes arise from the workshops: the change among the ‘slow/shy’ learners as a result of the inclusion of active teaching approaches in lessons, and the increased participation and motivation among learners: • “encourages active participation and motivation including among slow learners” (september 2018, school presentations, school 1) • [referring to pair work] “some pupils feel scared to ask the teacher but find it easier to ask friends, hence more learning takes place” (september 2018, school presentations, school 1) • “teachers have changed their tone of voice when talking to the slow learners” (september 2018; school presentations; school 6). increased participation and motivation of learners in lessons as a result of more active teaching has also been identified: • “students are more actively involved” (september 2018, school presentations, school 2) • “students talked more and were able to give their opinions freely” (september 2018, school presentations, school 2) • “there was a ‘spirit of co-operation’ amongst learners” (september 2018, school presentations, school 2) • “learners interest and learning stimulated, motivated” (september 2018, school presentations, school 7). 221 a head teacher in september 2018 indicated that “learners have improved academically, socially and physically due to the use of the approaches” (december 2018, ht). we currently do not have data directly linked to learners’ outcomes, however it is expected that with improvements in relationships in schools, pupil attendance, participation, motivation and performance, will eventually lead to improved learning outcomes. this provides tentative evidence in support of the third programme theory: if teachers improve their professional skills, learners’ outcomes and behaviour will improve. teachers’ participation and collaboration in sbcpd if we provide contextualised resources the teacher group meetings (tgm) will become more purposeful and engaging for teachers. the number of tgms held in the sample schools varied between 0 and 12 per term over the three terms zest was implemented. these variations could be due to school size and the different tgm models used by schools. some schools have implemented a model of one whole-school tgm to introduce a teaching approach, followed by a number of tgms for the different school year groups to allow teachers to work more closely together in developing activities suited to their learners’ grades and the curriculum they cover. overall, 57% of schools had three or more tgms per term (term 2 2018; term 3 2018; term 1 2019). based on anecdotal evidence and conversations at workshops, in some schools, although they have regular meetings, they are relatively short — sometimes less than an hour. it would be difficult to have the sort of in-depth discussions and collaborative planning envisaged in zest in such short meetings. this needs further investigation with cohort 2. the tgm programme for the year is organised by sics working with head teachers. they record attendance in the school in-service record. during the cohort 1 evaluation study, seven cpd coordinators (ht or sic) were asked about attendance at the tgms, with the majority saying it was excellent at over 80%. this data is supported by testimonies of a number of participants in the august and september 2018 workshops who highlighted an increase in attendance and participation at tgms. the data from the cohort 1 evaluation as well as testimony gathered in the different workshops held with cohort 1 participants go some way to reinforce the hypotheses that: by providing contextualised resources for teachers to use in their tgms, the tgms are more purposeful or engaging. the evidence is, however, that more work is to be done with head teachers and sics to ensure a ‘ringfencing’ of tgms for discussions of the nine teaching approaches and collaborative planning. the zest model is that the tgms are facilitated in such a way that discussion takes place. some of the comments at the workshops (field notes) and evidence from the teacher notebooks suggest that the tgm activities described in the training handbook are not necessarily taking place, or the facilitator is delivering a lecture on the approach. more work is required to find out about and strengthen what actually happens during tgms. 222 by providing a progressive programme of activities and teaching approaches to use and develop in tutor group meeting (tgms), a community of practice will develop which will encourage teachers to collaborate with each other. zest encourages collaborative planning of activities using the different teaching approaches, peer observation (when possible), and reflection on classroom experiences. in the cohort 1 evaluation, head teachers or sics were asked about changes they had perceived in teachers since the introduction of zest. table 6 shows some of their comments: table 6: improvements in teacher collaboration improvements in teachers • more interaction between teachers • spirit of team work has improved • collaborative planning • teachers are able to open up and consult on the various challenges they have in the classroom • teachers in group meetings share ideas on teaching and has helped improve the quality of teaching and lesson planning in the workshops, teachers and head teachers also acknowledged an increase in collaborative work among teachers and its impact in the school and staff: • “i feel happy and proud because the zest approaches brought in unity, peace and all togetherness among teachers” (december 2018, ht). • “it [my role as a sic] has improved a lot in the sense that last year i was a little bit reluctant as only one person/teacher used to present a lesson while others observed. this year we planned collaboratively and taught individually which made it live” (december 2018, sic). the testimony recorded from cohort 1 participants suggests that: by providing a progressive programme of activities and teaching approaches to use and develop in tgms, a community of practice will develop which will encourage teachers to collaborate with each other. it is particularly encouraging to find reports of an improved relationship between teachers. one group of head teachers reported on a more “harmonious atmosphere amongst the staff”. an unexpected example of collaboration has been across schools and districts, where the district has facilitated the deployment of teachers or district officials from one school/district to another to share the work they do and provide any required support. one school indicated in the august 2018 workshop that, as a result of misunderstanding some aspects of the programme, they “made enquiries from schools that were doing well, and we are doing well now”. this model of learning has been implemented in the cohort 2 workshops where district officials from cohort 1 have supported the ou/wv team in facilitating workshops and sharing their experiences and models of implementation of zest. this has been a useful capacity building exercise for the district and a number of teachers from zest schools have been promoted since the start of the project. 223 achieving ‘buy in’ from the moge, provincial and district officials will create the circumstances in which the activities of zest can take place. this theory was not explicitly addressed through the evaluation study, but evidence has emerged from the workshops of the nature of the roles at the provincial and district level and the impact of their work. at workshops in may, september and december, district officials took the lead in introducing zest and explaining the similarities and differences between zest and the current system. this was well-received and important in securing engagement from head teachers and school in-service coordinators. in september 2018 we adopted a model in which district officers experienced participatory activities and then led those activities for head teachers and sics. the observation was that younger (and often female) officers enjoyed the experience; many, however, found it difficult and tended to resort to lecturing. in the initial workshops, district, provincial and government officials frequently sat at a separate table and had to be encouraged to join in. teachers would often defer to them, even though they had the practical experience relevant to the activity. traditionally, they are seen as the monitors or inspectors, rather than as a source of support. just as lce requires a different relationship between teachers and learners, its implementation requires a more democratic relationship between teachers and those tasked with training them in the expectations of the revised school curriculum. a lack of resources has prevented district officials from monitoring zest (they do not have access to a vehicle), but they have taken part in monitoring visits with world vision. they have bought into the idea and process of zest but more attention needs to be paid to supporting them in changing their practice as well. discussion we have found evidence to support each of the hypotheses, but in doing so have identified a few ways in which the programme can be improved and a few key challenges. zest is predicated on the stated aim of the zambian revised school curriculum to ensure teaching is more learner-centred. drawing on schweisfurth, (2013) we have conceptualised learner-centred education as a set of attitudes and values rather than specific approaches. it requires relationships based on mutual respect and understanding. the model for change that we have identified through other international projects is that, as teachers try new approaches, they elicit new responses from learners, which in turn encourages them to experiment more. over time, new attitudes to learners and learning emerge (murphy & wolfenden, 2013; stutchbury, dickie & wambugu, 2018). we have seen evidence of this in zambia, particularly in the context of ‘slow/shy’ learners, with several teachers commenting that when they set tasks in pairs or groups and observe their students, they noticed that ‘slow’ learners could do more than they expected. drawing on the data from this study, in order to better support teachers in making sense of the active teaching approaches being proposed, for cohort 2, we have included classroom examples in the training manual and provided more guidance on how to navigate tessa oer. we have also planned workshop activities to strengthen the message that the different teaching approaches are to be built on and used concurrently as opposed to being used in isolation. this message will also be strengthened in the resources being finalised for future cohorts and has been shared with cohort 1 and 2 district officials and world vision monitoring team to follow up throughout their visits. 224 one of the aims of zest is to promote a greater sense of community amongst teachers, and many comments suggest that more collaborative relationships are forming. it should be noted, however, that the concept of a community of practice (wenger, 1998) is predicated on the notion that learning is seen as a joint enterprise of negotiation and reflection, taking place through mutual engagement in practice, with all participants being valued equally. the comments above suggest that we are beginning to see ‘negotiation and reflection’ through ‘mutual engagement in practice’. the increased harmony amongst teachers also suggests a flattening of structures within schools. the evidence suggests that the tgms are providing the opportunity for collaborative learning, but we need to know more about how these are conducted and what teachers take from them. also, evidence from field notes and post-workshop discussions is that the relationship between district officials and teachers remains hierarchical, with teachers being less forthcoming in the presence of ministry officials, in particular. the challenge is to ensure that moge and district officers begin to see themselves as learners and contributors in sbcpd, and teachers feel confident that their contributions in sbcpd discussions are as valid as those coming from ministry and district officials. there is a sometimes a sense that being ‘expert’ means knowing everything rather than having the skills to support teachers and being open to the co-construction of knowledge about teaching in the new context created by the demands of the revised school curriculum. the challenge is to find a model of change that works for this professional group. in the first instance, we have produced an implementation guide, specifically targeting district officers and head teachers. we have also encouraged district officers to distribute themselves around the room in workshops, and work alongside teachers. our perception is that these barriers are beginning to be broken down. this is something that we will investigate more closely in the evaluation of cohort 2. a new programme theory that has emerged is that in order for district officials and head teachers to be effective in supporting change, they need to be supported in developing more learner-centred attitudes towards the teachers they support. two other challenges have emerged which are impacting on the programme design for cohorts 2 and 3. firstly, the recognition that achieving pedagogic change is a slow process. we have provided more material than teachers have been able to process. in this context, a year feels like a relatively short period of time. for cohort 3, we have reconceptualised the programme as a two-year programme, with the emphasis in the sixth (final) term being sustainability. secondly, in order to demonstrate the efficacy of the programme to the ministry of education and to the wider world, we need to be able to demonstrate an impact on learners. given that zest does not focus on a specific skill (such as learning to read or speaking english) this is challenging. during the next two years of the programme, we will be talking to teachers and head teachers in more depth to try and ascertain in more detail how they perceive that outcomes are improving, and what is causing any improvements. conclusion zest is predicated on the belief that promoting open learning and open practices through a structured programme of activities will empower teachers to make decisions about their own teaching. this analysis has provided tentative evidence to support the programme theories set out at the beginning of this paper but has also revealed that although ‘buy in’ from moge officials is 225 necessary, it is not sufficient. the ‘buy in’ needs to extend to embracing attitudes and values towards teachers that are consistent with lce so that they can provide support. we have always been aware of the importance of working at all levels of the system and have involved district officials in the co-design of workshops and activities. the importance of building on this work so that the relationship between teachers and district officers becomes more collaborative has become apparent. what was called a ‘teachers’ handbook’ has been re-conceptualised as a ‘training handbook’ making it clear that the core materials – how to teach in a more interactive way – are relevant to everyone, not just teachers. more emphasis is required on the role of the district officials in supporting zest, rather than simply monitoring what is happening. by engaging with the training materials themselves, they will be able to provide mentoring and coaching when they are in school. the resources provided have helped to improve teachers’ classroom practice and professional skills, but the classroom examples need to be easily accessible. this means including as many as possible within the training handbook, rather than relying on teachers accessing tessa oer. teachers are reporting increased confidence in using active approaches but this is not yet reinforced by classroom observation. teachers have reported differences in their students, including a greater willingness to participate in lessons, improved attendance and, in some cases, improved performance. attendance at tgms has improved and teachers are positive about collaborative planning. many questions remain however around how these can be organised most effectively and what happens during the tgms. many schools are reporting improved relationships between teachers and between teachers and students. teachers welcome the opportunity to work together and to learn from each other. it needs to be acknowledged that the scope of this study is limited. it is strengthened by the inclusion of data gathered by independent enumerators, but there is a tension between focusing on the project activities and making space to collect data to support the sort of in-depth monitoring required for a realist evaluation. we have addressed this tension through the thoughtful use of workshop evaluations, the careful preservation of all workshop outputs and reflective conversations between the ou, wv and district officials after each workshop. the programme theories were based on evidence gathered in the planning phase. what has emerged in this attempt to examine ‘what works, for whom, in what circumstances, and why’ is tentative evidence that the programme will be able to deliver the improvements suggested. it has also highlighted the sort of evidence required in future evaluations and provided a basis for the planning of cohort 2. in the context of promoting open practices, where measuring changes in practice is challenging, this approach to evaluation has the potential to deliver helpful insights. references barrett, a. (2007). beyond the polarisation of pedagogy: models of classroom practice in tanzanian primary schools. comparative education, 43(2), 273–294. borko, h., davinroy, k., carribeth, b., & cumb, b. (2000). exploring and supporting teacher change: two third grade teachers’ experiences in a mathematics and literacy staff development project. the elementary school journal, 100(4), 273–306. cochran-smith, m., & lytle, s. (1999). relationships of knowledge and practice: teacher learning in communities. review of research in education, 24(1), 249-305. 226 dembele, m., & miaro-ii, b.-r. (2013). pedagogical renewal and teacher development in sub-saharan africa: challenges and promising paths. in b. moon (ed.), teacher education and the challenge of development: a global analysis (pp. 183–196). london: routledge. gpe. (2016). global partnership for education education sector program implementation grant (espig). retrieved from https://www.globalpartnership.org/sites/default/files/2016-11-gpe-isr-zambia.pdf hattie, j. (2012). visible learning for teachers: maximising impact on learning. abingdon: routledge. korthagen, f. (2017). inconvenient truths about teacher learning: towards professional development 3.0. teachers and teaching: theory and practice, 23(4), 387–405. malderez, a., hobson, a., tracey, l., & kerr, k. (2007). becoming a student teacher: core features of the experience. european journal of teacher education, 30(3), 225–248. may, c., & finch, t. (2009). implementing, embedding and integrating practices: an outline of normalisation process theory. sociology, 43(3), 535–554. murphy, p., & wolfenden, f. (2013). developing a pedagogy of mutuality in a capability approach: teachers’ experiences of using the open educational resources (oer) of the teacher education in sub-saharan africa (tessa) programme. international journal of educational development, 33, 263–271. o’sullivan, m. (2004). the reconceptualisation of learner-centred approaches: a namibian case study. international journal of educational development, 24(6), 585–602. https://doi.org/10.1016/s07380593(03)00018-x pawson, r., greenhalgh, t., harvey, g., & walshe, k. (2005). realist review – a new method of systematic review designed for complex policy intervention. journal of health services research & policy, 10(1), 21–34. pawson, r., & tilley, n. (1997). realistic evaluation. london, uk: sage. polly, d., & hannafin, m. (2011). examining how learner-centred professional developmentinfluences teachers’ espoused and enacted practices. journal of educational research, 104, 120–130. schweisfurth, m. (2011). learner-centred education in developing country contexts: from solution to problem? international journal of educational development, 31(5), 419–426. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2011.03.005 schweisfurth, m. (2013). learner-centred education in international perspective: whose pedagogy for whose development? abingdon: routledge. schweisfurth, m. (2015). learner-centred pedagogy: towards a post 2015 agenda for teaching and learning. international journal of educational development, 40, 259–266. shulman, l. s. (1986). those who understand: knowledge growth in teaching. educational researcher, 15, 4–14. shulman, l., & shulman, j. (2007). how and what teachers learn; a shifting perspective. journal of curriculum studies, 36(2), 257–271. stutchbury, k., dickie, j., & wambugu, p. (2018). teacher education in sub-saharan africa in one school in kenya: macro challenges and micro changes. in k. safford (ed.), learning and teaching around the world: comparative and international studies in primary education. (pp. 163-171). london: routledge. usaid. (n.d.). meeting efa: zambia community schools [case study]. retrieved from https://www.epdc.org/sites/default/files/documents/zambia%20community%20schools.pdf vavrus, f. (2009). the cultural politics of constructivist pedagogy: teacher education reforms in the republic of tanzania. international journal of educational development, 29, 303–311. vavrus, f. (2011). ensuring quality by attending to inquiry: learner-centred practices in sub-saharan africa (no. 4). retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002160/216063e.pdf vygotsky, l. (1978). mind in society: the development of higher pyschological processes. cambridge: harvard university press. wenger, e. (1998). communities of practice: learning, meaning and identity. new york: cambridge university press. authors: dr kris stutchbury is an ou (uk) senior lecturer in teacher education and academic director of tessa. she is also co-director of zest. she works on other international projects and is a module team chair on the open university masters programme. her research is in the field of teacher education. email: kris.stutchbury@open.ac.uk 227 dr lore gallastegi is an ou (uk) staff tutor based in scotland. she is co-director of zest and has previously worked on an international development project in malawi, and is a module team chair for one of the modules on the open university degree in primary educational studies. email: lore.gallastegi@open.ac.uk clare woodward is a lecturer in international teacher education at the ou (uk) and specialises in english language teaching. she worked on english in action — a project to support english teaching in bangladesh — and has led projects in peru and columbia. her particular interest is in the use of video to support teacher learning. email: clare.woodward@open.a.cuk cite this paper as: stutchbury, k., gallastegi, l., & woodward, c. (2019). supporting open practices with teachers in zambia. journal of learning for development 6(3), 208-227. i tessa oer provide examples of classroom activities designed to actively engage learners. the activities have been contextualised for africa. as oer they are freely available at www.tessafrica.net. microsoft word mtebe.docx issn: 2311-1550 vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 228-244 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. mining students’ data to analyse usage patterns in elearning systems of secondary schools in tanzania joel s. mtebe and aron w. kondoro the university of dar es salaam, tanzania abstract: the adoption and use of various elearning systems to enhance the quality of education in secondary schools in tanzania is becoming common. however, there is little evidence to suggest that students actually use them. existing studies tend to focus on investigating students’ attitude towards using these systems through surveys. nonetheless, data from surveys is normally subject to the possibility of distortion, low reliability, and rarely indicate the causal effects. this study adopted weka and keel as data mining tools to analyze students’ usage patterns and trends using 68,827 individual records from the log file of the halostudy system implemented in secondary schools in tanzania. the study found that the system usage is moderate and in decline. there is also variability in the usage of multimedia elements with biology having the highest number while mathematics has the lowest. students from dar es salaam, mwanza, and arusha, in that order, had the highest system usage with the lowest being from the peripheral regions. the possible challenges limiting system usage are discussed. these findings show that data mining tools can be used to indicate usage patterns of systems implemented in sub-saharan africa and to help educators to find ways of maximising systems usage. keywords: educational data mining, learning analytics, elearning systems, elearning secondary schools. introduction the adoption and use of various elearning systems, such as moodle, sakai, and blackboard, to improve the quality of teaching and learning at various levels of education in sub-saharan africa is becoming common (ssekakubo, suleman, & marsden, 2011; unwin et al., 2010; venter, rensburg, & davis, 2012). in tanzania, for instance, more than 50% of surveyed institutions were found to have installed elearning systems of various kinds (mtebe & raisamo, 2014). in the beginning, the majority of these systems were implemented within higher learning institutions. in recent years, many of these systems have increasingly been implemented in secondary schools. some good examples of elearning systems implemented in secondary schools in tanzania include the tans-el system (kalinga, bagile, & trojer, 2006), retooling system (mtebe, kibga, mwambela, & kissaka, 2015), christian social services commission system (cssc, 2014), shule direct system (mtebe & kissaka, 2015), and brain share system (mwakisole, kissaka, & mtebe, 2018). with the increased number of students, which stretches beyond the limit of available teachers and learning resources, these initiatives aim to provide digital content accessible via the internet where students can use these resources to enhance their learning activities. the majority of these initiatives aim to provide quality digital content to students with minimum intervention from teachers. for instance, the shuledirect system has digital content for various subjects such as physics, chemistry, 229 biology, english, geography, civics, mathematics and kiswahili (shuledirect, 2019). the tans-el system has digital content for mathematics, biology, and chemistry (kalinga et al., 2006). despite the continued investment in these systems, there is little evidence to suggest students across the country actually use them. these systems cannot help students improve learning if they are not used. many studies have strongly shown that there is a correlation between elearning system usage and students’ performance (filippidi, tselios, & komis, 2010; jo, kim, & yoon, 2014) and students’ satisfaction (naveh, tubin, & pliskin, 2012; tarigan, 2011). despite these benefits, the lack of actual usage or underuse of systems implemented in sub-saharan africa is a common problem (ssekakubo et al., 2011; unwin et al., 2010), and has been a major setback against their success (bervell & umar, 2018; lwoga, 2014). the need to ensure that students make full use of these systems is important so that the anticipated benefits are attained. many of the existing studies have focused on students’ attitude towards using these systems through surveys (mselle & kondo, 2013; msoka, mtebe, kissaka, & kalinga, 2015). the findings from the majority of these studies tend to indicate students have positive attitudes but when it comes to actual usage their attitudes are more reserved. moreover, data from surveys is normally subject to the possibility of distortion and low reliability and rarely indicate the causal effects (jo et al., 2014). therefore, there is a need for more sophisticated means for investing how students use these systems, which is important to avoid inefficient investments and ensure maximum utilisation of the installed systems. recently, data mining technologies have been making a lot of headway in capturing and analysing massive amounts of data generated by these systems (romero, ventura, & garcía, 2008). the elearning system keeps a record of all the activities that students perform in the log files which can be analyzed and used to provide immediate feedback to educators (romero, espejo, zafra, romero, & ventura, 2013). despite these great potential benefits of data mining technologies, few studies have utilised them in investigating elearning system usage amongst students in secondary schools in subsaharan africa and tanzania, in particular. this study utilised data from a halostudy system (https://halostudy.ac.tz/) log to investigate students’ usage patterns in the system implemented in secondary schools in tanzania. the halostudy system was customised from the moodle system to suit the context of secondary education. the study adopted weka and keel as data mining tools, involving 68,827 individual records, accessed the system for nearly 14 months. the findings from this study show that data mining tools can be used to indicate usage patterns of systems implemented in sub-saharan africa and help educators to find ways of maximising systems usage. the description of the halostudy system is explained next. the halostudy system the implementation of the halostudy system can be traced back to 2013 when the ministry of education and vocational training (moevt) of the government of tanzania implemented the retooling project in collaboration with the college of information and communication technologies (mtebe, kibga, et al., 2015). the retooling project in this context was a project aimed at reskilling or upgrading subject content knowledge of teachers in science and mathematics subjects in secondary schools in tanzania. generally, the project aimed at addressing the low success rates of students in science and mathematics subjects in secondary schools through enhancing teachers’ subject content 230 knowledge of the subjects they teach. it was claimed that the failure rates of students in these subjects were linked to inadequate secondary school teachers’ knowledge on the subjects. to address this problem, under the retooling project, the multimedia enhanced digital content (in the form of animations, simulations, video, and audio) were developed and shared with teachers across the country via the customised moodle system. the developed content was for only topics perceived to be difficult to understand for an assessment conducted in various regions in tanzania. a total of 70 topics and 147 subtopics were developed and extensively supported with multimedia elements. more specifically, 93 videos were recorded, 57 animations were developed, and 201 still pictures were captured and integrated into the digital content (mtebe, kibga, et al., 2015). the developed multimedia enhanced content was then pilot tested with 2,000 teachers in 858 schools located in 13 regions in tanzania. during the pilot phase, the developed multimedia enhanced content was uploaded into the customised moodle system where teachers accessed the system for three months before conducting a follow-up study using sms quizzes. the result showed that multimedia enhanced content helped to improve subject content knowledge of teachers who participated in the retooling project (mtebe, kondoro, kissaka, & kibga, 2015). in a separate study, the customised moodle system was perceived to be easy to use by the majority of surveyed teachers (mtebe, mbwilo, & kissaka, 2016). more details about the retooling project can be obtained in mtebe, kibga, et al., 2015. building from the success of the retooling project, the college of information and communication technologies (coict) in partnership with viettel tanzania ltd, aka halotel, developed an internet based application with multimedia enhanced content drawn from the retooling project for all topics of science and mathematics subjects for secondary education in tanzania. while the retooling project focused on enhancing teachers’ subject content knowledge of the subjects they teach, this project focused on students. this is because the content developed during the retooling project could be used by students to enhance their subject content knowledge as this was the same content used by the teachers. in order to disseminate the content and ensure that many students benefit from it, the college entered into an agreement with halotel to use its network to facilitate dissemination of the content to the learners in secondary schools in tanzania. the halotel has connected 427 secondary schools with the internet, which could potentially benefit from the developed content. the content was made free of charge to the students who had access to the internet through www.halostudy.ac.tz. moreover, the halostudy app was also developed for those who have mobile devices and is available at the googleplay store. figure 1 shows an interface of the halostudy platform. 231 figure 1: the interface of the halostudy system. (source: https://halostudy.ac.tz/) since the launching of halostudy in august 2017, students all over the country have been accessing the content to enhance the content knowledge of their subjects. just like other similar initiatives, the halostudy system was meant to facilitate students’ centered learning; whereby students could access and use the multimedia enhanced content anywhere, anytime, without interaction with teachers. similarly, teachers could also use the content to enhance their subject content knowledge for complementing classroom environments. despite the continuous use of the halostudy system throughout secondary schools in tanzania, little information on how students use the system and what features are mostly used was available. in this study, we utilised data from a system log to investigate students’ usage patterns in the halostudy system using weka and keel as data mining tools. related works the elearning systems tend to keep records of all the activities that students have performed in the form of a log file. the activities which are kept in the log file include the time, internet protocol address, name of the student, the action completed, and the activities performed in different modules (kadoic & oreski, 2018). due to the large quantities of data these systems can generate daily, it is very 232 difficult for educators to manage them manually (estacio & raga, 2017; romero et al., 2008).the data mining tools have adapted and been used to explore the unique types of data from elearning systems to better understand how students learn and identify the settings in which they learn to improve educational outcomes (romero & ventura, 2013). given these advantages, studies have been using these mining tools to investigate systems features that have an influence on improving students’ learning performance. for instance, macfadyen and dawson (2010) used data mining tools to analyse students data from a blackboard system. authors extracted the total number of discussion messages posted, the total number of mail messages sent, and the total number of assessments completed as key variables. through regression analysis with the final grade, it was found that the variables explained more than 30% of the variation in student final grade. similarly, mwalumbwe and mtebe (2017) extracted data from the moodle log of two courses delivered at the mbeya university of science and technology, using a developed mining tool and subjected into linear regression analysis with students’ final results. the study found that discussion posts, peer interaction, and exercises were determined to be significant factors for students’ academic achievement in blended learning. however, time spent in the system, number of downloads, and login frequency were found to have no significant impact on students’ learning performance. kadoic and oreski (2018) used moodle plugins to extract data from the log file and analyse students’ behavior at the faculty of organization and informatics at the university of zagreb. the results of the students’ behavior were interpreted in a bid to improve students’ learning. similarly, romero et al (2013) extracted data from moodle logs and used them to predict student performance. generally, the study found that the regular usage of features such as assignments, quizzes, and forum activity had an impact on students’ final grade. in general, these studies and many others, such as those in estacio and raga (2017); hung and zhang (2008); kotsiantis, tselios, filippidi, and komis (2013); lotsari, verykios, and panagiotakopoulos (2014); podgorelec and kuhar (2011); wen and rose (2014); yu and jo (2014); and zorrilla, garcía, and álvarez (2010), have successfully used data mining tools to predict students’ performance based on log data from learning environments. very few studies applied data mining tools to analyse log data to provide informed feedback on how students use elearning systems in secondary schools in tanzania. in a review of 74 articles, published between 2007 and 2017, mtebe and raphael (2018) found that the majority of articles focused on users’ attitude and perceptions towards using these systems. with increased adoption and use of these systems in secondary schools in tanzania, the use of data mining tools that will use log data to inform educators on the usage pattern is increasingly important. methodology research design this study is focused on investigating the access pattern of students using the elearning system. we were interested in understanding how the system was being used and by whom. to find this out, we started by investigating the level of access based on the identified variables as shown in table 1. 233 table 1: variables extracted for the study no. variable description 1. course name identification string of the course in which the action is related. this variable helped to differentiate between various courses accessed in the system 2. source of access this data enabled to identify the region/places where users accessed the system 3. type of content the system has text, video, animations, and simulations as types of content. this variable aimed to find out to what extent users have been using various types of the content installed in the system. 4. time date and time stamp of when the action was executed which enabled to estimate the geographical location of users when they accessed the system. 5. ip address unique numerical label assigned to the device used by the user in order to determine the type of the device used when accessing the system. 6. action type of action initiated which enabled to determine the number of most and least active users used the system. this number was later grouped per months. using variables in table 1, we were able to get a general picture on the behavioral pattern of students who used the system. to do so, usage data was extracted from the halostudy system implemented in secondary schools in tanzania in the form of text-based logs. these logs are a record of time-based events that occur in the system. every time a user performs a certain action, information about it is recorded in the logs. the recorded data contains attributes with variables shown in table 1. the data was extracted from the time the system was launched in august 2017 to the time that this study was conducted (september 2018) and exported to a csv file. the extracted file had a total of 68,827 individual records of raw data before being further analysed using data mining tools. the data mining tools used to analyse the obtained data are explained next. data mining tools and data analysis the halostudy is based on the moodle platform and therefore the data mining tools compatible with moodle system were selected and adopted. therefore, waikato environment for knowledge analysis (weka) and knowledge extraction based on evolutionary learning (keel) data mining tools were adopted in extracting data from the halostudy system in the form of text-based logs. the weka (https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~ml/weka/index.html) is a an open source software, written in java, aiming at allowing users to compare different machine learning methods on new data sets (hall et al., 2009). it consists of visualisation tools and algorithms for data analysis and predictive modeling, together with a graphical user interface for easy access to these functions (holmes, donkin, & witten, 1994). the keel tool (http://www.keel.es/) is also an open source software that supports data management and the design of experiments. the keel pays attention to the implementation of evolutionary learning and soft computing based techniques for data mining problems including regression, classification, clustering, pattern mining and so on (ernández, uengo, & errac, 2011). the weka and keel tools were selected due to the fact that they are both open source tools, developed in java, and use the same dataset external representation format (arff files). the csv file was exported into the weka in order to generate some patterns based on the identified variables in table 1. in areas where 234 the weka tool had limitations in generating the intended variables, the keel tool was used. the data from weka and keel tools were exported to microsoft excel for analysis with variables being grouped in the form of tables, charts and graphs for easy understanding. ethical issues this study used data mining tools to extract data from the halostudy system in order to understand usage patterns amongst users from the onset of the project. however, like many other data mining studies, the issues of security, privacy, and individuality of data need to be respected and protected to make sure that people are judged and treated fairly (van wel & royakkers, 2004). in this study, the extracted data were treated confidentially by ensuring that the identified variables that might identify users were excluded. the excluded information included login credentials, personal user profiles, and personal details from quizzes, and the user’s data in discussion activities. findings access per subject the level of user activity for each subject was determined by comparing the access percentage of each subject. therefore, the total number of records for each subject was expressed as the percentage ratio of the total number of records in the whole file. of the 68,827 individual records, there was a small difference in access levels across the four subjects with biology having the highest number of accesses (19,960) equivalent to 29% compared to other subjects. chemistry and physics had the lowest with 23% each as shown in figure 2. figure 2: the percentage of users’ access per subject. in tanzania’s education system, students are allowed to drop chemistry and physics subjects at form ii if they are going into arts streams, while biology and mathematics are normally compulsory subjects. therefore, those who accessed biology are likely the same students who accessed mathematics. on the other hand, the low percentage in chemistry and physics could be due to the fact that some students who dropped these subjects at form ii did not access them in subsequent classes, making a slightly small difference in access percentages. 29 23 25 23 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 biology chemistry maths physics 235 number of users per range of access the activity patterns in terms of numbers of most and least active users were analysed. users were categorised into different groups depending on the number of times they accessed the system while filtering records with duplicate users. each group had an access range of 100, starting from 0-100, 100-200, and so on. the study shows that the majority of users accessed the system between 0-100 times followed by 102 to 201 times. few users accessed the system 1400 times plus in the studied period. figure 3 shows the number of users per range of access for the studied period. figure 3: the number of users per range of access in the halostudy system. the study has shown that the access levels of students is moderate, with the majority of students accessing the system in a range starting from 0-100 in nearly 14 months. clearly, despite 68,827 individual records available in the system, the majority of students do not access the halostudy regularly. there are many reasons which could have contributed to this irregularity of halostudy access, some of which are discussed in the challenges section in this study. multimedia access per subject the multimedia content such as audio, video, and animations play a key role in the learning process. they are thought to enhance the understanding of abstract and difficult concepts that cannot be easily grasped from words alone (steinke, huk, & floto, 2003). moreover, they are thought to support students with different learning styles by presenting content in a variety of multimedia (video, audio and sound) (woodcock, burns, mount, newman, & gaura, 2005). as shown in figure 4, there is variability in the usage of multimedia elements, with biology having the highest number (more than 1500 times) while mathematics has the lowest. 859 55 21 12 6 5 4 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 2-1 01 10 2-2 01 20 2-3 01 30 2-4 01 40 2-5 01 50 2-6 01 60 2-7 01 70 2-8 01 90 2-1 00 1 14 02 -15 01 15 02 -16 01 28 02 -29 01 33 02 -34 01 59 02 -60 01 71 02 -72 01 n um be r o f u se rs access frequency total number of users per range of access total 236 figure 4: the number of users per multimedia access per subject. multimedia access per subject per form the access of multimedia elements was also grouped per year of study from form i to form iv, in order to determine which cohort had accessed mostly the multimedia elements. the study shows that form ii and form iii students had the highest access of multimedia elements throughout the three subjects (see figure 5). interestingly, only a few form iv students accessed multimedia elements nearly 100 times. figure 5: the number of users per multimedia access per class of study. 1529 645 132 461 0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 biology chemistry maths physics 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 form i form ii form iii form iv biology chemistry maths physics 237 access per month the level of user engagement can change over time depending on various factors. the access frequency per month starting from when the system was launched were extracted and analysed. the results show that the most users accessed the system in the month of january 2018, followed by november 2017. however, the trend shows that the number of users accessing the system has been decreasing towards the end of september 2018. in fact, august 2018 and september 2018 had the lowest number of users who accessed the system as shown in figure 6. figure 6: the number of users accessed the system per month. the trend indicates that many students tend to access the system between november and december. this finding could be due to the fact that that many students tend access the system close to the final exams. final year exams are normally conducted between november and early december in the majority of secondary schools in tanzania. another possible explanation could be that students tend to have access to the internet during the holidays and outside school premises (mwakisole et al., 2018). the majority of students are normally in holidays in december and january each year in the tanzanian education system. web vs mobile app access the system’s mobile version was also developed to provide access to those with access to mobile phones. therefore, we were interested to find out the media that students used the most when accessing the system. interestingly, 71.7% of students accessed the system using the web while 28.3% 0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000 16000 18000 aug sep oct nov dec jan feb mar apr may jun jul aug sep 2017 2018 access frequency per month total 238 of students accessed the system via mobile app. this result may be explained by the fact that the use of mobile phones are strictly prohibited in many secondary schools in tanzania (kafyulilo, 2014; kihwele & bali, 2013) despite many students having access to them (chambo, laizer, nkansahgyekye, & ndume, 2013; malero, ismail, & manyilizu, 2015; mwakisole et al., 2018; tarimo & kavishe, 2017). therefore, the use of mobile phones could not make much difference in helping students to access the system. access per location users were also categorised on geographical location in order to visualise the accessibility and usage of the system across the country. therefore, the total number of records originating from each region was calculated. generally, an ip address value was used to estimate the geographical location while the ipinfo (ipinfo, 2018) was used to convert ip addresses to specific regions. figure 7 shows the distribution of the percentage of users accessing the system per region. figure 7: the percentage of users accessing the system per region. the findings show that many students who accessed the the system are from big cities with good internet connectivity — dar es salaam, mwanza, and arusha, in that order. the lowest accessed regions were those located in peripheral areas such as kagera, mara, and shinyanga. this finding confirms the fact that access to reliable internet in rural areas is still a problem. the government has been making considerable efforts to roll out fiber optical cable, including the east african submarine cable system, seacom, and the east african marine system, in order to widen access to the internet in the rural areas (mtebe & raphael, 2018). it seems, therefore, these initiatives have not benefited many users in rural areas. possible challenges limiting access to the halostudy system the study has shown that the students’ access of the halostudy system is moderate, with the majority of students having accessed the system in a range starting from 0-100 in nearly 14 months. it was also interesting to note that many students tend to access the system during the holiday months. some of 11 67.1 0.3 0.3 19.9 0.3 0.3 0.8 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 ar us ha da r e s s ala am ka ge ra ma ra mw an za na iro bi ar ea sh iny an ga za nz iba r u rba n 239 the possible challenges that could have hindered the access and use of halostudy system are as follows: lack of computers in schools the government and its partners have been making considerable efforts towards equipping schools with computers and other ict facilities. recently, the government equipped approximately 31.4% of government secondary schools (out of 3,601) with computers ranging from 1 to 68 computers, with 20.1% them being connected to the internet (moest, 2017). similarly, halotel supported 400 schools and the tigo firm supported 700 schools with computers connected to the internet in selected regions of the country (kazoka, 2016; tanzania telecoms, 2016). despite these efforts, and many others, many secondary schools in tanzania do not have computers (muhoza, tedre, aghaee, & hansson, 2014) which limits students from accessing the system. it should be noted that the halostudy is an internet based system and therefore schools need to have computers connected to the internet. the cost of internet connectivity the cost of internet remains a major challenge to the access of elearning systems in tanzania. the cost of connecting 300 computers was estimated to be 4 million tshs (2140€ ≈ 3100$) per month for a dedicated 704kb/128kb satellite connection (tedre, ngumbuke, & kemppainen, 2010). this is definitely unaffordable to many secondary schools in tanzania, given the fact that they depend on government funds to run most of their services. although use of the mobile internet could be a solution to the majority of schools, the cost of internet bundles provided by many mobile firms is still high (mtebe & raphael, 2018). for instance, the subscription of 10gb of internet cost around us$ 25 per month, which is expensive to the majority of students. in a study conducted in seven schools in dar es salaam, it was found that the majority of students were paying less than tsh 1000/ = (us $ 0.5) for the internet per week via their mobile devices. despite the availability of special student bundles (1gb per week @ tsh 1500 [0.6 usd]), many students cannot afford them (ghasia, de smet, machumu, & musabila, 2018). attitudes on the use of mobile phones studies have shown that mobile phones can compensate for a lack of existing infrastructure and erratic internet connections in sub-saharan africa and tanzania, in particular (chambo et al., 2013; ghasia et al., 2018; joyce-gibbons et al., 2018). however, teachers’ and parents’ negative perceptions and attitudes towards students using mobile phones in schools continues to be a limiting factor. teachers and parents believe that mobile phones have a detrimental effect on student performance and moral values (kihwele & bali, 2013) and that students tend to misuse them by watching pornographic and entertainment materials instead of studying (kafyulilo, 2014). therefore, while it might be possible for students to access these devices informally, they cannot bring them to school or use them regularly at home limiting the possibilities of using them for accessing elearning systems. inadequate ict skills the use of halostudy requires students to have the skills of using computers and the internet. nonetheless, many students do not have adequate skills to use ict facilities and the internet, especially in rural areas (barakabitze, kitindi, sanga, kibirige, & makwinya, 2015; tedre et al., 2010). the low number of students who accessed the system could be partly due to the lack of ict and internet skills amongst students in tanzania. 240 lack of awareness of the system another challenge that could have limited students’ access to the system is lack of awareness among students of the existence of the system. the college and halotel mobile firm have been advertising this system via social media and some selected radios in tanzania. due to the large population size of students and limited advertisement budgets, it is unlikely that many students are aware of this system. conclusion the adopting and use of elearning systems in enhancing the quality of teaching and learning at various levels of education in africa will continue to increase given the proliferation of mobile phones and the internet. with these systems continuing to generate massive amounts of new data through the data log, it is important to help educators with tools that will help them to understand the status of students’ learning and finding ways of helping struggling students. the use of data mining tools can effectively utilise existing generated data in elearning systems to provide feedback for instructors about the efficiency of education such as the quality of students’ postings, visualisation usage behaviors, and engagement levels. this study aimed to demonstrate how the existing data mining tools can be used to provide important information about students’ access in the system implemented in secondary schools in sub-saharan africa. to do so, the study utilised data from a halostudy system log to investigate students’ usage patterns in the system implemented in secondary schools in tanzania using weka and keel as data mining tools. using a total of 68,827 individual records accessed in nearly 14 moths, the study was able to generate useful usage patterns that can help educators to make informed decisions in finding strategies that will maximise system usage. generally, the usage of the system has been moderate and has been declining almost every month. declining usage is an important indication that the anticipated benefits may not be realised. these findings call for immediate action in order to find ways of ensuring that users use the system. the findings of this study have shown that data mining tools can be used to show usage patterns of systems implemented in sub-saharan africa through the use of system log data. however, one notable weakness of this study is that the quantitative data do not provide explanations of such trends and patterns. for instance, reasons for multimedia access per subject were high for biology compared to other subjects that could not be revealed. a mixed study would have been appropriate in complementing the findings obtained from the quantitative data. a further study with more focus on qualitative data is therefore recommended. references barakabitze, a. a., kitindi, e. j., sanga, c., kibirige, g., & makwinya, n. (2015). exploring students’ skills and attitudes on effective use of icts: case study of selected tanzanian public secondary schools. universal journal of educational research, 3(6), 407–425. https://doi.org/10.13189/ujer.2015.030609 bervell, b., & umar, i. n. (2018). blended learning or face-to-face? does tutor anxiety prevent the adoption of learning management systems for distance education in ghana? open learning: the journal of open, distance and e-learning, 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680513.2018.1548964 241 chambo, f., laizer, l., nkansah-gyekye, y., & ndume, v. (2013). mobile learning model for tanzania secondary schools: case study of kilimanjaro region. in pan african international conference on information science, computing and telecommunications (2013) (vol. 4, pp. 698–701). https://doi.org/10.1109/scat.2013.7055102 cssc. (2014). the performance enhancement by e-learning for secondary schools. retrieved september 21, 2019, from https://cssc.or.tz/ ernández, a. f., uengo, j. l., & errac, j. d. (2011). keel: a software tool to assess evolutionary algorithms for data mining problems (regression, classification, clustering, pattern mining and so on). journal of multiplevalued logic and soft computing, 17, 255–287. retrieved from http://sci2s.ugr.es/keel/dataset.php?cod=99 estacio, r. r., & raga, r. c. (2017). analyzing students online learning behavior in blended courses using moodle. asian association of open universities journal, 12(1), 52–68. https://doi.org/10.1108/aaouj-01-20170016 filippidi, a., tselios, n., & komis, v. (2010). impact of moodle usage practices on students’ performance in the context of a blended learning environment. in social applications for lifelong learning (pp. 1–6). patra, greece,. retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/425665/impact_of_moodle_usage_practices_on_students_performance_in_the_c ontext_of_a_blended_learning_environment ghasia, m. a., de smet, e., machumu, h., & musabila, a. (2018). towards mobile learning deployment in higher learning institutions: a report on the qualitative inquiries conducted in four universities in tanzania. afrika focus, 31(1). https://doi.org/10.21825/af.v31i1.9042 hall, m., frank, e., holmes, g., pfahringer, b., reutemann, p., & witten, i. h. (2009). the weka data mining software. acm sigkdd explorations newsletter, 11(1), 10. https://doi.org/10.1145/1656274.1656278 holmes, g., donkin, a., & witten, i. h. (1994). weka: a machine learning workbench. in proceedings, second australia and new zealand conference on intelligent information systems (pp. 27–29). https://doi.org/10.1177/003693300505000111 hung, j.-l., & zhang, k. (2008). revealing online learning behaviors and activity patterns and making predictions with data mining techniques in online teaching. merlot journal of online learning and teaching, 4(4), 426–437. https://doi.org/10.1002/mma.4340 ipinfo. (2018). ip data for all your business needs. retrieved from https://ipinfo.io/ jo, i.-h., kim, d., & yoon, m. (2014). analyzing the log patterns of adult learners in lms using learning analytics. in proceedings of the fourth international conference on learning analytics and knowledge lak ’14 (pp. 183–187). new york, new york, usa: acm press. https://doi.org/10.1145/2567574.2567616 joyce-gibbons, a., galloway, d., mollel, a., mgoma, s., pima, m., & deogratias, e. (2018). mobile phone use in two secondary schools in tanzania. education and information technologies, 23(1), 73–92. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-017-9586-1 kadoic, n., & oreski, d. (2018). analysis of student behavior and success based on logs in moodle. 2018 41st international convention on information and communication technology, electronics and microelectronics, mipro 2018 proceedings, (pp. 654–659). https://doi.org/10.23919/mipro.2018.8400123 kafyulilo, a. (2014). access, use and perceptions of teachers and students towards mobile phones as a tool for teaching and learning in tanzania. education and information technologies, 19(1), 115–127. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-012-9207-y kalinga, a. e., bagile, r. b. b., & trojer, l. (2006). an interactive e-learning management system ( e-lms ): a solution to tanzanian secondary schools’ education. international journal of human and social sciences, 1(4), 252–255. retrieved from https://waset.org/publications/14641/an-interactive-e-learning-managementsystem-e-lms-a-solution-to-tanzanian-secondary-schools-education 242 kazoka, l. (2016, december 3). tanzania: halotel offers free internet to 400 schools. tanzania daily news. retrieved from http://allafrica.com/stories/201609150157.html kihwele, j. e., & bali, t. a. l. (2013). the perceptions of teachers, parents and students on the effects of mobile phone use on student learning in tanzania. journal of education and practice, 4(25), 101–107. retrieved from http://www.iiste.org/journals/index.php/jep/article/view/9050/9277 kotsiantis, s., tselios, n., filippidi, a., & komis, v. (2013). using learning analytics to identify successful learners in a blended learning course. international journal of technology enhanced learning, 5(2), 133–150. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijtel.2013.059088 lotsari, e., verykios, v. s., panagiotakopoulos, c., & kalles, d. (2014). a learning analytics methodology for student profiling. in lecture notes in computer science (including subseries lecture notes in artificial intelligence and lecture notes in bioinformatics) (vol. 8445 lncs, pp. 300–312). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-070643_24 lwoga, e. t. (2014). critical success factors for adoption of web-based learning management systems in tanzania. international journal of education and development using information and communication technology (ijedict), 10(1), 4–21. retrieved from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ej1071193 macfadyen, l. p., & dawson, s. (2010). mining lms data to develop an “early warning system” for educators: a proof of concept. computers & education, 54(2), 588–599. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2009.09.008 malero, a., ismail, a., & manyilizu, m. (2015). ict usage readiness for private and public secondary schools in tanzania, a case of dodoma municipality. international journal of computer applications, 129(3), 2013–2016. https://doi.org/10.5120/ijca2015906791 moest. (2017). feasibility study exploring e-learning initiatives at secondary schools in tanzania mainland. dodoma, tanzania. mselle, l. j., & kondo, t. s. (2013). results on implementing personal learning environments in tanzanian secondary schools. in 8th international conference for internet technology and secured transactions, icitst 2013 (pp. 417–421). https://doi.org/10.1109/icitst.2013.6750234 msoka, v. c., mtebe, j. s., kissaka, m. m., & kalinga, e. c. (2015). developing and piloting interactive physics experiments for secondary schools in tanzania. journal of learning for development jl4d, 2(2). retrieved from http://jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/article/view/121 mtebe, j. s., kibga, e. y., mwambela, a. a., & kissaka, m. m. (2015). developing multimedia enhanced content to upgrade subject content knowledge of secondary school teachers in tanzania. journal of learning for development jl4d, 2(3), 29–44. retrieved from http://jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/article/view/101/111 mtebe, j. s., & kissaka, m. m. (2015). heuristics for evaluating usability of learning management systems in africa. in p. cunningham & m. cunningham (eds.), ist-africa 2015 conference proceedings (pp. 1–13). lilongwe, malawi. https://doi.org/10.1109/istafrica.2015.7190521 mtebe, j. s., kondoro, a., kissaka, m. m., & kibga, e. (2015). using sms mobile technology to assess the mastery of subject content knowledge of science and mathematics teachers of secondary schools in tanzania. world academy of science, engineering and technology, 9(11), 3498–3506. retrieved from http://waset.org/publications/10002939/using-sms-mobile-technology-to-assess-the-mastery-of-subjectcontent-knowledge-of-science-and-mathematics-teachers-of-secondary-schools-in-tanzania mtebe, j. s., mbwilo, b., & kissaka, m. m. (2016). factors influencing teachers’ use of multimedia enhanced content in secondary schools in tanzania. international review of research in open and distributed learning, 17(2), 65–84. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v17i2.2280 mtebe, j. s., & raisamo, r. (2014). investigating perceived barriers to the use of open educational resources in higher education in tanzania. international review of research in open and distance learning, 15(2), 43–65. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v15i2.1803 243 mtebe, j. s., & raphael, c. (2018). a critical review of elearning research trends in tanzania. journal of learning for development jl4d, 5(2), 163–178. retrieved from http://jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/article/view/269 muhoza, o. u., tedre, m., aghaee, n., & hansson, h. (2014). viewpoints to ict practices and hindrances from in tanzanian secondary schools and teacher training colleges: focus on classroom teachers. in proceedings 2014 international conference on teaching and learning in computing and engineering, latice 2014 (pp. 133– 140). https://doi.org/10.1109/latice.2014.31 mwakisole, k. f., kissaka, m. m., & mtebe, j. s. (2018). feasibility of cloud computing implementation for elearning in secondary schools in tanzania. international journal of education and development using information and communication technology (ijedict), 14(1), 91–102. retrieved from http://ijedict.dec.uwi.edu/viewarticle.php?id=2396 mwalumbwe, i., & mtebe, j. s. (2017). using learning analytics to predict students’ performance in moodle learning management systems: a case of mbeya university of science and technology. the electronic journal of information systems in developing countries, 79(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.16814835.2017.tb00577.x naveh, g., tubin, d., & pliskin, n. (2012). student satisfaction with learning management systems: a lens of critical success factors. technology, pedagogy and education, 21(3), 337–350. https://doi.org/10.1080/1475939x.2012.720413 podgorelec, v., & kuhar, s. (2011). taking advantage of education data: advanced data analysis and reporting in virtual learning environments. elektronika ir elektrotechnika, 8(8), 111–116. https://doi.org/10.5755/j01.eee.114.8.708 romero, c., espejo, p. g., zafra, a., romero, j. r., & ventura, s. (2013). web usage mining for predicting final marks of students that use moodle courses. computer applications in engineering education, 21(1), 135–146. https://doi.org/10.1002/cae.20456 romero, c., & ventura, s. (2013). data mining in education. wiley interdisciplinary reviews: data mining and knowledge discovery, 3(1), 12–27. https://doi.org/10.1002/widm.1075 romero, c., ventura, s., & garcía, e. (2008). data mining in course management systems: moodle case study and tutorial. computers and education, 51(1), 368–384. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2007.05.016 shuledirect. (2019). shuledirect elearning system. retrieved from https://www.shuledirect.co.tz/ ssekakubo, g., suleman, h., & marsden, g. (2011). issues of adoption: have e-learning management systems fulfilled their potential in developing countries? in proceedings of the south african institute of computer scientists and information technologists conference on knowledge, innovation and leadership in a diverse, multidisciplinary environment (pp. 231–238). cape town, south africa: acm new york, ny, usa ©2011. https://doi.org/0.1145/2072221.2072248 steinke, m., huk, t., & floto, c. (2003). helping teachers develop computer animations for improving learning in science education. in society for information technology and teacher education international conference (pp. 3022–3025). chesapeake, va: aace. retrieved from http://www.editlib.org/p/18622 tanzania telecoms. (2016, july 31). 700 schools in tanzania to be connected to the internet. retrieved from http://tanzaniainvest.com/telecoms/schools-internet-connectivity-tigo tarigan, j. (2011). factors influencing user's satisfaction on elearning systems. jurnal manajemen dan kewirausahaan, 13(2), 177–188. https://doi.org/10.9744/jmk.13.2.177-188 tarimo, r., & kavishe, g. (2017). internet access and usage by secondary school students in morogoro municipality, tanzania. international journal of education and development using information and communication technology (ijedict), 13(2), 56–69. retrieved from http://ijedict.dec.uwi.edu/viewarticle.php?id=2338 244 tedre, m., ngumbuke, f., & kemppainen, j. (2010). infrastructure, human capacity, and high hopes: a decade of development of e-learning in a tanzanian hei. redefining the digital divide in higher education, 7(1), 7–20. retrieved from https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/39015490.pdf unwin, t., kleessen, b., hollow, d., williams, j., oloo, l. m., alwala, j., … muianga, x. (2010). digital learning management systems in africa: myths and realities. open learning: the journal of open and distance learning, 25(1), 5–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680510903482033 van wel, l., & royakkers, l. (2004). ethical issues in web data mining. ethics and information technology, 6(2), 129–140. https://doi.org/10.1023/b:etin.0000047476.05912.3d venter, p., rensburg, m. j. van, & davis, a. (2012). drivers of learning management system use in a south african open and distance learning institution. australasian journal of educational technology, 28(2), 183–198. https://doi.org/10.14742/ajet.868 wen, m., & rose, c. p. (2014). identifying latent study habits by mining learner behavior patterns in massive open online courses. proceedings of the 23rd acm international conference on conference on information and knowledge management cikm ’14, (vi), 1983–1986. https://doi.org/10.1145/2661829.2662033 woodcock, a., burns, j., mount, s., newman, r., & gaura, e. (2005). animating pervasive computing. 23rd annual international conference on design of communication: documenting & designing for pervasive information. coventry, united kingdom: acm. https://doi.org/10.1145/1085313.1085341 yu, t., & jo, i. (2014). educational technology approach toward learning analytics : relationship between student online behavior and learning performance in higher education. in proceedings of the fourth international conference on learning analytics and knowledge (pp. 269–270). indianapolis, in, usa. https://doi.org/10.1145/2567574.2567594 zorrilla, m., garcía, d., & álvarez, e. (2010). a decision support system to improve e-learning environments. in proceedings of the 1st international workshop on data semantics datasem ’10 (p. 1). https://doi.org/10.1145/1754239.1754252 authors: joel s. mtebe, is a senior lecturer in computer science and the director of the center for virtual learning (cvl) at the university of dar es salaam, tanzania. he received a b.sc. in computer science and statistics from the university of dar es salaam (udsm), dar es salaam, tanzania in 2002, a master’s of online education from the university of southern queensland, australia in 2004, and his doctoral degree in interactive technology/human computer interaction from the university of tampere in finland in 2014. email: jmtebe@gmail.com aron w. kondoro, received his master of science degree in information and communication systems security from the royal institute of technology (kth sweden) in 2012 and bachelor of science in computer science from the university of dar es salaam in 2007. he is an assistant lecturer in the computer science and engineering (cse) department at the university of dar-es-salaam (udsm), tanzania. currently, he is a phd student at kth/udsm doing research in using smart grid technologies to design and implement more efficient, reliable and autonomous solar-driven microgrids for off-grid rural communities. his other research and consultancy activities are focused on analysing ict systems security and using mobile technologies to design applications for educational and financial use-cases. email: awkondoro@gmail.com cite this paper as: mtebe, j. s., & kondoro, a. w. (2019). mining students’ data to analyse usage patterns in elearning systems of secondary schools in tanzania. journal of learning for development 6(3), 228-244. microsoft word mnubi.docx issn: 2311-1550 2020, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 246-260 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution sharealike 4.0 international license. re-writing stories of child, early and forced marriages through vocational and entrepreneurship skills: experience from the “girls inspire project” in tanzania godfrey magoti mnubi institute of adult education, tanzania abstract: this paper highlights experiences of young mothers, victims of child, early and forced marriages (cefm) as pertaining to their basic rights, social wellbeing and sustainable livelihood four years after their participation in the girls inspire project. cefm is still a critical issue in tanzania and one of the obstacles toward girls’ and women’s empowerment. data was collected from six districts in the regions of dodoma, rukwa and lindi between 2016-2018 through the use of questionnaires for a random sample of 367 as well as in-depth interviews with 34 young mothers between 13 to 19 years old who were purposively selected. other data was generated from the use of focus group discussions for a non-random sample of 137 young mothers. the findings show how the provision of alternative learning through odl, coupled with skills development in areas of vocation and entrepreneurship can help vulnerable girls and young women be involved in shaping decisions that affect their lives as well as enhance their well-being, employability and sustainable livelihoods. keywords: child marriages, teenage pregnancies, gender equality and sustainable livelihood. introduction tanzania is facing many challenges related to child, early and forced marriage (cefm) (african union, 1990; urt, 2017), which is defined as “any marriage carried out below the age of 18, before girls are physically, psychologically and physiologically ready to bear the responsibilities of marriage and child bearing” (inter-african committee on traditional practices affecting the health of women and children, 2003). as one of the countries with the highest prevalence of child marriage in the world, it is estimated that more than 18 million young women in tanzania are victims of child marriage and teenage pregnancy (unicef data, 2017). given the critical need to promote gender equality and inclusion, while supporting vulnerable and disadvantaged girls and young mothers, this paper sought to highlight the experience of girls and young mothers, or those who are at risk of cefm, who participated in the girls inspire project in six districts of mainland tanzania, and whose livelihoods were transformed, by exploring the traditional, legal and socio-economic situation underlying the crisis of cefm in tanzania. about the project (girls inspire) in a bid to improve the quality of life of the victims of cefm in rural and disadvantaged communities, the government of tanzania, in collaboration with stakeholders, has taken various initiatives. one of 247 these was the introduction in 2015 of a three-year cefm prevention programme, branded “girls inspire” by the commonwealth of learning (col), in collaboration with the institute of adult education and local non-government organisation known as kiwohede. girls inspire was a bottom-up empowerment approach, informed by the community felt needs, and was piloted in the six districts of bahi and kongwa, kalambo and nkasi, ruangwa and kilwa and in the regions of dodoma, rukwa and lindi. the project supported the education and development of skills for the most vulnerable and hard-toreach girls and young women using open and distance learning (odl), which employs technology for educating and training them. teaching was provided in a flexible manner, based on the learners’ locality, and at a time convenient to them, enabling them to fulfil other responsibilities in relation to their family and work. specifically, teaching focused on providing learners with basic literacy, financial literacy and vocational skills for making soap and batik fabrics and processing food. girls inspire also provided teaching on reproductive health and gender equality, as well as entrepreneurship and business communication skills. the target beneficiaries were in five categories, namely those who had never attended school, dropped out of primary school, completed primary school, dropped out of lower secondary school and those who failed at lower secondary school. the girls inspire programme was flexible, enabling girls and young mothers to access learning and skills development opportunities, while fulfilling other responsibilities, such as farming, doing small business, taking care of children and serving the community. village chairpersons, ward education officers, ward executive officers, traditional leaders and parents were involved in identifying and sensitizing the target learners. a community steering committee was established and trained by the implementing team to identify eligible girls and young mothers and encourage them to join the programme. the underlying theory of change used by the programme assumes that when girls and young women have sustainable livelihoods, which according to serrat (2017) are the “capabilities, assets and activities required for a means of living” through acquiring education and training, they will be empowered (expansion of abilities) to make their own choices regarding marriage, education, child bearing and other life choices. more than 4,000 girls and young mothers (aged 15-24) who were the victims, or at risk of becoming victims, of cefm benefited from the girls inspire programme (col, 2016, 2018). social and legal contexts to underscore the government’s commitment to guarantee and provide for the care and welfare of girls and women, to protect their rights and to ensure their livelihoods are sustainable, tanzania has ratified many human rights treaties and conventions, which include the rights of the child (united nations, 1989), dakar education for all framework (wef, 2000) and the un world fit for children (unicef, 2002). at the regional and national level, the country ratified the africa charter on the rights and welfare of the child (africa union, 1990), article 21, which insists that states must take all appropriate measures to eliminate harmful social and cultural practices. the charter also insists that “child marriage shall be prohibited and effective action, including legislation, shall be taken to specify the minimum age of marriage to be 18 years and make registration of all marriages in an official registry compulsory.” at the national level, the country adopted the law of the child act of 248 2009 (mainland) (urt, 2009) and the children’s act of 2011 (zanzibar) (rgz, 2011), as well as developing guidelines to further remove barriers that inhibit girls from accessing education, by providing more alternative learning paths for pregnant school girls to continue with their studies. the law of marriage act (1971) sets the minimum age at 18 for boys and 15 for girls to marry with parental consent (urt, 1971). the act also licenses both girls and boys to marry at 14 years old with a court’s permission, contrary to the united republic of tanzania law that clearly defines a child as a person under the age of 18, with no exceptions (urt, 2009). despite these developments to support women's empowerment and equality, particularly girls’ right to education, many girls and young women are still the victims of cefm, which affects their access to quality education, welfare and social well-being (urt, 2017). in addition, pregnant girls still face many challenges even when they have access to and can continue and complete their education cycle after giving birth, due to their many family and child responsibilities (hrw, 2014). it is worth noting that the crisis of child marriage mainly affects girls and young women (dahl, 2010). tanzanian women on average get married more than five years earlier than tanzanian men (urt, 2012). other evidence indicates that, on average, two out of five girls will be married before their 18th birthday (unicef, 2017), with some regions, such as shinyanga and tabora, having rates of up to 59% and 58%, respectively, of girls being married before they are 18 (urt, 2017). these crises of child marriage and gender inequality call for multifaceted interventions to ensure that tanzania achieves the 2030 sustainable development goals, particularly goals 4.5 and 6, by improving girls’ access to education and promoting gender equality in the country. methods purposive and random sampling methods were used to select 260 female victims of cefm, who were enrolled in the girls inspire programme in the six implementing districts. the researcher conducted 40-60-minute, in-depth, open-ended individual interviews with 34 girls and young mothers who were purposively selected, and their informed consent was obtained to quote their words. other data were obtained from focus group discussions with a non-random sample of 137 girls and young mothers. each group consisted of 10-15 girls inspire beneficiaries. the respondents volunteered to be interviewed from september, 2018 to october, 2019. the study also benefited from reviewing reports regarding the status, design and implementation of the girls inspire intervention in tanzania. twenty-seven archival documents were analyzed to ascertain the current status of the issue, including various documents from the government of tanzania, commonwealth of learning, unicef and unesco (2000). other sources of data were obtained from the national library, institute of adult education, ministry of education, science and technology and ministry of health, community development, gender, elderly and children. the archival sources analysed were dated from 2000 to 2019. a questionnaire was also developed and randomly administered to 304 girls and young women in the selected learning centres in all six pilot districts between april, 2018 and august, 2018 to obtain their experience of child marriage and teenage pregnancy. a total of 260 questionnaires were returned, a response rate of 85.5%. 249 data analysis the study utilised both qualitative and quantitative approaches to triangulate the data collected. qualitative data from purposively and randomly selected members were analysed thematically to clarify the experience of girls and young mothers. first, the interview data were transcribed, read through and informal notes were made regarding the themes that emerged. the researcher then honed the categories of the themes. finally, the researcher analysed divergent findings, through deliberating on opposing ideas and agreeing on the meaning of the findings. inductive analysis was used to get the meaning from the participants and provide descriptive details on the research undertaken. spss software version 21 was used to analyse the quantitative data (self-report questionnaires). the results generated from the questionnaires were disaggregated to establish the difference between the groups. the findings in the following sections are reported in aggregate form. results and discussion social and demographic information the respondents were mostly (70.8%) aged 18-19. the majority (55.4%) reported being single mothers, 37.7% married, 6.5% divorced and 0.4% were separated. in addition, the majority of respondents (96.7%) reported being married or in a union when aged between 15 and 19, and 67.6% gave birth to their first child between the ages of 15 and 17. most of the respondents indicated having only one child (50%), while just over a third had two children (35.4%). therefore, these respondents fell into the category of young mothers aged between 14 and 19. in tanzania, basic primary education goes from standards 1–7, ordinary secondary education from forms 1-4, and advanced secondary education from forms 5-6. the findings revealed that child marriages in tanzania occur more frequently among girls who are the least educated. the majority of respondents (81.2%) had completed primary education, while 6.5% had not received any primary education at all. these data confirm that the crisis of child marriage and teenage pregnancy is much more likely to impact poor girls who are less educated and living in rural areas (urt, 2012; dahl, 2010). 250 table 1: social and demographic information age-category distribution age-category frequency response % 12-14 14 5.4 15-17 62 23.8 18-19 184 70.8 total 260 100 marital status age during marriage age during marriage frequency response % 12-14 4 3.3 15-17 47 39.2 18-19 69 57.5 total 120 100 age during birth age during birth frequency response % 12-14 2 0.8 15-17 175 67.6 18-19 82 31.7 total 259 100 number of children number of children frequency response % 1 130 50 2 92 35.4 3 28 10.8 4 7 2.7 no child 3 1.2 total 260 100 education level education level frequency response % no education 17 6.5 primary school dropouts 38 14.6 primary school completers 132 50.8 secondary school dropouts 41 15.8 secondary school completers 32 12.3 total 260 100 marital status frequency response % single mothers 144 55.4 married 98 37.7 divorced 17 6.5 separated 1 0.4 total 260 100 251 increased hopes and dreams the number of adolescents in tanzania is large and increasing rapidly, with young girls constituting a fifth of tanzania’s population of 46 million (urt, 2017). in the study, it was observed that girls’ lack of education, their poverty and cultural bias are the major causes of cefm. because of this, many girls fail to achieve their hopes and dreams due to not having the skills necessary for employment. as stated by one beneficiary from the dodoma region, i performed well in primary school and was set to join secondary school but i couldn’t due to the lack of school fees. i am an orphan and i lived with my grandmother, who was also taking care of three of my siblings. she could not afford to pay for my education as she was struggling financially. as a result, i was forced to get married. i wanted to study and become a doctor. the hard times i experienced forced me to get into a relationship and i got pregnant. however, the girls inspire programme gave me hope and the opportunity to start again. now, through our women’s group, i participate in income-generating activities and earn some money. i have become the breadwinner for my family, specifically my two children. through the programme, i gained basic literacy skills, life-skills and pre-vocational skills, as did other members of my group. now, i am capable of making batik fabric, soap and nutritious flour to sell at the local market and sustain my life. increased awareness and coping mechanism most beneficiaries agreed that the girls inspire programme offered opportunities to vulnerable and disadvantaged girls and young mothers in the project areas of tanzania, as they can now be involved and participate in shaping their lives. through sensitisation and advocacy capacity development, the girls inspire initiative addressed the root causes and real solutions concerning the issues of gender equity and equality, particularly cefm. as explained by another beneficiary from the rukwa region, i was not aware or sensitive of my basic rights and entitlements and had no coping strategies to address them when the challenges emerge. sometimes i could not afford to meet my basic needs of food and clothes in my locality. in this challenging situation, girls like myself are vulnerable to men who pretend to assist them and offer to buy them things, but they end up becoming the victims of teenage pregnancy and child marriage. the girls inspire programme provided girls and young women with life-skills that helped to increase their self-awareness, abilities to tackle cefm and take care of themselves. as a result, girls’ and young mothers’ socio-economic abilities and coping mechanisms improved, which enabled them to make informed decisions for their betterment. when describing this, one beneficiary from lindi region said, “like other vulnerable rural young girls who were unaware of the negative effects of cefm, i am now aware of its challenges and have the skills to address its root cause and to help other young girls in my community.” during the focus group discussion, more than 98% of the respondents indicated that they now feel assertive and self-confident in taking a lead after their participating in the programme. after being involved in girls inspire activities, many respondents became aware of their basic needs and rights, and had the confidence to speak up and demand that these be respected. girls inspire utilised some posters, magazines, radio and television programmes and other community outreach campaigns to raise awareness and sensitise communities of the need to fight cefm. one of the respondents from the rukwa region, for example, noted that, “now i can confidently challenge issues concerning my basic rights, including education, marriage and health.” similarly, girls inspire 252 networks of cefm girls and young mothers managed to deal with seven cases of cefm in the lindi, dodoma and rukwa regions, between november 2018 and june 2019. therefore, the programme has successfully enhanced girls’ and young mothers’ abilities to make informed decisions concerning their health, marriages, and education, as well as other social rights and entitlements. reduction in harmful socio-cultural beliefs and practices from the evidence, the study found that cefm is still common practice in the six implementing districts. in the kalambo and nkasi districts in rukwa and the other programme-implementing regions, most girls indicated that girls aged 20 and over are considered too old to be married. they face stigma and are commonly referred to as wasimbe among wafipa (rukwa), wampilime among wagogo (dodoma) and mwalindembo among wamwera (lindi). it is worth mentioning that some tribes take pride in girls giving birth at a young age. the coming-of-age ceremonies for young girls when they reach puberty are accompanied by traditional taboos and rituals that encourage them to get married early and become pregnant. the programme has resulted in changes in attitude and behaviour among communities about cefm. in other cases, the respondents challenged the way they had been socialised to accept gendered norms. one young mother from dodoma indicated how she was helping others to challenge the belief that being a female, according to her gogo tradition, means cooking food, milking cows and obeying everything commanded by her elders, particularly men. girls and young mothers who participated in the programme maintained that it had changed the way communities think about girls’ rights and cefm, and what action they should take. one young mother from the lindi region explained how she convinced her father to send her young sister to secondary school, despite his complaint about financial difficulties. all beneficiaries shared the sense of being prepared and able to challenge negative socio-norms and attitudes pertaining to child marriage and the abuse of women. another young mother from the rukwa region explained how she was unable to challenge men in public concerning the violation of her rights and entitlement to education, medical care and wellbeing, but now she has been empowered to advocate for and stand up for her rights. a similar experience was reported by a 17-year-old mother from lindi with three children, who painfully reported how she fought against the forced marriage of her last-born sibling because her parents wanted to get six cows as a dowry. “i wanted her to continue with her education, and i didn’t want her to be married and end up being the mother of an old man’s children.” she stressed that, although her parents did not value education, she is committing herself to ensure that her daughters and sister acquire education as a basic right, and striving to acquire vocational and entrepreneurship skills to help rewrite her story and get rid of poverty. similarly, one respondent from the lindi region reported, “i argued against my parents’ decision to find me a man to marry because i hadn't passed the primary school leaving examination and was just staying at home idle.” increased gender equity and equality although tanzania has managed to achieve gender parity for girls in primary schools, many girls are experiencing difficulties in accessing secondary education (urt, 2016a, 2016b). specifically, in some remote rural settings, girls are more likely to drop out of school and experience gender-based violence and other forms of discrimination (hrw, 2017). girls who get pregnant in tanzania are forced to leave the formal school system, as getting pregnant is considered their own fault. for example, one 253 young mother explained that when she was 14 years old, she dropped out of school because she was pregnant. “i felt hopeless and useless because i loved learning and believed that education was a good thing for me and my family. as women in our girls inspire groups, we constantly address the need for gender equality. we know that gender-bias and discriminative practices affect our academic performance and prevent us from reaching our full potential and achieving a sustainable livelihood. this also leads to more girls dropping out of school and getting pregnant or married, as well as increased poverty in our communities.” increased access to learning across time and space (technological assets) another experience was of a 17-year-old girl who described how odl and technology had enhanced her learning, when she described how the long and risky trip to and from school had affected her studies, i loved education and strove hard to get it. i used to travel for more than an hour to get to school and return home, because i believed that education is the engine to a better life and prosperity for myself and my family. because my dad was tough and didn’t want me to come back late, i met a rider of a motorcycle (in swahili known as boda boda) who gave me a free ride from school to near my home to help me return home early from school. after two months of free rides, we had sex 3 times and i found myself pregnant at 16 years old. stories of girls getting pregnant and dropping out of school in tanzania have been rampant, as the country has one of the highest adolescent pregnancy rates in the world (mnubi, 2017; pamoja tunaweza alliance, 2014). the report of the centre for reproductive rights (2013) indicated that over 55,000 adolescent girls were forced to drop out of formal school because of pregnancy between 2003 and 2011. in addition, human rights watch (2017) reported that some 8,000 pregnant girls are forced to leave school each year, which has a major impact on the socio-economic wellbeing of girls, including stigmatization, exploitation and poverty (pamoja tunaweza alliance, 2014). the girls inspire programme enables girls and young women to learn at their own pace and location, and at a time convenient for them. girls inspire has overcome the challenge of distance and time by developing an alternative, flexible, safe and gender-sensitive programme to enable girls and young mothers to benefit from the opportunity to learn how to develop a sustainable livelihood. girls inspire has established 28 safe learning centres near the homes of girls and young women and their communities, and they have been able to safely access and use multimedia materials via the radio and other communication devices, thereby, giving them the right to and benefit from the education they had been denied. for example, in 2019, of the thirteen girls inspire beneficiaries, who studied via odl, five passed the form two (grade 8) national examination and eight passed the form four (grade 10) national examination, having been unable to continue with their formal schooling due to pregnancy. as a result of this achievement, girls inspire beneficiaries have become role models in their communities, encouraging and mentoring other girls and young women. 254 reduction in cases of early maternity and motherhood many factors cited by girls and young mothers have led to an increase in the number of child marriages and teenage pregnancies in tanzania. in several incidents, the respondents reported that the lack of education on sexual and reproductive health was one of the main causes. one young mother from the rukwa region noted that, i grew up knowing that my body is changing from my own and my friends’ experience. because of my lack of knowledge of sexual and reproductive health i found myself pregnant. i was pushed out of school when i was in form one at 16 years old, and my father also kicked me out of our home. as a teenage mother, i then struggled to work as a house maid to feed and shelter my daughter. but girls inspire has given me skills to be self-reliant by producing and selling peanut butter and bar soaps. meanwhile, girls inspire incorporated comprehensive sexual health training in its programme, that i learned and enjoyed. as many studies indicated, girls who marry and give birth before their bodies are fully developed are more at risk of maternal mortality and morbidity (urt, 2017). in addition, there are many negative consequences for them, including an increase in domestic and sexual violence, the health of their infants being put at greater risk, an increased danger of contracting hiv/aids, and their inability to cope with married life at a young age. the girls inspire programme gave its beneficiaries the knowledge and skills to be champions of change to inspire and educate others on sexual health issues. for example, one young mother from rukwa explained, “at the end of each month, we conduct sensitisation and public campaigns to reach young women in our communities to teach them about sexual health and related issues. we have established a bond and support system among women so that we can share our experiences and help each other.” increased education opportunities another young mother from dodoma responded that, “my life was full of challenges as i struggled every day to feed and shelter my child.” she explained, “i cried terribly when i found myself pregnant at the age of 14. i needed to be educated, but there was no structure to accommodate me and enable me to resume my education after i gave birth.” education is a national development as well as a human rights issue (urt, 2017). all the girls and young mothers believed that acquiring education was the most powerful empowerment tool for them and their families. through girls inspire, girls and young mothers were provided with an alternative path to continue with their secondary education through the odl mode of delivery at learning centres, commonly known as open schools. open and non-formal schooling is one of the government interventions to support young people who have dropped out of, or missed out on, formal education for several reasons, including pregnancy. this is an alternative learning pathway for learners wishing to return to school. for example, one young mother from the bahi district, who is now back at school, reported that, i wanted to continue with secondary education, but my parents were unable to afford the costs of my education. i cried and talked to them about the need and importance for me to continue with my secondary education, but they told me that they could not afford to pay for my secondary education while there are other children in the family to take care of, but through the girls inspire project, i am now able to resume my studies through odl. i am now in form two [grade 255 8], having passed my qualifying test last year and am ready to take the form four national examination [grade 10] in 2020. in the same vein, in 2016, a young mother from the kongwa district reported how she had completed her primary education but was unable to afford or get support to continue with secondary education. in her own words, she exclaimed, “i was so delighted and happy to be in secondary school, looking forward to transforming my livelihood as well as that of my family.” girls inspire learners had a similar story to that of a young mother whose dream was cut short in form two, due to her family’s financial crisis, which meant that her parents could no longer pay for her secondary education. therefore, she explained that, i became pregnant six months after i left secondary school. but through girls inspire i am now at the institute of adult education centre in rukwa region to continue with my education. i am also able to cover my educational costs while taking care of my children, through selling bars of soap, batik fabrics and processed food at the local market during the evening while attending classes during the day. i am confident that i will pass my examination[s]. in explaining her story, a 17-year-old mother of twins from the dodoma region emphasised that she is now ready to challenge some negative cultural beliefs that, “boys are worth educating more than girls.” in relation to her social activism, life experience and girls’ right to education, this young mother said, when i completed my primary education, my parents told me that they could not afford to pay for my secondary education, and so i would be better off being married. my parents were worried that i might become pregnant while i was at home, which would bring great shame on the family, hence i was forced to marry at the age of 16. in the gogo tradition, when a man pays a dowry for a woman, you no longer belong to your family as the man automatically becomes your sole keeper. but the project inspired me to return to school and i am now in form three now. increased economic independence and self-reliance poverty and family crises are the key drivers of the increasing number of cefms and teenage pregnancies in many communities, particularly in rural settings, where girls are seen as an economic burden as regards school fees and a source of income as marriage dowries. poverty can be defined in various ways, such as lack of opportunities and choice regarding those things that are basic to human development (e.g., food, shelter, education, medical care and security) (undp, 2009). in rural tanzania, for example, being free from poverty has been defined as the ability of people to be healthy, to be free from hunger, to be able to afford all the necessary services, including education, and to participate in shaping decisions that affect their communities (kadigi, mdoe & ashimogo, 2007). therefore, the level of poverty experienced by rural girls and young mothers has been one of the driving forces increasing the number of child marriages in tanzania. the interviews revealed that about 75% of young mothers were either married or pregnant when they completed standard seven in primary education with no opportunity to go on to secondary education. data from the field indicate that family poverty is the main cause of girls dropping out of or not attending formal school (83.8%). it is also a concern that after giving birth, evidence from the field indicates that it is the young mothers themselves, together with their parents, and not the fathers of the children, who provide care and 256 support to the mother and children. more than 63.4% of young mothers reported supporting themselves, together with their parents, as opposed to 28.8% who support the child together with the biological fathers, (see table 2 below). a young pregnant girl (about 37 weeks and due to give birth) stated that, ever since i got pregnant nine months ago, i haven’t seen the father of my expected child, nor any of his relatives to support me, and his family has refused to be involved in this matter. therefore, i have applied the socio-economic skills i acquired from the girls inspire programme, and now i am so happy i can take responsibility for enhancing my livelihood. in another incident, a young mother from the lindi region reported that, i completed standard seven when i was 14, but was unable to go on to secondary school. i feared staying at home being idle, doing nothing, as i had no educational or economic opportunities, and so i fooled around and was impregnated by a man who said he would marry me, but he ended up marrying another girl. therefore, i had to stand on my own feet, and so i participated in the girls inspire programme to sustain myself and my children, whose health and wellbeing have improved through the help i received from the programme that enabled me to start a small business selling batik fabrics and soap. in the same frustrated but hopeful tone, one young woman, aged 17, who was the victim of rape, explained that, “i was dismissed from school in 2016 when i was in standard seven due to pregnancy at the age of 15.” her painful story was like that of many young girls, who were stranded and left alone in the world suffering from despair and hopelessness but then they were shown how girls inspire could come to their rescue. she described how, when on her long and risky journey back from school she was raped by a gang, her parents were unwilling to do anything when she told them what had happened, because they considered it brought shame on the family, and so they remained silent. however, she explained, “i now no longer stay silent, as girls inspire has given me strength to champion and support other young mothers who have gone down the same path as me. i share the challenges of my fellow women and encourage them to go back to school, to learn how to start a small business and to stand up for their socio-economic rights.” all the respondents shared the feeling that their ambition to have a sustainable livelihood, which seemed to have collapsed, has now been restored through the girls inspire programme. similarly, another respondent from the lindi region noted how she had been socialised to fulfil certain gender roles and expectations, which limited her participation and ability to perform but was able to assert, “i now know i want to be economically independent and stand up for my rights, which is why i make and sell soap, batik fabric and processed food.” all the girls and young mothers strongly believed that they had benefited greatly from the girls inspire project, to the extent that they felt themselves to be economically independent, because they had been empowered to advocate for their educational, health and socio-economic needs, and stand up for their rights and entitlements. they have increasingly employed appropriate political and social strategies for seeking redress over the violation of their perceived rights, often by involving local community leaders and established women’s groups. one young mother from the rukwa region explained that, “we decided to establish a business network for girls and young mothers, where we can discuss various socio-economic issues and exchange ideas in regard to our livelihoods and the environment, and now we have a constitution and run our own businesses.” this has increased the 257 confidence of the girls and young mothers to speak out concerning their need to sustain their livelihoods. increased opportunities for financial accessibility in this connection, one young woman from the dodoma region argued that, “we decided to go to the district executive director to obtain information on the issue of 50 million tanzanian shillings allocated to every village, in addition to the 10% of the annual district revenue allocated to female and male youths. we knew this was our socio-economic right to be empowered and positively contribute to members of our communities and families.” the tanzanian government has tasked the community development department to monitor the livelihoods and socio-economic wellbeing of vulnerable groups, such as youths, women and people with disabilities, and so the district executive officers in all the regions implementing odl must ensure that these groups receive proper guidance and support when it comes to accessing loans, and producing and marketing their products. in addition, one girl from lindi region reported that, “we have developed a strong bond with local businesses, such as food venders and tailors, as well as with village community banks (known as vicoba) and shops to make them aware of our needs and seek their support for starting a business.” in all the regions, girls and young women have formed and officially registered their business groups, such as the msanzi and mwanguta womens' group, meaning a woman is a pillar of the nation, in rukwa, and mwandimata and bahi womens’ groups in dodoma. all the groups have opened bank accounts and about five of them have received a low interest loan from financial institutions, such as banks, micro-finance companies, vicoba and the revolving funds of district councils. for example, msanzi women’s group received one million tanzanian shillings as a soft loan from the small industries and development organisation (sido). to ensure that what they learnt was sustainable, one young woman from rukwa region noted that, “the materials for making batik fabrics, soap and peanut butter, as well as the training we received on entrepreneurship, were relevant to our environment.” this shows that the odl curriculum was appropriate for where she was living. many young women, who have taken the initiative to improve their socio-economic situation and be independent, were inspired and encouraged by the girls inspire programme to stand on their own feet, as shown in table 2 below. table 2: socio-economic support source of support frequency response % myself 105 40.4 my parents 75 28.8 myself and the father of the child 60 23.1 relatives 20 7.7 total 260 100 improved skills for networking and marketing products girls and young mothers now have a market for their products, as well as having access to micro loans to boost their business, while developing their capacity to expand it. it is worth noting that the odl training they received enabled them to use computers and access the internet, giving them an 258 added advantage in running their business. one young mother from the dodoma region, like many others in the group, pointed out how participating in the training linked them to other business groups through social media (whatsapp and facebook), while connecting them with and securing apprenticeship opportunities. “i have acquired specific skills for making batik fabric and soap, which i now utilise to improve my life, “added one young mother from the rukwa region. conclusion evidence from the field suggests that many cases of child marriage and teenage pregnancy occur when girls, particularly in rural settings, complete primary education with no prospect of moving on to secondary school, due to parents' inability to pay the fees or their desire to marry them off to obtain a dowry. this prevents them from reaching their potential and fulfilling their desire to obtain a good education, leaving them to look for an alternative, thereby, exposing them to the risk of harassment, exploitation and even violence. the worrying trend is that more than 8,000 teenage girls in tanzania drop out of school every year due to pregnancy (human rights watch, 2018), which is why the strategic intervention of the girls inspire programme has been so beneficial for disadvantaged girls from poor homes, because without the skills imparted to them by the programme, these girls would have remained vulnerable to exploitation or been forced to marry and face ongoing socio-economic challenges. girls inspire has, to a great extent, enabled girls and young mothers to make their voices heard when it comes to their rights and entitlements. they have been socially and economically empowered and provided with soft skills and leadership skills that will enable them to make their livelihoods sustainable. however, despite the successes witnessed in the implementing regions, girls inspire have faced several challenges, including having to relocate some learning centres, which affected learners’ attendance. in some cases, the lack of electricity prevented the use of multimedia and other technologies. since farming was the main economic activity in the implementing regions, some learners stopped attending classes to focus on farming and harvesting their crops, and so some groups were forced to meet only twice a week. meanwhile, at the initial stages, some groups faced difficulties in selling their products as the communities were doubtful of the quality. however, their perceptions changed once they experienced the quality of the products and saw how well the groups performed at regional and national events, such as nane nane or national farmers’ day, which acknowledges farmers’ contributions to national socio-economic development. this study has shown that the theory of change can be successfully put into practice, as evidenced by many girls and young mothers who have taken action that has produced effective socio-economic outcomes, including increased educational and employment opportunities, as well as their ability to participate in development and make informed decisions. this demonstrates the need to invest more in developing basic skills that could be transferable, such as vocational and entrepreneurship skills, conduct more advocacy capacity development programmes concerning the importance of gender equity and equality to improve the confidence and self-esteem of women and to offer micro-training, loan access, management and peer support for girls and women to start their own business. this also highlights the need to advocate for funding increases and the raising of priorities that will centre on training girls and young mothers, especially the disadvantaged, vulnerable and unemployed, with practical entrepreneurship skills to enter today’s work force, achieve socioeconomic independence 259 and sustainable livelihood, which is on the national agenda, to provide women with leadership skills and life opportunities and equip them to make sound socio-economic decisions as the nation strives to achieve the 2030 sustainable development goals. acknowledgement: many thanks to the commonwealth of learning (col) for its financial and technical support for implementation of the girls inspire project in tanzania. references african union. (1990). african charter on the rights and welfare of the child. retrieved from https://www.unicef.org/esaro/african_charter_articles_in_full.pdf centre for reproductive rights. (2013). annual report 2013. retrieved from https://reproductiverights.org/document/annual-report-2013 commonwealth of learning. (2016). preventing child, early and forced marriage (cefm) girls inspire baseline report. vancouver: col. commonwealth of learning (col). (2018). preventing child, early and forced marriage (cefm) through open, distance and technology-based education. progress report number 4. vancouver: col. dahl, g. b. (2010). early teen marriage and future poverty. demography, 47(3), 689-718. human rights watch (hrw). (2014). no way out: child marriage and human rights abuse in tanzania. human rights watch: nairobi, kenya. human rights watch (hrw). (2017). tanzania: 1.5 million adolescents not in school. retrieved from https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/02/14/tanzania-15-million-adolescents-not-school the inter-african committee (iac) on traditional practices affecting the health of women and children. (2003, december). newsletter. kadigi, r. m., mdoe, n. s., & ashimogo, g. c. (2007). understanding poverty through the eyes of the poor: the case of usangu plains in tanzania. physics and chemistry of the earth, 32, 1330-1338. mnubi, g. (2017). improving the quality of basic education through the use of gender-sensitive student councils: experience of six selected districts in tanzania. journal of learning for development–jl4d, 4(2). pamoja tunaweza alliance. (2014). the right to education of pregnant girls and young mothers in tanzania. retrieved from https://www.rutgers.international/sites/rutgersorg/files/pdf/advocacy_tanzania_0.pdf revolutionary government of zanzibar (rgz). (2011). children’s act of 2011. retrieved from https://www.judiciaryzanzibar.go.tz/uploads/vol_cxxiv_no_6574_1.pdf5122.pdf serrat, o. (2017). the sustainable livelihoods approach. in knowledge solutions. singapore: springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0983-9_5 unesco. (2000). the dakar education for all framework for action. retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001211/121147e.pdf unesco. (2015). rethinking education towards a global common goods. paris. unesco publishing. unicef. (2002). world fit for children. retrieved from https://www.unicef.org/spanish/specialsession/documentation/documents/a-s27-19 rev1e-annex.pdf unicef data. (2017). monitoring the situation of children and women. retrieved from http://data.unicef.org/topic/child-protection/child-marriage/ united nations. (1989). convention on the rights of child. retrieved from https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx 260 united nations development programme (undp). (2009). undp annual report 2009. retrieved from https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/librarypage/corporate/undp_in_action_2009.html united republic of tanzania (urt). (1971). the law of marriage act, 1971. ministry of constitution and legal affairs: dar es salaam. united republic of tanzania (urt). (2009). the law of the child act 2009. retrieved on may, 2018 from https://www.unicef.org/tanzania/law_of_children_booklet.pdf united republic of tanzania (urt). (2012). 2012 population and housing census. retrieved from www.tanzania.go.tz/census united republic of tanzania. (urt). (2014). education for all (efa) 2015 national review. retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002314/231484e.pdf united republic of tanzania. (urt). (2016a). basic education statistics in tanzania (best) 2012-2016. national data. ministry of education, science and technology. united republic of tanzania (urt). (2016b). the national five-year development plan2016/17-2020/21. retrieved from http://www.mof.go.tz/mofdocs/msemaji/five%202016_17_2020_21.pdf united republic of tanzania (urt). (2017). national survey on the drivers and consequences of child marriage in tanzania. world education forum (wef). (2000). the dakar framework for action: education for all: meeting our collective commitments. retrieved from https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/1681dakar%20framework%20for%20action.pdf author: godfrey magoti mnubi is currently a lecturer at the institute of adult education, tanzania. he earned his doctorate in educational foundations and research from the university of north dakota, usa, master’s degree in global justice and social responsibility from saint cloud state university, minnesota, usa and bachelor degree in business administration (marketing) from mzumbe university, tanzania. previously he held a position as the national programme officer for education sector at the united nations educational scientific and cultural organisation (unesco), dar es salaam. email: gmnubi@gmail.com cite this paper as: mnubi, g. m. (2020). re-writing stories of child, early and forced marriages through vocational and entrepreneurship skills: experience from the “girls inspire project” in tanzania. journal of learning for development, 7(2), 246-260.